Verdict with Ted Cruz - January 16, 2023


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


Episode Stats

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

7


Summary


Transcript

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.
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,
00:03:48.040 holy crap, as Gergen put it,
00:03:50.500 Biden's getting creamed.
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
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
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.
00:06:41.740 I mean, either she's an idiot
00:06:43.140 or she's willfully lying
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
00:06:59.200 an exceptionally poor liar.
00:07:01.740 I mean,
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.
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,
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,
00:07:48.300 my boss is an inveterate liar,
00:07:51.500 but he was charming about it.
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
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,
00:10:47.260 oh crap,
00:10:47.620 this is bad.
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
00:10:55.300 the damn search.
00:10:56.020 Apparently they can't do that
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
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,
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
00:23:19.240 that he's too damn old
00:23:20.440 and that his age is a real issue
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
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.
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...
00:26:25.460 Damned if I know
00:26:26.100 why they're classified.
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.
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
00:29:55.020 and they kill them.
00:29:56.200 Yeah.
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
00:30:41.780 would be so monumentally stupid
00:30:44.600 that it boggles the mind.
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
00:33:46.160 are crazy lunatics,
00:33:47.160 and the answer
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
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?
00:37:24.600 Kill me by filet.
00:37:28.160 I'm fine with that.
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.