Join Jim and Greg for Thursday’s 3 Martini Lunch as they assess a strong outlook for House Republicans in the 2026 midterms, Gov. Gavin Newsom's scheme to gerrymander California’s congressional map, and Hunter Biden’s ridiculous excuse about why Democrats suffered major losses in 2024.
First, they are pleasantly stunned to see that House Republicans are predicted to pick up seats in next year's midterm elections. While there is a long way to go before the 2026 elections, the GOP is in a much better position that the last two times it faced midterms with a president of their own party. The Democrats are also contributing to this trend thanks to their staggering levels of unpopularity.
Next, they react to Gov. Newsom once again worrying about national politics and his own political future instead of the many problems in his state. Newsom is now planning to gerrymander the state's congressional map - especially if Texas Republicans do the same. He doesn't seem bothered by the fact such a move would violate the California constitution.
Finally, they roll their eyes as former DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison launches a new podcast and has Hunter Biden as one of his first guests. They also laugh as Biden suggests Democrats lost so badly last year because they "did not remain loyal to the leader of the party." Jim has choice comments about why both Harrison and Hunter Biden are not worth our time. Greg explains what would have actually made the conversation worth listening to.
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If your business can’t adapt in real-time, you’re in a world of hurt. Get the free e-book “Navigating Global Trade: 3 Insights for Leaders” from NetSuite by Oracle. Download today at https://NetSuite.com/MARTINI
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First, they are pleasantly stunned to see that House Republicans are predicted to pick up seats in next year's midterm elections. While there is a long way to go before the 2026 elections, the GOP is in a much better position that the last two times it faced midterms with a president of their own party. The Democrats are also contributing to this trend thanks to their staggering levels of unpopularity.
Next, they react to Gov. Newsom once again worrying about national politics and his own political future instead of the many problems in his state. Newsom is now planning to gerrymander the state's congressional map - especially if Texas Republicans do the same. He doesn't seem bothered by the fact such a move would violate the California constitution.
Finally, they roll their eyes as former DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison launches a new podcast and has Hunter Biden as one of his first guests. They also laugh as Biden suggests Democrats lost so badly last year because they "did not remain loyal to the leader of the party." Jim has choice comments about why both Harrison and Hunter Biden are not worth our time. Greg explains what would have actually made the conversation worth listening to.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Stop putting off those doctors’ appointments and go to https://zocdoc.com/3ML to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today.
If your business can’t adapt in real-time, you’re in a world of hurt. Get the free e-book “Navigating Global Trade: 3 Insights for Leaders” from NetSuite by Oracle. Download today at https://NetSuite.com/MARTINI
No missed calls, no missed customers with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at https://Openphone.com/3ml
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stole next
to Greg Corumbus of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
National Review. Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey, really glad you're with us for the Thursday edition
of the Three Martini Lunch. A lot of election talk
for you today, two focusing on the future, one looking
at the past. Apparently Hunter Biden has chimed in on
what he thinks was the fatal flaw for Democrats last year,
but I don't think we're going to agree with him.
Gavin Newsom is now obsessed with jerry mandering in California,
(00:34):
but even if that happens, it might not be enough
because surprisingly Republicans are looking pretty strong to not only keep,
but the potentially grow their lead in the House of Representatives.
So we'll get into all that. And Jim, it's all
quiet on the Garrity front right now. But as you
were mentioning this morning, and for our listeners who remember
the tree incident of a couple months ago, and now,
if they hear anything loud and crashing, it's just a
(00:57):
progress happening over there at your house, right.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yes, and thank you for reminding me that it was
indeed a couple months ago, and we are still in
the process of rebuilding Casa de Garrity. I'm starting to
understand how Boston felt about the Big Dig, one of
the most infamously delayed and expensive ones. So if you
hear banging, it's either construction or me hitting my head
against the wall. I really should do that because I
(01:21):
could make another part of the householover.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, is there a California Democrat in charge of this project?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Aha? It's on the same speed as the high speed
rail project. Yes, which was a big issue in True
Detective Season two, which was like a decade ago, so
you know from perspective on that mess.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
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Open Phone no missed calls, no missed customers. All right, Jim,
onto our good martini now. And is usually the case
when you have a Republican president, the Democrats are kind
of licking their chops to pick up seats in the
House and Senate in the next midterms, and it goes
(03:09):
the other way too. You might remember in the twenty
twenty two midterms. Even though it wasn't as robust as
the Republicans had hoped for, the GOP did take back
the House of Representative and Trump's first term. Democrats had
a very good night in twenty eighteen. But as of now,
and we obviously have a long way to go between
now and election day twenty twenty six, the Democrats seem
to be in a much different spot. There was a
(03:31):
new poll out showing that overall their national approval is
at nineteen percent seventy two percent disapproval, which is not
where you want to be. It is where I want
them to be, but it's not where they want to be.
And then over at CNN, Harry Anton was looking at
the generic ballot and showing that in two thousand and five,
when the last time George W. Bush had a midterm approaching,
Democrats had a plus seven at this point in the
(03:53):
cycle on the generic ballot. Same thing for Democrats in
twenty seventeen. At this time heading into twenty eighteen, now
it's only plus two. And so he's going through these
numbers on CNN, and I think it was John Berman
saying to ent in Okay, Well, that's the generic ballot,
But we have specific races. How are those looking?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
All right? This is the generic ballot test. This is
when you test people the generic question. Of course, the
House races aren't generic. There are four hundred and thirty.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Five of them.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
What happens when you go race by race?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
What happens when you go race by race? Well, it's
the same idea. Okay, house seat ratings with a GOP
president like back in two thousand and five, and of
course twenty seventeen, more net pickup seat chances. Well, last
time around, look at that, Democrats were head by thirty
three seats. How about two thousand and five, Democrats were
head by seven seats. What's going on right now? It's
actually Republicans, actually Republicans with more net picked up chances
(04:43):
at plus twelve according to the Cook Political Report. When
you add in the likelys, the leans, and the toss up.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Race, it's a forty five seat difference from just eight
years ago. And yes, the maps have changed, and we'll
talk more about House congressional maps in just a moment,
but Jim, for you know, a mid term election, this
is not the numbers we normally see. I think part
of it is the fact that Democrats are still in disarray,
and a lot of Republicans are probably pretty happy with
(05:08):
what they're seeing because they're getting what they want in
a lot of ways.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
So Greg, first of all, I have to point out
that Harry Enton over at CNN really is growing on me.
One he tells things that presumably a significant chunk of
the remaining CNN audience doesn't want to hear. If the
polling numbers are bad for Democrats, he'll come out and
say it, and he doesn't soft pedal it. In fact,
I think Stephen A. Smith would say that guy's really
he's got to cal him down a little. Dick Vital
(05:34):
would say, all right, no, you got to cal him down, baby,
you know, like just Harry Entered brings it every single day.
You know, here we are, it's July. It's still very
early in the cycle. We'll have a much better idea
of how the midterms are going to go about a
year from now. But there's no harm in comparing it
to previous cycles and seeing where what the polling where
the polling numbers were then. And we should point out
(05:55):
that like Trump, even though he's done a heck of
a lot, a lot of controversial things, but conservatives are
a lot of folks the right would say, oh, he's
done a bunch of great things. It's very intriguing to
see something like the Iran strike that the nuclear weapons
program didn't really change his numbers very much. It was
a very huge deal, and then it kind of faded
away in the news cycle. You know, Trump is still
you know, narrowly above water. Not phenomenally popular, but not
(06:19):
phenomenally unpopular either. I think a lot of things that
Democrats thought were going to be major liabilities, like the
tariffs so far, knocking on wood, the economy is doing okay.
Inflation ticked up tenth per percentage point last month. That's
not great, but it's still below three percent. Stock market
has regained, like you figure, you know, it was a
terrible start to the year for the stock market, and
(06:40):
then stock market climbed out of the hole and it's
in positive territory. So I think Democrats kind of figured
Americans to get really upset with these early moves by Trump,
and they really haven't. Doesn't mean they'll stow this way
a year and a half, but it just kind it's
a sign that like that hasn't happened. And also, I
just think that the image of the you mentioned the
nineteen percent approval rating for Democrats toe Fungus is set,
(07:00):
so there has not really been I think a Democratic
figure emerge as kind of the voice of the opposition.
I don't think Corey Booker giving a really long speech
is what's going to do it. I don't think that
there's any people or governor. We'll talk a bit about
Gavin Newsom in a bit, but like you know, I
think that there's a question of who who speaks for
the Democrats and who is there and who inspires them,
(07:21):
who's providing that voice of argument against Trump, and I
don't think that anyone has emerged on that front, which
probably makes things more difficult for Democrats. Hakeem Jeffries, you know,
also gave a very long speech. I don't think most
Americans noticed her care So, like you add all this up,
Democrats are just not where they want to be. And
good for Harry Entered for calling it as he sees
it and kind of telling them, look, it's very early
(07:43):
in the cycle. A lot of things are going to
happen to me now. November twenty twenty six but right now,
whatever Democrats are doing isn't getting it done. I'll have
a bit more to say about that in our third martini.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
So yeah, I mean there's some disarray. The Democrats already
hate Schumer because he, you know, allowed the vote to
go forward on funding the government. You're totally right about
Hakeem Jeffreys. So glad I was on vacation for that
stem winder. Does anybody remember a single line from that
speech that was less than two weeks ago? I don't
think so. He just wanted to set a record basically
you mentioned toe fungus.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
It was also at seven percent is Brandon Johnson, So
he's probably looking at that Democratic number overall and going, man,
what's your secret?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Well, we that could be that popular? Yes, you know learning.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So, yes, still in disarray and we are what now
eight months after the election. The Democrats have not found
their footing, largely because I think in addition to not
having a leader, they also haven't learned anything message wise.
There are a couple people right after the election, like
Seth Molten saying oh, we went too far on the
transition or something like that, But for the most part,
the Democrats are like no, Nope, had totally the right issues,
(08:45):
had totally the right positions. We just need to explain
it better and the American people will totally be on
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(10:15):
m L. All right, we got more on the House
elections for twenty twenty six. As you know right now,
it's a pretty narrow margin, not quite as narrow as
it as it used to be as a result of
unfortunately three Democrats passing away, But slowly but surely those
(10:37):
seats will be filled and we'll be back to two
twenty to two fifteen. I think it's two twenty to
twelve right now, but of course all four hundred and
thirty five seats will be up next year and usually
as we just explained the out of power party has
the advantage, but it doesn't look that way necessarily right now.
President Trump taking no chances and urging Texas to redraw
(10:58):
their congressional map in order to create a few more
red seats, and Gavin Newsom, even at the mere suggestion
of this is absolutely apoplectic Politico with the story Gavin
Newsom suddenly can't stop talking about Texas gerrymandering and a
provocative idea to counter it in California on podcasts and
social media. The California governor is threatened that if Texas
follows President Trump's advice and redraws its congressional districts to
(11:20):
show up the GEOP slender House majority, California should throughout
its own maps. So this is not just Gavin Newsom,
although he has been described as obsessed. Hakim Jeffries has
also apparently huddled with members of the California delegation to
discuss redistricting as well, But obviously that would happen have
to happen at the state level. Jim, I'm old enough
to remember when you readrew the districts once right after
(11:41):
the census, and then that kind of lasted till the
next census. But I guess we don't do that anymore.
But Gavin Newsom once again focused on national politics, probably
mostly his own political future, as opposed to all the
problems in the state.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Well, the first thing we should note, Greg is that
way back in the around twenty eleven, California voters approved
a constitutional amendment that handed authority over redistricting to an
independent commission. This Proposition twenty was adopted by an overwhelming margin. Right,
So I guess the idea Gavin Newsom sees the California
(12:15):
State Constitution kind of the way he sees the US
Constitution as a set of suggestions but not really anything
you have to follow or are bound by, or you know,
stuff like that, like a constitutional amendment. It's it's just
kind of a nice to have, not a need to
have in his in his worldview. So there's that little
thing about like you would be completely illegal for the
(12:35):
California State Legislature to completely redistrict it. They'd have to
find they have to get the independent commission stacked with
like hardcore crazed partisan Democrats. They are like, sure, let's
redo it. Then a friend of mine went through the
numbers because he was thinking this is ridiculous. So right now,
back in twenty twenty two or twenty twenty four, Republicans
in Texas they warned about just under sixty percent of
the two party House vote. So you know, if it
(12:58):
was perfectly equal, you'd expect to have sixty percent of
the House seats. They have sixty six percent of the
House seats, so you know, all right, you know, there's
always gonna be a little bit of a skew. Republicans have,
you know, six percent more House seats than you'd think
they would have based on the popular vote result, and
their goal under this redistricting would get them to about,
you know, seventy nine percent of the seats. All right.
(13:19):
You know, if you want to say, ah, that's that's
skewing it, that's REDI okay, all right, of everybody in
the world, California has absolutely no standing to criticize this
sort of thing, because in twenty twenty two and twenty
twenty four, Democrats won just under sixty two percent of
that two party House vote. Hey, Greg, what percentage of
House seats do Democrats in California have way higher? Almost
(13:41):
eighty percent? Yeah, right, So under the new map. What
they're envisioning is to get the Republicans down to under
four percent of the House seats to fifty some House
seats representing California. Right, So their argument is, like, hey,
it's not fair that Texas is going to redraw its
district lines to make it roughly what we have now
(14:03):
in terms of partisan skew. And if they do that,
by golly, we're gonna virtually eliminate any Republicans from California,
even though they won like thirty nine thirty eight percent
of the vote statewide. Like that's that is their argument
right now. I think you point out this, You know,
Gavin Newsom desperately wanting the twenty twenty eight Democratic nomination.
I think the Newsome attitude is whatever Republicans propose, he
(14:27):
must oppose it, he must oppose it vociferously and frothing
at the mouth, and just you know, as furiously as possible.
Whether it's constitutional, whether it makes sense, whether it's legal.
All those are minor details to be worked out later.
Because Democrats need to see him as a fighter. He's
as you know, he will fight that as hard as
(14:48):
he fought the restrictions on dining inside at the French laundry.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Well, what is it with him? Because right after the election,
he was, you know, sitting down with Charlie Kirk and
doing some other interviews where he's like, you know, yeah,
I do see your point on this issue. And now
he's back to you know, resistance hero on ice and
this and all sorts of other things where he's clearly
preening and posturing. So I assume this is the more
natural Kevin Newsom, not the guy who's trying to pretend
(15:15):
like he's moving towards the center.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Well, twenty twenty and this is again foreshadowing Martini number three.
So twenty twenty four was this giant shock to Democrats.
It's not just that they talked themselves into believing Harris
was going to find just enough votes and the blue
Wall was going to hold and all that stuff. So
they were shocked when they lost, and they were shocked
that they had proven so out of step, and like
(15:37):
they had never bothered to spend much time worrying about
young males. Young males traditionally voted in very low numbers,
and all of a sudden, you know, Joe Rogan, Listeners
and all these other Timpool, all these other. You know,
all of a sudden, podcasters mattered. Go figure, if you're
listening to this, guess what you matter? John Ralston wils
To say, if you're in Nevada, you matter twice, you know,
(15:59):
So you basically this Democrats realize they're out of touch
with it. Not just like they'd all just kind of
dismissed straight white males, but now it turned out that
there were not only straight white males out there, but
there were women and minorities and all kinds of groups
who actually didn't also aligned with the straight white males.
And wait, wait, all of a sudden, we're unpopular amongst
lots of people. Remember the chart of you know, almost
every county in the country going more heavily Republican in
(16:19):
twenty twenty four than it did in twenty twenty. So
it's this giant slapped to the face. So I think
for a while, Newsom is like, I'm gonna sit down
with Charlie Kirk and I'm gonna show that I'm the
guy who has the courage to go and talk to
these guys. And I think after like a couple of weeks,
it was clear that wasn't going anywhere. It didn't do
any good that nobody in the Democratic circles was. And
also he kind of came around remembering, well, if I
want to be the nominee, I want to have to
(16:39):
win the primaries first, and talking to the Charlie Kirks
of the world is really not going to get me there.
So now he's reverting back to his usual self. And
also just to get like every party that loses convinces
itself we lost because we're too nice. We lost because
we're too respectful to the opposition, and we just really
need to get tougher. We need to get tougher. I
you know, I'm the fact that like Trump got indicted.
(17:03):
Trump got convicted, every conceivable accusation was sent to his way.
There are Democrats who genuinely believe that they lost because
they weren't tough enough. And what they really need to
nominate is a fighter. That's their story, and they're sticking
to it.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I don't think either party needs to worry right now
that they're being too nice to the other one in
Democrats for a very long time have not really been
all that concerned about being too nice. But yeah, they're
kind of stuck in the wilderness they just don't know
where to go next, and it's kind of fun to watch,
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(18:59):
As we mentioned, it's been more than eight months now
since election day, and there's been all sorts of fallout.
There's been multiple books about different aspects of the election
and the results, and everybody's kind of done their post mortem.
We've heard from just about everyone who we have to
hear from in terms of what went wrong for the
Democrats in twenty twenty four. And now I assume the
list is complete because we're scraping the very bottom of
(19:21):
the barrel with Hunter Biden. Yes, Hunter Biden is now
offering his analysis of what went wrong. It will not
shock you. He was a guest, I believe, on the
debut podcast of former DNC chairman and former South Carolina
Senate candidate Jamie Harrison, and Hunter's take is you should
have been nicer than my dad. Basically, quote, we lost
(19:41):
the election because we did not remain loyal to the
leader of the party. That's my position, he said, quote,
we had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage
of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally
melted down unquote. Well, to be fair, it was after
your father's brain melted down on national television. So Jim,
(20:05):
obviously you know Biden's concern with burnishing and preserving what
he wants the Biden family legacy and Joe's legacy to be.
But what do you make of this spin on what
happened last year?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Greg to run around thinking the recent Democrats lost because
they weren't loyal enough to Joe Biden? What is he smoking? Crack?
Don't answer that. Don't answer that. We know it's like
fifty to fifty there. So yesterday midday to afternoon, after
we finished taping, I went over to National Reviews offices
up in northern Virginia. I had lunch with the terns,
and I was in this terrific mood. Radio America has
(20:41):
great interns. We have great interns at National Review got
the chance to, you know, be the old guy telling stories.
I was in this terrific mood, and I leave and
I see this story by Dave wigel Over at Semaphore
about Jamie Harrison launching a podcast saying that he is
the answer to the Democrats search for their own version
of Joe wrote, and that Hunter Biden would be one
(21:02):
of his first guests, and that Hunter Biden would lay
that out now. And I just bet that good mood
was ruined. And I found myself just incandescenly angry about this.
And it's not the biggest story in the world. It's not,
but for starters, Jamie Harrison is a guy whose entire
career may be a result of Quinnipiac not being able
(21:25):
to pull South Carolina particularly well in the twenty twenty cycle. Right,
So twenty twenty, I go through this in Today's Morning
Jolt because I just it's it's absolutely fascinating how one
little domino sets this course of events. Lindsey Graham is
running for his fourth term back in twenty twenty, and
this is this is South Carolina. Listeners know this is
a heavily Republican state. You may not know that, literally
(21:47):
this millennium, Democrats have not won a Senate race or
a gubernatorial race in South Carolina. Last time it happened,
it was nineteen ninety eight. All right, state hasn't gone
for a presidential for Democrat and the presidential race since
Jimmy Carter and seven almost within the life spans of
Jim Garretty and great Corumbus. Democrats have not won a
presidential race down there. So you know, nobody's thinking this
(22:08):
is going to be an easy time taking on Lindsay Graham.
Harrison had been the state party chair and he chooses
to run. At one point there is debate is somebody
else gonna run? But they end up no nobody else
wants it. Democrats literally didn't have a primary now for
some reason that I don't believe. We never got a
good explanation for Quinnimpiac three times pulled the race and
found it a tie, and people, oh my goodness, this
is a huge deal. This caused an enormous amount of
(22:30):
you know, glowing coverage for Jamie Harrison. This caused Democrats
to donate tons and tons of a shattered bed or
works record set the previous cycle Harrison raised one hundred
and thirty two million dollars for his Senate race. And
you know, as far as expenses go, South Carolina is
not a particularly expensive state. It's not Florida, it's not Texas,
it's not California. You know, Lindsey Graham won fifty four percent.
(22:55):
Beto could at least say I came within three points
of Ted Cruz. You know, Harrison did a little bit
better than Joe Biden did in the state, but like,
there's really nothing special in it. But somehow from that,
Democrats convinced themselves that this guy, Jamie Harrison knows how
to win in tough territories. Again, I don't think there's
any evidence of that, but they, you know, Joe Biden
continue what turned out to be a really phenomenal record
(23:17):
of bad personnel choices, says, let's put Jamie Harrison in
charge of the DNZA. You want to say the twenty
twenty two midterms were pretty good for the Democrats, Eh, okay,
all right, you know, I'll take that argument. As you
mentioned earlier, they lost the House, but you know, things
could have gone worse for them. People expected a big
red wave. Was kind of a red trickle all Right,
twenty twenty four roles around, and I think we can
(23:37):
all agree twenty twenty four was a really bad record
you know year for the Democrats. Yeah, the House was
fairly close. Yeah, they won some Senate races that Republicans
thought they were gonna win. But in the end, they's
shut out of government. They have no ability to stop Trumpet,
the Republicans from doing what they're doing. They've been in
this malaise, this depression, this you know, you know state
ever since Jamie Harrison. Again, maybe it's not all it's
(24:00):
not all his fault. There's only so much of the
DNC can do. And he can say, hey, you know,
we had record fundraising on my watch, but what good
is all that record fundraising if you can't you know,
win races that that's ultimately what you're supposed to be,
you know, doing there at the DNC doesn't go very well.
So he's decided he's going to start a podcast and
he's going to be the Democrats answer to Joe Rogan. Now,
(24:22):
besides the fact that I think even when I disagree
with him, Joe Rogan is very good at what he does,
and he creates this charismatic, open minded, welcoming environment that
causes lots of people to listen there, Hey, Greg, do
you remember who Joe Rogan said he was supporting in
the Democratic primary back in twenty twenty, Bernie Bernie Sanders.
Democrats had their version of Joe Rogan. His name was
(24:43):
Joe Rogan. And the problem is is that during the
Biden years, the entire party became so alienating to not
just the Rogan audience and Rogan himself. I think it generally,
if you're a young, ambitious male, if you want more
out of life, you know that that basically the entire
argum about toxic masculinity and kind of the resentment of
(25:04):
the rich and successful, and it just there's nothing there
for you if you're a young man and you want
more out of life. That's my theory of that. In
the nutshell, Harris, if Jamie Harrison ever had a problem
with that, he was very quiet about that. But now
he's here, he's here to save the party. He's going
to be the next Joe Rogan, and the guy he
wants to talk to is Hunter Biden. Now, if I
said Jamie Harrison is one of the architects of the
(25:25):
twenty twenty four debacle for Democrats. Hunter Biden had more
than a little bit of a role in all of that.
It was one of the guys telling Biden he should,
you know, run again, that he should not without you.
But the other thing is that in this interview by
wid old Jamie Harrison says he believes that Hunter Biden
has been caricatured and that he and I'm sitting there thinking,
like how many times was he convicted of crimes? In
(25:48):
his own words, he said he was smoking crack every
fifteen minutes, like Unfortunately, there are a lot of people
in this world who have extramarital affairs. There aren't a
lot of people who have extramarital affairs with their late
brother's widow. There are not a lot of guys who
get that late brother's widow addicted to crack cocaine. There
are a lot of guys who are go to strip clubs.
(26:09):
There are not a lot of guys who impregnate strippers.
There are not a lot of guys who impregnate strippers
and then refuse to pay child support for a bunch
of years. Oh, by the way, then they get to
this give paintings as their form anyway. So I think
Hunter Biden's just not a good person. I think he's
just really bad person. I think people should not listen
to him. And one of Jamie Harrison's first decisions is
(26:30):
to say, Democrats, you need to hear Hunter Biden out.
You've been buying into this image of him that's a caricature.
Go away, Jamie Harrison, go away, Hunter Bid. It like,
I'm not even a Democrat. I certainly I'm not very
invested in the success of the Democratic Party. And I
feel like I've got outraged by Munchausen by proxy. Like
I'm just like incandesnately angry on behalf of Democrats who
(26:53):
are getting this load from the likes of Jamie Harrison
and Hunter Biden.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
That line, we had an incredibly success small administration. I mean,
if you looked at the polling on the economy Afghanistan,
he Biden managed to pretty much make everybody angry at
him over what was happening in Israel and Kaza and
then of course the border was a complete disaster, and
so you know what would have been valuable here. Of
course Jamie Harrison's never gonna go there, but would have
been great is, Hey, what did Nancy Pelosi threaten? What
(27:21):
did Obama and Chuck Schumer and all these other people
say that finally shoved your dad out of the race.
Because it sure wasn't about passing the torch? Because if
it had been, he would have done it a long
time ago.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah, you know I did. By the way, if Harrison
did a podcast, he said, I'm gonna I'm gonna spill
the tea. I'm gonna I'm gonna, you know, tell you
everything that I was going on back then that I
couldn't tell you that would listen to that that'd be interesting.
But instead we're gonna get happy talk and how you know, like, oh,
you know who else he's gonna have is one of
his early guests, Greg Jim Walls. Hey, who's another architect
(27:50):
of twenty twenty four turning out to be a debacle.
They say it's it's it was the title of the
podcast can be at our Table. I think it's the Excuses.
Excuses sounds like the more appropriate title for what we're
gonna get from it.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, I'd be curious to see what Wall's points to
as the reasons for the failure. Probably won't be his
debate performance, or the fact that Kamala wouldn't extricate herself
at all from the Biden record, or that she couldn't
answer a serious question and a complete sentence, or what
have you. But I'm sure it all be about racism
and sexism and the usual talking points. But anyway, Jim,
have a great Thursday. We'll hopefully finish the week strong
(28:25):
on Friday. See you tomorrow, Greg, Jim Garretty, National Review.
I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so much for
being with us today. Please subscribe to the Three Martini
Lunch if you don't already, and tell your friends about
us as well. We'd love to have them listening. Thanks
also for your five star ratings and your kind reviews.
Please keep those coming. They really are a huge help
to us. Get us on your home devices. All you
have to say is play Three Martini Lunch podcast, follow
(28:47):
us both on x He's at, Jim Garrity, I'm at
Greg Corumbus. Have a terrific Thursday, and again, please join
us on Friday for the next three of Martini Lunch.
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stole next
to Greg Corumbus of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
National Review. Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey, really glad you're with us for the Thursday edition
of the Three Martini Lunch. A lot of election talk
for you today, two focusing on the future, one looking
at the past. Apparently Hunter Biden has chimed in on
what he thinks was the fatal flaw for Democrats last year,
but I don't think we're going to agree with him.
Gavin Newsom is now obsessed with jerry mandering in California,
(00:34):
but even if that happens, it might not be enough
because surprisingly Republicans are looking pretty strong to not only keep,
but the potentially grow their lead in the House of Representatives.
So we'll get into all that. And Jim, it's all
quiet on the Garrity front right now. But as you
were mentioning this morning, and for our listeners who remember
the tree incident of a couple months ago, and now,
if they hear anything loud and crashing, it's just a
(00:57):
progress happening over there at your house, right.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yes, and thank you for reminding me that it was
indeed a couple months ago, and we are still in
the process of rebuilding Casa de Garrity. I'm starting to
understand how Boston felt about the Big Dig, one of
the most infamously delayed and expensive ones. So if you
hear banging, it's either construction or me hitting my head
against the wall. I really should do that because I
(01:21):
could make another part of the householover.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, is there a California Democrat in charge of this project?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Aha? It's on the same speed as the high speed
rail project. Yes, which was a big issue in True
Detective Season two, which was like a decade ago, so
you know from perspective on that mess.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, sometimes you just got to stay on those contractors
and other people who are dragging their feet, get them
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Open Phone no missed calls, no missed customers. All right, Jim,
onto our good martini now. And is usually the case
when you have a Republican president, the Democrats are kind
of licking their chops to pick up seats in the
House and Senate in the next midterms, and it goes
(03:09):
the other way too. You might remember in the twenty
twenty two midterms. Even though it wasn't as robust as
the Republicans had hoped for, the GOP did take back
the House of Representative and Trump's first term. Democrats had
a very good night in twenty eighteen. But as of now,
and we obviously have a long way to go between
now and election day twenty twenty six, the Democrats seem
to be in a much different spot. There was a
(03:31):
new poll out showing that overall their national approval is
at nineteen percent seventy two percent disapproval, which is not
where you want to be. It is where I want
them to be, but it's not where they want to be.
And then over at CNN, Harry Anton was looking at
the generic ballot and showing that in two thousand and five,
when the last time George W. Bush had a midterm approaching,
Democrats had a plus seven at this point in the
(03:53):
cycle on the generic ballot. Same thing for Democrats in
twenty seventeen. At this time heading into twenty eighteen, now
it's only plus two. And so he's going through these
numbers on CNN, and I think it was John Berman
saying to ent in Okay, Well, that's the generic ballot,
But we have specific races. How are those looking?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
All right? This is the generic ballot test. This is
when you test people the generic question. Of course, the
House races aren't generic. There are four hundred and thirty.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Five of them.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
What happens when you go race by race?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
What happens when you go race by race? Well, it's
the same idea. Okay, house seat ratings with a GOP
president like back in two thousand and five, and of
course twenty seventeen, more net pickup seat chances. Well, last
time around, look at that, Democrats were head by thirty
three seats. How about two thousand and five, Democrats were
head by seven seats. What's going on right now? It's
actually Republicans, actually Republicans with more net picked up chances
(04:43):
at plus twelve according to the Cook Political Report. When
you add in the likelys, the leans, and the toss up.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Race, it's a forty five seat difference from just eight
years ago. And yes, the maps have changed, and we'll
talk more about House congressional maps in just a moment,
but Jim, for you know, a mid term election, this
is not the numbers we normally see. I think part
of it is the fact that Democrats are still in disarray,
and a lot of Republicans are probably pretty happy with
(05:08):
what they're seeing because they're getting what they want in
a lot of ways.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
So Greg, first of all, I have to point out
that Harry Enton over at CNN really is growing on me.
One he tells things that presumably a significant chunk of
the remaining CNN audience doesn't want to hear. If the
polling numbers are bad for Democrats, he'll come out and
say it, and he doesn't soft pedal it. In fact,
I think Stephen A. Smith would say that guy's really
he's got to cal him down a little. Dick Vital
(05:34):
would say, all right, no, you got to cal him down, baby,
you know, like just Harry Entered brings it every single day.
You know, here we are, it's July. It's still very
early in the cycle. We'll have a much better idea
of how the midterms are going to go about a
year from now. But there's no harm in comparing it
to previous cycles and seeing where what the polling where
the polling numbers were then. And we should point out
(05:55):
that like Trump, even though he's done a heck of
a lot, a lot of controversial things, but conservatives are
a lot of folks the right would say, oh, he's
done a bunch of great things. It's very intriguing to
see something like the Iran strike that the nuclear weapons
program didn't really change his numbers very much. It was
a very huge deal, and then it kind of faded
away in the news cycle. You know, Trump is still
you know, narrowly above water. Not phenomenally popular, but not
(06:19):
phenomenally unpopular either. I think a lot of things that
Democrats thought were going to be major liabilities, like the
tariffs so far, knocking on wood, the economy is doing okay.
Inflation ticked up tenth per percentage point last month. That's
not great, but it's still below three percent. Stock market
has regained, like you figure, you know, it was a
terrible start to the year for the stock market, and
(06:40):
then stock market climbed out of the hole and it's
in positive territory. So I think Democrats kind of figured
Americans to get really upset with these early moves by Trump,
and they really haven't. Doesn't mean they'll stow this way
a year and a half, but it just kind it's
a sign that like that hasn't happened. And also, I
just think that the image of the you mentioned the
nineteen percent approval rating for Democrats toe Fungus is set,
(07:00):
so there has not really been I think a Democratic
figure emerge as kind of the voice of the opposition.
I don't think Corey Booker giving a really long speech
is what's going to do it. I don't think that
there's any people or governor. We'll talk a bit about
Gavin Newsom in a bit, but like you know, I
think that there's a question of who who speaks for
the Democrats and who is there and who inspires them,
(07:21):
who's providing that voice of argument against Trump, and I
don't think that anyone has emerged on that front, which
probably makes things more difficult for Democrats. Hakeem Jeffries, you know,
also gave a very long speech. I don't think most
Americans noticed her care So, like you add all this up,
Democrats are just not where they want to be. And
good for Harry Entered for calling it as he sees
it and kind of telling them, look, it's very early
(07:43):
in the cycle. A lot of things are going to
happen to me now. November twenty twenty six but right now,
whatever Democrats are doing isn't getting it done. I'll have
a bit more to say about that in our third martini.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
So yeah, I mean there's some disarray. The Democrats already
hate Schumer because he, you know, allowed the vote to
go forward on funding the government. You're totally right about
Hakeem Jeffreys. So glad I was on vacation for that
stem winder. Does anybody remember a single line from that
speech that was less than two weeks ago? I don't
think so. He just wanted to set a record basically
you mentioned toe fungus.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
It was also at seven percent is Brandon Johnson, So
he's probably looking at that Democratic number overall and going, man,
what's your secret?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Well, we that could be that popular? Yes, you know learning.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So, yes, still in disarray and we are what now
eight months after the election. The Democrats have not found
their footing, largely because I think in addition to not
having a leader, they also haven't learned anything message wise.
There are a couple people right after the election, like
Seth Molten saying oh, we went too far on the
transition or something like that, But for the most part,
the Democrats are like no, Nope, had totally the right issues,
(08:45):
had totally the right positions. We just need to explain
it better and the American people will totally be on
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(10:15):
m L. All right, we got more on the House
elections for twenty twenty six. As you know right now,
it's a pretty narrow margin, not quite as narrow as
it as it used to be as a result of
unfortunately three Democrats passing away, But slowly but surely those
(10:37):
seats will be filled and we'll be back to two
twenty to two fifteen. I think it's two twenty to
twelve right now, but of course all four hundred and
thirty five seats will be up next year and usually
as we just explained the out of power party has
the advantage, but it doesn't look that way necessarily right now.
President Trump taking no chances and urging Texas to redraw
(10:58):
their congressional map in order to create a few more
red seats, and Gavin Newsom, even at the mere suggestion
of this is absolutely apoplectic Politico with the story Gavin
Newsom suddenly can't stop talking about Texas gerrymandering and a
provocative idea to counter it in California on podcasts and
social media. The California governor is threatened that if Texas
follows President Trump's advice and redraws its congressional districts to
(11:20):
show up the GEOP slender House majority, California should throughout
its own maps. So this is not just Gavin Newsom,
although he has been described as obsessed. Hakim Jeffries has
also apparently huddled with members of the California delegation to
discuss redistricting as well, But obviously that would happen have
to happen at the state level. Jim, I'm old enough
to remember when you readrew the districts once right after
(11:41):
the census, and then that kind of lasted till the
next census. But I guess we don't do that anymore.
But Gavin Newsom once again focused on national politics, probably
mostly his own political future, as opposed to all the
problems in the state.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Well, the first thing we should note, Greg is that
way back in the around twenty eleven, California voters approved
a constitutional amendment that handed authority over redistricting to an
independent commission. This Proposition twenty was adopted by an overwhelming margin. Right,
So I guess the idea Gavin Newsom sees the California
(12:15):
State Constitution kind of the way he sees the US
Constitution as a set of suggestions but not really anything
you have to follow or are bound by, or you know,
stuff like that, like a constitutional amendment. It's it's just
kind of a nice to have, not a need to
have in his in his worldview. So there's that little
thing about like you would be completely illegal for the
(12:35):
California State Legislature to completely redistrict it. They'd have to
find they have to get the independent commission stacked with
like hardcore crazed partisan Democrats. They are like, sure, let's
redo it. Then a friend of mine went through the
numbers because he was thinking this is ridiculous. So right now,
back in twenty twenty two or twenty twenty four, Republicans
in Texas they warned about just under sixty percent of
the two party House vote. So you know, if it
(12:58):
was perfectly equal, you'd expect to have sixty percent of
the House seats. They have sixty six percent of the
House seats, so you know, all right, you know, there's
always gonna be a little bit of a skew. Republicans have,
you know, six percent more House seats than you'd think
they would have based on the popular vote result, and
their goal under this redistricting would get them to about,
you know, seventy nine percent of the seats. All right.
(13:19):
You know, if you want to say, ah, that's that's
skewing it, that's REDI okay, all right, of everybody in
the world, California has absolutely no standing to criticize this
sort of thing, because in twenty twenty two and twenty
twenty four, Democrats won just under sixty two percent of
that two party House vote. Hey, Greg, what percentage of
House seats do Democrats in California have way higher? Almost
(13:41):
eighty percent? Yeah, right, So under the new map. What
they're envisioning is to get the Republicans down to under
four percent of the House seats to fifty some House
seats representing California. Right, So their argument is, like, hey,
it's not fair that Texas is going to redraw its
district lines to make it roughly what we have now
(14:03):
in terms of partisan skew. And if they do that,
by golly, we're gonna virtually eliminate any Republicans from California,
even though they won like thirty nine thirty eight percent
of the vote statewide. Like that's that is their argument
right now. I think you point out this, You know,
Gavin Newsom desperately wanting the twenty twenty eight Democratic nomination.
I think the Newsome attitude is whatever Republicans propose, he
(14:27):
must oppose it, he must oppose it vociferously and frothing
at the mouth, and just you know, as furiously as possible.
Whether it's constitutional, whether it makes sense, whether it's legal.
All those are minor details to be worked out later.
Because Democrats need to see him as a fighter. He's
as you know, he will fight that as hard as
(14:48):
he fought the restrictions on dining inside at the French laundry.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Well, what is it with him? Because right after the election,
he was, you know, sitting down with Charlie Kirk and
doing some other interviews where he's like, you know, yeah,
I do see your point on this issue. And now
he's back to you know, resistance hero on ice and
this and all sorts of other things where he's clearly
preening and posturing. So I assume this is the more
natural Kevin Newsom, not the guy who's trying to pretend
(15:15):
like he's moving towards the center.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Well, twenty twenty and this is again foreshadowing Martini number three.
So twenty twenty four was this giant shock to Democrats.
It's not just that they talked themselves into believing Harris
was going to find just enough votes and the blue
Wall was going to hold and all that stuff. So
they were shocked when they lost, and they were shocked
that they had proven so out of step, and like
(15:37):
they had never bothered to spend much time worrying about
young males. Young males traditionally voted in very low numbers,
and all of a sudden, you know, Joe Rogan, Listeners
and all these other Timpool, all these other. You know,
all of a sudden, podcasters mattered. Go figure, if you're
listening to this, guess what you matter? John Ralston wils
To say, if you're in Nevada, you matter twice, you know,
(15:59):
So you basically this Democrats realize they're out of touch
with it. Not just like they'd all just kind of
dismissed straight white males, but now it turned out that
there were not only straight white males out there, but
there were women and minorities and all kinds of groups
who actually didn't also aligned with the straight white males.
And wait, wait, all of a sudden, we're unpopular amongst
lots of people. Remember the chart of you know, almost
every county in the country going more heavily Republican in
(16:19):
twenty twenty four than it did in twenty twenty. So
it's this giant slapped to the face. So I think
for a while, Newsom is like, I'm gonna sit down
with Charlie Kirk and I'm gonna show that I'm the
guy who has the courage to go and talk to
these guys. And I think after like a couple of weeks,
it was clear that wasn't going anywhere. It didn't do
any good that nobody in the Democratic circles was. And
also he kind of came around remembering, well, if I
want to be the nominee, I want to have to
(16:39):
win the primaries first, and talking to the Charlie Kirks
of the world is really not going to get me there.
So now he's reverting back to his usual self. And
also just to get like every party that loses convinces
itself we lost because we're too nice. We lost because
we're too respectful to the opposition, and we just really
need to get tougher. We need to get tougher. I
you know, I'm the fact that like Trump got indicted.
(17:03):
Trump got convicted, every conceivable accusation was sent to his way.
There are Democrats who genuinely believe that they lost because
they weren't tough enough. And what they really need to
nominate is a fighter. That's their story, and they're sticking
to it.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I don't think either party needs to worry right now
that they're being too nice to the other one in
Democrats for a very long time have not really been
all that concerned about being too nice. But yeah, they're
kind of stuck in the wilderness they just don't know
where to go next, and it's kind of fun to watch,
and obviously, for the most part, I hope they don't
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(18:59):
As we mentioned, it's been more than eight months now
since election day, and there's been all sorts of fallout.
There's been multiple books about different aspects of the election
and the results, and everybody's kind of done their post mortem.
We've heard from just about everyone who we have to
hear from in terms of what went wrong for the
Democrats in twenty twenty four. And now I assume the
list is complete because we're scraping the very bottom of
(19:21):
the barrel with Hunter Biden. Yes, Hunter Biden is now
offering his analysis of what went wrong. It will not
shock you. He was a guest, I believe, on the
debut podcast of former DNC chairman and former South Carolina
Senate candidate Jamie Harrison, and Hunter's take is you should
have been nicer than my dad. Basically, quote, we lost
(19:41):
the election because we did not remain loyal to the
leader of the party. That's my position, he said, quote,
we had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage
of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally
melted down unquote. Well, to be fair, it was after
your father's brain melted down on national television. So Jim,
(20:05):
obviously you know Biden's concern with burnishing and preserving what
he wants the Biden family legacy and Joe's legacy to be.
But what do you make of this spin on what
happened last year?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Greg to run around thinking the recent Democrats lost because
they weren't loyal enough to Joe Biden? What is he smoking? Crack?
Don't answer that. Don't answer that. We know it's like
fifty to fifty there. So yesterday midday to afternoon, after
we finished taping, I went over to National Reviews offices
up in northern Virginia. I had lunch with the terns,
and I was in this terrific mood. Radio America has
(20:41):
great interns. We have great interns at National Review got
the chance to, you know, be the old guy telling stories.
I was in this terrific mood, and I leave and
I see this story by Dave wigel Over at Semaphore
about Jamie Harrison launching a podcast saying that he is
the answer to the Democrats search for their own version
of Joe wrote, and that Hunter Biden would be one
(21:02):
of his first guests, and that Hunter Biden would lay
that out now. And I just bet that good mood
was ruined. And I found myself just incandescenly angry about this.
And it's not the biggest story in the world. It's not,
but for starters, Jamie Harrison is a guy whose entire
career may be a result of Quinnipiac not being able
(21:25):
to pull South Carolina particularly well in the twenty twenty cycle. Right,
So twenty twenty, I go through this in Today's Morning
Jolt because I just it's it's absolutely fascinating how one
little domino sets this course of events. Lindsey Graham is
running for his fourth term back in twenty twenty, and
this is this is South Carolina. Listeners know this is
a heavily Republican state. You may not know that, literally
(21:47):
this millennium, Democrats have not won a Senate race or
a gubernatorial race in South Carolina. Last time it happened,
it was nineteen ninety eight. All right, state hasn't gone
for a presidential for Democrat and the presidential race since
Jimmy Carter and seven almost within the life spans of
Jim Garretty and great Corumbus. Democrats have not won a
presidential race down there. So you know, nobody's thinking this
(22:08):
is going to be an easy time taking on Lindsay Graham.
Harrison had been the state party chair and he chooses
to run. At one point there is debate is somebody
else gonna run? But they end up no nobody else
wants it. Democrats literally didn't have a primary now for
some reason that I don't believe. We never got a
good explanation for Quinnimpiac three times pulled the race and
found it a tie, and people, oh my goodness, this
is a huge deal. This caused an enormous amount of
(22:30):
you know, glowing coverage for Jamie Harrison. This caused Democrats
to donate tons and tons of a shattered bed or
works record set the previous cycle Harrison raised one hundred
and thirty two million dollars for his Senate race. And
you know, as far as expenses go, South Carolina is
not a particularly expensive state. It's not Florida, it's not Texas,
it's not California. You know, Lindsey Graham won fifty four percent.
(22:55):
Beto could at least say I came within three points
of Ted Cruz. You know, Harrison did a little bit
better than Joe Biden did in the state, but like,
there's really nothing special in it. But somehow from that,
Democrats convinced themselves that this guy, Jamie Harrison knows how
to win in tough territories. Again, I don't think there's
any evidence of that, but they, you know, Joe Biden
continue what turned out to be a really phenomenal record
(23:17):
of bad personnel choices, says, let's put Jamie Harrison in
charge of the DNZA. You want to say the twenty
twenty two midterms were pretty good for the Democrats, Eh, okay,
all right, you know, I'll take that argument. As you
mentioned earlier, they lost the House, but you know, things
could have gone worse for them. People expected a big
red wave. Was kind of a red trickle all Right,
twenty twenty four roles around, and I think we can
(23:37):
all agree twenty twenty four was a really bad record
you know year for the Democrats. Yeah, the House was
fairly close. Yeah, they won some Senate races that Republicans
thought they were gonna win. But in the end, they's
shut out of government. They have no ability to stop Trumpet,
the Republicans from doing what they're doing. They've been in
this malaise, this depression, this you know, you know state
ever since Jamie Harrison. Again, maybe it's not all it's
(24:00):
not all his fault. There's only so much of the
DNC can do. And he can say, hey, you know,
we had record fundraising on my watch, but what good
is all that record fundraising if you can't you know,
win races that that's ultimately what you're supposed to be,
you know, doing there at the DNC doesn't go very well.
So he's decided he's going to start a podcast and
he's going to be the Democrats answer to Joe Rogan. Now,
(24:22):
besides the fact that I think even when I disagree
with him, Joe Rogan is very good at what he does,
and he creates this charismatic, open minded, welcoming environment that
causes lots of people to listen there, Hey, Greg, do
you remember who Joe Rogan said he was supporting in
the Democratic primary back in twenty twenty, Bernie Bernie Sanders.
Democrats had their version of Joe Rogan. His name was
(24:43):
Joe Rogan. And the problem is is that during the
Biden years, the entire party became so alienating to not
just the Rogan audience and Rogan himself. I think it generally,
if you're a young, ambitious male, if you want more
out of life, you know that that basically the entire
argum about toxic masculinity and kind of the resentment of
(25:04):
the rich and successful, and it just there's nothing there
for you if you're a young man and you want
more out of life. That's my theory of that. In
the nutshell, Harris, if Jamie Harrison ever had a problem
with that, he was very quiet about that. But now
he's here, he's here to save the party. He's going
to be the next Joe Rogan, and the guy he
wants to talk to is Hunter Biden. Now, if I
said Jamie Harrison is one of the architects of the
(25:25):
twenty twenty four debacle for Democrats. Hunter Biden had more
than a little bit of a role in all of that.
It was one of the guys telling Biden he should,
you know, run again, that he should not without you.
But the other thing is that in this interview by
wid old Jamie Harrison says he believes that Hunter Biden
has been caricatured and that he and I'm sitting there thinking,
like how many times was he convicted of crimes? In
(25:48):
his own words, he said he was smoking crack every
fifteen minutes, like Unfortunately, there are a lot of people
in this world who have extramarital affairs. There aren't a
lot of people who have extramarital affairs with their late
brother's widow. There are not a lot of guys who
get that late brother's widow addicted to crack cocaine. There
are a lot of guys who are go to strip clubs.
(26:09):
There are not a lot of guys who impregnate strippers.
There are not a lot of guys who impregnate strippers
and then refuse to pay child support for a bunch
of years. Oh, by the way, then they get to
this give paintings as their form anyway. So I think
Hunter Biden's just not a good person. I think he's
just really bad person. I think people should not listen
to him. And one of Jamie Harrison's first decisions is
(26:30):
to say, Democrats, you need to hear Hunter Biden out.
You've been buying into this image of him that's a caricature.
Go away, Jamie Harrison, go away, Hunter Bid. It like,
I'm not even a Democrat. I certainly I'm not very
invested in the success of the Democratic Party. And I
feel like I've got outraged by Munchausen by proxy. Like
I'm just like incandesnately angry on behalf of Democrats who
(26:53):
are getting this load from the likes of Jamie Harrison
and Hunter Biden.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
That line, we had an incredibly success small administration. I mean,
if you looked at the polling on the economy Afghanistan,
he Biden managed to pretty much make everybody angry at
him over what was happening in Israel and Kaza and
then of course the border was a complete disaster, and
so you know what would have been valuable here. Of
course Jamie Harrison's never gonna go there, but would have
been great is, Hey, what did Nancy Pelosi threaten? What
(27:21):
did Obama and Chuck Schumer and all these other people
say that finally shoved your dad out of the race.
Because it sure wasn't about passing the torch? Because if
it had been, he would have done it a long
time ago.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah, you know I did. By the way, if Harrison
did a podcast, he said, I'm gonna I'm gonna spill
the tea. I'm gonna I'm gonna, you know, tell you
everything that I was going on back then that I
couldn't tell you that would listen to that that'd be interesting.
But instead we're gonna get happy talk and how you know, like, oh,
you know who else he's gonna have is one of
his early guests, Greg Jim Walls. Hey, who's another architect
(27:50):
of twenty twenty four turning out to be a debacle.
They say it's it's it was the title of the
podcast can be at our Table. I think it's the Excuses.
Excuses sounds like the more appropriate title for what we're
gonna get from it.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, I'd be curious to see what Wall's points to
as the reasons for the failure. Probably won't be his
debate performance, or the fact that Kamala wouldn't extricate herself
at all from the Biden record, or that she couldn't
answer a serious question and a complete sentence, or what
have you. But I'm sure it all be about racism
and sexism and the usual talking points. But anyway, Jim,
have a great Thursday. We'll hopefully finish the week strong
(28:25):
on Friday. See you tomorrow, Greg, Jim Garretty, National Review.
I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so much for
being with us today. Please subscribe to the Three Martini
Lunch if you don't already, and tell your friends about
us as well. We'd love to have them listening. Thanks
also for your five star ratings and your kind reviews.
Please keep those coming. They really are a huge help
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have to say is play Three Martini Lunch podcast, follow
(28:47):
us both on x He's at, Jim Garrity, I'm at
Greg Corumbus. Have a terrific Thursday, and again, please join
us on Friday for the next three of Martini Lunch.
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