Lovett or Leave It - Treason Finale

Episode Date: July 20, 2018

Well it’s all out in the open now, huh? Trump walks back his Helsinki walk back. ICE is younger than Monster Energy Drink. Joe Lieberman is terrible. Republicans meekly criticize a disloyal President. And Air Force One is going to be insanely ugly unless Boeing steps up. Jon is joined by comedians Kiran Deol, Dani Fernandez, Ben Sawyer and Mitra Jouhari to break down the week’s news and enter the national debate over double negatives.

Good evening, Los Angeles. Very excited to be here. I don't know if you've been watching the news, but we've reached what I think we should call the treason finale. Yeah, let's all soak it in. We know how it ends. Well, we don't know how it ends. But we know it doesn't end as well as we want it to end. We're not even sure if it will end. But this week we're hopeful about the possibility of endings that we can live with. We're recording next week's show on Thursday at the Hollywood Improv, so if you're in LA, you can get tickets.

Just want to throw that out there. You know, before we start the show tonight, I was in the mood to just start with a spin of the rant wheel, and I'm not sure where it will land, but can we go to the wheel? Okay, so this week... On our sort of introductory rant wheel, we have... It could land on Joe Lieberman, Joe Lieberman, Joe Lieberman, Joe Lieberman, Joe Lieberman, Joe Lieberman, etc. Can we spin it? In a sense, it's a formality.

In a sense, it's a formality. It has landed on Joe Lieberman. How many of you are familiar with Joe Lieberman? How many of you saw that he wrote an op-ed in a paper called the Wall Street Journal? How many people saw it? I'm actually genuinely curious. If you saw it, say something. Make a noise.

If you didn't see it. Okay, okay, okay. And you guys are news animals, so that's good sign. So anyway, Joe Lieberman, former vice presidential candidate, former senator from Connecticut, former Democrat, turned independent because he lost his primary and said, I still wanna do it. and said, I still want to do it. I lost, I know.

I'm just going to keep running. And then he won. I'm just like, oh, come on. So he wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal saying that Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is someone who could be dangerous for Congress, for the Democratic Party, and for America because she is quote out of the mainstream end quote. You should all read it. It's a piece of shit. So the reason this bothers me, it bothers me obviously because he's encouraging Joe Crowley who lost the Democratic primary to run on the working families line of the ballot that he happened to win

and possibly divide Democrats and risk the seat, because he'd rather lose the seat than see someone who's leftist win, which tells you a lot about Joe Lieberman. But what is also galling about it is the idea that Joe Lieberman is going to tell us what's outside of the mainstream. And I say that because Ocasio-Cortez is an advocate for Medicare for All. Medicare for All is one of the most popular policies that you can poll. It polls with a majority in 42 states. It is supported by a majority of the people in that

state. It is more popular than Obamacare. It is more popular than repealing Obamacare. Both positions we would have to concede are mainstream. One is the position of the mainstream Democratic Party. The other is a position of what we used to call the Republican Party, but has become something else. Here's what Joe Lieberman did when Joe Lieberman was in the mainstream. If you remember when there was a debate about Obamacare, there was a question as to whether or not there would be a public option, where people would be able to opt out of the private system and buy into Medicare. Now, a lot of people blame Joe Lieberman personally for killing the public option.

That's actually not fair. Things are worse than that. It was actually a quiet group of Democrats who together killed the public option. It was sort of like a murder on the Orient Express situation, right? It was sort of like a murder on the Orient Express situation, right? Like, nobody wanted to do the deed, but one by one, they went into the room and killed the public option. That's also a spoiler for Murder on the Orient Express. But if you can't spoil books that were written in the 1800s, we can't have a conversation. But here's what Joe Lieberman did do personally. So after the public option was killed from Obamacare, there was a compromise proposal. Now, of course, Obamacare is a compromise,

and the public option is a compromise. So this was a compromise on a compromise on a compromise, and the compromise, compromise, compromise was that near seniors, people 55 and older, would be allowed to buy Medicare. I'm sorry for going into the details, but to me, this is one of the most galling and despicable things a person's ever done, and I will repeat this till the day I die. The Medicare buy-in, 55 plus. So what that means is, near seniors can buy into a public option. My parents would have loved to have this. They were counting down the days till they were eligible for Medicare,

because their premiums were going up because they were older and people that are nearing retirement are sicker and require more medical care than younger people because your bodies are falling apart because of the vicissitudes of evolution and it really sucks.

Not one part of us gets better. And that's the deal. I don't make the rules. I wish I did. I wish I did. It'd be better. They'd be different rules. I don't know how much different

But different the Medicare buy-in is exactly the kind of thing that a moderate like Joe Lieberman should support It was fiscally responsible. It was practical. It solved a problem. It was moral. It was just it was a compromise It was something Democrats all agreed with but he has insurance companies in his state And so he personally kills it and and when you when you get rid of the Medicare buy-in, so the Medicare buy-in means that near seniors pay less for insurance. It means younger people that are not near seniors pay less for insurance, because you've just removed a bunch of older people out of the population of people buying insurance, so insurance premiums on the whole go down. Medicare is more efficient than the private system, so insurance costs, health care costs for the whole country go down.

Care gets better because Medicare provides excellent care. The only people that pay are the insurance companies. But as a favor to the insurance companies in his state, Joe Lieberman killed the Medicare buy-in himself. He was the 60th vote. If he said yes, it would have been in there. Every person in this room is paying more for healthcare because of Joe fucking Lieberman. And so the idea that Joe Lieberman is to come in and lecture us

what's good for working families and good for the Democratic Party, he can go fuck himself. Joe Lieberman says in this that Joe Crowley's re-election would be evidence that Democrats are capable of governing again. Fuck you. We are the only governing party this country has had and the problem with the sleazy people

like Joe Lieberman who do no labels and all that bullshit is they look at our politics right now and they would rather say that both parties are to blame than admit the truth

which is we have one party that's lost its fucking minds and one other party that forgot how to win elections. So I hope one lesson from 2016 is that we never listen to someone like Joe Lieberman again.

And that if anybody out there thinks Joe Lieberman has a point, they can come talk to me after the show. Fuck Joe Lieberman. Fuck his kind of politics. You don't have to agree with everything Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez says, but if you're gonna come with that kind of bullshit, that somehow

she's gonna cost us seats in the Midwest because somebody won a primary in New York, give me a fucking break. Outrageous. We have a great show. I'm very excited about our guest tonight. She's the host of the Natural Selection Debate Show on Nerdist and host of Nerdificent Podcast on How Stuff Works. Please welcome Dani Fernandez. Hi, Dani. How are you?

I'm good. I'm good. Do I sit? Do I stand with you? Sit. Please sit. I'm going to sit. I do want to say I'm excited that someone like Joe Lieberman is afraid of Latinas.

Because I feel like, thank you. We came to fight. Got my hoop earrings in. I'm ready. Those are great. We came to fight. Got my hoop earrings in. I'm ready. Listen, Latinas, we remember everything, too. Like, we all remember this. Like, you fuck up with us. We got a PowerPoint.

We got an essay. We're going to pull everything out. We're going to take this country back. Our next guest, she's a comedian, filmmaker, and co-host of Crooked's brand new Hysteria podcast. Please welcome the very funny Kieran Deal. Hi. Hello. I brought water.

Water and wine. Just transmute it, you know what I mean? By the end of this show, that's the goal. Cool. Everyone here is going to talk about politics, and I'm like, just wait. There's a magic trick at the end of this. Just wait. Just wait. Just wait.

We have so much to look forward to. There are PowerPoints. There is transubstantiation. Yep. What a night. What a night. Also, your vocabulary is incredible. I just have to say, like, I mean,

you've literally been doing this for like eight minutes. You use the word vasectitude, sarcophagus, and then transubstantiation. And rants. Thank you. I'm just like, God damn. I appreciate that. But honestly, I'm not. Can some of the goyim here confirm that?

Is that what transubstantiation is? I can't remember. Honestly. Is it crackers into body? Sorry. Water into wine is something. Crackers into the body. That's transubstantiation. Honestly, it's still cool? Oh, sorry. Water into wine is something. Crackers into the body. That's transubstantiation.

Honestly, it's still cool how close I was. And finally, he's the host of the Road to Now podcast, a history professor at Middle Tennessee State University and a comedian. Please welcome back to the show, Ben Sawyer. Hi, Ben Sawyer. Hi, Ben. Hi. Sorry I missed your intro,

but Joe Lieberman was crying in the bathroom, man. He's here? He seemed upset about something, man. I don't know what's going on. I didn't know he was here. All right. Let's get into it. What a week.

Last week, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted a dozen Russian intelligence officers for stealing and leaking Democratic emails during the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency.

Despite Rosenstein having briefed Trump about the indictments in advance, Trump continued to call the investigation a witch hunt and disparaged American allies in Europe, calling the EU a foe.

The indictments revealed that the Russian government was behind the attacks despite Putin's consistent denials. I cannot believe he lied to us. You can't trust Vladimir Putin. What can you trust? Apparently the pseudonyms Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks, which disseminated the emails, were

created by Russian hackers. Interestingly, one Trump political advisor who is believed to have been in regular contact with Guccifer and DCLeaks is Roger Stone, who is, legally speaking, a fox. Third degree fox. Fucked with criminal intent. Three days later, on Monday, President Trump hosted a press conference with Vladimir Putin during which he refused to back the US intelligence system over Vladimir Putin. He called out Dan Coats by name, saying, quote, my people came to me.

Dan Coats came to me. And some others. They said, they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He called out Dan Coats by name saying, quote, my people came to me. Dan Coats came to me. And some others, they said, they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I'll say this. I don't see any reason why it would be. You might not know this. But that word, would,

is going to become very important in a second. Because yesterday, Trump cleared up this whole mess by saying that he misspoke and instead meant to say, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be. Karen, is that the stupidest fucking shit you've ever heard? I mean, his language ability just doesn't match yours. I got to say that. You know?

Yeah, it's kind of fascinating for someone that hates Spanish speakers. He doesn't really know the English language very well. That's true. It's as if he is... It's as if he is... You know how in 1984 they slowly winnowed down the acceptable number of words? The degradation of his brain is doing that to his dictionary. So he's slowly running out of words,

and he's basically down to special, bad guy, witch hunt, and lock her up. Sad. And sad. Bad. Bad, sad. Ben, you've studied Russia. What do you make of this new and fascinating dynamic between the American government and Vladimir Putin's government?

Oh, man, where to start? So just for background, I lived in Russia for two years. I was a Fulbright scholar there and wrote my dissertation on Russian history. And this is one of those things where there's so many times where you have to know the history and have to understand that context to be able to understand what's going on. The interesting thing is that I don't know that you really do for this one actually you know it's just kind of like there's one dude who just like he's like really crushes on dictators you know what i'm saying like he really like if the fewer people had to vote for him like

the more he likes him and he just it just seems like he's so easy I mean he's so easy to manipulate right he clearly admires these folks right he'll talk junk to Angela Merkel and then he'll go and be like hey you want to be friends Putin or you'll be friends Kim Jong-il or like anybody like that Kim Jong-il he's dead anyway um I'm just saying maybe he did that we don't know um I want you to think about this when Trump said in that meeting one of the things that kind of got downplayed, kind of below the, you know, why would he, was if Russia, if this was Russia, they wouldn't have lost these servers, right? Because he tried to distract with a server thing. And then he said, you know, in Russia, they wouldn't have lost these servers. They wouldn't have disappeared. I'm like, I don't know, but tens of millions of people disappeared under Stalin. So maybe they know

how to make things disappear. The thing is that it blows my mind that you would degrade. He's the executive. All the people in the intelligence offices work for him. And he just ripped on them and said they weren't as good as Russia. And so this, like I said, I wish I had some insight from studying Soviet history, but I think what happened is

that we have a buffoon as president and that might be pretty simple to understand. Yeah. It does feel as though we're finally talking about this as if no one has privileged information the strange behavior has kind of forced what was a conversation about rumor

and innuendo into the fore you know from Chris Wallace of Fox News to the correspondence on NPR there was an open conversation this week about the fact that a foreign government may have blackmail material on the American president in a way that's dictating his behavior. Karen, what do you make of that?

What do you make of the fact that we are now openly discussing the fact that Donald Trump may be compromised in this fundamental way? Is that a hopeful sign? Is that a terrifying sign? What do you think? That's a really hard question. I'll say this. It's like I didn't consider myself to be like as

politically minded as you or you know even necessarily people in this room and then I like saw the movie Icarus which I'm a documentary filmmaker which is what everyone wants to hear from their stand up comedian so but I saw the movie Icarus and that won an Oscar,

and that was about the Russian doping scandal, and then it broke in the New York Times, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone here, but the steps that the KGB were willing to go, in terms of opening up a urine container just for a medal, or the extent to which they were willing to really take extreme action, like murdering people for a sports game I was like at first I remember my reaction was like whatever just let them throw

the ball whatever just let them get the medal doesn't matter and then I thought about it and I was like no but if you're willing to like have those kinds of stakes in a sports game what are you willing to do for a presidency what are you willing to do for a presidency? What are you willing to do in an election? Where does that stop? And so for me, like, Russia has been incredibly concerning for exactly that reason. It's just when you have somebody who is an international bully, because there's been this wave of populism through Europe as well, and Brexit, if you have somebody with a ton of money

and unlimited resources that is influencing a ton of elections in, you know, Western democracy, yes, of course that's incredibly fucking worrying. Yeah. But Danny, at the same time, that has been the underlying truth this whole time. That's what we've been dealing with for two years. And something does feel like it changed this week,

that something went from being possible to being something we need to be talking about, and that Republicans and Democrats were talking about. Did you find any of that reassuring? Are you just waiting for it to go on to the next news cycle? Look, I know everyone is like, clearly he has a blackmail tape. It is not the pee tape.

It's not the pee tape because his fan base would not give a shit about a pee tape. It's probably him saying mexicans are harder working than americans and if that leaked he's fucked and he knows it which is why he was all fidgety and and like a crumpled up piece of paper basically i just think um he looked like a like a wet sock just yeah Yeah, it does seem... That's the thing that's so fascinating. This idea of the pee tape has become a stand-in for whatever this blackmail material is.

But isn't it amazing that we're at the point now where we've thought about it and a videotape of Donald Trump engaging in play with urine with some prostitutes in a Russian hotel. The craziest thing we could imagine seeing from a president. We all are now sort of of the opinion that that's not bad enough. It has to be worse.

Whatever it is, whatever the secret is, may not even be on video. You know, it could be another form. It could be on paper. Look, we were hacked by someone named Guccifer. It is so brutal. It is just... Not even Guccifer. The sequel to Guccifer. Let me say something here, though.

Here's the thing. I don't think there's any blackmail material, and here's why. I think that's giving Trump too much credit. Because when have you seen that guy be able to hold down a consistent line for two years? You know what I'm saying? I think Julia Yaffe actually had a great piece in GQ that came out a couple days ago, and her point was the blackmail is just Trump's personality. The fact that to admit that russia meddled in this thing is somehow the same in the same way diminishing his brilliant

victory is the thing he can't do and so he can't admit that so he can't press putin on it and i think that's honestly i mean remember like the most obvious answer is usually the one like we have no evidence of blackmail but we have decades of evidence of Trump being a moron so I disagree with that for two reasons I think it's true I think what you're saying is true but it's not enough it's not enough because A. he was solicitous of Putin before the election was over

and B. he's solicitous of Putin on issues that go beyond election meddling because he's also giving in to Putin on NATO, Crimea, Syria, Ukraine, on and on and on. And so what I actually think this is a place where we, you know, the Donald Trump character is overwritten. He's a reality TV host and he's a, he's a, has narcissistic personality disorder and

he's a racist misogynist and he may be financially captured by a foreign government. Like, that's... Too much plot. Too much plot. If you pitch that, if you pitch that, if you pitch that to, like, Netflix, they'd be like,

okay, we'll do anything. But if you pitch it... But if you brought it to someplace more discerning, they'd have questions. When we come back, OK Stop. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of

Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Now for a game we call OK Stop. Here's how it works. We'll roll a clip and the panel can say OK Stop at any point to comment.

Just yesterday, the president of, it says here the free world. That's not right. Went on the record to clarify comments he made regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election after his disastrous performance in Helsinki. Let's roll the clip. Once again, the full faith and support for America's intelligence agencies. I have a full faith in our intelligence agencies. Oops, they just turned off the light. That must be the intelligence agency.

Okay, stop. So just for those at home, he said, misread a sentence, couldn't get, then finally got around to making the grammar work to say he has a full faith and support in the intelligence agencies. The lights go out and he goes, probably the intelligence agencies. Not bad. Not bad. However, it is a reminder that all he wants to do is host a TV show where he can make little quips and seem like he's in charge,

but a bit more than he's just a dog that caught the car, this guy. You know? And I've said this many times. I accept our intelligent community's conclusion. Okay, stop. Did he say I accept our intelligent community's conclusion?

So, yes, he's having trouble. I think because he is jet-lagged. That is part of it. He does look very tired. And I think that's important that we recognize that. Also, whenever he has to say something he doesn't believe, whenever he is forced to go out to the podium to kind of walk something back, he always reads it like he's holding up today's newspaper.

You know, he just is a hostage. He's a hostage to John Kelly in this video. That Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. Okay, stop. Now that's definitely not in his prepared remarks. That is a walkback of the walkback. So they sent him out here to concede that he made a mistake to side with the American intelligence community over a member of what was the KGB, you know, a short putt

for an American. But even here, he in the middle of actually walking back, he just repeats his lie. He repeats his siding with Putin in this walk walk back amazing he's literally like ron burgundy like he's just reading i do want to say if y'all can see like the white still his his i know that we talk about his tan but i just i need two seconds like for the amount of money you have also he spray tans himself why because he wants to be our color. Sorry, you can go. So I actually think that the reason his eyes never are proper... I don't think he's tanning. I think it's spray tan. I literally think when he's getting makeup,

he's looking at his phone. And he doesn't... He's too impatient to put the phone down for even a second and have them finish the makeup under his eyes, which is why he goes out looking like a reverse raccoon. How awesome would it be if whenever the lights went off, his eyes just glowed in the dark?

Well, what's amazing is when the lights go out, the ombre of his hair shimmers magnificently. It's like a beautiful... He's like that glitter fish in that book, in that children's book.

You have to give him some credit though because I didn't think he could read at all. And here there's definitely this semblance of literacy. No, he actually has an earpiece and they're just saying it to him in there. Oh, they're saying it to him. He also though did scrawl on the type page no collusion, where collusion is misspelled,

which I just love. Because what I like about that is, hey, you know these speechwriters, they work for you. They'll make a change in the written text for you. It's okay. But also, have you ever forgotten to say no collusion? Like, what? You say it all the time.

You write it down every time? It was spelled K-U-L-U-O-O-Z-I-O-N. It was amazing. A lot of people out there. There was no collusion at all. Now, I have to say, I came back, and I said, what is going on? What's the big deal? So I got a transcript. I reviewed it.

I actually went out and reviewed a clip of an answer that I gave and I realized that there is a need for some clarification. Okay, stop. It's come to my attention

that my remarks are being interpreted as treason. I couldn't figure it out. Should have been obvious. I thought it would be obvious, but I would like to clarify just in case it wasn't. In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word would instead of wouldn't. Okay, stop. That's the one that's like, I mean, I just imagine the room full of lawyers

sitting there being like, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, how can we fix this as simply as possible? You know, just like the semantic difference, and it's like, how can we make this as simple as possible? And so they reduce it down to one word. They reduce it down to one word, reduce it down to one world but this statement takes like eight minutes but it's also it it makes absolutely no sense in the context it wasn't like it wasn't like in a statement of incredible stern words for Vladimir Putin it wasn't like it was

like he was like mr. Putin tear down wall. Wouldn't it were that you were involved? No, he's like, look at this guy. He's handsome. He's strong. I believe him. You believe him. Everybody believes him. These guys don't, but who gives a shit?

I mean not. I still love that he just was like, he said he didn't do it, and he didn't do it. He reminds me of one of my girlfriends, where we're like, honey, no, he cheated. And it's like, but he said he didn't. Yeah. I was going to say, it seems like they were like, how do we get out of this one?

And then a bad little boy ran in and said, just said you said once. And they're like, if you're right, little boy, get back to detention. Yeah, I mean, he's Dennis the Madness. With nukes.es sentence should have been i don't see any reason why i wouldn't or why it wouldn't be russian so just to repeat it i said the word would instead of wouldn't unlike previous administrations my administration has and will

continue to move aggressively to repeal any efforts and repel. We will stop it. We will repel it. Any efforts to interfere in our elections. We're dealing with crazy every single day. And like when you deal with crazy in your own life, like it moves your middle. You know, it's like you compromise, you just try to get out of something. And all of a sudden you find yourself just apologizing or dealing with someone who's fucked up, and you're just trying to get out of it. You're trying to get out of it okay and just move on,

and you realize you're being crazy too, you know, because you're compromising with crazy. Let's say you take all of them at their word. What would a normal person do? And we totally forget that this is how adults talk because we've been living with this for two years. If this was real, if you really did make a mistake, you'd walk out to the podium and you'd say,

hi, everybody. Yesterday, in my attempt to strike a balance between being tough on Russia but also being open to compromise at a time when we need to work together to solve the problem in Syria and a whole host of international challenges, I missed the mark. I came across as being too lenient. I deeply regret it. Obviously,

I believe we should stop interference in our election. Obviously, I believe in the reports of our intelligence community. I made a mistake. And you need to know that you can trust your president to tell the truth to foreign adversaries. And I'll always strive to do that, even though I believe we should have peace and try to work with people we disagree with. That's what a normal president would do, even after fucking this up. But this guy is so broken inside that he can't even admit, he can't say, I'm sorry, he can't say he's screwed up.

He's like, he has to find it, he has to be clarifying, and he has to throw in the dig of, I thought it'd be obvious that I don't love Russia. But Trump doesn't do words good. Yeah, he doesn't. Like, he just, he doesn't do words good. I don't love Russia. But Trump doesn't do words good. Yeah, he doesn't. Like, he just, he doesn't do words good. I don't know, this is small doses of this because it's like, the way he uses language,

it's just like, what are words? Words, good, bad, you know, cyclical, treason, ah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, that's... John, what are the chances that off of this that you think that this would spearhead into some sort of like actual, like the Mueller investigation would actually like open out into a real trial of whether this president has legitimacy? Yeah, I think that's a good question. I think it's really hard to say. I think one of the lessons of the last two years is there's a lot of people who have no bottom. There's no depths Trump could sink to that could turn them. So that's really

hard. So I don't look to see that Trump has done something so heinous or been so obviously corrupt or inappropriate that it will cause actions by a Republican Congress. But what I do look for is shifts in how our culture talks about Trump. I think that happened when the first indictments started coming in. I think that happened around the Muslim ban. I think that happened around child separation. It's easy to be cynical and say, but we stopped talking about those things. We don't talk about it anymore. And that's true. The media has a short attention span. As human beings, we all have a short attention span. But I don't think we always go all the way back. We don't go back to baseline. And each time Trump pushes the boundaries of what's terrible,

just look at what happened this week. Trump says this stuff in Helsinki, and immediately we're talking about whether the president is compromised. That took two years to get to the point where we could talk about that openly. Some of the Republican rebukes I wish were stronger, but I see again and again these things adding up to the possibility of winning the House, to the possibility of winning the Senate, and to making it harder and harder for Republicans to ignore what they're complicit in. And beyond that, I'm not that optimistic right now, but I think that it would be too cynical to say that what's happening right now doesn't matter. I think it matters.

It doesn't feel I mean, maybe this is, it doesn't feel incremental to me, like the Muslim ban versus child separation. There was like this kind of ubiquitous reaction from people, like when he said this thing to Russia, because like everyone's an American and everyone knows Putin's

an asshole, and everyone knows Putin's an asshole. Yeah. And everyone doesn't like the calendar that he made when he was shirtless. You know, it's not cool. Don't speak for me. Dictators shouldn't be doing that, John. But you know what I'm saying? Like with Russia, there's like if there was collusion and if they did meddle and if you kind of could, I know that's a lot of ifs, if you could connect that to the White House or his campaign, is there a world in which he could be impeached or taken out of office?

I think that there is a political question and a legal question. We have very little control over the legal questions and we have to wait to see what comes out of Mueller. I think everything we're talking about is political questions. It looks impossible to imagine impeaching Donald Trump right now, but it looked hard to impeach Richard Nixon, and then something breaks and it happens. Some things change slower than we'd like. Some things all of a sudden change faster than we'd like. I don't know what it looks like because none of us have an imagination powerful enough to unfurl what's ahead of us because it's going to be fucking nuts. But things change quickly.

Things will seem stuck, and then we won't. I don't think anybody has the answers, but I think it's wrong to be hopeless and I think it's wrong to be overly optimistic. I think we are in a brutal fucking Mueller purgatory. That's what this is. Heaven, hell, we'll see where it shakes out.

Okay. When we come back, we're going to play a game. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back! We all saw what Trump did this week in Helsinki. A lot of people were calling what happened unprecedented.

Even the former head of the CIA, John Brennan, referred to it as treasonous. Those on the right, however, were calling this, and this is a direct quote, stop chasing me with that microphone. I'm not going to talk about Trump. Please stop chasing me. I can outrun you.

I do orange theory. But those same Republicans had plenty to say about President Obama and how he led America on the world stage, so we thought we'd compare reactions to both presidents and see if you could tell the difference in a game we're calling America Second. Would anyone out there like to play the game? What's your name? Ruth would like to play.

Hi, Ruth. Hi. Thanks for being here. You're welcome. Where are you from? I live here in L.A. Thanks for being here. You're welcome. Where are you from? I live here in L.A. You live here in L.A.? Yeah.

Great. All right, Ruth. I'm going to read a quote from a Republican. You have to tell me if it was about this week's debacle in Helsinki or something they said about Obama as a world leader. Are you ready? Yes. Number one.

The president's foreign policy has been one of appeasement towards autocratic dictators, thugs, and adversaries after another. About Obama? Yes. Lindsey Graham in 2015 when Obama decided to open diplomatic relations with Cuba after 50 years. Number two, it wasn't his finest hour. That's Trump. That's Trump.

That's Representative Warren Davidson on the press conference between Trump and Putin. Number three, he has, in fact, strengthened Putin's hand. Obama. Yep, that's Senator Marco Rubio in 2015 when Obama agreed to meet with Putin at the United Nations. Number four, I really hope the president today clarifies this because I don't think this stuff is necessarily in his heart. Wow, that's

Trump. That is. That's Representative Pete King of New York on Trump's meetings with Putin in Helsinki, and thank you to Mike Bloomberg for raising money for this guy. Unbelievable. Number five, I think that the president overall simply doesn't put the same stress on our alliance structures because he's comfortable watching those structures fall into decline. Obviously Obama, right?

That is current National Security Advisor John Bolton about Obama after the right-wing claimed that Obama had removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and thrown it into the trash, which did not happen. Can you believe that? Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing what you can do when you don't experience shame? Number six, foreign policy is difficult. Trump? Yep, that's Rand Paul on this meeting. Number seven, it was a mistake for the president to give Putin more flexibility and to treat him as a non-threat. Obama.

Yes, that's Senator Bill Cassidy actually blaming Obama for somehow giving Putin the flexibility to later take advantage of Trump. That was this week. Eight, I can't read his intentions or what he meant to say at that time. Suffice it to say that for me as a policymaker, what really matters is what we do moving forward. I feel like that's Trump and I feel like that's Paul Ryan. Very close. It is Trump and it was Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio.

Ruth, you've won the game. And the parachute gift card. When we come back, I'm going to be talking to an expert on gaslighting. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. One thing I know about Donald Trump is that he loves to say words out loud.

Sometimes those words are racist. Sometimes they don't finish a full thought. But this week we watched as Donald Trump attempted to gaslight the entire planet. From denying making statements to the Sun newspaper when it was recorded on tape, to, well, the entire summit in Helsinki. But what is gaslighting? We thought we'd take a step back and help you better understand, so we brought in an actual behavioral expert from UCLA's psychology department to

come and explain. Please welcome to the stage Dr. Irene Jones! Irene, it's such a pleasure having you on the show tonight. Is it? Yeah. Irene, it's such a pleasure having you on the show tonight. Is it? Yeah, it is. Okay. Weird.

So, Dr. Jones, you're an expert on gaslighting. Who told you that? You told me that. You told me that. You're an expert. You came here to talk about gaslighting we you're an expert in gaslighting you about to people it's about denying the reality in front of people's eyes right right I'm sorry you were confused I'm happy to do my best to talk about

gaslighting I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly I have to tell you most accusations of gaslighting just aren't true. No, I've been watching Donald Trump for two years. He denies things that are plain as day, things that we saw the day before. He says he didn't say things he said earlier in the same speech. You know, Trump is gaslighting us, right? That's why you're here. You're here to talk about the fact that Trump is gaslighting us.

Okay, John, you seem really upset. I'm not upset. I'm not upset. I'm not upset at all. I'm a little confused. I mean, for example, let's just get into it. For example, people say that President Trump uses gaslighting techniques when he makes up statistics that are easily

verifiable. Okay, well, I, for one, think that the President of the United States probably has access to data that is more accurate and also cooler than yours. Speaking of data, have you always been this paranoid? I don't...

No, yeah, no. Ow, ow, stop yelling at me. I'm not yelling. I'm not yelling. I'm not yelling. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not yelling. I'm sorry if it seemed like I was yelling. Okay, so we all saw it. He sided with Putin over the U.S. and everybody said he sided with Putin over the U.S.

But then Mike Pence said that the whole world saw Trump putting America first. Isn't that gas? That's gaslighting. Jesus, John, you are freaking me out. You're being so scary. I'm literally shivering. I'm shivering.

What is happening? I'm trying to just ask you some questions about gaslighting. Stop threatening me. I'm not threatening anybody. I'm crying. I'm crying. Does everyone see? For the folks at home, I'm trying to just ask you some questions about gaslighting. Please stop threatening me. I'm not threatening anybody. I'm crying, I'm crying. Does everyone see? For the folks at home, I'm crying. You're an expert on gaslighting.

I'm asking you to explain something that you are an expert in. Please, I'm begging you, just tell us about gaslighting. I don't understand. Okay, okay, okay, John. Man. Calm down. If you insist, I can try to make you feel better. I guess you may have heard of gaslighting.

It's a manipulative way of making a person question their sanity. Like, say, when Donald Trump says he misspoke one word that entirely changes the meaning of everything that he said the day before on an international stage. But I, an expert who loves you, John, look at me, who loves you, John. Look at me, who loves you. I'm telling you right here, right now, on this stage that gaslighting is not real, okay? And I'm just trying to help you because I'm the only one who really loves you, all right? A lot of people are going to say that they love you because you're a fucking star or whatever. A lot of people are going to say

that they love you, but I'm the only one that loves you. You're not looking at me. Look at me. You love me? I love you. And you're being honest. I'm here for you no matter what. Okay, because I just have to be honest with you right now. I thought that he gaslights us,

but I feel like maybe I'm missing something or like I feel like I'm crazy. And that's why they call me an expert on gaslighting. Ladies and gentlemen please give it up for Mishra Juhari, our gaslighting expert. Thank you. expert. Thank you. Now we wait for the Emmys to roll in. So while we spent the last week

watching Donald Trump's semester abroad, there was a lot of atrocious shit still happening back here at home. Notably, thousands of families still haven't been reunified after being separated at the border. This human rights crisis has a lot of people asking about our immigration system and about whether or not we need a new system

and whether or not we should abolish ICE. Many on the right and the center of the Democratic Party suggest that abolishing ICE would return us to the borderless Wild West of 1492. But the truth is... I have to say, the borderless Wild West of 1492 is a confused concept that I love. But the truth is, life without ice is not only possible, it's actually something most of us can remember.

Like when Martha Stewart was indicted. Remember that? It happened in 2003, the same year ice was founded. So we're going to play a game called Ice Ice is Only a Baby. So we're going to play a game called Ice, Ice is Only a Baby. And in this game, we're going to see if you can guess which of the following is older or younger than Ice. Okay? Would someone out there like to play the game?

Hi, what's your name? Hi, I'm Dave. Dave, how are you? Where are you from, Dave? I live in Santa Clarita. Santa Clarita. Bought my house in 94. Oh, he's come prepared. He's come loaded for that. Bought my house in 94. Oh, he's come prepared.

He's come loaded for that. Bought your house in 1994, did you? Yes, I did. You locked in an insanely low property tax rate, didn't you? Oh, you know it. You baby boomer son of a bitch. Un-fucking-believable. unfucking believable what was it like to drive on roads

that were well paved and airports that weren't fucking disgusting it was like utopia John it was like shut up Dave

it was like Russia alright Dave it was like life under Obama yeah that was a good time yeah All right, Dave. It was like life under Obama. Yeah. No, that was a good time. Yeah.

So I'm going to read you... I'm going to read you... I'm going to tell... I'm going to name something. Slow down. I swear to God. Do you know what's better than having a cheap house? Living for 50 more years. Dave.

Wait a second. Is it, though? All right, all right. Let's play the game, Dave. I'm going to read you about... I'm going to name something, and you have to say if it's older or younger than Ice. Let's kick it off. LinkedIn. Older.

Older, 2002. Monster Energy Drink. Older. Yes, 2002. The Segway. Older. Yes, 2002. The Segway. Older. Yes, 2001. The Roomba.

Newer. No, it's older. The Roomba is older than ice. Slumdog Millionaire. Older. It's younger, it's 2008. Timothee Chalamet. Older. Older.

Older, he was born in 1995. Bratz dolls. Younger. Older, 2001. Sasha Obama. Oh my God. Older. Older, she was born in 2001.

Mason Ramsey, aka the Yodel Kid. Younger. Yes, he's younger than Ice. The song Skater Boy. Older. Yes, the song Skater Boy is fucking older than Ice. The Comedy Central roast of Donald Trump. Younger.

No, they were both 2003, same age. Grey's Anatomy. Older. Younger, 2005. Maxim Magazine. Older. Older, 95. The TV show Younger. Younger. Younger, 2005. Maxim Magazine. Older. Older, 95. The TV show Younger.

Younger. Younger, that's recent. The 2002 Winter Olympics. Okay, come on. The Daily Show. Oh, older, older. Yep. Go-Gurt.

Older. Yep, 97. American Apparel. Older. 1989. Hashtags. What? Hashtags. Younger. Yep, 97. American Apparel. Older. 1989. Hashtags. What? Hashtags.

Younger. Yep, 2007. Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Older. Correct. Amelie. Older. Yep.

Smirnov Ice. Older. Correct. The original Broadway production of mama mia older older 2002 and finally crocs the shoes older they are older than ice so dave you've won the game. And if you could remember life without Segway's, LinkedIn, or Monster Energy Drink, congrats. You have lived and survived in a world without ice. Yay. It sometimes pays to be old.

It sometimes pays to be old. Thank you, Dave. I'm going to give you that because my joke was vicious. 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. Now for the rant wheel.

Here's how it works. We spin a wheel wherever it lands. We talk about the topic. This week on the wheel we have Prime Day, we have Trump meeting with Queen, we have Tom Hardy always covering his beautiful face, we have Twitter sleuths, the Air Force One refresh,

the genius asshole paradox, people being told to speak English, and removing politics from comic books. Let's spin the wheel. It has landed on the genius asshole paradox, which I believe was suggested by Kieran. I feel like we're in a very binary time currently. Like, it's either black or it's white.

You know, so with something like Me Too, or, you know, our president's an asshole. Our president is an asshole and there's no paradox there. But essentially, like you have all of these people who harassed women. Do you know what I mean? And we're all saying that they're very, very evil. But I feel like we put people on pedestals in this country. And it's like if they're on a pedestal, then we tear them down. But it's like a lot of things can exist at once.

It's like an event once. It's like an event diagram. It's not like two circles. I think that they're right on top of each other. You can be a genius and also an asshole. It's like Einstein was a genius and also an asshole. He was terrible to his wife. There's all kinds of people like all throughout history that have been both geniuses and assholes. So it like kind of pisses me off that we act super surprised that somebody is both a genius and an asshole. Like, how could this genius be an asshole? And it's like, just look back.

Just look back. Every genius has something about them that was like a super dickish thing that they did. Like, everyone is kind of a dick. You know, like, that's just the thing. Which is why when I'm driving and somebody cuts me off, I'm like, this is an asshole but might be a genius.

Are you saying this because of the way Lovett treated that guy over there? Yes. I feel like you were looking at him when you were saying that. Don't know how to deal with that. Don't know how to take it. Let's spin it again. Dave, your segment is over. It has landed on Prime Day.

I don't have very sophisticated thoughts about Prime Day. I don't know how to buy things on Prime Day. Because usually when I buy something, I think, here's something I want or need. Now I will go try to find it for a price that I believe is reasonable Prime Day? Because usually when I buy something I think, here's something I want or need. Now I will go try to find it for a price that I believe is reasonable, or at the very least not unreasonable. But Prime Day, it seems to me, is when you go to a website and say, do you tell me what to buy? Because it's a good deal. Look at all the money I'm saving on an object I didn't think about. Like, wow, this tool set and Roomba.

I'd be stupid not to buy these two objects I've never had before, will not need, and will forget about if I don't order. I totally agree. I feel like there's nothing ever that I, it's like the entire inside of sharper image like do you ever need anything in that store let's spin it again sometimes they end soft it has landed on removing politics from comic books which i believe is a suggestion by danny that was actually my suggestion was actually removing, well, not my suggestion, but my rant is about people that write me about not talking about politics in films, specifically superhero films. I'm not a movie reviewer, but I'm movie reviewer adjacent. And a lot of the comments on YouTube, which I call the devil's playground,

is often, why'd you make this political? Why'd you, it's not political. You don't have to make Marvel and DC political. Have you read a comic book? Because comic books are political. Marvel and DC have covered every single war since their inception.

They have always been political and it frustrates me that these little diaper babies every single war since their inception. They have always been political. And it frustrates me that these little diaper babies can't handle any time. Also, I just want to say, filmmakers, screenwriters, creators are affected by current events in their life. That's why they put them in their film, person sitting at home writing me.

So like one specific one was in Wonder Woman, very small, but she's asking, Chief, well, who stole your land? And he said, his people. Do you think they found that on the back of a Popsicle stick? No. That's like a specific,

several executives had to read that script. This is a rant. I'm very heated. I feel like I need to stand up. But these aren't just mistakes. They're not just mistakenly putting this in there. Let filmmakers speak for the love of God. If you're not a creative person,

then stop trying to censor the art of other people. But also, also, nerds, stop telling us to keep politics out of superhero films when your goddamn comic books are political. That's my rant. Thank you. Yeah. I think that's right. And also just,

I find it such a stupid argument because you can't remove, everything has politics. You can't remove politics from anything. Every film has a politics. It's just a politics you like. You know, a film that claims to have no political agenda is a

film that simply comports with your view of the world in a way that makes you feel completely comfortable because it's your politics which is why when they say keep politics out of the NFL or keep politics off of this comedy show what they're really saying is protect me from politics I disagree with I want to be represented perfectly I want Donald Trump's hair to be nicely tousled. But I want to remake Star Wars. To something a film that

wasn't political at all. They were just shooting space lasers at each other. There was no political commentary in the original Star Wars at all. What are you talking about? Well, that gets to the heart of it, right? Because when they say they want to remake it, what they want is a film that doesn't have women as

heroes, which is a reminder that they do want their movies to have politics. Just their politics. Let's spin it again. It has landed on speaking English, a suggestion from Dr. Ben Sawyer. At this point, I'm really glad that I've been on the show before, because if you heard a guy with a southern accent suggest that topic, you guys would be like, here we go, Thanksgiving all over again.

So I'm from Nashville, and I come out here a lot. Cheers to Nashville. I come out to L.A. a lot. My wife's from out here, and I'm a comic, so I come out and do shows. And it never fails. I've been coming out here for years. I go down to Hollywood or any of the tourist areas,

and a busload of people from the South or the Midwest get off. And immediately, somebody's speaking Spanish, and you hear one of them say to the other one, listen to them people in Spanish over there. This is America. They need to speak English. And I'm like, yeah, why wouldn't you speak English in an American city like Los Angeles?

Can you believe these people? I was like, hey, maybe you should get out of here and go down to San Diego or over to Santa Monica or up to San Francisco or up to Sacramento or shit, it's like we took it from Mexico and we did and I don't understand how people haven't figured this out

I mean California Colorado shit one part we took it's just called new Mexico where do you think we got it? Answer, old Mexico. That's where. And so it's just, you've got to know history on these things. It's essential. Because here's the fact, all right? Yeah, sometimes people cross borders, but guess what?

Sometimes borders cross people. And if you're the one who moved the borders maybe you should complain less also i think we also took this off from native americans just a reminder all right so guys be nice to each other and understand language is just a way to communicate with people and if people are working hard all day they don't have time to go to night class to learn another language that's okay let's spin it one more time. It has landed on the Air Force One refresh. It's a good place to end it. Okay, here's the deal.

I'm going to concede that we've got bigger fish to fry. Okay? Got a lot on our plate. Got a lot going on. However, we've caught a fair amount of bad luck politically. I think we'd all agree. We caught a little bit more bad luck than we realized because

they're building new Air Force Ones and the president is in charge of building new Air Force Ones and the president is in charge of deciding what Air Force One looks like. And it just so happens that the decisions being made about what Air Force One will look like for quite some time are being made right now. Anybody else? Do you guys know this? Now, the current design of Air Force One, it has a beautiful aquamarine blue and white. The United States of America is actually written in a font modeled after the Declaration of Independence. John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy are responsible for that design. They used to fly in a military aircraft that said, you know, that just had a kind of nondescript orange lettering. They wanted

to make it more presidential, and they did. That's the design of the Air Force One we all know and love. Donald Trump thinks it looks like shit, because it's not red, white, and blue. The letters aren't big enough. He is in charge of redesigning that plane. And so, it is going to have

Donald Trump's taste for the next, I don't know, 40 fucking years. Yeah, yeah. Again, bigger fish to fry. I recognize that, Danny. I recognize it. I know that this isn't important. I know, but still. I say, Boeing is currently producing the two planes that will be the new Air Force One. They will be gaudy, red, white, and blue monstrosities. However, they will not be delivered this term. And so, to Boeing, I beseech you.

Slow it down. You're Boeing. Slow it down. You're Boeing. There's no project you could do for a billion dollars in two years that you can't make $10 billion in five years. You've done it before. You can do it again. To the people of Boeing,

you are on this earth to turn cost overruns into profits for your executives and shareholders. Now you can do it with a sense of patriotic fervor. That is my rant about Air Force One. I want to just close by saying, ending on a high note, this is a crazy fucking wink, and to the point we were making earlier,

I don't know if it's going to matter. I don't know if it's going to last. But a friend of mine, we were talking, and it was like, we all feel a little bit hopeless. And I was thinking about how, you know, when you wake up in a bad mood, you figure out what caused your bad mood, and it's all the things that are bad.

But when you wake up in a good mood, you figure out what was good, and you make that the cause of your good mood. There's a lot of bad shit happening, but there's also signs that the system is holding together, whether it's Scott Pruitt being forced to resign or our saving Obamacare, even though they tried to repeal it 50 fucking times. I know Kavanaugh's happening. I know that election interference is happening. I know that gerrymandering is happening, but just by the fact that Donald Trump felt obligated to sit in that room and at least attempt to maybe kind of walk back what he said means that the engine's

thrown off sparks and oil and screws but it's still running and the car's still moving and i do think that's a reason to be hopeful and a reason to do everything we can to win because we can't control for what they do but we can control for what we do and i look at this week and i say i don't know how it's all going to end but i still believe the only thing we can do is everything we can to win the house and everything we can to win the senate and there are signs that political gravity still applies things that go up still come down they're still cause and effect at least for a while and as long as there is, that gives me hope. And that was the high note I wanted to end on this week because, I don't know,

it's been a fucking bummer of a month. That's just the truth. And that's our show. I want to thank Danny Fernandez, Ben Soar, Kieran Deal, and Mitra Juhari for playing our expert on gaslighting. Thank you all for coming out to the improv and have a great night.