Some More News - Even More News: Breaking Down Joe Biden's "Masterful", "Fear-Allaying" Press Conference

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Hi. Today Katy and Cody are joined by the director of Some More News, Will Gordh. He's here to help us decide how we feel about Biden after yesterday's "big boy" press conference that gave everyone more questions than answers. Give Trade a try and see how you can make better coffee at home. Right now, they’re offering 30% off your first order when you visit drinktrade.com/MORENEWS and subscribe.  Babbel’s quick 10-minute lessons are hand-crafted by over 200 language experts to help you start speaking a new language in as little as 3 weeks. Here's a special, limited-time deal for our viewers. Right now get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription at https://babbel.com/MORENEWS.  Head to Factormeals.com/morenews50 and use code morenews50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month. That’s code morenews50 at Factormeals.com/morenews50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active!  Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/morenews, ALL LOWERCASE. Go to shopify.com/morenews to take your retail business to the next level today. shopify.com/morenews.  We’ve worked out a special offer for our audience! Receive 15% off your first order. Go to tryarmra.com/MORENEWS or enter MORENEWS to get 15% off your first order. That’s tryarmra.com/MORENEWS. Check out our MERCH STORE: https://shop.somemorenews.com   SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh   Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts:

Hello and welcome back to even more News the first and only news podcast. What has gotten into me? I'm Katie Stoll. Tea has tea gotten into you? You're drinking tea is currently getting right into me. Hi Katie Stoll. Tea has tea gotten into you. You're drinking tea is currently getting right into me. Hi, Katie Stoll. We're just going to breeze past that. I'm Cody Johnston is the name of me.

Hi. And sorry, folks. Hate to break it to you. Jonathan is not also here. Also with us. But love to break it to you. We have some more news. Director Will Gord with us. Hi everybody. The Gorgos Wild. The people are loving this. They're loving it immediately. They are loving it. Jonathan or Katie or Cody, like who am I in the? No, you are our guest.

You are your own entity and this show will be very similar to every show, but different. It'll have its own flavor. You don't need to don't let anybody put you in a box, except the little boxes we're in on the screen. Yeah, you have to stay in that. Yeah, I do. I do. You do. And it's for the best because I'll just tell everybody right now. I've got a bit of a cold.

So it's kind of good that we're in our boxes. So I'm not breathing on you. But don't worry, I've got beverages. Nice. Stay hydrated, guys. Good. Yep. Case I start. What are those little guys for our listeners? They're little big cherry flavor.

Lousin's is Losinges. Do you say Losing your louse? I say laws on Lawsons, I don't know why laws and I don't know where I got lousage. It's a fun way to say it You know, you gotta have a little fun You gotta have a little fun and boy are we laughter is the best medicine lousage laughter is the best medicine Before we get started we do have some holidays. this one's appropriate for someone that's sick. july 12th is national eat your jello day.

are you supposed to eat jello when you're sick? that's not something i've heard before. i've heard that before. i don't know, they give it to you in the hospital. yeah. it's easy to keep down. It's mostly, you know, recovering. It's mostly water. It's a good way to hydrate. Yeah, and flavor.

You don't have to bite it. Yeah, it just like slurps right down. Fun fact, we used Jell-O as the eggs. That is true. The corn cream eggs in the Reagan episode. The episode that is currently online that was released this week about Ronnie Rago. That was such a good plug. The disgusting eggs are Jell-O. Currently online that was released this week about Rani Rego. It's so disgusting eggs are jello.

There's still two of them in the fridge. That's right. There are. Oh, I hate that. We're going to keep them there until you get back. Oh, the last time I went to the studio apartment place and opened the fridge, there was like the most disgusting thing Yeah. So you might have seen the the weird disgusting little egg creature that our head writer Dave made that like is the hatched little guy not the cute guys at the end, but the little intermediary.

He also by yeah weird little larvae thing. He also made one that was just with the head of a horse for fun. We did not end up using that. But those were left in the fridge and the fridge after my long drive. And I was like, oh, and then I put it on Cody's some more new seat. That's true. And he thought so fast, I was mad. It's like I wanted it to be like you're ready to go.

You're sitting on it. Yes. That was sort of like that scene from The Godfather, you know, but much smaller. You roll over. Exactly. It's except it's the fridge and it's a little guy. We do have other holidays. Good. After we've eaten our Jello. After we've eaten our Jello. OK, I just threw a couple in here and they're silly.

I'm just going to say it. July 13th is both National Paul Day and National Sam Day. What? I don't know why that made me giggle. Good for them. They both have it. Paul's and Sam's. They were so close to National Paul and National Simon Day. I know.

Well, I know it's also National Rock Day. And so you're really close to Sam Rockwell Day, but I didn't need to go there. Yeah. Too many days. Too many days. It's also National Delaware Day, which is a good tie in to. The general. Joe Biden, the guardian of Biden. The guardian of democracy. The guardian of democracy.

Yeah. So those are our days that we are here to honor. Happy day. Happy day. I don't know if you know this, but all my friends talk about how immune I always am. Katie the Immune, they call me. And that's why I'm always looking for a new way to boost my immunity.

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So they said it the same way I did just now. I want to acknowledge for the audience and for myself. That and you guys, but you know, we're here to know I'm rambling. Bring it back together, Katie. We were supposed to record this week's episode many hours ago. But then we saw right before we were going to record that Joe Biden was having a press conference at three thirty. We were like, OK, we'll wait.

We should wait. We'll watch the show, the show, the big show at three thirty, and then we'll record after. And I'll be gosh darned if that man took a solid hour. Yeah, he did take a solid hour. Of the entire country sitting around waiting. News stations have abandoned programming and they are fillin', they are fluffin', they are rambling. But anyway, he did show up and he had a show, he did a good job. Did a job. He did. So we're gonna start there. We're gonna start by talking about that.

I'll just say before we get into it that hour. It's one of those like Biden's always kind of late to these sort of things. He's very late this time. And it seems it's just like this sort of like, not really taking what's going on into account and not taking the media into account. Because if you say you have a press conference, and then you're an hour late, that gives them an hour to talk about why we're all here, which is to see if he's got it together. It's just like, it feeds into it, feeds into it. It's a long time where they have to fill that time

because they've decided to, yeah. And even my mom was texting me. My mom goes, sorry, Patty. Maybe he has diarrhea and is stuck on the toilet is the first thing she said. And then eventually she says, oh no, I'm starting to think he's dead. And that not the thing that you want many people to say. That's not good. I think a lot of people sort of have those feelings about it and it's I

guess we're getting into the conversation about it. It's just not it's it's an unfortunate situation to be in right now. Who knows what's going to happen? If the weekend will change his mind? Well, I don't know who knows. It's unfortunate that this is how it is for the next four months. Like every single time he's going to have one of these, it's going to be like, is it going to go like I like there's this sort of brace yourself element to every time he has one of these events and that's not good. but maybe it'll be fine. So maybe it'll be fine. We got this. But he did say, the whole thing, I mean, there's so much to be said about it, but the whole thing did end on a weird note.

Yeah. It did. With the whisperer. The whisper thing. Well, there's that. So many people have remarked on that. It's very unsettling, his whispering and the clutching of the podium. I want to say that he did a great job today.

I mean, there was a remarkably bad flub at the beginning when he referred to Vice President Harris's Vice President Trump. An hour after he called Zelensky Putin, but whatever. Right. An hour after he called Zelensky Putin. But you know, these are things. My mom calls me my brother's name all the time and has my whole life. But it's alarming on this stage with our president.

But he did a good job, but he did seem hard. It did seem like he was really doing his damndest to keep the right words from coming out. Yeah, there's a strain that always sort of feels like is present over. Well, yeah, it's interesting. I feel like the thing that was most interesting is how status quo it keeps everything.

And you were talking, Cody, about like how it's just gonna be this sort of groundhog day of like each time Biden comes up, is he going to collapse on stage or is he going to sound coherent? Is it a coin flip? And it's like, part of me, it was, I had a weird feeling because he was doing good. And I, you know, in terms of he seemed energetic, alert and all that stuff. And I, part of me almost wanted like I want some sort of definitive situation where it's like, okay, we got to get rid of this guy and he's going to leave or he's really ready for

it. And I feel like you're not going to keep us in a perpetual place of indecision so that no decision will be made thing, right? Cause he's clearly like decided in his mind that he's going to keep us in a perpetual place of indecision so that no decision will be frustrating thing right because he's clearly like decided in his mind and based off of hunters recommendations apparently that he's sticking with it unless something like drastic happens but like there's no like we can't unsee the debate. And there's this sort of like running out the clock sort of element to it, it seems where like, you know, for the past two weeks, he's not done anything like this. He did that like 20 minute Stephanopoulos interview.

But it just seems like, oh, if I like withhold and like do this, then I can get just get to the convention. And there are some things I look at the transcript maybe, but like, there are some times when he sort of talked about it in this way. And it might not have been intentional. But some of the way he talks sometimes seems like it's he's not he's just focused on like getting to the convention and getting the nomination and like doing that. Like that's always talking

about it. Instead of like the actual issue, and there's some avoid I understand why he's avoiding talking about it. But there's an avoidance of like there are a few questions about like, even when asked about what is what is Kamala Harris done in the past three and a half years that like you think makes her ready and his answer was, there's a reason I picked her. She's attorney general prosecutor is and a senator for a while like that. It's like that's an answer from four years ago. That's your answer four years ago. The question was about this. And it's sort of like this sort of like, well, I got to finish the job. I got to do this. I got to do this. Instead of I don't know's. No, you do. That's accurate. I mean. He is he is cloned for his life here and to try to calm down everybody, but he's not actually showing us. Like his entire performance is showing us that he can get through a press conference is what I'm trying to say,

versus like showing me a good reason for you to be president of the United States. And it's particularly every question in some way is related to his fitness. And there is no answer. He can't answer what he's going to be like in two years. He cannot answer that. That's like the only answer up there is like, I don't know. I know that I can get through. Do you want me to win this election? Like that's what anybody cares about. The only thing anybody cares about right now, it seems, is whether or not he can win the freaking election. Um, and what's interesting is this end moment where he

was flat out, you know, asked what it would take for him to drop out. And he says, only if the polls say that I can't win. And but the polls are very subjective and everything. I mean, everybody around him is saying, not everybody, there are some enablers that are not but that is the question. And that's what everybody is worried about. But also, like the question is to too, like with that, what's the number like what? No. What do you mean?

If somebody says there's no way you can win, like that's not it's subjective. It's like I don't know question. Yeah, I thought I mean, I did find it interesting. There are a couple like pretty interesting things I found about the press conference. One is at the end when he's he sort of mentioned that he's going to be, this was a little bit more candid of a moment where he says, I'm going to be like out on the campaign trail and prove it to you.

And it, and it sort of feels like we've been set up for this test where he's saying, I'm going to show you that I can do it by doing all of these events and he sort of acknowledged if the polls really drop, I sort of feel like if they do drop and it shows he can't win, he would drop out. But the other thing that is a little bit interesting about the press conference, I don't know if you guys noticed this, there was a lot of like, nobody said that we could do this. Nobody said we could do this.

Nobody's, but we did it. I did it. There's all this obsession with people saying, you can't do it, you can't do it. And I did it. And that mindset makes me feel like that's innate in Joe Biden. Yes.

And so it makes you concerned that if people are saying, Hey, Joe, you can't do this. He's going to be like, well, they said I couldn't go to Korea and Japan and get them to work together. They said I couldn't do this. And I did. And I, you know, you want that confidence in a president, but it's also it's the driver of the problem in a lot of ways. And it's also not it's not always true. Like a lot of the things he mentioned, I felt was like, what are you talking about? Like everyone was pretty confident this was a good idea. Right. Even in 2020, like it was like, no, he's not a good win. I mean, the polls are saying that you're going to win.

And he did. And it was like close in certain areas. But like, right. I don't know. Even like the legislation stuff is like he was telling you, no, truly is not a thing that we had is like, oh, we didn't nominate Joe Biden because nobody thought he could win. In his speech about he mentioned his speech about like democracy. And he's like, you all thought it was a stupid speech. What? What? Like, I don't know what he's talking about.

Maybe I didn't like gather that from the narrative. And that did happen. But there's some stuff where he seems like you said I couldn't do this ever. And so you could do it. And like, it's like this narrative that he needs to have. There's a few things that are interesting about that to me and sad too. I mean, we're not good at aging in this country. We don't, you know, and especially people in power with age, you know, and if he has this narrative

of in his mind of him always being the underdog, you know, always being second fiddle, all of this, that or the other, he's finally achieved it at truly the end of his life. And I think that there's a lot of identity on a personal level. I don't know. I'm inferring here, but I think that that can be a hard, a hard thing to let go of. We see it all the time. So there's a little bit of that, but it felt very desperate to like, he was like, see me up here, I can do that. But you're not a young man. You don't have anything to prove anymore was what I kept thinking. He seems to to be very very hung up on finishing the job. And I think a lot of us also, at least in our immediate group of people that we work with, you know, there are things that we can

point to that Joe Biden did as president that are great, are some good things. Even the stuff he said about unions today, it was like, yeah, exactly, good. Yes. And also a lot of stuff that we find awful. And I personally, there's a lot of stuff that I feel like are just for show and that don't move the needle very much that a lot of people keep pointing to. For me personally, that would be like student debt relief. You didn't you. I'm happy for the people that received that gift, but we haven't touched this problem in any capacity.

The hard thing about this whole situation for me is that like after 2016 as a human, I like wrote off the very notion of like trying to predict what would happen. You know, I'm like much more comfortable in the space of analyzing what has happened and what that can tell us, and also thinking about what ought to happen and what should happen. And so this question of should Joe Biden drop out or not is really a question about like our disagreements about what we think is likely to happen in the future. And we don't know that or and how people will respond to those things. We don't know what those are. But I do always just that thing you were saying, Cody, about bracing yourself.

I have this anxiety and these thoughts like what if on the at the convention, if we stick with Joe Biden and he has like a moment that's just like, gosh, you know, he's going to, we know one thing he's going to continue to mistake names of people. Sure. And this press conference where I thought he seemed strong and energetic, it could be that the main takeaway is he called his vice president, vice president Trump. That could be the main thing people take away or it could be people go, yeah, Biden's back and, you know, so I've seen a lot of that too. Yeah.

It's hard to, it's hard because you really need a strategy where you commit one way or the other. Like you could say, if Biden drops out, we're going to like commit to this new path. But if everyone's teetering on indecision, nothing's gonna happen. Right. For a month, right? Like until the conventions, like a month of just sort of like every day, like Pelosi coming out and being like, well, you know, when he makes his decision, we're gonna like we'll support that decision. When he made the decision already, he sent letters to everybody being like, I made the decision. And then you have everybody in the party being like,

well, we don't know. So clearly, like, there's it's still up in the air in the decision. And then you have everybody in the party being like, well, we don't know. So clearly, like there's it's still up in the air in this way. And that is not healthy for people to. But that's the crux of it. Like to me personally. I thought he did a pretty good job, except that he's a little hard to watch. Personally, you it's like watching ice skating. I feel like someone's going to fall. It is the bracing, but like, you know, but he did a good job for Joe Biden up there and it was good to see him not

looking like he was literally at death's door. But it's not going to change the fact that every day, every week, it could be a new day, a new set of circumstances if he's had enough sleep. And I know that most people are only concerned about the election and I'm concerned about that as well. I'm also concerned about the president and how long he's fit to be president. And I think it's wild that that's not anybody's concern. And you know, and they're like, oh, he can always retire or die once he's in office and have Kamala.

That's true. But also look what we did with Dianne Feinstein. And there's no telling what that looks like. If the if the theory is like, well, you know, we'll get him over the finish line. And then if he you know, if he dies or like, whatever, he steps down, then we got Kamala. That's not super confidence building. When like, your whole like, pitch is like, you'll just die. He's just gonna die early. Like, okay, that what if we didn't have somebody that was just going to

die early? And yeah, it's just like, not contending with like the reality of the situation. I keep seeing people being like, Oh, like, whoever you replace it with, you're to have them replace because you don't like you want Trump to win all this kind of stuff. It's like, this is such a unique moment. This is such a like we're not known as constantly being like we should replace the candidate a month beforehand. It's not like it's not ideological to like it's not an ideological decision. You've got people completely ideologically aligned with Biden that are just like George Clooney, for instance, more or less. Basically, the issue is you're too old and you're worried that you're going to lose because of it. The other thought experiment I do in my head is, of course,

OK, what happens if Joe Biden drops out? And I know there's risks to that. But if you did commit to that strategy, any of us on this call could write a tear-jerker of a speech for Joe Biden to deliver, where he could talk about all of his greatest accomplishments. He could talk about what this has meant to him, and he can go down.

And you would have Rachel Maddow and everybody at MSNBC in tears talking about what a hero he is for putting... And it's also the symbolic element of putting aside personal ambitions for the good of the country that contrasts with Donald Trump perfectly. So you I could can imagine a way that you could turn that into a big media moment and plus. Yeah, if you have a if it just takes decisiveness and confidence. you have a if it just takes decisiveness and confidence. And like if everybody came together for that decision and you know, showed deference to Biden, but also like accepted this is this is the path forward and everybody rallied around, like that's a story that can invigorate people. But,

you know, I mean, there were some questions today or this evening, where, like somebody asked him about, like, you know, his legacy, right? If you stick in with this and like you lose, like, what is that going to do your legacy and stuff? And he said, you know, I don't care about my legacy. I'm not thinking about my legacy. But that doesn't really square with like, I got to get the job done. Like, who's that? Who's done it for me? Who's not thinking about his legacy? Those don't really mesh together. And so there's this again, this disconnect of like, I'm staying in because I got to do it and I got to finish the job,

but like, I don't care about my legacy. And he also said there are other people that could be Trump, which doesn't square with the idea that he, I mean, I think he's yeah, he's connected the the fate of the nation with himself as like they're they're not different. You know what I mean? It's not right. Like finish the job.

He also always uses this phrase, but and maybe I kind of drifted off during some of his answers. I don't know. He is he did better than the debate. Obviously, he is kind of hard to listen to and follow sometimes of like about policy, about what he's getting at. So sometimes I'm like, just say what you're saying. But I already I lost my train of thought just complaining about that. Oh, my God. I say about that. I actually finished. Yeah. Oh, just like what what is the job? What do you mean by defeating Donald Trump?

Is it like doing like this particular legislation? Is it like this policy? What what is the job that he's talking about? Because it's this vague idea of all of it. And that then I don't I don't know. It's hard for me to be like, yeah, finish the job. That is everything. I don't know what that means unless it is like I got to really

crush Donald Trump into a pulp this time. Specific. Or if it's like I want this like health care. We got to do this. We got to do this. We got this and then explain why somebody else can't do that. Telling me what he's going to do. Right. Like, I don't know.

Yeah. The idea of finishing the job doesn't really make any sense because like America is still going to keep going. There's going to be there's a it's an ongoing job. It does. Yeah. The point. You're not going to crush that. It's the right wing and like partly the campaign phrase that they gave him that they've been practicing. Yeah. You know that is what he feels like. And so that's he's going to pivot back to.

And I just wanted to say to your point, not to just keep harping on it, but like, yeah, he did a good job today. But every answer was meandering. And you're like, is this is now the time, is he going to bring it back home or not? And there was a lot of him pausing to really make sure to like retraces. And I'm glad he's doing that rather than saying something, but you're not always. He's walking out on stage with like, you have to do this, you know, like took an hour to get out there. I mean, there's just so many barely, barely you have to do this. You know, it took an hour to get out there.

I mean, there are just so many barely, barely holding on to that answer. Because like you're saying he did a good job today, but then you're also saying he meandered and he had trouble doing this. Like all this sort of stuff like packed in with like the idea of a good day for him is like, OK, but he called Kamala Vice President Trump. OK, but he kind of meandered for a long time. OK, he trailed off and then he ends like half his answers with, well, anyway, and then that's the end of the answer.

You know, you know, like for all. Yeah. For all the talk that like this isn't a West Wing episode, I was reminded of a West Wing episode where the strategy of the candidate was to hold a press conference till you drop or something was the idea. It's like, I'm gonna do a press conference so long that people will forget about the big reason

they came here to talk to me in the beginning, the scandal or whatever. I think he got a little head start by giving an hour, starting an hour late so people were already antsy. But then he had a pretty long press conference and about halfway through, not every question was about, hey, are you gonna drop out? Hey, are you gonna drop out?

He started asking some real questions. And so I think it does show the power of political performance. And I am a little, There's some encouragement I have. I'm a little bit encouraged that he says I'm going to be out on the campaign trail. And it's kind of like a test for him because I'm like. That's if he performs, it'll be a good test.

If he falters again, right. It needs to be soon. Well, right. Because it's like a test that, right. Is it like a test that he is? He is saying out loud that that's what it is. He's like, I'm going to prove it to everybody by doing this and this and this. And now we know, OK, so you're going to do this and this and this to prove it. I mean, I really want there just to be some, like we said earlier, decisive moment now immediately in the near future, because I I.

Campaign is exhausting. Like the idea of us getting past the convention and then him having a stroke or something makes me sick. Yeah. And like, you know, and again, not the first person to talk about this, but like now's the time. The convention for the Republicans is next week. You can take all that. You can take all that you can take

all that attention. Obviously, they would be like, the Dems are in disarray. Well, we're united again, of behind Trump. But you would still have this narrative, like shifting towards like, who's it going to be like, oh, Biden with the tearjerker speech or whatever it is going to be. I did really I did really, I appreciated some of the questions were a little more pointed because I feel like, like, you know, there, I don't want to dig too much into like the feeding frenzy narrative because that kind of says that like, it's fake, right? Whereas like, well, it's not based on anything. They just like the media, they're just doing this and this and this when it's like, it's based off of a real thing that happened that we all saw. But some of the questions I'm just like, why are you asking this again?

Like, this isn't a question like, oh, are you, are you going to drop out? And then the next person's like, when are you going to drop out? It's like that kind of stuff. But one person asked about the thing that he had alluded to when he was running was about how he's going to be a transitional candidate how he is a really appreciated that really disappointing answer that didn't answer the question at all. Like I was like, oh, finally, like a good question about this kind of thing about the problem that we're up against. And he did not answer the question. And the last thing he said, well, first of all, his answer was like, well, what changed was her question was like, what changed

from you saying you're going to be the transitional candidate to now? And he said, what changed is the gravity of the situation I inherited? No, it didn't. I don't know what that means, because we were in the middle of a pandemic when you were elected. Donald Trump was the president when you were elected. What, like did the gravity get heavier? I don't know what he's talking about. When he says that it's extremely vague. And also as he touted for about his, the past three and a half years, all the progress that's been made. And like, Oh, inflation is, uh, is going down, unemployment's down. Uh, all these, all these positive economic indicators that

he's talking about, but the gravity of the situation I inherited is worse than I thought. And so I have to stick around for four more years until I actually die like a month in. So like, it's just not an answer. And it's fake. And or it's a real answer. And that's concerning. If you didn't understand the gravity of the situation until now, like, well, I really got to stick to it. That's not an answer. It's politics. It's just some random answer. I want to read just the last part of this answer, which is, if tomorrow there was a lineup, and I hadn't inherited what I did, and we just move things along anyway, it's going to change. I don't know, man. Maybe you should like pass that problem on to somebody else. Um, it's just, yeah, you should have just said that he did. It wasn't a real answer. He, the real answer is that he changed his mind and he wants to stay president and he thinks he's a good president and that he'll continue to be a good president.

I would have just preferred, you know what? I realized that I really want to stay president. I really want to be the president. He's waited his whole life and for a while he thought he wasn't going to be president and now he actually is and he wants to stay that way. I got my treat and I want to keep my treat. Yeah, we love treats. It's National Jello Day. Hey, Joe, do you want some Jello? Yeah. Anyway, I think I take an ad break for Jello. Oh, actually, I'm not even sure if we have ads,

but I am going to take an ad break. We do have Jello in the fridge. Their eggs. It's disgusting. Howdy. That stands for how duty. You know, the summer is upon us. It looms over everything, like the specter of death, but we can stave off death by consuming nutrients. That reminds me, you should check out

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Hi. I do. Yeah, just one more thing. It's fine. Sure. I feel the tea. I didn't get tea. You got tea. I did. I was. I did it for you. Yes, but he seems bad. It's like everywhere. Anyway, I just one other moment where he's talking about his health and stuff, and it's fine. We don't need to keep talking about this because we're going to be doing this for four months.

But buckle up, baby. Yeah. But he mentioned this thing. We're right in with Biden. You know, his staff do it with Biden. I tell you what. Oh, a lot of comments about his staff and how they keep adding stuff. And like, that's weird. I don't know. passive aggressive. Yeah, whatever. We're gonna get into that. I'll also when he when they asked him, what do you say to European countries if Trump abandons them? Like if he's elected and he didn't answer

that either. He's just like, Look, here's I don't know, whatever. My last thing I'll say about this, there's one moment, he's talking about his health. And he said the only problem he has is he walks worse now because he broke his foot and he didn't wear the boot. And that is a fine excuse for why that is happening to your foot. But it also, to me, speaks to the problem, which is that probably a doctor told you wear this boot so your foot that's broken heals. And he didn't do that. And that to me is very emblematic of the dynamic going on here.

Like, for sure. And part of it being like, oh, I can't show weakness with a broken foot. But but you're not healing yourself. You're doing something that is at a disservice to your own health to present an image. That's the best possible interpretation of it. Oh yeah, I know why. It's like, yeah, you don't want to wear the boot because you don't want people to see

him wear the boot and so on and so forth. But now here we are. Or it's a story that they've created. My opinion has always been like the claims of dementia and things of like that nature are, I don't, that's way too far. Like it, he's an old, he's an old man and he's lost a step and he's going to continue to get older. Like, and you know, there's sort of two questions. One is can he beat Donald Trump?

The other is can he be an effective president? I think that probably for the most part now, he probably more or less can part a lot of the job is judgment. The part of the job that's communication. He's definitely suffering. There are people that could do that job better. What I don't have confidence in is where he's going to be in three years from now. When absolutely, I have, you know, oh, yeah, go backwards with age, you know. No, and we've seen how much he has aged.

Yeah. And these three years, you know? No, and we've seen how much he has aged. Yeah. And these. I think it's reasonable, like we know. We've talked about this for years and years and years. Everyone has. Everyone. Everybody knows that if you're the president, it's the most stress. One of the most stressful jobs you can have. It ages you exponentially.

You can look at Barack Hussein Obama 2008 and you can look at him in 2012. That guy got older. And Joe Biden was already old, we started the job. And now if you look at again, like look at a debate, he's always been old, even even 60s. He was 30. He's been old my entire life. You look at the debate or interview an interview or debate from four years ago, and the difference is very obvious. It is the lines are very stark. But the media reaction is very strong, obviously. And I don't want to dismiss the idea that certain media outlets do have an incentive for this. Obviously, Trump makes them money because of the ratings.

And so I don't want to like be like, nobody is doing this in bad faith. Some people are, but America saw the debate and dismissing the all of the media reaction is like, oh, people just like think this because the media is telling them to that's just not true. But the Stephanopoulos clip I don't know if you saw he was like out and about in the city. And somebody asked him if he thinks Biden can serve four years and he candidly he was like out in like sweatpants and candidly was like I just don't I don't think he's gonna last all four years. He moved on. Somebody posted the video and then there's a huge reaction

and people like calling for him to be fired and being like, look at this bias against Biden, like, look at this and like, oh, he's doing this for Trump, whatever all this kind of stuff. And it and it's just like you don't have to be biased against Biden or like be a Trump supporter or like have like a weird like media like narrative or like ulterior motives supporter or like have like a weird like media like narrative or like ulterior motives to look at an 81 year old man and say, probably not going to last till the end of the presidency. Like that's just like an objective possibility.

And I don't know, it's the the reaction to the reaction is very not great to watch. So all the oxygen gets sucked out of the air because we're only talking about this, his fitness. And there are so many other things to talk about. And. There are there are huge things at stake in this next term, and, um, but it's not all about the president. There are other races that we need to win.

And one thing that does feel encouraging is that Democratic Senate candidates and in swing states are all very much ahead of Biden in polling. And I do worry about a lack of enthusiasm for Joe Biden affecting other things that are going to be vital. Because I don't know, I don't even know that Joe Biden can win this race. I don't think that I don't know that there's anything that can be done at this point for Joe Biden to win is is a bad feeling that I have.

I hope I'm wrong about that. I do. But it's a bad feeling I have. And so I keep coming back to like, well, there's other things that we got to be working towards. Oh, it comes back to what you were saying, Cody is like. He feels like he needs some sort of definitive proof that he can't win. But I don't think that we live in a world where that proof will ever be forthcoming

because we're such a polarized nation that we're basically more or less a coin flip between any candidate on the red versus blue side. And the margin, the way you win these elections for better or for worse, for worse, I would argue is through a handful of swing states and margins of tens of thousands of votes. And so you're always going to your that proof that he's going to require. I don't think it's even really possible in today's world. No, I don't think there's a was it. That's why that's why this situation is so

impossible and frustrating and anxiety inducing. And everybody hates everybody. Because and we, you know, maybe we don't talk about this enough. When we're talking about the president, let's be fair, like, yeah, you don't talk about Trump enough. Well, Joe Biden's the president. And we want Donald Trump to not be the president. And so if there are issues there, we should talk about them. But, you know, a lot like people are bringing up project 2025 a lot, obviously, and there are these elements that are really not good. And I forget why I started talking about this. I'm so sorry. I've got

Biden. Well, we were talking about pulling and the stakes ahead of us and how this sucks up all the oxygen in the room. This conversation when there are things that are very, very important, right? That's it's this again. Yeah, it's the anxiety and the stress of all of this. And everybody is mad at everybody. And most of it comes from people are scared of Donald Trump becoming the president again. So much of that is that like I see so like some people are fucking mad at me online and everyone's yelling at everybody all the time and, you know, blue against blue. It's it's not pleasant. And so much of it comes from people are scared. And I try to remind myself of that. I think people remind yourself of that. But like, it doesn't make it any less of a frustrating situation that maybe we can deal with hopefully before the convention maybe not I don't know. And if he gets the nomination, and we're there, we'll see how that goes. There's no way to know. But it's just this sort of like, almost paralyzing fear for a lot of people, I think of like, we just got to head down and get and finish

the job as it were, right? Yeah, I understand that reaction. I mean, there is a lot to be afraid of with Donald Trump. And I think that everyone is sort of dealing with that fear in different ways. I think that, you know, my principles about it are to be like, to act in good faith about it. You know what I mean? Admit what I don't know and what I don't know.

Like, I still have no idea. Maybe the country's going, man, I can't, like Joe Biden's age, like makes me think of my grandpa and he's going to win in a landslide. I don't think that's the case. But oh, I was thinking the other day, like there well, there's like a world and I think maybe Biden is hoping this there's like this world where like, I'm he says he's the underdog, bro, you're the president, first of all, but also like, there's a world and it's I don't know how likely it is we're like everybody in America just slows like feeling bad for Joe Biden.

Like you see him do all these events and you're like, man, he's looking rough. We got it. We got to get him over the finish line like a big upswell of like American like we gotta we gotta fake it for Joe. Again. I don't know if it's likely, but there is that possibility. I guess not good, but that we would have to do that. But like, there is that world where like, no, maybe the underdog sad man narrative is what they're going to go with and just like, come on, Joe. You can do it. It did seem like that was. Yeah, but I will. I didn't want to. I want you to hear your your thought.

Oh, no, I agree with that. And I'm willing to extend like if someone has a good faith reason to say, like, listen, incumbents, blah, blah, blah, you know, has a bunch of. Look at this polling is actually showing that Joe Biden's likely to win. I'll listen to it like I don't. I'm not. But if that same person is going to make arguments about how like it would be impossible for Kamala Harris to win, for example, that's the just be then.

And I'm seeing the polling and they are too. They just don't want to. I've seen, you know, then then I'm I don't believe you. There are there are risks to that idea too, but there are, you have to acknowledge that there are potential pluses to having like an accomplished black woman who can prosecute a case, making arguments about the, you know, women's healthcare, and an election where Dobbs ruling.

Yeah, I mean, I just would love to see her on a debate stage with Donald Trump. Like, I don't want to see you want to see a person who can calmly and eloquently respond to him. He's an absurd person. Yeah, he's very funny. Sometimes he's a monstrous person as Yeah, he's very funny. Sometimes he's a monstrous person as well. And he's absurd. And if you have somebody able to just contrast with that, I think we've talked

about this on the show, like there are these moments where like, literally, he just spouts stuff. And she can be like, did you hear that guy? Like, there's a there's a story about that one debate with Hillary where he's like following her kind of like a weird up shark man. It's a weird moment. That was a weird moment for sure. There's a story reporting from 2018 where they're talking about that and Kamala's talking about that and they're like, well, what would you do

in this situation? Like about talking about running in 2020. And she's like, I would just turn around and go, what are you doing? Why are you being so weird? Like that kind of approach is effective against the weird guy. And, you know, I just don't I don't see a lot of that from this current we need to start a movement to think about, you know, and I'm going to say this sincerely, like Kamala Harris from this current we need to start a movement to think about, you know, and I'm going to say this sincerely, like Kamala Harris is cringy

for sure in a lot of ways, but I've maybe it's just like my fear response to this election, but I've like come around on the other side to now to the point where I like appreciate all those cringing moments and think that she can be the president that you would want to have a glass of Chardonnay with. And and her coconut tree thing. I think that's a great point. She's making a great point. It's a good point. She is making a good point.

100% it is a good point. And it's just the the the vibe is a little like off kilter like wait what? But if you think about it it 100%, we've talked about that all the time on the show. There's and I think, you know, there's like this sort of like, oh, these little moments were like, it's like, oh, she's a real person. Look at her being a real person, even if it's cringy or whatever. But I came around in her last week on the show. She's also a in her last week on the show. She's also a serious person last week.

If she's you know, we've seen her in the Senate questioning people and being like the prosecutor version of herself. And it's very effective and serious. And I think like there's something to be said about being able to be serious and focused and address those things and at the same time have this sort of like, who's this guy? Like, like a real person reacting, you know, which Biden does sometimes to where he dismisses Trump in a way that's like very funny and natural. But it's but he's still shaking. There's something about his weird whisper and I know that and his unsteadiness that it's no longer landing.

Let's in the last few minutes switch things up. We have Will here and we'll pitch this idea. And I think it's a good one. So, well. What do you thought? James. OK. Yeah, Brawny James, I have a lot of thoughts about Brawny James. I know this is not a sports podcast. It is now. I think we can bring this around to bigger societal issues.

But so to catch people up. Bronnie James was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 55th pick. And for many people out there, he's now become the poster child of nepotism. Can I interject really quick and ask what is basketball? Is 55th overall good or bad and follow up? What is basketball? No, I know. I know what basketball is.

I don't know what 55th means in terms of the overall. Fifty fifth is a low pick. It's in the second round. So he got picked pretty quickly. Get Bronnie in there. No, no, no. Really near the bottom. Like one of the last picks.

OK, so it's like whatever. Most of the people who are picked 55th, like a lot of them don't pan out and become NBA players. Right. It's a pretty low risk thing. But so the question is, is Bronnie James the poster child of nepotism? become NBA players. Right. It's a pretty low risk thing. So the question is, is Brawny James the poster child of nepotism? Is that a fair thing to say? I don't think so. I actually think that basketball sports are probably one of the more meritocratic things in our society. in our society. Frankly, our entire nation is built on nepotism,

in politics, in business. But in basketball, you actually have, like there's no way he would have been drafted if he wasn't already at least pretty close to being good enough. Like, I'm not gonna deny that LeBron James gave his son an opportunity. But if Ronnie James isn't good, to being good enough. Like, I'm not going to deny that LeBron James gave his son an opportunity. But if Ronnie James isn't good, he won't be in the NBA anymore.

You can't say that for a whole lot of other aspects of American society. We had Jared Kushner through nepotism. His task was to create peace in the Middle East. George W. Bush became president through nepotism and a million people in Iraq died. Like there are much higher stakes nepotism choices and there are situations in our society that are much less, much less meritocratic

than a sports game where if you can't play, he's not going to be in the NBA anymore. Right, there's no- And it's like, he's got the last name, but if he doesn't have the same talent, then he's just, it's not going to be, it's just not, it just doesn't work that way. But also it's like, well, all of these guys that get drafted, maybe not all of them, but a lot of them have talented fathers who have played basketball with them throughout their lives. Just so happens that his dad is the most talented,

and he probably did get really good training his whole life. Like, you know, he probably did grow up playing basketball with the. The best. Players like there's an element of like acknowledging the privilege that got you the opportunity and like acknowledging that like, well, then I sustained myself. Right. To Nepo babies is often just talked about in the context of like Hollywood.

That's like where the conversation usually is not the fields that you listed off will, which is like everywhere, whether it is in business or government or just like admissions to universities and things like that, where you don't have to actually even prove that you're qualified or have those skills. It is just connections and names and stuff. And then you stick around. But I think like Hollywood is like the focus of it. And I think a good another good example is like is Jack Quaid.

We've discussed I don't know if we discussed it before on the show, but he is for the show. We discussed it before this. Quaid and Meg Ryan's son. He's on the boys. I've not seen the new season. Doesn't sound very good, but not for woke reasons, just because it sounds very good. Whatever. But he's great on that show. And he whenever he is asked about the nepotism question, he's the one actor I've ever seen who like seems to have maybe there is someone I'm not thinking of, but an answer that's like, yeah, that's reasonable. Because he will acknowledge, well, I got the opportunity, right? Like, obviously, the first step in Hollywood is you need to get representation, it was easier for me to get representation

because of my parents, obviously. And I'm aware of that. And it makes me work a lot harder. I work really hard to try to sort of live up to that privilege that I know exists. And sometimes I don't live up to that. And hopefully, sometimes I do. I'm aware of it. And there's, you know, Meg Ryan has made a statement like, he's not an apple baby. This is this and he's asked about that. He's like, that's my mom being the mom. She's my mom. Of course. Of course you say that. But yeah, I recognize this. And to your point, we'll like if you there bad actors that stick around, because that's just how it is.

But like, yes, at a certain point, are you keeping Brawny James on your team so that people can watch the terrible person on your team? No, you want to win. You want to win these games. You're not going to. There's a tangible thing you're doing trying to attain. If you're not winning the games, you're changing your I almost had cast. But team, you're changing your team.

An initial benefit, right? Where it's like, oh, all eyes are on Brawny and we've got, you know, selling his jerseys and stuff. So there's like there's incentive there. There's a yeah, he is a there's a business reason to draft him to, which is like legitimate. If he's playing poorly and losing games, diminishing returns on that, that's not going to last very long.

And from what I gather, he's fine. Yeah, I just think it's. Yeah, well, here's the thing is like, I think it's the wrong conversation and the wrong thing to highlight about Brawny James, because the story, the story of like him getting an opportunity from his dad, I guess you could highlight that story or you could highlight the fact that his dad was a billionaire. He he would have never had to work a day in his life doing anything if he didn't want to.

But he chose to do something that is in a more meritocratic space and worked extremely hard, had a heart attack, came back from a heart attack to, or yeah, heart attack and came back. And the best trait in his basketball game is his defense, which is a trait that is most based on hard work. And so if you're going to highlight like that's kind of like, hey, he didn't have to work hard, but he chose to. That's like a much more important thing to focus on with him

in a society that frankly has institutionalized nepotism through like the intergenerational transfer of wealth that's been denied to some people and subsidized by the government to the other. And so if you're going to pretend that Brawny James is the poster child of nepotism. I hope that you're also talking about the the intergenerational transfer of wealth for white people only in this nation. We can't talk about that. I have a feeling a lot of them are not.

Donald Trump getting million dollar loans from his dad. I mean, there's a baby right there. There's a baby. But I do like your first like you're right. George's W could be the real poster child of nepotism. I'd be fine. We can do that. Or Jack. Yeah, I don't know. We like to we like Jack.

Guys, I think we like Jack. I know he also does stuff with. We love five films as well. Like in booms. Um, shout out to them. Shout out. Shout out to you, Will. Jack. I know he also does stuff with five films as well. Like booms. Shout out to shout out. Shout out to you, Will. Shout out to you.

Shout out to Joe Biden. Shout out to all the greats. Shout out to Gretchen Whitmer, who's being very funny about all this situation. Shout out to AOC. We didn't talk about. I mean, our impeachment. Sure. Her decision to not talk about it next week. I mean, her like backing of Biden is whatever.

I don't know. Yeah, there's like a there's like a I'm not going to shout out. There's like an argument to me. Like if the squad came out and was like, we Biden needs to step down, that would sort of negatively polarize a lot of people to defend Joe Biden because everybody fucking hates them. I think that's a decent argument, honestly. It is a decent argument.

At the same time, I don't know, she could join the crowd and try to try to get this happen because also the ethnic cleansing is bad. Right. We agree that that's bad. So like maybe don't get Distracted I promise next week fans and foes That we will return to more of a spectrum news Because there's lots of stuff that is happening that is awful and But not right now right now it's jello timeello time, baby. Happy Jello Day, everybody.

Happy Jello Day to Elle. And we'll thank you for joining us. No, I was going to say, do you want to plug our show? Yeah, there's a show I work on. It's called Some More News, and sometimes I am a guest on another show called Even More News. And so you can check that out on YouTube and our Patreon is patreon.com. Right. Right. I don't know. Great plug.

I hear this Cody do this every week. And now I'm I'm having a Joe Biden moment. Oh, there's a merch store. There's a. And plate stuff. Excellent. We do a merch store. Yeah. Nice. We got there, folks. Not a great that whenever we trail off, we're like, I'm doing a Joe Biden. Not great. I know. I know.

Well, yeah, it's going to be fine. We'll adjust in the next few months and we'll stay the course. We promise. And just know that no matter what happens out there, we love you. Much. Very much. Listen here. We love you very much, all right? Anyway, I don't want to, all right, much.

Yaa. Yaa. What's good? I'm Brian Greenberg. I'm Victor Rasut. Check out our new podcast, We Almost Made It. You guys might remember us from HBO's How to Make It in America.

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