WarRoom Battleground EP 222: Revenge Of The Nerd
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
174.33162
Summary
On today's show, we have a special guest, Boris Epstein. Boris joins us to talk about the upcoming CNN primary debate between Ronna McDaniel and Corey Lewandowski, and why she should win it. We also discuss the latest on Paul Ryan's upcoming primary challenge, and whether or not he's a good or bad choice to be the next House Speaker.
Transcript
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If you continue to look the other way and shut up,
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then the oppressors, the authoritarians, get total control and total power.
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It's another element that backs them into a quarter
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This is why this audience is going to have to get engaged.
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All this nonsense, all this spin, they can't handle the truth.
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I want to thank Memphis for being able to get us up here.
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Boris, we were going to get you on here in the last hour
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Matt Schlapp made the analogy about between Kevin McCarthy and Rana
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that say, hey, look, you know, the entire War Room posse
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We had this situation where, you know, for five days we fought him.
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He made big concessions, and it looks like, you know,
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said he was the head of the cartel and we couldn't even start negotiating
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if he continues down the path that looks like he's set
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the type of people he's put in charge of the investigations,
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and particularly what he's doing on the debt ceiling,
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he could be positioned for maybe a historic speakership.
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And Matt Schlapp said, look, we've got to put the same pressure on Rana,
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Because I've got to tell you, the audience is beyond disappointed, sir.
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To view it that way, and here's what I'll tell you.
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Five days of the institution that cast such a bright light on politics in America,
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and in the long and long, no doubt, a several weeks later,
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Boris, we're going to have to reboot you because we can't hear anything.
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Let's see if Memphis can go ahead and reboot Boris,
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Darren, it's very – I've used this word a couple times,
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fortuitous, that we have you on today to talk about this because –
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and we're going to try to get Boris back up in a minute.
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There was a piece on Revolver that was very interesting having you on about Paul Ryan.
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But here we just went through the same exercise.
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Give us your assessment on Friday evening, the 27th of January, and 23,
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given that we just – everybody threw all in out in Dana Point.
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Mike Lindell, Harmeet, Carolyn Wren, they had a big team out there whipping,
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and they essentially end up with a third of the votes, sir.
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Well, that's a great question, and indeed it is fortuitous.
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If anyone wants to see something really savage – some have even said it's a little bit too brutal –
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Revolver.News has the piece of basically Paul Ryan getting shoved back in the blocker again where he belongs
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because he has no business near any kind of political power or influence.
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He poked his head out a little bit to basically say,
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And it really reminds us what's at stake because Paul Ryan represents not only ideologically and aesthetically and spiritually –
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I guess I covered all the bases with those three –
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but he represents psychologically, aesthetically, spiritually, ideologically the old and dead and crusty and uninspiring GOP
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that Trump basically put a stake through the heart of, and they're trying desperately to end Trump as a political phenomenon,
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not just the man, but the political phenomenon.
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They're trying desperately to end this at all costs.
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And so Paul Ryan was kind of trotted out to say, oh, well, I don't think he's going to –
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For Paul Ryan to call anyone a proven loser is pretty rich, frankly.
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But I want to make a point in light of the recent sort of Ronna McDaniel thing,
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the Kevin McCarthy thing, and the Paul Ryan thing,
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because I think Paul Ryan is actually a very different kind of creature from a Ronna McDaniel or a Kevin McCarthy.
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In fact, I think it's useful to illustrate the difference between McCarthy and Paul Ryan.
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They happen to be profoundly counterproductive, bad for the country, and stupid.
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But he has genuine convictions of a kind of watered-down, charitably put,
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maybe 105 IQ tier, like libertarian philosophy talking points
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that translate really poorly into the policies that he advocates.
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Basically, he just wants to take away money from old people,
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which is actually far less – has far less support than Trump's original Muslim ban,
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They're bad convictions, but they're real convictions and bad.
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Whereas Kevin McCarthy, in my kind of own humble, personal kind of psychoanalysis,
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Kevin McCarthy has no genuine beliefs other than advancing his own career,
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But as somebody that you can actually work with, it's actually more of an advantage.
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he'll go in whatever direction bullies him stronger.
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If the establishment side bullies him more, he'll go with the establishment.
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If our side bullies him more, or, you know, you can put it more diplomatically,
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if we pressure him more, if we exert more leverage, then he'll go with us.
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And so Kevin McCarthy is much more of a swamp creature in that, I think,
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more kind of literal sense, the more direct sense of being a swamp creature.
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He's totally up for sale, whichever side bullies him more.
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And if you know how to bully, he can actually be an instrument for good.
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Whereas Paul Ryan is so inveterately infected with counterproductive ideology,
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And so I would say if I had to compare the two,
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I would say Kevin McCarthy is a cut above Paul Ryan for that reason.
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Let's go back to, and by the way, we're still trying to track down the boards.
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We're having a tough time hooking up with it, connecting.
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I want to go back to Paul Ryan because, look, here is what I think is frustrating this audience,
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and they're kind of at their limit, is that they do the work.
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They put up the small dollars, but it's a huge percentage of their income.
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They're actually the foot soldiers, right, the hoplites, and they don't feel they're being listened to.
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And the reason is, is that although McCarthy and Ronna may not have deep-seated beliefs,
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the beliefs they do have are what they will—their natural default position is always to these,
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what you call the old Republican Party positions.
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Now, you were the speechwriter that was in the White House that I think was the most brilliant speechwriter
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who has helped craft President Trump's ideas into actual rhetoric that really moved the agenda
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But compare and contrast when he's talking about that, the old Republican Party ideas,
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which Ryan is—he's part of the intelligentsia in that.
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He's a unique character in that he is both a man of action as being Speaker of the House and a politician,
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These are deeply held beliefs of his, deeply read.
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The other guys—and they're up front, Ronna and McCarthy.
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McCarthy will never make a—he'll tell you I'm not a policy guy.
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I'm a political guy about how to count votes and how to go.
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So compare and contrast the old Republican Party and what these deep-seated beliefs are
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and still the default position of the Ronna's and the McCarthy's versus MAGA and America First
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and where you see that right now in these massive fights that we have before us, sir.
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Well, I tried to illustrate the difference a little bit in my kind of earlier monologue,
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but basically Paul Ryan, you know, and you saw this even during the Trump candidacy,
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is like, yes, there was kind of a broad swath of never-Trumpers,
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but then there were almost sort of swampy establishment types
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who cozied up a little bit more to Trump or at least begrudgingly supported Trump
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before the ideological people like the, you know, the Paul Ryan types, the never-Trump types,
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They were motivated by this kind of really mid-tier movement conservative ideology
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that just animated the never-Trump movement, whereas, for instance,
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somebody like Bob Dole, who is an embodiment of an establishment-type figure,
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nonetheless, kind of, I think he actually supported Trump, you know,
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certainly more so than these movement conservative types.
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And so I don't know if I would call Bob Dole a swamp,
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but I think there's a distinction between the swamp
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and these sort of ideologically motivated never-Trumpers.
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And Paul Ryan is more or less in the latter category.
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He has his sort of cliff notes to libertarian ideology
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that conveniently and self-selectively translates into basically a handout regime
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for the corrupt corporate interests that largely control the country.
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whereas, again, these creatures like Ronna McDaniel and Paul Ryan
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are—I'm sorry, Ronna McDaniel and Kevin McCarthy are more vacuous in that sense.
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There's no genuine animating ideology, and so they're more machine creatures.
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And so whatever kind of the internal logic of the machine is,
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Unfortunately, that's not generally the direction we're in,
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but I still think there's more room to work with someone like a McCarthy
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And in any case, they represent very different archetypes,
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and I think it's helpful to understand that distinction.
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Boris, we're talking, and this piece up in Revolver,
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if you haven't had a chance to read it, it's quite brilliant,
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and starts with Paul Ryan coming out on Jake Tapper's show the other day.
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Darren really does a good job of deconstructing what Paul Ryan really is,
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the heartbeat or the representative of the old Republican Party
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So how do we—given this, and quite frankly, for the grassroots,
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One-third of the people voted to support the grassroots.
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particularly where you've got guys like Paul Ryan
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who really are coming on TV now and mocking President Trump.
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Boris Epstein, your analysis, observations, and thoughts, sir.
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Glad we got the technical difficulties figured out.
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you know, Paul Ryan is literally the epitome of a loser.
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One of the worst tickets in American history, really,
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if you look at Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as that VP pick,
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And then, but more broadly, Paul Ryan epitomizes loss
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in that there's a real opportunity with President Trump,
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to do a lot of good on everything from taxes to debt ceiling
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fat cash over there at News Corp and, you know, with Fox News.
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about where the primary season for 2024 stands.
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are giving it a lot of second, third, fourth, fifth,