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Speaker 3: Good morning, everyone, it's other Breaking Points Friday, and I'm here with my two favorite co hosts on Fridays. We've got one after party host, Emily Jashinski and we've got mister goodpolitic guy with Collie Holmes here. What's going on over the rare appearance?
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Speaker 4: We love it.
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Speaker 3: Crystal is sending her child to college. Very emotional for her. She's probably in tears right now. And old Chris okay, okay, all right, I'm not touching that. And Ryan, I have no idea where Ryan is bless you. I have no idea where Ryan is. Do you guys know whe Ryan is?
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Speaker 5: I don't either. I thought he was in San Francisco. He was sending us pictures from San Francisco. So I'm gonna go with that's where he is. But it's hard to say at any given moment, it's hard to say. It's like Carmen San Diego.
00:01:22
Speaker 3: Where in the world is Ryan san Francisco. So let's get to the show, big show, more econ news. Those US Treasury bonds that we love to hear about are sliding. Emily's gonna talk about that. I personally have been digging deep into a lustful romance friendship, something more between one Miss Natalie Harp, the assistant to our beautiful President Donald Trump, excited to get into that. Mac is taking a look at Van Jones, who is out to do some debunking about videos in Gaza. We'll see how well his debunking goes. And finally, Emily, who is our.
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Speaker 5: Guest that we have here today, Well, we have Aaron Baker on the show. It's a name you might remember because Aaron joined us last year. He decided to primary Randy Fine from the right, and we're gonna talk to him about how that race shook out. He ended up having to run against Dan Bulzarian and Randy Fine, but also we're gonna talk to him a bit about his support for James fishback. So it's gonna be I think it's gonna be a somewhat I don't know, spicy conversation, Griffin Darren, Emily went woke.
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Speaker 6: Yeah, not to spoil too much, but Emily has gone fully woke.
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Speaker 5: Yeah that's right, well woke, general woke three point zero. I'll be leading the charge.
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Speaker 3: Mm hmm. Yes, you're gonna discharge Kyle Kolinsky from the position. All right, but let's get to the news. Why don't we start with our favorite econ guy, Scott Besson, who spoke to who spoke to the crowd about a spike in oil prices. Let's take a quick listen to that.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, well, look, anything that happens within a twenty four hour period his noise. And you know, I think that once the market understands that we are focusing on physical consolidation and that we are trying to bring the market back into equilibrium in a thinly traded market, I think, you know, I'm confident that bonds will continue declining. We've got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand. You know, our announcement is for economic action, and I think that the economic action will mean that oil prices will come down sooner.
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Speaker 3: So Emily, what do you make of that? Because obviously we know the bravest thing that you can do as a man is to admit that you don't know something.
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Speaker 5: Did you see people comparing that to a Parks and rec moment. We don't really know where the spike is coming from.
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Speaker 3: No, I missed that the.
00:03:56
Speaker 5: Treasury secretary, so he was also on c NBC, And I'm just going to read a bit here from the chief Economics correspondent in the Wall Street Journal's summary of that. He says Treasury se Pessant discussed the decision to make a surprise change to debt management, uh warning or He said markets weren't properly pricing fundamentals, warranting a more activist approach. This is all what played out yesterday. He also said plans for fiscal consolidation are forthcoming. So this is Beson's quote on CNBC. We're trying to signal that we think this is a thinly traded area of the market that we're in August, and there's been a lot of corporate issuance that's influenced the market, and we believe that there are many underlying factors in turn, that the market is not looking at, and we're going to make a market in these We believe that these deals don't reflect the underlying fundamentals. So that's what he's repeating over and over again. Goes on to say, people have bad information. I have asymmetric information. So I think the market should think, well, why would we have joined the Japanese in the intervention at this time? Do we know something the market doesn't know that in terms of being willing to do to do you know what I would call treasury twist. So now we have the treasury twist here in terms of the bond market. What do I know that the market doesn't know? So I think the market's probably gotten a little ahead of itself. A lot of people not much to do in August. I'm going to read from CNBC here just this morning, looking at treasury yields rebounding in the headline, wiping out the decline following Besson's intervention. So They say bond yields climbed on Thursday, coming back from the pullback they saw the previous day after the Treasury Department announced an intervention aimed at easing pressure on longer dated government debt. And let's just pause there as well, because one of the things we talked to Jeff Stein about earlier in the week is that Donald Trump, when he did Liberation Day back in April twenty twenty five, one of the things that actually the one thing that had him willing to release some of the pressure that Liberation Day applied globally was that he saw the bond markets get quote a little yippie. So just everyone download that in their mind. Trump does care a lot about this, as he should. And CNBC goes on to say yields on ten year US Treasuries, the main benchmark for mortgages, auto loans, and credit card debt, moved more than five basis points higher to four point seven percent. The yield level was above the level it held before the eight thirty am announcement Wednesday the Treasury would be stepping up its bond buyback program. The yield on the thirty year Treasury bond, the primary focus of the accelerated buyback was up more than five basis points at five point two four eight percent. The yield on the two year treasury note was last seen was last seen up less than one basis point at around four point one to eighty five percent. CNBC says the moves underscored the difficulty of market interventions, particularly at a time when US debt faces a slew of factors that have been pressuring yields higher. Now he announced made that announcement Wednesday morning that they're going to double the size of the government debt buybacks starting on September ninth and then running through November four. You know, this is Scott Besson at his like this is his favorite thing to do. Basically, like this is is the strategy.
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Speaker 6: Is the strategy just to try to gaslight the market into not accepting the fundamentals of like what's actually underlying the market itself. It sounds like he's just trying to because you have compounding factors of you know, US national debt just hit forty trillion dollars, you have the Iran war that's driving you know, inflation higher than it otherwise would have been. You know, you have the tariffs and the rebounding effects of that. All of this is like coinciding with this bond crisis. And he's basically saying no, no, no, I know things that like the market doesn't not, So just like just trust the process. We have this fully under control.
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Speaker 3: Yes, and the dead buy back, I mean with the dead buyback, he's basically like using Klarna at this point right to like pay off our American debt. He's using loans to buy more debt.
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Speaker 5: Well, here's how Shift reacted said he said. Besson said, the free market is mispricing long term bond yield. So he wants to use the superior judgment and power of central government planners to correct the mistakes of capitalism. Good thing we didn't elect a democratic socialist president. So it's an attack on best there from the right saying listen, what you're going to do is correct the markets pricing from the central government. And so yeah, you could call it gas lighting, or you could call it having access to asymmetric information MAC and you are working with the symmetric information.
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Speaker 7: Right.
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Speaker 5: So obviously on Thursday, Brent Crude, do we have this tear street? Brent Crude went up to ninety four to sixty a barrel, That is its highest since July twenty fourth, drop Site reported pulled back down to about ninety three dollars a barrel. Oil drop Site reports has now risen for five straight sessions as trader's price in tighter Middle East supply and the risk of further escalation. Yeah, you just saw that on the screen, So yeah, it is. I was.
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Speaker 6: I was told that the straight of four Moves is completely the free and open for transit, right, and the fifty first state and the fifty first state that Trump has now taken control of.
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Speaker 5: There was a meme going around. I don't remember. I think it was real. I think someone, Oh, yeah, it was that. What was the guy who like, as soon as Charlie was killed last year, the Brin says name Brin Bryn Brint Hollyhand. He was like, if we can rename the Gulf of Mexico the Golf of America, why don't we call it the Strait of America. So something could be in the works on that point.
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Speaker 3: We're not something to there. We've got another clip from Beston here about jobs. Do we should we play that?
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Speaker 5: Yeah, let's roll.
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Speaker 3: Let's roll that one, all right, because he's he's not, because he's bringing asymmetric warfare to all sorts of the parts of our economy, including the job market. Let's take a listen.
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Speaker 8: You know, I just wanted to get your read on the economy as we see oil prices marching higher again, we have seen tremendous resilience, as you noted from the consumer, but there are signs that the job mark maybe cracking a little bit. Got a week job job report last month. I'm curious about your assessment as to how much we can handle all of this.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think the jobs numbers are quite noisy. And again, sir that the other thing that's important too is like the jobs that we're seeing are going to Americans after the deportations that we've seen during President Trump's administration and the closing of the border. That like that this unfettered migration, we don't need to produce as many jobs.
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Speaker 3: Okay, Well, from from yippie to noisy.
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Speaker 5: I want to just say, like, Scott Beston is obviously a serious person, because we're in what sense we're kind of clowning on him for these ridiculous quotes, but in the sense that like he's a mastermind behind the scenes like this is he knows a lot of this like the back of his hands, to the except anybody can. And so all that is to say he's a seriou person to the extent that like he is a deep student of the markets. He understands, you know, to the extent that somebody can. And this is part of the problem what happens in these spaces. And he is now I think, having the time of his life engineering it from the background. Like that's what I was saying when I'm like, this is Scott Besson in his favorite position, like he is loving this. I feel like you can see that he is loving this because he gets to play act as like the mastermind behind the scenes. Now I'm looking at as is Jeff Cox writing in CNBC saying that Besson's interventions hasn't worked. We're talking about let me, we're talking about if I'm remembering the number correctly here, Uh, he confirmed as much as four billion dollars. Let me just pull this up for dollars of what Yeah, So he's he confirmed that the size of the buybacks could exceed for billion dollars four billion dollars, and so Cox then writes it's not working. He says, basically, not all the factors that play are fundamental. They include rising competition from corporate bond issuance, like Bessett said, as well as suddenly attractive fields of other sovereigns, including Japan, a correlation with oil prices that in turn increases inflation fears, and increasing term premiums or the extra yield investors are demanding. He says. To combat those problems, Bessett could seek cooperation with the Federal Reserve because guess who's at the Federal Reserve now? Kevin warsh but has said that the two entities Bessett has said the two entities quote would work together in dealing with complications in the bond markets and as the central bank manages its own treasury holdings. He quotes somebody who's the chief credit officer at Moody's saying there's also been a structural shift in who buys US government debt as central banks shrink their balance sheets and traditional duration buyers reach the limits of how much additional issuance they can absorb. New buyers, such as leveraged hedge funds. That's Beson's background running relative value strategies are playing a bigger role. So what they really need, frankly, is an end to the war more than anything else. And that's like the most obvious point. There are deeper underlying problems. They still have a terrorf regime lest we forget. Yes, the Supreme Court overturned some tariffs, but they do still have a terrorf regime in play. That is economically well, I was gonna say risky, but it's influential in terms of all of this. But the war itself, with what it's doing to oil prices, is what they need to have an end to, and they have absolutely no end to it. And now people in DC are saying, well, Besson is more important than heg Sath, Like that's the line. I think it was a political playbook yesterday that Besson is now more important than heg Seth because he's trying to give Trump room to deal with this economic fallout from his purche at treasury. And it's like, good luck, because the one thing that you need to do is actually just get back to the pre war status quo in the straight of horror moves and you will be in a wildly different position. Good luck with that, though, because there's right Iran knows that we have elections coming up. Iran knows that's important to Trump and Republicans, and you're in this mess of your own making.
00:14:18
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, that's what this all comes down to at the end of the day, right is that you have this memorium of understanding and then it sort of fell apart. It was sort of like I would consider it to be somewhat of a surrender document. Kind of rightfully so, given the fact that we, I think, by any stretch of the imagination, didn't win this war, but they've ended up in a situation now where a couple of days ago, Trump is posting this, you know image we controlled the straight of horor moves. He says, there's no talks with Iran that are even on the table right now, So there is there's not even a hypothetical off ramp or a long term resolution to this into the future. And so I'm looking at Scott Bessen and like, you know, he may be knowledgeable on what he on the markets and how they function at a base level, but like, what is he supposed to do if they've been completely backed into a corner? And Trump at this point has made the entirety of this war about control over the straight of horror moves and is unwilling to make any of the concessions that would be necessary to actually end the war. I mean, we've been backed into a corner at this point. It just it reeks of desperation.
00:15:20
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, I think desperation is a good word for.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: That, and I think asymmetric is the best word though the way.
00:15:26
Speaker 5: It is the best word, it is the best word. But what I was gonna say is this is why, Well, Okay, so Bessont understands to max point, Yeah, Bessett understands this world. But he also again, just to emphasize, Chrison and I were talking about this with Japan, like his Japanese intervention, it's something that had happened before, but with him, I just feel like he really relishes this role of playing like global economic mastermind. And uh, again, it doesn't matter. I mean, I guess it matters a lot. But until you end the war, you're going to see these problems ripple throughout the rest of the economy. And it doesn't That wouldn't make the rest of the problems go away, but it would put us in a situation where you're not seeing this insanity. And yet that's the one problem that's the intractable problem in all of this, and so he's trying to work with what he has, but he can't change that.
00:16:30
Speaker 3: Well, Emily, you mentioned sanity, which I think leads us to our next segment, because what is more insane than young love? Of course, I'm referring to one miss Natalie Harp. Now, there's been a lot of stuff this week coming out about Trump's aid Natalie Harp and the extent of their relationship. Some of the hits that have been coming out across the week are that there is a very strong physical proximity to the president from this one Natalie. There has been reports that she once slept in a locker room. She spent a summer sleeping in a locker room at Trump's Bedminister golf club to remain close to him after she was denied a room. There was another story about her hopping into the trunk of a motorcade car so she could remain near the president, sort of a Looney Tunes amount of action with her chasing after the president. There was another story where they were on a golf course and she wasn't allowed into one of the golf carts, so she ended up jogging feverishly behind to catch up with the golf cart brigade. And there have also been reports of letters that she leaves the President. She is known as his human printer, the one that actually writes the amazing truth social posts that we all read and report on the Show of Day. He dictates them, He dictates them out loud, and then she types the griffin and sends them. He dictates them out. And so I wanted to give a taste of who this person is from her own words, from some of her time on OA, and to get a little flavor. And then I want to read one of these letters to the president.
00:18:19
Speaker 5: Well, and we should just to set this up if people haven't been following this. Basically, this kicked off because of that Washington Post report that Trump left Air Force One, including Secretary of Saint Marco Rubio, the Press Corps, and many of his own staffers because of what we now know, according to the reports, was a piece of Israeli intelligence that a surface at air missile on the ground in Ancora could potentially take down Air Force One. Our intelligence services didn't judge it as serious a serious threat Trump anyway, we don't know if it was because of Secret Service or Trump himself goes on leaves Air Force One and takes Natalie Harp with him as one of the few pace people that were taken from Air Force One onto the catering truck and making the escape, and so that kicked off this latest wave. Senator John Osoff goes in, gives this big viral speech and says Trump would rather be Yeah, let's let's rock it.
00:19:15
Speaker 9: And while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves. The President sleeps through his meetings, he golfs and trade stops. So he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.
00:19:45
Speaker 3: Wow.
00:19:46
Speaker 5: Wow, So the osof said this particular I think Jensaki pushed him on it, and Osov said this particular aid has been referred to as his security blanket and the like, and the right freaked o. Scott Jennings freaked out and was saying, that's like a very unbecoming of a Senator, how do you pick on Natalie Harp, who is a She does genuinely attribute Trump to surviving cancer because he did what's called right to try in his first administration. Yes, and that did allow her to have access to experimental cancer treatments that can actually change people's lives and can it's it's a.
00:20:22
Speaker 3: Good thing, but which also doctors have pushed back on saying that those drugs, the drugs that helped her were actually already available. Perhaps, but she has connected it to his right to try.
00:20:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't see that. That made me. She does et no, no, but you're right she does. She is the one who connects it directly, so that her brother went on I think CNN with Aaron Burnett and said, that's exactly what it is. She attributes that to Trump. And these rumors about her had been circulating for a while because she is really close to the president, and we'd heard previously about notes that had found their way I think into the presidential bedroom, and so it had been under the surface, but then because of the Washington Post report on leaving Air Force One, it exploded to a major story this week. So with all of that said, Griffin, this little explanation of who Natalie Harve is. She was previously a one American news network anchor, ended up working in the White House, has been with Trump ever since. Let's roll it.
00:21:20
Speaker 3: Let's hear from our own words for a second.
00:21:22
Speaker 10: We can't talk about winning back the House and Senate in twenty twenty two and the White House in twenty twenty four if we don't act on the fact that we actually did win the White House and the Senate in twenty twenty.
00:21:35
Speaker 5: We shouldn't be afraid to.
00:21:36
Speaker 10: Say that, because it's true.
00:21:38
Speaker 11: We the people know America as we know it could be ending in the next two or four years. Oh wow, that is exactly what President Trump is warning of. They think if they can get President Trump, they can get the seventy five million people to shut up and stand down. And then, as President Trump said at Seapac yesterday, each of us, if we haven't already have a decision to make twenty twenty two at the ballot box, but right here and right now, to choose a side. And by the way, sidelines don't count.
00:22:08
Speaker 3: Sidelines do not count. Mac What is it like this?
00:22:11
Speaker 5: Can I just make a little quip here? It's like the joke news segment that thirty Rock would run, Like you know what I mean, It's like if you did a thirty Rock cutaway, like making fun of segments like this. It watches exactly like that.
00:22:25
Speaker 3: Oh h definitely always reached to me as the thing that's on TV in the movie, like it's the fake news show in the movie. But Mac, what are we to make of this is the is how they first became so connected over the stop to steal thing.
00:22:41
Speaker 6: I mean, the cancer thing that you said makes a lot more sense to me because and I was talking to Griffin earlier about this, Like she really does come across in the letters that she's put out in the behavior of chasing him down the golf course, like she wrote a whole letter apologizing for her behavior, like I'm so sorry if I embarrassed you or whatever. It really is like she's in a cult and Trump is just her personal savior. So it does like track on the cancer thing if she credits him with like saving her life or whatever. But it's just bizarre, man, Like this is some of the strangest stuff I've ever seen, because even you see it in like the cabinet meetings, right, like everybody understands that Trump kind of wants everybody to like jerk him off in these cabinet meetings, and they go around the table and everybody like praises him in their own little way. Marco Rubio, pete hegseth, you're the greatest president ever. You've stopped eight hundred wars whatever else. But this is like a true believer. Like I don't think necessarily that Marco Rubio believes it when he's sucking up to Trump. This is somebody who was like fully drank the kool aid. This is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ here. Yeah, well, do we have the letters?
00:23:46
Speaker 5: Because the Daily Beast says, yeah, pull these up so people can see exactly what Max's talking about.
00:23:50
Speaker 3: And Emily, do you have like some sultry piano or maybe like a saxophone you could play while I read this, all right? You could also just sing this is the this is the letter, dear mister President. I'm sorry. I thought I was the only one left behind last night and had no idea. Margo's car was also pulled over and sent back to the airport. Since I was alone in the van outside customs without my passport, I panicked and should have just called Secret Service instead of you. I also am sorry if I was an embarrassment walking the course in Scotland. The first day, I was told there were no carts and people walked, which is why I walked. The second day, I was specifically asked by I forgot who his name was, but one of the main people who worked there if I could continue walking and tell any other girls who had head out there to do the same, to spare the course any more carts. If there's anything else I've done to cause you trouble, please forgive me. I know that some people have said I haven't been texting them back, and there have been some international cell issues. John was having technical issues on the plane too. I want things to always be right between us. I also know that I've been distracted all week forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep and only catching a couple hours at a time. I haven't been myself dwelling on the past and the pain of losing my dad, and I started letting the remarks of people who haven't bothered me before get to me. Not because I care what others think, because I see myself being lowered in your eyes and good opinion. That is the fear you see because I never want to bring you anything but joy. I'm sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don't want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my guardian and protect her in this life. That's what I wanted to use this card for. When you saw me at the cash register and once again did what you didn't have to do and gifted me with the mementos of this trip of a lifetime, a coming of age. I will return a better person. I have to sign off now as the cars are leaving. See you soon with all my heart.
00:25:49
Speaker 5: Real Natalie, And did you notice she uses caps? I mean the viewers might not be able to see this, but she uses capitalizations in a Trumpian style. Yeah, aping him and I think this reminds me a lot of something that I found I shouldn't probably say this, but I found this in Max stuff. The rest directed to Sager Ma's.
00:26:13
Speaker 6: That's true, that's exactly so those were my guards, my protector in this.
00:26:18
Speaker 5: Life, capital p protector.
00:26:22
Speaker 3: But it reminds me of that woman that was dating the like basketball like billionaire guy who's like I'm his little rabbit. Remember that clip, I'm his little bunny and not important.
00:26:34
Speaker 5: I listen, Griffin, I know you're really big into sports, but yeah, just Dodgers had on. Well, so let's get into the sour sale a little bit here, because these were given to Michael wolf and Michael Wolfe's reporting ranges from insane like not true establishment TMZ worse. He he admits to like completely making things up. Basically that sometimes he dramatizes. Yeah, and that's if you're purporting to be a journalist. That means that you're often writing fiction. So anyway, all this to say, this is an actual copy of a letter, and Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman in their book reported on some of these letters as well and said that they were being left in Trump's personal spaces. So from conversations that I have had about all of this, everybody thinks this is weird. You know, everybody circled the wagons around Natalie Harp this week and defended her vociferously. Nobody knows, Honestly, nobody knows what's really happening, if it's more than just this emotional fawning from Natalie Harp, which I think is perfectly plausible, like top aids do get access to the living space at the White House because they're working as soon as the President gets up and probably as the president's going to bed, So it's not unheard of that staff would be in the residence. And that could be quote unquote personal spaces. And it could totally be on a one way love of right like Trump is, he prizes loyalty. Here you have somebody who's a little weird and has this deep emotional connection to him, credits him with saving her life and knows that he loves loyalty and loves people who faonnel over him and plays to that and has perfectly reasonable access to the residents. Or it could be not that, which is the implication, And I honestly have no idea. I don't think that people who are in like Trump circles don't have any idea.
00:28:30
Speaker 3: There's no way that there is a full blown sexual interaction happening, which some are alleging. I mean, there's no way. I think it's a little bit more when nurse a nurse caretaker situation than a sexual I mean, there's just no way that Trump, at his current shape and age can even physically perform. Yeah, I mean he's he's a shape that's never been invented before. Like, I just don't see there need to be like a nuclear reactor amount of blue chee to make that happened. So I think it's something a little bit sadder. I think it's still clear.
00:29:04
Speaker 6: Well, what's even the saddest part about this is that there's like a zero percent chance Trump read that letter in the first place, right, Like there's no shot.
00:29:15
Speaker 5: Well, because somehow it got to Michael Wolfe, which tells me that someone else intercepted it and was leaking it to the press.
00:29:21
Speaker 3: Michael Wolfe has also reported that Milania was not seen on the twenty twenty four campaign race with Trump because she did not like Natalie's proximity. Malania did actually come out yesterday to give a public speech at the White House for the first time. Maybe she's feeling some of the heat from this story, But there was some defenders of Natalie and people who were very aghast at John Assaf's cruel caddie remarks, and of course Mac watchs your reaction to this. Our favorite CNN panelist, Scott Jennings, who was challenged on his attacks on us off. Let's all take a listen to that.
00:30:05
Speaker 12: Go ahead, him, just play it, because there's just such a long history of this Trump punching down, insulting women.
00:30:12
Speaker 9: Let's just play it, never complaining about it.
00:30:14
Speaker 5: You've called women you don't like, fat pigs, dogs, slop and disgusting animals.
00:30:23
Speaker 8: O'donald, But what we want to do is to replenish such.
00:30:27
Speaker 3: A nasty one.
00:30:28
Speaker 9: You are a worst reporter.
00:30:30
Speaker 3: No one to see she in.
00:30:31
Speaker 5: It has no.
00:30:32
Speaker 9: Ratings because of people like you.
00:30:34
Speaker 3: You know, she's a young woman.
00:30:35
Speaker 9: I don't think I've ever seen you smile.
00:30:37
Speaker 7: I've known you for ten years.
00:30:39
Speaker 9: I don't think I've ever seen a smile.
00:30:51
Speaker 12: Quiet piggy, I mean, Scott Dan was pretty straightforward. If you're going to be outraged over m traveling on a plane with Natalie, are you going to be outraged over all those things?
00:31:04
Speaker 5: I do not believe in demeaning women in any way?
00:31:07
Speaker 7: Number one. Number two was.
00:31:12
Speaker 5: The president and the issue the issue, the issue I had with this?
00:31:16
Speaker 7: Are you outraged or.
00:31:19
Speaker 5: The issue? Are the issue I had with this?
00:31:22
Speaker 7: Natalie Harp is not a public figure. She has that has no.
00:31:34
Speaker 3: All right, well, that's the incredible moderation at CNN where you can't hear a single thing mac Is Natalie Harp a private purpose? That's what I was.
00:31:47
Speaker 6: I'm so confused by that, Like what do you mean she's a top age She's constantly making public appearances with him, Like in what way is she and she can't defend herself Like this is it's insane. I mean the hypocrisy angle of it, obviously, like the it's obvious you don't even really need to make that point. Scott isn't gonna, you know, admit any of that.
00:32:05
Speaker 5: At the end of the day.
00:32:06
Speaker 6: I guess I'm just sort of like I watched the John Ossoff clip and if anything, I'm like he could have gone way harder, Like what is the outrage meter for the Republicans getting upset about this? Because like what was actually offensive about what he said? It was like kind of a vague implication of like maybe there's something going on there, but like, Okay, Trump says worse on an average Tuesday, what are we talking about?
00:32:30
Speaker 5: I think it so the only thing I would disagree with on that, Like it's it's glaringly hypocritical from Scott Jennings. Laughable all of that, I think it might be a tiny problem for us off in the same way that some of this was a problem for Biden. Not a massive problem, but there's a I guess, a broader issue if you are campaigning and this is where actually some of the dark Woke gets it right, if you're campaigning on restoring American civility and norms, and then it's not so much like everyone has low expectations. I think at this point of the people who defend Trump but as off, if you're trying to like take the when they go low, we go high route and go above what you say are the bad standards and expectations, and then you do stuff like this, it makes people be like, oh, come on, man, Like which one is it? Like we either have to go gloves off or you have to like you can't have it both ways. And I think that's where just politically, not morally, but politically, I think that's a little bit of an issue, like you have to choose a lane, like you either have to go full gloves off or like who's a good example of something? Well S is probably a good example of that. Yeah, he's a good example.
00:33:44
Speaker 3: He's a little sassy's side of gloves off.
00:33:47
Speaker 5: I think he's sort of dark woke, yeah at this point, right, But I mean you got to go one way or the other.
00:33:51
Speaker 6: I get your point, Emily, but I also think there's almost no appetite for the you know, they go low, we go high attitude anymore with the Democratic voter base. Like it's at this point, it's, you know, everybody's saying fuck it, you know whatever, We've we've had eight years of a Trump presidency, term one, term two, Like there are no standards anymore. And even you know, to the return to civility, I don't that's not something that I personally care about. But like even if you are quote unquote dark woke or you're a little bit edgy or your gloves off from like a democratic politician perspective, that's still going to be like infinitely more civility based than what we're getting from the Trump administration. Like it's almost unfathomable to think of a democratic version of Donald Trump that is as brash and you know, upfront about just being kind of an asshole all the time. Like I can't really make a comparison on the left to any major political figure like that.
00:34:50
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's nobody that will ever be like Donald Trump. Like that's there's just no comparison. Nobody who will be on a debate stage being like only Rosio Donald. It's just never gonna happen. So yeah, it's it's a it's a question of how post Trump Republicans handle that. But I do think as off like when he was going viral, maybe this isn't his fault. Maybe he's not trying that well. I don't know. I think he's pretty clearly doing a gentle Obama impression. Oh, just like we see Joshapiro in those sorts and that's fair.
00:35:20
Speaker 6: At home well, and you can see that. You can see all the camera crews with him. He brings like a professional camera crew with him to get all these different angles at every single one of these rous.
00:35:27
Speaker 3: The lower angle looking up, that's that's that's the Asov shot or what else.
00:35:31
Speaker 5: He's documentarian and he's on that, he's on that tee.
00:35:34
Speaker 6: So he's gotten himself all like jacked over the last couple of years, like he's making a run for it.
00:35:39
Speaker 3: I guess the question for for both of you, and then maybe Mac in particular, who is a fan of the more Kyle Kolinsky dark woke angle is you know, Trump is so crazy? Is the main dem electorate gonna just want someone that's exceedingly normal now go back to the normal. Or do they want someone like Abdul who is going to be in but for the things that that the left likes. And I guess that is the main question for the demolectorate.
00:36:06
Speaker 6: Well, I mean that's you know, I don't want to make this sort of like my wish casting, but I think right now the energy is more in the Abdual lane. I think this is why you're seeing sort of a left insurgency all these DSA candidates that are winning, and you know, you can see candidates that are outspent you know, ten to one, twenty to one in some cases. The media is sort of you know, stacked against them, the demo establishment is stacked against them, and they're still winning some of these races or at least cutting it, you know, extremely close. So the energy right now is definitely in the dark woke camp. The question then, is the twenty twenty eight Democratic presidential primary rules around are And I've seen this from you know, even some of among like family and friends who are sort of more like standard liberals or whatever progressive lips maybe, And I do like it asof makes me a little bit afraid because I hear them and they're like, oh, you know, he's good looking, he's very well spoken, like he has this calming effect, like I could see somebody like that being a real threat to the left.
00:37:03
Speaker 3: And he's pulling very high Maac just as yeah, he has on it, like he continues to be putting up numbers in the polls and putting out some sort of liberal pheromones that people really can't describe on any specific policy level other than, oh, Dan, this guy got on some got on some disosterone. He got jacked up, and he's looking good in these low angles, and you know, I want to feel good about my politician again. And and he's he's virile in a way that you know, we had Biden before. So I don't know that's true.
00:37:35
Speaker 5: No, I it does. It concerns me.
00:37:38
Speaker 6: I hope the energy stays till twenty twenty eight, but I'm not fully convinced.
00:37:41
Speaker 5: It was kind of a problem for Betso against Ted Cruz back in a twenty eighteen and that like he tried to be on the one hand Kennedy esque, right, was like Kennedy maxing and then on the other hand was trying to go gloves off against Trump, and you just I think you really do just have to pick a lane otherwise people sniff it out. It depends on who you're running against. Like if it's a if you're up against a weak Republican candidate or crazy republic whatever, you can start or super maga Republican candidate, you can start pulling some of that that off in a way that's helpful. But I like, I don't know, I think the evolution is to just go fully gloves off. That seems to me where people are. But that is interesting mac that like people normies you know, are watching this and like I kind of like that.
00:38:27
Speaker 6: I like the way, well and you are going to It's gonna be the same ecosystem in twenty twenty eight with the establishment and the media.
00:38:34
Speaker 5: They're gonna pull out the same arguments.
00:38:35
Speaker 6: Oh, you know, let's say abdual runs, Oh he's not electable, like you know whatever, he sort of has this energy in the Democratic voter base, but like he couldn't win in a general election. They're gonna pull out the same arguments that they did in twenty twenty and in twenty sixteen. It's just going to come down to whether or not the voter base falls for that. Again, wasn't Bedo's Vanity fair cover Born to Run? Wasn't that the tag on his cover? To give that tag to Natalie Harp her chasing after the golf carts, I think that'd.
00:39:05
Speaker 3: Be a great tag for her, Born to Run, Miss Natalie. So that's so let's move on.
00:39:14
Speaker 4: Mac.
00:39:14
Speaker 3: I want you to react to this because, of course, one of our main stays here on the show, Van Jones, is out with a new fact check and collab with one Noah Tishbe about all of this disinformation online about Gaza and how the images are fake. And I will say this video was made in the year of our Lord, twenty twenty six, maybe a few years late.
00:39:38
Speaker 5: Let's explain who Noah tish is.
00:39:40
Speaker 3: By the way, Noah tishb is a like official Israeli propagandist. She's like worked for Israeli PR and is ignoring my invites to come on the show.
00:39:54
Speaker 5: Let's take a listen. You're seeing right now did not happen. This also didn't happen I'm here.
00:39:59
Speaker 13: Then we now have this world where when you see something on social media, you have to ask yourself the question is is real? The people who want to divide, who want to distract, who want to turn people against each other, have super weapons to do so. Now, because you know, somebody looks at their phone, they assume that what they're seeing is real. I think that's why we have to take a lot more seriously this information war, because the twenty four hours, seven day a week battle for the mind, it's the people who are on Twitch and TikTok and all these other platforms. They're getting literally millions and millions of views. And if you care about backs your disadvantage. Even though the fringe media is terrible, you have legacy media that's also terrible.
00:40:39
Speaker 7: I'm falling for nonsense.
00:40:41
Speaker 13: For instance, you know the picture that broke everybody's part of the so called starving maybe turned out to not be a starving child. They cut out the full image that showed the sibling perfectly fine. That child at a genetic issue, it was not being starved by Israel. So when you have the mainstream media that is falling for propaganda or promoting propaganda and won't apologize, and then you have this fringe media that's massively bigger. It requires a different approach to the information work.
00:41:09
Speaker 9: Now this is literally about democracies as we know them.
00:41:12
Speaker 5: We have to make sure that we verify everything.
00:41:14
Speaker 13: That we see online and don't get hooked into this dopament addiction that is going to damage us on Thank you so much, Ben, thank you.
00:41:23
Speaker 3: All right, one note before I get Max's reaction, They're like, so we need to dispel all these rumors about starving children. Let's do an inspiring music track. Let's do something like uplifting Climbing the Mountain music track here. But so Mac, let's let's fact check the fact checkers here. What what are they getting wrong here?
00:41:43
Speaker 5: Now?
00:41:43
Speaker 6: In terms of the specific story that they were talking about with the piece from the New York Times of the child who was starving, they're getting at that in the initial New York Times piece they didn't report that the child also had other underlying conditions I think specifically was cerebral palsy and this this specif case. But what that ignores is that, yeah, when there's a famine, when there's mass starvation or food shortages that are going on. It is going to be the most vulnerable people within society that suffer initially, that suffer the initial brunt of that famine. And that child in the New York Times piece was malnourished, right, And the data on this has been well reported on, well documented. There was malnourishment in Gaza, There was starvation in Gaza. Israel had an explicit policy of restricting aid from getting in it to Gaza from the beginning of the genocide. I mean they openly declared, We're going to cut off the food, the fuel, the water, the electricity. It's an entire population that we're attempting to punish. Here, none of this is like a secret. But again, the purpose here in this whole piece from Van Jones is to get you to doubt everything, to mistrust everything. The only people that you can trust are the official lions from the IDF, or from Benjamin et Yahoo, or from the Trump administration or the Biden administration what was happening under him. You know, you can only trust these official sources. Also, you were talking about a guy.
00:43:03
Speaker 5: Like Van Jones.
00:43:03
Speaker 6: This is the same guy who was on Bill Maher making a joke about dead Gaza babies right and laughing about it gleefully. So you know, to some extent, you know, I don't know if it's a money thing. I don't know if it's just like an ideological thing for him. But he's truly a psychopath when it comes to when it comes to this issue.
00:43:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, Griffin, do we have the ideological drift of Van Jones.
00:43:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's let's let's let's take a let's take a look back at nineteen ninety three Van Jones for a second here to see where the psychopath starts. Maybe they never maybe it was always this way, students could do that.
00:43:41
Speaker 14: In nineteen sixty. In nineteen ninety three, we have the United Building. But death Kid, God's kid black people do nothing wrong, gets sick and will just if all they've done wrong.
00:44:01
Speaker 9: If we get close that death kid generation.
00:44:06
Speaker 14: Another Jepanese American term, and all like job we should all get haircuts and get regular jobs and.
00:44:12
Speaker 7: Give it up.
00:44:14
Speaker 3: We should all get haircuts, get regular jobs, and give it up. So I guess that's what happened. He's being honest.
00:44:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not a bad point. This would have been around two thousand and nine, was singled out by Glenn Beck back in his Fox News days, early tea party days, because Obama had hired him. I believe as a green jobs are and Van Jones's past radical activism came to the forefront so much so that he lost that job in the Obama White House, and now he's landed at CNN, got a haircut, got a job. To Griffin's point, and you know, the frustrating thing about revisitation of that New York Times story is that nobody really disputes it was fair for the New York Times update the story and say the little boy had cerebral palsy. I think everybody understands that's relevant information, and it just underlines the case maclaid out, which is that where there are vulnerable populations with people suffering, those people can suffer even worse. They might sometimes bear the brunt, and people who are disabled might sometimes or might always bear the brunt when there are food shortages. So that is as a hill to die on. To create that as your centerpiece to make this case about propaganda, I think it's really really sick, just a it's a really gross thing to do, and like there's.
00:45:42
Speaker 3: Like it's also, like I said at the beginning, of this segment. It's crazy this is a twenty twenty six video because you could easily see something like this in November of twenty twenty three where they could make that case. But if you were trying to actually do good PR for Israel now, it would be, Oh, it's that damn Beebe and Yahoo that we got to get out of here and then everything will get fixed, Like, don't worry, elections are coming soon. Yeah, Israel did some bad stuff and we all agree on that, and it's time to get rid of this government. That would be the effective Israeli PR move at this point, which is also rife with you know, inaccuracies, because the majority of the other political leaders in Israel share very similar strategies towards handling Gaza. So I always wonder, like with Israel that has access to unlimited resources to create PR, why they choose these people like Noah Tishbe to do these things? Why do they pick these untalented, dead eyed people to add this liberal sheene with no facts and sort of just an underlying base of victimization And you should just be on my side. And I think it's because you know, they see themselves and people like Noah, like they can't fath what good pr for Israel would be. They see themselves in these terrible actors, and so those are the people they continue to put out. Your Michael rappaports a lot of these disgusting Twitter accounts like who's that one guy in New York Mac that we always uh make funakab. They see that they see themselves in these people, and they view these people as the heroes to push their movement, and it just goes to show how just muddy and confused they are about how the world sees them. Now.
00:47:35
Speaker 6: Well, to your point, Griffin, I think there is an element of it where for I mean, the vast majority of the last however, many you know, decades here in the United States, Israel didn't really have to do much work in terms of, you know, propaganda to convince Americans to uh support them. It was always just sort of like the baseline, right you just said, universal consensus within the upper echelons in Washington, d C. You know, within Congress, within the media. It didn't become a central thing that a lot of Americans thought about until you know, post October seventh and this this genocide in Gaza and post October seventh. So now you have this new reality where it's a live streamed genocide. We're getting countless thousands of images videos that are on every especially young people's social media feeds. Like it's just so overwhelming that there is no talented propagandist who could overcome that. Like there there's nothing to be done at this point except for the strategies that we've seen Israel use, which is censorship, right, going after college students, trying to blacklist them, you know, sicking the police on them, as we saw under the Biden administration as well in these encampments, you know, So it's censorship. It's these new programs spending millions of dollars to influence chat GPT and how it responds to Israel and flooding the Internet with you know, slop AI written you know, Israeli propaganda pieces so that AI will pick up on that for its information ecosystem. Like it's strategies like this, and you know, as we just saw from Van Jones, trying to get you to doubt everything that you see because they they basically have nothing else that they that they can reach for. At this point, there is no convincing case that can be genuinely made.
00:49:13
Speaker 5: That may be true, but it is still remarkable to me that they're doubling down as they see the numbers go down. Yeah, like they're not changing one bit of the strategy.
00:49:24
Speaker 6: Well, that's another aspect of it, and I think we've we've seen this in some of the recent races, like with Abdua l sa'id Is. If you guys remember DROPSI News reported, I think it was maybe a year ago or more at this point that there was like an internal study that was done within Israel where they were looking at what are the most effective ways that we could sort of convince people into a more pro Israel direction, And the number one thing that they found was increasing Islamophobia.
00:49:50
Speaker 5: Right.
00:49:50
Speaker 6: That was what they thought was the most effective strategy to sort of win people back to their side, was to push Islamophobia to sort of overwhelm the Israel criticism. And I think we have seen a massive, massive spike in Islamophobia against people like Abduell Sae. It are just generally in the United States with the low Lumer types and the Randy Fine types, you know, that's become significantly amplified over the last couple of years. With the emergence of more israel Critical and Muslim candidates across the country.
00:50:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think like not to give the Israeli pr more tips other but like you know, I said, a you guys should come out against nan Yahoo and be like they're not even doing any of the look we're handing out aid in Gaza, like we're doing like any of those like propaganda bits either. In fact, there's reporting that there's currently a water crisis happening in Gaza. People are struggling to find drinking water. They're having to choose with either to cook with it, drink with or bathe with it, and they can only choose one out of the three. So this like could suffering continues. They're still bombing tents on what seems like a weekly basis, and so yeah, they don't have any any video evidence to show the situation is improving one bit. So we're kind of just frozen in place until these people are I guess laughed out of the room, but Van Jones is still in the room.
00:51:11
Speaker 6: Well, And to your point, one final thing on that, Griffin, the most effective Israeli propaganda right now is the fact that the media is no longer talking about it. Right, there is no mainstream media coverage of you know, the nearly daily attacks that are happening in Gaza. Israel still bombing Gaza, there's still you know, they blew up a medical facility just a couple of weeks ago. You didn't see that on Cenna, and you didn't see that on MS. Now we're on Fox News or whatever else. The media has largely just dropped it as an issue, which I think has in some ways, in a dark way, helped Israel because it's not such a central focus for a lot of people anymore.
00:51:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, Well that'll do it for Van Jones. Get a suit, get a real job. I think that's still my note for Van.
00:51:53
Speaker 5: He does sound like Sager.
00:51:57
Speaker 3: All right, Well let's move on to my favorite state in the nation, Florida.
00:52:03
Speaker 5: Well, we wanted to bring you an update in a race that we've been tracking for more than a year. So we're joined once again by Aaron Baker, who actually decided to primary Randy Fine more than a year ago from the right erin welcome back, appreciate you for being here.
00:52:18
Speaker 7: Always a pleasure to be here, Thank you for having me back.
00:52:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, this was such an interesting race. And Ryan and I interviewed you about a year ago now just about your decision to get into this race, because there was something very interesting happening on the right, and Florida became a place where not even just your district, but Florida the entire state during this primary cycle became a place where some of this was getting hashed out in some responsible ways and some irresponsible ways. So let's start with your race, because I think you ended up at thirteen and a half percent in the race between Randy Fine and Dan Bilzerian. It turned into a little bit of a circus erin so just catch us up, remind viewers why you decided to primary Randy Fine from the right. When you launched, the Ron War had not yet happened, so that was a major update. But what were you thinking when you got into the race and what was it like running as a Republican against Rady Fine.
00:53:11
Speaker 7: Well, I mean I got into the race because I thought he was a genocidal maniac that needed to be taken out of our government. And I still believe that and that's not going to change. I mean, you don't change the spots on a leopard. He's I mean, he is who he is and his personality is not going to change. I didn't think it was a fit for this congressional district. However, the voters thought otherwise.
00:53:35
Speaker 5: And how did that change once Bilzarian got into the race? What was And you had been running for a while by the time he got into the race, and you were making this case against Randy Fines foreign policy in a fairly reasonable way. Bilzarian gets into the race, what happened?
00:53:51
Speaker 7: Yeah, So if we go back in history a little bit, so I fouled my paperwork in April, right after finding one the special election. Dan told me back in December of last year, and we spoke for you know, a good long while, and he said, you know, after the first of the years, let's catch up and I'll be more than happy to see what I can do to help you. And that was what I thought was going to be the plan going forward. And then we were never able to reconnect. And then I get a call in late March or maybe mid March, and Dan says, well, you didn't raise enough money. And I wanted to say, well, no, duh, you didn't help me like you said you were going to. He said, so I'm going to run myself. And I thought, okay, well, you know, you need to get on a plane and you need to get your butt here right now. And at that point I even offered, you know, okay, if you're serious about this, I'll take you around, I know, every square into this district. I'll take you to every place that you need to go. And I if he had wanted to run a serious campaign, you know, clean up your look a little bit, you know, get a haircut, you know, look like you did back in twenty thirteen when you were a movie extra. You know, maybe okay, you stand a chance, and you've got to You've got to realize who your electorate is. The average Republican voter in this congressional district is fifty one years old. So you've really got to tone down what you're saying. You can say I don't want defensive or you know, I don't want offensive weapons, and I don't want any financial aid to Israel. But you can't say that I will take up arms and start exterminating Israelis that those you know, you're not going to win a congressional race like that, no matter how much money you have. So you know, he came in like a bullet of China shot and thought he didn't need to listen to anyone. No campaign events until the last day of early voting, which was the Saturday, which was last Saturday. And he shows up to a fishback event and you know, thirty forty to fifty people there and stands around hands out free tacos for half an hour and then disappears, you know, at least on election day, show up somewhere. I mean, on election Day, I was at eight different pulling locations, you know, still trying to get voters, talking to voters, and you know, because I believed based on what we had experienced door knocking, and we knocked on about thirty thousand doors, wow my campaign, and we had a very positive response. I mean, there was a very anti fine sentiment out there. It's just a matter of, you know, who has the most money, who sends out the most palm cards or most postcards in the mailboxes, and who you know, puts out the most television ads, and that seems to be what people listen to. They're you know, they don't remember, Oh, hey, I met this Errand guy, you know, three months ago when he came and knocked on my door. They remember, you know, the postcard that they got yesterday or the TV commercial that they saw this morning on Fox News. So, you know, I would tell any anyone that wants to go up against an incumbent, you better have five at least three million dollars in the bank in order to make a serious run at it. But it all needs to be a consolidated effort. You don't need five people in the race like we had. You know, you need to be able to get behind that one candidate and say, Okay, this is our candidate and this is our path going forward, and we're going to attack airwaves, We're going to attack mailboxes, We're going to knock on doors for one specific candidate. When you start to split the vote, then it just it muddies everything up and people are like, well, I don't know if I should vote for Dan or if I should vote for Airon. Well let me just oh with what I know, let me just both you know, bang bang fang, and so you know, then you get the results that he had.
00:58:07
Speaker 3: So Aaron, I do really respect you for taking a stand against Randy Fine's genocidal rhetoric, his islamophobia. But with Dan Baalzarian. It seems like the opposite side of the field. I'm reading a tweet from just July twenty eighth that says Jews are the problem. Everyone's fear of saying it out loud is what allows it to continue. So when you say that, oh, well, he just needed a haircut, he needed to look a little bit more like the Hollywood extra, was that really the main issue? Or was this race that decided between a candidate that hates Muslims and a candidate that seems to hate Jews.
00:58:47
Speaker 7: Well, and that's that's the whole point, you know. I mean, he needed to if he if he were going to get in this race, he needed to not say any of that stupid stuff that he says. But you know, he just can't help himself. So if you can't help yourself, then you need to get behind one consolidated candidate, which ideally, you know would have been me because I ran agaspying before. So I mean it made sense.
00:59:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, what what did you make of sort of you're talking about like the mailers that are going out advertisements. What did you make of sort of the media ecosystem? What was Randy Fine talking about? What was his campaign running on And how big of a role do you think that the Iran War and the subsequent inflation and cost of living as a result of that in Israel in general, how how big of a role did that play in this election?
00:59:40
Speaker 7: It didn't play any role at all. I mean people at the end of the day, people didn't seem to care. I mean, you have twenty or thirty percent of the electorate that care about affordability, which is what we talked about NonStop, or what I talked about NonStop. So you know, I mean there was forty three percent the electorate that wanted an alternative. But you know, forty three percent of the electorate is not enough, and it needs to be, Like I said, it needs to be a consolidated effort. And Randy Fine placed the victim card the entire time. If you look back to you know the picture that he posted of someone that had vandalized one of the signs spray painted a squastica on it. And the day after that news story came out, I called the supervisor of Elections in Flagler County and I said, where did this picture come from? This picture cannot exist because I was the one that found the campaign sign, and I was the one that went and got an election official to take the campaign sign down. And so then I was talking to one of the reporters at the Daytona Beach News Journal, which he followed up with the Supervisor of Elections. Well, it turns out they put the sign back in the ground in order to take a picture to send to Randy find So, I mean, you know, he's a victim. One oh one. Oh you know, look at me, poor me, poor me. Look at what they're doing to my campaign signs and it's staged.
01:01:06
Speaker 5: Is incredible?
01:01:08
Speaker 6: What what is appealing in any way, shape or form about Randy Fine in this in this district? I mean what, like, how can a guy like this win an election?
01:01:16
Speaker 3: Right?
01:01:17
Speaker 7: She got me beat on that one?
01:01:20
Speaker 3: Is it Trump? Is it the Trump endorsement?
01:01:22
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean just the just the Trump endorsement. I mean Trump won this district bout thirty points. So you know, Randy Fine has underperformed Trump at every single stage. Uh you know, I I other than Trump. That's that's what is His signs say Trump endorsed, Trump indorsed, Trump indorsed, Trump indors buying for Congress. And that's how he opens every uh, you know, every speech that he gives, and you know he has absolutely zero respect for the people here, which I had a lot of help behind the scenes from elected officials, but the officials didn't want to come out and say, oh, Aaron, you know, we'll support you publicly. You know, they're like, we can't stand this guy just because of the way he acts. You know, he walks into the building in Flagler County and you knows, snubs his nose at all of the county commissioners and they're like, well, why are we supporting this guy? You know, we'll be more than happy to help you behind the scenes, but no one wants to come out publicly for fear of retribution.
01:02:29
Speaker 5: And I get it, right, Yeah, that makes sense. And I guess let's say a hypothetically, wave of magic one, you had three to five million dollars running against Randy Fine, and your argument that you were making was amplified, and you had the money to go make this argument to more voters, have the conversation on more TV ads and mailers and that sort of thing. Can you just take us into what those conversations were like, because you mentioned there is an anti Fine sentiment but I'm also just curious as someone from the right saying, we shouldn't talking like this, we shouldn't be thinking like this, we shouldn't continue to send all of this aid. Did you find receptive audiences when you're having those conversations in person? Like, we're Republican voters, and I imagine because you got thirteen point five percent of the vote, some people were like, hell yeah, getting behind you. This is insane. What was that undercurrent? Like, like, how were people thinking about this on the right?
01:03:25
Speaker 7: I mean when I would talk to when I would speak to an audience, nine times out of ten they would say, Aaron, we're you know, we're behind you one hundred percent. You know, we agree with everything you're saying that. You know, the affordability is a major issue. We agree that social security has to be fixed in the next Congress. And these are things that Randy Fin's not talking about. He's talking about I'm Trump endorsed, I'm Trump endorsed, I'm Trump endorsed. Well, good luck after Trump's not here anymore. I have no idea what he's going to do and what about on Israel? It was really kind of a non issue, and I think from Dan's perspective, it turned off more voters than than it helped with him. If he had simply stuck to a message about, you know, kind of down the middle, about affordability, you know, and addressed it in a point of foreign aid and you know, helping seniors with Medicare costs and making sure that seniors did a cost of living increase every year, that would have been a much more receptive message, because you know, that's what I was saying. And basically he got about four percent more than me with you know, millions of dollars that he spent, so you know I was able to do the same the same thing, trying to run not far right, not extreme far other right, but you know, kind of down the center. So to your point, I think that if I had five million dollars, it would have been a very easy race.
01:04:57
Speaker 3: So, Aaron, you mentioned a little bit the circus of Dan Bulsarian showing up to a James Fishback campaign event, and I wanted your reaction to that as well. Now, of course, James Fishback is known as the Groyper candidate. He goes around talking to young man about goy slop. He was referring to his black opponent as Byron and he was going around attacking OnlyFans creators, saying that he was going to tax them and give money to teachers. He had what felt like an organic youth movement on the ground. He drew a lot of crowds, but pulling up some of the results here he got third place. He got about ten point five percent of the vote, coming in third behind j Collins and Byron Donalds, who actually won. What is your reaction to those results, Like, what does that tell you about the Florida electorate.
01:06:00
Speaker 7: Did a lot of different events with James. Before James announced, the two of us sat down together out of Starbucks and talked about, you know, his candidacy and my candidacy, and at that time I was supporting Jay Collins, and I you know, I told him I supporting Jay Collins and well, you know, if anything changes, you know, keep me in mind. And that's kind of where we left it. And then Jay Collins came out with this nonsense about you know, you can't say this, and you can't say this, and some of his kind of factual things behind the scenes about he has two kids, well he actually has three. Some of those things didn't set well with me, so it was very easy transition for me to then support James. However, in about April or May, I saw that it was going to need to be a consolidated effort against Byron. And I was with Paul Renner at an event in Saint Augustine, and you know why, I don't ask Paul, you know, this has to be some type of consolidated effort. And and no one would put on their big boy pants and you know, take one for the team. At that point, they all thought, well, you know, we're just gonna run our campaign. And it didn't work. The only way for to defeat Byron Donaldson the one hundred million dollars or two hundred million dollars or how many ever bazillion dollars he has in the bank now was going to have it was It needed to be a consolidated effort, and it wasn't happening.
01:07:36
Speaker 5: Yeah.
01:07:36
Speaker 3: Outside the consolidation, though, isn't there a moral character question to these candidates. I mean, he's been blatantly racist. You know, he's saying things like goy slop. I mean, he did have his stance about that was anti Israel that you know, connected to the youth. But did you not have any moral character concerns about either of these guys?
01:07:56
Speaker 7: Not really. I mean, you know, I think that James's heart was in it for the right reasons, and I think certainly Paul Renter's heart was in it for the right reasons. And you know, Jay Collins to a certain extent, you know, his heart was in it for the right reasons. But they needed to all sit down in the room and figure out you know, Okay, I'm going to be governor, and I'm going to be lieutenant governor, and I'm going to have this role in the administration. So you know, a lot of that rhetoric that happens in campaigns is just that, and you know, it happens in every campaign. Now, I mean to some a little more extreme than others. Yeah, but you know, at the same time, I think it shows that Byron's going to have a little bit of a tough time in the general election. I mean, most of the polls right now have him and Jolly virtually tied in the state that you know, Governor DeSantis won by twenty points. So we're going to see how all that plays out.
01:08:57
Speaker 5: I suppose just falling up on the fish point, I see him, you know, he's he's not Dan. Bill's aarian certainly, and I've actually known him. I talked about this on the show earlier this week for a long time and saw like basically a total personality transplant, which I found very odd. Like I've known him for probably five years, and as soon as he got into the race, he started to Griffin's point talking about goyslop and by Rone and all of those different things. And I guess, I, seriously, what you're saying about taking down Byron Donalds, who's a you know, not not the ideal candidate for Conservatives to represent Florida, no question about it. But I guess then it's like, at what cost do you try to defeat Byron Donalds and be you know, potentially David Jolly? Is it worth? Maybe? Is it worth? For my perspective? The answer would be no, like stoking racial resentments and using terms like goys slop? How did how did you think about that?
01:09:55
Speaker 7: Aaron? Well, it was I guess You're your point would be it's almost a toned down version of Dan where Dan came in like a wrecking ball and James came in to try to appeal to some of that's you know, over thirty five crowd, if you will, you know, at what point is is the argument worth it or is the you know, the rage bait click worth it. That's you know, that's a million dollar question. I mean, our race between me, Dan and Randy certainly turned very ugly at the end, and you know that's not something that I'm going to participate in. I'm not gonna you know, say anything that's not true. You know, I'll call you out for saying stupid stuff. And I certainly called Dan out for posting the wrong early voting dates and you know, just doing stupid stuff and not doing any campaign events or doing scheduling campaign events outside the district. But I think James tried to tried to craft a message that could possibly appeal to the over thirty five crowd, but just really didn't that much.
01:11:16
Speaker 5: And some people would say that as like sneaky trying to sneak in bigotry. Did you have those concerns?
01:11:25
Speaker 7: I just kind of rolled with the punches, and you know, most of the time, Yeah, there were certain things that James said along the way, and you know, I would be sitting in the room and he was certainly playing to the audience. You know, if you for example, we were in Tampa and there were the seating capacity in the room was six hundred and the room was completely full and the fire marshal wouldn't let people in, so I know that there were at least seven hundred and fifty people there. But you know, I mean, he's really playing to the audience, you know when he talks about goy slot and and all and all that, and you know, it's it's all in it's all in good fun. I do think that James has a future in the Republican Party, and I think that you know, he has a huge following now he received one hundred and seventy thousand votes. That's nothing to sneeze at.
01:12:17
Speaker 5: Okay, last I was gonna say last last question on that, Aaron, I'm sorry to keep doing the fish back there. It's just when you say it's all in good fun, is it really fun? Is that like the kind of fun that you want to get behind if it's again Byron trying to play up like racial stereotypes, those sorts of things.
01:12:34
Speaker 3: So our Emily's our resident woke.
01:12:37
Speaker 7: But yeah, I think I think in the end I did vote for I did vote for James. In the end, I think James would have made a really good lieutenant governor, but that lieutenant governor would have had to have been if Paul Renner were at the top of the ticket. I think that two of those were saying the same thing. However, Paul is expert at crafting his message where you know, he's talking about Christian values. You know, I didn't really have. There were some cringe moments where I'm like, this is not going to go over well for the over fifty five crowd, and you know, we saw that. You know, we did an event in the villages where you have six hundred and fifty people show up on a college campus in Tampa, and you have twenty people show up in the villages.
01:13:32
Speaker 3: Wow, Yeah, that's that's crazy. It's like the college for old people. So Aaron, always exciting stuff happening down in Florida, one of my favorite states. Thank you so much for coming on, and we look forward to seeing where you and the Florida Republican Party go next.
01:13:49
Speaker 5: Appreciate it.
01:13:50
Speaker 7: Always a pleasure, Thank you, sir.
01:13:52
Speaker 5: Thanks Ared.
01:13:53
Speaker 3: Okay, let's round out this amazing Friday show with my favorite part, as always the AMA question. So now this first one, let's get spicy right off the top, guys. That's from Matthew C. Could there be a coherent defund the police and anti flock coalition? Would Sager be convinced, Emily, what do you?
01:14:13
Speaker 5: What do you?
01:14:14
Speaker 3: What do you make of that question?
01:14:15
Speaker 12: Wait?
01:14:16
Speaker 5: Repeat it because my headphones went up.
01:14:17
Speaker 3: Briefly, Matthew C is asking could there be a coherent defund the police plus anti flock coalition? So I think what they're saying is that it seems like anti flock is very popular. Could that somehow be parlayed into a conversation about defunding the police?
01:14:34
Speaker 5: I mean, certainly, on like an intellectual level, you can make that case. That's basically like the libertarian party or like some anarcho communists, well maybe some of Yeah, some of the anarcho communists probably, and they tend to hang in libertarian circles already have have made that case convincingly. But could you make it cohe a coherent case to the public about that. That's a question I would maybe turn back to you guys, like in urban areas, could you reinvigorate the defund the police movement with the Flock movement as a launching pad. It's not going to bring in a broad coalition of Americans who are generally supportive of the police, very sensitive about things like flock, very sensitive about militarized policing. You're not going to get, you know, broad support across America, which has a lot of like dare I say, libertarian instincts for things like militarized police. That was one of the one of the narratives that came out of the Ferguson protests is like, after a rock, we're flooding all these local policing units with military capabilities. But on the other hand, I don't know, do you think so. I don't think you're ever going to get like a broad coalition of Americans. But in some cities, could you reinvigorate defund with Flock? I mean I think so.
01:15:51
Speaker 6: To me, I've always been a defund the police guy, and I know that it's not like a popular sort of like movement at this point, but I never really understood why it was so controversial. To me, it's the same argument as you know, why I think we should be defunding the Pentagon, right, It's that the baseline budget that we have and the baseline equipment that we have for police in the United States of America, I mean like there's some localities or cities in this country that have higher police budgets than most countries' military budgets. I mean it, it is completely out of control the amount that we're spending on police and on mass surveillance and so called security, like those resources could and should be reallocated towards more effective I think, like community and social program So to me, the argument for defund the police has always been very straightforward and convincing. But in terms of the pushback to Flock, what worries me about it is that I think there's a large component of it that people are upset that it's a private company that's sort of acting in as this intermediary. I don't know if there would be the same energy if it was just you know, straight up police cameras that were effectively doing the same thing. But the threat is the same, like the threat of mass surveillance, the threat of you know, this sort of like pre crime approach that's there. Whether it's a private company like Flock that's contracting with the police or whether it's the uh, the police, or the government in and of itself. So I hope I hope that it, you know, we could make some sort of a pairing there. I also, by the way, I've heard online that apparently there's something's happening on Halloween. I'm not gonna say too much about it, but apparently Halloween is the dflock night because people are dressed up in Yes, yes, there's gonna be a big deal because everybody's dressed up in costumes, and so you have sort of like, you know, crowds of people and everybody's sort of like covering up their identity. So we could see a big dflock movement in a couple of months here coming up.
01:17:45
Speaker 3: All right, keep your eyes on that, everybody, all right? This this next one is for Emily Wait where did it go? Okay? This is from Raphae Aldamien. Question for our resident religious expert, Miss Jashinsky. Donald J. Trump doesn't seem to be a pious man, people are saying, but he has recently made or marks that people interpret as religious, most notably that grass grass has life like human grass, it's got life like humans. Is he a secret Buddhist? And what are your thoughts on his comments?
01:18:18
Speaker 5: Someone someone posted the funniest thing about this.
01:18:21
Speaker 3: Says so many things. I miss some of the best ones.
01:18:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's some incredible ones. Okay, So this guy, Logan McMillan on X posted this is the third time Trump has said that grass has quote life like humans. He is close to embracing the truth, the Buddha like nature of all things, and rejecting the false binary of sentience slash Incentians.
01:18:43
Speaker 3: You know, is fucking up the White House lawn and He's like, oh, it looked better when there was grass.
01:18:48
Speaker 5: There is he and he's been thinking about grass a lot because of that, because of the National Mall, which is having grass issues. But he I don't think this is the wealve. I don't think Bodh is the well from which these thoughts spring. I don't think anybody can know the source of Trump's musings on grass. I am and I think that's the beauty of it. Right. It remains enigmatic. We'll never get to the bottom of what Trump thinks about anything. Frankly, it is funny though, like some of his random he will just get on a random tear about something like remember when it was Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. He posted like ten tweets telling Robert Pattin said to leave Kristen Stewart in like twenty.
01:19:32
Speaker 3: Twelve, he was right to do so because they're both much happier.
01:19:35
Speaker 5: You know, he's right about the grass too, apparently.
01:19:37
Speaker 3: I think it's one of those late in life things, right, Mac, Like you know, he's he's he's seen the sunset of his life and he's coming in tune. Well, but it's also weird because he's he's had previous statements sort of alluding to like heaven and hell, right that he's not going that he's not going to heaven, which is also interesting because it's like, well, if you believe in hell, like, wouldn't you be like trying to redeem yourself in the final wake of your or he's just he's given up at this point.
01:20:04
Speaker 5: He's he's set and going to hell. But this is the beauty of it again, it's like we will never know. We can we can talk, we can speculate, but there's no answer.
01:20:16
Speaker 3: Okay, Final one, Mac, This is from Hockey. What if the Establishment forces two zion Is candidates upon us for president of twenty twenty eight.
01:20:29
Speaker 5: Well, they're definitely, They're they're definitely going to try to I.
01:20:33
Speaker 6: You know, when you look at the slate of candidates, well, I mean, obviously the Republican candidate is going to be a Zionist. I don't think that's even in question. I mean, most likely at this point it's going to be jd or Mark Rubio, one of the two, or Fish apparently or fishback or Nick Fuentes or whatever else the universe throws at us. But on the Democratic side, I just I'm nervous right now because I don't know who could be the real who has the charisma, who has the sort of energy, the capability to really be an insurgent like Bernie style or Bernie level caliber of candidate.
01:21:12
Speaker 3: Like it doesn't seem like he's gonna it doesn't seem like it's gonna AOC twenty eight. It seems to be spy circling the drain right now.
01:21:18
Speaker 6: So I don't think, yeah, it probably won't be AOC. It could be if Abdul wins, you know, and he he really locks in and like focuses on becoming a real national figure over the next couple of years, it could be somebody like Abdul. You got other people like Rocanna that are in there, but you know, Rocana is not even an anti Zionist.
01:21:34
Speaker 9: There.
01:21:34
Speaker 6: There really are very few anti Zionists truly, Like Bernie Sanders is not an anti Zionist. Like there's very very few anti Zionist. Uh, you know, high level politicians that could run in twenty twenty eight. So Hockey was his name. Apologies, but I think that's like almost an inevitability. Well you said Hockey.
01:21:55
Speaker 3: I thought you were giving a cute nickname to Jeffries. No, No, I'm just I think it's almost an inevitability that it well, yeah, exactly.
01:22:06
Speaker 6: I think I think it's an inevitability that it will be a to some extent a Zionist candidate. But the question then is like how do politicians like Kamala Harris or you know, John Ossoff, like where do they position themselves in regard to Israel? Because you could have a Zionist candidate who also is willing to restrict weaponry to Israel or who is you know, willing to change the dynamic of that relationship. And I think that's that's more so going to be where the test is okay.
01:22:34
Speaker 3: Much to think about, much to look forward to, much to dread. Everybody keep their eyes on grass this weekend. You might find some inspiration in your own life. Everyone, go follow after Party with Emily Joshinski. Go check out Good Politic Guy Max channel. He grinds as well, and the links to that will be a description, And most importantly, follow me on Instagram dot com Breaking Points. We'll be back on Monday. Thank you all so much, and have a lovely weekend. We'll see you later.
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here.
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00:00:30
Speaker 3: Good morning, everyone, it's other Breaking Points Friday, and I'm here with my two favorite co hosts on Fridays. We've got one after party host, Emily Jashinski and we've got mister goodpolitic guy with Collie Holmes here. What's going on over the rare appearance?
00:00:48
Speaker 4: We love it.
00:00:49
Speaker 3: Crystal is sending her child to college. Very emotional for her. She's probably in tears right now. And old Chris okay, okay, all right, I'm not touching that. And Ryan, I have no idea where Ryan is bless you. I have no idea where Ryan is. Do you guys know whe Ryan is?
00:01:12
Speaker 5: I don't either. I thought he was in San Francisco. He was sending us pictures from San Francisco. So I'm gonna go with that's where he is. But it's hard to say at any given moment, it's hard to say. It's like Carmen San Diego.
00:01:22
Speaker 3: Where in the world is Ryan san Francisco. So let's get to the show, big show, more econ news. Those US Treasury bonds that we love to hear about are sliding. Emily's gonna talk about that. I personally have been digging deep into a lustful romance friendship, something more between one Miss Natalie Harp, the assistant to our beautiful President Donald Trump, excited to get into that. Mac is taking a look at Van Jones, who is out to do some debunking about videos in Gaza. We'll see how well his debunking goes. And finally, Emily, who is our.
00:02:02
Speaker 5: Guest that we have here today, Well, we have Aaron Baker on the show. It's a name you might remember because Aaron joined us last year. He decided to primary Randy Fine from the right, and we're gonna talk to him about how that race shook out. He ended up having to run against Dan Bulzarian and Randy Fine, but also we're gonna talk to him a bit about his support for James fishback. So it's gonna be I think it's gonna be a somewhat I don't know, spicy conversation, Griffin Darren, Emily went woke.
00:02:34
Speaker 6: Yeah, not to spoil too much, but Emily has gone fully woke.
00:02:37
Speaker 5: Yeah that's right, well woke, general woke three point zero. I'll be leading the charge.
00:02:43
Speaker 3: Mm hmm. Yes, you're gonna discharge Kyle Kolinsky from the position. All right, but let's get to the news. Why don't we start with our favorite econ guy, Scott Besson, who spoke to who spoke to the crowd about a spike in oil prices. Let's take a quick listen to that.
00:03:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, look, anything that happens within a twenty four hour period his noise. And you know, I think that once the market understands that we are focusing on physical consolidation and that we are trying to bring the market back into equilibrium in a thinly traded market, I think, you know, I'm confident that bonds will continue declining. We've got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand. You know, our announcement is for economic action, and I think that the economic action will mean that oil prices will come down sooner.
00:03:42
Speaker 3: So Emily, what do you make of that? Because obviously we know the bravest thing that you can do as a man is to admit that you don't know something.
00:03:49
Speaker 5: Did you see people comparing that to a Parks and rec moment. We don't really know where the spike is coming from.
00:03:54
Speaker 3: No, I missed that the.
00:03:56
Speaker 5: Treasury secretary, so he was also on c NBC, And I'm just going to read a bit here from the chief Economics correspondent in the Wall Street Journal's summary of that. He says Treasury se Pessant discussed the decision to make a surprise change to debt management, uh warning or He said markets weren't properly pricing fundamentals, warranting a more activist approach. This is all what played out yesterday. He also said plans for fiscal consolidation are forthcoming. So this is Beson's quote on CNBC. We're trying to signal that we think this is a thinly traded area of the market that we're in August, and there's been a lot of corporate issuance that's influenced the market, and we believe that there are many underlying factors in turn, that the market is not looking at, and we're going to make a market in these We believe that these deals don't reflect the underlying fundamentals. So that's what he's repeating over and over again. Goes on to say, people have bad information. I have asymmetric information. So I think the market should think, well, why would we have joined the Japanese in the intervention at this time? Do we know something the market doesn't know that in terms of being willing to do to do you know what I would call treasury twist. So now we have the treasury twist here in terms of the bond market. What do I know that the market doesn't know? So I think the market's probably gotten a little ahead of itself. A lot of people not much to do in August. I'm going to read from CNBC here just this morning, looking at treasury yields rebounding in the headline, wiping out the decline following Besson's intervention. So They say bond yields climbed on Thursday, coming back from the pullback they saw the previous day after the Treasury Department announced an intervention aimed at easing pressure on longer dated government debt. And let's just pause there as well, because one of the things we talked to Jeff Stein about earlier in the week is that Donald Trump, when he did Liberation Day back in April twenty twenty five, one of the things that actually the one thing that had him willing to release some of the pressure that Liberation Day applied globally was that he saw the bond markets get quote a little yippie. So just everyone download that in their mind. Trump does care a lot about this, as he should. And CNBC goes on to say yields on ten year US Treasuries, the main benchmark for mortgages, auto loans, and credit card debt, moved more than five basis points higher to four point seven percent. The yield level was above the level it held before the eight thirty am announcement Wednesday the Treasury would be stepping up its bond buyback program. The yield on the thirty year Treasury bond, the primary focus of the accelerated buyback was up more than five basis points at five point two four eight percent. The yield on the two year treasury note was last seen was last seen up less than one basis point at around four point one to eighty five percent. CNBC says the moves underscored the difficulty of market interventions, particularly at a time when US debt faces a slew of factors that have been pressuring yields higher. Now he announced made that announcement Wednesday morning that they're going to double the size of the government debt buybacks starting on September ninth and then running through November four. You know, this is Scott Besson at his like this is his favorite thing to do. Basically, like this is is the strategy.
00:07:08
Speaker 6: Is the strategy just to try to gaslight the market into not accepting the fundamentals of like what's actually underlying the market itself. It sounds like he's just trying to because you have compounding factors of you know, US national debt just hit forty trillion dollars, you have the Iran war that's driving you know, inflation higher than it otherwise would have been. You know, you have the tariffs and the rebounding effects of that. All of this is like coinciding with this bond crisis. And he's basically saying no, no, no, I know things that like the market doesn't not, So just like just trust the process. We have this fully under control.
00:07:46
Speaker 3: Yes, and the dead buy back, I mean with the dead buyback, he's basically like using Klarna at this point right to like pay off our American debt. He's using loans to buy more debt.
00:07:58
Speaker 5: Well, here's how Shift reacted said he said. Besson said, the free market is mispricing long term bond yield. So he wants to use the superior judgment and power of central government planners to correct the mistakes of capitalism. Good thing we didn't elect a democratic socialist president. So it's an attack on best there from the right saying listen, what you're going to do is correct the markets pricing from the central government. And so yeah, you could call it gas lighting, or you could call it having access to asymmetric information MAC and you are working with the symmetric information.
00:08:33
Speaker 7: Right.
00:08:33
Speaker 5: So obviously on Thursday, Brent Crude, do we have this tear street? Brent Crude went up to ninety four to sixty a barrel, That is its highest since July twenty fourth, drop Site reported pulled back down to about ninety three dollars a barrel. Oil drop Site reports has now risen for five straight sessions as trader's price in tighter Middle East supply and the risk of further escalation. Yeah, you just saw that on the screen, So yeah, it is. I was.
00:09:00
Speaker 6: I was told that the straight of four Moves is completely the free and open for transit, right, and the fifty first state and the fifty first state that Trump has now taken control of.
00:09:10
Speaker 5: There was a meme going around. I don't remember. I think it was real. I think someone, Oh, yeah, it was that. What was the guy who like, as soon as Charlie was killed last year, the Brin says name Brin Bryn Brint Hollyhand. He was like, if we can rename the Gulf of Mexico the Golf of America, why don't we call it the Strait of America. So something could be in the works on that point.
00:09:31
Speaker 3: We're not something to there. We've got another clip from Beston here about jobs. Do we should we play that?
00:09:36
Speaker 5: Yeah, let's roll.
00:09:37
Speaker 3: Let's roll that one, all right, because he's he's not, because he's bringing asymmetric warfare to all sorts of the parts of our economy, including the job market. Let's take a listen.
00:09:50
Speaker 8: You know, I just wanted to get your read on the economy as we see oil prices marching higher again, we have seen tremendous resilience, as you noted from the consumer, but there are signs that the job mark maybe cracking a little bit. Got a week job job report last month. I'm curious about your assessment as to how much we can handle all of this.
00:10:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think the jobs numbers are quite noisy. And again, sir that the other thing that's important too is like the jobs that we're seeing are going to Americans after the deportations that we've seen during President Trump's administration and the closing of the border. That like that this unfettered migration, we don't need to produce as many jobs.
00:10:32
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, from from yippie to noisy.
00:10:37
Speaker 5: I want to just say, like, Scott Beston is obviously a serious person, because we're in what sense we're kind of clowning on him for these ridiculous quotes, but in the sense that like he's a mastermind behind the scenes like this is he knows a lot of this like the back of his hands, to the except anybody can. And so all that is to say he's a seriou person to the extent that like he is a deep student of the markets. He understands, you know, to the extent that somebody can. And this is part of the problem what happens in these spaces. And he is now I think, having the time of his life engineering it from the background. Like that's what I was saying when I'm like, this is Scott Besson in his favorite position, like he is loving this. I feel like you can see that he is loving this because he gets to play act as like the mastermind behind the scenes. Now I'm looking at as is Jeff Cox writing in CNBC saying that Besson's interventions hasn't worked. We're talking about let me, we're talking about if I'm remembering the number correctly here, Uh, he confirmed as much as four billion dollars. Let me just pull this up for dollars of what Yeah, So he's he confirmed that the size of the buybacks could exceed for billion dollars four billion dollars, and so Cox then writes it's not working. He says, basically, not all the factors that play are fundamental. They include rising competition from corporate bond issuance, like Bessett said, as well as suddenly attractive fields of other sovereigns, including Japan, a correlation with oil prices that in turn increases inflation fears, and increasing term premiums or the extra yield investors are demanding. He says. To combat those problems, Bessett could seek cooperation with the Federal Reserve because guess who's at the Federal Reserve now? Kevin warsh but has said that the two entities Bessett has said the two entities quote would work together in dealing with complications in the bond markets and as the central bank manages its own treasury holdings. He quotes somebody who's the chief credit officer at Moody's saying there's also been a structural shift in who buys US government debt as central banks shrink their balance sheets and traditional duration buyers reach the limits of how much additional issuance they can absorb. New buyers, such as leveraged hedge funds. That's Beson's background running relative value strategies are playing a bigger role. So what they really need, frankly, is an end to the war more than anything else. And that's like the most obvious point. There are deeper underlying problems. They still have a terrorf regime lest we forget. Yes, the Supreme Court overturned some tariffs, but they do still have a terrorf regime in play. That is economically well, I was gonna say risky, but it's influential in terms of all of this. But the war itself, with what it's doing to oil prices, is what they need to have an end to, and they have absolutely no end to it. And now people in DC are saying, well, Besson is more important than heg Sath, Like that's the line. I think it was a political playbook yesterday that Besson is now more important than heg Seth because he's trying to give Trump room to deal with this economic fallout from his purche at treasury. And it's like, good luck, because the one thing that you need to do is actually just get back to the pre war status quo in the straight of horror moves and you will be in a wildly different position. Good luck with that, though, because there's right Iran knows that we have elections coming up. Iran knows that's important to Trump and Republicans, and you're in this mess of your own making.
00:14:18
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, that's what this all comes down to at the end of the day, right is that you have this memorium of understanding and then it sort of fell apart. It was sort of like I would consider it to be somewhat of a surrender document. Kind of rightfully so, given the fact that we, I think, by any stretch of the imagination, didn't win this war, but they've ended up in a situation now where a couple of days ago, Trump is posting this, you know image we controlled the straight of horor moves. He says, there's no talks with Iran that are even on the table right now, So there is there's not even a hypothetical off ramp or a long term resolution to this into the future. And so I'm looking at Scott Bessen and like, you know, he may be knowledgeable on what he on the markets and how they function at a base level, but like, what is he supposed to do if they've been completely backed into a corner? And Trump at this point has made the entirety of this war about control over the straight of horror moves and is unwilling to make any of the concessions that would be necessary to actually end the war. I mean, we've been backed into a corner at this point. It just it reeks of desperation.
00:15:20
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, I think desperation is a good word for.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: That, and I think asymmetric is the best word though the way.
00:15:26
Speaker 5: It is the best word, it is the best word. But what I was gonna say is this is why, Well, Okay, so Bessont understands to max point, Yeah, Bessett understands this world. But he also again, just to emphasize, Chrison and I were talking about this with Japan, like his Japanese intervention, it's something that had happened before, but with him, I just feel like he really relishes this role of playing like global economic mastermind. And uh, again, it doesn't matter. I mean, I guess it matters a lot. But until you end the war, you're going to see these problems ripple throughout the rest of the economy. And it doesn't That wouldn't make the rest of the problems go away, but it would put us in a situation where you're not seeing this insanity. And yet that's the one problem that's the intractable problem in all of this, and so he's trying to work with what he has, but he can't change that.
00:16:30
Speaker 3: Well, Emily, you mentioned sanity, which I think leads us to our next segment, because what is more insane than young love? Of course, I'm referring to one miss Natalie Harp. Now, there's been a lot of stuff this week coming out about Trump's aid Natalie Harp and the extent of their relationship. Some of the hits that have been coming out across the week are that there is a very strong physical proximity to the president from this one Natalie. There has been reports that she once slept in a locker room. She spent a summer sleeping in a locker room at Trump's Bedminister golf club to remain close to him after she was denied a room. There was another story about her hopping into the trunk of a motorcade car so she could remain near the president, sort of a Looney Tunes amount of action with her chasing after the president. There was another story where they were on a golf course and she wasn't allowed into one of the golf carts, so she ended up jogging feverishly behind to catch up with the golf cart brigade. And there have also been reports of letters that she leaves the President. She is known as his human printer, the one that actually writes the amazing truth social posts that we all read and report on the Show of Day. He dictates them, He dictates them out loud, and then she types the griffin and sends them. He dictates them out. And so I wanted to give a taste of who this person is from her own words, from some of her time on OA, and to get a little flavor. And then I want to read one of these letters to the president.
00:18:19
Speaker 5: Well, and we should just to set this up if people haven't been following this. Basically, this kicked off because of that Washington Post report that Trump left Air Force One, including Secretary of Saint Marco Rubio, the Press Corps, and many of his own staffers because of what we now know, according to the reports, was a piece of Israeli intelligence that a surface at air missile on the ground in Ancora could potentially take down Air Force One. Our intelligence services didn't judge it as serious a serious threat Trump anyway, we don't know if it was because of Secret Service or Trump himself goes on leaves Air Force One and takes Natalie Harp with him as one of the few pace people that were taken from Air Force One onto the catering truck and making the escape, and so that kicked off this latest wave. Senator John Osoff goes in, gives this big viral speech and says Trump would rather be Yeah, let's let's rock it.
00:19:15
Speaker 9: And while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves. The President sleeps through his meetings, he golfs and trade stops. So he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.
00:19:45
Speaker 3: Wow.
00:19:46
Speaker 5: Wow, So the osof said this particular I think Jensaki pushed him on it, and Osov said this particular aid has been referred to as his security blanket and the like, and the right freaked o. Scott Jennings freaked out and was saying, that's like a very unbecoming of a Senator, how do you pick on Natalie Harp, who is a She does genuinely attribute Trump to surviving cancer because he did what's called right to try in his first administration. Yes, and that did allow her to have access to experimental cancer treatments that can actually change people's lives and can it's it's a.
00:20:22
Speaker 3: Good thing, but which also doctors have pushed back on saying that those drugs, the drugs that helped her were actually already available. Perhaps, but she has connected it to his right to try.
00:20:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't see that. That made me. She does et no, no, but you're right she does. She is the one who connects it directly, so that her brother went on I think CNN with Aaron Burnett and said, that's exactly what it is. She attributes that to Trump. And these rumors about her had been circulating for a while because she is really close to the president, and we'd heard previously about notes that had found their way I think into the presidential bedroom, and so it had been under the surface, but then because of the Washington Post report on leaving Air Force One, it exploded to a major story this week. So with all of that said, Griffin, this little explanation of who Natalie Harve is. She was previously a one American news network anchor, ended up working in the White House, has been with Trump ever since. Let's roll it.
00:21:20
Speaker 3: Let's hear from our own words for a second.
00:21:22
Speaker 10: We can't talk about winning back the House and Senate in twenty twenty two and the White House in twenty twenty four if we don't act on the fact that we actually did win the White House and the Senate in twenty twenty.
00:21:35
Speaker 5: We shouldn't be afraid to.
00:21:36
Speaker 10: Say that, because it's true.
00:21:38
Speaker 11: We the people know America as we know it could be ending in the next two or four years. Oh wow, that is exactly what President Trump is warning of. They think if they can get President Trump, they can get the seventy five million people to shut up and stand down. And then, as President Trump said at Seapac yesterday, each of us, if we haven't already have a decision to make twenty twenty two at the ballot box, but right here and right now, to choose a side. And by the way, sidelines don't count.
00:22:08
Speaker 3: Sidelines do not count. Mac What is it like this?
00:22:11
Speaker 5: Can I just make a little quip here? It's like the joke news segment that thirty Rock would run, Like you know what I mean, It's like if you did a thirty Rock cutaway, like making fun of segments like this. It watches exactly like that.
00:22:25
Speaker 3: Oh h definitely always reached to me as the thing that's on TV in the movie, like it's the fake news show in the movie. But Mac, what are we to make of this is the is how they first became so connected over the stop to steal thing.
00:22:41
Speaker 6: I mean, the cancer thing that you said makes a lot more sense to me because and I was talking to Griffin earlier about this, Like she really does come across in the letters that she's put out in the behavior of chasing him down the golf course, like she wrote a whole letter apologizing for her behavior, like I'm so sorry if I embarrassed you or whatever. It really is like she's in a cult and Trump is just her personal savior. So it does like track on the cancer thing if she credits him with like saving her life or whatever. But it's just bizarre, man, Like this is some of the strangest stuff I've ever seen, because even you see it in like the cabinet meetings, right, like everybody understands that Trump kind of wants everybody to like jerk him off in these cabinet meetings, and they go around the table and everybody like praises him in their own little way. Marco Rubio, pete hegseth, you're the greatest president ever. You've stopped eight hundred wars whatever else. But this is like a true believer. Like I don't think necessarily that Marco Rubio believes it when he's sucking up to Trump. This is somebody who was like fully drank the kool aid. This is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ here. Yeah, well, do we have the letters?
00:23:46
Speaker 5: Because the Daily Beast says, yeah, pull these up so people can see exactly what Max's talking about.
00:23:50
Speaker 3: And Emily, do you have like some sultry piano or maybe like a saxophone you could play while I read this, all right? You could also just sing this is the this is the letter, dear mister President. I'm sorry. I thought I was the only one left behind last night and had no idea. Margo's car was also pulled over and sent back to the airport. Since I was alone in the van outside customs without my passport, I panicked and should have just called Secret Service instead of you. I also am sorry if I was an embarrassment walking the course in Scotland. The first day, I was told there were no carts and people walked, which is why I walked. The second day, I was specifically asked by I forgot who his name was, but one of the main people who worked there if I could continue walking and tell any other girls who had head out there to do the same, to spare the course any more carts. If there's anything else I've done to cause you trouble, please forgive me. I know that some people have said I haven't been texting them back, and there have been some international cell issues. John was having technical issues on the plane too. I want things to always be right between us. I also know that I've been distracted all week forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep and only catching a couple hours at a time. I haven't been myself dwelling on the past and the pain of losing my dad, and I started letting the remarks of people who haven't bothered me before get to me. Not because I care what others think, because I see myself being lowered in your eyes and good opinion. That is the fear you see because I never want to bring you anything but joy. I'm sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don't want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my guardian and protect her in this life. That's what I wanted to use this card for. When you saw me at the cash register and once again did what you didn't have to do and gifted me with the mementos of this trip of a lifetime, a coming of age. I will return a better person. I have to sign off now as the cars are leaving. See you soon with all my heart.
00:25:49
Speaker 5: Real Natalie, And did you notice she uses caps? I mean the viewers might not be able to see this, but she uses capitalizations in a Trumpian style. Yeah, aping him and I think this reminds me a lot of something that I found I shouldn't probably say this, but I found this in Max stuff. The rest directed to Sager Ma's.
00:26:13
Speaker 6: That's true, that's exactly so those were my guards, my protector in this.
00:26:18
Speaker 5: Life, capital p protector.
00:26:22
Speaker 3: But it reminds me of that woman that was dating the like basketball like billionaire guy who's like I'm his little rabbit. Remember that clip, I'm his little bunny and not important.
00:26:34
Speaker 5: I listen, Griffin, I know you're really big into sports, but yeah, just Dodgers had on. Well, so let's get into the sour sale a little bit here, because these were given to Michael wolf and Michael Wolfe's reporting ranges from insane like not true establishment TMZ worse. He he admits to like completely making things up. Basically that sometimes he dramatizes. Yeah, and that's if you're purporting to be a journalist. That means that you're often writing fiction. So anyway, all this to say, this is an actual copy of a letter, and Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman in their book reported on some of these letters as well and said that they were being left in Trump's personal spaces. So from conversations that I have had about all of this, everybody thinks this is weird. You know, everybody circled the wagons around Natalie Harp this week and defended her vociferously. Nobody knows, Honestly, nobody knows what's really happening, if it's more than just this emotional fawning from Natalie Harp, which I think is perfectly plausible, like top aids do get access to the living space at the White House because they're working as soon as the President gets up and probably as the president's going to bed, So it's not unheard of that staff would be in the residence. And that could be quote unquote personal spaces. And it could totally be on a one way love of right like Trump is, he prizes loyalty. Here you have somebody who's a little weird and has this deep emotional connection to him, credits him with saving her life and knows that he loves loyalty and loves people who faonnel over him and plays to that and has perfectly reasonable access to the residents. Or it could be not that, which is the implication, And I honestly have no idea. I don't think that people who are in like Trump circles don't have any idea.
00:28:30
Speaker 3: There's no way that there is a full blown sexual interaction happening, which some are alleging. I mean, there's no way. I think it's a little bit more when nurse a nurse caretaker situation than a sexual I mean, there's just no way that Trump, at his current shape and age can even physically perform. Yeah, I mean he's he's a shape that's never been invented before. Like, I just don't see there need to be like a nuclear reactor amount of blue chee to make that happened. So I think it's something a little bit sadder. I think it's still clear.
00:29:04
Speaker 6: Well, what's even the saddest part about this is that there's like a zero percent chance Trump read that letter in the first place, right, Like there's no shot.
00:29:15
Speaker 5: Well, because somehow it got to Michael Wolfe, which tells me that someone else intercepted it and was leaking it to the press.
00:29:21
Speaker 3: Michael Wolfe has also reported that Milania was not seen on the twenty twenty four campaign race with Trump because she did not like Natalie's proximity. Malania did actually come out yesterday to give a public speech at the White House for the first time. Maybe she's feeling some of the heat from this story, But there was some defenders of Natalie and people who were very aghast at John Assaf's cruel caddie remarks, and of course Mac watchs your reaction to this. Our favorite CNN panelist, Scott Jennings, who was challenged on his attacks on us off. Let's all take a listen to that.
00:30:05
Speaker 12: Go ahead, him, just play it, because there's just such a long history of this Trump punching down, insulting women.
00:30:12
Speaker 9: Let's just play it, never complaining about it.
00:30:14
Speaker 5: You've called women you don't like, fat pigs, dogs, slop and disgusting animals.
00:30:23
Speaker 8: O'donald, But what we want to do is to replenish such.
00:30:27
Speaker 3: A nasty one.
00:30:28
Speaker 9: You are a worst reporter.
00:30:30
Speaker 3: No one to see she in.
00:30:31
Speaker 5: It has no.
00:30:32
Speaker 9: Ratings because of people like you.
00:30:34
Speaker 3: You know, she's a young woman.
00:30:35
Speaker 9: I don't think I've ever seen you smile.
00:30:37
Speaker 7: I've known you for ten years.
00:30:39
Speaker 9: I don't think I've ever seen a smile.
00:30:51
Speaker 12: Quiet piggy, I mean, Scott Dan was pretty straightforward. If you're going to be outraged over m traveling on a plane with Natalie, are you going to be outraged over all those things?
00:31:04
Speaker 5: I do not believe in demeaning women in any way?
00:31:07
Speaker 7: Number one. Number two was.
00:31:12
Speaker 5: The president and the issue the issue, the issue I had with this?
00:31:16
Speaker 7: Are you outraged or.
00:31:19
Speaker 5: The issue? Are the issue I had with this?
00:31:22
Speaker 7: Natalie Harp is not a public figure. She has that has no.
00:31:34
Speaker 3: All right, well, that's the incredible moderation at CNN where you can't hear a single thing mac Is Natalie Harp a private purpose? That's what I was.
00:31:47
Speaker 6: I'm so confused by that, Like what do you mean she's a top age She's constantly making public appearances with him, Like in what way is she and she can't defend herself Like this is it's insane. I mean the hypocrisy angle of it, obviously, like the it's obvious you don't even really need to make that point. Scott isn't gonna, you know, admit any of that.
00:32:05
Speaker 5: At the end of the day.
00:32:06
Speaker 6: I guess I'm just sort of like I watched the John Ossoff clip and if anything, I'm like he could have gone way harder, Like what is the outrage meter for the Republicans getting upset about this? Because like what was actually offensive about what he said? It was like kind of a vague implication of like maybe there's something going on there, but like, Okay, Trump says worse on an average Tuesday, what are we talking about?
00:32:30
Speaker 5: I think it so the only thing I would disagree with on that, Like it's it's glaringly hypocritical from Scott Jennings. Laughable all of that, I think it might be a tiny problem for us off in the same way that some of this was a problem for Biden. Not a massive problem, but there's a I guess, a broader issue if you are campaigning and this is where actually some of the dark Woke gets it right, if you're campaigning on restoring American civility and norms, and then it's not so much like everyone has low expectations. I think at this point of the people who defend Trump but as off, if you're trying to like take the when they go low, we go high route and go above what you say are the bad standards and expectations, and then you do stuff like this, it makes people be like, oh, come on, man, Like which one is it? Like we either have to go gloves off or you have to like you can't have it both ways. And I think that's where just politically, not morally, but politically, I think that's a little bit of an issue, like you have to choose a lane, like you either have to go full gloves off or like who's a good example of something? Well S is probably a good example of that. Yeah, he's a good example.
00:33:44
Speaker 3: He's a little sassy's side of gloves off.
00:33:47
Speaker 5: I think he's sort of dark woke, yeah at this point, right, But I mean you got to go one way or the other.
00:33:51
Speaker 6: I get your point, Emily, but I also think there's almost no appetite for the you know, they go low, we go high attitude anymore with the Democratic voter base. Like it's at this point, it's, you know, everybody's saying fuck it, you know whatever, We've we've had eight years of a Trump presidency, term one, term two, Like there are no standards anymore. And even you know, to the return to civility, I don't that's not something that I personally care about. But like even if you are quote unquote dark woke or you're a little bit edgy or your gloves off from like a democratic politician perspective, that's still going to be like infinitely more civility based than what we're getting from the Trump administration. Like it's almost unfathomable to think of a democratic version of Donald Trump that is as brash and you know, upfront about just being kind of an asshole all the time. Like I can't really make a comparison on the left to any major political figure like that.
00:34:50
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's nobody that will ever be like Donald Trump. Like that's there's just no comparison. Nobody who will be on a debate stage being like only Rosio Donald. It's just never gonna happen. So yeah, it's it's a it's a question of how post Trump Republicans handle that. But I do think as off like when he was going viral, maybe this isn't his fault. Maybe he's not trying that well. I don't know. I think he's pretty clearly doing a gentle Obama impression. Oh, just like we see Joshapiro in those sorts and that's fair.
00:35:20
Speaker 6: At home well, and you can see that. You can see all the camera crews with him. He brings like a professional camera crew with him to get all these different angles at every single one of these rous.
00:35:27
Speaker 3: The lower angle looking up, that's that's that's the Asov shot or what else.
00:35:31
Speaker 5: He's documentarian and he's on that, he's on that tee.
00:35:34
Speaker 6: So he's gotten himself all like jacked over the last couple of years, like he's making a run for it.
00:35:39
Speaker 3: I guess the question for for both of you, and then maybe Mac in particular, who is a fan of the more Kyle Kolinsky dark woke angle is you know, Trump is so crazy? Is the main dem electorate gonna just want someone that's exceedingly normal now go back to the normal. Or do they want someone like Abdul who is going to be in but for the things that that the left likes. And I guess that is the main question for the demolectorate.
00:36:06
Speaker 6: Well, I mean that's you know, I don't want to make this sort of like my wish casting, but I think right now the energy is more in the Abdual lane. I think this is why you're seeing sort of a left insurgency all these DSA candidates that are winning, and you know, you can see candidates that are outspent you know, ten to one, twenty to one in some cases. The media is sort of you know, stacked against them, the demo establishment is stacked against them, and they're still winning some of these races or at least cutting it, you know, extremely close. So the energy right now is definitely in the dark woke camp. The question then, is the twenty twenty eight Democratic presidential primary rules around are And I've seen this from you know, even some of among like family and friends who are sort of more like standard liberals or whatever progressive lips maybe, And I do like it asof makes me a little bit afraid because I hear them and they're like, oh, you know, he's good looking, he's very well spoken, like he has this calming effect, like I could see somebody like that being a real threat to the left.
00:37:03
Speaker 3: And he's pulling very high Maac just as yeah, he has on it, like he continues to be putting up numbers in the polls and putting out some sort of liberal pheromones that people really can't describe on any specific policy level other than, oh, Dan, this guy got on some got on some disosterone. He got jacked up, and he's looking good in these low angles, and you know, I want to feel good about my politician again. And and he's he's virile in a way that you know, we had Biden before. So I don't know that's true.
00:37:35
Speaker 5: No, I it does. It concerns me.
00:37:38
Speaker 6: I hope the energy stays till twenty twenty eight, but I'm not fully convinced.
00:37:41
Speaker 5: It was kind of a problem for Betso against Ted Cruz back in a twenty eighteen and that like he tried to be on the one hand Kennedy esque, right, was like Kennedy maxing and then on the other hand was trying to go gloves off against Trump, and you just I think you really do just have to pick a lane otherwise people sniff it out. It depends on who you're running against. Like if it's a if you're up against a weak Republican candidate or crazy republic whatever, you can start or super maga Republican candidate, you can start pulling some of that that off in a way that's helpful. But I like, I don't know, I think the evolution is to just go fully gloves off. That seems to me where people are. But that is interesting mac that like people normies you know, are watching this and like I kind of like that.
00:38:27
Speaker 6: I like the way, well and you are going to It's gonna be the same ecosystem in twenty twenty eight with the establishment and the media.
00:38:34
Speaker 5: They're gonna pull out the same arguments.
00:38:35
Speaker 6: Oh, you know, let's say abdual runs, Oh he's not electable, like you know whatever, he sort of has this energy in the Democratic voter base, but like he couldn't win in a general election. They're gonna pull out the same arguments that they did in twenty twenty and in twenty sixteen. It's just going to come down to whether or not the voter base falls for that. Again, wasn't Bedo's Vanity fair cover Born to Run? Wasn't that the tag on his cover? To give that tag to Natalie Harp her chasing after the golf carts, I think that'd.
00:39:05
Speaker 3: Be a great tag for her, Born to Run, Miss Natalie. So that's so let's move on.
00:39:14
Speaker 4: Mac.
00:39:14
Speaker 3: I want you to react to this because, of course, one of our main stays here on the show, Van Jones, is out with a new fact check and collab with one Noah Tishbe about all of this disinformation online about Gaza and how the images are fake. And I will say this video was made in the year of our Lord, twenty twenty six, maybe a few years late.
00:39:38
Speaker 5: Let's explain who Noah tish is.
00:39:40
Speaker 3: By the way, Noah tishb is a like official Israeli propagandist. She's like worked for Israeli PR and is ignoring my invites to come on the show.
00:39:54
Speaker 5: Let's take a listen. You're seeing right now did not happen. This also didn't happen I'm here.
00:39:59
Speaker 13: Then we now have this world where when you see something on social media, you have to ask yourself the question is is real? The people who want to divide, who want to distract, who want to turn people against each other, have super weapons to do so. Now, because you know, somebody looks at their phone, they assume that what they're seeing is real. I think that's why we have to take a lot more seriously this information war, because the twenty four hours, seven day a week battle for the mind, it's the people who are on Twitch and TikTok and all these other platforms. They're getting literally millions and millions of views. And if you care about backs your disadvantage. Even though the fringe media is terrible, you have legacy media that's also terrible.
00:40:39
Speaker 7: I'm falling for nonsense.
00:40:41
Speaker 13: For instance, you know the picture that broke everybody's part of the so called starving maybe turned out to not be a starving child. They cut out the full image that showed the sibling perfectly fine. That child at a genetic issue, it was not being starved by Israel. So when you have the mainstream media that is falling for propaganda or promoting propaganda and won't apologize, and then you have this fringe media that's massively bigger. It requires a different approach to the information work.
00:41:09
Speaker 9: Now this is literally about democracies as we know them.
00:41:12
Speaker 5: We have to make sure that we verify everything.
00:41:14
Speaker 13: That we see online and don't get hooked into this dopament addiction that is going to damage us on Thank you so much, Ben, thank you.
00:41:23
Speaker 3: All right, one note before I get Max's reaction, They're like, so we need to dispel all these rumors about starving children. Let's do an inspiring music track. Let's do something like uplifting Climbing the Mountain music track here. But so Mac, let's let's fact check the fact checkers here. What what are they getting wrong here?
00:41:43
Speaker 5: Now?
00:41:43
Speaker 6: In terms of the specific story that they were talking about with the piece from the New York Times of the child who was starving, they're getting at that in the initial New York Times piece they didn't report that the child also had other underlying conditions I think specifically was cerebral palsy and this this specif case. But what that ignores is that, yeah, when there's a famine, when there's mass starvation or food shortages that are going on. It is going to be the most vulnerable people within society that suffer initially, that suffer the initial brunt of that famine. And that child in the New York Times piece was malnourished, right, And the data on this has been well reported on, well documented. There was malnourishment in Gaza, There was starvation in Gaza. Israel had an explicit policy of restricting aid from getting in it to Gaza from the beginning of the genocide. I mean they openly declared, We're going to cut off the food, the fuel, the water, the electricity. It's an entire population that we're attempting to punish. Here, none of this is like a secret. But again, the purpose here in this whole piece from Van Jones is to get you to doubt everything, to mistrust everything. The only people that you can trust are the official lions from the IDF, or from Benjamin et Yahoo, or from the Trump administration or the Biden administration what was happening under him. You know, you can only trust these official sources. Also, you were talking about a guy.
00:43:03
Speaker 5: Like Van Jones.
00:43:03
Speaker 6: This is the same guy who was on Bill Maher making a joke about dead Gaza babies right and laughing about it gleefully. So you know, to some extent, you know, I don't know if it's a money thing. I don't know if it's just like an ideological thing for him. But he's truly a psychopath when it comes to when it comes to this issue.
00:43:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, Griffin, do we have the ideological drift of Van Jones.
00:43:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's let's let's let's take a let's take a look back at nineteen ninety three Van Jones for a second here to see where the psychopath starts. Maybe they never maybe it was always this way, students could do that.
00:43:41
Speaker 14: In nineteen sixty. In nineteen ninety three, we have the United Building. But death Kid, God's kid black people do nothing wrong, gets sick and will just if all they've done wrong.
00:44:01
Speaker 9: If we get close that death kid generation.
00:44:06
Speaker 14: Another Jepanese American term, and all like job we should all get haircuts and get regular jobs and.
00:44:12
Speaker 7: Give it up.
00:44:14
Speaker 3: We should all get haircuts, get regular jobs, and give it up. So I guess that's what happened. He's being honest.
00:44:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not a bad point. This would have been around two thousand and nine, was singled out by Glenn Beck back in his Fox News days, early tea party days, because Obama had hired him. I believe as a green jobs are and Van Jones's past radical activism came to the forefront so much so that he lost that job in the Obama White House, and now he's landed at CNN, got a haircut, got a job. To Griffin's point, and you know, the frustrating thing about revisitation of that New York Times story is that nobody really disputes it was fair for the New York Times update the story and say the little boy had cerebral palsy. I think everybody understands that's relevant information, and it just underlines the case maclaid out, which is that where there are vulnerable populations with people suffering, those people can suffer even worse. They might sometimes bear the brunt, and people who are disabled might sometimes or might always bear the brunt when there are food shortages. So that is as a hill to die on. To create that as your centerpiece to make this case about propaganda, I think it's really really sick, just a it's a really gross thing to do, and like there's.
00:45:42
Speaker 3: Like it's also, like I said at the beginning, of this segment. It's crazy this is a twenty twenty six video because you could easily see something like this in November of twenty twenty three where they could make that case. But if you were trying to actually do good PR for Israel now, it would be, Oh, it's that damn Beebe and Yahoo that we got to get out of here and then everything will get fixed, Like, don't worry, elections are coming soon. Yeah, Israel did some bad stuff and we all agree on that, and it's time to get rid of this government. That would be the effective Israeli PR move at this point, which is also rife with you know, inaccuracies, because the majority of the other political leaders in Israel share very similar strategies towards handling Gaza. So I always wonder, like with Israel that has access to unlimited resources to create PR, why they choose these people like Noah Tishbe to do these things? Why do they pick these untalented, dead eyed people to add this liberal sheene with no facts and sort of just an underlying base of victimization And you should just be on my side. And I think it's because you know, they see themselves and people like Noah, like they can't fath what good pr for Israel would be. They see themselves in these terrible actors, and so those are the people they continue to put out. Your Michael rappaports a lot of these disgusting Twitter accounts like who's that one guy in New York Mac that we always uh make funakab. They see that they see themselves in these people, and they view these people as the heroes to push their movement, and it just goes to show how just muddy and confused they are about how the world sees them. Now.
00:47:35
Speaker 6: Well, to your point, Griffin, I think there is an element of it where for I mean, the vast majority of the last however, many you know, decades here in the United States, Israel didn't really have to do much work in terms of, you know, propaganda to convince Americans to uh support them. It was always just sort of like the baseline, right you just said, universal consensus within the upper echelons in Washington, d C. You know, within Congress, within the media. It didn't become a central thing that a lot of Americans thought about until you know, post October seventh and this this genocide in Gaza and post October seventh. So now you have this new reality where it's a live streamed genocide. We're getting countless thousands of images videos that are on every especially young people's social media feeds. Like it's just so overwhelming that there is no talented propagandist who could overcome that. Like there there's nothing to be done at this point except for the strategies that we've seen Israel use, which is censorship, right, going after college students, trying to blacklist them, you know, sicking the police on them, as we saw under the Biden administration as well in these encampments, you know, So it's censorship. It's these new programs spending millions of dollars to influence chat GPT and how it responds to Israel and flooding the Internet with you know, slop AI written you know, Israeli propaganda pieces so that AI will pick up on that for its information ecosystem. Like it's strategies like this, and you know, as we just saw from Van Jones, trying to get you to doubt everything that you see because they they basically have nothing else that they that they can reach for. At this point, there is no convincing case that can be genuinely made.
00:49:13
Speaker 5: That may be true, but it is still remarkable to me that they're doubling down as they see the numbers go down. Yeah, like they're not changing one bit of the strategy.
00:49:24
Speaker 6: Well, that's another aspect of it, and I think we've we've seen this in some of the recent races, like with Abdua l sa'id Is. If you guys remember DROPSI News reported, I think it was maybe a year ago or more at this point that there was like an internal study that was done within Israel where they were looking at what are the most effective ways that we could sort of convince people into a more pro Israel direction, And the number one thing that they found was increasing Islamophobia.
00:49:50
Speaker 5: Right.
00:49:50
Speaker 6: That was what they thought was the most effective strategy to sort of win people back to their side, was to push Islamophobia to sort of overwhelm the Israel criticism. And I think we have seen a massive, massive spike in Islamophobia against people like Abduell Sae. It are just generally in the United States with the low Lumer types and the Randy Fine types, you know, that's become significantly amplified over the last couple of years. With the emergence of more israel Critical and Muslim candidates across the country.
00:50:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think like not to give the Israeli pr more tips other but like you know, I said, a you guys should come out against nan Yahoo and be like they're not even doing any of the look we're handing out aid in Gaza, like we're doing like any of those like propaganda bits either. In fact, there's reporting that there's currently a water crisis happening in Gaza. People are struggling to find drinking water. They're having to choose with either to cook with it, drink with or bathe with it, and they can only choose one out of the three. So this like could suffering continues. They're still bombing tents on what seems like a weekly basis, and so yeah, they don't have any any video evidence to show the situation is improving one bit. So we're kind of just frozen in place until these people are I guess laughed out of the room, but Van Jones is still in the room.
00:51:11
Speaker 6: Well, And to your point, one final thing on that, Griffin, the most effective Israeli propaganda right now is the fact that the media is no longer talking about it. Right, there is no mainstream media coverage of you know, the nearly daily attacks that are happening in Gaza. Israel still bombing Gaza, there's still you know, they blew up a medical facility just a couple of weeks ago. You didn't see that on Cenna, and you didn't see that on MS. Now we're on Fox News or whatever else. The media has largely just dropped it as an issue, which I think has in some ways, in a dark way, helped Israel because it's not such a central focus for a lot of people anymore.
00:51:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, Well that'll do it for Van Jones. Get a suit, get a real job. I think that's still my note for Van.
00:51:53
Speaker 5: He does sound like Sager.
00:51:57
Speaker 3: All right, Well let's move on to my favorite state in the nation, Florida.
00:52:03
Speaker 5: Well, we wanted to bring you an update in a race that we've been tracking for more than a year. So we're joined once again by Aaron Baker, who actually decided to primary Randy Fine more than a year ago from the right erin welcome back, appreciate you for being here.
00:52:18
Speaker 7: Always a pleasure to be here, Thank you for having me back.
00:52:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, this was such an interesting race. And Ryan and I interviewed you about a year ago now just about your decision to get into this race, because there was something very interesting happening on the right, and Florida became a place where not even just your district, but Florida the entire state during this primary cycle became a place where some of this was getting hashed out in some responsible ways and some irresponsible ways. So let's start with your race, because I think you ended up at thirteen and a half percent in the race between Randy Fine and Dan Bilzerian. It turned into a little bit of a circus erin so just catch us up, remind viewers why you decided to primary Randy Fine from the right. When you launched, the Ron War had not yet happened, so that was a major update. But what were you thinking when you got into the race and what was it like running as a Republican against Rady Fine.
00:53:11
Speaker 7: Well, I mean I got into the race because I thought he was a genocidal maniac that needed to be taken out of our government. And I still believe that and that's not going to change. I mean, you don't change the spots on a leopard. He's I mean, he is who he is and his personality is not going to change. I didn't think it was a fit for this congressional district. However, the voters thought otherwise.
00:53:35
Speaker 5: And how did that change once Bilzarian got into the race? What was And you had been running for a while by the time he got into the race, and you were making this case against Randy Fines foreign policy in a fairly reasonable way. Bilzarian gets into the race, what happened?
00:53:51
Speaker 7: Yeah, So if we go back in history a little bit, so I fouled my paperwork in April, right after finding one the special election. Dan told me back in December of last year, and we spoke for you know, a good long while, and he said, you know, after the first of the years, let's catch up and I'll be more than happy to see what I can do to help you. And that was what I thought was going to be the plan going forward. And then we were never able to reconnect. And then I get a call in late March or maybe mid March, and Dan says, well, you didn't raise enough money. And I wanted to say, well, no, duh, you didn't help me like you said you were going to. He said, so I'm going to run myself. And I thought, okay, well, you know, you need to get on a plane and you need to get your butt here right now. And at that point I even offered, you know, okay, if you're serious about this, I'll take you around, I know, every square into this district. I'll take you to every place that you need to go. And I if he had wanted to run a serious campaign, you know, clean up your look a little bit, you know, get a haircut, you know, look like you did back in twenty thirteen when you were a movie extra. You know, maybe okay, you stand a chance, and you've got to You've got to realize who your electorate is. The average Republican voter in this congressional district is fifty one years old. So you've really got to tone down what you're saying. You can say I don't want defensive or you know, I don't want offensive weapons, and I don't want any financial aid to Israel. But you can't say that I will take up arms and start exterminating Israelis that those you know, you're not going to win a congressional race like that, no matter how much money you have. So you know, he came in like a bullet of China shot and thought he didn't need to listen to anyone. No campaign events until the last day of early voting, which was the Saturday, which was last Saturday. And he shows up to a fishback event and you know, thirty forty to fifty people there and stands around hands out free tacos for half an hour and then disappears, you know, at least on election day, show up somewhere. I mean, on election Day, I was at eight different pulling locations, you know, still trying to get voters, talking to voters, and you know, because I believed based on what we had experienced door knocking, and we knocked on about thirty thousand doors, wow my campaign, and we had a very positive response. I mean, there was a very anti fine sentiment out there. It's just a matter of, you know, who has the most money, who sends out the most palm cards or most postcards in the mailboxes, and who you know, puts out the most television ads, and that seems to be what people listen to. They're you know, they don't remember, Oh, hey, I met this Errand guy, you know, three months ago when he came and knocked on my door. They remember, you know, the postcard that they got yesterday or the TV commercial that they saw this morning on Fox News. So, you know, I would tell any anyone that wants to go up against an incumbent, you better have five at least three million dollars in the bank in order to make a serious run at it. But it all needs to be a consolidated effort. You don't need five people in the race like we had. You know, you need to be able to get behind that one candidate and say, Okay, this is our candidate and this is our path going forward, and we're going to attack airwaves, We're going to attack mailboxes, We're going to knock on doors for one specific candidate. When you start to split the vote, then it just it muddies everything up and people are like, well, I don't know if I should vote for Dan or if I should vote for Airon. Well let me just oh with what I know, let me just both you know, bang bang fang, and so you know, then you get the results that he had.
00:58:07
Speaker 3: So Aaron, I do really respect you for taking a stand against Randy Fine's genocidal rhetoric, his islamophobia. But with Dan Baalzarian. It seems like the opposite side of the field. I'm reading a tweet from just July twenty eighth that says Jews are the problem. Everyone's fear of saying it out loud is what allows it to continue. So when you say that, oh, well, he just needed a haircut, he needed to look a little bit more like the Hollywood extra, was that really the main issue? Or was this race that decided between a candidate that hates Muslims and a candidate that seems to hate Jews.
00:58:47
Speaker 7: Well, and that's that's the whole point, you know. I mean, he needed to if he if he were going to get in this race, he needed to not say any of that stupid stuff that he says. But you know, he just can't help himself. So if you can't help yourself, then you need to get behind one consolidated candidate, which ideally, you know would have been me because I ran agaspying before. So I mean it made sense.
00:59:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, what what did you make of sort of you're talking about like the mailers that are going out advertisements. What did you make of sort of the media ecosystem? What was Randy Fine talking about? What was his campaign running on And how big of a role do you think that the Iran War and the subsequent inflation and cost of living as a result of that in Israel in general, how how big of a role did that play in this election?
00:59:40
Speaker 7: It didn't play any role at all. I mean people at the end of the day, people didn't seem to care. I mean, you have twenty or thirty percent of the electorate that care about affordability, which is what we talked about NonStop, or what I talked about NonStop. So you know, I mean there was forty three percent the electorate that wanted an alternative. But you know, forty three percent of the electorate is not enough, and it needs to be, Like I said, it needs to be a consolidated effort. And Randy Fine placed the victim card the entire time. If you look back to you know the picture that he posted of someone that had vandalized one of the signs spray painted a squastica on it. And the day after that news story came out, I called the supervisor of Elections in Flagler County and I said, where did this picture come from? This picture cannot exist because I was the one that found the campaign sign, and I was the one that went and got an election official to take the campaign sign down. And so then I was talking to one of the reporters at the Daytona Beach News Journal, which he followed up with the Supervisor of Elections. Well, it turns out they put the sign back in the ground in order to take a picture to send to Randy find So, I mean, you know, he's a victim. One oh one. Oh you know, look at me, poor me, poor me. Look at what they're doing to my campaign signs and it's staged.
01:01:06
Speaker 5: Is incredible?
01:01:08
Speaker 6: What what is appealing in any way, shape or form about Randy Fine in this in this district? I mean what, like, how can a guy like this win an election?
01:01:16
Speaker 3: Right?
01:01:17
Speaker 7: She got me beat on that one?
01:01:20
Speaker 3: Is it Trump? Is it the Trump endorsement?
01:01:22
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean just the just the Trump endorsement. I mean Trump won this district bout thirty points. So you know, Randy Fine has underperformed Trump at every single stage. Uh you know, I I other than Trump. That's that's what is His signs say Trump endorsed, Trump indorsed, Trump indorsed, Trump indors buying for Congress. And that's how he opens every uh, you know, every speech that he gives, and you know he has absolutely zero respect for the people here, which I had a lot of help behind the scenes from elected officials, but the officials didn't want to come out and say, oh, Aaron, you know, we'll support you publicly. You know, they're like, we can't stand this guy just because of the way he acts. You know, he walks into the building in Flagler County and you knows, snubs his nose at all of the county commissioners and they're like, well, why are we supporting this guy? You know, we'll be more than happy to help you behind the scenes, but no one wants to come out publicly for fear of retribution.
01:02:29
Speaker 5: And I get it, right, Yeah, that makes sense. And I guess let's say a hypothetically, wave of magic one, you had three to five million dollars running against Randy Fine, and your argument that you were making was amplified, and you had the money to go make this argument to more voters, have the conversation on more TV ads and mailers and that sort of thing. Can you just take us into what those conversations were like, because you mentioned there is an anti Fine sentiment but I'm also just curious as someone from the right saying, we shouldn't talking like this, we shouldn't be thinking like this, we shouldn't continue to send all of this aid. Did you find receptive audiences when you're having those conversations in person? Like, we're Republican voters, and I imagine because you got thirteen point five percent of the vote, some people were like, hell yeah, getting behind you. This is insane. What was that undercurrent? Like, like, how were people thinking about this on the right?
01:03:25
Speaker 7: I mean when I would talk to when I would speak to an audience, nine times out of ten they would say, Aaron, we're you know, we're behind you one hundred percent. You know, we agree with everything you're saying that. You know, the affordability is a major issue. We agree that social security has to be fixed in the next Congress. And these are things that Randy Fin's not talking about. He's talking about I'm Trump endorsed, I'm Trump endorsed, I'm Trump endorsed. Well, good luck after Trump's not here anymore. I have no idea what he's going to do and what about on Israel? It was really kind of a non issue, and I think from Dan's perspective, it turned off more voters than than it helped with him. If he had simply stuck to a message about, you know, kind of down the middle, about affordability, you know, and addressed it in a point of foreign aid and you know, helping seniors with Medicare costs and making sure that seniors did a cost of living increase every year, that would have been a much more receptive message, because you know, that's what I was saying. And basically he got about four percent more than me with you know, millions of dollars that he spent, so you know I was able to do the same the same thing, trying to run not far right, not extreme far other right, but you know, kind of down the center. So to your point, I think that if I had five million dollars, it would have been a very easy race.
01:04:57
Speaker 3: So, Aaron, you mentioned a little bit the circus of Dan Bulsarian showing up to a James Fishback campaign event, and I wanted your reaction to that as well. Now, of course, James Fishback is known as the Groyper candidate. He goes around talking to young man about goy slop. He was referring to his black opponent as Byron and he was going around attacking OnlyFans creators, saying that he was going to tax them and give money to teachers. He had what felt like an organic youth movement on the ground. He drew a lot of crowds, but pulling up some of the results here he got third place. He got about ten point five percent of the vote, coming in third behind j Collins and Byron Donalds, who actually won. What is your reaction to those results, Like, what does that tell you about the Florida electorate.
01:06:00
Speaker 7: Did a lot of different events with James. Before James announced, the two of us sat down together out of Starbucks and talked about, you know, his candidacy and my candidacy, and at that time I was supporting Jay Collins, and I you know, I told him I supporting Jay Collins and well, you know, if anything changes, you know, keep me in mind. And that's kind of where we left it. And then Jay Collins came out with this nonsense about you know, you can't say this, and you can't say this, and some of his kind of factual things behind the scenes about he has two kids, well he actually has three. Some of those things didn't set well with me, so it was very easy transition for me to then support James. However, in about April or May, I saw that it was going to need to be a consolidated effort against Byron. And I was with Paul Renner at an event in Saint Augustine, and you know why, I don't ask Paul, you know, this has to be some type of consolidated effort. And and no one would put on their big boy pants and you know, take one for the team. At that point, they all thought, well, you know, we're just gonna run our campaign. And it didn't work. The only way for to defeat Byron Donaldson the one hundred million dollars or two hundred million dollars or how many ever bazillion dollars he has in the bank now was going to have it was It needed to be a consolidated effort, and it wasn't happening.
01:07:36
Speaker 5: Yeah.
01:07:36
Speaker 3: Outside the consolidation, though, isn't there a moral character question to these candidates. I mean, he's been blatantly racist. You know, he's saying things like goy slop. I mean, he did have his stance about that was anti Israel that you know, connected to the youth. But did you not have any moral character concerns about either of these guys?
01:07:56
Speaker 7: Not really. I mean, you know, I think that James's heart was in it for the right reasons, and I think certainly Paul Renter's heart was in it for the right reasons. And you know, Jay Collins to a certain extent, you know, his heart was in it for the right reasons. But they needed to all sit down in the room and figure out you know, Okay, I'm going to be governor, and I'm going to be lieutenant governor, and I'm going to have this role in the administration. So you know, a lot of that rhetoric that happens in campaigns is just that, and you know, it happens in every campaign. Now, I mean to some a little more extreme than others. Yeah, but you know, at the same time, I think it shows that Byron's going to have a little bit of a tough time in the general election. I mean, most of the polls right now have him and Jolly virtually tied in the state that you know, Governor DeSantis won by twenty points. So we're going to see how all that plays out.
01:08:57
Speaker 5: I suppose just falling up on the fish point, I see him, you know, he's he's not Dan. Bill's aarian certainly, and I've actually known him. I talked about this on the show earlier this week for a long time and saw like basically a total personality transplant, which I found very odd. Like I've known him for probably five years, and as soon as he got into the race, he started to Griffin's point talking about goyslop and by Rone and all of those different things. And I guess, I, seriously, what you're saying about taking down Byron Donalds, who's a you know, not not the ideal candidate for Conservatives to represent Florida, no question about it. But I guess then it's like, at what cost do you try to defeat Byron Donalds and be you know, potentially David Jolly? Is it worth? Maybe? Is it worth? For my perspective? The answer would be no, like stoking racial resentments and using terms like goys slop? How did how did you think about that?
01:09:55
Speaker 7: Aaron? Well, it was I guess You're your point would be it's almost a toned down version of Dan where Dan came in like a wrecking ball and James came in to try to appeal to some of that's you know, over thirty five crowd, if you will, you know, at what point is is the argument worth it or is the you know, the rage bait click worth it. That's you know, that's a million dollar question. I mean, our race between me, Dan and Randy certainly turned very ugly at the end, and you know that's not something that I'm going to participate in. I'm not gonna you know, say anything that's not true. You know, I'll call you out for saying stupid stuff. And I certainly called Dan out for posting the wrong early voting dates and you know, just doing stupid stuff and not doing any campaign events or doing scheduling campaign events outside the district. But I think James tried to tried to craft a message that could possibly appeal to the over thirty five crowd, but just really didn't that much.
01:11:16
Speaker 5: And some people would say that as like sneaky trying to sneak in bigotry. Did you have those concerns?
01:11:25
Speaker 7: I just kind of rolled with the punches, and you know, most of the time, Yeah, there were certain things that James said along the way, and you know, I would be sitting in the room and he was certainly playing to the audience. You know, if you for example, we were in Tampa and there were the seating capacity in the room was six hundred and the room was completely full and the fire marshal wouldn't let people in, so I know that there were at least seven hundred and fifty people there. But you know, I mean, he's really playing to the audience, you know when he talks about goy slot and and all and all that, and you know, it's it's all in it's all in good fun. I do think that James has a future in the Republican Party, and I think that you know, he has a huge following now he received one hundred and seventy thousand votes. That's nothing to sneeze at.
01:12:17
Speaker 5: Okay, last I was gonna say last last question on that, Aaron, I'm sorry to keep doing the fish back there. It's just when you say it's all in good fun, is it really fun? Is that like the kind of fun that you want to get behind if it's again Byron trying to play up like racial stereotypes, those sorts of things.
01:12:34
Speaker 3: So our Emily's our resident woke.
01:12:37
Speaker 7: But yeah, I think I think in the end I did vote for I did vote for James. In the end, I think James would have made a really good lieutenant governor, but that lieutenant governor would have had to have been if Paul Renner were at the top of the ticket. I think that two of those were saying the same thing. However, Paul is expert at crafting his message where you know, he's talking about Christian values. You know, I didn't really have. There were some cringe moments where I'm like, this is not going to go over well for the over fifty five crowd, and you know, we saw that. You know, we did an event in the villages where you have six hundred and fifty people show up on a college campus in Tampa, and you have twenty people show up in the villages.
01:13:32
Speaker 3: Wow, Yeah, that's that's crazy. It's like the college for old people. So Aaron, always exciting stuff happening down in Florida, one of my favorite states. Thank you so much for coming on, and we look forward to seeing where you and the Florida Republican Party go next.
01:13:49
Speaker 5: Appreciate it.
01:13:50
Speaker 7: Always a pleasure, Thank you, sir.
01:13:52
Speaker 5: Thanks Ared.
01:13:53
Speaker 3: Okay, let's round out this amazing Friday show with my favorite part, as always the AMA question. So now this first one, let's get spicy right off the top, guys. That's from Matthew C. Could there be a coherent defund the police and anti flock coalition? Would Sager be convinced, Emily, what do you?
01:14:13
Speaker 5: What do you?
01:14:14
Speaker 3: What do you make of that question?
01:14:15
Speaker 12: Wait?
01:14:16
Speaker 5: Repeat it because my headphones went up.
01:14:17
Speaker 3: Briefly, Matthew C is asking could there be a coherent defund the police plus anti flock coalition? So I think what they're saying is that it seems like anti flock is very popular. Could that somehow be parlayed into a conversation about defunding the police?
01:14:34
Speaker 5: I mean, certainly, on like an intellectual level, you can make that case. That's basically like the libertarian party or like some anarcho communists, well maybe some of Yeah, some of the anarcho communists probably, and they tend to hang in libertarian circles already have have made that case convincingly. But could you make it cohe a coherent case to the public about that. That's a question I would maybe turn back to you guys, like in urban areas, could you reinvigorate the defund the police movement with the Flock movement as a launching pad. It's not going to bring in a broad coalition of Americans who are generally supportive of the police, very sensitive about things like flock, very sensitive about militarized policing. You're not going to get, you know, broad support across America, which has a lot of like dare I say, libertarian instincts for things like militarized police. That was one of the one of the narratives that came out of the Ferguson protests is like, after a rock, we're flooding all these local policing units with military capabilities. But on the other hand, I don't know, do you think so. I don't think you're ever going to get like a broad coalition of Americans. But in some cities, could you reinvigorate defund with Flock? I mean I think so.
01:15:51
Speaker 6: To me, I've always been a defund the police guy, and I know that it's not like a popular sort of like movement at this point, but I never really understood why it was so controversial. To me, it's the same argument as you know, why I think we should be defunding the Pentagon, right, It's that the baseline budget that we have and the baseline equipment that we have for police in the United States of America, I mean like there's some localities or cities in this country that have higher police budgets than most countries' military budgets. I mean it, it is completely out of control the amount that we're spending on police and on mass surveillance and so called security, like those resources could and should be reallocated towards more effective I think, like community and social program So to me, the argument for defund the police has always been very straightforward and convincing. But in terms of the pushback to Flock, what worries me about it is that I think there's a large component of it that people are upset that it's a private company that's sort of acting in as this intermediary. I don't know if there would be the same energy if it was just you know, straight up police cameras that were effectively doing the same thing. But the threat is the same, like the threat of mass surveillance, the threat of you know, this sort of like pre crime approach that's there. Whether it's a private company like Flock that's contracting with the police or whether it's the uh, the police, or the government in and of itself. So I hope I hope that it, you know, we could make some sort of a pairing there. I also, by the way, I've heard online that apparently there's something's happening on Halloween. I'm not gonna say too much about it, but apparently Halloween is the dflock night because people are dressed up in Yes, yes, there's gonna be a big deal because everybody's dressed up in costumes, and so you have sort of like, you know, crowds of people and everybody's sort of like covering up their identity. So we could see a big dflock movement in a couple of months here coming up.
01:17:45
Speaker 3: All right, keep your eyes on that, everybody, all right? This this next one is for Emily Wait where did it go? Okay? This is from Raphae Aldamien. Question for our resident religious expert, Miss Jashinsky. Donald J. Trump doesn't seem to be a pious man, people are saying, but he has recently made or marks that people interpret as religious, most notably that grass grass has life like human grass, it's got life like humans. Is he a secret Buddhist? And what are your thoughts on his comments?
01:18:18
Speaker 5: Someone someone posted the funniest thing about this.
01:18:21
Speaker 3: Says so many things. I miss some of the best ones.
01:18:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's some incredible ones. Okay, So this guy, Logan McMillan on X posted this is the third time Trump has said that grass has quote life like humans. He is close to embracing the truth, the Buddha like nature of all things, and rejecting the false binary of sentience slash Incentians.
01:18:43
Speaker 3: You know, is fucking up the White House lawn and He's like, oh, it looked better when there was grass.
01:18:48
Speaker 5: There is he and he's been thinking about grass a lot because of that, because of the National Mall, which is having grass issues. But he I don't think this is the wealve. I don't think Bodh is the well from which these thoughts spring. I don't think anybody can know the source of Trump's musings on grass. I am and I think that's the beauty of it. Right. It remains enigmatic. We'll never get to the bottom of what Trump thinks about anything. Frankly, it is funny though, like some of his random he will just get on a random tear about something like remember when it was Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. He posted like ten tweets telling Robert Pattin said to leave Kristen Stewart in like twenty.
01:19:32
Speaker 3: Twelve, he was right to do so because they're both much happier.
01:19:35
Speaker 5: You know, he's right about the grass too, apparently.
01:19:37
Speaker 3: I think it's one of those late in life things, right, Mac, Like you know, he's he's he's seen the sunset of his life and he's coming in tune. Well, but it's also weird because he's he's had previous statements sort of alluding to like heaven and hell, right that he's not going that he's not going to heaven, which is also interesting because it's like, well, if you believe in hell, like, wouldn't you be like trying to redeem yourself in the final wake of your or he's just he's given up at this point.
01:20:04
Speaker 5: He's he's set and going to hell. But this is the beauty of it again, it's like we will never know. We can we can talk, we can speculate, but there's no answer.
01:20:16
Speaker 3: Okay, Final one, Mac, This is from Hockey. What if the Establishment forces two zion Is candidates upon us for president of twenty twenty eight.
01:20:29
Speaker 5: Well, they're definitely, They're they're definitely going to try to I.
01:20:33
Speaker 6: You know, when you look at the slate of candidates, well, I mean, obviously the Republican candidate is going to be a Zionist. I don't think that's even in question. I mean, most likely at this point it's going to be jd or Mark Rubio, one of the two, or Fish apparently or fishback or Nick Fuentes or whatever else the universe throws at us. But on the Democratic side, I just I'm nervous right now because I don't know who could be the real who has the charisma, who has the sort of energy, the capability to really be an insurgent like Bernie style or Bernie level caliber of candidate.
01:21:12
Speaker 3: Like it doesn't seem like he's gonna it doesn't seem like it's gonna AOC twenty eight. It seems to be spy circling the drain right now.
01:21:18
Speaker 6: So I don't think, yeah, it probably won't be AOC. It could be if Abdul wins, you know, and he he really locks in and like focuses on becoming a real national figure over the next couple of years, it could be somebody like Abdul. You got other people like Rocanna that are in there, but you know, Rocana is not even an anti Zionist.
01:21:34
Speaker 9: There.
01:21:34
Speaker 6: There really are very few anti Zionists truly, Like Bernie Sanders is not an anti Zionist. Like there's very very few anti Zionist. Uh, you know, high level politicians that could run in twenty twenty eight. So Hockey was his name. Apologies, but I think that's like almost an inevitability. Well you said Hockey.
01:21:55
Speaker 3: I thought you were giving a cute nickname to Jeffries. No, No, I'm just I think it's almost an inevitability that it well, yeah, exactly.
01:22:06
Speaker 6: I think I think it's an inevitability that it will be a to some extent a Zionist candidate. But the question then is like how do politicians like Kamala Harris or you know, John Ossoff, like where do they position themselves in regard to Israel? Because you could have a Zionist candidate who also is willing to restrict weaponry to Israel or who is you know, willing to change the dynamic of that relationship. And I think that's that's more so going to be where the test is okay.
01:22:34
Speaker 3: Much to think about, much to look forward to, much to dread. Everybody keep their eyes on grass this weekend. You might find some inspiration in your own life. Everyone, go follow after Party with Emily Joshinski. Go check out Good Politic Guy Max channel. He grinds as well, and the links to that will be a description, And most importantly, follow me on Instagram dot com Breaking Points. We'll be back on Monday. Thank you all so much, and have a lovely weekend. We'll see you later.
