The Daily Beast Podcast - Rockstar Obama Sure as Hell Triggered Trump

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

It’s night three of the Democratic National Convention and The New Abnormal team are getting a little punchy. Molly Jong-Fast and Rick Wilson are joined by Hillary Clinton’s former senior advisor Phillipe Reines and it’s a barnburner.There were always going to be two gigantic rockstar performances from Barack Obama and Kamala Harris tonight that were going to trigger President Trump—"and sure as hell, they did!” said Rick. “You could disagree with Barack Obama about every policy thing under the sun, but you could always remember that the guy was a spectacular speaker and communicator, and he brought that shit tonight. I mean, he peeled the paint off the damn walls without raising his voice.”Reines nailed Trump’s fury at Obama. “He brings something to the table that really no one else in the world does, which is he can't be called a loser... He was elected president twice. He got more votes twice. I think there's an intimidation there.”Molly has warm words for Hillary Clinton’s focus on winning the election itself, and Reines praises his old boss: “She refrained from mentioning Jim Comey, which is always a positive.”The team agree that Trump is “the platonic ideal of an asshole” but debate whether it would be worth trading a few more years of Trump in office if it meant Don Jr. and Jared Kushner wound up in jail.“Donald Trump can be president for life,” said Rick. “If I can watch Jared torn apart by a pack of wild dogs.” Want more? Become a Beast Inside member to enjoy a limited-run series of bonus interviews from The New Abnormal. Guests include Cory Booker, Jim Acosta, and more. Head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com to join now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi folks, it's Rick Wilson, and welcome to The Daily Beast's The New Abnormal. Hi, I'm Molly Jongfast, a left-wing pundit, an editor-at-large at the Daily Beast. I'm also an editor at The Daily Beast, a former Republican political strategist, best-selling author, and full-time troublemaker. We're here to have fun, sharp conversations with some of the smartest people in media, politics, business, and science that help make what's happening in the country and the world clearer. I'll try to keep Rick to the minimum number of F-bombs and try to keep our... kids, pets, and other wildlife sounds from invading our respective bunkers. It's night three of the Democratic National Convention, and we're all a little punchy here on the new abnormal. We're joined by my very good friend, and whose name I know how to pronounce

very well, Philippe Rhinis. Hi, Molly. Hi, Rick. Rick, what did you think? Well, look, I mean, the first half of it was the sort of checklist stuff you have to do at a convention, okay? The Democrats have to go through the checklist of climate change, gun control, immigration, things like that. The Republicans go through their checklist of gun control, abortion, low taxes. So this was sort of the pro forma part in the beginning, but nobody gives a shit. You know why? There were going to be two gigantic rock star performances tonight that people were thinking about, and that were going to be the things that triggered Donald Trump, and sure as hell they did. You know, I said this earlier on live

screaming. You could disagree with Barack Obama about every policy thing under the sun, but you could always remember that the guy was a spectacular speaker and communicator. And he brought that shit tonight. I mean, he peeled the pain off the damn walls without raising his voice. Yeah. It's already triggered Donald Trump's itchy Twitter finger. Well, the all caps are a good sign. Oh, yeah, all caps are always a good sign. You know, Obama's one cool dude, but he also brings something to the table that really no one else in the world does, which is he can't be called a loser. You know, Donald Trump can't run around using his standard artillery of juvenile names. He was elected president twice. He got more votes twice. I think there's an intimidation there,

which is why, you know, it's nonsensical, it might be all tweets, but it's still, he wired, tapped my house or whatever it was. Taped by phones. And he made sure that he's going on John Hannity, or as we think of him, Michael Cohen's third client tomorrow night. During Biden's speech. You know what? I think that's great for Biden. The idea that Trump campaign is frustrated that Biden is not out there more because they

think the more he's out there, the more he's likely to make a mistake or, you know, quote, a gaffe. That works great. Assuming the other person isn't a human gaff factory. I mean, you can't, it's like a boxing match. I mean, you can't, your strategy can't be, I hope the other guy trips. son of shoelaces. Right.

Your own shoelaces were tied together before you even got in the ring. And, you know, I think every time Trump, I don't think the side-by-side, whether it's a debate, whether it's someone's... Is that your dog? Not my dog. One of several. He has one dog for every AR-15. No, there's a different, there's a different ratio there.

I have a virtual fox hunting pack. Yeah, but this sad thing is, meanwhile, like, two out of three Greenfield children want to go and live with Uncle Rick. That would be, I mean, if shit hits the fan, I think that's where I'm going. Okay. Can I get this shit back on course, please? Think about what Donald Trump's day look like today. First off, he steps on his dick attacking one of the largest and most renowned employers in the, you know, vaguely kind of sort of important swing state of Ohio by trying to cancel culture fucking good year. Right.

That employs 64,000 people in union jobs. Good play, boss. You can see four Bill Steppian, like, you can imagine the guy turning, like, the color of curdled milk when he read that tweet. And then he spends the other part of the day suddenly, like, defending QNA. Well, if they like me, it must be okay. Maybe I am defending the world from cannibal child predators. Rick, I mean, Rick, this is one of our favorite topics,

but just think about how confused those freaks are going to be the day after election date when Donald Trump loses. They are just not going to be able to – it's going to take a lot to trust the plan when the plan has Donald Trump unemployed. I can see the day on November 4th, if it's a clear victory for Biden, they're going to say, this was the plan all along. Biden is secretly JFK Jr's brain in a clone's body. They definitely adapt well. I don't know. That Q&Omp thing today was just like the beginning of Trump's. I mean, we knew he had it in him, but that was still kind of shocking.

And then the fact... Look, let's be honest, if it weren't for the pandemic, if he were going out there every day and saying my strategy, forget about my campaign that thinks that they're going to win, my strategy is to win the same way I won four years ago, the same exact people, not one more, not one less. And I am going to go out there every day and tell them what they want to hear. It would be ugly and it would be unfortunate and it would be narrow-minded

and short-sided, but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't work. Now, it's all the context of a much more horrible moment where he's not being assessed that way. He's being assessed in a very different stage that he can't come to grips with, which makes it all the more worse. But yeah, it's disgusting. I mean, what I'm surprised by is the fact that Trump refuses to even pretend to make it look like he's doing something about the pandemic, which has us all stuck at home. Like, didn't even, didn't anyone say, like, well, let's make it at least make it look like you're doing something? Yeah, they did. They also said, let's make it look like you're doing something about race.

Let's take a walk over to the church. But I mean, but they really have not. I think it's interesting. There's not even like there's no coronavirus task force. The subtitle, what you're saying is, why isn't this man becoming a different person after 74 years of being on this earth? When you're born sort of the platonic ideal of an asshole, It's difficult to change your form. And once you've been the platonic ideal of an asshole for 7,000 years, it's even harder to change your form.

Except that doesn't answer my question. Like, why isn't there anyone there who's like, let's at least make it look like we're doing something about the virus? Now he's down to the, I mean, he never had anyone higher than the B team, but now he's down to like. Here's a, I'm going to break a little piece of news. You guys remember Cliff Sims who left the White House? Cliff Sims is now going to be a speechwriter and communications executive for the RNC for the convention. What's going to happen when Trump finds out about this? And it's juniors doing apparently.

He's like a junior and Arthur Schwartz minion now. And so- Wait, but remind me who he is because I don't know who he is. He was like a cabinet secretary-staff guy. And he wrote a book about, you know, the whole administration and Trump lost his shit about it. This is back in the before time, Molly. you know, when we're 2018?

Yes, it was 2018. I'm sorry, I can't remember I can only remember the last two weeks. Yeah, if that. The one anecdote that you might remember is that Trump asked him to help figure out who was leaking and it came up with a index card list of names

and Trump looked at it and dismissed them all. Right. So Junior allowed to go against Daddy like that? I think he just expected that he could call some minion of the RNC and say, hire my boy. I also learned today from my source at the R&C that apparently the guy used to be in a Christian rock band that he's like, I'm going to send you pictures of the guy wearing nothing but a leather vest and tight pants singing Christian heavy metal. I'm like, yes, please. I really like

Obama. I thought he was amazing. I thought Hillary was really good talking about the... You can be honest. I'm not going to get offended. No, actually, honestly, what I thought was, and I wrote about this tonight, was that what she needed to talk about was the election. And what she talked about was the election. So she talked about how you can win the popular vote, which Democrats have now done twice and lose the presidency. And she did have a little, she did have a little self-referential wink of humor there, which I like as in any speaker, you know, that they get the joke about themselves a little bit. mentioning Jim Comey, which is always a positive. Why is Jim Comey so insufferable?

I don't know, but you see this HBO or Showtime movie that's about the showtime. I've seen it, and it's going to make Trump lose his shit. Oh, you've seen the actual, it? Yes. It looks great. It's great, and I will tell you this. I love the guy Gleeson, whatever his name is. Brendan Gleason, as Trump is brilliant.

Holly Hunter as Sally Yates. Oh, wow. It's just like, it is so letter perfect in the casting. And Holly Hunter's always underappreciated. She's amazing in it. And the story is, the story is going to make Trump crazy because it doesn't illustrate the deep state plot against him. You know, it's like this confusing procedural, who the fuck are all these Russians thing. That, of course, has now been validated by the recently released.

Yeah, let's talk about that. The Rubio report. Yeah. The Rubio report. No, that's what it's called. It's the Rubio report. I wish the Democrats had made even more of this at the convention because these motherfuckers in the Senate knew about this shit a year and a half ago.

They had a criminal referral for Steve Bannon and for Jr. A year and a half ago. They knew that Trump was ass deep with these fuckers a year and a half ago. And it's like, Hurt do-do. We can't talk about that. We better exonerate him quickly because, you know, he might tweet about us. Yeah.

Junior going to jail would be amazing. No, I mean, I've said this before. I would take a deal where I would allow Trump to stay in office one year for every year Don Jr. served in prison. You're the only person who would take that deal. Oh, I don't think so. I don't think so. And if I up the, if I sweeten the deal and threw in Jared, I think a lot of people would take that deal.

Listen, listen, Donald Trump can be president for life if I, and watch Jared torn apart by a pack of wild dogs. Absolutely. And doing the guards' taxes is not going to get him out of it. And I can see Donald Trump thinking to himself, I could pardon him from the wild dog punishment, but then how would I comfort Ivanka? Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to get deleted.

Right about the report. I mean, it's a really big deal in the sense that... You mean the Rubio report? It confirmed everything we knew prior to Mueller being unable to put it in his report for a very simple reason, which is that Mueller was approaching it as a prosecutor with a higher bar. And Rubio and the Intelligence Committee, which we should make clear to everyone, is the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is run by Republicans, by Mitch McConnell's Republican. They came out with a thousand pages that made a few things clear that Mueller could not and did not. One was that Roger Stone was neck deep into talking to WikiLeaks and that WikiLeaks knew that they were talking to Russia, that Roger Stone was talking to Donald Trump right up until the day that the John Susset, October 7th, and that they had spoken, they being Roger Stone and Donald Trump, 39 times in the previous month. And they stated straight out that they did not believe Donald Trump's recollection that they did not discuss.

it. And it's not just stuff. They assess that the whole lot of them, including Jared. And they describe Paul Manafort as a grave national security risk. Yeah. I mean, it's, it is amazing that a Republican Senate put their name on this. And again, there'll be people who tweet at you guys, like, oh, don't give me any credit. They voted for Iraq. Yeah, I know they voted for Iraq. I know who they are. But they could have, they could have punted for three months. They could have toned it down. They seem to have one, pretty straight now. Unfortunately, it's going to get lost. But, you know, the Jared stuff is maddening because, you know, you just said it a minute ago about the criminal referral about

Bannon and Don Jr. and Jared all, I mean, so the Senate Intelligence Committee, run by Republicans, sent a letter to the Department of Justice saying, please look into these fuckers because we're pretty sure they lie to us. This is while Jared Kushner, I mean, fine, banning some whatever he's doing. Don Jr. is just out being an asshole. Jared Kushner works in the the White House. And he is the Republican oversight in Congress. Some of Trump's closest supporters are saying Jared Kushner should be criminally investigated. It should not be where it's a reason 20, aside from being incompetent, that he should not have a security claim. No, Jared, Jared should not run a Waffle House. Okay. And Jared is running the coronavirus task force. Well, actually,

Pence is. No, no, let's remember, let's remember, though, Jared had a meeting in March in the White House where they decided that they would triage testing to states that supported the president. Yes. And not do testing in blue states and let them sink or swim on their own. As someone who lived in New York during that period, I'm aware. Yes. And, you know, I like to call it sort of Jared's like McKinsey-Wonze conference, you know, out there doing his, doing his damnedest to fulfill Donald Trump's desire to punish anyone who's not, you know, Trump's sycophant governor? I think any rational person,

which, by the way, most of America would agree because the only person whose prudal ratings are lower than Donald Trump's are Jared Kushner. This person is the worst combination. I don't know if this quote is true, but I took a combat warfare, history of war class in college. And the professor said that Napoleon had a quote that there are four attributes a general could have. They could be industrious or lazy, they could be smart or stupid. He said, if you have an industrious, smart, general, you've got it made. If you've got a smart, lazy general, okay. If you've got a lazy dumb general, you can live with that. The thing you don't want is you don't want an industrious, dumb general. And that is exactly who Jared Kushner is. There's just, he's just Olympically

incompetent. I mean, to give, just so this is not pure hyperbolo. With the exception of criminal or prison reform, which whether you agree with it or not, he did play a central role. With the exception of that, I honestly believe, Rick, your next book should be, you know, E.T.J.D. Because it is remarkable. I mean, he's the one who's saying, sure, Dad, go across the street and hold the Bible upside down. He's the one that saying, hey, my sources are telling me that Democrats will love it if he fired Jim Comey. I mean, he was the guy in the room who said, fired Jim Comey, Democrats will love it. Right. I mean, nobody thinks Jared Kushner is smart except Jared Kushner.

Right. I mean, everyone else knows the man is a fucking idiot. Yeah. Do you know how hard it is to not get any better at your job over a period of years? I mean, that's almost impressive. You got to all, yeah, you do almost have to give him like a little bit of props. Just like, the pure stubbornness of the stupidity is just kind of epic. Yeah.

I mean, he's the Michael Phelts of being unable to stay. A hundredth of a second or add on a hundredth of a second? I guess it's a difference, the gun owner will know this, the difference between the accuracy and precision. Like, he's hitting the bullseye in the same bullet hole over and over again. Right, but he's actually in like the third ring out of the best. Yeah. So, Molly, I know you were very intrigued and interested by the Kamala Harris speech.

What were your thoughts on the matter? I really like the Harris family. And I know you guys are all going to give me a make fun of. of me for being too sycophantic, but I enjoy them. I think they're smart. And there's, I don't know, when she had a little introduction about her sister and her niece, and as a stepdaughter, as a product of a very blended marriage, if your stepdaughter likes you, that's a high bar. Well, I think the package, the introduction package, the video package to introduce her was spectacular. I mean, as a ad guy, that was phenomenal. And I think they came across as warm and

and fun, you know, American-style family that represents the sort of weirdness that this world has today. You know, we're all sorts of races and we're all sorts of marital statuses. And I thought it was really well done. Yeah, I thought it was good. And I really liked her speech. And I thought that her whole, it was a very different speech for her. You know, her whole thing is that she's a prosecutor and tonight she was sort of trying to be fun and have fun. And it spoke to me. I thought she was great. You know, every time she speaks, I think we have this exciting prosecutor who's real tough, but also kind of fun. And she is going to kill Mike Pence. And for me as a woman after living through four years of this kind of misogyny, to watch her destroy Mike Pence would be the greatest joy of my life.

Oh, it is going to be delicious because Mike Pence, she's everything Mike Pence, like, wakes up in night sweats and out. Yeah, and that is, every time I see her, I just think of her and him, he calls his wife mother. Like, he's from another century. No, but what did he calls Karen Pence's mother? What does he call his mother? Like, if he's in, if it's Thanksgiving, he says, mother, I need another ale. So that's how it is in that family. But anyway, so I thought Kamala gave a really impressive speech. And, you know, it is not easy to go after Barack Obama, who is the most gifted orator.

And she did a really good job. So I was impressed with that. The last few months in this whole cycle has proven that a lot of things don't matter or the death of a lot of things, whether it's caucuses or actually getting out and pressing the flesh. But I do think in hindsight, one thing that will be appreciated for as much as they've been derided are conventions. There is an excitement to the moment, and it's very, you can see how difficult it is. I mean, when do people get speeches in a sensory deprivation tank? You know, you're looking at a teleprompter and there's no one in the room. I think these folks deserve a lot of credit for being able to emote in that kind of weird setting.

I agree with you about the family. I mean, I know, I know my Harris a little bit. She, I, it's fun getting to know someone, you know. It's fun seeing, you know, you read the story about nine things you didn't know about Doug Emhoff. Yeah, no, they're cute. I find them to be cute. And also the other thing is they're not like these evil kind of, I don't know. There's something about Pence for me as a feminist that strikes me as so creepy.

It's just creepy. Like we don't live in 1942. We live in 2020. I was just watching some old video, Don't Ask Why, of Mike Pence during his radio show days. And there's this one moment where he's just ripping all. He's like, adultery is the boy. sins and these women who are, you know, just going off. And I'm thinking, motherfucker, who do you work for?

Excuse me? Can't wait to see that at a matter. Yeah. Okay. The new abnormal is going to release a limited run series of bonus interviews over the next few weeks. Starting in August, we'll release a new one each Sunday. But listen carefully.

Only Beast Inside members will have access to these. So head over to new abnormal. Dot the Dailybeast.com to join now. your Beast Inside membership helps support the great reporting at The Beast and podcasts like the new abnormal. Thanks. Let's go. We now must go to our only segment ever, which is, I know I'm not supposed to say that, but it's late at night. We're keeping Molly up way too late.

It's 12-16. This is hard for me. I get a bit like. Rick Wilson, shall we ask our guest, Philippe? We shall allow Philippe to lead the fuck-that-guy charge this evening. I shall commence with the fuck-that-guy dialogue. I had a hard time because there are so many guys that should be fucked in this, but I went old school, in part because of the Senate report and in part because of his recent commutation. And also because he's just a rotten soul is Roger Stone. And, you know, there are people who work for Trump and around Trump who I don't understand how they do it. But in a different life, maybe I could get along with them or whatever. Roger Stone has been a rotten human being.

for decades. I mean, there's no one who knows that. Truly a shit-tier human being. It's a bad, bad, weird, unethical liar. And unfortunately, he gets the past as being colorful. You know, he's got Nixon tattooed on its back. He's an operator. That's not what he is. He's someone who has done real damage to our country. And in this very narrow sense is he was the person in between the Russians and Donald Trump. He's also a racist. He hates, you know, he's anti-LGBT. I mean, he's like the worst of. Yeah.

There's nothing redeeming about him. And he dresses like a Batman villain. All right, Molly Jong Fass, who is your fuck-that guy for this beautiful, beautiful summer evening? My fuck-that guy is Secretary of State and International, Mike Pompeo. Do you want to know why? Please tell. Well, as Jesse, our producer explained, I saw the gift, but I saw the gift, but I I didn't understand the larger implication.

When Nancy Pelosi was speaking, he posted a gif of Lisa from the Simpsons, tearing up the letter she had written to politicians when she discovered that politicians were corrupt. The irony, of course, is that Mike Pompeo is probably one of the most corrupt figures in the Trump administration. And he also is just, I mean, these people are just so awful. I have a surprising out of left field, not political. Fuck that guy today. Wait.

As you know, I live in the state of Florida. No. Florida is known for... Tell me more. About this garden paradise. Right, exactly. Florida is known... What's the humidity there?

A bagillion. Yeah, I continue. Florida is known as the home of meth-eating, face zombies. Yes. A whole variety of things. We are also the home of a shit ton of mosquitoes. Oh, really? There's a company in Florida.

called OxyTech that is about to release genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida. It's fucking 2020. You motherfuckers are released genetically modified mosquitoes and we're all going to die. It's a 100% chance. Modified to do what? I don't even know, but whatever they modify them to do,

it's not going to be what happens. Have they not seen Jurassic Park? Do these people not understand what's going to happen? It's 2020 in Florida. On that note, we'll wrap up this episode of the new abnormal from The Daily Beast. In future episodes, we'll be talking with smart folks from The Daily Beast and beyond from media, culture, politics, and science who will help us understand what's happening

to our country and the world. We hope you'll subscribe to us on your favorite podcast app and share the show on social media. We're just getting started and don't want you to miss an episode. If you'd like to follow us on Twitter, I'm Molly JongFest and he's the Rick Wilson. Thanks so much for listening and we'll see you again on the next episode. Want more great listens? Check out our comedy podcast, The Last Laugh, and our star-studded The Daily Beast podcast at the Daily Beast.com slash podcasts.

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