The Daily Beast Podcast - The Real Reason McCarthy Put Santos on the Science Committee

Episode Date: January 24, 2023

The New Abnormal co-host Danielle Moodie laughed and then cried when she heard about Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy putting Rep. George Santos on the Science Committee. But Andy has a theory for why that happened in the first place. Somehow Mean Girls is mentioned. Also on this episode: Daily Beast politics reporter and Fever Dreams podcast host Will Sommer joins to talk about the latest weird yet highly entertaining infighting going on between conservatives and this time it involves right wing child actor Steven Crowder’s war on The Daily Wire—and the latest on what Silk is saying about Diamond’s cause of death. Plus! Entertainment Critic Nick Schager also joins the show to talk about the new documentary “Justice” which debuted last-minute at the Sundance Film Festival and is about the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. According to Schager, there is one big bombshell to come out of the film involving a witness to one of Kavanaugh’s alleged assaults on a female peer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Andy Levy, former Fox News and CNN-HLN guy, and current cable news conscientious objector. I'm a former libertarian who now sits pretty comfortably on the left. Hi, I'm Danielle Moody, former educator and recovering lobbyist. But today, I'm an unapologetic, woke commentator on America's threats to democracy. And I'm producer Jesse Cannon, and I'm here to make sure things don't go too far off the rails. We're here to have fun, smart conversations with some of the most knowledgeable and entertaining people in politics, media, and beyond. Our goal is to try and make sense of our current crazy world, our new abnormal, and hopefully even make you laugh through the tears. What an excellent show we have today.

Will Summer, a politics report for the Daily Beast and the co-host of the podcast, Fever Dreams, comes by to tell us about Stephen Crowder's new war on the Daily Wire. Then Daily Beast entertainment critic Nick Shager joins us to talk about the new documentary, Justice, a last-minute addition to the Sundance Film Festival about the investigation into the allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. But first, let's have some fun. Hello, Danielle, and welcome to another big week on the new abnormal. Hello, Andy. We're in hell. Good to be back. We are, but we have to lead with some big news that hit shortly before we began recording. I hope our listeners are sitting down because this is, it's shocking. It's shocking news.

The M&M Company Corporation has put an end to their spokesc candies. The spokescandies are no more. They have been under attack from right-wing media from Tucker Carlson and places like that. The Eminem company has cowardly given in the pressure, and they have apparently executed the spokesc candies. There's just a pile of dead spokesc candies at Eminem's headquarters, and it's a gruesome scene. I would advise you not to look for video.

There is chocolate blood everywhere. It's like chocolate sauce, but it's blood. It's just, it's a horrible, horrible day here in America. You know, Andy, when the far right can melt the dreams, right, of equity and justice as it pertains to almond and peanut-filled goodness and chocolate, you know that we are in a dark, stupid fucking place in this country. Eminem's, like, I now just don't want to buy. them because you all have literally no nuts like at all you got nothing i just i really i can't i can't with the fact that tucker carlson is able to get the candy company to take a step back because of their boots and their new outfits and their new colors and this is what we're

doing i just can we get dumber like is this is this it you think is this the bottom or or or we're just going to frack our way to stupid? I think we're probably just going to frack our way to the ultimate stupidity, which will be blowing up the earth. But, yeah, look, the only good thing to come out of this, and for those who aren't aware, Eminem said they are indefinitely pausing the spokescandies. They have hired Meyer Rudolph, who is insanely talented, so I'm happy for her to be their new spokesperson.

Yeah, but unfortunately, you know, just to point out the obvious, she is a biracial woman, so I'm pretty sure this will be short-lived as well. But here's hoping. Well, you know what, Danielle, I will never leave that woman. Actually, that's a quote from Kevin McCarthy. And he's talking about, of all people, Marjorie Taylor Green. And I think this story, which is a real and serious story, is the answer to your question of can we get more stupid. So the Republican Party, it's just officially, it's the party of MTG.

And shout out to everyone who yelled at me and yelled at other people for paying attention to Marjorie Telegreen and saying, oh, she's just some insignificant member of Congress. She never was that. And now she is literally the party has warped itself into her image. So Kevin McCarthy has said, I will never leave that woman. I will always take care of her. They are now BFFs. I guess he's the new Lauren Bobert in this case.

He's putting her on committees, and then you've got other Republicans. You've got Michael McCall, who fancies himself a sort of national security expert, who was asked about the fact that MTG is going to be on the Homeland Security Committee. And he says, she's matured and that she no longer believes in conspiracy theories. Like 9-11 was an inside job and a plane never hit the Pentagon and other things like that. And she has apparently now matured. And this is just the Republican Party is, I mean, it really is. It's a race to rock bottom.

And they're going to get there at some point. I don't think they've hit it yet, but they are well on their fucking way. Quick question. How long does adolescence last for white Republican people? Because I feel like I heard that line he has matured when we were talking about a 70-year-old white orange man in the white House when he called African nation shithole countries, when he wanted to grab people by the pussy, when he was saying all sorts of things, I can clearly remember a woman from Maine saying that he would mature and there was no need to impeach him. So I'm just curious, Marjorie

Taylor Green isn't in her 70s yet. So do we think that the extension of adolescence goes what? until around 80, 85, we think these motherfuckers are ripe. Andy, you know. I know. I think what we've learned in the past three, four years is that white people can continue maturing into their 70s, but a 12-year-old black kid is a scary adult. Correct. I just, you know, I want people to make that connection.

So thank you so very much for doing it. It is absurd. And Kevin McCarthy, this is the woman you choose to say. standby. Maybe they can co-opt yet another song, the standby your man, stand by your woman, and let that be Kevin McCarthy's theme song as he comes into his hollowed out house. When Marjorie Taylor Green was on, I think Steve Bannon's show, way back in the beginning and she said, oh, no, I'm not the fringe. I am the main stage of the Republican Party. Everyone scoffed, like you said. People thought, oh, no, there's no way that a woman that

chase down a survivor of a high school shooting, David Hogs, like you chase him down before you become a member of Congress. You're an adult harassing a teenager that live through one of the most traumatic events. You believe that Jewish people run space lasers from out of space. You sit on the stage with known white supremacist. You talk about white nationalism. You refer to Democrats as your sworn enemies and say that they are killing babies and are pedophiles, but this woman has matured. This is who Kevin McCarthy is. And he aligns himself with whomever, right?

Like, this is why Kevin McCarthy is a dangerous human being. He's not dangerous because he has any ideology. He's not dangerous because he has any backbone. He's dangerous because he is a puppet. And puppets can be used in any number of ways. And they're not co-opted by Marjorie Taylor. They're in love with Marjorie Taylor Green. They're in bed with Marjorie Taylor Green.

They're not being co-opted. They're not being hoodwinked or bamboozled by Marjorie Telegreen's fuckery. They are her. Yeah, no, look, I agree. I mean, as far as Kevin McCarthy goes, and I'm going to just keep calling him the empty man, even though nobody gets that because it's unfortunately a very underseen movie. You're correct, though. He's not dangerous because he has an ideology or a backbone.

He's dangerous because he doesn't have an ideology or a backbone. If he sees someone like Marjorie Taylor Green, regardless of everything you just said about her, every single one of which was true, she spoke at Nick Fuente's white nationalist conference. She's accused the Jews of having space lasers, which of course is completely not true. And I don't know where she got that idea. That's just crazy talk. But he doesn't care because he sees her as a powerful ally. And because all he cares about is power because he doesn't have an idea.

his ideology is power. If he sees her as a powerful ally, which again, she unfortunately is because she is the face of the GOP right now, it feels like, then he will do whatever it takes to help her out. And remember, this is the same guy that basically, as far as we were told, took her off a bunch of committees a bunch of years ago. They said that he was secretly working with Nancy Pelosi to take her power away and all of that stuff. And then all of a sudden, he is now putting her on committees on homeland security. Homeland security. I mean, this woman is a danger to homeland security.

She shouldn't be on the homeland security. This was like Iran being on the women's rights committee at the UN. Yes. It's like, no, you don't do that. There are certain things you just don't do. And, I mean, look, this is a woman who still, to this day, blames Antifa for January 6th. She wants an investigation, Andy. not into January 6th, not into what the January 6th committee actually did to unearth all of the ways that the Trump administration was conspiring to overthrow the government, to overthrow our election. No, no. She wants an investigation into the treatment of the domestic terrorists that stormed our Capitol building. Like, this is who the fucking Republican Party is. And mainstream media is just like, oh, my God, but Biden has 16 documents. And I'm like,

Like, you have about 147 members of the Republican House who are insurrectionists, those that actually gave recognizance tours, those that are upholding domestic terrorists and applauding them, those that are turning the Kyle Writtenhouses of the world into heroes, into patriots, like, this is who this fucking party is. I don't understand how people don't recognize the danger that we are in because of them, that the information that it's going to be provided to a Marjorie Taylor Green because she's on the Homeland Security Committee? Why don't you just give it directly to Donald Trump? Why don't you just give it directly to Putin?

Give it directly to our foreign, supposed foreign enemies. I can't. Yeah, no. Look, I just want to be clear, Danielle, I can't either. I know we can't. I just want you to know that I also cannot. We've run out of it. Canst. We have run out of cants. The only thing I will say, look, you are absolutely right, and this is what the

Republicans have said they're going to do, that they are going to investigate the January 6th. They're going to investigate the treatment, basically, of the conspirators and the people who store in the capital. It is kind of ironic to see Republicans lining up now on the side of prison reform. Oh, yeah. Okay. It's just amazing that what it took was, it took a bunch of white insurrectionists to make them suddenly be like, hey, jails aren't nice and maybe need to be run better. It's the kind of thing you'd like to laugh at, except that prison reform is such a serious issue, and generally it's a serious issue for non-white people, which is, of course, why Republicans have never cared about it. And to be honest, Democrats haven't been good on it either.

But it is kind of funny in a sick way that now they are suddenly like, these conditions are terrible. Can you believe the way that they were held and the way that they were treated by law enforcement? And it's like, that's all the people that you have supported blindly for your entire careers. It's like their whole now they want to defund the FBI. The hypocrisy is absolutely amazing. But look, this is the Republican Party. Also part of the Republican Party now is your good friend, George Santos, if that is his real name,

Kitara. And he is going to be on the science committee, apparently. Another big Kevin McCarthy move putting Santos on the science committee. Now, one of the few things he has not claimed on his resume was having any expertise in science. So it may be that he actually does have expertise on science because at this point, I just assume that obviously everything on his resume is a lie. So maybe everything not on his resume is actually what he's good at. I don't know. But the best thing about this was, Danielle, do you want to tell it?

Oh, my God. I say this because, folks, sometimes you just really have to laugh so that you do not. cry. So after Kevin McCarthy announces the two committees that George Santos is going to be on, Congressman Bill Foster tweeted this, quote, I am thrilled to be joined on the Science Committee by my Republican colleague, Dr. George Santos, winner of not only the Nobel Peace Prize, but also the Fields Medal, the top prize in mathematics for his groundbreaking work with imaginary numbers. And not to be outdone, Scott Kelly, who is an actual astronaut, also tweeted and said, awesome to have former NASA astronaut and Moonwalker representative George Santos on the House Science Space and Technology Committee to infinity and beyond.

That's just fantastic. Oh, my God, it was so good. And I laughed so very hard. And then I thought, oh, my God, this man is. going to be on the science committee. Like, do we not realize how critical, you know, science is to where we are currently? We've had a global health pandemic. We have a climate change crisis.

We have all of these things that are happening in the world that, you know, come back to this really important field. But let's put on Scooby-Doo. But you just, okay, you just name two things that Republicans don't believe in. You're right. You're right. What am I saying? Climate change and the fact that there was a,

a pandemic. This is Kevin McCarthy showing exactly what he thinks of science and what he thinks of this science committee. It's like, well, yeah, throw George Santos on there. You know, we don't really need that committee anyway. There's definitely no scientific problems threatening the entire planet. It all checks out. If you look at it from that perspective, it makes perfect sense. And I also love that he's on like the small business committee too, which is just, again, Santos I'm talking about here, just change the name to the small grifters committee. Oh, shit. That's a good one.

That's great. He should be the chairman of that fucking committee. I mean, you're right, too. This is exactly what it shows that Kevin McCarthy and Republicans don't give a shit about, right? They don't give a shit about our impending destruction, as you know, planet Earth. They don't care about small businesses in this country. They didn't want to do anything as doors were shuddering because of COVID, which they thought was a hoax, right? and employers, small business employers needed the support of our federal government,

and they voted against, you know, those means to prop people up. So, yeah, of course. You would put on the grifter, the liar to these committees that are integral to our country at this particular point. But you know who you're going to make sure doesn't get on any committees? Two members of Congress that you don't like because apparently the House of Representatives is being run like fucking mean girls. Yep.

Right? So you're denying Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff seats on the House Intelligence Committee in lieu of putting people with zero intelligence on those committees because you don't like the fact that Eric Swalwell, oh, I don't know, put up a lawsuit against Donald Trump for his involvement in January 6th. And Adam Schiff, who led the impeachments of Donald Trump. So that's your thumb in the nose to Democrats in saying, well, You remove people from our committees. Yeah. Anti-Semites and racist. Right? That's who were removed. Not people who you just didn't like

because they're doing their jobs. Yeah. I mean, look, McCarthy is, Mean Girls is a perfect comparison. This is, in his mind, this is revenge for Nancy Pelosi not seating people like Jim Jordan on the January 6th committee, I believe.

and so he has decided that because what's important here is revenge. And so he has decided he's not going to seat Schiff and Swalwell. And to his credit, Hakeem Jeffries, who is now the Democratic leader in the House, has said, I'm going to nominate them. And I'm not cowtowing to you, Kevin. If you want to shoot them down, you're going to have to shoot them down. But I am not going to sit here and say, well, I can't appoint them to those committees because Kevin McCarthy says no. And I respect them for that. I don't know that he'll win this battle because I guess by some fucked up House rules, McCarthy can pretty much do whatever he wants here. Because the Intelligence Committee is a select committee, Jeffries can nominate Democrats, but McCarthy can reject them. And I guess that was the same thing

with the January 6th committee. So we've got this House rule and fine, whatever, the House and Senate have their own little worlds. But kudos to Jeffries for. or at least saying, I'm not backing down here. I'm going to nominate them. And look, regardless of what you think of Schiff and Swalwell, they're certainly more than qualified to be on this committee. Schiff in particular, I mean, as you said, played a key role on the January 6th committee,

which is, of course, exactly why McCarthy doesn't want him anywhere near the Intel Committee. But this is what we're in for for the next two years. And unfortunately, it's, as I keep saying, it's going to get worse before it gets better. Qualifications don't matter. No, they're a detriment. I appreciate Jeffries a lot, but when he says things like there's a double standard, there's a triple fucking quadruple standard, right?

They don't care. You can't shame people that can't be shamed. And to say like, oh, and say to the media, oh, where there's a double standard, you have liars, grifters, thieves, people that have been investigated for sex trafficking, like people who are attached to political violence serving on committees because they are Republicans, right? The only reason George Santos hasn't been removed is because Kevin McCarthy is so desperate for the fucking votes. So we know that, like, if Donald Trump is their king, right, qualifications don't matter.

Neither does a rap sheet, apparently. Last week marked the beginning of a very public and very ugly spat between two of the bigger names in right-wing media, as YouTuber Stephen Crowder revealed that he had been in negotiations to join the Ben Shapiro-founded Daily Wire until he was insulted by their contract offer. joining me now to get us up to speed is Daily Beast Politics Reporter, co-host of the Beast Podcast Fever Dreams, and author of the upcoming book, Trust the Plan, The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy that Unhinged America

out February 21st, Will Summer. Will, thanks for being here. Andy, thanks for having me. We're sort of out of time after that intro, so I don't know where to go from here. It's a big subtitle, yeah. It is, I know. There's a lot of colones and semicolens, and it was ridiculous. Talk to me about how this whole thing.

got started between Crowder and the Daily Wire. Crowder left Glenn Beck's organization The Blaze a few months ago, correct, and became a free agent. That's right. So the action that sort of spilled out into the open last week is actually taking place in roughly September 2022. And so Stephen Crowder, who, you know, folks, if you're not aware of him, he played the voice of one of Arthur's buddies on the show Arthur, like the Ardvark. And so he was like a child actor who became this kind of right-wing guy. He did a lot of stunt stuff. Like he kind of get in the face of union guys. And I think, I believe one of them clocked him pretty good once.

That was a big deal. So he's kind of this annoying guy. So he had a show at Glenn Beck's outlet, The Blaze. And I guess his contract ran out there. And so he said, you know, who wants a piece of Stephen? The Daily Wire reaches out to him and tries to hire him. And basically this all went south. And no one knew this.

This wasn't public. Then last week, Stephen Crowder, who seems to be trying to build kind of like his own media organization. I should say, he appears to have lost access to his email list when he left the blaze. And so now he's trying to rebuild it. And so he's trying to get like a little heat going. So he says, we got to stop Big Khan, which is conservative media. And he doesn't name this company, but he says basically there are all these conservative media outlets are assigning people to slave contracts that don't pay enough.

And, you know, if you get kicked off of YouTube, they'll cut your pay and all this. And he's talking specifically about one group that he's not naming. And so he says, you know, instead everyone should support, you know, Stephen Crowder Industries coming soon. So he says this anonymously, and that's where it all starts. Okay. But so people kind of figured out pretty quickly who he was talking about and that it was, in fact, the Daily Wire. So his beef seems to be that, as you said, it's the demonetization that seems to be his big issue, that basically if YouTube demonetizes him or whatever, that under the terms of this contract from the Daily Wire, he would be docked pay. What he left out was the amount of that pay.

Am I correct? Right. So the Daily Wire comes back and they say, look, you've all figured out that the contract he's talking about is from the Daily Wire. And I should say the decision here in who responds from the Daily Wire is interesting. So Ben Shapiro is sort of the face of the company. Right. But there's a guy named Jeremy Boring, who is sort of the killer.

He has this kind of like faux lavish lifestyle. Like he launched a rival Razor brand called Jeremy's After Harry's Razors, drop them as a as a stop sponsoring their shows. He's trying to turn Nashville into this real center of conservative media. So he comes out in this video and is like, look, yes, this is our contract. Now I'm going to go through it point by point. Basically says the crowders people said they wouldn't talk to him about coming over there. It was like, it's not even worth having a conversation unless you're going to give us 50 million over four years. So 12.5 million a year. And so they said, well, okay, maybe we can do that. And so he sends over this preliminary offer back in

September that I think from his perspective, and I think once you get it explained to you, it makes sense. These things that like one of Crowder's beefs was that if he didn't produce enough shows that it would come out of his contract. That doesn't seem that crazy. Right. I mean like here at the Daily Beast, if I just started, you know, sort of randomly taking time off and just not turning in articles, I think they wouldn't be happy about that either. And so this is when, yeah, so this is where he reveals that this is for $50 million over four years. Now Crowder's defenders say, well, he's doing this as a contractor, so he has to pay his staff. So it's not like this check goes directly into Stephen Crowder's pocket.

But I will say that this is a show, Stephen Crowder's show, that consists of Stephen Crowder sitting in front of a desk and talking to a camera. I mean, this is not Avatar. I don't think the production costs are like hugely that high. And so this is where, so basically Jeremy Boring is sort of like Stephen Crowder is an idiot. He'd fail to understand that this was a negotiation and that, you know, and you're like, yeah, you know, if you get kicked off of YouTube, this is going to be problem for us. And so we're going to mark down how much money we pay you because we'll make

less money off of it. There's actually a workaround that people have figured out for this getting kicked off of YouTube issue, which is that you save sort of the spiciest takes, as they would say, for your behind the paywall thing on your own site. And so someone like Tim Poole does this where like Milo Uinopolis, for example, was on his show and they were very open about like, well, we're going to save any anti-Semitic remarks for the paywall. And so Jerry Boring was sort of like, you know, this works out great. You know, people have to pay for the paywall. and that kind of stuff. But Stephen Crowder really flew off the handle.

And that was the Daily Wire's response. And is this where we get to the taped phone call portion of the show? Yes. And, Andy, I have to say, one of the things that brings me to covering this beat is how everyone in it is constantly secretly recording each other. And this is, I think this is like the eighth or ninth time that, like, one of these public disputes has been resolved with like, well, I was recording you. So Stephen Crowder, he kind of, I would say the Daily Wire won that.

round. They won kind of the response. And then because everyone says, well, you know, $50 million, that is a lot of money. Not quite slave wages. Yes, yes. In his words, he said this is a slave contract. Why would I be a slave? All this stuff. And then you find out he was making all this money or could have had this chance to. And I should add that apparently the deal also foundered because Crowder said his people, apparently, according to Jeremy Boring, said, well, $50 million over four years? I don't think so. How about $120 million? So, like, just, this guy expected to be paid 30 million a year. So Stephen Crowder comes back and he says, look, everyone's making fun of me over the slave wages thing.

They say, you know, it's not fair. But I have this recording with Jeremy Boring where I told him to buzz off, you know, that I'm not taking this deal, where he says that he pays, like, essentially the people much lower than Crowder would have been on the totem pole at the daily wire, that he pays them in, quote, slave wages until they, you know, make their names. And, you know, that's not that surprising to me that, you know, the very right-wing media outlet exploits its workers. But you have the situation where now to kind of get a one-up on the daily wire, Stephen Crowder has to kind of position himself as the friend of the working man. Right. I mean, the people were pulling up these old Crowder clips where, you know, NBA or NFL players were complaining about their working conditions.

And he's saying, like, you make a million dollars a year. What are you whining about you, babies? I mean, now he's joined the international workers of the world. Okay. So he taped this phone call with Boring and released it. It seems like everything devolved after that because then Shapiro jumped in and basically was like, how the fuck do you do this? I thought we were friends and it sort of devolves from there.

Yeah, I mean, you know, understandably, the recording of conversations and releasing them is a high risk maneuver in right way of circles. For as often as it happens, I think people understandably are like, wait a minute, I say a lot of crazy stuff behind the scenes. is Stephen Crowder recording me, for example? You know, like this actually happened with Lynn Wood, who's like a pro-Trump lawyer. He was secretly recording Michael Flynn talking trash on Q&on,

despite, you know, being a big pro-QAnon guy publicly. So whenever this happens, the character who releases the tape, usually there's more blowback on them because suddenly they're ostracized from all the other right-wing figures. So, yeah, as you said, Ben Shapiro came in hard. And, you know, a lot of this before had been, you know, the Daily Wire was saying, well, we wish him well, you know. Right. Bless your heart, Stephen Crowder.

And now they're going in hard on him. And Jeremy Boring said, well, he didn't record the part of the conversation where I asked about how his family was doing. You know, he's very wounded. And Candice Owens, who is, you know, a part of the Daily Wire crew, came in and was like, this is a bitch move. And now, I mean, it keeps rolling. Stephen Crowder says he's going on Tim Poole's show and that he's going to really be dropping the receipts then. For me, like, in terms of this kind of, you know, Marvel Civil War aspect of it, the one of the funnier ones here is Jordan Peelewell. Peterson, who has, you know, as we might expect, to sort of blundered in like the absent-minded

professor. And so when Crowder first released this video, and he didn't say it was the Daily Wire, Jordan Peterson was like, yes, you know, these worms and conservative media, they are exploiting, you know, the big personalities. Now, we have to keep in mind that Jordan Peterson has a podcast on the Daily Wire. I think does pretty much all of his media stuff through them. So it seems as though someone got to him and was like, hey, Jordan, he's talking about us. And so You know, he quietly deletes the tweet. He probably had a good cry over that, though. Oh, oh, absolutely.

You know, his or, you know, maybe he'll get a suit, you know, one of his wacky suits with the lining of Stephen Crowder's face. So this whole thing really is, it's the living embodiment of the yes, ha ha ha, yes, meme, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, certainly or, you know, people love posting, you know, I can't post any story these days without getting the gift of the guy saying, let them fight. You were all right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because this is. is. I mean, the idea of these guys like tearing themselves apart, Sam Cedar, you know, left-wing

commenter had a good point about the whole Crowder thing, which is, I mean, these are the guys who say, you know, the free markets should side everything. Basically, you can't be exploited into a contract. You know, well, sorry, you signed a contract. You got to do the job. In this case, he's being offered a $50 million contract. And he's like, hey, this is exploiting me. You know, this is unfair. The other aspect of this that I would point out is, this fight spilling over into the open has sort of shed some new light on some remarks Crowder made last year. So with the whole Kanye, all the sort of anti-Semitic pro-Hitler remarks he was making, Crowder and a couple other people in the right-wing media decided to, that rather than denouncing Kanye, they would say,

well, there is a problem with secular Jews, let's say, exploiting people in Hollywood or in business. And so he said this in November. He said, there's a problem with these people with Jewish last names, let's say, who are, you know, explaining people, including in conservative media, I should say. So this is, and he's saying they're making them sign these really unfair contract. So to my mind, he's clearly talking about the Daily Wire situation, because he's saying this two months after we know the contract negotiations broke down. Now, Ben Shapiro is not someone that I think that he would describe as a secular Jew. Right. To me, I mean, I think he's clearly talking about Shapiro and the Daily Wire. So pretty ugly stuff there. I guess it's really

all I have to say, you know, on that angle. Yeah, they love the phrase Jewish last. names is something I've noticed over the past six months or year or so. Yeah, I mean, it's very ugly and just very like, you know, and frankly though, I mean, Ben Shapiro has played this game himself where he's saying, you know, that liberal or secular Jews, they're not really, really Jewish. And so, you know, whatever happens to them is not anti-Semitic. Yeah, absolutely. So where do things stand now? So Crowder is going on Tim Poole show. Obviously, he is not working for the Daily Wire anytime soon, I would imagine. I mean, he is somehow wildly popular. on YouTube despite being a complete and utter chucklehead.

Unfortunately, he'll be just fine, I imagine, or is he just burning bridges here and turning off his own fans? You know, it's a good question. I think mostly the fans of these figures kind of chalk it all up to sort of just business drama or... Or the Jews. Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, exactly. Or kind of just some wrestling, you know, kind of cheap heat.

Right. I think if it got to the point where people were really dropping, like, you know, hugely damaging, revelations that might change. But, you know, I think they're just chalking up to kind of contractual drama. I mean, from my perspective, it is fascinating just seeing the inner workings of how these contracts go down that they do account for, saying, getting kicked off of YouTube. I mean, I saw the kind of people who like to pressure advertisers or pressure YouTube to kick someone like Crowder off, feeling very heartened by that, that these media outlets have to take that into

account. Certainly, I don't think, I don't think Stephen Crowder is going to be on the Daily Wire anytime soon. From his perspective, I think what happens. is that he was, you know, he said to Jeremy Boring at one point, he was like, I couldn't get out of my mind what I saw in that contract, as though this was like just the most disturbing imagery he's ever seen. You know, I mean, this is months later, he's saying, I'm sorry, I simply have to go public with this. But I think what happened is, you know, he didn't find another outlet to land out. And he said, okay, well, I have to make my own. But I need something that's going to stir up controversy beyond just my fans who are called the mug club because they all drink coffee mugs that promote the show. And so he's saying, so I'm going to do this. But then I think the Daily Wire said, yeah, he's talking about us. And they sort of turned it into a fight that I think he wasn't expecting. So before we move on, because there's a couple other things I want to ask you about. There was the one quote from Crowder that I've seen all over the place is he said, big tech is in bed with big con. And I'm assuming what he means by that. Big con in that case means conservative, although later

he does sort of say that it's all a big con, which I was like, yeah, well, yeah, it's right there in the name. So he's basically accusing, because the big thing with conservatives is how platforms like YouTube and pre-musk Twitter, et cetera, all have it in for conservatives. So what he's basically saying here, I'm assuming, is that by the Daily Wire saying to him, hey, if YouTube demonetizes you, we're going to demonetize you. He's basically saying you're no better than them. You're supposed to be fighting these guys, but instead you are in bed with them. Yeah, that's exactly right. He's saying that they're doing, you know, let's say YouTube's dirty work. So for example, let's say Stephen Crowder got kicked off of YouTube. So from Jeremy Boring's

perspective, and you're right that this is kind of the main sticking point for Crowder. So from Jeremy Boring's perspective, well, they've lost, I don't know, a million, maybe many more than that subscriber YouTube account. They can't monetize anymore. And so they're losing money. So he's naturally going to take that out of Crowder's paycheck. Now, from Crowder's perspective, I mean, if you go Joker mode and think of yourself and Stephen Crowder. I mean, you can see where, I mean, he wants this freedom. It's a little different because he was going to be a contract employee. But I guess if the Daily Wire, if we lose an advertiser because of your writing,

we're going to take $5,000 out of your paycheck, you know, I can see where he's coming from. Although, you know, I say there's differences between journalism and kind of ranting every day. Right. So, yeah, I mean, that is the tough spot there. I mean, there's another aspect to this, though, which is, you know, as you say, big con, And this is kind of something Stephen Crowder's cooked up. This is not a phrase that's been used before. And it's sort of an inexact metaphor.

Yes. But Jeremy Boring shot back. I mean, he's like, you know, like Stephen Crowder, he acts like he's this kind of like independent iconoclast. He said, this guy's been propped up by billionaires his entire career, which I mean, certainly is really true of all of these guys. Yeah. And he actually put out like a video naming all of Crowder's corporate masters over the years,

which was pretty funny. I will say this for Jeremy Boring. I think I think Stephen Crowder. kind of brought a knife to a gunfight here. I mean, Yes. Boring is a guy who is trying to amass, you know, they have a streaming service. They have Gina Carrano, the canceled Mandalorian actress in a variety of awful movies. I mean, he's trying to build something really big here beyond just like a live streaming chat show.

And Stephen Crowder is obviously getting in the way of that. And so he's saying, all right, you know, you have to be done with here. Yeah. Okay. So I can't let you go without asking you about a couple of other things. One is over the weekend, there was a memorial. service for Diamond of Diamond and Silk fame. And I listened to a clip you tweeted out of Silk where it sounds like she is saying that Diamond's death was caused by the vaccine. But I know that's impossible because she was a strident anti-vaxxer. So what did she mean? Right. So she is blaming Diamond's death on the vaccine. But as far as I can tell, she did not mean the

diamond got the vaccine. So the back story here is the Diamond before her death at 51, I believe. She had some sort of health problems to the extent that in November they said, hey, pray for diamond, whatever. She seemed to have what I would describe as COVID-like symptoms on her final show before that break, although we don't know exactly what she died of. Right. And then she kind of reemerged and then vanished again in December and then died in early January. So as Silk gets up there and she's saying, you know, she's saying she died suddenly. And she's saying those words specifically because there's a right-wing documentary out, you know, quasi-documentary out that says all these various people who, you know, had no health issues died. And it's because of the vaccine.

Right. And so now, number one, Diamond did have health issues. We know this because, you know, she was in the hospital in November. So this created a question for me because Diamond and Silk famously did not like the vaccine to the extent that they sort of had a rift with Trump and Fox News about it. Right. And Silk is saying all this while the guy who's Mr. Operation Warp speed, Donald Trump, is sitting there on the dais. So there's an interesting aspect to it there. So essentially, and I believe Silk clarified this on their Twitter account. she's saying, and this is not an unpopular idea on the right, that whatever kind of poisons they claim are in the vaccine,

that you can get them by not being vaccinated, but that vaccinated people sort of shed them. And we saw this kind of during the height of the pandemic, where they would say, oh, you're banned from this restaurant if you don't get the vaccine. Ocontrere, our right-wing restaurant will ban you if you did get the vaccine because of, you know, you're shedding the load. I mean, these are such, you know, it's these things where it's like, well, if you didn't say it in such a nasty way,

it probably wouldn't sound so gross. And so that is the claim, is that Diamond died. I mean, at that point, you really, really, truly anything can be blamed on the vaccine then because you're saying it's not even people who got the vaccine who are dying. It's just insanity. And I, like, I'm at a loss as to how to deal with people like that. I have to be honest. I just, that's who they are.

But I'm, thank you for clarifying that because I was worried that she actually got the vaccine, but now I know that she died from vaccine shedding from other people. So that's a- She didn't betray her fan-based. by getting the vaccine. The other thing I should say about the Diamond and Silk for the event was they booked this like 2,500 person venue. And I was like, geez, really?

You know, I mean, maybe there is that much of a Diamond fan base. And then only like 150 people showed up. So roughly 5% of the capacity. It did have this strange kind of like political Trump rally aspect. But I guess just a lot of folks did not show. Yeah. All right. And now before I let you go, hopefully we'll have you back on next month when your book comes

out. But can you give us a little sneak peek? Is this a history of? Q&ON. Well, you know, Andy, thanks for the opportunity here. Obviously, been books and documentaries about Q&N, but I really went out into the country and I found out the effects that Q&O is having on people. There's a lot of untold stories. I mean, there's a true crime aspect to it. There's, you know, really just surreal stuff that goes on. And, you know, I kind of get into the guts of it. I hang out a lot with Q&N believers and, you know, with

these families that have been destroyed by Q&N. So there's a lot of humor to it. There's a lot of, you know, tragedy and drama to it. And so I think there's a lot of interesting stories that will be coming out next month. 21st. The book is, Trust the Plan. Excellent. I can't wait to read it. I'm going to try to get an advanced copy. I don't know. You are on the list, Andy. Yes. I actually just... Not to brag or anything,

but I know the author. I actually just sent in a new list of people to get advanced copies and you are on it. Excellent. Will, thank you so much for being here. I really am looking forward to the book and hopefully we'll have you back on next month to talk about it. Andy, thank you so much. Folks, I am excited to

bring you an interview with entertainment critic Nick Shager, who wrote a really great piece in The Daily Beast about a new documentary being done on Brett Kavanaugh entitled Justice. Nick, your piece entitled New Brett Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations revealed in secret Sundance doc. So first I want to ask you, was it really a secret Sundance doc? Was justice not listed on the slate of other films to watch? That's right. Sundance puts out its lineup in advance, obviously, of the festival, but it wasn't until late Thursday that an announcement came through that they were adding justice to the slate as a last-minute edition.

And that was presumably because they hadn't seen the film from what I hear until a couple of days before that. The film is directed by Doug Lehman, who's a big Hollywood director known for Edge of Tomorrow and the Bourneye identity. And this was his first documentary. I guess he got in touch with Sundance at the last minute. And so this really all came about within 24 hours, just about a day after getting to the announcement. And they were showing it here at Sundance. And they only showed it twice, once for the public or the paying public, and once in a press screening. And that's been it. They haven't screened it again since Friday night. So it was, for all intents and purposes, the one big secret Sundance screening this year.

Interesting. And so quoting your piece, you write, justice is a horrifying and infuriating inquiry into those claims told in large part by friends of Dr. Christine Blazy Ford, lawyers and medical experts, and another of Kavanaugh's alleged victims, Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of his at Yale. Give us the 50,000-foot view of this film.

And is it this? this 85-minute kind of compact documentary, is it a blockbuster in terms of essentially how the hearings were? And all of the allegations that came out during the 2018 confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, that was probably the most raucous that we have seen since Clarence Thomas in the 90s? The answer to that question is the film does have some blockbuster material in it, Although I do think the people who followed the story when it played out in the news will find that quite a bit of the film is just a recap of what you saw on the news at the congressional hearings with the prior interviews with these people. The big hook is two separate things. First, Deborah Ramirez contributes in a large way. She sits down for a long interview in the film.

and really go step by step through her ordeal with Brett Kavanaugh at Yale. That's one of the two big elements that's, I would say, new. The other big element is a partnership for public service president and CEO Max Steyer has been reported to have corroborated Ramirez's story in the past. But here, Doug Lehman gets the actual audio recording of Max Steer's sort of testimony about, what he had seen himself at Yale and what he had heard about at Yale. And the real, I think, shocker there is he had both heard from other people at Yale about Deborah Ramirez's story, and in particular, a story that is very, very similar to what she herself claims happened. But he had also

witnessed an incident that was very similar to what Ramirez went through, also involving Kavanaugh and a bunch of other Yale classmates sexually assaulting a young, drunk, female freshmen in their class. So all in all, I think Ramirez and Steyer provide a lot of both new content and a lot of sort of firsthand accounts of this story that gives it an added depth to go along with the fact that it really does give you a really good chronological overview of the story itself. remind me, during the 2018 confirmation, we didn't get to hear from Deborah Ramirez. We knew about her, but she did not, if I'm remembering correctly, testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the way that Dr. Christine Blazy Ford did. That's right. Yeah, she didn't. And Christine Blaisey Ford does appear in this film, but only for a few seconds at the beginning of the film, you see her talking to Lehman and then she really is out of the film in terms of a new material. She is

front and center in all of the archival material. I think that was probably the reason in which Lehman went to Debbie Ramirez and convinced her, I don't know whether she needed convincing or not, I'm just saying he went and got her to really tell her story, which hadn't been heard in the way that boards had been, obviously very publicly, so that those accusations couldn't be swept under the rug. Now, they were reported on by the New Yorker, and she talks at length about her experience working with Ronan Farrow and the New Yorker and the way in which that process helped to bring about all of the memories of her experience with Kavanaugh, which she had suppressed. But I think in that regard, that is sort of the hook of this film, that it gives her a voice and a platform

that she hasn't had before. Let me ask you this. Obviously, you're an entertainment critic, so this is not your first rodeo at Sundance. Is there anything that would lead you to believe this was made secret for any other reason than say it hadn't been finished or it, you know, it wasn't ready for prime time? Like, what would be the reasoning behind in just your thoughts on why this would come on the slate so late and that there would only be two screenings when we know that most films receive multiple? Well, I don't know anything officially, so this is just speculation. But there are any number of reasons why it could be. It could be that the film is unfinished. And I think that watching the film, there is a sense that it isn't completed, not because there's some new piece of evidence or a new interview that's going to necessarily materialize, but it just feels rough around the edges from a formal standpoint. So I do think it was a bit rushed to get in. So that may very well have been. one of the reasons. But you could also certainly imagine a scenario in which, given the subject matter here, and given the potential blowback, the right wing might have against a documentary like this, or Brett Kavanaugh, or his camp, or any number of people, that keeping it secret

for as long as possible, sort of kept all of that at bay and allowed them to present the film and to get this story out and their version of things out without having to first be on the defensive. And then by minimizing the screenings, you sort of keep it out of the hands of, you know, political critics, I would say, not film critics, but opponents who might have a real beef with it. So it becomes a thing where they get to make their case

and then keep it quiet. But again, I don't know that it isn't being screened more simply because it isn't finished. and they just wanted to have this platform. You can imagine a number of scenarios, but certainly there's been a lot of talk about it here at Sundance and the people that didn't get to see it, I know are somewhat disappointed

that there hasn't been greater access to the film since Friday night. Nick, let me ask you this. As somebody who followed that confirmation with eyes wide open, and I have a tendency, unlike the Senate Judiciary Committee, to actually believe when they offer up their experience with sexual assault. What does the viewer, say somebody who may not have wanted to follow the Kavanaugh case, what does a regular entertainment viewer, somebody who likes documentaries, what are you gaining,

you think, watching justice? I think the main thing you're getting is you are getting the complete story in a very compact, authoritative fashion. This isn't a film that is looking to break ground formally. It's very much looking to retell this story through both archival means and through first-person narratives. And I think that gives it both an objectivity because there's a lot of archival material used from the news broadcasts and from news outlets, but then also gives it a very personal element that I think hammers home the scope and the depth of the alleged crimes that have gone on here. So I think you really are getting both of those things at once.

People who are newshounds who really did follow this story intensely will probably get less from it than those who watched it more casually or don't know anything about it. But documentaries like this, even if they're not completely groundbreaking in any particular way, do think serve a historical purpose. They form a historical record. And that's valuable rather than having to go on, say, Google and read six different articles from different points during this saga. You get the entire story here, especially because to some extent, this story does have an ending unless perhaps justice compels the FBI or somebody else to reinvestigate these things or relitigate them in some way. This is very much. a full story from start to finish in a compelling and easily digestible way.

You know, one of the things that you mentioned in your piece, particularly about Steyer, who would corroborate the memory of Deborah Ramirez and her time at Yale and the assault that she faced at that time is that Steyer offered up this very same information to the FBI, along with the other 3,500 tips that the FBI ignored and sent over what they thought in terms of tips and a report directly to the Trump administration without actually making any of this public in any way and we found out after the fact.

Can you tell us more about Steyer and what we learn about him and what he faced, I guess, in terms of wanting to offer up this information, it not being taken up by the FBI, Deborah Ramirez wouldn't end up testifying before the Senate judiciary because Republicans blocked her ability to do so. Tell us more about him and his relationship with Deborah and with Kavanaugh. Steyer is sort of a mysterious figure in this film, and I think in this story, because he hasn't been willing to speak publicly about it, even though people know he is involved. So his appearance in this film is both, I think, the biggest bomb show. shell and yet not a total bombshell because he has been associated with the story in the past. In terms of

how it works in the film, Doug Lehman winds up getting an anonymous tip that brings him to a person who then brings him to another person who has a copy of the Steyer tape. And we don't see Steyer in the film. We only hear him. But clearly he was a classmate of Brett Kavanaugh's. He lived in the same dorm as Kavanaugh, just a floor, I believe, above or below him. And, And he did know him casually, even though it didn't sound like they were great friends at the time. But he certainly knew of Kavanaugh's reputation. And when this story first came out, and Debbie Ramirez in particular, I think in the New Yorker, came out, Steyer knew things from his own time, both from having heard the story about Ramirez when he was in college,

and also the fact that he had witnessed this very similar assault. And I think that was one of the reasons he had not liked Kavanaugh during college. Not surprisingly, if you had seen such a thing. As for the tip, the film definitely does spend time making a quite obvious critical case against the way in which this hearing was handled, and in particular the way in which Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Remedy, and the other accusers, claims were investigated or rather weren't investigated. The FBI received all of these tips, including Steyers, but thousands of others, and yet didn't investigate most of

them, and more shockingly handed over all of the quote-unquote relevant tips, which are the ones I think that were most damning to the White House, which was basically handing over evidence to the very people that wanted it suppressed, and then the fact that nothing came of it, we didn't get any real FBI investigation. The confirmation went on as planned, and that sort of ended everything, because once he was confirmed,

there was no further need for an investigation, so to speak, winds up, I think, in the film certainly suggesting that this was rigged somehow, that there was a concerted effort here, between the White House, Kavanaugh's team, and Christopher Ray's FBI, to get this thing to happen, meaning the confirmation, without looking into these things too far. They gave Ford her chance to testify. She did it, but I don't think they wanted to go further, or at least certainly that's the case the

movie makes, and I think at the end, you do get a sense that they are without stating it outright, censoring the FBI as well as Kavanaugh himself for not more fully looking into this and taking the women who had come forward seriously in a way that might have actually led to change or even just delays, even if it hadn't stopped Kavanaugh's confirmation in the long run. I can't help but remember how truly disgusting Brett Kavanaugh was at his confirmation hearing, the screaming, the yelling, the red face, and this was him sober. And I think that what is really telling about each of these stories that are told, it is creating the character and image of a booze-filled, egotistical, privileged white guy

who can do whatever the hell he wants. And so to that extent, Nick, like, you know, what is the taste in the mouth that is left with the viewers with justice? I think you've articulated it quite well, in fact, the film definitely does give space to Kavanaugh himself. And in particular, it gives a lot of time to his own testimony when he tried to rebut Dr. Ford's testimony. And yes, there is certainly a portrait that emerges here of a man who, from an early age, was certainly somebody who drank heaven. and who liked to behave in a sort of boys' club fashion, whether it was in high school, whether it was once he got to Yale, he very much was a privileged guy who acted like a sort

of boorish, alcohol challenged individual who lots of people testify in the films. Whenever they saw him, he was exceedingly inebriated and that he carried a himself, along with a lot of other guys that he ran with, in a way that acted as though they were coated in Teflon and that they could do as they pleased. And all of the stories and accusations that have come out about him sort of reinforce that image. And he himself reinforces that image in the testimony, in terms of his evasions, in terms of his anger, which seems, I think, Rick Wilson from the Lincoln Project rightfully claims in the film that that seems very much like a strategic put on his outrage. He's, I think, a guy who just thinks he could get away with

whatever he wanted because of who he was, because of where he was, because of various privileges that he had. And unfortunately, that's what this story sort of shows is true, that to some extent he wasn't wrong in thinking those things. That may be distasteful and disgusting and may have led to horrible behavior and a lot of damage done to a lot of women. But I do think that part of the injustice of justice is that he didn't just behave this way, that he was right to think that he could get away with it because we have systems in place that allow guys like this to continue to thrive and to not suffer consequences for their actions. Yeah, and he certainly found the White House to push forward his confirmation as the Trump

administration, aside from his drinking, which Donald Trump does not share, but every single other character note that you just made is indicative of Donald Trump and everyone, every man that has been associated with that White House. Nick, one, you're writing and this piece, was great, even though I was one of those news hounds that did follow the case. I hope to have the ability to see justice with my own eyes. And maybe, just maybe, I don't know, the Justice Department may want to take a second look at Brett Kavanaugh, but, you know, that would require a spine. Nick Shaker, thank you so much for making the time to join the new abnormal. Really appreciate you. Thank you so much for having me.

Andy Levy. Danielle Moody. Who is your extraordinary? I know it's hard to pick. Fuck that guy of the beginning of this week. Okay, well, I'm going to take a break from Ron DeSantis. It may only be a one-day break. I don't know.

We'll have to see what happens this week. And believe me, there was stuff that I could have used him for today. But I'm going to come closer to home for me and talk about something that happened over the weekend at a Drake show here at the Apollo Theater in New York City, in Harlem. After the show, a New York Times reporter named John Caramanica videotaped a uniformed NYPD officer videotaping everyone leaving the concert. He's holding a what looks like an iPhone on a sort of a stabilizer type thing. And he literally was just was just videotaping people exiting the Apollo theater.

And I can name at least 100 reasons why this is a really bad idea. So the NYPD was asked about this and a spokesperson for deputy commissioner said, the officer depicted in the video is a community affairs officer involved with the 28th precinct social media team. The officer was taking video for an upcoming Twitter post that will highlight local community events. The video will not be utilized for any other reason. Now, Danielle, I don't know about you, but I believe them. They have given me no reason to lie and no reason to think that surveilling a theater, a theater in Harlem, again, I'm going to.

just say it, a theater in Harlem, and surveilling and capturing video of people leaving said theater could ever be used in a way that is, shall we say, not benevolent? And I don't give a shit if they're using, they shouldn't be using it to take video for an upcoming Twitter post. That's not your fucking job. You're the NYPD. And if they can't figure out why the history of the NYPD makes this a bad idea and why the optics of it are horrible, regardless of their intention, even if you give them the benefit of the doubt, they are some dumbass motherfuckers and should not be in those jobs because this looks horrible. It quite frankly is horrible because they can say all they want that the video won't be used for any other reason. We know damn well that when push comes to

shove, the NYPD and any police organization will use any video it can get its hands on in any way it wants. So my fuck-that-guy for today is the NYPD for doing this, and I really hope they don't know where I live because I'm not far from the Apollo Theater. All I have to say is that this has facial recognition and AI written all over it. And you know what people I don't trust with any of that software technology? The fucking police. Yep.

So who is your fuck-that-guy for today, Daniel? Oh, Andy, I'm so glad that you asked. Is it Rhonda Santis? No, it is another one of our favorites, but for a different reason than normal, which is representative, and I use that in air quotes, Matt Gates, Republican from Florida. And why? Because Matt Gates has decided that a really good thing to do, you know, when we've had more shootings this year than days on the calendar, I believe that we're somewhere at 33 and we've just had a mass shooting that killed 10 people and injured another 10. has proposed a one piece of page legislation to scrap the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Explosives, better known as the ATF, because they announced that there will be pistol-stabilizing braces. So this is what they said. Last week, the Justice Department announced that pistol-stabilizing braces that effectively convert pistols into short-barreled rifles will be covered by existing regulations

for rifles in the National Firearms Acts. And of course, Matt Gates, who is a big proponent of hosing with weapons of mass destructions because he's an Instagram model for guns, cited that this is a complete overreach of the ATF in regulating these pistol destabilizers because everyone should be able to turn their pistol into a weapon of mass destruction, right? because that's what we need more of in America. We need more shootings. We need more politicians to, you know, cook bacon on their AR-15s and put their children,

line them up in a row and show that they're holding guns that are bigger than them. Like, that's what makes us strong. Don't you get it? Matt Gates, you are a fucking idiot. And the fact that this man, who we know loves him, some underage girls, allegedly, is still in Congress to be able to propose legislation just as, once again an affront on our government and our supposed rules. He's my fuck that guy forever, but particularly now, after another mass shooting, for this.

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