The Chris Cuomo Project - How Trump's Shooting Could Shape 2024 (And Beyond)

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Chris Cuomo examines the moment Donald Trump was shot in the ear and the unique opportunity it presents for his 2024 presidential campaign. Cuomo discusses how Trump can use this event, especially in his convention speech, to redefine his image, unite Americans, and pivot from a divisive figure to a unifying leader. He also explores the broader implications for Joe Biden, the Democrats, and the media, urging critical thinkers to seize this moment for meaningful change. 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 Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. We now know the moment that will define the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. What did Donald Trump do with it? What did Joe Biden do with it? What did you do with it? What did I do with it? What did you do with it? What did I do with it? Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from Shopify. And I gotta tell you,

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and forget to tell them that I sent you. And if you do that, you get some free socks. Oh yeah. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. On the Saturday that Donald John Trump got shot in the head, the fate of this election was determined. Because of that event, no, not necessarily, but that event as a catalyst to what would follow and what would become catalyst to what would follow and what would become most received by the American electorate. The moment of Donald Trump getting shot in the head,

what that said about the urgency of what needs to change in America, who sees it that way, how Donald Trump interpreted the moment, used the moment, acted after the moment, and in the moment in his case, what it meant to Biden, what it meant to the Democrats, what it meant to the media, that is the moment that will be a metaphor for the 2024 presidential election. Trump gets to own the moment

because he was the victim in the moment. I believe you have to cut away the people who believe that there was divine intervention and he's messianic and he's Lazarus. Any religious adaptation of consequence puts you into a fringe category. And I don't have any problem with people who are religious I myself choose to have faith

I just don't put it on you because we're in a secular society and my idea of existential value is no better than your own I live my truth you live your truth the intersectionality where your truth starts to limit my truth That's where we get into what America is about. Okay, that's what a secular society is about. You believe what you want, I believe what I want, I just don't put my beliefs on you in terms of my actions in a way that you don't like. We got to get that right in this country still. So for those who believe this is proof that Trump is heaven-sent, I can't help you. There you are. For people who say it was a setup and that Trump meant for this to happen and that you're upset that the guy missed,

I can't help you, I put you over there. The problem is YouTube groups get the most attention. You get the most attention from the media because you get the most SEO, because you're the most provocative, because you do the most viewing, because you pay the most attention. So the system plays to you the most

and you're the least valuable to this society. It's everybody else who's lost in the miasma of noise and sound and what this moment means. Donald Trump was brave in that moment. He was defiant in that moment. He was unbowed literally and figuratively by that moment. And the picture of him bleeding, many people want to say, well, that's the new iconic image of America. I hope not. I hope not. I hope somebody who is participating

in a democratic process who gets shot, that's what Pakistan is. That's not what we are. That is an embarrassment. This is shameful for us. That is an embarrassment. This is shameful for us. How Trump uses this moment is huge for him, or as he would say, huge. You can no longer criticize Donald Trump. You can no longer criticize what he did. You can no longer see him as a threat to our institutions because what he's done in the past

and promises to do in the future. I reject all of that. It's about how you do it. It's about what is motivating what you say and what you're calling for in response. And the same goes for what we're seeing on the Republican side at their convention and beyond. Picking JD Vance, the senator from Ohio, is not a selection that is evidence of Donald Trump making the most of this moment if what he wants is to be president of the United States. Why? JD Vance can be interpreted in no other way other than a continuation of divide and conquer. JD Vance is one of the many who has played to self-interest. You know he thinks Donald Trump is a piece of crap.

You know he thinks that he's a charlatan, a liar, a man of no integrity, part of the problem, and yes, used Hitler comparisons in discussing him. What has changed? Well, what has changed is the opportunism for JD Vance and the self-interest of JD Vance within the Republican party. This is a man who came to us with his pedigree, you know, and he's a war veteran.

And you know what? I don't have any problem with people celebrating him because he's a veteran. I also don't have people, I have a problem with people pointing out, well, let's not confuse him with a guy who was a special operator and a warrior for us. He was a war correspondent who worked in the military. I don't have any problem people saying that too. I don't think someone who's a war correspondent should be looked at the same way as a field commander in the military. They're very different jobs very different levels of responsibility very

Different levels of bravery in my opinion both brave both more brave than I am But I don't have any problem drawing that distinction. I don't think Dan Crenshaw's Military background should be seen as no different than Adam Kinzinger's or JD Vance's because they're all veterans. No, one of them lost his eye in combat because he's a warrior and a killer and a special operator, the best of our best. Another guy flew airplanes and that's very cool and dangerous and thank you. And another guy reported on people doing what the other two were doing. They're different jobs. They deserve different levels of admiration and adulation. I don't have any problem with that.

That's like seeing me as equal to the warriors that I'm embedded with when I'm covering America's troops in Iraq. No, of course not. I'm not a fighter. I'm not fighting. I'm watching. I don't deserve any type of admiration or ad I'm not a fighter. I'm not fighting. I'm watching. I don't deserve any type of admiration or adulation

like what they get. I'm not taking the same risks. So why would you? So I don't have any problem with that. He's a veteran that's good. I think that's a sign of character. I think that's a sign of commitment. Good.

He's also someone who completely changed his opinion, not because what he knows is that different from what I've heard him explain, it's what's good for him. And what's good for him is to be a red meat, MAGA guy who blames Joe Biden for the attempt right away because that's what you do to play to the fringe. So it's not proof of Donald Trump recognizing the opportunity in

this moment. Now maybe he's saying, I'll use JD Vance as a hedge and he's for the MAGA folks, but now I am going to be something else. Now for those of you who say Donald Trump can't do that, haven't you listened to him? Don't you get what he is? And then you go down with some string of insults. Hear me out. I know Donald Trump is well or better than you do. Okay. Donald Trump is not burdened by principle. Donald Trump is not burdened by philosophy. He is absolutely opportunistic. He is absolutely what is good for me. He is not burdened by any deeper belief, faith or understanding of anything righteous except his own cause. I believe that.

In that way, there is an opportunity here. There is a reason that the major initiative of his first campaign was called DJT 100. What? What is that? What is that? I'll tell you what it isn't, Project 2025. Okay, Project 2025 is part boogeyman,

part conservative wishlist that's being used to show how extreme and obnoxious so many of the changes that Donald Trump wants. I don't think Donald Trump knows what's in Project 2025 any more than he knew what was the Federalist Society's set of wishes for judges. Might he put those things into effect? Yeah, if it works for him, he will.

So that's not my focus. My focus is DJT 100. DJT 100 was Donald John Trump 100, meaning 100% popularity, 100% approval rate in America. It was largely a messaging based effort to find something for everyone and to make him likable to everybody in the country. And Jared Kushner was supposed to head it up. And I have no problem with it.

What are we trying to pretend that our politics isn't about naked solicitation and wanting to like somebody? Why do we think that the who do you want to have a beer contest with the idea that it's a beauty contest, not in terms of physical beauty, but a likability. That's what politics often is. So I don't have any problem with that.

I have a problem with it. It's not the priority right now and that division is. I have no problem with Donald John Trump trying to find something in his speech, in his policy, in his actions, and his inactions, and in who he surrounds himself with that plays to wanting everyone to like him. I don't think that's a bad thing. I get that sometimes being a leader means you're going to have to do things that are unpopular, but I think you can balance these equities. And I hope Donald John Trump would see this moment as a moment to get back to that. So you can use Vance as a hedge if you want. That's for the rabid. But how about for the rational? How about for everybody else?

And it's not that JD Vance is irrational. He's a smart guy. He went to Yale Law School. These are choices he's made. Just like Lindsey Graham. Just like Ted Cruz. Just like Ron DeSantis. Just like everybody else who decides to kiss Trump's ass. This is the way that you make it in the party. Period. And if you don't want to do that, you don't have to. You're just not going to make it in the party. Period. And if you don't want to do that, you don't have to. You're just not going to make it in the party on the primary level. J.D. Vance won in Ohio for one reason in a three-way primary. One. Trump picked him. That's why he won. Explain

it any way you want. You wind up in the same place. This episode is brought to you by PC Optimum. If you like a curated playlist, why not try a curated grocery list? With Swap and Save, the new feature in the PC Optimum app, you'll get PC Optimum's best price for your grocery items. Simply add products to your shopping list in the app, and it'll show you similar items at a lower cost. Add coffee to your list, then swap it for one that's cheaper. Craving chips?

The app will suggest some on sale. To get started, just open the app. It's as easy as that. See the PC Optimum app for details. Trump has an opportunity to sell a proposition he could not have sold before he got shot in the head. There are too many people in the country before he got shot in the head who would say, I don't believe this, this is bullshit.

All this guy does is try to blow up everything. And now he's trying to say he's a unifier? No way, it's too much. It's too much bullshit, even in a bullshit business and a bullshit dynamic of politics for me. It's too stinky. Now he got shot in the head. Now you gotta respect him on a human level

that it's just wrong for someone to get shot in the head. Doesn't matter how you feel about him. If you want him shot in the head, you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Oh, but he's the next Hitler, I don't buy that. And I don't think you should fuck with what Hitler meant and what Nazis meant that way. I think it's disrespectful to people

who lived through the Holocaust. I think it's disrespectful to the Jews who are targeted now by people who wanna play with otherism. Did he screw up on January 6th? Did he screw up in how he handled himself and the election and the messaging that he put out? In my opinion, hell yeah, all day long.

Is it worthy of prosecution? I don't know. I don't love the cases. But I love this moment because of its potential, because after a guy gets shot in the head, you do have to be open to that changing him. And if he were to come out of it and say, look, this doesn't work. I don't want to see this happen to anybody else. I don't want this to be seen as okay by anybody.

Certainly not anybody who thinks that they're for me or what I'm about. I want to be for everybody. I want to make Democrats happy. I want compromise to be cool again. I want cooperation to be strength, not weakness. I want to be the get it done guy that I originally sold myself as. I don't have any interest in these petty divisions and grievances. I know I talked to it. I know it got me where I am, but it doesn't get me where I want to be. What got me here won't get me where I want us and me to be. I want to be on Mount Rushmore. No divisive figure is on Mount Rushmore. Only unitors are on Mount Rushmore. I want to be there. I want to be one of the greatest. I can only get there not by being an asterisk in the history books of an inflection point of negativity in our collective existence. I want to be somebody

who transcended. I want to be somebody who got things done because I am actually a great salesman. I do know how to make deals. I am artful in that way as my book suggests. Instead of telling you or convincing you why people are keeping me from doing what I want to, I'm going to show that I get it done anyway. That's what this moment could mean for Donald Trump. And if he doesn't make it about that, there is an equal opportunity, not rooted in the same value as far as I'm concerned, but there is an opportunity for Democrats. And no matter why, well, you got to give Trump first

bite of the apple. It happened to him. So he should be the one who's most affected. The guy just got shot in the fucking head. I mean, what else do you need to know? I mean, if that doesn't change you, I don't even know what I'd be, where I'd be. If I had survived something like that. I don't know. I don't even know that my family would still let me be in the race.

Too dangerous. Too crazy. People are too screwed up. Let me get out of this. The hell was I thinking? I don't know where I'd be. But we are where we are. And there's an opportunity for Trump. And we're going to know. And the answer to what he does with it is going to be looked at now and in the future as the moment that defined this election, one way or the other. Biden isn't showing the indications that he's seizing that moment either. Nobody is. I think one of the most frightening things to me is that Saturday doesn't matter enough. Saturday doesn't matter enough. It doesn't have people changing, thinking, rethinking, doing, redoing enough. I haven't thought of anything else since. It's totally obsessed in terms of my disposition.

How did we get here? What are we doing? How do we do it differently? I'm definitely doing my job differently since that Saturday. And I know I don't believe I was part of the problem. My job is to test power. My job is to point out the game. My job is to expose it, to analyze it, to show it to you,

so that you can reject it. Because I think it's toxic, this game of division and advantage. But this is the moment. How Trump uses it will decide his fate in this election. How Biden and the Democrats use it will decide their fate in this election. They're all caught up in process and concerns about who the candidate is. They have to talk about what their rationale is to the American people. Why would you vote for any Democrat is much more important than which Democrat.

The idea that their fate rests on who I think is misplaced. Their fate rests on why. And coming out of a moment where one of the two nominees, the presumptive nominees, gets shot in the head, there is an opportunity for a reset, a clarification, and a manifestation of who you are and what you're about. That goes for you, that goes for me, that goes for the Democrats, that goes for the Republicans. I'm not talking about the fringe because they're the fucking problem, magnified minorities.

If you believe that this was about some deep state thing or Iran or this, I'm not talking to you. Stick to social media. You got plenty of people to whip you up there. And if you think this was staged and that Trump did this and that you wish he had gotten killed, God forbid, just stay where the fuck you are. I don't have any bid on you. You're part of the problem.

And you get more than enough attention. You're getting more than you deserve. I'm talking to the critical thinkers, I'm talking to the independents, I'm talking to people who are desperate for better, not just desperate for advantage. What are we going to do? Well, the first answer is something.

Get involved, get active. Make your voice heard on social media. Talk to your leaders there, talk to each other. Care enough to commit and get involved. I know it's noisy, I know it's toxic, I know it's bad for your head and your heart, but we're allowing the wrong people to dominate the dialogue. And as a result, the outcomes. And as a result, the outcomes.

And as a result, the inaction. We are paralyzed and polarized. We are paralyzed and polarized by our political process. We have finally given the rest of the world something to not want to emulate about us. We are the envy of the world in so many ways, but they don't envy our politics. They don't want to be like us. And this is the moment that they're looking at and that we are looking at and we'll look back on as what defined the outcome of this race.

When Donald Trump got shot in the head, everything could change. Did it? We'll see. Because of what Trump does and did, because of what Biden does and did, the media does and did. Polling Morning Joe has not gotten enough attention. I like it, I don't like it. Fine.

But that they did it shows what? One, an awareness that they know what that show is, right? You got a propaganda tool going on down there that just bashes people 24-7 for advantage in the media because it works. You pick a side, you do well. That's why it's so hard for NewsNation. It's so hard to be a fair broker, because nobody wants that. This is a fringe dominated marketplace. They pulled it because they know what it is. Question is, how do you put it back on?

If you don't make those people change, or at least admit, you know what? I know I was a Republican and I know it works best for me is to be some kind of firebrand for the left, but that's not enough. You took it off air because you were worried about their impact. What else do you need to know?

It hasn't gotten enough attention. I wonder why. And I'm not hating on it. I don't... NBC, MSNBC, it's a great organization. They do amazing things. It's not what it is. I'm just saying that shows part of the problem. And this is the moment that we're going to look at.

And we're going to look back on and see how people used it or abused it and it's going to define what happens in this election. So look around, see how people process it, see what they do with it and know that they are showing you who they are and what they value. I'm Chris Cuomo. Thank you for subscribing and following. We'll see what Donald Trump makes of it. As crazy as it is to think, if there was ever going to be an opportunity for him to appeal to the many instead of the few, we're in it.

We had it. Same for the other players, same for me, same for you. Thank you for subscribing and following to the Chris Cuomo Project. Thank you for checking me out on NewsNation AP and 11P every weekday night. Thank you if you care about long COVID and what I'm doing for myself and with my doctor. You get exclusive access to it and this podcast ad free, five bucks a month on Substack. Can't beat it. You got a question for me?

You want a video dialogue with me? Set it up on the Manect app. You want to wear my swag? You want to wear your independence? You want to show you're a free agent and a free thinker and not part of this fringe bullshit? Check it out. There's a link. My friends, the problems are real. The solution has

always been the same. We got to be in it together. So let's get after it.