Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / Ilhan Omar's Odd Answer, Leftists Burning France, Another Bogus Pollster | Last Call

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Ilhan Omar's Odd Answer, Leftists Burning France, Another Bogus Pollster | Last Call · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to Greg Karambas of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: National Review.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Three martinis coming up.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Welcome to the last call of the week for the
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Three Martini Lunch. This is our weekly recap of the
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: biggest stories of the week. In this edition, when asked
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: if she married her own brother, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar says,
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: not to my knowledge. France continues to burn thanks to
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: far-left radicals and spineless political officials. And another polling firm
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: admits it was fabricating results on numerous critical midterm races.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: And in our Chaser of the Week, celebrating 16 years
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: of the three-martini lunch. But we begin with Ilhan Omar's
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: curious answer as to whether her marriage was all in
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: the family. We start in Minnesota. We know, of course,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: you and Craig talked about the federal raid on Ilhan Omar.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: We talked about Barack Obama's.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Odd, extensive defense of.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Omar and his hypocritical calling out of government for targeting
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: people for their political beliefs. But there seems to be drip, drip,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: drip coming out of this investigation. I would prefer to
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: have that all behind the scenes until any charges come out.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: But nonetheless, it looks like at least somewhere along the way,
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Ilhan Omar's last name may have been different, but it
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: was the same as the man that she buried. A
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: while back, not her current husband, which is feeding into
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: the idea that she actually married her brother. So yesterday
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: she finally emerges for an interview on MS Now with
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Chris Hayes. And there's a long form and a short
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: form of this. But just in fairness to everyone, here's
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: the long form.
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: Who was this man that was your husband?
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: When did they start saying that he was your brother?
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 1:51
  Speaker 6: It started with the Somali blog that I don't know
• 1:56
  Speaker 6: if it still exists, but somebody put in there that,
• 1:59
  Speaker 6: you know, that he had to have been my brother
• 2:01
  Speaker 6: or something to that effect. And right-wing conspiracy theorists in
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: Minneapolis got a hold of it, and they just kind
• 2:10
  Speaker 6: of went and, like, found random people who were like,
• 2:13
  Speaker 6: she introduced us. You know, she introduced him to us
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: and said he was her brother, which is... You know,
• 2:21
  Speaker 6: it's insane. I mean, I don't I don't know those
• 2:23
  Speaker 6: people that they talk about.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: He was not you were not related to him at all.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Not that there's not some weird kernel of truth.
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: That through some game.
• 2:32
  Speaker 6: Not to my knowledge.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: That was the big gotcha.
• 2:34
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: In terms of what you're talking about, promising like we're
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: going to nail her on the marriage.
• 2:38
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Let's listen to that one part again. He was
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: not you were not related to him at all.
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: Not to my knowledge.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Jim, are you married to your sister? I'm not married
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: to any blood relatives. I know that for a fact.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Not to my knowledge.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: No.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I'm feeling very much like a Ghostbuster right now. If
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: someone asks if you're a god, you say yes. If
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: someone says, are you related to your wife? You say no.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Although I did find out that the non-Irish part of
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: my heritage over, I thought it was from, you know,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: it's Polish. Found some family documents on Ancestry.com. And apparently
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: we are from Lviv. Now, you may have noticed Lviv
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: is not part of Poland today. It is part of Ukraine.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: And so my wife's heritage is from there as well.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: So we're not quite as far apart geographically as I
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: expected on that part. But no, we are not related.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: And the kids did not come out with two heads
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: or anything like that.
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: But like this. So here's the thing.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: First of all, remember when Chris Hayes did the interview
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: with Graham Platner? And Platner did not handle it well.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Is Chris Hayes just the go-to guy where your hand
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: has been caught in the cookie jar, you can't blow
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: off the press any longer, you're going to have to
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: be interviewed by somebody, and, you know, Chris Hayes is
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: the guy. He won't even toss softballs. He's going to
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: put it up on a tee with a big plastic
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: red tee, and you just take a swing, and you
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: just do your best. And unfortunately, Ilhan Omar, are you
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: related to your husband? Not that I, as far as
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: I know, no.
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: But really? Like, you know.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: 99.99% of the population would just say no and not
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: leave any wiggle room or something like that.
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: There's an almost Bill Clintonian answer. So look, we'll see.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Again, like you, I don't love the drip, drip, drip.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: If there's a crime there, say so. If there's not
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: a crime there, don't pursue someone. Don't strategically leak information
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: or anything like that. But... It's getting very, you know,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: but that was a really curious answer. Just very different
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: from what most people's would be. I mean, by the way,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: my understanding, I just got a statement over the transom
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: from Troy Jackson, the Democratic Senate candidate in Maine. And
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: he said, it's all relative. Troy Jackson, who, of course,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: is had children with his second cousin.
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: It's a second cousin. It's totally different, you know.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: No, that's incredible.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: You know, it kind of reminds me of that meme
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: involving Natalie Portman and the guy that played Anakin Skywalker,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: where he says something and she's like, you mean this, right?
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: And he just has a blank stare and she's like,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: you mean this, right? And so Chris Hayes, who could
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: come at this as a, you know, an adult and
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: a mature journalist saying, did you marry your brother? And say,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: you didn't marry your brother.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: You're not related to your brother, to your husband, right?
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: And she's like, probably not.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: It's it's look, I there are a couple versions of
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: this joke I wanted to put in today's morning, Joel,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: that I said, you know, what one version that I
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: did not use was Republicans. This is what you get
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: for spending years insisting Democrats don't have family values. They're
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: trying to bring families closer together.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: Oh, my gosh.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: If your family tree does not fork, you may be
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: a redneck. Exactly.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: Exactly. I don't know.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: If this continues to have legs and there's an indictment here,
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: I feel like we're weeks, maybe a couple of months
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: away from... Well, you have to understand the culture.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: That's right. Really? I don't think so.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Look, I understand if you call up Omar's office because
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: you want answers to this.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: The hold music is the theme to Deliverance.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: Well, let's talk about.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: another important challenge in this country, and that is celebrating
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: and defending life. And that includes, of course, life in
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: the womb. And for young women who may be in
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: an unplanned pregnancy, it can be very scary. And there's
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: a lot of voices, maybe her own conscience is saying,
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: you can't do this, or people around her saying, get
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: rid of that baby. But she knows deep down that
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: she would love to bring this baby into the world,
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: that the baby deserves life, but she doesn't know how
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: she's going to care for this child. Well, that's where
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: human coalition comes in, and comes alongside these women.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Human Coalition meets these women at that critical moment. And
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: when a woman reaches out, she's connected with trained nursing
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: and counseling professionals. Nothing gets outsourced. Human Coalition operates its
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: own clinics and works with a nationwide network of pregnancy
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: centers trained to help women facing abortion decisions. And their
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: support does not stop when the baby is born. When
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Human Coalition gets a woman on the phone, they can
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: help her choose life about 90% of the time.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Human Coalition has already helped more than 35,000 women choose life.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: So help them find even more women and convince them
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: to choose life as well. It only takes a monthly
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: donation of $ 26 to create a life-saving moment, a moment
• 7:37
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• 7:39
  Speaker 3: her lifeline, create a life-saving moment, and go to humancoalition.org
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: slash martini. That is humancoalition.org slash martini and give today.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: All right, Jim, another big story that's been simmering, in
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: some cases really flaring up for weeks now, but certainly
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: over the weekend, the rioting in France. This all started
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: supposedly with college students and others being really upset about
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: the lack of educational reforms in France. But when it
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: comes to the left, they don't need much of an
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: excuse to try and burn stuff down. And that's exactly
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: what they've been doing. And over the weekend in the
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: historic city of Limoges, and if you want to know
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: the history of that, read today's Morning Jolt. Jim does
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: an excellent job of explaining it. You know, the town
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: hall that got burned down over the weekend, a very
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: impressive structure dates all the way back to the 1800s
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: was a critical place in the French resistance. And so
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: and then Emmanuel Macron comes on TV and says, oh,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: I want you doing this. But your your grievances are
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: so real that we have to listen to them. But
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: but but but please don't do this. Jim, the weakness,
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: the weakness in response to this is perhaps as infuriating
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: as the acts of these conservatives.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: These radicals in the first place.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: You know, not that long ago, somebody made the argument
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: that Angela Merkel, the former chancellor of Germany, was the
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: most failed leader of this 21st century so far, having
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: taken Germany and made it dependent upon Russian energy, huge
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: amounts of migration from the Middle East, and shutting down
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: the nuclear energy projects and militarily entirely dependent upon the
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: United States. Completely unprepared for the changes that Donald Trump
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: was going to take and expecting NATO members to pay
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: at least 2%, closer to 5%.
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: Merkel was bad. Strong contender.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: By the way, you know, as details that I've learned
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: in my novel writing research, the Stasi attempted to recruit her.
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: She turned them down.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: But if she had, Greg, she was working for the
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Soviets all along.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: How different would things have turned out? Like, at least
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: that's reassuring.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, she was trying to undermine Germany. Anyway, the reason
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: I'm talking about this is that Macron may well be
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: remembered as a comparable colossal. failure for France. And, you know,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: so first of all, I remember talking about this like
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: two weeks ago on the editors, meaning this issue of
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: the riots has been going and going everywhere. really since
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: late September. So we're now crowded into week three here.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: This argument that allegedly it's about, you know, education spending
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: and stuff at the tail end of today's morning jolt.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I walked through the French education numbers. They ain't bad folks, right?
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: As a percentage of gross domestic product, France's education spending
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: ranks ninth highest out of 29 European countries. If you
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: want to, you know, that's not skimping, right? And then
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: you want to talk about like, okay, well maybe it's,
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: you know, spending per student. Well, it comes out once
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: you do, I have to use slightly imperfect numbers. two
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: different academic years and things like that. But the general
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: gist is they spend $ 223 billion. That's dollars, not euros.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: They have 12.1 million students at all levels. That's going
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: from kindergarten all the way up to college students. That
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: comes out to $ 17, 840 per student. In 2024, the most
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: recent year these numbers are available, the United States average
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: was $ 17, 619. Now, Does this mean every school in America
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: is terrific?
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: No.
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: Does this mean that we have everything in education the
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: way we want?
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: No.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: But you would not look at American schools and say
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: they're utterly impoverished and the government does not prioritize them.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: The commitment of the French government has been comparable, right?
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: You can find individual French schools that are subpar. You
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: cannot make an argument that the national government has not
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: prioritized national government, regional governments, local governments, that they have
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: not prioritized education. All of this is an excuse. When
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: you are setting off flamethrowers in young women's faces, this
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: isn't about education. When you are looting the luxury shops
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: in Paris, this is not about economic opportunity. I guess
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: your economic opportunity to steal things. In the end, this
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: is about angry young men, a bunch of whom are Muslim,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: but let's face it. I want to point out, Greg,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: is some of this angry Algerian youth?
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: Sure.
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: Sure.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: But first of all, these rioters, they look like America.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: They come in all kinds of different hues. They have
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: one diversity, equity, and inclusion is emphasized by the French rioters.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: They have white ones. They have black ones. They have
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: all kinds of, you know. And the reason I point
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: that out is because the far left party in France,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: and yes, they have them, is very committed to, it
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: sees itself as an ally of the rioters, right? This
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: is being led by the France Unbowed Party, right? Party's leader,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Jean-Luc Mélenchon. who is a former journalist. And those are
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: just the worst, Greg. He's compared to Jeremy Corbyn. He's
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: compared to Bernie Sanders. He was a member of the
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: French Trotskyist movement. Greg, nothing good comes out of Trotskyist movements.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: This guy died nearly a century ago. He's still causing
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: headaches for us. Worked as a teacher and a journalist
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: before entering politics. He's 75 years old. So by today's
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: presidential standards, he's young. And there's a good chance he's
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: going to get up in the runoff against Marine Le
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Pen next year in the presidential elections. I talked a
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: bit about that city hall. As you mentioned, it was
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: the center of the French resistance. I mentioned all that because,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: first of all, it's architecturally gorgeous. It's been largely destroyed.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: But I wanted to put out a sense of what
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: was lost, not just in terms of an impressive building,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: but the history that was there. This isn't quite burning
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: down Independence Hall in Philadelphia, but there is significance to
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: this structure and it's gone. And oh, by the way,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: this city in France is kind of known as like
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: the Rome of socialism, right? It was always very left
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: wing and it always was a factory town, always was
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: very left wing in its politics. Boy, look how much
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: that saved them. Look how much that mitigated the angry mobs.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter. Recognizing Palestine, it doesn't matter. You know,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: the fact that you're a socialist, the fact that you're
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the left, they don't care. They just want to steal.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: They just want to hurt people. They just want to
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: take things. You know, as they quote The Dark Knight,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: you know, some men just want to see the world burn.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: This is who they are. And Macron, nothing's going to
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: get better until you lay down the law. Now, it
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: sounds like there's been some improvements, but, and I know
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: there are people like, oh, you know, the Levanuels riots
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: of 2005, they had to interrupt flights into Charles de
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Gaulle International Airport because there was so much smoke from
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: the riots. The yellow vests from a couple of years ago. Yeah,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: France has a tradition of, but generally they kind of
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: come and they go and it kind of starts out
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: with a strike or something like that.
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: This has been going on for the better part of
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: the month.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: And this looks like a government that does not have
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: the capacity to nevermind defend the rights of the people
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: or defend the property of the people. When city hall
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: gets burned down, they can't even defend themselves.
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: No, absolutely.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: And the fact that it's happening in socialist city is,
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: is still tragic because it's a beautiful building, like you said,
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: with a great history. But it also does remind me
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: of that Churchill quote, at least it's usually attributed to him,
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: is that, you know, these people will feed the crocodile,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: hoping that the crocodile eats them last. And so eventually
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: the crocodile does get to you. And that's what's happening
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: in Limoges. And who knows where else as we go
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: forward here. But Emmanuel Macron also just looks, oh, gosh,
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: just incredibly weak in all of this and doesn't seem
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: to have any solutions whatsoever. I don't expect him to
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: have all caps law and order tweets, but something closer
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: to that.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Would be good. Rise to the occasion.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Like I mentioned, that city hall was the helm of
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the French resistance, which you could argue was like the best.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: France gets a lot of jokes about surrendering and cheese-eating
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: surrender monkeys, yada, yada, yada. Well, some French surrendered. Some
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: French kept fighting at great risk to themselves. That's the
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: very best of France, right? When things look darkest, your
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: own government quits on you and you have to decide
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: to keep fighting.
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: You know, I'm looking at.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: These looters, Greg, and I'm sitting there thinking, boy, you
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: know what they could use out there? Some rooftop Koreans.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: This is a very 90s-focused show, but for anyone who
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: doesn't know that, L.A. riots, Rodney King, 1992, I want
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: to say.
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: Or was it 91? I think it was 92.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: The Korean shopkeepers in Koreatown in Los Angeles had rifles
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: on the top of their stores. And a couple of shots.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Nobody wanted to loot those stores. They protected them. That's
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: the American spirit right there. No, you're not getting my
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: stuff because I'm armed. Again, this is why you need
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: a Second Amendment.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: Exactly right. Why you need a Second Amendment. But France,
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: good luck. But so far, your leadership is failing you
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: yet again.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: All right. Well, let's talk about something way better than that.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: And that is the fantastic taste you can get in
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• 16:35
  Speaker 4: Toothpaste, too.
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: Nanohydroxyapatite. I can say it fast. I can say it slow. Nanohydroxyapatite.
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: Why is Jim obsessed with this word?
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Well, nanohydroxyapatite is the mineral that your enamel is actually
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: made of, and Lorene Co. strengthens your enamel and repairs damage.
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• 16:58
  Speaker 2: toothpaste as well.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I just finished my tube of a Lorraine Co.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Can't wait to get a little bit more. The gum
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: is fantastic. I love chewing it. Yes, the pieces are
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: a little bit smaller than you expect, but the flavor
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: is huge. It lasts a long time. And there's lots
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: of pieces in the box. So if you want to
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: pop another one, go right ahead.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: All right. Right now, Lorraine Co.
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  Speaker 3: Is offering our listeners up to 50% off at buylorraine.com
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  Speaker 3: slash 3ML. That's buylorraine, L-A-R-I-N-E dot com slash 3ML for
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  Speaker 3: up to 50% off. Jim, Jim, breaking news, breaking news.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: We have been declared the most popular podcast on the
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: planet from Wedgwood Polls.
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: Now, if that were true... That would be awesome news
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: for us.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: But just like every other poll conducted by Wedgwood Polls,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: that's not true. This one actually wasn't done. But all
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: the ones that they also didn't do were used and
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: taken seriously, because why not, by a bunch of different
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: media outlets. So yesterday, this Wedgwood Polls puts out a
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: press release saying, Wedgwood Polling, an experimental project to demonstrate
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: the vulnerabilities, lack of oversight, and An overall low barrier
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: to entry in the modern political polling industry says, having
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: previously worked in the polling and research sector, we watched
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: as the public's trust in polling eroded alongside a rise
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: in unverified, low-quality methodology.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: We wanted to test a simple hypothesis.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: How easy is it for an entirely fabricated polling firm
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: to gain traction, be taken seriously, and expose how little
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: scrutinization exists in the media, and public commentary. The short answer,
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: far too easy. Despite having no history, formal credentials, or
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: real data behind the vast majority of our releases, Wedgwood
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: polling was added to major polling aggregators, including the New
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: York Times, 50 Plus One, and Vote Hub, and repeatedly
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: treated as as a legitimate data source. Jim, this is
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: the second time this cycle that we've had a median
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: strategy success. Yes, back in August saying, yeah, those Wisconsin
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: polls showing Francesca Hong way ahead.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we totally made that.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Up and some other ones, I think in California as well.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: And so, Jim, we've already said that the polling industry
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: seems kind of suspect based on the results this year
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: and in some previous years. But now we've got at
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: least two polling firms say, yeah, we just made it
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: up to see how you'd all react.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: So, you know, I guess it's technically one word. It
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: feels like three words that did not appear in that
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: statement from the fictitious Wedgworth polling.
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: There, Greg.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Real clear politics. They've always been my go-to guys. They
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: do aggregate. But they don't pick everybody. They have to
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: have a reliable– 538 is not in business anymore. The
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: New York Times does a nice job of collecting what
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: Is seemingly all the polls.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: And so if you're wondering– Is there any weird ones
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: out there?
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: That's fine.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: If you want to say our aggregation includes everything that
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: gets released, that's fine. If you want to say we
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: test for quality and we only include the ones that are,
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: that's fine too.
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: But pick that one.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Covering campaigns since 2004 or earlier, people always want to
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: know who's winning. Is my guy going to win? That's
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: one of the things that drives people's interest in political campaigns.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: So there's always been a huge appetite for it. Now,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: year by year, more and more people going to cell phones,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: more and more people not answering their cell phones. People
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: have tried web-based and text-based. I don't know if Donna
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: and Doris are getting the same amount. I'm getting a
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: lot of poll requesting. And I'm sorry if I didn't
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: ask to get called. As far as I'm concerned, you're spam,
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: and I report you immediately. But my sense is because
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: there's this hunger for it, Nature abhors a vacuum. And
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: you and I, if we wanted to create through martini
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: lunch polling, could do so. And if we went out
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: there and we said Ken Paxton is up by 10,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: it's probably not the case. Ken Paxton, almost every pollster
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: has Paxton trailing by a little bit.
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: Sometimes it's close.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: But that would get huge attention because there's a lot
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: of people who want to believe that Ken Paxton is winning.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: If we said that Gavin Newsom has a 20-point lead
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: nationally in the 2028 Democratic presidential campaign, Gavin Newsom fans
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: far and wide would be spreading that. And deep down,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: nobody actually cares if it's true or not because they
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: want to believe. In the end, the con artist cannot
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: fool somebody if they don't already want to believe. And
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: that is what is at the heart of why these
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: polls get included in the aggregation and spread so far
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: and wide. It's a very unhealthy news environment. The difference
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: between truth and lie, the difference between accuracy and inaccuracy.
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: Matters, right? But I went back and I checked.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: I have never referred to Wedgeworth Polling, and I don't
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: think we've ever talked about it on this podcast. I
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: certainly don't recall talking about it. So it's just a lesson.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: If you really want to know what's going on in
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: this world, you have to use a little bit of scrutiny.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: You have to do a little bit of stuff, and
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: you have to be aware there are people out there.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: By the way, media companies, you should be paying attention
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: to this. New York Times, you have some egg on
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: your face. Whoever made the decision to include Wedgeworth Polls,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: they did not do any digging into this organization. just
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: threw him in there and, you know, did the, you know,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: polls definitely determine coverage and polls definitely, like, you know,
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: when somebody's down by 30 points, they're, you know, supporters
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: are less likely to come out.
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: So anyway.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: On the one hand, it's kind of silly and kind
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: of ridiculous that he's getting a second time this cycle,
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: but also kind of a revelation of the fact that
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: this is what our news environment has become in 2026.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: But hey, I'm sure we'll get this stuff worked out
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: by 2028.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: Mallory McMorrow says it was a Wedgwood poll that really
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: dried up her donor base because they had her so
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: far behind against Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed. And so
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: that was one of the reasons that she dropped out
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: of the race. So these fake polls did have an impact.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: I think if she had stayed in, El-Sayed probably would
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: have had an even bigger win. because the anti-Elsa Ed
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: vote would have been split.
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: But it's so crazy here, Jim.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: And you're so right that polls are now seen as
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: confirming prior opinions as opposed to informing prior opinions. But
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: in this era where we have AI and data, we
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: have data on everything that, right down to the microscopic
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: decimal point, it's worse than ever.
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah. More information than ever, and yet we know less
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: than ever.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Next up on Last Call, we mark 16 years of
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: the three-martini lunch. Well, as many of you have guessed,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: because we reference it every once in a while, today
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: is the 16th anniversary, as best as we can tell.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: It's the oldest episode that we have. Anniversary of the
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Three Martini Lunch. We debuted, I think, on October 19th, 2010,
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: just a couple weeks before. Pretty darn good midterm for
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: the Republicans. But, you know, humble beginnings. And over the years,
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: it grew and grew and grew. And, of course, now
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: there's a video element. And as you'll be able to
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: hear in some of these clips that we're going to
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: play here, The audio has improved drastically over the past
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: number of years. But the clip I know that most
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: of our longtime listeners want to hear, we will never
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: deny them that on our anniversary. We have to go
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: back to the summer of 2016. It's horrifically in the
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: wake of the awful Pulse nightclub shooting where the guy
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: was pledging allegiance to ISIS. And what we learned over
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: time is that this guy had been on the FBI's
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: radar a couple of times.
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: They interviewed him and said, no threat.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: He had actually cased Disney World with his wife, and
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: Disney tried to alert the FBI to that, and they
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: never really responded to Disney about that. And so we said,
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: you know what? Well, maybe it's time for Disney to
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: take matters into their own hands. And also, we should
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: say here, the Stephen Miller we reference is the guy
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: on X and the blogger, not the one at the
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: White House. But here's how that conversation went.
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: What do they have to do to get rounded up?
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Just what is that threshold? Because in this case, this
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: guy never tripped that threshold. And as a result of it,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: close to 50 people are dead.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: You got me thinking when you mentioned what Stephen Miller said,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: that Mickey Mouse is doing more than the FBI to
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: protect us. As the father, and we've mentioned this before,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: of a three-year-old and a one-year-old, that would be the
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: greatest episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ever.
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: Oh, hence where I can see him. Hey, kids, you
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: want to help.
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: Us catch terrorists?
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: Let's check out our mousketools.
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: We're going to have a stun gun.
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: I'm picturing, like, these knees 24. Copy that. I don't
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: have time to explain. I will shoot your wife in
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: the knee if you don't tell me where the bomb is.
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: Goofy's doing enhanced interrogation techniques.
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: Hope you like water. See, there's our good martini.
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: Oh, Jim.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: There are so many other good moments, and we'll have
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: another one here in just a second. But, man, that
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: is pinnacle three-martini lunch right there.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Greg, first of all, it's great to have the memories
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: of back when we used to tape the show inside
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: a tin can. Explaining the audio there. And two, I
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: think there's a reason we bring it up every anniversary
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: and people talk about it.
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: It's always the episode they bring up. And I think.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: look, I feel very lucky and blessed to be able
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: to do this. There are not a lot of podcasts
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: that do it five days a week. There are not
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: a lot of podcasts that do it briefly for five
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: days a week. And we laugh because otherwise we would cry.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: We talk about some really serious topics on this show sometimes.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: And somehow on some tangent, we've managed to make each
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: other laugh and I hope make the audience laugh.
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: And so let's keep doing this.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: And that may have been one of our finest moments
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: of finding a way to laugh about a very serious
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: and very sad situation.
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a horrible situation.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: And this last one, since we just did the Jets-Bears
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: attack ads, back in 2018, where we actually debuted the
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: Jets-Bears attack ads, there was also a congressional race in
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Wisconsin's 1st District. Paul Ryan was retiring, and there was
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: a guy that's there now, Brian Stile, is the Republican
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: in the race. While he's not on very good terms,
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: at least wasn't then with his brother, who started cutting
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: ads for the Democrat in the race. And so Jim
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: and I thought about, well, what if when we were kids,
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: instead of just yelling at each other with our siblings
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: in front of our parents to decide who was right,
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: we just actually made attack ads? Jim, how much more
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: fun would our childhood have been as political junkies if
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: instead of just complaining to mom or dad when our
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: siblings did something we didn't like, we could produce 30-second
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: attack ads? And I shared a room with my brother.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: He was much neater than me. He could have cut
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: an attack ad against me saying, Greg Karumbas is the
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: messiest brother Upper.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: Michigan has ever seen.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: And I could fire back with Mark Karambas is ridiculously tidy.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: His expectations are completely unreasonable.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Greg, the way you're describing that, you make it sound
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: like there's a 100 percent certainty that I didn't.
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: Run attack at.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Paul Garrity gets to stay up until nine. But when
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Jim was his age, his bedtime was at nine. Is
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: that a policy that strikes you as fair?
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: Oh, the attack ads are fun. But I agree with
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: what you said, Jim. It's so much fun every day.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: On the one hand, it's just fun to talk through
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: the news with you every day, but it's also a
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: little bit of an opportunity to vent when we're frustrated
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: about things or really celebrate when things go well. So
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: a lot of events over the last 16 years, and
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: hopefully there's 16 years and more to go. We thank
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: you for being there every step of the way. Some
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: of you have been there really since day one. Others
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: of you have found us more recently along the way.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: And we hope you enjoy this 30 minutes where we
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: can kind of wrap up some of the biggest stuff
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: and hopefully give you a smile.
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: Before you leave.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: That's the last call of the week for the Three
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: Martini Lunch. Please subscribe to the Three Martini Lunch Monday
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: through Friday. Also, please leave a review. You can get
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: the Three Martini Lunch on your home devices. All you
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: have to say is play Three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: us both on X. Jim is at Jim Garrity. I'm
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: at Greg Karumbas. And follow Three Martini Lunch on Facebook
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: and Instagram. Have a great weekend, and please join us
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: on Monday for the next Three Martini Lunch.