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The Two Men Who Aren’t on the Ballot: Who Owns 2026? · The Briefing Room

0:03
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Joe Biden for a minute. This man
0:06
Speaker 1: has been gone from the White House for 20 months,
0:09
Speaker 1: and yet Donald Trump would nevertheless like you and I
0:12
Speaker 1: to keep him handy because he's the perfect excuse. Inflation? Biden. Immigration? Biden.
0:18
Speaker 1: Foreign policy? Biden. Military supplies? You already know it, Sleepy Joe.
0:23
Speaker 1: According to a Reuters review, Donald Trump has mentioned Joe
0:27
Speaker 1: Biden by name at least 890 times since January 1st.
0:31
Speaker 1: That's almost 900 times. The man has been gone 20 months,
0:35
Speaker 1: but according to the behavior of your president, you would
0:38
Speaker 1: think Biden still had keys to the White House, a
0:40
Speaker 1: personal set of keys. So Reuters set out to track
0:44
Speaker 1: just how many times President Trump mentions this man in
0:47
Speaker 1: various events and interviews and roughly 190 truth social posts
0:51
Speaker 1: just this year. More than 200 of them involve the economy.
0:55
Speaker 1: Another 168 immigration and 138 foreign policy or national security.
1:01
Speaker 1: Every president inherits something. That's fair. Joe Biden, he inherited COVID.
1:07
Speaker 1: Donald Trump inherited an economy where Americans were, to be fair,
1:11
Speaker 1: already angry and antsy about prices. Presidents inherit wars, debt,
1:16
Speaker 1: broken programs, unfinished projects, and that occasional weird smell that
1:20
Speaker 1: the last tenant left in the refrigerator. But here's what
1:23
Speaker 1: happens eventually. You are the new tenant. And six months
1:27
Speaker 1: from now, if the refrigerator still smells, guess what? It
1:30
Speaker 1: ain't their problem. It's something that you're doing or not
1:32
Speaker 1: cleaning or leaving the router spoil. That's on you now.
1:36
Speaker 1: Which makes something that Donald Trump said at the Republican
1:38
Speaker 1: National Convention in Dallas so fascinating. He actually told supporters
1:42
Speaker 1: heading into the midterms, I want you to pretend that
1:46
Speaker 1: I'm on the ballot. That's what he actually said. So, OK,
1:50
Speaker 1: it's an invitation because we're supposed to pretend you're on
1:53
Speaker 1: the ballot, Mr. President. Then we ought to be allowed
1:55
Speaker 1: to look at the receipt, not just the parts you inherited.
1:58
Speaker 1: Not just the accomplishments. We got to look at the
2:00
Speaker 1: whole thing. So today we're asking one very simple question.
2:04
Speaker 1: Since he insists that we think like he's on the
2:06
Speaker 1: ballot still. When exactly does a president stop inheriting the
2:10
Speaker 1: country and start owning what happened in it? And in
2:13
Speaker 1: the spirit of fairness, Joe Biden cannot answer for Donald Trump.
2:17
Speaker 1: Nor can Donald Trump answer for Joe Biden. But somebody
2:20
Speaker 1: has been president since January 20th, 2025. And it ain't
2:24
Speaker 1: Joe Biden. Let's check the receipts today on The Briefing.
2:31
Speaker 2: From Blackcess Media, 92.7 FM, WICU HD2, this is The
2:38
Speaker 2: Briefing Room with Marcus Atkinson. One central question, the stories
2:44
Speaker 2: moving politics, and when common sense requires a ruling, barbershop court.
2:50
Speaker 2: Today's Briefing Room is presented by G & M Getaways. Now,
2:54
Speaker 2: here's Marcus Atkinson.
2:56
Speaker 1: Reporting live and direct, this is The Briefing Room. Hello,
3:01
Speaker 1: good people, and welcome back to yet another edition of
3:04
Speaker 1: The Briefing Room right here on Blackcess Media. In the background,
3:07
Speaker 1: you are listening to the sweet sounds of one George
3:09
Speaker 1: Morgan III, a.k.a. Buddy Love, kicking that theme song to
3:13
Speaker 1: The Briefing Room. Sounds so good, don't you agree? I'm
3:16
Speaker 1: Marcus Atkinson, your host, and today, I am not asking
3:19
Speaker 1: you to love Donald Trump. I'm not asking you to
3:22
Speaker 1: hate Donald Trump, despite what you may think of your
3:24
Speaker 1: gracious host. I'm not asking you to defend Joe Biden
3:27
Speaker 1: or suddenly miss Joe Biden. What I am asking, though,
3:30
Speaker 1: is a much more powerful and useful question. Who owns what?
3:34
Speaker 1: Because we all know that blame is something that Washington
3:36
Speaker 1: does better than anybody. Everybody. There's always enough to go around.
3:41
Speaker 1: So we're going to do something that politicians rarely, if ever,
3:44
Speaker 1: particularly enjoy. We're going to keep receipts and we're going
3:48
Speaker 1: to keep it real.
3:49
Speaker 2: One president is in office. One president is not. Somehow,
3:54
Speaker 2: both are starring in the 2026 midterms. Let's start this
3:58
Speaker 2: off with segment one.
4:01
Speaker 1: Joe Biden still works here? That's right. That is the
4:03
Speaker 1: question of the day, at least for this segment anyways.
4:05
Speaker 1: And thank you for asking that question with the shock
4:09
Speaker 1: and awe that it deserved, my good man. I appreciate that. Now,
4:12
Speaker 1: let's be fair to President Trump, because there are things
4:14
Speaker 1: that new presidents genuinely inherit. And when Trump came back
4:17
Speaker 1: into office in January of 2025, Americans were already frustrated
4:22
Speaker 1: with the cost of living. Oh, and that big inflation surge?
4:25
Speaker 1: That happened during Biden's presidency. And he also presided over
4:28
Speaker 1: a historically large migration surge at the southern border. Yeah,
4:33
Speaker 1: got to keep it a thousand. Now, America didn't suddenly
4:36
Speaker 1: become debt-free, conflict-free, and problem-free because somebody put a Bible
4:41
Speaker 1: down after the inauguration. Presidents inherit circumstances. And they also
4:46
Speaker 1: inherit consequences. And look, Trump's not the first president, nor
4:49
Speaker 1: will he be the last to blame the guy before him.
4:53
Speaker 1: If you remember, Biden blamed Trump for conditions that he inherited.
4:57
Speaker 1: Trump blamed Obama. Obama blamed Bush. And I'm sure somewhere
5:00
Speaker 1: George Washington was saying to somebody, have y'all consider what
5:03
Speaker 1: King George left behind for me? I mean, this situation
5:06
Speaker 1: is absolutely untenable. Who could deal with such a thing?
5:09
Speaker 1: That's politics. That's what they do. But what makes this
5:13
Speaker 1: present situation we're analyzing today so unusual is the persistence.
5:18
Speaker 1: I mean, Reuters counted 890 Biden mentions by Trump this
5:22
Speaker 1: year alone. You understand that's an average of roughly three
5:25
Speaker 1: times per day, three a day. Now, at that rate,
5:28
Speaker 1: Biden should be getting a per diem from this man.
5:30
Speaker 1: And Trump brings him up everywhere. The economy, immigration, national security,
5:36
Speaker 1: events that don't even seem particularly Biden adjacent. He brings
5:39
Speaker 1: the man up at some point. You start wondering whether
5:42
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is a former president or America's extended warranty.
5:47
Speaker 1: Something wrong with the refrigerator? Joe Biden. It's covered under him.
5:50
Speaker 1: Transmission went out. Got to be Biden. Wi-Fi slow. Sleepy Joe.
5:55
Speaker 1: But here's where the joke stops being enough, because it
5:58
Speaker 1: has to be some intellectual standard for presidential responsibility. I
6:02
Speaker 1: want you to imagine for just a minute that you
6:04
Speaker 1: bought a house and on day one, you discover. that
6:07
Speaker 1: the roof leaks. Now we'll let go of the fact
6:09
Speaker 1: that you should have had the inspection done because in
6:11
Speaker 1: a normal world, that's what we would do. But just
6:13
Speaker 1: bear with me for a minute or two. If that happened,
6:16
Speaker 1: that might be the previous owner's problem. Let's fast forward
6:19
Speaker 1: six months later. Maybe still it's the previous owner's problem.
6:23
Speaker 1: But now 20 months later, if water is still coming
6:26
Speaker 1: through the ceiling and you've replaced the roof with one
6:28
Speaker 1: that you selected with a contractor that you selected and
6:31
Speaker 1: a warranty that you selected, can we at least agree
6:35
Speaker 1: that the current homeowner has entered the story to some extent.
6:39
Speaker 1: That's not partisan. That's accountability. And this week gives us
6:44
Speaker 1: a particularly useful example to dive into that accountability piece.
6:49
Speaker 1: Because the August inflation report says consumer prices were 3.4%
6:54
Speaker 1: higher than a year ago. How about food? That was
6:57
Speaker 1: up 2.7%. Energy, you want that number? 16.3%. You don't
7:01
Speaker 1: even want me to go with the gasoline index. But
7:05
Speaker 1: I'll do it for you anyways. Up 27.4 percent from
7:09
Speaker 1: August of 2025. Now, does that mean Donald Trump personally
7:12
Speaker 1: walked outside and raised the price at sheets? Of course
7:16
Speaker 1: it doesn't. I mean, love or hate Donald Trump, presidents
7:18
Speaker 1: don't control every price. Wars come into the equation. Supply chains,
7:22
Speaker 1: oil markets, companies make decisions. Consumers make decisions that affect
7:26
Speaker 1: the outcome. The Federal Reserve makes decisions as well. And
7:30
Speaker 1: we're never doing that show again because I bored the
7:32
Speaker 1: hell out of myself. You're probably wondering what show. It's
7:35
Speaker 1: because I never released it. I put myself to sleep
7:37
Speaker 1: doing that Fed Reserve show. I'll never do it again.
7:39
Speaker 1: But I digress. Here's where responsibility gets interesting. Some of
7:43
Speaker 1: the forces affecting prices now are connected to choices made
7:48
Speaker 1: by the current administration. And he can't dodge that. That
7:53
Speaker 1: doesn't automatically mean those choices were wrong because not all
7:56
Speaker 1: of them were. It means they belong on the current receipt.
7:59
Speaker 1: And that's the distinction I want us to make all
8:01
Speaker 1: day today. I want us to clarify that there is
8:03
Speaker 1: a difference between saying I don't like the outcome and
8:06
Speaker 1: saying whose policy is this? Now, I suppose we can't
8:10
Speaker 1: figure it out. We can always send said policy to
8:12
Speaker 1: Maury Povich and have two politicians and one lonely secretary
8:16
Speaker 1: in the middle. So I used to work for both
8:18
Speaker 1: of them. I don't know which policy I wrote it for.
8:20
Speaker 1: And the crowd is going crazy. Oh, my God. Absolutely scandalous.
8:25
Speaker 1: And Maury had that thing solved in 30 minutes. with
8:28
Speaker 1: some sort of fistfight going on behind the scenes. But
8:31
Speaker 1: whose policy is it? We got to get to the
8:33
Speaker 1: bottom of that. Because listen, you got your Trump policies
8:36
Speaker 1: that you love. You have your policies by him that
8:39
Speaker 1: you hate. But Joe Biden cannot become the author merely
8:42
Speaker 1: because the consequences are uncomfortable. And Donald Trump, to be
8:46
Speaker 1: fair to him again, does not become responsible for everything
8:50
Speaker 1: that began before he returned either. Now we can walk
8:54
Speaker 1: and chew gum on this subject today, folks. This is
8:57
Speaker 1: where American politics gets very childish. One side says every
9:02
Speaker 1: good number belongs to us and every bad number belongs
9:04
Speaker 1: to them. Then control of the White House changes and
9:07
Speaker 1: everybody swaps scripts. I mean, literally as if this thing
9:11
Speaker 1: is planned or you guys are in charge or you
9:13
Speaker 1: picking up scripts tomorrow or I'll be there by nine.
9:15
Speaker 1: Come through. We'll share breakfast. Talk about it. Blah, blah, blah.
9:18
Speaker 1: It feels that scripted. Suddenly, the people who spent four
9:23
Speaker 1: years saying presidents don't control gasoline are become petroleum analysts,
9:27
Speaker 1: and the people who blame the previous president for everything
9:30
Speaker 1: discover the importance of inherited conditions. No, keep the standard.
9:37
Speaker 1: Who made the decision? When did they make the decision?
9:40
Speaker 1: What happened afterwards? What other forces contributed to said decision?
9:44
Speaker 1: That's how we're checking receipts today. Because in Dallas, Trump
9:47
Speaker 1: made the choice unusually simple. He said, pretend I'm on
9:52
Speaker 1: the ballot. And if you voluntarily make yourself the center
9:55
Speaker 1: of the midterm election, then the next question becomes unavoidable.
9:58
Speaker 1: What's on your side of the line? ledger since you
10:01
Speaker 1: want us to act like you're on the ballot?
10:02
Speaker 2: If you ask voters to envision you as the candidate
10:05
Speaker 2: on the other side of that black Sharpie and little oval,
10:09
Speaker 2: they get to inspect the evidence. Act two, pretend I'm
10:14
Speaker 2: on the ballot. OK, have your receipts in order, Mr.
10:18
Speaker 3: President.
10:19
Speaker 1: Never let it be said that the briefing room does
10:21
Speaker 1: not grant requests because we're about to give you exactly
10:24
Speaker 1: what you asked for, Mr. President. Let's do it. Receipt
10:27
Speaker 1: number one, tariffs. Or as he would say, I love
10:31
Speaker 1: it so. It's a beautiful word. It's really a beautiful word. Tariff.
10:35
Speaker 1: You can really do great things with it. Wonderful things.
10:37
Speaker 1: You can really do wonderful things with it. Did he
10:40
Speaker 1: do such wonderful things with it? The current U.S. tariff
10:43
Speaker 1: regime is not something Trump inherited from Joe Biden. Let's
10:47
Speaker 1: start with that. The budget lab at Yale estimates the
10:50
Speaker 1: average statutory U.S. tariff rate is now at about 11 percent,
10:53
Speaker 1: with already scheduled increases putting in around 11.8 percent by
10:57
Speaker 1: the end of this year. Their model estimates current tariff
11:01
Speaker 1: policy will ultimately raise consumer prices about 0.7 percent, equivalent
11:07
Speaker 1: to roughly $ 1, 100 per household annually. That is a kitchen
11:12
Speaker 1: table issue, as they say in politics. Now, those are
11:15
Speaker 1: economic estimates. Not $ 1, 100 invoices arriving in everybody's mailbox and
11:20
Speaker 1: tariffs also generate federal revenue. Yale estimates roughly $ 1. 9 trillion
11:25
Speaker 1: over 10 years before accounting for their effect on economic growth.
11:29
Speaker 1: And Trump's argument for tariffs deserves to be stated. He
11:33
Speaker 1: says America needs leverage and he wants companies producing more here.
11:37
Speaker 1: And according to this president, he argues that foreign countries
11:41
Speaker 1: have taken advantage of American markets. Now, I got to
11:43
Speaker 1: keep it real on that one. He's not 100 percent
11:45
Speaker 1: wrong on that. Now, for those that support tariffs, they
11:48
Speaker 1: also argue that they're very useful for protecting strategic industries.
11:52
Speaker 1: That's fine. You want to argue like the kids. You
11:54
Speaker 1: want to debate whether or not the medicine is good.
11:56
Speaker 1: This is why when you look at the kids' medicines,
11:58
Speaker 1: they have such a diverse offering. There's bubblegum flavor. There's
12:01
Speaker 1: grape flavor. There's mint flavor. You want to do like
12:04
Speaker 1: the kids. I don't like the flavor of that medicine.
12:06
Speaker 1: We can talk about that all day long. But what
12:08
Speaker 1: we can't do is pretend somebody else wrote the prescription.
12:12
Speaker 1: Because here's the reality. This administration chose the tariff policy.
12:20
Speaker 1: And FYI, ladies and gentlemen, that is literally the sound
12:24
Speaker 1: of receipts printing. Get used to it for this episode. Now,
12:27
Speaker 1: this feels like the perfect occasion to say it is
12:31
Speaker 1: what it is. Next item, Canada. The U.S. imposed 50
12:35
Speaker 1: percent tariffs on roughly 20 billion dollars in Canadian goods
12:39
Speaker 1: just last month. Now, Canada retaliated with tariffs ranging from
12:42
Speaker 1: 15 percent to 50 percent on about 20 billion dollars
12:46
Speaker 1: in U.S. products. Now, those Canadian tariffs went into effect
12:49
Speaker 1: September 8th. Now, this isn't a one sided conversation, although
12:53
Speaker 1: I do have the mic, which gives me a slight advantage.
12:56
Speaker 1: But you may believe that Trump is right to confront Canada.
12:58
Speaker 1: And if you do, go ahead and make the case.
13:01
Speaker 1: Maybe you think Canada has been unfair to the United States.
13:04
Speaker 1: And if so, once again, make your case. But if
13:08
Speaker 1: American furniture makers, if their cabinet manufacturers, their farmers, their
13:13
Speaker 1: exporters get hit by retaliation, Joe Biden didn't sneak back
13:17
Speaker 1: into the White House in the middle of the night
13:19
Speaker 1: and put a 50 percent tariff. on Canada. That's current policy.
13:24
Speaker 1: And current policy produces consequences. Some intended, some unintended, some good,
13:30
Speaker 1: some bad. That's what governing is. You don't just own
13:33
Speaker 1: the announcement. You own what happens after the announcement, too.
13:41
Speaker 1: Just printing off those receipts with lightning precision. That's what
13:44
Speaker 1: we do here at The Briefing Room. Let's go to
13:46
Speaker 1: the next topic, energy. Now, this one needs more care.
13:49
Speaker 1: Because anybody who tells you one politician single handedly controls
13:53
Speaker 1: global energy prices is selling you something. There's a lot
13:56
Speaker 1: of factors that come into play when it comes to
13:58
Speaker 1: this conversation. Russia and Ukraine, refinery capacity, OPEC, Iran, shipping routes,
14:03
Speaker 1: all of that demand. These things come into play. They
14:06
Speaker 1: all matter. But the United States is currently at war
14:09
Speaker 1: with Iran, a quagmire that we as a country have
14:12
Speaker 1: been stuck with since February of 2026. That conflict has
14:16
Speaker 1: disrupted energy infrastructure and Middle Eastern fuel flows. Reuters reported
14:20
Speaker 1: last week that U.S. retail diesel topped $ 6 a gallon
14:24
Speaker 1: for the first time, while gasoline was around $ 4. 40 nationally.
14:28
Speaker 1: That same analysis noted that damaged Gulf refineries and disruptions
14:32
Speaker 1: tied to both the Iran conflict and Russia-Ukraine war have
14:36
Speaker 1: tightened global diesel supplies. And the government's own inflation data
14:39
Speaker 1: shows gasoline prices 27.4% above where they were a year ago. Now,
14:45
Speaker 1: does Donald Trump control the entire global oil market? No,
14:48
Speaker 1: he doesn't. Is U.S. participation in the Iran war a
14:51
Speaker 1: Biden policy? That's also a no, though. If you're a commander-in-chief,
14:56
Speaker 1: you get the authority. You also get the consequences that
14:59
Speaker 1: reasonably flow from the decisions made under that authority. Now,
15:03
Speaker 1: here's why I'm deliberately resisting the easy show. Because if
15:06
Speaker 1: I stopped here, this would become, here's a list of
15:08
Speaker 1: bad things under Trump. That's not the point, although I
15:11
Speaker 1: enjoy giving you the list of bad things under Trump.
15:14
Speaker 1: And it's rather long, because he's just that guy. But
15:18
Speaker 1: there's another side of the receipt. The economy added 162,000
15:23
Speaker 1: jobs in August. Unemployment stayed at 4.1 percent. Retail sales
15:28
Speaker 1: jumped 1.2 percent in August, substantially more than economists expected,
15:32
Speaker 1: might I add. And core retail sales were especially strong.
15:36
Speaker 1: That led several economists to raise their estimates for third
15:39
Speaker 1: quarter economic growth. So if we're assigning present day responsibility,
15:43
Speaker 1: these facts belong on a receipt, too. You can't say
15:46
Speaker 1: Trump owns gasoline. but the jobs number belongs to somebody else.
15:50
Speaker 1: Now it's the same president, it's the same month, and
15:53
Speaker 1: it's the same country. And that's what makes governing harder
15:56
Speaker 1: than campaigning, which is why I personally believe that this
15:59
Speaker 1: particular president loves campaigning because it allows you to select
16:03
Speaker 1: the evidence while governing gives you all of the evidence.
16:07
Speaker 1: And it itself is then analyzed by people on all
16:10
Speaker 1: of their shows and all of their newspapers and all
16:12
Speaker 1: of their little radio and podcast shows. And if it
16:14
Speaker 1: doesn't jive with his narrative, He gets bent out of shape,
16:18
Speaker 1: as you see him doing now with the press corps.
16:21
Speaker 1: That's just how he rolls. Now let's look at wages.
16:25
Speaker 1: Average hourly pay increased in nominal dollars in August. But
16:28
Speaker 1: after inflation, average hourly earnings were 0.3% lower than a
16:34
Speaker 1: year earlier. That's why somebody can hear that the economy
16:37
Speaker 1: is growing and still say, I don't feel it. Both
16:40
Speaker 1: things can be true and both things kind of are
16:41
Speaker 1: true right about now. Consumer spending is can be resilient
16:45
Speaker 1: and families can still be irritated by grocery and gasoline prices.
16:49
Speaker 1: The unemployment rate can remain relatively low and people can
16:52
Speaker 1: still feel that their paycheck is not stretching. Politics loves
16:57
Speaker 1: one number answer. Real life, not so much. It's not realistic,
17:01
Speaker 1: which brings us back to Trump's invitation. Pretend he's on
17:04
Speaker 1: the ballot. All right, then. Then don't pretend the receipt
17:08
Speaker 1: only has one side to it because we're trying our
17:11
Speaker 1: best not to do that. Don't you do that, Mr. President.
17:13
Speaker 3: Unlocking minds. Unlocking stories. Unlocking the culture. Blackcess Media.
17:23
Speaker 1: Three stories.
17:24
Speaker 4: No documentary. No 20-minute explanation.
17:27
Speaker 2: Just what happened, why it matters, and the question underneath it.
17:33
Speaker 2: Political Quick Hits starts now.
17:36
Speaker 1: Quick Hit Uno, that being number one in Hispanic up.
17:40
Speaker 1: Let me stop before ice kicks down my door. Donald
17:44
Speaker 1: Trump has offered America something extremely effective at getting people's attention.
17:49
Speaker 1: Five thousand dollars. At the Republican convention in Dallas, Trump
17:55
Speaker 1: promised a five thousand dollar dividend, if you will, to U.S.
17:59
Speaker 1: adults if Republicans retain control of Congress. Reuters estimates that
18:03
Speaker 1: proposal would cost roughly one point two trillion dollars plus
18:07
Speaker 1: substantial interest. And it will require congressional action. Now, some
18:12
Speaker 1: Republican lawmakers support the idea. Others have warned that injecting
18:16
Speaker 1: that amount of money into the economy could worsen inflation
18:19
Speaker 1: and federal borrowing. Now, I don't particularly care what party
18:23
Speaker 1: you belong to. Somebody says $ 5, 000, a.k.a. five racks. As
18:27
Speaker 1: we say in the hood, you at least stop chewing.
18:29
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Now, what were the conditions again? I heard
18:32
Speaker 1: something about five racks. And politically, I understand why the
18:35
Speaker 1: pitch is attractive. You don't need a 40-page white paper.
18:38
Speaker 1: You don't need a chart. You don't need somebody on
18:41
Speaker 1: CNBC or MSNBC or whichever one of those C's saying
18:45
Speaker 1: macroeconomic this or that is five thousand dollars, a.k.a. five racks.
18:51
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, everybody understands five racks. But now the
18:55
Speaker 1: policy argument, that's a whole other matter. Supporters can argue
18:59
Speaker 1: Americans are overtaxed and deserve to benefit directly from economic growth.
19:03
Speaker 1: Skeptics to include Republicans. are asking the magic questions. Where
19:07
Speaker 1: exactly is this one point two trillion dollars supposed to
19:10
Speaker 1: come from? And what another huge cash injection might do
19:14
Speaker 1: to prices in the country? And so you're making a
19:18
Speaker 1: problem worse by bribing Americans. I mean, that would be
19:23
Speaker 1: the useful question. Where's it coming from? Not would I
19:26
Speaker 1: like five thousand dollars or five racks? Of course you would.
19:29
Speaker 1: I'd like eight for that matter. The question is not that.
19:33
Speaker 1: The question is, what does the entire proposal cost after
19:37
Speaker 1: the check clears? If the check clears, although the government
19:41
Speaker 1: is usually good for it because they have the power
19:43
Speaker 1: to just reach in our pockets and take the money.
19:45
Speaker 1: So it's not even like we pay taxes. They take
19:47
Speaker 1: taxes in any event. let's move on. Quick hit dos.
19:52
Speaker 1: And yes, I continue to speak in Spanish. I'm daring
19:55
Speaker 1: them to come on over here to the studios of
19:58
Speaker 1: Blackcess Media's mornings curated by Marcus and the briefing room
20:03
Speaker 1: and get quicker to seven hundred and sixty thousand people
20:07
Speaker 1: and their health insurance. The Trump administration says it canceled
20:11
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifteen thousand Affordable Care Act plans covering
20:14
Speaker 1: approximately seven hundred and sixty thousand people in August. CMS
20:20
Speaker 1: says the action involved unverified citizenship or immigration documentation and
20:25
Speaker 1: suspected improper enrollments. The agency also says unauthorized enrollments could
20:31
Speaker 1: generate billions in improper federal spending. And it is barring
20:35
Speaker 1: hundreds of brokers accused of submitting implausible documents. applications. They're
20:40
Speaker 1: better off standing in line for those five racks. And
20:43
Speaker 1: for that, all they got to do is vote Republican.
20:45
Speaker 1: Sounds a little shady, doesn't it? That's politics. That's one
20:49
Speaker 1: side of this conversation anyways. The other concern comes from
20:52
Speaker 1: insurance professionals who do agree fraud should be stopped, but
20:55
Speaker 1: say an industry wide freeze on new broker registrations, risk
21:00
Speaker 1: punishing legitimate agents and making it harder for consumers to
21:03
Speaker 1: get help enrolling. Now, that's exactly the kind of government
21:06
Speaker 1: argument I want people to pay attention to, not fraud
21:09
Speaker 1: good or fraud bad. Fraud bad, we get that. We've
21:12
Speaker 1: settled that. The real argument is whether the enforcement tool
21:16
Speaker 1: is properly targeted. Now, if somebody enrolled people without permission
21:20
Speaker 1: or falsified information to collect commissions, go get them and
21:24
Speaker 1: get them with gusto. But government also has to distinguish
21:28
Speaker 1: between removing fraudulent coverage and removing coverage from an eligible
21:32
Speaker 1: person Who got caught in a verification problem? That distinction
21:36
Speaker 1: is where policy lives. And I suggest to you that
21:40
Speaker 1: we need to find it. We're kind of obligated to
21:43
Speaker 1: do so. Quick hit for this. I'm feeling myself at
21:46
Speaker 1: this point. I'm getting bold, ladies and gentlemen. That's right.
21:48
Speaker 1: Should the attorney general be on the campaign stage? Attorney
21:53
Speaker 1: General Todd Blanch has been appearing at Republican political orders.
21:57
Speaker 1: He spoke at the GOP midterm convention in Dallas and
22:00
Speaker 1: later at an event involving Republican North Carolina Senate nominee
22:04
Speaker 1: Michael Watley. Blanchard said he is not endorsing candidates. The
22:08
Speaker 1: Justice Department says the appearances are made in his personal
22:11
Speaker 1: capacity as if there's a such thing with this type
22:14
Speaker 1: of job title. I mean, come on, people work with
22:16
Speaker 1: me now. When you're the attorney general, when are you
22:19
Speaker 1: never that? When does that switch turn off? Does it
22:22
Speaker 1: have an off switch? Aren't you always that when your
22:24
Speaker 1: grandmother calls you at 10 o'clock at night because she
22:27
Speaker 1: just can't sleep, wants you to come over and warm
22:28
Speaker 1: up some milk? Aren't you still the attorney general just
22:31
Speaker 1: heating up his grandmama some milk? When you're at your
22:33
Speaker 1: kid's game and you're cheering for that touchdown, aren't you
22:36
Speaker 1: the attorney general who just happens to be cheering for
22:38
Speaker 1: a touchdown? When are you not the attorney general? I
22:41
Speaker 1: can't be the only person who thinks like that because critics,
22:43
Speaker 1: including former government ethics officials, argue that attorneys general traditionally
22:48
Speaker 1: maintain more separation from campaign events because the Justice Department
22:53
Speaker 1: has enormous power over criminal investigations and prosecutions. And honestly,
22:58
Speaker 1: I don't need to make that partisan. Here's the test.
23:02
Speaker 1: If the attorney general belongs to your party, you're probably comfortable. Now,
23:06
Speaker 1: imagine the attorney general belongs to the party. You can't
23:09
Speaker 1: stand still comfortable. It's usually where the useful conversation begins.
23:14
Speaker 1: The Hatch Act restricts government officials from using their official
23:17
Speaker 1: authority to influence elections. It doesn't mean every political appearance
23:21
Speaker 1: by an appointee is automatically illegal, and the DOJ says
23:25
Speaker 1: Blanche has stayed within the rules, putting up big air
23:28
Speaker 1: quotes on that. So the question is not simply, is
23:31
Speaker 1: he allowed? It's also, how much political campaigning do we
23:34
Speaker 1: want from the person running federal law enforcement? These, ladies
23:37
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, are your quick hits for today. And to
23:39
Speaker 1: this segment, I say, Adios and hasta luego. And if
23:43
Speaker 1: you're mad about that, come on and get me.
23:47
Speaker 2: Every administration receives an inheritance. Eventually, it starts writing its
23:52
Speaker 2: own ledger. Next, Marcus produces the last of the president's
23:57
Speaker 2: receipts in Act III, then takes you to barbershop court.
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25:06
Speaker 1: Act 3.
25:08
Speaker 2: When does the buck get here?
25:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sitting right here at the buck stop right
25:11
Speaker 1: now looking at my watch and I don't see a thing.
25:13
Speaker 1: So when does it happen? When does it come? That's
25:16
Speaker 1: the question I keep coming back to day one. Obviously
25:19
Speaker 1: not 100 days. Probably too simple. A year, two years.
25:23
Speaker 1: There's no constitutional kitchen timer that suddenly goes ding. Congratulations.
25:28
Speaker 1: You now own America. But there is a political principle
25:31
Speaker 1: here that shouldn't change with party. Presidents should receive reasonable
25:36
Speaker 1: credit and reasonable responsibility for policies they actually enact. And
25:40
Speaker 1: they should receive reasonable context for circumstances that they inherit.
25:44
Speaker 1: That's very simple. Inflation surged during Biden's presidency. Trump did
25:49
Speaker 1: not create the initial post-pandemic price shock. That's context. Trump
25:54
Speaker 1: subsequently adopted his own tariff policies. That's current policy. You
25:58
Speaker 1: look at the southern border. It experienced an enormous surge
26:01
Speaker 1: during the Biden years. Trump inherited that. And then his
26:04
Speaker 1: administration adopted a much more aggressive immigration enforcement strategy. That
26:09
Speaker 1: is current policy. Joe Biden didn't start the present U.S.
26:12
Speaker 1: war with Iran. Trump did that. Whether you believe that
26:16
Speaker 1: decision was necessary or unnecessary, its consequences belong in an
26:20
Speaker 1: evaluation of the current policy. administration. That's not blame. That's chronology.
26:25
Speaker 1: That's like saying I'm mad at 1989 because I put
26:27
Speaker 1: it after 1988. Why you do it after 1989? Because
26:29
Speaker 1: 89 comes after 88. It's kind of going in order.
26:33
Speaker 1: That's all this is. And chronology is undefeated. I got
26:37
Speaker 1: news for you. What makes this particularly interesting right now
26:41
Speaker 1: is that Trump has chosen not to distance himself from
26:44
Speaker 1: the midterms. He's actually trying to inject himself still. Usually
26:48
Speaker 1: presidents with political headaches try to tell congressional candidates to
26:52
Speaker 1: Make this election local. Trump went the other direction. The
26:55
Speaker 1: Republican Party held a midterm convention built heavily around him.
27:00
Speaker 1: He told voters to pretend he was on the ballot.
27:04
Speaker 1: Let's go back to Reuters, our trusted source here on
27:06
Speaker 1: The Briefing Room. They interviewed Republican activists and donors at
27:10
Speaker 1: that convention, and they found real disagreement even amongst Donald
27:14
Speaker 1: Trump supporters about whether making him the centerpiece would help
27:17
Speaker 1: congressional candidates, particularly with independents. Now, that's the strategic debate.
27:23
Speaker 1: I'm not predicting whether it works, but Trump has made
27:25
Speaker 1: one thing very clear, crystal clear. He wants his presidency
27:30
Speaker 1: considered when people think about November. And that's what makes
27:33
Speaker 1: this Biden fixation so fascinating. You can't simultaneously say, make
27:37
Speaker 1: this election about me and then be surprised when people
27:39
Speaker 1: make the election about you. That doesn't mean Biden disappears
27:43
Speaker 1: from history. It means the current administration becomes part of
27:46
Speaker 1: the evidence. Here are the current numbers, if you'd like to, Mr. President. Inflation, 3.4%. Unemployment, 4.1%.
27:54
Speaker 1: Jobs added in August, 162,000. Great job. Gasoline inflation over
27:59
Speaker 1: 12 months, 27.4%. Real hourly wages, real now, down 0.3%
28:07
Speaker 1: over 12 months. Retail sales up strongly in August. Great job, Mr. President.
28:12
Speaker 1: Different numbers, different stories, same country. That's why the political
28:17
Speaker 1: arguments built around one statistic are usually selling something. And
28:21
Speaker 1: if I want to make the economy sound terrific, jobs,
28:24
Speaker 1: retail sales, growth, yay. But if I want to make
28:27
Speaker 1: it sound terrible, I'm going with gas, inflation, real wages.
28:32
Speaker 1: Everybody gets a number, ladies and gentlemen. The job of
28:37
Speaker 1: the audience is to demand the whole receipt. Can I
28:40
Speaker 1: see it all, please? I mean, can I get the
28:43
Speaker 1: whole financial report? Try taking just the positive parts. of
28:46
Speaker 1: your financials to the bank or to some investor and say, well,
28:49
Speaker 1: here's the good parts. Well, can I see the whole thing? Well,
28:52
Speaker 1: that was a down year. I want you to see that. Now,
28:54
Speaker 1: I kind of want to see the down years too.
28:56
Speaker 1: I'm the decider here. I'm the person you're courting. And
28:59
Speaker 1: whether they know it or not or like it or not,
29:01
Speaker 1: they're courting us. So we need all the numbers. And
29:06
Speaker 1: then there's that public opinion, or should I say public
29:09
Speaker 1: opinion survey conducted by Reuters Ipsos from September 17th through
29:13
Speaker 1: September 20th among 1,277 U.S. adults. In that survey, they
29:19
Speaker 1: found Trump's overall approval rating at 32%. Should I use
29:24
Speaker 1: the word approval? Because it just doesn't seem to apply
29:26
Speaker 1: when it comes to that sentence. His disapproval rating, let's
29:29
Speaker 1: say it like that, at 32%. This, ladies and gentlemen,
29:33
Speaker 1: is when I really choose to pause for emphasis, as
29:36
Speaker 1: I've had the habit of doing in the past. And
29:38
Speaker 1: the pause begins now. I believe emphasis is achieved. And
29:46
Speaker 1: that was worthy of emphasis because 32% is a galactically
29:50
Speaker 1: low number. And I had to pause just so you
29:53
Speaker 1: could really ponder that thing and say, hmm, does he
29:57
Speaker 1: really want himself to be the focus of the midterm?
30:00
Speaker 1: But let us move on on his handling of the
30:02
Speaker 1: cost of living. 17 percent approved of how he has
30:05
Speaker 1: handled that. Now, this poll has a margin of error
30:08
Speaker 1: of about three percentage points. That's a snapshot. It's not
30:11
Speaker 1: Election Day. It doesn't tell us what every congressional district
30:14
Speaker 1: will do. It doesn't tell us who wins anything, but
30:17
Speaker 1: it does tell us something important about the political environment.
30:21
Speaker 1: A lot of Americans are dissatisfied with costs, the same
30:25
Speaker 1: dissatisfaction that he played on with Joe Biden. And if
30:29
Speaker 1: cost of living is the thing voters are telling pollsters
30:31
Speaker 1: they care about most, then Joe Biden did it. It's
30:35
Speaker 1: going to be tested against people's everyday experience because he
30:38
Speaker 1: ain't here. Because politics eventually meets the gas pumps. It
30:44
Speaker 1: meets that grocery cart. It meets the rent. And people
30:47
Speaker 1: decide for themselves who they believe based upon what they're
30:51
Speaker 1: paying every day. You can't talk them down from that.
30:54
Speaker 1: That's where the word ownership gets complicated. Presidents don't own anything,
30:58
Speaker 1: but presidents also don't get to own only the ribbon cuttings,
31:02
Speaker 1: not just the fancy stuff. You don't get to just
31:04
Speaker 1: stick your chest out and be like, I built this
31:06
Speaker 1: when the news is good. And have you met Joe
31:08
Speaker 1: Biden when the news turns? Same standard. Every president, every party.
31:13
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the cleanest answer to our central question. When
31:18
Speaker 1: does the buck get here? How long do I have
31:20
Speaker 1: to sit at the buck stop? I've seen everybody's buck
31:23
Speaker 1: pass by except for mine. Can I catch mine? When
31:26
Speaker 1: does the buck get here? Not on one magical date.
31:30
Speaker 1: It arrives decision by decision. A tariff you imposed. Your decision.
31:35
Speaker 1: A war you launched. Your decision. A job market inherited
31:40
Speaker 1: but continuing under your administration. Shared context and eventually part
31:45
Speaker 1: of your record. an inflation problem that began before you arrived,
31:49
Speaker 1: but is being affected by policies you chose afterwards. There's
31:53
Speaker 1: enough of that to go around for both of you.
31:55
Speaker 1: And I know that politics, by its very nature, hates
31:58
Speaker 1: the term both. But real life depends on it.
32:05
Speaker 4: That's Political Quick Hits. Three stories.
32:08
Speaker 2: Just enough time to make you dangerous at the barbershop. Which, conveniently,
32:13
Speaker 2: is where we're headed next.
32:19
Speaker 4: All rise. Barbershop Court is now in session. The Honorable
32:24
Speaker 4: Judge Marcus presiding. Case one. The people versus the White
32:30
Speaker 4: House press pass. The charge? Aggravated press pass snatching.
32:36
Speaker 1: And I mean just shamelessly snatching people's press passes and
32:39
Speaker 1: press credentials. President Trump announced that CNN... MSNOW and Politico
32:44
Speaker 1: would no longer be allowed on White House grounds because
32:47
Speaker 1: he objects to their coverage, ladies and gentlemen. Their passes
32:50
Speaker 1: were actually deactivated. Now, these three organizations sued, arguing that
32:55
Speaker 1: the ban is retaliation for protected journalism and violates both
32:58
Speaker 1: free speech and due process protections. Now, the White House
33:02
Speaker 1: says the organizations can still report from the outside of
33:06
Speaker 1: the property. I want you to key in on that
33:08
Speaker 1: and argues that presidents have substantial discretion in over who
33:12
Speaker 1: receives close access. Legal experts, on the other hand, also
33:16
Speaker 1: distinguish between limited spaces like the Oval Office and broader
33:19
Speaker 1: White House press facilities. Now, the prosecution would like to
33:23
Speaker 1: enter one sentence into evidence, and I told you to
33:26
Speaker 1: key in on this one. They can cover us from
33:29
Speaker 1: the outside. Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not quite
33:35
Speaker 1: the same thing as Now, if I ban you from
33:38
Speaker 1: the restaurant and tell you, oh, you're still completely free
33:41
Speaker 1: to review the food from the parking lot, there might
33:44
Speaker 1: be a logistical issue. On the other hand, the press
33:47
Speaker 1: doesn't possess an unlimited constitutional right to stand anywhere it
33:51
Speaker 1: wants inside the White House because security exists, space exists,
33:55
Speaker 1: presidents do have discretion. So Barbershop Court is not about
33:58
Speaker 1: to pretend that we can resolve a live First Amendment
34:01
Speaker 1: lawsuit between commercials, especially because an actual federal judge had
34:06
Speaker 1: a hearing scheduled on this outlet's request for emergency relief,
34:09
Speaker 1: which was Wednesday, September 23rd. Therefore, the ruling of the
34:14
Speaker 1: barbershop court is this. We are going to have to
34:17
Speaker 1: continue this argument on another day. We're going to send
34:19
Speaker 1: this one to a courtroom where the judge actually went
34:22
Speaker 1: to law school, which I did not. Business school, yes.
34:25
Speaker 1: Law school, not so much. But the White House has
34:27
Speaker 1: ordered to preserve all parking spaces across the street just
34:31
Speaker 1: in case, because I'm coming to hear this one.
34:34
Speaker 4: Case two. The people versus South America. Charge, premeditated geographic sarcasm.
34:42
Speaker 1: So ladies and gentlemen of the jury, allow me to
34:44
Speaker 1: level set this conversation before we actually go into the
34:46
Speaker 1: case because some of you may have never seen South
34:49
Speaker 1: Park and their depiction of one Donald Trump, your president.
34:53
Speaker 1: I saw South Park the movie and I thought it
34:56
Speaker 1: was hilarious that they depicted Satan in this romantic, intimate
35:00
Speaker 1: relationship with Saddam Hussein and Satan is the feminine character
35:05
Speaker 1: in this homosexual relationship, if you will. And it was
35:10
Speaker 1: so inappropriate, but it was hilarious. I had no idea
35:14
Speaker 1: that they replaced Saddam Hussein with your president, Donald Trump,
35:18
Speaker 1: and made this a reoccurring theme on the South Park
35:21
Speaker 1: TV show every week. And when you watch it, if
35:26
Speaker 1: you watch it, you will be scratching your head. You
35:29
Speaker 1: will marvel at how inappropriate this is, and you will
35:33
Speaker 1: probably hate yourself for laughing your ass off because it
35:37
Speaker 1: is absolutely hilarious. J.D. Vance is depicted as Tattoo from
35:43
Speaker 1: Fantasy Island, if you remember that. And he is scheming
35:46
Speaker 1: and plotting it, man. You got to see this thing.
35:49
Speaker 1: I don't know how Donald Trump is not suing them
35:51
Speaker 1: as much as he hates being made fun of, as
35:53
Speaker 1: much as he hates being clowned. But somehow, some way,
35:57
Speaker 1: they're getting away with it. I had to level set
35:58
Speaker 1: that before I went to the actual case. Now, let
36:01
Speaker 1: us argue the evidence, ladies and gentlemen. Trey Parker and
36:04
Speaker 1: Matt Stone announced that they were temporarily changing the name
36:07
Speaker 1: of South Park to South America. And you know why?
36:10
Speaker 1: Because President Trump declared the U.S. would be referring to
36:13
Speaker 1: Lake Ontario as Lake America, which as of this recording,
36:17
Speaker 1: he officially signed the executive order. As dumb as that
36:20
Speaker 1: may sound. And as ridiculous as that sounds, Apple and
36:23
Speaker 1: Google actually capitulated. Ladies and gentlemen, they changed the label
36:27
Speaker 1: for American users. But South Park responded by doing what
36:31
Speaker 1: South Park has been doing for decades, looking at public
36:34
Speaker 1: life and making it worse on purpose for comedic effect.
36:36
Speaker 1: And so now, apparently, South Park is South America. Lake
36:41
Speaker 1: Ontario is Lake America. The Gulf of Mexico is the
36:44
Speaker 1: Gulf of America. And if this pattern continues by Christmas,
36:48
Speaker 1: I'm going to be broadcasting from the great state of
36:50
Speaker 1: Marcus Sylvania on the Briefing Room of America. The defense
36:54
Speaker 1: argues that this is satire. The prosecution agrees. The court agrees.
36:58
Speaker 1: Everybody agrees. that this is just satire, which means I
37:01
Speaker 1: don't even know why we're here. Except this is barbershop
37:04
Speaker 1: court and we have air time to fill. The court
37:06
Speaker 1: finds Trey Parker and Matt Stone guilty of cartographic shade,
37:11
Speaker 1: which technically is not a crime. Sentence, South Park must
37:14
Speaker 1: remain South America until somebody successfully explains the new map
37:18
Speaker 1: to a fifth grader without laughing.
37:21
Speaker 4: Case three, the people versus Trump and Mamdani getting along. Charge?
37:27
Speaker 4: unauthorized bipartisanship in the first degree.
37:31
Speaker 1: Now, before I even argue this case, let me say unequivocally,
37:35
Speaker 1: we ain't buying it. Donald Trump, Republican president, Zoran Mamdani,
37:41
Speaker 1: Democratic socialist mayor of New York. These two shouldn't be
37:45
Speaker 1: able to agree on what temperature to set the thermostat.
37:47
Speaker 1: And yet, Trump went to Gracie Mansion this week and
37:51
Speaker 1: spent about an hour talking with Mamdani. I mean, let
37:54
Speaker 1: that sink in. They discussed housing issues. affordability, a potential
37:58
Speaker 1: development project in Queens. Trump publicly wished Mamdani success as mayor,
38:03
Speaker 1: and this is not even the first friendly meeting. Excuse me?
38:06
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like we approve of your actions,
38:08
Speaker 1: President Trump, but you have set a standard that we've
38:10
Speaker 1: come to expect. Where's the screaming? Where's the nicknames? I'm
38:13
Speaker 1: looking for something like Mamdani or something along these lines.
38:17
Speaker 1: I was promised American politics. As of right now in 2026,
38:20
Speaker 1: this is not American politics. We don't want germane politics
38:25
Speaker 1: and bipartisanship now. You've already messed it up. You may
38:28
Speaker 1: as well keep ruining it for the next two years.
38:30
Speaker 1: You mean to tell me two people with drastically different
38:33
Speaker 1: ideologies can sit in the same room, talk about something
38:35
Speaker 1: their constituents need and leave without somebody posting an insult?
38:39
Speaker 1: In all caps, is this even possible in Trump's America?
38:42
Speaker 1: I'm going to need security to examine this one, ladies
38:45
Speaker 1: and gentlemen. Now, the prosecution argues that partisan America has
38:49
Speaker 1: been emotionally unprepared for elected officials behaving normally. We've been
38:54
Speaker 1: bracing ourselves for the next two years just understanding this
38:57
Speaker 1: is just the way it is. The defense says, Your Honor,
39:00
Speaker 1: isn't this literally the job?
39:02
Speaker 2: Hmm.
39:02
Speaker 1: Now, that's a fair point. Based on that, even though
39:07
Speaker 1: it gets on our nerves when this dude acts the
39:09
Speaker 1: way he does, when he does toe the line and
39:13
Speaker 1: conduct himself like an actual president, We got to give
39:16
Speaker 1: them a pass. And so case dismissed, as much as
39:19
Speaker 1: I hate to do that, turns out cooperation between officials
39:22
Speaker 1: who disagree is still legal. Who knew? We've been so polarized,
39:27
Speaker 1: we've forgotten that this is actually the job. So I
39:30
Speaker 1: hate to do it, but I got to let this
39:32
Speaker 1: one go. However, both defendants are ordered to notify their
39:36
Speaker 1: respective supporters before the next cordial meeting. We got to
39:39
Speaker 1: prepare ourselves for this. Some people may need time to process.
39:43
Speaker 1: And I'm certain that a lot of those folk in
39:45
Speaker 1: New York are still scratching their head and saying, is
39:47
Speaker 1: it the apocalypse?
39:53
Speaker 4: All rise. This concludes Barbershop Court. You may now exit
39:59
Speaker 4: the courtroom in an orderly fashion. And if you get
40:02
Speaker 4: lost on the way out, please check whether South Park,
40:07
Speaker 4: Lake Ontario, or your street has been renamed since we
40:11
Speaker 4: went into session. Court is adjourned. And now, where it
40:17
Speaker 4: all lands. Final commentary.
40:21
Speaker 1: Here's where it lands for me. Joe Biden absolutely matters
40:24
Speaker 1: to the story of America in 2026, of course. His
40:28
Speaker 1: presidency happened. Policies enacted during those four years didn't just
40:32
Speaker 1: evaporate when he left Washington. Inflation doesn't reset on Inauguration Day.
40:37
Speaker 1: Government debt doesn't reset. Immigration systems. Wars don't reset. None
40:42
Speaker 1: of that. Presidents inherit countries, not blank pieces of paper.
40:46
Speaker 1: So when Donald Trump says some problems originated under Biden,
40:50
Speaker 1: Sometimes there's legitimate historical context behind that. Love them or
40:53
Speaker 1: hate them, every president gets handed things that they don't
40:57
Speaker 1: particularly care for and some things that they say, you
40:59
Speaker 1: know what, I can work that. Context has a shelf life.
41:03
Speaker 1: And not because some arbitrary number of months passes by.
41:06
Speaker 1: Because new decisions accumulate. 20 months into a presidency, the
41:10
Speaker 1: current president has enacted tariffs. He made immigration decisions. He
41:14
Speaker 1: made spending decisions, military decisions. He signed legislation changes. appointed
41:19
Speaker 1: officials negotiated with foreign governments responded to crisis. By then,
41:23
Speaker 1: history has layers. Now, Biden is one layer. Trump is another.
41:29
Speaker 1: And that's why I like Trump's phrase, pretend that I'm
41:31
Speaker 1: on the ballot. Now he's actually walking that back, but
41:33
Speaker 1: I digress because it simplifies something. He's asking the voters
41:37
Speaker 1: to consider his presidency as part of the midterm decision.
41:40
Speaker 1: Fair enough. But a referendum is not a highlight reel.
41:44
Speaker 4: It's a receipt.
41:45
Speaker 1: And you heard several printed on this show today. Thank
41:48
Speaker 1: you very much for the effect. If you like the
41:50
Speaker 1: border policies, receipt. If you like the jobs numbers, that's
41:54
Speaker 1: a receipt. If you're pleased with the stock market, that
41:57
Speaker 1: is another receipt. If you're angry about tariffs, though, that's
42:00
Speaker 1: also a receipt. If you're paying more gasoline, hate to
42:04
Speaker 1: tell you, that's a receipt. If you think confronting Iran
42:08
Speaker 1: was necessary, there's a receipt attached to that. And if
42:10
Speaker 1: you think the war has gone on too long, that
42:13
Speaker 1: is the same receipt. You know, for all of us,
42:18
Speaker 1: good and bad purchases all go on that same receipt,
42:21
Speaker 1: which is why you have returns sometimes. And you notice
42:23
Speaker 1: when you do return things, you got to either highlight
42:25
Speaker 1: or point to that little line item. There it is
42:28
Speaker 1: right there. See that $ 36. 78? That's never $ 78. See that $ 36.
42:31
Speaker 4: 99?
42:31
Speaker 1: That one, that's the one I'm returning. Now, the rest
42:34
Speaker 1: of the stuff on the receipt, you love. That thing
42:37
Speaker 1: right there, not so much. I changed my mind or
42:39
Speaker 1: I just, you know, it was an impulse buy or whatever.
42:41
Speaker 1: All on the same receipt. Ladies and gentlemen, I submit
42:44
Speaker 1: to you that all of these actions.
42:48
Speaker 1: All of these decisions, they're all on the same receipt.
42:52
Speaker 1: The point isn't that every condition is solely attributable to
42:55
Speaker 1: the president. The point is that the president doesn't get
42:58
Speaker 1: to decide which portions of reality qualify for inspection. Neither
43:02
Speaker 1: party should get that privilege because I remember this same
43:06
Speaker 1: argument under Democratic presidents. When gasoline went up, Biden. When
43:10
Speaker 1: gasoline came down, the president doesn't control gas prices. Come on.
43:14
Speaker 1: I mean, politics is supposed to be for adults. Pick
43:16
Speaker 1: a standard and actually keep that energy when the other
43:19
Speaker 1: team gets the ball. Come on, we're all grown folks here.
43:21
Speaker 1: That's the part I think political media sometimes makes harder
43:24
Speaker 1: than it needs to be. We spend so much time
43:27
Speaker 1: deciding which side gets the rhetorical victory that we skip
43:31
Speaker 1: over the simpler question, what actually happened? You know, quick sidebar.
43:36
Speaker 1: I was doing youth development for over 30 years before
43:39
Speaker 1: I segued into what I'm doing now. And one of
43:41
Speaker 1: the hardest part with inner city kids and a lot
43:44
Speaker 1: of them learn this from their parents was them running
43:47
Speaker 1: off at the mouth, sounding off at teachers and administrators
43:51
Speaker 1: and other students and whomever just to get it off
43:55
Speaker 1: their chest. Whether it meant they would get written up,
43:57
Speaker 1: whether it meant they would get kicked out of school altogether.
44:00
Speaker 1: Whether it meant that they would have in-school suspension, it
44:02
Speaker 1: didn't matter. They were just going to say what needed
44:04
Speaker 1: to be said. They wanted to win the rhetorical victory.
44:07
Speaker 1: Consequences be damned. That's what you call immaturity. And we
44:11
Speaker 1: are now, even in the media sometimes, we're rewarding the
44:16
Speaker 1: rhetorical victory. Ooh, good burn. Oh, good point. What's the
44:21
Speaker 1: damn evidence that we're talking? Oh, is that what we're
44:23
Speaker 1: talking about here? That's as immature as the president. I
44:27
Speaker 1: know you are, but wait a minute. That's not what
44:29
Speaker 1: we do. We're talking about what actually happened, ladies and gentlemen.
44:32
Speaker 1: Inflation is 3.4%. That's a fact. Unemployment is 4.1%. Fact.
44:39
Speaker 1: The economy added 162,000 jobs in August. Another fact. Gasoline
44:43
Speaker 1: prices are sharply higher than a year ago. That's not rhetoric.
44:48
Speaker 1: That's a fact. Real hourly wages are slightly lower after inflation.
44:53
Speaker 1: Another fact, retail spending was strong in August. Fact, now
44:57
Speaker 1: comes politics. One campaign will tell you which of those
45:01
Speaker 1: numbers should matter most. The other campaign will tell you
45:04
Speaker 1: a different collection. That's their job. Your job is harder.
45:07
Speaker 1: You have to decide what the complete picture means to you.
45:10
Speaker 1: And that's why I don't think Biden did it is useless.
45:15
Speaker 1: Sometimes Biden did contribute to it. just like sometimes Trump
45:19
Speaker 1: actually contributed to it. The problem starts when blame becomes
45:23
Speaker 1: so automatic that it replaces analysis. Because once every negative
45:27
Speaker 1: result belongs to your predecessor, there's no meaningful definition of
45:30
Speaker 1: accountability anymore. It goes out the window. And once every
45:34
Speaker 1: positive result belongs entirely to you, there's no meaningful definition
45:38
Speaker 1: of inheritance either. You can't have both. Now, at some point,
45:44
Speaker 1: every president faces the same moment. The moving truck is gone.
45:47
Speaker 1: The pictures are on the wall. The food is in
45:49
Speaker 1: the refrigerator. Your name is on the mailbox. You live
45:52
Speaker 1: there now. Maybe the roof was already leaking. Maybe the
45:55
Speaker 1: previous owner absolutely neglected it. Tell us that. Show us
45:58
Speaker 1: the inspection report. But after a while, voters are allowed
46:01
Speaker 1: to ask, what would you do about the damn roof?
46:04
Speaker 1: You showed us the receipt. You told us what happened.
46:07
Speaker 1: We get it. That happens. What'd you do about it?
46:10
Speaker 1: That's the question sitting underneath every midterm. And that's the
46:13
Speaker 1: one sitting underneath this midterm, this election. Not is everything
46:17
Speaker 1: Trump's fault. It isn't. Not is everything Biden's fault. It
46:20
Speaker 1: also is not. The question is whether Americans, grown up Americans,
46:24
Speaker 1: mind you, whether they evaluate today's conditions using today's evidence.
46:30
Speaker 1: And Trump himself has made that relevant by putting himself
46:34
Speaker 1: in the middle of the campaign. So if we're pretending
46:37
Speaker 1: he's on the ballot, don't throw away that receipt. I
46:40
Speaker 1: didn't print that thing out for nothing now. You got
46:42
Speaker 1: to look at it, read the whole thing, then make
46:44
Speaker 1: up your mind. That's where this lands today.
46:48
Speaker 2: Before we leave, maybe it's time to turn the mirror around.
46:52
Speaker 2: We've spent the hour talking about what politicians inherit, what
46:56
Speaker 2: they own, and what they do with it.
46:58
Speaker 1: But what about us?
47:00
Speaker 2: What political beliefs did we inherit? And which ones did
47:03
Speaker 2: we actually choose for ourselves?
47:06
Speaker 1: Marcus?
47:07
Speaker 4: Where does that land?
47:08
Speaker 1: You know something? I actually love that concept because allow
47:12
Speaker 1: me to get personal for just a minute. And I
47:13
Speaker 1: probably told you that I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness.
47:18
Speaker 1: And if you don't know anything about that religion, they
47:20
Speaker 1: do not involve themselves in the political system. And they've
47:23
Speaker 1: got all their religious reasons for not doing so, but
47:26
Speaker 1: they don't vote. They don't get involved with the campaign process,
47:30
Speaker 1: not locally, not nationally. They abstain from all of it.
47:34
Speaker 1: And that's the household that I grew up in. very apolitical.
47:38
Speaker 1: And as time went on, I said to myself, you
47:39
Speaker 1: know what? This is untenable. How am I beholden to
47:44
Speaker 1: these laws? How are these laws affecting me, especially the
47:47
Speaker 1: local ones, the mayoral race and the county executive and
47:49
Speaker 1: city council, county council? How am I not involving myself
47:53
Speaker 1: in this process? And it is affecting all the decisions
47:56
Speaker 1: that I make on a day-to-day basis. It's given me
48:00
Speaker 1: the parameters and I'm not speaking into it. And so
48:04
Speaker 1: at some point I had to throw that narrative out
48:06
Speaker 1: and create a new narrative for myself, which is why
48:09
Speaker 1: I jokingly called myself a republic crap, because that apolitical
48:14
Speaker 1: environment gave birth to a very bipartisan personality. So when
48:20
Speaker 1: I did inject myself into the political environment, when I
48:23
Speaker 1: did start formulating my own opinions, I was so accustomed
48:26
Speaker 1: to someone ideologically trying to program me to think one
48:31
Speaker 1: way and one way only. that I promised myself I
48:35
Speaker 1: would not take that into the real world when I
48:37
Speaker 1: left that behind. And so politically, there is literally no
48:41
Speaker 1: such thing as your gracious host looking at things one
48:44
Speaker 1: way and strictly one way. I'm very nuanced and I
48:47
Speaker 1: vote a lot of different ways for a lot of
48:50
Speaker 1: different reasons. And I have from the time that I
48:52
Speaker 1: started voting in my early 20s. So here's my question
48:56
Speaker 1: for you. Where did your politics come from? Why are
48:59
Speaker 1: you a Democrat? Why are you a Republican, a conservative,
49:02
Speaker 1: a liberal? Why do you believe government should be involved
49:05
Speaker 1: in this issue? But stay completely out of that one.
49:08
Speaker 1: And here's the harder question. Did you decide that? As
49:11
Speaker 1: Urkel would say, did I do that? Did you decide that?
49:15
Speaker 1: Or did you inherit that? Because we inherit more than
49:19
Speaker 1: eye color and last. names. We inherit traditions, religion, neighborhood, culture,
49:24
Speaker 1: and yes, sometimes politics. Because we are at the kitchen
49:29
Speaker 1: table with the same two people for 18 years. And
49:33
Speaker 1: whatever they're thinking about race, politics, religion seeps into our
49:38
Speaker 1: system and And more likely, and this is not a
49:40
Speaker 1: criticism of any parent raising their kids to do anything,
49:43
Speaker 1: as long as it's not against the law, you have
49:45
Speaker 1: a right to say, I am training my son or
49:47
Speaker 1: daughter to ideologically believe X. That's what parents do. So
49:51
Speaker 1: no shade. But the political viewpoint of every person, for
49:55
Speaker 1: the most part in their early years, is based in
49:58
Speaker 1: large part on what mom and dad thought. Political scientists
50:02
Speaker 1: have been studying that for generations. Families can have a
50:05
Speaker 1: substantial influence on partisan identity and political attitudes. That isn't
50:09
Speaker 1: necessarily bad. Your parents may have taught you something valuable.
50:12
Speaker 1: And most of your parents, my guess is, probably did.
50:16
Speaker 1: Your community might have experienced something that shaped the way
50:19
Speaker 1: generations of people understood government. History matters in everything. But
50:24
Speaker 1: there comes a point in adulthood when inherited beliefs should
50:28
Speaker 1: have to survive an examination. I've gone through this. Do
50:32
Speaker 1: I still believe this? And more importantly, why? I got
50:36
Speaker 1: to throw the H in there because it makes it
50:37
Speaker 1: sound more like it gives it more gravitas. Let me say,
50:40
Speaker 1: why do I still believe this? Because politics change. Parties change.
50:46
Speaker 1: Issues change. And so do candidates. And sometimes we're carrying
50:50
Speaker 1: around a political opinion that somebody handed us 25 years
50:53
Speaker 1: ago like an old piece of furniture. We don't particularly
50:56
Speaker 1: like it. Doesn't match anything else in the house. But
50:59
Speaker 1: grandma gave it to us, so apparently we got to
51:02
Speaker 1: keep it forever. No, no, you can inspect the furniture.
51:05
Speaker 1: Pew's research actually shows that American political thinking is considerably
51:10
Speaker 1: messier than our red team, blue team television conversation suggests.
51:14
Speaker 1: A lot of Americans hold combinations of beliefs that don't
51:18
Speaker 1: fit perfectly into either major party. That makes sense to me. Now,
51:22
Speaker 1: maybe you're conservative on taxes and liberal on criminal justice.
51:26
Speaker 1: Maybe you're progressive on health care and very traditional. about education,
51:30
Speaker 1: and maybe you strongly support something your political party opposes. Good.
51:36
Speaker 1: At least I know you're thinking and thinking for yourself
51:38
Speaker 1: because independent thought does not mean I disagree with everybody.
51:42
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean being contrarian just so you can brag
51:45
Speaker 1: that you're being independent. And it certainly doesn't mean that
51:48
Speaker 1: you're smarter than somebody who belongs to a political party.
51:51
Speaker 1: It means your party doesn't get to outsource your thinking.
51:54
Speaker 1: That's what it means. Neither does your favorite politician, whether
51:58
Speaker 1: that is Donald Trump or Barack Hussein Obama, as much
52:01
Speaker 1: as I love him. Politically, I don't agree with everything
52:04
Speaker 1: that Barack Obama did. What I completely agree with is
52:08
Speaker 1: the image and what it meant for people like me
52:11
Speaker 1: and the fact that he conducted himself with dignity. He
52:14
Speaker 1: was a grown-ass man the entire time he was in
52:17
Speaker 1: the White House. You cannot deny that. I still got
52:20
Speaker 1: my Barack Obama wish list, politically. But now, I think
52:24
Speaker 1: the politics of the Trump era has made this question
52:27
Speaker 1: impossible to avoid. Because Donald Trump has challenged old Republican assumptions.
52:31
Speaker 1: His opponents have had to reconsider assumptions of their own.
52:34
Speaker 1: Coalitions have shifted. Issues that once belonged neatly to one
52:38
Speaker 1: party don't always stay there. And voters are constantly being
52:41
Speaker 1: asked to decide, am I defending this because I actually
52:44
Speaker 1: believe it or because my team said it? That's a
52:47
Speaker 1: healthy question whether your answer ultimately leads you left, right,
52:50
Speaker 1: or somewhere in between. And I would encourage you, wherever
52:52
Speaker 1: it leads you, take the journey on that issue and
52:55
Speaker 1: let it land where it lands. Here's my test for you.
52:58
Speaker 1: If Donald Trump does something you would condemn if a
53:00
Speaker 1: Democratic president did it, you should probably examine that. If
53:04
Speaker 1: a Democratic president does something you would condemn if Donald
53:07
Speaker 1: Trump did it, examine that as well. Same facts, same standard.
53:12
Speaker 1: That's what you call independence, ladies and gentlemen, not independence
53:15
Speaker 1: from ideology, independence from intellectual laziness. You can still be
53:19
Speaker 1: a proud Democrat. You can still be a proud Republican.
53:22
Speaker 1: You can be an independent, a conservative, progressive, moderate, whatever
53:26
Speaker 1: you want to be. But at some point, your politics
53:29
Speaker 1: ought to become yours, not your father's, not your mother's,
53:33
Speaker 1: your pastor's, your union's, Fox News's, MSNBC, not Donald Trump's,
53:37
Speaker 1: not Joe Biden's, yours. Deal with it. Be grown enough
53:42
Speaker 1: to look in the mirror and say, this is how
53:43
Speaker 1: I actually feel and run with it. Who are you
53:46
Speaker 1: trying to impress? If somebody asks you why you believe something,
53:50
Speaker 1: I've always believed it isn't much of an answer. And
53:53
Speaker 1: neither is because my side does. That one really doesn't fly.
53:57
Speaker 1: So maybe after we're done checking Donald Trump's receipts today,
54:00
Speaker 1: there's another one worth checking. When was the last time
54:03
Speaker 1: you audited your own politics?
54:06
Speaker 2: Hmm.
54:07
Speaker 1: Your own receipts. Not to change them. Because maybe you
54:11
Speaker 1: examine everything and end up exactly where you started in
54:13
Speaker 1: the first place. And that's fine. But at least you'll
54:16
Speaker 1: know why you're standing there and in an era where
54:19
Speaker 1: everybody seems desperate to tell us what to think. There's
54:23
Speaker 1: still something very powerful, ladies and gentlemen, about taking responsibility
54:28
Speaker 1: for how you got there. Now, that is where it
54:32
Speaker 1: all lands for real, for real this time. Well, the
54:37
Speaker 1: doors of the briefing room are open. I can hear
54:39
Speaker 1: the reporters coming in. That's our episode for today. One
54:42
Speaker 1: central story, political quick hits, and somehow South Park is
54:46
Speaker 1: now a continent. We've done our civic duty. A warm
54:50
Speaker 1: thank you to G & M Getaways for presenting the
54:52
Speaker 1: briefing room. Join me every Thursday at 1230 right here
54:55
Speaker 1: on Blackcess Media 92.7 WICU HD2 FM, that is.
55:00
Speaker 4: I'm Marcus Atkinson.
55:01
Speaker 1: Keep asking the next question. I'll see you next Thursday.
55:04
Speaker 1: But first, I got to call my man back into
55:06
Speaker 1: the room, that being Buddy Love, a.k.a. George Morgan III,
55:09
Speaker 1: so he can give us that theme song to the
55:11
Speaker 1: briefing room. Say it with me now. Sounds so good.
55:14
Speaker 1: Don't you agree? See you all next week.
55:16
Speaker 2: Peace.
55:17
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