Speaker 1: And we are back with another edition of the Federalist
Radio Hour. I'm Att Kittle, senior Elections correspondent at the Federalist,
and your experienced Shirpa on today's quest for knowledge. As always,
you can email the show at radio at the Federalist
dot com, follow us on x at FDR LST, make
sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcast, and of
course to the premium version of our website as well.
Our guests today, multiple guests today are the most esteemed
group of reprobates. I'm proud to work with and know.
Many of the reporters and editors you read and follow
every day, assembled in one pod for our very special
Federalist Hour Radio Hour Federalist style year in Review. Their
senior correspondent, John Daniel Davidson, Election editor l Pernow, Elections
Team reporters Beth Brellia, and if we have time, we'll
get to a couple of others on that front, including
Sean Fleetwood and Rihanna Lyman. They are busily working to
bring you the news that you need right now while
the others slack off. I guess and enjoy our Christmas
party and year end party here on the Federalist Radio
Hour there of course if we can, and we're hoping
that this is the case to be joined by the
inimitable Eddie Scarry, and we have the exceptional Jordan Boyd
and the most healthy man in America, Tristan Justice. We're
talking about the biggest stories of twenty twenty four, the
best stories of twenty twenty four, and our favorite stories
of twenty twenty four. Let me begin here, and Jordan,
I'll start with you. It has been an incredible year,
a historic year, unprecedented, you put all the superlatives you
want in there, but it has been an absolutely amazing year.
And at the end of it all, it seems to
me not only did the Republic win, but the Boyd
family has won as well, expanded its ranks by one.
Speaker 2: That's very true.
Speaker 3: I feel like we needed a good year after four
years of crises and disasters and so seeing you know,
like you said, the Republic on the line, we needed
some happiness. And then yes, of course, our personal happiness.
Our little blessing who came to us just a couple
months ago, has been really great.
Speaker 1: Who is that little guy introduced us because he's on
the podcast right now. This is a family affair here
at the Federalist Radio Hour.
Speaker 3: He sure is our son, Rory here he's trying to
take an app but he joins me every day as
I write, and you know, as we do our good
work with the Federalist. So it's been great and been
a blessing. And of course we've just enjoyed celebrating him,
celebrating wins for the United States. It's just been a
good end of the year all around.
Speaker 1: Well, Rory is a precious little guy. He really is
a blessing. We've seen the photos and we can't get enough.
And so there's the start of something new and exciting,
just like a redo, if you will, Jordan for the
United States of America, a chance to start well, if
not fresh, a chance for a do over. I think
one of the biggest stories, and I won't step on
your biggest story of the year, but I think that
the stories that will come out have much to do
with the history election of twenty twenty four. Ultimately, with
the election behind us, we'll talk about where we go
from here. But what do you think surrounding this election
was the biggest or most intriguing story out of many.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm biased towards my beat. I think this was
a really big year for the abortion and IBF conversation.
Kicked off with the Alabama Supreme Court ruling which actually
favored IVF parents. It said that anyone who destroys their
harms and rios is responsible for those legally, and it's
considered not just the end of property, but the end
of human lives, and so that was really important. It
kicked off this national conversation, but it also kicked off
a lot of disinformation, deliberate disinformation by the corporate media
and Democrats, and they tried to use that to their
advantage in the election. They really tried to make twenty
twenty four about abortion and about I and about this
right to choose whether a child lives or dies, and
they failed, ultimately failed and extremely failed to make that happen.
And that's partially because of the great work that for
lifers do, but it's also because of just how radical
their positions on all of that has become.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to me, Jordan, it was surprising because look what
we experienced in twenty twenty two. The left, the Democrat Party,
made it all about abortion, and they were very successful.
Right after the Dobs decision. Are you surprised that they
were not? I mean, the red wave finally arrived, it
rolled over the left in their abortion argument. Are you surprised, I.
Speaker 3: Think I'm I'm optimistically surprised. Don't get me wrong. Democrats
still do abortion messaging that somehow reaches voters and convinces them.
So the work is certainly not done. But I do
think that four there were way way more important issues
on people's minds, like the economy, like the border invasion,
and those things just take precedent over killing babies. They
really do. When it comes down to it, whether or
not you can feed the children you already have is
more important than you know, abortion pill quote access in
states where pro life laws are protecting women and children.
So really, I think we need to be on guard,
but we can certainly learn some lessons and take away
from the victories that we did get this year.
Speaker 1: Good point, Saul. I'll turn to our elections editor who
worked over time and then this year to say it
was a busy year for L. Parnell and the elections
team and the rest of the team really at the
Federalist I mean, it was wall to wall and there
is no rest for the weary post election, because well,
as we always like to say around here, there's a
republic to save. But al let me ask you, as
you were assigning stories, as you were tracking stories throughout
this election year, the biggest story for you on the
election front tour in.
Speaker 2: General, I guess, yeah, Well, there's plenty to choose from.
I think what I've found to be kind of the
most important story of the cycle. And I wouldn't have
been perceptive enough to have this answer before the election,
but really, coming out of the election, I think the
answer that we all came away with was the chinks
in the armor of the corporate press. We just saw
so much corruption, so much interference from them. The probably
most infamous example of this election cycle was CBS editing
their interview with Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris, selectively refusing
to release the actual transcript of how the interview went,
but for anyone who needs a refresher, they released a
clip of the of the interview with where she gave
one answer to a particular question. It was mocked online,
deservedly so, and then when they released the full the
full interview, they had dropped in a completely different answer
from her to that same question, which raised questions among
listeners of what else CBS was editing in that interview
to make her look and sound better than she does
in real life. So I think coming out of the
election too, we've really seen you had in that final
stretch of the campaign, all of the importance of Trump
and vance going on Joe Rogan's podcast, and these alternative
media outfits like The Federalist really stepping into a role
as the corporate media receives in trust and popularity among
American voters.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing that particular story you mentioned with CBS,
that battle goes on. As we've reported, there are complaints
with the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Election Commission
saying that CBS in sixty minutes violated Federal Election Commission
and FCC laws. I know the Washington Post is struggling
with those complaints now as well. And NBC Saturday Night
Live interestingly enough to have Vice President Kamala Harris on
to open the show right before the election and basically
giving her a free campaign ad to potentially millions of
young voters. I don't know who still watches that show.
So I would imagine that any court or body would say,
what is the ultimate impact of this lousy show anyway?
But the point still stay hands. There's a real trust
deficit in America and how do you see that playing
out in corporate media moving forward? Because it seems to
me Elle that Americans got the lesson over the last
four years. Americans got it that the accomplice media was
exactly that the accomplice media. But they've learned nothing. They
are not chastened, it seems to me at all, based
on what we're seeing so far post election.
Speaker 2: Well, I think there's kind of been an interesting see change.
I mean, these outlets have lied repeatedly with impunity for years.
Nobody got you know, there was no punishment going around
for spreading the Russia collusion hopes. For example, in twenty sixteen,
there were Pulitzers being handed out instead. It's interesting. So,
I mean, this past week was at Saturday, Matt, you
were the one who wrote it for us ABC News
having a settlement to pay fifteen million dollars to the
Trump Presidential Library for lying about one of the many
lawfair cases that Democrats brought against Trump. And they ABC
News certainly were not the only ones spreading that lie.
So I think it was The New York Times yesterday.
Maybe they had this article that was like, oh no,
what if Trump starts suing other media outlets for our lives?
And that would be so horrible. So I think they're
kind of scared, and like the complaints that you mentioned,
I think we're starting to see some creativity in holding
these outlets accountable for the lives that they've spread, in
the damage those lives have done.
Speaker 1: Lots of accountability. There needs to be lots of accountability
for so many different areas. John Davidson, you have been
writing about and pushing for accountability in this government for
a long time. You've dealt with domes stick and foreign
policy expertly as always. What do you see as the
biggest story of this twenty twenty four election year?
Speaker 4: Thanks, Matt. I think it's hard to really pick out
the biggest story because twenty twenty four itself was such
an insanely huge story everything that's happened. I think you
know one thing that stands out to me, though, is
the total collapse of the Democrat establishment, the abdication of
Joe Biden, his resignation from his reelection, campaign, and the
tacit admission in that that we essentially don't have a president.
He's not fit to serve. Other people are in charge.
He's a total figurehead. The consequences of that, I think
we are still going to discover in the year to come,
in the years to come, the damage that has done,
the chaos at his sown in the world. You know,
the world is a very unsteady place right now. We
have wars and rumors of wars breaking out all over
the place under the watch of Joe Biden, who was
never really there, right And we were saying this back
in twenty twenty to a lot of derision and mocking,
I should say, but those of us who were saying
during the last presidential cycle that Joe Biden wasn't fit
to serve have been vindicated. And I didn't see it coming.
I didn't see a lot of things coming. But you know,
I remember thinking, and I remember conversations that we had
at the Federalist earlier in the year talking about all
of these court cases against Trump and what the Democratic
establishment would be willing to do to stop him, how
they were likely to sentence him and try to jail
him before the election, and then a series of amazing,
unbelievable things happened with the assassination attempt, the debate which
the president just sort of glitched out in front of
the world stage and then resigned, you know, ended his
re election bid, throwing the Democrats into into chaos. It's
an astounding, you know, an astounding political story, the likes
of which maybe you get once in your lifetime. And
I think that, as I said, the consequences and the
fallout from all of that is a story that's still
being written.
Speaker 1: And you've written a lot about this. You alluded to
it before. Do we have a president of the United
States at all? Now? I know that. You know, we
did a lot of reporting when Kamala Harris stepped over
the moribun political corpse of Joe Biden back in July,
because George Clooney and Barack Obama wanted that to be
But this guy, and you know, other than issuing massive
amounts of pardons at the end of the year, historic
numbers of pardons, including his ne'er Dowell's son with a
historic pardon, to say the least on that front, a
wide ranging pardon, is this guy. This is the question
of course Americans have been asking for a long time,
is this guy there?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean obviously not. He's obviously not there, which
highlights the other the other kind of major story I
think not just a twenty twenty four but will be
the major story moving into the Trump administration. The second
Trump term is that the executive branch is not controlled
by the president. It hasn't been for the past four
years because we have we've had a president who is
unfit for office, who is suffering from in advancing, you know, dementia,
and the administrative bureaucracy, that is to say, the deep
state is and has been in charge. And the ways
that we have sort of seen that expose the deep
state exposed itself, the way we've seen it rear itself
up in its own defense have been illuminating basically, you know,
going back to twenty sixteen to now. You know, once
you begin to see this stuff unveiled, you can't unsee it.
And so I think, you know, the flip side of
the collapse of Joe Biden's presidency and the collapse of
his reelection bid is the revelation that we don't really
have a president and we haven't had a president for
years now, and that the deep State has been running
the federal government and they've been doing so over and
against the interests and the desires of the American people.
And that I think was the big story of twenty
twenty four. So why people finally got fed up with
Biden and the Democrats and the deep State and went
all in for Trump, And that was the source of
that red wave he talks about earlier, is that people
are tired of being governed by an amorphous, nameless, unaccountable
entity that not only doesn't have their best interests at heart,
but sees them as a tax farm for a global
empire and moneyed special interests. People are sick of it,
and they see it now. And the fact that so
many people saw it, and the fact that Trump was
able to win in a landslide, I think may itself
have at least saved our republic for now.
Speaker 1: Well, you said it. There are so many things in
twenty twenty for that were remarkable to see, and so
many things that you absolutely cannot unsee. And of course
I'm looking at you, Katanji Brown Jackson and your performance
on Broadway of Life. There's just not enough counseling psychiatrics
in the world to deal with that image. Lots of
those those images, and a lot of them involved Vice
President Kamala Harris and the word salad. So perhaps we
can talk a little bit more about that later.
Speaker 5: The Left love saying they want the rich to pay
their fair share, but they already do. The Watched Out
on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day Chris
helps unpack the connection between politics and the economy and
how it affects your wallet. In two thousand and three,
the top ten percent of earners paid fifty nine percent
of the entire tax bill. Today it's seventy two percent.
The top one percent pay over forty percent of our bill.
Whether it's happening in DC or down on Wall Street,
it'fect and you financially be informed. Check out the Watchdotal
on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Beth Brilliant, who has done excellent reporting in the elections team,
particularly in Pennsylvania, you had to cover the follow follow
up in the fall out of what I believe, if
not the biggest story of this century, it certainly was
the most meaningful in terms of the events that it spawned,
and that was in a field in Pennsylvania, the near
assassination of the GOP's presidential nominee or soon to be
presidential nominee, Beth You covered a lot of that story,
but you know how how did that shape and in
form the election of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, this was much like the debate between
Biden and Trump, where everybody was kind of reeling afterwards,
saying we can't go forward this way, and that was
like an abrupt change of direction. Of course, there's a
lot behind it. The first assassination attempt, which by the way,
got swept under the rug media wise so quickly, was
a huge turning point in the hearts of voters. This
was you know, many people who were not Trump supporters
were able to say, I don't like the guy, but
I don't want to see him get killed, you know,
and that was a step in the direction of you know,
support some people. I do believe he gained voters in
that terrible incident. And you know, we always talk about
this assassination attempted a lot of times.
Speaker 7: We talk about, you know.
Speaker 6: It's just a bullet that greazed his ear. But let's
not forget that a man died in the crowd just
for attending that Trump rally. You know, I attended Trump
rallies after that, and I remember I've always been very
security conscious in those big crowds, you know. But but
after that you always think, well, this is this is
a man who has targeted. This is a group of
people who are targeted because Biden has.
Speaker 7: Said, you know, mega bad, right.
Speaker 6: So it was. It was definitely a turning point in
the election and miraculous that he turned his head at
just the right moment. One of the weird little things
that I out of that was I was able to
get video from some people who had heat exhaustion that
day and left the rally before it ever got started,
and they were in the waiting room of the local er,
and all of a sudden they started hearing the news
that he had been shot. So they were shooting video
of the reaction in the emergency room, and then they
realized that injured Trump was being rolled up to the
emergency room and Secret Service, you know, opened up the doors.
It's just a little slice of that day. You don't
hear as much about, but you know.
Speaker 7: Before.
Speaker 6: Before a president goes anywhere, or a presidential candidate. At
this point in the game, the Secret Service does go
through the town and make all kinds of contingency plans,
and part of that is the hospital. But it seems
that that plan of what they were going to do
at the hospital if it would be needed, you know,
who would ever think it would be needed, wasn't really
solid because there's video where you can see him and
all the patients there saw him walking in with surrounded
by Secret Service. But I mean, if somebody wanted to,
they could have been staged in the er waiting.
Speaker 7: Room and got into him that way.
Speaker 6: So it was not really a secure situation.
Speaker 1: Well that's it. I mean, it's not was not really
a secure situation, and that was some of the fallout
as well. You know, I think ultimately you're absolutely right.
I think even the likes of Mark Zuckerberg looked at
that moment and said, Wow, that guy is bad ass.
As he put it, you know, this is a tough guy.
This isn't this isn't the weak you know, acting president
so to speak. And Joe Biden, you know, the the
octagenarian who really has the cognition equivalent of Kentucky fried chicken,
mashed potatoes and gravy. You know, this guy is standing
up and saying fight, fight, fight. But boyd, did we
see a really frightening thing that's not been talked about
here certainly in recent weeks. And that is the absolute
failure of the Secret Service. And you covered that story
as well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, there's been the task force that was
looking into it just wrapped up a report and they
just detailed so many shocking failures of the Secret Service.
And part of it was, you know, this background. If
you want fuel for conspiracy theories, all you need is
right here, because here we had Jill Biden not far
away at another event inside invitation only, and they peeled
off staff members from covering Trump in a outside much more,
much bigger personality, much bigger draw of the public. So
they took Secret Service staff from this event and sent
it over to Jill Biden. And then they had like
some people that were not Secret Service that they pulled
from other agencies, and they did not work well with
the They did not communicate with the local police. Is
actually some of the local and state police that were
first to be in contact with the alleged shooter, who
was of course gone down on top of the roof.
Speaker 7: And you know, it's.
Speaker 6: Really weird that the guy who shot Trump that day,
it had no at his age, he's twenty years old,
had no social media footprint. I mean, who gets out
of high school today without having at least an Instagram
or something, right, and this guy has nothing. And just
within the last week, the shooters transcripts educational transcripts came out.
You know, he was switching schools and he got very
good grades in high school, had very high GPA, and
he was studying like electronics and this kind of thing,
and he was just going to switch colleges because and
they were trying to figure out, well, the classes you're
taking right now, you need to do different things with
their credits to make the transfer really work. That sounds
to me like a person with ambition. So it's just
really weird that this happened this way, right, It's.
Speaker 1: All very weird. And I think that there are a
lot of questions, of course, that need to be asked
continue to be asked, and I think Americans should expect
accountability on that front. Ultimately, I think there are a
lot of Americans who at the very least wonder how
all of this could have happened. A perfect storm of failure,
and it was only that we know of the first
attempt on the life of the president elect. Later on
at his golf club in Florida, we had another attempt,
that one not nearly as successful, so to speak, but
frightening nonetheless, but.
Speaker 6: That one also disappeared from the media very quickly.
Speaker 7: I do think I just want to.
Speaker 6: Mention the iconic fight Fight Fight and his bloody ear
that has become you know, it's that photograph that was
is famous now has been printed on T shirts. There's
a bloody ear Trump Fight Fight Fight bobblehead. And now
I just recently saw there's a Christmas ornament you can
hang on your tree for years to come to remember
that day.
Speaker 1: We are nothing if not a consumer ocracy at the
end of the day. Christan Justice has had some very
interesting stories over the years. One of my favorites perhaps
one that we're getting some more information about, but it
relates to illegal immigration, which was obviously a top issue
in the selection, and what we have seen by the
open border policies. Generously, they're policies at all, they're really
meant to keep that border open for the day Democrats
in their next generation of voter by the Biden Harris administration. Tristan,
you were on the ground reporting in Ohio one of
the big stories, and we've had many of these with
refugees and you know, illegal immigrants coming into places and
absolutely turning the community upside down. The Great Goose Chase,
if you will, of twenty twenty four, if you could explain,
my friend.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I have twenty thousand new neighbors in Columbus, Ohio
from the Great Caribbean nation of.
Speaker 9: No So I drove out to Springfield.
Speaker 8: I became based in Columbus starting in August, and I
drove out to Springfield. As soon as your stories started
to take off. You had these residents who were giving
testimonies at town hall meetings about just the different issues
that arose with twenty thousand new arrivals who don't speak
the language, don't experience, don't practice the same customs, aren't
integrated into the culture of everyday American life, and are
having struggle assimilating to that culture. And so I went
out to Springfield to kind of take a look for myself.
It also happens to be where my mom and her
family are from so it was quite an experience to
kind of go and see how things have changed since
nineteen eighty. Springfield has a very familiar story to a
lot of towns across the russ Belt Midwest, and that
story was really told through the twenty sixteen election of
these towns that were having kind of a renaissance in
the eighties and began to really tumble in the nineties.
That story for Springfield has not gotten better. I drove
around a town that was dilapidated, struggling, they were Homelessness
was seemed pretty rampant. But I also saw about third
of the population was Haitian and it was interesting to
kind of talk to people on the ground there about
their experiences in how public safety has fallen even more
because they just don't have the same.
Speaker 9: Customs as we have in blue collar America.
Speaker 8: And one of those stories talk about, you know, the
big stories of the year was, of course, the Haitian
cat dogs storry. You got Donald Trump go on the
debate stage and talk about how they're eating the dogs
or eating the casts, and it became this kind of
focal point in the election. I don't think that's entirely
false based on the people I spoke to. Obviously, no
one wanted to share their names in such a hostile
media environment. Did I see Haitians eating cats of dogs?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 9: Did I talk to people.
Speaker 8: Who said they are no longer seeing straight casts in
the street. Absolutely, that was not That was not an
unfamiliar thing that people would tell me. People were saying
they were seeing less geese in the park. We have
multiple calls to emergency services now on the record of
people reporting Haitians in the creeks killing geese. I spoke
to residents who said they had seen Haitians carrying dead
geese from the parks. So a lot of the circumstantial
evidence seems to suggest that Donald Trump was actually right
when he went on.
Speaker 9: The debase age and said that.
Speaker 8: Obviously, it's a claim that can't necessarily be a proven lie.
So it's interesting to see that PolitiFact today put out
their Live of the Year being that Donald Trump said
they eating the cats and dogs. But when PolitiFact is
understood as a political operation of the Democrats to assert
a false claim over a monopoly untruth, a fact checking
organizations quote Lie of the Year being awarded to something
that can't actually be proven as a lie.
Speaker 9: Makes total sense.
Speaker 1: But Tristan, Tristan, you know, we how could you possibly
ever think that this esteemed corporate media of ours would
ever lie to the American people. Just give me one
example of the corporate media not earning the trust that
it so deserves in America today. I mean, oh, yeah,
there's the lying about the cognition of the President of
the United States. There's Russian collusion, there's censorship. Yeah, the
list goes on and on. So again, back to what
we were talking with l about, can anybody trust a
PolitiFact or corporate media anymore going forward to be the
arbiter of truth.
Speaker 8: Well, I think something that was said earlier on the podcast,
I think is John who said it, talked about how.
Speaker 9: The big story of this year that's still.
Speaker 8: Being written is to complete collapse of the democratic machine.
No small part of that machine has been legacy media.
And I think this election was possibly the election even
more so than twenty sixteen, where that monopoly untruth finally broke.
I think we saw how Donald Trump was able to
leverage new media, an independent podcast, to really break through
some of the different barriers that have been established by
kind of the regime friendly media, and I think people
broadly acknowledge that the New York Times, Washington Posts, all
these other legacy outlets are speaking with a certain narrative
objectivity and media. It was actually relatively new news norm.
I mean, objectivity really only came about after kind of
World War Two. You know, these journals from there's kind
of these infamous journals in the eighteenth in nineteenth centuries
just putting out right slander out there about these politicians.
Speaker 9: We had a bias press.
Speaker 8: Bias press was the norm until like nineteen fifty, and
then people decided that they could report objectively. This The
reality is every decision a journalist makes every day is biased,
down to the word.
Speaker 9: Choices they use, to the stories they pursue.
Speaker 8: And so I think that idea of objectivity media is
finally dead. And I think it's good because people can
be kind of self aware about what they're reading, what
they're watching, and what they're getting their information.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think the evidence that you talk about is
in the names of some newspapers that still exist today.
The Democrat, the Republican. You'll find those in small towns
across America. They hold on to those names. Objectivity, as
you noted, is well has it ever truly been in
the American press? It certainly isn't today. Rihanna Lyman covered
a lot of the election stories on the election team.
When I say a lot, I mean a lot of
election stories on the elections team. Talked about a busy
year and the election really defined everything that was going on.
What are some of the biggest stories that you followed
for The Federalist and some of the biggest stories of
the year from your perspective, Matt.
Speaker 10: Great to be on here and to talk about this
at the end of the year. I think some of
the biggest angles that I followed throughout this election cycle
was the extent to which the media was trying to
redefine what election integrity meant. And you and I are
both on the Election Integrity team covering elections, and we
saw the links that outlets like The New York Times
and Washington Posts and CNN were going through to try
and change simple definitions of what it means to have
a safe and secure election. And I think we really
kind of saw this ramp up in September when Republicans
introduced the Save Act, which is meant to require documentary
proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. And
of course we know why that's necessary, why that's a
basic principle of a free for election. Except the media.
I mean, they just had a field day with this.
They tried to say that there's little to no evidence
of non citizens voting, so why do we need to
have this in place? And I think that really underscored
just how desperate not only the Democrats had become, but
just underscores that the media functions as a propaganda arm
of the Democratic Party rather than a truth telling organization,
because a truth telling organization would have highlighted the fact
that we have plenty of examples of non citizens making
it onto the voter roles and in some cases even voting.
And you know, Logan Washburn recently reported staying on the
voter rolls after they illegally voted because they're a non citizen.
And so I think that kind of was one of
the final nails in the coffin of making sure that
the propaganda press was dead, so to speak, in the
idea that they don't have as much weight as they
do now or as they once did.
Speaker 1: You said it. The term is election integrity and I
read somewhere recently from somebody obviously ill informed that the
term election integrity was created after the twenty twenty election.
That simply is not true. Election integity is about the
integrity of our elections, and that idea, that battle has
been going on for a long time. The Federalist has
invested a lot of time and resources in that area
because it is the ultimate expression of our representative democracy.
It is the key to this republic election integrity. How
much from twenty twenty, however, Brianna, did we see Republicans
wake up? Because after twenty twenty, we saw conservatives in
this country being labeled as conspiracy theorist and election deniers
by that same corporate media that we've been talking about
where people have absolutely lost so much trust, and there
were Republicans weak need that bowed to that kind of narrative. Unfortunately,
but the Trump campaign, I think, and some very dedicated
conservative organizations made election integrity a focal point, and we
did see, and you've reported a lot on this, the
Republican Party finally wised up and said we need to
put resources into monitoring our elections. How important was that
to the results of the twenty twenty four election.
Speaker 10: I think it was fundamental for two reasons. Obviously, you
know the RNC Team Trump, they had boots on the
ground in you know, incomparable numbers to twenty twenty. You
had lawyers, You had poll watchers, poll workers who were
getting proper training, who actually caught instances in Detroit, in Pennsylvania,
I believe in Wisconsin of Nol I'll use that word
malpractice or just problems on election day that had they
not gotten the proper training, they may not have caught
those issues and maybe you know who knows that could
have impacted the outcome. Right, those are just what if questions,
But having boots on the ground really was impactful. It
wasn't just r and C and team Trump. We know
there are grassroots organizations who work day and night to
make this happen. I also think that the rn C
and Team Trump really confronting that election denier smear head
on by focusing on election integrity and saying this is
not something too shy away from or to be ashamed of.
It is okay to question how an election administered by
our government, which has been known to medle in foreign
elections for years, is running our own elections. That doesn't
make you a bad American or unpatriotic. It actually just
makes you a concerned citizen. So confronting it head on
was really important about changing that conversation, and I think
the media really tried to hold their grip on this conversation.
In particular, I think of Georgia, where I covered one
of the biggest issues was do election officials have to
rubber stamp election results right? Is it ministerial meaning they
just have to do it even if the results are
nonsensical or they don't add up. Or is it discretionary
where they can say, you know what, the number of
ballots we have on hand doesn't match the machine count total.
I'm not certifying until we figure out what went wrong.
And Democrats in the media really use this as an
opportunity to say Republicans are election deniers. They don't want
to certify the election, the election will be, you know,
stolen by Republicans, and Republicans didn't shy away from saying
that's not true. We just want to make sure things
are accurate, right, basic reconciliation. And I think having this
conversation was important, It was necessary, and it really helped
open the eyes. I think of people who aren't so
involved in the political world to see, you know what,
like every lie they've thrown their Republicans, it's kind of bs.
You know, basic reconciliation isn't something we should shy away from.
I actually want that, and I think we've seen polls
indicate that Americans want election integrity measures. They want to have,
you know, voter idea. They want to have proof of
citizenship to register to vote. They want to make sure
the totals are accurate before certification. So I think if anything,
the conversations Democrats thought would help them actually hurt them,
and they only amplified them.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, I'm working on a piece right now. A
new Pew poll say that a few times fast, A
new Pew poll that just came out within the last
week or two, talking about how people have American voters
have now rediscovered faith in elections, trust in elections. It's remarkable, folks,
what can happen when you don't have the cover of
COVID and you don't have a lot of radical leftist
groups forced in and fused into elections. What we saw
over the last four years set the pace for that,
with the banning of zucker Bucks in a lot of
places across this country, while there was something called Biden Bucks.
We still need to figure out, and I think as
we look forward, need to figure out just how expansive
that was in turning over the federal government and all
federal agencies to serve as a get out the vote
weapon for the Democratic Party. Obviously that did not have
the kind of impact that the Democrats had hoped for,
but it's still something to watch as we move forward.
Let's do a little lightning round. Now, let me ask
our remaining panelist here on this look at twenty twenty
four through the Federalist Prison. On this edition of the
Federalist Radio Hour, let us ask our esteemed panelist their
favorite stories of the year. Could be the strangest, could
be the funniest, could be the most entertaining, could have
nothing to do with politics and policy whatsoever. Jordan will
begin with you on that. What was your favorite story
of twenty twenty four?
Speaker 3: I think this happened at the very beginning of the year,
and it's a minuscule story, but it's still important, and
it's that President Joe Biden's dog bit. So many Secret
Service agents have got banished from the White House, that's.
Speaker 1: Right, yes, And there was I believe thinking along those
lines for the Democratic Party when they banished ultimately later
Joe Biden from the nomination process.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: I mean, you just wonder what was going through the
dog's mind? And honestly, should we have paid attention to
his distrust of secret service earlier because if we did,
we might not have had the Trump assassination situation.
Speaker 1: Indeed, good good to think about. And you know that
poor dog has had to be around punter Biden for
how long? The cato' kalin of a presidential politics Beth,
let me ask you, what is your favorite story of
two thousand in twenty four?
Speaker 6: Well, I'm not sure if it's my favorite, but I
just think it's amusing. How back in January of twenty
twenty four, nobody was thinking about Kamala Harris, and in
January of twenty twenty five, nobody's going to be thinking
about Kamala Harris. And how you know that whole just
that whole thing that happened, you know in twenty twenty.
Of course, there were a lot of extenuating circumstances, but Trump,
after that situation happened.
Speaker 7: Trump didn't go away, and I also think the media
didn't want.
Speaker 6: Him to go away. They would have missed him. But
I think they're really happy she's gone. They just don't
want to talk about her anymore. So in some ways,
nothing's changed in this time.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, as we've talked about many times at the Federalist,
twenty twenty four was an election ultimately about competence, and
so you had an incompetent stand in and Vice President
Kamala Harris. The borders are and despite all of the
vibes the good feelings American, the Americans didn't want to
trust her with the keys to the car. Kristen, I
bet one of the big stories for you would be
America's sinking health personal health, mental health, physical health. And
I do that by way of a plug for your
fantastic new book which just rolled out, which talks about
that very topic. You've covered extensively health, and I know
you've covered extensively on that topic, the whole idea of
make America healthy again with Robert Kennedy Junior. I won't
put words in your mouth, but I would imagine America's
health is on your mind, as some of the key
stories of tw twenty four.
Speaker 8: I will take the victory lap and at the risk
of being self righteous, promote the book. Yes, I had
a personal milestone this year and published my first book
about a month ago now, fount and Unhappy, How body
positivity is killing us and how to save yourself, on
how the food and pharmaceutical industries are exploiting American ignorance
and emotional turmoil that comes with these twin epidemics of
obesity chronic disease. So that being said, one of my
favorite stories this year was actually had nothing to do
with politics, you know, make America healthy again aside, which
is all great, and said, I actually thought one of
the biggest stories this year was what SpaceX was able
to accomplish with the landing of that reasonable rocket, Starship rocket,
the most powerful rocket to ever launch on Earth, being
captured and with such a novel catching method.
Speaker 9: I think that's going to be really.
Speaker 8: Changes the game in a lot of ways and kind
of launching us into this twenty first century era of
space expiration.
Speaker 1: And out of the deal, of course, you get Elon Musk,
who you know, has basically helped save the Republic by
taking over Twitter turning it into X. I think that's
been a big story building throughout twenty twenty four. And
he also has control over the DOGE, the important agency
that will have its work cut out for it in
suggesting ways to take the bloat the fat if you will,
in the parlance of health out of the US government.
Brianna will close with your favorite story of the year,
but you also serve double duty. What are the stories
you'll be looking at the big stories of twenty twenty
five that will shape the conversation ahead.
Speaker 10: Well, I'd say my favorite story of twenty twenty four
is Joe Biden insinuating his uncle may have been eaten
by cannibals. And the reason I say uncle.
Speaker 1: BOSEI I love Uncle Bosey. Yes, you know that was
the gift that kept on giving, wasn't it?
Speaker 6: It was?
Speaker 10: And I think in part you know whether or not
that had any any truth to it. I know a
lot of people obviously said that that wasn't true, but
I think it also highlighted just kind of the mental
decline of President Biden that they were trying to hide
so desperately, because I think if Biden was all there
in his head, he probably wouldn't have made that insinuation,
you know. I think it definitely was a tip of
the iceberg for the larger problem we ended up seeing.
I also think the Robert her story with the room
Room and the transcript with Joe Biden was pretty funny
but also sad for the fate of this republic. And
then going to twenty twenty five, I got to tell you,
the biggest story that I think will drive coverage and
shape America is whether dojie is successful, whether Elon Musk
and Vekramswami can actually get some serious cuts to our
federal government, and that will dominate the news cycle.
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think that that will be
a big story playing out in twenty twenty five. But
all of this under of course, the resistance two point zero,
and that's something we at the Federalist will be reporting
on quite a bit. When I say by all of
that is, I remember in late twenty sixteen, I was
at an event that was honoring a whistleblower of mine
for an investigative peace I did on the Social Security
Administration at that time and some of the most egregious
abuses that were going on inside that agency and I
remember at this journalist gathering, you know, the usual smug
suspects turning out in resistance shirts. They were claiming with
those T shirts that they were going to be taking
on this, you know, this new president and Donald Trump
in twenty seventeen. They weren't going to let him get
away with anything. Of course, what they ended up doing
was pushing a narrative, ultimately a false narrative, and many
aspects in beclowning themselves as journalists. So we will be
covering the next move of corporate media, the deep state,
the swamp, the Democrat Party to try to do whatever
they can, and I don't know what they have left
at this point to try to diminish the presidency of
the forty seventh President of the United States. Very much
enjoyed this conversation with some exceptional people. Our guest today
on this edition of the Federalist Radio Hour, the most
esteemed group of reprobates. I'm proud to work with and
know many of the reporters and editors you read and
follow every day. I appreciate their time joining us on
this edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle.
You've been listening to another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.
Let me take that again, Brienna. I just screwed that
up and I'm sorry. I don't know that you will
have to edit this. I'm sorry. Coming down in three
two one, you've been listening to another edition of the
Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, senior correspondent at the Federalist.
We'll be back soon with more. Until then, stay lovers
of freedom and anxious for the fray