Tangle - Trump's "enemy from within" controversy.

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

In the past two weeks, former President Donald Trump has made repeated references to “the enemy within” the United States, suggesting he would use the military to put down unrest caused by the left, sparking controversy as the presidential race nears its conclusion. Those remarks, in turn, have prompted former high-level members of his administration to speak out against his candidacy and question his fitness for office. Ad-free podcasts are here!Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to tanglemedia.supercast.com to sign up!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.Check out Episode 7 of our podcast series, The Undecideds. Please give us a 5-star rating and leave a comment!Take the survey: What do you think about Trump’s latest comments? Let us know!You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Working in the trades is intense. It can be stressful and painful. Some guys use drugs and alcohol to cope. But when we ask for help, or we see someone struggling with addiction... Our silence speaks volumes. See how you can help, or get help, at Canada.ca slash ease the burden. A message from the Government of Canada. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu,

a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.

From Searchlight Pictures comes A Real Pain, one of the most moving and funny films of the year. Written and directed by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and starring Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland Thank you. this year, garnering rave reviews and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum,

some independent thinking, and a little bit of Isaac's take. I'm your host, John Law, filling in for Isaac. And today we are going to be talking about Donald Trump's recent comments, making references to the enemy within the United States. Also comments from his former chief of staff, John Kelly. We're going to break down some of what they're saying on the right and the left about these comments and then give you our analysis. Before we get started, just a quick note about tomorrow's Friday edition. Quick note about tomorrow's Friday edition. Election fraud still remains a salient concern for many voters heading into election day,

and many of the same claims that dominated in 2020 are resurfacing again this year. In tomorrow's Friday edition, we're going to be tackling some of the most serious allegations and sharing Isaac's 10 rules for assessing election fraud claims in 2024. Given the relevance and the importance of the topic, tomorrow's Friday edition is actually going to go out to all subscribers. But if you want to support us and you haven't already, you can still sign up for a newsletter membership, a premium podcast membership, or a bundle of both. And there are links in today's episode description to help you get set up with that. All right, with that out of the way, let's dive into today's quick hits. First up, Boeing factory workers rejected a deal that would have ended

their five-week strike. Number two, Hezbollah confirmed that Hashem Stafiuddin, a high-ranking member of the militant group, was killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this month. Safiyyadine was seen as a likely successor to Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September. Number three, sales of previously occupied U.S. homes in September fell 1% from August, the second straight monthly decline and the slowest annual sales pace since October of 2010. Number four, new applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell for a second straight week, with significant declines in states impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

And number five, the Office of Georgia's Secretary of State said it was targeted in a cyber attack intended to paralyze the battleground state's absentee voter website. The office said the attack likely came from outside the U.S. We have two enemies. We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within. And the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries, because if you have a smart president, he can handle them pretty easily. I handled I got along great with all of them. I handled them.

But the thing that's tougher to handle are these lunatics that we have inside, like Adam Schiff, Adam Shifty Schiff. Think of this guy's going to be a senator. Adam Shifty Schiff, who's a total sleazebag, is going to become a senator. But I call him the enemy from within. I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroying our country.

By the way, totally destroying our country. The towns, the villages, they're being inundated. But I don't think they're the problem in terms of election day. I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by national guard or if really necessary by the military, because they can't let that happen.

In the past two weeks, former President Donald Trump has made repeated references to the enemy within the United States, suggesting he would use the military to put down unrest caused by the left, sparking controversy as the presidential race nears its conclusion. Those remarks, in turn, have prompted former high-level members of his administration to speak out against his candidacy and question his fitness for office. On October 13th, Trump called the enemy from within the United States more dangerous than China and Russia in an interview with Fox News's Maria Bartiromo. The former president singled out Representative Adam Schiff, the Democrat from California, as one such enemy, suggesting Schiff's claim that Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia put the U.S. in danger. When asked about the possibility of violence after the election, Trump said that he did not think his supporters would cause any unrest, but added,

some very sick people, radical left lunatics, and I think they're the, and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary by National Guard, or if really necessary by the military. During a town hall hosted by Fox News on October 16th, Trump repeated the claim that some Democratic leaders represented an enemy from within, saying that a smart president can handle foreign adversaries, but politicians like Schiff and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat from California, stand in the way of progress and represent a more significant threat to U.S. democracy. On Sunday, Trump defended the remarks in an interview with Fox News' Howard Kurtz, calling Schiff and Pelosi enemies. In response to those comments, Vice President Kamala Harris sharply criticized Trump

in campaign speeches and interviews, alleging he would use his power as president to target political opponents, including journalists whose stories he doesn't like, election officials who refuse to cheat by finding extra votes for him, judges who insist on following the law instead of bending to his will. Conversely, Trump's running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, the Republican from Ohio, said it was preposterous to suggest Trump would use military against political foes, while Trump campaign spokesperson Stephen Chung repeated Trump's message, saying, those who seek to undermine democracy by sowing chaos in our elections are a direct threat to the country. On Tuesday, the New York Times published a rebuke of Trump's comments by John Kelly, a former Marine general who served as Trump's chief of staff from 2017 to 2019.

Kelly stated that Trump met the definition of a fascist and weighed personal loyalty above loyalty to the Constitution. Kelly also reiterated prior claims that he heard Trump call service members who were wounded, captured, or killed in action losers and suckers, which Trump and other aides have denied. Kelly is the latest in a series of senior military leaders who worked with Trump to criticize the former president. Journalist Bob Woodward reported in his book that General Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Trump the most dangerous person to this country, a fascist to the core, an assessment that was echoed by General Jim Mattis, who served as Trump's defense secretary.

On Tuesday, The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg shared additional comments from Kelly about his time with Trump. Kelly said that Trump had asked him, why can't you be more like the German generals when complaining about disloyalty in the administration? Goldberg also reported that Trump privately expressed frustration about covering the funeral costs of Vanessa Guillen, an Army private who was murdered by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood in 2020. It doesn't cost $60,000 to bury a fucking Mexican, Trump reportedly said, according to unnamed attendees and contemporaneous notes of the meeting. Trump spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer strongly denied the allegation, and Mayor Guillen, Vanessa's sister, released a statement saying,

I am beyond grateful for all the support President Donald Trump showed our family during a trying time. Today, we'll share perspectives from the left and the right about Trump's recent comments and the criticisms from former administration figures, and then Isaac's take. We'll be right back after this quick break. Starring Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.

A Real Pain was one of the buzziest titles at Sundance Film Festival this year, garnering rave reviews and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th. Are you sure you parked over here? Do you see it anywhere? I think it's back this way. Come on. Hey, you're going the wrong way. Feeling distracted? You're not alone. Whether renting, considering buying a home, or renewing a mortgage, many Canadians are finding it hard to focus with housing costs on their minds. For free tools and resources to help you manage your home finances and clear your head, visit Canada.ca slash ItPaysToKnow.

A message from the Government of Canada. All right, first up, let's start with what the left is saying. The left is appalled by Trump's recent comments, arguing they should worry all Americans. Some note that Trump and his supporters use the same tactics to deflect every negative story about him. Others say it would be a mistake not to take Trump's comments seriously. In MSNBC, Frank Figliuzzi suggested a military that quashes protests is a part of Donald Trump's fascist dream. Trump could have said he hoped the election would be peaceful. He could have used that moment in the interview on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures to call for peace, no matter the outcome. He could have even said that he has no idea what far-left protesters might do if he wins

or what his MAGA base would do if he loses. Instead, Trump chose to express his fascistic desire to use the military against his dissenters, Figliuzzi wrote. His authoritarian fantasy of the military handling political dissent and his political adversaries is still a revelation of what could be in store for our country if he ever becomes commander-in-chief again. If you think I'm being too dramatic or alarmist, I implore you to study how a society slowly slips into fascism. The three recognized pillars of fascism are demonization of domestic enemies, preposterous lies, and contempt for domestic institutions, especially elections and the rule of law.

Importantly, those pillars, all present in the Trump-MAGA movement, have historically been bound by an affinity for military values as reflected in Trump's vision for our troops. In the Washington Post, Philip Bump wrote, Past Trump advisors say he's a fascist. Trump says he's not. Whom to trust? One of Donald Trump's most effective and most useful tactics in rebuffing criticism has been to insist that any critic is operating in bad faith. There are no valid complaints about Trump, he insists, and there are no reliable complainers. Saying something critical of the former president means that you are not loyal to the former president, and therefore your criticism is tainted by your anti-Trump bias, Bum said. It works. People who are supportive of Trump are

almost definitionally inclined to grant him the benefit of the doubt, meaning that they are predisposed to assume that he's the one approaching a point of debate from a more defensible position. Put those things together, and we get where we are today. A phalanx of former Trump advisors and appointees has delineated the ways in which he embraces fascism, hopes to implement authoritarianism, disparages the military, and offered praise for Adolf Hitler. And the most likely reaction from Trump supporters will be that they are just anti-Trump haters, Bump wrote. In fact, questions about Trump's embrace of authoritarianism have been reframed by Trump and his supporters as the real danger.

In the wake of the July attempt on Trump's life in Pennsylvania, he and his allies have argued that the shooting was a function of commentary that suggested Trump was a threat to democracy. The real threat to democracy, Trump World insists, is saying the Republican nominee for president poses a threat to democracy. In the Los Angeles Times, Jackie Combs said Trump promises mayhem, take him seriously and literally. Trump is outdoing himself during the 2024 campaign's final weeks, belching threats and spreading conspiracies. He demonstrated as president what he's capable of, not least in separating migrant families and inciting an insurrection.

Dozens of former advisors have told us that he'd have committed other dangerous, even illegal acts, including ordering troops into the streets authorized to shoot protesters in the legs, but for the AIDS resistance, Collins wrote. Such resistance likely would not come from syc sick fans a reelected Trump would appoint. Which makes his comments on Sunday on Fox News about military countering the enemy from within, that is, Democrats, all the more chilling. Trump told interviewer Maria Bartiromo that he isn't worried about Election Day chaos from his supporters or foreigners, but from radical left lunatics, Collins said.

Willful delusion about what Trump has done and what he could do if re-elected, as he keeps promising loud and proud, is idiocy in 2024. All right, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to what the right is saying. The right mostly views the recent reports about Trump as a smear campaign typical of the mainstream media. Some say claims that Trump threatens democracy aren't resonating with voters. Others warn Trump's comments are a gift to Harris. In the Washington Examiner, David Harsanyi said, The first thing to remember is that Goldberg could literally In the Washington Examiner, David Harsanyi said, The Atlantic's newest hit piece on Trump is why we can't trust the media.

The first thing to remember is that Goldberg could literally make up any quote from an alleged anonymous source, and he would face no repercussions. No major outlet will challenge the veracity of his shoddy work, which breaks numerous journalistic norms because the accusations are aimed at the right target, Harsanyi wrote. Because the accusations are aimed at the right target, Harsanyi wrote. Goldberg's 2024 narrative is suffering from the same problems his 2020 suckers and losers hit piece did. Anonymous sources make claims that a bunch of on-the-record people contradict. We have two anonymous sources telling us that Trump refused to pay for the funeral

of a murdered army private. By now, one hopes most people understand how the game works. Goldberg published a non-falsifiable October surprise. Other outlets, unlikely to run wholly uncorroborated claims themselves, can spread the smear without verification. They did this to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and they're going to keep doing it. In the New York Post, Jonathan Turley argued voters aren't buying that Trump is a threat to democracy. aren't buying that Trump is a threat to democracy. I've long criticized the apocalyptic democracy ending predictions of Biden, Harris, and others as ignoring the safeguards in our system against authoritarian power. Nevertheless, Harris supporters have ratcheted up their rhetoric

to a level of pure hysteria, Turley wrote. There is, however, some good news in all this. Despite years of alarmist predictions from Biden, Harris, the press, and pundits, the public is not buying it. It's not because they particularly like Trump. Many of his supporters seem poised to vote for him despite viewing him as polarizing and, at times, obnoxious. No, it is because the American voter has a certain innate resistance to being played as a chump.

Many of the same figures claiming that democracy is at stake supported ballot cleansing to remove Trump and others from the ballot. They supported the weaponization of the legal process in New York against Trump, Turley said. Harris's claim to be the only hope for democracy is proving as tin-eared as running on pure joy. Voters are clearly demanding more than a political pitch of abject fear mixed with absolute joy. In National Review, Noah Rothman wrote, Trump gives the Harris campaign what it needs. Trump's remarks are a godsend to the Harris campaign at a time when it needs all the help it can get. The vice president's campaign and his allies are doing all they can to publicize Trump's remarks, but it is unlikely that Republicans have been privy to that rhetoric, Rothman said.

The right long ago learned to compartmentalize the former president's imperious pronouncements. The right long ago learned to compartmentalize the former president's imperious pronouncements. He, unlike his predecessors or would-be successors in the Oval Office, cannot be taken at his word, some argue. Rather, his comments should be subjected to exegesis by priestly caste who can divine from their most banal interpretation. This, we're so often told, is the only intellectually serious way to interpret Trump's guttural utterances. That is irrational nonsense. More importantly, it is nonsense to which the voters that matter in the general election do not subscribe. Republicans often let events fomented by Trump's shorthand illiberalism get away from them by simply ignoring their significance. The result is a runaway news cycle

in which Republicans play no part in shaping public perception. That's not just bad practice, it's an abdication of elementary civic duty. in which Republicans play no part in shaping public perception. That's not just bad practice. It's an abdication of elementary civic duty. All right, that is it for what the left and the right are saying, which brings us to Isaac's take. Just a reminder that this is Isaac's opinion, and I'm reading it in the first person. So there are several layers to these stories about Trump and I want to start by taking a step back. I like to categorize these Trump stories into a few different buckets.

Number one, things Trump says publicly that all of us can see and hear with our own eyes and ears and judge accordingly. Number two, things Trump says publicly that are distorted or deceitfully edited by political opponents and the press to make him look bad. Number three, things people publicly claim Trump has said. And number four, anonymously reported stories leveling allegations about things Trump said. In the last few weeks, we've gotten stories in each of these buckets that concern me to varying degrees. Let's start with Trump talking about the threat from within our country, which he described as the radical left, saying he'd consider using the military against the inevitable protesters of his election victory. Trump then kind of walked those words back in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, but he appropriately

took heat for them. This is bucket number one, alarming things Trump says publicly that all of us can see and hear with our own eyes and ears. Trump's bloodbath comments typify another kind of story. Here, Trump took flak for promising a bloodbath if he's an elected. In context, however, he was obviously talking about an economic bloodbath for the auto industry. But the news outlets and the Harris campaign have since told voters that Trump was promising political violence. This is bucket number two. Things Trump says publicly that are distorted or deceitfully edited by political opponents and the press to make him look bad. Then there are the numerous stories like the ones John Kelly has told the press. Kelly was Trump's longest serving chief of staff and a decorated former U.S. Marine. He has repeatedly spoken about alarming exchanges he's had with

Trump and has done us the courtesy of putting his name to those claims. For instance, he recently shared a story about Trump wishing his generals were more like German generals during the Nazi era since they were totally loyal to Hitler. Not for nothing, but Hitler's generals quite famously tried to kill him repeatedly. Kelly also claimed that Trump told him Hitler did some good things. This is bucket number three, claims made publicly about what Trump has said. Last are the stories, like the ones published in the same article in The Atlantic, where Kelly went on the record. In this story, a group of anonymous sources claimed that Trump reneged on a promise to pay for the funeral of a Mexican-American soldier who was killed,

saying it doesn't cost $,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican. Several people who were in the room denied he ever said that, and the soldier's sister denied he reneged on his promise or ever treated her or her family disrespectfully. This is bucket number four, anonymously reported stories leveling allegations about things Trump has said. The things I really take seriously are in bucket number one, what I see and hear Trump say publicly. Bucket number two both infuriates me and motivates me, but for different reasons. It infuriates me because people who view me as part of the media will trust my work less when other members of the media mislead them in such obvious, insidious ways. But it motivates

me because I'm building an independent media organization that can benefit from the mainstream media's failures. Bucket number three very much depends on the context. I'm pretty much aligned with conservative writer Noah Rothman, who said on X, I am genuinely vexed as to why Kelly, sterling service record in uniform and a loyal soldier for Trump, who only stepped on one PR rake as I can recall in his time as DHS secretary, and whose credibility is tied to people who backed him like Senator Tom Cotton, deserves less benefit of the doubt in a he said, she said than Donald Trump. I would love to hear a sincere, non-hysterical case for why we should disregard his word

and the stakes to which he is committing by retelling this accusation and take Trump and his defenders' word as gospel. Like Rothman, if I were a betting man, I'd take Kelly's version of events over Trump's, but it's still ultimately a debate based solely on hearsay. And I mostly ignore bucket number four. Anonymously sourced stories are important and often credible, depending on the context. In instances of national security, there are usually good reasons for people to go off the record. I've had sources go off the record. I know how it works. In articles where anonymous quotes support actual hard evidence, like leaked documents,

one can usually trust that the source has a good reason to be guarded about their identity. But when anonymous stories about an offensive thing someone like Trump said are the story, I just have a hard time taking it seriously. When it comes to coverage of Trump's statements, I have a lot of conflicting feelings. Trump has always said or signaled a lot of very frightening things, things that used to be disqualifying for politicians or presidential candidates, but somehow he has survived politically. And Applebaum summed up a few from this election cycle neatly. Quote, Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants, the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws

of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants, they're poisoning the blood of our country and they're destroying the blood of our country. He has claimed that many have bad genes. He's also been more explicit. They're not humans. They're animals. They're cold-blooded killers. He refers more broadly to his opponents, American citizens, some of whom are elected officials, as the enemy from within, sick people, radical left lunatics. Not only do they have no rights, they should be handled by, he has said, if necessary, National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, end quote. Yet Applebaum, or her editors, opens herself up to criticism. Her article, in this case,

was headlined, Trump is speaking like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. To say that comparisons to the bloodiest authoritarians of 20th century Europe are a bit overwrought is, perhaps, an understatement. Like those leaders, Trump has used dehumanizing language to describe his fellow countrymen. But Hitler did that before rounding up and killing millions of Jews, and Stalin used that language while literally killing hundreds of thousands of his political opponents. We know Trump. He was president for four years, and he didn't jail his political opponents. He didn't unleash the military on civilians. He didn't even radically crack down on immigrants. For all of his bluster and tough talk, he deported fewer immigrants than Barack Obama

did, and never even completed the much-promised border wall. He mostly built a paper wall that reduced legal immigration, while deterring migrants from the border with promises of ugly conditions if they ever made it here. Might he take things to a new extreme in a second term? Yes, he might. Is his language throughout this campaign doing anything to dissuade his critics of notions he is a fascist dictator? No, it's not. And the things that he says have downstream effects. For instance, one in three Americans now think that illegal immigrants are poisoning the blood of America, including 61% of Republicans. That is a troubling turn of opinion, particularly as leaders beyond

Trump adopt this kind of messaging. But Trump isn't going to be the 21st century's Hitler, Stalin, or Mussolini. More likely than not, he'll be a very similar president as he was the first time around. Some Americans pine for that. Others fear it deeply. But none of us are going to live through World War II Germany. Of course, all of this highlights what are and remain Trump's two biggest liabilities. First, it is his own words and actions that often invite the harshest criticisms of him as a person and candidate. And second, a lot of people in the media and in his own inner circle really hate him. That means whenever he says something stupid, scary, or sordid behind closed doors,

it's almost a guarantee that we'll all hear about it. One of the largest strikes on Trump as a candidate is that so many of the people who have worked closely with him and seen him out of the public's view have turned against him or said he is unfit for office. Kelly, of course, is Exhibit A, but he's hardly alone. John Bolton, James Mattis, Mick Mulvaney, Betsy DeVos, Bill Barr,

H.R. McMaster, Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell, Rex Tillerson, Mark Esper, Cassidy Hutchinson, and even his own former Vice President, Mike Pence. This is a damning list, and as far as I know, unique to Trump among presidents in the modern era. There are plenty of good reasons to be skeptical about breathless takes that Trump is going to destroy our democracy, or skeptical about anonymous sources attributing ugly comments to him. And there is more than enough good reason to believe that Trump won't turn the U.S. military on his political opponents. But Trump is actually saying that's what he'd do, political opponents. But Trump is actually saying that's what he'd do, and he and his team are going to need a much better response to those concerns about those statements. Otherwise, these kinds of

stories aren't going anywhere anytime soon. We'll be right back after this quick break. We'll be right back after this quick break. Working in the trades is intense. It can be stressful and painful. Some guys use drugs and alcohol to cope. But when we ask for help, or we see someone struggling with addiction, our silence speaks volumes. See how you can help, or get help help at Canada.ca slash ease the burden.

A message from the Government of Canada. From Searchlight Pictures comes A Real Pain, one of the most moving and funny films of the year. Written and directed by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and starring Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. A Real Pain was one of the buzziest titles at Sundance Film Festival this year, garnering rave reviews and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond

Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Alright, that is it for Isaac's Take. We are skipping today's reader question to save on time. But if you do have any questions or anything you'd like to comment on, anything you'd like to engage us on, please feel free to write in to staff at readtangle.com. That's S-T-A-F-F at readtangle.com.

All right, next up is our under-the-radar story. A discovery in an underground brine reservoir in Arkansas could reshape the future of global energy production. On Monday, researchers at the United States Geological Survey and the Arkansas government announced that they had found a trove of lithium in the reservoir of up to 19 million tons of the alkali metal. Lithium is a key ingredient in the production of lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles and many common electronic devices. And if the reservoir does contain millions of tons of lithium,

it would be more than enough to meet all of the world's demand for the metal. Currently, Australia and South America produce most of the world's lithium, which is then processed by China. But this discovery could turn the U.S. into a major player. The New York Times has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. The percentage of U.S. adults who think former President Donald Trump is too extreme is 50%. The percentage of U.S. adults who think Vice President Kamala Harris is too extreme is 40%, according to an October 2024 YouGov poll.

The percentage of U.S. adults who are concerned about right-wing extremism in the U.S. is 57%. The percentage of U.S. adults who are concerned about left-wing extremism in the U.S. is 57%. The percentage of U.S. adults who think it is likely the U.S. will cease to be a democracy in the next 10 years is 34%. The percentage of U.S. adults who think it is likely the U.S. will become a fascist dictatorship in the next 10 years is 27%. And the percentage of Americans who trust the media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly is 31%, according to an October 2024 Gallup poll.

All right, and last but not least, our Have a Nice Day story. Ursula Bannister, 79, makes a yearly hike to a viewpoint where she once spread her mother's ashes. This year, Bannister broke her leg while traveling back down the steep trail. Search and rescue was five hours away, and she was in great pain. Luckily, two individuals offered to carry her down the mountain, which she accepted. A variety of people helped Bannister make her way home, including a physical therapist who crafted a makeshift splint for her leg. make her way home, including a physical therapist who crafted a makeshift splint for her leg. I was just overwhelmed with gratitude, and these people literally came out of the woods to help me,

and they were totally unselfish and kind, Bannister said. The Washington Post has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, please go to readtangle.com and sign up for a membership. You can also now sign up for premium podcast memberships by going to tanglemedia.supercast.com. And there you'll receive ad-free podcasts, which include the daily podcast, our Sunday podcast, Friday editions, interviews, bonus content, and much more to come. As I mentioned at the top, tomorrow's Friday edition will be about election fraud and the concerns many voters have going into election day. We will give you Isaac's 10 rules for assessing election fraud claims in 2024, and that is something that is going to go out to all subscribers for free tomorrow. So stay tuned for that.

We'll be right back here on Monday. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John law signing off. Have a fantastic weekend. Y'all peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by John wall. The script is edited by our managing editor, Ari Weitzman, Will K back Bailey Saul and Sean Brady. The logo for our

podcast was designed by Magdalena Bacoba, who is also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. If you're looking for more from Tangle, please go to readtangle.com and check out our website. Bye.