Latest / The Death Of Journalism / Episode Two Hundred One: Lock Him Up
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number two hundred and one of the
- 0:03Speaker 1: Death of Journalism podcasts. My name is John Zigler. I'm
- 0:05Speaker 1: your host on today's show. The President of the United
- 0:08Speaker 1: States calls for the GOP presidential nominee to be locked
- 0:12Speaker 1: up just before an election, and America Yong's Kamala Harris
- 0:19Speaker 1: still can't figure out how to answer the Biden coop question.
- 0:23Speaker 1: A Trump hit piece collapses, the Guardian cap controversy heats
- 0:28Speaker 1: up in the National Football League, the sports media pretends
- 0:32Speaker 1: Brownie James can play pro basketball, and I am forced
- 0:36Speaker 1: to address the media's insane revisiting of the Menendez Brothers
- 0:41Speaker 1: double murder case. I talk a lot on this podcast
- 0:46Speaker 1: about how dangerously desensitized we have become, and there are
- 0:50Speaker 1: an awful lot of reasons for why that is the case.
- 0:53Speaker 1: Donald Trump has certainly contributed to this phenomenon in the
- 0:57Speaker 1: political realm, probably more than anyone else has. But we
- 1:01Speaker 1: have long ago left the gravitational pull of the rational
- 1:06Speaker 1: Earth when it comes to the issue of desensitization. And
- 1:11Speaker 1: I can't think of a more profound example than something
- 1:15Speaker 1: that happened yesterday on Tuesday. As I taped this episode
- 1:20Speaker 1: on Wednesday morning, when Joe Biden, who is apparently still
- 1:25Speaker 1: the President of the United States, no one seems to
- 1:26Speaker 1: be one hundred percent sure and no one seems to care, which,
- 1:29Speaker 1: by the way, is another example of desensitization. No one
- 1:34Speaker 1: really knows who our president is. There's a heck of
- 1:36Speaker 1: a lot going on in the world, and no one
- 1:38Speaker 1: seems to care that. Right, there is holy cow kind
- 1:44Speaker 1: of stuff when it comes to desensitization. But even that,
- 1:49Speaker 1: I think pales in comparison to what ended up happening.
- 1:52Speaker 1: So Joe Biden was at an event, and you know,
- 1:56Speaker 1: he was mumbling and stumbling like he does, and he
- 2:00Speaker 1: called for the locking up, locking up in a clear
- 2:09Speaker 1: legal context, the locking up of Donald Trump, the GOP
- 2:15Speaker 1: presidential nominee, two weeks two weeks before an election. Now,
- 2:22Speaker 1: to be clear, Donald Trump, especially during the twenty sixteen election,
- 2:26Speaker 1: famously and continuously led his mob, his cult in lock
- 2:32Speaker 1: her up. Chance about Hillary Clinton. He was not the
- 2:36Speaker 1: president of the United States. Was it appropriate? No, But
- 2:42Speaker 1: that was his opponent, and he did what he did.
- 2:45Speaker 1: And by the way, when he became president, he did
- 2:48Speaker 1: nothing at all to try to lock her up. It's
- 2:51Speaker 1: one of the many promises he made to his cult.
- 2:54Speaker 1: That it's amazing that the cult doesn't seem to care
- 2:57Speaker 1: that that was just a fraud, that there was nothing
- 3:00Speaker 1: to that whole locker up chant thing in twenty sixteen.
- 3:04Speaker 1: But here we have the president of the United States,
- 3:08Speaker 1: at least presumably the president of the United States, in
- 3:13Speaker 1: two weeks before an election or election day, in the
- 3:16Speaker 1: midst of voting, the president saying that Trump ought to
- 3:20Speaker 1: be locked up now to be one hundred percent fair,
- 3:25Speaker 1: Biden kind of showing that he is at least somewhat
- 3:28Speaker 1: still with it, seemingly immediately realizes that he stepped in it,
- 3:34Speaker 1: and he tries to then, as the crowd is politely applauding,
- 3:40Speaker 1: he tries to put a caveat on that and say,
- 3:44Speaker 1: politically locked up. I'm not even sure I understand what
- 3:49Speaker 1: the hell that means. Politically locked up. I guess that
- 3:53Speaker 1: might mean if he was trying to save this, that
- 3:56Speaker 1: if we beat him, then he's in the wildern and
- 4:01Speaker 1: he can never come back because he's too old. I
- 4:04Speaker 1: guess if you're being generous to Biden, that would make
- 4:07Speaker 1: some sense. But for the record, here is the statement
- 4:12Speaker 1: that you know ten years ago would have been all
- 4:16Speaker 1: we would have been talking about if the president of
- 4:20Speaker 1: the United States, regardless of party, ever said this about
- 4:24Speaker 1: the nominee of the opposing party, especially two weeks away
- 4:29Speaker 1: from election day. And here's what it sounded like when
- 4:32Speaker 1: Joe Biden called for Donald Trump to be locked up.
- 4:37Speaker 1: This is not a joke.
- 4:40Speaker 2: This is the guy who also wants to replace every
- 4:42Speaker 2: civil servant, every single one thinks he has a rated
- 4:47Speaker 2: of the Supreme Court ruling on immunity to be able
- 4:50Speaker 2: to need be if it was the case to actually eliminate,
- 4:54Speaker 2: physically eliminate, shoot killed someone who is a he's a
- 5:00Speaker 2: the thread to him. I mean, so, I know this
- 5:04Speaker 2: sounds bizarre. It sounds like I said this five years ago.
- 5:07Speaker 2: You'd locked me up. We gotta lock him up illically
- 5:15Speaker 2: locked him up.
- 5:17Speaker 1: Now again, To be fair, as I always am, Biden
- 5:21Speaker 1: tried to save it there at the end. I'm not
- 5:24Speaker 1: sure I give that effort a lot of credibility. I mean,
- 5:29Speaker 1: it's clear that he realized, wait a minute, that didn't
- 5:32Speaker 1: sound right that, or I may have made a mistake,
- 5:35Speaker 1: or I may have gone too far here, But it
- 5:38Speaker 1: felt to me like it was a desperate attempt to
- 5:42Speaker 1: salvage the truth coming out by accident, where Biden said
- 5:48Speaker 1: the quiet part out loud, so to speak, that this
- 5:52Speaker 1: was an attempt to save him from having actually said
- 5:56Speaker 1: what he truly thinks, what he truly means. Now, do
- 6:02Speaker 1: I think that literally, literally Joe Biden is going to
- 6:06Speaker 1: order Donald Trump to be locked up? I don't think so.
- 6:11Speaker 2: No.
- 6:11Speaker 1: I don't think that that's literally what's happening here. But
- 6:14Speaker 1: the level of hypocrisy on this is so off the
- 6:18Speaker 1: charts on so many levels, especially when the entire Democratic
- 6:24Speaker 1: Party argument in this election is preserving democracy and Trump
- 6:30Speaker 1: is going to be some sort of a dictator and
- 6:32Speaker 1: a tyrant and a fascist. And here we have the
- 6:37Speaker 1: president of the United States again, presumably Joe Biden, calling
- 6:43Speaker 1: for the nominee of the opposition party to be locked up,
- 6:50Speaker 1: and no one seems the care. No one seems the care.
- 6:54Speaker 1: I mean, this made, you know, some waves on social media,
- 6:58Speaker 1: but there's zero evidence what I can see, that this
- 7:01Speaker 1: is going to be a national conversation moment, which it
- 7:06Speaker 1: really ought to be. I mean, this should be, especially
- 7:10Speaker 1: if you're taking seriously the Democratic Party's entire theme, the
- 7:14Speaker 1: whole saving democracy and being against a dictator, being against fascism.
- 7:20Speaker 1: My god, you can't conceive of a more hypocritical statement
- 7:27Speaker 1: than that, not to mention the entire issue of the
- 7:30Speaker 1: fact that the federal government is currently trying to lock
- 7:35Speaker 1: Donald Trump up over multiple charges, which he and his
- 7:41Speaker 1: supporters have not without some justification, claimed is politically motivated.
- 7:47Speaker 1: And here you have the President of the United States,
- 7:50Speaker 1: the man in charge again presumably of the federal government,
- 7:55Speaker 1: making statements that are so far beyond the back of
- 8:00Speaker 1: anything that is remotely acceptable in the United States of America.
- 8:06Speaker 1: And there are a couple of reasons why this is
- 8:09Speaker 1: not making waves. One, we've become dangerously desensitized, especially when
- 8:14Speaker 1: it comes to Biden. And because Biden is presumed to
- 8:18Speaker 1: be senile. That's maybe the most amazing part of this.
- 8:23Speaker 1: Biden is so presumed to be senile by the media
- 8:26Speaker 1: and by most of the public that we don't even
- 8:29Speaker 1: take what he says seriously. Yet no one cares that
- 8:31Speaker 1: he's still president. This is all so mind blowing. I
- 8:39Speaker 1: can't even believe it's happening. But the fact that most people,
- 8:43Speaker 1: including the media, just presume that Biden is senile is why, well,
- 8:48Speaker 1: you know, he just made a misstatement, and you know,
- 8:51Speaker 1: he kind of cleaned that up there at the end.
- 8:54Speaker 1: Not really, but good enough for us to basically ignore this.
- 8:59Speaker 1: And then, of course does the other issue, which is
- 9:01Speaker 1: most of the news media is acting as if they
- 9:04Speaker 1: are Kamala Harris's campaign manager, and they know that this
- 9:08Speaker 1: is not good. This is very very bad, that this
- 9:12Speaker 1: is a statement that is not good for Kamala Harris's
- 9:17Speaker 1: election hopes. I'm not saying it would decide the election
- 9:21Speaker 1: if every American was fully exposed to what Biden said,
- 9:25Speaker 1: but I don't think that there's a sound argument to
- 9:28Speaker 1: be made that it would be helpful to Harris. I
- 9:30Speaker 1: think it would be far more likely to be harmful
- 9:34Speaker 1: on a number of levels. One, it goes way too far.
- 9:37Speaker 1: It destroys their save democracy theme, But it also goes
- 9:42Speaker 1: to this issue of Joe Biden's fitness for office and
- 9:48Speaker 1: the cover up that was part of the Democratic Party's
- 9:53Speaker 1: strategy up until the post debate era, when all of
- 9:57Speaker 1: a sudden, a flip was switched and all the establishment
- 10:02Speaker 1: media and all the establishment Democratic leaders suddenly engaged in
- 10:07Speaker 1: a coup. And I have talked about this coup a
- 10:11Speaker 1: lot of people in the right have talked about this
- 10:13Speaker 1: coup ever since it transpired. I have been absolutely stupefied
- 10:19Speaker 1: that this has not been a bigger campaign issue, that
- 10:22Speaker 1: the Trump campaign has done a lousy job of making
- 10:25Speaker 1: it a campaign issue. I was way out in front
- 10:28Speaker 1: even before the Republican Convention, before the coup had actually
- 10:32Speaker 1: manifested itself or come to fruition, where I was screaming
- 10:36Speaker 1: bloody murder that the Trump team was not prepared for
- 10:40Speaker 1: what might happen if there is a coup, not closing
- 10:43Speaker 1: off the escape hatches for a Biden Harris a circumstance
- 10:49Speaker 1: where he could get out and she would be the
- 10:52Speaker 1: only other option to be the nominee. I really still
- 10:55Speaker 1: to this day I think that was a massive error,
- 10:57Speaker 1: and if the Trump team loses this, that will be
- 11:00Speaker 1: where they lost it. They had an opportunity to cut
- 11:03Speaker 1: off the escape patches. They had several weeks there where
- 11:06Speaker 1: it was obvious that this was in the works. Now
- 11:08Speaker 1: I did not think Biden would cave, But then the
- 11:12Speaker 1: assassination attempt against Trump happened. That changed the dynamic. Biden
- 11:16Speaker 1: got COVID, that changed the dynamic. The polls started to
- 11:18Speaker 1: shift dramatically or somewhat dramatically against Biden and the pressure
- 11:23Speaker 1: that has got to him, and he gave up the
- 11:25Speaker 1: car keys. But how we have not gotten to the
- 11:27Speaker 1: bottom of how and why that happened, and what Harris's
- 11:30Speaker 1: role was in either the cover up or being completely
- 11:36Speaker 1: in the dark about what was so obvious to everyone
- 11:39Speaker 1: else that Biden was not capable of doing his job
- 11:43Speaker 1: is beyond me. I mean, how this, to me should
- 11:47Speaker 1: have been the number one issue after the coup and
- 11:50Speaker 1: the switcheroo in the campaign. What did Harris know? What
- 11:55Speaker 1: did and when did she know it? And how did
- 11:58Speaker 1: she deal with it? Did she engage He's going to
- 12:00Speaker 1: cover up? Was she part of the coup? She's the
- 12:02Speaker 1: one that benefited from the coup at least pick a lane.
- 12:06Speaker 1: That's always been my main point here. Forced Harris to
- 12:11Speaker 1: pick a lane on all this and she's not been
- 12:13Speaker 1: forced to do that. And I'm a big believer that
- 12:18Speaker 1: in life and in media, one thing leads to another,
- 12:23Speaker 1: that life is often a series of domino effects, that
- 12:29Speaker 1: things don't happen in a vacuum, that when one thing happens,
- 12:32Speaker 1: it can change the dynamic and cause another thing to happen,
- 12:37Speaker 1: and I believe that Brett Behar asking Kamala Harris about
- 12:42Speaker 1: the Biden coup more directly than anyone else has and
- 12:46Speaker 1: potentially being at least partially inspired by my suggestion, because
- 12:51Speaker 1: the wording of his question on that was remarkably similar
- 12:54Speaker 1: to the one that I had offered before his interview
- 12:58Speaker 1: with Kamala Harris and Jim Gaffigan at the Al Smith
- 13:02Speaker 1: dinner going after the Democrats on their hypocrisy regarding democracy
- 13:09Speaker 1: and the coup, a clip we played for you in
- 13:12Speaker 1: the last episode of the podcast, I think facilitated another event.
- 13:19Speaker 1: I think if Brett Behar and Jim Gaffigan do not
- 13:23Speaker 1: raise this issue in high profile fashions, I don't think
- 13:28Speaker 1: that NBC in the latest interview that was just done
- 13:31Speaker 1: with Kamala Harris yesterday, as of this taping done by
- 13:35Speaker 1: Haley Jackson, I don't think Haley Jackson asks Kamala Harris
- 13:42Speaker 1: essentially about the Biden coup again, and certainly does not
- 13:46Speaker 1: do so in as somewhat of an aggressive fashion as
- 13:51Speaker 1: she did. The most of the interview that Haley Jackson
- 13:55Speaker 1: did with Kamala Harris was incredibly soft. Factly, what you
- 14:00Speaker 1: might expect from NBC. It was basically teeing her up
- 14:04Speaker 1: on a number of issues. The one exception to that
- 14:08Speaker 1: would be the transgender issue, where she gently chided Harris
- 14:14Speaker 1: on her position on transgender issues related to the federal government.
- 14:20Speaker 1: She even pushed back a little bit when Harris didn't
- 14:22Speaker 1: answer the question. It's obvious that Harris is terrified of
- 14:26Speaker 1: the transgender issue. It's clear that. I mean, it's very obvious.
- 14:31Speaker 1: She's incredibly annoyed by a commercial that the Trump team
- 14:35Speaker 1: has spent millions and millions of dollars on playing a
- 14:37Speaker 1: clip of her being in favor of prisoners having their
- 14:43Speaker 1: transgender surgeries paid for with tax money. It's her own words,
- 14:49Speaker 1: but she is clearly very irritated by that. It's obvious
- 14:53Speaker 1: from their internal polling that that has left the mark.
- 14:56Speaker 1: And so I'll give Jackson a little bit of credit
- 15:00Speaker 1: for questioning Harris about that. But I want to play
- 15:04Speaker 1: the clip of Jackson questioning Harris on the coup and
- 15:09Speaker 1: she takes a slightly different tag than Brett Baar did,
- 15:14Speaker 1: but I'll give Jackson credit. She sticks with it. She
- 15:18Speaker 1: tries to get Harris to answer. Now, there's two interesting
- 15:22Speaker 1: parts about this that I want to talk about to
- 15:25Speaker 1: set it up. Number one is that what you're about
- 15:32Speaker 1: to hear is not the full question and answer. There's
- 15:36Speaker 1: more to it than what NBC released. What you're about
- 15:41Speaker 1: to hear is what NBC released on their TikTok page,
- 15:46Speaker 1: and I thought that that might must have been the
- 15:49Speaker 1: end of that inquiry, but it was not. There's more
- 15:53Speaker 1: to it. Jackson actually follows up one more time after
- 15:58Speaker 1: this clip you're about to hear ends. And then the
- 16:02Speaker 1: other part of this that I think is important is
- 16:07Speaker 1: that Harris still can't come up with an answer. She
- 16:12Speaker 1: still will not pick a lane. Now, maybe that's by design,
- 16:17Speaker 1: Maybe they've just decided we're gonna take the l on
- 16:21Speaker 1: this when it comes to not answering the question because
- 16:24Speaker 1: there's no good answer for us. That might be the case,
- 16:29Speaker 1: but I still am of the position that there's really
- 16:33Speaker 1: only two options here, and that the average person can
- 16:37Speaker 1: see what these two options are. Either Harris is an
- 16:42Speaker 1: idiot who did not realize that Biden was in decline
- 16:47Speaker 1: and is in decline. Because that's another important part of this.
- 16:50Speaker 1: Harris makes the argument almost simultaneous with Joe Biden calling
- 16:55Speaker 1: for Donald Trump to be locked up that he is
- 16:59Speaker 1: still well, very much on his game, and still very
- 17:02Speaker 1: much the president of the United States. She makes no
- 17:05Speaker 1: concession on his mental decline at all. So is she
- 17:11Speaker 1: an idiot or is she a liar? Or was she
- 17:15Speaker 1: end or you know, I guess under the lying umbrella,
- 17:18Speaker 1: was she taking part in a cover up? Well, she
- 17:23Speaker 1: is effectively not picking any lane, but she's mostly going
- 17:27Speaker 1: into the lane of oh, no, no, Joe Biden's awesome.
- 17:30Speaker 1: There's never been any problem with Joe Biden, which then
- 17:34Speaker 1: begs the question which unfortunately Jackson does not get an
- 17:38Speaker 1: answer to and does not really even go down this path,
- 17:42Speaker 1: or that she kind of maybe sort of goes down
- 17:44Speaker 1: this path a little bit, she implies it a little bit.
- 17:47Speaker 1: But why in the world did Joe Biden drop out
- 17:50Speaker 1: of the race? That's the number one question? Now, why
- 17:54Speaker 1: did Joe Biden drop out of the race? So here,
- 17:57Speaker 1: with all that context, maybe a little too much kind
- 18:00Speaker 1: text is NBC's Haley Jackson and part most of her
- 18:06Speaker 1: exchange with Kamala Harris over the issue of Biden's fitness
- 18:12Speaker 1: and dropping out of the race. And while she doesn't
- 18:14Speaker 1: use the term coup, I don't think effectively Harris's participation
- 18:20Speaker 1: or reaction to the coup that resulted in her being
- 18:23Speaker 1: handed the Democratic presidential nomination.
- 18:26Speaker 3: I know that Joe Biden is not on the ballot.
- 18:28Speaker 3: I understand that. But the reason that you are at
- 18:30Speaker 3: the top of the ticket is because he dropped out
- 18:31Speaker 3: of this race, and it was largely because of that
- 18:33Speaker 3: debate performance back in June. You defended him in the
- 18:36Speaker 3: days before and in the days after as you were
- 18:38Speaker 3: campaigning for another four years for President Biden. Can you
- 18:41Speaker 3: say that you were honest with the American people about
- 18:43Speaker 3: what you saw in those moments with President Biden as
- 18:45Speaker 3: you were with him again and again repeatedly in that time.
- 18:49Speaker 4: Of course, Joe Biden is an extremely accomplished, experienced and
- 19:01Speaker 4: capable in every way that anyone would want if they're president.
- 19:05Speaker 1: It was a bad debate.
- 19:07Speaker 4: People have bad debates.
- 19:09Speaker 3: He is absolutely That's the reason why you're here and
- 19:12Speaker 3: he's not running for the top of the ticket.
- 19:15Speaker 4: Well, you'd have to ask him if that's the only reason.
- 19:18Speaker 4: Why what do you think I am running for president
- 19:22Speaker 4: the United States? Joe Biden is not. And my presidency
- 19:27Speaker 4: will be about bringing a new generation of leadership to
- 19:32Speaker 4: America that is focused on the work that we need
- 19:35Speaker 4: to do to invest in the ambitions and aspirations of
- 19:38Speaker 4: the American people.
- 19:39Speaker 1: I cannot emphasize enough that when you listen to that exchange,
- 19:45Speaker 1: the average person has to be asking themselves at some level, so,
- 19:51Speaker 1: then why the hell did Biden drop out of the race?
- 19:54Speaker 1: If he's perfectly fine? And by the way, Harris even
- 20:00Speaker 1: kind of opens the door that there's a lot more
- 20:03Speaker 1: to the story than meets the eye. I say, well,
- 20:05Speaker 1: you have to ask Joe Biden. Well, why don't we
- 20:09Speaker 1: ask Joe Biden? To me? This is a very unsatisfactory answer,
- 20:16Speaker 1: not just for someone like myself who is passionate about
- 20:19Speaker 1: the issue and has followed it very very closely, but
- 20:22Speaker 1: I think the average voter when they watch that, it
- 20:28Speaker 1: just is incredibly unsatisfying. And it's obviously not honest. I mean,
- 20:34Speaker 1: because the average voter understands that Joe Biden is clearly
- 20:40Speaker 1: and has been in mental decline. She's not acknowledging that
- 20:44Speaker 1: at all. And then, of course, going to my pic
- 20:47Speaker 1: a lane theory, Okay, well, if he's perfectly fine, then
- 20:52Speaker 1: why did he get out of the race? Why are
- 20:54Speaker 1: you the nominee and there may not be a good
- 20:58Speaker 1: answer here. I'm incredibly open minded to that. I've already
- 21:03Speaker 1: stated it, and I think that strategically, maybe this is
- 21:08Speaker 1: part of what the Harris team has decided beforehand. We
- 21:12Speaker 1: just don't have a good answer here, so they'll just
- 21:15Speaker 1: off of skate, don't say anything bad about Biden, and
- 21:18Speaker 1: you know, whatever damage is done is done, and let's
- 21:21Speaker 1: just hope we can get through it. That could be
- 21:24Speaker 1: the strategy. But there's also the scenario where Harris has
- 21:28Speaker 1: had multiple opportunities now to answer a very basic and
- 21:33Speaker 1: obvious question and has whiffed every time. I mean, you
- 21:40Speaker 1: got to know that this has has to be a
- 21:44Speaker 1: subject that they have talked about in the Harris campaign.
- 21:48Speaker 1: I realize that they're relying on the media being on
- 21:51Speaker 1: their side, but they had to know Brett bher was
- 21:54Speaker 1: likely to ask a question about this, even if they
- 21:57Speaker 1: don't follow my Twitter feed, And once Brett bhar did so,
- 22:02Speaker 1: and once Jim Gaffickan made a very I thought tremendous
- 22:07Speaker 1: and profound and damaging joke at the Al Smith dinner,
- 22:12Speaker 1: now the pressure is on the rest of the media,
- 22:16Speaker 1: and I truly do believe that if Brett Bahar and
- 22:19Speaker 1: Jim Gaffigan had not done what they had done on
- 22:22Speaker 1: this topic last week, Haley Jackson does not feel any
- 22:26Speaker 1: pressure to ask this question. And it's interesting because it
- 22:30Speaker 1: was the last subject of the interview. And that gets
- 22:35Speaker 1: me to the part that NBC, at least as far
- 22:38Speaker 1: as I can tell, has not released publicly. They did,
- 22:42Speaker 1: unlike CBS in the sixty minutes interview that Bill Whittaker
- 22:45Speaker 1: did with Kamala Harris, they did release a transcript, which
- 22:50Speaker 1: I thought was a little bit of a passive aggressive
- 22:53Speaker 1: shot at CBS. I don't know, maybe it was, maybe
- 22:56Speaker 1: it wasn't, but they released a full transcript. If you
- 23:01Speaker 1: read the transcript, here's what happened after the clip that
- 23:07Speaker 1: I just played for you, and I'm amazed. This is
- 23:10Speaker 1: remarkable that this was not part of what aired or
- 23:13Speaker 1: what has been made public as far as I can tell.
- 23:16Speaker 1: Jackson follows up after what you just turned and says,
- 23:22Speaker 1: it's a judgment question. That's why I ask, can the
- 23:29Speaker 1: American people trust you in these moments even when it's
- 23:35Speaker 1: maybe uncomfortable for Americans to have to level with Americans
- 23:40Speaker 1: in that way. So that's why I ask we are
- 23:46Speaker 1: that Jackson has to justify twice why she's asking this.
- 23:49Speaker 1: That tells you an awful lot. But back to what
- 23:51Speaker 1: Jackson says, and it sounds like what you're saying is
- 23:57Speaker 1: you feel like you feel like you never saw anything
- 24:02Speaker 1: like that from President Biden. Now that is it's a
- 24:07Speaker 1: remarkable follow up, partially because having to justify twice why
- 24:12Speaker 1: she's asking an incredibly significant question that we should get
- 24:17Speaker 1: an answer to, We should have had an answer to
- 24:20Speaker 1: months ago on this. But she's essentially saying, look, your
- 24:25Speaker 1: judgment is in question here. If you don't see that,
- 24:29Speaker 1: Joe Biden is greatly diminished. And then she sets Harris
- 24:35Speaker 1: up by saying, it sounds like you're saying you feel
- 24:38Speaker 1: like you never saw anything like that from President Biden,
- 24:42Speaker 1: meaning the mental decline. And here is part of Harris's response,
- 24:49Speaker 1: I have worked with Joe Biden, whether hours and hours
- 24:53Speaker 1: and hours over these years, these over these four years,
- 24:58Speaker 1: whether it be in the situation room or the Oval office,
- 25:02Speaker 1: Joe Biden is the one who was able to bring
- 25:05Speaker 1: NATO together during a crisis. Blah blah blah blah blah.
- 25:08Speaker 1: She starts talking about all the wonderful things that Joe
- 25:11Speaker 1: Biden has done, and then Harris finishes by saying, I
- 25:15Speaker 1: speak with not only sincerity, but with a real first
- 25:21Speaker 1: hand account of watching him do this work. I have
- 25:26Speaker 1: no reluctance in saying that, no, of course I don't.
- 25:32Speaker 1: And then Jackson thanks her for the interview and ends it.
- 25:40Speaker 1: I would love to see that clip. I think this
- 25:44Speaker 1: is not to the level of the sixty minutes situation,
- 25:47Speaker 1: where they completely changed Harris's answer to a question and
- 25:52Speaker 1: part of what they released to the public, and they
- 25:54Speaker 1: never put out a transcript. But again, to my knowledge,
- 26:00Speaker 1: this part of the interview has not been made public.
- 26:03Speaker 1: I've looked for it. I can't find it. If it's
- 26:05Speaker 1: out there, and I'm wrong, I apologize, But my sense
- 26:09Speaker 1: is it would have been in that original clip that
- 26:13Speaker 1: I played for you that was put out by NBC News.
- 26:17Speaker 1: Why didn't they put that part in there, because that's
- 26:21Speaker 1: the money shot for all intensive purposes, Because now there's
- 26:27Speaker 1: no possible way for Harris to claim that she was
- 26:33Speaker 1: aware that Biden was in decline or is in decline,
- 26:38Speaker 1: And you have an NBC newsperson saying, well, this is
- 26:43Speaker 1: a judgment question because and by the way, that's real
- 26:48Speaker 1: if you can't discern that the guy that you're with,
- 26:51Speaker 1: and you talk all the time about how much you're
- 26:54Speaker 1: with him, is in significant mental decline, so much so
- 26:58Speaker 1: that he's forced to give up up the presidential nomination
- 27:02Speaker 1: as an incumbent president. If you don't have the judgment
- 27:05Speaker 1: to see that, how can you possibly have the judgment
- 27:09Speaker 1: to be president the United States? Now? To be clear,
- 27:13Speaker 1: I don't really believe that. I believe that Harris knew
- 27:18Speaker 1: like everybody else did, that Biden is in mental decline.
- 27:23Speaker 1: But she went along with it. She was effectively part
- 27:26Speaker 1: of the cover up because she was going to be
- 27:29Speaker 1: his vice president and then she got manna from heaven
- 27:33Speaker 1: because he had a terrible debate performance and the Democratic
- 27:36Speaker 1: elites took him out on her behalf. Now, how much
- 27:39Speaker 1: she was involved in the coup, I don't know. I
- 27:43Speaker 1: would like to know that. That's one of those questions
- 27:46Speaker 1: that it will never be asked to her properly, but
- 27:49Speaker 1: ought to be Biden is kind of implied on a
- 27:53Speaker 1: couple of occasions if you interpret his words in a
- 27:56Speaker 1: certain way. Now, that's always dangerous because of his mental decline.
- 27:59Speaker 1: But we've out on multiple occasions where if the media
- 28:03Speaker 1: wanted to create a chasm between Biden and Harris, there's
- 28:07Speaker 1: more than enough ammunition to do that. So I'm not
- 28:12Speaker 1: convinced that Biden doesn't think that Harris at least played
- 28:17Speaker 1: somewhat of a role here or was not one hundred
- 28:19Speaker 1: percent loyal during the coup. I point you directly to
- 28:23Speaker 1: his interview on the View where he made a couple
- 28:26Speaker 1: of statements that were certainly consistent with that, and his
- 28:31Speaker 1: aggravated treatment of her at a cabinet meeting I think
- 28:34Speaker 1: was consistent with that view on Biden's behalf. Of course,
- 28:38Speaker 1: again with Biden, you never know for sure because of
- 28:41Speaker 1: his mental decline. But that, to me, it's amazing that
- 28:45Speaker 1: NBC did not make that, to my knowledge public because
- 28:50Speaker 1: Harris didn't answer the question. She's not being honest. In
- 28:54Speaker 1: my opinion. She's decided she cannot rip Biden because politically
- 29:00Speaker 1: that would be too damaging, so she'd rather play the
- 29:04Speaker 1: role of an idiot and hope that the news media
- 29:07Speaker 1: is never going to make this clear. Jackson went further
- 29:12Speaker 1: down that path of making this clear that hey, are
- 29:14Speaker 1: you really saying that you don't have the judgment to
- 29:18Speaker 1: see that Joe Biden was in mental decline, and NBC,
- 29:22Speaker 1: to my knowledge, didn't even air that part at least
- 29:27Speaker 1: not that I can find. So that is that is
- 29:30Speaker 1: remarkable and I think very very telling. Now, are we
- 29:34Speaker 1: ever going to get to the bottom of this? I'm
- 29:35Speaker 1: sure we're not. That's probably the last time that this
- 29:39Speaker 1: will be asked, because you know, any future interviewer is
- 29:43Speaker 1: going to be very friendly to Harris. And it's been
- 29:47Speaker 1: now asked twice by you know, major news personalities Brett
- 29:52Speaker 1: Baer and Hallie Jackson, and so it's not like there's
- 29:56Speaker 1: going to be blood in the water now all of
- 29:57Speaker 1: a sudden. Every media personality is going to want to
- 30:00Speaker 1: talk about this. This is the way they view this.
- 30:02Speaker 1: As the campaign manager for Kamala Harris is okay, all right,
- 30:07Speaker 1: let's be done with this, Let's move along, asked and answered.
- 30:10Speaker 1: There's other things that are far less dangerous to talk
- 30:14Speaker 1: about now. One of those things that the media has
- 30:18Speaker 1: not talked about properly is the aftermath of the McDonald's
- 30:23Speaker 1: episode over the weekend where Donald Trump went to a
- 30:26Speaker 1: McDonald's in my old home area of Bucks County, Pennsylvania
- 30:31Speaker 1: to work quote unquote Adam McDonald's to expose and to
- 30:37Speaker 1: shine a light on the fact that Kamala Harris, in
- 30:40Speaker 1: his view and in mind now, has lied about having
- 30:44Speaker 1: previously worked at McDonald's as a young person. And when
- 30:49Speaker 1: I talked about this in the last episode of the podcast,
- 30:51Speaker 1: I acknowledged that this was a fantastic photo op. It
- 30:56Speaker 1: was obvious that it was effective because liberals lost their
- 30:59Speaker 1: goddamn mind The media lost their minds trying to clay
- 31:03Speaker 1: oh my god, it was staged. Well, no shit, you
- 31:06Speaker 1: really think that Donald Trump works at McDonald's. No, really,
- 31:11Speaker 1: you thought this was real. I mean, it's just that's
- 31:15Speaker 1: how you knew that. This was very troubling to the
- 31:19Speaker 1: left and to the media because they lost their minds.
- 31:23Speaker 1: But I said in the last episode, and I am
- 31:26Speaker 1: standing by this, that I don't think that this was
- 31:30Speaker 1: a grand slam or a touchdown the way that a
- 31:34Speaker 1: lot of Trumpsters think that it was, or that it
- 31:36Speaker 1: could have or should have been. And my main argument
- 31:41Speaker 1: is that I don't think that the average person, the
- 31:46Speaker 1: average swing voter, anyone who might still be undecided at
- 31:49Speaker 1: this point, even understands why Trump went to McDonald's. Because
- 31:57Speaker 1: I don't think the news media has made that. I
- 32:00Speaker 1: think they purposely made that unclear. I don't think that
- 32:04Speaker 1: the Trump team went out of their way to make
- 32:07Speaker 1: that clear. I think that when the Harris team put
- 32:11Speaker 1: out a statement, a written statement in response to the
- 32:16Speaker 1: McDonald's stunt criticizing his stance on the minimum wage, that
- 32:22Speaker 1: it was a weird but actually maybe brilliant political maneuver
- 32:28Speaker 1: to try to give the media enough ammunition to pretend
- 32:35Speaker 1: that the reason why he was at McDonald's was not
- 32:39Speaker 1: to expose Kamala Harris as a liar, because that was
- 32:45Speaker 1: to me, that statement, and this trives me crazy. I've
- 32:49Speaker 1: spent I don't know how many probably hours on social
- 32:53Speaker 1: media over the last several days arguing with liberals about
- 32:58Speaker 1: how in the world can you still believe you know,
- 33:02Speaker 1: I'm not pretending this is the most important thing in
- 33:04Speaker 1: the world, by the way, but if we're having this
- 33:06Speaker 1: debate of whether she lied or not, how can you
- 33:09Speaker 1: not understand that in the real world, putting out a
- 33:14Speaker 1: written statement in response to the McDonald's stunt focusing on
- 33:20Speaker 1: the minimum wage and not even claiming that you really
- 33:25Speaker 1: did work at McDonald's, and that Trump is full of
- 33:29Speaker 1: crap How can you live in a real world and
- 33:34Speaker 1: not understand that that's in admission for all intensive purposes,
- 33:38Speaker 1: that she lied about working at McDonald's. I just this
- 33:42Speaker 1: is beyond my comprehension, and I saw this dozens and
- 33:48Speaker 1: dozens of times on social media. Now part of that's
- 33:51Speaker 1: our deep political divide, and no one wants to ever
- 33:54Speaker 1: admit that their side is wrong. But I'm sorry. You
- 33:57Speaker 1: could easily still be a Harris supporter and hate Donald Trump,
- 34:00Speaker 1: but acknowledge, Yeah, she clearly lied. And the statement really
- 34:05Speaker 1: does put the final nail in her coffin, because if
- 34:09Speaker 1: we use our brains for a second, if she really
- 34:12Speaker 1: did work at McDonald's, the response, as I said in
- 34:17Speaker 1: the last episode of the podcast, but it bears repeating,
- 34:19Speaker 1: the response to what Trump did, would have been to
- 34:22Speaker 1: get out in front of a camera immediately and drop
- 34:26Speaker 1: the hammer on him with a full throated, detailed description
- 34:31Speaker 1: of where, when, and how she worked at McDonald's. And
- 34:36Speaker 1: she would. If she did that in a remotely convincing fashion,
- 34:40Speaker 1: she would have won that day. She would have humiliated Trump,
- 34:44Speaker 1: especially with the specter, which I think is at least
- 34:49Speaker 1: subconsciously in a lot of people's minds is obvious similarity.
- 34:52Speaker 1: Here we have Donald Trump previously having falsely accused Barack
- 34:58Speaker 1: Obama of not being born in Hawaii and faking his
- 35:02Speaker 1: birth certificate. Remember that that's literally how Trump's political career
- 35:07Speaker 1: as the future Republican presidential nominee began. I mean, without
- 35:12Speaker 1: birther Riism, Trump's not ever the nominee in my opinion.
- 35:18Speaker 1: And Trump lied about that. And what happened when Trump
- 35:22Speaker 1: lied about Obama's literal birth, Well, it took a long time.
- 35:27Speaker 1: It took a lot longer than it needed to, and
- 35:29Speaker 1: I believe it was done purposely by the Obama people
- 35:32Speaker 1: because they realized this was a great issue for them,
- 35:34Speaker 1: or at least they thought it was a great issue
- 35:36Speaker 1: for them. Didn't turn out great in the end, but
- 35:39Speaker 1: in the short run, they thought this was fantastic to
- 35:41Speaker 1: have Trump leading these right wing whack jobs that seemed
- 35:46Speaker 1: awfully racist going after his birth when they knew full
- 35:50Speaker 1: well that he was born in Hawaii and they had
- 35:53Speaker 1: the proof to do so, and they enjoyed having that
- 35:56Speaker 1: issue linger out there. But when it got big enough,
- 36:01Speaker 1: Obama went out in front of cameras and produced his
- 36:06Speaker 1: birth certificate, his long form birth certificate, he dropped the
- 36:11Speaker 1: hammer on Trump. Now, unfortunately, we live in a world
- 36:14Speaker 1: where that probably ended up helping Trump when it came
- 36:17Speaker 1: to eventually winning the Republican presidential nomination and replacing Barack Obama.
- 36:24Speaker 1: But the reality is that's what Obama did. Well. If
- 36:28Speaker 1: Harris was not lying about having worked at McDonald's, she
- 36:32Speaker 1: would have acted very similarly to what Obama did with
- 36:37Speaker 1: the birth certificate. And yet, based upon my anecdotal experience
- 36:43Speaker 1: on social media, people who are not Trump fans are
- 36:48Speaker 1: not getting this, and that's even when they understand why
- 36:51Speaker 1: Trump went there. And so I'm not sure how many
- 36:56Speaker 1: people are even aware, you know, low information voters are
- 36:59Speaker 1: even a where why Trump made the trip because the
- 37:03Speaker 1: media has offiscated the issue. They've not focused on it.
- 37:08Speaker 1: The Harris campaign gave them the whole minimum wage thing
- 37:12Speaker 1: to distract people with, and I'm just not convinced that
- 37:17Speaker 1: while it was a great photo op, that it's gonna
- 37:21Speaker 1: convince people or persuade people that hey, wait a minute,
- 37:26Speaker 1: Kamala Harris has got a truth problem just like Trump does.
- 37:30Speaker 1: And that, by the way, is you know why it's significant.
- 37:34Speaker 1: Obviously Trump is a liar too, I just proved it
- 37:38Speaker 1: with the whole Barack Obama birth certificate thing. But Harris
- 37:42Speaker 1: is not perceived widely as a liar because she hasn't
- 37:46Speaker 1: been really vetted, She hasn't been in the public eye
- 37:50Speaker 1: nearly as much as Donald Trump has been. She is
- 37:54Speaker 1: still very vulnerable to these types of political viruses. Trumprump
- 38:00Speaker 1: is not, and so from a purely political perspective, this
- 38:04Speaker 1: would have some I'm not pretending it would have ultimate,
- 38:09Speaker 1: but it would have some political power and punch, especially
- 38:13Speaker 1: in the waning days of an election. So I am
- 38:18Speaker 1: skeptical that the McDonald's stunt has had as much impact
- 38:23Speaker 1: or anywhere near the impact that Trump fans would like
- 38:26Speaker 1: to believe that it would have. I will also say
- 38:31Speaker 1: that it seems as if Tim Waltz did not get
- 38:33Speaker 1: the memo, if there was a Harris team strategy on. Hey,
- 38:39Speaker 1: let's just pretend that we don't even understand why Trump
- 38:43Speaker 1: went to McDonald's because he went on the view and
- 38:47Speaker 1: hilariously is still trying to claim that Kamalaris did work
- 38:53Speaker 1: at McDonald's, and that, in comparison to Harris actually working
- 38:58Speaker 1: supposedly allegedly with no evidence at McDonald's. Trump simply did
- 39:03Speaker 1: a photo wop. This is Tim Waltz on the view.
- 39:08Speaker 1: She actually worked in a McDonald's.
- 39:09Speaker 3: She didn't go and pander and disrespect McDonald's workers by
- 39:14Speaker 3: standing there in your red time take a picture.
- 39:16Speaker 1: I would honestly love to though whether or not Tim
- 39:18Speaker 1: Waltz didn't get the memo or spoke out a turn,
- 39:23Speaker 1: was you know, going on his own or made a mistake,
- 39:28Speaker 1: because that doesn't make any sense to me. You know,
- 39:31Speaker 1: I don't know why he would even reference the idea
- 39:35Speaker 1: that Harris worked at McDonald's. That feels to me like
- 39:39Speaker 1: he was off on his own. But again, see if
- 39:44Speaker 1: the mainstream news media was not acting as Kamala Harris's
- 39:48Speaker 1: campaign manager, the wall statement on the view would further
- 39:54Speaker 1: ignite this fire, this conversation would keep going. Okay, well,
- 40:00Speaker 1: let's get to the bottom of this. And by the way,
- 40:04Speaker 1: Harris wasn't asked in the Haley Jackson interview whether she
- 40:07Speaker 1: ever worked at McDonald's. Gee. I wonder why it didn't happen.
- 40:11Speaker 1: I mean, this interview took place a day after or
- 40:16Speaker 1: two days after this massive stunt that everyone was talking about,
- 40:22Speaker 1: and Jackson didn't even bother to ask Harris about it,
- 40:26Speaker 1: because she knows it's too dangerous. She knows it's not
- 40:29Speaker 1: good for her either, because she's either gonna have to
- 40:32Speaker 1: look like a stooge and let Harris lie, or she's
- 40:35Speaker 1: gonna have to bring it and maybe cause great damage
- 40:40Speaker 1: to Harris's campaign. She's not gonna do that, and so
- 40:44Speaker 1: no one's gonna ask Harris directly that has any credibility
- 40:49Speaker 1: about this whole situation. But I can't emphasize enough if
- 40:55Speaker 1: she had worked there, the response would not have been
- 40:59Speaker 1: a written state about the minimum wage. That's not what
- 41:02Speaker 1: would have happened, And there would be so much evidence.
- 41:08Speaker 1: That's the other thing I've seen on social media that's hilarious.
- 41:11Speaker 1: People are saying, well, I can't prove where I worked
- 41:15Speaker 1: in a part time job in nineteen eighty three. Well, okay,
- 41:21Speaker 1: let me just grant you your argument. Just for the
- 41:25Speaker 1: sake of it. I'll pretend that you can't because apparently
- 41:29Speaker 1: you never took a photograph as a woman. You never
- 41:32Speaker 1: had a journal or a diary, which was very popular
- 41:36Speaker 1: in the nineteen eighties where you would talk about your
- 41:38Speaker 1: first job at McDonald's. You don't have any witnesses that
- 41:43Speaker 1: remember you from working at McDonald's. Okay, I'm just gonna
- 41:46Speaker 1: grant that all that's plausible, that's possible. There's no paperwork,
- 41:50Speaker 1: no photos, all that. But can we please think about
- 41:56Speaker 1: Kamala Harris's life. Did you you run for district attorney
- 42:03Speaker 1: and attorney general and you as Senate and never mentioned
- 42:07Speaker 1: that you worked at McDonald's previously until you started running
- 42:12Speaker 1: for president in twenty twenty. Did you write a book
- 42:16Speaker 1: that had an entire chapter on the service industry and
- 42:20Speaker 1: never referenced that you worked at McDonald's. Did you do
- 42:23Speaker 1: any of that? No, of course not. So you have
- 42:28Speaker 1: to understand this, look at this through the prism and
- 42:31Speaker 1: the context of Kamala Harris's life, and there would be
- 42:36Speaker 1: evidence that this happened if it did. And for me,
- 42:41Speaker 1: the final name on the coffin was the response to
- 42:44Speaker 1: Trump's stunt, because it was it was obvious that they
- 42:48Speaker 1: did not want to engage on the substance of why
- 42:52Speaker 1: Donald Trump was there. They'd rather talk about the minimum wage,
- 42:56Speaker 1: a topic that they also happened to be wrong about.
- 42:58Speaker 1: But at least that's not going into the topic of
- 43:01Speaker 1: whether or not she lied about having worked at McDonald's.
- 43:05Speaker 1: Now the next clip I'm going to play for you.
- 43:09Speaker 1: I'm playing it mostly because it shows a remarkable level
- 43:12Speaker 1: of bias by the mainstream news media. But I also
- 43:16Speaker 1: think that exposes and kind of backs up my theory
- 43:21Speaker 1: that most people And I'm not suggesting that this is
- 43:25Speaker 1: from CBS Evening News. I'm not suggesting that CBS Evening
- 43:28Speaker 1: News controls the narrative for the entire country, but it's
- 43:32Speaker 1: symbolic of the way the news media has reacted to
- 43:35Speaker 1: all this. Because I'm going to play this clip from
- 43:37Speaker 1: Nora O'Donnell CBS Evening News, which has gone viral because
- 43:43Speaker 1: it's just so incredibly biased towards the Harris campaign and
- 43:47Speaker 1: against the Trump campaign. But this is basically Nora O'Donnell,
- 43:51Speaker 1: fellow Georgetown crab with whom I've had some very high
- 43:56Speaker 1: profile run ins in the past. She's a clear left
- 43:59Speaker 1: wing partisan. That's what she was on MSNBC, but now
- 44:03Speaker 1: she's soon to be the X news anchor for the
- 44:07Speaker 1: CBS Evening News. And I want you to listen to
- 44:11Speaker 1: how she describes in her list her litany of negative
- 44:17Speaker 1: things about Donald Trump, how she describes the McDonald's stunt.
- 44:22Speaker 1: She makes absolutely no reference. She references it negatively, even
- 44:27Speaker 1: though you know, it's clear from the public perception that
- 44:31Speaker 1: it was a very effective and positive photo op for
- 44:35Speaker 1: the Trump campaign. But she does not even reference why
- 44:40Speaker 1: he was there, or you know, make any implication that
- 44:44Speaker 1: Harris is on the defensive, or charges against Harris's veracity
- 44:49Speaker 1: in her biography. Nothing like this. So what you're about
- 44:52Speaker 1: to hear is noro' donald in the CBS Evening News
- 44:55Speaker 1: basically taking a series of events surrounding the campaign two
- 45:03Speaker 1: weeks ahead of the election and spinning every single one
- 45:07Speaker 1: as positively for Harris as she possibly can and negatively
- 45:11Speaker 1: for Trump as she possibly can. And here's what that
- 45:15Speaker 1: sounded like.
- 45:16Speaker 5: A Selection day is just over two weeks away, and
- 45:18Speaker 5: the fight for every single last undecided vote in battleground
- 45:22Speaker 5: states is intensifying. Vice President Kamala Harris's targeting disaffected Republican
- 45:27Speaker 5: voters by hitting the trail with Liz Cheney in the
- 45:29Speaker 5: crucial blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Cheney
- 45:34Speaker 5: was a powerful Republican congresswoman and today she called Harris
- 45:37Speaker 5: a responsible adult. As for former President Donald Trump, he
- 45:41Speaker 5: was back in North Carolina, again pushing false claims about
- 45:44Speaker 5: FEMA and immigrants. A's after he spent the weekends slinging
- 45:48Speaker 5: a crude insult at Harris, engaging in lewd locker room
- 45:51Speaker 5: talk about the late golfing legend Arnold Palmer, and staging
- 45:55Speaker 5: a campaign stunt at a Pennsylvania McDonald's.
- 45:58Speaker 1: Now I fully acknowledge that that is bias one oh one. However,
- 46:05Speaker 1: to be you know, fair, as I always am, I
- 46:09Speaker 1: only have a couple of objections to what was wrong
- 46:14Speaker 1: with what was said there. First of all, the entire
- 46:18Speaker 1: idea that, oh, this is very close election and the
- 46:21Speaker 1: blue Wall States. You know, just by the way, just
- 46:25Speaker 1: the reference of the blue Wall States in that context
- 46:28Speaker 1: is inherently pro Harris, because it's presumed that that's Harris territory.
- 46:33Speaker 1: I get it. Historically, other than twenty sixteen, it has
- 46:36Speaker 1: been Democratic territory. But to be fair, if this was
- 46:40Speaker 1: a journalistic organization, you would put something in there along
- 46:45Speaker 1: the lines of the blue Wall might be cracking, or
- 46:48Speaker 1: the Trump has momentum in the in the blue Wall States.
- 46:52Speaker 1: Not to mention, you would also, you know, not spin
- 46:56Speaker 1: the stuff about Trump. I get putting in oral Palmer Penis.
- 47:01Speaker 1: I think that deserves to be in there, although there's
- 47:03Speaker 1: no evidence that that has been a negative for Trump.
- 47:07Speaker 1: It might be, we don't know that there's no evidence
- 47:09Speaker 1: of that. And then I end with the whole McDonald's
- 47:13Speaker 1: stunt being portrayed negatively without even any acknowledgement that Harris
- 47:20Speaker 1: is on the defense or Trump is attacking her on
- 47:24Speaker 1: the veracity of her biography, nothing like that. And so
- 47:28Speaker 1: the importance of that clip is one it is really
- 47:31Speaker 1: a really good example of the extreme and obvious bias
- 47:36Speaker 1: that we now see in the mainstream news media, where
- 47:38Speaker 1: they don't evenly even pretend anymore. I mean, they used
- 47:41Speaker 1: to at least pretend because they had to protect their backside,
- 47:45Speaker 1: but now you know, the CBS Evening News has no
- 47:48Speaker 1: conservative audience, and so they don't care. They're just gonna,
- 47:52Speaker 1: you know, give their liberal audience what's left of it
- 47:55Speaker 1: what they want. And I do think that the way
- 47:58Speaker 1: o'donald handled the McDonald situation is emblematic of how most
- 48:03Speaker 1: of the media is doing so, which is again acting
- 48:07Speaker 1: like the campaign manager for Kamala Harris because they know
- 48:11Speaker 1: this is damaging and so we're just gonna you know,
- 48:15Speaker 1: we're gonna pretend that we don't know why Trump was
- 48:18Speaker 1: at the McDonald So we're gonna pretend it was out
- 48:21Speaker 1: about the minimum wage or about you know him, you know,
- 48:24Speaker 1: staging an event he's he didn't really work there. By
- 48:30Speaker 1: the way, Newsweek got absolutely crushed, and understandably so on Monday.
- 48:37Speaker 1: There must have been a contest at Newsweek on Monday
- 48:40Speaker 1: for the most insanely absurd, biased anti Trump articles, but
- 48:49Speaker 1: this one got ridiculed quite a bit. This is from
- 48:53Speaker 1: Newsweek on Monday after I taped. I think I might
- 48:57Speaker 1: have referenced this in the last episode of the podcast,
- 48:59Speaker 1: but he didn't. I didn't quote it, So Newsweek put
- 49:03Speaker 1: out a story with the headline this is on Twitter.
- 49:07Speaker 1: Rumors have been circulated on social media that former President
- 49:11Speaker 1: Donald Trump's visit to the popular fast food chain was staged.
- 49:19Speaker 1: Rumors that it might have been staged. Get out of
- 49:24Speaker 1: fucking town. You're kidding me, right, and that you know
- 49:28Speaker 1: that went viral because people are like, this is crazy.
- 49:30Speaker 1: I mean, does Newsweek really think or are they do?
- 49:33Speaker 1: They think their audience things that Trump actually works at
- 49:37Speaker 1: McDonald's and it's just running for president. On the side
- 49:41Speaker 1: is that really what they think I mean. And by
- 49:42Speaker 1: the way, the use of the word rumors is also hilarious.
- 49:45Speaker 1: It was very, very obvious it had to be staged,
- 49:48Speaker 1: if only from a security perspective. But if that wasn't enough.
- 49:53Speaker 1: On the same day, not that long afterwards, a couple
- 49:58Speaker 1: hours later, Newsweek Puts had another story with the following
- 50:02Speaker 1: headline on Twitter, Donald Trump has shared what is likely
- 50:07Speaker 1: an AI generated image on his true social account showing
- 50:12Speaker 1: him as a player for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Trump had
- 50:19Speaker 1: gone to the Steelers Sunday night football game, and he
- 50:24Speaker 1: put out a true Social what was obviously an AI
- 50:29Speaker 1: generated image of him, you know, looking like the incredible
- 50:33Speaker 1: Hulp and looking much younger and a thousand times fitter
- 50:38Speaker 1: in a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey. So, thank goodness we have
- 50:42Speaker 1: Newsweek to expose this scandal that, you know what, it
- 50:48Speaker 1: might have been AI generated, because we want to make
- 50:51Speaker 1: sure people realize Trump does not actually play for the
- 50:57Speaker 1: Pittsburgh Steelers. So this is weird news Week is now
- 51:01Speaker 1: they spend much of Monday making sure people realize Trump
- 51:04Speaker 1: doesn't really work for McDonald's and Trump doesn't actually play
- 51:09Speaker 1: for the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is unbelievable what has happened
- 51:16Speaker 1: the destruction of the mainstream news media. I mean Newsweek
- 51:19Speaker 1: used to be a reputable news outlet and now literally
- 51:23Speaker 1: online they're being used as a joke. Now because we're
- 51:28Speaker 1: late in October, it's expected that we're gonna see October
- 51:31Speaker 1: surprises or quote unquote surprises or hit pieces in the
- 51:35Speaker 1: news media. I referenced in the last episode that Bill
- 51:39Speaker 1: Maher on HBO kind of already prepared his audience for
- 51:43Speaker 1: the fact that there we're gonna be October surprises against Trump,
- 51:47Speaker 1: that we're not going to be impactful against him, because,
- 51:50Speaker 1: in my words, he's immune to all viruses. And I
- 51:53Speaker 1: think we saw a classic example of that in a
- 51:57Speaker 1: story in The Atlantic, another outlet which with whom I
- 52:01Speaker 1: have quite a storied history. I've referenced it many times before.
- 52:05Speaker 1: Many years ago, they did a twenty three page cover
- 52:07Speaker 1: story on me written by David Foster Wallace that was
- 52:09Speaker 1: a complete hack job, with lots and lots of inaccuracies.
- 52:14Speaker 1: It's still very famous to this day. The Atlantic has
- 52:17Speaker 1: gotten worse since then. They are owned by a top
- 52:22Speaker 1: financial backer to Kamala Harris, and they did a hit
- 52:27Speaker 1: piece that was so absurd, so ridiculous, and so completely
- 52:33Speaker 1: collapsed almost immediately upon publication that it seems like a parody.
- 52:41Speaker 1: It seems like a parody. But the essence of this
- 52:43Speaker 1: piece and what was clearly the target or the reason,
- 52:48Speaker 1: the motivation, what the political motivation of this piece clearly
- 52:52Speaker 1: was dealt with a situation where Trump as president had
- 52:58Speaker 1: offered to pay for the funeral of a Mexican American
- 53:04Speaker 1: Mexican soldier who died. And you know, it's a long story,
- 53:09Speaker 1: but basically allegedly in this telling of it by a
- 53:13Speaker 1: god but nam of Jeffrey Goldberg, who's a terrible reporter
- 53:17Speaker 1: for The Atlantic, that Trump, when he found out how
- 53:21Speaker 1: much the funeral was gonna be, supposedly sixty thousand dollars,
- 53:27Speaker 1: he told Mark Meadows, his chief of staff at the time,
- 53:31Speaker 1: it doesn't cost sixty thousand dollars to bury a fucking Mexican.
- 53:37Speaker 1: Don't pay it. Now, Before anybody responded to this piece,
- 53:44Speaker 1: that just seems ridiculous. I mean, come on, that doesn't
- 53:48Speaker 1: even pass the lap test, especially two weeks before an election,
- 53:54Speaker 1: especially when it's really the caricature of what liberals would
- 53:58Speaker 1: like to bel leave Donald Trump is really all about.
- 54:02Speaker 1: I mean, they so badly want him to be a racist.
- 54:05Speaker 1: And of course I'm sure it's just a coincidence that
- 54:09Speaker 1: polls are showing that Trump is doing very well with
- 54:11Speaker 1: Hispanic voters, especially in the key states of Arizona and Nevada.
- 54:17Speaker 1: So it's just a coincidence that the Atlantic concox or
- 54:22Speaker 1: comes up with this story all of a sudden, many
- 54:26Speaker 1: years later, many years. I mean, that's one of the
- 54:29Speaker 1: many reasons I don't believe the story. One, it's too
- 54:31Speaker 1: good to be true from the left wing perspective. But two,
- 54:34Speaker 1: if this had happened, it would have been known instant, fuckingtaneously.
- 54:40Speaker 1: I mean, that is an outrageous statement for anybody to make,
- 54:43Speaker 1: but especially a president of the United States. So it
- 54:47Speaker 1: doesn't pass the lap test. It's suspicious because of the
- 54:52Speaker 1: targeting of Hispanic voters two weeks before an election. It
- 54:57Speaker 1: doesn't even sound to me like Trump at all. But
- 55:01Speaker 1: putting all that aside, just looking at this from a
- 55:04Speaker 1: journalistic perspective, So what happened after publication, Well, here's a
- 55:10Speaker 1: list of the people who immediately immediately put out public statements,
- 55:16Speaker 1: not just disagreeing with the story, but overtly clearly condemning
- 55:24Speaker 1: the story, contradicting the story. These are people directly involved
- 55:30Speaker 1: in the story who are saying it's not true. Let
- 55:38Speaker 1: me go through the list. The soldier's sister made an
- 55:43Speaker 1: impassion post on Twitter saying this is not true and
- 55:47Speaker 1: that they had just voted for Donald Trump because he
- 55:50Speaker 1: had been so wonderful to their family during the ordeal.
- 55:56Speaker 1: That alone would bring the story into grave question, especially
- 56:01Speaker 1: given the context of two weeks before an election. But
- 56:04Speaker 1: it didn't stop there. The family's lawyer put out a
- 56:08Speaker 1: similar statement, Mark Meadows, put out a statement condemning the story.
- 56:14Speaker 1: Former Trump's staffers who were there put out statements saying
- 56:20Speaker 1: that the story is not true. Now, as of this taping,
- 56:23Speaker 1: The Atlantic has not, you know, taken back the story.
- 56:29Speaker 1: If you would think in a rational world that they
- 56:31Speaker 1: would be forced to address this, I have not seen
- 56:34Speaker 1: that they have as of yet. But this is just
- 56:37Speaker 1: utter crap, utter crap. And again this is you know,
- 56:41Speaker 1: I'm somebody who loads Donald Trump. I've made that very clear.
- 56:45Speaker 1: I am more than willing to contemplate Trump doing all
- 56:51Speaker 1: sorts of crazy and terrible things. I don't think there's
- 56:54Speaker 1: any evidence this happened. The journalism behind it is obviously horrendous,
- 56:59Speaker 1: and the story doesn't even ring true. It doesn't even
- 57:03Speaker 1: pass the laugh test, especially given the context of two
- 57:07Speaker 1: weeks before an election when this allegedly happened many years ago. Similarly,
- 57:14Speaker 1: we have the story of John Kelly, top Trump aid,
- 57:18Speaker 1: who is now going around doing an interview saying that
- 57:24Speaker 1: Trump loves Hitler and loves the loyalty that Hitler's generals
- 57:30Speaker 1: showed to him. Now again, you know, I would consider
- 57:36Speaker 1: Kelly to be a credible person, and you know, he
- 57:41Speaker 1: certainly has a great history of serving his country, so
- 57:45Speaker 1: I am open to what he has to say. But
- 57:50Speaker 1: again I go back to you're telling me that Donald
- 57:56Speaker 1: Trump said all these great things about Hitler and you know,
- 58:01Speaker 1: wanting generals that were loyal to him, like they're loyal
- 58:05Speaker 1: to Hitler, and you're just now talking about this just now.
- 58:12Speaker 1: How is that possible? I mean, Kelly has been a
- 58:15Speaker 1: critic of a very severe critic of Donald Trump for
- 58:20Speaker 1: a very long time, many many years now, and just
- 58:25Speaker 1: now he suddenly comes forward with the Trump loves Hitler thing.
- 58:32Speaker 1: Much like the fucking Mexican quotation from Trump from an
- 58:38Speaker 1: unnamed source. You know, that is denied by Mark Meadows,
- 58:43Speaker 1: the person that he allegedly said that to. This is
- 58:47Speaker 1: too convenient, I mean, it dovetails too much with what
- 58:51Speaker 1: the left wants to believe about Donald Trump. I mean
- 58:55Speaker 1: the Atlantic was calling him Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini just
- 58:59Speaker 1: a couple of days ago. So I'm a little less
- 59:04Speaker 1: skeptical because the source is John Kelly and not a
- 59:08Speaker 1: writer for The Atlantic using unnamed sources. But it's still
- 59:13Speaker 1: it doesn't ring true. There's a problem there. Why is
- 59:17Speaker 1: this the first time you're saying this? And I don't
- 59:22Speaker 1: have an explanation for that. But I also know that,
- 59:25Speaker 1: as Bill Maher has said that, I have said, this
- 59:28Speaker 1: is not going to have any impact on Trump. It
- 59:31Speaker 1: really isn't. I mean, he is immune to this virus.
- 59:36Speaker 1: Even among you know, independent still undecided voters, all four
- 59:42Speaker 1: of them out there. I don't think this is going
- 59:45Speaker 1: to be the deciding factor if anything. And this is
- 59:49Speaker 1: a mistake that liberals made in twenty sixteen. They're making
- 59:54Speaker 1: Trump into too strong a figure. I have always believed
- 59:58Speaker 1: you don't go after Trump as Hitler, you go after
- 1:00:04Speaker 1: Trump as a buffoon, as a person who is weak,
- 1:00:10Speaker 1: a person who is a fraud, a coward, a you know.
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: I mean, there's all sorts of ways you could do that.
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: But he is a joke. He's not Hitler. Hitler makes
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: him seem stronger than he really is. Not that people
- 1:00:29Speaker 1: have a positive view of Hitler, but I'm talking about
- 1:00:34Speaker 1: the portrayal of Trump. And let's be clear, you know,
- 1:00:40Speaker 1: alpha versus beta, masculine versus feminine is a key, at
- 1:00:46Speaker 1: least subconscious issue in this campaign. I mean, frankly, it
- 1:00:49Speaker 1: might be the number one issue, as pathetic as that is,
- 1:00:53Speaker 1: the number one issue in this campaign might be are
- 1:00:56Speaker 1: you more of a masculine person or a fact in person?
- 1:01:00Speaker 1: Are you more of an alpha or a beta? Well,
- 1:01:04Speaker 1: turning Trump back into Hitler's stalin and Muzzolini gives him
- 1:01:09Speaker 1: the alpha mantle. Again, this is subconscious. I just don't
- 1:01:14Speaker 1: think it's particularly effective, and I don't know that it's
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: really accurate either. But that's what they're doing with Trump
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: in the closing weeks of the election, and I don't
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: think it's going to be particularly effective. I don't know
- 1:01:27Speaker 1: that that means he's gonna win. I'm just saying this
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: is not going to be what ends up giving the
- 1:01:31Speaker 1: election to Harris. One other specific media related note that
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: does have at least a connection to Donald Trump, and
- 1:01:42Speaker 1: we've talked about this in the past. New York Magazine
- 1:01:45Speaker 1: has officially let go of Olivia Nuzzy, the writer reporter
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: who was put on leave when it was revealed that
- 1:01:55Speaker 1: she had been engaged in a romantic relationship, extra marital,
- 1:02:01Speaker 1: extra relationship. She was at a fiance at the time
- 1:02:05Speaker 1: who's also a mainstream news media reporter, but she was
- 1:02:09Speaker 1: engaged in some sort of a romantic relationship with rf
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: K Junior, of course, is married to a Hollywood star.
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: It's amazing that at this point we don't know that
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: rf K Junior has experienced any ramifications for this. He's
- 1:02:24Speaker 1: received very little criticism in the news media. He has
- 1:02:28Speaker 1: not been, you know, let go of his role in
- 1:02:30Speaker 1: the Trump campaign. Frankly, I think Trump probably tests more
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: respect for RFK Junior now because he clearly had a
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: thing for Nuzzy. Nuzzy used her feminine attributes, in my opinion,
- 1:02:45Speaker 1: to cozy up to Trump. Trump liked her because she's
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: an attractive, young blonde woman. That's the way Trump does things.
- 1:02:52Speaker 1: But Nuzzy apparently engaged in what appears to have been
- 1:02:57Speaker 1: a FaceTime romantic relations Now we don't know that for sure,
- 1:03:01Speaker 1: but you know, there's been a denial of a physical relationship.
- 1:03:06Speaker 1: But obviously there was proof of it enough to where
- 1:03:10Speaker 1: New York Magazine suspended and then essentially fired her and
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: her fiance, former fiance Ryan Lizza, who I think was
- 1:03:19Speaker 1: the source. I mean, if you use Akham's raiser. In fact,
- 1:03:23Speaker 1: you know there have been legal documents that have backed
- 1:03:26Speaker 1: up my theory on this that it has to be
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: Liza that was the source. I mean, how else you
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: would have to have electronic proof of this for New
- 1:03:35Speaker 1: York Magazine to do what they did without a confession.
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: And you would think that the person with the motive
- 1:03:42Speaker 1: and the opportunity to get that electronic information, not to
- 1:03:45Speaker 1: mention as a journalist to wherewithal to understand how this
- 1:03:50Speaker 1: whole thing works. All signs point to her former fiance Liza,
- 1:03:55Speaker 1: being the source of the information here. So Nuzzy has
- 1:04:00Speaker 1: gone from the New York Magazine. RFK Junior, as of
- 1:04:05Speaker 1: our public knowledge, has not suffered any negative ramifications for this,
- 1:04:12Speaker 1: and so you know, I don't know where we go
- 1:04:14Speaker 1: from there. To my knowledge, rf K Junior has never
- 1:04:16Speaker 1: been properly asked about this situation. But it is another
- 1:04:22Speaker 1: indication of the death of journalism, not because Nuzzy has
- 1:04:25Speaker 1: been let go, but because Nussy somehow and this is
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: a major mainstream reporter who had a significant role in
- 1:04:34Speaker 1: the Biden coup. It should be pointed out that she
- 1:04:37Speaker 1: wrote a very key article at a key time that
- 1:04:42Speaker 1: really pushed the momentum of the Biden coup. And here
- 1:04:46Speaker 1: she is being so stupid as to engage in a
- 1:04:51Speaker 1: romantic relationship with a person who at the time was
- 1:04:56Speaker 1: still a major force in this campaign. I mean, she
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: had done US story on him when he was still
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: a candidate RFK Junior. So just by virtue of the
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: fact that this could even happen is an indication of
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: the death of journalism. Now I'm not naive. I'm sure
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: this is not the first time this has happened. I'm
- 1:05:16Speaker 1: quite certain that this has happened in the past. But
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: we now live in a world where electronic proof is
- 1:05:22Speaker 1: much more easily obtained and so we find out about
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: these kinds of things. But living in a world where
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: a reporter would find this to be remotely acceptable or
- 1:05:33Speaker 1: a good idea forget about the even if she wasn't
- 1:05:37Speaker 1: reporting on RFK Junior, but the fact that she already
- 1:05:39Speaker 1: had and that she was still doing significant reporting on
- 1:05:43Speaker 1: the presidential campaign, including that article I referenced that helped
- 1:05:48Speaker 1: facilitate the Biden coup, is really extraordinary. And while this
- 1:05:52Speaker 1: story has gotten a lot of play in media circles,
- 1:05:55Speaker 1: I don't think it's gotten enough attention in the public sphere.
- 1:05:58Speaker 1: But it certainly does go to the issue of the
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: lack of trust in media. There's a new survey out
- 1:06:04Speaker 1: once again showing how catastrophic the drop in public trust
- 1:06:09Speaker 1: in the news media is, especially among Republicans and independents,
- 1:06:14Speaker 1: but even among Democrats. Interestingly, after twenty twenty, even democratic
- 1:06:20Speaker 1: trust in the mainstream news media has gone down rather significantly. Gee,
- 1:06:25Speaker 1: I wonder what happened in twenty twenty. I'm not usually
- 1:06:29Speaker 1: an optimist, but there seems to be some evidence, based
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: upon this new survey, that even Democrats lost trust in
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: the news media, either directly or indirectly because of the
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: COVID panic. So there's, in a weird way, there's good
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: news there and there's bad news. The good news is
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: some people are getting it bad news is not everyone's
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: getting it. But also, especially going into this election, I
- 1:06:54Speaker 1: think it is very dangerous, very dangerous to have a
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: society a country that has no trust in the news media,
- 1:07:01Speaker 1: especially on the Republican side, when we may have an
- 1:07:04Speaker 1: incredibly close election, an incredibly close election that no one
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: has anyone to turn to that they trust, that can
- 1:07:13Speaker 1: tell them their side lost. That is a very dangerous
- 1:07:19Speaker 1: situation on both sides. So, you know, we may be
- 1:07:23Speaker 1: heading towards our closest election maybe ever in some ways
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: it could be closer than twenty twenty. You know, I'm
- 1:07:31Speaker 1: not suggesting we're gonna have Florida down to six hundred votes,
- 1:07:35Speaker 1: but there's so many swing state votes that may take
- 1:07:38Speaker 1: days or maybe even weeks theoretically to decide who won.
- 1:07:42Speaker 1: In a very combustible situation involving a candidate who claims
- 1:07:46Speaker 1: the last election was rigged against him, where nobody believes
- 1:07:50Speaker 1: the news media, no one believes any of our institutions,
- 1:07:55Speaker 1: So who's going to trust the results, especially if they're
- 1:07:58Speaker 1: super close, and we have this is a very dangerous
- 1:08:03Speaker 1: set of circumstances. It is a perfect storm that is
- 1:08:07Speaker 1: theoretically coming together, that could cause a whole lot of
- 1:08:11Speaker 1: problems that would make Florida in two thousand seem like
- 1:08:15Speaker 1: a picnic. I'm serious. If you took the circumstances of
- 1:08:20Speaker 1: Florida in two thousand and placed them in twenty twenty four,
- 1:08:25Speaker 1: there's no way we handle the situation as well as
- 1:08:28Speaker 1: we did in two thousand, and there were a lot
- 1:08:31Speaker 1: of problems in two thousand. I was living a lot
- 1:08:33Speaker 1: of the time in Florida at that During that year,
- 1:08:36Speaker 1: I was literally there for the protests for on multiple days,
- 1:08:42Speaker 1: So you know, I lived that and that was very
- 1:08:45Speaker 1: weird and it almost went the wrong direction. But I
- 1:08:50Speaker 1: think if that happens today, it is way way worse,
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: in large part because of the catastrophic loss and trust
- 1:08:58Speaker 1: in the news media among everybody, but especially among Republicans.
- 1:09:04Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to today's free drop of the abbreviated show.
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: If you're interested in listening to the entire show, you
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: must become a patron. Please go to Patreon. That's p
- 1:09:16Speaker 1: A t R E O N dot com Patreon dot com.
- 1:09:21Speaker 1: Slash the Death of Journalism with John Ziggler. My name
- 1:09:27Speaker 1: is j H N z I E g l e R.
- 1:09:30Speaker 1: That's Patreon dot com slash the Death of Journalism with
- 1:09:36Speaker 1: John Zigler. Good luck to you on that, But that's
- 1:09:40Speaker 1: how you can subscribe