January 15, 2025 • 28 mins
President Joe Biden delivered remarks from the Oval Office, outlining his achievements while serving as our 46th president. In this final address, Biden shared highlights his administration’s work in growing the jobs market, lowering prescription drug costs, and developing clean energy policies.
And -
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire which pauses fighting in Gaza and leads to a phased release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The deal begins Sunday and Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages during this first phase.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
And -
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire which pauses fighting in Gaza and leads to a phased release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The deal begins Sunday and Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages during this first phase.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, welcome back everyone. The President has just delivered his
farewell address to the nation when about nineteen minutes I
hope you listen to it here on WBC courtesy of
ABC News. And it was a statement of his accomplishments,
his view and his dreams. And we can hit some
(00:21):
of the highlights, but what I'm looking for initially, and
we'll probably take a break at eight point thirty here
and try to catch up a little bit, so if
you want to try to get in and respond to
what the president said, There was nothing monumental in this
speech tonight, nothing especially memorable from what I can from
what I heard, I have no idea who wrote the speech,
(00:45):
but you know, he started taking credit, which is understandable
for the Israeli Hamas hostage deal. He was asked today
by a reporter if whether or not he should take
credit or if former president soon to be president Donald
Trump should That will be sorted out. And then he
began with a story about the Statue of Liberty, talked
about checks and balances, complimented his vice president, talked about
(01:10):
his accomplishments once in a century pandemic, the recovery of
which was underway when he took office in January of
twenty twenty one. He did take credit for recovery from COVID.
Talked about new roads, bridges, semiconductors, medicare, power to negotiate.
They talked about medical care for veterans and their families.
(01:32):
Seventeen million new jobs. Many of those jobs, as you know,
were lost during COVID, and many of them came back.
He talked about strengthening NATO, Ukraine still being free, no
reference to the debaclet in Afghanistan of the summer of
twenty twenty three. He wished, without naming the incoming administration
(01:55):
to succeed. No mention of his successor or his predecessor
for that. Donald Trump talked about Then he got serious
and talked about the dangerous concentration of power, the oligarchy
of the wealthy, as he put it. Talked about how
one hundred years ago Robert Robert Barns and trust needed
to be busted and that the same way today, wealthy
(02:17):
have to pay their fair share. Talked about the threat
of climate change, invoked briefly North Carolina and California, which,
of course we're all I think very much aware. I've
talked about powerful forces, powerful forces that are out and about.
He talked about Matta, It didn't mention Metta Facebook Mark Zuckerberg,
who has said that Matta will no longer fact check, Well,
(02:41):
just a parenthetical comment on that. We have been doing
fact checking, I think in this country for a long time,
and it's considered political debate, and I think we'll do
just fine with or without fact checking. We've had other
fact checkers newspapers besides Facebook, so I think we will
(03:07):
survive with the end of fact checking. Talked about the
threats of AI, the potential benefits, but also the threats.
He talked about the necessity of term limits for the
US Supreme Court eighteen years. No mention of term limits
for members of Congress. However, he did say members of
Congress should not be allowed to trade in stock, and
(03:30):
he did say that there should be a constitutional amendment
making it very clear that no president should be immune
from prosecution, no president should be above the law. I
think we know who he was thinking about when he
talked about that. He concluded by thanking his administration, members
of his administration first responders, who obviously have been in
the forefront of some real crises in this country. In
(03:53):
the last few months, between the hurricanes and the storms
in the southeast and the fires near Los Angeles. Thank
the military specifically thanked again Vice President Harris for a
second time, and the historic first gentleman thanked his wife,
doctor Jill. Biden talked to his entire thanked his entire
(04:16):
family without mentioning anyone other than doctor Biden did not
mention his son Hunter, which is fine, and then he
thanked the American people, and that was it. It was
nineteen minutes. I don't think it will go down as
the most memorable presidential farewell in history, but it is done,
(04:39):
and he has a couple of opportunities in the next
few days perhaps well. Of course, on Monday, will he
will welcome President elect and Missus Trump to the White House.
I assume that he will ride in the motorcade with
President Elect and Missus Trump to the Capitol. My suspicion,
(05:01):
although I don't know it for sure, is at that
point he would depart and head to andrewser for space
for a short flight home to Delaware or a longer
flight to somewhere else. I mean, he has many friends
around the country, and many of those friends are wealthy
(05:22):
friends who have lovely places for where where he could
vacation or where he could move into retirement, I guess
would be the more appropriate term. So I just love
to hear from each of you your reaction. I'd like
to focus, at least for the balance this hour on
the administration, which now is let's see, it's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Friday, Saturday,
(05:48):
about one hundred and twenty hours left. So in this administration,
the days are dwindling down for President Biden and our numbers.
You can join us here on Nightside. Again, I should
have introduced myself. I'm Dan Ray, the host of NIGHTSI,
and I assume if you're listening to WBZ at this
the night on a weeknight, you kind of have had
that figured out. Rob is back in the control room.
(06:10):
So I'll ask you for two really two questions. What
did you think of the speech? I thought the speech
was pretty unremarkable. I thought it was a nice summation,
but there wasn't anything new. I guess in a farewell
speech you don't learn much that is new. You learn
about the perspective of the person who's saying farewell, and tonight,
(06:34):
Joe Biden said farewell, fifty two years in public service.
Was elected as a United States Senator while he was
twenty nine years of age in November of nineteen seventy two,
and he turned thirty by time he took the oath
of office that following January and January of nineteen seventy three.
So he has been with I guess for just four
(06:58):
years when he was outside of public office during the
first Trump administration. So however you cut it, it's a
half a century as an elected official, as a US Senator,
as a vice president for four years, for eight years,
excuse me, and as the president for four years. So
it's a long run for President Biden, and it will
(07:22):
end in a few more days. That sort of in
some respects technically ended tonight, but he will remain President
of the United States, and I certainly wish him well
and wish him a lot of health, good health in
the years to come. One of the things that we
will be watching, I think, in the next few days,
is whether or not there are any other members of
(07:44):
the Biden family who President Biden decides that he needs
to pardon perspectively or retrospectively. We'll figure that out tonight.
Your reaction to the President's comments, and there was nothing
that he said that was inappropriate. I think it might
(08:05):
have been nice if he mentioned Donald Trump's name, but
he didn't have to. Certainly he was not treated particularly
well by Donald Trump in twenty twenty or in twenty
twenty one, There's no no doubt about that. But also
i'd love to get from you, and you know, if
you're a Biden supporter, give us a rating of the
Biden years. History will write the record that Joe Biden
(08:31):
will have to live with historically. But I'd love to
know what you think successful. I think there are some
areas of success in some areas of failure. As often
with precedents, it is a mixed bag. My name's Dan Ray.
Here's the number six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven, nine, three one, ten thirty and
(08:52):
we always have this triple eight number. I'm not sure
if anybody takes advantage of triple eight number anymore, but
it's triple eight nine two, nine, ten thirty. We'll be
back with phone call later on tonight. We will certainly
talk about what has gone on in the Middle East
today and hopefully as dawn begins to encroach. In the
Middle East, it's morning over there, it's tomorrow. But let
(09:16):
us hope that everything goes well and hostages are released,
and that this ceasefire turns into some form of a
permanent ceasefire and maybe even some sort of an agreement
where some form of order can be restored. And I
also will talk a little bit later on about a
couple of other more local subjects. But we start off
(09:37):
tonight with Joe Biden, and you're my guest tonight. I
have no experts schedule. I could have brought in any
number of experts to comment on the president's legacy, but
I would much prefer to hear from all of you.
Back on Nightside right after this commercial break and the
news at the bottom of the hour, It's night Side
(09:59):
with Dan Ray, Boston's News Radio. We're gonna start it
off first with Paul in Needham. Hey, Paul, thanks for
checking in. By the way, Congratulations on that vote yesterday
on the MBTA Communities Act. That was kind of a
pretty overwhelming no.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
He is happy new year did on the grading system.
I give Biden a complete failure. I wish him happiness
and good health in the years to come. But I
am very glad to see him go. I listened to
that speech tonight and there was one thing that really
disturbed me. Twice he mentioned just pay your fair share. Twice.
(10:44):
He mentioned then that's that family has been under suspicion
and investigation for years receiving money illegally. His son was.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I got to just say this, paull nothing has ever
been proven. There have been all sorts of allegations I'm
and I'm not familiar with those, and often people will say, oh, well,
this month is fired, but nothing has ever been proven.
And I, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
What about I know he's not responsible for his son's actions,
but what about the son he was convicted of. He
owes one point four million in federal taxes, doesn't.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
He that's true? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe that. I
believe that he has some sort of pal who pays
it off for him. Most people who owe the IRA's
money do not have a dad who's president of the
United States or a good friend who will pay off
those taxes for him. You know what I'm saying. We
(11:42):
got maybe a relationship there.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
He tried the committee. He did commit in the Legal
Act that the son is And I say, I know
that the file is not responsible for the son's behavior,
but I still he said his son as a decent,
good human being, and that's the foulest opinion of the son.
But the bottom line is the sun always one point
four million in taxes. But he's telling me and other
people that are listening, you pay your fair year. Yeah,
(12:07):
twice he mentioned that I found very disturbing.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Well, the way you got to remember this just to
support your argument, the son not only had the advantage
of having a dad as president and having someone step
forward and pay the one point four million in taxes,
and also I think there were some people who paid
a lot of money for the son's artwork. But put
that aside, I believe President Biden did pardon his son,
(12:35):
and that sort of kind of goes against the axiom
that no one should be above the law, because I
think if you're getting a presidential pardon from your from
your dad, that kind of puts you in a category
of distinction. Let's put it like that.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I think that the way he handled Afghanic was bad.
He mentioned also about all the jobs he created. I
don't know how many millions of jobs he said he
created Yeah, I doubt that's true. I doubt that's true.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Well, what happened is, you know, was that a lot
of companies because of COVID closed and a lot of
people lost jobs. And then there was an effort between
both in fairness, both the Trump administration and the Biden
administration to restore the economy. And slowly but surely, there
was a vaccine that was developed, and there was a
lot of controversy about it, but it was developed, remember
(13:33):
warp speed. And once the vaccine came along, people's anxieties
left a little bit and people slowly but surely went
back to work. So on when COVID occurred. When COVID
arrived in late January early February of two thousand, Donald
Trump was president of the United States. So for the
(13:53):
next twelve months we lost jobs, There's no question about that.
Once Joe Biden became president in January twenty twenty one,
a lot of those jobs started to come back because
the economy came back and COVID. You know, as horrible
as COVID was, it is not as damaging economically as
(14:18):
dangerous today as it was back then, nor was it
as dangerous in twenty twenty three or twenty twenty two
and jobs came back. So yeah, it's like he could
take he could say seventeen million. But I think you
got to put into some context in what is what
you're trying to do.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
But again, I say to tell the public, do I
pity your fairst year is? And that's family's under a
lot of suspicion, and uh it's.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Also anyways, it's no one ever defines what fairs year means.
I mean, that's that is a talking point, and no
one what does it mean? Do certain people who make
up to say, I don't know, fifty thousand dollars pay
nothing to people will make up to one hundred thousand
dollars pay nothing to people who pay up to make
(15:04):
up to a million dollars pay nothing. And then we
just tax anybody who makes over a million dollars, you know, uh,
seventy five percent. I don't know. I mean, it's it's
a moving target. Paul, did you vote everybody on the
MBTA of Communities acting need him?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
No? I did not.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Well watch it closely. There was a very it was
a very interesting vote yesterday. And it's an issue that
that you know, We talk about a lot here on Nightside.
Thanks so much, Paul, Thank you all right, you too
if you like to talk about President Biden's farewell speech,
or also just give us your assessment of how he did.
(15:46):
I mean pretty much all the statistics, whatever you want. Uh,
the four years of Joe Biden are about to end.
They still have a few days left. But I'd love
to have you give him a grade. Paul did not
give him a good grade. Love to know what you think.
Let's see what Flawence. Thanks, Florence and Groveland. Next on Nightside.
Florence welcome. Oh Florence may not be there, so we'll
(16:08):
put Florence on hold and we'll go to Joe and Salem. Hi, Joe,
how are you welcome?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Dan, Thanks for taking my call. I'm doing great. How
are you doing?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
I'm doing excellent, excellent. We well, we're talking about Joe
Biden's speech. Did you watch the speech?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
No, I caught it on WBZ. I did not watch it.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Well, I mean, thank you very much for listening to
it on WBS. What I meant by that, obviously there's
not much action in a presidential address. You can listen
to it, and so what'd you think, well.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I thought, you know, it was you know what's expected.
He's going to cover the high points and everything. But
I'd have to give him an ad because I think
he's he had a good team around him. Uh. He
did his best, for sure, for the country. I don't
think some people do that. He was working for himself.
(17:00):
He certainly wasn't selling sneakers and bibles and walking things
to the American people while he was in office. I
think was focused on his job, and I think he
set the table for the next guy saying, look, I
didn't I didn't achieve a total solution for climate change
for AI for billionaires controlling our economy. And I think
(17:23):
the paying the fair share, I thought that was more
directed to billionaires. Maybe I misunderstood that, but I thought
the paying the fair share was the billionaires the oligarch,
so to say, because we don't want a Putin style
cryptocracy here. And I think he was setting up the
major issues. I didn't hear him mentioned Greenland, Canada or
(17:44):
Panama as some of the priorities of the USA, and
I'm glad I didn't. But I did hear AI the
economy and the climate crisis.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Sure, well, let me. Let's let's talk about the billionaires. Okay,
let's tax all the billionaires one hundred per cent every
dollar that they make. We tax him. How much of
the federal debt do you think that would take off
the books?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Not much? Well, I'm not saying much. Well, I hope.
I think thirty five trillion uh is too high for
this country to carry. But at the.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Second it's thirty seven. Just to bring up to day
the part, well, that's well, that's a big that's not
a huge difference, but it's going in the wrong direction.
We agree on that.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Let me ask you this, Uh, it probably won't take
off much, so we need to do some maybe some
structural things. But I don't think tax cuts for billionaires
with what you call it thirty seven trillion dour debt,
I don't think the timing for that is right at
this moment. That's uh, that's my personal know.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Let's see what what Donald Trump puts forward. You know,
when when the President spoke tonight, he talked about robber
barons and busting trust and olive grape of the wealthy
and all of that. There are some really wealthy people
in America. You're absolutely right, and most of those wealthy
people supply jobs. I mean, they're not generally sitting on
(19:13):
their wealth. They're trying to reinvest it. And are you
sure that at the top for guys, for folks like
me go ahead.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
There's a lot of stock buybacks. I don't know if
you've even during Biden. You know, companies like Exxon and Chevron,
they're buying out other companies that are in their business.
They're not investing in alternative energy technologies projects or anything
on that line. And it's prolonging the agony of you know,
(19:45):
the climate crisis basically, and it hits in different ways
in different areas. And you know, they're they're they're misguiding
people to talk about the budget for firefighters in Los
Angeles that has nothing to do with the hurricanes in
Floria or North Carolina, And it doesn't have anything to
do with one hundred mile an hour winds in California.
(20:05):
Not that seventeen million dollars in their budget would have
made any difference on that, well, it would have made.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
A difference, of course, it would have made a difference.
How can you how could you you know, you want.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
To count one hundred mile an hour winds? I don't
think they could have thought that. I don't care what
kind of equipment or manpower they have. I don't think
they can fight hundred mile an hour wins.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Well, the well, look, the more and.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
The and the dry underbrush, the more the what and
the dry underbrush there was one.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Hundred That's another that's another good question. Uh. Was that
dry underbrushed something that was foreseeable? Was that an issue
that perhaps some work could have been done and maybe
those fires would not have been as ferocious? The Santa
Anna winds, as I understand, that are kind of what
would we have? We have we have cold weather in January,
(20:53):
they have Santa Anna wins Uh, October, November and January.
So uh, I mean this will look.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
But they have no rain dan out there. That's the
other thing. So you're to your point, could those lands.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Well, by the way, man, by the way, it.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Is not your point.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Well, I want to respond to one thing you said,
just factually, in the year, You're correct, the rain in
twenty twenty four has been very, very sparse. In twenty
twenty three, My understanding is that Los Angeles had records
amount of rain, and what that records amount of rain
did was it spurred growth in the forests rain, you know, right,
(21:32):
and so so, yeah, there are things that were going
on that people should have been able to foresee and said, hey,
maybe we need to start clearing some of that stuff out.
Go ahead. I didn't. I did not mean well, I
meant to interrupt you, but I wanted to clarify what
you were saying.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah, yeah, so I'm agreeing with you, though it could
have been better managed. That's not going to do it.
When you have the situation you had the year before
where there were these record rains, then you have no
rain whatsoever that dries out everything, including the new growth
and all that. You're setting up for disaster. And I
don't know what kind of management, but we got.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I'll tell you what kind of management. It was bad management.
You've got to understand that we can't stop Santa Anna winds.
As I understand it now. Maybe there's a way that
you could propose that it stops Santa Anna winds.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Impose something else. I can propose how to avert a
climate crisis. And I'm just parroting what the leading climate
sciences say, and basically, when you add carbon to the
atmosphere to the skies. You're going to trap heat on
the surface of the earth. So that's in the air,
(22:39):
the land, and the water, okay. On the surface of
the earth you trap more heat okay, And that's drought okay.
And then when drought happens, you have a lot of
a vapor evaporation. Then you get these crazy biblical rains
once a year. And that's the thing, Dan. Everybody talks
about a thousand year storms, a thousand years fires, but
(23:00):
they're happening every year, and so there's something systemic about that.
And the answer is with the climate sciences say all
the time, you got to cut the file fuels out.
It doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I understand, and we can. You
know what I'm gonna do. We will have some some
climate change, thorough climate change stories. I can only tell you.
I don't know how old you are, but I bet
you're younger than I am, because everybody's younger than I am.
How old are you?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Not? Much? Oh much?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Do you remember? You remember the blizzard of seventy eight?
Do you remember the blizzard of seventy eight?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, I was visiting here then. I didn't live here then,
but yeah I do.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, I mean, we thought that was catastrophic. Do you
remember Hurricane Diane from nineteen fifty four. We've had these now,
believe me. Yeah, we've had You can look them up.
I mean there is a history of some storms here. Okay. Uh.
And I want to save the planet too. I also
want to don't want to destroy our economy. And there's
(23:57):
some places around the world that are just belching stuff
into the atmosphere, places like India, Pakistan and China. They
ain't changing, and I we should do we can whatever
we can, but we also need to do some work
with it a change.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
We're not changing either, We're not.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Why are you looking like, how.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Many electric vehicles were on the road here in America
twenty years ago? Other than many?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
So our electric vehicles slowly but surely coming online.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I hope you're telling a stranglehold on that industry. I
hope they are.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
But again, you said to me, we're not changing. I'm
telling you we are changing. That's all Joe. I hate
to do this year, but I'm up in my break.
This was an excellent call. Have you called before?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah? Yeah, you gave me an assignment and I fulfilled it,
but I couldn't get back to you because you had
taken off or something. But on the immigration and the cages,
I looked into that for you, and Obama did start it.
They didn't use it as much as a policy as Trump,
and it was on the APEC and that a lot
of good news sources had it that way.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
And well, I think I said, I think I said
that that the pictures that we used of the children
in cages were taken while President Obama was president. That
was the point I was trying to get to you.
Thank you for doing that. Thank you fact checking me,
Thank you for fact checking me. Joe. I got to
run call again anytime, anytime, and we'll do something on
climate change. We'll get some We'll get some people on
(25:29):
both sides of the equation.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
That's where my expertise is, and renewable energy and climate
not climate as much.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Loved to a lot more about Send me some materials
and we can work on it. Thank you much. Got
to take a quick break here. Boy. Joe was a
great caller. We disagreed on a lot, but I love
that call. I hope you did as well. I got
open lines six, one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty,
six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. You heard
or you watched President Obama tonight. Joe gives President Obama
(25:57):
and a Paul gave him, didn't give him an a
F I think he said a game in f I
want to know what your grade is on President obama
farewell speech tonight. You heard it is addressed to the
nation President Biden. I'm sorry, what did I say? Rob?
Tell me in my ear? Okay, I'm sorry. I was
still thinking about what he President Biden's farewell speech tonight.
(26:20):
These they keep changing, these presidents every four years. It's
tough to keep up with them. Call us. He us
called me back on Night's Side right after this. Now
back to Dan Ray live from the Window World.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
BOYIM a couple of minutes left here, So if you
want to continue to talk about the president's farewell address tonight,
you're more than welcome six one seven, two, five, four
ten thirty or six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
What I would like to get to is the news
story of the day, and that is a cease fire
in the war between Israel and Gaza. I think that
if you look back sixteen months ago when Israel was
under attack by Hamas, this surprise attack at dawn on
(27:15):
that Saturday morning. Israel was in a world of hurt.
They have survived and they have turned the Middle East
in an amazing way in a relatively short period of time.
Hamas has been decimated, has the Lah literally destroyed in
(27:38):
so many many ways. Assad is no longer in Damascus.
The Middle East now is ripe for significant change. And
I think that we've never had such an opportunity. And
(27:59):
I know that President Trump is going to claim some credit.
Certainly Joe Biden and the Biden administration will claim some credit,
but I credit the Israeli government and specifically Benjamin Nattanyahu
and the IDF forces. We will talk about that, and
I will continue to talk about Biden. So those are
(28:20):
the two options you have. Joe Biden's farewell speech and
give You can give him what you think he should
get for a final grade. Well, we also can talk
about Israel and this amazing comeback that culminates today in
a cease fire. Not the end of the war, but
a ceasefire. We're back on Night's side. Right after the
(28:40):
break light. These lines up and let's have some interesting
conversation between now and midnight.
Well, welcome back everyone. The President has just delivered his
farewell address to the nation when about nineteen minutes I
hope you listen to it here on WBC courtesy of
ABC News. And it was a statement of his accomplishments,
his view and his dreams. And we can hit some
(00:21):
of the highlights, but what I'm looking for initially, and
we'll probably take a break at eight point thirty here
and try to catch up a little bit, so if
you want to try to get in and respond to
what the president said, There was nothing monumental in this
speech tonight, nothing especially memorable from what I can from
what I heard, I have no idea who wrote the speech,
(00:45):
but you know, he started taking credit, which is understandable
for the Israeli Hamas hostage deal. He was asked today
by a reporter if whether or not he should take
credit or if former president soon to be president Donald
Trump should That will be sorted out. And then he
began with a story about the Statue of Liberty, talked
about checks and balances, complimented his vice president, talked about
(01:10):
his accomplishments once in a century pandemic, the recovery of
which was underway when he took office in January of
twenty twenty one. He did take credit for recovery from COVID.
Talked about new roads, bridges, semiconductors, medicare, power to negotiate.
They talked about medical care for veterans and their families.
(01:32):
Seventeen million new jobs. Many of those jobs, as you know,
were lost during COVID, and many of them came back.
He talked about strengthening NATO, Ukraine still being free, no
reference to the debaclet in Afghanistan of the summer of
twenty twenty three. He wished, without naming the incoming administration
(01:55):
to succeed. No mention of his successor or his predecessor
for that. Donald Trump talked about Then he got serious
and talked about the dangerous concentration of power, the oligarchy
of the wealthy, as he put it. Talked about how
one hundred years ago Robert Robert Barns and trust needed
to be busted and that the same way today, wealthy
(02:17):
have to pay their fair share. Talked about the threat
of climate change, invoked briefly North Carolina and California, which,
of course we're all I think very much aware. I've
talked about powerful forces, powerful forces that are out and about.
He talked about Matta, It didn't mention Metta Facebook Mark Zuckerberg,
who has said that Matta will no longer fact check, Well,
(02:41):
just a parenthetical comment on that. We have been doing
fact checking, I think in this country for a long time,
and it's considered political debate, and I think we'll do
just fine with or without fact checking. We've had other
fact checkers newspapers besides Facebook, so I think we will
(03:07):
survive with the end of fact checking. Talked about the
threats of AI, the potential benefits, but also the threats.
He talked about the necessity of term limits for the
US Supreme Court eighteen years. No mention of term limits
for members of Congress. However, he did say members of
Congress should not be allowed to trade in stock, and
(03:30):
he did say that there should be a constitutional amendment
making it very clear that no president should be immune
from prosecution, no president should be above the law. I
think we know who he was thinking about when he
talked about that. He concluded by thanking his administration, members
of his administration first responders, who obviously have been in
the forefront of some real crises in this country. In
(03:53):
the last few months, between the hurricanes and the storms
in the southeast and the fires near Los Angeles. Thank
the military specifically thanked again Vice President Harris for a
second time, and the historic first gentleman thanked his wife,
doctor Jill. Biden talked to his entire thanked his entire
(04:16):
family without mentioning anyone other than doctor Biden did not
mention his son Hunter, which is fine, and then he
thanked the American people, and that was it. It was
nineteen minutes. I don't think it will go down as
the most memorable presidential farewell in history, but it is done,
(04:39):
and he has a couple of opportunities in the next
few days perhaps well. Of course, on Monday, will he
will welcome President elect and Missus Trump to the White House.
I assume that he will ride in the motorcade with
President Elect and Missus Trump to the Capitol. My suspicion,
(05:01):
although I don't know it for sure, is at that
point he would depart and head to andrewser for space
for a short flight home to Delaware or a longer
flight to somewhere else. I mean, he has many friends
around the country, and many of those friends are wealthy
(05:22):
friends who have lovely places for where where he could
vacation or where he could move into retirement, I guess
would be the more appropriate term. So I just love
to hear from each of you your reaction. I'd like
to focus, at least for the balance this hour on
the administration, which now is let's see, it's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Friday, Saturday,
(05:48):
about one hundred and twenty hours left. So in this administration,
the days are dwindling down for President Biden and our numbers.
You can join us here on Nightside. Again, I should
have introduced myself. I'm Dan Ray, the host of NIGHTSI,
and I assume if you're listening to WBZ at this
the night on a weeknight, you kind of have had
that figured out. Rob is back in the control room.
(06:10):
So I'll ask you for two really two questions. What
did you think of the speech? I thought the speech
was pretty unremarkable. I thought it was a nice summation,
but there wasn't anything new. I guess in a farewell
speech you don't learn much that is new. You learn
about the perspective of the person who's saying farewell, and tonight,
(06:34):
Joe Biden said farewell, fifty two years in public service.
Was elected as a United States Senator while he was
twenty nine years of age in November of nineteen seventy two,
and he turned thirty by time he took the oath
of office that following January and January of nineteen seventy three.
So he has been with I guess for just four
(06:58):
years when he was outside of public office during the
first Trump administration. So however you cut it, it's a
half a century as an elected official, as a US Senator,
as a vice president for four years, for eight years,
excuse me, and as the president for four years. So
it's a long run for President Biden, and it will
(07:22):
end in a few more days. That sort of in
some respects technically ended tonight, but he will remain President
of the United States, and I certainly wish him well
and wish him a lot of health, good health in
the years to come. One of the things that we
will be watching, I think, in the next few days,
is whether or not there are any other members of
(07:44):
the Biden family who President Biden decides that he needs
to pardon perspectively or retrospectively. We'll figure that out tonight.
Your reaction to the President's comments, and there was nothing
that he said that was inappropriate. I think it might
(08:05):
have been nice if he mentioned Donald Trump's name, but
he didn't have to. Certainly he was not treated particularly
well by Donald Trump in twenty twenty or in twenty
twenty one, There's no no doubt about that. But also
i'd love to get from you, and you know, if
you're a Biden supporter, give us a rating of the
Biden years. History will write the record that Joe Biden
(08:31):
will have to live with historically. But I'd love to
know what you think successful. I think there are some
areas of success in some areas of failure. As often
with precedents, it is a mixed bag. My name's Dan Ray.
Here's the number six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven, nine, three one, ten thirty and
(08:52):
we always have this triple eight number. I'm not sure
if anybody takes advantage of triple eight number anymore, but
it's triple eight nine two, nine, ten thirty. We'll be
back with phone call later on tonight. We will certainly
talk about what has gone on in the Middle East
today and hopefully as dawn begins to encroach. In the
Middle East, it's morning over there, it's tomorrow. But let
(09:16):
us hope that everything goes well and hostages are released,
and that this ceasefire turns into some form of a
permanent ceasefire and maybe even some sort of an agreement
where some form of order can be restored. And I
also will talk a little bit later on about a
couple of other more local subjects. But we start off
(09:37):
tonight with Joe Biden, and you're my guest tonight. I
have no experts schedule. I could have brought in any
number of experts to comment on the president's legacy, but
I would much prefer to hear from all of you.
Back on Nightside right after this commercial break and the
news at the bottom of the hour, It's night Side
(09:59):
with Dan Ray, Boston's News Radio. We're gonna start it
off first with Paul in Needham. Hey, Paul, thanks for
checking in. By the way, Congratulations on that vote yesterday
on the MBTA Communities Act. That was kind of a
pretty overwhelming no.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
He is happy new year did on the grading system.
I give Biden a complete failure. I wish him happiness
and good health in the years to come. But I
am very glad to see him go. I listened to
that speech tonight and there was one thing that really
disturbed me. Twice he mentioned just pay your fair share. Twice.
(10:44):
He mentioned then that's that family has been under suspicion
and investigation for years receiving money illegally. His son was.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I got to just say this, paull nothing has ever
been proven. There have been all sorts of allegations I'm
and I'm not familiar with those, and often people will say, oh, well,
this month is fired, but nothing has ever been proven.
And I, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
What about I know he's not responsible for his son's actions,
but what about the son he was convicted of. He
owes one point four million in federal taxes, doesn't.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
He that's true? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe that. I
believe that he has some sort of pal who pays
it off for him. Most people who owe the IRA's
money do not have a dad who's president of the
United States or a good friend who will pay off
those taxes for him. You know what I'm saying. We
(11:42):
got maybe a relationship there.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
He tried the committee. He did commit in the Legal
Act that the son is And I say, I know
that the file is not responsible for the son's behavior,
but I still he said his son as a decent,
good human being, and that's the foulest opinion of the son.
But the bottom line is the sun always one point
four million in taxes. But he's telling me and other
people that are listening, you pay your fair year. Yeah,
(12:07):
twice he mentioned that I found very disturbing.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Well, the way you got to remember this just to
support your argument, the son not only had the advantage
of having a dad as president and having someone step
forward and pay the one point four million in taxes,
and also I think there were some people who paid
a lot of money for the son's artwork. But put
that aside, I believe President Biden did pardon his son,
(12:35):
and that sort of kind of goes against the axiom
that no one should be above the law, because I
think if you're getting a presidential pardon from your from
your dad, that kind of puts you in a category
of distinction. Let's put it like that.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I think that the way he handled Afghanic was bad.
He mentioned also about all the jobs he created. I
don't know how many millions of jobs he said he
created Yeah, I doubt that's true. I doubt that's true.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Well, what happened is, you know, was that a lot
of companies because of COVID closed and a lot of
people lost jobs. And then there was an effort between
both in fairness, both the Trump administration and the Biden
administration to restore the economy. And slowly but surely, there
was a vaccine that was developed, and there was a
lot of controversy about it, but it was developed, remember
(13:33):
warp speed. And once the vaccine came along, people's anxieties
left a little bit and people slowly but surely went
back to work. So on when COVID occurred. When COVID
arrived in late January early February of two thousand, Donald
Trump was president of the United States. So for the
(13:53):
next twelve months we lost jobs, There's no question about that.
Once Joe Biden became president in January twenty twenty one,
a lot of those jobs started to come back because
the economy came back and COVID. You know, as horrible
as COVID was, it is not as damaging economically as
(14:18):
dangerous today as it was back then, nor was it
as dangerous in twenty twenty three or twenty twenty two
and jobs came back. So yeah, it's like he could
take he could say seventeen million. But I think you
got to put into some context in what is what
you're trying to do.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
But again, I say to tell the public, do I
pity your fairst year is? And that's family's under a
lot of suspicion, and uh it's.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Also anyways, it's no one ever defines what fairs year means.
I mean, that's that is a talking point, and no
one what does it mean? Do certain people who make
up to say, I don't know, fifty thousand dollars pay
nothing to people will make up to one hundred thousand
dollars pay nothing to people who pay up to make
(15:04):
up to a million dollars pay nothing. And then we
just tax anybody who makes over a million dollars, you know, uh,
seventy five percent. I don't know. I mean, it's it's
a moving target. Paul, did you vote everybody on the
MBTA of Communities acting need him?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
No? I did not.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Well watch it closely. There was a very it was
a very interesting vote yesterday. And it's an issue that
that you know, We talk about a lot here on Nightside.
Thanks so much, Paul, Thank you all right, you too
if you like to talk about President Biden's farewell speech,
or also just give us your assessment of how he did.
(15:46):
I mean pretty much all the statistics, whatever you want. Uh,
the four years of Joe Biden are about to end.
They still have a few days left. But I'd love
to have you give him a grade. Paul did not
give him a good grade. Love to know what you think.
Let's see what Flawence. Thanks, Florence and Groveland. Next on Nightside.
Florence welcome. Oh Florence may not be there, so we'll
(16:08):
put Florence on hold and we'll go to Joe and Salem. Hi, Joe,
how are you welcome?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Dan, Thanks for taking my call. I'm doing great. How
are you doing?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
I'm doing excellent, excellent. We well, we're talking about Joe
Biden's speech. Did you watch the speech?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
No, I caught it on WBZ. I did not watch it.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Well, I mean, thank you very much for listening to
it on WBS. What I meant by that, obviously there's
not much action in a presidential address. You can listen
to it, and so what'd you think, well.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I thought, you know, it was you know what's expected.
He's going to cover the high points and everything. But
I'd have to give him an ad because I think
he's he had a good team around him. Uh. He
did his best, for sure, for the country. I don't
think some people do that. He was working for himself.
(17:00):
He certainly wasn't selling sneakers and bibles and walking things
to the American people while he was in office. I
think was focused on his job, and I think he
set the table for the next guy saying, look, I
didn't I didn't achieve a total solution for climate change
for AI for billionaires controlling our economy. And I think
(17:23):
the paying the fair share, I thought that was more
directed to billionaires. Maybe I misunderstood that, but I thought
the paying the fair share was the billionaires the oligarch,
so to say, because we don't want a Putin style
cryptocracy here. And I think he was setting up the
major issues. I didn't hear him mentioned Greenland, Canada or
(17:44):
Panama as some of the priorities of the USA, and
I'm glad I didn't. But I did hear AI the
economy and the climate crisis.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Sure, well, let me. Let's let's talk about the billionaires. Okay,
let's tax all the billionaires one hundred per cent every
dollar that they make. We tax him. How much of
the federal debt do you think that would take off
the books?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Not much? Well, I'm not saying much. Well, I hope.
I think thirty five trillion uh is too high for
this country to carry. But at the.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Second it's thirty seven. Just to bring up to day
the part, well, that's well, that's a big that's not
a huge difference, but it's going in the wrong direction.
We agree on that.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Let me ask you this, Uh, it probably won't take
off much, so we need to do some maybe some
structural things. But I don't think tax cuts for billionaires
with what you call it thirty seven trillion dour debt,
I don't think the timing for that is right at
this moment. That's uh, that's my personal know.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Let's see what what Donald Trump puts forward. You know,
when when the President spoke tonight, he talked about robber
barons and busting trust and olive grape of the wealthy
and all of that. There are some really wealthy people
in America. You're absolutely right, and most of those wealthy
people supply jobs. I mean, they're not generally sitting on
(19:13):
their wealth. They're trying to reinvest it. And are you
sure that at the top for guys, for folks like
me go ahead.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
There's a lot of stock buybacks. I don't know if
you've even during Biden. You know, companies like Exxon and Chevron,
they're buying out other companies that are in their business.
They're not investing in alternative energy technologies projects or anything
on that line. And it's prolonging the agony of you know,
(19:45):
the climate crisis basically, and it hits in different ways
in different areas. And you know, they're they're they're misguiding
people to talk about the budget for firefighters in Los
Angeles that has nothing to do with the hurricanes in
Floria or North Carolina, And it doesn't have anything to
do with one hundred mile an hour winds in California.
(20:05):
Not that seventeen million dollars in their budget would have
made any difference on that, well, it would have made.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
A difference, of course, it would have made a difference.
How can you how could you you know, you want.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
To count one hundred mile an hour winds? I don't
think they could have thought that. I don't care what
kind of equipment or manpower they have. I don't think
they can fight hundred mile an hour wins.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Well, the well, look, the more and.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
The and the dry underbrush, the more the what and
the dry underbrush there was one.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Hundred That's another that's another good question. Uh. Was that
dry underbrushed something that was foreseeable? Was that an issue
that perhaps some work could have been done and maybe
those fires would not have been as ferocious? The Santa
Anna winds, as I understand, that are kind of what
would we have? We have we have cold weather in January,
(20:53):
they have Santa Anna wins Uh, October, November and January.
So uh, I mean this will look.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
But they have no rain dan out there. That's the
other thing. So you're to your point, could those lands.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Well, by the way, man, by the way, it.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Is not your point.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Well, I want to respond to one thing you said,
just factually, in the year, You're correct, the rain in
twenty twenty four has been very, very sparse. In twenty
twenty three, My understanding is that Los Angeles had records
amount of rain, and what that records amount of rain
did was it spurred growth in the forests rain, you know, right,
(21:32):
and so so, yeah, there are things that were going
on that people should have been able to foresee and said, hey,
maybe we need to start clearing some of that stuff out.
Go ahead. I didn't. I did not mean well, I
meant to interrupt you, but I wanted to clarify what
you were saying.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah, yeah, so I'm agreeing with you, though it could
have been better managed. That's not going to do it.
When you have the situation you had the year before
where there were these record rains, then you have no
rain whatsoever that dries out everything, including the new growth
and all that. You're setting up for disaster. And I
don't know what kind of management, but we got.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I'll tell you what kind of management. It was bad management.
You've got to understand that we can't stop Santa Anna winds.
As I understand it now. Maybe there's a way that
you could propose that it stops Santa Anna winds.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Impose something else. I can propose how to avert a
climate crisis. And I'm just parroting what the leading climate
sciences say, and basically, when you add carbon to the
atmosphere to the skies. You're going to trap heat on
the surface of the earth. So that's in the air,
(22:39):
the land, and the water, okay. On the surface of
the earth you trap more heat okay, And that's drought okay.
And then when drought happens, you have a lot of
a vapor evaporation. Then you get these crazy biblical rains
once a year. And that's the thing, Dan. Everybody talks
about a thousand year storms, a thousand years fires, but
(23:00):
they're happening every year, and so there's something systemic about that.
And the answer is with the climate sciences say all
the time, you got to cut the file fuels out.
It doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I understand, and we can. You
know what I'm gonna do. We will have some some
climate change, thorough climate change stories. I can only tell you.
I don't know how old you are, but I bet
you're younger than I am, because everybody's younger than I am.
How old are you?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Not? Much? Oh much?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Do you remember? You remember the blizzard of seventy eight?
Do you remember the blizzard of seventy eight?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, I was visiting here then. I didn't live here then,
but yeah I do.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, I mean, we thought that was catastrophic. Do you
remember Hurricane Diane from nineteen fifty four. We've had these now,
believe me. Yeah, we've had You can look them up.
I mean there is a history of some storms here. Okay. Uh.
And I want to save the planet too. I also
want to don't want to destroy our economy. And there's
(23:57):
some places around the world that are just belching stuff
into the atmosphere, places like India, Pakistan and China. They
ain't changing, and I we should do we can whatever
we can, but we also need to do some work
with it a change.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
We're not changing either, We're not.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Why are you looking like, how.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Many electric vehicles were on the road here in America
twenty years ago? Other than many?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
So our electric vehicles slowly but surely coming online.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I hope you're telling a stranglehold on that industry. I
hope they are.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
But again, you said to me, we're not changing. I'm
telling you we are changing. That's all Joe. I hate
to do this year, but I'm up in my break.
This was an excellent call. Have you called before?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah? Yeah, you gave me an assignment and I fulfilled it,
but I couldn't get back to you because you had
taken off or something. But on the immigration and the cages,
I looked into that for you, and Obama did start it.
They didn't use it as much as a policy as Trump,
and it was on the APEC and that a lot
of good news sources had it that way.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
And well, I think I said, I think I said
that that the pictures that we used of the children
in cages were taken while President Obama was president. That
was the point I was trying to get to you.
Thank you for doing that. Thank you fact checking me,
Thank you for fact checking me. Joe. I got to
run call again anytime, anytime, and we'll do something on
climate change. We'll get some We'll get some people on
(25:29):
both sides of the equation.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
That's where my expertise is, and renewable energy and climate
not climate as much.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Loved to a lot more about Send me some materials
and we can work on it. Thank you much. Got
to take a quick break here. Boy. Joe was a
great caller. We disagreed on a lot, but I love
that call. I hope you did as well. I got
open lines six, one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty,
six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. You heard
or you watched President Obama tonight. Joe gives President Obama
(25:57):
and a Paul gave him, didn't give him an a
F I think he said a game in f I
want to know what your grade is on President obama
farewell speech tonight. You heard it is addressed to the
nation President Biden. I'm sorry, what did I say? Rob?
Tell me in my ear? Okay, I'm sorry. I was
still thinking about what he President Biden's farewell speech tonight.
(26:20):
These they keep changing, these presidents every four years. It's
tough to keep up with them. Call us. He us
called me back on Night's Side right after this. Now
back to Dan Ray live from the Window World.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
BOYIM a couple of minutes left here, So if you
want to continue to talk about the president's farewell address tonight,
you're more than welcome six one seven, two, five, four
ten thirty or six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
What I would like to get to is the news
story of the day, and that is a cease fire
in the war between Israel and Gaza. I think that
if you look back sixteen months ago when Israel was
under attack by Hamas, this surprise attack at dawn on
(27:15):
that Saturday morning. Israel was in a world of hurt.
They have survived and they have turned the Middle East
in an amazing way in a relatively short period of time.
Hamas has been decimated, has the Lah literally destroyed in
(27:38):
so many many ways. Assad is no longer in Damascus.
The Middle East now is ripe for significant change. And
I think that we've never had such an opportunity. And
(27:59):
I know that President Trump is going to claim some credit.
Certainly Joe Biden and the Biden administration will claim some credit,
but I credit the Israeli government and specifically Benjamin Nattanyahu
and the IDF forces. We will talk about that, and
I will continue to talk about Biden. So those are
(28:20):
the two options you have. Joe Biden's farewell speech and
give You can give him what you think he should
get for a final grade. Well, we also can talk
about Israel and this amazing comeback that culminates today in
a cease fire. Not the end of the war, but
a ceasefire. We're back on Night's side. Right after the
(28:40):
break light. These lines up and let's have some interesting
conversation between now and midnight.
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