Latest / Wicked Radio with Bill Adams / 9-14: Will That AOC/Mamdani 9/11 Laughing Clip Do Any Damage To Their Careers?

Transcript

9-14: Will That AOC/Mamdani 9/11 Laughing Clip Do Any Damage To Their Careers? · Wicked Radio with Bill Adams

0:04
Speaker 1: What we have here is the rare but perfect example
0:07
Speaker 1: of how the news cycle can work, where it gives
0:09
Speaker 1: enough people time to, like, think about something and then
0:12
Speaker 1: the immediate media reaction after it. I'm talking about Friday,
0:15
Speaker 1: of course, which was an emotional, somber day. I'm sure
0:18
Speaker 1: it was for you, too, for the 25th anniversary of 9-11.
0:21
Speaker 1: And then we had, of course, this is how we
0:23
Speaker 1: operate these days, the controversy, or was it? We'll see.
0:27
Speaker 1: We'll determine. As CNN, of all places, boosted this out.
0:33
Speaker 1: which is supposed to be, you know, non-biased, objective, as
0:37
Speaker 1: far as their news coverage goes, of AOC and Mom
0:40
Speaker 1: Donnie having a greeting little chuckle fest while the names
0:44
Speaker 1: of the victims were being read out. And as lack
0:48
Speaker 1: of luck for them would have it, as the reading went,
0:51
Speaker 1: you probably saw this live. I did see this live.
0:54
Speaker 1: They all carried it. A guy who lost, I think
0:57
Speaker 1: it turned out to be his mother, had his head
1:00
Speaker 1: on the side of the 9-11 memorial there where they
1:03
Speaker 1: have the two footprints of the Twin Towers. And then
1:06
Speaker 1: they pan to AOC greeting Mamdani. And they're laughing and
1:09
Speaker 1: they're chuckling. While you can audibly hear the names being
1:12
Speaker 1: read aloud. So that's obviously caused a lot of controversy.
1:14
Speaker 1: So here's what we have. You have the immediate reaction.
1:16
Speaker 1: A lot of vitriol there. But then you had an
1:19
Speaker 1: entire weekend of people who could decide how they felt
1:21
Speaker 1: about it. And then this morning you have the news
1:24
Speaker 1: cycle pick up like CNN who tries to spin their
1:27
Speaker 1: way out of it. Amazing. It doesn't often work out
1:30
Speaker 1: this way. So here's the question that it leaves us.
1:33
Speaker 1: Will AOC and Mamdani's little chuckle fest at the greeting
1:37
Speaker 1: hurt their political careers? That's our question. Let's just try
1:39
Speaker 1: to flesh this out. Will it hurt them at all? Well,
1:44
Speaker 1: if the weekend is any indication, not so fast. But
1:48
Speaker 1: we'll try to answer that question. We'll go through it.
1:50
Speaker 1: Thanks for finding me. I appreciate you. I hope, despite
1:52
Speaker 1: all that, it was a good weekend for you. Welcome
1:53
Speaker 1: to Monday. I hope it's a wicked awesome Monday, too.
1:55
Speaker 1: Wicked Radio livestream and replay on X and YouTube and Facebook.
1:59
Speaker 1: By the way, the Facebook followers... coming in strong these days.
2:02
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for that. And obviously the audio
2:05
Speaker 1: version of the show uploaded shortly after we got off
2:07
Speaker 1: your favorite audio platform. Let's go right to the controversy.
2:10
Speaker 1: I saw it live because what they do is they
2:13
Speaker 1: pick up the national feed, like CNN has a feed
2:16
Speaker 1: and then all the networks, Fox or CNN or ABC, whatever,
2:19
Speaker 1: on the 25th anniversary, they kind of just air this
2:22
Speaker 1: and then they cut into their anchors and their interviews
2:24
Speaker 1: and they do a Takes a while to read off
2:25
Speaker 1: all the names, which in itself is horrible because we
2:28
Speaker 1: had that many victims. Here was the moment. I saw
2:30
Speaker 1: it live, too. So sometimes on this, you have to
2:32
Speaker 1: go to your immediate reaction before the spin happens. The
2:35
Speaker 1: spin on either side, right? Because that was all weekend long.
2:38
Speaker 1: And like I said, continues this morning. So they're reading
2:41
Speaker 1: the names. In that, they pan the camera over to
2:45
Speaker 1: AOC walking up to Mom Donnie. And it's a fun-hearted greeting,
2:49
Speaker 1: this and that. Unfortunately for them, it's while the names
2:53
Speaker 1: are still on. audibly able to be heard while this
2:57
Speaker 1: is going on, and it's objectively just an absolutely, completely
3:02
Speaker 1: terrible look. Just absolutely terrible. Now, a little bit of, well,
3:06
Speaker 1: let's give you the clip here, because you can hear
3:08
Speaker 1: the names. If you're audio-only listeners, you're going to hear
3:10
Speaker 1: the names being read. Just keep in mind, if you
3:12
Speaker 1: haven't seen the clip somehow, the names being read while
3:14
Speaker 1: they're kind of like chuckling while greeting each other. I'll
3:19
Speaker 1: give you this one little piece of context before we
3:20
Speaker 1: go on. Let's keep in mind, as you see the
3:23
Speaker 1: partitions in place, how close they were to the front
3:27
Speaker 1: of the stage. This isn't one of the narratives I've
3:29
Speaker 1: heard is they were like hundreds of yards away. No,
3:31
Speaker 1: don't believe that one. All right, so this was the moment.
3:34
Speaker 1: Carol Ann LaPlante. Jeffrey G. Latouche. Catherine L. Labore. Amarneth Latchman.
3:44
Speaker 1: Ganesh K. Ladkut. James Patrick Ladley. Joseph A. LaFalse. It's okay.
3:57
Speaker 1: Everybody had an immediate opinion on this. And it continues
4:00
Speaker 1: in today. It'll go on for a long time. That's
4:02
Speaker 1: really our question. Was this clip that's, I mean, objectively
4:06
Speaker 1: a terrible look for anybody, right? And they try to
4:09
Speaker 1: dig out all the details of it. Will this do
4:12
Speaker 1: anything to hurt their careers? Well, more background on this.
4:15
Speaker 1: Let's keep in mind something. That was the first piece
4:17
Speaker 1: I heard. They were so far away, they could hardly
4:20
Speaker 1: even hear the names. No. I'm sorry. No, there wasn't.
4:23
Speaker 1: They were very close up there. The other thing is,
4:27
Speaker 1: they were asked. Mamdani was asked not even to be there.
4:30
Speaker 1: Do you remember the week and a half, two weeks
4:32
Speaker 1: prior to that where they really didn't want? There were
4:36
Speaker 1: even family members of the victims of 9-11 specifically asking.
4:40
Speaker 1: They had a petition. We did a podcast on this.
4:42
Speaker 1: A petition asking Mamdani not to be there because of
4:46
Speaker 1: associations with I'll call him questionable characters. And his past comments,
4:51
Speaker 1: you know, globalize the Intifada, that was true, you know,
4:53
Speaker 1: all of his stuff. They asked him not to be there.
4:55
Speaker 1: He was still there. I think smartly what they did
4:58
Speaker 1: was they separated him from Vice President Vance. They did that,
5:02
Speaker 1: and still this happens. So eventually the camera's going to
5:04
Speaker 1: be on him. This was not hundreds or thousands of
5:08
Speaker 1: feet away from what they're trying to claim. It was not.
5:11
Speaker 1: They were right up there where the security is, obviously,
5:13
Speaker 1: even though they separated him from most of the administration.
5:16
Speaker 1: That's the first thing. The second thing is this. Have
5:21
Speaker 1: you ever, this was the first spin out of it
5:24
Speaker 1: that I heard people say. Oh, please. It was a
5:29
Speaker 1: two-second clip. Fine. I get it. It was very brief
5:33
Speaker 1: before they panned out of that again. They went to
5:35
Speaker 1: the family members of the victims. You know how they
5:37
Speaker 1: do it. They rotate through the names. I get that.
5:41
Speaker 1: My first thought was, do you really think they were
5:42
Speaker 1: only there engaging for two seconds? Really? Really? So then,
5:47
Speaker 1: and this is where the new news cycle comes through,
5:49
Speaker 1: into this morning, CNN's big headline. CNN's big, the full
5:54
Speaker 1: unedited clip of AOC and Mamdadi greeting each other at
5:58
Speaker 1: the 9-11 memorial. And all over the place this morning,
6:03
Speaker 1: you're going to hear people say, oh, this totally blows
6:05
Speaker 1: up the narrative. It was just a greeting, like two
6:08
Speaker 1: friends would greet each other. To me, and I may
6:11
Speaker 1: be crazy, but it shows them embracing and then kind of,
6:15
Speaker 1: Looking back again and then kind of struggling to be
6:19
Speaker 1: serious and pay attention like they didn't want to be
6:21
Speaker 1: there kind of deal. To me, and I'm the only
6:23
Speaker 1: person I've heard say this so far this morning, that
6:25
Speaker 1: makes them look worse. That's my opinion, my not-so-humble opinion,
6:30
Speaker 1: because they're kind of like smirking as they get back
6:35
Speaker 1: into the seriousness of the moment. You know what I'm saying?
6:37
Speaker 1: They kind of like struggle to be there. I don't
6:39
Speaker 1: see that blowing up any narrative whatsoever. And the narrative itself,
6:44
Speaker 1: this controversy and people talking about it, is not going away.
6:47
Speaker 1: In fact, just this morning, they caught the big guy.
6:49
Speaker 1: They caught President Trump reacting to it. Goes without saying
6:52
Speaker 1: what he's going to say about the thing. And they
6:54
Speaker 1: asked him about that exact event this morning on the target.
6:56
Speaker 1: I think it's terrible. It's not a place to be laughing,
7:04
Speaker 1: especially in that case. I thought it was the fact
7:08
Speaker 1: that they were laughing together. And a very important part
7:12
Speaker 1: of the ceremony was inappropriate. Well, I'll go back to this.
7:16
Speaker 1: Let me start it off with all the objections I
7:18
Speaker 1: heard so far this morning. And people posting at me
7:21
Speaker 1: and chirping at me and you and everybody else. And
7:23
Speaker 1: this was immediate. This was immediate reaction going back to Friday.
7:26
Speaker 1: This was the first one. Oh, please. It was a
7:28
Speaker 1: two-second greeting. This is much ado about nothing. And I
7:33
Speaker 1: even saw people saying this to me. And I bet Fox...
7:36
Speaker 1: edited that to make it look worse. My first thought,
7:39
Speaker 1: and you may be having the same thing, was, oh,
7:43
Speaker 1: so now we're upset at selectively edited videos, if that's
7:46
Speaker 1: the case. Oh, okay, that's fine. Because the other team
7:49
Speaker 1: has been pushing that for many, many years. Fine people
7:52
Speaker 1: hoax anyone? As that was a selectively edited video from
7:55
Speaker 1: Aaron Rupar at CNN. Anybody know that one? Yeah, yeah, okay.
8:00
Speaker 1: So that was the first narrative I heard. Well, By
8:05
Speaker 1: all accounts, it was not just a two-second clip. A
8:08
Speaker 1: lot of people say that that blows up the narrative
8:10
Speaker 1: that it was just greeting, and then they went back
8:11
Speaker 1: to paying attention. Again, I say I looked at the
8:14
Speaker 1: full clip. To me, it makes them look worse. It
8:17
Speaker 1: just does. Second thing, talked about this too. It was
8:20
Speaker 1: so far away, they couldn't even hear the names. False.
8:23
Speaker 1: They were right there. You can hear the names. They're
8:25
Speaker 1: in a security section right in front. Yes, they were separated, smartly.
8:29
Speaker 1: They tried to save their face. The administration even went
8:33
Speaker 1: so far as to keeping Vance away from him so
8:35
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have that controversy. Nope. Still had a little
8:38
Speaker 1: chuckle fest at the greeting. So there was that. Then
8:41
Speaker 1: I heard the spin that went into, oh, but he's
8:44
Speaker 1: done more for... I saw this. Many comments. Oh, please.
8:49
Speaker 1: Big deal. I saw many... He's done more for New
8:52
Speaker 1: York than any of the idiots in Washington. I... then
8:57
Speaker 1: you haven't been to New York recently. I'll leave it
9:00
Speaker 1: at that. I have more so than at any point
9:02
Speaker 1: in my life over the past two years. It's not better.
9:07
Speaker 1: Let me just leave it at that. You'd be hard-pressed
9:08
Speaker 1: to find any citizens in New York City that think
9:12
Speaker 1: things are better. So there's that. And then the whataboutism.
9:16
Speaker 1: I call it whataboutism because when you try to ask
9:21
Speaker 1: a question like this of a lot of people, it's always,
9:22
Speaker 1: and will always, when they have nothing to go on,
9:25
Speaker 1: they will always pivot to, But what about Trump? Trump, yeah,
9:30
Speaker 1: it's all about Trump. Of course. You know, couldn't focus
9:33
Speaker 1: on this moment. They always do that. Trump fell asleep
9:36
Speaker 1: at the reading of the names at the Pentagon. This
9:39
Speaker 1: goes back to these selectively edited things. And I looked
9:41
Speaker 1: at that still shot people are posting. I said, oh,
9:43
Speaker 1: that's interesting. And you want to talk about extended clips?
9:46
Speaker 1: I looked at that and I saw him bow his
9:49
Speaker 1: head in the moment while they're reading names. And then
9:52
Speaker 1: I said, oh, that's I think he's bowing his head respectfully.
9:56
Speaker 1: That's just me. And then gave a great speech. I
9:58
Speaker 1: saw his speech as well. I thought was one of
9:59
Speaker 1: his better ones so i'm not buying that narrative either
10:03
Speaker 1: so there's a lot of narrative here which takes us
10:05
Speaker 1: back to our original question because i've heard this too
10:08
Speaker 1: from the other side i've heard a lot of uh
10:10
Speaker 1: conservatives and and trump supporters and patriots saying this is
10:15
Speaker 1: it oh this is it this is beautiful they have
10:17
Speaker 1: just In one fell swoop, AOC and Mamdani just ended
10:21
Speaker 1: their political careers with this move. So that's our question.
10:27
Speaker 1: As we kind of work this out. Does it? Is
10:30
Speaker 1: that clip enough? Their little laugh greeting fest at the
10:34
Speaker 1: 9-11 memorial. Objectively a terrible look. But is that enough
10:37
Speaker 1: to end and do serious damage to their political careers?
10:43
Speaker 1: In my not humble opinion, not even close. just going
10:48
Speaker 1: by the immediate reaction of everybody willing to jump in
10:51
Speaker 1: front of a train ready to defend the both of them,
10:54
Speaker 1: no matter what, in my opinion, this does absolutely nothing
10:59
Speaker 1: to hurt them. And here's why. Anybody that couldn't stand,
11:02
Speaker 1: for obvious reasons, AOC or Mamdani before this event, it
11:07
Speaker 1: just was another piece of evidence in your bucket, right?
11:11
Speaker 1: If you went out of your way to defend Mamdani
11:13
Speaker 1: and AOC before this event... This meant absolutely nothing to you.
11:18
Speaker 1: This is one of the rare viral video clips that
11:22
Speaker 1: turned into a news story that changed no opinions, in
11:27
Speaker 1: my view. It really didn't. You even see it this
11:29
Speaker 1: morning with the so-called, oh, this is the release of
11:32
Speaker 1: the CNN clip that destroys the previous narrative. No, it
11:36
Speaker 1: didn't for anybody. You talk to anybody today at work
11:40
Speaker 1: or in your social life, Did this thing change their
11:42
Speaker 1: mind or the CNN clip today change their mind on
11:45
Speaker 1: anything regarding these two, AOC and Mayor Mamdani in New
11:48
Speaker 1: York City? Most likely not. And that's why this did nothing.
11:53
Speaker 1: I think you can, and there's been a joke for
11:55
Speaker 1: a while that's kind of dark, stay with me here,
11:58
Speaker 1: that on the Democrat side of things, and you could
12:01
Speaker 1: say this about many Republicans too, you could have them
12:04
Speaker 1: abusing puppy in the street and caught on video and
12:06
Speaker 1: it wouldn't change anybody's mind. I think we're just so
12:09
Speaker 1: tribalistic now You've made up your mind already. Didn't change
12:12
Speaker 1: a damn thing. Nothing. So that's the question. Is this
12:15
Speaker 1: clip enough to hurt either of their careers? I'm going
12:19
Speaker 1: no because of what I've seen all weekend. Like I said,
12:22
Speaker 1: this is a thing that hit the news cycle, and
12:24
Speaker 1: we've had time to regurgitate it, and then you get
12:26
Speaker 1: a response three days later. So it's something we actually
12:29
Speaker 1: can't answer. Nope. Not going to do a damn thing.
12:33
Speaker 1: But you look at this. This is what I keep
12:35
Speaker 1: going back to, though, as far as this clip goes. What?
12:39
Speaker 1: You can't think of a more somber moment and one
12:42
Speaker 1: that got more attention than the 25th anniversary of the
12:45
Speaker 1: 9-11 attacks, the terrorist attacks that we finally come around
12:48
Speaker 1: to again, like I said on Friday, to calling it terrorism.
12:51
Speaker 1: Not the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, though. They told their anchors
12:54
Speaker 1: not to call this terrorism. That's a whole story for
12:56
Speaker 1: a different day. That's a kind of insanity that's out there.
13:00
Speaker 1: But you look at this in a giant, giant moment.
13:03
Speaker 1: And no, like I said, here's the answer to my
13:06
Speaker 1: question I asked. I don't think it does a damn
13:08
Speaker 1: thing to put a dent in their political careers because
13:10
Speaker 1: of who supports them. But still, don't you still have
13:14
Speaker 1: to ask the question? There was massive calls for him
13:18
Speaker 1: not even to be there. Massive. You knew there were
13:22
Speaker 1: going to be cameras on him and her no matter
13:25
Speaker 1: where they showed up in this. Wouldn't you have the
13:29
Speaker 1: self-awareness and the smarts to make sure to double down
13:33
Speaker 1: and make sure that you didn't even get caught even
13:37
Speaker 1: smiling at all because you knew that was going to
13:38
Speaker 1: turn into? Can you elect people and have them in
13:41
Speaker 1: national positions who don't even have that sense of awareness
13:44
Speaker 1: and that level of smarts and common sense not to
13:47
Speaker 1: get caught in a moment like that? That's the question
13:49
Speaker 1: I would ask if I was a supporter of either
13:51
Speaker 1: of them. I really would. Do you not have the
13:55
Speaker 1: smarts to stay away from that kind of a trap?
13:57
Speaker 1: Do you not? You did this to yourselves. That's what
14:00
Speaker 1: I would ask. And then just as far as people go,
14:03
Speaker 1: It's always irked me and it probably does for you too.
14:06
Speaker 1: It's kind of like at a funeral or a wake. Sadly,
14:10
Speaker 1: it's like the old joke. Sometimes we only see our
14:14
Speaker 1: distant family members at funerals and weddings. It's just sad.
14:17
Speaker 1: It's like in a joke in my family. Well, see
14:19
Speaker 1: you at the next funeral or wedding. Sad. So that's
14:22
Speaker 1: sometimes when you see somebody you haven't seen in a while.
14:26
Speaker 1: Still with that, at a wake in the most somber
14:30
Speaker 1: moment of a wake, you see a cousin you haven't
14:33
Speaker 1: seen in 10 years that you love, would you still
14:36
Speaker 1: stop the proceedings and chuckle and say, oh, it's great
14:39
Speaker 1: to see you? While the priest is saying, dearly departed.
14:42
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, what? Lack, complete lack of awareness.
14:46
Speaker 1: That's what irks me. I don't like people that smile
14:49
Speaker 1: at wakes or laugh at wakes. Hold it. Just stay silent.
14:55
Speaker 1: These two knuckleheads didn't have the presence of mind to
14:57
Speaker 1: even do that. And you knew the camera's going to
14:59
Speaker 1: be on you at some point. But, That's neither here
15:03
Speaker 1: nor there. Because our question today was to answer was,
15:05
Speaker 1: does this put any kind of a dent at all?
15:08
Speaker 1: Does this harm in any way whatsoever their political careers
15:10
Speaker 1: and aspirations? Well, we've had an entire weekend to see
15:14
Speaker 1: the evidence in that and the responses and the people
15:17
Speaker 1: running for cover for both of them. Nope, not a
15:20
Speaker 1: damn thing. That's my opinion. Anyway, we'll see. Just ridiculous.
15:26
Speaker 1: And the clip came from CNN. That was the thing.
15:28
Speaker 1: And then they clipped it out and then they put
15:30
Speaker 1: it out there. That was amazing. I think that's what
15:32
Speaker 1: twisted a lot of the liberals off so much. I
15:33
Speaker 1: don't know. Unreal. But I wouldn't expect anything to change.
15:37
Speaker 1: Thanks for finding me. I hope it was a wicked
15:39
Speaker 1: awesome weekend despite the somber start to it. But it's Monday.
15:42
Speaker 1: Let's make it a wicked awesome work week. Thanks for
15:44
Speaker 1: finding the Wicked Radio livestream and then replay on X
15:46
Speaker 1: and YouTube and Facebook. Thank you Facebook followers. Lots of
15:49
Speaker 1: you these days. And audio podcast listeners. A complete unedited
15:53
Speaker 1: version of the show. Right there on your favorite podcast platforms.
15:56
Speaker 1: Whatever they ask you to do. Whether it's iHeart, Apple, Spotify. Spreaker, wherever.
16:02
Speaker 1: You can find it. And thanks for finding me. I
16:04
Speaker 1: appreciate you so much. Make it a wicked awesome Monday.
16:06
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you tomorrow.