Speaker 1: Live from the heart of the nation's capital, this is
Speaker 1: a Jim Acosta Show special report. Live from the heart
Speaker 1: of the nation's capital, this is a Jim Acosta Show
Speaker 1: special report.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. It's another day that
Speaker 3: ends in wine. Donald Trump trying to avoid accountability in America.
Speaker 3: He's sending out his son-in-law to do his dirty work.
Speaker 3: My big guest this hour is Jen Welch of the
Speaker 3: I've Had It podcast.
Speaker 4: Jen, great to see you.
Speaker 5: It's always great to see you, Jim.
Speaker 4: It is so great to see you.
Speaker 3: And I knew, you know, it's almost like the stars
Speaker 3: came into alignment where you were booked to come on
Speaker 3: with us on a day where we could talk about
Speaker 3: your friend, Hakeem Jeffries, the aspiring Speaker of the House-
Speaker 3: who the other day has this meeting with Jared Kushner.
Speaker 4: And I guess I was thinking about starting the show
Speaker 4: and saying, who are you, who have you had it with?
Speaker 4: And I, now I know I don't even have to ask.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: What'd you think of this?
Speaker 5: I mean, I saw it and pardon my language, everybody,
Speaker 5: but I was just like, God damn it, Hakeem. You know,
Speaker 5: I'm just like, what are you doing? I think with
Speaker 5: the democratic establishment is quickly learning and they're slow learners,
Speaker 5: but they're, they're going to have to start learning a
Speaker 5: little bit more progressively here. Is that the base, whether
Speaker 5: you are a leftist, a progressive, a liberal, a centrist,
Speaker 5: or a moderate, we want fighters. Did you see the
Speaker 5: guy from Canada that stood up where he's like, Trump
Speaker 5: can kiss my ass. This guy's a loser. We want
Speaker 5: that all day, every day, 24-7, 365. We all think
Speaker 5: Jared Kushner is a crook. We think he is in
Speaker 5: bed with the Saudis who funded 9-11. We think he
Speaker 5: is stealing an island from the Albanians. They were on
Speaker 5: like a month-long protest over the Kushners. There is no
Speaker 5: meeting with Jared Kushner about affordability because Jared Kushner doesn't
Speaker 5: understand affordability. He doesn't care about affordability. I was so
Speaker 5: upset when I saw this because I want politicians that
Speaker 5: fight fascists. Right.
Speaker 3: I mean, the only affordability that Jared Kushner is thinking
Speaker 3: about is the affordability of Albanian islands, I think.
Speaker 4: That's the only affordability he's concerned about.
Speaker 3: And I talked to a House Democrat, you know, lawmaker
Speaker 3: who didn't want to be, you know, named and saying this,
Speaker 3: but some of them are taking this as a signal
Speaker 3: that Hakeem Jeffries might be willing to do kind of
Speaker 3: a Merrick Garland thing and look the other way when
Speaker 3: it comes to all of this corruption that we've been
Speaker 3: witnessing over the last year and a half, which has
Speaker 3: been ungodly. And I just don't I don't get how
Speaker 3: he thinks he can send the right message by doing this. Like,
Speaker 3: it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 5: The parallel with Merrick Garland is perfect. And I have
Speaker 5: long said and in my upcoming book, I write that
Speaker 5: the biggest mistake of Joe Biden was appointing Merrick Garland. Yeah.
Speaker 5: And he did it because Joe Biden was playing integrity politics.
Speaker 5: But after January 6th, integrity politics was out the door.
Speaker 5: We had a sitting president of the United States that
Speaker 5: riled up a bunch of low-level criminals because they were
Speaker 5: funded by high-level criminals all the way up to like
Speaker 5: wives of Supreme Court justices. And they tried to go
Speaker 5: kill Mike Pence. Mike Pence is a Christian. He's a
Speaker 5: white guy. He's allegedly heterosexual. All the things that all
Speaker 5: of the MAGA people want in a man. And he
Speaker 5: still almost got killed. And if they would have gotten
Speaker 5: near him, they would have attacked him and probably injured
Speaker 5: him severely and or killed him. It required a pit
Speaker 5: bull in the moment. And it required a president of
Speaker 5: the United States that said, look, I know typically I'm
Speaker 5: hands off, but this is different. These are unprecedented, extraordinary times.
Speaker 5: I want you to get the high level people who
Speaker 5: funded this, who organized it. If that's the former president
Speaker 5: of the United States, giddy up, go get them. And
Speaker 5: so that was the big mistake. That is what has
Speaker 5: incubated a lot of this. That's what incubated the Supreme
Speaker 5: Court giving Donald Trump immunity. I don't want a government
Speaker 5: that colludes with criminals. And I believe that the executive
Speaker 5: branch is a crime syndicate. I think Jared Kushner is.
Speaker 5: is a dipshit who has failed forward his entire life.
Speaker 5: Why is he in the center of meeting with Vladimir Putin?
Speaker 5: Why is he meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu?
Speaker 2: Why is he.
Speaker 5: Getting so rich all of the day, all the time?
Speaker 5: And I just, I was so disappointed to hear this
Speaker 5: because we want, one thing that unites the base right
Speaker 5: now is a fighter. If somebody fights- then you can
Speaker 5: get the leftists and the moderates together and say, we
Speaker 5: believe in this person because they're fighting for our country.
Speaker 3: I totally agree with everything you just said. And, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, we should give Hakeem Jeffries his due. He
Speaker 3: did put out a video statement, which I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't think it helped matters. I think it probably
Speaker 3: hurt because it didn't sound that great. But let's play
Speaker 3: it and let people decide for themselves.
Speaker 4: What's up, y'all?
Speaker 6: Just finished up an event here in the community in Brooklyn.
Speaker 6: I want to give you a little real talk on
Speaker 6: this Jared Kushner.
Speaker 7: Situation.
Speaker 6: He asked for a meeting and I took it to
Speaker 6: discuss the affordability crisis that exists that is not a hoax.
Speaker 6: At the same period of time, I shouldn't have to
Speaker 6: say it, but I am. No one is going to
Speaker 6: get a pass. We're going to hold every single member
Speaker 6: of the Trump cartel accountable.
Speaker 4: Beginning on day one. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, I, Jen, I mean, I do think it's
Speaker 3: helpful that he said that, but the fact that he
Speaker 3: has to say that is to me, it says that
Speaker 3: a lot of Democrats were really pissed off when they
Speaker 3: found out about this and said, Hey, wait a minute.
Speaker 3: Are you going to, are you going to let these
Speaker 3: guys off the hook? I mean, he had to address that.
Speaker 3: And I, if it's an affordability meeting, why not publicize that?
Speaker 3: Why not say I'm having this meeting? The fact that
Speaker 3: it was done in secret is, is, is not a good,
Speaker 3: not a good sign, not.
Speaker 4: A good indicator.
Speaker 5: No, it's not a good indicator. And then it further
Speaker 5: highlights and puts a spotlight on who Hakeem Jeffries' donors are.
Speaker 5: And that's a problem. When you have the same donors
Speaker 5: that are funding this fascist regime, that is a conflict
Speaker 5: of interest. And that's why you're seeing people like Abdul El-Sayed,
Speaker 5: Zoran Mamdani, and others, Nixon in Florida, who are not
Speaker 5: taking corporate PAC money. That's why you're seeing them win.
Speaker 5: Because- We don't have an appetite for a lobbyist or
Speaker 5: a PAC that funds MAGA and funds Democrats. Because then
Speaker 5: it's like, well, it sounds like both of you are
Speaker 5: just working for this lobby and not for the people.
Speaker 5: And so that makes me think, OK, Jared Kushner's, you know,
Speaker 5: asshole buddies with all of these tech oligarchs. He was
Speaker 5: on his friend's boat when they discovered this island. It's
Speaker 5: so out of touch.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: But Hakeem has some of these same donors. And here's
Speaker 5: where this gets tricky. Right now we're in the fight
Speaker 5: of our lives for our country. I believe that these
Speaker 5: midterms are our final guardrail. And we don't have the
Speaker 5: luxury to micromanage and nitpick Hakeem all the time. So
Speaker 5: my message to Hakeem is hold the line. No more
Speaker 5: private meetings. Work for the people. Whatever your past is,
Speaker 5: whatever donations you've had, there's nothing we can do about that.
Speaker 5: But you're going to probably be the incoming Speaker of
Speaker 5: the House. Play catch up with what the people want.
Speaker 5: And remember that the only thing that's going to defeat
Speaker 5: these powers, these evil, nefarious powers, is the power of
Speaker 5: the people that has 250 years of winning behind us.
Speaker 5: And ride that momentum, Hakeem. In another place where we're
Speaker 5: running against Mitt Romney or something, we could sit here
Speaker 5: and nitpick Hakeem until the cows come home, but I'm
Speaker 5: just asking for the bare minimum. Don't collude with fascists.
Speaker 5: No private meetings. Nobody believes for a second that Jared,
Speaker 5: I have a $ 6. 5 billion fund with the Saudis who
Speaker 5: also paid for 9-11, who also killed journalists, gives a
Speaker 5: flying fuck about affordability. Nobody thinks any of these billionaires
Speaker 5: in the Trump regime give a fuck about affordability. I
Speaker 5: think it's bullshit. And I also think Jared Kushner did it.
Speaker 5: I think he invited him and I think he set
Speaker 5: a trap and I think Jared leaked it. Well, why
Speaker 5: would Jared leak it? Historians are saying that a lot
Speaker 5: of these fascist regimes produce propaganda that makes you feel nihilistic,
Speaker 5: that makes you feel like, I don't know if I
Speaker 5: even really want to vote. What's the point? And I
Speaker 5: think it was all a plant. And I think that
Speaker 5: it shows the way the Republicans are playing one game
Speaker 5: and the Democrats are playing another. Hakeem probably walked in
Speaker 5: there and thought, okay, I'm going to meet with him.
Speaker 5: And Jared Kushner fucked him.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad that you said that because I've been
Speaker 3: thinking about that too, that Kushner had the meeting with
Speaker 3: Hakeem for the purpose of leaking it to get Dems
Speaker 3: fighting with one another and causing a leadership crisis or
Speaker 3: conversation or whatever it is.
Speaker 4: And controversy.
Speaker 3: And if that was the case, then mission accomplished because
Speaker 3: now there's all of this discussion of who should be
Speaker 3: the speaker. Should it be Hakeem Jeffries? Does he understand
Speaker 3: the assignment and so on? And the other thing too
Speaker 3: is that this is a no-win situation for Hakeem Jeffries.
Speaker 3: We are right now in the midst, Jen, of an
Speaker 3: effort by Donald Trump and his people to meddle in
Speaker 3: the midterm elections. They're already doing it. And so if
Speaker 3: you're Hakeem Jeffries, the only the only reason why you
Speaker 3: would want to take this meeting and then you want
Speaker 3: to leak about it first, you don't want to let
Speaker 3: Jared Kushner go first. You go in there and you say, listen,
Speaker 3: you son of a bitch. If you meddle in these midterms,
Speaker 3: if you try to steal these elections, we're going to
Speaker 3: impeach his ass on day one. We take power next year.
Speaker 3: That should be the only message. And then you walk
Speaker 3: the fuck out. And then you call Maggie Haberman at
Speaker 3: the New York times and And you say, guess what
Speaker 3: I just told this fucking guy?
Speaker 4: It is unbelievable.
Speaker 3: And when I saw this, I just about hit the
Speaker 3: roof because I couldn't understand it. It only makes sense
Speaker 3: if you tell these sons of bitches to back off
Speaker 3: of our elections because they're trying to do it right
Speaker 3: now with the post office and everything else.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And I think that this is a part of their
Speaker 5: overall plan of meddling in elections by doing stuff like this.
Speaker 5: They're so diabolical. There's no plan it. No planet where
Speaker 5: Jared Kushner earnestly cares about affordability. That world does not exist.
Speaker 5: That is bullshit. It is a jet stream of bullshit.
Speaker 5: That does not exist because these people don't understand what
Speaker 5: affordability means because they're cheaters. These people sit at desks,
Speaker 5: paperclip and staple, and then ridicule people who actually go
Speaker 5: out and labor things. And actually put their blood, sweat,
Speaker 5: and tears and elbow grease into something. These guys don't
Speaker 5: have the slightest clue about any of that. They don't
Speaker 5: even know what it's like to go through a TSA line, which,
Speaker 5: my God, is a miserable experience. But they're so out
Speaker 5: of touch. And so the one thing that I'm somewhat
Speaker 5: pleased with is that I think these internal polling numbers
Speaker 5: that Republicans are getting are so bad. And there is
Speaker 5: an acknowledgement from the Trump regime. The Supreme Court decision
Speaker 5: that I saw yesterday, I started to get mad about it.
Speaker 5: And I thought, you know what? All of this is
Speaker 5: an acknowledgement that we all still have power, that people
Speaker 5: have power. So don't let their attempts to make us
Speaker 5: feel nihilistic, to make us think, why should I vote?
Speaker 5: Don't let that work because that's what the Supreme Court did.
Speaker 5: That's what Jared Kushner just did. They're trying to suppress us,
Speaker 5: our energy. our ability to understand that we still have power.
Speaker 5: And so we need to spin these things into, oh,
Speaker 5: they're scared. They're scared of all of us. And we'll
Speaker 5: handle our own. We'll push Hakeem. And it's a problem
Speaker 5: that we can handle within our own party. Like you
Speaker 5: work for us, no more meetings with fascists. And I'm
Speaker 5: clearly in his video, he got the message that that
Speaker 5: is not going to be tolerated. I mean, because you
Speaker 5: had even, what's his name?
Speaker 4: Carville.
Speaker 5: I mean, he lost his mind going after Hakeem over it.
Speaker 5: And it's from the left all the way to the center.
Speaker 5: Everybody's mad about it.
Speaker 4: It's the whole party.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: And the other thing, too, is they go into your
Speaker 3: point about how they don't give a shit about affordability.
Speaker 4: They could give two shits about it.
Speaker 3: Look at what they're doing with Canada and this trade
Speaker 3: war with Canada, which is going to drive up the
Speaker 3: cost of all kinds of things in this country.
Speaker 4: And Trump is in this simplistic position.
Speaker 3: You know, he fires off the simplistic truth social post
Speaker 3: that says we're going to rename Lake Ontario, Lake America.
Speaker 3: He's running out of material. He's not only running out
Speaker 3: of brain matter and brain cells, he's running out of material.
Speaker 3: He puts these true social posts out. They're going to
Speaker 3: call it Lake America like the Gulf. It is so
Speaker 3: what's he's gone. He's gone.
Speaker 5: Here's what I say about this.
Speaker 1: Do it.
Speaker 5: That's just one more thing that we get to change back.
Speaker 5: I want this guy in a straight jacket, padded cell,
Speaker 5: in a jail with screens all over him. And I
Speaker 5: want a toothpick right here and a toothpick right here.
Speaker 5: And I want all of this stuff live streamed, taking
Speaker 5: the gold off the statues, taking his name off the
Speaker 5: Kennedy Center, taking all the gold out. And this is
Speaker 5: one more thing that we can sit and just have
Speaker 5: little kids, preferably immigrant children, Crossing out American, writing back, no, Ontario,
Speaker 5: and I want him to watch this. It's just one
Speaker 5: more thing that we get to say, you're stupid, and
Speaker 5: we're changing it back because we're normal fucking people.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, it's like a clockwork orange. That's what they need
Speaker 3: to do with them. For folks who don't get the reference,
Speaker 3: go back and watch it. And the other thing, Jen,
Speaker 3: we should get into, you mentioned immigration, and I'll do
Speaker 3: that very quickly before we go to a lighter subject,
Speaker 3: which is picking on Jesse Waters. But I will say
Speaker 3: when I saw the White House put out this meme
Speaker 3: changing the magic school bus to the magic deportation bus.
Speaker 3: I mean, these people inside the White House social media shop,
Speaker 3: they're like the lowest of the low incels that you
Speaker 3: could possibly like.
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's it's disgusting.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's absolutely disgusting. And I want your producers
Speaker 5: to pull up a photograph of Stephen Chung and pop
Speaker 5: that up. Stephen Chung is behind all of this.
Speaker 7: OK.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And here's my thing. I typically don't like to punch down.
Speaker 5: I typically don't like to ridicule other people's appearances. But
Speaker 5: when it comes to these fascists, you're goddamn right. I
Speaker 5: want to talk about what an obese, cankles, bad hair
Speaker 5: Donald Trump has. And then you have Stephen Chung. This
Speaker 5: guy is the one who puts out all this ASMR.
Speaker 5: He puts out all of this recreational cruelty. And once
Speaker 5: you see a picture of this guy, the viewers of
Speaker 5: Jim's show, this guy thinks he has the audacity to
Speaker 5: dunk on people. And I don't know if y'all found
Speaker 5: it or not, but we'll get it up there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, we will.
Speaker 3: And I totally agree with you. And I've known Steve
Speaker 3: Chung for a long time. He's one of those OG
Speaker 3: Trump guys. And they they love to be cruel. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's something that gets their job, you know, gets totally
Speaker 3: off how they get their jollies.
Speaker 4: And it's sick.
Speaker 3: And, you know, apparently there's some reporting out there that
Speaker 3: Natalie Harp was the one who, you know, posted the
Speaker 3: Obama as apes.
Speaker 4: Meme that was, or video or whatever that was on
Speaker 4: true social.
Speaker 3: And they collect these nasty people to run his social media.
Speaker 3: And I saw this, I saw this stuff the other
Speaker 3: day about, you know, Oh, don't pick on Natalie Harp.
Speaker 3: And you know, maybe she's just, she's something's wrong with
Speaker 3: her or, you know, you're picking on women and all
Speaker 3: this stuff. Natalie Harp was going after my ass when
Speaker 3: she was on OAN. She was being an election denier
Speaker 3: around January 6th. She knows exactly what the fuck she's doing.
Speaker 3: She's 35 years old.
Speaker 4: She's a grown woman.
Speaker 3: And she works for the president of the United States.
Speaker 3: She's with him day and night. And, you know, she's
Speaker 3: she's a part of this, too. And, you know, if
Speaker 3: she's putting out the Obama as apes video, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: She is fair game for criticism.
Speaker 3: And if she's leaving these really, you know, obsequious, like
Speaker 3: borderline deranged letters for Donald Trump, like all of that
Speaker 3: is fair.
Speaker 4: I don't understand this whole don't pick on Natalie Harp thing. Why?
Speaker 7: It's bullshit.
Speaker 5: Natalie Harp is a bunny boiler. Watch Fatal Attraction. Watch
Speaker 5: Glenn Close's character. Natalie Harp's new nickname is the bunny boiler.
Speaker 5: She is a bunny boiler. You don't want me to
Speaker 5: ridicule Natalie Harp. Tough titties. She is right next to
Speaker 5: the most powerful man in the world right now who
Speaker 5: is torturing everybody except for the bottom feeders that he collects.
Speaker 5: that work for him and or still support him. But
Speaker 5: I'm so sorry. You think that you can pick on
Speaker 5: everybody on the planet and then tell us who we
Speaker 5: can and cannot pick on when your president celebrates the
Speaker 5: deaths of Rob Reiner, of Mueller. Go fuck yourselves. We
Speaker 5: are going to pick on the bunny boiler all the
Speaker 5: time because it is complete. I mean, it is delicious
Speaker 5: that you have this idiot president being so obsequious to
Speaker 5: this other idiot. And this is just, it is embarrassing.
Speaker 5: It is humiliating. And I want to know who leaked
Speaker 5: the letters, who in the white house leaked those letters.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of speculation.
Speaker 3: It's Caroline Levitt, you know, she's Rachel McAdams and mean girls,
Speaker 3: you know, and she's, she's, she's the one who's behind it.
Speaker 3: You mentioned Steve Chung. We can show Steve Chung now,
Speaker 3: maybe Natalie boils the bunny. And Steve Chung eats the bunny.
Speaker 4: I don't know. Maybe that's what it is. Hots and
Speaker 4: pepper or whatever.
Speaker 5: Listen, here's the thing. This is the guy who's picking
Speaker 5: on everybody, dunking on everybody online. This is the guy
Speaker 5: who put Marco Rubio in his little Nike sweatsuit outfit.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
Speaker 5: The same that Maduro wore. And he took a picture
Speaker 5: of Marco on Air Force One. I don't know if
Speaker 5: it was Bribe Force One or the original Air Force One.
Speaker 5: And posted, this is the guy who is out here
Speaker 5: dunking on everyone. So when everybody sees this shit that
Speaker 5: Trump is posting, it's not Trump posting it. It's this
Speaker 5: guy or it's the bunny boiler. We can beat these people.
Speaker 5: I mean, come on.
Speaker 3: That's what I've been saying all along. This country cannot
Speaker 3: come to an end. This republic cannot come to an
Speaker 3: end at the hands of these goofballs and lunatics.
Speaker 5: Do you know what I heard it called, Jim? Sorry
Speaker 5: to interrupt. The nerd Reich.
Speaker 4: I have heard this, yes.
Speaker 3: I think we're trying to get him on. I've heard
Speaker 3: this and, and it is kind of perfect. Now we
Speaker 3: have to tackle one more subject.
Speaker 4: Before you go. And that is your favorite anchor on Fox,
Speaker 4: Jesse waters. We talked about lady waters.
Speaker 3: We talked about Jesse so many times. And every time
Speaker 3: you and I talk about Jesse, you bring up the
Speaker 3: fact that he is kind of addicted to talking about penises.
Speaker 4: And I don't know why it's such a strange thing.
Speaker 3: I will say I'll give him some props for having
Speaker 3: Abdul Al-Sayed on a show because he had to know
Speaker 3: that he was going to get cooked. And Abdul Al-Sayed,
Speaker 3: who's running for the Senate in Michigan, he cooked Jesse
Speaker 3: Waters good on that show. And Jesse, because he's not
Speaker 3: very smart, he thought he got the better of this.
Speaker 3: But we should play a little bit because I guess
Speaker 3: Jesse was bringing up transgender stuff.
Speaker 4: I don't know what it was. And then they get
Speaker 4: into a conversation about circumcision.
Speaker 7: You think that's OK?
Speaker 4: I mean, do you so do you really want to
Speaker 4: have this conversation?
Speaker 7: Are you circumcised?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but I mean, that's a personal question, doctor.
Speaker 7: So you probably should want to move on. You probably
Speaker 7: should want to move on.
Speaker 4: Is circumcision different than castration?
Speaker 7: I think it's a problem.
Speaker 2: It's a problem that you think that you get to
Speaker 2: decide what happens between a doctor and a patient. And
Speaker 2: I'm just saying that, yes, circumcision is surgery on a
Speaker 2: kid's ding-a-ling.
Speaker 4: So if you really want to bring that up, you can.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was Jesse who brought up the word ding-a-ling
Speaker 3: at the beginning of this.
Speaker 4: I just want to make sure everybody understands.
Speaker 3: And You know, I there are obviously more important things
Speaker 3: in the world to talk about. But I mean, he
Speaker 3: had Abdul Al-Sayed come on Fox. And I thought kudos
Speaker 3: to Al-Sayed. He dunked on Jesse Waters like every time.
Speaker 5: Every single time. It was a masterclass. And I think
Speaker 5: remember Pete Buttigieg used to be the only one that
Speaker 5: would venture over to Fox and he cooked them. I
Speaker 5: think the Democrats need to start going on Fox often
Speaker 5: and frequently. I think it's fantastic. Lady Waters.
Speaker 1: I mean, I.
Speaker 5: Really hate that I hate love her so much, but
Speaker 5: I do because I just find him wildly entertaining. I mean,
Speaker 5: I think he's a real piece of shit. But this
Speaker 5: whole thing about the transgender stuff, the Secretary of Education,
Speaker 5: Linda McMahon, stood with the president yesterday.
Speaker 4: I saw this.
Speaker 5: And lied. She lied, and she said during the Biden administration,
Speaker 5: there were secretive transgender surgeries happening in school. This has
Speaker 5: never happened. And it reminded me of Liz Cheney, who
Speaker 5: stood in front of the camera and lied and said
Speaker 5: that the Democrats allow fourth-term abortions. In both these cases,
Speaker 5: that would mean that really– egregious felonies had occurred and
Speaker 5: they would be all over the front page of the news.
Speaker 5: If a baby's born in a hospital and then killed,
Speaker 5: which is what Liz Cheney's claim was, somebody would be
Speaker 5: arrested and charged with a felony. If a kid went
Speaker 5: to school and got their wiener whacked off and then
Speaker 5: went home, there would be charges. It's further insane that
Speaker 5: they're acting like there are these doctors and ORs in schools.
Speaker 5: But what this is, is even more diabolical than all
Speaker 5: of that. They are using a group of people that
Speaker 5: is less than 1% of the population who wants what
Speaker 5: all of us want. They want to, they have all
Speaker 5: the same kitchen table issues that we have plus more.
Speaker 5: They just don't want to be judged and ridiculed and
Speaker 5: the targets of hate crimes.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 5: So we have to love them extra hard, but they're
Speaker 5: using the trans issue in a really diabolical way to
Speaker 5: tell people, don't send your kids to school because Because
Speaker 5: they're going to trans your kids as though it's a
Speaker 5: choice and as though there's this mass conspiracy amongst all
Speaker 5: of these educators. And it's also a slam on teachers,
Speaker 5: which is a part of Project 2025. And it's also
Speaker 5: a part of Project 2025's endgame to shut down the
Speaker 5: Department of Education because the fascist project needs stupid people.
Speaker 5: So don't fall for this trans stuff. And I ask
Speaker 5: anybody who goes, well, I wish the Democrats would quit
Speaker 5: talking about it. As you can see there, it's the
Speaker 5: Republicans that talk about it all the time.
Speaker 4: They talk about it all the time.
Speaker 5: That's right. Lady Waters brought it up. And our job
Speaker 5: is to fight for these people to have the same
Speaker 5: rights that we have. And you don't have to understand it.
Speaker 5: You don't have to get it, but you certainly don't
Speaker 5: have to be a dick. And there's just no, there's
Speaker 5: no instance in the world where people are going into
Speaker 5: restrooms and And something bad is happening to them.
Speaker 7: That's right.
Speaker 5: Most people that get molested are sexually abused. It happens
Speaker 5: from a white, conservative, Christian, middle-aged man.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 5: That's the demographic.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 5: Those are the people that abuse children in large numbers.
Speaker 4: You're absolutely right.
Speaker 3: And the thing that I've talked about this on my
Speaker 3: show too, the thing that pisses me off about all
Speaker 3: of this is you're picking on vulnerable communities for political gain.
Speaker 3: And there's nothing more disgraceful than that. It's like the
Speaker 3: magic deportation bus meme. You're just picking on Latino people
Speaker 3: because you know you can get away with it and
Speaker 3: you can score political points on your bullshit shows, your
Speaker 3: bullshit social media. And they do this with trans kids.
Speaker 3: They do it with the trans community because they know
Speaker 3: they can. It's like beating up the little kid at
Speaker 3: the playground. You can get away with it 10 times
Speaker 3: out of 10 until somebody else bigger steps in and says,
Speaker 3: stop this bullshit. And I'm so glad that you said
Speaker 3: that because it breaks my heart.
Speaker 5: Mine too.
Speaker 3: That there are people in our society, they're just punching bags.
Speaker 3: They're just punching bags for Donald Trump. And it's because
Speaker 3: his second administration, I've been saying this on my show,
Speaker 3: absolute catastrophe.
Speaker 4: There's nothing that's gone right. It's a total disaster.
Speaker 3: Everything's bad. Everything he's done is bad. And so the
Speaker 3: only thing that they're left with is picking on the
Speaker 3: little guy.
Speaker 4: That's what it is. That's all that it is.
Speaker 5: You're exactly right. That's all they have. And if you notice,
Speaker 5: I'm targeted by all the right wing all the time.
Speaker 5: And all it is, it's just my appearance or they
Speaker 5: try to transvestigate me. And they're like, oh, she must
Speaker 5: be a man, blah, blah. And they think all of
Speaker 5: that stuff hurts me. And it's just like, okay, that's
Speaker 5: all you have. And it doesn't matter, but they don't
Speaker 5: have a central ethos. And here's the fundamental difference between me,
Speaker 5: a progressive liberal person and a MAGA person. I've fucking
Speaker 5: hate MAGA. I want to crush them at the ballot box.
Speaker 5: I want to salivate. Beating them is so good. I
Speaker 5: want to froth at the mouth. It's so fabulous. But
Speaker 5: I don't want these people injured. I want them to
Speaker 5: have healthcare. I want them to have livable wages. I
Speaker 5: want them to not have to file medical bankruptcy. And
Speaker 5: I told you, I fucking hate these people. I don't
Speaker 5: want them to suffer. And that's the fundamental difference. As
Speaker 5: you can see by the memes they're putting out, They
Speaker 5: want trans people to separate. They want the Family Values Party.
Speaker 5: They want to separate migrant children from their parents, which
Speaker 5: is horrific generational trauma. They like the idea of concentration camps,
Speaker 5: which now exist in the United States. Right now, we
Speaker 5: have people that are not criminals in concentration camps. And
Speaker 5: that's the fundamental difference. I fucking hate you as much
Speaker 5: as you hate me, but I don't want you to...
Speaker 5: experience pain by your government. I want your government to
Speaker 5: work efficiently for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And if you can do that, if you can somehow
Speaker 3: convince them with actual results from policies that benefit them,
Speaker 3: and I've seen this time and again, I've gone to
Speaker 3: Trump rallies a gazillion times. And I used to say,
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of people I would see at
Speaker 3: these Trump rallies were people I would think of as Democrats,
Speaker 3: people who are disillusioned, disaffected Democrats, guys who come from
Speaker 3: the construction site, guys who come from the factory, elderly
Speaker 3: people who are clearly on Medicare are clearly on Medicaid.
Speaker 4: Don't have a lot of money.
Speaker 3: Their kids don't have a lot of money and they
Speaker 3: just absorb Donald.
Speaker 4: Trump's hate, hatred and vitriol. Like it's cocaine, like it's candy.
Speaker 3: And what they don't get is that they're just completely
Speaker 3: siding against their own interests and making their lives more
Speaker 3: miserable when they could be better. You know, I just,
Speaker 3: but he, he hooks them. It's, It's a siren song
Speaker 3: of hatred.
Speaker 5: It is. He's brilliant at it. He understood the electorate
Speaker 5: that there was a desire for the status quo to change. Now,
Speaker 5: he's a pathological liar, incompetent, bankrupted casinos, bad makeup, kankles.
Speaker 5: I could go on and on. But he understood the
Speaker 5: game of bullshit. He's a bullshit artist, and he did
Speaker 5: it very well. You can't buy me because I'm already rich,
Speaker 5: so I can't be bought and paid for, and I'm
Speaker 5: not even going to take a salary, and all the
Speaker 5: shit that he did. But the message there is that
Speaker 5: a populist message where you have politicians that are not
Speaker 5: bought and paid for by corporations– that really advocate for
Speaker 5: the people could really get some traction, which is probably
Speaker 5: why you have even people in the democratic party stage
Speaker 5: five melting down about some of these DSA wins. And
Speaker 5: I want us to have a political system where you
Speaker 5: can have the DSAs, you can have like Abdullah Syed
Speaker 5: is a capitalist, but a progressive, and we can have
Speaker 5: these really good conversations and not just this two party system.
Speaker 5: Because I feel like right now, in order to defeat fascism,
Speaker 5: I'm a progressive person, DSA curious, probably more of a capitalist,
Speaker 5: but understand that unrestrained capitalism has not serviced people well.
Speaker 5: But I understand that I'm going to have to collaborate
Speaker 5: with politicians like Hakeem Jeffries, who we mentioned at the
Speaker 5: top of this episode, who I'm madder than a hornet
Speaker 5: at right now. But I'm going to have to collaborate
Speaker 5: with him. And then the far, far left candidates in
Speaker 5: order for us to defeat fascism. Then once we get there,
Speaker 5: then let's have really good conversations about how to make
Speaker 5: government better, about how to make people's lives better. But
Speaker 5: we're never going to have those conversations with Jared Kushner,
Speaker 5: Howard Letnick, Scott Besant, Lady Waters, Lady Jennings. None of those.
Speaker 5: None of those people. They're all bullshit artists. They're all
Speaker 5: pieces of shit. They don't give a fuck about anything
Speaker 5: except for kissing people. An 80-year-old man's ass is the
Speaker 5: weirdest shit on the planet, these submissive maggot men.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they've got to go through Natalie Harp to
Speaker 3: do it, apparently. But, Jen, great to see you, as always.
Speaker 3: Another classic episode. Good conversation.
Speaker 4: Good to see you.
Speaker 5: You too, Jim. See you soon.
Speaker 4: It really was a great conversation.
Speaker 3: And I could listen to a Jen Welch talk all day,
Speaker 3: but I can't torture her like that. So I appreciate
Speaker 3: her giving us all the time that she had there.
Speaker 3: And keep in mind, you know, if you love that content,
Speaker 3: Jen Welch, Angie Palm Sullivan, they have the great I've
Speaker 3: had a podcast.
Speaker 4: You can get it wherever you get your podcast. They
Speaker 4: really are. just lighting it up these days. A lot
Speaker 4: of fun.
Speaker 3: Hey, let's move forward because I want to talk about
Speaker 3: the issue that I think might be driving this midterm
Speaker 3: election cycle really more than anything else.
Speaker 4: And I talk about a lot of issues on the show.
Speaker 4: We talk about immigration.
Speaker 3: We talk about Trump's vanity projects. We talk about the
Speaker 3: economy and the tariffs. And I mean, you name it,
Speaker 3: we covered on the show. One of the things I
Speaker 3: haven't really covered enough probably is the price of gas.
Speaker 3: and what's happening with the energy crisis in this country.
Speaker 3: Let's bring in Patrick DeHaan. He is gas buddy on
Speaker 3: all the socials, gas buddy guy on X and all
Speaker 3: the socials.
Speaker 4: Patrick's here with us right now to talk about this issue. Patrick,
Speaker 4: great to see you.
Speaker 7: Thanks for having me, Jim. Really appreciate being here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good to talk to you. I'm such a fan
Speaker 3: of your work. And, you know, sometimes the simplest things
Speaker 3: matter the most.
Speaker 4: And you have.
Speaker 3: Your finger on the pulse of this issue better than
Speaker 3: anybody else. And one of the things that I saw
Speaker 3: from you recently, and we tried to book you when
Speaker 3: the story came out, and I think you were having
Speaker 3: some time off, kudos to you for doing that, is
Speaker 3: the fact that, and feel free to smack me upside
Speaker 3: the side of the head and tell me whether or
Speaker 3: not I've got this wrong, that gas right now, gas
Speaker 3: prices are their most expensive at the latest part of
Speaker 3: the year that we've really ever seen, that we know of,
Speaker 3: and that gas prices really shouldn't be this high around
Speaker 3: Labor Day. I'm sure I've butchered that in some way,
Speaker 3: so set me straight.
Speaker 4: But it is..
Speaker 3: Hitting people really hard on the wallet right now.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and that's what's unusual.
Speaker 2: Gas prices normally this time of year have gone down.
Speaker 2: I mean, even record gas prices in 2022. And that's
Speaker 2: what everyone turns to, by the way, when I say
Speaker 2: this is, oh, prices were higher.
Speaker 7: Yes, they were.
Speaker 2: But they've never been this high this late in the year.
Speaker 2: As an analyst, we look at a lot of different views.
Speaker 2: We look at different perspectives because What's applicable, we all
Speaker 2: know record-setting prices happened in June 2022 when the economy
Speaker 2: reopened and when Russia was fresh on its war of Ukraine.
Speaker 7: But right now, what's.
Speaker 2: Happening is a culmination of factors. And it's unusual to
Speaker 2: see gas prices this high this late in the year.
Speaker 2: And a lot of it, of course, is because the
Speaker 2: ongoing situation between the US and Iran, some of it,
Speaker 2: an increasing amount of what we're seeing now, also has
Speaker 2: to do with what's happening between Ukraine and Russia. Tremendous
Speaker 2: amount of drone attacks that Ukraine has lobbied against Russia
Speaker 2: And as an analyst, I don't take an opinion, right
Speaker 2: or wrong, successful or unsuccessful. But it's those drone attacks
Speaker 2: that are knocking offline major Russian refineries. And that is
Speaker 2: why we're seeing such an impact, even more, by the way,
Speaker 2: to the price of diesel, which is at $ 5. 58 a gallon.
Speaker 2: It's only $ 0. 25 a gallon from reaching a new all-time record.
Speaker 2: And so that, the Ukraine attacks on Russia, are increasingly
Speaker 2: impactful to what we pay at the pump as well.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: And I know you don't want to get too political
Speaker 3: about this, but that was something that Donald Trump said
Speaker 3: he would solve on day one of the second administration.
Speaker 3: He said he would end that war and that that
Speaker 3: hasn't materialized as of yet, obviously. But you mentioned diesel
Speaker 3: and that enters the political discussion as well in terms
Speaker 3: of the midterms. I was just looking at this piece
Speaker 3: in the Financial Times.
Speaker 1: U.S.
Speaker 3: Grain farmers face worst crisis in decades. As Iran war
Speaker 3: sends costs spiraling, farmers in the Corn Belt say they're
Speaker 3: facing the worst crisis in 40 years as an explosion
Speaker 3: in diesel and fertilizer costs are triggered. And so they're
Speaker 3: really taking it in the shorts right now. And they
Speaker 3: are in some very important midterm states.
Speaker 4: I mean, Iowa is a big one. Michigan. I mean,
Speaker 4: the list goes on and on.
Speaker 7: I mean, absolutely.
Speaker 2: You know, farmers are taking it on the chin much more.
Speaker 2: Corn prices are relatively modest, thankfully for that. But that
Speaker 2: is putting a tremendous squeeze on the nation's farmers. You know, anecdotally,
Speaker 2: I've seen more farmers walking away from the industry right
Speaker 2: now because of the tremendous amount of pain. It's not
Speaker 2: just diesel. As you mentioned, it's fertilizers. It's the cost
Speaker 2: of things like ammonia. The raw ingredients of a lot
Speaker 2: of the components that farmers use, they're just getting excruciatingly
Speaker 2: squeezed here And it's getting worse. Diesel is going up
Speaker 2: as we get closer to harvest. Harvest is not yet happening,
Speaker 2: but it will be in the weeks ahead. And unfortunately,
Speaker 2: the nature of gasoline prices are gas prices peak in summer,
Speaker 2: they decline in the fall.
Speaker 7: For diesel, it's traditionally the opposite.
Speaker 2: Prices bottom in the summer, because for those that don't know,
Speaker 2: diesel and heating oil are essentially the same product. And
Speaker 2: heating oil now, consumption is going to start going up
Speaker 2: As folks in more rural areas are filling their home
Speaker 2: heating oil tanks, cold weather, demand from farmers pushes diesel
Speaker 2: consumption up. And that's really where the Ukraine attacks on
Speaker 2: Russia are so problematic is that Russia is a huge
Speaker 2: producer not only of heavy oil, but because they produce
Speaker 2: a lot of heavy oil, they also have a lot
Speaker 2: of refining capacity. And one out of nine barrels of
Speaker 2: diesel globally tends to come from Russia. And right now
Speaker 2: they're not exporting a drop. because of the amount of
Speaker 2: refining attacks that have knocked offline huge refiners. And I
Speaker 2: want to quickly encapsulate this by saying it's always been
Speaker 2: about refineries. Everything we mentioned, hurricanes, when a refinery goes
Speaker 2: offline for maintenance, this is something that's becoming increasingly problematic
Speaker 2: because over the last 20 years, we've lost dozens and
Speaker 2: dozens of refineries. So when something happens at the refining level,
Speaker 2: whether here or in Russia, it's increasingly problematic.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And Patrick, you know, when it comes to the war
Speaker 3: in Iran and how long this could drag on, I mean,
Speaker 3: I've heard some speculation that even if the Iran war
Speaker 3: were to end tomorrow or next week, that it would
Speaker 3: take a long time for gas prices to come down.
Speaker 4: Is that kind of true? How would you assess that?
Speaker 2: Well, the other wildcard I have to measure here is
Speaker 2: the recovery time. So one of the biggest wildcards here,
Speaker 2: you may have heard of a lot of analysts that
Speaker 2: were saying early on, $ 150 or $ 200 oil is possible.
Speaker 7: That didn't happen. The reason why it didn't happen was
Speaker 7: a shock to everyone.
Speaker 2: China, out of left field, suddenly slashed the amount of
Speaker 2: oil that it is buying on the global market. There's
Speaker 2: not really any reason why China would be doing that.
Speaker 2: It was a surprise. Now, if China suddenly starts buying
Speaker 2: oil again, that could be very problematic.
Speaker 7: And so you talk about recovery from the war.
Speaker 2: Early on, I would say a month or two after
Speaker 2: this started, I was saying that every week that the Sorry,
Speaker 2: every day that the straight remains closed, it may take
Speaker 2: a week to fully recover. Now, it may not be
Speaker 2: a full week now because Russia has greatly changed the trajectory.
Speaker 2: But to your point, it's probably going to take well
Speaker 2: into 2027. Some industries, some sectors, like some base oils
Speaker 2: that are produced for synthetic motor oil, that's going to take.
Speaker 7: Probably upwards of a year to fully resolve that.
Speaker 2: If and when the Strait reopens, it might take six
Speaker 2: months for oil inventories globally to get back to normal levels.
Speaker 7: So it's going to take a while.
Speaker 2: How long it takes is really contingent on the product,
Speaker 2: in this case, oil, how that could be impacted and
Speaker 2: refined goods through as well. Gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel
Speaker 2: also float through the Strait of Hormuz. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's a big problem. And it's going to take a
Speaker 2: long time to fully recover.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And another thing that I saw you tweeting about, and
Speaker 3: you were trying to bat down some misinformation, which I
Speaker 3: always think is helpful, is there's a lot of talk
Speaker 3: about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and where it is and
Speaker 3: how much is there and how much is left and
Speaker 3: so on. And I think I saw one tweet where
Speaker 3: you said, here we go with more Tucker Carlson style.
Speaker 3: The nation only has XX days of oil left. This
Speaker 3: is absolute raging clickbait. The SPR, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,
Speaker 3: is at multi-decade lows, but there's not X days left
Speaker 3: because this is a strategic reserve. So it's important to
Speaker 3: note that we're not going to just run out of
Speaker 3: oil in the SPR, but it's still not a good
Speaker 3: situation for it to be as low as it is.
Speaker 4: Explain that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: And the social media myth that was circulating is, again,
Speaker 2: just like Tucker Carlson infamously said, and I think it
Speaker 2: was October of 2022, he said, the nation's going to
Speaker 2: run out of diesel by Thanksgiving. Well, that didn't happen
Speaker 2: because that 22 days of supply moves with the calendar.
Speaker 2: This 41 days that you've heard of moves with the calendar.
Speaker 7: It's a number that analysts look at. Basically, it's just
Speaker 7: a metric.
Speaker 2: It's looking at total amount of supply and dividing it
Speaker 2: by total consumption on.
Speaker 7: A daily basis. It comes up with a number.
Speaker 2: In this case, they used 44. I came up with
Speaker 2: my own number, which is 88 days. Again, taking inputs,
Speaker 2: dividing it by consumption. But that date moves along with
Speaker 2: the calendar. And then to your point, the other thing,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of misinformation about the SPR in the
Speaker 2: age of social media and the age of experts that
Speaker 2: all like to think they know.
Speaker 7: The SPR is one release. That release is..
Speaker 2: Takes many months to fully process through. You can't release
Speaker 2: 170 million barrels of oil overnight. And that's why this
Speaker 2: release is continuing. A lot of people think the release
Speaker 2: is going to continue until the SPR is basically empty.
Speaker 7: But that's not the case.
Speaker 2: We have about six to eight more weeks that the
Speaker 2: one release that Trump authorized in March, then it will
Speaker 2: be done. And when it's done, based on what we
Speaker 2: know now, the SPR will still have probably north of
Speaker 2: 250 million barrels in it. To everyone else's point, that
Speaker 2: is still mildly concerning. It doesn't keep me up at night,
Speaker 2: but it also means that the administration and whoever may
Speaker 2: be next or other politicians, it means the US does
Speaker 2: not have as many tools if there is some sort
Speaker 2: of other calamity that happens down the road.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And the other thing, Patrick, and I just want to
Speaker 3: get back to the gas price issue, because I mean,
Speaker 3: if people want to understand why where folks are so
Speaker 3: hopping mad and pissed off around the country right now,
Speaker 3: I think a lot of it just boils down to
Speaker 3: gas prices and they are just enraged over this. And
Speaker 3: I was just your Twitter feed is absolutely, you know,
Speaker 3: a natural resource in and of itself.
Speaker 4: I was shocked when I read this. You posted this.
Speaker 4: I think it was yesterday.
Speaker 3: Live data showing that gas prices appear to be rising
Speaker 3: to four dollars and fifty nine cents a gallon in Idaho. $ 4. 39
Speaker 3: in Utah, $ 4.
Speaker 4: 39 in Michigan. And I saw a.
Speaker 3: Piece, it was a political piece the other day, I
Speaker 3: think it was on PBS, something like that, where Idaho,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of independent candidates running.
Speaker 4: Because the Republicans have become very unpopular. No, it might've
Speaker 4: been Rachel Maddow.
Speaker 3: Republicans have become very unpopular all of a sudden in Idaho. Well,
Speaker 3: I would have to imagine a lot of this is
Speaker 3: because if you're paying $ 4. 59 a gallon in Idaho, that's
Speaker 3: gotta be insanely expensive for people who live there And
Speaker 3: what are you hearing anecdotally from people in terms of
Speaker 3: what they're telling you about how much they're paying right
Speaker 3: now versus what they paid a year ago or two
Speaker 3: years ago?
Speaker 4: It's extraordinary.
Speaker 7: I mean, it absolutely is.
Speaker 2: I mean, today, the national average is 93 cents a
Speaker 2: gallon more than last year. So the average American, every
Speaker 2: fill up is somewhere in the ballpark of, you know,
Speaker 2: 10 to 30 dollars more, depending on if they have
Speaker 2: an SUV, a pickup or a sedan. So, you know,
Speaker 2: you talk about those areas. Some states have a very
Speaker 2: predictable cycle of how gas prices work. And so most
Speaker 2: stations in Idaho, for example, and Florida and Michigan, they
Speaker 2: move very much in unison. If you want to go
Speaker 2: down a rabbit hole, we can do that on some
Speaker 2: other episode on how those prices move. But I mean, absolutely,
Speaker 2: people are going to be incensed as we get into
Speaker 2: the fall when prices usually decline. I called it back
Speaker 2: in March and April that when prices are so high
Speaker 2: for so long that Americans have to cut back, there
Speaker 2: is a very visceral response, especially when that happens over
Speaker 2: the course of the summer, when Americans have the opportunity
Speaker 2: to go drive around and go visit and.
Speaker 7: Go to national parks.
Speaker 2: Back to what we said at the front, Labor Day
Speaker 2: could be record-setting in terms of highest prices. That is
Speaker 2: going to be a tough pill. I mean, it was
Speaker 2: a very tough pill for Democrats back in 2024. It's
Speaker 2: going to be a tough one for Republicans this time around.
Speaker 2: Whenever gas prices are high going into an election, the
Speaker 2: incumbents generally are challenged with that because Americans point responsibility
Speaker 2: to the political party in power.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I was just looking at your Other data points,
Speaker 3: you posted this about five hours ago. Gas prices appear
Speaker 3: to be rising to $ 4. 19 to $ 4. 39 a gallon in Pennsylvania, $ 3. 89
Speaker 3: a gallon in Kentucky, $ 3. 69 a gallon in Tennessee. In
Speaker 3: the South, it can be a little cheaper. They don't
Speaker 3: have as many gas taxes.
Speaker 4: I guess. Florida, $ 3. 99 a gallon.
Speaker 3: But these are just ridiculously high prices. If you're going
Speaker 3: on one last trip for Labor Day weekend before the
Speaker 3: summer is over, And you're right. So many people drive
Speaker 3: SUVs these days have been driven away from electric cars
Speaker 3: and so on by this administration. They're just it's going
Speaker 3: to be it's going to be extremely costly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, and I don't drive a sedan and look
Speaker 2: at how many car manufacturers, by the way, have gotten
Speaker 2: rid of sedans.
Speaker 7: You have to drive a crossover and SUV. So.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to that point, it's going to be a cost
Speaker 2: or holiday for Americans hitting the road, which is what
Speaker 2: I'm going to hopefully be doing. Now, thankfully, Indiana has,
Speaker 2: for some reason, decided to give up its gasoline excise
Speaker 2: and use taxes, which has cost the state of Indiana
Speaker 2: hundreds of millions of dollars.
Speaker 7: But that's why Indiana today, by the way, is the
Speaker 7: cheapest state.
Speaker 2: Traditionally, the cheapest prices are in Gulf states, where not only,
Speaker 2: as you mentioned, lower gasoline taxes, but there's also proximity
Speaker 2: to major refineries and oil producing wells. And not to
Speaker 2: get down too much the rabbit hole, but if you
Speaker 2: look at what people are paying, you know, a lot
Speaker 2: of the red States have the cheapest prices and blue
Speaker 2: States tend to be more expensive. But if you look
Speaker 2: at median incomes, those also jive median incomes tend to
Speaker 2: be lower where gas prices are lower and gas prices
Speaker 2: tend to be higher in States where median incomes are higher. So,
Speaker 2: you know, again, to go down this, this, this, you know,
Speaker 2: so many people have a very visceral response when they see, Oh,
Speaker 2: it's a blue state prices are higher. Well, All things similar,
Speaker 2: a lot of people earn more in blue states as well.
Speaker 2: And that is why, as GasBuddy, you have an app,
Speaker 2: we have an app to help people that are traveling
Speaker 2: for Labor Day find those lower gas prices. Because those
Speaker 2: state lines, those can be danger zones for either much
Speaker 2: lower prices by crossing into another state or much higher prices.
Speaker 3: Well, Patrick, thank you so much for joining us. And
Speaker 3: is it the GasBuddy app? So go check out GasBuddy.
Speaker 3: and find out where at least some relief might be
Speaker 3: in your local community. It may not be much, but
Speaker 3: it might be something. But thank you, Patrick, very much.
Speaker 3: Really appreciate it.
Speaker 7: Thanks for having me, Jim. Appreciate it.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 3: Good to talk to you. Such an important issue. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is what is going to drive the election. Gas
Speaker 3: prices are going to drive the election. And this is
Speaker 3: why House Republicans are so freaked out right now, and
Speaker 3: I think some Senate Republicans too, that Donald Trump, because
Speaker 3: of his war of choice in the Middle East, has
Speaker 3: basically sealed their fates, many of them by and large,
Speaker 3: by launching this country into a misadventure that has made
Speaker 3: gas prices go up, something that Donald Trump said he
Speaker 3: would not do.
Speaker 4: And he has done it.
Speaker 3: A couple of final things to get to before we
Speaker 3: end the show. I have to mention this because we
Speaker 3: talked about the Kennedy Center so much. We've covered this
Speaker 3: nonstop since he put his name on the Kennedy Center,
Speaker 3: which he should have never done in the first place.
Speaker 4: And now he's in this childish place. tug of war with.
Speaker 3: Congress and the courts over whether his name should come
Speaker 3: down and whether his name should go back up.
Speaker 4: He took it down and now he wants to put
Speaker 4: it back up again.
Speaker 3: Now the Trump administration, this is according to NBC, this
Speaker 3: just came out this afternoon, they are now threatening to
Speaker 3: demolish the Kennedy Center if the court blocks renovation.
Speaker 4: So the courts are dealing with this right now.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that Donald Trump wants to have,
Speaker 3: and if he doesn't get his way, They're going to
Speaker 3: try to tear it down. This is according to NBC News.
Speaker 3: The Trump administration is for the first time threatening the
Speaker 3: demolition of the Kennedy Center if the arts institution isn't
Speaker 3: allowed to follow its plans for the site, including adding
Speaker 3: Donald Trump's name to the front of the building. So
Speaker 3: he's now holding the Kennedy Center hostage, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3: That is what is happening right now. He is holding
Speaker 3: the Kennedy Center hostage. He's saying a nice arts facility
Speaker 3: you have there. Be ashamed if something happened to it.
Speaker 3: He is acting like the mob. And he is saying
Speaker 3: if you don't you don't put my name back up
Speaker 3: on the Kennedy Center, I'm going to demolish it. And
Speaker 3: I don't know, in what way could he act more
Speaker 3: like a criminal? I mean, I guess, you know, leave
Speaker 3: it to him. His diabolical mind is always churning. And
Speaker 3: so he'll come up with another idea probably before sundown.
Speaker 3: But that's the latest thing on the Kennedy Center. He
Speaker 3: is saying that he's going to do that. Now, when
Speaker 3: you talk about things that are going to be driving
Speaker 3: the election, obviously one of them is affordability.
Speaker 4: We talked about gas prices.
Speaker 3: Well, Hakeem Jeffries has said the House Democratic leader, he
Speaker 3: has said that one of the reasons why he met
Speaker 3: with Jared Kushner was to talk about affordability. I don't
Speaker 3: know why you have to have a secret meeting with
Speaker 3: Jared Kushner to talk about affordability, but that is the
Speaker 3: excuse that Hakeem Jeffries is putting out there to explain
Speaker 3: why he's having this meeting. I will tell you, and
Speaker 3: I talked about this earlier on in the show, and
Speaker 3: I'm going to say this in no uncertain terms before
Speaker 3: we go, Donald Trump right now is in the middle
Speaker 3: of trying to steal the midterms. He is right now
Speaker 3: in the middle of trying to steal the midterms. He
Speaker 3: is in the middle of trying to take over the
Speaker 3: Postal Service. This is the New York Times. Trump quietly
Speaker 3: asserts control over Postal Service amid plans to overhaul voting.
Speaker 3: The effort got new attention on Monday when the Supreme
Speaker 3: Court allowed preparations for mail voting curbs to proceed. The
Speaker 3: justices said it is not a final determination on the
Speaker 3: order's legality.
Speaker 4: Oh, gee.
Speaker 3: Maybe you should just stop the administration from changing the
Speaker 3: rules over at the post office rather than just letting
Speaker 3: them continue. But the Postal Service, like Donald Trump, is
Speaker 3: now under the thumb of this administration. The Postal Service,
Speaker 3: like the Supreme Court, is under the thumb of this administration.
Speaker 3: But this is also what the New York Times is reporting.
Speaker 3: The Supreme Court decision on Monday to allow the Trump
Speaker 3: administration to move ahead with its plans to restrict mail-in voting,
Speaker 3: threatened to introduce confusion into the midterm elections as states
Speaker 3: grapple with how to respond. The executive order at the
Speaker 3: center of the ruling directs federal agencies to create state citizenship.
Speaker 4: Lists of eligible voters.
Speaker 3: Those would be sent to state election officials and to
Speaker 3: the Postal Service, which could refuse to mail ballots for
Speaker 3: anyone whose name was not listed. I repeat, these citizenship
Speaker 3: lists would be created by the Trump administration and sent
Speaker 3: to the state's And the state election officials would have
Speaker 3: to use these lists to determine who can vote by mail.
Speaker 4: It says election officials right now.
Speaker 3: Are saying it's unclear whether the new rules could be
Speaker 3: put in place by the November election. Some states have
Speaker 3: already designed and printed ballots, a costly endeavor, and the
Speaker 3: first absentee ballots will be sent out starting on September 4th.
Speaker 3: So the states are already in the process of trying
Speaker 3: to plan for mail-in voting. because some people vote by mail.
Speaker 3: They have a physical condition. They may be traveling. There
Speaker 3: may be work reasons, all sorts of things. Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: ladies and gentlemen, votes by mail. He has voted by
Speaker 3: mail multiple times in his life. I believe he's voted
Speaker 3: multiple times by mail in this second administration.
Speaker 4: So he wants mail-in ballots for me, but not for these.
Speaker 3: So I'm not even talking about the redistricting.
Speaker 4: I'm not talking about the gerrymandering.
Speaker 3: I'm not talking about all of these other ways in
Speaker 3: which they're trying to rig this vote coming up this fall.
Speaker 3: He's trying to rig the postal service into some sort of,
Speaker 3: I don't know, election police force where you're not going
Speaker 3: to get your mail-in ballot if the postal service under
Speaker 3: Donald Trump doesn't allow that to happen. Now, somebody tell
Speaker 3: me how that makes any sense and how that sounds
Speaker 3: like America at all to you. It does not sound
Speaker 3: like the United States of America at all to me,
Speaker 3: which takes me back to to the meeting that Hakeem
Speaker 3: Jeffries had with Jared Kushner. Donald Trump has already tried
Speaker 3: to steal one election. He tried to steal it back
Speaker 3: in 2020 when he, remember he called Georgia and said,
Speaker 3: I need to find 11,780 votes. We all remember all
Speaker 3: of that. They're trying to do it again. He's trying
Speaker 3: to do it again through the post office. And so
Speaker 3: to me, if you're Hakeem Jeffries and you want to
Speaker 3: be the Speaker of the House and you want to
Speaker 3: be the leader of the Democratic Party until we get
Speaker 3: into the 2028 election, presidential election cycle, there is only
Speaker 3: one thing to say to Jared Kushner. First of all,
Speaker 3: Jared Kushner does not care at all about affordability. He
Speaker 3: doesn't care at all about gas prices. If he cared
Speaker 3: at all about gas prices, Donald Trump cared at all
Speaker 3: about gas prices, there.
Speaker 4: Would be no war right now.
Speaker 3: But there is a war and it's made gas more expensive.
Speaker 3: So they don't care about that. So put that out
Speaker 3: the window. Affordability is out the window.
Speaker 4: That is a total distraction.
Speaker 3: For what really needs to be the conversation between Hakeem
Speaker 3: Jeffries and Jared Kushner, and it should be this. Donald
Speaker 3: Trump and the people around you should be told in
Speaker 3: no uncertain terms that if they try to steal the
Speaker 3: elections this fall, they are going to jail. If they
Speaker 3: try to steal the elections this fall, they are going
Speaker 3: to be impeached. Impeached, removed from office, and sent to jail.
Speaker 3: And yes, I know there won't be enough Democratic votes
Speaker 3: in the Senate to convict. And yes, I understand that
Speaker 3: some people will say it's not good political advice for
Speaker 3: the Democrats to threaten impeachment. But that should be the message.
Speaker 3: You can send that message. You can have that meeting
Speaker 3: behind closed doors. And you can make that message very
Speaker 3: clear that if you try to steal the midterm elections,
Speaker 3: somebody is going to jail. Somebody is going to be impeached.
Speaker 3: And you need to make that... Perfectly clear to Jared Kushner,
Speaker 3: no uncertain terms. That's the only thing that needs to
Speaker 3: be said at any kind of meeting with Jared Kushner.
Speaker 3: And then you get up and you say, have a
Speaker 3: nice day. Don't try to steal the election. And you
Speaker 3: walk out, you walk out the door. That is the
Speaker 3: only thing that should be communicated to Jared Kushner. And
Speaker 3: that is what I think Democrats want to hear right now.
Speaker 3: That is the only message that they want to hear
Speaker 3: right now from the potentially incoming Speaker of the House,
Speaker 3: that protecting our midterms, protecting our democracy, protecting our elections
Speaker 3: is job one. And that leads me to this before
Speaker 3: we go. Donald Trump and Jared Kushner and the whole
Speaker 3: motley crew of election thieves, they are going to try
Speaker 3: to make it as difficult as possible for all of
Speaker 3: you to vote this fall, which is why I'm going
Speaker 3: to say on this show, And it is going to
Speaker 3: be a message that I am going to spread from
Speaker 3: here until November 3rd and what, 70 days from now.
Speaker 3: You need to make it your job to vote. To
Speaker 3: anybody listening to this, to anybody who cares, anybody wants
Speaker 3: to hear this, you need to make it your job
Speaker 3: to vote. A lot of families, they have a fire
Speaker 3: escape plan. They live in a house and mom and
Speaker 3: dad and the kids get together and they say, Susie, Johnny,
Speaker 3: if there's a fire, Fire in the house. This is
Speaker 3: the window we go out of. And we're all going
Speaker 3: to go out this window. We're going to climb down.
Speaker 3: This is how we get out of the house. And
Speaker 3: we need to look at our democracy in almost the
Speaker 3: same fashion. Donald Trump is a democracy arsonist. He is
Speaker 3: starting to light the house on fire. You need to
Speaker 3: understand this. I watched this up close and personal in
Speaker 3: 2020 when he.
Speaker 4: Tried to steal that election.
Speaker 3: He is an arsonist who's going to start another democracy
Speaker 3: fire in this country. You need to have a plan.
Speaker 3: That plan needs to be, okay, how am I going
Speaker 3: to vote on November 3rd? Am I going to mail
Speaker 3: in a vote? If you're going to mail in a vote,
Speaker 3: you need to make sure you're living in a state
Speaker 3: where they're not going to pull this monkey business. If
Speaker 3: you do live in a state where they're going to
Speaker 3: pull that monkey business, your ass is going to have
Speaker 3: to go to the polls on November 3rd and vote,
Speaker 3: or you're going to have to go cast a ballot
Speaker 3: through early voting. This is what I'm talking about. You
Speaker 3: have to make a plan. You have to make it
Speaker 3: your job. And that is that's my message.
Speaker 4: Pardon me for hitting the microphone.
Speaker 3: That is my message as we head into the fall.
Speaker 3: You know, kids are going back to school. Labor Day
Speaker 3: is coming up. Early voting is going to start in
Speaker 3: some states very soon. Ballots are going to start getting
Speaker 3: mailed out very soon. And people need to start. No
Speaker 3: more ostrich elections in this country, please. I've called the
Speaker 3: 2024 election the ostrich election. Pull your heads out of
Speaker 3: the sand and make a plan. Pull your heads out
Speaker 3: of the sand and make a plan. The House is
Speaker 3: on fire. He's down there with the matches. He's starting
Speaker 3: to light our democracy on fire. And my best advice
Speaker 3: to everybody, Democrat or Republican, for Republicans who want to vote,
Speaker 3: Have at it.
Speaker 4: Do your thing.
Speaker 3: It's not going to be a good election cycle for you.
Speaker 3: You need to understand that. And you're going to have
Speaker 3: to honor the election results. But Donald Trump is going
Speaker 3: to try to steal these midterms. He's doing it right now.
Speaker 3: The incoming Speaker of the House needs to understand that.
Speaker 3: Donald Trump is doing it right now. And Jared Kushner
Speaker 3: is helping him do it. So you have to have
Speaker 3: a plan. You have to have a plan or we're
Speaker 3: all going to be trapped inside the burning democracy.
Speaker 4: You catch my drift? Please.
Speaker 3: It's all on the line. It's all on the line
Speaker 3: this fall. Everybody has to be aware of this. No
Speaker 3: more ostriches. Pull your head out of the sand and
Speaker 3: make a plan to vote. I want to thank my
Speaker 3: friend Jennifer Welch for coming on the show today. Patrick DeHaan,
Speaker 3: the gas buddy, check him out as well. And my
Speaker 3: thanks to all of you for watching. And I don't
Speaker 3: say it often enough. Please support independent media. If you're
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Speaker 4: On YouTube as well.
Speaker 3: And anytime you subscribe, anytime you like, anytime you share
Speaker 3: any of our stuff, whether it's the show, the newsletter,
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Speaker 3: So thank you for doing that. I don't say it
Speaker 3: often enough. The other thing I should say before I
Speaker 3: go is our buddies over at Snapstream are helping us
Speaker 3: out these days with clips. And it's all about the
Speaker 3: clips these days. There are a lot of great people,
Speaker 3: Aaron Ruppar and Asin and all these guys on social
Speaker 3: media pulling these clips. And we do clips on this show.
Speaker 3: We rely on Snapstream to record, watch, monitor, and clip
Speaker 3: the news. Check out Snapstream at snapstream.com, folks. It's all
Speaker 3: about the clips in Snapstream. can help you out if
Speaker 3: you are in need of clips like we are each
Speaker 3: and every day. But in the meantime, still reporting from Washington,
Speaker 3: I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you next time.