Loser Stench (with Amanda Carpenter)

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the next level. I’m JBL. Here’s my best friend, Tim Miller. Now in sunny New Orleans.

However, you pronounce that. And sitting in for my other best friend, is Amanda Carpenter or Hamanda?

Hey, how’s it going?

Oh, it’s going so good. It’s going all the goods.

You have, like, too too many syllables on New Orleans.

Yeah. Okay. Well, I’m gonna It’s

one and a half syllables at best. You had five. I think No.

No. All.

Right? I have to say it, like, no. Like, cargo does.

Yeah.

Yeah. Which part will need, you know, closed captioning for people as transcription service. So big media week, we’ll start with the media stories. Where took Charlie Sykes suddenly

world That’s really quick. What a world? The president of the United States running for reelection, and that’s the b block. That’s

the We’d like to see black. No.

Of course, I would like to do it. It’s boring. It’s fine. We should get to it in the c black. I’m just saying that’s it’s telling.

It’s just telling that our state of affairs.

So I believe it was eleven AM on Monday morning, and I know this because we were in our our Monday at tutorial meeting and somebody just in the middle of the editorial meeting said, holy crap, Tucker’s been fired and it’s been dripping out as we were sitting down to tape on Tuesday, somebody from Vanity Fair reporting that possibly this is all linked to Rupert’s x fiance — Saying that she believed Tucker was a biblical prophet.

I love that anecdote.

I I

mean, I I feel like we haven’t even properly digested the the text divorce It does

create a power dynamic issue. It does create a power dynamic issue. If, you know, the boss’s fifth wife thinks that the employee is the Angel Maroni. You know, like it just creates

There can only be one god in this bench Yeah.

Amanda.

I mean, it was y jealous.

Did you follow the Jerry Hallbreak up where Rupert just texted her. Like, she’s waiting for him at one of their chateaus where he’s supposed to join her for a week and he texts her and he says, we’ve had some great times together. But I read to inform you that I have a lot of things I have to do, and so I’m calling a halt to our marriage I think I’m dissolving our marriage and your lawyers will hear from my lawyers wish all the best.

And she was on camera. She was like she knew there were cameras at the Chateau and so she started like breaking things and, like, looking at the camera

and, like, pointing at it. Story.

I need a whole reality series on the story. Sorry. Why were there cameras there because he keeps the

whole place. Products. Yeah. She knows that

everything Honestly, everything at all times. I just got global skynet kind of stuff totally normal. Got it. So

So

he could see her real hold on. He could see her real time reaction. We need dumped her.

I think that she thought I don’t know. And she knew that it was on tape. And she knew that people were watching the tape.

Wait. I like the merch.

Strange new respect for Rupert. That’s awesome. So what do you what do you guys make of the Fox thing? You know, for the first ten minutes, I assumed that this was somehow tied to the Dominion settlement. The more we hear about it, the more it seems like it’s tied to the Dominion settlement and in the sense that there’s a bunch of stuff that was redacted in discovery, but that Fox saw in which they didn’t like the way he was talking about the Mirvox?

Yes? Yeah.

And I think also Suzanne Scott, it seems, I mean, you know, Stelter on on Charlie’s pod, if you don’t let us know that you should, which I think is a better place for, like, the dishy parts of this. I think we can do the political take side of things, but seltzer basically said that it probably seems like he was calling Suzanne Scott a c word. In those

emails, and that’s all

good. Is that great? Is that great?

Is that not not allowed? That’s not allowed. Why I hear in Britain, they use the c word every day and it’s no big deal. It’s

not a Russell brand, but you know, constantinnypal to see where Borderline. You know? Borderline.

No. There are so many other words you can use just scribes Sydney Powell.

Obviously, I saw that in the

text. I was like, that is shocking. And, yes, I expressed that sentiment on Twitter and people said, well, you’ve never been across the pond. True statement, but I’m still offended. Like, you don’t I don’t I work in American workplace.

I’ve never heard anyone say that in a casual conversation. Period. End of story. Certainly not with the boss. Not with the boss.

Not in text to your producers. It’s just like a casual shoes of this. Like, what else is he saying? And so that would make sense if he applied that to other women, that probably wouldn’t go over so well. But, I mean, this has to be a combination of all the things.

Right? Yeah. It’s all the things. And what what is most stunning is that whatever all the things are that we can speculate about, somehow they deemed worse than his ratings. Right?

That’s the whole thing with Fox. Like, he was a ratings king and they escand him, kicked him out the door. That’s what’s incredible about all this with no replacement lined up. They’ve got, you know, Brian Hair Kilmed Lilly, whatever his name is, sitting there now. It must have been really bad or maybe the Murdoch’s I mean, he’s how old again?

And how many wires? Ninety two. Maybe they realized they wouldn’t be able to sell this thing given what is all going to come out at some point in time. And that’s where I think

we

Just kill me then again on Tuesday night. I don’t know taping this, like, live cast from Tucker. I don’t know. He was in the fur I I I’ll be interested to see if it’s rotating. Yeah.

I I think that’s right. I mean, the Abby Grossberg thing, I think, is very potentially damaging. Here’s here’s here. Let’s just work from some facts that we do now. Mhmm.

The culture of the Tucker Carlson staff was not just like Browy locker room talk bad. It was like eight Chan white nationalists bigoted trigger everyone back. It’s like it was as bad as it could get. I mean, we there have been several staffers fired for posting on White National Services,

Blake Knapp.

Yeah. Yeah. Blake Knapp, who was at the daily caller and then went with him. You know, was I got outed, you know, his hand I love this was my favorite one of all. And they’re like six of these, like, white Jonathan Last rose that got fired over the years from Tucker working for Tucker.

It’s like, oh, how how do I keep hiring white Jonathan Last? So how many

people have you hired for being a racist, white nationalist, crypto fascist? Just wondering There are the

least one. There are the two. Zero none. None. None.

None. Yeah. So

anyway, the the Blake Jeff one I always liked the best though because he got out of it. Like, posting on one of these shit posting sites, you know, like, message boards because he he did a picture of something. And and his reflection was in the window. And so it’s like that, you know, it’s like this stupid stupid criminal trick. It’s like his reflection was on the window.

So people were like, oh, wait, the detector girls, the guy. There’s always already some suspicions that it was him because some of the stuff he was posting was showing up in the monologues. Anyway, you know it’s really, really bad. And so getting to see all of it is enough. I think you combine that with Rupert’s ex thinking that Tucker was a profit.

Combine it with, like, the January sixth stuff about, you know, the Ray app stuff. Even for Rupert, like, this was getting a little weird. You know, it was getting a little weird in particular. Like, there’s a lot of bad stuff in the show, but that one in particular is happening. Combined with Dominion, combined with Coesburg.

And then come out of the fact that’s like the new head woman in charge of calling the Bulwark. You know, that’s that’s a lot bad. My my hot take on all this that I haven’t shared anywhere that I saved for this for this little podcast?

I’m telling you.

Is is the implications. I was thinking about this, you know, I’ve been thinking about it everyone wants to know my opinion on the tiger thing. I think that they’re gonna be doubling down on MAGA on Trump.

Foxville.

Yes. There’s this whole thing about, like,

what what is the implication? The only populist on crime to I believe they sacrificed our angel, blah blah blah. Who who’s better than that? For

the next day? This is I I guess I just mean the calling off the the the dogs. You know, this whole like, oh, Ron DeSantis, we’re gonna do a today show style segment with you where you’re throwing the baseball, and we’re, you know, we’re talking about how much you love puppies and non Bud Light beer and how norm I’m great normal the guy you are. I don’t know. This is something this is what I’m watching now, is that, like, they are gonna be worried about the the same thing as the post election stuff, losing to NewsMax, losing to real America voice, or losing Tucker, and that the whole this whole audience that the Murdoch’s this is where the savvy Murdoch come in.

This whole dally and say, well, let’s get rid of Trump where, you know, they decided instead. Al, I’ll always get rid of Tucker. The Trump problem might be out of our hands. And and and and I could see them pivoting back towards Trump in a real way. I just

want it at this point because I’ve been thinking about it too. It’s I don’t know what getting rid of Tucker does to their digital streaming strategy because he was a big part of that. You know, maybe she’s a CNN plus in the back of my mind. But he was really the only talent that I could observe that was performing there. There’s like a lot of weird specials there even into like, you know, housing type decoration shows.

But he was the draw. And so if you don’t have that person and he, you know, that is where they wanted the super maggot people to go. Because everybody knows cable’s dying. You gotta get in the streaming and gotta do subscription. They don’t have a replacement post there.

That I can see. And so I think they’re in more trouble and might be looking for a sale because Murdoch is old and can’t trust the kids or maybe I’m watching too much the session. I’m not really watching, but I know the plot.

So here’s here’s my question to you. One thing Sarah said to me at some point the last month, was that when she does focus groups and asks people questions about their media diet, that as often as not, instead of saying fox, people will say, I watch Tucker. And this is like Xerox and photocopies. Right? They you know, but they mean is that they watch fox.

But they say Tucker because Tucker is Fox and he’s the big thing that they watch on Fox, etcetera, etcetera. Because this is really like you know, Stalin unpersoned Trotsky. And all of a sudden, Trotsky no longer peers in any of the photos in the Kremlin. Right? Like Tucker just gone.

He’s there on Friday. He signs off, says see you guys on Monday. And then he’s he’s got the running commercials and promos for his show on Monday morning on on the Bulwark, and he doesn’t go on air. To have your audience and to just disappear their big star without any real explanation, can you do that without losing the audience? Doesn’t that smell like cancel culture.

I mean, these these are people who have primed to sniff out cancel culture anywhere in the world. Right? Does that feel a little like cancel culture to you? I I don’t know. Like, what does the Fox audience do about this?

Or nothing? Do they just come back to their pellet? You know, they’re like little hamsters, like, you know, they go over to the salt pellet, take that.

It depends on what he says and whether the audience can find him. And this is what I’m really most interested in is what were the terms of his contract. We know that he’s getting paid out for the duration of I don’t know how much further that goes, but how much is he sidelined? Because the way that these contracts works, they essentially own you whether you go on the or not. Right.

I don’t know what kind of outs he had. They’re called outs in terms of you being able to do other types of media. But given that he was on primetime, obviously, there’s gonna be a non compete. Given that he was very active for their digital strategy, I’m guessing they brought up his digital rights. Right?

Twenty million dollars is a lot of money to pay out for him to do nothing. That means they own the rights to his talent on many degrees. Is he allowed to even go right for other outlets at this point? Can he have any kind of digital product? I mean Bill O’Reilly and other people have done that post Fox but that’s after their contracts run out.

And depending on what they’re able to do outside of that contract. And so that is going to determine how he is able to communicate and what he is going to do next. But I could see him do it building a very successful you know, I watched his speech at heritage that he delivered the night before he knew he was going to get fired. And, you know, he is a contrarian. I mean, other people know him better than I do, but I could see him just building a very successful straight up called the contrarian outlet where you have the Alex Joneses and you have the JFK Junior’s doing every wacky point of view for the debate.

And he would just laugh and have a good time and take his son as in Maine, which he talks about. People say he’s gonna run for president. I don’t buy that one bit. The guy seems to be very private. He opened up his speech at Heritage talking about how this is the first time he’s been with people in three years.

The first time he’s taken the elevator or weren’t SOX Jonathan Last three years, that does not scream a man of the people who’s going to go retail polo taking New Hampshire to me.

Yeah. So I’ll take those points Bulwark. We’ll take the Amanda’s point first. I I think that the contract is really important. There’s a a story that was breaking as we’re coming on here about, you know, for some reason, that he is locked up through twenty five.

Now, again, can you can you cut your way out of that? Can, you know, can the big time lawyers come up with something? You know, can you decide I mean, he’s a very wealthy man. Can you decide he doesn’t wanna take the money? You know, I did a lot of, if on that.

But running for office is not a competitive move. You know? That is something that he could do. I agree with you. I think he’s a weird fit for it.

I that was a lie that he told the heritage. He’s he’s a easy liar because I saw him in front of a big room of people just like three months ago in Arizona. But his speech there was was very strange. In some ways, it was interesting. When I remember the train point, it was I think, because at least his speech was interesting.

It was it was provocative. Right? Where everybody else said the same shit. Like, his his was foe introspective, probably, but introspective. You know, and it just wasn’t a normal stump speech.

Right? And so, you know, he’s not a good fit for for that for a lot of reasons. But if you decided to do it, he’s obviously extremely talented performer. So, you know, I I I don’t think it’s a zero percent chance. Right?

And this guy is just like, what the hell am I gonna do? Is he gonna really fish Thisching gets boring. You know, this is like the Tom Brady thing. You know, in sports where people are like, oh, you’re gonna go hang I’m gonna go hang out with my kids. I’m gonna spend time with my family.

You know, that’s great. I’m sure Tom Brady loves his kids. And but spending the time with the kids is, you know,

careful. Yeah. You know what? You can

you can get your bill. You can get your fill. There’s you can share ish every moment with them and think, you know, I’d like something else to do also. And fishing is also a very engaging endeavor from Natalie, best loves to fish. Again, only a certain month of hours in the year.

Can you fish? Right? Like, the so so something else he he he, you know, might wanna decide he wants to do. I think that’s the scary result of this. I think those are the two both that and Fox pivoting back to Trump you know, are the two potential negative externalities for this?

Everything else about deep platforming Tucker is positive. Lastly, just on the to the palette question, the JBL about what the Fox viewers. I think the question is, what percentage of these people are full maga? And what percentage of them are TV zombies. Right?

I had a very lovely lady who I I met on the street the other day. She’s like, I see you on channel seventy two. And, you know, I get the sense that this person, god lover, just like leaves on channel seventy two, MSNBC on locally, all the time. Right? I think that there’s a big percentage of the Fox audience to just leave on channel whenever it is.

They’re Fox people. I’m watching shows. Yeah. I’m watching my stories. Hex Seth will come on, whatever.

There is a percentage just based on the numbers. The tune did for Tucker — Mhmm. — that did not tune in for Brett Bear, that did not tune in for Hannity, that turned it off when Hannity came on or Olora came on rather. And so do those people disappear? Is that a meaningful enough number that that Fox needs to, you know, figure out how to how to deal with that?

I don’t know. And there and there will also be, you know, vultures out there. Shapiro, ban, and, you know, all these people are gonna smell blood. I said that was my last thing. But I last last thing, people are like, oh, who cares?

Kind of. I I I can understand the sense of, like, why obsess over Like it is. It is just gonna be the pal. It is just gonna be a rotating cast. Tucker was a category difference from all these other people.

He just was. Like the the types of material they trafficked in was more pernicious than the other hosts on the network. His brand, you know, like these other people, when you go to the CPX, when you go to the turning point USA things, they’re walking down the hall, they’re celebrity. There’s you know what I mean? They’re, like, they you want their autograph, you want their picture with them.

The tucker connection was different. Like, I’m not saying it had a ton of depth But, like, there was something there that he was molding them in a certain way. Ideologically, that was that was very, I think, damaging to our to the fabric of of the country, but that I think gives him a lot more power and influence than say, O’Reilly. Who was just really, really famous. But kind of like doing the stuff that everybody else was doing it just like

a little bit better. I

just wanna close this segment by acknowledging that I was right about Dominion and having consequences.

That’s right. I mean, I’m gonna give the t shirt.

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Let’s pour one out for all Don Le Von. He’s been good to the program. Cheers, buddy. Hopefully, he gets down here a little

believe I’m the only person here who’s never been on his show. Correct?

Yeah. Probably.

Yeah. Correct.

I mean, he’s he’s gonna be

all never invited to Dunlemon’s show. You wouldn’t

go. Like, you’re dying to do cable news to you.

It would be nice to be asked, Amanda. It would be nice

to be asked. Do you see

so

many times. People don’t Right.

Jump. Jumping me to get you on the eleventh hour with Stephanie Rue. Yeah. That’s great.

Yeah. We can we can make this happen for

you. On

eleven fifteen PM eastern and I’ll get you on there by Memorial Day. You ready? Is that what you wanna do?

Yeah. Memorial Day is free. You

probably

get on let them on the Memorial Day.

Yeah. In the pre Zoom days, do you guys remember this back when you have to actually get to a studio?

Yeah.

There was a certain class of Washington pundits who would be the the one willing to say yes to, like, two thirty in the afternoon on a Sunday.

Yeah.

If you’re just, like, desperate to get on TV and so I would wait to because, you know, the bookers Filling afternoons on weekends is really really hard because it just blows up your whole day, but there’s a certain class of pundit who would be like, yep. Yep. Ready to go. Ready to go. Send a car, and I will, you know, slept the forty five minutes from my Maryland suburban apartment to you know, the studio is down by Union Station.

I will spend what it winds up being four hours of my weekends so I can be on TV for a hundred and twenty seconds. Shortly

as Gorevidal said, never miss a chance to have sex or be on television. I guess.

Oh, I can think of all kinds of reasons to skip Both of them.

Blisters. Blisters are more of it

all.

Alright, Don Lamont. You. Amanda, you have some Don Lamont thoughts?

No. I mean, I spent a lot of late nights, you know, election coverage, you know, on a show remote and studio He was really nice. I mean, I know there’s a lot of stories about the Diva Like behavior and obviously some of that is true. But it was nice because when you go out at eleven o’clock at night, you could say your piece. And there are a lot of articles I got to really flush out when I had my book out, his production team did a really nice job.

And so I think the transition was extremely hard to go from having your own show and being in charge of it from nine to eleven PM or no, no, no, he was ten to midnight, which is a hard shift that he did for many years. Many years. And then to automatically go to morning television with two younger cohost. A three person show is kinda crazy anyway. And to have to share that, I I think there was just obviously going to be problems.

With that kind of format and Tada. There was.

Yeah. I I it seems like he might have been I had some diva quality. So I’ll I I don’t know in that while, so I won’t won’t grant that. I don’t I don’t really know what CNN’s doing though. I always said about political campaigns.

The thing that was annoying is that everybody thought they’re an expert. You know, I’d go home. To, like, the high school reunion and people would be telling me what Jeb should be doing. And I was like, this I’ve said to my all my doctor friends, I’m like, they don’t tell you how to cut the eyeball up. And, you know, when you go back to high school.

But okay. Anyway,

that’s weird news. Specific doctor friend you’re talking about there.

Yeah. That’s that’s here’s Here is my version of that though for Chris Licht. It’s like it doesn’t seem like they have any plan. To to attract people. Like, I I I don’t know the that morning show made no sense from the start.

Those people didn’t seem to have any any chemistry, this notion that CNN in a post Trump era. We’re not in a post Trump era. Like, needs to be more serious And it’s like we’re gonna win back, send our right people. It’s like who? Who?

It’s it’s sure. There are people that read and love our friends at the dispatch. Like, that’s great. Like, they re you know, I but is that enough cable TV show? You know, and me I went on Steve’s podcast.

We talked about this and, like, I was like, yeah, this is a niche product you guys are offering. That’s fine. That’s nothing wrong with a niche product, but that’s not who are you drinking back in? All the Republicans like Trump. Right?

So, like, who are you trying to attract by being more center? Like, Trump has even the people that like the scientists like Trump. You know, so great. Maybe you can get eight percent more people into this shit. Does that help your numbers?

Obviously not. It didn’t make sense from the start, the math, is it there on the numbers? And then You know, I I wish they would just say Don Lamont was a jerk and that’s why we got rid of them. Then you have to do that you do this post hoc stuff about how owing these interviews, the Nikki Haley thing, which was a gaffe, but like you’re doing live TV for many hours. It was a gaffe, you apologize.

Then did you see the Vivek Ramaswamy one? The one that they were citing? Vivek Ramaswamy goes on the on the show and is like Bulwark people should thank the NRA for protecting their rights. And the NRA was a key group in helping secure the civil rights of Americans That’s, like, the civil rights act with thanks to the NRA. The civil rights act happened.

Yeah.

Interesting perspective.

Yeah. Yeah. Interesting perspective. Don Don is, like, when the fuck are you talking? If people are talking in his ear and and he’s like, stop talking in my ear.

I need to I I need to engage with this insane point this guy is making. And then they go back for it, then Don just like, are you black splayed into me? And, you know, maybe you didn’t have to bring the race in, but it’s just like, you know, this show is just that this whole you know, what are you supposed to do when when a Republican comes on TV and is like, oh, black people need to thank the NRA for their rights. Like, you’re supposed to just be like, oh, there’s one opinion. Okay.

And on the other side, not true. Right? Like, I I don’t know. And and that’s what we’re seeing and trying to go and I just don’t think that there’s an audience for it except for in times of hurricanes or war or whatever. And that’s that’s an important service, but that’s not, you know, that’s not a Tuesday.

Here’s

a

question. It kinda gets into how you think Fox is gonna lead into MAGA or Trump and what Lyk is trying to do. You know, that debate that Don was having with Vivid, like, in the Zucker area, that is definitely something they would have thought Yeah.

So I’m trying to, like, keep it running.

Into this, like, let’s engage. And you can see Poppy just leaning back, scrolling her phone. She’s like, Uh-oh. This is not. Egypt, Egypt.

But, you know, it’s like Licked is trying to dial all the politics down. And b’s super bland. And so maybe if Fox goes super Trump, which I don’t totally believe that quite yet, but I think it is clearly the strategy of CNN to turn down the politics. And that’s how they think they’re gonna attract viewers by just kind of like just flattening everything. I mean, they’re springing in Gail King and Barclay.

What? That’s gonna be their nine PM out Charles Barclay. Do you guys see this?

Yeah. Lake. I mean, Barclay is great. But

Yeah. But for nine PM and the prime time at CNN? Is that what news viewers want to see? Like, if you’re trying to be a new trusted news station, is it Gayle King in the sports guy? Like, maybe on the Sunday morning.

Yeah. Also, we’re going into twenty twenty four, and the guy

that tried to end our democracy is is one of the leading candidates Okay. It’s like politics

and things like that. And smooth all that out. It makes no sense to me. But, you know, I’m not getting paid Chris, look money.

Alright. I’m

available, though. Yeah. If if ZaaS, whatever is saying this. I don’t I don’t wanna leave you guys. But if somebody wants to give me a network, I’ve got some ideas.

Well,

if you get a network, can I get a show? Yeah. Okay. You will see.

Well, I do have to do a screen test. Will

I get to go online if it shows as a guest? Definitely. I can’t do it today. Sunday afternoon. I have to be live in Studio.

Right? I’m not allowed to zoom it. I have to be live in Studio. Great. Wow.

Okay. So the other big news is that the president of the United States has announced that he’s running for reelection as some people said was gonna happen all along. Who?

Take your victory lap. Would you like to run around your little Zoom studio?

This guy. So I don’t know. I I had my my I did my take today in the triad when I said, like, you know, you people,

you’re

gonna like

it. You’re

gonna get more Biden and you’re gonna like it. If you know what the truth is, I think people are basically gonna be fine with it. And especially if Trump is the nominee, all of this stuff about Biden is too old is gonna go away. And everybody’s just gonna say five hail marys for him every night that he doesn’t fall and that he basically can make his way through November of twenty twenty four because there is nobody Beg to Differ if the goal is to to beat Donald Trump again, Biden is the best bet. He is he is the bet.

Even if you had a a magic wand, and could just tap any Democrat to become magically the nominee, you you wouldn’t want anybody other than Biden. Am I crazy, Amanda?

No. I no. I’d like, it’s it’s remarkable that he’s completely cleared the field. Right? Like, there’s no challenger.

I I think that is the number one testament is his success. He has convinced everyone else not to run before he’s even declared. I mean, today, Bernie Sanders put out the statement essentially saying, yep. Yep. We’re gonna do this thing.

He he is the unity candidate, which you should expect from the incumbent president, but still given his age, given his approval ratings aren’t great, I think that’s pretty remarkable.

This is one of the marker historically, one of the markers of successful reelection campaigns is that you have to avoid a primary. Right? And if as a sitting president, you’ll avoid a primary, then your chances of winning reelection go up a lot. Unless

you’re Trump. Can I I wanna rage with the age thing for one second, and then I and then I have some other announcement thoughts? But to since you brought it up with the with the by age thing, I’ve said it, you know, everybody said it. Like, they’re they’re legit concerns about the age. I have I have anxiety about debate to you know, something happening that shows the age when it’s too late.

Right? Like all of that, I have anxiety about it. It’s just it’s a it’s a risk factor. There’s a risk factor with any candidate. That I gotta tell you, it feels like some of the mainstream outlets are, you know, trying to go overboard.

In in focusing on the age thing in order to, like, display —

Yeah. —

their lack of bias or whatever. There’s a times editorial about it the other week. When was the last time one of these places did a notorious bad Trump’s age? Like, Trump’s age kits, like, thrown in as like a throwaway line. In article in, like, editor is a Biden’s age.

Like, oh, by the way, Trump’s old too. It’s like, Trump is old as fuck. Okay? Trump is out there just eating well done steaks. Alright.

Like that guy, his, like, his brain is mush. You know, he he is he’s bragging about doing, like, a basic cognitive test. Like remembering

five words in our woman. Right.

TV. Right? Like, I mean, you know, stuff that, you know, a child could pass. I mean, so I I I just don’t. And who’s his VP gonna be?

Like, it’s certainly not gonna be somebody that everybody’s like, oh, man, we’re gonna be good. We’re gonna be in and the Ant of Kerry

Lake

is in there, Tucker, or whoever, at least to Fonik. So I just that that part does bug me that there’s this asymmetry of all this that that is the and and I feel like that this is gonna happen over and over again in this in in this campaign where people feel like they have to, you know, try to make this something more than what it is. I

mean, there there’s a there’s a reason for this. Right? And that is that the delta between what Joe Biden sounded like in twenty twelve and what Joe Biden sounds like in twenty twenty three is noticeable. Where is Trump word salad is word salad? Right.

And this is in in a weird way, his cognitive

literature. Go back and watch the Trump Larry King interviews.

I said, you need to get it to work. But, you know, like, twenty sixteen. Yeah.

She’s using three syllable words. And the Trump’s using three syllable words in Larry King interviews saying, Someone just did a tweet about twenty ten where he was talking about topography.

Oh, that’s a lot of stuff.

Trump’s not saying that. Yeah. He’s not saying that word now. Okay. I don’t I Trump is Trump is declining.

Alright? He’s the same. He’s pretty much gone. See

it with Trump. So again, just having watched a bunch of videos back to back of him. Where you see the decline is not in the words themselves because he just talks gobbledygook and has been talking gobbledygook for, you know, seven years. You see it in the energy, in the animation, and so you see it. And that’s why I I’m fine with people writing all these thumb sucking pieces about it.

Be through this if if Trump and Biden are the nominees, then everybody’s just gonna see the crazy. Right? I mean, it’s gonna be obvious when you see Trump. I mean, the the choices, you know, do you want the old guy who’s crazy or the old guy who wasn’t as sharp as he was four years ago? But

the strategy for Biden will be much like it was in twenty twenty is to just lay back and let the contrast serve itself.

Yeah. To say, hey, I’m I’m governing. I’m busy governing America.

Yeah. Right. But that’s, you know, it’s it’s it’s a little risky because action usually Trump’s inaction We’ll see. But on the point about being annoyed that people always referenced Biden’s age, I mean, they have to say something mean, it is sort of the both sides thing. But that’s like the most obvious thing to say.

Right? They’re not saying he’s a terrible president, his programs are failing. He’s just saying, yeah, he’s old. Like, it’s unavoidable. And so I didn’t even just gotta make do with that.

Did you guys see my other take the RNC’s response video?

No.

You’re

not

seeing this JV? No. You’re gonna love this.

The AI thing. More.

Yeah. The AI thing. The RNC put out a video about what life would be like in twenty twenty five or six if Joe Biden was reelected, and it included all AI images. And it was, you know, this, like, hypothetical, dystopian future where San Francisco has you know, their their, like, martial law has set in in San Francisco and they never You know? Joe

Biden’s president now.

Is it now? Right. I mean, it’s just, like, these guys like, it’s so it’s such the d team over there. I the talent drain I I I feel bad for the twenty six year old Democratic strategist that has to compete against, like, fifteen other really smart people to get the job of, like, deputy rapid response director at the DNC. And it’s just like these clowns that are getting these jobs at the R and C because they’re the only ones that’ll raise their hand to be like, I guess, I’ll do it.

I’ll take this. I it’s just the weakness of their opposition. You know, when when Donald Trump right now is the, like, nearly presumptive nominee, a heavy favorite, in in real life.

He’s

clear in the field too. Yeah.

Yeah. In real life, this guy spurred on a attack on the capital. And your response is, oh, here’s a hypothetical future using fake Terminator images. I mean It’s awesome. That’s pretty that’s about as strong of a sign of Joe Biden’s political strength as is out there.

And you can focus on the numbers it goes. There are never people don’t want them to run or whatever, but if it’s like if that’s your opening punch, not not great. The

truth is life is okay.

Yeah.

Is that true? Is life

for the Republicans. Is it life is okay? It may not be okay. Come October twenty twenty four, we could hit a recession, you know, any number of things could could Biden could fall and break his hip. Right?

This is the thing that happens to eight year olds. Well,

usually, their hit breaks and then they fall. No. That’s really. That’s why everybody gets broken, you know, a follow-up on my head. No.

Their bones are weak. Your bones break. Bones are brittle. And then you fall, but they’ve

been doing a pigeon.

They’ve

been doing a pigeon. Yeah. The pigeon pose and yoga and Javios is about pitching

No. I I bet Joe does

That doesn’t come with bone density and bridal

Joe, Joe thinks the yoga is malarkey. Yeah.

I think that’s probably good. Which is why he’s drunk.

I’m sure. He’s drinking his ensure. Soft minutes. Let’s talk a little bit about the collapse of the Republican primary field, which you just mentioned, because that is highly interesting to me. Mike Pompeo?

Out. Nikki Haley going maybe somewhere, I guess, kinda slow. He’s getting a

speech at the s b a list today. Supposed to be like a major speech on, you know, abortion policy, which, you know, I’m interested in talking about. But the the funnyest thing about the staging for it is that the political write up said it was conducted in a converted break room, which tells you the massive audience that came to listen to Niki Haley

talked about

her thoughts and abortion, which amounted to a bunch of wishy washy mishmash

mush.

Just really quick on Tim Scott. Funded accountability here, not a virgin. That was we we did discover after last podcast, and Amanda actually helped with the research on this. Or the personal you know, the

duggies. So he was only the fifty year old version?

Yeah. I don’t forty, I think. Yeah. So anyway, I just we corrected it in the show notes on the last show, but this is we’re accountable here. Okay?

Where is this is not fake news? Is this not this information if I say something that’s wrong? I do like to correct myself, not a virgin. Any longer. I mean, he was a virgin for quite some time, but not a virgin any longer.

Okay. I mean, the thing that’s weird is that he’s just not married. I mean, typically, presidential candidates are married or at least have like a long time partner of some sort He’s an outlier in this respect, especially for the church community. No?

Can’t remember when our last unmarried president was. I

mean, this is He is Will Saletan.

Like, no. I mean, you know, maybe, like, James Buchanan wasn’t married or something. I don’t know. I you know, we have to that’s an Adam Kuiper question. But Well, anyway,

the point is nobody realized that he wasn’t married, let alone, other things.

I derailed us. The the field. We were talking about how the field.

The unscheduled disassembly.

So the No. There’s that with Scott, which will derail any conversation. Let alone when he’s asked about abortion, he brings up banking committee hearings, which also like, okay, maybe the unmarried guy who was a virgin until he was forty or fifty years old shouldn’t be talking about abortion policy, just saying, strikes me as kind of weird. Everybody says he’s the next big thing. No.

I don’t I think that disqualifies you from the conversation. Sorry, that’s my personal opinion. Glenn Youngkin apparently says that he’s waiting to make a decision after November when the Virginia’s legislator session closes, which pretty much means keep giving me money, me.

I have a hot eight weeks to get to to Iowa.

Yeah. But he’s not running. So that leaves Trump.

Vivek, Ramos, Swamy.

Vivek, whatever? ASA. Oh, yeah. He’s running. Okay.

Haley, and Tim Scott. Right? Yeah. What a field?

Tiny

d.

I’m gonna say Trump has cleared it. Why doesn’t it? He’s not running it.

No. Chris Chris Oh, Chris

Chrisy. It’s Chris Chrisy actually declared is he just laying footsy to get more interviews and talk like a tough guy? I think

Chris Christy leave of it. Like, breakfast interview if you haven’t read it anyway. It took it so good.

It’s amazing. Yeah, I think Christy doesn’t run. I think Brian Kemp doesn’t run.

You know,

we’re gonna wind up with a very tiny field. I think.

Which everybody you said was good for DeSantis.

Yeah. I started listening. No. Christian is not running.

I just wanna say gut check. Do you guys think Rhonda Santos is running? Yes or no?

Yes. Of course. Yes.

I think so. I think he has to. I

don’t know. I think he has cold feet.

Oh, I think he has cold feet too. Yes.

Well, they’re about to announce thirty million raised. It’s it’s hard to say now when did you do that kinda a lot of pressure. And and this is why he’s flying to Japan. He’s doing the mailers in in the article I have tomorrow on his campaign. Friend in Iowa sent to mailer that they’re sending in Iowa.

I mean, that had quotes from people from all the early states I mean, like, he’s running. Like, the only reason he’s the only thing that he’s not doing is actually raising money into campaign commitments. It’s Will Saletan.

And getting endorsements from people who know him. He’s not doing that.

Well, he’s trying to though. He it’s it’s just he seems like he’s

repelling everyone that he meets. It’s like a human stink bug. Three assistant editors at compact magazine have endorsed him. Yeah. Well, like,

he went and writes Did you did you see the other thing I meant? I I have eight and a half written articles right now, which JBL really likes. And one of them that’s coming soon. Did you see Lee’s album? Leigh Zeldin was, like, supposed to be Ron DeSantis’ leadership team and every used the big, hot thing and everybody was, like, oh, Leigh Zeldin, to say this went campaign for him, endorsed Trump.

So, Tim, what is it when you have all this money, all this potential? Why are these people bolting? Why does Lee’s Eldon Bolt? I mean, that’s kind of a dramatic move.

He has a stench on him.

Yeah. But still, like, okay. So he’s an opportunist, stinky, stenchy person. Why does he bowl? He

doesn’t

think that he’s gonna win? I think he can win.

Yeah. I think Understood. Is what? Loser stance. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. But it’s it’s crazy, though. It’s great. I I’m I don’t I’m not exactly bullish on Ron DeSantis, but I I do think everyone’s overstating just how disastrous of a situation he’s in. I mean, like, a lot can happen between now and January, and he’s the only one standing there with the bag.

You know, if something does happen, really. I mean, none of those other people we’ve mentioned, the nominee is not gonna be Nikki Ailey, Tim Scott, Viva, Ramos, Swamy, Eisa, god love him. So I don’t quite get it. I I I I feel the same.

Vivid Ramaswami is finishing third in New Hampshire. Go write that down.

Maybe second. Maybe

second. Maybe second. Yeah.

Ron, it’s all finished second. Yeah. Yeah.

Vivek finishes second or third in New Hampshire. Look, it is possible that DeSantis runs and turns it into really a demonstration campaign where he has viewed this entire thing as I’ll be Trump’s under study. And if something really blows up or the guy dies or something, then I’m there.

Yeah.

But I won’t run super hard and I’ll I’ll take my beating in the two early states, then I’ll say I’m staying until South Carolina. I’ll go down to South Carolina and get my teeth handed to me, and then I will drop out and gracefully endorse. Trump, I mean, in the olden days, that’s how

you got nominated. Right.

This is

how you got nominated. That’s how the king got nominated. Right? Like, that’s how Bush got nominated. It

it it showed to me that again, his his campaign will wind up as a demonstration effect and not as an actual series campaign where he’s trying to win the nomination.

Think that’s right. But I still think you can see the flash of fear where, you know, when you think you’re going to have something and you envision the future and you can see it all laid out and all the maga conservative ink types are rallying around you and you think it’s all set up. And then it just takes a couple things to say, you know what, this isn’t gonna happen this way. And I just think he looks scared.

This is the big thing about Trump. Right? Yeah. I mean, Trump, whatever else you wanna say about

him, he

can take a punch. Right?

Yeah.

Yeah. You know, in dates, you get the you get January sixth, the twenty twenty two elections. An indictment, all three things which should finish him. He just, like, goes down a bit and pops back up. This is the first adversity to Santos has ever seen, and he looks like a scared pig.

Yeah. I’m doing it on Hannity. Handy. He’s like, he goes on Handy, and he and he’s like, in Japan. It’s unclear why he’s in Japan.

And he’s like, it’s a set up. He’s

he’s sprinting. President.

Yeah. He’s Winton at the TV. I’m at this end to end here. He’s like, so why is Trump so mad, aren’t you? What’s the deal?

And he’s like, that, that, that, like, he can’t even It’s just like a a candy. I trust the face. If it is white, you’re

sitting there. Like, perfect. Like, if you pick down a woman from an oil painting, the first lady, she’s It’s just that he’s just bugging out. The contrast here’s been that is so funny to me. I

totally tell you, here’s a little behind the scenes script for people who’ve made it fifty minutes in those podcasts. Like, I as as somebody who dealt with Hannity, the Hannity interview, this is not a this is not an aggressive interview. Okay? I I I like, Hannity would call you. If you have a good con person, maybe to say this doesn’t have this, you don’t trust anybody.

But if you have a good con person, they can call up Sean, be like, hey, Sean. Like, what are you gonna ask? And and, like, Sean will tell you what he’s gonna ask. And so, like, Ron DeSantis got a very light of just a nice little softball about why him and Trump are beefing and, like, he just can’t feel that without looking very strange. So that’s not a great sign.

He is not very good on his

feet. And we saw the the answer he gave in in Japan. Like, What is that? Right? I mean

I am sorry. Best bitch. Nikki mouth. What?

That’s bad. That’s

bad. I got

it.

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Other bad DeSantis, so I had missed this until Amanda sent it to for the show. DeSantis seems to want to turn Florida into the capital for capital punishment and seems really high on getting more people. They seems to be pushing on a bill, wants to have the death penalty for child sexual battery. Which the Supreme Court ruled some time ago, all those five four, death penalty has to be only for for homicide which I I assume the child’s sexual battery thing is a cute and on dog whistle. Right?

You know, we’re a lot of the groomers and the the the frazzled drippers, and we’re gonna we’re gonna stick them in the gas chamber in Florida. And he he wants to lower the standard in Florida. We’re currently in death penalty cases. The jury has to be unanimous on the sentence, and he wants it to be eight voters, which I think is insane. I I’m I’m I’ve been against the death penalty, you know, as long as I’ve been alive, I’ve become more against it if the if one can get more against the death penalty, like the more I’ve seen of the justice system where before, I was against it even when I had perfect faith in the justice system as a kid.

Now that I’ve seen what it looks like, I’m like, fuck no. You can’t let the government do things that are irreversible because the government gets things wrong all the time. Anyway, is anybody else grossed out by this? I guess is what I’m trying to to grasp around here for.

I am for a different reason. So is my understanding that in Florida I had to be unanimous, he wants to take it back down to eight and he made this policy proposal in reaction to the conviction of the Parkland shooter. Who was not going to get the death penalty because not all the jurors were unanimous. And so there was, oh, cry over that. You know, like, I think in cases like that where it’s very clear where heinous crime is committed, I’m okay with that.

I don’t know where that puts me in the pro life schedule, but for something like that, I’m okay with it. What I am uncomfortable with is that DeSantis didn’t come from this from, like, okay, I thought about this in heinous decisions. This is what I believe. He did it in reaction to Parkland as sort of a way to make a public feel better instead of doing anything about guns, you know, reducing the ability for guns to get in the hands of crazy people or actually being vocally supportive of the Red Fog laws that are on the books in Florida. This is where he goes.

Like, I’m going for blood. I’m going to be tough. This guy should die, which, you know, I sort of agree with, but that is not fixing the problem and is doing it with this degree of blood loss that should never be shown by a governor, presidential candidate, anybody in office. And so I think that’s where it gets a little scary. And he’s also seems to be competing with Trump who has been talking about bringing back the death penalty for all kinds of crimes.

Joked around about using the guillotine, you know, mass executions, like — Mhmm. — that is where, you know, my spirit starts to lead my body a little bit and get

scared.

Yeah. So

Trump is long fetishized Duterte. He was the the strong man in the Philippines who you know, basically had, you know, unsanctioned killings by the thousands. And Trump loves that, which, you know, Shocker is, again, a hallmark of authoritarians everywhere is that they want to be able to use the power of the state to kill people. And

I

don’t know. I guess this is I look at the DeSantis thing and I think is this him trying to to anti up even with that stuff with Trump? Tim?

Yeah. Well, this this is what the article’s on that this morning is just like, he has decided that the way that he competes. Like, he knows internally that he can’t go toe to toe with Trump on the rhetoric stuff that they’re not gonna be able to do that good stage. That that he competes And this is the cruise strategy. There were some cruise lines to it.

I compared to Warren in the article this morning that he competes by being like, I’m the checklist guy. And if you spoke at the yeah. If you spoke at the Utah convention, you want I watched his speech at the Utah convention, and it’s just he checks it’s a tick through. Stea portion in the six weeks. It’s the it’s the it’s Disney.

It’s all this weird online stuff that people have no idea what he’s talking about. Most people like the ESG and the DEI and in the world. In the CRT In the digital currency,

federal digital currency. Oh,

they’re never in Florida’s border. Will there be a digital and people are like, Yeah. Okay. Weird. I’ve got, like, a couple of super online people.

Like, really care about this stuff. So that’s And so I just think that the the capital punishment thing, which I didn’t mention in the script, is is in the same vein as we’re like, okay, on all this cultural issues, you

know.

It’s that gross immigration bill where, you know, you can get in trouble for just transporting an immigrant. Right? Like, It’s immigration check, you know. And then we sent the immigrants to Ad Martha’s Vineyard. You know, it’s a borsch.

It’s six weeks. It’s constitutional carry. You know, it’s the death penalty. The problem is that just like, there aren’t that many people that actually fit that. Like, people say that there’s voters.

Say yeah. Voters. Like, there are like, there, like, there is not actually a majority of Republican voters that are, like, I’m hardline right on every single issue. Like, people have complicated views. You know, like like, it’s not like it is on Twitter dot com where there’s a war and you have be on your side side all the time.

Like, regular voters, like, they have some pretty crazy views on a lot of things. Republican primary voters, like, like the Donald Trump won the last election, for example, and immigration stuff. But, like, once you the more detail you plug in on all that, the more voters such like,

I don’t

know about this actually. And like Warren ran into that in twenty twenty. And I do think that that this is DeSantis it’s a strategic move to check off all those boxes, and it’s not actually serving him as as well as he thinks.

Boy, howdy. Well, good show. Long shell. Great shell. Give

us a great shot. Trophy.

And great shell.

We all deserve a trophy. I,

you know, I didn’t wanna talk about the participation trophy. So, no, and it wasn’t feeling

it. So, well,

you didn’t

wanna talk about Supreme Court ethics, which I am very disappointed about. I was disappointed in your ethics, commitment, Tim, but fine. We

Okay. Now people are seeing behind the scenes.

On Friday, I’m gonna talk about the participation trophy stuff with Sarah on the Secret Podcast I’m just gonna just gonna go right here and tell you that I would bet anything, Sarah Longwell, is hundred percent down with a state ban on participation trophies.

Yeah. Probably.

I don’t think no. Not a federal ban. Sarah Longwell not like

the state ban. The long arm of the government. The federal government.

Yeah. Not in the state. But she definitely I gotta tell you if she definitely if one of our kids got a participation trophy, that she would be throwing that in the trash.

A school boardman. Should run for school board on a a participation trophy ban. This

And as the corollary one a to that rule, losers of all child sports games have to go to school the next day wearing an I am a loser hat. Okay. Try to help them really appreciate the importance of victory and winning.

That’s

the long well way.

No, it’s not.

Oh, Sebastian is coming to her defense right now. Thank some videos.

I’m kidding. Anyway, I’m kidding. I will I will talk about all of this with Sarah on Friday.

And you’ll be a listen to it if you’re a board plus member. I’m pitching your show. The Secret Podcast only for black cross members. Eight bucks. Not that much.

It’s much, but it’s a good deal. Better in Twitter or Blue.

Go. Hit the hit the like button for us. Hit the subscribe button for us. I would like to have more five star reviews, please, on your your Apple Podcasts app. Please go for that.

Please, in the comments, on the on the podcast app, please talk about how great Amanda is because I I do grade all of your comments I grade all of your reviews and we’ll see again on Sunday. I

actually have a good one. We’ve taped it so I can say, you know, I don’t like to jinx it if we haven’t taped we’ve already taped it. Abigail’s hamburger. Oh, god. Ugh.

And we do we do a little more politics. Favorite.

I

know we do a little more politics I wanted, but we we get into the CIA career. CIA career is a it’s it’s a it’s a strange life. You know, she had I didn’t realize this. I thought she was just kind of like some of it worked. Every you you get a whole cover story.

It’s like her college friends, like, thought she was a Pilates instructor. Not that not funny. Certain Well, you have to tell you have to have a whole different d and I was like, wow. So we got into that a little bit. Some parenting stuff.

That’s great.

She’s

basically shoe with Jennifer Garner and alias. I

didn’t watch that, but it sounded like it.

Bye, everybody.

See you.