It's a weird, slow news day, and Scott Adams is here to talk about it. He also talks about the latest in the Trump-Russia scandal, and the fact that the president is still tweeting about a case that is still active.
00:00:00.000Hey everybody! Happy Valentine's Day! Come on in here!
00:00:12.000It's time for Coffee with Scott Adams.
00:00:15.820And it will feature, yes it will, a special Valentine's version of this simultaneous sip.
00:00:24.620What makes it special, you ask? Well, you're going to have to wait and see.
00:00:28.440But I think you'll agree, it's pretty special.
00:00:32.820And all you need is a cup or a mug or a glass, a tank or a chalice or a stein, a canteen jug or a flask, a vessel of any kind, fill it with your favorite liquid.
00:00:41.580Could be hot chocolate today, but I like coffee.
00:00:45.420And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine hit of the day, the thing that makes everything better, the simultaneous sip, Valentine version.
00:01:02.820When you match the subtle undertones of Valentine's Day with the exceptional flavors and pungency of the simultaneity, I think it makes a lovely bouquet.
00:01:16.860And you don't have to hate me for that, I hate myself just for saying that sentence.
00:02:10.960But did you know that you probably knew that Ukraine had, I guess on three occasions, had offered Lieutenant Colonel Vindman the job of Secretary of Defense for Ukraine.
00:02:26.540Now, if this is the first time you've heard that, I don't know what you've been watching, if this is the first time you've heard it.
00:02:32.940But if it's the first time you heard it, I want to assure you that you heard it correctly.
00:02:39.520Obviously, American Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, the very one of the Ukraine Perfect Letter story, while he was working, I guess, with Ukraine, they offered him the job of their Secretary of Defense for Ukraine three times.
00:02:56.020I guess he's got some Ukraine heritage in his background, so there was some reason for that.
00:04:22.860So you probably know the story, but if anybody doesn't, President Trump tweeted about – I'll just give you the rough outline of the story.
00:04:31.480He tweeted about the Roger Stone sentence being nine years, said something about it being excessive, I guess.
00:04:38.700And then everybody said, whoa, the president can't be tweeting about a case that's still active and still going on.
00:04:47.340He would be influencing the Department of Justice, which technically is in his domain as president.
00:04:54.660But by tradition, you're not supposed to do that because you don't want to show – you don't want to look like a dictator who's telling your Department of Justice to do what you want versus doing what they know to be right.
00:05:07.420So then part two of the story is that after the president did that, or sometime around that time, Bill Barr simultaneously also had the same thought.
00:05:19.360He saw the verdict about Stone and said, what?
00:05:46.200The president thought there was something wrong with this Stone sentencing independently, and I think we believe that it really was independently because Barr has a pretty good reputation, right, as a straight shooter.
00:05:59.300So Barr has said no independently and having nothing to do with the president's tweet, and I think even before it, he said, what's wrong with this Stone thing?
00:06:20.620So does Jonathan Turley, famous constitutional scholars and lawyers.
00:06:25.940So do pretty much all of the independent lawyers who are looking at this, you know, the ones who are not blatant partisans, pretty much are all on the same team.
00:06:36.100So what kind of a story do you make out of everybody agrees?
00:06:41.460How the hell do you turn that into a news story?
00:06:48.780Because Barr clapped back, as they like to say, he clapped back at the president's tweet saying, and again, this is just paraphrasing it, that it was impossible to do his job under these conditions when, you know, when the executive is tweeting about it, it makes it impossible for Barr to do his job.
00:07:07.540And that he wouldn't be bullied by anybody, the Congress, the press, or the president.
00:07:31.660Now, what did the president say when he asked about Bill Barr clapping back and saying that the president shouldn't be doing all this commenting?
00:07:51.720Let me put it to you with yet another frame.
00:07:54.980Do you want a president, and it doesn't matter what party they belong to, et cetera, would you want a president to watch a travesty of justice, the stoned sentencing?
00:08:08.540Would you want him to watch any travesty of justice, whether it was stoned or anybody else, and watch it with the public?
00:08:15.260The public is watching the same thing he is.
00:08:27.620We all have the same opinion, travesty of justice.
00:08:30.220We all, at least the president's supporters seem to be.
00:08:33.840And I don't want a president who won't comment on that.
00:08:38.700I certainly do want a president who would not, and here's a key word here, I would not want a president who privately weighed in on what the justice system was doing.
00:08:52.040In other words, if the president put his finger on the scale privately with the individuals in the Department of Justice, such as calling Bill Barr in and saying, you know, hand on the shoulder, Bill, you know, it really means something to me.
00:09:06.140If this, you know, went this way, I think you should do this.
00:09:28.500I think that if your president tells you exactly what he's thinking publicly, that's always good.
00:09:36.600Now, I'm sure somebody's going to come up with an exception to that.
00:09:41.840You know, maybe if it had to do with national security, you don't want to know the president's inner thoughts.
00:09:47.660But that's what the president says, too.
00:09:50.220The president says when it comes to national security, and sometimes even to, you know, negotiations, that being unpredictable is an advantage.
00:09:58.140So when you watch the president negotiate with, let's say, an adversary, he acts unpredictable, and he doesn't really let them know exactly what he's thinking.
00:10:08.960And he tells you, I'm doing this intentionally, and then you watch it work.
00:10:57.700Your perfect situation is the one you just watched.
00:11:01.500Your perfect situation, the one that, you know, if the founders could map it out on paper and say, you know, we want to update this Constitution.
00:11:10.480Let's build a system that's really good.
00:11:12.140What's, you know, let's map out what's the ideal situation?
00:11:16.420The ideal situation is that your commander in chief, your president of the United States says in public on domestic issues, not defense issues, but says in public what his real opinion is.
00:12:05.980Now, do you think that President Trump respects Bill Barr less for clapping back in public?
00:12:13.800We can't read their minds, but if I had to guess, I'd say that they're both pretty happy with the situation in the sense that they both showed where their line is.
00:12:28.280Bill Barr said, here's my line, all right?
00:12:31.100You just crossed my line, so now I need to make sure that I've defined this line a little bit more clearly.
00:12:37.240I'm going to do it clearly, strongly, and in public.
00:17:09.780And he's my representative out here in California.
00:17:13.200And he said on CNN he was being interviewed by Anderson Cooper.
00:17:21.260And I just tweeted around the tweet where I did a screen grab of Swalwell talking to Anderson Cooper.
00:17:28.580And you have to look at Anderson Cooper's body language, which I will demonstrate here in a moment for those of you watching on video.
00:17:36.580And I'll describe it for those of you who are listening.
00:17:39.040But Swalwell was talking about the Stone situation.
00:17:44.700And he said that instead of, essentially, instead of tweeting about it, the president could have just pardoned him.
00:17:51.840But here's where Swalwell goes into full crazy, crazy land.
00:17:56.140Swalwell says that the reason the president doesn't simply just pardon Stone is he wants to show the world that he can manipulate the Department of Justice.
00:18:06.860And Anderson Cooper is sitting there listening to this crazy bullshit.
00:18:16.380And you had to see Anderson Cooper's body language.
00:18:18.840And I'll demonstrate for those of you watching on video, but you can see it in my Twitter.
00:18:24.280Anderson Cooper is sitting at the desk with him.
00:18:34.660And Anderson Cooper's got his arms tightly crossed.
00:18:37.700And he just says, you really think the president is thinking that?
00:18:44.760And it was that moment when you realize that only even your own team, let's say the left-leaning anti-Trump team, if you will, roughly speaking.
00:18:55.480It was that moment when you realize that even your own team wasn't buying your bullshit anymore.
00:19:41.000Swalwell's assumption that the president was cleverly not pardoning him because he wanted to really show that he's a dictator who can control the Department of Justice is so batshit crazy that even Anderson Cooper couldn't treat it as a serious statement, at least in terms of his body language.
00:19:58.180In terms of his professionalism, of course, he did.
00:20:05.400Rush Limbaugh, I don't know when Rush Limbaugh said this, but it was reported, I guess, on CNN, that they say conservative radio personality and Medal of Freedom recipient.
00:20:19.900So they throw that in there to further mock him.
00:20:23.720They say Rush Limbaugh said that 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg had little chance of winning the election because, quote, America is still not ready to elect a gay guy.
00:20:33.300Now, of course, on CNN, they want to make this look like Rush Limbaugh is anti-gay.