Jussie Smollett is back, and he s got a new co-host, Dan Crenshaw, to talk about why the FBI dropped the case against Jussie and his co-defendant, LaShawn Porter. They also discuss why the charges against him were dropped, and why they think he should get a fair trial. Plus, the latest on the latest in the case.
00:02:30.000We have my half-Asian lawyer, Bill Richmond, in third chair, along with, because we had a booking error, Mahmoud Al Mahmoud, ISIS communications director.
00:04:24.000Now, the department believes that this, in combination with all of the other evidence, should lead to an easy conviction of Jesse Smollett.
00:05:00.000I mean, he's got so many different things.
00:05:02.000You know the amount of money that was spent by the city dealing with all of this is not even... I mean, we're not coming anywhere near that with what he's done so far.
00:05:10.000And Rahm Emanuel's pissed and going after that money.
00:05:12.000He said he's actually going to tally it all up and send him a bill.
00:05:14.000And when Rahm Emanuel gets pissed, someone gets finger-poked in the shower.
00:05:50.000The Prime Minister reminds people that, quote, to make our community safer, the time to act is now in a country where there is one gun for every four people, or is seen after encouraging gun owners to surrender their weapons, one gun for every four people.
00:10:29.000Two scoops of bulls**t. So before the show, actually, Mahmoud was kind enough to share with us some of the most popular cereals in Syria in actuality.
00:10:40.000I figured it would be educational, you know, differences in cultures.
00:10:43.000So we're really appreciative and we're glad to have you here and that brings us to this week's 7 Plus 1!
00:13:30.000That means everything but a lever action or pump shotguns and I don't know.
00:13:35.000But you heard what she did recently, right?
00:13:36.000She actually put her money where her mouth is and she actually asked all of the congressional police who are around her office to give up their guns.
00:13:54.000Last week's trivia winner, by the way, was Laura Van Pelt, who correctly answered that the chosen drinking vessel among survivors of the zombie apocalypse is, well, I guess it's the mug?
00:16:03.000When Barr released a four-page letter summarizing it, it was like the Cliff Notes, or more like, I want to jump off a cliff notes.
00:16:11.000So let me make sure I understand this, Mr. Colbert.
00:16:13.000You want to jump off a cliff because our president didn't collude with a foreign power to rig an election, and they wonder why we think the left hates America.
00:16:20.000He wants to cut his wrists to Elliot Smith's needle in the hay because we found out that our president was honest.
00:16:27.000Right, he wasn't colluding with a foreign power.
00:16:30.000What else do you guys really want, right?
00:16:31.000Your basic argument now is that he is guilty because we said it, I saw myself say it on the news last night, it must be real.
00:18:09.000And then right away when they say, yeah, well, you're racist, socialism, you're racist against Obama, well, okay, give me an example of successful socialism.
00:21:34.000And I just read today that he's straight.
00:21:36.000Okay, so Michael Avenatti... I just... How could we know?
00:21:42.000Michael Avenatti, now been arrested for a $20 million extortion plot against Nike, embezzling clients' money, defrauding a bank, could spend life in prison if convicted.
00:22:29.000I know, but normally the left kind of comes out and tries to kind of make something happen, and no one.
00:22:33.000Everybody just, he stepped forward and everybody's like a hundred yards behind him now.
00:22:37.000But we'll get to this at the end of this whole segment.
00:22:40.000It is amazing that the media is not talking about this, really.
00:22:44.000I mean, this guy, he was a centerpiece of media for a long, long time.
00:22:47.000Kavanaugh, you couldn't hear without Avenatti.
00:22:49.000They were saying, oh, Donald Trump, they just assumed the Stormy Daniels thing was true.
00:22:53.000And I'll be honest, I said at that point, it's a 50-50 shot.
00:22:56.000That being said, even if there's a 50-50 shot that something did happen with Stormy Daniels, now no one will believe you because you're Michael Avenatti.
00:27:40.000By the way, here's the thing, it doesn't matter where you stand, and Republicans have this debate, conservatives have had this debate about the national emergency, and I think it's a healthy debate to have.
00:27:49.000That's a good example where we can find common ground or have a healthy debate.
00:27:53.000Regardless of where you line up, this is definitely a win from President Trump's perspective.
00:27:57.000But you don't have to take my word for it.
00:27:59.000We have two national emergencies, one declared on the southern border where the president transfers and is taking away millions of dollars from other agencies to address a wall, which doesn't even solve these issues.
00:28:12.000Why are we going to waste billions of dollars on a medieval fortress that won't work?
00:28:19.000I urge my colleagues to vote and override the veto.
00:28:22.000Is he not cuddly enough for the Turtles Club?
00:29:25.000I just, I think it's time I'm exhausted!
00:29:28.000I will tell you frankly, I'm exhausted.
00:29:30.000I am tired from all this winning, and I'm gonna need to take a nap, and then after this, we'll have, uh, we'll have Crenshaw after a little bit of REM sleep from so much winning.
00:30:48.000As many of you know, this week I was quite sick.
00:30:52.000I had to get a surgery on my tooth infection, and after the anesthesia, I started shaking and convulsing like Michael J. Fox on A Tilt-A-World.
00:31:01.000I was at the hospital for four days, during which time I lost six pounds and chewed out my IV and catheter.
00:31:08.000But they cleared me to go home and now I'm giving it a little of this, and a little of that, and I'm back fighting pots!
00:31:15.000And now I can say at four months old, I am officially the most expensive puppy in the wild!
00:31:23.000And they still don't know exactly what's wrong with me.
00:31:26.000So as shameless as it sounds, if you want my continued medical care, and you don't want Betty Crowder to die, join at louderwithcrowder.comslashmugclub.
00:32:27.000But more importantly, more interestingly, a former Navy SEAL officer who earned two Bronze Star medals, Purple Heart, went to Harvard after military service, and a lot of people know, you know, he lost his right eye serving in Afghanistan due to an IED.
00:32:42.000You can follow him on the Twitter at Rep.
00:32:56.000And just to get the discomfort right out of the way, and I'm going to be hypocritical, how annoying is it that everyone always asks you about your eye patch first, knowing that I just did that?
00:34:03.000And we're held to that same standard as a comedy show, where often I say, listen, I don't think you want to take everything that we say 100% seriously.
00:34:17.000And it's something we've got to fix in this country because it's out of control.
00:34:21.000So, you know, well, of course, you know, going back in time a little bit, just so everybody understands, you know, there was there was certain elements of his joke that were like, no, they were kind of funny, but, you know, kind of offensive.
00:34:32.000But like, you know, at first he said that I looked like a hitman and a porno.
00:35:05.000That's what, that's what, that's what made everybody angry.
00:35:07.000So I woke up the next day and, um, you know, to a bunch of texts from friends and, uh, you know, noting that this had happened and we kind of watched the media outrage sort of play out.
00:35:17.000Um, there, there were a lot of, there was a lot of outrage for it and I was expected to make a comment on it and I couldn't, I can't fake outrage.
00:35:54.000And, you know, just because our society at this moment tends to value and, I would say, elevate this sort of victim mentality and elevate this aggrieved victim status, it's like, oh, man, if I can just be an aggrieved victim, then I'll really be right.
00:36:46.000How have you become, I mean, obviously as a freshman representative, and we use that term a lot, but so popular, despite being one of, I would say, the few balanced viewpoints out there, if people follow your social media, on President Donald Trump?
00:36:58.000You know, a lot of people are seen as either never Trump or they're seen as MAGA hat wearing.
00:37:30.000You know, because I think people respect intellectual consistency and honesty.
00:37:34.000They just want you to tell you why you're saying what you're saying.
00:37:38.000They don't want to feel like it's just part of a political calculation.
00:37:41.000And so the way to avoid it looking like it's part of a political calculation is for it not to be a political calculation and for it to actually be true.
00:37:57.000I think they do it just because it's become part of their brand, and they just can't help themselves, and they forget to defend conservatism.
00:38:04.000So that's a real problem, because a lot of what President Trump does is conservative.
00:38:07.000A lot of the way he governs is conservative, and it's good.
00:39:12.000Okay, well, the counter argument to that is, well, yes, it is an emergency and the numbers dictate that it is.
00:39:17.000Okay, last month there was You know, 66,000 apprehensions, depending on how you measure that, almost 80,000 just last month.
00:39:26.000Yesterday it was reported that we're going to have the highest amount of daily illegal crossings in 13 years.
00:39:31.000The other reason it's an emergency and a humanitarian emergency at that is because our system is designed to encourage immigrants to drag children across because they know if they bring a child across, they get let go into the population.
00:39:44.000We have a whole new generation of dreamers being created because of that.
00:39:48.000And that constitutes a crisis, all right?
00:39:52.000There's more family units being apprehended than ever before.
00:40:54.000And you were talking about, so yes, you were going to the President after you got into the constitutionality, Article 1, and now you're going over to the President and what kind of falls under his legitimate purview, I believe is where you're headed.
00:41:18.000I value the one that says we have to protect our country over this other one, which is an appropriations law that was passed by Congress.
00:41:25.000So that, coupled with the National Emergencies Act itself, which clearly puts it in writing and statute to use that act in that way, I think we've got a pretty good case.
00:41:39.000And that actually would be one of the few areas where people could look at executive orders and say, as it relates to national security or national emergency, that's what the role of the president is effectively.
00:41:50.000But if it deals with national security, obviously, he's called the commander in chief for a reason.
00:41:54.000And I think it does come down to, I guess, the gray area of whether you consider the border crisis a national emergency.
00:41:59.000I think you've made a very strong case.
00:42:01.000And this brings me to something else here.
00:42:02.000There are a lot of similarities between you and Go with me here, so don't take offense to it right away, because what I'm about to say is way worse than what Pete Davidson said, but I'm going to bring it all back home.
00:42:11.000Some similarities here between Alexandria Ocasio-Nina Pinto Santa Maria Cortez in that you are both new fresh faces, social media is a huge portion of your platform, very influential, both seen as firebrands, but I think There are some differences here which really sort of draw a significant line in the sand as to how the people conservatives embrace versus the left, in that, namely, you're articulate, pragmatic, not a doomsday theorist in the same way that Nina Pinto Santa Maria Cortez is, and you openly list references, sources.
00:42:45.000You know, when you were talking about the border crisis, you listed charts on Twitter.
00:42:47.000I had Cortez respond to me on Twitter and just say, well, look it up.
00:44:21.000Well, Vox and Huffington Post said that even if Cortez, I believe it was either Vox, Huffington Post, it might have been Washington Post, so I don't know exactly, but we did a piece on it not that long ago where they said, it doesn't matter if she hasn't ironed out all the details because she's morally right.
00:44:33.000She's fundamentally morally For me, I go, well, how do you know that you're morally right?
00:44:37.000The facts should line up with how you feel.
00:44:39.000The facts should line up with how you're emoting.
00:44:41.000And if they don't at all, well, chances are you're probably morally incorrect.
00:44:46.000But they grant her, and especially the media, and I know this sounds like a tired trope, but you deal with this all the time as a conservative.
00:44:52.000The media really does prop this up and assume the moral high ground to someone like AOC.
00:45:00.000Well, they operate from a different premise.
00:45:01.000I mean, if you're, like, for instance, if you're looking at a Green New Deal and you're operating from a premise of the entire world ending in 12 years, well then, then there's no cost is too much.
00:45:12.000So they, so they, they, they use, they, they, they, they configure the data and their arguments in a way to, to assume that if you disagree with them, then you are morally corrupt.
00:46:10.000of a manufactured crisis. And like, again, I can just lay out
00:46:12.000the numbers, you know, when you have 400,000 people crossing
00:46:15.000illegally last year, these are just apprehended, by the way, Border Patrol thinks they maybe get one in three. Yeah,
00:46:20.000that's an enormous number. I don't have to call them bad people. I
00:46:23.000don't have to say that there, there might be terrorists among
00:46:26.000them. And this is where our messaging gets screwed up, I think, is conservatives. Sure. Like, I don't have to call
00:46:29.000them all criminals. Okay. I mean, technically, they're
00:46:31.000conducting a criminal act by crossing the border illegally. But let's
00:46:34.000just assume that they're all good people. 100%. Yeah, it's still
00:46:37.000an unsustainable, it's an unsustainable inflow of people, right?
00:46:41.000Because you come in here, we're putting these kids into our schools, we're using emergency rooms, there's a cost on society and it's also impossible to to integrate them into our society.
00:46:54.000And here's the second thing that people don't talk, conservatives don't say enough,
00:46:57.000is you're cutting in front of the line in front of legal immigrants
00:47:00.000who deserve to be in this country, because we do want immigrants in this country.
00:47:03.000And we can have a valid conversation about whether we should up our quota of legal immigrants,
00:47:08.000but there really shouldn't be any discussion over whether we should have illegal immigrants
00:48:05.000That's not a terrible thing in and of itself.
00:48:07.000I would love for new young parents to be able to have some kind of financial cushion if they're going to have their first baby, especially if they're in their 20s or 30s or even 40s.
00:48:17.000You know, you're getting your start in life, all right?
00:48:21.000And it's important to point out the millennial generation, not because this bill is just for millennials,
00:48:25.000but because we could probably, as millennials, we could probably make the most use of it.
00:48:29.000So the question is, how do you pay for something like this?
00:48:32.000Because the Democrat solution is, well, giant government program, billions and billions
00:48:37.000and billions and billions of dollars, completely unsustainable.
00:48:40.000The very people we're trying to help, we're going to indebt them to do it.
00:48:43.000Well, that's a terrible solution, not very creative, and pretty much pertains to most of the solutions they propose for just about every problem that they think is a problem.
00:48:51.000Okay, but let's assume this is a problem, because I think it is, and we're pro-family, right?
00:50:26.000I have a tweet right here from you to Representative Adam Schiff where you said, That he said he had direct evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
00:50:34.000And this is important because he's putting a fine point on it.
00:50:36.000He didn't say maybe there's a possibility.
00:50:38.000He said that he had direct evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
00:50:42.000And he's doubling down still with those comments that he's made before.
00:50:47.000This is important for people to maintain a timeline.
00:50:49.000And this is why, like you said, intellectual consistency is important, because we need to hold people to the same standard that they would hold out.
00:50:55.000And if you say, listen, we need to investigate someone for collusion, not for collusion, for Russia, Russian collusion, collusion could be a country, could be a city in a country, I have no idea.
00:51:05.000Then we need to say, okay, by that same standard, if you've claimed that you have evidence, we might need to investigate you.
00:51:11.000So this is a springboard to say, what would you say is President Trump's biggest win of the week?
00:51:41.000Which is still a little disappointing for some of us who would have liked to see him jump into the presidential primary, along with every other Democrat, but he's not going to be part of that.
00:52:21.000The President's making good on his promises to actually secure our country.
00:52:25.000We have all found out that he indeed did not collude with Russia.
00:52:28.000I never really thought he did, but it looks like we now have a lengthy investigation that shows that he did not.
00:52:34.000And Democrats really need to accept that.
00:52:36.000The one thing I want to say about Adam Schiff is, Yes.
00:52:38.000he uses position on the intelligence committee to make everybody believe that
00:52:42.000he had access to information that he really did yes that's
00:52:45.000that that is straight that's beyond the science is one thing to just kind of say
00:52:48.000it is politicians always do but he really you really uh...
00:52:52.000he he abused his position and then that's really problem Yeah, and you know, sometimes President Trump can come across a little nutty, but I think that anyone would lose their marbles a little bit when people are out there claiming that you've done something that you haven't done.
00:53:07.000I think anyone would go a little bit nuts in the public eye, where they're going, hold on a second, you're trying to obstruct justice.
00:57:21.000So I hope that guy just, I hope you take her for everything she's worth.
00:57:24.000So really you're probably taking yourself for everything you're worth because probably a joint checking account in that household, let's be honest.
00:57:31.000So, this week, and you can bring it up there, Garrett, for those who didn't follow earlier, I was subject to my first auto accident.
00:58:12.000And the other one, people are trying to get over on another loop that goes downward going north south.
00:58:16.000And I've had to do this exit many times.
00:58:20.000I've always thought it was incredibly dangerous.
00:58:23.000So, when the tire blew while we were taking it, I panicked.
00:58:28.000Looking at it now, it doesn't look so bad, thank God.
00:58:30.000And it really was not as bad as it could have been.
00:58:33.000We're fortunate that actually, ironically, the complete spin-out of the car, which could potentially increase the force of the impact, we went around taking the concrete girder, I think caused it to scrape a little bit.
00:58:43.000Which cradled... Saved you a little bit.
00:58:50.000Oh yeah, the frame is completely... Well, it's a Jeep with a metal bumper, and the bumper's completely broken, the steel frame completely cracked, bent.
00:58:59.000So, it breaks my heart, because Johnny Boy, who's driving, loves that Jeep.
00:59:49.000But it's kind of like that kayak story that I've told you about before, I think, where I was sure that death was just, like, my parents were going to be on shore and just I couldn't turn a kayak over.
00:59:58.000It was one of those old, you know, like the sealskin kayaks.
01:00:16.000I bring that up because obviously I didn't die in a kayak, obviously we didn't die in this car crash, but at that moment I thought this might be it, this is how it ends.
01:00:26.000I wouldn't say that my life flashed before my eyes, but let me explain it.
01:00:30.000In this short moment, a million different thoughts were going through my head.
01:00:35.000After it happened, I was like, how did I think of all these things at that second?
01:00:42.000was obviously, my God, just please straighten out.
01:00:44.000And then I thought, this exit is the worst, and I remember thinking this, I was like, damn it, this exit is the worst city engineering in history.
01:00:51.000And then I thought, I'm never traveling in an old Jeep with crappy felt seats again.
01:00:55.000And then I thought, oh, okay, we're definitely spinning out.
01:00:57.000And then I thought, God, just please let us crash some more, not into these two lanes.
01:01:00.000And I thought, oh my God, we're gonna crash.
01:01:01.000And now I just really hope that another car doesn't come and hit us.
01:01:04.000And then it hit me, okay, I could die right here.
01:01:07.000I remember that thought going through my head, this could happen, just.
01:01:11.000And the odd thing is, I was oddly accepting of it.
01:01:15.000And sometimes in those moments, it's kind of a silly but perfect example of ego.
01:01:21.000You try to almost strike a bargain with God.
01:01:24.000And I remember thinking, you know what?
01:01:27.000In this moment, I remember thinking, death would be okay, I just don't want to get hurt.
01:01:32.000So let me die, that's fine, but just don't let me be crippled or maimed or pried out with the jaws of life on a nightly news in a quadrant view.
01:01:39.000And then there was the moment when the airbags went off.
01:02:38.000And thinking about it now, it's pretty disgusting.
01:02:41.000I'm pretty disgusted that I thought that.
01:02:44.000And sometimes there are aspects of yourself that you can't really fully understand until you're put in that kind of a scenario.
01:02:49.000Isn't that the way it often goes in life?
01:02:51.000Many times we'll do anything just to avoid the pain.
01:02:54.000Sometimes we'd rather take the loss, the finality of defeat.
01:02:58.000Or in this case, I'll take death instead of being in a wheelchair.
01:03:02.000It sounds silly, but I remember thinking that.
01:03:05.000We'll take that finality rather than the pain of the struggle.
01:03:09.000And I think I know why, at least in my case, in trying to deconstruct some of this, because afterward there was a lot of...
01:03:16.000It's a cornucopia of adrenaline-induced, visceral, emotive reactions.
01:03:20.000And many of you watching the show know that I'm not a big fan of cliches.
01:03:22.000Not the Oprah-friendly soundbites, but usually because they're often untrue.
01:03:27.000And in this case, one that comes to mind we hear a lot is, people aren't afraid of being powerless, they're more afraid of being more powerful than they can possibly imagine.
01:03:38.000And I can attest to, in that moment in time, sort of, I was trying to control aspects of the uncontrollable, But I think the reason that many of us will find the out, look for it, take the defeat over the pain of the struggle is because we all find comfort in the idea that our limitations, our burdens, or even our ultimate defeats are completely out of our control.
01:05:25.000And I think it's the most accurate depiction of the kind of shock in that scenario ever put on screen.
01:05:30.000Maybe along with Captain Phillips, that was really good too.
01:05:31.000But Harrison Ford is at a convenience store getting a pack of smokes and a guy holding up the store, he just demands his wallet and he shoots him.
01:05:37.000And Harrison Ford, he doesn't spin over like in a Spaghetti Western, or he doesn't scream in pain, he just holds up his hand and he, you know, Harrison Ford, he's, now wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, wait a minute, he's just holding, hold on, hold on a minute, and he falls over in shock.
01:06:27.000I was thinking of the people depending on me, the people that we employ here, the idea that this story would circulate and that they would maybe say, oh man, you know, Steven was such a trooper, he went on down, he finished the segment anyway, and so I lied.
01:06:41.000But I remember when I was saying it, I was looking to my wife, and I think we've all done this at some point, I was looking to my wife with the eyes saying, I'm not fine, I'm not fine, step in here, call it, don't let me go, because I wanted to prove that I could do it.
01:06:52.000But if my wife said, no, you're going home, well, guys, that's out of my hands.
01:06:58.000See, the point here is, I realized that I wanted my limitations to be set by someone else.
01:07:03.000I wanted my defeat, or what I perceived as my defeat, to be out of my control.
01:07:07.000Because otherwise, people would see me as a quitter.
01:07:09.000The truth is, in not being honest, in lying to myself and my team about what I could or couldn't control, that was more of quitting.
01:07:19.000What would have been less of a quitter's mentality would have been to say, guys, I can't hear you.
01:09:05.000And what I want you to do is rather than wait until a crisis occurs so you can throw up your hands and chalk it up to being out of your control, I want you to take inventory right now.
01:09:42.000You can control right now recognizing your weaknesses, recognizing your limitations, and accepting the incremental improvements that you can make to correct them.
01:09:55.000We've talked about this a lot with knowing what the hard door is, knowing what the easy out is, and recognizing you can never know, you will never know what your potential is, what you're capable of truly accomplishing if you're lying to yourself because of ego.
01:10:08.000The guy who claims he can do it all and can't, okay, is of far less value than the man who can look you in the eye and say, you know what?
01:10:15.000I know that I can do this because I know that I can't do that.
01:10:20.000So I can tell you about any shadow of a doubt, Because I know I can't do that, I know I can do this.