Lovett or Leave It - Baby Got Backchannel

Episode Date: May 27, 2017

Jared Kushner is in very big trouble, Trump studies abroad, the administration releases a cruel budget, and the GOP holds a seat in Montana. The Daily Beast's Ira Madison III, Fargo's Allison Tolman, and comedian Bobby Lee join to break down the week's news. Plus, our own Tommy Vietor takes us through the Kushner madness.

Hey guys! Welcome to Love It or Leave It. We have a fantastic panel for you, but I'm not sure if you've checked the news in the last like 15 to 20 seconds. It turns out it was Jared who stole the cookies from the cookie jar. I wanted to just run through these late breaking developments. So rare we get to do breaking news here at Love It or Leave It. So to help us break down this story before we start, he recently returned from a diplomatic mission to New Orleans. He is a former spokesman for the National Security Council, co-host of Pod Save America, host of Pod Save the World, Tommy Vitor. Tommy,

thank you for being here. I live two blocks away. Text him at 7 p.m. That's what a co-host does all right that's what we do at crooked media we support each other i'd love it or leave it when there's applause as long as there's applause he'll tell me uh so a few stories broke uh just in the past few hours uh in order of bombshelliness uh first the washington Post reported that the Senate

Intelligence Committee has demanded all the documents from the Trump campaign, which is what you want. That's what you want. Second, and in more bombshell-y, the Washington Post reported that there was a secret back channel that Jared Kushner tried to create with the Russian government whereby he would go to the Russian facility to communicate with the Russian government. Classic. And then finally,

Reuters, winning the bombshell prize, reports a lot of the same information about this proposed back channel which even stunned the russians they're like i mean we love this guy he's very helpful to us but this is getting to be a bit much coming on a little strong uh and also reported that there might have been some kind of financial quid pro quo on the table very interesting um tommy can you think of a reason why an American official soon to work

in the White House would want to create a way to talk to the Russian government that the Russians could monitor but the Americans could not? No. I can think of a reason to create a back channel from the Oval Office

to a foreign government. It's good to have a direct line of communication. You want to establish a rapport. Obviously they had, thanks to WikiLeaks and everything else that's been going on. But the idea that Jared would make an end run around the entire United States government, the entire intelligence community, to go to a Russian facility and use their encrypted communications gear

to avoid the CIA or the NSA hearing about it is the craziest fucking thing I've ever heard. And I emailed former Ambassador Mike McFaul, which is what I do on a Friday night because that's who I am. Former Ambassador to Russia. Former Ambassador to Russia, Mike McFaul, like Russia experts. Like, Mike,

is there any charitable explanation for this? Is there anything you can think of? Any reason you would ever do this? He's like, no. And it was so crazy that apparently Kislyak was shocked by the ambassador, the Russian ambassador of the US. Right. Because like, just to give you a little context, when we built our embassy in Moscow, I'm pretty sure we flew in every brick, every piece of material used to construct that thing is brought in from the United States because we wire each other tight. And we know we're spying on them. They're spying on us.

Well, famously, I believe, I'm not sure when it was, but it was during the Cold War that they discovered that in the mortar and bricks of the U.S. embassy in Moscow were microphones. Yeah. And statues and molding on walls and everything you can think of. And, like, if Jared wanted to talk to some Russian, be like, yo, buddy, download Signal. Like, let's let's text it out. We got this. But what what this looks like, he didn't want the United States to hear what he had to say, which treasonous is the worst explanation. Extremely shady is middle. So speaking of extremely shady, let's read from the Reuters story.

FBI investigators are examining whether Russians suggested to Kushner or other Trump aides that relaxing economic sanctions would allow Russian banks to offer financing to people with ties to Trump, said the current U.S. law enforcement official. to Trump, said the current U.S. law enforcement official. The head of the Russian state-owned, complicated name bank, Sergei Name Gorkov. Seb Gorkov. Seb Gorkov. Oopsie doopsie, I'm involved in an international financial crime.

The head of this bank just happens to be a trained intelligence officer whom Putin appointed and met Kushner at Trump Tower in December. The bank is under U.S. sanction and was implicated in a 2015 espionage case in which one of its New York executives pleaded guilty to spying and was jailed. You know, it's one of the meetings on the calendar. You'd easily forget it when you're

filling out your SF-86, the form that determines whether or not you get security clearance. You'd forget that. You forget about phone calls. You forget about the secret Kislyak meetings at the Mayflower Hotel. They'll slip your mind every time. Jared Kushner meets with all kinds of people. As you know, he is a genius. And a couple of things. On the SF-86, this is the background check form that you have to fill out that's like all the money you have, all your investments, all your contacts with foreign governments, how many times you've smoked weed. Like, then you sit down with an FBI agent and they painstakingly walk you through it.

We've done this. And they tell you it's okay to say that you smoked weed, but it's not okay to lie about it. And that's actually, it's funny, but it's actually important because they don't care that you smoked weed. Thank God. Because you'd be looking at two great lawyers at Davis Polk right now.

Just saying. But the reason they care is that they don't want you to lie about it. They need to know that you can't be fucking blackmailed. And I don't know about you, but if I were the president and my son-in-law were under scrutiny and I wanted to demonstrate to the world that I was not under the thumb of the Russians, when I went to a fucking conference in Europe, I might say something critical of Russia. Tommy, I wasn't paying attention to the foreign trip because I was helping to build

our conglomerate, as you were as well. Did Trump manage to criticize Russia on this trip? I don't believe he did. And more disconcerting for anyone who's on the border of Russia, anyone in Europe, all of our allies, is he refused to reaffirm the part of the NATO treaty that says if someone in NATO is attacked by an adversary, that we will come to their collective defense, called Article 5. It's the single most important part of the treaty. It's essentially the reason for its existence.

And he wouldn't say it. He wouldn't repeat it. It's like his staff would, on background, sort of brief that, yeah, he's still cool with it, but he wouldn't go there, which is the number one thing Putin wants, because then he can storm into the Ukraine and take it all. So, refusing to back the alliance while criticizing Germany,

I will say that one aide did say on background, we're sorry, he's an idiot. True. Thank you, Tommy Vitor. Thank you. For helping us understand these stories. Bye. I'll see you later, buddy.

Allow me to welcome our panel. She's an actress on Fargo and has a new show, Downward Dog on ABC. Alison Tolman. He's an entertainment writer for The Daily Beast and a columnist for GQ, Ira Madison III. And you've seen him on Netflix's Love, and he's going to be appearing on Splitting Up Together

on ABC, Bobby Lee. Thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you for having us. I don't want to speak for you guys. I assume you're also much for being here. Thank you for having us. I don't want to speak for you guys. I assume you're also grateful to be here. Not really. Hi, John. Hi, Bobby.

I'm grateful to be here. I love your energy. Thank you. It's fear. So, what a week. That's the what a week bell. Trump is currently finishing up his semester abroad. Trump's been on his tour.

He gave his speech about Islam in Riyadh. He did place his hands upon a glowing orb amongst the Saudis. With Tommy, we just went over his speech about NATO and his failure to stand up for the alliance, despite the assurances of his team on background. I think what certainly captures the vibe of the trip is a distinction between something Barack Obama said and something that Donald Trump said when they visited the Holocaust Memorial in Israel. I don't know if you saw this. So I am going to read what Barack Obama said. I am grateful to Yad Vashem and all those responsible for this remarkable institution.

At a time of great peril and promise, war and strife, we are blessed to have such a powerful reminder of man's potential for great evil, but also our capacity to rise up from tragedy and remake our world. This is Trump's note at Yad Vashem. It is a great honor to be here with all of my friends. So amazing. And we will never forget.

Have a cool summer. So dark. Have a great summer. I know we'll stay friends. That is, man, we are, that's the darkest thing we've mined here on the stage at Love It or Leave It. So obviously that's very depressing

that this is our president. I think that this foreign trip he was just on kind of gave us a, is an example of what we've seen over and over again, which is we have these deeply strange but ultimately small gaffes that have to do with his ridiculous personality. And then big, giant, terrible things like his failure to uphold NATO. First of all, do people care about these kinds of trips? Do people talk about it? Does it actually reach the people in our daily lives that Trump had a

gaffe-prone, ridiculous foreign excursion? Ira, what do you think? They've never heard of these countries. Okay. I think we get, I know even I get soundbite fatigue, you know, where I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that happened.

But like, how did he ruin things today? I don't know. Right. I mean, I found myself watching Trump abroad and it hitting me in a new way that this is,

we knew that he had won the election, but this is the first time we've really seen him representing America. It was interesting the way, did you see the way the new French president greeted Trump? So I love this. First of all, Donald Trump has introduced the kind of ethos of Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock to the world stage.

So everyone knows that Trump takes these handshake things so seriously. This like 1980s pop psychology book about masculinity that someone told him about like he definitely didn't read the book like he didn't read about how to be a man and use your shoulders but he's he's internalized it like like this is how he learned how to sell cars but so Macron Macron walks across towards all the G7 leaders and then just turns right goes to Merkel gives Merkel the first greeting

then shakes everybody's hand and then shakes Trump's hand and what Trump does which is so amazing is he shook my hand forth that sucks I need to pat him on the shoulder. That's how I'll reassert my dominance as the leader of this pack of nuclear weapon-wielding adults.

I guess the question about that is, do we think Trump's wrong about the role that these visuals play? Like, is Trump wrong to think that he needs to stand in the front and he needs to push a G7 leader behind him to get to the front? Like, do these things work? I mean, isn't the whole theory about why Trump is president that these lizard brain things actually do make a difference? I think they do make a difference. I just think he's doing it wrong. I mean, I don't know.

Like, we like people who body slam reporters. So why shouldn't we like someone who shoves someone from NATO out of the way so they can get a photo op? I mean, I think his whole personality to me is like a man who doesn't have any charisma and is trying to like manufacture it and be like people who have charisma you remember their handshakes and they're always in the front of

the crap but he doesn't so he just has like you know like no one will move aside for him or like give him this deference naturally so he's trying to take it yeah it's just so fucking depressing like i watch him on tv i'm so embarrassed i'm in just so fucking depressing. Like I watch him on TV I'm so embarrassed. I'm in denial about it. Like I'll see him on the fucking screen and I'll just do my business. I mean it's really embarrassing. Remember when Barack Obama spoke in Berlin? Was it in Berlin?

And he drew all those fucking people. How many people did he draw? Hundreds of thousands of people. That's what I want to see. A rock star and somebody that has a good heart but then you see this fucking jackass so I'm in denial about it and I'm upset about it I'm so sorry there's nothing funny I'm saying right now no but it's just that you're really angering me really I want you to know Bobby yeah

that this is a place where we laugh we have a great time but we feel our feelings I'll tell you something. I'll tell you something. I've teared up on this stage. I think I teared up about Joe Lieberman on this stage. I think I got so mad about Joe Lieberman, I briefly almost cried about it. Yeah. You're not a fan of that whole thing.

No. But he's in the past now. He said no. He said no to the FBI director thing. Smarmy letter. Won't see the likes of Joe Lieberman around here again. He's gonna be president.

Somehow. Somehow he will be president. I thought that the Pope did a great job of managing his facial expressions. Yeah. You know what sucks? To Bobby. Yeah. You know what sucks? To Bobby's point, you know what sucks?

It sucks watching the president with foreign leaders and being like, it's like if you're dating someone that you don't like at all and you know that if you weren't dating them, you'd be making fun of them. You know what I mean? That like, I can't believe I'm with you.

If I weren't with you, I'd be talking about how much I can't stand people like you. And then we marry him. Meanwhile, in America, just before Trump departed on his hostile weekend backpack trip through gaffe-prone Europe, he released a new budget and a CBO score came out on the Republican health care bill. I just want to run through some of the numbers in the new budget. A $627 billion cut to Medicaid. A $194 billion cut to food stamps.

$87 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health, which does research and medical care. $45 billion cut to the State Department, which has already been decimated by Rex Tillerson, who you may have heard of, but you will not have heard his voice because he does not talk to reporters. $28 billion cut to refugee programs. $18 billion cut to the Centers for Disease Control. Because why not?

Let's gamble there. It's like, I don't know why the CDC gets me so much, but it's like, I'm looking at this country and I don't see enough pandemic disease. $2 billion cut to food safety and inspection, so we're all going to lose weight because of the norovirus. So that's a plus. I like that one. Summer's almost here.

I gotta go get a... It's the new bikini body plan. I'm gonna go get a chicken wrap near the Spirit Airlines. That's what got me last time. Just before a cruise. I don't go on cruises. 21% cut to the children's health insurance program Terrific

This is the best part The Trump budget includes a $2 trillion accounting mistake They double counted $2 trillion Listen That's A huge error What's left? Oh no right that's right

Thank you helpful person in the crowd They did say it wasn't a mistake They said they did it on purpose Because they're so sure That they can cut that much twice Anyway It's just impossible to tell

where the malevolence ends and the incompetence begins. It's just, it's blue water to blue sky. It's one big expanse. So I guess the thing that I was thinking about when I saw all this is we have Trump on his gaff-prone tour. Then we have this

Jared Kushner Russia stuff. There has been a theme in recent days to the criticism of the Democratic Party. We just lost a race in Montana. That race closed on an argument about health care. Are we wrong? Look, we are eating these new Russia stories like candy. But meanwhile, what actually affects people's lives are budget cuts or health care bills. Should we be talking about Russia as much as we are?

Should we have a discipline of spending our time talking more about health care, about the budget? I mean, how do we sort of walk and chew gum at the same time? Oh, boy. I feel like yes. Yes. I feel like no. I'm just kidding.

I don't know. I'm just being argumentative at this point like is the Russia stuff mattering I feel like Boris and Natasha could move into the White House and nothing would happen people would be like I loved Rocky and Bullwinkle I love those characters

it's fun they love Russia they do I mean at this point, even a tape, even if there was a tape out there, nothing's gonna happen. If grabbing the pussy doesn't do it, nothing. There needs to be, even if he was, like, peeing on a Russian baby,

like, waterboarding a Russian baby with his urine, right? They'd be like, uh, and then he'll fucking win four years from now. Like, I didn't fucking vote for him, right? So, all these things that you're asking, it be like, ah, and then he'll fucking win four years from now. Like, I didn't fucking vote for him, right? So all these things that you're asking, it's like, I have no, like, I'm baffled by it, right? I think if anything, the election showed us that ideology is not really what matters. Like, people want to know how they're going to be affected, right?

Like, we want jobs. We feel under, like, we are being overlooked, et cetera, et cetera. We don't care that this man is a monster. How is he going to be affected, right? Like, we want jobs. We feel under, like, we are being overlooked, et cetera, et cetera. We don't care that this man is a monster. How is he going to help us? So, yeah, maybe we are focusing too much on Russia, which, while fucking bonker balls, is abstract. And if we were focusing on the ways, like,

this is going to fuck people over, maybe we would be making progress, question mark? Promise to bring back jobs that don't exist. Right. Right. I mean, that's, because to Ira's points, it doesn't seem like these Russia stories are really going to, I mean,

I've seen this, people are saying, it's sort of baked in now, right, to Trump's price that people, which is hilarious. Yeah, yeah, he's corrupted by Russia. We get it. Still with him. We love him.

So brash. Says what comes to his mind. But at a certain point, people will start to notice that Trump hasn't delivered all the promises he's made, that this budget, which strips down the safety net,

does not bring jobs back to the Midwest. It certainly isn't populist by any stretch of the imagination. So we can spend all day talking about collusion and russia when i almost think we need to have a discipline of that is running its course but what i care about is what's going on in people's lives and here's our vision for what we're going to do for the economy uh long after jared kushner is pardoned and in cabo exactly because i feel like if you think about it from the perspective of a Trump voter, which is scary, but they allow a certain amount of lies for a president to do.

Because these Trump voters believe that Obama is from Kenya. believe that Obama is from Kenya. So they believe that for eight years we allowed a secret African president to run our country. So now that Trump is being accused of colluding with Russia, they're like, well, it's his turn. So they don't really care.

They're like, the Democrats got away with eight years of lying. Why don't we? Yeah, I mean, it's interesting, too, that we kind of have this... There's this whole group of people who are inoculated against the news. People notice that tonight on

MSNBC, it's Kushner and Russia. On CNN, it's Kushner and Russia. And on Fox News, it's like, Lauren Duca tweeted again. How can we stop this Lauren Duca? She does tweet a lot. She's the real terrorist.

Oh, Lauren. Lauren Duca's liberal violence. What is Trump's approval rating right now? It is always at 38%. Right. Just lives there. But that's with all of us, right? What's his approval rating with his people?

The people who voted for him? Like, 200%? Yeah, he's just about 200%. They're like, double. Double. Everything that we thought, double. Double down. But he didn't deliver on the wall, right?

Mexico's not going to pay for it. He didn't deliver on the travel ban. All these things, right? So what makes us think that he's going to... Whatever he does, his fan base, or not fan base, but his base, his fan base, his groupies are going to, I feel like, stay there. And so how do we fight against that? Yeah, no, and I think that's like a, it's a really tough question. I think one of the things that we have been, there's been a lot of assumptions. And one of them is like Trump is so unpopular. There's so much liberal energy. We're one of the things that we have been, there's been a lot of assumptions, and one of them is like,

Trump is so unpopular, there's so much liberal energy, we're going to be able to take these people down. And over and over again, we've had a few special elections, and we keep almost winning them. We've got to stop almost winning elections. At a certain point,

moral victories are not going to help people very much. We need to figure out how to have a message that resonates with people and that can break through the Trump noise. In Montana, you know, we obviously, everybody started paying, you know, first of all, in the last two weeks of this election, everybody started paying attention. But of course, by then, outside Republican groups had already outspent Democratic groups by about 10 to 1, I believe. And then, of course, we all saw the body slam. But the body slam is a red herring because most of the votes

had already been cast so this is the number spending against Gianforte the body slam artist Randy Rod Gianforte the warrior the ultimate warrior Gianforte $438,000 was spent against him.

Spent against Quist, it was $5.1 million. So all this liberal energy, we're all donating in small dollars, but then a bunch of rich creeps are swamping the shit out of us. And that is a dynamic that's not going to change. To be fair, I feel like we've all given our paychecks to John Ossoff. So we don't have money to send to change. To be fair, I feel like we've all given our paychecks to John Ossoff.

We don't have money to send to Montana. I'm glad that John Ossoff has had a lot of support. I think that's really important, but we've got to figure out a way to compete everywhere if we really believe that there's this incredible amount of energy. We've got to find a way to be back.

We're so proud of ourselves that everybody's giving $100, everybody's showing up at a protest. We're getting swamped by one asshole millionaire with a checkbook. I think we're actually playing different games.

It's not like we can get better at our game and be like, we did it! We're just playing different games. And if we want to compete, we may have to play a different game and have sexier stories and like flashier candidates

and a bunch of fucking money from somebody. I don't know who it's going to come from. Yeah, I keep hearing about this. We'll have money. I keep hearing about this Soros money.

Where the fuck is it? When we come back. Okay, stop. Kate, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back.

We're now going to play OK Stop. Here's how it works. We watch a news clip, and as we go, we stop it and comment on it. That's all there really is to it. Bobby has a question. Do you have to comment on it? You don't. You don't. You can just enjoy the video.

Thank you. And have a great time at the show. Thank you. I just need that option. It's yours. That option is yours. This is a place where I want you to feel comfortable and have a great time. I want you and the audience to have a great time together. Okay, good. This week, former CIA director John Brennan

testified for the House Committee on Intelligence. This is an exchange between him and Republican Trey Gowdy on collusion with Russia. Evidence exists of collusion, coordination, conspiracy between the Trump

campaign and Russian state actors. Okay, stop. I just want to point out that this man looks exactly like Woody from Toy Story with no hat on. To me, he looks like a White Walker. He looks exactly like

the White Walker. He looks like an extra in Raising Arizona. Alright. Okay. Can he fly with those ears? At the time you learned of 2016 efforts. I encountered and I'm aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign. I don't know whether or not such collusion, that's your term, such collusion existed. I don't know. But I know that there was a sufficient basis of information. I am really loving this woman in the background

who is just like not having it. She's like, why am I here? Why do I have to hear about Russia again? This is a joke that was made during a previous

OK Stop in which we looked at another hearing and it was referred as Resting Treason Face. And this guy right here is from the 70s. I was going to say

he time traveled. It's Elvis. Why is Mr. 70s. I was going to say, he time traveled. It's Elvis. Why is Mr. 70s there? He time traveled. It's like 12 monkeys. He's not supposed to be there. Is this a Nixon hearing? Yeah, he literally fell asleep

and woke up. He's like, oh, we're still doing Nixon shit? Also, the Anaheim Ducks are losing. Don't read the crawl, Ira. I'm sorry. I heard further investigation by the Bureau

to determine whether or not U.S. persons were actively conspiring, colluding with Russian officials. Do you know the basis of that information that you share with the Bureau? I mean, what was the nature of the evidence? I think, Mr. Gowdy, the committee has now been provided information that relates to that issue in terms of information that the agency shared with the Bureau. And that is something that is appropriately classified.

Okay, stop. I like John Brennan here a lot because what he's saying with his eyes is, hey, asshole, you want to put me on the spot and ask me to divulge classified information in an open hearing because you're trying to make some sort of point that I don't know what I'm talking about?

Why don't you go fuck yourself? Like, John Brennan is a serious guy. That is a serious man with a serious face, a serious shirt and tie combo. Yeah. And Trey Gowdy's like, what's your evidence? And he's like,

are you serious? My evidence is the evidence you have seen behind closed doors, which is insane. And the reason that we know

that John Brennan knows that Trey Gowdy has seen the evidence is because every person on the Intelligence Committee in the House and the Senate always walks out

of their closed doors meeting like they witnessed a murder. I also, I like that he gets mad and then he used his full name like a social studies teacher. Mr. Gowdy. Trey Beauregard Gowdy. How dare you. Actually. This has been like a recurring theme in every hearing. Someone is like, well, what's this information?

And then like Sally Yates has to be like, it's classified. You know it's classified. Why do you want me to say it's classified on TV? Right. And also, by the way, Trey Gowdy is the person. So when we first had our hearing with Comey, we remember Comey. And again, perfect record.

We love him. I just want to keep coming back to that because there's been some stuff like people like, oh, do we like, we love Comey. We've loved him the whole fucking time. He's on Dancing with the Stars. On board, yeah. Coming to Dancing with the Stars.

He's six foot eight. So it's going to be super weird. But, and when Comey first testified and Democrats were saying, ah, Trey Gowdy's questions were all, what are you going to do to punish leakers? What are you going to do to stop the dissemination of classified information?

And then here we are in an open hearing and Trey Gowdy's got questions. When in this chronology did you learn of the contacts between these official members of the Trump campaign or because there's kind of a tripartite hierarchy. There's Trump himself, there are official members of the campaign, and then there are folks who represented themselves as being connected with him. Okay, stop. We all remember from Catholic school the tripartite theory of the Trump campaign. There is Trump.

There is his son, Don Jr. The archangels. And the Holy Ghost. Ivanka. Carter Page. This is also repeating that fake thing that people in the Trump campaign like to do when they get caught in a lie or accused of colluding with the Russians and they're like, I never

acted with the Trump campaign in an official capacity. Only because the Trump campaign was so poorly run, like there was barely a payroll department. That's like they're getting away with murder for that mistake. I'm not going to try to identify individuals nor try to parse it. I don't want you to parse it. I just want you to identify the individuals.

I don't want you to parse it. I'm not going to identify the individuals because this is information that again is based... I'm sorry, there's nothing like

old white men in suits getting huffy with each other. It's so, like it's so, it's like Shakespearean. I love it so much. It's just that...

Like, they're on TV, and they know they're on TV, and they're like, well, sir, I'm not gonna do that that way. Well, sir, I asked you to do it. Look at my white guy face. Look at how serious it is.

I know. Like, they can out-stuff shirt each other or something. It's amazing. Anyway. On classified sources and intelligence. Were they official members of the campaign? I'm going to defer to current agency officials to be able to further provide to you information related to that. But my understanding is that this committee has access to the documents that we would

have provided to the Bureau. Okay, stop. That was a really great shady moment from Brennan. Because he was like, tell me the officials. And he was like, I will again refer you to

the people who you need to talk to. It's like, you already know this. Why are you asking me? He's embarrassing him. I loved it. I will refer you to the documents is the most subtle fuck you I've ever seen. I want to start saying that to people.

Someone cuts me off. I'll refer you to the documents. When we come back... Too stupid to be true. And we're back. Now we're going to play a game called Too Stupid to be True. To my panelists, I tell you, beneath your seats, there is a card. On that card

is a quote. Two of the quotes are true. One of the quotes, I wrote this afternoon. We have a member of our audience who is going to play. You have the mic. My name

is Amy Rose. Amy Rose. Lovely. Is that your full name? That's my full name. Your full name is Amy Rose. That's correct. I thought your name was Amy Rose something. Some people think that. Have you been following the news closely this week? I have. Well, we have

three quotes we're going to read for you. Two of them are real. One of them is fake. And it's up to you to choose which one is too stupid to be true. Up first, Allison has a quote. This is on the backlash to Trump touching an orb with the

Saudis. You hear it from them. Oh, the president touched an orb with the Saudis. Don't forget, America is on that orb. Which is a globe. It was a globe! You could see he was touching the America part.

Amy Rose, where's your head at on that first quote? I don't know. There's a lot of crazy things about the orb. So I don't know. You're not sure yet. Not sure yet. This is a quote on why Republican budgets are so unpopular. There's a lot of crazy things about the orb. So I don't know. You're not sure yet. Great. Not sure yet. Ira is up next. This is a quote on why Republican budgets are so unpopular.

The problem that the right has is with expressing why there is compassion in what they're doing and why it's not about trying to kill children. Which is ridiculous because we don't want anyone dying in this country for lack of medical care. Tough quote. Tough quote. Now, one thing I would point out, true or false, as a rule, you don't want to use the argument that you're trying to refute in your soundbite classic politics. You don't say, you don't say, we're not going to kill children, because it immediately makes you think,'re not going to kill children because it immediately makes you think

are they going to kill children? Classic mistake. Classic mistake. So I'm going to let you ponder that one. Bobby is up. This is a quote on letting refugees and displaced persons into the United States. Bobby?

May I stand? Please. Thank you. Dramatic reading. He's going to sit. It felt weird. If America is a melting pot, we can try to control the ingredients that we bring in. We bring in some tomatoes,

potatoes, some sage, and then you see some wine coming in, knocking on the pot, and you're like, well, listen, it doesn't smell right. It's from a risky region. Maybe not a lot of rain that season. Let's not throw it in the mix and ruin the whole dish. So, Amy Rose,

we have three quotes, all terrific. You have to decide which one is too stupid to be true. Is it America was on the orb, or we're not trying to kill children, or America is a melting pot and some of the ingredients are terrorists? Well, they're all terrible.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I'm gonna go with the orb. Amy Rose, you've won. Wow. Too stupid to be true. Thank you so much for playing. There is a parachute gift card with your name on it. This is an amazing moment in my life.

This is wonderful. Yay. And that means a lot to me. Thank you. It means a lot to me. I mean, it's been a wonderful experience, I think, for both of us and everybody here. Let's roll the clip. I think Mick Mulvaney, who we heard at the beginning, I am such a huge fan.

He is so terrific at messaging. Because the problem that the right has is with expressing why there is compassion in what they're doing and why it's not about trying to kill children, which is ridiculous because we don't let anyone die in this country for lack of medical care. Why is it a problem for them? If America is a melting pot, we can kind of control the ingredients that we bring in. You know, we bring in some tomatoes, some potatoes, some sage, and then you see some wine coming in knocking on the door of the pot and you're like, well, listen, it doesn't

smell right, it's from a risky region region maybe not a lot of rain that season let's not throw it in the mix and then ruin the whole dish i love the shit-eating grin that jesse waters gets on his face when he thinks he said something clever oh god uh when we come back the rant wheel don't go anywhere this is love it or leave it and there's more on the way and we're back so we have a rant wheel behind us we spin it and then we talk about the topics at hand people are already laughing at the topics upon the wheel

we have the kush spicer and the Pope. Oh, I hope it lands there. Sean Hannity, Carson's quote, state of mind. That was when he said that poverty is a state of mind.

We have audience chooses. We have bachelor party. We have you broke my glasses, which relates to the body slam. And then we have Mark Meadows tears. Mark Meadows tears. Let's spin the wheel.

Yay! It has landed on You Broke My Glasses. Now, I'm going to say something a little controversial here. Oh, goody. Here's the thing.

Obviously, it is wrong for a member, a soon-to-be member of Congress to body slam a reporter for asking a question about the CBO score. By the way, a question that Gianforte never answered because of the body slam. He literally fought his way out of that paper bag. And by the way, were I to be... Look, you guys see me. This is not a wrestling physique. This is a very soft... It's a podcast. You can lie.

I am made of stone. I could crush you with my bare hands. But I will say that if I were to be body slammed, I don't know what would come out of my mouth. Perhaps some kind of a yelp, followed by some kind of a, I have lawyers, I don't know. What is a body slam? I think a body slam... He picked him up and dropped him?

I think that it was a, I think body slam is a very generous term for a push to the ground in which his hands never left the throat. Right? I think he just went down. So I think they went down together. I think it was sort of a grab by the collar area and it said, I hate reporters and then down to the ground they went

and I'm fucking sick of this, these questions on my campaign. And then he punched him. Unbelievable. Maybe Jesse Ventura has been giving like GOP congressmen body slamming tutorials. It's our fault. Everyone's going to do it.

We did elect bodybuilders and wrestlers too. But the only point I wanted to make is this. I would say the single worst sentence you can say after being body slammed is you broke my glasses. And I know we're not allowed to say that, and I don't think I would have done any better than Ben Jacobs,

who I think handled himself quite well, all things considered. But the phrase, you broke my glasses. Listen, I was locked in a blue recycling bin in Miss Mallon's class in eighth grade, all right? I've seen all sides of this. I am no hero. And I didn't come out of that blue

recycling bin punching. I didn't come out of there swinging. I came out of there sad and scared and hoping things would change in high school. And they did not. All I'm saying is you broke my glasses. He walked right into that one, didn't he?

I want to say something controversial, too. Oh, goody. I appreciate that he was body slammed. I get it. But I also support his scamming. Because after he was body slammed, he's like tweeting. He was like, touching!

He's like, I'm tweeting with one hand. It's like, that's immediately what I would do too. My hand is broken. I'm at the hospital. This guy is a millionaire. I'm looking at dollar signs. What he should have done has been like, broke my back. Like, where is the whiplash?

He needs to to show up. He needs to roll into courtroom with one of those neck braces, with a cane, talking about how his tweeting hand is broken, and that is his career. We've all seen Aaron Brockovich. We know how it's done. What does he look like, though, the reporter? He looks like a typical journalist.

He's about journalist height, journalist build. So he's white. He's, he's, he's, I, I actually don't know. But that's the thing, it's like, I mean, we've never, we haven't seen him. We've heard the audio, but. I've seen him because I wouldn't follow him on Twitter. What does he look like? I've looked at him on the Twitter.

He looks like a journalist. What does he look like? He's, he's white. He's just a white, he's just a white boy. There's different kinds of white. Is he like Macaulay Culkin white? Here's my assumption. He's like a journalist. What does he look like? He's white. He's just a white boy. He's just a white boy. There's different kinds of white. Is he like Macaulay Culkin white? Here's my assumption. He's like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids white. Ah, that kind of white. I see.

I don't know Ben Jacobs' exact specs. I am pretty confident that if he and I were to fight, it could go either way. That's, I think, the scale we're dealing with. Ira, thoughts? No, I think you could beat him. Yeah. I'm on your show, so I will say I think you can beat him.

Thank you, guys. I don't mind toxic masculinity when it comes out in my favor. Let's spin it one more time. Let's spin it five more times. Who cares? Yeah. It has landed on Carson's quote state of mind.

Ben Carson said that poverty is a state of mind. I just don't think that that's true. I don't think people are like, unless you really believe in the secret. Yeah, like you manifest wealth.

I woke up thinking I was poor today so now I'm really hungry. I hate Ben Carson. I want to call Ben Carson a lot of words that I will not say in a room full of white people. Ooh. That hurts. But he came from poverty.

Like, he used fucking food stamps. Like, his mom had them. And now he's turned around and is giving you like this Bill Cosby you know pull up your pants bullshit like oh you know like poverty is a state of mind and it's like well your presidential bid was a state of mind it doesn't count doesn't count yeah I Ira. I wish we had a more diverse crowd so we could hear the rest of it. But they do look pretty white today.

Can we just do... We can all do earmuffs, maybe. You can find me a deaf comedy jam later. Sweet. I will do some Ben Carson stand-up. Honestly, I'm going to go to that. But Iris, does he annoy you because he's African American and he has that point of view?

Or could you have been just a white guy? No, it's even worse because he's black. Exactly, right? Because he's so dumb. And it's like black kids grew up reading your little book about how you were a doctor. Cuba Gooding Jrr played him right you know it was like on one of his many great choices pre-boat trip pre-boat trip so it was

like a respectable cuba gooding jr and um it's just like so many people like raise their kids being like be like ben carson he can be a doctor you know like he can be he's. He can be a doctor. He's black. He can be a doctor. This is before we had a black president so this was our pinnacle. Doctor, TV, basketball. And then he decided he wanted to go into politics

and he ruined it. He ruined it. It's like when any rapper talks about politics they ruin the facade we were having a good time you were successful at the thing you did stop talking about the other things

he was so bad at running for president that I think people lost respect for brain surgeons generally I think that's true I used to think wow this isn't brain surgery and now I think this's true. I used to think, wow, this isn't brain surgery. And now I think, this is brain surgery. If I got stabbed in the head and you took me to a hospital and it was Ben Carson or Bobby Ray from Grey's Anatomy,

I would say anyone from the cast of Grey's Anatomy can operate on me before Ben Carson. Because they probably picked up something over the 32 years it's been on the air. Let's spin it again. I like that whole thing. I'll be honest that that's the one I was hoping for. It's landed on Spicer and the Pope. First, some background.

Sean Spicer, many flaws, but he is a devout Catholic. He goes to church. He wears the ash on Ash Wednesday. He does all the rituals. I'm not a Catholic. I'm a Jewish person, but there's ash on his forehead on Ash Wednesday. He is somebody who is clearly a devout Catholic and by all accounts was someone who was looking forward to meeting the Pope. I think that on the list of reasons he told himself it will be okay that I worked for Donald Trump. Like these are the things you get to do.

You work for the president. You get to go and you get to meet the Pope, something that would have been a lifelong dream come true for him. He was not allowed in the meeting. Instead, Trump went in with Ivanka, Jared, Hope Hicks, and Dan fucking Scavino, the social media editor, who believes that it is the job of the social media editor for the president of the United States to take

clip art of UK flags and tweet whatever the fuck. And then, on top of all that, so not only does Sean not get to meet the Pope, there is a day of leaks about how embarrassing it is for him and how much it hurt his feelings. Don't you dare.

Don't you dare. Don't you dare. Ah, Sean Spicer. And I'll tell you, I did the exact same thing. I was like, I'm feeling for this guy. I'm feeling myself feeling for Sean Spicer. That's a tough blow. But then you think, well, you know what? That's exactly who you work for.

Donald Trump doesn't give a shit about you. Like, I will tell you, Barack Obama, look, in the insane reality where Sean Spicer is Barack Obama's press secretary, the series of hilarious events that led to that, he would make an exception. He'd fight to get him in because he cares about

what happens to the people around him because it's a human being with, like, a full-fledged array of emotions, like compassion and understanding and empathy and anything that stems beyond the ramblings of a dotty old narcissistic lunatic. But that's not what happened. No. Sean didn't

meet the Pope. Sean is gonna turn. I'll tell you why. Can I tell a personal story? Oh. May I? Please do. Thank you. I was on a sketch show. It's a shitty sketch show called Mad TV years ago.

Oh, stop it. It's terrible. Don't you dare, Bobby Lee. You better stop it. Don't you dare. If you don't stand up for you, who's going to stand up for you? All right.

I'm just going to tell the story. Is that fine? Yeah. So the first week I was there, I knew Jackie Chan was going to be on the show, so I wrote the executive producer a letter.

May I be in the sketch? Right? And then two months went by. I to be on the show so I wrote the executive producer a letter may I be in the sketch and then two months went by I saw it on the air and I was not in the sketch so I shit in his fucking office he's going to turn I really did I took a dump in the executive producer's office and I got in so much trouble

I had to get a lawyer and everything but producer's office and I got in so much trouble. I had to get a lawyer and everything, but it's fine. I didn't get fired. That's incredible source material. I feel like in politics, the equivalent of taking a dump in your boss's office is selling a book for two million and just laying it all out there.

And I think Sean's going to do that. Imagine being the ghost writer for Sean Spicer's tell all honestly I'll do it I'll do it I'll do it I'll leave it all behind me and Sean in a room for six months tell me all of it I don't care I'll do it

that's real that's not real the funny thing about the leaks coming out is I'm imagining Sean Spicer is so oblivious he has no idea like the White House is filled with leakers but he has no idea who they are and who he shouldn't talk to he hasn't figured it out there's so many things leak about him so he feels depressed that he didn't meet the Pope so he's probably walking

around the White House talking to anybody about it. Like, he's talking to Becky at the water cooler. He sees Tom over there at the copy machine. He's like, I really wish I'd gotten to meet the Pope. And then when he turns around, Tom's like, I'm in Washington Post. Like, he could fit. If Sean Spicer were a smart person, he could remember everyone he told that he was sad about not meeting the Pope and figure out the leakers. Yeah. Is Sean Spicer getting fired?

It's really interesting. There's a lot of people that seem to think so, including journalists at Fox News and Laura Ingraham, actively campaigning for the job every single day. Can I say one more thing about Spicer? I have this daydream that Trump signing the guest book in Israel is like actually also a dig. And he's like having so much fun here with all my friends. Not including you, Sean. That's right. The all my friends thing is like a real dig.

All my best friends are here. Anyone who's not. The all my friends thing. Yeah. With all of my, all my best friends are here. Anyone who's not here isn't my friend. He used the Holocaust Memorial to make a dig at Sean Spicer. In my heart, I believe this.

Oh, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So just to wrap up the Sean Spicer of it all, we don't feel bad for him. No. We think it's indicative of

the moral compromise he's made it's like you make a deal with the devil you don't get to meet the Pope and that's the rant wheel I want to thank my guests Alison Tolman, Ira Madison the third

and Bobby Lee in the yellow hat. Thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you for coming out. That's Love It or Leave It. We'll see you next week. Before we go, this is our tenth episode, and I want to thank the people that have helped us make this show work pretty well pretty fast. I want to thank

Lee Eisenberg, who he and I had this idea for the show together. I want to thank Jesse McClain, who he and I had this idea for the show together I want to thank Jesse McLean who helped figure this out with us Tanya Sominator Elisa Gutierrez who just joined Crooked Media and who is who on her first week ran this whole operation I want to thank the band Sure Sure for the catchiest fucking theme song in the world I want to thank Sam Koppelman for doing a bunch of research like two hours for the show and I'm like I need quotes uh. I want to thank Sam Koppelman for doing a bunch of research like two hours before the show and I'm like, I need quotes.

And I want to thank the improv for having us. And that's it for this week's Love It or Leave It. We'll see you guys next week from D.C., a live show in D.C. Thank you.