A government shutdown was averted at the last minute, thanks to a last minute deal between the White House and the right wing of the Republican Party. But how did a deal get done in the first place, and why did it come to fruition? And how did it end up being so bad that it almost caused the government to shut down entirely? Alex Blumberg breaks it all down and explains how the deal was struck and why it was the best possible solution to a government shutdown that looked like it was on the verge of being the first in a decade to happen. Alex also explains why the deal got done and why the idea of a government shut down is a bad one, and what it means for the future of the country and the country's future in the long-term. And Alex talks about why a deal would have been better than a deal that was scuttled just a few weeks ago, and how it could have been much, much worse, which is why it got done in a way that would have led to chaos and chaos and ultimately led to the possibility of another government shutdown in the near future. Alex also talks about the Ukraine crisis, and its impact on the Ukraine war, and the potential impact on Ukraine and the Ukraine conflict in general, and explains why it s so important to have a solution to the ongoing funding crisis in Ukraine and Ukraine's ongoing problems. and why that s going to be a problem and much more. in this episode of Alex Blume's new podcast, "Out of the Box" on the Russia and Ukraine podcast, Out Of The Box. Subscribe to Out of the Out of The Box! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices and become a supporter of the podcast on iTunes Subscribe on Podcharts Subscribe on PodcastOne Subscribe on Spare Spaces Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on PODCAST Connect with Spare Cash App Subscribe on Itunes Learn more on your favorite streaming platform Subscribe on Vimeo Learn more at Podcoin Learn more from your favorite podcast platform Learn More from your Grameroy Hill Subscribe and Share it on Social Media Connect with a friend on LinkedIn Learn More about your fellow podcast choices and Podcasts on the road trip? Subscribe at Spare Links? Learn more in our new podcast on the Podchronicity Podcasts Subscribe & Share it's a chance to win a discount on a podcast episode on a future episode on our podcast?
00:00:00.000All right, so it looked as though there was going to be a government shutdown over the weekend.
00:00:03.000It was averted at the very last minute, mainly because Kevin McCarthy decided that he was going to move forward with what we call a clean continuing resolution.
00:00:11.000It takes about 45 days into the future, takes us into November.
00:00:15.000It does not include funding for the Ukraine war.
00:00:20.000And then it was signed by President Biden.
00:00:21.000This happened about three hours before a shutdown was set to take effect.
00:00:25.000The Democrats obviously did not want to have some sort of deep abiding fight over Ukraine funding in the continuing resolution.
00:00:30.000They didn't want to go to the American people and say the reason we're having a government shutdown right now is because we need X billion dollars more for the Ukraine war.
00:00:38.000Again, the sentiment against the American funding of the Ukraine war is growing and growing mainly because the United States has never presented a plan for any sort of off-ramp.
00:00:46.000If you actually want the American people to back a plan, you have to have a plan.
00:00:49.000But the Biden administration has no plan.
00:00:51.000Democrats didn't want to have that debate publicly.
00:00:54.000The reason that this deal ended up getting done in the way that it got done is because there was a wing of the Republican Party that actually scuttled a significantly better deal just a couple of weeks ago.
00:01:03.000It looked as though the Republicans were going to pass a House resolution that would provide for continuing funding for the government that would have amounted to an 8% cut in discretionary spending over the course of the next X number of months.
00:01:17.000And not only would it include an 8% cut, it would also include border security measures.
00:01:20.000And for some reason that no one can discern, Matt Gaetz and company on the right wing of the Republican caucus decided that they were going to not vote for that.
00:01:42.000He has a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president.
00:01:44.000He already won one government shutdown debate with Joe Biden because Joe Biden, like a fool, came out and suggested that he was not going to negotiate whatsoever over spending.
00:01:53.000And then he ended up caving and McCarthy got some Well, the same thing was going to happen here.
00:01:59.000McCarthy was going to pass a bill that included an 8% discretionary funding cut and border security measures.
00:02:04.000It was then going to go to the Senate, and Democrats were going to be forced to argue that they would rather the entire government shut down than that these cuts be allowed or that border security be allowed again.
00:02:13.000Wrong-footing Democrats is what you have to do to win future House elections.
00:02:18.000Instead, the right wing of the caucus, again, all it takes is a couple of votes for the Republicans
00:02:22.000to lose their majority on any vote because they only have 221 votes
00:02:26.000in the actual House of Representatives of the United States.
00:02:30.000They can only afford to lose about four votes and still pass a piece of legislation by majority vote.
00:02:36.000And so that got scuttled and instead a worse deal got done.
00:02:40.000And then that worse deal is being used as we'll see in just a second by Matt Gaetz
00:02:43.000to suggest that Kevin McCarthy ought to be ousted from the speakership.
00:02:45.000So it was basically a catch 22 that Gaetz was setting up for McCarthy.
00:02:50.000He wasn't going to pass a better version of the bill for some unspecified reason, because McCarthy was a sellout.
00:02:54.000And then when a worse version of the bill gets passed, then it's because McCarthy is a sellout.
00:02:58.000In any case, according to the Wall Street Journal, the House voted 335-91 for the measure, exceeding the two-thirds majority needed to clear the bill, which was considered, under special procedures, requiring a supermajority of votes.
00:03:08.000All but one Democrat voted in favor of the measure, while nearly half of Republicans voted against it.
00:03:13.000Several hours later, the Senate voted 88 to 9 to pass the legislation, and then Joe Biden signed the measure.
00:03:19.000The surprise breakthrough upended expectations Congress was too divided to pass anything in time to keep the government from partially shutting down at 12 and 1 a.m.
00:03:26.000House Democrats initially were suspicious of the proposal and stalled for time.
00:03:30.000As we will talk about in just a second, one of the procedures for stalling for time involved actively pulling a fire alarm in order to create some sort of emergency protocol response to delay the vote.
00:03:41.000On the Senate side, anger over the move to pull Ukraine led to a nerve-wracking dinnertime delay.
00:03:45.000The measure includes $16 billion in disaster relief, it omits assistance for Ukraine, it excludes border security measures sought by Republicans, and it renews the expiring flood insurance program through November 17th and reauthorizes the Federal Aviation Administration through the end of December.
00:04:01.000Kiev, for its own part, is in Ukraine.
00:04:03.000They're downplaying the lack of Ukraine aid in the new spending bill.
00:04:07.000Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markova, she said, there are funds, the government will work, there's no threat to the supply of previously approved weapons and equipment.
00:04:16.000She said, there is time, there are resources, more importantly, there's bipartisan and bicameral support for Ukraine.
00:04:22.000And that may well be true, that you might be able to pass some sort of Standalone Ukraine aid provision, but that is not going to be true for very long in the U.S.
00:04:31.000In other words, there better be an exit plan, as we say before.
00:04:34.000Joe Biden, for his part, he came out and he praised the Congress for avoiding the shutdown, but then blasted extreme House Republicans for a manufactured crisis.
00:04:41.000He put out a statement saying, quote, Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing a necessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans.
00:04:51.000This bill ensures that active duty troops will continue to get paid.
00:04:54.000Travelers will be spared airport delays.
00:04:56.000Millions of women and children will continue to have access to vital nutrition assistance and so much more.
00:04:59.000This is good news for the American people.
00:05:01.000But I want to be clear, we never should have been in this position in the first place just a few months ago.
00:05:05.000Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely this type of manufactured crisis.
00:05:10.000For weeks, extreme House Republicans tried to walk away from that deal by demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating for millions of Americans.
00:05:17.000Now, the reason they failed, by the way, is not because of Democrats.
00:05:19.000The reason that they failed is because Matt Gaetz and company decided that they were going to fight back against that particular provision.
00:05:26.000Again, for a reason that no one can discern.
00:05:29.000It is not conservative to walk away from bigger spending cuts simply out of personal ire, apparently, at Kevin McCarthy.
00:05:36.000Biden continued, while the Speaker and the overwhelming majority of Congress have been steadfast in their support for Ukraine, there is no new funding in this agreement to continue that support.
00:05:43.000We cannot, under any circumstances, allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted.
00:05:46.000I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment.
00:05:52.000So he's throwing it back on McCarthy and saying that we definitely need more aid.
00:05:55.000Obviously, that's a battle that's going to be pretty significant as to how much more aid McCarthy is willing to pass or how much aid Republicans are willing to put forward.
00:07:27.000Again, I know this is off topic from the continuing resolution and all, but you cannot watch a clip of this man and assume that he is still going to be living five years from now.
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00:09:30.000I mean, because either he is a moron because he thinks what he was going to do is going to work, or he's a moron because he doesn't know how fire alarms work.
00:09:56.000Yeah, that's Joel Melvin, standing directly behind a sign that says, Emergency Exit Only.
00:10:02.000He, instead of walking through the tunnels, there are tunnels that connect the various office buildings on the hill.
00:10:07.000Instead of walking through the tunnels, he walks over to a fire alarm and he pulls the fire alarm.
00:10:14.000Representative Jamal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in Canon this morning, an account controlled by Republicans on the committee.
00:10:19.000He said an investigation into why he pulled it is underway.
00:10:23.000There's a resolution that is now circulating to expel Bowman from the House over the incident.
00:10:29.000The idea of pulling the fire alarm in order to delay a vote is insane.
00:10:32.000Today at 12.05pm, a fire alarm was activated on the second floor of the Cannon Office building.
00:10:37.000A Capitol Police spokesperson said, the building was evacuated while USCP officers checked the building.
00:10:42.000The building was reopened after it was determined there was not a threat.
00:10:44.000An investigation into what happened and why continues.
00:10:48.000Democrats were trying to delay starting the vote.
00:10:50.000They'd been given very little notice about the vote.
00:10:52.000Many complained Republicans were trying to vote before Democrats had time to read the bill.
00:10:55.000Hakeem Jeffries delivered a 52-minute speech in an attempt to have everybody sort of come up with some strategy to thwart McCarthy.
00:11:03.000Ultimately, the vote began two and a half hours after it was scheduled to start.
00:11:06.000Democrats overwhelmingly then voted in favor of the bill because they'd been essentially outplayed by McCarthy on the Ukraine aid, and they were getting pretty much everything else that they wanted in this particular bill.
00:11:16.000So, the big question is, why is Jamal Bowman pulling the fire alarm?
00:11:19.000And the answer is, he's obviously attempting to delay the workings of Congress.
00:11:22.000Now, I'm old enough to remember when attempting to delay the workings of Congress in the official duties that they were attempting to effectuate was considered a criminal violation, punishable with years in prison.
00:11:34.000If you attempt to stop the business of Congress, that's an actual criminal charge.
00:11:39.000And if you're a congressperson who pulls a fire alarm in an attempt to stop the business of Congress or delay the business of Congress, that is similarly criminal.
00:11:45.000Jamal Bowman, for his part, he apparently is suggesting that he doesn't know how fire alarms work.
00:11:51.000Which is weird, since we all know how fire alarms work.
00:11:53.000Have you ever pulled a fire alarm thinking it was going to open a door?
00:12:14.000Either you're a moron who doesn't understand that if you pull a fire alarm, the fire alarm is going to go off, or you are actively attempting to stop a vote in Congress from taking place, which is a violation of law.
00:12:24.000Here is his statement, quote, I want to personally clear up confusion surrounding today's events.
00:12:28.000Today, as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes, but today would not open.
00:12:33.000I'm embarrassed to admit I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door.
00:12:37.000I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused.
00:14:12.000Okay, so it's not just that Jamal Bowman is lying.
00:14:15.000Like he's still, and this is like a stupid lie.
00:14:18.000According to Breitbart, Representative Jamal Bowman ripped down two signs warning a second floor door in the Cannon House office building was for emergency use only, before pulling the fire alarm and running out through a different door on a different floor, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
00:14:30.000Multiple sources familiar with the investigation into Bowman pulling the fire alarm in the house, which triggered a full-scale law enforcement and emergency services response leading to the full evacuation of the building, told Breitbart News exclusively that Bowman ripped two signs down and threw them on the ground first.
00:14:44.000The sources familiar with the investigation provided Breitbart News with photographs of the scene of the alleged crime later after the emergency door had been restored after the damage Bowman did to it.
00:14:53.000So, here is what the door and the sign look like right afterward.
00:14:58.000You can see, first of all, even in the photo, you can see there's a giant sign that says, Emergency Exit Only.
00:15:02.000Even in the photo of Bowman, that sign is right there, Emergency Exit Only.
00:15:05.000Now, I don't know about you, but I can read.
00:15:07.000And I expect my congressman to be able to read.
00:15:09.000I know these are like really, really big, these are hard things to do, like expecting a congressperson to be able to read the language of English.
00:15:17.000Emergency exit only typically means you can only exit in an emergency.
00:15:23.000I know this is like, I know, listen, I know Congress is filled with absolute abject rejects from the community of people with sentient function.
00:15:50.000We have a lot of adults who are occupying these seats in Congress, but this is pretty next level.
00:15:56.000The fire alarm that was pulled, I know I shouldn't have to describe a fire alarm to you because it looks like a fire alarm, but it has a giant word on it.
00:16:46.000If any Republican claimed that they pulled a fire alarm and then they did so by accident, not thinking it was going to open a door.
00:16:51.000When is the last time, again, when is the last time you pulled a fire alarm thinking it would open the door?
00:16:56.000Fire alarms are all about us in society.
00:16:58.000Every time you go to your kid's school, every time you go to an auditorium, every time you go to a post office, there are fire alarms everywhere.
00:17:04.000And you know, one of the things that no one I know or I've ever heard of has ever done?
00:17:08.000He pulled the fire alarm to actually, you know, open a door.
00:17:15.000So, again, his spokesperson says, So, as I say before, there are only two choices.
00:17:18.000who would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote.
00:17:21.000The congressman regrets any confusion.
00:17:22.000What do you think happens when you pull a fire?
00:17:25.000So as I say before, there are only two choices.
00:17:27.000Either he's a moron who doesn't know how English works, or he's attempting to delay the vote.
00:17:47.000He thought pulling the alarm would open a door based on the fact that the doors to his right there were locked and there was a sign that he said he was... I think someone said it was confusing.
00:17:57.000I'll be honest, it doesn't really make sense to me his explanation.
00:18:04.000I mean, listen, I think if you actually do see some of the photos of the signs, I think there's something to be said about the government's about to shut down, there's a vote clock that's going down, the exits that are normally open in that building were suddenly closed.
00:18:38.000Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy went off on Bowman.
00:18:40.000He says, listen, I noticed again that when you try to delay the workings of Congress, then you go to jail for like ever.
00:18:46.000If you are a, if you are a Republican who backs Trump, and if you are a Congress person who does this sort of thing, then we all pretend that you don't know how to read the language of English.
00:18:54.000You know, I think ethics should look at this, but this is serious.
00:19:00.000When you think of how other people are treated when they wanted to come in and change the course of what was happening in this building.
00:19:07.000And did he deny he did it when it's on tape?
00:19:11.000And I'm going to have a discussion with the Democratic leader about it.
00:19:18.000But this should not go without punishment.
00:19:31.000Because again, this sort of activity...
00:19:33.000Not sure how it would be appropriate from any congressperson.
00:19:36.000President Trump, then of course, jumped into the fray as well.
00:19:38.000He put out a statement saying, will Congressman Jamal Bowman be prosecuted and imprisoned
00:19:42.000for very dangerously pulling and setting off the main fire alarm system in order to stop
00:19:45.000a congressional vote that was going on in DC? His egregious act is covered on tape.
00:19:48.000A horrible display of nerve and criminality. It was a very dangerous obstruction of an official
00:19:52.000proceeding. The same is used against our J6 prisoners.
00:19:54.000Actually, his act may have been worse.
00:19:56.000He must suffer their same fate. When will his trial begin?
00:19:59.000So, you know, again, not not not wrong.
00:20:03.000I mean, the fact is that Jamal Bowman, participating in attempting to stop the workings of Congress, if you think it's serious on one side, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, or it should be.
00:20:12.000And just a second, we'll get to stupidity on the other side of the aisle, as Matt Gaetz seems to believe that running directly headlong into a wall over and over is genius congressional strategy.
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00:20:56.000Okay, meanwhile, Matt Gaetz is attempting to undercut Kevin McCarthy.
00:21:00.000He has been since McCarthy won the speakership.
00:21:02.000Remember, there were 15 rounds of voting and Gaetz was the lead holdout in the I'm not going to vote for McCarthy caucus.
00:21:08.000Now, what was weird about that whole situation, as I explained at the time, is there was no one to back him up, meaning there was no other option to McCarthy.
00:21:14.000He had 190 Republicans who had already pledged to McCarthy.
00:21:33.000McCarthy ends up winning the speakership.
00:21:35.000And since then, Matt Gaetz, because he recognizes all it takes is peeling off five votes in order to basically thwart McCarthy being able to do anything with a pure Republican House majority, He's been attempting to bring McCarthy down.
00:21:47.000I don't know whether that is a personal animus thing.
00:21:49.000I don't know whether he thinks that this is going to just simply elevate him in the minds of the American public.
00:21:55.000But, according to the Wall Street Journal, McCarthy's most vocal political antagonist, Representative Matt Gaetz, has repeatedly threatened to try to oust him as Speaker if the California Republican scheduled a vote on the continuing resolution.
00:22:05.000Shortly after the House vote, Gaetz shouted, Mr. Speaker, to get the attention of Representative Steve Womack, who's chairing the proceedings.
00:22:11.000Womack did not acknowledge Gates and Trout and gaveled the session to a close.
00:22:14.000Total capitulation, said Representative Bob Good, Republican of Virginia, who's indicated he would be open to supporting an effort to oust McCarthy as Speaker if he fails to do anything that he has promised to do.
00:22:23.000Now again, the problem is that you haven't made actual demands that he's capable of achieving.
00:22:28.000If you actually wish to pry concessions out of Kevin McCarthy, as I say, Representative Chip Roy has done that repeatedly.
00:22:34.000But if your version of McCarthy needs to go is, he is not governing, he's a small government conservative, so he has to go, I urge you to look at the constituency of the Senate of the United States, which is Democrat, thanks to the personal intervention of Donald Trump in the Georgia Senate races, and the presidency, which is run by Joe Biden because Donald Trump lost to him.
00:22:52.000Those would be the places to look if you're thinking about how far can you cut the government successfully?
00:22:56.000And the answer is not particularly far since you don't run the Senate and you also don't run the presidency.
00:23:00.000And also, I seem not to remember Matt Gaetz being particularly vocal about cutting spending when Donald Trump was the president and the Republicans controlled the Senate.
00:23:07.000I don't remember him attempting to shut down the government over spending protocol when it was an entirely Republican Congress and a Republican president of the United States who blew out the budget to the tune of $7 trillion.
00:23:46.000But I had some members in our own conference that wouldn't vote for that.
00:23:49.000So if you have members in your conference that won't let you vote for appropriation bills, doesn't want an omnibus, and won't vote for a stopgap measure, so the only answer is to shut down and not pay our troops?
00:24:01.000I don't want to be a part of that team.
00:24:03.000I want to be a part of a conservative group that wants to get things done.
00:24:06.000Yeah, well, Matt Gaetz clearly does not.
00:24:08.000I mean, there are certain things that Matt Gaetz has done that I like.
00:24:41.000In fact, one of the worst positions in American politics is Speaker of the House.
00:24:43.000And I gotta be honest with you, McCarthy, so far, has handled it pretty well, considering the slim majority that he actually has, and a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic President.
00:24:51.000But here's Matt Gaetz saying he's going to file a motion to vacate the chair.
00:24:54.000Are you going to make a motion to vacate?
00:24:56.000Speaker McCarthy made an agreement with House conservatives in January.
00:25:00.000And since then, he's been in brazen, repeated material breach of that agreement.
00:25:06.000This agreement that he made with Democrats to really blow past a lot of the spending guardrails we'd set up is a last straw.
00:25:14.000And then overnight, I learned That Kevin McCarthy had a secret deal with Democrats on Ukraine.
00:25:20.000So as he was baiting Republicans to vote for a continuing resolution without Ukraine money, saying that we were going to jam the Senate on Ukraine, he then turns around and makes a secret deal.
00:25:30.000Now, I know you and I probably have different views on U.S.
00:25:33.000involvement in Ukraine, but however you think about that question, it should be subject to open review analysis and not some backroom deal.
00:25:41.000So I do intend— Motion to vacate tomorrow?
00:25:43.000I do intend to file a motion to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week.
00:25:46.000I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid.
00:25:49.000I think we need to move on with new leadership.
00:26:29.000Gates says this is impersonal, by the way.
00:26:31.000This is all based on principle, which I find hard to believe, considering that he voted with Donald Trump's position in the 117th Congress 100% of the time.
00:26:41.000Which includes, presumably, all of Donald Trump's big budget blowouts.
00:26:45.000Anyway, here's Matt Gaetz talking about how this is impersonal about McCarthy.
00:26:49.000Well, matter of fact, just a couple weeks ago, Kevin McCarthy appointed me to the National Defense Conference Committee on the NDAA, and we spoke about some of our aligned defense priorities.
00:27:33.000Since the mid-90s, this government has been ruled by a continuing resolution or omnibus bill.
00:27:39.000That's why we're $33 trillion in debt.
00:27:41.000My plan to go into single-subject spending bills would actually allow us to put that downward pressure.
00:27:47.000And I acknowledge that in divided government, you have to work with Senate Democrats.
00:27:51.000You have to work with the White House.
00:27:52.000But I don't think you should work with them on a continuing resolution or an omnibus bill.
00:27:56.000You should make those Senate Democrats have to take up our defense bill to give troops a raise, take up our homeland security bill to make changes at the border, take up our veterans bill.
00:28:04.000And if they did those things, people would have to vote on specific programs rather than just saying, oh, well, you know, I voted for the government funding bill, and sure, there's some stuff at the Department of Education I don't like, but I had to be there for the vets.
00:28:15.000I mean, listen, I would love all that stuff, too.
00:28:18.000And the reason it's not going to happen is because every time one of those bills gets brought up, Democrats reject it, and McCarthy doesn't have a durable enough majority in the House to actually get this stuff done in the first place.
00:28:28.000Now, to be fair to Matt Gaetz, when it comes to spending, Matt Gaetz has voted against pretty much every budget bill that's ever been presented to him as a congressperson.
00:28:35.000Matt Gaetz's voting record when it comes to spending is significantly better than his verbal record when it comes to spending.
00:28:40.000He seems to become very vocal the minute that Donald Trump is not in office.
00:28:43.000And when it came to spending while Donald Trump was in office, he voted frankly how I would vote on a lot of these budget bills, no.
00:28:49.000But he didn't talk a lot about it because that would have put him at direct odds with President Trump.
00:28:54.000So again, he's not wrong on the spending, but this is part of the great lie of how conservative politics works these days.
00:29:01.000The notion you can always get the moon is silly.
00:29:04.000I know that there's a whole group of people out there who believe that if you just shout loud enough that magically things manifest, that's not how this works.
00:29:12.000When Ted Cruz decided to shut down the government over Obamacare in the vain hope that Barack Obama would repeal Obamacare, it was never going to happen.
00:29:20.000It was never going to happen when Matt Gaetz is doing this routine in the vain hope that he's going to get Republicans to cut the budget by 50 percent.
00:29:26.000Democrats in the Senate and Joe Biden will go along with it.
00:29:28.000That obviously is not going to happen.
00:29:30.000Kevin McCarthy, for his part, he says, you know, bring it on.
00:29:32.000You want you want to do this thing again?
00:31:25.000The American people elected a House Republican majority to serve as a check and balance on the Biden agenda and the administration's reckless spending.
00:31:35.000The only way to do that is to complete our appropriations work.
00:32:28.000Where we feel so threatened by Fabby, I mean physically threatened by Fabby, that we have to look to ZipRecruiter in order to replace Fabby.
00:33:22.000My good friend launched the highly successful Jeremy's Chocolate Bars, hilariously labeled He-Him and She-Her, only one of which has nuts, which you should know, obviously.
00:33:36.000Well, now, just in time for Halloween, we are proud to announce the all-new microaggression-sized chocolate bars, because the truth is even sweeter when shared.
00:33:42.000Fight back against the wolf corporations who think werewolves can be mummies.
00:35:28.000He's not going to get the time of day in the Democratic primaries.
00:35:30.000They're not going to allow him to run in a broad majority of Democratic primaries.
00:35:33.000He's not going to actively be on the ballot in many of these places.
00:35:38.000And so now, apparently, he is going to drop his bid to challenge Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination and instead mount a third-party campaign for the presidency.
00:35:47.000This is according to a report from Mediaite.
00:35:50.000A Kennedy campaign insider says Bobby feels the DNC is changing the rules to exclude his candidacy so an independent run is the only way to go.
00:35:58.000So, how much of the vote will he draw?
00:36:23.000Meanwhile, for Democrats, the Quinnipiac poll shows 14% favorable, 57% unfavorable.
00:36:30.000So, are there going to be a lot of Republican voters who actually shift away from the Republican ticket and vote for Kennedy as a third-party option?
00:36:37.000Or are more Democrats likely to do so?
00:37:19.000This is why you see so much fear on the Democratic side of the aisle over a no-labels run or Cornel West or something.
00:37:24.000They're afraid that Cornel West might draw just enough of the black vote to hurt Joe Biden.
00:37:28.000What about like a five-candidate race, in which you have a no-labels candidate like, say, a Joe Manchin, and you have a Cornel West candidacy, which is specifically targeting the black community and some woke whites, and then you have an RFK Jr.
00:37:39.000candidacy, which is basically the Bernie Sanders vote?
00:37:44.000Well, all of this could chip away at Joe Biden's lead.
00:37:47.000That is presumably one of the reasons why Republicans are pretty positive about RFK Jr.
00:37:50.000They think that maybe he's going to thwart Joe Biden's reelect efforts.
00:37:53.000So that is sort of a fascinating dynamic to throw into the middle of the campaign.
00:37:57.000Meanwhile, On the Republican side of the aisle, the two mainstream candidates who are opposing Trump, because all the other candidates on the stage are there for bleeps and giggles, basically.
00:38:09.000Vivek Ramaswamy, as I've said before, is running for Senate in Ohio, or he's running for a position in Trump's cabinet, or he's running for a podcast.
00:38:19.000Chris Christie, because he hates life.
00:38:22.000Mike Pence because he wants to shore up his legacy.
00:38:24.000But the only other two candidates there who are serious candidates are Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.
00:38:29.000Both of them had interesting weekends over the weekend.
00:38:31.000So Ron DeSantis went on Bill Maher's show and he actually did what he should have done like three months ago.
00:38:37.000It's an interview where he was actually able to push back against some leftist tropes.
00:38:41.000He's able to have a few viral moments.
00:38:42.000So he was asked by Bill Maher, you know, in the last election cycle, you backed a bunch of candidates who denied that Joe Biden won the last election.
00:39:09.000Well, now she's attacking me, so maybe I did make a mistake there, because she's out there saying, she's trying to say that we mandated vax in Florida, when we did the opposite.
00:39:18.000We protected people even from private mandates, so that may have been... But Trump lost the election, right?
00:39:35.000Your friends in Hollywood were cutting ads telling the Electoral College to vote against Trump in the Electoral College because it was stolen.
00:40:20.000You were like, let's target the people, protect the people who are most vulnerable, and everybody else can go on with their lives a little better.
00:41:01.000Okay, so DeSantis is starting to, you know, actually, I think, turn it on a little bit in the late stages of the campaign.
00:41:08.000He did a speech in California in which he went directly at Trump the way he should have all along.
00:41:11.000He was speaking at the California GOP convention, and he said, listen, Donald Trump always talks about turning Florida red, and that's true.
00:41:18.000I just wish that he hadn't done some of the other stuff, like turn other states blue.
00:41:22.000One of my residents was here earlier saying that he turned Florida red.
00:41:27.000All I will say is Ronald Reagan made the point, there's no limit to what you can do when you don't care who gets the credit.
00:41:35.000I just wish if he was the one that turned Florida red that he wouldn't have torn Georgia and Arizona blue because that's not been good for us at all.
00:41:45.000And the case that DeSantis should have been making all along is Donald Trump won an election in 2016, and he has done nothing but lose since then.
00:42:14.000Right now, there are too many other candidates drawing 4%, 5%, 2% who are sticking around and sucking up money and attention for no apparent reason.
00:42:20.000So, over the weekend, Donald Trump decided that he was going to go after Nikki Haley by calling her a bird brain.
00:42:28.000Again, he has these nicknames for everybody.
00:43:20.000And Donald Trump suggesting loyalty when he has crapped on pretty much everybody who's ever worked for him, as like his great test, makes me a little annoyed.
00:43:37.000You want to say that Nikki Haley has no business running because she was in your administration and you're running?
00:43:41.000And the fact is that if she was willing to serve you in that administration and thought it was a good administration, what'd she do in there?
00:44:12.000Well then, his campaign, and this is typical of the way that the Trump campaign works, in other words, amusing, but incredibly ridiculous and impure.
00:44:23.000He sent a birdcage to Nikki Haley's door in Des Moines, Iowa.
00:44:28.000It says, from Trump campaign, it's a birdcage with some birdseed because he called her birdbrain at Nikki Haley.
00:44:32.000So first of all, if we were going to test pure IQs, Nikki versus Trump, I just got to tell you, I don't think Trump wins that.
00:45:48.000Trump's campaign literally sent the picture to Mark Caputo to tweet out, So, it went from, as with every Trump narrative, it went from, he definitely didn't do that, to, I mean, how dare you?
00:46:04.000It's just, like, the gaslighting is so strong, and I get that it's all prankster bullcrap and it's all memery and all the rest of this, but at a certain point, shouldn't...
00:46:13.000From Congress to the presidency, shouldn't everybody grow up a little bit?
00:46:22.000I'm talking about Biden, who acts like a child.
00:46:24.000I'm talking about Lauren Boebert at Beetlejuice.
00:46:26.000I'm talking about Matt Gaetz challenging Kevin McCarthy on the basis of, what, scuttling a better deal for conservatives?
00:46:34.000I'm talking about Jamal Bowman pulling the fire alarm or AOC doing Instagrams of herself putting her face in ice water while she jabbers about democratic socialism.
00:46:43.000Why is our class of politicos a group of five-year-olds?
00:47:33.000She is, in my book, good in terms of politics.
00:47:38.000She did one good thing, and that was this amazing clip of Dianne Feinstein.
00:47:42.000It's still one of my favorite political clips of all time.
00:47:44.000A bunch of environmentalist children arrive at her office to chide her about her environmental record, and she's like, your children get out.
00:47:51.000We're trying to ask you to vote yes on the Green New Deal.
00:48:01.000Some scientists have said that we have 12 years to turn this around.
00:48:07.000Well, it's not going to get turned around in 10 years.
00:48:10.000What we can do... Senator, if this doesn't get turned around in 10 years, you're looking at the faces of the people who are going to be living with you.
00:48:17.000The government is supposed to be for the people and by the people and You know what's interesting about this group?
00:48:59.000Disagreed with her on everything politically, but she did dedicate three decades of her life to serving in the United States Senate.
00:49:05.000Nancy Pelosi says she left on her own terms.
00:49:07.000Again, that is a weird way to say that she should have left the Senate several years ago when she was no longer mentally functional, which is obviously true.
00:49:17.000Yesterday you accompanied Senator Dianne Feinstein on her final journey home to San Francisco aboard the military plane.
00:49:22.000It must have been a difficult journey.
00:49:24.000What was going through your mind during the flight?
00:49:29.000Well, I was with her daughter, and see, with Diane, it's obviously official, it's political, and it's very personal.
00:49:39.000This is a woman who, she left on her own terms.
00:49:42.000You saw how she answered Larry Craig, but she did that any number of times when colleagues or others tried to minimize her standing on an issue.
00:49:54.000She and I were not always on the same place on the spectrum of politics, but we all cared about our country.
00:50:00.000Again, when Nancy Pelosi says stuff like that, I start to vomit a little bit.
00:50:05.000When we all cared about our country, Nancy Pelosi is as far left as it's possible to be.
00:50:09.000Her behavior in office has been egregious on multiple occasions, but
00:50:12.000again, when somebody passes away and they've done a lot of public service, then they deserve some respect for that.
00:50:17.000Now, on to the next controversy, which is Gavin Newsom.
00:50:21.000This means that this is the second Senate seat that he has had to fill.
00:50:24.000The first one was Kamala Harris when she was, for no reason at all, except that she's a black woman, appointed Vice President of the United States by Joe Biden.
00:50:32.000And she was then replaced by Alex Padilla.
00:52:05.000So congratulations to Maryland on getting a third senator, I suppose.
00:52:09.000The reason Gavin Newsom did this, obviously, he checks the box that says black woman.
00:52:12.000He also doesn't endorse Barbara Lee, so he doesn't have to piss off Adam Schiff and his crowd.
00:52:17.000So clever pick by Gavin Newsom, who definitely is not running in 2024, guys.
00:52:21.000He's definitely not running or hoping that Joe Biden will simply keel over and open things up.
00:52:26.000So, again, clever political move by Gavin Newsom, but demonstrative, once again, of the fact that the way to get ahead inside the Democratic Party is to have some pretty excellent intersectional credentials.
00:52:37.000Okay, time for some things that I like and then some things that I hate.
00:52:42.000I have to say that it is amusing to watch Democrats F around and find out when it comes to immigration.
00:52:48.000So, Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, the state's being inundated with illegal immigrants who are being shipped from the southern border because, turns out, a lot of people who cross the southern border would like to go to New York.
00:52:58.000She's like, well, you know what might be a solution would be to restrict migration.
00:53:19.000People coming from all over the world are finding their way through, simply saying they need asylum, and the majority of them seem to be ending up in the streets of New York, and that is a real problem for New York City.
00:53:31.000125,000 newly arrived individuals, and we are being taxed.
00:53:36.000Now, we are always so proud of the fact that New York Has the Statue of Liberty in our harbor.
00:53:41.000We are one of the most diverse places on earth because of our welcoming nature and it's in our DNA to welcome immigrants.
00:53:48.000But there has to be some limits in place and Congress has to put more controls at the border and not in this budget threat, shutdown threat.
00:53:58.000Talk about eliminating positions for Border Patrol when we actually need to double or quadruple those numbers.
00:54:24.000According to the New York Times, responding to the sense of crisis in New York and around the nation, the Department of Homeland Security recently announced it would grant temporary protected status to about 472,000 Venezuelans Allowing them 18 months to live and work in the United States.
00:54:36.000This measure may help New York because many of the migrants there have traveled to the state from Venezuela.
00:54:40.000But as Eric Adams pointed out on the Upper West Side, New York now also shelters migrants from all over the globe, including Ecuador, Eastern Europe, and West Africa.
00:54:48.000So the Biden administration's decision on temporary protected status is at best a partial and fleeting solution.
00:54:53.000The variations in policy between administrations have had almost no effect on the number of migrants trying to enter the United States through the southern border.
00:55:01.000Well, because, says the New York Times, everybody is very mobile.
00:55:05.000Also, our labor markets require low-cost labor, and American consumers benefit from the low-cost labor, which, by the way, if the New York Times thought about this for two seconds, they might think, hey, maybe the unions that we're constantly backing are actually a problem for the cost of labor in the United States.
00:55:21.000Legal immigration today is close to impossible for most people, so a lot of people are trying to get through the southern border, and that's why.
00:55:28.000Okay, well, number one, that doesn't answer why exactly we shouldn't shut the border on a moral level.
00:55:32.000But also, it does raise the question, if what you are saying is that the reason illegal immigration is mandatory is because we need lower labor costs, maybe you should stop backing inflationary public policy that jacks up labor costs, from union policy, to monetary and fiscal policy, to welfare programs that allow for low pay in the private sector, but that are then subsidized by the taxpayer.