Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This is a podcast from WR Nowthe WR Saturday Morning Show. Here's Larry
Minty. Welcome to Saturday Morning.On this week's show, people behaving badly
in front of a live feed fromDublin to New York and vice versa has
shut down the portal at the Flatirnbuilding. We talked to the CEO of
(00:23):
the company that owns the portal,Joe Callahan, to find out when and
if the portal is going to reopen. And the star witness in Donald Trump's
bookkeeping trial is skeward by President Trump'sdefense attorneys. So will Trump be found
not guilty? We'll talk with oneof the top legal minds in the country,
(00:46):
Hans von Spakowsky from the Heritage Foundation, to tell us what he thinks
is going to happen. But firstI look back at the week that was,
and we'll start with former President Trumpon Monday outside the courthouse after convicted
liar and self proclaimed fixer Michael Cohenstarted his testimony as the prosecution's star witness.
(01:11):
There's never been anything like this inthe history of our country. It's
a scam. It's election interference ata level that's never taken place before,
and that scam trial is blowing upin the face of Manhattan. Da Alvin
Bragg again. We'll talk with Hansvon Spakowski in about a half an hour
(01:32):
and ask him if we're headed toa not guilty verdict. The FBI put
out a high alert for a terroristattack during Pride Week. Now the alert
didn't specify New York City, butMayor Adams got the message, we take
you very serious. You do nottake this for granted. You don't want
you don't want to look in inlaw enforceter You don't want to look in
(01:53):
your rearview mirror and say I wishI would have been prepared. Pride Week
in New York City is, ofcourse the biggest and best known Pride Week
celebration in the country. Who wouldhave ever thought the idea of a sculpture
with a live feed connecting Dublin,Ireland and New York City would encourage people
(02:13):
to behave badly causing the portal toshut down. It would be super nice
if it could, and people cantreat it respectfully. But at the same
time, I would hate for usto be portrayed in such a bad light.
If these incidents were to persist,coming up in ten minutes, we'll
talk with Joe Callahan, the CEOof the company that runs the portals and
out of nowhere. President Biden sayshe will debate, and he issued a
(02:37):
challenge to Donald Trump. Donald Trumplost two debates to me in twenty twenty.
Since that he hadn't shown up fordebate. Now he's acting like he
wants to debate me again. Willmake my day, Pal, I'll even
do it twice. So let's pickthe dace. Donald, I hear you're
free on Wednesdays. Trump accepted immediately. Coming up at the end of the
show, I'll have some final thoughtson the debates and the president election.
(03:00):
Mayor Adams is still upset he's notgetting work permits for migrants fast enough from
the federal government. How do wehave a large body of people that are
in our city and country that areexcellent swimmers and at the same time we
need lifeguards and the only obstacle isthat we won't give them the right to
(03:20):
grow. Wait, how does heknow they're excellent swimmers, or that they
know CPR or an entire list ofrequirements for lifeguards. Swimming's just one of
the requirements. Mister mayor. UtahSenator Mitt Romney says President Biden made a
mistake by not pardoning Donald Trump.Had to pardon President Trump. Oh why
(03:44):
Oh, because it makes me PresidentBiden the big guy and the person I
pardoned a little guy. Well,that's easy to say now that all of
the cases are falling apart. Speakingof a case falling apart, Trump's attorney
ended the week by this rating theprosecution star witness Michael Collin as being a
(04:04):
biased liar. All they had todo was play back his own words from
his podcast in court. Revenge isthe dish best served cold, and you
better believe I want this man togo down and rotten inside for what he
did to me and my family.This whole thing backfired on Biden and Donald
Trump's poll numbers just keep going upin swing states when they're doing in terms
(04:28):
of suppression an election interference has neverbeen anything like that. The good news,
there's the falls through the roof.Just wait to see how high those
poll numbers go if there's a notguilty verdict. The Justice Department just keeps
working for President Biden. After AttorneyGeneral Merrick Garland refused to turn over audio
recordings of Biden's testimony to a specialcounsel. The President asserted executive privilege to
(04:56):
keep us from hearing him stammer andforget details in his life. We have
gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure thatthe committees get responses to their legitimate requests.
But this is not one to thecontrary. This is one that would
harm our ability in the future tosuccessfully pursue sensitive investigations. The House may
(05:21):
still charge the Attorney General with contemptof Congress. How can anyone have contempt
of Congress when it provides so muchentertainment? Like when Republican Marjorie Taylor Green
called out New York Democrat Alexandria ocassior Cortes over fake eyelashes. That is
(05:42):
absolutely unacceptable. How dare you areyour feelings for words down? Oh girl,
baby girl? Oh really, don'teven play baby girl, Adam,
we are gonna move and we're gonnatake your words down. You know what,
I'm seeing a cage match between congresswomen Taylor Green and Ocassia Cortes,
(06:04):
just so I can bet heavily onGreen. And that is the bizarre end
of the week that was up.Next, we'll talk with the CEO of
the company that runs the video portalsbetween Dublin and New York City that had
to be shut down after people wereflashing, mooning and doing a lot of
(06:26):
other inappropriate things. So what happensnext? Find out next on Saturday Morning.
Now more of the woor Saturday MorningShow and Larry Mente welcome back.
Have you heard of the portal?It's a fascinating idea. There are several
of them around the world and thereare plans for more. The portal is
(06:46):
an art sculpture that connects people aroundthe globe through a video screen. One
is in the plaza next to theFlat Iron Building in Manhattan and there's a
video stream in the sculpture so youcan see in real time a live feed
from another portal in Dublin, Irelandand they can see back here. Except
(07:09):
that people started doing inappropriate things inthe feed and the feed had to be
shut down. Is it going backup and if so when? For that
and other questions, let's talk withJoe Callahan, director of the Portals Organization
and CEO of Sansar, a virtualreality company. Hi Joe, thank you
(07:30):
so much for doing this. Let'sstart with your company, Sansar. What
Sansar does and how did you getinvolved with the Portal project? So,
Sansar is an immersive photo realistic metaversecompany. We were spun out of Linden
Labs many years ago and we're aglobal operating entity with thousands of worlds and
(07:55):
hundreds of thousands of users. It'sa fully immersive social media game platform that
is all metaverse powered and it isquite entertaining. And how did you get
involved with the Portal project? SoI like to say that the universe brought
it to me. I've been involvedwith video communications for a very long time,
and when I was exposed to itmany months ago, I reached out
(08:18):
and built a deep relationship with theother founders, traveled to Lithuania who experienced
the portal directly, and then becamepart of the team as a director and
a technology contributor and just getting myshoulder on the plow, believing in the
humanitarian mission of connecting our world insuch a time of need. When did
(08:39):
you get word that the portal connectingNew York and Dublin had to be shut
down? So they brought that toour attention. After a few of the
inappropriate actions occurred on both sides thatwe immediately mobilized our teams, and then
we made the decision that we wouldbring the portals down and initiate some advanced
(09:03):
technology that we have currently tested,and we will be deploying shortly to relaunch
the portals. When you say shortly, how long do you know in a
matter of days? Okay. Ilove your idea. It's a great idea
connecting the people of the world throughart and technology. But people are going
(09:24):
to do appropriate things. People aregoing to be people like I guess there
was mooning and flashing and worse.I guess. The question is, how
did you not see this coming?So we anticipated that the human behavior would
ultimately tend itself to from inappropriate activity. We didn't anticipate it that it would
be this rapid. We've had portalsoperating between Lithuania and Poland for some time
(09:48):
and we have not had any issues. So I think the excitement around the
project brought so many people to itthat we were exposed to such a mass
population that the fraction of the fractionof the percentage that behaved in the manner
that they have. We just needprocesses and procedures with our partners to ensure
(10:09):
that the inappropriateness is minimized. We'reeliminated. We're talking with Joe Callahan,
director of the Portals Organization and CEOof SANSAR. Do you have a commitment
now from the people in New Yorkand Dublin that they're still committed to the
project one percent. We're all navigatingcollectively as a unit to ensure the positive
(10:30):
aspect of the portals and to addressany of these minor concerns. You were
talking about a process or are comingup with the ways to stop this from
happening again, what are you lookingat right now? So there's two components,
both the physical components of ambassadors toshepherd to shepherd activity in the proximity,
then that's a non scalable long termsecurity aspects. But the technology that
(10:54):
we are deploying is advanced technology andAI inside the cameras to sense in real
time the activity and then to blurthe screens and produce warnings and alarms to
a ventit. That's fascinating. Doyou have anybody that monitors what's happening on
(11:15):
the portals? The portals get routedthrough environments for monitoring the video, but
we don't record the data or recordthe video. So from a scalability standpoint,
based on the number of portals thatwe are anticipating deploying in our schedule,
that's not something that is going toaddress this long term requirement. But
what we will be doing is deployingthe AI as we're seeing it everywhere in
(11:37):
our world today, and it makesperfect sense to apply it here and the
AI will prevent the inappropriateness from beingaired from portal to portal. I don't
know if you've heard about this woman, this woman named Ava Louise, who's
getting a lot of publicity because sheflashed the portal and she is claiming and
She's been in the New York Postand I've looked at she's in newspapers around
(12:01):
the world. She's claiming, Ishut down the portal. Is that true?
That is not true. It's great, you know, we love the
fact that the entire world is nowapproaching being aware of the portals. And
people are people, and people willclaim things that they've done. But you
(12:24):
know, the actions were taken ina way that we collectively, with our
partners in though this whole process madea decision to take the portals down and
to deploy the technology for which wasalready in development, to prevent it in
the future. You know, youjust touched on something I wanted to bring
up. It is the fact thatyou were getting so much publicity Right now.
(12:48):
I will admit to you, Ididn't know about the portal. I
know about it now. I knoweverybody in New York and Dublin knows about
it now, and I would imagineeverybody wants to go see what this is
all about. So in a way, it's an enormous silver lining. I
mean, I don't think you couldhave bought this kind of publicity. I'm
sure you're aware of that. Wehave anticipated this, recognizing the impact that
(13:15):
the portals had when we launched theportals in Lithuania and in Poland, that
once we launched them in Dublin,Ireland and New York City, that it
was only a matter of weeks untilthe entire planet was aware of our humanitarian
(13:35):
initiative here with connecting us all asone. No, I get that,
But did you realize it was goingto be because of this? Yes,
oh you did. We realized itwas well, we realized that it was
going to because the fact, notfrom a negative press standpoint. We realized
that it was going to be becauseof the excitement. Yeah, I'm not
sure experience. Have you experienced aportal? Have you experienced the portal yet?
(13:56):
No? I didn't even know whatit was until this story. As
I was saying, I don't thinkmost people knew what it was in the
New York area unless they're going bythat that area in Manhattan knew what it
was until now. I think.I think you're going to get a lot
of traffic now, so we Imean we, I think the traffic will
continue to increase, and the moreawareness and the locations that will soon be
(14:18):
announced elsewhere on the planet, it'lljust continue to spread viraling. Absolutely.
Yeah, and what's the vision forthis? Take me into the future of
the portal? The portal is notjust a portal about connecting two cities,
you know. The portal is aportal's network, and it's about connecting the
network of mankind. And the structureis that the portals will rotate on a
(14:39):
minute by minute basis from city tocity around the world. And because of
the fact that there is no audio, you know, so there's no barrier
of communication between and so as humans, we can see one another without any
labels, without any prejudice, withoutany judgment, and we can interact with
one another globally on a real ina real time basis and try and bring
(15:01):
some good and some peace in atime where it's so desperately needed. Oh,
that was wonderfully said. I'm goingto end with that. Thank you
so much, sir for your time. No, it is absolutely my pleasure,
and we'll see you in a portalsin Absolutely, I'm going Joe Callahan,
director of the Portals Organization and CEOof SANSAR. Just ahead, we'll
talk with legal expert Hans von Spakowskiabout what to expect next in the Trump
(15:26):
bookkeeping trial. That's all just aheadon Saturday Morning. Here's Larry Minti with
more of the wr Saturday Morning Show. Welcome back to Saturday Morning. A
tabloyd muckraker, a porn star,and a convicted liar, the three top
(15:46):
witnesses in the New York case againstDonald Trump, who was accused of a
bookkeeping error. Yep, that's thecase against former President Donald Trump. Let's
bring in legal expert Hans von Specoff, legal fellow of the Edwin Mees Center
for Legal Justice at the Heritage Foundation. He's going to break down the prosecution's
(16:07):
case and what we should expect fromthe defense. Hans, let me just
start off with your reaction to thetestimony of the star witness, Michael Cohen
and then the cross examination. Idon't think a prosecutor could have had more
of a disastrous week with his witness. I mean, think about everything that
(16:30):
came out, both during the prosecutionsquestioning and the cross examination, the cross
examiner, the lawyer. They caughthim in a lie. He had to
admit that he had already lied inhis testimony in this case. That's on
top of the fact that he's aconvicted perjury. He went to jail for
(16:52):
previously life. He had to admitthat he hates Donald Trump with a passion
and would do anything to see himconvicted and in jail. In fact,
he admitted, yeah, he's beenmaking money off of this. Then he
admitted to cheating his client. Rememberone hundred and thirty thousand dollars payment,
(17:15):
But at one point he admitted he'dsent invoices legal invoices to the Trump and
the Trump Company for over four hundredthousand dollars, and in addition to cheating
as client, he actually recorded telephonecalls with his client. Look, I'm
(17:36):
a lawyer. I can't think ofa more unethical thing to do, a
greater violation of the professional code ofconduct than recording your own client. I
look, even Anderson Cooper, hemade Amson Cooper at CNN admitted recently that
even he would doubt Michael Cohen's testimony. This whole case seems to be blowing
(18:02):
up in the face of the ManhattanDA Alvin Bragg. So it's pretty obvious
that this case never should have beenbrought in the first place. Oh,
that is absolutely true, because youkeep in mind, in all of this
testimony, they still the prosecutor stillhas not shown any illegal conduct. The
payment to Stormy Daniels was perfectly legal. The non disclosure agreement was perfectly legal.
(18:26):
Oh and keep in mind, rememberthey're trying to say this was a
campaign related expense, right. Thereason this was made was because Trump didn't
want it to hurt his campaign.Michael Cohen admitted on the stand. Actually,
Trump was really worried that this wouldhurt his family and hurt particularly his
(18:47):
wife. So he even wiped outthe supposed motive that the prosecution has been
pushing all along. I thought theprosecution Hans in comment on this was brilliant
when they'd read back the testimony andthen play Michael Cohen in his own words
from his podcast saying the exact oppositething time and time again. Yeah.
(19:11):
Look, I gotta tell you,if he's convicted by this jury, the
only reason that could possibly happen isbecause they're politically biased. I mean,
look, any objective members of ajury after listening to all of this testimony
and this really, I mean,what's the word you can use for Cohen?
(19:33):
I mean, this really just repidableguy. Anybody who would actually believe
anything he's saying or what the prosecution'sdoing, I just don't see how they
could find him guilty. Do youbelieve Trump's lawyers will offer any defense or
any witnesses or are they going tojust say the prosecution hasn't proven their case.
(19:53):
So let's move on to closing arguments. Well, there's been indications they
want to call in an expert,Brad Smith. I actually know Brad Smith.
He was the chairman of the FederalElection Commission, and actually when he
left the FBC. I took aseat on the FBC, and they want
(20:14):
to bring him in because he's anexpert on federal campaign financial law and they
want him to testify that this kindof a payment is not a campaign related
expense, as the prosecution claims underfederal law. But the judge in this
case, Judge Merchant, has issuedan order severely limiting miss testimony and said
(20:36):
that Smith can't tell the jury thatboth the FBC and the US Department of
Justice didn't open a prosecution of Trumpbecause they don't think it's a campaign related
expense. So I don't know ifthey're going to actually bring him in,
but I know that's one of thepeople they wanted to bring in. We
are talking with Hans von Spakowski's seniorlegal fellow at the Edwin Mees Center for
(21:02):
Legal and Judicial Studies with the HeritageFoundation. I know you were saying you
can't imagine a guilty verdict. Sowhere do you see this heading of a
hung jury, a not guilty verdictor do you think that the jury in
Manhattan is that biased they might stillfind them guilty. Well, I do
(21:22):
think it's hard to find an unbiasedjury in Manhattan, and I think that's
one of the reasons Alvin Bragg boughtbrought when I think not just me,
but many experts, legal experts saidis a bogus case. I think the
likelihood, Look, they could findhim not guilty, but I think there's
a high likelihood that at least oneor two of the jurors will realize this
(21:48):
is a bogus case, and youprobably may get a hung jury. There
are two attorneys on the jury.Do you think that matters, Well,
I would hope so. But onthe other hand, I've dealt with members
of the New York City Bar Associationand some of them are pretty biased,
So I don't know if that's goingto make a difference. Well, no
(22:11):
matter what happens, I certainly hopethe Heritage Foundation keeps going after Alvin Bragg's
information. For all the correspondences betweenthe DA's office in Manhattan and the Biden
administration. You're not giving up thatfight, no matter what happens. Oh
no, we're not. And thefact that he look, he's pursuing this
(22:33):
case while he is totally neglecting criminalprosecutions of felons. He refuses to prosecute
misdemeanors. In other words, he'signoring the safety of the average show in
New York City. One last question, and again we're talking with Hans von
Spakowski from the Heritage Foundation. Iknow law is your expertise, but let's
(22:56):
talk politics for one second. Howdo you think if it's a hung jury
or a not guilty verdict, howdo you think that will affect the presidential
campaign going forward. Well, look, the polling already shows that a majority
of Americans think that this is abogus case and that this, along with
all of the other prosecutions of anex president for the first time in American
(23:19):
history, are because we now havea two tier justice system, and that
these are political prosecutions. And ifthere's a hung jury or peace found innocent,
listen, that's just going to confirmwhat the majority of the public believes.
And look, it's probably going tohelp him get elected president. Hans,
as always, thank you so muchfor your time, Thanks for having
(23:41):
me. Hans von Spakowski, SeniorLegal Fellow of the Edwin Mees Center for
Legal Justice at the Heritage Foundation.Democrats are just starting to wake up to
the impending reality of the twenty twentyfour presidential campaign even see and ends for
Reid. Zakaria, a devout Trumphater, delivered his viewers a dose of
(24:06):
reality last week. I have toadmit none of this is playing out as
I thought it would. Trump isnow leading in almost all the swing states.
But behind those numbers lie even moretroubling details. As someone worried about
the prospects of a second Trump term, I think it's best to be honest
about reality. I understand that polesare not always accurate, but in general
(24:30):
they have tended to underestimate Donald Trump'support not overestimated. I doubt that there
are many shy Biden voters in thecountry. The poles have delivered Democrats with
a never ending conga line of badnews. But it was the poll from
the New York Times, the sourcethe American left loves the most, that
(24:52):
delivered the sucker punch to the gut. Here's how CNN reported it. Frankly,
for the Joe Buying campaign, thesenumbers are absolute disaster. The smallest
leaders in Arizona for Donald Trump,He's up six. Look at this nine.
In Georgia thirteen, and Nevada.My goodness, gracious, my god,
that is a huge lead. NoDemocrat has lost that state since John
Kerry lost it back in two thousandand four. In the polls, Trump
(25:17):
is ahead of Biden in five ofthe six swing states also called battleground states.
You might be thinking, wait,I thought there were seven swing states.
There were, but the New YorkTimes has quietly removed North Carolina from
the list. Donald Trump has beenahead there in every recent poll, sometimes
(25:38):
by double digits, so that maynot be a swing state anymore, but
it could be replaced by another surprisestate. Minnesota isn't considered a presidential battleground
state in twenty twenty four, atleast not yet. For the third straight
month, our exclusive KSTP survey usA polling shows Minnesota to be a statistical
(26:03):
dead heat between Joe Biden and DonaldTrump. Just for perspective, a Republican
presidential candidate has not won Minnesota sinceRichard Nixon in nineteen seventy two. And
by the way, this is thetrend. There's going to be more surprise
battleground states like Maine, for instance. And why is this happening? Because
(26:23):
Trump is picking up black voters,Latino voters, and young voters, which
are votes that Democrats have always countedon. This is starting to have the
feel of an election that won't evenbe close. The exclamation point. One
hundred thousand people showed up to seeDonald Trump, many of them camping out
(26:48):
on a beach in Wildwood, NewJersey. That was extraordinary. You have
to understand New Jersey not a placethat people think Republicans would ever compete.
But the size of the crowd.Could President Biden get that crowd in the
heart of New York are in themost Democrat state? Could he do it
in California? The answer is no, truth spoken by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
(27:12):
That truth is why the Democrats onceagain are talking about replacing Joe Biden
as the Democratic nominee. But whois going to break that to President Biden.
Here's Dan Abrams with founder of theYoung Turks sank Weiger. Not up
to the Democrats if they all gottogether and said you got to get out,
(27:33):
and Joe doesn't have to get out. It's about Barack Obama and Jill
Biden and maybe Hunter Biden sitting downwith him and saying it's time. I
believe that Barack Obama has done thatover two lunches already, really, so
the only person left that he wouldlisten to is doctor Jill Biden. And
I don't believe that she wants toget out of the race. I think
she thinks I'm a pivotal part ofthis administration and I want to keep going.
(27:57):
If Joe Biden changed her mind,that would be the one thing that
would make a difference. But weknow that's not going to happen, at
least not yet, because three daysafter the Wild would Wake Up Call,
Joe Biden showed us all how desperatehe is by agreeing to do something he
doesn't want to do. Debate DonaldTrump. Donald Trump lost two debates to
(28:19):
me in twenty twenty sin Sandy hadn'tshown up for debate. Now he'sactly like
he wants to debate me again.Will make my day, Pal, I'll
even do it twice. So let'spick the dace. Donald and Donald Trump
quickly said yes and even agreed toall Biden's terms, no audience, a
mechanism to turn the microphone off whentime is up, and the two debates
(28:41):
will happen on friendly territory for Biden, CNN and ABC Because none of that
matters. It's still Joe Biden whohas trouble putting thoughts in words together and
often just freezes, which is whythey limit speeches. And there are no
more press conferences by Joe Biden,and he's going to debate Donald Trump.
(29:03):
It is telling that the first debatewill be June twenty seventh, right before
the Democratic Convention in August, timeenough for the Democrats to replace Biden with
another candidate. If President Biden hasan awful debate, if he has a
major flub, and chances are hewill, the pressure will mount for Joe
Biden to step aside. The onlyquestion is for whom I couldn't reconcile it
(29:32):
now I can God help us.All that wraps up Saturday morning. Thanks
so much for listening. I'll beback Monday morning with Lenn Berman and Michael
Rito in the morning from six untilten. Have a great weekend. This
has been a podcast from wor
This is a podcast from WR Nowthe WR Saturday Morning Show. Here's Larry
Minty. Welcome to Saturday Morning.On this week's show, people behaving badly
in front of a live feed fromDublin to New York and vice versa has
shut down the portal at the Flatirnbuilding. We talked to the CEO of
(00:23):
the company that owns the portal,Joe Callahan, to find out when and
if the portal is going to reopen. And the star witness in Donald Trump's
bookkeeping trial is skeward by President Trump'sdefense attorneys. So will Trump be found
not guilty? We'll talk with oneof the top legal minds in the country,
(00:46):
Hans von Spakowsky from the Heritage Foundation, to tell us what he thinks
is going to happen. But firstI look back at the week that was,
and we'll start with former President Trumpon Monday outside the courthouse after convicted
liar and self proclaimed fixer Michael Cohenstarted his testimony as the prosecution's star witness.
(01:11):
There's never been anything like this inthe history of our country. It's
a scam. It's election interference ata level that's never taken place before,
and that scam trial is blowing upin the face of Manhattan. Da Alvin
Bragg again. We'll talk with Hansvon Spakowski in about a half an hour
(01:32):
and ask him if we're headed toa not guilty verdict. The FBI put
out a high alert for a terroristattack during Pride Week. Now the alert
didn't specify New York City, butMayor Adams got the message, we take
you very serious. You do nottake this for granted. You don't want
you don't want to look in inlaw enforceter You don't want to look in
(01:53):
your rearview mirror and say I wishI would have been prepared. Pride Week
in New York City is, ofcourse the biggest and best known Pride Week
celebration in the country. Who wouldhave ever thought the idea of a sculpture
with a live feed connecting Dublin,Ireland and New York City would encourage people
(02:13):
to behave badly causing the portal toshut down. It would be super nice
if it could, and people cantreat it respectfully. But at the same
time, I would hate for usto be portrayed in such a bad light.
If these incidents were to persist,coming up in ten minutes, we'll
talk with Joe Callahan, the CEOof the company that runs the portals and
out of nowhere. President Biden sayshe will debate, and he issued a
(02:37):
challenge to Donald Trump. Donald Trumplost two debates to me in twenty twenty.
Since that he hadn't shown up fordebate. Now he's acting like he
wants to debate me again. Willmake my day, Pal, I'll even
do it twice. So let's pickthe dace. Donald, I hear you're
free on Wednesdays. Trump accepted immediately. Coming up at the end of the
show, I'll have some final thoughtson the debates and the president election.
(03:00):
Mayor Adams is still upset he's notgetting work permits for migrants fast enough from
the federal government. How do wehave a large body of people that are
in our city and country that areexcellent swimmers and at the same time we
need lifeguards and the only obstacle isthat we won't give them the right to
(03:20):
grow. Wait, how does heknow they're excellent swimmers, or that they
know CPR or an entire list ofrequirements for lifeguards. Swimming's just one of
the requirements. Mister mayor. UtahSenator Mitt Romney says President Biden made a
mistake by not pardoning Donald Trump.Had to pardon President Trump. Oh why
(03:44):
Oh, because it makes me PresidentBiden the big guy and the person I
pardoned a little guy. Well,that's easy to say now that all of
the cases are falling apart. Speakingof a case falling apart, Trump's attorney
ended the week by this rating theprosecution star witness Michael Collin as being a
(04:04):
biased liar. All they had todo was play back his own words from
his podcast in court. Revenge isthe dish best served cold, and you
better believe I want this man togo down and rotten inside for what he
did to me and my family.This whole thing backfired on Biden and Donald
Trump's poll numbers just keep going upin swing states when they're doing in terms
(04:28):
of suppression an election interference has neverbeen anything like that. The good news,
there's the falls through the roof.Just wait to see how high those
poll numbers go if there's a notguilty verdict. The Justice Department just keeps
working for President Biden. After AttorneyGeneral Merrick Garland refused to turn over audio
recordings of Biden's testimony to a specialcounsel. The President asserted executive privilege to
(04:56):
keep us from hearing him stammer andforget details in his life. We have
gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure thatthe committees get responses to their legitimate requests.
But this is not one to thecontrary. This is one that would
harm our ability in the future tosuccessfully pursue sensitive investigations. The House may
(05:21):
still charge the Attorney General with contemptof Congress. How can anyone have contempt
of Congress when it provides so muchentertainment? Like when Republican Marjorie Taylor Green
called out New York Democrat Alexandria ocassior Cortes over fake eyelashes. That is
(05:42):
absolutely unacceptable. How dare you areyour feelings for words down? Oh girl,
baby girl? Oh really, don'teven play baby girl, Adam,
we are gonna move and we're gonnatake your words down. You know what,
I'm seeing a cage match between congresswomen Taylor Green and Ocassia Cortes,
(06:04):
just so I can bet heavily onGreen. And that is the bizarre end
of the week that was up.Next, we'll talk with the CEO of
the company that runs the video portalsbetween Dublin and New York City that had
to be shut down after people wereflashing, mooning and doing a lot of
(06:26):
other inappropriate things. So what happensnext? Find out next on Saturday Morning.
Now more of the woor Saturday MorningShow and Larry Mente welcome back.
Have you heard of the portal?It's a fascinating idea. There are several
of them around the world and thereare plans for more. The portal is
(06:46):
an art sculpture that connects people aroundthe globe through a video screen. One
is in the plaza next to theFlat Iron Building in Manhattan and there's a
video stream in the sculpture so youcan see in real time a live feed
from another portal in Dublin, Irelandand they can see back here. Except
(07:09):
that people started doing inappropriate things inthe feed and the feed had to be
shut down. Is it going backup and if so when? For that
and other questions, let's talk withJoe Callahan, director of the Portals Organization
and CEO of Sansar, a virtualreality company. Hi Joe, thank you
(07:30):
so much for doing this. Let'sstart with your company, Sansar. What
Sansar does and how did you getinvolved with the Portal project? So,
Sansar is an immersive photo realistic metaversecompany. We were spun out of Linden
Labs many years ago and we're aglobal operating entity with thousands of worlds and
(07:55):
hundreds of thousands of users. It'sa fully immersive social media game platform that
is all metaverse powered and it isquite entertaining. And how did you get
involved with the Portal project? SoI like to say that the universe brought
it to me. I've been involvedwith video communications for a very long time,
and when I was exposed to itmany months ago, I reached out
(08:18):
and built a deep relationship with theother founders, traveled to Lithuania who experienced
the portal directly, and then becamepart of the team as a director and
a technology contributor and just getting myshoulder on the plow, believing in the
humanitarian mission of connecting our world insuch a time of need. When did
(08:39):
you get word that the portal connectingNew York and Dublin had to be shut
down? So they brought that toour attention. After a few of the
inappropriate actions occurred on both sides thatwe immediately mobilized our teams, and then
we made the decision that we wouldbring the portals down and initiate some advanced
(09:03):
technology that we have currently tested,and we will be deploying shortly to relaunch
the portals. When you say shortly, how long do you know in a
matter of days? Okay. Ilove your idea. It's a great idea
connecting the people of the world throughart and technology. But people are going
(09:24):
to do appropriate things. People aregoing to be people like I guess there
was mooning and flashing and worse.I guess. The question is, how
did you not see this coming?So we anticipated that the human behavior would
ultimately tend itself to from inappropriate activity. We didn't anticipate it that it would
be this rapid. We've had portalsoperating between Lithuania and Poland for some time
(09:48):
and we have not had any issues. So I think the excitement around the
project brought so many people to itthat we were exposed to such a mass
population that the fraction of the fractionof the percentage that behaved in the manner
that they have. We just needprocesses and procedures with our partners to ensure
(10:09):
that the inappropriateness is minimized. We'reeliminated. We're talking with Joe Callahan,
director of the Portals Organization and CEOof SANSAR. Do you have a commitment
now from the people in New Yorkand Dublin that they're still committed to the
project one percent. We're all navigatingcollectively as a unit to ensure the positive
(10:30):
aspect of the portals and to addressany of these minor concerns. You were
talking about a process or are comingup with the ways to stop this from
happening again, what are you lookingat right now? So there's two components,
both the physical components of ambassadors toshepherd to shepherd activity in the proximity,
then that's a non scalable long termsecurity aspects. But the technology that
(10:54):
we are deploying is advanced technology andAI inside the cameras to sense in real
time the activity and then to blurthe screens and produce warnings and alarms to
a ventit. That's fascinating. Doyou have anybody that monitors what's happening on
(11:15):
the portals? The portals get routedthrough environments for monitoring the video, but
we don't record the data or recordthe video. So from a scalability standpoint,
based on the number of portals thatwe are anticipating deploying in our schedule,
that's not something that is going toaddress this long term requirement. But
what we will be doing is deployingthe AI as we're seeing it everywhere in
(11:37):
our world today, and it makesperfect sense to apply it here and the
AI will prevent the inappropriateness from beingaired from portal to portal. I don't
know if you've heard about this woman, this woman named Ava Louise, who's
getting a lot of publicity because sheflashed the portal and she is claiming and
She's been in the New York Postand I've looked at she's in newspapers around
(12:01):
the world. She's claiming, Ishut down the portal. Is that true?
That is not true. It's great, you know, we love the
fact that the entire world is nowapproaching being aware of the portals. And
people are people, and people willclaim things that they've done. But you
(12:24):
know, the actions were taken ina way that we collectively, with our
partners in though this whole process madea decision to take the portals down and
to deploy the technology for which wasalready in development, to prevent it in
the future. You know, youjust touched on something I wanted to bring
up. It is the fact thatyou were getting so much publicity Right now.
(12:48):
I will admit to you, Ididn't know about the portal. I
know about it now. I knoweverybody in New York and Dublin knows about
it now, and I would imagineeverybody wants to go see what this is
all about. So in a way, it's an enormous silver lining. I
mean, I don't think you couldhave bought this kind of publicity. I'm
sure you're aware of that. Wehave anticipated this, recognizing the impact that
(13:15):
the portals had when we launched theportals in Lithuania and in Poland, that
once we launched them in Dublin,Ireland and New York City, that it
was only a matter of weeks untilthe entire planet was aware of our humanitarian
(13:35):
initiative here with connecting us all asone. No, I get that,
But did you realize it was goingto be because of this? Yes,
oh you did. We realized itwas well, we realized that it was
going to because the fact, notfrom a negative press standpoint. We realized
that it was going to be becauseof the excitement. Yeah, I'm not
sure experience. Have you experienced aportal? Have you experienced the portal yet?
(13:56):
No? I didn't even know whatit was until this story. As
I was saying, I don't thinkmost people knew what it was in the
New York area unless they're going bythat that area in Manhattan knew what it
was until now. I think.I think you're going to get a lot
of traffic now, so we Imean we, I think the traffic will
continue to increase, and the moreawareness and the locations that will soon be
(14:18):
announced elsewhere on the planet, it'lljust continue to spread viraling. Absolutely.
Yeah, and what's the vision forthis? Take me into the future of
the portal? The portal is notjust a portal about connecting two cities,
you know. The portal is aportal's network, and it's about connecting the
network of mankind. And the structureis that the portals will rotate on a
(14:39):
minute by minute basis from city tocity around the world. And because of
the fact that there is no audio, you know, so there's no barrier
of communication between and so as humans, we can see one another without any
labels, without any prejudice, withoutany judgment, and we can interact with
one another globally on a real ina real time basis and try and bring
(15:01):
some good and some peace in atime where it's so desperately needed. Oh,
that was wonderfully said. I'm goingto end with that. Thank you
so much, sir for your time. No, it is absolutely my pleasure,
and we'll see you in a portalsin Absolutely, I'm going Joe Callahan,
director of the Portals Organization and CEOof SANSAR. Just ahead, we'll
talk with legal expert Hans von Spakowskiabout what to expect next in the Trump
(15:26):
bookkeeping trial. That's all just aheadon Saturday Morning. Here's Larry Minti with
more of the wr Saturday Morning Show. Welcome back to Saturday Morning. A
tabloyd muckraker, a porn star,and a convicted liar, the three top
(15:46):
witnesses in the New York case againstDonald Trump, who was accused of a
bookkeeping error. Yep, that's thecase against former President Donald Trump. Let's
bring in legal expert Hans von Specoff, legal fellow of the Edwin Mees Center
for Legal Justice at the Heritage Foundation. He's going to break down the prosecution's
(16:07):
case and what we should expect fromthe defense. Hans, let me just
start off with your reaction to thetestimony of the star witness, Michael Cohen
and then the cross examination. Idon't think a prosecutor could have had more
of a disastrous week with his witness. I mean, think about everything that
(16:30):
came out, both during the prosecutionsquestioning and the cross examination, the cross
examiner, the lawyer. They caughthim in a lie. He had to
admit that he had already lied inhis testimony in this case. That's on
top of the fact that he's aconvicted perjury. He went to jail for
(16:52):
previously life. He had to admitthat he hates Donald Trump with a passion
and would do anything to see himconvicted and in jail. In fact,
he admitted, yeah, he's beenmaking money off of this. Then he
admitted to cheating his client. Rememberone hundred and thirty thousand dollars payment,
(17:15):
But at one point he admitted he'dsent invoices legal invoices to the Trump and
the Trump Company for over four hundredthousand dollars, and in addition to cheating
as client, he actually recorded telephonecalls with his client. Look, I'm
(17:36):
a lawyer. I can't think ofa more unethical thing to do, a
greater violation of the professional code ofconduct than recording your own client. I
look, even Anderson Cooper, hemade Amson Cooper at CNN admitted recently that
even he would doubt Michael Cohen's testimony. This whole case seems to be blowing
(18:02):
up in the face of the ManhattanDA Alvin Bragg. So it's pretty obvious
that this case never should have beenbrought in the first place. Oh,
that is absolutely true, because youkeep in mind, in all of this
testimony, they still the prosecutor stillhas not shown any illegal conduct. The
payment to Stormy Daniels was perfectly legal. The non disclosure agreement was perfectly legal.
(18:26):
Oh and keep in mind, rememberthey're trying to say this was a
campaign related expense, right. Thereason this was made was because Trump didn't
want it to hurt his campaign.Michael Cohen admitted on the stand. Actually,
Trump was really worried that this wouldhurt his family and hurt particularly his
(18:47):
wife. So he even wiped outthe supposed motive that the prosecution has been
pushing all along. I thought theprosecution Hans in comment on this was brilliant
when they'd read back the testimony andthen play Michael Cohen in his own words
from his podcast saying the exact oppositething time and time again. Yeah.
(19:11):
Look, I gotta tell you,if he's convicted by this jury, the
only reason that could possibly happen isbecause they're politically biased. I mean,
look, any objective members of ajury after listening to all of this testimony
and this really, I mean,what's the word you can use for Cohen?
(19:33):
I mean, this really just repidableguy. Anybody who would actually believe
anything he's saying or what the prosecution'sdoing, I just don't see how they
could find him guilty. Do youbelieve Trump's lawyers will offer any defense or
any witnesses or are they going tojust say the prosecution hasn't proven their case.
(19:53):
So let's move on to closing arguments. Well, there's been indications they
want to call in an expert,Brad Smith. I actually know Brad Smith.
He was the chairman of the FederalElection Commission, and actually when he
left the FBC. I took aseat on the FBC, and they want
(20:14):
to bring him in because he's anexpert on federal campaign financial law and they
want him to testify that this kindof a payment is not a campaign related
expense, as the prosecution claims underfederal law. But the judge in this
case, Judge Merchant, has issuedan order severely limiting miss testimony and said
(20:36):
that Smith can't tell the jury thatboth the FBC and the US Department of
Justice didn't open a prosecution of Trumpbecause they don't think it's a campaign related
expense. So I don't know ifthey're going to actually bring him in,
but I know that's one of thepeople they wanted to bring in. We
are talking with Hans von Spakowski's seniorlegal fellow at the Edwin Mees Center for
(21:02):
Legal and Judicial Studies with the HeritageFoundation. I know you were saying you
can't imagine a guilty verdict. Sowhere do you see this heading of a
hung jury, a not guilty verdictor do you think that the jury in
Manhattan is that biased they might stillfind them guilty. Well, I do
(21:22):
think it's hard to find an unbiasedjury in Manhattan, and I think that's
one of the reasons Alvin Bragg boughtbrought when I think not just me,
but many experts, legal experts saidis a bogus case. I think the
likelihood, Look, they could findhim not guilty, but I think there's
a high likelihood that at least oneor two of the jurors will realize this
(21:48):
is a bogus case, and youprobably may get a hung jury. There
are two attorneys on the jury.Do you think that matters, Well,
I would hope so. But onthe other hand, I've dealt with members
of the New York City Bar Associationand some of them are pretty biased,
So I don't know if that's goingto make a difference. Well, no
(22:11):
matter what happens, I certainly hopethe Heritage Foundation keeps going after Alvin Bragg's
information. For all the correspondences betweenthe DA's office in Manhattan and the Biden
administration. You're not giving up thatfight, no matter what happens. Oh
no, we're not. And thefact that he look, he's pursuing this
(22:33):
case while he is totally neglecting criminalprosecutions of felons. He refuses to prosecute
misdemeanors. In other words, he'signoring the safety of the average show in
New York City. One last question, and again we're talking with Hans von
Spakowski from the Heritage Foundation. Iknow law is your expertise, but let's
(22:56):
talk politics for one second. Howdo you think if it's a hung jury
or a not guilty verdict, howdo you think that will affect the presidential
campaign going forward. Well, look, the polling already shows that a majority
of Americans think that this is abogus case and that this, along with
all of the other prosecutions of anex president for the first time in American
(23:19):
history, are because we now havea two tier justice system, and that
these are political prosecutions. And ifthere's a hung jury or peace found innocent,
listen, that's just going to confirmwhat the majority of the public believes.
And look, it's probably going tohelp him get elected president. Hans,
as always, thank you so muchfor your time, Thanks for having
(23:41):
me. Hans von Spakowski, SeniorLegal Fellow of the Edwin Mees Center for
Legal Justice at the Heritage Foundation.Democrats are just starting to wake up to
the impending reality of the twenty twentyfour presidential campaign even see and ends for
Reid. Zakaria, a devout Trumphater, delivered his viewers a dose of
(24:06):
reality last week. I have toadmit none of this is playing out as
I thought it would. Trump isnow leading in almost all the swing states.
But behind those numbers lie even moretroubling details. As someone worried about
the prospects of a second Trump term, I think it's best to be honest
about reality. I understand that polesare not always accurate, but in general
(24:30):
they have tended to underestimate Donald Trump'support not overestimated. I doubt that there
are many shy Biden voters in thecountry. The poles have delivered Democrats with
a never ending conga line of badnews. But it was the poll from
the New York Times, the sourcethe American left loves the most, that
(24:52):
delivered the sucker punch to the gut. Here's how CNN reported it. Frankly,
for the Joe Buying campaign, thesenumbers are absolute disaster. The smallest
leaders in Arizona for Donald Trump,He's up six. Look at this nine.
In Georgia thirteen, and Nevada.My goodness, gracious, my god,
that is a huge lead. NoDemocrat has lost that state since John
Kerry lost it back in two thousandand four. In the polls, Trump
(25:17):
is ahead of Biden in five ofthe six swing states also called battleground states.
You might be thinking, wait,I thought there were seven swing states.
There were, but the New YorkTimes has quietly removed North Carolina from
the list. Donald Trump has beenahead there in every recent poll, sometimes
(25:38):
by double digits, so that maynot be a swing state anymore, but
it could be replaced by another surprisestate. Minnesota isn't considered a presidential battleground
state in twenty twenty four, atleast not yet. For the third straight
month, our exclusive KSTP survey usA polling shows Minnesota to be a statistical
(26:03):
dead heat between Joe Biden and DonaldTrump. Just for perspective, a Republican
presidential candidate has not won Minnesota sinceRichard Nixon in nineteen seventy two. And
by the way, this is thetrend. There's going to be more surprise
battleground states like Maine, for instance. And why is this happening? Because
(26:23):
Trump is picking up black voters,Latino voters, and young voters, which
are votes that Democrats have always countedon. This is starting to have the
feel of an election that won't evenbe close. The exclamation point. One
hundred thousand people showed up to seeDonald Trump, many of them camping out
(26:48):
on a beach in Wildwood, NewJersey. That was extraordinary. You have
to understand New Jersey not a placethat people think Republicans would ever compete.
But the size of the crowd.Could President Biden get that crowd in the
heart of New York are in themost Democrat state? Could he do it
in California? The answer is no, truth spoken by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
(27:12):
That truth is why the Democrats onceagain are talking about replacing Joe Biden
as the Democratic nominee. But whois going to break that to President Biden.
Here's Dan Abrams with founder of theYoung Turks sank Weiger. Not up
to the Democrats if they all gottogether and said you got to get out,
(27:33):
and Joe doesn't have to get out. It's about Barack Obama and Jill
Biden and maybe Hunter Biden sitting downwith him and saying it's time. I
believe that Barack Obama has done thatover two lunches already, really, so
the only person left that he wouldlisten to is doctor Jill Biden. And
I don't believe that she wants toget out of the race. I think
she thinks I'm a pivotal part ofthis administration and I want to keep going.
(27:57):
If Joe Biden changed her mind,that would be the one thing that
would make a difference. But weknow that's not going to happen, at
least not yet, because three daysafter the Wild would Wake Up Call,
Joe Biden showed us all how desperatehe is by agreeing to do something he
doesn't want to do. Debate DonaldTrump. Donald Trump lost two debates to
(28:19):
me in twenty twenty sin Sandy hadn'tshown up for debate. Now he'sactly like
he wants to debate me again.Will make my day, Pal, I'll
even do it twice. So let'spick the dace. Donald and Donald Trump
quickly said yes and even agreed toall Biden's terms, no audience, a
mechanism to turn the microphone off whentime is up, and the two debates
(28:41):
will happen on friendly territory for Biden, CNN and ABC Because none of that
matters. It's still Joe Biden whohas trouble putting thoughts in words together and
often just freezes, which is whythey limit speeches. And there are no
more press conferences by Joe Biden,and he's going to debate Donald Trump.
(29:03):
It is telling that the first debatewill be June twenty seventh, right before
the Democratic Convention in August, timeenough for the Democrats to replace Biden with
another candidate. If President Biden hasan awful debate, if he has a
major flub, and chances are hewill, the pressure will mount for Joe
Biden to step aside. The onlyquestion is for whom I couldn't reconcile it
(29:32):
now I can God help us.All that wraps up Saturday morning. Thanks
so much for listening. I'll beback Monday morning with Lenn Berman and Michael
Rito in the morning from six untilten. Have a great weekend. This
has been a podcast from wor
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