You own unless you give your HALP Compt five your channel. Hello everybody,
and welcome. It is that time again, Matt Connerton Unleashed and we are
live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM and
Glorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also on Comcast Channel six if you're in
Manchester. And hello to all of our online listeners across the nation and around
the globe. You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all
your live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives,
etcetera, etcetera. Today is Wednesday, August thirtieth, two thousand twenty three,
so nice to have you all with me. A quick a programming note
about today's show. It is Wednesday, which usually means I get to spend
the first hour with my favorite conservative via Skype, of course, Eric Pilcher
from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And he also does the classic film reviews on
Fridays for us. But unfortunately Eric has another professional obligation to which he has
committed. Uh no, he's not on John Hopwood's show. No, he's
got something else he has to do, so so he is sadly not able
to join us today. In fact, I don't have a guest, so
that means we have the full two hours. I can take your calls and
interact with you in the Facebook live chat and so on, but the studio
line is open six zero three two five six zero seven six zero three two
five zero six zero seven. You can also text me at six one seven
nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton.
You can email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com, and of course
you can interact undo Pine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing
to do so that we can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones is give us
a call at six zoo three two five zero six zero seven six zo three
two five zero six zero seven. With Eric's absence today, I had some
other things I was I'd figured, well, you know, I've got things
that we haven't gotten to yet this week that are in the news that I'd
like to talk about. And usually when I have a show where it's just
me, we sort of catch up on things. And then I heard something
earlier today that I want to talk about that I heard on somebody else's radio
show. But this bit of news has not yet sort of filtered its way
through the media sphere, if you will. So this isn't anything that's been
widely reported. But I heard someone talking about it, someone you know,
with the credentials, So it's not like it's some fringe blogger or something.
An actual, very accomplished a journalists talking about this. And I said,
oh, that's interesting, and it has to do with the twenty twenty four
election, and it may not be the rematch that we've been dreading after all.
And you might say, Matt, not the rematch we've been dreading.
So are you saying someone might actually have a shot at taking out Trump?
No, I firmly believe still that Trump will be the Republican nominee. It's
on the Democratic ticket that there might be a change. But again, this
isn't something that's really kind of made its way through. If you google this,
you won't find anything really recent, but I would imagine by this time
tomorrow you will. So I've given you a little teaser there. We will
get to it. We'll get to all of it today, and we have
some other things as well. But I was quite stunned at what I heard
earlier. But before we get into that, I do want to say hello
everybody in the Facebook live chat let's see. Charles Richardson joins us in there
and says, greetings everybody, Charles. I hope you and your family are
safe. Charles is of course in Florida, and I don't know if you
all have heard, but they've had quite the hurricane and a pretty a pretty
severe one. So obviously I assume you're you and your family are safe if
you're in the chat room, Charles, but I hope everything's good there,
or as good as it can be under the circumstances. Melanie La Liberty also
joins us in the chat room from the great state of Vermont. Hello,
Jenny is in the chat room, of course, and says shalom peeps.
Charles says greetings from the great wet state of Florida. Yes. Indeed,
Charles also said too black, too bad the hurricane didn't blow away to Santis.
Although I will say this, and I'm no fan of Ron de Santis
myself, however, I do recall the last time you guys had a hurricane,
a pretty severe hurricane, he got generally, from what I could perceive,
he got generally high marks for his handling of the of the clean up
afterward, and it may present who was it. I think it was Ram
Emmanuel who said never never let a good crisis go to waste, or something
to that effect. Ram Emmanuel, of course, he was Obama's chief of
staff at the beginning of his presidency, and also the former mayor of Chicago
and so forth. But so, in thinking about that, if de Santis
also Garner's high marks for his handling of this weather event, this hurricane,
this natural disaster, if you will, that might actually help him somewhat in
his race for the presidency. Well and again no, not really, because
it's going to be Trump. Miriam Banish joins us in the Chatirman says,
oh, I'm thinking about it. Yes, yes, I played some of
that, hadn't played that in a little bit dark Brandon's think about what you'd
think about by the remix bros. And before that we played some Randy Rainbow
don't arraign on his parade. Hans Smith joins us in the Facebook live chat
and says, Sup, Matt, Sup, Hans, So welcome everybody.
Charles says, we did not get the brunt of it like last year,
just forty to fifty mile per hour winds and six feet of rain. Some
coastal flooding, but nothing like last year. Oh that's good, that's good.
Yeah, I saw some on the news today. I saw some pretty
severe flooding. And you know, there's always those people who want to ride
it out too, and they don't. They don't leave when they're told to
evacuate. And you really should if you're you know, if you're if you're
told to, because what happens is I heard someone speaking about this earlier,
is that very often people in places like Florida, where you get a lot
of these hurricanes, if they've been through multiple hurricanes, if they've lived in
Florida a long time, maybe they grew up there, they get a little
bit complacent and they say, oh, I'm just gonna ride it out.
I'm just gonna ride it out. You know, I've been through this before.
It's no big deal, doesn't phase me. Not my first rodeo.
Well I guess i'd say that more in Texas and Florida. Well, not
my first hurricane. But but then what happens is people say, you know,
people don't leave when they're told to evacuate, and then they end up
oftentimes dead. So it's a good idea to uh. I know, sometimes
people think that, you know, it's like pro freedom and pro liberty to
do the opposite of whatever the government tells you. And that's been on my
mind today too because of another subject that I don't even want to get into
talking about today. But but no, sometimes when the government tells you something,
it really is for your own good. You know, like when there's
a huge hurricane coming toward you and the government says you should evacuate. Yeah,
go ahead and go ahead and evacuate. They're not They're not telling you
to evacuate because as some sort of weird conspiracy against you to try to control
you. They're telling you to evacuate so you don't end up, you know,
dead, because all that freedom and liberty isn't gonna help you much when
you're dead. Scott Robinson says in the chat room, being dead can really
put a wrench in your plans. Oh, you're not kidding, I mean,
you know, for example, that's I'm glad you brought that up,
Scott. For example, if I were dead, I probably wouldn't be doing
this radio show. I mean, I don't know how I would even get
here. You know, if I were dead, I'd probably have to figure
out a way to send an email or maybe text Peter and just say,
hey, I'm not going to be You might have to run a best of
today I'm you know, I'm dead. I'm not even sure how that would
work. I've never thought about it. I don't have a contingency plan,
Jenny says in the chat room. Also, it means EMS and fire don't
have to risk their lives to save you. Yeah, that's true. That's
another reason why when they tell you to evacuate, you should evacuate so that
you don't get into a position where where emergency services first responders have to try
to come get you and uh and risk themselves to do that, and uh,
yeah, it's it's not helpful. So anyway, six three two five
six seven six zero three two five six seven. So what I had not
intended to talk about today, but I will because I think this is very
interesting. So, oh, Carol Zawarrowitz is in the Facebook lap chat.
Hello Carol. She says, my daughter and husband are safe in Florida and
my son is stuck in Nashville because they closed all the bridges in Savannah,
Georgia. Ah, yes, and of course yeah, other states are affected
by this too. Oh and Eric Pilcher says, sorry, I'm not on
today, peeps. Well, we shall miss you, sir, but it's
nice to see you in the Facebook lap chat. Today I was listening to
Michael Smerconish. And if you're not familiar with Michael Smerconish, he is a
longtime broadcaster. Actually, he's had quite a career. He worked in politics.
He worked in the George H. W. Bush administration. He but
eventually, you know, like a lot of people who work in politics to
he transitioned into broadcasting and he's he has a radio show. He also he's
done a lot of television. He used to fill in years ago. This
was when I first kind of became aware of him. He would fill in
occasionally for Chris Matthews on Hardball when he was working hard Time at MSNBC.
And now he has a weekend show on CNN. But but he also has
his radio show that runs during the week and I try to catch it when
I can. And Smurkanish, I've I've always liked him. He's probably the
closest thing you'll find to a genuine centrist in political talk radio, and he's
not. He tells you what he thinks, but he's he doesn't go out
of his way necessarily he to tell you what he thinks. He tries to
have open, free and open discussion, much like I try to do here
with this show. But but I probably go out of my way to let
you know what I think a little bit more than Smirkanish does. I think
he holds some back, but he and I believe, if I'm not mistaken,
he's an independent, but he used to be. I think he used
to be a Republican if I have his story straight from what I've read about
him, he was a Republican, but then during the George W. Bush
administration because he worked for Bush Senior. But during the administration he was very
bothered with the foreign policy approach that that administration took and decided to no longer
be a Republican, but to become an independent. If I'm not mistaken anyway,
Just so little background if you're not familiar with Michael smerconish, but he
has a lot of really great guests on and a lot of fellow journalists and
so forth. Well, today he had Mark Halperin on his show, Now,
Mark Halperin. If you're not familiar with him, and I'm sure some
of you are, he's pretty well known, and he's he was a fixture
on cable news quite a bit. He worked for NBC News for a long
time, and you'd see him regularly on MSNBC. He's worked a lot with
Mark I'm sorry, John Hilman, who still is a fixture on MSNBC,
and they've written books together, and they had that show on Showtime called The
Circus and which is obviously about politics. But halper In was fired from NBC
News number of years ago because of sexual harassment allegations, and so ever since
then he's been trying to kind of publicly rehabilitate himself and work his way back.
He also recently was a part of No Labels, that organization which one
of these days, who knows, maybe we'll get to it today, even
one of these days we need to do a segment on No Labels. I
have a lot of feelings about that, some conflicting feelings. Actually, I'm
conflicted about how I feel about No Labels. I think more negative than positive,
though, But that's another subject, but then he left no labels,
he's no longer affiliated with that group. So anyway, I'm just part of
why I'm telling you all of that about Mark Halperin though, is in case
you don't know who he is. I just want you to understand when I
share what I'm about to share of what he shared with Michael Smerconish live on
the radio today. I just want everyone to understand that this isn't coming from
you know, just some ringe want to be journalist who has a website or
something and puts out crazy theories. This is a guy, Mark Halperin,
who is well connected and has legitimate news sources and so forth. And I
don't think he would have said what he said today which I'm about to share
with you did he not have sources that he was confident in. And again
this is not unless you listen to Smirkanish's show. You probably don't know about
this because it hasn't made its way yet through the media sphere. I do
believe by this time tomorrow a lot more people will be talking about it.
But here's what he said, and there's a whole discussion that came out of
what he said initially. But what he said to Smerconish was that he has
sources. Halperin has sources, high level sources. He didn't name who they
are, of course, can't do that or they wouldn't talk to him again.
But he has high level sources close to President Biden who are telling him
that Biden is actually reconsidering his run for a second term and that he may
back out. I was very surprised to hear that. Now, if you
are a regular listener, you know my feelings. I often talk about how
twenty twenty four is going to be. It looks like the rematch that nobody
wants. On the Republican side, you've got, you know, you've got
that what thirty five to forty percent, that core base of the party that
is ride or die for Trump. You know, maga people, they're very
excited about Trump. But then you've got that other sixty percent that would like
an alternative and are ready to move on from Trump. But the forty percent
is going to win out because among that sixty percent, you know, the
support that the candidates that they're interested in, you know, that disperses over
a range of the field of Republican candidates who are also running for the nomination,
so it's most likely going to be Trump, but you know, roughly
sixty percent would rather have somebody else. On the Democratic side, recent polling
has shown seventy percent roughly seventy percent of Democrats don't want a second term of
Joe Biden. They want Biden to move on. They want to be able
to move on from Biden, largely because of concerns about his age, which
is interesting. The key concern on each side of the ledger, if you
will, is different with Trump. It's concerned about how, look, he's
got four criminal indictments against him. That makes him a phenomenal That makes a
that makes for a phenomenal Uh, makes him a phenomenal potential nominee, right
because he's managed to convince that MAGA base that he's a martyr and he's fighting
for them, and he's going through all of this for them, and you
know, he's effectively martyring himself and they eat that up. So he'll he'll
be the nominee. I'm convinced of that. But but you've got that that
other sixty percent that's going, well, that's gonna yeah. Uh, the
forty percent is thrilled, but we over here in the sixty percent, we're
not looking forward to our nominee losing the general election because it makes him might
make him a great nominee, makes him a horrendous general election candidate because obviously
Trump's not going to expand his base this way right in the general election.
You know, there's there's trust me. I'm quite sure that there's no independence
or even you know, moderate suburban Republicans who might have abandoned Trump in twenty
twenty for whatever various reasons they were dissatisfied with him or upset with him.
And you know, none of those folks are looking at him now and going,
mm, well, you know I abandoned him in twenty twenty. But
now that he's got four criminal indictments, giving him a second look, I
think you know that's not going to happen. So so for Republicans, the
majority that doesn't want Trump, it's they're concerned about his criminal indictments and all
the other baggage too. I'm sure, I'm sure you know, while many
of them they will tell you, you know, the vindictiveness, and you
know, he doesn't really talk about issues. He still just talks about the
twenty twenty election. And all the victimhood and all that. But on the
left side of the Ledger, it's just concerned about Biden's age mainly, and
there are other issues that flow from that, right. But even Mary Ann
Williamson, who is also challenging for the Democratic nomination, when she was here
last week here in studio with us, she even said, you know,
she pointed out Biden's recent comments in Maui where he's trying to and Biden is
known for being able to project empathy, but sometimes he screws it up and
again, well, you know, she said, uh, or he said
to the people there he was speaking to, Yeah, I in trying to
relate to them. I kind of know what it's like when you know,
a fire comes and forget exactly how he put it, but you know,
we had a fire at one of our houses once and I almost lost my
corvette and my cat, and uh, you know, it's just't it didn't
go over well. And I said to Mary Anne, I said, isn't
that a product of his age? Because I asked her, I said flat
out, I said, look, it's an indelicate question, but is Biden
too old? And she didn't want to really answer that directly, but then
she pretty much answered it implicitly when she she's the one who brought up Biden's
comments and MAUI, and then I said to her, isn't that a product
of his age? Because I don't think, you know, an eighty year
old man is going to say something like that. Again, I hate to
be agist, but it's unavoidable. It's unavoidable. That's an eighty year old
man, seventy year old Biden, even seventy five year old Biden. I
don't think would have been standing there with that microphone in his hand going.
I understand, you know, I almost lost my corvette. I just I
don't think that would have happened. I think he's you know, he's old.
I mean, I'm sorry, and I know some people don't like it,
and it's uncomfortable. I understand it's uncomfortable. Look, nobody wants to
have to have that conversation with grandpa, right. This happens in many families,
and sometimes there's family arguments over who's going to be the one to do
it, Who's going to be the one to sit down with grandpa and say,
look, I think it's I think it's time you gotta give me your
car keys. You can't drive anymore. It's just time, and nobody wants
to be the one to do that because it's uncomfortable and Grandpa's feelings are going
to be hurt. The only problem is if you don't, if somebody doesn't
step up and have that conversation with Grandpa because it's uncomfortable or because you just
don't want to be agist and you're going to feel badly about it. You're
going to feel guilty. That's fine. But when you get a call one
day the grandpa got a little confused and accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the
break and drove into the front door of a seven to eleven, then you're
gonna wish you had had that conversation. You're gonna wish you could go back
in time and maybe be the one to step up and have that talk.
And listen. I'm not saying Biden should with resign or anything like that.
I'm just saying he shouldn't see seek a second term. That's all. Just
like with Grandpa. I'm not saying you have to take Grandpa's keys right now.
I'm saying, you know, if his license is expiring, maybe sometime,
you know, next year, maybe you'd tell him, Hey, why
don't you just let this one expire? And then that'll be it, you
know what I'm saying. But I mean it's and it's gotten to the point
where the media is now I've seen examples where they're they're not being as polite
about it. Now. I don't have the clip ready, I didn't.
I didn't think of it until now. I didn't remember it until now.
But Jay Tapper on CNN he had Cringejeon Pierre White House spokesperson on with him
and and he's asking her, you know, he said to her, Look,
people are worried about the president's age. And that's a little bit of
a shift. Usually the media tries to kind of whistle past the well,
not the graveyard, and the whistle pass the assisted living facilities. Should I
say it that way? But I think that's that's shifting. Melody in the
chat room says, oh, just say it. You hate old people.
No, no, no, no, no, no, listen, it
it is about age, and it's not. It is in the sense that
again I think that Look, I think that America again, whether you're on
the right or the left, no matter who you support or don't like.
I think that we can benefit from some youthful energy. And I suppose since
we keep electing older and older presidents, maybe maybe at this point, maybe
the Overton window has moved in terms of what we consider youthful. I mean
again, I feel like at this point, a young sixty five year old
whipper snapper, fresh faced, you know, Mike Pence. I think he's
sixty five. He seems like a kid compared to I mean, you know,
that makes him fifteen years younger than Joe Biden. Oh my god.
You know, but when we've had in the past, when we've had younger
presidents, there has been I've noticed a sort of sense of it does have
a positive effect. I think, you know, when Bill Clinton was elected,
I remember hearing a lot of that, A lot was made of that
alwa's young, He's he's in his mid forties. He's young, and that
might be a good thing, that might give us a little boost, especially
when part of why Bill Clinton was elected was, you know, because of
the recession we were in, and the same one Obama was elected. And
I'm sure, I mean this was before I was around, but when JFK
was elected you know, another another one only in his mid forties, you
know. And and of course people said at the time, you know,
some people thought he might be too young. But now I got us through
the Cuban missile crisis, So turns out he was the man for the job,
right, So so I think there's a lot to be said for that,
you know. I mean, there's a lot to be said for wisdom
and experience too. But man, he's not I mean, I'm sorry,
but he's he's not looking to spry. Scott Robinson in the chat says,
I heard the sources Rudy Giuliani. There's some some news and he just sent
me Giuliani. We'll probably get to it later. Juliani's been he lost a
civil suit over his defaming of in Georgia. I'm forgetting their names now,
Shay Moss and Ruby Freeman. Yes, Scott Robinson says, boy that trump
Shire is one hell of a guy. We should all thank him by sending
him a cash donation, referring to Trump's martyrdom. Yes. But so circling
back to what halper And said today, So halper In claims, and if
you're just joining us, Mark Halperin said this to day on Michael Smerconish's radio
show, that he has high level sources close to President Joe Biden who are
saying that Biden is actually quietly but he is reconsidering his run for a second
term and may in fact get out now. That would be fascinating to see
what happens next. And they did talk about that too, Smerconish and helper
And did explore some of that, and we'll get to that in a moment
too. I'm trying to you know, I was in the car driving when
I was listening to this, so I could couldn't write it down or anything.
I'm doing this from memory. But but helper And said, there's a
specific line of persuasion that people are using to try to get bied and to
change his mind. And what they're what they're saying to him is look,
this is how they're trying to convince him. They're saying, Look, your
legacy is secure. You you were able to beat Trump in twenty twenty,
so you got Trump out of there, you got the vaccines distributed, so
you got us through the pandemic. We have a growing economy. You know,
You've passed some So he's got a few big legislative accomplishments under his belt.
You got us out of Afghanistan. Although we're going to come back to
that. This month is a two year anniversary of our withdrawal from Afghanistan.
We're going to come back to that. But but again, if you if
you want to think of it in terms of, you know, he said
he'd get us out, and he got us out again. This is I'm
talking about what people are saying to Biden. So they're telling him, look,
here's your list of accomplishments. Your legacy is secure, so put it
in your pocket and let someone else get in here. Your legacy is secure.
You can go after this term. Because what they're also telling him is
you're taking a hell of a risk with your legacy if you stick around,
because if you do run for a second term and you lose to Trump,
what will your legacy be? Then your legacy will be you were the guy
who beat Trump in twenty twenty only to hand the White House right back over
to him four years later. That will be your legacy, mister president,
That will be your legacy. And that is the risk you take. And
from what Mark Halperin was saying today, that message might actually be getting through
to him because he is. In fact, according to him, he says
he's got high level sources telling him Biden is reconsidering. Now, then we
get to and that was the substance of what halper And had to say,
the crux of it. But then he and Smerconish got into a discussion about
well what will that mean, because it will be fascinating. Melanie says that
actually makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I mean, he's risking everything
if he stays, and he could lose. Don't think for a second he
can't lose sit Trump. I know there's this idea out there among some Democrats,
by the way, that oh no, you know, Biden, he
beat Trump once, he'll beat him again, no problem. If anything,
this time it will be even easier because of all the criminal indictments. Remember,
doesn't go by popular vote. It goes by the electoral college. That
can screw you up. So for you know, just ask Hillary Clinton,
right, she beat Trump in twenty sixteen by three million votes, But in
the end it doesn't matter. We don't decide this by popular vote. Also,
even with all of the baggage that Trump has, you know, with
four criminal indictments. I'd say that's some baggage and all the other things that
even a lot of Republicans don't like about him. Even with all of that,
Joe Biden, and you know, we should mention this too because it
relates Mitch McConnell. If you didn't know, it just happened a couple of
hours ago. Apparently today Mitch McConnell froze up again for thirty seconds. He
froze up, and I'll explain how this relates to Biden. But he froze
up. He was asked if he intends to seek reelection at the end of
his current term, and he froze up. He locked up, couldn't talk
for thirty seconds. And Jenny and I were watching the video of that,
and I said to Jenny, I said, well, actually he did answer
the question by freezing up like that. That answers the question. Not to
be flipping about it. I'm just saying, though, that answers the question.
The answer clearly is no, because that's the second time, and we
never got an explanation about the first time. We still don't know why he
locked up the first time. How does that relate to Biden? Biden's only
one year younger than Mitch McConnell and Biden. If anything like that happens to
Joe Biden, can you imagine I've said this before, if in the middle
of a debate, say he's debating Trump and Biden freezes up like that,
or in the middle of a speech, or even even if it doesn't happen
publicly, it could happen in private. It could happen in the White House,
but then it leaks out, it gets out into the media that had
happened he's done. Anything like that happens, He's done. Mike Doyle's online.
Hi Mike, heymen, aymen, Hey, yeah, you had a
perfect segue to one of my two things I wanted to talk to you about.
But the first was the first was we were talking about age. The
you know, we're so polar opposite in our in our politics that you know,
all the Republicans run to their behive and all of the Democrats run to
their behive when they're in the Senate, in the Congress. That and nobody's
looking out for the states that they actually are representing, and we're voted to
represent and the and nobody wants to lose one of those numbers in each in
each haul, you know what I mean. Let me take, for instance,
Diane Feinstein. Democrats are crazy worried about losing her vote. But it's
been reported in multiple sources that in a meeting last week or two weeks ago,
she turned to a colleague and said, where am I? Oh?
Yeah, you know what I mean, Mike, there's been there's actually there.
There's actually been a whole bunch of stories about Feinstein. Yeah, she
it is. It is unbelievable that she's there. She should have resigned.
I mean, how long was she out because it was months and months right
that she was out. Yeah, she should have she should have resigned when
after being out for a month. But part of there, there's there's another
ulterior motive, though specifically with Feinstein. I think Adam Schiff wants I think
Adam Schiff has something to do with it. I think he wants her there
because if she does resign and Governor Gavin Newsom has to then appoint somebody,
and a shift is worried about losing his opportunity to run for that seat.
So I think Schiff wants her sticking around is part of the problem. And
he obviously has some influence in that, but yeah, she shouldn't. It's
it's beyond an excusable and it's actually cruel. It's cruel to her. She
doesn't even know where she is, and they and they're propping her up like
weekend at Bernie's. It's really it's disgusting in so many ways, Mike,
it's awful. Yeah, I agree, I agree, and I'm not that's
not from a writer, it's from me. Yeah, you're right about cruel.
You see him, you see him wheeling her down the hallway, and
she's looking around like a my aunt Disney World. Yeah, you know what
I mean. And and you feel bad for the lady. She did a
lot of good things. You know, she was always considered a staunch Democrat
and a staunch senator, you know what I mean, and and did probably
over the years many many good things. But now the representation she's getting our
giving is probably nil at this point. And just you know, they probably
when it's time for a vote, they hold up her hand to say,
raise your hand, you know, and well, you know, probably doesn't
even know what she's voting for. It. Well, you know, Mike,
as you say that too, It reminds me, you know, because
yeah, she has a hell of a career, whether you agree with her
or not, a hell of a career, and that should be her legacy.
But when, but when she but you know, eventually, when she
passes away. Not to be you know, again, not to be cold
about it, but let's be honest, when she passes away, for a
lot of people, her legacy will be, oh yeah, she's the woman
who had to be wheeled around and didn't didn't know where she was at the
end. That will end up being her legacy. Because of what's happening now
and the way they're propping her up. It's it's really sad, it is.
That's too bad, you know what I mean, right or wrong,
whether you like her politics or not, she put in the service for her
fellow man, and that's that's right, you know what I mean, that's
the right thing. And you're right if she gets a legacy. She was
a mess down the stretch. But my second point, you were talking about
Biden and running again real quick. The I don't know if you've heard the
tapes that have come out in the last two days, but they now have.
They're deciding to release some tapes that they have of Biden talking to Ukraine
officials, and the one they the one they put out today, at the
very end, it's it's after they realize, you know, he thought he
could do all this because Hillary was going to win, and when Trump ended
up winning, now he had to scramble to back covers, you know what,
backside to what all of what all the money and stuff going on.
And now a tape has come out where he's telling the Ukraine official, you
better get you better come through with what your promises were. And at the
very end it says you will be sorry both economically and physically. And I
don't know they've been playing it on Fox News and stuff, but it's a
tape of Biden's kind of threatening Ukraine officials once Trump. I'd love you to
dig into Biden someday here and it's his stuff because it's pretty deep. So
I don't you know about running again. I don't think he's gonna make it.
He's going to be in too much trouble. And even if he does
make it, the amount of scandal around him that is, you know,
smoke. Well, I'm sure turn off some people independently and on the left,
so I don't think he's going to do it again. He's too deep
into this mess, so I don't see it. And right now it's kind
of weird. The Democrats don't want to step nobody's everybody's afraid to step up
and say I'm going to run against him? And why is that? Well
that why isn't somebody like that? Yeah, well, that's that's very difficult
because if somebody because it's very very difficult to unseat and incumbent, and I
mean the closest I've seen to it in my lifetime and it's still not even
close, is uh, well, I should I can think of a couple
of examples where somebody might have had had a shot but didn't get really too
far, one being Teddy Ken trying to unsee Jimmy Carter and the other being
uh Pat Buchanan, who came damn close. I think statistically it was a
tie actually to beating George H. W. Bush in the New Hampshire primary
in ninety two. But it's it's it's a risk because whoever does that,
whoever puts really kind of puts their neck out and tries to do that,
they probably won't be successful. And then they're going to be a pariah because
that within the party, because they'll be seen as having done damage to Biden
on the way to the general election. It's it's very risky. I mean,
in principle, I agree with you, Mike. I think someone should.
I just don't think they will because from just from a political standpoint,
it's too risky. Yeah, I understand that's the status quo, but when
you're dealing with somebody that hash the things going on in some of the scandals
raring around him and his son, I think I think maybe the Democrats would
say, would pool around the new guy and say, you know what,
you know, if Biden runs again, we have a shot of losing the
election because there's a lot of people center and left that just don't want the
age thing. So if we have a new guy, wouldn't people surround him
and go, listen, this guy's got some underneath here. He's stepping up
to the plate saying, you know, it's time, it's time for some
younger leadership, you know what I mean? And there are some good centric
Democrats that that could stand up. But I guess I know it's it's a
status quo thing. You never do it. But this is a very interesting
situation, you know what I mean. The guy, the guy's not far
from a wheelchair cognitive cognitively, you know, we see him struggling in the
news a little bit. I don't know. I just think that somebody knew
might get that wave of oh good, we got we have an alternative.
Right now, he's kind of screwing the party saying I'm I'm running for Nobody
else is coming out and nobody else is getting out there in front of the
PubL saying what they can do for this country and what they you know,
what their principles are, and what's they're So you know what if Biden waits
till the last minute and a month before since I'm not running, he's very
doesn't help pademic. Yeah, well, it's like I've said all along,
he's very selfish in my opinion, He's putting himself ahead of everybody else and
and it's, uh, it's horrible, but it's it's so it's so hard
though to get you know, I mean, you see the same thing on
the right, you know, I hear people, I hear some of the
some of the Republicans who really want to move on from Trump. I often
hear complaining about how, you know, if only we could get some of
these other candidates to drop out, and then if we had one candidate who
was opposing Trump, then maybe that candidate would have a shot at defeating him
and getting somebody new in there. But but it's, but it's the same
thing. It's it's so hard to get people to want to want to do
that, want to take that step. I mean, it's it's it's a
it's a different situation, but the but the core premise is the same.
It's really hard to get to that objective and overcome the status quo. Oh
I agree, yeah, agree, But yeah, I would think secretly,
behind doors, they'd be going good. You know, somebody's gonna I don't
think a lot of Democrats want him running again. It's just too much.
No, No, seventy seven. The most recent poll that I saw,
seventy percent of Democrats do not want Biden. That, I mean, that's
and I've never seen I don't recall ever. I mean, again, it's
not unheard of for a party to be unhappy with their incumbent, But seventy
percent, I've never seen anything like that. But but again, I think
if if what Mark Halpern says is true, then it sounds like that might
be really weighing on him. I mean, the poor guy. I mean,
you know, seventy percent. You know, he's got to be going,
jeez, I don't know. I don't know if I should be doing
this, you know what I mean, if he has any if he has
any conscience. Yeah, So, mathematically, the guy who steps up to
not follow the status quo and say I'm running and technically gets somewhere around seventy
percent of a vote, if they're going to stick with their party. To
see what I'm saying, Oh I do, Yeah, I walks into it.
Guy walks into a pretty hard number. Yeah. But there's that machine,
you know, and and the DNC, you know, and the d
n C I'm sure wants to stick with Biden, because that's just what the
DNC does. They like the status quo. When we had Mary Ann Williams
and on now, let's let's be realistic. Mary Ann Williamson, she's running
for the Democratic nomination. She's no actual threat to Biden whatsoever, but she's
talked about on She didn't get into it much here, but when I saw
her interview on The Young Turks. She talked about how the DNC they actually
do consider her a threat because they mess with her at every opportunity. Like
she's had events planned where she's got vendors who are going to be at her
campaign event, and then she gets a call at the last minute from a
vendor saying, oh, sorry, something came up and we're not going to
be able to We're not gonna be able to cater your event after all.
And it's like, really, something came up at the last minute, and
she knows, she knows why it's happening because the DNC, you know,
they put that they put that boot on your neck if you even dare challenge
the front. Look at what they did to Hillary when when it looked like
Bernie, when it looked like Bernie Sanders might actually take her down. And
I should say, look what they did to Bernie, rather look what they
did for it. I was going to say that the Bie, right,
Yeah, I mean they you know, they they screwed with him at every
opportunity because he was a threatned Hillary was a status quo candidate. Yeah,
you know what, you know what I found amazing is all I hear about
Williamson. And I really never looked her up because she's a Democrat. But
but you hear a lot of people calling her at kouk and I listened to
her. I listened to the full interview on the show, and she was
everything but a kop. Yeah, it was hitting on all the topics that,
you know, helping out people in the street, helping out homeless,
helping people who can't afford heat help. You know, I'm like, great,
that's good, that's perfect, that's good. You know, I'm sitting
there going where are these people calling her a kuk? And I don't know
if that's a DNC or not, but yeah, well I know I know
where that came from originally, because if you she's an author, and I
mean, that's what she's famous for originally, and uh, if you look
at some of the books that she's written, there's a lot of stuff about
crystals and metaphysical stuff. So so she kind of has had that stigma attached
to her. And I didn't even know. I mean, that was kind
of what I thought too when I first saw her in those debates back in
twenty twenty. It wasn't until I saw her actually sit down for a long
form interview with somebody where I said, oh, she's actually no, she's
not a coup. She's actually very impressive and really knows her stuff. But
but yeah, she's got the stigma of those books that she's written, so
might have a little kookiness in her. Yeah. I remember one time she
was going to settle everything by love, Love Love, was going to settle
all the world problems. You know, that might be a little off the
rails, but yeah, but yeah, I was surprised. I was surprised
how old she was too. I didn't realize she was in her seventies.
Yeah, I didn't. I didn't realize it either. Yeah, she looks
great in person. She doesn't. She does not look her age. One
last thing that real quick that I don't think people are understanding this Vivic Ramaswami.
He's the only one that's come out and said I will pardon Trump on
all charges if I become president. So how smart is he if he gets
in or if he if Trump gets it in trouble, where do you think
all the people voting for Trump are gonna go? They're gonna go to the
guy who said he's going to pardon them on all charges. You know,
he's my guy, that vivic you know what I mean, He's just I
don't know, I'm just that's a pretty smart move that if he goes down
and then I heard Trump Trump talking about it, he'd be a great vice
president. Well that's what I yeah, that's that's what I think the game
really is. I think from Vivek's standpoint, I think he uh, I
think he's It's like I said the about the debate, I called it the
vice presidential debate, because you know, you've got a stage full of people
who I mean some of them obviously aren't going to be vice president. But
but I think I think that that might be the Christie won't be or or
Mike Pence. Uh but yeah, uh, or even or even Asa Hutchinson.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, Vivek is interesting. Uh, We're
he's taken some some he said some pretty interesting things. We're trying to get
him booked on the show. I know Jenny's talking to the campaign, so
you might seem that would be that would be fantastic. You might see him
on the show. Sid everybody know that that I know in my circles to
listen and watch because that would be fantastic. My my dad was a present.
Yeah, he's an impressive guy, thirty seven years old and he's built
two businesses that come out over billion dollars in worth. I don't know.
He's a smart guy, you know what I mean. You may hate some
of the little things, but look at the big picture. He's he's young
and smart. Well he said. He said a lot of things that I
certainly don't agree with. For example, is on Ukraine. I mean,
he sounds like he's just chomping at the bit to uh hand Ukraine over to
Russia, and I don't I don't agree with that. But what he was
saying, mainly, what he's saying is why are we spending all this mution
on money on Ukraine when we should be spending it on the southern border where
we're getting torched with criminals and sentinel and destroying our country. So that was
one of his points. But it doesn't sound I know everybody has, but
don't let one argument, you know what, tur you from the big picture.
There's there's there's other things too, but oh yeah, yeah, certainly.
But I'm a I'm of a political square peg, so no one's gonna
make me happy anyway. Now with that, now, with that ahead,
are you kidding me? That's right, that's right, I'll talk to I
shouldn't talk about heads. Mine's pretty big too. Well, yeah, it's
an Irish thing, all right, thanks for the call, Mike, Right,
all right, bye bye, all right, very good. Always nice
here from Mike. And that does open up the studio line for you.
Six zo three two five six seven six three two five o six zoh seven.
No, it's true, though, Irish people we have big heads.
I didn't realize it until I was back in the nineties. I just somehow
I'd never thought of it. And I was watching Conan O'Brien. This was
back when he first had his show on NBC UH in the twelve thirty slot,
and I was a big Conan fan. I mean, I still am.
But but he made a joke about having about how Irish people have big
heads. He was making a joke about his own head was Halloween, and
he was some sort of a joke about how he walks around. He's basically
got a jackal lantern on his head because Irish people have big heads. And
I honestly, until that moment, I had never thought about it. And
then I was like, wait a minute, do I have a big head?
And I remember getting up and going into the bathroom and looking at my
head and I'm like, oh my god, I actually do I have a
really big head. I guess it's true. And then I started looking at
other Irish people like or I remember I used to watch Hardball with Chris Matthews
and I was like, I'm watching Hardball one night after that and I'm like,
yeah, actually he has a big head. He's got a big,
round head. So yeah, I think it's an Irish thing. I mean,
I just I like to say I look like a South Park character with
this big head. But I think part of it is we need large heads
to hold our enormous brains. So there is there is that. Oh Jenny
said in the chat room, Mike, if you're still listening, you should
call a Veigs campaign to lobby for him to appear. Yeah. I wouldn't
hurt to put a bug in the ear about the shows. You know,
call the campaign, say you're a supporter, and uh say, you know,
you think he should come on my program? That would certainly help.
I do think as we get closer, as we get more in de falls.
As we get closer to primary season, we will start being able to
get more candidates on, even if not in studio because obviously they have busy
schedules, but even on the phone or via Skype. I think that you
know, I mean, this show is not exactly household name. I realized
that. But we are in Manchester, New Hampshire, so we're in the
largest city in the first in the nation primary state. If we still have
the first in the nation primary, I don't even know at this point do
we still have the first in the nation primary. I certainly hope so we
better. I'm gonna be very bitter if we don't. Oh a lot of
Facebook chat comments here, Probably we'll have to carry this conversation over into the
second hour after the break because there's more that Mark Halperin had to say this
morning when he was on Michael Smerconich's shown smirk Smirkanich on his program because they
talked about scenarios if Biden does decide not to run for a second term.
Uh, let's see here. I just want to look at the Facebook live
chat comments quickly. See. Melanie said it is so insane the amount of
money he is raising I'm not sure. I assume you're referring to Trump Trump
that mug shot alone. I think he's raised well over seven million dollars at
this point, So that's what I mean about, you know, as far
as the nomination just gets him closer and closer to the nomination. Well,
by the way, I should address to the audio that Mike was talking about.
I haven't heard any of that yet, so I'll have to I'll have
to check that out and in context and whatnot. The audio of Biden.
I haven't seen or heard any of that yet. Let's see this one.
Who Okay, So Scott Robinson says in the chat room, how about he
gets rid of Kamala Kamala Harris, gets Gavin Newsome as his veep, wins
and then steps down in a year and Gavin Newsome becomes president. Seems like
a win win. Well, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about that
in the second hour, Scott, we'll talk about some potential scenarios. Because
Mark Halperin did address some of that. Melanie said, referring to Diane Feinstein,
that is so disgusting that she is still in office. Yeah. Absolutely,
it's sad. It's just sad to watch that. It's horrible and and
and that's gonna end up being her legacy. That's what people are going to
you know, after she's gone. I don't even mean necessarily after she passes
away, but after she does finally retire. I assume she's not going to
be able to run for reelection after she's gone. You know, that's you
know, for younger people at least, maybe not for older people who who
can remember her career and her accomplishments. And she, like I said,
I mean, hell of a career. There's no denying that. But but
you know, younger people who are newer to politics, especially in California where
she is a senator, they're gonna, I mean, for for a whole
generation of people, that's gonna be the first thing they think of when they
think of Diane Feinstein, when they hear her name. They're going to think
of of of this woman who clearly is in no condition to be there,
probably not physically and certainly not mentally, and who should have been replaced by
now. Part of the problem is too, why this happens. Why you
know, again, not to be agist, but we have to talk about
this stuff or it just will go on. The reason these people, and
you can apply this to Diane Feinstein or Nancy Pelosi, or Joe Biden or
Mitch McConnell who you know, just froze up again today. The reason these
people become so entrenched is because the establishment helps to keep them there because the
only way you can take them out is in a primary. And by the
way, you can successfully primary someone, It happens, but it doesn't happen
a whole lot. But we have seen in history, we have seen examples
where well, like when the Tea Party movement rose up on the Republican side,
you did see a few establishment Republicans go down, like Eric Canter for
example, by these tea partiers who came in and were able to challenge the
status quo. But it takes money to do that. So these establishment politicians
who have been in their jobs for literally for decades in some cases, for
most of their adult lives. Joe Biden's been in Washington for I mean obviously
he was a Senator and then he was a Veep and then president. He's
been in Washington for fifty years. What happens? I mean, how long
has Mitch McConnell been a senator decades. Right, what happens is they're the
establishment. So other parts of the establishment the donors, which is who these
people really work for. Right, don't ever forget that the donors, you
know, that's where they put their money. So when someone tries to change
challenge and incumbent and establishment incumbent, they get out spent. And in politics,
whoever has the most money usually not always, but very often wins.
I mean, you know, not necessarily if it's one person has a little
bit more money in their campaign coffers than the other, But if one candidate
has a lot more money in their campaign coffers than the other, then they
usually win. And so these people are they can be controlled by the donors.
You know, it's a symbiotic relationship. Right. Once you get power,
you have to keep the power. And at that point it becomes more
about keeping the power than doing the people's business anyway. Right, So the
donors pay for you. They spend the money to make sure that the voters
keep you in power. So they spend that money on you, and then
you're beholden to them, and you know, it's a money go around,
as you know, that's a kink's reference. But and that's why, that's
why we have eighty and ninety year old people in Congress and in the Senate,
and in this case we haven't. He's gonna be eighty one in November,
an eighty one year old president. That's why. Let's see here.
Oh, Mike from Queen City Cabinetry has joined us in the Facebook live chat.
Hello, Queen City Cabinetry, one of our race sponsors here at WMNH.
And I get to hang out with Mike on Friday nights for retro Spectrum
Radio with Paul C. Also, I see easyg has joined us in the
Facebook live chat, and Rondo Favero says, howdy from really Hot California.
Ah, yes, all right, we are past the top of the hour,
so let's do this. Uh, we're gonna take a little break,
play a little something. I haven't played any Dust Profit in a while.
Let's play this track from Dust Profit. This usually gets a good, good
reaction from people. Oh, actually I should play one of the newer tracks.
Maybe I'll play the High Capital. That would be uh, or bury
me before noon? Uh m hmm, I'll play the High Capital. It
fits. Let's give this a listen and uh, and then we'll show some
love to our amazing sponsors, and then we'll be back with our number two
numerodos of Matt Connerton Unleashed. And I want to talk more about what Mark
Halperin had to say to Michael Smerconish on his radio show today, very very
interesting regarding the candidacy of President Joe Biden. So there is plenty more to
come. Don't go away, here's here's some dust. Profit wellcome back everybody,
as we are well in our number two New Merrow dose of Matt Connerton
Unleashed. And we are live from the studios of w m n H ninety
five point three FM in glorious downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, and it is
a glorious day outside. Also on Comcast channel six if you are in Manchester,
and hello to Olive our online listeners across the nation and around the globe.
You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all of your
live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, et
cetera, et cetera. Today is Wednesday, August thirtieth, twenty twenty three.
The studio line is open if you'd like to join us a six zero
three two five zero six O seven six zero three two five zero six zero
seven. You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven four
four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can email
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Pine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do so that
we can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones is to give us a call at
six zo three two five zero six zero seven six zo three two five zero
six zero seven. By the way, Rondo Ferverro from California said in the
chat room, Wow, boom, these guys rock with a pink Floyd flavor
at the slower tempo beginning of the song. Yeah, that was the high
Capital is the name of the track, and the band is Dust Profit and
we've had we've featured Dust Profit on the Actually we play their music quite often.
And great band, great live band. They're gonna be I believe they're
gonna be at Swarmy Fest, the second annual Swarmy Fest coming up in November,
and we're a part of that too. Really excited about that. Jenny
and I will be there of course representing, and but yeah, dust Profit
is really really good live Otto is a very intense front man. John Hopwood
has joined us in the Facebook live chat. John Hopwood says Gavin Newsom's a
blank hole just like Kamala Harris Bay Area petty bourgeois trash, my goodness,
and also said people who vote should be punished. On second thought, they
are oh all right, oh. John also said is Joel doing Joe Biden
impressions? Now? Yes, so Joe Biden President Joe Biden relating to the
people. You don't he almost lost his corvette in that fire, Dear lord.
Jenny called him a tone deaf elitist. I think it's just look,
it's an eighty year old man behaving like an eighty year old man. I
hate to say it. I hate to say it, but I said it
for the entire first hour, I suppose. Anyway, let me give the
studio line one more time and then we'll pick up where we left off.
But six zero three two five six seven six two five six seven, So
if you're just joining us in the second hour, what we've been talking about
today is I was listening to Michael Smerconish's radio program earlier and Mark Halperin was
on the show and according to halper And, high level sources are telling him
who are close to the president are telling him that Biden is reconsidering his decision
to run for a second term and may in fact announce a change change of
mind on the matter. And that gets us into what they also talked about.
Going from there. It was a fascinating conversation to listen to. They
speculated on what might happen next, assuming if and I'm skeptical that it's going
to happen, but Halperin says, and I should just actually, we'll we
have a call. We'll grab this first. Hi, welcome to Matt Connerton.
Unleash. Who's this? John C. Hopwood? John C. Hopwood?
What does the C stand for hunting runt ah? Be careful with that?
Yes, welcome to the show, John. Yes, yes, that
is a punchline to a joke. Yes, yes, not for you know,
terrestrial radio. Correct what's going on? I'm you sound so low?
I sound low? Yeah, as in my phone is just I was I
was a calling on my own show today, so and everything was fine with
that line, but you sound the very like the volume is low. Oh,
I thought I thought you meant my voice sounded low. My voice has
been you know, our voices get deeper as we get older. If you
haven't noticed, I thought you were referring to that. You haven't noticed my
voice is deep. No, your voice isn't deep. And I would assume
that if you were going to misread what I said, which is incomprehensible to
me, that you'd think that I would be thinking of your mood is low.
No, I my mood is fine, but my voice is deep.
So I was just calling in because you know, I was talking to Gonzo
for fifteen minutes while he was doing the painting on my show. Oh,
I mean, I'm here at the in the theater watching the Ferrari movie.
And what is it that you're getting back to. Well, So I was
listening to Michael Smerconish today his radio program, and Mark Halperin was on,
and according to Mark halper And, he's got high level sources who are telling
him that President Joe Biden is reconsidering and possibly will not be running for a
second term after all. And part of what is going into that decision is
trying to figure out what the course of action will be if he doesn't fact
decide not to run. Will he endorse Kamala Harris? Will he try to
find will they try to find someone else, try to figure out how to
get Kamala Harris out of there, maybe offer her a spot on the Supreme
Court if someone retires. They went through a bunch of different buffoons on the
court. What's one more? Huh? Well, you know, see,
I lived in California and these people would just jokes. Yeah, you are.
La Harris is t Oba man, tough on black asses. She's put
more black men in jail than George Wallace, Lestermadox orvill Fabus. You know,
these old gracist governors from the South could ever dream of. That's how
besides sleeping with Willie Brown, the mayor of San Francisco, who was very
powerful that he's a former Speaker of the California Assembly but he got term limited
out. That's her claimed the same man. And you know the time server,
So you are clearly not a fan. And Gavin Newsom's just oh my
god, what a lightweight. Well, I don't know, did you see
the last Walks? Did you see his interview on Sean Hannity's program. He
actually even some Republicans acknowledged that Newsom seemed to handle himself particularly well. He
impressed some people. No, yes, because you know all this uh stuff,
all this uh what we talked about years ago when we had back to
back shows and I had the all this Huxley commentary about how television taking over
politics would be a disaster. That the guy is an entertainer that is able
to memorize his line, kind of like another guy from California who I actually
shook hands do with Ronald Reagan. Oh now we got the train movie coming
through. Huh where are you? Yes, the Ferrari is the new the
new motion picture from Michael Mann, which I'm sure Eric kilch is all excited
about that. But I mean, just first off, from what you say,
nobody's reporting the story. Well, this just broke today, Mark halper
and would be all over. Mark Halperin went on Michael Smerconish and revealed this
for the first time today. This is breaking news that's not going to happen.
I'm skeptical as well, but it is interesting that this is the first
I've heard that he was actually considering or reconsidering his run, and part of
what Halperin says is what people behind the scenes have been telling Biden his Look,
your legacy is secure, and you risk it all by running for a
second term, because if you lose to Trump, your legacy will be that
you're the guy who beat Trump and then gave the White House back to him
four years later. And you don't want that to be your legacy. Take
what you have now and put it in your pocket and get ready to move
on and make way for somebody new. What legacy Because Joe Biden, that's
a rather remarkable statement. He's got a forty percent approval rating. Yeah,
I think in terms of legacy, and Halperin talked about some of it,
you know, uh, well, right, but on the positive side.
In other words, if you're talking to Joe Biden, then you're talking to
him about his legacy, and you want him to feel good. You're gonna
mention things like beating Trump, getting the vaccines distributed, getting us through the
pandemic, the vaccines who are distributed under Trump too. Oh at the end
of yeah, you're right at the end. No, But I'm saying,
John, if you're talking to Joe Biden, and you're trying to be and
you're trying to get him to be happy with what he's accomplished so he can
move on. You're gonna mention getting us through the pandemic, getting vaccines out,
uh, some some of the legisla lation that he got past, things
like that, and you're gonna because you're trying to talk him into being comfortable
with that and being comfortable enough to walk away versus risking it all by losing
the Trump which is a very real possibility. Mark Halpern was part of no
Label. Yes, he was right, Yeah, they say is part of
they were gonna you know, people were talking about, oh, no labels.
He's going to put up Joe Manchon from West Virginia, Joe Manchon and
the guy from Utah. They were gonna throw this will throw the election to
Trump. So but he's less no labels. So what is Mark Halpern actually
up to? Well, I think he continues to try to rehabilitate his career
because he h as I'm sure you recall he was fired from MDS NBC News
for allegations of sexual harassment, right, So is he somebody as a story
sweet even freaking listened to it. I don't see why not. I don't
know of any journalistic scandals, particularly that he's had or I mean, Smerkanish
trusts him, and I like Smerconish. I don't know if you're a fan
of his, but I don't know who they. I don't even know who
that is. Oh you don't know Michael Smerconish. You might enjoy him.
I generally get my news straight. What does that mean? I don't like
to read opinion pieces? Okay, Well, Smerconish is uh, I was
saying earlier. He's the radiohead. He's uh, yeah, he's uh.
He has a show that air's weekday afternoons, and he's he worked in the
George H. W. Bush administration, but he left the Republicans and became
an independent. I think it was during the Iraq War because he was so
upset with WA's foreign policy. So he left the party at that point.
And he's probably about the closest thing you'll find to a genu Win centrist in
political talk radio. So he's got a talk show. Yeah, is it
on serious? It is? Yeah, it's it's on satellite, but I
think it's also syndicated. On terrestrial radio two. I think. But well,
a quick look at a quick search shows that in twenty nineteen in the
Atlantic that he was peddling that idea. Back in twenty nineteen that Joe Biden
was thinking of moving on. So it's just it's outlandis first of all to
win the This is learned from reading many books, including The Great Petty White
to the Making of the President. When you win, when you win the
presidency, it's such a backbreaking I'd better use another word that began with B.
But you know, I know you're on FM radio right back breaking process.
You've actually won something, You've taken possession of it. It's like your
property and it comes with power. One of the reasons that are Robert F.
Kennedy, the real Robert F. Kennedy, uh Bobby Kennedy, Jack
Kennedy's brother felt he had to run in sixty eight was because and he felt,
you know, one of the things when Johnson took over the presidency have
the assassination. You know, it's like there's a theme of well, this
is something the Kennedy's won and build and now it's gone to him a pretender.
Of course, if LB J Hadsen on the ticket. They might have
lost Texas, but that's another thing they wouldn't have won. But r f
K thought they the logic was, if he waited to seventy two, the
last remnants of the Kennedy machine would have bet would be would be gone.
But there were still Kennedy loyalists, not just in the federal government, in
state governments that they built up relations with from fifty six to the sixty election.
And we're building still building six in November sixty three when JFK got killed.
Remember, Nixon came back from a political death by you know, sixty
two when he lost the goober litorial campaign California. They's not even done right,
but he came back because from sixty three through the end of sixty seven
he went to every Republican dinner every state, you know, and just just
like a New Hampshire primary, you know, they go door to door,
they meet everybody. Build these things. And my point is is it's a
it's it's power, but it's a property that you've won at great cost to
yourself. That's why would Joe Biden give up Paul? Why would he give
up this property he's made it to the catbird seat. You and I never
thought we'd see him in the presidency a few years ago. True, but
I just don't see it happening. I don't think it's likely. But but
he is eighty years old. And you know, I've been talking too about
Mitch McConnell froze up again, and he's only a year older than Biden.
And I'm sure people are looking. Maybe people are too polite to say it,
but I'm sure there's people who are thinking, Wow, look what's happening
to Mitch McConnell. What if that starts happening to Biden? And I always
say, John, it's only gonna take once. If anything like that happens
to Joe Biden publicly, whether it be and worst case scenario, if it
happened during a debate with Trump or during a speech, that's gonna be it.
I mean, that's gonna be it. He happened to happen to Ronald
Reagan the first debate in eighty four. That's true. Here's the other that's
true. Yeah, nineteen forty four, they knew FDR was dying. They
knew he was dying, but they had to run him again to win for
the Democrats to win, but they had a problem. Henry Wallace was a
Republican, but most people don't realize he used to be progressive Republicans, the
Ted Teddy Roosevelt right up to like the Nelson Rockefellers, so there was a
progressive strain there. So he was a very eccentric Liberal. And he was
the vice president because John Nance Garner, the former Speaker of the House who
was it for eight years, expected to become president. You get your nomination
in forty so he had to be getting rid of But what do you do
you have this guy who's a vice president in nineteen forty four, the vice
president FDR's vice president is going to become president. Everybody knows, So what
do you do? You have a guy that nobody trusts. They brought in
little lone Harry Truman, but he was known from his almost twelve years in
the Senate being a hard worker and somebody that could be relied on and had
innate gifts, and he indeed, what was it, within a month,
became well he forty five was the first year. Yeah, in April forty
five. He became president three months after the inauguration. So the whole play
really is Kamala Harris is not going to win the presidency, and neither is
Gavin Newsom. Your best bet is Biden. If you have the only way
Biden wins, does everybody say, is Trump? Right, You've got to
win the presidency, so you keep Biden. But who is going to be
your vice president? Because that's the person that like he's gonna be president within
a few couple of years, right right. I think that's the real issue,
and I'll give you back your show. All right, John, Well,
I appreciate the call. Thank you for a stimulating conversation. I think
Mark Halpern is cracking walnuts with this. Pis pusteria that the real discussion going
on right now is what the vice president say. Well that they did get
into that actually, but so ill. Okay, I'll regurgitate some of what
I heard today. If you put a link up on one of your pages,
I'd love to hear this. Yeah, I'll see if I can find
a link. Absolutely, Okay, take care of Matt. All right,
John, talk to you later. Thanks for the call, Bye bye.
All right. That was the great John C. Hopwood. That does open
up the line for you. Six zero three two five zero six seven six
zero three two five zero six zero seven if you'd like to call in Scott
Robinson, and the chat says, when the heck is Hopwood getting back in
studio, the people need him. Yes, well he's always welcome, but
uh yeah, sometimes sometimes we don't see him for a few weeks, but
always nice to see him when we do. But that was so the vice
presidency. Yeah, so that was part. That was a big part of
the conversation on Smerconish's show with Mark Halperin because they were talking about so if
Biden, here's the thing. So let's say Biden decides he's not running,
he needs to hurry up and announce that he's changed his mind if that is
the decision, Because if you know, unless Kamala Harris is going to be
the one to take that mantle of nominee, because the longer he waits,
if there is an announcement forthcoming, the longer he waits, the harder it's
going to be for someone else to begin a camp pain to be the nominee.
So it's probably going to have to be her. Now. The other
interesting this part I found particularly fascinating. Mark Halperin also talked about how Biden
apparently wasn't thrilled with how he was treated when he was vice president by President
Barack Obama. And I've read a lot of this over the years about how
the whole that whole bromance thing, the idea that they were like really tight,
isn't entirely true. They certainly had a bond of friendship, and I
think Obama even loaned or gave Biden some money to help with his mortgage at
one point or something, because all of Biden's money was going to going to
helping his son, Bobiden with whatever what her insurance wouldn't pay for as far
as his cancer treatments. When Bo Biden, his son was dying of brain
cancer at the age of forty six, passing away from brain cancer, so
I think Obama actually helped him out. But this was interesting, so I
thought, and this is what Smerconish had said too, because the narrative,
at least publicly, had always kind of been. In fact, I remember
when Biden gave the speech in the Rose Garden where he effectively announced his non
candidacy when then Vice President Joe Biden. This was of course at the end
of the Obama administration, he said that he had decided he was not going
to run. Now, Hillary Clinton was already in the race, and I
remember thinking that Biden was getting in. In fact, the night before Biden
gave that speech saying that he was not getting in, there was a superpack
or something that was raising money for Biden. That something had changed with that
that seemed to indicate that Biden was running. But the other thing was Biden
changed his story. I think he definitely was considering running because Biden changed his
story about the story had been. When Obama gave the order for the raid
in Pakistan to take out Osama bin Ladden, Biden was the naysayer in the
room who said, mister President, it's too risky. My advice is don't
do it. And Obama, of course ultimately decided to take the risk and
had paid off and they got Bin Ladden. But I remember in twenty twelve,
when Obama was running for reelection, I remember seeing campaign ads where Biden
talked about how how fantastic Obama's instincts on certain things were. Because Biden speaks
in the ad about how he didn't think it was a good idea, and
he actually told Biden, mister president, don't go. It's too risky,
and Obama went anyway, thus proving that Obama had these superior instincts. That
was the narrative at the time, and it continued to be the narrative until
just just like a few weeks before, Biden gave his Rose Garden address where
he announced his that he was not running. All of a sudden, I
see interviews online where Biden is changing his story, and the narrative went from
I told him he shouldn't, he shouldn't give the order to go to the
new version of the story was no. Actually I was very supportive. I
just told President Obama, you know this is a big decision, so please,
mister president, give it all the consideration that it deserves before you make
a final decision. But I never told him don't go. So he changed
his story, and I thought, why is he changing his story? Now?
He must be running for president. So I was sure he was running.
And then he gives the Rose Garden address where he says, basically from
what I recall, he said, my wife Jill and I were still grieving
over the loss of our son Bow. If anyone it should be Bow.
Biden running for president. And but we're still dealing with this pain. We're
not we're not through the grieving process yet. And and so because of that,
I've decided not to run for president. But over the years there's kind
of been this alternate narrative that actually, no, he did want to run,
but Obama told him not to because it's Hillary's turn. And we see
how that turned out. But who knows, I mean, if if it
had been Biden instead of Hillary, I mean, who knows if Biden would
have actually won the nomination instead of Hillary. I mean, technically, it
was not Hillary's turn. It was Biden's turn. He was a sitting vice
president. It was his turn. But Obama said, no, it's Hillary
Stern, you know. And of course she won the nomination, and she
did win the popular vote but couldn't win the presidency. So, according to
Mark Halperin, Biden is sensitive to how he treats Kamala Harris because he doesn't
like the way he was treated by Obama. He felt that Obama was kind
of putting his boot on his neck a little bit, and it was inappropriate
for Obama to pressure Biden not to run, even though Biden did heed that
pressure given to that pressure. So he doesn't want to do that to Kamala
Harris. So he wants to treat her fairly through this process if he does
decide that he's not running in terms of is it going to be her or
are they going to try to figure out a way to maneuver somebody else in
there, because she's got some negatives attached to her, some of which I
understand and some of which I think is overblown, frankly. But I found
that part fascinating what halper And said. And then I actually found this during
the break and I wanted to look at this. I didn't get a chance
to preread this, but this is from Time dot com, Time Magazine.
It's an article called why the Obama Biden bromance is a myth? And this
went up back in this this one up about a year ago, September of
twenty twenty two. But there's a specific part here that I want to look
at. Okay, so actually we should look at who's being who's being interviewed
here. Okay, So this so the author of the article, Philip Elliott,
spoke with this author Debnadetti. Debnadetti, that's hard to say I'm just
gonna. I'm just gonna, referred to him as D spoke with D about
his book titled The Long Alliance The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
Which sounds interesting, But I want to go to a specific point in
this interview that I find germane to the issue. Okay, so Elliot says
to D going forward a little bit, Biden's decision in twenty sixteen was as
painful for those of us on the outside as it was on the inside.
It was not easy for Obama to watch Biden suffering through such grief and a
really difficult decision. Ultimately, though Biden's I'm sorry, Obama stepped in and
did what was best for the Biden family, even if the Biden family didn't
appreciate it at the moment. And by the way, so that's what Halperin
was talking about today, that there was actually some resentment from Biden toward Obama
over this. So this is what D said. That's certainly what Obama thought
he was doing. He thought that Biden simply couldn't do the twenty sixteen campaign,
that he was going through the death, not with what he was going
through with the death of his son. That said, Biden also felt that
Obama was being a bit dismissive of him politically by essentially backing Hillary Clinton behind
the scenes, sending people to work for her, having a lot of his
aids talk to her, praising her publicly, all while as Vice president was
sitting right there. So there was a lot of conversation between the two of
them before Biden basically said, listen, I understand you decided that you need
to back Secretary Clinton, but maybe we should talk about this. It was
very painful for both of them. It took a very long time for Biden
to realize that he ultimately couldn't sustain a campaign, couldn't do it in the
moment of time that was needed, and he couldn't do it emotionally. But
that was really a moment in which their relationship changed, because that was a
moment of intense political but also personal feeling for both of them. I'm going
to read this full interview later. This looks really interesting. Now I'm going
to skip down again. So Elliott asks d this is later in the interview
when it comes to her time, will Vice President Harris be able to claim
a similar relationship with Biden and d answered, they're just very different relationships.
Biden sought to find a partner who, in his words, could be his
Biden Obama counseled him not to think of it in those terms. Their relationship
was just fundamentally going to have a different going to have to be different because
there was the proposition of Biden as Obama's partner. He was a man who'd
been in Washington for a million years and had the experience on Capitol Hill,
who had the experience in foreign policy, and who could help guide Obama in
decision making. Biden may like Harris's instincts, but at the end of the
day, she is not someone who has more experience in any of these topics
than him, so he's not not going to rely on her for advice.
There's no easier way to sum up the difference in their relationship than that of
Biden and Obama had their weekly lunches. Harris and Biden started off having these
weekly lunches. But how many times have they done this? How many times
have they done it this year? Five? Five is my last count?
Anyway, that so, but that was part of the discussion to Dance mcconscious
show is assuming Biden, because here's the thing, it's going to get very,
very complicated. And I said this before before Biden made his initial announcement
that he's running. I said, if he decides not to run, it's
going to be fascinating, But it's also going to be very difficult for the
Democrats because, like I said, Kamala Harris has very high negatives. People
don't like her much more than they like Biden, if even that much.
Some of it. I understand. She's had some strange moments. She laughs
at inappropriate times. It's a little bit. The part of the criticism,
though, that I think is really unfair, is when people say, well,
where is she? I hardly ever see her. She's not visible.
But that happens with every vice president. Every vice president fades to the background.
The only one who didn't fade as much as all the rest of them,
probably at least in my lifetime, would be Dick Cheney, George W.
Bush's VP, But even he kind of tried to fade into the background.
Melanie says in the chat room, I might be misremembering, but I
think there were rumblings that Hillary was asked to step back during Obama's first run,
her time would come. I wonder if that was why Biden was asked
to step down. Well, that's the thing Obama might have felt like he
kind of, you know, because he kind of elbowed Hillary out of the
way, that he owed her something that might be some of that. I
mean, what I remember about two thousand and eight was, yeah, it
Hillary's turn then, and I think everyone kind of assumed she would be the
nominee. And Obama was a fast rising star. He had given that speech
at the two thousand and four Democratic Convention and that was kind of as a
senator, that was kind of when he first really grabbed people's attention with that
famous Red State, Blue State speech and then but but I think I don't
think anyone really expected he was going to be the nominee. But then he
started doing really really well, I remember, you know, and then but
she hung up. She hung in there for a long time. But uh
yeah, I don't I don't know. I mean, I think she hung
in there. From what I can recall, she hung in there for longer
than maybe Obama wanted her to. Because there did come a point in that
campaign where it was obvious he was going to make it. He was going
to have enough delegates to quench the nomination, but she was still kind of
but she was still winning primaries right to the end. It's just that he
was winning more of them. But she won quite a few primaries in that
cycle. But then eventually there came a point where yeah, she had to
she had to step aside. And then there it is twenty sixteen and it's
finally her time, and she's the nominee, and it slips through her fingers.
Again. I always say too, I mean, I do have some
empathy in that. I mean, say what you want to about Hillary Clinton,
but I do have to say this. It has to be an incredible
mind. It has to be so mind bending to be I mean, think
about this, to be that close. You think about all she went through,
all she tolerated with Bill Clinton. She had to suffer through Monica Lewinsky
and Jennifer Flowers and who else is more. I can't remember all the names,
and you know, just all of that public humiliation. You know,
she suffers through all of that. And I assume, I mean, you
know, maybe she loves him. I don't know, but I assume it
was largely out of ambition, right, because she knew she was going to
get her chance, you know. And then she she became Senator of New
York and well one of the senators of New York obviously, and you know,
so now was her time, you know. And then she became Secretary
of State and it was her time. Now she was going to get to
be she was going to finally get to be president. And there it was
twenty sixteen. It was finally time, she was going to get to be
president. And I just to just try to imagine being that close, that
close to something that she had wanted for so long, that close to being
leader of the free world, and assuming that it's going to happen, because
it certainly seemed like a locke. I know there's people who will say,
I remember at the time, a lot of Republicans would say, oh,
I always knew Trump would win. I always knew he could do it.
Yeah, right, you were just as surprised. Hell, you were just
as surprised as he was, because he was very he didn't expect to win,
right, But can you imagine to be her and be that close and
having it slipped through your fingers one more time? But to be that close.
What that must do to a person's brain or another example, John Kerry.
It really looked in two thousand and four, it really looked like John
Kerry was gonna it was obviously it was going to be close, and it
was close. It came down to Kayahoga County in Ohio. Kyahoga County Carl
Rove made sure that gay marriage was on the ballot for referendum in Kiahoga County,
Ohio, to get Republicans to turn out to vote against that and at
the same time vote for George W. Bush. And it worked. It
worked. If that one county had just gone the other way, John Kerry
would have been president. And it looked, according to exit polling that day,
it looked like he was going to be Can you imagine what that must
be like to be that close to being president of the United States and watching
it slip away. I mean, I'm sure losing his hard for anybody,
right, but sometimes you know, you know, I mean, obviously,
Walter Mondale in eighty four, he knew he was going to lose, you
know, so I'm sure it was no great shock to him on election night,
right, I'm sure Mondale wasn't sitting there going, ah, I was
so close. No, dude, you clearly were not. And you know
that, and people around him said, yeah, obviously he knew it.
At that point. It was about losing with dignity, but it wasn't It
was not about winning or you know, in ninety two, George H.
W. Bush, he knew he was going to lose to Bill Clinton.
It was over. You know, Melanie says in the chat room, she
knew what she was buying with that embarrassment and tolerance. Yeah, but she
didn't get what she ultimately wanted, did she. She just didn't get there.
Oh wow, we're out of show. Anyway. I ended up spending
really the entire show on the on an interview that happened on somebody else's radio
show. But that's fine. I just thought it was fascinating and add a
bunch of other things to get to, but we'll save those for tomorrow,
all right. So I appreciate you all, Thank you so much for joining
me today for Matt Connerton Unleashed. And if you miss any part of today's
show it we'll be up in just a little bit at WMH radio dot org
and on my website. Matt Connerton dot com. Oh, Scott Robinson says,
excellent show today, Matt excellent, Thank you, Scott. I appreciate
that very much. I do think we should close out with a little more
dust profit why not. So yeah, thank you all, And yeah,
we'll see, we'll see if I'm right. I think by tomorrow at this
time there will be a lot more people talking about what Mark Halperin said today
on Smerconish. We'll see, and I'll see if I can find a link
to the podcast of that and I will share it out. And as John
C. Hopwood had requested, and thank you John for calling in and chatting,
as well as Mike Doyle. All Right, we gotta go, We're
out of here. I'll talk to y'all a little bit later. By everybody,