The Chaser Report - RFK Jr vs Trump vs Vaccines

Episode Date: July 2, 2023

Dom Knight has it all for you today with stories from across he globe including: An update on the conspiracy that China started COVID-19 in a lab. A breakdown on the views of presidential candidate RFK Jr. Insider knowledge on Donald Trump's creepiest comments about his daughter. And a story from NZ about a harmless competition, that was actually super harmful. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gattigall Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to another week of The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Now, Charles, I want to bring up to speed on some news that happened last week that people may have missed it, some small but fun stories. Ooh, okay. Which you can conclude that either we're just very thorough, we don't want you to miss anything. And so we decided not to talk about today's top news story.

We just want to fill in a few little interesting tidbits from last week before we get to the big story today, which we'll do tomorrow. Or we pre-recorded this last week because, frankly, we're a bit tired and we've got kids on school holidays this week and stuff like that. Anyway, it's one of those two things. So on the menu for you today, sir, some amazing stories. The COVID-19 lab leak theory that Shari Markson of the Sky News and the telly and so on has been, she wrote a whole book about this thing.

Apparently it's very clearly bullshit now. A new creepy claim about Donald Trump and his relationship with his daughter, Ivanka. That's going to be quite gross. We might leave that till the end. We haven't talked about the Democratic presidential candidate taking on Joe Biden, RFK Jr. The child that if RFK were alive to see,

he'd be probably willing to design at this point. He's made some extraordinary claims about vaccines, even bizarre than the ones that we had before. Then there's Thames Water in London. Apparently, being owned by Macquarie Banks, not so good for a water utility. They're getting ready for it to collapse. And my final and favourite story of the week,

chaos at the New Zealand feral cat hunting contest. Ooh. All of that smorgasbord after this. Where are we start, Charles? Should we start with the lab leak theory? Because people have been banging on about this for ages. Even John Stewart at one point popped up on Colbert and shocked him quite a bit by making all these claims

about how clearly COVID came out of a lab because the Wu-Han Institute of Virology was there and they were doing kind of function research and so on. He's going, of course, there's a lab there, therefore it came from the lab. And look, none other than Sherry Markson has been peddling this one. Were you ever convinced by this theory? I always thought it was just a tiny bit racist to sort of assume that Chinese labs

because they're all, you know, have got various biohazard standards. And, you know, that a Chinese lab would be. And it had quite a high biohazard standard. Like it was, it had gain of function research and stuff going on, which is quite a big threshold. Yes. And I always saw it was a little bit racist to go, well, if it was being done in China, then they probably just, you know, walked out the door and went to the fish market and spread it. And there were no biosafety status.

Yeah, exactly. It is a bit racist. And it's also a bit ignorant because the place is absolutely no biosafety standards is the market. It's very clear that we're on central market had all these. If you want to be racist, be racist. be racist in the right spot. I mean, I've seen photos. They had all these cages on top of each other

where clearly the viruses could travel from one animal to another. Yes. But not in the lab. And here's the thing, is that it's the chicken and the egg thing. Because, okay, sure, there was a Wuhan Institute of Virology there that was doing this research. But the reason why it was there is because that's where all the bats were

that are the sources of all the coronaviruses. I mean, we know that coronavirus has this sort of massive bat population. So that's apparently why they put the lab there. in the first place, rather than the other way around. So anyway, what's happened is there's been a big report come out. The US intelligence services together released a summary of the intelligence that they collected. And basically, there's no direct evidence that it came from that.

But hang on, just because there's no direct evidence doesn't mean it didn't happen. Well, you can have a conspiracy theory if you want to. But basically what they're saying, there was no evidence that the Institute of Virology was working on this, that there was any biosafety problem. that anything happened at all. But wasn't there sort of a suggestion that everyone got sick in November, like who was working at the institute got sick with some mysterious illness? Or is that just rubbish?

Well, they might have gone to the market. But here's the thing. There's no evidence that, and this is what would have had to have found, there was some sort of problem incident that led to some crisis. Yes. But what about the fact that China notoriously covers everything up all the time to make Xi Jinping look good. Yep, that's right.

Well, it's true. They literally have a mass infrastructure of covering things up. Yes, they did. Yeah. And hilariously for months, you remember, they denied having any COVID problem at all. Yes. So how can you sort of prove it either way? Like, did they ask the Chinese government,

oh, is there any direct evidence? And the Chinese government went, no, there's none at all. No, so this is the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence and they said, yeah, there were. Who are also notoriously reliable people. I mean, their stuff on Iraq turned out to be completely true, Dom. So what they said was, look, okay, there were scientists too fairly ill before the first documented infection infections.

There was coronavirus research by the PLA going on there. And gain of function. But we can't say that there's definitely, there's no smoking gun, is what they're saying. Right. Because the smoking gun got buried. I don't know. When you look at the photos of the animal market, though, it's always seemed vastly plausible that that would be how you'd get,

you know, bats infecting panglins, all that kind of stuff. And I remember during one of the lockdowns, I read quite an interesting piece about how there's nothing in the sequence of DNA that makes you go, oh, wow, like that's definitely man-made. Yeah, yeah, that's a kind of function. It's entirely possible that all those extra functions were gained by the by, you know, naturally. Mother Nature decided to really fuck us up. Yeah.

So we don't know. The thing is, there's no evidence that it was. And that's what, I mean, I don't know whether the investigators read Sherry Markson's book about this. Yeah. But no, look, I mean, it's always seen more plausible that it was the way that we know that coronaviruses happen, which is transmission between different species. And that's how, you know, bird flu and a lot of the other coronaviruses have gotten to it. I mean, I personally think my theory is more plausible,

which is that it was designed by pharmaceutical companies to boost their profits. Well, that I'm sure that various people have accused Pfizer of developing it. Yeah. Oh, no. Well, I think probably, you know, Robert Kennedy Jr. has touted that theory on his election. I think he has. Yeah, well, let's go.

Let's go to Robert Kennedy Jr. This is the fringe candidate who's been going around. The son of former Attorney General RFK, who was JFK's brother, who was assassinated, he's been going around basically having an amazing roundup of vaccine skeptics. He went on with Joe Rogan for, I think, three hours. And he had a roundtable last week with some amazing superstars of misinformation. And among the claims that was made, he said that Spanish flu, you remember they don't call that anymore because it's not supposed,

it wasn't actually nothing to explain. The great influenza epidemic, they call it now. The great influenza epidemic that's associated with Spain. He said, well, apparently it's because Spain didn't get it because they weren't part of the war. No, no, no, it's because Spain actually had fairly open disclosure. Oh, that's right. About people getting it. So that's right.

Everyone else just, speaking of concealing it up. Yeah, yeah, that's right. So, yes, it was that, that were the honest one. They were the honest ones. So he reckons that was caused by vaccine experiments, the whole of that. All right. So exactly as I've been. It was. It was Pfizer. He also says HIV was caused by vaccines and Lyme disease.

How does he explain that HIV, like there was no technology at all available when HIV started happening? There were vaccines. The vaccines did it. They just did it. Right. But it was years and they still haven't developed a vaccine for HIV. That makes no sense that conspiracy. Well, the other thing is, he's one of the many... Like, if you're going to have a conspiracy theory, at least have some sort of internal logic to it. Why would you bother doing that? Because then it's a more convincing conspiracy theory.

But then there's also these people, including him, who believe that AIDS is not caused by HIV. That's a lie. So when we talk about HIV AIDS, HIV's the virus you're getting, and AIDS is the disease that follows. Yes. A bit like SARS, COVID-2 and COVID-19. He says, no, they're not related at all.

RFK's theory is that AIDS is not caused. This is a lovely man, Charles, not caused by HIV, but by a gay lifestyle and the use of poppers. That's his theory. Right, okay. So don't do Amyl nitrate kids. So that's why... It'll give you AIDS.

That's why a lot of people are supporting him because it's just out and out homophobic. On the one hand, you could say, who is this strange nut job and why is you getting any prominence at all? On the other hand, you could say if your father and uncle were both shot in the face or actually was the Robert Kennedy wasn't shot in the face

he was shot in the stomach by Jack Ruby wasn't he? No, Sirhan, Sirhan. Shot to death, right? Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Aliswold. Oh, that was true. Seehan, seehan, yeah, that's right. And your aunt was lobotomized.

Your uncle, your other uncle killed a woman in a car accident or something, Chappaquittic, yeah, yeah. And your cousin died in a plane crash. Your cousin died in a plane crash. Your cousin died in a car accident. a plane crash, you might just think there's more, you know, going on than there perhaps is. That you, you know, the conspiracy theory, if there was a sort of CIA conspiracy to kill

most of your family, that maybe you would actually go, oh, yeah, actually, I'll see conspiracies everywhere. Like, maybe from his point of view, it's completely logical. Well, I'm looking forward to later in the campaign, him revealing that, that, uh, that, Lee Harvey Oswald was actually vaccinated shortly before killing JFK. But this is, you're right, I mean, it's true. Like poor guy. You've got to feel a bit sorry for the guy, don't you?

Why don't they just leave him alone? Just let him in some of the quiet, because he's part of Camelot. He's got a famous surname. And is anyone, like, what's his figures, polling figures was? Oh, not high, but he's, I mean, Elon Musk had another event with him. Facing off against an 82-year-old and it's not. Apparently, the only people. who are supporting him

are Republicans, but he's in double digits. He's in double digits. According to 538, the polls for RFK Jr., again, before he's assassinated by someone who's been vaccinated. He's apparently got 15% approval ratings in the Democratic primary.

Possibly by Republicans who want to vote. And 21% of respondents have a positive view or are positive for some virus. I don't know what sort of positive it is. Maybe they're just wanting anyone but Joe Biden. Yeah.

Yeah. But also, I mean, if you're RFK Jr., given the likelihood of Biden being killed by some virus, he'll be able to go, look, they got him. They got him. The vaccine company's got him. Is America prepared to elect somebody who's then definitely going to be immediately assassinated, though? Well, it's been a while since a presidential assassination.

I mean, they've sort of taken that option off the table. It used to be, remember when Obama got elected and we all thought he's going to be assassinated within a year or two, and it never happened. Yeah, okay. Oh, that's good. But the good news is, He doesn't think that infectious diseases are a threat to human health at all. Oh, no, he doesn't.

If he becomes president, which explains why he's so anti-vaccine. Because he thinks it's a grift. If he becomes president, he's going to end epidemiology research, defund Fauci. His pronouns are defund Fauci, I think, or lock up Fauci. And he's going to cut funding to medical journals. But his other idea, and this is one that's actually interesting. This is an idea that I think might be more popular. Have you heard of this concept of the corporate death penalty?

Oh, yes. So if you're a company that does something really bad, defrauds the public, I don't know, let's say leaks confidential tax information to your clients. Yes. Then the company has to completely get dissolved. You can't keep it going. It just gets put out and taken out the shot. I love that idea.

Yes. Corporate death penalty. That's a great idea. So the shareholders just lose everything. Basically, yeah. And the employees have just got to go and do something else. I mean, to be fair, to be balanced, he has suggested that this apply to institutes associated with promoting vaccines. So the National Institute's health, presumably, he wants to shut down Fauci's mob first.

Well, actually, shut down all hospitals because all hospitals administer vaccines. But as a concept, I don't mind the idea of the death penalty. Also on his panel that he had in the past week was an osteopathic physician, which is a contradiction in terms, one of whom claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine makes people magnetic and connects into 5G towers. Yes. So a fantastic person who would presumably be the surgeon general. if RFK Jr wins the election.

None of the medical advice contained in the Chaser report should legally be considered medical advice. The Chaser Report. See, I know that this all sort of feels harmless, but I feel like this, you know, go back to 2014-2015, this is exactly the sort of light-hearted conversation we'd be having about Donald Trump. Yes.

And then he got elected. Let's talk about Donald Trump. Do you remember that amazing op-ed article that New York Times published back in 2018? called, I am part of the resistance inside the Trump administration. You remember that? There was an anonymous. Yes.

Oh, yes. So the person who wrote it unsurprisingly has come out and out of themselves and is now selling a book and said, remember me? Remember me? I'm not anonymous anymore, buy my book. This is someone called Miles Taylor. Right. He was in there.

And amongst the juicy details in the book, he made sexual comments, Donald Trump, about Ivanka that was so gross that his former chief of staff, John Kelly, had to say, that's your daughter, you're talking. about there, Donald. Oh my God. Yep. He talked about her breasts, backside, and what it might be like to have sex with her. John Kelly told Miles Taylor this and then said,

Trump is a very, very evil man. Wow. He was also all of our boss and the President of the United States. Apparently, there's just constant sexism in the Trump White House. I am shocked. Constantly calling staff, sweetie and honey and talking about their makeup. The next President of the United States, ladies and gentlemen, so there you go. Now, to my favorite story of the week, Charles,

and we might wrap up after this. Have we covered all the little bits and pieces? I'm not sure we have. But I'm fascinated by this story. So in New Zealand, there's a problem with feral cats. Yep. Lots of feral cats around. So in North Canterbury, what they did was,

they had a competition to hunt for feral cats. Yeah. And the most you could kill, the most feral cats you killed, the better you did. Yes. Now, when animal welfare groups found out about this, it was just a bit of controversy, people said, because what was happening was people under 12,

kids under 12, were in. Entering the hunting competition. Wow. They changed the rules and said, look, you can't hunt cats. You can hunt other invasive pests if you're under 12. What? The north of New Zealand, North Canterbury. And so there's video of kids with holding up dead animals as a result of this.

Because isn't that the whole thing that if you start getting a taste for killing animals as a child, you end up a serial killer? I'm pretty sure that's a thing. Look, this is a live experiment happening over in New Zealand at the moment. And it all got a bit Lord of the Flies because in one of the videos, you've got kids holding dead feral cats in each hand chanting meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, meat at Demetraise. So who would have thought that a competition with apparently 400 children competing? What? Would turn into Lord of the Flies?

So wait a minute, was it just for children? Was it pitched as a sort of... Oh, it was for all ages, for all ages. But it went viral. 1500 competitors were in the contest, 400 of them were kids, and they killed 243 feral cats and got a whole lot of wild deer mints and steaks for local food banks.

Oh, okay. Very healthy there in New Zealand. Yeah. And in about 10 or 15 years' time, source of great true crime podcasts, I presume. That's true. Yeah. So win-win.

There's still feral cats out there, but I'm pretty confident these kids will sort this all out. It's going to make a great Peter Jackson movie, isn't it in a year? Well, I'll tell you what, they couldn't have murdered cats more than the movie did. Yeah, actually, James Gordon should really watch out if any New Zealand 12-year-olds come and visit him. Our gear is from Road. We are part of the Aconiclass Network. Catch you tomorrow.