Hello, everyone, Welcome back to a new element to start again because my
voice crying. One, two three, Hello everyone, Welcome back to a
new episode of You're Wrong with Molly Hemingway and David Harsani. This week,
I think the big topic Molly will be the GOP presidential debate without Donald Trump.
I'm not sure how important it is, but it is happening, and
I'm kind of excited to actually see how these sort of second tier people stack
up against each other. How about you. Yeah, I have been saying
for months how annoyed I am with the primary, and how I don't want
to be thinking about it, and how I think they're all these like other
important things going on. But I will admit I woke up this morning and
I was like, Oh, it's debate day, and I got a little
excited. And I'm very curious to see how different people answer different questions.
I have, you know, lots of thoughts on what people should be doing,
how they should approach things. I even I was talking with a decantist
advisor yesterday about Trump not showing up. And I was also thinking about this
because you and I had been talking about Johnny Rotten and his new album that's
out, and he had strongly criticized President Biden for not debating his primary opponents,
like the Democrat Party is just not even hosting debates even though his opponents
have pretty strong polling. That'd be Mary Ann Williamson and Robert Kennedy and Johnny
Rotten was talking about how awful it is to not debate, how it's like
just sort of like a slap in the face of people. And anyway,
I was talking to this to Santist advisor, and I do think Republicans do
not look favorably on Donald Trump not showing up for this debate. I don't
think it's like the biggest issue in the world, but I think they would
like it, both because they like to see him debate and also because they
think it's like a way to show respect for the voter. But I don't
know what do you think about that. I don't know what people think,
but I do know that strategically, on paper, makes sense for him not
to debate. He's the front runner, he's way up all that stuff.
But you're right, I think, especially when you have the persona of Donald
Trump, where you're you're sitting down with CNN, you're you know, you're
talking to all these other people, but yet you're not showing up for a
debate with the people like Desanta say, you're constantly mocking. I think it
probably reflects poorly on him. I don't think it's going to be that important,
but maybe, you know, maybe it's the start of something for one
of these candidates if they have a really good showing well. And just to
put a bow on this with Trump, I totally understand why both he and
Biden are not debating. That's like kind of political consulting one on one.
You don't It's very high risk, very low reward to go into a debate
when you're in that position in the polls. So I get why they're not
doing it. But I will say that Donald Trump in twenty fifteen and twenty
sixteen, it was a site to behold to watch him pick off each contender
one by one. I mean, it was exhilarating. It was like watching
you know, NFL playoffs or something like that. He was like, what's
he going to do? How's he going to do it with this one,
How's he going to do it with that one? And it was a big
step on his way to unifying the party in order to actually win the presidency
that year, and then in twenty twenty, his campaign worked very hard to
not have any semblance of a primary challenge, which I understand why they did
that, but he had not done a debate since that masterful Hillary Clinton debate,
which included her calling for a proxy war with Russia in Syria and also
included Trump pointing out that she supports abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and
she couldn't deny. It was it was like something I've kind of waited for
for years to see someone do that. And so when he debated Biden,
he hadn't been debating in four years, and it showed, you know,
it did not go well for him. So I think that while I understand
why he's not doing it, he should also think about how when you're super
out of practice on the debate stage, it can affect how you debate in
the general. Yeah, I think I think that's That's something I've written about
it being part of a primary actually sharpens you. I think for a general
I will say this. We talk about how this might hurt Donald Trump,
but I mean, and you know my feelings about Donald Trump in general.
He is an impossible person to debate. He is very difficult to deal with.
And I always liken it too at the beginning of Rocky three. I
don't know if you remember when Rocky fights was his name Thunderlips? Who is
Hulk Hogan? It's because you know, and I noticed this with Rubio and
Cruising. All these people who try to fight him or try to sort of
debate like he debates, right, they can't do it. They know one
set of rules of political rules of how you debate, and Donald Trump will
just pick you up and throw you out of the ring right like. He
does not play by the rules. He will insult you, he will act
in a way that these people can't and you can't debate like him, and
you can't debate against it. So my point is Donald Trump could show up
at this debate if he did, and completely decimate De Santis, right,
or completely decimate Tim Scott. That could just as easily happen. So maybe
maybe this isn't a bad way for those people to be able to debate in
a normal way without him around. I actually think it's a huge gift to
De Santis and the other candidates to be able to debate on like a sane
debate stage. I think it's going to be it's gonna be work both ways.
Can I just I want to say, I'm in a weird moods.
I'm going to say something favorable, not favorable, But like, I actually
think Joe Biden did mimic Trump in that first debate. He was belligerent,
he was shouty, he was yelling. It was a little weird and off
putting. He had a huge assistants huge assist from the moderator who would say
things like, mister president, nobody cares about the Biden family corruption. Could
we move on to things that matter? Like gotcha question on whether you're a
white nationalist? You know? So he had a huge assist. But Biden
actually did kind of thunderlips. Yeah. It was like two old men arguing
over soup. And I was awful. Yeah, those were the worst.
But I have to say, and I think we underestimate, or at least
some people underestimate that the entertainment value of Donald Trump on a debate stage,
especially in those primaries. Those were fun to watch. There's no other way
around it, right, Like you could be a lot of people were disgusted
by the things maybe he said or didn't say, but they were fun to
watch, and I bet you the ratings were through the re afraid of those
debates. Absolutely true. It's also true that you don't have to be Donald
Trump and when a debate meaning like I remember excellent debate performances such as those
of Ronald Reagan, or I thought New Gingrich was amazing in twenty twelve,
which was another one of these like crazy amount of people running, and he
was deft and quick, and I still remember some of the things he said.
So I would hope that other people would take advantage of this opportunity to
hone their skills to make the case for themselves. One thing I thought about
Ronda Santis and I'm not criticizing the way he rolled out his campaign because I
don't even know if there's a way to do it with our current propaganda press.
But normally, when you when you introduce your campaign, you do an
actual introduction where you kind of explain the narrative of who you, who you
are, what your campaign is going to be. And because President Trump started
attacking him before he even won reelection, there was this false narrative set about
him on actually being such a great governor, you know, and being in
the throes of the establishment or those types of things. And then when DeSantis
did finally enter, he did it. You know, he did it in
the Twitter spaces. He did it with the interview with David sax. I
actually enjoyed what he said in the interview and stuff like that, but it
wasn't a traditional roll out where you explain to the stupid reporters like who you
are, what your case is. And if I were him, I would
take the opportunity tonight to sort of reset the narrative. But I don't mean
reset the campaign. I actually think his case for his campaign is based on
his effectiveness as a governor, and that's always been the case. But he
should he should state that tonight. What do you think? Yeah, I
guess I don't really know how he I mean, he needs to do that,
but I don't really know how much it will help, but I will.
You know, last week we got into this for the first time basically
for real, and boy, it seemed to me at least that there was
a ton of reaction to the podcast hast on both on Twitter and a lot
of really thoughtful emails. Are not going to get into all of that.
But you know, this is obviously what people are interested in talking about.
And some of it had to do with Vivic Ramaswami and the Vaque. Sorry,
I'm gonna call him the Vague from now on without the last name.
And he uh, you know, and how he has run his campaign well
in the right way into Santis hasn't. I find that very unconvincing. I
think I just wanted to mention something about him for a moment. He'll he'll
probably do well. He's a pretty well he's very well spoken, right,
very affluent in issues kind of but he also has this advantage over to Santas
in that I just think he's a stalking horse for Trump and he can basically
say anything he wants to get attention and to say things people like to hear
without really having to have any kind of policy, you know, or or
worry about ever actually ever being president, which he will never be. And
and so it's I think it's under you know, there are these type of
let me just give you an example. He says things that people want to
hear. I don't think he believes them. He says he sort of dabbled
in a little nine to eleven trutherism because he thinks that's what people want to
hear. The other day and I see you make that face, but he
did, and then the Atlantic released the recordings and he did do it.
I don't think he believes that. I think it's just a guy who wants
attention and says things he thinks people would like to hear. Where he says,
you know, let's cut off eight Israel, which I actually agree with
him on for different reasons, or he says what else did he say this?
Oh yeah, let's raise the voting age to twenty five. Those are
real things. He's just looking for attention and he gets it. And with
all these other candidates, and I don't think any of them are for real
except for DeSantis on the second tier. That just muddies the waters and helps
Trump. I just don't see. That's just another aspect of this. I
want to talk about it. I just don't see DeSantis overcoming Trump and all
these other people who are sort of probably sifting some of his votes away.
How do you feel about that? I don't know. I try to be
open minded about everything, like in my view, actually, we're in the
phase where the primary is over, but the sort of like pundit class needs
a few months to accept that, so they're just And then also, like
the architecture built up around each candidate has a lot of money to spend,
so you're going to see like strong bursts in the next couple of months for
different way you think the primary is over, Well, I don't know how
to explain what I'm saying, so forgive me, But as I said,
I'm open minded to any possibility, and I do mean by that any possibility.
I learned in twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen that both what I think and
what I want are not completely relevant to what's gonna what's going to happen,
So I don't think it's like my job to figure out everything. I think
it's my job to kind of observe and listen to people and accurately convey what
they think. Yes, when I look, I think back to twenty fifteen
and how shocking it was when Trump won the primary, but how it really
shouldn't have been. You know, he would be leading in all these polls
and we'd all be like, but I mean, he's not going to win
the primary, So who's really going to win the primary, and you look
back and you go, oh, you know, actually, we probably should
have been seeing this a lot earlier. And so likewise these are massive.
So there's the polling, which I don't totally trust polling, but the polling
is massive for Trump versus the other candidates. But more than that, when
you think about like the theory of the case, it's hard for anyone.
It's what I've always thought about the Santists, America's best governor and a great
man. It's always like hard to actually make the case for taking Trump off
the field without also losing the voters that you need, not just for the
for the It's hard to make things without losing the voters that you need for
the You know, Yeah, it's a very tough spot. But it is
way too early, I would say, I mean it's before Labor Day.
Yeah, I mean, I I don't know what's gonna bean, I don't
know what's going to happen, and I suspect Trump will probably win, but
I I mean, things change if you go back and other presidential elections,
things change all the time. I think that this election has a still a
problem to twenty fifteen to twenty fifteen primaries, and that there are many different
options to Trump. Trump is a very definite. He has a definitive point
of view, and people who like him like him for who he is.
With these other candidates are kind of all over the place in the sense that
they don't engender the same site type of loyalty, right, So having so
many of them, it was like Crew, all these people sort of like
Cruise and Ruby and all those guys were running. If you're gonna be Trump,
there needs to be one other choice for people to see. It can't
be a bunch of different people who basically meld into one in the eyes of
a lot of I think voters. I just think that that's a problem also
for for DeSantis, that there's so many other options. Thanks for listening to
the Federalist. This is Sarah Carter, Fox News investigative columnist. Folks,
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code Carter. I met with someone last week who was telling me this story
about the the sorry Kavanaugh nomination. So, when Trump nominated Kavanaugh, this
guy knew that there was like a short list of four or five people,
and he felt that of that shortlist, Kavanaugh was not just his least favorite,
but like he really really did not like him. I kind of thought
he was a Bush era squish. All the other candidates would have been better.
And when Trump picked Kavanaugh, he was like, Okay, well,
let's see how that, you know, let's see how that goes. And
he was completely checked out, didn't really care until the moment the Washington Post
launched their info op against Brett Kavanaugh, calling him a serial gang rapist who
was roaming the streets of suburban Maryland. And at that moment, the man
switched from completely apathetic about the nomination or the confirmation battle into, as he
put it, he was willing to take a bullet to make sure this guy
got on the court. And he was telling this story as it related to
his feelings about the Republican primary. So, like a few months ago,
he's a huge fan of Rhonda Santis and really likes him, and he thinks
that when it comes to actual articulation of conservative principles balanced with the action that
a lot of Republicans are unable to do, it's just not even close.
Like he really likes him. He thinks he's in the Trump mold, but
like without the baggage. And he was explaining that from the moment of the
first indictment he felt the same way he did about the Washington Post doing what
they did to Kavanaugh, like it's not even an option. Now. He
feels like, you either give up the country and you say it's okay to
do everything that they have done to Donald Trump, which is not okay,
and you unite around this like it's an existential threat to the country. What
the Democrats at the Department of Justice in the New York Alvin Bragg office at
the Fannie Willistory, what the Democrats are doing to destroy our country and put
us in a very dangerous situation is the most important issue out there. And
I think that different people have different ways of looking at it, but a
lot of people, I mean, it's a good way to understand why with
each indictment that the Democrats are doing for their twenty twenty four campaign strategy,
it unifies the Republicans more and more about the need to save the country against
this totalitarian nightmare that we are living through. Well, you know, in
twenty fifteen, I could not even comprehend honestly why anyone would want Donald Trump
to be president. But over the since then, I have come to sympathize
and understand why people support Donald Trump because their enemy is how can I say,
just as bad or worse in many ways than the things they accused him
of being are, and that they feel like, you know, they're just
constantly being abused by the system and they need someone to fight back. My
case would be, if I was de santist, that he is not the
right person to do that, even though he is a victim. And obviously
that is an incredibly difficult case to make in this environment, especially by the
way, when not only does Trump benefit from being basically an incumbent, but
he benefits on purpose or not from from from sucking all the attention of the
media all the time, whether it's negative, what's always negative, right,
But that negativity steals, you know, gets people all worked up to defend
them, like you just basically explained. And I totally sympathize with that instinct,
I really do. But I just I still don't think that's what would
be best for the country. And that's just my position. I mean,
I just don't feel like I have to give my loyalty to any politician,
even a victim, when there are other people who might be better and more
competent and more articulate in leading you in the right way. And I don't
love a lot of what Ron de Santis is about anymore, but I still
think that he meets all those criteria. Yeah, And I think I actually
think this is what primaries are for. And it's healthy to kind of litigate
some of these issues, not litigate, you know, like made and persuade.
And that's why I am kind of looking forward to seeing this debate tonight.
I'm curious how many people are really stuck in that dead like Romney w
Paul Ryan kind of phase of operations still, and how many people are articulating
a politically palatable message that that you know, keeps those principles that the Republican
Party has had for so long alive in a way that connects with voters.
So people have to be realistic. There is no appetite for Nicky Haley in
this country. I don't understand what she's running. Like Listen, even if
I agreed with everything when she was saying, I would be I would clearly
understand, like you said before, that there that that reality tells me there
is no appetite on the Republican in the Republican Party for a kind of you
know, two thousand and five Neo Khan, you know, insider type,
whatever you want to call it. Tim Scott is well, I just don't
think there's much of an appetite there for him. Who else is running,
who else is on that debate stage. I just want to say about Nicki
Haley that I think that people who know her policies well don't love her,
but there is some appeal she has with a lot of normi Republican voters,
and she's actually a really politically savvy person. She played twenty sixteen better than
almost any other establishment figure, and she wrote that into this like un position
that helped her make the case that she's like a legitimate presidential contender. I
think her time is not going to go well. She's obviously not pulling very
well, but she does. She does well on debate stages. She does
well in question and answer things you had said that you think she has like
this sing songy voice that is something I now cannot escape every time I hear
her. It's like, I think about what you said there, but I
think a lot of people actually love the sound of her voice and love the
way that she answers questions with that way of going back and forth. You
know, everything you said, it's true. I think she's formidable person,
right, I don't. I just I just don't. I don't. I
disagree with some other stuff she says. Well, I just don't think there's
any appetite for her for her type of politics right now. And that's just
the reality of it. As you know. I don't like what's going on
in the Republican Party, but that but there's a reality you have to wrestle
with and deal with. People vote, and this is, you know,
a democratic name. Let me say that about the Bake then too. And
I understand I don't understand him completely. I did get the opportunity to meet
with him fairly recently, and he's a very open person, Like he told
it was a group of a diverse group of reporters who were there, and
he said, everything's on the record, and I don't do you know,
off the record type stuff, and he I'd asked him a little bit about
his background, and he does seem to be someone who's brilliant at so many
different things, you know, whether it's the law or tech investments, you
know, biotech investments or you know. He even got bored at one point
and learned how to do comedy, which will probably serve him very well on
the debate stage. And there's also something weird about it, right, Like
he does seem to change rather regularly. But I think it's funny when people
act like it's weird to position one's self in a way that is politically palatable,
Like that's kind of what politics is. It's the art of leading.
Cannot be done if you are not in sync with the people you are attempting
to lead, and we act like it's like really corrupt to be aware of
that. But I think that's actually just what all politicians who are good at
their jobs do, and it's also what all politicians who are you know,
harming the country do. But it's I just think it's weird that you get
angry about it. It's it's the people's will. I'm their leader. I
must follow them. I don't, don't, That's what I was saying.
No, I know, But what you're saying is that obviously you have to
make yourself palatable to a majority of people. Or whatever in each state to
win an election. But but that's not true. It is true, actually,
but it's not true in the way I think that you just said it.
I mean, you can or the way he acts. The thing the
vague. The thing is, you can bring new ideas to people. You
can convince them to think differently about the world. You can be honest about
where you're coming from your is he a billionaire? I don't even know that.
You're a successful person. Yeah. Yeah, you don't have to pretend
to be among the masses, you can. You know, Donald Trump doesn't
even do that. He doesn't, he doesn't. He just connects with working
class people. I think, I, yeah, go on here, I
just have to interrupt. Sorry. When he was telling I'd asked him to
tell the story about like starting out when you're fifteen, kind of tell us
your life story. And he was, I forget which Ivy League school he
went to, and then he was at this hedge fund. But he was
a little bored, and so he decided to go to law school. But
the hedge fund was like, you can still do your hedge funding stuff.
You just get like a smaller portfolio or whatever. He's like, and that
actually went really well. And I said, is that is that when you
made your money? And he was like, oh, no, no,
no, He's like, well, I did make five billion in law school,
but that's not where I made my money because like then I finished law
school blah blah blah. And I'm like, how many people can say they
made five million billion dollars in law school and then he started his own biotech
focused thing where he made a good zillion dollars. But he's a really impressive
guy in many ways, and I feel like, actually he's wasting his talent
in some way. I think he wants to be like secretary of something in
the Trump administration. But I think he's wasting his talent because he's a type
of guy who could actually fuse the kind of populist speak and good policy and
stuff, rather than chasing crowds around trying to make them like him. Think
about Abraham Lincoln, who saved the Republic. I just had I was giving
a speech in Richmond, and one of my kids and I went to the
Civil War Museum, and you know, obviously a lot of Lincoln stuff there,
and you look at all the things he said, some of which are
actually kind of contradictory over the course of his political career, but which were
done with an eye toward preserving the republic. And even though he for instance,
he knew at that time and said publicly earlier in his career eloquently he
spoke about the evils of slavery, but in the course of running for president
or whatnot, he was saying things in such a way as to try to
pick the most republic preserving incremental approach to getting rid of slavery. And you
could say he's finding out where the people are and letting them lead, or
you could think he actually knew where he wanted to take the country, but
he couldn't do it if he weren't elected, you know, senator or president
or you know. So he's you understand what I'm saying, Like, yeah,
I hear what you're saying about more nuanced discussion. Yeah, I just
I just think it's weird when we get mad at people for I mean,
like Chris Christie is not running for president. He's he's like a paid operation
of anti Republican things, and so he's he's doing like the opposite. He's
just trying to figure out the middle of where the corporate media are so he
can be every day yeah, and tear down the party that did not,
you know, make him president. But I think it's more noble to actually
try to lead. And I have I'm not saying this about Vague. I
don't in any way know him enough to know, you know, whether this
is the case, and in fact I suspect it's not. But I think
it's more noble to actually position yourself so that you will continue to be able
to have a voice to take people where you want them to go. The
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Check out the Watchdoto on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcast. My Thing is if I don't hear
a politician tell people something they don't want to hear at least once, and
all the things they're saying, I can't really trust them that much. I
know that sounds weird, but I need to hear, like, listen,
this is going to be hard. We're going to have to do X,
Y and Z to get to this place. You can't just have everything you
want, whatever it is. But no one does that anymore. And you
know, I'm not Joe Biden doesn't do that. I mean, everyone's a
populous to some extent if they're in politics. I get that. But anyway,
I think it'll be interesting to see what happens in this debate, but
I don't know that it's going to matter in the big picture very much.
Is basically, yeah, well, let's keep on going through a few more
people. Though. I am sad that that that guy who claims to be
the North Dakota governor got a basketball injury, because I was really excited to
see. I also kind of like every time I do see a quote from
him or something like, I kind of like what he's saying and he does
seem it makes me very sad and angry. That the Republican Party doesn't seem
to care about fiscal responsibility anymore, and he does seem too, so I'm
hoping he makes it. He was playing basketball with the staff and tore his
a cl or something. I don't know. I don' understand. Again,
I tore my muscle on my leg and I had it just like a cast
thing on it. I don't understand why he can't participate in a debate.
Were you standing on it for three hours? Well, give will give him
some kind of stool. Doug Bergham is his name? Who else? If
I'm debate stage. Actually I forgot about that. Mike Pence also seemingly running
more for board positions for himself or for his top staff, rather than an
actual belief that he has any political future. It's actually like sad to watch
that. Well. Yes, oh, Tim Stohnson, Tim Scott. I
like Tim Scott fine. I mean I like him totally fine, although he
has not been great on judges, which which is one of my pet issues.
But he did not do well during those interviews at the Iowa you know,
the Iowa launched to the Caucuses. He was unimpressive, So I'm curious
how well he'll do or if he's going to work on that, he has
a big campaign more chess, so hopefully they invested a little bit in some
debate prep. And then Asa Hutchinson also not impressive, right or what do
you think? No, I mean, I don't know anything about him other
than I mean, I know who he is. I've read about him,
but I don't have been impressed by him. He's also running for the highly
funded never trumpist like super never Trump iss Lane, and I don't think I
think Chris Christie has that cornered and so he should just recognize that Chris Christie
is such a fraud. He was the first person to surrender to Trump and
stand there like completely complete submission, ready to be in the If Trump had
given him a spot in the administration, he would he would have been a
loyalist. I mean, he pretends to be this, you know, I
don't know. He's such a fraud and he's such a disappointment. I have
to say, because I actually quite liked him David originally when he was New
Jersey governor or the waste up to unions, Why you weren't a fan?
Talking twenty fourteen, twenty thirteen, It was just nice. I guess you
know. I'm a social conservative who cares about the Constitution. Do you think
I like Chris Christie. I don't know the guy who stood on the beach
with Barack Obama to make sure he would win reelection. I'm not a huge
Chris christyphian. Yeah, you know. I don't have a poster of him
on my wall. I'm not a guy who got Trump to put in Chris
Ray, and after all of the disaster of the FBI and Department of Justice
was defending Chris Ray like yesterday. No, I'm not a Chris Chris Stephen.
Let's get off this topic. I don't like where this is going.
Are there other people that we forgot? I I would feel very badly if
we foresaid Mike penns right, yep, and Chris Christy, Nicki Haley,
Tim Scott's no, that's it, okay. Do you think do you think
Donald Trump is going to debate in the primary? Ever? I don't know.
He Again we referenced how you should never debate when you're that far ahead
from a political science standpoint, but he frequently does things he's not supposed to
do. So the fact that he probably shouldn't in the numbers sense, I
mean he does, the fact that he should do it just out of respect
or for practice might mean he continues not to do it. I think what
people really want is sort of accountability to the voters. And so if he
is able to demonstrate that in some other way, like I think he might
be doing an interview at the same time that I heard it was recorded in
the Wall Street Journal. So if that happens, like maybe that mitigates the
problem of him not showing up. Hey, Molly, did you see that
that dude who sings in his driveway has a new song. If by sings
in his driveway you mean sings on his farm with the dogs in the background.
Yeah, And you mean Oliver Anthony, the guy with the number one
song in the country right now? That guy. Yes, I did.
But it's like we're on the brink of World War three or something, so
I thought that, like that right down your alley, that song, it's
not really about actual World War three, it's more about like personal it's a
much more like spiritual song. When I heard the very first song, I
went down and Oliver anthony rabbit hole, where I listened to like all of
the YouTube cell phone videos he had recorded. And you know, he's not
a trained or he's like not a produced singer. These are not produced songs.
But I actually really liked many of them. And you know, a
lot of the songs are dealing with like trying to become sober or you know,
just personal problems. I do love Richmond North of Richmond. I think
that's a great song, but I also just like the more personal stories about
personal trials and tribulations. As you know, because you know me for a
while, I'm very uncomfortable when everyone is agreeing with me or whatever. So
I like to just drop a couple of insults on that in that front,
just on Twitter, just to get people all worked up and yelling at me
when things are too placid. So I did not like this new song either
at all. But you know, let's sorry, we got so much.
So I got so much angry mail on Twitter stuff on that in that conversation.
But I have to say there was some thoughtful stuff on what he was
actually talking about, and I changed my I mind a bit about that on
that first song Richmond North of Richmond, and I think it did have more
of a and I use this word very loosely a libertarian feel in the sense
of just wanting to be left alone. Now I still don't like all of
it, but I take back my initial sort of criticism of that song,
though not my criticism of the virtue signaling by everyone else, but the song
itself. I don't want to blame that guy, and I'm happy for a
success. I like to see people succeed without having to go through the normal
you know, big label channels and stuff like that in music. So good
for him. Yeah, I hope it goes well, and I hope his
songwriting craft is able to be honed. I was going to say something,
dang, oh that email that you got from the person saying that it was
actually a very punk song. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. That
was actually kind of an interesting point. It's not punk in many ways and
sound, but it is it has a punk ethos about it. I mean,
I've always to me growing up and liking punk rock and stuff like that.
To me, it was very due it yourself. It was very anti
state and things like that, anti authority, and then it punks became like
hippie is later on, where they're just like leftist to want more state and
more, you know, being told what to do and all on me,
So it never made much sense to me. So yeah, I definitely think
that there's sort of a I would call it more like an indie quality to
what we would have called like indie quality to it, right, And it's
kind of amazing the revel not to get too deeply into this, but the
revolution and music making where people can just stand literally in front of their farm
and make a song and have it be a number one hit. That's an
amazing democratic way of of doing art. So that's nice. Let's talk about
Yeah, well, is okay to talk a little bit about that. You
are the editor in chief of this website about whatever you want, whenever you
want. You are the boss man of the show. So but I do
think it's interesting since the Department of Justice and other Democrats campaign strategy for twenty
four is this war on Republicans, it also is their strategy to suppress and
hide all of the story of their own corruption and the Biden family corruption.
And you wrote a piece on just how deeply alarming like everything we're learning about
Weiss, the guy who was supposed to be holding the Biden family business partners
accountable who instead let all of the statue deplimentations run out while he was pretending
to do anything. And I wonder if you have any thoughts on that.
Yes, I do have some thoughts, Molly Funny you should ask it should
be I want to just preface all this by saying that, well, what
everyone needs to remember, and probably most people know, is that there's no
reason on earth for Merrick Garland to name David Weiss's special consul. He has
already by his own admission, even though he might be lying, being given
the power to bring charges in any jurisdiction he wants, and to invest take
the investigation in any direction he wants. That's literally what the power he's now
supposedly given. This is just a a near of credibility to pretend that this
is a real investigation. It's not. And what we learn this week,
and I think is the most important point, is that what you know that
the charge that sweetheart deal that he brought, that the judge blew up,
which is unprecedented, right like literally, also I keep saying literally, I
hate that, but it is unprecedented to judge. I forgot her name,
Norika, I think or something asked to DJ to give her an example of
a precedent where immunity was given in a future case, you know, another
case, a future crime that had nothing to do with what they're you know,
the crime in question, and they could not come up but with a
single one. So it is literally it is unprecedented. That sweetheart deal was
day a, weis getting tough with Hunter Biden. New York Times has gotten
their hands on a bunch of emails or all the emails between the prosecutors and
the Hunter camp, the alleged prosecutors. I think they're more like co conspirators.
And it was clear that Weiss was not going to bring any charges until
the two IRS agents whistleblowers testified in front of Congress. So imagine that the
sweetheart deal that even some you know, left wing pundans we're kind of surprised
at, was him getting tough. So that is an amazing thing to learn.
And you really have to dig deep into that New York Times piece to
figure it out. But you know what, they did report it, so
we have to give them credit. And no, no, no, no,
no, you do have to give them credit. Sorry, we did
this through out of the Russia. Collusion hoax. You know, the the
left wing press like the New York Times and Washington Post have this advantage.
The FBI and Department of Justice just illegally give them all sorts of things,
right, and they would write it up. Mostly what they were doing was
trying to get ahead of really bad information that was about to come out,
and so they don't get credit. Like obviously this was a ruse to try
to kind of lay the groundwork for you know, sort of like actually,
the environment of justice is being mean the hunter. And so then good reporters
like our Margo Cleveland or like Jonathan Turley dug through it and saw what was
really going on, and they were like, wow, they were sitting on
explosive stories that they absolutely buried in order to push out these false narratives.
But anyway, going no, I mean that's right. I mean we also
learned by the way that Weiss work closely with bo Biden on cases that he
was friendly, which doesn't make him corrupt, but it does make him completely
ill suited. Yeah, it's completely compromised and well. Washington Examiner also looked
into the into the then other prosecutors and lawyers who worked on the Hunter Biden
case, and I think seven of them had given to Democratic cause as a
Democratic candidate. That is also you know, those people are also compromised.
So as David Weiss, the only person in America can take on this job,
is the only prosecutor, the only lawyer. I mean, it's kind
of outrageous. So I'm sorry. The only plausible reason that Garland could name
this person is because this person has already protected Joe Biden from this investigation and
that he plans to do it in the future. I mean, people keep
saying that that Weiss was nominated by Donald Trump, so there's no way he
could ever do anything to protect Biden. That's ridiculous. First of all,
as I mentioned in the piece, I think that's a show's projection on their
part on how they view judges actions and or prosecutors actions as just an exertion
of political power. But moreover, what does that mean. Weiss has been
around a long time and he would never have become a gotten to this position
of Democrats in Delaware had backed up, so and I just have to look
at his actions, and I just have to look at the way he's been
compromised. Last thing, the Special counsels and investigate going back forever exists because
you don't want to have conflicts of interest that have to do with the governing
process normally or the prosecutorial process. And this is literally the most compromised person
you could come up with for this investigation. And this is the person he
names. Anyway, it is. It's probably obvious to a lot of people
who are listening to this podcast, but I just and I don't know how
to break through and convince people who don't pay attention how important this is and
how corrupt this is, I guess is why. I I will say I
was talking with our excellent senior legal correspondent, Marco Cleveland, who's been on
top of all of this story longer than anyone. I was just going through,
like her catalog of work really July of last year. I mean she
was on it well before that, but beginning July last year is when she
started to expose corruption at the US Attorney's office in Delaware. And I was
telling her I loved her piece today, which goes through things that I don't
think people realize about the Hunter Biden play agreement. I think everybody thought it
was dead technically it's not dead yet, And she was going through like the
significance of that, and also like just little things like the judge said,
why didn't you charge for lying on the form to get the gun. That's
the normal way that people go after these things. She's like pointing out that
the way they went after Hunter was actually the less constitutionally valid way, which
is sort of related to the fact that he's an addict. Because the Founders
never kept you, like alcoholics, from getting guns. It's a constitutionally weak
way to go after people. But they do definitely believe you don't lie on
federal forms. And so since Hunter Biden lied on his federal form to get
that gun by saying that he was not a user of drugs or alcohol when
he was like literally using at the time he filled out the form, she
thought that was weird that they didn't go after him for that. And I
just quickly say, I want to stress that's an amazing point she made there,
because the way they went after him is very rickety, right, Like
it may be overturned in the Supreme Court very soon. You can't just stop
someone from having a gun because they're an addict or whatever. But lying on
the form that's a completely different story. So that's a good point and thought
about before. And just like another example of how shockingly corrupt this Department of
Justice is. It's like brazen in your face, and it makes you feel
scared when you see it. But as I was talking to her about it,
I was like, it's scary how bad the situation is, and she
said she felt absolutely the same way. I think a lot of people like
Margot, who is a permanent clerk for a federal judge for like decades,
they have a lot of respect for our system, and seeing what the Department
of Justice has done to itself and to the country is deeply alarming. I
keep thinking about Durham's reports saying no new laws or regulations are needed at the
Department of Justice. What is needed are people who actually care about being ethical.
It's a sacrifying it's here is why it's a problem also, and I'm
not blaming these people, but there are a lot of people in the right
who are like, you know what, we're going to take over these institutions
and we'll do the same thing to you, or you know, state level
prosecutors should do the same thing to you, And yeah, maybe they should.
But what that leads to is an is a ratcheting up of kind of
abuse that is going to be really horrifying. Did you see the DC prosecutor.
I've got someone in DC's going after Leonard Leo and the you know,
the former Federal Federalist Society guy. I mean, this is just complete weaponization
of institutions of justice. It is. It's really scary. The hack propagandist
at Politico who wrote that up. So I have to be more clear since
I mentioned now a Heidi Prisbella. That was some of the worst reporting I've
ever seen in my life. It was all like Leonard Leo has done things
that my friends don't like, so he's bad. And the last line was
like about Arabella Advisors, which would be like the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo
groups times about a million. And the way she described Arabella, which is
funneling money from actual foreigners to take over our elections and do all sorts of
other things like attack the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, or as the New
York Times put it, I think like reimagined as as one of these donors
kids put it, he wants to these foreign people want to reimagine the US
constitution so like actual republic destructive stuff. And she said Arabella is a charity
that helps puppies and supports apple Pie and mothers. Anyway, she is one
of the most incompetently dishonest reporters out there. I mean, like, there
are many reporters who are dishonest but good at it. She's just a joke.
I've I don't know how many times we had to debunker stuff. It's
just terrible. But and she's rewarded by Politico. Like it's not just her,
it's that Politico saw what she did and they wanted that. In the
same way, Mark wrote a piece for US Today about the Washington Post hiring
that Axios reporter who was sleeping literally with a Biden official while she was covering
the campaign, and they just made her their opinion editor. And they did
that because they want that kind of ethics. You know, people get really
mad at who's that crazy lady that used to be at Commentary, you know,
Jennifer Ruben, Jennifer rub They get mad at her because she you know,
she'll go She'll write like tens of thousands of words in praise of Mitt
Romney in the pro life position, and then when she changes parties she does
the exact opposite. But again it's not her fault, like she's crazy,
that's just that's just who she is. The Washington Post said, we want
that, we want that to be our bird brand. So bad reporters and
columnists are bad, but like, what's really bad our institutions that say,
what would harm the country this kind of discourse. Let's amplify that. But
you know what they do. I would say that, listen, you want
to you want a columnist who's nuts, go for it. But your reporters
shouldn't be that way, however, and then they'll, like, you know,
they they they blur the line between the two, like a Philip Bump,
for instance, who we constantly bring up on this show. He is
presented not as some op ed calumnists, but a person analyzing the news,
giving you deeper contacts on the news. And it's just complete nonsense. But
anyway, I don't know, I feel like one thing that bothers me.
I mean, you should have smart columnists. If you can't, it's a
good way to go for well, I'd say, whether or not you're whether
or not you're putting a little or a lot of opinion and what you do.
You should be fact driven. You should have factual reporting. I mean,
we move stories forward not because we have opinions about like how bad the
world is, but because we discover and highlight facts that can be used by
people to hold people accountable and give context to stories as important. You just
have to be facts. I would love to know of a single person at
the Post who's not an opinion writer. I can't think of a single one.
Might some might be called opinion writers and some might not be called opinion
writers. They're all opinion writers. Yeah, Okay, well, Molly,
I think we should wrap up the political section political portion of this podcast and
get to some cultural stuff. I will say I haven't done much. I
was driving my kids back to college across the United States on a very very
long drive. I actually enjoy the drive to some extent, getting to see
the country, getting out there. I'm a populist, as you know.
I like to a man of the people. Yeah, I'm a man of
people. Like to see what's going on in the middle of America. I
did watch a movie called geez Asteroid City by Wes Anderson Extino Movies. I
think we had a review of that that was not good. I mean the
review said it was didn't love it. I didn't hate it. I mean
it's so stylized. It's really a director just wants to put plays on it
seems to me. And but you know, it's interesting to look at,
and it was good enough. I you know, I loved his first movie,
Bottle Rockets or Bottle Rocket I forget. I loved Rushmore. I liked
a lot of his movies, but I feel like he's kind of in a
weird rot maybe stylistically, I don't know. And so I found myself slightly
bored. But it was okay. It's got like a million famous people in
it. It was all right. How about you? I rewatched one of
my favorite movies and definitely my favorite soundtrack, which is done by Ennil Moore
Coney. But the movie is the Mission? Have you seen that? Oh?
Yeah, don't say Robert de Niro And who's that guy? Was the
other guy? The English guy who was the best Jeremy Irons, Jeremy Irons.
Yeah, and also very Christian movie, right, it's a very steaming
message. Yeah. Yeah, and you know, I always really appreciated that
fact. Mark was watching it with us, and he was also like,
oh, there's a lot of liberation theology, which is not good theology,
but it is a very good deeply, it's just a well made movie,
beautifully beautiful to look at, I remember, and just the scenery is great,
and obviously those actors are tremendous. They were at the height of their
powers. Was this late eighties, maybe eighty seven or something earlier or something
like that. Yeah, And when we were in Nazareth this summer, we
went into the I think it's a basilica or something of the Annunciation. So
it's built on the site of where Mary received word that she would give birth
to the Savior or where it's like, you know, someone sort of likely
or quite possible. Now, one thing that makes me ad is that it's
like this concrete, quasi monstrosity. But I just love Mary so much and
I loved being there. And we walked in and they were playing someone was
performing Gabriel's song, which is from the mission, and we've played that at
my church too, and it's also just like well done in the movie.
When Gabriel's song, Gabriel's obo. That's what it's called, is introduced.
Jeremy Irons is playing playing it to a group of people who have killed other
missionaries but do not kill him. And so I've kind of been thinking about
it. And then I was in Athens and I went to these records stores
and they had the soundtrack of the mission there, and I'm like, Okay,
well I've been looking for this for a while. So I got it
and played it for the kids, and they liked it. So we decided
to see the movie and it really was, you know, as good as
I remembered it being when I was like, whenever ten when I saw it
the first time or something, Well, I was older. I liked it
and that so I think we wanted to also maybe touch on you had sent
me. We send each other music sometimes that we like, and you sent
me the new Public Image Limited album, which you liked quite a bit,
and I was really surprised and taken aback by how good it was considering the
amount of time that has gone by since they had a good album the last
time, you know. Yeah, So I saw Greg Gutfeld tweeting about it,
saying that it was a good album, and I'd known you know,
we had that, We had that excellent piece that we ran about how Johnny
Rotten showed how to do marriage right, you know, because he married this
woman. What they were married like forty years or something, very long and
seventies and she was kind of like I got to feeling like kind of blue
blood, came from money and he was this punk rocker guy. But they
really matched up well, even though she I think she's like ten years older
than he is or something or was. Yeah, and the last maybe seven
years of their marriage, she had very bad Alzheimer's and he took he was
the primary caregiver, and so I'd kind of been like following how that was
going. I knew there was a song that he dedicated to her on that
album that I wanted to hear. It's that Hawaiian one. I think it's
like the last track. Yeah, but I thought it was a great album.
I was really glad that Greg tweeted it out so I could see it,
and you and I were reminiscing that. Yes, pil was one of
our first concerts for each of us. It was my first real concert,
I believe. And I saw them twice in New York in like eighty six
thirty seven, they had that album, like generic album album with anger as
and energy and all that stuff, and I remember I'd love the sex Pistoles
a lot, and I got in there and he was doing all the pill
songs, which was great, and then they came after an encore and did
like God Say the Queen or something, and you know, it was like
the greatest moment of my life up until then. But that was a lot
of fun. But I for me, that was probably pretty much their last
great album. I love Second Edition. I think it's one of like the
great post punk albums. But I hadn't really paid attention to them. But
I put this on and I quite enjoyed it. And I think John Lyden's
a really interesting guy. I've read two of two. He's had two memoirs.
I think I've read both, and he's from working class background and he's
a really smart and interesting guy. I know people have kind of some people
are mad at him because he's like been seen wearing a maga had and stuff
like that, but I think that's a natural contrarian in him, and I
always kind of respect that sort of thing. Yeah, he's going on a
speaking tour in the UK but not here, and I was like, I
would go hear him here. You should send me there to review it.
How would we happy to do it? Yes, Penny donors want to sponsor
David's trip through punk history. Please let us know you appreciate that. All
right, Well that's it. I guess I have nothing else on my paper
here, and I hope you have a good rest of your week. Please,
oh hold on, please write us letters if i'd like. We we
do enjoy it at radio at the Federalist dot com and until then be lovers
of freedom and anxious for the fray fun