October 7, 2020 • 62 mins
In today's episode, we take a break from the constant onslaught of news to just kidding we're going to cram in as much news as we can.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production of I Heart
Radio Together Everything. So don't don't it's all happening here
(00:23):
in the Worst Year Ever. It's all happening Oaks. Hello, Hi, Hi, Wow.
What just just incredibly impressed by by that introduction Katie.
First one didn't go well, so I made the second
one even words. Yeah, I was just going to shout
(00:45):
out the name of Reinhardt Hydrick, one of the architects
of the Holocaust, which would have been a bad, bad
and a professional call. So thank you for really knocking
it out of the park. I'm happy. I mean, that's
a really high high bar that. I was surprised that
Katie didn't start by saying that, so yeah, I thought
about it, but I figured that was more yourifibed than mine. Uma,
(01:09):
But it is all happening. We were just chatting about
how all the things that have happened since we last recorded,
remarking on it, and then eased into this show where
we're going to talk about some of those things. Right. Yeah,
I love talking happening. I used to think that I
(01:32):
liked talking, but the more I talked my way through
this year, the less I like it. Um. If you
think you like talking started podcast and you'll change your mind. Everybody,
Let's talk about Donald Trump and his health. So for
this week, we kind of decided to talk about like
politics in the election and things happening in the country,
(01:55):
which I guess we we we've been we keep getting
drawn off into like very specific things because every single
thing is happening this year, and this is going to
be kind of a general update on some big things
that have occurred. So we're going to talk about the
president's taxes, and we're going to talk about COVID, and
we're going to talk about, um some other important stuff
that that we should we should have talked about a
(02:18):
bit earlier. But again, every single thing is happening every
single day, and we're all completely overwhelmed constantly. Yeah it's good.
I mean it's so weird doing this show and even
our news usually we have um specific episodes here for
worst year ever, or interviews, interesting conversations that separate it
(02:40):
from our news round up that we do every week.
But weeks like this, I'm always slightly worried and then
not worried at all, because there's always more news. It
just doesn't stop. Obviously, Um, where should we start today, then, guys,
I think we should start with you, Katie, because you
are a professional. Also, I feel like the thing that
(03:01):
everyone is currently thinking about, will the president die or
not die or not? Is the president alive? Still would
be currently still alive? Uh as far as we can tell,
But I'm eagerly winning Claudia Conway and her updates on
that because she's our only true journalist, I guess. Um.
(03:23):
But let's back up, because in case you missed it,
the president has the rhona. He has it finally. It
took long enough. I mean he maybe he had it
earlier too, but who knows. Um. All right, first we'll
do a real quick go go ahead, Cody, Oh just
I mean, you're right, it is about time. I mean,
since this pandemic started, the idea was, well, eventually he'll
(03:46):
get it because he's so reckless. When is that going
to happen? All the other awful leaders have also have
already had it. So it was nine times Boris almost died.
So yeah, okay. Late on Thursday, news broke that the
President tested positive coronavirus just two days after standing pretty
(04:07):
close proximity to Joe Biden. Anyway, This came after news
that Hope Hicks had tested positive on Wednesday. Uh. And
it seems that the president knew or at least knew
that he had been exposed to the virus at the
time of the debate. In fact, it's been reported that
he arrived late at the debate and missed the mandatory
rapid COVID tests specifically because he knew he had been exposed.
(04:31):
Very cool. That's my favorite part, because they went by
the honor system. I love that after four years of
this thinking that you could even say that, just like
even like taking it out of the world that we
live in and who the president is and everything, the
honor system for this deadly disease I mean, and him.
(04:57):
He also went on to do campaign events, potentially exposing
countless other people. Also cool. Um, It's unclear when specifically
he contracted the virus. Could have been anywhere, or it
could have been at the Rose Garden Party slash Super
Spreader events held for any Coney Barrett last week. You
(05:18):
know his handsmade tail pick to replace RBG. Yes, okay. Uh.
So far believe at least thirteen people at the event
have tested positive. That numbers could probably higher. Uh. That
includes Melania Kelly Anne Conway, Chris Christie, Kaylee mcanennye. Uh,
several Republican senators. Senators who are on the committee to
(05:38):
confirm Barrett. All of that could be its own episode
about what the implications of that alone are and what's
going to happen. But we're not going to focus on
this too much. Said that, fuck man. And this list
isn't even including the White House housekeeping staff or the
members of a secret service who have also tested positive.
(05:58):
I mean, we're like the White House is an epicenter um.
Then on Friday, the President was admitted to Walter Reeves Hospital,
either out of an abundance of concern or because he
was experiencing extreme symptoms. That part is unclear. Um, I
(06:20):
can't trust anything anyone says. But well, the one thing
we know about Donald Trump is that he's always like
taking extreme caution. Yes, he very cautious man. Then there
was all these confusing statements from his doctors throughout the weekend,
which kind of ratcheted up the mystery. Statements like he
isn't out of the woods and not currently on oxygen. Uh.
(06:41):
On Sunday, he did a couple of bizarre stunts like
staging photo opportunities that show him working uh while actually
looking at blink Sta stacks of paper. Uh, and these
photos were like taken. It's beautiful there do so. I
mean as a journalist, specifically one who works for Belling Cat,
(07:05):
there's a number of different types of data that like
images have that you look for if you're trying to
like spot people slipping up and that. One of those
obvious ones is like exit data, and you can hide
that ship very it's not to not have that ship
show through. There's ways to kind of deal with an
image that that doesn't come through if you're trying to
be this sneaky person. They went through zero effort, put
(07:29):
it out real fast. It's so they're so incompetent and
lazy and everything. It's maddening partly too, because it's like
are they incompetent, lazy or they do they just know
it doesn't matter, right, Like people will find out they're like,
oh yeah, this this photo, this photo, But they're just
still like living their lives. They're still doing they're still
doing all this stuff. Yeah. Uh. He also, while he
(07:52):
was there on Sunday, insisted on taking a ride in
his motorcade exposing his driver into secret Service just so
he could wave to fans and show that he's okay.
It turns out, however, that Trump had insisted on being
and had insisted on being released on Sunday, but they
said no and then compromised and settled for this little drive.
(08:13):
It's kind of like it's kind of like my aunt
Alice well I had Alzheimer's and unfortunately she had to
be placed in a home during the last years of
her life. She's really mischievous and sometimes would like hatch
up a plan to break out. Then they just bring
a cab out front and driver around. So then comes Monday, okay,
and the President announces that he would be leaving the
hospital at six thirty that evening, again apparently only because
(08:36):
he insisted. And look, it remains to be seen whether
he is actually okay or not. UM. I do have
a feeling he will ultimately be okay because he is
the president of the United States. He has access to everything,
um and like we don't deserve it, and like we don't.
(08:58):
We'll get to some of that, but it's to be clear.
He's being pumped full of experimental treatments and steroids which
can make you seem better than you are. Um, and
he's you know, accessing the very best that America has
to offer, unlike the thousand Americans who have already lost
their lives. But we don't know what will happen next
with him. His body is a rotten cesspool of fast
(09:20):
food and bad karmit and I don't know, I don't
think there's a vaccine for that, so it could still
come up and bite him. But what we knew know
is that he really doesn't look good. He's so palid um.
And then like, okay, he comes forward yesterday with this
just grotesque orange makeup where you could see the line
(09:41):
on his face. And for those of us who do makeup,
we know that that's not the look, honey, that's not
what you're going for. Um. Yeah, he looks like me
on an average day in the summer, but you are
wearing orange makeup masks. Yeah, um. But yeah, know, we
only know what his face looks like because he staggered
(10:02):
out onto the balcony, the Trueman balcony outside the White
House and took off his fucking mask jodas his makeup
uh and gasped out a few awful remarkable words words
like he may now be immune to it, and don't
be afraid of COVID, don't let it dominate your lives,
don't be afraid of COVID, don't let it dominate your
(10:24):
like this maybe, Um, yeah, this is a grotesquely offensive statement.
Of course, Oh yeah, it's extremely dangerous. And also he's
visibly and audibly still very impacted by it. He hasn't
(10:45):
beat it, so I didn't If he didn't take off
the mask and he was like, I'm I'm strong, I'm
doing well. I've got the mask on, welcome back me
and went in, we wouldn't have been able to see
his labored breathing. That's what I mean. But this is
just incredibly and offensive, um to so many people that
(11:06):
are struggling with this and irresponsible and dangerous. UM wrote
this down for later in my doc, but I haven't
gotten there, and it feels like a good time to say.
There was a New York Times article I believe that
Um talked about a study that showed that thirty seven
percent of the world's coronavirus misinformation comes from Donald Trump.
(11:31):
That's dounding, and so anyway, he said that, I mean,
really like hats off to him, because that's real, that's impressive,
it's poul, that's infamy. Anyway, he said those words, uh,
despite looking and sounding like that. And then Claudia Conway,
(11:52):
killing and Conway's daughter and the hero of a young
adult sci fi novel, apparently broke social media when she
posted guys, l M A oh he's not doing better
and quote he's so ridiculous l O L. Apparently he's
doing badly and they're doing what they can to stabilize them. So,
I don't know. Claudia has been right in the past.
(12:14):
Also there she's certainly in a position to have insight information.
She's also a fifteen year old who's That's the next
thing I was about to say, Look, I don't know,
she's just been accurate in the past, Like she was
accurate when she said my mom has coronavirus, but her
(12:35):
mom actually gave her virus, so that which is a nightmare. Yeah,
the Conway stuff, I'm like, I get get it, and
she's got its information maybe probably, but also like, yeah,
and all of it seems to be leading towards like
the reality show that the three Conways are going to do. Yeah,
(12:57):
I don't want to feed into it. But I appreciate
the letting us know that. President. I felt I agree
with your sentiments, all of them completely. I debated about
including this but an interesting point of information, but I
do think I do think it's important to say, like,
when we're talking about Claudia Conway, she's a child's um
(13:20):
and she's clearly in a toxic house situation and amount
of attention we do not need to be giving to
this family. Yeah, that's why I oh sorry, oh no, no,
please go ahead. That's why I'll push back a little
bit on that. They're clearly gunning for a reality show,
like I think George's and I think his wife is.
I think they would do that. They're Claudia is too
(13:41):
young for us to know, like she doesn't know what
kind of person she is, and she doesn't she's fifteen. Um.
I did see a post from her earlier, like I
think it might have been like a it was months ago.
I think it was back in August where she was,
you know, a thousand years ago, where she was talking
about wanting to get emancipated for her family and made
(14:01):
the statement that like, my dad is competent enough to
like know that Trump is full of ship, but he
and I disagree about everything, and like he's not don't
stand he's not a hero, which made me think, Okay,
like she might like I I hope I wish the
best for her. Yeah, that's like, that's like in the
a sober, mature perspective. Yeah, especially at that age. Yeah,
(14:24):
you're both your parents and being able to look at
both and being like, well, one works for the president
is awful and one doesn't think he's awful, but they're
both wrong. Yeah, and and any of her like live
audio where you can like hear her family in the background,
it's just heartbreaking and like she's a kid. That's she's
a kid, yelling and stick kid and it really it's
(14:46):
it's hard. Yeah, it sucks. Back to your question, Robert,
of whether or not the president will die, we don't know.
If you look at the timeline of the virus, he's
really kind of just getting started. He your many you know,
I mean many patients in his demographic show improvement before
(15:08):
getting worse, especially when you're on steroids. Uh. The virus
isn't linear, Ah, so you know he could be feeling
better and not be who knows. You get to be,
you get to enjoy this moment, you get to again.
We we have a whole video about this, so I
don't need to talk about this too much. It's coming
out soon. But like, um, the thing, the reason this, well,
(15:32):
there's many reasons this story is not getting shuffled away
like a lot of stories do. Uh. I mean the
president might be dying, that's part of it. But also
because we want this, we need this you and it's
okay to feel like he might get like a little
bit of a karmic punishment for his just consistent, constant,
(15:54):
lifelong behavior. Yeah, there's an element of like, um, I
keep seeing the idea of like we gotta like hope
he gets better so we can vote him out and
then he'll rot in prison like all this, like and
then he's gonna face consequence for this and this and
this and this. I don't know where there's people get
the idea that presidents will face consequences ever for anything
(16:17):
they do. Um, and like this is like this is
a consequence that um could actually happen as opposed to
him no longer being the president at some point and
then uh starting a network and being successful at that
or you know, going to Jimmy Carter's funeral and being
respected there, like all the things that we see presidents
do after the fact. Um it is. It's one of
(16:41):
those things where it's like this is this is a
little treat. Maybe maybe he'll actually see a little consequence,
because because whether or not he's voted out, I don't
think he's going to be in prison. As much as
that would be great, probably not gonna happen. Like there's
a little bit of Devil's advocate in me. Trump, on
an objective level, deserves to go to prison. There is
(17:04):
an argument that can be made that like being the
country where the former guy in office goes to prison
isn't a great precedent to start, which is complicated by
the fact that he deserves to go to prison because
he's of all of the bad things that he's done. Um.
I think the thing I would prefer for him is
for him to lose all of his money because of
(17:26):
the massive financial friends that he's committed and to have
to get an apartment in let's say, Lansing, Michigan, and
work a day job or live on disability, you know,
because he's probably is after this, after this, I'm not
(17:46):
I'm not talking Lansing. I'm just saying it's like that's
like a normal place that people live, as opposed to
living in a series of yachts and mansions where he
have nothing against the people that he champions, he actually despises. Yes. Um.
At the beginning of this, there was a lot of theorizing,
(18:08):
you know, that this was all a stunt to avoid
the next inbate, to raise patriotic man manipulate in some way.
It's clear that he's he's got corona. And I never
thought that personally, because he's too obsessed with weakness. But
you better believe that he will be trying to manipulate
the messaging to his advantage. And in fact, apparently he
spent his time in the hospital scheming ways to spend this,
(18:29):
you know, because of course he did. Um. This is
from the Daily Beast. The President repeatedly claimed that once
he recovers from the coronavirus, he'll be able to present
himself as a conqueror of it, both personally and politically.
The notion might seem far fetched, considering the poor marks
Trump's received for his handling of the pandemic, but according
to knowledgeable sources, The president insisted that this would be
a campaign asset, as he'd be able to say I
(18:51):
know what people are going through. The sources recounted him saying.
Allies argued that this could help frame Trump as both
resilient and empathetic, which come in handy in a race
where polling shows a wide empathy gap between him and
former President Joe Biden. I mean, we already saw him
trying to do it with the don't be afraid of
COVID right hility, But that is exactly what he's trying
(19:13):
to do with that. I've been there, I've seen it.
Look at me, you know, yeah, I mean he's like
his attack on Biden was that Biden hasn't experienced the
virus like him. Exactly. It's this nonsense and weird it's
not But also like, you know, he's doing the thing
where at the same time, don't worry about the virus
is not a big deal. Also, I'm a superhero for
(19:33):
having defeated it. I'm about how strong and what a
champion I am for having destroy But also don't worry
about it. It's a weak little virus, exactly. It's the
it's the same fascist nonsense that we see he's also
really leaning into it and like comparing COVID to the
flu again today, Ye let me read this. It is
(19:56):
coming up. Flu season is coming up. Many people years
sometimes over a hundred thousand and despite the vaccine die
from the flu. Are we going to close down our country? No,
We've learned to live with it, just like we're learning
to live with COVID in most populations, far less lethal.
First off, the first sentence, god exclamation. Hid the tweet
(20:21):
because it spreads Twitter and which is a pandemic against again,
which is what set off his thing being hidden, and
that's why he started tweeting. Repeal section twenty three if
you guys know what that Basically, it would make social
media platforms responsible for the things posted on their platform
and like open to lawsuits, which means that actually, if
(20:45):
they repealed it, they would have to like ban people
people like him, or at least delete his tweets, which
very funny. There's a lot but this is too again,
a whole other section that you could do a whole
thing on and I'm just throwing that in there right now,
but yeah, could argue the point, but he wants it.
(21:07):
He wants that change made so that conservatives can sue
Facebook over banning them exactly right, like revisiting that law,
like that's it's not completely unreasonable, but like his yeah,
it's but like the reality is that would open him
up for other things. Anyway, I'm going to end this
(21:28):
section by um this fucking news. Later this morning, he
announced on Twitter that he's halting negotiations on a COVID
relief bill until after the election. Nancy Pelosi is asking
for her two point four trillion dollars to bail out
poorly run high crime Democrats States, money that is in
(21:50):
no way related to COVID nineteen. We made a very
generous offer of one point six trillion dollars, and as usual,
she's not negotiating a good faith I am rejecting their
request and looking to the future of our country. I've
instruct did my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election,
when immediately after I win, we will pass a major
stimulus bill that focuses on hard working Americans and small businesses.
(22:12):
So again, that whole empathy gap, he's really trying to
like close the empathy gap here. Unreal, unbelievable, I mean,
it's believable. Yeah, Um, it's it's very believable. It's it's
believable in a way, but it's kind of unbelievable because
he should know that, Like, if you give people money,
(22:35):
they'll know that you did it and they'll do that.
You won't give me money until I vote for you.
You fuck right, like framing it like that, I'll do
it if you vote for me, Like it's wild. Because
also people know that if they vote for Joe Biden,
he'll do it. He'll do it better. Like it's so bizarre. Um.
One thing I want to point like, Jeff Stein was
(22:56):
pointing out some key consequences of this stimulus not going
through close to thirty million jobless people to permanently see
an income fifty restaurant's face closure in about six months. Uh,
Tens of thousands of airline workers will be laid off.
No stimulus checks, no rental relief money, no more funding
for testing or tracing. Uh, no Medicaid or Cobra, even
(23:18):
though Cobra sucks money. Um, it's just like wild. No
money for schools to reopen safely. Um, all the things
that people want to happen. He's just saying, Nope, but
vote for me and maybe and uh is the polls.
I don't want to be like a poll guy, but
like people do not like him, know how he is
(23:39):
handling this. They kind of despise him unless they are
members of his cult, which does speak to a lot
of people, but not not enough, not enough. Hopefully we'll
see that's my do A little break breaks, Yes, we
(24:05):
got it, adds breaks now as times cool, so we'll
be back by together everything prop prop prop prop prop
(24:26):
prop prop problem. Everything's perfect. Are we back from break now? Yes? Absolutely? Um, Cody,
what you got all the things? Cody, what's happening, Nothing's happening.
Everything's fine and going on great. Um uh. In regards
(24:48):
I wanted to make a quick note in regards to
another COVID nineteen relief bill, UM, seventy four percent of
voters want the Senate to take on this bill before
the scope is nominee. Like a minority of the country
is less than five or whatever even more than that
(25:12):
wants it. I would uh, I would not take that
bet because I feel like you would win. I think
that I'm right. It's of voters, but you know, most
of us don't vote. All of us vote, but people
don't vote anyway. I mean voters voted last election. I
just learned of voters voted last election. That's what I'm
(25:37):
pretty sure I read. So that I can keep up
our our the quality of our journalism here, Okay, Cody continue.
One of the reasons I wanted to bring it back
to that is that the final the final tweet in
his announcement that he's not going to do a stimulus bill,
um reads, uh, we are leading the world in economic
(25:59):
recovery and the best is yet to come in all
caps um. And that phrase in all caps makes me
think of Kimberly Gilfoyle. Oh yeah, the president's son's wife,
girlfriend fiance. I don't know. Uh, crime buddy, crime lady,
(26:22):
crime lady. That's what a funk buddy is. If you're
a member of the Trump have sex, they excrete from
their cloacas in a pile of stolen lucram um. That's uh.
I saw that on a documentary. Yeah, it's it's the
documentary is now banned, but it was. It was very pornographic, like,
(26:42):
oh yeah, dude, I do not recommend it, but very
interesting still. Um. But so this kind of this is
just a story that kind of like got it under
the radar, um, because again, like what there was the taxes,
the debate that then the president might be dying, and
that's were a lot of the focus. I mean, I
have to be honest, I know that this is a
(27:04):
story you're about to tell, and I don't know the
details of it. Fun beautiful talking about under the radar.
I was like, Nope, not gonna dig into this one. Well,
so about two years ago, uh, Gilfoil left. She left
her beautiful job at the beautiful Fox News network. Um
(27:24):
and uh she claims to have left by her own accord. Um.
This is around the time I believe that she and
Don Jr. Started criming together. Yeah yeah, yeah, crimes, criming,
criming in each other's pants. I believe what they were doing,
wiggling around like little worms in a bed. They bred
(27:47):
in the traditional Trump way, which is they they again
excreted from their cloacas in a pile of gold stolen
by the Nazis. I thought they just touched, but that's
part of It's are in their butts, okay, Yeah, and
then they then they leave the room and they don't speak.
They don't speak during a really long dinner. No and
then a child jest states inside the puddle. It's a puddle,
(28:10):
and it looks like a child. It's not a real child. No, no, no,
of course not. It's like the child in that uh
in that in that movie bivarium. Um, and it grows
up into a soulless monster. Yeah, exactly, so that's a
little biology lesson. Um. Yeah again again, do not watch
the documentary. It will tear, absolutely not, and it's illegal
(28:33):
in thirty one states presently. Yes, yes, yes, yes, if
you have to make sure that you're not in one
of those states. But one of these moments, we're gonna
let Cody finish the story. No, I mean, I'm just
as bad. I mean, it's a it's a it's a
short story, but it's a is gross. Um. Sorry, enjoyed
(29:00):
the way you phrase that. Well, okay, so uh it
was alleged, um that Gilfoil actually and this was not
this is not from this recent story, but that she
uh left because she was forced out because of sexual harassment,
because Fox News is accessible of sexual harassment and will
be forever and has been since all time. Wait did
(29:20):
she commit or was she a victim? Commit? Okay? Um, okay, oh, yeah,
that's I mean, that's a good question. That's yeah, that's
a good question. But yes, it absolutely does scan for
her as everybody knows that she was married to get
to California governor, because yeah, not that long ago. Yeah, together,
(29:42):
I like to bring that up in many conversations, but
we are ruled by an incestuous warren of demons that
rules that part. Oh god, no, it's just it's just
it's just okay. So she, Um, it was alleged that
their sexual harassment claims were made and that's sort of
(30:04):
why she was forced out. There were no real details
about this, and again it's sort of like slowly disappeared. Um,
the details are out and uh, aside from her trying
to cover cover this up, um, which would be a
whole other thing, I'm just going to read the behavior
(30:24):
and um I'm scared. Okay. So this is about a
woman that was hired her assistant. According to a dozen
well informed sources familiar with her complaints, the assistant alleged
the guilfoil her direct supervisor subjected her frequently to degrading, abusive,
and sexually inappropriate behavior. Among other things, She said that
(30:47):
she was frequently required to work at Guilfoil's New York
apartment while the Fox host displayed herself naked and was
shown photographs of the genitalia of men with whom Gilfoyle
had had sexual relationships. The draft complaint also alleged that
Gilfoyle spoke incessantly and luridly about her sex life, and
on one occasion, demanded a massage of her bare thighs.
(31:08):
Other times, she said, Gilfoyle told her to submit to
a Fox employe's demands for sexual favors, encouraged her to
sleep with wealthy and powerful men, asked her to critique
her naked body, demanded that she share a room with
her on business trips, required her to sleep over at
her apartment and expose herself to her, making her feel
deeply uncomfortable. My God, good Lord, and of paragraph, you know,
(31:34):
it's really upsetting that I didn't look at this story.
It's really upsetting that this is something that goes under
the radar because the stigma of I mean, a lot
of sexual assault is perpetrated by men against women, for sure,
but there is a lot of this kind of stuff
that happens, and men are mocked when they come forward
(31:57):
with their stories of abuse, and uh, case in point,
we did not latch onto this collectively, this story, you know.
I mean there's a lot of reasons why, but it's
it is that is so traumatic for the people that
she um worked with and abused. Yeah, if you if
(32:22):
if this was a man, this would be you know,
everybody would be talking about it for sure. Yeah. Absolutely,
it's just Trump stuff. It's all of them. It's I
don't know, I don't I don't know if it will
even resurface or be brought up at all. Probably not,
but it should. It should, well, I I'll probably maybe
(32:43):
I'll bring it up on even more news later this week.
I mean yeah, uh yeah, it's just the kind of
thing that like it slips. Fine, you want to at
least mention it because Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah, that's not cool. Yeah.
People are always like tweeting or saying, you know, like
this wouldn't happen if women were in power. We have
(33:05):
a fucked up system that enables this kind of abuse,
and more men are in power, more men take advantage
of it. Women are just as capable of the same
abuse within this system that we have built, is your point. Yeah,
I mean to hire more women guards tweet right, Yeah,
there's there's something it. It's certainly it's not of zero
(33:27):
benefit to increase representation within the system as it currently exists.
But the problem with the system that as it currently
exists is that power ruins human beings. And it's why
all of this happens because most of these people, even
if they wanted to, wouldn't be able to do and
get away with the things that they were doing if
they were not in positions of power. And so while
(33:49):
representation is important, as long as we continue to give
people power in the way that we presently do, we
will continue to see people committing crimes like this because
power is it ruins human beings. We we teach that
to children, we sure do, but not adults. Not adults.
(34:10):
It's wild. There's so many things like that that people
have dismissed, like, well, that's kids ship. We teach kids
kids ship because it's like the fundamental things that we
want them to learn. Money is the root of all evil,
power corrups, like all this kind of stuff. It's basic.
It's basic stuff. Yeah, I don't know, make kids, give
kids power something. Yeah, let's just let's let's make a
(34:33):
random nine year old the dictator for like three years
and then overthrow him at incredibly vicious like coup, Like, yeah,
let's give it a shot. Why not when when it
corrupts that child, we will take that and we blame
the child as if it's the child's fault that we
invested absolute power in a nine year old. Exactly. Um. Um,
(34:56):
just a couple of just little things I wanted to
mention that have been sort of popping in and popping out.
Are they uplifting? Am I going to be really good
about the country I live in and and and the
people running it? Yeah? Yes, that's ament man with no spoons. Yes,
(35:21):
I can stir with a fork or something, or like
a knife you can stir with. Yeah, there's a variety
of tools. Actually start with your finger. If it's like,
m I got that's over there, I can get it.
Tell me the stories. It's not even a story, it's
just the the US is now, unless otherwise exempt for
(35:42):
some other expanious reason. Um, immigrants aren't allowed in the
United States if they're affiliated with the Communist Party what
of or any other totalitarian party. Specifically, communists are not allowed. Um.
And I just thought that was interesting. Yeah, why would
they be those filthy communists there? You go keep them out.
(36:05):
That's right, that's Robert Evans right there. Yeah. The only
extremists I want in my country are far right extremists
who have never, for example, detonated a truck bomb next
to a daycare. Yeah. Keep him in, keep him in,
keep him in, keep in, give him Let the president
(36:29):
compliment them or whatever. Yeah, sure, bucket. Um I uh
so there's also just this small thing and this this
might actually uh make you laugh a little bit, Sophie.
Um So we're all familiar with James O'Keeffe and Project Veritas. Yeah, sorry, yes,
(36:56):
so I understand. Uh it's uh Sames a key reason
to piece um in uh in in Minneapolis about how
Ellen Omar and her campaign there their ballot harvesting illegally,
and he has his whole expose about it. Um where
did they get him from the creek, like the president
(37:16):
talking right, Yeah, yeah, you'll find him in the creek.
You'll find where you well, that's where you harvest the
ballots down where else did he say it was weird?
He's like the creek in some other weird place. Yeah,
I think what a what a weirdo. Um. So it's
his video that purports to give evidence that they're engaging
in illegal ballot harvesting. Um. And I just have to
(37:40):
point out that the video starts with James O'Keeffe looking
like off in the distance, looking at the skyline of
Minneapolis behind him, is like, and here I am at
the scene of the crime, and he points to the
entire city. It's just very very funny. He's such a
he's such a such a dork. Oh no, Robert's laugh
is broken. Oh no, sorry. Uh. But so the guy
(38:12):
in the video, he's saying that there's his ballot harvesting
going on, aside from the fact that ballot harvesting was
legal in the area during like this like three month
period of time, because every everything in James O'Keefe's videos
like and this is illegal, this is illegal, and there's
no evidence in the video because that's how he does
his his deal. Um. But a guy came forward and
(38:34):
said that he was offered ten thousand dollars to lie
in the video about all this stuff that he said,
it's just a classic I guess what would you call it?
A uh? And he got O'Keefe to you O'Keeffe himself,
he got he got very tossed around. I don't know, um,
because every single time Tragic Veryitas does something like this,
it's always it blows up, like look at the wide
(38:57):
open there tearing this wide open um and you watch
it and you're like, wait, what does the video even say? Uh?
This deceptively edited and sort of portrayed in a way
where like this is a bombshell, it's illegal when it's
like not illegal whatever he's talking about. Um, And then
and that blows up in right wing media and then
the follow up of actually, uh, because it's like this
(39:20):
coke funded project. Of course they're gonna offer people ten
grand to lie for them. That doesn't quite do as well. Um.
It's surprising that Project Veritas is still even around with
how often they get discredited. They're the same people who
sent somebody to the Washington Post during the Roy Moore
debacle to pretend right when they when they sent somebody
(39:45):
to like lie and say, oh he also uh musted
me and the Washington Post like actually did like journalism
and figured out that she was clearly lying and it
was just a a fraud situation to try to prove
that the Washington Post doesn't do the work that they
actually do. Um, but he's still out and about doing
(40:08):
this kind of stuff. And I just wanted to bring
a little bit of attention to Mr James O'Keefe, thank you. Um.
Despite his boast that he had three hundred bells in
the car, he said the actual number was closer to
twenty because of various core decisions so called ballot harvesting,
collecting more than the statutory limit of three ballots was
permitted during a five week period this summer. Um. All
(40:30):
just all the stuff just piling up. Um. And uh.
I look forward to James saying it's bullshit and then
not being able to explain why. Yeah. And I'm looking
forward to this ad break we gotta do right now.
God yeah, fuck yeah, these transitions be right back everything.
(41:05):
You know, we're you know, we're back products. And you
know what products mean is the expenditure of financial resources.
And you know what financial resources mean, taxes, taxes, scot taxes. Yeah,
we're gonna talk a little bit about taxes because in
the school in the course of a week last week
(41:28):
we had Yeah, the New York Times dropped a bombshell
story about Trump's last like fifteen years of taxes. We
had the debate happened, which was obviously a big deal. Um,
and then we had the president gets sick with the
plague that he pretended didn't exist. So a lot happened,
and we kind of moved past the tax stuff, even
though for years everyone was talking about like what the
(41:48):
fund is in his taxes, you know, around that was
a big deal quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah, So we're
gonna talk a little bit about what got revealed and
then like whether or not it's gonna matter. So one
of the neat things that happened is we learned that
the president paid to seven fifty dollars in federal income
tax in two hund two thousand sixteen, which The Atlantic
(42:12):
noted was less than one night stay in a suite
at the Trump International Hotel in d C. Another thing
that The New York yeah, is that he was currently
that this audit thing that he's been talking about, like
the fight he's having with the artist. Yeah, it's been
going on for a decade, this fight, because you can
(42:33):
keep ship like that bouncing around for a long time
if you have real lawyer money. Um, it's about the
fact that he got a seventy two point nine million
dollar tax refund after declaring massive losses, and it's probably fraudulent,
although not definitely fraudulent yet because again there's still litigating this.
(42:53):
But if it were rule, if the ruling went against him,
he could he could be on the hook for more
than a hundred million dollars um, which he might not
have liquid. Uh. You know, a lot of fun stuff
was revealed um. Among them the fact that he made
like more than four million dollars from the Apprentice, like
(43:13):
four or thirties something million dollars, and he put it
all into horrible investments like buildings and and and golf
courses and stuff that lost that based on what he
filed it, I should say, not necessarily horrible investments, because
obviously there's people who make great livings owning golf courses,
but based on how he filed them in his taxes,
horrific investments because they lost more money than that. Yeah.
(43:37):
So part of what is this whole story, and I'm
sure you're going to get to this, is the fact
that our system is designed in such a way with
these fucking wealthy fox you can get away with ship
And what's difficult about this story is like, yeah, there's
a certain amount of like depreciating, like depreciation is expected
(43:58):
improperties and stuff. So when you talk about his losses
and stuff, it's hard to know how much you're actually losing,
but fair to say he's losing money. Yeah, But anyway,
but it all goes to the point of, like, we
don't know how broke he is, Yeah, exactly, and we
don't know. We don't know if he has broke. Um,
he might just be a shady rich guy who hides
a lot of money. Um. We do know that he
(44:21):
claims after investing that four hundred million dollars that he
lost like somewhere in the neighborhood of like five half
a billion dollars um, which is why he's able to
get so many right offs. Now, again, the resolution of
his tax audit is probably clear his revenue from the
Apprentice and from all of his licensing deals is basically
(44:41):
gone now um, at least in rich guy terms. And
within the next four years more than three hundred million
dollars in personal loans are coming doe, which some would
say is a potentially catastrophic financial situation that the president
is in. Um. Some would say, some could say, yeah, say,
potentially problematic if he were to win reelection and all
(45:04):
those things come due while he's in office. Yeah. Anyway,
the New York Times article and all of this is
very extensive and and maybe longer than most people will
run to read, because fuck, like, how much time do
you really have these days? Like there's a lot going on. Um,
if you, if you would like to be well informed
and read a shorter article, I found The Atlantic did
(45:25):
three interpretations of Trump's tax returns, which summarizes the key
stuff and brings an expert commentary and is and is
a readable length. Um, So I might I might recommend
people take a look at that. Um although obviously, if
you've got the time, the full New York Times article
is well worth it. It's a very it's a very
responsibly reported piece. Um. So yeah, I'm gonna quote from
(45:46):
that Atlantic piece. Though. When I talked with several tax
experts recently, including some with direct knowledge of Trump's past
tax records, three somewhat overlapping interpretations emerged. In competence, malfeasance,
and criminality. Um, and that's the Those are the three
possible explanations that either one he's just an unbelievably bad businessman,
(46:07):
which some people are. Um, And he's been able to
keep ship afloat by basically robbing Peter to pay Paul. Like,
there's a number of ways that he can do that.
One of them is he paid like seven thousand dollars
and consulting fees to his daughter, which he claimed as
a business deduction, which is something that his dad used
to do, so that's pretty likely. Um that yeah. Um,
(46:31):
he borrowed a lot of money and he lost it
on investments, and then he took huge, huge deductions on interest,
appreciation and operating expenses, which massively reduced his federal income
tax burden. He would declare bankruptcy pretty regularly, renegotiate loans, um.
And that's all stuff you can do without breaking the law.
But where he probably broke the law. Where he definitely
(46:51):
broke the law, it seems, is that when a bank
writes off your debt, which again he was very good
at getting them to do. The discharge debt is taxable
was income, you have to report that to the I
R S. And Trump didn't, which is you know, a crime. Now,
he eventually started to run into issues getting normal sources
(47:14):
of income to live to him directly, which is why
he went to a mix of international billionaires and Deutsche Bank.
And Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank is a very august and
respected and old pile of crimes covered by very nice masonry. Um.
But like Deutsche Deutsche Bank is where you go if
(47:35):
you're someone with a lot of money that you're committing
crimes with. That is the bank that or like, Um,
I think, uh, what's that? There's one British bank that's similar,
but like Deutsche Bank is like the fucking crime guy bank.
And that's where Trump has has done a lot of business. Um.
And obviously it's very opague and there's a good chance
in ten years, you know, we'll finally have a reasonable
(47:57):
understanding of everything he was up to, because he's got
the money to hire people who are good at ducking
this ship. Um. But yeah, so it's it's his cases
are very complicated. We can't say that he was engaged
a hundred percent engaged in an illegal scheme based on
the money, but it really looks like to a lot
(48:19):
of people he was doing some money laundering. So all
of his golf golf property has declared losses of more
than three million dollars since two thousand, UM, which would
mean that for someone who's supposedly gooes businessman, he's pouring
a baffling amount of money into a business that's suffering
like weirdly huge losses UM, which is the kind of
(48:39):
thing you see when say Russian oligarchs are handing you
piles of money that they want laundered. You know, like
that's that's a thing that happens a lot. We don't
know that it's happening there, but it sure looks like
it might. Well, I would say that's something that I'm
thinking remembering now. I believe the New York Times article
(49:00):
is a part of a series. Yeah, there's other articles
there's but that are still coming that we don't know
what else they are about to reveal, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
And it's so there's you know, there's been responses from
the Trump campaign to this. One of them is that
from his UM, one of his one of his money people,
one of the people that he hires to think about
(49:20):
money for him, UM told the New York Times basically, Hey,
the presidents actually paid tens of millions of dollars in
personal taxes, and this is this is not. This is
not This is bullshit. Um. What it seems like he
was probably doing is conflating income taxes with other federal
taxes that Trump pays, like Social Security, Medicare taxes for
his household employees. And it's sure he probably does pay
(49:40):
tens of millions in those taxes. Um, he's not paying
federal income tax because he's using a bunch of shady
math to avoid it. You can't avoid paying, say, payroll
tax and ship to some extent um. So also he
did pay taxes in other countries. Yeah, that's a very
(50:01):
that's a very fun thing that I want to talk
about here. So uh yeah. When it comes to other
places where he's made money recently, there's also some really
shady stuff. First off, there's the his Palm Beach property
Mara A Lago Uh started getting a bunch of new
members in two thousand fifteen that made another five million
a year for the president. In two thousand seventeen, Billy
(50:21):
Graham paid almost four hundred grand to his hotel in
d c UH for an event that they were doing. Um,
and he still makes he has some profitable properties overseas,
about seventy three million dollars in revenue. Uh. A lot
of that was from his property, his golf properties in
Scotland and Ireland, but some of it came from licensing
deals in countries with like you know, dictators. Three million
(50:44):
dollars from the Philippines, two point three million dollars from
properties in India, and a million dollars from properties in Turkey. Uh.
And that Turkish deal was negotiated right as Trump pulled
uh US troops out of Rojava. Uh So that's fun
uh context there. So the thing you might say, and
the thing I think people have defended him by saying,
is that like a million dollars, I've got a billionaire
(51:07):
wouldn't make a deal like that just to make a
million dollars. That's chump changed to him. But it's not
chump changed to a guy who's basically broke. Yeah. Um,
Which is why we have prior to now, I mean
actually not always prior to now. Really the reason that
we're the reason that it has become habitual for presidents
(51:27):
to disclose ship in their taxes about their taxes is
that Nixon was found paying like seven nine dollars in
income tax during one of like during like one of
his election campaigns and it was a big scandal and
his income was two hundred thousand dollars a year. Speaking
of speaking of Richard Nixon, another thing that really just
(51:51):
got under the radar. Trump and Nixon wrote each other
for years. Well, no, I didn't hear about this. That's yeah.
They released letters that they have had in the Nixon
presidential library. They wrote each other back and forth. Trump
like complimented him on like what a hero he is,
(52:12):
and like how like what an amazing like resilient man
he is, and they would go back and forth. This
was like ten years after Nixon resigned in disgrace. Again,
very fun context, not inconlievable. Yeah, it's from like a
week and a half ago, so of course it's like
three years ago. Really, Um but I I saw that
(52:34):
and it passed by, and it's just like it's perfect.
Of course he did. Of course he wrote Nixon not
as a kid or not as a young man like
when he was president, but after he'd resigned a disgrace. Um,
it's perfect in its poetry. And I had to bring
that up. Go on, God damn, yep ah, that's that's
(52:58):
very funny. That's just a good time a good time
is all that is. So you know, the president and
his crimes. So the question with the president and his crimes,
other than how many of them are they are they big?
Did they hurt to do? The question is doesn't matter?
(53:19):
Right Uh. And for this I'm gonna turn to five
thirty eight, who, for all of my antipathy towards Nate
Silver himself, is really good at doing analyzes like this
and collecting a lot of information on like whether or
not people give a shit about certain things, um, which
is useful because I think we all have gotten kind
of locked into this habitual thing that like, oh, nothing matters, right,
(53:40):
the truth doesn't matter, Like what happens doesn't matter. He's
completely immune to everything, and there's a lot of evidence
that that's not really true. The I mean, we'll see
how the fucking election goes. But right now the polls
have definitely like they've moved a lot actually at finally
like some because also Biden's been can assistant leading Trump
(54:02):
for a long long long time by several times what
Clinton was leading by at her biggest and like if
you even if you compare like the fluctuation, there's been
really no fluctuation with Biden against Trump. He's it's consistent
across the board. Um until now in the fluctuation is
(54:22):
that he's doing even better. Yeah, yeah, a lot better. UM.
So in May of two thousand nineteen, that's when the
New York Times published their first report, big report on
Trump's taxes that he'd lost about like one point two billion.
In between um, and there was public polling done by
Politico Morning consult about whether or not this story would
(54:45):
change people's opinions on the president. And the poll found
that voters thought Trump had been very successful or somewhat
successful as a businessman, well only thought he had been
bad at it. But when they were presented with this
information from the Time story, UM share of voters who
thought he'd been a good businessman dropped from fifty to
(55:07):
which is significant. UM. And yeah, that's that's really noteworthy. Um. Yeah,
and about twenty of independent voters UM said there's a
strong or somewhat strong chance that new revelations about like
his his financial life could impact Um. There are people's
(55:30):
views of him. That was like a Fox News poll. Um. Now,
There's been some others polls, including one from the University
of Maryland which I'm actually just going to read you
the summary of the poll from the University of Maryland quote.
Focusing on President Trump, we find via a national survey
that many Americans are unaware he was born into great wealth,
and the numbers like half of Americans didn't realize it was, yeah,
(55:50):
fucking stunning. This misperception increases support for Trump, mediated through
beliefs that he's both empathetic and good at business. We
supplement our observational analysis with an experiment treating respondents with
information regarding the royal Trump's father played in his career.
This information leads respondents to rate the president more negatively
on both empathy and business ability. These findings suggest that
correcting information about candidate characteristics can change the minds and
(56:13):
even loyal partisans. That's wild. That's that's stunning, right, It's
like that's the one thing like this is a consistent
thing though with Trump, Like they there is a misconception
with him, even about like things like policy, things like
pre existing conditions. People have no idea that like doing
(56:34):
the opposite of what they think. But man, yeah, he
was a lot of wealth, start with a lot of wealth.
That's wild. Yeah, And he's consistently fucked up that wealth.
He sure did. Um, that's the real indictment of like
the media in general. Yeah yeah, there, it's bad at
its job. We and the media are. Um. It's worth
(56:56):
noting that among the independence nationally about this is during
the sixteen election, preferred Trump on the economy versus for
for Clinton. Um. And among the independents in Florida, Michigan,
and Wisconsin all preferred Trump to Clinton on the economy
by double digit margins, which is probably a big part
(57:18):
of why he won because the economy is often generally
number one or two for for most voters. Right, Um,
so it matters. Actually, there's at least a good chance
that it will matter, you know you. The data suggests
that actually voters give a shit about this. Um. Yeah. Yeah,
(57:39):
well that's he's he's dying for us. Yeah, he's also
in his irresponsibility and the things he's saying, it seems
like possibly perception is coming crashing down around him. Yeah,
it might be. It might be. Uh. The only age
group that's uh still like into him is I think
(58:03):
like fifty to sixty four or something like that. Yeah. Yeah, well,
but like everyone, everyone, everyone's excited for Biden. But also, Um,
this is all stuff that we thought, um four years ago,
so don't let it not. Yeah, every time I start
(58:25):
to go down that path, I'm like, I don't know,
I don't know, I don't have none of this stuff
that's currently happening is good for him, I'll say that.
But and he does that, like that's why he's very
clearly just trying to steal the election. Um. Side note, Robert,
is this all we're doing for today? For this? Yeah? Yeah,
(58:46):
I mean I'll give a little update from Portland since
people are curious, and hopefully this will remain true after
there's some some right wing rally to red Robin today
at five pm, so that might not go well, but
I don't think hopefully it won't be a big Um.
Things are okay comparatively, Like the cops are still pretty
awful and a lot of nice people are dealing with
(59:07):
some really ugly charges. Um. The protests have kind of
died down to an extent. There's still usually at least
one or two sometimes more things happening every week. Um,
but they've been kind of at a lower ebb, which
is which is fine and pretty normal for something that's
been going on this long. Um Our mayor uh Ted Wheeler,
who's terrible, had a big roundtable discussion on white supremacy
(59:30):
with the city council as part of his bid to
remain the mayor, and he interrupted it on accident by
forgetting to mute himself and dictating text messages for his
reelection campaign, which is both a crime and incredibly dumb. Um.
And in fact, I'm gonna send Danial that link so
he can just play us out with that beautiful audio
because it's very funny. Um. He's behind eleven points according
(59:51):
to a recent poll. So funk that guy. Um. Also,
there was a really cool rally in Seattle where like
hundreds of black block anarchists allied. Um. It was a
big old surprise. It was very disciplined, the messaging was
really solid. It was like a really good example of
like pointing it like the kind of like the very
consistent messaging was that like, we are anti fascist and
(01:00:13):
we are for Black Lives Matter, and those two can't
be extricated from each other because if you're against fascism,
you have to support Black Lives Matter because it's fundamentally
a movement against a fascist, authoritarian strain of race based
violence in the United States. It was a good, good,
rally important messaging. Um. I don't think it made the
(01:00:35):
news because a bunch of anarchists did something that was
not easy to propagandize negatively. But um, pretty good news
compared to the horrible news that's been happening for weeks. Yeah,
pretty good news. Yeah. So maybe it'll all be ship
(01:00:55):
after this, who knows. But for this week, we're focusing
on pretty good news. Yeah, for the next hour and
forty five minutes at least until that, right, who knows. Um, Yeah, well,
I think that's it for us today. You guys can
check us out online at Worst Year Pod on Twitter
and in Stuck Graham. Yeah, sexy photos stuff. Check out
(01:01:23):
my stories and my reels and my TikTok's I don't
TikTok and you know, I don't know. Hang in there, Yeah,
hang in there and check Yeah. Ted Wheeler, would you
mind playing us out With that in mind, we'd like
to open up the discussion with a few thoughts either way.
Are you going through my emails on my campaign email account,
(01:01:46):
question mark? It seems like there's a lot of emails
there that are relevant comment And I don't know if
they're in the year four as well. Par um Mary,
I think you need to meet yourself. Yeah, I'm sorry
about that. I apology as it was multitasking. No, it
depleted anything happy for their questions, everything, so dumb man.
(01:02:09):
It's not again. I tried. Worst Year Ever is a
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production of I Heart
Radio Together Everything. So don't don't it's all happening here
(00:23):
in the Worst Year Ever. It's all happening Oaks. Hello, Hi, Hi, Wow.
What just just incredibly impressed by by that introduction Katie.
First one didn't go well, so I made the second
one even words. Yeah, I was just going to shout
(00:45):
out the name of Reinhardt Hydrick, one of the architects
of the Holocaust, which would have been a bad, bad
and a professional call. So thank you for really knocking
it out of the park. I'm happy. I mean, that's
a really high high bar that. I was surprised that
Katie didn't start by saying that, so yeah, I thought
about it, but I figured that was more yourifibed than mine. Uma,
(01:09):
But it is all happening. We were just chatting about
how all the things that have happened since we last recorded,
remarking on it, and then eased into this show where
we're going to talk about some of those things. Right. Yeah,
I love talking happening. I used to think that I
(01:32):
liked talking, but the more I talked my way through
this year, the less I like it. Um. If you
think you like talking started podcast and you'll change your mind. Everybody,
Let's talk about Donald Trump and his health. So for
this week, we kind of decided to talk about like
politics in the election and things happening in the country,
(01:55):
which I guess we we we've been we keep getting
drawn off into like very specific things because every single
thing is happening this year, and this is going to
be kind of a general update on some big things
that have occurred. So we're going to talk about the
president's taxes, and we're going to talk about COVID, and
we're going to talk about, um some other important stuff
that that we should we should have talked about a
(02:18):
bit earlier. But again, every single thing is happening every
single day, and we're all completely overwhelmed constantly. Yeah it's good.
I mean it's so weird doing this show and even
our news usually we have um specific episodes here for
worst year ever, or interviews, interesting conversations that separate it
(02:40):
from our news round up that we do every week.
But weeks like this, I'm always slightly worried and then
not worried at all, because there's always more news. It
just doesn't stop. Obviously, Um, where should we start today, then, guys,
I think we should start with you, Katie, because you
are a professional. Also, I feel like the thing that
(03:01):
everyone is currently thinking about, will the president die or
not die or not? Is the president alive? Still would
be currently still alive? Uh as far as we can tell,
But I'm eagerly winning Claudia Conway and her updates on
that because she's our only true journalist, I guess. Um.
(03:23):
But let's back up, because in case you missed it,
the president has the rhona. He has it finally. It
took long enough. I mean he maybe he had it
earlier too, but who knows. Um. All right, first we'll
do a real quick go go ahead, Cody, Oh just
I mean, you're right, it is about time. I mean,
since this pandemic started, the idea was, well, eventually he'll
(03:46):
get it because he's so reckless. When is that going
to happen? All the other awful leaders have also have
already had it. So it was nine times Boris almost died.
So yeah, okay. Late on Thursday, news broke that the
President tested positive coronavirus just two days after standing pretty
(04:07):
close proximity to Joe Biden. Anyway, This came after news
that Hope Hicks had tested positive on Wednesday. Uh. And
it seems that the president knew or at least knew
that he had been exposed to the virus at the
time of the debate. In fact, it's been reported that
he arrived late at the debate and missed the mandatory
rapid COVID tests specifically because he knew he had been exposed.
(04:31):
Very cool. That's my favorite part, because they went by
the honor system. I love that after four years of
this thinking that you could even say that, just like
even like taking it out of the world that we
live in and who the president is and everything, the
honor system for this deadly disease I mean, and him.
(04:57):
He also went on to do campaign events, potentially exposing
countless other people. Also cool. Um, It's unclear when specifically
he contracted the virus. Could have been anywhere, or it
could have been at the Rose Garden Party slash Super
Spreader events held for any Coney Barrett last week. You
(05:18):
know his handsmade tail pick to replace RBG. Yes, okay. Uh.
So far believe at least thirteen people at the event
have tested positive. That numbers could probably higher. Uh. That
includes Melania Kelly Anne Conway, Chris Christie, Kaylee mcanennye. Uh,
several Republican senators. Senators who are on the committee to
(05:38):
confirm Barrett. All of that could be its own episode
about what the implications of that alone are and what's
going to happen. But we're not going to focus on
this too much. Said that, fuck man. And this list
isn't even including the White House housekeeping staff or the
members of a secret service who have also tested positive.
(05:58):
I mean, we're like the White House is an epicenter um.
Then on Friday, the President was admitted to Walter Reeves Hospital,
either out of an abundance of concern or because he
was experiencing extreme symptoms. That part is unclear. Um, I
(06:20):
can't trust anything anyone says. But well, the one thing
we know about Donald Trump is that he's always like
taking extreme caution. Yes, he very cautious man. Then there
was all these confusing statements from his doctors throughout the weekend,
which kind of ratcheted up the mystery. Statements like he
isn't out of the woods and not currently on oxygen. Uh.
(06:41):
On Sunday, he did a couple of bizarre stunts like
staging photo opportunities that show him working uh while actually
looking at blink Sta stacks of paper. Uh, and these
photos were like taken. It's beautiful there do so. I
mean as a journalist, specifically one who works for Belling Cat,
(07:05):
there's a number of different types of data that like
images have that you look for if you're trying to
like spot people slipping up and that. One of those
obvious ones is like exit data, and you can hide
that ship very it's not to not have that ship
show through. There's ways to kind of deal with an
image that that doesn't come through if you're trying to
be this sneaky person. They went through zero effort, put
(07:29):
it out real fast. It's so they're so incompetent and
lazy and everything. It's maddening partly too, because it's like
are they incompetent, lazy or they do they just know
it doesn't matter, right, Like people will find out they're like,
oh yeah, this this photo, this photo, But they're just
still like living their lives. They're still doing they're still
doing all this stuff. Yeah. Uh. He also, while he
(07:52):
was there on Sunday, insisted on taking a ride in
his motorcade exposing his driver into secret Service just so
he could wave to fans and show that he's okay.
It turns out, however, that Trump had insisted on being
and had insisted on being released on Sunday, but they
said no and then compromised and settled for this little drive.
(08:13):
It's kind of like it's kind of like my aunt
Alice well I had Alzheimer's and unfortunately she had to
be placed in a home during the last years of
her life. She's really mischievous and sometimes would like hatch
up a plan to break out. Then they just bring
a cab out front and driver around. So then comes Monday, okay,
and the President announces that he would be leaving the
hospital at six thirty that evening, again apparently only because
(08:36):
he insisted. And look, it remains to be seen whether
he is actually okay or not. UM. I do have
a feeling he will ultimately be okay because he is
the president of the United States. He has access to everything,
um and like we don't deserve it, and like we don't.
(08:58):
We'll get to some of that, but it's to be clear.
He's being pumped full of experimental treatments and steroids which
can make you seem better than you are. Um, and
he's you know, accessing the very best that America has
to offer, unlike the thousand Americans who have already lost
their lives. But we don't know what will happen next
with him. His body is a rotten cesspool of fast
(09:20):
food and bad karmit and I don't know, I don't
think there's a vaccine for that, so it could still
come up and bite him. But what we knew know
is that he really doesn't look good. He's so palid um.
And then like, okay, he comes forward yesterday with this
just grotesque orange makeup where you could see the line
(09:41):
on his face. And for those of us who do makeup,
we know that that's not the look, honey, that's not
what you're going for. Um. Yeah, he looks like me
on an average day in the summer, but you are
wearing orange makeup masks. Yeah, um. But yeah, know, we
only know what his face looks like because he staggered
(10:02):
out onto the balcony, the Trueman balcony outside the White
House and took off his fucking mask jodas his makeup
uh and gasped out a few awful remarkable words words
like he may now be immune to it, and don't
be afraid of COVID, don't let it dominate your lives,
don't be afraid of COVID, don't let it dominate your
(10:24):
like this maybe, Um, yeah, this is a grotesquely offensive statement.
Of course, Oh yeah, it's extremely dangerous. And also he's
visibly and audibly still very impacted by it. He hasn't
(10:45):
beat it, so I didn't If he didn't take off
the mask and he was like, I'm I'm strong, I'm
doing well. I've got the mask on, welcome back me
and went in, we wouldn't have been able to see
his labored breathing. That's what I mean. But this is
just incredibly and offensive, um to so many people that
(11:06):
are struggling with this and irresponsible and dangerous. UM wrote
this down for later in my doc, but I haven't
gotten there, and it feels like a good time to say.
There was a New York Times article I believe that
Um talked about a study that showed that thirty seven
percent of the world's coronavirus misinformation comes from Donald Trump.
(11:31):
That's dounding, and so anyway, he said that, I mean,
really like hats off to him, because that's real, that's impressive,
it's poul, that's infamy. Anyway, he said those words, uh,
despite looking and sounding like that. And then Claudia Conway,
(11:52):
killing and Conway's daughter and the hero of a young
adult sci fi novel, apparently broke social media when she
posted guys, l M A oh he's not doing better
and quote he's so ridiculous l O L. Apparently he's
doing badly and they're doing what they can to stabilize them. So,
I don't know. Claudia has been right in the past.
(12:14):
Also there she's certainly in a position to have insight information.
She's also a fifteen year old who's That's the next
thing I was about to say, Look, I don't know,
she's just been accurate in the past, Like she was
accurate when she said my mom has coronavirus, but her
(12:35):
mom actually gave her virus, so that which is a nightmare. Yeah,
the Conway stuff, I'm like, I get get it, and
she's got its information maybe probably, but also like, yeah,
and all of it seems to be leading towards like
the reality show that the three Conways are going to do. Yeah,
(12:57):
I don't want to feed into it. But I appreciate
the letting us know that. President. I felt I agree
with your sentiments, all of them completely. I debated about
including this but an interesting point of information, but I
do think I do think it's important to say, like,
when we're talking about Claudia Conway, she's a child's um
(13:20):
and she's clearly in a toxic house situation and amount
of attention we do not need to be giving to
this family. Yeah, that's why I oh sorry, oh no, no,
please go ahead. That's why I'll push back a little
bit on that. They're clearly gunning for a reality show,
like I think George's and I think his wife is.
I think they would do that. They're Claudia is too
(13:41):
young for us to know, like she doesn't know what
kind of person she is, and she doesn't she's fifteen. Um.
I did see a post from her earlier, like I
think it might have been like a it was months ago.
I think it was back in August where she was,
you know, a thousand years ago, where she was talking
about wanting to get emancipated for her family and made
(14:01):
the statement that like, my dad is competent enough to
like know that Trump is full of ship, but he
and I disagree about everything, and like he's not don't
stand he's not a hero, which made me think, Okay,
like she might like I I hope I wish the
best for her. Yeah, that's like, that's like in the
a sober, mature perspective. Yeah, especially at that age. Yeah,
(14:24):
you're both your parents and being able to look at
both and being like, well, one works for the president
is awful and one doesn't think he's awful, but they're
both wrong. Yeah, and and any of her like live
audio where you can like hear her family in the background,
it's just heartbreaking and like she's a kid. That's she's
a kid, yelling and stick kid and it really it's
(14:46):
it's hard. Yeah, it sucks. Back to your question, Robert,
of whether or not the president will die, we don't know.
If you look at the timeline of the virus, he's
really kind of just getting started. He your many you know,
I mean many patients in his demographic show improvement before
(15:08):
getting worse, especially when you're on steroids. Uh. The virus
isn't linear, Ah, so you know he could be feeling
better and not be who knows. You get to be,
you get to enjoy this moment, you get to again.
We we have a whole video about this, so I
don't need to talk about this too much. It's coming
out soon. But like, um, the thing, the reason this, well,
(15:32):
there's many reasons this story is not getting shuffled away
like a lot of stories do. Uh. I mean the
president might be dying, that's part of it. But also
because we want this, we need this you and it's
okay to feel like he might get like a little
bit of a karmic punishment for his just consistent, constant,
(15:54):
lifelong behavior. Yeah, there's an element of like, um, I
keep seeing the idea of like we gotta like hope
he gets better so we can vote him out and
then he'll rot in prison like all this, like and
then he's gonna face consequence for this and this and
this and this. I don't know where there's people get
the idea that presidents will face consequences ever for anything
(16:17):
they do. Um, and like this is like this is
a consequence that um could actually happen as opposed to
him no longer being the president at some point and
then uh starting a network and being successful at that
or you know, going to Jimmy Carter's funeral and being
respected there, like all the things that we see presidents
do after the fact. Um it is. It's one of
(16:41):
those things where it's like this is this is a
little treat. Maybe maybe he'll actually see a little consequence,
because because whether or not he's voted out, I don't
think he's going to be in prison. As much as
that would be great, probably not gonna happen. Like there's
a little bit of Devil's advocate in me. Trump, on
an objective level, deserves to go to prison. There is
(17:04):
an argument that can be made that like being the
country where the former guy in office goes to prison
isn't a great precedent to start, which is complicated by
the fact that he deserves to go to prison because
he's of all of the bad things that he's done. Um.
I think the thing I would prefer for him is
for him to lose all of his money because of
(17:26):
the massive financial friends that he's committed and to have
to get an apartment in let's say, Lansing, Michigan, and
work a day job or live on disability, you know,
because he's probably is after this, after this, I'm not
(17:46):
I'm not talking Lansing. I'm just saying it's like that's
like a normal place that people live, as opposed to
living in a series of yachts and mansions where he
have nothing against the people that he champions, he actually despises. Yes. Um.
At the beginning of this, there was a lot of theorizing,
(18:08):
you know, that this was all a stunt to avoid
the next inbate, to raise patriotic man manipulate in some way.
It's clear that he's he's got corona. And I never
thought that personally, because he's too obsessed with weakness. But
you better believe that he will be trying to manipulate
the messaging to his advantage. And in fact, apparently he
spent his time in the hospital scheming ways to spend this,
(18:29):
you know, because of course he did. Um. This is
from the Daily Beast. The President repeatedly claimed that once
he recovers from the coronavirus, he'll be able to present
himself as a conqueror of it, both personally and politically.
The notion might seem far fetched, considering the poor marks
Trump's received for his handling of the pandemic, but according
to knowledgeable sources, The president insisted that this would be
a campaign asset, as he'd be able to say I
(18:51):
know what people are going through. The sources recounted him saying.
Allies argued that this could help frame Trump as both
resilient and empathetic, which come in handy in a race
where polling shows a wide empathy gap between him and
former President Joe Biden. I mean, we already saw him
trying to do it with the don't be afraid of
COVID right hility, But that is exactly what he's trying
(19:13):
to do with that. I've been there, I've seen it.
Look at me, you know, yeah, I mean he's like
his attack on Biden was that Biden hasn't experienced the
virus like him. Exactly. It's this nonsense and weird it's
not But also like, you know, he's doing the thing
where at the same time, don't worry about the virus
is not a big deal. Also, I'm a superhero for
(19:33):
having defeated it. I'm about how strong and what a
champion I am for having destroy But also don't worry
about it. It's a weak little virus, exactly. It's the
it's the same fascist nonsense that we see he's also
really leaning into it and like comparing COVID to the
flu again today, Ye let me read this. It is
(19:56):
coming up. Flu season is coming up. Many people years
sometimes over a hundred thousand and despite the vaccine die
from the flu. Are we going to close down our country? No,
We've learned to live with it, just like we're learning
to live with COVID in most populations, far less lethal.
First off, the first sentence, god exclamation. Hid the tweet
(20:21):
because it spreads Twitter and which is a pandemic against again,
which is what set off his thing being hidden, and
that's why he started tweeting. Repeal section twenty three if
you guys know what that Basically, it would make social
media platforms responsible for the things posted on their platform
and like open to lawsuits, which means that actually, if
(20:45):
they repealed it, they would have to like ban people
people like him, or at least delete his tweets, which
very funny. There's a lot but this is too again,
a whole other section that you could do a whole
thing on and I'm just throwing that in there right now,
but yeah, could argue the point, but he wants it.
(21:07):
He wants that change made so that conservatives can sue
Facebook over banning them exactly right, like revisiting that law,
like that's it's not completely unreasonable, but like his yeah,
it's but like the reality is that would open him
up for other things. Anyway, I'm going to end this
(21:28):
section by um this fucking news. Later this morning, he
announced on Twitter that he's halting negotiations on a COVID
relief bill until after the election. Nancy Pelosi is asking
for her two point four trillion dollars to bail out
poorly run high crime Democrats States, money that is in
(21:50):
no way related to COVID nineteen. We made a very
generous offer of one point six trillion dollars, and as usual,
she's not negotiating a good faith I am rejecting their
request and looking to the future of our country. I've
instruct did my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election,
when immediately after I win, we will pass a major
stimulus bill that focuses on hard working Americans and small businesses.
(22:12):
So again, that whole empathy gap, he's really trying to
like close the empathy gap here. Unreal, unbelievable, I mean,
it's believable. Yeah, Um, it's it's very believable. It's it's
believable in a way, but it's kind of unbelievable because
he should know that, Like, if you give people money,
(22:35):
they'll know that you did it and they'll do that.
You won't give me money until I vote for you.
You fuck right, like framing it like that, I'll do
it if you vote for me, Like it's wild. Because
also people know that if they vote for Joe Biden,
he'll do it. He'll do it better. Like it's so bizarre. Um.
One thing I want to point like, Jeff Stein was
(22:56):
pointing out some key consequences of this stimulus not going
through close to thirty million jobless people to permanently see
an income fifty restaurant's face closure in about six months. Uh,
Tens of thousands of airline workers will be laid off.
No stimulus checks, no rental relief money, no more funding
for testing or tracing. Uh, no Medicaid or Cobra, even
(23:18):
though Cobra sucks money. Um, it's just like wild. No
money for schools to reopen safely. Um, all the things
that people want to happen. He's just saying, Nope, but
vote for me and maybe and uh is the polls.
I don't want to be like a poll guy, but
like people do not like him, know how he is
(23:39):
handling this. They kind of despise him unless they are
members of his cult, which does speak to a lot
of people, but not not enough, not enough. Hopefully we'll
see that's my do A little break breaks, Yes, we
(24:05):
got it, adds breaks now as times cool, so we'll
be back by together everything prop prop prop prop prop
(24:26):
prop prop problem. Everything's perfect. Are we back from break now? Yes? Absolutely? Um, Cody,
what you got all the things? Cody, what's happening, Nothing's happening.
Everything's fine and going on great. Um uh. In regards
(24:48):
I wanted to make a quick note in regards to
another COVID nineteen relief bill, UM, seventy four percent of
voters want the Senate to take on this bill before
the scope is nominee. Like a minority of the country
is less than five or whatever even more than that
(25:12):
wants it. I would uh, I would not take that
bet because I feel like you would win. I think
that I'm right. It's of voters, but you know, most
of us don't vote. All of us vote, but people
don't vote anyway. I mean voters voted last election. I
just learned of voters voted last election. That's what I'm
(25:37):
pretty sure I read. So that I can keep up
our our the quality of our journalism here, Okay, Cody continue.
One of the reasons I wanted to bring it back
to that is that the final the final tweet in
his announcement that he's not going to do a stimulus bill,
um reads, uh, we are leading the world in economic
(25:59):
recovery and the best is yet to come in all
caps um. And that phrase in all caps makes me
think of Kimberly Gilfoyle. Oh yeah, the president's son's wife,
girlfriend fiance. I don't know. Uh, crime buddy, crime lady,
(26:22):
crime lady. That's what a funk buddy is. If you're
a member of the Trump have sex, they excrete from
their cloacas in a pile of stolen lucram um. That's uh.
I saw that on a documentary. Yeah, it's it's the
documentary is now banned, but it was. It was very pornographic, like,
(26:42):
oh yeah, dude, I do not recommend it, but very
interesting still. Um. But so this kind of this is
just a story that kind of like got it under
the radar, um, because again, like what there was the taxes,
the debate that then the president might be dying, and
that's were a lot of the focus. I mean, I
have to be honest, I know that this is a
(27:04):
story you're about to tell, and I don't know the
details of it. Fun beautiful talking about under the radar.
I was like, Nope, not gonna dig into this one. Well,
so about two years ago, uh, Gilfoil left. She left
her beautiful job at the beautiful Fox News network. Um
(27:24):
and uh she claims to have left by her own accord. Um.
This is around the time I believe that she and
Don Jr. Started criming together. Yeah yeah, yeah, crimes, criming,
criming in each other's pants. I believe what they were doing,
wiggling around like little worms in a bed. They bred
(27:47):
in the traditional Trump way, which is they they again
excreted from their cloacas in a pile of gold stolen
by the Nazis. I thought they just touched, but that's
part of It's are in their butts, okay, Yeah, and
then they then they leave the room and they don't speak.
They don't speak during a really long dinner. No and
then a child jest states inside the puddle. It's a puddle,
(28:10):
and it looks like a child. It's not a real child. No, no, no,
of course not. It's like the child in that uh
in that in that movie bivarium. Um, and it grows
up into a soulless monster. Yeah, exactly, so that's a
little biology lesson. Um. Yeah again again, do not watch
the documentary. It will tear, absolutely not, and it's illegal
(28:33):
in thirty one states presently. Yes, yes, yes, yes, if
you have to make sure that you're not in one
of those states. But one of these moments, we're gonna
let Cody finish the story. No, I mean, I'm just
as bad. I mean, it's a it's a it's a
short story, but it's a is gross. Um. Sorry, enjoyed
(29:00):
the way you phrase that. Well, okay, so uh it
was alleged, um that Gilfoil actually and this was not
this is not from this recent story, but that she
uh left because she was forced out because of sexual harassment,
because Fox News is accessible of sexual harassment and will
be forever and has been since all time. Wait did
(29:20):
she commit or was she a victim? Commit? Okay? Um, okay, oh, yeah,
that's I mean, that's a good question. That's yeah, that's
a good question. But yes, it absolutely does scan for
her as everybody knows that she was married to get
to California governor, because yeah, not that long ago. Yeah, together,
(29:42):
I like to bring that up in many conversations, but
we are ruled by an incestuous warren of demons that
rules that part. Oh god, no, it's just it's just
it's just okay. So she, Um, it was alleged that
their sexual harassment claims were made and that's sort of
(30:04):
why she was forced out. There were no real details
about this, and again it's sort of like slowly disappeared. Um,
the details are out and uh, aside from her trying
to cover cover this up, um, which would be a
whole other thing, I'm just going to read the behavior
(30:24):
and um I'm scared. Okay. So this is about a
woman that was hired her assistant. According to a dozen
well informed sources familiar with her complaints, the assistant alleged
the guilfoil her direct supervisor subjected her frequently to degrading, abusive,
and sexually inappropriate behavior. Among other things, She said that
(30:47):
she was frequently required to work at Guilfoil's New York
apartment while the Fox host displayed herself naked and was
shown photographs of the genitalia of men with whom Gilfoyle
had had sexual relationships. The draft complaint also alleged that
Gilfoyle spoke incessantly and luridly about her sex life, and
on one occasion, demanded a massage of her bare thighs.
(31:08):
Other times, she said, Gilfoyle told her to submit to
a Fox employe's demands for sexual favors, encouraged her to
sleep with wealthy and powerful men, asked her to critique
her naked body, demanded that she share a room with
her on business trips, required her to sleep over at
her apartment and expose herself to her, making her feel
deeply uncomfortable. My God, good Lord, and of paragraph, you know,
(31:34):
it's really upsetting that I didn't look at this story.
It's really upsetting that this is something that goes under
the radar because the stigma of I mean, a lot
of sexual assault is perpetrated by men against women, for sure,
but there is a lot of this kind of stuff
that happens, and men are mocked when they come forward
(31:57):
with their stories of abuse, and uh, case in point,
we did not latch onto this collectively, this story, you know.
I mean there's a lot of reasons why, but it's
it is that is so traumatic for the people that
she um worked with and abused. Yeah, if you if
(32:22):
if this was a man, this would be you know,
everybody would be talking about it for sure. Yeah. Absolutely,
it's just Trump stuff. It's all of them. It's I
don't know, I don't I don't know if it will
even resurface or be brought up at all. Probably not,
but it should. It should, well, I I'll probably maybe
(32:43):
I'll bring it up on even more news later this week.
I mean yeah, uh yeah, it's just the kind of
thing that like it slips. Fine, you want to at
least mention it because Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah, that's not cool. Yeah.
People are always like tweeting or saying, you know, like
this wouldn't happen if women were in power. We have
(33:05):
a fucked up system that enables this kind of abuse,
and more men are in power, more men take advantage
of it. Women are just as capable of the same
abuse within this system that we have built, is your point. Yeah,
I mean to hire more women guards tweet right, Yeah,
there's there's something it. It's certainly it's not of zero
(33:27):
benefit to increase representation within the system as it currently exists.
But the problem with the system that as it currently
exists is that power ruins human beings. And it's why
all of this happens because most of these people, even
if they wanted to, wouldn't be able to do and
get away with the things that they were doing if
they were not in positions of power. And so while
(33:49):
representation is important, as long as we continue to give
people power in the way that we presently do, we
will continue to see people committing crimes like this because
power is it ruins human beings. We we teach that
to children, we sure do, but not adults. Not adults.
(34:10):
It's wild. There's so many things like that that people
have dismissed, like, well, that's kids ship. We teach kids
kids ship because it's like the fundamental things that we
want them to learn. Money is the root of all evil,
power corrups, like all this kind of stuff. It's basic.
It's basic stuff. Yeah, I don't know, make kids, give
kids power something. Yeah, let's just let's let's make a
(34:33):
random nine year old the dictator for like three years
and then overthrow him at incredibly vicious like coup, Like, yeah,
let's give it a shot. Why not when when it
corrupts that child, we will take that and we blame
the child as if it's the child's fault that we
invested absolute power in a nine year old. Exactly. Um. Um,
(34:56):
just a couple of just little things I wanted to
mention that have been sort of popping in and popping out.
Are they uplifting? Am I going to be really good
about the country I live in and and and the
people running it? Yeah? Yes, that's ament man with no spoons. Yes,
(35:21):
I can stir with a fork or something, or like
a knife you can stir with. Yeah, there's a variety
of tools. Actually start with your finger. If it's like,
m I got that's over there, I can get it.
Tell me the stories. It's not even a story, it's
just the the US is now, unless otherwise exempt for
(35:42):
some other expanious reason. Um, immigrants aren't allowed in the
United States if they're affiliated with the Communist Party what
of or any other totalitarian party. Specifically, communists are not allowed. Um.
And I just thought that was interesting. Yeah, why would
they be those filthy communists there? You go keep them out.
(36:05):
That's right, that's Robert Evans right there. Yeah. The only
extremists I want in my country are far right extremists
who have never, for example, detonated a truck bomb next
to a daycare. Yeah. Keep him in, keep him in,
keep him in, keep in, give him Let the president
(36:29):
compliment them or whatever. Yeah, sure, bucket. Um I uh
so there's also just this small thing and this this
might actually uh make you laugh a little bit, Sophie.
Um So we're all familiar with James O'Keeffe and Project Veritas. Yeah, sorry, yes,
(36:56):
so I understand. Uh it's uh Sames a key reason
to piece um in uh in in Minneapolis about how
Ellen Omar and her campaign there their ballot harvesting illegally,
and he has his whole expose about it. Um where
did they get him from the creek, like the president
(37:16):
talking right, Yeah, yeah, you'll find him in the creek.
You'll find where you well, that's where you harvest the
ballots down where else did he say it was weird?
He's like the creek in some other weird place. Yeah,
I think what a what a weirdo. Um. So it's
his video that purports to give evidence that they're engaging
in illegal ballot harvesting. Um. And I just have to
(37:40):
point out that the video starts with James O'Keeffe looking
like off in the distance, looking at the skyline of
Minneapolis behind him, is like, and here I am at
the scene of the crime, and he points to the
entire city. It's just very very funny. He's such a
he's such a such a dork. Oh no, Robert's laugh
is broken. Oh no, sorry. Uh. But so the guy
(38:12):
in the video, he's saying that there's his ballot harvesting
going on, aside from the fact that ballot harvesting was
legal in the area during like this like three month
period of time, because every everything in James O'Keefe's videos
like and this is illegal, this is illegal, and there's
no evidence in the video because that's how he does
his his deal. Um. But a guy came forward and
(38:34):
said that he was offered ten thousand dollars to lie
in the video about all this stuff that he said,
it's just a classic I guess what would you call it?
A uh? And he got O'Keefe to you O'Keeffe himself,
he got he got very tossed around. I don't know, um,
because every single time Tragic Veryitas does something like this,
it's always it blows up, like look at the wide
(38:57):
open there tearing this wide open um and you watch
it and you're like, wait, what does the video even say? Uh?
This deceptively edited and sort of portrayed in a way
where like this is a bombshell, it's illegal when it's
like not illegal whatever he's talking about. Um, And then
and that blows up in right wing media and then
the follow up of actually, uh, because it's like this
(39:20):
coke funded project. Of course they're gonna offer people ten
grand to lie for them. That doesn't quite do as well. Um.
It's surprising that Project Veritas is still even around with
how often they get discredited. They're the same people who
sent somebody to the Washington Post during the Roy Moore
debacle to pretend right when they when they sent somebody
(39:45):
to like lie and say, oh he also uh musted
me and the Washington Post like actually did like journalism
and figured out that she was clearly lying and it
was just a a fraud situation to try to prove
that the Washington Post doesn't do the work that they
actually do. Um, but he's still out and about doing
(40:08):
this kind of stuff. And I just wanted to bring
a little bit of attention to Mr James O'Keefe, thank you. Um.
Despite his boast that he had three hundred bells in
the car, he said the actual number was closer to
twenty because of various core decisions so called ballot harvesting,
collecting more than the statutory limit of three ballots was
permitted during a five week period this summer. Um. All
(40:30):
just all the stuff just piling up. Um. And uh.
I look forward to James saying it's bullshit and then
not being able to explain why. Yeah. And I'm looking
forward to this ad break we gotta do right now.
God yeah, fuck yeah, these transitions be right back everything.
(41:05):
You know, we're you know, we're back products. And you
know what products mean is the expenditure of financial resources.
And you know what financial resources mean, taxes, taxes, scot taxes. Yeah,
we're gonna talk a little bit about taxes because in
the school in the course of a week last week
(41:28):
we had Yeah, the New York Times dropped a bombshell
story about Trump's last like fifteen years of taxes. We
had the debate happened, which was obviously a big deal. Um,
and then we had the president gets sick with the
plague that he pretended didn't exist. So a lot happened,
and we kind of moved past the tax stuff, even
though for years everyone was talking about like what the
(41:48):
fund is in his taxes, you know, around that was
a big deal quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah, So we're
gonna talk a little bit about what got revealed and
then like whether or not it's gonna matter. So one
of the neat things that happened is we learned that
the president paid to seven fifty dollars in federal income
tax in two hund two thousand sixteen, which The Atlantic
(42:12):
noted was less than one night stay in a suite
at the Trump International Hotel in d C. Another thing
that The New York yeah, is that he was currently
that this audit thing that he's been talking about, like
the fight he's having with the artist. Yeah, it's been
going on for a decade, this fight, because you can
(42:33):
keep ship like that bouncing around for a long time
if you have real lawyer money. Um, it's about the
fact that he got a seventy two point nine million
dollar tax refund after declaring massive losses, and it's probably fraudulent,
although not definitely fraudulent yet because again there's still litigating this.
(42:53):
But if it were rule, if the ruling went against him,
he could he could be on the hook for more
than a hundred million dollars um, which he might not
have liquid. Uh. You know, a lot of fun stuff
was revealed um. Among them the fact that he made
like more than four million dollars from the Apprentice, like
(43:13):
four or thirties something million dollars, and he put it
all into horrible investments like buildings and and and golf
courses and stuff that lost that based on what he
filed it, I should say, not necessarily horrible investments, because
obviously there's people who make great livings owning golf courses,
but based on how he filed them in his taxes,
horrific investments because they lost more money than that. Yeah.
(43:37):
So part of what is this whole story, and I'm
sure you're going to get to this, is the fact
that our system is designed in such a way with
these fucking wealthy fox you can get away with ship
And what's difficult about this story is like, yeah, there's
a certain amount of like depreciating, like depreciation is expected
(43:58):
improperties and stuff. So when you talk about his losses
and stuff, it's hard to know how much you're actually losing,
but fair to say he's losing money. Yeah, But anyway,
but it all goes to the point of, like, we
don't know how broke he is, Yeah, exactly, and we
don't know. We don't know if he has broke. Um,
he might just be a shady rich guy who hides
a lot of money. Um. We do know that he
(44:21):
claims after investing that four hundred million dollars that he
lost like somewhere in the neighborhood of like five half
a billion dollars um, which is why he's able to
get so many right offs. Now, again, the resolution of
his tax audit is probably clear his revenue from the
Apprentice and from all of his licensing deals is basically
(44:41):
gone now um, at least in rich guy terms. And
within the next four years more than three hundred million
dollars in personal loans are coming doe, which some would
say is a potentially catastrophic financial situation that the president
is in. Um. Some would say, some could say, yeah, say,
potentially problematic if he were to win reelection and all
(45:04):
those things come due while he's in office. Yeah. Anyway,
the New York Times article and all of this is
very extensive and and maybe longer than most people will
run to read, because fuck, like, how much time do
you really have these days? Like there's a lot going on. Um,
if you, if you would like to be well informed
and read a shorter article, I found The Atlantic did
(45:25):
three interpretations of Trump's tax returns, which summarizes the key
stuff and brings an expert commentary and is and is
a readable length. Um, So I might I might recommend
people take a look at that. Um although obviously, if
you've got the time, the full New York Times article
is well worth it. It's a very it's a very
responsibly reported piece. Um. So yeah, I'm gonna quote from
(45:46):
that Atlantic piece. Though. When I talked with several tax
experts recently, including some with direct knowledge of Trump's past
tax records, three somewhat overlapping interpretations emerged. In competence, malfeasance,
and criminality. Um, and that's the Those are the three
possible explanations that either one he's just an unbelievably bad businessman,
(46:07):
which some people are. Um, And he's been able to
keep ship afloat by basically robbing Peter to pay Paul. Like,
there's a number of ways that he can do that.
One of them is he paid like seven thousand dollars
and consulting fees to his daughter, which he claimed as
a business deduction, which is something that his dad used
to do, so that's pretty likely. Um that yeah. Um,
(46:31):
he borrowed a lot of money and he lost it
on investments, and then he took huge, huge deductions on interest,
appreciation and operating expenses, which massively reduced his federal income
tax burden. He would declare bankruptcy pretty regularly, renegotiate loans, um.
And that's all stuff you can do without breaking the law.
But where he probably broke the law. Where he definitely
(46:51):
broke the law, it seems, is that when a bank
writes off your debt, which again he was very good
at getting them to do. The discharge debt is taxable
was income, you have to report that to the I
R S. And Trump didn't, which is you know, a crime. Now,
he eventually started to run into issues getting normal sources
(47:14):
of income to live to him directly, which is why
he went to a mix of international billionaires and Deutsche Bank.
And Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank is a very august and
respected and old pile of crimes covered by very nice masonry. Um.
But like Deutsche Deutsche Bank is where you go if
(47:35):
you're someone with a lot of money that you're committing
crimes with. That is the bank that or like, Um,
I think, uh, what's that? There's one British bank that's similar,
but like Deutsche Bank is like the fucking crime guy bank.
And that's where Trump has has done a lot of business. Um.
And obviously it's very opague and there's a good chance
in ten years, you know, we'll finally have a reasonable
(47:57):
understanding of everything he was up to, because he's got
the money to hire people who are good at ducking
this ship. Um. But yeah, so it's it's his cases
are very complicated. We can't say that he was engaged
a hundred percent engaged in an illegal scheme based on
the money, but it really looks like to a lot
(48:19):
of people he was doing some money laundering. So all
of his golf golf property has declared losses of more
than three million dollars since two thousand, UM, which would
mean that for someone who's supposedly gooes businessman, he's pouring
a baffling amount of money into a business that's suffering
like weirdly huge losses UM, which is the kind of
(48:39):
thing you see when say Russian oligarchs are handing you
piles of money that they want laundered. You know, like
that's that's a thing that happens a lot. We don't
know that it's happening there, but it sure looks like
it might. Well, I would say that's something that I'm
thinking remembering now. I believe the New York Times article
(49:00):
is a part of a series. Yeah, there's other articles
there's but that are still coming that we don't know
what else they are about to reveal, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
And it's so there's you know, there's been responses from
the Trump campaign to this. One of them is that
from his UM, one of his one of his money people,
one of the people that he hires to think about
(49:20):
money for him, UM told the New York Times basically, Hey,
the presidents actually paid tens of millions of dollars in
personal taxes, and this is this is not. This is
not This is bullshit. Um. What it seems like he
was probably doing is conflating income taxes with other federal
taxes that Trump pays, like Social Security, Medicare taxes for
his household employees. And it's sure he probably does pay
(49:40):
tens of millions in those taxes. Um, he's not paying
federal income tax because he's using a bunch of shady
math to avoid it. You can't avoid paying, say, payroll
tax and ship to some extent um. So also he
did pay taxes in other countries. Yeah, that's a very
(50:01):
that's a very fun thing that I want to talk
about here. So uh yeah. When it comes to other
places where he's made money recently, there's also some really
shady stuff. First off, there's the his Palm Beach property
Mara A Lago Uh started getting a bunch of new
members in two thousand fifteen that made another five million
a year for the president. In two thousand seventeen, Billy
(50:21):
Graham paid almost four hundred grand to his hotel in
d c UH for an event that they were doing. Um,
and he still makes he has some profitable properties overseas,
about seventy three million dollars in revenue. Uh. A lot
of that was from his property, his golf properties in
Scotland and Ireland, but some of it came from licensing
deals in countries with like you know, dictators. Three million
(50:44):
dollars from the Philippines, two point three million dollars from
properties in India, and a million dollars from properties in Turkey. Uh.
And that Turkish deal was negotiated right as Trump pulled
uh US troops out of Rojava. Uh So that's fun
uh context there. So the thing you might say, and
the thing I think people have defended him by saying,
is that like a million dollars, I've got a billionaire
(51:07):
wouldn't make a deal like that just to make a
million dollars. That's chump changed to him. But it's not
chump changed to a guy who's basically broke. Yeah. Um,
Which is why we have prior to now, I mean
actually not always prior to now. Really the reason that
we're the reason that it has become habitual for presidents
(51:27):
to disclose ship in their taxes about their taxes is
that Nixon was found paying like seven nine dollars in
income tax during one of like during like one of
his election campaigns and it was a big scandal and
his income was two hundred thousand dollars a year. Speaking
of speaking of Richard Nixon, another thing that really just
(51:51):
got under the radar. Trump and Nixon wrote each other
for years. Well, no, I didn't hear about this. That's yeah.
They released letters that they have had in the Nixon
presidential library. They wrote each other back and forth. Trump
like complimented him on like what a hero he is,
(52:12):
and like how like what an amazing like resilient man
he is, and they would go back and forth. This
was like ten years after Nixon resigned in disgrace. Again,
very fun context, not inconlievable. Yeah, it's from like a
week and a half ago, so of course it's like
three years ago. Really, Um but I I saw that
(52:34):
and it passed by, and it's just like it's perfect.
Of course he did. Of course he wrote Nixon not
as a kid or not as a young man like
when he was president, but after he'd resigned a disgrace. Um,
it's perfect in its poetry. And I had to bring
that up. Go on, God damn, yep ah, that's that's
(52:58):
very funny. That's just a good time a good time
is all that is. So you know, the president and
his crimes. So the question with the president and his crimes,
other than how many of them are they are they big?
Did they hurt to do? The question is doesn't matter?
(53:19):
Right Uh. And for this I'm gonna turn to five
thirty eight, who, for all of my antipathy towards Nate
Silver himself, is really good at doing analyzes like this
and collecting a lot of information on like whether or
not people give a shit about certain things, um, which
is useful because I think we all have gotten kind
of locked into this habitual thing that like, oh, nothing matters, right,
(53:40):
the truth doesn't matter, Like what happens doesn't matter. He's
completely immune to everything, and there's a lot of evidence
that that's not really true. The I mean, we'll see
how the fucking election goes. But right now the polls
have definitely like they've moved a lot actually at finally
like some because also Biden's been can assistant leading Trump
(54:02):
for a long long long time by several times what
Clinton was leading by at her biggest and like if
you even if you compare like the fluctuation, there's been
really no fluctuation with Biden against Trump. He's it's consistent
across the board. Um until now in the fluctuation is
(54:22):
that he's doing even better. Yeah, yeah, a lot better. UM.
So in May of two thousand nineteen, that's when the
New York Times published their first report, big report on
Trump's taxes that he'd lost about like one point two billion.
In between um, and there was public polling done by
Politico Morning consult about whether or not this story would
(54:45):
change people's opinions on the president. And the poll found
that voters thought Trump had been very successful or somewhat
successful as a businessman, well only thought he had been
bad at it. But when they were presented with this
information from the Time story, UM share of voters who
thought he'd been a good businessman dropped from fifty to
(55:07):
which is significant. UM. And yeah, that's that's really noteworthy. Um. Yeah,
and about twenty of independent voters UM said there's a
strong or somewhat strong chance that new revelations about like
his his financial life could impact Um. There are people's
(55:30):
views of him. That was like a Fox News poll. Um. Now,
There's been some others polls, including one from the University
of Maryland which I'm actually just going to read you
the summary of the poll from the University of Maryland quote.
Focusing on President Trump, we find via a national survey
that many Americans are unaware he was born into great wealth,
and the numbers like half of Americans didn't realize it was, yeah,
(55:50):
fucking stunning. This misperception increases support for Trump, mediated through
beliefs that he's both empathetic and good at business. We
supplement our observational analysis with an experiment treating respondents with
information regarding the royal Trump's father played in his career.
This information leads respondents to rate the president more negatively
on both empathy and business ability. These findings suggest that
correcting information about candidate characteristics can change the minds and
(56:13):
even loyal partisans. That's wild. That's that's stunning, right, It's
like that's the one thing like this is a consistent
thing though with Trump, Like they there is a misconception
with him, even about like things like policy, things like
pre existing conditions. People have no idea that like doing
(56:34):
the opposite of what they think. But man, yeah, he
was a lot of wealth, start with a lot of wealth.
That's wild. Yeah, And he's consistently fucked up that wealth.
He sure did. Um, that's the real indictment of like
the media in general. Yeah yeah, there, it's bad at
its job. We and the media are. Um. It's worth
(56:56):
noting that among the independence nationally about this is during
the sixteen election, preferred Trump on the economy versus for
for Clinton. Um. And among the independents in Florida, Michigan,
and Wisconsin all preferred Trump to Clinton on the economy
by double digit margins, which is probably a big part
(57:18):
of why he won because the economy is often generally
number one or two for for most voters. Right, Um,
so it matters. Actually, there's at least a good chance
that it will matter, you know you. The data suggests
that actually voters give a shit about this. Um. Yeah. Yeah,
(57:39):
well that's he's he's dying for us. Yeah, he's also
in his irresponsibility and the things he's saying, it seems
like possibly perception is coming crashing down around him. Yeah,
it might be. It might be. Uh. The only age
group that's uh still like into him is I think
(58:03):
like fifty to sixty four or something like that. Yeah. Yeah, well,
but like everyone, everyone, everyone's excited for Biden. But also, Um,
this is all stuff that we thought, um four years ago,
so don't let it not. Yeah, every time I start
(58:25):
to go down that path, I'm like, I don't know,
I don't know, I don't have none of this stuff
that's currently happening is good for him, I'll say that.
But and he does that, like that's why he's very
clearly just trying to steal the election. Um. Side note, Robert,
is this all we're doing for today? For this? Yeah? Yeah,
(58:46):
I mean I'll give a little update from Portland since
people are curious, and hopefully this will remain true after
there's some some right wing rally to red Robin today
at five pm, so that might not go well, but
I don't think hopefully it won't be a big Um.
Things are okay comparatively, Like the cops are still pretty
awful and a lot of nice people are dealing with
(59:07):
some really ugly charges. Um. The protests have kind of
died down to an extent. There's still usually at least
one or two sometimes more things happening every week. Um,
but they've been kind of at a lower ebb, which
is which is fine and pretty normal for something that's
been going on this long. Um Our mayor uh Ted Wheeler,
who's terrible, had a big roundtable discussion on white supremacy
(59:30):
with the city council as part of his bid to
remain the mayor, and he interrupted it on accident by
forgetting to mute himself and dictating text messages for his
reelection campaign, which is both a crime and incredibly dumb. Um.
And in fact, I'm gonna send Danial that link so
he can just play us out with that beautiful audio
because it's very funny. Um. He's behind eleven points according
(59:51):
to a recent poll. So funk that guy. Um. Also,
there was a really cool rally in Seattle where like
hundreds of black block anarchists allied. Um. It was a
big old surprise. It was very disciplined, the messaging was
really solid. It was like a really good example of
like pointing it like the kind of like the very
consistent messaging was that like, we are anti fascist and
(01:00:13):
we are for Black Lives Matter, and those two can't
be extricated from each other because if you're against fascism,
you have to support Black Lives Matter because it's fundamentally
a movement against a fascist, authoritarian strain of race based
violence in the United States. It was a good, good,
rally important messaging. Um. I don't think it made the
(01:00:35):
news because a bunch of anarchists did something that was
not easy to propagandize negatively. But um, pretty good news
compared to the horrible news that's been happening for weeks. Yeah,
pretty good news. Yeah. So maybe it'll all be ship
(01:00:55):
after this, who knows. But for this week, we're focusing
on pretty good news. Yeah, for the next hour and
forty five minutes at least until that, right, who knows. Um, Yeah, well,
I think that's it for us today. You guys can
check us out online at Worst Year Pod on Twitter
and in Stuck Graham. Yeah, sexy photos stuff. Check out
(01:01:23):
my stories and my reels and my TikTok's I don't
TikTok and you know, I don't know. Hang in there, Yeah,
hang in there and check Yeah. Ted Wheeler, would you
mind playing us out With that in mind, we'd like
to open up the discussion with a few thoughts either way.
Are you going through my emails on my campaign email account,
(01:01:46):
question mark? It seems like there's a lot of emails
there that are relevant comment And I don't know if
they're in the year four as well. Par um Mary,
I think you need to meet yourself. Yeah, I'm sorry
about that. I apology as it was multitasking. No, it
depleted anything happy for their questions, everything, so dumb man.
(01:02:09):
It's not again. I tried. Worst Year Ever is a
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