Lovett or Leave It - The Roast of Elizabeth Warren

Episode Date: October 19, 2019

Mayor Pete turns up the heat at the debate, Trump's chief of staff confesses to crimes on camera, and Fox News still struggles to spin the Ukraine scandal. Returning champions Michaela Watkins and Moshe Kasher are BACK and the Ringer's John Gonzalez joins to explain the NBA's response to Chinese censorship. Plus, are we ready for a world without iTunes? Michaela, for one, is NOT. What a week.

Good evening, Los Angeles. We have some exciting news. Crooked Media has been working on a brand new top secret podcast for a few months now. We finally got the green light to hint at what's coming. We're announcing all the details early next week, but if you want to be the first to know what we're up to, sign up for our newsletter, What A Day, at crooked.com slash subscribe,

and then you'll find out. But you'll also get the What A Day newsletter, which rules, all right? So it's like a win-win. All right. find out but you'll also get the what a day newsletter which rules all right so it's like a win-win all right let's get into it what a week on tuesday night cnn hosted the fourth democratic debate aka the roast of elizabeth warren by the next debate we will have two extra podiums for lisa lampanelli and jeff r Ross dressed as Pocahontas. Unfortunately, 14 podiums will be a lot. We've said for a long time that Elizabeth Warren hasn't really faced a sustained attack from any of her opponents.

Want you to get that concern out of your mind. Those days are over. Joe Biden may be leading in some polls, but it's a little bit like when Junior was technically the head of the Soprano family instead of Tony, but nobody was trying to whack Junior because of trend lines. Anyway, the candidates went after Elizabeth Warren the way Elizabeth Warren goes after 24-year-old sex marines with both fucking hands.

Let's roll the clip. Sometimes I think that Senator Warren is more focused on being punitive or pitting some part of the country against the other. I appreciate Elizabeth's work, but again, the difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something that you can actually get done. Your signature, Senator, is to have a plan for everything. Except this.

Mmm. Mayor Pete's really put in the drag and drag race. Because he's dragging people. What did you mean? What did I mean? Everyone thought Mayor Pete was so nice. No more Mr. Nice Pete. He's tough. He's out for blood from this point forward. He's Mayor Peter. Vice President Joe Biden also participated in the entire debate, and he spoke

several times. Biden, Sanders, and Warren were all asked about their age. Biden pointed to his wisdom. Bernie pointed to his enthusiasm. And Warren pointed to Bernie and Biden. Tom Steyer spent $48 million of his own dollars so he could get 7.2 minutes of stage time. That's $6.7 million per minute, or $111,000 per second. And he turned to the camera more than Fleabag.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Trump and his merry band of outlaws who rob from the poor and give to the rich were, get this, at it again. Ton of impeachment news. Can't run through all of it. It's not possible, but let or get this, add it again. Ton of impeachment news, can't run through all of it, it's not possible, but let's get through some of it. Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the EU and Trump donor, said he was asked by President Trump to contact Giuliani,

who was coordinating the shakedown of Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. This could really damage Rudy Giuliani's reputation. It's going to take a pretty big 9-11 to turn this story around. The Wall Street Journal reported that Rick Perry also called Giuliani to confer on Ukraine at the president's request. Rick Perry, Gordon Sondland, and Kurt Volker,

the Ukraine ambassador, were known as the three amigos, which has, I think, forced all of us to confront something deeply uncomfortable, which is we used to watch Three Amigos, which has, I think, forced all of us to confront something deeply uncomfortable, which is we used to watch Three Amigos when we were a kid, and we really should try to never see it again, because it must be so fucking racist. Mick Mulvaney gave a press conference

where he said the following. Those are the driving factors. Did he also mention to me in the past the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely. No question about that. But that's it, and that's why we held up the money. But to be clear, what you just described is a quid pro quo. It is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the Democratic server happens as well. We do that all the time

with foreign policy. They did it again. They confessed on television again. We did this so that they would do this. And then John Carl followed up. Wait,

that's a quid pro quo. And he says, we do that all the time. So, their original story was this was nothing that didn't pass muster then they said there's no quid pro quo but all the witnesses and transcripts and all the evidence is pointing to a quid pro quo that they traded arms for dirt on the bidens and an investigation into a conspiracy theory that donald is enamored of because we're a nightmare. And so what could they do? What could they say? Well, they could admit to everything except the Biden piece.

And even though it's still illegal to solicit foreign investigations into Democrats like the DNC and their fetid conspiracy theory about the DNC hack actually involving Ukraine and ensnaring Russia and Trump and all the rest, they could lie and say it was never about Biden. So yes, Trump did a quid pro quo. And yes, we were all in on it. But it was just about looking backwards, which is maybe a stupid, bad thing to do. But it's not interference in 2020. I thought that that was like a little bit of maybe a tiny bit of cleverness. I was incorrect. Because then somebody, one of these intrepid Washington journalists, called up the Department of Justice and said, hey, what do you think of

this? And they're like, nope, this is news to us. Do not agree. Not what happened. We're not conceding that. Rudy said the same thing. And so then, a few hours later, Mick Mulvaney put out the following statement. Once again, the media has decided to misconstrue my comments to advance a biased and political witch hunt against President Trump. Let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election. The president never told me to withhold any money

until the Ukrainians did anything related to the server, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Did you know that you could do that? Do you know that you can say something and do it on television and then within hours, before anyone's even had a good night's sleep to convert it from short-term memory to long-term memory. So it's still roiling in there in the early part, you know, before it's really cemented.

You could put out a statement that says, actually opposite. That is cool. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi confronted Donald Trump in the Oval Office over Syria. Donald Trump then tweeted a photo in which he claimed Nancy Pelosi was somehow in some way deranged, but it actually showed Nancy Pelosi in command at a table full of dudes with her finger pointed at the president being like, you motherfucker. And she looked so cool in the photo. And Trump thought she looked bad in the photo. And it very much reminded me of what happens when a friend tells you a story and you slowly realize as they're telling you the story

that they're the villain in the story. So anyway, I went to the movies and I brought in a full piping hot Chipotle burrito. And I wanted to take a picture of myself eating the burrito with the Joker in the background. And this guy yelled at me. Hold on a second. You're the villain in that story.

That guy's telling this story about you and his version is good. I tell that story about a person who brought a full piping hot burrito into a movie. Say the Joker, because I've done it. In fact, this is an aside, my friend Spencer and I,

we both got two just rock-solid brick Chipotle burritos. Walked next door into a movie theater. We thought it was going to be empty. We were seeing a movie that had been out for two weeks. And we sit down, we realize it's gonna be a pretty full theater. There's an empty seat at the aisle, then us,

then two people. And we started eating our burritos. And the guy next to Spencer taps him and goes, would you guys mind sliding over one? Cause those things, they smell pretty strong. And Spencer goes, nah, we're good. they smell pretty strong. And Spencer goes, nah, we're good.

It was such a fucking dick thing to say. Nah, we're good. Yeah. We were the good the whole time. When we come back, our panel. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back.

Let's start the show. We have two all-star returning champions on the show tonight. You've seen her on too many shows and movies to count, and you've heard her on Crooked's own hysteria. Please welcome back Michaela Watkins. Hi. Hello. Hi, Michaela.

Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Comedy Store. I'm sorry. I don't know if you said that. I wanted to make sure. No, I'm glad you did. Really welcome here. Now I feel embarrassed.

Welcome to the Comedy Store. Everybody's like, where are we? I don't know. He's a comedian, author, and the host of the Endless Honeymoon podcast. Please welcome back Moshe Kosher. Hi, Moshe. How are you? I'm great.

I want to tell your audience that this is perhaps the first panel in comedy history that all three panelists were at the same temple for Yom Kippur. We all were there together, every one of us. And John and I shared a moment. There was a moment in the prayer service where the rabbi said something. It's difficult to be a comedian and be at temple. I think we can all attest to that because there's a cynical part of you that doesn't want to get down with what's happening. And the rabbi made a certain comment that was a little cringy,

and I panicked because I needed eyes to look at to go, that sucked, right? And I was looking for another comedian, and I saw from across the room, my knight in shining armor, there was John, and we looked at each other, and we both went, uh-huh. But wait, it gets better because the next prayer was a prayer in the Yom Kippur services called Vidui,

where they go through all the different kinds of sins that you could have... These are the kind of stock ones, but they're actually kind of thorough. They actually kind of... There's a lot of different... Oh, for the sin of, you know, looking at, you know, a muscular man while I was trying to...

You know, I mean, very specific. Very specific. And one of them was, I swear to God, one of them is, and for the sin we have sinned by sharing in a conspiratorial glance. And it ruled because that sin, it got out and we atoned.

That's right. It went up, pulled it fucking back. I have never had such limited time between sin and repentance in my entire Jewish career, thanks to this man. No, it was great, and it made me think we should go back

through that list, and right as they're happening, just in the moments before, just commit them. Oh, yeah. I was gonna, you know, give a shout out, but now that you dissed them,

maybe we'll just keep it. No, to be fair, the rabbi was doing her job. It was not her fault. It was the fault of the horrifying cynic that was in her congregation. She was being totally on point.

She just dropped a reference to a stand-up comedian. Getting closer. I'm not going to say who, but I bet you already know. And I respect this person's work a lot, but it's very difficult for me to feel the power of prayer when I am wracked with professional jealousy. So that's all I'll say about that.

I don't remember that, but I hope it's Carrot Top. Why would you say his name? He's a hero to us all. It's like the words are... I gotta... I'm pushing it down. All right. Do you guys want to play a game? Yes!

Oh, God, yes. Washington Republicans. They're like AAA. They hate trains and they love towing. The party line. Thank you. Thank you party line. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much.

Oh, stop. Guys, calm down. Guys, shh. Guys, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. We got to move on. We got, okay, okay. Wow, a standing ovation? Those of you at home, you can't see.

It's a very quiet one, but it is a standing. It's incredible. It's amazing. Okay, whose panties are these? When Mueller was looking into the 2016 election, Republicans called it a witch hunt. When Donald Trump manufactured criminal caravans of gang lords invading from Mexico

before the 2018 election, many Republicans were horrified that he wouldn't say it in their districts. But ever since we learned of the whistleblower complaint, a scandal I call, You Can't Do That on Television. Where's my wine? Republicans have struggled to find a message that works on this scandal. In many ways, it's unspinnable.

In fact, some of the attempts at spin are so impossibly lame, we think our panelists are going to struggle to guess just what these dignity-free fashbots are going to say in a segment we call Message in a Bottle If That Bottle Was Full of Shit. Message in a bottle Full of shit Here's how it works.

Message in a bottle If it was full of shit. Here's how it works. Message in a bottle. If it was full of shit. Now that's catchy. Whose panties are these? Hey, I went to the well that I didn't even build and there was still water in there. Thanks, Michaela. There's enough panties for everyone.

You get a panty. Here's how the segment works. I'm going to play a clip that pauses in the middle of a thought There's enough panties for everyone. You get a panty. Here's how this segment works. I'm going to play a clip that pauses in the middle of a thought, and we will guess what the person might say next. Are you ready? Yeah. Are you ready, Marshall? Hell yeah.

I haven't seen the clips either. That's true. I'll play along. Clip number one. Conservative lawyer Victoria Tonsing, who has represented Scooter Libby, the head of Blackwater, and is associated with Rudy in this Ukraine conspiracy, went on Hannity to defend the president by saying this. On this false statements. How did that work? U.S. and other people made false statements about him.

Now, let me bring this full circle. This is my last point here. The whistleblower sprinkles throughout his document. The whistleblower sprinkles throughout his document. What do you think? Well, first of all, please let me play her in the biopic. For those at home, Michaela is making a

conspiratorial scowl. That's a sin where I come from. So what do we think? The whistleblower sprinkles throughout his document what? Little candies for children to feast on. But I'm telling you right now, there is nothing in here that I take issue with.

Okay. I read it three times. With glasses on. The whistleblower sprinkles throughout his document nonpareils of treason. Two candy ones. Yes. The whistleblower sprinkles throughout his document...

Months-old droplets of piss ringed from a Russian hotel room. Let's see if we were right. The whistleblower sprinkles throughout his document footnotes referring to a publication with the initials OCCRP. One guess, Sean. Who funds OOCRP?

Oh, no. George Soros. He actually wrote the Vidui prayer. Yeah. Shame on the three of us. Come right from temple here. Can't smell an anti-Jewish conspiracy theory coming. That's how they got us the first time.

It's right there in the publishcation. I felt a little bit weird about saying ringed from a mattress, not rung, and then she said publishcation. I was like, oh, cool, I could work for the administration. Next clip. Geraldo Rivera, oh, cool, I could work for the administration. Next clip. Geraldo Rivera, a man we cannot... a man we all cannot stand and truly don't remember why,

went on Fox & Friends to defend the president by saying this. Apparently this was somebody from the intel community, the whistleblower was, who has now left the administration, and his suggestion is it was probably somebody, a holdover from the Obama administration. And this is his glancing blow on the way out the door. Regardless of what he worked for, who he worked for before, this is...

Where is he going with this? I'm going to say this is a deep state conspiracy from people that just don't like Donald Trump. That's my guess. We're going to go down the middle on my guess. That's a pretty good guess. Regardless of who he worked for, this is... My last chance at fame.

Let me have this. Regardless of who he worked for, this is a great time for me to tell you I have the abs of a 26-year-old man. Look at these. Look at these rock-solid Geraldo Rivera creep abs. And they're going to find a guy who's dead in an alley missing his abs.

A 26-year-old. They're not on his body. He just has them in a jar. No, he has them in a vault that he's going to show us all. Thank you. 40-year-old reference. Let's roll the clip. Regardless of what he worked for, who he worked for before,

this is annoying. this is a punk, a punk who's snitching out the president's phone calls to a foreign leader. Wait a minute, I didn't know... Geraldo going street on that ass, huh? What are you, nothing but a punk? I'm going to take that whistleblower down by the vacants. I'm going to cut his abs out. That's a reference to The Wire.

All right, last clip. Eric Trump, the Don Jr. of the Trump kids who aren't Don Jr., stopped by Laura Ingram to attack Hunter Biden and he had this to say. In fact, we had a lot of supporters in Minneapolis so it was pretty good. You know, the difference between us and Hunter is...

You know, the difference between us and Hunter is... You know, the difference between us and Hunter is... So the thing... Okay, so... Here's the thing. So, Hunter's dad is in politics, and our dad is...

No. Okay. He worked for a business that looks shady because of his... The difference between us and Hunter is Hunter knows for sure who his mother is. Pretty good. Pretty good.

I'll say the difference between us and Hunter is we do 100% of the things we accuse Hunter of doing. We are the living embodiment of every claim ever made by us against Hunter Biden. Anything you think he did, we did all the time. Also, we're both the Kendals of our family. Is he?

He's like, I know I look like a Roman, but I'm really a Kendall. I don't know. Let's watch the clip. Oh, it's a succession thing. Is he? He's like, I know I look like a Roman, but I'm really a candle. I don't know. Let's watch the clip. Oh, it's a succession thing. You know, the difference between us and Hunter is when my father became commander in chief of this country, we got out of all international business. Why? When his father became vice president of the United States, he got into international business. That's the difference. All right. He's lying. business. That's the difference. All right.

He's lying. Guess what? He's lying. All right, and that is Message in a Bottle if that bottle was full of shit. Message in a bottle. Full of shit. We added the echo so it sounded like it was coming from inside of a bottle.

There's no way to understand the meaning of that title. When we come back, we'll have John Gonzalez from The Ringer to talk about what's happening at the NBA. Whoo! Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back!

Whoo! There's a remarkable story unfolding in video games and sports right now surrounding China And we're back. There's a remarkable story unfolding in video games and sports right now surrounding China and their influence over what players do and say. Despite knowing a lot about sports, I felt like I could learn more. Here to help, he's a reporter for The Ringer and the host of The Ringer's NBA podcast, Heat Check. Please welcome John Gonzalez. Hi. Hi, John.

How you doing? I am so excited to talk about the NBA with somebody who loves sports as much as you. Yeah. Now. It's a treat. For the layman that doesn't know anything about the NBA and basketball. Hypothetically. Right. Someone who isn't so expert in, as I call them, hoops. Why did one tweet, which seems so innocuous, create this firestorm? The NBA, every season, in the preseason, they play a slate of games in Asia, all over Asia. So they play in Japan and obviously in China,

and then in India, which is like the next frontier that they hope to break into this new market. But Daryl Morey in the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey's the general manager of the Houston Rockets, they were in Japan, and Daryl Morey tweeted out an image that said, fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong. And you would think, given what's happening over there, that that would be fine. It was not fine, John. I'm here to tell you that it went terribly. Everybody lost their shit. The NBA lost its shit. China lost its shit. Nobody's gotten their shit back together. And now I'm sitting here talking to you about that because it's a shit show.

Right. Moray puts out that tweet. He quickly deletes it. Quickly. Almost immediately. Somebody got to him really fast. You've got to get that off the internet. It's too true.

That's too good of a tweet. Get it out. Yeah. It's too true. That's too good of a tweet. Get it out. How does China put this kind of pressure on the NBA so quickly? China is the NBA's biggest foreign business partner. And frankly, it's one of its biggest partners in business full stop. So immediately they put pressure in a number of ways. The Chinese government tried to call for Daryl Moore to be fired. Immediately they put pressure in a number of ways.

The Chinese government tried to call for Daryl Morey to be fired. We had reported that in the immediate aftermath that the Houston Rockets had at least considered firing Daryl Morey. And then on top of that, they put financial pressure, which is really the big deal, right? So they can do that in any number of ways. They've got the actual streaming rights. Tencent, which is the digital media rights holder in China, stopped broadcasting games. As of today, they still haven't started broadcasting games. They said that they were going to black out all of the Rockets games. They were offering people who had bought in China passes just to watch the Rockets,

an option to buy into other teams. There was a bank and a credit card company that said, we're not going to sponsor the NBA anymore. There was a Chinese sports athleisure company that said the same thing. So there are any number of ways that they put financial pressure on the NBA. And Adam Silver has said even just today that it's costing them, you know, untold millions of dollars. First, the NBA put out a statement that people took as kind of mealy mouth as not defending American values of democracy and freedom, but which they thought was their way of getting out of this without firing this guy.

They then put out another statement that was better, but still a little bit authoritarian curious. And here we are over a week later, and LeBron James was asked about this. Can we play the clip? We all talk about this freedom of speech. Yes, we all do have freedom of speech. But at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you're not thinking about others.

And you're only thinking about yourself. So I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand. And he spoke. And so many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually. What? That sucks, right? I mean, I see that. I'm like, that sucks. That's somebody criticizing an American for speaking out in defense of basic human rights and doing it because China is putting pressure on America and American institutions by using their financial leverage against us. Is that right? A hundred percent. I mean, you have to know too that when he gave those quotes,

they had just come back from China. He wasn't playing in this preseason game. He's LeBron James. He literally showed up to a game last year that he wasn't playing in with a glass of wine, which nobody does. So there was... That's cool. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you can get get away with that you're LeBron James but he didn't have to talk in that instance right so he specifically came back and picked that spot and picked those words to say he had a message he wanted to pick a fight and he picked it and yeah it sucked because I think the league fancies itself as this like progressive forward-thinking organization that uh at least compared to the NFL,

has some idea of morals. And what we've seen here is that that was a fallacy. That was always a fallacy. I mean, there are certain people like Greg Popovich and Steve Kerr who speak out against Trump and political issues. LeBron James previously, not maybe in this instance, has done that. Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA,

has built a large portion of his reputation on previously dispatching former Clippers racist shitbag owner Donald Sterling. And that was an expensive decision. There was like one Clippers fan here, even in LA. Clippers! Yeah. But now we see like when presented push come to shove,

like, hey, you can either continue to stand up and project as a forward-thinking progressive organization or you could side with the Chinese because you're a for-profit business which is what they are so when LeBron James says something like you weren't thinking about others you were just thinking about yourself about Daryl Morey well one I would argue and I think a lot of people here would argue that when you're standing up for pro-democracy efforts in Hong Kong, and the right to assemble, and the right to freedom of speech, and human rights, that's thinking about others. You're basically standing in front of a tank right now.

I always knew this moment would come, John. But beyond that, what he's really saying when he says you're not thinking about others is you're not thinking about those of us who stand to make a lot of money off of China, off that sweet, sweet China cash. And there's a lot of it. He's got two houses in Brentwood, and those aren't cheap. And he's also saying you didn't think of us when you started this because now we're all getting asked about this, and you did this on your own. He did make one point the other day at practice that I thought was fair, where he said, you know, I didn't start this issue.

And I'm paraphrasing here. The idea that he shouldn't have to, like, pull on a cape and clean up every mess that wasn't his doing. Okay, that's fair. But you also decided to come out and attack Daryl Morey for speaking out about what he thought. But you also decided to come out and attack Daryl Morey for speaking out about what he thought and really the big thing here is it's not about Daryl Morey being uninformed. Daryl Morey was informed. Part of the reason why he said what he said is because he has friends in Hong Kong and he was worried about what was happening with them.

The reason why you said he was uninformed was because it impacts your bottom line. You stand to profit massively, not just from the money, the revenue that's coming into the NBA for streaming rights and things like that, but sponsorships, marketing. I mean, he just shot Space Jam 2. Warner Brothers in Hollywood, big in China. Nike, massive in China. Who's their number one pitch man?

LeBron James. It's also, you know, the second you decide you're going to do business in China and then that business is predicated on not telling the truth about what is happening in China, you are making it an issue. You are choosing the issue, whether you speak about it or not. You know, one of the criticisms that conservatives have leveled is, oh, these athletes are willing to take a stand when it's free, when they're speaking to an audience that agrees with them.

But when it's costly, they're silent. They're willing to be antagonistic toward policies in the U.S. they disagree with because it doesn't affect them. There's no cost to them doing it. That's not true of some of the players who have actually paid a price, like Colin Kaepernick, for the stands that they've taken. But they're leveling. They're basically saying these people,

the second there was a real risk to them in telling the truth, they weren't willing to do that. Is that criticism true? Yeah, I think that's absolutely true and absolutely fair. Immediately after this whole thing happened, they trotted out James Harden to say, I love China, we love China, the Rockets love China, the Rockets are the biggest and most popular team in China for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that Yao Ming, who's a Hall of Famer and now runs the Chinese Basketball Association, played for the Rockets, right? Yeah, obviously. John knows.

Get to the point. We all know that. We all know Yao Ming played for the Rockets and now runs the NBA of China or something. But they trotted out James Harden to say we love China. But what he was really saying was we love mainland China and at the expense of what was happening in Hong Kong. So, yeah, I mean, when they were forced to decide between what they believe or purport to believe in freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and democratic values and

all these things. Yes, they saved Daryl Morey's job, but ultimately they also want to save their bottom line in the business. So one last question on this. We've seen this playing out across industries, not just the NBA. We see the influence of Chinese censorship on American movies now. We see Blizzard, a video game company that's faced a bunch of blowback for their treatment of one of their pro players who made some money and then criticized China. You know, there was this bargain that was made a long time ago that basically thought if we have more financial and economic relationships with China, we will export American values to our culture, that we will spread democratic ideas, liberal ideas, small l liberal ideas. What we've begun to see is actually the opposite,

that we are seeing China begin to spread their values by using their financial leverage to influence us. They are able to censor American companies, censor Americans inside of America. We saw the NBA stopping pro-Hong Kong protests inside of games in America. For people that loves football, basketball... You could have just supported me. For people that... You could have just let it fucking go. For people that love basketball,

they're fans of the NBA, but they hate what they're seeing. What can fans do now to basically provide a counterweight to Chinese pressure? How can Americans pressure the NBA and their teams to not allow China to censor them?

I think it would be, I mean, you just mentioned it, that there were fans just last week. I'm from Philly. Thank you. As all people from Philadelphia are obligated to mention, everything

comes back to that. The Boston of the Middle Atlantic. That's an insult and it hurts me. They hated it when I said it in Philadelphia too. They hated it. Oh my God. Food for so long. It was so fun. I was so happy to be here.

But so no, in Philly, just last week, two Sixers fans who were sitting behind, in the same way that the NBA sends teams to China, China sends teams to the US for these preseason exhibition games. And there's these two fans who had brought free HK signs. They had those signs confiscated. And then they were chanting free Hong Kong. And that's when they got ejected so I think it would be pretty easy to make a ruckus if you were so inclined to bring attention to this issue because

The NBA doesn't have a uniform policy for ejection in arenas It has a uniform policy for signs but not for who gets booted for what reason that's left up to individual teams and individual Security which has caused a problem for them in the past. Just last year in Utah, a fan was accused of yelling things at Russell Westbrook that were at the very least derogatory and more likely racist. And that fan, even though he was later on banned for life, in that moment, they let him stay in the game and watch the entire game. And he was later interviewed by media in the stands afterwards, which is kind of wild when they just booted these two people for chanting free HK. So

I think if you, again, were so inclined to bring attention to this issue, you could get some attention pretty easily. And I'm really glad you brought up one of my favorite basketball players because he has great tasting clothes. He wears great clothes, very hot, which is unrelated to this topic, and I don't want to make this about that. But when he was in that Clash outfit, it was pretty good. Good fits. What?

Good fits. Yeah, good, good. And then Mitt Romney made fun of him at a game once. He held out three fingers or something for something. Did he? Something. And I was like, fuck you. You don't get to made fun of him at a game once. He held out three fingers or something for something. Did he? Something. And I was like, fuck you. You don't get to make fun of this guy.

This guy's way cooler than you. Doesn't strap his dog to the roof of a car either. No. I'll never get over that one. Two strikes, Romney. John Gonzalez, thank you so much for being here. And check out his podcast, Heat Check. That was awesome.

Thank you so much we come back The Rant Wheel hey don't go anywhere there's more of Love It or Leave It coming up and we're back

now it's time for The Rant Wheel you know how it works we spin the wheel wherever it lands. We rant about the topic. This week on the wheel, we have NBC News, Trump ambushing grieving parents,

Trump's letter to Turkish President Erdogan, the death of expertise, the end of iTunes, getting engaged, one of the Kardashians saying, rise and shine, Stormi. And Joker. Let's spin the wheel.

It has landed on Joker. I was supposed to do this last week, but then Emily Heller said something so funny I just decided to end the show. That's what happened. And so I will keep this very brief and I will say only this. You know, a lot of people tried to

convince us that this was some controversial film that was going to, you know, pit us against each other, really raise a lot of important ideas. I do not believe that that is the case. I will say only this about the film Joker. It is supposed to be the origin story of the Joker, how he becomes Joker. He is an insane clown in the opening scene of the movie.

They forgot to shoot the part of Joker where he becomes an insane clown. to shoot the part of Joker where he becomes an insane clown. You can't be a crazy clown in the first shot. Because what are we doing here?

If he's a crazy clown while the opening credits are running literally cry laughing about how sad he is, what are we going to do here for two hours? You're telling me what are we gonna do here for two hours? What are we gonna, you're telling me for two hours, what are you gonna do for two hours?

Dance down the stairs? That's correct. Let's spin it again. It has landed on the death of expertise suggested by Moshe. Yeah, I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I think one of the worst outcomes of the Internet has been the death of the expert. We are no longer doing expert.

And I think that the left is as bad or worse on this as the right. There is no difference to me between being anti-vax and thinking that Pizzagate was a real thing. It's all just doubting that people that have studied things and that truth matters matter. I was at the Earth Day rally in San Francisco by accident. I don't do that in my spare time. But I was there, and we went down.

We were marching. It was the funniest thing, this scientist was up there and she was giving this impassioned speech to these like, you know, preaching to this San Francisco choir and she was like and we gotta stop the coal industry from dumping carbon monoxide into our air

and the whole crowd has won, yeah and we gotta, we have to stop we have to change the way that we look at energy consumption, yeah and then she said,, we have to stop, we have to change the way that we look at energy consumption. Yeah! And then she said, and we have to also stop telling ourselves the lie that genetically modified food is bad for us. And the whole

crowd was like, ahhh. It was like they couldn't deal, it was like a you can't handle the truth situation. If you like science, you gotta like all of it. You're not allowed to just be like, I like that science because it reinforces my political perspective.

But this science, I don't know. I had a kid recently. I had a kid, and I got all this stuff like, what are you guys doing about vax schedules? We did kind of a long vax schedule like, oh, are you your doctor? No. Are you your doctor? No.

Are you a nurse? No. Epidemiologist? No. I'm a neuromatherapist that watches YouTube too much. Like, there is no difference between flat earth and anti-vax. It's so intense to me. Well, I wrote some things down. That's how intense it is to me.

Here's the thing. Also, people will say to me, like, oh, well, are you an expert on this? No! I don't have to be an expert because I rely on the scientific community, the consensus of science. I don't mean the one scientist

that you were able to find that reinforced your already held belief. Here's a quick primer on how to tell if you're not believing the truth. If you have to get to Google page three to find a doctor that believes what you believe, that's not the truth. If the URL you click on has the words truth or truth exposed in it, it's not the truth. Such a good rule to live by.

Such a good thought. Let's spin it again. So true. So true. Nothing good ever happens on by. Such a good thought. Let's spin it again. It's so true. So true. Nothing good ever happens on one of those middle O's of Google. No, but I mean, like, you can also believe in magic. You know what I mean? Like, I believe in magic, but I'm not going to, you know,

buy a hat and expect a dove to come out. What kind of magic do you want, Michaela? And now the famous magician's trick. I'll pull a duck from my hat. It has landed

on the end of iTunes. Oh, yes. Suggested by Michaela. Well, guys, I don't even know what that means. But I know enough to know that it is not good. And I know that...

Go on. Okay. It's been around for 18 years. It's the original OG app. It's the one that I learned how to use. And now it's going away. And they'll tell you, oh, you're fine. Your shit is all fine.

Your music, your movies, your whatever, their podcasts, you're fine. It's a lie. And they have a little asterisk that says, but really anything could happen. There could be a bug and therefore you should back up your entire music catalog. How? I motherfuckers. I don't, I tried to play my wedding song for somebody because it's really beautiful and it's on a disc. And it's like, nope. And I'm like, well, I don't have my wedding song anymore because the version that's on Spotify sucks shit. And now also I have other songs that I love a lot that I want to use as like a soundtrack for something.

But I used to bone my ex-boyfriends to it. And now I have to ask them, hey, what was that song that we used to do it to? Because I want to use it in a scene with a girl running through a field. That's not okay, end of iTunes. You made a promise to me. You said you were going to be here forever. Let's spin it again. Oh, I'm not done. Go on, go on.

You know, this is what's coming, guys. This is what's coming. Oh, you want to buy a song on iTunes? Well, you got to be a member of the Apple fucking store thing. And that means you gotta subscribe. And that means we're gonna ask you to turn on, for no fucking reason, your location services. Really?

You gotta know where I am to listen to Fleetwood Mac. You know it's coming. Let's spin it again. I just want to say my podcast, The Endless Honeymoon Podcast, available on iTunes now. Maybe. Maybe. I'm going to let that roll by.

It has landed on... It has... It has landed on NBC News. All right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right. It has landed on getting engaged. What's funny about this is what am I not able to talk about on a stage? And it turns out it's this. Fascinating. I'll say anything to you people.

I feel nothing inside. And yet yet I can't talk about this. Interesting. There are parts of my heart you don't get. Drill into it. Drill into it. Drill, baby, drill. I will say, I watched Ronan Farrow report on the Weinstein story from the very beginning. And I watched someone, you know,

Ronan was somebody I think people didn't really know how to size up. He was the son of celebrities. Did he earn what he'd gotten? How smart was he? What was he really made of? And I saw over two years someone who managed to go

from a rumor to a story that upended our culture and he did it by being indefatigable he did it by working 16 17 hours a day he did it by not eating and not sleeping he would go and meet a source who might know a source who might know a source and he would sit with that person for hours and listen and listen until there was one thing he could grab his hands around, until there was one thing he could latch onto and use that to slowly but surely unlock this story as NBC dragged their fucking feet and over and over again didn't think it was a story worth reporting, didn't think he was ever going to get it, didn't think it was even something that the Today Show audience would care about

that told him to pause reporting, halt reporting. You know, you've seen NBC deny it. You've seen them deny it in the past couple days. I heard it with my, I heard it. Because he put it on fucking speaker. I heard it. I heard it. And I heard something fascinating

on those calls. I heard people know in the it. And I heard something fascinating on those calls. I heard people know in the moment that they were doing something wrong and doing something that would come back to fucking bite them. So they all wanted the story killed, but nobody wanted to kill it. So everyone would say things like, we're not saying stop your reporting, just pause it for a little while. We conduct yet another review. Or it's not coming from me, it's coming from upstairs. It's not coming from upstairs, it's coming from legal. It's not coming from upstairs. It's coming from legal. It's not coming from legal.

It's coming from the reporting team that's not sure it's up to our standards. I think you should do more reporting. This story won't be ready until you do more reporting. But because the story isn't ready, we're not quite sure you should do any more reporting. I saw that happen firsthand. And I saw him become obsessed with the story, of not giving up on the story of doubting himself of not being sure he would have a job but he kept at it and he kept at it and he kept at it and he walked out of NBC and he went to the New Yorker and within a few weeks he published a story and that story won the Pulitzer Prize and then he decided to catalog what happened in a book and he went back to all those sources and he got all those sources on the record and he tried to untangle just exactly what happened inside of

that corporate culture and how a corporate culture could do that and all the people who supported him and all the people who didn't and who was on the right side of history and who was on the wrong side of history. And then he said, it's due on Wednesday. Can you read it tonight? And I said, I can't read it tonight. It's a 600-page book. I have my own job. I have a job. I have to go to my job. I can't just quit my job and read your book. You need to give me a few days. He said, okay, okay, well, can you read the next draft? I was like, yes, but you have to promise me

I get one week to read the book. I will read it over one week. He said, okay, not a week where Love It or Leave It's on the road because then I'm doing shows. It's not going to work. I said, okay, okay. So he gives it to me over July 4th, and he says, now, I just really want you to really read it closely.

And I said, okay, I'll read it closely. And so I opened the book and I immediately pressed control F, search for my name. And that is how I discovered that Ronan wanted to get married. That's it? I want to know the gory details.

I want to know how you do it. What happened? You don't have to tell us. I'll tell you. He literally put it in track changes. The proposal was in track changes in the draft of the book. There was a note? It said, I proposed, and then it left a spot for me to answer,

and then the fact checker checked the answer. That's beautiful. That's so sweet. What a bookish love story. Wow. That is... Everything else is shit. All right, let's end the show.

Thank you all so much. Michaela Watkins, Rohe Kosher, John Gonzalez, Jamie Skeel, Thinking of You, The Comedy Store, Nancy Pelosi, the great Elijah Cummings, and to all of you for coming out. Have a great night. Love It or Leave It is a product of Crooked Media.

It's written and produced by me, John Lovett, Elisa Gutierrez, Lee Eisenberg, our head writer and Burisma board member, Travis Helwig, and writers Jocelyn Kaufman, Alicia Carroll, John Milstein, Sarah Lazarus, and Peter Miller. Bill Lance is our editor, and Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure.

Thanks to our designers, Jesse McClain and Jamie Skeel, for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast, and to our digital producers, Nar Melkonian and Yale Freed for filming and editing video each week so you can.