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Speaker 1: and rates may vary. Hello there, I'm Chuck Todd and
Speaker 1: welcome to d Thursday, or call it the Long Weekend
Speaker 1: edition of the Chuck Podcast. So twenty four hours ago,
Speaker 1: I I'll be honest. Right as I was recording, we
Speaker 1: knew that he was going to get an exit ramp
Speaker 1: on all Things Iran, and then he sort of did
Speaker 1: his typical you know almost celebratory aspect of things that
Speaker 1: looked like he was suddenly business partners with Iran, even
Speaker 1: floating the idea of a joint venture to collect tolls
Speaker 1: on the straight up.
Speaker 2: Hoorn moves well.
Speaker 1: Needless to say, if you're trying to figure out what
Speaker 1: is going on in Iran, you're not alone. Is the
Speaker 1: straight open or clothed? Is the ceasefire holding or not?
Speaker 1: Are we done with this war or not? Because if
Speaker 1: you listen to Pete Hegseth, it's over. If you listen
Speaker 1: to General Kane not so much. And who knows about
Speaker 1: the president. This is easily turning into one of the
Speaker 1: more humiliating moments in American modern American history. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is this is nothing short of a debacle for
Speaker 1: American prestige. Throw in a concern about whether any ally
Speaker 1: can trust us, whether you're Israel, whether you're Europe, whether
Speaker 1: you're a Gulf state, your cutter. We could judge whether
Speaker 1: these how close these allies can be. But Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is proving to be an erratic partner. And before I
Speaker 1: get into what I think the fallout and where we're going,
Speaker 1: I wanted to just remind ourselves, you know, boy could
Speaker 1: anybody have seen this coming, this idea that we would
Speaker 1: have somebody running American form policy as the commander in
Speaker 1: chief who would create, somehow take situations which were impossible
Speaker 1: to make worse, and he would make them worse, like Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, handing the Iranian regime the control over
Speaker 1: the Strait.
Speaker 2: Of Hormuz.
Speaker 1: And you and you ask yourself, cheeze, did anybody raise
Speaker 1: any red flags about this? Anybody? Well, it turns out
Speaker 1: some of President Trump's most important supporters these days, we're actually.
Speaker 2: The ones.
Speaker 1: Sounding the alarm the loudest, arguably back in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: And it feels very important for us to go back
Speaker 1: and remind ourselves because we're in this situation where we
Speaker 1: have just pissed away American American prestige in the Middle
Speaker 1: East in particular. But it is just a total and
Speaker 1: complete mess. Whether it's our relationship with Europe, whether it's
Speaker 1: our relationship with Southeast Asia, whether it's our relationship in
Speaker 1: North America, whether it's a relationship with Israel, whether it's
Speaker 1: our relationship with Saudi Arabia UAE Kadhar. And again, I
Speaker 1: go back to what I said earlier, Some of these relationships.
Speaker 2: Some of you may not.
Speaker 1: Like the United States having at all, but whatever you think,
Speaker 1: when you make a commitment in the name the United
Speaker 1: States of America, you would assume any American president is
Speaker 1: going to stick by it.
Speaker 2: But I wanted to just.
Speaker 1: Make sure I was not hallucinating when we were watching
Speaker 1: this debacle happen and we're living it in real time
Speaker 1: and it's all impacting our pocketbooks.
Speaker 2: And then some.
Speaker 1: I thought it would be important to remind folks that
Speaker 1: there were plenty of warnings out there, and remind folks
Speaker 1: that there are Republicans in power today who were concerned
Speaker 1: about exactly what has happened. And when you hear their silence,
Speaker 1: now you should be outraged, and you should and then some.
Speaker 1: So let's start with Lindsey Graham again. This is in
Speaker 1: May of twenty sixteen. In an interview with Time Magazine,
Speaker 1: Lindsay Graham May six Trump is basically the nominee by
Speaker 1: this point, okay, and Lindsay Graham says the following. I
Speaker 1: just believe his temperament and judgment is not sufficient to
Speaker 1: be commander in chief of the finest fighting force in
Speaker 1: the world. I think his foreign policy is gibberish. And
Speaker 1: of course, in May of twenty sixteen, Lindsey Graham tweeted,
Speaker 1: which is still out there. If we nominate Trump, we
Speaker 1: will get destroyed and we will deserve it. Now, of
Speaker 1: course that was not true. So one thing Lindsay Graham
Speaker 1: was wrong about was the political viability of Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: and he wasn't alone on that. But I want to
Speaker 1: go back to what he said. I believe, I just
Speaker 1: believe his temperament and judgment is not sufficient to be
Speaker 1: commander in chief of the finest fighting force in the world.
Speaker 1: I think his foreign policy is gibberish. Well, we'll last
Speaker 1: twenty four hours Lindsey Graham Circuit May twenty sixteen. It's
Speaker 1: pretty prescient. Let's move to Marco Rubio March of twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: He's an active candidate against running against Donald Trump, so
Speaker 1: you can chalk this up to that. But here's one
Speaker 1: of his campaign statements, this official campaign statement, Marco Rubia
Speaker 1: on Trump's fitness. We've seen a scary side of Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: It isn't just the opposite of what the Republican Party
Speaker 1: stands for, it's the opposite of what America stands for.
Speaker 1: More Marco Rubio on giving him the nuclear codes. We're
Speaker 1: about to turn over the nuclear codes of the United
Speaker 1: States to an erratic individual. Jeez, is Donald Trump as
Speaker 1: president displayed any signs of being erratic? Oh, you mean,
Speaker 1: like forty eight hours ago when he threatened to eliminate
Speaker 1: an entire civilization. It was clearly a veiled nuclear threat.
Speaker 1: The White House had to put out of it. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: he's not talking about news. But they waited until the
Speaker 1: question was asked. And then, of course there's this kicker,
Speaker 1: which is on video. You can find it anywhere that
Speaker 1: archives of video, because this was set on CNN in
Speaker 1: March of twenty sixteen. For years to come, there are
Speaker 1: many people on the right in the meetia and voters
Speaker 1: at large that are going to be having to explain
Speaker 1: and justify how they fell into this trap of supporting
Speaker 1: Donald Trump because this is not going to.
Speaker 2: End well one way or the other. Again.
Speaker 1: Marco Rubio, the current Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the
Speaker 1: person that, according to The New York Times, pushed back
Speaker 1: enough on Trump to say, I'm not sure about regime change,
Speaker 1: but if you narrow the mission, okay, I can go
Speaker 1: out there and sell them.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: Marco Rubio. Now think about future Secretary of State to
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, who said the following, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to repeat it because it seems incredibly important and
Speaker 1: pression at this moment for years to come. There are
Speaker 1: many people on the right, in the media and voters
Speaker 1: at large that are going to be having to explain
Speaker 1: and justify how they fell into this trap of supporting
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, because this is not going to end well
Speaker 1: one way or the other.
Speaker 2: If you're a.
Speaker 1: Real hawk about Iran, or you're a real dove about
Speaker 1: a run, donald Trump has failed you. If you're a
Speaker 1: hawk about the use of American forces or a dove
Speaker 1: about American forces, donald Trump has failed you. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: lets down everybody. He always has, and that has been
Speaker 1: his mo. He has done it every single business. Remember,
Speaker 1: this is a man that failed to make money owning
Speaker 1: a casino. How incompetent do you have to be to
Speaker 1: not be able to make money owning a casino, let.
Speaker 2: Alone his foreign policy.
Speaker 1: Let's go to Ted Cruz, who, while running against him,
Speaker 1: brought up the issue of nuclear of the risk of
Speaker 1: nuclear putting the nuclear codes in Donald Trump's hands. I
Speaker 1: don't know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who
Speaker 1: believes this way of having his finger on the button.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're liable to wake up one morning and
Speaker 1: Donald if he were president, would have nuke Denmark. That's
Speaker 1: not the temperament a leader to keep this country safe.
Speaker 1: What's really eerie about that quote about Denmark is this
Speaker 1: was before Donald Trump was musing about Greenland in February
Speaker 1: of twenty sixteen. This was literally Cruz just picking a country,
Speaker 1: like the least threatening country in Europe he could come
Speaker 1: up with. And yet it turned out Cruse stumbled into
Speaker 1: something that was true. While we haven't bombed Denmark, it
Speaker 1: is clear Donald Trump has all but said he's pulling
Speaker 1: out of NATO because of Denmark because they won't hand
Speaker 1: over Greenland. But if only somebody had warned us, if
Speaker 1: only the Republican Party of twenty sixteen still existed. How
Speaker 1: about Nicki Haley. She said this during the State of
Speaker 1: the Union response in January of twenty sixteen on behalf
Speaker 1: of the Republican Party. Well, Donald Trump is the front runner.
Speaker 1: During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the
Speaker 1: siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation.
Speaker 1: The next morning, she was asked if Trump was her
Speaker 1: target with that comment, and she said, mister Trump has
Speaker 1: definitely contributed to what I think is just irresponsible talk,
Speaker 1: but I still can't help right, the real kicker is
Speaker 1: Marco Rubim. For years to come, there are many people
Speaker 1: on the right, in the media and voters at large
Speaker 1: that are going to be having to explain and justify
Speaker 1: how they fell into this trap of supporting Donald Trump
Speaker 1: because this is not going to end well one way
Speaker 1: or the other.
Speaker 2: Well, this is not ending well.
Speaker 1: This Iran war was not well thought out, clearly was
Speaker 1: not something was we learned in the New York Times
Speaker 1: over the last forty eight hours from Maggie Haverman and
Speaker 1: Jonathan Swan that there was a lot of hesitation and
Speaker 1: then bib Natyah somehow found a sucker in Trump, right,
Speaker 1: bib Natya, who tried to convince Bill Clinton, George W. Bush,
Speaker 1: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, everybody else knew that Bibie always
Speaker 1: came in and overhyped his intelligence and oversold the capabilities
Speaker 1: and oversold what they could accomplish, because those other four
Speaker 1: American presidents actually trusted their own intelligence agencies, this one
Speaker 1: only here's what he wants to hear. And he surrounded
Speaker 1: himself with people who decided that in order to keep
Speaker 1: their jobs, they would not disagree with the president. Now
Speaker 1: they're going to claim as we hurt as this time
Speaker 1: story spells out that in their own way, they tried
Speaker 1: to steer him, They tried to let him know how
Speaker 1: difficult this would be. But none of them were Gymnatis,
Speaker 1: none of them were Mark Milly, none of them were
Speaker 1: John Kelly. People who had the guts to say this
Speaker 1: is stupid, don't you know? There was at the end
Speaker 1: of the Obama presidency they started trumpeting what they said
Speaker 1: was the new Obama doctrine, don't do stupid shit. This
Speaker 1: is the definition of stupid shit.
Speaker 2: Not having a.
Speaker 1: Plan going about this sort of damaging the military's reputation,
Speaker 1: even though the military itself did their job, and in
Speaker 1: some cases did their job quite well. But if you
Speaker 1: don't have a strategy around your military campaign, then you
Speaker 1: might You're were wasting munitions, you are wasting the credibility
Speaker 1: of American military mighty. And now look what we have.
Speaker 1: So where are we and what does this mean going forward? Well,
Speaker 1: it was, as you know, and I've been saying it
Speaker 1: for a while. Trump put himself in this box. He
Speaker 1: desperately wanted out of this war. He literally grabbed a
Speaker 1: lifeline to get out of this war. But the problem
Speaker 1: is he just took whatever lifeline the Iranians would offer him.
Speaker 1: And so now there, you know, this ten point plan
Speaker 1: that Trump seemed to indicate that he accepted the premise
Speaker 1: of that the Iranians were circulating included ridiculous things like
Speaker 1: getting rid of all sanctions that go back to the
Speaker 1: George W. Bush administration, that include full reparations for the
Speaker 1: damage that was done. And he indicated it was a
Speaker 1: workable place to begin negotiations. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the backlash comes and what happens, Oh no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: he threw that it's a different ten point plan.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: The point is, and it goes to something that David Milliban,
Speaker 1: the head of the International Rescue Committee. This is my
Speaker 1: exclusive guests for my Newsphere show. This normally comes out
Speaker 1: this weekend, but it's actually we're going to push it
Speaker 1: out early for variety of reasons due to scheduling. I
Speaker 1: had to tape it earlier this week, and you know
Speaker 1: he was Foreign Secretary for the UK and you know
Speaker 1: he dealt with the Iranian regime every now and then,
Speaker 1: and he will tell you he goes The number one
Speaker 1: thing they like to do is negotiate. They don't want
Speaker 1: to end negotiations. They've used negotiations. It's very similar to Putin, right,
Speaker 1: the Putin strategy of these bullshit cease fire talks that
Speaker 1: have supposedly been happening over the last six months or
Speaker 1: what is it a year now since remember Donald Trump
Speaker 1: was going to end this war in Ukraine twenty four
Speaker 1: hours once he was elected president. Well, it's gone real well, right,
Speaker 1: the Russian strategy, they're not interested in ending this war.
Speaker 1: But the more that they negotiate, the more it puts
Speaker 1: Zelensky on his heels and they get to do what
Speaker 1: they've been doing. Well, the Iranians are this regime is
Speaker 1: the same way, and they will negotiate and negotiate and negotiate.
Speaker 1: In fact, it was getting that way with that nuclear
Speaker 1: deal and finally they found an endgame. So now the
Speaker 1: question is, you know, first of all, is it a ceasefire?
Speaker 1: Is the straight opener closed? The biggest problem is the
Speaker 1: Strait is now in the hands of the Iranians, and
Speaker 1: we're going to have to negotiate it. They started this
Speaker 1: off by thinking there was going.
Speaker 2: To be regime change.
Speaker 1: By the way, speaking of regime change, the new I
Speaker 1: had told them Comani's son.
Speaker 2: It's interesting.
Speaker 1: Axios reported that it was the new Supreme Leader who said, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's time to let's try to come up with a
Speaker 1: cease fire. Any green Linen Well, The Times of London
Speaker 1: reported that the guy's not cons and has not been
Speaker 1: conscious since given the job, So we don't even know
Speaker 1: who we're negotiating with. Nobody seems to know whether that
Speaker 1: guy is dead or alive. Apparently he's not dead, but
Speaker 1: nobody's quite sure if he's conscious or not. And if
Speaker 1: we're negotiating with the IRGC, well, they have no interest.
Speaker 1: They certainly would like a ceasefire because if they would
Speaker 1: like to pause and gather, and my god, this ceasefire,
Speaker 1: I mean, it is handing the Iranians everything they could
Speaker 1: have ever asked for. Right, They've got the President of
Speaker 1: the United States making ridiculous over the top threats that
Speaker 1: actually create condemnation. The Pope spoke out, and of course
Speaker 1: the Pope speaking out has then got parts of Maga
Speaker 1: world so angry that they're like trying to ret in
Speaker 1: the Vatican. So this president can't handle criticism to the
Speaker 1: point that he's going to declare war on the Vatican.
Speaker 2: And you know, I know.
Speaker 1: There's a source of Maga that hated Pope Francis and
Speaker 1: source of the right wing part of the Catholic Church.
Speaker 2: It is, it is, it is.
Speaker 1: Some strange Brew And then you have the whole there's
Speaker 1: sort of an anti Catholic contingent in this Maga world.
Speaker 1: Pete Haigseth this sort of part of that crowd, right,
Speaker 1: that's why they apparently, you know, wouldn't even allow a
Speaker 1: Catholic Mass at the Pentagon Chapel on Good Friday. So
Speaker 1: there's always been there's a weird and I have to say, politically,
Speaker 1: that's incredibly risky, right, if you wanted to just look
Speaker 1: at swing states by religion, there's a lot of Catholics
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, Iowa too. By the way,
Speaker 1: if you in Ohio, if we in certainly this cycle,
Speaker 1: they're going to be competitive states. Whether they're swing states again,
Speaker 1: we'll find out in twenty eight. But they're certainly going
Speaker 1: to be competitive in twenty six, so I'm not sure
Speaker 1: pecking a fight with the Pope, the first American pope,
Speaker 1: who frankly is the most interesting and likable pope we've
Speaker 1: had ever as far as Americans are concerned. My god,
Speaker 1: he's a Chicago White Sox fan, right. That is, you
Speaker 1: want to talk about devotion, that's devotion. But the President
Speaker 1: makes this ridiculous, over the top call somehow creating some
Speaker 1: empathy for this Iranian regime.
Speaker 2: So, to borrow some.
Speaker 1: Words from Marco Rubio, this is not going to end well,
Speaker 1: one way or the other. This episode of the Chuck
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Speaker 1: This war was clearly not working. The only way you
Speaker 1: were going to seed and all your goals here is
Speaker 1: to put in ground troops, and he clearly didn't want
Speaker 1: to do that. Understandable, it's this you know he did.
Speaker 1: This is going to be a quagmire.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The person who understood that getting involved in these Middle
Speaker 1: East wars was a dumb idea supposedly was Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: But perhaps he can't even remember his own campaign pledges
Speaker 1: from twenty twenty four, let alone twenty twenty and twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: So now what well, I think the best we can
Speaker 1: hope for is some sort of negotiated settlement on the straight.
Speaker 1: My guess is there might be some fees that are
Speaker 1: going to be connected to rebuilding some parts of Iran.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's how this is done. The world economy, I
Speaker 1: mean that, you know, Donald Trump cares more about how
Speaker 1: markets and the stock markets behaving, and knowing him, he's
Speaker 1: sitting there bragging to his own people, Look, look what
Speaker 1: I did. I made all this money back by getting
Speaker 1: this by convincing the markets there's a cease fire and
Speaker 1: that the Strait is open. By the way, we still
Speaker 1: don't know if the Strait is open, but a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of people got to make money on Thursday on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: so I'm sure he's feeling pretty good. The point is
Speaker 1: he does care about that part, and he does care.
Speaker 1: If he is the trigger for a recession, it may
Speaker 1: be too late, right, the damage that has been done
Speaker 1: to a variety of facilities in the region. It's not
Speaker 1: like all of a sudden everybody just turns up. No,
Speaker 1: there's going to have to be repairs. There's gonna it's
Speaker 1: going to take months for the energy markets to sort
Speaker 1: of become whole again. And that's assuming this stays as is.
Speaker 1: But what's funny is the Israelis are complaining that the
Speaker 1: United States got to deal without consulting them. Well, it
Speaker 1: does look like the Israelis are making their own decisions
Speaker 1: on Lebanon without really consulting.
Speaker 2: The United States, and that.
Speaker 1: It's clear the Iranians are hoping that the United States
Speaker 1: will pressure the Israelis to back off a Lebanon and
Speaker 1: more importantly, has blah because they're trying to keep their
Speaker 1: proxies in place. The point is is it goes back
Speaker 1: to the initial criticism. Okay, the worst thing is to
Speaker 1: be an equivocator. If you're going to be the commander
Speaker 1: in chief, are you here? Are you here? When you're
Speaker 1: an unreliable ally? You're not an ally. Unreliable allies are
Speaker 1: simply people on your contact list that you've decided not
Speaker 1: to alienate. But you're never going to really trust them
Speaker 1: on anything. That's the United States at the moment. Is
Speaker 1: any NATO nation to trust the United States to come rescue.
Speaker 2: Them right now? Of course not. They won't.
Speaker 1: There's going to be people in Israel that are wondering
Speaker 1: whether they should trust the United States. Now.
Speaker 2: Look, you know.
Speaker 1: It is Donald Trump's fault that he didn't trust his
Speaker 1: own intelligence agencies. That he took the word of the
Speaker 1: Israelis that this regime change was going to be easy,
Speaker 1: This was going to you know, everything was going to tumble, right,
Speaker 1: And this is classic Donald Trump. He gravitates towards the
Speaker 1: person that tells him the best possible outcome, not not
Speaker 1: necessarily the most likely outcome. Right, So Bbe is selling
Speaker 1: him this incredible and you'll be the one. You'll be
Speaker 1: the American president that did what all these other American
Speaker 1: presidents failed to do. Well. He has become that president.
Speaker 1: He is somehow snatched defeat from the jaws of victory
Speaker 1: in what was, as far as a military campaign is concerned,
Speaker 1: should have been fairly winnable. The United States has done
Speaker 1: plenty of destruction. They've certainly crippled the country. But again,
Speaker 1: the regime itself, they just care about staying in power
Speaker 1: if it takes some years to rebuild, but they get
Speaker 1: to stay in power, they don't care. These are people
Speaker 1: that killed their own kind simply because these people were
Speaker 1: asking for more freedom. And this is who Donald Trump
Speaker 1: wants to make a deal with. Maybe or maybe he won't,
Speaker 1: who knows. But can we put to rest the notion
Speaker 1: that the Madman theory of foreign policy is ever a
Speaker 1: good idea. It's ridiculous and all it does is erode
Speaker 1: America's credibility. And look, we already have very little trust
Speaker 1: in our government right now as a society. Just look
Speaker 1: at the numbers. We don't trust people in any corporation
Speaker 1: these days. We don't trust anybody that doesn't come from
Speaker 1: our world. In our news feeds these days. But there
Speaker 1: was something about the word of the United States still
Speaker 1: mattered somewhere and he's gotten rid of that. And that's
Speaker 1: not going to get fixed overnight. That's not going to
Speaker 1: get fixed with one new president. It's going to take
Speaker 1: us multiple presidents, probably having to be eat some eat,
Speaker 1: some crow, and some humble Trump, humble pie. We're going
Speaker 1: to be apologizing to the world for Donald Trump for decades,
Speaker 1: whether it's in one on one relationships with countries, because
Speaker 1: of this ridiculous trade policy that he's come up with
Speaker 1: that's only alienated allies. Right, What is he done in
Speaker 1: the area of foreign policy that has improved a relation
Speaker 1: and American relationship? I know some of you might say, well,
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia or is it? Those are transactional relationships. And
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, go talk to anybody serious in Israel to
Speaker 1: think if they actually think.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump is a reliable aully.
Speaker 1: Go ask anybody inside up in the upper echelons of
Speaker 1: the UAE of the Saudis right now, they thought Donald
Speaker 1: Trump was a useful idiot that they could manipulate.
Speaker 2: And buy off. Well, they bought them. They've done that.
Speaker 1: They've bought the family and the man's still unreliable.
Speaker 2: Now. I guess you could say Donald Trum can't be bought.
Speaker 1: Well, he weirdly can, but we just don't know who
Speaker 1: he's working for at any given time. Perhaps, but he's
Speaker 1: just a erratic and he's unstable. And it's not as
Speaker 1: if we weren't warned he was a erratic and unstable
Speaker 1: in some ways. He's consistently inconsistent. I've always said this,
Speaker 1: He's authentically inauthentic. He's consistently inconsistent, and his instability has
Speaker 1: been stable over a ten year period. He's been unstable
Speaker 1: the whole time. But the mistake so many people make
Speaker 1: with Donald Trump is that they think, oh, no, I
Speaker 1: can control him. I can do this, and nobody ever can.
Speaker 1: And the problem these folks have is all of the
Speaker 1: backsplash ends up on you. He always walks away with
Speaker 1: much less dirt on him than on everybody else. And
Speaker 1: I promise you, if this gets really bad, he will
Speaker 1: be blaming everybody left, right and center. But everybody inside
Speaker 1: this current Republican party knows damn well what he has
Speaker 1: done to the credibility the United States is a disaster.
Speaker 1: And why do I know they know this?
Speaker 2: Because they said it ten years ago. They all knew it.
Speaker 1: They knew it then, they knew it in January of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one when Mitch McConnell choked. And we are
Speaker 1: all paying the price. The world's paying the price again.
Speaker 1: Whatever side you come down on on our relationships in
Speaker 1: the Middle East, we've burned all of them. And he
Speaker 1: has put the next president in the worst possible position.
Speaker 1: We're going to be going hat in hand all over
Speaker 1: the world again having to fix or apologize for things
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump has done. I remember, I'm old enough
Speaker 1: to remember when when when the right got mad at Baraco,
Speaker 1: they thought Barack Obama was having to was apologizing for
Speaker 1: for for George W.
Speaker 2: Bush in the Iraq War.
Speaker 1: Well, it certainly caused some anxiety in Europe, but nothing
Speaker 1: like this, And there was a lot more. Ah, there
Speaker 1: was a lot. You know, there may have been disagreements
Speaker 1: that I had to handle Iraq, but there wasn't a
Speaker 1: lot of disagreements on what to do about Russia and
Speaker 1: what to do about and whether Europe was an ally
Speaker 1: or not, and whether you treat Canada and Mexico like
Speaker 1: partners or like adversaries.
Speaker 2: But here we are.
Speaker 1: And this is a big bungle, and there's you know,
Speaker 1: we make get dragged back in at this point, so
Speaker 1: this may not be over. I think Trump doesn't want
Speaker 1: to go back in. I think he wants to wash
Speaker 1: his hands of this and somehow hope he can paper
Speaker 1: over what is going to be a giant mistake.
Speaker 2: Now I do think it. I do. I'm going to
Speaker 2: end this little.
Speaker 1: Rant on the topic that does not that we all
Speaker 1: have chosen not to talk about as much anymore, because
Speaker 1: there's just in some ways there's nothing to do about it.
Speaker 1: But there is only one country that continues to benefit
Speaker 1: from how poorly the president has handled American form policy.
Speaker 1: And you know where I'm going, mister Putin, and Russia
Speaker 1: the biggest beneficiary of all of this. This is bigger
Speaker 1: beneficiary than even China. The Russians benefit the most their
Speaker 1: clients state Iran, who has been their most important military
Speaker 1: supplier of these drones. It is depleted American munitions, it
Speaker 1: is depleted the supply that Zelensky was counting on to
Speaker 1: help Ukraine that we were sort of doing in this
Speaker 1: sort of quasi len lease program through NATO. Meanwhile, America's
Speaker 1: relationships around the world are all fraid due to Donald
Speaker 1: Trump's erratic behavior. There's one person that's benefiting and one
Speaker 1: entity that benefits the most. Oh well, only somebody had
Speaker 1: warned us. Only somebody running against him had said. There
Speaker 1: are many people on the right, in the media and
Speaker 1: voters at large that are going to be having to
Speaker 1: explain and justify how they fell into this trap of
Speaker 1: supporting Donald Trump, because this is not going to end
Speaker 1: well one way or the other. It's going to be
Speaker 1: on Marco Rubio's tombstone. That's how much that quote's going
Speaker 1: to live in infamy. Our Secretary of State there is
Speaker 1: I don't want to overlook what happened. What else happened
Speaker 1: this week, which is, you know, in some ways more
Speaker 1: cow bell if you're the Democrats, a massive overperformance in
Speaker 1: the Margie Taylor Green special and the blowout on the
Speaker 1: Wisconsin Supreme Court. Right, remember where we were a year
Speaker 1: ago with mister Chainsaw Musk, and that was that was
Speaker 1: what a competitive race was supposed to look like. That
Speaker 1: was somewhere I think a nine to ten point twenty points.
Speaker 1: This is Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: I tell you one thing it has done. I was.
Speaker 1: I was sort of assuming that Wisconsin voters would do
Speaker 1: what they've done regular, which is so you know, they
Speaker 1: go back and forth on their governors, and we're going
Speaker 1: to be to open governor seat, and you know, slight
Speaker 1: advantage to the Republicans, not after what I saw there.
Speaker 1: All I'll say is Senate Republicans ought to be happy
Speaker 1: there's no Senate race in Wisconsin this year, because.
Speaker 2: That was a shocking blowout. Remember the the the the non.
Speaker 1: Liberal candidate, I don't know whether he was running as
Speaker 1: a conservative, was trying to run as an independent, and
Speaker 1: it went nowhere. So I think I look at what
Speaker 1: happened on Tuesday as a reminder that this war is
Speaker 1: accelerating the Republican Party's problems in this midterm. And I
Speaker 1: do wonder, and it's this is I will say this
Speaker 1: to my friends and the right who know this is
Speaker 1: a disaster, who know they've got to find a way
Speaker 1: to save face here in order not to get blown out.
Speaker 1: Trump's very vulnerable right now. He's on an island. He's
Speaker 1: on an island in his own West wing. If the
Speaker 1: Republican Party wants to have some credibility.
Speaker 2: Going forward.
Speaker 1: In a post Trump era, those that attempt to distance
Speaker 1: themselves now will probably be glad they did come twenty
Speaker 1: twenty eight, because again, this blunder, this one's not getting
Speaker 1: papered over. I know with Trump, we've been here so
Speaker 1: many times. Oh there's this, there's this, there's this one,
Speaker 1: this one. There's certain things that are in permanent marker.
Speaker 1: This one's in permanent marker. And I think the political
Speaker 1: situation is deteriorating very quickly.
Speaker 2: On the right for the right.
Speaker 1: And you know, you can we can have this argument
Speaker 1: all day. You know, you can try to distance yourself
Speaker 1: and see if you can mitigate this, because I don't
Speaker 1: think the base. I think the base is going to
Speaker 1: be more fractured than ever on this. I know what
Speaker 1: the numbers say, per se, but you're starting to see it.
Speaker 1: To me, that blowout in Wisconsin is an indication a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of the Republican base is like, I ain't
Speaker 1: bothering if you get any sort of turn out situation
Speaker 1: like we saw in Wisconsin this week, and this is
Speaker 1: what you see in November. Are we going to talk
Speaker 1: fifty two Democratic Senate seats, fifty three? Could we really
Speaker 1: see thirty or forty House seats? And I think the
Speaker 1: numbers are very difficult to get out high. I think
Speaker 1: a wave frankly is four Senate seats in twenty to
Speaker 1: twenty five house seats, but that in Wisconsin. If that's
Speaker 1: if it's closer to that, that's how you get to
Speaker 1: That's how this gets over thirty to thirty five house seats,
Speaker 1: and that's how you get to four to six.
Speaker 2: Seven seat pickups. I would saying we're there yet.
Speaker 1: But boy, every week it looks more viable all the time.
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Speaker 2: Pass Chuck.
Speaker 1: First question comes from Barry M in Miami and he
Speaker 1: just wishes me a happy birthday. I tell you, mister Manelo,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. I appreciate the sentiment. I don't know
Speaker 1: that the M is for Manelo, but if you're Barry
Speaker 1: M I'm going to assume it's Manelo.
Speaker 2: So thank you for those wishes.
Speaker 1: Next from Mark in Cleveland, and he writes, could you
Speaker 1: share your thoughts about the long term damage being done
Speaker 1: by the Trump administration in terms of what's being missed
Speaker 1: by incompetent leadership. I think about the late nineties, when
Speaker 1: gas prices were under a dollar, the tech bubble was
Speaker 1: still growing, and the news seemed almost boring all the
Speaker 1: while the plan for nine to eleven was being hatched
Speaker 1: different times, obviously, But I just wonder what's being missed
Speaker 1: that will come back to bite us in the future.
Speaker 1: Thanks Mark and Cleveland. Well, I'll tell you my biggest concern.
Speaker 1: It goes to actually at the heart of that New
Speaker 1: York Times story on how net Yahu sold Trump on
Speaker 1: the Iran War and when he came in with this
Speaker 1: intelligence from Masad. Hey, no, no, no, no, we know that
Speaker 1: regime change and this is going to happen, that people
Speaker 1: are going to fight, and so the Israeli intelligence agencies
Speaker 1: claimed one thing the America John Ratcliffe headed the CIA,
Speaker 1: and he's not not exactly a Trump antagonist. It's called
Speaker 1: it bullshit. Marco Rubio did. They sort of all did
Speaker 1: except for Hexa. But so my biggest concern is you
Speaker 1: have a president that does not trust our intelligence agencies.
Speaker 2: He does.
Speaker 1: He views them as enemies, right, he views them as
Speaker 1: the deep state. We have a Director of National Intelligence
Speaker 1: that does not believe the intelligence community. I do think
Speaker 1: John Ratcliffe does.
Speaker 2: I think he is. I think I.
Speaker 1: Know him a little bit. I choose to believe that
Speaker 1: he takes his job seriously and that he trusts the
Speaker 1: men and women at the CIA I think are The
Speaker 1: National Security Agency is run by you know, I think
Speaker 1: a competent person. But my concern is threefold on this
Speaker 1: because you say, what's missing. That's the thing we don't know.
Speaker 1: I can tell you that I'm I gotta be careful
Speaker 1: here of my own sourcing here. I don't want to
Speaker 1: burn anybody. But there are multiple issues in our intel
Speaker 1: community right now. Number One, you have rank and file
Speaker 1: intel agents who don't trust the political bosses. What do
Speaker 1: they withhold because they're worried about their own sources being built?
Speaker 2: That should they withhold?
Speaker 1: No, they should like, whatever you think of your political bosses,
Speaker 1: that's the democracy. But that doesn't mean the instinct of
Speaker 1: these career CIA guys is to not trust these political
Speaker 1: actors who have been dismissive of what they do. So
Speaker 1: that's number one. Number two is the concern that what
Speaker 1: I just said also applies to the quote five eyes.
Speaker 1: Five eyes is the essentially the English speaking the white
Speaker 1: English speaking countries, right, it's Canada, the United States, Australia,
Speaker 1: New Zealand that share intelligence and Australia, United States, the UK, Canada, Yeah,
Speaker 1: five eyes in the United States, this is the quote
Speaker 1: five eyes. Well, there is a lot of distrust these
Speaker 1: days between the Canadians the United States, between the Brits
Speaker 1: in the United States, pretty much between everybody in the
Speaker 1: United States.
Speaker 2: So how much is.
Speaker 1: Being shared there? We already know of reports that Massade
Speaker 1: is so concerned about leaks, particularly by the commander in chief.
Speaker 1: It's you know, Trump's one of those people who will
Speaker 1: just blurt out stuff. So the point is there's a
Speaker 1: lot of intel being withheld from our intelligence agencies. Intelligence
Speaker 1: sharing is a huge, vastly important thing that takes place.
Speaker 1: So you're asking me, what do we I think we are.
Speaker 1: I think we are incredibly blind in a lot of places,
Speaker 1: incredibly blind because you have rank and filent intel officers
Speaker 1: who are concerned about their political bosses. You have other
Speaker 1: allies who are withholding some information for fear that it
Speaker 1: may fall into the wrong hands. So yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it's it's quite possible. You know, we were distracted by
Speaker 1: impeachment back in ninety eight ninety nine when ben Laden
Speaker 1: was doing all of this. In fact, i'm when when
Speaker 1: when Clinton actually launched a missile strike to try to
Speaker 1: get ben Laden missed him by day. He was accused
Speaker 1: by some Republicans of playing wag the dog, that it
Speaker 1: was a quote distraction from the impeachment inquiry. I think
Speaker 1: it's a fair critique that essentially the impeachment, you know,
Speaker 1: this was both why the impeachment was damaging to our
Speaker 1: national security and why Clinton resisting resignation might have been
Speaker 1: dangerous to our national security.
Speaker 2: Right, what would have been in.
Speaker 1: The best interest in the United States was to not
Speaker 1: have this issue, right, and I understood the political fight
Speaker 1: and all of this stuff and what was the line,
Speaker 1: but there's no doubt that we missed something when it
Speaker 1: came to Bin Laden. So you're right to do this.
Speaker 1: The problem is I can't I can tell you I
Speaker 1: know all of those these issues that we have right
Speaker 1: now in our intelligence gathering, so we don't know what
Speaker 1: we're missing. But I have a feeling we're missing something
Speaker 1: big and it is a cause for concern. This is
Speaker 1: why I you know, you know, it could be the
Speaker 1: worst job in the world in twenty twenty nine, is
Speaker 1: having to be the president to follow Donald Trump. Next
Speaker 1: question comes from Brad. You've often said that DC is
Speaker 1: more veep than West Wing. If you're comfortable shit saring,
Speaker 1: what's the most veep thing you've seen? Thanks for everything
Speaker 1: you do, Keep up the great work. Isn't the most
Speaker 1: veep thing we've seen? This around debacle at this point
Speaker 1: right where we go from threatening the obliteration of a
Speaker 1: civilization to maybe we'll start a joint venture in the
Speaker 1: straight of horror moves to collect tolls, which is a
Speaker 1: true thing that Donald Trump did this. Boy, in all seriousness,
Speaker 1: I say, in all seriousness, like this is all serious.
Speaker 2: At this point.
Speaker 1: Boy, I don't know if I have one big thing,
Speaker 1: but there's like, you know, whether it's staffer, you know,
Speaker 1: the way staffers sort of you know, over worry too
Speaker 1: much about whether their boss is going to have the
Speaker 1: right drink of water on set, or want to do
Speaker 1: all these things. But I wish I had a I
Speaker 1: wish I had a good go to answer. But the
Speaker 1: problem is, and this is what the Trump ra has done.
Speaker 1: Like Trump himself is kind of a parody at times
Speaker 1: of Trump, right, Like there are times you're like, there
Speaker 1: are plenty of times you see some of these Trump
Speaker 1: truth socials that get repurposed and retweeted all over or
Speaker 1: on Instagram, whatever, and you look at me, You're like,
Speaker 1: this can't this one can't be true. This one's going
Speaker 1: to be made up, right. I mean that's the problem
Speaker 1: is that he is in some ways he may kill satire,
Speaker 1: because how do you he certainly made it really hard
Speaker 1: to write fictional politics. I say this with somebody who
Speaker 1: was working on this with a with a friend of mine.
Speaker 1: We off and on are working on a potential, you know,
Speaker 1: some sort of thriller based in Washington, and you say
Speaker 1: to yourself, you know, if you sort of borrow the
Speaker 1: law and order model, right, you sort of rip from
Speaker 1: the headlines, you know, it's stranger, right. This is the case,
Speaker 1: classic case with the phrase truth is stranger than fiction.
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1: When the more I think about your question, what's the
Speaker 1: most what's the most deep thing you've seen, it's the
Speaker 1: Trump presidency, right, whether it's how he's handled the Kennedy Center,
Speaker 1: how he's handled the gold lemeat everywhere, the sort of
Speaker 1: you know, you know he is. You know, he's such
Speaker 1: a creature of the of the sixties and seventies and eighties.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the leading you know, sort of
Speaker 1: showmen of the seventies was a man named Liberaci. And
Speaker 1: if you've never heard of him, you should google him.
Speaker 1: Just a flamboyant sort of showman piano player. He would
Speaker 1: just you know, it was. It was sort of like
Speaker 1: if Billy Joel and if Elton John and Lawrence Welk
Speaker 1: had a baby, it would be Liberaci. I know that's
Speaker 1: a strange thing to say, but it was. It was
Speaker 1: sort of like because it was piano bassed, right, but
Speaker 1: it was sort of you know, it was.
Speaker 2: But it was.
Speaker 1: To describe Liberaci as flamboyant, as almost un selling him.
Speaker 1: And yet if you spend some time looking at like
Speaker 1: there's some great tours of where Liberaci lived and his
Speaker 1: the Vegas abode and all this stuff. Let's just say
Speaker 1: I think Donald Trump would be right at home. I
Speaker 1: just think that the entire presidency feels like a VIEP
Speaker 1: a series, you know, season ten of VIEP. Next question
Speaker 1: comes from Andre in La and he says, one very
Speaker 1: powerful way that the Republican Conservative Party gets their messages
Speaker 1: out to their bases through talk radio. Why do you
Speaker 1: think that most Democrats tapped I haven't tapped into that market.
Speaker 1: Even out here in California, Conservative talk radio is very
Speaker 1: effective in getting a message out and slowly building momentum
Speaker 1: for ideas and talking points. I know that somewhat point MPR,
Speaker 1: but it does not move the needle in the same manner.
Speaker 1: To hear your take on this, best regards, Andre, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting. There's a little chicken and egg
Speaker 1: when it comes to talk radio talk radio.
Speaker 2: You know, if you think about the.
Speaker 1: Russlanbot Times, right, which was before Russell and brother, was
Speaker 1: another conservative talk radio icon named Paul Harvey. And that's
Speaker 1: the that's the rest of the story. If you've ever
Speaker 1: heard I was about to say, that's the way it is.
Speaker 1: That was cronkite. The rest of the story. The rest
Speaker 1: of the story was a Paul harveyism, and Paul Harvey
Speaker 1: was conservative without being a sledgehammer about it. Rush became
Speaker 1: a sledgehammer. But it was you know that the talk
Speaker 1: radio you got to think about it almost demographically, right,
Speaker 1: who's in their car more often? It was like the
Speaker 1: traveling salesman, the person that's on the road, the sort.
Speaker 2: Of almost like.
Speaker 1: White collar working class, meaning like it was sort of
Speaker 1: service sector but sort of maybe insurance salesman, pacemaker salesman,
Speaker 1: you know, a small time financial advisor, or I'm just
Speaker 1: you know, a lawyer, but that's always sort of trolling
Speaker 1: for business and I and again it is sort of
Speaker 1: working class, white collar. I don't know house to call it, right,
Speaker 1: you know, there's right, there's the people that schower before
Speaker 1: work and the people that chower after work. Right, these
Speaker 1: are still people that chower before work, but they're in
Speaker 1: their car all day. And that was always the hard
Speaker 1: So you know, I've always thought that talk radio just
Speaker 1: sort of the demographics just fit right, and the person
Speaker 1: that's more likely and you throw in, right, the traveling
Speaker 1: salesman or any of these folks. I just described all
Speaker 1: work on commission commission and the taxing of it. So
Speaker 1: that was sort of an already it was sort of
Speaker 1: like it was, you know, to me, sort of already
Speaker 1: almost like a predisposition to the message on the right,
Speaker 1: which was a little more anti government. You know, low taxes,
Speaker 1: they're you know, you're working hard, they're taking money out
Speaker 1: of your pocket, and you know, it was sort of
Speaker 1: the middle manager class, if you will. So I just
Speaker 1: think it the reason it worked for the right, and
Speaker 1: I think it's less so now, I really do. I
Speaker 1: think in many ways, podcasts of you know, everybody now
Speaker 1: as their channel. You're right, I think there's still what
Speaker 1: remains of talk radio really is targeting retirees, right, folks
Speaker 1: that still are sort of in the habit, but that
Speaker 1: were radio listeners of the nineties.
Speaker 2: So I think there's a little bit of that.
Speaker 1: I think over time you're going to see that when
Speaker 1: these folks age out of voting, I think you'll see
Speaker 1: sort of talk radio, you know, like I said, in
Speaker 1: some ways, it's already shifted to this, you know, to
Speaker 1: to this independent world. You know, whether it's Ben Shapiro
Speaker 1: or what Tucker Carlson's doing or even what Megan Kelly's
Speaker 1: doing and things like that. So, but the the other
Speaker 1: part with the left is it's the left is just
Speaker 1: more fragmented and where they get their news and where
Speaker 1: they get their information and always kind of has been
Speaker 1: in different ways. And I just think that radio is
Speaker 1: never it just wasn't in some ways. Television was right,
Speaker 1: I would argue for a long time, cable news and
Speaker 1: broadcast news was sort of was geared towards center left,
Speaker 1: and and then you had talk radio on the right.
Speaker 1: And then essentially all Roger Ailes did was bring talk
Speaker 1: radio mindset to primetime cable and so, and that's you know,
Speaker 1: I think that now the technology is going to be
Speaker 1: wiping that away. But I just think it was just
Speaker 1: sort of the if you think about the demographic that
Speaker 1: was in the car, right, and this was really targeted at.
Speaker 1: I can tell you most of the time that I
Speaker 1: ever listened to wrestling, but was I was in traffic.
Speaker 1: I know, I was sitting there and you're you're you know,
Speaker 1: this was in the Yeah, you might have had a
Speaker 1: cassette player, a CD player, whatever. I had, the six,
Speaker 1: I had the I had a Mazda six two six.
Speaker 1: I had you know, would immediately, you know, had a
Speaker 1: little CD player, had the I had a six CD change.
Speaker 1: I thought, I was, you know, I wouldn't spend money
Speaker 1: in a car about a U sixty six, but I,
Speaker 1: you know, I had that and as nice of a
Speaker 1: of a radio as I could. But she did get
Speaker 1: bored of the same six CDs. Right, Can you imagine
Speaker 1: only having six CDs to choose from back then? But
Speaker 1: I kind of look at it, you know, and I
Speaker 1: and you know, you could have a chicken and egg conversation.
Speaker 2: But I think it was just sort.
Speaker 1: Of a a predisposition of of the of the person
Speaker 1: that was most likely listening to talk radio at that time,
Speaker 1: and sort of melded with the message that the that
Speaker 1: the right was pushing at the time on on low
Speaker 1: taxes and less government. Next question comes from all love
Speaker 1: your show Wake Up Mornings out here in the suburban
Speaker 1: foothills of the Cascades in Washington State. It's amazing You've
Speaker 1: got a better view than I do. And I listened
Speaker 1: to your podcast to start my day. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1: Your list of droughts. Your list of droughts missed Washington State.
Speaker 1: You're right, I didn't and I'll tell you why in
Speaker 1: a minute. I was only talking about governor's races up
Speaker 1: this cycle. Washington State's always on the presidential cycle. Washington.
Speaker 1: There's actually another state on their Utah. It's also had
Speaker 1: a lengthy drought as well, sort of going the other way.
Speaker 1: But both Washington and Utah are always in the presidential years.
Speaker 1: But that's why I did it. But he goes Hey,
Speaker 1: it took me a minute to do the math. But
Speaker 1: having worked for both Dan Evans and John Spellman, I
Speaker 1: figured we were close to South Dakota. I count it
Speaker 1: as something like forty two years for what it's worth.
Speaker 1: I also worked for Democratic governors Dixie Lee Ray and
Speaker 1: Booth Gardner. I remember booth Gardner. Sometimes wonder if there's
Speaker 1: another person alive in Washington State or elsewhere for that matter,
Speaker 1: who can say they worked for two Democrats and two
Speaker 1: Republican governors. Are to imagine these days, Paul. Anyway, Paul,
Speaker 1: it's a good point, and I should have mentioned the droughts.
Speaker 1: You know, I was very That's why I was trying
Speaker 1: to be very specific about about being in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: so in the midterm year. But if you give me
Speaker 1: a second there are a few the bigger droughts, right,
Speaker 1: Utah and Washington are both at forty one years since
Speaker 1: eighty five on both of those and I think those
Speaker 1: are the only two on the and we're going to
Speaker 1: be getting there with Delaware, I think Delaware now. And
Speaker 1: Delaware is another state that is on the presidential year.
Speaker 1: There are eleven states that are on the presidential year,
Speaker 1: and of course two of those states, Vermont and new
Speaker 1: I'm sure every two.
Speaker 2: Years for their governors.
Speaker 1: So Delaware is currently on a thirty three year streak
Speaker 1: of democratic governors. But again, so just short of it
Speaker 1: was Mike Castle was the last Republican governor, and he
Speaker 1: left office in ninety two. There my Castle infamously is
Speaker 1: the Republican, the moderate Republican congressman who was going to
Speaker 1: be the next US Senator from Delaware, replacing Ted Kaufman
Speaker 1: who was the caretaker for Joe Biden Senate. See and
Speaker 1: then he ran into a woman named Christine O'Donnell who
Speaker 1: ran the great ad that said I Am not a witch,
Speaker 1: perhaps one of my favorite all time paid for campaign
Speaker 1: TV heads out there. She wins a Republican primary. So
Speaker 1: at the beginning of this mega movement before we were
Speaker 1: calling it a mega movement. And Chris coons is basically
Speaker 1: has a Senate seat for lafe. He was going to
Speaker 1: be the basically the nice man who was going to
Speaker 1: lose to my Castle for a US Senate seat in
Speaker 1: twenty ten, and instead he's now got a Senate seat
Speaker 1: for life. Frankly, he's one of the more thoughtful senators
Speaker 1: out there and one of the guys that does seem
Speaker 1: to want to put country before party when the chips
Speaker 1: are really down. All right, Next question comes from Kelly
Speaker 1: X in Texas. Kelly writes, this would be my fourth
Speaker 1: question you answer and putting me close to the Five
Speaker 1: Timers Club. We really got to keep track of this,
Speaker 1: Nason Lauren Wely, We really do. Maybe there's maybe there's
Speaker 1: swag we got to come up with, right toodcast five
Speaker 1: Timers Club.
Speaker 2: The it's gonna be something. We got to come up
Speaker 2: with something fun here.
Speaker 1: And hey, you know, since we want to keep everything
Speaker 1: for free, maybe a sponsor will want to be a
Speaker 1: sponsor of the Five Timers Club. See if I say
Speaker 1: these things out loud right, the ad sales team will
Speaker 1: be be fired up. So let's go anyway, Kelly X,
Speaker 1: let's answer your question number four on your way to
Speaker 1: the Jack Black five Timers Club. With the war with
Speaker 1: around you put war in quotes here, With the war
Speaker 1: in Iran ending and gas prices falling, do you think
Speaker 1: the GOP will be able to run on the economy
Speaker 1: improving in the midterm elections and winning the war. The
Speaker 1: way I look at it, that if there's any uptick
Speaker 1: in the economy at the end of the summer into
Speaker 1: the fall, that the blue wave may EBB and GP
Speaker 1: holds the House and Senate. Thank you for your insightful
Speaker 1: commentary and fins up.
Speaker 2: I say what you did.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see a look. I do agree that
Speaker 1: the fins fins that there should be something better with
Speaker 1: that with the Dolphins, and I think if they start
Speaker 1: winning ever again, that maybe we can start making some
Speaker 1: of those things work. Kelly X, I'm gonna guess you
Speaker 1: wrote this question before you found out that the straight
Speaker 1: Horr moves man might be open might be closed, before
Speaker 1: you found out whether are we really negotiating? Are we
Speaker 1: not negotiating? I don't, I I am I'm skeptical. I
Speaker 1: I you know, I hear your point. I think if
Speaker 1: this were a first term. I think if this were,
Speaker 1: you know, an administration that was going to be gearing
Speaker 1: up for a reelect, you know, they would be a
Speaker 1: little more focused, a little.
Speaker 2: More on top of things.
Speaker 1: But this economy is a mess and the globe we're
Speaker 1: all interconnected. This isn't going to just snap right back.
Speaker 1: And you know, I, I.
Speaker 2: Know we have short attention spans collectively.
Speaker 1: I just don't think our attention spans that's that short.
Speaker 2: On this front. I really don't. I think there.
Speaker 1: I think the exhaustion is there. I think it's real,
Speaker 1: and I think I go back to a phrase that
Speaker 1: I probably am now over using, but good gets better,
Speaker 1: bad gets worse. This isn't getting better because he's not
Speaker 1: getting better, right. I mean, he's been erratic. He's fired
Speaker 1: two cabinet secretaries in the last month. He's probably going
Speaker 1: to fire at least one more, maybe two more. So Yeah,
Speaker 1: I am skeptical. I hear your point, and it maybe
Speaker 1: it's possible. I'm not saying they're not going to try,
Speaker 1: but I think it's going to be very difficult to
Speaker 1: sort of Jedi mind trick the voters on this one
Speaker 1: last question, man, I go from a Finns fan to
Speaker 1: a Pats fan comes from mark H Pats fan and
Speaker 1: Alan Texas. God bless you, Hey Check love the podcast
Speaker 1: to take my mind off of civilization destruction, I asked
Speaker 1: Chatchbet to write a.
Speaker 2: Version of Billy Joels.
Speaker 1: We didn't start the fire, using only notable events from
Speaker 1: the current Trump presidency. It's amazing to shere volume of scandal, drama,
Speaker 1: and intrigue in just over a year. I think I've
Speaker 1: got to hit on my hands. Also, this won't stop tanking,
Speaker 1: but what about forcing an ownership change in professional sports
Speaker 1: after a certain period of ineptitude like they faced in
Speaker 1: the f One movie. For example, the New York Jets
Speaker 1: don't make the playoffs for ten years, the incompetent Woody
Speaker 1: Johnson has to sell the team. I'm looking hard at
Speaker 1: Cleveland and the Jets, maybe even the Cowboys. You could
Speaker 1: even do a Hard Knocks type series for teams facing
Speaker 1: divestger this. First of all, I wish you would have
Speaker 1: shared with me the lyrics. You would have gotten me
Speaker 1: to karaoke this a little bit. So here's first of all,
Speaker 1: my challenge to you, mark H. Submit the question with
Speaker 1: the lyrics. I want to see what you came up with.
Speaker 1: And I hope you know you got to include tolls
Speaker 1: in the strait of hormones. Kim Jong Un, Right, I
Speaker 1: can't take it anymore, so I gotta see the lyrics
Speaker 1: owner divestger. This is the single best tank anti tanking
Speaker 1: idea I have heard yet. Man, forget everything else, and
Speaker 1: I'm you know, this is a good place to sort
Speaker 1: of put a code on the weekend. This what's happening
Speaker 1: in the NBA. It's right, it's beyond what's the only
Speaker 1: good news about this issue of tanking in the NBA
Speaker 1: is everybody's talking about it. So if Adam Silva doesn't
Speaker 1: figure out how to do something about it, he's got
Speaker 1: it because he's got to face this owner putting forcing
Speaker 1: owners to have skin in the game. You know, one
Speaker 1: of the things I've always believed about these sports owners
Speaker 1: is that they are custodians for these teams. These teams
Speaker 1: belong to the league in the community. In fact, if
Speaker 1: the league didn't exist, the teams wouldn't The teams themselves
Speaker 1: would not have the value that they have, right, So
Speaker 1: the league's given the value. So these are these are
Speaker 1: basically just shareholders, right, they own the the Washington shares
Speaker 1: of the NBA franchise, the Dallas shares of the NFL franchise,
Speaker 1: right the New Jersey, New York shares of the of
Speaker 1: the Jets franchise. So I think this is a very
Speaker 1: fair way to do it. And if you want your
Speaker 1: anti trumpet, in fact it is it is up to
Speaker 1: the You know, the all of these leagues are essentially
Speaker 1: run by the owners, right, because they're all essentially shareholders.
Speaker 1: The board of directors are the owners themselves, and the
Speaker 1: commissioners all work for the owners. Yeah, we cannot put
Speaker 1: this on the teams. You can't put this on the
Speaker 1: general manners. If you if the owners knew they had
Speaker 1: to sell the team no matter what the market said
Speaker 1: at any given time, if they didn't, and my god,
Speaker 1: in the NBA you have twenty playoffs slots. I think
Speaker 1: you know one of my you know, I think the
Speaker 1: I would shrink the number of teams allowed in the
Speaker 1: NBA playoffs. I think ten in each conference is way
Speaker 1: too many. What if he had it down to six
Speaker 1: and he gave essentially you gave the h the one
Speaker 1: in the one and two seeds to buy and three, four, five,
Speaker 1: and six played best of five and then you got
Speaker 1: to the best of sevens. But if you shrunk the
Speaker 1: number of playoff teams, you go from twenty to twelve, right,
Speaker 1: six in each league in conference excuse me, I'm speaking
Speaker 1: baseball term server and the owners, right, playoff money is
Speaker 1: more directly in the owner's pocket than anything else, any
Speaker 1: other revenue that they get, right, other than their.
Speaker 2: Season ticket revenue.
Speaker 1: So that also would create an incentive if you're not
Speaker 1: getting if you're not able to fill your arena with
Speaker 1: playoff money, that's a problem, right, So the point is
Speaker 1: you're getting at it's the owners have to face, not fines.
Speaker 1: Although I don't know if you saw Draymond Green's rant
Speaker 1: earlier this week where he said, boy, they love to
Speaker 1: find players and we know there are ten teams tanking
Speaker 1: and there have been two fines total, And he's right,
Speaker 1: But the owners are in charge of Adam Silver, right,
Speaker 1: this is part of the problem.
Speaker 2: But if the you would.
Speaker 1: Think the good ow owners would want to shame their
Speaker 1: fellow owners into being better owners, right, what's in the
Speaker 1: best interest of the league. So I loved a Vestger.
Speaker 1: I think it's brilliant. My goodness, I mean the Jets.
Speaker 1: The Jets should have been sold decades ago, right, I
Speaker 1: mean Woody Johnson. I think there's a reason they don't
Speaker 1: put them in charge of Johnson and Johnson anymore. But
Speaker 1: that is this is absolutely brilliant. You know, you my god,
Speaker 1: White Sox and Bulls fans, They've been trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how to get rid of Jerry Hinsdorf for decades.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: This is a guy that had Michael Jordan, and it
Speaker 1: was too cheap to even support that at times. I
Speaker 1: think this is the answer. You know, you go ten
Speaker 1: years without winning a playoff series. You know, it's either
Speaker 1: ten years without winning a playoff series or five years
Speaker 1: without even being in the playing game.
Speaker 2: Especially if you keep ten spot.
Speaker 1: Please, getting into the plane is not difficult. In fact,
Speaker 1: I think the Wizards have gotten into the plan over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. Right, It is not hard
Speaker 1: to get into the plan.
Speaker 2: If you choose to, so.
Speaker 1: Mark, it's brilliant divestiture, best tanking idea I've heard yet
Speaker 1: one two send the lyrics.
Speaker 2: We got to know.
Speaker 1: I'm really bummed about the Nats bullpen. I know I
Speaker 1: sound like my friend mister Corneizer, who uses pretty much
Speaker 1: the opening monologue of every one of his podcasts to
Speaker 1: lament and complain about the Nats bullpen. But it's really
Speaker 1: frustrating because the Gnats are hitting. This is such a
Speaker 1: smarter I will say this, I am. I can tell
Speaker 1: this team is using analytics. I can tell this team
Speaker 1: is a bunch of young players who are listening to,
Speaker 1: you know, the Raise way of doing business. And they
Speaker 1: have a plan each night and they seem to, you know,
Speaker 1: go up there and there and there and then, and
Speaker 1: you could see the problem is, you know, you can't
Speaker 1: analytics a good bullpen and we just the art. Look,
Speaker 1: I know everybody's always in need of bullpen arms, right,
Speaker 1: this is not easy, but my word, it's it bad.
Speaker 1: It feels like every person that comes in from the
Speaker 1: bullpen the first thing they do is walk a guy.
Speaker 1: So it's like there's always a man on. It's from
Speaker 1: the sixth inning on down. I think the Mats have
Speaker 1: now blown three leads the eighth inning leads, So on
Speaker 1: one hand, it gives me a little hope that there's
Speaker 1: something going on with this lineup. And it's nice to
Speaker 1: see James Wood and just he his swing is so
Speaker 1: good that just making contact the ball's going to go.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: I mean he had a home run that was a
Speaker 1: missile the other night. I mean it was in the
Speaker 1: It thankfully wasn't low enough that it that it hit
Speaker 1: the wall, but it.
Speaker 2: Left the yard so fast. Man it is.
Speaker 1: He has got such a sweet swing, mister James would
Speaker 1: but boy, this bullpen, man it is it is. If
Speaker 1: I thought the Nats were going to be competitive, I'd.
Speaker 2: Be losing my mind.
Speaker 1: I am relieved that the lineup isn't just garbage. I
Speaker 1: really sort of am enjoying that they find they just
Speaker 1: play baseball, they score, you know, they figure out how
Speaker 1: to put pressure on the other team. In fact, I
Speaker 1: look at the Blue James performance against the Dodgers, and
Speaker 1: I look at the Nats performance against the Dodgers, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, our lineup's not so shitty, but if
Speaker 1: we don't have a bullpen, we're not going to win games.
Speaker 1: And you know what's so frustrating about baseball, right and
Speaker 1: the difference between if you go six and four every
Speaker 1: ten games throughout a season, you might you're gonna come
Speaker 1: close to winning a hundred games, and if you go
Speaker 1: four and six in every ten games, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: close to losing one hundred games, right this Those two
Speaker 1: games a week, right, those two games a week. You
Speaker 1: got to go six and four right every ten games
Speaker 1: in order to make the playoffs. And the difference between
Speaker 1: six and four and four and six every ten games
Speaker 1: is your bullpen.
Speaker 2: It really is.
Speaker 1: It's two things, the bullpen at the bottom of your lineup, right,
Speaker 1: and the good teams. The bottom of the lineup wins
Speaker 1: one of those two games, and the bullpen wins the other.
Speaker 1: And that's the difference between going four and six and
Speaker 1: six and four every ten games. It's why we baseball
Speaker 1: fans love baseball because the difference between great and disaster
Speaker 1: is literally two games out of every ten. It's the
Speaker 1: beauty of baseball and it's the frustration of baseball at times.
Speaker 1: But come on, nat, let's go keep trying to find
Speaker 1: new bullpen arms. Just throw in the miners and bring
Speaker 1: somebody else up. That's all I ask. Just don't keep
Speaker 1: bringing the same people out to walk the guy and
Speaker 1: give up the two run over. Bring out new arms
Speaker 1: to do that. You might stumble into the next ball schemes.
Speaker 1: All right, man, to say, we've had a crazy week
Speaker 1: as usual in an understatement, but do your best to
Speaker 1: have a good weekend. Compartmentalize politics, let people like me
Speaker 1: focus on it. I hope you enjoy your weekend. Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening to podcasts. Don't forget like and subscribe.
Speaker 1: I don't do that enough. I forget to tell people
Speaker 1: and Hey, if you want to break from politics but
Speaker 1: you can't get enough of the dulcet tones of Chuck Todd,
Speaker 1: please sign up for Dynastic with my friend Ja, Donda
Speaker 1: and I in our sports history podcast.
Speaker 2: And with that, I'll see d Monday.