Lovett or Leave It - Shut Down for What

Episode Date: January 20, 2018

Well, it happened. The partisan House bill fails, the bipartisan compromise can’t get a vote, talks continue into the morning, and the government shuts down. Plus big Russia developments, Stormy Daniels tells all, and Trump voters finally get some press. Moshe Kasher, Paola Mendoza, and Louis Virtel join Jon to break down the week as the votes unfold in real time. Also, what is going on with Justin Timberlake?

Hi guys! How's everybody doing? It is great to be back at the improv. I see merch. I see Americans. Two of my favorite things. This is exciting. As we are here right now, the bells in the Capitol are ringing. We are here right now. The bells in the Capitol are ringing. The air is thick with shutdown. So we are going to bring you updates throughout the show because literally right now, the partisan House bill failed in the Senate. What time is it, 8-ish?

Are we shut down or no? Okay. I want you to imagine a world in which what I was about to do was not talk about it. You're doing wonderfully. You're already having a great time. We are not yet,

the shutdown has not begun yet. If it is going to happen, it will start at midnight unless there is another delay. But we'll get into that. That's it. That's it on that. Love It or Leave It is going on tour. Next week, we're going to Portland, Seattle, and Oakland. Some tickets left in Portland.

We added a second show in Seattle due to incredible demand. A couple seats left there. Oakland sold out, so sorry. Tickets at crooked.com slash events. We're going to talk about the shutdown. We're going to play some games. Before we get to the rest of the show, it is important to note that the shutdown is serious. And a lot of people that reached out reach

have reached out to us over the last couple of weeks people who work for the government people who rely on a paycheck people who rely on government services so it is a big deal so I really want to make sure that as we talk about it we're not gonna make light of it but we are gonna make fun of some of these assholes so that's just something that we're gonna do but before that something else that happened this week is that the New York Times surrendered their op-ed page, their editorial page, to Trump voters. Did you guys see this? So before we bring out our panel, I did want to kick things off with a game about whether or not these Trump supporters have a voice in our politics.

So now for a game we call White Mirror. Would anyone out there like to play White Mirror? Hi. What's your name? I'm Tina. Hi, Tina. Hi. Great shirt. Thank you. How are you doing?

I'm doing fine. Hi. Great shirt. Thank you. How are you doing? I'm doing fine. We'll see you in a few hours. Okay.

So, Tina, here's how it's going to work. I'm going to read you a quote. Your job will be to decide whether that quote is from Fox News or a silenced Trump voter in the New York Times. Okay? I can tell this is going to be really hard. The idea being that basically, they don't need the New York Times editorial page because they have a giant

set of propaganda organs funded by multinational corporations pumping out a 24-hour stream of agitprop being regurgitated in a vicious circle that has dragged our entire political culture into what this person in the front row said was the shitter. Are you ready to play the game?

I am. All right, guys, give it up for Tina. She's going to play. It is a lightning round. Okay. So we're going to move fast, and I believe there's going to be a sound effect. All right.

That feels real. It sure does. Your job, Tina. Pay attention, Tina. I am. The job will be to figure out whether or not this is from Fox News or the voice of an unsung Trump supporter. Are you ready? I'm ready. We don't want people competing

for jobs. He said he will eliminate Obamacare and as somebody who's been a marksman since 11 years old, protecting our Second Amendment rights are paramount to me. New York Times. Fox News. That was Sean Hannity. Number two. Who knew that all it would take to make progress was vision, chutzpah, and some testosterone?

New York Times. Correct. If I may say, Trump is everything as advertised as he ran for president. I appreciate everything Trump's doing. New York Times? No, that was Lou Dobbs. Volatility is our friend. The more the chaos, the better.

Fox News. Trump voter. Tina, you are failing. Not only is Trump going to shake up the establishment, he's going to change the paradigm. Fox News. That was Fox News. Jeanine Pirro, who is just absolutely horrific.

Did you guys see that Jeanine Pirro is going to the woods of Chappaqua to look for Hillary Clinton? She should That joke died a year ago Nuts The investigation into Donald Trump's campaign has been crooked from the jump

We may have a coup on our hands That sounds like Fox It is It's Jesse Waters Jesse Waters I am shocked at how well President Trump is doing

I give him a B plus My parents. No, New York Times. That was a Trump voter in the New York Times. As a child of the 60s, I admire Trump's iconoclastic nature, optimism, and unapologetic humanity. Fox? No, New York Times.

That was a Trump voter. One final question. Help us. Somebody talk to us. Fox? No. New York Times. That was a Trump voter. One final question. Help us. Somebody talk to us. They're going to kick us out of the country we've known our whole lives, and no one covered it until it was an emergency. The Dreamers.

Yeah, that was the Dreamers. Yes. Tina, you know I love to put my thumb on the scales, but I don't think there's any way that judges could call that a win. I love your haircut. Tina has won. White mirror. Your prize is a parachute gift card.

We have run out of them. We will be collecting your email address. And one of two things will happen. You will get an email, If we have run out of them, we will be collecting your email address. And one of two things will happen. You will get an email, or you will follow up via Twitter and say, no one ever fucking emailed me. And then we'll try to see if it seems true. And we'll do our best.

But thank you for playing, Tina. Let's welcome our panel. We've got an awesome show. We have Hungarian fugitive Sebastian Gorka, Tom Cotton, and the guy who edited all the women out of Star Wars. So it's going to be... Okay, I want to welcome our panel.

She is the artistic director of the Women's March and contributor for Together We Rise, behind the scenes at the protest heard around the world. Please welcome Paola Mendoza. How you doing? Good. The party's starting. We had our party foul and everything already, huh? Yeah, the people at home don't know I spilled my drink. Now they do. Whatever. Yeah, the people at home don't know I spilled my drink. Now they do. Whatever.

He's a comedian, writer, and you can hear him on a new show from Crooked Media called Keep It. Please welcome Louis Vertel. I also want to note that Louis is wearing a shirt that is... Stunning. It's absolutely marvelous. It has Faye Dunaway on it. Specifically in the movie Network, which should have flashed through your mind at least four times tonight already,

based on that game. Yes. From the movie Network. Indeed. We all remember the movie Network. It's Oscar season. Celebrate your best actress winners. Network is a film

that has gotten less and less far-fetched with time. Indeed. Very strange. TV wins. Network. Check it out. How could you live through these times

and not see Network? Have you at least seen Broadcast News, check it out. How could you live through these times and not see network? Have you at least seen broadcast news? The network that took like a Klonopin? You know? Holly Hunter, yes, very important. He's a comedian and writer and proud father to be. Please welcome Moshe Kosher.

Hi, how are you? Hi, Moshe, how are you? I'm good, I'm not a proud father-to-be But I am a father-to-be, so that's exciting My wife was supposed to be in I'm filling my wife's swollen shoes right now She was supposed to be on And she feels miserable She's as mad as hell and she's not going to take it anymore

Oh, I love it Strictly for the network heads And I just So I want to say that she's pregnant with my child, and I didn't get briefed on anything. So if I am comedically not where I'm supposed to be, it's my wife that didn't kill tonight. I want to say that. It's a nice area for a non-laugh to happen.

She was here to promote another period, which is coming out on Tuesday on Comedy Central Season 3. So watch that, where I play Dr. Goldberg, America's first Jewish doctor. Love it or leave it. Okay. That was our very first breaking news alert during a Love It or Leave It. Which came equipped with an atomic mushroom cloud.

I appreciate that. We're not fucking around. So the vote is still open. So basically Mitch McConnell has been holding this vote open. It has 50 votes, right? They need 60. They don't have them. He can do one of two things.

He can either vote of two things. He can either vote yes, and then he can't bring it up again, and it has failed. Or he can vote no and withdraw to get another bite at the apple, and I guess they're strategizing in their lair about what to do. We have the first reaction from the White House.

Democrats can't shut down the booming Trump economy. Are they now so desperate they'll shut down the government? Instead, hashtag Schumer shutdown. So I actually think it would be good to run through what led to this moment because both sides are spinning pretty hard right now. And I think we have a timeline. And so I just want to run through a couple pieces of this because I think it's important so obviously Democrats are blaming Republicans Republicans are blaming Democrats Trump is blaming

Democrats how did we get here all right so here's the deal this will be the first time that the party that controls the House, the Senate, and the White House will shut down the government. Last fall, Donald Trump decided to eliminate protections for DREAMers. There was a debate between the Santa Monica fascists led by Stephen Miller and the so-called moderates who were just doing this because they're patriots. And they said, oh, Donald Trump would never, ever want to hurt the DREAMers. this because they're patriots and they said oh Donald Trump would never ever want to hurt the dreamers then he announced he was ending the DACA program but said he would delay it for six months so that there could be some kind of a deal and the question was did he mean it but Trump told Congress come

up with a solution protect these immigrants from deportation and Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell both said they would in fact there was a bipartisan consensus that this was the right thing to do. The contours of this deal have been clear for the better part of a fucking year. They would protect the Dreamers, they would do border security, and they would keep the government open. The Democrats wanted legalization. Republicans wanted border security. Donald Trump wanted to be able to stand in front of some sort of plexiglass and declare victory that he'd constructed a wall. Fine. We said fine. We're not going to say it's a wall. You'll say it's a wall.

That's politics. Fuck it. Anyway, fast forward to December. They weren't able to reach a budget deal. Democrats and Republicans voted to extend funding for the government by one month so they could finally come with a bipartisan deal that would fund the military, do the border security, do children's health insurance, which Republicans also let expire in September because they know how to campaign but not govern, and Democrats know how to govern but not campaign. Fuck. But they promised they'd do the border, they'd do military, they'd do CHIP, they'd do the Dreamers. That was the contours of a deal. It's been clear this entire time. In a meeting with Republicans and Democrats, Trump reiterated he was going to rely

on the congressional representatives in the room, that he would trust them to reach a deal. He'd sign whatever they did. He would take the heat if it didn't play with his base. He'd do the right thing. It was on television. It was partially to prove that he wasn't senile because that's the fucking world.

Anyway, Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham picked up the baton. They negotiated a deal. It was very quaint and old-fashioned. They sat around a table. They argued. They disagreed. They gave a little and they took a little. Maybe they stayed up late one night,

and when they got done talking about politics, they found out what was going on with their families, and they didn't realize that their families were going through something similar. So then the next day, when they had an argument that got a little heated, they remembered their common humanity. They were friends in the trenches,

even though they're from two different parties. It was from the West Wing. It was fucking ridiculous. And they reached a deal, a deal that has the support of 56 senators, including several Republicans, a deal that does everything everyone claimed they want to do, a deal that would pass the Senate right now, a deal that would pass the House right now. So, we're good, right? No, we're not. We're not good. Because Donald Trump is a goldfish in a suit,

and he forgot what he said he would do, and he heard from Stephen Miller, and he regurgitates the last thing he heard, and all of a sudden he's in a private meeting, and he says, I'm not taking people from all these shitholes. What are shitholes? People who are the wrong color are from shitholes. That's how shitholes work in Donald Trump's mind.

And then there's consternation. Did he really say shithole? Republicans like Tom Cotton, who is not malicious, said he actually said shithouse. And as Dan Pfeiffer pointed out on Pod Save America today, a shithouse is just a shithole with a roof. And so Donald Trump in shithouse shithole gate squandered the deal, got the House Freedom Caucus riled up, and basically created this current mess. So what did Paul Ryan do? Well, he had a choice. He could go along with the bipartisan deal, a bipartisan deal that would pass the House but divide his caucus, or he could relent to the House Freedom Caucus, which will never go along

with an immigration compromise, which is why we've not reached one to date with them, because they don't give a shit about the Dreamers. They are hardliners. They don't want these people to stay in the country. And if we're being honest, part of it is, even though they belong here, they live here, they are Americans and everything, but one way, they don't want to create a bunch of people that they don't think are going to vote for them. And so they are cynically holding the line, claiming they support the Dreamers, while trying to pass a partisan bill that doesn't protect the Dreamers at the one moment when Democrats have leverage, as if it's going to get easier as we get closer to the March deadline. And so moments ago, that partisan bill got passed out of the House. It got shoved over to the Senate.

They called a vote. The vote failed. It failed because they don't have the 60 they need, because they need Democrats to get behind they need because they need Democrats to get behind it. So they needed to be bipartisan, but it's not. And so rather than pass a bill that would do everything everyone said they wanted to do, they decided to try to pass a partisan one, lay it at the feet of Chuck Schumer, have a shutdown, and see if they can win the fight in the days to come. So that is where we are right now. Paola, I want to start with you. We are seeing a few Democrats from red states

saying they don't want to shut the government down, that they want to support the Dreamers, but they can't in good conscience vote against the funding for CHIP. They're capitulating. What would you say to them? I would say to our friends, Doug Jones in particular, who we had so much hopes for. These kids, the urgency is now, these young people, because they're already being deported. 122 Dreamers are losing DACA every day.

Kids that have DACA are actually being detained and deported. So the urgency is now, and we have to stand on the right side of history. We have to do the moral thing, and we have to do what's right for this economy and for this country. If we lose 800,000 jobs in a matter of a few years when all of the DACA recipients' jobs are gone, then that affects our economy. If we care so much about our economy, if we can't care about our people, but we care about our economy,

then do what's right for the economy. We're talking teachers, we're talking doctors, we're talking gardeners, we're talking waiters, we're talking about our neighbors across all states. And let me say one thing, one more thing, sorry. The Latino vote is extremely important in this country, and so 70% of Latinos know at least one undocumented person in their lives. So let's get this straight.

We have about 25 million Latino voters that are eligible to vote, about 10 million voted in the last election. Let's give half of those to the Republicans, though I think that's way too many. That's still 7 million votes that are out there that we can take and we can change this country. We can put the people in office that will take care of our communities. So if you hurt the dreamers, we're gonna fire you. It's as simple as that. Moshe, what do you...right now there's this sort of blame conversation going on,

right? If there's a shutdown, the Republicans are calling it the Schumer shutdown, the Democrats are calling it the Trump shutdown. I think we should call it the shithole shutdown. I remember a simpler time when Trump thought a shithole was just a second thing to grab women by. So things have changed. Whoa, I shocked the audience. I think that joke was actually quaint. It's from a simpler time. I think that joke was actually quaint. It's from a simpler time. Lewis, what do you make of this, the blame game?

Who do you think is winning this argument over who's responsible? I'm shocked by the idea that blame can be passed. I mean, I literally think about the words government shut down, what someone in the middle of the country hears when they hear that. And I literally, like Trump being an American gladiator, like, can you shut it down? Like, literally, you can phrase it that way to them, and someone will think this is empowering for him.

I just think about literally buzzwords, since that's what all news everywhere has come down to, and who's believing it, and who I might be related to who believes it. And what has happened in this country where the conversation around immigration is not, these people are vulnerable, therefore they should be able to immigrate to this country. Not they're vulnerable, that's a reason for them not to be able to come. How have we pivoted? Who the fuck wants Norwegians in this country? I mean, I've been to Norway.

It's a beautiful place. They have fjords and elves and shit like that. But isn't the whole point of immigration, If you take a look at the coarse language that Trump always seems to come up with... By the way, the guy's a master of saying the worst thing possible. I don't know if you heard his anti-abortion speech. I don't know if we're getting into that.

I saw it and I thought, yuck. Do you know what he said, though? What did he say? He said that... This is close to a quote. He said, They are literally, right now, doctors across this country

that are allowing women in the ninth month of pregnancy to give birth to children. It has to stop. What? Wait, is he anti-birth? Is he... Is he anti-full-term birth?

What is he... Does he want more preemies in this country? He's a... He's a deeply Christian person. People, it wasn't a Forbes that Stormy Daniels was hitting him with. It was a King James Bible. But it was Shark Week.

That was true. That part's true. The Shark Week part. Fake news got that part right. You know, broken clock. Yeah, you know, Mitch uh put out this image and it said democrats are forcing democrats are are have to choose do we do we want to help children with chip or do they want to help undocumented dreamers and that is a crazy graph because first of all

fuck you what are you uh what are you are you the the villain from speed like are you creating an elaborate test uh like is this the is this a is this a philosophical thing is this the train experiment like i guess i'd pull the lever i don't know i wouldn't push the guy but i'd pull the what the fuck but the the same, that was for a few of you. That was either for philosophy majors or good place watchers. Yeah, I know America. But the other piece of this is, hey, Mitch McConnell, ostensibly,

you agree with protecting both of those groups of people. But of course, what we really have is they're gonna fund Chip because they know, deep down, they wanna privatize it, but they know the politics are so heinous they have to support it but they pretend to uh and they do and then there's the dreamers which again they don't actually support they want they they would uh allow to language they keep referring to as illegal immigrants they they try to use as a scapegoat. But of course, they're currently pretending to support them. So it's a reminder that, you know, people have compared this shutdown to 2013.

2013, Republicans tried to shut the government down over Obamacare funding, while Barack Obama of Obamacare was in the White House. It was a foolish, impossible thing. Right now, the government is potentially about to shut down to avoid doing what everyone agrees we should do on paper. And the American public support the DREAM Act. 80% of the American public think the DREAMers should have a pathway to being citizens in this country. So it's also insane that we are going to shut down the government

on something that everyone inside of the government agrees on as well as the people agree on. And I also have to say, I think it's pretty fucking ironic that on the anniversary of Donald Trump's first year in office,

there's going to be a shutdown, most likely. And the Women's March is going to be marching on Saturday and Sunday and organizing and making sure that the resistance is strong while he's trying to figure out what the fuck to do with his presidency. So that makes my heart kind of sore, I got to say.

There is something about the sheen of decency that has been pierced by this administration, this presidency, that just from a purely comedic perspective is like pretty breathtaking to behold like literally the dream it's called the dreamers and there used to be like an illusion of decency where they go like oh we'll lie to them now they're just like is it for dreams crush the fucking dreams take them out we're not about dreams

we're not about there's no dreaming allowed can I tell you the pettiest take I got from the Women's March last year? I was so disheartened by how clever everybody was. I was like, this can't all be your job to write these signs, right?

They were good signs. I came here for this and I'm shooting at about a six with my sign right now. I'm hoping tomorrow for the same level of class and showmanship, frankly. And hopefully you will be better too. Have you upped your game? It remains to be seen. I just, I can't make any

promises. I had a great women's march last year. That sounds weird, but my mother, I went with my mother who has been taking me to marches since I was like literally a baby. Like there was a moment, a visceral memory of being at a pro-choice rally on her shoulders at three years old. I'm like, fucking mom, I have a moment, a visceral memory of being at a pro-choice rally on her shoulders at three years old.

I'm like, fucking mom, I'm three years old. This issue is very close to the bone for me. But she's old now. My mother got old, as happens with the passage of time. And her knees are all fucked up. And she was like, fuck, I have to go. I've got to march anyway. So we went downtown Oakland

and we just got off on BART and we stood in place and she's of course got like ex officio from head to toe. You know what I mean? Like if they sell it at REI, my mom owns it, right? So she's got like a cane

that turns into a bench or whatever. And she just popped her bench cane out, sat down for a while. There were so many people in the streets that there was no march. We sat for an hour and a half shooting the shit, talking, and then we're like, well, we marched. Time to go home. She got back on part. She didn't have to march.

And we showed up anyway. I love your mom. I love her. That's cool. Actually, I don't love my mom, but I love the march. That took something away from it for me. I love the March. That took something away from it for me.

Yeah, the other thing to keep in mind, too, is Democrats did not allow Chip to expire in September. And Democrats did not announce from the White House that they would be ending DACA in March. These are two artificial crises created by the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress. And, you know, the New York Times put out a statement saying Senate Democrats block bill to fund government. And, you know, ostensibly that's true. But keep in mind, all Democrats have been saying

for the better part of a year is give us a vote on the deal you promised. You said do a bipartisan deal. We agreed. You said you wanted to fund CHIP. We agreed. You said you wanted Congress to come together and do border security, do immigration reform, and protect the dreamers. We agreed. We relented and moved a lot of these visas around, restricted the visa lottery, made changes on chain migration. We did the thing you said to do. And so the idea that Democrats should capitulate now because people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell either don't care or have given up and are too afraid of their own shadows is ridiculous. It's just ridiculous. And the other thing about this too is, it's children's health insurance and DACA is a chip for them

to play with. But for Democrats this really is a moral test. It very well might be good politics in some sense in the long term to just do the chip deal now and hope against hope that maybe you get a deal on DACA later. There are Republicans in red states

who just took a tough vote against this thing, some that didn didn't but some that did because they think it's the right thing to do because this may be our last chance to help these young people Mitch McConnell's like we got plenty of time on the dreamers we got plenty of time there's no real deadline March is six

weeks away their lives are in the balance and if you couldn't get it done now why on earth should we trust you when the leverage is less to get it done later? So, you know, they're playing chicken. But my hope is that Democrats hold the line. And so far, it seems like for the most part, they are. If you want a show where you stand on the dreamers and chips, you can do something about it. There will be protests next week. There are the women's marches. Everyone should be calling their Republican senators to demand they stand up for what they promised to do in the fall. You can also go to endthetrumpshutdown.org

to learn more, and you should do that because it seems like this fight is going on. There may be more updates coming, but as of right now, we are still headed towards a shutdown. What is it, 847? So it's 1147. These people, man. Unbelievable.

I love this Dick Clark's rockin' government shutdown clock we have we're wasted yeah this is yeah this is the worst

ball drop in history the worst and on that note when we come back the Russia stuff hey don't go anywhere there's more of Love It or Leave It coming up And on that note, when we come back, the Russia stuff. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

And we're back. Now for a segment called the Russia stuff. Here's the deal. There's a lot going on with the ongoing probes and legal inquisitions and house investigations and nefarious doings and schemes. However, we're focused on protecting dreamers. We're focused on health care. We're focused on what we can do. We're focused on winning the house. We're going to give ourselves two minutes to catch up on all our pals and the slowly closing net of almost justice. Got two minutes on the clock. Let's start it. Bannon was subpoenaed by Mueller to testify in front of a grand jury as part of an investigation into possible links between Trump's associates and Russia.

The second subpoena came Tuesday. He was questioned for 10 hours behind closed doors for the House Intelligence Committee. Bannon agreed to speak to the committee voluntarily but would not budge on events during the presidential transition and within the White House. A deal was made where Bannon will participate in a voluntary interview with investigators rather than make a formal appearance before the grand jury. The White House has acknowledged speaking with Bannon's lawyers during his testimony. Russia-linked Twitter accounts are working to push the House Intelligence Committee to release a memo about alleged surveillance of Trump by the Obama administration during the transition leading to the hashtag, release the memo. This was some bullshit on Twitter last night. The memo was written by Chairman Devin

Nunes that claims to contain information Yeah, Nunes sucks. Whether the Obama admin misused FISA powers to spy on Trump and associates Nunes, you remember him. He's the Trump supplicant who is too dumb to do schemes and he cited White House sources as proof that Trump was right about Obama.

What the fuck? The news of his memo came to light around the same time Bannon was called before Mueller's investigations. WikiLeaks said yesterday that it would reward anyone with access to the FISA abuse memo. Not surprisingly, many right-wing Republican congressmen have released statements calling for the memo to be released. And with all this high dudgeon about this partisan memo and all that it means, in fact, a source with knowledge of the memo said that it was, quote, a level of irresponsible stupidity that I cannot fathom, adding that it purposely misconstrues facts and leaves out important details.

Mueller and his team have also been investigating financial transactions between the Russian government and individuals inside the Trump campaign. Transactions have so far revealed 10 days after Trump was elected, former ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, we remember Kislyak, received $120,000 in a transaction marked payroll. Last year, Mueller subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for any evidence that it may have on those financial transactions. That information led to evidence of suspicious money transfers by Jared Kushner. It's been submitted to German authorities and it may get to Mueller shortly, allegedly.

A lot went down on the Russia stuff. Tetris, vodka, Zangia from Street Fighter. Anything else? That was more of a mouthful than the mouthful of piss Trump drank in that hotel room in Russia. Oh. A mouthful's

not that much, I'm just going to say. It's a spectrum. It's all what you're used to, Lewis. If we're going to kink shame, let's just do it right. We'll get to that later. Rocky IV. When we come back... Okay, okay stop don't go anywhere this is love it or leave it

and there's more on the way and we're back was that what it was it was how you can how do that's right yes uh-huh how do you can oh yeah, you know, guy that always asks me about video games after the show. Don't stop. OK, stop. Here's how it works. We'll roll a clip and then at any point we can say, OK, stop just to talk about it. Earlier this week, Donald Trump took a cognitive and physical test to prove that he is fit to be president. Don't I don't know what you're laughing about. He has been bragging about his results. Of course he has. Newt Gingrich isn't happy with how the media has been treating him.

He was on Fox News talking to Sean Hannity. Let's roll the clip. You saw the presser yesterday. I still cannot believe what I saw. Does he have bone spurs? Too much tweeting? TV? You know, one scoop or two?

Is he a drug addict? Does the president have dentures? Does the president... Okay, stop. I say this with affection for her talents. Judi Dench, Oscar number two. By the way, it is so funny to see these two talking about what physical fitness really looks like.

Does he need sedation? No president has ever had to undergo this garbage. It's funny, but there's really a sick side to this. Okay, stop. They're right. No president has ever had to go through the garbage of a physical from a doctor. The last president did have to go through a racist witch hunt to find his birth certificate. But this, this is a bridge too far.

A doctor visit? How dare we ask questions about the most powerful human being in all of history who goes to bed at 6.30 and eats McDonald's cheeseburgers until he falls asleep, drinks a horse dose of Diet Coke every single day, is so caffeinated he can barely muster four hours of sleep a night. Honestly, if you saw him after he washed the tan off, it would be a ghost.

To his credit, he is 239 after he washes the tan off, it would be a ghost. To his credit, he is 239 after he washes the tan off. If you're calling Donald Trump healthy, guys, we are doing really well. We are Usain Bolt. I will say, though, that there was a headline after this on CNN. The headline was just a picture of Donald Trump, and it said, overweight and out of shape. I was like, CNN, that is too petty, even for you. Yeah, I mean, Donald Trump hasn't exercised in like 40 years.

You know, I think there's one shot of him doing beach volleyball. Did someone shout out golf? You want to count golf? You want to count walking from the cart to the tee and back? By the way, picture him getting into a bunker. Like a sand trap. I just can't see it.

I think about it sometimes. To be fair, his golf habits are an exercise in ignoring the will of the American people. So that's true. That's true. Well, let me say, first of all, as a historian, that while he didn't do it in the press room, Abraham Lincoln was attacked. Okay, stop. I know we are very done with what Trump looks like.

I know we're so, so done with it. Doesn't Trump kind of look like if you left Newt Gingrich in a kiln? Yes. There is a quality that basically... And now I'm done. Donald Trump is Newt Gingrich about 15 seconds after he drinks from the wrong cup in Last Crusade. Just 15 seconds.

I'm not saying 30 seconds. I'm saying 15 seconds. Right when he's like, what's happening? Right then. Right then when he turns around and grabs Elsa. Yeah, the guy. But not, but just that moment. The guy says, did you vote for Donald Trump?

You chose poorly. About the same savagery and the same viciousness as Donald Trump. But I think, look, I'm a hawk on this, all right? I think they should line up every one of the most idiotic... Okay, stop. I just want to point out that he said, I'm a hawk, and then he literally hawked. I love that.

As a historian, I appreciate that. Put him on YouTube and have a thumbs up and a thumbs down. Okay, stop. I'm sorry. Doesn't that already exist? Thumbs up, thumbs down. Okay, stop. I'm sorry. Doesn't that already exist? Thumbs up, thumbs down on YouTube. I love millennial Newt Gingrich too, though. He's like,

if you want to leave it up to the American people, take a selfie, load it on Insta or Snapchat. We'll find out what people really think. Put it right on your Zanga. I'll find it. It's also a reminder that his impulse, his instinct,

really is, let's get them into a coliseum with some lions as soon as humanly possible. Like, when he does this or this, he's not thinking about YouTube likes. He's thinking about Caesar and, like, let's get these people fighting for their lives. And that is what Newt Gingrich was doing at his wife's deathbed.

He was doing the thumbs up, thumbs down. Guys, I'm the edgy one here. It's very tough, very tough, very important. Oh, God. I don't believe it. 8.59. Okay. This is heroin.

So it's midnight Eastern time. The vote remains open, so there's still the possibility of a deal. But now only essential operations will continue until further congressional action. The government is shut down. The White House put out an official statement. This is as presidential as it gets. Quote, this is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators. the behavior of obstructionist losers,

not legislators. And so, into the shutdown shitstorm we go. Do we go back to that? Okay, stop. You know, Trump's not healthy, and that was a weird doctor thing. End of clip. But it said that we're

shut down, but the vote is still open, which means that... There's still ongoing conversations. It is still open. The vote is still open. Which means that... There's still ongoing conversations. It is still possible they come to some sort of agreement. It is unclear what that agreement will look like. Every version of a short-term budget deal has been offered from four days to three weeks to a month to the full deal. So we will see what happens in the next couple of hours. But for right now, they couldn't get it done.

So that's that. How do you guys feel? You guys feel the government shutdown? Can I ask a stupid question? Yeah. Why don't they, while they're not fighting, like in the – I don't know if that will ever happen again, make a certain area of budgetary stuff that's pre-approved so that when a shutdown happens, like little people who are just trying to collect paychecks don't get fucked by this. So they've done a version of that, which is essential services continue.

So national security, military, hospitals, essential services continue. There'll be a skeleton crew at the White House. The Pentagon continues to function. People get furloughed. People do get sent home. Contractors get sewn. People won't get their paychecks. And you have to go back and make sure people get paid for the time they missed by no fault of their own. But at a certain point, the government needs to pay. The Congress, it's in the Constitution. They've got to write the check. You can't just, you know, go by basically what they've been doing, which is continuing resolutions,

which is what that does, right? It continues the old spending indefinitely. But at a certain point, you just say, we need to fund the government in a rational, long-term way. We are the most powerful nation on Earth, and we're funding the most powerful military in the history of the planet day by day. And that's really bad.

It's wasteful, by the way, because you have to plan when you're a pentagon, when you're shaped that way, right? There's not a lot of clothes that fit. When we come back, as we continue to get news about the shutdown, we're going to play a new game. Hey, don't go anywhere.

There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. As the debate over immigration continues, we have seen Donald Trump malign Mexican immigrants and immigrants from Haiti and African nations and Muslim Americans and refugees and on and on. It is sinister and it's racist. He's also talked about how we need more people from places like Norway. For some reason, those immigrants pass the test that he is offering so we thought we'd play a little game to show just how damaging what Donald Trump is doing and just how silly it is

because here's the thing we can't accept people from Scandinavia we have to figure out what's going on. There is a Nordic menace. Their theater peaked a hundred years ago. We are done with that.

Exactly. Ibsen to back. Precisely. It's like Ibsen, Norway. Kind of an area of comedy that happened. Kind of a thing. Don't you, to me, motherfuckers.

The doll shithouse. A doll's shithouse. There we go. A doll's shithouse? Shitting in a dollhouse is my worst memory, but anyway. So we will give the Nordic menace the attention it deserves. Now for a game we call Scapegoating Scandinavia. Would anyone out there like to play the game?

Can I tell you what happened to me in Norway? Speaking of Norwegian Menace. I went to Norway and I was performing at a comedy club in Bergen, Norway and the local comedians were like, oh you're Jewish? You'll love this. Come this way. And in their comedy club in Bergen they walked me down into a basement and they were like, oh, you're Jewish? You'll love this. Come this way. And in their comedy club in Bergen,

they walked me down into a basement, and they were like, look, this room is where they used to torture Jews during World War II. And then they're like, look out the window. And there were swastikas still in the latticework of the balcony of the building. They're like, isn't that cool? These are not the people we want moving to America.

Deeply troubling. What is your name? Hello, I'm Christian. Hi, Christian. My mom's smarter than me and bought us all merch and she won't do the quiz so I'm going to do the game for her.

All right. That's so nice. Also, question. Does Mamma Mia count as Scandinavian theater? Whoa, great question. Absolutely not. No, I agree with Lewis.

That was my instinct. Strindberg is crying now that you would even suggest such a thing. Christian, are you ready to play Scapegoating Scandinavia? Yes, I am. All right, let's play the game. Here's how it works. I'm going to read you a question. Our panel, who have clues beneath their feet,

are going to read you a question. Our panel who have clues beneath their feet are going to read you prospective answers. It will be your job to suss out where this menace emerges from. There's some clues in the name of the game. And well, you'll see. Immigrant

Bjarne Skarnborg was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he strangled his mother to death. I did not realize how dark these were. And buried her on a beach in North Carolina. Where did this immigrant come from? Scandinavia? There's gonna be clues, Christian. But Mamma Mia, what a punchline. What a punchline. come from? Scandinavia. There's gonna be clues, Christian. But mama mia,

what a punchline. Was it A? Guatemala. Was it B? Somalia. Or was it C? Denmark. I have to go with the faraway land of Denmark?

You got it, Christian. Question number two. I have to go with the faraway land of Denmark? You got it, Christian. Question number two. Immigrant George Anderson was found guilty of an armed robbery that became known as the Great Post Office Robbery. After only serving seven months, he escaped and... Oh, my God. I should have read these. And murdered a witness.

Oh, my goodness. Burying her on a beach in North Carolina. Where was George Anderson from? Was it A? El Salvador. Was it B? Somewhere with Sharia law. Or was it C?

Anderson's pea soup. No, Denmark also. Denmark? Denmark? It was. It was Denmark. Okay. Immigrant Thor Nis Christensen. Hey!

This is thumb on the scales. Good name. Bad thing. Good God. He was a serial killer who lived in Solvang, California. Over the course of three years, he murdered four different people before being convicted and stabbed to death in Folsom Prison. Good God, couldn't we find a fucking, I don't know, a shoplifter?

Where was he from, Christian? Was it A? Haiti. Was it B? The country of Africa. Or was it C? Norway. I love Toto, but it has to be Norway.

Trick question. Denmark. By the way, do you know what Solvang is? Solvang is like that Dutch town. It's a fake, like, cutesy little wine-tasting Scandinavian village in California. I love him just, like, murdering people and stuffing them in the windmill or whatever. Dark underbelly. Final question, Christian.

You're doing great. Tina's like, what the fuck? My game was real. My game was hard. What the hell? Question four. After being expelled from his native country, this immigrant launched a multi-generational crime syndicate

with alleged misdeeds ranging from housing discrimination, alleged sexual assault, fraud, and an arrest at a KK rally. Where was this immigrant crime family originally from? Was it A? Mexico. Was it B? The fictional country Nambia. Or was it C?

Germany. Germany? Correct. Bonus. Can you name the crime family? Trump. You got it. Christian, you have won Scandinavian scapegoats.

It turns out you can scapegoat whoever you want. You know, that's the lesson there. That's the power of the American people. That is. That's the power. Thank you for playing, Christian. Thank you to Deirdre for buying merch that made this all possible. Can I just say about Nambia, I hate Trump as much as the next guy,

but I 100% thought that was a real country until I read him saying it wrong. I was like, ha ha ha, what an idiot. Fertile joke area, though. It's like a connected letter away from Nambla. Can anybody put that together for me? Anyway, I'm not somebody who's going to make the joke, but I believe, I have faith in everybody here.

They're well-dressed. The point is the joke is out there. Yes, there was a lot of people who were laughing at Donald Trump for saying Nambia when they would not do well on that sporkle test, frankly. I thought that would do better.

None of you guys admitting to procrastinating by opening up a little quiz to see how many countries you can name? I could beat everybody here in this room at Geography on Sparkle 100% that is true He's like a weird savant about trivia

We play trivia together at a bar once and there's a 15 clue question and the woman started to ask the first question He's like, Bette Midler, walk to the front Who was it? You know what? They named a date the woman started to ask the first question. He's like, Bette Midler, walk to the front. Who was it? You know what? They named a date, and they said who was born on this date.

I was like, oh, December 21st, 1937, Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda, walk to the front. We were champions. Now for a game we call Testing Lewis's Oscar Trivia. Oh, wow. Lewis. What film won the Oscar in 1977? 1977? That would be Annie Hall.

Best Picture. Oh, fuck. That's a tough break. Lewis. What actor won for Best Actor in 1996? 1996, that's Geoffrey Rush and Shine. Lewis, who won Best Actress in 1969? That'd be the ravishing and eternal Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodin.

Holy shit. She would, of course, win later for Best Supporting California Suite in 1978. Lewis, best picture 2001 A Beautiful Mind of course Best picture 2002 Chicago Best picture 1953

From Here to Eternity 1957 Bridge Over the River Kwai 1964 My Fair Lady 1966 Best picture as a man for all seasons On the River Kwai. 1964. My Fair Lady. 1966. 1966 Best Picture as a Man for All Seasons. Lewis, best OCD medication you've ever taken.

Still searching. That was impromptu and worth it. 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. Love it or leave it. McConnell has closed the vote.

He voted no. McConnell said, we're going to keep on voting. The government may be heading into shutdown, but the Senate isn't shutting down. So the talks continue. Why they're not passing a short-term CR, which some Republicans and Democrats got behind, so they continue talks, I have no idea.

But the talks are ongoing. Now for a segment we call the rant wheel. Here's how it works. We spin the wheel. We rant about whatever topic on which it lands. This week on the wheel, we have Newsweek. We have Woody Allen. We have don't politicize MLK in quotes.

There's a few people saying that on the holiday. We have eating Tide Pods. We have Stormy Daniels. We have Justin Timberlake. We have the redemption of Tonya Harding. And we have quote, the dreamers issue isn't urgent, end quote. Let's spin the wheel.

Good way to kick it off. It has landed on those who say the Dreamers issue isn't urgent. Paola, I believe this was a suggestion from you. Take it away. It was. So as we talked about earlier, Dreamers, their lives are on the line right now. They're losing jobs. They don't got anything to – well, now they actually have the hope, the ability that the Democrats are standing the line and taking care of them. They've been on the ground every day for the past month, getting arrested, fearing deportation.

And what I've said and what I'm seeing, which is exciting, is I've wanted the Democrats to have the tiniest bit of bravery the way in which they've had bravery. And I feel that they've inspired our Democrats to hold the line and to do the right thing. So I'm hopeful, though I feel very sad for the people that are going to be affected by the shutdown that was caused, obviously, by Trump. by the shutdown that was caused, obviously, by Trump. Yeah, you know, one thing that's important here is there are so many people paying attention for the first time, being active for the first time, and they're looking to Democrats to say, do you understand how energized we are?

Do you understand how much we want you to fight back? That we feel let down, we felt let down in this election, we felt let down by our politics, and we're hoping that from Trump will be a fight, and we know that we can count on you to hold these people accountable. And so this is a big test. And you know what? Throughout the health care fight and now for the most part through this fight because I believe it will get passed, it will be the first win for the resistance that we are putting forth something as opposed to opposing these crazy laws and policies that are being put before us. So it's important for the resistance in general to say we won, we actually put forth policy and it was bipartisan and there's a way forward. So I think that's extremely important as well. And fuck, we got to stand against white supremacy. Like it's clear, like that's just what we got to do. Yeah, that's a really good point actually. And I don't think

a lot of people are pointing that out. You know, we've spent the last better part of a year just fighting every day to stop terrible shit. And this is an opportunity to do something really good to actually help people and make a difference and we can do it even though we only have uh we have a minority and we don't in both chambers we don't have the white house and so far we've been able to fight really hard and uh play this hand better than i think a lot of people thought possible and we're literally trying to make dreams come true like quite literally yeah Yeah, absolutely. And we can do it. We can do it.

So, you know, we just got to keep fighting. And throughout the shutdown, they're going to try to, you know, make Democrats, try to call the Democrats bluff. And we just have to hold firm. What we are asking for is what everyone claims they support. Give. You want Democrats to back your bill? Give us the bipartisan bill. You want a bipartisan vote? there's a bipartisan bill that exists

right now it's not a rumor it has bullet points it exists it has co-sponsors it could pass and so y'all gotta show up folks gotta show up because there's gonna be a lot of protests there's gonna be folks that are going to congressmen's offices and congressmen's and senators if you go to

unitedredream.org you can type in your zip code, and it'll tell you all of the protests that are happening the day, everything. It's super organized, unitedwedream.org. And just show up, because we need folks showing up. Yeah, absolutely. So everybody, you know, make sure you stay involved. A lot of people have done a great job creating pressure on Democrats, frankly, to hold the line. And I think now we have to do the same, not just for Democrats, but for Republicans.

Let's spin the wheel again. It has landed on Stormy Daniels. You know, I added this to the wheel only because it feels so wrong to have this extraordinary thing happening, which is the president of the United States having paid hush money to an adult film star who is now basically on some kind of a press tour describing her intimate relationship with the president

with whom she had an affair after the birth of his son, the president backed by the Christian conservative community, including creepy-eyed zealot Mike Pence. And I don't really know what to do with it. None of us know what to do with it. We're like, well, shit. It's nuts. It's sleazy.

It's not the worst thing he's ever done. It's not the worst thing he's done today. And so we, liberals are just struggling to generate outrage. I think if it was a Democrat, they'd be marching in the streets, but look at you people. You want to care.

But you don't care that much. I just find myself thinking about the name Stormy because obviously there's a tumult to that name. But also a sort of Stevie Nicks serenity. I just trust her. I'll say that as a comedian, if you had told me five, ten years ago that at some point in the future, there's going to be a president of the United States and a story's going to come out that he fucked a porn star named Stormy Daniels, got spanked with a Forbes magazine on Shark Week, and there's rumors that there's piss involved,

I would have said, thank you, comedy gods, for the manna that you have delivered to me from on high. And now it's reality, and I'm just like, fuck. Also, can I say, being spanked with a Forbes magazine

with his picture on the cover, correct? I believe. Yes. One, disgusting, but two, honestly, the win that print media needs. And I'm... Yeah. Yeah, you can't...

You can't do that with an iPad, you know? Precisely. You know, you can't do that with a Facebook instant story. Let's spin it again it has landed on Justin Timberlake a suggestion that comes from Louis Vertel yeah I'm sorry

already it's important for you to listen to other things after you're done with the podcast right I think we can all agree that Justin Timberlake is sort of like if an Armani Exchange gift card

were a person, right? Almost. There's a denim fanciness almost. Almost. Okay, well, he has this new album called Man of the Woods in which he has shed his club-going days and is now a rugged, whiskey-swilling person. Future tent tree sounds

nearly i'm gonna leave lewis you finish the show i'm just gonna say it's one of these things that i'll say white artists do to like i'm doing a rootsy thing that will like give me authenticity to somebody else and it's like, even his deepest truth is still just an Eddie Bauer campaign. Like, he moved he was in one mall store, and he said, but wait, I'm so much more than this. And then he went to

another mall store. What I'm saying is Caucasian people, let's work to not be that. I just love the idea. He's one of those people where I's work to not be that. I just love the idea. He's one of those people where I'd like to just say, what does it mean to be authentic? And then never interrupt him until he's truly done talking.

Because I think it would be extraordinary. He's just trying to get his image that he's created and his true authentic self to be in sync, if you will. Oh, wow. Hey, fuck you too, motherfuckers. It's hard work. So the debate is ongoing. The shutdown continues.

The new haircut kind of worked. It works, it works, it works. Thanks, guys. I'm going to stop fishing for compliments. Thank you guys for coming out. I'm going to stop fishing for compliments. Thank you guys for coming out. I want to thank our awesome panel,

Paola Mendoza, Louis Vertel, Moshe Kosher. Thanks for coming out to the improv. Have a great night. Thank you. Love it or leave it, it's love it or leave it Respect it on all sides Love it or leave it, it's love it or leave it

Street shooter Love it or leave it, it's love it or leave it