1
00:00:16,839 --> 00:00:19,719
Welcome back, everyone to a new
episode of You Were Wrong with Molly Hemingway

2
00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:22,480
and David Harsani. Just a reminder, if you'd like to email the show,

3
00:00:22,519 --> 00:00:25,559
please do so at radio at the
Federalist dot com. We love to

4
00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:29,000
hear from you. Molly. This
is an exciting day for you, but

5
00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:32,600
also a very exciting day for me
and everyone at the Federal List. I

6
00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:38,359
think it's the first time that you
or anyone at the Federalist maybe has sat

7
00:00:38,399 --> 00:00:44,079
in front of Congress. And yeah, no, I'm sure we've had writers

8
00:00:44,079 --> 00:00:47,079
for the Federalists. We've done it, probably quite a few dozens, pon

9
00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:50,280
dozens, but I don't think we've
had anyone on staff do it. Yes,

10
00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:54,840
so well tell us about it.
So I forget what the committee's name

11
00:00:54,960 --> 00:01:00,520
was, but concerned the the private
what is it whether they called Zuckerbus or

12
00:01:00,799 --> 00:01:03,719
box or something. Yeah, So
first off, I will just say I

13
00:01:03,719 --> 00:01:07,599
get asked to testify in front of
committees all the time, and I always

14
00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:11,959
answer very quickly, no, I
don't want to do that. I'm not

15
00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,400
going to do that, just like
not my thing. I'm a journalist,

16
00:01:15,519 --> 00:01:19,040
I'm not an advocate for you know, I'm not like a whatever lobbyist or

17
00:01:19,159 --> 00:01:23,519
research, you know, it just
doesn't seem to make sense. But for

18
00:01:23,599 --> 00:01:26,920
some reason, when they asked me
to do it on the topic of zucker

19
00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:30,840
Bucks, which is sort of the
colloquial term for the private takeover of government

20
00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:34,000
election offices, I was like,
yeah, no, I'm not going to

21
00:01:34,079 --> 00:01:36,959
do that. And then I said, you know what, let me think

22
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:38,719
about it for a minute. And
so I did it. So it was

23
00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:44,439
my first time, and I am
glad to have gone through the process and

24
00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:49,920
I learned a lot. So I
have a few thoughts. I watched,

25
00:01:49,959 --> 00:01:56,599
of course I watched it. Were
you riveted by the House Administration Committees hearing

26
00:01:56,719 --> 00:02:01,280
on election administration? Uh, I
have a few thoughts. I'm just going

27
00:02:01,319 --> 00:02:06,200
to quickly say, so you were
there with I think how many people were

28
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:08,759
testifying another three people experts? I
think it was maybe or four. I

29
00:02:08,759 --> 00:02:15,599
forgot were total were total? I
actually from from the witnesses learned learned some

30
00:02:15,719 --> 00:02:21,360
interesting things like how funding was divvied
out by the you know, but by

31
00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:23,680
the by by Zuckerberg and you know
what you know, and how many counties

32
00:02:23,759 --> 00:02:30,520
just some interesting numbers. You made
a very you know, compelling case about

33
00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:35,080
elections. And the problems with them. But you know it was riveting,

34
00:02:35,319 --> 00:02:37,360
Molly. But I've heard it before, Like I know, I know that

35
00:02:37,439 --> 00:02:40,800
case. I've heard it from you. You you you presented very eloquently.

36
00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:46,840
But then on the other side of
it, I think people need to watch

37
00:02:46,879 --> 00:02:53,879
House Committee hearings to understand what the
quality of person who I don't know if

38
00:02:53,879 --> 00:02:58,319
I should do this. Actually you're
just on this gide the quality of person

39
00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:02,120
who is sent to the House of
Representatives to represent the American people, it

40
00:03:02,199 --> 00:03:07,080
is not high. We do not
have any kind of rigorous vetting. There

41
00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:12,840
were two or three people who were
just some of the dumbest people I have.

42
00:03:13,199 --> 00:03:16,120
I mean, am I wrong about
this? They were just the questions

43
00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:21,240
were dumb. The cases they made
made you know, they tried to sort

44
00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:25,800
of equally One guy, who's the
guy's name, Morel is that his name,

45
00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:31,719
who tried to equate private money in
an election with private money like in

46
00:03:31,879 --> 00:03:38,360
normal like transportation and normal things that
I'm all over the place. But I

47
00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:42,759
think that that guy wants to privatize
every elections and make everything else public,

48
00:03:42,879 --> 00:03:49,960
right, that was the privacy.
The ranking member Morelli also called him Morel,

49
00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:53,039
which is probably why you just miss
misspoked. Well, everyone got your

50
00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:57,400
name wrong at least once was like
nobody knows. It's not like your name

51
00:03:57,479 --> 00:04:01,400
is Tarsani or something else. Anyway, But the ranking member, which means

52
00:04:01,479 --> 00:04:04,879
the top Democrat member on the committee, at the end, he said,

53
00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:10,599
you know, I don't get this
whole idea that Mark Zuckerberg was trying to

54
00:04:11,639 --> 00:04:17,920
affect elections by doing this like whole
takeover of elections through nonprofit groups. Like

55
00:04:17,959 --> 00:04:23,839
why didn't he just give his four
hundred and fifty million directly to the candidates?

56
00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:28,000
And I was like, did the
Democrat just recommend that Mark Zuckerberg violate

57
00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:31,759
campaign finance laws? And like,
doesn't understand why he didn't violate campaign finance

58
00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:36,079
laws and instead came up with this
like a elaborate plan to take over elections.

59
00:04:36,319 --> 00:04:39,800
I mean, does he not know
that there are limitations on what you

60
00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:43,480
can give a candidate? I don't
even know. Maybe he doesn't I don't

61
00:04:43,519 --> 00:04:45,959
know, but yeah, I think
I think that part was interesting, Like

62
00:04:46,399 --> 00:04:49,279
these are people who are not well
prepared. I've always noticed this, Like

63
00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:54,360
when you cover committee hearings, there's
a lot of grand standing, but in

64
00:04:54,399 --> 00:04:58,199
this case, there were some people
who were not terribly well informed. And

65
00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,319
before I went yesterday, I was
talking to someone about like if she had

66
00:05:02,319 --> 00:05:05,480
any advice, and she said,
oh, yeah, I'm a professional at

67
00:05:05,519 --> 00:05:09,399
these things, and gone. I've
testified in front of a lot of hearings,

68
00:05:09,439 --> 00:05:14,680
and what I learned is they're called
hearings because you go and listen.

69
00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:17,800
You hear what these members of Congress
have to say, Like you think you're

70
00:05:17,839 --> 00:05:21,720
going to give your expert testimony,
and instead you're just hearing what they have

71
00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:27,199
to say. And in our case
today, hearing what they had to say

72
00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:30,560
was not always illuminating. You know
how bad I am with names, So

73
00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:32,720
I'm going to mess this up.
But there were a few people I want

74
00:05:32,759 --> 00:05:35,639
to talk about, and then I
want to talk a little bit more about

75
00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:43,399
the experience that you had. So
Seewell Sewell, her name Sumiss Sewell,

76
00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:48,959
Miss Sewell, who smeared the our
publication, our grand publication smeared us.

77
00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,920
And then you were not allowed to
talk. And knowing you, I could

78
00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:56,560
see like energy popping off you.
You know, you wanted to answer.

79
00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,639
I think you might have even tried
to and someone stopped you. I asked

80
00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:01,920
to respond, and I was not
a stone too, So I'm like,

81
00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:05,439
now Molly's asked she just to stew
and listen to the like three people before

82
00:06:05,439 --> 00:06:10,800
she gets to say anything that was
completely out of line. She just read

83
00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:14,240
some stuff off the Wikipedia page or
something, I think, and then left.

84
00:06:14,439 --> 00:06:15,759
I'm like, she left, Molly's
not going to be able to dunk

85
00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:24,279
on her. Yeah, she attacked
journalism, she embraced censorship, and then

86
00:06:24,319 --> 00:06:28,680
she also falsely claimed that if you
care about election integrity, that you only

87
00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:33,959
care about election integrity as a means
of suppressing votes. And actually that's just

88
00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:40,800
statistically not true. You can pass
election and integrity reforms and see an increase

89
00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:45,360
in voter participation as was seen in
Georgia and Florida, which had increases in

90
00:06:45,439 --> 00:06:50,560
voter participation, including from minority groups. You know, voter suppression is a

91
00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:55,199
conspiracy theory, I'm sorry to say. And you know, she went on

92
00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:57,759
and on about that, and then
you made that great point about for instance,

93
00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,519
I think it was Georgia where I
think they saw a record members of

94
00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:04,639
early voting among minorities and just voting
overall by my minorities. And then there

95
00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:09,000
was the last person I want to
mock. I think was her name Gomez

96
00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:13,800
from California. I think so boy, I couldn't even cobble together what she

97
00:07:13,879 --> 00:07:16,000
was talking about. I mean,
it was and she also just smeared anyone

98
00:07:16,519 --> 00:07:23,959
who had anything to say about election
integrity. So all right, bores norma

99
00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:28,079
torres tores. Yeah. And people
were telling me that that was like the

100
00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:32,519
most capable she had seemed, you
know, they they were agreeing with you

101
00:07:32,639 --> 00:07:36,439
about it not being her finest moment
or not, you know, not that

102
00:07:36,519 --> 00:07:42,439
she's not I'm not doing everything in
the best way possible, but they said

103
00:07:42,839 --> 00:07:46,279
compared to her normal procedure, she
did pretty well. Then there are a

104
00:07:46,319 --> 00:07:49,079
bunch of geeks in the audience,
so many young people there are like,

105
00:07:49,079 --> 00:07:53,600
don't you have anything better to do? Like standing room only was I think

106
00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:57,279
the committee was a little surprised,
like they're not used because you were there.

107
00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:01,439
It was clearly yep, clearly that
you're mocking if but it's true.

108
00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:03,560
But I don't remember the name of
the member, and so forgive me,

109
00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:07,000
and I hate it when I don't, you know, remember these people.

110
00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:13,319
But after the one of the Democrats
on the committee just did character assassination after

111
00:08:13,519 --> 00:08:18,879
character assassination of the witnesses and said, she was like appalled to have to

112
00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:22,279
be in the same room as these, you know, people who had PhDs

113
00:08:22,399 --> 00:08:26,879
and had written books and were experts
in this, and it was like really

114
00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:31,159
inappropriate and appalling comments from her.
They go over to the Republican and the

115
00:08:31,159 --> 00:08:35,440
Republican is like, we're all friends
here, Like I'm not friends with that

116
00:08:35,559 --> 00:08:39,360
lady who just lied about me,
Like why are we? Like glad you

117
00:08:39,399 --> 00:08:43,120
get along well with her, but
maybe you should care more about it,

118
00:08:43,399 --> 00:08:48,080
or like I don't think that person's
voters want you to be friends with people

119
00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:52,440
who lie and like go after election
integrity. And I know, I know

120
00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:54,559
they're all friends. I know,
I get that. Like I work with

121
00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:58,159
people at Fox and we you know, yell at each other on set and

122
00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:01,159
then we're like having fun afterwards.
I get that, But like in the

123
00:09:01,279 --> 00:09:07,879
hearing setting, when people lie,
or when they cast dispersions on people who

124
00:09:07,919 --> 00:09:11,399
care about election integrity, or when
they do things to harm election integrity,

125
00:09:11,399 --> 00:09:18,039
you shouldn't care about the friendship.
You should care about the truth. Yeah.

126
00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:20,879
I was taken aback by that as
well. I know they do this

127
00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:26,240
all the time, they're all buddies, but it was a completely bad faith

128
00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:30,240
smearing of us and others on that
you know you and others on that panel

129
00:09:30,279 --> 00:09:33,159
collingos racists and extremists and all this
stuff. And he's like, oh,

130
00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:35,720
you know, we're all really working
hard up here, and we're all,

131
00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:39,360
you know, making a good faith
effort. I mean, I don't think

132
00:09:39,399 --> 00:09:43,600
you are. I'll tell you what
I hate. I hate when I see

133
00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:46,360
it done at debates. I hate
when people try to do it to me,

134
00:09:46,519 --> 00:09:50,399
raise your hand if you believe X
or y, and like, it

135
00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:52,759
puts you in such a bad spot
because things are not that simple, right.

136
00:09:54,919 --> 00:09:58,399
So one of my favorite moments in
a previous debate was when Rohnda Santis

137
00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:03,600
was asked to like raise his hand
for the seventeenth time, and he'd already

138
00:10:03,639 --> 00:10:05,720
kind of bristled about doing it early
on, and he was just like,

139
00:10:05,759 --> 00:10:09,759
could you stop treating me like I'm
a kindergartener here like this raising the hands

140
00:10:09,759 --> 00:10:16,720
thing. But I did have a
little bit of the spree day escalator whatever

141
00:10:16,799 --> 00:10:20,279
they call it, the where you
wish you had said something that you hadn't.

142
00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:24,879
And so the ranking member was,
what did he say? Do you

143
00:10:24,919 --> 00:10:31,200
believe Donald Trump won? Lost?
Field lost the election in twenty seven I

144
00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:33,080
don't know. He was like,
raise your hand if you think such and

145
00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:35,720
such, And first of all,
I don't like I'm not like a hand

146
00:10:35,799 --> 00:10:39,960
raiser period. But on that I
was like, I wanted to say something,

147
00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:46,279
and I didn't say something so well, But I am aware that Joe

148
00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:50,080
Biden is the president, and I
think we're all aware every day that Joe

149
00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:56,960
Biden is the president. We may
wish he weren't the president. So overall,

150
00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,759
do you think it was a good
experience for you? Would you do

151
00:11:01,799 --> 00:11:05,960
it again? Was it worthwhile?
Oh? I'm glad I did it.

152
00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,679
I'm glad I got the experience,
and I certainly think if I did it

153
00:11:07,759 --> 00:11:11,679
in the future, I would be
much better prepared. By the way.

154
00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,720
It's not like I haven't attended in
person a thousand of these things. I'm

155
00:11:15,759 --> 00:11:18,799
like a longtime reporter in Washington,
and so I used to have to go

156
00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:22,720
to committee hearings like multiple times a
day and write them up for publication.

157
00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:26,919
So it's not like I didn't know. But it's just different when you're sitting

158
00:11:26,919 --> 00:11:30,679
there and you're trying to be careful
with what you have to say and you're

159
00:11:30,679 --> 00:11:33,120
trying to make certain points. So
I don't think there will be a need

160
00:11:33,159 --> 00:11:35,840
for me to ever testify again,
but I'm glad I did it, and

161
00:11:35,879 --> 00:11:39,480
if I have to do it again, now I know what I'm doing.

162
00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:43,519
Oh can we talk? Though?
Also one thing I learned from that is

163
00:11:43,799 --> 00:11:48,320
I would pore over the reports when
I was covering hearings, and people provide

164
00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:52,679
these like ninety page written testimonies and
they're full of facts and figures and they're

165
00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:58,080
really interesting. But you get five
minutes to give an opening statement. And

166
00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:01,480
so I had some test money on
zuck Bus and plus I wrote a book

167
00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:05,759
on zuck Bucks, so I hope
someone would like actually enter that into the

168
00:12:05,799 --> 00:12:09,960
record or the chapters, chapters that
deal with zuck Bucks at least, And

169
00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,000
so I've got all that like written
stuff. But my opening statement, what

170
00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:18,720
I wanted to kind of emphasize is
zuck Bux is just like one of many

171
00:12:18,799 --> 00:12:22,480
ways that we're attacking election integrity,
and it's getting worse and it's a real

172
00:12:22,759 --> 00:12:30,120
problem. And I'm always struck by
this fact that when we're evaluating other countries

173
00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:33,799
election integrity, you're not just looking
to make sure like ballots were counted properly.

174
00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:39,399
You're looking at all sorts of things, like were they counted quickly?

175
00:12:39,759 --> 00:12:43,080
Did it take a long time for
the results to come in? Were ballots

176
00:12:43,159 --> 00:12:50,559
treated the same across different jurisdictions.
Is there a free and independent press environment

177
00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:54,639
or is it propaganda? Is their
censorship? Are people bullied away from political

178
00:12:54,679 --> 00:13:01,559
participation? Are their political prosecutions are
upon oonents allowed on the ballot or not?

179
00:13:01,799 --> 00:13:05,360
Or do they have to fight like
in ways that are ridiculous to be

180
00:13:05,399 --> 00:13:09,279
on the ballot. Incidentally, tomorrow
the Supreme Court is hearing the United States

181
00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:16,399
Supreme Court is being forced to hear
a case on whether the odds on favorite

182
00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:22,120
of the American people to win the
next presidential election can be kicked off the

183
00:13:22,120 --> 00:13:26,159
ballot by Democrat activists in this country. We're going through that, so,

184
00:13:26,279 --> 00:13:28,879
like I think people need to put
like, yes, Zuckbox is important.

185
00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,399
Private takeover of election offices is extremely
important, and that's why I put it,

186
00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:37,960
you know, put so much work
into that in my book. But

187
00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:41,399
right now we're having to deal with
things that, for a lot of people

188
00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:45,799
are more reminiscent of Soviet Russia,
you know, jailing political opponents, bankrupting

189
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:52,639
political opponents, harming the families of
political opponents. The watched out Real Wall

190
00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:56,879
Street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every
day, Chris helps unpack the connection between

191
00:13:56,879 --> 00:14:01,879
politics and the economy and how it
affects your while did your own tax dollars

192
00:14:01,919 --> 00:14:05,159
help pay for the massacre in Israel? As the federal government continues to give

193
00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:09,519
billions to fund most of the United
Nations. Turns out ten percent of members

194
00:14:09,519 --> 00:14:15,320
on their active payroll helped perpetrate amasa's
attacks in Israel. Whether it's happening in

195
00:14:15,399 --> 00:14:18,399
DC or down on Wall Street,
it's affecting you financially. Be informed.

196
00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:22,159
Check out the Watchdot on Wall Street
podcast with Chris Markowski on Apple, Spotify,

197
00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:28,960
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I think you made that point in

198
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:33,600
your opening statement pretty well. Yeah. Here, I want to talk about

199
00:14:33,639 --> 00:14:35,600
a few things that you just mentioned
that we can go through relatively quickly.

200
00:14:35,639 --> 00:14:41,799
But it makes me laugh that these
people are fine with the Zuckerberg doing this.

201
00:14:43,159 --> 00:14:45,919
But as you and I think others
have mentioned, if the Koch Brothers

202
00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:48,879
or whoever was doing the same thing, they would have a heart attack.

203
00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:52,600
Clarence Thomas goes on vacation with the
rich person. They want to destroy the

204
00:14:52,679 --> 00:14:58,000
judicial system, but they're fine with
this kind of targeted privates, like one

205
00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:01,480
of the few, you know,
I want to privatize basically everything except elections

206
00:15:01,519 --> 00:15:03,879
would be the one thing I don't. But I do worry, and I

207
00:15:03,919 --> 00:15:09,240
worried when I heard one of the
other guys talking on the one of the

208
00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:15,759
other people who had testimony there about
how this leads perhaps to nationalizing elections.

209
00:15:15,759 --> 00:15:20,240
And I fear that because in some
ways it makes sense to people because then

210
00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:24,559
you can have the same standards all
over. Those standards are going to suck

211
00:15:24,679 --> 00:15:26,559
right in the end. You're going
to have activists You're going to because those

212
00:15:26,559 --> 00:15:30,519
are the people that run elections,
you know. So what do do you

213
00:15:30,559 --> 00:15:33,559
worry about that? What do you
like? How do how do we deal

214
00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:39,279
with that? I worry about everything
involved with takeover of elections. So I

215
00:15:39,279 --> 00:15:41,519
do think there is a role that
Congress could play in terms of banning,

216
00:15:41,679 --> 00:15:46,919
you know, having laws that help
support free and fair elections. But yes,

217
00:15:48,399 --> 00:15:50,679
anytime you start having funding you can
have and I try to get at

218
00:15:50,679 --> 00:15:56,799
this in response to one of the
Congresswomen's questions. Different people vote in different

219
00:15:56,799 --> 00:16:02,600
ways, so just by way,
by way of example, Republicans are overwhelmingly

220
00:16:02,679 --> 00:16:07,200
more likely to vote in a secure
way, and Democrats are more overwhelmingly more

221
00:16:07,279 --> 00:16:11,600
likely to vote in an insecure way. So Republicans they will go vote in

222
00:16:11,679 --> 00:16:15,639
person, you know, with established
identification, and Democrats. I mean,

223
00:16:15,799 --> 00:16:22,039
a lot of Americans really love unsupervised
mail in voting, but there are partisan

224
00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:25,960
distinctions in how many people do it. And so even something as simple as

225
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:29,879
like oh we're going to fund mail
in balloting, well that's like a really

226
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:34,919
huge gift to the Democrat party because
Democrats like to vote that way far more

227
00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:38,919
than Republicans do. Likewise, if
you were to do it, you know

228
00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:44,679
you did, or you know,
there are all sorts of little decisions you

229
00:16:44,679 --> 00:16:47,679
can make where it just seems like
you're being helpful, but actually you're giving

230
00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:55,840
gifts to political parties. And so
I will also say that the disenfranchised groups

231
00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:59,639
of the moment, the Democrats have
done a really good job of caring about

232
00:16:59,679 --> 00:17:06,799
elect administration for decades, and they
did have some strategic advantages to that as

233
00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:12,240
well. Like I put in the
book about how it's almost unbelievable but Republicans

234
00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:17,880
were not allowed to do election day
oversight for forty years and election day,

235
00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:22,079
of course, now being election season. You know, there was a huge

236
00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:26,279
strategic advantage that Democrats had that Republicans
didn't have. And there was this really

237
00:17:26,319 --> 00:17:30,319
partisan judge out of New Jersey who
did an injunction against Republicans. So all

238
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:36,839
Republican legal efforts were spent on making
sure that no Republican basically did any oversight

239
00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:40,680
because every time they did any amount
of oversight or anything that like, it

240
00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:48,200
would trigger this extension of an injunction. And it lasted for more than thirty

241
00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:52,759
five years. It was so sensitive
that Sean Spicer nearly got them in a

242
00:17:53,039 --> 00:17:56,960
mess because he was on the wrong
floor of Trump Tower on election night in

243
00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:00,759
twenty sixteen, like just a crazy
thing. It took the judge who was

244
00:18:00,799 --> 00:18:07,000
overseeing it dying literally dying to get
the Republicans out of this. And so

245
00:18:07,319 --> 00:18:10,599
during that time Democrats just kind of
like ran crazy and took out you know,

246
00:18:10,599 --> 00:18:12,759
they just like, we're having fun
with changing election laws and doing all

247
00:18:12,799 --> 00:18:19,440
sorts of things, and why am
I going off on this Just there's a

248
00:18:19,759 --> 00:18:26,440
there's a huge strategic advantage Democrats took
advantage of that. Republicans are catching up,

249
00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,400
but very slowly, and it's an
important thing because you want to have

250
00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:36,640
free and fair elections, and free
means like not. It doesn't refer to

251
00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:41,039
cost. It's about like, no
no undue outside influence. How much you

252
00:18:41,039 --> 00:18:44,680
know one of the one of those
guys went on on and on about funding.

253
00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:48,160
Do you believe that funding is is
would make elections more secure? In

254
00:18:48,160 --> 00:18:52,599
anyways? I love about it.
We've decided to change from like pretty simple

255
00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:59,400
voting situations. People go, they
vote, count the votes, you alert

256
00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:03,519
the low regional authority, and you're
done into these like really complex things.

257
00:19:03,559 --> 00:19:07,279
We're like, no, see,
we're gonna we're gonna use unsupervised mail in

258
00:19:07,319 --> 00:19:10,920
balloting, even though the one thing
we know about balloting is that that's the

259
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,559
one that's most open to fraud and
it's almost impossible to catch. I know,

260
00:19:14,599 --> 00:19:18,440
we've had a bunch of cases recently
with people being caught for committing fraud

261
00:19:18,559 --> 00:19:22,480
with that unsupervised voting, but it's
actually really hard, and even the cases

262
00:19:22,519 --> 00:19:26,640
where it's happened recently, it took
years to figure out what was going on,

263
00:19:27,599 --> 00:19:33,240
and it's difficult to catch even on
a good day, but particularly because

264
00:19:33,279 --> 00:19:37,079
people who are going to commit fraud
are probably going to commit fraud in jurisdictions

265
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:41,319
where the incentive is to not catch
them. So just like by way of

266
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:45,000
example, you know, Philadelphia is
notoriously corrupt when it comes to elections,

267
00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:52,039
but it's also almost exclusively Democrat,
So if Democrats commit corruption in a way

268
00:19:52,039 --> 00:19:55,279
that helps Democrats, there's not like
a huge incentive to help. A lot

269
00:19:55,279 --> 00:19:59,480
of what we found out from fraud
being committed through mail in balloting happens because

270
00:19:59,559 --> 00:20:04,640
of primary primary races. So you'll
have like one Democrat running against another Democrat,

271
00:20:06,039 --> 00:20:10,720
and one Democrat cheats by mail and
fraud mail in vote fraud, and

272
00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,880
that angers the other like section of
the same party that's in that town,

273
00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:18,559
and that's how they catch it because
there's an incentive to catch it. But

274
00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:22,400
we've made things so complex and then
we're like, and we need a lot

275
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:26,039
of money to deal with it,
because we're gonna have to pay money for

276
00:20:26,079 --> 00:20:29,079
the postage and for the ballot curing
and for the like all the people to

277
00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:30,960
manage the ballots through all this part
of the process. So we make it

278
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,440
more complex and then we're like,
we need more funding, when probably we

279
00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:40,880
just need I don't know, we
need some simplification, and we need also

280
00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:44,759
a lot of volunteers. You figure
with mail and balloting that counting would be

281
00:20:44,759 --> 00:20:48,279
faster since they come in early most
of the time, right, But doesn't

282
00:20:48,319 --> 00:20:52,119
seem that way. Just want to
say, just I remember in Colorado where

283
00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:53,920
they have where they were like leading
the charge. I think in mail in

284
00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:57,039
ballots might be all mail in ballots
now I don't even know, but I

285
00:20:57,119 --> 00:21:00,640
knew a guy had a bunch of
kids who had left his home, and

286
00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:03,319
he just got a stack of ballots
for all them in his house, you

287
00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:06,680
know, for his kids, and
he could just if he wanted to fill

288
00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:08,880
them out and send them in,
right, I mean, of course,

289
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:14,640
So yeah, I think about like
Nevada actually is to me this great example

290
00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:17,240
of it, because it's also a
state that's known for corruption. I'm not

291
00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:19,279
sure if you've heard. I don't
want to be mean, there's some mob

292
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:26,440
issues there. Union Control very helpful
to Harry Reid over the years, and

293
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,519
in Nevada they have like mass mail
out balloting and there are a lot of

294
00:21:30,519 --> 00:21:34,480
people who moved to Vegas for like
two months, get a driver's license,

295
00:21:34,559 --> 00:21:37,480
are automatically registered to vote, and
then they're on to the next town.

296
00:21:38,319 --> 00:21:42,160
Not the most stable population and By
the way, it's something like fourteen percent

297
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:45,440
of the country moves every year anyway, So even if it were a more

298
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:51,279
stable population, it's still like an
issue where we have people who are automatically

299
00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:53,319
registered to vote, then they automatically
get a mail out ballot, and then

300
00:21:53,799 --> 00:21:59,640
like the fifty eight people who lived
there over the previous twenty years all get

301
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:03,519
a bat even though none of them
live there now. But you get all

302
00:22:03,559 --> 00:22:04,920
of a sudden, you get a
ton of ballots hanging around, and then

303
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:11,480
you also have like a really active
no offense union situation there where like there's

304
00:22:11,599 --> 00:22:17,839
like ability to round up ballots,
and it's just interesting. You know.

305
00:22:18,279 --> 00:22:22,079
Last thing on this issue I think
is that you mentioned the Colorado I think

306
00:22:22,839 --> 00:22:26,799
is it the Colorado case going to
the Supreme Court? It is, yeah,

307
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:30,119
so taking Trump off the ballot.
So leading the charges This woman called

308
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:34,160
Norma Anderson, right, so everyone
says, former Republican, you know,

309
00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:40,160
conservative, she's leading the charge.
I wasn't lived in Colorado and covered Norma

310
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:44,960
Anderson. She is one of the
worst legislators I have ever covered. She

311
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,079
was a complete fraud. Now listen, you know, I don't love Trump

312
00:22:48,079 --> 00:22:51,400
and all that, but nothing she
does I think is on the level right.

313
00:22:51,839 --> 00:22:55,839
She destroyed Tabor and Colorado. She
helped destroy Tabor in Colorado. She's

314
00:22:55,920 --> 00:23:00,200
just I was like gobsmacked when I
saw that she was leading this charge that

315
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:03,680
they kept saying this former Republican,
former conservative, like she was more liberal

316
00:23:03,759 --> 00:23:07,920
than most Democrats in Colorado. Just
so people know, who care about this

317
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,480
story? Also, I never get
what people like. It was one thing

318
00:23:11,559 --> 00:23:17,880
to say that in twenty fifteen or
twenty sixteen, Oh, this lifelong Republican

319
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:22,160
Bill Crystal doesn't like Donald Trump.
Okay, fine, yep, we got

320
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:29,319
it. After multiple years of Trump
being at war with the establishment Republican party,

321
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:33,559
I don't know if it's really news
or noteworthy that some top Republicans up

322
00:23:33,559 --> 00:23:37,839
to and including Mitch McConnell would like
to see him die a fiery death.

323
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:41,799
Like it's not really like, are
you what are you supposed to get from

324
00:23:41,799 --> 00:23:45,799
that? Oh, he takes on
the Republican establishment. Well, golly,

325
00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:51,079
g I guess that's bad. Yeah, I mean, I you know,

326
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:53,839
even if you hate him, I
just don't see how anyone who believes in

327
00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:59,079
American democracy can start taking him off
a ballot. I guess I just I

328
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:02,359
don't know. I feel like I
feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I

329
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:04,640
just don't I don't understand how you
can go out there every day and talk

330
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,759
about democracy and then try to take
a guy off about who has been convicted

331
00:24:07,799 --> 00:24:11,880
of nothing. By the way,
have you do Have you ever gone to

332
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:15,880
the United States Supreme Court to hear
oral arguments? I have. I was

333
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:21,400
there the day that Roberts stuck a
knife in everyone's back on Obamacare. Wait,

334
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:23,359
do you mean the day that that
was argued or the day it was

335
00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:26,240
handed down? The day was handed
down? Okay, oh you said argument?

336
00:24:26,279 --> 00:24:30,400
Sorry, Yeah, I was there
the day was handed down. But

337
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:34,720
I'm going going Are you going to
stand in line hope to get in?

338
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,200
Can you not get a press I
mean this is from our discussion for the

339
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:45,279
podcast Can you not get a press
pass? There are press credentials for the

340
00:24:45,319 --> 00:24:51,240
Supreme Court, and there are very
few given each year. I think,

341
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:52,759
I don't know. I just never
bothered. I mean, I feel like

342
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,640
I always thought I'll never go here
in oral argument, particularly since you can

343
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:02,599
broadcast them. But I will do
it now. I think I was at

344
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,359
human events when I was there,
and a magazine that existed a long time

345
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:11,720
ago kids, and I remember being
so happy as Roberts was talking and that

346
00:25:11,079 --> 00:25:15,839
my mood shifted suddenly and that was
that. By the way, I have

347
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,759
to say, at the hearing today, I met there were a bunch of

348
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:25,319
really competent staffers, which was nice
pleasant surprise, not surprised, but as

349
00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:29,240
pleasant to deal with. But anyway, I met two people who mentioned you

350
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:33,559
me and uh huh. And one
of them was like, was David Harsani,

351
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:37,880
like, you know, very like
interested? And then another like top

352
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:42,240
staffer was saying something about, you
know, I bet David Harsani would think

353
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,400
this or that. I was like, I got the David Harsani fan club

354
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:49,799
here. You always meet these people, and then I never meet these people.

355
00:25:49,799 --> 00:25:55,440
But maybe I need to leave my
house to meet these people. Okay,

356
00:25:55,559 --> 00:25:59,880
let's you want to talk a little
bit about politics. Let's talk about

357
00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:03,119
the border bill fiasco that went down. Yeah, you have something else to

358
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:07,079
Saiday, I say, everyone has
been so nice about the testimony, and

359
00:26:07,079 --> 00:26:08,960
I've gotten so many nice notes and
emails, and I just wanted to thank

360
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,440
everybody for that. You were great. I'm not just saying that you were

361
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:18,160
great. A lot of unfortunately I've
watched many of these House hearings as well,

362
00:26:18,279 --> 00:26:22,960
and people are usually either in articulate
or nervous. I would probably be

363
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:26,720
that way myself, but you were
really just really good. I think do

364
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:32,200
make faces. I know you don't
like compliments. Talk about the border bill,

365
00:26:32,519 --> 00:26:34,680
the terrible border bill. So I
don't even know where to start with

366
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:40,720
this. But how long? Now? For two weeks Republicans were negotiating this

367
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:45,480
two weeks. It's been like longer, it's four months or something. Oh

368
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:48,440
when they say all right, secret
negotiations went on for months. I think

369
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:52,440
Mitch McConnell came up with the plan, you know, months ago, and

370
00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:57,440
then he also came up with the
plan to have James Lankford quote unquote lead

371
00:26:57,519 --> 00:27:02,480
the negotiations because I needed a person
who kind of came off as conservative,

372
00:27:03,319 --> 00:27:06,119
because like, the whole goal was
not The whole goal was to come up

373
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:11,000
with a bill that would give Mitch
mcconnad sorry, it would give Ukraine as

374
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:15,039
much money as Mitch McConnell wanted and
that Chuck Schumer wanted. But they kind

375
00:27:15,039 --> 00:27:18,559
of knew that Conservatives weren't going to
go for it unless they got border security

376
00:27:18,799 --> 00:27:22,640
and so they were like, this
is actually a border security bill, and

377
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:26,119
so it was kind of builled and
pitched as a border security bill for months

378
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:30,680
upon months, and it was secret
and they wouldn't reveal what was going on,

379
00:27:30,799 --> 00:27:34,319
and then it finally came out on
Sunday night. I have to say,

380
00:27:34,519 --> 00:27:41,240
I am not against secret negotiations in
the sense of if you're first building

381
00:27:41,559 --> 00:27:44,720
a big bill like this, which
shouldn't all these issues should be separate,

382
00:27:44,759 --> 00:27:47,559
by the way, But if you're
building something like this, even just a

383
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:52,240
border bill, it's okay to negotiate
first and lay down the groundwork and stuff

384
00:27:52,279 --> 00:27:55,039
like that. If it's every step
of the way is out in the media,

385
00:27:55,079 --> 00:27:56,839
everyone's jumping on you, it's impossible
to get anything done. So I

386
00:27:56,839 --> 00:28:00,720
get that part of it. What
I don't get is then, you know,

387
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:06,880
you basically give people almost no time
to read bills, to debate the

388
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:10,400
issues, and you just push forward
with it. And the I just want

389
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:15,359
to say, I am pretty I'm
a big lib on immigration. I would

390
00:28:15,519 --> 00:28:18,440
never even as a demo. I
just don't see anyone votes for a bill

391
00:28:18,559 --> 00:28:22,279
like this. A The thing that
bothered me most right off the bat is

392
00:28:22,279 --> 00:28:26,519
that it gives the president the power
to simply ignore the only provision in the

393
00:28:26,519 --> 00:28:30,839
bill that actually does anything to stop
what's happening at the border. My first

394
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:37,200
question was, would any Democrat ever
sign onto a bill that allowed Donald Trump

395
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:42,319
to cite national security to ignore or
the national interest, which is just this

396
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:47,839
malleable, nonsensical term. Really,
you know, I mean it just means

397
00:28:47,839 --> 00:28:52,960
it can mean anything to just ignore
the bill for forty five days. No,

398
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:56,279
they would never do that. Yet
Republicans are like mad that Conservatives aren't

399
00:28:56,279 --> 00:29:00,519
excited about a bill like that.
It's just insanity, right. Actually heard

400
00:29:00,599 --> 00:29:03,440
some Republican members say that it made
more sense to view the bill as an

401
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:10,039
effort to constrain Donald Trump than an
effort to constrain Joe Biden, because there

402
00:29:10,039 --> 00:29:15,240
were so many things that were moved
into difficult to you know, sort of

403
00:29:15,519 --> 00:29:21,279
codifying some of the more insane things
that Joe Biden has illegally done at our

404
00:29:21,319 --> 00:29:27,880
border. That was the net effect. I mean, every single enforcement provision

405
00:29:29,079 --> 00:29:37,799
in that bill was riddled with very
vague language, loopholes. All anything the

406
00:29:37,799 --> 00:29:41,200
President wanted to do he could do. It's clear that the only thing that

407
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:45,640
they wanted there was the Ukrainian funding, and that's it. They didn't really

408
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:48,279
want to. They want a border
bill so they can say they're doing something.

409
00:29:48,319 --> 00:29:52,319
Now they're happy that Republicans said no. They trying to flip the script

410
00:29:52,359 --> 00:29:53,519
and say, oh, look,
Republicans want you know, they don't want

411
00:29:53,519 --> 00:29:57,359
to do anything good. Yeah,
that's a heavy lift because no, you

412
00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,359
know, person of the brain real
quick. I want to make a little

413
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:04,359
point on the secrecy issue and whether
it's okay to do things in secret or

414
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:08,640
not. I think the problem for
the people who wanted the bill to pass

415
00:30:08,759 --> 00:30:14,599
is that they kept it secret from
the members themselves. So it's like not

416
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:18,319
about keeping it secret from the American
people even but there was a lot of

417
00:30:18,319 --> 00:30:22,240
pressure to get Republican senators to agree
to sign off on this bill, but

418
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:26,359
they weren't actually showing them what was
in the bill, and that's I mean,

419
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:30,480
obviously it didn't work out well for
them. I did love that Democrats

420
00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:34,039
were buying large, like super super
happy with it. Yeah, I get

421
00:30:34,039 --> 00:30:37,359
what you're saying about that. My
assumption is they don't want to do it

422
00:30:37,359 --> 00:30:41,759
because people who get mad will leak
the specifics and then it gets crazy.

423
00:30:41,839 --> 00:30:45,240
Yeah, but I did notice that
there was the tone of a lot of

424
00:30:45,279 --> 00:30:48,880
senators kind of changed with this bill, right. I saw Mike Lee out

425
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:53,880
there just going right after McConnell and
others who you would not expect to be

426
00:30:55,000 --> 00:31:00,079
critical even of his leadership right on
this bill. Though he abandoned the bill

427
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,079
himself. But we'll talk about that
in a second. So do you think

428
00:31:04,319 --> 00:31:08,240
his time is coming to an end
soon or what's happening? Well, you

429
00:31:08,279 --> 00:31:12,279
know, it's interesting because when the
last Congress came into session, he was

430
00:31:12,519 --> 00:31:19,200
challenged. He was challenged for the
minority leader position by Senator Rick Scott from

431
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:23,839
Florida. I think he only got
ten votes from Republicans, So it's always

432
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:29,680
kind of worth remembering. Like you
may hate and statistically speaking, you almost

433
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:34,920
certainly do, Mitch McConnell. He's
the least popular politician in America and he

434
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,759
kind of like has earned that in
different ways. So it's not just that

435
00:31:40,039 --> 00:31:44,799
Democrats dislike him, but really Republicans
are frustrated with him. But he did

436
00:31:44,839 --> 00:31:49,240
get like nearly forty votes from the
members of his conference. So he's got

437
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:53,039
a lot of power, and he
should because he controls most of the money

438
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:59,920
that deals with reelection, He controls
committee assignments, and he wields his power

439
00:32:00,119 --> 00:32:06,839
extremely forcefully. So it was super
fascinating to see so many people openly going

440
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:12,079
after him and the way he handled
everything here. And he's clearly weak,

441
00:32:12,119 --> 00:32:15,599
you know, he's had, you
know, the glitches of his brain,

442
00:32:15,839 --> 00:32:19,240
whatever's going on there where he is
asked a question by a reporter and he

443
00:32:19,279 --> 00:32:22,000
doesn't know how to respond. His
team is still running their like sort of

444
00:32:22,039 --> 00:32:27,759
anti Trumpist campaign, but he's pretty
quiet. They have to kind of keep

445
00:32:27,839 --> 00:32:31,920
him away from too much public speaking. And it's at a time when Republican

446
00:32:32,039 --> 00:32:37,240
voters and even Republican senators are thinking, Wow, the entire country is super

447
00:32:37,279 --> 00:32:43,960
broken, and our top Republican,
our top elected Republican, is like completely

448
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:47,160
out to lunch. He has publicly
said that he thinks the top policy priority

449
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:52,880
of Republican voters is to give more
money to Ukraine, with like no end

450
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:57,000
in sight. And I just want
to say I mentioned this earlier, this

451
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,519
so called border bill that did nothing
to secure the border, but did do

452
00:33:00,559 --> 00:33:07,880
some stuff to codify rampant illegal immigration. It was one hundred and eighteen billion

453
00:33:07,119 --> 00:33:14,759
dollars and sixty billion or more than
half, was to fund Ukraine and then

454
00:33:14,759 --> 00:33:17,720
we're talking about funding Ukraine even as
stories are coming out every day about rampant

455
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:22,000
corruption there. That's sort of like
nobody has a plan for how to win.

456
00:33:22,759 --> 00:33:24,599
Nobody's ever had a plan for how
to win, you know, just

457
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:29,119
it's like a total, total mess. So I think people are frustrated that

458
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:32,759
Mitch McConnell like was like, I
have the perfect plan and it'll totally work.

459
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:37,279
We'll do this Ukraine funding, will
pretend it's a border bill and nobody

460
00:33:37,279 --> 00:33:39,960
will know, and instead everybody knew. Everybody saw that. It was like

461
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:45,599
a total sham, And so yeah, I was also interested. You had

462
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:47,680
actually a press conference with you know, Ted Cruz coming out and being like,

463
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:52,319
this guy is not doing us any
favors. Ron Johnson sent out that

464
00:33:52,440 --> 00:34:00,079
meme where he had Kirsten Cinema as
Lucy with the football in Charlie Brown and

465
00:34:00,079 --> 00:34:07,559
and Mitch McConnell on his back as
Charlie Brown like mocking basically the incompetent leadership.

466
00:34:07,759 --> 00:34:10,639
But there is you know, this
man has a lot of power in

467
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:15,360
Washington, d C. And even
as he's clearly on his way out,

468
00:34:15,599 --> 00:34:19,880
it could be a very long period
of time before the country finally has a

469
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:24,960
Republican leader who's doing things more in
line with what Republican voters want. I've

470
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:30,760
always defended Mitch. I think a
little bit, you know, his effectiveness

471
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:36,119
has waned, even in the ways
that he wants to move forward. Right.

472
00:34:36,199 --> 00:34:38,840
What I mean is it does not
reflect what many people who like Trump

473
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:42,119
want to do. But at least
he was good at what he used,

474
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:45,559
you know, certain things that he
was good at, dealing with judiciary stuff

475
00:34:45,559 --> 00:34:47,199
and all that. I don't even
think he's very good at that anymore.

476
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:52,039
But I think people's expectations, though, of what a Senate leader does are

477
00:34:52,119 --> 00:34:55,480
off though. I mean, it's
not a guy you want banging the table,

478
00:34:55,719 --> 00:35:00,519
you know, banging the dais like, I mean, it's a guy

479
00:35:00,519 --> 00:35:04,639
who you want to be able to
pass things, to pull together opposition,

480
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:09,280
to run things. Right, I
see you making faces. I just want

481
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:15,800
to say, Yeah, the Republican
Party doesn't have much here. Democrats control

482
00:35:15,039 --> 00:35:21,280
the Presidency, they control the Senate, and they almost control the House.

483
00:35:21,559 --> 00:35:24,800
They control corporate media, they control
big business, they control like a lot

484
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:29,760
of stuff. So if you're in
a position of power, you got to

485
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:36,280
use that power. And yes,
obviously being an effective opposition leader using legislative

486
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:42,639
jiu jitsu or whatever like. That's
important, but having someone who can articulate

487
00:35:42,679 --> 00:35:47,320
a coherent thought is also important,
particularly for the world's greatest deliberative body.

488
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:54,440
And you know Glitchipooh is up there
mumbling about something or other and thinking he's

489
00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:59,639
being like super crafty. He's not
so crafty. He can get out on

490
00:35:59,639 --> 00:36:02,320
the floor and say some stuff that's
like better. He's like obviously not able

491
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:08,480
to do television really anymore because of
his mental decline. But even that step

492
00:36:08,599 --> 00:36:15,719
aside and let someone who can lead
lead. We should point out even some

493
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:19,639
of the people who are viewed as
the likely successors. These would be people

494
00:36:19,679 --> 00:36:24,159
like Barasso came out against the border
bill, that why am I calling on

495
00:36:24,199 --> 00:36:30,239
a border bill? The Ukraine package
that Mitch McConnell negotiated, and Mitch McConnell

496
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:34,199
himself. You got Chuck Schumer out
there saying I've worked with Mitch McConnell on

497
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:37,559
many things, I've never worked as
closely with him on anything as this Ukraine

498
00:36:37,559 --> 00:36:42,000
package that he calls a border bill. And then Mitch McConnell is like,

499
00:36:42,639 --> 00:36:45,239
I vote, I recommend a no
vote, which was totally uncool to James

500
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:51,079
Langford, not that I've been his
best friend. Well, his reasoning was

501
00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:54,760
that the environment right now is not
ready for it, you know, or

502
00:36:54,800 --> 00:37:00,519
that the Republican Party in the environment, within the movement is not ready for

503
00:37:00,559 --> 00:37:04,400
it. But they haven't been ready
for something like this since two thousand and

504
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:07,559
six or whenever the last one failed. No one wants this kind of bill

505
00:37:07,639 --> 00:37:10,440
on the right. And again Mitch
thought he was being super cute. He

506
00:37:10,599 --> 00:37:15,440
was like, gosh, I think
Donald Trump could cruise to reelection on the

507
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:19,840
back of the border crisis. So
I'll do my buddy Joe Biden as solid

508
00:37:20,159 --> 00:37:23,000
I'll pass something, will claim that
the border is closing up. That way,

509
00:37:23,039 --> 00:37:29,320
I necap my mortal enemy Donald Trump, and I won't actually do anything

510
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:31,519
to fix the border because obviously I
don't care about that. So he's like

511
00:37:31,559 --> 00:37:37,159
thinking he's being really crafty. He
wasn't. And then he's like the mood

512
00:37:37,199 --> 00:37:42,719
has changed, Like, buddy,
you just misread the entire situation. Yeah,

513
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,719
well that's my point. I just
don't understand why he would believe that

514
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:49,079
something like this would have a chance
at all. And I think they fooled

515
00:37:49,119 --> 00:37:52,079
themselves into believing that in some sense. It seems to me a lot of

516
00:37:52,119 --> 00:37:55,719
these senators thought that and they were
wrong, right, So, but I

517
00:37:55,719 --> 00:38:02,039
wanted to just talk about the bill
itself in the same that Joe Biden said

518
00:38:02,079 --> 00:38:06,159
now that he would veto I wrote
about this, but he said he would

519
00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:08,760
veto any kind of standalone a to
Israel, but he would not. But

520
00:38:09,039 --> 00:38:14,199
yet tructionmers moving forward with a standalone
funding bill for Ukraine, so that is

521
00:38:14,679 --> 00:38:19,880
the main priority he has. Do
you agree with me that Joe Biden would

522
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:23,199
have veto a standalone border security bill
one hundred percent? He would. So

523
00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:27,639
the only thing they really care about
and they really want to pass is Ukrainian

524
00:38:27,639 --> 00:38:30,800
funding, And you know, I
have mixed feelings about that. But I

525
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:35,960
can't believe that Mitch McConnell thinks that
this is the most important topic on the

526
00:38:36,039 --> 00:38:38,320
minds or the you know, of
Republicans, or that they even want I

527
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:42,280
honestly believe that Republicans would go along
with that kind of funding if there was

528
00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:45,760
a legitimate border bill attached to it. But there isn't, So then I

529
00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:52,199
don't understand what they're even doing and
wasting their time doing here. Things seem

530
00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:57,719
very broken the country seems extremely broken, whether it's in terms of how we're

531
00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:06,000
handling foreign policy or the economy or
you know, anything, crime, ability

532
00:39:06,039 --> 00:39:10,119
to tolerate other opinions and free speech, like things are very very bad.

533
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:15,400
And the House can do anything either
because honestly, they've like with people not

534
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:20,440
being there and open seats and stuff. They have like four seats right right

535
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:22,480
away, you have like ken Buck. Ken Buck's like, no, I'm

536
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:24,000
not going to do anything that Republicans
want to do. Right there's one right

537
00:39:24,039 --> 00:39:28,239
off in call CNN and asks them, how do you want me to vote?

538
00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:30,679
And then he just does whatever they
want yes, And then there's a

539
00:39:30,679 --> 00:39:32,039
bunch of other you know, there's
three or four other people. So they

540
00:39:32,039 --> 00:39:36,320
don't really really there's nothing for them
there either. It's going to be very

541
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:38,639
tough for them to get anything done, not that it would even matter because

542
00:39:38,639 --> 00:39:40,920
the Senate's not going to take it
up. On this point, though,

543
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:45,559
they could have impeached my Orcis.
I mean, I think you should have

544
00:39:45,559 --> 00:39:49,440
been impeached like a year ago,
but they could have impeached him last night

545
00:39:49,559 --> 00:39:52,599
from the one we're taping this and
one of the people who didn't vote for

546
00:39:52,639 --> 00:39:57,719
it was Mike Gallagher, and he
was like, I'm just worried that if

547
00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:04,079
we start impeaching cabinet secretary for behavior
like opening up the border and not following

548
00:40:04,119 --> 00:40:07,360
the law, that other cabinet secretaries
could be impeached. And I'm like,

549
00:40:07,599 --> 00:40:13,159
sounds like a great idea. I'd
like to impeach every cabinet secretary who refuses

550
00:40:13,199 --> 00:40:16,199
to defend the country's borders or doesn't
follow the law, wouldn't you. They

551
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:21,159
talk about these people like they're regal, Like there's some kind the cabinet secretaries

552
00:40:21,199 --> 00:40:23,239
grow on trees. You could find
one anywhere in DC if you really want

553
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:27,679
one more competent than him, what
does he care? Also like precedent,

554
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:31,280
Like the country's kind of falling apart
right now. Do you think that if

555
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:34,480
ma Orcis, if they get rid
of him, you're going to get someone

556
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:36,480
in there who's going to actually fix
the border. No, they're not.

557
00:40:36,559 --> 00:40:39,079
It's just sending a message. I
assume you agree, right, I don't

558
00:40:39,119 --> 00:40:42,440
know. I think you are the
one who turned me on to the idea

559
00:40:42,519 --> 00:40:46,159
that impeachments are good and should be
used on everybody, you know, like

560
00:40:46,199 --> 00:40:52,719
all parties, revengeable whatever is it? Yeah? I do keep them on

561
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:53,840
their toes, you know, in
a weird way. I think I have

562
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:58,559
like the opposite view of Mike Gallagher. And again I have no idea what

563
00:40:58,639 --> 00:41:01,599
Mike Gallagher was thinking with it,
Like I cannot imagine his constituents are like

564
00:41:02,199 --> 00:41:07,480
in any way feeling that he handled
that use of power that he had well.

565
00:41:08,159 --> 00:41:15,360
But I almost feel like impeachment of
cabinet secretaries makes more sense than presidents

566
00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:17,719
because, like with the president,
you always have a chance to vote them

567
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:22,239
out or they're coming out, you
know, soon, you're directly voting for

568
00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:28,400
them. With cabinet secretaries, it's
kind of a way to send a pitch

569
00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:32,599
at the head of the president without
going full impeachment. But I don't know,

570
00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:35,719
I'm not sure. I haven't really
thought about the whole thing. But

571
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:39,599
I do think that opening up the
border is absolutely scandalous behavior. And it

572
00:41:39,719 --> 00:41:44,199
just cracks me up that, like
in Washington, d C. They get

573
00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:51,360
so upset about someone saying something mean
or whatever, and meanwhile the American people

574
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:59,039
are getting savaged in ways that are
not fun to be savaged by people just

575
00:41:59,159 --> 00:42:01,719
complete dare election of duty on the
border. And that's fine, no big

576
00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:07,440
deal. Wouldn't want to use our
power to stop anything there. I actually

577
00:42:07,559 --> 00:42:10,039
listen. I agree theoretically with what
Gallagher is saying. But here's the problem.

578
00:42:10,119 --> 00:42:13,880
I mean, you have Democrats right
now using the fourteenth Amendment to try

579
00:42:13,880 --> 00:42:15,079
to take people off the ballot.
You think they're going to care about your

580
00:42:15,119 --> 00:42:19,440
stupid precedence. You think that if
you don't do this, they're not going

581
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:22,800
to do it? What on earth
makes you think that Democrats aren't going to

582
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,000
abuse that power once they get a
chance to do it. They'll do it

583
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:30,280
whenever they can. Right, You're
not on Twitter? Right, like I

584
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:35,159
need affirmation for my There's a guy
on Twitter named Yosi Ga Stettner or something

585
00:42:35,199 --> 00:42:37,639
like that that I just make up
that name. Do you know how it

586
00:42:37,639 --> 00:42:42,800
sounds familiar anyway? He has this
whole theory that it's not that Republicans are

587
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:50,239
stupid, it's that stupid people are
Republican maybe, And you know, first

588
00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:52,480
I was like, huh, that's
kind of interesting. And then sometimes you

589
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:55,280
encounter these Republican leaders You're like,
you know what, I think they are

590
00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:59,159
stupid? You know? So,
yeah, I don't. I don't know

591
00:42:59,199 --> 00:43:02,840
that an impeachment would matter very much. I think I've saw this poll that

592
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:07,039
shows that a lot more people are
tuned out of politics right now than they

593
00:43:07,119 --> 00:43:10,679
were, you know, in previous
elections at this point. And you know,

594
00:43:10,719 --> 00:43:15,519
I just think it becomes noise after
a while. So I'm not sure

595
00:43:15,519 --> 00:43:19,800
our impeachment would change much. I
think once Donald Trump is out there every

596
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:24,400
day campaigning, people are going to
start paying attention again. But I gotta

597
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:27,920
tell you, Molly, I do
not look forward to this election at all.

598
00:43:28,039 --> 00:43:31,239
I mean, maybe I've ever looked
for you know, how our propaganda

599
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:37,920
press refuses to show Donald Trump.
They have this whole thing where they're like,

600
00:43:37,079 --> 00:43:42,800
we cannot report the news accurately and
honestly because if we did, we

601
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:49,280
would be participating in Donald Trump's lies, and so we can't report news as

602
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:53,519
if we were a legitimate news organization. But I have this kind of crazy

603
00:43:53,599 --> 00:43:59,039
thought that this is helping out Donald
Trump. No one's getting tired of him

604
00:43:59,079 --> 00:44:01,440
because nobody shows him, and then
when they do see him, they're like,

605
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:04,800
oh, yeah, I remember that
guy. He was the best.

606
00:44:05,119 --> 00:44:08,559
That was such a fun, like
nice, economically prosperous era of peace.

607
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:15,559
And then also because the whole promise
of Joe Biden was that he would be

608
00:44:15,639 --> 00:44:22,280
this era of competence and that unlike
Donald Trump, who everything turns bad,

609
00:44:22,360 --> 00:44:24,639
he was going to unite the country. And so when you see Joe Biden,

610
00:44:24,679 --> 00:44:30,880
he's just this like angry, muttering
fool who can't articulate a thought.

611
00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:34,679
And then you get like Trump out
there and he's doing like sort of weird

612
00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:38,840
stand up stick. It's kind of
like funny to watch. It's like my

613
00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:42,760
theory went when he was staring off
Twitter. That actually helped him a whole

614
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:47,079
bunch because he couldn't just be insane
on there. And then they also have

615
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:53,880
there as if they are like Vladimir
Putin times ten, they are trying to

616
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:57,760
imprison their political opponent. By the
way, I said this like on Special

617
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:00,440
Report last night, and everyone's like, what are you talking about? What

618
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:04,360
am I talking about? What am
I talking about? They got court cases

619
00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:08,280
up and down the Eastern seaboard,
and you know the result of these would

620
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:13,840
be prison in some cases, Like
am I'm breaking news by telling people that

621
00:45:13,880 --> 00:45:16,880
the Democrat strategy is to imprison their
political opponent, who by the way,

622
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:22,639
is super popular right now anyway,
or even just get a conviction because they

623
00:45:22,679 --> 00:45:27,800
think if they can get a conviction
that they can win. They don't want

624
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:30,760
to win on the merits. They
don't want to win on the issues.

625
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:36,760
They're like, what if we imprisoned
our political opponent? This is absolutely horrific,

626
00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:40,719
and people acting like it's no big
deal is the kind of thing that

627
00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:47,320
is very disorienting and unsettling. But
I saw that Ben Rhodes and others are

628
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:53,519
starting up these groups that will like
juxtapose what Obama and Biden had done in

629
00:45:53,559 --> 00:45:59,199
foreign policy and what Trump dangerous Trump
foreign policy. And I still can't understand

630
00:45:59,199 --> 00:46:04,280
how anyone could fall for that,
or why you would remind people that there

631
00:46:04,280 --> 00:46:09,000
were the Abraham Accords and now there
is near, you know, regional war

632
00:46:09,039 --> 00:46:13,159
in the Middle East. Why would
you do that? Doesn't seem like a

633
00:46:13,159 --> 00:46:15,599
good Yeah, I want Axios throwed
it up like it was a good idea.

634
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:21,320
They're like, these top Obama officials
are going to compare the Biden foreign

635
00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:25,039
policy with Trump, and I was
like, top, like, why would

636
00:46:25,079 --> 00:46:32,000
Obama people be sabotaging their candidates so
badly? Biden was handed was handed a

637
00:46:32,039 --> 00:46:38,400
situation where Israel and Saudi Arabia were
on the verge of normalizing their relationship right

638
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:49,519
and instead of doing that because of
this counter productive animosity they have towards Saudi

639
00:46:49,519 --> 00:46:52,440
Arabia. And I don't like these
theocrats either, but I mean those are

640
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:58,360
our friends there. They picked Iran
and look where that they sent money to

641
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:00,960
them. They opened up their bank
account. I don't know if you saw

642
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:07,400
this. There's a they've made around
ten billion dollars more in oil sales,

643
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:12,880
which suppose it sanctions in place since
Biden came in than when Trump was there,

644
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:17,679
going back to the earliers of the
Trump before COVID. And there's war

645
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:21,760
with the huti Is, who they
took off the terror list. There's war

646
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:25,159
with Hamas who they funded with Hezbella
probably, and Americans are getting sucked into

647
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:29,559
this. I mean, I don't
understand how anyone could situation. Yeah,

648
00:47:29,599 --> 00:47:31,400
foreign policy people, and one of
the things they were saying is like,

649
00:47:32,039 --> 00:47:36,559
you do not need to go to
war with Iran to constrain them. And

650
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:45,000
the Biden administration did so much to
remove all of the careful economic issues that

651
00:47:45,039 --> 00:47:52,320
were in play that were helping keep
Iran from funding terror everywhere. When when

652
00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:59,320
Trump took out Solmani, Iran ostensibly
did something that that like they fired some

653
00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:04,039
rockets, which it was really not
much. And after that they were very

654
00:48:04,159 --> 00:48:08,679
quiet. Are they quiet now?
No? And let's talk about this.

655
00:48:08,719 --> 00:48:12,360
And we talked about this last week. We spent a week, Bine spent

656
00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:15,000
a week talking about how we were
going to respond to an attack on Americans.

657
00:48:15,079 --> 00:48:19,599
It was just perplexing. And then
they do something. It's going to

658
00:48:19,679 --> 00:48:22,639
be this day, it's going to
be this time, and it's going to

659
00:48:22,679 --> 00:48:29,199
be in this area. Anyway,
I'm happy that bill border Bill died so

660
00:48:29,239 --> 00:48:31,440
we could talk about better things.
I do want to say, just because

661
00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:37,280
the American people successfully killed that border
Bill, all the worst parts will be

662
00:48:37,360 --> 00:48:39,800
resurrected one way or another. So, you know, Mitch is like,

663
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:43,920
hey, then I'm just going to
do my standalone. Give all the money

664
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:47,239
to Ukraine. I think Chruck Schumer's
moving forward with something like that today.

665
00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:52,599
I'm not sure. Yeah. So
just you don't ever actually win. You

666
00:48:52,760 --> 00:48:57,039
just win like little battles, and
then they come back and try to well.

667
00:48:57,639 --> 00:49:00,800
Last thing, I've noticed this when
I started out. You know,

668
00:49:00,880 --> 00:49:04,199
you think you win some battle in
politics, but you never do. It's

669
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:07,880
just the same battles over and over
again. We're still arguing about the same

670
00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:10,280
economic stuff we're still arguing about.
You know, It's just it never ends,

671
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:15,360
so it's you have to be vigilant. Talk about a letter. The

672
00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:19,280
guy wrote us this letter and he
said that both you and I had said

673
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:22,880
that we hate politics. That he
was like, why are you Yeah,

674
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:25,480
I meant to I thought that was
a great letter, and he was basically

675
00:49:25,519 --> 00:49:30,000
saying, like, you guys talk
about how you hate politics. We're counting

676
00:49:30,079 --> 00:49:32,920
on you, you know, kind
of to care about it, and it's

677
00:49:34,039 --> 00:49:37,320
very frustrating to hear you say it. And I think about this all the

678
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:42,719
time because I'm really not the most
political person, but I have found myself

679
00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:47,119
working in politics. But I care
deeply about the country, and I understand

680
00:49:47,159 --> 00:49:52,159
that you have to fight politics.
Like I'm always thinking about people who are

681
00:49:52,199 --> 00:49:58,519
poorly served by their current leadership or
who have lost a way of life that

682
00:49:58,679 --> 00:50:02,920
embraces freedom, and I care very
deeply about that, and that's why I

683
00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:06,639
do what I do. So I
didn't want to give the impression that I

684
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:10,559
don't care. I couldn't care more
like, I really care about the country.

685
00:50:10,639 --> 00:50:15,760
I just don't like politicians and politics
and all that stuff. I have

686
00:50:15,920 --> 00:50:20,840
chosen to fight in those spheres because
it matters, but it's just in my

687
00:50:21,079 --> 00:50:25,199
perfect scenario, I wouldn't be doing
it. I would say that for me,

688
00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:30,320
it's I don't like horse the horse
race part politics. I don't like

689
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:35,199
writing about rape who's going to win
races? Or I don't really love writing

690
00:50:35,199 --> 00:50:40,679
about polls. I don't like listening
to politicians. I like ideas. That

691
00:50:40,719 --> 00:50:45,719
makes me sound pompous and sanctimonious,
but I like the ideas behind and arguing

692
00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:47,559
about that sort of thing. I
think I don't think either of us write

693
00:50:47,559 --> 00:50:52,920
a lot of Like maybe we criticize
politicians are not acting correctly, but we're

694
00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:57,400
never like writing a lot of horse
race stuff, right, I don't think

695
00:50:57,440 --> 00:51:00,159
you do it all, so I
occasionally you have to, but it's it's

696
00:51:00,159 --> 00:51:04,199
not like the main focus of what
we do here. And I actually think

697
00:51:04,239 --> 00:51:07,079
if you're going to win big arguments, that's not what you should be involved.

698
00:51:07,079 --> 00:51:09,480
And that's more like sports, that's
not you have to win the big

699
00:51:09,519 --> 00:51:13,280
ideas, like take abortion, Like
in the end, it doesn't matter what

700
00:51:13,320 --> 00:51:15,760
happens in politics, you have to
win over people to the big right.

701
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:20,239
But I do hope that what we're
doing helps those people who are doing the

702
00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:24,440
little incremental things. Yeah, I
mean, I don't want to say so.

703
00:51:24,719 --> 00:51:28,800
Did you see the letter from someone
who was asking for moving advice?

704
00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:32,920
I want to actually respond to that
one Colorado. I have thoughts. I'm

705
00:51:32,920 --> 00:51:37,280
going to respond to that at some
point, I hope. Well they were

706
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:39,000
talking about Virginia, all right,
go come to Virginia. I think,

707
00:51:39,079 --> 00:51:44,039
yeah, twenty years ago I would
have said go to Colorado, but now

708
00:51:44,159 --> 00:51:47,559
not anymore. And I thought she
was picking a good city. So anyway,

709
00:51:49,639 --> 00:51:53,440
and we do get some interesting mail. Let's talk about culture. People

710
00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:57,800
like that too. I love when
people write and give us the exact percentage

711
00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:00,400
they want us to do culture.
They're like, only twenty percent is acceptable.

712
00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:05,360
Some people are more specific. Let
me start. I saw a movie

713
00:52:05,400 --> 00:52:07,199
I think you had mentioned it maybe
a few weeks ago, and Justice for

714
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:10,239
All with al Pacino? Did you
mention that? I don't know. I

715
00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:14,079
forget both. I like I always
have to, like try to remember what

716
00:52:14,119 --> 00:52:19,119
the name of a movie I just
saw was, because I well forget it

717
00:52:19,159 --> 00:52:24,159
quickly. What's it about? It's
like me with committee hearing politicians. It's

718
00:52:24,199 --> 00:52:28,320
al Pacino. It's such a weird
movie. Norman Jewison, who did like

719
00:52:29,880 --> 00:52:32,400
you'd learned the roof and stuff directs
it like it's kind of a comedy.

720
00:52:32,559 --> 00:52:36,519
It's the one where he yells like
you're no, you're out of order and

721
00:52:36,559 --> 00:52:39,400
you're not me. Oh really Okay, So al Pacino's in it, and

722
00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:45,599
it's it's it's fine. It's from
nineteen seventy nine. It's like a courtroom

723
00:52:45,679 --> 00:52:47,880
drama and it's I thought you mentioned
Jack Warden's in it and stuff. Okay,

724
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:54,280
but it was interesting in that It's
like sometimes in the seventies things are

725
00:52:54,480 --> 00:52:58,440
supposed to be kind of comedies,
but you're never really sure, Like it

726
00:52:58,519 --> 00:53:01,599
seems too serious to be a comedy. But I don't know. I think

727
00:53:01,639 --> 00:53:04,639
you went an oscar for that movie. It could be wrong, but it

728
00:53:04,679 --> 00:53:07,320
was pretty good. You do you
want to trade off or just do our

729
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:09,920
whole list each? I don't have
much, so go ahead. Okay.

730
00:53:10,119 --> 00:53:17,480
Wait, no inner Space? I
saw inner Space? Wait? Wait,

731
00:53:17,480 --> 00:53:22,159
don't say anything. Is that with
like Martin Short and Dennis Quaid. Yes,

732
00:53:22,639 --> 00:53:25,320
not Meg Tilley, someone that want
Meg Ryan Meg Ryan? Yeah,

733
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:30,000
And I get all those Meg Ryan
type people confused. You know, there

734
00:53:30,039 --> 00:53:32,920
was like a thing at that period
of time, the mid eighties, where

735
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:36,559
there were a lot of women that
looked like that. She was great,

736
00:53:36,920 --> 00:53:39,800
Dennis Quaid was great. I love
There were a couple at one point,

737
00:53:39,840 --> 00:53:45,760
weren't they. Yeah? Yeah,
And I think I mentioned this previously once,

738
00:53:45,800 --> 00:53:49,320
but I was like once at a
dinner party with fancy people, and

739
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:52,000
the women were in one place and
the men were in another, and I

740
00:53:52,039 --> 00:53:55,199
was talking about how much I love
Martin Short and that's when I learned that

741
00:53:55,320 --> 00:54:00,519
well, like every single other woman
was like, oh, I him,

742
00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:05,159
like, cannot stand him. It's
so stupid. And I realized, like,

743
00:54:05,280 --> 00:54:07,719
oh, it's not very female to
like him, but I find him

744
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:12,599
to just I find his physical comedy
and everything to be really hilarious. I

745
00:54:12,679 --> 00:54:15,639
was not a fan until I saw
that character he does in the Fat Suit

746
00:54:16,880 --> 00:54:22,599
Jimmy Interview Jimmy Glick, Yeah,
which I found very funny, like when

747
00:54:22,639 --> 00:54:29,239
he asked mel Brooks what his problem
with nazis? Did you see that the

748
00:54:29,280 --> 00:54:32,039
comedian Shane Gillis is going to be
hosting Sury Night Live. Oh, I'm

749
00:54:32,079 --> 00:54:37,159
so glad you brought that up.
So I was doing the Weekend Show,

750
00:54:37,239 --> 00:54:43,079
a weekend show on Fox, where
we were talking about Shane Gillis hosting suren

751
00:54:43,199 --> 00:54:45,800
Live. So of course Shane Gillis
was going to be a cast member,

752
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:50,400
but he was kicked off because he
had done satirical humor on a podcast,

753
00:54:50,599 --> 00:54:53,159
like making fun of different races or
whatever, and that was viewed as something

754
00:54:53,159 --> 00:54:57,280
you can't do anymore, Like could
do it in comedy for decades upon decades,

755
00:54:57,320 --> 00:55:00,679
but you couldn't do it if you're
Shane Gillis. And so you know,

756
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:05,400
he got fired by Lauren Michaels and
now he's coming back to host.

757
00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:08,679
And I made a comment on the
weekend show about how Saturday Night Live,

758
00:55:08,679 --> 00:55:13,199
which is a show I have long
you know, loved that a few years

759
00:55:13,199 --> 00:55:16,480
ago they embraced identity politics over humor, and they did. There's a cast

760
00:55:16,519 --> 00:55:21,599
member. She calls herself like a
non female but also not a male.

761
00:55:21,639 --> 00:55:22,599
I don't even or you know,
what is that? What is that called

762
00:55:22,800 --> 00:55:29,400
non binary or something non binary?
And she is awful, like so not

763
00:55:29,679 --> 00:55:31,960
funny. Others, you know,
like they just kind of would like brag.

764
00:55:31,960 --> 00:55:35,519
They wouldn't say like, oh we
have this funny person or that the

765
00:55:35,559 --> 00:55:38,480
funny person. They say, this
is the first gay Asian. Now in

766
00:55:38,480 --> 00:55:44,360
his case, he's not like winning
any you know, he's not the funniest

767
00:55:44,360 --> 00:55:46,159
person in the world, but he's
actually like hard working and funny enough.

768
00:55:46,519 --> 00:55:51,679
But like, who cares, you
know? If it's all women and they're

769
00:55:51,719 --> 00:55:53,559
hilarious, who cares, you know? But anyway, yeah, that would

770
00:55:53,599 --> 00:56:01,239
never happen because women are funny.
It's not true. But anyway, I

771
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:06,199
was one of my friends was a
stand up comedian and she would always incorporate

772
00:56:06,440 --> 00:56:13,719
women are funny jokes into her routine. It killed anyway. I don't watch

773
00:56:13,719 --> 00:56:17,280
that I laugh ava in many years, but I'll probably check out his opening

774
00:56:17,360 --> 00:56:22,639
monologue. They had Nate Bargatsi on
there a few months ago, and he

775
00:56:22,840 --> 00:56:25,400
was he was pretty funny. So
I don't know, maybe they're coming,

776
00:56:25,480 --> 00:56:31,039
Maybe they're coming to their senses.
Maybe things are turning around. Speaking of

777
00:56:31,039 --> 00:56:35,280
comedians, there's this comedian named Shane
Smith. Have you ever heard of him?

778
00:56:35,519 --> 00:56:40,480
Nope? So this guy is completely
tattooed, like it's on his face

779
00:56:42,000 --> 00:56:45,920
and his neck, all over his
arms, just crazy. He used to

780
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:49,880
be in a gang, drug addict, all that stuff, but he recently

781
00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:54,400
converted to Catholicism. And there's an
interview on a podcast called Pints with a

782
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:58,559
Quietness, which I have never heard
of before, but apparently it is really

783
00:56:58,639 --> 00:57:04,800
pretty popular, probably with the Catholic
listeners. And it's about an hour and

784
00:57:04,800 --> 00:57:07,800
a half or more, maybe two
hours, and it is really good,

785
00:57:07,559 --> 00:57:12,679
so I would recommend watching it.
I'm talking about not getting face tattoos because

786
00:57:12,679 --> 00:57:16,119
I feel like that's a bad life
decision. He talks about they do.

787
00:57:16,559 --> 00:57:22,519
He talks about his tattoos and how
he had basically satanic tattoos on him that

788
00:57:22,519 --> 00:57:25,239
he's covered up and tried like converted
into like religious ones and stuff. But

789
00:57:25,280 --> 00:57:30,480
he's not anti tattoo. He says
it like sort of represents his life and

790
00:57:30,599 --> 00:57:34,800
it reminds him of of where he's
been and all that kind of stuff.

791
00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:42,760
It's interesting. It's an interesting I
don't find him like particularly hilarious or anything

792
00:57:42,800 --> 00:57:46,920
as a comedian, but I do
think he's an interesting character and a guy

793
00:57:46,960 --> 00:57:52,480
who, you know, he thinks
about the world in ways that maybe people

794
00:57:52,480 --> 00:57:54,719
who are religious since they're born may
not, you know what I'm saying.

795
00:57:54,760 --> 00:57:59,840
Like, it's interesting people who convert
usually are more zealous than non converts,

796
00:57:59,880 --> 00:58:04,039
but they're usually view the world a
little differently. It's interesting. I think

797
00:58:04,679 --> 00:58:07,400
I don't know why this reminds me
of anything. But did you see Tablet

798
00:58:07,719 --> 00:58:13,320
Magazine, which is an online publication. I really like had a thing about

799
00:58:13,639 --> 00:58:19,840
the people behind the Chosen and how
there are a bunch of Jewish consultants on

800
00:58:20,559 --> 00:58:23,760
the Chosen. I was like,
I'm going to send this to David Harsani

801
00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:30,280
Chosen fan. I am a Chosen
fan. And I think the New Seasons

802
00:58:30,320 --> 00:58:34,719
like in the theaters or something I
heard see, Yeah, I am well,

803
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:37,480
I mean it's about a Jewish those
people are Jewish still, right,

804
00:58:37,559 --> 00:58:44,559
so in the show, right they
choose? Yeah. I watched a kid's

805
00:58:44,639 --> 00:58:47,639
movie. Oh, I'm not going
to remember. It's on Netflix, Ryan

806
00:58:47,719 --> 00:58:52,239
and the Dark. Ryan and the
Dark, written by Charlie Kaufman, who

807
00:58:52,280 --> 00:59:00,119
wrote like that John Malkovich movie.
Ye. And I would like to say

808
00:59:00,119 --> 00:59:02,679
that I watched this kid's movie because
there were kids in my house, But

809
00:59:02,760 --> 00:59:07,679
no, I just we just watched
this kid's movie because it was on and

810
00:59:07,880 --> 00:59:10,960
I thought it started out really strong, like it was very It's about a

811
00:59:12,039 --> 00:59:15,679
kid who's really scared of everything basically, and I thought it was really good

812
00:59:15,760 --> 00:59:17,079
and then it went on like an
hour too long. But I still would

813
00:59:17,079 --> 00:59:21,760
recommend it if you have kids.
I think they would enjoy it. Shyness.

814
00:59:21,800 --> 00:59:24,360
And did I mention that I Am
David film we watched a few weeks

815
00:59:24,360 --> 00:59:28,960
ago, Yes, but I don't
remember. Yeah, it's kind of a

816
00:59:29,039 --> 00:59:32,679
kid's film, but it was also
totally just a family friendly film about a

817
00:59:32,760 --> 00:59:37,960
kid escaping a camp in some Soviet
country and oh yeah, yeah, his

818
00:59:38,079 --> 00:59:42,840
journeys. I think it was called
I Am David on Outnumbered this week.

819
00:59:43,239 --> 00:59:45,280
I was so proud of myself because
I am as bad as you're being right

820
00:59:45,320 --> 00:59:50,480
now on name recall and stuff like
that. I'm so much worse. Actually,

821
00:59:50,920 --> 00:59:57,880
I never remember anything like particularly on
live television. And Emily was trying

822
00:59:57,880 --> 01:00:00,880
to remember the name of a TV
show about kids, you know, and

823
01:00:00,920 --> 01:00:04,639
I was like Stranger Things and she's
like yes, and they had that music

824
01:00:04,679 --> 01:00:07,000
that kind of had a comeback,
and I was like Kate Bush. And

825
01:00:07,039 --> 01:00:10,119
I was so happy that, like, for once, I could actually remember

826
01:00:10,440 --> 01:00:15,719
something, but mostly because I loved
did you So Kate Bush is big because

827
01:00:15,719 --> 01:00:16,679
of that show? Is that what
brought her? Like? So it was

828
01:00:16,760 --> 01:00:20,280
kind of we were talking about the
Tracy Chapman thing from the Grammy, So

829
01:00:20,320 --> 01:00:23,199
Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs. I
think his name is. They did a

830
01:00:23,320 --> 01:00:28,960
duet of her song fast Card that
he did a remake of that went really

831
01:00:29,480 --> 01:00:31,760
successful, and then for the Grammys
they came out and sang a duet and

832
01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:37,880
it was really well done. And
I love Tracy Chapman. And I'll just

833
01:00:37,920 --> 01:00:42,519
say that, like not on air, I had said that I wasn't sure

834
01:00:42,639 --> 01:00:45,599
Luke Combs had is that his name? It brought much to the song,

835
01:00:45,679 --> 01:00:49,719
like he didn't really change it up. He just kind of sang her song,

836
01:00:50,719 --> 01:00:52,880
but just did it very so there
wasn't like to me, I would

837
01:00:52,880 --> 01:00:57,719
prefer to hear the Tracy Chapman song. And the other women on the set

838
01:00:57,719 --> 01:01:00,840
were like, well, here's something
he brought. He brought me knowledge of

839
01:01:00,840 --> 01:01:04,159
that song because I didn't know who
Tracy Chapman was, because I was too

840
01:01:04,199 --> 01:01:07,440
young to know that song, you
know, like they literally might not have

841
01:01:07,480 --> 01:01:12,159
been born at that time. And
so they were saying like, just the

842
01:01:12,199 --> 01:01:16,920
beauty of him doing a cover introduced
them to Tracy Chapman and now they like

843
01:01:16,960 --> 01:01:21,320
her other music as well too.
Well. I got in some trouble this

844
01:01:21,400 --> 01:01:23,880
week because I ree did out what
I thought a lot of people would agree

845
01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:28,519
with, is that I unfortunately was
alive when Tracy Chapman's song came out and

846
01:01:28,559 --> 01:01:31,199
I was bombarded with it constantly,
and I hate it. I hate folk

847
01:01:31,360 --> 01:01:36,119
music, hate it, and now
I have to go through it all again,

848
01:01:36,719 --> 01:01:39,199
and it just annoys me so much. And then I made a crack

849
01:01:39,280 --> 01:01:44,719
about how the gen Z like they
should find their own music and stop taking

850
01:01:45,000 --> 01:01:46,599
stuff that was terrible in the past
and bringing it back to me. Then

851
01:01:46,639 --> 01:01:50,800
I said something bad about Kate Bush, and then I remembered, I'm like,

852
01:01:50,840 --> 01:01:54,280
I hope Molly doesn't see this on
the chat the world? Did you

853
01:01:54,320 --> 01:02:00,159
say bad about Kate Bush. I
don't like that music, but I don't

854
01:02:00,159 --> 01:02:01,599
hate it that much, but I
do hate that I have to hear it

855
01:02:01,639 --> 01:02:04,920
again, like you go through this. One time, I was talking about

856
01:02:04,920 --> 01:02:07,400
like that Peter Gabriel song with the
claymation that they used to play every five

857
01:02:07,400 --> 01:02:12,800
minutes on the TV, like they
exactly they made you hate these songs because

858
01:02:12,840 --> 01:02:15,239
they would not stop. And one
of them was fast Cars, and I'm

859
01:02:15,239 --> 01:02:17,280
like, I can't believe this is
the song they picked, like they can

860
01:02:17,400 --> 01:02:21,519
go back and bring the Ramones back
or something. They went back and they

861
01:02:21,559 --> 01:02:23,440
got you know, folk music,
which is terrible. Next thing, you

862
01:02:23,440 --> 01:02:28,159
know, they're going to have the
those two women, those two gay women,

863
01:02:28,320 --> 01:02:32,039
that band. Oh I can girlize
the Indigo Girls. My girlfriends and

864
01:02:32,039 --> 01:02:35,800
I we would drive around in the
car and we'd all take different parts and

865
01:02:35,800 --> 01:02:38,440
we would go to Lilith Lilith There
I did. But I just want to

866
01:02:38,440 --> 01:02:42,880
say I have that Indigo Girls album. I have a couple of Inego Girls

867
01:02:42,960 --> 01:02:46,800
albums, have more than one album. I like our lesbian themed culture selection

868
01:02:46,920 --> 01:02:52,280
for this week, but they don't. I don't know doesn't. Well,

869
01:02:52,320 --> 01:02:54,920
someone accused me and said, I
don't like Tracy Chapman because she's a woman

870
01:02:54,960 --> 01:02:58,239
of a queer woman of color,
like that is that? Yeah? You

871
01:02:58,239 --> 01:03:00,800
were like, uh, if she
was a purple Martian, I would still

872
01:03:00,840 --> 01:03:06,119
hate that song. I actually,
I'm not saying I'm surprised, Like if

873
01:03:06,159 --> 01:03:07,480
you tell me she's gay, I'm
not gonna say I'm surprised by that.

874
01:03:07,599 --> 01:03:12,599
But I never I don't ever remember
her talking about it or making a big

875
01:03:12,639 --> 01:03:16,000
deal out of it. And she
seems to me like a real professional musician

876
01:03:16,159 --> 01:03:22,840
who just takes her craft seriously but
doesn't like get all involved in drama of

877
01:03:22,920 --> 01:03:27,280
Who's Dayton whom or whatever. I
couldn't care less what I mean. It's

878
01:03:27,280 --> 01:03:30,199
not like you see a lot of
bands are like involved in debauchery. It's

879
01:03:30,239 --> 01:03:32,880
like, I don't you know,
this isn't no more. I'm not not

880
01:03:32,960 --> 01:03:36,840
following them down some moral road.
I just want the song to be good

881
01:03:36,880 --> 01:03:40,480
and to the guitar to be plugged
in, so workay stuff. I will

882
01:03:40,519 --> 01:03:47,559
say that on Monday, a bunch
of people were really upset that at the

883
01:03:47,599 --> 01:03:53,400
Grammys, Taylor Swift won an award
for something or other. Lana del Rey

884
01:03:53,599 --> 01:03:59,119
was robbed anyway. She comes up
and Celine Dion was the woman giving her

885
01:03:59,159 --> 01:04:03,840
the award, but she didn't acknowledge
her. And my gay friends felt that

886
01:04:04,920 --> 01:04:09,679
she should have like basically not you
know, bowed down, but like really

887
01:04:09,760 --> 01:04:14,039
honored Selene Dion. That's a oh
my gosh, this is like stuff that

888
01:04:14,039 --> 01:04:16,599
I shouldn't be saying publicly. I'm
not a big Selene Dion fan, but

889
01:04:16,679 --> 01:04:21,559
you know, she is a she's
a big star, and people felt that

890
01:04:21,599 --> 01:04:26,960
she deserved some respect from the young
the younger crew. I hate that I

891
01:04:26,960 --> 01:04:30,960
have to know any of that,
any of this is happening Selene Dion.

892
01:04:31,280 --> 01:04:35,559
I only know that Titanic song.
Did you know she was having medical problems

893
01:04:35,639 --> 01:04:38,639
or something or health ish? Yeh, I heard about that. Did her

894
01:04:38,679 --> 01:04:42,320
husband die? He was like a
lot older right, No, no clue.

895
01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:45,960
Sorry, I know more about her
than you. I don't even know

896
01:04:45,000 --> 01:04:50,039
anything, all right. That's it
for me. Anything else, No,

897
01:04:50,360 --> 01:04:54,960
I hope you have a great rest
of your week. You too, hope

898
01:04:54,960 --> 01:04:58,199
everyone else does as well. Until
them be lovers of freedom and anxious for

899
01:04:58,239 --> 01:05:00,800
the friend f