Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - Mini Show #3: Joe Rogan vs CNN, Trump Roasts Haley, MSNBC Delusion, and More!

Episode Date: September 11, 2021

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This is an iHeart Podcast. I also want to address the Tonys. On a recent episode of Checking In with Michelle Williams, I open up about feeling snubbed by the Tony Awards. Do I? I was never mad. I was disappointed because I had high hopes. To hear this and more on disappointment and protecting your peace,

listen to Checking In with Michelle Williams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. 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. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. 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 podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey guys, thanks for listening to Breaking Points with Crystal and Sagar. We're going to be totally upfront with you. We took a big risk going independent. To make this work, we need your support to beat the corporate media. CNN, Fox, MSNBC, they are ripping this country apart. They are making millions of dollars doing it. To help support our mission of making all of us hate each other less,

hate the corrupt ruling class more, support the show. Become a Breaking Points premium member today, where you get to watch and listen to the entire show ad-free and uncut an hour early before everyone else. You get to hear our reactions to each other's monologues. You get to participate in weekly Ask Me Anythings, and you don't need to hear our annoying voices pitching you like I am right now. So what are you waiting for? Go to BreakingPoints.com, become a premium member today, which is available in the show notes. Enjoy the show, guys. Some very funny news that we wanted to bring to all of you. You got to hand it to Donald Trump. He does still have it in some ways. And the way he was talking about Nikki Haley, a primary

possible contender, let's put this up there on the screen. Trump on Nikki Haley. Every time she criticizes me, she uncriticizes me about 15 minutes later. Of course, he's most likely referring to that extraordinarily cringe profile that she participated in with Politico, in which she denounced Trump on January 6th, saying, and I tell you, I'm angry. It's an understatement. But then she continually goes out of her way to praise him, call him, be like, I didn't mean it, actually. You know, we'll still be friends. Of course, I worked for you. And, I mean, the incoherence of Nikki Haley is just one of the things that I personally really love to behold

because I like to see bad politicians just flail on the national stage. Here's one of my favorite ones. Let's put this up there from the Daily Mail, which is that Nikki Haley is criticizing, saying, Biden negotiating with the Taliban. And she's like, you literally were the UN ambassador while the Trump administration was also negotiating a deal with the Taliban, which I supported, by the way, at the time. So just the incoherence of her critiques, also of the way that she has decided to handle the Trump question. I mean, I have no inklings whatsoever that she will ever be anything on the national stage other than an appointee of some sort. But it's funny, Marshall, nonetheless, to see what Trump is saying. Yeah, I mean, I would actually really

doubt the appointee part right now, because there's actually a point where you keep digging. Yeah. You're just going to keep digging. And we're pretty much reaching this point. I mean, Nikki Haley's problem is she doesn't have a constituency. So if she were to get an appointment, why would she get an appointment? Who are you going to make happy? This isn't like with Mayor, now Secretary Pete, getting an appointment in the Biden administration because he's being set up for

a future. Why would Nikki Haley get anything? It doesn't really make any particular sense there. And look, the bigger problem, you saw this with Jeb Bush in 2015, 2016. I'm really fascinated by legacy politicians who were successful in a previous era being unwilling or unable, and I think this is in the category of unable, because I think, once again, politicians want power. They want to win. If Nikki Haley could flip a switch and solve all these problems, she would.

You're just seeing people who just are not meant for politics right now. They cannot accept that, in many ways, the style of politics they promote, the very forward-facing, traditional, does the Heritage Foundation like me style, just doesn't fit. And that's entirely what the game is. And it's just difficult. It's inauthentic.

It's ineffective. And once again, who is this for? That is the question that everyone should basically be asking. Right, yeah. It's like going on Fox and criticizing Biden on the withdrawal. I mean, that's easy. And then the real thing is that she's not even good enough in order to suck up to Trump. She still wants to at least try and get some cred, you know, amongst the media or whatever by denouncing him.

Any person, like, look, whenever I criticize Trump, I know that I am not in step whatsoever with the majority of the American political right. I'm cool with that because I have all the people who watch the show. But I'm not a Republican politician, okay? And the ones who are, there is a reason that they're all kissing his ass. It's because that's how you get ahead. And it's amazing just to see her, like, try to have it both ways and be like, no, no, no, no. I'm still going to criticize joe biden but you know i'm not going full trump but i'll also i'm going to try and suck up to him

you know in case that he doesn't run and i get the primary she has just i've never seen somebody just so completely flail about and you know as you said she's not even getting an appointment now you know like if she just kept her mouth shut, she'd at least be, you know, something if Trump did win or whomever, you know, comes next. But she thinks of herself as so much more of a hotshot in politics than she actually is. Like you said, there's not a real constituency that's looking for this. My favorite thing here, I don't know if listeners or you are going to remember this, but back at the end of high school, I think around 2009, 2010, there was a big Newsweek profile of Nikki Haley where it said, this is the face of the New South. You had an Indian-American woman, popular governor of a state.

And that really bookended with her decision after the Charleston shooting to take the Confederate flag down. You had a beautiful narrative that really fit with this transcending thing. And what you're really seeing happening with Nikki Haley, and you see this consistently with politicians, I think, frankly, the only one who's been able to, once again, people aren't going to be happy with me for saying this, but to step up is Pete Buttigieg. I think Pete Buttigieg is someone who politically is talented enough to say,

hey, I'm a mayor, and wouldn't you think it's great to like a mayor and then become secretary? The guy won the Iowa caucus. He won the Iowa caucus. He is now one of the heirs apparent. He actually had the ability to take a narrative, and once again, this is different than his policies, but politically translate into something real.

Nikki Haley could not take that young woman, Southern but not Southern energy and translate it into anything. So the advice here for any aspiring politicians or any actual politicians maybe watch for it now is do not overly focus on the convenient narrative that donors, think tanks, PACs,

people who are clinging to you to gain power. We know a bunch of these people in her orbit. You know exactly who you are. They're not helping you because you're not doing the hard work of actually saying, it's great that I could get these profiles, but real talk, how do I actually win power and speak for people?

Yeah, well, you deserve your fate to all of you who hitched your wagon to Nikki Haley, including Nikki Haley yourself. So I don't have a lot of sympathy. All right. We will see you guys tomorrow. Hey, so remember how we told you how awesome premium membership was? Well, here we are again to remind you that becoming a premium member means you don't have to listen to our constant pleas for you to subscribe. So what are you waiting for? Become a premium member today by going to breakingpoints.com, which you can click on in the show notes.

Well, Crystal, while you were gone, we covered this little Rogan getting COVID, the media wishing he got sick, them calling it horse dewormer. Rogan himself took notice of CNN consistently labeling him like a conspiracy theorist and saying that he had horse dewormer. Here's what he had to say. Bro, do I have to sue CNN? I don't know. I don't know. Do you? They're making shit up. They keep saying I'm taking horse dewormer. Here's what he had to say. Bro, do I have to sue CNN? I don't know. I don't know. Do you? They're making shit up. They keep saying I'm taking horse dewormer.

I literally got it from a doctor. It's an American company. They won the Nobel Prize in 2015 for use in human beings. Yeah. And CNN is saying I'm taking horse dewormer. Yeah. They must know that that's a lie. There's a lot of people saying it.

Right. But a lot of people can say it. Okay. Like the internet says it. Who cares? But CNN is saying it. Joe's only mistake is putting more trust in CNN to be different than the internet. Than just random people.

This really was an egregious news cycle because it wasn't just about Rogan. It was all of these fake stories about ERs filling up with people who were being poisoned by ivermectin by seeking the horse version. Yes. Actually, I found out I was giving my dog her heartworm medicine. It's also ivermectin. And I was like, oh, who should take some? I was going to post a joke, but then I realized

it actually could probably go way too far. Yeah, don't do that. People don't like the joke. Yes, it is against parasites. So it is both used in humans and animals. That would be like giving a horse aspirin and then calling all people who take aspirin horse painkiller takers or something like that. Completely ridiculous. Many millions of people or many people have been prescribed it by a doctor as has been seen throughout the pandemic.

We're not recommending it or anything. As I said, even in my whole monologue, the evidence around ivermectin is actually pretty mixed. But the key is that they want people to actually get poisoned. And then they want, even worse, is that they want to have the stories about these rubes are such idiots that they're giving themselves poison and that they're ending up in the hospitals and they're holding legitimate people from getting the healthcare that they need. And that actually ended up being a completely and totally fake story that Rachel Maddow posted that Twitter refused to label as disinformation. And really what it does go to show is that the media, the way that they handle this is because, look,

the impetus is that they want people to get vaccinated. So they're like, they want to ridicule people who aren't and ridicule, you know, what some people see as alternatives. But in doing that, they actually ended up purveying even more fake news. So I don't really think they care about people getting vaccinated. I think they just care about like the news cycle and ratings. And it reminds me so much of a million times this happened during the Trump era where he would do something that was objectively bad, stupid, terrible, whatever. But it wasn't enough to just like accurately portray that thing. They had to layer all this stuff on top of it. It had to be the pee tape. It couldn't just be like, you know, he was a little

too friendly with these people and way too willing to like be open to accepting their, it had to be an elaborate conspiracy. It had to be the P-tape. It always was like, take whatever kernel of truth was there and amplify it a million times. And that's basically what they're doing with ivermectin. Ivermectin is not proven. One of the primary studies that was being used, that was being passed around to say that this thing was effective, had to be retracted. It looks like some of the evidence was falsified. That's a story in and of itself. You could just lay out those facts that this is unproven.

It's not FDA approved. This is not something that's being recommended by doctors in this country by and large. That's enough. You don't have to label it, pretend like it's only used for livestock. Exactly. Because it's not. And then you just, that's easily disproven. And then people look at that and we're like, well, you're just lying here. And then what do you think that does to their trust in you when you're trying to, you know, actually convey accurate information about the vaccines or whatever it is? So look, does Joe Rogan have a case against CNN?

I don't think so. Yeah, unfortunately. You know, I wouldn't say unfortunately. I think it should be a very high bar to sue for libel or slander, especially when you're a public person. We saw this. There were cases against Tucker Carlson. There was also a case against Rachel Maddow, where both of them ended up being tossed because it is a very, very high bar. You have to really directly, knowingly lie and slander someone with intent to do exactly that. And you have to prove that too. Again, especially when you're talking about a public person. So does he actually have a case here? No. Do I think he should have a case here? Probably not. Do I think CNN should be accurate in their journalism and reporting? Of course I do. See, that's the issue. And that's really what I

mean is like, actually, I agree. You know, in terms of the principle, I do think it should be an incredibly high bar because otherwise these politicians would use this all day long in order to try and get retractions. Another tool of censorship. All it is, is take a look at, you know, the actual depths to both where they will sink in terms of how they will cover it on the air. But really what bothered me most about it was, and I'm not sure, I think you were probably off at this time, Crystal, but the New York Times sent a push notification

to its millions of people, like Joe Rogan has COVID. They were celebrating it. I mean, they really enjoyed the fact that he was sick. And I just think that that comes from a deep and dark place because it's the same thing about ridiculing, going after people. Same thing with ivermectin, these idiots. I mean, Jimmy Kimmel, we covered that segment.

They were talking about horse goo. The lack of nuance and the celebration of people who are not doing what they want them to do is only, number one, hardening it, and number two, you end up spreading just as much fake news as the anti-vaxxers who are like, people are dropping dead left and right from the vaccines. Like, that's literally not true, right? You end up playing around in the same category, but they also face no consequences for spreading that type of misinformation, and that really is a problem, especially online.

I do want to say, I do find the mentality interesting though, of people who are like super, like absolutely not, I'm not going to put the vaccine into my body, but then they're willing to like try hydroxychloroquine or whatever random supposed treatment happens to be hot in right-wing circles right now. It's an interesting mentality. I'll just say that. Listen, it's not a mentality that we subscribe to, but to each their own. So there you go. There you go. All right, guys.

Enjoy your weekend. We'll have more for you later. Wow. You guys must really like listening to our voices. While I know this is annoying, instead of making you listen to a Viagra commercial,

when you're done, check out the other podcast I do with Marshall Kosloff called The Realignment. We talk a lot about the deeper issues that are changing, realigning in American society. You always need more Crystal and Saga in your daily lives.

Take care, guys. Some notable commentary happening over on MSNBC with great friend of the show, Nicole Wallace. Let's take a listen to that. I'm going to deal with the elephant in the room. Obviously, I'm acutely aware of my complicity in the current state of the United States Supreme Court. That said, I have a straight party line Democratic ticket since 2016. And my only hope, my only wish is that they freaking win, that they win elections. And what I don't understand is the Republicans have revealed themselves over and over and over and over and over again. And if you want to know how radical today's GOP is, it's so radical that the man picked by my old boss, Chief Justice John Roberts, sided with the liberals on the court in the Texas abortion ban. And what Joyce just described, I don't know the legal term, but it sounds a whole lot like collusion between Republican-dominated,

right-wing-centric legislatures and the far-right members of the United States Supreme Court. Whether it's a crime and whether it's real, maybe Mueller will look into it. But tell me where we go from here. Maybe Mueller will look into it. They don't need to collude. They all believe the same thing. That's the dumbest part about this entire episode. But yeah, it just goes, they will never let it go, ever. And it is actually shocking whenever you see just how rock solid that they see themselves. It's also funny.

I mean, she has to kind of quasi-acknowledge that she did at one time work for the Bush administration and ran comms for John Roberts going and becoming on the court. Yeah. It's like you kind of have to – she brushed over it. But I was like, hmm, that's – she has to head off some of the criticism. I bet you some of our viewers didn't even know that, that she was directly involved in a lot of that. Well, it is. That was very interesting to me as well. Yeah. Because she has to acknowledge, because it's so blatant.

It's like, lady, you literally helped to get some of these people on the court. I mean, her entire professional life was dedicated to this. But the other thing that's interesting to me is like, you know, George W. Bush was very conservative on social issues i mean was his that was his whole thing and christian right and really like relied heavily on the evangelical christian base i mean that was uh their big political play their two big political plays was evangelical the the religious right and um lat voters, who he did relatively well with. And DOMA, remember? I mean, they literally passed that. Yeah. So, like, she doesn't explain, did she hold her nose while she was, did she have a different

ideology then? Where did that shift happen? Because the way she's always portrayed it is that her support for the Democratic Party was less of about like any policy issue and more about just not liking Trump and his, you know, whatever it was that she didn't like about him. There were plenty of things not to like. But it was more about like his personality and his Twitter presence and his venality that it was about any particular policy issue. So, yeah, it was kind of an interesting moment there. But obviously the real eyebrow-raising part is they can't let go of collusion, can't let go of Mueller. They still probably have their votive candles with Mueller's face on them. Oh, I'm sure.

They'll never let it go. The dream never dies, Sagar. It never dies for them, and it just goes to show you how rock solid that they believe it as if it's all a conspiracy. And they'll always be looking for it. And, you know, you can laugh and you can cry, but once it is baked in, it's not going anywhere. And that's the real sickness. We were talking before the segment. I do think she's going to take over Rachel Maddow's time slot.

I mean, they already were considering giving her that extra hour of Peacock. She did an okay job, I think, in the 4 p.m. hour at Washington. She is a star on the network. The audience grew to love her over the Trump years, the Republican who will call out. It's an interesting angle that they could try and take. What they might do is Chris Hayes was really, has really been Rachel's sort of protege. Right. Long time. And when she's out, like he'll fill in for her and stuff like that. So I could see them, I have no idea, but I could see them moving him to her 9 p.m. slot and then giving Nicole Wallace one of the primetime hours.

But, I mean, it's all shifting deck chairs on the Titanic because Rachel's the only one who actually rates. I mean, and even that at this point is way less than it used to be. But she's the only hour on that channel where people show up, where the numbers jump up to go watch Rachel, and then when she goes off air, they fall right back down. I was just, Glenn is always mercilessly tweeting. I saw that this morning. Tweeting the ratings over at MSNBC and CNN and how far they've fallen. But, you know, Hayes and their other, Joy Reid, who was another of their big hopes in terms of being able to take over one of these slots effectively.

And they're falling below 100,000. In primetime, in the key demo, which is the only thing that matters in terms of ad dollars, that's pathetic. I mean, that's lower numbers than, you know, not just us, but like a sort of middling YouTube channel. Oh, yeah. I mean, you're only getting 100,000 views a day. And you have this whole corporate machine and marketing and millions of dollars and paid advertisements and all this stuff behind you, and you can't crack 100K? Like, that is really, really sad. So, yeah, I mean, I don't put it past him to slot Nicole Wallace into that slot.

That'd be quite a turnaround because Rachel, you know, is like far off base as she's certainly been in recent years and preeminent conspiracy theorist as she's been. She came from a lefty background. I mean, she came from era America. She came from sort of progressive-oriented spaces. So if the era parent

for her time slot or even to go into primetime at all is this Bush neocon who brought us, help to bring us Sarah Palin she made it on Bush that would be quite a story anyway stay tuned as they say

we'll watch for further developments and we will have more for you guys later thanks for listening to the show guys we really appreciate it to help other people find the show go ahead and leave us a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts really help other people find the show, go ahead and leave us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps other people find the show. As always, a special thank you to Supercast for powering our premium membership. If you want to find out more, go to crystalandsauger.com.

I also want to address the Tonys. On a recent episode of Checking In with Michelle Williams, I open up about feeling snubbed by the Tony Awards. Do I? I was never mad. I was disappointed because I had high hopes. To hear this and more on disappointment and protecting your peace, listen to Checking In with Michelle Williams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops.

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. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes.

We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. 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. This is an iHeart podcast.