Rod Arquette Show: Debate Reaction with Greg Hughes, Bruce Hough and Thomas Wright

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello, Utah. How are youtoday? It is Friday, and that
means it's Thank Rod. It's Fridayright here on Utah's Talk Radio one oh
five nine can terrass. A lotto get to. As I mentioned,
we're going to be talking with BruceHuff will join us, Thomas Right will
join us, Greg Hughes will joinus. We'll go to the White House
and kind of get the buzz aroundthe White House today following that disaster last

(00:21):
night on the part of Joe Biden. So a lot to get to today,
but most importantly your thoughts, becauseyou are going to be You are
the people who will decide who isgoing to be the next president of the
United States. And that's why wewant to hear from you, and we
will give you a chance to doso a little bit later on. So
we've got a lot to get toand as I said, always great to

(00:42):
be with you here on this ThankRod is Friday. Now. I think
many, if not most Americans whoturned into the debate last night. As
a matter of fact, the ratingsare in down considerably from the ratings in
twenty twenty. Only about fifty onemillis and people watched the debate last night,
that was below expectations. But formany of you who were tuning into

(01:06):
the debate last night, you know, some who hadn't been paying attention to
politics up until last night probably wereshocked by what happened with Joe Biden.
He was confused, he was tired, He mumbled, he bumbled through his
answers, He looked at times likehe was on another planet. He had
trouble keeping focused. His closing statementwas perhaps the worst in the history of

(01:30):
presidential debates. And this was afterspending a week a week at Camp David
resting and preparing. So you know, a lot of people are saying,
you know, Americans were surprised bythis, but I think what was amazing
to watch was you know, forthe last several months, if not the
last year, maybe a year anda half, those of us on the

(01:53):
conservative right have been talking about thechallenges, both the mental and physical challenges
facing the president of the United States, but the left wing media paid no
attention to it whatsoever, or theytried to cover it up. But last
night they could not avoid it.And we'll let you hear some of the

(02:14):
reaction to the debate last night fromthose on the left who are panicking today.
But their responsibility is to keep theAmerican people informed and they haven't done
it when it comes to the physicaland mental health of Joe Biden. And
they have failed the American people.And that's what was so surprising after the

(02:34):
debate last night, like all ofa sudden, they were saying, what
Holy Toledo, what happened. They'veknown for quite some time, but they
refused to report it and that isnot fair to the American people. Now.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump both outon the campaign trail today after the
debate last night. Joe Biden spoketo a large crowd of very enthusiastic crowd,

(02:55):
but he stumbled and mumbled yet again. He did look a little bit
better, looked a little more awake, and he talked about the debate last
night and what he thinks may havehappened. I don't walk as easy as
I used to, I don't speakas smoothly as I used to debate as
well as I used to. ButI know what I do know. I

(03:16):
know how to tell the truth.I know I know I know right from
rome, and I know how todo this job. I know how to
get things done. I know,like the Minutes of Americas. No,

(03:40):
when you get knocked down, youget back up. Joe Biden at a
campaign rallied today after that a horribleperformance in the debate last night. By
the way, the campaign is insistingthat Joe Biden is not dropping out of
the race to be ready for thesecond debate, which is eleven weeks away,

(04:01):
by the way, in September,and he's going to be there despite
the dismal debate performance last night.So despite some pressure from very concerned Democrats
that leads at this point, JoeBiden is not going anywhere now. You
know, I was thinking about thisyesterday or during the debate last night.
I should say, I think allof you are aware of what is known

(04:23):
as the mercy rule. The mercyrule is used in sports when a team
gets so far ahead, and yousee it in basketball, you may seven
in football, little league football,along those lines. I've seen it enacted
before, where the score is soout of whack one team is really beating
up on another team that they invokethe mercy rule and the clock run so

(04:45):
the game gets over quickly. Theyshould have done that last night after the
first team first fifteen minutes of thedebate, because this is when Joe Biden
throws up. We were about twelveminutes into the debate last night, and
here's what happened about the national debt. He had the largest national debt of
any president four year period. Numberone. Number two, he got two

(05:05):
trillion dollar tax benefited the very wealthy. Now, what I'm going to do
is fix the taxes. And forexample, we have one thousand trillionaires in
America, I mean billionaires in America, and what's happening. They're in a
situation where they in fact paid eightpoint two percent in taxes. If they
just paid twenty four, twenty fivepercent, either one of those numbers,

(05:26):
they've raised five hundred million dollars,billion dollars. I should say in the
ten year period, we'd be ableto wipe out his debt. We'd be
able to help make sure that allthose things we need to do, childcare,
elder care, making sure that wecontinue to suppremt strength in our healthcare
system, making sure that we're ableto make every single solitary person eligible for

(05:47):
what I've been able to do withthe with the COVID, I was gonna
be with dealing with everything we haveto do with Look, if we finally
beat medicare, thank you President byBiden. President. That was about twelve
minutes into the debate last night,and Donald Trump just sat there or stood

(06:10):
there and looked over at Joe Bidenand didn't realize what was going on.
But he froze up last night.That's when, in my opinion, they
should have invoked the mercy rule andjust said, Okay, we're done.
We aren't going any further on thisdebate. Well, the Trump team,
of course, being very quick toreact to things nowadays, put out a
brutal ad last night highlighting the momentsthat Biden struggled, and they compared it

(06:34):
to what some people would say waskind of a nightmare hard making sure that
we're able to make every single solitaryperson eligible for what I've been able to
do with the it's the COVID Istudy, with dealing with everything we have
to do with what we finally beatmedicare, we find him and find providing

(07:02):
housing for lack Americans. The impactof the choice, the idea that they're
going to I'm not I've been proposingthat everybody they pay, the millionaires pay
one percent one percent, So noone after I've not raised the cost of

(07:23):
sociecurity for anybody through I got myhandicapped, which went on was vice president
down to six and wants to getaway with it. Get we're rid of
the ability of medicare to for theability for the US to be able to
negotiate to our price with the bigfarmer companies. When I'm into a sixth

(07:44):
of Texas, for example, wehad one thousand millionaires in America, not
billionaires in America. Noel was hurt, no one Israeli was accidentally killed,
and she stopped. And I'm goingto continue to move until we get the
total band uh greedy total initiative relativeto what we're going to do with more
border patrol and more how the sidewills. That is a new Trump ad

(08:09):
talking about the debate last night andpointing out some of the low lights of
the debate. As far as JoeBiden is concerned, where this is all
going, What's going to happen next? A lot of Democrats are panicking today.
They are standing behind their guy.But the question for the Democrats is
what's next and who is next?You know, Kamala Harris, who by

(08:30):
the way apparently is in town todayor there. She was here for a
little while on a fundraising effort.Gavin Newsom, Gavin doesn't want to step
into this. Gruesome Newsom does wantto step into this. He wants to
wait until twenty twenty eight, if, in fact, Joe Biden loses in
November. So Gavin Newsom isn't goingto pick up the mantle. So what's
going to happen? I predict?I think Joe Biden is still going to

(08:50):
be the Democratic choice to run forpresident again along with Kamala Harris. First
of all, no one's going totell Joe. Only his wife and his
sisters or probably have the courage totell Joe Biden he shouldn't be running.
And and you know, and mostDemocrats are are are just afraid of what
would happen if Kamala Harris ran forpresident. So they've got some tough choices

(09:15):
to make. Now, we're goingto continue our discussion and coverage of this
right here on the Rod Our CatShow throughout the day, and we're going
to get your reaction to it aswell. Yes, we will open up
the phones. I know a lotof people want to weigh in on this
today, share their opinion and we'llgive you a chance to do so.
Coming up on this Thank Rod,It's Friday and Utah's Talk Radio one oh
five nine. Knrs Bruce Tough,good friend. I've known Bruce for a

(09:37):
long long time. Utah GOP NationalCommittee men chair of the party here in
Utah for how many years? Brucefour or five years? Four years back
in the nineties, and then onthe national committee for sixteen years. Wow?
Wow, yeah, all right,all right? What did you think
last night? Initial thoughts? Besidesbeing an unmitigated disaster for Joe Biden.
I will let me just preface itby saying this, I think the debate

(09:58):
for format actually worked. I wouldagree. I liked it. I think
that the moderators did their job,did not interfere. I think that the
whole idea of the hard stops andthe notice and the separation, I think
it actually worked pretty well. AndI think it may become a model for
those kinds of debates, at leastas long as we have people who are

(10:22):
how do we say, exuberant aboutexpressing their feelings on stage and in front
of a crowd. It's the firsttime there hasn't been an audience since I
think nineteen sixty. Yeah, it'spretty amazing. But I wrote the very
I was taking notes. I wassitting with my granddaughter watching the debate.
She's a little policy wonk, mylittle Evelyn name Heavy as I call her.

(10:46):
And I said, hey, doyou want to watch the debate together?
And she says, I am in. So we sat on the couch
and we watched. The very firstword that I wrote was awkward. It
just the very first word. Whythe way that Joe Biden came out onto
the stage. I will say Iwas also a little disappointed in the way
Trump came out. He came outslumped, but then he stood up erect

(11:07):
and was very you know, veryhad good. His statue was really good
during the debate. But the veryfirst thing was awkward, the way he
came out. The very next thingI wrote was trouble, and it was
basically, Joe Biden was in serious, serious trouble. And look, we've
seen the signs of this for severalyears now, and I when somebody made

(11:31):
a comment, I can't remember,I can't attribute it to the right person.
I'm sure that doctor Jill Biden oughtto be a real doctor and care
for him like a real doctor.I really think I'm serious about this.
I have a mother who has adementia, and it is and you could
see the progression of it and howit works. And I'm not saying he

(11:52):
has it. I'm not. Ican't diagnose, but what I'm saying is
that there is clear diminished a mentalcapacity. Any if this is, you
cannot watch what happened and not saythat that is the case. And if
that is the case, I amextraordinarily concerned that if people really love him,
the people around him who really lovehim, that he should be going

(12:15):
out in a high note and notin a you know here, Look,
here's the conspiratorial Bruce. And I'mnot much of a conspiratorial guy, but
here's my conspiratorial There's going to bea stroke or something's going to happen right
before right before the convention. WhenI say stroke, I put it in
quotation marks. There may not beone, but something is going to happen

(12:37):
that is going to So you thinkthey're changing, well, I think that
if they don't, they're in deep, deep trouble. And people there was
just June. No, it's notjust June. This is right before the
conventions. This is where people haveto make a decision. Now, the
other the other side of this isthat it's pretty easy. He asked,
all he has to do is giveup his delegates, just release them.

(13:00):
And so that's quote his decision.Well, you wonder how many of his
decisions are actually his decisions. Andso look, did he go on that
debate stage unprepared on purpose by hishandlers to force that issue? Now that's
that's a real conspiracy idea, right, I mean the idea that someone would

(13:20):
actually put him in a position thathe looked so bad that it became that
when every liberal commentator on CNN basicallysaid, we are in panic mode,
we are in trouble. Yeah,well, you know that the reaction that
they had last night, Bruce,I'm talking about the Democrats and the reaction
they're having today. I'm almost saying, give me a break. You've seen

(13:43):
Joe Biden in action. You've beenaround this guy. You know, you
know that he is in diminished capacitynow. And to be so shocked last
night that this happened. They've knownfor a long time. The media has
covered this up. The only peoplewho have been talking about a conservative media
who raised questions about this, andof course those are all you know,
those are all AI generated gas.But here's what's interesting. I knew that

(14:05):
there was going to be a changein this attitude when you started seeing late
night talk show hosts, oh yeah, making fun of Biden. I mean
in a serious way. I meanwhen I say, a seriously funny way,
but they were. They've been makingfun of Biden now for several months
because the gaps have been so apparent, so obvious, and his demeanor has

(14:26):
been such a diminished ability to engagein what's actually happening in front of him.
There's that kind of blank stare,that's that motionless physique. And I
feel bad. Look, I feelbad about it. He's our president and
we need to have a president candidlywho has full mental capacity. That look,

(14:50):
even if he has that capacity,what happened last night signaled to the
rest of the world that he doesnot. He's weak, and he's weak,
and that he that he could betaking advantage. Yeah, and that's
what scares me too. I thinkI think that is a real problem.
It is a real situation where wecould be facing additional international crisis. Because

(15:13):
of what we saw last night tochallenge him and that that's a big concern.
Real quick, because we've got abreak. Here. Your thoughts on
Donald Trump how he did last time, I'll give you my quick take.
Sure, I think he missed afew opportunities to really shut the door on
this thing with some policy statements.But overall, I think he did just
fine. It was relaxed, hewasn't shouting. Yeah. I think the
fact that he at his demeanor actuallyhe was in control. Yeah, he

(15:37):
was. And I think that comparedto the last debate where they just were
shouting over each other, which wasridiculous. I thought to me, my
favorite part of the debate was thediscussion on golf handicaps. I mean,
come on, ladies and gentlemen,these are the potential and current leader of
the free world, and we areyou know who has a better handicap,

(15:58):
better hand camp and and hey carryyour own bag and yeah let's go tee
off and I'll you know, I'llout drive you. I mean, come
on, he did miss some opportunities. He look he was He hit it
correctly on immigration, Yes, that'shis strong suit and clearly the Biden administry
he was. I mean, Bidenliterally was setting up soft pitches to Trump.

(16:22):
He would bring stuff up that basicallyjust teed it up for Trump,
and it was like, I don'tthink his handlers wanted to say it that
way. Someone said that today intheir analogs that that was very interesting.
But I think last thing before youbreak. I think that the American people
are asking themselves this question today,and that is, how did we get

(16:45):
into a situation where we don't wantto vote for either one? Yeah?
We and is this the best wecan do as a country where we have
the greatest minds, the greatest talent, the greatest innovation, and this is
what we're going to vote for ina lot of people of September, that's
that's like sixty seven percent of thepeople. Now, a lot of those

(17:06):
people are going to vote for Trumpand a lot of them are going to
vote for Biden. And I thinka lot more now I'm going to vote
for JFK JR. They may becausethey those are the choices. But there
may be another choice for the Democratscoming up in uh in July August.
We'll see, we will wait andsee. Bruce, always good scene,
Thank you for stopping by and talkingabout that event last night. It was

(17:26):
rather interesting. It was all rightmore coming up right here on the rod
Arcatcho and this thank Rods Friday.Right here on Utah's Talk Radio one oh
five nine knrs. Joining us onour newsmaker line right now is Thomas Right.
Thomas, former gubernatorial candidate, formerchairman of the Utah Republican Party.
Thomas, how are you? Haven'thad you on the Joe for a while.
Great to have you back, Thomas, tell us how money, it's

(17:47):
great to be out. I mean, columnists after columnists today in many of
the nation's liberal newspapers are basically callingon Joe Biden to step outside. A
matter of fact, the New YorkTimes editorial board today says to the country,
mister Biden, you should leave therace. I mean, where do
we go from here? With allof this? Thomas, it was even
hard last night to comprehend it.The Democrats were being honest about Joe President

(18:11):
Biden's performance. I mean, itwas somewhat uncomfortable to see them actually honestly
having a what I thought was apretty fair debate. The questions were fair,
the time was fair. CNN lookedlike they were trying to have an
unbiased event, and then the mediareported it pretty well after. It was
really uncomfortable. The debate was shocking, to say the least. And it's

(18:33):
hard to say that because nobody wantsto take a cheap shot at somebody,
and I, like, I hada father who suffered from early onset demansion
at Alzheimer's, and I would bethe last person that would ever take a
shot at somebody like that. Butwhen you're the President of the United States,
you know, you're held to areally high standard. And I'm just
disappointed in his family and the staffaround him that they're willing to put him

(18:55):
in that position when clearly he doesn'the doesn't know how bad it is.
Otherwise he wouldn't be there either.You know. It was just uncomfortable for
the American people. But I thinkit was important that everybody saw because there's
just too much at stake at thispoint to have him in the Oval office,
you know, Thomas. Also toblame here is the media for the
media to react the way they aretoday. They're shocked, they're surprised.

(19:18):
They've known about this, but theyhave refused to report it. Other than
the conservative media who have brought thisup for about a year two years now.
Thomas, Yeah, I agree,and everybody in the Oval office and
people that came out that said Iwas in with the president. He's doing
great, and he's spry, andyou know, thinking clearly. You know,
many of us knew that that wasn'tthe case and suspected that wasn't the

(19:40):
case, and sure enough they finallyfigured it out last night. And you're
right. I mean, everybody's kindof complicit in it. And it's really
sad day in America when there's peopletelling you that the country is ahead of
partisan politics, but they're putting partisanpolitics against the citizens of this country and
the quality of life is diminishing rapidly. It's just to watch. I mean,

(20:00):
I just it was. It wasabsolutely baffling. I've never seen a
moment like that in politics, andall of my political time, I've just
never seen anything like that. Itblew me away. Was there one point
that really surprised you more than anyother point during the debate last night?
Thomas, Well, yeah, Ithink that opening part where President Biden was
talking about the national debt and losthis train of thought and the pauses.

(20:25):
I mean, it was just souncomfortable. And again for somebody who had
who's had somebody they loved to gothrough that, it was heartbreaking for me.
But then you know the pause andthen the ending with Medicare, and
didn't know where he was in histhought process was It's scary. And again
I don't want to make poke funout of but the president of the United
States somebody that takes a call atthree in the morning and has to make

(20:47):
a quick decision on something that youknow involves human life in the national security
of our country. And if youcan't do that, you're not qualified for
that office. Thomas. When youwatch a debate last night, I got
to thinking, all right, whathas he been doing for the last seven
days or six days at Camp David, because he came across as being very
unprepared last night. So what havethey been doing for the last six or
seven days? Well, I thinkthey were so focused on the former president

(21:11):
and the attacks on him that theykind of got lost on what really matters
to voters, and that's what that'swhat's affecting the voters, their pocketbooks,
their quality of life, inflation,the affordable housing crisis, millions of illegals,
ploring over our borders, the fecanylcrisis. I mean, all the
things that Americans care about paled incomparison to what they prepared for, and

(21:34):
that what they were preparing for wasthe former president. Their hatred of him
has blinded them to the issues thatmatter to voters. And that's why they're
going to lose the election in November. And I think everybody's turned on him
because the House members and senators anddown ticket people realize now that they have
someone at the top of the ballotthat's going to suppress turnout, that's not

(21:56):
gonna help them, and they're allgoing to lose. So now that it
actually affects them, they care asmuch as the American people care. Toma
Sweret, did he go from here? What do you expect to what may
happen here? Well, you know, I've been on the RNC and I've
been in those rooms. I've beenon the Executive Committee the RNC, and
I you know, started thinking,you know, could they replace him?
Would they try? But that wouldtake a unaninymitee of purpose. They'd have

(22:18):
to have a purpose that was clearand defined. Then they'd have to have
a willing president. Biden that's willingto stuff aside, and then they'd have
to have like a clear cut candidatethat they could quickly rally behind, and
in that in today's Democrat Party,those are none of those three things are
going to happen, and so Idon't know where they go from here.
I find it troubling though. RodFor me, the biggest question I had

(22:40):
going to bed last night was who'sbeen running the country? Yeah, yeah,
I mean, if President Biden wasreally in that kind of condition,
who's been making the decisions? Imean we've not heard from Kamala Harris hardly
ever. I mean they've they've hiddenher from public eye. So who is
in the West Wing, who isin the Oval office? Who is pulling
the string? That's the part thatbothers me. I mean, we're going

(23:02):
to republic where we elect people torepresent us, and when the person that's
elected isn't around, who who ismaking those decisions? And that was the
part that really left me kind ofreeling last night. Yeah. Glenn Beck
spoke about that this morning on ashow where he looked back at when Woodrow
Wilson was President of the United Statesand had a stroke and his wife was
basically running the country. And he'ssaying, we're in a dangerous time right

(23:26):
now for American when we have aleader like Joe Biden, and as you
point out, Thomas, who's makingthe hard decisions right now. And what
if a more difficult decision has tobe made coming up? Can we trust
Joe Biden then he'll make the rightdecision. Yeah. And look, I'm
in the business environment, right I'ma businessman. I have competitors, and
Yarrol's looking for weaknesses in your competitorto exploit those for the gain of your

(23:48):
organization. And that's just that's justthe world we live in. Can you
imagine what our adversaries were thinking lastnight? I mean, can you imagine
what they went to bed thinking andand scheming. It's just it's really dangerous
and we're alreading in a dangerous enoughworld. I feel bad for the president.
I feel bad for the people aroundthe president that thought it was okay

(24:10):
to put him in that place.He could have been a transitional president in
his party and said, look,I'm serving one term, I'm getting out.
I'm going to clear the way.But you know what, it's Rod,
we see this on both sides ofthe aisle. There's people that just
get addicted to this power in publicoffice. They're just not willing to let
it go, and it's detrimental.And that's why I think we need new
people. We need fresh blood,we need new ideas, we need new

(24:32):
people in public office. Thomas isalways great chatty with you. Thank you,
enjoying your weekend, and I knowwe'll be talking more down the road.
Thanks Thomas. Thanks Rod all right, Thomas right. He is a
former candidate for governor here in thisstate, also served as chairman of the
Utah Republican Party. Coming up atfive oh five, So it's Greg Hues,
Will Jonas, He'll weigh in,and then we'll get to your phone.
Call said eight eight eight five sevenoh eight zero one zero, or

(24:56):
on your cell phone dial pound twofifty and say hey Rod, part of
our Thank Rod. It's Freddy comingup on Utah's Talk radio one oh five
nine can arrests. Donald Trump wasaccused of lying over and over again during
that debate last night, but JoeBiden also told a few watpers as a
matter of fact. CNN decided tofact check what mister Biden had to say.
He said he's the only president ina while who didn't have any troops

(25:18):
dying anywhere in the world. Troopshave, of course, died on his
watch. He said He's put ina fifteen dollars per shot cap on insulin
Medicare. It's a thirty five dollarsa month cap. He said, it's
a two hundred dollars cap on overalldrug spending in Medicare. It's two thousand
dollars a year. He said theborder now has fewer crossings than when Trump
was in office. That's generally nottrue, he said, or at least
strongly suggested. Unemployment was that fifteenpercent when he took office, it was

(25:41):
actually six point four. He saidTrump's want Trump wants to get rid of
Social Security. Trump doesn't. Hesaid billionaires pay eight point two percent in
taxes. It's much higher. Hesaid Trump told Americans to inject bleach amid
COVID. We know Trump made foolishcomments about scientists studying disinfectant injection, but
didn't frame it as advice to people. And Biden said the border Patrol endorsed
him. No, it's union supportedthe border bill he supported, never endorsed

(26:03):
him himself. Yeah, that's someof the fact checking that CNN did last
night on the claims made being madeby Joe Biden during the debate last night.
What was interesting to watch when hemade that statement about the Border Patrol
endorsing him. It was a matterof minutes, if not seconds, when
the Border Patrol tweeted out, wehave not endorsed Joe Biden. We would

(26:26):
never endorse Joe Biden. So forBiden to stick his neck out like he
did last night and said, hey, look I've been endorsed by the Border
Patrol a huge mistake. And therewas mistake after mistake after mistake being made
by Joe Biden, but his overallcommand of the facts and a policy and
his presentation when I turned it on, I know we'll get your reaction to

(26:48):
this coming up in the five o'clockhour. But soon as it started last
night, I was still here inthe studio getting ready to drive home last
night, and soon as he startedspeaking, I said to myself, what's
wrong with his voice? I mean, his voice. As you get older,
your voice will hollow out a littlebit, and his did last night.
And he just you know, hiswalk up to the podium, he

(27:11):
looked he looked weak. You know, he just looked old last night,
and he sounded old last night,and the American people, I think last
night finally got to see the realJoe Biden. The media has been protecting
him for quite some time. Theycouldn't last night. All right, let's
continue talking about the debate last night, joining us on our newsmaker line.

(27:33):
He has been chomping at the bitall day today to get on the show
and talk about this is citizen GregHughes. Greg, how are you?
You're chomping at the bit to saysomething, aren't you? I you know,
why did this have to happen?Why couldn't this debate have been Tuesday
night with the primary so we couldhave talked about this on one mare Wednesday.
My wife, Queen Bee Christ hashad to hear my rants all everyone

(27:56):
around me, but I haven't beenable to join you on the program.
Thank you for giving me at leastsome time to uh to get this off
my chest. There's a lot,a lot to unpack, Rod, which
I'm sure you've already done well.Well, I want to know, first
of all, if you're going toeat a little crow here, because,
as I recall on Wednesday, youwere predicting that Joe Biden would come out
stronger than ever. I don't thinkthat happened. Last night. My worst

(28:18):
nightmare was realized. Yes, Itruly, truly, truly wanted with all
my heart, because I've known andlisteners know if they recall, I know
that there's a replacement coming, andI know that that's that that's not now.
They can't have it. They couldn'thave it in a primary because they
didn't want to have a contentious primary. They can't really have it at a
convention that's broken, where they're allgoing to fight with each other, and

(28:40):
Kamala Harris wants the gig and sodoes maybe Michelle Obama or Gavin Newsom.
They got to do it after theconvention's over, when they have this twenty
day window where the Democrat National Committeecan do it. That's what I That's
what I've been saying. At least. Well, I didn't think that they
would turn the knives on Biden andabsolutely come after him and whatever they gave
him for the Shout of the Unionaddress rod that made him look like he

(29:04):
was alive and awake. They robbedhim of that cocktail for this debate because
he was asleep before he got tothe podium, and CNN puts that double
shot of him just with his mouthgaping open, looking around while President Trump
is speaking. It was it wasjust a pylon. And usually the media

(29:26):
will do everything in their power toprotect President Biden to say, there's nothing
to see here, folks. Asthe is, the building burns move along,
and it's as if they clutched theirpearls and they said he's not all
there. He doesn't make it.And he says, what's happening here?
That guy's the same guy we've allbeen watching for three four years. This
is the same guy, and they'reall saying, you know, he's not

(29:48):
all I mean, just an hourago, the New York Times editorial board
has called for his for him tostep down and get out of the way.
I mean, they are They justturned on him in a matter of
evening and one night. And it'stoo quick. It's just too coordinated for
me. I think that they gotthe memo Rod and they all just went
after this guy. He doesn't knowwhat hit him. Well, you know

(30:11):
what I think happened last night,Greg, And you know, I think
they're lying to themselves a little bitbecause they know what's been going on with
this guy for the last year anda half, if not two years.
They didn't say anything about it.They poop pooed everyone who were raised questions
about the concerns about his age.And they had to kiss the face of
reality last night because front and center, here was Joe Biden in front of

(30:33):
the American people, standing by himselfwithout a prompter for ninety minutes, and
he failed miserably. He did.But this is what I worry. I
don't think this was a moment,a sobering moment where the Democrats and Biden's
apologists realized that the nation was watching. I actually think that they have needed

(30:55):
a way even make it feel organicthat this president has to step down at
some point. They need to beable to replace someone. Think about what
that means. We have it.They want to save democracy, these folks,
where you're not going to have ademocratic process where the American people in
the Democrat primary we get the vote. You're not going to have the national
delegates that are elected from all thestates come together and choose a candidate.

(31:17):
If Biden were not to run,They're gonna want to They want to say.
At some point, Biden says tothe American people and some nationally televised
thing, look, I've given itmy best, but I've had a medical
incident. I can't continue. Andthey want all this to feel natural,
like where they're all coming to thisconclusion in real time. With America,
it's never been the case. IfI needed to beat Donald Trump, the

(31:38):
last guy on earth that I wouldthink could do that before last night's debate
was Joe Biden. They've known thatthey needed some better, a better candidate
that didn't have to own Biden's recordto go after Trump to have a chance.
And I just think this is pageantry, political pageantry. I think the
talking points went out except for onelocal channel in Utah. They were actually

(32:00):
saying Biden did really well. Ithad a rocky start. They didn't get
the memo, you know that therest of the regime media got. But
that said, I think we needto continue to call this out. We
need to continue to talk about theDemocrats looking to replace this candidate, and
not out of emotion or new information. This has been the plan. They
never wanted to have the American peoplefight over, or or argue or campaign

(32:24):
for the nomination of the Democrats side. They wanted to have a nice,
clean, unscathed candidate to go afterTrump, and I just think we talk
about it because it's going to rollout this way. I've said there's going
to be a replacement, and Idon't want one. I want Joe Biden.
I wanted with all my heart forhim to do well. I thought
he'd do well. I was hopinghe'd do well because I don't want him
replaced. I don't the Time magazinejust came out. I didn't even know

(32:46):
Time magazine still existed. They've gotto cover today of Biden walking on It's
a red cover. He's walking offthe stage and it says the word panic
on the other side of the cover. They are just all in on getting
rid of this guy, and I, well, I have to say I
was wrong about his performance, hopingor thinking that he would be he would

(33:07):
have a moment of clarity to atleast keep the charade going. I've always
believed that they were going to replacehim, and I think it You've said
that. You've said that before.Greg. Let me ask you. This
has the Democrats and those in themedium their hatred, which is a deep
hatred for Donald Trump. We knowthat overshadowed their willingness to look in their

(33:30):
own backyard and realize we've got aweak candidate. Here was the hatred of
Donald Trump so strong and blinded themto look in their own backyard and said,
you know, Biden's not going tocut it. Certainly. I put
it this way. They think there'senough people out there that are like them,
that hate President Trump, that theycan get enough voter turnout just to

(33:52):
vote against him with just a witha weekend at Biden's candidate. You know,
look in twenty twenty, they putthat man in a basement. Ever
let him come out. He neverhad a crowd larger than a couple hundred.
And they pulled it off by HookerCrooker. However you think he did.
You know they were able to pullit off. They thought, look,
he has the power of the incumbency. Let's just let's just do this

(34:12):
twice. Well, and look,you got to imagine that the Bidens they
don't want to give up the gig. It's a good gig for them.
They profit on it. They they'vegot you know, they've they've been living
off the Washington Uh call in youknow, swamp for fifty years. Yeah,
you're not excited about giving it up. So I think that was the
plan. But the problem is thisadministration. Biden's record has just been so

(34:36):
hurtful to the American people, andhis ability to actually make a case is
non existent. But again, Idon't think he looked any different than he's
always looked. I just thought they'dhype him up like they did for the
shout at the Union address. Butthis guy's no different than what you and
I have seen or we've been talkingabout. With Biden. He looked the
same to me. He answered thequestion the same. That's the guy,

(34:57):
that's him. You know. Thebest line of the night came from Vivek
Ramaswami when he was on with Hannedy. He said, you know, they
didn't give him drugs last night.They gave him a lobotomy. I think
that was the best line. Ithought that was the best line. All
right, I want to hold yourfeet to the fire on this one.
He says today he will debate ineleven weeks. He also says he's not

(35:21):
going anywhere for the convention. Heis going to be the nominee. Do
you believe him? No? Ibelieve he'll stay through the convention because I
don't think they want a broker convention. I don't think they can sort that
out between Kamal and Vice President KamalaHarris and the other candidates that they would
like to run. So they're notgoing to have that fight in the convention.
There is by rule away for twentydays after that convention if Biden on

(35:43):
his own decides to drop out toreplace it, and that becomes the Democrat
National Committee members and there's about threehundred of them or so that get to
vote. That's the Democrat leadership thatgets to pick. That's what they would
prefer. So I think he'll bethe I think he'll be the Democrat nominee,
but there'll be enough buzz about himbeing that the that the hunger or
thirst for a new Democrat candidate will'twill not offend the American people that there

(36:07):
was just actually no actual election processto get a Democrat, uh, you
know, a nomine So I thinkthat's the case. There will not be
another debate. They will never putJoe Biden on that stage for a debate
again. That that is not goingto happen. I did have you seen
the say, take it for puttingthem up there last night. Yeah again,

(36:29):
but they think that it's a setup. They think they just framed him
by putting them out there. Yeahall right, mister Hughes. Great chatting
with you. I think we're we'llbe on the links tomorrow. I'll play
Donald Trump. You played Joe Biden, because I always I'll drive you.
You know you you don't have to. You don't have to rub it in.
I hate even admitting that it isterrible, but that is one of

(36:49):
the best lines that I love.The whole of that debate is whin he
said he was a six handicap,and he's like, that's the biggest lie
ever. I've seen your swing.That was beautiful. Let's play you know,
before you go, let's play that. Because here's what they talked about
last night at the end of thedebate, the golf challenge, not even
senior two regular club championships. Todo that, you have to be quite

(37:12):
smart, and you have to beable to hit the ball a long way.
And I do it. I gotmy handicap, which when I was
vice president down to a six.Big here's a six handicap of all I
was an eight handicap eight. ButI have you know, I've seen your
swing. I know you sing wentfrom six to an eighth. Oh yeah,

(37:37):
have changed in a one minute twoseconds. Well I have senior swing,
so I know I can out driveyou. Still. All right,
Greg? What what what that is? You don't have to write? You
know, no one likes the sorewinner. Okay, you've got driven me
like twice? Ever that's it?Yeah, right, all right man,
we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks Gregalone. All right, Greg Hughes joining

(38:06):
us on our newsmaker line. Allright, now when we come back,
we haven't had a chance to talkto you. You are the most important
people out there, the voters.You will decide what is going to happen
on November fifth. I want toquestion you your reaction to the debate last
night. What about Joe Biden?I mean you can weigh in on this.
Obviously there's some real challenger for Biden. And even today now the New

(38:27):
York Times is stepping up and saying, mister Biden, it is time to
leave the race. Do you thinkhe will eight eight eight five seven o
eight're a one zero triple eightfive seven o eight zero one zero or
on your cell phone dial pound twofifty and say, hey, Rod,
your calls You're comings coming up onThank rodis Friday. The media did all
they could over the last year,year and a half, maybe even three

(38:49):
years now to cover up for JoeBiden, and last night the American people
sought front and center. So anyonewho was surprised by his performing last night
should be asking themselves why, youknow, why didn't they know how bad
a state that Joe Biden is in? How did the White House keep this

(39:12):
under wraps for so long? Youknow that that sometimes, to me shows
the difference between the Democratic Party andthe Republican Party, the Republican Party when
it comes to Donald Trump. WhenDonald Trump was in the White House there,
you know, there was leak afterleak after leak. People were talking
to the press all the time,primarily because I don't think they like Donald

(39:34):
Trump, even though they were workingfor him and he was in the White
House. But remember, we'd getthese stories all the time about leak's coming
out of the White House, aboutsomething that Donald Trump was doing or Milania
Trump was doing. We got thoseon a constant basis. We never got
a leak coming out of the Whitethe Biden White House until recently, and
you saw that huge story in theWall Street Journal, which was a very

(40:00):
credible story. They had forty fivesources on that story, and all of
those sources were saying, he's notwhat he used to be. He zones
out when it comes to meetings,He's just not there anymore. And of
course everyone the White House included wasattacking the Wall Street Journal and basically saying
it was right wing propaganda. Well, we saw what that journal report said

(40:24):
several weeks ago. It was frontand center to his last night. And
the President is, after all,a very public figure. His every move
is scrutinized. It is true thatthe White House minimized his public appearances,
even though of late they tried toget him out, and he continues to
make mistake after mistake. But Ithink and our lines were open to you

(40:46):
to talk about this tonight eight eighteight five seven eight zero one zero eight
eight eight five seven eight zero onezero, or on your cell phone dial
pound two fifty and say hey Rod. The contrast. I think last night
between the two men could not havebeen more striking. Now, I don't

(41:07):
think Donald Trump gave a great performancelast night. I thought he was solid,
I thought he was disciplined, ButI think he missed a couple of
chances really to us say some thingsthat the American people want to hear.
Said. I said yesterday prior tothe debate that he needs to look,
especially in his closing statement. Thisis where I felt he missed an opportunity

(41:29):
because he needed to look into thatcamera and say, look, to every
American out there, I know you'repaying higher prices for just about everything from
gasoline to groceries to clothing. Iunderstand that. I understand you're paying higher
prices to fill up your car.I understand you. You know you you

(41:54):
young people out there who are tryingto live the American dream, and to
a lot of people that means owningtheir first home. That you can't do
that right now. I understand allthat. I know you're concerned about the
safety in our schools, the safetyon the streets of America. I know

(42:16):
you're concerned about what's going on aroundthe world as we see Russia and China
and Iran get together, and NorthKorea get together and form these alliances.
I know you're concerned about that.But if you let me put me back
in the White House. I willdo everything I can to ease your concerns.

(42:37):
That's what I wish you would havesaid last night during the debate to
close the remarks. He didn't dothat, but I think he remained calm,
he remained disciplined. You know,the Biden administration tried to rattle him,
Joe Biden did by calling him aconvicted felon, and he came right

(42:58):
back, so, well, yourson is a con that fell in as
well. So you know, isit just the American people really saw the
polls, The numbers are down.Only about fifty one million watched the debate
last night. That's the highest audiencethat CNN has ever received. But in
the debate, first debate back intwenty twenty, I think the number was

(43:20):
close to seventy one million. Ithink that could be part of timing.
I mean, having a debate inJune at a time when neither one of
these men are the nominee for theirrespective parties. Yet they will be at
their conventions unless something happens between nowand then to either Donald Trump or Joe
Biden. So I think you knowwhere this all goes there. You know,

(43:44):
when you have the New York Timescoming out today in their editorials Saint
Joe time to get out of therace. And more and more of these
newspapers are going to be saying thesame thing, and the Liberals and the
Democrats pay attention to what those newspaperssay. So we'll see where this goes.
It's going to be an interesting weekendand an interesting week next week.

(44:04):
Of course, July fourth coming outnext week. We'll see what happens in
the week after July fourth. Andyou've got a big, big ruling.
There were a couple of big rulingstoday, by the way, from the
Supreme Court, and we'll spend moretime on Monday talking about those. But
you know, you've got you're goingto have a weekend and you're going to
have the celebration fourth of July,and then I think the Democratic leaders are

(44:28):
going to say where do we gofrom here? And do they have do
they have enough confidence in themselves thatthey could go to Joe Biden and Joe
Biden's sister and say you need tohave a talk with them. All right,
your calls, your comments coming uphere on thank rodis Friday and Utah's
Talk Radio one oh five nine knrs. One issue and I don't think they

(44:51):
talked about this a lot on thedebate last night. Was America's energy future?
H you know energy? You knowDonald Trump during his during his years
in the White House always used tolike to talk about the fact that America
is now energy independent. We aren'tthat case anymore. It didn't come up
last night. Why didn't it?And we'll talk about some of Joe Biden's

(45:14):
energy failures. And if you weren'tlistening. On Wednesday, Greg and I
had the great opportunity to sit downand chat with Jack Carr, well known
author of the Terminal List, severalbest selling books. A great author lives
here in Parks City. It livesin Salt Lake City. I'm not sure
where exactly. I think in thePark City area, but he was in

(45:35):
town promoting his latest book, RedSky Morning, and Greg and I had
a chance to talk to him onWednesday, and we'll replay that interview that's
coming up in our listen back Fridaysegments. Town was kind of fun.
There is a you know, thereare there are questions out there words people
use to describe how Joe Biden andDonald Trump made them feel last night.

(46:00):
Now here's a couple of questions wereasked, And here's what the words.
The words that were used last night. How did Joe Biden make you feel
during the debate? Number one wordwas concerned, Second was scared. Another
word that was used last night bored, feel, sad, worry, and

(46:21):
confused. Those are the words thatthey described Joe Biden during the debate last
night. How did Donald Trump makeyou feel during last night's debate? Hopeful,
confident, angry, annoyed, feel, concern. How did Joe Biden
come across during the debate last night? Old? Slow, lost, feeble,

(46:50):
tired, weak, confused, andincompetent. Those are the words that
came across last night. All right, it is thank rodis Friday. Let's
go back to the phones and talkwith Greg tonight. And Park saidy Greg,
how were you? Thanks for joiningus tonight. Ah, Hey,
Ron, how you doing? I'mdoing well? Thanks for asking Greg.
Yeah, well I just watched thedebate. I'm going to keep this short.

(47:15):
And like, if Joe Biden gotpulled over while driving speaking the way
he spoke, they would have lockedhim up and they would have taken his
license away. Yeah, they wouldtake the keys away from him after that
performance last night. When you think, Greg, I mean, it's time
to take the keys away from thisguy. Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

(47:36):
And the other one, my favoriteline was Trump with his quick response
about like I didn't understand his lastand I don't think he did either.
That was the best line of thenight, Greg. I agree with you
on that, when he said,I'm not sure what he just said and
I don't get it, and hedidn't. I mean, he did mumble
last night on several occasions. He'ssearching for words. He's always had a

(48:00):
challenge with stumbling or stuttering, Ishould say, but you know, I
think it may be getting even worseagain. He's tried to overcome it throughout
his life over the age. Ithink there's some challenges there, and we
saw those on display the last time. All Right, more coming up in
our number three of the rod ArKent Show. You know, I think
what Americans saw last night was andthey learned about the unvarnished truth about Joe

(48:24):
Biden. It's the side of Bidenthat his critics, me included, have
been pointing out since before he tookoffice. When Biden campaigning from his basement
four years ago, really even struggled, I think, to read a teleprompter.
But last night we saw the unvarnishedtruth about Joe Biden. His performance

(48:47):
was deeply troubling. You know alot of people are saying he needs to
submit to a cognitive test. Youknow. Donald Trump brought that up last
night, said he's taking him donevery well with those tests. Joe Biden
the White House at times and said, oh, yeah, he's fine.
And his cabinet I think should bestudying the twenty fifth Amendment. Someone is

(49:09):
going to be looking at that andtrying to figure out if there is a
way out of this. But mostof all, the media's coverage of Joe
Biden the past four years has beennothing short of criminal. And for them
to sit there last night and saythey were shocked to his performance last night,
they have seen it, they havebeen arounded, but they refuse to

(49:30):
report on it. And that hasbeen a big, big disservice in my
opinion, to the American people.Let's continue now with our coverage of the
debate last night and what happened inthat debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Of course, there's panic on theDemocratic side of things. Joining us
on our newspaper line to talk moreabout that is Reagan Reees. Reagan is

(49:50):
the White House correspondent for the DailyCaller. Reagan, thanks for joining us
this afternoon. Do I need toeven ask you this evening, Reagan,
about what buzz is around the WhiteHouse today? No, I think it's
pretty obvious. Last night, youknow, it took all but maybe thirty
minutes to understand what the main takeawayof the debate was going to be,

(50:12):
and that was President Biden's fitness.The White House hates stories about President Biden's
age and his ability ability to governat eighty one years old, and they're
going to see a ton more ofthose stories, and they have. In
the last you know, twenty fourhours, President Biden, you know,
shuffled out on stage. He hasthat natural stiff gate people were expecting,

(50:37):
and then, you know, threemoments really snowballed. He appeared to freeze
up on stage and lose his trainof thought before Jake Tapper, the moderator
of last night's debate, tapped himout. There was a moment where he
lost his train of thought and PresidentTrump was asked to respond, and he
said, I don't know what hesaid, and I don't think he either.

(51:00):
That's that viral moment that everybody waslooking for. And then, you
know, I possibly President Biden's biggestgap of the night was claiming that no
troops have died under his watch.That's a lie that I think really stings,
and people were instantly talking about.And it was just moments into the

(51:22):
debate, and from there, youknow, I thought the rest of the
debate was very mild, almost boring. Maybe Biden did pick up and get
a little bit better, but thedamage was already done. First impressions are
very important, and I agree withyou those first few minutes were disastrous for
Joe Biden. At the time,they had done on how many days of

(51:43):
preparation on this six or seven daysof preparation getting him ready for this at
Camp David. It obviously didn't payoff last night. Reagan. No,
they kept him out of the publiceye for a week, which is really
bizarre to not see the President ofthe United States for a week, you
know, especially and Americans are sufferingthrough the economy. We're seeing, you

(52:04):
know, situations where legal immigrants arecommitting crimes across the country, and these
sad situations where they're you know,recently murdered a twelve year old girl.
Uh, and then you also havea war in the Middle East, and
the president is nowhere to be found. He's preparing for a debate at Camp
David. And so at that preparationI found really interesting that they had set

(52:28):
up a mock stage and that theywere running mock debates all through the week,
and it almost seemed that they mayhave over prepared President Biden. So
we saw some stories today about thefinger pointing that's going on in Biden's inner
circle, and that seems to bethe talk that Biden was a little too
over prepared, over prepared, andI think if you watch the debate,

(52:51):
you see that Biden was really eagerto spit out his talking points, and
I didn't think that he struggled verymuch to you know, come up with
an answer. No question really stunnedhim. But you know, he was
rushing through these responses without that teleprompter that he usually heavily relies on.

(53:12):
And one thing that I think reallyfell short was part of the preparation was
they were, you know, reportedlyplanning to train him on triggering Trump,
trying to get him to talk aboutJanuary sixth, then his conviction, and
to call him a loser and tofire him up. And we saw Biden
call Trump a sucker and a loser, and it felt black. Trump did

(53:36):
not take the bait, which isunusual for former President Donald Trump, and
so I think the Biden campaign probablydidn't prepare President Biden correctly. Yeah.
Well, they were saying before thedebate they were preparing Biden for two Trump's,
one that they could get, youknow, they could trigger, and
one that he'd remain calm. Andobviously they weren't ready for either one of

(53:57):
them. The thing that I noticedright away was when the debate started,
Reagan was his voice. It soundedvery hollow, It sounded very weak.
And what was it, ten orfifteen minutes in the debate, here's a
White House putting out this no saying, well, he hads a cold and
that's why he doesn't sound normal.I mean, come on, Reagan,
give me a break on that one. Yeah, what a cope? Yeah,
you know, and the media,naturally it's it was the president of

(54:21):
the WHCA, the White House CorrespondenceAssociation, that had that scoop, you
know, and the media really rushedto President Biden's rescue there to you know,
say that, well, maybe he'snot on his game because he has
this cold. His voice was raspy, he was coughing. You know,
I believe that he seems to alwayscough. I think that's something I've noticed

(54:42):
about him and how I've covered him. But I thought Politico made an interesting
note about this. There was nomention of President Biden's cold leading up to
the debate, and so that tellsme two things. You know, either
the cold isn't real, or hiscommunit occasions team is not the best and

(55:02):
didn't think that maybe we should getthat news out there beforehand in case things
do hit the fan. Uh So, I, you know, I just
found that to be. That wasreally the best spin that you could come
up during the debate was, oh, well, President Biden, come on,
Reagan, Where does a White Housein the campaign go from here?
Do you think, you know,is there pressure mounting on him to get

(55:25):
out of the rates or is thatjust talk within the party right now?
Where does this all go? It'sa great question. Uh, and it's
something I'm going to be, youknow, tracking to kind of figure out
what you know, get my fingeron the pulse and try to figure out
what the posture of the Biden campaignis. Today, Biden comes out in
a rally looking much different than youdid yesterday. You know, perhaps that's

(55:47):
because he's reading off a teleprompter.Uh. And he straight up, you
know, said I'm not the bestdebater. I'm getting older, I don't
walk the same Uh. But youknow, then falls back to that you
can trust me with democracy and thatthis is a battle for democracy and for
our nation, and that winning messageor that that message, I'm not sure

(56:13):
as a winning message for Democrats becauseAmericans are concerned about the economy and immigration,
and you know, we've seen inpolls that democracy isn't high up there
on things that Americans are worried about. And it's a really hard position to
be in when you're trying to convincethe American people that you shouldn't be worried
about the president's fitness and that youshould be worried about democracy instead of telling

(56:37):
them, hey, yeah, Iknow you're worried about the economy. Here's
what I'm going to do to fixit. So they have a lot of
ground to make up just in theirmessaging. Both around their key issues and
about the president's age. On ournewsmaker line, Reagan Ree's White House correspondent
with a daily caller, giving usan update of what the buzz around the
White House is today. Following thatdisastrous performance by Joe Biden during the debate

(57:00):
last night, the White House insistingtoday in the campaign, insisting again today
that he is not backing out.Well, what about Joe Biden and his
energy failures? Didn't come up duringthe debate last night, but we'll talk
about him coming up right here onthe rod Ar Kenthow and Utah's Talk Radio
one oh five nine KNRS. Oneof the issues that surprised me that did

(57:22):
not come up during the debate lastnight was America's energy independence. You know,
during his four years in the WhiteHouse, Donald Trump bragged about the
fact that America had achieved energy independence. Not the case anymore, But it
didn't come up during the debate,and it should have because Joe Biden has
failed on so many fronts when itcomes to energy. Will joining us on

(57:45):
our newsmaker line to talk more aboutthat is Larry Barons. Larry is the
director of Communications at Power the Future. Larry, thanks for joining us this
evening here on the Rod ar KenShow. Were you surprised, Larry that
the debate did not include the discussionabout American energy independence last night? I
was surprised that. Then I rememberedwho was hosting it. I should say,

(58:05):
Rod, it's always great to bewith you. You know, when
we think about who was hosting it, you look at the questions that were
there. You know, we havetwo questions on abortion. They start out
with one about inflation, and theynever get to energy. All the time
it's touched on is when they aska loaded question. You know, kind
of change is terrible. Everyone agrees, what are you going to do about
it? Well, no, noteveryone agrees at all. And in fact,
Joe Biden's energy failure has delivered usto where it leads to the inflation

(58:31):
and so it is one of thei'll call it, you know, underhanded
ways that CNN was protecting Joe Bidenlast night of not asking him about what
is his biggest failure because they knowhe has no defense for it. Really,
yeah, that's true, Larry,talk about you right about five of
the energy failures that Joe Biden reallydoesn't want us to know about let's start

(58:52):
with a few of those. Firstof us talk about what he's done with
the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. I mean, I understand it is that is lowest
level in eighty years, Is thatright, Larry, Well, it's on
the slowest level since the early nineteeneighties. And keep in mind it hasn't
been around that long. Jimmy CarterArt believe President Ford actually started it to
kind of hedge against OPEK. Andyeah, you know when Joe Biden,

(59:12):
as you know he talked about alot last night. He said, well,
when I came in, it wasa disaster. Well, the SBR
wasn't a disaster. In fact,nothing was really a disaster when Joe Biden
came in. But the SBR,if it was the gas take on your
car would be near the full marker. Well now it's around the half,
sometimes dipping below just below half.Joe Biden has drained it more than any
other president in the history of ourcountry. And he's done so for just

(59:35):
purely political reasons, because he knowshigh gas prices, heard him at the
polls, and so he releases someof our emergency reserve in order to keep
his pull numbers. Afloat. Whyis spr so important to the security of
the country. Larry, Yeah,it's a great question. What I mean,
it's clear everyone you know hopes toor they are happy to have an
emergency savings account of money in case, you know, real disasters happen,

(01:00:00):
and we know that they do ona personal level, on a city level,
state level, and they can ona national level. We're talking hurricanes,
we're talking war, we're talking unstablegeopolitical events. What we're not talking
about is Joe Biden has undermine Americanenergy production and he needs a quick sugar
hit to try to artificially lower America'sgas prices so that they vote for his

(01:00:22):
friends in an election. I mean, he's even talking about going back to
the strategic Patroller reserve this year ifgas prices get too high, and so
instead of boosting American energy production andyou know, having more Americans have jobs,
what he's going to do is justrelease from our safety net account and
then hope that a real emergency doesn'tcome along. You know one issue that

(01:00:43):
you bring up, Larry, thatis very important to Utah. You point
out that this administration has leads thefewest acres of American oil production since Harry
S. Truman did. And thisis an issue that is very important here
in Utah because we have a lotof federal land here and a lot of
oil exploration and oil extraction taking placeyet is very limited. That is dangerous
to a lot of people. Larry, it's such a great point, Rod,

(01:01:05):
And I know well the situation Utahis inn because I grew up in
New Mexico and my wife is fromUtah, and we understand that. You
know, folks you know kind ofeast of Thessissippi don't understand what BOM means
bureau blad management and how much acreagethey control out west. But you're exactly
right. If you want to haveany type of production out west, it's
almost has to go through the federalgovernment. And Joe Biden has leased the

(01:01:25):
fewest since President Truman. And notto disparage President Truman, that's just when
they started keeping records. And sowhen you look at the fact that Jimmy
Carter, yes, that Jimmy Carterleast ninety three times the amount of acreage
Joe Biden has, you start tosee why. You know, we've seen
gas prices above three dollars a gallon. For most of his presidency, Donald

(01:01:46):
Trump and who was president, lovedto talk about the fact that America has
reached energy independence under his administration.But you point out we're back in back
into a situation where we're working withSaudi Arabian produced OI. Do Americans know
about that, Larry, I don'tthink they do. And it's a great
point because and that's why I includedit. You know, it's only two

(01:02:07):
years ago. But in addition toreleasing our strategic patrol and reserve, Joe
Biden made a trip to Saudi Arabiasaid super duper police, produce more oil,
so it'll lower prices at home.Never before has an American president colluded
with a foreign power to try tohelp, you know, to manipulate gas
prices at home, to try tohelp his pull numbers. Saudi Arabia rebuked

(01:02:28):
him and said, no, we'regoing to do what we're going to do.
And in fact, Opek decided we'regoing to cut production. So what
the Biden administration do. They hadsecret talks with Saudi Arabia saying Okay,
we know you're going to cut production. We know you're going to stick it
to Americans. But can you waituntil after the election. That's how blatant
it was with their political maneuvering totry to make it so that they can
manipulate gas prices leading up to thetwenty twenty two midterms. And so you

(01:02:52):
know, after last night's debate performance, I assume everything is on the table
to try to manipulate everything now,to try to make sure that Americans forget
all the terrible decisions he's made.The last point though, you make,
Larry, and I totally agree withyou on this one, because I'm of
the opinion that the American people hatebeing told what to do. I mean,
that's just what we are. Andhere we have a president and his

(01:03:12):
administration telling us that we no longercan buy gas powered vehicles and we have
to buy evs even though we don'twant them. People aren't selling them.
As a matter of fact, recentpolls say those who have them would like
to go back to gasoline powered cards. Americans hate to be told what to
do, don't they, Larry,They absolutely do, right. And I
can tell you, and this issomething I'm shared with you and I haven't
shared with anybody else yet, Butthere was an absolute Democrats strategist and environmental

(01:03:37):
activist, and they did some pollingon their messages, like what messages work,
what messages don't, and it unilaterallycame out and you're going to start
hearing Democrats not talk about evs becausethey know that they have gotten beaten on
this issue. Really about anytime theytalk about evs, Americans hate what they're
saying. And so your point isexactly the right one, because even those

(01:03:58):
that are buying them up to fortysix set are saying, yeah, I
wish I could go back to mygas powered vehicle. And so last year
was their high water marks, evsales were only about eight percent. And
that is with billions of dollars inyour money and my money and our great
grandchildren's money to push up their production, and also with just fawning coverage in
the press, the best that youcan do is eight percent. The bubble

(01:04:18):
is already burst. We see layoffshappening everywhere, companies like Forder losing billions
on their evs, and so evenwith Joe Biden mandating it, this is
a failed market. And it justgoes to show this is a product that
would be in the mainstream at allif it wasn't for Joe Biden, just
throwing a ton of our money atit. Larry Barons from Power of the

(01:04:39):
Future, he is the director ofCommunications, talking about Joe Biden's energy failures.
All right, more coming up hereon the Rod O Ken Show.
On this Thank Rod It's Friday.Our Listen Back Friday segments coming up,
including our conversation that Greg and Ihad earlier this week with best selling author
Jack Carr, who, by theway, as a Utah resident. We'll
talk about that coming up next righton Utah's Talk Radio one O five nine

(01:05:01):
kN rs. Time out for ourlist Back Friday segments. We do this
every Friday where we look back andlook over some of the newsmakers that we
spoke to this past week, someof the important issues that we discussed.
You know. On Wednesday, Gregand I had the great opportunity to talk
to a best selling author who,by the way, lives here in the
state of Utah. His name isJack Carr. He's written what five or

(01:05:24):
six best selling books, all basedon the theme of the terminal List,
and he was at the King's EnglishBookstore earlier this week and Greg and I
had a chance to talk to himon Wednesday, and as we began our
conversation with Jack, I said,you know, Jack, you grew up
with wanting to do two things,to be a Navy seal and then to
be an author. And I said, that's kind of an odd combination,

(01:05:45):
Jack, what about it? Well, I think the serving the country and
uniform part was just in my DNAfrom my earliest days. It was either
in my blood or it was justsomething that was that I knew I wanted
to do, and I think mighthave been because I grew up My grandfather
was killed in World War Two,so I grew up with photos of him
and his squadron. He was amarine course air pilot, which was the
plane that had the goal wings thatwould fold up so it could fit on

(01:06:09):
the aircraft carrier. There was aTV show back in the late seventies,
syndicated in the early eighties, andI watched it with my dad called Black
Sheep Squadron with Robert Conrad un HappyThing Marine aviator, same plane my grandfather
flew. So I was watching thosemovies and I knew from my earliest days
that I wanted to serve my country. But my mom was also a librarian,
so I grew up surrounded by booksand the love of reading, and

(01:06:30):
about fifth grade is when I startedswitching from that young adult fiction into the
same kind of books my parents werereading. And then in sixth grade,
for sure, I was reading thesame kind of books my parents were reading,
the same kind of books that Iread and write today. So I
started reading guys like Nelson de mill, aj Quinnell, JC Pollock, Mark
Olden, Louis Lamore, David Morrel, Tom Clancy, all these masters in

(01:06:51):
the art of storytelling. So theyessentially became my professors. And I knew
that after my time in the militarythat i'd write thrillers, the same kind
that I was enjoying in my You, well, it's stuck, mister Carr,
because I will tell you that manypeople can love all those authors and
they don't have seven best selling books. And and also what is it,
non Netflix? The terminal rest ofthe series. So today you're going to

(01:07:15):
You've done a giant nationwide book tour. You're going to be stopping here in
Salt Lake City today at the King'sEnglish Bookshop. That's it. What fifteen
eleven South and fifteen hundreds East.I'm going to try and when the show's
over to try and geek out andget a signed copy if you're still signing
by the time we're done with theprogram. But let me just ask you
this, James Reese, your characterthat's in these books, is he makes

(01:07:38):
James Bond look like a woos Thisguy is unbelievably great. And as you
wrote these books, and in thesecond book, I think you put in
the preface, but there's so muchof the book that's redacted from your experience,
and as an author, you aretrying to plug in things that real
life experiences into the book. Itmakes the book even cooler when it's redacted,
redacted, all this different information.It makes you feel like you're not

(01:08:00):
even reading fiction. But I'm curious, where is the line between reality and
all that you've seen and you've experiencedand you've researched and fiction. Is there
a place you can tell someone who'sread your books and wonders out loud you
know what's real and what's actual fiction? There is and I call it fiction
with whispers of truth. And forthe fourth book, called The Devil's Hand,

(01:08:24):
I started to include an author's noteat the very end of the book.
That talks about what was real andwhat was made up, because I
thought, especially starting with that book, which is about a bioweapon attack,
people would wonder what was real andwhat wasn't And so I talk about that
in the author's note, and I'vedone that for every book since, because
there is definitely a blurry line,and our senior level politicians, military leaders,

(01:08:45):
the world in general tech companies suregive me a lot to work with
these days when it comes to theantagonist in these novels and of the plots
as well. Jack, I mean, I was going to ask you about
where you get your ideas. Howmuch of them are experiences that you've already
had or are you constantly looking atthe news looking for news stories seeing if
there are stories out there that youcan put into a brand new book.

(01:09:06):
Where do you come up with yourideas? Jack, Well, I'm always
collecting, always learning. I've beena student my whole life, a student
of warfare, a student of thiscraft just by default from the fan perspective,
So I'm not out there just activelytrying to beat a headline or anything
like that. It's all about thestory to me. And as I'm finishing
one book usually a middle section,or as I get closer to the end

(01:09:30):
to finish it up. I havea few options about where to take the
series next, and that becomes readilyapparent. So when I started down this
path, I wrote down six seven, eight, nine different ideas one page
executive summaries, wrote them all down, put them on a table in front
of me, and the one Iwanted to start with was my third book,
called Savage Son, because back insixth grade, I wrote a short
story called The Most Dangerous Game byRichard Commeell written in nineteen twenty four,

(01:09:53):
and I told myself that one dayI would write a novel that paid tribute
to that short story. That wasSavage Son. But I knew that the
care weren't developed yet to a placewhere I could explore the dark side of
man through the dynamic of hunter andHunted, which that book is about.
So I had to introduce these charactersin a different book, and that was
the terminal list. It was veryclear to me that that was the one
to start with, and that's theone that's the Amazon Prime video series Starr

(01:10:14):
and Chris Pratt. And at theend of that book, I knew I
speak characters still weren't developed to aplace where I could write Savage Son.
So I took my character James Reeseon this journey of violent redemption and true
Believer. That's the one we're goingto start filming early next year. And
then after that it was ready forSavage Son. And then each book has
followed on in a very natural way. And I make it all about the
story because people are trusting me withtime that they're never going to get back.

(01:10:39):
That's something I take extremely seriously,So all my heart and soul goes
into every word. And if Itake something from what I did Downrange and
the Seal teams in Iraq or Afghanistan, it's really the feelings and emotions behind
the events, not necessarily the eventsthemselves. So if my character gets ambushed,
let's say in Los Angeles, California, I remember what it was like
to get ambushed in Bagdad in twothousand six, and I take those feelings

(01:11:00):
and emotions and apply them directly toa fictional narrative. So Jack in your
books, and it really starts witha terminal list where there's this narration of
the establishment, government, establishment,all the workings that go on that we
don't know about as I as theyears of progressed since your first novel,
much of what you wrote about italmost like with legal law fair some of

(01:11:24):
the heavy hand in this you seethat government has right now, even your
AI. I thought I was readinga science fiction book when you talked about
AI and its influence in the book, and then within a year and a
half it all felt like just onfront, you know, on the front
page. So I guess my questionis, are you are you telling us
something with this establishment? Is it? Is it as tough as we're reading

(01:11:45):
in these books? I mean,are you are you kind of giving us
a Is this the whisper of truththat you're you're telling us? Well,
a few things have come to fruitionthat I've written about, and I hope
nothing from Red Sky Morning, mycurrent book, comes true, because it's
it's pretty brutal, So I hopethat one remains in that fiction section doesn't
move over to nonfiction. But sure, some of these things with testing drugs

(01:12:06):
on our nation soldiers, that's somethingthat I grabbed from from from the past.
And then of course things like Russiaand Vada Ukraine, although that was
not a tough one to call.They were going to do that by a
certain time because they could only fieldan army at a certain strength for a
certain number of years. So thatwas going to happen. So that was
not necessarily a big swing, butthat came true. So I give us

(01:12:27):
some challenges when we're writing these scriptsfor the show because in the book,
I don't want to give any spoilersaway. The hero, of course,
says to avert disaster and then AI. I dove into AI two books ago
with a book called In the Blood, and that was before chat GPT became
part of a lexicon, before theHollywood writers strike focused on AI, before
AI became a part of all ourlives and all our phones apparently as a

(01:12:51):
couple of weeks ago with a newupdate on most Apple devices. So I
was writing about that stuff before ithappened. So and I'm not sure why
that happens. It's just me tellinga story. So but once again,
hope Bretsky morning does not come tofruition. Final question for you, Ja,
how much of you is in JamesReese? Yes, how much of
you are in James Tell the truth? Tell the truth. Now you're you

(01:13:14):
live in Utah. From what Iunderstand. So we like people in Utah.
Yeah, you're in a neighbor.Come on, Jack, it's just
us talking. It's just us talking. Just between us. We have a
similar background and that we were bothNavy seal snipers, enlisted snipers. Both
became officers at a certain point.And then when the reader meets James Rees
and the terminalist, he's going tofinish up this last deployment and come home

(01:13:38):
and probably move on because that's thelast time. And he's going to tactically
maneuver guys on the battlefield because he'sgained this to this certain rank where he
won't do that anymore. And that'swhere I was when I started writing the
story. But I'll tell you thathe is much faster, much stronger,
much better shot than than I couldever hope to be. So that's that's
where our paths diverge. Jack Carr, best selling author, our conversation earlier

(01:14:00):
this week that Greg and I hadwith him talking about his career and his
best selling new book, All RightMore coming up with Utah's Talk Radio one
oh five nine can arrests. Youknow, there have been movements time and
time again around the country. Beit a movement about the climate change,
maybe gay rights, maybe transgender rights. All of these movements can be traced
back to a thing known as theMarch of Dimes syndrome. I bet many

(01:14:25):
of you have never heard of that. Well, earlier this week we had
a chance to talk with John Tierney. John is a contributing editor at City
Journal about this and I asked himfirst of all, to explain what the
March of Dimes syndrome is and howit relates to events in the news today.
Well, I think it explains justabout every crisis in the news today.
The March of Dimes was founded originallyto combat polio, and it helped

(01:14:50):
fund the vaccines that did in factand polyoepidemics. But the Mars of Dimes
did not go out of business,you know, they found a new goal.
I was just fighting birth defects.Now, that was a worthy goal.
And you know, and I'm aproblem with that, but it's a
term that's used this scribe. Oncean organization succeeds at its mission, it

(01:15:11):
doesn't go out of business. Itfinds something new to do. And you
know, and the problem and Ifirst noticed this, you know, back
in the nineteen seventies I covered thefirst anti nuclear demonstration of Washington right after
a three Mile Islands and I justnoticed, as a young reporter, and
that all the organizers were veterans ofthe anti war movement, you know,

(01:15:35):
and they basically had been put outof business by the end of the Vietnam
War, so they all suddenly becameexperts in nuclear power and passionate opponents of
it, including Jane Fonda. Andyou know, in fact, I think
that you know, the marsh ofdimes, if such a worthy organization,
you hate to put this bad thingon them. And I kind of think
that a subset of that syndrome isthat what I call the March of Jane

(01:15:58):
syndrome, which is when activists achievedtheir original noble goal and then they picked
something horrible to do, you know, and something that often contradicts the original
goal. And you know, soyou know, it explains so many things
about you know, why did they, you know, gay rights movement declared
this national state of emergency last yearfor gay rights even though you know,

(01:16:23):
the original gay rights movement achieved everything, you know, it the stigma,
you know, it overturned all theanti sodomy laws that destigmatized homosexuality, gay
marriage, got everything else, sothey just to stay in business. These
groups, like the Human Rights Campaign, they have to keeping any new things.
So now we have to force youknow, conservative Christians to bake cakes

(01:16:45):
for their weddings. We have tohave you know, you know, how
to manuals for gay sex, andelementary school libraries, we have to have
transgender and you know, athletes competingagainst women. It's just you know,
but and these new causes, thegay rights them, they're very unpopular and
they send a lot of gays aswell as straits, but they keep the

(01:17:05):
activists in business. Well, letme ask you this, John, John,
it's been said before that and thisvery similar to what you're talking about
on the issue of climate change.It is almost a religion for people now
when it comes to the issue ofclimate change. Can the same be said
about these other organizations that you've broughtup, that it's almost a religion for
them to continue this, even thoughmaybe they've already accomplished their mission. Right,

(01:17:30):
Well, it's it's a religion.I mean, certainly I agree with
you about climate change. You knowthat it is a religion. It's also
kind of a business too, though, because if you look at the people
pushing climate change. Now I've writtenabout this for a long time. It's
really it's the same groups. That'sthe same and a lot of the same
people that were warning in the sixtiesand seventies that the population crisis was going

(01:17:50):
to destroy humanity. Then there wasthe energy crisis that was, you know,
we were going to run out offossil fuels and the age of scarcity
was upon us. You know,then there was a cancer epidemic from synthetic
chemicals. They kind of move,you know, the environmental movement goes down
from one bogus crisis to another,and you know, and now climate change.

(01:18:11):
I mean, you know, atleast as old crises like climate change,
I mean, like like overpopulation.You know, at least the threat
there would you know, they said, we're running out of food and billions
of people are going to starve todeath. I mean, you do need
food to survive. The idea thatthere's an existential threat to humanity because the
temperature might go up a couple ofdegrees by the end of the century is

(01:18:32):
ridiculous. I mean, humans liveeverywhere from the tropic to the Arctic,
and the idea that it's an existentialthreat we can't cope with. You know,
two degrees change and temperature is absurd, but it keeps them in business.
Yeah, well you said that aminute ago. John. I think
that's what people need to understand withall these movements that it appears we're running

(01:18:53):
into day after day. I thinkwe all need to understand that there's a
business model behind this, and youneed to fall all the money because that's
where it is, right exactly.It's you know, it's in my book
The Power of bad Ada, chaptercalled the Crisis Crisis, which is this
perpetual state of crisis that we haveand what I call the crisis industry or

(01:19:14):
the crisis industrial complex, and it'syou know, you've got all these activist
groups. On the one hand,you've got journalists who have to scare you,
and they always looking for something newto scare you about, and they
you know, the mainstream media leansvery left, so there always has to
be more government programs. And thenyou've got a lot of bureaucrats and politicians
who want to expand their power sothat you know, it's this whole industry
that is constantly trying to scare youwith things and you know, and you

(01:19:38):
know, the bad news for themis that, you know, things do
keep getting better and better. Youknow, incomes go up, people live
longer, we're healthier. You know, there are all these good long term
trends happening thanks to capitalism and freemarkets, and so they have to keep
looking at smaller and smaller things.I mean, another example is, you
know, the civil rights you know, the back Lives Matter movement. We

(01:20:00):
had just elected the first black president. This is an amazing thing. Homicide.
You know, the violence against blackshad plummeted in the previous two decades.
But they need so civil rights activistsneeded a new cause. And you
know, the same thing happened backin the sixties when they had these historic
victories the Civil Rights Act, theVoting Rights Act. As soon as they

(01:20:20):
achieved everything that the that the NAACPhad initially sought, they immediately, you
know, went into affirmative action,which something that most blacks opposed in the
nineteen sixties. You know, theyrealized it was stigmatized blacks if you start
doing racial quotas and things. Butit kept the activists in business. And
now we've got you know, andthe demands have just escalated their reparations.

(01:20:43):
And you know, I mean theactivists have to find a new demand.
Yeah. Yeah. And all ofthis, John, some accelerant added to
all these movements has got to besocial media. Hasn't that added a new
element to it? It does?I mean, it just gives them another
way to scare, you know.And and they've infiltrated so many institutions now
so that you know, the kidsin grade school I just grow up,

(01:21:03):
you know, thinking that America isthis horrible racist society, that climate change
is going to wipe out humanity.You know, it's in the educational system.
It's and all our institutions that permeatesthe mainstream media, and social media
accelerates it. Yeah. As partof our list Back Friday presentation, our
conversation earlier this week with John Tierney, the contributing editor at City Journal,

(01:21:25):
talking about the March of Dime syndrome,

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