Lovett or Leave It - Masters of War-a-Lago

Episode Date: April 8, 2017

Ike Barinholtz, Neal Brennan and Jessica Yellin join to talk Gorsuch, Bannon v. Kushner, atrocious Syria punditry, and that Pepsi ad because we're only human. Plus, Jon attacks S-Town's... critics?

It's an absurd song. I don't even know how I allowed this to happen except that I love it and I'm really glad it's a song. I want to bring out our guest, Ike Barinholtz. This is his intro. He acts, he writes for Mindy and he harasses Devin Nunes on Twitter. Ike, come out. Devin Nunes on Twitter. Come out. We have Neil Brennan,

comedian, his special Three Mics is on Netflix right now, and it's awesome. And it's deeply, and it's not, get out, come out. Neil, it's time. It's time, but it's, on the special, Neil, he has one

mic for comedy, one mic for one-liners, and one mic... And one I just talked about Syria. And one mic where he just kind of bares his soul. And I saw you do an interview about this where you talked about how it's really helping you with ladies. Thank you. Hey, by the way, before we go any further, the way you do an intro, you say their credits first and then you make it like a big celebration on their name. See, these are great notes and we are working on episode three. This is sort of a backstage thing after, you know, great show.

You do a compliment sandwich. You say loved what a week. Love the segment. Quick note on the intro. Our next. You know what? I'm going to do it without saying. Quick note on the intro. Overall, great show. You know what? I'm going to do it right now. I'm going to put it into practice right now.

Our next guest is a former chief political correspondent for CNN. Doesn't this feel better already? It feels fantastic. She's one of the smartest people and funniest people around, Jessica Yellen. Yes. I feel relieved of the pressure to be funny so thank you alright let's get into it

what a week guys what a week so let's start with Neil Gorsuch first of all I did look up how to pronounce it properly and he did say in his testimony that it's pronounced Gorsuch that is so frustrating it's pronounced Gorsuch. That is so frustrating.

It's a spondee, right? The emphasis is the same on both the first and second syllable. What is the word? A spondee? A spondee. Go on. It's a poetry term. Anyway, his name is deeply... Along with the fact that his policy is sort of view on the Constitution

means that truckers should die in the cold. it's one of his most annoying qualities about him he uh fucking sucks i don't know if you knew that but he's really uh he's to the right of scalia they say which is that's gonna be fun that's amazing uh so uh gorsuch has confirmed they did it mcconnell invokes the nuclear option to change the Senate rules. Mitch McConnell, by the way, this week, he formally transitioned into a turkey. I think he became a turkey. Yeah, yeah. He identifies as turkey.

Yeah, he does. He's a spokesman now for the turkey community, trans-turkey community. So I want to start with Jessica because you are a nonpartisan person on the panel. Democrats are saying this is a crazy aberration, a disaster for the Senate and it's called the nuclear option for a reason. Do you think it's a big deal? Do you think it's a big deal that the Senate has gotten to the point where they've eliminated the filibuster for judicial appointments? Yes, there's no question that's a big deal. It was the check they instituted to let the minority have a say and it was sort of everything had been eroded,

all these other sort of conventions of bipartisan cooperation. But this held. There was always a filibuster on the Supreme Court to nod to the importance of minority say. To wipe that away is a massive change. And the truth is, it could hurt Republicans down the line, because they're the ones who've employed the filibuster more. But for now, it just shows there's really zero effort to cooperate in the Senate going forward. Yeah. I think the thing that's stupid, why are they lifetime appointments? Isn't that like the dumbest? Yeah, it's the dumbest.

It's the only thing in government that is like, no, you get it. How long do you want it? We let God decide. Yeah. It's so weird. It is strange. thing in government that is like no you get it from how long you want it we let God decide yeah so weird is strange like it was a rule written when it was like oh no you got a cut on your arm too and that was like a long life yeah we do not have antibiotics there's no neosporin yeah I send Ruth Bergensberg antioxidants every day yeah wellness send her like a wellness. I want her to be well.

Yes. I hope that she's not using a step-in tub. I hope that she can. I hope that there's no ledge. She's got the one with the door. Yeah, there's got to be a door or just a nice open. You know what I mean? There's a lot of problem with that door, by the way,

which is you still have to climb into it because you can't open a door with a full tub. I've thought about this a lot. Well, I guess you could just be patient. Yeah, or you just have to sit there and read the paper for 40 minutes. While it drains. Yeah. And you prune.

You have to be patient on both sides. Let's really dig into this. You have to be patient on both sides. You have to enter the tub, wait for it to fill up, do what you do, then go, all right, I need to be somewhere in an hour and a half. Drain the tub, drain the swamp.

She is a patient woman. She sits next to Clarence Thomas and doesn't bump him on the fucking head. She's a pregnant angel. She's an angel in heaven. Yes. So, the thing that I've been thinking about is Hillary Clinton's president. A Republican. What?

Wait, what happened? I think about that a fair amount. I bet. But no, but so the Senate Democratic minority, or the Senate, we have a Democratic majority in the Senate, and we're trying to get a Hillary Clinton appointment through. And Mitch McConnell is once again demonstrating unprecedented obstruction, which is part of what led to the Reid nuking the first part of the filibuster back in 2013. And we go through this whole thing in reverse.

It should be noted it was after like 55 appointment attempts by the Democrats and they shut all of them down. And then finally they went to filibuster. You don't come at me trying to say that I'm being too easy on Mitch McConnell. You don't come into this show. My fault. My fault. Tell me that. No disrespect. I'll go through the whole thing. I'll start at Bork. And what actually happened

with Bork will go from Bork to Clinton nominees being held up by who? Mitch McConnell, I believe. Strangely though, friend of the pod. He listens to this show. He's one of my best friends and it has been so hard. Right before I got here,

he tweeted at me, good luck tonight. That's kind of what he sounds like. It was a video? I do lots of, it was. He sent me a video. He sent you a video.

You can do that on Twitter. Good luck tonight. And then there was like, a turkey flew at him. Yes, yes. But if a Democrat were to, if the Democratic president were to do this

with a Democratic Senate, I don't think we care. I think we're cool with it. Well, yeah, that's the, that's the rub of all this stuff is that as much as we hate, Democrats hate, when Republicans do it,

if the shoe were on the other foot, it would be the, it would be fine. It's like when people said, if Hillary had walked around and said she grabbed guys by the dicks. Oh my God, that thought. People on the left would have been like,

eh. I feel like it would have I think people would have thought it would have been cool. We'd have been like, that's a side of her we hadn't seen. Who is the real Hillary? Oh, she's like a dick-grabbing weirdo. That's what we've been missing. That's the piece we need. She really lost it on the dick-grabbing

demo in Wisconsin yeah and I think that could have pushed us into the W the white dick working class doesn't make any sense that doesn't make sense the dick in class

the dick in class I'm gonna go to my next card no comment anything else on Gorsuch everybody feel good? I just will always miss that, like, 20 minutes during his confirmation hearing when him and Ted Cruz were just, it was like the fucking notebook. It was just like these two white, corny motherfuckers being like, well, I'll tell you what, Mr. Senator Cruz. I've never thought about that.

And Ted Cruz was like, shut up, both of you. The thing that's so sad about Gorsuch is, you know, it's just a stolen seat. And we just got beat, guys. We lost. We lost. Merrick Arlen's out there at Monster.com right now trying to get a fucking job.

This is horrible. I think Democrats gave it up. And if what roles were reversed, the Republicans would have such a better message fighting back against this. They would be killing it right now. I wish we could trick them into telling us what it would be. Do you think that they'll try to put the law back on the books, the filibuster? I think once it's gone, it's gone.

Was it a law or was it just like a – No, it was a practice. They have all these weird traditions so well the thing that's scary about the filibuster now is now that the filibuster for traditional appointments and the filibuster for executive appointments is gone republicans have control of the senate they know that trump's not popular they know they may lose the house they're going to start itching to get rid of the one for the legislative stuff too and they're already you already see people so we don't have to get too into the weeds here but reconciliation is a budget process where you can

do things with 50 votes, and they're already starting to try to use that for more and more, and you see some sort of conservative saying, why are we letting the parliamentarian what we can do with reconciliation? Anything! Ram it through! Ram it through! When I was still in TV, I had to do a piece once explaining the filibuster, and I was not allowed to use the word filibuster

because it would bore the audience, so I'm incredibly impressed that you just used the word filibuster, reconciliation, and legislative process. But make no mistake, the audience. So I'm incredibly impressed that you just used the word filibuster reconciliation and legislative process. But make no mistake, the audience is bored. I could never do that. I don't think so. I think that was fucking blast. It was the best night of their lives.

Give it up for reconciliation. These people had to buy tickets in like five fucking minutes. They're fans. All right, moving on to our next topic. All right, I'm just going to read this topic because I did not beat this. This topic is Ballistic Cucks versus Bannon. That's the best name ever for any stigma ever. Can you explain?

What does Cucks really mean? I'm so confused by it. So real quick, just so people know, the title is a parody to a 2002 film called Ballistics X vs. Sever. Thank you. A film starring Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas. Exactly. I want to educate you,

so now you can enjoy this. I'm really glad that you did that, and I felt good about it. I feel like a fucking loser. As for the term cuck, it is a combination of the word cuckold and conservative. Oh. the front row is learning things as we speak and uh it what it is a term of uh of that internet man children uh used to attack

republicans that they don't think are falling in line i also think there's when they say cuck there's a word that sounds yeah that's what i thought they wanted to say that maybe has an eye there's a few words because every time i've seen the word cuck appeared it's a word that sounds like cuck that they wanted to say that maybe has an I in there. There's a few words. Because every time I've seen the word cuck appear, it's to a Jewish person. Oh. I wasn't thinking that at all. I've never seen a Jew call someone else a cuck.

But I've seen lots of non-Jews call Jews cucks. Well, it's interesting you say that because... Can you put this on the board? John, bring up the board real quick. But anyway, it was a term this week used by Steve Bannon to refer to Jared Kushner to your point. Allegedly, says the journalist.

By the way, I run a media company now. I am a journalist. It is so easy to be a journalist. That's my discovery. But anyway. Just say what you think. Steve Bannon, by the way, Steve Bannon now is officially Robert the Bruce's father in Braveheart.

That creepy man whose face is falling off, who just gives him treasonous advice constantly. That's who he's become. So there's been a lot of White House infighting, and because this is the leakiest White House ever, it has spilled out into the public. And one of the things that spilled out to the public this week is that, allegedly,

Steve Bannon referred to Jared Kushner as a cuck and a globalist. To your point. Yeah, that is Jewish. And then, on top of that, Bannon was removed from the NSC, and there are rumors that he's going to be removed from the White House, in part because Trump does not like when people call him President Bannon,

which is hilarious. We should all stop tweeting those jokes. We should stop doing it. Because it seems like it's really aggravating, Steve. Axios, which has great access because they're very nice to Donald Trump. Cool publication. But Axios reports that the Bannonites believe that the liberals have staged a coup. Jared reportedly thinks that the Bannonites are clinically nuts.

That was his... That was what... They are. I mean, I don't know if they've been diagnosed. I don't know what you'd look up in the DSM-5, but they're out of their minds. And finally, and this is my favorite part of the reporting on the infighting this week, because Trump is such a fickle boss, and no one knows where they stand, and there's so much leaking, they're all afraid to leave Trump's side.

And so meetings can't be scheduled without Trump, because people are afraid they won't be with Trump when Trump makes decisions. So they're like a childhood soccer team following the ball around. Well, that interview with Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haber, there were like 15 people standing around him. Oh, what the president means to say. It was like a recording studio. Yo, Donald, that shit is hot right now. recording studio.

Yo, Donald, that shit is hot right now. And one final, apparently Steve Bannon got furious at Jared Kushner in a meeting, reportedly, according to Maggie Haberman, who we trust implicitly. She's a great reporter, but also, Trump talks to her. Yeah. And just like, he calls her.

What's funny is when she has, like, she's from the New York Times. Yeah, yeah. So I wonder if she ever goes like, why are you calling me if I work for the failing? Like, do you know that you're contradicting yourself? I have a theory on this. I'm obsessed with this topic. The people who reject him the most, he chases. So it goes counter to all media narratives

about kissing up to get access. The Washington Post is tough to him, so he leaks to Robert Costa, who's on their staff. The New York Times is mean to him, so he leaks to the New York Times. He's obsessed with chasing the ones who hate him. It's almost as though in childhood, he learned

that you have to seek love from someone who withholds it. I don't know. I don't want to get too into it. It's the weeds. But anyway, Bannon said to Jared in a meeting, here's the reason there's no middle ground, Bannon growled.

Maggie Haberman with a great writer, too. You're a Democrat. Which is an insult to these people. Those are all true, I think. Isn't Jared a Democrat? Yeah, he has been. He had been till now. He's going to solve the Middle East, though, guys.

That picture of him in that flak jacket where he looks like one of the fucking bad guys and sent him a woman. Really, good luck, good luck. Jesus, lose the jacket. What the... I don't know. Yeah, I mean, you don't put the vest over the jacket.

Did you put the vest under the jacket? Do you think he was talking to me? Like, what do I do here? Do I leave the jacket? I'm going to leave the jacket on. No, no, no. Take the jacket off. Look more casual.

Relax. Talk to the troops. He's like, got it. And the last minute, he's like, ha, ha. It always sucks when you realize you put a smaller layer over a bigger layer. You just are uncomfortable all day. But anyway, White House, super fun place to work right now. Here's the question.

So you have this divide between the Bannon people, the Stephen Miller people, the kind of populists. Then you have this really kind of liberal-leaning wing, which is Ivanka and Jared. Is it crazy to just ask the question, are Jared and Ivanka maybe quietly like the heroes in a story that we're not telling? I want to say no, and I think I come down on a hard no. But are we in such a dark place that we have to look for them to be kind of a source of rebuke to these populist nationalist influences? In a world of darkness, perhaps they are the light. That was beautiful.

Hey, is this Maggie Haberman? Is this Maggie Haberman? That was beautiful. It's not. Is this Maggie Haberman? You said her name was Jessica, I thought. That's the story they leak. I mean, I think that's the story they put out,

is that they're going to be the saviors. They're going to course correct him. They are the hope. That was my question with the health care thing, was when he kept saying, like, I may work with the Democrats. There was a part of me that was like, he might work, it really wouldn't make a difference to him as long as he won because he doesn't, he's not an ideologue.

He's just like, what works live? Like, what worked live? That's his whole thing. And then I'm just going to play the hits. Whatever he said on the trail, now that's how he governs. And then it's like, alright, well that shit doesn't work anymore so now I'm going to be a Democrat.

It's really strange because he campaigned as this populist, this Bannon style, right? Which is because it worked, what worked last at his rallies. And then he gets into office and there's Priebus and you have Paul Ryan on the Hill and he kind of pursues a straight down the line old fashioned conservative

agenda with an executive order sprinkled on top for evil and but it's not working his approval rating is in the toilet he's apparently furious at Bannon Priebus may be on the way out and by the way just

I need some kind of a countdown clock because a year ago I said that Reince Priebus would have to leave politics in the middle of the night with what he could carry. And the fact that he is now White House Chief of Staff is not just reprehensible, it makes me look dumb. And so I just,

my defense mechanism to say, I'm just ahead of the story still. So I'm just watching that. I'm watching that burner. You'll be borne out. But the question is, is a course correction possible? You know, is it possible for Trump to adjust? You know, one thing that Ivanka claims to care about is climate change, right?

But he has that dumb thing where he goes, for every one regulation we put in, we get rid of two. As if he's like, I've thought this through, and I have a plan. It's just a weird, like, I don't like regulations. Or he's like, this is great news for the 70,000 coal miners. The rest of the planet, you're fucked. So it's like, I don't know where Ivanka's influence. Because they came to see him live. They came to see him live.

They bought the merch. It's like the band that gives tickets to their fans who are on their list before. That is correct. I said that to you upstairs, you told me to run with it on the stage. Yeah, yeah. Now, this happened.

So, there's no evidence, right, that this infighting has resulted in any positive change in a more liberal direction. Nothing. There's no shred of evidence that any of this has resulted in anything positive. I think if Bannon leaves, that's a huge positive. Him leaving the NSC is a plus.

But I mean, it's, you know, nominal. But is that just Trump just doing it for the optics? Is he really, like, after the NSC meeting, he's like, Steve, here's what you missed. This is going on. We're going to bomb the fuck out of Yemen. Is he still kind of... I feel like Trump just says things and doesn't do them. I think we don't know. I think we don't know. There really is a chance that Bannon may be on the fuck out of Yemen. Is he still kind of... I feel like Trump just says things and doesn't

do them. I think we don't know. I think we don't know. There really is a chance that Bannon may be on the way out. I've never seen someone so casual in the White House. It's awful. It's fucking awful. The good news about this development with Bannon is that it seems like some of the White House is starting to play by traditional political rules. If you...

Going back to when he took office, I was predicting that Bannon would be out within the year because he clashes with Kushner. And in the end, the son-in-law wins. So it's only a matter of time till he has to go. Trump didn't know any of these people. Two things. He didn't know any of the people and he didn't know what the job was. Right. So now he's on the job with a bunch of people who he has no loyalty to the thing on Trump is he's super loyal but if you like Bannon has given him bad advice well the problem is get him out of here Bannon is giving him great advice to appeal to the base exactly yeah to appeal to the all right

if he and Bannon break up doesn't Breitbart turn on Trump fully and start... It's all very exciting. I know, I know. It's just like, you know, it's like carb-free pasta. Like, it seems impossible. Like, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. In closing, no policy changes. It's a bunch of infighting. It's super fun to talk about.

We have no idea what's going to happen. That's it for What a Week. Okay. What a Week. That's it. When we come back, too stupid to be true. Uh-oh. It is our third show.

We never did a test show. This is the second time we've done this. I'm making it up. I've never hosted third show. We never did a test show. This is the second time we've done this. I'm making it up. I've never hosted a show. You didn't tell me Favreau was one of the Winklevoss twins. Look at those guys. So, we have... So, Jon Favreau is here with his more handsome brother, Andy Favreau,

which is super fucking annoying. What a good-looking family. Do you know how fucking frustrated it is to have to go on television with John and Tommy? Why do you think I lost 10 pounds? Also, the brother, Andy, is a great actor and he's going to be much richer than his brother is going to be.

Your brother's better looking and he's going to be wealthier and have a better life. Well, let's see how Crooked Media does. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Yes. here and have a better life. Well, let's see how crooked media does, alright? Let's not get ahead of ourselves, alright? Yes! This is a segment we call Too Stupid to be True. Here's how this works.

Each of our panelists have beneath their chairs a piece of paper that they should pick up. On it, it has a little bit of an explanation and then a quote that may or may not have been uttered by a pundit this week. Two of them are too stupid to be true.

One of them is true. And it will be up to Brandon, who barely made it to this show but tweeted at me to ask if he could get in late. That's true. And who I believe skipped a Lakers game for this. Wow. Yeah. It was actually worse than that.

We were guests of Genie Bus, and I lied and said that we were still on the flight and got delayed. Hey, Brandon, you know this airs. Yeah, I'm hoping she's not. In retrospect, we're hoping she's not a friend of the pod. So we're shooting for her. Very cool. Thank you for being here. All right, we're going to play Too Stupid to Be True. Here true here we go we're gonna start with ike yes sir in response to trump's decision to launch a military

attack on syria quote i think the moment when someone becomes president of the united states is the moment when they first use military might end quote that's that's really stupid very stupid statement is what that is it's like what does that even mean all right quote number two neil in response to the call for inclusion of minority women alongside bill nye in the upcoming march for science quote so what they're really saying is they hate white men more than they hate global warming. That's amazing. That can't be real. That can't be true. That one feels too stupid.

That feels like a gimme. I could see Jeffrey Lord saying that. Brandon, where's your head at on one or two? The first one sounds like Wolf Blitzer, honestly. There was that thing last night when he was talking about it, so I feel like that could be true. The second one I would like to believe is not true. Okay, alright, so that's where you're at. And finally, Jessica?

In response to tough questions asked of Neil Gorsuch during the confirmation process, quote... Gorsuch. Sorry, stand over. Thank you, I stand corrected. And do it correctly, yes. Did you watch any of those Gorsuch hearings? I don't want to compare the judge to Jesus, but it was exactly the same thing. That feels too stupid to be true, doesn't it?

Brandon, what do you think? I think number two. You think number two is the true one? No, it's not true. It's not true. Do you think that's the fake one? Yes. Right, that's the fake one.

The fake one. Now, I should point out that last week, they were not true. Is not true. Do you think that's the fake one? Yes. So that's right. That's the fake one. Now, I should point out that last week, they were all true. And it seems like it's impossible that we would do that two weeks in a row. That I would look you in the face, Brandon, who came here instead of, I believe, a Lakers game, and lie to you. But I did. They're all true. you but I did these are clips of John Hylam in on Morning Joe Tucker Carlson on his lovely program and that guy you may have heard of this week named Bill O'Reilly Jesse let's roll the clip I think that the moment when someone

becomes president states at the moment when they first really use American military might that's the moment looks exactly they like him or don't like him that's the moment you stand back and say okay that That's the moment when everyone looks and says, do they like him or don't like him? That's the moment where you stand back and say, okay, that guy's the president of the United States now. Bill Nye is actually an engineer. He's not really a science guy, but apparently the folks that are organizing this march got a little bit of a kerfuffle

because they were very concerned that they were projecting this image of stereotypes that the only scientists that are out there are white guys. So what they're really saying is they hate white men more than they hate global warming. Did you watch any of those Gorsuch hearings? I don't want to compare the judge

to Jesus. It was exactly the same thing. And that's too stupid to be true. Brandon, thank you. Thank you. Now for a segment we call... There's like stupid to be true. Brandon, thank you. Thank you. Now for a segment we call... There's, like, so much going on. How many of you guys know about a special election

in the Kansas 4th District? A couple of you. Interesting. So, Mike Pompeo resigns his seat to become CIA director, okay? And that leaves an opening in the Congress. And it's an opening in a just completely red district, a district that went to Donald Trump by 30 points. So nobody cares about it.

Nobody's paying attention. Well, then something interesting happened. People started voting. And Democrats are showing up in far greater numbers than anybody expected. Turns out that obviously everybody's dealing with the effects of Trump on turnout. But also Sam Brownback, the governor of Kansas, is despised. And that's not like a pardon thing.

People have been saying, I said people don't like him on Twitter and a bunch of people from Kansas said, no, no, no, we hate him. He's the least popular governor in the country and he just did something to make himself more unpopular, which is veto the Medicaid expansion that was passed by the kansas legislature um so what's happened now is democrats are turning out in huge numbers to vote in this district to the point where in a

district uh where republicans traditionally win by 30 points the national republican campaign committee is donating put a hundred thousand into the race. Mike Pence did a robocall. Ted Cruz is showing up. I said, that'll help. People love Ted Cruz. They're like, where he goes, I will follow. So, here's the thing. The Democrat running is a guy named James

Thompson. He's a civil rights lawyer. Can we get love at bigger carts next week? So I ran out of the larger carts. He's a civil rights lawyer. Can we get love at bigger carts next week? So I ran out of the larger carts. It's our third show. No, I know. It's fun to make fun of you, though. It's fun to make fun of you.

I think it's going really well, Neil. You're great. And I gotta say, there's so much going on the title of it really captures who you are as a person. Thank you. The way you say it, say it again. There's just like so much going on. That's who you are as a person. Thank you. The way you say it, say it again. There's just like so much going on. That's who you are.

So, James Thompson is running. He's a civil... I'm going to do it without the fucking cards. James Thompson is a civil rights lawyer. He's an army veteran. He also is like the real deal. He was homeless as a kid. Used the GI Bill to get through college. He's mounting a real campaign. He actually has a small chance of winning. He's probably going to lose, guys the GI Bill to get through college. He's mounting a real campaign.

He actually has a small chance of winning. He's probably going to lose, guys. We just have to face that. This is not a place where we ignore hard truths. Love it or leave it. That's what we do on Pod Save America. But there is a chance, and they need help. So I'm going to use the card because I'm going to read a website.

Is that okay, Neil? Yep, please. Any other opinions? No, I'll let you know. Vote jamesthompson.com to volunteer or donate. The race, the election is on Tuesday. So this is happening right fucking now. And that's a segment we call There's So Much Going On.

So wait, what do we have to do? Help this guy win in this district. Donate money to him. Or volunteer if you're there. Vote jamesthompson.com. The information is on his website. How much work do I have to do with this fucking guy? Go to the website. Figure it out. I've done plenty. Hundreds of thousands

of people will now do as I say. John, do you think this is going to my head at all? Or don't do it because he's going to lose. It's going to be close. The bad guys sometimes win. He could win. He could win. He could win.

We can help him win. Yeah. Yeah. So, I don't know if you can hear John shouting epithets from the crowd. But is it wrong to say that he... I shouldn't have said he's probably going to lose. That's the wrong thing to say. He has a tough road ahead.

That's how we spin it. You know what? That's why you're the master. Tough road ahead, but we can help him. There's so much going on. When we come back, a segment called, OK Stop. And we're back!

This is OK Stop, where we watch a clip And we're back. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is OK Stop, where we watch a clip and we stop it to rant about it and talk about what's going on. This week, it is a clip of Fareed Zakaria, who was asked the question, what changed because Trump took action in Syria? There's a 10% chance John's going to rush the stage and grab a mic, and I do want that to happen, because he was so infuriated by this, he almost exploded. So what changed? Because Trump took this action. Let's watch the clip. It's day 78 of the Trump presidency. What changed last night?

I think Donald Trump became President of the United States stop first of all why do people on CNN keep saying that over and over again it's a stupid crazy fucking sentence he's been President the whole god damn time I said it's like

you're not a parent until you hit your kid. Nonsense. Candidate Trump had said that he would never get involved in the Syrian civil war. He told President Obama you cannot do this without the authorization of Congress. He seemed unconcerned with global norms. Okay, stop. Stop it there.

Do you think he understands what the term authorization from Congress means? I don't think he knows. Trump? Yeah, I don't think he does. I think it means, like, can we call over there? Yeah. Call them. Tell them we're going to war. I just love the idea that you become president when you do the

opposite of what you campaigned on. That's how you know. That's actually more apt. It is true. That's way truer than what he said. He's getting comfortable. He's a total hypocrite finally. Yeah, he's a politician.

President Trump recognized that the president of the United States does have to act to enforce international norms, does have to have this broader moral and political purpose. President Trump realized, as every president has for many decades now, that presidents always believe they have inherent legal authority as commander-in-chief and they don't need to go to a pesky Congress. Pesky Congress. They don't need to go to a pesky Congress. They have inherent legal authority.

That is so crazy. And, you know, Trump, we that is so crazy and you know trump we we're all like everyone you know everybody on twitter is like trump's breaking norms you know this is not normal that's not normal we've accepted something totally crazy the idea that like the foreign policy establishment has come to the conclusion that presidents don't need congress they can do whatever they want they can they can bomb countries they can they can attack other places without any kind of authorization. And that Congress is pesky.

And that's how you know a person's a real leader. That they're ignoring Congress. I'm sorry. Excuse me. When I covered the White House and you worked in it, you were the first one to call Congress pesky. I mean, this is... But he calls everything pesky. That's just what he's... This is just an outside-the-system perspective. When you're in the system, the White House hates Congress.

I mean, that's just true. No, I think that's totally right. So I think that's fair because I think what's fair about it is this is a bipartisan problem. Like this is a norm that was broken by both sides for a long time. This is a norm broken by Bill Clinton in Kosovo and Barack Obama in his term. And now it's being broken by Donald Trump. And the thing that's so crazy about it, the thing that really bothers me about it, is if you say to Congress, that's so crazy about, the thing that really bothers me about it is if you say to Congress,

I want your approval, but technically I don't need it because of the magical powers of the Constitution, it takes the onus off of them to do anything and it becomes a vicious circle. And the other part of it is we just spent a month talking about how we need a judge on the Supreme Court who doesn't invent rights inside of the Constitution and doesn't have, you know, penumbras of privacy rights and all the rest that they claim is liberal activism. And then they find in the Constitution powers that do not exist for the President to virtually do whatever he wants or she wants on foreign policy.

And it's fucking nuts. I also feel like the norms that you were just talking about that were chipped away through the Clinton-Obama years were like it's almost like you have a bathroom where it's like you write someone's name on the bathroom wall and that's like another chipping away the norm and now Trump is just like hitting a sledgehammer there's no more bathroom there's no more building

there's nothing so it's like there are no norms left even the fucking norms in La Cienega is gone I think we saved that norms by the way that joke only works within a mile radius of here. I know. Should we watch the rest of this clip?

Yeah. For the 70th time, they want military force. It's entirely true that candidate Trump felt differently. Candidate Obama felt differently than President Obama on these issues. This is the shittiest episode. Stop saying there's a candidate Trump and a President Trump. The President Trump is still telling people he tried to fuck Nancy O'Dell.

You know what I mean? He's still doing the same shit. There's no change. There's one guy. There's no change. There's one big, fat, fucking old asshole. And the shit he was doing at these hellscape rallies in Georgia and wherever the fuck,

in August and September, that's the same guy in the White House right now. There's no difference. Also, since when does CNN air Hollywood Squares? Is that Gilbert Gottfried? Wait, can I? I'll tell you something about this. Is that Madam up there?

We used to call this the show of force or the muscle flex. And I used to. I had this fight always. This is called the muscle flex. We need you live for the muscle flex at the top of the show, which means you have to run out, like if you're in Iowa and it's maybe two degrees, and stand there for 30 minutes so at some point they might come to you in a box like this so they can show their show of force across the country.

They believe that it's like a sign of their power to have eight people in a box. Correct. We can find eight people to be on television. That's CNN's show of force. It's like Kim Jong-un having rockets, like a rocket break. So wait, do you know when you're on camera? No, it's the worst. No, after the fact, they'll say, you were just on camera.

That's my nightmare. What is interesting is even the way in which he justified his actions, President Trump did, for the first time really as president he talked about international norms, international rules, about America's role in enforcing justice in the world. It was a two-minute statement at Mar-a-Lago that was barely audible that made no sense. And it was, yeah, the audio was like, and I want to talk to you about the medical children. Come on guys, get him some clean equipment, get a room with nice acoustics.

That's Florida, man. He announced a war on public access television. He announced a war and he sounded like the fucking guy from Carvel Cookie Puss. You know what I mean? Like, I'm on the run. You're gonna stop doing this. Get a Carvel cake. I'm fired up. I know, I get it. I love it. I'm having a great

time. Trump sounds like Will Forte to me. Like, I would just like to say that I would like to be the Hamilton, this so called Obama he sounds exactly like Trump sounds like Forte's character Hamilton who gave a speech

at Seth Meyers wedding and said that Seth's wife had perfect tits perfect tits I'm looking at your wife she's got long coldish legs I just want to know that this is the first time two members of my panel reminisced about a private joke from Seth Meyers' wedding. I love that.

I loved it. Hopefully not the last. Now I feel like I'm on the outside looking in. Yeah. And it's a great feeling. Let's finish this thing. Since Harry Truman, but it was the kind of rhetoric that President Trump had pointedly never used,

either on the campaign trail, nor in his inaugural. So I think that... Hold it, hold it. How much would you pay in cash to see Donald Trump try to spell rhetoric? I would give $10,000 to Cherry. I bet he couldn't do it. He's got four R's in there. I think he would just, like like try to do Siri or something.

Yeah, I mean he's got a hundred word vocabulary. It's a hundred words. Yeah, I'm so sorry. Morphing and a kind of education of Donald Trump. So that's the end of the clip. People just need to stop expecting Donald Trump to become a different person. You're gonna be disappointed. Every time.

It's almost like he's not the president. It's like President Barack Obama that sound right. Even President George Bush. Whatever. But it's almost like, and Donald Trump as the president. Yes.

You know what I mean? Exactly. It's like not... If it makes sense to you it means you've gone crazy. Even when he says his middle name, it sounds dumb. Donald J. And that's okay, stop.

Yes. Guys, when we come back, we're going to use the rant wheel. Now for a segment we call Rant Wheel. This week on the wheel, we have Mar-a-Lago, Jeff Zucker, the Pepsi ad, which I think has gotten

a bad rap. S-Town critics. You guys get it. You guys get it. The phrase, quote, grave concerns, end quote. That's amazing. Go-go in-flight Wi-Fi. That's an addition from yesterday. Bill O'Reilly and the Senate. Jesse, let's roll the wheel. It's landed on the Senate. I didn't see that coming. These fucking people. I feel like you should do a line of cocaine before you start.

To really get the Dennis Miller vibe up? The 80s Dennis Miller vibe of the rant wheel that we're going for, my idol. Why is it funny? It was a great show when I was a kid. It was a great show. I love that show. I went to a taping.

Did you really? Yeah. So the Senate. If we're going to have a stupid fucking Senate where North Dakota gets the same amount of votes as California, if that's how we're going to do it, these people can't just be a big,

a house, right? They can't just become the House of Representatives where everything's majority rules because then it's just an older, shittier version of the House. Anybody have anything to add? What do you mean by older? That they're older people because they hang on longer.

They've been alive longer? The Senate is the only job in the world where when you're 85 people say, are you thinking about doing this for another six years? Patrick Leahy is very old. I hear him in talks and I'm like, is he going to go right now? In the middle of this interview? Because he's old and they need young blood in there. Because old people are going to die soon.

And they have nothing at stick. Right? You're old. You're 64. You're very young, 64. You look fantastic. I look pretty good for my age, yeah. Thank you. He's a vegan, you know. Neil's a vegan. Yeah. I also... Having said, we had dinner one night

and I don't know what this says about your character, but we got a restaurant called Crossroads, which is down there. It's on Melrose. And we ordered kale Caesar as, you know, like the salad portion. And then we have dinner and Lovett goes,

I'm going to get a fucking kale Caesar for dessert. It's because there's nothing to eat there. Because I was hungry because there's no fucking protein. All right, great. This is actually going to be a rant about vegan restaurants. There's no protein.

You go to these places, and you have to, like, bring chicken with you, because you go to Gracias Madre on Melrose, and it's like, these nachos have a cashew cheese, and I'm hungry. They need a corkage fee for protein. Yeah, yeah. Neil? Are you a vegan? Yeah.

Oh. What do you guys want me to do with your stuff when you die way before me? Can I take over the podcast? I keep so much going on right now. I use your audio to set it up. I keep the wheel. We make some change.

Bigger cards. Let's roll the wheel. We make some change. Bigger cards. Let's roll the wheel again. It has landed on the Pepsi ad. I can rant on this. Do it. Here's my big rant at the moment which is there's very little acknowledgement of the fact that the resistance movement is 80% female and that women

and people of color are driving the resistance and this ad as objectionable as many people found it that it monetized and commercialized genuine sentiment and political passion at least acknowledged the faces and the identities of the people who are making this up. And I don't see that in mainstream news. I don't see it in mainstream media. And at least we're starting to see some representation of what's really happening.

Yeah, the problem was their sign said, join the conversation. No, no, I agree. The fake signs were funny. And they all applaud when a police officer has a Pepsi. No, no, I agree that that thing was ridiculous for all those reasons. You love the ad. No, no, I agree that that thing was ridiculous for all those reasons. You love the ad.

No. You think that Pepsi's getting a bad rap. You love the ad. I love Kendall Jenner. No, I don't. But I think that they're noticing that this is a powerful market that should be tapped and should be acknowledged and programmed to and let their voices heard. Well, I think that's right.

I think what's really interesting to me, actually, is I think the ad's insane. But it's interesting that we get mad about that because it's politics aren't subtle enough, right? Because we watch a Super Bowl full of bullshit political ads that are trying to use politics to lend to their brand. And we're like, we don't mind because we either agree with it or it's kind of nice. It's better production values

for us. But Kendall Jenner does something stupid in the ad and all of a sudden we're like, this is too much. It's exposed my lack of faith in a corporate entity having a viewpoint. Right, but also, who's relying on Pepsi for moral guidance? That was my thing. The entire generation.

Why are you looking to A, Pepsi for moral guidance, and B, if you watch the commercial, the cops are just hanging out. That's the thing. They're not, the cops are just hanging out. They're not, that's the thing is, they're not protesting the cops.

Also, they look like security guards on like Magnum PI. Also, if that commercial had any reality to it, the minute she handed the cop the Pepsi,

he'd go, oh, I thought it was Coke. Never mind. I've never, Pepsi is not okay. It's not an acceptable substitution for Coca-Cola.

I'd rather take an RC. Pepsi out again. It has landed on Jeff Zucker. Reminder, as a matter of principle, we do not prepare for the rant wheel. Can somebody please Google, while I start, the quote that Jeffrey Zucker offered about why he puts people like Kayleigh McEnany and Jeffrey Lord on television? Because it was fucking despicable. And whoever gets it first, say, I have it, and you're going to read it. Because Jeffrey Zucker did this. There was a piece in New York Magazine about Jeffrey Zucker, who is the head of CNN.

And, Jessica, I'm sure you read it. Yes, I read it. Oh. I'm not biting on this. I've said my piece about CNN. I'm sorry. How long have you worked there for? I'm going to say what I think Jessica would have said.

So Jeff Zucker basically says that... John, can you come up here? Because I know that you have strong thoughts about it. Ladies and gentlemen, John Favreau. Hi. Thank you for coming. Is this what you look like having just gotten off a plane? Jesus, you're great.

I have to go on television with these faces. I know, I've seen it. It's not great. Okay. Neil. Neil. It's a character. It's secretly my Achilles heel, though.

We can go on about it. We have a whole thing. As Zucker sees it, his pro-Trump panelists are not just spokespeople for a worldview. They are, quote, characters in a drama, members of CNN's extended ensemble cast. Everybody says, oh, I can't believe you have Jeffrey Lord or Kayleigh McEnany. But you know what? Zucker told me with some satisfaction. They know who Jeffrey Lord and Kaylee McEnany are.

Okay, can I say something? That is a dis... Fuck that. Fuck you, Jeff Zucker. Let me say something. Hey, I'm a... Fuck you. Yeah, yes.

Jessica, I don't think you should have said that. Yes. I'm a hardworking guy. I pay my taxes, right? I love my kids. You look tired. I look tired because the little one kept me up last night. I don't think it's right that I'm subjected

to Jeffrey Lord. I don't think it's right. But it's like, respect my, you know, respect me. Don't make me watch Jeffrey Lord yell about bullshit. Well, you know, it was interesting. When I saw that comment, it was the first time I ever felt sympathy for Jeffrey Lord and Kaylee McEnany because, oh, they're being exploited by this guy.

Because they're, Jeffrey, Jeffff zucker is if kaylee mcinerney is exploiting us but jeff zucker is exploiting her because he knows she's stupid he knows jeffrey lord is full of fucking bullshit and is riding this trump wave to a celebrity he left behind decades ago uh but he doesn't care because it's not about them having integrity it's not about his network having integrity it's about ratings and about riding this moment and it's fucking despicable because it's not a game and it's not a show and it's a national emergency and he doesn't care and the worst thing is you have jake tapper who's doing great work yeah you have some amazing reporters there and i just feel bad that they have to like check in when they go to the one that's cnn locker room be like oh hey rick

santorum uh it is it is... CNN has become world-class journalists interviewing morons and goons. Also, if it's a drama, is it possible at the end of the season one of their cars will explode? Yes.

Kill them off, but not really. The worst part of it is it's like an IFC drama where nothing fucking happens. I don't even know what's on IFC. You know what I mean? I'm just saying not like a Showtime vibe.

Not a Game of Thrones vibe. It's not Billions. Right, it's no Billions. It's no Billions. We're talking about right now. There's one thing in the article that is worth noting, in addition,

which is it put on the record the fact that CNN was the first to cover Trump's rallies uninterrupted, did it the most, and led the way in driving all of cable to do this. And I think that no matter what happens in the future, no matter how stellar their reporting is for the next four years, no matter how phenomenal so many of their reporters are, history will show that they're the ones who led the media in this direction. And they have a huge responsibility. The management there does. I would like applause for that. Did you like that?

Let's do it one more time, and then we'll call it a day. I'm hoping for S-Town critics, because I want to make up... Yep. Yep. Yes. Listen, there are people saying a lot of outlandish and deeply unfair things about a podcast called s town uh i may have been one of them last week when i ranted about this serial and this american life production being released all at

once and swapping love it or leave it swampapping Love It or Leave It in the podcast ratings. Oh, it's so good. I have listened to every episode of S-Town. It's one of the best documentaries ever made. It's extraordinary. I'll cry right now thinking about it. It's a portrait of a life. If you haven't listened, you're making

a huge mistake. And here's the thing I want to say about it. If I can admit I was wrong, maybe you can admit you were wrong and if we can admit we're all wrong about something maybe things will start to change and that's the rant wheel that is it for this week's episode of Love It or Leave It. I want to thank Ike Barinholtz, Neil Brennan, and Jessica Yellen. Next week, Oprah is back. She's got a special announcement.

That's pretty exciting. Thank you guys for coming. Yes. I want more! I want more applause for our crowd! Thank you guys! ¡Gracias! Thank you.