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Episode Two Hundred Sixty: Grifters and Frauds · The Death Of Journalism

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to episode two hundred and sixty of the Death
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of Journalism podcast.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: My name is John Zigler. I'm your host on today's show.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I'll review the Charlie Kirk memorial service in a way
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: no one else has and provide a truly unique perspective
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: on the Jimmy Kimmel controversy which ensued in the aftermath
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: of Kirk's assassination. Doctor Donald Trump tells the world of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the drug he cannot pronounce causes autism, Plus some football
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: news and a preview of Golf's Ryder Cup. We begin
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: this episode of the podcast with the Charlie Kirk memorial
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: that took place over the weekend.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: For those that were wondering.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Since I posted about it several times on social media
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: and referenced it in the last episode of the podcast,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I did not make the trip to Glendale, Arizona with
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: my daughter Grace, who was a big fan of Charlie Kirk.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: We decided instead, I think prudently, and I believe that
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: her mother turned out to be correct in her assessment
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: that going to Arizona was a bad idea for us,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: even though Grace's best friend and her dad went and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: seemingly had a very good experience driving the seven hours
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: from the LA Area to Glendale, Arizona, and were able
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: to get into the event. But I think for us
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and Grace's sensibilities and my temperament and everything else that
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: was going on, it was probably a good idea for
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: us not to go.
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  Speaker 2: But instead we went to a church to which Charlie
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Kirk was.
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  Speaker 1: Very well connected, in fact, more connected than I realized
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: until the memorial service itself in the LA Area, where
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: they had a service that was largely devoted to Charlie
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Kirk's memory, and then they broadcast or simulcast or streamed
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: the broadcast of the memorial service itself, and we stayed
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: for a large part of that, and Grace seemed to
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: have a good experience, and so that was part of my.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Experience with the memorial service.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: We did get home, and this thing went on for
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: so long, largely because Donald Trump's for forty five minutes,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: but we ended up watching a lot of it at home.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: And I have some thoughts that I feel compelled to
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: share about this remarkable event, and this event was incredible
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: in so.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Many different ways.
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  Speaker 1: I want to begin by saying, purely from a production standpoint.
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  Speaker 1: This was beyond extraordinary.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Incomprehensible to me that in basically a week's time that
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: a group turning Point USA, that is obviously all enduring
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: an extreme amount of mourning and shock, that they could
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: plan and pull off an event of this magnitude in
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: a football stadium with the President and the vice President
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: of the United States and most of the cabinet there,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and do so in a relatively flawless fashion. I mean,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: this was a top notch production. This was effectively like
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: putting on the Republican Convention, only with a larger crowd
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: in seven days, and there were no major hiccups.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: The thing basically started on time.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Yes, it went way longer than expected, but that's the
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: way these things always go. But there were no major
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: technical screw ups. There were all sorts of video vignettes
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: and tributes everything.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I was just stunned. I was stunned at.
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  Speaker 1: How well organized and how well produced these things this
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: thing was, And generally these things are not like that.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, there have been many high profile funerals in
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: modern times that were absolute shit shows from a production standpoint.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'll never forget Whitney Houston's funeral, where Aretha
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Franklin was literally announced as someone who was about to sing.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: She was brought asked to come up onto the stage
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: to sing Aretha Franklin at Whitney Houston's funeral. Turned out
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: she wasn't even there, never even showed up, and yet
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  Speaker 1: she had a concert across the river or in New.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: York City that night, which was the story of the media.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Never really wanted to tell you because the Wretha Franklin
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: is untouchable.
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  Speaker 2: But that's another story for another day.
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  Speaker 1: But I mean, just if it hadn't been for Kevin Costner,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: who was spectacular in his eulogy for Whitney Houston, that
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: old thing would have been a complete disaster. Well from
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: a purely production standpoint, what Turning Point USA did for
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  Speaker 1: Charlie Kirk and for the Conservative movement, and for the
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  Speaker 1: Christian movement and for everyone else that was involved in
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  Speaker 1: this was absolutely positively amazing.
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  Speaker 2: Now that being said, I have some problems with how.
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  Speaker 1: It all went down, and I want to begin with
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  Speaker 1: a story that is going to sound minuscule.
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  Speaker 2: It might even sound narcissistic. I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I think of it as in the realm of six
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Degrees of John Zigler, and my intention for telling it
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: is to give you a sense of the right wing
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  Speaker 1: movement and why I left it or was kicked out
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: of it long ago, because I believe that the vast
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: majority of people who are influential, especially in the era
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: of Trump, in the right wing movement are effectively at
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  Speaker 1: best grifters and at worst total frauds. And this has
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: always been a very difficult problem for me because, as
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I have quoted many times before, for the original Rocky movie,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the trainer for Apollo creed in the corner telling him
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  Speaker 1: he doesn't realize this is a damn show.
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  Speaker 2: He thinks this is a damn fight.
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  Speaker 1: And this has probably been the fundamental issue that I
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: have had throughout my career, such as it has been
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: within conservative media politics. I'm a fight guy. I really
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: believe this stuff. I'm really concerned about results. Most people,
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  Speaker 1: especially in the era of Trump, realize and treat this
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  Speaker 1: like a show.
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  Speaker 2: It's not a fight.
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  Speaker 1: It's a show, and they manipulate the show for their
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: own personal benefit, and that's grifting.
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  Speaker 2: And the reason why I'm mentioning.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: This is that the church to which Grace and I
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: went to watch this on a big screen. Is very
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: much associated with the pastor who was the first speaker
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: at the Charlie Kirk memorial. His name is Rob McCord. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I'm always suspicious of everybody at the right wing movement,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it. I'm particularly suspicious of pastors,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm even more skeptical.
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  Speaker 2: Of celebrity pastors.
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  Speaker 1: Those people generally are inherently fraudulent in my opinion. Now,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I always judge everybody individually, and my rule is, you
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: start with a clean slate.
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  Speaker 2: I presume you know.
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  Speaker 1: I might be wary that you could be a fraud
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: or a grifter or whatever, but you have to prove
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: that to me. And Rob McCord became well known, at
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: least to my knowledge, for the first time during the
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: COVID panic here in California because, to his credit, Rob
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  Speaker 1: McCord fought back against Gavin Newsom's attempt to shut down
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: churches for absurd and unconstitutional reasons. Now, I always felt
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: that he did it at the time because he knew
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: this would be a way to increase his profile and
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  Speaker 1: get on Fox News Channel and all that, which is fine,
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  Speaker 1: because he's seemingly fighting a good fight, and he became
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: very much associated with the fight against COVID tyranny. By
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the way, I don't know the timeline, but I'm sure
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: this is at least part of why he and Charlie
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Kirk became very close, so much so that he was
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: eventually chosen to be.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: The first speaker at Charlie Kirk's memorial service.
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  Speaker 1: So I knew of Rob McCord I, you know, I
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: don't know if we'd had any personal contact. But eventually,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: as the COVID panic starts to wane and we're allowed
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to get back to some semblance of normalcy, we have
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: an election for supervisor here in Ventura County, just north
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: of Los Angeles, and during the COVID panic, one of
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: our supervisors is a woman by the name of Kelly Long,
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  Speaker 1: who is an alleged Republican, and in my opinion, she
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: completely caved. She was a joke, a fraud. She personally
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: caused me a lot of problems. I had given a
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  Speaker 1: speech to the Board of supervisors that had gone viral
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  Speaker 1: across the world, really about the mask mandates, and I
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: was following her very closely. She was doing me no favors.
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  Speaker 1: She went out of her way to try to sabotage me.
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  Speaker 1: And I really did not like Kelly Long because I
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: thought that she, when it mattered, had turned into a
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  Speaker 1: full fledged liberal Democrat. And so she's up for reelection
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  Speaker 1: and the epicenter of the fight against COVID tyranny and
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  Speaker 1: our county was this restaurant called Missus Olson's and right
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  Speaker 1: on the between the bay and the ocean in a
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  Speaker 1: place called Oxnard, California.
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  Speaker 2: You can look it up for yourself. They got quite
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  Speaker 2: a bit of publicity during the COVID.
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  Speaker 1: Panic and they decided to have an event for Kelly
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  Speaker 1: Long's re election campaign.
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  Speaker 2: At Missus Olson's.
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  Speaker 1: And I was like, Oh my god, this is going
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: to be fascinating to see how this goes, because this
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  Speaker 1: was literally the center of fighting COVID tyranny, and here
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  Speaker 1: we have the biggest rhino on the planet in my opinion,
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  Speaker 1: when it came to the entire COVID panic issue. And
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  Speaker 1: Rob McCord was the person hosting the event, and I'm like, Wow,
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  Speaker 1: this is going to be really interesting. So I gotta go.
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  Speaker 1: So I attend by myself. Nobody knows who I am,
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  Speaker 1: and not that anyone should know who I am. At
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: this point anyway, But I'm going just as a normal citizen,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm in the packed audience, and I'm thinking that
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  Speaker 1: this is going to be a scam. But even I'm
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: a bit stunned just how overt the scam was. So
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: there's some questions and answers, and somehow Kelly Long tries
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: to claim that she and the Board of Supervisors had
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: absolutely no influence or impact over any of the decisions
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  Speaker 1: that were made during the COVID panic, and I'm like,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: what what, That's just preposterous, And so I blurt out,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I'm about like the seventh or eighth row. You know,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: it's a large venue, but not that large. It's you know,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: on the balcony balcony of a restaurant. And I blurt
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: out something to the effect of, so who closed the beaches?
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  Speaker 2: And everybody in the crowd goes, whoa.
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  Speaker 1: There's a murmur, and I'm immediately sensing wow, even that
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: missus Olson's you know, I'm in the minority here by
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: a lot. Like It's just remarkable how how wimpy people
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: are when it comes to these things. I mean, this
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  Speaker 1: is I cannot emphasize enough. This is the belly of
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the beast allegedly that Kelly Long was coming into with
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  Speaker 1: Rob McCord holding her hand. And and here's where things
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: get really crazy in my view. So you know, I
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: blurret out who's who closed the beaches, which clearly was
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: done by the Board of supervisors and by their insane
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: medical advisor, this doctor Levin, who was just absolutely completely
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, he made Doctor Fauci look rational during the
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: entire fiasco. And the crowd is all aghast and Rob
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: McCord comes in like he is trying to literally catch
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  Speaker 1: a bullet for Kelly Long and doesn't even let her
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: respond and basically tries to, you know, say well, you know,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing, but basically his line of defense was you
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: know that's that was, then this is now we got
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: to move on that type of thing. And I blurt
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: out to Rob McCord, so are you working for her
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: campaign now?
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Rob?
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  Speaker 1: And now, oh my god, the crowd is completely against me,
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  Speaker 1: because you know, Rob is in their minds a celebrity.
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  Speaker 2: He's a man of God, and he's given his blessing
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: to Kelly Long.
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  Speaker 1: And so all rationality, all facts, all logic, all principle,
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  Speaker 1: all consistency, goes out the window, and that was you know,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I'm as cynical as a gainst, but that whole episode
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: was really eye opening to me. One about the nature
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: of the crowd. And you know how it is that
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: we forget about these things so fast we move on. Oh,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: you can't cause a rock us about this. We can't
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: criticize this person for being terrible during COVID.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: No one knew, you know, this is always their their excuse.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: No one knew bullshit. We knew, and she knew. And
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: I made it very clear to her that she was
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: going to regret what she was doing.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: And so after this event, I go up to Rob
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  Speaker 1: McCord and we have it out.
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  Speaker 2: Now, you know, we ended.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Things on a fairly friendly basis, but we had it
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: out pretty good.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: It wasn't it a ten.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like me going after Michael Tracy like I did.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Look you heard in the last episode of the podcast.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: But I went after Rob pretty well. Nobody in the
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: crowd supported me at all. I mean, it was it
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: was pathetic. But Rob McCord really showed me who he
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: was there, that he is a grifter, a fraud, a
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: purely political animal.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Now, to be fair, to Rob McCord.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: She ended up winning re election, and now we have
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: a Republican charity allegedly if you count Kelly log as
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: a Republican on our five person board of supervisors. So
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: maybe he was right in the way that he went
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: about it politically. I'm sure it was good for him personally,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: which is all he I think really cared about. But
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: from a principal standpoint, this was an abomination. And so
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: you can imagine my consternation when I somehow found myself
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: in this church that's associated with Rob McCord. I think
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: he's associated with a couple, but this one is I
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: think the one he's associated with the most. With my
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: daughter wearing a Macca hat signed by Charlie Kirk, watching
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: this memorial service and the first speaker is Rob McCord,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: and of course the crowd of the church, which is backed,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: went wild for Rob, and I was not at all
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: surprised when basically all Rob did, like a lot of
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: us speakers at this memorial service did, was talk about
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Rob McCord. Because that's what grifters are about. They're about
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: their own personal self interest and that kind of stuff,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: especially when you add in massive amounts of ego comes
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: out at a memorial service. Is one of my top
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: pet peeves in the world that when people give eulogies,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: you can tell an awful lot about them from how many.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Times they use the word I or me.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Now, obviously sometimes you have to use the word I
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and me, and sometimes you can use it effectively to
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: elevate or give insight into the person who has died.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: But that's not what happened.
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  Speaker 1: In large part at this memorial service, and it's certainly
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: not what happened with Rob McCord. It was all about
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: how amazing it is Rob McCord that Charlie Kirk annoyed
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: him America's pastor, which I don't even understand how that's
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: something directly possible.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: But in the midst of all this attention.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: That this thing was getting, it goes to the head
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: of somebody like a Rob McCord. And Rob McCord is
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: symbolic and emblematic of the larger right wing MAGA movement.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: These people are generally, at best grifters and at worst frauds,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and I certainly put Rob McCord in that category.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: But he's not the only one.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: There were a lot of speakers in this category, and
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to Charlie Kirk, you know,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I have a lot of respect for the way Charlie
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: tried to navigate this incredibly underrated and I believe very
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: important issue of how you deal with the grifters and
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the frauds within the MAGA movement. I mean, it's it's
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: incredibly difficult to navigate. I've been totally unable to do it.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: And you know that's in part at least on me.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: It's just not in my makeup, my sensibilities, it's not
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: my DNA.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: I just can't do it.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I don't have the patience, I don't have the desire
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: nor the confidence that I could ever achieved, especially at
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: this point, any sort of political success.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: So I don't even try.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: So Obviously, Charlie was at a completely different set of
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: circumstances and he was very, very successful at being able
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: to navigate this. And I give Charlie Kirk a lot
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: of credit for apparently quietly distancing himself from Candace Owens.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: There's been a lot of controversy in the Atromanth of
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: his death about how Candace Owens has.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Completely lost your fucking mind.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, she is so far off the deep end,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: and she has jumped the shark so many times, and
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I wanted to like her. She's smart, she's beautiful, she's
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: got a great voice, she's incredibly articulate.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: She says sometimes she says some really smart things.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: But there's nobody about who there's a greater disparity between
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the smart thing they say the idiotic things they say
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: than Candas Owens. And you know, in the aftermath of
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Charlie Kirk's assassination, she's been going down some insane, even
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: by her standards, conspiracy rabbit holes. And in response, some
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: people at Turning Point USA have been saying, look, you know,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Charlie didn't talk about this publicly, but he basically sent
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: her to the curve. They haven't been in contact for
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: the last couple of years, and I respect the hell
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: out of Charlie Kirk for being able to see that
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and act on it, because apparently they were very close
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: friends at one point. Now that being said, he was
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: unable to see it with Tucker Carlson, And as you know,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: as a listener to this podcast, I had been way
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: out in front and I think incredibly prescient and accurate
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: in my assessment of Tucker Carlson losing his fucking mind.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: And Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens are very very similar
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: at times. They say things that even to this day
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: are super smart and entertaining, but they're also mixed in
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: with absolutely batshit crazy conspiracy theories that have often already
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: been one hundred percent debunked and it doesn't matter to them.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: And Tucker spoke at the memorial service and hilariously to me,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I just find it's just amazing to me, not just
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the Tucker Carlson is considered now, like I wouldn't say
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: he's the heir to Charlie Kirk because he's obviously a
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: lot older than Charlie Kirk. But you know, Tucker has
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: been put his name has been put out on a
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: lot of these Turning Point USA fundraising emails, which I'm
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: sure a lot of listeners to this podcast have gotten.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, they've been ubiquitous. I probably see at least
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: one hundred fundraising emails from Turning Point USA since the assassination,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: directly using his assassination to raise money, and I think
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: that's just too much. And I think a lot of
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: the wording and the tactics that have been used in
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: these email is creepy at best, but Tucker Carlson has
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: used has allowed his name to be used on several
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: of these. So he spoke at the memorial service, and
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson basically spoke all about religion and Jesus Christ
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: and Charlie's faith, and which you know would be fine
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: obviously at a memorial service, except I am very confident
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: that Tucker Carlson doesn't believe in religion at all.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: Now one am I basing that on? I'm basing that on.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Having watched Tucker Carlson for many decades, knowing him a
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: little bit, and I'm to me, I can tell. I
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: can tell when people are religious and when they're not
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: from just their entire their vibe as well as the
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: substance of the things that they're saying and their general
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: belief system. And I don't believe for a second the
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson and really believes in Christianity or any sort
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: of organized religion. And yet here is probably being more
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: overtly religious than any other speaker at Charlie Kirk's memorial service.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: And that was that was extraordinary.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: To be like, really, wow, this is a really very
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: odd set of circumstances. Now, as far as Turning Point
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: USA is concerned, I have praised them for their production
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: for this, which they deserve, but I have been critical
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: for the number of fundraising emails and the substance of
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: some of those emails that.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: I've already referenced.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: I also was disappointed, though not surprised, that a lot
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: of the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service turned into a commercial
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: for Turning Point USA.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's really what it was.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: This was almost a telethon, not quite, but almost a
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: telethon for Turning Point USA.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: And I get it. I get it.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: They're a political organization. This is you know the old saying,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: you know, strike while the iron is hot, right, I mean,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the iron couldn't get hotter than it is right now
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: regarding Charlie Kirk.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: And you've lost, obviously by far, the most.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Important person in your organization, so you've got to get
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: as many resources as you can.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: I get that to a certain degree.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: But to me, it's gone too far, both with the
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: emails and with the almost overt commercials that were airing
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: within the Charlie Kirk Memorial Service. And I also have
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: to say, and this is going to get into territory
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: that might piss some people off, and if it does,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but I got.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: To tell you what I believe and my true reaction
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: to this.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I found it interesting that most, not all, most of
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: the Turning Point USA people who spoke had almost no
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: emotion in their presentations. Now, I get some people are
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: just not emotional, right, but this is a guy who
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: you were very close to, thirty one years old, father
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: of two young children. It's brutally assassinated graphically as you
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: could possibly ever want to imagine, almost essentially on live television.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: And I mean this is and we're only ten days later.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: You would think that there would be more emotion. Again,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I can't criticize people for not being overtly emotional when
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: they're giving a major address to seventy thousand people in
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a football stadium, plus millions more on television and online.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: So there are explanations for that. But with only a
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: couple of exceptions, including obviously his widow Erica, very little emotion.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: And my explanation for this is and this is where
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to piss some people off. But I'm reminded
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: of Barbara Bush's famous or infamous statement after Katrina when
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: she was touring I believe it was the Superdome or
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: one of the refugee stations, and she said something to
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the effect of, well, this is turning out quite well
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: for many of these people. And I think there's some
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: of that going on here. I mean, the reality is
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: that if you were at a top position at Turning
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Point USA, that organization just got a hell of a
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: lot richer and hel of a lot more important into
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the future. And you know, Charlie Kirk is no longer
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: blocking out the sun now. Who knows how this is
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: all going to work out. I know this sounds incredibly cynical,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: but I think that that's heart, maybe even subconsciously, of
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: why a lot of the Turning Point USA people have
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: responded in the way that they did.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: Is that maybe too cynical? Maybe it is, but.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: That's my I think the important part of that is
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: that's my view of people who make up the right
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: wing mag of movement. That's the type of people that
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: are in positions of power now, and we've seen it
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: time and time again with regard to their reaction to Trump.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: It's all about what's good for them or protecting what
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: they have within the movement and not doing anything to
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: risk that, and certainly not criticizing Trump or you know,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: in the case of the twenty twenty four primary season,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: doing anything to promote Ron DeSantis or to support Rod
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: de Satus, because you might end up, you know, like
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Glenn Beck did after twenty sixteen. I've used the Glen
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Beck example. And by the way, Glenn Beck was in
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: attendance at this event, although it did not speak. You know,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: the Glenn Beck example has really shown everybody within the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: movement you can't risk it, you can't do anything to
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: potentially piss off the MAGA base. So everyone goes along
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: in lockstep. And these are the type of people when
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: you know, to be a type of person that is
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: willing and able to do that, you have to have
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: the grifter mentality or maybe even be a total fraud.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: And so you know, it becomes a symbiotic relationship. The
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: people that are successful in this endeavor and the people
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: that are attracted to this endeavor have that sort of mentality.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Otherwise they wouldn't exist.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: They'd be John Ziggler hosting the Death of Journalism podcasts.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: So so I think that's the largest point here is
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: that this event really did kind of expose the essence
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: of the MAGA movement and the type of people who are.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Inter goal to it. That doesn't mean they're all bad people.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean they're wrong, and it doesn't mean that
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the service itself didn't do some good. I mean, there
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: were absolutely some good things that happened because of this
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: memorial service. By the way, maybe the most significant was
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: that it appears as if Elon Musk and Donald Trump
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: have made up, which is fantastic, and this is.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Not unusual to see a death in the family.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: If you will, provide the opportunity for two people who
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: have been feuding to without losing any sort of face,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: be able to have a rop ro schma, if you will,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: And that seemingly happened when Elon Musk visited Donald Trump
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: in his suite and they shook hands and pat each
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: other on the back.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: And so I think that's great.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: I think that's good for the Republican Party, and I
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: think that's good for Trump, but I think it's probably
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: good for Musk. So I was happy to see that.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: And you know, and not all the speakers were bad.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I thought there were way too many speakers. I didn't
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: understand why we needed basically the entire Trump administration cabinet
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: to be speaking. Most of them were fairly innocuous and useless.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Mark Rubio was pretty good.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Jd Vance, who apparently was very close to Charlie Kirk,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I thought, took full advantage of this entire opportunity. And
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I know that sounds cynical, but I do think that
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: that's part of what happened here. I've become a bit
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: more skeptical of jd Vance, despite the enormous amount of
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: praise that I have heard about jd Vance from my
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: good friend Steve Cortez, who was working with him very
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: closely on his US Senate campaign. But I think jd
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Vance took full advantage of this situation. He gave a
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: good speech, He sat in for Charlie Kirk and said
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: some things that I very vehemently disagreed with, including urging
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: neighbors to snitch on their other neighbors and their name
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: BABS employers if they did or said something that was
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: inappropriate regarding Charlie Kirk's death, which I thought was completely absurd.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: But from a purely political perspective, jd Vance has now
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: created a situation where the only way he's not the
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Republican presidential nominee in twenty twenty eight. There's only two scenarios,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: well three, I mean, if something happens to him physically,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: but the only two rational scenarios are Trump decides to
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: run again, which God help us all if that occurs,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: I don't anticipate it happening, or somehow there is a massive,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: an extremely public and extended few between Vance and Trump,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: which I don't think is likely to happen because I
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: think Vance is way too smart for that to occur.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: But barring any of those three scenarios, jd. Vance is
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the Republican presidential nominee in twenty twenty eight. That was
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: probably already the case before the Charlie Kirk assassination, but
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: now it's a deadlock sinch because there's going to be
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: too large a significant portion of the MAGA base that
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: is deeply invested in and tied to emotionally as well
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: as intellectually to JD. Vance, especially after the speech that
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: he gave at Charlie Kirk's memorial. Now you might ask, well,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: why are you skeptical or cynical about JD.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Vance?
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I just have come to believe that he's a bit
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: of a chameleon. I think of him as a professional
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: shape shifter. I think of Megan Kelly as a great
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: shape shifter. She changes her shape almost in a savant
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: like fashion, to whatever is in her best interest at
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: the moment. She's very very good at it. And I
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: think Jade Vance is in the same camp. They're both
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: two very smart people, and they're very good at understanding
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: what their self interest is and shifting their shape to
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: conform to whatever the moment requires.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: I'm not a big fan of that.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I can admire it politically, and you know, in Megan's case,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: from how she is somehow been April to go from
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: a huge Trump critic in twenty sixteen, try to sell
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: out and do the NBC Today's Show, where on her
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: first show she declares dramatically and defiantly that she's done
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: with politics, pretend she's an a political person. Fail miserably
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: at the NBC Today's Show, get fired for some PC
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: bullshit involving blackface and Halloween costumes, even though the real
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: reason was that her ratings were horrendous. And now, somehow,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: in twenty.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: Five before that, she is a leader of the MAGA Moore.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: It's just it's unbelievable. I almost have to tip my
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: cap to her. But I see jd.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Vance in a very similar vein to Megan Kelly as
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: a professional.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Shape shifter who's very good at it.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And he will be the Republican presidential nominee in twenty
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: twenty eight, which he basically sealed.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: I think the deal this past weekend, again.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Barring some sort of catastrophic event involving the relationship between
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: him and Donald Trump. Now understandably, there was a lot
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: of attention given to the address from Charlie Kirk's widow,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Erica Kirk, and that was actually carried live by almost
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: all of the networks. I believe this was the second
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: time that she had spoken since the assassination, which I
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: you know, look, everyone mourns in their own way, and
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I found it a bit odd. Maybe she felt like
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: she needed to take control over turning Point USA and
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: make it very very clear that she's in charge and
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: don't even think about anybody else being in the power
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: position going forward here. And so she made a very
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: dramatic address two days after the assassination, and then she
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: gave a very emotional eulogy at the memorial service, which
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: I think was a bit of a rorshack test for people.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: I had a little bit of an odd experience with
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: regard to the Erica Kirk eulogy because, you know, having
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: been with my daughter Grace at Rob McCoy's church, come home,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: watched a lot of us. It was in the afternoon,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: I was kind of getting restless. I decided to tape
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: the rest of it and go to the golf course.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: And while I was at the golf course, Liz Habibe,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: who now works as part of the Trump administration more
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: on what she's doing this week later in the podcast,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: which I think you're going to find to be of interest.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: But she texted me with tremendous praise for Erica Trump
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: and you know both in a text to me as
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: well as a Twitter post, she declared that she was
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: in favor of Erica Kirk running for president. That would
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: be a very very interesting battle between Jdvans and Erica
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Kirk if it was in twenty twenty eight. I don't
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: know if she was thinking twenty twenty she might even
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: be eligible at twenty twenty eight. I don't think she's
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: gonna be thirty five. But anyway, the point is Lizabee
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: loved the speech, as a lot of people did. A
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: lot of the online reaction I saw was that people
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: were understandably very touched emotionally and specifically by Erica Kirk's
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: forgiving of the killer of her husband. And so I
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: hadn't seen it until I got back to the house
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: and I went to look at what I had taped
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: them the DVR, and I watched it. And maybe it's
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: because I had high expectations, maybe it's because I'm just
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: too damned cynical, but I did not have the same
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: positive reaction to it. Now again, nobody's going to criticize
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: a mourning widow, although I will say that if you're
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: going to make yourself the CEO of Turning Point USA,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: which is now a even bigger political force than it
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: was two weeks ago, you are clearly a political figure.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: So this is not a normal situation where you know,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: a private citizen widow is mourning the deaths the assassination
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: of her husband. So I do think that the rules
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: are a little bit different when it comes to public commentary.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: But I'm still going to give Erica Kirk all sorts
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: of leeway here. I just did not have nearly the
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: same positive reaction. Now, maybe part of this is because
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: I know that she's a former beauty pageant queen, and
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: I have a perception of people.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: From that world, and.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I have a very high standard when it comes to sincerity,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: and you know, I'm much more willing to believe that
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: people are trying to take advantage of a situation or
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: contriving or acting.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: And I'm not saying that I.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Know that that's what was happening with Eric Kirk, but
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: there were just parts of it that didn't feel right.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: And as far as the.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: Moment that everyone was most focused on and got the
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: most attention, I had a problem with her forgiving the killer,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: especially in the way that she did not because she
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: doesn't have the right to do that. She has the
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: right to do whatever the hell she wants. She has
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: ultimate moral authority. She's the Morning Widow. So I have
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: zero problem philosophically with that. I mean, I'm much more
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: of an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: kind of person, kind of like Donald Trump was when
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: he took the stage, and that basically contradicted her entire
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: philosophy about that which was one of the strangest moments
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: in the memorial service. And I'll get the trump in
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: a second. But but that's not even my biggest problem.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, if she wants to forgive the killer, that's fine.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: But you know, my understanding, even within the Christian religion,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: is that in order to quote unquote qualify for forgiveness,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: there's some responsibility on the part of the person who
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: perpetrated the crime, and in this case, the killing.
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: Right, I mean, am I wrong about that? I mean,
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: don't in.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Order to qualify for forgiveness, first of all, don't you
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: have to ask for it?
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: Or at the very least, don't you have to fully
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: acknowledge what you did?
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, yes, there appears to be a confession on text,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: but for all we know, the killer is not cooperating
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: with authorities, has certainly not pled guilty to anything. So
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: how can you forgive somebody that hasn't acknowledged fully what
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: they did and hasn't even asked for forgiveness? To me,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: it was extremely premature for Erica Kirk to do that.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: And again, she's more within her rights to do that
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: than you know I could positively ever imagine. I've not
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: been in her position, very few people ever have been,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: and so I have great sympathy and empathy for her
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: situation and.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: Give her wide wide latitude.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: But I just did not have the same extremely positive
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: reaction to her address. I mean, parts of it were amazing,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: emotional and courageous, but specifically when it came to the
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: issue of how and when she decided to forgive the
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: killer that that.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Kind of bothered me.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: And for whatever the hell that might be worth, probably nothing.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Now as far as Trump is concerned, I think he
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: gave the worst address of the entire memorial, mainly because
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: he had the greatest opportunity to do good and he
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: squandered it. And he squandered it in classic Trump fashion
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: because he went.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: On way, way, way, way, way.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Too long and it was almost all about him. And
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: I've already said, you can tell an awful lot about
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: a person when they give a eulogy.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: How much is it about them? And in what way
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: is it about them?
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: I've seen this happen in so many situations, and not
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: just eulogies, but I've seen this in retirement party situations
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: or functions. I mean, whenever somebody is being honored and someone.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: Takes the stage.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: The address ought to be about the being honored, whether
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: they're alive or dead, and Trump made it all not
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: just all about him, but about his topics. I mean,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: I realized Trump is famously undisciplined, but this was really
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: off the off the rails even by Trump's standards for
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: a memorial service for somebody he considered to be a
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: friend and believes helped get him elected. But there were
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: all sorts of topics that had absolutely no business being
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: in a memorial speech that somehow Trump decided to talk
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: about for an extended period of time. And it wasn't
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: just that the address was terrible. This was the type
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: of moment that a president really I think makes them,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: you know, gets paid the big bucks for. You know,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: that's why you get paid the big bucks. It's for
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: moments like these. You don't get many moments like this
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: as a president, especially in this very fractured era, to
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: potentially bring the country together and uplift the nation and
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: to try to get us through this in a positive way.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: You know, in my view.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: In baseball terms, Trump got up, you know, with the
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth of a
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: World Series game and he weakly popped out, and that's
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: being somewhat charitable.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: He did not rise to this occasion at all.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: He made it all about himself and he squandered a
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: tremendous opportunity. And nobody is more critical politically of Barack
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: Obama than I am. Did an entire documentary film called
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Medium Malpractice, How Obama got elected and Palelin was targeted.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: It was on almost every news television show in existence
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: at the time when the movie came out in early
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: two thousand and nine. So my view politically of Barack
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: Obama is extremely well known and on the record. But
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: in these types of situations, Barack Obama was great. I mean,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: I will never forget the moment that he spoke at
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: when there was a massacre at a black church and
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: he all of a sudden broke out a cappella on
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: his own, a guy who knows he can't sing, into
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: a rendition of amazing grace that brought the house down.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, my goodness, that's what a president is supposed
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: to do. You are given an enormous amount of power,
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: and you use that power for good when times are bad,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: when people are down, when they're looking to be uplifted,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: and Obama was able to do that, particularly in that situation.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Trump didn't even try. He is just completely and totally
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: unsuited from a DNA perspective, from being able to handle
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: these kinds of human moments. Now people say, oh, in private,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: he's so warm and great. I'm willing to believe that.
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying that Donald Trump is an evil person.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Lots of people have said that in his real life
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: or private life, he's actually very good in these situations.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: I'm happy to accept that that's a possibility or a likelihood.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: But when it comes to these public addresses, Trump just
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: doesn't have it in them. And we saw that again
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: at the Charlie Kirk memorial, and I found it to
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: be very disappoint I was hoping that Trump might be
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: able to rise to this occasion and to be able
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: to take this horrible thing that happened and use it
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: for some semblance of good instead of just talking about.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: Himself and his pet causes. But that's Trump.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: This is this is not how Trump has made and
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: he proved it one more time.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: A couple other really quick notes.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: On the whole Charlie Kirk memorial and the situation involving
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: his assassination, and then I'll get to Jimmy Kimmel. So
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm a big believer that you can learn
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: a lot by what was not said or what did
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: not happen, as much as you can from what did
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: happen and what was said.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: And I was struck.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: I didn't watch every I think I did watch every
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: single speech at some level. I don't know if I
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: watched every single word, but I certainly watched enough to
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: know that with the exception of Tulci Gabbard, I don't
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: think anybody referenced directly the issue of free speech, which
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: I found to be very very telling.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, considering who Charlie Kirk was, and there.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: May have been some people who indirectly referenced it, but
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about the issue of free speech being under
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: attack and how important it is to protect. I mean,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: this was at the epicenter of Charlie Kirk's life in
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: his career. He got assassinated and his blood literally flowed
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: over a T shirt with one word on it freedom
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: and much of the right wing, and I think we're
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: going to see it when I get to Charlie to
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: not the Charlie Kirk, but obviously did the Jimmy Kimmel situation.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: Much of the right wing and Donald Trump himself had
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: been actively fighting against what I believe to be our
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: rights of free speech in this country in the aftermath
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: of the assassination, and so I found that to be very,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: very telling and quite sad that free speech was not
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: anywhere close to the forefront of what was discussed, and
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: the importance of defending free speech was not at the forefront. Now,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: there were some people who said, well, he was killed
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: for his speech. Okay, that's fine, but that's a different
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: set of situation circumstances. It's a different animal than what
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about here. I'm talking about, how about standing
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: up for what Charlie Kirk would have wanted, especially in
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: this time of extreme tumult, where all of a sudden
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: his own allies, not all of them, but many of
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: his allies, including JD. Vance At and Donald Trump, are
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: actively working against both cultural free speech as well as
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: our First Amendment rights. And that was almost completely absent.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: From the memorial service.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: So to review tremendous production, a lot of grifters, a
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: lot of people that shouldn't have even been speaking a
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: lot of people that I'm not sure were one hundred
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: percent sincere.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: You heard what I said about Erica Kirk and JD.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: Vance and also about Donald Trump.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: So to review tremendous production, a lot of grifters, a
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: lot of people that probably didn't need to speak, a
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: lot of people about whom I'm skeptical about how sincere
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: they really are. Some people did a really good job,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I think again, I understand why people loved JD. Vance
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: and Erica Kirk's addresses. I thought Donald Trump blew it.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: But overall, you know, certainly something that was extremely positive
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: for Turning Point USA and makes it now essentially permanently
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: a political force, certainly within MAGA and within the United
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: States itself. And that's probably a positive because I support
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: the mission of Turning Point USA in general, and certainly
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: that's something that Charlie Kirk would have wanted. So you know,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: you can't argue that Charlie Kirk didn't get his due
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: because that was a remarkable event on multiple levels. And
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: as far as my daughter is concerned, I think she
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: realized it was probably a good idea that we did
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: not make the trip. She's still very upset about what
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: happened to Charlie Kirk, but I think she felt like
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: our compromise solution was probably best suited for us. And
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of people have been very concerned about Grace,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: which I very much appreciate, and she's doing pretty well
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: considering the whole thing. I actually think that in some
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: ways this has been a positive experience for Grace to
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: go through this in a way that obviously is very
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: much an arms lench. She never even met Charlie Kirk.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: She was a fan of his. He sent her a
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: package in the mail with a signed hat in the book.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: She felt like she had some sort of connection to him,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: and then when this happens, this tragedy, you know, it's
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: obviously a learning and growing experience. And she's never had
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: anyone close to her in her own life pass away.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: That's going to change in the next couple of years,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: because she's got three grandparents that are probably going to
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: leave us, certainly within the next couple of years. And
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: so I think this was a learning and growing experience
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: for her, and I really very much appreciate the hundreds
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: and hundreds of people online who have been very concerned
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: about her journey and her past getting through this tragedy,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: which is obviously.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: In a much, much, much smaller way.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: Than any of the people who were directly impacted by it.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to today's free drop of the abbreviated show.
• 50:55
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• 50:58
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