Welcome back, everyone to a new episode of You're Wrong with Molly Hemingway and
David Harsani. Molly, did you see this Wall Street Journal poll that basically
found that everyone thinks that Joe Biden's too old to be president? Like I
think it was seventy five percent or some huge number. Yeah, so everyone,
whether they're not everyone. I'm trying to speak less hyperbolically, strong majorities
of people, not just Republicans and Independents, but even Democrats say they think
that he is way too old. But I don't. And everyone was talking
about it's a big deal when everyone thinks you're too old to serve another four
years and the most difficult job in the land. But I don't know how
much I care about it, because, hey, I think everyone thought he
was too old four years ago and that didn't seem to matter at all.
And right now, I think the Democrat Party isn't in the business of persuading
people to vote for them. They just run valid operations. So if they
want to run, actually there running John Fetterman for president, and it would
result in the same number of votes as if it were someone that people liked
and thought was competent. I think you're onto something there as far as not
just what you're talking about, bald harvesting or whatever, but also that I
think people vote party more than ever before, and they don't really even care
or that much. I think a bit scandal prooved. But I will say
that some of these results should scare you know how I feel about Donald Trump,
but I think people underestimate how easily he could become president again if he
runs against Joe Biden, And some of these results would scare me quite a
bit. Now he's too old to run, yes, you know, a
decent amount of people think Trump's too old to run. I think it was
like forty five or above. But is he mentally up for the job?
Donald Trump wins there, does he care about people like you? They're like
Trump's ahead, but their neck and neck And this is empathy is supposed to
be. You know, Joe Biden's strong suit. I think that that is
gone, is honest. Yeah, Joe Biden's barely ahead. I don't even
know why why that is has a vision for the future. Trump is way
ahead, has a strong record of accomplishment. Trump is way ahead, you
know, and then is a likable person. Biden's ahead, But those are
sort of underlying currents of perception that I think are quite quite should be quite
disturbing if you're a Democrat, did you think right? So the journal put
up the poll results in two big stories, one that was more focused on
Republican situation and one that was focused on negative perceptions of Joe Biden relative to
Donald Trump. But even in the first release, which showed Donald Trump really
consolidating the Republican field, which is interesting and maybe we should talk about it,
it also showed that in a head to head matchup versus Biden, they're
tied. In a three way matchup with Cornell West, Trump wins, and
by comparison, I think, you know, when they did this poll four
years ago, I think Biden was up at this point by ten points.
So for them to be tied, you know, if you think four years
ago Biden was ten points up, it ended up being a very close election,
coming down to forty thousand votes across three states. If they're tied at
this point, and this is about you know, you haven't even gotten into
the campaign where people actually have to start forcing the issues of talking about how
Biden has done in terms of the economy, inflation, Southern border crime,
in the city's foreign policy, proxy war against Russia Ukraine, like all these
things that aren't actually so great for him. Oh and that doesn't even count
that in twenty twenty, the media and other Democrats said that that it was
fake news that Biden had a corruption scandal. And now every day, including
every day at the Federalist, you have more news and information about that corruption
scandal of how the Biden family received money in exchange for peddling access to Joe
Biden and just to die let's dive a little deeper into this. One of
the Biden has no strong suit, like he's he's he's upside down on vertue,
you know, he's on the he's upside down on every everything. So
things like the economy, which everyone pretends is doing well right now he's getting
he's hammered on that, like sixty percent disapproval. That is terrible. Now,
I you know, traditional presidential election, Like you say, there are
a couple of factors I think that aren't in play here. Like usually the
other candidates out of the public eye a bit so that people forget about the
bad stuff and remember the good stuff. But Donald Trump is constantly in the
eye of the storm and constantly being covered. So it's not as if he's
been away from from from you know, the public and they don't know remember
who he is or anything like that. They do, and they still many
of them think that he has accomplished more. And I think when you look
at the economy things like that, it's clear that he did. But I
think that the pushing of bydonomics. Now, did you see that the deficit
this year doubled, doubled? That is unheard of in only happens in like
in a COVID shutdown or the economy or a war or something like that.
It doubled and the pressure of inflation, the deficit. It's the good economy
he keeps talking about. It's a complete mirage. And I think people feel
that, I don't know that they can look, you know, give you
a part of why they think it's not right. But the worker participation is
not anywhere close to where it was, is not recovered. The low unemployment
rates sort of fake because it's essentially that Biden just let people Biden, you
know, that the government let people go back to work. It's actually quite
an anemic recovery. So I think people feel all that, and I'm just
saying, I mean, everyone thinks Donald Trump's A lot of people I think
in the media think Donald Trump is going to lose easily and Trump you know,
but I would be really concerned if I was a Democrat right now,
really concerned. And I can't even imagine what the world's going to be like
if Donald Trump somehow pulls it off and wins the presidency, and then they're
going to lose their minds. America's may be over. Yeah, okay,
before we talk about the political stuff. That's huge. News about the death
sit like, that's yeah, that's crazy. So it's like two trillion this
year, Yeah, I mean at some point, Yeah, this contu in
addition to it just being a national security risk to carry deficits like this,
it affects our ability to be a strong player on the international scene, which
just domestically, this contributes to high interest rates for mortgages. It means that
more and more of what we do end up collecting in taxes has to go
to, you know, paying off the interest on debt. Interest costs.
Yeah, it's not it's a very very scary. Simply some huge number of
like eight percent, nine percent of the economy is just paying off all this
debt as a share of our economy. Actually it's eight percent, which is
only in times of great you know, trouble. Has that been the case.
But what made me laugh is that I was reading I was reading about
this in the Washington Post and the word these are the words that appeared next
to each other, the unexpected deficit. Search. You remember, unexpected,
unexpected. It's a euphemism for bad stuff that happens during democratic administrations to the
economy, like when Obama was president, every you know, every bad news
was unexpected. How is it unexpected when the Democrats spent you know, basically
past the biggest spending bill in the history of the United States. I mean
it is it should be expected. I mean, maybe not doubling, but
there should The expectation is that the deficit is going to rise. And by
the way, Biden has on the campaign Trump in fact, on Labor Day
he said he was bragging about how he had brought down the deficit by raising
taxes on corporations, which incidentally didn't even kick in until this year. But
obviously that was just coming down from the massive spending. You know, COVID
related spending and nothing to do with him, just like job creation has nothing
to do with him anyway. Although I did feel like you got a lot
of this like, oh, I guess it's it's in response to by part
is in spending spreeze. But when inflation started skyrocketing, you've got a lot
of people being like, huh, how this happened. Oh, I don't
know how that happened. I'm sure it had nothing to do with flooding the
economy with all these COVID spending packages, right, I mean, do you
remember them lying about it constantly, saying that no real economist things were going
to have inflation and so forth, And then when it came, the way
to stop the inflation was to spend more, you know, and people fall
for this. I don't know. You get what you deserve, I guess,
but at some point someone's gonna have to pay this bill. It's definitely
gonna be a drag on the economy. And Republicans, you know, are
are part of the problem, don't get me wrong. I mean they helped
pass that nonsensical infrastructure bill. It was really just like a green energy bill
in many ways, and and and they're part of others spending two and they're
part of you know, now we're facing a shutdown, right and they're probably
going to give into whatever Democrats. That's one on that end too, don't
you think. Yeah, the infrastructure thing reminds me that Eddie Scary was talking
about how weird it is that you see construction everywhere, but everything is crumbling,
Like the construction doesn't seem to result in drivable roads or good bridges.
It just is like this weird pattern of constantly having things under construction, infrastructure
under construction, but also needing more. At the same time, I saw
that I didn't want to argue again with other staff members, but I feel
like that's good. Oh yeah, you never like to argue with people.
That's a definite accurate statement you've just made. Trying not to make life uncomfortable
for my coworkers constantly. But I think that that's something you see a lot
of in blue cities, where in areas like DC, but when you go
out into America, there are plenty of good drivable roads and plenty of good
infrastructure. It's just poorly managed red blue places that have this sort of problem
typically. But anyway, Okay, now back to the you' says about like
how insane it would be if Donald Trump won reelection, and I just want
to talk about I just kind of want to talk about the Republican primary here,
because I did think it was interesting that this Wall Street Journal poll shows
Trump just kind of really strong for a primary situation. I had said recently
on Special Reports something about how it was like basically ninety five percent odds that
he would be the nominee. I think I was overstating it there, but
it's probably safe to say it's like eighty percent odds, and nobody else really
seems to be making a realistic move for it. Some people think that because
Ronda Santis is focusing all of his money and grassroots efforts in Iowa, that
he might be able to make a surprise showing in Iowa, and then if
you followed up to Iowa with christ new news efforts on behalf of someone not
Trump in New Hampshire, that then you could have like a real race going.
I just kind of want to talk about that, like do you see
that being a realistic hope of the never Trump crowd? Like, also,
I'm really curious how people see a long and drawn out primary battle that also
results in a Republican win in twenty twenty four. So you're saying, if
there's a long drawn out fight, that were hurt Republican chances. I'm not
saying all of reality would say that, Like, you know, you look
at Joe Biden with these horrible numbers, but the Democrats are not allowing a
primary because they know that primaries weaken incumbent presidents. Or like if there's someone
who's like a big figure in particular, if you're kind of all evenly matched
and you come out of primary, you can be strengthened by it. But
generally speaking, Democrats are not letting Joe Biden debate RFK Junior, Marian Williamson
or Gavin Newsom, like they don't want that to happen because they know it
would weaken him. So I'm just saying, if you can imagine, like
the imagine in the Trump situation, which I think is a little unique because
he kind of brings in a constituency of his own that has worked with the
more traditional Republican constituency for success, how do you have a long drawn out
primary, Like I think it might have been a little different if if Trump
was not in the lead and getting stronger every day, if he if he
was a weak front runner or not a front runner, it might be different.
But how do you take him out and then go on to win the
general? Like, wouldn't you just imagine that would be so brutal? Well,
I don't don't think anyone. Maybe it works the other way too,
Maybe maybe it works with how I mean he's been to descantist. I don't
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me to see Trump being taken out and then not just destroying the person who
took him out, you know. So that's one thing. He would just
run a third party or do something, tell people not to vote for him
whatever, So that would be disastrous. This is not a traditional campaign,
and a traditional campaign, there have been some pretty brutal primaries like Hillary Obama
or I'm just thinking about this, you know as we're speaking, and Bush
McCain, where the person could come out of it's pretty strong and win.
But this is not normal because Trump will not just say oh yes, I
will support the Republican but also one of the ways that you could see someone
win in a traditional race like this is that you'd wait for Trump or the
leading candidate to say something that would like sink him, Say something stupid,
do something. There's literally nothing that guy can say that is going to like
dissuade his fans from voting for him. There's nothing he's already said, all
the things that can be like, there's nothing he can do or say that
is going to stop him. So the only way that he can be stopped
is that if he does you know, if he I don't know, if
he himself doesn't want to do it anymore, or you know, some you
know, some health problem arises. I'm not saying, you know, anyone's
wishing for that, or plenty of people are, but whatever, I'm just
saying that those are the sorts of things I think that can hurt him.
For DeSantis, like I said the last week, I think he needs to
stay in because to drive out now just makes him look incredibly weak for any
future fight. It's too early for him to drop out. He's already in
it, he already decided to be in it. He should just stick it
out for a couple you know, go to Iowa and New Hampshire and just
see what happens. Also, I don't you said, you know, never
Trumpers. I don't think only never trumpers are sort of hoping or try trying
to make, you know, to make sure Trump doesn't win. I think
there are a lot of well if you look at that Santis fans, you
know, if you look at the Wall Street Journal pool, and this is
something I do not think has reflected on Twitter or in the pundit space.
Most Republicans, of course like Trump, but they put to Santists, well,
they they put the bake into santisis their number two, and they're very
into them too. And then a lot of the de Santis fans put Trump
as their number two. So there's a there's kind of a unit. I
don't think that's like that difficult to overcome necessarily, but we're I don't know,
when I say never Trump, I think that there's there is this like
DC mentality that is like, we will do literally whatever it takes, including
sabotaging the Republican Party's chances for victory in twenty twenty four, to get Trump
off the stage, which they are too foolish to understand. Drives a lot
of the support for him. Yeah, I don't think DeSantis fans or de
Santis supporters will act that way. First of all, because it if DeSantis
thinks he's a viable candidate in the future, it would undermine him in a
big way. But also I just I don't know. I just don't feel
like Trump. This is Trump's race, this is his last race, right,
so either he's going to you know, I just think he is much
more likely to sabotage things in the long run if he doesn't get his ways
just the way he is. But I don't know. But but I don't
I don't know that it hurts him to have some debates and to to to
show Republicans, you know, that he's maybe you know, more serious about
getting we're sort of like giving his campaign and his presidency a more folks,
you know, more focus about what it's going to be. And in my
view, he should be looking forward, not talking about twenty twenty. I
know it's important and all that, but I think for a lot of voters
who aren't automn you know, just automatically Trump voters, that that's the kind
of thing that could help him. And you do that in debates in primaries,
you know, So I don't know. Okay, So this brings up
another thing that I think is interesting about that Wall Street Journal poll. It's
not just that Trump has consolidated his lead in the Republican field. It's that
he's doing much better than I think most people would expect at this point in
the race in a head to head against Joe Biden. And I think that
part of that has to be independent. And you know, there are people
who do not like Trump who look at that matchup and say that they prefer
the Trump track record. You already mentioned some of those numbers, like by
an eleven point margin. People think that Trump had a better track record than
his presidency by a huge margin. They think Trump has a vision for the
future that Biden doesn't have. So like, it's partly that, but I
also think it's that the Democrat's major campaign strategy is to literally attempt to remove
to prevent people from having an opportunity to vote for their leading political opponent,
and that is terrifying. People who do not like Donald Trump look at that
and say, there's no question who the bad guys are here. It's the
people who are trying to remove my ability to vote for whom I want to
vote for. It's very sacred in this country that you get to settle things
at the ballot box. That's supposedly the whole issue with why BLM rioters were
allowed to cause destruction at the White House and Federal Courthouse and police precincts and
all this, but like not on the day of election, or not not
in the immediate aftermath, whereas the J six rioters where like supposedly that's the
whole issue, and yet they are trying to attack democracy, break every norm,
And I think, yeah, I think a lot of people go that
is terrifying and there's no question and who I would vote for in such a
scenario, I don't know. Maybe, I mean, for sure it solidifies
a lot of the support among conservatives who feel like the in general are being
attacked by these institutions. So if that's for sure, I don't know.
I don't really couldn't speak to independence and stuff, but I will say that
a lot of it because of the hysteria from the moment he was elected.
I think a lot of it maybe is noise to an independent they're just like
they're at it again. They're after Trump again whatever. But so I don't
even know what I mean is I don't know that it affects him negatively,
even if it's not like something that like rallies and independent towards Trump anymore.
I just, you know, even that's actually a really good point. So
I've always kind of thought, I think I mentioned this before that part of
the explanation of twenty twenty is that people wanted to turn down the noise of
the Trump administration. What's crazy is that it's the Biden administration that is now
affiliated with this like noisiness. Yes, Trump and other publicants are their target,
but this chaos and confusion, like republic threatening activity is being done by
Bidens. Now all of a sudden, he's kind of associated with the chaos
that you want to not have, you know, you want to have a
country where you don't settle things like this using a weaponized and completely corrupted Department
of Justice. So it's like he took on the main argument against the other
guy willingly, and that's just weird. I Also, I always hate when
people forget to note that Donald Trump did actually grow the party, and this
is not common. When he ran for reelection, he gained twelve million new
votes without a ballot harvesting operation. And then Democrats of course, came up
with like ever many tens of millions of additional votes because of a ballot harvesting
and election overtaking scheme. You know, so you're you're led to believe like
eighty one million people in this country who did not know these these are numbers
that Barack Obama could only dream about, but they were super motivated to vote
for Joe Biden on the strength of his You know, I don't buy those
numbers on either I don't buy that those are enduring numbers on either side in
the sense that you had this election where everywhere paper ballots were just being like,
you know, thrown around. So how are you are you really growing
the party? I don't know. We're gonna see. I think in some
ways Trump grew the party. In some ways, he hurt the party in
some areas. But we'll see, you know, I don't know. I
will say this though, I wanted to mention one issue that people they talk
about it, but I don't know that they give it enough half, like
enough value is the border issue. Like I think the border issue is what
won Trump the election. In twenty sixteen. I think people underestimate how and
I don't know that it always shows up in polls because people don't want to
sound like they're anti immigrant or whatever. But the border is anarchy, and
I just don't think Americans or the normies or the suburban voters like the you
know, they don't like the anarchy at the border at all. And I
think that's an important issue and he is way underwater on that issue, Biden,
and obviously for good reason. Just a quick, quick, one last
quick note. It just that you're right about the noise and also just the
incompetence of of of that administration, the Biden administration not being able to handle
anything competently. And I think it began with Afghanistan and it had just snowballed
for them since then. All I was going to say is the Wall Street
Journal poll also showed just widespread frustration with each party's main candidate, you know
which it does now look like it's Biden and Trump. And I can't remember
what the numbers were, but it was you know, solid majorities that were
like, please, this can't be what we have as our two best options
in this country. It is a little embarrassing to live in a country where
you know, regardless of regardless of your politics, that these are this is
the best we can do. And some radio listeners or podcast listeners were saying
that they voted for Trump previously and they just are sort of like, do
we really have to do this again? And I do think this is similar
to what we saw in twenty sixteen. Was just like I cannot believe that
the Republicans nominated Donald Trump. Am I expected to actually vote for it.
It was like a big ongoing issue that a lot of people struggled with for
well over a year. But it is good for people to just accept reality
sometimes, you know, in politics, things aren't toys as you wish they
were, and ideal candidates are not what you get, and just dealing with
reality and not not despairing over it. And so if that means that you
know, and see you're a big Trump fan and Trump, something happens and
instead it's Ronda Santiss, like that's that's a good option, and vice versa.
You know, so there are people that it might be really bad,
like I think it would be hard to vote for Chris Christie if you're a
conservative Republican. You know that there are things you can imagine that would be
really bad. But when the top three contenders in the Republican primary all have
roughly similar big picture policy ideas about foreign policy, rule of law, you
know, like that's it's a It's not a bad situation for most. I
think the voters are pretty unified. It's just the establishment is still struggling.
Well, yeah, I don't know that. Yeah, I guess so.
But also, I mean it is important to say that Labor Day was yesterday
or this Monday, and what most normal people aren't, you know, just
that you know, they're not paying that much attention yet. Now, I'm
not saying that it's really going to change the dynamics very much, but I
think that you know, they haven't really heard. Is it actually is there
going to be a policy debate? I don't even think so, right,
So it's just going to Trump making fun of Desantists and DeSantis trying to show
that he's competent. So I don't know if that's even been a breakthrough.
But what I'm saying is it's still early. I just don't see the need
for people to drop out. Nothing has really changed, right, I mean,
yeah, I think I disagree, but not strongly enough to fight you
on this. Like I think probably an adult, mature party would be directing.
So you know, you look at like what happened in twenty twenty with
the Democrats. They were they had a messy primary situation and then all of
a sudden one day, everyone who needed to drop out dropped out. Endorsements
were made, favors were traded, and they wanted Joe Biden. He was
he was in dangerous territory of not being the nominee, and the sort of
the adults in the Democrat Party were like, here's what we're gonna do,
and everybody followed their orders. I'm not sure even how that would be done,
but people should think about primaries aren't for the purpose of winning the primary
alone. They're also for the purpose of winning the general. And again,
you might really have strong feelings about who's a better candidate or otherwise, but
at some point you just kind have to look at the reality. Let me
say one quick thing on this subject. Last thing for me is that Joe
wait, yeah, sorry, And again I just want to make that clear,
like the nominee that the Republicans choose is going to be running, particularly
given the situation in the Senate, which maybe we should talk about too,
is going to be leading a lot of the surrounding debates, and it will
be a pretty binary election. And that's what I mean about. Adults need
to kind of start thinking through whether they want to deal with their petty grievances
or say things in a manner that is good for everybody. And here's just
an example. If you don't mind, is it okay, David, then
I'm just like taking this over. I told you you're the boss. You
literally could speak the whole time. Sorry, Oh my gosh, you remember,
Okay? No, I really go on, I'm just kidding, going
really quickly. Nicki Hailey this weekend was asked about the political prosecutions of Donald
Trump, and she said something like, yeah, they're not good. But
also if he's convicted, you know, nobody wants to vote for a convicted
felon. And so she basically gave aid and comfort to these horrific Democrat attacks
on the Republican Party, you know, saying their talking points, like saying
that their campaign plan is a good plan and that Republicans should follow it and
it shouldn't be that hard for her to be going hard against the corruption of
our Department of Justice and these political prosecutors and then saying why she would be
a better candidate. That should be like a no brainer to help out her
opponents. Is that's a standard that everyone should meet and if they're not meeting
that, then yes, absolutely they should get out of the race. Listen.
As a columnist, I am a big fan of petty grievances. I
see no real reason that I should not be picking at them and speaking about
them. I don't care about unity at all. That's a political consideration,
and I think that you make very good points from a political perspective. But
I have you know, I you know, I think the Republicans could could
do with a different sort of outlook and candidate right now, but it's not
going to happen. I live in the real world. I mean, I
have a lot of things I want to happen that don't happen. And I
think a lot of these candidates aren't really in the race to be president.
They're in the race because they want to be on boards or they want to
lead. They are and see in the field, who who knows what they
want to do? And yeah, so I think we have to keep that
in mind, or they want to be in the cabinet, or they want
to be vice president. The Washdog on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski every
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Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Just quick note on you
saw last week Mitch McConnell had had another episode and stuff like that, And
I don't want to get too deeply into that, but I wanted to say
that with these candidates for president, with the people we have in the Senate
on both sides, and well voters that I see at least on Twitter and
elsewhere on television, they speak about all this like they have nothing to do
with it, like this is just something that's been foisted on them, Like
they're not the ones voting for these people and putting them in places of power
and then re electing them. Everyone hates everyone else's bad candidates and bad politicians.
They don't hate their own. Miss McConnell gets elected, Diane Feinstein gets
elected, Joe Biden wins primaries, and Donald Trump's going to win the primary.
These are the candidates voters want. I don't know who else there is
to blame. So these polls are sometimes unperplexed by these If you hate these
people, why do you keep voting for him? I think that's I think
it's very good to hold people responsible for what's happening in elections. It's also
true that a lot goes into who your choice is for an election, and
just you know, for example, Mitch McConnell controls so much of the Republican
consultant class, the donor class. He is very good at preventing. He
has historically been amazing at preventing effective primaries of himself. Like it would be
great, in fact, that that energy that he applied to intra party stuff,
both in Kentucky and in the Senate could be applied to the people like
who Republicans want him to fight against, but he controls, you know,
It's just it's a lot of money, and you look even at things like
I've talked to a lot of Republican consultants who say that they are told that
if they in a different state work against one of Mitch McConnell's favorite candidates,
they will not they will be they will be kind of blacklisted from any political
consultant work for the future. Yeah, these are things that matter too,
So it's not just about it's getting good candidates. It's fair enough. Can
I mention something that we didn't have on the agenda that made me laugh that
I just thought about. Okay, did you see that Philip Bump interview with
the comedian I think he's a comedian or maybe he has a comedy club booker
or something like that. He is a podcast where Philip Bump, one of
our favorite topics on this a friend of the podcast who could not answer the
simplest questions about his own accusations and his own defenses of the Biden corruption family.
I think it shows you how unprepared these people are and what a cocoon
they live in, and how unprepared they are to even the mildest debates over
these issues that they write about all the time. I cannot recommend watching the
podcast enough. I actually watched it in three parts. I'm not a big
podcast listener or watcher. This is so good. It's with Gnome Doorman,
who's the owner of the comedy seller Is that right? And he has a
podcast. He brings on Philip Bump, the Washington Post propagandist. He says
that he talked to someone and said, who's the best person who's sort of
like a Biden family corruption defender, and they said, that's definitely Philip Bump.
So he brings on Philip Bump and proceeds to just ask him. He
clearly was a well informed interviewer. It was such good journalism, in fact,
that I was recommending it to people to watch. Just how you know
the types of questions to ask. And Gnome clearly is more upset by the
media's willingness to accept Biden family spin than the Biden family scandal itself, Like
it's the media coverage that really bothers him. So he's asking Philip Bump a
lot of questions about why he's not curious about this or why he drew this
like absurd conclusion. Is really really good and really worth watching. And it's
also just Philip Bump is employed by the Washington Post because he is misleading.
They like that about him. He fancies himself very smart, and that's if
you do not agree. I cannot recommend this podcast enough to watch him embarrass
himself. But he's wrong on so many different issues, like he'd recently had
an issue with Jonathan totally pointing out four major stories that he was wrong on,
including one related to the clearing of Lafayette Park, which almost everyone in
the media got wrong and I got right, by the way, and how
Philip Bump refused to correct his story. David will not be You will not
be surprised to know that I will mention that I myself have called out Philip
Bump for being wrong about how babies are made. I think it's funny that
he doesn't know how babies are made, and it's something I wrote about it
at The Federalist in like twenty fourteen. The Washington Post has never corrected it.
There are so many stories he's been wrong on, and the Washington Post
told Jonathan Turley that they're standing by the falsehoods. So it's not just Philip
Bump here, it's that the Washington Post chooses to employ people like At this
point, if if you're not Philip Bump Jennifer Rubin and you don't want to
be like them, you kind of have to feel bad that the Washington Post
is employing you. They think you're they think you're that bad, you know.
So it hit me. I hate to romanticize journalism of the past,
but now think of Charles Crowdhammer or even George Will who you disagree with quite
a bit. These days. Can you see them making arguments or making a
case for something and then appearing on a show and then having a meltdown because
they're asked questions. No, they would dismantle people or make their case in
a far more persuasive and intellectual way. And I just that's no longer the
case with these new comments because they're all activists. This Greg Sargeant over there
too. It's just it's just it's just a propagandist. Again. This is
not I just always have to stress this is not to say you can have
a point of view or you can have be ideologically inclined, or you can't
be even be partisan. It just means that you should be able to defend
your positions. And they never have to do that. Jennifer Rubin never has
to explain why she changed her mind on every single issue, never wants to
explain why. And I think that it's important for a writer to do that.
Anyway, I'm constantly repeating that and just gets so annoying. But anyway,
that was a delightful interview. Yes, I recommend it too. I
have another topic I'd like to talk about. So this week Elon Musk,
owner of X, we're going to call it X. I guess from now
on that's trying to sue the Anti Defamation League formation unclear, Yeah, it's
unclear. Slightly from slightly if if they. He says, they basically have
accused him of anti Semitism, and thus X of anti semitism and that and
thus advertisers are are not advertising on the platform, and he's lost. I
forgot. We said half of his advertising dollars are more or revenue loss has
come from that campaign. So he's going to sue them for libel or whatever
is that had that right I don't know the particular All I know is that
when you tweeted out that the ADL is a like Democrat, partisan left wing
organization that just claims to be Jewish, whereas it's not really, it's just
more a left wing Democrat, partisan organization run by Jewish people. I was
really interested in how much the left ecosphere that's involved in that whole censorship industrial
complex, how they came after you. I took that as a real signal
that the ADL is in fact, sorry, it seemed to me the reaction
indicated that the ADL is central to the left censorship schemes of silencing political opponents
as a way to controlling government. And that's quite interesting. Here's what happened
when I tweeted that. What I tweeted was that you know that it's not
a Jewish organization the ideal, it's a partisan leftist organization that happens to be
run by Jews. And cynically, I didn't tweet this part, but cynically
I'm writing a piece on this. But they cynically use and everything about this
in the past, and the Federalists that they cynically use their history and people's
good will to try not to be anti Semites, to censor people, to
boycott people, to fire people like Tucker Carlson, and that they essentially are
just running a sort of a social justice activist group. The thing was,
I got a lot of anti Semits. Two groups don't like when you say
the ideal is not actually a Jewish organization. Anti Semites and people on the
left who protect or explo in that situation. Yeah, exactly who appropriate?
Can I say appropriate Jewishness for social justice, you know, activism. Now
I have to say I have a long running argument with the far left of
Jewish you know, religious organizations who basically have become leftist organizations. I think
it's terrible for the Jewish people in general. But that's separate and aside from
this. But this is not the first time they've done this. They've done
this. You know, they were big on going after Tuckers and I wonder
how much they had to do with that. It's run by this guy named
Jonathan eight L is run by this guy named Jonathan Greenblad who used to was
an Obama appointee. I mean, he's you can't get more partisan than that.
And and the other side of this is not only that they go that
they are trying to censor people, but they use like they go after anyone
who says anything about George Soros for instance, like that to them. Now
they create this fake anti semitism that diminishes the real thing in my mind at
least, So they've you know, they only go out. They occasionally will
go after the left, but I think it's just basically, you know,
just for show, and it's very you know, Mellionmauth and mild Yeah,
well, I think people should probably look more into what they are doing and
how that is negatively affecting freedom of speech in this country. Also, it
does seem like this couldn't be happening at a worse time. There's of course
anti semitism in both on both the left and the right, and it does
seem like as civilization is breaking down that some of that anti semitism is bubbling
up, and it would be really great to have a respectable organization that was
genuinely interested in fighting it rather than helping out their political party for you know
that. Yeah, so I think that's it. Do you want to talk
about culture a little bit, let's do it. Did you did you do
anything did you watch anything go to any movies? You asked me. Actually,
I'm sorry to bring up a personal conversation. I'll edit this out if
you decide not to run it. But you're like, what should I watched?
And what's your mark? And I watched tonight and I was, as
I was pondering this important question, You're like, ah, we're gonna watch
bride Bridesmaids. So I have a really good friend who I was up in
New York with and she asked me how many times I'd seen Bridesmaids and I
was like months. And you could tell she was just disappointed in me as
a person, in part because she very much bonds with the Christian Wig character.
She has that same sense of humor. And so I was like,
you know what, I would like to watch that again, just to see
it. And it was. It was enjoyable. It's stupid, you know,
but it was. It was fine. And then I have been watching
something else with Mark Hemingway, which is Daisy Jones and the Six. Daisy
Jones and the Six. Yeah. So it was this sort of poppy book
by Taylor someone or the other that was very popular, and then they made
a mini series out of it that aired last spring, and it seems to
be like a retelling of a Fleetwood Mac type band in the seventies and how
they came together and then what happened in that band. And I've enjoyed it.
And the music is really well done, you know. For it being
a show about a band, there has to music has to play a role,
and the music is actually really good. Oh and Elvis's granddaughter plays the
Daisy Jones lead character. That's interesting. And she's got something. I forget
her name, like Riley, he offered, I have no idea how to
pronounce it. I mean, you lost me when you said Fleetwood Max.
So I don't know if I can watch this, but we'll see. We'll
see. I watched. I don't. I can't stay Fleetwood Mac. I
wish I couldn't stand Fleetwood Mac, Like I would like to not like that
band, and they're not the best people. But I kind of kind of
like him. Oh yeah, oh yeah. She's like a big abortion person.
What's her name right? Yeah? She said like she killed at least
one of her kids I can't remember, and that she wouldn't have her career
if she hadn't been able to murder right, right, right, right,
that's always a nice thing. Listen, Like, like we both I think
said before, if we actually did boycotted everyone who was ridiculous out there,
we wouldn't be able to do anything in the culture, right, We wouldn't
be able to watch a movie. I watched only Murders in the Building.
Have you ever seen that show? I have five one episode? I'm on
season three? Is that right? Or is it four? Three? With
Paul Rudd and Middle Street? Yeah? I learned my husband doesn't like Paul
Rudd so much that he thinks he plays the same person each time, you
know, he does. I like Paul Rudd, So was I like that
person? Yeah? I like that person. But I have to say in
this series, I find him annoying, a kind of annoying, but not
in a good way. Like I just I could do without him a little
bit. But whatever. I'm not huge on Meryl Streep either. I mean,
she's fine, but I'm not either. Have we talked about that.
I'm not either, And Mark's like thinks it's absurd, He's like, she's
so great, how could you not like her? But she just choose up
everything and she's really impressed with herself, and I feel like it comes through
it. Yeah, but wait, would I tell you about I feel like
this is like horrible because we're doing this. We do this once a week.
I've probably told all these stories like eighteen times, and I'm turning into
my parents, where you just hear the same stories. But when I was
at a gathering of fancy, fancy people I really respect, and it was
one of these things where like the men went outside and the women were all
talking inside, and I was talking about this years ago when Only Murders in
the Building was first on, and I was talking about how much I liked
it, how much I love Steve Martin and Martin Short, and all the
women were like, oh, Martin Short's the worst, and I felt really
embarrassed. I realized, like, oh, women apparently don't like him why,
which makes sense. I don't know, he's kind of a but I
just realized, like, oh, I'm in the wrong I'm in the wrong
crowd. I would say something about Martin Short, who I was never a
huge fan of, but I discovered after the fact the character Jimmy Glick.
Have you watched those interviews? Those are brilliant. Tell the ladies at the
dinner party. But they're brilliant. When he asked mel Brooks, what's your
beef with the Nazis, It's like one of the funniest things I've ever heard.
But that's when you could be funny and make jokes about Nazis. I
also so I started watching like one of these Jurassic Park movies, the last
one that was made, and I just maybe after ten minutes, I was
bored already, And I just wonder if society will ever get sick of people
making these like billion dollar movies and not being able to keep people like just
making them boring and stupid and all the CGI stuff is just so lame already,
don't you don't you think so? I mean, I feel like we
deserve better movies than we're getting anyway. Yeah, no, I feel bad,
Like I have teenagers, and I wish they could just go to do
what I did, which is just go to a movie theater kind of pick
what was there out of ten good options, not good meaning like they're good
movies, but they're passable, and you had variety, and you could also
go to the dollar theater and watch the old movies because there were so many
made and I feel like that was true all the way up until, like
I don't know, twenty ten, and then it just seems like we've been
petering out since then. I feel I like the movie industry, and I
wish it were performing better, and you know, with the strike and everything,
it's very bad. Since you're here, I'd like to ask a Jewish
question. So I'm still reading through my Old Testament as we call it,
and in fact I made it too job. I have loved What's happened,
but I just read Esther and learned that it talks about how Purim was started
based on something to do with like the lots that were being cast as part
of the whole Hayman's plot to kill all the Jews, and Mordechai has that
triumphant victory. I loved the story. It was great story, but I
was confused why people dress up for Perim and also why they drink to excess.
Do you know where that tradition comes from? I appreciate you putting me
on the spot. I have not been to Yeshiva in like thirty five years,
so I will say this. I don't remember why they drink, but
there is a reason, and I don't remember why people wear costumes. But
it's not a high like, it's not a can. I forget how to
say this in English. But it's not like a holiday where you can't drive
or do things. It's not a it's iconica. It's not a It's not
one of the important holidays, let's put it that way. But it is
one of the most fun holidays. Because when I was a kid, I'd
go to temple and every you know, the people would be drunk and everyone
be yelling, and it's very raucous and stuff like that. But Tel Aviv
once on perm and it was quite fun. Yeah, it's a lot of
fun. We used to yell whenever they see Haman's name. When you actually
read the story as you're doing now, it's like it's pretty like a risque,
right, I mean, like he sends esther to like basically seduce the
king. Right, she's like all in, she's really beautiful and all that.
Yeahed to tell her and tells her to lay low about being Jewish until
the time comes. But I loved how Hayman built. I don't want to
kill it for anyone else who's all to read it, but Hayman builds gallows
to take on Mordechai because he's like consumed with hatred for Mordechai, and then
Esther and Mordechai totally lay the trap where Hayman thinks he's talking about himself getting
glory and he doesn't realize that the king wants to honor Mordechai, who had
saved him from this coup plot assassination attempt, and so he ends up giving
Mordechai al the glory, and then he also finds out that someone was you
know, he kind of like learns more about this effort to kill all the
Jews, and he's like, who did this? And it's Hayman. And
they also walks in on Hayman like attacking Esther. She really must have been
beautiful, and he's like kill that guy right now and uses the gallows that
Hayman had built for Mordicai. I mean, that's good, that's just it's
very it's a very jurish story in the sense that you know, in Christianity
there's a lot of like forgiveness and turning the other cheek and all that stuff,
but in Judaism, like if someone is killed, you say, may
God avenches or her blood, you know, so this is like having them
hung on the very gallows they were going to use hanged. Sorry, I
always do that, and I think still the third time you've corrected me on
that in my life. So also, Niemiah, I really loved reading and
just you can kind of despair about what's happening in our country and how bad
things are. And one thing I like about these books I've been reading is
it's almost humorous. How it goes from like, Okay, we have a
covenant, are you all good? And everyone's good? And then they break
the covenant and then and then God's like, Okay, We're gonna do it
again. You know. It just keeps happening over and over. But some
of these periods of time that people are living in just abject sin and rebellion
against God are quite lengthy, and they've kind of almost forgotten everything about who
they are. And seeing how these men throughout history, men and women throughout
history restored people to where they should be and got them to repent, see
the error of their ways and keep going. I have things going on,
you know, in the country, and then also in my personal life,
we're seeing how that can work is very inspirational. And the other thing that
I really liked is that in both well really an ezra Yemia and Esther.
It's one of these things where sometimes I think about how I wish I were
doing something more important, which in my mind mind is working in the church,
Like I wish I was able to devote more of my time and energy
and gifts to something more tricky. And seeing how these people served the church
by being in politics and by pleading to the rulers or interacting with the rulers
or being rulers, It's just been a nice thing for me to see voccasionally
how what I do can kind of fit in with something more meaningful than just
art abysmal politics. It's very interesting anyway, that's a good way to look
at it. I mean, the Chronicle of the Jews and all that,
it's very political, Like from the judges on right, you know, there's
always politics involved, and the whole King David story, et cetera. They're
actually I know, the whole point of the Bible is that it's religious,
but I'm always kind of struck by how a political all this stuff is,
though, like even from an early point it's not really about the politics.
It's about preserving the people and their relationship with God. And that is also
very interesting to me, you know, when we're talking about ourselves in our
country and I'm not you know, obviously it's like completely different situation. But
well, I think that's what differentiates the Old Testament the New Testament, right,
I mean, the Old Testament is a chronicle of an ancient people.
But and they make no distinction between politics and God, and they make no
distinction between those miracles and like the way you know, a normal human being
interacts with another human being, I think that those are all melded together.
Right. No, I don't see that disconnect, and I don't want to,
like, you know, I know we're not prepared for this even to
talk about this, but no, I That's what I'm kind of saying,
is you see people sometimes needing to deal with something in a governmental sense and
viewing that as separate from the higher, higher issue of relationship with God I
talk about. I see it disconnects between that Old Testament or New Testament.
I know that they're under different governing structures in each, but it's almost like
the continuity that I find really fascinating anyway, I'm about a third of the
way through this is I'm just, I'm just and very busy, but I
love I love getting to read this slowly. But surely, next time you
bring up a Jewish question, let me know ahead of time. I will
do some research. I am not a rabbi. I will tell you you're
like the fourth member of the tribe. I've asked and nobody has answered,
so I should probably just like figure out where to look it up. And
these are people who are Orthodox, No, but they're not, you know,
atheists like you. They're slightly they're they're greater levels of practice that they
attend your shiva like me. I don't think, so, okay, just
checking anyway, I'll be prepared next week, and I hope everyone comes back
and listens. And until that be lovers of freedom in it, anxious for
the friend and he to go again. And you say you want to free