July 25, 2025 • 47 mins
Politics has devolved into theater, and nowhere is this more evident than in the calculated spectacle of recent ICE raids in sanctuary cities. These aren't about establishing order—they're about creating fear and asserting narrative dominance. When 1,000 agents descend overnight, the message isn't about immigration policy but about power: who wields it and who suffers under it.
Meanwhile, our economy presents a troubling paradox. Wall Street celebrates record highs while Main Street struggles with falling wages and maxed-out credit. The market rally floats on speculation, AI hype cycles, and sugar-coated interest rate forecasts—a Jenga tower held together by vibes rather than fundamentals. When the Congressional Budget Office projects a $3.4 trillion increase in national debt from proposed tax cuts alongside slashes to social programs, we're witnessing ideology masquerading as fiscal responsibility.
Beyond our borders, global crises multiply with frightening speed. From Gaza to Ukraine, from climate disasters to sectarian violence, the planet shows symptoms of systemic collapse while international institutions issue empty statements. Those suffering most have the least power to effect change, creating a dangerous feedback loop of disillusionment.
Perhaps most concerning is what we're calling a legitimacy collapse. While democratic institutions technically function, public trust and engagement continue to erode. Voters participate but policies remain static; protests erupt but laws don't change. This performance art for lobbyists threatens not just current governance but the very concept of democratic participation.
The recent controversies surrounding both the Epstein files and Hunter Biden's explosive interview reveal how political dynasties weaponize vulnerability, turning personal trauma into strategic shields against accountability. When empathy becomes a tool to deflect legitimate scrutiny, democracy suffers.
Join us as we cut through the noise to examine what's really at stake when narrative dominates reality. Subscribe now and be part of the conversation that seeks clarity amid chaos.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Darrell McLean show.
I'm your host, darrell McLean,independent media.
That will reinforce tribalism.
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving, so let usraise it together.
Welcome to episode 465.
Happen to be coming back to youafter a vacation in Florida
celebrating my grandmother's75th birthday.
(00:21):
Let's get into the episode.
So let me start this off byputting it very plainly what we
have been watching over the pastfew weeks isn't a policy.
It's something like a politicaltheater.
I think I said it before, butI'll say it again you don't send
1,000 ICE agents into sanctuarycities overnight to enforce
(00:45):
order.
You do that to create aspectacle, and not just any
spectacle of chilling.
When a message in boots andbadges we're watching you, we
can come for you at any time.
This comes a few days after atragic, high-profile incident
involving a undocumented manaccused of violence in New York,
(01:08):
and the response deploy ICElike SWAT.
No hearings, no investigationof systemic failures, just
immediate escalation.
Now, this is an old playbookCriminalize the exception to
punish the population.
But here's the deeper truththis isn't about safety.
(01:29):
This is actually about fear,and that fear is being
weaponized as leverage in alarger battle over federal
funding, immigration reform andeven voter mobilization.
Remember, most of thesesanctuary cities didn't adopt
that label out of defiance.
They did it because local lawenforcement doesn't want to be
(01:53):
ICE's little brother.
Trust between immigrantcommunities and police drops to
zero and families disappearduring routine traffic stops.
So when the facts come in likethis, it's not just a legal
dispute.
It's an attempt to assertnarrative dominance.
It says Washington is in charge.
Local compassion be damned andcollateral be damaged.
(02:15):
Civilian families do process.
Now let's be clear.
Nobody's defending violence.
But don't let the optics blurthe math.
Undocumented immigrants commitcrimes at a lower rate than
native foreign citizens.
That's not speculation.
That's from the Cato Institute,hardly a bastion of left wing
(02:37):
radicalism.
So again, what is this reallyabout?
It's a show of power, and powerunchecked becomes cruelty
wrapped in a badge.
Now the Congressional BudgetOffice dropped a quiet nuke this
week, a $3.4 trillion nuke thatprojected increase in the
(03:01):
national debt over 10 years fromTrump's proposed tax cuts.
And here's the kicker it comesalongside slashes to Medicaid,
snap and federal educationgrants, this austerity cosplay
dressed up as economic growth,the justification we need to
stimulate investment.
Translation keep the topbracket happy and maybe some
(03:25):
crumbs will land on the floorfor everyone else.
Just maybe.
But here's the real game.
This isn't about balancingbudgets.
It's about replacing power.
Every time tax cuts go to thetop, social programs are
squeezed at the bottom and we'retold it's inevitable.
But no, it's not inevitable,it's ideological.
(03:46):
And the real tragedy.
Most people don't feel thispolicy until it hits home.
You don't notice the foodstamps cuts until your neighbor
can't feed their kids.
You don't see Medicaid cutsuntil your cousin's cancer
screening gets delayed or deniedaltogether.
We reach that point where thelanguage of deficits is a
(04:06):
euphemism for social cruelty.
They don't mean debt, they meanyou cost too much.
And if Democrats andRepublicans cave to this framing
again, if they accept that theonly way to avoid shutdowns is
to gut the poor and call itcompromise, that we've already
lost this war, even if you winthe next elections, this moment
(04:31):
demands clarity.
Fiscal responsibility isn'tstarving the working class.
It's making billionaires paytheir fair share so society can
breathe Now.
This week the stock market hitan all-time high.
The S&P threw the roof.
Crypto is booming.
The Fed gave it one of its mostdovish statements in months.
(04:54):
On paper, everything looksgreat, and yet if you look
beneath the surface, it feelslike the whole system is
standing up on a jenga tower,held together by vibes and
verbal gymnastics.
Let's talk about thecontradictions.
The market is flying, but theeconomy is gasping.
Real wages are down, consumercredit is max, student loan
(05:19):
defaults are rising again.
So what's driving this rally?
Simple Speculation AI hypecycles and sugar-coated interest
rate forecasts.
Also, tariffs Europeans gettingslapped again, which drives
capital back into US marketsshort term.
But this isn't sustainable.
(05:40):
You can't tariff your way intolong-term prosperity.
Now crypto isn't rallying offof something called the Genius
Act, essentially a regulatorybaby step toward a stable coin
acceptance.
But even that is built onspeculative anticipation, not
utility.
(06:00):
We're not in a healthy economy.
We're in a casino with agenerous dealer and guess what?
When the music stops, the onesholding the fake chips are
always the working class folkswho don't have offshore accounts
.
Our early exit.
So here's my advice Don'tmistake market euphoria for
(06:21):
economic wellness.
Watch what the Fed says, but,more importantly, watch what
families are living.
Now, while America is fixated ondebates about TikTok and tax
cuts, the world is quiteliterally on fire.
Of course we can start withGaza, where UN officials are
calling for immediate ceasefireafter another 80 civilians were
(06:44):
killed in a IDF raid this week.
Fuel access is collapsing, aidworkers are trapped and children
yes children are dying inhospitals with no electricity.
It's not a conflict, it'scollective punishment.
And now, even after we see thistype of chaos in Gaza, where
(07:05):
the church that the Poperegularly called was bombed, now
we have to shift to Ukraine andRussia, because they are
backing down In fact, theyramped up cyber attacks on NATO
linked power grids, hinting attheir next move.
It's an isometric type ofescalation, in all honesty, and
(07:32):
this isn't about territoryanymore.
It's about dragging the Westinto a forever chess match that
the West actually cannot afford.
In Bangladesh, a military jetcrashed into a school, killing
31.
Infrastructure was fragile tobegin with.
Now the people want answers andthey're not buying the
(07:53):
nationalist slogans anymore.
Meanwhile, in Europe, recordheat waves, in South Korea
flooding and street levelsectarian violence.
The planet is showing symptomsof a systemic collapse and our
global institutions are issuingstatements while Rome burns the
(08:16):
global South.
By the way they're done,they're done with lectures from
the West about democracy, humanrights or development aid tied
to conditional morality.
What unites all of these storiesis the simple the people being
hurt are the ones who are leastempowered to change anything.
(08:36):
Flashpoints are our ownpolicies.
Military aid, climate treaties,tech monopolies will keep
acting, shocked by crisis thatwe have helped create.
So when democracy keeps working, it's actually a shame if
(08:59):
nobody believes in it.
So we have to talk about whatmay be the biggest threat of all
, and that is the legitimacycollapse.
Every system still works.
Congress still meets, courts,issue rulings, agencies
implement budgets, but thepublic increasingly have tuned
(09:22):
out.
Public increasingly have tunedout.
And why is this?
Because it feels like none ofus, or none of it, responds to
real people.
Voters show up, but policiesstay frozen.
Protests erupt, but laws don'tshift.
We call this a republic, wecall this a democracy, but it
(09:44):
feels like performance art forlobbyists.
Case in point 24 states aresuing the Department of
Education over federal grantrestructuring.
Scotus silent Students, confusedFutures.
Hanging in the balance Acrossthe pond, hanging in the balance
(10:09):
Across the pond.
Uk voters delivered a Labourlandslide, but the turnout was
actually the lowest turnoutsince 1918.
France Far-right nearly tookpower and the only thing to stop
them was a coalition of peoplewho actually hate each other
more than they hate fascism.
Truth is hemorrhaging, not justin politics but in the process.
If we don't restore civic trust, and I mean with a real
(10:33):
institutional reform, not justbetter branding, then the
collapse won't come in a coup,it'll come in a whisper.
It'll come in a whisper a quietexit from engagement, a shrug,
a disappearance from the publicsquare.
(10:53):
So what do we do with all this?
You heard it ice raid,weaponizes, theater, tax cuts
masquerading as economicsalvation, markets del
delusional wars, ignored votersdemoralized.
It feels fragmented, but it'snot.
There's a threat here.
Power is consolidating whereaccountability is dissolving and
(11:18):
the victims of the shiftimmigrant workers, students,
civilians are being asked tocarry the costs, while
millionaires and bureaucratstrade narratives.
But if there's one lesson inall, this week's news is that we
are not powerless, we are notdistracted.
We are not distracted.
(11:39):
We are not people to bedefeated.
So we must sharpen ourattention, always question the
framing, reject false choices.
We don't need to choose betweensafety and liberty, between war
and withdrawal, between leftand right.
We need to choose clarity, weneed to choose compassion.
(12:02):
We need to choose courageclarity.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
We need to choose compassion.
We need to choose courage.
Tonight, Attorney General PamBondi announcing her top deputy
expects to meet soon withGhislaine Maxwell, the convicted
accomplice of notorious sextrafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Deputy Attorney General ToddBlanch posting President Trump
has told us to release allcredible evidence.
If Ghislaine Maxwell hasinformation about anyone who
committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear
(12:28):
what she has to say.
It's the latest effort by theTrump administration to defuse
the uproar among some Trumpsupporters over the handling of
the DOJ files on Epstein,President Trump today saying he
would support it.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
I don't know about it , but I think it's something
that would be sounds appropriateto do.
Yeah, it's sort of a witch hunt, just a continuation of the
witch hunt.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Hours later, the House Oversight Committee
approved a Republican-led motionto subpoena Maxwell.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
She wants to tell us who all was born to Epstein
Allen.
I think that would beinteresting.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Tonight the House Speaker, republican Mike Johnson
, says he'll send lawmakers homeearly for their summer break,
delaying any votes demanded byDemocrats and some Republicans
that would call for the releaseof more Epstein files.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
They are actually ending this week early because
they're afraid to cast votes onthe Jeffrey Epstein issue.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
We should release the Epstein files, johnson slamming
it as political games.
The Democrats are trying toplay gotcha politics right now.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Has anyone forgotten?
They had all these files theentire time.
They sat on everything Epsteinrelated for four long years,
while President Biden was inoffice.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Last week the Justice Department asked the federal
court to unseal secret grandjury records in the Epstein case
.
Today the judges said they needmore information to make a
ruling.
Tonight Maxwell's lawyerconfirmed discussions with the
DOJ, thanking President Trumpquote for his commitment to
uncovering the truth in thiscase.
But some Democrats argueMaxwell, who's appealing her
(13:59):
20-year sentence, may be lookingfor a presidential pardon.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
From the outside.
The Trump administrationcampaigns on exposing this
cover-up, blowing the lid offthis cover-up, and then they get
in office and now it seems likethey're part of this cover-up.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
You couldn't do a bigger Streisand effect.
You couldn't come out and sayI'm more guilty than what he did
and my loyalties to the truth.
I feel autistic about it.
I can't, even though I wantTrump to succeed and Democrats
are my sworn enemy.
Trump will be in prison.
I'm just like having to reportthis, that this is beyond insane
(14:43):
.
Yeah, and it's like Trumpblowing his feet off with a
12-inch shotgun.
He comes out the next day andsays on True Social no, we need
the FBI to move on.
I told him to do this.
And the next day in a pressconference he chews out the
reporter.
Well, they're talking about allthese issues saying how dare
(15:04):
you desecrate the graves of deadkids in Texas with the floods
Shut up?
And it's uncharacteristic forTrump.
He looks scared, he looksconcerned.
And then all the other truesocial posts about if you ask
questions, you're with theDemocrats and this is all a
Democrat made up hoax and you'rejust idiots.
When all his surrogates hadpromised they'd bring this out,
(15:28):
he talked about bringing it out.
So this is Harry Carey.
This is Shep Akud.
For those that don't knowJapanese, I mean suicide,
self-harming.
I don't know if Trump cancourse correct from this.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
When Bondi said we have 10,000 hours of video, she
said we have 10,000 hours ofvideo.
I had dinner last week with thevice president.
He told me that that wascommercial pornography.
They do not have videos of anypowerful person in a
compromising position.
That's the party line thatthey're going with.
(16:04):
If that's the case, why wouldPam Bondi call it evidence?
Why would she say it's evidence?
She's not an idiot, she's theattorney general.
Why would she say she has fileson her desk if none of these
implicated anybody?
It just feels like they'recovering something for sure,
(16:29):
100%, and I feel like they'retelling a story and the story
doesn't make any sense.
What I told Vance?
I said if you don't discloseeverything, you're done.
I mean, nobody will support youguys.
You are fully and completelypart of this cover up.
(16:50):
If everything doesn't come out,I think it paralyzes their
presidency.
And what did Vance say?
He agrees with me.
He agrees with me.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
You know like it really is Even Mike Johnson came
out of where you got thatrelation.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
He agrees with me.
The calls are coming frominside the house.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
All right.
So let's talk about somethingthat's cracking through the
surface of the Trump's base.
Through the surface of theTrump's base, and it's cracking
through the surface like an oldfoundation that is trying to
hold up a new cathedral.
And I'm talking about thisJeffrey Epstein stuff, or more
specifically, the JeffreyEpstein files, the flight logs,
(17:34):
the visitors lists and thesealed testimonies and, of
course, the names and the factthat Donald Trump and the man
many in his movement believe wassent by God himself to drain
the swamp isn't releasing thefiles.
(17:56):
Now here's the thing Trumpsupporters have forgiven this
man a lot, and I mean a lotThree marriages, hush money
payments, a convicted felonstatus and a habit of throwing
his own people under the busfaster than a New York taxi.
But now there's a real fractureforming.
(18:21):
Why is this happening?
And this is because, in theeyes of many in the MAGA base,
there was always one finalsacred truth, and that truth was
that they believed that Trumpwould expose the real pedophiles
, the real monsters, the onesbehind the curtain, the Clintons
(18:43):
, the intelligence agencies, theelites and devils, the shadow
cabals flying on private jets toprivate islands.
He was supposed to be theiravenger, but here we are with
Trump back in power.
But here we are with Trump backin power, either literally or
effectively, running the GOP,and he still hasn't dropped
(19:06):
those Epstein's files.
He still hasn't used thedeclassification power, he still
hasn't named names.
And now the base is asking whynot?
Now some of them are spinningother theories.
He's waiting for the right time.
He's saving it for the midtermcampaigns.
(19:27):
The deep state is stopping him.
But others, they're done withthe excuses, they're pissed
Because to them this was neverabout just politics.
It was about apocalypserevelation, the great unveiling
of evil and Trump's silence.
It looks like complicity.
(19:48):
Let me say that again.
Trump's silence on Epstein isbeginning to look like
complicity, and that iscomplicity to his own base.
That's the part you're nothearing on Fox News.
That's the part getting buriedunder the mugshot merch or the
viral true social posts, becausefor every person cheering at
(20:11):
rallies there's another oneasking in telegram groups why
won't he talk about Epsteinanymore?
Here's why this matters.
The Epstein scandal isn't justabout one predator and his
enablers.
It's a pressure point.
It's the symbol of everythingpeople hate about America's
(20:32):
power the idea that rich men canbuy their way out of justice,
that children can be traffickedwhile the FBI loses evidence,
that names get redacted not toprotect victims but to protect
campaign donors.
For years, trump's followersbelieved he was the exception,
(20:52):
the one rich guy who wasn't inon it, the one who would burn it
all down.
Now they're realizing.
Maybe he was just anotherpassenger on the plane or, at
the very least, someone whodoesn't want to blow it up
because he believes that if hedid blow it up, the explosion
would hit his friends as well.
(21:14):
And that's a hard truth.
But it is the truth.
And it reveals a deeper problem.
The entire political systemruns on selective outrage and
selective transparency.
Democrats and Republicans bothkeep certain truths buried, not
to protect the country but toprotect themselves.
(21:36):
And the Epstein list, theRosetta Stone of elite
compromise, the list that haspeople from both parties,
celebrities, politicians,financiers, even royalty on that
list.
So when Trump refuses todeclassify it, he's not defying
(21:57):
the deep state, he's obeying it.
He's playing the game he onceclaimed he wanted to expose.
Now was that?
What does this mean for themovement, for the base?
I'll tell you what it means.
It means that they are wakingup, not to liberalism, not to
(22:18):
not to socialism, but to thevery fact that the cult of
personality was never a solutionTo the fact that the savior or
no savior is coming to save thempolitically, that if they want
truth, they're going to have todemand it from everyone, not
(22:39):
just the people that they don'tlike.
And maybe, just maybe, that'swhere real accountability will
start to begin, because justicedoesn't care if you're wearing a
red hat or a blue tie.
Justice doesn't care about yournet worth or your cable news
rating.
Justice only cares about onething what did you do when the
(23:05):
powerless cried out?
And if you heard that cry andstayed silent, you, my friend,
you have become part of thesystem.
Trump once told a crowd I alonecan fix it.
Maybe now even his followersare realizing he alone can't.
(23:26):
And the hard part is, a lot ofthem are wrestling with the fact
that maybe he never actuallyintended to fix it.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
F*** him, f*** him and everybody around him.
I don't have to be f***ing nice.
Number one.
I agree with Quentin TarantinoF***ing.
George Clooney is not a f***ingactor, he is a f***ing like.
I don't know what he is.
He's a brand, by the way, andGod bless him.
(24:00):
You know what.
He supposedly treats hisfriends really well.
You know what I mean Buys themthings, and he's got a really
great place in Lake Como andhe's great friends with Barack
Obama.
You, what do you have to do withanything?
Why do I have to listen to you?
What right do you have to stepon a man who's given 52 years of
his life to the service of thiscountry and decide that you,
(24:21):
george Clooney, are going totake out, basically, a full-page
ad in the New York Times toundermine the president, at a
time in which, by the way, whatdo people care about the most?
Why do you think that theRepublicans have an advantage
over us?
Because they're unified.
They will go along withanything.
I wasn't asking anybody to goalong with anything.
I was asking people to go alongwith anything.
I wasn't asking anybody to goalong with anything.
I was asking people to go alongwith this, the most successful
(24:42):
administration in my lifetime,and I'm including the Obama
administration, I'm includingthe Reagan administration, I'm
including every administrationin my lifetime.
You know what George Clooney did?
Because he sat down, I guessbecause he was given a blessing
by the Obama team or the Obamapeople and whoever else, and
David Axelrod and whoever thefuck else is to go.
(25:03):
Ok, yeah, you know what we aregoing to insert our judgment
over yours, we, me, and JamesCarville, who hasn't run a race
in 40 years, and David Axelrod,who had one success in his
political life and that wasBarack Obama, and that was
because of Barack Obama, notbecause of David Axelrod.
(25:24):
And David Plouffe, and all ofthese guys in the pod, save
America, guys who were juniorspeechwriters in, you know, on
Barack Obama's Senate staff,who've been dining out on the
relationship with him for years,making millions of dollars.
The Anita Duns of the world,who's made made $40, $50 million
of the Democratic Party.
They're all going to inserttheir judgment over a man who
(25:47):
has figured out, unlike anybodyelse, how to get elected to the
United States Senate over seventimes, how to pass more
legislation than any presidentin history.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
His big beef is that Republicans stick together and
Democrats are united, but he'sobsessed with this show,
obsessed with George Clooney.
They don't talk about Gazauntil two hours and 50 minutes
into the interview.
I'm guessing that that was thebigger threat to party unity
than a George Clooney op-ed.
You know what I mean.
It's just this sense ofentitlement that, like from
(26:19):
Biden, from his family, from theinner circle that he was like
owed the presidency, owed asecond term.
It's just very ingrating.
If I was in a room with him andable to talk rationally, I'd
just be like hey, man, lookaround the world, look at what's
happening in this country rightnow.
Like, I know you're angrypersonally, but you're not the
victim here.
(26:39):
We're all living with whathappened in this election.
You got a pardon, you're fine.
It's just utter lack ofself-awareness.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Ladies and gentlemen, I spent the last hour or so
peeling back the layers of oneof the most unfiltered, volatile
and revealing interviews in myrecent memory.
I watched the Hunter Bideninterview for roughly three
hours as he laid bare everywound personal, familial and
(27:11):
political.
He opened up with the profanityLace Barbs aims squarely at
Democratic elites George Clooney, david Axelrod, james Carville,
the hosts of Pod Save America,blaming them for pressuring his
father to abandon the 2024 race.
In Clooney's case, he summonedQuentin Tarantino's famous quip
(27:33):
F him I don't have to be F'ingnice a blistering public rebuke
for a private opinion piece inthe New York Times.
He dropped bombshells about hisfather's final debate.
Biden claimed Joe Biden was onAmbien.
He was sedated, vacillatingthrough a debate that doomed his
campaign.
He portrayed the president astired, fighting fatigue more
(27:57):
than Donald Trump.
As tired fighting fatigue morethan Donald Trump.
On the cocaine that was foundat the White House, he fiercely
denied involvement, insistinghe's been clean since June of
2019, and questioned the logicof leaving a stash near the
Situation Room, suggestinghundreds had access.
(28:18):
And yet he was the instantsuspect.
Now, perhaps the most surreal,candid reflections his own
addictions crack gallons ofvodka, a startling claim.
Alcohol must be the mostdestructive drug ever.
His analysis of how crackfunctions biologically was so
visceral that joe Rogan laterrecalled that the um said it was
(28:42):
the greatest crackadvertisement of all time.
Though Rogan also speculatedthat Hunter could someday be
president, he offered a glimpseinto his personal loss, regret,
sobriety, redemption andenduring resentment toward those
he believes shredded hisfamily's political foundation.
(29:03):
So where does that leave us?
Hunter Biden's remarks don'tjust echo frustration.
They are a fury in motion.
His language is coarse, histarget's powerful, and yet
there's an authentic rawnessthat transcends mere spectacle.
There's a clear through line, adeep love for his father, a
(29:26):
sense of betrayal by the systemthat once seemed to serve him,
and an identity forged in chaosand hardened in grief.
He may never run for office.
He never said he actually would.
But whether you see him as acautionary tale or unlikely
voice of transparency, there'sno denying the power of this
moment.
There's no denying the power ofthis moment.
(29:47):
And as a fallout begins, bothpolitical and personal, this
interview demands that we askpowerful questions.
When does critique becomedestruction?
When does redemption demandconfession?
And when politics failsfamilies?
(30:07):
Can loud truths ever healreputations?
And at the end of this long,bare ugly illuminating
conversation is clear.
This was never just aboutHunter.
It was about the unraveling ofalliances, about a public life
stumbling into glare, aboutpersonal demons laid bare in the
spotlight forcing us to takesides or at least forcing us to
think.
Spotlight forcing us to takesides, or at least forcing us to
(30:31):
think.
And, of course, if you know me,you know I spend a lot of time
thinking.
So here we are After nearlythree hours of a unfiltered
confession, three hours oferratic candor and political
shrapnel sprayed in everydirection.
Hunter Biden gave America abizarre kind of gift this week
(30:51):
the kind of interview you'dexpect from someone with nothing
left to lose and yet someonewho still clearly wants to be
heard, remembered and maybe evenredeemed.
But let's not be fooled.
That interview wasn't justtherapy.
It was also a wrecking ballswung at both political parties,
at the media, at Hollywoodliberals and, at times, at
(31:12):
reality itself.
Hunter Biden lashed out at theDemocratic establishment with
name checking of Clooney,carville and the Pod Save
America people as traitors tothe Biden family for urging Joe
to step aside, and his wordsweren't just metaphorical, they
were laced with venom ofbetrayal.
To Clooney he said the F himstuff.
(31:36):
Of course, that QuentinTarantino line I told you about.
But that wasn't just asoundbite.
That was a son turning hisfamily's shotgun on his father's
old allies.
A son turning his family'sshotgun on his father's old
allies.
And maybe the most surrealclaim, that President Biden, his
father, was given ambien beforethe catastrophic first debate
(31:56):
against Trump.
Now think about that.
The president of the UnitedStates, on live television, was
sedated, was sedated.
That is not just a familyconcern, that is a
constitutional concern.
Yet even as he torched bridges,hunter tried to climb back into
the good graces of publicsympathy, reminding us of his
(32:25):
pain, his addiction, trauma, theloss of his brother Bo.
He recounted drinking a gallonof vodka a day, smoking crack
around the clock, and claimedthat alcohol, not crack, was his
worst addiction.
It kills your soul slowly, hesaid, and in those moments, yes,
he sounded human, maybe eventruthful.
But there's a deep problem here, because as much as Hunter
(32:45):
wants us and wants to own hispast, he also weaponizes it.
He's been found guilty of thegun charges, accused of tax
evasion, and he has profitedhandsomely off of his family's
name, all while insisting he isa victim of the same people that
his father empowered.
(33:07):
He claims he was falsely blamedfor cocaine found at the White
House.
He rejects responsibility whileclaiming martyrdom.
He sneers at elites whilebenefiting from them.
He's a rebel wrapped inprivilege, screaming about
fairness on a yacht we know hedidn't build and the media.
Many gave him the softestpossible landing Instead of
(33:30):
asking follow-up questions aboutAmbien.
You know the claim that hisfather was on Ambien during the
debate or challenging thefantasy that he alone has been
wrong.
They marveled at how raw andhow honest the interview was.
No one seemed to ask why now?
Why here?
Who benefits?
Let's just be clear this wasn'tjust catharsis.
(33:54):
It was a calculation.
Hunter Biden is trying torewrite his public image just in
time to shape his father'slegacy, because Joe Biden bowed
out of the race.
This interview becomes afootnote and now we see in this
Hunter Biden meltdown what wassomewhat behind the emblem of a
(34:17):
campaign already that we all sawwere struggling with coherence
and credibility and credibility.
And here's the deeper tragedybeyond drugs, the grief, the
profanity, the normalization ofdysfunction.
(34:37):
We've spent years mockingTrump's children for trading off
their father's name.
Now the president's son goes ona podcast tour dragging his
father's covenant decline backinto the open.
And we're told it's brave.
No, it's not brave, it'sdangerous and it's corrosive.
There's a reason this feltexhausting to me, and it's
(34:59):
because I have seen this before.
From roger clinton to billycarter's, to don jr to Hunter
Biden.
The political offspring circusis no longer the sideshow, it's
the main event.
Every scandal becomes a podcast, every crisis becomes a
confessional, every crimebecomes a journey and in that
space, troops collapses underthe weight of spin.
(35:21):
So what do we do with this.
Do we pity him?
Sure, empathy has its place.
Addiction is real, recovery ishard, and the Biden family has
been through hell.
But empathy cannot beweaponized to avoid
accountability, it cannot beused as a shield to keep you
(35:44):
away from scrutiny and it can'tsilence the question that still
haunts this moment.
If this is how, first familiesbehave under pressure, what do
they believe they're entitled towhen no one is watching?
And that is not a partisanquestion, it's a civic one.
It's a civic one.
(36:04):
So, yes, while I acknowledgethe chaos, the heartbreak, the
desperation in Hunter's voice, Ialso want us to call it what it
was a highly produced,emotional hostage video, half
confessional, half warning shot.
And if this is the future ofpresidential families, where
trauma is a political brand andrecklessness is rewarded with
(36:27):
airtime, then maybe the realrehab we need is a national
rehab.
We've heard from Hunter Biden.
The question is will weremember what he said or will we
ask ourselves what it saysabout us that we keep listening?
So let me end with this.
(36:49):
I did watch the interview, allthree hours of it, and I watched
it not because I expectedsomething new, but because I
wanted to hear the man behindthe myth, the man behind the
headlines, behind the federalindictments, behind the
conservative punching bag, andwhat I got was a little truth
and a little tragedy and a wholelot of chaos.
Hunter Biden is a man that isin pain.
(37:12):
That much I could see.
It was undeniable, and painmakes people honest in ways that
can be both beautiful andreckless.
He talked about addiction, realaddictions, the gallons of
vodka and the cracks and theloss of his brother, the guilt
of relapse, and for a moment Ifelt it, and you have to feel it
.
This was a raw human ache thatcuts through all my political
(37:38):
static.
But that was also the trap thatI saw being laid, because in
the same breath that hunter islaying bare his scars, he's also
swinging wow at everybodyclooney carville, obama's media
shop.
He dragged everybody, said theyall betrayed his father, and
then he turned around andclaimed his father was given
(37:59):
ambien before the trump debate,like the president of the united
states being sedated onnational television.
You know, wasn't a scandal.
Now stop right there, becauseif that alone is true, then
we're talking about somethingthat isn't just personal.
That's a national securityproblem.
That's the kind of claim thatin any other time, if we were
(38:22):
dealing with any otheradministrations, it would
trigger all sorts of hearings,resignations, firestorms, but
when it comes to hunter, it'sjust another messy quote in
another messy and crazy week inthe american timeline.
And here's the part that justdoesn't sit right with me.
Hunter wants to be seen as asurvivor in the same time he's
(38:49):
come what is, but he also wantsimmunity from accountability.
He wants grace without the hardroad.
He wants sympathy for histrauma while lashing out at
everybody who's also trying tonavigate the political disaster
his father's campaign became.
That's not growth, that'smanipulation with a microphone.
(39:10):
And we have to be real.
Hunter Biden is not the firstpresidential kid to spiral.
I already talked about RogerClinton, billy Carter and we, of
course the Trump kids and theLord knows we've seen the family
circuses like this before.
But what's different here isthat Hunter isn't surviving the
scandal.
He's monetizing the scandalwith podcast appearances, book
(39:33):
deals, viral moments.
He's turning a personalcollapse into a PR offenses with
just enough tears to make itfeel spiritual.
But the truth isn't therapy andgrief doesn't absolve power.
Because while Hunter talksabout his recovery, let's not
forget he has been convicted oflying on federal gun forms.
He has been under scrutiny fortax evasion.
(39:56):
He's gotten sweetheart dealsfrom foreign firms because of
his last name.
And somehow, every time the heatturns up, the media rushes to
say well, look at how vulnerablehe is, look how human.
Yes, he's human, but so are thepeople locked up for years
because they didn't have famousdads.
So are the addicts who nevergot a second chance, let alone a
(40:16):
national spotlight.
So are the poor and thepowerless who don't get a HBO
style interview so they canreinvent themselves.
And let me tell you something Iam all for grace, I am a
product of it.
I believe in second chances,but grace is not an exception
(40:41):
and is not an exemption.
And vulnerability can't becomea get out of jail free card Not
for Hunter Biden.
And vulnerability can't becomea get out of jail free card Not
for Hunter Biden, not for DonaldTrump.
Kids, not for anybody.
And I don't hate them, I reallydon't.
I think in a lot of ways he'sbroken in ways that are both
tragic and personally familiar.
(41:02):
I think the pain in his voiceis real.
I think his love for his voiceis real.
I think his love for his fatheris sincere, but sincerity does
not erase contradictions, andHunter is full of them.
He talks about being targeted,but was also protected.
He talks about being judged,but he avoids the reflection.
He talks about healing butleaves wake of political damage
(41:25):
behind him every time he openshis mouth.
And here's the bottom line thecountry is exhausted.
We are tired of politicaldynasties with damaged sons,
tired of family drama paraded aspolicy, tired of watching
elites implode on our TV screenswhile we deal with real life,
real bills, real pain.
(41:45):
If this is what politics hasbecome a reality TV trauma porn,
then we've got bigger problemsthan Hunter Biden interviews.
So yes, we should pray forHunter Biden, yes, we should
want his healing, but don't letyour empathy blind you to the
game, because what we saw thisweek wasn't just a confession.
(42:05):
It was a calculated move.
It was a strategic, rage-filledattention-grabbing toward the
deflected blame.
We wrote the narrative and lefta trail of political fire behind
it, and now the headlines moveon, but the damage stays.
So I'll leave you with this.
We reached a point wherepolitics ain't about public
service anymore.
It's about family feuds,podcast appearances and therapy
(42:29):
sessions in front of cameras.
And if we, the people, don'tlearn to separate the real from
the theoretical, the personalfrom the political, then we're
going to keep getting fooled bythe same damn story with
different last names.
This is the Darrell McLean Showindependent media.
This is the Darrell McLean ShowIndependent media.
Independent thought, notribalism, no smoke.
(42:50):
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving.
Let us reason together.
Welcome to the Darrell McLean show.
I'm your host, darrell McLean,independent media.
That will reinforce tribalism.
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving, so let usraise it together.
Welcome to episode 465.
Happen to be coming back to youafter a vacation in Florida
celebrating my grandmother's75th birthday.
(00:21):
Let's get into the episode.
So let me start this off byputting it very plainly what we
have been watching over the pastfew weeks isn't a policy.
It's something like a politicaltheater.
I think I said it before, butI'll say it again you don't send
1,000 ICE agents into sanctuarycities overnight to enforce
(00:45):
order.
You do that to create aspectacle, and not just any
spectacle of chilling.
When a message in boots andbadges we're watching you, we
can come for you at any time.
This comes a few days after atragic, high-profile incident
involving a undocumented manaccused of violence in New York,
(01:08):
and the response deploy ICElike SWAT.
No hearings, no investigationof systemic failures, just
immediate escalation.
Now, this is an old playbookCriminalize the exception to
punish the population.
But here's the deeper truththis isn't about safety.
(01:29):
This is actually about fear,and that fear is being
weaponized as leverage in alarger battle over federal
funding, immigration reform andeven voter mobilization.
Remember, most of thesesanctuary cities didn't adopt
that label out of defiance.
They did it because local lawenforcement doesn't want to be
(01:53):
ICE's little brother.
Trust between immigrantcommunities and police drops to
zero and families disappearduring routine traffic stops.
So when the facts come in likethis, it's not just a legal
dispute.
It's an attempt to assertnarrative dominance.
It says Washington is in charge.
Local compassion be damned andcollateral be damaged.
(02:15):
Civilian families do process.
Now let's be clear.
Nobody's defending violence.
But don't let the optics blurthe math.
Undocumented immigrants commitcrimes at a lower rate than
native foreign citizens.
That's not speculation.
That's from the Cato Institute,hardly a bastion of left wing
(02:37):
radicalism.
So again, what is this reallyabout?
It's a show of power, and powerunchecked becomes cruelty
wrapped in a badge.
Now the Congressional BudgetOffice dropped a quiet nuke this
week, a $3.4 trillion nuke thatprojected increase in the
(03:01):
national debt over 10 years fromTrump's proposed tax cuts.
And here's the kicker it comesalongside slashes to Medicaid,
snap and federal educationgrants, this austerity cosplay
dressed up as economic growth,the justification we need to
stimulate investment.
Translation keep the topbracket happy and maybe some
(03:25):
crumbs will land on the floorfor everyone else.
Just maybe.
But here's the real game.
This isn't about balancingbudgets.
It's about replacing power.
Every time tax cuts go to thetop, social programs are
squeezed at the bottom and we'retold it's inevitable.
But no, it's not inevitable,it's ideological.
(03:46):
And the real tragedy.
Most people don't feel thispolicy until it hits home.
You don't notice the foodstamps cuts until your neighbor
can't feed their kids.
You don't see Medicaid cutsuntil your cousin's cancer
screening gets delayed or deniedaltogether.
We reach that point where thelanguage of deficits is a
(04:06):
euphemism for social cruelty.
They don't mean debt, they meanyou cost too much.
And if Democrats andRepublicans cave to this framing
again, if they accept that theonly way to avoid shutdowns is
to gut the poor and call itcompromise, that we've already
lost this war, even if you winthe next elections, this moment
(04:31):
demands clarity.
Fiscal responsibility isn'tstarving the working class.
It's making billionaires paytheir fair share so society can
breathe Now.
This week the stock market hitan all-time high.
The S&P threw the roof.
Crypto is booming.
The Fed gave it one of its mostdovish statements in months.
(04:54):
On paper, everything looksgreat, and yet if you look
beneath the surface, it feelslike the whole system is
standing up on a jenga tower,held together by vibes and
verbal gymnastics.
Let's talk about thecontradictions.
The market is flying, but theeconomy is gasping.
Real wages are down, consumercredit is max, student loan
(05:19):
defaults are rising again.
So what's driving this rally?
Simple Speculation AI hypecycles and sugar-coated interest
rate forecasts.
Also, tariffs Europeans gettingslapped again, which drives
capital back into US marketsshort term.
But this isn't sustainable.
(05:40):
You can't tariff your way intolong-term prosperity.
Now crypto isn't rallying offof something called the Genius
Act, essentially a regulatorybaby step toward a stable coin
acceptance.
But even that is built onspeculative anticipation, not
utility.
(06:00):
We're not in a healthy economy.
We're in a casino with agenerous dealer and guess what?
When the music stops, the onesholding the fake chips are
always the working class folkswho don't have offshore accounts
.
Our early exit.
So here's my advice Don'tmistake market euphoria for
(06:21):
economic wellness.
Watch what the Fed says, but,more importantly, watch what
families are living.
Now, while America is fixated ondebates about TikTok and tax
cuts, the world is quiteliterally on fire.
Of course we can start withGaza, where UN officials are
calling for immediate ceasefireafter another 80 civilians were
(06:44):
killed in a IDF raid this week.
Fuel access is collapsing, aidworkers are trapped and children
yes children are dying inhospitals with no electricity.
It's not a conflict, it'scollective punishment.
And now, even after we see thistype of chaos in Gaza, where
(07:05):
the church that the Poperegularly called was bombed, now
we have to shift to Ukraine andRussia, because they are
backing down In fact, theyramped up cyber attacks on NATO
linked power grids, hinting attheir next move.
It's an isometric type ofescalation, in all honesty, and
(07:32):
this isn't about territoryanymore.
It's about dragging the Westinto a forever chess match that
the West actually cannot afford.
In Bangladesh, a military jetcrashed into a school, killing
31.
Infrastructure was fragile tobegin with.
Now the people want answers andthey're not buying the
(07:53):
nationalist slogans anymore.
Meanwhile, in Europe, recordheat waves, in South Korea
flooding and street levelsectarian violence.
The planet is showing symptomsof a systemic collapse and our
global institutions are issuingstatements while Rome burns the
(08:16):
global South.
By the way they're done,they're done with lectures from
the West about democracy, humanrights or development aid tied
to conditional morality.
What unites all of these storiesis the simple the people being
hurt are the ones who are leastempowered to change anything.
(08:36):
Flashpoints are our ownpolicies.
Military aid, climate treaties,tech monopolies will keep
acting, shocked by crisis thatwe have helped create.
So when democracy keeps working, it's actually a shame if
(08:59):
nobody believes in it.
So we have to talk about whatmay be the biggest threat of all
, and that is the legitimacycollapse.
Every system still works.
Congress still meets, courts,issue rulings, agencies
implement budgets, but thepublic increasingly have tuned
(09:22):
out.
Public increasingly have tunedout.
And why is this?
Because it feels like none ofus, or none of it, responds to
real people.
Voters show up, but policiesstay frozen.
Protests erupt, but laws don'tshift.
We call this a republic, wecall this a democracy, but it
(09:44):
feels like performance art forlobbyists.
Case in point 24 states aresuing the Department of
Education over federal grantrestructuring.
Scotus silent Students, confusedFutures.
Hanging in the balance Acrossthe pond, hanging in the balance
(10:09):
Across the pond.
Uk voters delivered a Labourlandslide, but the turnout was
actually the lowest turnoutsince 1918.
France Far-right nearly tookpower and the only thing to stop
them was a coalition of peoplewho actually hate each other
more than they hate fascism.
Truth is hemorrhaging, not justin politics but in the process.
If we don't restore civic trust, and I mean with a real
(10:33):
institutional reform, not justbetter branding, then the
collapse won't come in a coup,it'll come in a whisper.
It'll come in a whisper a quietexit from engagement, a shrug,
a disappearance from the publicsquare.
(10:53):
So what do we do with all this?
You heard it ice raid,weaponizes, theater, tax cuts
masquerading as economicsalvation, markets del
delusional wars, ignored votersdemoralized.
It feels fragmented, but it'snot.
There's a threat here.
Power is consolidating whereaccountability is dissolving and
(11:18):
the victims of the shiftimmigrant workers, students,
civilians are being asked tocarry the costs, while
millionaires and bureaucratstrade narratives.
But if there's one lesson inall, this week's news is that we
are not powerless, we are notdistracted.
We are not distracted.
(11:39):
We are not people to bedefeated.
So we must sharpen ourattention, always question the
framing, reject false choices.
We don't need to choose betweensafety and liberty, between war
and withdrawal, between leftand right.
We need to choose clarity, weneed to choose compassion.
(12:02):
We need to choose courageclarity.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
We need to choose compassion.
We need to choose courage.
Tonight, Attorney General PamBondi announcing her top deputy
expects to meet soon withGhislaine Maxwell, the convicted
accomplice of notorious sextrafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Deputy Attorney General ToddBlanch posting President Trump
has told us to release allcredible evidence.
If Ghislaine Maxwell hasinformation about anyone who
committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear
(12:28):
what she has to say.
It's the latest effort by theTrump administration to defuse
the uproar among some Trumpsupporters over the handling of
the DOJ files on Epstein,President Trump today saying he
would support it.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
I don't know about it , but I think it's something
that would be sounds appropriateto do.
Yeah, it's sort of a witch hunt, just a continuation of the
witch hunt.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Hours later, the House Oversight Committee
approved a Republican-led motionto subpoena Maxwell.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
She wants to tell us who all was born to Epstein
Allen.
I think that would beinteresting.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Tonight the House Speaker, republican Mike Johnson
, says he'll send lawmakers homeearly for their summer break,
delaying any votes demanded byDemocrats and some Republicans
that would call for the releaseof more Epstein files.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
They are actually ending this week early because
they're afraid to cast votes onthe Jeffrey Epstein issue.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
We should release the Epstein files, johnson slamming
it as political games.
The Democrats are trying toplay gotcha politics right now.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Has anyone forgotten?
They had all these files theentire time.
They sat on everything Epsteinrelated for four long years,
while President Biden was inoffice.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Last week the Justice Department asked the federal
court to unseal secret grandjury records in the Epstein case
.
Today the judges said they needmore information to make a
ruling.
Tonight Maxwell's lawyerconfirmed discussions with the
DOJ, thanking President Trumpquote for his commitment to
uncovering the truth in thiscase.
But some Democrats argueMaxwell, who's appealing her
(13:59):
20-year sentence, may be lookingfor a presidential pardon.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
From the outside.
The Trump administrationcampaigns on exposing this
cover-up, blowing the lid offthis cover-up, and then they get
in office and now it seems likethey're part of this cover-up.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
You couldn't do a bigger Streisand effect.
You couldn't come out and sayI'm more guilty than what he did
and my loyalties to the truth.
I feel autistic about it.
I can't, even though I wantTrump to succeed and Democrats
are my sworn enemy.
Trump will be in prison.
I'm just like having to reportthis, that this is beyond insane
(14:43):
.
Yeah, and it's like Trumpblowing his feet off with a
12-inch shotgun.
He comes out the next day andsays on True Social no, we need
the FBI to move on.
I told him to do this.
And the next day in a pressconference he chews out the
reporter.
Well, they're talking about allthese issues saying how dare
(15:04):
you desecrate the graves of deadkids in Texas with the floods
Shut up?
And it's uncharacteristic forTrump.
He looks scared, he looksconcerned.
And then all the other truesocial posts about if you ask
questions, you're with theDemocrats and this is all a
Democrat made up hoax and you'rejust idiots.
When all his surrogates hadpromised they'd bring this out,
(15:28):
he talked about bringing it out.
So this is Harry Carey.
This is Shep Akud.
For those that don't knowJapanese, I mean suicide,
self-harming.
I don't know if Trump cancourse correct from this.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
When Bondi said we have 10,000 hours of video, she
said we have 10,000 hours ofvideo.
I had dinner last week with thevice president.
He told me that that wascommercial pornography.
They do not have videos of anypowerful person in a
compromising position.
That's the party line thatthey're going with.
(16:04):
If that's the case, why wouldPam Bondi call it evidence?
Why would she say it's evidence?
She's not an idiot, she's theattorney general.
Why would she say she has fileson her desk if none of these
implicated anybody?
It just feels like they'recovering something for sure,
(16:29):
100%, and I feel like they'retelling a story and the story
doesn't make any sense.
What I told Vance?
I said if you don't discloseeverything, you're done.
I mean, nobody will support youguys.
You are fully and completelypart of this cover up.
(16:50):
If everything doesn't come out,I think it paralyzes their
presidency.
And what did Vance say?
He agrees with me.
He agrees with me.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
You know like it really is Even Mike Johnson came
out of where you got thatrelation.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
He agrees with me.
The calls are coming frominside the house.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
All right.
So let's talk about somethingthat's cracking through the
surface of the Trump's base.
Through the surface of theTrump's base, and it's cracking
through the surface like an oldfoundation that is trying to
hold up a new cathedral.
And I'm talking about thisJeffrey Epstein stuff, or more
specifically, the JeffreyEpstein files, the flight logs,
(17:34):
the visitors lists and thesealed testimonies and, of
course, the names and the factthat Donald Trump and the man
many in his movement believe wassent by God himself to drain
the swamp isn't releasing thefiles.
(17:56):
Now here's the thing Trumpsupporters have forgiven this
man a lot, and I mean a lotThree marriages, hush money
payments, a convicted felonstatus and a habit of throwing
his own people under the busfaster than a New York taxi.
But now there's a real fractureforming.
(18:21):
Why is this happening?
And this is because, in theeyes of many in the MAGA base,
there was always one finalsacred truth, and that truth was
that they believed that Trumpwould expose the real pedophiles
, the real monsters, the onesbehind the curtain, the Clintons
(18:43):
, the intelligence agencies, theelites and devils, the shadow
cabals flying on private jets toprivate islands.
He was supposed to be theiravenger, but here we are with
Trump back in power.
But here we are with Trump backin power, either literally or
effectively, running the GOP,and he still hasn't dropped
(19:06):
those Epstein's files.
He still hasn't used thedeclassification power, he still
hasn't named names.
And now the base is asking whynot?
Now some of them are spinningother theories.
He's waiting for the right time.
He's saving it for the midtermcampaigns.
(19:27):
The deep state is stopping him.
But others, they're done withthe excuses, they're pissed
Because to them this was neverabout just politics.
It was about apocalypserevelation, the great unveiling
of evil and Trump's silence.
It looks like complicity.
(19:48):
Let me say that again.
Trump's silence on Epstein isbeginning to look like
complicity, and that iscomplicity to his own base.
That's the part you're nothearing on Fox News.
That's the part getting buriedunder the mugshot merch or the
viral true social posts, becausefor every person cheering at
(20:11):
rallies there's another oneasking in telegram groups why
won't he talk about Epsteinanymore?
Here's why this matters.
The Epstein scandal isn't justabout one predator and his
enablers.
It's a pressure point.
It's the symbol of everythingpeople hate about America's
(20:32):
power the idea that rich men canbuy their way out of justice,
that children can be traffickedwhile the FBI loses evidence,
that names get redacted not toprotect victims but to protect
campaign donors.
For years, trump's followersbelieved he was the exception,
(20:52):
the one rich guy who wasn't inon it, the one who would burn it
all down.
Now they're realizing.
Maybe he was just anotherpassenger on the plane or, at
the very least, someone whodoesn't want to blow it up
because he believes that if hedid blow it up, the explosion
would hit his friends as well.
(21:14):
And that's a hard truth.
But it is the truth.
And it reveals a deeper problem.
The entire political systemruns on selective outrage and
selective transparency.
Democrats and Republicans bothkeep certain truths buried, not
to protect the country but toprotect themselves.
(21:36):
And the Epstein list, theRosetta Stone of elite
compromise, the list that haspeople from both parties,
celebrities, politicians,financiers, even royalty on that
list.
So when Trump refuses todeclassify it, he's not defying
(21:57):
the deep state, he's obeying it.
He's playing the game he onceclaimed he wanted to expose.
Now was that?
What does this mean for themovement, for the base?
I'll tell you what it means.
It means that they are wakingup, not to liberalism, not to
(22:18):
not to socialism, but to thevery fact that the cult of
personality was never a solutionTo the fact that the savior or
no savior is coming to save thempolitically, that if they want
truth, they're going to have todemand it from everyone, not
(22:39):
just the people that they don'tlike.
And maybe, just maybe, that'swhere real accountability will
start to begin, because justicedoesn't care if you're wearing a
red hat or a blue tie.
Justice doesn't care about yournet worth or your cable news
rating.
Justice only cares about onething what did you do when the
(23:05):
powerless cried out?
And if you heard that cry andstayed silent, you, my friend,
you have become part of thesystem.
Trump once told a crowd I alonecan fix it.
Maybe now even his followersare realizing he alone can't.
(23:26):
And the hard part is, a lot ofthem are wrestling with the fact
that maybe he never actuallyintended to fix it.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
F*** him, f*** him and everybody around him.
I don't have to be f***ing nice.
Number one.
I agree with Quentin TarantinoF***ing.
George Clooney is not a f***ingactor, he is a f***ing like.
I don't know what he is.
He's a brand, by the way, andGod bless him.
(24:00):
You know what.
He supposedly treats hisfriends really well.
You know what I mean Buys themthings, and he's got a really
great place in Lake Como andhe's great friends with Barack
Obama.
You, what do you have to do withanything?
Why do I have to listen to you?
What right do you have to stepon a man who's given 52 years of
his life to the service of thiscountry and decide that you,
(24:21):
george Clooney, are going totake out, basically, a full-page
ad in the New York Times toundermine the president, at a
time in which, by the way, whatdo people care about the most?
Why do you think that theRepublicans have an advantage
over us?
Because they're unified.
They will go along withanything.
I wasn't asking anybody to goalong with anything.
I was asking people to go alongwith anything.
I wasn't asking anybody to goalong with anything.
I was asking people to go alongwith this, the most successful
(24:42):
administration in my lifetime,and I'm including the Obama
administration, I'm includingthe Reagan administration, I'm
including every administrationin my lifetime.
You know what George Clooney did?
Because he sat down, I guessbecause he was given a blessing
by the Obama team or the Obamapeople and whoever else, and
David Axelrod and whoever thefuck else is to go.
(25:03):
Ok, yeah, you know what we aregoing to insert our judgment
over yours, we, me, and JamesCarville, who hasn't run a race
in 40 years, and David Axelrod,who had one success in his
political life and that wasBarack Obama, and that was
because of Barack Obama, notbecause of David Axelrod.
(25:24):
And David Plouffe, and all ofthese guys in the pod, save
America, guys who were juniorspeechwriters in, you know, on
Barack Obama's Senate staff,who've been dining out on the
relationship with him for years,making millions of dollars.
The Anita Duns of the world,who's made made $40, $50 million
of the Democratic Party.
They're all going to inserttheir judgment over a man who
(25:47):
has figured out, unlike anybodyelse, how to get elected to the
United States Senate over seventimes, how to pass more
legislation than any presidentin history.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
His big beef is that Republicans stick together and
Democrats are united, but he'sobsessed with this show,
obsessed with George Clooney.
They don't talk about Gazauntil two hours and 50 minutes
into the interview.
I'm guessing that that was thebigger threat to party unity
than a George Clooney op-ed.
You know what I mean.
It's just this sense ofentitlement that, like from
(26:19):
Biden, from his family, from theinner circle that he was like
owed the presidency, owed asecond term.
It's just very ingrating.
If I was in a room with him andable to talk rationally, I'd
just be like hey, man, lookaround the world, look at what's
happening in this country rightnow.
Like, I know you're angrypersonally, but you're not the
victim here.
(26:39):
We're all living with whathappened in this election.
You got a pardon, you're fine.
It's just utter lack ofself-awareness.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Ladies and gentlemen, I spent the last hour or so
peeling back the layers of oneof the most unfiltered, volatile
and revealing interviews in myrecent memory.
I watched the Hunter Bideninterview for roughly three
hours as he laid bare everywound personal, familial and
(27:11):
political.
He opened up with the profanityLace Barbs aims squarely at
Democratic elites George Clooney, david Axelrod, james Carville,
the hosts of Pod Save America,blaming them for pressuring his
father to abandon the 2024 race.
In Clooney's case, he summonedQuentin Tarantino's famous quip
(27:33):
F him I don't have to be F'ingnice a blistering public rebuke
for a private opinion piece inthe New York Times.
He dropped bombshells about hisfather's final debate.
Biden claimed Joe Biden was onAmbien.
He was sedated, vacillatingthrough a debate that doomed his
campaign.
He portrayed the president astired, fighting fatigue more
(27:57):
than Donald Trump.
As tired fighting fatigue morethan Donald Trump.
On the cocaine that was foundat the White House, he fiercely
denied involvement, insistinghe's been clean since June of
2019, and questioned the logicof leaving a stash near the
Situation Room, suggestinghundreds had access.
(28:18):
And yet he was the instantsuspect.
Now, perhaps the most surreal,candid reflections his own
addictions crack gallons ofvodka, a startling claim.
Alcohol must be the mostdestructive drug ever.
His analysis of how crackfunctions biologically was so
visceral that joe Rogan laterrecalled that the um said it was
(28:42):
the greatest crackadvertisement of all time.
Though Rogan also speculatedthat Hunter could someday be
president, he offered a glimpseinto his personal loss, regret,
sobriety, redemption andenduring resentment toward those
he believes shredded hisfamily's political foundation.
(29:03):
So where does that leave us?
Hunter Biden's remarks don'tjust echo frustration.
They are a fury in motion.
His language is coarse, histarget's powerful, and yet
there's an authentic rawnessthat transcends mere spectacle.
There's a clear through line, adeep love for his father, a
(29:26):
sense of betrayal by the systemthat once seemed to serve him,
and an identity forged in chaosand hardened in grief.
He may never run for office.
He never said he actually would.
But whether you see him as acautionary tale or unlikely
voice of transparency, there'sno denying the power of this
moment.
There's no denying the power ofthis moment.
(29:47):
And as a fallout begins, bothpolitical and personal, this
interview demands that we askpowerful questions.
When does critique becomedestruction?
When does redemption demandconfession?
And when politics failsfamilies?
(30:07):
Can loud truths ever healreputations?
And at the end of this long,bare ugly illuminating
conversation is clear.
This was never just aboutHunter.
It was about the unraveling ofalliances, about a public life
stumbling into glare, aboutpersonal demons laid bare in the
spotlight forcing us to takesides or at least forcing us to
think.
Spotlight forcing us to takesides, or at least forcing us to
(30:31):
think.
And, of course, if you know me,you know I spend a lot of time
thinking.
So here we are After nearlythree hours of a unfiltered
confession, three hours oferratic candor and political
shrapnel sprayed in everydirection.
Hunter Biden gave America abizarre kind of gift this week
(30:51):
the kind of interview you'dexpect from someone with nothing
left to lose and yet someonewho still clearly wants to be
heard, remembered and maybe evenredeemed.
But let's not be fooled.
That interview wasn't justtherapy.
It was also a wrecking ballswung at both political parties,
at the media, at Hollywoodliberals and, at times, at
(31:12):
reality itself.
Hunter Biden lashed out at theDemocratic establishment with
name checking of Clooney,carville and the Pod Save
America people as traitors tothe Biden family for urging Joe
to step aside, and his wordsweren't just metaphorical, they
were laced with venom ofbetrayal.
To Clooney he said the F himstuff.
(31:36):
Of course, that QuentinTarantino line I told you about.
But that wasn't just asoundbite.
That was a son turning hisfamily's shotgun on his father's
old allies.
A son turning his family'sshotgun on his father's old
allies.
And maybe the most surrealclaim, that President Biden, his
father, was given ambien beforethe catastrophic first debate
(31:56):
against Trump.
Now think about that.
The president of the UnitedStates, on live television, was
sedated, was sedated.
That is not just a familyconcern, that is a
constitutional concern.
Yet even as he torched bridges,hunter tried to climb back into
the good graces of publicsympathy, reminding us of his
(32:25):
pain, his addiction, trauma, theloss of his brother Bo.
He recounted drinking a gallonof vodka a day, smoking crack
around the clock, and claimedthat alcohol, not crack, was his
worst addiction.
It kills your soul slowly, hesaid, and in those moments, yes,
he sounded human, maybe eventruthful.
But there's a deep problem here, because as much as Hunter
(32:45):
wants us and wants to own hispast, he also weaponizes it.
He's been found guilty of thegun charges, accused of tax
evasion, and he has profitedhandsomely off of his family's
name, all while insisting he isa victim of the same people that
his father empowered.
(33:07):
He claims he was falsely blamedfor cocaine found at the White
House.
He rejects responsibility whileclaiming martyrdom.
He sneers at elites whilebenefiting from them.
He's a rebel wrapped inprivilege, screaming about
fairness on a yacht we know hedidn't build and the media.
Many gave him the softestpossible landing Instead of
(33:30):
asking follow-up questions aboutAmbien.
You know the claim that hisfather was on Ambien during the
debate or challenging thefantasy that he alone has been
wrong.
They marveled at how raw andhow honest the interview was.
No one seemed to ask why now?
Why here?
Who benefits?
Let's just be clear this wasn'tjust catharsis.
(33:54):
It was a calculation.
Hunter Biden is trying torewrite his public image just in
time to shape his father'slegacy, because Joe Biden bowed
out of the race.
This interview becomes afootnote and now we see in this
Hunter Biden meltdown what wassomewhat behind the emblem of a
(34:17):
campaign already that we all sawwere struggling with coherence
and credibility and credibility.
And here's the deeper tragedybeyond drugs, the grief, the
profanity, the normalization ofdysfunction.
(34:37):
We've spent years mockingTrump's children for trading off
their father's name.
Now the president's son goes ona podcast tour dragging his
father's covenant decline backinto the open.
And we're told it's brave.
No, it's not brave, it'sdangerous and it's corrosive.
There's a reason this feltexhausting to me, and it's
(34:59):
because I have seen this before.
From roger clinton to billycarter's, to don jr to Hunter
Biden.
The political offspring circusis no longer the sideshow, it's
the main event.
Every scandal becomes a podcast, every crisis becomes a
confessional, every crimebecomes a journey and in that
space, troops collapses underthe weight of spin.
(35:21):
So what do we do with this.
Do we pity him?
Sure, empathy has its place.
Addiction is real, recovery ishard, and the Biden family has
been through hell.
But empathy cannot beweaponized to avoid
accountability, it cannot beused as a shield to keep you
(35:44):
away from scrutiny and it can'tsilence the question that still
haunts this moment.
If this is how, first familiesbehave under pressure, what do
they believe they're entitled towhen no one is watching?
And that is not a partisanquestion, it's a civic one.
It's a civic one.
(36:04):
So, yes, while I acknowledgethe chaos, the heartbreak, the
desperation in Hunter's voice, Ialso want us to call it what it
was a highly produced,emotional hostage video, half
confessional, half warning shot.
And if this is the future ofpresidential families, where
trauma is a political brand andrecklessness is rewarded with
(36:27):
airtime, then maybe the realrehab we need is a national
rehab.
We've heard from Hunter Biden.
The question is will weremember what he said or will we
ask ourselves what it saysabout us that we keep listening?
So let me end with this.
(36:49):
I did watch the interview, allthree hours of it, and I watched
it not because I expectedsomething new, but because I
wanted to hear the man behindthe myth, the man behind the
headlines, behind the federalindictments, behind the
conservative punching bag, andwhat I got was a little truth
and a little tragedy and a wholelot of chaos.
Hunter Biden is a man that isin pain.
(37:12):
That much I could see.
It was undeniable, and painmakes people honest in ways that
can be both beautiful andreckless.
He talked about addiction, realaddictions, the gallons of
vodka and the cracks and theloss of his brother, the guilt
of relapse, and for a moment Ifelt it, and you have to feel it
.
This was a raw human ache thatcuts through all my political
(37:38):
static.
But that was also the trap thatI saw being laid, because in
the same breath that hunter islaying bare his scars, he's also
swinging wow at everybodyclooney carville, obama's media
shop.
He dragged everybody, said theyall betrayed his father, and
then he turned around andclaimed his father was given
(37:59):
ambien before the trump debate,like the president of the united
states being sedated onnational television.
You know, wasn't a scandal.
Now stop right there, becauseif that alone is true, then
we're talking about somethingthat isn't just personal.
That's a national securityproblem.
That's the kind of claim thatin any other time, if we were
(38:22):
dealing with any otheradministrations, it would
trigger all sorts of hearings,resignations, firestorms, but
when it comes to hunter, it'sjust another messy quote in
another messy and crazy week inthe american timeline.
And here's the part that justdoesn't sit right with me.
Hunter wants to be seen as asurvivor in the same time he's
(38:49):
come what is, but he also wantsimmunity from accountability.
He wants grace without the hardroad.
He wants sympathy for histrauma while lashing out at
everybody who's also trying tonavigate the political disaster
his father's campaign became.
That's not growth, that'smanipulation with a microphone.
(39:10):
And we have to be real.
Hunter Biden is not the firstpresidential kid to spiral.
I already talked about RogerClinton, billy Carter and we, of
course the Trump kids and theLord knows we've seen the family
circuses like this before.
But what's different here isthat Hunter isn't surviving the
scandal.
He's monetizing the scandalwith podcast appearances, book
(39:33):
deals, viral moments.
He's turning a personalcollapse into a PR offenses with
just enough tears to make itfeel spiritual.
But the truth isn't therapy andgrief doesn't absolve power.
Because while Hunter talksabout his recovery, let's not
forget he has been convicted oflying on federal gun forms.
He has been under scrutiny fortax evasion.
(39:56):
He's gotten sweetheart dealsfrom foreign firms because of
his last name.
And somehow, every time the heatturns up, the media rushes to
say well, look at how vulnerablehe is, look how human.
Yes, he's human, but so are thepeople locked up for years
because they didn't have famousdads.
So are the addicts who nevergot a second chance, let alone a
(40:16):
national spotlight.
So are the poor and thepowerless who don't get a HBO
style interview so they canreinvent themselves.
And let me tell you something Iam all for grace, I am a
product of it.
I believe in second chances,but grace is not an exception
(40:41):
and is not an exemption.
And vulnerability can't becomea get out of jail free card Not
for Hunter Biden.
And vulnerability can't becomea get out of jail free card Not
for Hunter Biden, not for DonaldTrump.
Kids, not for anybody.
And I don't hate them, I reallydon't.
I think in a lot of ways he'sbroken in ways that are both
tragic and personally familiar.
(41:02):
I think the pain in his voiceis real.
I think his love for his voiceis real.
I think his love for his fatheris sincere, but sincerity does
not erase contradictions, andHunter is full of them.
He talks about being targeted,but was also protected.
He talks about being judged,but he avoids the reflection.
He talks about healing butleaves wake of political damage
(41:25):
behind him every time he openshis mouth.
And here's the bottom line thecountry is exhausted.
We are tired of politicaldynasties with damaged sons,
tired of family drama paraded aspolicy, tired of watching
elites implode on our TV screenswhile we deal with real life,
real bills, real pain.
(41:45):
If this is what politics hasbecome a reality TV trauma porn,
then we've got bigger problemsthan Hunter Biden interviews.
So yes, we should pray forHunter Biden, yes, we should
want his healing, but don't letyour empathy blind you to the
game, because what we saw thisweek wasn't just a confession.
(42:05):
It was a calculated move.
It was a strategic, rage-filledattention-grabbing toward the
deflected blame.
We wrote the narrative and lefta trail of political fire behind
it, and now the headlines moveon, but the damage stays.
So I'll leave you with this.
We reached a point wherepolitics ain't about public
service anymore.
It's about family feuds,podcast appearances and therapy
(42:29):
sessions in front of cameras.
And if we, the people, don'tlearn to separate the real from
the theoretical, the personalfrom the political, then we're
going to keep getting fooled bythe same damn story with
different last names.
This is the Darrell McLean Showindependent media.
This is the Darrell McLean ShowIndependent media.
Independent thought, notribalism, no smoke.
(42:50):
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving.
Let us reason together.
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