Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He hosts on Balance on NewsNation weeknights at seven pm
Mountain time, and it plays again at ten pm Mountain time.
And everybody should subscribe to his free almost daily daily
when he's got a show weekday's email called war Notes,
you can just go to Warnoes dot com. It's basically
Leland's show prep and you can see what's in his
(00:20):
brain and as he says, and I think it's true,
it'll it'll make you smarter. And then also by way
of a little bit more free advertising, if you go
to born luckybook dot com, you can pre order Leland's
book that's gonna be coming out kind of sort of soon,
not too soon, but pretty soon. So it's it's great
to have you back. Leland's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
The pleasure is all mine.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Ross With an introduction like that and free advertising, I
will come back as a question, maybe sometimes you don't want.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
To have me, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So Leland, among other things, was Middle East correspondent for
another network for four years, living in Israel, and Leland
has a better understanding of Middle East politics than anybody
anybody else I know actually, and certainly anybody in media.
(01:12):
So first I want to say you did the best
job of anybody in television news yesterday covering Trump's trip
to Saudi Arabia, And I would just want you to
take a moment and kind of highlight what you thought
was most interesting and important yesterday.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Well, Ross, now I have to go back and remember
what I said number one. And if I'm the most
informed of your friends, then you need better friends. But
I think what is most important here is that Donald
Trump turned the past eighty years of American foreign policy
on its head.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And that needed.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
To happen because the world has changed and American foreign
policy has not. And Donald Trump went over to the
Middle East, to the Gulf rulers right, Saudi Arabia, Guitar
and the United Arab Emirates and finally gave them what
they've always wanted, which is legitimacy. The Europeans, especially, and
to a certain extent, a lot of American presidents treated
(02:14):
them as and.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I'll be pejorative here, but goat hurterers with oil.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Is how the europe the Europe at all looked at them,
and European leaders and a lot of American leaders did too.
And Trump went over and said, no, I don't.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
View you as Goatsroile.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I view you as people who have built your own countries,
albeit sometimes with some unsavory tactics.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
That's what the Middle East.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Requires, and I will treat you as an equal in return.
They said, Wow, no one's ever treated this like this,
And here's a trillion dollars worth of investment into America.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Now.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I don't know about you, but when you treat people well,
sometimes they're nice to you. And in that case, if
they're nice with the trillion dollars, that's a pretty good
return on investment.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
One thing that really jumped out at me, kind of
extending what you're talking about here, is when they were
talking about the Abraham Accords. And I do think the
Abraham Accords were a remarkable achievement. They didn't go as
far as Trump had wanted because his term ended, and
he probably could have gotten Saudi Arabia to sign if
(03:25):
his term had been a little longer. He's been trying
to get him back. But the Israel Gaza thing is
a problem and was very interesting yesterday where he said,
you know, like right to the crown prince, you would
honor me by signing the Abraham Accords. And this is
a culture, as you well know, where honor is a
(03:46):
real thing.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Sure, And this is Trump at his best, right. Trump
loves being treated like a king. He loves being around royalty.
He loves the ingratiation of ingratiating himself to others, and
others in great shiating.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Themselves to him.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
This is Donald Trump, you know, in his.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Element. You can watch it. You can see how much
funni's have.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
They ran accords or the peace agreements between the Arab
States and Israel. And what Donald Trump understood, and this
was a unique understanding, it remarkably unique understanding, is that
the cruxt of conflict in the Middle East was not
(04:34):
the Israel Palestinian conflict. The cruxt of problems in the
Middle East was the Arab Persian or the Iran versus
the rest of the Middle East problem. And once he
understood that dynamic and operated with that dynamic in mind,
look at how much has changed in what he's been
able to do.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
All right, So I think you and I agree that
this stuff we're talking about is basically Trump at his best.
Let's talk for a second, still Middle East related, but
Trump not is not at his best. Why do you
think the dude seems so committed to taking a four
hundred million dollar airplane from Cutter And I realized, not
(05:17):
the biggest thing in the world, but it's a political
own goal.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
The amount of flack he is taking from it versus
the return I don't quite understand.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And there's a lot of ways around this.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Look, I'm going to borrow the plane to be fair, Okay,
it's going to cost a bunch of money to fix
the plane and to retrofit it to be what air
Force one would need to be. By the way, the
person who the organization that's going to do that or
the company that's going to retrofit it is probably the
same one that's currently retrofitting the other seven forty sevens
(05:55):
to be air Force one.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
It's kind of this silly thing.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
But what I think you're seeing is when Donald Trump
is attacked or criticized in the American media for something,
he reflexively doubles down on it. And what he's learned,
and I think this is fair, is that he's gonna
get attacked by stuff no matter what, so therefore he
(06:25):
might as well fight on every issue because there's no
point in showing weakness, because the more you show weakness,
the more.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
It is provocative.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So that's my best analysis of what's happening. You know,
somehow Donald Trump more or less beholden to the government
of Cutter because of this plane.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
No, anybody who.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Knows Trump knows he does what he wants to do,
whether you were nice to him twenty four hours ago
or not. So I don't I don't quite understand the
hair on fire hysteria. I mean, you know, there was
no hysteria when Cutter was giving billions of dollars to
American universities.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Or spending all this money on lobbying in DC.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
But suddenly, now if it's a plane to the Pentagon,
it's a national security threat.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I just don't see it.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
We're talking with Leland Vender at his show is on
Balance on News Nation seven pm Mountain Time, repeats ten
pm Mountain Time about how many people will be at
your wedding about seventy okay, very similar size to my wedding,
which I think was was around well she turned out.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I don't know. I don't know what my wife would
say about that. And when when is the wedding?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
The wedding is in a few weeks.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Ross, let me just let me just say your invitation
didn't get lost in the mail.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I understand I wasn't waiting for one. But are you nervous?
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Are you? How are you feeling?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
You're you're you're awfully nice to ask no one ever.
This is the thing that's starting to get to me. Okay,
Everybody when they see my fiance says to me, congratulations
and tells her there's still time. Oh, you're getting married
when June. Congratulations And they look at.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Her and they go, it's still a month away. You've
still got some time. So I've stopped taking it personally.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
But are you Are you nervous or not? Really?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Am I supposed to be? Do you know something I don't.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
No, no, no, no, I didn't mean I didn't mean
it that way. Actually, I didn't mean nervous, like, oh,
it might not happen. I just getting married is a
big deal. I don't think you've done it before, and
I just you know, so, uh, I just and.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
After and after this process, I don't intend to do
it again.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
That's that's good. That's how I feel too. That's how
I feel too. Uh. I wasn't fishing for an invitation.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Don't worry, but we will get a beer or something
after the next time. I the next time I see it,
we'll celebrate, all right.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
So I don't I don't spend.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
A ton of time looking backwards. I don't like talking
about Biden word first or all that stuff. But it's
very interesting to see, especially from the media types who
you would normally consider democrat friendly, the formerly mainstream media
who are not really mainstream anymore, but like Jake Tapper's
book getting a lot of attention and the fact that
(09:29):
it's him means that liberals are going to be hearing
stories that they might not otherwise hear this stuff about
Biden did he need a wheelchair?
Speaker 4 (09:39):
And I'm a little surprised how.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Much attention this stuff is getting given how backwards looking
it is. And I don't know, do you feel like
this is distracting democrats in a way that's even more
stupid than what usually distracts political people.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, it's kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
And I'll give you a preview to war Notes tonight,
which is Democrats are realizing that their friends in the
media care about themselves, meaning the media, more than they
do Democrats And what Democrats.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
What the people in the media have realized.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
And I say this that this goes from Jake Tapper
at CNN all the way through Lester.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Holt at NBC, that.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
They're realizing that their own credibility is on the line.
So what are they doing. They're attacking Democrats for hiding
Joe Biden's health.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Okay, well it was I watched.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I can't remember who was I think was Chuck Schumer,
it was Michael Bennette grilled and other Democratic senators.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
It was Elizabeth Warren getting grilled. How could you hide
Biden's health?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
This is terrible, says anchor, who two years ago was
talking about how Biden was great, his accomplishments were list
was low, and Republicans are just feeding on conspiracy theories.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
So it is laughable.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
And you can see these Democrats going, wait a second,
wait a second.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I thought you were my friend. You are the ones
who were saying the same thing I.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Was two years ago about Biden's health, and now you've
turned on me.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
What's happened?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's just really really rich to watch, and I think
finally the traditional legacy, whatever you want to call the media,
is realizing. I would say too late, their credibility crisis
and now trying to do everything.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
To fix it.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
But you know, to watch Chuck Todd be a gas
at Chuck Schumer's not wanting to discuss Biden's health is
really farcical.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
So you went to where my follow up would be,
and I guess where my follow up still will be.
How much of this stuff do you think is the
media that part of the media attempting to regain some credibility,
and how much do you think is trying to make
a few bucks selling books?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well, for Jake.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Tapper, it's one and the same, right, And you know,
Mark Alpern did a great job going back and looking
at actually the clips of Jake Tapper quote unquote questioning
Biden's health.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
The Tapper book.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
The real story to that is Alex Thompson, who co
wrote it and did most of the reporting, is a
good friend of mine. Was the only reporter really digging
into Joe Biden's health. And he was very easy to
book on cable news. We used to book them all
the time, but you couldn't. But it was easy to
book because no one else was booking him to talk
about using the short stairs on Air Force one, having
(12:47):
the staff walk out with him, different kinds of shoes,
limiting his schedule, limiting who he was interacting with, prepping
him dirt Like there was a whole list of things
that Thompson broke that just nobody cares about. Now all
of a sudden, these are being treated as you know,
Watergate like scoops. It's again transparent, but it's it's a
(13:08):
it's a rehabilitation.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
It's sure for Tapper making a few bocks, but.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
It's it's it is as naked as Washington will ever
be in in not even being ashamed of it.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So you mentioned, you know, Tapper or Todd that that
kind of crew of people are are these are these
your friends and if they're if they're not, and I
don't mean colleagues and so on, I mean are they
your friends?
Speaker 4 (13:36):
And if they're not their friends, if they're not your friends, is.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Any of that because of this kind of thing that
you're talking about, where it sounds like you think and
I certainly think that they're in a job that requires
honesty and they don't deliver on on that.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Does that bother you? Does that? You get my question?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You know, it's a good question.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Ross and I write it about it in my book
Born Lucky, the story of my father and I and
his monumental efforts and love to help me overcome an
autism diagnosis.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
And one of the things you used to tell me
when I was having a hard time in.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
High school is that the currency of high school is
not what matters in real life.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And I've kind of more fat into saying.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I never liked anyone who liked high school because the
values in high school are so screwed up that if
you're popular in high school, you enjoy high school. That
doesn't say great things about you. And I would say
the same thing applies to Washington, because the values in
Washington are equally screwed up, and if you like Washington,
(14:45):
you're probably not a good person.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
That's why you and I are friends. All Right, I'm
going to turn the camera a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Because my good friend and colleague Mandy Connell just walked
in and she wants to ask you something.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
First of all, Leeland, Hi, there, I loved high school.
I make no excuse, but I did not peak in
high school. So I feel like there's a difference there,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And I think, Mandy, this this is a little person.
I think it's different for men than for women.
Speaker 5 (15:10):
Yeah, it was easier. It was just easier because I
was taller than everybody. So I think everybody was a
little afraid. But that's not what I wanted to ask
you about. So I have been in the past forty
eight hours consuming a lot of stuff about the Katari
pr push that we have been seeing in the last
decade or so. And at the same time, I'm going
back and looking at some of the reforms that Cutter
(15:32):
has passed in the last decade as well, some things
that when it comes to women's rights, some things that
have dealt with corruption, things that seem to me that
Cutter is moving in the right direction. But at the
same time, they're dropping three hundred billion dollars in the
United States to essentially shine their image.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Where's the truth? How do I figure out?
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Because there are a lot of very high profile people
who have made a lot of money from Cutter.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Sure, absolutely, I would say a lot of things can
be true at once, which is that Cutter is trying
to become an indispensable nation.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
And are they perfect?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
No, no country is, I would argue the only perfect
country is America. Because we're formed on perfect ideas, but
we are still in the in the pursuit of these ideals,
we have not fully recognized them. That's that's the idea
of the Constitution in order to perform a form a
more perfect union.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
That's not Cutter.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
But at some point, and I think what people in
the foreign policy world missing. You know, I'll use quote
Joe Biden. Don't compare me to the almighty, Compare me
to the alternative. Don't compare guitar to the almighty, Compare
them to the alternative.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
The alternatives are on.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
So we've seen through time, right, Franklin Roosevelt cozied up
to Joseph Stalin because we had to to defeat the Nazis,
and then you had America turn and take on same thing.
I would say, what happened Ronald Reagan armed the Mujahideen
in Afghanistan?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Why? Because they were taking on the Soviet.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
The enemy of the enemy is my friend.
Speaker 5 (17:18):
I understand that part of it, But I also think,
I mean, I read yesterday that Iran still has a
significant energy interaction with Cutter, like they are energy partners.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So it's very.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Difficult for me to parse out like where am I
where am I supposed to get legit information on Cutter's intentions,
not just for the near term. And I think you're
absolutely right about them wanting to be recognized and be
a major player. But if it's just pr and in
the background they're still funding terror, that's disconcerting.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I think it is.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
I have seen them make a major shift from where
they were to where they are now. And I would
encourage anyone who is upset about guitar funding Hamas, which
people should be, to go ahead and read the New
York Times reporting on it, hardly a pro Cutter outlet,
which noted that they were funding hamas at the behest
(18:14):
often of Israel.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
So the Middle East is a very complicated playground.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Very but and I learned when I was there, nothing
is as it seems. What you hope to do is
make sure that there is sticks and carrots of aligned interests.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And I think what Trump has done, I would say masterfully.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Is offer legitimacy to these golf countries, especially the Saudis
and the Qataris and the Amortis, who already had it
to a certain.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Extent, but then require them to deliver.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
And so far there's been some pretty serious sticks and carrots.
And he's gotten deliverables out of the amirateis he got
the Abraham Accords.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Right when Trump was elected.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
The qataris kicked to moss out, So there's some deliverables here.
And I would I would say again, are they perfect?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
No?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Would you rather them as our friends than enemies?
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, it's you know. Look, sometimes in.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
High school you get invited somebody to a party, not
because you loved them, but because you prefer them to
be there than not.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Thank you, Leland. Nice chatting with you. Thanks for letting
me take over the last part.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Of your show.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Happy to do it all right, Leland Vendert's show on
Balance seven pm weeknights on NewsNation. Go to war Notes
dot com and sign up for that fantastic email that
shows up at five oh five pm Mountain time every day. Leland,
thanks so much for your time. As always, I'll go
digging dig through my mailbox to look for the invitation
and I'll and I'll talk with you soon.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Thanks us all right,
He hosts on Balance on NewsNation weeknights at seven pm
Mountain time, and it plays again at ten pm Mountain time.
And everybody should subscribe to his free almost daily daily
when he's got a show weekday's email called war Notes,
you can just go to Warnoes dot com. It's basically
Leland's show prep and you can see what's in his
(00:20):
brain and as he says, and I think it's true,
it'll it'll make you smarter. And then also by way
of a little bit more free advertising, if you go
to born luckybook dot com, you can pre order Leland's
book that's gonna be coming out kind of sort of soon,
not too soon, but pretty soon. So it's it's great
to have you back. Leland's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
The pleasure is all mine.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Ross With an introduction like that and free advertising, I
will come back as a question, maybe sometimes you don't want.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
To have me, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So Leland, among other things, was Middle East correspondent for
another network for four years, living in Israel, and Leland
has a better understanding of Middle East politics than anybody
anybody else I know actually, and certainly anybody in media.
(01:12):
So first I want to say you did the best
job of anybody in television news yesterday covering Trump's trip
to Saudi Arabia, And I would just want you to
take a moment and kind of highlight what you thought
was most interesting and important yesterday.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Well, Ross, now I have to go back and remember
what I said number one. And if I'm the most
informed of your friends, then you need better friends. But
I think what is most important here is that Donald
Trump turned the past eighty years of American foreign policy
on its head.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And that needed.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
To happen because the world has changed and American foreign
policy has not. And Donald Trump went over to the
Middle East, to the Gulf rulers right, Saudi Arabia, Guitar
and the United Arab Emirates and finally gave them what
they've always wanted, which is legitimacy. The Europeans, especially, and
to a certain extent, a lot of American presidents treated
(02:14):
them as and.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I'll be pejorative here, but goat hurterers with oil.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Is how the europe the Europe at all looked at them,
and European leaders and a lot of American leaders did too.
And Trump went over and said, no, I don't.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
View you as Goatsroile.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I view you as people who have built your own countries,
albeit sometimes with some unsavory tactics.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
That's what the Middle East.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Requires, and I will treat you as an equal in return.
They said, Wow, no one's ever treated this like this,
And here's a trillion dollars worth of investment into America.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Now.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I don't know about you, but when you treat people well,
sometimes they're nice to you. And in that case, if
they're nice with the trillion dollars, that's a pretty good
return on investment.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
One thing that really jumped out at me, kind of
extending what you're talking about here, is when they were
talking about the Abraham Accords. And I do think the
Abraham Accords were a remarkable achievement. They didn't go as
far as Trump had wanted because his term ended, and
he probably could have gotten Saudi Arabia to sign if
(03:25):
his term had been a little longer. He's been trying
to get him back. But the Israel Gaza thing is
a problem and was very interesting yesterday where he said,
you know, like right to the crown prince, you would
honor me by signing the Abraham Accords. And this is
a culture, as you well know, where honor is a
(03:46):
real thing.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Sure, And this is Trump at his best, right. Trump
loves being treated like a king. He loves being around royalty.
He loves the ingratiation of ingratiating himself to others, and
others in great shiating.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Themselves to him.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
This is Donald Trump, you know, in his.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Element. You can watch it. You can see how much
funni's have.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
They ran accords or the peace agreements between the Arab
States and Israel. And what Donald Trump understood, and this
was a unique understanding, it remarkably unique understanding, is that
the cruxt of conflict in the Middle East was not
(04:34):
the Israel Palestinian conflict. The cruxt of problems in the
Middle East was the Arab Persian or the Iran versus
the rest of the Middle East problem. And once he
understood that dynamic and operated with that dynamic in mind,
look at how much has changed in what he's been
able to do.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
All right, So I think you and I agree that
this stuff we're talking about is basically Trump at his best.
Let's talk for a second, still Middle East related, but
Trump not is not at his best. Why do you
think the dude seems so committed to taking a four
hundred million dollar airplane from Cutter And I realized, not
(05:17):
the biggest thing in the world, but it's a political
own goal.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
The amount of flack he is taking from it versus
the return I don't quite understand.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And there's a lot of ways around this.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Look, I'm going to borrow the plane to be fair, Okay,
it's going to cost a bunch of money to fix
the plane and to retrofit it to be what air
Force one would need to be. By the way, the
person who the organization that's going to do that or
the company that's going to retrofit it is probably the
same one that's currently retrofitting the other seven forty sevens
(05:55):
to be air Force one.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
It's kind of this silly thing.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
But what I think you're seeing is when Donald Trump
is attacked or criticized in the American media for something,
he reflexively doubles down on it. And what he's learned,
and I think this is fair, is that he's gonna
get attacked by stuff no matter what, so therefore he
(06:25):
might as well fight on every issue because there's no
point in showing weakness, because the more you show weakness,
the more.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
It is provocative.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So that's my best analysis of what's happening. You know,
somehow Donald Trump more or less beholden to the government
of Cutter because of this plane.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
No, anybody who.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Knows Trump knows he does what he wants to do,
whether you were nice to him twenty four hours ago
or not. So I don't I don't quite understand the
hair on fire hysteria. I mean, you know, there was
no hysteria when Cutter was giving billions of dollars to
American universities.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Or spending all this money on lobbying in DC.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
But suddenly, now if it's a plane to the Pentagon,
it's a national security threat.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I just don't see it.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
We're talking with Leland Vender at his show is on
Balance on News Nation seven pm Mountain Time, repeats ten
pm Mountain Time about how many people will be at
your wedding about seventy okay, very similar size to my wedding,
which I think was was around well she turned out.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I don't know. I don't know what my wife would
say about that. And when when is the wedding?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
The wedding is in a few weeks.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Ross, let me just let me just say your invitation
didn't get lost in the mail.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I understand I wasn't waiting for one. But are you nervous?
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Are you? How are you feeling?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
You're you're you're awfully nice to ask no one ever.
This is the thing that's starting to get to me. Okay,
Everybody when they see my fiance says to me, congratulations
and tells her there's still time. Oh, you're getting married
when June. Congratulations And they look at.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Her and they go, it's still a month away. You've
still got some time. So I've stopped taking it personally.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
But are you Are you nervous or not? Really?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Am I supposed to be? Do you know something I don't.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
No, no, no, no, I didn't mean I didn't mean
it that way. Actually, I didn't mean nervous, like, oh,
it might not happen. I just getting married is a
big deal. I don't think you've done it before, and
I just you know, so, uh, I just and.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
After and after this process, I don't intend to do
it again.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
That's that's good. That's how I feel too. That's how
I feel too. Uh. I wasn't fishing for an invitation.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Don't worry, but we will get a beer or something
after the next time. I the next time I see it,
we'll celebrate, all right.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
So I don't I don't spend.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
A ton of time looking backwards. I don't like talking
about Biden word first or all that stuff. But it's
very interesting to see, especially from the media types who
you would normally consider democrat friendly, the formerly mainstream media
who are not really mainstream anymore, but like Jake Tapper's
book getting a lot of attention and the fact that
(09:29):
it's him means that liberals are going to be hearing
stories that they might not otherwise hear this stuff about
Biden did he need a wheelchair?
Speaker 4 (09:39):
And I'm a little surprised how.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Much attention this stuff is getting given how backwards looking
it is. And I don't know, do you feel like
this is distracting democrats in a way that's even more
stupid than what usually distracts political people.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, it's kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
And I'll give you a preview to war Notes tonight,
which is Democrats are realizing that their friends in the
media care about themselves, meaning the media, more than they
do Democrats And what Democrats.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
What the people in the media have realized.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
And I say this that this goes from Jake Tapper
at CNN all the way through Lester.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Holt at NBC, that.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
They're realizing that their own credibility is on the line.
So what are they doing. They're attacking Democrats for hiding
Joe Biden's health.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Okay, well it was I watched.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I can't remember who was I think was Chuck Schumer,
it was Michael Bennette grilled and other Democratic senators.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
It was Elizabeth Warren getting grilled. How could you hide
Biden's health?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
This is terrible, says anchor, who two years ago was
talking about how Biden was great, his accomplishments were list
was low, and Republicans are just feeding on conspiracy theories.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
So it is laughable.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
And you can see these Democrats going, wait a second,
wait a second.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I thought you were my friend. You are the ones
who were saying the same thing I.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Was two years ago about Biden's health, and now you've
turned on me.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
What's happened?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's just really really rich to watch, and I think
finally the traditional legacy, whatever you want to call the media,
is realizing. I would say too late, their credibility crisis
and now trying to do everything.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
To fix it.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
But you know, to watch Chuck Todd be a gas
at Chuck Schumer's not wanting to discuss Biden's health is
really farcical.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
So you went to where my follow up would be,
and I guess where my follow up still will be.
How much of this stuff do you think is the
media that part of the media attempting to regain some credibility,
and how much do you think is trying to make
a few bucks selling books?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well, for Jake.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Tapper, it's one and the same, right, And you know,
Mark Alpern did a great job going back and looking
at actually the clips of Jake Tapper quote unquote questioning
Biden's health.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
The Tapper book.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
The real story to that is Alex Thompson, who co
wrote it and did most of the reporting, is a
good friend of mine. Was the only reporter really digging
into Joe Biden's health. And he was very easy to
book on cable news. We used to book them all
the time, but you couldn't. But it was easy to
book because no one else was booking him to talk
about using the short stairs on Air Force one, having
(12:47):
the staff walk out with him, different kinds of shoes,
limiting his schedule, limiting who he was interacting with, prepping
him dirt Like there was a whole list of things
that Thompson broke that just nobody cares about. Now all
of a sudden, these are being treated as you know,
Watergate like scoops. It's again transparent, but it's it's a
(13:08):
it's a rehabilitation.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
It's sure for Tapper making a few bocks, but.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
It's it's it is as naked as Washington will ever
be in in not even being ashamed of it.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So you mentioned, you know, Tapper or Todd that that
kind of crew of people are are these are these
your friends and if they're if they're not, and I
don't mean colleagues and so on, I mean are they
your friends?
Speaker 4 (13:36):
And if they're not their friends, if they're not your friends, is.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Any of that because of this kind of thing that
you're talking about, where it sounds like you think and
I certainly think that they're in a job that requires
honesty and they don't deliver on on that.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Does that bother you? Does that? You get my question?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
You know, it's a good question.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Ross and I write it about it in my book
Born Lucky, the story of my father and I and
his monumental efforts and love to help me overcome an
autism diagnosis.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
And one of the things you used to tell me
when I was having a hard time in.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
High school is that the currency of high school is
not what matters in real life.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And I've kind of more fat into saying.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I never liked anyone who liked high school because the
values in high school are so screwed up that if
you're popular in high school, you enjoy high school. That
doesn't say great things about you. And I would say
the same thing applies to Washington, because the values in
Washington are equally screwed up, and if you like Washington,
(14:45):
you're probably not a good person.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
That's why you and I are friends. All Right, I'm
going to turn the camera a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Because my good friend and colleague Mandy Connell just walked
in and she wants to ask you something.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
First of all, Leeland, Hi, there, I loved high school.
I make no excuse, but I did not peak in
high school. So I feel like there's a difference there,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And I think, Mandy, this this is a little person.
I think it's different for men than for women.
Speaker 5 (15:10):
Yeah, it was easier. It was just easier because I
was taller than everybody. So I think everybody was a
little afraid. But that's not what I wanted to ask
you about. So I have been in the past forty
eight hours consuming a lot of stuff about the Katari
pr push that we have been seeing in the last
decade or so. And at the same time, I'm going
back and looking at some of the reforms that Cutter
(15:32):
has passed in the last decade as well, some things
that when it comes to women's rights, some things that
have dealt with corruption, things that seem to me that
Cutter is moving in the right direction. But at the
same time, they're dropping three hundred billion dollars in the
United States to essentially shine their image.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Where's the truth? How do I figure out?
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Because there are a lot of very high profile people
who have made a lot of money from Cutter.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Sure, absolutely, I would say a lot of things can
be true at once, which is that Cutter is trying
to become an indispensable nation.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
And are they perfect?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
No, no country is, I would argue the only perfect
country is America. Because we're formed on perfect ideas, but
we are still in the in the pursuit of these ideals,
we have not fully recognized them. That's that's the idea
of the Constitution in order to perform a form a
more perfect union.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
That's not Cutter.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
But at some point, and I think what people in
the foreign policy world missing. You know, I'll use quote
Joe Biden. Don't compare me to the almighty, Compare me
to the alternative. Don't compare guitar to the almighty, Compare
them to the alternative.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
The alternatives are on.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
So we've seen through time, right, Franklin Roosevelt cozied up
to Joseph Stalin because we had to to defeat the Nazis,
and then you had America turn and take on same thing.
I would say, what happened Ronald Reagan armed the Mujahideen
in Afghanistan?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Why? Because they were taking on the Soviet.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
The enemy of the enemy is my friend.
Speaker 5 (17:18):
I understand that part of it, But I also think,
I mean, I read yesterday that Iran still has a
significant energy interaction with Cutter, like they are energy partners.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So it's very.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Difficult for me to parse out like where am I
where am I supposed to get legit information on Cutter's intentions,
not just for the near term. And I think you're
absolutely right about them wanting to be recognized and be
a major player. But if it's just pr and in
the background they're still funding terror, that's disconcerting.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I think it is.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
I have seen them make a major shift from where
they were to where they are now. And I would
encourage anyone who is upset about guitar funding Hamas, which
people should be, to go ahead and read the New
York Times reporting on it, hardly a pro Cutter outlet,
which noted that they were funding hamas at the behest
(18:14):
often of Israel.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
So the Middle East is a very complicated playground.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Very but and I learned when I was there, nothing
is as it seems. What you hope to do is
make sure that there is sticks and carrots of aligned interests.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And I think what Trump has done, I would say masterfully.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Is offer legitimacy to these golf countries, especially the Saudis
and the Qataris and the Amortis, who already had it
to a certain.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Extent, but then require them to deliver.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
And so far there's been some pretty serious sticks and carrots.
And he's gotten deliverables out of the amirateis he got
the Abraham Accords.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Right when Trump was elected.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
The qataris kicked to moss out, So there's some deliverables here.
And I would I would say again, are they perfect?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
No?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Would you rather them as our friends than enemies?
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, it's you know. Look, sometimes in.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
High school you get invited somebody to a party, not
because you loved them, but because you prefer them to
be there than not.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
Thank you, Leland. Nice chatting with you. Thanks for letting
me take over the last part.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Of your show.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Happy to do it all right, Leland Vendert's show on
Balance seven pm weeknights on NewsNation. Go to war Notes
dot com and sign up for that fantastic email that
shows up at five oh five pm Mountain time every day. Leland,
thanks so much for your time. As always, I'll go
digging dig through my mailbox to look for the invitation
and I'll and I'll talk with you soon.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Thanks us all right,
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
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