NBC News has decided that it was all too much. Now they have cut ties with Ronna Romney McDaniel, the former Republican National Committee chair, because she's a "bridge too far." What does that mean for the rest of NBC News and MSNBC? Is it possible that they don't have room for anyone who isn't a dyed-in-the-wool conservative? And if so, what does that say about the direction of the organization and the people they hire? And why does it matter who they hire, anyway? Alex Blumberg takes a look at NBC News' hiring practices and why it's a bad idea. Guests: Ari Melber, former White House correspondent for the New York Times and host of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's show, "Rachel Maddow on MSNBC," joins Alex to discuss this and much, much more. Thanks to caller and for the questions, and for the contributions to the show. Thanks also to our sponsor, The Daily Caller, for sponsoring this episode of The Weekly Standard, and the folks at The Daily Wire for providing the cover story on Ronna McDaniel's firing and why she should never have been allowed to work for NBC News. Thank you, Ronna! Thank you so much for being loud and proud of Ronna, and thank you for standing up for Ronna and standing up to the truth and fighting for the truth! in the face of the truth. Thank you also for listening and speaking out loud and unfiltered, and saying what s good and fair and clear, and being the truth, and doing what s right and good, and good and beautiful, and not letting us know what s needed to be said in the real world. -Alex Blumquiste - Thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoy this, and tweet us what you think about it! -A very special thank you, Sarah, too, Sarah Good and Sarah Good, and much more! Tweet us on Insta: . - & - Sarah Good & Sarah Good Good and Joe Biden Thanks, Sarah Badotter . . . Tim Good and Good Good Good, Good, Thank You, and Good, Thanks, Good Luck, Good Night, Good Morning, Good Blessings, and Much Love, Bye Bye, Bye, and Bye, Goodbye, bye, Bye - Ooo & Bye, MRS.
00:00:43.000He is the guy who pretended that he had been engaged in combat in Iraq.
00:00:47.000Joy Reid, who once claimed and still continues to claim that she was hacked because, long ago, she wrote a bunch of homophobic slurs on her webpage.
00:00:55.000She said she was hacked by a time-traveling hacker who went back in time and then put all that stuff on her webpage.
00:01:00.000She also continues to be one of the most immoral people in American public life.
00:01:03.000Rachel Maddow, Who is one of the lead proponents of Russiagate, the idea that Donald Trump had been installed in the presidency through Russian machinations every single night on her MSNBC show.
00:01:14.000She promoted that lie over and over and over again.
00:01:17.000Jen Psaki, the former actual spokesperson for the current president of the United States, Jen Psaki has a show every night on MSNBC, a propagandistic show in which she repeats all of the talking points from the White House.
00:01:28.000Simone Sanders is currently an MSNBC commentator and has a weekend show.
00:01:33.000She is a former spokesperson for both Bernie Sanders and also Vice President Kamala Harris.
00:01:38.000Boris O'Donnell is a former aide to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who describes himself as a European-style socialist.
00:01:44.000None of these people are a bridge too far for MSNBC or NBC News.
00:01:49.000All of them are perfectly within bounds.
00:01:52.000And in fact, NBC News historically thought that it was totally imbalanced to hire Chelsea Clinton to a contract worth $600,000 a year for a person so non-camera ready that they literally tried to put her on TV multiple times and she was so bad that they ended up paying her just to keep her off the television set.
00:02:47.000I remember when I wrote a newsletter for Politico a couple of years ago, there was such a hue and cry.
00:02:53.000There was a near revolt inside the Politico newsroom.
00:02:55.000They had to have an entire editorial call lamenting the fact that I had been allowed to touch the deeply sacred Politico morning newsletter.
00:03:04.000No, that No, you can't have anybody who's not a far left winger writing that newsletter.
00:03:10.000And you have to understand that for the left, this is how they treat the precincts of their supposed power.
00:03:16.000This is why they were so angry, for example, at Elon Musk actually purchasing X, because they saw Twitter as their domain.
00:03:23.000When Elon Musk bought it and then opened it up to people who actually were not of the left, this freaked them out beyond all measure.
00:03:29.000It's the reason they fight tooth and nail any attempt at diversity of thought on college campuses, because these are pure, untouched, virgin left-wing spaces.
00:03:38.000And those spaces must never, ever be sullied by the presence of anyone who has Actually, not only worked for Donald Trump, but not renounced him.
00:03:47.000So you can be a Republican who goes and works in NBC News.
00:03:50.000All you have to do is suggest that you will never, ever, ever vote for Donald Trump ever again.
00:03:54.000And he's a super bad, terrible orange man.
00:04:06.000If you work over at the dispatch, for example, or the bulwark, and you have declared openly that you will never vote for Donald Trump, then you're allowed inside those sacred, untouched halls.
00:04:15.000But if you're Ronna Romney McDaniel, and you will presumably not only vote for the Former President of the United States.
00:04:29.000This is why you had every major network anchor at NBC News and MSNBC publicly ripping into the management of NBC News.
00:04:38.000And you had something similar at CNN a couple of years ago.
00:04:41.000There was an attempt over at CNN to try and reestablish some semblance of balance.
00:04:46.000And the anchors got so all fired angry that the management retreated in horror at its own anchors being mad at them.
00:04:53.000First of all, once your employees are in control of your company, you are no longer in control of your company.
00:04:58.000And that apparently is the story over at NBC News.
00:05:01.000Here is a bevy of NBC News anchors freaking out, losing their mind at the prospect of Ronna Romney McDaniel being allowed inside these hallways to sit at a table and then say platitudes that pretty much any Republican commentator would say at this point.
00:05:17.000I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation.
00:05:21.000And look, there's a reason why there's a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.
00:05:32.000We weren't asked our opinion of the hiring, but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it.
00:05:37.000NBC News, either wittingly or unwittingly, is teaching election deniers That what they can do stretches well beyond appearing on our air in interviews to peddle lies about the sanctity and integrity of our elections.
00:05:50.000That they can do that as one of us, as badge-carrying employees of NBC News.
00:05:56.000She literally backed an illegal scheme to steal an election in the state of Michigan.
00:06:03.000That is the type of experience that Ronna McDaniel brings to the table.
00:06:07.000And that experience does not get us to a deeper understanding of anything in the public debate.
00:06:12.000So, as you can see, these folks are the ones in charge.
00:06:17.000We'll get to more on this in just one moment.
00:06:18.000First, $20 barely gets you anything these days.
00:06:21.000You can't even fill your gas tank or get a burger and fries for less than $20.
00:06:24.000But do you know what $20 will get you?
00:06:26.000Well, from the cell phone company I use, PureTalk, you can get unlimited talk, text, plenty of 5G data for just $20 a month.
00:06:32.000PureTalk gives you the same quality of service as your current cell phone provider, but for half the cost.
00:06:36.000The average family saves almost $1,000 a year, all with no contracts and no activation fees.
00:06:40.000You can switch to Pure Talk and keep the phone and phone number you currently use, or you can take advantage of their great deals on the latest iPhones and Androids.
00:06:49.000customer service team can help you join Pure Talk in as little as 10 minutes.
00:06:52.000Choose to spend your hard-earned money with a wireless company that shares your values, supports our military and veterans, creates American jobs, and refuses to advertise on fake news networks.
00:07:00.000Stop spending a ridiculous amount of money on your phone plan.
00:07:14.000As the Wall Street Journal points out, the move, which was announced Tuesday in a memo, kept a frantic four days for NBC News, which had looked to bring in a conservative voice to its political coverage ahead of the presidential election, but instead became the target of broad condemnations from observers and employees alike.
00:07:28.000Cesar Conde, NBCUniversal's news group chairman, wrote in a memo, quote, First of all, that's not true.
00:07:39.000Your literal job is to provide a variety of perspectives and to pretend that Rana Rami McDaniel is somehow, as the former head of the RNC, that she is somehow outside the Overton window of discussion inside NBC News' panels.
00:07:53.000You're not making her an anchor, that she can't even be, like, on the other end of a Joy Reid monologue or something.
00:08:00.000Condi said over the past few days, it has become clear this appointment undermines that particular goal.
00:08:04.000On Monday, seemingly every major MSNB news anchor, including Rachel Maddow, Joe Scarborough, and Joy Reid, used part of their programs to condemn McDaniel's hire, a sign the mutiny was gathering momentum.
00:08:14.000Having McDaniel on would give airtime to someone who is, quote, about undermining elections and going after democracy, said Rachel Maddow.
00:08:19.000Again, listening to Rachel Maddow jabber about undermining democracy after she spent all of the 2016 election suggesting that the election was being rigged and stolen by Russia is pathetic.
00:08:31.000Joy Reid described McDaniel as, quote, a major peddler of the big lie.
00:08:35.000Now, listen, I don't agree that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
00:08:39.000For Democrats, however, to claim that anyone who claims that cannot be allowed on the airwaves?
00:08:43.000The same exact people who peddled the lie for literally months that Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation?
00:08:49.000I don't believe that your standards are being equally applied in any way, shape, or form.
00:08:54.000Others beyond on-air talent weighed in, according to the Wall Street Journal.
00:08:56.000The union representing NBC Digital employees, NBC News Guild on Monday said on social media,
00:09:00.000quote, Rana encouraged a lie that many of our own journalists have spent countless hours debunking.
00:09:15.000You probably can't have on anyone who has disagreed with your anchors in any way, shape, or form.
00:09:20.000Apparently, the architects of the hire were NBC News editorial head, Rebecca Blumenstein, and political coverage chief, Kerry Badoff-Brown, with Condi signing off.
00:09:28.000Condi wrote, I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down.
00:09:32.000While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it, and I take full responsibility for it.
00:09:38.000NBC News executives grew close with McDaniel as part of its successful effort to carry a Republican debate on NBC last November, according to people familiar with the matter.
00:09:45.000One of them said NBC was appealing to McDaniel as a destination because she has family members who watch the network.
00:09:50.000I assume that would mean Mitt Romney watches the network.
00:09:54.000When she announced McDaniel's appointment, Brown had told staffers the former RNC chief would appear across all NBC News platforms, including MSNBC.
00:10:02.000But then apparently MSNBC chief Rashida Jones reassured staff and on-air commentators there were no plans to have McDaniel on any of the network's shows.
00:10:09.000Meanwhile, CAA, which represented McDaniel in her negotiations with NBC News, is now apparently going to cut ties with her.
00:10:17.000Apparently, NBC News made a three-year deal with her, valued at nearly a million dollars in total.
00:10:23.000The agency then decided to dump her on the side of the road.
00:10:27.000Absolutely pathetic stuff from NBC News, but of course, you expected this.
00:10:31.000And the major legacy news networks, they're happy.
00:10:32.000ABC News is happy to have George Stephanopoulos, former Hillary Clinton staffer, as an actual on-air, quote, objective news anchor.
00:10:38.000CNN commentators include people like David Axelrod, top advisor to Barack Obama, and Paul Begala, former top advisor to Bill Clinton.
00:10:46.000All of that is perfectly fine with the members of the legacy media.
00:10:50.000But Ronna McDaniel steps in, and now you got a real problem.
00:10:53.000David Zuroik, professor of practice in media studies, writes for CNN, quote, as wrongheaded as it was on so many levels, NBC's decision to hire former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as a contributor might actually have done the nation a favor.
00:11:05.000The highly controversial move has helped drive a crucial conversation about the role of media in our political life at this moment of democratic crisis.
00:11:12.000In the end, the company took the only decision it could have on Tuesday when it reversed its decision.
00:11:15.000Well, I mean, they could have taken another decision, and that could have been, okay, if you don't want to appear on air with Ronna McDaniel, then feel free to leave the building and not get paid today.
00:11:24.000That's what they could have done, but they're not going to do that because NBC News has no commitment to any sort of serious diversity of thought over at NBC News.
00:11:32.000Again, name the right-wing commentators on NBC News.
00:11:53.000of the New York Times op-ed editor who ended up being fired for the great sin of allowing Tom Cotton, a senator from Arkansas, to write a piece during 2020 talking about calling out the National Guard in the middle of riots.
00:12:03.000And that meant that he had to be defenestrated.
00:12:05.000They had to toss him a third story window.
00:12:07.000It was deeply important that no such thing enter those untouched, hallowed precincts of the New York Times editorial page, which has been graced by, you know, actual terrorists and dictators.
00:12:19.000But this is the way the legacy media work.
00:12:23.000MSNBC host Nicole Wallace interviewed Yale University professor Timothy Snyder, author of the book On Tyranny, on his thoughts about NBC's hiring of McDaniel.
00:12:32.000Wallace asked Snyder what makes this particular political operative different from other hirings of former politicos.
00:12:36.000After all, there's a long line of former political operatives working as TV news analysts and show hosts.
00:12:42.000Snyder said what NBC has done is invite into what should be a normal framework someone who doesn't believe that that framework should exist at all.
00:12:50.000Well, that's confusing because I didn't realize that Rana McDaniel had called for, say, the disestablishment of NBC News entirely, or the prosecution of the people who work there.
00:12:58.000We'll get to more on this in just a moment.
00:13:00.000First, April 7th marks six months since Hamas brutally attacked Israel, launching a vicious war for Israel's very survival.
00:13:06.000We're living in times we never thought we would see.
00:13:08.000As Israel fights for their existence, so many people around the world are turning their backs on Israelis right when they need them most.
00:13:14.000The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the ground right now, delivering critically needed emergency supplies to people suffering.
00:13:20.000There's an immediate need for essentials like food, medicine, emergency supplies for hundreds of thousands of suffering Jews.
00:13:25.000Many can't even return to their homes because of rocket fire in the north from the terrorist group in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
00:13:57.000God bless and thank you, BenForTheFellowship.org.
00:14:01.000But again, there's a thing that's been going on, and it is a deeply problematic thing in America's political life, and that is that the left has closed the Overton window so far They've excised a huge percentage of the American population.
00:14:14.000And in doing so, they've actually created a reactionary right that now believes there should be no Overton window at all.
00:14:21.000So, there should be an Overton window.
00:14:22.000There is such a thing as speech that, while protected legally, doesn't necessarily mean that you ought to be paid for it.
00:14:30.000If you're a person who, for example, walks around shouting the N-word, there is no obligation for anyone to hire you or to feature you or anything like that.
00:14:38.000But because what the left has done is they've not excised truly, egregiously, morally wrong speech.
00:14:44.000They've just decided to excise the entire half of the political spectrum with which they disagree.
00:14:48.000That half of the political spectrum has now been, in contrary fashion, also infused with an attempt to broaden the Overton window, not to reasonable limits, but to blow up all the walls.
00:15:00.000And so what you end up with is the fringes on both sides that are actually the loudest.
00:15:26.000And this, again, is how the left is treating everything related to Trump right now.
00:15:31.000So, for example, on the legal level, the big story of the day is that former President Trump has been slapped with a gag order by a judge in his New York porn star hush money trial set to begin April 15th.
00:15:42.000According to the New York Times, the gag order, quote, prohibits him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, and jurors, the latest effort to rein in the former president's wrathful rhetoric about his legal opponents.
00:15:51.000The judge, a guy named Juan Merchant, imposed the gag order at the request of the corrupt DA Alvin Bragg, and after Trump's repeated attacks on the judge and even his daughter.
00:16:01.000Trump had written on his Truth Social platform earlier in the day, Judge Juan Merchant, a very distinguished looking man, is nevertheless a true and certified Trump-hater who suffers from a very serious case of Trump derangement syndrome.
00:16:11.000His daughter is a senior executive at a super liberal Democrat firm that worked for Adam Shifty Schiff, the DNC, Senate Majority PAC, and even crooked Joe Biden.
00:16:20.000He was recently the judge on an unrelated trial of a long-term employee, elderly and not in good health.
00:16:24.000This judge treated him viciously, telling him, either you cooperate or I'm putting you in jail for 15 years.
00:16:28.000He pled, went to jail for minor offenses, very unusual, served four months in Rikers, and now they're after him again, this time for allegedly lying, and they threaten him again with 15 years if he doesn't say something bad about Trump.
00:16:42.000Okay, so you can think all of that is bad.
00:16:44.000Also, is it a violation of a defendant's First Amendment rights to say, especially when that person is the Republican nominee for the President of the United States, that he can say nothing about the judge in his case?
00:16:55.000It is one thing to suggest that the President should not incite violence against the judge.
00:17:24.000One, it makes him appear as a victim because he actually is.
00:17:27.000And two, the attempt to silence Trump means that they're focusing on the wrong stuff.
00:17:32.000So the reality is that the kind of stuff that Trump says that gets him into trouble with the American public, I'm proud to be partnering with my very good friend, Lee Greenwood.
00:17:39.000appear unserious. So, for example, yesterday Donald Trump released a video in which he was
00:17:45.000hawking not on behalf of his campaign, on behalf of, I guess, a contractor. He was hawking a copy,
00:17:50.000a new version of the Bible approved by Lee Greenwood, the God Bless the USA musical artist.
00:17:56.000Here is Donald Trump doing that. I'm proud to be partnering with my very good friend Lee Greenwood,
00:18:02.000who doesn't love his song, God Bless the USA, in connection with promoting the God Bless
00:18:53.000But if the case that Joe Biden is making is that he's the adult in the room and Trump is not the adult in the room, that's the sort of stuff you would imagine the media would focus on.
00:19:00.000Instead, they're literally trying to gag him in a trial in which he is, in fact, being unfairly prosecuted.
00:19:07.000No prosecution like the one Alvin Bragg is currently bringing against Trump on this hush money case has remotely been brought in the state of New York.
00:19:15.000Sort of like the civil fraud trial that Letitia James brought against Donald Trump.
00:19:18.000How many times can you hit the guy unfairly before people react in Donald Trump's favor?
00:19:23.000But there's this view on the left that if you silence people, that if you shut people up, then this will magically be successful in allowing you to win a victory.
00:19:35.000And it's leading a lot of people to walk away from the Democratic Party.
00:19:38.000Which, by the way, is one of the reasons that RFK Jr.
00:19:40.000continues to poll shockingly well for a third-party candidate.
00:19:44.000We'll get to more on this in a moment.
00:19:45.000First, if you're a business owner or a hiring manager, you know it's rough out there right now to find people good enough to fill the positions you need to fill.
00:19:52.000Fortunately, you don't need luck to find top talent for your team.
00:20:41.000When you take a look at the current polls, the current polls show that RFK Jr.
00:20:48.000is currently polling in the high single digits, low double digits.
00:20:51.000Those are really good numbers for a third party candidate at this point in time.
00:20:58.000And the question is, who's he pulling from?
00:20:59.000Is he pulling from Trump or is he pulling from Biden?
00:21:02.000Well, the assumption was that he's pulling from both in equal measure, but he has now picked A vice-presidential candidate in Nicole Shanahan, who is a person of the left.
00:21:13.000How much is Nicole Shanahan a person of the left?
00:21:16.000Well, RFK's vice-presidential announcement event opened with a land acknowledgement of the Muwekma Ohlone Indian tribe.
00:21:24.000In other words, this is a person very much to the left.
00:22:12.000According to the Washington Post, in choosing Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy said he was looking for someone who shared his, quote, passion for wholesome healthy foods, chemical-free for regenerative agriculture, for good soils, also, quote, a deep inside knowledge of how big tech uses AI to manipulate the public, and someone with strong ideas about how to reverse dire threats to democracy and our freedoms.
00:22:31.000He says that Shanahan, like him, grew a disillusion with the government and the Democratic Party.
00:22:35.000He said our values didn't change, but the Democratic Party did.
00:22:38.000She also happens to be a big donor to Kennedy's campaign.
00:22:41.000She gave him about $4 million to pay for that commercial that American Values 2024 ran from during the Super Bowl, which was actually quite a clever commercial calling on the legacy of JFK in order to promote RFK Jr.
00:22:53.000She said that it was RFK Jr.' 's commitment to peace and to the welfare of the hardworking people in America that drew me as a person of compassion to his candidacy.
00:23:01.000But again, that's going to carve into Joe Biden.
00:23:04.000In fact, here's RFK Jr.' 's sister worrying openly that RFK Jr.
00:23:09.000is going to take votes away from Joe Biden and lead to Donald Trump winning the election.
00:23:13.000I feel strongly that this is the most important election of our lifetime and there's so much at stake and I do think it's going to come down to a handful of votes in a handful of states.
00:23:26.000And I do worry that Bobby just taking some percentage of votes from Biden could shift the election and lead to Trump's election.
00:23:35.000Whichever candidate is complaining about the third party candidate is losing.
00:23:39.000General rule of politics, if you're the one complaining about the third party candidate, it means that you are losing.
00:23:43.000And again, what's amazing about all this for Joe Biden is that it is perfectly preventable if he had not steered directly toward his hard left.
00:23:50.000If he had not moved toward Bernie Sanders' position on nearly everything, Joe Biden would not be in nearly as bad a political shape as he is currently in.
00:23:58.000And yet he continues to steer to his left.
00:23:59.000His advisors seem to believe that if he doesn't steer to his left, he's going to lose the election.
00:24:03.000And again, I've spelled out this math before.
00:24:06.000Joe Biden, like the rest of the Democratic Party, has bought into the 2012 Barack Obama myth that you can steer directly to your left, cobble together a coalition of dispossessed minorities and white college-educated liberal women, and win an overwhelming victory despite losing independence.
00:24:21.000It only worked in 2020 because they changed all the voting rules, and two-thirds of Democrats voted by mail early.
00:24:26.000It ain't gonna work in 2024, but Democrats continue to steer in that direction.
00:24:32.000And that's obviously particularly true on Israel, where the Biden administration continues to try to draw daylight in order to win over some 200,000 potential Arab votes in the state of Michigan.
00:24:42.000Now, there's still about 100,000 Jewish votes in the state of Michigan, and it turns out that even in Michigan, The vast majority of the population has more sympathy for Israel than Hamas, but Biden believes that if he somehow kind of plays the middle between Israel and Hamas, that he's going to win over Muslim voters in Michigan.
00:24:58.000That's not going to happen because you know what they don't care about?
00:25:00.000Joe Biden abstaining from a UN resolution.
00:25:04.000Many of the Muslim voters in Michigan who are deeply upset with Joe Biden are openly sympathetic to Hamas.
00:25:11.00049% of Muslim Americans, by Gallup polling, 49% of Muslim Americans overall agree that Hamas had a reason to do what they did on October 7th, and 21% of Muslim Americans overall actually agree with October 7th itself.
00:25:25.000If you think that Joe Biden is going to be able to win over moderate Muslim voters by somehow saying mean things to Bibi Netanyahu, you got another thing coming.
00:25:34.000The Biden administration continues to make foolish political moves.
00:25:37.000So, the Israelis have said they are not going to send a delegation to hear the Americans lecture them about military plans to go into Rafah.
00:25:44.000Ron Zermer, who is an Israeli ambassador and spokesperson for the Israeli government, he says, listen, we have a military necessity as the state of Israel to go into Rafah, so we're going in.
00:26:19.000They have somewhere maybe seven, eight thousand terrorists there.
00:26:23.000We cannot afford to not go into Rafah and finish the job because then what they'll do is October 7th again and again and again.
00:26:30.000So there's no chance that Israel is not going to go and finish the job in Rafah.
00:26:35.000Dermer also made the pretty obvious point that a Security Council resolution that the United States abstains on and then was celebrated by Hamas and Iran.
00:26:44.000Well, if Hamas and Iran are celebrating what the United States just did, that's bad.
00:26:50.000But the resolution says As it says, there should be a ceasefire.
00:26:54.000And also, you should have the release of hostages.
00:26:56.000There's just no linkage between the two.
00:26:58.000And that linkage was there as late as five days ago, when the US put forward a proposal that was actually vetoed by the Russians and the Chinese because they want to delink these two things.
00:27:09.000So here's bottom line for your viewers, Bill.
00:27:12.000Iran and Hamas have welcomed this U.N.
00:27:17.000I guarantee you that any Security Council decision welcomed by Iran and Hamas is not good for the state of Israel, and it's not good for the United States of America.
00:27:25.000Well, I mean, he's obviously right about that.
00:27:26.000We'll get to more on this in a moment.
00:27:28.000First, despite the anticipated rate cuts by financial experts, inflation continues to rise.
00:27:32.000is grappling with a staggering debt of $34 trillion, and yet we continue to print even more money.
00:27:37.000And that's going to continue for years to come.
00:27:39.000You can bury your head in the sand, or you can do something about it.
00:27:41.000Consider diversifying at least some of your savings into gold with Birch Gold Group.
00:27:45.000As a leading dealer of precious metals in the United States, Birch Gold is committed to helping you discover how gold, silver, and other precious metals can help protect your lifestyle in the face of current and coming economic instabilities.
00:29:39.000What did you make of Israel's decision not to attend this meeting this week?
00:29:44.000Oh, I don't want to get ahead of myself.
00:29:48.000Again, he has no idea what the hell he is talking about because, frankly, he is a fool.
00:29:53.000By the way, the New York Times reporting on Amit Sussan, an Israeli lawyer who's abducted by Hamas, dragged into Gaza, and then sexually assaulted in Gaza.
00:30:02.000So for all of those morons on Axe who are claiming that sexual assault by Hamas, they would only murder people, they would never rape them, obviously.
00:30:13.000And yet the Biden administration seems to have trouble picking sides.
00:30:16.000What's truly amazing about what the Biden administration is doing, frankly, with regard to Israel and the Palestinians, is that it is not as though geopolitics dictates that America play a middle role in order to curry favor with, say, the Saudis.
00:30:34.000Saudi is fully on board with Israel going into Gaza and cleaning out Hamas.
00:30:38.000Everyone knows it, including the Americans.
00:30:40.000And yet the Biden administration is still willing to try to win over apparently Michigan Muslim voters by creating breathing space with Israel.
00:30:47.000Meanwhile, the Biden administration failing on every front.
00:30:50.000I gotta say, they don't even know how to do basic PR.
00:31:03.000The bridge, of course, was hit by this massive cargo ship.
00:31:06.000There was a mechanical failure on the cargo ship.
00:31:08.000It lost propulsion as it was leaving a nearby port.
00:31:10.000They actually called the people in charge of the bridge.
00:31:12.000They cleared most of the bridge, which is why the death toll is apparently not higher.
00:31:17.000According to Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilraeth, at this point we don't believe we're going to find any of these individuals alive at this point.
00:31:27.000Well, the Maryland Governor, Wes Morey, says there's no evidence of a terror attack, so all the conspiratorialism is misplaced.
00:31:33.000I recognize that many of us are hurting right now.
00:31:37.000I recognize that many of us are scared right now.
00:31:40.000And so I want to be very clear about where everything stands.
00:31:45.000We are still investigating what happened, but we are quickly gathering details.
00:31:50.000The preliminary investigation points to an accident.
00:31:54.000We haven't seen any credible evidence of a terrorist attack.
00:31:59.000Okay, well, that at least is good to know, but here's what's amazing.
00:32:02.000So Joe Biden, this would be a moment when, just for optic reasons, Joe Biden should theoretically travel directly to the bridge and speak about the need for federal funding for infrastructure, and this is why we passed our giant Infrastructure Act The green boondoggle that was supposed to go for rebuilding bridges.
00:32:58.000Well, I mean, you could have already done it, so there's that.
00:33:02.000Meanwhile, he also told some fascinating stories about his experiences with the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
00:33:08.000At about 1.30, a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which I've been over many, many times commuting from the state of Delaware in a train or by car.
00:33:36.000First, Russia has been in the headlines for weeks because of Vladimir Putin's actions.
00:33:40.000To comprehend what he is doing, we have to examine the historical context that shaped his behaviors.
00:33:45.000In the new season of What We Saw and Empire of Terror, host Bill Whittle unmasks communism by taking a closer look at the history of the Soviet Union.
00:33:52.000This tale of terror offers a compelling presentation on the horrors that plagued the Soviet Union and the viciousness of its leaders.
00:33:57.000The reality is, modern-day Russia has been centuries in the making.
00:34:00.000This series will give you a better understanding of its history, as well as the communism that threatens our own homeland.
00:34:06.000Inside Episode 4, streaming now on DailyWirePlus, Bill uncovers the horrors committed by Lenin and his Bolsheviks immediately after the successful Russian Revolution.
00:34:13.000If you're not a DailyWirePlus member, you're missing out.
00:34:15.000Go to dailywire.com slash subscribe and become a member today.
00:34:18.000Okay, meanwhile, the Supreme Court held a big hearing yesterday on access to the abortion pill.
00:34:25.000So this case isn't actually about states trying to ban the abortion pill from being distributed within states.
00:34:31.000That presumably will be brought up in a later Supreme Court case.
00:34:34.000This is a case about whether the abortion pill, Mifepristone, can actually be approved by the FDA on an expedited schedule.
00:34:42.000That is what this particular case is about.
00:34:44.000According to the Wall Street Journal, the Supreme Court appears likely to preserve access to the abortion pill following arguments on Tuesday in which justices suggested protecting doctors who oppose abortion was not enough justification to roll back access to the drug.
00:34:56.000So the question here was a question of standing.
00:34:59.000Can doctors actually sue on their own behalf in order to reverse the decision-making process of the FDA?
00:35:17.000They have no legal obligation to help women actually perform abortions.
00:35:21.000So Brett Kavanaugh, who, of course, was on the correct side of overruling Roe v. Wade, he said, just to confirm, under federal law, no doctors can be forced against their consciences to perform or assist in an abortion, correct?
00:35:31.000And the Solicitor General for the government, Elizabeth Klobuchar, She said, yes, we think the federal conscience protections provide broad coverage here.
00:35:38.000So again, these doctors were suing, saying that there might be an emergency that arises from the FDA's decision to green light the abortion pill on an expedited schedule that might lead to further emergency situations in which doctors, because of emergency law, are forced to actually deal with the aftermath of the abortion pill gone wrong.
00:35:57.000And the justices are saying, well, that's a bit of a stretch.
00:36:00.000You're not talking about a contingency based on a contingency.
00:36:04.000The Alliance Defending Freedom, which is an excellent group, they brought this case on behalf of doctors and medical associations that oppose abortion.
00:36:11.000Because these pills can be sent through the mail and then self-administered, anti-abortion groups fear that Mephiprostone can help women flout abortion laws in various states.
00:36:18.000Aaron Hawley, who's Josh Hawley's wife, the senator, She's a lawyer for the ADF.
00:36:22.000She won a lower court ruling reimposing restrictions on mifepristone that had been in place from 2000 when the FDA first approved the drug to 2016.
00:36:28.000That is when the agency said that research said that the rules could safely be relaxed.
00:36:33.000And so the question was whether this was a violation of the FDA rule, whether a court could review that based on a lawsuit brought by doctors and medical associations.
00:36:41.000This case is really more about legal standing to sue.
00:36:45.000As opposed to whether, say, a state could ban the importation of mifepristone into the actual state.
00:36:51.000Justice Gorsuch questioned why the case should affect anyone other than the doctors involved.
00:36:55.000He said this case seems like a prime example of turning what could be a small lawsuit into a nationwide legislative assembly on an FDA rule.
00:37:02.000Hawley said it would be impracticable to limit a court order to protecting the individual plaintiffs.
00:37:06.000The unpredictable nature of emergency room work meant the doctors would still risk encouraging, encountering rather, a mifepristone patient.
00:37:14.000So, again, this happens to be a fairly weak case.
00:37:18.000Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the original opinion, obviously, in Dobbs, overturning Roe v. Wade, questioned whether the FDA deserved the kind of deference it was being granted.
00:37:30.000He asked if the FDA had ever approved a drug and then pulled it after discovering safety problems.
00:37:35.000Lawyers for the agency said that both the agency and the manufacturer monitored the drug use and would take action if risks emerged.
00:37:42.000And then Justice Katonji Brown-Jackson said you asked if the agency is infallible.
00:37:45.000I'm wondering about the flip side, which is do you think courts have specialized scientific knowledge with respect to pharmaceuticals?
00:38:03.000Alito is right on that particular issue.
00:38:05.000The FDA's decisions should not be ironclad, and it should be subject to questions as to whether the FDA actually went through its properly prescribed process, where they can shortcut their own process.
00:38:13.000The standing question is a different issue.
00:38:15.000And the standing question, it seems like these doctors have a fairly weak case.
00:38:19.000And so, in all likelihood, the current FDA regulations will be upheld not on the grounds that the FDA regulations are particularly good, but on the grounds of standing.
00:38:28.000I understand that's a little bit legally specific, but that is, in fact, what the case is.
00:38:33.000It is not about broadening, quote-unquote, abortion rights, which is the way the media are going to treat it.
00:38:38.000Meanwhile, the city of New York continues to grapple with massive crime.
00:38:42.000According to the New York Times, in one evening barely an hour apart, Mayor Eric Adams has been confronted with two tragic events that crystallized some people's persistent fears about New York City.
00:38:51.000Shortly before the mayor announced the shooting death of police officer Jonathan Diller from a hospital in Queens, the police confirmed a man had been fatally pushed into the path of a subway train in an unprovoked attack in Manhattan.
00:39:02.000The two episodes underscored the defining challenge of Mr. Adams' mayoralty as he has tried to improve public safety and boost the city's recovery from COVID.
00:39:09.000In recent months, he has said crime is down, jobs are up to drive his point home, but violence on Monday undercut that argument that the city is becoming less dangerous.
00:39:17.000Adams Found himself in a familiar place on Monday night, grieving with New Yorkers over another senseless act of violence.
00:39:24.000And again, the reality is, if you don't want this to happen, you need more police officers on the street and you need to unshackle those police officers to actually deal with criminals.
00:39:32.000You need to bring back things like, yes, stop and frisk and broken windows theory.
00:39:36.000The fact that New York got away from this after two decades of tamping down its crime problem is an absolutely astonishing lesson in the fact that humanity has a short-term memory of a guppy.
00:39:49.000All of humanity apparently has the memory span of Dory from Finding Nemo.
00:39:54.000So you'll have a complete destruction of a major American city like New York City from the 1960s all the way until the early 90s.
00:40:00.000And then you will see all of that reversed by Rudy Giuliani's hard-on-crime policies and Michael Bloomberg's hard-on-crime policies.
00:40:06.000And then Bill de Blasio will step in and re-implement all of the failed policies and crime will go up and everybody will act as though they don't know how to fix this.
00:40:16.000When your political priors are so important to you that you refuse to look at what actually works, you are no longer a person who is fit for public office.
00:40:25.000Eric Adams was expected to put a lid back on crime.
00:40:29.000And the answer was, let the cops do their job.
00:40:32.000The fact that Democrats all over America have failed to understand this simple truth is the reason why so many people are fleeing their cities.
00:40:55.000You know how you solve all those things, by the way.
00:40:57.000It turns out recidivism can be cured by keeping people who are bad in jail, because then they're not out on the streets committing crimes.
00:41:03.000Severe mental illness can actually be dealt with by involuntary commitment for people who are severely mentally ill and should not be out on the street.
00:41:10.000Random acts of violence are definitely involved in both of those things.
00:41:14.000And this is true in so many major American cities right now.
00:41:17.000Even in nicer areas of major American cities, suburbs of American cities, those places are being invaded by crime at this point.
00:41:25.000I know because when I was in Los Angeles, I lived in a fairly nice suburb.
00:41:28.000I watched as the area that I lived over the course of my life completely degraded.
00:41:32.000There's a person who lives in my community, who was living in a fairly nice area of Baltimore, sent me a video earlier today of a person literally being carjacked in his neighborhood, his old neighborhood in Baltimore.
00:42:56.000Before World War II, I'm told, Berlin was the center of LGBTQ culture in Europe.
00:43:04.000One group of people loses their rights, and then another, and then another, until one morning you wake up and you no longer live in a democracy.
00:43:31.000And as far as her lie, that books are being banned in the state of Florida, I can get any book I want in the state of Florida, because the First Amendment still applies here.
00:43:38.000All that Ron DeSantis and the legislature here did is said that you can't put pornography in front of children in school libraries.
00:43:45.000In this sort of language, they're busily telling people that they have to have pornography in school for their kids, but they won't fix the crime problems.
00:43:51.000Yeah, good luck in the election come November.
00:44:08.000So I disagree with Larry Fink of BlackRock on nearly everything, but even he understands that there is a global retirement crisis brewing.
00:44:15.000According to the Wall Street Journal, he says an aging population is stressing retirement safety nets such as social security, an issue that is set to worsen as medical breakthroughs like weight loss drugs extend people's lives.
00:44:24.000He says in an annual letter to shareholders, quote, as a society, we focus a tremendous amount of energy on helping people live longer lives, but not even a fraction of that effort is spent helping people afford those extra years.
00:44:35.000He said getting more people investing more of their assets in capital markets is key to securing comfortable retirements.
00:44:44.000I've suggested this for literally my entire time in politics, that you actually need to stop taking money away from people in a giant pyramid scheme, pretending they're going to get it back, and then robbing the next generation that apparently does not exist in order to pay the new elderly.
00:44:58.000He says no other force can lift more people from poverty or improve quality of life quite like capitalism.
00:45:03.000By the way, If you had had your money quote-unquote taken away from you by the government in 2006 when George W. Bush suggested semi-privatization of Social Security and put it in the stock market in 2006, you would have made a lot of money.
00:45:18.000The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the average closing price of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2006 was $11,409.
00:45:27.000The Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday closed at almost $40,000.
00:45:30.000You would have 4X'd your money if you just put in an index fund for the DJIA in 2006 when George W. Bush was proposing all of this.
00:45:39.000And yet, apparently, That would have been foolish according to some idiots who continue to suggest that entitlement programs must be the third rail of American politics.
00:45:49.000So instead, we're just going to go careening right over that cliff.
00:45:51.000Everybody knows what I was saying about Social Security is absolutely true.
00:45:55.000And when it came to my comments, for example, My point is that when people retire in the sense that they are no longer socially involved, economically involved, when they lose a sense of purpose, that is bad for them.
00:46:01.000of retirement, I fully suggested, of course, that if you have some sort of physical problem,
00:46:07.000physical ailment, of course you wanna retire.
00:46:09.000You don't wanna be bricklaying when you're 73 years old up on top of a roof.
00:46:12.000My point is that when people retire in the sense that they are no longer socially involved,
00:46:16.000economically involved, when they lose a sense of purpose, that is bad for them.
00:46:21.000And one aspect of that for a lot of people is in fact having a job.
00:46:25.000In any case, the simple fact of the matter is that again, there is a massive problem looming
00:46:34.000There will be no secure retirements if we continue along the financial lines that we are currently pursuing.
00:46:40.000According to the Wall Street Journal, over 4 million Americans will reach traditional retirement age in 2024.
00:46:45.000That is more than literally any time in history.
00:46:49.000And that is going to destroy social security.
00:46:51.000There are fewer taxable workers now than any time in modern American history by percentage.
00:46:57.000Apparently, Fink is getting all sorts of flack for the same reason that I am.
00:47:02.000Because, again, the suggestion is that you are not allowed to talk about the big untold secret of the American economy, which is that we are engaged in a massive pyramid scheme that is going to go bust pretty soon.