Ben Leber, Pat Kessler! - Bumper to Bumper 1/05/26 Hour Three

Bumper to Bumper with Dan Barreiro!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
If you want to chine to what's happening with your
favorite KFN shows, you can you make your voice heard
on the branch on Bryant kf an text line. So
let's know what you have to say about texting your
message at six four six eighty six. At six four
six eighty six, Dianner text message in data.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Right Supply Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is always the fine.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
Sponsor of the weekly Ben liber Experience on the Bumper
to Bumper program. He joins us now via the Connectico
Water Systems hotline. Let me ask you a very broad
based question before we get into some vikings material. Do

(00:54):
you let's go back to when Ben Lieber was playing
the game of professional football.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
I think I know where you're trying to set this
thing up. But let's let's go. Let's see if I'm accurate.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Well, you may or may not be. I think you're
I don't. I think I might disappoint you. But nevertheless,
here's my question. Seasons during seasons in which you did
not make the post see your team, the team you
played for did not make the postseason? H did you
completely tune out the rest of the playoffs? Want to
get as far away from the TV, from the plasma,

(01:28):
big screen four K that you could, or were you
completely and utterly committed to continuing to follow your game.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
You know, that's a really good question, because I think
it's I think it is situational. I think it's it's
kind of like how you exit the playoffs, if you're
if you're so close, or you know you you lose
on a sour note there. I feel like, when I
look back, there's been seasons where I'm like, I don't care.

(02:01):
I'm sort of poudy and I'm petulant and I'm juvenile,
and I'm like, I don't care. I don't if I
were not a part of this, I don't want to
watch it done. I'm out of here. Let me just
go on vacation and all this, you know, superficially keep
in touch with the NFL. And then there's other years
where yeah, I'm into it. I'm like, all right, I

(02:21):
think this team's gonna gonna win or whatever, and I
kind of follow a little more.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
Closely about the year where you were unfairly called past
interference and they're therefore deprived the opportunity to participate in
the biggest of all the goal.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
That one was a little a little tougher, a little
easier because there was only one game to watch, you know,
so it was hard though I do. I actually do
vividly remember watching that and having that that feeling in
my gut of how sort of painful it was to
watch the Saints go out there and and win again,

(02:58):
in which we knew, we all knew that talent wise,
that we would have beaten the Colts. It was like,
we got to get through this game. I mean, we
certainly weren't overlooking the Saints, but like once the game
was over and everybody knew what the matchup was going
to be, like, well, we would have stomped the Colts,
and I think we would have beat them more convincingly
than the Saints did.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
All right, and that wasn't the question. That wasn't where
you thought I was going? Is that fair?

Speaker 1 (03:25):
We couldn't know, Well, where.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Did you think? I'm curious? It's fine, because maybe we
should go there next.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Well, it all, it's sort of all. It is all
going to work out in the same way. But I
I thought that you were going to lead into because
I did get in my car a little earlier but
did hear you tease the fact that we were going
to talk about McCarthy's injury and all that other stuff.
So I thought it was gonna be injury really just
to kind of tee up the next time, Okayn, Either way,

(03:56):
I know that we're going to get to the same spot.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
Yeah, the injury one interest me because I don't want
to mischaracterize because I don't think I heard what you
said live. I'd rather have you, you know, explain exactly
what you said. It's I think gotten a pretty good
amount of attention, and you know what Johnny Athletics said, Look,
when an next player goes down the road that Ben did,
it's going to get my attention because he's played, you know,

(04:19):
he's he's indeed been out there. And I'm trying to
get a read on exactly how you felt about McCarthy
pulling himself, what you think it means, and then we'll
kind of go from there because I have a couple
of follow up questions as well. How did you take
it at the time, You feel about it the same
way now that you did at that moment?

Speaker 3 (04:40):
What do you make of it?

Speaker 1 (04:44):
I think certainly the twenty four hour cooling off period
has certainly been in play for me, so I don't
maybe feel as strongly about it as I did a
day ago, but I would just say it like like this,
here's the comparison. How do we look at the way
Carson Wentz played and the way that he was going

(05:05):
about his business with all of us as fans knowing
that his shoulder was pretty messed up. Now, we didn't
know the severity, right, We just knew it was pretty
messed up. We saw him scramble out of the pocket,
lower his shoulder, take a hit, and then writhe in pain,
and then get up, dust himself off and go play
another play. In hindsight, now I think that we look

(05:27):
at that characterization of a football player differently than when
you look at a player that pulls himself off the
field after one pass. Again, you know, I know that
medically he has stress fracture or a stress fractures, and

(05:48):
you know I also know that stress fractures sound may
be worse than they really are. Right, I don't claim
to know the full injury. You know, there might be
some ligament issues. I'm sure they checked that all out.
But when I as a former player who has been
around and heard about a lot of injuries from players
suffered injuries myself when it has to deal with a bone,

(06:13):
and most of the time with a bone injury, if
the doctor's an orthopedic say you're not going to further
hurt yourself by playing, it's a pain tolerance thing. Well
guess what. Most guys do whatever it takes to play
through the pain because proving toughness in a locker room matters. Yeah,

(06:35):
it may not to a lot of people out there,
it may not for a lot of people's jobs, but
internal respect is something guys crave and they try to
earn all the time. And I think any player that
I think prematurely pulls yourself off the field in that

(06:55):
manner in which we saw, I just I didn't like it.
I didn't like the ops of it, you know. So
you know, I know that's like toxic masculinity, man, But
in the NFL and in football, in the physical game,
I think that stuff matters.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Yeah, no, it's an honest answer. I mean what I
what I was talking about earlier. And I don't know
if I was doing this during the show or during
a break, because Common was around here a couple times
because he keeps forgetting stuff. He tends to forget things,
so he ends up being back in the studio. What
I said was the part that doesn't add up to
me is that I would assume that by now McCarthy

(07:34):
has to realize that one of the things that's working
against him. Let's leave a side performance for a moment,
one of the biggest things working against him is just
whether he's available to play right and so that I
would think, given that circumstance, he'd say, the last thing
I want to do is leave this field, even against

(07:55):
a team playing mainly second stringers or third stringers, whatever
they were, because.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Playing time is my currency right now.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
I gotta be out there whenever I can, you know,
presumably you know, confirming the notion that I can stay
out on the field. So part of me says, well,
if he knows that in his head, he must have
felt something was really wrong for him to still pull
himself out of the game, does that make any sense?

Speaker 1 (08:24):
So it makes sense. I guess the thing that we'll
never know, and it's probably unfair for me to assume this,
But I also think that it's human nature. Given the
circumstances of this whole season, and the way that you
laid that out, it is probably accurate to assume this.
But let's just say that this game was not for nothing.

(08:44):
Let's say this Green Bay Packers game was a game
in which you win and you're in the playoffs. Does
JJ McCarthy take himself out of it, out of the
game on the first pass of the second half, right,
We'll never know. We will never know. But if everybody
internally can maybe look at this now and say, like, no,

(09:06):
he would not have taken himself out like he would
have gutted through it, well, that's kind of my answer.
That's kind of where I'm going with this. It's like,
I don't care what the game circumstances are, like, You've
got a bigger picture that you have to kind of
consider and think about here. And I'm with you. I
think that that's this self awareness part that I think

(09:28):
was sort of lacking in that specific moment.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah. Yeah, And now I think I had a very
different reaction than you did.

Speaker 4 (09:37):
Although I don't want to speak for you regarding the
taunting penalty. I hated the play. I thought I don't
think he looked tough. I don't even think that. Again,
you're the ex player, So you can tell me that no, no, no,
that's exactly what players like about.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
They gravitate towards that.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
That just looked awkward and stupid and none necessary for
a guy who hasn't really establish enough for me as
a quarterback to go down that particular road.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
What what? But did you were you as bothered by
it as I was?

Speaker 1 (10:10):
You know? I got to be honest, in the moment,
I wasn't as bothered.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
I do.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
I would rather, I would rather be in that world.
And I think I've used this same this same terminology
maybe even regarding McCarthy, I would rather say whoe than go?
And in those moments, I think that's a teaching moment
that that does not bug me as much because I
do agree with you, like I think in totality, like

(10:40):
there's an establishment, a reputation that he still has to
earn and he's still building towards. And I don't think
in that moment that you need to taunt a player
in a game situation like that when you really haven't
established much clout, you know. So I completely understand why
a lot of people are turned off by that. I

(11:00):
myself was like, I still like the I still like
the piss and vinegar out of it. I still enjoy that.
I I think that it is something that can be
honed and not something that needs to be taken away,
which is exactly why I think there there is optim
a lot of optimism for me towards him with the
future of this organization, because I do there is that

(11:23):
fiery intensity I do think is real, I really do.
I don't think that that's manufactured. I don't think that's
something that he has to conjure up. I think that
that's real, and I think that's something as long as
he can harness that and use it in the right
way going forward, like to the point where it doesn't
get them all out of sorts processing the next play
or whatnot. I think that's an intangible that we should

(11:46):
be excited about, Like we've got a fiery quarterback that
in the fourth quart of a big game is going
to bring it and bring that extra intensity.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
But do you have any trepidation, any reasonable leave that
Brian Flores will not be the defensive coordinator of the
Vikings next season, even if he does not receive a
head coaching job.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
See, that's really difficult for me to say because I
I just don't I would not understand maybe the mechanics
behind the scenes of why he would make a lateral move.
And and I know that a week ago it was
floated around that it's possible that he was going to
end up with Dallas, and I thought, Man, why does

(12:35):
he want to walk into a toxic situation where the
head coach is looking at, you know, himself as a
lame duck coach and he's the coaching waiting. I don't
think that he would take that job. And I don't
think that he'd take that job kind of anywhere. Everybody
looks at him as a head next head coach, So
why why would he want to walk into that situation
if it's not a head coaching you know job, right

(12:59):
right off the bat, I think that he wants a
head coaching job, and I can't imagine you take a
lotteral move.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
All right, Well, I just I don't know. It's we're
gonna have seaferd on tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
We had John Krasinski on earlier, and I guess keep
getting these It's it's very vague, but I keep getting
this sense that there's something at something else, and I
don't want to create controversy where there isn't. But I
just feel like this should be automatic again if he's
not going to be in the head coaching derby that
you know, the deal's already done and he's here now

(13:28):
maybe this maybe tomorrow will be announced and everything, Oh,
this will go away.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
So we'll see.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
But it kind of interests me, and it kind of
intrigues me because I you know, I can't imagine a
bigger loss to this team if he's not running the
defense again next year, can you?

Speaker 1 (13:44):
No? I can't. I mean, you know, short of you know,
a freak Justin Jefferson injury in the offseason that takes
him out of twenty twenty six. I mean, I can't
think of a tougher situation to come back from.

Speaker 4 (13:58):
You know.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
The other thing is is when you look at the loss,
at the potential loss of Brian Flores, it's do you
really want to change the scheme? You know, like every
one of these the coordinators and offense or defense, like
you bring in your own style, You have your own
players that kind of fit what you do. I think

(14:19):
what he does is so unique. It's not just about
the pressures. It's not just like the frequency of blitzes
and the creativity of some of the disguises. It's the
guys that operate within that system that makes it unique.
And so I think that you must bring in a
protege somebody what that's on the staff right now elevates

(14:41):
somebody that has the same mentality that's going to run
the same scheme. Because if you switch up schemes and
now go to a true base four three or something
like that, or even just a modern three four front
that doesn't have all these moving parts and components, I
don't think that you're going to get the best out
of some of the players. I mean Andrew van Ginkel.
I think as a prime example, they changed the defense

(15:03):
after Bflow left. When he left Miami, Kink did not
have as much production in this new scheme, and then
he comes here and he picks up the production right
back to where he was, in the same type of
fenacity that Bflow fell in love with when he was
at Miami. So how many of those guys would get
affected by a switch up in scheme, I don't know,

(15:26):
something I actually don't want to have to figure out
next year.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
Ben Lieber joining us on the fan. A lot of
good texts coming in. We're going to try to include
a few of those as well. So we've got it
appears two players who might be calling it a career.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
CJ. Ham you had a nice conversation with him.

Speaker 4 (15:47):
I happen to be listening via the iHeartRadio app right
after the game, and obviously Harrison Smith, did you come
away from the pomp and circumstance during game and postgame
utterly can convinced that they are both done as Minnesota
Vikings Or do you think in any way that in

(16:07):
the at least in the case of Harrison Smith, the
door might have been reopened just on the basis of
what seemed to be, you know, a great end of
the season for him on the field.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, you know. I I think that the beauty of
hearing both of them talk about their potential last games
and kind of this the Swan song that they got yesterday,
I think the contrast and their answers does help us
answer the question for each one of them, meaning that

(16:41):
the way that Harrison was talking, he sort of felt
like he was leaving the door open for the perfect
situation for him to come back, maybe not in a
full season capacity of seventeen games. But I don't feel
like he's closing the door on a return either to
the Vikings if they're in a playoff push, or some
other team that's in a playoff push that fits his

(17:03):
style of play versus I don't think anybody heard those
terms and those words and any sort of nuance to
his answers out of CJ. Ham c J. Hams seemed
much more just declarative and appreciative for his time as
a player within the Vikings organization. So I feel like
CJ's probably done done regardless of who comes calling next year,

(17:26):
and I feel like Harrison Smith is leaving that door open.

Speaker 4 (17:30):
What I should say one other Harrison Smith question for you?
And I want to talk about Seffert a.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
Talk with Sefford about this tomorrow too.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
So is there a way for you to translate to
us rubs out here when there's ongoing conversation about just
how much authority Harrison Smith has been given in this
defense in what he in what is called one presumes?

Speaker 3 (17:58):
How does that work? I mean? Is it is?

Speaker 4 (18:01):
Is that true? Are there examples you can give us?

Speaker 3 (18:04):
Where so?

Speaker 5 (18:05):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (18:06):
You know?

Speaker 4 (18:06):
B Flow makes a call, But then Smith says, I
want to say, veto power, but the power to go
in a specifically different direction. Because he's got all this
moxie and they've given him this much authority, how does
that work?

Speaker 1 (18:20):
So I would say my best guesstimate is it's more
about what happens during the week. It's more about, OK.
Bflow has a system. He has let's say, a strong
safety on the diagram, and obviously this is not something
that just happened this year. This is something that probably
was implemented, you know, in in their time before the

(18:43):
season even starts. As he built, he's already built that trust.
So it's like, here's the diagram, here's what the strong
safety or said safety is supposed to do. This is
your spot. This is what I want that guy to do.
And then I can see Harrison Smith saying, hey, you
know we did this last year, and I think I

(19:04):
can actually start in this spot over here because we
used to do this a lot and this would be
a good disguise. Trust me, I can make it to
my final spot, and Beflow being like, yeah, you're right,
I've seen you do that. If you can do that here,
that'll give them a great look. I think it's more
of conversations and dialogue that's like that versus they're on

(19:26):
the field. B Flow gives the defensive call and Harrison's like, yeah, no,
we're gonna change it. Just trust me. We're gonna do
this coverage and we're going to roll to this coverage
and I'm gonna play this corner spot and this guy's
going to replace me. I think a lot of it
has done more so during the week, and that's how
they learn the flexibility of how to like cheat the

(19:47):
defense using a veteran player.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
Pop Splash Player of the Game.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, this one's I think pretty easy. I'm just gonna
give it to CJ and Justin Jeffer Harrison Smith just
just for all the things that we have talked about,
you know, legacy and appreciation for their game, the way
they've handled their professionalism, and the way that I think
that they can. They truly are going to leave a
mark on the organization many many many years past today,

(20:17):
and a few guys get to do that, and I
think those there are two guys that you know, twenty years,
thirty years from now, we're still going to remember and
appreciate how they approach the game and they respected the game,
So my Sierra Nevada Hopslash players of the game, c
J Ham and Harrison Smith.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
Now it certainly I think makes some sense.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
What's the official Ben leeber position on what seems to
be a growing consensus that even if you believe in JJ,
even if you believe that it's much too early to
give up on him, that there has to be a hedge,
and that the hedge has to be better than you know,

(20:58):
Sam Howell or even Carson Wentz, even if it's hard
to thread that needle to get a guy whould be
willing to do it, who's good enough to be a
good option, a veteran option at the quarterback position. Or
are you ready to say no, I've seen enough from JJ.
I'm more worried about obviously availability, but I want him

(21:19):
to still be the clear number one and and and
not be all that concerned about a hedge bet. What
do you think what's the best at best? I think
you believe approach for the Vikings going into the next season.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Unfortunately, I think there's a lot of options. You know,
we don't have the grace of just saying well, this
is our this is our new stance, and this is
what we're going to do. We're going to bring in
a veteran quarterback that can push him and actually put
him in the world of earning his spot. You know,
may the best man win and actually build the competition
with a true veteran that's kind of been there, done that,

(21:55):
that can run the same system. There aren't a lot
of guys out there. I'd be I'm going to be
really excited to see who they bring in because I
don't think that that guy really exists right now. That's
going to give a lot of people a lot of
like excitement of like, oh, yeah, this is the guy
and he's really going to push him. I think it's
gonna be like, oh, well, that's kind of the best

(22:16):
that we could get. And let's hope that McCarthy continues
to develop. I know that everybody wants to to make
the big trade with San fran and in that situation,
I don't know. I don't know why you you would
want to bring a guy in on a one year
kind of prove it deal. It doesn't make a lot

(22:38):
of sense to me, I don't I don't think that
he would be happy with that. And then if you're
going to be splashy, splashy, And I know everybody's talking
about Burrow and and Lamar Jackson. Well if that happens,
well then McCarthy's probably not even on the tee. I
don't even you don't bring you don't bring those one
of those two guys in and say, oh, yeah, you've

(22:59):
got an open petition. No, you probably gave up the
whole house to get one of those two guys. And
so he's not in your plans going forward. So you'd
have to either that's part of the trade or you
find a way to move him off the team and
then find another what you think is a capable backup. So,
unfortunately for Vikings fans, I don't know if there is

(23:19):
a lot of options. The best option going forward is
to find the best possible candidate to push him and
just hope that he really grinds at his development this
offseason and we see a much better version of himself
for seventeen full games next year.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
One last McCarthy question, at least for this session and
maybe for this season.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Two does he have to get stronger?

Speaker 4 (23:43):
I mean, has he got the kind of base where
he could he could be cut I just now you're
around him much more than I am, obviously, and I
know he's not like you know, he's not Doug Flutie,
he's not five to nine or anything. But he just
doesn't seem to me to have a very strong physical presence.
Does he need is that something he can do? Is

(24:05):
does he have the kind of body that allows him
to do that? Or is that meaningless to you?

Speaker 1 (24:10):
No, I think it's I think it's meaningful. I don't
know if it's I don't even know if it's the
number one thing that he has to prioritize. You know,
we did see when he was injured and how much
weight he actually lost when he couldn't work out and
couldn't do the things he wanted with the lower body injury,
so we know his weight can fluctuate if if he's
not conscious about it. But he is twenty two years old.

(24:31):
I mean the same thing can be said about Dallas Turner.
I mean they still have yet to develop their man body,
and yeah, they're not going to be in their prime
physical shape until they're probably twenty five or twenty six,
and then you can make some just flight adjustments after that.
So yeah, of course, I think just natural evolution and
natural development for a male. He's going to get stronger

(24:54):
if he puts the work into it. Do I need
him to be bulky by all means? No? Yeah. Could
he add some lower body strength for sure? Could he
add a little bit more upper body strength with lower mass, Yeah,
But I think you got to be careful about it
because you I sort of still appreciate his elusiveness and
his quickness on his feet.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
I mean, yeah, you don't want to lose that positive from.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yesterday's game, right, You don't want to lose that because
you know that's one of the reasons why you got him,
because he's athletic and he can move around.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Who is our number one running back next season?

Speaker 4 (25:25):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Probably probably somebody that they draft or they pick up
free agent wise, I love Jordan Mason for what he is,
you know, in spot moments, but I'm not convinced that
he's the He's RB one and sort of the bell
cow running back, So I don't think that he's on

(25:47):
our roster right now.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
Interesting, All right, So, what what's been Lever's plans now
that he will not have to mess with this program
every Monday between four forty six or seven and about
five twelve.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Well, unfortunately, and I do this the last couple of years,
since you've been so nice to have me on your
program at four forty seven every Monday, I will be
pulled over on the side of the road coming home
from work in the field position crying at four forty seven.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
No question.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
Well, look, here's what we'll say, open invitation. I mean,
you can ever, you can always call the hotline if
you hear something stupid or outrageous, or you just feel like,
you know, you need a little bit of the boost.
We'll be you know, and it doesn't have to necessarily
be at the same time. It could be a different
time too.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Wow, an open invitation. Yeah, and I heard you say
earlier when you actually brought me on, you said, I
think you said the Ben liber experience. Yeah, that's why
I feel like we've graduated and there's no experience.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
It's a different level. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:48):
When it becomes an experience, it's just well beyond, it's
not just an interview anymore. It's not a conversation. It's
a liber experience. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, now I feel like we've got to pay that
off by having being on your show a little bit
more Okay, goodness. I mean, what do you want to
talk about. You want to talk like Venezuela. You want
to talk walls, you want to talk immigration. We can
cover everything, we.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
Can broaden it out. Yeah that's Glenn.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
If it was up to Glenn Mason, that's what he
would be on like three hours a day and we
would talk almost no sports because I don't even think
he watches football anymore. But he wants to talk about
everything else. And I say, well, I tell.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
Me two old dudes is sitting in the coffee shop
the world's problem.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
That's pretty much it.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
Thanks for another great year, and we will, like I said,
maybe bug you a little bit for some playoff expertise
as we get closer, but we'll try to give you
a little time off as always. Thanks Ben, We appreciate
you you.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah no, and thank you seriously, thank you for having
me on. And it's always it's always a great chat.
I enjoy the the angles that that you asked, the
questions and the topics that we talk about. And yeah,
always a great time. And uh again I appreciate searing
about it for all their help. So appreciate it. Man,
enjoy playoffs.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Thank you, my friend.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
That is Nacho liber Ben Leber, brought to you by
the fine folks at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company have
been an outstanding sponsor of this segment for pretty much
as long as I can remember. Well, pause, don't forget bonus,
Pat Kessler. He's gonna be in studio beginning in about
fifteen minutes.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
The Wild look to take two and give none in
La as they battle to Kings Tonight, Punk drop just
after nine thirty pm. Your every goal, every save, every
game changing moment right here on your home for Wild.

Speaker 6 (28:33):
Kfe In.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Kesler in the house yet, haven't seen I haven't spotted
him yet. No, there he is.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
He's in the studio c So he's going to join
us in just about ten minutes. The Governor of the
Great State of Minnesota was about to say, make big news.
It sounded like it was kind of breaking last night,
but in that sense, pretty significant departure from previous positions taken.
And then he made it. The Governor made it official today.

(29:30):
There's already a number of very tantalizing, juicy conspiracy theories
being offered up about the Grand Plan here, and we'll
get special case you on that and a number of
other things. Bratcheawan Bryan kfe In text line will be

(29:50):
open for questions for Kessler observations on the Walls story
six four six eight six is the Bratshawn Bryant a
f A n text line. Playoffs are now set. Your
club taking on my club. That's a Saturday night game, correct,
it is? And really surprised by that. I thought we'd

(30:13):
get like a you get Sunday at well. The the betting,
the early betting line I thought was Packers by one
and a half or two. Now some people think, speaking
of conspiracy theories, that that's an attempt by you know,
the odds makers to get some action and then ultimately
it'll end up being Bears by one and a.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Half or two. I don't know. It is interesting to
note that you've been in the seventh position, is it
four straight years now or three three? Three straight years?

Speaker 4 (30:44):
So if they if the if the NFL hadn't added
another wild card team, you wouldn't even been in the playoffs,
just like the Purple Yeah, so you got that going
for you.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
For whatever it's worth, I.

Speaker 7 (30:55):
Say, we're just a half game in the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (30:57):
Your half game in the Vikings are half game out
of the playoffs, youre one hundred per correct. I must
also say that Sunday night game Man, that was good theater.
Whether he had any rooting interest in that game Ravens
and Steelers, I don't know that it can get much richer,

(31:19):
given it literally is the last game of the regular season.
And I don't want to say we didn't need him.
I really don't. I didn't want to say it. I'm
tired of saying it, but I was thinking it last night.

(31:39):
I really was. And I know Rogers of the course
of this season hasn't been great, but I don't think
they're blessed with a great receiving corps Metcalfs legit, but
then he wasn't He wasn't even available the last two games,
and they're in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
And he is.

Speaker 4 (32:00):
Performance yesterday was top notch, top notch. The game that
had to get them in the playoffs, Rogers was great.
And I've said this many times. I often selfishly make
my decision on the basis of the richness of the story,
and maybe that's not the sanest thinking, but I was

(32:24):
rooting for Rogers to come here. I think it would
have been a hell of a story. There's no guarantee
that it would have been successful. I get that, but
I also think he's still I was intrigued enough that
I would have done it. I absolutely would have done it,
and I'd stop worrying about whether I'm holding JJ back
or he's going to get frustrated if you wait too long.

(32:48):
I got to be honest, I'm especially not concerned going
in next season about getting JJ McCarthy frustrated. I'm not
saying he shouldn't be in the mix. I'm not saying
that he shouldn't be given a chance to move upon
his first season of major activity as an NFL quarterback.
But come on, and stop worrying about whether he' said, Oh,

(33:09):
he's gonna put him back, and that's going to hold
him back longer. That's not how you build a winning
football team. That's really not the thing you could worry about.
And as I've said earlier in the show, even if
you believe in him as a quarterback, even if you
believe you saw enough improvement, it's just a matter of time.

(33:32):
His lack of availability, as far as I'm concerned, demands
that you can no longer worry about worry about hurting
his feelings or getting him where he might be a
little frustrated here or might want to go someplace else. No,
no chance on that. I just I just don't believe it.

(33:56):
On the regarding whether he should have played or not,
I know Lieber feels strongly about it. It comes down
to this for me. I mean, it's here's what I
will say Liebers defense. I haven't really seen it much
to give him the benefit of the doubt him the
player JJ in that regard. Now if he literally can't

(34:17):
grip the ball any longer or can't hold it, obviously
that's pretty important when you're playing the quarterback position.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
But it's.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
It's just axiomatic that if you can't be on the field,
it almost doesn't matter how good you can be.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
When you are.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
And the double whammy I think that McCarthy is dealing with.
He wasn't good enough consistently enough to just stay tantalized
and to say we're going to be patient on the injuries.
He had weigh too many downs for me and a
couple of ups, but his overall numbers still weren't that good.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
And as a.

Speaker 4 (35:01):
Result, I don't know who that guy is to bring
in to put pressure on him. I don't know that's
easier said than done, but I just don't. I don't
think it can be. With all due respect to Max Rosmer,
I don't think it could be Max Prosmer, I really don't.
I don't think you can experiment at this position any longer.
And maybe maybe as we go through the playoffs, maybe

(35:23):
it'll something will crystallize, it'll be more obvious who they
might be interested in or who they might be able
to get their hands on.

Speaker 5 (35:31):
But I.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
I just know that whether whether you want to have
the discussion about toughness or not, if you can't be available,
teams can't plan around you. They can't build around you,
and they if they don't, if they just don't feel
like that they can count on your being on the
field to execute whatever grand plan, master plan that you

(35:54):
might indeed have in mind. Six point two guy, right,
this is Kyle. I have to eat crow Dan and
say I was against Rogers at the Starr season. I
feel the Viking squadron an opportunity with Rogers and a
wide open NFC. That's the other aspect of this, so
we talked about on sermons. It does feel wide open.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
It may not be.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
Sometimes things happen once the playoffs start and one team
becomes clearly the best. But starting the wild card weekend,
really on both sides there there's no one. I think,
do you look at and go they can't be beaten?

Speaker 3 (36:31):
Forget it? Why bother?

Speaker 4 (36:34):
And that's the other I'm sure for Vikings fans, the
disturbing aspect, frustrating aspect of this season having played out
the way that it did.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
Let's get a.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
Pause in and then we'll get to a very busy
day in the A section. We may not cover all
the international stories, but we will cover and even some
of the national ones. But we will certainly cover in
a great deal of depth the big news made in
the state of Minnesota, Governor Walls saying I'm done. I'm
not going to run for a third term as he

(37:10):
had pledged previously. We'll get into that reaction to it,
How it happened, Did somebody talk to him? What's the
master DFL plan moving forward? And as I talked about
on the news Nation today, my big break nationally, it
might not be a very big break actually, but it
was fun. Are the Republicans in this state who are

(37:33):
chortling excited over the fact that we got them. Do
they need to be careful that what they wished for
finally indeed came true. We'll explain next.

Speaker 5 (37:45):
I wish the American media would take a great look
at the views that the people in convert to find
out how the America America, because people have got to
know whether or not their presidents.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Are I can't trust omas An Airsler.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
Tear down the dish wall.

Speaker 5 (38:04):
I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis Airport Senatory.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
You're no Jack Kennedy Kressler.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
And now to help Dan break down all the tough
questions in politics, it's our own Kssler political Do.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
You endorse throwing weed? You're like a supermodel, except like Times.

Speaker 7 (38:22):
Ten's Jannel force Passer with Dan Morero on the fan.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
Emergency Bonus Kessler kind enough to join us in studio today.
Six four six eighty six is the Brat Shawn Bryant,
k FA N text line. Lots of important reaction to
get to from you, but maybe the most important thing
to get your reaction.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
On is the news that Coy Perrich might be turning
his come on on sky. You ma your thoughts.

Speaker 5 (39:05):
That is a gut punch. That's a gut punch. Never expected.
Did not see that coming. I thought he was part
of the family.

Speaker 4 (39:14):
And you know the culture, will you turn on him
as many already apparently have in Gopher Nation as Tim
Brewster used to call it.

Speaker 5 (39:23):
Well, I know that Sid would say he'll never get
a job here graduate, So where where.

Speaker 6 (39:28):
Will he go?

Speaker 3 (39:29):
That is the thing. So he's not good enough for Indiana?
He had Well, what if he ends up at Indiana? Then,
in Signetti, we trust if.

Speaker 5 (39:38):
He doesn't go there, he's not good enough. But if
he does go there, then he is enough, more than enough.
So this raises so many questions about what's happening in
college sports, and I do believe that Congress needs to
get involved. But in this case, people are coming and
going Ohio State, which as we all know, is now

(40:01):
out of it. Thirty five million dollars is what they
have in their NIL program. You know what do we
have like buck fifty? I think two d and fifty
thou let me say that we did buy a koy
Parish Jersey you for a little bit of money, you know,
to help help the KOI law.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
Right, Well, we bought it from the family and bought
it from the family.

Speaker 5 (40:24):
Yeah, yeah, so but he's left the door open, and
I'm not exactly sure what that means.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
What does that mean?

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Not much so in retrospect, I'm an idiot.

Speaker 5 (40:35):
I know that after the Bowl game they have the
post game, the comments from the players. Yes, so they
got Drake, and they got Jordan, and they got you know,
we have an NFL defensive end.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
You know, we have that. But he wasn't there, and
I didn't that, you know, I never thought about it.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
And now because they're all coming back, they're announcing their
coming back and he wasn't there.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
So, yeah, I feel bad about it.

Speaker 5 (41:03):
I wish him well, I guess it doesn't sound like
your heart feel bad. I feel terrible about it because, yeah,
I had a lot invested in him.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
Wanting to have the opportunity to play for a national championship.
Well luck with that all the throne. That's all I'm
gonna say. I mean, I admire the guy a lot.
I mean, Okay, so what are you going to pick?
You're going to go to? I guess LSU next year,
right with Lane Kevin, He'll be.

Speaker 4 (41:30):
A lot of people think Miami and maybe Ohio state
can go to Miami.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
Do not go to Miami.

Speaker 4 (41:36):
Good program, good nil, not a bad place to hang
that you don't have to worry about.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
In Miami.

Speaker 5 (41:43):
True enough, And I'd go to Miami today. Yeah so,
but but there's that. But I mean, what's the culture
on the Miami team. So I don't know the Canes.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Who want to him away from the national champions Yeah,
I mean that that's pretty good culture.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
But there are they going to be one game there?
I mean, were they playing Indiana?

Speaker 1 (42:04):
No?

Speaker 3 (42:05):
Indiana? Sorry? What am I thinking? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (42:08):
Old miss oh?

Speaker 3 (42:10):
Shoot there you go? Oh, I say, old miss Okay
and Indiana there? It is all right? So I feel bad,
but thank you for asking.

Speaker 4 (42:19):
And I want to get right the way first. I
didn't mean to, but the story seemed to be sort
of breaking last night. There was a good chance that
the governor was going to announce today that he is
stepping aside.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
He's not going to run after all of the third term.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
So I'm not going to sit here and tell you
that I'm totally I started the show saying I think
it was sort of inevitable. But there's always a question of, well,
what's gonna change, What changes from the day you say
I'm hanging in to the day you say I'm out.
So what do your best sources tell you and your

(42:54):
best instincts tell you as to how and why this
took place?

Speaker 5 (42:59):
Yeah, this is I think surprising, but I'm not shocked
by it. So I think that's a fair way of saying.
But they had so many different parts to this. How
do you get to I'm all in and all the
Democrats have to.

Speaker 6 (43:15):
Join you all in?

Speaker 1 (43:17):
In?

Speaker 5 (43:17):
How many four months ago to today where I'm getting out?
Something happened in between? And I was very disappointed that
he holds a press conference with the press who are
there to ask questions, and then doesn't take any questions.
Reads the prepared statement. We will start hearing some of
those answers. Something happened in between, and I suspect at

(43:42):
this point, and this is what people I'm talking to
are suspecting as well. You're starting to look at numbers now,
because whatever it is what he called today, the extremest
right wing propaganda machine over the last month, with this
daycare fraud, with the feeding our future fraud, with the
program fraud here in Minnesota, has ramped up to levels

(44:04):
that I don't think I have ever seen as quickly
as I have ever seen, and that changed the numbers. Now,
I believe that Governor Walls, who has a tremendous campaign
war chest, is regularly polling and there is a tipping
point at some point where you have to say, you
know what, not only am I going to lose, but

(44:25):
I'm going to take down the Democratic ticket with me.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
That is a major problem.

Speaker 5 (44:30):
Behind the scenes, I've been talking to Dems for a
number of weeks expressing concern about this, that Governor Wall's
popularity is dropping fairly quickly for somebody as riding high
as he was in August of last year as the
vice presidential candidate. And so you don't just have to

(44:52):
worry about your own campaign for governor. You've got to
think about all the other statewide candidates. And if people
are going to vote him down, then the other candidates
are not going to do well either, including the legislature.
We have a US Senate set up and all the
constitutional offices. So those had to figure very, very prominently

(45:13):
in his decision. Now, finally, he didn't talk about it today,
but we've been hearing whispers about personal security and safety.
This has ramped up over the last month or so
that he is taking into account because of all of
the controversy over the fraud scandals and how divisive we

(45:35):
are and polarized in our politics, that you know, maybe
I don't want this from my family, particularly after what
happened last summer, the possibility and the rise in political violence.
I'm not saying that is the reason, but that is
something that's back there as well. But bottom line is,
if you think you're not going to win, get out,

(45:56):
and that's what he did, where he wasn't going to win.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
Probably, So is there I have no idea what the
ongoing relationship has been politically speaking, between Amy Klobashar and Wallsey,
But where does she come into the In other words,
is there any chance that he is less likely to
step aside if he doesn't already have inside knowledge that

(46:21):
she is prepared to make this leap.

Speaker 5 (46:25):
I have not confirmed this, but The New York Times
is reporting that he met with Senator Amy Klobashar on
Sunday yesterday to let her know that he was going
to drop out of the race and wanted to gauge
her interest in it.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
So I do think that is something that was important
in his decision making.

Speaker 5 (46:45):
So for all of the Republicans nationally and here in
Minnesota who are doing the touchdown dance and claiming they've
got a they're nailing a pelt to the wall, this
is something that you got to be careful what you
wished for, because if she does get in the race,
she is an extremely formidable candidate.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
I'm going to go further than that. I'm going to
say if she's in the race, it's over. And that's
where I've said earlier today. It's the old you know,
be careful what you wish for if you're a Republican,
because there's no question I think Walls was vulnerable. Was
he vulnerable enough given the candidates out there on the
Republican side, I'm not sure, but he was vulnerable. But

(47:31):
so you can say it's a political victory for you,
or it's the right thing because you think he hasn't
been willing to accept enough responsibility, and I don't particularly
think he has.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
But if you want to just talk, I guess you
could say tjeri.

Speaker 4 (47:47):
Is a political term, a term that the late Great
Don King used to use too from time to time.
It's it's a loss if she's the one, I think,
I think she is virtually unbeatable.

Speaker 5 (48:03):
I think in our political climate, you never know, and
so things could change from today to a month from now.
But the odds are that she would do very very
well and lift all of the other Democratic candidates with
her if she decides to run.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
Let's just say that.

Speaker 5 (48:19):
Let's remind people that Amy Klobashar is the top vote
getter in the state of Minnesota. She has received more
votes than any other candidate in Minnesota history, and that
includes Hubert Humphrey, that includes all the Minnesota politicians. She
won her races, and I went to look it up today.
She started running in two thousand and six for the

(48:41):
US Senate. She won her races by twenty points, thirty
four points, twenty four points, and sixteen points. That is
somebody who can be a steamroller under the right conditions. So, yes,
she is extremely formidable. And that means that Republicans start
voting for her as well. Right, that's what that means.

(49:03):
So you've got the moderates independence, and you have a
good number of Republicans voting for you for a candidate,
a Democrat who actually gets those kinds of numbers.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
Why would she make this move.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
She has developed a great reputation and has some power
in the Senate.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
That's big stuff.

Speaker 5 (49:24):
That is a really really good question, and I've been
wondering that myself. She is number three in the Senate
right now, and it takes years to do that. I
think she's what she's sixty six, which is like being
a teenager in the US Senate. I mean, everybody's like eighty, right,
that's true. But she has kept her head down, worked
really hard, and she is the third ranking person there,

(49:49):
and there is some question as to whether she would
be getting the leadership positions.

Speaker 3 (49:54):
Dick Derban is retiring at.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
Eighty blah blah whatever he is, and she was going
to run for that, but there's some question about whether
she could actually get that. Bryan Shots, the Hawaii Senator,
is somebody who's kind of lining up the votes for that.
But having said that, she comes to Minnesota, and it's
my view that governors are the ones in this country

(50:18):
who do the work. There's no question can actually get
something done if you are a governor. So let's say
she comes back, and I'm not saying she will, but
the odds are that she might she comes back to Minnesota.
That's a pretty visible place to be. She can actually
pass legislation, get stuff done. We call it in the

(50:39):
business of freebie. Because she doesn't have to leave her
office the US Senate if she loses. In the unlikely
event she loses, she can right just go back to
the Senate. She can run for office while she's a Senator.
If she wins, she gets to be governor, and very
likely she can appoint the next US Senator for Minnesota.

(51:03):
She's the one who would appoint a senator.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
So there you are you.

Speaker 4 (51:07):
So that leads nicely into the conspiracy theory offered up
by a number of folks already today, that the fix
is in that we're going to see Amy Klobashar make
the announcement she's going to run for governor, and then
she's going to win, and then she's going to appoint
Tim Walls to replace her in the Senate. That's the

(51:31):
conspiracy theory that has become very popular among us. Some
writies today. I don't believe it, but maybe I'm being naive.
Do you believe there's any chance that that sequence of
events could take place?

Speaker 5 (51:48):
You know, what's happened here in Minnesota already where Wendy
Anderson and I haven't heard that to you just told me.
But I'm remembering back to Wendell Anderson, the governor during
the seventh Oh yeah, he resigns. He has to deal
with Rudy Purpets to appoint him to the Senate. Minnesota
voters were so angry about that.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Because threw him out.

Speaker 5 (52:10):
They threw him out as soon as they had the chance,
uh and established a Rudy Boschwitz as the US Senator
from Minnesota. So although it's possible it's happened, I'd say, nay,
let me, let me throw it out.

Speaker 4 (52:24):
So stay because you know Amy Klobashar, I've met her,
I know her a little bit, you know her a lot.
I'm going to say that you know Amy Klobashar is
how do I put this? I think she is a
very savvy political animal. Oh, I think she gets it.
I don't think she would. I believe she's smart enough

(52:47):
to know that the damage that that would do to
her quote unquote brand is not worth it.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
I don't think she'd go near that. I don't.

Speaker 5 (52:54):
I don't even think it's a possibil I got that's
that's what I would tend to believe. I just like
I can't see that at all. Governor Walls remains unpopular
and getting more so by the week in the state
of Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
So I don't know.

Speaker 5 (53:10):
I mean, I've seen some of the stuff that shield
a point and I'm just saying this, people, I'm just
saying I saw it somewhere.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
I'm not saying this.

Speaker 5 (53:17):
People are hoping that Sheila point al Franken again, I
come full circle to do Trump. But but look, the
Democrats are wielding power in a more savvy way like
President Trump does. You know, you can love him or

(53:38):
hate him, but this guy is wielding power like a cudgel.
And when you got the power, use it. And we'll
see where Senator Clobisher goes.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
But there's a.

Speaker 5 (53:50):
Lot of different Democratic candidates right now running for you,
a Senate, running for Congress. There's a bench, a deep
bench among among Democrats that that she could appoint.

Speaker 4 (54:03):
Let me ask ask you this because you alluded to
it and I didn't really follow up on it. You
mentioned that in the press conference today confirming that he's
not going to run, that the governor did not take
any questions, correct and you know people on his staff,
you have had really working relationships with many of them.

Speaker 7 (54:24):
How does that?

Speaker 3 (54:26):
How does that?

Speaker 4 (54:27):
How is that the best advice that they are giving
the governor at a time like this, because it makes
no sense to me if you're going to try to
make any kind of point by what you're doing, you
got to answer questions as far as I'm concerned, Well.

Speaker 5 (54:41):
You would think you stop just if you want to
be transparent, stand up there and be transparent. I do
believe that they've been more and more in a bubble
in the governor's office over the last year or so,
and when Governor Walls ran for vice president, it was
like they see him up, put him in a room,
threw away the key. I mean, we never heard from him.

(55:04):
It's as a reporter. I always dislike that, and I
think that was probably the wrong move. But I do
believe that over the last year, where we've seen you
and I have talked about it dozens of times, where
he seemed Governor Wall seemed to minimize this fraud issue,

(55:24):
he never fully took responsibility for it and tended to
be defensive as he was today more defensive, and that
indicates to me that maybe you're listening to just a
few people. You don't really see the full picture. A
wise man who is a big tim Walls supporter told

(55:46):
me today that, and who is who's glad that he
is now stepping aside, said there's a difference between responsibility
and fault. You can take responsibility, yes, and fix something,
but if you say it's someone else's fault, then that's
in the past and you get barred down in all
of this.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
And I'm not completely sure. I'm not sure that the
governor Walls ever did that, and if he did, way
too late.

Speaker 4 (56:12):
Is Dean Phillips, I think, has said again today I'm
not running for anything.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
Is that correct? That is correct.

Speaker 5 (56:19):
He tweeted that out and said he will support the
candidate who will be the most down the middle of
the most moderate, the one who listens. And there is
a guy, I mean he might be he might have
been a great candidate for governor or for a US Senate,
somebody who was one of the very few Democrats who

(56:39):
spoke the truth on Biden about Joe Biden. And he
just said what everybody could see but refused to say.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
So he's not running. That is correct, And there is
a pretty long list.

Speaker 5 (56:53):
A dozen Republicans who are running for governor, and it's
actually a pretty good field. I mean, there's some there's
some very very prominent Republicans, really good candidates if they
get if they get the not.

Speaker 4 (57:05):
Can you make the argument, I don't want to get
too grandiose, but could you make the argument that this
announcement is the Democrats, at least within the state, acknowledging
the mistake that nationally the Democrats made waiting too long

(57:26):
to move on on Joe Biden to such a point
that it probably minimized their chances to end up winning
that election.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
And that given this amount of time.

Speaker 4 (57:37):
You're clearly giving whoever's going to come, and of course
if it's Amy Klobischer it probably didn't matter, but whoever
more time to establish himself or herself in that position
in a way that the Democrats were incapable of accepting
or learning their lesson that Dean Phillips was trying to
offer them nationally speaking.

Speaker 5 (57:56):
Well, who takes accountability for that when you've got someone wrong?

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Can a strong leader?

Speaker 5 (58:01):
And like it or not, Walls has been a very
strong leader for two decades in the state of Minnesota,
winning all the elections controlling the Democratic Party in general,
the DFL party here in Minnesota. And so when when,
when that person wants to be the guy, you almost
have to stand aside. And you could have made the

(58:22):
argument before this last month of fraud scandals, right, so,
you could have made the argument that he could he
could win based on not just his own skill, his
millions of dollars that he has, his connections, his his
get out the vote effort, all of that.

Speaker 3 (58:38):
You could have made the argument that it'd be tough,
but he could have won.

Speaker 5 (58:42):
After that, No, and people were starting to talk to
him over the last what had to be just the
last couple of weeks where he was in it two
three weeks, two weeks ago, but he has been pulling
away from reporters.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
And people have not really had access to him for
that time. So whose fault is it?

Speaker 5 (59:03):
We talked about responsibility and fault. It's the person in
charge who should be accountable for that. By the way,
why might not be too I'm sorry to interrupted, this
is not too late, this is way yeah yeah, yeah,
yeah exactly. So he did his party a big favor
and sacrificed himself his political future for the party because

(59:26):
it's it's January, right is You've got a whole year
and it's going to be compressed very fast here. So yeah,
there's plenty of times.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
So what does happen to his war chest? How does
that work? Well, he can control it.

Speaker 5 (59:39):
I mean, he can't use it to buy groceries and
a new International Scout or a classic vintage and as
you know, as we learned during the campaigns that he
can actually change the clutch on an international on the Scout,
which I which I can't. No, he can use it
to create a pack to support other candidates. Absolutely, I

(01:00:03):
mean that money is there. He could return it if
he wanted to. But there's millions of dollars so probably
not unlikely. But yeah, I mean he could still wield
power and we don't know, and we'll find out over
the next few days. He still has a political future
if he wants it, and people might not like it,
but this is a guy I look at all the
politicians in the state, of the democratic politicians in the state,

(01:00:25):
and he's got the skill set that he could keep
doing something. I don't see it, but maybe he'll end up.
If a Democratic president is elected in twenty eight. Maybe
he'll end up there.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
Larry Mandela, Guy, I think you've already answered this question,
but I'll ask it again just in case. Would cloversh
our keeper Senate seat while running for governor? Would she
have to resign that and then resign if elected?

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
That is really fun, Larry Mondelo, Guy, that's a serious
of questions.

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
In the comedian I was wat, yeah, I was no.

Speaker 5 (01:00:56):
She can absolutely run. And there's a couple of to
do it right now in the US, and I'm just
recalling this. Right now, there are three US senators who
are running for governor. Michael Bennett's Colorado, the Democrat, your guy,
Tommy Tubberbill the Coach, is running in Alabama, and Marsha Blackburn,
the Republican senator of Tennessee, is running for governor there.

(01:01:20):
So they will hold their seats. What the practice is,
you hold your seat as long as you can. If
you're elected, you can probably resign right before you are
sworn in. But if she wants the ability to appoint
her own US Senate person, then I would hold onto
it till right before you raise your hand on the
Bible and do it right then. And you know this

(01:01:44):
next person, well, whoever it is, and think about this. Also,
in the state of Minnesota, we will have if it
is Kolobishar who resigns her seat and then becomes governor, we.

Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
Will have two freshmen us senators.

Speaker 5 (01:02:00):
And that's something I mean, we had one of the
most experienced in the country with Klobashar, and now we
would have a freshman.

Speaker 3 (01:02:08):
So that's worth thinking about too.

Speaker 4 (01:02:10):
Top of the hour pause, I do want to talk
about another conspiracy theory when we come back and maybe
get to a couple more texts. It's bonus Pat Kessler
for reasons that should be fairly obvious. Today, stay downed.

Speaker 6 (01:02:23):
Bonus Bucks.

Speaker 7 (01:02:25):
It's back starting next week on kf an.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Beginning next Monday, we'll have nine chances for you to
win one thousand dollars every weekday. That's every hour from
nine am till five pm ten A keywords to learn
more when that time comes kfan dot com.

Speaker 7 (01:02:38):
Kf an dot com.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Pat Kessler in studio for another segment, Emergency Kestler today,
for all the obvious reasons, I you know, you and
I have talked about this before, and.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
There's this constant belief of.

Speaker 4 (01:03:17):
Well, yeah, I know all the other things that Trump
has said or done, but this one, this just this
goes to that next place and then you say, but
who are we kidding? I mean, how do you distinguish
one from another? I will add that when the story
has ramifications in the state, there's maybe perhaps more of
a feeling of oh my god, what's the famous quote

(01:03:41):
from the hearings?

Speaker 3 (01:03:42):
Have you no decency?

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
Sir? He is?

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
I understand it, and you can fill in the blanks.

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
The president, I don't if this was true through truth,
social or wherever, sort of linked to a conspiracy theory
that goes back to some stuff that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
The assassin of.

Speaker 4 (01:04:05):
Melissa Hortman I think, had written one of his manifestos,
basically suggesting that the governor of the state of Minnesota
ordered the murder.

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
Of Melissa Hortman. It's beyond repulsive.

Speaker 4 (01:04:18):
I hate even using that word because I don't even
think words can describe it. But it almost is the
third or fourth or fifth one down, not because it's
not horrific, but because it never stops. So how do
you which one to you decide to plant on. But
in the case, in this case, given that the Minnesota connections,

(01:04:40):
what can you tell us about this.

Speaker 5 (01:04:41):
Well, it's shocking, and this is something that I'm even
hesitant to talk about it because we don't want to
amplify this idea that anybody had anything to do with
the murders of the top democratic of a person in
the house, Hortman and her husband, and the shootings of

(01:05:02):
John Hoffman.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
The senator and his wife.

Speaker 5 (01:05:04):
We don't want people to think anything other than it is,
is that a crazy man allegedly did this. And I
was really gratified today to see after the President amplified
this on his truth social account over.

Speaker 3 (01:05:23):
The weekend, and people are glomming onto it and people
believe it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:28):
And one thing about social media is that yeah, we say, ah,
that's crazy, nobody's going to believe.

Speaker 3 (01:05:35):
People believe it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
They absolutely believe it just because President Trump said it.
That's really distressing and discouraging. But something that I thought
was really laudable and I'm really happy to see this
is that the Republicans in the state of Minnesota as
one were unified in their condemnation of this, asking the

(01:06:02):
President to take it down. This is not about left
and right. It's not about anything other than these people
were murdered. That's not what happened. Prominent Republicans are saying,
this is just nuts. Now, You're right, we have a
fire hose of craziness every day coming out of the

(01:06:24):
White House, and you wonder sometimes where the bottom is.
And I think we're coming to the conclusion that there
is no bottom. I think we're going to get to
a point where, I mean, it's just another day and
we become numb to the crudeness and the cruelty of this.

(01:06:46):
And that was really hurtful for a lot of people
in Minnesota, including of course the Hortmann family. So I mean,
do you shake your head? What's the proper response? Should
we even talk about it? Should it be that, oh,
that's just Trump being Trump. No, we should not accept
that kind of thing. We just shouldn't.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
So, I you know, again, he gives endless press conferences,
the president. He does. And yet.

Speaker 4 (01:07:17):
I'm wondering, I mean, is somebody going to at least
try to hold his feet to the fire on this,
or say, as the president, what's the upside of amplifying
something that is demonstrably false at least challenging him on it?

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
Or does it matter? Is he so slippery that it
really doesn't make it. I think it's really really I
think you're not going to see that.

Speaker 5 (01:07:42):
It's very very common for reporters who have the opportunity
to speak with the president to ignore it. Why because
you're going down a rabbit hole. You're going to go
down a rabbit hole, and there goes your interview. You
know you're not going to be able to ask him
anything that's actually important, not to say this isn't.

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
This is really really important, really really important.

Speaker 5 (01:08:03):
But if you could use your time and do that, absolutely,
I'm surprised sometimes that we don't see more pushback, and
when there is, and we have seen it, he says, well,
I don't know that's what people are saying. Many people
are saying this. Therefore, if I say it, I'm I'm
not saying it, they're saying it. I'm just saying they're

(01:08:24):
saying it. That's about where we are. So the President
does not take responsibility for that, but he is quick
to blame others. It's important to remember and if I
could just briefly bring it back to today's topic then
of walls dropping out, you think about it, all of
the things that have happened here in Minnesota in just

(01:08:45):
the last few years, starting with the COVID and the
uproar over that, the civil unrest, the murder of George Floyd,
the murders of Melissa Hortman, Annunciation Church. These are all
of the part now of our collective conversation over the
last four years.

Speaker 3 (01:09:03):
And to have that enter in that, that that chaos
and confusion and cruelty is just beyond the pale. It's yeah.
And as you said, I mean, I guess that's the one.

Speaker 4 (01:09:13):
The only good thing you'd say out of this is
that the Republicans in this state have been as demonstrative
in their reaction as the Democrats. And you'd like to
think we'd be that way on more stories than that,
But I guess it's because we were invested in it
in a way that we say what And I think

(01:09:33):
for him, I'm not even sure he gives it a
second thought, right, because for him, it's just it's just
more red meat. I'm just gonna throw it out there
because I don't. I'm and part of what concerns me
is and maybe it wouldn't matter to him, is that
I don't. I think when I watch these press conferences,
and I get it, you can't be open warfare in

(01:09:54):
a press conference situation. But I don't even sense as
much of the just sort of combativeness, the legitimate combativeness,
combative combativeness that I remember going back, I remember presidents.

Speaker 3 (01:10:09):
I just don't. I just feel like Obama. I mean,
are you kidding? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:10:13):
I mean there was there was really a lot of that.
The one that surprised me with the reporters is when
he said, quiet, Piggy. Why there wasn't that response. Now, Gosh,
I hate to go out on a limb here, but
I'm gonna I mean, on Christmas Day, President Trump tweeted

(01:10:34):
or posted on truth social two hundred times, two hundred times.
I mean, was he with his family at all? I mean,
those are the kinds of things that I wonder about.
And if we were all over Joe Biden and his
cognitive abilities and his reasoning, his logic, are people going

(01:10:58):
to start asking those questions? I mean, maybe that'll start
popping up. And the reason I didn't want to bring
it up is because I know I'm going to get
hammered for you. Well, yeah, we are wearing hammered or
you know, but this is something that you know, we
got plenty to talk about.

Speaker 3 (01:11:12):
Well, the subject.

Speaker 4 (01:11:13):
Yeah, just the the A lot of the responses, the
subject is getting changed from the specific nature of this
accusation and all of its meaning. In a case in
which individuals were murdered, public officials, elected officials, well, and
obviously husband.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
Murdered and attempted it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:35):
It's and so when somebody texts, uh, seven sixty three, guy,
your liberal love fest is getting dull, that person I
think is hurting himself or herself or whatever argument they're
trying to make by not addressing the substance of what
specifically we are talking about here in this case. You

(01:11:58):
want to strip all the eliminate all the rest of it. Fine,
let's just talk about this accusation and the sickening nature
of it. But I think the way you deflect is
you make it about something bigger, and that's unfortunately what well.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
Yeah, literal LoveFest guy is doing is about you.

Speaker 5 (01:12:19):
Then exactly, you're the one who brought it up, and
so this is about you. But deflection is something that
is very common now on social media, and yeah it is,
you know, it's it's played on the original thing. Then
it becomes something that it never started as, and it
gets worse.

Speaker 4 (01:12:36):
Well, all I know is I'm glad you came in.
We appreciate the time and the analysis.

Speaker 3 (01:12:39):
Is a big deal. This is a big deal. What's
happening is it doesn't happen every day. It very rarely happens.

Speaker 5 (01:12:45):
And we've been following this case for a long time,
and I have a feeling it's maybe this is a
signal that this fraud in Minnesota, we're going to see
more and more of it coming to light and it
might be worse than.

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
Anybody thought, which is already awfully bad. Thank you, sir.

Speaker 4 (01:13:02):
Pat Kesler will not be on Channel four at five,
six and ten o'clock tonight, which of course is their loss.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
We will come back to wrap up the program. That's not.

Speaker 4 (01:13:39):
It's the bumper to bumper show racks, probably by American Pressure.

Speaker 3 (01:13:42):
I apologize for stepping on your touchdown call.

Speaker 4 (01:13:45):
We always appreciate the support and the help and the
folks from American Pressure. Good guest lineup today, just wrapped
up with Pat Kessler, special k emergency session with him.
In addition, Ben Lieber to wrap up to put a
bow on the Vikings season a lot with him on

(01:14:06):
the various I guess you could say dramas pertaining to
the starting quarterback and maybe even the b flow story.
In addition, on today's broadcast Johnny Athletic joint, we actually
talked some hockey early. Well, actually it's not really hockey.
We talked about ongoing ex debates raging between Johnny Athletic

(01:14:32):
and Kevin Fallness pertaining with usually the starting point the
powder keg is Johnny appearance in the show being announced
via X and then that gets Falness going. He makes
a crack, then Johnny replies with another crack, and they
get going. They get going at each other pretty damn good.
For all I know, it's still going on. Somebody did
suggest and this is not a bad idea, and you

(01:14:55):
can do something about this because you produce Beyond the Pond. Correct,
That is correct.

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
Isn't it time for a Johnny Athletic appearance on Beyond
the Punk? Wow? I'm being serious.

Speaker 4 (01:15:08):
I think it would make I think it would be
award winning ratings, grabbing weekend radio here on the Fan.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Bigger Collision Super Show from earlier today or Johnny Athletic
on Beyond the Pond.

Speaker 4 (01:15:21):
That's a great question. That's a very very good question.
A lot of good texts coming in today as well.
Tomorrow is guards you back as far as we know,
that's my understand We think he's back tomorrow from an
arbor Michigan. I'm assuming we're gonna have Kevin Seaford in.
I hope we haven't been studio to kind of do
the debriefing on the season and to talk about his

(01:15:43):
deep dive in the Vikings quarterback Wagnerian opera of a
situation which we alluded to yesterday on sermons as well.
I'm assuming Luigi tomorrow and who knows what else, and
we are going to try to go international before this
week week is done. That means a date with Michael Hurley,

(01:16:03):
if at all possible, our sort of international affairs expert,
and of course he died his own because there's a
lot to get to regarding your guy Maduro, where we
might be invading next, the legal and extra legal ramifications
of all of that, and a couple of other stories

(01:16:23):
as well, so we'll try to Unfortunately, we're gonna have
more time on our hands because there's gonna be less
Vikings in the immediate future to discuss, so all that
will be a part of the proceedings as we get
into what I think is a pretty full week is
I don't think there's I guess we could still be
out early for Wild games or Wolves games, but Vikings programming,

(01:16:44):
I'm assuming is is wrapped up.

Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
We got Vikings rewind wine tonight, right, and that's the
same space of one of the Wild play next tonight.
Oh they are back tonight, Okay, leave us tonight. I'm well,
double check on your team. It's not that I don't know,
it's the wine. It's the one percent in my brain
that I could be wrong that makes me want to
yeah's tonight they get the Kings nine to thirty puck drop.

Speaker 3 (01:17:10):
That's late for me. Teeth will be in the last
by ten fifteen. That's awfully awful. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:17:15):
Well, well we'll try to work through that and we'll
talk and well we talked a little bit with you
about what happened to the World Juniors.

Speaker 3 (01:17:23):
We'll get Louis's reaction to that as well. Was he
here for any of it?

Speaker 6 (01:17:27):
Do we know?

Speaker 3 (01:17:27):
I mean he's the big ambassador for it, but how
much was he actually here for?

Speaker 6 (01:17:31):
Do we know?

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
I know he is heading out because he was with
guard Zy at one point and he was as soon
as his duties were done. Yes, he's out of here,
so I think he's on a I think it's after
the Golden Medals.

Speaker 7 (01:17:46):
I have to go back and listen to it. I
heard radio app but yes, I know he's involved in something.

Speaker 3 (01:17:50):
I gotcha.

Speaker 4 (01:17:50):
Is there a bowl game going on tonight? Are there
any more meaningless bowl games still playing? I'm looking at
some highlights, but I can't tell if it's live at No.
This will like must be some kind of tape. By
the way, there's a lot of head coaching openings in
the National Football League, and there's enough where you'd think
somebody would want to take a look at Brian Flores. Now,
of course, we all know about the complications with him,

(01:18:13):
that he's got that ongoing lawsuit and whether that's going
to get in the way, unfortunately of him having an
opportunity to get another head coaching job. But there's enough
of them, including our guy Kevin Stefanski, who I believe
was twice the NFL Coach of the Year as recently
as twenty twenty three.

Speaker 3 (01:18:32):
What's the moral of that story?

Speaker 4 (01:18:35):
When you screw up the quarterback position, even if it's
some it's beyond your control.

Speaker 3 (01:18:41):
You ain't gonna make it. You're not gonna be.

Speaker 4 (01:18:43):
Able to survive as a National Football League head coach,
and their quarterback situation makes our quarterback situation look relatively.

Speaker 3 (01:18:49):
Normal and even appealing.

Speaker 4 (01:18:51):
Thanks for listening, Thanks for texting, Thank you, indeed for watching.
We will talk to you again tomorrow, beginning at three
o'clock right here in the fanly.

Speaker 3 (01:19:02):
The bow, grace word, Come on, keep the baby. When
have you consumed marijuana? I'll be there whenever you want.
I'll be there whenever you need. It's horrific, be there.

(01:19:24):
I'll be your d