September 7, 2023 • 19 mins
Join Jim and Greg as they marvel at President Biden's dismal poll numbers, including 58 percent of Americans saying the economy is worse under his leadership and 67 percent of Democrats wanting someone other than Biden as the party's nominee next year. But Democrats also have no idea whom they would want to replace Biden. They also react to Special Counsel David Weiss announcing that there will likely be an indictment against Hunter Biden on a gun charge by the end of the month, but they also note Andy McCarthy's assessment that this is not about Weiss finally getting tough on Hunter. Instead, it's about running out the clock ona wide array of potential charges. Finally, they are highly skeptical of the White House explanation that President Biden exited a Medal of Honor ceremony earlier than usual due to COVID precautions and that it was planned that way.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the three Martini Lunch Grubas stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio
America and Jim Garrity of National Review. Three Martini's coming up, good,
bad, and crazy Martinis for youtoday as usual and Jim. Anytime CNN
starts a story with Oof on theirmorning newscast and it relates to the president's
(00:24):
polling numbers are good, Martini earskind of perk up there. The numbers
are not good. Thirty nine percentapproval, sixty one percent disapproval. Seventy
six percent are concerned that he wouldnot be able to serve another full term.
I've got other concerns about him gettinganother term, but that's on top
of that. Seventy three percent areworried about his physical and mental health.
(00:45):
Sixty eight percent doesn't think he understandstheir concerns. Fifty eight percent think the
economy's gotten worse on his watch.Here's the one that's really gotten my attention
today. This was a kind ofa weirdly worded question. But is there
a specific person you'd like to seethe Democrats nominate for president in twenty twenty
four or do you just want tosee somebody besides Joe Biden. Eighty two
(01:07):
percent said yeah, anybody besides Biden, which I guess means they're locked in
they're going to vote for the Democrateither way. But they really had a
hard time coming up with anybody.The other eighteen percent, they had Bernie
and Buddha Jedge at three percent,Gavin Newsome and Wittmer Gretchen Wentner of Michigan
at two percent each, The VicePresident of the United States Jim Is at
one percent, tied with Robert F. Kennedy Junior, Elizabeth Warren, and
(01:30):
Mary Ann Williamson. And everyone's losingto Unsure. So what do you What
do you make of the really badnumbers for Biden and the fact that nobody's
really got a good idea of whoshould run instead. Well, first,
Greg, I'm not gonna lie.I am a little disappointed that our old
friend and perennial Democratic candidate, Irvingschmid Lap could not reach that one percent
(01:52):
threshold and make a list. Also, if your name is Ralph Unsure,
this is the year for you torun. There are a lot of people
who say yes, yes, I'mI'm unsure. This this is this was
a really bad pole for Biden.And what's not just like this aligns with
everything we saw in the Wall StreetJournal poll from the weekend. This is
(02:12):
really he is in really weak shape. Now, the Democrats might be able
to say, oh, but theRepublicans going to nominate Trump, and uh,
he's Biden has already beaten them,and the country has just hell bent.
It's adamant it's not going to goback to Trump. You know,
that's that's pushing all your chips andbetting it on. You know, people
having this attitude towards Trump and thatit's intractable. And you know, a
(02:36):
lot of numbers in this poll,but one just jumps out and I think
is, you know, like it'sbad in normal circumstances. It's particularly bad
because Biden has spent a chunk ofthe summer campaigning on what you know,
he calls Bidenomics and emphasizing his economicrecord. You know, it's the NN
pole asked people, do you thinkJoe Biden's policies have either improved economic conditions
in the country, worse than economicconditions in the country, or had no
(02:58):
effect on the economic conditions in thecountry. Well, the number has been
bad for a while, but they'rethey're really at the you know, twenty
four percent believe Biden's policies have improvedeconomic conditions in the country a little bit
under their quarter fifty eight percent saidworsened economic conditions in the country. That
is the highest they've gotten asking thisquestion. The number of people who I
(03:19):
said it had no effect have beendown to eighteen percent. That's bad.
That's really really bad for an incumbentpresident. So you and as for the
idea that Democrats don't have a naturalsuccessor, as you can saw in that
poll answer, there's zero interest ornext to zero interest in Vice President Kamala
Harris taking over. A couple ofconservative bloggers I talked to made the observation
(03:45):
that you look back to the TeaParty wave of twenty ten and the similar
Republican wave in twenty fourteen, therewere a lot of rising stars in the
Democratic Party who had their careers struckdown in those waves. A lot of
aspiring governors, a lot of aspiringsenators, House members had their careers come
to a screeching halt, and itkind of altered that trajectory and that they
were you know, these are thekind of folks who would be running for
(04:06):
president in a year like twenty twentyfour. I think we are seeing the
consequences of that. I think it'salso worth noting that in the twenty twenty
Democratic presidential primary cycle, almost everyDemocrat who thought that they were a rising
star chose to run for office,whether it's Corey Booker, Kirsten jillibrand,
you know Insley, all kinds ofgovernors, all kinds of senators, and
(04:30):
it really, you know, veryfew of them caught fire. Some of
it is just the natural limit that, you know, when there's only one
hundred percent to go around, abunch of them get stuck with one percent.
Some of it's limited appeal to donors. Some of you know that there's
too many choices, and people kindof, you know, eventually kind of
tune out the lesser known ones.But either way, like this is really,
you know, this should be encouragingRepublicans today that, look, the
twenty twenty four presidential election is likelyto be competitive, and that Biden is
(04:54):
a very weak opponent, and thepublic is not pleased, and they think
he's too old, and they justI don't eve think he's gonna make it
through four years. Never mind whetherthey want him for another four years.
That having been said, nominating DonaldTrump will not necessarily make any of this
any easier. No, And it'sinteresting because you have both parties, you
know, talking about, oh thatthat person can't run again for another four
(05:16):
years. That would be completely ridiculous. Yet each party probably needs the other
person to run because it's their bestchance to win. So it's kind of
you know, what's good for thecountry if you don't win, versus so
who's easier to beat. It's kindof a interesting tension. There's a weirdly
symbiotic relationship in between Trump and Biden, and then Biden can say, look,
(05:36):
maybe you don't love me, butyou know you don't want Trump back,
do you? And Trump can say, look, you know you may
not love everything I did, butyou prefer what I was spending when I
was running things to this guy,don't you. And we will see how
the country votes. Right now,I think there's a decent chunk of the
country that doesn't like either one ofthem and would like some younger candidate,
somebody younger, a fresher face,you know, somebody like I don't know,
Joe Manchin, who's thinking about runningon the not labels. He's an
(05:57):
entire two or three years younger thanyes, exactly. Yeah, if you're
younger than seventy, you're just clearlynot ready for the job according to the
major parties, or even no labels. So we'll see how that all plays
out. All right, bad martininow, And you might think at first,
hey, why why would this bea bad martini. Well, we'll
explain why it's a bad martini thatthe special counsel, now, David Weiss,
(06:19):
the US attorney who, technically,under the law should not actually be
a special counsel because you're not supposedto be a government employee if you have
that job, but he asked tobe in America on the Attorney General gave
him that job. He announced yesterdaythat he intends to indict Hunter Biden on
a felony gun charge by the endof the month. And so you're thinking,
(06:40):
okay, felony gun charge, herewe go. This is a lot
more serious than the slap on thewrist that they were talking about a few
weeks ago until that plead deal blewup. But Andy McCarthy, your colleague
at National Review Online, one ofyour fill ins while you're in the Ukraine,
and I'm just a brilliant guy,says. This is not good news.
He says, lest you think Weisshas suddenly grown a prosecutorial spine,
(07:03):
think again. He made the indictmentannouncement because he had no choice. He'd
still love to bury the gun chargethe same way he has buried the significant
aspects of the probe he's been trustedwith, namely the Biden family business of
cashing in on Joe Biden's political influence. But he was cornered by Judge mary
Ellen Narreika. And basically his argumenthere is, look, it's been what
(07:25):
four or five years since Hunter Bidengot caught lying on a gun form about
illegal drug use. This doesn't takean exhaustive investigation. We know he was
using illegal drugs he led on theform. This should be pretty much cut
and dried before any grand jury inthe country. But of course there's more
to it since he is the president'sson. But in the end Andy points
(07:46):
out that it looks like Weiss,despite this statements, just trying to run
out the clock. He says hestill hasn't indicted, just like he hasn't
indicted any charges against Hunter or anyoneelse. In the Biden corruption investigation.
If David Weiss actually wanted to indictHunter Biden on the gun charge, he
would have indicted Hunter on the gunyears ago today. As ever, he's
just stalling so basically trying to getpast the statute of limitation. So I
(08:09):
guess we'll find out in a fewweeks how accurate this is. But given
the simplicity of the allegation here,Jim, I think he's spot on,
as they went in doubt trust AndyMcCarthy in all things, and it's not
just because he's at least last Ichecked, still a Jets fan. One
thing I would note, there's almosta weird farcical element to this because you
(08:31):
look at how much the Department ofJustice either they took either they had the
world's most slow moving investigation, orthey dragged their feet and were hoping that
they could just kind of you know, drag it out, drag it out
and up the statue of limitations ranout, Oh well, nothing we can
do. But eventually they did.They indicted Hunter on two charge or you
(08:52):
moved to say they were going topress charges in these two areas, arguably
the ones that are least consequential.And it certainly appeared that they were slapping
him on the wrist and checking thebox. Yes see, we investigated,
yes see, we held him accountable, and we're going to keep him accountable.
And the irony is that Hunter Bidenand his lawyers managed to screw this
up by saying, oh, andthis plea deal means that we are immune
(09:15):
from any prosecution for anything else we'veever done forever, right, And even
that the Department of Jessica it waslike, no, no, we didn't
agree with that. And that's howthey end up. The whole plea deal
ended up falling apart very quickly andunexpectedly in the courtroom based on this.
Now, Hunter Biden and his lawyersalready had a really sweet deal on the
table, and yet somehow they foundthe gumphin the cahonists, the nerve to
(09:37):
ask for more. And that's whywe are where we are now. Look,
I get why a lot of prosecutors, you know, given the choice
between pressing charges against some notorious drugdealer or mobster or you know, aspiring
terrorists or something like that, versusindicting the president's son. I understand the
reluctance because, like you, yourcareer, you're instantly going to become a
(10:00):
political lightning rod. You could havethe most airtight case possible, which I
certainly think is kind of close towhat you have. When the defendant confessed
to doing cocaine every fifteen minutes ata time, when they swore on a
federal document under penalty of perjury thatthey were not doing any illegal drugs,
Look that that seems like a prettyyou know, slam dunk case right there.
(10:22):
And obviously it's taken a very longtime to do this. Obviously,
you know, there's a question aboutwhether the oh, let's get a deal
done on this so that we don'thave to look too hard at his you
know, various shady business partners,the massive amounts of payments that have gone
not just a Hunter but also tohis uncle into apparently thirteen or fourteen other
members of the Biden family. Look, there's a rather you know, sordid
stuff going on here. And ifif at minimum, it looks like Hunter
(10:45):
Biden was you know, not justyou know, cashing in on his dad's
name, but pedaling influence or claimingto be able to pedal influence. And
there's a very genuine fair questions aboutwhat the president knew, whether the president
was complicit in all this, whyhe was using a pen name, apparently,
all these communications about his son's clients, and his past statements insisting he
had never discussed business with his sonat all. Look, there's a lot
(11:07):
that stinks here. And if Andysays this is, you know, an
attempt to avoid consequences, an attemptto avoid accountability, there's good reason to
be worried. I do just kindof marvel though, that getting indicted on
these things is good news for HunterBiden compared to the other options. Well,
well we'll see. I mean,assuming that it's not Joe Biden's former
Senate staffers on the grand jury andthen suddenly refusing to indict, I assume
(11:31):
on something so cut and dried youwould have to. But the other thing
Andy mentioned while you're gone is thateven on the corruption charges and influence peddling,
a lot of that was whal Bidenwas vice president, and it did
continue into the Trump years, butbasically when Joe Biden decided to run for
president, it kind of ramped down. So that's early twenty nineteen, and
so a lot of these things havefive and six years statutes of limitations on
(11:54):
them, and so if they don'tcharge even on that stuff in the next
year or so, they're gonna runout of top which might be the whole
plan all along, I don't know. Let's talk about our fantastic sponsor for
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getliverhelp dot com slash Martini. Allright, Jim, onto our crazy Martini
now. And we've got countless episodesof Joe Biden not knowing which way to
go when he's leaving the stage,kind of losing his train of thought.
Lots of moments that make you wonderwhether the guy's still firing on all cylinders
(13:26):
mentally. And I think you andI are both of the opinion that he's
not, especially when you look atclips of him speaking even as recently as
five years ago and certainly back tothe beginning of his time as vice president.
But the latest episode is that,of course, his wife was diagnosed
with COVID, very minor symptoms.She's recuperating at the at the beach House
in Delaware, and he's back inDC getting ready to make a big old
(13:50):
trip over to Asia now for asummit. But it was two days ago
that he was in the East Roomdoing one of the most important things that
a president does, and that isstowing the medal of honor on our military
heroes. In this case, itwas a hero from Vietnam who was finally
getting his due recognition. And afterhe had placed the medal around the honoree's
(14:11):
neck, but before the ceremony wasover, long before the president normally leaves,
Biden just bolts off the stage,walks right down the aisle, you
know, passed lots of people,and just leaves the room before the benediction
and all sorts of ry of thethings. So the issue came up at
the White House Press briefing yesterday,Hey, why did the President take off
before he was supposed to and courageanPierre? Of course like I no,
(14:31):
no, no, How's exactly howit's supposed to go. And he left
as planned as it was planned.He left when there was a pause in
the program in order to minimize tominimize his close contact with attendees are who
are about to participate in a reception. And you all reported that noticed that
he left when there was a pausein the program because again he wanted to
(14:54):
minimize certainly his impact on folks whowere there and by walking right through them.
So I don't know exactly what they'retrying to claim here. A lot
of reporters saying there was no advancednotice that the president was planning to do
things out of the ordinary here,So what do you make of Biden's actions?
And KJP spin here, Well,this is where you can insert that
(15:16):
Will Ferrell gift from Anchorman. Idon't believe you. Look, first of
all, if this is some sortof COVID protection effort, why is the
eighty year old president not wearing amask as he's standing next to and putting
the metal on the eighty one yearold retired Army Captain Larry Taylor. You'd
(15:37):
think that the you know, youknow, both these guys are getting up
there in years and and all thatstuff. Nor does Biden put his mask
back on as he walks down throughthe aisle through all the assembled audience.
None of this comes across as beingvery purposefully. Certainly didn't look like Taylor
was expecting this or anybody else wasexpecting this, and he left before the
benediction. And now, you know, people will understandably ask, well,
(16:00):
is this is this what he's goingto do at the G twenty summit.
Is this where he's going to doit? Every stop on the four is
he gonna wear? Why? Whywould it be an issue where he's got
to leave very quickly. He's agreat risk of infecting people if he stays
for the benediction. But it's totallyokay for him to stand right next to
the eighty one year old man.I don't believe Karen John Pierre on this.
I think there's probably a much moremundane reason. You know, wouldn't
(16:21):
be the least bit surprising if Bidenhad to use the bathroom. It happens
to everyone. We all have thatsudden need to go, and it's really
not that unusual for an eighty yearold for an octogenarian to suddenly need to
be excused. No shame in it, nothing wrong with it. And I
think you know, look, Iput the link to the video in the
corner post. Watch it yourself,draw your own conclusions. I think he
(16:41):
looks a little bit uncomfortable as hequickly steps off the stage. And if
there John Pierre had just said thePresident needs to use the bathroom, Okay,
no, No, what a surprisenobody's all that bo bothered by it.
Maybe you get some jokes on socialmedia, but you know, nobody's
voting for Joe Biden based on thebelief that he's gotten exceptionally strong bladder or
something like that. That's you know, happens to everyone instead. Now,
(17:04):
no, no, it was aCOVID protect It was it was designed to
make sure he didn't affect anyone.Well, he's already testing negative, so
there's a very little reason to thinkthat he's a risk for anybody else.
And if you are well, thenyou probably would want to protect the any
one year old war veteran these standingright next to and he you know,
like nothing. And even back duringyou know, the first couple year year
in change in office, Biden wouldtalk about the importance of wearing a mask
(17:26):
and then forget to put the maskon, or he'd go shake someone's hand,
talk to them and then put themask. It's all They've never made
any sense. Then, it justkind of seemed like he was winging it
from minute to minute, whether ornot he remembered to wear a mask.
That certainly seems like what's going onhere. It's kind of depressing that the
white House feels the need to spineven this. But I hope the President
(17:47):
Romeo remains well. And uh,you know, if he chooses to mask,
fine, If he uses not tomask, fine, don't run around
mandating it for anybody else. Andthe lesson I would take from this is
sometimes, you know, a lotof people say Joe Biden has to go,
and actually I think Joe Biden oftenagrees. There's another time he did
that. I think it's when hewas awarding the Commander in chiefs Trophy.
(18:08):
And I want to say, isthe Air Force Academy if it was West
Pointer Navy, I'm sorry, butand there was there was a program of
things that were supposed to be exchanged, jerseys and trophies and all this other
stuff, and he clearly took offbefore he was supposed to, when everybody
on the stage from I think itwas the Air Force Academy clearly looking confused
because it was obvious that he wasnot only leaving, but he had no
intention of coming back. The otherthing that KJP said at the podium yesterday
(18:32):
quote the President took off his mask, as I said he would to deliver
incredibly powerful remarks. So jumping offof yesterday's mask debate and the kids at
the elementary school in Maryland. Jim, now we can add to eating and
drinking making incredibly powerful remarks. You'resafe if you don't have the mask gun.
So there you go. Yeah,because you know, I guess the
(18:53):
power of the remarks neutralizes the COVID. Oh my, three and a half
years later and they're still making itup. Anyway. Have a great Thursday.
I'll see tomorrow. See 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 podcastif you don't already, tell some friends
about us as well. Thanks verymuch for your five star ratings and your
(19:15):
kind reviews. Please keep those coming. Get us on your home devices.
All you have to say is playThree Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us both
on X He's at Jim Garretty,I'm at Dateline Underscore DC. Have a
great Thursday, and join us againtomorrow for the Three Martini Lunch
Welcome to the three Martini Lunch Grubas stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio
America and Jim Garrity of National Review. Three Martini's coming up, good,
bad, and crazy Martinis for youtoday as usual and Jim. Anytime CNN
starts a story with Oof on theirmorning newscast and it relates to the president's
(00:24):
polling numbers are good, Martini earskind of perk up there. The numbers
are not good. Thirty nine percentapproval, sixty one percent disapproval. Seventy
six percent are concerned that he wouldnot be able to serve another full term.
I've got other concerns about him gettinganother term, but that's on top
of that. Seventy three percent areworried about his physical and mental health.
(00:45):
Sixty eight percent doesn't think he understandstheir concerns. Fifty eight percent think the
economy's gotten worse on his watch.Here's the one that's really gotten my attention
today. This was a kind ofa weirdly worded question. But is there
a specific person you'd like to seethe Democrats nominate for president in twenty twenty
four or do you just want tosee somebody besides Joe Biden. Eighty two
(01:07):
percent said yeah, anybody besides Biden, which I guess means they're locked in
they're going to vote for the Democrateither way. But they really had a
hard time coming up with anybody.The other eighteen percent, they had Bernie
and Buddha Jedge at three percent,Gavin Newsome and Wittmer Gretchen Wentner of Michigan
at two percent each, The VicePresident of the United States Jim Is at
one percent, tied with Robert F. Kennedy Junior, Elizabeth Warren, and
(01:30):
Mary Ann Williamson. And everyone's losingto Unsure. So what do you What
do you make of the really badnumbers for Biden and the fact that nobody's
really got a good idea of whoshould run instead. Well, first,
Greg, I'm not gonna lie.I am a little disappointed that our old
friend and perennial Democratic candidate, Irvingschmid Lap could not reach that one percent
(01:52):
threshold and make a list. Also, if your name is Ralph Unsure,
this is the year for you torun. There are a lot of people
who say yes, yes, I'mI'm unsure. This this is this was
a really bad pole for Biden.And what's not just like this aligns with
everything we saw in the Wall StreetJournal poll from the weekend. This is
(02:12):
really he is in really weak shape. Now, the Democrats might be able
to say, oh, but theRepublicans going to nominate Trump, and uh,
he's Biden has already beaten them,and the country has just hell bent.
It's adamant it's not going to goback to Trump. You know,
that's that's pushing all your chips andbetting it on. You know, people
having this attitude towards Trump and thatit's intractable. And you know, a
(02:36):
lot of numbers in this poll,but one just jumps out and I think
is, you know, like it'sbad in normal circumstances. It's particularly bad
because Biden has spent a chunk ofthe summer campaigning on what you know,
he calls Bidenomics and emphasizing his economicrecord. You know, it's the NN
pole asked people, do you thinkJoe Biden's policies have either improved economic conditions
in the country, worse than economicconditions in the country, or had no
(02:58):
effect on the economic conditions in thecountry. Well, the number has been
bad for a while, but they'rethey're really at the you know, twenty
four percent believe Biden's policies have improvedeconomic conditions in the country a little bit
under their quarter fifty eight percent saidworsened economic conditions in the country. That
is the highest they've gotten asking thisquestion. The number of people who I
(03:19):
said it had no effect have beendown to eighteen percent. That's bad.
That's really really bad for an incumbentpresident. So you and as for the
idea that Democrats don't have a naturalsuccessor, as you can saw in that
poll answer, there's zero interest ornext to zero interest in Vice President Kamala
Harris taking over. A couple ofconservative bloggers I talked to made the observation
(03:45):
that you look back to the TeaParty wave of twenty ten and the similar
Republican wave in twenty fourteen, therewere a lot of rising stars in the
Democratic Party who had their careers struckdown in those waves. A lot of
aspiring governors, a lot of aspiringsenators, House members had their careers come
to a screeching halt, and itkind of altered that trajectory and that they
were you know, these are thekind of folks who would be running for
(04:06):
president in a year like twenty twentyfour. I think we are seeing the
consequences of that. I think it'salso worth noting that in the twenty twenty
Democratic presidential primary cycle, almost everyDemocrat who thought that they were a rising
star chose to run for office,whether it's Corey Booker, Kirsten jillibrand,
you know Insley, all kinds ofgovernors, all kinds of senators, and
(04:30):
it really, you know, veryfew of them caught fire. Some of
it is just the natural limit that, you know, when there's only one
hundred percent to go around, abunch of them get stuck with one percent.
Some of it's limited appeal to donors. Some of you know that there's
too many choices, and people kindof, you know, eventually kind of
tune out the lesser known ones.But either way, like this is really,
you know, this should be encouragingRepublicans today that, look, the
twenty twenty four presidential election is likelyto be competitive, and that Biden is
(04:54):
a very weak opponent, and thepublic is not pleased, and they think
he's too old, and they justI don't eve think he's gonna make it
through four years. Never mind whetherthey want him for another four years.
That having been said, nominating DonaldTrump will not necessarily make any of this
any easier. No, And it'sinteresting because you have both parties, you
know, talking about, oh thatthat person can't run again for another four
(05:16):
years. That would be completely ridiculous. Yet each party probably needs the other
person to run because it's their bestchance to win. So it's kind of
you know, what's good for thecountry if you don't win, versus so
who's easier to beat. It's kindof a interesting tension. There's a weirdly
symbiotic relationship in between Trump and Biden, and then Biden can say, look,
(05:36):
maybe you don't love me, butyou know you don't want Trump back,
do you? And Trump can say, look, you know you may
not love everything I did, butyou prefer what I was spending when I
was running things to this guy,don't you. And we will see how
the country votes. Right now,I think there's a decent chunk of the
country that doesn't like either one ofthem and would like some younger candidate,
somebody younger, a fresher face,you know, somebody like I don't know,
Joe Manchin, who's thinking about runningon the not labels. He's an
(05:57):
entire two or three years younger thanyes, exactly. Yeah, if you're
younger than seventy, you're just clearlynot ready for the job according to the
major parties, or even no labels. So we'll see how that all plays
out. All right, bad martininow, And you might think at first,
hey, why why would this bea bad martini. Well, we'll
explain why it's a bad martini thatthe special counsel, now, David Weiss,
(06:19):
the US attorney who, technically,under the law should not actually be
a special counsel because you're not supposedto be a government employee if you have
that job, but he asked tobe in America on the Attorney General gave
him that job. He announced yesterdaythat he intends to indict Hunter Biden on
a felony gun charge by the endof the month. And so you're thinking,
(06:40):
okay, felony gun charge, herewe go. This is a lot
more serious than the slap on thewrist that they were talking about a few
weeks ago until that plead deal blewup. But Andy McCarthy, your colleague
at National Review Online, one ofyour fill ins while you're in the Ukraine,
and I'm just a brilliant guy,says. This is not good news.
He says, lest you think Weisshas suddenly grown a prosecutorial spine,
(07:03):
think again. He made the indictmentannouncement because he had no choice. He'd
still love to bury the gun chargethe same way he has buried the significant
aspects of the probe he's been trustedwith, namely the Biden family business of
cashing in on Joe Biden's political influence. But he was cornered by Judge mary
Ellen Narreika. And basically his argumenthere is, look, it's been what
(07:25):
four or five years since Hunter Bidengot caught lying on a gun form about
illegal drug use. This doesn't takean exhaustive investigation. We know he was
using illegal drugs he led on theform. This should be pretty much cut
and dried before any grand jury inthe country. But of course there's more
to it since he is the president'sson. But in the end Andy points
(07:46):
out that it looks like Weiss,despite this statements, just trying to run
out the clock. He says hestill hasn't indicted, just like he hasn't
indicted any charges against Hunter or anyoneelse. In the Biden corruption investigation.
If David Weiss actually wanted to indictHunter Biden on the gun charge, he
would have indicted Hunter on the gunyears ago today. As ever, he's
just stalling so basically trying to getpast the statute of limitation. So I
(08:09):
guess we'll find out in a fewweeks how accurate this is. But given
the simplicity of the allegation here,Jim, I think he's spot on,
as they went in doubt trust AndyMcCarthy in all things, and it's not
just because he's at least last Ichecked, still a Jets fan. One
thing I would note, there's almosta weird farcical element to this because you
(08:31):
look at how much the Department ofJustice either they took either they had the
world's most slow moving investigation, orthey dragged their feet and were hoping that
they could just kind of you know, drag it out, drag it out
and up the statue of limitations ranout, Oh well, nothing we can
do. But eventually they did.They indicted Hunter on two charge or you
(08:52):
moved to say they were going topress charges in these two areas, arguably
the ones that are least consequential.And it certainly appeared that they were slapping
him on the wrist and checking thebox. Yes see, we investigated,
yes see, we held him accountable, and we're going to keep him accountable.
And the irony is that Hunter Bidenand his lawyers managed to screw this
up by saying, oh, andthis plea deal means that we are immune
(09:15):
from any prosecution for anything else we'veever done forever, right, And even
that the Department of Jessica it waslike, no, no, we didn't
agree with that. And that's howthey end up. The whole plea deal
ended up falling apart very quickly andunexpectedly in the courtroom based on this.
Now, Hunter Biden and his lawyersalready had a really sweet deal on the
table, and yet somehow they foundthe gumphin the cahonists, the nerve to
(09:37):
ask for more. And that's whywe are where we are now. Look,
I get why a lot of prosecutors, you know, given the choice
between pressing charges against some notorious drugdealer or mobster or you know, aspiring
terrorists or something like that, versusindicting the president's son. I understand the
reluctance because, like you, yourcareer, you're instantly going to become a
(10:00):
political lightning rod. You could havethe most airtight case possible, which I
certainly think is kind of close towhat you have. When the defendant confessed
to doing cocaine every fifteen minutes ata time, when they swore on a
federal document under penalty of perjury thatthey were not doing any illegal drugs,
Look that that seems like a prettyyou know, slam dunk case right there.
(10:22):
And obviously it's taken a very longtime to do this. Obviously,
you know, there's a question aboutwhether the oh, let's get a deal
done on this so that we don'thave to look too hard at his you
know, various shady business partners,the massive amounts of payments that have gone
not just a Hunter but also tohis uncle into apparently thirteen or fourteen other
members of the Biden family. Look, there's a rather you know, sordid
stuff going on here. And ifif at minimum, it looks like Hunter
(10:45):
Biden was you know, not justyou know, cashing in on his dad's
name, but pedaling influence or claimingto be able to pedal influence. And
there's a very genuine fair questions aboutwhat the president knew, whether the president
was complicit in all this, whyhe was using a pen name, apparently,
all these communications about his son's clients, and his past statements insisting he
had never discussed business with his sonat all. Look, there's a lot
(11:07):
that stinks here. And if Andysays this is, you know, an
attempt to avoid consequences, an attemptto avoid accountability, there's good reason to
be worried. I do just kindof marvel though, that getting indicted on
these things is good news for HunterBiden compared to the other options. Well,
well we'll see. I mean,assuming that it's not Joe Biden's former
Senate staffers on the grand jury andthen suddenly refusing to indict, I assume
(11:31):
on something so cut and dried youwould have to. But the other thing
Andy mentioned while you're gone is thateven on the corruption charges and influence peddling,
a lot of that was whal Bidenwas vice president, and it did
continue into the Trump years, butbasically when Joe Biden decided to run for
president, it kind of ramped down. So that's early twenty nineteen, and
so a lot of these things havefive and six years statutes of limitations on
(11:54):
them, and so if they don'tcharge even on that stuff in the next
year or so, they're gonna runout of top which might be the whole
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getliverhelp dot com slash Martini. Allright, Jim, onto our crazy Martini
now. And we've got countless episodesof Joe Biden not knowing which way to
go when he's leaving the stage,kind of losing his train of thought.
Lots of moments that make you wonderwhether the guy's still firing on all cylinders
(13:26):
mentally. And I think you andI are both of the opinion that he's
not, especially when you look atclips of him speaking even as recently as
five years ago and certainly back tothe beginning of his time as vice president.
But the latest episode is that,of course, his wife was diagnosed
with COVID, very minor symptoms.She's recuperating at the at the beach House
in Delaware, and he's back inDC getting ready to make a big old
(13:50):
trip over to Asia now for asummit. But it was two days ago
that he was in the East Roomdoing one of the most important things that
a president does, and that isstowing the medal of honor on our military
heroes. In this case, itwas a hero from Vietnam who was finally
getting his due recognition. And afterhe had placed the medal around the honoree's
(14:11):
neck, but before the ceremony wasover, long before the president normally leaves,
Biden just bolts off the stage,walks right down the aisle, you
know, passed lots of people,and just leaves the room before the benediction
and all sorts of ry of thethings. So the issue came up at
the White House Press briefing yesterday,Hey, why did the President take off
before he was supposed to and courageanPierre? Of course like I no,
(14:31):
no, no, How's exactly howit's supposed to go. And he left
as planned as it was planned.He left when there was a pause in
the program in order to minimize tominimize his close contact with attendees are who
are about to participate in a reception. And you all reported that noticed that
he left when there was a pausein the program because again he wanted to
(14:54):
minimize certainly his impact on folks whowere there and by walking right through them.
So I don't know exactly what they'retrying to claim here. A lot
of reporters saying there was no advancednotice that the president was planning to do
things out of the ordinary here,So what do you make of Biden's actions?
And KJP spin here, Well,this is where you can insert that
(15:16):
Will Ferrell gift from Anchorman. Idon't believe you. Look, first of
all, if this is some sortof COVID protection effort, why is the
eighty year old president not wearing amask as he's standing next to and putting
the metal on the eighty one yearold retired Army Captain Larry Taylor. You'd
(15:37):
think that the you know, youknow, both these guys are getting up
there in years and and all thatstuff. Nor does Biden put his mask
back on as he walks down throughthe aisle through all the assembled audience.
None of this comes across as beingvery purposefully. Certainly didn't look like Taylor
was expecting this or anybody else wasexpecting this, and he left before the
benediction. And now, you know, people will understandably ask, well,
(16:00):
is this is this what he's goingto do at the G twenty summit.
Is this where he's going to doit? Every stop on the four is
he gonna wear? Why? Whywould it be an issue where he's got
to leave very quickly. He's agreat risk of infecting people if he stays
for the benediction. But it's totallyokay for him to stand right next to
the eighty one year old man.I don't believe Karen John Pierre on this.
I think there's probably a much moremundane reason. You know, wouldn't
(16:21):
be the least bit surprising if Bidenhad to use the bathroom. It happens
to everyone. We all have thatsudden need to go, and it's really
not that unusual for an eighty yearold for an octogenarian to suddenly need to
be excused. No shame in it, nothing wrong with it. And I
think you know, look, Iput the link to the video in the
corner post. Watch it yourself,draw your own conclusions. I think he
(16:41):
looks a little bit uncomfortable as hequickly steps off the stage. And if
there John Pierre had just said thePresident needs to use the bathroom, Okay,
no, No, what a surprisenobody's all that bo bothered by it.
Maybe you get some jokes on socialmedia, but you know, nobody's
voting for Joe Biden based on thebelief that he's gotten exceptionally strong bladder or
something like that. That's you know, happens to everyone instead. Now,
(17:04):
no, no, it was aCOVID protect It was it was designed to
make sure he didn't affect anyone.Well, he's already testing negative, so
there's a very little reason to thinkthat he's a risk for anybody else.
And if you are well, thenyou probably would want to protect the any
one year old war veteran these standingright next to and he you know,
like nothing. And even back duringyou know, the first couple year year
in change in office, Biden wouldtalk about the importance of wearing a mask
(17:26):
and then forget to put the maskon, or he'd go shake someone's hand,
talk to them and then put themask. It's all They've never made
any sense. Then, it justkind of seemed like he was winging it
from minute to minute, whether ornot he remembered to wear a mask.
That certainly seems like what's going onhere. It's kind of depressing that the
white House feels the need to spineven this. But I hope the President
(17:47):
Romeo remains well. And uh,you know, if he chooses to mask,
fine, If he uses not tomask, fine, don't run around
mandating it for anybody else. Andthe lesson I would take from this is
sometimes, you know, a lotof people say Joe Biden has to go,
and actually I think Joe Biden oftenagrees. There's another time he did
that. I think it's when hewas awarding the Commander in chiefs Trophy.
(18:08):
And I want to say, isthe Air Force Academy if it was West
Pointer Navy, I'm sorry, butand there was there was a program of
things that were supposed to be exchanged, jerseys and trophies and all this other
stuff, and he clearly took offbefore he was supposed to, when everybody
on the stage from I think itwas the Air Force Academy clearly looking confused
because it was obvious that he wasnot only leaving, but he had no
intention of coming back. The otherthing that KJP said at the podium yesterday
(18:32):
quote the President took off his mask, as I said he would to deliver
incredibly powerful remarks. So jumping offof yesterday's mask debate and the kids at
the elementary school in Maryland. Jim, now we can add to eating and
drinking making incredibly powerful remarks. You'resafe if you don't have the mask gun.
So there you go. Yeah,because you know, I guess the
(18:53):
power of the remarks neutralizes the COVID. Oh my, three and a half
years later and they're still making itup. Anyway. Have a great Thursday.
I'll see tomorrow. See 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 podcastif you don't already, tell some friends
about us as well. Thanks verymuch for your five star ratings and your
(19:15):
kind reviews. Please keep those coming. Get us on your home devices.
All you have to say is playThree Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us both
on X He's at Jim Garretty,I'm at Dateline Underscore DC. Have a
great Thursday, and join us againtomorrow for the Three Martini Lunch
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