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Speaker 1: Cable news is ripping us apart, dividing the nation, making

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Speaker 1: it impossible to function as a society and to know

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Speaker 1: what is true and what is false. The good news

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Speaker 1: is that they're failing and they know it. That is

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Speaker 1: why we're building something new. Be part of creating a new, better, healthier,

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Speaker 1: and more trustworthy mainstream by becoming a Breaking Points Premium

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Speaker 1: member today at breakingpoints dot com. Your hard earned money

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Speaker 1: is going to help us build for the midterms and

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Speaker 1: the upcoming presidential election so we can provide unparalleled coverage

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Speaker 1: of what is sure to be one of the most

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Speaker 1: pivotal moments in American history. So what are you waiting for?

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Speaker 1: Go to Breakingpoints dot com to help us out. CNN's

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Speaker 1: got a new strategy. They fired their terrible president. They've

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Speaker 1: said that they're going to be less partisan. They're going

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Speaker 1: after the middle of the road. They've got the new boss.

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Speaker 1: They're trying to tamper down all of the crazy stuff

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Speaker 1: in their chirons. Not overuse the breaking news banner, but

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Speaker 1: inside CNN employees are quote freaking out over bad ratings.

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Speaker 1: Let's put this up there on the screen. It's especially hilarious.

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Speaker 1: They say that they're freaking out because the ratings are

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Speaker 1: absolutely tanking. They blame actually the new strategy of trying

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Speaker 1: to appeal to Republicans, and in a way, you know,

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Speaker 1: I think they may not be wrong, which is that

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Speaker 1: because they're terrible ratings, which did exist, we're so reliant

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Speaker 1: on bashing Republicans and on trying to play to mainstream

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Speaker 1: Democrats all the time. By ditching that, they've already had

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Speaker 1: a situation where Republicans don't trust them and are never

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Speaker 1: coming back, and then they're also going to lose and

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Speaker 1: betray their core audience. So they really are between Iraq

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Speaker 1: and a hard place. I don't see how they could

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Speaker 1: possibly come back, Like, there's no way that strategy is

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Speaker 1: going to work. It's impossible. The trust is gone. This

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Speaker 1: is what I've said from the beginning is I have

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Speaker 1: seen how this played out before I'MSNBC. They had the

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Speaker 1: same idea of we're going to bring in the NBC

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Speaker 1: news people. It's going to be neutral journalism, which again

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Speaker 1: I don't have an issue with partisan or ideological journalism.

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Speaker 1: I have an issue with dishonesty and lying and carrying

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Speaker 1: water for the powerful. That's the problem. I have an

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Speaker 1: SMEC and Fox News, and one of the sources who

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Speaker 1: I guess talked to New York Post said, in terms

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Speaker 1: of their concerns over the strategy, the problem is we're

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Speaker 1: not a neutral country. The ratings are getting worse because

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Speaker 1: they are taking out all the bells and whistles. That's

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Speaker 1: very telling, isn't it. CNN's ratings are as bad as

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Speaker 1: local news ratings. They say, new management is not freaking out,

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Speaker 1: but everyone else at CNN is. They want to fix

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Speaker 1: the shows first, but they don't realize the shows and

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Speaker 1: ratings are connected. And this was all in response to

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Speaker 1: ratings for the network hit a low not seen since

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Speaker 1: the year two thousand just a few weeks ago. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's what's going to happen. The ratings are gonna tank

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Speaker 1: because they're not giving this like feeding the infotainment beast

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Speaker 1: in the way that they were. Trump is going to

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Speaker 1: come back on the scene like imminently. I mean he's

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Speaker 1: going to be back in presidential contention here in mere weeks, days, months,

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Speaker 1: very very soon. And the people who lean the most

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Speaker 1: into the previous model are the ones who once again

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Speaker 1: are going to get the highest ratings, and they're going

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Speaker 1: to look at the writing and the numbers on the wall,

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Speaker 1: and that's the direction they're going to go in. I

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Speaker 1: think you're right. I think there it's inevitable that they cave,

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Speaker 1: that they go in this direction. Just the current strategy

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Speaker 1: is not going to work. Whoever these guys are who

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Speaker 1: are like, oh, you know, it's all fake because the

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Speaker 1: Biden administration is currently there. When they have their villain,

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Speaker 1: the audience will come back, at least, even though it's small,

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Speaker 1: like it will come back and they'll make enough money

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Speaker 1: and they'll get caught up in the mailstrom and they'll

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Speaker 1: be right back to square one. But luckily this show

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Speaker 1: will still be here, so we'll be okay. Hey there,

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Speaker 1: my name is James Lee. Welcome to another segment of

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Speaker 1: fifty one forty nine on Breaking Points. Today, I want

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Speaker 1: to take a moment to reflect about why all of

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Speaker 1: our major institutions are in shambles. To help set the

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Speaker 1: stage for today's conversation, let's examine a recent Gallup poll

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Speaker 1: measuring American's confidence in major US institutions from twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: one to twenty twenty two. Taking a look at this graphic,

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Speaker 1: the only two institutions with a majority of respondents answering

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Speaker 1: a great deal or quite a lot of confidence. Are

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Speaker 1: small businesses and the military. Everything else is underwater. The

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Speaker 1: medical system thirty eight percent confidence, big tech twenty six percent,

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Speaker 1: the Supreme Court twenty five percent, A big drop. There

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Speaker 1: are no surprise based on recent events, the presidency twenty

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Speaker 1: three percent, TV News eleven percent, Congress seven percent. Wow. Now, today,

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Speaker 1: I want to explore one of the reasons why I

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Speaker 1: think this is the case. Institutions have shown signs of

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Speaker 1: decay for decades, and I don't mean to keep reltigating

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Speaker 1: the topic of COVID nineteen, but I do think the

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Speaker 1: coronavirus pandemic really stressed our institutions to the breaking point.

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Speaker 1: The analogy I like to use is that it's kind

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Speaker 1: of like a piece of metal that's been damaged, a

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Speaker 1: support beam or something like that, that's been fatiguing for

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Speaker 1: years and years, and finally it buckles under a prolonged trauma.

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Speaker 1: I'll give you a specific example. Last month, former COVID

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Speaker 1: nineteen court doctor Deborah Burks appeared before a select sub

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Speaker 1: committee on the coronavirus crisis to testify on former President

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump's response to the pandemic, and she said something

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Speaker 1: pretty revealing when the government told us that the vaccinated

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Speaker 1: couldn't transmit it. Was that a liar or was that

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Speaker 1: a guess? I think it was hope that the vaccine

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Speaker 1: would work in that way. And that's why I think

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Speaker 1: scientists and public health leaders always have to be at

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Speaker 1: the show table being very clear what we know and

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Speaker 1: what we do. This is important for the country to know.

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Speaker 1: So when I asked the question when the government told

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Speaker 1: us that the vaccinated couldn't get it, and I asked

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Speaker 1: you if it was a guest or a lie, you

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Speaker 1: said you don't know. You said you think it was hope.

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Speaker 1: So what we do know is it wasn't the truth.

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Speaker 1: So they were either guessing, lying, or hoping and communicating

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Speaker 1: that information to the citizens of this country. We knew

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Speaker 1: early on in January of twenty twenty one, in late

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Speaker 1: December of twenty twenty that reinfection was occurring after natural infection.

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Speaker 1: Once you see that, and I want to make it

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Speaker 1: clear to you all and to anyone that it's listening,

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Speaker 1: This is not measles, mumps, and rebella. Those vaccines produce

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Speaker 1: long term immunity and can create herd immunity. So I

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Speaker 1: just want to interrupt per second, Doctor Burclall, you said

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Speaker 1: something important. You said in early twenty twenty one, January

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, you knew that people who had been

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Speaker 1: vaccinated could be reinfected. All I know is there was

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Speaker 1: evidence from the global pandemic that natural reinfection was occurring.

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Speaker 1: And since the vaccine was based on natural immunity, you

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Speaker 1: cannot make the conclusion that the vaccine will do better

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Speaker 1: than natural infection. So I'll come back to the hope

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Speaker 1: versus a gas versus a lie issue in just a second.

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Speaker 1: But the fact is, although they knew that COVID nineteen

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Speaker 1: reinfection was occurring even before the mass rollout of the vaccine,

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Speaker 1: that's obviously not the information they chose to convey to

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Speaker 1: the American public. And here are a couple of clips

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Speaker 1: from President Biden and doctor Fauci to remind you of

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Speaker 1: the messaging they chose instead throughout much of twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 1: So this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated the unvaccinated,

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Speaker 1: not the vaccinated the unvaccinated. That's the problem. And so

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Speaker 1: everybody talks about freedom and not to have a shot

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Speaker 1: or have a test. Well, guess what, And so, how

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Speaker 1: about patriotism, How about making sure that you're vaccinated so

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Speaker 1: you do not spread the disease to anybody else. The

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Speaker 1: fact is, this is one of the encouraging aspects about

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Speaker 1: the efficacy of the vaccine. It'll need to protect you

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Speaker 1: completely against infection. If you do get infected, the chances

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Speaker 1: are that you're going to be without symptoms, and the

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Speaker 1: chances are very likely that you'll not be able to

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Speaker 1: transmit it to other people. Pandemic of the unvaccinated. If

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Speaker 1: you're vaccinated, you won't transmit the virus. These are all

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Speaker 1: things we were told by our government and the legacy

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Speaker 1: media throughout all of twenty twenty one. And yes, I

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Speaker 1: understand that the official guidance and establishment sanctioned narrative have

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Speaker 1: since changed, maybe because it became impossible to deny that

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Speaker 1: vaccines cannot stop the spread of COVID nineteen. But what

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Speaker 1: doctor Burks's testimony confirmed was that the official guidance was

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Speaker 1: not based on any kind of science. It was not

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Speaker 1: necessarily even new information that resulted in a shift of

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Speaker 1: the official guidance in narrative. It was actually information they

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Speaker 1: knew all along, but chose to suppress for what reason?

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Speaker 1: Was it hope, a guess, a deliberate lie. We don't

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Speaker 1: really know, And to me, it doesn't necessarily even matter,

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Speaker 1: because that's only half of the story here in terms

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Speaker 1: of why Americans have no confidence in any of our

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Speaker 1: major institutions. Quoting a Reuter's article from July of last year,

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Speaker 1: Facebook is not doing enough to stop the spread of

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Speaker 1: false claims about COVID nineteen and vaccines, white House Press

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Speaker 1: Secretary Jensaki said time part of a new administration pushback

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Speaker 1: on misinformation in the United States. Now, I know that

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Speaker 1: big tech platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google are all

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Speaker 1: independent theoretically in the White House obviously can't enforce certain

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Speaker 1: censorship policies onto these companies, but it's hard not to

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Speaker 1: argue that the Biden administration is closely tied to a

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Speaker 1: lot of these social media companies. Taking a look at

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Speaker 1: Facebook's content guidelines, quote Under our community standards, we remove

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Speaker 1: misinformation during public health emergencies when public health authorities conclude

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Speaker 1: that the information is false. Twitter their misinformation policy states

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Speaker 1: that the platform will flag quote, false or misleading information

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Speaker 1: that misrepresent the protective effect of vaccines and to make

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Speaker 1: claims contrary to health authorities. YouTube's vaccine misinformation policy states

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Speaker 1: that they will remove videos that quote contradicts local health

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Speaker 1: authorities or the who's guidance. It's unvaccine safety, efficacy and ingredients.

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Speaker 1: I just want to point out the common thread, which

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Speaker 1: is when public health authorities conclude the information is false

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Speaker 1: or claims contrary to health authorities, videos that contradict health

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Speaker 1: authorities guidelines. So basically, none of the most popular social

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Speaker 1: media platforms allowed for conversations, discussions, or opinions about vaccines

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Speaker 1: that contradicted or deviated from whatever guidance that was explicitly

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Speaker 1: endorsed by public health authorities. They were essentially given carte

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Speaker 1: blanche over deciding what is and what isn't misinformation. If

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Speaker 1: they concluded the information to be false, then it must

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Speaker 1: be false. Never mind doctor Faugi's many quote unquote noble

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Speaker 1: lies in the past two years about mask wearing, what

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Speaker 1: constitutes heard immunity, and whether or not the US funded

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Speaker 1: gain and function research in China. I understand that this

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Speaker 1: is a sensitive issue and that there were a lot

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Speaker 1: of people making various claims about COVID nineteen and the vaccine,

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Speaker 1: and I do think that social media certainly makes things

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Speaker 1: worse in those cases by amplifying their voices, but I

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Speaker 1: also think that there were a lot of other people

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Speaker 1: searching for the truth so they can make an educated decision.

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Speaker 1: And in the past, social media has democratized the distribution

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Speaker 1: of media or information that would have otherwise been unavailable.

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Speaker 1: But this time around, we weren't allowed to have that

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Speaker 1: discussion on public forms, which I think could actually have

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Speaker 1: the unintended consequence of further weakening are already ailing institutions.

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Speaker 1: NYU professor Jonathan Height spoke to this point in a

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Speaker 1: recent interview with Radio New Zealand, saying, quote, when critics

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Speaker 1: go silent, the institution gets stupid. Now he's found in

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Speaker 1: an organization called the Heterodox Academy, which aims to foster

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Speaker 1: free institutional debate. He continues by saying that quote were

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Speaker 1: scientists and social scientists, and we know how hard it

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Speaker 1: is to find the truth. When you have a bunch

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Speaker 1: of people with PhDs and expertise in an area trying

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Speaker 1: to study something, especially complex social policy. Half the time

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Speaker 1: we're going to get it wrong. And it's really hard

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Speaker 1: to find the truth. And if people are afraid to dissent,

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Speaker 1: then you're guaranteed to not find it, and you're going

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Speaker 1: to be wrong about almost everything. Now, this ethos is

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Speaker 1: specifically aimed towards debates within academia, but I think it

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Speaker 1: rings true for institutions throughout American life. My takeaway is

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Speaker 1: that our institutions are struggling not because of nefarious online actors,

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Speaker 1: Russian bots and the like seeking to cause chaos, although

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Speaker 1: admittedly those situations definitely do exist, but rather, I think

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Speaker 1: our institutions are rotting from the inside out because of

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Speaker 1: a pattern of deliberate decisions made to obfuscate the truth

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Speaker 1: from the public and then suppressing discussions for the main

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Speaker 1: for the sake of maintaining control over the narrative. The

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Speaker 1: reason why this is so damaging is because when the

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Speaker 1: public inevitably finds out the truth, this type of repeated

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Speaker 1: behavior conditions us to question the very institutions the government,

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Speaker 1: the media, the public health system, etc. The institutions that

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Speaker 1: are fundamental to maintaining our democracy and holding our country together.

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Speaker 1: The problem that I've laid out here today with regards

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Speaker 1: to COVID began actually much earlier, going all the way

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Speaker 1: back to Vietnam. The Pentagon papers probably seem like ancient

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Speaker 1: history at this point, but they do reveal deep institutional

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Speaker 1: lies that were designed not only to deceive the American

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Speaker 1: public but also control media narratives. Then, when you have

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Speaker 1: events like Watergate, Iran Contra, the two thousand election, IRAQ WMDs,

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Speaker 1: the two thousand and eight recession, along with so many

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Speaker 1: promises being broken along the way, I think distrust then

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Speaker 1: becomes the norm. And besides these defining institutional scandals of

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Speaker 1: the past, there are also quieter reasons why distrust has collapsed.

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Speaker 1: I think on a daily level, the corruption, the fraud, coercion, deception,

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Speaker 1: and stagnation within US institutions prevents them from upholding their

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Speaker 1: bargain with the American people. In societies dictated by social

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Speaker 1: contracts between institutions formed to write the rules and run society,

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Speaker 1: legitimacy stems from those institutions delivering when asked to function

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Speaker 1: for the American people. When those social contracts break down

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Speaker 1: across politics, economics, culture, media, etc. Distrust comes pretty naturally

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Speaker 1: from there. I think the example from the COVID nineteen

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Speaker 1: pandemic that we discussed today was just a glaring example

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Speaker 1: that removed any and all doubts. Thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's discussion about the

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Speaker 1: unfortunate state of our crumbling institutions and found it to

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Speaker 1: be helpful. If you want more videos like this, please

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Speaker 1: check out my channel fifty one forty nine with James Lee,

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Speaker 1: where I released weekly videos relating to the intersection of business,

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Speaker 1: politics and society. The link will be in the description below,

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Speaker 1: and of course subscribe to Breaking Points and thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for your time today. Hey guys, this is

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Speaker 1: kenk clippensiein investigative reporter with the intercept with Jonathan Geyer,

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Speaker 1: seeingior foreign policy writer for Vox hit a very insightful

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Speaker 1: story on the robust lobbying presence that Ukraine has here

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Speaker 1: in Washington that I think is evident to folks in

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Speaker 1: this town, but is invisible to a lot of people

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Speaker 1: outside of it. Can you talk a little bit about

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Speaker 1: what you found. Thanks for having me, Ken. So I've

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Speaker 1: been in Washington throughout this really heinous assault on Ukraine

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Speaker 1: that Vladimir Putin has launched, and there is just an

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Speaker 1: unprecedented lobbying campaign from the Ukrainians now totally understandable. They

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Speaker 1: want to get the right weapons in the hands of Ukrainians.

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Speaker 1: But by my count, there are twenty four registered lobbyists

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Speaker 1: for Ukraine at the moment, or Ukrainian entities a twenty

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Speaker 1: fifth actually in response to my reporting now, so they've

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Speaker 1: sent parliamentarians, human rights activists, corruption activists are part of

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Speaker 1: me anti corruption activists to meet with all the kind

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Speaker 1: of influencers in Washington to really shape the narrative about Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: The weapons they need and the requests are incredibly specific.

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Speaker 1: They want drones, they want to have sixteen. So part

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Speaker 1: of my reporting was just looking at what is Ukraine

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Speaker 1: asking for and who's asking. The most interesting or kind

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Speaker 1: of quirky thing is most recently, Ukraine sent two fighter

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Speaker 1: jet pilots to Washington to meet with reporters, to meet

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Speaker 1: with Sean Penn to go on TV and I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I mean, we are the country that made top Gun twice.

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Speaker 1: I was gonna say fighter jet pilots coloring narrative, and

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Speaker 1: I think the notion was, you know, the influencers of

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Speaker 1: Washington were getting bored of hearing from politicians from Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: They wanted to hear from jet fighters on the front line.

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Speaker 1: So I had the pleasure of dinner with two of

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Speaker 1: these fighter pilots. But what was a little murky was

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Speaker 1: the pr agency that was hosting them was not officially

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Speaker 1: registered to lobby for Ukraine. We have something called FARAH,

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Speaker 1: the Foreign Agent Registration Act. You have to register, and

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Speaker 1: what FARAH experts have told me is that in the

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Speaker 1: lead up to the war this fall, there were about

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Speaker 1: ten thousand contacts made between Ukrainian lobbyists and folks in

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Speaker 1: Washington and the ED. Just to give folks a sense

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Speaker 1: of proportion here, that is greater than the lobbying you

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Speaker 1: see from states like Saudi Arabia, which you know itself

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Speaker 1: has an extremely robust life. And you guys at the

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Speaker 1: Intercept have done a huge amount of reporting on this.

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Speaker 1: It's super interesting and we won't get the new numbers

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Speaker 1: about since the February and that's what's fascinating to be

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Speaker 1: able to that story. So when you say ten thousand

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Speaker 1: contacts with journalists, members of Congress, think tanks, that's prior

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Speaker 1: to the invasion, correct exact. So we don't even know

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Speaker 1: what it is yet because it hasn't been reported yet.

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Speaker 1: What the figures are now exactly, And one of the

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Speaker 1: really interesting things is we have about two thousand foreign

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Speaker 1: agents registered to lobby on behalf of foreign countries, foreign entities.

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Speaker 1: In the US. I spoke with Department of Justice officials.

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Speaker 1: There's just over a dozen Department of Justice officials monitoring

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Speaker 1: this whole area, which all foreign lobbying. It comes down

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Speaker 1: to twelve guys and a couple interns. That's what it

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Speaker 1: makes me that you were able to get that on

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Speaker 1: record from the Justice Department, the figures, because I would

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Speaker 1: always assumed they didn't have, you know, the resources they needed,

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Speaker 1: as the Justice Department doesn't in many respects, but twelve

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Speaker 1: for a country like hours where you know, it's probably

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Speaker 1: going to be one the most intensely lobbied government on

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Speaker 1: the earth. And I would say, like, look, none of

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Speaker 1: this is the legal If you're registered, right, Farah doesn't

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Speaker 1: regulate free speech, speech is still free. We're the United

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Speaker 1: States and we're a powerful country. We're giving, you know,

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Speaker 1: this staggering amount of military aid to Ukraine. And what

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Speaker 1: my reporting was trying to do is just shed light

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Speaker 1: on what are the sources of influence part of this

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Speaker 1: Ukrainian campaign? What are the levers being pulled? And I

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Speaker 1: don't think we yet have the complete picture. In your story,

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Speaker 1: you describe attending this fancy dinner where these two jet

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Speaker 1: pilots who you know are go buy their call signs

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Speaker 1: to Juice and Moonfish. Juice and Moonfish, very romantic. And

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Speaker 1: so what ends up happening after you look up this

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Speaker 1: organization that organized this fancy dinner that a bunch of

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Speaker 1: other journalists attended, and you see if they registered under Pharaoh.

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Speaker 1: So they haven't registered as far as I could tell.

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Speaker 1: So I called up their their founder, their CEO. I

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Speaker 1: asked them if they were going to register for working

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Speaker 1: on Ukraine. The founder says, hold on, let me call

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Speaker 1: you right back. And you know, as I say in

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Speaker 1: the story, at advice of her counsel, she decided to register.

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Speaker 1: I haven't seen that filing yet, but I'm sure it's

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Speaker 1: due every day any day now. So that number changed

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Speaker 1: by one the whatever. So yeah, exactly. That's incredible, and

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Speaker 1: that kind of speaks to how informally this law sort

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Speaker 1: of works in my experience, like how much discretion. That's

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Speaker 1: another interesting quote that you managed to get in this

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Speaker 1: story was the Justice Department just openly saying, you know,

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Speaker 1: if the country that individual is lobbying or a group

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Speaker 1: is lobbying on behalf of is an adversary nation or

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Speaker 1: a national security concern, We're going to bring more resources

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Speaker 1: or more concerned to bear in terms of getting them

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Speaker 1: to register and being concerned. And that's kind of interesting

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Speaker 1: to me because on the one hand, you know, that

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Speaker 1: kind of makes sense. You know, the Chinese, the Russians

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Speaker 1: are going to have, you know, potentially more malevolent interests

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Speaker 1: in terms of what's going on in the United States.

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Speaker 1: But on the other hand, that discretion is concerning to

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Speaker 1: be just because to give you an example, I know

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Speaker 1: an army officer that was advising a group, a political

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Speaker 1: group in Lebanon, advising them on how to pursue diplomatic

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Speaker 1: channels to try to This was like years ago, I

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Speaker 1: remember exactly what the conflict was. And he told me

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Speaker 1: that his lawyer advised him, he says, you should really

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Speaker 1: register under Pharah. And he said, well, why I'm not

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Speaker 1: taking direction from them and telling them like how you

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Speaker 1: try to you know, go through the international system to

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Speaker 1: try to pursue diplomatic solution to whatever the problems at

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Speaker 1: the time. And he said, well, you know, this party

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Speaker 1: in Lebanon is not liked the United States, and so

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Speaker 1: there's gonna be more risk that they're going to, you know,

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Speaker 1: come after you and say, hey, you have to reisure

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Speaker 1: or you know, find you or something, and so that discretion,

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Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't necessarily mean I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you're defending something horrible, it's one thing. But I

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Speaker 1: would imagine there are cases where you could be pursuing

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Speaker 1: something that's not necessarily malevolent. And then you know, if

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Speaker 1: it's just one of these countries that the US is

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Speaker 1: not on good terms with, that, you know you're gonna

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Speaker 1: be you know, you're gonna be more anxious about. Well,

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Speaker 1: this law, I mean, yes, it requires the affirmative kind

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Speaker 1: of reporting of foreign lobbying agents, but it's also maybe

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Speaker 1: just not really suited for twenty twenty two. This is

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Speaker 1: a nineteen thirty eight law. It doesn't really work for

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Speaker 1: tweets or Facebook posts or all the other forms of

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Speaker 1: media that didn't exist when this was meant to kind

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Speaker 1: of identify Nazi or Soviet propaganda, right, and this is

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Speaker 1: what nineteen third, nineteen thirty six, nineteen thirty eight, Yeah, exactly,

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Speaker 1: And by the way, there were only about seven prosecutions

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Speaker 1: under this law until the mid two thousands, so over

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Speaker 1: fifty years, about seventy people got in trouble for violating parah.

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Speaker 1: Then in the Trump era, all these people from his

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Speaker 1: inner circle are working, you know, Michael Flynn working for

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Speaker 1: the Turks, Manafort working for pro Russian interests in Ukraine,

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Speaker 1: all this stuff unregistered, getting into huge trouble. So now

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Speaker 1: it's a headline making law and issue, but really it's

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Speaker 1: pretty obscure, and I was just glad to give it

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Speaker 1: a little bit more attention. Yeah. Well, so after the

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Speaker 1: case of Manifort, who I believe was prosecuted in relation

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Speaker 1: to parah, was it did you find that has there

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Speaker 1: been a change in terms of compliance? Because my understanding

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Speaker 1: is a farah has always been something that there's not

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Speaker 1: been very much compliance with. People are definitely thinking about

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Speaker 1: it more, and I guess the lawyers I spoke to

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Speaker 1: would say that's probably a good thing. I think the

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Speaker 1: funniest dynamic here, I don't know if it's so funny, haha,

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Speaker 1: but groups that were lobbying for Russian interests that got sanctioned.

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Speaker 1: So some of the major PR shops in Washington were

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Speaker 1: lobbying for a Russian bank to evade sanctions or stuff

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Speaker 1: like that. Then after the February all the sanctions get

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Speaker 1: thrown on Russia. It's really different, difficult to work for

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Speaker 1: Russian entities, and then what happens. A lot of these

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Speaker 1: groups are now doing pro bono work for Ukrainian entities

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Speaker 1: as a way to kind of shore up their public image. Interesting,

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Speaker 1: you saw that after the Kashogi murder a number of

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Speaker 1: prominent lobby shops dropped him. They ended up many of

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Speaker 1: them going back to working on behalf of the Kingdom

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Speaker 1: of Saturabia, but at the time they dropped them. So

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Speaker 1: it's interesting that you see the sort of response to

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Speaker 1: the political environment and how that comes through to the

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Speaker 1: conduct of these lobbying shops. Yeah, I mean I love

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Speaker 1: reading through these pharohilings. You get them a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a lag, but you can see every journalist they've

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Speaker 1: called these foreign agents. You know, my name appears on

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Speaker 1: there because I'm seeking comment from various foreign agents at

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Speaker 1: various times any briefing they hold. And I just think

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Speaker 1: there needs to be a lot more transparency about this

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Speaker 1: and a lot more clarity because look, we are giving

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Speaker 1: this as the United States a tremendous amount of money

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Speaker 1: to Ukraine, a tremendous amount of weapons. They have corruption problems.

430
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:07,239
Speaker 1: We have corruption problems. It would be great for there

431
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:10,040
Speaker 1: to be a lot more transparency about who's lobbying for

432
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 1: what and when and how that's influencing US policy. Yeah,

433
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:16,679
Speaker 1: and talking to people that work in that space, attorneys

434
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 1: and former DOJ officials. I'm sort of sympathetic to the

435
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:22,240
Speaker 1: challenges of what because the laws you say is so

436
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: vague implementation. Part of the problem is lack of resources,

437
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:27,880
Speaker 1: as it always is. But another part is, like you said,

438
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,959
Speaker 1: this was a nineteen thirty eight law and something that

439
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:34,600
Speaker 1: you know most of the cases brought against people. I

440
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:36,359
Speaker 1: think we're during the Cold War. You know, we've got

441
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,879
Speaker 1: a different media landscape since then. We've got something called

442
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 1: the Internet. We know we have cable TV. Things are

443
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:44,000
Speaker 1: a little different now. And oh yeah, there's this hilarious

444
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,399
Speaker 1: thing where you're supposed to have a conspicuous statement if

445
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,120
Speaker 1: you're a foreign lobbyist, so you know so and so

446
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,160
Speaker 1: is lobbying on behalf of the presidency of Ukraine. It's

447
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:54,000
Speaker 1: about a three sentence statement. How are you going to

448
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,959
Speaker 1: add that onto a tweet or a post or, you know,

449
00:24:57,200 --> 00:24:59,720
Speaker 1: doesn't really make sense in our you know, two hundred

450
00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:03,680
Speaker 1: eighty character world exactly. Okay, well we're going to leave

451
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:06,280
Speaker 1: it there. Jonathan. Where can people find your work vox

452
00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,199
Speaker 1: dot com. Look out for my name, Jonathan Geyer. I'm

453
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 1: writing about Biden in the world. All right, thanks very

454
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,040
Speaker 1: much for joining us with this edition of Breaking Points

455
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:19,919
Speaker 1: Intercept edition. Nina Jankowitz is the person who just simply

456
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:22,359
Speaker 1: will not disappear. She's the gift that keeps on giving.

457
00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:24,640
Speaker 1: The gifts keeps on giving, at least us. She's been

458
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 1: recently appeared on the Brian Stilter program over at at

459
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:32,160
Speaker 1: CNN to deny that she ever herself spread disinformation. Well,

460
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:34,840
Speaker 1: she was the head of the Disinformation Governance Board. Let's

461
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,720
Speaker 1: take a listen. I, you know, did not post disinformation.

462
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 1: The folks that are honing in on tweets that I

463
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:44,200
Speaker 1: sent in twenty sixteen when I had fewer than a

464
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:47,600
Speaker 1: thousand Twitter followers that you know, I was just sharing

465
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:50,480
Speaker 1: information about a presidential election as it was happening, as

466
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:53,080
Speaker 1: millions of other Americans were doing, using their right to

467
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 1: freedom of speech. That wasn't disinformation, right, it was just

468
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 1: sharing news. Other people honed in on tweets that were

469
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,320
Speaker 1: they completely stripped of context. The one that the conservatives

470
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:05,480
Speaker 1: loved to really amplify was a tweet that they claimed

471
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: that that made me seem like I was calling the

472
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:12,439
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden laptop disinformation, when in fact I was just

473
00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,879
Speaker 1: live tweeting a debate, you know, saying the exact words

474
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:18,920
Speaker 1: that then candidate Biden and President Trump were saying during

475
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 1: a debate, totally stripped of context. So you still think

476
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 1: further into the context, so you still think you were

477
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: the right, Absolutely I was the right. Higher Also, that's

478
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 1: not true what she was saying, and she was live

479
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:32,159
Speaker 1: tweeting it, and also trying to add the context about

480
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:35,480
Speaker 1: how the laptop which she was calling disinformation, she's spreading

481
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,480
Speaker 1: a little bit of spreading disinformation. Disinformation there about what

482
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,080
Speaker 1: you go on forever at the number of things that

483
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 1: this lady said which were straight up false. She was

484
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,479
Speaker 1: promoting the Hunter Biden conspiracy that it was some Russian plant.

485
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:51,160
Speaker 1: I mean, she was even an election truther twenty sixteen

486
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: with Hillary, I mean, on COVID, was spreading all kinds

487
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:59,280
Speaker 1: of insanity. She literally tweeted, please lock us down in

488
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:02,440
Speaker 1: like March of twenty twenty. So listen, it's very clear

489
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:04,560
Speaker 1: that she was not the right person of any authority

490
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:06,760
Speaker 1: to be the arbiter or not. I also think it

491
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:09,200
Speaker 1: is a ludicrous interview because he didn't even push back.

492
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: He didn't ask her about any of the specifics, and

493
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:13,679
Speaker 1: this letter be like, yeah, I was the right person. No,

494
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:17,480
Speaker 1: I didn't spread any any untruths or misinformation. What is that? Also,

495
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:19,720
Speaker 1: why don't you here's the other thing. If his show

496
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 1: is called Reliable Sources, So you're talking to a former

497
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: government official who was trying to decide what's true and

498
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:28,400
Speaker 1: what's not and was actively pushing meetings with social media

499
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 1: companies like Twitter, including the person who actually sends her

500
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:33,119
Speaker 1: the Hunter Byden laptop story over Twitter. Why don't you

501
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 1: ask her about that's open source information that's available right now. Yeah,

502
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,320
Speaker 1: I don't know why they are incapable of doing this.

503
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:43,199
Speaker 1: Even some of his colleagues at CNN were uncomfortable with

504
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:47,240
Speaker 1: and asked hard questions remember about oh that's right, Dash

505
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:50,840
Speaker 1: was exactly Yeah, it was difficult questions of the DHS

506
00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 1: secretary about what exactly this board is and what exactly

507
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: this board does, which you know I mean as cringe

508
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:01,399
Speaker 1: as Nina Jankowitz is. That's really the bigger problem is

509
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:04,240
Speaker 1: that it would not be better, it would not be

510
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:07,399
Speaker 1: a good outcome if they put a less cringe person

511
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:10,119
Speaker 1: as ahead of this board. This board just should not exist.

512
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:13,800
Speaker 1: That's really the bottom line here. Ultimately, Now, in a way,

513
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:15,920
Speaker 1: they kind of did us a favor by picking someone

514
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:18,640
Speaker 1: who was so clearly not a neutral actor, who had,

515
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:23,119
Speaker 1: you know, herself, spread incredibly questionable and outright false information,

516
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:26,439
Speaker 1: because it made it much easier for people to be

517
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:28,440
Speaker 1: able to sort of go on the offense and say

518
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:31,240
Speaker 1: this idea is ludicrous and this is really not something

519
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:33,840
Speaker 1: that the government should be doing whatsoever. And we literally

520
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:36,119
Speaker 1: never got a straight answer about what this board was

521
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 1: meant to do. They would on one hand be like,

522
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:41,960
Speaker 1: stop warrant, like this is no big deal. This board

523
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: is barely a thing, like barely is going to do anything.

524
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 1: And on the other hand, they'd be like, this is

525
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 1: an attack on our ability to deal with misinformation and

526
00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:52,520
Speaker 1: this is so super important that you let us have

527
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 1: our truth board here at at the DHS. So anyway,

528
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:02,400
Speaker 1: it's interesting all around. I wonder how long Brian Selter's

529
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:04,440
Speaker 1: going to continue to have a show. I would love that, listen.

530
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 1: I would love a lot of rumors that he might

531
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,600
Speaker 1: be on the shopping blog is part of the new

532
00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:11,920
Speaker 1: regime at CNN, so we'll see totally. Something we have

533
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,640
Speaker 1: been tracking very closely here is how the housing market

534
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: will respond to the FED raising interest rates. And we

535
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,120
Speaker 1: already have brought to you how just these small moves

536
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 1: the FED has made so far have had massive implications

537
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 1: in terms of the cost of borrowing and the mortgage

538
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 1: interest rates, and that has a huge effect on people's

539
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:33,800
Speaker 1: ability to ultimately purchase a home. We're now starting to

540
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:36,840
Speaker 1: see the data that in the housing market, I mean,

541
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:38,880
Speaker 1: there really is kind of an imminent collapse coming and

542
00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: we're seeing the early warning sides go ahead and put

543
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 1: this up on the screen. So home sale cancelations jumped

544
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:50,480
Speaker 1: in June as buyers backed away. Sixty thousand deals fell through,

545
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 1: equal to fifteen percent of homes that entered into contract.

546
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,120
Speaker 1: This is by far the highest number that we have

547
00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:00,440
Speaker 1: seen since the beginning of the pandemic, when the higher

548
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 1: economy collapsed and was shut down. And at that point

549
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 1: people said, whoa wo wo, I can't go through with

550
00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:08,120
Speaker 1: this because I'm not sure, I'm going to have a job.

551
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 1: We are now back to approaching those levels in terms

552
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:16,360
Speaker 1: of home sale cancelations. So again nearly eight about fifteen

553
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:20,080
Speaker 1: percent of homes that buyers you know, are planning to buy,

554
00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 1: they enter into a contract, are being canceled, and they're

555
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: backing away from and directly directly tied to the actions

556
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:29,240
Speaker 1: that the FED is taking here cancel rate, Like you said,

557
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:31,560
Speaker 1: it hasn't been this high basically since twenty twenty, like

558
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 1: right after that, and it's continuing to rise to precipitous rate.

559
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: It's just going to continue to rise, and if it

560
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 1: gets to the twenty twenty twenty five percent, it's just

561
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 1: going to make the housing market even more of a chaos.

562
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:43,400
Speaker 1: And something I've been trying to point to is when

563
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: high priced buyers are pushed out of the home market.

564
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:48,600
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, the home market is mostly for upper

565
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:50,360
Speaker 1: middle class people at this point, just giving what the

566
00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:52,920
Speaker 1: potentially I mean the media housing prices half a million

567
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 1: dollars in insanity, So you have to be upper middle

568
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:56,600
Speaker 1: class just to be able to get into it. Well,

569
00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:58,720
Speaker 1: whenever the interest rates get it so that not even

570
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:01,280
Speaker 1: the upper class and only the basically the upper class

571
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:03,240
Speaker 1: can be the people afford it. Then the upper middle

572
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: class are going to turn to the renting market, and

573
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:07,400
Speaker 1: they are going to rent luxury property and squeeze everybody

574
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:09,120
Speaker 1: down the value chain, which is going to increase the

575
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:11,719
Speaker 1: price of the rent. We're seeing this already in the

576
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 1: how toest housing markets across the country, which was a

577
00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 1: response to rising rates. So where the rates are where

578
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:19,760
Speaker 1: they are right now, it's a total disaster because it

579
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 1: pushes people into a place where they have to be

580
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:25,440
Speaker 1: able to choose between I mean, I don't know why

581
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,000
Speaker 1: anyone would basically choose to have a six percent mortgage rate,

582
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:30,120
Speaker 1: is what I was also looking at. And another thing

583
00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:32,960
Speaker 1: that makes this more dangerous. I didn't realize this when

584
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:35,720
Speaker 1: rates go up to like six percent, it no longer

585
00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 1: is necessarily to your benefit to take the fixed rate mortgage,

586
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:41,720
Speaker 1: which creates all Again I'm not a mortgage expert, but

587
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: there are all other kinds of like wonky adjustable rate

588
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:45,920
Speaker 1: type mortgages that you can go for where you might

589
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:48,360
Speaker 1: be able to pay less at least in the long term,

590
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:50,560
Speaker 1: but those are much more subject to market conditions. They

591
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:52,440
Speaker 1: are not as locked in and friendly to the consumer.

592
00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:55,160
Speaker 1: More subject to financialization. So what I was reading is

593
00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:58,280
Speaker 1: that by increasing their mortgage rate and going away from

594
00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:01,560
Speaker 1: the low fixed rate mortgages typical of the last ten

595
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 1: to fifteen years or yeah, I guess last ten years

596
00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 1: of low interest rates from the FED, it changes the

597
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:09,239
Speaker 1: whole dynamics of all of us housing, which is just

598
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,640
Speaker 1: not good. Yes, interesting, Well, the adjustable rate mortgages were

599
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,000
Speaker 1: part of the story in terms of the housing collapse,

600
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,040
Speaker 1: because you remember they had the ballooning payments that consumers

601
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 1: didn't understand what they were getting into at the beginning,

602
00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:24,440
Speaker 1: and then their payment jumps and escalates to a point

603
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: where immediately they can't afford it and they're being pushed

604
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:30,320
Speaker 1: down essentially because they were tricked into signing onto something

605
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,760
Speaker 1: that was well outside of what their actual means were.

606
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:36,960
Speaker 1: I mean, this is what we're seeing, Like, I think

607
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 1: it's really important that you understand this is the goal

608
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:44,080
Speaker 1: of our policymakers is to make it impossible for you

609
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:47,640
Speaker 1: to buy a house, to tank the housing market with

610
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: fallow on effects as you're pointing out in the rental

611
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:53,280
Speaker 1: market as well. This is their goal because they are

612
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 1: unable because of political gridlock and lack of political imagination

613
00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:01,480
Speaker 1: to deal with the supply side issues that are fueling inflation.

614
00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:04,040
Speaker 1: So the only thing they can do is like take

615
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 1: a hammer to the American consumer, and the housing market

616
00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,800
Speaker 1: is the area that is most sensitive typically to these

617
00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:14,840
Speaker 1: FED rate increases. The other thing that you pointed to before,

618
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 1: which is a part of this picture, Americans have never

619
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 1: paid higher interest rates to finance car purchases, so also

620
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 1: in terms of being able to afford a vehicle to

621
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:27,800
Speaker 1: be able to get to and from work, consumers are

622
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:32,040
Speaker 1: already being hit really, really hard, and we are just

623
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,480
Speaker 1: at the beginning of what the FED is ultimately planning

624
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:40,320
Speaker 1: to do. So you know, it's a it's a real

625
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:43,280
Speaker 1: warning sign that this early on you're seeing these kind

626
00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:45,960
Speaker 1: of dire numbers in terms of home sale cancelations. People

627
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 1: who thought they were going to be able to, you know,

628
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 1: to purchase a home maybe for the first time, you know,

629
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 1: maybe be able to move somewhere that was better for

630
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 1: them for their family, and they're having to say, I

631
00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 1: just can't do it right now. These rates. Yeah, I

632
00:33:59,160 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 1: mean it could delay for ten years, who knows whenever

633
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:02,400
Speaker 1: these things are going to come back, and then you're

634
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 1: gonna be what like forty five fifty own a house.

635
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 1: It's not good. A fun moment between Elon Musk and

636
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,400
Speaker 1: Stephanie Rule over at MSNBC. Let's go ahead and put

637
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:13,000
Speaker 1: this up there on the screen. So Elon tweeted out

638
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:15,799
Speaker 1: a meme of Hunter Biden saying, Hunter Biden atana does crack.

639
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:17,680
Speaker 1: We have a bunch of cameras around him. There is

640
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 1: a mystifying amount of footage, by the way, from Hunter,

641
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:24,520
Speaker 1: which I don't particularly understand. But anyway, he replies. She replies, quote,

642
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:26,560
Speaker 1: imagine the positive impact that you could have on the

643
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:29,120
Speaker 1: world if you use the extraordinary amount of influence and

644
00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:33,440
Speaker 1: power you have to spread decency, kindness, and positivity. And

645
00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:38,399
Speaker 1: he replied, imagine if MSBC did that, which true to both,

646
00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 1: true to both, true to both. Indeed, and this is

647
00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:45,480
Speaker 1: always a problem with the decency mongers, so quote unquote

648
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,680
Speaker 1: who think they are from CNN or MSNBC. Whatever they try,

649
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:52,520
Speaker 1: they stoop to the lowest levels and bring utter trash

650
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:56,680
Speaker 1: to everybody else, whenever it's to an ideology or somebody

651
00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:59,080
Speaker 1: that they support. And yet if somebody else does it,

652
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 1: then they go after them like guys, this is why

653
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: all of it is bad. And they have no ground

654
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 1: to stand on when they try and police other people's tone. Yeah,

655
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:10,000
Speaker 1: I mean from the p tape network like shut up,

656
00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:12,759
Speaker 1: Like yeah, it's like you're you're gonna go after me?

657
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,279
Speaker 1: Oh you never traveling in decency. I mean, look, I

658
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,719
Speaker 1: don't have no problem with Stephanie Rule personally outside of

659
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:23,280
Speaker 1: her Park Avenue was great. Great, my damn butt off

660
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 1: at Deutsche Bank, Okay, beyond my beef with that one moment,

661
00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:33,719
Speaker 1: I think in general that the network itself has no

662
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:37,399
Speaker 1: ground to stand on for promoting decent Harvey Weinstein man,

663
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:39,920
Speaker 1: jeffreytt I can go down the list, you know for

664
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:41,439
Speaker 1: all of this. I'm sure you could as well. Haven't.

665
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 1: I'll live on Park Avenue, but I live pretty close

666
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:47,239
Speaker 1: and I worked my butt off to get there. It

667
00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:49,839
Speaker 1: was like after Joe Biden said one halfway decent thing,

668
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:53,279
Speaker 1: and that was the thing that she was outraged about. Yeah,

669
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:57,160
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I'm not an Elon Musk fan. There's

670
00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:59,640
Speaker 1: no uh. I don't think anyone has any doubt about

671
00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:03,319
Speaker 1: that this point. It was a stupid meme, like why

672
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,520
Speaker 1: are you getting all pearl clutchy about it? That's the

673
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:07,960
Speaker 1: thing that's so irritating about these people is they're all

674
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 1: full of moral righteousness and indignation and pearl clutching about

675
00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:16,160
Speaker 1: all of these breaches of decorum and people not conducting

676
00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:18,759
Speaker 1: themselves in the manner they see fit. But yeah, they

677
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:20,520
Speaker 1: don't want to turn the lens back on themselves and

678
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 1: think about the huge platform that they have, this gigantic

679
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:25,880
Speaker 1: channel with all kinds. Well, it's gigantic in terms of

680
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:28,040
Speaker 1: the budget, not so much in terms of the viewing audience,

681
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:32,120
Speaker 1: but they have a lot of cultural power and it

682
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:34,760
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to occur to them the way that they

683
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:37,040
Speaker 1: have failed to use that in a way that would

684
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 1: benefit the country. Yeah, I completely agree. All right, Well

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00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:40,759
Speaker 1: more for you guys later