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Episode One Hundred Thirty Eight: If It Saves One Life · The Death Of Journalism

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Welcome to episode number one hundred and thirty eight of the Death of Journalism Podcasts.
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My name is John Zigler. I'm your host on today's show. The
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Ohio primary turns out just like I warned you. Trump appears to be effectively
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broke. Free speech is under attack all over the place, particularly in the
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US Supreme Court, and I find a national commentator worthy to debate me on
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the issue of nil in college sports. We begin this episode of the podcast
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with the results of the Ohio primary, not from the presidential perspective, but
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from the standpoint of who would be the Republican nominee for the US Senate in
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Ohio, a race that I believe as a very good chance of determining who
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will be controlling the US Senate after this next election. And if Donald Trump
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does not win the presidency over Joe Biden, and therefore that would mean Kamala
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Harmer would be the tie breaking vote in the US Senate, could very well
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mean the difference between, for instance, of Clarence Thomas happens to pass away,
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having somebody who is at least reasonable replace him, and someone who is
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effectively a Marxist replacing him. So I believe that the Senate is incredibly important
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this year. This is maybe the last best chance for Republicans to take back
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control of the US Senate, and that Ohio is a lynchpin in that possibility.
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And the reason why I've been so focused about this recently is because Donald
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Trump's preferred candidate, Bernie Marino, is someone who very clearly, both from
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a logic standpoint as well as a data perspective, was the worst possible candidate
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to go up against Gerard Brown, who's the Democratic incumbent running for reelection in
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Ohio. Now. Ohio is now what used to be a swing state now
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is clearly a red state. Has a very popular Republican governor, Mike DeWine,
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who I despise for many reasons, including his pathetic COVID response and my
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own personal experience with him in the Stubenville rape case many years ago, back
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when he was the Attorney General of Ohio. But it doesn't matter to me.
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All that matters here is that a Republican beat Brown. Because if a
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Republican beats Brown, and you give Republicans the seat in West Virginia being given
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up by Joe Manchin, which is basically a deadlock cinch that gives Republicans fifty
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one votes in the Senate. Now, I think you need fifty two votes
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in the Senate for it to matter really, because if you have fifty one
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in this environment, and especially if Joe Biden was president, that would give
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so much power to every single one of these weak need Republican senators to fly
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at any moment, and you can't exist that way. You can't function that
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way. So you really need fifty two and the only way to get to
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fifty two is by winning Ohio. And Trump endorsed Bernie Moreno, the candidate
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with the I believe the worst chance of deep defeating Brown, and as I
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told you, was going to be the case, Moreno, who was losing
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in a couple of different polls, not by much, but by just a
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little bit the state Senator Dolan in Ohio. He was losing until Trump made
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his visit to Ohio this past weekend, which made an enormous amount of news
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because of the entire blood bat controversy, which I'll have a few more thoughts
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on momentarily, But that was why Trump was there in Ohio, and he
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was there to endorse Bernie Morino and Bernie Moreno won rather handily. He got
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about fifty percent of the vote statewide in Ohio. He will be the Republican
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nominee, and I think he is now a decided underdog against Gerard Brown in
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that US Senate race in the fall, and Brown is able to hold that
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seat in Ohio, I think the chances of Republicans getting to fifty two are
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almost nonexistent, and the chances of Republicans getting to fifty one, which would
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ensure their control of the Senate even if Trump loses, because remember the vice
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president breaks ties in the Senate, so you know, effectively Trump winning would
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be an extra Senate seat because presumably his vice presidential nominee would be a Republican.
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Obviously, all that with Trump you never know and would vote with Republicans.
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So this gets a little bit complicated, but not really. Just the
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bottom line here is Ohio is incredibly important. If you don't win Ohio from
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a Republican standpoint, you've got to pull off an upset in Nevada or in
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Montana. Now, there are a lot of Maga Republicans out there who are
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saying, John, don't worry about Ohio. Republicans are going to win in
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Montana. I don't buy that. There's a Democratic incumbent there, tester who
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is very popular and is leading in the polls, So I'm not buying Montana.
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I think Nevada would be a pretty significant upset, though possible. You've
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still got Maryland. But you know, Larry Hogan, if the Republican wins
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in Maryland, is basically essentially Joe Manchin in West Virginia in reverse, he's
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essentially a Democrat. I do think he could win the Senate seat in Maryland.
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But my point here is the chances of getting to fifty two or even
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fifty one in my opinion, were greatly diminished because of the results yesterday as
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of this taping in Ohio. And those results were obviously a direct result of
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Donald Trump's endorsement. Donald Trump's endorsement is by far the most powerful force in
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Republican politics. It's almost all that matters. It's almost all that matters.
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Doldan had the support of the wine he had the support of the former US
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senator in Ohio. He had a lot of money, He's a state senator.
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He was qualified. He was beating Brown in the polls, not by
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much, but by a little bit, and yet he got his butt kicked
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by Bernie Marinos simply because Donald Trump gave him the thumbs up. That's not
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a political party, that's a cult. That's a cult, and that's what
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the Republican Party has become in the era of Trump. And the one of
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the more frustrating elements of this, from my perspective, is someone who just
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wants Democrats to not have control of the Senate in case Clarence Thomas dies.
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That's my main focus here. One of the most frustrating elements of this is
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Trump had every ability to get get off of the Bernie Moreno train because there
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was this very strange story that was put out by the Associated Press, which
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I don't know whether or not it's based in reality, whether or not the
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truth is somewhere in between, I don't know. It's a very weird story
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involving Bernie Moreno, who was a car dealer at the time, and an
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adult friend Finder account that was opened via his email that was seeking sex with
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men. Bernie Moreno obviously a man who is married with a family, and
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you know, the story got out there that his account, or at least
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in an account associated with his email was soliciting sex with men, although there's
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no evidence that that actually happened. It was just simply an account that was
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opened for that purpose. Now, the Moreno camp responded with somebody who claims
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to been the person who did that opened that account as some sort of a
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prank as an intern at the car dealership, which is an incredibly strange story,
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although it does have a corroborating witness. Now, of course you have
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a situation where it's quite possible that these people have been coerced or paid into
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becoming witnesses on behalf of Moreno. But I don't know what the reality is.
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I don't know. Honestly, that story makes no sense to me from
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any perspective. Well, here's what I do know. It gave Trump a
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theoretical excuse to not endorse Bernie Moreno or to endorse Dolan and increase the chances
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of Republicans winning that seat in Ohio, and Trump didn't do it. Trump
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decided to stick with Moreno because Moreno is the most trumpy of the candidates and
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that's all that matters. That whoever's most loyal to Donald Trump, that is
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the most important attribute of any candidate, and that wins in a primary,
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but it doesn't win in the general election. And we are nine months into
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this Trump nightmare now, and maga Republicans still do not understand the basic concepts
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of how our electoral system works and how there is a vast difference between a
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Republican primary, especially in this day and age, and a general election.
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They really do not understand this. I see this every day, multiple times
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a day on Twitter. They think that because Marina won the primary, that
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that means obviously he's the best candidate to run in the general election. That's
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not how it works, because there's a whole swath of people who don't consider
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themselves Republicans, or they're weak Republicans, or they didn't vote in the primary,
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who will vote in the general election, especially a presidential general election where
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turnout will be presumably exceedingly high, who are not going to be influenced directly
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by who Donald Trump endorsed. Now, does Moreno have a chance? Yeah?
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I think Moreno has a chance because it looks like Trump's gonna win Ohio
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fairly easily. But there is increasingly, when I'm seeing in the polling everywhere,
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there's increasingly a wide gap between how Trump does in a particular state,
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and how the Republican candidate, even if they're endorsed by Trump, does in
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the same state. It's as if the Trump magic only works for that candidate
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in a Republican primary, and it weirdly actually works against them in a general
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election. You would think there would be coattails. You would think that if
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you were a Trump voter, you would almost automatically vote for the Senate candidate
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that he endorsed. But there is a certain percentage, and I think this
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is mainly because Joe Biden is so unpopular. There is certain percentage of people
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who are willing to say, Okay, Trump did the job before. I
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didn't like it, but I hate Biden. I'm gonna go with Trump,
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but I can't also vote for this wacky pro Trump Republican senatorial candidate. We're
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seeing this all over the place. One of the places we're seeing it is
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in Arizona. Right now, it looks like Trump is gonna win Arizona,
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which is remarkable. Now that I mean, that's as if the election was
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today. I want to make that clear when I say that, I'm saying
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if the election was today, based upon the current circumstances, Trump would be
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a significant favorite in Arizona. However, his hand picked senatorial candidate Kerry Lake
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would get her ass kicked. She's going to lose. She is. And
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I've seen a Republican polster that's not been made fully public with that exact data
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where Trump is winning but carry Lake is losing by a significant margin. It's
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a wide gap. And I think the same thing is likely to happen in
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Ohio in a couple of other places as well. It's this weird phenomenon that
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maga Republicans cannot understand, and it is continually disrupting and corrupting the Republican primary
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process where the wrong candidates are being chosen. The same thing happened in twenty
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twenty two, where numerous races that could have been won by Republicans in the
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Senate and at the gubernatorial level, we're lost because Donald Trump's endorsement picked the
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wrong candidate. And I think we're heading for exactly the same thing. History
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is repeating itself once again in twenty twenty four. And I just want to
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emphasize I keep referencing Clarence Thomas Folks, and when I went through my entire
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almost two hour long diatribe about where we are in this country and where we're
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going. I can never get over just how parallel things are right now.
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If Clarence Thomas were to die, how he doesn't have twenty four hour security
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and a medical aid with him with a defibrillator at all times is completely beyond
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my comprehension. Now there are those who say, well, John, it
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would be five to four if Thomas was replaced. It doesn't really work that
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way. John Roberts loves to go with the majority. John Roberts is no
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longer conservative if you lost Thomas. If only from an intellectual standpoint and a
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gravitas perspective, I think it's far, far easier for Roberts to turn into
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a liberal, especially when he's going to be the deciding vote. And so
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to me, if Thomas goes down and he's replaced by Joe Biden, with
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a Democrat controlled Senate, and he's replaced by effectively a Marxist, you're going
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to go from what is perceived as a six to three conservative Supreme Court to
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a five to four liberal court. Now, Roberts would have some semblance of
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restraint and wouldn't be a full on liberal. But then we're then we're one
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vote away, that it's one person away, however long that would take to
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be complete chaos and just become a woke fantasy world. And so this really
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matters. And while there's a lot of ifs here, I think there's a
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really good chance that when history is written and Clarence Thomas's replacement is chosen ironically
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by Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, God forbid, and there's a Democratic Senate
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that can jam through whoever the hell they want to put in there as basically
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retribution. I mean, liberals hate Clarence Thomas. My god, the joy,
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the euphoria that will happen should Clarence Thomas die and he be replaced by
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a Marxist black man will be off the charts. It will be like nothing
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we've ever seen before. And look, Clarence Thomas is already way beyond the
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life expectancy of the average African American mail who is not in particularly great shape.
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Now, hopefully he's going to still live a long life. But I
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you know, my god, it's unbelievable that a man, you know,
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that important, in his mid seventies somehow we're not understanding how precarious this situation
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is. And that's why I'm so agitated by what happened in Ohio, because
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this was an easy pickup for Republicans, and now, thanks to Donald Trump,
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it is not going to be an easy pickup. And by the way,
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you know, more warning signs for Trump in the general election. There
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was also a primary in Florida and Trump only won eighty percent of the vote.
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Now, this was a situation where he was theoretically unopposed. It gets
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a little bit confusing because you've got mail in ballots that may have been admitted
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before Nicky Haley, for instance, dropped out of the race. You had
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still people with a protest vote a few percentage points voting for Ron DeSantis,
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the governor of Florida. But I think it's a further indication of what I
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have said constantly that eighty percent number really is significant. That eighty percent of
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the Republican Party is either Trump cult members or people who really like Donald Trump,
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and there's twenty percent who hate his gut so much that they're willing,
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at least in protest in a primary to vote for somebody who's not even in
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the race anymore, and that I keep telling you it's eighty twenty. Well,
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that's exactly what happened in Florida. Eighty percent for Donald Trump, twenty
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percent for candidates that aren't even in the race. And you know, I'm
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not suggesting Trump's going to lose Florida, but that is yet another indication that
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if Trump really, if Trump really thought we were going to lose the Republic,
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if he didn't win, and there was going to be a blood bath
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economically if he didn't win, and if it was that important for him to
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win, why the hell is he not picking Nicki Haley as his vice presidential
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nominee. I mean, because there is clearly a segment of the Republican Party.
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It's not huge, but it's significant, especially in close states, that
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is unsatisfied with Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee, and they clearly at
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least like Nicki Haley. Nicki Haley. Again, I have said continually I'm
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not a Nicki Haley fan, But if you're looking at this from the standpoint
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of which vice presidential candidate gives Trump the best chance of winning, it is
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obviously Nicki Haley. She's qualified she's a woman, suburban white women like her.
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Obviously disaffected members of the Republican Party like her because she's gotten very significant,
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significant vote totals, even now after she has dropped out of the race.
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So it's a no brainer. It's an absolute no brainer. But I
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don't don't believe it's going to be Nickki Haley. I told you it wouldn't
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be Ronda Santis by the way, I told you it wasn't going to be
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for Fake Obama Swamy, and for fake Obama Swami very weirdly and suspiciously effectively
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announced himself that he's not going to be the Republican nominee. There's a story
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out that Trump informed for fake Obama Swami he's not gonna be the vice presidential
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nominee for Donald Trump, which I'm very suspicious of that. I don't know
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exactly what happened there, but that seems very very odd to me that Trump
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would reach out to the fake Obama Swami and give him heads up that he's
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not going to be the vice presidential nominee. But I told you that wasn't
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going to happen, because Trump is smart enough to know that for fake is
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a snake and would be a threat to take over MAGA Inc. So it's
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not going to be for fake Obama Swami. Apparently it's not gonna be Ronda
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Santis because Trump's ego won't let him do that. And he's still ripping on
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Onto Santas, even was doing so this past weekend in Ohio when he endorsed
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Bernie Marino for absolutely no reasons, totally gratuitous spiking the football in his face.
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Those are a lot of voters out there, De Santas voters who are
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flirting with either not voting or voting for RFK Junior or what have you that
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Trump could need in some of these swing states. So that's another stupid thing
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that Trump is doing. I don't believe it's going to be Nicky Haley.
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Who it is going to be, I don't know. I mean, the
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betting favorite right now is Tim Scott, which I don't think would be the
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worst choice that Trump could make. It makes a lot of sense in a
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lot of different ways. Black senator from South Carolina, a place where you're
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not going to worry about what happens in South Carolina. With regard to a
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potential replacement for Scott, in the Senate, so I think there's some benefit
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to that, and Scott has no threat to take over MAGA inc. So
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I would get Tim Scott, not my choice Nicky Haley if you want to
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win the election. Nicky Haley is the vice residential nominee. But I just
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do not see that happening, mainly because of Trump's ego. And Trump's ego
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is costing the Republican Party all over the place, and I believe did so
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in Ohio with the victory for Bernie Moreno and now his likely loss not certain,
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but likely loss to Chard Brown in November, potentially losing a very key
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Senate pickup opportunity for the Republican Party. Now I've referenced the fact that Trump
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was in Ohio this past weekend to endorse Moreno, and there was the whole
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bloodbath controversy, and it did not surprise me at all. In fact,
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when I was doing the last episode of the podcast, I was anticipating a
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message from News Nation and Dan Abrams Show asking me to come on to talk
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about that particular topic because it really was perfect for what I do as a
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anti Trump conservative media analyst. I mean, there's really no story that could
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be more well suited to my wheelhouse than what happened with regard to the media
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overreaction, not just overreaction, but complete misreporting on the issue of what Trump
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allegedly said regarding a blood bath coming for the country if he's not elected.
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He was obviously talking about the auto industry as well as the economy in general.
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Blood Bath is a term that is used constantly by the mainstream news media
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to talk about job losses, including job losses in the media itself, and
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so there was nothing at all inappropriate with the word bloodbath by Trump. It
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was obviously in the context of the economy, specifically the auto industry, and
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so I wasn't surprised when I got asked to go on Dan Abram's primetime television
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show on NewsNation television network. You can see that for yourself go to either
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my Twitter page or my Facebook page. What was most interesting Two things that
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were interesting about this particular appearance. The first was, and I don't know
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whether or not this was because of the disaster of my last appearance, which
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I talked about on this podcast about all the technical problems I had and that
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I had put my iPad in my makeshift studio in our playroom upside down,
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and so I was looking on the wrong direction during the entire appearance, and
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it was bothering the heck out of me because I knew I was looking in
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the wrong direction, but I didn't know how to correct it. And so
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I have no idea if this is just a coincidence, because they didn't tell
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me. But for the first time, and I've done I think about forty
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maybe forty five News Nation television appearances in the last couple of years, and
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for the first time ever, they actually sent a mobile studio to my house,
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which I had never done one of these live hits before in a mobile
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studio in this day and age post COVID, when you know, suddenly it
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became okay to do zoom calls on live television, which is bizarre to me.
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Post COVID, we've been doing it via computers or iPads and makeshift studios.
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And so I guess now there's a market for these mobile studios that are
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basically massive trucks with a television studio inside them and they can come to you.
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And this was actually quite efficient. My daughter's got a kick out of
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being able to see how the whole thing works, so that was kind of
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cool, but it was much better audio and video quality. There were a
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couple issues with regard to delay because of the way that they do it,
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but it was certainly better from a technical standpoint, and they told me that
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in the future they anticipate that this will be the normal way in which we
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do NewsNation television appearances. I'm only asked on there about every other week.
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It depends obviously on what's going on, and you know, whether or not
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to any particular topic fits my alleged aarya of expertise, but obviously the bloodbath
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controversy did so. And you know, one of the things that I said
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in my appearance on NewsNation was that these mainstream and liberal media figures who are
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desperately still still to this day, are still desperately latching on to this ridiculous,
24:26
bogus theory that Trump was promising or threatening a blood bath, a literal
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blood bath in the country if he's not elected, which is obviously not true.
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But the fact that these liberal commentators and mainstream media figures are still latching
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onto this in a lot of ways, they're like these Kate Middleton conspiracy theorists
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who are still holding on for dear life to their fairy tale, not wanting
24:55
to admit that they're wrong in the face of overwhelming evidence. It's including video
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evidence that proves how obviously wrong they are. Now I'm gonna have some thoughts
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later on in this episode about the latest in the Kate Middleton saga, which
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I think I'm gonna tell you some things that are unique or least different than
25:15
you've heard elsewhere from a psychological perspective, because I'm now fascinated more by the
25:21
reaction to the latest in the Kate Middleton saga than i am to what's going
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on with Kate Middleton herself. But that's a little bit later on in the
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podcast. Going back to Trump. Now, Trump obviously has a lot of
25:33
problems, one of which is money, and it became very clear this week
25:41
that Trump is not going to be able to post a bond to cover the
25:45
four hundred and fifty four million dollar judgment in that bogus civil fraud case out
25:52
of New York City, where Letitia James, I believe, vindictively as she
25:59
promised during her election campaign when after Donald Trump over something that I'm now convinced
26:06
was not even a crime not even unusual. No one was harmed. This
26:11
was purely a vindictive prosecution against Donald Trump in a jurisdiction where she knew he
26:19
could not get a fair trial. The judge was a complete joke. Everything
26:25
about this should offend the average American who gives a damn about due process,
26:32
who gives a damn about property rights. I mean, this is really outrageous.
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As outrageous is what happened with Eging Carroll. The Eging Carroll case was
26:41
bullshit because I don't think it happened. And the idea that he is able
26:47
to be sued for tens of millions of dollars because he's defending himself against charges
26:53
of rape or sexual assault that have no basis in reality. Your evidence is
27:00
just mind blowing and infuriating, even for someone who despises Donald Trump like I
27:06
do. Well, it's now clear that Trump doesn't have the money and doesn't
27:12
have the ability to get a bond for this four hundred and fifty four million
27:19
dollar judgment that he has to cover in order to appeal it, and his
27:25
lawyers are now asking for some relief in this area. Now there's a couple
27:30
different aspects of this story that I find interesting, one of which is that
27:34
Mark Levin, a guy who I used to have respect for radio talk show
27:38
host conservative, I've met a few times. You know, we even took
27:42
a picture together at a talk radio event at the beginning of the Trump phenomenon
27:47
in twenty sixteen, where he tried to convince me that I was actually right
27:52
about Trump, but that he shouldn't be painted with the broad brush of those
27:57
who are selling out the Trump I'm error phrasing here. And of course,
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you know, at the beginning, Levin was very anti Trump. I mean,
28:06
way before Trump ran. He was completely anti Trump, called him a
28:11
fraud, and it was very emphatic that Republicans and conservatives should not consider Trump
28:15
to be one of us. And now, of course for years he's been
28:18
completely on the Trump train. Well, he actually had a meltdown on Twitter
28:23
and elsewhere over the fact that nobody is coming to Trump's aid when it comes
28:30
to these legal judgments and helping him cover the bond, which is just hilarious.
28:37
So in Mark Levin's world, supposedly rich Republicans are supposed to come forward
28:44
to cover the bond for Donald Trump, to the tune of four hundred and
28:49
fifty four million dollars. Good luck with that. I mean, this is
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the problem you have when you're Donald Trump and you have made a career,
28:59
You have a career out of not paying back your creditors and stiffing people that
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you owe money to. That's literally what Donald Trump has done his entire life.
29:11
If you're you know someone who has followed this podcast very closely, I
29:15
have told the story about my own father who played a not insignificant role in
29:22
the rise of Donald Trump back in the late nineteen eighties in the early nineteen
29:26
nineties, where he did a significant amount of business with him, loaning him
29:30
money not personally but through his financial institution, mainly because his boss, my
29:37
father's boss was so enamored with Trump's celebrity that he forced my father to give
29:45
Trump money that he knew. My father knew Trump wasn't likely to pay back.
29:49
And by the way, my father turned out to be right about that.
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And so this is an issue that you know, I've been following for
29:56
decades about who Donald Trump is. Well, now the chickens are coming home
30:00
to roost and Mark Levin is having a melt out over the idea that somehow
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this is an outrage that no one's coming to Trump's aid here. But back
30:11
to the core issue, the judgment itself is completely bogus and should really scare
30:18
the crap out of anybody who really cares about property rights in this country,
30:25
because if you can just steal someone's stoff because they're a political target, and
30:30
you get them into the to the right or the wrong, depending on your
30:33
perspective, legal jurisdiction where where you know they're so hated that there's no chance
30:38
they're going to get a fair shake, then and that's not America anymore,
30:44
folks. And nobody has been a better spokesperson on this issue by far.
30:49
Nobody has been as good as spokesperson on this issue is Kevin O'Leary. Kevin
30:56
O'Leary from the ABC show The Shark Tank, which I would never have expected.
31:03
So funny how the world works, you know. When Shark Tank started,
31:06
I thought Mark cuban was the rational one, and I thought Kevin O'Leary
31:10
was a bit odd, and I would not have trusted Kevin O'Leary. I
31:14
would I would have trusted Mark Cuban over Kevin O'Leary. Well, Mark Cuban
31:18
has turned into a liberal nut job, total woke pc DEI woosy, and
31:26
Kevin O'Leary all of a sudden is the voice of reason and he's clearly not
31:32
a huge fan of Trump, much like me. I don't know if he's
31:34
as anti Trump as I am, but he's not even considered to be like
31:38
a right wing conservative. But we've played before a clip of Kevin O'Leary,
31:44
I think, in very logical fashion, explaining why the entire case against Trump
31:52
is bogus from the perspective of the law and normal practices when it comes to
31:56
commercial real estate, especially in a place like New York City. Well,
32:01
Kevin O'Leary was on CNN and voided, oh my gosh, boy did he
32:07
have the people he was on with CNN clutching their pearls because Kevin O'Leary went
32:14
off. He went off on CNN regarding this entire issue and how unbelievably dangerous
32:22
it is that we're basically like a third world country if we're willing and able
32:28
to get away with doing this to a political figure like Donald Trump. And
32:32
here's what that sounded like when Kevin O'Leary went off on CNN in defense of
32:37
Donald Trump. I don't think this case is about Trump anymore. I think
32:42
this case is about New York. It's about the American brand. It's about
32:46
what we promised the world in terms of fairness and justice and investing capital in
32:52
the country that's built the largest economy on earth. Forfeiture seizing of assets?
32:58
Is that in our nomenclaure in America? Is that what we tell people that
33:01
want to bring their money here and protect property rights? Forget about Trump,
33:06
nothing to do with Trump. You think this is good for business in New
33:08
York? You think this is good for business in America? To take a
33:13
law that we use to protect people against buying refrigerators at an overpriced value decades
33:19
ago and applied against an individual and then talk about seizing assets like he was
33:25
in Venezuela or in Cuba. This is a very, very, very bad
33:32
look for New York. And everybody around the world is watching this. This
33:37
may be great for this Attorney General, but this is not good for America.
33:42
But in terms of the valuation, can you be clear as to why,
33:45
I mean, why would the properties not be sufficient collateral? What a
33:52
great message to send out all around the world take a claim where there was
33:57
no money is lost. There was no fraud here in the context of actually
34:02
people losing money. Deutsche Bank, who made the loan, was made whole.
34:07
And let's make a penalty of half a billion dollars against a crime apparently
34:15
where no moneys were lost. Great message for New York, great message for
34:20
America. Bring your capital because we'll protect your property. I think that was
34:24
a statement that would be much better made sometime in Venezuela. I'm not kidding.
34:31
That's a scary, scary message. And by the way, Toronto,
34:36
such thing as happen billion dollar bonds, there are no half a billion dollar
34:40
bonds. Never been done before. Never, this law has never been applied.
34:45
Forget about Trump. Nothing to do with Trump, everything to do about
34:52
America and the New York brand. I love this state, My children live
34:57
here. A horrible message to everybody around the world watching this, absolutely horrific.
35:05
Well, Kevin, Kevin, hold on a second, kevinne one day
35:08
to be gone one day and this has a wonderful and it won't be talking.
35:15
I would like to carry it to say, America, what are you
35:19
doing? But I have to say, and I'm not an expert in this
35:23
area. But Kevin O'Leary has convinced me basically that he is accurate in his
35:31
analysis of this, and that this is an outrage and and this has been
35:37
done clearly for political purposes, political punishment as well as hindering somebody in their
35:45
presidential campaign, because obviously, you know, if it's it's like robbing Peter
35:52
to pay Paul. I mean, at a certain point, there's only a
35:55
certain pot of money, right, and if you have a vulnerability in one
36:00
area, it's going to come out in another. And so the fact that
36:02
Trump is scrambling to try to come up with four hundred and fifty four million
36:08
dollars so he can appeal this bogus ruling is clearly going to have an impact
36:14
on his presidential campaign. Now. To be you know, very very clear
36:19
about this. Trump has never been big about putting his own money into his
36:23
presidential campaign, which is I think has always been an indication that he's a
36:28
bit of a fraud, both financially as well as philosophically. I mean,
36:31
if he really was who he said he was, if he was as rich
36:34
as he said he was, and if he cared about the country and his
36:37
campaign as much as he said he was, he would be self funding to
36:40
a much larger degree than he has in the past. But he's he's done
36:45
very little of that. Well, he's not going to do any of that
36:46
now. He's not gonna do any of that now because he needs every dime.
36:51
And of course, there's another aspect of this, which I've talked about
36:52
constantly, which is the problem that this creates with regard to conflicts of interest.
36:59
The now, all of a sudden, Trump is vulnerable to being bought
37:01
off, very vulnerable to being bought off. And I think we've already seen
37:06
that with regard to his flip flop on a TikTok issue, his flip flop
37:10
on the bud light boycott. I have many times, more so than anybody
37:17
else I know, referenced the conflict of interest he has with the Saudi royal
37:22
family and renting his golf courses out I'm sure at an exorbitant, way above
37:29
market rental prices so they can be used for live golf, and nobody ever
37:34
questions him about this. Is this alone? In the olden days, prior
37:37
to Trump coming into the political sphere, would have been considered a major political
37:43
scandal that the Republican presidential now, but he was taking money under the table,
37:47
undisclosed amounts from the Saudi royal family in the middle of a presidential campaign.
37:53
But we don't even talk about that now. But the point is Trump
37:58
is Trump's great alleged strength. His wealth has now become a liability in numerous
38:05
ways, and the Left knew this, and they went after it. They
38:09
went after it vindictively, and unfortunately, it seems as if they're going to
38:14
get away with this. And I will say, while I'm criticizing Trump,
38:17
as I often do, there's a part of me that also has to respect
38:22
the way that Trump has handled this so far. I mean, he doesn't
38:25
even seem as angry as Kevin O'Leary does. I have to say, if
38:30
I was Trump, I would be way more pissed off than he seems to
38:35
be in public now. He's obviously upset about it, and he has every
38:39
right to be. But so far, I have to say he actually has
38:44
handled this better than I would have expected, given how much he cares about
38:49
his money, and given how unfair this is and how precarious his financial situation,
38:54
at least in the short run, might be I have to say Trump
38:59
has not had had any significant meltdown, at least not publicly about this,
39:04
and in a weird way, I have to give him some respect for that.
39:07
Now he is doing some things that I don't necessarily agree with that at
39:12
least in theory, could help him recoup some of the money that he's lost.
39:16
Here. Specifically, he is now suing George Stephanopolis over what Stephanopolis said
39:24
in an interview with Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman, an interview we played
39:30
a couple of episodes ago on this podcast, and if you listened carefully,
39:37
when I played that interview clip between George Stevenopolis and Nancy Mace, I referenced
39:44
that I thought Stephanopolis was making a factual error. That Stephanopolis had said to
39:51
Mace, you know, basically, how do you support someone who's been found
39:53
libel for rape? And I said, well, that's not technically what happened.
40:00
Technically, what happened was that the civil jury in one of the cases
40:07
found that Trump was liable for sexual abuse. Now, there is a significant
40:14
difference legally as well as practically between sex abuse and rape. Now, you
40:21
know Eagen Carroll's allegation certainly was rape. Certainly sounded like rape basic you know,
40:28
average person's definition of rape. I don't know about legally, but it's
40:31
certainly. I'm sure in the media's mind they thought, well, obviously,
40:37
what she's alleging is rape, and the jury found in her favor. So
40:40
Stephanopolis probably conflated in his mind. Okay, well, obviously this was this
40:46
was rape. Now, there was some misreporting at the time that the jury
40:52
had found Trump liable for rape, but you know, it was clear that
40:57
that's not what had happened, that it was sex abuse. And based upon
41:01
this, Trump is now suing George Stephanopolis for defamation. Ironically enough, so
41:08
this is a case that never ends. I mean, one situation, begets
41:13
the next, begets the next, but gets the next. I'm not sure
41:16
that Trump's case against that Monopolis is all that strong. It certainly has enough
41:22
technical merit to where it will probably get to first base. I am very
41:29
concerned in a larger picture about the fact that we now, even alleged conservatives
41:35
or Republicans are relying on suing over speech. That's something that is offensive to
41:43
me. And I think we've now we've now left the gravitational pull of the
41:46
rational earth here. I mean, we're now in a situation where threatening to
41:50
sue or actually suing is the norm, even over clear speech issues and the
41:58
law here, because Trump is obviously a public figure on steroids. For Trump
42:05
to have a legitimate claim here under the law, Stephanopolis would have to know
42:10
that what he was saying was false, or at the very least, he
42:15
would have to have reckless disregard for the truth. Now I can see where
42:20
you could make an argument for reckless disregard for the truth that Stephanopolis should if
42:25
he didn't, should have known better than to claim that Trump had been found
42:30
liable for rape when it was actually sexual abuse. But to me, even
42:36
if you get past that hurdle, which is possible, it's going to be
42:40
very very difficult, especially in a jurisdiction that once again is not friendly to
42:45
Donald Trump, It's going to be very very difficult to get a jury in
42:50
my opinion, to make this huge distinction between rape and sexual abuse. That
42:57
that would probably be Stevenopolis's final line of defense here, that it's really a
43:02
distinction without a significant difference, even though legally there is a difference there.
43:08
And I think politically, there's a difference there, but you know, of
43:13
course that whole Egen Carroll situation. I don't believe she was ever raped.
43:16
I don't think she was sexually abused by Donald Trump. I don't think there's
43:20
any evidence or logic to suggest that she was. And the jury verdict makes
43:23
no damn sense because clearly they didn't fully believe her, because otherwise they would
43:28
have found him liable for rape, and they didn't. So none of that
43:31
case makes any damn sense. But I'm not a big fan of this idea
43:36
now that we're just gonna sue, you know, willy nilly over something that
43:40
is said that we disagree with, even though I do think that there's a
43:45
kernel of a legitimate case here. Thanks for listening to today's free drop of
43:50
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