Valuetainment - April 16, 2025


“Establishment is Cooked” - Will The Democratic Party Accept or Destroy Stephen A. Smith？


Episode Stats

Length

10 minutes

Words per Minute

204.36073

Word Count

2,087

Sentence Count

204

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary

In this episode, Pat McAfee and McAfee discuss the latest in the 2020 Democratic primary field, including a new CNN primary debate between CNN's primary debate host Stephen A. Smith and former Vice President Joe Biden. They also discuss the possibility of a third major party candidate challenging President Trump for the 2020 nomination.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The virtue of Stephen A, okay, and I don't mean to, like, you know, canonize this guy, and I'm afraid because I know what happens.
00:00:07.880 When somebody's getting elevated, there's now a price on you to bring you down, and I don't want to see that for him, so that's why I'm shy on this.
00:00:15.640 But he is also a reminder that reasonable should be a commodity.
00:00:22.180 It should be a commodity.
00:00:23.540 The fact that, you know, you've got to be full-on MAGA or you've got to want to kill Trump.
00:00:28.020 You know, last night I said, I want the president to be successful in making the economy stronger for as many workers as possible and to set us up for a better national security perspective.
00:00:39.900 And I didn't say President Trump for a reason because I wanted people to just grab the concept of the office.
00:00:46.400 Nope, I got savaged.
00:00:47.880 Okay, you say anything about Trump, you get savaged.
00:00:51.000 That's the problem.
00:00:52.460 Nobody is like that anywhere else in their life except in our politics.
00:00:56.600 And Stephen A. Smith is a reminder that you don't have to be a rabid form of one or the other.
00:01:03.480 And that's why I love him.
00:01:04.120 See, I think Democrats are going to destroy him if he runs as a Democrat.
00:01:07.460 I think they will destroy him.
00:01:08.860 I think eventually they'll want to control what he has to say, and they'll have that meeting to say, you better do this or else we have this on you.
00:01:16.940 And they won't.
00:01:19.940 It's what your brother wasn't willing to do.
00:01:22.140 You can't do that with him.
00:01:23.440 You know Stephen well enough.
00:01:24.800 I know.
00:01:25.100 You can't do that with him.
00:01:26.640 It's not about you can or you can't.
00:01:28.600 If you can't, then you can't run.
00:01:32.780 Because in the Democratic Party, they believe in arranged marriage.
00:01:36.240 They believe in arranged marriage.
00:01:37.680 They tell you, hey, Democrats, this is your president.
00:01:40.860 They lost.
00:01:41.400 They're down.
00:01:41.960 They've never seen numbers like this.
00:01:43.380 Their organization is screwed up.
00:01:44.780 Nobody wants to give them money.
00:01:46.100 So I don't know that they'll have as much control.
00:01:50.320 But I will tell you this.
00:01:51.540 You are right about one aspect of the dynamic.
00:01:54.820 I would be very surprised if the next one, two, three Democrats that we start talking about are inside the system.
00:02:03.780 On some level, they will be perceived as outsiders.
00:02:07.460 Maybe they'll be an office holder.
00:02:09.260 But they're not going to be seen as part of the establishment.
00:02:12.660 Establishment on both sides are cooked.
00:02:14.300 Because they're kicking my ass so much, the establishment side, that I know they're afraid of that.
00:02:20.120 It's going to be an Oprah.
00:02:20.980 It's going to be someone from the entertainment world who's got the smarts and also the charisma and the it factor.
00:02:27.040 They're like Trump.
00:02:27.960 They need a Democrat version of Trump.
00:02:29.900 Right now, no one's.
00:02:30.820 Because, well, they don't have a.
00:02:31.860 And they keep saying the face.
00:02:33.560 Who's going to be the face?
00:02:34.540 You have AOC and Bernie Sanders out there.
00:02:37.040 Like, by the way, there's no.
00:02:37.940 That's a gift to you guys.
00:02:39.960 That's a big time gift.
00:02:40.520 Every time they speak.
00:02:41.280 Every time both of them speak.
00:02:42.560 But when it comes to Stephen A., you made a great point, Pat.
00:02:44.540 Don't stop them.
00:02:45.100 Not only are they going to go after him.
00:02:46.360 It's like if the Democrats, because he's saying this himself.
00:02:49.060 He's saying, I'm getting approached by these politicians.
00:02:51.140 I'm getting all these people.
00:02:52.480 If they're going to back you and give all that money, my only fear is, just like how you said it,
00:02:57.220 when you go in, OK, God willing, if he wins, because I think he's a great guy, I'm saying
00:03:00.400 I don't want I want our side to win.
00:03:02.260 But if he comes in, the promises that were made to you that you're giving back to them,
00:03:07.280 it's the policies are the policies.
00:03:08.740 Are you going to reverse everything that we've been trying to do for the past four years?
00:03:11.940 Because that's exactly what Biden did.
00:03:13.180 They come in, everything reversed, and the country went downhill.
00:03:16.300 That's my only fear is whoever they pick, whoever the new face is going to be.
00:03:19.680 I can care about the face.
00:03:20.780 It's what are you going to do?
00:03:21.640 What are you going to be your policies?
00:03:22.880 That's the.
00:03:23.600 It would be great if that's what the debate is.
00:03:27.040 If the debate is about whose ideas make the most sense, then we win.
00:03:31.340 Then we win.
00:03:32.320 Who's we?
00:03:33.300 We.
00:03:34.000 Literally.
00:03:34.380 Yeah.
00:03:34.860 Everybody wins.
00:03:35.780 Yes.
00:03:36.160 If it's about the ideas of what the country needs in that moment, we win.
00:03:41.580 Good.
00:03:41.940 If it's about who, we lose.
00:03:44.580 If it's about why one side you must vote for because the other is worse, if that's the analysis,
00:03:51.460 we lose.
00:03:52.640 That is the trend we're seeing, is that we've been going down a reductive path.
00:03:58.500 I do think you do have to build in one thing to your calculus, though.
00:04:01.960 I don't know that post-Trump you have a MAGA next.
00:04:08.420 That can, depending on how it goes, you could be running back to what you guys used to be,
00:04:14.620 which was the character counts part.
00:04:15.700 I don't think that's ever going to happen.
00:04:17.020 But it will depend a lot, largely, on how the economy, how the borders, whether or not
00:04:23.080 we're involved in any foreign wars.
00:04:24.560 And if he does, if he stays true to, you drill, you bring the price of oil down, you bring
00:04:31.180 taxes down the economy.
00:04:32.600 The demand in our economy is there.
00:04:34.300 You don't screw that up.
00:04:36.060 And in two years, you hold the House and Senate.
00:04:39.100 It's yours to lose.
00:04:40.360 I mean, it's literally theirs to lose.
00:04:42.000 Or if you listen to Steve Bannon and J.D. Vance becomes the president and then J.D.
00:04:46.500 steps down, then you have another term of, hold on, a legal loophole that that's what
00:04:51.100 Steve Bannon is just.
00:04:52.200 So you talked about it on NewsNation.
00:04:53.960 It's not a legal loophole.
00:04:55.500 Is that legal?
00:04:56.340 You can't do it.
00:04:57.440 You can't have the VP who has been a two-term president step up.
00:05:03.160 That's the 22nd Amendment and the 12th Amendment working together.
00:05:07.520 Don't allow it.
00:05:08.540 You don't like Bannon?
00:05:09.740 Oh, no, I don't dislike Bannon.
00:05:11.160 And I'm saying that I get what he's doing.
00:05:14.340 It's a great political play because it's creating this aspirational idea of that's how good Trump
00:05:19.760 is, that we got to figure out how to break the system.
00:05:22.520 And I saw this playbook work for Bloomberg.
00:05:25.640 Bloomberg and New York City took the city through a really hard time.
00:05:29.980 They didn't want him to leave.
00:05:31.940 So they went to the city council and changed the city charter to allow him to have another
00:05:36.980 term.
00:05:37.720 Now, can you do that on the federal level?
00:05:40.240 Can you?
00:05:41.220 Yeah.
00:05:41.660 But you're not going to get a constitutional amendment for anything.
00:05:44.100 The only loophole wouldn't be that one, Vinny.
00:05:46.760 It would be that it's a national emergency, so he can't leave.
00:05:50.000 But not martial law, because then that's military rule.
00:05:52.520 And that's a very tricky space.
00:05:54.160 I get why Bannon's doing it.
00:05:55.500 I don't know how it could ever happen.
00:05:58.060 Eric?
00:06:00.200 Why not?
00:06:01.060 I mean, there was – at the end of Obama 2.0, we thought Michelle was going to win and
00:06:08.500 he picked Barack as her vice president.
00:06:10.960 She was going to step down in the third term of Obama.
00:06:14.020 Yeah, but you can't.
00:06:14.620 The 12th Amendment doesn't allow it.
00:06:15.920 We got Joe Biden's third term of Obama.
00:06:18.800 But no, listen, Bannon is a provocateur.
00:06:21.280 He's a good friend of mine.
00:06:21.940 He's on my show every single day.
00:06:23.520 The last seven minutes of my show, we're with Steve.
00:06:25.200 We do the handoff the way you and Lemon used to do the handoff at CNN.
00:06:28.860 I think he's brilliant.
00:06:29.800 I think he is the original thought mind behind the populist movement, which is now not only
00:06:38.060 in America, it's sweeping the globe.
00:06:40.140 Well, did you say he would do what with Don Lemon?
00:06:41.980 Hands on or hands off?
00:06:42.880 So my show ends at five and he picks up at five and we do a seven-minute handoff.
00:06:48.400 No, he's taking a shot at me.
00:06:49.600 He's taking a hand.
00:06:50.380 It was a hand joke.
00:06:51.220 I love Chris just turned into a typical New Yorker Chris goes.
00:06:54.300 That was my favorite part of your show.
00:06:57.880 I heard hands – whatever.
00:06:59.020 The two of you bantering back and forth.
00:07:01.240 You know how that started, the handoff?
00:07:03.080 The handoff started with Jeff Zucker telling me, you've got to stay over onto his show
00:07:12.260 to kind of help mitigate whatever was going to come out of his face.
00:07:16.580 Stop it.
00:07:17.220 I believe it.
00:07:18.300 I believe it.
00:07:18.760 Stop it.
00:07:19.800 Wait, wait, wait.
00:07:21.380 Zucker said you've got to help start the show because who knows what he's going to be saying.
00:07:27.300 One, I was the number one show, right?
00:07:29.300 So you wanted to carry over.
00:07:30.420 But it was – his take may or may not have been something that they wanted the CNN logo
00:07:36.540 underneath in that moment.
00:07:38.160 So they would have me stay on just to kind of like let's hear where he's coming from out of the box.
00:07:43.360 If you don't want a take of a guy, how long was Lemon with CNN?
00:07:47.080 Long time.
00:07:47.560 Why would you keep him?
00:07:48.120 Long time.
00:07:48.840 Seven, eight?
00:07:49.220 Why would you keep him?
00:07:50.360 Because in a polarized environment, in a divided environment, people who are provocative and
00:07:56.000 coming from a definite point of view resonate.
00:07:58.780 Yeah.
00:07:59.000 I mean, he checks all the marks.
00:08:00.480 And by the way, Zucker's best friend is Don Lemon's best friend, who's his agent.
00:08:07.220 Oh, weird.
00:08:08.060 So they had a real bond.
00:08:09.280 How long was he there?
00:08:10.220 That's why I didn't go full ham on Don for choosing Zucker's bullshit about what my life was
00:08:17.400 over my own, even though we were friends.
00:08:19.960 Because he was very close with Jeff and he wanted to keep his job.
00:08:22.960 I got it.
00:08:23.440 I didn't respect it, but I understood it.
00:08:25.280 A lot of you have been asking about the Cigar Lounge that you want to come to it.
00:08:28.420 And we've been having back-to-back-to-back.
00:08:30.880 This last Friday was the biggest event we ever had at the Cigar Lounge, which was fantastic.
00:08:35.980 However, grand opening is this Thursday night.
00:08:38.680 This Thursday night.
00:08:39.880 And this is what we're doing.
00:08:40.820 Thursday, we're not doing a podcast in a morning.
00:08:43.560 Thursday, we're doing a live podcast at our comedy club, at Cigar Lounge, $59.90 live.
00:08:49.080 Tickets are being sold.
00:08:50.000 It'll be myself, Vinny, Tom, and Adam.
00:08:52.540 Live audience, come on down.
00:08:54.560 Bar opens at 6.
00:08:55.600 If you get there at 6 p.m., you buy tickets.
00:08:58.400 No matter whether you buy the regular ticket, the general, the premium, or VIP, if you get
00:09:03.000 the ticket and you're there early, we're going to give private tours of the Cigar Lounge and
00:09:06.480 then bring you back in the room.
00:09:07.900 And the podcast will start at 7 p.m.
00:09:09.860 It's going to be a skeptic.
00:09:10.760 I mean, it's going to be, if you've been to it before, it's a spectacle.
00:09:13.680 It's incredible.
00:09:14.500 The energy, the vibe, the announcements, different things that we do on a lot of people networking
00:09:18.140 together.
00:09:19.040 But that's the QR code.
00:09:20.660 The website, Rob, if we can give them the website so some of the folks on Spotify can go to it
00:09:24.380 as well, I believe it's BoardroomCigarLounge.com.
00:09:30.100 BoardroomCigarLounge.com.
00:09:31.260 Go a little bit lower so it gives the details.
00:09:33.820 You'll get the tickets.
00:09:34.760 So go lower, Rob, lower, lower for the tickets.
00:09:36.620 There's general premium VIP, $100, $250, $500.
00:09:40.100 VIP, get a chance to actually go afterwards to the Cigar Lounge and we'll be with you guys.
00:09:44.200 And we're doing it Thursday instead of Friday because Friday is Good Friday.
00:09:46.900 So Thursday, we'll celebrate it together.
00:09:48.740 Come on down, bring a friend, network, join the rest of us.
00:09:52.360 We'll have a good time.
00:09:52.980 If you've been to it before, typically the people that have been to it before, they know
00:09:56.500 VIPs sell out immediately.
00:09:58.000 This year, we have fewer VIPs because Platinum members get first on those seats.
00:10:03.460 So if you want to have a VIP seat, hurry up and place your order and we'll see you guys
00:10:06.620 Thursday night.
00:10:07.260 If you enjoyed this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here.
00:10:09.960 And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.