September 12, 2025 • 31 mins
Join Jim and Greg for the Friday edition of the 3 Martini Lunch as they cover three big stories: the arrest of Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin, whether this tragedy will further silence conservative speech on campus, and Kamala Harris’ contradictory claims about Joe Biden’s re-election bid.
First, they breathe a sigh of relief as Kirk's 22-year-old alleged murderer is taken into custody. They react to reports that the suspect's family members played key roles in the arrest and there was anti-fascist" writings on the ammunition. They also rip the lefties who argue that Antifa can't really be a problem because they label themselves as anti-fascists.
Next, they dig into concerns that Kirk's assassination will make it harder to have conservative voices on campus because schools will argue they cannot afford security and the student groups can't either. They also weigh in on the debate over whether people who repulsively posted their excitement over Kirk's murder should lose their jobs.
Finally, they end the week on the lighter side by noting Kamala Harris' forthcoming book will say it was "reckless" for Joe Biden to try to run for re-election. At the same time, Harris insists Biden was perfectly up to the job. So which is it? Jim also notes how Biden loyalists are now publicly attacking Harris through anonymous quotes in response and the GOP should start popping the popcorn.
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First, they breathe a sigh of relief as Kirk's 22-year-old alleged murderer is taken into custody. They react to reports that the suspect's family members played key roles in the arrest and there was anti-fascist" writings on the ammunition. They also rip the lefties who argue that Antifa can't really be a problem because they label themselves as anti-fascists.
Next, they dig into concerns that Kirk's assassination will make it harder to have conservative voices on campus because schools will argue they cannot afford security and the student groups can't either. They also weigh in on the debate over whether people who repulsively posted their excitement over Kirk's murder should lose their jobs.
Finally, they end the week on the lighter side by noting Kamala Harris' forthcoming book will say it was "reckless" for Joe Biden to try to run for re-election. At the same time, Harris insists Biden was perfectly up to the job. So which is it? Jim also notes how Biden loyalists are now publicly attacking Harris through anonymous quotes in response and the GOP should start popping the popcorn.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Support your health with Dose Daily. Save 25% on your first month when you subscribe at https://DoseDaily.co/3ML or enter code 3ML at checkout.
Keep your skin looking and acting younger for longer. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code 3ML at https://www.OneSkin.co/
This Fall, save up to 50% on select plants at Fast Growing Trees—plus get an extra 15% off your first purchase with code MARTINI at https://www.Fast-Growing-Trees.com (limited time, terms apply).
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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 stool next
to Greg Corumbus of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
National Review.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
So glad you're with us for the Friday edition of
The Three Martini Lunch man. It has been a long week,
but we're grateful to be at the end of it,
and we're glad that you're with us. A lot to
talk about today, including the forthcoming book from Kamala Harris,
some of the absurdities coming from her, some of the
absurdities coming in response to what she has to say,
So we'll get into all of that. A little bit
(00:33):
of democratic food fighting seems to be in the works there.
We'll also take a look at whether the murder of
Charlie Kirk is going to lead to fewer conservatives on
campus as a result of the security it might take
to make sure that they're safe. But the biggest news,
of course, Jim, is that I've not been so excited
to hear these words since US troops drag Saddam hus
(00:56):
saying out of a spider hole. We got him from
Utah Governor Spencer. We'll talk about that a lot in
a second. But man, what good news to wake up to.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, you know, it's when I remember thinking about the
Boston marathon bombing and how I believe that happened on
a Monday. There was you know, it was very intense.
There was a man hunt. I want to say, like Thursday,
Wednesday or Thursday we had the photo. I guess it
was Wednesday they brought out the photos of the suspects.
Thursday was the shootout in which one of them was killed.
(01:26):
And on Friday afternoon they caught the guy hiding in
a boat in somebody's backyard. And it was very like
the entire gamut of emotions in the course of a week.
This feels a little bit like that. A lot of
lingering sadness and anger and frustration that we'll talk about
in a bit. But I gotta say, Greg, I've never
been so thankful for Kamala Harris. We needed the laugh
(01:48):
that we will have at our last Martiti and the
topic of her memoir, and so thank you, Madam Vice President,
former Madame Vice President. Your travails are very silly and
make us laugh, and we kind of needed that this week.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
In the meantime, we'll get to all the details as
we know them, or at least a lot of them
from the arrest of this shooter in Utah. But first,
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slash three mL to get twenty five percent off your
first monthly subscription with the code three mL. All right, Jim,
let's get right into it. President Trump actually broke the
news on Fox and Friends this morning, saying that they
were pretty strongly sure that they had the right guy
in custody, the FBI and Utah Governor Spencer Cox said,
(03:40):
completing a press conference earlier today, and based on the
evidence they've lined up, it seems very likely that this
is the person they've been hunting for nearly the past
forty eight hours. Now again, here's Utah Governor Cox exclaiming
that they've got their men.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, we got him. On the
evening of September eleventh, a family member of Tyler Robinson
reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington
County Sheriff's Office with information that Robinson had confessed to
them or implied that he had committed the incident. This
(04:16):
information was relayed to the Utah County Sheriff's Office and
seen investigators at Utah Valley University. This information was also conveyed.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
To the FBI.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Investigators reviewed additional video footage from UVU surveillance and identified
Robinson arriving on UVU campus in a Great Dodge Challenger
at approximately eight twenty nine am on September tenth, in
which he is observed on video in a Plaine Marine
T shirt, light colored shorts, a black hat with a
(04:46):
white logo, and light colored shoes. When encountered in person
by investigators in Washington County on September twelfth in the
early morning hours, Robinson was observed in consistent clothing with
those surveillance images. Investigators interviewed a family member of Robinson,
who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years.
(05:07):
The family member reference a recent incident in which Robinson
came to dinner prior to September tenth, and in the
conversation with another family member, Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was
coming to UVU they talked about why they didn't like
him and the viewpoints that he had. The family member
also Stavid Kirk was full of hate and spreading and.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Spreading hate is what he said there. He also offered
a little bit of clarity on what was written on
those shell cases.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Investigators discovered a bolt action rifle wrapped in a dark
colored towel. The rifle was determined to be a Mauser
Model ninety eight thirty six thirty six caliber bolt action rifle.
The rifle had a scope mounted on top of it.
Investigators noted inscriptions that had been engraved on casings found
with the rifle. Inscriptions on a fired casing read notices
(06:00):
bulge's capital wo, what's this question mark? Inscriptions on the
three unfired casings read hey fascist exclamation point, catch exclamation point.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
And so then there was also some language from an
Italian resistant song from about one hundred years ago that
is now part of the Antifa messaging and so forth,
and so, Jim, hardest thing you could possibly have to
do probably is turn in your own kid for what's
going to be a capital crime. Most likely, good done
this dad, who has actually had a career in law enforcement.
(06:33):
I'm sure he shattered, but this kid was radicalized somewhere
along the way. The roommate ultimately cooperated here, from what
we're understanding, showing a lot of those messages on discord,
as the governor said, So they put this case together
pretty quickly, and thankfully the people who had some tough
ideas probably going in their head did the right thing.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, look, I understand we were talking about this yesterday
in the sense, oh my goodness, the guy hasn't caught yet.
You know, this takes sometimes, it takes time in these
kinds of investigations. And by the way, you know, God
blessed that father. God bless everybody who who knew this
perpetrator and who probably was, you know, seemingly shocked or
horrified by what they did, and was you know, like
it was apparently the unibomber. A family member was one
(07:15):
who recognized the pros and that long diatribe printed in
the Washington Post and said that sounds like I believe
it was the sister who said that sounds like my
brother probably the hardest thing he's ever going to have
to do. But the world's a safer place because of
what he did. So God blessed that guy and ease
his pain in the months and years to come. I
also just want to point my colleague Charlie Cook has
(07:35):
a piece saying that Governor Cox has done everything right
so far. And yes, we on this podcast, you and
I complain about a lot of politicians just often, very
almost always deservedly, so you know, we should praise the
ones who get it right. And this is a really
tough situation, and it looks like Governor Cox has you know,
handled this right every step of the way. Kind of
a dark lining to our good martini based in those descriptions.
(07:57):
We'll know more when the full indictment comes out, but
this looks pretty much exactly what we feared and suspected
it was from the moment we heard that Charlie Kirk
had been shot, that this was, you know, going to
be somebody on the left, somebody Antifa adjacent to somebody
who had been radicalized. And uh, look, you know, one,
if you're if you're a concern, if you're right a
(08:19):
center out there and you're angry about this, you're it's
perfectly fine to feel that anger. I think we all
feel angry. Please don't go out and do something stupid.
Please don't go out and do something that would Don't
lash out. I understand the desire to lash out, punch
a pillow, go work out, go scream, do whatever you
need to do, but don't take it out on some
schmo who just happened to be on the left side
of the spectrum or something like that. Somebody had said,
(08:41):
if you know, if if conservatives had any guts, that
would be out rioting, and my colleague Mark Wright said,
why what good would that do? What would you know,
why would we burn down the houses of people who
had nothing to do with this in some sort of
you know, just to just to vent our rage. That
doesn't help anything. But I think, look, you know, and
we'll talk about this more than the next Martine, like
this does make us sit and think about there is
(09:03):
undoubtedly radicalize people on the left who genuinely believe what
they're saying, the Conservatives are evil and conservatives must be
stopped by any means necessary, and who believe it's perfectly
legitimate to shoot somebody and kill them in order to
stop that. And that's a real problem and that's something
that really we need law enforcement to be. You know,
this feels very sixties and seventies ish, and so maybe
(09:24):
we need some FBI and that's just informants. Maybe we
need some people go and undercover. Maybe we need law
enforcement to infiltrate these groups. Because I went back and
I found a headline antifas mostly mythical, mostly mythical, kind
of like those mostly peaceful riots. You know, that mostly
mythical group just shot somebody and killed somebody, right, So
you ask people in Portland if Antifa is mostly mythical. Right,
(09:47):
So this hand waving away of left wing violence just
isn't going to cut it anymore. And hopefully, you know,
the more we learn about the shooter, the more a
long delayed reckoning will be occurring on the other side
of the island. Not of course, there's a lot of
Democrats in the world who are good people, who don't
want you to do any harm to anyone, but they
(10:08):
kind of turned to blind eye for a while, and
it's long since time for that to end.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, exactly. So then we've been dealing with this argument
from the people trying to defend Antifa, and I find
them thoroughly indefensible. No matter what argument you throw up there,
I don't know how you say this lady's last name.
She's been around in Washington journalism for a while, Julia
I off Or yaff or, I don't know what it is.
She co founded puck News, and then she tweets out
yesterday after the Wall Street Journal reports on that law
(10:33):
enforcement bulletin, saying that the ammunition was engraved with anti
fascist sayings, which was confirmed by Governor Cox, and she
says the sleight of hand required to make anti fascist
sound like a bad thing. Remember when the United States
as a government and its policy was officially militantly anti
fascist during World War Two. Just because you call yourself
(10:54):
anti fascists doesn't mean you are. They actually are the fascists.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Antifa believes that in the name of fighting fascism, they
are permitted to murder people who disagree with them.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
Right, Like, like that's the most fascist thing you could do,
right that, you know, like take off the anti I
think there's the battleon b as a headlines this morning
saying antifa, you know, in order to stop a fascist
punches the mirror, you know, like anti fascism, that's that's
d Day. That's bad, brothers.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
You know, that's not on we're talking here, and you know,
how are you still peddling this lie after all these
years and all.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
The darn well what we mean when we say anti fascists?
So nobody say, ah, you know, we're big fans of Ussolini.
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(13:04):
the show. All right, Jim, let's move to our bad
Martini now questionable Martini. I guess in a couple different ways.
Some would say, what's happening and at least part of
this is good. The fallout from what we saw with
this horrific murder political assassination, as Governor Cox called it,
of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. First
(13:27):
of all, what will it mean for conservative speech on campus?
Sometimes guest host and as Stepman from the Independent Women's
Forum puts out on Twitter today or x, this assassination
will accomplish what the left has tried to do for
so long, significantly shut down conservative speech on college campuses.
Not because of a lack of bravery, but because of logistics.
(13:47):
No more outdoor events, no more events without very serious security,
and that costs big money that most organizations don't have,
and universities are only too happy to say they can't manage.
Already they were us using security concerns to punish right
wing organizations and prevent them from hosting speakers. Now there's
a real reason. It's the assassin's veto. And then the
(14:10):
other thing that we've been seeing so much is people
going online, especially on Blue Sky, but also a lot
of people on Twitter talking about how much they're celebrating
how happy they are that Charlie Kirk was brutally murdered.
And as a result of that, some people are figuring
out where these people work, and they're talking to their
employers and in some cases they're getting fired. Some people
think that's taking cancel culture too far. Other people are
(14:32):
saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no. These are people,
in some cases who are teaching our kids, who are
in positions to influence other people. And if this is
what they're not only thinking, saying, and willing to publicly post,
then they have what's coming to them.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
First of all, on the question of the assassins, veto
a couple of my colleagues at National Review, I've already
said they've had events canceled. Really, they're not saying canceled,
they're saying postponed. And I don't begrudge any institution that's
like WHOA, Before we do this, we got to make
sure we have the right kind of security precautions. We
don't want anything terrible to happen. I don't think I
think that's entirely rational. I also think, though, that a
(15:09):
consequence is that this assassin did what they wanted to do.
They have made people fearful to speak, fearful to attend,
fearful to be in a venue where somebody, God forbid,
has some gun and manages to do something and hurt
and kill someone. I don't know how to square that circle.
I don't want to see any more violence, and I
think that there's unfortunately a genuine risk of some copycat
(15:32):
or somebody deciding they want to go out and do
something terrible. The second the other kind of thought came
to mind today, John Pedorit's you know, was with commentary
and used to edit the New York Post editorial page,
had a really good short Twitter threat. If you haven't
seen it already, I urge everybody to read it. His
general point is like, look, almost everyone has bad thoughts.
(15:54):
Almost everyone has things they say that if they said
them out loud, or they said them in a public forum,
would be shocking and horrible. Maybe not you, Greg, You
seem like the nicest guy in the whole wide world.
But like, how often on this podcast have I used
the joke we have to stop? You know, history's greatest
monsters like Hitler and Stalin and Adam Gase. Now, I
don't actually think that former New York Jets coach coach
(16:16):
Adam Gase is really want stive history's greatest monster. Okay,
he didn't kill anybody. He may have just killed our
hopes and our spirits and all that kind of stuff.
So I can do this kind of jokingly, Oh this
person is the worst person. Ever, how many sports fans
have said, oh, I'm gonna kill that ref, you know,
or something. They aren't actually going to kill them, right
the different and people have always had these kinds of thoughts,
(16:37):
and they've always thought, Oh, that SOB who cut me
in traffic, or you know, angry at coworkers, angry at neighbors,
all kinds of things like that. The thing is is
that you know, usually you kept them up in here
and they didn't come out of your mouth, and also
they generally didn't go out on a platform where instantly
the whole wide world can see it. And so John
Podartz's point is that you know, right around two thousand
(16:58):
and seven, the birth of of you know, cell phones
and smartphones and social media, suddenly you have this very
ugly thought in your head that you kind of know
is anti So if you probably you would never go
out and like, you know, deliver a prepared speech arguing
people who disagree with me have died a violent death
and I'm happy about that. But you have that that
instant reaction and you put it out there now obviously
(17:21):
having the ability to control your emotions and having your
ability to control that. You know, not every negative thought
is going to turn into a negative action. But now
we have something where if you don't have that self control,
if you can't hold in your it and your ugliest thoughts,
you can blast it out to the whole wide world.
And so, you know, put John's question is, like, how
does civilization continue to function when we can see every
(17:43):
ugly thought that everybody has, racism, sexism, pornographic stuff, Like
people can just blurt it all out, that combination of
anonymity and an audience, And that's just kind of a
really frustrating one there. And this comes to the question of,
like what do you do when somebody puts out something
on sol media that's really ugly, like I'm really glad
Charlie Kirk got assassinated or something. Undoubtedly it's got to
(18:06):
be some reaction. I could see a scenario where somebody
would say, we don't think you need to lose your job,
but you really need some anger management skills, you really,
you know, like even if you're having these thoughts, you
should not express them. You should not be putting this
out into the world. And like if you want to
celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. Okay, that guy
had a coming, Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk said, the stuff
(18:26):
you didn't agree with in the grand scheme of life,
that's a really small potatoes. That's a really small sin
that you literally want this person to be executed for.
You want his wife to be a widow, you want
his kids to be orphans. And even in our you know,
worst moments, when we're most mad at somebody, you're probably
supposed to, you know, keep that in check. Some woe
(18:48):
even say that this is sin, right, or this is
at least the opportunity for sin, This is the birth
of sin. You know, there are some who'd say that
negative thoughts are lead to negative actions. I'll let psychologist
and I'll let you know theologians debate that.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
But here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
You probably don't want to, like, let those thoughts run free.
You probably don't want to dwell on them. You probably
don't want to be someone walking around with a lot
of hate in your heart. What keeps civilization running is
you know, you see after the game, after a football game,
usually the whole bunch players get together and they just
shake hands, and hug with the other guy. Then they
get around in a prayer circle, a bunch of them, right,
And there's this kind of a sense that like, look,
(19:23):
we can vehemently disagree, but we also like we recognize
our fellow human beings, We recognize our fellow Americans. We
have some sort of if not love for each other,
maybe not even respect for each other, a tolerance for
each other. And we need to have that. And I
think that you know, so my sense is, if you're
an employer, you can't ignore your employee running off and
saying crazy and you know, a horrible and hateful things.
(19:45):
You got to address it somehow. Does this every person
who does this need to be fired? If I found
out that my nurse or my doctor was running around
sell like apparently someone was a suicide prevention coordinator in
some state agency. There's suicide, right, not homicide prevention. I
guess this person's a big fan of homicide. That's on,
but suicide that's where they draw the line. So like, yeah,
I think if you're an employer, you got to respond
(20:05):
some way. I don't know if a firing is always
what is absolutely necessary. People screw up, people make mistakes,
but I also kind of recognize you can't ignore it.
You got to address it in one form or another.
And how many people would change their tone if their
employer sat them down and said, your job is hanging
by a thread. You really need to learn some impulse control.
You want to write this on a piece of paper,
(20:26):
and you know, keep it in a drawer of all
the things you've ever wanted to say and hateful. Fine,
go right ahead, but don't put this out in the world,
because you're really hurting the image of our institution.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
John Roberts over at Fox with a good tweet today's
sum it up. It's really quite stunning to see the
sheer number of people who are blowing up their careers
through their compulsion to post violent and temperate videos about
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this show. Tell them it was the three martini lunch
that sent you all right, Jim as promised and our
crazy Martini shifting topics Here for some comic relief at
the end of the week. Kamala Harris, who is not
running for governor and as we increasingly think, probably not
running for president either in three years from now. But
(22:11):
she is now releasing excerpts from her book. It was
in the Atlantic, and a bunch of different places picked
it up. The story I've got here is from the
huff Post, but they say former Vice President Kamala Harris
concedes she made a grave mistake by holding back from
advising her former boss Joe Biden against pursuing re election
in twenty twenty four, declaring that, quote in retrospect, I
think it was recklessness. Unquote, she was really the last
(22:35):
person who could tell him to not run again, because
it would look incredibly self serving if she's told me
to get out. But Harris acknowledged that she was wrong
to rest such an important call on just Joe and
Jill Biden. Quote, it's Joe and Jill's decision. We all
said that like a mantra, as if we'd all been hypnotized.
Was it grace or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I
think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high.
(22:58):
This wasn't a choice that should have been left to
an individual's ego and individual's ambition. It should have been
more than a personal decision. Yet at the very same time,
she says, uh no, No, he wasn't impaired, not at
all on his worst day. He was more deeply knowledgeable,
more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than
Donald Trump. I don't believe it was incapacity. If I
believe that, I would have said so. As loyal as
(23:19):
I am to Biden, I'm more loyal to my country. Well,
if that's the case, Jim, why did you think it
was reckless for him to seek another term? This seems
a little bit inconsistent.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Greg.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I'm probably going to sound like a weirdo to listeners
right now, but I find myself eager to read this book.
And it's not out of a great, enthusiastic high opinion
of Kamala Harris. But it's kind of like we've seen
the twenty car pile up of car accident. Now. I
want to hear the statements from the drivers about whose
fault it is and how it happened, and what they
(23:49):
knew and what they were thinking as each car slammed
into another. And it was because she's only done a
Colbert interview since election day, so we really don't know, oh,
you know, what she was expecting what she was feeling.
There are accounts in other books that she said that
were saying she went into election I convinced she was
going to win. So I want to I want to
(24:10):
hear about all this, and you know, like there's obviously
going to be some score settling in this. We undoubtedly
expected some blame shifting. In fact, if she had come
out and said the losses on my shoulders and nobody else's, boy,
I think we all would have been shocked, and we
all would have been, like, you know, maybe gained a
little bit of respect for her based on this excerpt.
Maybe there's more in this book in the Atlantic, but
like this tackles two of the big questions, one of
(24:33):
which was like, you know, did you see anything from
Joe Biden the four years you were his vice president
that made you think this guy was not going to
be able to handle another four years? And her answer
is no. Her answer is that you know, this was
he was, This was not he was not incompetent, and
he was capable of handling his duties. But she throws
in the jet leg excuse now, it's like fourteen fifteen days.
(24:54):
I was like twelve days after the last trip to
l THEO through the over in Europe. Then it comes
back to the United State eighty DC briefly, then he
goes back to LA This is the fundraiser where he
does not recognize George Clooney. Now, I know you've probably
wanted to forget some George Clooney movies. We can debate
whether he ever really was a batman, but come on,
(25:15):
you'd recognize not only like him being a movie star,
he'd met Biden like a dozen times before, right, So
that was a signal that, like things mentally with the
memory were not working the way they.
Speaker 6 (25:25):
Were supposed to.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And then twelve days go by. Apparently he never finished
a debate prep session according to these other books, so
there was no reason to think that he was going
to do great when he did that. So the whole
idea of oh it was jet lag, this is, you know,
very in keeping with her tradition, sticking with the least
plausible explanation. But then a large chunk of this excerpt
is about how she felt like the Biden White House
(25:49):
staff was undermining her at every twist and turn, and
that they absolutely never gave her any First of all,
they gave her all the hard assignments. Hey, Greg, if
there's something easy and fun and popular, you know, a
task for the White House, do you think the president's
going to get that one? Or do you think the
vice president's gonna get that one? Not the Vice President
Joe Biden, if you ask him, well, you know, if
(26:10):
he's capable of answering, we'll tell you. He feels like
he got a lot of the crap jobs under Barack Obama,
but he also felt like, that's my job as vice
president Foreign leader's funeral. I got to go there. You know,
some topic that we know our base is not going
to like, it's my job to go out there and
give the speech on it, and that like that. Welcome
to the vice presidency, you know, Miss Harris, this is
this is part of the job. You're not going to
get the easy you know, nobody's given you the t
(26:32):
ball assignments, and she just complains the entire time. I
think there's definitely some truth to this. There were contemporaneous
reports about everybody of the fact that the Biden inner
circle didn't really trust her, didn't like her long memories
about the debate exchange where she basically accused Joe Biden
of racism. Joe Biden reportedly was like swearing at her
and was like vehemently opposed to her being the running mate,
(26:55):
which is undoubtedly a highly unusual circumstance and a probably
a bad sign. This whole you know account in there
just makes it sound like she's blaming everyone but herself.
And you know, was Biden choosing to run again a
bad decision that her odds? Yeah? Was Tim Walls no help?
Speaker 6 (27:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Was her campaign man? You know, like there were But
but on the other hand, you're left with this problem
of like, Okay, Madame Vice, what.
Speaker 6 (27:20):
Did you do?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Because her assessment is that she was doing a great
job as vice president. I remember just about every poll
about her threat review had her approval rating in the
high thirties, low forties in a good day, right, so
most most of the time, six out of ten America.
That's all because of Fox News. That's all because of
you know, Karine Jean Pierre won't talk like that's the thing, Well,
you're complaining, Karine Jean Pierre is not helping you out enough. Really,
(27:44):
that was not going to help you as much, amuntam
vice president. But the last thing that just kind of
jumps out at me. Is you know so? Yes? The
excerpts come out earlier this week. The Biden in her
circle is not going to take this lying down. They
are they're they're ready to go. They're rolling up their
sleeves and they're ready to fight. And how did they fight?
A not leaked anonymous quotes to Axios. This is the
only way this people know how to communicate, like it's
(28:05):
it's September twenty twenty five. Nobody's hiring you again, nobody
you know a kama. You don't need to stay a
good trip, some former White Biden White House official said
to Axios. Vice President Harris was simply not good at
the job. She had basically zero substantial role in any
of the administration's key work streams, and instead would just
work streams as an injury. I want to go back
(28:26):
and see anybody else in the White House use the
term work streams that that feels like be able to
figure out who this is. Instead would just dive bob
in for stilted photo ops that exposed how out of
depth she was. As I write in Today's Morning Joel,
because we needed to talk about something lighter. First of all,
you see it when they're when the Biden staffords are
saying she was a crappy vice president. Greg passed the popcorn. This,
(28:49):
this is fun, This is you know, like but also
there's a nice question like if you're a senior White
House official and you've worked alongside Kamala Harris and your
conclusion is she's not good at the job and she's
out of her depth on just about every issue, I
feel like this is a sort of thing Americans should
know immediately. This is not something like, well, in September
twenty five, I'm gonna hey, America, you know that person
(29:09):
you came within, like, you know, one hundred and fifteen
thousand votes of electing in three swing city swing states. Yeah,
she was really terrible at this and she would have
been absolute disasters. That seems like the sort of thing
you should say before they decide she's gonna be the nominee,
or even after Biden said she should be the nomine
maybe before the convention, maybe you come out and say, hey, America,
I've been working alongside her. She can't handle stuff. This
(29:32):
is gonna be a disaster. We should nominate somebody else.
Then failing that, well, we can't let Trump win. So
we have to let the person who I know is
incompetent because I've been working with her. That's your thinking there,
you know. Finally there's some Biden aide who says, Joe
Biden made a mistake picking Harris as vice president in
the first place. First of all, collect your winnings. Well,
this is another case where I'm sorry, America, it's just
(29:54):
been handed to me. Conservatives were right the whole time,
and every like everyone was lying to you the entire time.
The Kamala Harris was this great smart, inspirational leader, detail oriented,
blah blah blah. So on the one hand, this is
absolutely kind of delightful. I the the it's kind of
disturbing that so many these you know, people thought so
little of each other and didn't feel any need that
the American public had no right to hear this. I
(30:16):
conclude today's job by saying, Democrats clearly don't really care
who their nominees are because in the end, they know
they're going to get the liberal policies they want. They
know they're gonna get the progressive policies they want, and
their only sense that these people should be good and
smart and capable is because it makes it easier, not
because they actually think. You know, if you're gonna have
responsibilities at that high level, you should be up to them. So, hey,
(30:39):
you know what I don't know about you, Greg, I
definitely needed this story at the end of this week.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
What is it boiled down to? Was Biden and out
of it incompetent president?
Speaker 6 (30:48):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Was Harris a completely incompetent vice president a terrible presidential candidate?
Speaker 6 (30:53):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Don't think it gets more complicated than that.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
As the meme goes, why not both?
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Anyway, Jim, we have made it to the end of
the week. I think we're all glad for the break,
and hopefully we have a much better week next week.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
That's a low bar to clear.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
See you Monday, Greg, Indeed, Jim Garretty of National Review,
I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so much for
being with us today. Please be sure to subscribe to
the podcast. If you don't already, tell your friends about
us as well. We'd love to have them listening. Thanks
for your five star ratings and your kind reviews. They
really do help us out a lot. Get us on
your home devices. All you have to say is play
three Martini Lunch Podcast. Follow us both on X He's
(31:26):
at Jim Garrity, I'm at Greg Corumbus. Have a terrific weekend.
Join us again Monday. Please on the next three Martini
Lunch
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch Grab a stool next
to Greg Corumbus of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
National Review.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
So glad you're with us for the Friday edition of
The Three Martini Lunch man. It has been a long week,
but we're grateful to be at the end of it,
and we're glad that you're with us. A lot to
talk about today, including the forthcoming book from Kamala Harris,
some of the absurdities coming from her, some of the
absurdities coming in response to what she has to say,
So we'll get into all of that. A little bit
(00:33):
of democratic food fighting seems to be in the works there.
We'll also take a look at whether the murder of
Charlie Kirk is going to lead to fewer conservatives on
campus as a result of the security it might take
to make sure that they're safe. But the biggest news,
of course, Jim, is that I've not been so excited
to hear these words since US troops drag Saddam hus
(00:56):
saying out of a spider hole. We got him from
Utah Governor Spencer. We'll talk about that a lot in
a second. But man, what good news to wake up to.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, you know, it's when I remember thinking about the
Boston marathon bombing and how I believe that happened on
a Monday. There was you know, it was very intense.
There was a man hunt. I want to say, like Thursday,
Wednesday or Thursday we had the photo. I guess it
was Wednesday they brought out the photos of the suspects.
Thursday was the shootout in which one of them was killed.
(01:26):
And on Friday afternoon they caught the guy hiding in
a boat in somebody's backyard. And it was very like
the entire gamut of emotions in the course of a week.
This feels a little bit like that. A lot of
lingering sadness and anger and frustration that we'll talk about
in a bit. But I gotta say, Greg, I've never
been so thankful for Kamala Harris. We needed the laugh
(01:48):
that we will have at our last Martiti and the
topic of her memoir, and so thank you, Madam Vice President,
former Madame Vice President. Your travails are very silly and
make us laugh, and we kind of needed that this week.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
In the meantime, we'll get to all the details as
we know them, or at least a lot of them
from the arrest of this shooter in Utah. But first,
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slash three mL to get twenty five percent off your
first monthly subscription with the code three mL. All right, Jim,
let's get right into it. President Trump actually broke the
news on Fox and Friends this morning, saying that they
were pretty strongly sure that they had the right guy
in custody, the FBI and Utah Governor Spencer Cox said,
(03:40):
completing a press conference earlier today, and based on the
evidence they've lined up, it seems very likely that this
is the person they've been hunting for nearly the past
forty eight hours. Now again, here's Utah Governor Cox exclaiming
that they've got their men.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, we got him. On the
evening of September eleventh, a family member of Tyler Robinson
reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington
County Sheriff's Office with information that Robinson had confessed to
them or implied that he had committed the incident. This
(04:16):
information was relayed to the Utah County Sheriff's Office and
seen investigators at Utah Valley University. This information was also conveyed.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
To the FBI.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Investigators reviewed additional video footage from UVU surveillance and identified
Robinson arriving on UVU campus in a Great Dodge Challenger
at approximately eight twenty nine am on September tenth, in
which he is observed on video in a Plaine Marine
T shirt, light colored shorts, a black hat with a
(04:46):
white logo, and light colored shoes. When encountered in person
by investigators in Washington County on September twelfth in the
early morning hours, Robinson was observed in consistent clothing with
those surveillance images. Investigators interviewed a family member of Robinson,
who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years.
(05:07):
The family member reference a recent incident in which Robinson
came to dinner prior to September tenth, and in the
conversation with another family member, Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was
coming to UVU they talked about why they didn't like
him and the viewpoints that he had. The family member
also Stavid Kirk was full of hate and spreading and.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Spreading hate is what he said there. He also offered
a little bit of clarity on what was written on
those shell cases.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Investigators discovered a bolt action rifle wrapped in a dark
colored towel. The rifle was determined to be a Mauser
Model ninety eight thirty six thirty six caliber bolt action rifle.
The rifle had a scope mounted on top of it.
Investigators noted inscriptions that had been engraved on casings found
with the rifle. Inscriptions on a fired casing read notices
(06:00):
bulge's capital wo, what's this question mark? Inscriptions on the
three unfired casings read hey fascist exclamation point, catch exclamation point.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
And so then there was also some language from an
Italian resistant song from about one hundred years ago that
is now part of the Antifa messaging and so forth,
and so, Jim, hardest thing you could possibly have to
do probably is turn in your own kid for what's
going to be a capital crime. Most likely, good done
this dad, who has actually had a career in law enforcement.
(06:33):
I'm sure he shattered, but this kid was radicalized somewhere
along the way. The roommate ultimately cooperated here, from what
we're understanding, showing a lot of those messages on discord,
as the governor said, So they put this case together
pretty quickly, and thankfully the people who had some tough
ideas probably going in their head did the right thing.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, look, I understand we were talking about this yesterday
in the sense, oh my goodness, the guy hasn't caught yet.
You know, this takes sometimes, it takes time in these
kinds of investigations. And by the way, you know, God
blessed that father. God bless everybody who who knew this
perpetrator and who probably was, you know, seemingly shocked or
horrified by what they did, and was you know, like
it was apparently the unibomber. A family member was one
(07:15):
who recognized the pros and that long diatribe printed in
the Washington Post and said that sounds like I believe
it was the sister who said that sounds like my
brother probably the hardest thing he's ever going to have
to do. But the world's a safer place because of
what he did. So God blessed that guy and ease
his pain in the months and years to come. I
also just want to point my colleague Charlie Cook has
(07:35):
a piece saying that Governor Cox has done everything right
so far. And yes, we on this podcast, you and
I complain about a lot of politicians just often, very
almost always deservedly, so you know, we should praise the
ones who get it right. And this is a really
tough situation, and it looks like Governor Cox has you know,
handled this right every step of the way. Kind of
a dark lining to our good martini based in those descriptions.
(07:57):
We'll know more when the full indictment comes out, but
this looks pretty much exactly what we feared and suspected
it was from the moment we heard that Charlie Kirk
had been shot, that this was, you know, going to
be somebody on the left, somebody Antifa adjacent to somebody
who had been radicalized. And uh, look, you know, one,
if you're if you're a concern, if you're right a
(08:19):
center out there and you're angry about this, you're it's
perfectly fine to feel that anger. I think we all
feel angry. Please don't go out and do something stupid.
Please don't go out and do something that would Don't
lash out. I understand the desire to lash out, punch
a pillow, go work out, go scream, do whatever you
need to do, but don't take it out on some
schmo who just happened to be on the left side
of the spectrum or something like that. Somebody had said,
(08:41):
if you know, if if conservatives had any guts, that
would be out rioting, and my colleague Mark Wright said,
why what good would that do? What would you know,
why would we burn down the houses of people who
had nothing to do with this in some sort of
you know, just to just to vent our rage. That
doesn't help anything. But I think, look, you know, and
we'll talk about this more than the next Martine, like
this does make us sit and think about there is
(09:03):
undoubtedly radicalize people on the left who genuinely believe what
they're saying, the Conservatives are evil and conservatives must be
stopped by any means necessary, and who believe it's perfectly
legitimate to shoot somebody and kill them in order to
stop that. And that's a real problem and that's something
that really we need law enforcement to be. You know,
this feels very sixties and seventies ish, and so maybe
(09:24):
we need some FBI and that's just informants. Maybe we
need some people go and undercover. Maybe we need law
enforcement to infiltrate these groups. Because I went back and
I found a headline antifas mostly mythical, mostly mythical, kind
of like those mostly peaceful riots. You know, that mostly
mythical group just shot somebody and killed somebody, right, So
you ask people in Portland if Antifa is mostly mythical. Right,
(09:47):
So this hand waving away of left wing violence just
isn't going to cut it anymore. And hopefully, you know,
the more we learn about the shooter, the more a
long delayed reckoning will be occurring on the other side
of the island. Not of course, there's a lot of
Democrats in the world who are good people, who don't
want you to do any harm to anyone, but they
(10:08):
kind of turned to blind eye for a while, and
it's long since time for that to end.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, exactly. So then we've been dealing with this argument
from the people trying to defend Antifa, and I find
them thoroughly indefensible. No matter what argument you throw up there,
I don't know how you say this lady's last name.
She's been around in Washington journalism for a while, Julia
I off Or yaff or, I don't know what it is.
She co founded puck News, and then she tweets out
yesterday after the Wall Street Journal reports on that law
(10:33):
enforcement bulletin, saying that the ammunition was engraved with anti
fascist sayings, which was confirmed by Governor Cox, and she
says the sleight of hand required to make anti fascist
sound like a bad thing. Remember when the United States
as a government and its policy was officially militantly anti
fascist during World War Two. Just because you call yourself
(10:54):
anti fascists doesn't mean you are. They actually are the fascists.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Antifa believes that in the name of fighting fascism, they
are permitted to murder people who disagree with them.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
Right, Like, like that's the most fascist thing you could do,
right that, you know, like take off the anti I
think there's the battleon b as a headlines this morning
saying antifa, you know, in order to stop a fascist
punches the mirror, you know, like anti fascism, that's that's
d Day. That's bad, brothers.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
You know, that's not on we're talking here, and you know,
how are you still peddling this lie after all these
years and all.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
The darn well what we mean when we say anti fascists?
So nobody say, ah, you know, we're big fans of Ussolini.
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(13:04):
the show. All right, Jim, let's move to our bad
Martini now questionable Martini. I guess in a couple different ways.
Some would say, what's happening and at least part of
this is good. The fallout from what we saw with
this horrific murder political assassination, as Governor Cox called it,
of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. First
(13:27):
of all, what will it mean for conservative speech on campus?
Sometimes guest host and as Stepman from the Independent Women's
Forum puts out on Twitter today or x, this assassination
will accomplish what the left has tried to do for
so long, significantly shut down conservative speech on college campuses.
Not because of a lack of bravery, but because of logistics.
(13:47):
No more outdoor events, no more events without very serious security,
and that costs big money that most organizations don't have,
and universities are only too happy to say they can't manage.
Already they were us using security concerns to punish right
wing organizations and prevent them from hosting speakers. Now there's
a real reason. It's the assassin's veto. And then the
(14:10):
other thing that we've been seeing so much is people
going online, especially on Blue Sky, but also a lot
of people on Twitter talking about how much they're celebrating
how happy they are that Charlie Kirk was brutally murdered.
And as a result of that, some people are figuring
out where these people work, and they're talking to their
employers and in some cases they're getting fired. Some people
think that's taking cancel culture too far. Other people are
(14:32):
saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no. These are people,
in some cases who are teaching our kids, who are
in positions to influence other people. And if this is
what they're not only thinking, saying, and willing to publicly post,
then they have what's coming to them.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
First of all, on the question of the assassins, veto
a couple of my colleagues at National Review, I've already
said they've had events canceled. Really, they're not saying canceled,
they're saying postponed. And I don't begrudge any institution that's
like WHOA, Before we do this, we got to make
sure we have the right kind of security precautions. We
don't want anything terrible to happen. I don't think I
think that's entirely rational. I also think, though, that a
(15:09):
consequence is that this assassin did what they wanted to do.
They have made people fearful to speak, fearful to attend,
fearful to be in a venue where somebody, God forbid,
has some gun and manages to do something and hurt
and kill someone. I don't know how to square that circle.
I don't want to see any more violence, and I
think that there's unfortunately a genuine risk of some copycat
(15:32):
or somebody deciding they want to go out and do
something terrible. The second the other kind of thought came
to mind today, John Pedorit's you know, was with commentary
and used to edit the New York Post editorial page,
had a really good short Twitter threat. If you haven't
seen it already, I urge everybody to read it. His
general point is like, look, almost everyone has bad thoughts.
(15:54):
Almost everyone has things they say that if they said
them out loud, or they said them in a public forum,
would be shocking and horrible. Maybe not you, Greg, You
seem like the nicest guy in the whole wide world.
But like, how often on this podcast have I used
the joke we have to stop? You know, history's greatest
monsters like Hitler and Stalin and Adam Gase. Now, I
don't actually think that former New York Jets coach coach
(16:16):
Adam Gase is really want stive history's greatest monster. Okay,
he didn't kill anybody. He may have just killed our
hopes and our spirits and all that kind of stuff.
So I can do this kind of jokingly, Oh this
person is the worst person. Ever, how many sports fans
have said, oh, I'm gonna kill that ref, you know,
or something. They aren't actually going to kill them, right
the different and people have always had these kinds of thoughts,
(16:37):
and they've always thought, Oh, that SOB who cut me
in traffic, or you know, angry at coworkers, angry at neighbors,
all kinds of things like that. The thing is is
that you know, usually you kept them up in here
and they didn't come out of your mouth, and also
they generally didn't go out on a platform where instantly
the whole wide world can see it. And so John
Podartz's point is that you know, right around two thousand
(16:58):
and seven, the birth of of you know, cell phones
and smartphones and social media, suddenly you have this very
ugly thought in your head that you kind of know
is anti So if you probably you would never go
out and like, you know, deliver a prepared speech arguing
people who disagree with me have died a violent death
and I'm happy about that. But you have that that
instant reaction and you put it out there now obviously
(17:21):
having the ability to control your emotions and having your
ability to control that. You know, not every negative thought
is going to turn into a negative action. But now
we have something where if you don't have that self control,
if you can't hold in your it and your ugliest thoughts,
you can blast it out to the whole wide world.
And so, you know, put John's question is, like, how
does civilization continue to function when we can see every
(17:43):
ugly thought that everybody has, racism, sexism, pornographic stuff, Like
people can just blurt it all out, that combination of
anonymity and an audience, And that's just kind of a
really frustrating one there. And this comes to the question of,
like what do you do when somebody puts out something
on sol media that's really ugly, like I'm really glad
Charlie Kirk got assassinated or something. Undoubtedly it's got to
(18:06):
be some reaction. I could see a scenario where somebody
would say, we don't think you need to lose your job,
but you really need some anger management skills, you really,
you know, like even if you're having these thoughts, you
should not express them. You should not be putting this
out into the world. And like if you want to
celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. Okay, that guy
had a coming, Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk said, the stuff
(18:26):
you didn't agree with in the grand scheme of life,
that's a really small potatoes. That's a really small sin
that you literally want this person to be executed for.
You want his wife to be a widow, you want
his kids to be orphans. And even in our you know,
worst moments, when we're most mad at somebody, you're probably
supposed to, you know, keep that in check. Some woe
(18:48):
even say that this is sin, right, or this is
at least the opportunity for sin, This is the birth
of sin. You know, there are some who'd say that
negative thoughts are lead to negative actions. I'll let psychologist
and I'll let you know theologians debate that.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
But here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
You probably don't want to, like, let those thoughts run free.
You probably don't want to dwell on them. You probably
don't want to be someone walking around with a lot
of hate in your heart. What keeps civilization running is
you know, you see after the game, after a football game,
usually the whole bunch players get together and they just
shake hands, and hug with the other guy. Then they
get around in a prayer circle, a bunch of them, right,
And there's this kind of a sense that like, look,
(19:23):
we can vehemently disagree, but we also like we recognize
our fellow human beings, We recognize our fellow Americans. We
have some sort of if not love for each other,
maybe not even respect for each other, a tolerance for
each other. And we need to have that. And I
think that you know, so my sense is, if you're
an employer, you can't ignore your employee running off and
saying crazy and you know, a horrible and hateful things.
(19:45):
You got to address it somehow. Does this every person
who does this need to be fired? If I found
out that my nurse or my doctor was running around
sell like apparently someone was a suicide prevention coordinator in
some state agency. There's suicide, right, not homicide prevention. I
guess this person's a big fan of homicide. That's on,
but suicide that's where they draw the line. So like, yeah,
I think if you're an employer, you got to respond
(20:05):
some way. I don't know if a firing is always
what is absolutely necessary. People screw up, people make mistakes,
but I also kind of recognize you can't ignore it.
You got to address it in one form or another.
And how many people would change their tone if their
employer sat them down and said, your job is hanging
by a thread. You really need to learn some impulse control.
You want to write this on a piece of paper,
(20:26):
and you know, keep it in a drawer of all
the things you've ever wanted to say and hateful. Fine,
go right ahead, but don't put this out in the world,
because you're really hurting the image of our institution.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
John Roberts over at Fox with a good tweet today's
sum it up. It's really quite stunning to see the
sheer number of people who are blowing up their careers
through their compulsion to post violent and temperate videos about
Charlie Kirk on social media platforms. All right, let's talk
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(21:49):
this show. Tell them it was the three martini lunch
that sent you all right, Jim as promised and our
crazy Martini shifting topics Here for some comic relief at
the end of the week. Kamala Harris, who is not
running for governor and as we increasingly think, probably not
running for president either in three years from now. But
(22:11):
she is now releasing excerpts from her book. It was
in the Atlantic, and a bunch of different places picked
it up. The story I've got here is from the
huff Post, but they say former Vice President Kamala Harris
concedes she made a grave mistake by holding back from
advising her former boss Joe Biden against pursuing re election
in twenty twenty four, declaring that, quote in retrospect, I
think it was recklessness. Unquote, she was really the last
(22:35):
person who could tell him to not run again, because
it would look incredibly self serving if she's told me
to get out. But Harris acknowledged that she was wrong
to rest such an important call on just Joe and
Jill Biden. Quote, it's Joe and Jill's decision. We all
said that like a mantra, as if we'd all been hypnotized.
Was it grace or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I
think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high.
(22:58):
This wasn't a choice that should have been left to
an individual's ego and individual's ambition. It should have been
more than a personal decision. Yet at the very same time,
she says, uh no, No, he wasn't impaired, not at
all on his worst day. He was more deeply knowledgeable,
more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than
Donald Trump. I don't believe it was incapacity. If I
believe that, I would have said so. As loyal as
(23:19):
I am to Biden, I'm more loyal to my country. Well,
if that's the case, Jim, why did you think it
was reckless for him to seek another term? This seems
a little bit inconsistent.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
Greg.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I'm probably going to sound like a weirdo to listeners
right now, but I find myself eager to read this book.
And it's not out of a great, enthusiastic high opinion
of Kamala Harris. But it's kind of like we've seen
the twenty car pile up of car accident. Now. I
want to hear the statements from the drivers about whose
fault it is and how it happened, and what they
(23:49):
knew and what they were thinking as each car slammed
into another. And it was because she's only done a
Colbert interview since election day, so we really don't know, oh,
you know, what she was expecting what she was feeling.
There are accounts in other books that she said that
were saying she went into election I convinced she was
going to win. So I want to I want to
(24:10):
hear about all this, and you know, like there's obviously
going to be some score settling in this. We undoubtedly
expected some blame shifting. In fact, if she had come
out and said the losses on my shoulders and nobody else's, boy,
I think we all would have been shocked, and we
all would have been, like, you know, maybe gained a
little bit of respect for her based on this excerpt.
Maybe there's more in this book in the Atlantic, but
like this tackles two of the big questions, one of
(24:33):
which was like, you know, did you see anything from
Joe Biden the four years you were his vice president
that made you think this guy was not going to
be able to handle another four years? And her answer
is no. Her answer is that you know, this was
he was, This was not he was not incompetent, and
he was capable of handling his duties. But she throws
in the jet leg excuse now, it's like fourteen fifteen days.
(24:54):
I was like twelve days after the last trip to
l THEO through the over in Europe. Then it comes
back to the United State eighty DC briefly, then he
goes back to LA This is the fundraiser where he
does not recognize George Clooney. Now, I know you've probably
wanted to forget some George Clooney movies. We can debate
whether he ever really was a batman, but come on,
(25:15):
you'd recognize not only like him being a movie star,
he'd met Biden like a dozen times before, right, So
that was a signal that, like things mentally with the
memory were not working the way they.
Speaker 6 (25:25):
Were supposed to.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And then twelve days go by. Apparently he never finished
a debate prep session according to these other books, so
there was no reason to think that he was going
to do great when he did that. So the whole
idea of oh it was jet lag, this is, you know,
very in keeping with her tradition, sticking with the least
plausible explanation. But then a large chunk of this excerpt
is about how she felt like the Biden White House
(25:49):
staff was undermining her at every twist and turn, and
that they absolutely never gave her any First of all,
they gave her all the hard assignments. Hey, Greg, if
there's something easy and fun and popular, you know, a
task for the White House, do you think the president's
going to get that one? Or do you think the
vice president's gonna get that one? Not the Vice President
Joe Biden, if you ask him, well, you know, if
(26:10):
he's capable of answering, we'll tell you. He feels like
he got a lot of the crap jobs under Barack Obama,
but he also felt like, that's my job as vice
president Foreign leader's funeral. I got to go there. You know,
some topic that we know our base is not going
to like, it's my job to go out there and
give the speech on it, and that like that. Welcome
to the vice presidency, you know, Miss Harris, this is
this is part of the job. You're not going to
get the easy you know, nobody's given you the t
(26:32):
ball assignments, and she just complains the entire time. I
think there's definitely some truth to this. There were contemporaneous
reports about everybody of the fact that the Biden inner
circle didn't really trust her, didn't like her long memories
about the debate exchange where she basically accused Joe Biden
of racism. Joe Biden reportedly was like swearing at her
and was like vehemently opposed to her being the running mate,
(26:55):
which is undoubtedly a highly unusual circumstance and a probably
a bad sign. This whole you know account in there
just makes it sound like she's blaming everyone but herself.
And you know, was Biden choosing to run again a
bad decision that her odds? Yeah? Was Tim Walls no help?
Speaker 6 (27:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Was her campaign man? You know, like there were But
but on the other hand, you're left with this problem
of like, Okay, Madame Vice, what.
Speaker 6 (27:20):
Did you do?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Because her assessment is that she was doing a great
job as vice president. I remember just about every poll
about her threat review had her approval rating in the
high thirties, low forties in a good day, right, so
most most of the time, six out of ten America.
That's all because of Fox News. That's all because of
you know, Karine Jean Pierre won't talk like that's the thing, Well,
you're complaining, Karine Jean Pierre is not helping you out enough. Really,
(27:44):
that was not going to help you as much, amuntam
vice president. But the last thing that just kind of
jumps out at me. Is you know so? Yes? The
excerpts come out earlier this week. The Biden in her
circle is not going to take this lying down. They
are they're they're ready to go. They're rolling up their
sleeves and they're ready to fight. And how did they fight?
A not leaked anonymous quotes to Axios. This is the
only way this people know how to communicate, like it's
(28:05):
it's September twenty twenty five. Nobody's hiring you again, nobody
you know a kama. You don't need to stay a
good trip, some former White Biden White House official said
to Axios. Vice President Harris was simply not good at
the job. She had basically zero substantial role in any
of the administration's key work streams, and instead would just
work streams as an injury. I want to go back
(28:26):
and see anybody else in the White House use the
term work streams that that feels like be able to
figure out who this is. Instead would just dive bob
in for stilted photo ops that exposed how out of
depth she was. As I write in Today's Morning Joel,
because we needed to talk about something lighter. First of all,
you see it when they're when the Biden staffords are
saying she was a crappy vice president. Greg passed the popcorn. This,
(28:49):
this is fun, This is you know, like but also
there's a nice question like if you're a senior White
House official and you've worked alongside Kamala Harris and your
conclusion is she's not good at the job and she's
out of her depth on just about every issue, I
feel like this is a sort of thing Americans should
know immediately. This is not something like, well, in September
twenty five, I'm gonna hey, America, you know that person
(29:09):
you came within, like, you know, one hundred and fifteen
thousand votes of electing in three swing city swing states. Yeah,
she was really terrible at this and she would have
been absolute disasters. That seems like the sort of thing
you should say before they decide she's gonna be the nominee,
or even after Biden said she should be the nomine
maybe before the convention, maybe you come out and say, hey, America,
I've been working alongside her. She can't handle stuff. This
(29:32):
is gonna be a disaster. We should nominate somebody else.
Then failing that, well, we can't let Trump win. So
we have to let the person who I know is
incompetent because I've been working with her. That's your thinking there,
you know. Finally there's some Biden aide who says, Joe
Biden made a mistake picking Harris as vice president in
the first place. First of all, collect your winnings. Well,
this is another case where I'm sorry, America, it's just
(29:54):
been handed to me. Conservatives were right the whole time,
and every like everyone was lying to you the entire time.
The Kamala Harris was this great smart, inspirational leader, detail oriented,
blah blah blah. So on the one hand, this is
absolutely kind of delightful. I the the it's kind of
disturbing that so many these you know, people thought so
little of each other and didn't feel any need that
the American public had no right to hear this. I
(30:16):
conclude today's job by saying, Democrats clearly don't really care
who their nominees are because in the end, they know
they're going to get the liberal policies they want. They
know they're gonna get the progressive policies they want, and
their only sense that these people should be good and
smart and capable is because it makes it easier, not
because they actually think. You know, if you're gonna have
responsibilities at that high level, you should be up to them. So, hey,
(30:39):
you know what I don't know about you, Greg, I
definitely needed this story at the end of this week.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
What is it boiled down to? Was Biden and out
of it incompetent president?
Speaker 6 (30:48):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Was Harris a completely incompetent vice president a terrible presidential candidate?
Speaker 6 (30:53):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Don't think it gets more complicated than that.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
As the meme goes, why not both?
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Anyway, Jim, we have made it to the end of
the week. I think we're all glad for the break,
and hopefully we have a much better week next week.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
That's a low bar to clear.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
See you Monday, Greg, Indeed, Jim Garretty of National Review,
I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so much for
being with us today. Please be sure to subscribe to
the podcast. If you don't already, tell your friends about
us as well. We'd love to have them listening. Thanks
for your five star ratings and your kind reviews. They
really do help us out a lot. Get us on
your home devices. All you have to say is play
three Martini Lunch Podcast. Follow us both on X He's
(31:26):
at Jim Garrity, I'm at Greg Corumbus. Have a terrific weekend.
Join us again Monday. Please on the next three Martini
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