The Chaser Report - How Much Was Kamala Paid To Go To Queensland?

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

Dom takes a look at Kamala Harris' "sliding doors" moment and how she went from being potentially being the most important person on earth, to being at a real estate agent convention in Queensland. Meanwhile, Charles is completely apoplectic with discussions about US politics that don't incite revolution. ---Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] our caviar addiction: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Yes, we're recording outdoors on an unseasonably warm and sunny and lovely. And dusty. Late May afternoon with not a cloud in the sky, but a dust cloud somewhere. Yeah, not far away at all. Closing in on us.

It's idealic, really, until it isn't. Yeah. And today, Charles, because we're in such a nice setting, I'd like to just, if you don't mine, get a little philosophical about how life works and the strange things that can happen. They're called, you know, sliding doors moments. That movie that was largely forgettable about whether Gwyneth Paltrow caught a train or not. Yes. Is this going to be some sort of tale of regret about some girlfriend you never went out with or something?

Goodness, no. No, I mean, in that movie, if you remember, there's two paths. One is where Gwyneth Pato gets on the train. Yes. And I think she discovers her lover cheating on her or something. and the other one she doesn't get on the train and goes to found a very strange lifestyle company selling vaginal eggs.

I feel like you conflated reality. I may have. Weirdly, the more absurd option is the reality version. It would have been a better movie, in fact. And marrying Chris Martin from Coldplay and calling your child Apple. I don't know what, maybe the train hit her head on in the movie. But anyway, so that metaphors linger with us. I want to talk about, in particular, another high-profile woman

who spends a lot of time in California, Kamala Harris. Carmelah Harris, who... Who's currently in Australia. Exactly. And this is the weird thing because you can absolutely guarantee that if Kamala Harris had won the election, as many polls said she might for a while at least,

if she'd actually become the President of the United States, there is no way she would be in Australia now. Talking to property developers on the Gold Coast. Exactly. We'll talk about why she's here, the strange way that life, her life's worked out this week, this is what might have been after this. We'll also talk about the strange case of Joe Biden,

who was apparently deceiving. giving everyone, and the surprise news about who is the frontrunner for the Democrat nomination in 2008, the Democratic nomination in 2028. After this. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore? Fizz is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. So yes, Charles, you jump to the bizarreness of what she's been doing. Well, the reason I know is because I was up in Queensland on the weekend.

Really? Right, when she flew in. And it was just blanket news. The first item on Channel 9 News was, Carmelah Harris has appeared on the Gold Coast and talked to Queenslanders. Yeah. I mean, it's like someone who is nearly the most significant person in the world. Yeah.

But presumably at this point, doesn't even have secret service protection anymore. Flying into the Gold Coast. No, no, no. She does have a security team because the cameramen who was filming Wankanomics, Brad, Oh, you were filming at your show, yeah, yeah. Yeah, had just been at the Carmelah thing. He was one of the main cameramen. How funny.

The Carmelah thing. I've been locked up with Brad in a jail cell. Yes, you got arrested. That's another story. Anyway. And the thing is, so they did a security sweep at like 5am, which was really annoying because it meant that they all had to be there. But then, you know, it was just filming basically boring real estate agents all day. But then shortly before Kamala came on, there was a break.

And they said, okay, who is going to be in the prime positions, presumably, you know, within stabbing distance, whatever, Calmela Harris. And Brad was one of those camera people, like one of the main cameras. And they went, okay, well, we're going to have to frisk those camera guys when they get back to their break. And they're going to be required to empty all their pockets and they have nothing on them, right? I'm genuinely surprised. And so Brad went. Oh, okay, well, that's sort of, you know, make sense, right?

And then no one approached them ever again. Oh, okay. Maybe just the fact they were told they're going to be first. Yeah, yeah, that was the security. How funny. Yeah, look, she's still... But what Brad was saying is, and I don't know whether this will get him sacked or something, but he was saying, you know, like, if you'd been there,

it wouldn't have been Kamala Harris, so you'd want to assassinate by the end. Like, listening to all these, you know, investment property, advisers talking about listings all day was just, you know. Okay, so I'm just looking this up here. Former vice presidents get protection for at least six months. So she's, this is the end of all kicking off.

This is the bizarreness. This is why I'm talking about the sliding doors thing, because you would not have thought, even if she, don't forget there was a third option, which was that Joe Biden got re-elected, and she would have stayed as a VP for another four years. We'll talk about how unrealistic that was. Or Joe Biden did her a good one,

actually just resigned when he should have resigned. Yes, just said he was never going to run again. No, resigned and let Kamala at least have six months in the president. Oh, yes, that's true. That would have been another pass. So there you go. There's four potential paths. Yeah.

But the one where you're sitting... Or she could have been assassinated by a lone cameraman. The Cold Coast. Oh, gosh. What a place to go. But I mean, what a bizarre thing. She's American, so she's used to Florida. Yeah.

So kind of fun-sized Florida on the Gold Coast, I suppose it wasn't completely bizarre. But sitting, you know, John McGrath. from the McGrath and the McGrath partner's real estate agent, just sat down and talked to her for an hour. And he, I can tell you now, because I've seen clips of the thing, he is a terrible interview.

Guess what his last question to her was? Like, after an hour of not very good questions, guess what his very last question, the sort of summary question. Definitely, I can pick this for sure. Oh, okay.

His question would have been, can I interest you in an extraordinary condo at Surfers Paradise? Byers Desperate to sell great views. No, that was, that was his opening question. Right. No, his final question was,

I've always wanted to meet Barack Obama, what's he like? Wow. I swear to you, that's true. But I mean, presumably he was paying whatever it costs to get Kamala. Is it cheap these days? Could we have got on the podcast for a couple hundred bucks? So there was lots of speculation when I was in Queensland

about exactly how much he was being paid. And here are the stats, right? It was a property developer's conference. Tickets were $1,000 a head. There were $4,000 seats in the stadium. So they grossed $4 million for the conference, right? Oh, okay. Presumby that was to get to talk to John McGrath.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, as wonderful as I'm sure, Kamala is. Hard to argue that it's good for your business to meet someone who has literally no power at all. Now, I'm guessing, but, you know, I don't want to presume here, but I am guessing that Kamala mainly did that gig for the money. You see? She didn't want to meet John McGra of McGraar Partners? Yeah.

And so I reckon If you're a vice president I don't think you get out of bed For less than half a million, right? Oh, if they're getting four meal for the whole thing You reckon she got half? No, no, I reckon she got a million. She got a million?

I reckon she got a million US. Really? Which is at least one and a half million Australia. Well, her lawyer was with her, i.e. her husband. Yeah. And, you know, like, they know that, you know, like everyone knows that it's all about the money and they need to make you an offer

that you can't refuse. shoes in that situation. Like, I've done speaking gigs. I know what it's like. Did you get to meet John McGrath? Yeah, where, where they negotiate and they realize that, you know, they've got to pay a million dollars to get you out of bed. You know what I mean?

Well, apparently last year at the conference at the same venue, they got $5,000. It was Matthew McConaughey, wasn't it? Was it? Yeah, and this time, for Kamala Harris, it was only $4,000. Oh, really? I didn't sell it out. She did what she was supposed to do, I suppose, which is that she did a couple of headline-making things.

She sort of condemned Elon Musk without mentioning him, made references to the 1930s in a sort of ominous tone. But what was her perspective on negative gearing? Well, that's the great question. She actually, so, okay, so those were the things that were reported by most of the world's news. There's stuff about Musk and Trump. How do you minimize capital gains tax? And what about the depreciation rates on investment profits? I can answer your question.

Realestate.com. that AU has sent someone along to get a perspective. And I'll tell you what she says. Well, does real estate.com. Do you have reported? Yes, it does. I said a reporter to this. Oh, look, this is going to be really,

this is going to change everything upside down. This is worth more than a million. Frankly, I think Albuyer should have paid for this. Okay. Here in Australia and the United States, we share this issue, which is a phenomenal issue, especially for young families, says Kamala, affordable housing.

That's what she says. It's really important. And that's why you should buy. So, oh, this is. the really awkward thing. Part of my platform was, and includes that government really needs to work much more closer with the private sector, et cetera, et cetera. The dream of home ownership's important. And she thinks that this is the best to them. Yeah, this is the bit they would have liked best. Real estate agents could be considered civic leaders by connecting buyers with suitable homes.

Oh, no. Listen to this. So the middleman has become the civic leader. And so that's what they're paying $1,000 for a potential next president say, we'll get to that, you allow people to actually implement their dream of creating a place that's not only a symbol of their hard work, but an extension of their dignity. They're not selling homes, Charles. They're selling human dignity. Dom, why did Carmelah Harris lose the election? With such rhetoric, like, soaring rhetoric.

Yeah. You know why. I mean, that's sort of Churchillian, really. It's because they didn't get John McGrath to moderate the presidential debates. You could have asked either of them to introduce him to Barack Obama. So that's the sliding doors. Then she was out in Sydney, Charles. She went to some fancy restaurants.

Because when you're in Australia, you come down. Apparently, well, she went to... Bathers' Pavilion in Mosswood. She went to Mossman. She went to Bathers Pavilion, which actually is quite a nice place. It isn't that. Yeah. It's out of a beach.

I mean, you know. But also she said, as she was leaving, the one quote that she gave on her way out the door of the conference was that she was off to Sydney because she wanted to see the Sydney Opera House. Yeah, and there's pictures of her outside. this, so did she go to Vivid is the question? Surely. Like, surely that's the main reason. Yeah, for the timing of the...

You'd think so. Yeah, yeah. Oh, maybe she was trying to make it to Wankanomics. Did she come? Maybe she did. You know, and this is even in the reports. No, because it was sold out. Yeah, this is the thing.

You couldn't have squaced her in. But also the reports and Sky News, of course, got stuck into her. They've accused her of doing word salads. Oh, yes. And you could have helped her with that. No, and actually, the camera guy, I talked to, said, oh, yeah, she did completely word seller that, like, he was surprised at how

sality. She said, he said it was comprehensible, like, it wasn't incoherent, but it was just very excursive, like, you know, she was talking about her, you know, family, yeah, she weaved, and weaved, and he said, you got the real impression that that's obviously just her, like, that's the way, like, so even with the discipline of six months of campaigning hard. She didn't manage to lose the word salad. She was on message. The message was real estate agents.

So awesome. Maybe that's for the reason for the salad. It's to take so long having to talk about real estate agents. Anyway, so that's my kind of sliding doors moment. Is Kamala Harris, bizarrely enough. She could have been, you know, at NATO. She could have been trying to negotiate at peace in Ukraine. She certainly would have met the

new... But what a headache. Like, look at all the terrible things that are going on in the world. Oh, much easier to be on the Gold Coast. Yes. Come to the Sydney Opera House. Yes. I mean, mind you. I think solving the housing crisis might be harder than solving Ukraine right now. All right. So the other thing I wanted to talk about, Charles, is we'll get on to Joe Biden because

that's an interesting one too. Well, it might be very brief, but just the book, the book revelations. Oh, yeah, the Jake Tapper book. The Jake Tappapap book, which is absolutely fantastic. Yeah, yeah, so we'll talk a bit about that. But I want to talk about, I was quite surprised, and yet it did seem on brand, which is that multiple newspaper reports in the past 24 hours. or so, have Kamala Harris

listed as the early frontrunner. I mean, the Times of London, multiple news sources. And the reason is she's either going to run for Governor of California, which they note is... Oh, she's going to keep going. Yeah, so she'll run for Governor of California. Oh, God.

Or she's going to run again for the presidency, is the theory. And if you're her, wouldn't your brain be going, oh, you didn't get a proper go. He didn't get a proper go at that. But she didn't have an economic plan? She didn't, she didn't, she didn't, she didn't, she didn't have anything to run for.

She was, what was she running for? Um, Joe Biden's legacy. I don't know. I mean, she, she kind of just had to, didn't she? He was out. But, George Clooney said jump, so she jumped. Oh, I would. If George Clooney told me to do something, I'd totally do it.

No, but she didn't, like, she was terrible. She didn't have anything to cite. She didn't, she didn't want anything for the country. But she was mum. That was her problem. She was sort of running on this thing of, just don't be the other guy. I'm just not. Trump.

But Charles, that little girl was me. Anyway, so the Democrats, that's a deep cut from her debate. Her most effective line against Joe Biden before she rapidly exited the race. Anyway, the Democrats sent out an email last week asking their supporters to chip in 30 bucks for a fighting fund. And it was basically, it was a personal email from Kamala Harris to chip in. Would you, if you were a Democratic strategist, phrase the email as a personal appeal from Kamala Harris? Or would you want your donors to forget about... Kamala Harris, and I don't know, get George Clooney or someone to get them open the walls.

I don't think that they, I reckon the Democrats nowadays are mainly just spam merchants, aren't they? But they're not even good at it then if they're getting Kamala to do their appeal. I mean, as it says here, she's reminded, we're reminded, they lost all seven of the key swing states every single one. They got obliterated. I mean, between Dutton and Kamala, I don't know who had a worse election. So, and so what you're saying is, Kamala is terrible. but she's the front right on because the Democrat Party is always shit. No, I'm saying.

It's going to be shit. It's just odd because who else do they put up is the interesting question at this point. So she's the sort of default option. And hey, if you lose last time, you can still run again, ask Donald Trump. But who else is there? I mean... But don't you think it's sort of irrelevant? Like electoral politics is so clearly not where the battle needs to be forced.

Right. So you think if she really wants to affect change in the world, she should start a tech company. Probably not a bad argument. She's California. No, no, that's, no, that's, no, that's, no, that's, no, that's not what I'm saying. Do we need more tech barons? No.

What about female? What about terrible female tech barons? They're all in jail. Yeah, no, no, I think, no, no, no, no, I'm not saying that you, we've talked about this on the podcast before, like, that Peter Thiel was quoted in 2010 as saying, our side of politics can never be popular. So what we need is to enact our politics. through technological innovation.

And that explains why they've sort of been working hard on the, let's make AI really right wing and, you know, get it to talk about, you know, white genocide or whatever. And, no, no, I'm just saying, like, electoral politics, like, America's not really a democracy. Like, I think what Trump has proven is that it doesn't matter who wins the midterms in 2026 because he's just going to barrel over the top of everyone. Like, if you actually want to affect.

social change in America now, you should be going, working at a local level and actually setting up institutions that are going to completely replace the American sort of democratic institutions that exist there at the moment. Don't you reckon? I mean, I can see where you're coming from. The system does seem... The thing is, Charles, as we know, even when the system... I just find it really boring to talk about the Democrats, yeah, Democrats and Republicans

because it's all irrelevant, they're all... A revolution has happened in America. Like, an authoritarian revolution has happened in America. It's not about, oh, let's get out the vote next time. It's like, to the barricades. So, in other words, Kamala Harris should have stayed on the Gold Coast. They were in the best place for a stay. All right, well, just take a moment to talk about it.

It's worth spending a bit of time on that hole. What other system could there be? Maybe we'll get some of our US politics friends in. Because it does seem as though, I was going to say, even when it's working well, like even when it's working as per the design of brilliant founding fathers, the US system is terrible and sclerotic and doesn't get anything done. Like, it cannot in any way innovate or cope with change. It's just designed to make nothing happen.

And that's why the Abundance Democrats are a really interesting group of people. Because their whole thing is, let's just get rid of all the regulations, which is, like, essentially, the last 50 years of the Democrats is, let's build a whole lot of government regulations. And the abundance Democrats, who essentially the moderates, they're the sort of Carmel Harris-style people. Well, this is who I wanted to talk about, was J.B. Pritzker. The Democrats' own billionaire, the Hyatt Hotels. Yeah, and they've just gone, let's now pretend that we're Democrats, but actually just be people who dismantle all the protections that we've written for the people over the last 50 years

and call that progressive. Yeah, but they can stay in high at hotels, Charles, if they can afford it. Exactly. It really benefits people who, for whom the regulations are preventing from doing horrible things to the people. And I do think that, you know, this whole situation where we've talked about on the podcast. Donald Trump is enriching himself by going to the Middle East and building Trump hotels and so on. It's absolutely outrageous. I've stayed in a Trump hotel. They suck. I want

Hyatt's. I'm totally on board. If we can get a grand Hyatt in all these places, I'm fantastic. I think you're getting it, which is actually American democracy is not a contest between people. It's a contest between oligars. Yeah. And you just got to pick your brand. Well, Pritzka's pretty funny. Yeah. I mean, Pritzka's got a good gift for a sound bite. Yeah. And yeah, it might well be Plus he's doing the trendy thing Jadie Vance is done with just going with initials. Yeah, J.B. Thank you for your patience.

Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore. FIS is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at FIS.ca. The Chaser Report. More news.

Less often We were going to talk about Joe Biden Look the only thing to say about that You mean J.B. J.B. Yeah, yeah. He could have won if he'd done that. I suppose my only comment on this amazing revelation

by Jake Tapper that all... And shocking, like amazing. Like, who knew? This is the point we're coming to. Joe Biden was a shadow of his former self. He was too old. I mean, I remember talking to Chaz about that more than 18 months before the debate.

It was just kind of like quite... If you listen to him at all, like even by the Biden standards of rambling and guys, going off topic and getting names wrong. I mean, the guy was not at his admittedly limited full powers for a long time. Yes. Where's the news value in this?

But isn't the point that what is shocking is that the Democrats really had no mechanism... To tap them on the shoulder. To enforce any level of accountability amongst him, and more importantly, amongst his staff. Yeah, the shockings thing is the enablers and the denial and things like the schedule to screw shorter and shorter. I don't even know by the end who would have been, he might have been working less than Donald Trump, Charles. I don't think that's possible. But, I mean, I think isn't the point that you,

if you get elected, like, or if you get appointed chief of staff to the president, right, even if there, somebody is old and sclerotic as Joe Biden, in America, you're probably never, ever going to get that opportunity again, right? Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's a little bit different to the Australian system where, you know,

the staff has come back. The staffers sort of rotate around offices and things of that. You know, you sort of pick your lane. You might be able to sort of get on board with some other campaign, you know, down the track. But actually, it feels like a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. Yes. So you've got no interest in rolling the person who's got you there. No, of course not.

And there's hundreds of people. There's a Praetorian guard hundreds thick that are just going to protect the president at all cost. Indeed. And that's what happened. So, and it is fair to say that they were probably thinking, you know, Donald, Joe Biden on, you know, 5% of capacity is still probably better than Donald Trump. I think that's probably what I'm thinking. But I'd sort of disagree with that. Like, there's just a total lack of accountability there.

Like, yeah. Like, you know, like, for all its terribleness, the buck at least stops with Donald Trump, whereas the buck didn't really stop anywhere. Like, they were talking about on, because Ezra Klein had Jake Tapper. on his podcast. And Jake Debra was talking about how it got to the point where the staffers were going, you know what?

3 a.m. call to Biden, that's not going to, like, we don't have a 3 AM called guy to go to anymore. Like if nuclear war breaks out in Ukraine or Pakistan or India,

forget, you know, calling up and finding out what Biden thinks because he's totally useless at 3 a. Call Kamala Harris. There's a word salad in between her and deploying the missiles.

No, look, it is, problem. It was clearly terrible. We were lucky it didn't end more disastrously than it did. But I mean, this also... But also, I think it underscores... Apparently, he had some level of lucidity. It underscores what an absolute

dick he was for not resign. And this is the whole point about the gerontocracy, right? We talked about this with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I mean, I'm surrounded by women who absolutely admire Ruth Bader Ginsburg and I do as well. But you have to... No, you have to have a big asterisk

going, well, actually, yes, she was a wonderful pioneer. amazing, but also by not resigning she effectively dismounted Roe V Wade. What a legacy that is anyway, look, the point is old people need to get goth. Yes, let's get rid of all the old people. I mean,

that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about the Australian system's good, 70 plus and off you go. That gives Albo's seven years. Not that it applies in prime industrial politics, but yeah, there you go, there's a thought for you. Albo is not even, what is he, 63 or something? But also they can enjoy all their investment properties

Yeah, what's the point? I mean, Biden had so many properties by the end. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, anyway, there's a very good... By the way, if you haven't seen it, there's a very good Daily Show episode where John Stewart gets stuck into Jake Tapper for basically all of the interviews he did

ahead of the book. So we've got some amazing news coming up while he was in a job where his job was to tell you what the news was. And that's been a year researching this. stuff. Anyway, at least now we know when it's too late to mean anything. Okay, Charles. Although, I'll just note one thing, which is in, at least in the interview with Ezra Klein, Jake Tabber says it was amazing how before the election, no one would admit anything.

Oh, yeah, of course. And then literally the day after Biden got... His phone would have been like, now, about that book. Yeah, yeah. And they just talked so much more honestly. It was late in some point, it was like, they were just completely lying to me before. And the other point is this, Donald Trump, yes, okay, there are some issues there, but he is in extraordinary shape. I mean, his ability to stand up and shout and ramble and do the weave for hours on end.

I mean, I listen to his three-hour-long Joe Rogan podcast. I mean, the guy, his mental impairment levels were exactly the same as they would have been at 40 or 50, let's just say that. So, yeah, he may well do the next term, the third term. He's in such good shape. But fortunately, as Charles says, it doesn't matter, right? Well, it'll be a rematch. If the bookies arrive, it'll be a rematch between him and Carmel. Him and Joe Biden, who will come off the bench.

All right, we're part of our Congress Network. We'll catch you next time. See, yeah. Thank you for your patience. Your call is important. Can't take being on hold anymore? FIS is 100% online, so you can make the switch in minutes. Mobile plans start at $15 a month.

Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca.