Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 6/28/24: Presidential Debate Reaction: Panel STUNNED By Senile Biden

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

Krystal, Saagar, Ryan, and Emily react to the first presidential debate of 2024 between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, unc...ut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:02:36 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. We're back, everybody. And we just witnessed a profound moment, I think, in American history. That was great.
Starting point is 00:03:13 I feel great about the country. I don't know about you guys. That one's going down in the history books. I mean, the single takeaway, I wish we could sit here as people who like policy and who would like to get into the back and forth. And the profound truth is we just witnessed, I mean, one of the saddest political moments, like maybe the political death of Joe Biden and the absolute just shocking nature of his appearance, of his delivery. Even whenever we were trying to parse the substance crystal,
Starting point is 00:03:44 the four of us, we just, we couldn't even get to what he was saying. Incomprehensible, the coughing. He coughed a record five times in the first 30 seconds of the debate. And I mean, I'm just sitting here stunned. I don't know what else I can say. I mean, two words. Elder abuse. Yeah. It was painful to watch. Like, from the jump. It was painful. His voice, his face, his inability to maintain a single train of thought. It was horrendous.
Starting point is 00:04:14 I mean, Trump is all over the place and said all kinds of things that I can't stand and lies and doesn't answer questions, whatever. But like you said, Sagar, I can't even get to like, oh, let's talk about their different stances on it. First of all, they don't really have that different stance on immigration or Israel or any number of other issues. But, you know, I would love to get into, oh, let's talk about Biden's antitrust. Let's talk about labor policy. No one who watched this debate is going to get past the fact that he was so much worse than I think we've been, you know, expecting. We know that Biden is not where he was. We expected some problems in this debate. This was so far beyond what I anticipated. I don't know what to say.
Starting point is 00:05:01 Yeah, it felt like he spent way too much time at Camp David rehearsing, like practicing. With the statistics, did you notice that? The statistics, he had all these stats. And he had a couple of what you could tell were supposed to be one-liners, but he only got through like half the line. I think I saw him heading over our neighborhood
Starting point is 00:05:21 around 4.30 or so, so like he just kind of got into town. Right. Stepped off the plane and went straight there. Yeah. And he was just worn out. And his voice from the very beginning was awkward. So people are now, like in the Democratic Party, are thinking. It's funny.
Starting point is 00:05:38 In the beginning of this, I said there are some decent number of grassroots Democrats who are kind of hoping that he has such a poor performance tonight that it just forces him off the ticket. That they have to pull him. Not because they don't like Biden, but because they want to beat Trump. So do you think this was that performance? It was that performance. If it was anything, it's this. I mean, that is the worst.
Starting point is 00:05:59 If it's possible. That is the worst moment of his life. So we should know Emily will be joining us shortly. She's doing something else. We didn't kick Emily off the island moment of his life. So we should know, Emily will be joining us shortly. She's doing something else. We didn't kick Emily off the island. We love Emily. She wanted me to share with you. She also thought he looked old and terrible.
Starting point is 00:06:12 Well, she said old as fuck. Let's be honest. Let's actually repeat what she said. She said he's old as fuck and she'll share more of her thoughts when she returns. Yeah, I mean, listen, going into this, I was like, it's going to be Biden. Anyone who thinks they're going to pull him, you're delusional. It's going to be Joe Biden.
Starting point is 00:06:32 Deal with it. We all need to live in the realm of reality. This is when it's hitting home. After this, I'm like, hmm. Yeah. Maybe. I'm very curious. I shouldn't say this because it will incentivize people to switch over to the mainstream coverage. I am actually curious what they're saying on MSNBC and CNN.
Starting point is 00:06:51 Because I know the COPE, somebody tweeted out like, oh, I have two sources who say he has a cold. It's like, that doesn't come close to explaining. So the Biden campaign, Crystal, has called every mainstream reporter in the country and has gotten them to run the reporter. Two sources say he has a cold. And as I said, presumably when you have a cold, you take Sudafed or something with pseudo-ephedrine. We know what a cold looks like. It doesn't look like your brain melting in real time. The stone face, the open mouth gape.
Starting point is 00:07:20 I mean, anybody who has an elderly person in their life has understood what we all just witnessed. It was horrifying almost from the very beginning. And just to give people a taste, too, as you said, Crystal, too, of what the mainstream coverage was. Let's put F1, please, up on the screen just to give people an idea of how such an unmitigated disaster. This is from the AP, the AP, the most middle-of-the-road mainstream. And this is what they put out on their newswire to their entire subscriber service. Quote, in the first half hour of the debate, a raspy Biden delivers rambling answers while Trump counters with energy and falsehoods. But even they have to say raspy Biden rambling answers.
Starting point is 00:08:01 And they even have to acknowledge Trump counters with energy. This is also where I have to eat my words. And the falsehoods, he does fall. Okay, yes. It was. It was. Falsehoods all the way through. All right. And he's Trump. He's Trump. But I will say this too. The rules unambiguously worked in the favor of Donald Trump. There's no question. I think that was one of the top five performances of his life because he just seemed like relatively normal. He had a few moments, you know, there's some stop the steal there at the end. People aren't going to like that. Even on abortion, he was a little bit all over the place. But the whole point is we can't sit here and parse because the average person, and I want everybody at home
Starting point is 00:08:33 to think about this, the average person in your life, your father, your sister, your cousin, the person who doesn't watch anything, but they did watch this, what are they going to take away? It ain't anything to do with late term abortion. It is, oh my God, what is going on in front of us? Go ahead, Crystal. So Kyle texted me an update from MSNBC. He says they're waving the towel. Nicole Wallace said people will be talking about whether he should be in the race. Wow. Wow. The MSNBC folks are probably talking to some of the same people, types of people in Washington that I'm talking to. And yes, they're absolutely, completely panicked.
Starting point is 00:09:14 People who have been involved in politics for decades, who two hours ago were saying, put your big boy pants on. Like, he's the nominee. Stop wetting the bed. Stop wetting the bed. Like, all this stuff. There's no mechanism. Some of them are still saying, look, so these are the different paths. Some are saying, something's got to give. This is insane. Like these are very sober centrist minded, like
Starting point is 00:09:32 Washington creatures. Some of them are saying something's got to give and we've got to. From the control room, they're telling us that CNN has called his performance, quote, dismal. Griffin saying, quote, CNN saying it's Joe. I mean, this is just, it is unambiguous. And to a certain extent, look, not so much of a victory lap. Crystal, how many, and Ryan too, how many recriminations have we all received over the last five years for pointing out- We want our apologies. I genuinely do want an apology. This was foisted upon the American people. People in the White House, you should be ashamed of yourself. Jake Sullivan and all the other folks who see this stuff up close. We've been reporting it here day after day.
Starting point is 00:10:10 G7 leaders. He's gotten worse. We have the public moments. But to see this up close 90 minutes with no filter is insane. I mean, we're in 25th Amendment territory. Is this man alive? Like, what the fuck is happening? So I want to hear what the other Washington.
Starting point is 00:10:27 So you've got the one group that's. One group is saying, yeah, like. This is crazy. This can't go on. It has to change. The other group is saying, no, there's no way to get him off. But what we're going to do is we're going to focus on the House and Senate. Basically.
Starting point is 00:10:41 Like give up. That's the idea. I thought this was the end of democracy. That always works. And make the argument for Biden that he has a very good staff and that you want Democrats nominating the appointees. You want Democrats in control of these agencies. All right. And you're probably going to lose, but you can maybe win the House and Senate. OK. And we went into this. Wait, isn't there a third group? No, that's basically it. That's it.
Starting point is 00:11:05 Okay. Okay, I got it. There's none there. There's no just delusional. He was great. No, there's none of that. I thought he was very strong. There's none of that.
Starting point is 00:11:12 Okay. Absolutely zero of that. Got it. And before this, the normal Democratic Senate candidate, like a tester or a Jackie Rosen or something, was running about five to six points ahead of Biden already, which showed you that there isn't, and Democrats are heartened by this in the sense that they're like, oh, look, the public likes Democrats. Right. They just don't like Biden. Yeah. But it's like, well, but Biden is your nominee. Right. But that, so they already had a five-point gap before this. That could widen to something historic. You've never had a situation where the candidates
Starting point is 00:11:48 are kind of pulling, I mean, the House and Senate candidates are pulling the presidential ticket along. Usually they talk about coattails. Coattails. Yeah, it's the opposite dynamic. Barack Obama brings along all these people, right? No, it's incredible. I mean, tell me this, Ryan, from the people you're talking to in Washington, like. What did they think of the state of his condition going into this? Because what I was thinking about is, you know, your rank and file Democratic House member, Senate member, even staffer, they don't really have access to him. We get these reports, you know, Jamie Harrison will come out, oh, you should see him behind closed doors. He's a real firecracker. But the reality is that based on the reporting, his circle has gotten smaller and smaller and
Starting point is 00:12:36 smaller. So the number of people who are even in a position to be aware that this is the reality now of what we're dealing with is actually probably pretty small. So just as we're viewing this with shock, and again, we were under no illusions about Biden's level of decline at this point. But even for us, we thought, okay, he'll get the drug cocktail. He usually rises to the moment. He'll get something going. There's not one moment I could point to this in this debate and be like, oh, he did a good job there. Not one, right? So for many of them, it has to come as equally of an eye-opening moment, if not more, because they were probably buying some of the delusions about the like, oh, behind closed doors, they say he's great. And also they think it doesn't matter that much because the administration is on autopilot.
Starting point is 00:13:26 They don't deal directly with Biden. They have their handler that they deal with in the administration. They want something they know who to call. It's only Chuck Schumer, basically. The gears are turning in the way they're expecting them to turn. Right. As long as the gears turn and he's hopped up enough for the State of the Union debates, then they're like, all right, this is not ideal, but we'll go with it.
Starting point is 00:13:45 But when you can't even get hopped up for the debate. David Axelrod, Obama's former communications director, he says on CNN, I think there was a sense of shock how he came out at the very beginning of the debate. Let's actually play, let's play for people the, this is F4, the beat Medicare moment, because it was from the very first word. First of all, the voice is bad. The look is bad. The walking on the stage is bad.
Starting point is 00:14:09 Like everything is slow. He's having trouble whining. He is coughing. But this was the moment when we all looked at each other and we're like. If you want to roll the tape, you can actually go back and see that moment. All of us covered our mouths with absolute shock. All right. So play F4, the beat Medicare moment for us.
Starting point is 00:14:27 Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with, look, if we finally beat Medicare. Thank you, President Biden. President Trump? Well, he's right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death. And he's destroying Medicare. We fully beat Medicare.
Starting point is 00:14:57 That was it. After struggling around for what he was even talking about. I mean, Medicare had nothing to do with what the original question was. And there were many other moments that were similarly discomforting. I want to say too about Trump. One of the strengths that he had in this debate was he only a couple of times said something along the lines of he doesn't even know what he's saying, challenged him to the cognitive test. You can see there, though, at one point, Biden was delivering an equivalently incoherent old man answer. And Trump is just smirking and sitting
Starting point is 00:15:31 there. But he didn't jump on the bait. So this is where there was a there was like a level of discipline I haven't seen from Trump in a long time. And the rules helped him. He didn't jump in there, allowed Biden to hang himself. And I think I even said that I was like, hey, I went went back and found a tweet a couple of days ago and I was like, hey, I don't think that these rules are going to have Trump. And I go, but the alternative is that it will force Trump to sit back. And if Biden has an old man moment, the focus will 100% be on him. And I mean, he didn't just have an old man moment. It was 90 minutes of just weird old man stuff already. Yeah, here we go. CNN's David Axelrod. There are going to be discussions on if he should continue.
Starting point is 00:16:14 Van Jones, according to Mac, producer Mac, there's a lot of time until the convention if Biden will allow us to go to the front. I mean, we're in full-on free-to-out mode. We were talking, and actually, Ryan, this is the question I have for you. I said only Obama can bring this to an end. But do you think even Obama could bring this to an end? I think he could. And said, it's over, to an end. But do you think even Obama could bring this to an end? I think he could. And said it's over, Joe. Also.
Starting point is 00:16:27 It's over. And we need to like put responsibility on people who have it. Like people like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. Yeah. Like if they said something publicly right now, it would change the equation. It would open it up to a real question. And there is nothing stopping Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries from going out and saying something. They're not even Obama, but they're significant players.
Starting point is 00:16:55 What that would do is that would signal to their troops that they're allowed to talk about it openly as well. So these are grown adults who have agency, who have an opportunity to do something for their party right now that they know they ought to do, and they're probably not going to do it. They're probably going to say, well, he's the nominee. And we also should go back because there was, after the midterms, there was a whole lot of circling the wagons to make sure that a Gavin Newsom or whoever didn't jump in because the midterm performance was better than expected,
Starting point is 00:17:27 that was successful. Then you get to the primaries and, you know, first of all, there's just complete, complete blackout of all the candidates who did challenge him. And then in certain states, they just literally did not hold primaries, right? There were no debates. Florida, North Carolina, there were a number of places where they're just like, we're just literally not going to do a primary. spoken up, could have pushed in another direction, could have shed some light and reality here, and instead chose to go in a different direction and pretend and leak these anecdotes. Oh, no, I have trouble keeping up with him. He is so energetic. How many times did KJP say that from the White House? Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:18:19 How many times? Like, I mean, these people are shameless liars. If you've had any exposure to him and you're out there doing the, oh, he's a real he's a real spitfire behind the scenes. You guys wouldn't believe him and I can't keep up with him, blah, blah, blah. Like no one believed you. And certainly now it is so clear. Not only are you lying, but by your own definition, you believe this is an existential election. You believe democracy is on the ballot and women's rights are on the ballot. And you are risking all of that for your career.
Starting point is 00:18:55 I mean, because they're afraid to speak out. They're afraid they'll be persona non grata in the Democratic Party. And so they all stay silent. They all close ranks. And this is what they and we in the whole country get for it. Also, the level of outrage we should all have now for them not allowing that primary to happen. You know, I mean, that was one of the most undemocratic. And in retrospect, too, with Biden, I said this to all of you privately.
Starting point is 00:19:15 I mean, he will go down as one of the most selfish men in American history. I mean, just complete the arrogance, the selfishness. That is true. Although at this point, I really, I feel more about it the way I came to feel about Dianne Feinstein, which is like, it's the people around her. No, you're right. Because she got to a point where she was so out of it. She didn't know that she was out of it. But he's not at that level.
Starting point is 00:19:36 He's still there. Maybe. I mean, I think he is there enough where, I don't know. And this is one of those where, again, I think everyone can tell, like, we're all, like, in a state of shock. The big question is, and this is the issue, I believe, he is such an arrogant man. And I've always said this, and the press corps friends always tell me this. People have said this about him. When he puts those aviators on, he believes he's 30 years younger.
Starting point is 00:20:00 And knowing him, too, he's always the I'll show him president. The I'll show him president. The I'll show him guy. And he is a toxic boss who does not want to hear any dissent and has surrounded himself with yes men who will bolster him on whatever it is. And there was just reporting about how everybody's afraid to say anything at all critical because they think they'll be excised from the inner circle and probably, you know, and for good reason, they believe that. He's had this same basic group around him for 40 years. Except like people like Ted Coffin who are like, I'm too old. I can't do this anymore. Right.
Starting point is 00:20:41 Yeah. The one who dropped it. His peers. His peers who are 10 years younger than him. That's exactly right. And so I think that he, I don't know that he realizes his decline. I'm not sure that he sees it. I don't think that he has that awareness.
Starting point is 00:20:56 Well, okay, this is my big question. I can't wait to see what Joe Scarborough has to say tomorrow morning. And let's return to that. The media coverage of this. to see what Joe Scarborough has to say tomorrow morning. And let's return to that, the media coverage of this. Wall Street Journal puts out that piece, behind closed doors, Biden is old and a mess behind the scenes. But you still had all those on the record quotes, like you said, Ryan, and senators, people like, oh, I can't keep up with him, and the level of freak out from the White House. And there's, Crystal, two weeks ago, they were calling us cheap fakes for playing that video of him at the G7.
Starting point is 00:21:26 That's right. That was, what, two weeks ago here? They're litigating whether we're, you know, uncomfortably clipping moments. Yeah, show me. That whole thing was a vindication of so much of the coverage. I mean, people can probably tell I'm angry because it's just, at a certain point, too, I also feel as you do, the media, the people around him, it has been an outrageous conspiracy to basically cover this up and to be in compliance. At every media, the people around him, it has been an outrageous conspiracy to basically cover this up and to be in compliance. At every moment, the evidence was there, canceling the major interviews, less press conferences than anybody in history, not
Starting point is 00:21:53 allowing all of us to see how cooked our freaking president is. And then canceling the primary, dragging his ass up until election. I see here some reporting. They're like, look, the only way that Biden is going to be able to come out is if Schumer, Pelosi, Bill Clinton and Obama convince him to stand down. I don't have the confidence that they have, you know, that they have that they would do that at this point. I think they're just, I don't know. And combined with this arrogance to actually convince him. 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
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Starting point is 00:28:08 Very well. He was restrained. The rules definitely helped him. Because if he was too aggressive, it would have just felt mean. It would have just felt mean. Because you are beating up on this confused old man who can't even finish a sentence. And I think not having a crowd helped Trump and hurt Biden. Because I think Biden, if he'd have had the crowd, like his energy maybe goes up a little
Starting point is 00:28:31 bit closer to a normal-ish area. That's a good point. Yeah, that may be. Whereas Trump is already a little hopped. Yeah. But like he gets the crowd and he's up here. That's true. That's a good point.
Starting point is 00:28:42 So with no crowd at all, Trump, and knowing his mic's going to get cut off, Trump just has to stand there and like, you know, spew nonsense for two minutes and then let the guy fall all over himself. So what do you think about Sager's hypothetical here of, is Obama, is Bill Clinton, is Nancy Pelosi, like, are they just going to bury their head in the sand and just kind of throw in the towel and say, well, I guess we're just going to lose the presidency and maybe we'll win the House and maybe the Senate? Is that, because you had this split screen throughout the non-primary with Biden saying democracy is on the ballot and all of these Democratic candidates like Newsom and Whitmer planning for 2028. It's like, wait a minute, there is no 2028 if 2024 doesn't go your way, True. According to you. According to you. Yes. And so all because all of these different factions within the party have their own interests in 2028. That factors into whether they actually weigh in on 2024. A bunch of them believe that an open primary with Trump as a second term president leaving is an easier road for somebody like a Newsom
Starting point is 00:30:07 to become president. Yeah. But that assumes that there will be a 2028 presidential election, even though Trump won the presidency. So it's like, I guess you don't necessarily really believe that. What if he crushes 2020 up until then
Starting point is 00:30:20 and he's like Bill Clinton and he has a 60% approval rating and he's vice president? Could be. You know what I mean, that's exactly. Yeah, Chuck Pergam becomes king of the United States. Apparently, Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC says, well, FDR was a good president, and he couldn't even walk. Apparently, that's where we're at. That's where we're at now. That's the level of FDR who's drooling out of his mouth and couldn't walk. And look, he was a great president. Also, Joe Biden is no FDR. Okay, people, let's just. FDR has not proven himself
Starting point is 00:30:49 for 12 years up until that point, before he was that old. We're not asking Joe Biden to walk. Like if Joe Biden were in a wheelchair, fine. No problem. Yeah. And giving speeches like FDR up until the very end. Right. I think it would have been okay. Fine, absolutely. I just don't know what the hell they're going to do at this point. And in a certain look, Biden has the LBJ choice. Biden has the choice. RFK is in the race, quite literally. You know, at this time, he could see the writing on the wall. And he's like an LBJ, smart man, the most ambitious, probably more ambitious than Joe Biden, looks himself in the mirror with his visors. That's it, boys. I'm not going to win. And he gives a speech and he says, I will
Starting point is 00:31:28 not seek nor accept the nomination. Joe Biden has that choice. He's 68 days out. And this perhaps could have been the greatest political gift to him of all time. In that, they can just say, he could go down in history for the IRA, the climate investments. And just be like, I'm good. But this is where I think his arrogance and also the rigged nature of the people around him, the bubble that he has built, and also believing his own bullshit now for so many years is going to come back to bite him. And he will arrogantly walk himself now to – I mean, at this point, guys, what can we even think of what the electoral map is going to look like? Every single swing state is going to – like this. RFK Jr. is going to be getting a lot. Yeah, RFK electoral map is going to look like? Every single swing state is going to like this. RFK Jr. is going to be getting a lot. Yeah, RFK Jr. is going to get like 25%.
Starting point is 00:32:10 The real debate, you know, he was basically debating with the other folks, was streaming consistently at 2 million. Like there were millions. Watching RFK. Yeah, watching RFK. Because I bet a bunch of people were like, watch those two and were like, whoa. Right. Well, I can show the predicted for the betting markets. So F6, please. I was keeping track of this. I mean, this is, you know, in terms of betting markets, take a look at this. This was halfway through the debate. Joe Biden, I think, you know, 30 minutes or so into the debate
Starting point is 00:32:39 plunged, you know, to only 69% real in terms of the betting markets by 17% in terms of the odds that he would even be the presidential nominee. I'd have to check, but I guarantee you that's going to be less. I mean, I, I, Gavin Newsom is by the way, in the spin room right now. I, I, to be a fly on the wall. Oh my God. How can Gavin, what do you say? What do you say? You, you, all you, all you do, you don't talk about Biden. You just talk about Trump's lies. I mean, election denial. I mean, election denial. I mean, that's the only move. That's it.
Starting point is 00:33:08 That's your only move at this point. But that case that you're making, Sagar, that's the case that someone needs to make to Joe Biden of like your legacy. If you graciously step aside, if you make good on your pledge to be the bridge to the next generation. And yes, we can talk about the CHIPS Act. We can talk about your infrastructure. We can talk about, hey, you did what we needed to do with the economy and COVID. We can talk about labor. We can talk about antitrust. Withdrawal from Afghanistan. Genocide. We'll put that aside for the moment. But if you're making this case, maybe don't make that part of it.
Starting point is 00:33:50 But, you know, you step aside now. You look like a great leader. You look selfless. You pass the baton. And one thing that Ested Herndon over at the New York Times has been pointing out is like Joe Biden also kind of, not kind of, he really misled the American public too when he was running in 2020 because he didn't come out and say directly, I promise I will only be a one-term president. Very close. But he came very close to that. And there was a real assumption that was made of like, OK, this dude is old, and we're worried about that. But he's going to be there for four years. He's going to set the ship right. It's going to be normal again. He's going to get Trump out of there. And then we'll move on to what's next. And immediately once he gets elected, of course, he It's going to be normal again. He's going to get Trump out of there. And then we'll move on to what's next. And, you know, immediately once he gets elected, of course,
Starting point is 00:34:27 he's never going to let go of the brass ring. And here we are. But that is the case that needs to be made to him is like, if you stay and you hand the country back to Donald Trump, that is a totally different legacy than if you graciously step aside. Now, I mentioned the genocide part. I think that that is probably a fantasy, that his legacy would be, you know, a glorious one, no matter what he does at this point. But that is the case that needs to be made to him by Barack Obama,
Starting point is 00:34:55 Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, like whoever. But I think you're right, Ryan. I think everyone's self-interest in the Democratic Party is such that it renders them just like cowardly careerists who really don't give a shit about the country. They don't believe what they say and they don't give a shit about the country. That's exactly right. Because your point is such an important one that we're thinking about 2024. They're already lining up behind their horses for 2028. They're already planning on like, oh, I'm going to be a Whitmer person and here's how I'm going to parlay that into my agency position. I'm going
Starting point is 00:35:28 to be lined up for VP. I'm going to run for that Senate seat that opens up. I'm going to run for that governor's mansion that's going to open up when Whitmer makes the jump or whatever. That's what their plans are. And so it's no one has planned their political future around Joe Biden being out of this race. So no one outside of the entire American public who has an interest in having decent presidential candidates. But these people who actually have influence, none of them has an interest. And the way they think, yeah, let's say you're a Whitmer person. Yeah. And you think Whitmer's got a good shot in 28.
Starting point is 00:36:03 Now you're like, oh, what if Whitmer is not the 24 one? What if Newsom, like, it just gets the nod. That's right, yeah. We need that. You go to the Pritzker people and you're like, we don't want, neither of us want Newsom to get it. Let's all make sure that Biden just goes down. Hold on to it, that's right.
Starting point is 00:36:18 We just need a democratic elite to act like elites and just come in and end this shit for all of us. But they don't do that. Exactly. You're right. There's no sense of social fabric. In the 1960s, they actually did. They came together, the DNC and all, and they're like, Lyndon, you're not going to win, dude.
Starting point is 00:36:33 It's over. And he said, okay. He believed them. And he was even a guy who was way more powerful than Biden. I mean, like you said, Ryan, Chuck Schumer, what are we doing here, dude? You're 73. You know, you need to know. But what is the track record that we have?
Starting point is 00:36:48 Schumer lies about Dianne Feinstein's age up until the day she dies, quite literally. Stuck by Fernandez. Nancy Pelosi says— Pelosi had her freaking daughter as her, like, nursemaid. As her handmaiden and basically just kept the thing over her mouth and was like, yeah, just don't talk. She's fine. Don't worry about it. Remember whenever. And you're sexist. By the way, you're sexist. They turned it into
Starting point is 00:37:11 a feminist thing. And that's the thing with Biden here now. They made us they made us, called us ableist. Say that we were making fun of a man with his ageism. The ableism. I mean, the level of rage that I feel right now for these people, just because it's just been years now of just sitting here and we just
Starting point is 00:37:31 sit here and take it and take it and take it. And now for the dishonesty of the Nicole Wallaces of the world now floating, replacing Joe Biden or David Axelrod or any of these other people. And for his own staff who viciously attacked anybody who tweeted out or accurately portrayed his complete inabilities. And they're either silenced or apparently there's some Democratic people who are crying on the phones right now through reporters. I mean, they should be. If you really believe that this is such an important election, this is on you. This is on the people around who supported him or who propped him up. There was a time where it could have mattered if people came forward. We might have broken into—oh, we got Emily.
Starting point is 00:38:18 Emily's coming in. Just keep talking. She'll come in. Yeah, go ahead. We might have a moment where it're at Brokeback Open again, and people with courage have a chance to actually act on that. But the time was before. And like you said, there was a cost to speaking out. And people would rather kind of live, you know, would like rather live richly among the ruins of a wrecked party
Starting point is 00:38:43 than see their party win because they're going to be fine either way. A wrecked party and a dying empire. Yeah. The level of. Do you think, because the one person who has somewhat of an interest in Joe preserving a shred of his dignity is actually Barack Obama. Because he's looking not great right now having brought this man. Obama. Hillary and Biden.
Starting point is 00:39:05 What the fuck, dude? Right, true. Yeah, wait, what? So he's got to be thinking like, I'm not looking great right now with like having, you know, foisted Joe on the public and backed him up and made the, because Barack Obama made this happen for him in the 2020 primary. Let's not forget.
Starting point is 00:39:23 So does he have the juice juice does he have the juice to make something happen here in the democratic party he certainly has he has the juice yeah there is a such a thing as force and power like i i think he could be forced out with enough pressure you know we um we showed those word clouds before by the way, Emily is here. Hi, Emily. It's magic. I just reappeared as a chair. We've just been talking about manifesting me. Everything seems okay.
Starting point is 00:39:54 I feel really good about the state of the country. But with Obama, I mean it does seem like if he really decided to forcefully intervene, you could that would be like the one thing that could maybe shift things here. But the other thing I'm questioning, too, is right now everyone is having to live in the reality of like, holy shit, that was bad. How long before the spin takes hold and it's like, well, Trump was lying and he said this bad thing and everyone's just not focused on the substance. And Biden had a cold. And seriously, how long before they can reconstruct all of the like artifice and Potemkin village of Biden competence that they had carefully constructed prior to this moment?
Starting point is 00:40:39 I think they're making that decision right now. I think literally right now they're scrambling to try to figure out if they can put the cat back into the bag. Because I think if Joe Biden says, "'No way, I'm in it, Jack, and I'm not going anywhere, Jack,' then everyone will--" The idea that you would, uh, uh, uh. Jack. I was just, I had forgotten about this, but Megyn Kelly just showed this clip of Morning Joe saying, it was Mika saying, Marjorie Taylor Greene might as well have just written this report on Biden's health.
Starting point is 00:41:11 They said this just a few weeks ago. It's the Wall Street Journal thing. Insane. It's insane. And so the only reason that everyone is now expressing surprise is because they feel like they can't get away with their lie anymore because everybody saw it crumble on national television. But we all saw Joe Biden after the Her report come out and say, I have no memory problems at a press conference in which he had several lapses in his memory. It was like clearly not okay. We've known he's not okay. So if he tells his inner circle, whose friends are all
Starting point is 00:41:40 scattered across corporate media, that he's going to do it, they'll find a way to make it work. Well, that experience with that report is what made me question because after that report came out where he said basically like, I can't charge this guy. The jury's going to be like, he's just a confused old man. How can you know you can't you can't put this man in front of a jury and he can't even remember when he was vice president. That was part of it. Couldn't remember when his own son died, right? That was the type of memory lapses that he was reportedly having. And there was a moment in the media when there were a bunch of pieces written. People were like, oh my goodness, this is really bad. Like Democrats need to do something about
Starting point is 00:42:20 this. And then very quickly the ranks closed again and you know you had people out there saying things like that and i don't think they can get away with it this time though that's my inclination is they can't i don't know i don't know it's one thing to that point i mean it is one thing to see it in a report yeah it's another thing to watch it yourself yeah right and that does make it quite under, and especially coming on the heels of the G7 and the clips that came out of that, et cetera. I think there's a foreign,
Starting point is 00:42:51 the foreign against case is this, is that first time, remember, there was Andrea Mitchell. When Biden was losing in 2019 and early 2020, Andrea Mitchell has that segment and be like, we need to ask serious questions about Joe Biden's age. And then six months later, she's like, it was a stutter the whole time. I never said that before. The reason why I think this one is substantively different is that there's actually very crazy high stakes now at this point where the national public is so much more coalesced around he is old
Starting point is 00:43:20 that if they try to do a similar like walk back that they did before, that they would lose even more credibility. Look, even these shameless liars, we have to believe, have a line. But I also wouldn't put it past them. I wouldn't put it past Andrea Mitchell and all them to roll out the stutter. So I just don't know. Griffin says we've got a CNN clip to give us all a flavor. We haven't watched this so we can react to it live. Let's take a listen to how things are going over there. It involves party strategists. It involves elected officials. It involves fundraisers. And they're having conversations about the president's performance, which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party in the ticket. And they're having conversations about what they should do about it.
Starting point is 00:44:00 Some of those conversations include, should we go to the White House and ask the president to step aside? Others are other of the conversations include, should we go to the White House and ask the president to step aside? Other of the conversations are about, should prominent Democrats go public with that call? Because they feel this debate was so terrible. That's in the first 10 minutes afterwards. Keep that in mind. That is interesting because he raises a good point. Because again, we're not thinking about people doing the right thing for the country or whatever. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about self-interested political actors who have their own careers and paychecks in mind. He's raising what I think is true, which is that, yes, Democrats are going to outperform Biden. But if you have that week
Starting point is 00:44:40 of a candidate at the top of the ticket, it is going to drag down everybody's performance across the board. So if you're a Rosen in Nevada, if you're a tester in Montana, you're trying to get reelected, you're any number of congressional candidates around the country. Suddenly you're going, this guy's a tester or Rosen actually get benefits because from the voters who want to check on Trump because they think Trump, they kind of like Trump. They prefer Trump to Biden, but they don't want him to have full control of Congress either. So you can see the divided Congress. Yeah, the old divided. There is actually good evidence for that. Ticket splitting is so rare.
Starting point is 00:45:28 I mean, there is some ticket splitting. But if you have a candidate at the top of the ticket who is not much of a drag, it's going to be a problem for everybody. It's probably more of a drag. They're going to have to defend him. Then it is a benefit. They will have to defend him every day
Starting point is 00:45:42 at every state fair. They'll have to defend him. That's right. Apparently, we have a Joanne Reed clip. We've got to check in with Joy over at MSNBC from our producers. Let's go ahead and take a listen, guys. I too was on the phone throughout much of the debate with Obama, world people, with Democrats, with people who are political operatives, with campaign operatives, my phone really never stopped buzzing throughout. And the universal reaction
Starting point is 00:46:12 was somewhere approaching panic. The people who were texting with me were very concerned about President Biden seeming extremely feeble, seeming extremely weak. Extremely feeble. How good? It's bullshit that they're surprised by this. How good is that? But you know what, Emily? I mean, I am surprised by how bad it was.
Starting point is 00:46:37 That's true. Not to that. But we don't spend time. And nobody gaslit the American public. We're not in Obama world and we don't spend time with the people who spend time with him every day. Right. Yeah, but I mean, the level, because here's the thing. I thought, listen, we saw the State of the Union.
Starting point is 00:46:53 He was okay. Yeah, he was fine. But he was reading off a teleprompter. Right. And he had the audience. And he had an audience. When he has to gather the words for himself, it's bad. And it was worse.
Starting point is 00:47:07 It was, I had low expectations. My expectations were on the floor. I thought he would at least have some moments on abortion or on January 6th or something that they could take and run with. And this was strong. There's not one moment. Cause when we were, you know, we were picking clips of like, all right, how do we want to represent this debate? And I had in my mind, like, oh, well,
Starting point is 00:47:27 you know, we're going to show all the bad ones. If he has a good one, like, we should show that. Yeah. What am I going to show?
Starting point is 00:47:33 There's nothing to show. Zero. Is it his handicap? There's plenty of things Trump said that- Morals of an alley cat. Yeah, that's good.
Starting point is 00:47:39 That was funny. Morals of an alley cat. Which also sounds like something that 112 year olds would say. It's like in a fedora. Yeah, that guy's got the morals of an alley cat, which also sounds like something that a 112-year-old would say. It's like in a fedora. That cat's got the morals of an alley cat. Are you in the production of Annie?
Starting point is 00:47:51 Like, what are you talking about? It's got the morals of an alley cat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, what? All the chimney sweeps know. It's not like, okay, Trump looks like a connoisseur out there. He did. In comparison, but imagine it's Gavin Newsom up there on the station.eps, no. It's not like, okay, Trump looks like a connoisseur out there. He did. In comparison, but imagine it's Gavin Newsom up there on the station.
Starting point is 00:48:09 Right, yes. Gavin Newsom could have picked Trump apart in that there was plenty to work with there on abortion, on stop the steal, on all kinds of things, right? That Trump is just making up shit as he goes along, but he at least seemed like he will survive another four years, you know? And so in contrast, he looked absolutely, you know, incredible. And you didn't see any of that pushback. Any of the attempted pushback was so incoherent, you didn't even know what point Biden was trying to make in response to it. So yeah, I mean, the fact that you have CNN with their sources, Van Jones, Nick Kristoff, Axelrod, Joy Reid, Axelrod, Joy Reid, Nicole Wallace, I mean, Casey Hunt. Yeah, Casey Hunt over who, you know, cut off the Trump.
Starting point is 00:49:01 Although I do want to say the CNN moderators were pretty good. They did a good job. But you know why? I was surprised by that. The reason why I think they were quote unquote good is they didn't really have to moderate. They didn't have to do anything. They just had to read the questions. And how many other times too, they're like, Mr. Biden, you have 88 seconds left.
Starting point is 00:49:15 And he's like, ooh. After the Medicare thing. It was horrible. And they're like, you have 37 seconds left, Mr. President Biden. And it's just like the complete blank stare. There's a New York Times headline on your screen right now that's insane. Facing Trump's misleading attacks, Biden appears shaky at times. Just about captures it.
Starting point is 00:49:34 Biden struggles as Trump blusters in a contentious manner. It was already. There's no both siding this. It's a disaster. It was criminal for them not to have RFK Jr. on from the beginning. Right. But after the debate, thinking about that decision, like it changed history in a way. Because if RFK Jr. is able to be on there, like you could imagine a huge number of people being like, you know what? Fine. I can't do either of these people. I'm with RFK. That's a good point. And if he gets into the 30s, into the 20s or 30s,
Starting point is 00:50:08 then it's game on. Then he replaces Biden almost. And imagine in the swing states. Or Democrats then start getting behind him. Back Kennedy. At least he's on the goddamn ballot. Yeah, whatever. At least you're not Trump.
Starting point is 00:50:20 He was with us on the environment. At least you're not debating your handicap. Like both of them were. So zero chance Biden has a six handicap and no way Trump won those two tournaments cleanly. Wait, Crystal, can you ask Kyle? New golfer. Can you ask Kyle whether he believes that Biden
Starting point is 00:50:38 has a six handicap? Oh, I don't have to ask Kyle, but I did talk to Kyle about this and he was like, no fucking way. Results. So the one cogent thought Biden was able to get through I don't have to ask Kyle, but I did talk to Kyle. And Kyle was like, no fucking way. So the one cogent thought Biden was able to get through was actually a false statistic on how to golf. So we've consulted an expert.
Starting point is 00:50:52 This is an official Breaking Points fact check, Chris. Kyle's actually good at golf. Kyle's legit at golf. I am a new golfer. No fucking way. No way Biden carries his own clubs for 18 holes either. Oh, yeah, that's right. What?
Starting point is 00:51:05 It's a year? I don't want him driving a golf course. Yeah, no, for real. Don't get behind him. To Trump's credit, Trump didn't even pretend that he would carry his clubs. Yeah. No, he didn't. I trust the drunk guys of the golf course more than I trust Biden.
Starting point is 00:51:19 He doesn't even drink. I'd be like, don't get behind the wall. So Kyle's official response, just so we can be technically accurate here was, yeah, I sent him Biden's swing, which Ryan had provided with the group as background. And he said six handicap and then four laughing emojis. We need to get like Tiger Woods or somebody on here. Look, my big, big question. Ryan, actually, you'll know this. When does Congress come back into session? When are these guys going to be back in town? They should be back on the 9th after the 4th of July.
Starting point is 00:51:52 There we go, guys. So July 9th, when the hordes of the reporters swarm onto Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries, and all of those people walking down the hallways with every reporter in the country shoving their phone in their face. What are they going to say? That's the big question. That's something else I want to know tonight and control room. If you have one of these clips, I'd love to see it too. But normally in these post-debate specials, of course, you've got a whole laundry list of Democrats, members of Congress,
Starting point is 00:52:25 whoever, who want to come on and talk about how great, you know, Joe Biden just did. I wonder if they've got anyone who is willing to come on and say that right now. 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.
Starting point is 00:53:07 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. Over the past six years
Starting point is 00:53:37 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.
Starting point is 00:53:55 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.
Starting point is 00:54:14 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 Helen 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. This is your girl T.S. Madison, and I'm coming to you loud, live, and in color from the Outlaws podcast. Let me tell you something.
Starting point is 00:54:44 I broke the internet with a 22-inch weave. 22 inches. My superpower? I've got the voice. My kryptonite? It don't exist. Get a job. My podcast?
Starting point is 00:54:57 The one they never saw coming. Each week, I sit down with the culture creators and scroll stoppers. Tina knows. Lil Nas X. Will we ever see a dating show for the love of Lil Nas X? Let's do a show with all my exes. No, here it is. My next
Starting point is 00:55:13 ex. That's actually cute, though. Laverne Cox. I have a core group of girlfriends that, like, they taught me how to love. And Chapel Rome. I was dropped in 2020, working the drive-thru, and here we are now. We turn side eye into sermons, pain into punchline
Starting point is 00:55:28 and grief, we turn those into galaxies. Listen, make sure you tell Beyonce I'm going right on the phone right now and call her.
Starting point is 00:55:37 Listen to Outlaws with T.S. Madison on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, honey. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?
Starting point is 00:55:52 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 multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.
Starting point is 00:56:28 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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod.
Starting point is 00:56:55 And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.
Starting point is 00:57:19 We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the butcher, Brent Smith from shine down. Got be real from Cypress Hill, NHL enforcer, Riley Cote, Marine Corvette, MMA fighter,
Starting point is 00:57:33 Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter. And it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two
Starting point is 00:57:46 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Let's talk about the Kate Bennington thing before we get to that. She's a former comms director. Yeah, literally at the White House. I think she only left a couple of months ago. So this is his. Let me go ahead and pull it up.
Starting point is 00:58:14 And she was there, you know, the whole 2020 campaign. She was one of the people who, even when he was really down and out, she was, you know, there by his side and really believing in this guy. And what does she say now? Quote, it was a really disappointing debate performance for Joe Biden. I don't think there's any other way to slice it. His biggest issue was to prove to the American people he had the energy, the stamina, and he didn't do that. I mean, that is as cut and dry as it gets. And that's as nice as it could possibly be.
Starting point is 00:58:43 This is the speed doctor. This is the lady who was paid to lie to the American public on Joe Biden's behalf. The type of person who would ordinarily be on CNN talking about
Starting point is 00:58:51 what a masterful job. She might even have a CNN contributor show. He just did. No, yeah, I think you're right. She does have a CNN contributor show.
Starting point is 00:58:58 You know who else I want to hear from? Jen Psaki. I think her show's on Saturday. Let's hear it, lady. You know, how many times
Starting point is 00:59:03 you take that damn podium and you tell us about how strong and virile and forceful he is. What did you know and when did you know? For real, we are in the truth and reconciliation phase.
Starting point is 00:59:12 It's like, at what point are we should drag, I mean, Trump may try and have this happen, but in a just world, they should be dragged. At what point did you first notice that the president was senile?
Starting point is 00:59:22 At what point did you first notice he had dementia? Lloyd Austin, what are we doing here? Well, I was going to say, that's the commander in chief. Yeah, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Lloyd Austin was in the ICU. The people, yeah. Yes.
Starting point is 00:59:33 Lloyd was in Israel. He didn't notice that. Tony Blinken. If I'm the parent of somebody in the military right now, I am apoplectic. I am outraged. If my child is overseas right now. Deployed in Syria, you know, sitting in a box for Iranian missiles.
Starting point is 00:59:48 Just for the D.C. Being like, oh, yeah, this is the man who's going to respond to that. Also, let's think about the geopolitical ramifications of this. If I'm Putin, I'm rolling every goddamn thing I have right now into Ukraine tomorrow. Oh, and we wonder why Bibi just rolls over this guy. Oh, gee, I wonder. If I'm Bibi tomorrow, there's a new shipment of 500-pound bombs that are going through to Israel tonight. If I'm Bibi, I'm going to carpet bomb the shit out of Iraq tomorrow.
Starting point is 01:00:12 What is this man going to do? What's he going to do? I would laugh in his face. And Bibi wants Trump back in there. Yes, especially now. It would only help him politically. It would hurt Biden. He knows that Biden's not going to do anything.
Starting point is 01:00:24 At this point, I can't even imagine. Guys, what is the, what are those meetings like between Yoav Galant, Bibi, and Biden? I can't, it's shocking. Stories about. Already we knew it was bad. You know, G7 leaders and others were leaking. They're like, oh my God, I can't believe it. I mean, we're the laughingstock of the world.
Starting point is 01:00:41 Biden's probably calling him gold of my. Oh my God. Yeah. If I was Taiwan, I would be freaking the fuck out. I'm not kidding. No, no, no, you're right. I really am not. This is the time.
Starting point is 01:00:50 This is the time to go. The DNC is in six, seven weeks, right? Democratic National Convention. We'll be there, yeah. We'll be on the ground. But I think it's fluid now. It's going to solidify one way or the other in the next couple of days.
Starting point is 01:01:04 There's certainly a world in which, like a week from now, we're like, remember when there was a moment where Democrats were openly considering dumping Biden? Yeah, we're living in reality. And now they're just back to the fantasy land that Biden is going to be their nominee. What do you put the odds at? Oh, God. I think the odds are probably pretty good that they just try to put this piece of pottery back together. I think so, too. I have a statement from the campaign.
Starting point is 01:01:30 We have the first statement from the Biden campaign. Tonight, President Biden presented a positive and winning vision for the future of America, one in which every American has a fair shot at the American dream, blah, blah, blah. On the other side of the stage was Donald Trump, who offered a dark and a backwards window into what America would look like if he steps back in office. A country that puts the interests of billionaires or working people, a former president who not once but twice but three times failed to promise he would accept the results of a free and fair election. Trump's performance tonight reminded the American people why they fired him four years ago, reinforced just how high the stakes are this November for the future of our country. So that is the, I mean, look, Ryan, maybe you're right. I think it'll just come back to,
Starting point is 01:02:09 but Drumpf is bad. That's his, you know, that's it. Go ahead. So the uncommitted movement, they say, we all saw what just happened. We have 35 uncommitted delegates in case anyone wants to contest the convention to save lives and our democracy. So there are 35 delegates that were elected. So how would they be able to contest though? Because Biden has the delegates, does he not? So basically what you would be trying to get the other delegates to do is to be faithless towards Biden. But in order to do that, you need people on the floor to say. They try to do this to Trump.
Starting point is 01:02:46 Right, right. You would have to have the leader of every— The King Kuchinawit. Right. You'd have to have the leader of every state movement be faithless, convince those people— Not necessarily the leaders. Isn't it? The delegation.
Starting point is 01:02:56 Does this happen in the, like, rules? Is this, like, some rules committee shit that has to happen? It's been decades since this has happened. That's the thing. I think it's literally—I think the 1960s might be the last time that something like that— Because they're, like, in most cases, they're instructed. Like, they don't really have a choice of who they can vote for. But the bylaws and the rules are always like, they're made by people.
Starting point is 01:03:19 They can be changed by people. Like, you can win a floor knife fight. What they're saying is that if anybody wants to try that the uncommitted delegates are available. They're ready.
Starting point is 01:03:31 I mean, Democrats still have superdelegates, too, which can just do whatever they want. That's right. What, that's like 700, 800 people? They've diminished their
Starting point is 01:03:38 importance, but they still are a thing. So wouldn't that be the irony of ironies? Same thing as superdelegates. Wasn't that the justification for them? Wasn't that the actual justification that in a moment of...
Starting point is 01:03:53 Populism. Like, trouble for the nation, like they can be the wise ones or something? Now's your chance, guys. No, that was never real, but that was the actual... The irony is that was the justification. That is really interesting. Is the whole idea of the party decides and it puts itself above any individual candidate and protects its interests at the expense of somebody taking them over.
Starting point is 01:04:14 Obama effectively destroyed that, you know, after he destroyed it in a certain way and then took it over in his own image. Trump basically did the same thing over on the RNC side. So we're actually seeing a consequence of like weak party structures. But also just the fact is it's of cowards that are in office. In the old days, the senators, Chuck Schumer has got nothing to lose. This man will be resigned to the trash heap of history. He'll be the Senate minority leader. And then when his term is up, he's gone. He'll be 80 years old. What do you have to lose at this point being like, Joe, it's over, dude. I cannot back you.
Starting point is 01:04:51 Pelosi, too. How old is she? 83? I think she's older than Biden. What do you have to lose? It could be your last service to the country. Well, here's where that becomes even more important. Typically, a Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi, what they would have to lose is access to the powerful people running the country,
Starting point is 01:05:10 running the Democratic Party. It is clear to everybody right now that Joe Biden is not going to be, A, he's not really running things, even if his people are still in charge, but he's not long for the next decade. He's not going to be here that long. His post-presidency, however long it is, it's not going to be like one of the guys that hung around, like Obama, for example, young, still out there, Netflix, all that stuff. That's not happening. So they can afford to actually lose their access to the Bidens at this point because it's becoming a national disgrace. I think Jill Biden is going to take so much heat after this. The B. The Bidens are losing clout in Washington right now by the minute. Whether or not it comes back is a different question. That I'm genuinely curious about.
Starting point is 01:05:52 Does the fact that they're going to do the actual nomination remotely, is that a good factor? That's probably a good point because guess what? Then you can't organize behind the scenes. You can't scream. You can't protest. You can't organize on a different ballot. Try to because, OK, that makes it. That's a good point. Yeah, it makes it harder for people. And it also shortens the time frame. Right. Because the whole thing with this, guys, is Ohio has some law that, you know, about deadline as to when the candidate has to be nominated in order for it to get on the ballot. And my understanding was that the Ohio Republicans who were in charge
Starting point is 01:06:32 of the legislature there were like, oh, we'll actually change the law. And Democrats were like, we don't trust you. We're still going to do the nomination early and remotely. And at the time, it seems like, and I think this was the logic, it's like, oh, this will be a way to get our nomination done cleanly without having to worry about any protests over Palestine and the genocide in Gaza. And so, but now it also serves them, serves Joe in terms of speeding up the timeline and also making it more difficult
Starting point is 01:07:01 to organize some sort of a floor coup. I don't know. Yeah. I was't know. Yeah. I was going to say, the only way is they have to stop the nomination on the first ballot. That becomes incredibly difficult because if he gets the nomination there on the first ballot, boom, I believe it goes forward and it gets ratified. I honestly think all of this is cope. I think this is all cope.
Starting point is 01:07:19 It's on him now. It's on the elites, too. He has to drop out. Or he's going to be the nominee. Yeah, that's it. If he decides to hang on, he will be the nominee. Yeah, that's right. He is the president. He is the one. He has the people. They rigged the debate, the primary for him, the Florida Democratic Party and others and multiple other large states that are pledged behind. I mean, apparently, so our control room is cutting a clip right now. Gavin Newsom and Raphael Warnock were asked in the spin room
Starting point is 01:07:50 to react, and Gavin was given the opportunity. Someone said, do you think President Biden should step aside? And he said no. He said he was 100% going to do it.
Starting point is 01:08:00 That would be next level. But I'm saying even like the, I think they're clinging to it at least for now. For sure. Gavin's got to be kicking himself that he did not make a wrong time. What is he doing? Because he would have been the nominee.
Starting point is 01:08:12 That's a Chris Christie miss. That's a Chris Christie 2012 level miss. Chris easily could have been the president. So could Gavin. It's honestly, that's amusing to me. This is the person who had the best night. I think the person who had the best night i think the person who had the best night in all this isn't trump it's rfk jr truly yeah because the double hater thing is
Starting point is 01:08:30 now going to be the theme of the election because again you have two guys talking about their freaking handicaps on the presidential debate stage one of which i like can barely keep his eyelids open uh well they're fighting over it and it's like guys take this to the country club please like get it off the damn debate stage and i I just, I think, you know, we've seen those numbers. Sometimes they're better for Trump, but the way when you add RFK Jr. and Jill Stein in though, but the way if Biden clings to this and holds on, the way that some of those people might just totally go back to RFK, because interestingly, Chris Darwalt pointed this out today. Some of the biggest movement has been away from RFK Jr. towards Biden in the last few weeks. And so, you know, it's marginal, obviously, when the margins are where they are. But
Starting point is 01:09:15 what if we see a reversal of that? And Democrats saying this is, if Biden clings to it, as Ryan was saying earlier, we could definitely see after this debate another 5%, another 10%, another 15% going to RFK Jr. That's devastating to both candidates. We don't know how it shakes out, but especially to Biden. Ryan's point earlier about how it really did change history to not have RFK on that stage is a very important one. Yes. Because I do think, I do think if he was there, you know, and people really are internalizing,
Starting point is 01:09:49 oh, there's this other person out there. There's this other option who is younger than both of them. There's the same man as the guy who we've heard of. Yeah, I've heard of this guy before, right? He could become the direct competitor to Trump. Right. That would have been the consequence.
Starting point is 01:10:02 Still a two-party system. That would have been the consequence. And that still could happen.. That would have been the consequence. That still could happen. It still could happen. There's enough people out there who are like, I can't do this. That's a lot of incentive actually for Democrats because no matter what Joe Biden does for the rest of this election, if he is the candidate, RFK Jr. is going to get a very healthy bump and that bump is going to help Trump at this point more than Biden. So that's more incentive for Democrats as they panic to the word that Joy Reid used. And think about this in those smoke-filled back rooms
Starting point is 01:10:29 over the next couple of days. The math with RFK Jr., that should give them the incentive to find someone else. Kamala has just appeared on CNN. Here's what she says. Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong. What we saw tonight is the president
Starting point is 01:10:44 making a very clear contrast with Donald Trump. Yeah. Absolutely. That's true. She goes... For the first time, she finally said
Starting point is 01:10:54 something true. She says, yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong thing. But time is a flat circle. Oh, God, he looks orange.
Starting point is 01:11:02 Time is also the moment in time that we're in. And she didn't just fall out of the company tree. I just. But you know what? A strong contrast. But the fact that even she has to say it's a slow start. Oh, yeah, that's it.
Starting point is 01:11:17 Exactly. When your own vice president tops Schiller, like you don't see that. It was a slow start. Slow middle. And slow end. Slow end. I've never. I've actually never heard someone who's doing the spin acknowledge any weakness.
Starting point is 01:11:29 Right, good point. Any, like, the fact that she knew she had to say, like, oh. Let alone the vice president. Got off to a little rocky start, but he was great at the end. Am I right? It's Soviet for her to come out and be like, he's very strong. 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.
Starting point is 01:11:55 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
Starting point is 01:12:31 one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. 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.
Starting point is 01:12:51 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. daughter to steal somebody's sister. There's so many questions that we've never gotten any kind of answers for. If you have a case
Starting point is 01:13:27 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. This is your girl T.S.
Starting point is 01:13:43 Madison, and I'm coming to you loud, live, and in color from the Outlaws podcast. Let me tell you something. I broke the internet with a 22-inch weave. 22 inches. My superpower? I've got the voice. My kryptonite?
Starting point is 01:13:59 It don't exist. Get a job. My podcast? The one they never saw coming. Each week, I sit down with the culture creators and scroll stoppers. Tina knows. Lil Nas X. Will we ever see a dating show for the love of Lil Nas X?
Starting point is 01:14:15 Let's do a show with all my exes. X marks the spot. No, here it is. My next ex. That's actually cute, though. Laverne Cox. I have a core group of girlfriends that, like, they taught me how to love. And Chapel Rome.
Starting point is 01:14:27 I was dropped in 2020, working the drive-thru, and here we are now. We turn side-eye into sermons, pain into punchline, and grief, we turn those into galaxies. Listen, make sure you tell Beyonce, I'm going right on the phone right 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.
Starting point is 01:15:12 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 multibillion- 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.
Starting point is 01:15:47 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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.
Starting point is 01:16:06 In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher.
Starting point is 01:16:31 Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them.
Starting point is 01:16:45 It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Is it Kamala? Is that who we get? No. A sensible Obama says, it's not you. It's not Kamala. We're going with—you know who I think he picks? Because you can't replace a black lady with a white guy. I go Gretchen Whitmer. That's what somebody said previously.
Starting point is 01:17:36 I would take somebody like Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan, and he needs to have it preselected. All the conversations he needs to have already happened. The two of you need to step aside. You can make the case that, you know, whatever, she's the VP. We need to move on from the Biden-Harris ticket or whatever. We go with Gretchen Whitmer. And somebody tweeted, I think we said it, Wes Moore is that with the governor of Maryland. So we need a black guy.
Starting point is 01:17:59 Put him as the VP candidate so then we get all of our diversity here. You could keep Kamala as ep that way if we're gonna make a clean break we make a clean deal with her like they have to make a deal with her so they have to give her something that's right secretary of state put her on the supreme court there you go put her we'll put a black woman on the supreme court her opinions would be amazing yeah yeah yeah they put her on this let's go just they make a deal with her of someone and they're like look we're gonna take care of you. But it's Jover. Whitmer is stepping in.
Starting point is 01:18:28 Yeah, maybe, I guess you could stick around. But that's the way it would have to happen. Impeach Alito, replace him. Because Obama is not stupid. You can't, apparently, okay. So we do have a video of Gavin Newsom and of Raphael Warnock being asked in the spin room about whether Joe Biden should step aside. So let's go ahead and take a listen to how they spun it. For the convention is that there is consternation among Democrats.
Starting point is 01:18:50 Looks like David Axelrod suggested the Democrats should look at replacing Joe Biden on the ticket. Would you urge the president to reconsider moving forward? Absolutely not. Have his back 100%. Never turn my back. And I don't know. That's a personal point of view. I do not know one Democrat that would do that. Why should voters maintain their confidence if you're not the right man? Listen, I would be concerned
Starting point is 01:19:15 if the president didn't have a record to run on. The fact of the matter is, this is a man who has passed historic legislation. So he'd be concerned if it wasn't for the historic legislation. Gavin Newsom says, I'm with him 100%. But, you know, the AP just flashed exactly what you just said, Crystal.
Starting point is 01:19:36 Kamala Harris says Biden had a slow start in the debate. That was it. With a strong fit. Because I think everybody can even pick that up. I mean, did we ever see Mike Pence once say, yeah, Trump, he was a little bit off the rails. But at the end of the day, he's a great guy. Speaking of Soviet, Mike Pence would be like, and I want to just acknowledge that Donald J. Trump is the greatest debater that the world has ever seen. I thank him for his confidence in me.
Starting point is 01:20:03 That's shockingly good. Okay, has there ever been a worse debate performance? No, this is the worst. This is worse than the Nixon flop. The only one that rivals is Lloyd Benson versus, I think, Dan Quayle. When he said, I know Jack Kennedy. I serve with Jack Kennedy. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.
Starting point is 01:20:21 And that did genuinely storm me. But it was vice presidential, so it doesn't count as much. That might be the only one. There are two televised debates that are the most significant in American history. One is 1960 and one is this. This belongs in the absolutely 100%. This is the president of the United States melting on stage. He is the acting president of the United States
Starting point is 01:20:37 melting on stage. Donald Trump being the host of Celebrity Apprentice and debating Hillary Clinton was spectacular for many reasons. Like insane, I still can't believe it happened. And those primary performances. Let's not forget about what he did to Jeb. Only Rosie O'Donnell.
Starting point is 01:20:51 Rand Paul is ugly. Why is Rand Paul even on this stage? Legendary. No, but to bring it back, I actually think you're right. To rack my brain, I don't think there has ever been a worse performance by a president ever. And more consequential because Emily is right. It's one thing when you're a candidate.
Starting point is 01:21:11 This is the sitting president of the United States. And just from a cynical perspective, it is true that Republicans and the conservative media have taken some clips out of context to make Biden look worse than he would have looked in the full context. Like that's true. The parachute guy. But that's also part of how politics works. Your enemies, your adversaries are not going to treat you fairly. So what this has done is that it has allowed them to clip stuff from here until November all day long, in context, out of context. It won't matter. And the public will be like, yep, I believe that. Well, and here's the thing is they were starting to get a little worried going into this debate because they realized they had done such an
Starting point is 01:21:57 effective job of making everyone, you know, that word cloud we put up on the screen. Literally every demographic, every partisan identification says the number one they think of with Joe Biden is old. The expectations for him were so low, so low going in, just as in the State of the Union, so low going in
Starting point is 01:22:13 that you had a real effort in conservative media this week to be like, I don't know, Joe Biden. Donald Trump, I think, even was like, I saw him with Paul Ryan. He did a great job.
Starting point is 01:22:22 I think he's going to do a fantastic job. I had those thoughts myself because there were, he had good moments in 2020, but it like, I saw him with Paul Ryan. He did a great job. I think he's going to do a fantastic job. I had those thoughts myself because he had good moments in 2020. Guys, all of us thought it. We've seen him do fine enough when the moment called for it. The State of the Union is our best example.
Starting point is 01:22:37 Crystal, I think your point is the best here. He was reading off a teleprompter when he actually is required to use an iode of his brain. He melts just like he does in the press conferences that we've seen, at the G7 that we've seen, he was reading off a teleprompter when he actually is required to use an iota of his brain. He melts just like he does in the press conferences that we've seen at the G7 that we've seen in every spontaneous reaction. And so what we saw here is why they did not put him up for an interview with the Super Bowl. It is why they have stopped him from doing less presidential press conferences than any modern American president. When there is any iota of chaos or any of that involved that they can't control, he falls apart. And I cannot even imagine what these meetings are like, what we were talking about in the George H.H. situation room.
Starting point is 01:23:14 I mean, it's just, it blows the mind. It's worse than we thought. It really is. I think I'm curious for your take on this. I think if Trump missed anything, it was the opportunity to kind of make fun of Biden a little bit more. I don't think he should have. I think he did the best thing. When something is so bad, it's like when you're talking, it's hard to explain, but it's like when someone is so far gone, you have to show sympathy. And at the best, it's like Ryan debating you on weed. There you go. He has to show sympathy. Yeah, he just has to show sympathy for me. I don't addle my brain with disgusting drugs. But the point is that when someone is that,
Starting point is 01:23:50 it is an act of kindness and magnanimity to step back. And we saw that with Trump too. Did you remember when he goes, this is childish, let's not act childish. I was like, what? I was like, what upside down universe am I living in? We have the one moment where he made, where Trump, this is F2 guys that I'm queuing up here, where he did allude to the fact that Biden is incoherent. When he was president, he was taking, separating babies from their mothers, putting them in cages, making sure the families were separated.
Starting point is 01:24:21 That's not the right way to go. What I've done since I've changed the law, what's happened? I've changed it in a way that now you're in a situation where there are 40 percent fewer people coming across the border illegally. It's better than when he left office. And I'm going to continue to move until we get the total ban on the total initiative relative to what we're going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers. President Trump? I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either. Look. He doesn't know what he said either. But in general, Crystal, even that, I've seen Trump, I've seen him go after people.
Starting point is 01:24:59 We remember the whole disabled thing. For a man of him to comport himself this way, I think even he understood in this moment, I almost need to be a secondary character. And what you and I, all of us, we've been talking here for about an hour and 15 minutes. We barely talked about Donald Trump's performance because that's not the story. And I think Trump, the showman, he understood that in that moment. He could have actually, he probably could have lost the moment. He probably could have gone in on Biden. A different Trump goes in, almost makes him feel bad, makes us feel bad. Yeah, that's the thing is, it just would have felt mean. Like what he did there, that was fine. Yes. That was it. We didn't need you to lay out for us that this was going terribly for Joe Biden and he's incoherent and senile and can't formulate a sentence. We could see that. Like, I think if he had really gone in on that,
Starting point is 01:25:50 yeah, it would have felt too mean. I don't know that it really would change anything because ultimately the story is Biden. But yeah, Trump smartly made sure to step back for once and, you know, let Biden have the headlines out of this debate. If you watch Trump's face, like you watch Trump's face just as Biden starts talking in the very beginning. You knew it. He's like. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:26:15 Doing like double and triple takes. And I'm sure he was just like, oh, wow, this is going to be an easy night. Because it wasn't just the incoherence or the inability to formulate a thought. It was the look. It was the voice. It was the total package. Stumbling a little. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:26:35 And I mean, in that. Apparently Jill Biden had to leave him off stage. Like she had to lead him down the stairs. Come on. We were all. For the good of the country, step up if you love your husband. What are we doing here? Because what they always said
Starting point is 01:26:48 about that infamous Nixon-Kennedy the flop sweat debate is that people who listen on the radio actually thought
Starting point is 01:26:55 Nixon had won but because it was televised and he was sweating and the way he looks nobody on the radio or TV or there was no
Starting point is 01:27:04 medium in which anyone was thinking Well maybe telegraph someone came across Nobody on the radio or TV or there was no medium in which anyone was thinking Trump. Maybe telegraph. Someone came across it. Which is how Biden gets his news. That's the truth. If you read the transcript, you'd still just be like, what the fuck is going on here?
Starting point is 01:27:17 Medicare? We beat Medicare. I bet that most people don't even think Trump won. Like they think he won by default. Yeah. Objectively he won. But that's what we're saying. But really Biden lost. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I don't even think Trump won. They think he won by default. Objectively, he won. But that's what we're saying. But really, Biden lost.
Starting point is 01:27:27 Yeah, exactly. I don't even know what Trump said. He hung himself. I didn't even think or pay attention to what Trump was saying. I'm just like, I can't believe it. He said Joe Biden was a bad Palestinian. That was an interesting one. He's a Palestinian, but he's not even a good one.
Starting point is 01:27:43 Not even they like him. He's weak. He's a bad boss. He's a weak one. Not even they like him. He's weak. He's a bad boss. He's a weak Palestinian. Palestinians apparently is floor now. But yeah, it was just. But was he trying to be nice to Palestinians? That like lots of Palestinians are strong or something?
Starting point is 01:27:55 You're thinking too deeply. I don't know. It's just. Yeah. That was a new one. It was new. We've got a question here from our locals chat for our premium subscribers. Shout out, by the way, breakingpoints.com to support us. And they say, what is the drop dead date? No
Starting point is 01:28:09 pun intended for replacing Biden. So what? We've got six weeks. It will be the longest six weeks in six weeks. American political history doesn't actually need to be on the Ohio ballot anyway, because he's not going to win Ohio. But basically, you have to be on every ballot that matters and gets you to 270. You have to be on enough state ballots where you can win 270 plus votes. And that's really late August, early September. I'm looking. DNC to virtually nominate Biden, Harris. But even then, it's tough because of the Electoral College.
Starting point is 01:28:43 So if you're only on, you can get 270. But in states, for example, if you're a Democrat, it's a bunch of red states. Yeah. No, no, 270 where you can plausibly win is what I mean. They need to replace him before the convention so that they can get on the ballot, which they're already all on the ballot on all 50, and they can run if they were going to do it. Convention starts the 19th. When's the virtual thing they're talking about? So it says they I don't, it says they haven't confirmed,
Starting point is 01:29:07 according to this ABC News article, they haven't confirmed a date when the virtual nomination will happen, but it has to be before the August 7th Ohio ballot deadline. And now that's going to be, So it's like a,
Starting point is 01:29:17 I mean, it's like a month. Yeah. That could also become now more scandalous than it was before. Because if they, The online convention.
Starting point is 01:29:24 If they come out, nobody was paying attention to this online thing. Yeah. Except us. Except this show. Except this show. And all weirdos watching us. Those people were paying attention.
Starting point is 01:29:35 Yeah. But the country was not. So now all of a sudden, if you have a headline that says, Democrats to rush nomination of Biden two weeks before election, people are going, oh, geez. Yeah. This looks corrupt. True. going, oh, geez. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:29:45 This looks corrupt. True. Yeah, that's true. Have Republicans changed it yet? Changed the date for the Ohio ballot thing? I'm not sure. No, theirs is in July, though, so they'll be fine. Theirs is like July 19th.
Starting point is 01:29:57 No, no, no, I mean, did the Republicans in Ohio change the law like they said they would? I don't know, actually. I'm not sure. But it doesn't matter because he's not going to win Ohio. Right. All right. Here's a question from Othello500 from one of our premium subscribers.
Starting point is 01:30:10 Could this be the moment for third parties? And I think that actually might be the most fascinating part of our discussion tonight. I think Ryan's point about how it really was something that changed the course of history to exclude RFK Jr. from this debate. You said something after Ryan made that point about how it would have felt like it was a two-man race, not between Trump and Biden, but between Trump and RFK Jr. And if ever there were a moment for the third party, the plausible third party candidate to hit that lane, well, I think it might've been tonight because they'll find a million different ways. If they replace Biden, I mean, they can find a candidate that's even better, that makes RFK Jr. less attractive to certain voters. So it could have been-
Starting point is 01:30:47 Joe Manchin kicking himself, not taking that, no labels. Tonight could have been the night that the two-party system was dealt a significant, the most significant blow to the- The alternative is that Biden hangs on, RFK's still on the ballot, and he wins like 32% of the vote. That would be insane. That would actually blow up the entire system. Well, those are Perot numbers. He could do better than that.
Starting point is 01:31:09 Yeah. I mean, if you win a third of the popular vote in this country, it's game over. I mean, you created something, regardless of whether you want to or not. Except it really doesn't create a three-party system. You just get a new two-party system. True. Yeah, but I mean, in a certain way, that's what's always happened. Right, exactly. With dire third parties. You absorb and destroy. And the wigs go away. Right. You get but I mean in a certain way, that's what's always happened with higher third parties. You absorb
Starting point is 01:31:26 and destroy. Wigs go away. You get the Republicans, Democrats. It's not as if all of a sudden you have a multi-party system. I don't know. I just think there are enough people who are still so locked in to just like, you know,
Starting point is 01:31:43 he's the president, he's the Democrat, he's not Trump, you know, I, I, RFK Jr. will benefit, but I'm skeptical that you will have enough people that will go to him, especially if it continues to be shut out of mainstream forums, et cetera, to actually challenge. But who the hell knows? It gets harder to shut him out going forward, too, though. I think so, too. I can tell you one thing's for sure. If Biden is the Democratic nominee,
Starting point is 01:32:09 there ain't no way in hell they're doing that second debate in September. That shit is not happening. It's actually COVID, and he needs 10 weeks of isolation. But they only announce it during the debate. That's right. Oh, we're so sorry. What if he's down by 10? Then they do what you suggest, and they're just like, well, hopefully the Senate and the debate. That's right. They're like, oh, we're so sorry. What if he's down by 10? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:32 Then they do what you suggest and they're just like, well, hopefully the Senate and the House will cross our fingers and look forward to 2028. I think Biden will do it. And I think he will be down by 10 because Biden is so arrogant. He'd be like, we're going to show him this time, Jack. He's going to come back. In his mind, he's not, unless there's a full court. They're not going to do it. No, but I'm saying hypothetically, what does that do to the ballots? So if they. I don't know.
Starting point is 01:32:50 I saw a funny, I saw an interesting question here. Someone said, I can't find it. Oh, here we go. Putting conspiracy hat on, was this debate pushed by Dems to embarrass Biden? I don't trust them enough to do that. It just was the de facto result. Ryan, you said that from the beginning. You were like, some people are actually cheering him from due territory.
Starting point is 01:33:08 Right. So he goes, just drop out. Yeah. Right. I don't think that's why they did it. But there are definitely a lot of Democrats sitting around the country who are like, this is our last chance to save the party and save the country and save democracy. But if Biden completely implodes on stage.
Starting point is 01:33:23 And they got their wish. They got the performance that in a small-D democratic system would lead to him stepping down. And it's a real test of whether there are any democratic veins still kind of running through that body or not. Because democracy is not just like running through the traps of procedural elections. It's like actual, actually can the will of a public be expressed through the various systems of pressure you have? I'm so cynical I don't think so. No, I don't think so either. I think he will run.
Starting point is 01:33:53 I think he's arrogant, and I don't think Obama, Schumer, or any of those people have the courage to tell him that it's time to go. Yeah. And I think we are. It's, wow. Yeah, and it's amazing to contemplate. Yeah. And I think we are. It's wow. Yeah. It's amazing to contemplate. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody wants him to run. Yeah. And be on the ballot. Yet he will be on the ballot. Yeah. And and oligarchy. And that is not new, by the way. The American people, the Democratic Party.
Starting point is 01:34:18 How many polls do we cover? Majority Democrat. We want options. We do not want to just go with Joe Biden. We would at least like to have some choices. And what did the Democratic Party do in response? How about we literally cancel primaries? How about that? How about we do that? Because democracy is on the ballot, guys. Yeah. They lost a bunch of mayoral races in Florida. Did you follow that story? Yes, because they canceled the primary. They canceled the primary and then Republicans were like, oh, wait, I'm mayor of this town? Right.
Starting point is 01:34:45 This Democratic town now? Right, because people didn't show up for the primary. Yeah, I mean. There have been so many criminal acts along the way that in retrospect, I mean, which we called out here on the show live, and we're like, this is not going to look good. This is going to be bad. This could be a bad precedent. What about this primary? What about this?
Starting point is 01:35:02 Ridicule after ridicule. People just move on. And they thought they could bluff their way. And this is the result they got. So any closing remarks? What do you guys think? Emily? God bless America. We beat Medicare.
Starting point is 01:35:16 Finally beat Medicare. Thank goodness. By the way. That's it. That was an insane moment. By the way. He goes, by the way. And he also had 37 seconds left.
Starting point is 01:35:27 And she was like, do you, she was like, do you want me to finish? By the way. It's funny, but it's not funny. That's actually what I wanted to close with.
Starting point is 01:35:40 It's like, I'm laughing a lot because it's so preposterous, but it's dark. Yeah. This is dark. That we got, I'm laughing a lot because it's so preposterous, but it's dark. Yeah, this is dark that we got. I mean, everything about it that we got to this place that this is where we are as a country. These two dudes, this guy who can't I mean, and your point about it being such a test of is there even a shred of democracy, actual democracy still operational? Because I mean,
Starting point is 01:36:03 if you pulled American people right now after watching that debate, what percentage of them would be like, yes, Joe Biden all the way. This is the guy. Maybe 5%. And they're all 80 years old. 85. They know better. Oh, you think so? Yeah. They're like, you know what? I'm in my golden years. Come join us. How many elderly people have you talked to who say, like, I couldn't do the job. I wouldn't want to do the job.
Starting point is 01:36:26 Like, I know what I feel like right now. Yeah. All right. Last thoughts, Ryan? Well, Democrats had said privately, you know, it's good that this is so early so that if he botches it terribly, we can recover. So I guess we're going to find out if that genius plan is going to work out. All right. There we go.
Starting point is 01:36:44 I think I've said everything. I got nothing else left to say. We'll see. They either pull him or they don't. I hope for the sake of the country they do. I don't think that they will. By the way, everybody, thank you so much to our premium subscribers who we took questions from. And if you can help support all of our election work, we are going to be on the ground at the DNC with a live reaction, which pretty, pretty happy that we booked our hotels and all flights and everything. Made the investment, which we were able to do thanks to our premium subscribers. If you can help us out, we can put that up there, breakingpoints.com. We deeply appreciate you. There's the man himself. Become a member, breakingpoints.com. Support our work,
Starting point is 01:37:22 and you'll continue to see more of this. If there is a second debate, we'll be here. If there is a DNC where Joe Biden is nominated, we'll be here. We'll be there, and if they nominate somebody else, we'll be there as well. And it's going to be interesting as hell to see how the media plays this, how Democrats play this over the coming days and weeks. What a day. What a day in American history. We'll be here to follow it. The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila. And we're the hosts of the Good Moms, Bad Choices podcast brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday.
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Starting point is 01:39:11 I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. High key. Looking for your next obsession?
Starting point is 01:39:28 Listen to High Key, a new weekly podcast hosted by Ben O'Keefe, Ryan Mitchell, and Evie Audley. We got a lot of things to get into. We're going to gush about the random stuff we can't stop thinking about. I am high key going to lose my mind over all things Cowboy Carter. I know. Girl, the way she about to yank my bank account correct and one thing i really love about this is that she's celebrating her daughter oh i know listen to high key on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts
Starting point is 01:39:57 i've seen a lot of stuff over 30 years you know know, some very despicable crime and things that are kind of tough to wrap your head around. And this ranks right up there in the pantheon of Rhode Island fraudsters. I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying. Listen to Deep Cover, The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.

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