July 12, 2024 • 54 mins
Jon Stewart returns with another episode of The Weekly Show, his podcast featuring in-depth conversations with special guests that explore the biggest threats to our democracy. In this episode, Jon addresses President Biden’s insistence on running for re-election. Guests Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor, Founders of Crooked Media, hosts of Pod Save America and Authors of Democracy or else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps, as well as Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator and Author of The Moment, join to hash out the best path forward for Democrats to defeat Trump this election and save democracy. Catch new episodes of The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's John Stewart here. Daily Shows off today means
we're going to drop an episode of the Weekly Show
right here for you to enjoy. Every Thursday, we have
I don't want to call them in depth conversations, but
they are conversations. They are mid depth made to low
depth com It's a round up to your knees. I'd
(00:21):
say you could. You don't even need to tread water.
They're really but it's special guests, big issues, threats to democracy,
it's all there. We're covering the two party system, reproductive rights,
military industrial complex. In this episode, today explores a young
fellow by the name of Joseph Robinette Biden and what
should be the plan moving forward. And I think it's
going to be a good episode, so enjoy. Hey, everybody,
(00:50):
welcome to the Weekly Show, John Stewart. I am John Stewart.
We were off last week. It was it was July fourth,
That was it was we celebrated America. We celebrated the
holiday of America with good cheer, with barbecues, with explosions,
which in some ways feels prescient where America appears to
(01:11):
be heading in the present moment. Oh my god, was
that an explosion. What the oh the house is shaking now.
We are here, of course with our super producers Brittany
Memedowick and Lauren Walker. Guys, we were going to do taxes.
We're breaking down the tax bill that every American page.
We're going to show where it goes to, how it
might be disconnected from the urgent needs of the people.
(01:34):
And then there was a something happened, Laura, that's exactly Brittany. Yes,
you're both, Yes, you are both. There was a debate. No,
we watched it, and since then there's been an explosion
of conversation amongst people online and within the belway apparently
(01:56):
only elitists, by the way, apparently people are not having
this conversation. It's only elitist where there is a concern
that the confidence in the current commander in chief may
maybe waning somewhat. And so we thought, well, shit, we
should probably talk about that. Have you had have either
(02:17):
of you had conversations with family, colleagues, co workers? Was
this in terms of triaging your conversations? Top of the list,
bottom of the list, middle of the list. Where was it?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I was doing what I watched my dad do during
Mets games? Growing up, which was like lots of pacing
and screaming, and I didn't really look at my phone.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So you're suggesting that this debate was the Mets game
of political intrues. Yes, have people been, you know, in
terms of post debates. What's been the general tenor of
the conversations.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
This is the first time I've come out from under
my covers. You know, I feel like I scroll on Twitter,
which makes me sad, and then you know, conversations are split. Honestly,
there are people that are very much like, stop talking
about it, stop asking questions, just get in line support.
You know, we're voting for an administration, not a single person.
(03:15):
You know what. I get told a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It is interesting though they keep saying, you know, I
keep hearing back when they were only talking about Trump,
they were like, stop talking about Trump, And now that
we're talking about Biden, they're like, fucking shut up. Yeah,
talk about talk about Trump. But we do have a
good conversation today. We got some guys for it. So
I'm gonna I'm gonna jump in there and let's see
where we go. So let's jump right in with our
(03:39):
guests for the week. Uh, John Favreau and Tommy Veeter,
their founders of Crookeet Media, host of Pod Save America,
authors of Democracy or Else, How to Save America and
Ten Easy Steps, and Bacari sellers see n N political
commentator and author of The Moment, Hello everybody.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Hello, Hey there, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It is so nice to see all of you. Thank
you so much for joining us. Uh. I think we
should discuss maybe the obviously the kind of the elephant
in the room that's been occurring.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Sky Dance has bought paramount. Why would they why would
they do.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Something like that?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
No, we're going to discuss the fallout from Joe Biden's
debate performance and the general sense of the Twitter commentary
that I should shut the fuck up, Tommy and John
should shut the fuck up, and Butkari is a very
(04:37):
nice man who should continue.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Talking with that?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Were that about summarize the the the fallout from these situations.
So Tommy and John, I'm gonna I'm gonna start with you.
I think that the debate so shocked my conscience on
what my expectation was, that it felt to not speak
(05:04):
out would be malpractice at some level. Is that what
you were feeling as you watched it? What was your sense.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
Yeah, I mean I think we all watched it together.
I think five minutes in we're all watching from you know,
hands over our face, between our fingers. It was so
much worse than I ever imagined it could have been.
And it wasn't just bad like a one off performance bad.
It was bad in the way that highlighted I think
Joe Biden's single biggest vulnerability, which is his age and
(05:37):
concerns about his ability to complete four more years. You know,
it would have been like Mitt Romney driving onto the
twenty twelfth debate stage in a ferrari and like chucking
cash out of people right, like highlighting your vulnerability, and
then it would.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Have been so it would have been cool, awesome if
you had just walked out.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
And like Mage, I know, was that the first debate
when he kicked you guys ass or not? Which debate
we kicked.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Our kicked our ass? But that was that.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
But that's a good point of carry because that was
an ass kicking in the sense that, like by Obama
wasn't sharp, he didn't have his message down, he didn't
seem like he came ready to fight and make a
case against Romney. This was bad in that, you know,
Biden struggled to speak coherently and get sentences out and
make an argument, and that to me was chilling.
Speaker 7 (06:20):
It would have been like if in that first debate
with Romney, Barack Obama went out and said, look, I
wasn't born here, but let me tell you something that's
you know, I'm just you know, I'm not from here.
I'm not from the country. I'm not from this country.
Everyone who has been wondering.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
But Cary, I imagine you didn't watch the debate and
think to yourself, he's killing it, but you had a
very different response to what you were seeing. Do you
want to talk about that? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (06:46):
No, I think he got his ass kicked up down, left, right,
and sideways. I also don't think elections are one in June.
I think that there is a great deal of just
over excitement by a lot of my friends on the
left or overconcerned. I mean, it is what it is.
I mean people are talking about I mean, people are
engaging in this fantasy fiction of this off rent, this
proverbial offering, whether it's not one, people are talking about
(07:09):
this open convention, whether it's not going to be one.
If in fact there is an opportunity for someone else
to replace Joe Biden. The only person who has the infrastructure,
the cash in order to do that or at least
give us a chance to last four months would be
Kamalae Harris. But I'm just very soberly saying we got
our ask if in the debate first and foremost. You know,
(07:29):
we can have all of these conversations about Joe Biden
needs to do this, and Joe Biden needs to do that.
But after July twenty second, if I'm not mistaken, or
twenty fifth, whenever we have the role call, he is
our nominee. So then what are you going to do?
I'm resolved to the fact that we have three choices.
We have Donald Trump, we have Joe Biden and the couch.
And whether or not I was at Essence Fest or
whether or not I was fishing with my good friend
(07:50):
Jerry lodhold Off, a doc in Orangeboro County last week,
the people I talked to are all saying the same thing, like,
let's just get on with it. I mean, we know
what we're going to do, we know who we're going
to choose, and it is what it is. We have
bigger things that we're fighting for other than going back
and rehashing the fact that our candidate is eighty one
years old, probably eats the Danni's, goes tobate at four
o'clock and changes tennis balls on his walker.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
You just described my perfect weekend. Thank So I want
to talk about because I think kar you bring up
a really interesting mindset and I want to talk about
that because I am of the opinion that democracy is
not just under threat by authoritarians or by a Supreme
(08:32):
Court that has decided maybe we shouldn't have left England
in the first place, and a monarchy is actually slightly preferable.
But I want to talk about the phrase it is
what it is because I think that that is a
complacency that I've seen in the Democratic Party for a
very long time. That includes Ruth Bader Ginsburg not retiring
(08:56):
on time. That includes Merrick Garland not going after Donald
Trump for January sixth on time on That includes not
being able to get Merrick Garland onto the Supreme Court.
That includes allowing Amy Cony Barrett to get onto the
Supreme Court. That includes not being responsive to urgency and
to new information and just saying it is what it
(09:20):
is guys and shrugging. And I think my point is
there is opportunity here. It may not be open convention,
it may not be a new person to take onto
the ticket, but there is a vibrant and I think
ultimately positive at least conversation and acknowledgment to be had
(09:44):
that is not being had because it is what it
is and what are you going to do? So I
want you to respond to that. If you yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
I don't actually mind the conversation.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
I'm not somebody who wants to put you in Ats
and Tommy and John and the guys and and Tim,
put you guys on island and just ship you guys
off like guysk white Boy Summer you and Cheed Hanks.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
I know.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
So I'm not somebody like I appreciate the thoroughness in
which you're having this debate. I'm kind of looking beyond
that and to your is what it is, your kind.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Of a monologue there.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Look, the fact is you can go back to Rama
Manuel not putting the impact on or the emphasis on
the judiciary as he should have in Barack Obama, not
doing what he should have done in the judiciary.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Or codifying Roe v.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Wade, or whatever he could have done when we actually
had the House and the sent it in two thousand
and eight. Those type of things, we can go back
and reltigate those things under that mantra of it is
what it is. What I'm talking about right now is
very practically the choices we have before us. And so
I am geared up trying to prevent Project twenty five.
I'm geared up trying to make sure that the things
that we're talking about, the Chevron ruling, which I mean,
(10:52):
I know that people are caught up on presidential immunity Chevron.
The Chevron ruling, in my opinion, was more devastating to
the fabric of democracy than anything we've seen in recent.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
He's talking about the ruling from the Supreme Court, which
made it much more difficult for federal agencies to regulate,
whether it's the EPA or SEC or any of those
agencies to regulate the people that they're charged with regulating.
That they undercut those decisions from the Supreme Court.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
And they did what they did similar in Dobbs. They
owed Similarly in Dobbs, they overthrew decades worth of president
which the Supreme Court is not necessarily known to do
unless you're like Clarence Thomas and you're getting flowed out
by your billionaire donors all over the country. And so yeah,
I am just I think there are a lot of
people who sit in my seat and they have a
very sober look at where we are practically and say,
(11:38):
I cannot afford in November to go back any further.
We felt like twenty twenty we won the precipice of
a third reconstruction, and we missed that mark. And since
that time, we've actually been going backwards. And I know
that people just don't want to backslide anymore. And I
feel like having conversations.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Biden is the president. If we're backsliding under Biden, well
you're saying we're no.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
But I can go through his list of achievements. But
what we're right about are the attacks on the attacks
on DEEI. We're talking about the attacks on firmative action.
We're talking about how in Arizona they passed an abortion
bill from the eighteen hundreds, how they passed Dobbs, how
they we just went through presidential immunity. I mean, there
are cultural and legend and policy initiatives that firmly make
me believe that we've gone backwards.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I mean, look at black home ownership.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
No, I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just saying the
administration is the administration right now. But John and Tommy,
I wanted you to address this because what Bacari is
suggesting is that he's being strategic. That this isn't about
noticing that the president may no longer be up to
the job. This is about staying with the status quo
(12:40):
because strategically, I guess, and Bacari tell me, if I'm
misrepresenting this, that gives us our best opportunity to win.
And I think my point is, I don't know that
that's the case. I think I would disagree that that's
the best strategy. But what's your thought.
Speaker 7 (12:57):
I mean, you would disagree, and literally all of the
polling and data available would also agree with this position
as well. It's not fiction at all that Joe Biden
could step down tomorrow. He could announce that I am
you know what, I have an important job to finish.
I'm doing two jobs right now. I'm President United States
and I'm running for president. And President United States is
(13:19):
too important and I want to focus on that and
I can pass it off to Kamala Harris, or we
can have an open convention, whatever he wants to do.
He could easily do that tomorrow. And the idea that
we cannot.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Kara just got very sad.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
That's not a real thing, and it's a real thing.
Speaker 6 (13:36):
But Kari, why is that not a real thing?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Let me ask you this makaark. Is it not a
real thing technically or is it not a real thing?
You think emotionally or technically it's not a real thing.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
I think technically emotionally.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
First of all, I mean the way this works is
and I love the kind of land that we're living
in where one can assume that Joe Biden can say
that I don't have the ability to run for reelection
after I've already announce that I am, after I've done
all of these things, raised all of these money, These
money's had the infrastructure around the country, But yet I
don't have it in me to finish this campaign.
Speaker 7 (14:08):
No, he had say I can't win. I can't win
because all the holding says he can't win.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Yet I can still be President of the United States.
So those things are not those can't.
Speaker 6 (14:16):
Win ones can't win when's this multi month job and
one is auditioning for a four year job.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
I'm gonna I'm also jump in and say, like, look,
nobody actually knows now things are looking dire for the president,
but four months I think any of us would agree
in a modern media timeline is for fucking ever, it
really is. I think we I think we confuse this idea.
You know, we just saw France lose terribly in the
(14:43):
parliamentary elections. Mat Cron jumps out with a snap election.
He jumps in there. Weeks later, they've stemmed the tide
of La pen. I mean, it can be done. All right,
We'll be right back. Okay, we're back. And that's my point, Macary.
(15:10):
We are complacent, and that complacency sets in a cynicism
with the American public. And I think you're giving us
a binary choice that's not real. I don't necessarily agree,
oh Biden can't win or Kamala can't when we just
don't know and the world changes so quickly and we
(15:32):
don't know about those things. But here's what I do know.
It's not a binary choice. President Biden's defiance I don't
think is the right strategy. I think the idea of
not acknowledging the progressive and degenerative nature of what he's
(15:52):
dealing with is gaslighting anybody who supports him, and of
him going out there with bromides about Joey. My dad
said to me, Joey, it's not about how you get
knocked down, it's about how you get up. And You're like,
I don't know that you can get up, sir. I
think that's really not the metaphor you want to go with.
(16:14):
And there's no shame in that. We all get there.
So I don't understand there is an opportunity here to
have a more honest, adult, sophisticated Fuck the media, fuck
whatever they're gonna say. You are in control of how
this goes down, and don't. I think they're bungling even
(16:37):
the response. Butkary no, and so I don't. I've never
said this choice has been binary. In fact, I think
people who analyze as races being binary, and I may
have missed your point have it wrong, because I've always
said that and where I am right now today, the
choices are Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and the couch that
(16:57):
those are the three choices that people have in this race.
And so I think I disagree with that, and I'm
trying to figure out why you feel that that is
that it is all etched in stone.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Joe Biden owns this decision. And so if we want
to spend our time pressuring Joe Biden, by all means,
continue to tweet, continue to talk about it, do those
things take that upper level. I've never in the history
of history seen a white man see he's the most
powerful man in the world. See all of that power
to anyone, let alone a black woman.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That's well gandallf I don't know if you remember Gandalf.
I believe he.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
And Two, I disagree with the political climate where anybody
says that you cannot run for president but you can
still be president. Now, all of that's conjecture, none of
that is technical, but I have a I know in
the field.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Day, but it isn't that anybody who's already served two terms.
I mean, they they're president, but they're not running if
it's your second term.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
But they're not quitting. That's that's a given, like you'll
you'll be quitting the campaign.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
Johnk you mentioned the French beating fascism. You know how
they beat fascism two candidate. It's stepped down in various
district races so they wouldn't split the vote against the
far right. That is how the French people.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
They put country over party.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
They put country over party. And when Joe Biden is
the official nominee, I will shut the fuck up, and
I will march, and I will fight for him, and
I will knock on doors, and I'll donate and do
whatever it takes. But this is an extraordinary situation and
it is time for courageous action, and we have a
window between now in the official nomination of Joe Biden
where we can do something that's never been done before
(18:29):
in our history. And I just don't agree that a
mini primary is fan fiction. I think you could find
ways to compete for four thousand or so delegates. I'm
not saying you're saying that. I'm thinking that's what's out there. Like,
you could find a way to compete for those delegates.
They will all get together at the convention in Chicago
and nominate. But if Biden doesn't want to do that,
he is an excellent communicator in Kamala Harris waiting in
(18:52):
the wings, and I think the subtext you hear from
a lot of Biden supporters.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I'm not saying you Bikari is.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
They're like, look, if Joe steps down, it's got to
be Kamala and she's no, I am dad. She's not
good at running. Yeah, they're criticizing her right there they are.
They are knifing her on background in these stories, being
like commas, numbers are terrible, she can't win.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
And I to buy the administration is doing that. People
in the Biden administration.
Speaker 6 (19:15):
Supporters jug Joe Biden are absolutely.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Yeah, certainly so, yeah they are.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
But they did it publicly.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
They put out a memboy where where he was she
was doing worse than him against Trump. That was the
first memo they put out after the debate, which I
wouldn't have done to my vice president. But here's the
here's here's all that matters. Yeah, Donald Trump is leading
by more than he has ever led in a race
for president.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Right now.
Speaker 7 (19:39):
He is leading by more than any Republican has led
at this point in a race in a general election
in twenty years.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Okay, since George Bush.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
Perhaps all the polling is wrong, but then you'd also
have to explain why the same polls that have Joe
Biden down all these Senate Democrats and tough races are competitive.
So then you say, okay, well, we got couple.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Months to turn around.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
Could he turn around? Yes, It's not that he can't win,
it's the question is is Joe Biden facing We're facing
Donald Trump and a threat to democracy, an existential threat
to democracy as we are all, as Joe Biden says,
And the question is, is Joe Biden the best candidate
to give us the chance? Does he give us the
best chance to defeat Donald Trump? Knowing that he has
(20:23):
not been formally nominated yet, and he could make the
decision himself to step down. And you know what, Joe Biden,
who is an eighty one year old white guy Catholic
who became president, has moderated his views a lot and
listen to people a lot in the last several years.
And when progressives push him on something or moderates push
on something, Joe Biden listens, and he takes in his advice,
(20:44):
and then he makes decisions based on what people are
telling him. So the idea that we and I know
that you said this is okay, Kerry, But like in
the next couple of weeks, the idea that we all
don't have influence on this decision when we're talking to
members of Congress, and then members of Congress are talking
to the President, Like, I think it's worth making a
run at asking him to reconsider this because they haven't
(21:06):
shown us a plan the Biden campaign of how they went.
They haven't shown us any of their data, they haven't
shown us a path they haven't made. They haven't talked
about how he's going to turn it around. There's just
been nothing. And like, I think it's weird that they
think that the Joe Biden we saw on stage has
a is a better has a better shot of beating
Donald Trump than Kamala Harris, the first black woman vice
(21:27):
president that he chose for the job, who is a
fantastic communicator.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Like, I just don't understand. So let me there.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
There are a lot of things, a lot of nuggets
I just want to jump. I it looks if if
Joe Biden decides one morning he wakes up after Catholic Mass,
I think the most important day is actually, you know, Thursday, Thursday.
If he's if he if he if he goes out
there and falls down literally then okay, but is.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
That really where we're at at the president, you know
what I'm saying that.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Then then he may be like, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Okay, I don't know, but but if he'd then I
want to push back on the fact that it's an
open primary.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
It's not an open primary. It's Kamala Harris's race.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I mean, she will be the nominee and the fact
is she should actually be president of the United States
to make her stronger going into that, I mean, that's just.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Just doesn't that undercut somewhat? It is what it is,
like you're now laying out I think a scenario that's plausible,
but I'm just also maybe even stronger.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
My complete thought is this, while we are, while you
guys are launching a pressure campaign, which is effectively what
it is.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
But I want to tell you something. So this is
what I would object to, this idea that this is
a pressure campaign. What it is is a visceral response
emotionally to something shocking that was seen. Joe Biden has
run on this idea of honesty and decency, but they
have not been honest about the condition and the difficulties
(22:56):
that he has been facing. And so it undercuts one
of the foundational arguments that they even have made. So
this is not a campaign. I am not working in
coordination with various people. I have a platform, and I
have been stunned and disappointed and angered by what I
saw and how I've been talked to that I didn't
(23:18):
see what I saw.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
That's all you saw. My point is you saw what
you saw. You're outraged by what you saw. You have
every right, all three of you all to be as
visceral and have whatever reaction you want to have to it.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Right.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
My only point is that there's going to come at
point in time in the next two weeks maybe where
I am working over the next two weeks to try
to get Joe Biden reelected. Right, that's my goal because
he's the nominee, he's the presumptive nominee. If that changes,
which I really do not believe it is going to change.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
But do you want it to change, Bakary? I guess
it's my question. Do you think we have a better
chance if it does change? Bacary?
Speaker 4 (23:54):
I'm not sure. I really don't know the answer.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So there shows so it isn't what it is, is
my point.
Speaker 5 (23:59):
But my point is that I think a lot of
people have backup quarterback syndrome, they really do.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
I agree with that. I agree with that, and I'm Patriots.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
We had a hot ass backup quarterback.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I was gonna say, but you don't know, you maybe
have Tom Brady or maybe you got Tommy cutlets. You
don't know until you do them.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Drew Bledsoe got a raw deal.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
By the way, is Drew Bletsoe the Joe Biden of
this metaphor?
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Is that what we're Let me you know what it is.
Let everybody love me, Harris.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
Tom Brady, maybe let me.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Let me change the metaphor. Let me change the metaphor,
and I'll throw this to John and Tommy. So we
talked earlier about the French, you know, putting down fascism
on the thing. I'm going to give you another metaphor
about the French. In the nineteen thirties, as Germany was
building up their armaments, the French decided on a strategy
to defeat fascism. It was called the Magineo Wall, and
(24:50):
they built it. And they were a series of giant
concrete bunkers, stationary with guns all pointing in one direction.
And the German came through the area and went oh,
I think we can just go around this, and they
went around it and then just fut and destroyed it.
And that can't that also be a metaphor that this
(25:12):
idea of no, this is our plan, it's rigid, it's
status quo, it's all facing in one direction, and it's
utterly incapable of holding off that onslaught And that was
the last time I tried to defeat fascism. I guess
what they didn't.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
Yeah, I mean, I think my part of why I'm
so concerned Bakari is because I watched the debate and
I was like, man, that was really bad, but let's
give him a little time to do some more things.
Then I watched the ABC News interview, and frankly, it
made me more concerned because it was at times incoherent. Again,
during some of the radio interviews he did, where it
turns out his campaign actually gave the host the questions
(25:49):
like those didn't go particularly smoothly. Morning Joe wasn't great
and you could hear him reading papers, and so I'm
I'm not trying to be a dick like I have
a lot of love and affection for Joe Biden and
people in that white House. But the guy has not
been doing things off teleprompter, and he has not shown
us that he can run the kind of campaign that
he needs to run to win. And like you mentioned,
a pressure campaign. I mean, I'm seeing quotes from state
(26:10):
party leader is saying, look, we can't say what we
really think, we can't articulate what the grassroots is saying,
because we'll get punished by the Democratic Party and we'll
get robbed of resources. So that to me is kind
of the worrisome omerta that's happened.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
And I'm sure mccari you're probably seeing these two, but
like the private polls are coming back, the internal polls
from like the Senate races, and it's freaking people out.
It's like Biden down ten in Pennsylvania, Biden down six
in Wisconsin, even as Bob Casey's up two and Tammy
Baldwin's up three and and a lot of these House
(26:42):
members are seeing it in their districts. Safe Biden districts
are starting to look bad, like New York State.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Why do you guys see all this stuff? How come
I don't get to see it?
Speaker 5 (26:51):
I mean, I think this is siloed, Like this is
kind of siloed. This is what happens when you this
type of you know, visceral maybe rightfully so hysteria.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
I mean people literally, really.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
This is the tail wagon the dog.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
Bakari people are panicked, right and they're panicked, and so
you're so you're seeing the reflection of that panic.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
But Bakari people are panicked for a.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
Reason, rightfully so, because they saw it. I'm not disagreeing, Okay,
I'm not disagreeing with that.
Speaker 7 (27:15):
Beninson had a poll out. They did a post debate poll,
and voters who watched the entire debate prefer Trump over
Biden by fifty one to forty six. Voters who didn't
watch the debate are split forty three for Biden forty
for Trump. So you actually Biden did better with people
who didn't watch the debate or heard about the debate
than he did with people who actually watched the WHI
(27:36):
show us. It's not the hysteria or the reaction.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah, I'm a big book.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
I'm worrying people.
Speaker 6 (27:39):
It was the debate and polls.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
When was the last time a debate? Yeah, I know,
when was the last time a debate dictated who was
going to be president of the United States. And by
the way, what was the question of John and Tommy?
Because I do I do have a I do have
like a scientific question. Oh, I was looking at all
these I was looking at all these all these polls
come out about Senate candidates. And I saw one poll
in particular where Tammy Baldwin was up five points or
six points and and Joe Biden was down five points
(28:02):
or six points, which would mean in the state of Wisconsin,
there are the math is like two hundred or three
hundred thousand split ticket voters, which is something that's never
happened in the history of mankind. Why do we think
that the fundamentals of this race will be that vastly different?
When to John's point, like I hear you, John, Like
the under the undergirding foundation of who Joe Biden is
(28:24):
is honesty, indecency, right, But you don't look at that
in a vacuum.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
The question is is tertier is three three things?
Speaker 5 (28:32):
Like do you think that he's more honest and decent
than Donald Trump? Or do you want to stay home?
Speaker 7 (28:38):
That's the scenario we're in after the Democratic Convention. If
Joe Biden's the nominee, like complete, I completely or the convention.
But I hear you that's before I'm sorry, yeah, whenever
he whenever they do the roll call thing.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I think I think that's too cynical. Honestly, I think
that's the idea that like, hey, it's it's the it's
the almighty all the alternative or whatever the pro mine.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
Don't compare me, don't compare me to the the alternative,
to the alternative look, which is what I use with
my wife and our ex boyfriend of the You.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Know, my god, are you the cart? Are you getting
I'm married in your own married?
Speaker 4 (29:13):
I'm married. No. No. What I've done is I've eliminated
the opposition. I am selling to the.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Uh, all right, well we'll be right back. Okay, we're back.
So you know, when when there's a large threat, there's
two things that you define. You define the threat and
then you define your defenses. All I'm saying is, if
(29:43):
we are taking an honest look at what our best
chance to defend ourselves against a perceived threat, I think
we are selling ourselves short and in a lot of ways, using,
as as Tommy put it Omerica to stifle what could
be an incredibly productive at least conversation. Even if Joe
(30:07):
Biden came out and said, look, I understand where I'm
at in my lifespan and cycle and what I do.
Here's how this government works. Rather than coming out and
becoming trumpion and saying you think someone else could hold
NATO together, they could never. Only God can tell me
(30:28):
to get out of the race, Like if you were
to come out and say, here's my team, here's how
we hold the line. But we're not seeing any of that.
Nothing that's been done inspires any confidence other than the
fatalism of it is what it is, and this is
what we're stuck with. And that's the part that I
(30:50):
think has degraded people's trust and institutions and the government
from the get go. That's a problem.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
I'm a blend of both.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
It is what it is, and I'm working towards what
I believe to be the ultimate goal, which is to
defeat Donald Trump. While others are having discussions about the
visceral reaction they add to the debate and alternatives, but
I also think those discussions are decently healthy. Again, I
don't I'm not trying to excommunicate the pod boys. I'm
mad they were listed in the email, the blast email.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
Right, I'm not poddamn. I actually have a sticker that
says pricks for Pricks for Biden. So like I'm not.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
I think I think the discussion is healthy because I'm
going to need all of you all if I'm going
to win this race, and I'm going to need all
of you all to want to put every ounce of
your being in.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Although we disagree on who the.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Nominee is or who we believe the nominee will be,
I am still, you know, working towards that same goal,
which is to rid ourselves of fascism, because I believe
after November, if Donald Trump is re elected, it can
go really bad, really quickly.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Guys, let me ask you this. You know, when you
talk about uh kind of ridding ourselves that, what do
I do with my anger at a Democratic Party that
honestly has put us in this rock in a hard
place position that wasn't honest over this past year about
what was happening internally at the White House, was not
(32:18):
in any way preparing the public for Kamala Harris, wasn't
doing any of that. There was a I don't know
if it's complacency or deceit or whatever it was, but
a Democratic party that missed all of the threats that
were coming their way and has left us vulnerable here.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
I just think, you know, I hear you there. I
think Bacari's right that normally in coming presidents run again,
and I think President he said would. There was a
suggestion that he would not run for reelection, that he
would be the bridge the next generation. I believe that
by the way, I suggest what he said, yes, but
he never said I will not run again. And heyway
(33:00):
stepping that aside. I think President Biden and his advisors
took the wrong message from the twenty twenty two midterms
that it was somehow about support for the White House,
when in reality it was Donald Trump helping elevate some
really terrible candidates like doctor Oz who got their clocks
cleaned right, and then he made his decision to run again.
And it sounds like, I don't know, I'm not around
(33:21):
Joe Biden ever. I've seen two or three times in
the last six months, but it sounds.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Like the's a lot of time that's humble, humble, humble.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
B Well, listen, we saw him in an lay fundraiser
out here.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
We had a couple of blight.
Speaker 6 (33:36):
Let me, let me, let me contectualize that I saw
him in person at a fundraiser, and then I watched
them on the debate. And the in person fundraiser I
saw in Los Angeles a couple weeks before the debate
was as bad as the debate. Everyone I walked out
of the debate with John was there. We were talking
to people around us in seats in the fundraising, people
we didn't know, and this fundraiser and we were like,
that was chilling in fact, And George Clooney just wrote
(33:58):
an up at about how we need to know and
he he hosted the fundraiser and he just said the
same thing in the New York Times, which is what
everyone at the fundraiser thought. Like everyone was there, like
what happened? And he had just fallen back from Italy, right,
so like everyone was like, oh, he must just be
so unbelievably jet lagged. But obviously there is a more
dystemic problem.
Speaker 7 (34:15):
Well, and that's why I don't think it was some
It's not some conspiracy. Like I saw him. I was
at the White House and I saw him in December
of twenty two, and I thought he was fine. He like,
remember he recognized my mother in law from meeting her
in twenty eighteen. Like I was like, oh, he's not.
I mean, he looks older and he sounds older, but
he's fine. And then I saw him the night before
the Correspondents dinner and he looked like he did at
(34:37):
this LA fundraiser and at the debate, and I was
very worried. And then the next night at the correspondents dinner,
he gave a good speech and I was like, Okay,
maybe he was just tired. So I do think people
were wrestling with this, like maybe he's tired maybe, but like,
look to your point question about the Democratic Party, this
is a decision that Joe Biden and his closest advisors
have made, and no one else like Joe Biden could
(34:57):
have stepped aside, Like no Democratic I wanted to challenge
a sitting president during a primary because they usually you
don't beat a sitting president, right, Joe Biden made the
decision to run. He and his advisors made the decision
to run again, even though he said he'd be a bridge,
even though he selected Kamala Harris, who they could have
built up and said okay, now, I'm going to pass
the baton to you. He made the decision to run,
(35:18):
and so we were all left to say, Okay. The
rest of the Democratic Party was like, all right, you
guys are telling us you're the best chance. You're our
best chance to beat Donald Trump again, to stave off fascism.
We trust you. It's on you, guys. And then we
got that debate, and then we got all the interviews afterwards.
So it's like, I'm only interested in beating Donald Trump too,
(35:38):
like we all are. That's the that's the number. I'm
terrified of what will happen if Donald Trump win. I
just don't know that Joe Biden is our best shot
to do that anymore.
Speaker 6 (35:46):
When if we put points on the board, was the
last time Joe Biden put points on the board? The
State of the Union? You know what I mean, Like,
what is the last good moment you guys remember, well.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
State of the Union. I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
I mean I try not to just stay tuned into
the Washington Post in New York.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Right, yeah, listen, it's you know, the needle's going to
move here and there and small.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
I think this is but this is what drives me crazy.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
About Democrats of the frame by which we like, you know,
I remember in October, right Access Hollywood came out, Donald
Trump was grabbing women by the bussy, right, and then
soon thereafter the bottom fell out. Poles were showing that
Donald Trump was getting his behind kick that all the
Senate candidates were like, oh my god, like this man
cannot be at the top of the ticket. Rant's previous
actually walked up to the top of Trump Tower to
(36:29):
try to convince him to drop out the race. Rants
at the time was the chair of the RNC, and
Donald Trump told him to go kick rocks right, go
pounds in right. But what we saw after that, after
he was resolved to stay in the race, we saw
everyone then, I mean, and Republicans do this so well.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
They just fall in line, they don't fall in love.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
They gathered around, they got behind this guy who is
a narcissistic sociopath, and they ushered him into the White House.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Right.
Speaker 7 (36:54):
But Curry, do you think that would have happened had
the Access Hollywood tape come out a month before the
republic Convention back in twenty sixteen, and Rant's previous and
all those Republicans Ted Cruz, who spoke at that convention
and was like, spoke out against Trump at the convention,
even though he later fell in line like this is
it's a different scenarios.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
I was like, where are you going with this? Where
are you going with the taps?
Speaker 7 (37:13):
A different scenario Like if we were if this was October,
this was the third week in October, we wouldn't be
having this conversation right now, right like, we wouldn't be
having the conversation.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
And Bakari I would also suggest, you know, Bill Clinton,
on the eve of it all, it came out he
had had an affair camera Jennifer Flowers I think it was,
and then it was the Paula Jones situation, and then
there was the Monica Lewinsky situation, and Democrats did fall
in line. There were I mean, people made, oh this
(37:42):
is terrible and I'm disappointed with a president, but ultimately
the Democrats did fall in line. I think that you
are soft selling the more fundamental aspect of people viewing
somebody who I'll be perfectly honest with you, I don't
know of a job interview that you could have gone
on and delivered the performance that was delivered by Joe
(38:05):
Biden and gotten a job. And I'm not talking about
the presidency. I'm talking about like cashier at home, deep,
like a job that you would not think, Okay, that
that is the hardest job in the entire world.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
The only problem with that, John, and the only problem
with framing it as such, is the fact that you
discount everything that he's accomplished in the first three and
a half years.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
No, I don't.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
I don't know what you do.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
But he's just running for what he did through and
a year. He's running for the next four.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
But nothing happens in a vacuum.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
And what we what we have to do is people
just want to my friends, my friends on the left,
we want to only magnify what we saw on at
the debate, Which is fine.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
I get it.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
We're talking about age, but I'm also talking about the
accomplishments prior to and the threat that is right down
the road. And I think, I mean, we do ourselves
a disservice by saying our guy is old. We know
that he shuffles old.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It's not Bakaria. I think, what is it. It is
cognitive decline. It's not just age, it's cognitive decline.
Speaker 7 (39:07):
At very least it's an inability to communicate, right, Like
I'm not a doctor, but like he can't. We need
the candidate that we run for president needs to be
able to communicate effectively. That's just the most base of
the job. It's the most basic part of the job
of being a candidate for presidents. You need to communicate effectively.
And if you can't do that, well.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Reassure us that here's how we operate in that environment.
But to suggest that this discounts three and a half years,
it doesn't. But it does give you a window into
the next four. And if you look at his performance
in twenty twenty versus his performance in twenty twenty four,
there is inexorable decline. It's just no, it's undeniable. So
(39:46):
what I don't understand is, Okay, fine, he stays, but
deal with it head on, stop pretending, stop gaslighting, Like.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
That's fine, deal with it head on, that's fine. I
don't want to silence the debate. I think it's fine.
I think it's healthy talk about it. Don't gaslight pope,
that's fine, Like, I'm cool with that, But I'm also
saying that there is a fucking monster that is November fourth, fifth,
sixth whenever.
Speaker 6 (40:10):
You election agree, I know, I think I know so.
And we're getting our asses kicked by the Monster's right,
That's what we're worried about. We're worried about the monster.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
Listen, polls our reflection in time.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
And I do think that a lot of the hysteria
that we are self inflicting upon ourselves causes a lot
of the reflection that we're seeing in these polls. And
I would also argue that in thirty forty five days,
you're going to see a race that is once again
neck and neck and tight around the country.
Speaker 7 (40:33):
It's a very polarized, closely divided electorate. The safest bed
is a close race, and it's been a close race, right.
But I have seen and I've sat in these focus groups.
You've sat in these focus groups for like the last
several years, and people just they are concerned swing voters,
undecided voters, young black voters, young people, Latino voters. They
(40:53):
say over and over again, they're worried that Joe Biden's
too old to be president, and they they they respect him.
They don't like Donald Trump very much. They think Donald
Trump's a liar. Some of them think Donald Trump's quite dangerous,
but they're like, I don't think Joe Biden's up for it,
and they've been telling us this for three years now.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
I can tell you anecdotally the individuals like my mom
and are friends who were all in responded to that
debate with tears and with fears and with reality. And
the administration's inability to deal with that honestly and forthrightly,
(41:34):
to me is almost more damaging than the actual debate itself,
and it shows a disconnect with or an inability to
be agile and honest, and that's more troublesome to me
than almost anything else.
Speaker 5 (41:51):
Don't disagree with anything you said. My only point would
be that my mommy and her friends, who usually are
the ones who determine who the Democratic Party nominee is,
the black women in her chat group, they refer to
themselves as the quote unquote posse.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
They were they were.
Speaker 5 (42:08):
Hurt, they were saddened. They said he got his ass kicked,
they said he was old as hell. But at the
end of the day they were more resolved than ever
to call their girlfriends and say we don't vote for him.
And then one thing they admonished us or monish me
about was we don't need any more chaos.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
They don't want any more chaos.
Speaker 5 (42:24):
They're gonna ride with Joe Biden, and they don't want
they don't want an open convention.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
They don't want to they don't want any of that.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
But you don't think you don't think White knuckling it
with Joe Biden's chaos.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
It's but it's the chaos we know.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
I mean that.
Speaker 6 (42:38):
I think that's a fair argument. I'll take carry one
thing you mentioned though, Like you mentioned like we're not
talking about Joe Biden's accomplishments, and like, oh look, we
we do a show a couple of times weeks. We've
talked about those accomplishments constantly. And I give Joe Biden
a ton of credit.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
I mean, the global we everybody.
Speaker 6 (42:55):
I give him credit for a climate change, the infrastructor
Bill Ukraine, right, all the things he's done.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Great.
Speaker 6 (43:00):
But what is really glaring about this White House and
Joe Biden himself is he does not have a message
about the next four years. They are not talking about
what he's going to do, why he's the only person
he's going to do it. He is just like pointing
to things he's done kind of angrily and being like,
why am I not getting credit for holding NATO together?
And Aucus switched? No one knows what that is.
Speaker 4 (43:21):
By the way, the.
Speaker 6 (43:22):
Nuclear submarine deal with the Australians, How the fuck is
that coming up in these conversations, like, that's not your talk.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
I have voted in every election in the past twenty
years on Aucus.
Speaker 6 (43:33):
Oh, the Aucus caucus. We're the Aucus caucus. The ship
has sailed on getting credit from these things. Voters are like,
we don't care.
Speaker 5 (43:40):
I heartily agree with you, and so prior to the debate,
my main line was that I very rarely talk about
Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the same sentence per
se as I characterize him. Other than the fact that
I felt both of them were prisoners of yesterday, I
felt both of them just like it was for a
different reason, Like Joe Biden has this weird nostalgia for
like swimming in pools with pop pop, right, it's kind
(44:03):
of freaky. And then Donald Trump, Donald Trump has this
He's like the king of white grievance from yester year. Yes,
and I think that both of them have a fundamentally
Project twenty five is what it is.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
But you take that away.
Speaker 5 (44:17):
Both of them have a hard time articulating a vision
for the future. And that's when I think age matters,
because one is seventy eight and the other is eighty one,
and it's very difficult when you're eighty one or seventy
eight to talk about a future that you may not
be a part of, right, and that is the prisoner
of age. And so I agree with you wholeheartedly that
I've been pushing them to lay out a vision for
the future. And I don't know when they're gonna start
(44:38):
doing that other than our you know, because right now
they're kind of fighting from the backside to side. I mean,
they're so busy beating up on y'all and John Stewart
that they don't really they don't have time on today.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
But I believe it around mystic.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
By the way, I'll wrap it up with this because
I know everybody's got to get going, and I'm going
to say this Tommy, John and then Bacary you can
have the last word. With all the headwinds and obstacles
and front of us, I remain incredibly optimistic about the
resilience of the system that we're fighting over. I do
believe that the challenges that are in front of us
(45:10):
are some of them intractable. But also you know, I
never there's never despair in any of this. It is
always all right. I guess it's buckling down. So I
would ask you guys to maybe answer the question, what
about the resilience of this system still gives you a
hope in that?
Speaker 6 (45:29):
I mean, I do think you make an important point
that it's we can't all speak in apocalyptic terms, and
the left and the right does this, the country will
exist the.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Day after the election.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
If Donald Trump is president.
Speaker 6 (45:41):
I do think he might change core things about our
democracy that we can't undo and just fundamentally change the
character of this country. And so that's why I am
happy to be the stupid podbro cracker talking about this now,
because I do think the risk is real, and it's
if Barack Obama lost a Mitt Romney, there would have
(46:02):
been a different policy agenda implemented. I think Donald Trump
could change the character of the country in a fundamental
and dangerous way.
Speaker 7 (46:10):
Right, I think we have there's two choices, Right, you
quit and then bad shit happens, or you try and fight, right,
And I think that's what we're all trying to do
right now and trying to stave off the threat of
Donald Trump again. And I think what makes me optimistic
is like when you talk to voters, right, voters, I
know it drive They drive everyone crazy. They're complicated, they
(46:31):
don't follow politics very closelier than news, but they're sensible
and smart and know what they see. And when you
make a persuasive case that is rooted in honesty and
reality to voters, you do have a chance to change
minds and change minds, meaning get people off the couch
to the polls, or get people to change who they're
(46:51):
going to vote for. And so I never want to
give up on that, and that makes me hopeful. But
I do think you have to make an argument to
voters that meets them where they are and is base
in reality of what they saw, which is why the
Biden maintaining Biden as a nominee worries me. That said,
if he makes the decision, if he refuses to step down,
and he makes the decision, then we will make an
(47:12):
honest case to voters, which is like, yeah, Joe Biden's
too old to run for president, but Donald Trump is
too dangerous to be president.
Speaker 5 (47:18):
Okry, Yeah, I feel like I'm kind of there. But
I think what gives me hope, and I think what
we underestimate sometimes is we are evaluating. This is King
used to talk about, and he talked about it, and
I have a dream speech and everybody remembers, like that
rhythmic cadence if I have a dream that one day
we shall But we forget about the most important part
of that speech, when he talks about the fierce urgency
(47:38):
of now. And I think a lot of times we
discount the urgency that many people in the electorate voters have,
as we talked about as you talked about your mama
and her friends, or your parents and their friends, and
my MoMA and her friends. The sense of urgency that
people have, and my hope comes from the fact that
I believe that there are more people who want to
(47:58):
see this country move forward, didn't take it back to
a place that is is dangerous for us all. It
is dangerous because of who you love, is dangerous because
you're Jewish, it's dangerous because you're black, it is dangerous
because you're a woman. And I think that there are
enough people who have that fierce urgency of now that
after we get through this little intersquad squabble that we're
(48:19):
going through right now. You know, whoever comes out the
tent on the other side, his name of b Joe Biden,
will carry him. We'll carry him to the finish line,
like you know, you know, like the old great man
that he is right.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
It always, it always reminds me, you know, they say
that what's the quote, the ark of the moral of
the universe bends towards justice. And what we all have
to remember is and there's a good percentage of people
trying to bend it back the other way, and it's
a lunch pale job to keep it bent. And no
matter what happens, I don't think that job goes away.
And I think that's probably where we end. But gentlemen,
(48:54):
I want to thank you all very much for joining us.
Of course, we have Bacari, sellers from CNN and political
commentator and author of The Moment, and John Favreau and
Tommy Vetera, founders of Crooked Media, host of pod Save
American and authors of Democracy or Elf How to Save
America in Ten Easy Steps. So thank you guys very much.
Speaker 7 (49:13):
Thank you, thanks for having us.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
Oh man, that's feisty. Yeah, there was a good amount
of feisty was hot. Bakari wasn't. He wasn't having it.
We're lucky that we were in separate studios. I was
afraid one of the pod guys was going to get Weggie.
I think I think he was going heavy on the
listen to you nerds boys, you pod boys. There was
(49:40):
coming after me. The administration is so angry with the
pod boys and John Stewart Pacari. But I actually thought
it was a good articulation of kind of the the
positions there. And I think the it really is that
it is what it is is the part that I
think I find so difficult, like that idea that if
(50:02):
you're not it is what it is, then you are
somehow fantasy fan fic west Wing toady. I don't know
how else to put it.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Well, when you do go down to the logistics of actually,
you know, switching the candidate, you start wondering would this happen?
Speaker 4 (50:23):
Right?
Speaker 1 (50:24):
But it can? And you remember, oh, right, conventions they
used to not actually have a candidate sometimes until after
the convention. There is this idea that I think they
are discounting just how much in a modern media environment
how long four months actually.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Is and the four months is not the same anymore.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
And by the way, Republicans wouldn't throw up their hands.
They would just fucking bear down and get done the
thing they wanted to get done and apologize later easier
to ask for forgiveness and permission, and they would get
it done and somehow end up at the supper court
with it being fine like that. It's the complacency and
(51:06):
that's the part that just buries my soul.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
Yeah, it makes me very sad. I just we've stopped
being able to have conversations teams or even just like
raise our hand to be like this feels uncomfortable. It's
just very much like shut the fuck up and get
in line, right, And.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Which, by the way, is interesting they brought up he said,
you know, there's a pressure campaign to get Biden to
drop out. I would say the opposite. I think the
pressure campaign is way boys more like a powerwasher coming
the other way, like, hey, I don't know if this
guy can Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a bad scene, But
I would I think it would be a healthier outcome
(51:48):
for democracy if it showed some ability and flexibility and
did not continue around this feeling that it's very rigid
and disconnected from real concerns. But yeah, we will get
to all the topics though. Oh go ahead.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Yeah, I was just gonna say, the campaign recognized reality,
and you know, if addressed it, addressed it exactly, we
would be in a different place.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
But to all the people that are concerned about some
of those issues that we had raised that are going
to be coming up on the podcast, they will We
do this every week, every fucking week. Yeah, out here,
day in and day or day one a week and
day one week. We're going to get to all those
great topics. Uh, And thank you once again for listening.
As always, thanks to lead producer Lauren Walker, producer Brittany
(52:35):
me Medwick, video editor and engineer Behind the Glass, Rob Vittola,
researcher Gillian spear oh Audio editing and engineering, the Cole Boys,
and the EPs, Chris McShane and Katie Gray. As always, Brittany,
you got the socials on there that we do.
Speaker 3 (52:51):
I do, John Twitter, we are Weekly Show Pod, Instagram
and threads. We are in Weekly Show podcast and on
YouTube Weekly Show with John Stewart.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
I'm on all of those and including MySpace. All right,
kitties to next week, next week and beyond, and thank
you for listening to the episode. If you liked it,
please follow The Weekly Show with John Stewart on your
favorite podcast app and tune in every Thursday for new episodes,
(53:26):
because it just fills our heart with gratitude. Thank you.
The Weekly Show with John Stewart is a Comedy Central
podcast is produced by Paramount Audio and Busboy Productions.
Speaker 5 (53:59):
Paramountcasts
Hey, it's John Stewart here. Daily Shows off today means
we're going to drop an episode of the Weekly Show
right here for you to enjoy. Every Thursday, we have
I don't want to call them in depth conversations, but
they are conversations. They are mid depth made to low
depth com It's a round up to your knees. I'd
(00:21):
say you could. You don't even need to tread water.
They're really but it's special guests, big issues, threats to democracy,
it's all there. We're covering the two party system, reproductive rights,
military industrial complex. In this episode, today explores a young
fellow by the name of Joseph Robinette Biden and what
should be the plan moving forward. And I think it's
going to be a good episode, so enjoy. Hey, everybody,
(00:50):
welcome to the Weekly Show, John Stewart. I am John Stewart.
We were off last week. It was it was July fourth,
That was it was we celebrated America. We celebrated the
holiday of America with good cheer, with barbecues, with explosions,
which in some ways feels prescient where America appears to
(01:11):
be heading in the present moment. Oh my god, was
that an explosion. What the oh the house is shaking now.
We are here, of course with our super producers Brittany
Memedowick and Lauren Walker. Guys, we were going to do taxes.
We're breaking down the tax bill that every American page.
We're going to show where it goes to, how it
might be disconnected from the urgent needs of the people.
(01:34):
And then there was a something happened, Laura, that's exactly Brittany. Yes,
you're both, Yes, you are both. There was a debate. No,
we watched it, and since then there's been an explosion
of conversation amongst people online and within the belway apparently
(01:56):
only elitists, by the way, apparently people are not having
this conversation. It's only elitist where there is a concern
that the confidence in the current commander in chief may
maybe waning somewhat. And so we thought, well, shit, we
should probably talk about that. Have you had have either
(02:17):
of you had conversations with family, colleagues, co workers? Was
this in terms of triaging your conversations? Top of the list,
bottom of the list, middle of the list. Where was it?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I was doing what I watched my dad do during
Mets games? Growing up, which was like lots of pacing
and screaming, and I didn't really look at my phone.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So you're suggesting that this debate was the Mets game
of political intrues. Yes, have people been, you know, in
terms of post debates. What's been the general tenor of
the conversations.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
This is the first time I've come out from under
my covers. You know, I feel like I scroll on Twitter,
which makes me sad, and then you know, conversations are split. Honestly,
there are people that are very much like, stop talking
about it, stop asking questions, just get in line support.
You know, we're voting for an administration, not a single person.
(03:15):
You know what. I get told a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It is interesting though they keep saying, you know, I
keep hearing back when they were only talking about Trump,
they were like, stop talking about Trump, And now that
we're talking about Biden, they're like, fucking shut up. Yeah,
talk about talk about Trump. But we do have a
good conversation today. We got some guys for it. So
I'm gonna I'm gonna jump in there and let's see
where we go. So let's jump right in with our
(03:39):
guests for the week. Uh, John Favreau and Tommy Veeter,
their founders of Crookeet Media, host of Pod Save America,
authors of Democracy or Else, How to Save America and
Ten Easy Steps, and Bacari sellers see n N political
commentator and author of The Moment, Hello everybody.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Hello, Hey there, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It is so nice to see all of you. Thank
you so much for joining us. Uh. I think we
should discuss maybe the obviously the kind of the elephant
in the room that's been occurring.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Sky Dance has bought paramount. Why would they why would
they do.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Something like that?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
No, we're going to discuss the fallout from Joe Biden's
debate performance and the general sense of the Twitter commentary
that I should shut the fuck up, Tommy and John
should shut the fuck up, and Butkari is a very
(04:37):
nice man who should continue.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Talking with that?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Were that about summarize the the the fallout from these situations.
So Tommy and John, I'm gonna I'm gonna start with you.
I think that the debate so shocked my conscience on
what my expectation was, that it felt to not speak
(05:04):
out would be malpractice at some level. Is that what
you were feeling as you watched it? What was your sense.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
Yeah, I mean I think we all watched it together.
I think five minutes in we're all watching from you know,
hands over our face, between our fingers. It was so
much worse than I ever imagined it could have been.
And it wasn't just bad like a one off performance bad.
It was bad in the way that highlighted I think
Joe Biden's single biggest vulnerability, which is his age and
(05:37):
concerns about his ability to complete four more years. You know,
it would have been like Mitt Romney driving onto the
twenty twelfth debate stage in a ferrari and like chucking
cash out of people right, like highlighting your vulnerability, and
then it would.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Have been so it would have been cool, awesome if
you had just walked out.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
And like Mage, I know, was that the first debate
when he kicked you guys ass or not? Which debate
we kicked.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Our kicked our ass? But that was that.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
But that's a good point of carry because that was
an ass kicking in the sense that, like by Obama
wasn't sharp, he didn't have his message down, he didn't
seem like he came ready to fight and make a
case against Romney. This was bad in that, you know,
Biden struggled to speak coherently and get sentences out and
make an argument, and that to me was chilling.
Speaker 7 (06:20):
It would have been like if in that first debate
with Romney, Barack Obama went out and said, look, I
wasn't born here, but let me tell you something that's
you know, I'm just you know, I'm not from here.
I'm not from the country. I'm not from this country.
Everyone who has been wondering.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
But Cary, I imagine you didn't watch the debate and
think to yourself, he's killing it, but you had a
very different response to what you were seeing. Do you
want to talk about that? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (06:46):
No, I think he got his ass kicked up down, left, right,
and sideways. I also don't think elections are one in June.
I think that there is a great deal of just
over excitement by a lot of my friends on the
left or overconcerned. I mean, it is what it is.
I mean people are talking about I mean, people are
engaging in this fantasy fiction of this off rent, this
proverbial offering, whether it's not one, people are talking about
(07:09):
this open convention, whether it's not going to be one.
If in fact there is an opportunity for someone else
to replace Joe Biden. The only person who has the infrastructure,
the cash in order to do that or at least
give us a chance to last four months would be
Kamalae Harris. But I'm just very soberly saying we got
our ask if in the debate first and foremost. You know,
(07:29):
we can have all of these conversations about Joe Biden
needs to do this, and Joe Biden needs to do that.
But after July twenty second, if I'm not mistaken, or
twenty fifth, whenever we have the role call, he is
our nominee. So then what are you going to do?
I'm resolved to the fact that we have three choices.
We have Donald Trump, we have Joe Biden and the couch.
And whether or not I was at Essence Fest or
whether or not I was fishing with my good friend
(07:50):
Jerry lodhold Off, a doc in Orangeboro County last week,
the people I talked to are all saying the same thing, like,
let's just get on with it. I mean, we know
what we're going to do, we know who we're going
to choose, and it is what it is. We have
bigger things that we're fighting for other than going back
and rehashing the fact that our candidate is eighty one
years old, probably eats the Danni's, goes tobate at four
o'clock and changes tennis balls on his walker.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
You just described my perfect weekend. Thank So I want
to talk about because I think kar you bring up
a really interesting mindset and I want to talk about
that because I am of the opinion that democracy is
not just under threat by authoritarians or by a Supreme
(08:32):
Court that has decided maybe we shouldn't have left England
in the first place, and a monarchy is actually slightly preferable.
But I want to talk about the phrase it is
what it is because I think that that is a
complacency that I've seen in the Democratic Party for a
very long time. That includes Ruth Bader Ginsburg not retiring
(08:56):
on time. That includes Merrick Garland not going after Donald
Trump for January sixth on time on That includes not
being able to get Merrick Garland onto the Supreme Court.
That includes allowing Amy Cony Barrett to get onto the
Supreme Court. That includes not being responsive to urgency and
to new information and just saying it is what it
(09:20):
is guys and shrugging. And I think my point is
there is opportunity here. It may not be open convention,
it may not be a new person to take onto
the ticket, but there is a vibrant and I think
ultimately positive at least conversation and acknowledgment to be had
(09:44):
that is not being had because it is what it
is and what are you going to do? So I
want you to respond to that. If you yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
I don't actually mind the conversation.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
I'm not somebody who wants to put you in Ats
and Tommy and John and the guys and and Tim,
put you guys on island and just ship you guys
off like guysk white Boy Summer you and Cheed Hanks.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
I know.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
So I'm not somebody like I appreciate the thoroughness in
which you're having this debate. I'm kind of looking beyond
that and to your is what it is, your kind.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Of a monologue there.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Look, the fact is you can go back to Rama
Manuel not putting the impact on or the emphasis on
the judiciary as he should have in Barack Obama, not
doing what he should have done in the judiciary.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Or codifying Roe v.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Wade, or whatever he could have done when we actually
had the House and the sent it in two thousand
and eight. Those type of things, we can go back
and reltigate those things under that mantra of it is
what it is. What I'm talking about right now is
very practically the choices we have before us. And so
I am geared up trying to prevent Project twenty five.
I'm geared up trying to make sure that the things
that we're talking about, the Chevron ruling, which I mean,
(10:52):
I know that people are caught up on presidential immunity Chevron.
The Chevron ruling, in my opinion, was more devastating to
the fabric of democracy than anything we've seen in recent.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
He's talking about the ruling from the Supreme Court, which
made it much more difficult for federal agencies to regulate,
whether it's the EPA or SEC or any of those
agencies to regulate the people that they're charged with regulating.
That they undercut those decisions from the Supreme Court.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
And they did what they did similar in Dobbs. They
owed Similarly in Dobbs, they overthrew decades worth of president
which the Supreme Court is not necessarily known to do
unless you're like Clarence Thomas and you're getting flowed out
by your billionaire donors all over the country. And so yeah,
I am just I think there are a lot of
people who sit in my seat and they have a
very sober look at where we are practically and say,
(11:38):
I cannot afford in November to go back any further.
We felt like twenty twenty we won the precipice of
a third reconstruction, and we missed that mark. And since
that time, we've actually been going backwards. And I know
that people just don't want to backslide anymore. And I
feel like having conversations.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Biden is the president. If we're backsliding under Biden, well
you're saying we're no.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
But I can go through his list of achievements. But
what we're right about are the attacks on the attacks
on DEEI. We're talking about the attacks on firmative action.
We're talking about how in Arizona they passed an abortion
bill from the eighteen hundreds, how they passed Dobbs, how
they we just went through presidential immunity. I mean, there
are cultural and legend and policy initiatives that firmly make
me believe that we've gone backwards.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I mean, look at black home ownership.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
No, I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just saying the
administration is the administration right now. But John and Tommy,
I wanted you to address this because what Bacari is
suggesting is that he's being strategic. That this isn't about
noticing that the president may no longer be up to
the job. This is about staying with the status quo
(12:40):
because strategically, I guess, and Bacari tell me, if I'm
misrepresenting this, that gives us our best opportunity to win.
And I think my point is, I don't know that
that's the case. I think I would disagree that that's
the best strategy. But what's your thought.
Speaker 7 (12:57):
I mean, you would disagree, and literally all of the
polling and data available would also agree with this position
as well. It's not fiction at all that Joe Biden
could step down tomorrow. He could announce that I am
you know what, I have an important job to finish.
I'm doing two jobs right now. I'm President United States
and I'm running for president. And President United States is
(13:19):
too important and I want to focus on that and
I can pass it off to Kamala Harris, or we
can have an open convention, whatever he wants to do.
He could easily do that tomorrow. And the idea that
we cannot.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Kara just got very sad.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
That's not a real thing, and it's a real thing.
Speaker 6 (13:36):
But Kari, why is that not a real thing?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Let me ask you this makaark. Is it not a
real thing technically or is it not a real thing?
You think emotionally or technically it's not a real thing.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
I think technically emotionally.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
First of all, I mean the way this works is
and I love the kind of land that we're living
in where one can assume that Joe Biden can say
that I don't have the ability to run for reelection
after I've already announce that I am, after I've done
all of these things, raised all of these money, These
money's had the infrastructure around the country, But yet I
don't have it in me to finish this campaign.
Speaker 7 (14:08):
No, he had say I can't win. I can't win
because all the holding says he can't win.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Yet I can still be President of the United States.
So those things are not those can't.
Speaker 6 (14:16):
Win ones can't win when's this multi month job and
one is auditioning for a four year job.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
I'm gonna I'm also jump in and say, like, look,
nobody actually knows now things are looking dire for the president,
but four months I think any of us would agree
in a modern media timeline is for fucking ever, it
really is. I think we I think we confuse this idea.
You know, we just saw France lose terribly in the
(14:43):
parliamentary elections. Mat Cron jumps out with a snap election.
He jumps in there. Weeks later, they've stemmed the tide
of La pen. I mean, it can be done. All right,
We'll be right back. Okay, we're back. And that's my point, Macary.
(15:10):
We are complacent, and that complacency sets in a cynicism
with the American public. And I think you're giving us
a binary choice that's not real. I don't necessarily agree,
oh Biden can't win or Kamala can't when we just
don't know and the world changes so quickly and we
(15:32):
don't know about those things. But here's what I do know.
It's not a binary choice. President Biden's defiance I don't
think is the right strategy. I think the idea of
not acknowledging the progressive and degenerative nature of what he's
(15:52):
dealing with is gaslighting anybody who supports him, and of
him going out there with bromides about Joey. My dad
said to me, Joey, it's not about how you get
knocked down, it's about how you get up. And You're like,
I don't know that you can get up, sir. I
think that's really not the metaphor you want to go with.
(16:14):
And there's no shame in that. We all get there.
So I don't understand there is an opportunity here to
have a more honest, adult, sophisticated Fuck the media, fuck
whatever they're gonna say. You are in control of how
this goes down, and don't. I think they're bungling even
(16:37):
the response. Butkary no, and so I don't. I've never
said this choice has been binary. In fact, I think
people who analyze as races being binary, and I may
have missed your point have it wrong, because I've always
said that and where I am right now today, the
choices are Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and the couch that
(16:57):
those are the three choices that people have in this race.
And so I think I disagree with that, and I'm
trying to figure out why you feel that that is
that it is all etched in stone.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Joe Biden owns this decision. And so if we want
to spend our time pressuring Joe Biden, by all means,
continue to tweet, continue to talk about it, do those
things take that upper level. I've never in the history
of history seen a white man see he's the most
powerful man in the world. See all of that power
to anyone, let alone a black woman.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That's well gandallf I don't know if you remember Gandalf.
I believe he.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
And Two, I disagree with the political climate where anybody
says that you cannot run for president but you can
still be president. Now, all of that's conjecture, none of
that is technical, but I have a I know in
the field.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Day, but it isn't that anybody who's already served two terms.
I mean, they they're president, but they're not running if
it's your second term.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
But they're not quitting. That's that's a given, like you'll
you'll be quitting the campaign.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
Johnk you mentioned the French beating fascism. You know how
they beat fascism two candidate. It's stepped down in various
district races so they wouldn't split the vote against the
far right. That is how the French people.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
They put country over party.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
They put country over party. And when Joe Biden is
the official nominee, I will shut the fuck up, and
I will march, and I will fight for him, and
I will knock on doors, and I'll donate and do
whatever it takes. But this is an extraordinary situation and
it is time for courageous action, and we have a
window between now in the official nomination of Joe Biden
where we can do something that's never been done before
(18:29):
in our history. And I just don't agree that a
mini primary is fan fiction. I think you could find
ways to compete for four thousand or so delegates. I'm
not saying you're saying that. I'm thinking that's what's out there. Like,
you could find a way to compete for those delegates.
They will all get together at the convention in Chicago
and nominate. But if Biden doesn't want to do that,
he is an excellent communicator in Kamala Harris waiting in
(18:52):
the wings, and I think the subtext you hear from
a lot of Biden supporters.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I'm not saying you Bikari is.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
They're like, look, if Joe steps down, it's got to
be Kamala and she's no, I am dad. She's not
good at running. Yeah, they're criticizing her right there they are.
They are knifing her on background in these stories, being
like commas, numbers are terrible, she can't win.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
And I to buy the administration is doing that. People
in the Biden administration.
Speaker 6 (19:15):
Supporters jug Joe Biden are absolutely.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Yeah, certainly so, yeah they are.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
But they did it publicly.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
They put out a memboy where where he was she
was doing worse than him against Trump. That was the
first memo they put out after the debate, which I
wouldn't have done to my vice president. But here's the
here's here's all that matters. Yeah, Donald Trump is leading
by more than he has ever led in a race
for president.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Right now.
Speaker 7 (19:39):
He is leading by more than any Republican has led
at this point in a race in a general election
in twenty years.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Okay, since George Bush.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
Perhaps all the polling is wrong, but then you'd also
have to explain why the same polls that have Joe
Biden down all these Senate Democrats and tough races are competitive.
So then you say, okay, well, we got couple.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Months to turn around.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
Could he turn around? Yes, It's not that he can't win,
it's the question is is Joe Biden facing We're facing
Donald Trump and a threat to democracy, an existential threat
to democracy as we are all, as Joe Biden says,
And the question is, is Joe Biden the best candidate
to give us the chance? Does he give us the
best chance to defeat Donald Trump? Knowing that he has
(20:23):
not been formally nominated yet, and he could make the
decision himself to step down. And you know what, Joe Biden,
who is an eighty one year old white guy Catholic
who became president, has moderated his views a lot and
listen to people a lot in the last several years.
And when progressives push him on something or moderates push
on something, Joe Biden listens, and he takes in his advice,
(20:44):
and then he makes decisions based on what people are
telling him. So the idea that we and I know
that you said this is okay, Kerry, But like in
the next couple of weeks, the idea that we all
don't have influence on this decision when we're talking to
members of Congress, and then members of Congress are talking
to the President, Like, I think it's worth making a
run at asking him to reconsider this because they haven't
(21:06):
shown us a plan the Biden campaign of how they went.
They haven't shown us any of their data, they haven't
shown us a path they haven't made. They haven't talked
about how he's going to turn it around. There's just
been nothing. And like, I think it's weird that they
think that the Joe Biden we saw on stage has
a is a better has a better shot of beating
Donald Trump than Kamala Harris, the first black woman vice
(21:27):
president that he chose for the job, who is a
fantastic communicator.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Like, I just don't understand. So let me there.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
There are a lot of things, a lot of nuggets
I just want to jump. I it looks if if
Joe Biden decides one morning he wakes up after Catholic Mass,
I think the most important day is actually, you know, Thursday, Thursday.
If he's if he if he if he goes out
there and falls down literally then okay, but is.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
That really where we're at at the president, you know
what I'm saying that.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Then then he may be like, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Okay, I don't know, but but if he'd then I
want to push back on the fact that it's an
open primary.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
It's not an open primary. It's Kamala Harris's race.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I mean, she will be the nominee and the fact
is she should actually be president of the United States
to make her stronger going into that, I mean, that's just.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Just doesn't that undercut somewhat? It is what it is,
like you're now laying out I think a scenario that's plausible,
but I'm just also maybe even stronger.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
My complete thought is this, while we are, while you
guys are launching a pressure campaign, which is effectively what
it is.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
But I want to tell you something. So this is
what I would object to, this idea that this is
a pressure campaign. What it is is a visceral response
emotionally to something shocking that was seen. Joe Biden has
run on this idea of honesty and decency, but they
have not been honest about the condition and the difficulties
(22:56):
that he has been facing. And so it undercuts one
of the foundational arguments that they even have made. So
this is not a campaign. I am not working in
coordination with various people. I have a platform, and I
have been stunned and disappointed and angered by what I
saw and how I've been talked to that I didn't
(23:18):
see what I saw.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
That's all you saw. My point is you saw what
you saw. You're outraged by what you saw. You have
every right, all three of you all to be as
visceral and have whatever reaction you want to have to it.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Right.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
My only point is that there's going to come at
point in time in the next two weeks maybe where
I am working over the next two weeks to try
to get Joe Biden reelected. Right, that's my goal because
he's the nominee, he's the presumptive nominee. If that changes,
which I really do not believe it is going to change.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
But do you want it to change, Bakary? I guess
it's my question. Do you think we have a better
chance if it does change? Bacary?
Speaker 4 (23:54):
I'm not sure. I really don't know the answer.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So there shows so it isn't what it is, is
my point.
Speaker 5 (23:59):
But my point is that I think a lot of
people have backup quarterback syndrome, they really do.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
I agree with that. I agree with that, and I'm Patriots.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
We had a hot ass backup quarterback.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I was gonna say, but you don't know, you maybe
have Tom Brady or maybe you got Tommy cutlets. You
don't know until you do them.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Drew Bledsoe got a raw deal.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
By the way, is Drew Bletsoe the Joe Biden of
this metaphor?
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Is that what we're Let me you know what it is.
Let everybody love me, Harris.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
Tom Brady, maybe let me.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Let me change the metaphor. Let me change the metaphor,
and I'll throw this to John and Tommy. So we
talked earlier about the French, you know, putting down fascism
on the thing. I'm going to give you another metaphor
about the French. In the nineteen thirties, as Germany was
building up their armaments, the French decided on a strategy
to defeat fascism. It was called the Magineo Wall, and
(24:50):
they built it. And they were a series of giant
concrete bunkers, stationary with guns all pointing in one direction.
And the German came through the area and went oh,
I think we can just go around this, and they
went around it and then just fut and destroyed it.
And that can't that also be a metaphor that this
(25:12):
idea of no, this is our plan, it's rigid, it's
status quo, it's all facing in one direction, and it's
utterly incapable of holding off that onslaught And that was
the last time I tried to defeat fascism. I guess
what they didn't.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
Yeah, I mean, I think my part of why I'm
so concerned Bakari is because I watched the debate and
I was like, man, that was really bad, but let's
give him a little time to do some more things.
Then I watched the ABC News interview, and frankly, it
made me more concerned because it was at times incoherent. Again,
during some of the radio interviews he did, where it
turns out his campaign actually gave the host the questions
(25:49):
like those didn't go particularly smoothly. Morning Joe wasn't great
and you could hear him reading papers, and so I'm
I'm not trying to be a dick like I have
a lot of love and affection for Joe Biden and
people in that white House. But the guy has not
been doing things off teleprompter, and he has not shown
us that he can run the kind of campaign that
he needs to run to win. And like you mentioned,
a pressure campaign. I mean, I'm seeing quotes from state
(26:10):
party leader is saying, look, we can't say what we
really think, we can't articulate what the grassroots is saying,
because we'll get punished by the Democratic Party and we'll
get robbed of resources. So that to me is kind
of the worrisome omerta that's happened.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
And I'm sure mccari you're probably seeing these two, but
like the private polls are coming back, the internal polls
from like the Senate races, and it's freaking people out.
It's like Biden down ten in Pennsylvania, Biden down six
in Wisconsin, even as Bob Casey's up two and Tammy
Baldwin's up three and and a lot of these House
(26:42):
members are seeing it in their districts. Safe Biden districts
are starting to look bad, like New York State.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Why do you guys see all this stuff? How come
I don't get to see it?
Speaker 5 (26:51):
I mean, I think this is siloed, Like this is
kind of siloed. This is what happens when you this
type of you know, visceral maybe rightfully so hysteria.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
I mean people literally, really.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
This is the tail wagon the dog.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
Bakari people are panicked, right and they're panicked, and so
you're so you're seeing the reflection of that panic.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
But Bakari people are panicked for a.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
Reason, rightfully so, because they saw it. I'm not disagreeing, Okay,
I'm not disagreeing with that.
Speaker 7 (27:15):
Beninson had a poll out. They did a post debate poll,
and voters who watched the entire debate prefer Trump over
Biden by fifty one to forty six. Voters who didn't
watch the debate are split forty three for Biden forty
for Trump. So you actually Biden did better with people
who didn't watch the debate or heard about the debate
than he did with people who actually watched the WHI
(27:36):
show us. It's not the hysteria or the reaction.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah, I'm a big book.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
I'm worrying people.
Speaker 6 (27:39):
It was the debate and polls.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
When was the last time a debate? Yeah, I know,
when was the last time a debate dictated who was
going to be president of the United States. And by
the way, what was the question of John and Tommy?
Because I do I do have a I do have
like a scientific question. Oh, I was looking at all
these I was looking at all these all these polls
come out about Senate candidates. And I saw one poll
in particular where Tammy Baldwin was up five points or
six points and and Joe Biden was down five points
(28:02):
or six points, which would mean in the state of Wisconsin,
there are the math is like two hundred or three
hundred thousand split ticket voters, which is something that's never
happened in the history of mankind. Why do we think
that the fundamentals of this race will be that vastly different?
When to John's point, like I hear you, John, Like
the under the undergirding foundation of who Joe Biden is
(28:24):
is honesty, indecency, right, But you don't look at that
in a vacuum.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
The question is is tertier is three three things?
Speaker 5 (28:32):
Like do you think that he's more honest and decent
than Donald Trump? Or do you want to stay home?
Speaker 7 (28:38):
That's the scenario we're in after the Democratic Convention. If
Joe Biden's the nominee, like complete, I completely or the convention.
But I hear you that's before I'm sorry, yeah, whenever
he whenever they do the roll call thing.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I think I think that's too cynical. Honestly, I think
that's the idea that like, hey, it's it's the it's
the almighty all the alternative or whatever the pro mine.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
Don't compare me, don't compare me to the the alternative,
to the alternative look, which is what I use with
my wife and our ex boyfriend of the You.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Know, my god, are you the cart? Are you getting
I'm married in your own married?
Speaker 4 (29:13):
I'm married. No. No. What I've done is I've eliminated
the opposition. I am selling to the.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Uh, all right, well we'll be right back. Okay, we're back.
So you know, when when there's a large threat, there's
two things that you define. You define the threat and
then you define your defenses. All I'm saying is, if
(29:43):
we are taking an honest look at what our best
chance to defend ourselves against a perceived threat, I think
we are selling ourselves short and in a lot of ways, using,
as as Tommy put it Omerica to stifle what could
be an incredibly productive at least conversation. Even if Joe
(30:07):
Biden came out and said, look, I understand where I'm
at in my lifespan and cycle and what I do.
Here's how this government works. Rather than coming out and
becoming trumpion and saying you think someone else could hold
NATO together, they could never. Only God can tell me
(30:28):
to get out of the race, Like if you were
to come out and say, here's my team, here's how
we hold the line. But we're not seeing any of that.
Nothing that's been done inspires any confidence other than the
fatalism of it is what it is, and this is
what we're stuck with. And that's the part that I
(30:50):
think has degraded people's trust and institutions and the government
from the get go. That's a problem.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
I'm a blend of both.
Speaker 5 (31:00):
It is what it is, and I'm working towards what
I believe to be the ultimate goal, which is to
defeat Donald Trump. While others are having discussions about the
visceral reaction they add to the debate and alternatives, but
I also think those discussions are decently healthy. Again, I
don't I'm not trying to excommunicate the pod boys. I'm
mad they were listed in the email, the blast email.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
Right, I'm not poddamn. I actually have a sticker that
says pricks for Pricks for Biden. So like I'm not.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
I think I think the discussion is healthy because I'm
going to need all of you all if I'm going
to win this race, and I'm going to need all
of you all to want to put every ounce of
your being in.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Although we disagree on who the.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Nominee is or who we believe the nominee will be,
I am still, you know, working towards that same goal,
which is to rid ourselves of fascism, because I believe
after November, if Donald Trump is re elected, it can
go really bad, really quickly.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Guys, let me ask you this. You know, when you
talk about uh kind of ridding ourselves that, what do
I do with my anger at a Democratic Party that
honestly has put us in this rock in a hard
place position that wasn't honest over this past year about
what was happening internally at the White House, was not
(32:18):
in any way preparing the public for Kamala Harris, wasn't
doing any of that. There was a I don't know
if it's complacency or deceit or whatever it was, but
a Democratic party that missed all of the threats that
were coming their way and has left us vulnerable here.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
I just think, you know, I hear you there. I
think Bacari's right that normally in coming presidents run again,
and I think President he said would. There was a
suggestion that he would not run for reelection, that he
would be the bridge the next generation. I believe that
by the way, I suggest what he said, yes, but
he never said I will not run again. And heyway
(33:00):
stepping that aside. I think President Biden and his advisors
took the wrong message from the twenty twenty two midterms
that it was somehow about support for the White House,
when in reality it was Donald Trump helping elevate some
really terrible candidates like doctor Oz who got their clocks
cleaned right, and then he made his decision to run again.
And it sounds like, I don't know, I'm not around
(33:21):
Joe Biden ever. I've seen two or three times in
the last six months, but it sounds.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Like the's a lot of time that's humble, humble, humble.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
B Well, listen, we saw him in an lay fundraiser
out here.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
We had a couple of blight.
Speaker 6 (33:36):
Let me, let me, let me contectualize that I saw
him in person at a fundraiser, and then I watched
them on the debate. And the in person fundraiser I
saw in Los Angeles a couple weeks before the debate
was as bad as the debate. Everyone I walked out
of the debate with John was there. We were talking
to people around us in seats in the fundraising, people
we didn't know, and this fundraiser and we were like,
that was chilling in fact, And George Clooney just wrote
(33:58):
an up at about how we need to know and
he he hosted the fundraiser and he just said the
same thing in the New York Times, which is what
everyone at the fundraiser thought. Like everyone was there, like
what happened? And he had just fallen back from Italy, right,
so like everyone was like, oh, he must just be
so unbelievably jet lagged. But obviously there is a more
dystemic problem.
Speaker 7 (34:15):
Well, and that's why I don't think it was some
It's not some conspiracy. Like I saw him. I was
at the White House and I saw him in December
of twenty two, and I thought he was fine. He like,
remember he recognized my mother in law from meeting her
in twenty eighteen. Like I was like, oh, he's not.
I mean, he looks older and he sounds older, but
he's fine. And then I saw him the night before
the Correspondents dinner and he looked like he did at
(34:37):
this LA fundraiser and at the debate, and I was
very worried. And then the next night at the correspondents dinner,
he gave a good speech and I was like, Okay,
maybe he was just tired. So I do think people
were wrestling with this, like maybe he's tired maybe, but like,
look to your point question about the Democratic Party, this
is a decision that Joe Biden and his closest advisors
have made, and no one else like Joe Biden could
(34:57):
have stepped aside, Like no Democratic I wanted to challenge
a sitting president during a primary because they usually you
don't beat a sitting president, right, Joe Biden made the
decision to run. He and his advisors made the decision
to run again, even though he said he'd be a bridge,
even though he selected Kamala Harris, who they could have
built up and said okay, now, I'm going to pass
the baton to you. He made the decision to run,
(35:18):
and so we were all left to say, Okay. The
rest of the Democratic Party was like, all right, you
guys are telling us you're the best chance. You're our
best chance to beat Donald Trump again, to stave off fascism.
We trust you. It's on you, guys. And then we
got that debate, and then we got all the interviews afterwards.
So it's like, I'm only interested in beating Donald Trump too,
(35:38):
like we all are. That's the that's the number. I'm
terrified of what will happen if Donald Trump win. I
just don't know that Joe Biden is our best shot
to do that anymore.
Speaker 6 (35:46):
When if we put points on the board, was the
last time Joe Biden put points on the board? The
State of the Union? You know what I mean, Like,
what is the last good moment you guys remember, well.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
State of the Union. I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
I mean I try not to just stay tuned into
the Washington Post in New York.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Right, yeah, listen, it's you know, the needle's going to
move here and there and small.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
I think this is but this is what drives me crazy.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
About Democrats of the frame by which we like, you know,
I remember in October, right Access Hollywood came out, Donald
Trump was grabbing women by the bussy, right, and then
soon thereafter the bottom fell out. Poles were showing that
Donald Trump was getting his behind kick that all the
Senate candidates were like, oh my god, like this man
cannot be at the top of the ticket. Rant's previous
actually walked up to the top of Trump Tower to
(36:29):
try to convince him to drop out the race. Rants
at the time was the chair of the RNC, and
Donald Trump told him to go kick rocks right, go
pounds in right. But what we saw after that, after
he was resolved to stay in the race, we saw
everyone then, I mean, and Republicans do this so well.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
They just fall in line, they don't fall in love.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
They gathered around, they got behind this guy who is
a narcissistic sociopath, and they ushered him into the White House.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Right.
Speaker 7 (36:54):
But Curry, do you think that would have happened had
the Access Hollywood tape come out a month before the
republic Convention back in twenty sixteen, and Rant's previous and
all those Republicans Ted Cruz, who spoke at that convention
and was like, spoke out against Trump at the convention,
even though he later fell in line like this is
it's a different scenarios.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
I was like, where are you going with this? Where
are you going with the taps?
Speaker 7 (37:13):
A different scenario Like if we were if this was October,
this was the third week in October, we wouldn't be
having this conversation right now, right like, we wouldn't be
having the conversation.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
And Bakari I would also suggest, you know, Bill Clinton,
on the eve of it all, it came out he
had had an affair camera Jennifer Flowers I think it was,
and then it was the Paula Jones situation, and then
there was the Monica Lewinsky situation, and Democrats did fall
in line. There were I mean, people made, oh this
(37:42):
is terrible and I'm disappointed with a president, but ultimately
the Democrats did fall in line. I think that you
are soft selling the more fundamental aspect of people viewing
somebody who I'll be perfectly honest with you, I don't
know of a job interview that you could have gone
on and delivered the performance that was delivered by Joe
(38:05):
Biden and gotten a job. And I'm not talking about
the presidency. I'm talking about like cashier at home, deep,
like a job that you would not think, Okay, that
that is the hardest job in the entire world.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
The only problem with that, John, and the only problem
with framing it as such, is the fact that you
discount everything that he's accomplished in the first three and
a half years.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
No, I don't.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
I don't know what you do.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
But he's just running for what he did through and
a year. He's running for the next four.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
But nothing happens in a vacuum.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
And what we what we have to do is people
just want to my friends, my friends on the left,
we want to only magnify what we saw on at
the debate, Which is fine.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
I get it.
Speaker 5 (38:47):
We're talking about age, but I'm also talking about the
accomplishments prior to and the threat that is right down
the road. And I think, I mean, we do ourselves
a disservice by saying our guy is old. We know
that he shuffles old.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It's not Bakaria. I think, what is it. It is
cognitive decline. It's not just age, it's cognitive decline.
Speaker 7 (39:07):
At very least it's an inability to communicate, right, Like
I'm not a doctor, but like he can't. We need
the candidate that we run for president needs to be
able to communicate effectively. That's just the most base of
the job. It's the most basic part of the job
of being a candidate for presidents. You need to communicate effectively.
And if you can't do that, well.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Reassure us that here's how we operate in that environment.
But to suggest that this discounts three and a half years,
it doesn't. But it does give you a window into
the next four. And if you look at his performance
in twenty twenty versus his performance in twenty twenty four,
there is inexorable decline. It's just no, it's undeniable. So
(39:46):
what I don't understand is, Okay, fine, he stays, but
deal with it head on, stop pretending, stop gaslighting, Like.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
That's fine, deal with it head on, that's fine. I
don't want to silence the debate. I think it's fine.
I think it's healthy talk about it. Don't gaslight pope,
that's fine, Like, I'm cool with that, But I'm also
saying that there is a fucking monster that is November fourth, fifth,
sixth whenever.
Speaker 6 (40:10):
You election agree, I know, I think I know so.
And we're getting our asses kicked by the Monster's right,
That's what we're worried about. We're worried about the monster.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
Listen, polls our reflection in time.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
And I do think that a lot of the hysteria
that we are self inflicting upon ourselves causes a lot
of the reflection that we're seeing in these polls. And
I would also argue that in thirty forty five days,
you're going to see a race that is once again
neck and neck and tight around the country.
Speaker 7 (40:33):
It's a very polarized, closely divided electorate. The safest bed
is a close race, and it's been a close race, right.
But I have seen and I've sat in these focus groups.
You've sat in these focus groups for like the last
several years, and people just they are concerned swing voters,
undecided voters, young black voters, young people, Latino voters. They
(40:53):
say over and over again, they're worried that Joe Biden's
too old to be president, and they they they respect him.
They don't like Donald Trump very much. They think Donald
Trump's a liar. Some of them think Donald Trump's quite dangerous,
but they're like, I don't think Joe Biden's up for it,
and they've been telling us this for three years now.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
I can tell you anecdotally the individuals like my mom
and are friends who were all in responded to that
debate with tears and with fears and with reality. And
the administration's inability to deal with that honestly and forthrightly,
(41:34):
to me is almost more damaging than the actual debate itself,
and it shows a disconnect with or an inability to
be agile and honest, and that's more troublesome to me
than almost anything else.
Speaker 5 (41:51):
Don't disagree with anything you said. My only point would
be that my mommy and her friends, who usually are
the ones who determine who the Democratic Party nominee is,
the black women in her chat group, they refer to
themselves as the quote unquote posse.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
They were they were.
Speaker 5 (42:08):
Hurt, they were saddened. They said he got his ass kicked,
they said he was old as hell. But at the
end of the day they were more resolved than ever
to call their girlfriends and say we don't vote for him.
And then one thing they admonished us or monish me
about was we don't need any more chaos.
Speaker 4 (42:22):
They don't want any more chaos.
Speaker 5 (42:24):
They're gonna ride with Joe Biden, and they don't want
they don't want an open convention.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
They don't want to they don't want any of that.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
But you don't think you don't think White knuckling it
with Joe Biden's chaos.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
It's but it's the chaos we know.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
I mean that.
Speaker 6 (42:38):
I think that's a fair argument. I'll take carry one
thing you mentioned though, Like you mentioned like we're not
talking about Joe Biden's accomplishments, and like, oh look, we
we do a show a couple of times weeks. We've
talked about those accomplishments constantly. And I give Joe Biden
a ton of credit.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
I mean, the global we everybody.
Speaker 6 (42:55):
I give him credit for a climate change, the infrastructor
Bill Ukraine, right, all the things he's done.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Great.
Speaker 6 (43:00):
But what is really glaring about this White House and
Joe Biden himself is he does not have a message
about the next four years. They are not talking about
what he's going to do, why he's the only person
he's going to do it. He is just like pointing
to things he's done kind of angrily and being like,
why am I not getting credit for holding NATO together?
And Aucus switched? No one knows what that is.
Speaker 4 (43:21):
By the way, the.
Speaker 6 (43:22):
Nuclear submarine deal with the Australians, How the fuck is
that coming up in these conversations, like, that's not your talk.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
I have voted in every election in the past twenty
years on Aucus.
Speaker 6 (43:33):
Oh, the Aucus caucus. We're the Aucus caucus. The ship
has sailed on getting credit from these things. Voters are like,
we don't care.
Speaker 5 (43:40):
I heartily agree with you, and so prior to the debate,
my main line was that I very rarely talk about
Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the same sentence per
se as I characterize him. Other than the fact that
I felt both of them were prisoners of yesterday, I
felt both of them just like it was for a
different reason, Like Joe Biden has this weird nostalgia for
like swimming in pools with pop pop, right, it's kind
(44:03):
of freaky. And then Donald Trump, Donald Trump has this
He's like the king of white grievance from yester year. Yes,
and I think that both of them have a fundamentally
Project twenty five is what it is.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
But you take that away.
Speaker 5 (44:17):
Both of them have a hard time articulating a vision
for the future. And that's when I think age matters,
because one is seventy eight and the other is eighty one,
and it's very difficult when you're eighty one or seventy
eight to talk about a future that you may not
be a part of, right, and that is the prisoner
of age. And so I agree with you wholeheartedly that
I've been pushing them to lay out a vision for
the future. And I don't know when they're gonna start
(44:38):
doing that other than our you know, because right now
they're kind of fighting from the backside to side. I mean,
they're so busy beating up on y'all and John Stewart
that they don't really they don't have time on today.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
But I believe it around mystic.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
By the way, I'll wrap it up with this because
I know everybody's got to get going, and I'm going
to say this Tommy, John and then Bacary you can
have the last word. With all the headwinds and obstacles
and front of us, I remain incredibly optimistic about the
resilience of the system that we're fighting over. I do
believe that the challenges that are in front of us
(45:10):
are some of them intractable. But also you know, I
never there's never despair in any of this. It is
always all right. I guess it's buckling down. So I
would ask you guys to maybe answer the question, what
about the resilience of this system still gives you a
hope in that?
Speaker 6 (45:29):
I mean, I do think you make an important point
that it's we can't all speak in apocalyptic terms, and
the left and the right does this, the country will
exist the.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Day after the election.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
If Donald Trump is president.
Speaker 6 (45:41):
I do think he might change core things about our
democracy that we can't undo and just fundamentally change the
character of this country. And so that's why I am
happy to be the stupid podbro cracker talking about this now,
because I do think the risk is real, and it's
if Barack Obama lost a Mitt Romney, there would have
(46:02):
been a different policy agenda implemented. I think Donald Trump
could change the character of the country in a fundamental
and dangerous way.
Speaker 7 (46:10):
Right, I think we have there's two choices, Right, you
quit and then bad shit happens, or you try and fight, right,
And I think that's what we're all trying to do
right now and trying to stave off the threat of
Donald Trump again. And I think what makes me optimistic
is like when you talk to voters, right, voters, I
know it drive They drive everyone crazy. They're complicated, they
(46:31):
don't follow politics very closelier than news, but they're sensible
and smart and know what they see. And when you
make a persuasive case that is rooted in honesty and
reality to voters, you do have a chance to change
minds and change minds, meaning get people off the couch
to the polls, or get people to change who they're
(46:51):
going to vote for. And so I never want to
give up on that, and that makes me hopeful. But
I do think you have to make an argument to
voters that meets them where they are and is base
in reality of what they saw, which is why the
Biden maintaining Biden as a nominee worries me. That said,
if he makes the decision, if he refuses to step down,
and he makes the decision, then we will make an
(47:12):
honest case to voters, which is like, yeah, Joe Biden's
too old to run for president, but Donald Trump is
too dangerous to be president.
Speaker 5 (47:18):
Okry, Yeah, I feel like I'm kind of there. But
I think what gives me hope, and I think what
we underestimate sometimes is we are evaluating. This is King
used to talk about, and he talked about it, and
I have a dream speech and everybody remembers, like that
rhythmic cadence if I have a dream that one day
we shall But we forget about the most important part
of that speech, when he talks about the fierce urgency
(47:38):
of now. And I think a lot of times we
discount the urgency that many people in the electorate voters have,
as we talked about as you talked about your mama
and her friends, or your parents and their friends, and
my MoMA and her friends. The sense of urgency that
people have, and my hope comes from the fact that
I believe that there are more people who want to
(47:58):
see this country move forward, didn't take it back to
a place that is is dangerous for us all. It
is dangerous because of who you love, is dangerous because
you're Jewish, it's dangerous because you're black, it is dangerous
because you're a woman. And I think that there are
enough people who have that fierce urgency of now that
after we get through this little intersquad squabble that we're
(48:19):
going through right now. You know, whoever comes out the
tent on the other side, his name of b Joe Biden,
will carry him. We'll carry him to the finish line,
like you know, you know, like the old great man
that he is right.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
It always, it always reminds me, you know, they say
that what's the quote, the ark of the moral of
the universe bends towards justice. And what we all have
to remember is and there's a good percentage of people
trying to bend it back the other way, and it's
a lunch pale job to keep it bent. And no
matter what happens, I don't think that job goes away.
And I think that's probably where we end. But gentlemen,
(48:54):
I want to thank you all very much for joining us.
Of course, we have Bacari, sellers from CNN and political
commentator and author of The Moment, and John Favreau and
Tommy Vetera, founders of Crooked Media, host of pod Save
American and authors of Democracy or Elf How to Save
America in Ten Easy Steps. So thank you guys very much.
Speaker 7 (49:13):
Thank you, thanks for having us.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
Oh man, that's feisty. Yeah, there was a good amount
of feisty was hot. Bakari wasn't. He wasn't having it.
We're lucky that we were in separate studios. I was
afraid one of the pod guys was going to get Weggie.
I think I think he was going heavy on the
listen to you nerds boys, you pod boys. There was
(49:40):
coming after me. The administration is so angry with the
pod boys and John Stewart Pacari. But I actually thought
it was a good articulation of kind of the the
positions there. And I think the it really is that
it is what it is is the part that I
think I find so difficult, like that idea that if
(50:02):
you're not it is what it is, then you are
somehow fantasy fan fic west Wing toady. I don't know
how else to put it.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Well, when you do go down to the logistics of actually,
you know, switching the candidate, you start wondering would this happen?
Speaker 4 (50:23):
Right?
Speaker 1 (50:24):
But it can? And you remember, oh, right, conventions they
used to not actually have a candidate sometimes until after
the convention. There is this idea that I think they
are discounting just how much in a modern media environment
how long four months actually.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Is and the four months is not the same anymore.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
And by the way, Republicans wouldn't throw up their hands.
They would just fucking bear down and get done the
thing they wanted to get done and apologize later easier
to ask for forgiveness and permission, and they would get
it done and somehow end up at the supper court
with it being fine like that. It's the complacency and
(51:06):
that's the part that just buries my soul.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
Yeah, it makes me very sad. I just we've stopped
being able to have conversations teams or even just like
raise our hand to be like this feels uncomfortable. It's
just very much like shut the fuck up and get
in line, right, And.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Which, by the way, is interesting they brought up he said,
you know, there's a pressure campaign to get Biden to
drop out. I would say the opposite. I think the
pressure campaign is way boys more like a powerwasher coming
the other way, like, hey, I don't know if this
guy can Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a bad scene, But
I would I think it would be a healthier outcome
(51:48):
for democracy if it showed some ability and flexibility and
did not continue around this feeling that it's very rigid
and disconnected from real concerns. But yeah, we will get
to all the topics though. Oh go ahead.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Yeah, I was just gonna say, the campaign recognized reality,
and you know, if addressed it, addressed it exactly, we
would be in a different place.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
But to all the people that are concerned about some
of those issues that we had raised that are going
to be coming up on the podcast, they will We
do this every week, every fucking week. Yeah, out here,
day in and day or day one a week and
day one week. We're going to get to all those
great topics. Uh, And thank you once again for listening.
As always, thanks to lead producer Lauren Walker, producer Brittany
(52:35):
me Medwick, video editor and engineer Behind the Glass, Rob Vittola,
researcher Gillian spear oh Audio editing and engineering, the Cole Boys,
and the EPs, Chris McShane and Katie Gray. As always, Brittany,
you got the socials on there that we do.
Speaker 3 (52:51):
I do, John Twitter, we are Weekly Show Pod, Instagram
and threads. We are in Weekly Show podcast and on
YouTube Weekly Show with John Stewart.
Speaker 1 (53:03):
I'm on all of those and including MySpace. All right,
kitties to next week, next week and beyond, and thank
you for listening to the episode. If you liked it,
please follow The Weekly Show with John Stewart on your
favorite podcast app and tune in every Thursday for new episodes,
(53:26):
because it just fills our heart with gratitude. Thank you.
The Weekly Show with John Stewart is a Comedy Central
podcast is produced by Paramount Audio and Busboy Productions.
Speaker 5 (53:59):
Paramountcasts
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