After Party with Emily Jashinsky - The Death of Late Night, and Hunter Biden Unleashed in Expletive-Laden Interview, with Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti
Episode Date: July 22, 2025Emily Jashinsky weighs in on the death of a storied franchise after CBS cancels “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Then Emily is joined by her Breaking Points pals Krystal Ball and Saagar En...jeti to dive into Hunter Biden’s viral therapy session as the former first son unloads on the Obama Bros in a bitter expletive-laden exchange, his rants against the Democratic establishment, how he makes crack sound like MAHA, and blames Ambien for his father’s disastrous debate performance. Plus, the trio discusses the truth about the politics at play in the Epstein saga, and whether visiting Europe is like visiting the third world. Then Emily details how Anne Hathaway’s character in The Devil Wears Prada is actually a villain, that viral Coldplay concert moment, and more.PreBorn: Help save a baby go to https://PreBorn.com/Emily or call 855-601-2229.Delta Rescue: Visit https://DeltaRescue.orgto learn more Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Welcome to After Party, everyone. It's Monday at 10 p.m. So you know where you're supposed to be right here. We have a great show tonight. I've been looking forward to interviewing my breaking points, colleagues, Crystal Ball and Saga and Jetty, two of these most interesting people in this new media revolution, period. They have been, I sound like Katanji Braun Jackson when I say that, period. But really, they are. And we have them here on a big day where Hunter Biden sat down for a, I can't believe I'm about to say the sentence, three hour.
interview with Andrew Callahan of Channel 5 and of course talked about everything from crack to
Rahm Emanuel. So we have Crystal and Sager to react to that. We also are going to be talking
about the cancellation, not just of Stephen Colbert, but actually of the late show, period,
to quote our favorite Supreme Court justice one more time. But also it's kind of a cancellation
of Stephen Colbert. We'll get in all of that. The show's still going to be on for another year.
don't you worry. All you resistance wine moms out there. I'm going to get into Harry Sisson.
I'm going to get into the Coldplay CEO. And then we're going to bring everything home.
Hopefully it'll feel like we're bringing everything home with a little devil wears Prada because
they're in production on devil wears Prada too. So we will get into all of that. Now before we get
into Crystal and Saga reacting to Hunter Biden, they're also going to talk a little bit about updates
in the Epstein case. I do just want to say that if you're watching the show right now or
listening to this show right now. First of all, thank you. Second of all, you may remember that we opened the very first, like, 60 seconds of this show ever by talking about how Stephen Colbert illustrates the changes in media. We are like exactly a month in, like two hours from now will be exactly a month in to this show's run. And I think we ended late night television. Well done, everyone.
I actually sort of cherish monoculture and late night television as someone who is sort of grew up at the tail end of it,
arguably the golden age of monoculture in the 1990s and the early aughts.
But Stephen Colbert, we said literally the kind of predicate for a show like this is because we have all splintered into these different niches because of the way there's enormous competition.
The gatekeepers have been totally undermined.
they're way less powerful than they used to be, and they can't really get away with the level of
control that they used to have. And some institutions of media power are really, really not handling it well.
Needless to say, not handling it well. But it's actually worth elaborating on that point,
because I always use the juxtaposition or the contrast between Johnny Carson and Stephen Colbert as the best way to explain
what's happened to the business and then to the culture.
So on the business end, Johnny Carson had to get as much ad revenue as possible by getting
as many Americans to tune in night after night.
He had like two or three competitors and then his fourth competitor was a book.
People could choose to read a book or I don't know, listen to a radio show or whatever
the hell you guys used to do before cable came along and actually even before broadcasts
came along.
The networks came along.
And so that's what he was competing with.
So he had to appeal to his many Americans.
as possible. So what explains how we go from this era of Johnny Carson just absolutely owning
late-night television by being not partisan? He was political, but he wasn't partisan. And he was
always focused on comedy to during the Trump era, Stephen Colbert having the highest nightly
viewership on average of any of the other late-night networks that doesn't include cable.
Obviously, Greg Gutfeld has been doing better than Stephen Colbert for a matter of years now.
But on the broadcast side, why would the person who is the most divisive and the most partisan and often the least funny?
And I say that it's an insult, but it's also because he often was not even trying to be funny.
He was often trying to lecture everyone in ways that were intentionally unfunny, a far cry.
He sort of became what he was parroting on the Colbert report, which makes it a far cry from what he was doing back then.
And he ended up actually being really popular because the best way to get people coming in night after night is to really cultivate a loyal niche following.
That's predictable for advertisers.
It's brand loyalty and people feel like they're a part of something small.
And again, when it's Colbert, I think of like resistance wine moms.
For him, I think of people who felt like they were at their peak sort of intellectually by being the resistance.
to George W. Bush by coming to oppose the Iraq war.
That's sort of like a moment they are energized by and proud of,
and in some cases, rightfully so.
But now, you know, as Tulsi Gabbard is revealing
a lot of the things those very people who revered
the Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report
are coming to see the man that they put their hopes in,
Barack Obama, actually was engaged in
some of the very things he told them he would change about
the government. And people are weirdly going back to church. Richard Dawkins is calling himself
a cultural Christian. Like the moment has passed by the people who were so energized by the, you know,
the rush of watching Comedy Central at night during the Colbert Report era. And by the way,
the Colbert report is fantastic. Strangers with Candy was fantastic. Deep cut, I know, but I know that
There's still some strangers with candy fans out there.
And it would be great if Colbert would just go back to doing that
because I think actually there's a market for it at the same time.
But that's what happened to late night and it's what happened to culture.
It's that by chasing smaller audiences but more loyal audiences.
So very narrow, very loyal audiences.
It just changed the content too.
And by changing the content, it changed the culture.
And some of these institutions, the New York Times is a really good example.
why does the New York Times, the paper of record, rescind that Tom Cotton op-ed in the summer of 2020,
that they gave the headline, send in the troops to? Why would you do that? That was the mainstream
opinion of a Republican senator. Many people in the country agreed with it. Are you purporting to cover
the whole country, or are you purporting to cover Fifth Avenue? Well, in this case, they rescinded it
because their staff revolted and their subscribers revolted. And that has nothing to do with late-night comedy,
except it also has everything to do with late night comedy, which is that these institutions
of our monoculture are not used to becoming microculture. And Stephen Colbert became microculture.
You cannot manage microculture on a macroculture budget. It does not work. Puck News has since put
the lie to this laughable idea that Colbert was canceled because CBS and the late show was canceled
because CBS was trying to, you suck up to Donald Trump.
First of all, I think of, maybe if Trump were, like, less media-obsessed,
he would have the, maybe he would have the, I guess,
what's the right word, emotional control,
to be Don Draper in the elevator when it comes to Stephen Colbert
and just say, I don't think about you at all,
because he really doesn't have to think about Stephen Colbert.
Stephen Colbert lacks so much influence at this point,
that why would it even matter?
Maybe for Trump, somebody who loves is deeply fixated on media, it matters to him.
But overall, this show was losing, according to Puck.
Puck is reported, it was losing $40 million, $40 million a year.
$40 million a year.
That is a staggering figure.
It was also, it had a really, it has a comparatively small digital footprint relative to other
late-night properties, which is a huge problem because Fallon is basically now a clip show for
YouTube and social media and Instagram and TikTok. So he was obviously struggling enormously.
They had a really hard time with advertisers, according to a lot of reporting, that has since
come out. And there are just all kinds of business reasons. If they wanted to get rid of
Colbert, they would have just gotten rid of Colbert and not the entire, this is the
buried lead, not the entire storied, historic franchise.
which is what they are doing in this case. It is true that Paramount has a major merger in front of the Trump administration between Skydance.
And so there's, I'm sure, some element where they are happy to maybe spin this privately and say, listen, we got rid of your guy.
I'm sure they would love that merger to be greased a little bit. But obviously the primary decision here was a financial one specific to this show, which was losing insane amounts of money.
And if anything was, I think, at this point hurting the brand.
It wasn't funny.
Now, I've built up to this for too long, but I have your daily Hakeem ready.
Obviously, House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, front of the show.
I refer him as the unofficial mascot of the show because he's one of our favorite here at After Party.
is one of our favorite examples of the wandering Democrats who are searching for any sense of direction.
Now, Hakeem Jeffrey is posted F3, mourning the loss of Colbert.
He says, thank you, Stephen Colbert for your willingness to speak truth to power,
staying far from timid and never bending the knee to a wannabe king.
Thank you, Stephen Colbert, for your willingness to speak truth to power.
This is what I mean by Gen X and probably younger boomers,
whose memory of Colbert is the rose-colored lens of their 20s and 30s
watching Comedy Central at night and feeling that rush of rebellion when you see Stephen Colbert
flaying the Bush administration on your television.
I feel like Hakeem Jeffries is pretty representative of that.
And actually, Congressman Jeffrey's even posted this.
This is S-8.
This is just a fun memory of him with his friend Stephen.
You famously have quoted Biggest Malls.
Do you have any quick quote for us before we go?
Stay far from timid.
Only make moves if your heart is in it.
And live the phrase, the sky's the limit.
He sounds like Alan from the Hangover.
That's what that is.
He's like Alan from the Hangover, trying to relate to the guys.
That's Hakeem Jeffries.
I don't know why he's not in any of the presidential chatter, actually,
because that man's got it.
Whatever it is, that raw charisma star power,
Hakeem Jeffreys just has it in spades.
But the Colbert discourse has been tiresome.
Everyone has been, I mean, I know we have other things.
I think Jim Himes was using some of the same language about Stephen Colbert
speaking truth to power somehow.
Tim Waltz, we can put, yeah,
So you see Congressman Jim Himes there.
And then we have Tim Waltz.
This is posting on July 19th.
So when this was announced,
Stephen Colbert is the best in the business.
He always told truth of power.
It's like they all got the same script,
which I'm sure they did get all the same script
from some Democratic groups
who were putting out talking points on this.
Speaking truth to power.
I mean, that is one way to put whatever Stephen Colbert did
for the last several years.
I just saw this hilarious clip of him going around
of having billionaire Mark Cuban weirdly wrap into the camera about Donald Trump
and in this like strange, like the idea that Stephen Colbert was speaking truth to power
while pitting one billionaire against another billionaire and making stupid jokes about Shark Tank.
Like it's so, it is so perfect.
It's so perfectly encapsulates the fact that they're going to the map for Stephen Colbert,
with the sanctimonious language perfectly encapsulates.
Their lack of direction, frankly, but you know, there's maybe a glimmer of hope.
We'll get to this at the end of the show.
There's maybe a glimmer of hope, but also still some very dark stuff on their horizon.
But I did want to touch on that because it was almost too perfect, almost too perfect,
that our very first conversation on the show, because it happens to be,
anytime I go speak to students or whatever, it's the best way that I explain I found to explain media.
And so it was almost too perfect that a month into this show's exhilarating run,
CBS announced not just that Colbert was stepping back,
but actually that they were retiring the entire franchise because it's just not,
it's not worth macroculture budgets.
This is going to come for CNN.
It's coming right now for MSNBC.
One of my hottest takes is that CNN Plus was actually.
a great idea. Maybe McKinsey steered it into the ground. It had a horrible execution. But if you
look at what Fox was able to do with Fox Nation, Sienna, Siena definitely is envying that from a raw
business perspective at this point, because you have to be able to scale back and pair back.
And you also have to adapt on the content side to either saying, we are for everyone or being
honest that we are for this very narrow slice of people who own NPR tote bags in Brooklyn.
And that's fine. If that's what we want to do, you're just to be honest about it and not call yourself the paper of record or act as though you have any claim to ideological neutrality. And as soon as you can recognize that, this is one thing that makes me sort of optimistic about media right now is as soon as you recognize and level with your audience and say, I have no claim to ideological neutrality. And let me do that right now. Hopefully you don't need me to because I'm pretty open about it. But I have no claim to ideological neutrality.
That could fix trust in media overnight, which is once again at a record low, according to Gallup's polling.
So we're going to get to Crystal and Sager.
They have some really fascinating insights on the Andrew Callahan interview with Hunter Biden.
Again, some of the people who stepped out, Tucker was just talking about this with Sager on Tucker's show about how they were some of the first people to really take the plunge and go out on their own.
And so as everyone is trying to navigate, like in the political sphere, everyone is trying to navigate this like wild, wild west landscape.
And Hunter Biden, after years of criticism and legal trouble and serious legal jeopardy decides to sit down for a three-hour pre-tapped interview with Andrew Callahan and seemed to be very familiar with Andrew Callahan's work, chopped it up, let loose, said some absolute.
insane stuff. It's really fascinating to hear from Grissel and Sager what they made of that. And also,
they've been tracking the Jeffrey Epstein case closer than many, many other people have going back years.
So before we get to that, I just want to say over the years, I have been clear about this.
Hopefully, I've been clear about this. Speaking of people being open about their biases,
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incredible. It really is. And when you put a number on it and you try to look beyond the number and think about 70,000 babies, it just is an energizing slice of reality. So on that note, let's go ahead. Everyone who knows Crystal and Sager knows they sure as hell weren't going to stay up until 10 p.m., God forbid 11 p.m. And they also weren't going to crack open a beer or any type of drink because they're very disciplined,
people with strict bed times.
They actually were going to stay up until 10.
So they were being so kind, but Sagar ended up.
He's got a new baby getting sick.
And so we pre-taped this at 5 p.m., which you know what that means.
I'm going to be in the chat.
So if you're watching this live, head over to YouTube.
I'm going to jump in the chat while we roll Crystal and Sager.
And after this, we're going to be back with kind of a culture dump.
We're going to go through Coldplay CEO, Harry Sisson, Devil Wears Prada,
three things you never thought you would hear
in sequence, and yet we have them together at last. So let's go ahead and take a listen now to
my friend's Crystal Ball and Saga and Jeddy of Breaking Points. This is the interview that I've been
waiting for. I'm joined now by my wonderful breaking points colleagues, Crystal Ball and Sager and Jedy
Crystal Sager. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having us. As if you don't get to talk to us enough.
Yeah, I know. So we talk to it all day. You're not sick of us yet. Yes. Here we are.
We're always more for more. Sager is forced me to do double
Duty with Crystal today because you can hear it in his voice. We feel badly for Sager, but he's being a
soldier. Here he is doing podcasting with a cold. So thanks particularly for that, Saga.
Oh, you're very, very welcome. I wouldn't call out sick of this for any. I actually called out
sick for my own show, but not for you. So that's how much we value and respect to you in the
breaking points family. Emily. Well, thank you guys. You guys are amazing. I'm so excited to have
you here. I'm excited to have Ryan on as well. Let's talk first, though, about this Hunter Biden,
Andrew Callahan interview. And one of the things that I particularly wanted to ask you guys about,
Crystal, you remember, we talked to, you set up an interview. You and I talked to Andrew Callahan
a couple of months back when he had Dear Kelly came out. I think that was the title of the documentary,
which was great. But I actually just wanted to ask you kind of a meta-media question.
And I'll start with you, Crystal, just at first, like, what do you make of Hunter Biden
doing Andrew Callahan's show.
Like, it just seems so out of absolutely nowhere.
I mean, I did watch the whole interview.
I'm still processing because there were moments of joy.
There were moments of frustration, anger, pain, remorse.
Like, there was a whole arc of emotions that I experienced while watching it personally.
But it seemed clear to me that Hunter is a fan of Andrew Callahan.
Like, he clearly had watched his work.
and thought that he would be at least, if not openly sympathetic, at least like,
would hear him out on he wanted to talk about his recovery and sort of just be a human being,
I think, as well, and not just, you know, a person that we hear about through the tabloids
or through his photos that are released from the tabloids or whatever.
So it seemed to me, like in a sense, he was approaching Andrew Callahan in the way,
in the way, same way that Trump approached, you know, a bunch of the podcast bros going into the
election of like, let me use this as a long-form platform where I can sort of be humanized
and not just be fed through, you know, whatever, mostly right-wing news outlet prism.
My story is typically fed through.
So that's what I got out of the choice.
It's just like, he liked this guy and he thought he would get at least somewhat of a fair hearing
and have the ability to, you know, express himself in a variety of ways.
which he certainly did. Yeah, I feel like we all were, had the same reaction when this interview dropped.
Like, my afternoon just got booked. I know we all watched the whole thing. And so,
saga on that note, I just want to ask how you think it went for Hunter Biden.
Well, I mean, I don't think, this is the kind of the thing is, I don't know,
Crystal, I wonder what you think. I think it's kind of connected to people going on places
where they don't feel like they're going to be as challenged because, I mean, I don't know how in the news
Andrew is, but there's a lot of times where Andrew could have been like, well,
that's not really what happened.
You know, it's like, well, actually, you know, in terms,
there was a variety of different ways that Hunter was trying to spin things,
like the actual, like, news and TikTok of things that happened
or asking a follow-up question, let's say, on the claim that actually it's
ambience fault for why the president was addled during his debate with Donald Trump.
I mean, I could think of a million different other times.
But, I mean, there's a couple of different ways to read it.
Like, it's Hunter unleashed.
It's part of, like, the bitterness to,
And I think it's pretty clear, you know, if you, there's all these books coming out, 2024 with
Josh Dawsey and others, I think from the Wall Street Journal team kind of inside the denial
of the Biden White House, the Jake Tapper book, obviously.
But, I mean, the enduring theme from Biden and the Biden family seems to be that they think
that, you know, it's everybody else's fault for pushing them out.
And I don't think they've been all that quiet about it.
And so for Hunter, I mean, it's more about like, was he successful?
and conveying his bitterness. Like, yeah, I think so. I mean, that's, that's really, that,
the whole thing just seemed like a, like a therapy session, really, you know, 400 to be able to
just vent his grievances against all of these people. But I mean, it's just somewhat ironic,
no, like, he's calling out, like, the Pod Save America guys. And listen, you know, I have my
criticism, and he's like, these guys who are grifting off Obama. I'm like, bro, like,
you're the president's son. Like, nobody would even care. You wouldn't even be rich if he weren't
the president's son.
Like, shut up.
That was, you know.
But one of the things I did enjoy most about it was like, he has such unchecked
visceral hatred for everyone who's ever been connected with them.
I actually have a clip of this.
Let's watch this because that was one of the things that stood out to me is how he, and this
is, I think actually a pretty important part of doing the podcast circuit is that
Dems look around and wonder, hey, what happened to Joe Rogan supporting like some people
on the left?
It's like, well, you guys demand fealty to your establishment in a way that Trump completely deval—
like, he destroyed that on the right.
He made it okay to be mad at Republican elites and be sort of a mainstream Republican.
And here, Hunter Biden is interestingly like casting himself and his father as the victims in this elite plot by Jake Tapper and what Tommy Veter did take down the Biden family name.
Like, let's go ahead here and roll S4 first.
opinions, but the...
Fuck him.
Fuck him.
Fuck him and everybody around him.
I don't have to be fucking nice.
Number one, I agree with Quentin Tarantino.
Fucking George Clooney is not a fucking actor.
He is a fucking...
I don't know what he is.
He's a brand.
And James Carville, who hasn't run a race in 40 fucking years.
And David Axelrod, who had one success in his political life,
and that was Barack Obama.
And that was because of Barack Obama,
not because of fucking David Axelrod.
And David Pluff in all of these guys, in the Pod Save America guys,
who were junior fucking speechwriters in, you know, on Barack Obama's Senate staff
who have been dining out on the relationship with him for years, making millions of dollars.
It is sort of delicious, Crystal.
Well, and it's very Trumpian.
I picked up on the same thing.
It's like, here you have what is seemingly a preposterous situation,
the son of the former president, who, you know, is also the president.
who, you know, is also the former vice president,
who is also a senator for what 40 freaking years, right?
You do not get a more Washington elite creature
than this person, right?
And managing, trying to position himself
as somehow against the elites
and all of the democratic elites are lined up against him.
And so, you know, parts of the things that he's saying
when he's like, fuck Rama, man, you own these people
and I need a son and she's made a real.
You're like, yes, absolutely.
But then it's like world upside down because then those people are in a cabal against Joe Biden
who actually those people propped up.
I mean, they are that very same cabal is the entire reason why he ends up being the 2020 nominee,
why everyone closes ranks and there is no actual democratic primary.
So in some ways, the words land.
And then when you think about the broader context, you're like, this is insane.
And that's what I mean when I say it's Trumpian because same thing.
Like, you're a billionaire.
You are the former president of the United States.
You have now in your cabinet, like a dozen different billionaires, et cetera.
Like, you are the deep state.
You are the establishment.
And yet he still wants to paint himself as being this outsider who has this cabal of elite insiders who are against him.
So, you know, it's funny because to be honest with you, Hunter is a very compelling figure in this podcast.
You have so many Democrats suffer.
So many Democrats suffer from this.
they're measuring every word and let me not say this and let me careful about this person's feelings
and let me not get out over my skis on immigration or whatever hot top button issue.
He said whatever the hell he wanted to say.
There was no censoring there.
I mean, he actually was a very interesting and compelling podcast guest.
I totally agree.
Personally, my favorite is whenever he was reminiscing about the joys of crack cocaine
and almost started.
Yeah, but you could see the joy on his face.
A man can only talk about that
with something that he's ever truly loved.
Well, he also made crack sound
maha, right? He's like, it's clean. It's healthier
than alcohol. He's like, he's burning off
all of the impurities. Yeah, it's true. Every cracket I've ever seen
is some of, it's obviously the most pure
individual, you know, right? That's what the
crackheads are notorious for. I could
genuinely hear RFK making like
a similar point, you know, because didn't he talk one
time about how like once he started doing
hair and that's when like his grades got really good
or something. That's true. Yeah, he was.
It was like, it gives you the, this is actually very common from drug addicts.
They're like, I finally felt like my true self.
But, yeah, I mean, with Hunter, it was, look, I mean, the one clip where I was like, man, if he didn't have the baggage, there's something there was actually him being like, I'm going to invade El Salvador to get back.
No, I'm serious.
And listen, I mean, look, obviously my political discreement, view of immigration, all that stuff aside, it was compelling.
Like, it was compelling.
I thought Crystal was going to do that a couple months ago.
Yeah, but it was compelling.
It was compelling to me in the sense of, you know, like Crystal's saying about Trump and just, like, no regard for, you know, like trying to be bounded by traditional conversation and all that.
I mean, I think everybody can look at him as like the pathetic Nepo son, you know, that he is, who obviously had his own, like, many myriad problems on top of creating them for the White House, et cetera.
and not also say, like, oh, you know, I could see, I could see why he's had like a charisma kind of around him for quite a long time.
Yeah, so this is S5. This is one of the moments. I actually don't blame Andrew for not going full like Mike Wallace on Hunter Biden because he was there to have a three hour long conversation and get him to open up and all of that. But this was a moment. This one was a little frustrating. This is S5.
It's not that Callahan should have necessarily pushed him further.
It's more just that, like, there's some pretty obvious, even easy questions personally that Hunter Biden could respond to when he talks about how he actually really didn't do anything wrong except for the drugs and the women's.
This is S5.
I've been investigated by the House Oversight Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Judiciary Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Oversight Committee.
And I have been investigated by Maine Justice, the U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh, the U.S. Attorney.
in Philadelphia, the U.S. Attorney in District of Columbia, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles,
the U.S. Attorney of Delaware, the Special Counsel's Office. Not one single person has ever accused
me of a crime based upon anything that was in or discovered as it relates to my laptop.
Not a single thing about my laptop. So this whole idea that there was some conspiracy to cover
up the laptop, they uncovered 20 years unvarnished of every single communication that I've ever
had over a phone or by text or over email or computer in any digital way. There's not one communication
that you can even remotely say is evidence of a crime. Not one. Not one time. Not one communication.
I would challenge anybody to show one instance other than me seeking drugs for myself, my own
personal use, or women as it relates to people that were in the drug trade that I
I would see for the purchase of drugs.
Oh, yeah, just the drugs and the women aside.
But Callahan doesn't need to do the whole, like,
but actually the Foreign Agent Registration Act,
but I don't expect him to do that.
But it takes about 10 seconds to Google that,
I mean, from those laptop emails,
there was myriad evidence of a FARA violation.
And so Sager, he was an unregistered foreign lobbyist, basically,
which is a felony.
Look, I mean, it seems quaint at this point to, like,
Of course.
We do all of the Hunter stuff.
You know, it's like, look, we've moved on.
But my point is just, I mean, I think the point, what I would have followed up is like, Hunter, bro, you literally were pleading guilty.
So, like, you can't be sitting here talking about how nobody's ever accused me of a crime, you know, let alone what happened with the tax evasion, with the, you know, obviously trading around on his dad's name, daddy's name for years, is an unregistered foreign lobbyist.
What is it?
The gun charge.
I mean, that's the one that they had him, like, dead to rights on, right, in terms of.
filing all of that. Again, I don't think this is the, quote, biggest issue. But, I mean,
that kind of gets where, you know, to Crystal's point of Hunter and, like, his narcissism,
he's like, I did nothing wrong. I did absolutely nothing wrong. It's like, dude, like,
again, come on. Like, you've been trading off your dad's name as an unregistered, basically,
the lobbies. You were on the Amtrak board. I mean, there's all those emails that came out.
Look, put all the tawdry stuff and the drug stuff aside. Like, it was literally, you know,
trading off your father's name to, like, meet with the Chilean or the Argentinians.
It's just like cut and dry stuff, but I don't know.
I mean, for me, I wouldn't have even cared for Andrew pushing back there per se.
For me, it was really about the Democratic primary stuff where he was like painting this false narrative that like, again, I mean, it's the classic Biden points where he would be like, look at it.
He gave a master class in NATO.
You know, during his two-hour press conference, I was like, that's not what I remember.
He was zero.
Yeah, he was like, yeah, it was so strong.
Is that the one where he introduced Solensky as Putin? That's what I'm saying.
And that's also, you know, masterclass.
Like, why? Yeah, that was the masterclass on NATO. And then he has this bitterness to like Nancy Pelosi.
And that's just where I would have been like, okay, well, hold on. And they'd be like, yeah, he's old. He got fucking old. Okay. You know, but 81 years old, 81 million votes. I was like, well, okay. But, you know, there's some parsing in here for stuff to be done. So that would be more my, you know, journalistic critique, I guess, if you will, is that.
He really let him get away with a lot of alternative history, not even enough on himself,
which to me is the least relevant part, but about Biden himself.
Because clearly what comes through is like, this is what Biden and the Biden family.
This is what they believe.
Like, this is their narrative for 2024.
And I think that's really damaging, considering the Dem autops.
Like, we're going to talk about this tomorrow on breaking points.
But like, they're literally ignoring Joe Biden's age and the Democratic autopsy.
I mean, I, that's insane.
to me. That's literally insane.
And I think that's a good point
from Sagar because, look, Hunter,
I mean, in fairness, he's not
running for office. He's not seeking
a position of power. So it does
create a different, like I don't feel like you have the
same responsibility when
at this point he's a bribe. But the
questions about, okay, well, what happened under your
father's administration when we're still,
this is still a very much active question of
like who was involved of an age related coverup
and what was the reality of his functioning?
That there's a little bit more of a
pressing public interest in trying to seek answers from someone who was like very clearly in a
position to know. And so basically, yeah, his line was that he knows exactly why his dad had such
a poor debate. It's because he'd flown around the world and he's, you know, elderly man.
Chris, I have the clip. Oh, you have that. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So this is, let's, let's roll S3,
the ambient clip. And it was that one debate that caused the full back side. Yeah, ma'am. And I'll tell you
what. I know exactly what happened in that debate. He flew around the world, basically.
the mileage that he could have flown around the world three times.
He's 81 years old.
He's tired of shit.
Give him Ambien to be able to sleep.
He gets up on the stage, and he looks like he's a deer in the headlights.
And it feeds into every fucking story that anybody wants to tell.
And Jake Tapper, with literally how many anonymous sources.
If this was a conspiracy, Andrew, you know this.
Somehow, the entirety of a White House in which you literally living on top of each other
has kept their mouth shut.
about, you know, like what?
And what's a conspiracy?
Yeah.
Did Joe Biden got old?
Yeah, he got old.
You got old before our eyes.
And that's to me where he's like, he got old before our eyes.
It's like, okay, but what does that mean?
Right, exactly.
You know, I mean, not to be ages to be ages because this happens at different ages and
different rates of speed for different people.
But yeah, it was a very noticeable decline.
So what specifically did you experience there that leads you to say that?
So, yeah, he tries to position it as almost like, you know, as deeply unfair.
The other part, of course, is the fact that Joe Biden was the reason Nancy Pelosi and the others pushed him out
because he was getting destroyed the polls.
Yeah.
He was set to, I mean, obviously, Kamala loss too.
But he was set to lose like New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico.
I mean, it was set to be an absolute and complete democratic bloodbath, which is why they moved on him.
And that part of the story also was completely left out because,
is he wants to frame it as, and listen, this is a son,
it's his dad, I kind of get it in a sense.
But he wants to frame it as this sort of like elite chess move
against Biden.
And on one level it was, but the reason the chess move was made
is because the American people had rendered their verdict.
This man cannot be president again.
He is too old.
He is not up to the job today, let alone four years from now.
And that part of the story,
that there was an overwhelming consensus
among the American people, including among the Democratic Party electorate, that this was not the
direction to go in. That's completely left down of the Hunter Biden narrative here.
Yeah, you know, actually Alex Thompson on this show, like a month ago, said one of the things
he was reporting out after Zoran Mamdani won in New York was that there's something in voters' minds
that weighs on them about the Biden cover-up that makes them, that makes a Cuomo figure,
like, seem especially detestable. And Saga, I want to get your response to this post from
Sam Stein. This is F1. This is like amazing revisionist history from Hunter, like next level,
almost like award-worthy. He notes that Biden returned from his trip to Europe on the 14th of June,
then went to Camp David. We remember this, right? He was in Camp David for a week. He started,
he got there on the 20th. The debate was on the 27th. And Sam says, how much ambient did they give
him? I'd love to know the answer. That's such a great point. And you know, look, I'm a world traveler
myself. I sympathized around Jetlag.
Like, I'm a little
true story. I did once run into Sager on a flight from
London to D.C. And I walk past him. He has a
bout, he has his champagne out. Of course, he wasn't drinking it. But he does,
has his little champagne, and he has a little pod, and he's
ready to go to Ben. I got upgraded on that flight, just so everybody know.
Shout out to the American Airlines credit card. All right, globalist.
Look at you guys.
But my point is that anyone can sympathize with Jetlag. All right. But, like,
do the math. Like you went to Europe.
Okay, so that's a seven-hour time difference.
You had multiple days to recover
from your horrible seven-hour time. Also,
by the way, he's flying on a plane with a fucking bed
in it last time I checked on Air Force One.
So it's not exactly difficult
flying conditions. Came back to Camp
David and spent multiple days there.
And then, yeah, to your point, like, how much
ambient did he need to recover from a
seven-hour jaunt, you know, across
the Atlantic? That's ridiculous.
So the entire
thing falls apart on
his face, they continued to try and paint him as like this strong guy who just had a bad night
when he literally melted in front of our eyes for years up into that point. And it just so happened
to confirm what basically either was a quote conspiracy or actually it's not even fair to say
it was conspiracy. Because the vast majority of the American people, including Democrats,
always said that he was way too old that he shouldn't run. It was really only the media and like
high level Democratic elites who were like, no, he's sharp as
attack in a lot of these meetings. And so, you know, to that point around Cuomo and everything,
I have been wondering this, you know, for the future of the Democratic primary, I do think it's
going to be really important for voters to establish their trust, for politicians to be able to
establish their trust with voters, just be like, look, I'm going to tell you the truth.
And that needs to be a vibe that comes from an outsider. So that's one thing where if you don't
like Pete Buttigieg or somebody like that, anybody who was in the Biden cabinet,
should, in my opinion, be asked on the Democratic stage in the very first primary debate.
And be like, why didn't you say anything?
Or, you know, were you ever uncomfortable with this at the point?
What was your assessment of the president's aid?
It's going to put them in a very, very tricky position.
And you really have to be somebody who was very courageous in retrospect.
Was it Julian Castro or his brother?
I forget.
I think it was Julian.
On the stage who called out Biden's age.
And he was vilified for it at the time.
No, that was heroic, actually.
Like, you're actually trying to tell the truth.
And I'm hoping that this time around that that gets, you know, appreciated by the voters after having gone through this experience.
Speaking, yeah, go ahead.
Just one thing I wanted to say about Hunter, just to bring it back a little bit, is I thought the most compelling point that he made about his own shortcomings is like, listen, all you people who cared so much about me being on this or that board, tell me about Jared Kushner and his deals.
Tell me about Trump and his shit coin.
Like, tell me about.
about any of that. And they're selling this and they're selling that every day. They're opening up
some club in Georgetown where you can pay to rub elbows with cabinet officials and you want to
pretend like you're so worried about corruption. And that I think is a completely fair point.
Doesn't let, you know, the Biden's off the hook for their, you know, basically like soft
corruption trading on the family name, something we certainly covered. But it is pales in comparison
to the way that the Trump family truly uses the president.
residency for, you know, their own power, but explicitly, how much of Trump's net worth is just
at this point, you know, has come as a result of just Trump 2.0 and his dalliances in, you know,
crypto and his shit coin and all of this sort of stuff. So I did think that that was a pretty
fair point to make at this point. His exploits look polyanish compared to what is happening
in front of our eyes now. It's also something interestingly enough that kind of skated on the
podcast circuit this time last year. And that's the segue in.
to what the other thing I wanted to talk to you guys about.
You guys have been covering the obscene case more closely than so, so, so very many other outlets.
And from, you know, when it first started to creep into the conversation.
And that, I think, is probably going to make it harder for Trump in general to keep getting away
among, like, the 30% of independence in the country among that group.
I mean, not talking about the Trump base, but among the 30% of independents who actually really do
care about corruption and liked him because he was anti-establishment. So the question I'm going to
post to both of you after watching this Hakeem Jeffries clip is basically can Democrats capitalize
on this politically? You guys have both done amazing stuff on the substance and the substance of
issues of justice that are involved here and people can go watch that. But let's stick on the politics
and roll S-6 here of Hakeem Jeffries. Why are Democrats just looking at this and pushing for this right now
and not really during the Biden administration? I support transparency.
terms of the American people.
The far right, Donald Trump, right-wing conspiracy theorists and others are the ones who have put
this Jeffrey Epstein thing in the public domain.
Let's be clear about that.
No one looking at the facts disputes that.
This isn't anything that any of us as House Democrats have been focused on ever in terms
of trying to fan the flames of what may or may not happen.
but once it has broken into the public domain
and there's a clear desire on behalf of the American people
to get more information
than the right thing to do
is to present the facts and the evidence to the American people.
Okay, so this guy, I refer to him as the unofficial mascot of the show
because I'll often feature segments of Hakeem Jeffers
doing just hilarious things, stupid things.
He's just so bad at politics for someone who is now the House Minority Leader.
Him, Rokana, the three of us talk to him regularly.
Rokana has a bill with Thomas Massey that there should be pressure put on Republicans to vote on.
I'm curious to get both of your takes on that.
But him saying Democrats had nothing to do with this.
We had no interest in this.
It's like, yeah, that's an indictment of you.
If that's true, like what is he saying that?
And Nancy Pelosi, she called it a distraction.
It's like, what is wrong with you people?
And look, will they be able to quote unquote capitalize?
Like, I think that, you know, Trump's approval ratings are way down.
I saw with young people he's fallen on by like 54 points.
I mean, you know, in some ways they don't have to do much because if you're just not the Republicans and not Trump right now, in some ways, there's going to be a backlash and a reaction.
But it's like, it should be such a layup to tie together the fact that, okay, you've got all of these, that this administration is being run as basically a,
billionaire oligarch elite protection racket. And guess what? Jeffrey Epstein fits right into that story.
And oh, look at this. They were best friends. Trump and Epstein themselves were best friends for a
decade. So gee, wonder why he's so concerned about these files being released. Like,
it's not hard to put these pieces together and say they put health insurance for millions of
people to give a tax cut to the rich. He gave Elon Musk his biggest donor, free reign over the
federal government and gutted all these programs that are critical for working class people.
I mean, and then you have the Epstein piece, which again is just protecting the rich and powerful
people who have never been held accountable in these cases, one of whom is probably the president
of the United States.
It's not hard to put the pieces together, but for people like Hakeem Jeffries, who also is
interested in that elite protection racket and it's core to his politics, judging by the, you know,
places that he predominantly gets donations from and the ideology.
that he protects, they don't actually want to connect those dots.
And so until the Democrats decide whether they actually want to be a party of the people
and deliver for people and, you know, embrace figures like Zoran Mondani,
who are speaking to those needs and concerns,
until they decide they're going to have to make a choice between that
and between whatever the hell is it is that you just showed me, Emily,
because you are not going to, you may win the midterms, you may, you know,
I'm not going to say you never win election again.
But if you actually want to build a meaningful majority in this country and regain credibility,
Hakeem Jeffries needs to go, Chuck Schumer needs to go, they need to completely change course.
And they need to, you know, they need to take a hard stand against their own donor class.
And so I'm tossing that to you with the added question of if what you're hearing from Trump world,
you're very well sourced, suggests they know there's potential for Dems to kind of
I come in and swoop into one of their key, I guess, issue areas.
Actually, I haven't heard anything, and that's very telling to me because they know.
Like, they know it's a problem.
And this is actually where the people around him, they know, not just know, they capitalize
on this to their own political benefit.
This is an issue where it's actually solely on the president and how he thinks about it.
And then for a variety of reasons, we can all speculate.
maybe it's a lot of stuff that's come out recently
about this relationship with Epstein
and the letter or whatever,
although I'm sure the MAGA people don't want to hear it.
They think it's fake. That's fine.
You know, look, put the letter out.
You can look at all the other stuff, including the video.
That's part of it.
It could be just, I don't know,
intelligence connections, either to Israel, to the United States,
or various different foreign governments.
But for some reason, Trump himself has seized
as to where he wants to be.
And I have not really heard a lot of, quote,
reach out or whatever from that community around him because they're not they they don't have anything there's
no spin here they they're apoplectic or they're despondent because they actually believed and wanted
something out of the story and then all of a sudden there's been like record scratch move in terms of the way
of trump is behaved but to the democratic question this is where you have to separate you know
the democratic leader from aspiring democratic politicians like i think there's a reason look i mean
to the extended podcast and all this other stuff matters
Theo Vaughn is out there tweeting about Roe Kna, right?
And the Epstein bill, right?
And Roe was just on the flagrant podcast.
She was on Theo's show too.
So it's like, look, is Roe Conna going to win the primary?
I don't know.
Okay, I have no idea.
But like what I do know is that, you know, to the extent of that audience,
which is very impactful for Donald Trump in getting elected,
they still care a lot about the story.
You know, I've done two major appearances on Epstein.
I think the collective between those two is like four or five million views.
on YouTube.
Maybe even more, actually.
Probably tens of millions if you add the podcast downloads from all of those appearances.
And those are in very mag of places.
Can we agree on Tucker Carlson and on the Flagrant show at the very least?
Plus, if you add together our own show, I mean, we're literally talking about tens of millions
of people who are checked in on the story.
So I don't think it's going away, but I do think it's uncomfortable for a lot of the way
that these democratic elites and establishment people are, either because they don't
have the language or the knowledge like he said he's like oh the democrat it's like no to be able to
say this stuff credibly you have to be able to call out everybody and that's just obvious to me that
like these democratic party leaders and all of that like that's just not how you get to where you are
the hakeem jeffreys you know and all these other people it's really instructive to look at jeffreys and
uh Pelosi like new york and california those are machine party states where you're knife
fighting each other, like your own democratic colleagues, as opposed to, let's say, beating the
other side. Like you're kind of coming up within the system to become the eventual leader.
And, you know, Chuck Schumer is another example of this, where I think you really need somebody
who is much more willing to call out democratic establishment and as well, like your own party
and to be able to give you the credibility to talk about it to everybody. That's just what I think.
I think Hakeem can do it. I think he has it in him.
All right. So, Crystal.
That's just a brilliance there.
Yeah, you and I have been up for a long time today,
so I wanted to give us like a little bit of a gift before we signed off tonight.
This is F2.
I want to ask Saugger.
I know he's been sick, but he's probably been checked out of this.
Or maybe he has been checked into this discourse.
I don't know if you saw this viral take.
Europe is a bunch of third world countries with better branding.
No AC, no dryer.
Yes, I agree with this.
I have seen this.
I sweat through dinner while the waiter ignores you for two hours.
Say what you want about America, but at least eating out doesn't feel like hot yoga with
bread and christle as a treat to us i just wanted to tease saugger up uh to see what maybe he
had to say about that i don't i'm gonna listen before sager jumps in i just want to say though that i
enjoy europe i have been to europe at times not in years so for someone who hates europe so much
you spent a lot more time there than i've been a lot more it's true it's true that's right it's
i'm just put it's fair just put that out there you just it's not fair because i didn't have any kids i was
sewing my, you know, I was sewing my travel oats while I had the chance. I haven't been on a plane.
My frequent fireman. World's a big place, Saugger. There's a lot of places in the world other than Europe.
Come on. When we've hosted the show, I've been all over the world, all right? I've, I hit multiple
continents just while the time we were hosting breaking points. But I just had a kid. I haven't been
on a plane in five months or, and several months, right? You're having withdrawals.
I'm losing my frequent flyer status, which is just devastating for me. I don't even know what I'm
going to do a show up to an airport and have to stand in line. Boarding Group three. That's like a nightmare
for me. But anyway, that
is obviously a correct take.
Look, I mean,
at this point, like 12
people have sent me that, you know, just being like,
oh, LOL, people are trying to rip off
everything. I'm just glad that people are waking up
to it. And actually, I'll use this
as evidence
for why people should
stop all going to the same places. Because it's
not only a bad experience we should broaden
horizons. And I'm very happy to report
that this month, new travel data just
came out where actually,
The city of Paris got less American visitors than Tokyo as of this month from Americans.
Americans are visiting Tokyo now.
I'm happy to report.
The new travel data just came out.
And the reason why I'm happy is that all of those horrible things you experience in Europe,
you don't have to experience that in Japan.
And by the way, if you go to Japan, you'll actually see something interesting.
Not only you'll eat better food, you get to see some cool stuff.
You're not just going to take photos with the same bunch of Chinese tourists and Venice.
who are all like blocking your thing
or with a bunch of grandmas
and their cruise ship signs
when you're like walking around
the Sistine Chapel
and you're all like crushed together.
You know,
you can actually go and you can see
some cool and some interesting stuff.
So I would hope that this is an opportunity
for people to broaden their horizons.
And actually one of the coolest things
that's happened to travel in America today
is that we have massive numbers
of direct flights to Asia,
to actually we did some new flight
that just opened.
If I didn't have a kid,
I'd be on this flight.
From New York to Greenland,
actually.
the new Greenland flight, direct flight, that will be running, which will replace the
New and Usha.
Icelandic, man.
Yeah, that's right.
Me and Usha Vance will be the only two Indians on that flight.
So use the anti-Europe stuff to broaden your horizons and to go see the rest of the world.
Crystal, any final thoughts?
I think that sums it up.
Yeah.
Yeah, he tied that up with the bowl really nicely.
Sager, go to bed.
Both of you.
Thanks so much for being here.
Check out Crystal Kyle and friends and also the realignment.
Of course, you have to check out breaking points because
why not? Both of you really appreciated. I was so excited about this. Thanks for being here.
Thanks, Em. Okay. Lots of thoughts on that. But first, let me tell you a story about a guy named Leo
Grillo. While on a road trip, Leo came across a Doberman and this dog was severely underweight and
clearly in trouble, Leo rescued that Doberman and named him Delta. Fun fact, the whole breaking
points grew. Everyone's a dog person. Sadly, in this case, Delta was just one of many animals that
needed help, which inspired Leo to start Delta Rescue, the largest no-kill, care for life,
animal sanctuary in the world. They've rescued thousands of dogs, cats, and horses from the wilderness,
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So please visit deltarescue.org today to learn more.
That's deltarescue.org.
Now, actually, while we're mentioning it,
not only is the whole breaking points family dog friendly,
but Crystal and Zagher both have rescues.
I will have to be reminded if Ryan's dog is a rescue.
I think that's the case.
I think maybe his cat as well.
But all that is to say, what a wonderful cause and a perfectly timed ad for Crystal and Sager.
I hope you guys all enjoyed that interview.
I was having a lot of fun in the chat.
I was actually probably having too much fun in the chat.
But in the meanwhile, podcasters have been wild in today.
Let me tell you, Harry Sisson was recently on the Adam Friedland show.
I mean, just incredible stuff.
I want to get to that in a moment.
but actually as that interview was airing,
Alex Jones went on an emergency Tim Dillon broadcast,
like actually super rude of Tim to crib into our time here on After Party.
I'm kidding.
And of course, Tim is fantastic.
But let me just share this.
Here's a little bit.
They talked about Epstein.
And since we were just covering that with Crystal and Sager,
I thought it would be appropriate to update everyone here.
I'm not going to name names.
and so you nailed it when you brought up
I'm watching this for the first time by the way
I haven't had chance
I have to we have all the time in the world
I just want to add
when Bondi said we have 10,000 hours of video
she said we have 10,000 hours of video
I had dinner last week with the vice president
he told
Okay pause
Tim Dillon had dinner last week
with the vice president
me that that was commercial
pornography, they do not have videos of any powerful person in a compromising position.
That's the party line that they're going with.
If that's the case, why would Pam Bondi call it evidence?
Why would she say it's evidence?
She's not an idiot.
She's the attorney general.
Why would she say she has files on her desk if none of these implicated anybody?
it just feels like they're covering something for sure.
Okay, so one of the things we've heard from Alex Jones in recent days on the Epstein case is that he believes to some extent there's a setup that essentially people in the intelligence community have set up the Donald Trump and the Trump administration.
Or another theory that Jones floated is this idea that Trump actually has been using whatever is in the government's files to,
control the intelligence community because he's able to wield the information in that way.
But the real news right there, obviously we paused the video and again, I was watching
that for the first time, is Tim Dillon saying, Vance told him last week at a private dinner,
quote, they do not have any videos of a powerful person in a compromising position.
So more on that to come, I'm sure, but what a wild day.
I mean, did you catch, I actually just have to skip straight to this.
I don't know if this is, I mean, this happened earlier today,
but the Nelk boys, if you're familiar with the Nelk boys,
like pretty MAGA creators, podcasters, whatever you want to call them,
actually interviewed Benjamin Netanyahu, and as the video was airing,
they got piled on.
They get into this back and forth at one point with Netanyahu
over whether he likes McDonald's or Burger King,
and Netanyahu oddly says that he prefers Burger King,
which I don't think I've ever heard a single person say.
Like, I don't know that anybody,
first of all, if you think that, don't admit it.
And second of all, I don't know that anybody actually thinks that.
But after they finished with Netanyahu,
I think at one point they brought like Nick Fuentes into the stream,
and then they brought Hassan Piker,
Adam Friedland into the stream
and it was utter chaos.
So I'll play this now.
It's an advantage for them.
They're using you guys.
They're using you guys to look good.
Don.
We saw on.
Bro.
Why does anybody?
Hassan.
Hassan.
Sorry.
I'm going to cut you off.
Hassan,
anyone goes on a podcast to promote whatever they're doing.
They're not,
but Benjamin Niel's not promoting a book, dog.
He's promoting a genocide.
That's the point.
O.J. Simpson on.
We have entertain on.
I'm afraid of those things.
You do realize that like, this is the one instance,
this is the one instance where it's the worst guess you could have.
Because these guys are bad people.
Just pausing for a second to note that this, again,
like pure, utter unadulterated chaos is happening,
like, just shortly after those two dudes interviewed the prime minister of Israel,
who is currently engaged in a hot conflict.
and at the center of geopolitics.
And shortly after that, these guys, I mean, I'm just saying that to underscore,
I mean, we started this Colbert, we started this show talking about Colbert,
just to underscore, like, if you had to try to explain this to somebody in 1995,
it just, you wouldn't even have a frame of reference,
and you wouldn't have been able to write science fiction that reflected what we're seeing.
You're talking about is the worst person.
It's the most hated man on the Lynn.
Wait, I take that back.
you could have written idiocry
I guess that's true
it was probably what
like 2000 1999
2001 2002
whatever
we agree
we agree
but also
if we're gonna do it
I'm gonna hook your ass up
I said BB
to that guy at Yosi
who's your most odd handler
and Aaron said
who's that
he didn't know that
he didn't know that
he's named BB
I'm just
that's an advantage
for them
I mean just
it's just sheer chaos
But that's the level of access.
I mean, if you're Benjamin Netanyahu, in the middle of a war,
and in the middle of potentially peace negotiations,
the stakes of giving an interview to influencers cannot be overstated at all.
And so all of the people involved in a decision like that,
Greenlit Netanyahu sitting down with the Nelk boys.
And the Knock Boys have since basically been giving a decent amount of credit to their critics
and sort of granting some of the very harsh criticisms that Hassan and Adam had
and said, you know, they're going to talk to the other side after all of this.
But what a surreal, I mean, idiocry more than anything, it's kind of a left-coded movie,
but more than anything, I feel like it's actually a media criticism, a tech criticism.
It's science fiction, and that's a weird way to look at idiocry because it's basically like a comedy.
I don't think it's brilliant or anything, but it's prescient at making a really obvious prediction,
which is that some of these technologies are just going to sap our, our, the mental functions that we are accustomed to.
And Mary Harrington, who writes a lot for Unheard, had a really good, very long essay in first things just over the last couple of days about going back at the printing press.
And yes, this is a conversation both about the Nelke boys in the printing press.
Another unexpected moment here on AfterParty.
But if you go back to pre-literate human times and think about how the printing press itself changed our brains,
reshaped the way that we think about the world.
And then you go fast forward to like a Marshall McLuhan 100 years ago who's talking and gives that maxim that's often reduced,
that the medium is the message. What he was talking about is not like the message changes,
the style of the message changes from medium to medium. What he's talking about is actually
the substance of the message changes because of the medium. So for example, if you have the
luxury of writing down words in a book that's going to be read by everyone, not just people
who have gone to the highest levels of academia, gone through the highest levels of academia,
then you're going to write something different than if it did. And, like,
like the substance, it's not just going to be about the style,
you're going to actually decide what to express in a different way.
If you're writing something out, as opposed to if you were speaking it,
it changes the audience, it changes the style,
and that in and of self changes the substance.
And here you have Netanyahu in the middle of a war talking about McDonald's
versus Burger King.
And that is just not something that would ever have happened decades ago
within the lifetimes of people who are living right now,
within Netanyahu's lifetime, obviously.
And so it is well worth pausing, I think,
to just consider that for a moment.
And speaking of people who are trying to use these new platforms
to adapt their messaging to these new platforms,
again, not just the style, but the messaging itself,
Adam Friedland, who you just saw there on the stream immediately
after Netanyahu finished with the Nelk Boys,
had the one and only Harry Sisson on his show.
And Adam Freeland, by the way, is doing, like, his new show,
it's kind of like a, I don't know,
it's like a Z-Way type show,
and it's pretty good.
If you've followed Adam Friedland for a long time,
that probably doesn't totally surprise you.
But I think Z-Wa is probably the best point of reference for this.
Now, Reagan-Ree-Ris over the deal.
daily caller, she's worth a follow. She's great. She flagged this moment in Harry Sisson, who's this
Dem influencer, was a big Biden booster, and is very much seen as like kind of an establishment
shill, rightfully so, for the Democratic Party and often gets mocked by the right as an example
of why the left is struggling immensely with men. Like, where is that sort of Joe Rogan voter?
where has that person gone and are you going to recapture them with Harry Sisson?
Well, this interview with Adam Friedland actually is interesting because Sisson is trying
to be sort of a laid-back bro and reinvigorate the Democratic brand.
And boy, he runs into a little bit of a brick wall.
I think we're already finding it out a little bit.
Trump, you mean?
You think Trump?
I mean, I think there's definitely some connections here between like the rise.
and online culture and, you know,
rise in insecurity and young men,
and then being like, oh, well, Trump speaks to my insecurities.
He says it's this person's fault, so it must be their fault,
and I'm not the problem.
Whose fault?
Well, Trump picks on, like, a variety of people.
He picks on immigrants, he picks on women.
I mean, he blames a lot of these things on all these groups.
And, you know, a lot of these young men will feel like,
like it's not me.
I'm not the problem.
It's not my fault that I don't go out to parties and get girls.
It's the immigrants who are taking my job.
Some dumb stuff.
Immigrants are going to the parties?
Yeah, that's right.
Really?
Is that what was going on over there?
That's what Trump is saying.
You got the MS-13 at NYU?
No, we don't have MS-13 at NYU.
They're doing freak-offs with your girls?
You've got to get our women back.
We've got to send them over to Bukakka so we can get our girls.
You're going down the old-right pipeline right now.
Don't do that.
You are the one that was saying this is happening.
No, it's what Trump is saying is happening.
You got to pull yourself out.
Trump is saying that MS-13 is getting too much pussy up here?
Trump is not saying.
So, Sisson goes.
into full camp counselor mode, RA mode is like, bro, you're going down the alt-right pipeline
now. Just say no to the alt-right pipeline. He's like wearing his DARE shirt and telling
Adam Friedland, who's obviously joking, but Sisson doesn't want to be, uh, doesn't want to
look like he's a part of anything, God forbid, that could possibly be funny. Because that would
be bad. Here's actually another example that's probably worth playing.
He even got a hug from Lund.
Who?
Answer the fucking question.
What was the question again?
Dude, what are you, this is, this is why Kamala lost.
Because you won't answer a question straight up.
You're right.
Do you think baby Grunk is the new Riz King?
He even got a hug from Livy.
Do it?
Just answer the question.
I'm sorry, dude, I don't even know.
Why do you refuse to answer the question?
It's not that hard.
What do you want me to say to that?
Okay, I'm just stopping here because Adam is the new Stephen Colbert.
That is abundantly clear and it costs the network
like probably a 100th of the money.
No, probably, I don't even know that he has like a network.
He may or may not, but like whatever it costs Adam Friedland to do the show,
it probably could fund one private jet trip for Stephen Colbert.
That's what we're talking about here.
That is macroculture versus microculture.
And that's Stephen Colbert trying to do a lesser, older, tamer.
lamer version of what Friedland is doing now, trying to keep reliving the Colbert Glory
Days for an audience who also thinks it's cool to relive the Colbert glory days, but he's trying
to do it on a macroculture budget, which does not work anymore because Adam Friedland is
just as capable of doing like something that's relatively, that's like tailored to a niche
is edgy and doesn't cost like half. No, it doesn't cost like half of one.
percent of what it costs for Colbert.
And no, I absolutely cannot do math.
I have no interest in doing math at any point.
But this is such a perfect, I didn't even mean to play this clip for this.
This clip was supposed to illustrate how, just like how completely cooked Dems are with Hunter Biden and Harry Sisson going out there.
Now, at the same time, there was, you may have seen this, James Tauroko went on.
Rogan and Rogan seems to really like him.
Tellerico is a Texas House Democrat who sort of went really viral for being a
Christian like anti-Trump guy and I have a lot of things to say about his answer on
abortion quote so this idea that to be a Christian means you have to be anti-gay and
anti-abortion there really is no historical theological or biblical basis for that
opinion. I don't think you actually need a historical
theological or biblical basis for that opinion, I would encourage everybody to read, they're
Christopher Hitchens, that famous right-wing televangelist, Christopher Hitchens, who had, I think,
one of the most challenging perspectives on abortion. I linked it on my feed, but it's an interview
with Crisis Magazine is probably one of the better expressions that Hitchens had of his argument
on this. And then I would also encourage everybody to go ahead and read Dominion by Tom Holland.
We were actually talking about this in the live chat tonight. One of the, if not
the most important book of the 21st century, where Holland talks about the Western impulse
to protect the weak and the vulnerable being inextricably intertwined with Christianity.
And I think Tala Rico, the right is wrong to dismiss him as another Beto O'Rourke,
as someone who's just a, you know, kind of run in the mill, red state dem, who'll be a flash in the
pan. He's clearly literate in scripture, and Rogan was really impressed with him. And that, I think,
takes a lot. So that's super easy for Rogan to be like, hey man, you should run for president
or like, I'm going to be watching you. He's someone who wants to see that you actually are
against the political establishment and you're kind of out of the mold of one party or the
other. And people right now are looking for something. They feel totally untethered from a moral
foundation. They're uncertain about what to believe. That problem is actually only going to get
worse. So I would say that the right should take this guy pretty seriously because when people are,
we mentioned this earlier than episode, when people are starting to, for example, go back to
church and not insignificant numbers, when people are looking for purpose and meaning post-COVID.
And they like the idea of the sacred or the enchanted, as is the debate that's raging on the
Christian right right now. It's obvious sort of. Like we have a story. I think we could put
up that piqued my interest about Etsy witches. I feel like I'm Trump right now doing a weave.
We started with the Nelk boys and here we're talking about Etsy witches, which I think we'll
get up on the screen in just a bit. But basically, this is a Wall Street Journal article from last
week, headline, Etsy Witch is charged for jobs. Sunshine and Nix wins. Business is booming,
but the part that we were focused on for our purposes, it's funny headline. But
But Etsy witches are all the rage over on Etsy.
And I think Etsy was like, it sounded like they weren't super happy with this Wall Street Journal story.
But the point is this is real, obviously.
The enchantment debate on the right is a very interesting one.
The Christian right is a very interesting one.
It's about how we've sort of taken the mystery and the sacredness out of life.
Roger Erichny book on this is worth reading.
and is very interesting.
And we've over mechanized it.
We've over-analyzed it to the point
where everything feels like computation
and everything feels sort of cold.
And we lose that sense of mystery
and that sense of the sacred and the supernatural.
And when you're sort of, all of us,
my opinion, all of us have an sort of innate recognition
of the supernatural.
We're sort of pulled to it for reasons
that have to do with the fact
that the supernatural exists.
And because of that, it sends people into some really positive directions
and to some really negative directions,
because that's a real thing.
And when people are just lost from meaning and purpose,
and they feel untethered from moral foundation,
it's attempting to hear a guy like Tariqo,
who is, for example, pro-choice,
like many, many Americans,
are pro-choice, but many Americans might be pro-choice and they might be anti-woke.
And they might be sick of Dems being, you know, minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, God forbid.
I know that he's widely beloved, but some people, this is controversial,
but some people might not be super impressed with him and maybe looking for somebody like a James
Tolariko to come in and give them something that feels competent and grounded.
And I would expect to see this not just from Dems, increasingly from Dems, but also probably from other people in the church.
So that was a little bit of a weave, but it's about to turn a lot of a weave.
This caught my eye too.
Etsy witches, of course, but also Devilworth Product 2 is in production.
Anne Hathaway apparently is on TikTok and posted this video.
that just
if you're seeing this on your screen right now
she's in the Cerulean sweater
she is in the Cerulean sweater
the reason I wanted to talk about this
and the reason that it actually in a weird way
is part of the same theme
that we're coming down on right now
it's I read that book when I was young
like too young to be reading that book
before the movie came out
and that book is about the striver archetype
that book was about people finding
purpose in careerism, which basically died on the day that the COVID emergency was declared.
And people were relegated to working from their home laptops or sort of listlessly putting in,
you know, the bare minimum amount of work and looking for purpose and meaning.
There's a really famous New Yorker cover from the time that I'm going to pull up right now,
because it just, it's like if, if Anne Hathaway's devilware product, devil wears product character
were living through COVID, it might have actually looked something like this.
So you'll remember this cover probably. You had this woman. It's so sad. If you're listening to
this, I'll describe it a bit if you don't remember it. But
this woman, her apartment is an absolute mess.
She's got a little cat, a couple cats in a carrier, a bag of Cheetos, you know,
sodas and masks and rubber gloves.
And she's dressed up on her torso, dressed down on her legs, drinking a martini,
looking straight into a laptop for what appears empty pill bottles, Chinese takeout,
very much alone in a dirty apartment, and doing a,
a Zoom happy hour for COVID times.
And I think that just put into such stark relief
exactly what we were taught to strive for.
Like, what is all of this about?
I think that just put it all into stark relief during COVID.
And so that's why I'm really curious how Devil Wars Prada 2 hits.
Because this generation, especially Zoomers,
I'm assuming the movie is mostly aimed at Xers,
millennials like myself and people who kind of grew up with Devils Potter. Although that movie has lived on in meme legend
and is like just sort of a part of meme lore at this point and woven into the pop cultural fabric. So it's probably directed kind of everyone, to be honest, it's a timeless movie. It's great. And the book is a good read. But that book was about sacrificing the sort of typical, I don't know what you even say. Like the typical
female, the track, right, the track to marriage and motherhood on the altar of your career.
And no matter how tough that career was, you had to sort of be true to yourself, you had to do what was best for you.
But that wouldn't always mean putting your personal life first. Sometimes it all falls apart
because you prioritize your career. And there are ways that that all works out in the end. And you go into much more
depth about Devil Wars Prada than we have time for right now. But it's true. Like that that movie,
you know, she had a boyfriend in the book too. She had a boyfriend who was just asking for a little
bit more of her time, basically, just a little bit more of her time. And she was like, I've got to work.
And I think it's true that there's the old Cerulean sweater and the old Stanley Tucci, if you're
watching this, you're seeing it on your screen. We're playing these iconic moments. But,
But it's just true that in some ways, Andy was the villain of Devil Wars Prada.
I mean, of course, Marilyn Streep was the villain of Devil Wars Prada, as Michael Scott found out,
by watching the movie in installments.
I forget what episode of The Office that is.
It's an early one.
But in some sense, Andy is kind of, and I don't know that the book of the movie actually
was arguing against this.
But she just was
handling her personal life.
She was deprioritizing
her personal life in a way
that was detrimental to
her overall.
Now, I think the movie makes the case that she was
deprioritizing her personal life
in a way that ultimately turned out to be fine.
I just don't think for most women
that's the case. And I think there was something
about Devil Wars Potter that resonated,
whether it was intended to speak to
something deeper and wider, something that
resonated at the time with women that sort of gave people permission, just like sex in the
city sort of gave people permission to pursue promiscuity. Devil Wars Project sort of gave people
permission to pursue careerism and to feel okay about, you know, of course, standing up for
yourself against tough bosses and all of that. That's really what I should talk to Crystal
and Saga about, by the way, just making me stop getting their Starbucks. But other than that,
they've never done that. But other than that, this idea that, like, your meaning and your purpose can be found through work.
In a sense, it's very American. This is a country. I've been on a binge of these old PBS shows, Frontier House, Colonial House, because of the new HBO show about, like, sending people back to the frontier. I think it's literally called back to the frontier.
This is, like, very, very much part of the American ethos is pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and working really hard.
but in a social media age.
I mean, actually, here, let's just, let's do the full weave
and end it on cold play.
Why the hell not?
Because in the age of social media,
this can all come crumbling down.
It's not social media.
In the age of the Panopticon,
we always say social media, but it's not social media.
It's having social media on a smartphone
and the smartphone having a camera.
It's that combination of the two things.
And I know because I lived through it,
and I was like 14 in 2007 when the iPhone
came out and can basically draw a bright red line from before and after. And I know many of you can too.
And that's what this is really about, having those devices that combine virality, combine constant
surveillance with virality. These images do not go away. They are permanent and then they're
immediately published and broadcast. And so that's always all the Coldplay CEO to go full weave on us.
because seriously, I get it.
This guy is gross.
He's been fired now.
I think we have an element to that extent to put up on the screen.
Astronomer CEO who's at a Coldplay concert, already so many red flags.
Yeah, you can see the viral, viral TikTok.
If you've missed this, you are one of those blessed people who knows the dangers of smartphones
because you're not on one.
If you were on a smartphone, you saw this like right away.
Most of us saw this like right away.
This was the kiss cam seen around the world.
the couple like ducks for cover because they're obviously engaged in some light cold play adultery for whatever reason.
And they're caught.
And Chris Martin calls them out basically.
Clip goes mega viral.
This guy loses his job.
More importantly, perhaps not to the devil wears product consumer, but more importantly, the guy's probably losing his marriage.
And all of this.
It just, I remember thinking this about, like, what was it called, like, total frat move and bar stool when I was still in college.
Because you always think, I'm sure everybody else has thought this, too.
Like, what if I was the person that tripped at a baseball game and fell down a bunch of stairs and immediately had myself picked apart one of the more humiliating moments of my life?
Funny as it is, if you're in a crowd of people who are physically surrounding you and can,
laugh it off and shake some hands, like, oh, I'm okay, I'm okay.
People who have no stake in your life, who never meet them, they haven't given more than
10 seconds thought to you, but they've published whatever they spent 10 seconds thinking
about onto the internet.
And that's going to be there forever.
And that's not natural.
We are not equipped.
One of the best books to read is Hunter Gatherers Guide to the 21st Century is by Brett
Weinstein and Heather Heying.
That book is excellent.
And it just makes you think about how, as a species, we're not.
not equipped for some of these technological capabilities that we have been absolutely thrust
into rapidly. Like, for example, the ability to publish permanent thoughts, criticism, cheerleading
of people we have never met, we will never know, who don't have any physical stake in our
immediate community, which is important for myriad reasons when you're talking about how you
treat others. If you're invested in someone who falls down the stairs at your local, you know,
double a baseball team game. You might have to see them again. Maybe they know your brother.
Maybe they go to your church. Maybe the people next to you know their brother. We think about these
things differently, believe it or not, when we are in our own physical surroundings. And that does
matter. Matters for how we treat other people. It is not natural to be able to pile on people
around the world and potentially get them fired. Like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not crying for him.
There have been many more examples. Like the entire era of cancel culture was one big,
lesson, heartbreaking, tragic lesson in this day after day, how we treat each other differently
when you are naturally reduced to pixels on your phone. Because you'll never know these people,
but you have control over their lives now. You've control over what they think about themselves,
over what their community thinks about themselves, over what their employer, their family. You've
control over that and you'll never meet them. And we just have not been trained to act accordingly.
It's kind of like how these, we're talking about this early in the show, these macroculture institutions
of the monoculture, they still think they're talking to, they still act like they're talking to
a third of the country every single night, if it's late night, or if it's the New York Times or
whatever, but they're really talking to this very, very narrow slice because they haven't adjusted
to the technology or the technological changes. And I think that's what's happening to us
constantly day in and day out. And I guess that's how you get the Prime Minister of Israel
talking about Burger King on the Nalk Boys in the middle of the war. I guess that's a good place to leave
it. I'll just leave it right there. Thank you all so much for tuning in. I keep going longer and
longer because I get deeper and deeper into these rants. But appreciate you guys sticking around.
Shout out to Crystal and Sager. Especially Sager who was sick and Crystal was hosting the show this
morning. So appreciate having them here. We've got more great guests lined up for the next
few weeks. As a reminder, Emily at Devil Make Careet Media is an actual email address. I've been
responding to a lot of your emails, answer some of your questions, all that good stuff.
Emily at Devil Makecaremedia.com doing my best to get back to all of you.
Appreciate you tuning in.
And we will see you back here when, I hope you know, Wednesday, 10 p.m. live.
Let's do it.
We'll see you then.
