Episode Transcript
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This is a podcast from WR Nowthe wr Saturday Morning Show. Here's Larry
Minty. Welcome to Saturday Morning.On this week's show, we talked with
Superman Dean Kine, who is partof a new documentary on Ronald Reagan that
will air tonight on News Nation,and we'll talk about his endorsement of Donald
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Trump. In Albany, the legislaturepassed a bill yesterday to limit children's access
to social media and make it lessaddictive for children. Annie Chestnut, the
tech policy analysts for the Heritage Foundation, believe similar bills will now be passed
by states across the country. Butfirst, a look back at the week
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that was. The week began withtwo police officers being shot by a migrant
in this country illegally. Thank godthey're okay. The officers were after the
migrant, suspected to be part ofa moped snatch and grab gang. Since
lis act violence a total disregard forlife. One of the officers was saved
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by a bulletproof vest. The otherwas shot in the foot. Nineteen year
old Venezuela and Bernardo Castro Mata hasbeen charged with attempted murder after police were
criticized for arresting a mother and herfourteen year old daughter for selling fruit in
Battery Park. Mayor Adams came tothe officer's defense. We don't want our
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babies on a chain selling candy.They should not be on the highways with
their children on their back selling items. Legislators in Albany and Governor Kathy Hokeel
had their site said on social mediacompanies this week and the effect they have
on our kids. They're dealing withthe negative effects on mental health that is
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driven by social media. Coming upin about a half an hour, we'll
talk with Ani Chestnut, tech policyanalyst for the Heritage Foundation about the landmark
bill that now well may be spreadfrom state to state across the country.
Doctor Anthony Fauci was back in Washingtonthis week in front of a House committee
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and Congressman Marjorie Taylor Green. Youknow what this committee should be doing.
We should be recommending you to beprosecuted. We should be writing a criminal
referral because you should be prosecuted forcrimes against humanity. You belong in prison,
doctor Fauci. We do need toget answers on the origin of COVID
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and if doctor Fauci funded dangerous gainof function research at the Wuhan lab where
the virus came from. There arenow emails uncovered that show he was so
stay tuned. Hey, guess whowoke up and realized we had a border
crisis. The simple truth is thereis a worldwide migrant crisis, and if
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the United States doesn't secure our border, there's no limit to the number of
people may try to such a cynicaland dishonest move. After allowing almost ten
million to cross illegally and get amnesty, this is of course, all to
check a box before the election,and reports from the border is that it
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hasn't made any difference at all.Attorney General Merrick Garland was on the hot
seat in Washington with Republicans on aHouse committee accusing him of being a man
behind the curtain in Donald Trump's hushmoney conviction. It comes alongside false claims
that a jury verdict in a statetrial brought by a local district attorney was
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somehow controlled by the Justice Department.That conspiracy theory is an attack on the
judicial process itself, and yet herefuses to turn over communications between the Justice
Department and the Manhattan DA's office.In the New Jersey primary, Andy Kim
will be the Democratic nominee for Senateto replace Bob Menendez. What I always
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wanted to do with this race whenI jumped in the day after the indictment
of Senate Menendez, was about givingthe people New Jersey a choice. Kim
will face South Jersey moderate Republican hoteleer Curtis Beshaw, and Menendez, who
is facing a trial on corruption charges, is running as an independent. He
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can't win. This is just away of raising money, and Governor Hokel
just figured out that congestion pricing isunpopular with most New Yorkers. My focus
must be on putting more money backin people's pockets, and that's why I
must stand up for them and sayno to implementing the congestion pricing toll.
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At this time, I'm certainly happyshe postponed it, even though I hate
the political motivation of just doing itso that it doesn't hurt Democrats running in
the November elections. Believe me,congestion pricing is coming back after the election.
Speaking of waiting until after the Novemberelection to redo something, will you
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accept the jury's outcome their verdict nomatter what it is. Yes, And
have you ruled out a pardon foryour son, Yes, you have,
Yes, he will pardon Hunter.Just after the election, and the most
chilling story of the week, suspectedGilgo Beach serial killer Rex Huerman was charged
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with two more murders, and SuffolkCounty DA Ray Tierney says investigators found a
playbook with meticulous details on his computer. The task force believes that this is
a planning document and it was utilizedby Uromin to methodically blueprint and plan out
his kills with excruciating detail. Andfinally, President Biden in the world pays
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tribute to the heroes of the DDay invasion in Normandy that saved the world
eighty years ago for behalf of theAmerican people. This Commander in Chief,
it's the highest honor to be ableto salute you here in Normandy, to
the heroes of Normandy, and toevery man and woman who has ever served
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to protect our freedoms. Thank you. The most memorable speech at Normandy ever
was made by President Ronald Reagan.And coming up next, we'll talk with
Superman actor Dean Kane about the newRonald Reagan documentary that airs tonight at nine
on News Nation. That's next hereagain is Larry Menty with the wr Saturday
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Morning show Welcome Back tonight at nineon News Nation. Reagan Portrait of a
Presidency a documentary on one of America'sgreatest presidents, Ronald Reagan. Narrating the
documentary is an actor most famous forplaying Superman Dean Kane. He joins us
now, Dean, thanks so muchfor talking with us. The documentary is
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called Reagan Portrait of a Presidency.Tell us a little bit about what people
will see when they tune into theNews Nation documentary tonight at nine o'clock.
Well, if you're not familiar withReagan's presidency already, it's a great it's
a great overview of all the incrediblethings that he went through in the country
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and the world went through during hiseight years and two terms as president.
For me, it happened to havebeen from nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty eight,
my four high school years and myfour college years. So he was
incredibly influential in my life growing up, because you know, all these things
were happening as I was a youngperson, and it's really kind of great,
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and I can't wait for my sonto see it, because you know,
he's twenty four, and you know, hearing about these things is one
thing. But to watch the documentaryand see the times, see Reagan in
his own words, giving his speeches, see that things that were going on.
I think it's incredibly informative to theyounger folks and I and I can't
wait for to hear my son's reactionsand other young people's reactions for us.
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I don't know if you'res nearly asold as me, Larry, but I'm
older. Believe me, I'm older. It's a hearkening back to a time
and a leadership that was that iskind of lost today. There's there's some
real parallels to what's going on todaypolitically or worldwide. But you know,
when you see the eloquence and thegrace and the sense of humor with which
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Reagan spoke, and you know,sort of the you know, you don't
have to demonize the other side.That could be joked about and so on
and so forth, but it wasn'tso politically polarized that you couldn't get,
you know, working across the aisle, which is unfortunate that things have gotten
to that place. Now, butyou see how what a great negotiator and
communicator he was. They called themthe great Communicator, and somebody in the
documentary says they probably should have calledthem the great negotiator because he got things
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done. This is perfect timing forthis document. Henery Ronald Reagan died on
June fifth, just a few daysago, and we're remembering D Day and
Reagan gave what is widely considered thebest D Day speech ever. That's going
to be in the documentary, right, Oh, definitely. Well, we
don't think we cover the entire speechof D Day, although although I saw
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it all over the place yesterday,it may have touched upon it. But
that's he gives. He had somany we could have done that a ten
hour special on an incredible speeches hedid. I was fortunate enough to meet
the man, and when I wasplaying Superman, he actually had me come
in and talked to him because hewas a big football fan and I was
a big football player for a longtime and he played as well, So
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we got the bond on that andI just was struck by what a graceful,
wonderful, eloquent man he was.And you know, you look back
at at his speeches and his senseof humor and so on and so forth,
and he really he was a verycalming influence on the United States and
the world. And you know,you're seeing the fall of the Berlin Wall
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and the fall of the Soviet Union, and you know the general chaos that
was going on before he became presidentand the economic recovery. And you know,
if I ever ran for office,I would steal half his speeches.
I'd give him credit, but Ifollow his words because they're incredible. We're
talking with actor Dean Kine, narratorof the documentary Reagan Portrait of a Presidency
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that will air at nine o'clock tonighton Newsmax. I know a lot of
people know you from Superman and iconicrole Lewis and Clark, but I encourage
people just to take a look atyour current movies and your IMD page that
as you were busy. I especiallylike your faith based movies, and Dean,
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you left Hollywood to make more ofthese movies. When you left Hollywood.
Any regrets, no regrets at all. I mean, I moved a
year ago to Nevada where I livenow, and it's just and I'm not
even gonna mention the fact that there'sno state income tax here. It's something
our listeners are going to love.In case they didn't know, you've endored
Donald Trump. How was the reactionto that decision. Well, I endorseed
Trump the first time as well.And I love President Trump. And I
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had a chance to sit down withhim and meet with him in the White
House and the Office for a goodhour and a half too, and he
was amazing or whatever it was.And I spent there, but it felt
like an hour and a half.It was pretty close to it. He
he is, Listen, we're asa country. I think we're in a
bad, bad position. I thinkthese career politicians that we've had in there,
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and and and and the deep state, they say, they call it.
These these people who are just entrenchedand and in the government and aren't
doing what they're supposed to be doing, and they're have an agenda of their
own. We need to drop thesize of government. We need to get
some things done in some common senseback in the White House. And I
think President Trump is definitely the answer. Nothing against Democrats or President Biden,
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but I don't like the policies andi'd love to see things reversed. This
this immigration stuff has gone insane,two wars going on, there's just a
lot of things happening that that wewe need, in my opinion, president
Trump to come in and if unlessthere's something crazy that happens between now and
the election, I don't see howit goes any other way than Trump becoming
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president again. You also said recentlythat you believe President Biden and this is
a quote nothing more than a headand a jar of blue liquids. That's
very funny. I got it veryfunny. But wow, I take it
you're not a fan. No,I'm not a fan. But that wasn't
my characterization. That was a joke. Was first made by Bill Maher.
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He said he'd vote for Biden's headand a jar of blue liquid over Trump,
and that's fine for him, andI that I sort of went on
from there and said that that's prettymuch what we got anyway. But I
know a lot of people who reallylike President Biden and who have worked with
him and say he's a wonderfully decentguy. And that may all be true.
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But what the policies that have beenput in place the last four years
have been disastrous to the United Statesand has created and sown chaos throughout the
world. And I think that weneed a absolute need President Trump back in
office. I like the idea ofa not entrenched politician coming in and shaking
things up. What President Trump knewwhen he first came in in twenty sixteen
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versus what he knows now are probablynight and day differences. He has learned
so much and seen what you know, people who want to sabotage your presidency
and your administration. There's there wereso many during that time, including a
Clapper and all that whole bunch ofthe whole intelligence group. At this time,
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I think when President Trump comes in, he's going to clean house and
he's going to make a lot ofcommon sense moves, and I think it's
going to benefit the United States andthe world tremendously. And I certainly hope
that's what happens. All Right,let's go full circle with this. So
politics is so ugly right now,and I don't see a Ronald Reagan on
the horizon, someone who could unitethe country with the win and the class
and the positive message and mission.Do you is that kind of politics dead
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in this atmosphere. But it's currentlydead, but there's no saying you can't
resurrect it. And and I'm hopingthat is the case. And and you
know, look at this documentary.Watch how Reagan didn't vilify the other side.
He'll have fun, and you know, and he'll poke, he'll poke
some holes in your arguments and andand and have some fun, but you
know, he's not going to villifythe other side. And and I think
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that's an important thing that you canunderstand that you can disagree with somebody politically
in this day and age and nothate them or or turn it into something
personal. You know, you mayhave just different views on what you think
is important for the for policy,but you know, he was a different
time there. And in the speechesthat he gives and you see you hear
a lot of them, he neversays I did this, I did this,
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blah blah. It's always we,the United States, the American people,
we can do this. And it'sthe kind of thing that makes you
feel, you know, it feelslike a hug, you know what I
mean, It really feels like ahug. That's a great way of putting
it. Dean, Thank you somuch. For your time. I can't
wait to watch the documentary tonight.I'll be watching Dean Kain, narrator of
the documentary on Ronald Reagan Reagan Portraitof a Presidency. It'll be on tonight
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at nine o'clock News Nation. Thankyou so much, Dean. I really
appreciate your time. Thank you,actor Dean Kaine, who narrates the Reagan
Portrait of a Presidency documentary on NewsNation tonight at nine And if you miss
it, there'll be an encore showingat eleven. Still to come on Saturday
Morning, legislation passed and Albany tolimit children's access to social media. The
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idea is now expected to spread acrossthe country. And I'll have some final
thoughts on a controversial Wall Street Journalarticle on Biden's mental acuity that the left
is going apoplectic about. That's allcoming up. Back now to the WOR
Saturday Morning Show with Larry MINTI welcomeback. Yesterday New York past legislation that
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would limit children access to social mediaand make social media less addictive. It'll
be the first such law passed inthe country, and other states are expected
to follow New York's lead, withUS now to tell us about what all
this means, is any chestnut techpolicy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, Annie,
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Thank you so much for talking withus today. The new law,
if this is signed by the governor, will be called the Stop Addictive Feeds
Exploitation for Kids Act. That's whatit sounds like it might be. That
is a mouthful. That was atleast the Senate title. What exactly will
it do? Yeah, thanks forhaving me on, Larry. Sure.
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So, this bill, which justpassed the Senate and Assembly, will prohibit
social media platforms from using recommendation basedalgorithms or accounts assigned to minors unless they
receive printal consent. So the defaultfeed for kids will be a chronological feed,
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just showing content from users that thekids chose to follow, and none
of the posts that are recommended foryou because you've watched this other content,
which is what essentially makes social mediaso addictive, because there's endless content.
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You just keep scrolling and more contentcomes up even if you don't follow them.
Is this is it enforceable? WhatI mean? What's to keep kids
from just lying about their age?Yeah? Well, the bill does require
social media platforms to verify users age. So right now, when you create
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an accounts, it's all based onself added station, so you say what
year you were born, but there'sno text, no accountability there. So
the bill requires the state Attorney Generalto write regulations on the rules for a
commercial commercially technologically feasible method for ageverification and also commercially technically feasible method for
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parental consent. And there are civilpenalties that can be brought for the platform
if they violate the bill. Allright, we're talking to Annie Chestnut,
the tech policy analysts for the HeritageFoundation. There are groups, of course
that hate this legislation, that hatethe new law, including the social media
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companies. I guess there's no surprisethere. A spokesperson for May to,
the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, argue that there are huge loopholes in
the legislation because they say, becauseit focuses on apps rather than on the
online stores where they are downloaded.Do they have a point? Yeah,
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So they're of course going to kickthe can down the road and point to
other entities. And I mean becausethey're the ones that will have to comply
with the bill and that will requirethem to change the status quo and getting
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rid of these types of feeds willdiminish profit margin potential for them. I
do think that requiring age garification atthe app level is a good idea,
but that doesn't mean that requiring itat the platform level is a bad idea.
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And they, of course they wouldprefer that because then it's off their
hands and it's not something that theyhave to comply with. It's just Google
an Apple that would have to complywith. I love your answer to that,
So you're saying, yeah, that'sa great idea, let's do both,
which is exactly what they don't want. A state. Can a state
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force a social media company to changeits algorithm? How does that work?
Yeah? Well, I think inthis case, you know, it's just
targeting minors, and that is thedifferent you know, in terms of free
speech considerations. I mean, theSupreme Court has decided multiple times that governments
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do have a compelling interest to protectkids and to protect them from obscene content.
And so that is why there isthis ability, like legal arguments,
for a state to put these sortof guardrails on a company when it comes
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to minors. And I think that'swhy you won't you'll see it for that,
but you won't see it for justthe greater population. You know,
that isn't bill saying it doesn't changethe status quo for adults, even though
I mean I was when I waslooking up this bill, I saw some
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like posts on Reddit and a lotof users were like, man, can
they just make this for everyone?Like I just want the chronological feed like
I'm tired of. I'm tired ofthe unsolicited content that just pops up from
random users. So it's definitely Ithink it's it's a setup that is actually
would be popular for a lot ofusers. It's just a different calculation when
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it comes to actually legislating. Right, we're again we're talking to any Chestnut,
the tech policy analysts for the HeritageFoundation. You know, Annie,
I I think you're going to agreewith this sentiment. I spoke to several
parents about the legislation and the bill, and their answer was unanimous. They
all said good. And then whenI brought up possible problems, they said,
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look, even if there are problemswith the legislation, this is a
start. This is a start,and something has to be done. I
get. I would guess you'd agreewith that. Sentiment. Yeah, absolutely,
I think we've done enough factfinding Foryears, it's been well established that
there are negative ramifications from social mediaand that anxiety and depression and even like
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behavioral issues. There's a direct correlationwith the amount of time that kids spend
on social media and the type ofcontent that they're consuming. And it's not
fair for parents make it a zerosum game. You know, either well,
then don't let your kid up socialmedia. I mean that's easier said
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than done, because I mean it'snear impossible to prevent them from grading an
account, even if they don't havea smartphone, on a computer, a
friend's phone, and then so otherwiseparents just have to throw in the towel
because they don't want their kid tobe left out or socially isolated. So
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like, okay, it's fine,have social media, have at it,
and what the platform is is whatthey get, and there's so we need
to have. There needs to bein between, and we need to make
it a better and safer place forkids. And the platforms have shown that
we can't rely on them to selfcorrect because they've done very little. And
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you expect this now, this algorithmbased legislation to be passed across the country
to be passed by legislators across thecountry. I think we're going to see
more states follow this. It seemslike it's gotten a lot of attention outside
of New York. Other states havedone other solutions, such as requiring just
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requiring perminal consent for social media,or putting restrictions on the push notifications that
kind of entice people to get backon the app, or getting rid of
direct messaging for kids, and thatthat kind of targets the ability for like
predators to start talking to kids.But this is the first that gets at
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the addictive algorithm, and I thinkI think that in upcoming legislative sessions we'll
see other states consider similar legislation.All right, Annie, thank you so
much for your time, Thanks forexplaining that to us, Thanks for having
me, Annie Chestnut, tech policyanalyst for the Heritage Foundation. And now
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some final thoughts. The Wall StreetJournal on Wednesday had a bombshell story about
President Joe Biden's mental acuity. Theyinterviewed forty five people Democrats and Republicans who
had meetings with the President at theWhite House. The article gave a scathing
look at the January meeting in theWest Wing, where participants said they struggled
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to hear the president as he spokeso softly, they said, saying he
read from notes and sometimes closed hiseyes for so long that some thought he
had tuned out. And in Februarya meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson,
he said he worried the president's memorywas slipping. On his own Policy News
Nation White House correspondent Kelly Myers,the report made the progressives at CNN and
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MSNBC apoplectic, and they spent theday telling us how sharp and in control
President Biden is. This does havethe feeling of Trump acolytes laundering their attacks
through a reputable, prestigious new newsorganization. In The Wall Street Journal spent
time with Biden and Trump privately.If you want to talk about international affairs,
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if you want to talk about howto get bipartisan legislation, Joe Biden
is light years ahead of all ofthem. He literally goes around the globe
on the chart in the situation whenhe points out the weaknesses and the strengths
of the United States relationships with eachand every country that he's talking about,
with no notes, with no notes. Wait, wait, wait a second.
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We've seen the notes. We've seenhim read from them at press conferences
and with foreign dignitaries. We maynot have been able to understand a word
he was saying, but we've seenhim like what he met with the President
of Israel at the White House.We brought Israelis and Pelle students together at
a political level and crime and PaulSchamp and as I affirmed a prime ministery,
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he looked down and mumbled from hisnotes the entire meeting. We didn't
need the Wall Street Journal. Wesee it. We even have documented evidence
from Special Counsel Robert Hurr, whointerviewed the President for hours about the classified
documents he took. Biden's memory wasso bad that although he committed a crime,
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her couldn't charge him. He wrotethis in his report, Mister Biden
would likely present himself to a juryas he did during our interview of him,
as a sympathetic, well meaning elderlyman with a poor memory. Even
most Democrats who are defending the Presidenttoday thought he was too old to run
again just three months ago. Thisis the ABC IPSOS poll. Eighty six
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percent of Americans say Biden is tooold. That includes seventy three percent of
Democrats. These are people who oughtto be a natural following. Of course,
they say that it's way too obvious. The reason the Democrats are upset
with the Wall Street Journal article isbecause they've been telling us for months that
Biden is mentally sharp in private.But we didn't need that article to know
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they were lying. We knew already. We've seen him trip, fall,
shuffle, get names wrong, freezeand forget enough times to know without any
help that this is not the sameJoe Biden who used to make flawlessly delivered
arguments on the floor of the Senate. The consensus is a we must take
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back the streets. It doesn't matterwhether or not the person that is a
costing your son or daughter, ormy son or daughter, my wife,
your husband, my mother, yourparents. It doesn't matter whether or not
they were deprived as a youth.That's the Joe Biden I remember, that's
the Joe Biden I could support.What we are seeing now is not that
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Joe Biden. He is a shellof his former self, and the Democrats
know that they're stuck with him,or maybe not. There is going to
be a debate coming up this monthon June twenty seventh. There may be
a reason it's that early, theearliest debate in history and happening before the
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Democratic Convention. Former White House Chiefof Staff Mike mulvaney. The theory goes
that let's go aheat and have adebate. Now, this is the Democrats
thinking and supposedly, and if Bidenstumbles or performs very badly, we can
still replace him at the convention.Keep in mind, neither of these men
will be the formal nominees of theirparty at the time of this first debate.
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The Democrats could nominate someone else atan open convention in Chicago the week
of August nineteenth, and the WallStreet Journal will have nothing to do with
it. The Democrats already know it'strue, they had a Plan B already
in place. That's why the debateis so early. They just don't like
the Wall Street Journal rubbing it intheir face. That wraps up Saturday Morning
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for this week. Thanks for listening. I'll be back Monday with Lenn Berman
and Michael Riedo in the morning fromsix to ten. In the meantime,
have a great weekend. This hasbeen a podcast from wor