Verdict with Ted Cruz - January 16, 2023


Democrats Were Getting Excited Until 'You Know What' Hit The Fan


Episode Stats


Length

38 minutes

Words per minute

170.32727

Word count

6,509

Sentence count

377

Harmful content

Misogyny

6

sentences flagged

Toxicity

36

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joins CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen (D-Illinois) and CNN Political Commentator Charlie Dent (D, PA) to discuss the latest in the scandal surrounding Joe Biden.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.520 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.360 Welcome.
00:00:05.060 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.
00:00:07.180 Before we even get started,
00:00:08.980 today's show is going to have a lot of big information in it.
00:00:13.580 Grab a piece of paper, grab a pencil,
00:00:15.400 and make sure you hit that subscribe or auto-download button
00:00:20.200 because with all the special prosecutor,
00:00:23.720 we may be doing breaking news shows.
00:00:26.260 You don't want to miss those.
00:00:27.480 So if you hit subscribe or auto-download,
00:00:29.020 you'll know every time we do a podcast.
00:00:31.840 With that being said,
00:00:33.180 Senator, it has been one hell of a week for Democrats.
00:00:37.180 They thought they were coming out of this midterm election
00:00:41.820 with some momentum.
00:00:42.800 They were excited about gas prices coming down a little bit.
00:00:46.300 They were excited about the approval rating numbers
00:00:48.600 coming up a little bit for Joe Biden.
00:00:50.960 David Gergen put it this way,
00:00:53.140 saying he was very excited until all the you-know-what
00:00:55.540 hit the fan with these documents.
00:00:57.420 About the political fallout,
00:00:58.680 which could be considerable and unwelcome
00:01:00.260 to the administration, certainly.
00:01:01.440 Coming, as Phil Mattenly mentioned,
00:01:02.540 with inflation cooling, gas prices dropping,
00:01:04.920 and the president's approval numbers
00:01:06.460 growing in the polls, at least before this.
00:01:08.760 Joining us is CNN senior political analyst David Gergen,
00:01:11.420 White House insider for Democrats and Republicans alike,
00:01:13.540 dating back to the Nixon years.
00:01:14.860 Also, CNN political commentator
00:01:16.180 and former Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Charlie Dent,
00:01:19.320 and CNN political analyst Jackie Kucinich.
00:01:21.340 She's Washington bureau chief for the Boston Globe.
00:01:24.560 David Gergen, let's start with you.
00:01:26.000 How big a mess is this for the Biden administration?
00:01:28.700 It's very, very big.
00:01:30.200 Not legally, but politically,
00:01:31.660 it's a very, very big deal.
00:01:34.020 You know, this is a president who was marching upward
00:01:36.120 for the first time in his presidency.
00:01:38.000 He's got his numbers up.
00:01:38.840 People are feeling better about the economy.
00:01:40.660 There are all sorts of reasons to believe
00:01:42.240 that he can now present himself.
00:01:45.200 The fears that people like me have
00:01:47.120 about how old is he and can he govern well,
00:01:49.520 those fears will be dissipated
00:01:50.880 if he were able to stay on that track.
00:01:53.100 But now along comes this.
00:01:55.220 There's this gigantic story,
00:01:56.860 which was totally unexpected,
00:01:58.720 and it's knocked for six the original plan.
00:02:03.300 Now, but I do think that they,
00:02:05.460 that the Biden people,
00:02:07.420 they may be making a big mistake,
00:02:09.540 Anderson, I may be wrong about this.
00:02:10.620 I think they've done a wonderful job
00:02:11.920 being cooperative with the government,
00:02:14.260 and they've done it, quote,
00:02:15.780 by the book, as they were saying.
00:02:16.840 But I don't think sitting there hunkering down now,
00:02:20.680 they're just acting like it's not out there.
00:02:22.600 As they go straight,
00:02:23.580 they're just going to have,
00:02:24.600 they're going to get cream doing it. 1.00
00:02:25.560 There's also been the drip, drip, drip of information.
00:02:28.660 I mean, let's just stop there.
00:02:30.140 Senator, they want an honorable mention,
00:02:32.900 it sounds like, for being, quote, transparent.
00:02:36.280 Yet this story keeps drip, drip, dripping.
00:02:38.720 And even those of the media like Gergen are saying,
00:02:40.640 well, I don't believe he's in trouble legally.
00:02:43.440 He's just in trouble politically.
00:02:45.220 Do you buy that?
00:02:46.840 Well, I'll say a number of things
00:02:49.960 listening to that excerpt.
00:02:51.380 Number one, CNN continues to self-satirize
00:02:54.720 as you look at their panel
00:02:55.880 discussing President Biden's political fortunes,
00:02:58.460 and you have four liberals discussing it.
00:03:00.240 You've got Jake Tapper,
00:03:02.520 who's gone dramatically to the left.
00:03:05.120 You have David Gergen,
00:03:06.380 who was, of course,
00:03:07.140 a senior White House official to Bill Clinton.
00:03:10.220 All he's worked with Republicans as well,
00:03:11.840 but he's always been left of center.
00:03:13.100 You've got Kucinich, who's far left of center.
00:03:15.900 And then you've got Charlie Dent,
00:03:16.960 who's probably the most liberal Republican
00:03:18.420 to serve in the House in a long time.
00:03:20.080 So that's their panel.
00:03:21.480 Normally, you and I would be upset.
00:03:23.060 And by the way, you know,
00:03:24.480 you've logged a lot of miles, Ben, on CNN.
00:03:26.800 So you're familiar with stacked panels
00:03:28.620 of the left hand and the far left hand
00:03:31.180 sitting there having a conversation.
00:03:32.180 Seven years in hell, as we describe it.
00:03:34.260 The seven years in hell is what I did.
00:03:36.280 I did my tour of duty.
00:03:38.220 So it's just amusing listening to Tapper
00:03:40.820 go through the panel.
00:03:41.680 But then you have Gergen.
00:03:44.100 Even a panel of people on the left
00:03:46.780 are sitting there going, 0.96
00:03:48.040 holy crap, as Gergen put it, 0.99
00:03:50.500 Biden's getting creamed. 0.99
00:03:52.240 This last week
00:03:53.480 was one of the worst weeks,
00:03:57.980 if not politically the worst week
00:04:00.000 of the Biden administration.
00:04:00.840 You'd have to go back
00:04:01.860 to the absolute disaster in Afghanistan 1.00
00:04:04.100 to 13 American servicemen
00:04:05.680 and women being murdered
00:04:06.580 to find a week that politically
00:04:09.340 caused as much consternation
00:04:11.260 in the Oval Office as this week did.
00:04:14.180 And it was, it's a mess
00:04:16.620 and it keeps getting worse.
00:04:17.820 All right, I want to get your take
00:04:19.220 on this, Senator.
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00:05:48.440 Well, you look at the White House
00:05:49.480 press secretary.
00:05:50.200 I, Jean-Pierre,
00:05:51.780 this is just my personal opinion,
00:05:54.580 may be one of the worst
00:05:57.540 White House press secretaries
00:05:59.100 that I've ever seen
00:06:00.080 when it comes to adapting
00:06:01.580 and having to deal with things
00:06:03.120 that are, quote,
00:06:04.200 as I would describe it,
00:06:05.220 outside of the talking point.
00:06:06.720 She's great at walking up there 1.00
00:06:08.300 sticking to a script.
00:06:09.420 Perfect example of that
00:06:10.580 is on Thursday,
00:06:11.940 the White House said
00:06:12.800 six different times
00:06:14.600 that the search
00:06:15.880 for classified documents
00:06:17.600 was, quote, complete.
00:06:18.840 That's talking points.
00:06:20.520 In reality,
00:06:21.220 we found out
00:06:22.060 that more classified documents
00:06:23.540 were discovered
00:06:24.200 after she said this,
00:06:25.480 and here's the montage.
00:06:26.940 The search is clearly complete.
00:06:28.580 They completed the search.
00:06:31.440 The search is complete.
00:06:33.060 He is confident in this process.
00:06:35.320 You should assume
00:06:35.820 that it's been completed, yes.
00:06:37.100 After the search concluded last night,
00:06:39.080 that search was completed last night. 1.00
00:06:41.740 I mean, either she's an idiot 1.00
00:06:43.140 or she's willfully lying 1.00
00:06:44.360 to the American people,
00:06:45.460 and that, I think,
00:06:46.700 goes back to what
00:06:47.360 David Gergen was saying.
00:06:49.680 Well, to be fair,
00:06:50.680 as a matter of logic,
00:06:51.680 those two are not
00:06:52.480 mutually exclusive.
00:06:54.100 Yeah.
00:06:54.280 She can be both.
00:06:56.120 And I will say
00:06:57.620 that she's 1.00
00:06:59.200 an exceptionally poor liar. 0.99
00:07:01.740 I mean, 0.99
00:07:02.180 it really is amazing.
00:07:03.320 The Biden White House
00:07:04.300 hires her
00:07:05.120 to stand up
00:07:06.260 and say things
00:07:06.920 that are demonstrably false,
00:07:08.080 and she says them
00:07:08.760 over and over and over again.
00:07:10.300 We've talked a lot
00:07:11.140 on this pod
00:07:11.640 about how she claims
00:07:13.040 nobody's crossing
00:07:13.740 the border illegally.
00:07:14.720 Like, never mind
00:07:15.460 the 5.3 million.
00:07:16.500 They don't exist.
00:07:17.220 These aren't the droids
00:07:17.860 you're looking for.
00:07:18.440 She just stands up there
00:07:19.820 and gaslights.
00:07:20.980 She stands up and says,
00:07:22.000 you know,
00:07:22.200 it was the Republicans
00:07:22.900 who wanted to shut schools down.
00:07:26.100 She is willing to lie,
00:07:28.560 which is not a good characteristic
00:07:30.000 for a press secretary,
00:07:32.020 but then she's bad at it. 1.00
00:07:33.240 The best press secretary
00:07:34.900 we may have seen
00:07:35.800 in modern times
00:07:37.680 was Mike McCurry
00:07:38.480 for Bill Clinton.
00:07:39.140 And when Bill Clinton
00:07:40.080 had all the scandals,
00:07:41.120 had Monica Lewinsky, 0.98
00:07:42.560 McCurry could stand up there
00:07:44.000 and he just had
00:07:45.840 an aw shucks way of,
00:07:47.580 yeah, okay, 1.00
00:07:48.300 my boss is an inveterate liar, 0.99
00:07:51.500 but he was charming about it. 1.00
00:07:54.100 She's not.
00:07:55.380 And if you look
00:07:56.460 at what she says,
00:07:57.120 part of the problem
00:07:57.820 with her lying 0.99
00:07:58.660 is she lies in ways
00:08:00.540 that are easy to get caught.
00:08:01.860 So she said
00:08:03.440 over and over again
00:08:04.340 as you just played
00:08:05.220 that the search was complete.
00:08:06.840 The search was complete.
00:08:07.620 The search was complete.
00:08:08.380 There was just one problem.
00:08:10.220 Those facts were inoperative.
00:08:11.940 And so you mentioned
00:08:12.620 at the start of the pod
00:08:13.600 to write things down.
00:08:15.160 Let's go through the timeline.
00:08:17.080 So on Monday
00:08:18.220 of this past week,
00:08:20.200 the Biden White House
00:08:21.080 revealed to the world
00:08:22.080 what it claimed the facts were.
00:08:23.480 And here's what it claimed.
00:08:24.800 It claimed that on November 2nd,
00:08:27.580 the president's personal lawyers
00:08:29.460 just happened to be packing up
00:08:30.980 his old office
00:08:32.040 at the Penn Biden Center.
00:08:34.920 And they discovered documents
00:08:36.840 that were classified
00:08:37.700 as they were going through.
00:08:40.120 Now, as we've talked about earlier,
00:08:41.980 it's a little bit odd.
00:08:42.860 Those are high-priced movers
00:08:43.880 if you're hiring lawyers
00:08:45.380 to pack up and move.
00:08:46.320 But that's the story
00:08:47.340 they're claiming.
00:08:47.940 So that was November 2nd.
00:08:49.900 The White House claims
00:08:51.120 they immediately contacted
00:08:52.300 the archives.
00:08:53.460 And on November 4th,
00:08:55.520 the National Archives
00:08:56.720 informed DOJ.
00:08:58.500 Now, you'll recall
00:09:01.100 when the stormtroopers
00:09:02.080 came into Mar-a-Lago
00:09:03.140 how they leaked
00:09:04.140 over and over and over again.
00:09:06.480 You know what didn't happen
00:09:07.400 on November 4th
00:09:08.320 when the Department of Justice
00:09:09.180 was informed?
00:09:10.560 They didn't leak anything.
00:09:12.180 They didn't leak anything.
00:09:13.740 They didn't tell
00:09:14.360 the American people anything.
00:09:15.620 By the way,
00:09:16.120 there was an election
00:09:16.760 coming up November 8th.
00:09:18.540 And boy,
00:09:19.480 the secrecy was tight.
00:09:20.760 Never mind that this happened.
00:09:21.820 Never mind that this happened.
00:09:22.960 So that occurred.
00:09:26.640 And then in December,
00:09:29.280 Biden's personal attorney
00:09:31.300 informed the prosecutor
00:09:34.100 who was investigating this
00:09:35.200 that a second set
00:09:36.220 of documents had been found.
00:09:38.440 This time in the garage
00:09:39.960 of Biden's house
00:09:42.400 right next to that
00:09:43.460 now infamous Corvette.
00:09:45.060 And also some more
00:09:46.200 in another adjoining room.
00:09:47.540 I still don't think we know
00:09:48.580 whether it's a bathroom,
00:09:49.980 whether it's the
00:09:50.480 washing machine room,
00:09:52.280 you know,
00:09:52.820 whether it's his massage room.
00:09:54.460 I don't know if he has
00:09:54.980 a massage room.
00:09:55.620 Whatever the room is
00:09:56.420 next to the garage
00:09:57.280 that they don't want
00:09:58.200 to tell us.
00:09:59.360 Then on Wednesday
00:10:00.300 of last week,
00:10:01.340 the Biden attorneys
00:10:02.640 found another
00:10:03.280 classified document
00:10:04.220 at yet another location
00:10:05.200 at his Wilmington residence.
00:10:08.280 And that's when
00:10:08.960 Corrine Jean-Pierre said
00:10:10.280 the search is complete,
00:10:11.080 the search is complete,
00:10:11.820 the search is complete,
00:10:13.340 except that they found
00:10:15.580 five more on Thursday.
00:10:19.080 And so, you know,
00:10:19.880 as we sit here,
00:10:21.240 the question is
00:10:22.700 what's coming next?
00:10:23.580 And the drip, drip, drip,
00:10:25.060 it is amazing
00:10:26.460 as a competence matter
00:10:28.660 that apparently
00:10:30.400 they're not able
00:10:31.320 to figure out
00:10:32.120 where else,
00:10:33.140 I mean,
00:10:33.300 what was this guy doing
00:10:36.840 just sticking
00:10:37.480 classified documents
00:10:38.740 everywhere?
00:10:39.420 I mean,
00:10:39.620 that's just a little weird
00:10:41.440 at this point.
00:10:42.680 And they can't even
00:10:43.460 figure out,
00:10:44.460 like if you sit down
00:10:45.840 and you're like, 0.99
00:10:47.260 oh crap, 0.95
00:10:47.620 this is bad. 0.99
00:10:48.240 What can we do?
00:10:48.880 What can we do?
00:10:49.300 All right,
00:10:49.880 number one,
00:10:50.860 step number one
00:10:51.480 in the crisis,
00:10:52.000 let's get ahead of it,
00:10:52.900 let's figure out
00:10:53.500 what the facts are.
00:10:54.420 Let's actually do 1.00
00:10:55.300 the damn search. 1.00
00:10:56.020 Apparently they can't do that 1.00
00:10:57.480 because I fully expect
00:10:59.340 this week we're going
00:11:00.280 to discover,
00:11:01.120 you know,
00:11:01.840 in his gym bag
00:11:03.320 packed under his Speedos
00:11:04.640 are the nuclear codes.
00:11:05.940 I mean,
00:11:06.260 it has gotten so bad
00:11:09.140 that it's a punchline.
00:11:11.760 And that is not
00:11:13.100 a good thing
00:11:13.680 and they're screwing it up
00:11:14.660 by making it even worse.
00:11:16.140 You look at
00:11:16.620 the special prosecutor
00:11:17.640 who was named
00:11:18.360 for this case
00:11:19.220 and you want to talk about,
00:11:21.440 you look at,
00:11:22.120 for example,
00:11:22.760 I'll compare this
00:11:23.560 for a moment to Mar-a-Lago.
00:11:25.100 We knew
00:11:25.880 and they knew
00:11:26.920 where these documents
00:11:28.420 were at Mar-a-Lago.
00:11:29.580 They even had come in
00:11:30.820 and looked at these documents
00:11:32.020 and knew they were
00:11:32.520 in a quote,
00:11:33.680 you know,
00:11:33.960 an area that they agreed upon
00:11:35.820 that was more secure
00:11:37.000 or a secure room.
00:11:39.020 I mean,
00:11:39.180 there was a lot of conversations
00:11:40.640 from what we understand.
00:11:42.600 The difference
00:11:43.840 with this one is
00:11:44.860 these documents
00:11:46.060 we know
00:11:46.780 had to have been moved
00:11:48.760 multiple times
00:11:50.960 just based on the timeline,
00:11:53.340 just based on
00:11:54.100 when the Penn Center
00:11:54.880 even opened
00:11:55.680 and he had access to it.
00:11:57.220 We don't know
00:11:57.820 if these documents
00:11:58.760 were at one point
00:11:59.620 all together
00:12:00.260 and now they've shown up
00:12:01.760 in three different locations.
00:12:03.980 We have no idea
00:12:05.100 who had access
00:12:05.840 to these documents
00:12:06.640 or who were around them.
00:12:08.480 And I've noticed
00:12:09.080 this other theme center
00:12:10.540 which is,
00:12:11.120 well,
00:12:11.680 this is a political problem.
00:12:13.660 David Gergen said that,
00:12:14.440 but not a legal one for him.
00:12:16.380 How can they say that
00:12:18.120 when we don't even know
00:12:19.800 what the documents are yet
00:12:21.720 and we know they're classified?
00:12:23.120 We also know
00:12:23.520 there's a bunch
00:12:23.880 of other documents
00:12:24.580 around these documents
00:12:25.580 that dealt with foreign countries
00:12:27.380 that apparently
00:12:27.920 were not classified.
00:12:30.060 I mean,
00:12:30.260 what if a lot of this information
00:12:31.620 deals with their business
00:12:32.740 and financial dealings
00:12:33.820 and info
00:12:34.280 that would give them
00:12:34.860 a leg up on China 0.64
00:12:35.940 and Ukraine
00:12:36.700 with Burisma
00:12:37.360 and other things like that?
00:12:38.420 How can you just walk out there
00:12:40.000 and say,
00:12:40.740 well,
00:12:41.040 we're not worried
00:12:42.120 about this anything legally.
00:12:43.780 This is more optics politically.
00:12:46.540 Well,
00:12:47.580 you're right
00:12:47.980 that right now
00:12:48.820 we don't know
00:12:49.260 what's in the documents.
00:12:50.380 What has been reported
00:12:51.700 and or leaked
00:12:52.540 is that at least
00:12:53.280 one of the documents
00:12:54.500 was SCI code word clearance,
00:12:57.180 which is the highest level
00:12:58.300 of clearance.
00:12:58.760 So it's not
00:12:59.480 that the bottom level
00:13:00.480 is secret,
00:13:01.040 then there's top secret,
00:13:02.060 but SCI code word
00:13:03.040 is for very sensitive materials
00:13:06.560 and at least one
00:13:07.360 of the documents
00:13:07.940 apparently was classified
00:13:09.020 at that highest level.
00:13:10.680 We have also heard
00:13:12.260 reports and leaks
00:13:13.620 that they concerned
00:13:14.380 foreign countries,
00:13:15.320 concerned the United Kingdom
00:13:17.020 and China and Iran.
00:13:18.220 We don't know
00:13:18.720 in what respect
00:13:19.580 and Ukraine,
00:13:21.000 as we talked about
00:13:22.720 on the last pod,
00:13:24.180 if these documents
00:13:26.500 involve Biden's
00:13:28.500 personal financial dealings
00:13:30.260 with these countries,
00:13:31.240 either Joe Biden's
00:13:32.960 or Hunter Biden's
00:13:33.960 or Joe Biden's brothers,
00:13:34.960 that takes this
00:13:37.160 to a qualitatively
00:13:38.340 different place.
00:13:39.120 At this point,
00:13:39.620 we have no indication
00:13:40.680 that that's the fact,
00:13:41.600 but that would be
00:13:42.600 a massive escalation.
00:13:45.820 Why is it
00:13:46.340 that Democrats
00:13:47.100 are convinced
00:13:47.780 there's no legal liability?
00:13:50.580 I think the answer is
00:13:52.540 they have confidence
00:13:53.380 in Merrick Garland.
00:13:55.300 And, you know,
00:13:56.200 you and I recently
00:13:57.100 did a pod
00:13:57.720 right after Robert Hur,
00:13:59.540 the special counsel,
00:14:00.760 was named
00:14:01.220 and we were one
00:14:02.140 of the very first
00:14:02.960 analyses out there
00:14:04.420 looking into
00:14:05.280 Hur's background.
00:14:06.960 And at the time,
00:14:07.900 I pointed out
00:14:09.000 that he had been
00:14:09.840 principal associate
00:14:11.260 deputy attorney general
00:14:12.380 under Rod Rosenstein
00:14:13.380 and I said that
00:14:14.120 did not give comfort.
00:14:16.600 What we've seen
00:14:17.280 since then
00:14:17.880 is not only was he
00:14:19.300 a protege of Rod Rosenstein,
00:14:21.480 he was also a protege
00:14:23.040 of Chris Ray,
00:14:23.920 the director of the FBI,
00:14:26.440 who sadly,
00:14:28.880 Chris, I think,
00:14:30.260 has presided
00:14:31.460 over an FBI
00:14:32.400 that has continued
00:14:33.620 to be deeply partisan,
00:14:36.740 that has continued
00:14:37.540 to be political players.
00:14:40.720 Now, it is not
00:14:41.360 as egregious
00:14:42.260 as it was
00:14:43.800 under his predecessor,
00:14:45.140 under James Comey,
00:14:46.080 where Comey
00:14:46.720 was actively
00:14:48.140 part of the problem,
00:14:49.360 but Chris Ray
00:14:50.640 has been unwilling
00:14:51.580 to clean house,
00:14:52.580 unwilling to get rid
00:14:53.780 of the hard,
00:14:55.740 partisan career officials
00:14:57.820 at the FBI.
00:14:59.580 And so when it comes
00:15:01.740 to if you're
00:15:02.580 a Democratic partisan
00:15:03.800 and you realize,
00:15:06.020 well, wait a second,
00:15:06.680 every decision here
00:15:07.560 is going to be made
00:15:08.580 by, number one,
00:15:10.080 a guy that's Chris Ray
00:15:11.080 and Rod Rosenstein's
00:15:12.300 protege,
00:15:13.380 but, number two,
00:15:14.640 ultimately by Merrick Garland,
00:15:16.120 who has already proven
00:15:16.940 to be the most political
00:15:17.840 attorney general ever,
00:15:19.340 I think you have
00:15:20.480 a level of comfort
00:15:21.360 that this is
00:15:22.100 a messaging problem
00:15:23.120 and not a legal problem,
00:15:24.180 that they're going
00:15:25.100 to justify,
00:15:26.800 well, everything
00:15:27.380 was done right here.
00:15:28.140 No matter what was done,
00:15:29.700 because in their view,
00:15:31.400 there is such
00:15:32.800 a qualitative difference
00:15:34.180 between Biden and Trump
00:15:35.560 that whatever the facts,
00:15:39.140 it can be swept
00:15:39.820 under the rug.
00:15:40.600 What becomes hard,
00:15:42.320 and the reason they view
00:15:43.800 this as a political problem,
00:15:45.540 is they have one target,
00:15:47.760 and that is Donald John Trump.
00:15:50.200 That is their target,
00:15:52.000 and politically,
00:15:53.060 this now makes it messy
00:15:54.740 for Democrats
00:15:56.300 to get up and say,
00:15:58.140 having classified documents
00:16:00.100 in places other than
00:16:01.600 secured lockdown skiffs
00:16:03.480 is disastrous.
00:16:05.520 That's very difficult
00:16:06.640 when Joe Biden
00:16:07.620 seems to leave them
00:16:08.740 everywhere he goes.
00:16:10.760 That's what they're
00:16:11.680 wrestling with politically,
00:16:13.000 but I think they have confidence
00:16:14.520 that the guys investigating it,
00:16:16.780 there's not going to be
00:16:17.500 legal peril
00:16:18.640 for Biden
00:16:20.040 or the people surrounding it.
00:16:21.100 Canadian women are looking
00:16:22.980 for more,
00:16:23.840 more out of themselves,
00:16:24.900 their businesses,
00:16:25.840 their elected leaders,
00:16:26.640 and the world around them.
00:16:28.060 And that's why we're thrilled
00:16:29.000 to introduce
00:16:29.640 the Honest Talk podcast.
00:16:31.680 I'm Jennifer Stewart.
00:16:32.940 And I'm Catherine Clark.
00:16:34.200 And in this podcast,
00:16:35.320 we interview Canada's
00:16:36.280 most inspiring women.
00:16:37.940 Entrepreneurs,
00:16:38.620 artists,
00:16:39.280 athletes,
00:16:39.900 politicians,
00:16:40.560 and newsmakers,
00:16:41.480 all at different stages
00:16:42.520 of their journey.
00:16:43.680 So if you're looking
00:16:44.680 to connect,
00:16:45.480 then we hope you'll join us.
00:16:46.880 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast
00:16:48.280 on iHeartRadio
00:16:49.280 or wherever you listen
00:16:50.260 to your podcasts.
00:16:53.200 Representative James Comer,
00:16:54.720 he said one of his
00:16:55.940 big problems with this
00:16:57.060 on State of the Union
00:16:57.820 Sunday morning
00:16:58.580 was that the special counsel
00:17:00.300 has been called for Biden,
00:17:02.740 yet his attorneys
00:17:04.260 were still rummaging
00:17:05.420 what he described
00:17:06.200 as the crime scene,
00:17:07.680 individuals that do not,
00:17:09.280 in fact,
00:17:09.600 have top-secret clearance.
00:17:11.580 Take a listen.
00:17:12.360 James Comer of Kentucky,
00:17:13.660 Mr. Chairman,
00:17:14.240 thanks for joining us.
00:17:15.040 Let's start on the news yesterday
00:17:16.320 that five additional
00:17:18.120 pages of classified documents
00:17:19.700 were found
00:17:20.140 at President Biden's residence
00:17:21.740 in that Wilmington suburb
00:17:23.740 in a room adjacent
00:17:24.600 to the garage.
00:17:25.620 What's your reaction
00:17:26.500 to this latest development?
00:17:29.720 Well, my concern is
00:17:31.380 that the special counsel
00:17:32.620 was called for,
00:17:34.080 but yet hours after that
00:17:35.680 we still had
00:17:36.400 the president's
00:17:37.180 personal attorneys
00:17:38.180 who have no security clearance
00:17:40.160 still rummaging around
00:17:41.740 the president's residence
00:17:43.500 looking for things.
00:17:44.820 I mean,
00:17:44.980 that would essentially
00:17:45.660 be a crime scene,
00:17:47.060 so to speak,
00:17:47.700 after the appointment
00:17:49.040 of a special counsel.
00:17:50.180 So, you know,
00:17:50.860 we have a lot of questions
00:17:51.980 for the National Archives.
00:17:54.520 We have a lot of questions
00:17:55.300 for the Department of Justice,
00:17:56.320 and hopefully we'll be getting
00:17:57.500 some answers very soon.
00:17:59.300 I mean,
00:17:59.860 it's an active crime scene
00:18:00.880 is the way he described it,
00:18:01.820 and they're just rummaging through.
00:18:02.920 I guess they're just going
00:18:03.600 through everything
00:18:04.220 trying to find papers.
00:18:05.880 What does the law say about this?
00:18:07.620 I mean,
00:18:07.800 if they know
00:18:08.780 that there's classified documents,
00:18:10.780 can they just send staffers
00:18:12.440 and random lawyers
00:18:13.700 who do not have
00:18:14.420 top-secret clearance
00:18:15.240 to, like,
00:18:15.640 hey,
00:18:16.740 go through everything
00:18:18.540 in this room,
00:18:19.320 in this room,
00:18:19.920 in this room,
00:18:20.440 and then let us know
00:18:21.020 what you find?
00:18:23.300 Well, look,
00:18:24.120 what this illustrates
00:18:24.900 is the rampant
00:18:26.080 double standard.
00:18:27.400 Now, to be clear,
00:18:28.320 and we talked about this
00:18:29.620 early on
00:18:30.640 when the issue
00:18:31.780 of the Mar-a-Lago raid
00:18:32.740 occurred,
00:18:33.840 that presidents
00:18:35.260 of both parties
00:18:37.140 for a long time
00:18:38.200 have had disputes
00:18:39.020 over documents,
00:18:40.060 and presidents
00:18:40.580 keep documents
00:18:41.480 to prepare memoirs,
00:18:42.700 and presidents
00:18:43.160 keep documents
00:18:45.080 to prepare
00:18:47.380 for their presidential libraries.
00:18:49.320 Now,
00:18:49.720 Biden's a little bit different
00:18:50.760 in that it appears
00:18:51.520 all of these documents
00:18:52.760 were from his time
00:18:54.120 as vice president
00:18:55.060 and not president.
00:18:56.380 I say all of them.
00:18:57.140 I'm not.
00:18:57.580 Actually,
00:18:58.160 the ones at the Penn Center
00:18:59.200 were from the
00:18:59.700 vice presidential time.
00:19:00.860 I don't know
00:19:01.240 that they publicly said
00:19:02.400 whether the Corvette documents
00:19:03.880 or the latest documents
00:19:05.480 in his Wilmington home
00:19:06.800 were from his time
00:19:07.660 as president
00:19:08.140 or vice president.
00:19:08.880 If they have said it,
00:19:10.180 I haven't seen that reported,
00:19:12.260 and Merrick Garland
00:19:13.160 is not giving any details.
00:19:15.200 But, look,
00:19:16.300 there is some element
00:19:17.540 of presidents
00:19:18.420 have some ability
00:19:19.920 to work with investigations
00:19:21.680 and to endeavor
00:19:22.840 to comply
00:19:23.440 and to turn over materials.
00:19:25.820 What is striking
00:19:26.760 is that's not the leniency
00:19:29.600 they gave Donald Trump.
00:19:30.860 They sent in FBI agents
00:19:32.980 to raid,
00:19:33.700 and so when I think
00:19:35.160 the third or fourth
00:19:36.220 tranche of documents
00:19:37.760 were discovered with Biden,
00:19:39.220 I jumped on Twitter
00:19:40.460 and said,
00:19:41.220 you know,
00:19:41.440 so when's the FBI raid happening?
00:19:43.720 And that's just,
00:19:45.340 I think the FBI raid
00:19:46.980 of Mar-a-Lago was wrong,
00:19:48.500 and so I'm not actually calling
00:19:50.400 for an FBI raid
00:19:51.640 of Biden's residents,
00:19:53.920 but it's very difficult
00:19:55.080 for a Democrat
00:19:55.800 to explain,
00:19:57.380 well,
00:19:57.640 why do we only raid Trump
00:19:59.280 and not our guy?
00:20:00.280 Now,
00:20:00.520 they'll say,
00:20:01.400 their talking point
00:20:02.200 and response is,
00:20:03.700 well,
00:20:04.020 our guy's complying.
00:20:05.420 Well,
00:20:05.700 he's not complying very well,
00:20:07.000 and he keeps finding
00:20:07.960 more and more and more,
00:20:09.680 and you're right
00:20:10.440 that who knows
00:20:11.160 who the heck
00:20:11.600 they're sending in there
00:20:12.520 looking around
00:20:13.220 and what documents they are,
00:20:14.660 what has been demonstrated,
00:20:16.200 is they don't know
00:20:17.800 what's there,
00:20:18.500 so it's very hard
00:20:19.400 for them to claim
00:20:20.400 that they are
00:20:21.140 complying with
00:20:22.960 a classified document
00:20:24.740 security protocol
00:20:26.000 given that
00:20:26.740 from all appearances
00:20:28.140 they have no idea
00:20:29.260 what documents exist where,
00:20:32.340 and yet they're sending in
00:20:33.780 who knows whom
00:20:34.500 to go look for.
00:20:35.780 I said this the other day
00:20:37.240 when this first broke
00:20:38.260 and you and I
00:20:38.700 were chatting about it,
00:20:39.580 I said,
00:20:40.060 I wonder if this is not
00:20:41.140 a great opportunity
00:20:41.960 for Democrats
00:20:42.760 to say,
00:20:44.320 all right,
00:20:44.800 we get rid of our problem,
00:20:46.840 and that's Joe Biden.
00:20:47.980 We got through the midterms,
00:20:49.760 now maybe this is our off-ramp,
00:20:51.740 we can bring in
00:20:52.500 our new person.
00:20:54.080 Adam Schiff
00:20:55.080 was on ABC this week,
00:20:57.360 and I mean,
00:20:58.400 shocked the hell out of me
00:20:59.560 when he had this to say.
00:21:01.020 The outgoing chair
00:21:02.080 of the House Intelligence Committee.
00:21:04.540 Congressman Schiff,
00:21:05.080 you were on this show
00:21:05.920 just after Attorney General Garland
00:21:07.760 appointed a special counsel
00:21:09.080 in the case of the Trump documents,
00:21:11.260 you said it was the right move.
00:21:12.660 Do you feel the same way
00:21:13.660 about this special counsel?
00:21:16.800 I do think it's the right move.
00:21:18.780 The Attorney General
00:21:19.540 has to make sure
00:21:20.360 that not only is justice
00:21:21.880 evenly applied,
00:21:23.300 but the appearances of justice
00:21:25.620 are also satisfactory
00:21:27.980 to the public,
00:21:28.820 and here I don't think
00:21:30.220 he had any choice
00:21:31.020 but to appoint a special counsel,
00:21:32.980 and I think that special counsel
00:21:34.320 will do the proper assessment.
00:21:37.240 I still would like to see
00:21:38.700 Congress do its own assessment
00:21:40.900 and receive an assessment
00:21:42.800 from the intelligence community
00:21:44.020 of whether there was any exposure
00:21:46.520 to others of these documents,
00:21:48.160 whether there was harm
00:21:48.720 to national security
00:21:49.660 in the case of either set of documents
00:21:52.100 with either president.
00:21:53.820 But yes,
00:21:54.400 I think the special counsel
00:21:55.740 was appropriately appointed.
00:21:57.280 Jonathan, I don't know if I could.
00:21:59.100 I mean, you hear him say that there,
00:22:01.800 Senator,
00:22:02.180 and that's not what I was expecting
00:22:04.400 from Adam Schiff at all.
00:22:07.380 Well, it is surprising,
00:22:09.040 and I do think Democrats are reeling
00:22:11.860 and trying to figure out
00:22:12.820 how to respond to this.
00:22:15.420 It's premature to say
00:22:17.200 that the analysis of it
00:22:18.520 is what you suggested,
00:22:19.540 that this is Democrats
00:22:20.620 trying to throw Joe Biden
00:22:21.880 to the curb.
00:22:23.100 What I would say
00:22:24.240 is that today's
00:22:25.380 congressional Democrats
00:22:26.620 hate Donald Trump
00:22:29.000 much more than they love
00:22:31.400 Joe Biden.
00:22:32.640 So they're frustrated
00:22:34.320 because they recognize
00:22:36.300 this mess is a real
00:22:38.840 political problem
00:22:40.220 for their effort
00:22:41.780 to go after Trump.
00:22:43.100 And so they're reacting
00:22:44.300 with that frustration
00:22:45.560 of, wait a second,
00:22:46.920 we must go after Beelzebub, 0.99
00:22:49.700 and you are making it difficult
00:22:51.600 for us to go after Beelzebub.
00:22:54.140 Actually, I say that,
00:22:55.200 the odds that they would know
00:22:56.100 who Beelzebub is
00:22:57.780 are actually quite low
00:22:58.940 because that would suggest
00:22:59.900 some familiarity with,
00:23:02.240 well, I'm going to be nice.
00:23:04.820 I'm going to go the high road
00:23:05.840 and not finish that thought.
00:23:11.460 With respect to Joe Biden,
00:23:13.280 I think Democrats are divided
00:23:15.220 right now on Joe Biden.
00:23:17.340 Just about everyone recognizes 0.94
00:23:19.240 that he's too damn old
00:23:20.440 and that his age is a real issue 0.73
00:23:22.420 and that competence
00:23:23.280 has been a real issue.
00:23:25.140 At the same time,
00:23:26.880 Democrats are pretty good 0.85
00:23:27.920 at message discipline.
00:23:29.200 And so they have uniformly
00:23:32.180 circled the wagons around him
00:23:33.680 and said, he's our guy,
00:23:34.760 we're going to defend him
00:23:35.540 no matter what.
00:23:36.480 Now, there are a ton
00:23:38.540 of ambitious Democrats
00:23:40.860 circling the carcass
00:23:43.760 of the White House
00:23:44.600 who want to run.
00:23:46.880 And we've talked about
00:23:47.860 all the Democrats,
00:23:48.860 whether it's Kamala Harris
00:23:49.920 or Pete Buttigieg
00:23:50.720 or Gavin Newsom
00:23:52.740 or Elizabeth Warren. 0.92
00:23:53.900 I think there are a lot of them
00:23:55.320 that are eager to run.
00:23:56.320 And I've said multiple times,
00:23:58.040 I do not believe Joe Biden
00:23:59.960 will be the Democrat nominee in 24.
00:24:02.700 I don't think he'll run.
00:24:04.040 He's, of course,
00:24:04.840 saying he's going to run.
00:24:05.900 So I think within
00:24:06.740 the Democratic circles,
00:24:08.060 there's a divide.
00:24:09.320 Are there people that would like
00:24:10.620 to push Biden out?
00:24:11.800 Yes.
00:24:13.080 But they're not sure
00:24:13.940 who they want to replace him.
00:24:15.240 And I think what we're seeing now
00:24:17.320 is more frustration
00:24:19.740 that this makes it harder
00:24:21.980 to go after Trump
00:24:23.020 than necessarily
00:24:24.220 an effort to jettison Biden,
00:24:27.600 although it could develop
00:24:28.820 in time into the latter.
00:24:31.380 Yeah, it's going to be
00:24:32.780 very interesting
00:24:33.700 to see how this plays out.
00:24:35.220 But it seems like
00:24:36.160 this story,
00:24:37.820 we haven't even gotten
00:24:38.600 into the storyline here
00:24:39.860 because they keep
00:24:40.880 screwing this up
00:24:42.000 and the White House
00:24:43.020 keeps lying and saying,
00:24:44.280 this is it.
00:24:44.580 I wouldn't be surprised
00:24:45.780 if they find more documents
00:24:47.380 today, tomorrow,
00:24:48.060 the next day at this point,
00:24:49.200 because it seems like
00:24:50.440 they're all over the place
00:24:51.780 and that there was no one
00:24:53.040 who was actually looking out
00:24:54.400 for these classified documents.
00:24:56.780 If that is the case,
00:24:59.380 is there possibility
00:25:00.760 of a real criminal-esque probe
00:25:03.220 into this special counsel?
00:25:05.560 Well, and in fact,
00:25:06.640 I'm going to go one further.
00:25:08.040 So this podcast
00:25:08.720 is coming out Monday morning.
00:25:10.260 I'm going to wager you a beer
00:25:13.140 that by a week from today,
00:25:15.700 by next Monday,
00:25:16.560 they will have found
00:25:17.680 more classified documents.
00:25:19.660 So if I win,
00:25:20.360 you're buying me a beer.
00:25:21.760 And if you win,
00:25:22.820 you're buying me a beer.
00:25:23.640 Either way, we get beer.
00:25:24.660 So it's actually a win-win.
00:25:26.040 I was going to say,
00:25:26.860 we both win.
00:25:27.420 That's when I like it.
00:25:29.680 But I think
00:25:30.320 they're going to find more.
00:25:31.360 I think they're...
00:25:32.260 You know,
00:25:34.360 I had an old boss,
00:25:35.280 one of my first bosses
00:25:36.260 when I came out of law school
00:25:37.740 used to say to me,
00:25:40.200 Ted, never blame on malice
00:25:42.020 what can be explained
00:25:43.840 with incompetence.
00:25:46.080 There's a lot of truth to that.
00:25:47.960 At this point,
00:25:49.140 I think the White House guys
00:25:50.380 desperately wish they knew
00:25:51.960 about what classified documents
00:25:53.940 were where.
00:25:54.840 And I don't think they do yet.
00:25:56.060 I think they're still
00:25:57.060 going through a sock drawer.
00:25:58.680 I think they're still
00:25:59.320 trying to figure out,
00:26:00.220 okay, what else is where?
00:26:02.720 And it's amazing to me
00:26:04.040 just how poorly
00:26:06.100 they've executed it.
00:26:07.280 I think there's more to come.
00:26:10.480 The next...
00:26:11.220 If there's not,
00:26:12.480 the next big shoe to drop
00:26:14.080 is going to be
00:26:14.640 what are these documents?
00:26:17.180 You know, it's one thing.
00:26:18.420 I've read a lot of classified documents
00:26:20.140 in the last decade.
00:26:21.960 There's some classified documents
00:26:23.740 that frankly... 0.72
00:26:25.460 Damned if I know 0.98
00:26:26.100 why they're classified. 0.98
00:26:27.180 They, you know,
00:26:27.720 say things like,
00:26:28.860 you know,
00:26:30.540 Russia's big and cold. 0.98
00:26:32.240 Okay, that's classified.
00:26:33.560 I'm, you know,
00:26:33.980 because some person
00:26:34.900 put a classified label.
00:26:36.020 Like, they say things
00:26:37.040 that everyone knows
00:26:38.000 and don't really say anything.
00:26:40.460 And I actually think
00:26:41.260 there's a problem
00:26:41.900 in government
00:26:42.700 of overclassification.
00:26:44.120 We've seen
00:26:44.800 this administration,
00:26:46.460 we saw the Obama administration
00:26:49.140 classify things
00:26:50.640 that were just
00:26:51.160 politically embarrassing.
00:26:52.500 That's another category
00:26:53.640 where it doesn't impact
00:26:54.640 national security.
00:26:55.800 It just is embarrassing
00:26:56.860 to the party in power.
00:26:57.860 I think a lot of the stuff
00:26:59.660 about Afghanistan
00:27:00.480 and the disaster
00:27:02.240 of Biden's horrible withdrawal
00:27:04.380 there falls into that category
00:27:05.800 of, well,
00:27:06.580 we certainly don't want anyone
00:27:07.560 to know what happened,
00:27:08.460 so it's all classified.
00:27:11.180 Depending on what it is,
00:27:13.600 if the materials
00:27:14.660 are classified
00:27:15.600 but on a reasonable assessment
00:27:17.680 did not pose
00:27:20.520 an acute danger
00:27:21.580 to national security,
00:27:22.600 that's one thing.
00:27:24.160 If the materials,
00:27:25.420 materials on the other hand
00:27:26.560 are,
00:27:27.260 and as I said,
00:27:28.040 we know of at least
00:27:28.600 one document
00:27:29.280 that is SCI code word classified,
00:27:31.820 if they are materials
00:27:33.360 that could endanger sources
00:27:35.720 and methods
00:27:36.380 that at the most extreme
00:27:37.580 could uncover
00:27:39.240 an undercover operative
00:27:40.700 and risk his or her life,
00:27:42.220 that takes it
00:27:43.620 to a very different level.
00:27:45.020 We don't know yet.
00:27:46.460 I think there is...
00:27:47.520 You mentioned it twice now,
00:27:48.760 SCI code word,
00:27:50.120 one of these documents.
00:27:51.680 Can you explain
00:27:52.700 who is even able
00:27:54.780 to see that level
00:27:55.920 of classification,
00:27:57.280 how that works?
00:27:58.080 Because you mentioned it now twice,
00:27:59.780 and for a lot of people listening,
00:28:01.080 they're going to say,
00:28:01.720 okay,
00:28:01.960 why is that one
00:28:03.080 so much more
00:28:03.840 of a big deal
00:28:05.280 and what type of things
00:28:07.480 would be under
00:28:07.980 that type of clearance
00:28:08.920 compared to other things
00:28:09.880 that say top secret?
00:28:11.700 So there's a hierarchy
00:28:15.040 from secret
00:28:15.920 to top secret
00:28:16.880 to SCI code word,
00:28:18.180 and even SCI code word,
00:28:19.320 you're not read
00:28:19.940 into everything.
00:28:20.640 They're kept
00:28:22.360 in separate silos,
00:28:23.860 and on some level,
00:28:26.220 it's fairly intuitive.
00:28:27.600 The higher level
00:28:28.200 of classification
00:28:28.860 is information
00:28:30.200 that is more risky
00:28:32.400 to national security,
00:28:33.620 more important.
00:28:34.620 So it could reveal things.
00:28:37.140 I mean,
00:28:37.360 the catch word
00:28:38.440 that is most typically used
00:28:39.720 is sources and methods.
00:28:40.880 Now, what does that mean?
00:28:42.240 That could mean
00:28:43.440 that we have a wiretap,
00:28:44.700 we have some bad guy's phone tap,
00:28:46.700 we have some satellite
00:28:47.860 interception going on,
00:28:50.160 and so we don't want
00:28:51.100 the bad guy to know
00:28:51.920 his phone is tapped.
00:28:52.920 And so that's one reason
00:28:54.060 why, you know,
00:28:55.500 if it's, you know,
00:28:57.320 we heard Ben Ferguson
00:28:59.200 calling and, you know,
00:29:01.000 doing something nefarious
00:29:02.780 on his phone,
00:29:03.580 well, we don't want Ben
00:29:04.320 to know we got him tapped,
00:29:05.420 so that's going to be
00:29:06.160 at a higher level
00:29:06.660 of classification.
00:29:08.340 There's another component
00:29:09.480 of it.
00:29:10.000 Maybe the guy
00:29:11.580 mowing Ben's lawn
00:29:12.600 is a CIA agent
00:29:14.160 undercover,
00:29:14.580 and he's wearing a wire
00:29:16.320 trying to catch Ben
00:29:17.300 doing nefarious things.
00:29:18.580 By the end of this, Ben,
00:29:19.340 you're going to be
00:29:19.600 really nervous.
00:29:20.340 I would say,
00:29:20.820 I'm going to be
00:29:21.300 in serious trouble
00:29:21.900 by the end of this.
00:29:25.000 But if we have
00:29:26.240 an undercover operative
00:29:27.340 that's placed,
00:29:28.060 either a CIA agent
00:29:29.400 or more often an asset,
00:29:31.340 somebody who's working
00:29:32.660 for an enemy of America
00:29:34.520 or even sometimes
00:29:35.520 just another country,
00:29:37.020 another player
00:29:37.640 who's been turned,
00:29:38.860 who our intelligence officers
00:29:41.480 have convinced,
00:29:43.260 cooperate,
00:29:43.840 and provide information
00:29:44.740 to us,
00:29:45.640 you don't want that
00:29:47.020 falling in enemy hands
00:29:48.200 in worse circumstances.
00:29:49.940 And we've seen,
00:29:51.120 particularly at the height
00:29:51.760 of the Cold War,
00:29:52.440 but we've also seen it
00:29:53.380 with China,
00:29:53.840 where they find spies 1.00
00:29:55.020 and they kill them. 0.99
00:29:56.200 Yeah. 0.90
00:29:56.320 Like, it can endanger,
00:29:58.340 it can result in
00:29:59.800 our agents being murdered
00:30:01.940 if information
00:30:03.840 that reveals their identity
00:30:05.420 is made public.
00:30:08.200 That's a spectrum,
00:30:09.300 but then there's
00:30:09.940 an entire other matrix here
00:30:11.520 that you've referenced
00:30:12.320 a couple of times,
00:30:13.380 but it both legally
00:30:15.760 and politically
00:30:16.480 is qualitatively different
00:30:18.060 if this involves
00:30:19.600 the Biden's family's
00:30:21.560 pecuniary gain,
00:30:23.200 if this involves documents
00:30:25.320 where Joe Biden
00:30:28.220 and his family
00:30:28.820 were making a buck.
00:30:29.680 We know that they made a buck
00:30:31.060 with a bunch of shady characters
00:30:33.300 in Ukraine
00:30:34.600 and communist China.
00:30:35.840 We know that they've done that.
00:30:37.000 I actually don't think
00:30:39.400 these documents are about that
00:30:40.840 because that just 0.99
00:30:41.780 would be so monumentally stupid 1.00
00:30:44.600 that it boggles the mind. 1.00
00:30:47.620 I suspect they're not about that.
00:30:50.260 But if suddenly
00:30:51.380 it were something
00:30:53.480 intertwined
00:30:55.320 with the significant evidence
00:30:57.500 of personal corruption,
00:30:59.180 that's when you start
00:31:00.960 to take it
00:31:01.580 to very serious legal jeopardy.
00:31:03.680 We have no evidence
00:31:04.940 to suggest that's the case,
00:31:06.340 but if it were the case,
00:31:08.200 it would be
00:31:09.080 a massive escalation.
00:31:11.200 Two more things
00:31:11.680 I want to ask you,
00:31:12.580 and one,
00:31:13.360 I love looking at
00:31:14.780 what the headlines
00:31:15.680 are trying to sell you
00:31:17.080 from the media
00:31:17.740 when there's a big story.
00:31:20.480 One of the headlines,
00:31:21.780 Washington Post,
00:31:23.060 big headline, right?
00:31:24.540 While all this is going on
00:31:26.220 that we've been talking about
00:31:27.160 for the last 20-something minutes,
00:31:29.040 their headline read,
00:31:30.180 that House Republicans
00:31:31.300 prepare an emergency plan
00:31:33.200 for breaching the debt limit.
00:31:37.560 They said they're preparing
00:31:38.760 for a plan
00:31:39.380 telling the Treasury Department
00:31:40.540 what could do
00:31:41.580 if Congress and the White House
00:31:42.720 don't agree to lift
00:31:43.680 the nation's debt limit
00:31:44.720 later this year,
00:31:46.060 underscoring the brinksmanship
00:31:47.420 newly empowered conservatives
00:31:48.720 will bring to the high-stakes negotiations
00:31:50.500 over averting a U.S. default,
00:31:52.640 according to six people,
00:31:53.580 aware of the internal discussions.
00:31:55.540 This is months away,
00:31:57.080 and they happened
00:31:58.860 to write this story
00:31:59.980 on the first big Saturday
00:32:02.100 of a special counsel
00:32:03.540 with the President
00:32:03.960 of the United States of America
00:32:04.960 acting like the Republicans
00:32:06.360 are about to default on debt.
00:32:08.700 Is this a big distraction
00:32:10.020 or is this something
00:32:10.640 that should be
00:32:10.980 on people's radar screens?
00:32:13.280 Well, this is going to be
00:32:14.400 a big fight,
00:32:15.040 and we've talked about
00:32:17.000 on this podcast
00:32:18.180 how this was what
00:32:19.640 the leadership battle
00:32:20.540 was all about.
00:32:21.440 It was whether
00:32:22.160 the Republican majority
00:32:23.880 in the House,
00:32:24.880 and for that matter,
00:32:25.940 the Republicans in the Senate,
00:32:27.080 are going to use
00:32:28.800 the legal power we have,
00:32:30.220 use the levers of power
00:32:31.600 that we have
00:32:32.460 to force meaningful reforms
00:32:35.620 in fiscal and spending policy.
00:32:37.600 And right at the heart
00:32:39.160 of the battle over the Speaker
00:32:40.400 was trying to force
00:32:41.780 the new leadership
00:32:42.580 in the House
00:32:43.820 to be willing
00:32:44.360 to use those levers.
00:32:46.020 I believe we're going to see
00:32:47.340 a huge fight in Washington
00:32:49.020 over the debt ceiling,
00:32:49.940 and we're also going to see
00:32:51.660 a huge fight in Washington
00:32:53.060 over funding of the government.
00:32:55.460 Why is that?
00:32:56.160 Because those historically
00:32:57.300 have been the two most effective
00:32:59.760 and many times
00:33:00.580 the only effective levers
00:33:02.260 to force an opposing party
00:33:04.500 to give in
00:33:05.660 and pass meaningful spending
00:33:07.260 or fiscal reform.
00:33:08.380 Now, the media plays
00:33:09.880 their role
00:33:10.540 as Democratic mouthpieces
00:33:11.980 and immediately demonizes
00:33:13.560 any effort
00:33:14.320 to use those levers.
00:33:16.100 And let me be clear,
00:33:17.260 when it comes
00:33:17.700 to the debt ceiling,
00:33:19.080 my view is not
00:33:20.840 that we should default
00:33:21.980 on the debt.
00:33:22.520 We should never,
00:33:23.260 ever, ever default
00:33:24.040 on the debt.
00:33:24.580 It is that we should
00:33:25.360 use it as a lever
00:33:27.060 to force significant spending
00:33:29.500 and fiscal concession
00:33:31.000 from the administration,
00:33:31.920 and it has proven
00:33:33.580 to be a very effective lever
00:33:35.180 going back decades.
00:33:37.320 This is the press
00:33:38.300 trying to set the stage
00:33:41.140 for that battle,
00:33:42.120 and spoiler alert,
00:33:44.220 the press is going to say
00:33:45.580 the Republicans 1.00
00:33:46.160 are crazy lunatics, 1.00
00:33:47.160 and the answer 1.00
00:33:47.860 is just to give
00:33:48.500 trillions of dollars
00:33:49.260 to Joe Biden
00:33:49.800 and the Democrats
00:33:50.420 to keep bankrupting America.
00:33:52.100 That's going to be
00:33:52.640 their position.
00:33:54.040 This article is trying
00:33:55.060 to say that.
00:33:56.120 That fight is coming,
00:33:58.020 but it's not a fight
00:33:59.480 playing out today.
00:34:00.440 It'll play out
00:34:01.180 sometime in the future.
00:34:03.440 Lastly,
00:34:03.980 this is a story
00:34:04.940 that for everybody
00:34:05.900 that listens,
00:34:07.180 it just made me laugh.
00:34:08.680 I didn't think
00:34:09.380 it was real,
00:34:10.160 and then I found out
00:34:11.140 it was real.
00:34:12.500 There is a new
00:34:13.760 government-funded,
00:34:15.620 Senator,
00:34:16.080 and that means
00:34:16.580 our tax dollars,
00:34:17.680 food pyramid
00:34:19.420 that was unveiled
00:34:21.360 at the White House.
00:34:23.240 Now, this happens
00:34:24.380 a couple months ago
00:34:25.460 back in September.
00:34:27.400 The White House
00:34:27.920 hosted a conference
00:34:28.940 apparently that focused
00:34:29.860 on nutrition,
00:34:30.800 health,
00:34:31.120 and hunger in America,
00:34:32.100 and one of the main
00:34:33.820 organizers of the event
00:34:34.920 and currently the dean
00:34:36.560 of the Tufts School
00:34:37.520 of Nutrition
00:34:38.280 presented a newly
00:34:39.760 designed food pyramid
00:34:40.800 that only cost
00:34:42.260 three years of time
00:34:43.360 and millions
00:34:44.020 of taxpayers' dollars.
00:34:45.520 Now, this wisdom
00:34:46.940 in the new pyramid
00:34:47.920 has on there
00:34:49.740 when it comes
00:34:50.440 to nutritional value
00:34:51.900 that, in fact,
00:34:54.300 Lucky Charms,
00:34:55.720 the cereal,
00:34:57.340 is almost 2x more,
00:35:00.060 2x healthier
00:35:01.120 than steak.
00:35:02.960 Now, at the top
00:35:03.840 of the list,
00:35:04.320 there's stuff
00:35:04.640 that you and I
00:35:05.240 would probably say,
00:35:05.820 okay, makes sense.
00:35:07.140 Watermelon was 100.
00:35:09.040 Kale was 100.
00:35:11.400 Frosted mini-wheats
00:35:12.460 were in 87.
00:35:14.800 Unsweetened almond milk
00:35:16.080 in 86.
00:35:16.940 Non-fat frozen yogurt
00:35:18.760 in 80.
00:35:19.560 Chocolate-covered almonds
00:35:20.820 in 78.
00:35:21.780 Honey nut cereals
00:35:22.560 in 76.
00:35:23.880 Dates were tied
00:35:25.280 with that.
00:35:26.240 But then you go down
00:35:27.600 and you start
00:35:28.700 looking at this
00:35:29.520 and they actually say
00:35:31.740 that, for example,
00:35:33.300 almond M&Ms,
00:35:34.800 better,
00:35:35.960 double the nutritional value
00:35:37.400 they claim
00:35:37.920 of ground beef.
00:35:38.920 Cheddar is second
00:35:39.620 from the bottom.
00:35:40.860 Egg fried in butter
00:35:41.800 is at the bottom.
00:35:42.600 It's like it's a war
00:35:43.740 on traditional palates
00:35:45.400 and they're saying
00:35:46.500 that Lucky Charms
00:35:47.720 have a 60 on their scale,
00:35:49.840 beef is a 26.
00:35:51.240 Your reaction
00:35:52.040 or taxpayer dollars
00:35:52.900 saying that
00:35:54.020 to a pyramid scheme,
00:35:55.500 I would say
00:35:56.140 it's perfect
00:35:56.620 to say it that way,
00:35:57.400 that Lucky Charms
00:35:58.040 are better for you
00:35:58.960 than steak.
00:35:59.540 Well, it's stunning.
00:36:03.820 It's propaganda.
00:36:04.680 It reminds me
00:36:05.320 of an old line.
00:36:06.680 You know,
00:36:06.920 if you don't drink,
00:36:08.060 you don't smoke,
00:36:09.300 and you don't eat red meat.
00:36:11.080 You may not live
00:36:12.120 to 100,
00:36:13.500 but it'll feel like it.
00:36:16.000 Look,
00:36:16.560 this is a bunch
00:36:17.660 of lefties 0.77
00:36:19.320 who hate meat,
00:36:20.340 who want us all
00:36:21.240 to be, you know,
00:36:22.960 vegans feeding on grass
00:36:24.900 and sprouts
00:36:25.760 and, you know,
00:36:26.480 kale's 100.
00:36:27.300 I wouldn't know.
00:36:27.980 It can be 1,000
00:36:30.440 for all I care.
00:36:31.420 I'm not in the kale business.
00:36:33.300 I will say, though,
00:36:35.020 I am envious.
00:36:36.120 Apparently,
00:36:36.660 these guys hired
00:36:37.760 some government employee
00:36:38.980 whose job it was
00:36:39.980 to eat Lucky Charms
00:36:41.040 and steak.
00:36:43.220 Yeah.
00:36:43.760 That'd be a good job.
00:36:44.860 I like Lucky Charms.
00:36:45.840 By the way,
00:36:46.340 very soon,
00:36:48.200 the nihilists
00:36:49.920 in the Democratic Party
00:36:50.960 are going to say,
00:36:51.680 you can't say Lucky Charms.
00:36:53.060 You know,
00:36:53.240 the Fighting Irish,
00:36:54.120 we've already gotten rid
00:36:54.780 of the Redskins.
00:36:55.800 The Fighting Irish
00:36:56.460 are coming next,
00:36:57.260 and it's not,
00:36:57.820 you know,
00:36:58.100 a leprechaun
00:36:58.860 is, you know,
00:37:01.180 insensitive
00:37:01.760 to the wee people.
00:37:03.300 I just can't wait
00:37:04.280 for someone
00:37:04.740 to start giving me
00:37:05.360 health advice
00:37:05.980 that was unsolicited,
00:37:08.220 and I'm just going
00:37:08.640 to give them
00:37:08.920 a box of Lucky Charms.
00:37:10.080 Hey,
00:37:10.640 that's what the government
00:37:11.320 said you should be eating,
00:37:12.300 so there you go.
00:37:14.100 And I do hope
00:37:15.320 that, you know,
00:37:16.180 every Democrat
00:37:17.120 who wishes you and me ill,
00:37:18.600 and there are a lot of them,
00:37:19.960 maybe they could
00:37:20.920 just buy us a steak.
00:37:21.860 That'd be okay.
00:37:22.620 You know,
00:37:22.800 yeah,
00:37:22.960 they can get rid of it
00:37:23.800 faster, right? 1.00
00:37:24.600 Kill me by filet. 1.00
00:37:28.160 I'm fine with that. 1.00
00:37:29.060 I'll take that every day.
00:37:30.880 You can't make it up.
00:37:31.920 That's your tax dollars
00:37:32.880 at work.
00:37:33.760 Senator,
00:37:34.120 always a pleasure.
00:37:35.460 As I said,
00:37:36.320 don't forget to hit
00:37:37.740 that subscribe
00:37:38.360 or auto-download button.
00:37:39.760 If there is big breaking news
00:37:41.500 that happens
00:37:42.120 with this investigation,
00:37:44.520 we will more than likely
00:37:46.060 put out
00:37:46.900 a quick podcast,
00:37:49.500 so if you hit that subscribe
00:37:50.560 or auto-download button,
00:37:52.040 you'll have that automatically
00:37:53.120 on your phone
00:37:54.200 or wherever you listen,
00:37:55.980 and you'll know
00:37:56.800 when we go
00:37:57.400 with those quick ones
00:37:58.400 that are obviously
00:37:59.000 outside of the Monday,
00:37:59.860 Wednesday, Fridays
00:38:00.440 that we normally
00:38:01.340 put out these podcasts,
00:38:03.040 so make sure you do that.
00:38:03.880 Senator,
00:38:04.340 have a great rest of your day.
00:38:06.420 We'll see all you guys
00:38:07.260 back here on Wednesday.
00:38:09.540 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:38:12.080 Guaranteed Human.