After two years of searching, Robert Mueller's massive investigation into Donald Trump comes up empty. There was no collusion with Russia. It's a complete and total exoneration. I go through some of the details, I read Bill Barr's letter, and I review some media madness.
00:28:55.640And I'm always pessimistic about these things because I think that elections do tend to favor Democrats
00:29:00.760just by the way they're set up and the way the media work.
00:29:03.400But for some time, the media are going to be wearing this around their necks.
00:29:07.340They created this conspiracy theory and treated it like a legitimate news story when there was no evidence whatsoever.
00:29:13.320You know, I think of some of the big players in the Democratic Party, Tom Steyer, who threw a ton of money behind an impeached Trump campaign and really radicalized the party.
00:29:27.540That's quite a radical thing to say, to impeach a president.
00:29:30.260And now that all the bases has fallen away, I have two revelations.
00:29:36.160One is how empty the Democrat pantry is now that this is gone.
00:29:42.540I mean, what have they been talking about for two years?
00:29:45.340You've had a few goofy ideas lately floated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a new Green Deal or whatever.
00:29:54.140I think it's taken up all the energy in the Democrats.
00:29:57.780But it's also, as you point out, taken up a lot of time and energy from the Republicans, too.
00:30:02.040Who knows what works they could have done?
00:30:04.620I was just reading, you know, I mean, the terrible things that are happening in the world that I don't think have had proper American attention.
00:30:13.080Terrible problems that were not solved because we had a president with one eye on this, you know, being defensive, looking over his shoulder the whole time.
00:30:25.840I think both sides were hampered, which means America suffered.
00:30:29.780You know, I think there's a very strong argument to be made that the president was unable to pursue his agenda to the extent he would have liked to have done because of this.
00:30:44.620I think it probably interfered with his ability to build relations with Russia the way he sought to do.
00:30:52.480And I think it did weaken America on the world stage a bit.
00:30:55.200You know, other leaders want to know they're dealing with someone who's not going to disappear.
00:30:59.780So it did weaken him when it looked as though he might not serve out his full term, which in a couple of instances seemed possible.
00:31:09.540Not to those of us who never took this seriously, but to the media, to the stock market at times.
00:31:14.840But look, you have to give the president credit for working through all this.
00:31:17.920It's not easy to point to any one foreign policy outcome that would have gone differently.
00:31:23.680And I think he's pursued his agenda regardless.
00:31:25.780And maybe in some ways, this problem has been a boon for him rather than a burden, because I personally disagree with the president's policy of moving toward better relations with Russia.
00:31:37.540And maybe given some of the time to consider that relationship more carefully that was afforded by this hoax, he has had a chance to reconsider.
00:31:50.020So maybe there's been some positive spinoffs.
00:31:51.800Of course, he probably would have arrived at that conclusion eventually, because Russia's interests just don't align with ours on many issues, although they do on other issues.
00:31:58.680But I think it's to his credit that he worked through this, and he's now come out the other end much stronger.
00:32:05.180I think he has, to some degree, the honeymoon he was denied back in 2017.
00:32:12.440He'll have it for about 36 hours, but he'll have a honeymoon.
00:32:14.660I know you've got to run, Joel, so I have two quick questions for you.
00:32:20.760After the disconnect between the media party and the pollsters and the pundits and the experts in 2016 and the electorate, there was some introspection.
00:32:30.740I remember Nate Silver, the prognosticator, said we really have to look about if we're just sampling our own biases and going to our friends.
00:32:41.740You know, it's like, well, I didn't know anyone who voted for Trump.
00:32:44.800Well, it's because you're in a bubble.
00:32:46.580There was a moment of introspection back then.
00:32:49.720Is there any evidence that the CNNs or the MSNBCs, the New York Times or the Washington Post realized that they have screwed up by getting this so wrong and they bought their own BS?
00:33:01.580Is there any evidence that there'll be some introspection there or, like you say, they're just going to move on to the next scam?
00:33:09.780I think there is some infighting you see on the occasional CNN panel where some of the journalists are beginning to question some of the pundits they bring on from the Democratic side who are still struggling to grapple with the reality.
00:33:23.800But I don't think the media have yet done any self-examination.
00:33:27.380And the problem after 2016 was there were journalists who were promising them that or promising each other and promising the public that they could bring down the Trump administration.
00:33:36.200And in a kind of hysteria, it's very difficult to be rational.
00:33:41.740It's difficult to be the one left behind or left out.
00:33:43.820So even responsible journalists were caught up in this once it seemed to be a story.
00:33:49.200Also, the way the media often work, people are competing for traffic, for eyeballs, for subscriptions.
00:33:54.900And once your competitors are offering a breaking news story that seems exciting and thrilling, it's very hard to stay away from it.
00:34:02.560And if those competitors are mainstream sources that are widely trusted and seen as credible, then it's very easy to link to those or cover what they're covering and claim that it's OK because CNN covered it or the New York Times covered it or the Washington Post covered it.
00:34:17.360So in a way, this was like the stock market crash of 2008, where the ratings agencies blessed a number of securities that were really fundamentally unsound.
00:34:28.920Here we have the credibility of the major mainstream networks creating a false sense of reliability around this story, which is why it all collapsed.
00:34:38.740I don't think there's any introspection.
00:34:40.040I think they're on to the next conspiracy theory again by the end of the week.
00:34:51.540I got one last question because I know you've got to run.
00:34:53.520Ann Coulter is someone I follow because I find her interesting and tough.
00:34:58.160And I know she was an early backer of Trump who has grown skeptical of him because of his slowness on the wall and his statements occasionally that he wants to bring in more immigration.
00:35:10.160She has tweeted her fear that because this existential threat is now removed from Donald Trump, that he's no longer at genuine risk of impeachment or whatever, that Trump may take his base for granted, the base that was there fighting hard for him every day.
00:35:28.440And that he might abandon some of those base, pleasing policies like building the wall.
00:35:34.220She's nervous about this, that Trump might say, oh, I don't need anyone anymore.
00:35:52.540I don't know that that's a particular risk right now.
00:35:55.220If anything, the risk was greater when there was a chance he would be impeached because he would try to do a deal with the Democrats to get out of impeachment.