Speaker 1: Well, welcome back, everyone to a new episode of Your
Wrong with Molly Hemingway and David Harsani. Just as a reminder,
if you'd like to email the show, please do so
at radio at the Federalist dot com. We'd love to
hear from you. Molly. That was some debate last night.
Speaker 2: Huh oh, it was the best debate I've ever heard. Heard,
we're seeing well, oh, you know what, It's funny I
do say heard because and this is key, because I've
had so many conversations with people about Kamala's faces last
night or her hand on her chin, and I didn't
really see it because usually what I do is I
sit in front of the television but with my computer
and then I'm just kind of like typing notes, so
I'm more of a listener than a watcher. Every time
I looked up, I actually kind of thought the visuals
were interesting, but as usually looking up when Trump was
making faces that sort of remind me of faces I'll
make on television. You know, on television, you're not supposed
to interrupt necessarily, but you might still convey your thoughts
about something, you know, nodding your head or shaking your
head or giving a confused look.
Speaker 1: And it is interesting. I mean, famously to Kennedy Nixon debate,
people who listened to it thought Nixon one. People who
saw it thought Kennedy won, you know, the one where
he's sweating Nixon. But I think the faces were quite
rehearsed for Kamala, you know, she they you know, she
had certain faces like she would laugh at things that
were true often, but you know they were they were
they definitely were part of her her game plan, you know,
for the debate. And I'm not sure Trump is as uh,
you know, thinks about these things in the same way.
You know, true, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I actually think I think I think they both did fine.
But I think that Trump has so much experience with
communicating with an audience through the screen that that's just
a that's one of those things. The more you do it,
the better you get in it.
Speaker 1: I should preface this whole conversation by saying, I'm often like,
watch a debate and I'm pretty sure I think who
won or what was good or how people react, and
they don't see it my way, you know, So I'm
I just want to preface this by saying I did
not think Trump did well yesterday, But that doesn't mean
he didn't do well in the eyes of a lot
of people who were watching, you know what I mean.
I don't know how they'll see it, but I think
we should start.
Speaker 2: Let's yeah, can we just do like a big picture
and then we can break it down at a smaller level.
So I kind of think. I saw a headline today
that so the big loser of the debate was ABC News.
That is unquestionably true. That was There have been a
lot of really bad efforts from left wing moderators to
shape debate results in a way that favors their political party.
This was the worst I've ever seen, and we have
seen many bad ones like this was so bad that
you would have to be nonsentient to not notice it
like it was. It was so bad. But I thought,
Kamala did I think it. I have to admit it
kind of went about like I expected, which also affects things.
I kind of thought she would do fine, and she did.
I thought he would do fine, and he did. Neither
of them did particularly well. I don't think it changes
the outcome of the debate or the outcome of the
presidential I think she might get a little, you know,
this is what was needed for the media to claim
that she's got momentum back, and she answered questions, never
mind that she did not have a single real question
to answer and she was debating someone who was getting attacked.
But I don't I just don't see it changing things
that much. But I could be wrong. I could be
shocked and find out that everyone thought Trump won or
everyone thought she won. But I just thought it was
kind of like not a big move, no big picture.
Speaker 1: I agree. I mean, there was an assassination attempt, a
former president got shot out what was it a month
ago or something, and it seems like a million years ago.
So I don't think this debate will matter in a
couple of weeks. I think a lot also is baked
into the cake when it comes to Donald Trump. We've
seen him this, you know, be like this before. I
just don't believe anyone's surprised. There was probably more curiosity
about how Kamala would react. But I have a lot
of thoughts on the debate. Here look at this, these
are my notes. This is it's going to be. I'm
going to be completely all over the place. But it
was one of the worst debates. I moderated debates in
the history of presidential debates. I think it may have
been the worst. I just say, I just say think
because maybe I'm forgetting one, but I'm not even first.
So I just want to say they're useless. We learned
nothing about anybody's positions yesterday at all. Right, No one
came out of that debate with some newfound knowledge about
what these candidates would do or you know, or anything
like that. You know, So these are show These are shows.
They're not They're entertainment maybe, but they're not serious debates anymore.
We don't have serious presidential debates anymore. Do you do
you agree with that?
Speaker 2: I was I'm just struck by that. I think you're
absolutely right that I learned nothing new except I was
really interested to learn that Kamala Harris would claim that
she's a gun owner. And if I were a moderator,
I would have immediately asked, of course, what kind of gun?
Like are we talking to score gun? Are we talking
real gun? Tell us more about this gun?
Speaker 1: What do you pretend to have? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yes, if you are a gun owner, why have you
done so much to get rid of gun? And why
are you claiming you haven't when we have these examples
of legislation that you voted for, or you know what
I mean, Like there would have been good follow up questions,
but that you're right that that's the only thing I
learned from that debate.
Speaker 1: Well, she could have believe it. Actually, yeah, exactly, I'm
pretty skeptical. But she can have an arsenal at home.
It doesn't make her any less of an authoritarian when
it comes to guns. In fact, most authoritarians have guns.
They just don't want you to have guns. So that
would have been something that moderators could have followed up
that Donald Trump could also have, you know, dunked on her.
And I felt like there were many chances to really
dunk on her, her record, her history, the things she
was saying that weren't taking advantage of. But let's just
talk about I wanted to talk if it's okay to
get more specific now about the fact checking. So, and
that's always from now on in quotation marks. So when
we're listening.
Speaker 2: Fact checking, that's like, don't even use that term, right.
Speaker 1: I don't know how else to you know, supposed fact check,
alleged fact checking, so skewed completely at Donald Trump often misleading.
And then I saw Daniel dale is at his name
is CNN, that guy who's the fact checker. There. He
said that Trump lied thirty three times, and Kamala Harris
lied maybe once or at least once. When I will
just give you this example. I forgot what the question
was because she never really answered a question, which is smart,
because she has no real policy positions. Is that or
she has no new ones? She said Donald Trump said both.
She repeated the both sides good people on both sides lie,
She repeated the blood bath lie or smear, and another
one that I don't remember. This is an answer to
a single question. There's three right there. She lied constantly
about his positions. For instance, she claimed that he was
going to ban abortion, that he was going to implement
Project twenty twenty five, on and on and on. The
lies that I saw, they say Donald Trump lies. I
would call them lies, I guess, but they're also quite
often exaggerations. Everyone likes this, Everyone says this, No one
does that. This is how he speaks, and it is misleading.
But sometimes they're not even really they're lies, but they're
not as how can I say specific as Kamala's lies
which are completely and utterly just blatantly mis misleading. Right,
I don't know, does that make sense?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well this was This was what was so horrible
about this debate and what made I mean, I just
want to let's go even back to David Muir and
what is her Namelyn Lindsay.
Speaker 1: I have it here, Lindsay Davis. Who is the go on?
Speaker 2: They were? They were annoying before they even like even
if you take out the content, and just from a
noise standpoint, they were smacking their gums in a way
that was just really hard to listen to. But they
had this condescending pause sture toward their political opponent and
on behalf of their political ally, and it was so annoying.
I was like, everyone has to be annoyed by this, right,
Like it's just awful. But they were. They were lying
in their quote unquote fact checks. They were repeating lies.
So for instance, you know, there was the one about
how I can't remember which one of the partisan activists
that was at the debate said that there is no
law how did they put it, there's like allowing.
Speaker 1: A abortion after birth or whatever.
Speaker 2: Nobody said. There was so that's like you're fact checking
something that wasn't said. Now, Donald Trump did reference a
real thing that happened, and happened on videotape of my
former governor Ralph Northam talking about letting children die after
they survive abortions, which is something that happens and in
fact even happens in Minnesota. And and where why is
Minnesota important? Because Kamala Harris chose as her vice president
someone who signed a bill into law that not only
allows for children to be left to die after they
survive abortion, it has resulted in deaths of children who
survive abortions. So any fact checker who's going to fact
check on something like that should probably know this thing
that has already been reported on extensively.
Speaker 1: Kamila Harris, as a senator running for president, voted against
the Bensas's bill, the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
I think it's called, and that would have compelled doctors
to treat babies to survive abortion attempts as human beings
and tried to save them to give them.
Speaker 2: She voted for that, so a fact check could have
pointed out, you had an opportunity to say what you
claim to believe now, and you went out of your
way to make sure that was not the law. And
by the way, Tim Walls also once voted. He voted,
he voted in a way would have allowed for babies
to be protected after they were born, realized his error
because he wants them dead, and changed his vote and
signed a form explaining why he had to change his
vote after he had already cast it. That's all public
record that if you were going to do a real
fact check, you would know. But they don't. They're not
fat checkers. They're propagandists and liars.
Speaker 1: So Donald Trump actually asked her, what restrictions would you
support on abortion? He had to ask that question because
they won't ask that question. And she's she did not
answer because she doesn't believe in any restrictions on abortion.
Tim Wall signed a bill in Minnesota allowing for abortion
without any you know, allowing it till the ninth month,
till crowning. And like you say, protecting doctors who do
you know, let babies die, you know, let babies die
after they survive abortion. So it's incredible how misleading they
are in abortion and her entire here's a broader thing.
The entire higher framing of the question was completely misleading.
Her abortion question was a lie in question, it was
begging the question, you know, in the proper way, and
the entire debate. This is one of my big problems
with these debates is that everything comes from the prism
of the left winger. It focuses on left wing concerns
climate change January sixth, on and on, and it is
always framed in a left wing way. So why can't
we have a debate where each candidate picks its own
proxy to ask questions of the other person. I mean,
that's how these debates at the very least should go.
Speaker 2: There too. I want to talk about how to improve debates,
but I also just want to pick up on what
you just said about her or I don't remember who
asked these things. Their initial question on abortion was built
on a lie. And so the situation is in Florida,
the people of Florida passed a law allowing or protecting
children who are who have a heartbeat or it's like
after six weeks or something like that, and that is
then the people who support killing onborn children are they
drafted an amendment that would force everyone to allow abortions
up until the ninth month, up throughout the entire pregnancy.
That would cause tax payer funding, that would remove conscience protections,
and that would remove parental rights. It is extreme beyond belief,
and it's called Amendment for and it is one of
the most violent attacks on humanity you know of any
legislation out there. And they described this as Donald Trump
supporting a six week ban or six week protection for abortion.
And he has said that he thinks six weeks is
too little. He's not. It's not as pro life as
you might want to be.
Speaker 1: For the topic is in every respect more moderate than
Kamala Harris's on abortion in every way.
Speaker 2: And it was framed as a as a discussion about
a six week limit as opposed to what the legislation
actually does, which is taxpayer funding through all nine months
of pregnancy with no conscience protections, with no parental rights.
Like it's that's what it actually was, and so that's
what the lie was to begin and then it just
kept on getting worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's obviously not the only question that was
framed in in that way. Like so when I say that,
you know, it's a focus on the left wing. There
was not a single question about education or education choice
must much less. But they asked dom So they asked
Donald Trump, you know about his jokes about Kamala's you know,
race and so on.
Speaker 2: You know, do you remember when David Muir when when
Donald Trump responded to something by saying he had been
sarcastic and David Muir fact checked that and said, I
don't think you were I mean, are you kidding me?
You're fact checking someone's stated position about their state of mind?
Was like, that's insane.
Speaker 1: But then so this is I'm paraphrasing, but it's like,
Donald Trump, why are you a racist? Kamala Harris? Why
do you think Donald Trump is a racist? Like? This
is exactly how the questions are laid.
Speaker 2: Actually, I do believe the question that they asked her
after accusing Donald Trump of being this horrific evil person,
world class history evil person. Their question to Kamala after
they braided him for a few minutes, was Kamala, your thoughts,
your thoughts, your thoughts? Like what a nice question to
ask your thoughts? Are you kidding me? And like there's
no defense of this, okay, So on that note, what
can be done clearly having left wing propagandists lie, cheat,
and steel is not the way to inform the public
ahead of a presidential election. What would be a way
to fix it?
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Speaker 1: I used to think that the best way to run
a debate, because these are not moderators. If they are
giving their opinions, if they only fact check certain things,
nothing should be fact checked. In my view. By the way,
I don't want them fact checking what Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2: So, who did the Russia collusion hoax? Who did the
Hunter Biden laptop? Who did the COVID lies. They're not
in the position to fact check because all they've done
is lie but go on.
Speaker 1: But setting that aside, I don't really want and that's
not how debates have ever worked, you know, and they
shouldn't work this way now, pretending that Donald Trump lies
more than other people than Kamala does is It's fine,
do that after if you want, but let them debates
so people can hear them. So how do we make
it better? I used to think we should have candidates
asking questions. I don't think that would work because they're
it just it would be a mess. I just like
I said before, I think each candidate, or you know,
each campaign should be able to pick a proxy to
ask questions of the other candidate. I think that would
be a better way now. And I just want to
say Harris did not answer a single question, even when
they were good questions asked of her. She would say,
I'll get to that in a second. That should go
on and on and on, and never answer it. You
can't really force a candidate to ask, you know, to
answer a question.
Speaker 2: That was another thing I loved. They would ask Donald
Trump a question that was loaded with false assumptions. He
would answer it, and that Lindsey or whatever name was,
be like, mister, I asked you specifically to say such
and such, and you didn't. Kamala would be asked a
question on the economy, she would answer with a question
about democracy, and they would say, thank you, thank you
so much. Kamala, now another question.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Having said that, I actually think what she did was smart.
So she recited answers to questions she wasn't asked, and
sometimes they had literally no relationship to the question.
Speaker 1: I asked, not even in the vicinity of the question.
Speaker 2: If you have your best friend's employees asking the questions,
which is the case. ABC News is run by one
of Kamala Harris's best friends, and she the employees were
told to help her out, and so she knew she
had that help. You don't have to answer a question
that you were asked. You can answer whatever you want to.
And it made her come off better than if she
had to think and respond to an actual question that
was asked.
Speaker 1: No, I for her, I think it was a good strategy.
Because she has in an unprecedented fashion, changed every position,
major policy positions. She has no way of answering those
questions in any kind of, you know, reliable way. But
I'll give it. Let me give you a quick example
of what you're talking about. Let me give the listeners
a quick example. When they brought up Obamacare for some reason.
It seems like there was a there are a million
other things to talk about, but whatever they brought up,
they pressed him to talk about his plan to replace it,
you know, and he says he didn't have a plan.
I don't think his answer was great. She constantly Kamal
and constantly said she had plans for stuff when she
has no plan for anything. She has a vague letter
that she sent that was less than five thousand words.
I believe that didn't give any specifics on any plan.
She has yet to explain why she's walked back her
support for destroying private healthcare insurance, and yet they just
let her get away with that. They kept pressing Donald
Trump to answer yes or no questions. I think there
were six times they did that, zero times for Kamala Harris.
You know, I.
Speaker 2: Loved Trump's line about Kamala's plan that she played her
as from Biden and how it was like four sentences, run,
spot run. That made me laugh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was one of the That was
a good line.
Speaker 2: I just want to say three things here really quickly.
CNN did an instant poll after the debate, and they
asked people before the debate what they thought of different
things and what they thought after the debate. So, before
the debate, fifty three percent of those polled thought that
Trump would handle the economy better, thirty seven percent for Harris.
After the debate, Trump's percentage rose two points and Harris's
dropped two points. The New York Times has a headline
on their site right now pundits said Harris won the debate.
Undecided voters aren't so sure. And then Reuter's interviewed people.
Interviewed ten people who were unsure how they were going
to vote in the November fifth election before they watched
the debate, so ten people undecided. Afterwards, six said they
would vote for Trump, three for Harris, one was still undecided.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like I said at the top, it's I don't
think that pundits can predict how normal people react to
these kind of debates.
Speaker 2: Well that's that's you and me, That's what I'm saying. Yeah, Yeah,
But I I find these things interesting. I find it
interesting that everyone's still like in twenty sixteen mode on
how Trump is answering questions. But if you take like
a big picture look from that, like one of the
consistent themes. I'm always remembering how byron Yorick in twenty
sixteen went to Trump rallies and then interviewed people about
what they heard. And so when he was listening to
the Trump speech, it just sounded meandering and all over
the place and unfocused and weird. And then he would
interview people as they were leaving a Trump rally, and
they all perfectly understood what he said, what he was
going to do, and what like the top three areas
of focus were. And I remember that one was China
and tariffs and one was a border wall.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I do think I just want to
say that a lot of the times he's saying things
that great against everything I believe in, and my sensibility
is on tariffs and even on somewhat on immigration, and
in my head, I'm like, no matter what good points
Kamala thinks she's making here, people like to hear this.
They want to hear that manufacturing jobs are being seen.
They believe crime is up no matter what statistic you
give them, and in some places it certainly is. So
that kind of thing, maybe pundits I think is misleading
or you know, or unclear, but I do think people
understand you like to hear that kind of thing. But
I just want to say this, he could be so
much better. He is unfocused. I mean, at the end
of the debate, he finally said what I think he
should have been saying the entire time. You've been in
office for four years? Why haven't you done anything? That
should have been the end, That should have been the
start of every response he gave on abortion. I just
don't think he's fluent in that language. But he could
have dunked on pretty well on abortion in the beginning.
He did when he called them radicals. But then he
goes off and starts talking about student loans, and maybe
people understand what he means. And I kind of understand
what he was saying about about the ban and all this,
but he kept calling an executive you know, action of
bill like it was just confusing to me. I guess
maybe people understand it better. I just think he could
be more prepared. But let me just say this, he
definitely could be a little more, little more disciplined. The
rally comment by Kamala was clearly just written for her
to bait him into getting angry, and I don't think
anyone cares what the number of people you have at
rallies are. I just I don't know. I just felt
like he's too unfocused and gets too I don't things
that don't matter.
Speaker 2: I do not want this to sound rude. I don't
know why, but I just like don't care what people
who hate Donald Trump think about him.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can, you can say that, but there
are many people he's not reaching out to. The people
show up at his rallies. Those people understand what he's saying.
That's fine. He has to win voters over who don't
like Biden are crazy about him. So I first of all,
I don't I mean, I don't hate him. I just
I just don't, you know, I don't like him. There's
a difference. I did it. I did.
Speaker 2: There are all these people who and I think you're
in this category who like sort of didn't you know,
who were anti Trump in twenty sixteen, reluctantly like I
guess he's better than Biden twenty twenty. I just don't know, Like,
are you thinking this is group he needs to reach
out to?
Speaker 1: Not really, I think he needs to reach out to
a group that aren't. Don't politics aren't their lives all
the time. First of all, I don't want to be
rude either. I think that just dismissing people don't like
Donald Trump. It's not mattering. I mean, you talk about
Kamala Harris, should they dismiss anyone who's critical of her?
I don't think that's the way to go about this,
especially if you're there's a special talk.
Speaker 2: There's a special thing about the Trump analysis that I
am not. Yeah, no, no, no, you're not reflexive.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, though, there are people who are not reflexively
or they're open open to voting for Trump, and they
you know, they're not How can I say, I don't
want to insult as fans, but they're not emotionally driven
so much to vote for him, and they need to
hear something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is not a Trump specific thing. But one
of the things that I have noticed about like Dacy
pundits going back twenty thirty years is they review debates
and they have this like idealized idea of how they
would respond to a question from a hostile moderator, and
they've never actually been in that kind of situation. So
they like listen and it would be Romney or McCain
or Bush or whomever, and they're like, oh, he missed.
He should have done this instead of that. And I
was talking to someone who was comparing it to like
if you're watching a baseball game and you're like, why
did he swing at that ball? And you act like
you would do a better job. Not you, David Hersani,
but like, these people act like they would do a
better job in that kind of situation. And I'm not
sure anyone could quite be prepared for the level of
mendacity and propaganda that we saw last night. And that's
even if you're pretty well prepared for how bad Democrat
media are. And so when you're like, if I were
up there being called a rapist and a racist and
worse than Hitler and everyone's lying about me, I would
have been more focused and maybe you would, Like maybe
you would, But I also feel like we should like
people who are operating at the presidential level, whether they're
Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, they're kind of like, that's
like a very high level game they're playing, and there's
a lot they have to like not say and do say.
And I'm just not sure how I would have handled
such a situation myself.
Speaker 1: I have been on the radio where someone's attacked me,
or been on TV where people are against you and
they control the mic, let's say. And it's very difficult
to look good in those situations for anyone, I believe,
especially since I didn't look good, so obviously no one
could look good. But it is difficult, right, this is
going to blow your mind. I think Donald Trump wasn't
aggressive enough yesterday. He should have when they asked him
a stupid, loaded question, he should have pointed out how
dumb it was. He should not have said I have
a concept of a plan for Obamacare. He needed to
be on the attack, not on the defense.
Speaker 2: Actually that's a great.
Speaker 1: Example, but I wanted to quit.
Speaker 2: Do you think a million people out there preparing anyone
for a debate would have said you need to be
prepared to talk about Obamacare, something that John McCain and
the Democrats killed like eight years ago.
Speaker 1: Really no, No, he should have turned that around and said,
why aren't we talking about the debit?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: And he did in a way, but it was just
in a very roundabad way. Say listen, you know, we
have these illegal immigrants. They're putting such a stress on
hospitals and destroying him. Why are we talking about that?
But more than that, I just think that in general,
you should be when someone brings up abortion, you should
be better prepared. I thought he started out okay, but
it's just all over the place. But other issues too.
But yeah, when they asked him, why did you call
her black or something? He should have just been immediately gone.
I mean they teach you this in debate and gone
to somewhere else.
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Speaker 2: I actually thought the way he answered that one was fine,
Like I don't care what she is, and I really
even think it's interesting how she responded to that question too.
She didn't talk about being Indian American or Indian, so
her mom her mom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry.
Speaker 2: I also like how she was like, I was raised
middle class. She doesn't mention in Canada. Not that there's
anything wrong with being raised in Canada.
Speaker 1: There's a lot wrong with being raised in Canada, of
but gone.
Speaker 2: My sister in law was raised in Canada and she's
a wonderful person. I do want to say really quickly
that we got this email from someone. I won't say
their name because I don't know if it's okay to
read it, but I disagreed with part of what he said.
So he's like, David, I saw your ex post this
morning about Kamala's claim to be a gun owner. I
told my wife, if there's another debate, Trump should bait
her to make the claim again and then simply ask
what caliber. I would guess a squirt gun is about
all the firepower she's ever handled. And your comment about
what a focused candidate might ask is right on. He
missed a number of opportunities last night, especially the closing statement.
That's the part I disagreed with. I to I'd like
to return to this email later because I have more
complaints with it. But I actually thought the closing statement
was what he should have been saying the whole time.
And when you listen to the coverage of the independent voters,
they all also loved that closing statement. I just thought
it happened too late in the debate.
Speaker 1: Like you said, I.
Speaker 2: Agree, saying it like every answer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the so Kamala Harris has abandoned I
would say a dozen or more serious world changing positions
that she's taken in the past. She has not taken
new positions. She's only rejected those. And she's been vice
president for almost four years, and yet she is running
as if Donald Trump's the incumbent. He cannot let that happen.
He needs to stress, like he did at the end,
Why didn't you do anything about this? Why didn't you
do like that? That is a very good messaging.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that was smart of her, though, And
what I mean by that is she's talking about his
record constantly, which only reminds you that when he was
president everything was far far better than it is now,
whether that's foreign policy, border policy, economic policy. At one point,
she tried to blame him for COVID, which was also wrong.
I think reminding people that that COVID caused problems for
the economy, it's just another reminder of, like how things
were awful, things were sort of done to America or
to Trump during that time. I did not think that
was brilliant op.
Speaker 1: He did a good You don't want to.
Speaker 2: Be reminded of how great he what a great presidency
he had, that like hes people want to vote for him.
Speaker 1: I don't think people blame I mean, obviously some partisans
will blame Trump for COVID and blah blah blah, but
I don't think most people do. So he actually this
time and he hasn't done it. Often leaned into that
in a good way, talking about how the jobs they
had were bounced back jobs, and that we were on
this great trajectory until that pandemic came. So I actually, yeah,
I agree with you on that. I didn't think that
was a terrible moment. Honestly, I didn't think I think
Trump lost. If I had to be a pundit and
just lay out how we're supposed to debate and all that.
But I don't think he was. I don't think she
was great or he was especially terrible. I just don't.
This is how usually he is. I think people forget
that if you look at polling or pundits, like a lot,
He's lost a lot of debates and they haven't mattered,
or you know, supposedly and they haven't mattered really at all.
The Biden debate wasn't you know, he was debating someone
who was mentally incapacitated. It wasn't like, you know, that
was that. That's a very distinct debate where we learned
something about Biden because the press had been covered that
they've been covering up. But generally this is how he is,
and I don't. I just like I said, I think
it's baked in to their understanding of Donald Trump. I
don't think it changes anything. I mean, like you say,
they might be a small bump, but I don't think
it will matter much.
Speaker 2: I want to finish reading this note from this reader,
because I was screaming about it right before.
Speaker 1: Please do, please do, Okay.
Speaker 2: He says, I'm not a fan of Trump personally at all,
A vout a Johnson in sixteen Trump and twenty and
Maga makes me cuss like a sailor. But given the alternative,
he's the best chance to bring some much needed sanity
back to the economy, border security, and foreign policy. And
if elected, Elon is going to have to develop the
world's largest liposection device ever to suck the fat out
of the bloated horror of Babylon that is DC. So
then he says, I look forward to your and Molly's
podcast later today. I'm truly grateful for you both your
opinions on all the things that matter on culture and
music to assure me that my own views, while completely
out of touch with the progressive leftists, are still shared
by at least a few decent, clear minded people like yourselves.
I think in many ways, David, you and I are
kindred spirits. I love love Molly, but you make me
scream yes, yes, yes more often. Signed fellow lover of freedom.
And I'm not going to say what this person's name is,
but he was like raving and gushing about how awesome
you are. And he's a pastor of a Lutheran church,
a Missouri sent at Lutheran church this should be one
of my people.
Speaker 1: Second, look at Lutherism for Lutheranism for me, I mean,
you make listen. I think we can both.
Speaker 2: I got to her people. I just I was I
was so hurt.
Speaker 1: A lot of people yell yes, yes, yes when they
meet me. I think that we I have that kind
of effect on people. It's a gift. But I mean
it's nice. First of all, thank you. I you know,
it seems like a really it's really nice thing for
him to say. We get a lot of mail praising us,
and we appreciate it. I appreciate that as well. What
were you talking about? I'm all can concentrate after that
hearing that, So you're so I I'm so flattered.
Speaker 2: Anyway, I don't know what to do about the debate situation.
And it's not like I think Ari Fleischer had said
prior to the debate, Kamala Harris had not answered a
single tough question from any member of the media. After
the debate, she still has not answered a single question.
So I think she knows she's behind, which explains why
she immediately called for another debate. And I think also
she knows that if she doesn't do another debate or
doesn't agree to another debate, it'll make her look weak.
And then they roll out the Taylor Swift thing. I
think they're trying to kind of like save some of
their problems. They really have an enthusiasm enthusiasm problem. And
you know, she's like running five to seven points behind
where Hillary Clinton was running and Biden was running and
one of those people lost and the other one very
narrowly won. And so even like the New York Times
poll that came out on Sunday, I think it was
had Trump up one, That same poll in September twenty
twenty had Biden up eight. So some of these polls
are even worse for her than that five to seven
points that she's behind.
Speaker 1: And especially when you look at the states she needs
to win or he needs to win, they're behind where
they were they you know they were for the other candidates.
I'd be I mean again, I'm not going to make predictions,
but I'd be pretty worried if I were her. So
it is interesting. And so she has nothing to lose
by doing more debates. Does Donald Trump have something to
lose by doing more debates?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I feel like the worst debate performance
I ever saw from him was that first debate in
twenty twenty, the Chris Wallace debate, And you know, full disclosure,
everyone was bad on that. Biden was bad, Trump was bad,
Chris Wallace was abysmal. But that was a really bad
performance from him. He just came off belligerent and bad.
And yes he did have COVID, we later realized, but
that's doesn't matter. So he could be that level of
bad and it still not have that much of an
effect on the race. He definitely was much better than
that in this debate. He has this benefit of whatever
you think of him. His policies were very good for
the country and people know that, and so I think
that gives him a kind of confidence. And he also
seems to learn with doing, like the more you do something,
the better you get at it. We were just talking
about this before we were taping, and so if he
were to do another one, I think that would be
good for him. It would also be good for Kamala.
She will get much better. I mean, she's that was
her first presidential debate she'd ever done. It was his seventh.
You know, there's something you learn by just doing.
Speaker 1: She should not be underestimated. I mean, I think she's
a fraud. She speaks and platitudes. Most of what she
says was just vacuous, most of it gibberish. But she
presents esthetically and the way she speaks is strong. It's like,
you know, she shouldn't be underestimated. I did want to
talk about a few more thing things on the debate
and then we can move on if we want. But
isn't it weird that CNN probably put on the best
presidential debate in like years. I think the last one
was actually somewhat fair and a lot better than this
one with Biden, I mean, just question wise, I mean,
it seemed a lot better produced and etc.
Speaker 2: So I always think that you know you've done a
good job when people aren't talking about the questions you asked,
but the answers you elicited. And I think CNN gets
way too much credit because really the story of that
debate was just that Biden couldn't answer anything, Like anybody
could have asked any question and they would have been
unable to cover that up. But yeah, nobody really talked
about the questions because they were designed to educate, yeah,
more than attack these Again, this was shameful, and anyone
defending what ABC did should be shamed.
Speaker 1: Well, the people who were defending them, Chris Hayes, etcetera,
saying they're doing a great job for Rube And these
are people who don't care about informing anyone. There they
the two. Yeah, the people who love this are you know,
you can tell that they did a terrible job, that
no one you know, that they were just hacks. And
I'm naive, I guess, because I'm constantly surprised by this
kind of thing when I shouldn't be. I'm like they,
I know, with all the with all the spotlight on them,
with all the with everyone saying they're going to be unfair,
with everyone saying they're in the you know, in Kamala's pocket,
they won't act that way. And they did more more
than I thought they would.
Speaker 2: So I do want to say that. You know, you
take Chris Wallace, who was the moderator for that last debate,
for that first debate in twenty twenty, I mean, it
kind of destroyed his career. He's I don't even think
he's working anymore. He's widely understood to be kind of
not good at his job. So I do think there
can be effects for poor moderation, and certainly those people
will forever be understood it as North Korea style propagandists.
And I would just also like to say all these
boomer Republicans who crave media attention, they need to metaphorically
punch those people in the face, or worse, do more
metaphorically with any of those people. It is embarrassing how
little Republicans think of themselves and their voters that they
allow themselves to be treated this way. Have some bleeping
self respect, you losers, Like there's such losers it makes
you feel like a loser if you're in any way
associated with them. Nobody likes to be with losers, and
the Republican Party is just full of losers who think
I deserve poor treatment from the media. I don't know
what psychological childhood trauma they're dealing with to think they
deserve this, but it's embarrassing, it's unmanly, and they need
to stop. And I would also like to just praise
in that same moment Jadie Vance, Tom Cotton, Marco people
who actually do their work before they go on the
propaganda press and utterly shame and humiliate these people.
Speaker 1: I had a couple of more topics I forgot to mention.
I wanted to mention the Palestinian Israeli question than the
Ukrainian Russian question. And it made me laugh that they
kept pressing It's such an unfairly framed question. But they
kept pressing Donald Trump to say he wanted Ukraine to win. Now,
I want Ukraine to win, but that's the President kept
saying that he wanted peace, he wanted no more war,
and Kamala said there was un American of him to
say that, whereas five minutes earlier she had said that
Israel has to enter into a ceasefire agreement with hamas
a terrorist organization, and not one of the moderators like, well,
isn't that an American? You know? I mean, it's just
mind boggling to me that they can't see how ridiculous
those two things are. You want Ukraine to win, you
don't want Israel to win. She kept saying, Israel can
defend itself, but yet it has to enter into ceasefire.
How do you defend yourself when you're a ceasefire? Does
she know that on October seventh there was a ceasefire
in place when Hal Musk came in and sexually tortured
and murdered and kidnapped people, including children. That's the first one.
I just wanted to get that off my chest. Second
one is the pets eating pets thing.
Speaker 2: Now give me just real quick again. On the David
Wair thing, He's like, Donald Trump, you love Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Putin just endorsed Kamala Harris last week, not mentioned
by David Wair. Do you even want do you even
agree with all of the experts that it's in the
American's interest for Ukraine to win? Here would be a
good question, Hey, people, what's your strategy for winning against
a nuclear superpower? Like, how is this going to play out?
How many years will this take? How much money will
this take? How many people have to die? That would
be like an interesting question. But do you agree with
the interagency consensus that the latest forever war is in
America's interest? And then they were like, Kamala, do you
care about American flags and apple pie and how the
Ukraine war is the only means to achieve happiness in America?
Like ridiculous questions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were the framing of No. I agree, it
was ridiculous. I want Ukraine to win, but what does
that look like and how many years will it go on?
And how involved will we be? I mean, it's a
complicated a question, but for them it's just grandstanding about
how bad Poutin is. Then the other question, and I
didn't think Trump did very well on this, was the
eating of the pets thing. I mean, instead of getting
bogged down into what the city manager says, which again
is a ridiculous factor. We called the city manager. He
says that no one's eating pets are fine, it's to
say that town has Okay, we'll talk about the pets,
but let's talk about how that town has been devastated
by where Kamala dropped twenty thousand people from Haiti and
wherever into a town and destroyed their medical system. This
I saw JD. Vance in the spin room doing an
excellent job actually on that question. So that's what I'm
talking about, with focus, like not getting down in their
traps and then just making a bigger, broader argument about
what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Sorry, yeah, no, I agree with you on that. I
do want to brag on Tristan Justice at the Federalist
who obtained audio and police reports from like a non
emergency nine one one call of someone talking about Haitians
who he knew were Haitian because he heard them speaking
Haitian creole for Haitian men each carrying a goose on
a trail while he was on his way to work.
He saw this. And hours before this, everyone had said
it is a complete lie that there that these immigrants
who have been brought to overwhelm this town of Springfield, Ohio,
which is a town of I think sixty thousand people,
and they've brought in twenty thousand Haitian immigrants and it's
causing all sorts of chaos in hospitals, schools, policing, et cetera.
And some of the people in the town had gone
to town meetings and claimed on the record, you know,
like on videotape that there was this seizing of animals,
and they were told by the quote unquote fact checkers
of American propaganda media that they were lying and that
there was no evidence for this. Further, they then, yeah,
David Moore is like, well, I called someone who's got
a vested interest in downplaying the problem, and he said
there was no problem. I loved that Donald Trump pointed
out that a city manager making a claim does not
make it true, like so often with fact checks, Like
you might remember the issues in Atlanta in twenty twenty
to fact checked a video that was like everyone could
watch with their own eyes. They called people who would
be in a lot of trouble for what they allowed
to happen in a vote tabulation center. And the people
who would be in a lot of trouble for what
they allowed to happen basically unsupervised tabulation, were like, there's
nothing wrong here. And then they fact checked everybody and
they said the person who's actually most in error says
there was nothing wrong here. That is not a fact check.
That's a like government propaganda being filtered through the censorship
industrial complex.
Speaker 1: All right, Molly, culture time, did you watch anything, see
anything here or anything do anything?
Speaker 2: Okay? So I had to go up to New York
or Fox stuff. And on my way up to New
York on at the Union Station train station, there was
this guy selling records there. He sells records there every
Saturday morning or during the day. I had no idea,
and he had a great selection. We'll spend ye, but
a great selection, and I got the B fifty two's
Bouncing Off the Satellites.
Speaker 1: Album for Early one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I liked it. Also, interestingly enough, my husband
went goose hunting, for which he was permitted and had
to give like one hundred and fifty dollars to the
government to allow himself to do that, and also did
not like drag the geese back into our house through
our neighborhood.
Speaker 1: But I hate those geese anyway, by the way, and
also cats deserve what they have coming to them as well,
but I didn't want to get into that too much.
Speaker 2: Sorry, go on, It's not okay for certain people to
be jailed for possessing a goose and other people to
be like, oh, we don't like geese anyway. You know,
you have to have consistent laws. Rule of law is
important in this country. So he also got a B
fifty twos album somewhere wherever he was.
Speaker 1: He really without it.
Speaker 2: We run the same wavelength or whatever.
Speaker 1: Just coincidentally, you both got B fifty two albums on
the same day.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think his was that it's a reissue of
the B fifty twos. Okay, I watched a movie with
my kids. I would not highly recommend it. It was
called The Union with halle Berry Mark Wahlberg you did.
What'd you think of it?
Speaker 1: I thought it was complete garbage, Like there was no
story whatsoever. Now this is a big movie for Netflix.
I think it's been number one in for their movies
a while. Listen, both of those people are charming and
attractive and all of that, but the movie itself, the story,
there's no story. It's just completely non existent. Why what'd
you think of that movie?
Speaker 2: Well? I like calle Berry, and I like Mark Wahlberg,
and I liked some of the other actors in it.
It just seemed like it lacked a feeling like chemistry.
I also liked the idea that there's a international spy
ring where instead of going to the Georgetown Foreign Service School,
you're a bunch of like pipefitters who know how to
get stuff done.
Speaker 1: I did like that aspect of it, but it doesn't
really play that big a part. It should have been
a bigger part in the movie. We can do these
things because we're from the street, or you know, we're
carpenters or whatever. But I'll tell you what happened with
that movie. I was about forty minutes in and I'm like,
why did they make this movie? Why was this movie made?
There's no I felt no reason for it to exist,
but apparently that's what people like.
Speaker 2: Okay. I also watched another one and I don't know why.
Oh sorry, I watched two other movies.
Speaker 1: Sorry, you don't have to be sorry. This is why
we're here.
Speaker 2: First, what it's called Still Breathing.
Speaker 1: Have you seen this Still Breathing now?
Speaker 2: From nineteen ninety seven, and it's Brendan Fraser and Joanna
going No. And Brendan Fraser is an artist. It's a
really weird movie. It's like more vibes than plot line,
but it's got enough of a plot line. And he's
this artist in Texas. He has a gift from the
men and his family they see the woman who's the
love of their life and then they have to go
find her. And so he sees a woman and then
manages to find her in Los Angeles and she's basically
a high end call girl. Well that's played in such
a discreet fashion and what that means and I don't know.
It was good. I liked it actually. And then I
watched hill Billy Elegy one night after work, and I
had read that book in when it came out in
twenty sixteen, and I really liked the story. I didn't
love the heritage policy proposal aspect of it, but I
loved the story itself. And I had never seen it,
even though my childhood friend Amy Adams is in it.
She's great. Glenn Close is amazing as Jadie Vance's grandmother.
And it also made me want to punch anyone who
makes fun of Jade Vance for going to Yale Law
School after being in the Marines and going to Ohio State,
like to really see some of the trauma that he experienced.
I don't know. It just it was really well done.
If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it,
like it was so much better than I thought it
would be.
Speaker 1: Tim Wallas is always kind of mocking him for that.
It just makes no sense to me. Now. I get
that there's this movement to appeal to working class people,
but our working class people really averse to someone succeeding
and getting out of that class and lifting themselves up.
I just I don't think any normal American would be
And this is the class warfare I just hate and
I don't really understand it. I've never seen that movie.
I enjoyed the book, but it was well done. Did
you see Ron Howard came out and said, you know
how surprised he was that Jad Vans had taken these
crazy political positions.
Speaker 2: And I don't care what Ron Howard or Glenn Close
or Amy Adams say about politics. I don't not that
Amy has said anything.
Speaker 1: But Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2: It's free country.
Speaker 1: Yeah, uh, you said too. Did you mention all the movie? Oh? Yeah,
to the I I watched Fall Guy, the extended version
on Peacock. You love this movie. This is one I
just don't get why you love. To me, this is
like The Union. I did not. First of all, I
wondered if the extra twenty minutes that I saw just
made it worse because it seems so aimless. I thought,
here's what I think. I think all the people in
it are are excellent. Ryan Gosling is is really fun
to watch. Emily len is fine. The guy who played
the actor played the bad guy, the actor you know,
is great. So all of that was fine. But again
I'm just like, what is this, What's the point of this?
There's no the story seems so aimless, and there were
there's so many like useless, conversations that aren't weren't very funny.
So I don't know.
Speaker 2: It was a great movie. I didn't see the extended
cut it. If you like action films and my kids
love action films, it was really fun to see in
a theater. I loved the fall Guy like TV show.
I like the idea behind it. I like, you know,
movies about the making of movies that this seemed to
me to have more too. It was not trying to
be anything intellectual. It was trying to be a you know,
shoot them up, fun action flick, and it achieved that.
And then also Ryan Ryan Gosling is very funny. I
liked him in that role. I liked I mean that
the casting was great.
Speaker 1: I try to judge. I don't want some I didn't
I don't want some Jim Jarmosh movie or something here.
I am trying to I judge movies by what they are.
You know, this was supposed to be an action movie,
and I just don't think it had a ton of
action in it. There were a few interesting scenes that
they pulled off. Anyway, I don't know. Maybe I'll rewatch it,
and maybe I need to watch the normal cut. I
like the show too. I enjoy it. So it was that.
So what else? I also watched the show which I
will not watch any more, episodes of called Shrinking with
Harrison Ford and I forgot the guy's name. I think
it's Seagull or something. He's you know, he's kind of
a comedic actor on Uh, it's on Fox. It's on
the Apple. Sorry, it's about you know, it's kind of
a bittersweet show. It's kind of a it was a downer.
So I'm not going to watch it anymore. But people
might enjoy it Jason Siegel. I guess, yeah, I didn't
love it. Then I watched two documentaries of bands that
are on the pole, maybe the most polar opposite bands
that exist on Earth. I watched Mutiny in Heaven, which
was a documentary about the birthday party Nick Caves first,
or you know Nick Cave's early band, which I loved.
And then I watched the Beach Boys documentary on Apple.
I think it was or Max, which was excellent. I thought,
I don't know if you're a Beach Boys fan, but
I am.
Speaker 2: I am a Beach Boys obsessive.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry it's on Disney. It was on Disney Disney. No, no,
it is. It's fine.
Speaker 2: I am and I need like longer form documentaries to
watch because of my particular rowing regimen. But I don't
know how to work our TV, and my husband gets
very angry with me when I ask for help. He
thinks that at my age and level of intelligence, I
should be able to handle this myself. But the only
thing I know how to do is operate. Like I
can turn on the TV and get it to Netflix,
but I can't get it to anything else. So I'm
very limited in what I can watch.
Speaker 1: My wife will push a button here to put the
TV on, and the TV but we'll go on upstairs somehow.
It's so confused. She makes it very difficult. But yeah,
So I don't know if you're a Nick Kaithan. He
has a new album out as well.
Speaker 2: Also just got He said, what was the album before
Pink Moon? I don't know, Okay, sorry, Mark.
Speaker 1: Just got Yeah So he has a new album out.
I'm a fan of Nick Cave as a person. I'm
not a huge fan of his new music, but I
was a Birthday Party fan. It's an excellent movie. I
watched it. I think called two B which is like
free movies. They actually have a ton of great music documentaries,
if that's what you're interested in. Yeah, So that app
the Beach Boys one. I learned a lot about them. Again,
I'm not a huge fan of their music, but I
was just.
Speaker 2: The best band that ever lived.
Speaker 1: So I did you know there were brothers and three
brothers cousin. I did not know how abusive the father
was and how he kind of ruined it. And that's
so that whole story is very interesting. I'm really you know,
I just like learning about this. I don't know why
learning about this stuff. But they did cut it off
at a point where we didn't get to learn more
about the eighties and Kokomo and all that. So if
you're interested in that, maybe there'll be a sequel. But
so I believe that's all I watch. But now we'll
have music to put it end. The birthday party or
the Beach Boys is the question.
Speaker 2: I will just also mention that Mark and I are
going to go see PJ. Harvey tonight.
Speaker 1: Wow. Do you like her? Yeah? Well, Rid of Me
I think is just mind blowing album. I love it
and she's interesting. I didn't realize she was touring. That's great. Yeah, Yeah,
all right, maybe I'll put a PJ. Harvey song at
the end. It's gonna be a lot of choices this week.
Last week I didn't know what to do and I
put Russia's free Will for no reason, and someone called
me out on Twitter. They're like, how does this connect anything?
Speaker 2: Nicely done?
Speaker 1: Yes? Yes, So I have to get back on track.
Speaker 2: All right. One should send their love notes to David
Harsoni at radio at the Federalist dot com.
Speaker 1: I love I love to read them, we love to
read them on air. And until then, he loves the
freedom and anxious for the frame of the block. There's
a place called cocam. That's where you wanna go pick
you know from now