December 19, 2024 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of A&G features...
- Biden's obvious mental decline that everyone tried to deny
- Controlling how the press/donors interacted with Biden
- Co-President Elon Musk
- Government gift shops...
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 arms.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Strong and Jetty and he arms Strong and Ytty.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Look, there's so many young women who have been including
a young woman who just was murdered and he went
to the funeral and the idea that she was murdered
by by by an immigrant coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
They talk about that. But here's the deal.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
There's a lot of young women to be raped by
their by their in laws, by their by by their spouses,
brothers and sisters, by or just it's that's ridiculous, and
they can do nothing about it, and they try to
rest them by the cross state line. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
The number of illegals women, illegal women being raped by
their sisters is why he's in support of Roe versus Wade.
That's from the debate back in June or whatever it
was that drove him out of the race.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Wow. Wow, how about one more Michael one oh five.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary
person are eligible for what I've been able to do
with the uh, the COVID, I just could be with
dealing with everything we have to do with. Look, if
we finally beat medicare, thank.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
You President by Biden. President Trump, Well, he's right.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
He did beat medicare, beat it to death, and he's
destroying Medicare.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Remember, up until six pm Eastern that day, you were
some sort of right wing nut if you claimed the
president's brain didn't work and he shouldn't be president.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Again, it was a.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Cheap fake right Wall Street Journal out finally with the
big story everyone is talking about in DC and beyond,
And as Jack pointed out, a number of reporters for
other publications are retweeting it like fiends for reasons that
we will talk about in a moment. But it's entitled
how the White House Functioned with a diminished Biden in charge?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
And they mentioned in.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
The subhead the administration denied Biden has declined.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
They're still saying, no, he hasn't.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
And I've got to believe, and they quote this guy
Andrew Bates, white House spokesman, who denies there's been any decline.
I've got to believe he's just auditioning for future jobs.
Where people will say, how about baits, can we count
on him?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
He stood there with a straight face as Biden was
wandering around the south lawn soiling himself, saying, Joe Biden's
as sharp as he's ever been. This guy, he's shameless.
Let's hire him anyway. The Wall Street General begins with
a campaign anecdote, which is not terribly interesting, But then
they continue to adapt the White House around the needs
of a diminished leader. They told visitors to keep meetings focused.
(03:02):
Interactions with senior Democratic lawmakers and some cabinet members, including
powerful secretaries like Defenses Lloyd Austin and Treasury's Janet Yellen,
were infrequent and grew less frequent. Some legislative leaders had
a hard time getting the president's here at key moments,
including ahead of the US's disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. Senior
advisors were often put into roles that some administration officials
(03:24):
and lawmakers thought Biden should occupy, with people such as
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Senior councilor Steve Verchetti, and
National Economic Council had Layel Brainerd and her predecessor frequently
in the position of go betweens for the president. In
other words, you would not see the Wizard of Oz
even though you know all throughout history, including you know
(03:45):
Biden earlier on, very early on, you'd see the president
and it quickly became you know what, what don't we
get together and I'll pass it on to the president.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And this is early in his term.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Let's see, presidents have always had oh I'm sorry. Press
aides who compiled packages of newsclips for Biden were told
by senior staffers to exclude negative stories about the president.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Now that is interesting to me.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
That speaks not to a cognizance problem as much as
a personality change.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, exactly, Well, which is a cognizance problem, right, I
mean your brain changes. When we've heard that about getting older,
you get angrier. And I don't know that much about
dimension that sort of stuff. But so you can't handle
disappointing or bad news very well.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Interesting, as the nation's leading politician, you can't handle what
the other side is saying about you. I mean year,
in an election year, that's disturbing. The president was not
talking to his own polsters as surveys showed him trailing
in the twenty twenty four race.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
You remember that when he said we're ahead.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
That that would explain a number of things he said
what poll all of them.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Yeah, but presidents have always had gatekeepers, but in Biden's case,
the walls around him were higher and the controls greater.
According to Democratic lawmakers, donors, and aids who worked for
Biden other administrations, there were limits over who Biden spoke with,
limits on what they said to him, and limits around
the source of information he consumed.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Wow, that's interesting on so many levels and dangerous on
so many different levels, because you got people guessing as
how to handle him and his condition. And I mean
because they're guessing, they don't know, They're just going by
the reactions they got at various times, probably from him
trial and error. And somebody said, ah, we better not
tell him stuff like that anymore. That's a pretty dangerous
(05:43):
place to be.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
And they touched on the fact that presidents always have
assistance who say all right, we're going to go to
the greeting line and then we'll do blah blah blah.
But they said the handholding was unlike anything other recent
presidents have had. The White House operated this.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Way even as the president and his aides pressed forward
with his re election bid, which unraveled spectacularly of the
June debate, etc.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Kamala jumped in uh. This account of how the White
House functioned with an aging leader at the top of
its organizational chart is based on interviews with nearly fifty people,
including those who participated in or had direct knowledge of
the operations. Many of those who criticized Biden's in celerity
said his system nonetheless kept his agenda on track. Aforementioned
(06:30):
shameless White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden quote earned
the most accomplished record of any modern commander in chief
and rebuilt the middle class because of his attention to
policy details that impact.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Millions of lives. Oh that's good. That's good.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Bates, who rejected the notion that Biden has declined, added
that the President has often solicited opinions from outside experts,
which has.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Informed his policymaking.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Then they get into the President's slide has been hard
to overlook. Well, not to Andrew Bates. While preparing last year,
hear for his interview with Robert K.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Hurr.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
The Special Counsel investigated Biden's handling the classified documents. The
president could not recall lines as team discussed with him
at events. Aids often repeated instructions to him as such
as where to enter exit the stage that would be
obvious to the average person. Biden's team tapped campaign CoA
chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul, to find a voice
(07:32):
coach to improve the president's fading warble.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, I don't know, cause you can get a voice coach.
I mean that's I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
But the staff took great care to prevent him from
catching COVID by limiting his in person's interaction, But the
shell constructed for the pandemic was never fully taken down
in his advanced age hardened it. The structure was also
designed to prevent Biden, an undisciplined public speaker throughout his
(07:58):
half century political career, for making gaffes or missteps that
could damage his image, create.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Political headaches, or upset the world order.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Then they get into how his meetings with his cabinet
officials became rarer and rarer, to the point that they
couldn't even get him on the phone again. They would
just talk to a top aide who would say, I'll
pass it on to the wizard of Oz, I mean
the president, right, and did not get a chance to
(08:27):
address him personally.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
There's one congressman. Where is that?
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Oh Adam Smith of Washington. He's the head of the
powerful Armed Services Committee. He was desperate to talk to
Biden before the Afghan withdrawal in twenty twenty one. Boy,
he was alarmed by what he viewed as overly optimistic
comments from Biden as the administration assembled plans for the operation. Quote,
I was begging them to set expectations low. He sought
(08:55):
to talk to Biden directly to share his insights about
the region, but he could not get him on the phone.
And they go into some of the details. Oh, this
is actually pretty illustrative. Then we'll discuss. But after the
disastrous withdrawal, which left thirteen US service members and hundreds
of Afghans dead, Smith, the congressman, made a critical comment
(09:16):
to The Washington Post about the administration lacking a clear
eyed view of the US back to ash Afghani government's durability.
It was among comments that triggered an angry phone call
from Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln, who ended up getting
an earfull back from the frustrated chairman shortly after, Smith
got an apologetic call from Biden. It was the only
phone call Biden made to Smith in his four years
(09:37):
in office, and Smith said, that's weird because I spoke
with Barack Obama a number of times when he was president,
and I wasn't even chairman of the committee.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Then, which the Wall Street Journal is insinuating, stating that
is because he wasn't very often in a position where
he could be on the.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Phone with people.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Yeah, they talk about lack of stamina, relying heavily on
the staff, Biden not following up on meetings, and then
they get into the interactions with cabinet members, infrequent and
often tightly scripted. At least one cabinet member stopped requesting
calls with the president because it was clear that such
(10:23):
requests would not be welcome. They get into some of
the numbers of meetings compared to previous administrations, and they're
shockingly low full cabinet meetings over four years. Biden held
nine full cabinet meetings, three in twenty twenty one, two
in twenty twenty two, three in twenty twenty three, and
(10:45):
just won this whole year. In their first terms, Obama
held nineteen and Trump held twenty five.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Early in his vice presidency, during the Obama administration, Biden
sought to gather cabinet leaders once a week, saying in
a speech that the synergy brought about by the regular
meetings made the government more competent, and by the end
he met with the cabinet once in a year.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So I mentioned the James Holman, who's a Washington Post
journalist retweeting portions of this and talking about this being
extraordinary journalism and an important piece and everything like that.
The part that he was most excited about was White
House meetings would be frequently canceled. A national security official
(11:33):
explain to another aid why a potis meeting needed to
be rescheduled. He has good days and bad days. This
is a quote. They put this in quites in the
Wall Street Journal. He has good days and bad days,
and today.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Was a bad day. So we're going to address this tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
That happening once should be blockbuster news coverage. If it
happened once that you said we have to cancel a
meeting because the president's not doing well today should make
the news. The fact that it was happening regularly and
covered up by a small group of people is a scandal.
(12:06):
That's not a news story. That's a scandal, A quick
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I want to squeeze in a little bit from the
campaign trail.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
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way way late to the party. Everybody knew it was
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Speaker 2 (13:26):
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Speaker 1 (13:27):
So we got more from this blockbuster Wall Street Journal article,
which is getting lots of attention. It should get lots
of attention. Like I said, this isn't a news scoop.
This is a scandal, a giant scandal, and it should
be treated that way.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
But more on the way stay here.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
But I've done since I've changed the law, what's happened.
I've changed it in the way that now you're in
a situation where there are forty percent fewer people coming
across the border illegally. That's better when he left office,
and I'm going to continue to move until we get
the total band on, the total initiative relative to what
we're gonna do with more border patrol and more asynum officers.
(14:08):
President Trump, I really don't know what he said at
the end of this.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I don't think he knows what he said.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Either, playing clips from the debate, because that's what drove
him out of the race, and no longer could the
mainstream media pretend that he was okay, and they were
pretending and lying.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
We've been reading through the Wall.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Street Journal piece that has fifty different people on and
off the record describing how they were covering up for
his brain problems. Here's some of the reaction to the
article that I think was funny. I was told it
was a stutter. That's pretty funny. Kind of sounds like
they were defrauding the nation and putting national security in jeopardy.
They should be made an example of otherwise it will
(14:46):
keep happening.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
True.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Tim Carney, who we like of the Washington Examiner, wrote,
what are they lying about to us?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
What are they lying to us about? Today?
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Just why you assume they stopped lying? You ruined your
own industry by lying. Now Here we are to the
Washington Post.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Why did the wallpo.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Take everything the White House said at face value and
refused to do any digging while he was still president.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Democracy needs more darkness. That's a good question. That's a
good shot.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
So plunging back into the Wall Street Journal article, we
went through a great deal of it in the previous segment.
If you didn't get it as always, you can get
it via a podcast Armstrong and get you on demand.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
You probably ought to subscribe anyway.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
They go into her report that said a jury was
likely to view Biden as a sympathetic, well meaning elderly
man with a poor memory. Then they talk about how
Biden's team insulated him on the campaign trail. One prominent
donor put together a small event for the reelection bid.
The donor was shocked when a campaign official told him
(15:44):
that attendees should not expect to have a free ranging
question and answer with the president. Instead, the organizer was
told to send in two or three questions at most
ahead of time that Biden would answer. At some events,
biden campaign printed the pre approved questions on note cards
and then gave donor the cards to read the questions.
Even with all these steps, Biden made flubs, which confounded
(16:05):
the donors, who knew that Biden had the questions I
had of time. Then they mentioned how donors noticed how
the staff stepped in to mask the other signs of decline.
They were constantly at his elbow, directing him in a
way that they'd never seen any candidate or any president
handled in the past.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
God, there is such a thing as Trump derangement syndrome.
That's the only way you can explain all of those
people around him that didn't immediately go to the New
York Times and say the guy shouldn't be president, or
all the media outlets that were following it and pretending
that this wasn't a problem.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
It's all Trump derangement syndrome.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
You were so certain that Trump was a worst alternative
that you just lied to yourself.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
You convinced yourself this wasn't a story.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
It was a you would win like some sort of
lifetime solid gold Pulitzer for breaking this story or reporting
thoroughly upon it, and stills the entire Washington press corps
passed on the opportunity out of partisanship and Trump derangement syndrome.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
It's astounding.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Hey, back to the campaign, the president's team of pollsters
had very limited access to Biden, even though they'd had
his ear constantly during twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
They talked frequently. I'm sorry during twenty twenty.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
By the twenty twenty four campaign, the pollsters were not
talking to the president about their findings, and instead they
had to talk to the staff. By the summer, Democratic
insiders became alarmed by the way Biden described his own
polling publicly characterizing the race as a toss up when
poles released in the weeks after the disastrous June debate
consistently showed Trump ahead. Then when he started talking publicly
(17:43):
about how good the polls were, Chuck Schumer panicked and
went to speak to him directly, trying to figure out
what the hell was going on.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, Man explains why it was so hard to push
him out if he was under the impression that, you know,
it's a toss up and or I'm winning.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Of course he wasn't gonna step down.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
The last two sentences of the article next, well, we're
staying too and forth, and we've got a lot more
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Armstrong and Getty Main.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
New Hampshire America have gone on the mend. They're not
on the mend any longer. They're on the move, and
we're coming at our challenges from position to stand.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Okay, So we're talking about this Wall Street Journal article today,
deeply sourced that really details how much they were covering
for Biden during his entire administration, how his brain doesn't
work and he has canceling meetings left and right, and
his cabinet.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Secretaries and to hold of them and everything like that.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
The fact that it's not the lead story on Good
Morning America Today shows you that it continues. And God
dang it, how are they not more concerned, these big
dominant media outlets that they've lost so much trust, But
they're going to continue down that path.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I find it very frustrating.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
I think if they'd had the capacity to write the ship,
they would have done it already.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
They don't have that.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
They are so insulated and full of their own bs
they can't recognize reality. I mean, I think my case
is ironclad. They've proved it again this morning. It's really
quite amazing. Final note on this article, they talk about
how insulated Biden was during the campaign, and at some point,
(19:27):
here's the book I want to read, or long well
sourced article, what was the plan for if he won?
I mean, because he's plainly senile and everybody knew it,
they were coming up with all sorts of ways to
cover for him. So they knew even as KJP continues
to lie. But all of your Mike Donalan's and all
your inner circle, what was your plan, Jake Sullivan, what
(19:49):
did you think was going to happen?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I think they were going to deny reality and think
they could keep pulling it off.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
This is the perfect time for this.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Somebody linked to the Wall Street Journal article this New
York Times piece that was late in the game. President
Biden is turning eighty. Experts say age is more than
a number, and this is from the New York Times.
The New York Times spoke to ten experts in aging
to paint a picture of what the next six years
might look like for a person of the president's age.
They determined he is a superager, one of those people
(20:17):
to have the unique ability to go on well passed
normal life expectancy and do well. That's the New York
Times coverage. When he turned eighty, which by the way,
is two years ago.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Wow. Six he so thoroughly beclowned themselves. They were really
discussing another six years. He didn't make it six months.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
So we were discussing how Biden after in twenty twenty
he met with his polsters a lot and looked at
progress and what was going on campaign strategy that in
twenty twenty four he didn't at all. They just had
to go through Mike Donaldan, one of his closest advisors,
and that Democratic insiders became alarmed during the summer, the
early summer, obviously because the debate was in what June,
(21:03):
with the way Biden described his own polling, He kept
saying it was a toss up when everybody knew it wasn't.
Those fears intensified on July eleventh, when Biden's top advisors
met behind closed doors with Democratic senators, where the advisors
laid out a roadmap for Biden's victory. The message from
the advisors was so disconnected from public polling, which showed
Trump leading Biden nationally, that it left Democratic senators incredulous.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
It's third Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, to.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Speak to Biden directly, according to people familiar with the matter,
hoping to pierce what the senator saw as a wall
erected by Donalin to shield Biden from bad information. Donalan
would not respond to a request comment for the article.
On June thirteenth, Biden held an uncomfortable call with a
group of Democratic lawmakers called the New Democratic Coalition, aimed
(21:49):
at reassuring them about his ability to stay in the race.
The president told participants that polling showed he was doing fine.
He became angry when challenged on that fact, According to
lawmakers on the call. At one point, Biden looked up
and abruptly told the group he had to go to church.
Some lawmakers on the call believed someone behind the camera
(22:09):
shut it down. Biden dropped out of the race eight
days later. Mister President, you're behind and all the poll No,
I'm not stop saying that. Now I have to go
to church. Everybody's looking around like, wait, what are you
going to?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
What? And then the men's over a click.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And nobody associated with any of this had the freaking
guts or patriotism to go to a mainstream media outlet. Nobody,
how do you know? How do you I realize he
kept it a very closed circle. But the closed circle
had to include half dozen people, didn't it. There wouldn't
anybody that was willing to come forward and call the
(22:52):
New York Times, Washington Post, CBS, everybody, all the Babby
weights and say, I need to.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Say this. I love Joe.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
I've worked for a Democratic Party my entire life, but
Joe Biden is not capable of being president anymore or
for another four years.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Nobody felt enough patriotism to do that.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Here's a possible explanation. And I'm not saying I believe
this necessarily, but I'm thinking it through. They would reply,
I look at Mike Donaldan, who's act I don't really know.
But I look at Jake Sullivan. I look at Anthony Blinken, Uh,
what's his face? Is run the Pentagon White, Austin Jenice
(23:33):
yelling at Treasury. It's a good, solid team doing a
pretty good job running the country. If I blow the
whistle on Biden, Kamala Harris becomes the president, O god
knows what's gonna happen, then I'm gonna take the senile
guy with his known tight group of advisors over, putting
that moron in the big chair.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
You're right, you need both pieces of this puzzle for
it to end up the way it ended up up.
Trump derangement syndrome where they think Trump is Hitler, so
that we can't possibly diminish our curwent president and the
backup was Kamala Harris.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Wow, one more reason not to make DEI hires for
important offices.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
You have an Al Gore Dick Cheney style, very very
competent vice president, and people might have turned on their boss.
Sure wow, yeah, and you know it's missing from the
Wall Street Journal piece.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
There's going to be a lot written. I hope I
live long.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Enough to read it all, because it's a Woodward's next
book now that the election's over. Woodward touched on Biden's
mental problems and the George Clooney stuff and how people
were going to fundraisers and shocked and all that. But
he didn't do a lot, and maybe people wouldn't talk
to him. But I don't think he was digging because
he didn't. He didn't want to because the book came
(24:55):
out before the election. Bob Woodward didn't want to blow
up Joe Biden's chances of winning because he has the
ethics Trump is hitler. But someday that that's Bob Woodward
book could be about all this stuff, and I got
to believe people would love to unburden themselves with all
this at some point. Why the key human that isn't
(25:17):
mentioned in the Wall Street Journal piece is not quoted
doctor Jill. What is the deal with the wife who
knew more than anyone in second place? She almost got
elected president Kamala Harris? Yeah, where's yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
No kidding. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
By the way, the Daily Mail has a headline today.
I have no idea well a source it is, but
saying doctor Jill is angry and is telling a depressed
Joe Biden blow it all up. And on the top
of her naughty list Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, and
this is the third person. I can't blow it all
up in what sense?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I don't know, Go scort strength, in what way You're
headed to the dustbin of history and embarrassment scorers.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
That's the way.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I've been saying this for a long time. I didn't
come up with this on my own. But Jill Biden's.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Gamala is at the top of the naughty list.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Jill Biden's gonna come out as the real villain in
this whole thing eventually, when all the history is written,
the real nut job.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, d say, one way, you did a great job, Joe.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
This is after the debate. We've played the clips already today.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
You did a great job Joe, you answered all the questions.
You're crazy, lady, you are crazy.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Yeah, the bulls of you gotta be in the looney
bin quite right. Wow, he's president for another month.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, he still president today. Don't tell the Chinese. Okay,
this is what we're.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Gonna do as a transition to something else. We're gonna
play a joke from Jimmy Fallon.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I love Christmas j but I notice.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
That they've updated a lot of classic songs this year
to make them feel a little more modern. Like, for instance,
instead of Grandma got run over by reindeer, there's Grandma
got carried away by a drone. I don't think like,
instead of run Rudolph run, there's Rudolf tries with GOVI
instead and you go no.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And finally, instead of Hallelujah, they change it to hot.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
To understand, I don't all three of those good jokes
instead of hollow.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Oh no, no, uh got this text. Here's why we
don't have Christmas parties anymore. My friend got called into
HR for fist bumping someone and calling him bro. What
doesn't explain anything more about that? But wow, there's some
(27:56):
truth in it.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
So Musk and Donald Trump stepped into the budgetary discussions
in the halls of Congress and vetoed a bi partisan agreement, saying,
at crap has come to an end, has it?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Oh boy?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Elon tweeted one hundred plus times yesterday, don't vote for
this thing. Here's why. Mediaite put out their list of
the most powerful people in media and had Elon far
away number one, the most powerful person in media.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
I don't know how you'd argue with that. Oh yeah, yeah,
far right away. Wow, I don't.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I read a couple of pieces yesterday about this is
how al oligarchy start. We have a co president who's
the richest man on earth, unelected, blah blah blah. I
have no First of all, you Democrats are hilarious with
the You have no concerns about billionaires when they run
the Washington Post and Amazon where George Soros or Mark
(28:56):
to Zuckerberg and Facebook when Facebook was clearly the most
dominant social media plactifly censoring any sort of free speech. Yes, yes, yeah,
that didn't concern you whatsoever. Now Elon is the source
of all evil, But I don't know. I'm not concerned.
Are you concerned about the power Elon has?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
No not at all.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
First of all, he's a private citizen. He's seeing his
right to free speech. He's got the Year of the President.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
We just went through a long article that mentioned half
a dozen important presidential aids who nobody voted for.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That's what an aid is.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I also think nobody tells Trump what to do. He
does whatever he wants. Trump saying let's do away with
the debt ceiling, I think is really interesting, very trump
like go against you know, the green completely.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
It is accomplished nothing, it's man made. We've been saying
that for years.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
So there are stores where you could drop in and
get a great, really cool, last minute gift for your
loved one, except you need top secret clearance to.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Get in them.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
The secret stores of some of Washington's agencies.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Oh man, I need the I need any I a
barbecue sauce, for instance. What.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yes, there's one other thing I wanted to tease that
I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I don't think about it later. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
As I started the show saying, I'm barely going through
the motions today.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
You shouldn't have to pay for this one today. I
just don't see you strike me as a kindly old
man with a failing memory.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Tomorrow's clips of the year, and today is the last
real show, and I barely I just know.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I didn't come to play. We have more on the way,
stay tuned, Barb Straw.
Speaker 6 (30:31):
And yet there will be fewer interest rate cuts next
year that anticipated. That means borrowing costs everything from a
new mortgage to a car loan tier credit cards will
stay higher for longer. And that is what drove stocks
plunging eleven hundred points for the Dow, the longest losing
street since nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
That's interesting, the longest losing streak in the Dow since
nineteen seventy four. Also, I hadn't heard the news that
they're anticipating fewer rate cuts than we thought might happen.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Okay, yeah, yeah, that was the cause of the effect. Definitely.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I was not very cognizant of the stock market in
nineteen seventy four. I wonder if it was because it
was crazy, stupid, overheated like the market is now. It's
not shocked at all that it would decline significantly. Not
shocking at all anyway, So enough on.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
That most in.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Fifty years is a lot, though half a second, Oh yeah,
oh yeah, agreed.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yeah, looking for a holiday gift that screams belt Way insider. No, no,
I'm not, but I found this very amusing. Skip to
Chinsey t shirt vendors on the National Mall and head
straight to the CIA. Just be ready to provide your
Social Security number and leave enough time to clear multiple
layers of security and bring cash. The agency advises against
(31:57):
using traceable forms of payment like credit cards, particul kularly
for customers who do undercover work.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Inside the gift shop.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
At the George Bush Center for Intelligence, customers can pick
from an assortment of intelligence seemed the merchandise like top
secret barbecue sauce, which appears to come in three different flavors. Also,
don't spill the beans coffee.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Like CIA pillows.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I like the Deep State plays on words, it gets
even more troubling and annoying. I'll read on CIA pillows
a two hundred dollars humidor etched with the agency's iconic seal.
There's something for every taste, said the shops the guy
runs it. Where As he strolled through the store where
a shot of shot I'm sorry, a set of shot
(32:48):
glasses emblazoned with admit nothing, deny everything sells for thirty
three ninety nine. It isn't impossible to visit, but it
is difficult. You either need to be a CIA employee
or no. Let's see they also yeah, the whole admit nothing,
deny everything, shot glasses is a little troubling.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
And then the federal buildings hide what may be the
world's most exclusive gift shops. Looking for a personalized most
Wanted placard, The FBI store has that lose your pen,
replace it with one shaped like rifle rounds sold at
the Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and now explosives. You
can buy china at the Transportation Department, bathrobes at the
(33:31):
State Department, and playing cards at.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
The Justice Department. Why do they have swag for government agencies?
One more example than I'll explain it.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
The Agricultural Department gift shop had sold just sold out
of its popular stress relief toys shaped like pigs, cows,
and tractors.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
During their twenty percent off Christmas sale last week.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
A lot of the profits go to a lot of
like employee support programs of various sorts, so it's mostly
people within the agency who give gifts fun gifts to
their friends and relatives who know they work at CIA,
for instance.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I'm against this, but I can't figure out exactly why.
I don't think government agencies should have swag.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
It's it's self supporting and then some if that helps you.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I'm not worried about the money. It's just something weird
about it. Something not fitting in with the government that
governs best governs least small government. Something so something with
the like permanence of giant government as a jobs program issue,
(34:47):
I think I feel where you're headed with this.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I get it, I don't.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
I don't think I agree, But it's a a worship.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Of the status quo, the permanence of it. Yeah, it's
something about that.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I remember a time when the people of the left
would have been horrified by the CIA selling shot glasses
about what lying and covering up or whatever.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Sure, yeah, yeah, Well the left used to be anti government.
Now it is savagely pro power. All it wants is power.
The left suddenly used.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
To be like anti FBI, CIA, anything, but because Trump
has been on the other side of it so much,
now they're the heroes.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
The DEA's online store sells a bumper sticker that says
get off the pot with a marijuana leaf.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Wow, Okay, I wish I could go in with those stories.
I gotta admit i'd buy some stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
I have a Dea T shirt that to one of
our beloved listeners sent and I wear it all the time.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
We do need to check in on the her own story.
There are a couple of interesting tidbits there. None of
it's highly important, but kind of interesting.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Among other things, Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty arms.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Strong and Jetty and he arms Strong and Ytty.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Look, there's so many young women who have been including
a young woman who just was murdered and he went
to the funeral and the idea that she was murdered
by by by an immigrant coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
They talk about that. But here's the deal.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
There's a lot of young women to be raped by
their by their in laws, by their by by their spouses,
brothers and sisters, by or just it's that's ridiculous, and
they can do nothing about it, and they try to
rest them by the cross state line. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
The number of illegals women, illegal women being raped by
their sisters is why he's in support of Roe versus Wade.
That's from the debate back in June or whatever it
was that drove him out of the race.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Wow. Wow, how about one more Michael one oh five.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary
person are eligible for what I've been able to do
with the uh, the COVID, I just could be with
dealing with everything we have to do with. Look, if
we finally beat medicare, thank.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
You President by Biden. President Trump, Well, he's right.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
He did beat medicare, beat it to death, and he's
destroying Medicare.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Remember, up until six pm Eastern that day, you were
some sort of right wing nut if you claimed the
president's brain didn't work and he shouldn't be president.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Again, it was a.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Cheap fake right Wall Street Journal out finally with the
big story everyone is talking about in DC and beyond,
And as Jack pointed out, a number of reporters for
other publications are retweeting it like fiends for reasons that
we will talk about in a moment. But it's entitled
how the White House Functioned with a diminished Biden in charge?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
And they mentioned in.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
The subhead the administration denied Biden has declined.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
They're still saying, no, he hasn't.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
And I've got to believe, and they quote this guy
Andrew Bates, white House spokesman, who denies there's been any decline.
I've got to believe he's just auditioning for future jobs.
Where people will say, how about baits, can we count
on him?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
He stood there with a straight face as Biden was
wandering around the south lawn soiling himself, saying, Joe Biden's
as sharp as he's ever been. This guy, he's shameless.
Let's hire him anyway. The Wall Street General begins with
a campaign anecdote, which is not terribly interesting, But then
they continue to adapt the White House around the needs
of a diminished leader. They told visitors to keep meetings focused.
(03:02):
Interactions with senior Democratic lawmakers and some cabinet members, including
powerful secretaries like Defenses Lloyd Austin and Treasury's Janet Yellen,
were infrequent and grew less frequent. Some legislative leaders had
a hard time getting the president's here at key moments,
including ahead of the US's disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. Senior
advisors were often put into roles that some administration officials
(03:24):
and lawmakers thought Biden should occupy, with people such as
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Senior councilor Steve Verchetti, and
National Economic Council had Layel Brainerd and her predecessor frequently
in the position of go betweens for the president. In
other words, you would not see the Wizard of Oz
even though you know all throughout history, including you know
(03:45):
Biden earlier on, very early on, you'd see the president
and it quickly became you know what, what don't we
get together and I'll pass it on to the president.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And this is early in his term.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Let's see, presidents have always had oh I'm sorry. Press
aides who compiled packages of newsclips for Biden were told
by senior staffers to exclude negative stories about the president.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Now that is interesting to me.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
That speaks not to a cognizance problem as much as
a personality change.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, exactly, Well, which is a cognizance problem, right, I
mean your brain changes. When we've heard that about getting older,
you get angrier. And I don't know that much about
dimension that sort of stuff. But so you can't handle
disappointing or bad news very well.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Interesting, as the nation's leading politician, you can't handle what
the other side is saying about you. I mean year,
in an election year, that's disturbing. The president was not
talking to his own polsters as surveys showed him trailing
in the twenty twenty four race.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
You remember that when he said we're ahead.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
That that would explain a number of things he said
what poll all of them.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Yeah, but presidents have always had gatekeepers, but in Biden's case,
the walls around him were higher and the controls greater.
According to Democratic lawmakers, donors, and aids who worked for
Biden other administrations, there were limits over who Biden spoke with,
limits on what they said to him, and limits around
the source of information he consumed.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Wow, that's interesting on so many levels and dangerous on
so many different levels, because you got people guessing as
how to handle him and his condition. And I mean
because they're guessing, they don't know, They're just going by
the reactions they got at various times, probably from him
trial and error. And somebody said, ah, we better not
tell him stuff like that anymore. That's a pretty dangerous
(05:43):
place to be.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
And they touched on the fact that presidents always have
assistance who say all right, we're going to go to
the greeting line and then we'll do blah blah blah.
But they said the handholding was unlike anything other recent
presidents have had. The White House operated this.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Way even as the president and his aides pressed forward
with his re election bid, which unraveled spectacularly of the
June debate, etc.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Kamala jumped in uh. This account of how the White
House functioned with an aging leader at the top of
its organizational chart is based on interviews with nearly fifty people,
including those who participated in or had direct knowledge of
the operations. Many of those who criticized Biden's in celerity
said his system nonetheless kept his agenda on track. Aforementioned
(06:30):
shameless White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden quote earned
the most accomplished record of any modern commander in chief
and rebuilt the middle class because of his attention to
policy details that impact.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Millions of lives. Oh that's good. That's good.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Bates, who rejected the notion that Biden has declined, added
that the President has often solicited opinions from outside experts,
which has.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Informed his policymaking.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Then they get into the President's slide has been hard
to overlook. Well, not to Andrew Bates. While preparing last year,
hear for his interview with Robert K.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Hurr.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
The Special Counsel investigated Biden's handling the classified documents. The
president could not recall lines as team discussed with him
at events. Aids often repeated instructions to him as such
as where to enter exit the stage that would be
obvious to the average person. Biden's team tapped campaign CoA
chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul, to find a voice
(07:32):
coach to improve the president's fading warble.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, I don't know, cause you can get a voice coach.
I mean that's I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
But the staff took great care to prevent him from
catching COVID by limiting his in person's interaction, But the
shell constructed for the pandemic was never fully taken down
in his advanced age hardened it. The structure was also
designed to prevent Biden, an undisciplined public speaker throughout his
(07:58):
half century political career, for making gaffes or missteps that
could damage his image, create.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Political headaches, or upset the world order.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Then they get into how his meetings with his cabinet
officials became rarer and rarer, to the point that they
couldn't even get him on the phone again. They would
just talk to a top aide who would say, I'll
pass it on to the wizard of Oz, I mean
the president, right, and did not get a chance to
(08:27):
address him personally.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
There's one congressman. Where is that?
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Oh Adam Smith of Washington. He's the head of the
powerful Armed Services Committee. He was desperate to talk to
Biden before the Afghan withdrawal in twenty twenty one. Boy,
he was alarmed by what he viewed as overly optimistic
comments from Biden as the administration assembled plans for the operation. Quote,
I was begging them to set expectations low. He sought
(08:55):
to talk to Biden directly to share his insights about
the region, but he could not get him on the phone.
And they go into some of the details. Oh, this
is actually pretty illustrative. Then we'll discuss. But after the
disastrous withdrawal, which left thirteen US service members and hundreds
of Afghans dead, Smith, the congressman, made a critical comment
(09:16):
to The Washington Post about the administration lacking a clear
eyed view of the US back to ash Afghani government's durability.
It was among comments that triggered an angry phone call
from Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln, who ended up getting
an earfull back from the frustrated chairman shortly after, Smith
got an apologetic call from Biden. It was the only
phone call Biden made to Smith in his four years
(09:37):
in office, and Smith said, that's weird because I spoke
with Barack Obama a number of times when he was president,
and I wasn't even chairman of the committee.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Then, which the Wall Street Journal is insinuating, stating that
is because he wasn't very often in a position where
he could be on the.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Phone with people.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Yeah, they talk about lack of stamina, relying heavily on
the staff, Biden not following up on meetings, and then
they get into the interactions with cabinet members, infrequent and
often tightly scripted. At least one cabinet member stopped requesting
calls with the president because it was clear that such
(10:23):
requests would not be welcome. They get into some of
the numbers of meetings compared to previous administrations, and they're
shockingly low full cabinet meetings over four years. Biden held
nine full cabinet meetings, three in twenty twenty one, two
in twenty twenty two, three in twenty twenty three, and
(10:45):
just won this whole year. In their first terms, Obama
held nineteen and Trump held twenty five.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Early in his vice presidency, during the Obama administration, Biden
sought to gather cabinet leaders once a week, saying in
a speech that the synergy brought about by the regular
meetings made the government more competent, and by the end
he met with the cabinet once in a year.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So I mentioned the James Holman, who's a Washington Post
journalist retweeting portions of this and talking about this being
extraordinary journalism and an important piece and everything like that.
The part that he was most excited about was White
House meetings would be frequently canceled. A national security official
(11:33):
explain to another aid why a potis meeting needed to
be rescheduled. He has good days and bad days. This
is a quote. They put this in quites in the
Wall Street Journal. He has good days and bad days,
and today.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Was a bad day. So we're going to address this tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
That happening once should be blockbuster news coverage. If it
happened once that you said we have to cancel a
meeting because the president's not doing well today should make
the news. The fact that it was happening regularly and
covered up by a small group of people is a scandal.
(12:06):
That's not a news story. That's a scandal, A quick
word from our friends and sponsors a Prize Picks. Then
I want to squeeze in a little bit from the
campaign trail.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Maybe next segment, I tell you what George Clooney was like,
way way late to the party. Everybody knew it was
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Speaker 2 (13:26):
Run your game.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
So we got more from this blockbuster Wall Street Journal article,
which is getting lots of attention. It should get lots
of attention. Like I said, this isn't a news scoop.
This is a scandal, a giant scandal, and it should
be treated that way.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
But more on the way stay here.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
But I've done since I've changed the law, what's happened.
I've changed it in the way that now you're in
a situation where there are forty percent fewer people coming
across the border illegally. That's better when he left office,
and I'm going to continue to move until we get
the total band on, the total initiative relative to what
we're gonna do with more border patrol and more asynum officers.
(14:08):
President Trump, I really don't know what he said at
the end of this.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I don't think he knows what he said.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Either, playing clips from the debate, because that's what drove
him out of the race, and no longer could the
mainstream media pretend that he was okay, and they were
pretending and lying.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
We've been reading through the Wall.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Street Journal piece that has fifty different people on and
off the record describing how they were covering up for
his brain problems. Here's some of the reaction to the
article that I think was funny. I was told it
was a stutter. That's pretty funny. Kind of sounds like
they were defrauding the nation and putting national security in jeopardy.
They should be made an example of otherwise it will
(14:46):
keep happening.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
True.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Tim Carney, who we like of the Washington Examiner, wrote,
what are they lying about to us?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
What are they lying to us about? Today?
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Just why you assume they stopped lying? You ruined your
own industry by lying. Now Here we are to the
Washington Post.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Why did the wallpo.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Take everything the White House said at face value and
refused to do any digging while he was still president.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Democracy needs more darkness. That's a good question. That's a
good shot.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
So plunging back into the Wall Street Journal article, we
went through a great deal of it in the previous segment.
If you didn't get it as always, you can get
it via a podcast Armstrong and get you on demand.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
You probably ought to subscribe anyway.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
They go into her report that said a jury was
likely to view Biden as a sympathetic, well meaning elderly
man with a poor memory. Then they talk about how
Biden's team insulated him on the campaign trail. One prominent
donor put together a small event for the reelection bid.
The donor was shocked when a campaign official told him
(15:44):
that attendees should not expect to have a free ranging
question and answer with the president. Instead, the organizer was
told to send in two or three questions at most
ahead of time that Biden would answer. At some events,
biden campaign printed the pre approved questions on note cards
and then gave donor the cards to read the questions.
Even with all these steps, Biden made flubs, which confounded
(16:05):
the donors, who knew that Biden had the questions I
had of time. Then they mentioned how donors noticed how
the staff stepped in to mask the other signs of decline.
They were constantly at his elbow, directing him in a
way that they'd never seen any candidate or any president
handled in the past.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
God, there is such a thing as Trump derangement syndrome.
That's the only way you can explain all of those
people around him that didn't immediately go to the New
York Times and say the guy shouldn't be president, or
all the media outlets that were following it and pretending
that this wasn't a problem.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
It's all Trump derangement syndrome.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
You were so certain that Trump was a worst alternative
that you just lied to yourself.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
You convinced yourself this wasn't a story.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
It was a you would win like some sort of
lifetime solid gold Pulitzer for breaking this story or reporting
thoroughly upon it, and stills the entire Washington press corps
passed on the opportunity out of partisanship and Trump derangement syndrome.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
It's astounding.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Hey, back to the campaign, the president's team of pollsters
had very limited access to Biden, even though they'd had
his ear constantly during twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
They talked frequently. I'm sorry during twenty twenty.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
By the twenty twenty four campaign, the pollsters were not
talking to the president about their findings, and instead they
had to talk to the staff. By the summer, Democratic
insiders became alarmed by the way Biden described his own
polling publicly characterizing the race as a toss up when
poles released in the weeks after the disastrous June debate
consistently showed Trump ahead. Then when he started talking publicly
(17:43):
about how good the polls were, Chuck Schumer panicked and
went to speak to him directly, trying to figure out
what the hell was going on.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, Man explains why it was so hard to push
him out if he was under the impression that, you know,
it's a toss up and or I'm winning.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Of course he wasn't gonna step down.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
The last two sentences of the article next, well, we're
staying too and forth, and we've got a lot more
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Armstrong and Getty Main.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
New Hampshire America have gone on the mend. They're not
on the mend any longer. They're on the move, and
we're coming at our challenges from position to stand.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Okay, So we're talking about this Wall Street Journal article today,
deeply sourced that really details how much they were covering
for Biden during his entire administration, how his brain doesn't
work and he has canceling meetings left and right, and
his cabinet.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Secretaries and to hold of them and everything like that.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
The fact that it's not the lead story on Good
Morning America Today shows you that it continues. And God
dang it, how are they not more concerned, these big
dominant media outlets that they've lost so much trust, But
they're going to continue down that path.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I find it very frustrating.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
I think if they'd had the capacity to write the ship,
they would have done it already.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
They don't have that.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
They are so insulated and full of their own bs
they can't recognize reality. I mean, I think my case
is ironclad. They've proved it again this morning. It's really
quite amazing. Final note on this article, they talk about
how insulated Biden was during the campaign, and at some point,
(19:27):
here's the book I want to read, or long well
sourced article, what was the plan for if he won?
I mean, because he's plainly senile and everybody knew it,
they were coming up with all sorts of ways to
cover for him. So they knew even as KJP continues
to lie. But all of your Mike Donalan's and all
your inner circle, what was your plan, Jake Sullivan, what
(19:49):
did you think was going to happen?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I think they were going to deny reality and think
they could keep pulling it off.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
This is the perfect time for this.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Somebody linked to the Wall Street Journal article this New
York Times piece that was late in the game. President
Biden is turning eighty. Experts say age is more than
a number, and this is from the New York Times.
The New York Times spoke to ten experts in aging
to paint a picture of what the next six years
might look like for a person of the president's age.
They determined he is a superager, one of those people
(20:17):
to have the unique ability to go on well passed
normal life expectancy and do well. That's the New York
Times coverage. When he turned eighty, which by the way,
is two years ago.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Wow. Six he so thoroughly beclowned themselves. They were really
discussing another six years. He didn't make it six months.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
So we were discussing how Biden after in twenty twenty
he met with his polsters a lot and looked at
progress and what was going on campaign strategy that in
twenty twenty four he didn't at all. They just had
to go through Mike Donaldan, one of his closest advisors,
and that Democratic insiders became alarmed during the summer, the
early summer, obviously because the debate was in what June,
(21:03):
with the way Biden described his own polling, He kept
saying it was a toss up when everybody knew it wasn't.
Those fears intensified on July eleventh, when Biden's top advisors
met behind closed doors with Democratic senators, where the advisors
laid out a roadmap for Biden's victory. The message from
the advisors was so disconnected from public polling, which showed
Trump leading Biden nationally, that it left Democratic senators incredulous.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
It's third Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, to.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Speak to Biden directly, according to people familiar with the matter,
hoping to pierce what the senator saw as a wall
erected by Donalin to shield Biden from bad information. Donalan
would not respond to a request comment for the article.
On June thirteenth, Biden held an uncomfortable call with a
group of Democratic lawmakers called the New Democratic Coalition, aimed
(21:49):
at reassuring them about his ability to stay in the race.
The president told participants that polling showed he was doing fine.
He became angry when challenged on that fact, According to
lawmakers on the call. At one point, Biden looked up
and abruptly told the group he had to go to church.
Some lawmakers on the call believed someone behind the camera
(22:09):
shut it down. Biden dropped out of the race eight
days later. Mister President, you're behind and all the poll No,
I'm not stop saying that. Now I have to go
to church. Everybody's looking around like, wait, what are you
going to?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
What? And then the men's over a click.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And nobody associated with any of this had the freaking
guts or patriotism to go to a mainstream media outlet. Nobody,
how do you know? How do you I realize he
kept it a very closed circle. But the closed circle
had to include half dozen people, didn't it. There wouldn't
anybody that was willing to come forward and call the
(22:52):
New York Times, Washington Post, CBS, everybody, all the Babby
weights and say, I need to.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Say this. I love Joe.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
I've worked for a Democratic Party my entire life, but
Joe Biden is not capable of being president anymore or
for another four years.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Nobody felt enough patriotism to do that.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Here's a possible explanation. And I'm not saying I believe
this necessarily, but I'm thinking it through. They would reply,
I look at Mike Donaldan, who's act I don't really know.
But I look at Jake Sullivan. I look at Anthony Blinken, Uh,
what's his face? Is run the Pentagon White, Austin Jenice
(23:33):
yelling at Treasury. It's a good, solid team doing a
pretty good job running the country. If I blow the
whistle on Biden, Kamala Harris becomes the president, O god
knows what's gonna happen, then I'm gonna take the senile
guy with his known tight group of advisors over, putting
that moron in the big chair.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
You're right, you need both pieces of this puzzle for
it to end up the way it ended up up.
Trump derangement syndrome where they think Trump is Hitler, so
that we can't possibly diminish our curwent president and the
backup was Kamala Harris.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Wow, one more reason not to make DEI hires for
important offices.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
You have an Al Gore Dick Cheney style, very very
competent vice president, and people might have turned on their boss.
Sure wow, yeah, and you know it's missing from the
Wall Street Journal piece.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
There's going to be a lot written. I hope I
live long.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Enough to read it all, because it's a Woodward's next
book now that the election's over. Woodward touched on Biden's
mental problems and the George Clooney stuff and how people
were going to fundraisers and shocked and all that. But
he didn't do a lot, and maybe people wouldn't talk
to him. But I don't think he was digging because
he didn't. He didn't want to because the book came
(24:55):
out before the election. Bob Woodward didn't want to blow
up Joe Biden's chances of winning because he has the
ethics Trump is hitler. But someday that that's Bob Woodward
book could be about all this stuff, and I got
to believe people would love to unburden themselves with all
this at some point. Why the key human that isn't
(25:17):
mentioned in the Wall Street Journal piece is not quoted
doctor Jill. What is the deal with the wife who
knew more than anyone in second place? She almost got
elected president Kamala Harris? Yeah, where's yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
No kidding. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
By the way, the Daily Mail has a headline today.
I have no idea well a source it is, but
saying doctor Jill is angry and is telling a depressed
Joe Biden blow it all up. And on the top
of her naughty list Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, and
this is the third person. I can't blow it all
up in what sense?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I don't know, Go scort strength, in what way You're
headed to the dustbin of history and embarrassment scorers.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
That's the way.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I've been saying this for a long time. I didn't
come up with this on my own. But Jill Biden's.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Gamala is at the top of the naughty list.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Jill Biden's gonna come out as the real villain in
this whole thing eventually, when all the history is written,
the real nut job.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, d say, one way, you did a great job, Joe.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
This is after the debate. We've played the clips already today.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
You did a great job Joe, you answered all the questions.
You're crazy, lady, you are crazy.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Yeah, the bulls of you gotta be in the looney
bin quite right. Wow, he's president for another month.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, he still president today. Don't tell the Chinese. Okay,
this is what we're.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Gonna do as a transition to something else. We're gonna
play a joke from Jimmy Fallon.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I love Christmas j but I notice.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
That they've updated a lot of classic songs this year
to make them feel a little more modern. Like, for instance,
instead of Grandma got run over by reindeer, there's Grandma
got carried away by a drone. I don't think like,
instead of run Rudolph run, there's Rudolf tries with GOVI
instead and you go no.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And finally, instead of Hallelujah, they change it to hot.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
To understand, I don't all three of those good jokes
instead of hollow.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Oh no, no, uh got this text. Here's why we
don't have Christmas parties anymore. My friend got called into
HR for fist bumping someone and calling him bro. What
doesn't explain anything more about that? But wow, there's some
(27:56):
truth in it.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
So Musk and Donald Trump stepped into the budgetary discussions
in the halls of Congress and vetoed a bi partisan agreement, saying,
at crap has come to an end, has it?
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Oh boy?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Elon tweeted one hundred plus times yesterday, don't vote for
this thing. Here's why. Mediaite put out their list of
the most powerful people in media and had Elon far
away number one, the most powerful person in media.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
I don't know how you'd argue with that. Oh yeah, yeah,
far right away. Wow, I don't.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I read a couple of pieces yesterday about this is
how al oligarchy start. We have a co president who's
the richest man on earth, unelected, blah blah blah. I
have no First of all, you Democrats are hilarious with
the You have no concerns about billionaires when they run
the Washington Post and Amazon where George Soros or Mark
(28:56):
to Zuckerberg and Facebook when Facebook was clearly the most
dominant social media plactifly censoring any sort of free speech. Yes, yes, yeah,
that didn't concern you whatsoever. Now Elon is the source
of all evil, But I don't know. I'm not concerned.
Are you concerned about the power Elon has?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
No not at all.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
First of all, he's a private citizen. He's seeing his
right to free speech. He's got the Year of the President.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
We just went through a long article that mentioned half
a dozen important presidential aids who nobody voted for.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That's what an aid is.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I also think nobody tells Trump what to do. He
does whatever he wants. Trump saying let's do away with
the debt ceiling, I think is really interesting, very trump
like go against you know, the green completely.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
It is accomplished nothing, it's man made. We've been saying
that for years.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
So there are stores where you could drop in and
get a great, really cool, last minute gift for your
loved one, except you need top secret clearance to.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Get in them.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
The secret stores of some of Washington's agencies.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Oh man, I need the I need any I a
barbecue sauce, for instance. What.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yes, there's one other thing I wanted to tease that
I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I don't think about it later. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
As I started the show saying, I'm barely going through
the motions today.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
You shouldn't have to pay for this one today. I
just don't see you strike me as a kindly old
man with a failing memory.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Tomorrow's clips of the year, and today is the last
real show, and I barely I just know.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I didn't come to play. We have more on the way,
stay tuned, Barb Straw.
Speaker 6 (30:31):
And yet there will be fewer interest rate cuts next
year that anticipated. That means borrowing costs everything from a
new mortgage to a car loan tier credit cards will
stay higher for longer. And that is what drove stocks
plunging eleven hundred points for the Dow, the longest losing
street since nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
That's interesting, the longest losing streak in the Dow since
nineteen seventy four. Also, I hadn't heard the news that
they're anticipating fewer rate cuts than we thought might happen.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Okay, yeah, yeah, that was the cause of the effect. Definitely.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I was not very cognizant of the stock market in
nineteen seventy four. I wonder if it was because it
was crazy, stupid, overheated like the market is now. It's
not shocked at all that it would decline significantly. Not
shocking at all anyway, So enough on.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
That most in.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Fifty years is a lot, though half a second, Oh yeah,
oh yeah, agreed.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yeah, looking for a holiday gift that screams belt Way insider. No, no,
I'm not, but I found this very amusing. Skip to
Chinsey t shirt vendors on the National Mall and head
straight to the CIA. Just be ready to provide your
Social Security number and leave enough time to clear multiple
layers of security and bring cash. The agency advises against
(31:57):
using traceable forms of payment like credit cards, particul kularly
for customers who do undercover work.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Inside the gift shop.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
At the George Bush Center for Intelligence, customers can pick
from an assortment of intelligence seemed the merchandise like top
secret barbecue sauce, which appears to come in three different flavors. Also,
don't spill the beans coffee.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Like CIA pillows.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I like the Deep State plays on words, it gets
even more troubling and annoying. I'll read on CIA pillows
a two hundred dollars humidor etched with the agency's iconic seal.
There's something for every taste, said the shops the guy
runs it. Where As he strolled through the store where
a shot of shot I'm sorry, a set of shot
(32:48):
glasses emblazoned with admit nothing, deny everything sells for thirty
three ninety nine. It isn't impossible to visit, but it
is difficult. You either need to be a CIA employee
or no. Let's see they also yeah, the whole admit nothing,
deny everything, shot glasses is a little troubling.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
And then the federal buildings hide what may be the
world's most exclusive gift shops. Looking for a personalized most
Wanted placard, The FBI store has that lose your pen,
replace it with one shaped like rifle rounds sold at
the Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and now explosives. You
can buy china at the Transportation Department, bathrobes at the
(33:31):
State Department, and playing cards at.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
The Justice Department. Why do they have swag for government agencies?
One more example than I'll explain it.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
The Agricultural Department gift shop had sold just sold out
of its popular stress relief toys shaped like pigs, cows,
and tractors.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
During their twenty percent off Christmas sale last week.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
A lot of the profits go to a lot of
like employee support programs of various sorts, so it's mostly
people within the agency who give gifts fun gifts to
their friends and relatives who know they work at CIA,
for instance.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I'm against this, but I can't figure out exactly why.
I don't think government agencies should have swag.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
It's it's self supporting and then some if that helps you.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I'm not worried about the money. It's just something weird
about it. Something not fitting in with the government that
governs best governs least small government. Something so something with
the like permanence of giant government as a jobs program issue,
(34:47):
I think I feel where you're headed with this.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I get it, I don't.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
I don't think I agree, But it's a a worship.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Of the status quo, the permanence of it. Yeah, it's
something about that.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I remember a time when the people of the left
would have been horrified by the CIA selling shot glasses
about what lying and covering up or whatever.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Sure, yeah, yeah, Well the left used to be anti government.
Now it is savagely pro power. All it wants is power.
The left suddenly used.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
To be like anti FBI, CIA, anything, but because Trump
has been on the other side of it so much,
now they're the heroes.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
The DEA's online store sells a bumper sticker that says
get off the pot with a marijuana leaf.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Wow, Okay, I wish I could go in with those stories.
I gotta admit i'd buy some stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
I have a Dea T shirt that to one of
our beloved listeners sent and I wear it all the time.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
We do need to check in on the her own story.
There are a couple of interesting tidbits there. None of
it's highly important, but kind of interesting.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Among other things, Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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