Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 5/23/24: Dems Scold Voters On Bidenomics, Charlamagne Confronts The View On Biden, Red Lobster Endless Shrimp Psyop, Trump Panics After Floating Birth Control Ban

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

Krystal and Saagar discuss Dems scolding voters for hating Bidenomics, Charlamagne trashes Trump and Biden on The View, Red Lobster endless shrimp psyop, Trump panics after floating birth control ban.   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.com/   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. Enter Camp Shame, an eight-part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success. 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. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? and subscribe today. his irresponsible son, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. They could lose their family and millions of dollars? Yep. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind Boy Sober, the movement that exploded in 2024.

You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, Boy Sober is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it.

Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 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 Thursday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed, we do. Many interesting stories to dig into this morning. We got a bunch of new battleground state polls. What is the state of this race continuing to look very difficult for Joe Biden? We've also got some interesting numbers about how people feel about the economy and how the economy has treated them also. And some new important housing numbers there as well. So we'll break all of that down for you.

Got a little update on that Red Lobster story. Seems we've been snookered. It was not Endless Shrimp that took Red Lobster under. It was classic corporate raiding, private equity, corporate greed, all of those sorts of things. So we'll get into that and show you exactly what actually happened with Red Lobster. Trump is trying to clean up some comments he made about birth control restrictions. This continues to be a huge source of potential danger for the Republican Party and for Trump specifically in trying to retake the White House. So we will talk about that and how Americans feel

about it. We also have a bunch of updates out of Israel and Gaza in particular. Hamas still very strong, very present. The U.S. apparently sounding alarms that many people like us have been sounding for many months that, hey, you know what? When you slaughter a bunch of children and women and civilians and annihilate everything, all you're going to do is make people more motivated to join Hamas. And now we have reporting that indicates they have gained thousands of new recruits just over the past several months. At the same time, three new countries are recognizing the state of Palestine and Israel. Bibi in particular is completely freaking out and punishing Palestinians for the actions of these three countries.

And that peer situation, as predicted, completely ineffective. No aid breaching starving Gazans from the pier at this point. Ken Klippenstein has been covering this very closely from the beginning. So he is going to join us to break down what exactly is going on there. Yes, exactly. That's right. All right. Before we get to that administrative, now this is going to be the last call for everybody. All right. So this is the last week for you to be able to sign up to Locals. If you are an existing premium subscriber, you're going to lose your Supercast access after this week. So make sure that you click on the email and you get yourself set up. If you have any issues whatsoever, big or small, support at locals.com, send them an email. If that

fails and if something else is not working, we have our own producer, Griffin, who is very willing to help you. BreakingPointsPremium at gmail.com. What else here is on my list? After that, yeah, by the way, very excited for everybody who's been signing up and commenting on AMA questions, which we'll be answering, and you will get access to that later this week, which will again be on Locals. In terms of Spotify, we're currently working on making sure that the connection happens. Griffin and the entire team over at Locals is working overtime, so don't worry about that, but I think that is everything. Again, let's just reiterate support at Locals.com and click on that email. Make sure that you get your login

credentials set up so that then we can all be happily ever after. Yeah. And just to reiterate, check your email premium subscribers. Supercast is going away. So if you don't switch over to Locals, you will no longer be able to get access to the premium show. So that is the critical thing. Check your email. If you can't find it, email support. If you find it and you're having trouble, email support. But today's the day to get it done so you don't lose access and have any sort of period where you are not getting this fantastic show.

That's our nightmare. We don't want that. You're helping support us. You're praying for it. We are thinking of you from day one. We've tried to make it as simple and easy as possible. And most of our people have said that it's been very, very seamless. So let's get it done. All right. Thank you very, very much. Let's go ahead and start with 2024 and these polls where the situation continues to be bad for Joe Biden. And it all shockingly comes down to the economy. Who could have known that? Let's put this up there on the screen. So here we have from Bloomberg and Morning Consult in more

head-to-head polling, just confirming basically every single other poll that is out there and the same story. So let's keep this up here, please, just so I can read off of it. This is the head-to-head matchups. Donald Trump, Joe Biden in the state of Arizona, 49-44. Georgia, 47-44. Michigan, 46 for Biden, 45 for Trump, one of the only states where Biden is actually leading Biden. And Trump tied in the state of Nevada in this particular one. In North Carolina, Trump is up by seven. In Pennsylvania, Trump is up by two. And in Wisconsin, Trump is up by one. Now, basically, all of this comports with the general election polling that we've seen from various other high-quality

pollsters, Crystal. And in fact, this morning, the Cook Political Report put out its own state-by-state polling, which includes RFK Jr. And lo and behold, there is only one swing state in the entire country where Biden is even tied with Trump, and that is Wisconsin. According to them, Trump is up by a minimum of three in every single other state. The most shocking of one is he is up by nine in the state of Nevada, up by eight if you include RFK Jr. That's the state that he won, by the way. I mean, I guess if you're in coat mode for the Biden team, these are a little bit less bad than the New York Times ones. Yes, that's right.

Which had him losing by, I think, 13 points in Arizona. Some of these are a little bit, you know, a little closer. He's in the ballgame, certainly, in those industrial Midwestern states. And there's some interesting ironies here into the way that this map is shaping up. you do see consistently across the swing state polling is that Biden is tending to hang in there a little bit better in those industrial Midwestern states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. Why? Because the demographic is older and wider. Now, that is the polar opposite of the way the Democratic Party has been portraying themselves, the demographics they've been going after. I mean, we're talking about since the Obama coalition, where the thought was, okay, we do well with young people. We do well

with a diverse electorate. Now their most solid, Joe Biden's most solid and consistent base of support is old white people. And those are the states that he does the best in. So, I mean, it is a real reversal of the trends that things have been having. And now things can change, but consistent in this polling, the polling you just referenced, Sagar, is that those new swing states of the Sun Belt, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada has been a swing state and has been pretty solidly Democratic actually for a while, in part because of the machine that Harry Reid built and the strength of unions there. But because those are also places that have a more young and more working class demographic, in particular in Nevada, they are the states that Biden seems to be in the most trouble in.

So, you know, that even as the margins are a little different poll to poll, that trend seems to be fairly consistent. Absolutely. And that is a shocking development. This is an inversion of all of the traditional rules of Obama-era politics, and we're basically watching young black and Hispanic voters drift at least marginally much more towards Trump, which is what is accelerating his lead in the Sunbelt states. That's how you explain why Florida is not even considered a swing state anymore. In fact, a lot of the dynamic economies, especially down in the Sunbelt, we've seen huge population ingrowth. A lot of those people are trending much more Republican, while the industrial Midwest, the strong support of older white voters, boomers, basically, who have especially becoming more Democratic, and also the college-educated

is what is keeping him in the game at all. Because remember, he can win those states and not actually have to win any of the Sun Belt, and he could still attain the presidency. And I should clarify a little bit. Joe Biden will still win young people. He will still overwhelmingly win black voters. He will still win Latino voters. What I'm speaking to is which parts of his previous coalition are drifting away. And those younger and more diverse parts of the coalition are the parts that are drifting away, most of them to the couch, some of them to third party candidates, some of them to Trump. But the part of his base that has remained the most solid are older white voters. Again, Republicans overall will still win that demographic. But of the portion of them that voted for Joe Biden last time,

that's the piece that has remained the most rock solid through this period while other parts have drifted away. And obviously the election last time was extremely close. So he can't afford any drift. If anything, he needs to pick up some, you know, disaffected suburban Republicans who have still been hanging in there for whatever reason. But I am sort of doubtful that there's a lot more of them to gain at this point. Speaking of the disaffected suburban Republican who may be voted for, Nikki Haley, she gave a talk yesterday where she was asked, are you going to vote for Trump? Here's what she had to say. As a voter, I put my priorities on a president who's going to have the backs of our allies

and hold our enemies to account, who would secure the border, no more excuses, a president who would support capitalism and freedom, a president who understands we need less debt, not more debt. Trump has not been perfect on these policies. I've made that clear many, many times. But Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump. Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech. Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they're just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does that. Okay. So there it is, Crystal. Nikki will be voting for Trump. I will say this, for everybody who has got an anti-war dream like I do and has hopes possibly for a second Trump administration,

the thing that should always give you the most pause is the neocons are very comfortable with him coming back into power. In fact, Michael Tracy has been doing a great job on this. Trump was recently asked about some people who potentially would work in his administration, and he listed Mike Pompeo, Tom Cotton, and even possibly Nikki Haley. Now, she might forget vice president. He's ruled her out for that. So everybody out there, let me just preempt the I told you so's and say they're rallying to Trump because they believe that they can at the very least snooker him. And most likely he's just apathetic in terms of governance and they can get their access to the government again. So it's very possible, you know, not only that these suburban people would vote for Trump because of an

endorsement, you know, something like this, but also that the traditional machine behind him, you know, of the traditional Republican Party who, you know, doesn't like him stylistically, still believes they can get a lot of what they want from him. A hundred percent. I mean, this is the man he had John Bolton and Mike Pompeo in his administration last time. So I don't know who's still fooling themselves with Donald Trump being some anti-war hero has always been nonsense to me. But, you know, with regard to Nikki Haley specifically, this is, and as many politicians, if not all politicians are, this is an incredibly craven person. So why does she make this decision? There were two possible lanes open for her.

One was to say, okay, I'm going to vote for Trump and try to remain relevant in the like Republican political sphere. And I think probably the fact that he, she's being floated for potential cabinet positions. Some people even talking about for her, for vice president of Trump, shut that down. I don't think that is a active likely scenario, but she feels like she's still got a lane in the Trump administration, in the Trump world. We've seen before people, you know, Ted Cruz and others who've been vociferously opposed to Trump and said extremely, you know, aggressive things against him, etc., etc. Lindsey Graham, too. Once they make nice, they're welcome back in. So she sees a lane for

herself there. And she thought that was more fruitful than the other turn, which would be to go, you know, full sort of like anti-Trump, never Trump, resistance liberal, quote unquote, that lane and try to get some media gig or whatever, double down on her corporate board sitting, et cetera. So she apparently thinks it's more fruitful for her to go in the direction of potentially being in a Trump administration. And so you can't read into this any sort of like actual principle or moral. It's all about like, what is the Craven political calculation? You know, the other question is there's been a lot of chatter, Sagar, about she's still getting votes in these primaries, like a good number of votes in these primaries, some of them. And so the question was, oh, are these voters like, do they really just hate Trump and they're just going to not, you know, come into the fold? And then the reverse of that analysis would be, okay, well, now that Nikki's

endorsed him, they'll come right along. And I just can't see that those individuals were like particularly tied into Nikki Haley anyway. So in terms of electoral impact is what I'm trying to say. I don't think this woman has any sway with any vote, actual set of voters. So I don't think her endorsement actually matters, except that it makes her in a position where she could potentially be in a Trump cabinet position later. Well said, that's right.

And then let's turn to what, again, is animating all of this, which is the economy. Let's put this up there on the screen. I mean, what we see here is there is a inability right now of the intelligentsia in Washington to understand why Americans put huge blame on Biden for the economy. So they like to point out how statistically they are wrong. So for example, in this recent poll

from The Guardian, they say 55% of Americans believe the economy is shrinking, 56% that the U.S. is experiencing a recession. And it says, though the broadest measure of the economy, GDP, has been growing. It's like, hmm, well, how is it distributed? 49% believe that the S&P 500 stock market is down for the year, although the index is up 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year. It says 49% believe the economy is, unemployment is at a 50-year high, even though the unemployment rate has been under 4% and near 50-year low. Overall, Americans put blame on Biden for the state of the economy, with 58% of those polled saying the economy is worsening, due to mismanagement from the presidential administration. The reason I cannot stand stuff like this, Crystal, is again, is it's continuing to try and tell people that to deceive

their lying eyes. And look, I agree. Who out there knows what the S&P 500 is up for the year? What are they really being asked here? What are they actually being asked? Do I feel as if I have more money today than I did previously? And the answer to that, as we definitively showed, what was in our Monday show for the net worth chart is you have 0.7% more under Biden, your net worth, where under Trump, you had up to 20. Now there's a lot of reasons for that, but empirically, these people are correct. Now, whenever they say, I feel the economy is shrinking, they're not looking to the top line GDP number as to whether, you know, the S&P 500 market cap is up. Almost completely irrelevant to their lives.

It is irrelevant to their life. I mean, yeah, it matters in like some broad thing, but like, what does it really matter? Do I have more spending power today than I did before? The answer to that, again, no, especially whenever we look at inflation compared to wages. Same with unemployment. They're like, well, unemployment is near a 50-year low. I'm like, well, you know, a lot of people dropped out of the workforce. We know that for sure. That's one of the reasons why the way unemployment is calculated is very problematic. And two, there's another question to that. Do I like my job? Do I actually feel as if I am working what I want to do? People don't think of things in terms of technicalities. The way that they feel, I actually think, is much more real, you know,

compared to whatever these stats are. So tell me which is wrong. The stats are the way that millions and millions of people feel about the economy. Yeah, the stock market one stuck out to me in particular because there's a good reason why most Americans are not particularly in touch with what's going on in the stock market. It's because 93 percent, this is a new number, 93 percent of all stocks were owned by the top 10 percent of Americans. That's a new record high. So it shouldn't be a surprise that most people are like, I don't know, it's not performing well for me. And so my, you know, I'm going to just assume, which is like sort of sweet that the stock market is somehow correlated to how I'm doing in my life. And I'm seeing some

problems here. So there must be some problems there, right? Of course, that's not the way it actually works. But yeah, it's it's an it's it is very emblematic of this effort to sort of like gotcha the American people and convince them that actually Biden's been great. They just don't understand and they don't get it for their own lives. And obviously there are many other much more relevant indicators of how people are doing under the Biden administration that are pointing in the opposite direction. 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 fat phobia 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. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard,

a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. Voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times, it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days, I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times

where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that aren't being naked together. How we love our family. I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. DNA test proves he is not the

father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John, who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process.

So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, I wonder why people would feel as if things aren't going so well. Oh, home sales fell again in April after high mortgage rates are dampening activity. Sales of previously owned homes have decreased from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $4.14 million. And if we go to the next one, what do we have? Another shocking development. Aspiring homeowners face the lowest home buying affordability since 1985.

The median household now needs more than 40% income to cover payments on a median price home. Jeez. You know, include things like, I don't know, health insurance, which also continues to go up, education, inflation, whenever it comes to tuition. And you're looking at a mass unaffordability crisis that was already a crisis, only 10 times worse with the gasoline of inflation.

Even the people over at CNN can understand this whenever they're not writing for the, or they're writing for the business press. Let's put this up there. High inflation made finances worse this whenever they're not writing for the business press. Let's put this up there. High inflation made finances worse for 65% of Americans last year. So how many of these do we need? And this is, by the way, from the Fed, from the Economic Wellbeing of U.S. Households report for 2023. 72% of adults at a record high are saying they're, quote, doing just okay. It's actually below what the previous highs were whenever finances were better. And in terms of inflation

being made worse, over 65 percent have been attributably done worse due to their financial state. So people are skipping meals. They're skipping medical care. Credit card debt is at an all-time high. Yeah, they're talking about childcare inflation, education inflation. Basically, there's inflation in every sector of the economy, which you need to just survive, like at a very basic level, including food and gas. Somebody sent me a Los Angeles photo of $7.20 a gallon. Now, I'm sure that is an outlier, but that's still nuts. Like, how does that even possibly exist? Yeah, and there are some efforts underway by the Biden administration to sell more oil into the market to try to lower gas prices because they realize this is a big political problem for them.

One of the things that that article from CNN pointed out that I thought was really interesting is the people who have fared the worst are people who have young children in particular require child care. And any of you guys who have kids know child care is extremely expensive. It is a huge burden on family budgets. And, you know, it makes sense not only has the price of child care continued to go up, but you also had this period during COVID where it was very difficult and it was a juggling act. But, you know, you had parents at home more, so they were able to take some of that cost burden off. You had the child tax credit in place. You had the other COVID social safety net pieces. And so for families in particular, and specifically families with young children, financially, that was a huge help. And you've

now seen, obviously, all of that stripped away and real deterioration of finances for families with kids. You know, there's a lot to say economically. Obviously, I think people tend to, you know, attribute more blame or credit for the economy to the president than he's not a magician and there's no magic wand. But it is also accurate to say that there have been some massive economic missteps under this Biden administration. Number one, I think the rolling back of the COVID social safety net without keeping any of those pieces in place, not fighting for the social safety net part of the Build Back Better agenda so that people felt a direct impact in their lives during this

administration was a huge mistake. And so one thing I've been saying for a while is, you know, when you look at the big picture in the long term, I actually like some of the things the Biden administration is doing there. DOJ is trying to break up Live Nation. There's been great action in two places in particular. With regard to labor, there's a huge improvement, not saying it's perfect, huge improvement in that direction and giving workers more power and a more even landscape. That's great. But, again, that doesn't hit immediately for the majority of Americans right now. And second of all, some of the, you know, industrial policy that could pay dividends longer term, but in the short term may even have negative impacts on Americans.

So some of the medium to long term agenda, yeah, I think is good. And I think, you know, will pay off if it's pursued over the long term, although I don't think it's enough. But the short-term micro picture was completely abandoned and ignored, such that when you look at people's bank accounts, when we look at the net worth chart that you were showing before, Sagar, it's really clear. And then, of course, you add on top of that inflation. Now, the argument in the beginning was, oh, the inflation is 100% because of the social safety net programs over COVID. Well, we now know that just wasn't true. There may have been some contribution. I'm not going to say that was absolutely irrelevant.

But you had a number of other stories that were far more important. One, supply chain issues. And two, corporate greed, greedflation. We now know there was a price-fixing scandal in the oil industry. Why aren't they talking about that? Why aren't they talking about that? And there's a lot of tools that the president could use to go after that, and there's a lot of rhetorical tools using the bully pulpit to talk about that, but they don't.

So people are just left with the understandable and clear-cut impression that this administration has failed them economically, and they're just not wrong. Yeah, and that they care more about other countries than they do our own, which I think is empirically true at this point. I mean, the fair thing to say about that is that's clearly both parties, right? Sure. But this is the guy who's in the White House right now. So what are you going to do?

I have this great thing in front of me. It just came out this morning from Gallup, and it is the percent change in the number of people from Biden in 2020 who said can manage the government effectively to today. In 2020, it was 52%. Today, it's 39. So a minus 13 point difference in terms of people who think that the government can be managed effectively. For Trump, Trump is actually up by a single point. Now, he was at 48% in 2020. He's up now to 49. So he's had no net drop, while Biden has had a 13%

drop. He's also had a drop in several of the areas which matter a lot to him. Is likable, minus nine. Displays good judgment in a crisis, minus nine. Is strong and decisive leader, minus eight. Cares about people like me, minus seven. Is honest and trustworthy, minus six. Trump is basically static on all of those. He's only changed on cares about people like you and is honest and trustworthy, which, hey, you know, I don't think he's ever going to win either of those categories. Yeah. Well, your point is one that we brought up

before in terms of people tend to think of like, okay, well, what's dragging Biden down? Is it the economy or is it the, you know, Ukraine, Gaza, unconditional support for Israel? And I've come to think those two things are much, much more linked than is typically understood because number one on the attributes you're talking about, part of why people don't think he's caring and compassionate anymore is because they see this endless slaughter that he's funding and fueling and shipping bombs to, etc. But also that sense, and I think this is the most normie and very real and very legitimate reaction, which is we see where your priorities lie. We see where you're sending money. We see where your focus is. We see the way that you're marshalling all the resources for this country that we don't live in. And meanwhile, I'm telling you I'm struggling and you're doing nothing about it. So those two things are really tied together. This sense, however you feel, however these voters feel about Israel and Gaza, et cetera, the sense of you care more about that than you do about me, I think is, I think it's real. I think it's legitimate.

I think they're correct. It's hard to, it's honestly hard to deny. When you hear the like visceral emotional language even that Biden uses, horrors were committed on October 7th. Like people deserve to be humanized. I'm not saying that. But where's that same visceral emotional language when it comes to Americans who are struggling and are looking at this and are like, that's great that you care about them. But like, how about a little bit of that for me? And how about fighting for me in the same way you fight to ship 2,000-pound bombs to, you know, carpet bomb babies in Gaza.

Just this morning, new report out, Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State, just returned from Kiev in tears over what he saw in Kiev as we have watched basically an entire rollback of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Russians, by the way, just if anybody's tracking it, have now taken more territory than the Ukrainian counteroffensive in just the last couple of months. And he's like, you know what, now we got to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Iraq. That's to the emotion part. That's what they care about. They care more about the integrity of eastern Ukraine than your ability to buy groceries. And you can call that, you know, rhetorical and all that, but I don't know how you can't look at the policy and not say it's true. And more and more people are feeling it. 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. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. Voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times it's far from what I originally intended

it to be. These days, I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that aren't being naked together. How we love our family. I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves.

Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John.

Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead. But I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair.

Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous. But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. We always love these segments, you know, over at The View, they're trying to grapple with some of the things that are happening in the country. Charlemagne comes on and previously we we covered this, he's before. He said, I'm not going to endorse Biden this time around. I don't like either candidates. And he really gets read the riot act by Sonny Hostin. And it's a very revealing episode between the two. Let's take a listen. Let's get real. Now, you have a massive platform reaching millions of listeners, and you and I have talked about this before. You endorsed Joe Biden back in 2020. But this time around, you say you're not going to endorse anybody. Charlamagne, now is not the time, in my opinion, to sit this one out.

Yeah. I didn't say that. I never said I was sitting it out. What you gonna do? I'm definitely voting in November. But what I like to focus on is issues, not individuals. But why not endorse? Huh? Why not endorse Biden? Because if I'm sitting here telling my listeners that you have somebody out there who was a threat to democracy. You have somebody out there who said they want to suspend the Constitution to overthrow the results of an election.

You saw this person try to lead an attempted coup of this country. And I'm telling people that this guy is a threat to democracy. Have you ever read Project 25? There's only two candidates out there. So if I'm saying that about this individual, the choice is clear, right? But one of the things that we've been talking about is the fact that getting facts out through the media seems to be very difficult. I feel like I just spewed some facts. Yeah. Yes, but we need you to do it on your show.

Well, the reality is I think both candidates are trash. But we need you to do it on your show. Well, I think, well, the reality is, I think both candidates are trash. So because I'm, because I'm, but I am going to vote in November and I'm going to vote my best interest and I'm going to vote who I think, you know, can preserve democracy. So if I think both candidates are trash and I don't feel like, you know, endorsing one, would you rather me endorse an individual or endorse the fact that, hey, we need to go out here and protect democracy? And, you know, when you look at somebody like President Biden, it feels like his base is pretty pissed off at him for a number of reasons. Help him out. Help him out. Well, no, I actually-

Help him out by doing what? The former First Lady called a play one time and she said, when they go low, we go high. I think you gotta rip that play up. When they go low, you gotta take it to the floor. All right, so there we go. He says both candidates are, now clearly he's a liberal, he's gonna vote for biden but it's funny too because on that one he basically says it he's like look there's only two you know i'm gonna say he's basically making a lesser of two evils argument fine whatever it's like why is that not enough for you they still can't even take that they're like you must bow before the gods and you must pledge your fealty and put up your sword and be like, I am for you,

President Biden. It's one of those where if always those ladies are like, all right, whatever, it sounds like you're going to vote for Biden. So, you know, we'll take it and be like, is that what you're saying? You know, he'll try and dodge around it and move on. But it's just not enough for them. I don't get it. Well, it's also like the focus on haranguing people who they don't think are like, you know, towing the line hard enough over. We need you to endorse. Maybe haranguing people who they don't think are like, you know, towing the line hard enough over maybe haranguing the Biden administration over their policy failures that have led to people abandoning them in droves. Maybe do a little bit of that, but we don't really see that. And there's a difference between saying, listen, this is who I'm going to vote for,

but you look at the landscape and make your own choices. And saying, I am not only voting for Joe Biden, but I am advocating that you do so, and here's why. And I'm using my own credibility, which Charlemagne obviously has a lot of credibility, especially with his audience. I'm putting my credibility on the line to say, it is worth it for you to get off the couch and go out and support this candidate, that it's going to matter for you. And when he explained why he wasn't endorsing this time around, he said, basically, he felt like he got burned, like things were promised that didn't come through, that there was no fight even to try to, because everyone can understand,

like politics is, you can't just snap your fingers and get everything done. We get that. But he felt like there wasn't even a fight to get done many of the things that were promised. So I think it's very understandable then to say, listen, I'm not going to do, I put my credibility on the line for you last night. I'm not going to do that again because I don't think you deserve it. So I do think there's a big distinction between, listen, this is who I'm voting for. You guys make up your own minds and actively advocating for one candidate. So, you know, the fact they can't even wrap their minds around not aggressively advocating for Joe Biden at this moment is very revealing of how narrow and cramped the conversation is on that show. Absolutely. No, you're right. And also, yeah, what's Alyssa Farrah doing over there? Just sitting in the corner?

I'm like, you're supposed to actually have some sort of conflict. She's so meek on there. I feel like everything she says comes with a tone of apology. Absolutely. Hope the money's worth it. I hope it is. All right, let's go to the next part, Red Lobster. So there's some mea culpa that we've got to do over here

because we fell for Red Lobster propaganda. Now, I will say there were some inklings of that, but this was according to the financials that were released by the company before their Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But now that we actually have access to the financial documents, something is very, very clear. It's not endless shrimp that killed them. It was private equity that destroyed them. Let's put this up there on the screen. Great report from the American Prospect, where they write specifically how several observers have attributed to this to endless shrimp promotional deal, which the company had hoped. It might have been a hit, but broadly speaking, the deal was a disaster that had raised costs for

individual restaurants without compensating increase in revenue. The company's current management are eager to pin its demise on endless shrimp, which totaled $11 increase in revenue. The company's current management are eager to pin its demise on Endless Shrimp, which totaled $11 million in losses. But upon filing for bankruptcy, they also launch an internal investigation in their majority shareholder, Thai Union Group, who is also their main seafood supplier. So it appears, Crystal, that actually what happened is that this private equity giant and this new group, Thai

Union, was dumping excess product into Red Lobster via endless shrimp, basically bilking and destroying the company with private equity raiding. They talk here about how they sold off huge parts of its most important assets, totaling some $1.5 billion, and that financially they basically did what all private equity raiders do. You come in, you sell off anything that you possibly can in terms of profit, you pay yourselves nice big bonuses, then it's a bust-out operation. You saddle it with a bunch of debt and with a bunch of costs that it can't possibly make, and you drive the company into bankruptcy. And it is now very clear from all of the details in here, specifically, that the endless shrimp promotion was actually

a front by the majority investor group to dump excess product all while stripping the company for everything that was not strapped down to the floor. And of course, you know, the people who suffer are the employees. You know, like I said previously, people were abruptly told at 50-something Red Lobster locations just the day of, they're like, hey, every single person here is fired. Yeah. And they're completely screwed. And so this is much more a tale of corporate greed and of the way that private equity works in our economy than endless shrimp. It turns out endless shrimp was just the front that they wanted people to believe. Whenever you dig deeper, it is a much more complex story.

Endless Shrimp cost them like $11 million. I was thinking like, geez, they must have been really hard. $11 million is what's putting them under. I mean, obviously that's a lot of money for a regular person. For a gigantic corporation, you think that's like a little blip. Turns out that's right. They already are in for like $11 million just in the bankruptcy legal fees to give you a sense of the scale here. No, there's a long story. There's a lot of villains in this story. The first blow for Red Lobster comes when the fishing industry consolidates. And you have similar types of monopoly consolidation in the fishing industry as you see in a lot of industries.

And there's a backstory to how that happened. There was some government action that was intended to combat overfishing that had a very deleterious effect on the industry because of the way they went about it. In any case, you have this massive consolidation and then monopolies do what they do. They jack up prices. Well, for Red Lobster, the whole key to their business model is being able to buy seafood through their mass purchasing power at relatively low cost and sell it to their customers at a cost that is reasonable and affordable to them and being able to do that at scale so that you can make enough that it works. So when the costs of the fish, the seafood itself, started to go up, they got in trouble. And it was Darden Restaurant Group that was the original founder and owner. So when they get into trouble, what do they do? They sell to Golden Gate Capital,

giant private equity firm. That's when things really start to go sideways. And that happened in 2014. And the big problem here was that they did what has apparently become very common with these private equity plays is that they sold off all of the Red Lobster real estate out from under them. What that means, and then Red Lobster, the restaurant locations, are having to lease it back at these high rates that even when the market goes down and rents are going down, they're still locked in at these higher prices. And that was really the thing that started to kill them. Then you had this other side story with Thai Union comes in and buys some share. And there's a conflict of interest there because they're the shrimp supplier. And so Asagar was

saying they're trying to dump their excess product. And there looks like they're jacking up the prices on Red Lobster, too, to try to squeeze every penny that it's worth out of it. But the big story here is about corporate rating and the fact that, you know, these bad decisions were made so that the private equity company and their shareholders could get paid off in the short term, but at the long-term expense of Red Lobster, making it so that, listen, it is true consumer, you know, food trends have changed. So Red Lobster probably needed it so that, listen, it is true consumer, you know, food trends have changed. So Red Lobster probably needed to adjust their business model. But because of this real estate deal, they didn't have any cash or flexibility to be able to do that and shift with the times and be able to, you know, create a restaurant experience that would really fit with modern consumers.

So now we have yet another hole in the suburban real estate landscape occupied by Red Lobster. And, you know, the workers getting screwed and a lot of loyal customers who still really enjoy Red Lobster are going to be sad to see those go from their neighborhoods. Absolutely. So let's put this up on the screen, for example. And this is still proliferating, you know, as we said, because you actually have to read these financial documents to see the true missteps. It says Red Lobster files for bankruptcy after missteps, including all-you-can-eat shrimp. What we now know is that it was basically rigged from the very beginning and that this private equity deal, this Golden Gate Company, which did some $1.5 billion sale leaseback to artificially

inflate the books of the company on top of some restructured debt, is really what killed it, on top of greedy executives with all- really what killed it, on top of greedy executives with all-you-can-eat shrimp. I mean, what's really becoming clear is it's a very convenient, and it's a fun story, obviously. That's why I jumped on it, and I didn't know enough, especially of the background, until you got the full financials. Whenever you see it, you're like, oh, this is the story of every nice place in America that's just been wrecked over the last decade. All right, now to some discussion. Let's put this up there. So I personally viewed this with some derision. I thought it was just another like dumbass woke MSNBC article, but we have since learned there

may be something to it. It says, why Red Lobster's downfall hits differently for black communities. So this is an op-ed there, and it says, recent announcement, you know, blah, blah, blah. Basically, it says that Bill Darden opened the very first Red Lobster south of Orlando, Florida in 1968 after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. As he had done with his first restaurant, he opened apparently during the height of Jim Crow segregation in Georgia and insisted that Red Lobster always be fully integrated. So that's a nice history of the company. But basically what they are arguing here is that this one hits particularly hard because, according to him, black people like Red Lobster more than any other racial group. Now, I will just say, I don't think that that is true.

Just based on my own personal observation, it may be true in some regional markets, but we are talking about a restaurant with over 700 locations. And just where I'm from, which is the last place I went to with Red Lobster, it was full of every ethnicity that College Station, Texas can bring to bear.

So that's all I have to say on the matter. This discussion is so fraught because if you validate this particular racial lens to the Red Lobster thing, honestly, it's very easy to delve into offensive racial stereotypes. For example, let me read you this line from the article. Black consumers are among the most loyal. Sure, we like fish and a good deal. Get out of here. Red Lodge is represented something like the strip mall version of the beloved fish fry,

but we like being treated equally even more. But I will say we consulted with Colvin, who happens to be an African-American member, fantastic member of our production crew. Right. And he said, you know what? He said it's true. I'm feeling this article. I agree. This is a, and I will say, independent of seeing this article in MSNBC, which of course we both saw it and were like, oh, leave it to MSNBC to find some like neoliberal, identitarian, racial lens to what this story of corporate capture and greed, whatever. But I will say even before we discussed this, it was clear that Colvin of the whole team here was definitely taking the red lobster hit the hardest. This is why, again, I think it's regional, which is we live in an area which is very black.

Like in Maryland, in the DMV, we have a much, I think, black per capita population. There's a very large black middle class in this area, too. You know, not quite comparable to, but similar to like around Atlanta, Georgia. Yes. But, you know, growing up here, my personal experience comports with the article, you know, the arguments that are being made here. So in any case. That's what I mean. I just think it's regional. I think, by the way, I think it's an American thing. It's like Olive Garden. You know, everybody loves Olive Garden. Is the food good? No. It's a place to go. That's it. You know, it's like Chili's or

TGI Fridays. They're not going to do the like, you know, the corporate reading part of the story. Right. They, you know, they apply their part of the story. Right, of course. Right? They, you know, they apply their lens. But anyway, I don't, I'm not saying it's illegitimate. It just was a funny editorial. It's like black people love a deal. Everybody loves a deal.

Okay, I like a deal. It's like, what are you talking, Indian people love deals too. Well, you think we don't screw up some chain restaurants? It's like, come on, man. Go to a New Jersey, yeah, what is it? What's that town called? Edison? Go to an Edison, New Jersey Red Lobster. I bet you find some Indians in there.

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. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind VoiceOver, the movement that exploded in 2024. VoiceOver is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships.

It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times, it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days, I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that aren't being naked together. How we love our family. I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high.

And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to Boy Sober on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John.

Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily it's your not the father week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. Now I find out he's trying to give it to his irresponsible son instead, but I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. So what are they going to do to get those millions back? That's so unfair. Well, the author writes that her husband found out the truth from a DNA test they were gifted two years ago. Scandalous.

But the kids kept their mom's secret that whole time. Oh my God. And the real kicker, the author wants to reveal this terrible secret, even if that means destroying her husband's family in the process. So do they get the millions of dollars back or does she keep the family's terrible secret? Well, to hear the explosive finale,

listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaking of the election, head-to-head polls and all that, what is the single only thing that could save Biden at this point from dementia, from the election, head-to-head polls and all that, what is the single only thing that could save Biden at this point from dementia, from the economy? It's abortion, and it is the topic of possibly birth control. Now, Trump supposedly is supposed to know this and yet keeps sticking his

foot in his mouth every single time that he's asked about this issue. Previously, he was asked on a local TV interview, they said, hey, are you going to do anything about red states that want to monitor women's pregnancies? And he said, well, we're just going to leave it to the states. You're like, what? And this time around, he's asked, are you open at all to banning contraception? Here's what he had to say. The whole issue of contraceptives. Do you support any restrictions on a person's right to contraception? Well, we're looking at that and I'm going to have a policy on that very shortly. And I think it's something that you'll find interesting.

And it's another issue that's very interesting. But you will find it, I think, very smart. We're looking at that and you will find it very smart. Why don't you just say no? Next question. Well, classic. I mean, how many times have you heard him do this? We're looking at that and you'll find it very smart. Why don't you just say no? Next question. Well, classic. I mean, how many times have you heard him do this? We're looking at that. We're going to have something that you're really going to love.

I think you're going to find it very smart. You just haven't thought about it. You have no frigging clue what your position is, what you want to say about it. So you're just like, oh, we're really looking at that very strongly. Okay, so then he decided to walk it back. Let's put this up on the screen. He then posted on Truth Social, in all caps,

I would never advocate imposing restrictions on birth control. And calls the reports, based on his interview, a Democrat-fabricated lie. So, this is why I'm just shocked by it. Where, in general, I trust his political instincts. Basically on anything other than something he really cares about, like stop the steal, I trust that he would be smart enough not to ever say anything like this because he's given a boon to the Biden administration. The Biden campaign immediately put this out.

Gavin Newsom, every large Democratic Twitter account. Here we have a statement from the Biden campaign. It's not enough for Trump. Their women's lives are being put at risk. Doctors being threatened with jail time and extreme bans are being enacted with no exceptions for rape or incest. He wants to rip away our freedom for access to birth control too. And this is one where not even the Alabama, most right-wing Mississippi state legislatures and all these people are putting anything like this on the floor. It should have been the most easy

and basic layup. I would also note that interview took place at a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh. That is not the place to be making comments about contraception, considering that John Fetterman won some five, six percent on the heels of the Roe versus Wade backlash for statewide. Very clearly, that is a major issue in the state of Pennsylvania. And, you know, they've got a popular Democratic governor. You don't need to be messing with anything like this. Well, I mean, you say none of these states are considering banning birth control. At least actively. It's not exactly true, though, because it depends, I guess, on how you define birth control. Like,

do you define the morning after pill as birth control? As many people do. And then in any of the states where you have fetal personhood and heartbeat bills, that would be banned. I mean, it's like the similar conundrum with IVF. And so I was surprised that he hadn't thought through what he wanted to say here. But I think he has realized that he tried to do the whole just like leave it up to the states, and then the states did a bunch of crazy stuff on abortion. So he doesn't really want to say that anymore. But he also doesn't want to say, oh, we should codify this at the federal level because he's not quite comfortable with what that would mean for the Republican base and what the implications of that are. So he just tries to dodge but obviously, you know, leaves the door open for it.

So, yeah, I mean, he's a mess on these issues, but there's also no good place for him to be. One thing that I thought really noteworthy in that New York Times article that we had up is they note that in a March poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which focuses on health policy, about just under half of adults said they considered the right to use contraception a secure right likely to remain in place. Because, listen, we know what the numbers are going to be. We actually have some numbers we can put up here in a minute. We'll just hold off on that. Obviously, birth control is overwhelmingly popular, accepted.

It is a very fringe minority at this point that says this should be banned, let alone even just made more difficult to access. The overwhelming majority of people say it should be easier to access. But so that's one question. The other question is, do people actually feel like this is at stake or do they just feel like this is some sort of like BS, democratic scaremongering that your rights are going to be taken away when they don't really buy it? So it was surprising to me that you actually have a majority of people who say, no, I actually think this is at risk. I actually think it's a danger that we could end up in a situation where birth control access is curtailed, restricted, or outright banned.

That's what makes these Trump comments particularly potent is that you have a really unpopular position combined with an actual existing fear among the electorate. Yep. No, I think you're right. Let's put some of those numbers just to get hit at home for everybody. And you can see it quite clearly. I mean, this is as basically as bad as it gets, you know, for Republicans. People who want birth control pills to be easier to access is 74%. More difficult to access is five. It is actually less popular than banning IVF, just so everybody understands, including, you know, it's like abortion, as you can see, 51% want easier to access, only 28% want more difficult to access, but 28% is not nothing.

That's, you know, roughly like a fourth or so of the country, plus or minus whatever the margin of error is. This is basically within the margin of error and has a easier to access net even amongst Republicans at 56%. So just again, how everybody understands how fringe of a position this is and why, if there is anything that's going to sink Trump, it is going to be this issue. And coming back to, you know, I guess, you know, we can add some of our polling caveats here, even though I do think I would probably give the odds to Trump right now, is, you know, you look at these state-by-state polls. You see a state in Arizona, and you see Kerry Lake down by 13 percent and Trump up by five. 18 percent of people really going to split ticket? 18 percent?

I don't know, man. Not in my lifetime. Not since 2010 have people been splitting tickets like that. This whole idea of, you know, oh, I like my local guy and the local Democrat is different than the national Democrat. That's very gone, you know, in our politics. It's been a long time since anything like that happened. I mean, I just. Yeah, I don't know.

I just want to put that out there. I just don't know. It would be a massive reversal of modern political trends. Right. Which started even before 2010. But it really started to consolidate in 2010 that politics was no longer local. All of these like blue dog Democrats

who were hanging in there in these very conservative districts, they got wiped out because at the end of the day, people were like, okay, sure. Like, especially with some of the pork barrel type politics going away where it was no longer as easy to insert like my bridge project or whatever. They banned that too. They banned earmarks for decades. So it was, you know, less, there was less for them to be able to bring and be like, well, this is why you should vote me even though you despise Democrats. People were like, yeah,

but at the end of the day, you're voting for Nancy Pelosi for speaker. So sorry, I'm going with the other team. That has been consistently the trend. Fewer and fewer swing voters and fewer and fewer ticket splitting voters. We have seen a little bit of a reversal of that, like trend going a little bit in the opposite direction in the past two elections. But to have it swing that much, we have that many split ticket voters. And like, do people really feel that negatively about Joe Biden? I just, I don't know. I just genuinely don't know. I'm trying to be extremely humble about any prognostication this election cycle.

Because, you know, the midterms we heard something very similar about. It was the academic numbers. That was going to be the big deal. I really believe that because I think material politics, et cetera, et cetera. It didn't turn out to work out that way. Now, this time you got Joe Biden on the top of the ticket, maybe at a presidential election. It's different. I just genuinely don't know. And then the other thing to throw into the mix, of course, is all of these special elections, which seem to be going really well for the Democrats. So does that mean anything

for Joe Biden or is that completely disconnected from him? Again, who knows? But the fact that Trump tried to clean this up, I mean, it doesn't matter at this point because he said the thing. It can be run in ads. He opened the door to it. Democrats got everything that they wanted out of that little local news conversation that he had. So this is this is a strategy. Put C3 up on the screen. This this terror sheet Democrats are trying to make everything out of this that they possibly can't. Who can blame them? Yeah, I mean, this is uh very potent very real for for voters they're going to hold a bunch of votes trying to tee up contraception as uh access as a campaign issue and you know republicans do themselves no favors by their they'll vote against this you would think

like something that literally five percent of the country is like, let's make contraception harder to access. And Republicans will vote with that 5% of the country. But they say, oh, well, we worry about what this means for, you know, is this open the door to the morning after pill and that being an infringement on state rights, et cetera, et cetera. And they don't want to give Democrats any sort of a political sense of a win, so they'll vote against this, then Democrats will use those votes on the record to say, look, these people want to take away your birth control. Can they get people really energized around that issue?

Do they focus on it? I don't know. But, I mean, it's a wise and correct political play. There's no doubt about that. I also say that in some states, this has become relevant as well. In Virginia in particular, there was legislation that was passed through the House and the Senate to protect access to contraception, and the Republican governor vetoed it. So Virginia is looking like a swing state this time, even though Biden won it by 10 points last time. We've got polls that show that it's very close. These sorts of things could come into play as well. Absolutely. Camp Shane, one of America's longest running weight

loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. Enter Camp Shame, an eight-part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success. 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.

DNA test proves he is not the father. Now I'm taking the inheritance. Wait a minute, John. Who's not the father? Well, Sam, luckily, it's your Not the Father Week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This author writes, my father-in-law is trying to steal the family fortune worth

millions from my son, even though it was promised to us. He's trying to give it to his irresponsible son. But I have DNA proof that could get the money back. Hold up. They could lose their family and millions of dollars. Yep. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now.

Let me hear it. Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.