After Party with Emily Jashinsky - Platner Drops Out, Smithsonian TRUTH Bomb, Citizen Vigilante Panic, & Pratt's Next Move

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

Emily Jashinsky breaks down the latest developments in the Graham Platner scandal as he drops out of the race. She details the allegations against him, while arguing that the media's coverage reveals a broader misunderstanding of how voters view political scandals today. She also explains why she thinks he could have still won the race. Emily then explores the rise of Democratic Socialists in America, explaining why populist frustration with the status quo has created new political opportunities and why Republicans need stronger messaging to counter the Left. Next Emily does some original reporting, diving into the Trump administration's report on ideological bias at the Smithsonian, arguing that many media outlets dismissed its findings without engaging with the extensive evidence documenting activist approaches to American history. She also examines Spencer Pratt's surprising next move. Then Emily questions the coordinated messaging surrounding Mitch McConnell's health and Elaine Chao's decision to remain in China during his hospitalization, and how it raises broader concerns about political elites clinging to power. Emily rounds out the show with the latest controversy surrounding Armie Hammer and “Citizen Vigilante,” amid reports Hammer is sad about the film.   USAFacts: Demand government accountability by signing the open letter for reliable public data at https://USAFacts.org/supportdata   Cowboy Colostrum: Get 25% Off Cowboy Colostrum with code AFTERPARTY at https://www.cowboycolostrum.com/afterparty   Cozy Earth: Visit https://www.CozyEarth.com & Use code EMILY for up to 20% off Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome back to After Party, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us on today's edition of the show. We're going to have some breaking news on the Graham Platner, Grand Platner race. I was going to say Case and just getting all jumbled up with the words. But anyway, still here in Sunny San Diego and ready for a show with a great guest tonight. Me, one of the, I think one of the bigger gets that we've had here on our first year of After Party. I'm kidding. I actually really just, we get positive feedback on the monologue segments. And I like every once in a while, you know, I've done a show like this before, at least once before.

But I think what works about the monologue segments is often I kind of get time to bring in a lot of different information and sort of build a case. And that I enjoy doing. We get some good feedback about it. So every once in a while, I think it's good to just do a show. It allows me to do some reporting too, like a little bit more reporting. We do that just about every show. But this time around, I'm going to dive deep into this new Smithsonian report. you might have heard from the media about, you may have heard crazy things from the media about it.

In fact, that's part of what we're going to talk about. The Trump administration released a big report on bias at the Smithsonian, and the media is getting the story completely wrong. So please stick around for that. On the breaking news front, Graham Platner, whose name apparently, I just can't pronounce today, looks like Graham Platner is out. We'll bring you details on that. I also want to react to the Spencer Pratt-New Warfeworthy.

foundation he started. This is very, very interesting. So I'm excited to dig into that one. Man, we've got so much going on tonight show I'm excited. Army Hammer seems to be indicating through sources in the media that he's not happy with Citizen Vigilante. I don't know. This story is odd. We're going to bring you more on that. What the DSA really stands for, what some of these red state Democrats like James Taurororo really stand for. I'm going to do a breakdown that I've wanted to do for a really long time. And this week turned out to be a great opportunity to do that. So breaking down a little bit of what they really stand for. And Mitch McConnell, where on earth is Mitch McConnell?

Where on earth is Mitch McConnell's wife, Elaine Chow? So much to get to, as I mentioned on today's show. Please do subscribe. It helps us so much if you subscribe on YouTube, like, comment. All of that is enormously helpful. You know, it gives us a boost in the algorithm, so more and more people are exposed to the independent journalism. We do here on After Party, super, super appreciate all the people who have subscribed

and spread the word on the podcast. feed, by the way, that's where you get a Friday edition of After Party. It's called Happy Hour. It's where I answer all of your questions, just about all of them. As you know, you can send them into Emily at Devil Make Care Media.com. Pretty much, no-holes barred. I answer them live. So, you know you're getting the fresh reaction, just flagging them in my inbox every week and then coming to them as we record every Thursday evening. So Emily at Doublemaycaremedia.com And make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. So that hits your feed every Friday. and of course on Mondays and Wednesdays as well.

All right, big show, as I mentioned. Let's get to it. Going to take a quick break. We'll be back on the other end with more about the Graham-Platner race. We'll see you in a moment. This episode is sponsored by USA Facts. They're a non-partisan organization making government data easier to access and understand, which is an incredibly important mission.

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Whether you want more government, less government, or just a government that has to show its math, you need reliable facts. So read and sign the letter at USAFacts.org slash support data. Well, we have some breaking news on the Graham Platner front, obviously, Platter 1, that Democratic nomination contests in Maine over the sitting governor, the incumbent sitting governor who was favored by Chuck Schumer and many Democrats, top high-profile Democrats in Washington, D.C. He beat Janet Mills and beat Janet Mills pretty easily and handily, despite all kinds of scandals rocking the campaign,

just about from the moment it began. Now, Platner, as of Wednesday, this is what we know. Platner's campaign, according to the Washington Post, held a call Wednesday afternoon, quote, in which leadership sounded, resigned to the idea that the Democrats' bid could be ending soon, said a Democrat close to Platner. The campaign staff was told that Platner would speak about the future of his run Wednesday night. I just want you to think about, like, what you would do as a regular person in a position where a much larger world, Large forces were working against you personally to accuse you of the worst thing that a person could do, and it was not remotely true.

We believe that for the movement to continue, it can't be made. And for that reason, we are suspending campaign operations. This is incredibly difficult because I know that some will think it's an admission of guilt. it most certainly is not. We're not doing it because of the allegations. We're doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power. Now, on a serious note, you probably already know that Politico ran a story with a woman named Jenny Rassacott, accusing Graham Platner of rape. Rassacott then went on Jake Tapper's show, as did Lindsay Fifield, who had previously in a now very controversial New York Times story, said that Platner once

forcibly kind of locked her in a rinketting. room and, you know, pulled her out of a cab at one point. She has now said that Platner would repeatedly remove condoms against her will during sex. That's something that Rassicott alleges as well. Rassacott's allegation is from 2021. And that's why I think this has really turned to the race on its head. She alleges that he drunkenly came into her house and had intercourse forcibly with her despite her saying, no, don't. And then also took off a condom despite her saying, no, don't do that. And she has some corroborating evidence, meaning people she spoke to in the past about this having happened. Now, that's getting a lot of play right now. One other thing I should mention is that my

colleague over at breaking points, Ryan Grimm, is reporting that, quote, Politico knew at the time of publication precisely what Jenny Rascott texted to Graham Platner, but deliberately omitted it from their article, Rassacott, according to the lead Politico reporter on the story, told Platner, she, quote, needed her glute massage. He told her he was coming right over. She responded by telling him not to do so, but he came over quickly. Ryan says, whether this detail is important to you or not, it is a shocking breach of journalistic ethics by Politico and CNN, not to include it in their coverage. DropSite is also reporting that Ryan authenticated that behind the scenes message, of course, where she, again, before publication, Politico, the political reporter told the Platner campaign that

Rassikot on the night in question had been, quote, texting Platner about needing her glute massage. The reporter added, quote, that detail didn't make our story. So Politico is saying the story is based on extensive reporting and interviews and interviews and interviews with us and an account she gave to other outlets. Rassacott said she told Graham Platner not to come to her home and that he nevertheless showed up there uninvited. So basically they're standing by their reporting. I do agree with Ryan, if you have evidence of that text message, it does just add fair context, not, I think, vindicating context by any means, but fair context that your audience can handle, certainly, and your audience is entitled to. If you, the journalist, have it, you're only basically not

releasing that part of the message, right? Of course, she still told him, it's true. She still told him not to come over, even if they had included that. But the only reason for them not to include it is their gatekeeping relevant information that they don't want on their conscience, right? They don't want to get called out for including a detail that's not fair, as some, I would say, feminist activists would argue. But again, to Ryan's point, whether or not you think this story is important, I think most main voters probably do think the story is at least important, that is a pretty big breach from Politico.

Now, Fifeield is making all kinds of allegations against the New York Times. I do know Lindsay Fyfield a bit. And so, you know, frankly, I don't think it's super valuable for me to wade into that story in, you know, much depth. It's always tough when you kind of know someone personally. But I will say the allegations about how the New York Times handled their allegations that they were reporting out are not great either. That now famous clip of Jody Cantor, I believe on CNN, saying that this is different than a classic Me Too case for X, Y, and Z reasons is truly ridiculous. so ridiculous on so many levels to hear her, one of the godmothers of the Me Too movement, quibbling now after unleashing the beast of the Me Too movement that I think really ended up

undermining some valid claims women have brought to the court of public opinion because people got fatigue from the way the media handled these allegations. So the point that I want to make about Platner is that I do think most main voters appreciate having this information. I do think actually, and this is the controversial politically incorrect take. I wrote about this in Unheard, because previously I had written that Platner basically shows, you know, the, he basically shows that people are now looking at these character concerns as luxury beliefs. And that was a big lesson of Trump's arc as well. I mean, everyone said after Donald Trump criticized John McCain for getting caught in Vietnam. Everyone said, oh, the campaign is over. Right. We remember that

happening a million times from Access Hollywood. It was the media recycling campaign is over, campaign is over, and voters saying no. Voters saying after January 6th, no. And I think the way the media has often misinterpreted that is voters saying, we fully condone all of Donald Trump's behavior. In fact, a lot of Trump voters don't like any of that. They don't like it. There's some small group of the public that it makes him who he is and doesn't bother them very much. But I do think it bothers most people who voted for Donald Trump, the question is they are, or I should say the reality is, they believe they're voting in lesser of two evil competitions, right? And I want to say, I think that's probably why Graham Platner, this is the controversial part, I think

Graham Plattener could actually still win this main Senate race. I don't think he would be likely to win. But I also don't think any of the replacements that are being considered politically would be likely to win against Susan Collins, who has proven to be a, enormously resilient Republican candidate in a very swingy state and a center-left state, I think is fair to say. So the point I'm making is that these character concerns are real for voters. Voters now in this economy where inflation is high, much as it was in 2024, inflation is high, gas prices have been still high. They've come down, but they've still been high. People are feeling this economy is really shaky.

I feel like perhaps we're in an AI bubble, which we now know thanks to a notice report this week, that the Treasury Department itself is internally warning about. So, childcare costs crazy through the roof. People have a hard time buying homes. It's not a great middle class economy right now. And because of that, people are already totally over this idea that most politicians are of sterling character, that they're wonderful, decent people who are modeling civic virtues. In an ideal world, that's actually the type of person we should be electing to political office,

but people don't see it that way anymore. The pretense is gone. And by the way, people are right not to see it that way. It would be wrong not to hope that we could elect people of sterling character who are capable of making moral decisions under very difficult circumstances and in the pressures that our system unfortunately puts on politicians. But people now, many people, not everyone, but many people now, I think rightfully see politicians as these blunt force objects.

They're, you know, plastic players on a game board. And it's foolish to hope that there are anything more than that or to believe that they're going to be anything more than that. So I think one of the reasons Platner has tried to hang on here is that he kind of understands that dynamic. And I think it's kind of why Dems thought they had a big, win with him in the first place. So a little bit more on this point. I just don't think he passes the Federman test. So like let's talk about the merits. Obviously, I am not a progressive. So I would

not be out here voting for Graham Platner if I lived in Maine. But I will say, after the tattoo scandal, after all of the Reddit posts came to light when he came back from the military, he says he was suffering from PTSD, he was trying to find his place in the world, he published all of the this bizarre stuff on Reddit, ranging from like wildly politically incorrect to weird. He survived that. And by the time this Politico story dropped, he was leading in the Real Clear Politics average. He led in every single major poll that RCP averaged in June, every single one of them, except for a Fox News poll.

But he was still up in RCP's average after all of that, after all of that, after the adultery, came out in new allegations, he was up. He wasn't up by a ton, and the needle wasn't moving really in the right direction for him, but he was still up after all of this in the Real Clear Politics average. And I think that is an indication of something the media doesn't understand about most voters. They didn't understand it about most Trump voters, and they're now not understanding it about a lot of progressive voters or independent-minded voters who have lost all illusions or who have dispensed with all the pretences about our politicians and our political candidates being moral stalwarts. They see them as blunt force objects as little plastic characters on a game

board. But what I mean about the Federman test is that this Rassikot allegation is from 2021. The adultery allegations are from recent years as well. I think those are from 2023. When John Federman had a stroke and became obviously incapacitated in his race against Dr. Oz, the media was asking, the corporate media, was asking very few questions about this. In fact, when one NBC news reporter did ask some questions on camera about it, she was pilloried. You remember this? Federman was having a hard time communicating. He still does have a hard time communicating.

and the progressive stood by Federman. Basically, they broke with Federman after he seemed to break with the left wing of the party that he originally ran on, right? Wasn't he endorsed by Bernie Sanders? The Sanders folks were standing by Federman, even when he was clearly incapacitated. And the prognosis was not great for Federman going forward. Now, I will say I've been surprised by his recovery,

but he still seems to me. I mean, he had to check in for depression, just like Tom Cain said. he did recently, you don't belong in Congress. And I think what it looks like is that Graham Platner, whether it's from four combat tours or other issues in his life, he's still not mentally fit

to be someone that goes into Congress. I think that's a perfectly fair judgment for people to make, given how recent some of these allegations are. It seems like he's had problems with drinking really heavily. The Rassikot allegations is that he didn't even remember what happened the next morning that he seemed blackout drunk. And again, the next morning, he didn't remember what happened,

according to Rassikot. And Plattner is denying any non-consensual activity, but he's not denying that he drunkly came over and it was doing or having intercourse, right? Again, this is a much more recent allegation. I think for voters, the recency of this is a real concern. I don't begrudge people for having concerns about. that. Now, I will say, we should also have no illusions about the makeup of the House of Representatives or the Senate. It is full of people who drink too much and make stupid decisions and have a lack of

judgment. No question about that. Do you want to make that problem worse? Probably not. And if you have a choice, you are, I think, within your rights to be concerned about it. But let's now talk about problems the Democrats are having more broadly. And I wanted to do this because based on the we had a Monday show with Victor Davis Hansen. I actually came back towards the end of that show and just fleshed out some of my thoughts a bit because I do think Zoran Mamdani, given his success in the Democratic primary in New York

and then in the general election when Cuomo still ran, and now his approval rating is very high in New York City. He has become the leader, not just of the Democratic Socialist, the ascendant DSA wing of the Democratic Party, which is having successes again in places, like New York and then pretty blue district in Denver with Maylock Kuros. Also been some successes in places like California. Plattner was seen kind of as a DSA-E success

in the main area, kind of DSA-adjacent. Abdua-L. Syed having success in Michigan right now, though facing some tough questions we're going to get into. And I just want to say, you know, there's been some glazing on my part of DSA-style candidates because I think they're understanding something about our politics that not just folks in the political establishment are missing, but also some Republicans are missing. That's why we rolled this clip of Steve Bannon saying you're not going to, this was Monday, you're not going to defeat Mom Dani with Paul Ryan Republican Party messaging and policy or by throwing Milton Friedman books at voters. And I really think that's correct. But I also wanted to take time to say they have their own

serious vulnerabilities. And while I think some of my friends, on the left are absolutely correct, that right now there's a reason socialism is ascendant in some of these deep blue places. It's because young voters feel especially desperate. They feel the economy is especially shaky for them. They are saddled with lots of student loan debt. It makes it very hard for people you can see that show up in polling. They say it affects marriage. They say it affects their decision whether or not to get married. It's very hard to buy a house. You can see how that would affect some people's decisions to get married and have children. So I think they're correct. and they're correct about the style of campaigning.

So on some of the populist questions, my friends on the left, I think, are correct, that the moral panic about socialism does not have the same effect anymore. I talked about that on Monday show, too, because the Washington Post recently did an analysis of Republicans gravitating more and more towards the communist label, right, saying these aren't socialists, these are communists. Even today, Donald Trump continues this communist messaging. It's something Spencer Pratt has really leaned into. He particularly has a case with Nietzsche Raman and Karen Bass.

That's a much easier case for Pratt to make. But all this is to say, what do some of these Democrats actually stand for, and then what do DSA Democrats actually stand for? Here's a real problem, I think, for Grand Platner, certainly would have been a problem in Maine, would have been a problem or will be a problem for James Telerico, could be a problem for Francesca Hong in Wisconsin. it's definitely already a problem with Abdul al-Sayed,

but it'll especially be a problem after the primary if he's able to beat Haley Stevens. This is going to be real. These are not, you know, just because public opinion has turned a bit on Trump's immigration policies, these are actually going to be real problems in places like Michigan and Texas.

Tala Rico, we've covered a lot of the sort of cultural stuff. Like, he was making this claim about veganism, how his campaign was going vegan a couple of years back in his state race. But it wasn't just that he was trying to make a cultural signal. That was actually also about trying to say we should move our economy to being less focused on meat consumption for environmental concerns. That has policy implications. His God is non-binary stuff. Again, we've covered that.

We've covered how he talks about abortion and the Virgin Mary, his consent narrative, which is wildly off. We've talked about all that stuff. But let's also broaden the conversation here because just to stick with Tala Rico, who's not a DSA guy, he supports codifying Roe v. Wade via national legislation. Congress should pass a codification of Roe v. Wade, and that's what he would seek to do if he were in the U.S. Senate. Then the question for James Talleyco is, do you support third-term abortion? Because Roe v. Wade opened constitutionally the states to make their own rules when it comes to the mother's health. And that was being interpreted very broadly about health, right? You can make mental health concerns that are thin compared to how most people would think about that with kind of ectopic questions and the like. So that is a major question for James Talariko. What about decarbonization? Where does Abdul Al-Said say in Michigan, where you have all kinds of auto workers? What does that policy actually look at? What does the

Green New Deal look like for Michigan? What does it look like for Texas? Where do you stand on court packing? Overhauling the Supreme Court? I think that was a platinum quote. It might have actually even been Tala Rico. Tala Rico has talked about this as well. You want to pack the Supreme Court?

Do you want to get rid of judicial review? That's part of the DSA platform, which I'm going to get to in just one moment. Do you want to undermine school choice in Congress? What does abolishing ICE look like? What is the enforcement mechanism for after you had a minimum of 8 million people come over the border during the Biden administration. You already had plenty of people, as we talked about with VDH on Monday's show. According to Pew, in 2023, 9% of all births were to non-citizen mothers in 2023. 9% of all births. It is hundreds of thousands of

births a year. What does enforcement look like in that situation? Pathway to citizenship? Is that what you think the people who are in the country now should all basically have open to them? What does that do for workers? What does that do for the future of the American workforce? Even if you say you support a closed border, do you support going back to the Biden-era asylum regime? Those are magnet policies. Those are carrots.

And if you implement them, people will come to the border. And you will be bombarded at the border with people trying to come in. A huge reason you're not seeing all of those people clamor and come up to the border now is that those pathways into the country have been closed. But once you get in, you can go to sanctuary cities, and you can't sort of live life in the shadows for a long time. And then you have children here. And like Kilmara-Brega Garcia, a huge portion of the public doesn't want you to port it

because they hate the idea of kids not having their parents. It just becomes much politically, much more difficult politically. Defunding the police. This is a huge problem for Abdul El-Say. right now who has previously said that's something that should be on the table and now he doesn't want to do that same thing was zoraamam dani what about gun control platinum was the only person who was sort of interesting on this but what do you actually do i mean is is tallorico that much different than john corn and he's probably worse on the second amendment

and that is by the way a civil liberty that is a right so how would he regulate guns now on the DSA side, people who do have DSA affiliations should get questioned about the DSA platform. Jonathan Chate, who I basically never agree with, wrote a story that I didn't really fully agree with, but he did outline in the Atlantic what the DSA's platform actually looks like. He wrote, quote, the DSA's leadership has approved a platform set to be ratified at its convention next month, calling for, quote, abolishing the carciful forces of the capitalist state, opening borders, moving to public ownership for the largest corporations, establishing a 30, our work week and defunding the Pentagon. Now, defunding the Pentagon, their platform says basically

almost totally defunding the Pentagon to its bare minimum. And we could have a conversation about where Pentagon funding should go. But yeah, they basically say no electoral college, president should be elected by popular vote. They want to expand the House of Representatives. And they believe in D.C. statehood. And additional, all of the other things Chait mentioned in the platform that is set to be ratified. So if you have a DSA affiliation, basically it's fair to ask you about the radicalism of that platform. I don't think it's correct to call any of that communism, although the communist wing inside of the DSA, I know it sounds silly, but that actually is ascendant might be one way to put it. So anybody who's previously had affiliations

with the communist wing, certainly that would include Dario Lisa Avala Chivalier, who has busted favorably about communism in the past. Sure, absolutely. And politically, if the Republican Party has poll numbers that show labeling these guys communists instead of socialists is going to be more powerful, go for it. Right. Like, same thing if Republicans or if Democrats think it's helpful to tie everybody for Trump, go for it. You know, that's politics, right? If it's helpful, I doubt that it's helpful. First of all, Democrats tried the Trump stuff for a long time. And it didn't work in 2024, with a lot of different candidates, not just the presidency, because people, again, are desperate,

and they're more concerned about their material interests right now than they are often about these kind of character questions. It doesn't mean I think character questions are unimportant at all. It just means this is a question of understanding where people actually are when they feel like they're drowning and that the economy is shaky. So Republicans need to make an affirmative case, not just about why these things are wrong,

not just a negative case about why these things are wrong. I do think they should be focused very clearly in something like the Tala RICO race or the Abdul Al-Said race on what this does to autoworkers, on what this decarbonization or Green New Deal does to your material concerns. I think that is probably more important to the average voter than whatever Talariko said

about the Virgin Mary on Joe Rogan, as crazy as I think it is. These are material questions, defunding the police, material question. That's the case Republican should be making. But as they make that case, I really believe they need to have an affirmative. It has to be coupled with, in every single breath, it has to be coupled with, here's what we're doing because we know the status quo isn't working. And that's what the DSA candidates have going for them in some of these races.

It's what Grant Platner had over Janet Mills. Because they actually have policies, right? They're ridiculous policies. But it's a problem in the democratic establishment, in many cases, not every case. But it's from a conservative perspective. But it's what the democratic establishment is getting owned on right now. You have to couple it in every single breath with recognition that the status quo is broken and a plan for how to fix that. Institutional trust is really low, and that's for good reason.

So you cannot appeal to existing institutions. You cannot just take issue with. people who are criticizing these existing institutions because you're labeling them as a leftist radical and then not say, here's what I'm going to do to upend that institution or to upend the status quo. So I do think it is fair just because in the context of the show, I've made the case so many times. And of course, I'm breaking points that these candidates are clever. And Mamdani in particular is clearly steering the ascendant DSA movement. But also, you know, We talked about how Kamala Harris has been calling him.

Josh Shapiro, he's in conversation with, like, centrist Democrats or, like, mainstream Democrats, relatively centrist. And that's because they know that he's onto something. And Republicans have a big case to make, whether it's with Tala Rico or with somebody, like a Platner or an Abdul al-Sayed, who's aligned with that kind of DSA wing. And Talleyko's not, and there's still so much to work with, because as McClatchy pointed out, by 2020, Joe Biden was running on the most radical platform that any Democrat had in modern history. Hillary Clinton, they assessed in 2016 or the most far left platform. And he's Joe Biden. Hillary Clinton in 2016, despite being a centrist Democrat like Hillary Clinton was running on what McClatchy assessed to be the most radical platform of a Democrat in modern history.

and that is because these centrist Democrats see the writing on the wall. Now, what they would do in office, maybe the DSA folks would be disappointed by. Maybe they're all going to turn out to be fettermans. I don't know. But politically, Republicans have a lot to work with, but they don't seem, I think, capable of working with it in the moment, just as some of these establishment Democrats don't seem capable of working with it in the moment as well. So I do want to make that point. And I do want to say, this is what they're getting right on a messaging and a populist level, but they get a lot wrong in ways that are not going to be favorable to the types of voters who swung from Obama to Trump to Biden to Trump or even just Obama to Trump in the first place or Biden to Trump. There are easy ways for Republicans to eat into some of this.

And there are a lot of big questions that James Hilariko and Abdul Al-Sayed have to answer for. But they do understand something that I think Republicans and some of these more establishment Democrats who haven't quite figured out how to deal with this yet. Do not. Wanted to make that point. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with more after-party. This summer, if you want real results, think better. Gut health, glowing skin, stronger hair, and steady energy. Those things are all so important in the summer. As we know, start with colostrum. When your gut is balanced, everything else improves. Today's sponsor, Cowboy Colostrum offers premium bovine colostrum, sourced entirely from American grass-fed cows and made in the USA. Unlike many

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milk and you feel the difference all day long. So for a limited time, our listeners get 25% off their entire order. Just head to cowboy colostrum.com slash afterparty and use code afterparty at checkout. That's 25% off when you use code after party at cowboy colostrum.com slash after party. Well, let's do some original reporting here on After Party. You may have heard about a new report the Trump administration dropped on bias inside of the Smithsonian. Let me read a little bit just of the basic media coverage here. So you have a sense of the nuts and bolts. So the New York Times reported this week that the White House posted a lengthy report condemning the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. By the way, that was in accordance with an executive order that Donald Trump issued, quote, accusing it of promoting extreme ideological activism while denigrating the nation's founders. and its founding. Historians have started to reply with failing grades of their own.

The organization of American historians, the nation's largest group of scholars of U.S. history, blasted the report in a statement Monday, accusing the administration of presenting a partisan ideological attack in the guise of historical critique. Now, I dug into the report. I read the entire report, and it is long as hell. But let's just get a flavor of some of the media coverage that actually you may have experienced. We can put the box up on the screen here. I'm going to run through. This is the Washington Post op-ed. The only bias uncovered in the White House's Smithsonian report is its own. Oh, my goodness.

Here is the Atlantic. Kelsey Ables writes, headline, a huge escalation in Trump's Smithsonian meddling. I'm going to go now to Time magazine. Trump's attacks on the Smithsonian are an attack on American history. Wow. This report must be insane, you might think. Well, I'm actually going to put. some elements of the report up on the screen right now because it is so worth it. Let me just,

I flagged a bunch of this. Here we go. This is, you can see everything that I've bookmarked here in the report itself, 162 pages. And I'm just going to start here on page four. This report is chalk full of exact evidence, verbatim reporting from the Smithsonian's recent history, showing that concerns, which were actually raised during Trump's first administration, as we started to see the ideological takeover of so many institutions very clearly. And then much of that came into plain view over the course of the pandemic when the racial tensions were rising and the kind of professional managerial class that sits at the tippy top of so many of these institutions that governed bodies representing the entire country where you have, for example, the Associated Press deciding what in

2017 before most of the country knew what preferred pronouns were to just switch to preferred pronouns and copy. And that affected to say that was the AP style guide demanded you do that. Well, that affected papers in every corner of the United States immediately because of the decision of what, like 10 people sitting in New York or D.C. or in other major cities. And so here we see something very similar happening to the Smithsonian. And this report is serious. It is full of serious evidence bolstering the administration's case and proving that their case is substantive and not some right-wing anti-woke anti-DEI fever dream but the media is not even willing to look at this evidence and neither are the institutions who should be concerned about this so the national museum of

american history is the focus of a lot of this report and they say right away the report says right away that one of the most significant findings is what's missing. They say the report finds that a visitor to the museum today will find no major exhibit dedicated to America's founding era, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, other founding fathers, the continental progress, the pilgrims, the Puritans, or other major movements of the American Revolution, such as Washington's Crossing of the Delaware, and said visitors will find founders such as Franklin introduced chiefly through their connection to slavery, while their decisive rules in building the American Republic and their anti-slavery efforts are minimized or ignored. George Washington and Abraham,

Lincoln appear in didactics that say next to nothing about who they are, let alone why they matter. The Pledge of Allegiance is treated as a tool for instilling nationalism without serious engagement with its rich meeting, and the Declaration and the Constitution are quoted selectively in ways that mute their claims about equality, ordered liberty, natural rights, and the divine source of those inalienable rights. Museum materials repeatedly suggested that Christianity functioned principally as an instrument of conquest, exclusion, or cultural erasure, while the constructive role of Christian belief in Christian institutions and shaping the nation and its freedoms receive scant, if any, attention.

White male and Christian Americans are regularly downegrated as the alleged embodiment of oppressive power structures. Let's keep going here. I'm on page 12 of the report. It says that this is at the National Museum of American History, which highlights that some founders, like Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, owned slaves while downplaying or completely excluding information about their abolitionist efforts.

And they bring the receipts here. They don't do it with Hamilton. mentioning that he was quote a vocal critic of slavery and helped found the anti-slavery New York Manumission Society. And similarly, they say the same about Franklin's record. This is important because I actually think both of these points are worth raising in the context of American history. And let me tell you, the National Museum of American History has plenty of room to chew gum and walk at the same time, the good and the bad. And by the way, everything in the National Museum of American History should be presented as glass half full, not glass half,

empty history because as Matthew Means said a couple of weeks ago on our show, every nation, every civilization needs to have myths that tie us together. And those mids should not be untethered from the truth. They should be faithful renderings of the truth that don't ignore the bad, but that do emphasize the good, because that is what is unifying and that's what helps us feel. Like as citizens of a republic, a constitutional republic, it's a privilege for us to vote. It's a privilege for us to be engaged in civil society because we have skin in the game and we are striving towards what a more perfect union. It is one of the most beautiful parts of American civilization. Let's keep going here to page 16. They find an exhibit that frames Christopher Columbus's landing

and exploration of the new world as a murderous genocide and, quote, unsettling of the continent to be lamented. Not celebrated, they refer to Columbus as a murderer, slaver, killer, and thief and urged the abolition of Columbus Day. They have a, many voices, One Nation exhibit that portrays the European Settling of America as a quote, profound unsettling of the continent. And you can again see the receipts in this report. They have pictures of the exhibit, screenshots of some of what's getting baked into the curriculum that they send to teachers around the country. And listen, I actually have complicated feelings about Christopher Columbus, like many Americans, but unlike many on the right. But again, what you're

seeing here is just the persistent insistence on glass half empty framing of American history from a deeply ideological perspective that is not going to be in touch with what the American public wants to see in these exhibits. Let's head on over to page 17. There's a lot to get through here in this 162 page report. They find that Smithsonian's leadership at the American History Museum made it its stated goal to make history a quote prime tool of social justice to be an agent of social change and connect research and scholarship to activism and advocacy. Those are direct quotes from leadership at the American History Museum. They created an interpretive plan where their directive was to tie everything to the core issues of our time, race and identity, gender and sexuality, environmental change, immigration and migration, economic inequality, technological change, and nationalism. They created a center for restorative history to, quote, encourage systemic change to transform the national historical narrative restructuring institutional priorities and privileging knowledge production in the communities that. that have been silenced or overlooked by museums,

which include BIPAC people, LGBT-plus people, and people who have intersecting identities within these communities that is, quote, privileging, quote, partnering with and spotlighting the people and stories of virtually every group, as the report says, but straight white Americans. They say that because this does show up in the case they make about what's missing.

They had them, they drafted a museum-wide decolonization restorative history plan. They had regular. meetings for staff members to meet and discuss and read the museum as a site for social action. Again, half a dozen current former Smithsonian employees authored a thing on how to, quote, truly transform the museum space that privileges dominant white ideals of race, class, and gender, and is linked with white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, abuse of labor, colonization, and imperialist theft of art and artifacts, destruction or absencing of alternative ways of interpreting

or representing art and artifacts, structural racism, and other oppressions. They had a national youth summit that included conversations about teen resistance to racism and gender equity. And then they invited a Democratic Party operative to speak about how young people can engage in political action and influence elections. On page 24 here, you can see how they tried to push museum visitors away from the America First mentality. This was under the leadership of Director Hardig, where they pinpoint a lot of this changes directly to her. she said she wants to help people get out of the America First mentality, adding that, quote, it's a big challenge, especially going into 2026, which will be the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And she explains that she believes the scope of U.S. history and the term

America should really include the entirety of the Americas, not just our part of North America. Again, this is funded by the U.S. taxpayers as the National Museum of American History. In some of their curriculum, they linked to a pro-DACA video from Vox. You can see that up on the screen. Let's see, what do we have here? This was, you know, yeah, they warned of the, quote, danger of a single story storytelling today that focuses on white people. That was their head of pre-K through 12 learning who talked about some of the stuff.

What you're seeing is this actually seep into curriculum and into exhibits. Right now, what's on my screen is the continuum on day. becoming anti-racist, becoming an anti-racist multicultural organization that was used within the museum, part of their action toolkit, and their staff met to discuss this regularly. Now, just to be clear, you see, again, they are trying not to have on this chart to be an exclusive institution that openly maintains the dominant group's power and privilege. This is critical theory baked into their staff training at the National Museum of America. American history. They are, they say their goal is full participation and shared power with diverse

racial, cultural, and economic groups in determining its mission structure and constituency policies and practices. I mean, you can see this on your screen. You can go look at the report yourself, but it's all there. You can see here, this is their diversity and inclusion initiatives report for the fiscal year 2023, where they broke down the percent served by race, and ethnicity. Honestly, this is a really disgusting way to assess the efficacy of the American History Museum and of history museums funded by American taxpayers to break us all down into our identities and say that's the primary lens through which we should view these exhibits and that they should be conscious of that. Again, clear evidence here of what the media is dismissing. Here is a chart.

aspects and assumptions of whiteness and white culture. This is included in a toolkit that they endorsed, calling rugged individualism, family structure, and the emphasis on the scientific method, aspects and assumptions of white culture. The Protestant work ethic declared in this document to be an aspect and assumption of white culture. Here they have an exhibit.

This is a photo of the National Museum of American History's Girlhood exhibit where they present the wage gap without any context whatsoever about what happens when you control for other factors in the wage gap is just presented as fact. That is progressive ideological history, no question about it. Let's go to page 85. Here's more from the Girlhood exhibit where you see Jazz Jennings, the sort of trans hero Jazz Jennings, being embraced. jazz Jennings was involved in promoting the idea that children can transition I mean again you're seeing this up on the screen but it's an entire part of an exhibit dedicated to saying that children can transition and that it's normal and healthy in some

cases this is again being dismissed by the media as a right-wing fever dream and like authoritarianism from the Trump administration more more pictures here from the exhibit that says sometimes gender isn't revealed at birth in the Smithsonian. Is gender testing fair? Here's an exhibit in the Change Your Game part of the National Museum of American History about gender verification testing being complex and contested. And how that leaves quote intersexed transgender and gender nonconforming athletes who complicate those binary categories. This is contested science, first of all. Science, of course, I completely disagree with, I think it's debunked, but at the very least it's concessed,

and it's being baked into exhibits. Here is a chest binder on display at the We Belong Here exhibit at the National Museum of American History. Here is what the report describes as inappropriate material in front of children. In the girlhood, it's complicated exhibit where you have the six-year-old biological female quote who struggled with the idea of getting boobs in a period after attending a birthday party where other little girls were talking about the matter.

I pray to God every night for my penis to grow, the diary says, I know now it won't, but I still pray. Why the hell is this in the National Museum of American History? They also criticize them for putting sexually suggestive material in front of children, which you can see on the screen right now. Drag queens, again, not sure why that needs to be in the National Museum of American History. You see kind of a suggestive graphic

for the listening audience of two women and a BDSM crotch harness in the illegal to be you, gay history beyond Stonewall exhibit at the National Museum of American History. They, the report, I think the report gets a little over its geese sometimes in assuming everything is ideological

when it doesn't necessarily need to be ideological. Some of it could be fair, But most of these examples are, I think, pretty straightforward, and it's insane the way the media is covering this report. But it does here say others, so it says, in a nation created by immigrants, nothing has been more debated than what should be the ideal character of its citizenry. One view is that multiculturalism, the preservation of diverse cultural heritage enriches the country. Then it says others challenge diversity by seeking to restrict immigration and exclude certain racial and ethnic groups, as though that's the proper framing for debates about immigration. Amazing. Again, in the National Museum of American History, and here you can see they have the graduation gown of someone named Hiro Javier Morales, who, quote, to expand the boundaries of belonging, took a risk and came out at his college graduation as queer, Mexican, and undocumented. In the National Museum of American History, and then they have more clearly pro-Dacca content, clearly pro-trans, content. And I thought it would be valuable to actually go through this report because, again, the media coverage of this has been to suggest it's all right-wing fever dream that it's an authoritarian impulse from Donald Trump. We can take the box down now. And that it is all just foolish for the administration to be concerned about. Actually, what this report is is a very serious, sober and substantive look at an ideological takeover of an important American institution that would certainly go against what the public believes to be.

be mainstream renderings of American history. And yes, this gets to the deeper problem about how as a polity, as a civilization, we're going to struggle to have a monocultural unified narrative about who we are and whether we're good. And so many of the people who are most out of touch with the public is the professional managerial class for reasons that Charles Murray documents in coming apart. And, you know, the, there, other like left-wing authors have talked about recently as well. It's a really unfortunate elitist rendering of American history made in the interest of actually addressing income inequality and class biases, but it's it's so firmly ensconced in a very thick bubble that the people

who are doing this history can't even make assessments of their own biases anymore. And they're friends in the media are in the exact same position. They are also incapable of assessing their own biases. So I just wanted to do an update on that. I didn't get in this for political power. I got in this to expose this corrupt machine and nothing has changed. Every week, I'm going into the belly of the beast, bringing you hard-hitting cinematic documentaries, exposing the fraud and corruption in California. There was a body that they found yesterday. Someone is making money in City Hall on the distribution of the needles. It was all illegal.

Everything we're looking at is illegal. Talking to business owners, covering the issues the media doesn't want you to see and breaking down complex issues into digestible content to educate and inspire people to make real change. All you have to do is show people. If you think we uncovered a lot of fraud and evil in the campaign, just wait. It's war. There you saw Spencer Pratt, who didn't, of course, make the runoff in the Los Angeles mayor's race, was ultimately edged out, though people have.

have many questions about how that happened by Nithia Rahman and of course Karen Bass in first place, incumbent mayor Karen Bass in first place announcing that he is launching the War Foundation. And if you missed it, part of what he also announced is that the foundation is going to be focused on, quote, hard-hitting media investigative research, educational campaigns and strategic partnerships in government and media to push back on the communist rot, shine a lot on government failure, challenge entrenched interests and empower citizens with the truth. Now, he was also at the White House, and I think we have this to put up on the screen, you know, getting some criticism. Then he posted a picture of Johnny Cash, getting the finger to the camera.

But he did meet with Donald Trump at the White House this week. He posted a super cute picture of his son at the White House as well. And I think this is worth talking about because as we covered during his campaign, one of the reasons that Spencer Pratt went from somebody that might have gotten like 3% of the electorate to doing double digits. in this race as a registered Republican, though he said he was running as an independent, and I think he made a pretty good case who was running as an independent. Bear in mind, Spencer Pratt going to meet with Donald Trump doesn't out him as some type of magadud. Zorn Mandani did that as well. But others is to say, he understood, and I wish I could give credit to the person who said this. I heard it in passing from someone. I've even asked

Claude and Grok both who said this, but they made a really great point that Pratt during his campaign was basically acting as a journalist, right? He was exposing in his ads new information. That's the crux of what the news is, new information. And so he was going to Skid Row. He was going to different places in Los Angeles and just showing raw video. He's going to the Palisades and just showing raw video. And what that tells us about our politics is genuinely very interesting. New media, social media in particular. I'm a huge critic of the algorithms. I think probably the best thing we could do to heal the country that Elon Musk seems to have zero interest in doing

is reverting to a timeline function on our algorithms that are not curated by an algorithm that's designed to keep us on the app as long as possible. Those algorithms, because they are meant to keep human beings scrolling on an app, bring out the worst in human beings. So they incentivize extremism. So really, really good or really, really bad, really this, really that. And it's probably why you see Republicans like Trump and Spencer Pratt leaning more into the communist label than the socialist label.

It performs probably better on the algorithm. So I bet you could do a scientific study on that. But this point about him functioning as a journalist is fascinating because what the algorithm also prizes is new information, right? It does incentivize new information. And that has historically kind of been the domain of journalists, right? But in the influencer era, people have realized that. you can go on TikTok and be somebody who is, you know, apparently exposing new information about some major conspiracy theory. And that is going to do okay on the algorithm because it's new. There's a

novelty to it that also keeps us scrolling. And I do think that is Spencer Pratt understanding the future of politics. And that can go in obviously bad directions. I think it can go in good directions too, forcing the media in Los Angeles to cover certain aspects of the Palisades fallout and the slow rebuilding process, focusing on Karen Bass's record on homelessness and drug addiction, just showing it and spotlighting that as a candidate on social media forcing the corporate media and local media to take those issues seriously. I think Spencer Bratt understands that in a way that not even Donald Trump does, and maybe Mom Doni doesn't quite understand it yet either. It's not just about those Lego videos that some people

made of Pratt, which were hilarious and novel, but I think it's also actually about what he's, what he was doing with some of his own videos. And that's why I think this war foundation is totally worth dwelling on because it shows something that he understands. And listen, his campaign was a success, no matter how you put it. He lost, but barely lost, to Nithyaraman. And by honestly, a surprisingly low margin for somebody who had zero political background, got into the race really quickly. It was not like building this over the course of years and training himself up to be a candidate for office for years. He gets into the race and immediately starts to surge, ends with double-digit numbers, is very close to the runoff, very close to the runoff. And

I just think that's a success no matter how you look at it because the bar for Sprinter Pratt was low from the beginning. He's not a politician who, or even somebody who was trying to become a politician over the course of a year or two. He got into the race and figured out a way to actually build some constituency in Los Angeles and almost make the runoff as somebody who, again, in the Los Angeles area, does have all kinds of political vulnerabilities because you can tie him to MAGA. You can say he's kind of a rabbi. conservative or radical Republican. Now, I don't think it worked with a lot of voters, obviously, but that's in the Los Angeles area, deep blue area, a liability. And I think he just exposed what one

of the best inroads is for independents and maybe even Republicans who want to start turning around and disrupting blue states, blue cities, deep blue areas. We've seen with some candidates in California, you know, whether it's Rick Caruso or, I mean, Steve Hilton's a good example, too. There is an appetite. There are some people that are so fed up that even if they're not Republicans, although California also has a lot of Republicans, but even if they're not Republicans, they'll pull the lever for somebody who's going to disrupt the status quo from the right. If the other two seem like they're examples of the status quo, that is exactly what Nithia Rahman was because she was on the commission that dealt with homelessness. Karen Bass,

was the sitting mayor, they did not make a good enough case. I think to persuade those double-digit Pratt voters to come and or to be serious candidates for those people who went with reality star Spencer Pratt, Hummingbird Spencer Pratt. And shout out to the hummingbird videos. They're great, by the way. I'm not putting them down. But they went with him over these guys. And some of those people were on the left.

Some of those people were Democrats. Some of those people were independents. and it's because Rahman and Bass just made a really, they were defenders of the status quo, and they did not persuasively to the point where they lost, both of them clearly lost some not insignificant number of voters to Spencer Pratt because they weren't making those cases. So that's where Democrats in blue areas, states, cities are vulnerable. And Pratt showed a way to make inroads. Might not win, and maybe it's the beginning of a long process.

But I think the foundation that he launched, the War Foundation being focused specifically on media, again, they could go in all kinds of interesting directions. And we invited Pratt on the show this week, but hopefully he comes on soon to talk about this. I just think it shows his shrewdness and how clever his campaign really was. And I, for one, am looking forward to see more from Spencer Pratt. We're going to take a quick break and be back with updates on Mitch McConnell and Army Hammer. summer is officially in full swing. It's July now. And if you're looking to upgrade your warm weather routines, cozy earth has you covered. They really do. I've completely refreshed my home

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John Barrasso, and Scott Jennings, who just within pretty close timing of one another, put up these statements that had, they looked completely scripted. It was so bizarre. They genuinely looked so scripted. And I wanna read from all of those statements just so you can see exactly how scripted they looked

and how there was, clearly intentional overlap between them. So Scott Jennings says, I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior senator from Kentucky. He's still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes about Iran, Ukraine, the unfolding situation in Maine, my visit to the TR presidential library, and even a little bit of Senate history. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible. Okay, John Thune says via a spokesperson, Leader Thune spoke with Mitch McConnell yesterday, by Senator McConnell yesterday by phone. They had a lengthy and substantive conversation that covered a variety of topics, including national security. John Barrasso via a statement said.

Senator Barrasso and Senator McConnell had a lengthy conversation early this morning. Their phone call lasted roughly 20 minutes. They caught up about the latest news impacting the Senate races, the Grand Platner scandal, and the recent Supreme Court ruling on coordinated spending limits. They also discussed the Senate's July work period, including need to pass the NDAA and confirmed President Trump's nominee for Director of National Intelligence. Intelligence Senator McConnell was fully engaged in his ear to get back to the Senate. So McConnell, obviously, has been absent due to medical reasons for a long time now. And nobody has seen him.

Suddenly you have all these people pointing out they had lengthy calls with Mitch McConnell where they talked about foreign policy. All at the same time, it is so weird. It shows how badly they understand. understand the public and the McConnell camp understands the public to think that you could put out this coordinated effort to say we all spoke with Mitch McConnell and maybe they did. I'm sure they did if they put out statements. But seriously, we got the recording last week of somebody at Mitch McConnell's home suffering cardiac arrest. We know he's been in the hospital. This man is incapacitated.

He should not be in the Senate, let alone in the important position. Some people might think he stepped down his leader and wasn't doing anything, was just kind of bopping around. No, incorrect, as we reported here at the time, he is in pretty important positions. He still has pretty important committee assignments, and he did that intentionally. He has talked about intentionally sticking around for the sake of nudging American foreign policy and Republican foreign policy away from isolationism. He's been open about that. Now, Joseph Girth, who is a longtime columnist in Kentucky area, wrote in the Courier Journal today, quote, I would like to know, however, why just three days after McConnell was rushed to the hospital,

unconscious and what appears to be in pretty bad shape. His wife, former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, was in China meeting with Chinese Vice President Han Zhang. That's what Chinese news agency said, at least. Finally, on Tuesday, Chow put out a statement saying that she was in China on a long planned trip to support her family's, quote, philanthropic endeavors and that McConnell's health did not warrant an immediate return to the U.S. Gertz says, are you kidding me?

channeling all of Kentucky, presumably. Are you kidding me? Paramedics responded to a call about an unconscious person in cardiac arrest and performed CPR at his Washington home on the day he was admitted to the hospital. And Chow's first thought wasn't, I probably ought to go home. This raises, again, why Elaine Chow, former cabinet secretary, transportation secretary, has such close ties to China. I want to read from my former colleague Jordan Boyd's story in the Federalist back in 2022.

I helped with editing the story, so I remember it well. She wrote, when Trump named Chow, head of the Department of Transportation in January 2017, her family publicly rejoiced, likely at the opportunity to report their business interests, to further their business interests. That same month, Chow's sister Angela, who I believe is now deceased, was named independent, non-executive director of the CCP-affiliated Bank of China. That happened the same month. Again, the shipping company that her father runs, huge shipping company that her father founded, I believe,

was, it's technically based in New York, but does a ton of business with China. So Jordan added at the time, even though the Trump administration took a hardline stance against China and its intent to compete with the U.S., the Chow family company proceeded with a purchase of 10 new ships from the Chinese government. That strategic buy expanded the foremost, that's the company's name, fleet capacity by more than 40% enabling the company to do even more business with the CCP. It also came shortly after Chow secured a spot in the Trump cabinet overseeing an industry in steep decline thanks to competition with China. Okay, so just putting that out there, well worth talking about at this time, because what the heck is going on with Elaine Chow and Mitch McConnell? Think about this for a second. As Jeff Girtz said, we now know exactly what was given, and it's exactly what was made in that call. And it's just insane, insane that Elaine Chow didn't think, oh my goodness, I need to get back home.

We've seen for a long time Mitch McConnell struggling openly in the public view. He insists on clinging to power over at breaking points a few months back. We reported on a picture of him being wheeled around at the airport. Nobody in the Capitol Hill press had ever posted a picture of that. Why? Well, people want to maintain access. You don't want to upset somebody who's still a really powerful senator. Basically, all bets are off at this point.

But when it comes to Elaine Chao, maybe she's Chinese intelligence, probably more likely that she's American intelligence. I have no evidence of either other than circumstantial evidence, which is strong. I mean, she was a cabinet secretary, Department of Transportation, that would mean security clearances, probably would mean should be likely to at least sensibly cooperate with American intelligence. I genuinely have no idea. There is circumstantial evidence.

That's the case. But it is so pathetic that they continue to cling to power. It just shows how shameless the McConnell's are that she's now putting out a statement saying, I didn't think there was any immediate need for me to run home from China, where she also said in a statement she was working on strengthening bilateral relations. Mitch McConnell can't get out of power soon enough, nor can his wife Elaine Chao. That's what I have to say about that. Let's talk about Army Hammer. Army Hammer is now distancing himself. Apparently, we'll dig into this just one second here. Puck got an interview with a

source close to Army Hammers camp about Citizen Vigilante, which we covered here before a lot of people covered it because I saw this percolating bubbling up. Citizen Vigilante being described as a very right-wing film, but the director isn't really right-wing, is just one of the many people in Europe who is like, I feel insane because I can't talk about what's happening with immigration and crime and culture clashes on the continent. Now, I haven't seen the film. I am told that it it veers into perhaps some unhealthy directions, and I'm perfectly willing to believe that. But the point that I think we should focus on here is that a source in Army Hammers camp is talking to Pucks Kim Masters, saying, the first time he saw it, this is citizen vigilancy,

he was in tears and not tears of joy, quote, he called me and said, fuck, this is hateful, disgusting. I think he knew it certainly leaned toward the right. But the director works in a very frantic way, the Army Insider said, it's not like he sent him a hundred-page script when he saw the final product he was, quote, that was not the movie I thought we made, and he freaked the fuck out. Okay, well, that's interesting, because Army Hammer did an interview in Collider on June 19th before the movie came out saying people who are passionate about things, especially a director, if you have a passionate director on a film, it just makes everything better.

He talked at length in this Collider interview before Citizen Vigilante really blew up into majorly controversial piece of cinema about how rewarding it was to occupy this particular character's mind and experience. He talked at length about the merits of the film in the Collider interview. So whether or not Army Hammer is knowingly sending an insider source to Puck Magazine to try and create some distance that might allow him to get hired on future films amidst all of the backlash now to Citizen Vigilante or whether it's somebody in his camp going rogue trying to protect him, I don't know. But it does indicate exactly. I mean, this film has been successful. It is doing well. And maybe Army Hammer wants to still show up in like quote

unquote polite society in Hollywood and in the sort of elite circles. I mean, he is literally from the Hammer family that has a quite fascinating political history. It's very wealthy, very elite. But, you know, it's sort of had that experience that once he was canceled for the weird sex stuff, maybe he decided it just doesn't matter anymore. He kind of talks about that too in some of the interviews, but maybe not. Maybe he still wants to kind of have his cake and eat it too and have it both ways.

Either way, he was fully embracing this film, and I don't think there's any possible way to have him save face unless he wants to look a complete and total liar. The cope here is that he didn't see it in full. He didn't see the final cut. That, to me, indicates it actually is probably an authorized leak from Army Hammer. I just want to make the point here. He's not getting out of this.

This is not going away. Army Hammer, this is going to stay with you. You can't get out of the citizen vigilante backlash. You could try. But this is going to be pinned to you because you fully embraced it. And again, maybe there's wiggle room. I just highly doubt it. I highly, highly doubt it.

And the squeamishness over this film, I think, again, speaks to what we talked about with Belfast. We've talked about it in Henry Novak's case and others. The riot is the language of the unheard. I totally agree with the left on that. I don't agree that it justifies rioting. I do agree that it is an accurate description assessment. So anyway, all of that is to say, the more people won't tell some compelling narratives, real stories, because they're politically inconvenient. The more you're going to get shit like citizen vigilante, which, again, I haven't seen.

But the more you're going to get extreme content, and the more you're actually going to get people acting out in extreme ways, because they feel like they're going crazy, being criticized as racist or bigoted for saying things that aren't racist or bigoted and saying things that people of all stripes, backgrounds, colors, religion, are perfectly capable of making those points. So we'll see where this lands for Army Hammer. But it does seem to be like an authorized. We don't know that for sure. so it's possible he comes out and says that's bullshit. I'm standing by the film. I thought it was good in June. I think it's good now.

I thought it was good when I originally got the script. That might actually be his best move, but I don't think he's getting out of this one. All right, that does it for us on today's edition of After Party. Thank you so much for tuning in, Emily at Domitaremedia.com. You can go to email me and get your questions answered on Happy Hour. I'll be taking up tomorrow afternoon.

We'll be back with more Afterparties soon. Thank you so much for watching. See you all on the next episode. Thank you.