When Progressives Squash Progress - In The Tank #469

Donald Kendal:
00:13
Alright. We are live, ladies and gentlemen. This past week, we witnessed an engineering breakthrough from Elon Musk's SpaceX. The successful launch and recapture of SpaceX's Starship booster marks a pivotal moment in the future of space travel, showcasing advancements in reusability and cost efficiencies. SpaceX is paving the way for a new era when it comes to space access, in terms of the affordability and all of that good stuff.

Donald Kendal:
00:44
But remember, Elon Musk is frowned upon by the political elite. So instead of cram commemorating this occasion and encouraging more innovation, government bureaucrats have instead chosen to stifle Musk by denying his request for additional rocket launches. Also, another week closer to the election, and it appears that Kamala Harris campaign is getting increasingly desperate. We're gonna be talking about all this and more in episode 469 of the in the tank podcast.

Kamala Harris:
01:44
I can imagine what can be and be unburdened by what has been. You know?

Donald Kendal:
01:50
You know? You know? Welcome to the end of tank podcast. As always, I'm your host, Donald Kendall. And joining me today, I've got Jim Lakeley, VP of the Heartland Institute.

Donald Kendal:
01:59
How are you doing today, good sir?

Jim Lakely:
02:02
I'm doing pretty well, Donnie. I learned this morning that the mastermind of the October 7th attack, on Israel has been, let's just say, disassembled into probably about 4,000 other little pieces. So, you know, let's let's not just say that there's a that all bad news on the on the front today. You know, that that's pretty good news in my book.

Donald Kendal:
02:21
Yeah. Not too bad. Not too bad. Also joining us, we've got Chris Talgo, editorial director here at the Heartland Institute. How are you doing today, good sir?

Chris Talgo:
02:30
I'm cold, Donnie. Your office is very cold. That's why I have to have my jacket on.

Donald Kendal:
02:35
Gotcha.

Chris Talgo:
02:35
I miss summer I miss summer already.

Donald Kendal:
02:38
Yeah. Yeah. We missed you. Was it last week you were gone golfing? How did that go?

Chris Talgo:
02:43
That went pretty well. Pretty well. I had a good good good season overall. You know, this weekend looks like it's gonna be decent. So this looks like this will be the big farewell weekend, and then we get, what, 6 months of just not fun weather.

Donald Kendal:
02:57
Enjoy it, Chris.

Chris Talgo:
02:58
Well, it doesn't count. It makes us stronger. That's what I always say.

Donald Kendal:
03:01
That's what I always say usually when I'm singing the Roseanne intro song. But, anyways, listeners, audio only listeners that are probably catching the show on a Friday or later, leave a review for us on iTunes. That'd be greatly appreciated. And, also, consider joining us a day earlier on Thursdays at noon CST where we are live streaming this on Facebook and YouTube and Rumble and x. And you could join the conversation, throw your comments in the chat, throw your questions in the chat.

Donald Kendal:
03:25
Maybe we'll show your comments on the screen. Maybe we'll address your questions on the fly. You could also support the show by not using super chat functionality because we have been demonetized by YouTube, but you can still go to heartland.org/inthetank and donate to the show that way. That way YouTube doesn't take a 30% cut. It goes directly to the show.

Donald Kendal:
03:46
You can also help out the show not by spending a dollar, but just spending a couple of seconds, hitting that like button, sharing this content, subscribing if you haven't already, or just leaving a comment under the video. All of those things help break through those big tech algorithms that prevent content like this from being shown to more people. But, ladies and gentlemen, we have a lot to talk about as the sidebar shows there. Let's let's start off with Elon Musk, SpaceX. This this I don't know if we could really overstate what happened.

Donald Kendal:
04:20
So on Sunday, October 13th, SpaceX made history. On their 5th test flight, SpaceX successfully launched their Starship mega rocket, a 400 foot 2 stage fully reusable super heavy lift launch vehicle. But most notably, the booster rocket stately navigated itself back towards earth and was caught by its own launch tower. We have video of this. So, Jim, I think we have a couple of videos of this.

Donald Kendal:
04:50
So I don't know which one you wanna show first, but,

Jim Lakely:
04:53
what what why don't we yeah. Why don't we start off with we you you have me pick the the you wanna start with the video where 13 years ago, he predicted that, this is what you wanted to do? Yeah.

Donald Kendal:
05:03
Yeah. Let's do that.

Jim Lakely:
05:04
So this is Elon Musk at the, National Press Club in Washington, DC, almost exactly 13 years to the day of one of the greatest engineering feats of our lifetimes. So, when Elon Musk and he when Elon Musk speaks and he is, determined to do something, you should, bet on him doing it.

Elon Musk:
05:25
So the pivotal breakthrough that that's necessary, that some company has to come up with to to make life multi planetary is a a fully and rapidly reusable orbit class rocket. This is a very difficult thing to do because we we we live on a planet where it that is just barely possible. If gravity were a little lower, it would be easy. If it was a little higher, it would be impossible. A very just a very tough engineering problem.

Elon Musk:
05:53
I wasn't sure it could be solved for for a while. But then, I think just just relatively recently, probably just in the last 12 months or so, I've I've come to conclusion that that it can be solved. And and I think SpaceX is going to try to do it. Now we we we could fail. I'm not saying we we're certain of success here, but but we're going to try to do it.

Elon Musk:
06:17
And and we we have a design that on paper, doing the calculations, doing the simulations, it does work. And now we need to make sure that those simulations and reality agree because, generally, when when they don't, reality wins.

Donald Kendal:
06:34
Right. Right. So, yeah, that's him in 2011 talking about this idea, and we'll get to some of it his, like, kind of future ambitious plans when it comes to this technology and SpaceX in general. But so that was 13 years ago. Since then, there has been some test rockets and boosters that they've landed on different platforms, but this was the first time that the large booster of this, Starship mega rocket was, safely returned to Earth and caught, by its, like, launch podium thing.

Donald Kendal:
07:08
So when I first saw this video, go ahead and play one of these, I thought I thought it was, like, a fake, like, a computer generated, like, what it would look like for or something. But this is actual video of the launch here.

Jim Lakely:
07:26
I mean, look at that's just beautiful. I mean, just look at that.

Elon Musk:
07:30
We have it done.

Jim Lakely:
07:33
That is the most powerful rocket ever built

Jim Lakely:
07:36
Right. And the heaviest, and and the largest vehicle ever put into the sky. Right.

Donald Kendal:
07:45
Yeah. 400 feet tall.

Jim Lakely:
07:46
Yep. It's it's about

Donald Kendal:
07:49
and then you And now here is the booster rocket that detached from the the the ship. Down to 3 And it is lowering itself back down to earth. Again, this is real. This isn't some computer generation. And now that is falling right back into its launch pad and being caught by these 2 shymongous arms on the launch pad.

Donald Kendal:
08:13
Catching it perfectly.

Kamala Harris:
08:14
I could do that.

Jim Lakely:
08:15
Oh, jump sticks. Unbelievable. It is it is it is simply hard to comprehend what an engineering achievement that is. It it it really is. I mean

Donald Kendal:
08:28
Right. And then the audio that's playing, you could hear all of the different people in the crowd and then the, you know, the, the launch room and all of that, the people at SpaceX that are cheering. It seems like it's like audio from, like, a World Cup game or some Super Bowl game or something like that. Like, nope. That is people celebrating decades of hard work, and accomplishments all coming to fruition at the same time.

Donald Kendal:
08:54
So, Jim, I wanna go to you first. When you saw this video, what are your initial thoughts?

Jim Lakely:
09:01
I I actually got emotional. I didn't think I would, but I'd never seen anything like that before. And we're gonna show some, sound off b roll of here's the rocket booster coming back, into the hands. Come to mama. There you go.

Jim Lakely:
09:15
Nice little gentle hug, and down it goes. I mean, I I got emotional, and I I I you know, not that I almost cried, but I got choked up. This is this is the greatest engineering achievement in our lifetime with without any doubt. And you think about, you know, there's a lot of people probably listening to this podcast who are kind of fans of the space program. You know, as a, you know, as a kid, I was not born.

Jim Lakely:
09:42
I was a year from being born when we first walked on the moon. But, you know, I watched the space program, but, really, I was a kid of the shuttle program. That was always very exciting, and and I followed that very closely. But it's been, frankly, since the breakup of Space Shuttle Columbia, what was that, 2004? You know, America really hasn't had a space program of any of any, you know, excitement for sure, and and it's really barely been holding on when run by NASA and the government.

Jim Lakely:
10:12
And as we showed that clip from, Elon Musk speaking 13 years ago, I'm sure everybody in that room thought that he was crazy, that this isn't you you can't do that. And it's you know, Elon Musk is maybe the greatest immigrant to the United States since, Lafayette because, he did it. And, you know, he were showing some b roll here. This is from a a guy's phone filming from across the border in Mexico watching this thing come down. To give you an idea of the speed at which it was coming down, it was coming down at 2 times the speed of sound.

Jim Lakely:
10:46
And then through the engineering and the programming of the the engines on that booster, to be able to bring it down the first try perfectly just like that. It's it's incomprehensible. And when you look at it, if you're a fan of, like, sci fi shows like The Expanse is a a show I recommend, actually. You know, they go up up and down from Earth and the moon and stuff on these rocket ships that look very much like Starship, by SpaceX. And when you see that, you think that's some sort of, you know, computer generated animation, but it's not.

Jim Lakely:
11:18
That really happened. And, you know, this happened in the private sector. This happened, at very large expense by, Elon Musk. And we are we are looking at a at the accomplishments of a man, that is historic. This is up there with with Tesla, with Edison.

Jim Lakely:
11:39
This is this is a marvel of of the modern age, and none of this would have been possible if we were depending on NASA to do this. And as a matter of fact, NASA has 2 astronauts stranded on the International Space Station. And who's going to rescue them? Elon Musk is. That's who.

Jim Lakely:
11:53
His what he's been able to achieve, you know, in engineering and through SpaceX, we're thank God he is an American. And so the United States right now is so far more advanced than the whole rest of the world in space exploration that it's they're not even close. I think you and I, Donnie, were talking about this yesterday. What was it? I think Blue Origin.

Jim Lakely:
12:13
Is that the name of the you can hardly remember it. Right? Jeff Bezos has his Blue Origin space program. He's so far behind. It's it's not even funny.

Jim Lakely:
12:22
He should probably just and a lot of people that might wanna compete with with Elon Musk are probably gonna give up when they see something like this. There's no way anybody else in the world could do that. Nobody. That's it's just amazing, and and I I get I'm as excited as those young engineers who had the day of their life. They cannot believe it.

Jim Lakely:
12:38
The the amount of intellectual might that made this happen is, is as good, if not better, than anything we did during the Apollo program to get people to the moon and back.

Donald Kendal:
12:49
Chris, initial thoughts on this. I mean, I I when I saw the clip, on Sunday, I I I was taken back, and I immediately thought, like, we gotta talk about this in the podcast. What were your thoughts?

Chris Talgo:
13:02
Pretty stunning. Pretty stunning that he was able to pull this up the first time too. I mean, that that that is, you know, just amazing. Not much else, you know, I I can I can add to this one? I I think Jim, you know, really

Donald Kendal:
13:16
Okay. Well, that's fine. I I Did

Chris Talgo:
13:18
it did it justice, actually.

Donald Kendal:
13:20
Well, we we have plenty more to talk about this. So, so Elon Musk has ambitious plans for this, technology in SpaceX in general. They are envisioning launching Starship missions into orbit where they can build out their huge Starlink satellite mega constellation, To put up thousands of satellites quickly, or a bigger telescope, you need big rockets. This is something that could achieve that. There are talks of using Starship to, to be used to launch huge telescopes into space.

Donald Kendal:
13:54
I I think the Hubble telescope was the size of, like, a bus, so this, could theoretically allow for even bigger, telescopes that could even look further into space or what have you. They can use this to refuel other starships that are in orbit. So, theoretically, you could have one of these launch the actual ship into orbit and then have another one that serves as, like, a fuel, a refuel pod, or something to go up into orbit, meet it, refuel the starship, and then have that go off further into space. So it could more easily and efficiently and cost effectively carry people and cargo to places like the moon or even Mars. NASA wants to use Starship as part of its Artemis program, which aims to establish a long term human presence on the moon.

Donald Kendal:
14:43
You could conceivably have 5 or 6 people in the cabin, says Elon Musk, if you really wanted to crowd people in. But I think most, we would expect to see is 2 or 3 people per cabin. Again, this is according to Musk. And so nominally, about a 100 people per flight to Mars. So he's got his sights set on Mars.

Donald Kendal:
15:03
SpaceX actually has plans of sending 5 uncrewed Starships to Mars in 2 years, and the reasons for the 2 years thing is because, like, basically, to get to Mars, you have to wait for, like, the planets to align, you know, so that they're actually closer, the shortest distance between the two planets, and then you could launch something. So the next time that that'll be the case is in 2 years, so they wanna send some uncrewed test space flights to Mars 2 years from now. Beyond that, the plan would be to gear up for manned missions to the red planet 2 years after that. So if everything goes to plan, we could theoretically be sending people to Mars by 2028 using this technology. And Musk's long term goal, and he's made this very clear, I think he's, like, branded the idea of colonize Mars.

Donald Kendal:
15:50
You you see him wearing t shirts like that, or no. Occupied occupy Mars. That's what he says. Mars. That's right.

Donald Kendal:
15:57
And he and he says that he wants to do that to ensure the long term survival of the human species by becoming multiplanetary. So, obviously, all of this seems very ambitious, and I would put money on, you know, some of these things being delayed in terms of their timelines, various setbacks, but it's a sort of ambitious thinking that inspires people. And I think that this this is, you know, it's been a while since, like, your average kid dreamed of being an astronaut, when they grow up. You know? Now they wanna be like TikTok influencers or something, but, but it's like these sorts of plans and this sort of big ideas that lets, like, imaginations grow.

Donald Kendal:
16:39
And it also serves as a reason, at least for me, to feel optimistic. You know, I've I've talked on the show a lot about how, like, pop culture and media is generally pretty bleak, and they're always painting a picture of some dystopian future like Hunger Games or Ready Player 1 or Wall E or, you know, you name it. Like, it's always usually painting the future as some horrible, you know, climate change destroyed planet that we're all suffering to get food. I mean and this is it it's all undergirded by, like, climate change narrative that we're destroying the planet and humanity is suffering, etcetera, etcetera. So ambitious plans like Starship and colonizing Mars, like, that inspires hope for the future.

Donald Kendal:
17:20
It makes it seem like human potential is limitless, and it's only constrained by a lack of will and some shortsightedness. So, Chris, I'll go back to you. I mean, perhaps I'm being a little flowery with my thoughts on this, but, I don't know. What do you think?

Chris Talgo:
17:36
To be totally honest, I I mean, you guys probably aren't gonna wanna hear this, but I'll just say it anyways because I really don't care, actually. I mean, yeah, this is impressive, but we've got a lot more going on here that on earth that I think are much larger problems, and I kinda actually wish we would focus more on that to be to be just brutally honest about it. Yeah. Okay.

Donald Kendal:
18:01
Well, we'll get to the Kamala Harris stuff soon. But No. No. No. No.

Donald Kendal:
18:04
No. No.

Chris Talgo:
18:04
I I I I don't mean it like that. No. What what I'm saying is it's like we have all these problems here on Earth, whether it's, you know, wars in the Middle East and just like all these problems. I understand that it's awesome that Elon Musk and, these these, you know, explorers and pioneers want to go out and do that. I get that.

Chris Talgo:
18:24
I totally understand that. I mean, it's just like the in the 1400 when, you know, people from Europe said, we wanna go explore this ocean, this, you know, this this vast, like, you know, unknown territory? I I understand that. I get that. I'm fascinated by space.

Chris Talgo:
18:38
However, there is a part of me, you know, maybe it's from watching sci fi stuff where it's just things always seem to go really bad, you know, eventually. And I I I don't know. I mean, this is just off the cuff. This is, you know, this is this is this is my just, like, initial reaction to this. I look at that, and there's a part of me that's like, wow.

Chris Talgo:
18:59
That is just amazing. But then there's a other side of me that says, wow. I mean, is that is that, like, going to lead to stuff that is gonna be really bad in the future? And, you know, I don't know if it's gonna lead to, you know, some sort of, you know, interplanetary war over who gets the mining rights in the Astra Belt or whatever or you just, you know, all that kind of stuff. But it's like, wow.

Chris Talgo:
19:24
You know? I mean, it's it's just I I I don't I don't know if I'm really, like, saying saying this, you know, properly, but there is a side of me that, Johnny, like, we've been talking about over the past week, you know, all this AI stuff, all this quantum computing stuff. I almost wonder if we are at the at the, at the point where it's it it's beyond, you know, it's beyond the point of no return, and and I I I just I don't I don't know about that.

Donald Kendal:
19:54
Well, I mean, Jim, I I wanna I wanna I wanna stay with the potential optimistic view, that's that's, in my opinion, is inspired by stuff like this because, you know, I'll go back to the climate change, you know, narrative, and it's, like, constantly we're operating in this world view where, you know, like, the the limited resources, and we have to, you know, figure out how to best allocate resource. And I know that's a cornerstone of of, capitalism, but it always seems like, well, you know, if we just if we just, you know, power our our, society by wind and solar and we just, like, make sure that the rich aren't taking too much stuff, then we can eke out a sustainable living for the next, you know, 100 years or something like that. But then I, like, look over, and I see this, and they see these people talking about, yeah, we should be interplanetary. We should be setting up colonies on on the moon. We should be setting up colonies on Mars.

Donald Kendal:
20:48
It just makes me feel like the human potential is so much greater than what, like, the average climate change, you know, alarmist person, wants to pretend it is. What do you think?

Jim Lakely:
21:01
Yeah. I mean, the the title of this podcast or the the you know, is Progressives versus Progress. And, I think it came from a conversation we had at lunch, the other day in how you know, the reason I was so inspired by this amazing achievement by SpaceX and Elon Musk is that it stands in such in such stark contrast to the outlook of the world from your average progressive. Your average, quote, unquote, progressive is a climate doomer, if not a full blown climate cultist. They, they look at the world as a single pie that is getting increasingly smaller, it seems, and unable to grow.

Donald Kendal:
21:41
Mhmm.

Jim Lakely:
21:41
And that it's a a jealous grab for whatever I I can get instead of the idea of just making more pies or make a bigger pie and make more prosperity for everyone. They they it's it's a it's a mentality. It's a mentality that the left has embraced for quite a long time since since my youth even. This idea that, you know, it it comes from the idea that capitalism is broken because it's, not equitable. And so a progressive would rather have everyone equal in misery than to have anybody, prospering more than they are as a as a personal, you know, as a personal view.

Jim Lakely:
22:16
And it's a it's a it's a philosophy of jealousy and envy and of doom and gloom. Now I'm not I'm not saying that you are that, Chris. I do get what you're saying. But, you know, the we're gonna play some clips here from the California Coastal Commission who, just and their their meeting was just a few, I think, 10 days before this historic launch. And it was, they were you know, Elon Musk launches rockets from several locations.

Jim Lakely:
22:45
One of them is from, an air force base in California as well as down there in Texas and in Florida as well. He's basically the entirety of the American, space program. But, you know, a leftist would fret, and then it was somebody was joking about it, fretting in the in the chat about, you know, wow. What what about the carbon footprint of of all these rocket launches? You know, this is going to, if if we all have to get into smaller cars and we have to have heat pumps and all these other things in order to save the planet, Think of the carbon footprint of just that one launch, compared to the average Americans is.

Jim Lakely:
23:22
But, you know, the the thing that really defines, I think, and drives Elon Musk is his, is really his his just boundless optimism for what he can do. And and he doesn't I don't think he thinks of it selfishly either. He's thinking about the advancement of mankind, as you said, Donnie. He's thinking about making the human species interplanetary as that's the only way we're we we should be. Just as the, you know, early humans came out of caves and then built civilization, he wants to advance civilization into the next step, and, this launch gets us toward it.

Jim Lakely:
23:57
But it it's that it's that attitude from a progressive, and they also hate, Elon Musk because he is not in their tribe. He is not a progressive in that way. He's openly supporting Donald Trump. He openly supports capitalism, and so that's a real problem. And the problem for the rest of us in society is that it's those people with that mindset that are most in control of all the levers of power in society and government in this country.

Jim Lakely:
24:22
And, hopefully, we're gonna start turning that over, sooner rather than later.

Donald Kendal:
24:27
Yeah. I actually saw an article. If you cared about the greenhouse gas emissions, I saw this article. It's in the BBC. I didn't put it in the show notes.

Donald Kendal:
24:35
I just saw it last night when I was prepping for this. But it was talking about how a rocket that kicks 700 times harder than a passenger jet is bound to have some impact on the environment, and it talks about the FAA says that it would make a total of 90 7,000 tons of c02. I'd have to look at this a little bit closer, but, it was suggesting that's okay. Here. Starship emits as much greenhouse gases as 846 cars would emit over the course of a year.

Donald Kendal:
25:10
So it's definitely spraying out some c o two when it's, when it's going up into space like that, but, you know, again, that's if you care about those sorts of things. But, so yeah. So

Chris Talgo:
25:21
Well, Johnny, can I can I ask you a quick question? Do you see any potential downsides to this?

Donald Kendal:
25:27
Any potential downsides? Well, I mean, like, you know, I think Jim talked about this as being a, you know, a like, a private thing as opposed to NASA. I do know that SpaceX gets, like, various government money for various different things, either through, like, their Starlink program or some of the other projects that they have. Like I mentioned, they're, like, gonna be teaming up with NASA for the Artemis thing. So there is plenty of public money going into it.

Donald Kendal:
25:55
Mhmm. But beyond that, I don't I don't know. I don't know if you're fishing for something or

Chris Talgo:
26:02
No. No. I was literally just curious.

Donald Kendal:
26:04
No. Yeah. I I no. I think that, mostly the the the big story here is those people at the end of that one clip cheering, all of their time and efforts towards this revolutionary type of innovation, paying off. What what Elon Musk thought might not be possible, you know, 13 years ago, we just saw it.

Donald Kendal:
26:27
We just witnessed it, and it's a miraculous thing. I look at it in the same way, that's, you know, probably people probably thought when, you know, we landed on the moon for the first time, you know, in the late sixties. So that's how I look at it. Future problems, you know, some of the stuff that you outlined, we could deal with that in a 100 years when it becomes an issue. But, but I I've I look at it as just, like, this huge accomplishment, and I think about how, you know, Elon and and SpaceX, they're riding high on this recent achievement of Starship, and you would think that the government would be celebrating the success and encouraging this sort of innovation and forward thinking.

Donald Kendal:
27:11
Well, you would be wrong. So recently, SpaceX, through the US Space Force, requested to increase the number of SpaceX rocket launches on the coast of California from 36 to 50 per year to facilitate various SpaceX activities, and the California state commission rejected this request. And the commission cited several reasons for their rejection, including concerns over disruptive sonic booms and the desire to keep a closer eye on on how the operations will affect the state's wildlife. So according to The New York Times, the sonic booms have been startling residents in Southern California whose homes have, shaken by powerful confusing jolts, the LA Times reported, and several environmental groups submitted letters urging the commission to take more time to study the impact on wildlife ahead of the week's this week's meeting. So I know that your most of your people's eyes are are already rolling, mine are too, but, this wasn't the worst of it.

Donald Kendal:
28:22
The worst reasons cited to reject SpaceX's request was related to Elon Musk specifically. So we have a couple of videos, of some of the statements made by some of the members of the California Coastal Commission that, to me, show that this decision was not made to save people from the occasional loud noise or the theoretical disruption to local wildlife. No. It shows me that this decision was entirely politically motivated. So the first clip that we have here is from commissioner Gretchen Newsom, no relation to Gavin Newsom in case anybody was wondering.

Donald Kendal:
29:01
I'm gonna try to contain myself because I saw this clip yesterday, and it triggered me. So, let's go ahead and play good old Gretchen Newsom.

Gretchen Newsom:
29:11
Elon Musk has enjoyed substantial subsidies from California amounting to over $3,200,000,000 while threatening to relocate his operations, including his headquarters, from California to Texas, citing his bigoted beliefs against California's safeguards and protections of our transgender community. This behavior raises concerns about the motivations behind his request for government support. And here today, we have the US Department of the Air Force and US Space Force presenting permitting requests on behalf of SpaceX to the profitable benefit of SpaceX and its billionaire CEO. Right now, Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the Internet. But this claim in itself is, to the public benefit is a falsehood because one must first purchase the Starlink startup kit for several $100 and then face a monthly fee of a $120 after 30 days of free internet.

Gretchen Newsom:
30:13
A sick ploy to gain customers that are facing tremendous burden and dire straits. They're hurricane victims.

Donald Kendal:
30:22
So I'm I'm afraid I'm gonna get heated here. I mean, is this not a character directly from Anne Rand's Atlas Shrugged? I mean, someone who would burn scientific and societal progress on the altar of some nebulous ever changing idea of the greater good. And the clip literally makes me, like, feel sick to my stomach. Oh, Elon Musk objects to our politically religious beliefs about transitioning children without their parents' consent.

Donald Kendal:
30:48
Therefore, we're gonna use the state to stop SpaceX and their plans. Like, this is just, like, disgusting to me. But, Chris, I don't know. What do you what what is your reaction to that, that clip there?

Chris Talgo:
31:01
I completely agree with you. It's extremely petty politics. That's pretty much, you know, what I expect out of, you know, a low level California bureaucrat, you know, like miss Newsom there. However, I do believe in federalism. And if California wants to commit economic suicide and kick and kick Tesla and and and, SpaceX out of its, you know, realm and and that's gonna benefit Texas and other states, I'm totally okay with that, to be honest.

Donald Kendal:
31:30
Yeah. I mean, I I'm not denying their right to do it, but I could also find it just abhorrent, Absolutely.

Chris Talgo:
31:38
That they

Donald Kendal:
31:38
would use those justifications. Like, even if it was just limited to, like, oh, yeah. You know, this is hurting the, you know, desert tortoise or something like that. You know, that would be one thing.

Chris Talgo:
31:49
But, Donnie, you know you know what? Throughout history, communist, authoritarian regimes have, have, through their petty political ways, run off the most talented, smartest people. We saw that in Nazi Germany. We saw that in the Soviet Union. We saw that all across Eastern Europe.

Chris Talgo:
32:09
So this is par for the course. When you when you set up a governing style that is about retribution and based on just nothing but pure politics, you're gonna run the talented, prosperous people to other places. The greatest thing about the United States is we have 50 laboratories of democracy, the 50 states. So California has decided to go in the extreme left direction in recent years, and they're paying the price for it. They're losing population.

Chris Talgo:
32:40
They're losing their most productive people, and the same thing is occurring here in Illinois, you know, in in other places. The beneficiaries of that are are states like Texas, Florida, Tennessee, who are doing the opposite. So, I mean, I I think that this is somewhat cyclical. I don't think that, California is gonna be in this, this, you know, governing style for forever. I really hope not.

Chris Talgo:
33:03
But, you know, this has happened, you know, throughout our country's history where states make big mistakes, and they, chase away the corporations and the people who are most, you know, productive. And usually usually, not always, but usually, they learn from their mistakes, and then they go in a different direction. I don't know if that's gonna happen in California. I think we might be starting to see just a very teeny bit of that in some of these very far left states, how they are actually cleaning up their homeless encampments and that kind of thing. But, yeah, I mean, this is a this is a really stupid, political move by, California, and they will pay the price for it because Elon Musk has already taken, you know, his business out of, California and relocated it to Texas.

Chris Talgo:
33:49
And it looks like he's gonna be doing that, you know, in full very soon.

Donald Kendal:
33:53
Jim, can you pull up that, that Gretchen video one more time? Because this I I feel like we could seriously do an entire hour just breaking down this video. So I'm I'm gonna play just a little bit of this because there are certain things you it almost just washes over you and just, like, the stupidity, that, like, if you you don't slow down and take the the little bits piece by piece, you're gonna kinda miss it. But, so let me just play a little bit more

Jim Lakely:
34:17
of that.

Gretchen Newsom:
34:18
Elon Musk has enjoyed substantial subsidies from California amounting to over $3,200,000,000 while threatening to relocate his operations, including his headquarters, from California to Texas.

Donald Kendal:
34:30
Okay. So right there. So first off, $3,200,000,000, you know, of government subsidies. That that was actually one of the big reasons why I was not an Elon Musk fan for a long time. I'm I'm still not, like, a fanboy or anything like that, but his just, like, desire to just, like, suck as much government subsidies from one way or another, that's always kind of off putting.

Donald Kendal:
34:52
But the way that she says that and then says, oh, you take all this money from us, and then he's gonna threaten to move to Texas as if he owes you anything. Right. He owes you nothing. There's no there's no, like, so societal contract that because he, like, took some government money that he owes you anything. So bug off on that one.

Donald Kendal:
35:13
Here. Let's keep

Jim Lakely:
35:15
No. Wait. Just just so we I mean, Elon Musk did not take that money from the state of California at gunpoint. They gave it to him. There's a huge there's a huge moral difference in that.

Jim Lakely:
35:26
And I just wanna point out before you play a little bit more of this, and we could do an entire show just breaking this down and stopping this one video every 7 seconds at most. Right. I just love the way she's dressed. She even looks like a commissar

Chris Talgo:
35:39
for

Jim Lakely:
35:39
crying out loud. She looks like she looks like the the worst, apparatchik that will visit your house, and to scold you. She is the world's most horrifying home association president coming to your house to tell you that, you're not allowed to have you have 3 too many pumpkins in front of your house for for thanks for for Halloween. Right? I mean, look at that shirt for crying out loud.

Donald Kendal:
36:02
Yeah. There's nothing worse than a bureaucrat with power that wants to abuse it.

Jim Lakely:
36:06
That's right. And there's not yeah. And so there's nothing worse than a little bureaucrat with a little bit of power, and then they they exploded into the into the ether. And just one last point to make. The, this is basically, this the the California Coastal Commission doesn't need to get permission, ultimately, for for, Elon Musk to launch his rockets.

Jim Lakely:
36:24
The the the defense department, the Pentagon can override that and and let it go, which I'm sure they probably will. Because without Elon Musk continuing to practice and perform, rocket launches, we don't have a space program, and we need a space program.

Donald Kendal:
36:38
Alright. Right. Right. You know what? I think you have more clips here, so I don't wanna get bogged down in just this Gretchen Newsome one.

Donald Kendal:
36:46
I'm sorry. I see that there's a handful there. So, Jim, I don't know. Maybe you wanna tee 1 up and and, and and play What do you got?

Jim Lakely:
36:55
Yeah. So, actually, I got, oh, I forgot to load it one of them. And I'll load it while we're playing this one. But this is this is another woman on this commission, very small minded. And, again, pointing out to how they're they're hassling Elon Musk and trying to get in his way, not because of any legitimate reason, but because they don't like his politics.

Soy Boy:
37:17
But here, we're dealing with a company that does not that is the the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the, presidential race and made it clear where, what his point of view is. My understanding was that they would be here today on Zoom. I am very concerned that even after meeting with me, my expressing my, feelings Chair. Yes.

Chris Talgo:
37:47
Sorry to interrupt. They they did participate on Zoom today.

Soy Boy:
37:51
Oops. It's not the other companies. This is about SpaceX increasing their launches, not the other companies increasing their launches. So

Jim Lakely:
38:01
Yeah. So it's about Elon Musk, and we don't like his politics. And I I love the idea. It's like, you know, she's so indignant. The these people are so small and so insignificant, and look how much they enjoy, exerting the power that they think they have to stop things.

Jim Lakely:
38:16
It's it's just it's it's mind blowing.

Donald Kendal:
38:18
I can't I I cannot help. If if anyone's read if anyone watching this has read Atlas Shrugged, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's these small bureaucratic people, as you describe them, pulling down these, like, titans of industry. Like that's what that like whole book is about, and this is just this is like the most vivid real life example of that that I think I have ever seen in my life. And that's why I wanted to dedicate so much of the show to this.

Donald Kendal:
38:42
On one hand, we're watching this like marvel of modern technology and engineering feats that, again, thought may be impossible just a decade ago. And then now these people that you've never even heard of on some on some coastal commission in California that is doing their darndest to squash it out of some petty hatred, some petty political hatred of the guy that is, ahead of it. It's just unbelievable.

Chris Talgo:
39:08
The good news is is that they're gonna be overridden. So who cares what they say? I mean, you know, if this was if this was, you know, president Biden going up there and saying we were going to outlaw all SpaceX launches in the United States of America, I'd be like, woah. That's really bad. Give me a year.

Chris Talgo:
39:23
But this is just, this is just a bunch of California, you know, far left, you know, progressive people who are, you know, trying to score political points, and I think that they're very upset. I think the timing of this is obvious is very important. They're very upset that Kamala Harris seems to be losing the present oh oh, you I mean, do you guys not think that that's No.

Donald Kendal:
39:41
No. I I I I You're right.

Chris Talgo:
39:43
And Elon Musk Elon Musk literally being parked in Pennsylvania promoting Donald Trump. If Elon Musk had not gone to that Pennsylvania rally and was really, you know, just staying on the bench on this one, I doubt that they would be doing this. They're doing this because he has emphatically endorsed Donald Trump, and that's what this is about, I think, personally.

Donald Kendal:
40:02
Oh, yeah. I think you're I think you're right. I think that's that's part of that, you know, that political, you know, pettiness that they're that they're trying to throw in his face. But, Jim, let's do one more clip. I know

Jim Lakely:
40:12
you guys are there.

Donald Kendal:
40:13
Pick a pick the best one.

Jim Lakely:
40:14
I'll pick the best one. This is this I called I I titled it in the background soy boy. So here we go, soy boy.

Soy Boy:
40:21
Are talking about SpaceX in this. And and I will say, and I just want to put it out there, you know, as a as a person in this process and in as was mentioned earlier today, we're we're an appointed body. There's the politics and policy and science that they mix in these in these spaces. It's real. This company is owned by the richest person in the world with direct control over what could be the most extensive global communication system on the planet.

Soy Boy:
40:56
And just last week, that person was speaking about political retribution on a national stage and how and it was very glib. And but yet he was standing next to a person, a candidate, that openly promotes and is work you know, working to normalize that language, and we have to push back against that.

Donald Kendal:
41:20
Yeah. It's it's so I mean, like, this is this is what we're up against. I mean, these people are seriously they're sick. I mean, we've talked about Trump derangement syndrome. I think it's mutated.

Donald Kendal:
41:30
I used to joke that if Trump were to, like, discover the cure for cancer, that people would reject it out of spite for Donald Trump. But it's, like, not even a joke anymore. Elon Musk through SpaceX and Tesla and some of his other business ventures are, like, potentially revolutionizing the world. They had a Tesla had an event just late last week where they, unveiled their robo taxis and their humanoid robot optimists to kinda show the the latest developments of those things. So they're potentially he's potentially revolutionizing automation through their Optimus robots, potentially revolutionizing transportation through the robo taxis, potentially revolutionizing space travel with Starship, but let's downplay and ignore all of this because he's got a conservative perspectives on free speech and a couple of other things.

Donald Kendal:
42:20
Like, it's just I can't take it. It's really it's really hard for me to, like, sit here and listen to these people explain why they're gonna try to put the the, you know, the locks on on Elon Musk and SpaceX. Go ahead.

Jim Lakely:
42:34
I mean, I I know we're I know we're we're eager to get to the, the Kamala Harris interview yesterday. I know Chris is, but I I just wanna just highlight why I think this is important, and it's it's the abuse of power by even these petty little bureaucrats. It is not legal to discriminate against Elon Musk just because of his political views. It it it's not it it goes beyond just improper. Anybody in a position of power is they they are representative of the people, and they are supposed to exercise their power with without favor, or disfavor based on politics or any other thing.

Jim Lakely:
43:07
It's everything should be should be judged on its merits. And and we are at a point now in society where radical leftist feel entirely comfortable admitting in a public setting that they are trying to squelch somebody's business, in this case, one of the most, important businesses going in America right now, for petty political reasons. They are so comfortable saying it. Gretchen is spitting it out in her commissar shirt, and it they they think this is totally fine. And this is indicative of what's happening all over our government and has been happening over our government, frankly, since, Donald Trump was elected in 2016.

Jim Lakely:
43:41
The the the government was weaponized against him before he even took the oath of office, and the government is still being weaponized against anybody who does not tow the liberal line from from from government agencies as small and irrelevant as this one to our even department of defense or department of justice in this country. That's what I think that that that's what I why I think it was important to to mention this even though the Pentagon is going to override it. I mean, I I would be absolutely certain of that. In a lot of cases, that wouldn't happen, that these petty bureaucrats will punish their political enemies, and they will use every lever they have in power to do so. Yep.

Chris Talgo:
44:18
I would just I would just add that they're gonna fail, and that's a good thing. So Yeah. Exactly.

Donald Kendal:
44:22
Yeah. I mean, you said, like, if if, you know, Biden were doing this, that would be another thing. And, like, I honestly feel that give it some time, and they'll they'll they'll put the the brakes on the entire space program just simply because of the c o two emissions. You know? We're burning our planet up.

Donald Kendal:
44:39
We can't waste that. Remember all of the hatred that was thrown at, you you mentioned the blue origin. Was that Bezos? That was Bezos' thing? Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson.

Donald Kendal:
44:52
They all had, like, a little space thing all within, like, a week. And the amount of, like, hatred towards them, these billionaires playing with their toys or whatever, like, that's the mindset that leads to, like, a societal degradation. Instead of moving forward and expanding the horizons and trying to figure out where, you know, human potential can grow to, no. It's trying to stifle all of that in the name of equality and, you know, climate change. Those are, like, the 2 giant driving factors of societal degradation.

Donald Kendal:
45:21
But, yes, I could talk about this for a long time, but, considering we're at 45 minutes, we should move on to good old Kamala Harris. So Kamala Harris last week was it last week that we did the episode based on Kamala Harris's campaign is getting desperate? Was that last week?

Jim Lakely:
45:42
Yes. It was.

Donald Kendal:
45:43
Yeah. So we're kind of continuing on with that theme. I think that, the last 7 days have done nothing but added to that, that little narrative there. And, one of the things that is kind of a data point on that trend line is the idea that Kamala Harris agreed to do an interview with Brett Baer of Fox News. So this is kind of particularly surprising because, generally speaking, when we have a Democrat candidate that's not just hiding out in his basement during the campaign season, they're generally not taking interviews that are potentially antagonistic, not friendly.

Donald Kendal:
46:21
You know, seeing Kamala Harris go on The View is one thing. Going on Fox News to talk with Brett Baer is another thing. So, Chris, I'm gonna let you kinda set this up. This was a plan to be a half hour long interview. It was recorded, but it was presented unedited, live.

Donald Kendal:
46:40
Right? Take it from there. What what do we what do we, observe yesterday?

Chris Talgo:
46:46
We observed, Kamala Harris not being able to answer many of the questions that, you know, many Americans have been wondering over the past, you know, couple months. We saw her, obfuscate. You know, we saw her just completely refuse to answer very straightforward questions. So, you know, I I think that the Fox that the Fox interview was enlightening because it shows that she really is not prepared to, you know, be the president of the United States. It also, shows me that when she, you know, is faced with any sort of, combative interview or, you know, and and anyone who does not agree with her on on on main points, she, you know, gets frustrated.

Chris Talgo:
47:30
She gets angry, and she almost lashes out. I think that she was, you know, obviously not expecting, Brett Baer to push as much as he did, and I'm glad that he did push back a lot. I'm glad that he asked follow-up question after follow-up question. You know, good for him for doing that, trying to really tie her down and see where she actually stands on many of the positions that she's been, waffling on over the past couple months. And, you know, I I I think this is part of her her larger, campaign, problem.

Chris Talgo:
48:02
So, you know, a couple weeks ago, the campaign announced well, she's gonna go on and, do this this big, media tour. The media tour, started with the, like you said, The View and a couple of podcasts. She was on Charley May and the gods radio show. She was on Howard Stern as well. At at those interviews, it was more of the same.

Chris Talgo:
48:21
It was softball question after softball question, basically disagreeing with everything that she had done, and then she walked into, you know, the belly of the beast. And she walked into Fox News. This was her first Fox News interview, and I I think I think it was terrible for her. And I think that it it also reeked of desperation, because she's I think, you know, well understands that things are not looking good for for her in the in the key swing states, and she has to try to, you know, to to, appeal to some of these, you know, independents or, you know, these, you know you know, Liz Cheney type Republicans. And I think that it didn't work.

Chris Talgo:
49:04
I think that she, you know, did not impress them at all. And I think that, you know, she came away from it, and and people are now thinking exactly what they thought. This woman, you know, was handed this nomination. She does not have a plan in place. She, you know, does not, she's unwilling to call out, you know, the mistakes that she's made over the past three and a half years in, you know, in the Biden administration.

Chris Talgo:
49:30
And she just constantly constantly points fingers and blames Donald Trump for everything. And people are just sick and tired of it. This this, election, you know, that it's just gonna be happening very soon, is about results. It's not about personality. It's not about, you know, trying to say he's, you know, a terrible, you know, would be dictator.

Chris Talgo:
49:51
That's not gonna that's not gonna work. The people really are are, you know, concerned about, you know, the big threes that I've been describing them, immigration, crime, and the economy. And on all three of those things, Kamala Harris is a failure. And just today just today, we learned that the FBI have been actually, gumming up the the numbers and, you know, the, rate is actually way up under Biden Harris administration. So, you know, not only is it the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you know, you know, saying 800,000 jobs were created that were never created.

Chris Talgo:
50:28
Now you've got the FBI falsely reporting on crime data. So I think that people are losing confidence in the mainstream media and these major institutions, and that's a very concerning development. And, you know, I'd I like Jim said earlier, I think this really does go back to 2016, 2015 when Donald Trump emerged on a political scene, and they just, you know, went bonkers and think we have to do anything possible to prevent this man from winning again. Even though we know that his, you know, 4 year term was nothing near like they said it was gonna be and nothing near like what Kamala said was gonna happen in that interview with camps being set up for people and political retribution and Adam Schiff better watch out, and Nancy Pelosi is gonna be on his enemies list. That is just not true.

Chris Talgo:
51:15
Donald Trump could have gone after his political opponents. He chose not to. Actually, the all the in the total opposite has occurred since the Biden Harris administration. They have gone after their political opponents, whether it's Steve Bannon, whether it's Peter Navarro, or whether it's Donald Trump himself. They have actually put these people in jail.

Chris Talgo:
51:34
So I'm just getting really sick and tired of this rhetoric that they're spouting saying, oh, Donald Trump, if he gets in there, you know, we're gonna, you know, hit see concentration camps and Nazism and all this stuff. No. That's not true. We're actually gonna see really common sense policies that the American people really need right now, especially in terms of immigration crime in the economy and the cost of living. That's what people care about.

Chris Talgo:
51:55
That's what this election's about, and Kamala Harris cannot answer those questions.

Donald Kendal:
51:59
Right. Right. Yeah. And I I feel like, you know, we could even if it was, like, a good interview, we can go through and find the clips where she looks particularly bad. But I don't think there is any part of this interview that went particularly well.

Donald Kendal:
52:14
So what we have is a smattering of clips. I don't know if we'll get through all of them, but the first one, this was this was the first part of the interview that I saw, and it was and this is kind of related to the, the idea that she's essentially the incumbent candidate. Right? But she's trying to present herself as this agent of change, and there's this reality that, like, you can't have both. There was an embarrassing clip we didn't have prepared for this of, Tim Walz recently talking about we can't take 4 more years of this.

Donald Kendal:
52:43
It's like you guys have been in charge for the last 4 years, but, so this gets brought up by Brett Baer. This idea that an overwhelming majority of Americans think that we're heading in the wrong direction as a country. And so, yeah, let's play this clip and see Kamala Harris' response to it.

Brett Baier:
53:02
People are soft still. Tell the country is on the wrong track. They say the country is on the wrong track. If it's on the wrong track, that track follows 3 and a half years of you being vice president and President Biden being president. That is what they're saying, 79% of them.

Brett Baier:
53:20
Why are they saying that? If you're turning the page, you've been in office for three and a half years.

Kamala Harris:
53:26
And Donald Trump has been running for office.

Chris Talgo:
53:30
What does that mean?

Donald Kendal:
53:32
What does that mean? Wait. Is there more to that clip? Because there was there was

Jim Lakely:
53:36
That was the end of that clip I have for you.

Donald Kendal:
53:38
So she repeats that, like, 2 or 3 times or whatever. And then he's like, yeah. But you've been in office. And then she says, well, yeah. But he's been running, and you know what I mean.

Donald Kendal:
53:47
You know exactly what I mean. And Brett Baer says, I don't know what you mean. What are you talking about? So so, Jim, I mean, that that is like the that that's gotta be, like, the worst fumble. That that's the worst fumble of the whole thing, I think.

Donald Kendal:
54:03
Maybe some of the clips are worse, but that to me is, like like Chris was saying, like, the big points that are in voters' minds. Is they're thinking, like, these last three and a half years with inflation and all of that, like, hasn't been great. What's your response to that, Kamala Harris? Well, Donald Trump's been running for president. It's like, that's not even an answer.

Donald Kendal:
54:24
What do you think?

Jim Lakely:
54:25
It it is it it isn't even an answer. I I you know, to be honest, I thought I didn't see the clips until later, because I don't have Fox News. I don't have cable at all, but I was looking at a few clips on my phone on on x, and I thought, oh my god. She just she did terrible. She did terrible.

Jim Lakely:
54:41
Everybody's saying that she just did terrible, and the clips showed that. And then I watched the whole thing actually, on YouTube. And I thought, you know what? She didn't do that as badly as I thought she did. And then I watched it again, and I probably watched it 3 times.

Jim Lakely:
54:53
She got there 17 minutes late, so they didn't get as many questions in as they wanted. That was obviously on purpose. The the intent what Kamala Harris was trying to do was to get there late, because Brett Barry promised, like, we'll we'll record 30 minutes, and that'll you know, he probably figured from 5 o'clock to 5:30, we'll record this, interview. And then that gives my my team half an hour to get it ready and to air right at 6 o'clock on Fox News. She knew that was the plan.

Jim Lakely:
55:19
So she show shows up 17 minutes late, you know, and her intent was to filibuster through all of these questions.

Donald Kendal:
55:25
That's exactly what I was gonna say.

Jim Lakely:
55:27
Yeah. And since Brett Baer had very limited amount of time, he kept he would talk over her and wouldn't let her get away with it and try to nail her down on some very basic questions. Like, I don't know. You had a position, on like, for instance, like, in 2019, you had a position, that, all, trans transgender surgeries to transition, should be paid for by the taxpayers for anybody in federal prison system. So murderers and all those people, if they feel like they wanna transition, the taxpayers have to pay for that.

Jim Lakely:
55:57
That was a a position that he played the clip of her saying so, in 2019, and he asked her a very logical question. Do you still have that position today? The left, you know, considers that an attack question or a gotcha question. No. It's just asking what actually the American people would like to know.

Jim Lakely:
56:13
You've you've had these kind of positions that are out of the mainstream, just a few years ago. Do you still hold those positions? She refused to answer them. And in fact, she's I think one of her answers was, Brett, that was 5 years ago. Yeah.

Jim Lakely:
56:25
Oh, okay. 5 5 years ago is not that long ago. Do you still believe that this should be policy? And she said, I will follow the law because apparently it's law to do this. Well Yeah.

Jim Lakely:
56:35
You'll have the power to president to make the, you know, to make those policies, do you still support them? She refused to answer.

Donald Kendal:
56:42
So Yeah. The idea the idea that, like, I'm gonna follow the law. It's like you're also running to be part of it, of a government wing that controls what the laws are. You know? So it's like Right.

Donald Kendal:
56:55
Some of those answers that you're talking about are actually in this, immigration clip. Do you wanna play that one and then you can elaborate further?

Jim Lakely:
57:02
Yeah. No. We'll play the immigration clip. But it's like you know, what what I found funny was that well, great, actually, because this was the first. It was hardly super challenging, but it was the first any challenge to any of her policies, any interview she's ever given.

Jim Lakely:
57:14
JD Vance does this stuff daily, and he just slays on the Sunday shows all the time. He gets nothing but, you know, hostile questions, and he has no problem with it. She has a big problem with it, and her answers are pretty terrible. So here we go with the immigration stuff.

Brett Baier:
57:27
You know, voters tell pollsters all over the country and here in Pennsylvania that immigration is one of the key issues that they're looking at this election, and specifically the influx of illegal immigrants from more than 150 countries. How many illegal immigrants would you estimate your administration has released into the country over the last three and a half years?

Kamala Harris:
57:50
Well, I'm glad you raised the issue of immigration because I agree with you. It is a it is a topic of discussion that people want to rightly have. And you know what I'm gonna talk about. Yeah.

Brett Baier:
58:01
But do you just a number. Do you think it's 1,000,000, 3,000,000?

Kamala Harris:
58:04
Brett, let's just get to the point. Okay? The point is that we have a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired.

Brett Baier:
58:12
So your Homeland Security secretary said that 85% of the apprehensions

Kamala Harris:
58:16
I'm not finished. We have a we have to

Brett Baier:
58:18
run the crisis. 6,000,000 people have been released into the country. And let me just finish. I'll get you the question. I promise you.

Kamala Harris:
58:24
I was beginning to answer.

Brett Baier:
58:25
And when when you came into office, your administration nearly reversed a number of Trump border policies. Most significantly, the policy that required illegal immigrants to be detained through deportation, either in the US or in Mexico, and you switch that policy. They were released from custody awaiting trial. So instead, included in those were a large number of single men, adult men, who went on to commit heinous crimes. So looking back, do you regret the decision to terminate remain in Mexico at the beginning of your administration?

Kamala Harris:
59:01
At the beginning of our administration, within practically hours of taking these oaths.

Donald Kendal:
59:06
Here's the filibuster. Here's the filibuster.

Kamala Harris:
59:08
Go on. Bill that we offered congress before we worked on infrastructure, before the Inflation Reduction Act, before the CHIPS and Science Act, before any before the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first bill, practically within hours of taking the oath, was a bill to fix our immigration system.

Brett Baier:
59:31
Yes, ma'am. It was called the US citizen citizenship act of

Kamala Harris:
59:34
2,000 Exactly.

Brett Baier:
59:35
21. It was essentially a So

Kamala Harris:
59:37
but but I to citizenship for the

Brett Baier:
59:39
finish yes, ma'am.

Kamala Harris:
59:39
May I finish may I finish responding, please?

Jim Lakely:
59:41
But this

Kamala Harris:
59:42
You have to let me finish.

Brett Baier:
59:43
You had the White House and the House and the Senate, and they didn't bring up

Kamala Harris:
59:47
that bill. Responding to the point you're raising. Okay. And I'd like to finish.

Donald Kendal:
59:51
Wow. She said nothing. She said 0. Chris, I mean, seriously, like, maybe some people are some people are saying, like, well, it wasn't a train wreck, but it's not doing her any favors. I mean, I'm watching some of these clips, and they're just like, they're they're flying as good as a brick with a anchor tied to it.

Donald Kendal:
01:00:11
What are your thoughts?

Chris Talgo:
01:00:13
Yeah. So I I just wanna, like, really key in on that point because this has been getting a lot of, attention, you know, since she entered the race. And she keeps saying that Donald Trump, torpedoed this this border bill, but that border bill didn't come into a come in you know, wasn't even introduced into congress until 2023. So the for the first two years of her administration, like Bret Baier said, the Democrats had control of the house and the senate. They did absolutely nothing on the border except undo all of Donald Trump's executive orders that were, in place designed to keep these people from entering the United States, remain in Mexico and those other kind of things.

Chris Talgo:
01:00:56
So she just completely ignores that and just refuses to even address that point and just, tries to, point fingers and blame Trump because he did not agree with this supposedly bipartisan bill in 2023 that was just not even, you know, not not not a good bill at all, would not have solved the the problem at all. And we know why. Because they wanted to let in tens of millions of people into this country because they wanna change the the demography of this country so that they can win more political elections. I mean, it's just it's it's very simple. And, you know, that that's what this is about.

Chris Talgo:
01:01:30
The American people see that that that's happening. And and, you know, I think that they over, they they they overestimated on this one because now we're seeing that, these cities across the country, not just border cities, but cities all over the place, including Chicago, New York City, you know, all over, They're being overrun with, you know, illegal immigrants who are causing all sorts of problems for their public services, for education, just all over the place, not to mention crime, obviously. And I think the American people are really fed up with that, and they're really fed up with that. She would not even say, hey. You know what?

Chris Talgo:
01:02:04
We made a mistake. If I could go back, I would redo it this way. I wouldn't do that, you know, and the other thing. She just keeps just saying, no. Actually, you're wrong, Brett.

Chris Talgo:
01:02:12
Everything's great. Everything's fine, and don't worry about how many people there in this country. It doesn't matter. And the American people, I just think, are sick and tired. They will not buy that.

Donald Kendal:
01:02:20
Right. Yeah. We here here's an here's another clip, and and this one, I don't know if it, like, caught her off guard, because it's asking about, like, Joe Biden, you know, and Joe Biden is, like, in most people's minds, not even president anymore. Like, he's just faded off into the sunset, almost literally. But, so this one almost caught her off guard, but I think that this question is more kind of, like, almost trying to gauge her judgment on things.

Donald Kendal:
01:02:48
So let's go ahead and play this clip.

Kamala Harris:
01:02:51
He's unstable. Unstable? He is unstable, but

Brett Baier:
01:02:54
he's not well. You say he's mentally not stable? He's not.

Donald Kendal:
01:02:57
About the

Brett Baier:
01:02:57
wrong ask you this. You told many interviewers that Joe Biden was on his game, that ran around circles on his staff. When did you first notice that president Biden's mental faculties appeared diminished?

Kamala Harris:
01:03:11
Joe Biden, I have watched in from the Oval Office to the situation room. And he has the judgment and the experiment and and experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people.

Brett Baier:
01:03:28
Joe Biden concerns, Rhett.

Kamala Harris:
01:03:29
Right? Joe Biden is not on ballot.

Brett Baier:
01:03:31
I understand.

Kamala Harris:
01:03:32
But Donald Trump Donald Trump is Well, you talked about it. And and Donald Trump is

Brett Baier:
01:03:36
After George Clooney said within a few minutes of talking to president Biden at a fundraiser that he thought this was not the same Joe Biden that we saw on the debate stage.

Kamala Harris:
01:03:44
Trump is on the ballot.

Brett Baier:
01:03:45
I understand. You met with him at least once a week for three and a half years. You didn't have any concerns?

Kamala Harris:
01:03:53
I think the American people have a concern about Donald Trump, which is why the people who know him best, including leaders of our national security community have all spoken out, even people who worked for him in the Oval Office, worked with him in the situation room, and have said he is unfit and dangerous and should never be president of the United States again, including his former vice president, which is why the job was open for him to choose another running mate. So that is a fact. That is a

Jim Lakely:
01:04:32
fact. I can think of another job that was recently made open. That would be the democratic candidate for president of the United States. I mean, what I love about this this question in the way it's set up is that Brett Baer set up a trap, and she just walked right into it, because he first started talking about Trump. It's like, you say Trump is unstable, that he's mentally unfit, that he's losing it, that he's too old and all that stuff.

Jim Lakely:
01:04:56
And she was so eager to get in there, and he's like, but what about Biden? You know? And it was a very But

Donald Kendal:
01:05:02
he sharpens attack. Right?

Jim Lakely:
01:05:03
Well, yeah. I mean, it's actually one of the biggest political scandals that's never reported on. It's that the entire administration, including Kamala Harris, covered up the fact that the president of the United States has brains made of bapioca and has for quite a while. And it's a very fair question that a lot of Americans actually are wondering about. When did you first notice that that that Joe Biden was not fit to be president of the United States because he is going senile, and he he is just doesn't have the mental capabilities to run an ice cream stand, let alone be president.

Jim Lakely:
01:05:33
And she doesn't want to answer that question because the answer to that question is, we knew it a long time ago, but she can't say that. And so kudos to, to to Brett Baer for bringing that up, and her attempt to deflect that back to Trump, did not come off very well, and that's not gonna it's not gonna play it's not gonna play very very well.

Donald Kendal:
01:05:51
Jim, we got one more clip that, you talked me into playing here. I I wasn't sure of the context of this one, so I wasn't, too keen on playing it. But, why don't you set it up and hit play and then comment on it.

Jim Lakely:
01:06:04
Alright.

Kamala Harris:
01:06:07
And you and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people. He has talked about going after people who are engaged in peaceful protest. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him. This is a democracy. And in in a democracy, the president of the United States in the United States of America should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he'd lock people up for doing it.

Kamala Harris:
01:06:37
And this is what is at stake, which is why you have someone like the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff saying what Mark Milley has said about Donald Trump being a threat to the United States of America.

Jim Lakely:
01:06:54
That triggered me. So I I just have to say this idea, and they've been peddling this. And, you know, so much for the fact that Donald Trump has had 2, maybe 3 assassination attempts and got shot in the face, in the ear, that's part of your face, at a at a rally. They're still cranking up the, threat to democracy language here. Joe Biden himself even said at a separate appearance in Philadelphia that he can't wait to see, Donald Trump, you know, sentenced and put behind bars, which is amazing.

Jim Lakely:
01:07:23
So, you know, this this kinda triggered me because this is typical, leftist projection. Donald Trump is not talking about sicking the military upon the American citizens and people who disagree with him. That is a that is calumny. That is a lie. That is actually a dangerous lie.

Jim Lakely:
01:07:40
Not, you know, of the kind they always talk about because everything on the left is projection. He's talking about if if we see a repeat of the riots of the summer of love in 2020, that he is going to try harder to get the the national guard out there to restore order. That's what he's talking about. He's not talking about ordering the military to march through the streets and round up his political opponents. That is what the democrats say is going to happen, and it is extremely dangerous to to try to convince, frankly, unhinged supporters of you, your candidate, and your party to think that that is what he is talking about.

Jim Lakely:
01:08:15
And to stand there and say that he wants to arrest people who disagree with him when we have what is it? 1,000 your own department of justice brags about the 1500 people they have rounded up and thrown in jail for January 6th. The vast majority of them the vast majority of them actually peacefully protesting and did and and and invited into the capital, not breaking down barriers, but walking into the capital. Grandmothers taking selfies with them, walking between the roads in the capital rotunda. Those people were arrested and put in jail because they are your political opponents.

Jim Lakely:
01:08:50
And the intent the reason you did that is to silence any opposition to your regime. That is exactly what is going on here. And so for her to be saying on this, and she says it on the stump, and and Obama says it on the stump in her stead, all of her surrogates do, that Donald Trump is going to is going to use the military and sic them upon his political opponents in America. It's a lie. It's an actual dangerous lie, and it's and it, for her and for and if Brett Payer had a little bit more time, he may have been able to challenge her on that.

Jim Lakely:
01:09:18
That's my only disappointment.

Donald Kendal:
01:09:21
Chris, we played a bunch of clips here. Any any comments on on that clip in particular or anything else in regards to the Brett Bayer interview?

Chris Talgo:
01:09:30
Yeah. So after the, first in association attempt, I remember that we were talking about whether or not the mainstream media had some sort of role in that. And back then, I took the stance of, no, they they really, you know, didn't have a role because first, we didn't have any evidence that this guy was, you know, consuming mass media and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, I've kinda changed my mind on that. First of all, we've seen another assassination attempt since then, which is just insane.

Chris Talgo:
01:09:55
And I I I do think that the rhetoric has just gone so over the top. You know, I was watching some MSNBC this morning, getting ready for work, and Mika and Joe were just, I I I've never seen them like this. I mean, they are like, they they made what Kamala said there look actually, like, pretty pretty normal because they are saying that if Donald Trump comes into the oval office on, you know, January 20, 2025, that we are gonna see concentration camps set up, and that all physical political opponents will be thrown into concentration camps. That is just so, like, over the top and, like, you just you know, unfair and and and not true. And then it makes me wonder, so why are they saying that?

Chris Talgo:
01:10:38
I I am beginning to think that they know that the writing's on the wall and that Trump is gonna win and that they are preparing for that and that they are preparing for almost all out war, you know, against a, second Trump term. And I go back to the, you know, to the early days of the first Trump term. I was, you know, down in South Carolina back then. I was actually still teaching, and I remember just some of the, the the protests that took place, when, you know, Trump, did his, you know, quote, unquote Muslim ban when he actually just said, hey. You know, these these couple of countries here in the Middle East, you know, they've got a lot of terrorists, you know, going on there.

Chris Talgo:
01:11:13
Let's just maybe, you know, stop, you know, migration for them, you know, for for a little bit. And it was just so over the top. And it was, you know, the the mainstream media that was leading the charge on on that and so many other issues saying that, you know, Donald Trump literally wants to, you know, you know, ban all Muslims from this country. It's like, no. He never said that.

Chris Talgo:
01:11:33
Like, what are you talking about? So I'm I'm I'm getting nervous that the rhetoric that they're gonna be espousing, you know, in a couple months is gonna make that look like, you know, child's play, and that we're gonna just, you know, see some some, you know, potentially very dangerous developments from that. And I think a lot of people, you know, are gonna come out of the woodwork and think, well, this guy is a threat to democracy. This guy is, you know, a dictator. He's a fascist.

Chris Talgo:
01:11:57
He's gonna throw people in, you know, in concentration camps. Better do something about it. So, you know, it's it it it it it it's it's really sad, pathetic, you know, scary that the mainstream media are just going so far to try to, scare, you know, the socks off the American people if someone who comes back in the office who we saw, you know, govern for, 4 years and did a very good job. And none of the stuff that they're saying happened, not even close to it. Like, nothing not even near it.

Chris Talgo:
01:12:30
So So they've gotta just stop at this. They've gotta stop at the Hitler comparisons, the Nazi comparisons. You know, they are, I think, driving people over the edge. And, you know, I'm I'm fearful that, you know, I think Trump's gonna win, but then I'm fearful. What's gonna happen for the next 4 years?

Donald Kendal:
01:12:45
You

Chris Talgo:
01:12:46
know, like, what's gonna happen? You know, I remember Maxine Waters saying, hey. If you see any Trump supporters, you know, at a gas station, go and do something or, you know, Trump's Trump, people, you know, in the administration getting thrown out of restaurants and stuff like that. I think that's just gonna be the you know, just look like nothing compared to what happens from 2025 to 2029 if and when I hope Donald Trump wins.

Donald Kendal:
01:13:08
Right. Right. And I will say that if Donald Trump becomes president and starts putting all of his political opponents in concentration camps, I will drop my support. You have my word on that, people.

Chris Talgo:
01:13:19
Yeah. Duh.

Donald Kendal:
01:13:21
So so, yeah, I I so this all just kind of goes and even Chris' depiction of kind of the media's treatment of all of this stuff just highlights this idea of just this desperation that's going on in the Kamala Harris campaign. There, I think we referenced this last time. We don't have to go into it again, but, the polls of the swing states are looking increasingly favorable to Donald Trump. The bet some of these betting odds websites are looking particularly favorable for Donald Trump. It's leading the Kamala Harris campaign to do things that they wouldn't normally do, to try to get some, you know, extra extra momentum here.

Donald Kendal:
01:14:00
Going on the Brett Baer interview on Fox News, that was one of them. There was also news that broke over the last several days. Donald Trump was on some podcast, and they were asking him, when are you gonna be on the Joe Rogan podcast, the most viewed podcast in the world? And he's like, oh, you know, you know, I think I am doing that one. Yeah.

Donald Kendal:
01:14:19
Yeah. I am doing that one. So everyone's like, wait. What? There hasn't been any official announcement, but if Donald Trump goes on the Joe Rogan podcast, it's gonna break the Internet.

Donald Kendal:
01:14:28
Within, like, 2 hours of that news kinda circling on on x or, you know, social media, The Harris campaign floated out something being like, oh, yeah. Yeah. We're actually looking to, we're looking to go on Joe Rogan too. You know? It's just like, first off, nobody believes you.

Donald Kendal:
01:14:43
Secondly, like, that would be terrible for your campaign surely, and certainly a move again out of desperation. So, I think that for me it feels like the writing's on the wall. It feels like what is what is going on with the campaign, what's going on with the media. It's just trying to make it seem like it's closer than it really is because I feel like it's not gonna be very close. I swear, you know, there's some other things going around of, like, you know, the same things that we heard 4 years ago.

Donald Kendal:
01:15:17
Like, oh, yeah. There's gonna be a lot of mail in votes. We're gonna have to wait days for them all to be counted. It's even likely that a lot of those will swing one way or the other, versus the other, I should say. And I don't think we're gonna have to wait 4 days.

Donald Kendal:
01:15:30
I feel like this is gonna be wrapped up on election night. But, Jim, what do you what do you think? Is this am I reading too much into this desperation of of the left?

Jim Lakely:
01:15:42
Stop giving me hope and and calming my fears about, about this election because I still have the scars from 2020. I we still, you know, know that that election was not exactly on the up and up. There were some let's just say I already just got this podcast demonetized and banned. Although our channel is demonetized. It doesn't matter, I guess.

Jim Lakely:
01:16:07
But, let let's put it let's put it charitably. There were irregularities to that election. The 2020 election was the most unique one any of us have ever experienced. And we saw a huge lead in Pennsylvania and other swing states just suddenly disappear in the middle of the night. And when people were tracking the vote the vote counts, it went from it's just impossible that when you when you're opening up boxes of ballots, that 99% of them or maybe even a 100% of them are for one candidate, not the other.

Jim Lakely:
01:16:37
It's a statistical impossibility. Yet we saw it happen in 2020. And so, you know, supporters of Donald Trump have been saying that it has to be, the victory for Donald Trump has to be too big to rig, that, it has to be overwhelming. You know, the polls show that a lot of the swing states are tight. And, historically, Donald Trump's support has been under polled.

Jim Lakely:
01:16:56
So if the race in Pennsylvania is tied, that probably means in practical terms, at least as far as the expression of the voters of Pennsylvania, that he's probably up by a few points. And if that's the case, then, then, yes, this this is looking as optimistic as you think, Donnie. But, again, I've experienced the 2020 election. I kind of you know, I keep replaying it in my head. And the idea that, that an American election for president will be settled on election night as has happened in every other election but one in our entire lifetimes, I am not so optimistic that I think that that will happen, but we'll see.

Donald Kendal:
01:17:30
Alright, Chris. I mean, I don't wanna I don't wanna inspire complacency or anything like that. But I've been saying this. This is this has been my this has been my thoughts that I've been saying on this podcast for at least 3 weeks now that I'm thinking Trump has taken this walking away. Final thoughts, and then we're gonna wrap up the show.

Chris Talgo:
01:17:49
Yeah. I think the best evidence to point to that is that at this point in time, Joe Biden had a 10 point national lead. Most of the national polls show maybe Kamala winning by 1, 2, or actually tied. And in the swing states, Biden was up by more than 5 points in almost all of them. Trump in, in the RCP average is winning every single swing state, all 7 of them.

Chris Talgo:
01:18:14
That is a humongous, difference from 2016 and 2020. I mean, so I I I'm I'm confident that he's gonna win. But like Jim said, you know, we we, you know, we saw what happened in 2020. I I sit up that entire night watching just my mouth in the floor just going, I can't believe this is happening. I doubt that that's gonna happen again just because this time, there's not gonna be the sheer number of, mail in voting, and there's not all the pandemic, you know, stuff happening.

Chris Talgo:
01:18:43
But, yeah, there still is gonna be some cheating. Of course, there's gonna be cheating. And, I think it's gonna be, you know, less than it was in 2020, and I think Trump's gonna win. And that's what I'm sticking to.

Donald Kendal:
01:18:55
Yeah. So I see the comment that was briefly flashed on the screen from engineer guy, Jim, if you could find that one of the Tyrus on Fox News, talking about him guaranteeing that it's gonna be a landslide, that if it's not, he's gonna shave his beard. I can't go that far, guys. Come on, Johnny. Come on, man.

Donald Kendal:
01:19:13
That far. I can't go that far. But, obviously, this will be a topic in the weeks leading up to the election. We'll talk about it more and more on future episodes of in the tank podcast. I wanna thank all of you for joining us for this episode.

Donald Kendal:
01:19:25
Tune in every week for a new episode of in the tank podcast. If you're watching this or listening to it on Itunes, leave a review for us on Itunes. That would be greatly appreciated. And you could also watch us live on Thursdays, noon CST on Facebook and YouTube with x and Rumble. And you can join the conversation, throw your comments and questions in the chat.

Donald Kendal:
01:19:44
Maybe we'll share your comment on the screen. Maybe we'll address your questions on the fly. And you could also support the show by going to heartland.org slash in the tank and donating directly to the show. We have been demonetized by YouTube. But if you go to that, URL there and donate to the show, YouTube doesn't get to take a 30% cut.

Donald Kendal:
01:20:04
So there's a big plus there. If you wanna support the show but don't wanna spend a dollar and just spend a couple of seconds hitting that like button, sharing this content, subscribing if you haven't already, or just leaving a comment under the video, all of those things help break through those big tech algorithms that prevent content like this from being shown to more people. Jim Lakeley, where can the find people find you?

Jim Lakely:
01:20:24
Atjlakeleyonx@heartlandinstonx, and always visitheartland.org.

Donald Kendal:
01:20:30
Fantastic. And, Chris Talgo, what do you have to pitch today?

Chris Talgo:
01:20:35
The Heartland Institute's home website at heartland.org, of course.

Donald Kendal:
01:20:39
Fantastic. Thank you all for tuning in, and we will talk to you next week.

Kamala Harris:
01:21:15
Turn that off.