January 17, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 3 of A&G features...
- Biden keeps doing interviews & NY Times calls out the push to get Biden out of office
- Schumer talks about talking to Biden about dropping out
- States prone to natural disasters & their insurance policies
- Amazing 999 (911) dispatcher talks in code
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Arm Strong and Getty, and he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I really am concerned about how fragile democracy is. I
guess what I'm worried about is that the thing that
keeps it on track are the guardrails. That there's a
Supreme Court that's independent but not but accountable. There's a
(00:48):
Congress that you speak your mind, but you're held accountable
to basic standards. There's a presidency that says you have
very limited powers. I mean, you're the top dog. When
you're not, you can dictate everything. And I don't know,
they seem to just we just seem to be chipping away.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
At all those elements.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Why is the least popular president outside of Nixon in
sixty years, doing so many exit interviews?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
People hate you. Why don't you just quietly go away?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Desperate need to take one last shot at burnishing his legacy.
I guess quick note before we get into the meat
of this topic, and Michael in Washington State writes, evidently,
yesterday I made reference to Biden and his advisors in
his farewell speech and Michael suggests the new nickname dead
(01:43):
in company, I mean his advisors.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
That's disrespectful, Michael. It's a bad idea, disrespectful to John Mayer, maybe.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Bob Ware. So I'm going to just read here. This
is going to be a segment where I just read.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
This article is super long, and and I just came
across it fifteen minutes ago, and it's out the New
York Times today, and I have had chance to highlight it.
I'm gonna read. Joe's gonna comment as we go. The
New York Times has interviewed over a dozen people with
knowledge of This article is based on interviews with a
(02:18):
dozen people who participated in the private push of getting
Biden out of office.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
This is one of the first big articles.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
On this to come out yet, you know, three days
before he leaves office. The headline in today in the NYT.
I'm urging you not to run how Schumer pushed Biden
to drop out. And I've just started reading it. I'm
finding it fascinating. So I hope you will take Senator
Chuck Schumer of New York sat in the foyer of
President Biden's beach house, tired and tense. He had not
(02:48):
slept at all the night before, and on the four
hour drive from Brooklyn to Delaware, he had rehearsed out
loud what he planned to say, reviewing note cards as
he prepared for what he thought might be the most
high stakes speech he would ever give to an audience
of one.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm already wrapped. Wow.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
It was the afternoon of July thirteenth, a humid summer afternoon,
just before four o'clock, and Schumer, the Democratic leader of
the Senate, was about to make a blunt case to
Joe Biden that he needed to drop his bid for
a second term. If there were a secret ballot among
Democratic senators, mister Schumer would tell the president no more
than five would say he should continue running ooh five
(03:28):
out of fifty.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Two or whatever it was.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
At the time, mister Biden's own polsters assessed that he
had about a five percent chance of prevailing against the
Donald Trump. Mister Schumer would tell him information that was
apparently news to the president. The pulsters were saying, you
have a five percent chance of winning. They weren't telling
Joe that. They were telling all the other Democrats that
what the hell.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
You pointed this out?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yesterday that well, Number one, it's just mind blowing that
the president's advisers were keeping the polls from him and
fully curating which headlines he saw. I mean, that's just
it's scary and how clear it is that they're like,
if he sees this, he's not going to run again,
then I'll have to go find a job. Hey, there's
(04:12):
a chance he gets reelected and I keep my gigs,
So let's just keep the news from him. I mean,
that is some serious puppetry.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
God, I'd say.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
If the President refused to step aside, the Senator would argue,
the consequences for Democrats in Biden's own legacy after a
half century would be catastrophic.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
If you run and you lose to Trump and we
lose the Senate and we don't get back the House,
you will go down in America as one of the
darkest figures.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Whoa happened anyway, But it would have been certain if
he'd run.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
That's a heck of a thing to say.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Schumer would end with the directive, if I were you,
I wouldn't run.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I'm urging you not to run.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
The roughly forty five minute conversation, which took place on
a screen, didn't porch overlooking a pond. Was more pointed
and emotional than previously known and helps to explain how
mister Biden came to the decision just over a week.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Later to end his campaign.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
They lay out the all the people that they talked
to the knowledge they had. These are all people close to.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
The whole deal.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Uh. When Schumer arrived at mister Biden's beach house that
summer day, he could hear the President shouting. Mister Biden
was finishing up a contentious zoom call with a small
group of lawmakers who were expressing their concerns about his
viability as a candidate, and.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
His back was up.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
This was exactly the kind of scenario Schumer had been
hoping to avoid for the past three weeks. As he
stalled for time and dragged his feet about having this
awkward conversation at all, he worried that the famously stubborn
president would feel cornered and dig in more. For months,
Schumer had been concerned that Biden was going to lose
to Trump and cost Democrats Congress. Now listen to this part,
(05:50):
and you tell me what's going on here. It wasn't
that he thought Biden was not capable of doing the job.
During their weekly conversations, the President often rambled, but he
had always rambled. Once in a while Biden would forget
why he had called, but Schumer thought little of it.
He was convinced that Biden could handle the job. How
is that freaking possible?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
How are those sentences part of the same paragraph.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Is he only saying that to the New York Times
or whoever he's talking to, because he'd be like a
bad American if he admitted well, And because he.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Was swearing up and down to anybody who had listened
that the President was more than capable of handling.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
The job at the time.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
So he's now because obviously he and his people are
leaking all this stuff. He is trying somehow to thread
the needle of this stuff being true. And yet he's
not a big fat, stinkin' liar. Good luck thread in
that needle, Chucky boy.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Umm. He was uncomfortable with giving unsolicited advice to the
commander and cheap about his future. Schumer, like every other
Democrat in a position of power at the time, had
chosen to do nothing. So when Biden bombed during his
June twenty seventh debate with Trump, Schumer regarded it as
something of a gift, a forcing mechanism to start an
(07:04):
overdue discussion about the president's political viability. I remember talking
the next day about how we thought there's a whole
bunch of Democrats are like.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yes, finally, finally it's out in the open.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
We don't have to pretend anymore, as opposed to well,
I don't let me read this for you. That night,
the night of the debate, about two dozen House Democrats,
including Jakeem Jeffries who is now or is the minority leader,
gathered for a watch party in the community room of
the Washington and Lunxury apartment blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Where they all left. That was a gas can you imagine?
Speaker 4 (07:38):
But the festive atmosphere dissipated immediately after mister Biden, pale
and horse shuffled onto the stage in Atlanta and began
stumbling through his answers. By the end of the ninety
minute debate, I got to believe by the end of
the first five minutes, like all of the rest of America,
oh yeah, those who had been able to bear sticking
around were in a panic.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
While lots of people left.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I got to someplace I gotta go. Nothing mattered after
that first five minutes. Mister Jefferys had a motto he
often shared with this caucus. I've never heard this before.
Calm is an intentional decision. He tried to channel it
that night, even as his internal alarm bears, bells were
ringing and colleagues were telling him they could not possibly
(08:21):
win their seats with mister Biden at the top of
the ticket. We gotta process at all. See where we
are tomorrow morning, and we'll come up.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
With a game plan. Calm is an intentional decision. I
like that. Hey, I'd like that too.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And he was absolutely right to tell everybody, hey, hey, hey,
calm down.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
We'll talk tomorrow. We're not gonna solve it right now.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Schumer, who was at a fundraiser in California during the debate,
had a similar message for the donors he saw that night.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Uh we'll have.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
To see, he said, vaguely, I'll have to see what
what what do we gonna do?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Uh, well, we'll have to see.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You know what we could have, you know what would
have been theater if we'd thought of it. Of course,
we just came across this as sprinkle in various clips
from the debate about and then we killed Medicare, just
to remind you of how astounding it was, how awful
embarrassing many powerful people had seen enough, says The New
York Times.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
That night, mister Schumer's flip phone started ringing and it
wouldn't stop for days. Donors, members of Congress, union bosses,
even strangers who fished his number out of a Harvard
reunion book were calling, pleading with him to tell Biden
to get the race. Hey, Chuck, I know you don't
remember me. We played the high school football together, but
come on, dude. Schumer had one simple message for everyone
(09:40):
who called him.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Do not be public.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
He said, that will get his back up, and you
have got to let the dust settle. But if you
can call whoever you know in the campaign, call the
White House, that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Protect the president's dignity or we're not going to be
able to get him out. That's why all of those,
I mean, just crazy over the top. The most impactful
one term president in American history. He should be on
Mount Rushmore. It's been more transformative than blah blah blah.
All that stuff is absolutely laughable, but it served that strategy.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Some lawmakers thought waiting was the wrong strategy. Representative Jamie
Raskin Democratic Maryland chose at first to go the private route,
sending a letter to Biden on July sixth encouraging him
to leave the race. One of Biden's top adviser, Stevershetti,
assured mister Raskin that the President the First Lady had
both read the letter. Biden planned to call him, but
the President never did so. Then he released a later
(10:35):
publicly if you remember that, saying I think the President
he was the first person to break Remember. Then it
started adding up, and then he does on work.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
He wakes up next to a German shepherd's head in
his bed.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
It's a message. Forget about it. It's a message he's
in the doghouse.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
The message is the Secret Service is tired of getting
bit by your damn dog.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Umm again, I'm reading this up more or less on
the fly. I'm sure there's more good stuff in here
I can look over and bring to you.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Uh, I'm loving. I know, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
You know what, though, speaking of the Godfather, the sequel
is going to be better than the original in that
the next chapter has got to be the wrangling over
the course of was it a week ten days where
we as a country and the Democratic Party went from well,
the vice president is a damn moron, so the one
(11:29):
thing we're not gonna do is just trot her out automatically.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And a week and a half later it was.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Like, the great visionary leader Kamala will take us into
our future and we don't.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Need a primary.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
She's such a wizard, she must be the nominee. How
did that happen? What did those discussions sound like?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Killing? He said, what.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I got one more nugget for you before we take
a break. But NFL action this weekend fantastic, especially that
Bills Baltimore game that is going to be something.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Can't wait to watch that it be.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So you're counting out those teams that are one shut,
one touchdown underdogs, jack I said, don't do it. There
could be some major surprises. But can you yes, can
you predict whether a couple of players or more will
exceed the statistical projection for them or do less than that?
(12:24):
That's all you have to do for prize picks, super
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Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yes, we have done this.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
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Speaker 2 (12:56):
Run your game.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Okay, when we come back, I could get in a
little more of this article. It's got what Barack Obama
said the night after the debate at a fundraiser and
then starting the Kamala Harris conversation, which is interesting. Among
other things we've got coming up, like the whole TikTok
Supreme Court ruling and how that factors into everything.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Stay with also also a couple of things real quick,
unbelievable nine to one, one call dramatic, just a mind
blowing and a comparing contrast California an insurance crises and
Florida and insurance crises.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Leadership matters, Man, stay with us, man. It's a six
pound show and a five pound bag. I got a
lot of criticisms.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Understandably, we've invested more in Red stage than bluestags.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
That's in this book, that's in this report.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
For two reasons. One, Red States really screwed up. Turns
of the way they handle their economyn and the way
they handle manufacturing and way they handle access to supply chains.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, Red States are just screwed up. They have no
idea how to manage their business. Thanks Uncle Joe.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
So we've been reading through this New York Times article.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
It's like the rough draft of history where people are
starting to speak about how the whole thing went down
a pushing Joe Biden out and it's pretty damned interesting.
And I was reading more of it during the break
and got a roll on. So we did it last segment.
If you missed it, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty
on demand. The debate had just happened. All the Democrats
are in a panic. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader at
(14:35):
the time of the Senate saved his frank conversations for
King Jeffreys and former President Barack Obama. On June twenty ninth,
to the night after the debate, Jeffries was scheduled to
participate in a fundraiser in New York where he was
to interview Obama in front of an audience in a
fireside chat sort of setting. At a brief dinner mineting
before the event, mister Obama suggested addressing the elephant in
(14:55):
the room right off the top, because you got Obama's
smart enough to understand that we can't go out there
and pretend this didn't happen last night.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Had great instincts love him or hate him.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
On stage, the former president told the crowd that bad
debates happened, and while this one had greatly complicated the situation,
Democrats had to find a way to power through it.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Then they took no questions about it. Well, he was
trying to defend the indefensible. I guess that's as good
as you can do.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Privately, Jakim Jeffries began working to persuade people, the White
House Chief of Staff and others that Vice President Kamala
Harris would be a superior candidate to Biden. So that's
ground zero, patient zero for how that whole thing started.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
He's hearst Bengali.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I see, yeah, Hakim Jeffrey said, we don't have data
at this moment. The most but the most powerful narrative
in American politics is change. Vice President Harris would represent change.
Others rejected that sentiment, and so it just kind of,
you know, nothing happened there for a little while. We
can get through it. We think our allies in the
Hill are wrong, said the chief of Staff. Schumer spoke
(15:59):
with Biden. I pressed him to do more to I
love this part to counter the narrative that he.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Was not up to continuing in the race.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
He didn't tell him to drop out, mister President, Schumer said,
the only way you're going to save this is to
show up day in, day out with unscripted town halls,
and people will be able to smell if it's spontaneous,
and it will show that the debate was a one off.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I think Schumer knew he couldn't do it. That's what
I think.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yes, yeah, I think he said, you're terrible, but not
so terrible. Everybody's agreeing with me, So go out and
be terrible.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Some more.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
The chief of staff told mister Schumer that the president
would put doubters at ease when he participated in a
news conference after the NATO summit in DC next week.
Schumer screamed, that's not even close to good enough. Still,
Schumer held back Democratic senators who wanted to publicly call
on Biden's step aside, even though he agreed with their
assessment that they should. It'll only make things worse and
(16:52):
we're not ready. He had half of the Democratic senators
wanted to come forward and say he's got to go,
and Schumer held him back. There's much more to this.
I suggest going to the New York Times site and
reading it. There's a lot more screaming behind closed doors
and all that sort of stuff. Pretty damn interesting.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And exactly what we suspected it was going on behind
the scenes. Says they, you know, tried to portray calmness, and.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
You know it's fine. It was a bad nice I didn't.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Get to the Obama saying I can't call him because
we have such a bad relationship. So they had such
a bad relationship from when Obama going way back to
when Obama endorsed Hillary before Joe Biden had a chance
to even run, and so they have a really bad relationship,
which has been you know, hinted that and everything like that,
but never stated that as clearly as it is in
the New York Times today.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Well, and picture yourself as Hakeem Jefferies, who wanted Biden
out in the pride bar you're using is the genius
Kamala Harris, I mean that's rough. How about Obama saying
I can't call him he hates me, confirming yet another rumor, Well,
leadership it matters, comparing in contrasting California and Florida will
(18:03):
do that in an unbelievable nine to one one call,
all coming up Armstrong and Getty, is she strong enough
to do this?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Or you couldn't carry my husband out of a fire.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
In which my response is he got himself in the
wrong place. If I have to carry him out of
a fire. That's I think.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
That's the lf LA fd's chief diversity officer explaining that
if you're complaining that a woman firefighter isn't strong enough,
well you shouldn't be in a fire, which is DEI
for you.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
That's a weird response.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah, I'd say, did you want to put a little
exclamation point on our discussion of Joe Biden and senility
and trying to get rid of him and the rest
of them.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Maybe a tease ahead in hour four, I'll get back
into that New York Times article that just hit today.
I also think I've figured out who the main source is.
It's got to be Nancy Pelosi. She doesn't like that
narrative that she's the one who pushed him out. It
looks way more like Chuck Schumer is the guy who
pushed Joe Biden out. And she's saying, why is everybody
talking about me pushing him out? And me it was Chuck.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Oh, but she's the source for.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
All this information because Chuck was telling her everything that
was going on. Anyway, this New York Times article is
pretty interesting. We'll get back into it an hour for
The main takeaway to me is Joe Biden was very
poorly served by the people close to him.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
They were keeping him completely in the dark.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Not only has he got dementia, they weren't telling him
the truth at all.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, which is scary, I would admit. Well, well, we'll.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Discuss the next hour fair enough sounds good getting to
that fabulous nine to one one call really interesting. Next
segment one to just hit you with this. I'll summarize
it the best I can. It's an unbelievable and really
useful comparing contrast of California and Florida by the Wall
Street Journal's editorial board in terms of their insurance markets.
(19:54):
And it's obviously a decent comparison. You've got giant states,
coastal states, populous states, states that are prone to natural disasters.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And they make the point that in nineteen forty five a.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Big act was passed that says states regulate insurance and
the systems worked relatively well over eighty years, but some
states have done a better job of managing their markets
than others. California and Florida provide an illustrative contrast. Democratic
insurance commissioners in the Golden State have for years suppressed rates.
We've been talking about this. California was the only state
(20:31):
of the fifty that prohibited carriers from using current catastrophe
models to project disaster risk and also to price reinsurance
costs into their premiums. Reinsurance just means the insurance companies
have insurance in case the worst happens. They've been paying
a different company to help them out if the pooh
(20:52):
really hits the fan. That's what reinsurance is anyway. So wildfires,
which absolutely have been exacerbated by the poor land management
in California. It's not the whole story, but it's part
of it. They've swelled insurer claims and liabilities. Insurance companies
are paying out a dollar nine for every dollar they collect.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
It's obviously not sustainable.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
They've curbed their exposure in part by dropping thousands of
policy holders in high risk areas and just leaving the market.
Californians already know this. California has a state Insurer of
Last Resort. It's called FARE. It's an acronym. Their liabilities
have exploded about four hundred and sixty billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It's almost tripled.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
It has triple in a few years, and yet they
have incredibly little cash on hand. And not to get
too far into the technicalities of this, but if FARE
goes bust, the deal is insurance customers are going to
pay like super high rates to bail it out.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Private customers.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
It reminds me a little bit of how if you
have private health insurance pay many multiples what Medicare, folks
pay for a particular procedure.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
It's just it's completely distorted. Da da da dah.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yet, insurance Commissioner Ricardo Laura rejected Fair's proposed rate increases
while also saying you have to cover homes worth up
to three million dollars. Fair president Victoria Roach told the
state Assembly last year that the insurer in twenty twenty
one requested a forty nine percent rate increase. It needed
seventy percent to be fiscally sound, but will settle for
(22:33):
forty nine percent. They were granted sixteen percent. So Fare
is under capitalized, had only seven hundred million dollars in
cash on hand as of last year, seven hundred million,
and a liability of four hundred and sixty billion.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Great system.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
I'm just curious what happens for people with homes that
cost over three million dollars, because in California lots of areas,
that's not hard to do. For those of you around
the country, I could show you neighborhoods with two three
million dollar homes.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
You need think these are two million dollar homes? Are
you serious? Yeah? That's crazy? Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Actually, I suppose you could get like a supplemental policy
at very high cost from some wow, you know, Lloyd's
of London or something like that. The secondary insurance market anyway,
So to prevent more insurance from leaving the state, Lara
last month finally let carryers price in their reinsurance cost
and use catastrophe models. But he also capped the reinsurance costs.
And I'm not going to get into the technicalities.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
But so it means that.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Insurers might not cover all of the fire damage. Homeowners
will face heftier building costs, but the Federal Emergency Management
Agency covers losses of homeowners are under insured, which means
taxpayers in Houston and Little Rock may pay for rebuilding
multimillion dollar homes in California. And if Fare becomes insolvent,
as it's looking like it might, all insurers in California,
(23:52):
meaning their customers are on the hook for its claims,
homeome owners could see rates rise by thousands of dollars
per year homeowner as California.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
In Florida.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
In striking contrast, Republicans headed off an insurance market death
spiral caused by litigation abuse state law. It allowed policyholders
to assign their claim benefits to contractors working with try lawyers.
Contractors would inflate charges and sue insures if they rejected them,
setting up a costly claim by claim battle. Insurans lost
hundreds of millions of dollars a year. More than a
(24:25):
dozen failed between twenty and twenty two. Others left the
market because the litigation costs made it difficult to obtain
reinsurance and they had an insurer of last resort too
that was in danger of collapsing. And our Governor Ron DeSantis,
who could certainly be the next president who knows, who
championed tort reforms in twenty two to twenty three that
have stanched the flood of frivolous lawsuits, stabilized the market,
(24:46):
and reduced their last resort guy's exposure. According to the
Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, nine insurers have since re
entered the market. Sixty percent of Florida's top ten carriers
have expanded their business in the state, forty percent have
filed for rate decreases, and the average monthly request for
rate increases is now just over one percent compared to
(25:09):
fourteen percent a few years ago. If not for mister
Desantus reforms, last year's hurricane might have toppled citizens. Finally,
they conclude federalizing the US insurance market, which some people
are in favor of, would create a moral hazard and
discourage state reforms. Rather than protecting California's Democrats from the
costs of their blunders, Republicans should point to Florida.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
That's a good idea, man.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Governance matters, policy matters.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Well in California. That's one of the reasons I'm still
a renter is where insurance prices were compared to where
they're going to be next year.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Who knows.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah, especially if this fair thing crashes and burns, right
my god, Yeah, I know, I know, and I hear
you in the other forty nine states, Like why don't
the voters vote differently?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Have a long, complicated answer.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Major factors Iraq war being sold on the idea that
securing the border is racist, that's going away, And more
than anything, the many hundreds of thousands of public employee
union members who always vote vote for whoever's going to
butter their bread. They are, practically including the teachers and
(26:23):
the nurses and several other big not public employee unions.
I guess teachers are but they're practically an insurmountable political
force because California is so corrupt.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Yeah, our friend lanh Chen, who got more Republican votes
in the twenty two election than any Republican in America,
including Ron de Santis, and still lost to California.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Endorsed by every major newspaper in the state, said hey,
you've got to vote for this Republican. He's crazy sharp,
including liberal newspapers. And he's still lost because what I'm
talking about.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
Right, And he says to us privately, and I don't
think he would mind us saying this, that it ain't
gonna get better anytime soon. I mean, it's just it's
a mess.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
It's broken. Yeah, that's disturbing.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Great scenery though, yeah, yeah, full that ain't falling into
the sea right right. Oh, speaking of good news, blessedly,
Christy nom has assassinated no dogs thus far in Washington,
d C.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
During her confirmation hearing.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Do I understand that nobody's brought up the dog shooting
in the confirmation hearing the day Hanson Joe was predicting
that that would be something somebody would work in. So, oh,
it's a must A wonder how come they're going gloves off,
the dog shooting.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Well, and I'm not in favorite I understand, I'm I'm
not speaking of myself. I'm speaking in terms of the
sort of poop show that these hearings are as an
amazing Heroni, who's clearly the dumbest person in either House
of Congress, doesn't is she.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Not on the committee to bring up the dog Well,
if Tim Kaine was gonna lecture the second deaf guy,
do you call yourself free and clear you cheated on
your wife or the pregnant blah blah blah. I mean,
if he's got to do that, why wouldn't you go
with the dog shooting?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Well, if I was mazy Heroni, I would.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
H Anyway, we got this nine to one one call.
Pretty cool story about a nine to one one operator
really handing like a complicated situation. Well, among other things.
On the way, stay here breaking inauguration news. I was
wondering how cool was it when I was there for
the twenty seventeen inauguration of Donald J.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Trump?
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Because this is unpleasant. It was rainy, but it was
forty eight degrees at noon that day. They're expecting a
feels like of eight for this Monday, and that's why
they just announced they're moving it inside, which really sucks
if you're planning on being there. I don't know if
you still get a couple hundred thousand people gathering out
to watch it on TV screens or what, but it
(28:55):
definitely ain't the same thing. Well, in January seventh of
twenty twenty three, many people were saying President or Trump
will be president again when health freeze is over. Apparently
this happened other than one time, and they moved it inside.
In nineteen eighty five for Reagan it was seven degrees.
Other than that, it would be the coldest it's ever
(29:16):
been for an inauguration, So well, that's losing flesh from frostbite.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Cold.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Sure, if you're out there for hours, because the length
of exposure matters, I wonder it doesn't matter. The pomp
and circumstance is interesting and fun and speaks to our
peaceful transfer power and it's cool, but it's not the president's.
It's like the difference between your wedding and your marriage.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Good one.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Anyway, Oh thank you, I'm here all week. So this
is really quite interesting. This happened in London. It is
a nine to one to one caller. They're equivalent of it.
The the London Police put this out. Uh, they have
an actor portraying the crime victim, but the rest of
it is one hundred percent authentic and I think it's
(29:58):
pretty self explanatory.
Speaker 5 (29:59):
Go ahead, Hello police, what's the emergency? Peter delivery? Pizza delivery? Okay?
Do you require pizza Livery or do you require the police?
If it's the police, say yes, yes, okay. Is the
person is the person that's scaring you at the property? Now, yes,
(30:24):
no problem. Police have come in. Okay. Have they got
any weapons? Answer yes or no. If he threatened to
hurt you, tell me peperoni, If he threatened to hurt
the children, tell me cheese, okay. The police will be
with you very very shortly. Okay, all right, if you
(30:47):
need to call back nine nine nine, keeping a separate
room for him from him for the moment, all right.
If I stay on the phone any younger, it will
look suspicious if you're calling for a pizza. Okay, okay, Police.
So we Richie Very saying.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Wow, the kid was kind of yelling over it, but
she said we've got to cut this off because it
would seem too weird. If you're on the phone too long,
but the cops are on their way. Get to a
separate room. Wow, that's some good training. We've played some
bad nine one operators over the years, terrible, but that
was some fantastic training.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah. I'd say she knew exactly how to handle it.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, And the Metropolitan Police put out the word, hey,
you can cough, you can tap keys. Our operators will
find a way for you to communicate with us even
if you can't speak.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
That's some good police work. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Interesting, they don't say exactly how it came out. I
suspect it came out well, otherwise they would not have
released that. On a completely different topic, we're talking a
bit about the end, thank God, of the Biden administration.
The fabulous Nelly Bowles, writing in the Free Press, was
talking about his soul sucking farewell address the other night,
(32:08):
with his ominous warnings about dark forces billionaires exerting too
much influence on American politics. She quotes him as saying,
today an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth,
power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our
basic rights and freedom is a fair shot for everyone
to get ahead. I don't think it is, but anyway,
Nelly writes, I agree there's a new oligarchy of rich
(32:28):
people will manipulate our political landscape, and I, for one,
am glad that our president finally sees the danger of
Mackenzie Scott. That's the former missus Bezos and George Soros,
billionaire political donors propping up untold numbers of causes. He's
never criticized Mackenzie Scott, but I'm sure he was thinking
of her, the woman who's thrown nineteen billion dollars at
activist nonprofits trying to sway American politics. I'm sure when
(32:52):
he just recently gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to
George Soros, he was thinking, this is the dangerous oligarch
I will speak of soon.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
That's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
You know, look, I understand politics, I understand messaging. I
understand that you're not obligated to give the full story
all the time if you're trying to persuade people, but
try not to be so obviously hilariously a hypocrite.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
I don't know if he is. I think he believes it.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
I think he believes the It's like people who watch
MSNBC and think that's the news and fair and balanced.
I think he believes, no, No, our billionaires are good,
decent people just trying to, you know, help the country.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Their billionaires are evil and scary. I think he actually
believes that crap.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, I could be wrong. I don't know. He is
so shot at this point. Yeah, well, how much time
we got?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Michael too and a half.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
So I was going to read a little more from
the New York Times article in our four that's out
today with the most revelation about the whole thing went
down when he was pushed out, and it was Chuck Schumer,
not Nancy Pelosi that pushed him out clearly, at least
based on this New York Times telling, which I think
their main source is Nancy Pelosi, that version of which
(34:15):
is the way it works, and it's awesome. But I
don't know if you remember this. I kind of remember.
They had a behind closed doors meeting like a week
or so after the debate. All the Democratic senators wanted
to meet with people from the White House like the
Chief of Staff and the other people and stuff like that,
and they just erupted and screaming at him, like God,
he's got to step down.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
What is he doing?
Speaker 4 (34:34):
And the Democratic senators, So Joe Biden, if you remember this,
wrote a letter basically saying, drawing a line in the sand,
I am not stepping down. Everybody needs to rally behind me.
Now is the go time that sort of thing? And
Democratic senators were saying in that secret, you know, closed
door meeting, did he even write that? Did Jill write that?
Did Hunter write that? Is even capable of writing a
(34:57):
letter like that? I mean, that's what Democrats senators were
saying behind closed doors. And one of them, I forget
which one, and a group of others agreed demanded.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
I'll tell you what you do.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
You get two real like neurologists or whoever looks at
brains to give him the once over, declare him fit,
and they do a press conference and answer any questions.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
You do that and we'll continue to back him. Anything
short of.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
That and we're out. Yeah, where was that story? And hey,
Democratic senators, why didn't you go to the media with that?
You were willing to let this guy run for president again?
Speaker 5 (35:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
They why is he president? Now? I mean they didn't
believe he could even write the letter himself. Why is
he still president?
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I'm really enjoying these preliminary leaks and stuff like that.
But mark my words, the moment on Monday, Donald J.
Trump says, so help me God, do not be standing
in the entrance of the big publishing houses in New York,
or you will be stampeded to death by Biden aids
wanting to get a book deal.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
To tell all, oh yeah, if you're smoking a cigarette
in front of the front door at Simon and Schuster,
you're gonna get stampeded like it's the bulls of Pampalona.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Unanimous decision, Supreme Court, no commie ownership of TikTok. Well done, soups,
I say more to come our four. If you don't
get our four, subscribe to the podcast Armstrong and Getty
on the band Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Arm Strong and Getty, and he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I really am concerned about how fragile democracy is. I
guess what I'm worried about is that the thing that
keeps it on track are the guardrails. That there's a
Supreme Court that's independent but not but accountable. There's a
(00:48):
Congress that you speak your mind, but you're held accountable
to basic standards. There's a presidency that says you have
very limited powers. I mean, you're the top dog. When
you're not, you can dictate everything. And I don't know,
they seem to just we just seem to be chipping away.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
At all those elements.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Why is the least popular president outside of Nixon in
sixty years, doing so many exit interviews?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
People hate you. Why don't you just quietly go away?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Desperate need to take one last shot at burnishing his legacy.
I guess quick note before we get into the meat
of this topic, and Michael in Washington State writes, evidently,
yesterday I made reference to Biden and his advisors in
his farewell speech and Michael suggests the new nickname dead
(01:43):
in company, I mean his advisors.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
That's disrespectful, Michael. It's a bad idea, disrespectful to John Mayer, maybe.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Bob Ware. So I'm going to just read here. This
is going to be a segment where I just read.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
This article is super long, and and I just came
across it fifteen minutes ago, and it's out the New
York Times today, and I have had chance to highlight it.
I'm gonna read. Joe's gonna comment as we go. The
New York Times has interviewed over a dozen people with
knowledge of This article is based on interviews with a
(02:18):
dozen people who participated in the private push of getting
Biden out of office.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
This is one of the first big articles.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
On this to come out yet, you know, three days
before he leaves office. The headline in today in the NYT.
I'm urging you not to run how Schumer pushed Biden
to drop out. And I've just started reading it. I'm
finding it fascinating. So I hope you will take Senator
Chuck Schumer of New York sat in the foyer of
President Biden's beach house, tired and tense. He had not
(02:48):
slept at all the night before, and on the four
hour drive from Brooklyn to Delaware, he had rehearsed out
loud what he planned to say, reviewing note cards as
he prepared for what he thought might be the most
high stakes speech he would ever give to an audience
of one.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm already wrapped. Wow.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
It was the afternoon of July thirteenth, a humid summer afternoon,
just before four o'clock, and Schumer, the Democratic leader of
the Senate, was about to make a blunt case to
Joe Biden that he needed to drop his bid for
a second term. If there were a secret ballot among
Democratic senators, mister Schumer would tell the president no more
than five would say he should continue running ooh five
(03:28):
out of fifty.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Two or whatever it was.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
At the time, mister Biden's own polsters assessed that he
had about a five percent chance of prevailing against the
Donald Trump. Mister Schumer would tell him information that was
apparently news to the president. The pulsters were saying, you
have a five percent chance of winning. They weren't telling
Joe that. They were telling all the other Democrats that
what the hell.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
You pointed this out?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yesterday that well, Number one, it's just mind blowing that
the president's advisers were keeping the polls from him and
fully curating which headlines he saw. I mean, that's just
it's scary and how clear it is that they're like,
if he sees this, he's not going to run again,
then I'll have to go find a job. Hey, there's
(04:12):
a chance he gets reelected and I keep my gigs,
So let's just keep the news from him. I mean,
that is some serious puppetry.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
God, I'd say.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
If the President refused to step aside, the Senator would argue,
the consequences for Democrats in Biden's own legacy after a
half century would be catastrophic.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
If you run and you lose to Trump and we
lose the Senate and we don't get back the House,
you will go down in America as one of the
darkest figures.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Whoa happened anyway, But it would have been certain if
he'd run.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
That's a heck of a thing to say.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Schumer would end with the directive, if I were you,
I wouldn't run.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I'm urging you not to run.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
The roughly forty five minute conversation, which took place on
a screen, didn't porch overlooking a pond. Was more pointed
and emotional than previously known and helps to explain how
mister Biden came to the decision just over a week.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Later to end his campaign.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
They lay out the all the people that they talked
to the knowledge they had. These are all people close to.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
The whole deal.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Uh. When Schumer arrived at mister Biden's beach house that
summer day, he could hear the President shouting. Mister Biden
was finishing up a contentious zoom call with a small
group of lawmakers who were expressing their concerns about his
viability as a candidate, and.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
His back was up.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
This was exactly the kind of scenario Schumer had been
hoping to avoid for the past three weeks. As he
stalled for time and dragged his feet about having this
awkward conversation at all, he worried that the famously stubborn
president would feel cornered and dig in more. For months,
Schumer had been concerned that Biden was going to lose
to Trump and cost Democrats Congress. Now listen to this part,
(05:50):
and you tell me what's going on here. It wasn't
that he thought Biden was not capable of doing the job.
During their weekly conversations, the President often rambled, but he
had always rambled. Once in a while Biden would forget
why he had called, but Schumer thought little of it.
He was convinced that Biden could handle the job. How
is that freaking possible?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
How are those sentences part of the same paragraph.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Is he only saying that to the New York Times
or whoever he's talking to, because he'd be like a
bad American if he admitted well, And because he.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Was swearing up and down to anybody who had listened
that the President was more than capable of handling.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
The job at the time.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
So he's now because obviously he and his people are
leaking all this stuff. He is trying somehow to thread
the needle of this stuff being true. And yet he's
not a big fat, stinkin' liar. Good luck thread in
that needle, Chucky boy.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Umm. He was uncomfortable with giving unsolicited advice to the
commander and cheap about his future. Schumer, like every other
Democrat in a position of power at the time, had
chosen to do nothing. So when Biden bombed during his
June twenty seventh debate with Trump, Schumer regarded it as
something of a gift, a forcing mechanism to start an
(07:04):
overdue discussion about the president's political viability. I remember talking
the next day about how we thought there's a whole
bunch of Democrats are like.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yes, finally, finally it's out in the open.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
We don't have to pretend anymore, as opposed to well,
I don't let me read this for you. That night,
the night of the debate, about two dozen House Democrats,
including Jakeem Jeffries who is now or is the minority leader,
gathered for a watch party in the community room of
the Washington and Lunxury apartment blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Where they all left. That was a gas can you imagine?
Speaker 4 (07:38):
But the festive atmosphere dissipated immediately after mister Biden, pale
and horse shuffled onto the stage in Atlanta and began
stumbling through his answers. By the end of the ninety
minute debate, I got to believe by the end of
the first five minutes, like all of the rest of America,
oh yeah, those who had been able to bear sticking
around were in a panic.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
While lots of people left.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I got to someplace I gotta go. Nothing mattered after
that first five minutes. Mister Jefferys had a motto he
often shared with this caucus. I've never heard this before.
Calm is an intentional decision. He tried to channel it
that night, even as his internal alarm bears, bells were
ringing and colleagues were telling him they could not possibly
(08:21):
win their seats with mister Biden at the top of
the ticket. We gotta process at all. See where we
are tomorrow morning, and we'll come up.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
With a game plan. Calm is an intentional decision. I
like that. Hey, I'd like that too.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And he was absolutely right to tell everybody, hey, hey, hey,
calm down.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
We'll talk tomorrow. We're not gonna solve it right now.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Schumer, who was at a fundraiser in California during the debate,
had a similar message for the donors he saw that night.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Uh we'll have.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
To see, he said, vaguely, I'll have to see what
what what do we gonna do?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Uh, well, we'll have to see.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You know what we could have, you know what would
have been theater if we'd thought of it. Of course,
we just came across this as sprinkle in various clips
from the debate about and then we killed Medicare, just
to remind you of how astounding it was, how awful
embarrassing many powerful people had seen enough, says The New
York Times.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
That night, mister Schumer's flip phone started ringing and it
wouldn't stop for days. Donors, members of Congress, union bosses,
even strangers who fished his number out of a Harvard
reunion book were calling, pleading with him to tell Biden
to get the race. Hey, Chuck, I know you don't
remember me. We played the high school football together, but
come on, dude. Schumer had one simple message for everyone
(09:40):
who called him.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Do not be public.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
He said, that will get his back up, and you
have got to let the dust settle. But if you
can call whoever you know in the campaign, call the
White House, that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Protect the president's dignity or we're not going to be
able to get him out. That's why all of those,
I mean, just crazy over the top. The most impactful
one term president in American history. He should be on
Mount Rushmore. It's been more transformative than blah blah blah.
All that stuff is absolutely laughable, but it served that strategy.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Some lawmakers thought waiting was the wrong strategy. Representative Jamie
Raskin Democratic Maryland chose at first to go the private route,
sending a letter to Biden on July sixth encouraging him
to leave the race. One of Biden's top adviser, Stevershetti,
assured mister Raskin that the President the First Lady had
both read the letter. Biden planned to call him, but
the President never did so. Then he released a later
(10:35):
publicly if you remember that, saying I think the President
he was the first person to break Remember. Then it
started adding up, and then he does on work.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
He wakes up next to a German shepherd's head in
his bed.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
It's a message. Forget about it. It's a message he's
in the doghouse.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
The message is the Secret Service is tired of getting
bit by your damn dog.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Umm again, I'm reading this up more or less on
the fly. I'm sure there's more good stuff in here
I can look over and bring to you.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Uh, I'm loving. I know, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
You know what, though, speaking of the Godfather, the sequel
is going to be better than the original in that
the next chapter has got to be the wrangling over
the course of was it a week ten days where
we as a country and the Democratic Party went from well,
the vice president is a damn moron, so the one
(11:29):
thing we're not gonna do is just trot her out automatically.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And a week and a half later it was.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Like, the great visionary leader Kamala will take us into
our future and we don't.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Need a primary.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
She's such a wizard, she must be the nominee. How
did that happen? What did those discussions sound like?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Killing? He said, what.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I got one more nugget for you before we take
a break. But NFL action this weekend fantastic, especially that
Bills Baltimore game that is going to be something.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Can't wait to watch that it be.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So you're counting out those teams that are one shut,
one touchdown underdogs, jack I said, don't do it. There
could be some major surprises. But can you yes, can
you predict whether a couple of players or more will
exceed the statistical projection for them or do less than that?
(12:24):
That's all you have to do for prize picks, super
easy and fun.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
I'm going less than Lamar Jackson. He can't handle the
big spotlight. That's my talking head sports guy. Take anyway,
good good stuff. Download the Prize Picks app. Sign up today,
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Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yes, we have done this.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
You play a five dollars lineup that they give you
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Speaker 2 (12:56):
Run your game.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Okay, when we come back, I could get in a
little more of this article. It's got what Barack Obama
said the night after the debate at a fundraiser and
then starting the Kamala Harris conversation, which is interesting. Among
other things we've got coming up, like the whole TikTok
Supreme Court ruling and how that factors into everything.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Stay with also also a couple of things real quick,
unbelievable nine to one, one call dramatic, just a mind
blowing and a comparing contrast California an insurance crises and
Florida and insurance crises.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Leadership matters, Man, stay with us, man. It's a six
pound show and a five pound bag. I got a
lot of criticisms.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Understandably, we've invested more in Red stage than bluestags.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
That's in this book, that's in this report.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
For two reasons. One, Red States really screwed up. Turns
of the way they handle their economyn and the way
they handle manufacturing and way they handle access to supply chains.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, Red States are just screwed up. They have no
idea how to manage their business. Thanks Uncle Joe.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
So we've been reading through this New York Times article.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
It's like the rough draft of history where people are
starting to speak about how the whole thing went down
a pushing Joe Biden out and it's pretty damned interesting.
And I was reading more of it during the break
and got a roll on. So we did it last segment.
If you missed it, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty
on demand. The debate had just happened. All the Democrats
are in a panic. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader at
(14:35):
the time of the Senate saved his frank conversations for
King Jeffreys and former President Barack Obama. On June twenty ninth,
to the night after the debate, Jeffries was scheduled to
participate in a fundraiser in New York where he was
to interview Obama in front of an audience in a
fireside chat sort of setting. At a brief dinner mineting
before the event, mister Obama suggested addressing the elephant in
(14:55):
the room right off the top, because you got Obama's
smart enough to understand that we can't go out there
and pretend this didn't happen last night.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Had great instincts love him or hate him.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
On stage, the former president told the crowd that bad
debates happened, and while this one had greatly complicated the situation,
Democrats had to find a way to power through it.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Then they took no questions about it. Well, he was
trying to defend the indefensible. I guess that's as good
as you can do.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Privately, Jakim Jeffries began working to persuade people, the White
House Chief of Staff and others that Vice President Kamala
Harris would be a superior candidate to Biden. So that's
ground zero, patient zero for how that whole thing started.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
He's hearst Bengali.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I see, yeah, Hakim Jeffrey said, we don't have data
at this moment. The most but the most powerful narrative
in American politics is change. Vice President Harris would represent change.
Others rejected that sentiment, and so it just kind of,
you know, nothing happened there for a little while. We
can get through it. We think our allies in the
Hill are wrong, said the chief of Staff. Schumer spoke
(15:59):
with Biden. I pressed him to do more to I
love this part to counter the narrative that he.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Was not up to continuing in the race.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
He didn't tell him to drop out, mister President, Schumer said,
the only way you're going to save this is to
show up day in, day out with unscripted town halls,
and people will be able to smell if it's spontaneous,
and it will show that the debate was a one off.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
I think Schumer knew he couldn't do it. That's what
I think.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yes, yeah, I think he said, you're terrible, but not
so terrible. Everybody's agreeing with me, So go out and
be terrible.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Some more.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
The chief of staff told mister Schumer that the president
would put doubters at ease when he participated in a
news conference after the NATO summit in DC next week.
Schumer screamed, that's not even close to good enough. Still,
Schumer held back Democratic senators who wanted to publicly call
on Biden's step aside, even though he agreed with their
assessment that they should. It'll only make things worse and
(16:52):
we're not ready. He had half of the Democratic senators
wanted to come forward and say he's got to go,
and Schumer held him back. There's much more to this.
I suggest going to the New York Times site and
reading it. There's a lot more screaming behind closed doors
and all that sort of stuff. Pretty damn interesting.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And exactly what we suspected it was going on behind
the scenes. Says they, you know, tried to portray calmness, and.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
You know it's fine. It was a bad nice I didn't.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Get to the Obama saying I can't call him because
we have such a bad relationship. So they had such
a bad relationship from when Obama going way back to
when Obama endorsed Hillary before Joe Biden had a chance
to even run, and so they have a really bad relationship,
which has been you know, hinted that and everything like that,
but never stated that as clearly as it is in
the New York Times today.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Well, and picture yourself as Hakeem Jefferies, who wanted Biden
out in the pride bar you're using is the genius
Kamala Harris, I mean that's rough. How about Obama saying
I can't call him he hates me, confirming yet another rumor, Well,
leadership it matters, comparing in contrasting California and Florida will
(18:03):
do that in an unbelievable nine to one one call,
all coming up Armstrong and Getty, is she strong enough
to do this?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Or you couldn't carry my husband out of a fire.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
In which my response is he got himself in the
wrong place. If I have to carry him out of
a fire. That's I think.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
That's the lf LA fd's chief diversity officer explaining that
if you're complaining that a woman firefighter isn't strong enough,
well you shouldn't be in a fire, which is DEI
for you.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
That's a weird response.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah, I'd say, did you want to put a little
exclamation point on our discussion of Joe Biden and senility
and trying to get rid of him and the rest
of them.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Maybe a tease ahead in hour four, I'll get back
into that New York Times article that just hit today.
I also think I've figured out who the main source is.
It's got to be Nancy Pelosi. She doesn't like that
narrative that she's the one who pushed him out. It
looks way more like Chuck Schumer is the guy who
pushed Joe Biden out. And she's saying, why is everybody
talking about me pushing him out? And me it was Chuck.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Oh, but she's the source for.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
All this information because Chuck was telling her everything that
was going on. Anyway, this New York Times article is
pretty interesting. We'll get back into it an hour for
The main takeaway to me is Joe Biden was very
poorly served by the people close to him.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
They were keeping him completely in the dark.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Not only has he got dementia, they weren't telling him
the truth at all.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, which is scary, I would admit. Well, well, we'll.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Discuss the next hour fair enough sounds good getting to
that fabulous nine to one one call really interesting. Next
segment one to just hit you with this. I'll summarize
it the best I can. It's an unbelievable and really
useful comparing contrast of California and Florida by the Wall
Street Journal's editorial board in terms of their insurance markets.
(19:54):
And it's obviously a decent comparison. You've got giant states,
coastal states, populous states, states that are prone to natural disasters.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And they make the point that in nineteen forty five a.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Big act was passed that says states regulate insurance and
the systems worked relatively well over eighty years, but some
states have done a better job of managing their markets
than others. California and Florida provide an illustrative contrast. Democratic
insurance commissioners in the Golden State have for years suppressed rates.
We've been talking about this. California was the only state
(20:31):
of the fifty that prohibited carriers from using current catastrophe
models to project disaster risk and also to price reinsurance
costs into their premiums. Reinsurance just means the insurance companies
have insurance in case the worst happens. They've been paying
a different company to help them out if the pooh
(20:52):
really hits the fan. That's what reinsurance is anyway. So wildfires,
which absolutely have been exacerbated by the poor land management
in California. It's not the whole story, but it's part
of it. They've swelled insurer claims and liabilities. Insurance companies
are paying out a dollar nine for every dollar they collect.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
It's obviously not sustainable.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
They've curbed their exposure in part by dropping thousands of
policy holders in high risk areas and just leaving the market.
Californians already know this. California has a state Insurer of
Last Resort. It's called FARE. It's an acronym. Their liabilities
have exploded about four hundred and sixty billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It's almost tripled.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
It has triple in a few years, and yet they
have incredibly little cash on hand. And not to get
too far into the technicalities of this, but if FARE
goes bust, the deal is insurance customers are going to
pay like super high rates to bail it out.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Private customers.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
It reminds me a little bit of how if you
have private health insurance pay many multiples what Medicare, folks
pay for a particular procedure.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
It's just it's completely distorted. Da da da dah.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yet, insurance Commissioner Ricardo Laura rejected Fair's proposed rate increases
while also saying you have to cover homes worth up
to three million dollars. Fair president Victoria Roach told the
state Assembly last year that the insurer in twenty twenty
one requested a forty nine percent rate increase. It needed
seventy percent to be fiscally sound, but will settle for
(22:33):
forty nine percent. They were granted sixteen percent. So Fare
is under capitalized, had only seven hundred million dollars in
cash on hand as of last year, seven hundred million,
and a liability of four hundred and sixty billion.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Great system.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
I'm just curious what happens for people with homes that
cost over three million dollars, because in California lots of areas,
that's not hard to do. For those of you around
the country, I could show you neighborhoods with two three
million dollar homes.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
You need think these are two million dollar homes? Are
you serious? Yeah? That's crazy? Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Actually, I suppose you could get like a supplemental policy
at very high cost from some wow, you know, Lloyd's
of London or something like that. The secondary insurance market anyway,
So to prevent more insurance from leaving the state, Lara
last month finally let carryers price in their reinsurance cost
and use catastrophe models. But he also capped the reinsurance costs.
And I'm not going to get into the technicalities.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
But so it means that.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Insurers might not cover all of the fire damage. Homeowners
will face heftier building costs, but the Federal Emergency Management
Agency covers losses of homeowners are under insured, which means
taxpayers in Houston and Little Rock may pay for rebuilding
multimillion dollar homes in California. And if Fare becomes insolvent,
as it's looking like it might, all insurers in California,
(23:52):
meaning their customers are on the hook for its claims,
homeome owners could see rates rise by thousands of dollars
per year homeowner as California.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
In Florida.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
In striking contrast, Republicans headed off an insurance market death
spiral caused by litigation abuse state law. It allowed policyholders
to assign their claim benefits to contractors working with try lawyers.
Contractors would inflate charges and sue insures if they rejected them,
setting up a costly claim by claim battle. Insurans lost
hundreds of millions of dollars a year. More than a
(24:25):
dozen failed between twenty and twenty two. Others left the
market because the litigation costs made it difficult to obtain
reinsurance and they had an insurer of last resort too
that was in danger of collapsing. And our Governor Ron DeSantis,
who could certainly be the next president who knows, who
championed tort reforms in twenty two to twenty three that
have stanched the flood of frivolous lawsuits, stabilized the market,
(24:46):
and reduced their last resort guy's exposure. According to the
Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, nine insurers have since re
entered the market. Sixty percent of Florida's top ten carriers
have expanded their business in the state, forty percent have
filed for rate decreases, and the average monthly request for
rate increases is now just over one percent compared to
(25:09):
fourteen percent a few years ago. If not for mister
Desantus reforms, last year's hurricane might have toppled citizens. Finally,
they conclude federalizing the US insurance market, which some people
are in favor of, would create a moral hazard and
discourage state reforms. Rather than protecting California's Democrats from the
costs of their blunders, Republicans should point to Florida.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
That's a good idea, man.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Governance matters, policy matters.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Well in California. That's one of the reasons I'm still
a renter is where insurance prices were compared to where
they're going to be next year.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Who knows.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah, especially if this fair thing crashes and burns, right
my god, Yeah, I know, I know, and I hear
you in the other forty nine states, Like why don't
the voters vote differently?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Have a long, complicated answer.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Major factors Iraq war being sold on the idea that
securing the border is racist, that's going away, And more
than anything, the many hundreds of thousands of public employee
union members who always vote vote for whoever's going to
butter their bread. They are, practically including the teachers and
(26:23):
the nurses and several other big not public employee unions.
I guess teachers are but they're practically an insurmountable political
force because California is so corrupt.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Yeah, our friend lanh Chen, who got more Republican votes
in the twenty two election than any Republican in America,
including Ron de Santis, and still lost to California.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Endorsed by every major newspaper in the state, said hey,
you've got to vote for this Republican. He's crazy sharp,
including liberal newspapers. And he's still lost because what I'm
talking about.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
Right, And he says to us privately, and I don't
think he would mind us saying this, that it ain't
gonna get better anytime soon. I mean, it's just it's
a mess.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
It's broken. Yeah, that's disturbing.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Great scenery though, yeah, yeah, full that ain't falling into
the sea right right. Oh, speaking of good news, blessedly,
Christy nom has assassinated no dogs thus far in Washington,
d C.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
During her confirmation hearing.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Do I understand that nobody's brought up the dog shooting
in the confirmation hearing the day Hanson Joe was predicting
that that would be something somebody would work in. So, oh,
it's a must A wonder how come they're going gloves off,
the dog shooting.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Well, and I'm not in favorite I understand, I'm I'm
not speaking of myself. I'm speaking in terms of the
sort of poop show that these hearings are as an
amazing Heroni, who's clearly the dumbest person in either House
of Congress, doesn't is she.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Not on the committee to bring up the dog Well,
if Tim Kaine was gonna lecture the second deaf guy,
do you call yourself free and clear you cheated on
your wife or the pregnant blah blah blah. I mean,
if he's got to do that, why wouldn't you go
with the dog shooting?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Well, if I was mazy Heroni, I would.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
H Anyway, we got this nine to one one call.
Pretty cool story about a nine to one one operator
really handing like a complicated situation. Well, among other things.
On the way, stay here breaking inauguration news. I was
wondering how cool was it when I was there for
the twenty seventeen inauguration of Donald J.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Trump?
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Because this is unpleasant. It was rainy, but it was
forty eight degrees at noon that day. They're expecting a
feels like of eight for this Monday, and that's why
they just announced they're moving it inside, which really sucks
if you're planning on being there. I don't know if
you still get a couple hundred thousand people gathering out
to watch it on TV screens or what, but it
(28:55):
definitely ain't the same thing. Well, in January seventh of
twenty twenty three, many people were saying President or Trump
will be president again when health freeze is over. Apparently
this happened other than one time, and they moved it inside.
In nineteen eighty five for Reagan it was seven degrees.
Other than that, it would be the coldest it's ever
(29:16):
been for an inauguration, So well, that's losing flesh from frostbite.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Cold.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Sure, if you're out there for hours, because the length
of exposure matters, I wonder it doesn't matter. The pomp
and circumstance is interesting and fun and speaks to our
peaceful transfer power and it's cool, but it's not the president's.
It's like the difference between your wedding and your marriage.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Good one.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Anyway, Oh thank you, I'm here all week. So this
is really quite interesting. This happened in London. It is
a nine to one to one caller. They're equivalent of it.
The the London Police put this out. Uh, they have
an actor portraying the crime victim, but the rest of
it is one hundred percent authentic and I think it's
(29:58):
pretty self explanatory.
Speaker 5 (29:59):
Go ahead, Hello police, what's the emergency? Peter delivery? Pizza delivery? Okay?
Do you require pizza Livery or do you require the police?
If it's the police, say yes, yes, okay. Is the
person is the person that's scaring you at the property? Now, yes,
(30:24):
no problem. Police have come in. Okay. Have they got
any weapons? Answer yes or no. If he threatened to
hurt you, tell me peperoni, If he threatened to hurt
the children, tell me cheese, okay. The police will be
with you very very shortly. Okay, all right, if you
(30:47):
need to call back nine nine nine, keeping a separate
room for him from him for the moment, all right.
If I stay on the phone any younger, it will
look suspicious if you're calling for a pizza. Okay, okay, Police.
So we Richie Very saying.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Wow, the kid was kind of yelling over it, but
she said we've got to cut this off because it
would seem too weird. If you're on the phone too long,
but the cops are on their way. Get to a
separate room. Wow, that's some good training. We've played some
bad nine one operators over the years, terrible, but that
was some fantastic training.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah. I'd say she knew exactly how to handle it.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, And the Metropolitan Police put out the word, hey,
you can cough, you can tap keys. Our operators will
find a way for you to communicate with us even
if you can't speak.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
That's some good police work. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Interesting, they don't say exactly how it came out. I
suspect it came out well, otherwise they would not have
released that. On a completely different topic, we're talking a
bit about the end, thank God, of the Biden administration.
The fabulous Nelly Bowles, writing in the Free Press, was
talking about his soul sucking farewell address the other night,
(32:08):
with his ominous warnings about dark forces billionaires exerting too
much influence on American politics. She quotes him as saying,
today an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth,
power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our
basic rights and freedom is a fair shot for everyone
to get ahead. I don't think it is, but anyway,
Nelly writes, I agree there's a new oligarchy of rich
(32:28):
people will manipulate our political landscape, and I, for one,
am glad that our president finally sees the danger of
Mackenzie Scott. That's the former missus Bezos and George Soros,
billionaire political donors propping up untold numbers of causes. He's
never criticized Mackenzie Scott, but I'm sure he was thinking
of her, the woman who's thrown nineteen billion dollars at
activist nonprofits trying to sway American politics. I'm sure when
(32:52):
he just recently gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to
George Soros, he was thinking, this is the dangerous oligarch
I will speak of soon.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
That's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
You know, look, I understand politics, I understand messaging. I
understand that you're not obligated to give the full story
all the time if you're trying to persuade people, but
try not to be so obviously hilariously a hypocrite.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
I don't know if he is. I think he believes it.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
I think he believes the It's like people who watch
MSNBC and think that's the news and fair and balanced.
I think he believes, no, No, our billionaires are good,
decent people just trying to, you know, help the country.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Their billionaires are evil and scary. I think he actually
believes that crap.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, I could be wrong. I don't know. He is
so shot at this point. Yeah, well, how much time
we got?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Michael too and a half.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
So I was going to read a little more from
the New York Times article in our four that's out
today with the most revelation about the whole thing went
down when he was pushed out, and it was Chuck Schumer,
not Nancy Pelosi that pushed him out clearly, at least
based on this New York Times telling, which I think
their main source is Nancy Pelosi, that version of which
(34:15):
is the way it works, and it's awesome. But I
don't know if you remember this. I kind of remember.
They had a behind closed doors meeting like a week
or so after the debate. All the Democratic senators wanted
to meet with people from the White House like the
Chief of Staff and the other people and stuff like that,
and they just erupted and screaming at him, like God,
he's got to step down.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
What is he doing?
Speaker 4 (34:34):
And the Democratic senators, So Joe Biden, if you remember this,
wrote a letter basically saying, drawing a line in the sand,
I am not stepping down. Everybody needs to rally behind me.
Now is the go time that sort of thing? And
Democratic senators were saying in that secret, you know, closed
door meeting, did he even write that? Did Jill write that?
Did Hunter write that? Is even capable of writing a
(34:57):
letter like that? I mean, that's what Democrats senators were
saying behind closed doors. And one of them, I forget
which one, and a group of others agreed demanded.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
I'll tell you what you do.
Speaker 4 (35:07):
You get two real like neurologists or whoever looks at
brains to give him the once over, declare him fit,
and they do a press conference and answer any questions.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
You do that and we'll continue to back him. Anything
short of.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
That and we're out. Yeah, where was that story? And hey,
Democratic senators, why didn't you go to the media with that?
You were willing to let this guy run for president again?
Speaker 5 (35:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
They why is he president? Now? I mean they didn't
believe he could even write the letter himself. Why is
he still president?
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I'm really enjoying these preliminary leaks and stuff like that.
But mark my words, the moment on Monday, Donald J.
Trump says, so help me God, do not be standing
in the entrance of the big publishing houses in New York,
or you will be stampeded to death by Biden aids
wanting to get a book deal.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
To tell all, oh yeah, if you're smoking a cigarette
in front of the front door at Simon and Schuster,
you're gonna get stampeded like it's the bulls of Pampalona.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Unanimous decision, Supreme Court, no commie ownership of TikTok. Well done, soups,
I say more to come our four. If you don't
get our four, subscribe to the podcast Armstrong and Getty
on the band Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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