George Conway

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beast Politics. George Conway sitting in my apartment. Hello, Yeah,
this solves the problem with shitty internet access.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
So today is one of the many. It's not the
first Epstein drop day.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's a kind of a big one. It's a humongous one, though,
you know.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
And and this just a tranche of emails after emails,
after emails, after emails.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I only saw the first three because I was busy
at meetings with her. More there are like Trump knew
about all of this email My favorite email was the
one I first saw this morning. I'm not favorite, but
as like the one that's sort of like it was
like a smoking gun, the closest thing he was smoking
gun without pictures, although they were. I could see an
email later talking about the pictures. Yeah, was the one
that said Trump is the dog that didn't bite, because

(00:45):
basically he had not been the subject of the investigation.
And then he is saying it didn't bark, talking about
you didn't bite bark? Okay, Sorry, He's like, I do
so and that says it says it to Gleninne, Maxwell
basically says, but he was he is in with in
my house with so and so it turns out to
be Virginia Differ. Yeah, it's got to be virgin one

(01:07):
of the one of the younger, because.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
It says and they got her from mar A Laga,
which is Virginia jew Fry, just the only.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, I mean that's what it's that. That's who there was. Anyway,
he was alone, he was in Epstein's house with a girl. Yeah,
name redacted. And then Delay says, yeah, I was thinking
about that too. Yeah. And you know, I mean, come on,
were they there talking about tariffs? They were not talking
about it. I do not think they were talking about tariffs.

(01:36):
I don't think so. I do not think that. I
gotta say, I mean, this is like this. I said,
I said this morning that this is like remember how
Ben Bradley, the man it used to be the managing
editor or something in the Washington Post back in the day,
in the Watergate days. He would always tell the reporters
we need holy shit stories and the stories and said

(01:57):
make you read and open the papers, say holy shit.
This is a holy shit story of a different sort.
This is a holy shit Times one thousand story. But
it's also not surprising, no exact because we know who
Donald Trump is and this is who he is. And
the only reason why is it's a holy shit story.
Is because you know, for years of millions of Americans

(02:21):
have gone twice well okay, I did the first time.
I'm sorry, you know, but we did this. They think
we can't hear anything about him in their complete denial,
and they pretend everything is not real, and they only
turn on news sources that don't tell them a bad
things Donald Trump. But it's not surprising at all. It's

(02:42):
only surprising if you've been doing that, and you know,
I think they're probably going to be still be doing that.
That's the real question of people really going to pay
attention who have who have been in denial about Trump
and have this cognitive dissonance about Trump, and I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
I mean, the thing that gets me about these emails is,
first of all, Trump knows he's in them, right, he
must have known.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Right, and and and what's his face, Todd Blanche, his lawyer.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Everybody knows he's in them because the FBI went through them.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
But even before that, well, this is a separate this
this this is this was subpoena exactly from the estate.
But I was assumed that the that the government had
this right.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
And the government we know from that reporting that the
FBI went through with a thousand guys redacting Trump's.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Name looking for this right. So even but even.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Before this, like Trump and BONDI were like, we're going
to release the Epstein files.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
We're going to do this, We're going to do that.
How do you have that level.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Of cognitive dissonance, like where you're like, I hung out
with this guy, my best friend for a decade.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Release the files.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Like, you know, Donald Trump doesn't think very well, and
he doesn't He's very.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
Good thinking in the moment, right, but he's not really
good about actions and consequences, which is why he's a criminal,
right and convicted criminal in.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Fact, and an adjudicated digital rapist. He doesn't he just
one of these people. He's just one of these people
who's whose psychological growth stopped at age three, four or five.
And he just you know, I mean, you just and
he doesn't understand that his actions can cause negative consequences

(04:34):
to himself. If he does these things and negative consequences
occur to him, he doesn't blame himself. He blames you, him, her,
these other people, right, and says that, oh, everybody else
does this so I can lie about it because everybody
else lies about it, and he doesn't. He says that,
you know, in his head, you know, it's of course,

(04:56):
you know he didn't. He didn't think this through, right.
But what about like Pam Bondy.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
He she had all those influencers come to the White House,
you know, gave them binders.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
I mean, I hate to say this about the Attorney
General in the United States, but it just may be
that Pam Bondi is a war on It could be.
I mean, I don't want to I don't want to
go out on a limb here.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
This morning, I was reading the cash Battel private jet
story from the Washington Post, which is about Cash Battel
using the FBI jet basically, as you know, just living
it up and also ruining investigations and tweeting about them.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, you hate teaking about investigation. Say we are we
are investigating this, and then the people skip the country.
I say, hey, wait, yeah that's us. Yeah, so I
mean I'm got to arrest them first. I don't know,
you know, I'm not a cop and I've never been.
But He's like, normally before you start talking about the
people who you're investigating, and you're about to invest arrest them,
you arrest them first.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
It's it's funny because it's like, I want to pull
back for a second. You and I have been through
this fucking administry. We have been through it together for.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
The last eight years. We've been friends and million tens
of millions, yes, but especially us though, because we've really
been through it.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Do you think I think something's happened over the last
couple of weeks where it's gone from maybe not the
last couple of weeks, but yeah, I think since the election,
it's gone from this is all really scary and we're
going to end up in an autocracy to oh it's Trump, Well,
you know he's The incompetence is back.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
The incompetence is back. And also people are learning that
they are not alone and fighting back and they learned
that from the No Kings events, and they learned that
from the election results. And that's why even I, who
have you know, you know how I am. I'm not
the most pessimistic person in the world, but I've been

(06:56):
saying it's always going to get worse before it gets better.
Even I you know, there's a there's a skip in
my step, you know. And but the thing is, it
will still get worse before it gets better, because this
does not remove him from office the you know, I mean,
even though we have people like Bobert and and Mace
voting for this. In Marjorie Taylor Me's signing this discharge

(07:19):
position petition, which now is to eighteen is that to
eighteen once? This once this congressman, I think she got
sworn in today, right, yeah, but it dies in the Senate.
I mean, the thing is, but it's but it's make
But the point is, yes, it makes them vote, and
it shows that there are cracks in the facade, but
it's not going to it's not going to be to
do all and end all, and we're still stuck with

(07:40):
him for the duration. Yes, and do you ever see
the movie Wag the Dog? Yes, I love that movie.
We're in there, yeah, yes, Venezuela. You know, you know
the thing that always happens with these narcissistic psychopaths who
get in positions of power and then evitably get themselves

(08:01):
in trouble, like yeah, you know, they told him so,
don't invade cross up and he did it anyway, and
it didn't work out so well, they get themselves into
deep shit, and the problem is they ultimately blow themselves up.
I've said this, I've said this podcast fifty times. They
blow themselves up. And the problem is the blast radius.

(08:22):
Are we going to be within the blast radius? And
this is you know, I mean, he's done so much
damage in just a few months. The blast radius is
already large. And as he becomes more desperate, you know,
it's it's going to get worse and we have to
prepare ourselves and we really need to stand up more. Yeah,
you're not not cave like eight or eight people did

(08:46):
in the Democratic Senate leadership. Yes, Chuck, we're talking to you.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
But I mean the point is they should have kept
the government. You're going to hut down the government, keep
it shut down.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
He must have made him now the other day what
you did.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Listen, All I'm going to say is, let's just talk
about where Trump is right now. Okay, So he's in
his house eating McDonald's, watching Fox News, throwing ketch up
on the wall.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
What happens The older in there has got it terrible?
What happens now?

Speaker 2 (09:20):
I mean, he's seventy nine, He is desperately clinging to power.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
I mean, do you think it's just weeks of distraction?

Speaker 4 (09:29):
Now?

Speaker 1 (09:30):
I think he's going to go on the attack somehow.
He's going to say the emails were fake. Right, He's
going to say there's nothing in there that implicates me.
He's going to say that, just ask Kallaine Maxwell, No,
don't do that. He's going to say. There is going
to be no logic to anything he does, and the answers,
the things that he will spout out as usual, it'll

(09:51):
be like, you know what, I don't know the game twister?
Will you spin the thing? Like one day he's going
to say this, the next day he'll say the one
on the like the yellow piece of the pie. And
it's going to be completely the opposite of what he
said the other day. And none of it's going to
be consistent, and it's all just going to be a
budget noise. And he's going to blow a few things up, yeah,
which may be Portland or may be Caracas.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Right and that and and it is really we really
have handed over the nuclear codes to a complete limited.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Correct yes for the second time, Yes, second time. Yes.
I And he's talking about the news like I have
these great nuclear weapons. I want to test one moment. Yeah,
it's pretty it's it's not good.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
I wonder if we could just talk for a minute
about how sort of like how you.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Chip away at the base.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
So like there was this very good pulling that just
came out that chose the Republican He's not he's being
blamed for the economy, yes, because he's president.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
He's president. No. And what that's the thing about being
president is presidents have less impact on the economy than
people assume they do, right and so, but that but
the problem is people assume the presidents have everything to
do with the economy, and therefore you get blamed. If
inflation goes up like a blip ah Biden, or if
it goes up a lot, or it doesn't or something
doesn't happen perfectly, it's your fault, even if you can

(11:07):
trace it back to something that your predecessor did, or
you can trace it to something that the Saudi's did
with oil, or you can trace it to some extern
a war. But the point about it is Trump always
takes credit for things that he's not entitled to take
credit for. And he says that he is the man
who controls everything and is the do all and end
all and the brilliant thing. And he's been talking about

(11:29):
how wonderful his tariffs are and it's me, me, me,
I take credit for everything. So of course he's going
to get blamed. And this time, actually he's having more
of an impact on the economy than any other president
because he's doing fucked up things because of the tariffs.
The tariffs. Yes, what do you think? I wonder with
the tariffs.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
It's clearly a Donald Trump fantasy. He always thought that
this was the way.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
I mean, I can't figure out the tarriffs thing. Honestly,
I think what he liked. I think I think he
does have some quarter bak idea that tariff's represents strength
and they're good historically, which is complete and utter bullshit.
Any historian, any economist, any economic historian, anybody with any
common sense thinks it through for ten minutes and knows

(12:12):
anything about the supply the laws of supply, and the
man would think so too. But I think the thing
he loves about tariffs is it makes him feel powerful,
like right and shack them up, and people come saying,
mister President, we want we want to you know, write,
please don't do that to us, we are at your mercy,
and then he can lower them again and raise them again.

(12:35):
And that's part of what you've been seeing with this,
like ooh diy, the tariffs up and down off on
any given day, he's up and he's like it, oh,
we have the greatest trail to eat. Trade deal? What
trade deal? It doesn't exist, right, It's he loves the
power of being able to do something with his fucking
sharp beat. It makes people squirm and come to him.

(12:56):
And it's just like the It's like this is like Pardons, right,
loves Partons because he gets to write on a piece
of paper. It doesn't matter who they are. It makes
it feel powerful and people have to come and supplicate
to him.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
I think that's right, And I mean it's so it's
so funny because it's like so much of Trump is
from this nineteen eighties that I grew up in in
New York, and so much of it is like he's
the big man with the big family real estate business,
doling out to the kids, right like you do. As
someone who had like a grandfather who was wealthy and

(13:27):
who like did stuff like that feels very familiar.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
It's like it's the mob. You come to me, you
ask me for when you ever come and come to
my house in friendship. So there is that mom father.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
It's the mafia thing, but it's also the rich parent
doling out the cat.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yes, it's you know right right, it's the but he's
doing it.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
And even then the thing in thebout the like when
I think about the food stamps, like this administration was
fighting with the courts about the food stamps and sending
out food stamps during the shutdown. Now the governor of Wisconsin,
Tony Ivers, he ended up filling the ETF.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Cards, right, He filled the food stamp cards at E
B T. This the some of.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
These democratics, do you, I don't go anywhere. All I
do instead of loos. But there have been democratic governors.
But like the idea that here's Donald Trump, his administration
is fighting. It's not his money, it's taxman dollars.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
You think Donald Trump separates his the fisk, the public
fisk with his fisk, or his powers governance powers, or
his white house with some people's house. Everything belongs to
Donald Donald is his. These are my generals. This is
my East wing that I get to demolished to build
my to all my ballroom for nine hundred me.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Do you think there will be more George Conways, more
people who are smart and can't take it?

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Or do you think it's over that period of people don't.
I can't think. I don't think they're going to be
like me. Okay, like we're basically I've gotten to the
point where I just any more to get well, they
call me a Democrat, might as well, I might as
well just do it, because there's one political party in
this country and the other one's just a crazy call, right, right,

(15:34):
So but we'll get to that. We first got to
know each other. What in twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen
when I was when I had been off the reservation
and I was kind of lobbing shit out there, and
people were saying, you know why I did that? Why?
Because I thought if I showed that I could do
it with my now ex wife in the fucking White House, right,
people would just say, yeah, I've had fed up too,

(15:56):
I can do it too. It's like, yeah, and guess
what I mean. I had a few people do it.
I formed this group, but yeah, checks and balances that
became outside of the rule lost some wonderful, great lawyers,
a lot of them from the Reagan administry, but by
and large my effort to persuade people by going out
there and saying, look, nothing bad will happen to you.
If you say this was a complete and utter failure,

(16:18):
well it wasn't a complete and utter failure. But I
know you feel that way. I feel like I haven't
done enough. I want to do more. I don't know
what you know. I've been trying to figure out. I
wonder what's next for you. Well, we will find out.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
I hope you'll come back to tell us if you
end up having a big thing that you want to
announce somewhere.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
You're just trying to push that idea you're trying to
push on me.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm just
saying that if there were an announcement that one would
want to make.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
This would be a good place to do it, especially
because leon Nidas would like George Conway, will you come back? Yes,
all right, thank you,