The Chris Cuomo Project - Chris Cuomo on the Political Fallout of Hunter Biden’s Pardon

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Chris Cuomo unpacks the political firestorm surrounding President Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter Biden, a move that has sparked outrage across party lines. Cuomo explores how the pardon fuels claims of political bias, validates Trump’s “deep state” rhetoric, and highlights the broader challenges of justice in a polarized America. With a critical eye on the implications for both Biden’s presidency and public trust, Cuomo challenges viewers to think beyond partisanship and focus on solutions to restore faith in the system. Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Don't fall for it. These analyses from the Democrats and from the Trumpers about what President Biden just did with this pardon, they're all playing to their advantage, but not to yours and their stuff you have to know, because President Biden just gave us a path going forward that you may or may not like. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to The Chris Cuomo Project. And he pardons his son Hunter. I believe he will also pardon his brother if he's going to be consistent. Why are people upset? The Democrats are upset,

I would suggest, for the wrong reason. No one's above the law. Listen, pardons have always existed. There was a whole debate with Madison and George Mason about whether or not we should even have them. You can go Google that in your own time. I don't think it's really instructive of where we are now, but obviously there's always been concern

that this feels like a king's power. You know, the ability to decide who is and is not subject to the laws of the land. It's kind of scary. I don't know why they gave it to them, but I get the arguments and so can you, if you Google them, anyway you look at it, we are where we are.

Presidents have the ability to pardon. Happens all the time, there's controversy about it all the time. Now, not usually like this one, why? Because it doesn't usually involve family. Okay, well, Clinton pardoned his brother, Roger Clinton, half brother. All right, so what makes this different? Well, we haven't seen one like it since Nixon.

Ford pardoned Nixon for a period of his presidency. Why? To stop people from just keeping a dig in on it and dig in on it. You know, we get what it was. He's been held responsible. He's out. Let's move forward. And I think Ford made the right call. Very often, the people who are saying, no, we need accountability really want vengeance and advantage. Okay? They don't really want the truth. They don't really want the consequence because they were often themselves involved in things that were certainly suspect. Now, that's absolutely true with the Trump folk. And Biden wants to protect his son from what he believes is coming from them,

probably through Congress, maybe through the DOJ. But it's also gonna involve his brother. So how does he not pardon his brother? I believe that's why he just pardoned Hunter now. People are saying, why didn't he wait? Because he's got the brother and he didn't want to do both his ones because then it looks like a real coverup for him.

Now it maybe is, why? Because like that Nixon pardon, it's for a period of 10 years, that brackets when Hunter got into the Burisma board and all that business. So this was a cover your ass. The noble part is he's protecting his son. The Ig Nobel part, I-G-N-O-B-L-E,

is that he's protecting himself. And neither of those things really matter to me because there's no way you're a Trumper and you're bothered by that because Trump does the same things. That's just the truth. He pardoned people that shouldn't have been pardoned if you care about law and order.

And you can say, no, they should have never been, hey, you say you won't answer a subpoena and there is no privilege and the laws have been exercised and adjudicated and found that way and you do it anyway, you are doing what you were charged with doing and you should be punished. That's the system.

But he pardoned them anyway. Why? Because it works for him. Just like what Biden just did. But Biden just did something else. And it's a real problem. Biden said he's pardoning his son not because of what I just said, which he could have, or he could have said nothing.

But he said what? This is prosecutorial overreach. They made cases they don't usually make, and they did it because it's my son. So your DOJ on your watch did these things. And with that single stroke of trying to create some kind of bullshit high ground for what he was doing, he completely validated Trump's whole BS theory

about the deep state. Just like that. How are the Democrats supposed to push back against Trump and whatever he has his band of merry men and women do to supposedly clean up lawfare when you just admitted it's real. Now, who knew that Biden was gonna say this and was okay with it?

Did he really keep it that close that nobody knew, no other Democrat got eyes on this and said, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's this prosecutorial overreach thing? If that's true, wow, is that party in trouble. Boy, did Biden fuck you sideways. But even more scary is if it's not true, and they did know he was gonna say this. It was not necessary.

Now, was it true? My take? Yeah, it is true. Just like those New York cases against Trump. No, not all the cases. Not the E. Jean Carroll case that had a jury. That went through and they made their finding. Not the Georgia case.

I think it's legit. By the way, not the documents case. You know, everyone's saying, oh no, that was thrown out. Yeah, by a crooked judge, as far as I'm concerned. Judge Cannon. Trump set that whole thing up. They begged him to give the documents back. They begged for it to be a nice way. He wanted the confrontation. It worked for him. It worked on some of you to make him look like a victim. They raided me. They didn't raid shit. They did this as nice as they possibly could when he was obviously and intentionally messing

with them because he wanted the conflict. Now that's not the case with all the cases. Those New York cases were not cases that you see as high policy, high value cases that they make all the time for the same reasons they made with Trump. The guy campaigned on going after Trump, right? I mean, so did the AG of New York, basically. And then they did exactly that. So how much do you have to connect the dots?

Those cases were weak. Well, he was keeping two sets of books. Look, business has a lot of stuff to it that smells a little bad, but it doesn't get prosecuted. Not like this. Not the way they did it. Same thing with the payment thing. Really? You're going to hold him criminally responsible for paying people to be quiet about his personal life.

Really? And that's not lawfare. But what happened with your son, which looks just like that, at best, he didn't fill out the gun form right, they make that case when you then get the gun and do something with it and it compounds the wrong. This is not, oh, well, we have such a gun problem in America. Really? Republicans are going to say that this was the right case to make because he didn't fill out the form right because now they're concerned about who gets guns in America?

Come on. And the tax case, again, I felt the same way about Michael Cohen. Nobody lost money. He paid it back. There will be penalties. That happens all the time with tax cases. They keep it civil, literally and figuratively. This one goes criminal-wide.

I think it was because it was him. That's lawfare. That's a political overlay to a prosecution, and justice is supposed to be blind. I don't think it is. I think it has like 2016 vision in some of these cases. But by Biden saying that that's what this was, which is absurd on his face, because what you're trying to protect him from

involves you too and your brother. And it's on your watch. Now, what I thought was weird is that he said he wouldn't pardon his son in the first place. So many times. No one's above the law. No one's above the law. No one's above the law. So why would he say that? Well, he thought he was going to win. So he didn't have to worry about it being, you know, personal in terms of being vindictive against his son. And two, I think he thought his son was gonna beat the case. He was wrong about both.

So he changed his opinion. Why? Since when is Joe Biden this paragon of integrity? The man's been in this business a long time. That tells you something right there, but he's had plenty of problems when it comes to speaking the truth. So this, oh, he said his word is this bond.

Republicans are now into integrity and telling the truth. Really? And they back Trump. Come on. It's just bullshit. They're just playing to advantage. They should just receive the gift. The gift is that he just validated the motive that you need

to do the darkest deed that people suspect you may want to do, which is to go after the investigators. And I hope they don't. Why? Ah, that is the main reason I wanted to talk to you today. [♪upbeat music playing -♪》 Support for The Chris Cuomo Project comes from everyday dose. Look, we all want to perform at our best, mentally and physically. Sometimes habits don't set us up for success.

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Sign up for your $1 a month trial period at Shopify.com slash Chris C all lowercase if you please Chris C Go to Shopify.com slash Chris C upgrade your selling today. Where Shopify.com slash Chris C Why did the Democrats lose Why is Trump Trump Teflon? Why do people not trust any institution? Why are we so divided? Why do we seem consumed with the negative? Now, is there one answer to all of this?

No, Jordan Peterson's right. Beware single factor explanations to complex situations. But but but but, what does it all have in common? We have given up in our public life in what matters most in our personal life. What matters most in your personal life? Well, if you're like me, whether it comes to family, kids, your personal self, it's all about getting better, right?

It's all about being better. How do I get to be a better person? How do I get to be less of a dick? How do I get to be better to my kids? How do I get to be better to my partner? How do I get to be better at work? How do I get to be better to my kids? How do I get to be better to my partner? How do I get to be better at work? How do I get to be better to my friends? How I get to be better to myself? Right? The self-help industry is huge. All of us are working on ourselves all the time. Not in our public life. Nobody wants to be better. They just want advantage. And that advantage is most often claimed on the basis of someone or something being worse.

Not better. Now you can say, well, that's tomato-tomato because if it's worse than I'm bett- no. No. Why? Well, let's say you take frozen poop and fresh poop. They're both poop. One probably smells worse than the other. Does that make the one that doesn't smell as bad better? No. Why? Because it's not in the realm of good.

It's in the realm of bad. And that's where we are in our public life. No one's trying to be better. Certainly not Trump. I've never seen anybody win with a campaign that was as relentlessly negative. I mean, even MAGA is inherently reductive as a premise. It means that we are not great. It's the only person I've ever seen get elected to be president in this country who openly says America is not a great place. Never seen anything like it. The only people I've ever seen campaign like that in the past were like people who were

militant lefty radicals who were like, you know, saying America sucks for whatever reason and we got to, and they never had any chance. Why? Because people want people who love their country. People want people to say good things about their country. But now nobody wants to be better. And that is the root cause of why the Democrats lost because what they did was they made a tactical error of thinking that Trump is disliked by so many that that's enough to beat the movement that was behind him.

And that was a mistake and that's why Democrats stayed home. They stayed home because they were not motivated by what Democrats need the most, to believe, reason to believe in something better. How do I know this? I study it. My father literally wrote the book on it called Reason to Believe.

And it is all about how the Democratic Party works when it's at its best. And look, we know this is hard. We know that's why it's so easy to default to the negative and to division. That's why the Greeks gave us the word demagogue, but no positive opposite, because that is a minted, time-tested way to galvanize support, be a demagogue,

to work off prejudice and anger. But what we need to do if we wanna get to a demagogue, to work off prejudice and anger. But what we need to do if we want to get to a better place, and boy do I. And I don't care who it is. I don't think it's going to be Trump. I do believe that overall he would want to be loved. I don't think he is set out or even built to be someone who's feared. He's sought popularity his whole life. But I think that he feels that he's been rejected by all.

So he needs to just play to some. And that's why he's playing as the burn it down guy. But it's not about him. It's about the majority. It's about the rest of us. It's about people who decide to, it's like when you've had a really bad breakup, somebody's really hurt you and you decide to love again.

You decide to put yourself back out there. That's where we are. And we have to believe in better again. Now look, I know a lot of Trump voters will say, well, that's why I voted for him. I wanted to believe in better again. Now look, I know a lot of Trump voters will say, well, that's why I voted for him. I wanted to get a better. Hmm, I don't think so. I don't think he's really promising things that are better.

He's just picking targets that you like to attack. Transgender, what you see is some kind of perverse sense of value shifts. He's gonna attack what you're afraid of. It's different than better. Well, you can say, well, the net effect will be that life will be better, my life will be better

because I will be free of these threats. Maybe, but it's still an inherently negative proposition and so it's playing off your fear, not of your hope. He didn't win this by saying, I can find a way for your kid to do better than you. That I know a way for us to have it so that we're not all getting crushed by a house and a health insurance payment. I know how to do it. Right?

There's nobody really focuses on that. Why? Because the other stuff is easier. But what Biden surrendered with this one gesture, and by the way, again, could I be wrong? Sure, it happens with stunning frequency. But I don't understand pardoning his son and not pardoning his brother,

unless he just wants to watch his brother get his ass kicked. And then maybe him too, by the way, because nobody's pardoning him. And the reason I said he should pardon Trump is not because I've been red-pilled or I'm a closet Trumper. You people are nuts. But because if you believe what you said, which is that there was prosecutorial

overreach with your son, then pardon Trump. Say it all has to stop. And I don't believe that he is blameless or not guilty of certain things, but I do believe that it has helped rip our country apart. I believe we need to focus on what matters more. That's not about saying that someone is above the law. It's about saying that something matters more than the political advantage that comes about through these prosecutions. That there are things that matter more in our society and problems that need our attention and our effort

that are bigger than what phone call he made in Georgia or what he did with the documents or what he did with women that he's paying or what he did with his books. We have bigger problems. And I'm not saying he's immunity, I'm not saying he's above the law. Prosecutors make decisions about the interest of

justice and whether to pursue cases all the time as do judges. Biden can do the same with his pardon power and say we've got to get past this. Now, I believe and people will disagree with this, that this would actually trigger Trump to not want the vengeance path because he only cares about himself. And if he's getting what he wants for himself, then he doesn't give a shit about who around him wants whatever, whatever.

He would then maybe seek advantage for himself somewhere else. Immigration, something economic, something he could do abroad, something where he could be seen as great. He's got to know that he's not going to get there just by investigating his enemies. That's not greatness. That doesn't put you on Mount Rushmore. The guys who are on Mount Rushmore aren't there because of who they went after. It's what they built, not what they tore down.

Think about it. Washington and Lincoln, what are they known for? Right? Franklin and Hamilton, what are they known for? Who of those guys are known for what they destroyed? Or who they prosecuted or who they prosecuted, or who they chased after, or who. So if you want to be one of those guys, if that's your ambition, you better do something great. And that requires consensus and building something. And also, it would be an echo that Biden was telling the truth

about what he believes to be a problem with his son. That it was politicized prosecutions, which I think is a huge problem, and I think his party is guilty of it. Not across the board. You know, not everything's got to be a tweet of something that is super tight and totally one way, right? Two things can be true at the same time.

Context matters, subtlety matters, even in this stupid brain rot world that we live in. He should not have explained the pardon that way. I don't think he believes that there is prosecutorial overreach. I think he wants to believe that about his son, that they made cases they shouldn't have made. But I don't know how you believe that and don't believe it about some of the stuff with

Trump, when it looks and smells the same. And also, if you really felt that, then you just pardon him for what he was convicted of. Or you wait and you commute the sentence. Now, I don't think he could do that because he'd be out of office. So you would just pardon him for what he was convicted of. That's not what he did. He bracketed it with a 10 year period to insulate him

from anything they may look at during that time. Why? Same thing with Nixon. He didn't want them to dig anymore on the sun. Why? Same thing with Nixon. He didn't want them to dig anymore on the sun. Why? So you must know they're going to find something, right? I don't think that that's necessarily true. Now you'll roll your eyes if you're a Trumper and again, you know, you know, I'll give it

right back. Fuck me, fuck you. Right? Like, you know, you don't want to buy into anything but what you believe already? Fine. Fuck me. Fuck you. That's how we got here. That's how we decided to just abandon anything better than what we already know. Confirmation bias, stick to your silos. Everything's a boogeyman. Everything's bad. Everybody's out to get you, everything's exaggerated. Trump can't just be a jerk, it's got to be that he's an autocrat. It can't just be that he's going to talk shit and try to investigate, dig up dirt on the people who

went after him. It's got to be that the Constitution is going to be destroyed. You know, Harris, I see these assholes on social media saying, oh, this is what Kamala Harris is going to do. It's happening in South Korea now. Why don't you just say she wants to eat baby's heads? Oh, I'm sorry. You already did say that. That was Pizzagate, right?

Think about how fucked up it is that I know that you know what Pizzagate is. Who will be better? Who will become interested in better? You focus on it everywhere else in your life, but not in our public life. It's all about which one is worse. And again, we feed into it on every level. How is the media vetting Trump's choices?

Dirt. Hegseth drank, Hegseth sex, Hegseth this. Oh, but he was removed from this and that. You're not really digging into the particulars of why they were removed. You're not really getting behind what his mom's email was about and judging and trying to keep her son on a path that she wants for him in light of things that he was doing

with his marriage or whatever that she didn't like. No, but we don't care about any of that. It's just a great gotcha. Now I'm not saying Hagseth is the right choice or a good choice. I don't really care about the judgment that much if it's not something that's really material to his ability to do the job.

It's just relentless negativity and trying to tear people down. And that's why our best men and women don't want to be within a mile of Washington, D.C. Because they're going to have a team of people like me trying to find any kind of shit on them from whatever, ever. Support for the Chris Cuomo Project comes from Get Maine Lobster. Oh, the holidays. It's all about making them special, right? Well, what's more special when it comes to The project comes from Get Maine Lobster. Oh, the holidays. It's all about making them special, right?

Well, what's more special when it comes to looking down at that plate than getting Maine lobster? I'll paint you a picture. It's Christmas Eve and all through the house, no, none of that. Certainly not a mouse. You find a mouse in my house, you know where you're going to find it? On a glue trap. But I'll tell you, here's what you will find. A table filled with people talking about why they love each other, talking about what's

good, laughing about what's not, and enjoying food. Especially to an Italian-American family. Man, we love it. And I gotta tell you, you crack open a fresh, sweet lobster, especially like us, we're all water people, what's better than getting a taste that takes you straight to the coast of Maine? Get Maine Lobster has everything you need. Lobster rolls, lobster tails, whole lobster feast. I feel like Bubba Gump.

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today. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from Cozy Earth. Look, I use the bedding, okay? I even have a set of the jammies. I'm not a big jammies guy like Greg Ott is. He has all these different jammies with footies and all these things. Not my thing, but they are really cozy and I wear them around the house. And the sheets are just no joke. You want your Cozy Earth pajamas by Christmas? You better order by December

13th and by the way you'll get free shipping. Oh no I missed it! You can still get expedited shipping until December 20th that way you get in there in time. Don't wait. Go to CozyEarth.com slash Chris, use my exclusive code, Chris, you can get up to 40% off. That's crazy. Give the gift of luxury this season, okay? It's the holidays, do it right. CozyEarth.com slash Chris. If you get a post purchase survey,

please tell Cozy Earth that you heard about them from the Chris Cuomo Project podcast. It'll help us keep doing business. You know, one of Trump's guys made a suggestion to me that on one level it's frightening, but on another level it's enlightening. I don't agree, but it's interesting, so I'll lay it out to you. There is an idea floating around about this investigating the investigators that extends

to the media. And when people go after Trump or have gone after Trump, they want to go after those people and investigate their personal lives with the same rigor that the reporters do. Now is that fair? My default is no. And don't say, oh yeah, it's because you're a reporter and you're like, look, I've had it done to me. What I'm saying is, these are not elected positions. Reporters did not ask for a position of, you know,

of your power, of agency over your power. Now this is, it's not a 100% zero argument, right? Well, it's kind of a bit, it is a position of trust. You are asking for it. You are asking for people's belief and for their attention. So you are asking for something. It's not like you're a bus driver, you know, you're not

you know just running a business. But think about that. Putting together some kind of government agency or whatever or political apparatus, I don't know what it would be. Where you write a piece that attacks Hegseth. I wanna know about your private life. What would that do? Well, outwardly you'd say, well, it's gonna have a chilling effect. People aren't gonna wanna report on people and tell things that they think. You know what's really interesting about it?

Is that on one level, I totally agree, right? Yeah, it's gonna be a problem for a free press. But on another level, boy, we really make people think about what they decide to pursue about people, wouldn't it? If you knew that people were gonna come for you the way you were coming for them, would it make you more selective in the kinds of criticism, the kinds of things you reported on, the kinds of things you discussed, the kinds of things you made important? Would you

start focusing less on how you destroy people and more on how things get made better? Maybe. I don't know if it's worth the price of chilling the way it would, but would it be chilling for the right reasons or the right way? Now, the reason I bring it up is one, I was kind of surprised when the guy told me about it, but also I don't think it's going to happen, but I don't even know how it would happen. But the, I thought it was interesting. And I thought it was interesting because I don't see the logic of it being followed through with what they want to do by going after the investigators, because they just want to punish people for why they came after them.

And I don't think it's going to lead anywhere. I don't know what kind of case you would make. Even if somebody knew that the dossier was unprocessed, unvetted information, open source information even. And where's the malice? It's kind of like Trump. If Trump believed that he won the election, even though everything indicates that he didn't,

can you really punish him for how he felt and what he did in furtherance with that? I don't know. I don't think so. So what's it really about? It's about vengeance. It's not about being better. And I really believe that we have to tap back

into what we focus on everywhere else in our lives. I mean, we've joked about this before on the pod. If your kid came home and said, I got a 70, and let's say your kid's not a dope, okay? And you're like, 70? Well, Johnny has 66. Oh, well, nevermind. Mac and cheese it is.

No, right? But that's what we're doing in our politics. Nobody is pressing for better. Now part of it is you've been disappointed, you're heartbroken. They just do bad shit all the time and they disappoint you all the time. And it's something you wanna turn off.

You wanna be away from it. But I think what you ignore, you empower and that we have led ourselves to this place. I know that you wanna be absented from responsibility. I know you wanna blame other people. That's easy, but it doesn't really work anywhere else in your life, does it? You don't control a lot of what happens,

but you control how you react to it. And we have not reacted to this shit well. And I'm not saying that because Trump won, I'm saying because why he won. All we know for sure is what he's against, not what he's for, how things are going to be made better. And I think there's a tremendous opportunity in that. For us, for the Democrats, for the Republicans, who will be about better? And not as some twist of, this is so fucked up,

I'm going to fix it. How? What makes it better, not just you exposing why it's wrong and blaming somebody for it? What Biden did with this pardon is he let it be known that he believes that the problem is as Trump describes it, which is what his party had been saying all along wasn't true. And that's why they don't like the pardon, but it's also not their kid. It's also not their ass. If it were, oh, but we expect more from him than just to be a good dad. He's a president. He's a steward of all our things. He's a human being is what he is. And he's going to cover his ass. And he's going to take care of his own. And that's obvious to all of you. That's how you operate in your own life.

And I'm not saying that you would do something illegal for your own. I'm saying that you will do something within your rights because you can and it will protect your own. Do you really believe Trump's not going to pardon any of his own? Not his son? I don't know. If the Democrats get back into power and start chasing his sons, you don't think that they'd pardon him?

Of course he would. But you'd be okay with that if you're a Trump person. See, that's the problem. You're not about better. You're just about which is worse and a relativism that is taking us nowhere but down. And that's what Biden did with this pardon. It's not about protecting his son. It's not about no one's above the law.

It's not about that. It's that you looked at the situation and said this was dirty pool, and that means dirty pool exists. And that is exactly Trump's theory. And you opened the door to it, and now they're gonna walk right through. And that's what your party's pissed off about.

But they never had the high ground because they're not about better. They're about why Trump is worse. And I'm telling you, I know I'm right about this. And that's why I'm so enthusiastic about the independent movement, about being free agents and critical thinkers. That's why I sell the gear that we use for charity. Why? Because that is the way to better. Independence are not tied to fealty of party.

They're tied to progress. Being a critical thinker, not letting silos and podcasts or people tell you what to believe based on a little bit of information. All these people who want to discuss things like, everything about the pandemic was wrong and fixed to hurt us and control us. And they're like comedians telling you this. They're not about better.

We're not about better. I'm not about better. But I think that the best way to put it is, nothing changes if nothing changes, and this change is right there for the taking. Start focusing on who is saying what will make it better, who has ideas about better, who is talking about themselves in ways that is

holding them to a different standard that is better. That's the problem with what Biden just did. in ways that is holding them to a different standard that is better. That's the problem with what Biden just did. It reinforces that it's about which is worse, not about anything better. What Biden didn't just distinguish himself by being better in any way. It's just a version of what's wrong. And that is why people were not so quick to dismiss Trump as you on the left are,

because they don't see you as so great. Oh yeah, but we're better than him. No, you may not be as bad, but you're a reflection of how everything is getting worse. What do you think? The good news is there is better to be had. There is better to be seen. There is better to be achieved. There is better to be seen, there is better to be achieved, there is better in terms of our conversation,

in terms of our dialogue and how we carry ourselves and what we expect of people and how we judge them. It's right there. So let's get after it. I'm Chris Palmo. Thank you very much for subscribing and following. If you like the pod, but you don't like the ads, subscribe to the Substack.

Five bucks a month, I use the money. I'm Chris Palmo. I'm a podcast host. I'm a podcast host. I'm a Palmo. Thank you very much for subscribing and following. If you like the pod, but you don't like the ads, subscribe to the Substack. Five bucks a month, I use the money, help people get treatment for long COVID if they can't afford it. My long COVID doctor is there talking about longevity and what we're doing to try to treat me. That's why I'm all flushed up. It's histamine response from my long COVID.

And that's why I do the philosophical walk-in talks. It's because I want to help you get to a better place, even if I'm not able to help myself. I'll see you at News Nation 8P and 11P every weekday night. Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to talk about what matters with you. Let's get after it.