Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 5/14/24: Trump Dominates Biden In Swing States, Biden Fave CNN Anchor Dire Warning, Michael Cohen Testifies Against Trump, GameStop Stock Surge As Roaring Kitty Return

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Krystal and Saagar discuss Trump dominating Biden in swing states as young and black voters jump ship, Charlamagne refuses to endorse Biden 2024, Michael Cohen testifies against Trump, GameStop stocks surge as Roaring Kitty returns.    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Ready or Not 2024 is here and we here at Breaking Points are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election. We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, add staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that. Let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody. Happy Tuesday. We have an amazing show for everybody today.

What do we have, Crystal? Indeed, we do. Lots of interesting news breaking this morning. We are going to be taking a look at this blockbuster New York Times poll that, yikes, bad for Joe Biden, really bad for Joe Biden. I mean, like down double digits in Nevada, bad for Joe Biden. So we'll dig into that because there are a lot of other interesting numbers besides those top lines. We also, in light of that news, we're going to show you Biden's favorite news anchor basically pushing the alarm button and saying, hey, you are on a path to defeat right now. So there is a lot of freak out, totally justified on the Democratic side of the aisle right now. We also had Trump back in the courtroom yesterday. And what was

probably the most essential testimony in this hush money case of Michael Cohen. We'll tell you what he said and what it could mean. Also, GameStop is back. Roaring Kitty is back. Yeah, he's back. What was the percentage increase yesterday? As of this morning, GameStop up about 75%, AMC stock up 100%, all thanks to Mr. Keith Gill himself. Very interesting times we're living in. Yes, indeed. At the same time, we've got some major developments with regard to Ukraine that we did not want to lose sight of, both on the Russian side and on the Ukrainian side. So we'll break those down for you. A lot going on in Israel, of course. We're going to bring you a CNN report about detainees being

tortured by the Israelis, an Israeli whistleblower actually bringing them these allegations. Quite stunning there. We also have IDF generals revolting against Bibi. Their reasons, really interesting what this says about the divide in Israeli society. And we have Senator Lindsey Graham suggesting, hey, how about we just nuke Gaza? How about that? Joining a growing list of politicians who are suggesting just out and out genocidal atrocities against Palestinians. We also are very excited to talk to Arjun Singh. He's a producer for Lever News' new revamped podcast, which I have to tell you guys is excellent. I've been singing

his praises, Sagar can vouch. They have really upped their game. And he's done some fantastic reporting looking inside the Biden administration's unconditional support for Israel. And this comes at a time when we have yet another significant official in the State Department resigning over his moral objections to the policy vis-a-vis Israel and the unconditional support, the flouting of American laws in order to support Israel. And it's a Jewish man who resigned too. So it's quite an interesting moral position that he is taking and worth taking a look at that as well. Yeah, he's an active duty U.S. Army major. I mean, it's not something you just throw away.

Right. I mean, this is an entire career. Somebody who's already reached that rank has spent a long time in the military, probably on a career track. That's not something that you just do lightly. We had similar resignations that happened in the past. It used to get a lot of attention here. I seem to recall whenever it was under Trump. Under Biden, you may be able to hear about it on a show like ours. Yeah. That's about it.

Maybe if you're on Twitter, if you're on the right Twitter. But anyways, as Crystal said, we've got a great show for everybody today. Thank you to everybody who's been signing up for PremiumBreakingPoints.com. And as we continue to tease, we do have a major, major announcement that is coming. That's all I can say at this point. But it's going to be a massive upgrade in our premium service. We're always thinking about everybody, especially on the heels. We've only got two weeks to go, a three-year anniversary, which is pretty crazy. I was really reflecting on it yesterday. We finally got our personal YouTube 1 million plaques and I put it up in my office and I was like, wow, that's pretty cool.

That actually meant something. How long were we at Rising? I think it was about two years. So we've significantly surpassed the time we had together at Rising. Oh, absolutely. Yes. So it was June of 2019 is when I officially started hosting Rising with you. I think that's like the official jump off point. And yeah, we left exactly two years later. So there you go. Wow. 2021. So very, very, very end. It's crazy. Three years to me, because to me, it still feels like new, like yesterday. Yeah. Like you're still baby show getting our legs under us, et cetera. So it's definitely flown by. You're the ones who made it possible. We love you and we thank you. All right. Let's begin with Biden. As Crystal said, I mean, this is something that came out yesterday. We teased a little bit

in our show, but we wanted to spend a lot of time here because I mean, this is something that came out yesterday. We teased a little bit in our show, but we wanted to spend a lot of time here because, I mean, this is the biggest flashing red sign that you could possibly have for Joe Biden. The polls have basically been steady now and steadily declining for him. Let's go and put this up there on the screen. I mean, this is just stunning stuff. So here we have in the five key states, quote, young and non-white voters expressing discontent with Biden. And the overall top line numbers here are absolutely brutal. So we have Donald Trump only behind Joe Biden in one swing state, and that's the state of Wisconsin. And that's actually inside the margin of error. So 45% for Donald Trump and Joe Biden at 47. But everywhere else in Pennsylvania, Trump is up by three. In Arizona, Trump is up by seven. In Arizona, Trump is up by seven. In Michigan, Trump is up by seven. In Georgia, you have Trump up by 10 points. And in Nevada, you have him up by 12 points. So, I mean, so massively outside the margin of error that there's basically only two options. Biden is on track for catastrophic loss or the polls are totally wrong again.

And by the way, I do not want to discount that possibility because it's not like the New York Times-Siena poll was all that correct. I'm just going to put that at the top. In the past, it was off in the other direction. It overstated. In the last election, the last New York Times-Siena poll going into Election Day significantly overstated Joe Biden's support, including I think they had him winning Wisconsin by like 10 points or something like that. It was barely. Yeah. So who knows?

Like you have to hold that possibility out there, especially given Democratic Party results, which have outperformed polls in a lot of these special elections. But 12 points in Nevada, that is way outside of the margin of error. And also, Sagar, it's not like these poll numbers are, you know, the only ones out. They're not a big outlier. We've been seeing even at the times when Joe Biden seemed like he was doing a little better in the national head to heads, the battleground polls that would come out, they've always looked terrible. But, you know, this is considered really a gold standard poll. They invest a lot of money. There's a lot of credence put into these polls, especially in Democratic circles. And for it to be this disastrous is really something.

Absolutely. What's even more interesting and, of course, counter-narrative is where are these gains coming from? So I will read. Mr. Trump's strength is largely thanks to gains amongst young, Black, and Hispanic voters. Actually, Biden's doing pretty damn well amongst white folks, and even better if you want to consider suburban ladies. Now, it says here, the sense Mr. Biden would do little to improve the nation's fortunes has eroded his standing amongst the young, black, and Hispanic voters who have usually represented the foundation of the Democratic Party. They found that the three groups want fundamental changes to American society, not just a return to normalcy. Few believe Mr. Biden would make even minor changes that would be good for the country. I can't say

that they're wrong, given what we've had for four years right now. It says that amongst 18 to 29 year olds, Trump is actually tied with Joe Biden amongst young voters and Hispanic voters. These are groups which previously would vote for Biden at what, 60, almost 70 percent margins. I only have to go back to 2016 to see Donald Trump only win some 30 something percent of the Latino vote. I mean, right now he's on track to win 50. And if you segregate that out and make it just men, it's probably on track to win a pretty large majority of those votes. I mean, that's a massive realignment that's happened just in the last eight years. Now here also amongst black voters, it says that Trump is currently winning about 20%

of black voters. That would be the highest level of black support for a Republican presidential candidate since the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And Gaza, of course, is one that we can't erase inside of this. We see significant dissatisfaction from President Biden's left on the issue of Gaza. But Crystal, I'll let you go on this because what you flagged is that Gaza is the only thing where left voters are really abandoning Biden. It's actually a lot of very centrist types who are like, I'm done with this guy. I can't do with him. Yeah. So I'll read you what their write up and then we can talk about a little bit more. They say Mr. Biden's losses are concentrated

among moderate and conservative Democratic leaning voters who nonetheless think that the system needs major changes or to be torn down altogether. There's so many things in there that in your language, Sagar, is counter narrative. First of all, the fact that these quote-unquote centrist voters just went like, don't mess with the status quo very much. Oh, I know. Actually, these voters are like, man, screw this whole system. This doesn't serve anybody. Like, I hate this dude. I don't care if you're threatening me with Trump. It's a radical view of the country, even from people who are self-described as moderate or conservative Democratic-leaning voters. Trump wins just 2% of Mr. Biden's very liberal 2020 voters who think

the system at least needs major changes compared with 16% of those who are conservative. However, so most of the losses from Biden's 2020 coalition are coming among those more centrist or more conservative Democratic-leaning voters. However, the one exception is on Gaza, where you do have erosion among Biden's support with young and more progressive voters. That's what they say. One exception is Israel's war in Gaza, an issue on which most of Mr. Biden's challenge appears to come from his left. Around 13% of the voters who say they voted for Biden last time, but do not plan to do so again, say that his foreign policy or the war in Gaza was the most important issue to their vote.

Just 17% of those voters reported sympathizing with Israel over the Palestinians. So if you take the pool of voters who say, I voted for Biden last time, I'm not doing it again, 13% of them, it's over his policy vis-a-vis Gaza. And overwhelmingly, it's because they find him to be too supportive of Israel, too ambivalent to the humanitarian concerns of Palestinians. So just problems really across the board for Biden. And Sagar, zooming out because you're right to point out that much of his erosion, if not all of his erosion, comes among the young and among non-white voters. You know, thinking about young people in particular, not only do you have, obviously, Israel's war in Gaza, which we've talked a lot about the political impact of that as well.

But, you know, the real case that the Democrats make is you got to vote for us to be a bulwark against Trump. Trump has been a fixture of public life for nearly a decade now, in terms of political public life. And so if you think about people who were coming of age when Donald Trump was running his campaign and ascending to the presidency, he doesn't feel abnormal to them. This has been their adult life. So this idea of this is extremely abnormal and we have to do everything we can to forestall this potential result of Donald Trump ascending again to the presidency, it just doesn't carry the water with them that it may with older voters who have a different

conception of what the American presidency should be like and a much longer personal history and experience of what that office looks like, where Donald Trump still feels like this giant abnormality in American politics. And so I think that's part of the generational divide here as well. And then, look, obviously, Biden being old and enfeebled, and the people feeling really bad about the economy. These are terrible things for him that maybe he should think about potentially running on an actual plan to deliver for people on the economy versus what is clearly not working, which is just saying abortion and Trump is bad. Yeah, no, you're right. I mean, literally all you have to do is look at any of the signs that matter the most. And I think that's the ability to make it. You

have huge problems with wages. They always brag about their unemployment rate. Unemployment rate doesn't matter when you have millions of people who've either dropped out of the workforce, underemployed, not making enough wages to keep up with inflation. I've got it right here in front of me. Even the front page of the New York Times this morning is high interest rates are hitting poorer Americans hardest. Yeah, you think? You know, imagine having to explain that to your New York Times subscriber audience. You're like, wow, I had no idea that it was so difficult out there that, oh, it turns out if you're 28 or 29, great point, which is if you're 28 or 29, only a couple years younger than me, then basically your entire adult life, Donald Trump really became a true

political figure with birtherism. That was 2011. That's been more than a decade now. It's 13 years of your entire political life that you've known about this guy. You've seen all the, I mean, look, as somebody who was there, you know, young and coming up in the business, seeing what he did in 2016, that was crazy. This time around, it just doesn't feel as crazy anymore because it's not. We lived through the presidency. I know what it was like. It wasn't that bad. A lot of people for, especially when you compare the economic data, you're like, listen, it was unambiguous. I definitely was better off under Trump. Now, there's a lot of factors.

But, you know, the Biden administration basically wants to sit there and let you explain to them why it's not their fault. It's actually Trump's fault and democracy and abortion and all that. And I won't discount that. I think it is very important. But the truth is it's just not landing, and I don't think it should. Let's put this up there as well on the screen because, of course, we're leaving out RFK Jr. in some of this analysis. They also included RFK Jr. in the three-way, or actually in a five-way race. So here's what we have. In Nevada, and this is with RFK Jr., Jill Stein, and all of them who are included, in Nevada,

Trump is up 14% with RFK Jr. on the ballot. In Georgia, Trump is up 8% with RFK Jr. on the ballot. In Wisconsin, Trump is up by 1% with RFK Jr. Michigan, Biden is only up by 3%. Pennsylvania, Trump is up by 4%. Arizona, Trump is up by 9%. Now, keep in mind that you might be tempted to say, oh, this means that RFK Jr. is taking more away from Trump or from Biden. It's actually not true. He draws equally according to these crosstabs, both from Joe Biden and from Donald Trump. It's just that the lead for Trump gets exacerbated when you also include Jill Stein in some of these, where you see both the libertarian candidate and Jill Stein draw significantly more away from Joe Biden. So it is clear now, too, why Joe Biden has been so

undemocratic in the Democratic primary and others, because it is very obvious that any any third party ballot is just devastating for him because it gives people options. The less options that people can have, they're gonna be bad for him. Trump, too, by the way, I mean, even though he is leading in this, it's not like he isn't winning. In these cases, he's winning only a plurality, not nearly, you know, any sort of outright majority in any of these states. Can we put those numbers back up on the screen? Because I just want to emphasize the Nevada numbers, which are stunning. OK, look at this. Trump, 44.

Biden, 30. 30 percent of the vote in a state that you won pretty handily. It wasn't all that close in the end. No, it wasn't. Last time around, RFK Jr. pulling 11%. Mapstead, who's, I guess, anticipated to be the libertarian candidate. Their convention is what, this weekend, something like that. I think so, yeah. In any case, pulling 2% and Jill Stein pulling 1%. 30% of the vote. Zedulani floated on Twitter, which I think is an interesting theory, that part of why Biden is doing particularly bad in a place like Nevada is, I mean, for one thing, you have this younger, more working class and more diverse electorate where, you know, they're looking at the interest rate phenomenon, the fact like I'm never going to be able to afford a house.

And how am I ever going to send my kids to college? And young people are looking like, what future do I possibly have? And, you know, it's directly downstream of that, that you see this huge gulf emerge in favor of Donald Trump. It's really, I mean, it's really astonishing. If these polls are anywhere close to correct, like, it's something dramatic, dramatic, would really have to change in favor of Joe Biden. You know, the one other thing that I just want to point out, because it's a particular annoyance for me, is I saw all kinds of, you know, centrist

types on Twitter, like, scolding the,, dare you criticize Biden over Israel and you're costing him the election, blah, blah, blah. Just first of all, people have a right to criticize the president, especially when he's enabling with our tax dollars atrocities. So just from a moral perspective, that position to me is completely bankrupt. But second of all, it's not even consistent with where the biggest problems are for Joe Biden. Where's the scolding of the moderates and the centrists and the conservative leaning Democrats who are fleeing him over a variety of issues, but I think economic issues in particular, and just their sense that he's too freaking old as well. Where's that scolding and freak out and preparing to blame them and throw them under the bus for handing the election or being secret Trump supporters or whatever. So there's a lot in here that really does dispel some of the media narratives about the contours

of this election. But given how close it was last time around, it is true that any one piece of this coalition eroding away from Joe Biden, any one piece could be fatal for his reelection chances. And when you have multiple, basically the only people who are really strong with him and been consistent are like old white people. That's pretty much it. And so when you have erosion everywhere else, what do you think the picture is going to look like? Absolutely. You know, I wouldn't be remiss to important about Nevada. You know, the gas price in Nevada is still $4.40 a gallon. And actually, it's $5.20 in California. I don't know how you do it out there. That's crazy. But Nevada,

I mean, the economy in Nevada has always been very, very sensitive, not only to gas prices, tourism, high inflation. That's going to affect people who are coming in, lower overall consumer spending. That's what they're particularly vulnerable to. So it would make sense to me also that they're very attuned. Their housing market has also always been crazy, basically since 2008. So all of that comes back to the actual fundamentals. Here you have, again, we'll play CNN's Harry Enten. It's just always amusing to see people in mainstream spaces have to grapple with what's going on. And here's what he had to say. I think it's essentially saying that we have a divide between the Sunbelt and Great Lake Battleground states. All right. You know, these are all six states that Joe Biden won last time around. They won by the closest margin of any of the states he won. Look, these Sunbelt Battleground

states, frankly, for the Joe Biden campaign, these numbers are an absolute disaster. The smallest leaders in Arizona for Donald Trump, he's up six. Look at this. Nine in Georgia, 13 in Nevada. My goodness gracious. My God, that is a huge lead. No Democrat has lost that state since John Kerry lost it back in 2004. How about these Great Lake battleground states? This is something that the Joe Biden campaign can work with. Look, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump up three, but that's well within the margin of error. Wisconsin, Donald Trump up one, well within the margin of error. And actually, a Joe Biden lead well within the margin of error up a point here. This they can work with the Joe Biden campaign. This the Donald campaign, Donald Trump campaign absolutely loves.

And it looks like a lot of the other polling on the Sunbelt ballot. The Trump coalition is changing. That's basically what's cooking here. This is at least one of the big reasons why. So this is among likely voters in these in all these battleground states we just spoke about. Back in 2020, 84 percent of the Trump campaigns, the Trump coalition was white. Look where it is now. It's 78 percent. The nonwhite portion of the Trump coalition, it was 13% in 2020. Look at this now. It's 19%. Yep. I mean, he's laying out exactly. And it's just the stunning nature that comes to him is

amazing. We have some of these quotes just from people. It's always good to hear actual anecdotal why exactly I am the way I am right now. Let's put this up there on the screen. This is, for example, somebody who's voting split ticket. And Brian Dickens, he's a 25-year-old registered Democrat. He says, Jackie Rosen's been around a long time. He said he was considering splitting his ticket and voting for Trump. I think she's a very good Democrat. Let's go to the next one. I love people. I know. This guy, Terry Crabtree, he is a disabled 52-year-old from Maricopa County. He says, I'm not a party person. I am more for the state.

And Gallego has done a good job for the state. That's a Democrat, by the way. He's a Democrat. And he says, I cannot stand Biden. I think he ought to be in prison. I think Trump should be in prison as well. I hate being given those two choices. Relatable.

Relatable sentiment. Next one. This is Joseph Gonzalez. He is a 60-year-old Hispanic Trump driver in Milwaukee. This is of Tammy Baldwin. He says, I think I like what she's basically doing. But on Biden, he says, I do not like what Biden is doing. He is failing the United States. Next one, please.

And what you see in all of these is that you basically have a lot of people who are willing to split tickets because what we didn't show you is that in the same poll that had Trump winning every single swing state, the Democrats are up in every Senate state. Bob Casey beating Dave McCormick. You have Jackie Rosen. She's up over her opponent in Nevada. I mean, you actually have a case where, I mean, this would be nuts. So let's say this is correct, where Trump would win not only the popular vote with the Electoral College, but the Democrats would actually win every single contested election and keep the U.S. Senate. That's totally within the realm of possibility within here. Absolutely is. And I think it's another – so the Democratic cope, which is with some basis, right, is that, okay, yeah, we've been seeing these polls that are bad for a while, including before the midterms when we outperformed. Let's not forget that. But,

you know, when it comes to voters actually going to the polls, they are backing Democrats and the polls are understating Democratic support. Ergo, we don't buy these polls. There's just an Axios piece this morning about how the Biden team genuinely doesn't believe the polls. They think it's all well and good. They think they're perfectly fine. And that is the basis for their reasoning. Well, what you see in these polls is that, no, no, no. The fact that we're voting for Democrats at the state level, for Congress, even for Senate, that has nothing to do with Joe Biden. Joe Biden is a different matter altogether. And there's a different sentiment when it comes to him. And so that's why it's so interesting to hear these swing state voters who are saying, no, actually, I like Ruben Geig. I like Jackie Rosen.

I think she's a good Democrat. I think she's doing a good job. Tammy Baldwin. I'm good with these sort of like more generic Democrats. But I have a specific negative sentiment about Joe Biden. And so at least according to these polls, you could see, you know, some remarkable levels of ticket splitting that we haven't seen in years. I mean, the whole trend has been in the opposite direction where people are party line voters and it's all tribal and it's all just divided by what your party affiliation is. And so there's very little

splitting of the ticket between, you know between presidential candidate, Senate candidate, or on down the line. These polls say no. Joe Biden is performing uniquely badly among all voters. And so you could very well see if, again, these polls are accurate, a situation where the rest of the Democratic Party ticket does great. The ballot initiative, the abortion ballot initiatives on the pro-choice side do fantastic. The congressional people running for Congress, for the House, for the Senate, etc., do great on the Democratic side. And Joe Biden gets his butt handed to him. That is a real scenario that is on the table right now. I just want to go back and make one comment about the Harry Enten analysis there where he had the Sunbelt states versus what used to be called the Blue Wall

states, the old industrial Midwest. And it's very clear why Biden is kind of hanging in there in the Blue Wall states versus getting obliterated in the Sunbelt states, which he won last time with much fanfare, and this was the new Democratic coalition, et cetera, et cetera. It's because those Sunbelt states are younger and more diverse. And the industrial Midwestern states have more older white people. And that's who Joe Biden is continuing to do well with. So that's why you see that divide. And I think that Harry Anton is right to say, listen, if you're going to make a stand and you're going to try to eke out your narrow path to 270, the place to really place your bets is, you know, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania versus Nevada, Arizona, Georgia. Yeah, no, I think you're absolutely right.

And look, let's not erase. It's still, you know, it's only May. There's several months to go. Abortion has scrambled everything. Recent evidence suggests that we should not undercount Democratic support. Further recent evidence says we should not underestimate Trump's support in all of these. So we genuinely have no idea. But just to underscore how big of a problem this is, let's put this up there on the screen. This is what the Electoral College would look like if

there were no toss-ups. According to the RCP polling average, Joe Biden would win 226 electoral votes. Trump would win a stunning 312. I mean, we have not actually seen an electoral college victory like that in a long time in this country. So that would certainly be something to wake up on whatever in November. What is it, November 5th? Yeah. 2024. Please don't prosecute me for election misinformation.

I'm just speculating. I'm not putting it out there. But let's put the next one there up on the screen. This is also important to highlight because this is from an anonymous Twitter account. You, Mish Voter, great guy, by the way. He says, we are back to 2016. People want to tear down the system entirely or want major changes. This highlights what you said. Most Americans think that the system needs to change. The system needs to be torn down entirely, 14%. Major changes, 55%. No change, 27%. And I think really what you see too is with Trump's support about who they think is going to bring more

change, this has always been Trump's fundamental strength. 25% of people think he's going to tear down the system entirely. And 45% of people think he will bring major changes. Trump was the chaos, shake things up candidate. And this gets right as he aptly corrects. 2016 is the correct metaphor because 2016 was a status quo or a change election. 2020 was kind of, it was a change election, but I guess change away from the chaos. And this kind of validates a theory of politics that basically post-1996, every election, almost for the last 20-something years, has been a quote-unquote change election. It's just that who and what we think of change in that time is what really motivates people to come to the ballot box. This is a totally different switch from the early century. I'm reading a book right now called Grand Expectations, which is all about the United States from 1945

to 1972. It is fascinating for me to think and put my head in a space where Americans not only had faith, but a deep love and affection for institutions and for the status quo. We don't live in that time anymore. We're really living through 1930s again, or 1920s, like complete just dissatisfaction, chaos, not just from protests and others. We had a brief period in the 1960s, but this is a sustained period of people wanting change now for so long that it is very reminiscent of a very long time ago in American history. Yeah, this theory of recent politics is that you have this yo-yo effect between almost even like presidential personalities. So you have, you know, George W. Bush, who presents as this sort of

like, you know, yeah, low IQ, you know, plain spoken, whatever. And then the backlash to that brings you Obama, the professorial erudite, incredibly rhetorically gifted, etc., etc. Then from Obama, you go to the populist rabble rouser, at least that's his affect, Donald Trump. So whereas Obama is this picture of sort of like civilized sophistication, Trump is this, you know, rude, crude reality TV star. Then you go to Biden. So from the chaos of Trump, then it's like, ah, can we just have things be, like, a little bit normal and, like, not crazy every single freaking day? Joe Biden, the picture of, like, boring standard normalcy in Washington, D.C. that especially, you know, coming as he did among, like, COVID and the chaos that was going on there and the incredible dissatisfaction with,

you know, the state of affairs during COVID, he's able to come in. And then what these polls point to and why they're significant is the landscape's really different from 2020, right? And by the way, you know, the sense of, likecy and the back to brunch pitch, it didn't really work out. Still a lot of chaos. World still feels incredibly unsettled, maybe more so than ever. So what is the Biden pitch this time around? What is he really selling other than just I'm not Trump and abortion?

That's it. So according to these polls, that's not gonna be sufficient for a group of voters that overwhelmingly are like, no, we gotta do some things that are really different at this point because this direction we're going on is an absolute disaster. And if you're thinking about who's gonna overturn the apple cart, it's not Joe Biden, it's Donald Trump. And I think plenty would argue like, okay, well, change for change's sake is not good and chaos is not just inherently a good thing. But if you look at the number of people who say we want major change or to tear the whole system down,

those people are overwhelmingly going for Trump and they make up the bulk of American voters at this point. So in some ways, I think that those numbers are almost the most insightful into what the political climate is right now and why it is really not a political climate that is conducive to the reelection of Joseph Robinette Biden. Absolutely. Well said. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left.

In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and re-examining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen

to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast hell and gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case.

They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother.

She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never got any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You don't have to take it from us. Here you've got Joe Biden's favorite political

commentator, which is always very difficult for me to say, Fareed Zakaria over at CNN on Saturday, giving a monologue that Biden almost certainly saw in which he sounds a very dire warning. Let's take a listen. None of this is playing out as I thought it would. Trump is now leading in almost all the swing states, but behind those numbers lie even more troubling details. As someone worried about the prospects of a second Trump term, I think it's best to be honest about reality. I understand that polls are not always accurate, but in general, they have tended to underestimate Donald Trump's support,

not overestimate it. I doubt that there are many shy Biden voters in the country. Perhaps the most worrying new trend for the Democrats is that far from being the more unified party, they are now bitterly divided over the war in Gaza. Bernie Sanders has said the eruption of pro-Palestinian protests could be Biden's Vietnam and even invoked the specter of Lyndon Johnson choosing not to run for re-election in 1968 because of the opposition

to that war. The analogy is far-fetched. America then was itself sending hundreds of thousands of troops to Vietnam, with more being recruited from college campuses every week. But there's no denying that the party seems more openly divided than it has been in decades. Only 33% of Americans said they approved of Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war, which is now opposed both by people who think he is too soft and people who think he is too hard on Israel. Meanwhile, Republicans seem to be uniting behind Trump. Whatever opposition he faced in the primaries has largely melted away. The one that troubles me the most is on the question of who was the more competent. Joe Biden led Donald Trump by nine

points in 2020, but Trump now leads by 16 points in January 2024. Look, can't really dispute a single word of what he says. We also have an interesting interview with Charlemagne, the god, who did one for the New York Times, interestingly enough, which perhaps represents some of the sentiment that we saw the bleeding away of black voters for Joe Biden. This is what he had to say about why he won't be endorsing Biden again. I'm not endorsing because I just feel like I've been burned with that before, you know, because you put your name on the line, you endorse somebody, you tell your audience this is who you should go out there and vote for. And your audience goes and does it. And then when they don't see these things that they thought

were going to get pushed through, they don't understand civics. They're not thinking about that. They're like, all they know is Charlemagne told me to vote for this person because this was going to happen and this didn't happen. I think they said the number's like 22%. I don't think that 22% of black people are going to vote for Donald Trump. I think the biggest thing that people are going to have to fight against this year is the couch. And that's what I've been saying. I keep saying it over and over. This election is three options.

Republicans who are the crooks, Democrats who are the cowards, because they don't fight enough for nothing, and the couch. And the couch is voter apathy. Crooks versus the cowards versus the couch. That seems pretty astute, to be honest with you. He's right. I mean, look, the problem is, is that I actually think a low turnout election plays out in Biden's favor, because it just means that the people who love to vote and who vote in every election, boomers and white suburban ladies, those are the people who are going to vote for Biden. Whereas

I think as we showed back in 2020, high turnout election, generally me and 2016 too, 2016, millions of people who had not voted since the 1980s came out and voted for Trump. It's part of the reason the polls were so off. They've not only came back to the polls, they brought even more people who had never voted before in 2020. If we have a lower turnout election, let's say it was a 40s or 50% this time around, as opposed to two thirds last time, I think it plays out in Joe Biden's favor.% this time around, as opposed to two-thirds last time. I think it plays out in Joe Biden's favor. But look, you never know, right? There's a lot of confounding stuff. And Charlemagne doesn't bring up any specific issues there. But I know in the

past, he's talked about great disappointment over the promises that were made over voting rights in particular. And then there's just, they said that during the election because they wanted to make sure that black voters turn out to the poll and signal that, you know, we're on your side, etc. And then to his point about them being cowards, not just on this issue, but on any number of issues that you could take a look at. When they get there, it's just nothing but excuses for why we can't do this. We can't do that. Sorry, we tried. We want to, but we're with you. But we just, it's just too hard.

Except when it comes to funding wars. Then, you know, but it's just too hard. Except when it comes to funding wars. Then it happens. Then the bipartisan magic comes together and whatever needs to pass comes to pass. So you can't blame him for feeling like I was made a set of promises. I trusted that. I made a set of promises in effect to my audience saying, I think this is the person who can deliver these things that you're interested in. And I'm just not going to put myself in that position again. You really can't blame him. Just quickly going back to Fareed Zakaria and his commentary about the Israel's assault on Gaza, there were some interesting numbers in this poll as well. They asked the question about who do you sympathize more with, the Israelis or the Palestinians? Democrats now, a plurality sympathize with the Palestinians, which is an

extraordinary shift from previous years up to this point. You have 35% who say they sympathize with the Palestinians, over 24% who say they sympathize with the Israelis. The remainder say don't know, or both equally. Republicans, very one-sided. 72% sympathize more with Israel. 6% sympathize more with the Palestinians. And the other thing is huge age divide, which won't surprise you guys if you've been watching this coverage. 18 to 29, you got 47% who say we sympathize more with the Palestinians. So very close to a majority. Only 23% say they're with the Israelis. 65 plus, polar opposite. Majority, 55% were with Israel, only 14% were with the Palestinians. So you see huge, both partisan and generational divides in terms of how they're viewing this conflict. And to Fareed Zakaria's accurate point,

Joe Biden's policy here is not popular with the Democratic base and has really divided the Democratic coalition and created not just apathy, but utter disgust among some certain portion of that Democratic base. So when you look at who's fleeing the Biden camp, as we said before, most of those people are actually more on the moderate to conservative side. But of the lefties and progressives who voted for him in 2020 and who have left the Biden camp, it is overwhelmingly over this one issue. Yeah, it's look, he's got coalitional problems all over the map. He can't really afford any of them. He's not really inspiring or speaking to the wants and the needs or the concerns of any.

And so you get basically a total collapse. I mean, more and more, this just looks a lot like Jimmy Carter that I've said previously. His only saving grace is some sort of hidden abortion phenomenon, which is a hell of a thing to bet your entire political future on. That's stunning. But that's the, that is the choice that he has decided to make. It's the most apathetic choice you could possibly make, but it makes sense for what?

Some, an 82 year old man who would be, if he were to be reelected. Yeah. They're, they're opting for just running on abortion and Trump is bad and really avoiding campaigning anywhere where they can see this dissent, including as we covered yesterday, very possibly moving the entire DNC online to avoid the recriminations from their own voter base. I just, listen, for people who are a little younger, I don't know if you could understand, like Obama was the candidate of like the college, the whole idea was these younger generations are going to be firmly in the Democratic camp. Like it's done as they come of age.

Republicans are totally screwed. There were books that were, I think it was what James Carville wrote this book, 40 more years based on this concept of, you know, these young people that are growing up and there'll be a bulk of the voting population and then it's over for the Republicans. So the idea that a Democratic president cannot even go to a college campus? Disaster. Utter and complete disaster. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society

obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and re-examining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened

when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing.

No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband at the cold case. They've never found her. And it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there.

Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never got any kind of answers for.

If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. On the other side of the ledger, we have one Donald Trump who's spending his week in a Manhattan courtroom. And as I teased earlier, the prosecution had their star witness on the stand yesterday. That would be former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who was at the center of these, quote unquote, hush money payments. You know, he was the one who interfaced with them and facilitated them.

He actually had to mortgage. I forgot this. He mortgaged his house, remember, to be able to make the payment. And then Trump pays him back. You know, the legal question here is, were those payments properly recorded? And should they have been logged instead as a campaign finance expenditure? And the key legal question there is whether they were exclusively to benefit the campaign or whether there were other reasons, along with it could also have a

campaign benefit, but were there other reasons for making these payments? For example, wanting to avoid your wife finding out about your affair with a porn star, alleged affair with a porn star. He still denies it. Okay, let's put this up on the screen in terms of what Michael Cohen had to say. He says Trump was primarily concerned about presidential election when he sought to bury Stormy Daniels' testimony. He says that Cohen testified after he told Trump Daniel's claims might resurface that fall. Trump grew angry with him, told him to, quote, just take care of it. He said to me, this is a disaster, total disaster. Women are going to hate me. This is really a disaster.

Women will hate me. Guys may think it's cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign. At the time, Cohen explained Mr. Trump was polling very, very low with women. He was polling very poorly with women in this, coupled with the previous Access Hollywood tape. So that's an important piece of context here is this Stormy Daniels, you know, story potentially coming out happened in the wake of Access Hollywood when there was real concern about how women voters were going to view them and whether they, you know, would totally take his campaign. When Cohen asked how Stormy Daniels' claims might impact Trump's relationship with Melania, Trump told him, quote, don't worry. He goes, how long do you think I'll be on the market for? Not long, Cohen recounted. So basically the implication there, like, if Melania leaves me,

like, I'm not going to be on the market for long. Some woman is going to snatch me up right away. It's not going to be any issue. She divorces me is, you know, allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly what happened here. And Cohen concludes he wasn't thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign. So that's his side of the story.

The defense is going to talk and already has talked a lot about, you know, Michael Cohen is a convicted felon for— It wasn't convicted for lying to him. Yeah, he's a convicted felon for, wasn't he convicted for lying? Yeah, he's a convicted liar. So that's a challenge. And you also have, listen, there was a tape that Cohen has that relates to Susan McDougal. She's the other, Karen McDougal. Sorry, I always get that wrong.

I don't want to call her Susan. But anyway. Sorry, Karen. Karen McDougal. And the payments that he facilitated with David Packer and National Enquirer or whatever. But he doesn't have any direct documentation of these conversations. And these conversations are really, really critical because they do get at that question of whether this was directly a campaign expenditure or whether it had to do with the campaign, but also with,

I want to hide this from my wife. So it becomes kind of a, he said, he said, and who the jury believes wants to believe, et cetera. So in any case, this is, you know, this was, this case from the prosecution was really building to this moment with Michael Cohen. And this is the story he had to say. That's right. And right ahead of the testimony, Crystal, Trump had this to say. This all comes from Biden in the White House, by the way. And they have their top people here

because he can't, when he can't put two sentences together, he's the worst president in the history of our country. Can't speak, can't walk off a helicopter, can't walk off a plane, can't walk off a stage. And the only off a plane, can't walk off a stage.

And the only way they think they can win is if they can do something with Trump. Because we have an incompetent, the worst president in the history of the United States. Trump has been really enjoying doing these press conferences in the trial. He seems to think that it makes him look strong. I actually think though, the more that we continue to look at a lot of the polling crystal, that if anything, it's either a distraction or as long as Biden is at the center of attention and people are feeling macroeconomic conditions, not thinking about Trump in general, most people don't give a shit about his political or about his court appearances or whatever. If he's convicted, maybe, you know, it'd be another story. But the more consequential legal

cases, the ones that people really care about, trial's not likely to happen before the election. The Trump people seem to think this is a net good for him. I'm not going to go that far. I don't think it's a good thing to be on trial or to have people talk about affairs. Even the thing is with Michael Cohen, too. With Michael Cohen, the only reason he turned on Trump is because Trump refused to pay him. Trump didn't want to continue to pay his legal expenses. That was it.

It was that petty of a manner. And after that, he flips on him. He starts pleading guilty, cooperating as a federal witness, and now, you know, turning and embracing like the Diaper Don conspiracy and all this other stuff. But what's important- Don't just besmirch the Diaper Don conspiracy. Yeah, I apologize. But what's important to remember is that up until 2018, whenever he flipped, he was the most ardent Trump defender.

Oh, yeah. He was on television. I used to deal with him. I was a White House correspondent. I would see this idiot walking around the White House grounds constantly. Mr. Trump is the greatest businessman of all time. These are just, you know, the classic hanger-onners of politics, of people who surround the super rich and the wealthy. So it's very difficult to take him as a serious person, especially with so many of his utterances.

It's actually interesting. He talks about how much he loved and worshipped Donald Trump. Yeah, I've seen it. He talks some about that in this courtroom appearance and how his fondest wish and desire was just to make Trump happy. And if he did something that was good and Trump praised him, man, that just lit up his whole life, which is how you end up, I guess, taking a mortgage out on your house in order to pay a billionaire's hush money payments. And then, yeah, he's like he's sort of like the jilted lover. You know, Trump refuses to back him after all of his loyalty and won't pay his legal bills and whatever. And now it's a total 180 in terms of his

views of Donald Trump and becoming this, quote, star witness for the prosecution. It is a wild situation given that of all the cases that are out there, many with much more serious allegations, all of the other ones with much more serious allegations than this one. This is it. I mean, the other ones, they're not happening before Election Day. Now, that doesn't mean that they're over. If Trump loses, he's still in incredible legal jeopardy from all of those cases. So it's not like they're dead-dead. But in terms of electoral concern, for all intents and purposes, they are. This is the whole ballgame.

One other thing to note about the thought that we showed you of Trump, you had behind him a number of Republican officials, including Senators Tommy Tuberville and J.D. Vance and Congresswoman Nicole Malletakis. Is that her name? Yes, that's right. Okay. In any case, you've now got like the new way to kiss the Trump ring is to show up and be there at the courtroom with him and give your own little press conference about which 100 is blah, blah, blah. And J.D. obviously is like, you know, trying to position himself to hopefully be the Trump VP pick. Kind of doubtful that he'll get the nod, but you never know. So he was, he, you know, is making his moves to get into the Trump's best possible graces. That's right. J.D. was there. Vivek Ramaswamy will be there today. Oh, for real? Yes. Vivek is on site as we speak at the Trump courthouse. Why am I not surprised? Oh, here we go. Okay. Here I have a full list,

like an exclusive, not exclusive, everybody. Speaker Mike Johnson will be there. Governor Doug Burgum will be there. Oh, Doug. Representative Byron Donalds, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Corey Mills. So Byron, actually one of the, Byron and Doug Burgum, the only two people on that list who are prospective VP candidates. I wouldn't put too much stock in either of them. There's a lot of Doug Burgum chatter right now. That's what they say.

I firmly believe that I think the best odds are a woman. I think Trump, at least Stefanik, you can, you know, I've been saying it here for months. I think he loves her. He loves how spirited her defense is. I think she's also not a big enough star that she would ever eclipse him. So I would put my money on her. I also think that the race card is one that Trump just loves a bit too much. Tim Scott, you know, very clearly, Tim has been all over cable TV kissing Trump's ass as well. Only if Trump feels totally electorally secure, I think

will he pick somebody like Doug Burgum or J.D. Vance. But that's one where, you know, given the nature of the election, it would be very difficult. Now, it's certainly possible. Like, don't get me wrong. But he loved, that man loves identity politics and he loves a media narrative more than anything. And a woman or a black person is just one that he couldn't get away from. I mean, how did he make his pick last time around? He did it based on very naked Machiavellian political calculation. Yeah, and he was right. And he was right. I mean, it was, Mike Pence was a good choice for him in that moment. It was a very wise political choice. And I think he will make a very similar choice this time around because he

has a lot more to lose this time than he did last time. I mean, his freedom is really at stake hinged on the results of this election. So whatever he can be persuaded of in terms of it's the best electoral calculus for him, I think that's the direction he's likely to go on based on his history and also what is really at stake for him. Last thing, just about the Cohen testimony. I mentioned this before. CNN actually had this audio a number of years ago, but Cohen recorded this one conversation with Trump in regards to these Karen McDougal payments. Now, this one, the structure is a little different. National Enquirer bought her story to—it was the whole catch-and-kill scenario.

And Cohen was worried that David Pecker, who's head of the National Enquirer, wouldn't believe him that Trump was going to reimburse him for these payments that he was going to make. So he surreptitiously recorded the conversation with Trump to play for David Packer to see, look, he's serious about this. He's going to repay you. I don't think he actually ever did. But in any case, that was the purpose of the recording. So let's take a listen to this audio, which was played in court. I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, you know, so that I'm going to do that right away. I've actually come up and I've spoken to Alan Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with funding. Yes.

And it's all the stuff, all the stuff, because, you know, you never know where that company, you never know where it's all the stuff. All the stuff. Because, you know, you never know where that company, you never know where he's going to be. Correct. So I'm all over that. And I spoke to Alan about it

when it comes time for the financing, which will be... Listen, what financing? We'll have to pay you. No, no, no, no, no, no. I got... No, no, no. So there you go.

That's, you know, clearly you're talking about David Packer, he's talking about Weisselberg setting up these payments, etc., etc. That's the one piece of audio evidence that they have that was able to bolster his testimony to the jury. And, you know, I don't know which way this case is going to go. I could really see either direction. I think it just depends a lot on who this jury is and how they're processing these various claims. No, I think you're right. It's all going to come down to a level of reasonable doubt. I do. And this is the problem with the prosecution's case. From the very beginning, the plausibility of I just didn't want my wife to find out is enough and believable that you only need a single person who is there not only to buy the reasonable doubt, but also not to co-sign the prosecution's extraordinary interpretation of New York finance business accounting law.

Remember, that's what's actually at stake here. So anyways, we will see what's happened. Let's get to GameStop. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right.

It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and reexamining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus.

So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Over the past six years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned one thing. No town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've received hundreds of messages from people across the country begging for help with unsolved murders. I was calling about the murder of my husband

at the cold case. They've never found her and it haunts me to this day. The murderer is still out there. Every week on Hell and Gone Murder Line, I dig into a new case, bringing the skills I've learned as a journalist and private investigator to ask the questions no one else is asking. Police really didn't care to even try. She was still somebody's mother. She was still somebody's daughter. She was still somebody's sister. There's so many questions

that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case you'd like me to look into, call the Hell and Gone Murder Line at 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Some major breaking news.

Roaring Kitty, a.k.a. Keith Gill, the man behind the original meme-stop craze on GameStop, is officially back. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. Roaring Kitty, Keith Gill, tweeting for the very first time in three years on his account, which then immediately sparks a 74% increase in a single day on GameStop stock. On top of that, AMC, another so-called meme stock, is up over 100%. They say that GameStop shares actually had to be halted several times on the trading exchange because of how high it was going and continues actually to do so. Now, Gil, it appears, has not yet done a video on YouTube. We're all awaiting that. He recently was portrayed in the movie Dumb Money.

Not a particularly great movie, but if you're on an airplane, you should watch it. That's the way I would put it. Yeah. Dumb Money recently came out and kind of showed him as this endearing nerd, you know, in his basement who turned, you know, what was it, like $50,000 into $48 million on paper. Eventually sells, gets out, subject of lawsuits, of congressional testimony. Most people thought they would never see him again, but for some reason, he is officially back and back enough that it's always just amusing watching CNBC and all these business anchors actually grapple with this. So here's how they handle the news of the return of Roaring Kitty. Yeah, so this is Keith Gill's first online post we've seen in three years. Roaring Kitty, as he's also known, was, if you remember, really the Pied Piper of the meme stock frenzy in 2021. He led those online traders to the infamous

GameStop short squeeze this morning, posting a cryptic photo of somebody just leaning forward in a chair. And that was enough to send GameStop up. As you said, more than 100%. It has been halted for volatility. Robert Hum just sent out a note explaining this. He said, trading activity for GME has been only 10 minutes. The rest of the day has been halted. And even with just 10 minutes of trading, the stock did three and a half times the normal volume. But it's not just GME, guys. Other so-called meme stocks like AMC are also catching a bit.

It is one sign of overall risk appetite increasing. You'll also see that showing up in the options market, especially for the most volatile corner of that ultra short maturity. It's once really reserved for professional traders. Zero days to expire options have climbed in popularity among everyday investors. These are one day bets on the direction of the market, which can offer outsized returns, rewards, and also outsized risk. So you've just got to love to see the translation of risk appetite. There ain't no risk appetite, okay? Everyone's just logging back into their Robinhood accounts and they're having fun, which was the entire point of the GameStop craze. But I mean, look, I guess it just does show the power is still there, Crystal, if you want it to be for the

internet. It was such a fun story at the time. The short squeeze, getting the big investors getting screwed, inspired the movie, made Ken Griffin became a household name. There is still some really shady stuff that went on with Robin Hood and all of that. I think it was a very illuminating episode for everyone because you're like, oh man, the system really is rigged. You're like, absolutely. Those were the pieces of it that made the story so compelling and so illustrative of the realities of our economy. So first of all, let's just reflect on the this, or Elon Musk, you know, a billionaire being able to do the same. But here you have this guy who

just through the force of his like persistence, basically was able to persuade people like, we're doing this, you're coming along, screw what they say, we're all in, we're gonna make this happen, we're gonna screw the shorts. And, you know, through just basically like his force and persistence, being able to move markets in this way. And there's a few things that I always found really interesting about this story. First of all, it really revealed something that I think a lot of people intuitively know, which is how fake the stock market is to begin with. So the fact that you could have this online movement and really,

you know, take it to big Wall Street players in a significant way, that was interesting. And as I said, sort of revealed how fake a lot of this Wall Street shenanigans really are and stock market prices, et cetera. But then you also had the other side of it, which was, listen, right when they're on the verge of a real victory, the collusion that occurred and the top-down crushing of this movement. And they made it so that on the Robinhood platform, you can no longer buy the stock. You could only sell the stock. And that effectively, at least for the time, really crushed the movement and ended it. So it was this David

and Goliath story. David looked like he had the upper hand and then Goliath comes in and then, you know, Roaring Kitty himself, as you were pointing to, Sagar, became the subject of all, I mean, he was really aggressively, they dragged him in front of Congress and lawsuit. I mean, they went after him like crazy. You would think he was the, you know, villain of the century, et cetera, for his promotion of the GameStop stock. So interesting to see he's still got it apparently. Yeah, I mean, his employer, MassMutual, was actually fined like $4 million because he was working for them and doing this stuff on the side. He was a shit poster. It's not even really fair.

To be honest, I mean, let's be real. Like, it's an amazing feat. He leveraged his internet personality, his YouTube videos, and Reddit posts, turned $50,000 into some fifth, nobody really knows how much of a profit, but tens of millions and millions of millions of dollars for him and for his family. I mean, that's the American dream to me. Somebody like that, that's the best of online influencer. And he did it specifically by going after and beating these hedge fund managers who, as the movie accurately portrays, are just the most like just the most the worst people in the U.S. They create nothing. They do nothing.

They tens of billions of dollars betting and defeating and trying to destroy companies. I mean, Ken Griffin's entire innovation is high-frequency trading and basically getting an edge by trading something three microseconds ahead of somebody else. Sorry, I don't think you're adding all that much to a value to the United States. But this man is worth, what, $30, $40 billion? One of the richest men in the United States. That's exactly why Gil became such a popular figure in his own right. And every time something like this happens, it does show you again, let's get to the communitarian aspect of what happened back in 2021 is where we would just come out of COVID. I'm sure you remember this too, Crystal. This was right after January 6th. So things were tense. I remember covering this and just being like, man, this is the first fun story I'd covered in years.

It was just, it was great to just get wrapped up in it. Now, not great for a lot of people out there, and let's be honest, we did lose a lot of money, but you're an adult. You should at least know what you're doing. And by Keith's own admission, he never told anybody to buy the stock per se. Let's put this up there on the screen just to reiterate. This is literally the meme that made it all happen. Just appears to show a guy who is gaming leaning forward. He has since tweeted out like 25 different of his signature memes, which are like clips from movies and other things. Just inspirational. Wolverine coming out of the tank and killing somebody. So maybe he's back.

I would really love to see him actually do a YouTube video. We have one of those we can put here on the screen. So here you've got Wolverine in the tank coming out. You're seeing the, God, what is the metal? The metal, I don't remember either. I'm totally blanking on the name right now. Griffin, you want to tell me what it is? The Wolverine origin story basically right here. Is that from Logan or is that, I think that one's from Logan. No, I don't think so. I think that was in the X-Men. Because I never watched Logan, and I definitely have seen that. All right, got it. Okay, that was X2, I apologize.

Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. I actually loved those movies. X-Men movies were great. I'm a big Magneto fan. Anyways, I think they're coming back, actually. Or there's some fusion of the universe with Deadpool. That's X-Men Origins Wolverine.

That's according to our junior guy in the control room. Thank you very much. There we go. We appreciate you, Ian. So it's one of those where the memes are back, the stocks are back. This will be a fun story. Hopefully, maybe this time around, they can crush somebody else's Wall Street person's dreams. But we'll see.

And we wanted to give everybody an update and get some of the fun stuff into the show as well. you experienced dad guilt i hate it how hard she understands but she still happy father's day the show may be called good mom's bad choices but this show isn't just for moms we keep it real about relationships and everything in between. And yes, men are more than welcome to listen in. I knew nothing about brunch. She was a terrible girlfriend, but she put me on to brunch.

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