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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. Good morning, everybody,

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Speaker 1: Happy Monday. We have an amazing show for everybody today.

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Speaker 1: What do we have, Chrysal indeed we do so. Finally,

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Speaker 1: this administration has to in some small actions with regards

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Speaker 1: to their response to Reversus Wade being overturned. We have

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Speaker 1: those details for you. Also, looks like Elon is backing

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Speaker 1: away from the big Twitter deal. We'll give you all

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Speaker 1: of those details. I mean, this has been a while coming.

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Speaker 1: He's been dragging his feet and trying to make us

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Speaker 1: a big deal about the bots and whatever. Trump is

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Speaker 1: responding as well, and that's pretty interesting too, so we

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Speaker 1: will tell you all about that. Also, some new developments

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Speaker 1: with regard to Ukraine, new questions about the US strategy.

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Speaker 1: We have President Biden justifying his trip to Saudi Arabia

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Speaker 1: in a new op ed, which is pretty revealing, dramatic

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Speaker 1: turn from what he was saying during the presidential primary,

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Speaker 1: so that is interesting. Also, this is just sort of

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Speaker 1: silly Biden making a gaff in his statement with regards

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Speaker 1: to abortion White House, just blatantly lying to try to

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Speaker 1: cover it up, just not just lying, falsifying the historical records.

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Speaker 1: It's completely nuts. White House trans it is a funny, weird, crazy,

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Speaker 1: very revealing story. We also have an expert on to

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Speaker 1: talk about the assassination of former Prime Minister Abbe in Japan.

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Speaker 1: Insane that this happened. I mean, this is a towering

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Speaker 1: figure in terms of world politics, in terms of Japanese leadership.

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Speaker 1: So all of those details as well. Sager is looking

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Speaker 1: at whether Biden is too old. I am looking at

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Speaker 1: Mayor Pete's future political plans. But we did want to

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Speaker 1: start with that development. The executive Order on abortion from

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Speaker 1: the Biden administration. Let's go ahead and put the details

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Speaker 1: up on the screen here. So finally we did get

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Speaker 1: some specific actions from this White House that has been

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Speaker 1: under great pressure. Still a lot of questions about why

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Speaker 1: this took multiple weeks to come together. Let me read

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Speaker 1: to you a little bit of the details here in

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Speaker 1: terms of what this executive order actually does, which is

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Speaker 1: not a whole lot, to be perfectly honest with you.

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Speaker 1: It says it largely finalizes what's already been announced by

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Speaker 1: the administration, including instructions to the Justice Department to make

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Speaker 1: sure women can travel out of state for abortion care.

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Speaker 1: We've seen some states, including Texas, floating the idea of

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Speaker 1: trying to criminalize anyone helping women to travel out of

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Speaker 1: state for abortion care. It says it addresses the elevated

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Speaker 1: risk for patients, providers, and clinics, which includes efforts to

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Speaker 1: protect mobile clinics that have been deployed to state boarders

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Speaker 1: to offer care for out of state patients. So again

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Speaker 1: trying to protect that ability for women to travel out

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Speaker 1: of state. Biden's actions, the White House said, directs Attorney

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Speaker 1: General Meyrick Garland and the White House Council to convene

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Speaker 1: volunteer lawyers and organizations to encourage robust legal representation of patients, providers,

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Speaker 1: and third parties, so sort of encouraging pro bono lawyers

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Speaker 1: to help people out. And he's also said he'll provide

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Speaker 1: leave for federal workers traveling for medical care, which could

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Speaker 1: set an example for private companies to do the same.

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Speaker 1: So again, nothing too earth shattering here. I think there

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Speaker 1: were some liberal critics of Biden who felt like, at

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Speaker 1: least he's doing something, and the tone of his remarks

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Speaker 1: was a bit more forceful. But in terms of specific action,

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Speaker 1: I mean, we're still there's no there's reporting now that

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Speaker 1: the Biden administration did actually consider declaring a public health emergency.

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Speaker 1: Apparently that's still potentially on the table. I wouldn't hold

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Speaker 1: your on that one. That is certainly not enacted here.

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Speaker 1: No clinics on federal lands, no clarification that Americans can

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Speaker 1: legally transport abortion pills from Canada. That's something the Governor

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Speaker 1: of New York actually wanted. No plan, and this to

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Speaker 1: me is kind of the biggest one. No plan laid

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Speaker 1: out to divide the GOP caucus on exceptions, rape, incest,

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Speaker 1: there are a bunch of votes that could be taken

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Speaker 1: here to codify some of those things into federal law,

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Speaker 1: whichould be very difficult for the Republican Party to deal with.

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Speaker 1: They don't seem to be interested in doing that. At least,

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Speaker 1: there was nothing in this commentary or in these executive

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Speaker 1: orders that would indicate moves in that direction. No encouraging

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Speaker 1: mayors to to do you prioritize abortion crimes for prosecution.

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Speaker 1: No comment on changing the filibuster to allow road to

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Speaker 1: be codified into law either, which was something they had

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Speaker 1: kind of floated, but clearly is not putting any muscle

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Speaker 1: behind at this point. Yeah, I look at it more

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Speaker 1: politically and just would be a sign of I don't

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Speaker 1: know what these people are doing. I mean, once again,

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Speaker 1: if you say this is your number one priority, which

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Speaker 1: they did, if you say this is one of the

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Speaker 1: reasons the should vote you, which you do, you know

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Speaker 1: that's continued to be major the main Democratic message, Like

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Speaker 1: this all you got after almost two weeks. I mean,

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Speaker 1: the public interest in this is already fading in terms

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Speaker 1: of what you see from the Democratic base. There was

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Speaker 1: a big bounce in the original Democratic ballot for the

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Speaker 1: generic polling. You want to capitalize on momentum and try

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Speaker 1: to meet the moment, and they really just don't have much.

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Speaker 1: And in terms of words, you know, from the President himself,

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Speaker 1: it's not exactly inspiring stuff at the press conference that

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Speaker 1: it were not even press conference really just a reading

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Speaker 1: of his executive order. Here's what he had to say.

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Speaker 1: We need two additional pro choice senators and a pro

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Speaker 1: choice House to codify row as federal law. Your vote

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Speaker 1: can make that a reality. I know it's frustrating and

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Speaker 1: it made a lot of people very angry, but the

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Speaker 1: truth is this, and it's not just me saying it.

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Speaker 1: It's what the Court said. When you read the decision,

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Speaker 1: the Court has made clear it will not protect the

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Speaker 1: rights of women, period period. After having made the decision

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Speaker 1: based on a reading of a document that was frozen

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Speaker 1: in time in the eighteen sixties when women didn't even

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Speaker 1: have the right to vote, the Court now now particular practically,

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Speaker 1: there's the women of America to go to the ballot

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Speaker 1: box and restore the very rights they've just taken away.

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Speaker 1: That just highlights what we were saying, which is that

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Speaker 1: that is the central case that they're making for the

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Speaker 1: Senate and for the midterms, and I think the only

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Speaker 1: way that you could do it is to actually show

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Speaker 1: what exactly you would do with said votes. So there's

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Speaker 1: no guarantee, right, I mean, I think that the point

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Speaker 1: you made previously is so important because I don't see

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Speaker 1: any real action by the Senate leadership, either the Democrats

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Speaker 1: or even from the White House try and push some

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Speaker 1: sorts of votes on the floor, which would you rape

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Speaker 1: an insight you could. I mean, looksten, if you can't

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Speaker 1: pass that, that puts Republicans in a very very tough spot. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and you can highlight those types of stories same, I

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Speaker 1: mean even at the you could even go further. Actually,

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Speaker 1: from what I've seen, like fifteen weeks spans are extraord

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Speaker 1: not fifteen weeks. At least, guaranteeing the right quote unquote

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Speaker 1: until fifteen weeks is extraordinary popular. It's like seventy five

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Speaker 1: to eighty percent to be America beat. You could put

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Speaker 1: that on the floor and then force Republicans to say, no,

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Speaker 1: actually I'm against that, which would put you with on

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Speaker 1: the side of like fifteen percent of the population. But

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Speaker 1: they're not even trying to go for an incrementalist approach.

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Speaker 1: I think it's both effecklessness on behalf of the Biden administration.

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Speaker 1: I also do think it's a failure of We've talked

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Speaker 1: about this these major Democratic groups. I mean every day

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Speaker 1: I can't walk down the street here in Washington without

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Speaker 1: some activists from some ACLU or human rights campaign or whatever,

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Speaker 1: like do you have a minute to help codify abortion rights?

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Speaker 1: And it's like, well, I should actually stop and interview them.

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Speaker 1: So what are you gonna do with that? Let's say

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Speaker 1: I'm one of these libs is walking around the city

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Speaker 1: and I hand you twenty in my hard earned dollars.

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Speaker 1: What are you gonna do with this money? Like, what

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Speaker 1: is the point of donating to you? Yeah? I mean listen.

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Speaker 1: In terms of the midterms, do I think abortion is

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Speaker 1: the number one issue for voters? No? Do I think

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Speaker 1: that this could be a highly motivating issue for Democratic

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Speaker 1: voters who've been extraordinarily disappointed and disenchanted with this administry

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Speaker 1: if they actually handle it properly. Yes, they're completely squandering

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Speaker 1: that chance. And that is in the midterms, voter enthusiasm

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Speaker 1: is everything. Obviously, you're gonna have a smaller turnout typically

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Speaker 1: than in presidential years. So whose people show up whose

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Speaker 1: people are motivated to go out to the ballot box.

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Speaker 1: The Democratic message here of vote harder guys is just

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Speaker 1: not super inspiring when voters can rightly look at the

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Speaker 1: fact that you have the presidency, the House, in the

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Speaker 1: Senate like we voted, we did the thing that you

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Speaker 1: asked us to do, and you're telling us like, oh,

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Speaker 1: that wasn't good enough. We still can't really do anything

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Speaker 1: when again, you know, in AOC has been very vocal

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Speaker 1: about this, Elizabeth Warren's been very vocal laying out here

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Speaker 1: are some specific steps you could take, and they spend

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Speaker 1: most of their time either humming and hawing, pushing off

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Speaker 1: any sort of action, in spite of the fact that

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Speaker 1: they had decades and certainly in the past couple of months,

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Speaker 1: weeks after the leak of this opinion to prepare for

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Speaker 1: this moment so that they could have been ready to go.

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Speaker 1: There's a new article two from the Washington Poe most

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Speaker 1: inside this two week delay before they actually got around

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Speaker 1: to doing anything at all. The headline here is two

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Speaker 1: long weeks inside Biden's struggle to respond to abortion ruling.

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Speaker 1: The sub had says many Democrats were dismayed by his

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Speaker 1: slow footed response, but cheered his more forceful tone and

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Speaker 1: actions on Friday. I don't personally really care about the tone.

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Speaker 1: I care about the specifics of what you're planning to do.

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Speaker 1: And it's interesting here because they point to you. There's

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Speaker 1: a couple of really detailed anecdotes in here, one that

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Speaker 1: I'll read for you that just kind of tells the

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Speaker 1: whole story about how flat footed they were caught. First

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Speaker 1: of all, as we've discussed before, they didn't anticipate the timing,

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Speaker 1: which I don't know why. They thought that this was

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Speaker 1: going to come out on a different day and had

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Speaker 1: really sort of bet the farm and planned their whole

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Speaker 1: thing around a different day that this was going to

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Speaker 1: come down. But they were wrong about that, so that

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Speaker 1: was weird. But then they say about four hours after

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Speaker 1: the decision overturning Roe was handed down, the White House

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Speaker 1: emailed numerous abortion rights allies ask them to join a

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Speaker 1: call with top of officials that afternoon to hear more

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Speaker 1: about the Supreme Court ruling and the fight ahead. Those

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Speaker 1: invited expected a fiery call to action, a detailed plan

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Speaker 1: from the White House, a roadmap not just for the

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Speaker 1: immediate aftermath, but for weeks and months ahead instead, what

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Speaker 1: did they actually get? Top White House and administration officials

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Speaker 1: stressed the issue was important to Biden, and they reiterated

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Speaker 1: the actions the President had already outlied earlier that day,

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Speaker 1: including expanding access to the abortion pill protecting women who

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Speaker 1: travel across state lines to get an abortion. The call

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Speaker 1: lasted all of twenty minutes, and officials took no questions,

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Speaker 1: according to an outside advisor was on the call. Afterward,

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Speaker 1: multiple attendees complained to each other that the call was

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Speaker 1: a waste of time and they left feeling deflated. Furthermore,

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Speaker 1: they also reveal in this article that in a recent

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Speaker 1: focus group of Democratic base voters between the ages of

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Speaker 1: twenty five and thirty nine, participants reported also feeling disappointed

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Speaker 1: and discouraged with the White House's response on all of this.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's extremely pathetic. As we've discussed, whatever you

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Speaker 1: think of this decision, this is a monumental sort of

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Speaker 1: turning point in American politics, a truly sort of generation

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Speaker 1: defining decision coming down from the Supreme Court, and their

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Speaker 1: response is a twenty minute like call just sort of

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Speaker 1: reiterating their tired talking points. It really is pathetic. And

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Speaker 1: then to your point, SAG, which I think is an

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Speaker 1: important one about how were these abortion rights groups prepared

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Speaker 1: for this moment. I mean, there isn't a lot of

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Speaker 1: evidence that they were super prepared to take this on either,

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Speaker 1: in spite of this being their entire mission, in spite

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Speaker 1: of having weeks in advance to plan. I also haven't

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Speaker 1: seen them really taking the lead and pushing the White

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Speaker 1: House and coming out, you know, and not just an

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Speaker 1: anonymous clothes to the Washington Post, but really directly saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: here's the plan, here's what we need to do. Let's

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Speaker 1: get on board and instead we'll get to this a minute.

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Speaker 1: The White House is like castigating the left and the

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Speaker 1: activists for daring to push them to do more than

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Speaker 1: the like pathetic response that they've had so far. I

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Speaker 1: just checked, Planned Parenthood in the last couple of months

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Speaker 1: has raised hundreds of millions of dollars two hundred and

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Speaker 1: seventy five million from Mackenzie Scott ex Bezos ex wife alone,

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Speaker 1: just this in the last three months. What are you doing?

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Speaker 1: What are you spending these people's hard earned well, I

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Speaker 1: guess some people's hard earned money on. In addition to

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Speaker 1: Mackenzie Bethos's or Mbeze Keeso Scott's being married to Jeff Bezos. Sure,

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Speaker 1: I guess that seems to be the case so far.

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Speaker 1: That's the thing I don't really understand in all of this,

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Speaker 1: which is that it is just extraordinarily effeckless their response.

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Speaker 1: And it gets me back to looks the you don't

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Speaker 1: have to motivate the entire base. You know, there's a

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Speaker 1: New York Times pool which is gonna be talking about

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Speaker 1: a lot tomorrow, which came out and said that abortion

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Speaker 1: is only the top issue for five percent of the

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Speaker 1: American electorate. However, nine percent of the people are women,

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Speaker 1: as opposed to one percent of those kind of you

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Speaker 1: know of the electorate. So you have, I mean, nine percent,

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Speaker 1: that's not huge, but that's still millions. And if you

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Speaker 1: get those millions to come out and are energized. The

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Speaker 1: evangelicals always were able to dominate, just bite the fact

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Speaker 1: that they were like what twenty percent of the population

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Speaker 1: at best, maybe ten fifteen percent, you know, in terms

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Speaker 1: of the real hardcore ones. But they always came out

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Speaker 1: to vote, and they always came up to what in

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Speaker 1: the primary. They put extraordinary pressure on Republican lawmakers. There

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Speaker 1: is probably some space for a pro choice kind of

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Speaker 1: Democrats first, in order to fill some sort of space

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Speaker 1: in that, especially given that they punched so high in

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Speaker 1: terms of elite power. But I mean, I'm not seeing

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Speaker 1: any mobilization plan well nothing. And the other thing is,

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Speaker 1: I don't even think it's so much about which voters

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Speaker 1: this is the number one issue for I really think

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Speaker 1: it's about an overall picture of incompetence, of you know,

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Speaker 1: being unable to react, being unable to meet the moment,

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Speaker 1: whether it's on this, whether it's on gas prices, whether

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Speaker 1: it's on inflation, whether it's on any myriad of issues

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Speaker 1: and challenges facing the American people. And this is incredibly

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Speaker 1: visceral and high profile issue, and it's one And this

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Speaker 1: is the part that I think is really important is

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Speaker 1: you know, I don't think that for a long time,

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Speaker 1: voters have really expected the Democratic Party to be there

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Speaker 1: on the sort of bread and butter economic issues and

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Speaker 1: be the you know, the Newdale era type of Democrats.

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Speaker 1: But the Democratic Party has said these type of issues,

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Speaker 1: these cultural issues, are the reason that you have to

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Speaker 1: vote for us. These are the reasons that you have

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Speaker 1: to put Democrats in power so that we can do

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Speaker 1: something on these issues. So it's also just a glaring

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Speaker 1: failure in terms of their own explanation of why it's

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Speaker 1: so important to vote for Democrats. It's this clear, glaring

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Speaker 1: failure on an issue that the party itself has prioritized,

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Speaker 1: even if it isn't a top priority for a lot

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Speaker 1: of voters. So listen again, it's very this executive order,

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Speaker 1: it's too late, it's too little. It's that you don't

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Speaker 1: see the political strategy. You don't see a congressional strategy.

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Speaker 1: Maybe that's going to come, but I do not understand

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Speaker 1: how you had weeks and weeks and we're unable to

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Speaker 1: respond in real time and this is the best that

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Speaker 1: you can come up with and things get even worse.

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Speaker 1: So Kamala Harris is actually being pointed to. This is

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Speaker 1: how a sort of desperate people are there, Like maybe

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Speaker 1: Kamala would actually do a better job than Joe on

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Speaker 1: this stuff, which I'll yeah. So she got pressed on

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Speaker 1: something really specific here, which is, you know, when Democrats

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Speaker 1: had super majorities in the past, specifically under Obama, why

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Speaker 1: didn't she caught If I row you could have done it.

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Speaker 1: Then Obama said it was a top priority at the time,

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Speaker 1: and it didn't happen. So she gets asked, not even

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Speaker 1: really pressed, just literally ask the question about whether that

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Speaker 1: was a failure of Democrats in the past. This. Take

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Speaker 1: a listen how she handles that you don't have to

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Speaker 1: abandon your faith, whatever that might be, to agree the

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Speaker 1: government should not be making that decision for a woman.

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Speaker 1: And so that's why I say, let women make those

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Speaker 1: most intimate decisions. Let people make the most intimate decisions

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Speaker 1: that are about what I call heart and home, which

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Speaker 1: includes contraception, which includes same sex marriage. Let them make

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Speaker 1: that and be free to make those decisions without government interference.

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Speaker 1: When you look back, do Democrats fail past Democratic presidents

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Speaker 1: congressional leaders to not codify Roe v. Wade over the

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Speaker 1: past five decades? I think that, to be very honest

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Speaker 1: with you, I do believe that we should have rightly believed,

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Speaker 1: but we certainly believed that certain issues are just settled,

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Speaker 1: certain issues are just settled. Clearly we're not. No, that's right,

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Speaker 1: and that's why I do believe that we are living

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Speaker 1: sadly in real unsettled times. I do believe that we

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Speaker 1: rightly believe what we believe. What does that even mean? Okay,

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Speaker 1: and this is. I mean, any candidate and team worth

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Speaker 1: their salt would know this question is coming. Yes, this

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Speaker 1: is not coming out of nowhere. This is something that

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Speaker 1: has been discussed now since the leak. Initially it came out,

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Speaker 1: this was the immediate question of, well, why didn't you

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Speaker 1: do something about this when you had the power before? Like, okay,

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Speaker 1: we get it. You don't have a super majority now

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Speaker 1: and you can't change the phillbuzzer, mansion, etcetera, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: But y'all have had power before and you didn't use it.

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Speaker 1: So why was it? Because you kind of liked this

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Speaker 1: as a political issue and that that was more important

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Speaker 1: to you to use it as a wedge and as

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Speaker 1: a cudgel than to actually deal with it. And I

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Speaker 1: think it's hard to deny at this point that that

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Speaker 1: was the case. I mean, it's so obvious. Listen. I

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Speaker 1: you know I could give a better answer than that. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, Bob, there have been Republicans in Congress that

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Speaker 1: entire time, and they would have blocked us. And at

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Speaker 1: that time we only had two you know, there were

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Speaker 1: two pro life Democrats. And that's why people need to

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Speaker 1: go out and we have a different party this time.

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Speaker 1: And we're going to make it all happen. Why she

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Speaker 1: did that hard even the Senate at that point, No,

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Speaker 1: she wasn't. She wasn't, So why did she even need

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Speaker 1: to own this? A question for the people who were

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Speaker 1: in the Senate at that time. Boom boom, what's that word?

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Speaker 1: And all I'm looking forward? And that's why we need

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Speaker 1: to elect more Democrats in twenty twenty four? Is it

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Speaker 1: that hard? Somebody said that she is like a person

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Speaker 1: trying to write a book report about a book that

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Speaker 1: she didn't read. And that is exactly like it's every

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Speaker 1: interview extending the five hundred words to as far as possible,

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Speaker 1: or like that Michael Scott thing. And sometimes I just

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Speaker 1: start speaking and I don't know where I'm gonna go.

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Speaker 1: That's exactly how she behaves. She's like a Veep character

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Speaker 1: that has actually come to life. I can't believe that

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Speaker 1: she is the vice president of the United States. And

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Speaker 1: as you pointed out, let's put this up there, which

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Speaker 1: is that now she's in the spotlight because they're trying

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Speaker 1: to elevate her as some sort of Row spokesperson. I

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Speaker 1: mean's just so bizarre. The most untalented person in the

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Speaker 1: entire administration barely capable of forming a sentence, slightly more

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Speaker 1: so than the actual president of the United States. And

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Speaker 1: yet there's no messaging, there's no plan. I mean, she

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Speaker 1: doesn't even seem none of these people seem equipped with

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Speaker 1: meeting a moment in any sort of direction. Lack of leadership,

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Speaker 1: and I think it is just pathetic to watch her.

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Speaker 1: As you said, any person giving an interview knows this

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Speaker 1: is coming. The next time Obama gives an interview, let's

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Speaker 1: watch because you know he's going to get asked this question.

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Speaker 1: He will I would love to hear it. He'll be

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Speaker 1: able to handle it much better. Or even though he's

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Speaker 1: in the hot seedlert, will he lie and off the

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Speaker 1: skate what his actual record is? Absolutely? Will he do

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Speaker 1: a better job than whatever the hell that was political talent?

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Speaker 1: And s hell, yes he does. I mean where again?

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Speaker 1: This New York Times poll that we're going to be

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Speaker 1: talking about tomorrow, which has a million things that are

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Speaker 1: worth digging into, really on both sides the ledger, but

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Speaker 1: one of the numbers there, this is stunning. Ninety four

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Speaker 1: percent of Democrats under the age of thirty say they

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Speaker 1: would prefer a different presidential nominee ninety four percent, because

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Speaker 1: they're looking at this and whether abortion is their number

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Speaker 1: one issue or not. For a lot of I mean

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Speaker 1: a lot of young women in particular, it is an

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Speaker 1: important issue, and they're looking at this and they're like,

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Speaker 1: what are you doing? I mean, you could take random

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Speaker 1: people off the street and they would have better answers

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Speaker 1: to this, and they would have better ideas of how

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Speaker 1: to meet the moment. It really is pretty astonishing, and

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Speaker 1: so to me it is just a sign of how

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Speaker 1: bad the response has been that you're now getting articles

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Speaker 1: like this one like maybe Kamala could do a better

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Speaker 1: job here after we've seen the way that at every

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Speaker 1: moment Kamala Harris has failed to be able to deliver

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Speaker 1: and be able to respond and be able to even

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Speaker 1: be like semi coherent and forceful in an interview such

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Speaker 1: as this, that they would say maybe she would be

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Speaker 1: better than Joe is a pretty bad sign of the times.

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Speaker 1: And then the last piece of this that just really

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Speaker 1: irritated the hell out of me is like, you know,

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Speaker 1: after they're just manifest failures in terms of white House's

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Speaker 1: response to Rowe that were so bad that even Republicans

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Speaker 1: were like this is this is it? This is all

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Speaker 1: you've got? Like, why aren't you trying to divide our caucus?

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Speaker 1: Why aren't you like actually being forceful in any of this?

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Speaker 1: Why is it taking you weeks to respond? So after

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Speaker 1: their manifest failures, who do they blame? Oh, the activists.

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Speaker 1: They make sure to punch left, even on the day

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Speaker 1: when they're issuing this executive order. This is from Kate

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Speaker 1: Bettingfield to actually stepping down as White House Comms Director.

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Speaker 1: But and it's from that article, that Washington Post article

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Speaker 1: that we put up earlier. Their response to questions over

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Speaker 1: the slow response was Joe Biden's goal in responding to

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Speaker 1: Dobbs is not to satisfy some activists who've been consistently

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Speaker 1: out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Okay, listen,

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Speaker 1: it's some two thirds of Americans who are opposed to

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Speaker 1: the overturning of Roe. The Republican position on this is

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Speaker 1: extremely out of mainstream step with the general public, let

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Speaker 1: alone within the Democratic Party. They need their voters, their

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Speaker 1: base voters, to be excited and show up in the

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Speaker 1: fall to make sure that they can keep control of

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Speaker 1: the Senate. And I think the House is you know,

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Speaker 1: that's a done deal. I think it's already gonzo, but

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Speaker 1: maybe you could keep control of the Senate, and you're

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Speaker 1: certainly going to need these people to show up again

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four, and your response is just to

430
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:54,720
Speaker 1: like tell them they suck and tell them to shut

431
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:57,000
Speaker 1: up and go home when they're all, you know, energized

432
00:21:57,040 --> 00:21:59,280
Speaker 1: and trying to push the White House to do something

433
00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:04,280
Speaker 1: anything to respond to this classic classic behavior. And you

434
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:06,840
Speaker 1: can't look at the numbers for Joe Biden, where what

435
00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:09,439
Speaker 1: is a sixty four percent of the Democratic Party itself

436
00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:12,000
Speaker 1: is like, we need a different nominee and say that

437
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:14,280
Speaker 1: this man is behaving in a way that is consistent

438
00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:16,600
Speaker 1: with the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Well, what I

439
00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:18,560
Speaker 1: thought was really odd about this is that these are

440
00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:21,159
Speaker 1: not activists that are really out I mean again, I

441
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:23,119
Speaker 1: do think that some of the activists, you know, the

442
00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:26,680
Speaker 1: groups that are refused to compromise at any in any turn. Sure,

443
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,639
Speaker 1: they're definitely a hindrance to any sort of action. But

444
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:34,399
Speaker 1: considering that your main goal is getting elected based on

445
00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:38,160
Speaker 1: response to rovers's way, because the economy is so terrible

446
00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:40,199
Speaker 1: and you basically have nothing else that you can run on,

447
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:43,320
Speaker 1: I don't really see why that you would be punching

448
00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:46,199
Speaker 1: towards these this direction. This is like punching towards the

449
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,399
Speaker 1: most activated part of your coalition while asking them also

450
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:52,040
Speaker 1: to come out, come vote harder. So you need you

451
00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 1: need to reconcile yourself with Do you ever do you

452
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:58,320
Speaker 1: ever see Republicans shitting on their own basics? No? No,

453
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:01,800
Speaker 1: because they understand the basics of politics. These are your

454
00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:04,159
Speaker 1: people who work for campaigns. These are people who donate

455
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:06,240
Speaker 1: to campaigns. These are people who show up and vote,

456
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:08,480
Speaker 1: and you're telling them like, we hate you, you suck.

457
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,120
Speaker 1: What is going to make them want to turn out

458
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:12,639
Speaker 1: and vote for you and support you? I think that

459
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:14,960
Speaker 1: they're deeply defensive. If I had to guess, which is

460
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:17,440
Speaker 1: that the White House? You know, whenever these people they

461
00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:19,960
Speaker 1: get together, they really do believe in their heads they're

462
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:22,520
Speaker 1: doing the best job they possibly can. They don't understand

463
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:24,920
Speaker 1: the media coverage, by and large that every time you'll

464
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:27,640
Speaker 1: meet somebody who's in power right or left, they all

465
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:29,320
Speaker 1: say some version of the same thing, which is, I

466
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:32,000
Speaker 1: don't understand why people don't understand well what we're doing,

467
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:34,439
Speaker 1: Like the media is being so unfair to us and like,

468
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:36,800
Speaker 1: this is what you don't understand X, Y, and Z.

469
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:39,280
Speaker 1: So they're like, hey, you know, in the past, we've

470
00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:42,359
Speaker 1: punched the activists on defund the police, which was unpopular.

471
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:44,080
Speaker 1: But this is just not the same I mean, it's

472
00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:46,120
Speaker 1: also not the same activist pool, it's not the same

473
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:49,160
Speaker 1: donor group. It's also again just a lack of inability

474
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:52,040
Speaker 1: or it's an inability to meet a moment where you

475
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:54,720
Speaker 1: could actually energize a lot of these folks into getting

476
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,320
Speaker 1: involved into the political system, which is what you would want.

477
00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 1: And you know, as much as I've trashed Planned Parenthood

478
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,920
Speaker 1: and all those groups, these are very powerful organizations who

479
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:06,160
Speaker 1: are on the Democratic Party organizationally. They have a huge

480
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:09,199
Speaker 1: amount of cultural power for young women in particular. So

481
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: I don't know why you. I just don't really get

482
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,359
Speaker 1: the entire strategy behind this. Because if you were going

483
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,720
Speaker 1: to do nothing and pursue like a here here's a

484
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,800
Speaker 1: fight that may be worth picking, which is saying, Okay,

485
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:22,560
Speaker 1: the country's not we're not going to get a Row

486
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,200
Speaker 1: versus Wade codified in the Senate, let's go for twelve

487
00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 1: or fifteen weeks. That would be crazy. I mean, that

488
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,680
Speaker 1: really would put the the activists would freak out because

489
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,200
Speaker 1: they're like, this isn't enough, but that's a seventy five

490
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:34,280
Speaker 1: percent position. Yeah, but you're not in fighting for that,

491
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:36,199
Speaker 1: You're not doing anything. So then it's like, well, what

492
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 1: is the point of being with you at all if

493
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:40,920
Speaker 1: you're going to pursue some sort of centrist like middle

494
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 1: ground road. Fine, I mean I think they actually think

495
00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:44,520
Speaker 1: it'd be very healthy for the country if they try

496
00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:47,200
Speaker 1: to pursue something like that really alienate the most pro

497
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,440
Speaker 1: life and the most pro choice activists and just say, fine,

498
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:51,560
Speaker 1: we're going to go with the most medium position of

499
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:55,640
Speaker 1: what most people are fine with. But they again, they're

500
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:59,520
Speaker 1: the whole strategy. Everything is scrambled by their just complete

501
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:04,200
Speaker 1: failure to do anything. Yeah, it actually creates bad incentives

502
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:06,199
Speaker 1: on every direction because it opens up all sorts of

503
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 1: crazy possibilities on the pro life right, and you know,

504
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,840
Speaker 1: the left becomes just ridorless and unmoored and can go

505
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:15,200
Speaker 1: in very unhelpful directions which would probably even help the

506
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,639
Speaker 1: pro life right. Well, in terms of who are the

507
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:20,680
Speaker 1: activists right now, I mean there are this has been

508
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:23,359
Speaker 1: there been nationwide protests on this issue. There are a

509
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:28,760
Speaker 1: lot of regular mainstream democratic voters who are extremely exercised

510
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 1: over this right now and are marching and demanding the

511
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 1: White House do more. So, you know, their definition of

512
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:38,800
Speaker 1: what is mainstream and the Democratic Party. If they think

513
00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 1: that their sort of lackluster, delayed, flat footed, emotionless, bloodless

514
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:49,359
Speaker 1: response here is in step with the mainstream of the

515
00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:53,440
Speaker 1: Democratic Party, they're just not correct on that whatsoever. And

516
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:55,560
Speaker 1: you know, there's always a lot of talk about Joe

517
00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 1: Biden's strength with African American voters and how they put

518
00:25:58,080 --> 00:25:59,920
Speaker 1: him in the White House. That is the most proach

519
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,560
Speaker 1: choice group of voters if you look by the numbers.

520
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:06,640
Speaker 1: So in terms of like your bedrock key core supporters

521
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 1: and where they want you to be, you're not in

522
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:12,000
Speaker 1: step with them either. So I think again, is this

523
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,320
Speaker 1: the number one issue for a large chunk of Democratic

524
00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 1: based voters. No, does it contribute to an overall picture

525
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:24,840
Speaker 1: of them being flailing, rudderless the great words you just used,

526
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:28,679
Speaker 1: just unable. So they're not only just reacting to events,

527
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,920
Speaker 1: but they're reacting extremely slowly, like in an un an

528
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 1: incomprehensibly slow way, to events as they unfold. Yes, I

529
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,360
Speaker 1: think that's why this issue is really damaging for them.

530
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 1: And has very much opened up the eyes of some

531
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:47,680
Speaker 1: normy vote blue no matter who liberals who have never

532
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:52,199
Speaker 1: really been willing to directly criticize Democratic Party leadership, and

533
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:54,879
Speaker 1: they're looking at this and going, oh, you all were

534
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:56,840
Speaker 1: full of it. You all the things that you said

535
00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 1: you were fighting for, you're not fighting for those things. Yeah, okay,

536
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: let's talk about Elon. This is a big, dizzying story.

537
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:06,720
Speaker 1: So let's try and break it down from the top.

538
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:09,040
Speaker 1: Let's put this up there on the screen, which is

539
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 1: that Elon on July eighth, late in the evening, decided

540
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:16,159
Speaker 1: to file to back out of the Twitter deal. He

541
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 1: said that Twitter has completely obfuscated its business fundamentals, specifically

542
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:24,359
Speaker 1: focusing on bots. He said, Musk was quote terminating the

543
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:27,119
Speaker 1: merger agreement. That was a letter by his legal team

544
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:31,879
Speaker 1: towards the Twitter board. Now what happened immediately afterwards is

545
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:35,200
Speaker 1: almost within ten minutes, Twitter has gone ahead and said

546
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:38,880
Speaker 1: we intend to file suit against Elon Musk in order

547
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 1: to try and close the deal. Now, well, I just

548
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:43,640
Speaker 1: want to focus though on Musk filing. Here's what he said.

549
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,200
Speaker 1: Twitter quote failed or refused to hand over information that

550
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: would help Musk and his team ascertain the true number

551
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,440
Speaker 1: of bots or spam accounts on the social media platform,

552
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,719
Speaker 1: and quote. Sometimes Twitter has ignored mister Musk's requests, sometimes

553
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,200
Speaker 1: it has rejected them for reasons that appeared to be unjustified,

554
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 1: and sometimes Fit claim to comply while giving Musk incomplete

555
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:05,840
Speaker 1: or unusable information. So he is going to have an

556
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:09,440
Speaker 1: extraordinarily difficult time actually getting out of this. Let's put

557
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:12,600
Speaker 1: this next one up there, excellent Wall Street Journal piece,

558
00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 1: which is that this essentially sets the stage crystal for

559
00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 1: probably a decade or more of legal wrangling if that's

560
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 1: actually how it's going to happen. Because here's the issue.

561
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 1: The text of the deal as written says that it's

562
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 1: very difficult for Elon to get out. He has to

563
00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:29,479
Speaker 1: be able to close the deal. Twitter even has a

564
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 1: mechanism within it in which they are able to file

565
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 1: against Must to force him to close the deal per

566
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:36,560
Speaker 1: the terms of the merger agreement, and a lot of

567
00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 1: this is governed by SEC rules and regulations as well.

568
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:43,000
Speaker 1: The problem is that Elon is going to have to

569
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 1: prove that Twitter was in major breach of the contract

570
00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,479
Speaker 1: and prove not only some handwaving around they won't give

571
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 1: me enough information on Boss, so they were knowingly misled him.

572
00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 1: This also was part of the problem in terms of

573
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: his tender offer on Twitter in the first place, is

574
00:28:57,680 --> 00:28:59,640
Speaker 1: he didn't actually do a lot of due diligence on

575
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: the company. He just kind of came out and was like, Hey,

576
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:03,560
Speaker 1: I want to buy it. Yeah, and they were like, okay,

577
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 1: let's do it. So a lot of people pointed out

578
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 1: at the time that they actually could very much work

579
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 1: against him in a court of law because he should

580
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 1: have done a lot of pre deal diligence in terms

581
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 1: of asking for info before he signed a very onerous contract.

582
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 1: That's why Twitter's board is very much in a I

583
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: would say they're in the strongest position now. That being said,

584
00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that they're going to be able to

585
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 1: close this deal. It could just be that they may

586
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 1: force Currently under the contract, Elon has to pay Twitter

587
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 1: a billion dollars no matter what. Now they could actually

588
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 1: get that, you know, to be much higher. But Wall

589
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 1: Street has thought for a long time, and I mean,

590
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 1: you know, the vibe is basically shifted on this, Like

591
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: nobody's been talking about it. Elon his tweets and none

592
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:44,960
Speaker 1: of this have really been engaged in terms of trying

593
00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:47,280
Speaker 1: to actually buy Twitter or talk about Twitter policy now

594
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 1: for the last several months. In that time period, Twitter

595
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 1: itself has been in complete chaos. They're stock, you know,

596
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 1: trading way below the so called purchase price. I think

597
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 1: the money part of this too is very important, which

598
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 1: is that the deal itself was closed right before the crash.

599
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 1: I mean, Elon's net worth is dropped by about sixty

600
00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 1: five billion dollars after he actually closed the deal. The

601
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:12,200
Speaker 1: problem is that a lot of the money that he

602
00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 1: was actually going to use to finance this outside of cash,

603
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:17,640
Speaker 1: was going to be loans against his actual holdings in

604
00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:20,840
Speaker 1: Tesla stock, and Tesla is down pretty significantly as a

605
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:23,680
Speaker 1: result of the crash. And it's not just Tesla specifically,

606
00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:27,160
Speaker 1: it's everybody. The other issue is that Elon after the crash,

607
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:29,080
Speaker 1: was trying to go out and get other people to

608
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:32,320
Speaker 1: basically loan him some money two billion here, one billion here,

609
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 1: five hundred million here. A lot of those cash quip

610
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:36,880
Speaker 1: commitments were just not going to be able to stack

611
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:39,240
Speaker 1: up to forty four billion dollars. So I think that

612
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:41,400
Speaker 1: the money part of this is huge, which is as

613
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:43,760
Speaker 1: long as Elon doesn't have to close the deal right now.

614
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 1: He doesn't have to do some serious financial chicanery in

615
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:48,240
Speaker 1: order to try, because I mean, at the end of

616
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 1: the day, forty four billion dollars is an immense amount

617
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:54,080
Speaker 1: of money, and even for the world's richest man is

618
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 1: worth some two hundred billion. If he had to sell

619
00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:58,640
Speaker 1: all that and for his Teslas, it would crash Tesla,

620
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:01,520
Speaker 1: which is his baby, you know, the foundation of his

621
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: net worth on top of the company. So there's all

622
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,280
Speaker 1: kinds of downstream effects. So I would say that number one,

623
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 1: the money is probably the single most important reason why

624
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:12,800
Speaker 1: this deal is not getting closed at the current rate.

625
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:16,200
Speaker 1: It could be that could be negotiation, genuine concern over

626
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 1: the number of bots on the platform, or what you're

627
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:20,440
Speaker 1: not taking him as well. Kind of seem like a

628
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: BS excuse always from the beginning. I mean, of course

629
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:27,440
Speaker 1: it is always a ruth so that he could hold

630
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:29,120
Speaker 1: out the ability to get try to get out of

631
00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:32,960
Speaker 1: this deal. And you know, it's interesting what you're saying,

632
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,360
Speaker 1: because that does make me realize even if in a

633
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 1: court of law, all the legal experts they quote here

634
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 1: are like, he doesn't really have a light to stand

635
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:43,920
Speaker 1: on that they never see that it is very unusual

636
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:47,840
Speaker 1: for courts to say basically like, oh, you materially misrepresented

637
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:50,320
Speaker 1: something in a way that could blow up this whole deal.

638
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 1: That almost never happens, and it certainly does. He does

639
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:56,360
Speaker 1: not have a strong enough case here with regard to

640
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,680
Speaker 1: the number of bots to be able to really persuade

641
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 1: them that this happened. So but if he could delay

642
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 1: the outcome ultimately, potentially he'll be on firm or financial

643
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 1: footing when this all is ultimately resolved or pay less right,

644
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:14,760
Speaker 1: So maybe that's ultimately the move here, they actually said,

645
00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:16,920
Speaker 1: because the other thing he points to is not just

646
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 1: the bots. They also Twitter, I guess swapped out some executives,

647
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:25,200
Speaker 1: fired a few sort of key executives. And he's also saying, oh,

648
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 1: that was a material change whatever whatever. Legal experts say

649
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 1: that argument's a little bit better. But no one seems

650
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:33,720
Speaker 1: to think that Elon is going to actually be able

651
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 1: to prevail in this fight. But the other question is like, okay,

652
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:42,840
Speaker 1: so let's say he loses what happened, because can you

653
00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: really can you really force him to go through with

654
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:49,880
Speaker 1: the deal. That's not something that's really been done in history.

655
00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 1: So they quote this experts says, what are they going

656
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:53,040
Speaker 1: to do if there's a judgment and he says, well,

657
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:54,960
Speaker 1: I'm still not going to buy it. They don't really

658
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 1: have tools to force him to go through with it.

659
00:32:56,960 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 1: You don't put people in jail because they don't buy something,

660
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 1: So you know, it's there's also a big question of okay,

661
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 1: so what does that ultimately look like if Twitter is

662
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 1: successful in a court of law, because they can't really

663
00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 1: force him to do it if he's not willing to

664
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 1: do it. So maybe they just say settle on a

665
00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,640
Speaker 1: lower price. Maybe there's a bigger breakup fee. Who knows.

666
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,240
Speaker 1: I think this is going to be. As you pointed out,

667
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 1: this is going to be a long time before this

668
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 1: all ultimately. So the last time that anything even remotely

669
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:26,760
Speaker 1: close this happened was Apollo Global Management, which is a

670
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 1: hedge fund, was ordered by a Delaware judge to buy

671
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,200
Speaker 1: a close a six point five billion dollar deal to

672
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 1: Huntsman Corp. Which is a chemical maker, after they tried

673
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 1: to back out. Ultimately, the two sides settled and Apollo

674
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:40,960
Speaker 1: agreed to not take over the company and just pay

675
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,240
Speaker 1: them a hefty fee instead. So look, a decade from now,

676
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 1: it's very possible that that could be the case. And

677
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: you know, like you said, there's no just prudence to

678
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:51,480
Speaker 1: just force somebody to buy something. At best, I think

679
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,120
Speaker 1: they can hope for a multi billion dollar payout kind

680
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 1: of for their trouble and for the hit to their

681
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,600
Speaker 1: stock and all of that damages, et cetera, and then

682
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 1: try to move forward from that. Although so maybe he

683
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:02,240
Speaker 1: will just buy the company or try to buy the

684
00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 1: company at some twenty five billion valuation instead. Yeah, that's

685
00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: probably the best case scenario. I mean, I also suspect

686
00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:10,120
Speaker 1: the money is definitely a key piece of this. I

687
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:13,880
Speaker 1: also suspect because the few ideas that he floated, and

688
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:16,520
Speaker 1: like the little PowerPoint or whatever presentation he put together,

689
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:19,799
Speaker 1: this was not really well flushed out, and so I

690
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:23,880
Speaker 1: think he probably realized this was a much larger can

691
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:26,960
Speaker 1: of worms and time suck and way more complicated than

692
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,160
Speaker 1: he initially thought. So I think it lost some of

693
00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:32,360
Speaker 1: it's you know, the bloom was off the rows pretty

694
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,479
Speaker 1: quickly in terms of making this deal, of this deal

695
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:37,880
Speaker 1: being enticing to him Toowitter was never a great business.

696
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a semi profitable company. Yes, it's worth

697
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:43,040
Speaker 1: a lot of money, but he wanted to triple their profits,

698
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 1: which is extraordinarily difficult. Just add revenue based business. Right now,

699
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:50,200
Speaker 1: Snapchat's down like seventy five percent or whatever in revenue,

700
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,440
Speaker 1: relying one hundred percent on ads. It's not going to

701
00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:54,120
Speaker 1: work out for you in a downturn, which is what

702
00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:56,759
Speaker 1: we're in now for at least a prolonged period. So

703
00:34:56,840 --> 00:34:58,719
Speaker 1: even the hit to their core business on top of

704
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 1: whatever cockaminy schemes he had cooked up, it was going

705
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:03,560
Speaker 1: to be difficult no matter what, to try and close

706
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:05,600
Speaker 1: the deal. Let's go to the next part here, which

707
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 1: is kind of hilarious. Donald Trump trumpeting see what I

708
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:13,080
Speaker 1: did there in his truth Social alternative. Let's put this

709
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:16,000
Speaker 1: up there on the screen. He was at a rally

710
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:19,520
Speaker 1: in Alaska speaking out against Lisa Murkowski and on behalf

711
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:21,919
Speaker 1: of Sarah Palin, who was running for Congress by the way,

712
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:25,400
Speaker 1: undercovered story, and he lashed out at Elon Musk and

713
00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:29,520
Speaker 1: the quote rotten Twitter deal. He actually derided Musk on

714
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:33,200
Speaker 1: the stage as a quote bullshit artist and said that

715
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,000
Speaker 1: he does this guy, he was faking what he was doing,

716
00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 1: and went ahead to promote truth Social as the real alternative,

717
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 1: which is especially hilarious. Let's put this on the screen, though,

718
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,840
Speaker 1: which is that in terms of how it impacts Trump

719
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: and the Trump Truth Social it is both a gift

720
00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:53,040
Speaker 1: to the company at a time when it's suffering let's

721
00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:56,440
Speaker 1: just say, significant legal trouble in terms of the SEC.

722
00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:59,719
Speaker 1: But also it really throws them into chaos because they

723
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 1: really didn't know how they were going to navigate the

724
00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:05,680
Speaker 1: future of truth Social, which right now is in a

725
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 1: big battle with the SEC. And within Trump world, they

726
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:13,240
Speaker 1: were already battling to Twitter alternatives. There was Jason Miller,

727
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:15,919
Speaker 1: who was a former Trump I think communications director from

728
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. He had the Getter platform, which has all

729
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,080
Speaker 1: this weird like Chinese financing. And then there's truth Social,

730
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:25,759
Speaker 1: which was itself launched through a spack. But now let's

731
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,600
Speaker 1: throw this next part up there, please. Trump himself is

732
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:33,960
Speaker 1: going after Elon Musk in addition to because of the

733
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:38,080
Speaker 1: fact that Elon had actually trumpeted Ron DeSantis. This was

734
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:41,560
Speaker 1: a good pull from Maggie Haberman, who noticed that, you know,

735
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,799
Speaker 1: Trump has been especially annoyed with Elon Musk recently, not

736
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:48,280
Speaker 1: only for upstaging truth Social, but because Trump because Elon

737
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:50,600
Speaker 1: had praised Ron DeSantis and said he would have voted

738
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:52,719
Speaker 1: for him. In twenty twenty four, he had said also

739
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:54,759
Speaker 1: he voted for Joe Biden, and then he thought that

740
00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 1: Trump was too divisive and then just put a cap

741
00:36:57,160 --> 00:37:00,640
Speaker 1: on everything. As always with Trump it you remember, it's

742
00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:03,160
Speaker 1: always about the money. Throw this up there on the screen, please,

743
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:06,279
Speaker 1: which is that Trump and his son had to be

744
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:10,880
Speaker 1: removed from the Truth Socials board weeks before federal subpoenas

745
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,880
Speaker 1: were hit with the company over potential SEC violations with

746
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:17,560
Speaker 1: going public as a spack in the first place, and

747
00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:19,719
Speaker 1: the multi billion dollar stock and all of that that

748
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,239
Speaker 1: was involved with the deal. So lots going on here,

749
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:25,840
Speaker 1: christ Yeah, in terms of the Trump story against Elon

750
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:28,920
Speaker 1: for political reasons, for business reasons, while he has his

751
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:32,480
Speaker 1: own business being investigated. It's like he has always an

752
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:35,120
Speaker 1: there's always an angle. I mean his saying like this

753
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:37,399
Speaker 1: is this guy's another bullshit artist. I guess it takes

754
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:40,880
Speaker 1: them to no one. He recognizes the he recognizes the

755
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:44,879
Speaker 1: ploys here, and he complained because remember Elon had said like, oh,

756
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: I've never voted for a Republican, but he voted for

757
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:49,560
Speaker 1: that lady in South Texas, Myra Floras. Oh that's what

758
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:52,040
Speaker 1: Well that was after but yeah, yeah, but anyway, and

759
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:53,880
Speaker 1: Trump was like, oh, he said he never voted for

760
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 1: a Republican, but he must have lied to me because

761
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 1: he said he voted for me. Who knows who's telling

762
00:37:57,680 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 1: the truth of that one. I would not wait for

763
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 1: a bit either one of these men. But yeah, I mean,

764
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:06,080
Speaker 1: he's got a personal financial interest in this Twitter deal

765
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:07,880
Speaker 1: falling apart. I'm sure he's very happy to see it.

766
00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:12,480
Speaker 1: And number two, he's got a political interest because Elon

767
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,200
Speaker 1: obviously is like one hundred million followers on Twitter and

768
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:18,560
Speaker 1: his own little cult of personality around him as well,

769
00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:22,400
Speaker 1: so he's very influential around a certain group of people

770
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:25,000
Speaker 1: in the country. And so the fact that he was

771
00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:27,759
Speaker 1: saying floating like yeah, maybe Ron de Santis in twenty

772
00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:31,080
Speaker 1: twenty four, I'm sure Trump was not too happy about that. No, daughter,

773
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:34,279
Speaker 1: there we go. Interesting little war of words here. It's

774
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:36,400
Speaker 1: interesting to me because I think Trump could sense that

775
00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:38,640
Speaker 1: Elon was kind of stealing his energy and for a

776
00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:41,239
Speaker 1: while had been the I don't even know how to

777
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:44,200
Speaker 1: describe it, like the big bad in politics and the media,

778
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 1: and that was really, I mean, ultimately, that's what most

779
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:48,480
Speaker 1: Republican voters care about. And at the end of the day,

780
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:50,840
Speaker 1: the reason Trump probably cared the most is because Elon

781
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,799
Speaker 1: was stealing attention not only away from him personally as

782
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:56,600
Speaker 1: a brand, from his business, which was the whole reason

783
00:38:56,719 --> 00:39:00,160
Speaker 1: debt for even starting truth Social in the first place. Like,

784
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:02,080
Speaker 1: what's the whole point if Twitter was going to be

785
00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:04,520
Speaker 1: run by you know, a right wing or center right

786
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:07,839
Speaker 1: billionaire and who wanted a commitment to free speech, which

787
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 1: is the whole selling platform of truth Social in the

788
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:12,440
Speaker 1: first place. Despite the fact though that they deplatform like

789
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:15,400
Speaker 1: January sixth, talk and anything else that isn't friendly to

790
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:18,839
Speaker 1: the Trump family, which is means they have control over

791
00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:21,040
Speaker 1: what people, what speech is allowed, and what's not allowed.

792
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:23,359
Speaker 1: The dumbest com it's like, that's the line, guys, from

793
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:26,920
Speaker 1: terms of content moderation whatever. And so the important update

794
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:30,120
Speaker 1: on the social media platform, which, for better or for

795
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:34,360
Speaker 1: l governs the way that most elites talk about all politics,

796
00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:37,279
Speaker 1: not even politics, a culture everything, so kicks very much

797
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:38,880
Speaker 1: above its weight, even though not a lot of people

798
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:44,160
Speaker 1: are on it. Let's talk about Ukraine. So lots of

799
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:46,800
Speaker 1: big developments in Ukraine over the last couple of days.

800
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:48,920
Speaker 1: Of course, we saw that the Ukrainians have been withdrawing

801
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:51,600
Speaker 1: from major strategic towns in the East. But there are

802
00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:55,279
Speaker 1: new assessments coming out of Washington with deep fears about

803
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:57,880
Speaker 1: what the future looks like in this prolonged, you know,

804
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:01,240
Speaker 1: a war of attrition, both wearing down of the Russian

805
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:03,799
Speaker 1: side and of the Ukrainian side. Actually, some reporting coming

806
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:06,520
Speaker 1: out this morning the Russians may have lost twenty five

807
00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:09,840
Speaker 1: thousand troops so far killed in action of the initial

808
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 1: invasion first of three hundred thousand, and that's all I mean,

809
00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:15,480
Speaker 1: that's big, yeah, And that's almost ten percent of the

810
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 1: troops who have been killed in action, not to mention wounded,

811
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 1: because right now they're going all over the country trying

812
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:24,040
Speaker 1: to It's a secret mobilization is what people are calling it,

813
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:26,400
Speaker 1: because they're trying to do kind of a secret recruiting

814
00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 1: drive in order to replenish the number of troops. I

815
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:31,279
Speaker 1: talked previously about how Russia has a tremendous amount of

816
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:34,720
Speaker 1: conscripts available, tens of millions of people if they wanted

817
00:40:34,719 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 1: to ever do some sort of full scale mobilization. So

818
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:39,440
Speaker 1: it's always important to remember the manpower is definitely on

819
00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 1: their side if they want it to be. But they're

820
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:43,759
Speaker 1: constrained a little bit politically right now in terms of

821
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:46,799
Speaker 1: what's being leaked out, this is probably the single most

822
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:49,120
Speaker 1: concerning one that I saw. Let's flow this up there

823
00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:51,600
Speaker 1: on the screen, which is that you guys might have

824
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:56,080
Speaker 1: seen that recent barbaric missile strike by Russia on a

825
00:40:56,160 --> 00:41:00,440
Speaker 1: civilian shopping mall in Now what people are winning to

826
00:41:00,719 --> 00:41:04,840
Speaker 1: is that actually that missile strike may actually suggest Moscow

827
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 1: is running very low on precision weaponry and that increasingly

828
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:11,759
Speaker 1: is turning to the less sophisticated armaments which could hit

829
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:15,200
Speaker 1: unintended targets. Being going back thirty forty years in the

830
00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:18,760
Speaker 1: history of warfare, well, the problem with that is that

831
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:22,920
Speaker 1: that potentially could lead to an unintentional strike across the

832
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:27,799
Speaker 1: border in Poland or Romania. Remember, Russia is not just

833
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 1: hitting targets in Kiev or in eastern Ukraine. They are

834
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:36,520
Speaker 1: targeting specifically armament shipments from the west, So for example Leviv,

835
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:39,120
Speaker 1: which is right there on the border with Poland. If

836
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:42,399
Speaker 1: just one a missile goes the wrong way because it's

837
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:45,319
Speaker 1: not guided properly, because the commander doesn't know what he's doing,

838
00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:48,600
Speaker 1: because whoever this conscript is who shoots it doesn't know

839
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:51,919
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't calibrate it exactly correctly. It could

840
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:53,880
Speaker 1: go off course by ten miles, and now we're in

841
00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:57,359
Speaker 1: a whole other situation. This increasingly is also risky, as

842
00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:00,320
Speaker 1: Russia is going to continue to target Western armage shipment,

843
00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:03,239
Speaker 1: specifically as they were trying to do or supposedly said

844
00:42:03,239 --> 00:42:06,279
Speaker 1: they were trying to do so in Kiev in the

845
00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:09,319
Speaker 1: first place, and even in the most eastern parts or

846
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:11,759
Speaker 1: in the western parts of the country. So that's very,

847
00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:15,040
Speaker 1: very concerning. You found this quote, Crystal in the New

848
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:17,920
Speaker 1: York Times story from a Ukrainian as well, who are

849
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:20,799
Speaker 1: getting really disillusioned right now with the efforts. Yeah, I mean,

850
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:22,319
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of talk about what do

851
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 1: the Ukrainians want, and they want to continue fighting, so

852
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,520
Speaker 1: we have to back them up. But there are some

853
00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:31,000
Speaker 1: signs that at least some Ukrainians, as the reality of

854
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:35,120
Speaker 1: this conflict seeps in, and especially those who are in

855
00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 1: the hardest hit conflict zones in the eastern part of

856
00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:42,239
Speaker 1: the state, they are having regrets that there were not

857
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:47,320
Speaker 1: more serious negotiations to avoid this entire disaster. Let's go

858
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:49,759
Speaker 1: ahead and put this up on the screen. They have

859
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:53,120
Speaker 1: a quote from one resident in that region who says, outright,

860
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 1: we should have negotiated, we should have made concessions on

861
00:42:56,200 --> 00:42:58,520
Speaker 1: both sides, because it won't lead to anything good. We

862
00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:01,040
Speaker 1: have to agree somehow, but we have to let there

863
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:04,200
Speaker 1: be big financial losses or some other international relations, but

864
00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 1: we must find an agreement. We live in the twenty

865
00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:10,120
Speaker 1: first century, and you know, sager to the point about

866
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:13,480
Speaker 1: shopping mall and the sort of like possibility of unintentional

867
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:16,680
Speaker 1: bombings of NATO allies and how terrifying that is and

868
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:18,880
Speaker 1: what the you know what that could ultimately lead to

869
00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:23,400
Speaker 1: based on our Article five obligations there. I think it's

870
00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:26,880
Speaker 1: very easy, as a story story like this drags on,

871
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 1: as a horrific, brutal, bloody, murderous conflict like this drags on,

872
00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:34,000
Speaker 1: as we're very insulated from it here in the West,

873
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:36,759
Speaker 1: to sort of forget about the risks and just how

874
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 1: dangerous and fraud a situation it is, and how quickly

875
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:43,359
Speaker 1: it could escalate, how quickly something could happen that could

876
00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:45,799
Speaker 1: cause this thing to spin out of control in a

877
00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:50,440
Speaker 1: direction that no one, not here, not you know, in Europe,

878
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:54,320
Speaker 1: not anywhere, wants it to ultimately go in. So it

879
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:58,440
Speaker 1: is really important that we always continue to remember just

880
00:43:58,560 --> 00:44:00,759
Speaker 1: how close to the edge we are here and how

881
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:05,560
Speaker 1: close we are to a direct conflict with another nuclear superpower.

882
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:08,560
Speaker 1: And so, you know, this individual who they quote in

883
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:11,960
Speaker 1: the eastern part of Ukraine saying, listen, we should have negotiated,

884
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:14,200
Speaker 1: we should have tried to avoid this. I think this

885
00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:17,120
Speaker 1: is the hard reality that's going to increasingly be setting in,

886
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:19,719
Speaker 1: not only for Ukrainians, but for you know, people here

887
00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:22,960
Speaker 1: in the US as well, because for a war to

888
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:27,080
Speaker 1: go on and on and on, a horrible, grinding stalemate,

889
00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:31,719
Speaker 1: with these indiscriminate weapons that are increasingly hitting civilians, this

890
00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:33,759
Speaker 1: is a horror. This is a horror for the people

891
00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:37,120
Speaker 1: of Ukraine. For this war to basically last indefinitely, which

892
00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:40,640
Speaker 1: continues to effectively be you know, the US and our

893
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:43,600
Speaker 1: UK allies, that continues to be our position. Yeah. And

894
00:44:43,640 --> 00:44:46,440
Speaker 1: there's actually a former general, Brigadier general wrote a very

895
00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 1: interesting piece in the New York in the Wall Street Journals.

896
00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:50,520
Speaker 1: So it is up there on the screen. He was

897
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:55,080
Speaker 1: actually an Assistant Secretary of State also under the Obama administration.

898
00:44:55,239 --> 00:44:57,319
Speaker 1: What they point to and what he points to here

899
00:44:57,680 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 1: is that the West Ukraine strategy will mean a prolonged

900
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,560
Speaker 1: and a bloody stalemate. NATO is committed to support for

901
00:45:02,640 --> 00:45:05,520
Speaker 1: quote as long as it takes not to win, only

902
00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:08,240
Speaker 1: to stave off Russian victory. And so what they're pointing

903
00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:11,680
Speaker 1: to in this is that recent changes in Russian operations

904
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:14,200
Speaker 1: suggest they are making a transition from maneuver war to

905
00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:17,600
Speaker 1: artillery war. No longer relying on modern day lightning strikes,

906
00:45:17,719 --> 00:45:20,799
Speaker 1: the Ukrainians are using recently arrived natosystems with far more

907
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:23,400
Speaker 1: range and precision targets, while the Russians are taking a

908
00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:27,480
Speaker 1: tactical pause after their recent victory in Severino Duniets. However,

909
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:30,879
Speaker 1: rather than win through this maneuver, the goal is now

910
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 1: to win through exhaustion. Both mister Putin and President Zelenski

911
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:37,479
Speaker 1: seek to wear the other side down, and the NATO

912
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:42,560
Speaker 1: promise of indefinite resupply to offset the Russian artillery advantage

913
00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:46,000
Speaker 1: will likely result in an even more static front line.

914
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:48,839
Speaker 1: So what does that mean? More grinding up against each other.

915
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:51,560
Speaker 1: It's called dan Carlin famously referred to it as the

916
00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:54,640
Speaker 1: meat grinder in his Blueprint for Arna mcgeddon World War

917
00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:57,640
Speaker 1: One podcast. This is very analogous, obviously not the same

918
00:45:57,760 --> 00:45:59,520
Speaker 1: in terms of the casualties or the horror, but you

919
00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:01,799
Speaker 1: know one that is still horrific and still a lot

920
00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:06,480
Speaker 1: of casualties. So this is important also is to then see, Okay,

921
00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:10,600
Speaker 1: is it working? Is our strategy grinding the Russians down?

922
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:13,320
Speaker 1: Are they anywhere close to giving up? Now? Should you

923
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:15,120
Speaker 1: believe Putin all the time? And is he a bullshit

924
00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 1: artist in his own right? Absolutely? But let's blow this

925
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 1: up there on the screen. Here's what he's telling the

926
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:23,359
Speaker 1: Russian people. He says, Russia has barely started its action.

927
00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:26,160
Speaker 1: He says, quote, it is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people,

928
00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:28,880
Speaker 1: but it looks like it's heading in that direction. Everybody

929
00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:32,120
Speaker 1: should know that, largely speaking, we have not even started

930
00:46:32,239 --> 00:46:36,480
Speaker 1: yet anything. In earnest, he declared, Russia remains steady and

931
00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:39,360
Speaker 1: ready to sit down for talks and the fighting, adding

932
00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:41,680
Speaker 1: that those who refuse to do so should know that

933
00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:44,759
Speaker 1: the longer it lasts, the more difficult it will be

934
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:47,680
Speaker 1: for them to make a deal with us. We are

935
00:46:47,719 --> 00:46:50,000
Speaker 1: hearing that they want to defeat us on the battlefield.

936
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:54,440
Speaker 1: Putin says, scoffs let them try. So. He is showing

937
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:57,800
Speaker 1: you very clearly he doesn't give you know, he doesn't

938
00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:00,799
Speaker 1: care about the strategy now, of course is suffering. They've

939
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:02,840
Speaker 1: got an eight percent or so reduction, but they have

940
00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:05,640
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of cars that they can play right now.

941
00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:09,720
Speaker 1: I did my monologue last week on July seventh about

942
00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:13,080
Speaker 1: the upcoming shutdown of the nord Stream pipeline. That pipeline

943
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:16,880
Speaker 1: officially shut down today actually, and just to show you

944
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:19,440
Speaker 1: that Western resolve isn't what it is. One of the

945
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:22,279
Speaker 1: reasons that they had been trouble with the Russian said

946
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:24,520
Speaker 1: that one of the reasons that gas has already been

947
00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:27,000
Speaker 1: shut by almost sixty percent to Germany is, hey, we

948
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,960
Speaker 1: can't get some of these turbines which we ordered from Canada,

949
00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:32,799
Speaker 1: and Germany has put tremendous amount of pressure which the

950
00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:36,040
Speaker 1: Canadians have just acceded to to actually ship those turbines

951
00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:39,800
Speaker 1: to Russia to keep the gas flow from Russia to Germany.

952
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:42,759
Speaker 1: So Germany is like, listen, we need the gas. They're

953
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:46,719
Speaker 1: basically going to do anything that effectively means by giving

954
00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:49,399
Speaker 1: them that wind turbine or that a gas turbine, they

955
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:53,360
Speaker 1: are basically committing to hundreds of billions of dollars more

956
00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:56,160
Speaker 1: to the Russian regime at a time when gas is

957
00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:58,800
Speaker 1: sky high. So on the one hand, they're shipping weapons

958
00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:01,640
Speaker 1: to Ukraine NATO is on the other hand, the centerpiece

959
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:04,920
Speaker 1: of the European continent's NATO power is sending hundreds of

960
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:09,279
Speaker 1: billions of euros a month over to Russia to finance them.

961
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:13,120
Speaker 1: On top of exactly as we predicted, the Biden administration

962
00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:16,120
Speaker 1: came out over the weekend with their so called cap

963
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:18,560
Speaker 1: on Russian oil and guess what. The Indians were like, Yeah,

964
00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:21,560
Speaker 1: we're good, We're We're not gonna do that. Yeah, yeah, okay,

965
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:25,200
Speaker 1: so it didn't work. The Indians were like, we're just

966
00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:27,239
Speaker 1: going to keep buying it at the current rate because

967
00:48:27,239 --> 00:48:29,279
Speaker 1: we're actually making a killing by not just buying it

968
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 1: for us, but selling it back to you. Yeah. First,

969
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:33,520
Speaker 1: so why would we cap the price when we're making

970
00:48:33,560 --> 00:48:35,440
Speaker 1: billions of dollars a year and our people are actually

971
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:38,280
Speaker 1: getting cheap oil when the rest of the world is suffering.

972
00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:40,360
Speaker 1: The Chinese also are not committing to do it, you

973
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:42,960
Speaker 1: know why, because they actually have a geopolitical commitment to

974
00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:45,400
Speaker 1: supporting Russia, and also they also like cheap gas like

975
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:50,160
Speaker 1: everybody else. So the scheme on oil failed. The gas

976
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:53,879
Speaker 1: scheme is completely failing. If anything, Europe is becoming even

977
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:56,920
Speaker 1: more reliant on Russian gas, like begging and pleating the

978
00:48:57,000 --> 00:48:59,200
Speaker 1: Russians not to cut them off. So the resolve of

979
00:48:59,239 --> 00:49:01,319
Speaker 1: the West is not doing so hot right now at

980
00:49:01,360 --> 00:49:02,799
Speaker 1: this time. Yeah, and we're going to talk in the

981
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:05,920
Speaker 1: next block about how I mean, this conflict has also

982
00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:10,240
Speaker 1: completely upended Biden's stated priorities and foreign policy with regards

983
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:13,960
Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia too, and has you know, forced their

984
00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:17,000
Speaker 1: hand on that issue. It's certainly exacerbating the climate crisis.

985
00:49:17,320 --> 00:49:20,680
Speaker 1: And by the way, as Sager is pointing out, as

986
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:23,520
Speaker 1: we've pointed out many times, you're not having the effect

987
00:49:23,600 --> 00:49:25,879
Speaker 1: you wanted to have in terms of like bleeding the

988
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:29,960
Speaker 1: Russian regime, Putin's regime dry. They are making bank and

989
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:33,400
Speaker 1: they're you know, holding out just fine. This There's another

990
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:36,520
Speaker 1: piece of this which we also have covered, which is

991
00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:41,280
Speaker 1: just how little dissent is allowed on this policy in

992
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:43,160
Speaker 1: the US. I don't know if you saw Jackson Hinkle,

993
00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:46,520
Speaker 1: who no fan of ours, but whatever, his YouTube channel

994
00:49:46,560 --> 00:49:50,600
Speaker 1: was completely demonetized really because of his because of what

995
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:56,080
Speaker 1: he says on Ukraine and on Russia, so permanently demonetized

996
00:49:56,120 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 1: on YouTube because of what he says on Ukraine and Russia.

997
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:00,480
Speaker 1: Noam Chomsky has a bunch of quotes about how this

998
00:50:00,600 --> 00:50:04,560
Speaker 1: is the worst censorship and manufacturing of consent that he's

999
00:50:04,600 --> 00:50:07,080
Speaker 1: ever seen. And one thing that he points to is

1000
00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:10,239
Speaker 1: the fact that you know, you're not even allowed and

1001
00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:12,319
Speaker 1: this is the official policy of YouTube and a lot

1002
00:50:12,360 --> 00:50:15,000
Speaker 1: of other platforms. You're not even allowed to hear what

1003
00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:17,920
Speaker 1: the Russian media is saying and what Putin is saying

1004
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:21,279
Speaker 1: outside of the pieces that the Western media finds to

1005
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:24,799
Speaker 1: be useful for their own propaganda. So it is incredibly

1006
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:29,160
Speaker 1: dangerous even to just question, like, hey, guys, how about

1007
00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:32,120
Speaker 1: some diplomacy. Wouldn't that be good to actually try to

1008
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:36,000
Speaker 1: end this war, To question the Biden administration, and you know,

1009
00:50:36,040 --> 00:50:40,359
Speaker 1: their strategy along with the UK is extraordinarily dangerous and

1010
00:50:40,600 --> 00:50:45,399
Speaker 1: very fraught, even in circles that are supposedly anti war.

1011
00:50:45,520 --> 00:50:48,399
Speaker 1: I mean, everyone should be invested in wanting this war

1012
00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:49,759
Speaker 1: to come to a close. And that's the thing that

1013
00:50:49,800 --> 00:50:52,200
Speaker 1: I want people to understand is I think that is

1014
00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:55,319
Speaker 1: the overwhelming priority of the American people. That is not

1015
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:58,759
Speaker 1: the priority of this administration. So they are not representing

1016
00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:01,360
Speaker 1: your interests in what you would like to see in

1017
00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:04,640
Speaker 1: terms of trying to push for a resolution to this conflict.

1018
00:51:04,640 --> 00:51:06,920
Speaker 1: Not that I think that that would be easy to accomplish,

1019
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:09,000
Speaker 1: but they are not pushing in that direction at all.

1020
00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:12,960
Speaker 1: So this is a kind of parable of the situation.

1021
00:51:13,040 --> 00:51:16,279
Speaker 1: So Quincy Institute for Responsible Warcraft, who we talk to

1022
00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:18,680
Speaker 1: a lot here, Doctor treat de Parsi, of course, is

1023
00:51:18,719 --> 00:51:22,440
Speaker 1: with Quincy. This article for Mother Jones says they America's

1024
00:51:22,440 --> 00:51:26,280
Speaker 1: top anti warcink tank. That is, Quincy is fracturing over Ukraine,

1025
00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:28,880
Speaker 1: an internal battle over the US response to Russia prompts

1026
00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:32,800
Speaker 1: resignations from the Quincy Institute. There were several sort of

1027
00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:38,120
Speaker 1: high profile resignations. One of them publicly said that Quincy

1028
00:51:38,200 --> 00:51:41,960
Speaker 1: is taking what they describe as an indefensible, morally bankrupt

1029
00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:45,040
Speaker 1: position on Ukraine. This is clearly an unprovoked invasion, and

1030
00:51:45,080 --> 00:51:48,280
Speaker 1: somehow Quincy keeps justifying it. Now listen, I can't claim

1031
00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:50,160
Speaker 1: to have seen every word that they've put out on

1032
00:51:50,160 --> 00:51:52,319
Speaker 1: the subject, or what every expert there is saying on

1033
00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:53,920
Speaker 1: the subject, but I can tell you when we talk

1034
00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:59,080
Speaker 1: to doctor Parsy, he is not justifying Russia's invasion. Whatsoever

1035
00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:04,040
Speaker 1: is the US response one hundred percent as he should be,

1036
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:06,680
Speaker 1: and as there should be at least one voice in

1037
00:52:06,719 --> 00:52:10,000
Speaker 1: this town on the left doing so. The fact that

1038
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:13,040
Speaker 1: you know, to call for diplomacy and to push for

1039
00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:15,880
Speaker 1: some attempt to end this conflict and have a resolution

1040
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:17,880
Speaker 1: of this conflict, that this is like an out of

1041
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:21,600
Speaker 1: bounds position at what is supposed to be an anti

1042
00:52:21,640 --> 00:52:24,560
Speaker 1: war think tank, is a pretty extraordinary state of event.

1043
00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:26,759
Speaker 1: I wouldn't even describe as left. I would say the

1044
00:52:26,800 --> 00:52:30,399
Speaker 1: realist position has quite a bit of right left, Yes,

1045
00:52:30,840 --> 00:52:33,880
Speaker 1: right right, and I mean defense priorities. There's long been

1046
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 1: libertarian organizations here in Washington, and they've always been subject

1047
00:52:38,320 --> 00:52:41,879
Speaker 1: to accusations of being Russian stooges. I covered this a lot,

1048
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:43,360
Speaker 1: I think even on Rising. It is one of the

1049
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:46,360
Speaker 1: last things that we did about the Atlantic Council was

1050
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:49,799
Speaker 1: a complete meltdown because there was like two people there

1051
00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:52,280
Speaker 1: who were Coke funded, who said, Hey, maybe we should

1052
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:55,359
Speaker 1: have a semi non hawkish policy towards Russia. And they're like, oh,

1053
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:58,800
Speaker 1: my god, to be forced to common stooges, Yeah, Gremlin stooges.

1054
00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:02,319
Speaker 1: And I think it's deeply sad that this is happening. Look,

1055
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:04,920
Speaker 1: I think that in this country. We should have a

1056
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:09,200
Speaker 1: robust debate all the time, especially amongst the elites. One

1057
00:53:09,239 --> 00:53:11,360
Speaker 1: of the things that I despise most about them is

1058
00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:13,560
Speaker 1: that they look at you like a crazy person when

1059
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:17,080
Speaker 1: you articulate basic stances as I have here, like how

1060
00:53:17,120 --> 00:53:20,080
Speaker 1: much longer should America be paying five dollars or okay,

1061
00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:23,000
Speaker 1: excuse me, four dollars and sixty eight cents a gallon

1062
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:26,000
Speaker 1: in order to secure the integrity of eastern Ukraine? Is

1063
00:53:26,040 --> 00:53:27,799
Speaker 1: that worth it for how much longer? How many more

1064
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:31,279
Speaker 1: square miles? And is that working? Is that policy even

1065
00:53:31,360 --> 00:53:35,600
Speaker 1: working to secure Eukrain, let's say integrity. I would ask

1066
00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:37,319
Speaker 1: the same question, by the way, even if it was working,

1067
00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:39,840
Speaker 1: which we did. Yeah, and they won't. They look at

1068
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:41,560
Speaker 1: either like what are you a Kremlin stooge? Or like

1069
00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:44,840
Speaker 1: what you don't care about? Like, listen, the world is complicated.

1070
00:53:44,880 --> 00:53:47,400
Speaker 1: There's a lot going on. We have to have texts

1071
00:53:47,400 --> 00:53:50,520
Speaker 1: and balances. If you have a realist orientation, you're capable

1072
00:53:50,520 --> 00:53:52,680
Speaker 1: of understanding there's human suffering on the globe and there's

1073
00:53:52,719 --> 00:53:55,440
Speaker 1: not always sometimes something that you can do about it

1074
00:53:55,440 --> 00:53:57,840
Speaker 1: to the most maximum sent as we found out in Libya,

1075
00:53:57,920 --> 00:54:00,320
Speaker 1: Syria and elsewhere, and then we also found out that

1076
00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:02,320
Speaker 1: if you do do something about it, sometimes it actually

1077
00:54:02,360 --> 00:54:04,920
Speaker 1: ends up way worse than when you originally did. So

1078
00:54:05,160 --> 00:54:08,319
Speaker 1: what exactly is the desired policy? So this has long

1079
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:11,279
Speaker 1: been a tool of neo cons in Washington, which is

1080
00:54:11,320 --> 00:54:14,200
Speaker 1: now being adopted by the establishment to just say that

1081
00:54:14,239 --> 00:54:19,480
Speaker 1: any dissent whatsoever is helping America's enemies. I actually remember

1082
00:54:19,840 --> 00:54:22,080
Speaker 1: doctor Parci, just so people know. He's my professor in

1083
00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:24,920
Speaker 1: graduate school, and I remember, you know, I was very

1084
00:54:24,920 --> 00:54:28,160
Speaker 1: different at the time, and he would articulate pro Iran

1085
00:54:28,239 --> 00:54:29,719
Speaker 1: deal positions where I was like, hey, you know, I

1086
00:54:29,800 --> 00:54:32,880
Speaker 1: never thought about that. Yeah. It was so helpful to

1087
00:54:32,920 --> 00:54:36,160
Speaker 1: me to actually sit with somebody who was completely counter

1088
00:54:36,239 --> 00:54:38,080
Speaker 1: to the way that I thought about the world and

1089
00:54:38,239 --> 00:54:42,480
Speaker 1: just really internalize and think differently about what could happen

1090
00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:46,000
Speaker 1: with America's role in the world, giving an articulate and

1091
00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:49,400
Speaker 1: different view of American foreign policy and its goals, and

1092
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:51,560
Speaker 1: that really helped me change and kind of arrive to

1093
00:54:51,880 --> 00:54:54,680
Speaker 1: where I am today. So I think that this lack

1094
00:54:54,800 --> 00:55:01,160
Speaker 1: of representation is tremendously, tremendously a disservice because NATO is

1095
00:55:01,200 --> 00:55:04,560
Speaker 1: a good example. We're going to have a vote in

1096
00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:07,880
Speaker 1: the Senate eventually sometime in the next year, to admit

1097
00:55:07,920 --> 00:55:11,760
Speaker 1: Finland and Sweden into NATO. You will not here beyond

1098
00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:16,400
Speaker 1: the show one iota of criticism of not just that decision,

1099
00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:20,520
Speaker 1: but of previous NATO expansion that is counter to modern

1100
00:55:20,560 --> 00:55:23,719
Speaker 1: American history. In the Panama Canal, people forget this. The

1101
00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:27,480
Speaker 1: nineteen seven we had a massive national debate should we

1102
00:55:27,480 --> 00:55:30,200
Speaker 1: give the canal back to the Panamanians or not. Ronald

1103
00:55:30,200 --> 00:55:33,120
Speaker 1: Reagan launched his campaign off of this in the nineteen seventies,

1104
00:55:33,160 --> 00:55:35,160
Speaker 1: and Jimmy Carter had this big debate and it was

1105
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:37,880
Speaker 1: a Senate thing in the Treaty Sow previous before that,

1106
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:40,279
Speaker 1: obviously world War One and even World War two in

1107
00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:43,960
Speaker 1: the whenever you had the Marshall Plan in order to

1108
00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:48,560
Speaker 1: rebuild Europe. These were big democratic consensus building activities which

1109
00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:50,920
Speaker 1: have now moved into the elite realm where they squashed

1110
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:53,799
Speaker 1: descent and used tactics like this, which I think is

1111
00:55:53,880 --> 00:55:57,560
Speaker 1: bs and it is very upsetting. It is very upsetting.

1112
00:55:57,600 --> 00:56:00,400
Speaker 1: I want to give you what doctor Parci's response is. Here.

1113
00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:03,399
Speaker 1: He says, Listen, a quick glance at our website would

1114
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:07,160
Speaker 1: show that the statement about them justifying the invasion is

1115
00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:09,920
Speaker 1: just simply not true. It is true that we are

1116
00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:12,360
Speaker 1: pushing for diplomatic solutions. We are not going along with

1117
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:14,040
Speaker 1: the idea that it's a good thing to change the

1118
00:56:14,080 --> 00:56:17,920
Speaker 1: objectives in Ukraine towards weakening Russia, which was the stated

1119
00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:21,799
Speaker 1: policy of sectary defense Lloyd Austin, because we believe that

1120
00:56:21,840 --> 00:56:25,600
Speaker 1: could lead to endless war. That's their actual position. That's

1121
00:56:25,640 --> 00:56:28,480
Speaker 1: everything I've ever seen coming from there. And if that

1122
00:56:28,640 --> 00:56:32,399
Speaker 1: is like out of bounds, this is insanity. I think

1123
00:56:32,440 --> 00:56:35,440
Speaker 1: this is part of a trend where, you know, the

1124
00:56:36,239 --> 00:56:41,560
Speaker 1: elite class in particular has really lost confidence in our

1125
00:56:42,239 --> 00:56:44,520
Speaker 1: ability to be a democracy. I mean, that's part of

1126
00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:46,840
Speaker 1: what it is. They feel we have to just we

1127
00:56:46,880 --> 00:56:49,399
Speaker 1: can't tell the public all of these messy details. We've

1128
00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:51,480
Speaker 1: just got to keep our one side of the story

1129
00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:54,640
Speaker 1: out there and will handle all the decision making, whether

1130
00:56:54,680 --> 00:56:57,640
Speaker 1: it's on foreign policy, whether it's on fed policy, or

1131
00:56:57,680 --> 00:57:01,800
Speaker 1: whether it's on health policy or anything else. The masses

1132
00:57:01,840 --> 00:57:04,320
Speaker 1: can't handle all of this messiness, so we've got to

1133
00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:07,400
Speaker 1: keep a tight lid on control. That's why you see increasing,

1134
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:10,480
Speaker 1: you know, moves in the direction of censorship and this

1135
00:57:10,560 --> 00:57:15,000
Speaker 1: sort of like authoritarian instinct because there's so much contempt

1136
00:57:15,120 --> 00:57:17,360
Speaker 1: for the general population that they don't think they can

1137
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:20,200
Speaker 1: handle this type of messy democratic debate. And then also,

1138
00:57:20,240 --> 00:57:21,800
Speaker 1: of course they have an incentive to keep all of

1139
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:24,960
Speaker 1: those sort of like power and control for themselves. So

1140
00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:28,160
Speaker 1: that's why this is such a really worrying and disturbing

1141
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:31,520
Speaker 1: trend that even in you know, overtly sort of pro

1142
00:57:31,600 --> 00:57:34,440
Speaker 1: piece anti war think tank like Quincy that I think

1143
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:37,800
Speaker 1: does phenomenal work, is an extremely important part of the

1144
00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:42,040
Speaker 1: ecosystem here in Washington, is oftentimes a lonely voice in

1145
00:57:42,120 --> 00:57:44,920
Speaker 1: terms of what they're saying and the view of the

1146
00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:48,400
Speaker 1: world that they are articulating and the view of American

1147
00:57:48,440 --> 00:57:52,120
Speaker 1: foreign policy that they're articulating. That even within that space

1148
00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:55,680
Speaker 1: to say, hey, how about diplomacy, that that sound abounds

1149
00:57:56,160 --> 00:57:58,080
Speaker 1: not a good thing, not a good thing at all.

1150
00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:02,400
Speaker 1: And that's actually perfect transition to our relationship with Saudi Arabia,

1151
00:58:02,400 --> 00:58:05,800
Speaker 1: which has been completely shifted. The Biden ministration has been

1152
00:58:05,960 --> 00:58:10,880
Speaker 1: basically decided to completely turn their policy upside down now

1153
00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:12,920
Speaker 1: that they are forced to go and gravel to the

1154
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:16,760
Speaker 1: Saudis to try to increase the oil coming from the spigots,

1155
00:58:16,800 --> 00:58:19,760
Speaker 1: and Biden has decided to meet with Saudi Arabian just

1156
00:58:19,800 --> 00:58:22,560
Speaker 1: as a reminder, this is a country that he said

1157
00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:25,200
Speaker 1: on the campaign trail he wanted to make into a

1158
00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:29,840
Speaker 1: pariah state. Now he's writing an op ed that is

1159
00:58:30,040 --> 00:58:34,240
Speaker 1: justifying his imminent visit to that country. Let's go ahead

1160
00:58:34,240 --> 00:58:37,040
Speaker 1: and put this up on the screen. So it says

1161
00:58:37,120 --> 00:58:39,280
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, why I'm going to Saudi Arabia. This is

1162
00:58:39,320 --> 00:58:43,360
Speaker 1: in the Washington Post, and there was basically one honest

1163
00:58:43,360 --> 00:58:45,800
Speaker 1: sentence in here as far as I could tell. He says,

1164
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:48,920
Speaker 1: it's energy resources are vital for mitigating the impact on

1165
00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:51,920
Speaker 1: global supplies of Russia's war in Ukraine. So even though

1166
00:58:51,960 --> 00:58:55,479
Speaker 1: the Saudis have been horrific actors, what they have done

1167
00:58:55,520 --> 00:58:59,960
Speaker 1: in Yemen is an absolute atrocity. Of course, murdering Jamal Kashogi,

1168
00:59:00,200 --> 00:59:05,000
Speaker 1: which you know Washington Post, you know a writer there,

1169
00:59:05,120 --> 00:59:09,280
Speaker 1: journalists there. In spite of all of that, he's now like, well,

1170
00:59:09,320 --> 00:59:11,960
Speaker 1: I got gotta go and beg and Ben Denee for

1171
00:59:12,040 --> 00:59:14,720
Speaker 1: them to turn the spigots back on. And he has

1172
00:59:14,800 --> 00:59:19,440
Speaker 1: this line in here that I think is really really disingenuous,

1173
00:59:19,480 --> 00:59:22,959
Speaker 1: which is he says, sober from the start, my aim

1174
00:59:23,080 --> 00:59:27,120
Speaker 1: was to reorient, not rupture relations with the country that's

1175
00:59:27,120 --> 00:59:30,000
Speaker 1: been a strategic partner for eighty years. Today, Saudi Arabia

1176
00:59:30,040 --> 00:59:32,320
Speaker 1: has helped to restore unity among the six countries of

1177
00:59:32,360 --> 00:59:35,760
Speaker 1: Golf Cooperation Council, has fully supported the truce in Ymen,

1178
00:59:36,720 --> 00:59:39,240
Speaker 1: and is now working with my experts to help stabilize

1179
00:59:39,240 --> 00:59:42,920
Speaker 1: oil markets with other OPEC producers. Okay, again, what he

1180
00:59:42,960 --> 00:59:44,760
Speaker 1: said on the campaign trail is he wanted to make

1181
00:59:44,760 --> 00:59:48,560
Speaker 1: them a pariahs state. Those were the words. So that

1182
00:59:48,760 --> 00:59:50,800
Speaker 1: was your indication there was, Oh, you just wanted to

1183
00:59:50,840 --> 00:59:54,160
Speaker 1: reorient the relationship. Okay. What bothers me about this is

1184
00:59:54,160 --> 00:59:57,840
Speaker 1: that the Biden administration are capable of being realists. They're like, okay, well,

1185
00:59:58,000 --> 01:00:00,280
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, they got the most amount of avail global

1186
01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:03,680
Speaker 1: oil that they could pump immediately to alleviate the global supply.

1187
01:00:04,160 --> 01:00:05,840
Speaker 1: That means that we're going to have to go over

1188
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:09,960
Speaker 1: there hat in hand to the murderous Crown Prince MBS

1189
01:00:10,120 --> 01:00:12,840
Speaker 1: hat in hand. So they're capable, and they're also capable

1190
01:00:12,840 --> 01:00:16,120
Speaker 1: of saying, and this is a barbaric people who I'm

1191
01:00:16,160 --> 01:00:19,400
Speaker 1: talking about the leadership would behead people in the streets. Yes,

1192
01:00:19,560 --> 01:00:22,120
Speaker 1: and barely allowed women to drive like a decade ago

1193
01:00:22,560 --> 01:00:24,720
Speaker 1: and continue to cover them up and have lack of

1194
01:00:24,960 --> 01:00:27,600
Speaker 1: human rights for many people with there. So they're capable

1195
01:00:27,600 --> 01:00:29,400
Speaker 1: of just putting all that in their mind and saying,

1196
01:00:29,440 --> 01:00:31,120
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, cheap oil is

1197
01:00:31,120 --> 01:00:33,600
Speaker 1: worth it. But then if I say something like that

1198
01:00:33,840 --> 01:00:37,400
Speaker 1: about Ukraine, then I'm anti democracy and then it's all

1199
01:00:37,440 --> 01:00:40,360
Speaker 1: about human rights and the global order and all this stuff.

1200
01:00:40,480 --> 01:00:42,360
Speaker 1: And I can't say, well, well, why does it the

1201
01:00:42,400 --> 01:00:46,920
Speaker 1: same application of thought apply in this instance, And they're like, oh, well,

1202
01:00:46,960 --> 01:00:48,880
Speaker 1: it's just different. Well why is it different. It's like, well,

1203
01:00:48,880 --> 01:00:52,960
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia commits, you know, effectively like a mass famine

1204
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:56,480
Speaker 1: on Gemen in their bombing campaign, which we supported them

1205
01:00:56,680 --> 01:01:00,520
Speaker 1: in the past. Why is that not equivalent in any

1206
01:01:00,560 --> 01:01:03,560
Speaker 1: way to what happening in Ukraine? And the fact is

1207
01:01:03,600 --> 01:01:07,160
Speaker 1: that it is, especially in terms of humanitarian tragedy. But

1208
01:01:07,440 --> 01:01:10,840
Speaker 1: it all falls apart because they're incapable of just saying

1209
01:01:11,120 --> 01:01:13,760
Speaker 1: the truth, which is they care more about Ukraine than this,

1210
01:01:13,880 --> 01:01:16,400
Speaker 1: and so they're willing to sacrifice on their stated ideals

1211
01:01:16,600 --> 01:01:19,480
Speaker 1: for cheap oil in the Saudi relationship than they are

1212
01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:22,840
Speaker 1: in the Russian relationship. That then opens the question of well,

1213
01:01:22,880 --> 01:01:25,040
Speaker 1: which one actually is worth it? Also, why are we

1214
01:01:25,080 --> 01:01:27,240
Speaker 1: so dependent on this country in the first place. Second,

1215
01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:30,520
Speaker 1: should we really be allowing this amount of influence, cash,

1216
01:01:30,560 --> 01:01:34,400
Speaker 1: and more, and to be completely understated by the US

1217
01:01:34,400 --> 01:01:38,600
Speaker 1: elite when they are, you know, supplicating themselves to our

1218
01:01:38,640 --> 01:01:42,880
Speaker 1: interests in Eastern Europe, which is supposedly triumph this all

1219
01:01:42,920 --> 01:01:46,240
Speaker 1: of all it shows you is how empty the rhetoric

1220
01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:49,240
Speaker 1: of the administration is on human rights, on standing up

1221
01:01:49,280 --> 01:01:51,760
Speaker 1: to dictators, all of this they don't actually And also

1222
01:01:51,800 --> 01:01:53,560
Speaker 1: that's why I don't really support speaking in that rhetoric

1223
01:01:53,640 --> 01:01:56,880
Speaker 1: at all. All foreign policies, national interests. All you can

1224
01:01:57,000 --> 01:01:59,280
Speaker 1: try and guide, you know, hide it under guise of

1225
01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:01,320
Speaker 1: whatever you would like, But at the end of the day,

1226
01:02:01,520 --> 01:02:04,800
Speaker 1: day oil is oil, and the price is what it is.

1227
01:02:05,040 --> 01:02:08,080
Speaker 1: Our relations with countries should always be dependent on what

1228
01:02:08,120 --> 01:02:09,760
Speaker 1: we get from them and what they get from us.

1229
01:02:09,920 --> 01:02:13,280
Speaker 1: Our relationship with the Saudis has long been one where

1230
01:02:13,280 --> 01:02:15,920
Speaker 1: we hand them some hundred billion dollars a year in

1231
01:02:16,160 --> 01:02:20,040
Speaker 1: arms and they basically tell us that's still not enough.

1232
01:02:20,560 --> 01:02:23,360
Speaker 1: You still have to supplicate yourself even though we guarantee

1233
01:02:23,360 --> 01:02:26,080
Speaker 1: your defense, even though we basically have been the guaranteer

1234
01:02:26,160 --> 01:02:29,320
Speaker 1: of the regime since the nineteen seventies, even though nineteen

1235
01:02:29,400 --> 01:02:32,240
Speaker 1: or fifteen out of their nineteen citizens crashed into our towers.

1236
01:02:32,400 --> 01:02:35,439
Speaker 1: They're the major exporter of world terrorism. Have probably done

1237
01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:37,080
Speaker 1: more to hurt the interests of the United States in

1238
01:02:37,120 --> 01:02:40,480
Speaker 1: the Middle East and elsewhere, especially amongst the Islamic community,

1239
01:02:40,640 --> 01:02:43,120
Speaker 1: than any single other nation on Earth. Not to mention

1240
01:02:43,200 --> 01:02:46,360
Speaker 1: their own personal barbarism, that's all completely fine. Yeah, it's

1241
01:02:46,360 --> 01:02:48,960
Speaker 1: like that's what drives me crazy. Yeah. It actually is

1242
01:02:49,040 --> 01:02:52,000
Speaker 1: remarkable how much the Biden foreign policy in the Middle

1243
01:02:52,000 --> 01:02:54,080
Speaker 1: East has turned into the Trump foreign policy in the

1244
01:02:54,120 --> 01:02:55,920
Speaker 1: Middle East. I mean, they have a little bit of

1245
01:02:55,960 --> 01:02:59,480
Speaker 1: different rhetoric around Israel, but in terms of the big

1246
01:02:59,560 --> 01:03:05,120
Speaker 1: dramatic changes that Trump made with regards to Israel and Palestine,

1247
01:03:05,280 --> 01:03:08,600
Speaker 1: the Biden administration has not actually rolled any of those back.

1248
01:03:09,440 --> 01:03:13,040
Speaker 1: And they also they're not back in the Iranian nuclear deal.

1249
01:03:13,160 --> 01:03:16,720
Speaker 1: I mean, the Trump administration withdrew pulled us out of

1250
01:03:16,760 --> 01:03:19,400
Speaker 1: the Iranian nuclear deal, so they were more sort of

1251
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:22,640
Speaker 1: like aggrossiv about it. The Biden administration is pretending to

1252
01:03:22,720 --> 01:03:25,840
Speaker 1: negotiate it, but at the same time they're hardening this

1253
01:03:26,240 --> 01:03:30,200
Speaker 1: anti Iran alliance that was also the brainchild of the

1254
01:03:30,240 --> 01:03:33,360
Speaker 1: Trump administration, So in a lot of ways, I mean,

1255
01:03:33,400 --> 01:03:36,520
Speaker 1: you'll recall Trump's first overseas visit was to Saudi Arabia,

1256
01:03:36,560 --> 01:03:38,280
Speaker 1: so Biden's a little bit late in getting there, but

1257
01:03:38,320 --> 01:03:40,560
Speaker 1: he also was going had in hand to suck up

1258
01:03:40,600 --> 01:03:43,200
Speaker 1: to the Saudi So it's it is kind of incredible

1259
01:03:43,240 --> 01:03:45,320
Speaker 1: the way that and a lot of this has been

1260
01:03:45,360 --> 01:03:48,640
Speaker 1: forced by the Russia Ukraine conflict, where they may have

1261
01:03:48,760 --> 01:03:51,480
Speaker 1: wanted to go in a different direction, but now that

1262
01:03:51,520 --> 01:03:54,520
Speaker 1: they've chosen to go all in on this proxy war

1263
01:03:54,600 --> 01:03:58,640
Speaker 1: with Russia and this sort of like global new global

1264
01:03:58,760 --> 01:04:02,360
Speaker 1: world order, it has forced their hand on Saudi Arabia

1265
01:04:02,400 --> 01:04:04,280
Speaker 1: and basically pushed them into the position where the Trump

1266
01:04:04,280 --> 01:04:07,920
Speaker 1: administration was. So it really is pretty remarkable. And I

1267
01:04:07,960 --> 01:04:12,600
Speaker 1: can't ignore also the media's role in choosing which conflicts,

1268
01:04:12,960 --> 01:04:17,840
Speaker 1: which crises, which humanitarian disasters are worthy of your outrage,

1269
01:04:18,000 --> 01:04:20,240
Speaker 1: and you're sort of like playing on your emotions and

1270
01:04:20,320 --> 01:04:23,440
Speaker 1: which aren't. If you saw Yemen in the news and

1271
01:04:23,480 --> 01:04:26,360
Speaker 1: the you know, on the ground reporting and the horrific

1272
01:04:26,400 --> 01:04:28,720
Speaker 1: atrosc I mean, the pictures of the kids and the

1273
01:04:28,720 --> 01:04:31,560
Speaker 1: babies there and what they have been put through in

1274
01:04:31,640 --> 01:04:35,840
Speaker 1: large part by Saudi with our support. There is no

1275
01:04:35,960 --> 01:04:38,800
Speaker 1: doubt the American people would be just outraged. They'd be

1276
01:04:38,800 --> 01:04:41,200
Speaker 1: beside themselves. They'd be looking at the trip to saudiing,

1277
01:04:41,320 --> 01:04:43,480
Speaker 1: what the hell are you doing? I mean, it's bad enough.

1278
01:04:43,480 --> 01:04:46,440
Speaker 1: People know what happened to Jamal Kashogi, and that creates

1279
01:04:46,480 --> 01:04:48,440
Speaker 1: some reluctance that they saw what was going on in

1280
01:04:48,520 --> 01:04:52,040
Speaker 1: Yemen and explained it in the same emotional terms that

1281
01:04:52,120 --> 01:04:54,720
Speaker 1: are used to talk about the conflict and the disaster

1282
01:04:54,800 --> 01:04:57,560
Speaker 1: and the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. There would be a

1283
01:04:57,800 --> 01:05:01,400
Speaker 1: very different public perception the shift in policy from the

1284
01:05:01,400 --> 01:05:04,200
Speaker 1: Biden administration. So it shows you how powerful the media

1285
01:05:04,240 --> 01:05:07,440
Speaker 1: is in terms of what conflicts they choose to highlight

1286
01:05:07,720 --> 01:05:10,320
Speaker 1: and what conflicts they don't. I haven't seen a lot

1287
01:05:10,360 --> 01:05:15,560
Speaker 1: of you many flags on liberal bumpers around the DMV region.

1288
01:05:15,600 --> 01:05:17,520
Speaker 1: I guess is what I'm trying to say. One hunred percent,

1289
01:05:17,520 --> 01:05:19,520
Speaker 1: And actually I think the American people are with you.

1290
01:05:19,560 --> 01:05:21,040
Speaker 1: I think the elites are the ones who are not.

1291
01:05:21,160 --> 01:05:23,560
Speaker 1: They know what happened on nine to eleven. Everybody knows

1292
01:05:23,600 --> 01:05:25,600
Speaker 1: what happened on nine to eleven. And remember also that

1293
01:05:25,640 --> 01:05:28,320
Speaker 1: the Saudis and the Bush family spent two billion dollars

1294
01:05:28,320 --> 01:05:30,120
Speaker 1: in order on an ad campaign to be like, no,

1295
01:05:30,200 --> 01:05:31,880
Speaker 1: it wasn't on us, it was just our citizens and

1296
01:05:31,920 --> 01:05:34,240
Speaker 1: our ideology that happened as a result of all of this.

1297
01:05:34,320 --> 01:05:36,920
Speaker 1: And also, you know, we protected Bin Laden and back

1298
01:05:36,960 --> 01:05:38,680
Speaker 1: to the Taliban for a long time. But hey, don't

1299
01:05:38,680 --> 01:05:41,120
Speaker 1: worry about all that. You know, we have businessmen. Please

1300
01:05:41,200 --> 01:05:43,680
Speaker 1: keep coming to Riatt and we'll keep the gas pumps on.

1301
01:05:43,840 --> 01:05:45,960
Speaker 1: That's been the American policy for twenty years. I think

1302
01:05:46,000 --> 01:05:48,480
Speaker 1: if you were to ask Americans, it was really elite

1303
01:05:48,480 --> 01:05:51,120
Speaker 1: Americans who cared most Abou Kashogi. Most people had already

1304
01:05:51,160 --> 01:05:54,320
Speaker 1: hated Saudi Arabia for a long time. But the elites

1305
01:05:54,360 --> 01:05:56,800
Speaker 1: don't care. And so the Ukrainian, you know, the Yomeni flag,

1306
01:05:57,160 --> 01:06:00,200
Speaker 1: the Ukrainian flag, is the new flag of America that

1307
01:06:00,240 --> 01:06:03,840
Speaker 1: we see here in the Washington suburban area. And that's

1308
01:06:04,040 --> 01:06:06,280
Speaker 1: we decided that is the one that we care about

1309
01:06:06,440 --> 01:06:08,640
Speaker 1: the most, and it trumps all other interests. And so

1310
01:06:08,680 --> 01:06:11,080
Speaker 1: we're allowed to be realists in every other area of

1311
01:06:11,160 --> 01:06:13,480
Speaker 1: the world except in this one, which has become some

1312
01:06:13,560 --> 01:06:15,880
Speaker 1: sort of a holy war. And that's exactly the problem.

1313
01:06:15,880 --> 01:06:18,480
Speaker 1: Which leads to bad thinking, and which can lead you

1314
01:06:18,520 --> 01:06:20,200
Speaker 1: down a road which you do not want to go to,

1315
01:06:20,480 --> 01:06:22,400
Speaker 1: in which you may regret very much in the past

1316
01:06:22,440 --> 01:06:25,360
Speaker 1: in the future. Okay, let's talk about Biden. This is

1317
01:06:25,360 --> 01:06:28,920
Speaker 1: an especially hilarious one. So from that speech that we

1318
01:06:29,000 --> 01:06:32,400
Speaker 1: showed you about Biden and roversus Wade, he pulled a

1319
01:06:32,480 --> 01:06:36,760
Speaker 1: Ron Burgundy and quite literally read things on the teleprompter

1320
01:06:37,000 --> 01:06:40,520
Speaker 1: which you're not supposed to read. I'm not exaggerating. Let's

1321
01:06:40,560 --> 01:06:43,840
Speaker 1: take a listen. It is noteworthy that the percentage of

1322
01:06:43,880 --> 01:06:46,520
Speaker 1: women who registered to vote and cast a ballot is

1323
01:06:46,560 --> 01:06:49,680
Speaker 1: consistently higher than the percentage of the men who do so.

1324
01:06:49,840 --> 01:06:53,840
Speaker 1: End of quote. Repeat the line. Women are not without

1325
01:06:53,960 --> 01:06:57,880
Speaker 1: electoral and or political or or maybe precise not and

1326
01:06:58,040 --> 01:07:02,200
Speaker 1: or or political power. That's another saying you the women

1327
01:07:02,280 --> 01:07:06,840
Speaker 1: America can determine the outcome of this issue. End of quote.

1328
01:07:07,560 --> 01:07:13,280
Speaker 1: Repeat the line. Okay, very clear, what's happening here? All right? Uh?

1329
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:15,200
Speaker 1: And by the way, it's two people actually read off

1330
01:07:15,200 --> 01:07:18,720
Speaker 1: a teleprompter. You're like, I know exactly wasn't before late

1331
01:07:18,880 --> 01:07:21,760
Speaker 1: I have anybody who's read off a teleprompter has been

1332
01:07:21,760 --> 01:07:23,640
Speaker 1: at war with these things at some point or another.

1333
01:07:23,800 --> 01:07:26,680
Speaker 1: I get it, and uh, listen, it's not as easy

1334
01:07:26,800 --> 01:07:29,240
Speaker 1: as it looks. Now, when you're the president, you do

1335
01:07:29,320 --> 01:07:31,880
Speaker 1: it a lot more than we do. Uh. Also, let

1336
01:07:32,080 --> 01:07:34,800
Speaker 1: just let it stand as a funny moment, you know,

1337
01:07:35,400 --> 01:07:39,080
Speaker 1: just another indication of his doddering age. Whatever. The White

1338
01:07:39,120 --> 01:07:41,320
Speaker 1: House is not going to let that stand. The White

1339
01:07:41,360 --> 01:07:44,280
Speaker 1: House has decided to lie to you and to the

1340
01:07:44,400 --> 01:07:47,720
Speaker 1: historical record that what you just saw with your own

1341
01:07:47,880 --> 01:07:50,880
Speaker 1: eyes did not happen. Put this up there on the screen.

1342
01:07:51,200 --> 01:07:54,800
Speaker 1: The White House is now doctoring the official transcript of

1343
01:07:54,840 --> 01:07:59,480
Speaker 1: that event, saying that Biden did not say repeat the line.

1344
01:07:59,760 --> 01:08:04,000
Speaker 1: He said quote let me repeat the line. Now again,

1345
01:08:04,440 --> 01:08:06,880
Speaker 1: He did not say, let me repeat the line. You

1346
01:08:06,880 --> 01:08:09,439
Speaker 1: can hear it with your own ears, and you can

1347
01:08:09,480 --> 01:08:12,800
Speaker 1: watch it with your eyes. There is no any time

1348
01:08:12,880 --> 01:08:16,120
Speaker 1: where he was about to say, let me repeat the line.

1349
01:08:16,439 --> 01:08:19,840
Speaker 1: And yet the White House was so upset that they

1350
01:08:19,880 --> 01:08:23,960
Speaker 1: actually replied to the Assistant Press Secretary to that clip

1351
01:08:24,240 --> 01:08:27,000
Speaker 1: on Twitter and said, no, he said let me repeat

1352
01:08:27,040 --> 01:08:30,280
Speaker 1: the line. Because that clip was going extraordinarily viral at

1353
01:08:30,320 --> 01:08:34,000
Speaker 1: a current count has forty two thousand retweets and over

1354
01:08:34,120 --> 01:08:38,400
Speaker 1: fifteen million views, because everybody can see it the guy

1355
01:08:38,439 --> 01:08:40,160
Speaker 1: pulled a Ron Berg maybe even joke about it and

1356
01:08:40,200 --> 01:08:42,719
Speaker 1: be like, hey, you know he's Ron Burgundy, or like whatever,

1357
01:08:42,880 --> 01:08:45,720
Speaker 1: make a joke about San Diego. They're not capable of that.

1358
01:08:46,080 --> 01:08:49,440
Speaker 1: They are lying about what he said, and then doctored

1359
01:08:49,479 --> 01:08:52,639
Speaker 1: the official White House transcript so that for all time,

1360
01:08:53,120 --> 01:08:56,000
Speaker 1: despite the video evidence of what we've seen, in terms

1361
01:08:56,000 --> 01:08:58,400
Speaker 1: of what historians will use in order to record the

1362
01:08:58,439 --> 01:09:00,960
Speaker 1: Biden era, this actually might be a decent thing to

1363
01:09:01,040 --> 01:09:03,160
Speaker 1: point to, which is week since we have video evidence

1364
01:09:03,360 --> 01:09:07,680
Speaker 1: in the actual written record, they have let me repeat

1365
01:09:07,840 --> 01:09:11,000
Speaker 1: the line. I also loved whenever he kept saying and or,

1366
01:09:11,040 --> 01:09:13,599
Speaker 1: because it's clear that whoever was editing it just didn't

1367
01:09:13,640 --> 01:09:15,639
Speaker 1: take out the and or and left it up to Biden.

1368
01:09:15,800 --> 01:09:18,200
Speaker 1: Maybe he likes that in speeches, who knows, but he's

1369
01:09:18,240 --> 01:09:21,400
Speaker 1: reading these things completely verbate him. So anyway, this is

1370
01:09:21,400 --> 01:09:24,439
Speaker 1: a humiliating incident, more for the White House than anyone,

1371
01:09:24,479 --> 01:09:27,439
Speaker 1: that they're so sensitive that they're literally trying to lie

1372
01:09:27,560 --> 01:09:31,640
Speaker 1: and cover up an obvious misread on the teleprompter. To

1373
01:09:31,800 --> 01:09:33,599
Speaker 1: the American people, they're like, no, that's not what happened.

1374
01:09:33,600 --> 01:09:36,160
Speaker 1: There's this is, or well this actually is, orwelly I mean,

1375
01:09:36,160 --> 01:09:38,720
Speaker 1: their response made it so much worse. Yeah, it way worse,

1376
01:09:38,800 --> 01:09:42,439
Speaker 1: way way worse. And it does what it reveals is

1377
01:09:42,640 --> 01:09:47,040
Speaker 1: a real sensitivity to the critique of Biden's abilities and

1378
01:09:47,080 --> 01:09:50,080
Speaker 1: his mental fitness and his mental acuity and all of

1379
01:09:50,120 --> 01:09:53,160
Speaker 1: those things. So like they couldn't just let it go,

1380
01:09:53,520 --> 01:09:56,120
Speaker 1: which would have been the way better thing to do here.

1381
01:09:56,200 --> 01:09:59,120
Speaker 1: I mean again, listen, we've all had anybody who's read

1382
01:09:59,160 --> 01:10:01,960
Speaker 1: off a teleprompter, has had a battle with the teleprompter,

1383
01:10:02,400 --> 01:10:04,479
Speaker 1: has read it in a weird way, a sentence that

1384
01:10:04,560 --> 01:10:06,880
Speaker 1: comes out in strange way, or you butcher a word

1385
01:10:06,960 --> 01:10:11,519
Speaker 1: or whatever. It happens all the time. But they are

1386
01:10:11,560 --> 01:10:14,879
Speaker 1: so sensitive to this critique that they had to actually

1387
01:10:14,920 --> 01:10:18,439
Speaker 1: do this like Orwellian weird cover up thing and deny

1388
01:10:18,600 --> 01:10:22,240
Speaker 1: the reality that you can see and hear for yourself.

1389
01:10:22,640 --> 01:10:24,559
Speaker 1: And I mean there's also something to be said to

1390
01:10:24,680 --> 01:10:26,680
Speaker 1: about these are the people who are all like, oh,

1391
01:10:26,760 --> 01:10:29,679
Speaker 1: the war on facts and truth and all of that stuff,

1392
01:10:29,720 --> 01:10:32,880
Speaker 1: And then when they're a little uncomfortable with exactly how

1393
01:10:33,040 --> 01:10:35,800
Speaker 1: something comes in that comes out, they're like, oh, let

1394
01:10:35,800 --> 01:10:37,800
Speaker 1: me just go in and edit that transcript very quick

1395
01:10:37,840 --> 01:10:41,080
Speaker 1: and make sure it accords to what we are telling

1396
01:10:41,120 --> 01:10:45,600
Speaker 1: the public to believe actually happened in in contradiction to

1397
01:10:45,640 --> 01:10:48,600
Speaker 1: their own experience of that moment. What's also weird is

1398
01:10:48,640 --> 01:10:51,800
Speaker 1: that why this clip. There are a million the fourth

1399
01:10:51,800 --> 01:10:54,840
Speaker 1: of July clip where he's like moving America and you're like,

1400
01:10:54,880 --> 01:10:57,880
Speaker 1: what what did you say? What I mean, trails off

1401
01:10:57,920 --> 01:11:01,439
Speaker 1: and embarrasses himself all the time. So why is this

1402
01:11:01,680 --> 01:11:04,000
Speaker 1: the one clip that you've decided to go on the

1403
01:11:04,040 --> 01:11:06,280
Speaker 1: attack for. But they did, and they're lying to you.

1404
01:11:06,280 --> 01:11:08,800
Speaker 1: They're completely lying to your face. And to this day,

1405
01:11:09,120 --> 01:11:11,920
Speaker 1: the White House transcript remains in the position of the

1406
01:11:11,920 --> 01:11:14,879
Speaker 1: administration is he said, let me repeat the line, despite

1407
01:11:15,200 --> 01:11:17,920
Speaker 1: clear evidence. You know, this actually is a problem because

1408
01:11:18,680 --> 01:11:20,400
Speaker 1: I learned this when I was a White House correspondent.

1409
01:11:20,560 --> 01:11:23,439
Speaker 1: Those people are not political staff. They're supposed to be

1410
01:11:23,439 --> 01:11:26,800
Speaker 1: like White House archivists or whatever. They're like, yeah, the

1411
01:11:26,840 --> 01:11:28,680
Speaker 1: people who do the transcript specifically for this reason, you're

1412
01:11:28,680 --> 01:11:30,680
Speaker 1: not supposed to be able to politically doctor or transcript.

1413
01:11:30,800 --> 01:11:33,519
Speaker 1: So somehow they were able to convince somebody who has

1414
01:11:33,600 --> 01:11:36,799
Speaker 1: human ears that they did not hear what they actually

1415
01:11:36,800 --> 01:11:39,559
Speaker 1: did and pressured them to say, let me repeat the line,

1416
01:11:39,600 --> 01:11:41,920
Speaker 1: not actually what happened. I also want to say. They

1417
01:11:42,160 --> 01:11:46,599
Speaker 1: transcript is actually supposed to be done by never looking

1418
01:11:46,600 --> 01:11:50,360
Speaker 1: at prepared remarks to prepare the most historically accurate transcript

1419
01:11:50,400 --> 01:11:54,719
Speaker 1: again for historic history's posterity. Yeah, they'reupposed to watch it happen.

1420
01:11:54,720 --> 01:11:56,200
Speaker 1: I used to know some of them because you kind

1421
01:11:56,200 --> 01:11:58,000
Speaker 1: of work with them when you're next to them as

1422
01:11:58,000 --> 01:12:00,560
Speaker 1: a White House correspondent. Again, these are on he's a

1423
01:12:00,680 --> 01:12:03,400
Speaker 1: career staff. They're supposed to be completely void of any

1424
01:12:03,439 --> 01:12:06,080
Speaker 1: political decision making. And at the time they were having

1425
01:12:06,080 --> 01:12:08,320
Speaker 1: a very hard time with Trump because of the way

1426
01:12:08,320 --> 01:12:11,080
Speaker 1: he speaks. Yeah, you know, not exactly the easiest guy

1427
01:12:11,360 --> 01:12:15,320
Speaker 1: to transcribe, and probably now same with Biden. But they

1428
01:12:15,360 --> 01:12:18,000
Speaker 1: somehow were still able to influence a historical record on

1429
01:12:18,040 --> 01:12:19,360
Speaker 1: this point. So that means they went out of their

1430
01:12:19,400 --> 01:12:21,479
Speaker 1: way in order to push things in this direction. Just

1431
01:12:21,479 --> 01:12:26,600
Speaker 1: a little behind the scenes info. Okay, grizzle, what do

1432
01:12:26,640 --> 01:12:29,640
Speaker 1: you taking a look at? Mayor? Pete got exactly what

1433
01:12:29,680 --> 01:12:32,439
Speaker 1: he asked for after dropping out and endorsing Biden right

1434
01:12:32,479 --> 01:12:35,360
Speaker 1: when President Obama told him to. Playing his prescribed role

1435
01:12:35,400 --> 01:12:38,559
Speaker 1: in helping to crush a Bernie's chances, Pete won himself

1436
01:12:38,600 --> 01:12:41,720
Speaker 1: a big political spot in the Biden administration, and he

1437
01:12:41,800 --> 01:12:45,600
Speaker 1: chose to be Secretary of Transportation. Now, Pete seems to

1438
01:12:45,600 --> 01:12:47,879
Speaker 1: think that this new gig is working out for him perfectly.

1439
01:12:48,160 --> 01:12:50,799
Speaker 1: From his Washington bubble, he thinks he's got this whole

1440
01:12:50,840 --> 01:12:53,559
Speaker 1: thing figured out and that he has himself perfectly set

1441
01:12:53,640 --> 01:12:56,000
Speaker 1: up to be the next heir to the neoliberal throne.

1442
01:12:56,240 --> 01:12:58,960
Speaker 1: But while Pete is measuring the drapes, the public is

1443
01:12:59,000 --> 01:13:02,320
Speaker 1: sharpening their pitch for and he doesn't even seem to notice.

1444
01:13:02,520 --> 01:13:05,400
Speaker 1: It's worth recalling how Pete ended up as Secretary of Transportation.

1445
01:13:05,479 --> 01:13:07,600
Speaker 1: You might remember that Pete did not intend to just

1446
01:13:07,640 --> 01:13:09,960
Speaker 1: take whatever patron and roll was handed out to him.

1447
01:13:10,120 --> 01:13:13,879
Speaker 1: You remember this. Pete was reportedly offered a really powerful

1448
01:13:13,920 --> 01:13:16,280
Speaker 1: position at the helm of the Office of Management and Budget,

1449
01:13:16,520 --> 01:13:18,880
Speaker 1: the kind of job that someone who actually cares about

1450
01:13:19,000 --> 01:13:22,280
Speaker 1: change in governance would salivate over, but not a title

1451
01:13:22,280 --> 01:13:25,200
Speaker 1: that comes with much press acclaim or Washington limelight, and

1452
01:13:25,240 --> 01:13:28,639
Speaker 1: so Pete rejected it, reportedly saying he wanted a quote,

1453
01:13:28,880 --> 01:13:32,479
Speaker 1: real cabinet position, not a staff level job. He was

1454
01:13:32,520 --> 01:13:35,360
Speaker 1: also considered for the position of Via secretary, but also

1455
01:13:35,479 --> 01:13:38,439
Speaker 1: scoffed at having responsibility for caring for our nation's veterans

1456
01:13:38,479 --> 01:13:42,000
Speaker 1: as beneath him as well. Ultimately, he landed on Department

1457
01:13:42,000 --> 01:13:44,840
Speaker 1: of Transportation, which gave him what he really wanted, the

1458
01:13:44,920 --> 01:13:47,800
Speaker 1: ability to fly around the country to ribbon cutting ceremonies,

1459
01:13:47,880 --> 01:13:50,599
Speaker 1: rave it, raising his political profile, and doling out goodies

1460
01:13:50,600 --> 01:13:53,479
Speaker 1: in congressional districts across the country. Now, in terms of

1461
01:13:53,520 --> 01:13:56,400
Speaker 1: the actual job, though, he was so incidental to the

1462
01:13:56,479 --> 01:13:59,080
Speaker 1: running of that agency that he apparently thought nothing of

1463
01:13:59,080 --> 01:14:01,200
Speaker 1: taking two months of the titernity leave as the nation's

1464
01:14:01,200 --> 01:14:04,360
Speaker 1: supply chains gridlocked and inflation began to mount. Now, to me,

1465
01:14:04,560 --> 01:14:07,559
Speaker 1: the problem wasn't the paternity leave per se. I support

1466
01:14:07,640 --> 01:14:09,840
Speaker 1: new dads having time with their babies, of course, but

1467
01:14:09,880 --> 01:14:12,719
Speaker 1: it was pretty telling that clearly neither Pete nor anyone

1468
01:14:12,720 --> 01:14:14,559
Speaker 1: else in the administration thought would be an issue for

1469
01:14:14,600 --> 01:14:16,280
Speaker 1: him to be away from his desk for two straight

1470
01:14:16,320 --> 01:14:18,599
Speaker 1: months as his agency sat at the heart of one

1471
01:14:18,640 --> 01:14:21,920
Speaker 1: of the nation's most urgent and critical issues. Because Pete,

1472
01:14:22,040 --> 01:14:24,559
Speaker 1: he was never selected to do an actual job, he

1473
01:14:24,680 --> 01:14:27,120
Speaker 1: was dole down his patronage position so that he might

1474
01:14:27,200 --> 01:14:30,760
Speaker 1: larp governing for cable news cameras, and it has predictably

1475
01:14:30,800 --> 01:14:34,040
Speaker 1: been a disaster because it turns out that running the

1476
01:14:34,080 --> 01:14:37,440
Speaker 1: Department of Transportation is a real job, and it's especially

1477
01:14:37,479 --> 01:14:40,439
Speaker 1: a real job right now. While Pete was doing press

1478
01:14:40,479 --> 01:14:44,719
Speaker 1: avails at ribbon cutting ceremonies, the nation's airlines were gouging, screwing,

1479
01:14:44,760 --> 01:14:48,519
Speaker 1: and outright defrauding American travelers. Pete himself has been unable

1480
01:14:48,560 --> 01:14:52,440
Speaker 1: to escape the airlines chaos. One day after lightly scolding

1481
01:14:52,439 --> 01:14:56,879
Speaker 1: airline CEOs but promising no action, Pete's own flight was canceled.

1482
01:14:57,160 --> 01:14:59,519
Speaker 1: Now he was headed to New York for what another

1483
01:14:59,520 --> 01:15:01,760
Speaker 1: big press event, touring a tunnel project that was a

1484
01:15:01,760 --> 01:15:04,320
Speaker 1: major priority of New York democratic power players people like

1485
01:15:04,400 --> 01:15:07,280
Speaker 1: Chuck Schumer and giving a stamp of approval for funds

1486
01:15:07,360 --> 01:15:09,920
Speaker 1: to flow to that project. Now, that type of thing

1487
01:15:10,080 --> 01:15:12,960
Speaker 1: is easy and it's popular. What politician doesn't want new

1488
01:15:13,000 --> 01:15:16,000
Speaker 1: goodies in their district. Actually taking on an entrenched and

1489
01:15:16,040 --> 01:15:19,000
Speaker 1: well organized industry like the airlines, well, that's hard, and

1490
01:15:19,040 --> 01:15:21,760
Speaker 1: Pete did not sign up for hard. In his mind,

1491
01:15:21,800 --> 01:15:24,080
Speaker 1: though he seems to think his stint as Secretary, Pete

1492
01:15:24,120 --> 01:15:26,840
Speaker 1: is all going perfectly to plan, he thinks he's killing it,

1493
01:15:27,000 --> 01:15:29,799
Speaker 1: and he's too clueless to notice the mounting public rage

1494
01:15:29,840 --> 01:15:32,520
Speaker 1: at the airline abuses being allowed by his own agency.

1495
01:15:32,920 --> 01:15:35,160
Speaker 1: Pete's busy, after all, not with doing the job, but

1496
01:15:35,200 --> 01:15:39,640
Speaker 1: with pushing forward full steing on his own grand political ambitions. Apparently,

1497
01:15:39,760 --> 01:15:42,560
Speaker 1: the consummate shape shifter is setting himself as a Michigander,

1498
01:15:42,640 --> 01:15:45,960
Speaker 1: now officially establishing residency in that state and planning to

1499
01:15:46,040 --> 01:15:48,120
Speaker 1: vote there in the fall. And you can see why

1500
01:15:48,160 --> 01:15:49,920
Speaker 1: you'd make the move. There's no way he can get

1501
01:15:49,920 --> 01:15:53,479
Speaker 1: elected statewide in Indiana. Michigan's a large, prominent swing state,

1502
01:15:53,520 --> 01:15:55,920
Speaker 1: but he can still hold on to his Midwestern shtick.

1503
01:15:56,200 --> 01:15:58,639
Speaker 1: He's thinking Michigan is a perfect spot to launch either

1504
01:15:58,680 --> 01:16:00,839
Speaker 1: a statewide run that will keep him in the presidential

1505
01:16:00,920 --> 01:16:04,479
Speaker 1: queue or an actual presidential run should Biden be unable

1506
01:16:04,520 --> 01:16:07,400
Speaker 1: to run again. Pete's meeting with operatives his pack is

1507
01:16:07,479 --> 01:16:10,479
Speaker 1: endorsing candidates, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But he

1508
01:16:10,520 --> 01:16:13,040
Speaker 1: seems to have not noticed that his failures as Secretary

1509
01:16:13,040 --> 01:16:16,240
Speaker 1: of Transportation are kind of a devastating blow to any

1510
01:16:16,240 --> 01:16:18,840
Speaker 1: and all of his future ambitions. This dude had never

1511
01:16:18,960 --> 01:16:21,679
Speaker 1: had a real job before and didn't have a real

1512
01:16:21,760 --> 01:16:24,320
Speaker 1: record in fact, to the extent that he did. His

1513
01:16:24,400 --> 01:16:27,360
Speaker 1: tenure as mayor of South Bend was hardly stellar, be

1514
01:16:27,439 --> 01:16:30,520
Speaker 1: said as it was by police racism and angry public protests,

1515
01:16:30,720 --> 01:16:33,559
Speaker 1: but he managed to exude some managerial abilities in his

1516
01:16:33,600 --> 01:16:36,720
Speaker 1: campaign ran a modestly competent campaign, so a lot of

1517
01:16:36,720 --> 01:16:39,160
Speaker 1: people gave him the benefit of the doubt. This airline

1518
01:16:39,200 --> 01:16:42,080
Speaker 1: mess has really struck a cord among the traveling masses

1519
01:16:42,120 --> 01:16:44,679
Speaker 1: of regular Americans trying to take their first post COVID

1520
01:16:44,760 --> 01:16:47,880
Speaker 1: vacations and getting run through a gauntlet at airports across

1521
01:16:47,920 --> 01:16:51,520
Speaker 1: the country. And this mess and the customary learned helplessness

1522
01:16:51,560 --> 01:16:54,679
Speaker 1: that is being offered in response, is squarely in Pete's court.

1523
01:16:55,080 --> 01:16:58,559
Speaker 1: Bernie is already out humiliating him by demanding specific actions

1524
01:16:58,560 --> 01:17:02,240
Speaker 1: and fines for airline abuses. Pete's response, Ali hasn't had

1525
01:17:02,280 --> 01:17:05,040
Speaker 1: the time to do the math on Bernie's proposals. Translation,

1526
01:17:05,320 --> 01:17:07,559
Speaker 1: he doesn't care, and he has no intention of doing

1527
01:17:07,560 --> 01:17:10,680
Speaker 1: more than offer his weird travel agent tips online. After all,

1528
01:17:10,720 --> 01:17:13,679
Speaker 1: he's too busy heading to another ribbon cutting shoot. Because

1529
01:17:13,680 --> 01:17:15,760
Speaker 1: while Pete thought he was signing up for a fake job,

1530
01:17:15,840 --> 01:17:18,559
Speaker 1: the public actually needs him to govern. Just consider the

1531
01:17:18,560 --> 01:17:21,040
Speaker 1: contrast to what Pete is doing with photoshoots and political

1532
01:17:21,120 --> 01:17:23,680
Speaker 1: lad handling versus what someone who is actually concerned with

1533
01:17:23,760 --> 01:17:26,360
Speaker 1: governing is approaching with their job. The general counsel for

1534
01:17:26,400 --> 01:17:28,360
Speaker 1: the National Labor Relations Board has turned out to be

1535
01:17:28,400 --> 01:17:31,759
Speaker 1: an absolute beast. By contrast, she is quietly and without

1536
01:17:31,800 --> 01:17:34,519
Speaker 1: fanfare going after the captive audience meetings which would become

1537
01:17:34,520 --> 01:17:37,240
Speaker 1: a routine part of union busting tactics. She's working to

1538
01:17:37,320 --> 01:17:39,920
Speaker 1: return to a prior era of labor organizing when if

1539
01:17:39,920 --> 01:17:42,640
Speaker 1: a majority of workers signed cards saying they want to unionize,

1540
01:17:42,720 --> 01:17:44,680
Speaker 1: the burden is then on the company to prove that

1541
01:17:44,720 --> 01:17:47,400
Speaker 1: the sentiment does not actually reflect the majority will of

1542
01:17:47,439 --> 01:17:50,720
Speaker 1: the bargaining unit. Her actions have been central to the

1543
01:17:50,800 --> 01:17:54,440
Speaker 1: boldness and success of the new grassroots labor organizing. Meanwhile,

1544
01:17:54,640 --> 01:17:57,120
Speaker 1: Pete is busy hobnobbing and meeting with political operatives to

1545
01:17:57,160 --> 01:17:59,840
Speaker 1: even notice that his failures at his job right now

1546
01:18:00,120 --> 01:18:02,719
Speaker 1: preclude him from getting the job that he really wants

1547
01:18:02,720 --> 01:18:06,080
Speaker 1: in the future. According to Politico, Pete's confidants deny that

1548
01:18:06,120 --> 01:18:08,439
Speaker 1: he's using his gig a secretary of Transportation to set

1549
01:18:08,520 --> 01:18:12,040
Speaker 1: himself up for a statewider presidential campaign. As his former

1550
01:18:12,120 --> 01:18:15,240
Speaker 1: deputy campaign manager said, quote, if that's what he was

1551
01:18:15,280 --> 01:18:18,439
Speaker 1: doing he'd be running a shit shadow campaign. Well, I

1552
01:18:18,439 --> 01:18:21,559
Speaker 1: guess he does have a point there. The Michigan move

1553
01:18:21,880 --> 01:18:25,439
Speaker 1: pretty interesting, you know. And if you want to hear

1554
01:18:25,560 --> 01:18:29,000
Speaker 1: my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today

1555
01:18:29,040 --> 01:18:33,960
Speaker 1: at Breakingpoints dot com. All right, Zaga, what are you

1556
01:18:33,960 --> 01:18:36,120
Speaker 1: looking at? Well? Perhaps the thing that I hate most

1557
01:18:36,160 --> 01:18:38,760
Speaker 1: about living in Washington is how exhausting it is to

1558
01:18:38,800 --> 01:18:41,479
Speaker 1: be around people who are lying all of the time.

1559
01:18:41,760 --> 01:18:44,080
Speaker 1: And I know it sounds cliche, but it really is true.

1560
01:18:44,240 --> 01:18:47,200
Speaker 1: Politicians and lobbying groups and journalists and others. They exude

1561
01:18:47,240 --> 01:18:51,000
Speaker 1: a suffocating lack of honesty where nobody is telling the truth.

1562
01:18:51,280 --> 01:18:54,840
Speaker 1: Everybody is so captured either by ambition, money, a combination

1563
01:18:54,920 --> 01:18:57,040
Speaker 1: of both, that they dance around the truth to push

1564
01:18:57,080 --> 01:18:59,800
Speaker 1: an agenda or to simply ignore something which is inconvenient

1565
01:18:59,840 --> 01:19:01,919
Speaker 1: for them. That is how we are in the situation

1566
01:19:01,960 --> 01:19:04,720
Speaker 1: where we are today, six hundred and fourteen days since

1567
01:19:04,800 --> 01:19:07,599
Speaker 1: Joe Biden was elected to the presidency of the United States,

1568
01:19:07,760 --> 01:19:11,439
Speaker 1: and it is finally, finally okay now to talk about

1569
01:19:11,560 --> 01:19:15,280
Speaker 1: how freaking old he obviously is. That has been coming

1570
01:19:15,360 --> 01:19:18,479
Speaker 1: for some time in Washington, obviously trying to get millions

1571
01:19:18,479 --> 01:19:20,759
Speaker 1: of people who were trying to ignore their lying eyes

1572
01:19:21,040 --> 01:19:24,559
Speaker 1: of an aged and elderly man incapable of speaking properly

1573
01:19:24,720 --> 01:19:26,960
Speaker 1: in the highest office in the land. But what really

1574
01:19:27,000 --> 01:19:29,760
Speaker 1: broke open the floodgates for the media was The Atlantic's

1575
01:19:29,800 --> 01:19:32,640
Speaker 1: Mark Leibovich. Leivivich has long functioned as a kind of

1576
01:19:32,720 --> 01:19:36,360
Speaker 1: inside outsider, someone inside the veneer of respectability, but who

1577
01:19:36,439 --> 01:19:38,599
Speaker 1: is biting enough to tell truths when they are barely

1578
01:19:38,640 --> 01:19:42,040
Speaker 1: okay to tell. This time, he wrote bluntly in the

1579
01:19:42,040 --> 01:19:45,080
Speaker 1: pages of The Atlantic, quote, let me put this bluntly,

1580
01:19:45,360 --> 01:19:48,080
Speaker 1: Joe Biden should not run for reelection in twenty twenty four.

1581
01:19:48,360 --> 01:19:51,280
Speaker 1: He's too old. That sentence, while obvious to some of

1582
01:19:51,360 --> 01:19:53,519
Speaker 1: us for more than eight hundred days since Biden began

1583
01:19:53,640 --> 01:19:56,360
Speaker 1: running for president, has lifted one of the most bizarre

1584
01:19:56,439 --> 01:20:01,120
Speaker 1: veils in modern American politics, acknowledging the honest, true at last,

1585
01:20:01,520 --> 01:20:04,479
Speaker 1: soon enough, Peter Baker, himself a respectable and longtime figure

1586
01:20:04,479 --> 01:20:07,400
Speaker 1: of the Washington establishment and the chief White House correspondent

1587
01:20:07,439 --> 01:20:10,320
Speaker 1: for the New York Times, wrote a blistering and obvious

1588
01:20:10,360 --> 01:20:13,000
Speaker 1: story on the front page of the Sunday Times yesterday,

1589
01:20:13,120 --> 01:20:16,760
Speaker 1: headline quote at seventy nine. Biden is testing the boundaries

1590
01:20:16,800 --> 01:20:19,599
Speaker 1: of age and the presidency. What's important is not really

1591
01:20:19,600 --> 01:20:21,680
Speaker 1: what's in the piece, though it is sunning, but that

1592
01:20:21,760 --> 01:20:26,240
Speaker 1: it exists at all, the obvious acknowledgment Biden is really old.

1593
01:20:26,600 --> 01:20:29,559
Speaker 1: Baker opens a story by noting that Biden's staff originally

1594
01:20:29,560 --> 01:20:32,439
Speaker 1: had planned combining his travel to Europe and to the

1595
01:20:32,439 --> 01:20:35,120
Speaker 1: Middle East all in a single ten day jaunt for

1596
01:20:35,240 --> 01:20:37,880
Speaker 1: ease of planning sake, but they decided that because he's

1597
01:20:37,920 --> 01:20:40,360
Speaker 1: so old, it would be too exhausting to try and

1598
01:20:40,400 --> 01:20:43,719
Speaker 1: get it all done together. Instead, they planned a week

1599
01:20:43,760 --> 01:20:46,400
Speaker 1: in Europe and then a week long sojourned back here

1600
01:20:46,400 --> 01:20:48,800
Speaker 1: in the US, and then a separate few days in

1601
01:20:48,840 --> 01:20:53,200
Speaker 1: the Middle East later. Here's how Biden describes Baker describes

1602
01:20:53,240 --> 01:20:56,000
Speaker 1: the mood inside the West Wing quote. His energy level,

1603
01:20:56,040 --> 01:20:58,200
Speaker 1: while impressive for a man his age, is not what

1604
01:20:58,240 --> 01:21:00,840
Speaker 1: it was, and Aids quietly watched out for him. He

1605
01:21:00,880 --> 01:21:03,599
Speaker 1: often shuffles when he walks, Aids worry he will trip

1606
01:21:03,640 --> 01:21:06,679
Speaker 1: on a wire, he stumbles over words during public events.

1607
01:21:06,840 --> 01:21:09,040
Speaker 1: They hold their breath to see if he makes it

1608
01:21:09,080 --> 01:21:11,759
Speaker 1: to the end without a gaff. As we covered earlier

1609
01:21:11,800 --> 01:21:14,760
Speaker 1: in the show, considering that Biden literally reads verbatim off

1610
01:21:14,800 --> 01:21:18,400
Speaker 1: the teleprompter like a scene from Anchorman, their fears are

1611
01:21:18,560 --> 01:21:21,800
Speaker 1: very well founded. What all of this discussion highlights to

1612
01:21:21,840 --> 01:21:25,120
Speaker 1: me is to just how dishonest the entire discussion of

1613
01:21:25,120 --> 01:21:27,519
Speaker 1: Biden's age has been for two and a half years.

1614
01:21:27,840 --> 01:21:31,400
Speaker 1: I can barely describe how vilified Crystal and I have

1615
01:21:31,479 --> 01:21:34,680
Speaker 1: been since early twenty twenty and late twenty nineteen for

1616
01:21:34,840 --> 01:21:38,920
Speaker 1: bluntly talking about Biden's age. We were called agists at first,

1617
01:21:39,200 --> 01:21:42,320
Speaker 1: and then the regime discovered their real attack. Biden doesn't

1618
01:21:42,320 --> 01:21:45,679
Speaker 1: speak badly because of his age, It's because he has

1619
01:21:45,720 --> 01:21:48,960
Speaker 1: a stutter. The breakthrough happened in February of twenty twenty.

1620
01:21:49,080 --> 01:21:51,920
Speaker 1: A writer named John Hendrickson penned a long piece about

1621
01:21:51,920 --> 01:21:55,080
Speaker 1: how Joe Biden overcame a childhood's stutter, which reminded him

1622
01:21:55,120 --> 01:21:58,320
Speaker 1: of his own. How anytime Biden slipped up in his speech,

1623
01:21:58,600 --> 01:22:03,000
Speaker 1: it's because of that childldhood stutter. Now, miraculously nobody asked

1624
01:22:03,000 --> 01:22:06,120
Speaker 1: this question. Why was he kojin and a decent speaker

1625
01:22:06,360 --> 01:22:09,519
Speaker 1: for forty years of politics and then, all of a sudden,

1626
01:22:09,520 --> 01:22:14,719
Speaker 1: nearing eighty, the so called stutter just remateializes out of nowhere. Obviously,

1627
01:22:14,720 --> 01:22:16,600
Speaker 1: you're not allowed to ask that question, even though it

1628
01:22:16,600 --> 01:22:18,719
Speaker 1: was obvious to anyone who has watched Biden over the years.

1629
01:22:19,080 --> 01:22:22,040
Speaker 1: I went and selected a random interview from November of

1630
01:22:22,080 --> 01:22:25,679
Speaker 1: twenty ten, when Biden was vice president. Watch this interview

1631
01:22:25,920 --> 01:22:28,439
Speaker 1: and tell me this is the same guy who is

1632
01:22:28,520 --> 01:22:32,920
Speaker 1: president right now. Do you have faith in President Krzi? Look,

1633
01:22:33,720 --> 01:22:37,840
Speaker 1: I've known President Karzai for a long long time. I

1634
01:22:37,840 --> 01:22:41,320
Speaker 1: think he's in a very difficult position I have. You know,

1635
01:22:41,520 --> 01:22:43,759
Speaker 1: we could argue that there could be a stronger leader,

1636
01:22:43,800 --> 01:22:46,200
Speaker 1: and but you deal with the hand your delta, as

1637
01:22:46,280 --> 01:22:49,760
Speaker 1: the old saying goes, And we are all on the

1638
01:22:49,800 --> 01:22:53,639
Speaker 1: same page now for the first time. That guy has

1639
01:22:53,680 --> 01:22:56,840
Speaker 1: not been around for years. Let's just be honest about it.

1640
01:22:57,080 --> 01:22:59,639
Speaker 1: In fact, the people who were the least honest about

1641
01:22:59,680 --> 01:23:03,679
Speaker 1: biden age were actually Democratic Operatives in twenty twenty, which

1642
01:23:03,720 --> 01:23:06,519
Speaker 1: is ironic because, as Glenn Greenwald points out, they were

1643
01:23:06,560 --> 01:23:08,920
Speaker 1: the same ones who knew him best and realized how

1644
01:23:08,960 --> 01:23:12,120
Speaker 1: far gone he was in twenty nineteen when they didn't

1645
01:23:12,160 --> 01:23:14,559
Speaker 1: realize he was going to be the nominee. In fact,

1646
01:23:14,720 --> 01:23:17,320
Speaker 1: the first person to notice was the Dean of the

1647
01:23:17,479 --> 01:23:22,360
Speaker 1: Washington NBC Media Andrea Mitchell, who in twenty nineteen wondered

1648
01:23:22,439 --> 01:23:26,920
Speaker 1: this about Joe Biden on the air before Democratic presidential debate. Look,

1649
01:23:27,040 --> 01:23:30,000
Speaker 1: he has been a skilled debater. We saw him with

1650
01:23:30,040 --> 01:23:31,960
Speaker 1: Sarah Pall and we've seen him in the past. The

1651
01:23:32,040 --> 01:23:35,840
Speaker 1: question is does he still have his stuff and spinad? Yeah?

1652
01:23:35,880 --> 01:23:38,280
Speaker 1: And is he how sharp is he? Does the Joe

1653
01:23:38,280 --> 01:23:41,040
Speaker 1: Biden tonight? Is he the same Joe Biden who could

1654
01:23:41,080 --> 01:23:44,360
Speaker 1: respond with one word to age, you know you're rousing

1655
01:23:44,640 --> 01:23:48,639
Speaker 1: question by the question young Brian were raising And how

1656
01:23:48,680 --> 01:23:51,599
Speaker 1: sharp is he? That was before Biden was the front runner,

1657
01:23:51,600 --> 01:23:54,760
Speaker 1: when such questions were allowed. As Glenn wrote inutil March

1658
01:23:54,760 --> 01:23:57,960
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty, a major Democratic pundit, Jamil Smith of

1659
01:23:58,000 --> 01:24:01,240
Speaker 1: Rolling Stone Magazine even wrote quote, I'm no doctor, and

1660
01:24:01,280 --> 01:24:03,760
Speaker 1: I had a family member where dementia contributed to his death.

1661
01:24:03,960 --> 01:24:06,920
Speaker 1: I will be the last one speculating about Biden's cognitive decline,

1662
01:24:06,960 --> 01:24:09,920
Speaker 1: but his campaign is irresponsible to let this go unexplained

1663
01:24:10,040 --> 01:24:13,240
Speaker 1: or diagnosed, if the case may be. That was in

1664
01:24:13,320 --> 01:24:17,800
Speaker 1: August of twenty nineteen. It was always evident, most so

1665
01:24:17,920 --> 01:24:19,920
Speaker 1: to the people who knew him best and saw him

1666
01:24:19,920 --> 01:24:22,479
Speaker 1: over the years but the media cut off in silenced

1667
01:24:22,479 --> 01:24:25,000
Speaker 1: descent when it was evident he was the nominee only

1668
01:24:25,000 --> 01:24:28,120
Speaker 1: two years later, acknowledging what we all knew all along.

1669
01:24:28,479 --> 01:24:31,000
Speaker 1: It really is a crime against the American people for

1670
01:24:31,080 --> 01:24:34,559
Speaker 1: covering this up. It's completely reasonable to say, hey, Biden

1671
01:24:34,640 --> 01:24:36,519
Speaker 1: is old as hell, but Trump is awful, so I'm

1672
01:24:36,520 --> 01:24:38,799
Speaker 1: still going to vote for him. But bring this full circle.

1673
01:24:39,080 --> 01:24:42,559
Speaker 1: Let's just be honest about what's happening here. It is

1674
01:24:42,640 --> 01:24:46,320
Speaker 1: clear to me and anyone with eyes Biden is way

1675
01:24:46,400 --> 01:24:49,519
Speaker 1: too old to be president, let alone right now, let

1676
01:24:49,600 --> 01:24:52,880
Speaker 1: alone six years from now when he'll be eighty six.

1677
01:24:53,240 --> 01:24:56,320
Speaker 1: But don't worry. Once Trump announces again, people will start

1678
01:24:56,320 --> 01:24:59,040
Speaker 1: the stuttering attack up all over again, and they'll forget

1679
01:24:59,080 --> 01:25:02,200
Speaker 1: ever even on that they even acknowledge what was actually

1680
01:25:02,280 --> 01:25:05,360
Speaker 1: going on here. I mean, look, it was obvious, covered

1681
01:25:05,360 --> 01:25:07,960
Speaker 1: it at the time. And if you want to hear

1682
01:25:08,200 --> 01:25:11,719
Speaker 1: my reaction to Sagres's monologue, become a premium subscriber today

1683
01:25:11,800 --> 01:25:17,679
Speaker 1: at Breakingpoints dot Com. Joining us now is Tobias Harris.

1684
01:25:17,680 --> 01:25:21,519
Speaker 1: He is the biographer and author of the Iconoclass Shinzo

1685
01:25:21,560 --> 01:25:23,800
Speaker 1: Abbe and The New Japan. He's also Senior Fellow for

1686
01:25:23,880 --> 01:25:27,439
Speaker 1: Asia at the Center for American Progress. So, Tobias, thank

1687
01:25:27,439 --> 01:25:29,040
Speaker 1: you very much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

1688
01:25:29,240 --> 01:25:31,920
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. So you wrote the biography on

1689
01:25:31,960 --> 01:25:36,080
Speaker 1: Shinzo Abbe. He was assassinated sadly over the weekend in Japan.

1690
01:25:36,360 --> 01:25:39,040
Speaker 1: Just describe for us what this means in terms of

1691
01:25:39,120 --> 01:25:42,200
Speaker 1: Japanese politics, kind of who Shinzo Abbe was for a

1692
01:25:42,320 --> 01:25:45,240
Speaker 1: broader general populace, and then as his biographer, what your

1693
01:25:45,320 --> 01:25:49,720
Speaker 1: reaction to the news of all this is. Sure, So

1694
01:25:50,280 --> 01:25:51,960
Speaker 1: you know, when we think about Abbe, I mean, and

1695
01:25:52,160 --> 01:25:54,879
Speaker 1: this has become I think, very apparent in the immediate

1696
01:25:54,880 --> 01:25:58,080
Speaker 1: aftermath of his death. I mean, there's been no Japanese

1697
01:25:58,080 --> 01:26:01,880
Speaker 1: figure probably for a generation to who's loomed as large

1698
01:26:02,160 --> 01:26:04,400
Speaker 1: as he has. And you know, ever since he entered

1699
01:26:04,840 --> 01:26:08,000
Speaker 1: Japanese politics in the early nineteen nineties, you know, almost

1700
01:26:08,040 --> 01:26:12,479
Speaker 1: through force of will, completely changed the direction I think

1701
01:26:12,479 --> 01:26:16,439
Speaker 1: of Japanese politics, of the Japanese state. Was just a

1702
01:26:16,479 --> 01:26:21,320
Speaker 1: tremendously influential figure for a very long time, not just

1703
01:26:21,479 --> 01:26:24,080
Speaker 1: during his time as Prime minister, I mean, which, of course,

1704
01:26:24,160 --> 01:26:27,240
Speaker 1: I mean he was the longest serving prime minister from

1705
01:26:27,240 --> 01:26:30,920
Speaker 1: twenty twelve to twenty twenty, but even before before he

1706
01:26:30,960 --> 01:26:33,840
Speaker 1: became prime minister. Between his two stints as prime minister,

1707
01:26:33,880 --> 01:26:38,040
Speaker 1: I mean, he just a tremendously influential figure, and frankly,

1708
01:26:39,160 --> 01:26:41,200
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's almost hard to imagine what the

1709
01:26:41,320 --> 01:26:44,400
Speaker 1: Japanese political system looks like with him gone. I mean,

1710
01:26:44,439 --> 01:26:45,880
Speaker 1: so with that, you know, with that, in might to

1711
01:26:45,880 --> 01:26:47,840
Speaker 1: your second question, I mean, you know, of course I've

1712
01:26:47,880 --> 01:26:50,400
Speaker 1: spent you know, years and years thinking about him. I mean,

1713
01:26:50,439 --> 01:26:53,760
Speaker 1: even before writing my book about him, he was, you know,

1714
01:26:53,840 --> 01:26:57,120
Speaker 1: this figure who occupied a lot of brain space. I mean,

1715
01:26:57,160 --> 01:26:59,280
Speaker 1: just you know, so just a tremendous shock. I mean, certainly,

1716
01:26:59,560 --> 01:27:02,439
Speaker 1: you know, hardly unexpected. You know, I think everyone who

1717
01:27:02,479 --> 01:27:05,679
Speaker 1: watches Japanese politics was anticipating years and years of watching

1718
01:27:05,760 --> 01:27:08,519
Speaker 1: him kind of invent a new role as an ex

1719
01:27:08,560 --> 01:27:11,519
Speaker 1: prime minister and continue to wield influence. So it's just

1720
01:27:11,560 --> 01:27:13,880
Speaker 1: really shocking to think that that's not going to be

1721
01:27:14,040 --> 01:27:16,760
Speaker 1: the case. You have a quote and the piece that

1722
01:27:16,800 --> 01:27:19,559
Speaker 1: you wrote for the New York Times, where you're quoting

1723
01:27:19,560 --> 01:27:23,160
Speaker 1: Steve Bannon, of course, former President Trump's former chief strategist,

1724
01:27:23,240 --> 01:27:26,880
Speaker 1: saying that Abbe was Trump before Trump, which he of

1725
01:27:26,880 --> 01:27:29,240
Speaker 1: course meant as a compliment. Not everyone would certainly take

1726
01:27:29,240 --> 01:27:33,479
Speaker 1: it that way. What was meant by that, I'm not

1727
01:27:33,479 --> 01:27:37,960
Speaker 1: going to try to read the mind of Steve Bannon.

1728
01:27:38,000 --> 01:27:39,360
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it was a point sort of

1729
01:27:39,360 --> 01:27:43,799
Speaker 1: about nationalism and nationalist appeals and looking at that aspect

1730
01:27:43,800 --> 01:27:46,679
Speaker 1: of Abbe, But I actually think they're very very different figures,

1731
01:27:47,520 --> 01:27:48,760
Speaker 1: you know, and I talked about this in the New

1732
01:27:48,800 --> 01:27:51,040
Speaker 1: York Times piece. You know, you look back at the

1733
01:27:51,280 --> 01:27:54,719
Speaker 1: entire arc of Abbe's career and also his family, which

1734
01:27:54,840 --> 01:27:57,879
Speaker 1: really shaped his political identity and the ideas he was pursuing.

1735
01:27:58,080 --> 01:28:00,880
Speaker 1: You know, ab was a state builder. Abbok at the

1736
01:28:00,920 --> 01:28:04,160
Speaker 1: long arc of Japanese history, both up until the time

1737
01:28:04,360 --> 01:28:06,559
Speaker 1: enter politics, but then also looking ahead to the future

1738
01:28:06,920 --> 01:28:12,080
Speaker 1: and wanted to build a strong, top down, centralized government

1739
01:28:12,120 --> 01:28:14,320
Speaker 1: in a way that Japan Japanese government, the Japanese government

1740
01:28:14,320 --> 01:28:17,519
Speaker 1: hasn't been, hadn't been after nineteen forty five, that was

1741
01:28:17,520 --> 01:28:19,679
Speaker 1: going to be able to have a proper national security

1742
01:28:19,760 --> 01:28:23,440
Speaker 1: establishment that would be able to respond to crises effectively,

1743
01:28:23,760 --> 01:28:25,680
Speaker 1: that would really be able to meet the challenges that

1744
01:28:25,760 --> 01:28:28,000
Speaker 1: Japan was going to face in the coming decades. And

1745
01:28:28,040 --> 01:28:30,639
Speaker 1: he was very clear about this. He was persistent about

1746
01:28:30,680 --> 01:28:33,320
Speaker 1: it. It It was something that he always made clear and

1747
01:28:33,360 --> 01:28:35,599
Speaker 1: so you know, and also with that came I think

1748
01:28:35,600 --> 01:28:38,360
Speaker 1: a certain amount of flexibility and pragmatism. It was always

1749
01:28:38,360 --> 01:28:40,559
Speaker 1: about what do I need to do to make sure

1750
01:28:40,880 --> 01:28:46,000
Speaker 1: that Japan is strong and prosperous and secure in an

1751
01:28:46,040 --> 01:28:48,400
Speaker 1: increasingly dangerous world. And frankly, that also meant that he

1752
01:28:48,479 --> 01:28:51,479
Speaker 1: was willing to do things like open the Japanese economy

1753
01:28:51,520 --> 01:28:55,080
Speaker 1: to trade, welcome foreign investment, welcome more immigration. I mean,

1754
01:28:55,080 --> 01:28:56,599
Speaker 1: you have a record by the end of his tenure,

1755
01:28:56,600 --> 01:28:58,559
Speaker 1: you had a record number of foreign workers in Japan.

1756
01:28:58,800 --> 01:29:01,360
Speaker 1: That does not sound like Trump. For Trump to me,

1757
01:29:01,760 --> 01:29:03,760
Speaker 1: one thing though, that is an echo of some of

1758
01:29:03,800 --> 01:29:06,240
Speaker 1: the debates at least that we're having now that are

1759
01:29:06,320 --> 01:29:10,720
Speaker 1: unfolding on the right of American politics, is he introduced

1760
01:29:10,840 --> 01:29:14,240
Speaker 1: his own version of patriotic education into schools. There was

1761
01:29:14,280 --> 01:29:17,800
Speaker 1: some whitewashing of Japanese war crimes in World War Two,

1762
01:29:17,800 --> 01:29:19,760
Speaker 1: which is very much a break from the way that

1763
01:29:19,800 --> 01:29:21,639
Speaker 1: this had been dealt with in schools and in sort

1764
01:29:21,680 --> 01:29:24,880
Speaker 1: of national culture before. Could you speak to how significant

1765
01:29:24,880 --> 01:29:28,839
Speaker 1: that was and what he was getting after there? Absolutely,

1766
01:29:28,920 --> 01:29:30,959
Speaker 1: I mean, and you know, I don't want to downplay

1767
01:29:30,960 --> 01:29:33,120
Speaker 1: that aspect of him. I mean, there was that was

1768
01:29:33,439 --> 01:29:36,360
Speaker 1: certainly early in his career, back in the nineteen nineties

1769
01:29:36,360 --> 01:29:37,960
Speaker 1: when he was a young lawmaker, you know, trying to

1770
01:29:37,960 --> 01:29:40,320
Speaker 1: make his name. You know, that was an issue he

1771
01:29:40,360 --> 01:29:45,120
Speaker 1: attached himself to. There was this movement to change the

1772
01:29:45,120 --> 01:29:48,479
Speaker 1: textbooks that were being used in schools, you know, fierce

1773
01:29:48,720 --> 01:29:53,840
Speaker 1: enmity towards the teachers' unions, which really, throughout the entire

1774
01:29:54,320 --> 01:29:57,360
Speaker 1: Cold War period had been some of the most radically

1775
01:29:57,400 --> 01:30:01,519
Speaker 1: left wing unions among all Japanese un unions. So there's

1776
01:30:01,560 --> 01:30:03,240
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no question that that was part of

1777
01:30:03,280 --> 01:30:06,439
Speaker 1: his agenda. I mean, he very much saw education. In fact,

1778
01:30:06,479 --> 01:30:08,160
Speaker 1: you look at the book he wrote back in two

1779
01:30:08,160 --> 01:30:10,760
Speaker 1: thousand and six, which really, I mean, really lays out

1780
01:30:10,760 --> 01:30:14,200
Speaker 1: his philosophy and his way of thinking quite clearly. You know,

1781
01:30:14,360 --> 01:30:17,280
Speaker 1: education to him was also part of state building, and

1782
01:30:17,320 --> 01:30:20,720
Speaker 1: you know, he looked at back going back again, going

1783
01:30:20,720 --> 01:30:23,000
Speaker 1: back to nineteen forty five under the US occupation. One

1784
01:30:23,040 --> 01:30:25,360
Speaker 1: of the things the US did was completely reform the

1785
01:30:25,439 --> 01:30:28,920
Speaker 1: Japanese education system. Much more local control, you know, of course,

1786
01:30:29,000 --> 01:30:31,240
Speaker 1: much more room for the teachers union to influence what

1787
01:30:31,280 --> 01:30:34,639
Speaker 1: was happening in the classroom, and you know, he saw

1788
01:30:34,720 --> 01:30:37,200
Speaker 1: that if Japan is again believing that Japan needed to

1789
01:30:37,200 --> 01:30:39,920
Speaker 1: be a strong state, he saw the way Japanese children

1790
01:30:39,960 --> 01:30:42,280
Speaker 1: were educated as an obstacle to that, because he believed

1791
01:30:42,280 --> 01:30:44,960
Speaker 1: the Japanese children were being taught to hate their country

1792
01:30:45,320 --> 01:30:47,120
Speaker 1: and that that had to change, and that if you

1793
01:30:47,120 --> 01:30:49,920
Speaker 1: were going to have Japanese children being willing, you know,

1794
01:30:50,000 --> 01:30:52,519
Speaker 1: to sacrifice on behalf of their country, then they had

1795
01:30:52,560 --> 01:30:54,679
Speaker 1: to be taught made to feel proud of their country.

1796
01:30:55,000 --> 01:30:59,920
Speaker 1: I personally, I don't think you need to downplay historical

1797
01:31:00,040 --> 01:31:02,360
Speaker 1: atrocities to make people feel proud of your country. And

1798
01:31:02,400 --> 01:31:04,559
Speaker 1: I think lots of I think, frankly, lots of Japanese

1799
01:31:04,600 --> 01:31:07,240
Speaker 1: people felt proud of what was built after nineteen forty

1800
01:31:07,240 --> 01:31:09,960
Speaker 1: five and the country that Japan came so, you know,

1801
01:31:10,560 --> 01:31:13,000
Speaker 1: but this was absolutely part of his program. It was

1802
01:31:13,040 --> 01:31:15,679
Speaker 1: clearly something that he wanted to change about the country.

1803
01:31:15,880 --> 01:31:18,000
Speaker 1: I think the most fascinating I've respected Abe for a

1804
01:31:18,000 --> 01:31:20,960
Speaker 1: long time. I think of all the major US allies,

1805
01:31:21,040 --> 01:31:23,280
Speaker 1: Japan is the one which people probably know the least

1806
01:31:23,280 --> 01:31:24,960
Speaker 1: about here in America. But he still had a deep

1807
01:31:25,000 --> 01:31:28,120
Speaker 1: amount of affection, at least amongst the US elite. He was,

1808
01:31:28,280 --> 01:31:32,000
Speaker 1: I think friends had appeared with four sitting US presidents,

1809
01:31:32,040 --> 01:31:34,160
Speaker 1: which is remarkable. And I think what you point to

1810
01:31:34,160 --> 01:31:36,720
Speaker 1: you and you write is that his major commitment was

1811
01:31:36,760 --> 01:31:39,479
Speaker 1: to Japan, not only as to an ideal, but something

1812
01:31:39,520 --> 01:31:42,760
Speaker 1: that should be robust in its defense, both against China

1813
01:31:42,800 --> 01:31:44,400
Speaker 1: and North Korea. I was telling you before we went

1814
01:31:44,400 --> 01:31:45,880
Speaker 1: on the air, I actually the opportunity to ask him

1815
01:31:45,880 --> 01:31:48,519
Speaker 1: a question about North Korea twenty eighteen whenever he was

1816
01:31:48,520 --> 01:31:51,479
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister appearing next to President Trump, and that

1817
01:31:51,600 --> 01:31:54,200
Speaker 1: was really the last unfulfilled part of his legacy. So

1818
01:31:54,320 --> 01:31:57,120
Speaker 1: do you think that that legacy will move forward in

1819
01:31:57,200 --> 01:31:59,760
Speaker 1: Japan as a result of his assassination? Which is a

1820
01:31:59,760 --> 01:32:03,280
Speaker 1: tight panic political moment, like how will abeism is it

1821
01:32:03,320 --> 01:32:06,000
Speaker 1: like almost like a Kennedy figure and trying to recast

1822
01:32:06,040 --> 01:32:07,519
Speaker 1: and reclaim that. How do you think is going to

1823
01:32:07,520 --> 01:32:11,479
Speaker 1: affect them going forward? I mean, it's a great question.

1824
01:32:11,520 --> 01:32:14,000
Speaker 1: It's one that I think lots of us are trying

1825
01:32:14,000 --> 01:32:16,280
Speaker 1: to figure out. You know, once the dust settles, what

1826
01:32:16,360 --> 01:32:18,960
Speaker 1: exactly is going to happen. I mean, there's a few

1827
01:32:18,960 --> 01:32:21,160
Speaker 1: different moving parts of it, I think. I mean, first

1828
01:32:21,200 --> 01:32:24,519
Speaker 1: of all, you know, he did you know Over the

1829
01:32:24,520 --> 01:32:27,519
Speaker 1: course of his career the job, he built the Japanese

1830
01:32:27,600 --> 01:32:30,120
Speaker 1: national security establishment in a way that you hadn't seen before.

1831
01:32:30,240 --> 01:32:33,200
Speaker 1: You have a more potent military, you have I think,

1832
01:32:33,400 --> 01:32:37,400
Speaker 1: a more streamlined command structure. You have a proper Ministry

1833
01:32:37,439 --> 01:32:39,240
Speaker 1: of Defense, which is something you created the first time

1834
01:32:39,240 --> 01:32:42,040
Speaker 1: you became prime minister. You have a national security establishment

1835
01:32:42,080 --> 01:32:44,479
Speaker 1: that allows our secretariat, that allows the Prime Minister to

1836
01:32:44,520 --> 01:32:47,519
Speaker 1: have a much more direct hand in making foreign and

1837
01:32:47,560 --> 01:32:51,440
Speaker 1: security policy. So all of that now exists. His successors

1838
01:32:51,439 --> 01:32:54,360
Speaker 1: now have these institutions. They're much more able to be

1839
01:32:54,520 --> 01:32:57,720
Speaker 1: national security leaders, to serve as as global statesmen in

1840
01:32:57,720 --> 01:33:01,400
Speaker 1: the way that he did compared to the past. One

1841
01:33:02,280 --> 01:33:05,280
Speaker 1: other thing that he changed is that I think the LDP,

1842
01:33:05,479 --> 01:33:09,280
Speaker 1: the Liberal Democratic Party, is I think a much more

1843
01:33:09,880 --> 01:33:14,880
Speaker 1: uniformly i guess called hawkish party than maybe it had

1844
01:33:14,920 --> 01:33:16,439
Speaker 1: been at the start of his career. You know, there

1845
01:33:16,520 --> 01:33:17,960
Speaker 1: used to be I think, you know, much in the

1846
01:33:17,960 --> 01:33:20,120
Speaker 1: same way that the Republican Party you know, of course

1847
01:33:20,200 --> 01:33:22,639
Speaker 1: used to have. You know, actually, really both American parties

1848
01:33:22,720 --> 01:33:25,400
Speaker 1: used to be much more diverse in the kind of views.

1849
01:33:25,600 --> 01:33:28,679
Speaker 1: The LDP has become a much more ideologically coherent party

1850
01:33:29,160 --> 01:33:31,360
Speaker 1: compared to when he entered politics in nineteen ninety three,

1851
01:33:31,400 --> 01:33:33,719
Speaker 1: and some of that effect was a result in twenty

1852
01:33:33,760 --> 01:33:36,240
Speaker 1: twelve when he came back to the LDP's leadership, a

1853
01:33:36,280 --> 01:33:38,680
Speaker 1: lot of the older, a lot of the older, more

1854
01:33:38,760 --> 01:33:43,960
Speaker 1: dubbish LDP members retired and ended up being replaced by younger,

1855
01:33:44,520 --> 01:33:48,400
Speaker 1: handpicked politicians who shared ABBA's views. And so you now have,

1856
01:33:48,840 --> 01:33:51,599
Speaker 1: I think a big chunk of the LDP basically wants

1857
01:33:51,640 --> 01:33:54,280
Speaker 1: to press on with ABBA's vision for a stronger Japan,

1858
01:33:54,320 --> 01:33:57,800
Speaker 1: a more capable Japan, more capable defending itself. And so

1859
01:33:57,880 --> 01:34:00,799
Speaker 1: you do have, of course, with a current minister Kishita,

1860
01:34:00,960 --> 01:34:04,240
Speaker 1: a you know, a self style dove liberal. He's from Hiroshima,

1861
01:34:04,960 --> 01:34:08,200
Speaker 1: but even he he was elected really thanks to ave

1862
01:34:08,360 --> 01:34:10,920
Speaker 1: support last year and made very clear that he was

1863
01:34:11,360 --> 01:34:13,400
Speaker 1: committed to pushing ahead. And so right now, in the

1864
01:34:13,439 --> 01:34:15,519
Speaker 1: next couple of months, there's going to be a big

1865
01:34:15,520 --> 01:34:18,360
Speaker 1: debate about defense spending for the budget next year. All

1866
01:34:18,400 --> 01:34:20,240
Speaker 1: signs point to there's going to be an increase of

1867
01:34:20,280 --> 01:34:21,880
Speaker 1: some kind. Is just a question of just how much

1868
01:34:21,920 --> 01:34:23,880
Speaker 1: and what they're going to spend on, and Kishada has

1869
01:34:23,920 --> 01:34:26,559
Speaker 1: also signaled that he's also he's willing to consider acquiring

1870
01:34:27,040 --> 01:34:29,720
Speaker 1: offensive or not offensive strike capabilities, but the ability to

1871
01:34:29,800 --> 01:34:34,120
Speaker 1: strike targets overseas in a defensive capacity, let's let's call it.

1872
01:34:35,520 --> 01:34:37,760
Speaker 1: And so that, I mean, that's where we are right now.

1873
01:34:37,840 --> 01:34:39,760
Speaker 1: There's still some questions about what's going to what the

1874
01:34:39,760 --> 01:34:42,160
Speaker 1: public's going to sign on for, what members of the

1875
01:34:42,160 --> 01:34:44,920
Speaker 1: coalition government to sign on for, but certainly there's a

1876
01:34:44,960 --> 01:34:48,160
Speaker 1: lot of energy behind moving ahead with that. Yeah. Absolutely, Well,

1877
01:34:48,160 --> 01:34:49,559
Speaker 1: thank you so much for breaking it down for us

1878
01:34:49,560 --> 01:34:52,439
Speaker 1: to us. We really appreciated yours biographer will have a

1879
01:34:52,479 --> 01:34:55,000
Speaker 1: link down in the description to the book and to

1880
01:34:55,280 --> 01:34:56,840
Speaker 1: the New York Times article that we reference, and we

1881
01:34:56,840 --> 01:34:59,479
Speaker 1: appreciate you joining us. Thank you, Thank you man. It

1882
01:34:59,520 --> 01:35:02,040
Speaker 1: was really sad whenever I saw that news over the weekend.

1883
01:35:02,320 --> 01:35:04,559
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for watching. We really appreciate it.

1884
01:35:04,560 --> 01:35:06,160
Speaker 1: It's going to be a great week. By the way,

1885
01:35:06,400 --> 01:35:08,120
Speaker 1: Live show, do we have that graphic? I'm not sure

1886
01:35:08,120 --> 01:35:10,200
Speaker 1: if we do. Anyway, don't forget to buy tickets. We're

1887
01:35:10,240 --> 01:35:12,400
Speaker 1: nearing the end, we're nearing the sell out dates, so

1888
01:35:12,400 --> 01:35:14,439
Speaker 1: we've already shown the industry we can and we will

1889
01:35:14,640 --> 01:35:17,080
Speaker 1: sell tickets. So the planning phase, as I said, is

1890
01:35:17,120 --> 01:35:19,880
Speaker 1: currently there if you are in the Atlanta metro area,

1891
01:35:19,920 --> 01:35:21,960
Speaker 1: go ahead and buy tickets. You can help support us,

1892
01:35:22,040 --> 01:35:24,160
Speaker 1: you can help show the world what we can do.

1893
01:35:24,280 --> 01:35:25,680
Speaker 1: And it's going to be a great show. We're doing

1894
01:35:25,720 --> 01:35:27,599
Speaker 1: a lot of fun planning for it. As the mid

1895
01:35:27,720 --> 01:35:30,599
Speaker 1: term stuff begins to ramp up, so we'll have future

1896
01:35:30,640 --> 01:35:33,040
Speaker 1: announcements for everyone in the future. If you're a Premium member,

1897
01:35:33,040 --> 01:35:35,439
Speaker 1: we deeply appreciate it. You get future access to all

1898
01:35:35,479 --> 01:35:38,000
Speaker 1: pre sales for a week ahead of tickets going on

1899
01:35:38,000 --> 01:35:39,840
Speaker 1: sale to the general public. They bought more than half

1900
01:35:39,880 --> 01:35:42,320
Speaker 1: of the seats before, so there you go if you

1901
01:35:42,320 --> 01:35:45,240
Speaker 1: want the good seats. Thank you very much to everybody

1902
01:35:45,280 --> 01:35:47,519
Speaker 1: else who is out there. Thank you to everyone who

1903
01:35:47,520 --> 01:35:49,519
Speaker 1: supports as we deeply appreciate it. Linked to the description

1904
01:35:49,800 --> 01:35:51,639
Speaker 1: if you want to join and we'll see you all tomorrow.

1905
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Speaker 1: I just want to say one other thing, which, as

1906
01:35:53,280 --> 01:35:56,519
Speaker 1: I mentioned in the show, about how Jackson Hinkel, who

1907
01:35:56,520 --> 01:35:59,160
Speaker 1: agains no fame ours well, that's fine. His entire YouTube

1908
01:35:59,200 --> 01:36:02,479
Speaker 1: channels de monit ties because of his critique of the

1909
01:36:02,520 --> 01:36:05,880
Speaker 1: sort of DC consensus with regard to Russia and Ukraine,

1910
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Speaker 1: and it was another little reminder for me of how

1911
01:36:08,760 --> 01:36:12,720
Speaker 1: that's a good point how precarious the YouTube situation is

1912
01:36:12,760 --> 01:36:15,320
Speaker 1: that they could just, you know, permanently pull the plug

1913
01:36:15,520 --> 01:36:18,360
Speaker 1: on your ability to generate any revenue off of your

1914
01:36:18,400 --> 01:36:21,679
Speaker 1: content just one day. They can just do it. There's

1915
01:36:21,720 --> 01:36:24,280
Speaker 1: no redress, there's not anything you can do about it.

1916
01:36:24,360 --> 01:36:28,439
Speaker 1: Let's going just another reminder why we have the business

1917
01:36:28,439 --> 01:36:30,559
Speaker 1: model what we do. How grateful we are to you

1918
01:36:30,560 --> 01:36:33,040
Speaker 1: guys for backing us up so that we can, you know,

1919
01:36:33,160 --> 01:36:35,479
Speaker 1: we can cover the news and say what we really

1920
01:36:35,479 --> 01:36:38,000
Speaker 1: think and present whatever information we think is relevant to

1921
01:36:38,040 --> 01:36:40,520
Speaker 1: you and your life, which is not always a comfortable

1922
01:36:40,520 --> 01:36:44,200
Speaker 1: thing for the DC consensus here. And uh yeah, we're

1923
01:36:44,240 --> 01:36:46,160
Speaker 1: just really grateful for your support. It's true, you know,

1924
01:36:46,200 --> 01:36:48,760
Speaker 1: we'd lose YouTube tomorrow and it would suck for sure,

1925
01:36:49,240 --> 01:36:51,479
Speaker 1: but we'd be op'd be okay thanks to all of you,

1926
01:36:51,600 --> 01:36:53,760
Speaker 1: So exactly right. It does give you a lot of

1927
01:36:53,760 --> 01:36:55,800
Speaker 1: confidence in the way that we cover the news. So

1928
01:36:55,840 --> 01:36:57,920
Speaker 1: thank you all to all those who support us. That's

1929
01:36:57,960 --> 01:36:59,760
Speaker 1: exactly the mindset of why we don't have to worry

1930
01:36:59,800 --> 01:37:01,600
Speaker 1: about it in the first place. And we'll see you

1931
01:37:01,600 --> 01:37:02,400
Speaker 1: all tomorrow. Thank you.