September 15, 2023 • 19 mins
Join Jim and Greg as they react to Special Counsel David Weiss announcing three felony indictments against Hunter Biden on gun crimes. What will happen next? They also keep a close eye on United Auto Workers members walking off the job against General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis (formerly Fiat-Chrysler). What does this say about the confidence of organized labor? And is the Biden administration on a collision course between labor unions and the green agenda? Finally, Jim unloads on lefty media critcism of new "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker interviewing Donald Trump, with one saying it helped "normalize fascism."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of
Radio America and Jim Garritty of NationalReview. Three Martini's coming up. Well
we manage to Friday again. Congratulationsto all of us. It's the three
Martini Lunch, Good, bad,and crazy Martinis for us today and Jim,
we're heading into another NFL weekend.Obviously, the Jets have had a
(00:25):
lot of drama over the past week. Traumatic win, but losing Aaron Rodgers
for the season. So we'll seehow much Zach Wilson has learned from Aaron
Rodgers during this training camp. Apparentlythey had a pretty close relationship, so
that should play out well for you. The Bears are playing Tampa, and
given that Tampa actually one last weekand the Bears looked terrible that I had
that as a win in the columnfor the Bears. I don't know if
(00:47):
that'll turn out that way. TheVikings, who lost to the Buccaneers last
week, lost last night to theEagles. But Jim, the most depressing
stat popped up in that game.Justin Jefferson, the excellent receiver for the
Vikings, just his fourth season,second game of his fourth season twenty four
years old, now has more receivingyards than anyone in the history of the
Chicago Bears, with over five thousandyards. Our record holder retired after the
(01:14):
nineteen sixty seven season, So apparentlypassing not a big priority ever in the
history of the Chicago Bears and intoday's NFL. Might want to work on
that just a little bit. Whenyou think Bears, you think that great
defense, you think sweetness Walter Payton, you probably don't really think of you
know, the passing game was nota big part of that eighty five team.
Again, this is not how wewanted to start the podcast. Now
(01:37):
that you've got my mind rolling,is Jay Cutler the best quarterback in the
history of the Bears or would itbe like McMahon, I would not say
he's the best. He is,however, the franchise record holder in career
passing yards with just over twenty threethousand yards, So we are not a
passing team. McMahon was better whenthe games mattered. Sid Luckman way back
in the day, and who wasthe career passing leader until Jay Cutler,
(02:02):
even though he played his entire careerin the thirties and forties, is our
most championship accumulating quarterbacks, So Ithink he's still the goat in terms of
Bears history. But anyway, let'sget into our good martini for the day.
And yesterday we got what we hadbeen promised several days earlier from US
attorney David Weiss in Delaware, theSpecial Council three felony gun charges against Hunter
(02:28):
Biden. This is all related tohis lying on the forms related to whether
or not he was an illegal druguser back in the day, and so
three different counts coming. Whether ornot this will actually you get to trial
is an interesting question. His attorneys, led by Abbey Lowell Jim just to
(02:49):
prove that nobody ever goes away inWashington. Abbey Lowell it's Johnter Biden's lawyer,
and he says that the original pleadeal is binding because even though the
court didn't agree to it and theprosecution withdrew it, that Hunter Biden has
abided by all the terms of it. I'm not sure that's how the law
works, but that's the fight that'sgoing to happen here. A normal person,
if convicted, would be facing somepretty serious jail time here. My
(03:12):
guess is, even if he isconvicted and it gets that far somehow Hunter
Biden won't. But given the ridiculousplea agreement we saw earlier, I think
this is a step closer to whata normal person would face for justice.
I would urge people to read AndyMcCarthy's I believe it's his latest. Maybe
the time you've heard this, willhave written something more but entitled what to
make of the Hunter Biden gun Indictment. Andy was skeptical that the Department of
(03:36):
Justice would ever get around doing thisand would kind of sit around and wait
for the statute of limitations to runout. They know the dj did not
do that. It's not just thetwo counts of lying about the status as
a user of addicted and being addictedto illegal narcotics. It also includes account
of unlawful possession of the firearm.Now, admittedly this was only for a
period of about eleven days, butthis is an indication that David Weiss,
(03:59):
at least east in these circumstances,has not taken the AAH that's not important
enough, We're not going to prosecute. This does indicate, at least to
me, I think this is asign that they recognize that that plea deal
looked really bad, and it lookedlike the dj was bending over backwards to
avoid bringing charges against Hunter Biden forwhat is straight up, really clear cut
evidence that of law breaking. Andso this is look considering how a whole
(04:24):
bunch of people thought we were nevergoing to see it, this is a
good sign. But the other thingit's really kind of fun is that Hunter's
lawyer, Abby Lowell is apparently goingto launch a defense that this is a
violation of Hunter Biden's Second Amendment rightsand point to Supreme Court decisions in the
Bruin case twenty two. So anotherrich You're going to have the president's son
(04:45):
arguing that the Department of Justice isunfairly attacking the Second Amendment rights of ordinary
citizens, which is probably going tobe a complication for President Biden running for
reelection on a platform of gun control. Still, we have to wait and
see in the tax charges if theuse if they start using this gun charge
is an excuse to not pursue taxcharges, that would be bad. Not
(05:05):
gonna lie about that one. Butnonetheless, I think people, you know
the whole point of this from HunterBiden's perspective, and I think Joe Biden's
perspective was to get this off theirdesk, get it done, sweep it
away, slap them on the wrist, and move on. And clearly they
haven't done that, and it lookslike we're going to head towards the president's
son being on trial as we headinto a re election in twenty twenty four.
(05:27):
Another thing Andy has said in termsof the special counsel, it's like,
you don't need to appoint a specialcounsel on a charge of this cut
and drive. So the question isis why that additional designation if there isn't
something else, And so that questionremains on all the business stuff. But
again, all that business stuff Ithink is getting fairly close to the Statute
(05:48):
of Limitations too. So if theydon't act relatively soon on that, some
of that could slip by, andI think that would be even more serious
stuff. All right, Jim,onto our bad martini now and relates to
our economy and back to my homestate of Michigan, but also other places
around the country. Associated press,About thirteen thousand US autoworkers stopped making vehicles
(06:12):
and went on strike Friday after theirleaders couldn't bridge a giant gap between union
demands and contract talks and what Detroit'sthree automakers are willing to pay. Members
of the United Autoworkers Union began picketingat a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville,
Missouri, a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit, and
a Stalantis jeep plant in Toledo,Ohio. It is the first time in
(06:32):
the union's eighty eight year history thatall three companies were targeted simultaneously. The
strikes will likely chart the future ofthe union and of America's homegrown auto industry
at a time when US labor isflexing its might and the company's face a
historic transition from building internal combustion automobilesto making electric vehicles, which I think
is part of the issue here,Jim, because we've talked about the raw
(06:54):
materials needed to make evs, whichis clearly where the mandates from this administration
and influential state. It's like Californiaare going and you can't make as many
and so if you can't make asmany, do you need as many people?
But as of right now, theUAW wants obviously the best possible contract
they can get with salary and benefitsand everything else. But if all three
are targeted, that's going to bea problem not only for workers if they
(07:16):
don't get a deal, but alsofor production and so depending on how long
this goes, this could be apretty big deal. I characterize this is
the bad Martini because inevitably it's goingto have a bad economic effect, probably
nationwide, but most specifically in yourold home state of Michigan. An enormous
number of companies are involved in thesupply chain for the auto industry in one
way or another. You know,if they if the assembly line stop running
(07:40):
and workers go on strike, andit goes on for a long time,
it's going to have a far reachingeffect on them. Basically almost everybody in
that part of the country hopefully getsworked out quickly. I am, you
know, as people would suspect fromthe tone of this podcast, not inclined
to take the union's words as bondand that the idea that they're in the
(08:01):
right here. I do notice thisis occurring at the same time as the
writer's strike and the actor's strike inHollywood, and I think that organized labor
with Joe Biden and the White Housereally thinks it's got the wind at it's
back, and now is the timeto flex its muscles, and now is
the time to argue we deserve abigger share of the pie. We've been
doing the work. You guys havehuge profits. Give us more money as
(08:22):
well as other concerns. And Ithink the other fascinating subtext of all this
is this long simmering tension within theDemocratic Party between organized labor and environmental movement
that basically wants to do away withinternal combustion cars, that basically wants to
force Americans to make electric to onlydrive electric cars. That tension is now
(08:43):
intenable, that that tension is nowbursting out in the form of this strike.
It'll be really interesting to see whenwhen Joe Biden, when push comes
to shove, whether he chooses theGreens or the Unions. My fear is
that him being as indecisive as presshe's proven on a whole bunch of really
big decisions. He hates to alienateany key Democratic constituency that he's going to
ditherer, that he's going to youknow, kick the can down the road
(09:07):
and not try to pick aside,meaning that this strike will probably go on
for a considerable amount of time.So We'll see how it shakes out.
But I think this is bad economicnews, and the odds of a bad
outcome are are really not so notso hard to foresee coming here, Jim,
here are the terms. The UAWwants a thirty six percent wage increase
(09:28):
over four years, Jim and Fordoffering twenty percent, and Stilantis formerly Fiat
Chrysler offering seventeen point five percent.So pretty decent increases in pay, I
would say, but barely half asto what the workers want. So I'm
not sure how long this impassle last. Yeah, it's really hard to our
management. You're being so utterly unreasonable. So yes, twenty percent pay hike,
(09:52):
I'd say yes, anyway, whatthe five opinion doesn't matter too much
in this. All right, Well, let's talk about fantastic sponsor for the
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com slash Martini. That's Express vpndot com slash Martini for three extra months
for free, Express vpn dot comslash Martini. All right, Jim,
onto our crazy Martini down And thiswas the lead item in the Morning Jolt
today. It turns out that thereis a changing of the guard at Meet
(11:20):
the Press. Chuck Todd is nowdone as the host. He's still with
NBC News, of course. KristenWelker, a longtime White House correspondent is
going to replace him. You mightremember her as one of the moderators.
I think it was the last TrumpBiden debate from the twenty twenty cycle.
So anyway, whenever you have abig moment like this in a show,
(11:41):
you want a big name guest.So she goes and interviews Donald Trump.
It's hard to get a much biggername than that, especially if the President
won't do it. And so thereyou go. Donald Trump is going to
be the guest on Kristen Welker's firstedition as host of Meet the Press.
Well, some people don't like that, and some people think that this is
actually dangerous for the country. Jim, you quote liberal talking head as you
(12:03):
describe him, Dean Obadalla irate andargues, quote, given what Trump did
in terms of an attempted coup andinciting the January sixth attack, what NBC
and Meet the Press are doing isfar far more dangerous. They are helping
normalize fascism. It's that simple.Now. He says that if it was
later in the cycle and Trump's officiallythe nominee, or they're highlighting every Republican
(12:26):
candidate, that that would be aslightly different story, but we're seeing legal
efforts underway to not allow Trump onthe ballot. Now interviewing him on network
television is akin to promoting fascism.So I guess the left and free speech
aren't as good of friends as Iused to be. Yeah, and look,
(12:46):
you know, my sympathies to anybodywho works at the NBC switchboard who
actually gets you know, I wouldsay any of Obadallah's readers calling in to
complain. Maybe maybe both of thereaders. I don't know, it's possible.
I've elevated this argument by writing aboutit, but it really struck me
as nonsensical and worth dispelling. Iknow we have listeners who love Donald Trump.
(13:07):
I know we have listeners who can'tstand Donald Trump. I don't think
that our feelings about him necessarily willalter. You know, He's not going
away because of how we feel abouthim. So it means when one of
two things a journalistic institution can,if given the opportunity, you can choose
to interview him. They can interviewhim with skepticism. They can interview him
(13:30):
and challenge his arguments. They canfact check him, they can try to
make the argument, or they cansay, nope, we will not have
we will. You know, hewill become like Voldemort, he who must
not be named, and we're justgoing to close our eyes and shut it
out, and we're putting fingers onour ears and we won't hear Donald Trump,
and that will make him go away. Not the way the world works.
By the way, Trump already tapedthe interview. He did it on
Thursday. NBC News has already donea couple of excerpts. So I guess
(13:52):
the Deanobadala position is that they shouldjust lock it away in a vault somewhere,
let her all to discover it someday or something. That doesn't make
a lot of sense to me.I don't think it makes much sense.
Donald Trump right now is the overwhelmingfavorite to be the Republican nominee in twenty
twenty four. That could change,but he's been, you know, both
nationwide in a bunch of these earlystates, close to fifty percent, sometimes
(14:15):
a little more than fifty percent,sometimes a little less behind him. And
I think all these Republicans have heardthe arguments for Ron DeSantis and Tim Scott
and Nicky Haley and all these otherfolks, and they're not interested now of
that other roughly half the party.They're spread out amongst everybody else. Could
they unite behind another option? Itcould happen. But those of us who
lived through twenty fifteen twenty sixteen,this looks and sounds and feels very familiar.
(14:39):
So if you're going to have DonaldTrump as the Republican nominee, what
he says is news. You don'thave to like it. Nobody's saying,
you know, I don't think KristieWelker is going to agree very much with
what Donald Trump says, But sheand the rest of NBC News and the
team and Beat the Press decided,given the opportunity to interview and president a
former President Trump, we want tointerview him. We want to see what
he has to say. We wantto see what is you know, answers
(15:00):
are to these questions, and wethink our viewers want to know this too.
And I think they're completely right onthat even the people who hate Donald
Trump tune in to see what he'ssaying. By the way, if you're
upset, as Obadalla hint said,oh you haven't had Biden on, do
you really think Meet the Press hasn'tinvited Joe Biden on at any point in
the last three and a half years. By the way, he's made two
appearances on Meet the Press in thelast adding it up something like six seven
(15:22):
years. That is not because Meetthe Press, you know, hasn't invited
him or Chuck Todd didn't want tohave him on or anything like that.
Every show would love to have thepresident on there. I'd love to have
the you know, the former vicepresident on. It's Biden doesn't want to
do it. You may have noticedBiden doesn't do a lot of TV interviews
period, So because when you puthim down on Jimmy Kimmel's couch, he
starts rambling about interracial couples and commercialsand stuff. I think it's the White
(15:46):
House Press Court doesn't trust him todo an interview like this and thinks he's
gonna look stupid. So that's why. So if you're complaining, why isn't
why why isn't Meet the Press hadBiden him? Because Biden doesn't want to
do it, and they've had awhole bunch of the other Republican presidential candidates
on. I am that I don'tI would be shocked if they had not
invited to Ron DeSantis to be on. I think that's because Ron DeSantis said
(16:06):
of them, They've had Pence ontwice, They've had Roma Swammy on twice,
Doug Bergham twice, Will heard twiceAsa Hutchinson twice. You know,
I don't think Meet the Press tosay at all, We're only gonna you
know, like I think, ifyou're at one percent, Meet the Press
will sit down and talk with you. So if you're upset that somebody else
hasn't been on Meet the Press,it's the Candida, it's not Meet the
Press, don't blame them. Andthe next thing is is that you know
(16:26):
Trump is willing to go on goodLet's let's see how he answers the questions,
Like give him credit. He's willingto interact with press even when the
interview is likely to be hostile,a lot more than a whole bunch of
other figures on our political scene,including our current president. So the whole
argument seemed kind of nonsensical to me, But what it also indicated was,
(16:47):
in the end, the Obadala's ofthe world don't trust the electorate. Now,
look, we've all seen the electorateelect people we think are idiots,
we've all looked at racists and said, oh, I can't believe that guy
got elected. What the hell werethey thinking. But that's part of the
democracy, that's part of living ina free society, is that people have
to be free to make to yougave this to be wrong, or to
make decisions that you think are completelywrong headed. Because once you say,
(17:08):
now, we're not going to letyou do that, We're gonna step in.
We're gonna remove Donald Trump from theballot because we've decided he's too objectionable,
he's too much of a threat,he's just too bad. We oppose
him so strongly that you can't havethat option of voting for him. Well,
you can call yourself whatever you like, but you're not really the pro
democracy side. Pro democracy side meansthe voters get to elector they want as
(17:32):
long as they're constitutionally eligible. Andat this point, no one has made
a definitive, provable, verifiable ina legal court case that Donald Trump is
not eligible for the presidency. Theywant the various secretaries of state of the
fifty states out there to unilaterally declarethat Donald Trump is not eligible for the
presidency. That is not how thisworks. In this country anyway. Thank
(17:56):
god it's Friday. Greg Asa Hutchinson'sbut I meet the press twice twice.
I mean like I think the secondinterview began with Chuck Todd asking, so,
so what's new? What? What? What's changed is the last time
we had you on. Hudson says, no, not nothing muchtions Okay,
thank you very much for this beenGovernor Hutchinson who's running for president. Lad
and gentlemen, no offense to AsaHutchinson. But man if if his presidential
(18:19):
campaign was an EKG line, weknow what it would look like. Jim,
good luck to the Jets this weekendagainst the Cowboys, and we'll see
you on Monday. Have a goodwho luck for bears see him Monday.
Jim Garretty ed Ashona Review. I'mGreg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so
much for being with us today.Have a terrific weekend. Subscribe to the
(18:41):
podcast if you don't already, tella friend about us as well. Thanks
also for your five star ratings andyour kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
I'll get us on your home devices. All you have to say is
play three Martini Lunch podcast. Followus on X He's at Jim Garretty,
I'm at Dateline Underscore DC, havea tremendous weekend and join us again on
Monday for the next three Martini launch
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of
Radio America and Jim Garritty of NationalReview. Three Martini's coming up. Well
we manage to Friday again. Congratulationsto all of us. It's the three
Martini Lunch, Good, bad,and crazy Martinis for us today and Jim,
we're heading into another NFL weekend.Obviously, the Jets have had a
(00:25):
lot of drama over the past week. Traumatic win, but losing Aaron Rodgers
for the season. So we'll seehow much Zach Wilson has learned from Aaron
Rodgers during this training camp. Apparentlythey had a pretty close relationship, so
that should play out well for you. The Bears are playing Tampa, and
given that Tampa actually one last weekand the Bears looked terrible that I had
that as a win in the columnfor the Bears. I don't know if
(00:47):
that'll turn out that way. TheVikings, who lost to the Buccaneers last
week, lost last night to theEagles. But Jim, the most depressing
stat popped up in that game.Justin Jefferson, the excellent receiver for the
Vikings, just his fourth season,second game of his fourth season twenty four
years old, now has more receivingyards than anyone in the history of the
Chicago Bears, with over five thousandyards. Our record holder retired after the
(01:14):
nineteen sixty seven season, So apparentlypassing not a big priority ever in the
history of the Chicago Bears and intoday's NFL. Might want to work on
that just a little bit. Whenyou think Bears, you think that great
defense, you think sweetness Walter Payton, you probably don't really think of you
know, the passing game was nota big part of that eighty five team.
Again, this is not how wewanted to start the podcast. Now
(01:37):
that you've got my mind rolling,is Jay Cutler the best quarterback in the
history of the Bears or would itbe like McMahon, I would not say
he's the best. He is,however, the franchise record holder in career
passing yards with just over twenty threethousand yards, So we are not a
passing team. McMahon was better whenthe games mattered. Sid Luckman way back
in the day, and who wasthe career passing leader until Jay Cutler,
(02:02):
even though he played his entire careerin the thirties and forties, is our
most championship accumulating quarterbacks, So Ithink he's still the goat in terms of
Bears history. But anyway, let'sget into our good martini for the day.
And yesterday we got what we hadbeen promised several days earlier from US
attorney David Weiss in Delaware, theSpecial Council three felony gun charges against Hunter
(02:28):
Biden. This is all related tohis lying on the forms related to whether
or not he was an illegal druguser back in the day, and so
three different counts coming. Whether ornot this will actually you get to trial
is an interesting question. His attorneys, led by Abbey Lowell Jim just to
(02:49):
prove that nobody ever goes away inWashington. Abbey Lowell it's Johnter Biden's lawyer,
and he says that the original pleadeal is binding because even though the
court didn't agree to it and theprosecution withdrew it, that Hunter Biden has
abided by all the terms of it. I'm not sure that's how the law
works, but that's the fight that'sgoing to happen here. A normal person,
if convicted, would be facing somepretty serious jail time here. My
(03:12):
guess is, even if he isconvicted and it gets that far somehow Hunter
Biden won't. But given the ridiculousplea agreement we saw earlier, I think
this is a step closer to whata normal person would face for justice.
I would urge people to read AndyMcCarthy's I believe it's his latest. Maybe
the time you've heard this, willhave written something more but entitled what to
make of the Hunter Biden gun Indictment. Andy was skeptical that the Department of
(03:36):
Justice would ever get around doing thisand would kind of sit around and wait
for the statute of limitations to runout. They know the dj did not
do that. It's not just thetwo counts of lying about the status as
a user of addicted and being addictedto illegal narcotics. It also includes account
of unlawful possession of the firearm.Now, admittedly this was only for a
period of about eleven days, butthis is an indication that David Weiss,
(03:59):
at least east in these circumstances,has not taken the AAH that's not important
enough, We're not going to prosecute. This does indicate, at least to
me, I think this is asign that they recognize that that plea deal
looked really bad, and it lookedlike the dj was bending over backwards to
avoid bringing charges against Hunter Biden forwhat is straight up, really clear cut
evidence that of law breaking. Andso this is look considering how a whole
(04:24):
bunch of people thought we were nevergoing to see it, this is a
good sign. But the other thingit's really kind of fun is that Hunter's
lawyer, Abby Lowell is apparently goingto launch a defense that this is a
violation of Hunter Biden's Second Amendment rightsand point to Supreme Court decisions in the
Bruin case twenty two. So anotherrich You're going to have the president's son
(04:45):
arguing that the Department of Justice isunfairly attacking the Second Amendment rights of ordinary
citizens, which is probably going tobe a complication for President Biden running for
reelection on a platform of gun control. Still, we have to wait and
see in the tax charges if theuse if they start using this gun charge
is an excuse to not pursue taxcharges, that would be bad. Not
(05:05):
gonna lie about that one. Butnonetheless, I think people, you know
the whole point of this from HunterBiden's perspective, and I think Joe Biden's
perspective was to get this off theirdesk, get it done, sweep it
away, slap them on the wrist, and move on. And clearly they
haven't done that, and it lookslike we're going to head towards the president's
son being on trial as we headinto a re election in twenty twenty four.
(05:27):
Another thing Andy has said in termsof the special counsel, it's like,
you don't need to appoint a specialcounsel on a charge of this cut
and drive. So the question isis why that additional designation if there isn't
something else, And so that questionremains on all the business stuff. But
again, all that business stuff Ithink is getting fairly close to the Statute
(05:48):
of Limitations too. So if theydon't act relatively soon on that, some
of that could slip by, andI think that would be even more serious
stuff. All right, Jim,onto our bad martini now and relates to
our economy and back to my homestate of Michigan, but also other places
around the country. Associated press,About thirteen thousand US autoworkers stopped making vehicles
(06:12):
and went on strike Friday after theirleaders couldn't bridge a giant gap between union
demands and contract talks and what Detroit'sthree automakers are willing to pay. Members
of the United Autoworkers Union began picketingat a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville,
Missouri, a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit, and
a Stalantis jeep plant in Toledo,Ohio. It is the first time in
(06:32):
the union's eighty eight year history thatall three companies were targeted simultaneously. The
strikes will likely chart the future ofthe union and of America's homegrown auto industry
at a time when US labor isflexing its might and the company's face a
historic transition from building internal combustion automobilesto making electric vehicles, which I think
is part of the issue here,Jim, because we've talked about the raw
(06:54):
materials needed to make evs, whichis clearly where the mandates from this administration
and influential state. It's like Californiaare going and you can't make as many
and so if you can't make asmany, do you need as many people?
But as of right now, theUAW wants obviously the best possible contract
they can get with salary and benefitsand everything else. But if all three
are targeted, that's going to bea problem not only for workers if they
(07:16):
don't get a deal, but alsofor production and so depending on how long
this goes, this could be apretty big deal. I characterize this is
the bad Martini because inevitably it's goingto have a bad economic effect, probably
nationwide, but most specifically in yourold home state of Michigan. An enormous
number of companies are involved in thesupply chain for the auto industry in one
way or another. You know,if they if the assembly line stop running
(07:40):
and workers go on strike, andit goes on for a long time,
it's going to have a far reachingeffect on them. Basically almost everybody in
that part of the country hopefully getsworked out quickly. I am, you
know, as people would suspect fromthe tone of this podcast, not inclined
to take the union's words as bondand that the idea that they're in the
(08:01):
right here. I do notice thisis occurring at the same time as the
writer's strike and the actor's strike inHollywood, and I think that organized labor
with Joe Biden and the White Housereally thinks it's got the wind at it's
back, and now is the timeto flex its muscles, and now is
the time to argue we deserve abigger share of the pie. We've been
doing the work. You guys havehuge profits. Give us more money as
(08:22):
well as other concerns. And Ithink the other fascinating subtext of all this
is this long simmering tension within theDemocratic Party between organized labor and environmental movement
that basically wants to do away withinternal combustion cars, that basically wants to
force Americans to make electric to onlydrive electric cars. That tension is now
(08:43):
intenable, that that tension is nowbursting out in the form of this strike.
It'll be really interesting to see whenwhen Joe Biden, when push comes
to shove, whether he chooses theGreens or the Unions. My fear is
that him being as indecisive as presshe's proven on a whole bunch of really
big decisions. He hates to alienateany key Democratic constituency that he's going to
ditherer, that he's going to youknow, kick the can down the road
(09:07):
and not try to pick aside,meaning that this strike will probably go on
for a considerable amount of time.So We'll see how it shakes out.
But I think this is bad economicnews, and the odds of a bad
outcome are are really not so notso hard to foresee coming here, Jim,
here are the terms. The UAWwants a thirty six percent wage increase
(09:28):
over four years, Jim and Fordoffering twenty percent, and Stilantis formerly Fiat
Chrysler offering seventeen point five percent.So pretty decent increases in pay, I
would say, but barely half asto what the workers want. So I'm
not sure how long this impassle last. Yeah, it's really hard to our
management. You're being so utterly unreasonable. So yes, twenty percent pay hike,
(09:52):
I'd say yes, anyway, whatthe five opinion doesn't matter too much
in this. All right, Well, let's talk about fantastic sponsor for the
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for free, Express vpn dot comslash Martini. All right, Jim,
onto our crazy Martini down And thiswas the lead item in the Morning Jolt
today. It turns out that thereis a changing of the guard at Meet
(11:20):
the Press. Chuck Todd is nowdone as the host. He's still with
NBC News, of course. KristenWelker, a longtime White House correspondent is
going to replace him. You mightremember her as one of the moderators.
I think it was the last TrumpBiden debate from the twenty twenty cycle.
So anyway, whenever you have abig moment like this in a show,
(11:41):
you want a big name guest.So she goes and interviews Donald Trump.
It's hard to get a much biggername than that, especially if the President
won't do it. And so thereyou go. Donald Trump is going to
be the guest on Kristen Welker's firstedition as host of Meet the Press.
Well, some people don't like that, and some people think that this is
actually dangerous for the country. Jim, you quote liberal talking head as you
(12:03):
describe him, Dean Obadalla irate andargues, quote, given what Trump did
in terms of an attempted coup andinciting the January sixth attack, what NBC
and Meet the Press are doing isfar far more dangerous. They are helping
normalize fascism. It's that simple.Now. He says that if it was
later in the cycle and Trump's officiallythe nominee, or they're highlighting every Republican
(12:26):
candidate, that that would be aslightly different story, but we're seeing legal
efforts underway to not allow Trump onthe ballot. Now interviewing him on network
television is akin to promoting fascism.So I guess the left and free speech
aren't as good of friends as Iused to be. Yeah, and look,
(12:46):
you know, my sympathies to anybodywho works at the NBC switchboard who
actually gets you know, I wouldsay any of Obadallah's readers calling in to
complain. Maybe maybe both of thereaders. I don't know, it's possible.
I've elevated this argument by writing aboutit, but it really struck me
as nonsensical and worth dispelling. Iknow we have listeners who love Donald Trump.
(13:07):
I know we have listeners who can'tstand Donald Trump. I don't think
that our feelings about him necessarily willalter. You know, He's not going
away because of how we feel abouthim. So it means when one of
two things a journalistic institution can,if given the opportunity, you can choose
to interview him. They can interviewhim with skepticism. They can interview him
(13:30):
and challenge his arguments. They canfact check him, they can try to
make the argument, or they cansay, nope, we will not have
we will. You know, hewill become like Voldemort, he who must
not be named, and we're justgoing to close our eyes and shut it
out, and we're putting fingers onour ears and we won't hear Donald Trump,
and that will make him go away. Not the way the world works.
By the way, Trump already tapedthe interview. He did it on
Thursday. NBC News has already donea couple of excerpts. So I guess
(13:52):
the Deanobadala position is that they shouldjust lock it away in a vault somewhere,
let her all to discover it someday or something. That doesn't make
a lot of sense to me.I don't think it makes much sense.
Donald Trump right now is the overwhelmingfavorite to be the Republican nominee in twenty
twenty four. That could change,but he's been, you know, both
nationwide in a bunch of these earlystates, close to fifty percent, sometimes
(14:15):
a little more than fifty percent,sometimes a little less behind him. And
I think all these Republicans have heardthe arguments for Ron DeSantis and Tim Scott
and Nicky Haley and all these otherfolks, and they're not interested now of
that other roughly half the party.They're spread out amongst everybody else. Could
they unite behind another option? Itcould happen. But those of us who
lived through twenty fifteen twenty sixteen,this looks and sounds and feels very familiar.
(14:39):
So if you're going to have DonaldTrump as the Republican nominee, what
he says is news. You don'thave to like it. Nobody's saying,
you know, I don't think KristieWelker is going to agree very much with
what Donald Trump says, But sheand the rest of NBC News and the
team and Beat the Press decided,given the opportunity to interview and president a
former President Trump, we want tointerview him. We want to see what
he has to say. We wantto see what is you know, answers
(15:00):
are to these questions, and wethink our viewers want to know this too.
And I think they're completely right onthat even the people who hate Donald
Trump tune in to see what he'ssaying. By the way, if you're
upset, as Obadalla hint said,oh you haven't had Biden on, do
you really think Meet the Press hasn'tinvited Joe Biden on at any point in
the last three and a half years. By the way, he's made two
appearances on Meet the Press in thelast adding it up something like six seven
(15:22):
years. That is not because Meetthe Press, you know, hasn't invited
him or Chuck Todd didn't want tohave him on or anything like that.
Every show would love to have thepresident on there. I'd love to have
the you know, the former vicepresident on. It's Biden doesn't want to
do it. You may have noticedBiden doesn't do a lot of TV interviews
period, So because when you puthim down on Jimmy Kimmel's couch, he
starts rambling about interracial couples and commercialsand stuff. I think it's the White
(15:46):
House Press Court doesn't trust him todo an interview like this and thinks he's
gonna look stupid. So that's why. So if you're complaining, why isn't
why why isn't Meet the Press hadBiden him? Because Biden doesn't want to
do it, and they've had awhole bunch of the other Republican presidential candidates
on. I am that I don'tI would be shocked if they had not
invited to Ron DeSantis to be on. I think that's because Ron DeSantis said
(16:06):
of them, They've had Pence ontwice, They've had Roma Swammy on twice,
Doug Bergham twice, Will heard twiceAsa Hutchinson twice. You know,
I don't think Meet the Press tosay at all, We're only gonna you
know, like I think, ifyou're at one percent, Meet the Press
will sit down and talk with you. So if you're upset that somebody else
hasn't been on Meet the Press,it's the Candida, it's not Meet the
Press, don't blame them. Andthe next thing is is that you know
(16:26):
Trump is willing to go on goodLet's let's see how he answers the questions,
Like give him credit. He's willingto interact with press even when the
interview is likely to be hostile,a lot more than a whole bunch of
other figures on our political scene,including our current president. So the whole
argument seemed kind of nonsensical to me, But what it also indicated was,
(16:47):
in the end, the Obadala's ofthe world don't trust the electorate. Now,
look, we've all seen the electorateelect people we think are idiots,
we've all looked at racists and said, oh, I can't believe that guy
got elected. What the hell werethey thinking. But that's part of the
democracy, that's part of living ina free society, is that people have
to be free to make to yougave this to be wrong, or to
make decisions that you think are completelywrong headed. Because once you say,
(17:08):
now, we're not going to letyou do that, We're gonna step in.
We're gonna remove Donald Trump from theballot because we've decided he's too objectionable,
he's too much of a threat,he's just too bad. We oppose
him so strongly that you can't havethat option of voting for him. Well,
you can call yourself whatever you like, but you're not really the pro
democracy side. Pro democracy side meansthe voters get to elector they want as
(17:32):
long as they're constitutionally eligible. Andat this point, no one has made
a definitive, provable, verifiable ina legal court case that Donald Trump is
not eligible for the presidency. Theywant the various secretaries of state of the
fifty states out there to unilaterally declarethat Donald Trump is not eligible for the
presidency. That is not how thisworks. In this country anyway. Thank
(17:56):
god it's Friday. Greg Asa Hutchinson'sbut I meet the press twice twice.
I mean like I think the secondinterview began with Chuck Todd asking, so,
so what's new? What? What? What's changed is the last time
we had you on. Hudson says, no, not nothing muchtions Okay,
thank you very much for this beenGovernor Hutchinson who's running for president. Lad
and gentlemen, no offense to AsaHutchinson. But man if if his presidential
(18:19):
campaign was an EKG line, weknow what it would look like. Jim,
good luck to the Jets this weekendagainst the Cowboys, and we'll see
you on Monday. Have a goodwho luck for bears see him Monday.
Jim Garretty ed Ashona Review. I'mGreg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so
much for being with us today.Have a terrific weekend. Subscribe to the
(18:41):
podcast if you don't already, tella friend about us as well. Thanks
also for your five star ratings andyour kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
I'll get us on your home devices. All you have to say is
play three Martini Lunch podcast. Followus on X He's at Jim Garretty,
I'm at Dateline Underscore DC, havea tremendous weekend and join us again on
Monday for the next three Martini launch
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