Join Jim Williams with former member of the George W. Bush administration and internationally recognized political analyst Alan Steinberg. This week they breakdown the key political topics of the week.
This was the wildest week of the nearly four years that President Donald Trump has been in office. He was in Walter Reed National Medical Center with a case of COVID 19, went on a joy ride outside the hospital to show his followers he was doing fine, he returned to the White House on Monday and took his mask off and entered the residence.
On Wednesday he returned to the Oval Office, Thursday he turned down an invitation to be part of the Presidential Town Hall Debate that was being done virtually due to President Trump’s condition.
Trump attacked the bipartisan Committee on Presidential Debates for making the Miami Town Hall debate he still has COVID 19.
Thursday he went after Attorney General Bill Barr for not moving faster to seek indictments for former President Barack Obama, Vice President Biden, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Friday he planned a Rose Garden rally and announced a planned trip to Florida on Monday only one week after being released from Walter Reed.
So much to talk about so little time!
Alan Steinberg is one of the most insightful voices in not only Republican politics but in then entire political arena. He has been involved in campaigns for most of his adult life.
He served as at the request of former President George W. Bush in the role of Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA. The region covers New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Puerto Rico as well as six tribal nations.
He also served as a conservation advisor to the Israeli government. Also, Steinberg served as the Executive Director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission under former New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman.
Follow him on Twitter @ASteinberg613
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/alan.steinberg.5
Columns at insidernj.com
Stay in touch with us on social media.
Follow us on Twitter - @JWMediaDC
Instgram - @jimwilliamsmedia200
This was the wildest week of the nearly four years that President Donald Trump has been in office. He was in Walter Reed National Medical Center with a case of COVID 19, went on a joy ride outside the hospital to show his followers he was doing fine, he returned to the White House on Monday and took his mask off and entered the residence.
On Wednesday he returned to the Oval Office, Thursday he turned down an invitation to be part of the Presidential Town Hall Debate that was being done virtually due to President Trump’s condition.
Trump attacked the bipartisan Committee on Presidential Debates for making the Miami Town Hall debate he still has COVID 19.
Thursday he went after Attorney General Bill Barr for not moving faster to seek indictments for former President Barack Obama, Vice President Biden, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Friday he planned a Rose Garden rally and announced a planned trip to Florida on Monday only one week after being released from Walter Reed.
So much to talk about so little time!
Alan Steinberg is one of the most insightful voices in not only Republican politics but in then entire political arena. He has been involved in campaigns for most of his adult life.
He served as at the request of former President George W. Bush in the role of Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA. The region covers New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Puerto Rico as well as six tribal nations.
He also served as a conservation advisor to the Israeli government. Also, Steinberg served as the Executive Director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission under former New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman.
Follow him on Twitter @ASteinberg613
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/alan.steinberg.5
Columns at insidernj.com
Stay in touch with us on social media.
Follow us on Twitter - @JWMediaDC
Instgram - @jimwilliamsmedia200
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:20):
Everyone, and welcome to the PoliticallyIncorrect Podcast. I'm Jim Williams my co
host none other than the esteemed colleaguemister Alan Steinberg. Alan, you know,
I was working on a columner You'vebeen working on stuff all week saying
that this was the strangest week ofthe of the Trump presidency. And that's
(00:44):
saying something it's hard to believe,my friend, that one week ago we
were all sitting there and you know, with our collective hearts in our hands,
wondering what was going on because thePresident had just been airlifted from the
White House after testing positive for COVIDnineteen and being sent to the Walter Read
(01:07):
Medical Center. Only just fast forwardto today, where there's been nothing but
NonStop crazy from the time he enteredWalter Read to the time he basically talked
him out of you know, outof keeping him going back to the White
House, and being he's been offthe rails ever since. Well, he's
(01:34):
been totally off the rails. Andit would be entertaining if it wasn't so
terrifying. And that I am veryconcerned at the total unwillingness of anyone in
the Republican Party to push for atwenty fifth Amendment action. This man is
not fit to lead right now.I used to criticize him in moral terms
(01:57):
and characters in terms of his policies, but right now, when he is
talking about having his attorney general putin jail, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton,
and Joe Biden, this is aman capable of the most dangerous constitutional
(02:22):
crisis type of activities, and thecountry cannot survive something like that, and
it would lead to violence in thestreet, the worst civil conflagration in the
history of the country. And it'stime for a twenty fifth Amendment action.
But these folks are still all allterrified of doing it. And I don't
(02:43):
know why, because he said itfor a defeat in the normal course of
action. So go ahead and doit. Yes, you know, it's
strange to your very point that concernsme is that the President of United States
(03:07):
yesterday we find out that Governor GretchenWhitmer, who is the governor of the
state of Michigan, that there wasa terrorist plot, a domestic terrorist plot
by a white supremacist militia group tokidnap her and to possibly kill her and
(03:30):
to in some way disrupt and overthrowthe state government of Michigan. And last
night on Hannity and tweeting prior tothat, not only did the President United
States not pick up the phone andcall the woman saying, my God,
are you okay, he criticized herfor being a terrible governor, accused her
(03:55):
of, you know, of blaminghim, which he did, and he
did he deserved it. I mean, this is just crazy. This is
this We're on the precipices of listen. I mean, we're talking about a
sitting governor, doesn't matter whether she'sa Republican or Democrat, where they were
(04:15):
going to throw, overthrow, notonly kidnap and potentially kill her, but
overthrow the government of the city ofthe state of Michigan. And his FBI
director has been very clear that theworst domestic danger is that of white supremacy,
and he totally refuses to acknowledge that. And after the previous debate,
(04:41):
it took him two days to condemnwhite supremacy because he received support from those
quarters. The man is just morallyand emotionally and mentally off the rails,
and our country is in a stateof crisis. Now it's going to con
continue. Not only two the election. That's going to probably persist after the
(05:03):
election. And I don't have aready answer to that except for a twenty
fifth Amendment action. Now a lotof these Republican senators realize that, but
they're all keeping quiet. What dothey have to fear? Now? That
is the thing that really bothers me. Well, you know, to your
point on the twenty fifth Amendment questiontwo people who you revere and I know
(05:29):
personally, wonderfum you worked for theGeorge Herbert Walker Bush. It was the
first to actually evoke the twenty fifthAmendment when he had a medical procedure done
and it was a you know,about a four hour medical procedure, but
(05:50):
he was going to be under anesthesiaand felt that it was in the best
interests of the country to transfer isyou know, his power to the vice
president. Then the gentleman you workfor, George W. Bush want to
(06:11):
get a colonoscopy, all right,again about a sixth state hour process,
you know when you count recuperation andsuch. And he transferred power to Dick
Cheney. So now we have apresident who test positive for COVID nineteen far
worse, far worse than either youknow, President Bush's forty one and forty
(06:36):
three, and he doesn't even forgetconsidering the power. He has absolutely no
intentions of doing it. He alsohas been affected by the virus itself and
by the drugs he's been taking,and he recklessly persists. But again,
(06:59):
we all, he's knew that hewas bizarre and that he was abusive,
and the virus and the drugs havejust exaggerated his behavior. But what we
never could have foreseen was that theRepublican Party would be so cowardly in the
face of all that. When Nixonwas in deepening legal distress during the Watergate
(07:25):
era, plenty of Republicans spoke outagainst him. Plenty of Republicans spoke out
and said that he should reign.No Republican is saying a thing right now.
It has become a contemptible collection ofpost atlanimous bolt roons. It is
just scary, and our republic isin danger. Not to make light of
(07:49):
something, but I gotta say thatI'm impressed with the with the type of
languages were used in that last sentence. It was quite quite colorful and very
artfully done. Kudos do you onthat? Yeah? Come on, folks,
we have to lighten up just alittle bit. This is so you
(08:11):
do need to light up a situationthat could drive you to drink, right
which right now is not a drive. It's more of a put um.
The the situation with regard to andthis kind of it's hard to believe that
something like this would fly under theradar. But the the President talking to
(08:37):
Bill Barr and get last night inhis interview for those of you who didn't
see it on Sean Hannity, besideshis calling for the as as you know,
as Alan so eloquently pushed earlier,the calling for the jailing of President
Obama, Vice President Biden, formerSecretary of State, First Lady and Senator
(09:03):
Hillary Clinton, he also called forhis Attorney's General, William Barr, to
basically begin the process of setting upa situation where this election could be stolen
(09:24):
by taking it to court in anumber of different ways. Now, all
of that into itself is terrifying,But he wants the Durham Report, and
he's mad at that at Bar fornot delivering it. The problem with that
is they don't have any evidence.So it's difficult to present a case if
(09:46):
you don't have any evidence, andyou sir, a lawyer, you can
explain that better to me. Buthe's setting it up and whether we like
it or not. One of thegreat things about Donald Trump is he would
be the reason I think he lostin base was his terrible poker player.
He can't there is no his tellas he tells you, it's not even
a fake dealt. So he literallyis laying this out in real time and
(10:07):
it almost gets, you know,buried under all the crazy other things he
said. No, he is,He's making it perfectly clear, but he
often gets away with it. True. I'm just I'm just astounded. Though
he could be stopped very easily.He could be right now, Joe Biden
(10:31):
is a sense to win election.His margin has gone up by and some
polls all the way up to sixteenpercent. There is nothing to fear.
What is the matter with these clowns. We are in constitutional crisis. We
have a president who, in thewords of al Hague when he was talking
(10:52):
about Nixon, when al Hague waschief of staff, he used to refer
to him as our meatball president becauseDixon also we're starting to drink now,
Donald Trunk. Donald Trump is nota drinker. No, However, he
is totally mentally off the distribution andthere is nothing to stop him. What
(11:16):
is the matter. There isn't onewho is stepping forward. No, not
a single one. And if youlooked at what Mike Lee said, Senator
Mike Lee, if you tak pleasefolks google it. Lee was talking about
that we don't really have a democracy. Okay, that it's okay if legislators
(11:46):
who don't think that the election hasbeen handled fairly can go ahead and pick
their own slate of delegates to theelectoral College vote and override the potential the
(12:07):
potential will of each state who mayor may not have voted for Biden or
Trump. Well, that is apoint that Barton Gellman made in his Atlantic
Magazine article right a few weeks ago, and now Mike Lee is confirming it.
Now the terrible state of affairs.Yeah, we both know the state
(12:28):
of Pennsylvania. You went to thestate of Wisconsin. We know that those
are two targets. You've got Pennsylvania, Wisconsin too, very important. Trump
can't win if he doesn't win Pennsylvania, that's full stop. Not that you
know that doesn't happen, but thePennsylvania legislature is Republican, the Democrat,
(12:52):
the governor's democrat. Same as thesituation Wisconsin. Do you actually see an
areo where the legislation, the legislativebranch, excuse me, in the state
of Pennsylvania, and the legislative teamin the state of Wisconsin would literally go
(13:15):
against the the the election results,regardless of whether or not their person one.
Well, this is exposing a problemwith the constitution. We have a
right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, my apologies for talking over you.
(13:39):
I said. The fact that matteris in scary part is it's actually legal.
They could do this, yes,but they see that's the point.
We have been successful with our constitutionbecause it has been a living, breathing
constitution where our observance, what hasmade us a representative democracy is not only
the written word of the Constitution,but are acceptance of certain norms. And
(14:03):
one of the norms is that electorswill be selected by the will of the
people, and that has enabled usto mature and grow as a republic.
And Mike Lee and those are similarviews. We're talking about negating those norms,
throwing those norms off the window,and basically interpreting the Constitution in such
(14:26):
a way that instead of a democraticsociety, we come out with a fascist
society, and that is terrifying.Well, the thing that concerns me about
the Republican Party is that, byyeah, is power so important? Is
(14:48):
holding onto power so important that youare willing to burn down the institutions that
got you into power in the firstplace. That wasn't throw in the Watergate
era of Republican leaders like you,Scott, that is true today. That
is all Mitch McConnell cares about hispower. That is all the various other
(15:13):
sidekicks of his like in the hossilerepresentatives where the Democrats have a majority.
Excuse me, the Democrats have amajority. That's all that Kevin McCarthy cares
about. It is no longer aparty of small government principle of conservatism,
that was the party that I joined. It has become something else. It
(15:37):
has become a party where cloud andpower are all that matter. And that's
disgraceful. Well, what they've setup, and I hope doesn't happen,
but believe me, it's possible.They've set up a scenario bout saying well,
(15:58):
the rules are such, okay,we can since we're in charge we
can do whatever we want, whetherit makes whether you like it, whether
you don't like it. Talking nowabout the Republicans versus you know, people
in the Democratic Party and not justthere's there are some outside Republicans yourself and
our friend Steve Schmidt and folks whohave served the party well over the years,
(16:26):
Rick Wilson that are saying this isjust not right because you know what,
one day you won't be in power. And when you're not in power,
then you you know, because youset this up, you could end
up seeing eleven people on the SupremeCourt. You could see you know,
(16:47):
laws being enacted and things being donethat you will then call foul. But
then you can't call foul because you'rethe ones that set the you know this
scenario up. Well, you knowthat brings up another point. I don't
think that the Democrats should be soreticent in talking about expansion of the court.
(17:11):
I don't think there should be Idon't think if the Democrats went out
there and said that if any ConeyBarrett is approved, that means that Rob
Wade is doomed. We can't allowthat. Therefore, in order to counteract
that, we will in that caseexpand the number of Supreme Court justices.
(17:32):
I don't think they would lose politicallyby saying that I don't either, And
you and I both about two weeksago, well we're discussing potential justice Amy
Coney Barrett said that we didn't.You and I would prefer that the courts
(17:52):
stay at the number that it is, but that if this was going to
be ramrotted through, than all betsare off the table. There's a I
don't know if you've seen the playHamilton, but I'm an obsessive Hamilton family,
and there's a song in Hamilton whichis called the Room where it Happens,
(18:15):
and the premise is that if youdon't have a seat in the room
where it happens, then you don'thave a say in the room where it
happens. Then right now, it'sas if you know, Mitch McConnell and
the Trump administration know that they're inthe room where it happens. But to
your point, earlier, a lotof people vilified Richard Dixon, and there's
(18:41):
reason to consider that. But atthe end of the day, when very
Goldwater and a number of senators hadthat come to Jesus meeting with President Nixon
rather than putting the country through animpeachment trial, which she may or may
not have won, he stepped down. There is no reason and there's no
(19:11):
reason to believe the reason to believethat's going to happen. But as you
said, I if your party isn'tchecking themselves, and I'm gonna make a
statement here, I really would likeyour opinion if the Republicans go through with
this. Okay, they're gonna losestill, but if they go through with
this, I don't think there'll beanother Republican vote another president who's a member
(19:36):
of the Republican Party for decades.Well, I agree with you, and
I think there is a need tohave two competitive parties, and there is
a need to have a legitimate constitutionalist, center right party. But we don't
have that now. Right. Wehave a party that is embracing fascism.
(20:00):
We have a party that in thein the advent of condemnation of a governor
of Michigan who was acted courageously bythe way in shutting down the economy there
and enabling thousands of deaths to beavoided. You have a Republican party that
(20:22):
is just symbolized by one wilful manwho rejects all egalitarian premises, who himself
as a white supremacist, and whoseparty, whose cohorts are doing nothing about
it. And it's a disgraceful andnot just disgraceful, terrifying state of affairs.
(20:47):
We're coming up. It's already,We're already voting. I mean I
voted the absenceee ballot the other day. I know you're going to get your
ballot in the mills. Well,you will vote to There are people,
because early voting has started in manystates, who are going to the polls.
I honestly fear, and ne's somethingyou and I touched on a few
(21:11):
weeks ago. I honestly fear thatthere will be voter intimidation and there will
be people at the polls who willdo everything they can to kind of disrupt
what goes on at the polls.I agree. I agree, And I
(21:33):
should note that it's freaking out inthe state of Florida, which President Trump
has to carry. If he doesn'tcarry Florida, forget that it's all over,
but in the state of Florida,in the state of Pennsylvania, in
the state of Wisconsin, there areRepublicans afraid to go to the polls.
There's no question about it. Weface a scenario of violence that is unprecedented,
(21:56):
unprecedented in this country. Now,let me ask you a question,
and this is something that you canput your professor hat on and educate us.
All is protecting the polls, whichobviously if you want to be a
poll you know, there's been alot of talk about poll watchers. Well,
poll watchers is something that each boardof elections you know, allows and
(22:22):
they basically tell you and if you'veever been and we've all been to to
polling places, they give you ayou're allowed. I believe it's one hundred
yards away from the actual polling station. You can go out there and stand
with your sign and say, youknow, vote from my person, vote
for you know, whatever, youcan do all that, but it's not
it's within one hundred yards. Thepeople who are actually the poll watchers are
(22:45):
watching only the vote that happens duringthe course of the day, and you're
allowed a Republican poll watcher. Ithink it's one or two for each party,
and that's the extent of bit.And it's only for vote of the
day. It's not for the you'renot allowed to sit there for absentee ballots.
(23:07):
So my question to you, professor, is this, who helps protect
those pole watchers and there's people thatare working at the voting stations around the
country. Is it something that hasdone state widers. It's something that Chris
Ray, is the FBI director,can step in and help. It may
(23:30):
require intervention by Chris Ray, whois a marvelous the FBI director whom Trump
appears hell bent on firing. Hehas courageously staying standing by the office.
He seems unflappable. But I thinkat some point Trump is going to try
to fire him, and that willlead to another constitutional crisis because it's going
(23:55):
to have to be Ray that providesthis national protection. But again we shall
see now again, professor, questionon this. When Donald Trump fired James
Comey as the FBI director, Ibelieve that was the first time an FBI
(24:18):
director has ever been fired. Idon't recall any other case of an FBI
director being fired. They've stepped down, you know, or they've decided that
they've you know, outlived their term. But and by the way, it's
a ten year term, so thatway, no one particular party you know,
is in charge of the Federal Beerof Investigation. And there haven't been
(24:41):
that many FBI directors at all,because we started with Jager Hoover, and
you know, there's only been Ithink Chris Raised maybe the fifth m FBI
director we've had. So if thepress seems to have been there forever,
well, he started the bureau inthen you know, he went all the
(25:02):
way through Nixon, so that takesyou into the mid seventies. Um.
And then of course Bob Muller hadthat role for the second loan of this
tenure. UM, and UM,then you had I'm trying to remember,
and then it went to Kobe andnow it's Chris Ray. So I think
(25:22):
it's five. Um. But anyway, it does that that the exact number
doesn't matter. Well yeah, PaulPatrick, Oh yeah, yeah, that's
you're right. You're right, you'reright. I had it for a while.
Um, but it would it's almostinconceivable that a president would fire one
but two FBI directors because he wasn'tgetting what he wanted. Well, let
(25:45):
me let me say that we're fortunatein one respect. M. J.
Edgar Hoover was a man capable ofterrible political abuse, right He tapped the
telephones of Martin Luther King's ride toblackmail King because he caught King in the
process of having extramarital affairs. Healso, excuse me, J Edgar Hoover
(26:11):
was a very bigoted individual who wouldresist at all costs the civil rights movement.
We don't have that today. Infact, most of our FBI agents
are wonderful people. Most of themare people who revere democratic with a small
d norms. Take for example,Frank Fagluzi, who was off and on
(26:32):
NBC. The man is marvelous.The man is out for a protection of
society. But what you have nowis not that the problem is not within
the FBI. The problem is,excuse me, the President himself trying to
manipulate the FBI into doing things thatthreatened the constitutional order of the United States.
(26:56):
Well, don't think it hurts thathe in his own Attorney General,
being William Barr, who's being moreof his own personal attorney than the accorney
to the United States. But well, that's the thing I keep wondering about.
I keep wondering about whether Barr isgoing to make any public response to
(27:18):
these commands of Donald Trump to putpeople in jail, without evidence, without
due process. Barr is going downin history as the worst attorney in general
this country has ever had, andhe's acting in a way to generate just
(27:41):
better opposition from the public. Andhe's keeping quiet as well. I think
it's time for him to step forward. Well, let me ask you this
is there at this point in time, what and be done by Congress,
(28:02):
if anything, to circumvent any possiblenefarious actions that could or could not take
be taken by the administration too kindof gum up the works In an election,
all the Congress has is the isthe impeachment power? Right they and
(28:27):
of course they are the recipient organof government that would receive a twenty fifth
Amendment letter signed by the Vice presidentand also by the various cabinet officers.
But again, I don't think MikePence has the courage to be involved in
anything like that. The other nightin the vice presidential debate, his behavior
(28:51):
was so sexist as the offensive beyondbelief. Well that and the fact that
he was incapable of its dream.I mean, he wrote an entirely different
narrative how the administration handled the COVIDnineteen virus. It would have been lovely.
Absolutely, but let me note onething on that a slight change subject.
(29:17):
I like Kamala Harris. I amvery supportive of her for the vice
presidency. I thought that she wasconcerned to avoid the stereotype and it is
it's it's a racist stereotype of beingthe quote unquote the angry black woman.
So at the beginning of the debateshe held back. I don't think she
(29:40):
was nearly as forceful as she shouldhave been in refuting what Mike Fence was
doing in terms of rewriting the wholehistory of the administration COVID response, she
held back. She was much betterin the second half of the debate,
but she had a slow start.I was sitting in my living room saying,
(30:02):
Gamela, what are you doing?Don't let him get away with this.
I also thought that Susan Page wasn'tat whom I think is a good
journalist, was an absolutely terrible moderator, very weak, and was really succumbing
to the gender abuse that Mike Pencewas doing. You know, she never
(30:22):
she kept saying times up, timesup, but she was not forceful enough.
I would have tried to do somethinglike even cut off his microphone.
If he walked out, that's toobad. But you know, she was
not acting forcefully enough, and thatmade a mockery of that debate too.
(30:45):
You know, there there were acouple takeaways for me, And this is
just my own personal thing. Youknow, if I'm I watch a debate,
but a lot of times I decidethat I would rather listen to it
and not watch it, just toget a feel for how you know you
(31:06):
can if you watch something, sometimesyou get distracted by the visual on the
screen. And so when it comesto debates, because I'm a bit of
a debate, I like to listenon the radio so that you can actually
hear the two of them talk.And I think that the takeaway from me
(31:27):
on this was when Harris prosecuted thecase for saying, if you have breast
cancer and you have protection excuse me, condition, they're coming for you.
(31:48):
If you've got diabetes, they're comingfor you. And she listed maybe five
or six pre existing conditions that wouldbe gone by the ACA. I'm being
struck down in court and they're comingfor you. And I thought that was
probably her most effective argument of thenight. Yeah, she was effective on
the ACA. She was also effectiveon the racial relations issue, but that
(32:15):
all happened in the second half ofthe debate. The difficulty for her was
this the most effective democratic issue byfar is Trump's criminal mismanagement of the coronavirus
pandemic. And I don't think shewas as effective or forceful as she should
have or could have been did.I did think she did one thing that
(32:37):
will be memorable and will be oneof the major takeawation of debate was when
she said, mister Vice President,I'm speaking. I thought that was effective.
I thought that was effective. Thosewords in themselves had the equivalent in
saying, stop with your sexism,stop with your lecturing of women. I
(33:00):
thought that was a fact. Thoughit's funny. Frank Luntz and others did
focus groups after the the debate,and if you broke it down gender wise,
seventy nine of the women who watched, and we're not talking about now,
(33:21):
these are it's hard to believe thereare undecided, but these are undecided.
Seventy nine percent of the women feltthat Kamala Harris won, while forty
eight percent of the men felt thatshe won. I thought that was curious,
(33:42):
but you know, as one ortwo of the women put it.
I know that it was Nicole Wallaceon on MSNBC put it that if you've
ever been in a room where youknow, you've tried to speak and you
just been shouted down by a manin the office, that you know basically
(34:07):
it was dismissing of you. That'swhat they saw when they saw Pence in
what he was doing to Tombla Hills. Well, there there's no question about
that. To your previous point aboutthe difference of listening to debates on radio
and watching it in nineteen sixty whereyou still have a lot of people who
(34:28):
listened on radio rather than watching TV. In the first debate, what really
was the most determinative of impact youhad When they pulled people who listened on
radio. The radio audience sawt Nixonhad won. The television audience saught Kennedy
had won. For several reasons.Number One, Nixon really looked bad.
(34:52):
He had a bad makeup man thatnight, and those were in the days
where when you went on television,you're make up man could be decisive.
Also, he had his leg walkinginto the debate, and also the fact
that Kennedy appeared very poised. Mostpeople thought of him as inexperienced and not
(35:13):
up to the job, and justby his very active sitting there, being
poised and being at least on equalterms with Nixon. That was the impact.
Nowadays, not too many people wholisten to the debates, the overwhelming
majority do watch them, and thatmagnifies the behavior. If a person like
Pence is acting in a patronizing anddisrespectful way to women, it's going to
(35:39):
be magnified on television. And Ithink that's what happened in that debate.
Yeah, no, I think you'reright. The other thing is in the
sixty debate, You're right, Nixonhit his knee on the way in on
the car door. We got thecar. It was the sixty debate that
(36:02):
that were referencing was held in Chicagow BBM Television, and so it really
didn't have an audience. Um,there wasn't an audience there. It was
just two men on a debate stage. Um. If you've ever been in
a major television studio, you knowthat lights in those days, especially in
(36:27):
the nineteen sixties, were incredibly hotand they were actually very close to the
you know, anyone on whether itbe a news anchor or whatever. They
were close in the and the heatwas there. So to your point about
Nixon sweating and looking, you knowhe had Bobby Kennedy had scouted the station
(36:52):
out earlier. So Jack Kennedy actuallywore under his suit a suit that was
wet to keep him cool. Sothey used tricks, which you know Nixon
had not. Nixon had never gonetelevised debate for but Bobby had thought about,
(37:15):
you know, what can we doto make sure that Jack never sweats.
Well, one of the great thingsof doing that is soaking, soaking
yourself in water before you you actuallygo out there. There was also a
trick that was done by James Carvillein the second debate of Clinton and President
(37:37):
George Herbert Walker Bush, and thatwas that was a town hall situation.
Carville went in, took a lookat the set, saw the chairs that
were being used, took one ofthe chairs, brought it over for the
debate prep and showed showed Clinton thatif he sat on the edge of the
(38:02):
chair with his foot on the back, you know that he could literally pounce
out and walk over and ask andanswer questions personally. You know much more,
you know, one on one waythan anyone else. Because they had
the chair there that they knew whatthey were doing. So when the chairs,
(38:22):
you know, when they returned thechair back. Clinton had had that
advantage of knowing literally you know,what he was sitting on and how he
could best react to the crowd.So there's always a little behind the scenes
things going on at these debates thatare are very the nuanced, but they
(38:45):
do and can make a difference.Well, I remember another thing in nineteen
sixty was that the background, thepainted background was very white, and Kennedy
wore a dark suit and Nixon worea light suit, smaid. Nixon seemed
to fade into the background. Everyindivisually that could have gone wrong for Nixon
(39:07):
did go wrong for him. I'msorry. There was also a black and
white televisions that made it even worseexactly exactly. It's a different ball game
today, but these things still domake a difference. There is a certain
amount of preparation that goes in toset preparation observance by the candidates. I
(39:31):
don't think there's going to be anotherdebate. First of all, I think
that Trump is far sicker than whatis going on. I don't believe his
doctor Sean Conley for ten seconds.I don't believe him as far as I
can throw him. I just don'tbelieve that, all of a sudden,
the man has made this miraculous recoverywithin a week, and when you're looking
(39:52):
at him physically, he looks terrible. Well, nobody, nobody's actually seen
him in a week. I mean, we've seen these videos, but I'm
talking about the White House Press Corpsor in any not that to be honest,
not that I would want to see. I mean, he's a he's
a video, should be in thehospital. Even those videos. He looks
(40:14):
terrible. Yeah, he just lookslike hell. And I just cannot believe.
I cannot believe that Biden would subjecthimself number one, to the danger
of Trump being possibly contagious. Numbertwo, the public is not going to
resent Biden refusing to participate. Thepublic was disgusted with the previous debate,
(40:38):
the result of which made Biden's marginexplode. I think Biden has every reason
in the world not to participate inanother debate. I don't think he will.
I think he would have to befoolhardy to do that. Well,
I know that, you know,one of the problems in. This is
(40:59):
something that the you know, theDebate Commission had to deal with. And
it's, by the way, forthose of you who don't know, it
is a bipartisan It's not a youknow, Democrat, a Republican based thing.
It's a bipartisan thing. And oneof the problems they had alan which
was actually very underreported, was afteryou know, this was done at Case
(41:24):
Western Reserve, and Case wester Reservehas a auditorium on the campus of the
Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic wasadamant that people wear masks. Of course,
we now know by now that theentire Trump entourage did not. But
(41:44):
what happened was eleven people who werepart of the attendees in the debate in
Cleveland, in debate one eleven ofthem tested positive for COVID nineteen. Now
these are not part these these wereinvitees from the Trump camp and they all
(42:10):
tested positive for COVID nineteen. Sothere is reason not only because the president
of the United States has COVID nineteen, but that they found out that you
know, wait a minute, ifwe do this again and we go to
Miami, god knows how many peopleare going to get you know, COVID
(42:36):
nineteen from just attending to the debate. So I think they were doing everything
reasonable in saying, you want todebate, fine, it's virtual. The
other thing that they were taking intoconsideration, which I think is very consciential,
as the air part, was saying, all right, if the President
United States wants to participate, whichhe has said he did, then the
(42:57):
only way we can do this isvirtual. And that way he can stay
in the White House. He canyou know, he doesn't have to travel
or move anywhere. And so theywere actually playing to his advantage. They
wanted to give him every reasonable possibilityof being able to participate in an area
where he would not have to moveanywhere. So I don't see how they
(43:21):
could have been more conscientious about this. Well, they're not dealing with a
man who is acting rationally. They'renot dealing with a normal situation. I
think we ought to forget about anyfurther debate in this campaign. You're not
dealing with a person who will beacting in good faith either. No,
and I honestly don't that. Imean, look, the White House Press
(43:49):
Operation is for all interns and purposes. Now a group of interns, because
everybody's you know, in self quarantine. I don't think it would be wise
to put anybody in peril, andanybody getting on Air Force one at this
point in time would be in perilto go forth to go do a debate
(44:13):
in Miami that you know, wouldbe yet another superspreader of it. There's
no there's no question about that.Who wants to give their lives for a
presidential debate. It's just the riskand the peril are beyond belief and it
(44:36):
is not worth a risk. Itis not worth it will not be promoting
the education of the public. Itwill turn into another scenario where Trump rants
and rays. There's no reason toproceed any further. Okay, as we
get ready to wrap things up,free topic for you. Pick anything you
(44:57):
want to talk about. What isit that's on your rand this morning that
you want people to know about it? Well, on a lighter note,
right now, you have the varioussports trying to make their way and have
(45:17):
an impact on the public, agood diversion for the public. But the
ratings are down, and I thinkthe ratings are down due to certain factors.
I think the ratings are down becauseyou don't and there and this is
all reasonable for the various sports commissionersto direct the things the way they have.
(45:37):
There are no fans in the stands. Without fans in the stands,
you lose ninety percent of the colorof the game. And secondly, I
think that the what is going on, and I don't say this with any
glee, what is going on inthe national political scene is more exciting,
compelling, and gripping than what ishappening on the athletic fields. So I
(46:01):
know, I myself, I'm amajor sportsman. I've watched hardly any sports
events since they came back on stream. I watched the Eagles last Sunday night,
and it was an exciting game.That's been about it, and I
think we'll have to reevaluate sports ifthe pandemic continues. We're almost ready to
(46:23):
start another NBA season in November,early December probably, but without fans in
the stands, I don't think it'sgoing to go very well. Same with
baseball right now you have playoffs andWorld Series coming up. Who's going to
care? Yeah? I think partof the reason too is coming as a
(46:45):
former television programmer myself. You've got, for instance, last night, you
had Thursday Night Football combatting the Yankeeis in the raised game four of their
you know, division series. You'vehad a situation where you've had the NBA,
(47:08):
Major League Baseball, and the NHLall on in the same night,
So you're gonna get split audiences.So, besides what you're talking about,
which is all valid points, they'vethere's never been a case here in the
United States where we've had all thesesports coming at the same time, and
(47:30):
so you've got split allegiances as towhat you can and cannot watch, and
it makes it difficult to make achoice when you know there's two or three
things on all at the same time. That's true too, that that just
further diminishes the appetite of the fans. So, Nostradamus, I'm going to
(47:55):
ask you a question in this regardas we close things out here, we
got twenty five or four days beforethe election. What's going to happen in
the next twenty four to twenty fivedays. This is the This is one
(48:15):
of the few times in my lifeI'm usually intrepid in terms of making predictions.
I've had a pretty good record thisyear. Some years I've had a
terrible record. This year, I'vebeen right on the money on just about
everything. I have no doubt thatBiden is going to win, that the
Democrats are going to take control ofthe Senate. In fact, the Senate
(48:36):
races are becoming remarkable. There isa really high chance in Mississippi of Mike
Espley becoming the first African American USSenator since reconstruction. We're vering in that
direction. But in terms of possiblecivil disobedience and actions by the president to
(48:59):
the game the elections, I amfrightening and I don't know what will be
It's um I think it's going tobe very challenging to the American public to
take a look at what we're what'sgoing to happen over the next twenty five
days. And I mean, wejust went through spending thirty five minutes talking
(49:22):
about a single week of crazy.There's twenty you know, there's basically three
more weeks of crazy between that,and we're not going to know and we
know this for a fact today,and that doesn't necessarily is it a bad
thing. We're not going to goand know as we normally do within you
(49:44):
know, three or four o'clock inthe morning after November third, we're not
going to know who won. Wehave an idea, but idea, but
we won't have a definitive answer.And I think people need to understand that's
going to happen, and it doesn'tnecessarily mean that there's something nefarious that has
(50:05):
happened. So we're gonna have tobe patient, and we're going to have
to reject all this messing around withour democracy. Because I don't mean to
be hyper sensitive about this. Idon't mean to hype this up to the
point where it's crazy. But Ibelieve that the future of our democracy is
(50:31):
on the ballot in November, andyou have a choice, whether you're a
Democrat or Republican. If you wantto see the Jeffersonian Madison democracy continue,
then you know where to vote.If you don't, then it's going to
be on you. I heartily concurAllen. Tell everybody where they can tell
(50:53):
you before that preview anything that peoplemight want to read of yours. And
also, there's been You've been ashot as a pistol in the past three
weeks of writing some stories which stillhave relevance. So let's give me some
of your highlights and tell people whereto find them. Well, my major
(51:13):
highlight was an article I did thisweek about Chris Christie and what I call
his tragic search to be relevant.And in this case, he was so
overboard in terms of attending the WhiteHouse Super Spreader event where Amy Coney Barrett
was introduced. He actually hugged awoman at that event and it wasn't done
(51:38):
out of any Pourian motified this partright, He just wanted to prove that
he was one of the Trump goto ree and it's tragic. Now he's
in the hospital with the COVID andno one really knows what his state of
affairs is. We haven't heard toomuch. So read that article and it's
at the website www. Dot InsiderNJA dot com. And if you want
(52:05):
to read, if you want toread other articles of mind, you can
go to my Twitter feed at aSteinberg six thirteen. It's under Alan Steinberg
and you can also go to myfaceball book page Alan Joel Steinberg a LA
and Joel Steinberg Ellen. One ofthe quick notes and that is that you
(52:27):
also had a brilliant piece in theStar Ledger. Yes where and that is
that is you can go to TheNew Jersey at www. Dot NJA dot
com and uh and get that pieceas well, and it basically the title
of pieces. Wasn't it inevitable forTrump to get the COVID? And it
(52:52):
really was. Well, we willlink all that into the show pages below.
I wish you a very safe andvery healthful week and next time.
Next time around, we're going tobe two weeks away, and we'll see
(53:13):
how that works out. Open prayer, democracy is still alive and well,
I'm with you there, buddy.All right, we'll be back with more.
I'll close this out with some finalthoughts and some information that you may
need right after these words. AtBMW, we know leaving the road wasn't
easy, but anticipating our return taughtus to appreciate every drive, the exhilaration
(53:39):
of the ultimate adventure moments, spendingof your favorite co pilots, and the
freedom to explore just because our timeto rejoin the road is finally here.
(54:00):
Hey everyone, and welcome back tothis edition of the Politically Incorrect Podcast.
I'm Jim Williams, your host,and if you're not one of the over
thirty five thousand people have already takenthe opportunity to join our party, well,
then shame on you. We makeit simple. All I have to
do is go to the Apple podcaststore. Same thing over at the Google
(54:22):
podcast Store. You can find uson speakers, Stitch, or Spotify,
as well as tune in radio,iHeartRadio YouTube, and recently we're very to
be part of the Amazon Prime Musicand podcast family. So there you go.
If for some reason you can't findus, pull out the old Google
(54:43):
machine, type in the Politically Incorrectpodcast with Jim Williams. Hit the favorite
button of the subscribe button. Eachweek could get a brand new edition of
the show delivered to your phone,your tablet or to both. Go.
Okay, all right, so pleasego out there and do that today.
We would greatly appreciate it. Okay, folks, we are just inside a
(55:06):
month before election day, and Itold you in the podcast today it is
imperative that you take the time togo out and vote now. If you
choose to vote by mail, whichis again, it is safe. FBI
director Christopher Ray has talked about itat length. It is very safe to
(55:27):
do by all means, we wishthat you get started on that. Also,
as I've told you before, allthese ballots are very intricate so it
requires that you read them and readthe rules under which you send them back.
Okay, So once you get them, fill them out. But very
(55:52):
importantly, possibly the most important partis to read every bit of the rules
to make certain that the ballot youis counted. Okay. As long as
you do all that, you shouldbe in no problem, not an issue.
To get it there, get itto post office as fast as you
(56:14):
can. Won't get it to adrop if you're in anywhere where the state
of Texas, where they seem toput drop boxes in New Mexico but not
in the state, so we havea problem with Governor Abbot. And then
you got to be careful out inTexas. So by all means check that
out. Do that too. Ifyou're going to vote in person early voting,
(56:36):
be sure to take some wire withyou and some other things because you're
probably gonna wait in line at aself distance, and certainly wear a mask.
Very important, whether it's early votingor whether it's voting on November.
Okay, So there's that's number two. Number three, Call representative in whatever
(57:01):
state you are in and tell themthat you want and demand that adhere to
whoever the associated press or whatever independentorganization who has authorized the count in the
(57:22):
past two You must adhere by thatthat you cannot take away your vote by
any nefarious machinations that they may tryto do. Even though, as we've
said before, it's legal, itdoesn't mean it's moral, it doesn't mean
(57:42):
it's right, okay. Means theone way you can keep the people in
Pennsylvania, the people in Wisconsin,the legislatures around the country from stealing your
vote is to make certain that thatperson in charge realizes that if they don't
do it right, you will makethem pay the consequences by voting them out
(58:05):
of office. Okay. So thoseyou can do three things, and we
hope that you do, and besafe out there. If you're going to
vote early, by all means,we will sh you all the best.
If you're going to vote by mail, again not a problem. Just pay
(58:25):
attention to the rules of marking yourballot properly. And again, if you're
going to vote on November third,be prepared for a very long way.
You know where you're polling places.Make sure it hasn't changed, because that's
something you know that has happened inthe past. But be careful out there.
(58:46):
Okay, have a wonderful weekend,Take a deep breath and realize we
are democracy, and we the people, We the people. Just who is
the president? Who are the senators? Who are the local officials that govern
us? Not anyone else, Soby all means, have a wonderful and
(59:12):
safe weekend, Stay healthy. People'llcatch you next week right here on the
Politely Incorrect Podcast. For the entireteam here include my partner of crime,
Alan Steinberg, who wish you nothingbut the best. See you next time
on the Politely Incorrect Podcast.
Everyone, and welcome to the PoliticallyIncorrect Podcast. I'm Jim Williams my co
host none other than the esteemed colleaguemister Alan Steinberg. Alan, you know,
I was working on a columner You'vebeen working on stuff all week saying
that this was the strangest week ofthe of the Trump presidency. And that's
(00:44):
saying something it's hard to believe,my friend, that one week ago we
were all sitting there and you know, with our collective hearts in our hands,
wondering what was going on because thePresident had just been airlifted from the
White House after testing positive for COVIDnineteen and being sent to the Walter Read
(01:07):
Medical Center. Only just fast forwardto today, where there's been nothing but
NonStop crazy from the time he enteredWalter Read to the time he basically talked
him out of you know, outof keeping him going back to the White
House, and being he's been offthe rails ever since. Well, he's
(01:34):
been totally off the rails. Andit would be entertaining if it wasn't so
terrifying. And that I am veryconcerned at the total unwillingness of anyone in
the Republican Party to push for atwenty fifth Amendment action. This man is
not fit to lead right now.I used to criticize him in moral terms
(01:57):
and characters in terms of his policies, but right now, when he is
talking about having his attorney general putin jail, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton,
and Joe Biden, this is aman capable of the most dangerous constitutional
(02:22):
crisis type of activities, and thecountry cannot survive something like that, and
it would lead to violence in thestreet, the worst civil conflagration in the
history of the country. And it'stime for a twenty fifth Amendment action.
But these folks are still all allterrified of doing it. And I don't
(02:43):
know why, because he said itfor a defeat in the normal course of
action. So go ahead and doit. Yes, you know, it's
strange to your very point that concernsme is that the President of United States
(03:07):
yesterday we find out that Governor GretchenWhitmer, who is the governor of the
state of Michigan, that there wasa terrorist plot, a domestic terrorist plot
by a white supremacist militia group tokidnap her and to possibly kill her and
(03:30):
to in some way disrupt and overthrowthe state government of Michigan. And last
night on Hannity and tweeting prior tothat, not only did the President United
States not pick up the phone andcall the woman saying, my God,
are you okay, he criticized herfor being a terrible governor, accused her
(03:55):
of, you know, of blaminghim, which he did, and he
did he deserved it. I mean, this is just crazy. This is
this We're on the precipices of listen. I mean, we're talking about a
sitting governor, doesn't matter whether she'sa Republican or Democrat, where they were
(04:15):
going to throw, overthrow, notonly kidnap and potentially kill her, but
overthrow the government of the city ofthe state of Michigan. And his FBI
director has been very clear that theworst domestic danger is that of white supremacy,
and he totally refuses to acknowledge that. And after the previous debate,
(04:41):
it took him two days to condemnwhite supremacy because he received support from those
quarters. The man is just morallyand emotionally and mentally off the rails,
and our country is in a stateof crisis. Now it's going to con
continue. Not only two the election. That's going to probably persist after the
(05:03):
election. And I don't have aready answer to that except for a twenty
fifth Amendment action. Now a lotof these Republican senators realize that, but
they're all keeping quiet. What dothey have to fear? Now? That
is the thing that really bothers me. Well, you know, to your
point on the twenty fifth Amendment questiontwo people who you revere and I know
(05:29):
personally, wonderfum you worked for theGeorge Herbert Walker Bush. It was the
first to actually evoke the twenty fifthAmendment when he had a medical procedure done
and it was a you know,about a four hour medical procedure, but
(05:50):
he was going to be under anesthesiaand felt that it was in the best
interests of the country to transfer isyou know, his power to the vice
president. Then the gentleman you workfor, George W. Bush want to
(06:11):
get a colonoscopy, all right,again about a sixth state hour process,
you know when you count recuperation andsuch. And he transferred power to Dick
Cheney. So now we have apresident who test positive for COVID nineteen far
worse, far worse than either youknow, President Bush's forty one and forty
(06:36):
three, and he doesn't even forgetconsidering the power. He has absolutely no
intentions of doing it. He alsohas been affected by the virus itself and
by the drugs he's been taking,and he recklessly persists. But again,
(06:59):
we all, he's knew that hewas bizarre and that he was abusive,
and the virus and the drugs havejust exaggerated his behavior. But what we
never could have foreseen was that theRepublican Party would be so cowardly in the
face of all that. When Nixonwas in deepening legal distress during the Watergate
(07:25):
era, plenty of Republicans spoke outagainst him. Plenty of Republicans spoke out
and said that he should reign.No Republican is saying a thing right now.
It has become a contemptible collection ofpost atlanimous bolt roons. It is
just scary, and our republic isin danger. Not to make light of
(07:49):
something, but I gotta say thatI'm impressed with the with the type of
languages were used in that last sentence. It was quite quite colorful and very
artfully done. Kudos do you onthat? Yeah? Come on, folks,
we have to lighten up just alittle bit. This is so you
(08:11):
do need to light up a situationthat could drive you to drink, right
which right now is not a drive. It's more of a put um.
The the situation with regard to andthis kind of it's hard to believe that
something like this would fly under theradar. But the the President talking to
(08:37):
Bill Barr and get last night inhis interview for those of you who didn't
see it on Sean Hannity, besideshis calling for the as as you know,
as Alan so eloquently pushed earlier,the calling for the jailing of President
Obama, Vice President Biden, formerSecretary of State, First Lady and Senator
(09:03):
Hillary Clinton, he also called forhis Attorney's General, William Barr, to
basically begin the process of setting upa situation where this election could be stolen
(09:24):
by taking it to court in anumber of different ways. Now, all
of that into itself is terrifying,But he wants the Durham Report, and
he's mad at that at Bar fornot delivering it. The problem with that
is they don't have any evidence.So it's difficult to present a case if
(09:46):
you don't have any evidence, andyou sir, a lawyer, you can
explain that better to me. Buthe's setting it up and whether we like
it or not. One of thegreat things about Donald Trump is he would
be the reason I think he lostin base was his terrible poker player.
He can't there is no his tellas he tells you, it's not even
a fake dealt. So he literallyis laying this out in real time and
(10:07):
it almost gets, you know,buried under all the crazy other things he
said. No, he is,He's making it perfectly clear, but he
often gets away with it. True. I'm just I'm just astounded. Though
he could be stopped very easily.He could be right now, Joe Biden
(10:31):
is a sense to win election.His margin has gone up by and some
polls all the way up to sixteenpercent. There is nothing to fear.
What is the matter with these clowns. We are in constitutional crisis. We
have a president who, in thewords of al Hague when he was talking
(10:52):
about Nixon, when al Hague waschief of staff, he used to refer
to him as our meatball president becauseDixon also we're starting to drink now,
Donald Trunk. Donald Trump is nota drinker. No, However, he
is totally mentally off the distribution andthere is nothing to stop him. What
(11:16):
is the matter. There isn't onewho is stepping forward. No, not
a single one. And if youlooked at what Mike Lee said, Senator
Mike Lee, if you tak pleasefolks google it. Lee was talking about
that we don't really have a democracy. Okay, that it's okay if legislators
(11:46):
who don't think that the election hasbeen handled fairly can go ahead and pick
their own slate of delegates to theelectoral College vote and override the potential the
(12:07):
potential will of each state who mayor may not have voted for Biden or
Trump. Well, that is apoint that Barton Gellman made in his Atlantic
Magazine article right a few weeks ago, and now Mike Lee is confirming it.
Now the terrible state of affairs.Yeah, we both know the state
(12:28):
of Pennsylvania. You went to thestate of Wisconsin. We know that those
are two targets. You've got Pennsylvania, Wisconsin too, very important. Trump
can't win if he doesn't win Pennsylvania, that's full stop. Not that you
know that doesn't happen, but thePennsylvania legislature is Republican, the Democrat,
(12:52):
the governor's democrat. Same as thesituation Wisconsin. Do you actually see an
areo where the legislation, the legislativebranch, excuse me, in the state
of Pennsylvania, and the legislative teamin the state of Wisconsin would literally go
(13:15):
against the the the election results,regardless of whether or not their person one.
Well, this is exposing a problemwith the constitution. We have a
right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, my apologies for talking over you.
(13:39):
I said. The fact that matteris in scary part is it's actually legal.
They could do this, yes,but they see that's the point.
We have been successful with our constitutionbecause it has been a living, breathing
constitution where our observance, what hasmade us a representative democracy is not only
the written word of the Constitution,but are acceptance of certain norms. And
(14:03):
one of the norms is that electorswill be selected by the will of the
people, and that has enabled usto mature and grow as a republic.
And Mike Lee and those are similarviews. We're talking about negating those norms,
throwing those norms off the window,and basically interpreting the Constitution in such
(14:26):
a way that instead of a democraticsociety, we come out with a fascist
society, and that is terrifying.Well, the thing that concerns me about
the Republican Party is that, byyeah, is power so important? Is
(14:48):
holding onto power so important that youare willing to burn down the institutions that
got you into power in the firstplace. That wasn't throw in the Watergate
era of Republican leaders like you,Scott, that is true today. That
is all Mitch McConnell cares about hispower. That is all the various other
(15:13):
sidekicks of his like in the hossilerepresentatives where the Democrats have a majority.
Excuse me, the Democrats have amajority. That's all that Kevin McCarthy cares
about. It is no longer aparty of small government principle of conservatism,
that was the party that I joined. It has become something else. It
(15:37):
has become a party where cloud andpower are all that matter. And that's
disgraceful. Well, what they've setup, and I hope doesn't happen,
but believe me, it's possible.They've set up a scenario bout saying well,
(15:58):
the rules are such, okay,we can since we're in charge we
can do whatever we want, whetherit makes whether you like it, whether
you don't like it. Talking nowabout the Republicans versus you know, people
in the Democratic Party and not justthere's there are some outside Republicans yourself and
our friend Steve Schmidt and folks whohave served the party well over the years,
(16:26):
Rick Wilson that are saying this isjust not right because you know what,
one day you won't be in power. And when you're not in power,
then you you know, because youset this up, you could end
up seeing eleven people on the SupremeCourt. You could see you know,
(16:47):
laws being enacted and things being donethat you will then call foul. But
then you can't call foul because you'rethe ones that set the you know this
scenario up. Well, you knowthat brings up another point. I don't
think that the Democrats should be soreticent in talking about expansion of the court.
(17:11):
I don't think there should be Idon't think if the Democrats went out
there and said that if any ConeyBarrett is approved, that means that Rob
Wade is doomed. We can't allowthat. Therefore, in order to counteract
that, we will in that caseexpand the number of Supreme Court justices.
(17:32):
I don't think they would lose politicallyby saying that I don't either, And
you and I both about two weeksago, well we're discussing potential justice Amy
Coney Barrett said that we didn't.You and I would prefer that the courts
(17:52):
stay at the number that it is, but that if this was going to
be ramrotted through, than all betsare off the table. There's a I
don't know if you've seen the playHamilton, but I'm an obsessive Hamilton family,
and there's a song in Hamilton whichis called the Room where it Happens,
(18:15):
and the premise is that if youdon't have a seat in the room
where it happens, then you don'thave a say in the room where it
happens. Then right now, it'sas if you know, Mitch McConnell and
the Trump administration know that they're inthe room where it happens. But to
your point, earlier, a lotof people vilified Richard Dixon, and there's
(18:41):
reason to consider that. But atthe end of the day, when very
Goldwater and a number of senators hadthat come to Jesus meeting with President Nixon
rather than putting the country through animpeachment trial, which she may or may
not have won, he stepped down. There is no reason and there's no
(19:11):
reason to believe the reason to believethat's going to happen. But as you
said, I if your party isn'tchecking themselves, and I'm gonna make a
statement here, I really would likeyour opinion if the Republicans go through with
this. Okay, they're gonna losestill, but if they go through with
this, I don't think there'll beanother Republican vote another president who's a member
(19:36):
of the Republican Party for decades.Well, I agree with you, and
I think there is a need tohave two competitive parties, and there is
a need to have a legitimate constitutionalist, center right party. But we don't
have that now. Right. Wehave a party that is embracing fascism.
(20:00):
We have a party that in thein the advent of condemnation of a governor
of Michigan who was acted courageously bythe way in shutting down the economy there
and enabling thousands of deaths to beavoided. You have a Republican party that
(20:22):
is just symbolized by one wilful manwho rejects all egalitarian premises, who himself
as a white supremacist, and whoseparty, whose cohorts are doing nothing about
it. And it's a disgraceful andnot just disgraceful, terrifying state of affairs.
(20:47):
We're coming up. It's already,We're already voting. I mean I
voted the absenceee ballot the other day. I know you're going to get your
ballot in the mills. Well,you will vote to There are people,
because early voting has started in manystates, who are going to the polls.
I honestly fear, and ne's somethingyou and I touched on a few
(21:11):
weeks ago. I honestly fear thatthere will be voter intimidation and there will
be people at the polls who willdo everything they can to kind of disrupt
what goes on at the polls.I agree. I agree, And I
(21:33):
should note that it's freaking out inthe state of Florida, which President Trump
has to carry. If he doesn'tcarry Florida, forget that it's all over,
but in the state of Florida,in the state of Pennsylvania, in
the state of Wisconsin, there areRepublicans afraid to go to the polls.
There's no question about it. Weface a scenario of violence that is unprecedented,
(21:56):
unprecedented in this country. Now,let me ask you a question,
and this is something that you canput your professor hat on and educate us.
All is protecting the polls, whichobviously if you want to be a
poll you know, there's been alot of talk about poll watchers. Well,
poll watchers is something that each boardof elections you know, allows and
(22:22):
they basically tell you and if you'veever been and we've all been to to
polling places, they give you ayou're allowed. I believe it's one hundred
yards away from the actual polling station. You can go out there and stand
with your sign and say, youknow, vote from my person, vote
for you know, whatever, youcan do all that, but it's not
it's within one hundred yards. Thepeople who are actually the poll watchers are
(22:45):
watching only the vote that happens duringthe course of the day, and you're
allowed a Republican poll watcher. Ithink it's one or two for each party,
and that's the extent of bit.And it's only for vote of the
day. It's not for the you'renot allowed to sit there for absentee ballots.
(23:07):
So my question to you, professor, is this, who helps protect
those pole watchers and there's people thatare working at the voting stations around the
country. Is it something that hasdone state widers. It's something that Chris
Ray, is the FBI director,can step in and help. It may
(23:30):
require intervention by Chris Ray, whois a marvelous the FBI director whom Trump
appears hell bent on firing. Hehas courageously staying standing by the office.
He seems unflappable. But I thinkat some point Trump is going to try
to fire him, and that willlead to another constitutional crisis because it's going
(23:55):
to have to be Ray that providesthis national protection. But again we shall
see now again, professor, questionon this. When Donald Trump fired James
Comey as the FBI director, Ibelieve that was the first time an FBI
(24:18):
director has ever been fired. Idon't recall any other case of an FBI
director being fired. They've stepped down, you know, or they've decided that
they've you know, outlived their term. But and by the way, it's
a ten year term, so thatway, no one particular party you know,
is in charge of the Federal Beerof Investigation. And there haven't been
(24:41):
that many FBI directors at all,because we started with Jager Hoover, and
you know, there's only been Ithink Chris Raised maybe the fifth m FBI
director we've had. So if thepress seems to have been there forever,
well, he started the bureau inthen you know, he went all the
(25:02):
way through Nixon, so that takesyou into the mid seventies. Um.
And then of course Bob Muller hadthat role for the second loan of this
tenure. UM, and UM,then you had I'm trying to remember,
and then it went to Kobe andnow it's Chris Ray. So I think
(25:22):
it's five. Um. But anyway, it does that that the exact number
doesn't matter. Well yeah, PaulPatrick, Oh yeah, yeah, that's
you're right. You're right, you'reright. I had it for a while.
Um, but it would it's almostinconceivable that a president would fire one
but two FBI directors because he wasn'tgetting what he wanted. Well, let
(25:45):
me let me say that we're fortunatein one respect. M. J.
Edgar Hoover was a man capable ofterrible political abuse, right He tapped the
telephones of Martin Luther King's ride toblackmail King because he caught King in the
process of having extramarital affairs. Healso, excuse me, J Edgar Hoover
(26:11):
was a very bigoted individual who wouldresist at all costs the civil rights movement.
We don't have that today. Infact, most of our FBI agents
are wonderful people. Most of themare people who revere democratic with a small
d norms. Take for example,Frank Fagluzi, who was off and on
(26:32):
NBC. The man is marvelous.The man is out for a protection of
society. But what you have nowis not that the problem is not within
the FBI. The problem is,excuse me, the President himself trying to
manipulate the FBI into doing things thatthreatened the constitutional order of the United States.
(26:56):
Well, don't think it hurts thathe in his own Attorney General,
being William Barr, who's being moreof his own personal attorney than the accorney
to the United States. But well, that's the thing I keep wondering about.
I keep wondering about whether Barr isgoing to make any public response to
(27:18):
these commands of Donald Trump to putpeople in jail, without evidence, without
due process. Barr is going downin history as the worst attorney in general
this country has ever had, andhe's acting in a way to generate just
(27:41):
better opposition from the public. Andhe's keeping quiet as well. I think
it's time for him to step forward. Well, let me ask you this
is there at this point in time, what and be done by Congress,
(28:02):
if anything, to circumvent any possiblenefarious actions that could or could not take
be taken by the administration too kindof gum up the works In an election,
all the Congress has is the isthe impeachment power? Right they and
(28:27):
of course they are the recipient organof government that would receive a twenty fifth
Amendment letter signed by the Vice presidentand also by the various cabinet officers.
But again, I don't think MikePence has the courage to be involved in
anything like that. The other nightin the vice presidential debate, his behavior
(28:51):
was so sexist as the offensive beyondbelief. Well that and the fact that
he was incapable of its dream.I mean, he wrote an entirely different
narrative how the administration handled the COVIDnineteen virus. It would have been lovely.
Absolutely, but let me note onething on that a slight change subject.
(29:17):
I like Kamala Harris. I amvery supportive of her for the vice
presidency. I thought that she wasconcerned to avoid the stereotype and it is
it's it's a racist stereotype of beingthe quote unquote the angry black woman.
So at the beginning of the debateshe held back. I don't think she
(29:40):
was nearly as forceful as she shouldhave been in refuting what Mike Fence was
doing in terms of rewriting the wholehistory of the administration COVID response, she
held back. She was much betterin the second half of the debate,
but she had a slow start.I was sitting in my living room saying,
(30:02):
Gamela, what are you doing?Don't let him get away with this.
I also thought that Susan Page wasn'tat whom I think is a good
journalist, was an absolutely terrible moderator, very weak, and was really succumbing
to the gender abuse that Mike Pencewas doing. You know, she never
(30:22):
she kept saying times up, timesup, but she was not forceful enough.
I would have tried to do somethinglike even cut off his microphone.
If he walked out, that's toobad. But you know, she was
not acting forcefully enough, and thatmade a mockery of that debate too.
(30:45):
You know, there there were acouple takeaways for me, And this is
just my own personal thing. Youknow, if I'm I watch a debate,
but a lot of times I decidethat I would rather listen to it
and not watch it, just toget a feel for how you know you
(31:06):
can if you watch something, sometimesyou get distracted by the visual on the
screen. And so when it comesto debates, because I'm a bit of
a debate, I like to listenon the radio so that you can actually
hear the two of them talk.And I think that the takeaway from me
(31:27):
on this was when Harris prosecuted thecase for saying, if you have breast
cancer and you have protection excuse me, condition, they're coming for you.
(31:48):
If you've got diabetes, they're comingfor you. And she listed maybe five
or six pre existing conditions that wouldbe gone by the ACA. I'm being
struck down in court and they're comingfor you. And I thought that was
probably her most effective argument of thenight. Yeah, she was effective on
the ACA. She was also effectiveon the racial relations issue, but that
(32:15):
all happened in the second half ofthe debate. The difficulty for her was
this the most effective democratic issue byfar is Trump's criminal mismanagement of the coronavirus
pandemic. And I don't think shewas as effective or forceful as she should
have or could have been did.I did think she did one thing that
(32:37):
will be memorable and will be oneof the major takeawation of debate was when
she said, mister Vice President,I'm speaking. I thought that was effective.
I thought that was effective. Thosewords in themselves had the equivalent in
saying, stop with your sexism,stop with your lecturing of women. I
(33:00):
thought that was a fact. Thoughit's funny. Frank Luntz and others did
focus groups after the the debate,and if you broke it down gender wise,
seventy nine of the women who watched, and we're not talking about now,
(33:21):
these are it's hard to believe thereare undecided, but these are undecided.
Seventy nine percent of the women feltthat Kamala Harris won, while forty
eight percent of the men felt thatshe won. I thought that was curious,
(33:42):
but you know, as one ortwo of the women put it.
I know that it was Nicole Wallaceon on MSNBC put it that if you've
ever been in a room where youknow, you've tried to speak and you
just been shouted down by a manin the office, that you know basically
(34:07):
it was dismissing of you. That'swhat they saw when they saw Pence in
what he was doing to Tombla Hills. Well, there there's no question about
that. To your previous point aboutthe difference of listening to debates on radio
and watching it in nineteen sixty whereyou still have a lot of people who
(34:28):
listened on radio rather than watching TV. In the first debate, what really
was the most determinative of impact youhad When they pulled people who listened on
radio. The radio audience sawt Nixonhad won. The television audience saught Kennedy
had won. For several reasons.Number One, Nixon really looked bad.
(34:52):
He had a bad makeup man thatnight, and those were in the days
where when you went on television,you're make up man could be decisive.
Also, he had his leg walkinginto the debate, and also the fact
that Kennedy appeared very poised. Mostpeople thought of him as inexperienced and not
(35:13):
up to the job, and justby his very active sitting there, being
poised and being at least on equalterms with Nixon. That was the impact.
Nowadays, not too many people wholisten to the debates, the overwhelming
majority do watch them, and thatmagnifies the behavior. If a person like
Pence is acting in a patronizing anddisrespectful way to women, it's going to
(35:39):
be magnified on television. And Ithink that's what happened in that debate.
Yeah, no, I think you'reright. The other thing is in the
sixty debate, You're right, Nixonhit his knee on the way in on
the car door. We got thecar. It was the sixty debate that
(36:02):
that were referencing was held in Chicagow BBM Television, and so it really
didn't have an audience. Um,there wasn't an audience there. It was
just two men on a debate stage. Um. If you've ever been in
a major television studio, you knowthat lights in those days, especially in
(36:27):
the nineteen sixties, were incredibly hotand they were actually very close to the
you know, anyone on whether itbe a news anchor or whatever. They
were close in the and the heatwas there. So to your point about
Nixon sweating and looking, you knowhe had Bobby Kennedy had scouted the station
(36:52):
out earlier. So Jack Kennedy actuallywore under his suit a suit that was
wet to keep him cool. Sothey used tricks, which you know Nixon
had not. Nixon had never gonetelevised debate for but Bobby had thought about,
(37:15):
you know, what can we doto make sure that Jack never sweats.
Well, one of the great thingsof doing that is soaking, soaking
yourself in water before you you actuallygo out there. There was also a
trick that was done by James Carvillein the second debate of Clinton and President
(37:37):
George Herbert Walker Bush, and thatwas that was a town hall situation.
Carville went in, took a lookat the set, saw the chairs that
were being used, took one ofthe chairs, brought it over for the
debate prep and showed showed Clinton thatif he sat on the edge of the
(38:02):
chair with his foot on the back, you know that he could literally pounce
out and walk over and ask andanswer questions personally. You know much more,
you know, one on one waythan anyone else. Because they had
the chair there that they knew whatthey were doing. So when the chairs,
(38:22):
you know, when they returned thechair back. Clinton had had that
advantage of knowing literally you know,what he was sitting on and how he
could best react to the crowd.So there's always a little behind the scenes
things going on at these debates thatare are very the nuanced, but they
(38:45):
do and can make a difference.Well, I remember another thing in nineteen
sixty was that the background, thepainted background was very white, and Kennedy
wore a dark suit and Nixon worea light suit, smaid. Nixon seemed
to fade into the background. Everyindivisually that could have gone wrong for Nixon
(39:07):
did go wrong for him. I'msorry. There was also a black and
white televisions that made it even worseexactly exactly. It's a different ball game
today, but these things still domake a difference. There is a certain
amount of preparation that goes in toset preparation observance by the candidates. I
(39:31):
don't think there's going to be anotherdebate. First of all, I think
that Trump is far sicker than whatis going on. I don't believe his
doctor Sean Conley for ten seconds.I don't believe him as far as I
can throw him. I just don'tbelieve that, all of a sudden,
the man has made this miraculous recoverywithin a week, and when you're looking
(39:52):
at him physically, he looks terrible. Well, nobody, nobody's actually seen
him in a week. I mean, we've seen these videos, but I'm
talking about the White House Press Corpsor in any not that to be honest,
not that I would want to see. I mean, he's a he's
a video, should be in thehospital. Even those videos. He looks
(40:14):
terrible. Yeah, he just lookslike hell. And I just cannot believe.
I cannot believe that Biden would subjecthimself number one, to the danger
of Trump being possibly contagious. Numbertwo, the public is not going to
resent Biden refusing to participate. Thepublic was disgusted with the previous debate,
(40:38):
the result of which made Biden's marginexplode. I think Biden has every reason
in the world not to participate inanother debate. I don't think he will.
I think he would have to befoolhardy to do that. Well,
I know that, you know,one of the problems in. This is
(40:59):
something that the you know, theDebate Commission had to deal with. And
it's, by the way, forthose of you who don't know, it
is a bipartisan It's not a youknow, Democrat, a Republican based thing.
It's a bipartisan thing. And oneof the problems they had alan which
was actually very underreported, was afteryou know, this was done at Case
(41:24):
Western Reserve, and Case wester Reservehas a auditorium on the campus of the
Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic wasadamant that people wear masks. Of course,
we now know by now that theentire Trump entourage did not. But
(41:44):
what happened was eleven people who werepart of the attendees in the debate in
Cleveland, in debate one eleven ofthem tested positive for COVID nineteen. Now
these are not part these these wereinvitees from the Trump camp and they all
(42:10):
tested positive for COVID nineteen. Sothere is reason not only because the president
of the United States has COVID nineteen, but that they found out that you
know, wait a minute, ifwe do this again and we go to
Miami, god knows how many peopleare going to get you know, COVID
(42:36):
nineteen from just attending to the debate. So I think they were doing everything
reasonable in saying, you want todebate, fine, it's virtual. The
other thing that they were taking intoconsideration, which I think is very consciential,
as the air part, was saying, all right, if the President
United States wants to participate, whichhe has said he did, then the
(42:57):
only way we can do this isvirtual. And that way he can stay
in the White House. He canyou know, he doesn't have to travel
or move anywhere. And so theywere actually playing to his advantage. They
wanted to give him every reasonable possibilityof being able to participate in an area
where he would not have to moveanywhere. So I don't see how they
(43:21):
could have been more conscientious about this. Well, they're not dealing with a
man who is acting rationally. They'renot dealing with a normal situation. I
think we ought to forget about anyfurther debate in this campaign. You're not
dealing with a person who will beacting in good faith either. No,
and I honestly don't that. Imean, look, the White House Press
(43:49):
Operation is for all interns and purposes. Now a group of interns, because
everybody's you know, in self quarantine. I don't think it would be wise
to put anybody in peril, andanybody getting on Air Force one at this
point in time would be in perilto go forth to go do a debate
(44:13):
in Miami that you know, wouldbe yet another superspreader of it. There's
no there's no question about that.Who wants to give their lives for a
presidential debate. It's just the riskand the peril are beyond belief and it
(44:36):
is not worth a risk. Itis not worth it will not be promoting
the education of the public. Itwill turn into another scenario where Trump rants
and rays. There's no reason toproceed any further. Okay, as we
get ready to wrap things up,free topic for you. Pick anything you
(44:57):
want to talk about. What isit that's on your rand this morning that
you want people to know about it? Well, on a lighter note,
right now, you have the varioussports trying to make their way and have
(45:17):
an impact on the public, agood diversion for the public. But the
ratings are down, and I thinkthe ratings are down due to certain factors.
I think the ratings are down becauseyou don't and there and this is
all reasonable for the various sports commissionersto direct the things the way they have.
(45:37):
There are no fans in the stands. Without fans in the stands,
you lose ninety percent of the colorof the game. And secondly, I
think that the what is going on, and I don't say this with any
glee, what is going on inthe national political scene is more exciting,
compelling, and gripping than what ishappening on the athletic fields. So I
(46:01):
know, I myself, I'm amajor sportsman. I've watched hardly any sports
events since they came back on stream. I watched the Eagles last Sunday night,
and it was an exciting game.That's been about it, and I
think we'll have to reevaluate sports ifthe pandemic continues. We're almost ready to
(46:23):
start another NBA season in November,early December probably, but without fans in
the stands, I don't think it'sgoing to go very well. Same with
baseball right now you have playoffs andWorld Series coming up. Who's going to
care? Yeah? I think partof the reason too is coming as a
(46:45):
former television programmer myself. You've got, for instance, last night, you
had Thursday Night Football combatting the Yankeeis in the raised game four of their
you know, division series. You'vehad a situation where you've had the NBA,
(47:08):
Major League Baseball, and the NHLall on in the same night,
So you're gonna get split audiences.So, besides what you're talking about,
which is all valid points, they'vethere's never been a case here in the
United States where we've had all thesesports coming at the same time, and
(47:30):
so you've got split allegiances as towhat you can and cannot watch, and
it makes it difficult to make achoice when you know there's two or three
things on all at the same time. That's true too, that that just
further diminishes the appetite of the fans. So, Nostradamus, I'm going to
(47:55):
ask you a question in this regardas we close things out here, we
got twenty five or four days beforethe election. What's going to happen in
the next twenty four to twenty fivedays. This is the This is one
(48:15):
of the few times in my lifeI'm usually intrepid in terms of making predictions.
I've had a pretty good record thisyear. Some years I've had a
terrible record. This year, I'vebeen right on the money on just about
everything. I have no doubt thatBiden is going to win, that the
Democrats are going to take control ofthe Senate. In fact, the Senate
(48:36):
races are becoming remarkable. There isa really high chance in Mississippi of Mike
Espley becoming the first African American USSenator since reconstruction. We're vering in that
direction. But in terms of possiblecivil disobedience and actions by the president to
(48:59):
the game the elections, I amfrightening and I don't know what will be
It's um I think it's going tobe very challenging to the American public to
take a look at what we're what'sgoing to happen over the next twenty five
days. And I mean, wejust went through spending thirty five minutes talking
(49:22):
about a single week of crazy.There's twenty you know, there's basically three
more weeks of crazy between that,and we're not going to know and we
know this for a fact today,and that doesn't necessarily is it a bad
thing. We're not going to goand know as we normally do within you
(49:44):
know, three or four o'clock inthe morning after November third, we're not
going to know who won. Wehave an idea, but idea, but
we won't have a definitive answer.And I think people need to understand that's
going to happen, and it doesn'tnecessarily mean that there's something nefarious that has
(50:05):
happened. So we're gonna have tobe patient, and we're going to have
to reject all this messing around withour democracy. Because I don't mean to
be hyper sensitive about this. Idon't mean to hype this up to the
point where it's crazy. But Ibelieve that the future of our democracy is
(50:31):
on the ballot in November, andyou have a choice, whether you're a
Democrat or Republican. If you wantto see the Jeffersonian Madison democracy continue,
then you know where to vote.If you don't, then it's going to
be on you. I heartily concurAllen. Tell everybody where they can tell
(50:53):
you before that preview anything that peoplemight want to read of yours. And
also, there's been You've been ashot as a pistol in the past three
weeks of writing some stories which stillhave relevance. So let's give me some
of your highlights and tell people whereto find them. Well, my major
(51:13):
highlight was an article I did thisweek about Chris Christie and what I call
his tragic search to be relevant.And in this case, he was so
overboard in terms of attending the WhiteHouse Super Spreader event where Amy Coney Barrett
was introduced. He actually hugged awoman at that event and it wasn't done
(51:38):
out of any Pourian motified this partright, He just wanted to prove that
he was one of the Trump goto ree and it's tragic. Now he's
in the hospital with the COVID andno one really knows what his state of
affairs is. We haven't heard toomuch. So read that article and it's
at the website www. Dot InsiderNJA dot com. And if you want
(52:05):
to read, if you want toread other articles of mind, you can
go to my Twitter feed at aSteinberg six thirteen. It's under Alan Steinberg
and you can also go to myfaceball book page Alan Joel Steinberg a LA
and Joel Steinberg Ellen. One ofthe quick notes and that is that you
(52:27):
also had a brilliant piece in theStar Ledger. Yes where and that is
that is you can go to TheNew Jersey at www. Dot NJA dot
com and uh and get that pieceas well, and it basically the title
of pieces. Wasn't it inevitable forTrump to get the COVID? And it
(52:52):
really was. Well, we willlink all that into the show pages below.
I wish you a very safe andvery healthful week and next time.
Next time around, we're going tobe two weeks away, and we'll see
(53:13):
how that works out. Open prayer, democracy is still alive and well,
I'm with you there, buddy.All right, we'll be back with more.
I'll close this out with some finalthoughts and some information that you may
need right after these words. AtBMW, we know leaving the road wasn't
easy, but anticipating our return taughtus to appreciate every drive, the exhilaration
(53:39):
of the ultimate adventure moments, spendingof your favorite co pilots, and the
freedom to explore just because our timeto rejoin the road is finally here.
(54:00):
Hey everyone, and welcome back tothis edition of the Politically Incorrect Podcast.
I'm Jim Williams, your host,and if you're not one of the over
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(54:22):
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Okay, all right, so pleasego out there and do that today.
We would greatly appreciate it. Okay, folks, we are just inside a
(55:06):
month before election day, and Itold you in the podcast today it is
imperative that you take the time togo out and vote now. If you
choose to vote by mail, whichis again, it is safe. FBI
director Christopher Ray has talked about itat length. It is very safe to
(55:27):
do by all means, we wishthat you get started on that. Also,
as I've told you before, allthese ballots are very intricate so it
requires that you read them and readthe rules under which you send them back.
Okay, So once you get them, fill them out. But very
(55:52):
importantly, possibly the most important partis to read every bit of the rules
to make certain that the ballot youis counted. Okay. As long as
you do all that, you shouldbe in no problem, not an issue.
To get it there, get itto post office as fast as you
(56:14):
can. Won't get it to adrop if you're in anywhere where the state
of Texas, where they seem toput drop boxes in New Mexico but not
in the state, so we havea problem with Governor Abbot. And then
you got to be careful out inTexas. So by all means check that
out. Do that too. Ifyou're going to vote in person early voting,
(56:36):
be sure to take some wire withyou and some other things because you're
probably gonna wait in line at aself distance, and certainly wear a mask.
Very important, whether it's early votingor whether it's voting on November.
Okay, So there's that's number two. Number three, Call representative in whatever
(57:01):
state you are in and tell themthat you want and demand that adhere to
whoever the associated press or whatever independentorganization who has authorized the count in the
(57:22):
past two You must adhere by thatthat you cannot take away your vote by
any nefarious machinations that they may tryto do. Even though, as we've
said before, it's legal, itdoesn't mean it's moral, it doesn't mean
(57:42):
it's right, okay. Means theone way you can keep the people in
Pennsylvania, the people in Wisconsin,the legislatures around the country from stealing your
vote is to make certain that thatperson in charge realizes that if they don't
do it right, you will makethem pay the consequences by voting them out
(58:05):
of office. Okay. So thoseyou can do three things, and we
hope that you do, and besafe out there. If you're going to
vote early, by all means,we will sh you all the best.
If you're going to vote by mail, again not a problem. Just pay
(58:25):
attention to the rules of marking yourballot properly. And again, if you're
going to vote on November third,be prepared for a very long way.
You know where you're polling places.Make sure it hasn't changed, because that's
something you know that has happened inthe past. But be careful out there.
(58:46):
Okay, have a wonderful weekend,Take a deep breath and realize we
are democracy, and we the people, We the people. Just who is
the president? Who are the senators? Who are the local officials that govern
us? Not anyone else, Soby all means, have a wonderful and
(59:12):
safe weekend, Stay healthy. People'llcatch you next week right here on the
Politely Incorrect Podcast. For the entireteam here include my partner of crime,
Alan Steinberg, who wish you nothingbut the best. See you next time
on the Politely Incorrect Podcast.
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