The Daily Beast Podcast - Tucker Carlson Laid Down to Donald Trump During Humiliating Fox Interview

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

On this week’s episode of The New Abnormal, Tucker Carlson’s humiliating Trump turnaround,. Plus! Rolling Stone culture writer Miles Klee talks to us about the myth that when corporations go woke, they go broke and Daily Beast politics reporter Ursula Perano talks to us about Montana Republicans' big plan. 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. 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. First we'll be joined by Rolling Stone Culture writer Miles Clee, who's going to talk to us about the myth that when corporations go woke, they go broke. Then we'll talk to Daily Beast politics reporter Ursula Perineau, who will talk to us about Montana's Republicans plan to make it so that John Tester can't win his Senate seat back. But first, let's have some fun. So, Andy, I'm not sure if you're aware. but there is an exciting candidate that jumped into the Republican primary for 2024.

Really? With an exploratory committee, I can't think of for the life of me who the fuck would be on this committee. But Tim Scott, you know him, heard of him? Tim Scott. Yes. He's my favorite black puppet. Is that the guy from the office? Basically, yes, yes.

Yeah, no one knows why Tim Scott thinks that he could be president. of the United States. I mean, I guess it's because he carries the water for white supremacy and rolls out the red carpet for it. And it seems to be making a comeback. So maybe that's it. But other than that, Tim Scott, please, please, do us all a favor. Don't waste your money or time.

I maybe get the feeling that Tim Scott is running to be the black vice presidential candidate. Yeah. Maybe. I don't know, thinking that maybe Trump will look at him. And I'm just going to assume it's Trump at this point. He killed his other black friends, so that makes sense. So, yeah, he might be thinking that, but I don't really know. But at least I was looking at some of the things he said in his announcement,

and at least he sounds different from all the other Republicans. He said there's this new concept being spread by the far left, and it's like a drug of victimhood and the narcotic of despair. And he just goes on from there. I realized all these guys, like, they all. sound the same when they launched these national campaigns. They all sound like Trump light or maybe DeSantis light. And I think it's not like chat GPT. It's it's chat DJT. I think I think they just ask an AI to say things that they think Trump would say. Correct. And then they put a speech together

because it's just it's all so lame and it's all just the same stuff. And it's just, uh, what are you doing? No one knows. No one knows. Well, we've probably already spent too much time talking about Tim Scott? Yeah. Is my guess? Mm-hmm. Oh, some good juicy stuff in the Fox versus Dominion trial. Your old stopping ground is starting to look like a marsh, my friend. It really is. Yeah, I can't say I've been sorry for a single minute since I left.

The judge in that case took the fairly unusual step of imposing sanctions on Fox for withholding evidence. And Abby Grossberg, she was a producer for Maria Bartaromo and then moved over to Tucker, where she was, I think, a producer slash booker. And she's now involved in a lawsuit with Fox claiming that she was set up. Yeah, but the lawsuit has to do with her not being promoted. And that's not the story right now. The story right now is she apparently, not apparently, she did. She taped on her phone using an app on her phone. She taped off-air conversations with people like Rudy Giuliani and with Trump advisors. And basically what we hear is them telling Maria Bartaromo that, yeah, they don't really have any evidence for all this election fraud that they're then going on the network and spouting about.

I mean, it's really something. There's a clip of a Trump campaign official talking about the machines in Georgia, which they made a very big deal about. And then he goes on to say this. Are any of the machines, I know it was on War Room the other day with Steve Bannon, have any of the machines been looked at? He had said that one was looked at in Georgia. In terms of Georgia, I know during the audit they did check on those machines. We just go off the record for one second.

Yeah, it should, of course. I don't want us to say it if it's not. That's why we're checking. I would, I think they have looked at the machines. when the Secretary of State did its audit, there was a lot, I think, a fair bit of looking at the machines. You know, the audit came in pretty darn close to what the machine count was with the receipts. So, you know, I don't know the outcome of those, but our understanding, again, this is what the Secretary of State's office was that there weren't any physical issues with machines on those inspections. First of all, let me just ask this question.

Have you ever felt the need to tape an employer? Have you ever felt the need when you were walking into a meeting to put a recording device on your phone and app and tape the meeting? Because I just find that like... Well, I did work at Fox. Oh, that's true. You know, that's very true. I never did that, but there were times I thought about it. Because, you know, from Michael Cohen who got Donald Trump on tape to now Abby, who has, you know, Giuliani and others on tape, I'm just like,

like, you know that you're working for shady fucking people. You know that you, like, you know what I'm saying? So it's just like, I don't feel not like this is supposed to make us feel bad for her. Because I don't, because I'm just like, you were rolling in bed with shady fucking people because you felt the need to have backup information in case you were double crossed. It's okay when they're rolling cahoots against the same group of people, those being the American people and Democrats. But when all of the of a sudden those swords are pointed at you, you're like, oh, no, I'm going to need this for evidence. And so it's just, it's amazing to me, just that one thing that always stands out from these folks is that they don't even trust their own coworkers.

So that just leads you to believe that succession was not really fiction. Like, it really wasn't at all. And it makes me wonder, too, about Murdoch, you know, throwing his whole team. and people underneath the bus. And I'm like, does that mean that he ends up saving himself? But I got to tell you that the split screens that Alex Wagner on MSNBC put up from, you know, the recordings, listening to the recordings and then the split screen of what was being said on Fox, listening to the recordings that Abby had and then listening to Trump that

day at a rally talking about Dominion and how they can't be trusted and all of these just fabricated fucking lies of the numbers. Oh, people would go into a voting booth and they'd hit Biden and get 10 votes and none for Trump. I love when he's talking about himself. I know. It's great. And none for Trump in the third person. But it is really like, did you know, I know you left a long time ago, Andy? And clearly the space has morphed. But was it that shady? Like, were you watching your back while you were there? No. I mean, look, I worked on a, you know, I worked on red eye, which is a 3 a.m. news comedy show. So it was just, I had such a different experience. Like, I have no idea what it would have been like working for Tucker or Bill O'Reilly back in the

day or Hannity. I honestly don't know. I mean, I do think, as you said, it's definitely changed since I was there. And there were people like, one of Tucker's big shot executive producers now, he was a little dweeby producer when I would see him at Fox. And it's like, man, I cannot believe that you are now like this evil person just putting lies on the air and you know their lies. And that was one of the things about what Alex Wagner on MSNBC got these recordings, Abby Grossberg's legal team, I think gave them to her. And as you said, she showed the recordings and then she showed Trump saying the exact opposite. But she also, which look, we all know Trump lied about this stuff. But for terms of this lawsuit, what she showed also was she showed Fox interviewing Trump

and Fox interviewing people and Fox saying these things that they had been told were not true. And that gets exactly to the heart of this Dominion lawsuit. And that's why the judge took this. Again, my understanding is this is a pretty unusual step, this sanctioning of the one party for withholding information, withholding evidence or whatever. The stuff like this gets to the heart of this case that Fox did this willfully. And, you know, the other step they have to prove is that they did it with malice in order to prove. defamation. But I mean, it seems 100% crystal clear that they did this willingly because you have these tapes of, again, Trump campaign officials of people like Rudy Giuliani saying, yeah, we haven't

really found anything there. We haven't really cracked that truth nut, you know? Yeah, exactly. And then you see, you know, not only do you see Trump saying this shit at campaign rallies, but you see Fox people interviewing people who say that shit and they don't call them on it at all. They just let it stand unchallenged. Yeah. I mean, I think that what the sanction does for Dominion if in fact they wanted to move forward with more depositions they could. But then it would delay the trial, which is set to begin, I think, in a couple of weeks. And so whether or not Dominion is going to decide for more defamation testimony, we don't know yet. But I just think, like, Dominion has already made their case.

Like they have, I don't see where the Fox attorneys are just like, oh, we had no idea. Like it's been blown out of the water. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why they don't try and settle. Because I'm like they don't seem to have a legal leg to stand on here. I think they have tried to settle and Dominion has said no. Oh, okay. Which I hope continues. I guess I wouldn't blame Dominion if they got a shitload of money out of this.

But I think it's actually really important that this case goes to trial. Oh, no. I think it's important that it goes to trial. But I think that if they were to settle, for me, if I were Dominion, not only what I want the money, which is what, obviously, which is what they're going after, but also they want an apology. And I would make it so that on every single newscast, you get that blank screen, you know, like you get before a movie that says NC17 that says this, that and the other thing, it says our, you know, our former coverage of the 2020 election was a lie.

Like something that would just illuminate for viewers, because again, we're the only ones that know about this trial. Fox viewers don't know about this trial. So something that would sound the alarm to their viewers, to me, would be how I would want to move forward. Honestly, the only thing that would work for me is if the anchors and the host actually had to say it. Oh, yeah. Yep. It'd be really tough for, I think, for Murdoch to accept that. But if I were Dominion, I'd say, look, the only possible.

way we settle this is if we get Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingram and Sean Hannity. And I, you know, I would just make it every host of a Fox show for, you know, from morning till midnight or whatever it is, has to read a statement saying that they misled their viewers and they, you know, presented stuff that they knew to be untrue. Can you imagine if they had to do that? It would be the nail in the coffin. It would be the nail in the coffin for Fox and any entity that tries to model itself after Fox. And I think it would be a game changer. For this to happen ahead of the 2024 election, I think that this would be a game changer. Yeah, I hope so.

I mean, I'm so cynical about the Fox audience that I just, I could see the Fox viewers just sitting there going, oh, yeah, they were forced to read that. None of that is true. You know, they had to, they had to make this ugly, woke law. lawsuit go away. So they're being forced to read this. And they'll just continue to watch Fox from the time they get up to the time they get to go to bed because that's what Fox viewers do. But look, I do think you're right in the sense that maybe it would make the network itself think twice. Although they haven't, you know, as this as this pretrial stuff is going on, they continue to lie every day on air. So it doesn't seem to be making any difference yet. So it's just who the hell knows what they are. are such a world unto themselves that I get very wary of saying that this would be the nail in the coffin or this would be the end of, they just have a resiliency with their viewership to just bounce back from stuff like this. I mean, look at Tucker interviewed Trump the other day. Yeah. What did it remind me of what he called Trump in those text messages that we learned like, you know.

Demonic force. Demony. Yes. He just. And I wish that the title of that interview. was Tucker sits down with demonic force. Right. That would have been great. That would have been great.

Wearing a big cross around his neck. Yeah. Garlic. Yeah. Actually, garlic's way too spicy for Tucker. I'm sorry. Oh, my God. The bland of the bland. But that, I mean, that interview, it's not even,

you can't call. No. Tucker just sat there like a puppet and allowed Trump to just go on a diatribe. An interview, you ask, actual questions and you want to get to the heart or the they're there. That's not what this is. It's like Tucker Carlson getting on screen and being able to fan girl over Donald Trump and Donald Trump just being able to go on these long-winded diatribs where he attacks Biden over Easter

because that's what evil does. Like just he's like, ah, and then Al Roker asked him about the Easter egg roll. I'm like, did they even have an Easter egg roll during the Trump administration? I don't remember. Like, all I remember are the scary blood Christmas tree. Right. But I'm pretty sure, you know, they had gone away with that tradition as well and throwing it to the wind. But it's just, there is no interview with Donald Trump. Donald Trump is just going to sit there and spew lies and Tucker Carlson's not going to interrupt him and is not going to ask him a question because he holds the key to all of his viewers, to all of his support. And if it were to even look like Tucker Carlson was a whiff of a man, like a whiff, then he would see his ratings take a nose dive.

Yeah, this was Tucker being a good little submissive. Mm-mm. Come on. Which, you know, no judgments generally, but these are the people who sort of, you know, pride themselves on being the so-called alpha males and stuff like that. So it was absolutely hilarious to have Carlson sitting there and literally taking his punishment for being a bad boy. because that's exactly what this was. And as you said, this was not an interview.

The part I do get a kick out of was Trump telling his little story about how when he was arraigned in court, all the people in the court were crying. Like tears of joy? Like what does he mean? No, he's claiming they were crying because they were so upset at what they were doing to Trump. That was me being Trump saying Trump. This has been like a meme for a long time about him, how he talks about how, you know,

big men come up to me, you know, tough men, and they cry, and they say, Mr. Trump, we need you in office. And he just, he did the same shtick again, and Tucker just sat there and nodded. And that's all he does. And he nods. He says, of course. He says for sure. He laughs when Trump says weird things. As Philip Bump in the Washington Post reported, Trump said something about how nuclear warming is more of a problem than global warming. And Tucker's response was, what you're saying is demonstrably true. Does he know what demonstrably means? Oh, does he know what true means? I mean, you know, that may be two words that he doesn't know what they mean, but he put them together into a little phrase. That's what fox hosts do. It's just amazing that, again, this alpha man who will run stories

about how you're supposed to tan your balls or whatever it is. Yeah, tan testicles, eat raw eggs. Apparently don't drink Budweiser because they have drag queens in their advertising. The list goes on and on of what masculinity is considered for Republican men. Yeah. And apparently it includes sitting there and I'm just going to keep using the word and being a good little submissive to Trump. Come on, Tucker. It's one of those things. Like there's so much of this on the right where something is actually hilarious and you want

to just laugh at it. But then you're like, okay, yeah, that part of it's funny. But the part where he let Donald Trump speak. unchallenged for however long that was, that's not funny. And that's bad for the country. And so you can't even, it sucks it. You just can't laugh at this thing. It's like the way I used to be, I used to be really into conspiracy theories. Like just as a fun thing. Like the moon landing was fake and chem trails and all that stuff. And the last like, you know, whatever it's been, six, seven years have taken all the fun out of, yeah, and interested in conspiracy theory. Because the inquirer sits in the House of Republican Chamber. Yeah, it's all QAnon, and it's all like all these conspiracies like are literally getting people killed. And they've done the same thing with you want to watch something and just laugh and sort of enjoy how unbelievably stupid it is. But then you're like, you know what, I can't. I can't just laugh.

And it sucks. Moving on to actual men. Yes. To actual men, to real men that showed perseverance and power. It is a wonderful thing to be able to see the Justin's, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, the state Tennessee representatives who were expelled for daring to participate in democracy and stand with their constituents against the persistence of gun violence, be reinstated to their posts. Because like I had said earlier in the week, there clearly is nothing more dangerous than an intelligent black man with a bullhorn. That is more dangerous to Republicans than white people with weapons because of the correlation that they wanted to make.

make about January 6th and the Tennessee 3 standing with their constituents. But they have been reinstated. And it's a beautiful thing to see. And I know that we shouldn't be cheering for what should have never happened in the first place. But I got to say, Andy, that the way that people in Tennessee, young people in particular showed out day after day in the gallery in the streets has really given me hope about not abandoning red states. Yeah, absolutely. And And kudos to both of those guys, and I'm so glad that they're back where they belong. This whole thing reminds me of the old Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte movie 48 hours, when Eddie Murphy walks into the bar and he's got Nick Nolte's badge, and he walks into a redneck bar, and he says,

I'm your worst nightmare. I'm an N-word with a badge. This makes me think of that. It's like this, like you said, this is their worst nightmare. This is two smart black men who are standing up for what they believe, and nothing. is scarier to people like those Tennessee Republicans than black men doing like that. And it's great to see and definite good job by the Metro councils or whatever that sent them both back. That is like just one of the best fuck you gestures we've seen in a really long time. Yeah. A lot more powerful than Kid Rock

shooting at Bud Light cans. Yeah. In my humble opinion. Yeah, in your humble opinion. But you know, What Justin Pearson said this week after he was reinstated is that what the white supremacist Republican Party did was awake in a giant, a sleeping giant, because it was just so obvious, so blatant. You know what I'm saying? Like when you make acts in the way that they did, oh, we're going to, we have three people. One of them happens to be a white woman. We're not going to expel her.

Oh, because she didn't use a bull. What's in the fine print? Oh, she didn't use a boy. a bullhorn, right? But the two young black representatives were going to expel. And when you see blatant racism like that, like you can't make another excuse for it, I think that he's right in what has been awakened in Tennessee. And frankly, I was grateful to be reminded of the history of Tennessee, being the founding, you know, place of the Klu Klux Klan and understand what is in the soil and in the veins of the Republican Party that is there.

All I can say is that I hope that those men are protected because they have been catapulted to fame, rightfully so. I don't trust them, people. I really don't. That's all I will say. Go woke, go broke. That's the expression used by large swaths of the right to describe what they think happens to companies that, well, to companies that do whatever it is they're defining as woke that day.

But is this true or is it wishcasting? Joining us now, someone who claims to have the answer to that question, Rolling Stone Culture Writer, Miles Klee. Miles, thanks for being here. Hey, fellas, what's up? So, as you allude to in your piece, right now the right, and by the right, I mean mostly horrible white rappers, busted country singers and dudes wearing Oakley Blades. But the right is mad at Anheiser Bush because of some little partnership it has with trans-tick-Tick-Tick-Tick-Tor star, Dylan Mulvaney, and with Jack Daniels, because I guess they just discovered some ads from 2021,

featuring drag queens. Obviously, it's too soon to know if this will negatively affect those companies' bottom lines. But based on what you learned by looking at similar fits that have been thrown, do you think they have anything to worry about? No, I do not think they have a single thing to worry about. And in fact, there's maybe even a case to be made that they're going to profit from the outrage. Oh, that would be a shame. All right, so let's take a look at some of the companies that you research. Let's start with, I guess, with Courage. Remind people what this was about. Yeah, so this is a bit of a weird one. Kind of goes back to 2017. Currig pulled their ads from Hannity because Hannity was defending Roy Moore for being a sex pest, which he was. And people got so mad about that. And I guess defensive with regard to Hannity that they started shooting videos of themselves destroying their current coffee makers. There was a good one of someone just kind of dropping it off of like a three story height. And yeah, kind of saying that this company was done. But in fact, they then acquired Dr. Pepper and became, basically like the third largest beverage company in the world.

There's, it's just not even a drop in the bucket, this kind of like performative outrage. Yeah. And then there's United Airlines. What were they guilty of and did it hurt them? Yeah. So United Airlines announced a really broad kind of diversity and inclusion initiative. The idea was that half of the pilots they were going to train in their flight academy were going to be women and or people of color. The Wright had a real meltdown about this claiming basically that the airline was putting, passenger safety kind of as a lower priority than this diversity initiative and implying that these people were not going to be qualified to fly the planes, which is strange because the whole thing was that, you know, the people are going through a flight academy. They're not just picking up people

at the bus station and making them pilots. So, yeah, again, there was a big threat of boycotts. United is, you know, doing great. They've rebounded from the pandemic. This outrage was like 2018 or so. So, you know, they did have the struggles that every airline had over the coronavirus incident. But they're fine. It's just not something that ultimately influences like where they go as a company whatsoever. Yeah. I mean, I want to get to other ones, but it does seem that like with a lot of these, they sort of forget about it in a week anyway. Yeah. And it is really hard to commit to a boycott, like in any case, I think, but especially when we're talking about these companies that basically become monopolies.

Like, and Houser Bush is an interesting example because, you know, this is the biggest brewer in the world. Like, they are this mega conglomerate international. And Kid Rock shooting some beers is like good for likes and content and it kind of whips up the crowd, right? But ultimately, that's all it is. And if you're going to try to find like another beer that is not woke, like, well, I mean, a lot of people try to go to course, but course has, you know, is like a pride sponsor. And they do all the same stuff.

It's just good business for them because they're trying to broaden their customer base. And doing this outreach to these other communities is how they do it. It's hilarious to watch them. Like you said, I think it was Jesse Kelly did a whole thing about, you know, No More Bud. And then he had a picture of like a Coors light. I don't know if it was a 12-pack or an 18. pack or something. And then he had a tweet later, well, just found out about cores. It's just, it's absolutely hilarious because they're just so dumb. He said it takes an hour of

research before you can buy a beer now. Oh my God. And yeah, ultimately they're not going to be doing that research. They just, it's too much work. Why would you do that? Oh, no, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So Disney's in the news almost every week. They're being yelled at by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. They're being called groomers. They're outraging the kind of people who get outraged when a black woman is cast as a mermaid. Surely Disney must be close to bankruptcy. Yeah, yeah. They're shutting down the Magic Kingdom. Yeah. Goofy is in line for unemployment. Yeah, it's really tough times down there at Disney. No, the parks have had surging attendance, which I think is interesting because that that would basically be the easiest part of Disney to boycott,

right? Just don't go to Epcot or whatever. But, they're doing better than ever. And, you know, I got a little pushback on this one because Disney, like so many other companies right now, has had a lot of layoffs. But layoffs aren't really like an indicator that the company is failing. In fact, they just like make more money that way. Right. And that's also like a global trend. That is, you know, everyone in tech and everyone in entertainment and all these huge companies have had laid off thousands of people. But that's because they like a lot of them over expanded, especially the tech companies over expanded during COVID. And now they're like, well, this is the way to get their bottom line in shape and to make billions more dollars is just you just fire all these people. And that's not an indicator that like, oh, they're panicking because like, you know, anti-woke backlash has made them unprofitable. That's just not the case. Yeah, like you said, park attendance would seem to be the absolute easiest way to measure this. And as you say, the attendance there is up. So not only has this not affected them negatively,

And look, I'm not saying attendance is up because of this, but things are going in the right direction for Disney despite all this trouble that is trying to be stirred up. Yeah, and it gets more expensive to go to those parks every year. So if the attendance is up, then, you know, people are really viving with Disney. I guess. Yeah. Okay. But what about there's a little bespoke company out of Oregon. I think it is called Nike or Nike.

They seem to get under the anti-woke crowd skin a lot. there was the partnership with Colin Kaepernick, who I think is in the top five most hated men in America list for those people. And now they're collaborating with, again, with this trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Can this mom and pop shop withstand the barbarians at the gate? Yeah, I don't know. It's going to be tough for them. The only thing they have going for them is a Ben Affleck directed movie about their founder. They might scrape through. Yeah, the Kaepernick thing was, you know, a few years ago now, you know, all this stuff really generates from like the first year of Trump's presidency. That seems to be like when a lot of the stuff started taking off.

That was when Currick happened. That was when Kaepernick happened. And yeah, there was a big meltdown over Kaepernick. And I think the funniest and most famous images are people either burning their Nikes or my personal favorite. I think this was Clay Travis maybe cutting the swooshes off of his socks. So just so just ruining the socks. Like, I don't know why you wouldn't just destroy the sock itself, because it's not usable after that. They really tried it. But Nike, to this day, oddly enough, is the largest manufacturer of footwear and athletic

wear in the world. And I think you would be hard pressed to walk down the street anywhere in America and not see someone wearing some Nike stuff. So, yeah, culturally remaining a huge force after that. And I don't think this like the Dylan Mulvaney thing. thing just recently is sort of, that's all going to get very lost in the wash, too, because people are focused on Bud Light. Right.

And yeah, if Colin couldn't take them down, then this isn't going to happen. Yeah, that's just what I was going to say, because that was the big one. I mean, like I said, the hatred for Kaepernick on the right is just off the charts. And if that's not going to move the needle, I don't think Dylan Mulvaney, who, honestly, I think most people either hadn't heard of before all this or still haven't heard of it. Yeah. Like Kid Rock certainly hadn't heard of Dylan Mulvaney before. for someone exaggerated this particular partnership, which a lot of them don't even really

understand not only the larger business dynamics, but just like the smaller kind of like endorsement deals. Like, you know, there were a lot of people under the mistaken impression that like all Bud Light is going to have Dylan Mulvaney's face on it. It was right. One can that they gave her to show on Instagram. The average consumer will never, never, never know that such an endorsement happened. So, yeah, but Colin was big enough.

bad enough to them that they tried to cancel the NFL, too. They were trying to boycott the NFL and saying, you know, this sport is over. That I would categorize as the most like quixotic cancellation of all is that you're going to take down the NFL. I want to get to that because you know, you talk to there are other companies like Amazon and Kellogg's and the results are absolutely the same, basically no impact at all from these anti-woke campaigns. But when you're talking about a brand so beloved across Red America,

as the NFL, surely it must have suffered huge consequences from this. You can't tell me that allowing its players to kneel for the national anthem, all the little nods made by the league in the direction of social justice, things like the playing of the black national anthem before this year's Super Bowl, that the NFL's popularity hasn't been totally destroyed. It must have been. Yeah, you know, it's a past time whose time has passed. It's over.

No, attendance is up. And again, that's like very much in line with the Disney thing where it's like not only our people still watching. People are going to the games more. It is a more active and engaged audience than ever. I don't know. I mean, there is the thing with the NFL where they sort of walked back like some of the quote unquote wokeness. Like you're not going to see people kneeling at the games anymore, but that's one thing. And there is always something to complain about still, right? Because the black national anthem is a great example where they did it in the stadium for the first time this year for the Super Bowl. and yeah, of course, there's always going to be some noise about that,

but it just ends up being hot air. And ultimately, you are there sitting there watching the Super Bowl. That's how you know this anthem is being stopped. Right. Right. And you're going to be there watching the Super Bowl the next year. It's the same principle as, you know, buying the beer so you could destroy it. Like, that's not a boycott.

Right. Yeah. To be fair, Travis Tritt is not going to allow any, I guess, Is that Anheuser-Busch and Jack Daniels, or is it just Jack Daniels products in his, he's going to put in his rider that they're not allowed to have any of those? Yeah, and not only that he apologized for having Anheuser-Busch be a sponsor in the 90s, which to my mind was like the last time he was on tour. Like, is he on tour now?

Yeah, it really is amazing. You know, again, it's always, it's like the handful of people. It's the kid rocks and whatever. And look, Kid Rock was definitely popular back in the day. I don't know what kind of album sales he gets these days or record or song sales or you know, look, he may sell out his tours or whatever, but he's not, you know, he's not exactly the mover and shaker in the music industry. No, he's like a grandpa who, you know, plays a redneck online when he's from, you know, like a rich part of Michigan. Right. The funniest thing about Kid Rock, okay, I went back a little whiz and found he was a course spokesman.

He did Coors ads in like 2002. And if you watch someone sent me this clip, it's from Punkton, I think. He's just on the red carpet with Pamela Anderson. And he's saying his fridge is always stocked full of Coors original at home. He's not a Bud Light drinker. Like, I don't. So like, I had someone even tried to argue with me. Like, how do you know he bought those but?

Like, maybe he was just getting rid of what he had. I'm like, all, first of all, that still means he bought them. I don't know what that argument is. Right. But also, he's a course guy. He's always been a course guy. So it's, he very, very obviously to me just bought those cases of beer to destroy them. And I don't know.

Like people get very defensive. Even when you kind of describe like basically what is happening there, like, I had people try to argue with me that he wasn't crying in that video. He's very clearly crying. Like I don't know how you can debate this. That's exactly the kind of denial that I think allows you to believe that this company is going down in flames as a result of, you know, their woke partnerships. Which is by the way, is all meaningless.

Like no company is woke. of course they're not doing this because they're like filled with like deep virtue it's to sell more beer obviously yeah none of these companies are activists in any sense of the word but it is really funny because they think and i think you embedded this tweet in your article i think it was bridget gabriel during the united thing she writes united is over yeah and they do that every time like they honestly no i i can't say honestly because i i think they don't really believe it but they put out every time that this is going to work, and this is going to be the time that we take the company down, and despite the fact that it's just never worked.

And not only that, they will try to take credit for the failures of other companies that they deem to have gone woke when, in fact, you know, they're just these huge other market forces at play. Like I saw, for example, you know, Bed Bath and Beyond is in trouble, right? They're probably headed towards bankruptcy. Yeah. I saw conservative influencer cat turd to, you know, crowing about this and saying, oh, like, good, get woke, go broke. And I said, now, wait a minute, what did Bed Bath & Beyond do to be woke? I looked it up and they stopped carrying my pillow, the Mike Lindell. Right. Because of all his, you know, election denial stuff. It is just not the case that Bed Bath & Beyond is going bankrupt because they got boycotted for not carrying my pillow anymore. Like, you know, they have huge debt. They didn't get into the online shopping game. They had too much selection in

their stores and the stores were confusing and they don't have money for a turnaround. There are all these huge, huge forces that kind of dictate the downfall of a place like that. It just has nothing to do with Mike Lindell, but they will take credit for it. It is amazing. Just as an aside, as an insomniac, I have tried like every pillow imaginable. And years ago before we knew about his craziness, I try to my pillow. And it's, if not at the bottom, it's very damn close to the bottom in terms of the pillows I tried. It's just God awful. Yeah, well, I don't think Mike Lindell sleeps. So how would he know? No, no. Yeah. My exit question for you, Miles, is you've come on the show. You've told us that every big go-woke, go-brok campaign has failed. You've cited statistics.

You've presented facts. But as anyone who follows you on Twitter can attest you, also claim to be a Mets fan when all the evidence mitigates against that. So why should we believe you now? I guess I just want to claim not any special ownership of the Mets, just a cultural heritage of being close to people who like and care about them. That's it. I'm not going to try to grandstand or make the case. But you understand this is stolen valor. Is it stolen valor if the team like doesn't do well? Valor is probably the wrong word, yes. I will agree with that. But it's stolen something.

I know that. Yeah. Stolen underdogness. It's stolen heartbreak. That's what it is. It's stolen misery. You have no claim to our misery and it needs to stop. And I am very glad that your Twitter account got nuked.

Yeah. That was all decided in Queens by the general manager. And I abide by that decision. I will not try. to get the main account back. Miles, thanks so much for being here. What is your new internet handle since you had to, since you were kicked off the site for impersonating NASA?

I am at Internet Hague, Hague, as in like the International Criminal Court. Yeah, because I'm in posters jail. So yeah, at Internet Hague. And you'll see my actual name on there, possibly. I've been changing it up a lot. Excellent. All my workers on Rolling Stone. Miles, thanks again for being here.

Great to talk to you. I always enjoy your writing. Thanks, man. Thank you. My pleasure. Nothing is more abnormal than the rise of the radical right. Fever Dreams is a daily beast podcast, taking you inside the rights push to retake power, from the MAGA Acolytes to the straight-up grifters. They recently released their 100th episode, so there's no better time to listen. Head to beast.pub slash fever dreams to check it out. Folks, I am so excited to welcome to the new abnormal.

Ursula Pirano, who is a politics reporter at The Daily Beast with a focus on Congress, and previous to the Daily Beast, she was at Axios and Politico. Ursula, your latest piece entitled Montana GOP has ploy to sink John Tester, a new election law, is just another piece that shows how underhanded, in my opinion, the Republican Party is being in order to obstruct the voters. So can you go into detail about what it is that you were writing about and paying attention to as it pertains to Montana and the upcoming senators race there? Yeah, absolutely. So basically what's happening is the Montana state GOP and the state legislature has proposed a bill to enact jungle primaries in next year's Senate race and only next year's Senate race in Montana would not apply to the House races. this change would expire in 2025. So the timing of that is all very odd to begin with. For those who don't know, a jungle primary is where all candidates from both parties run in the same primary. And then the top two candidates go to a runoff in November. In some instances, that means you get a Democrat and a

Republican in some instances. It means you can get two candidates from the same party. But why it matters in Montana is that a very vulnerable Democratic senator, John Tester, is up for re-election. He is considered the only competitive Democrat in Montana, the only one who could win this sea. He's got this persona of being a dirt farmer and he owns his family farm at the state. And he has managed to win in his past three Senate elections, you know, in a state that's been trending red. But why the top two primary matters and why Republicans seem especially excited about it in a case where it would go against John Tester, is that in two of Tester's last three wins, he did not win by a majority of the vote. There were libertarian candidates that peeled off that took away from potentially Republicans getting across the finish line.

The sponsor of this bill, State Senator Greg Hertz, he just says, oh, I hate when people win without winning the majority of the vote. There are states that have this sort of dungle primarian process. I'm just like so confused by that because not one of the last few Republicans that ran for president in this country won the popular vote. So just, you know, okay, sure. Yeah. There is certainly some irony to it. And folks have been calling him out saying, you know, this is kind of odd timing. You know, this is such a high-stakes election.

Both parties have signaled they're going to spend a ton on the Senate race. And for it to be so perfectly catered to targeting tester and targeting what has been, you know, some could argue a weakness for testers' re-election chances. It's just it for a lot of folks, particularly Democrats, in and outside of the state, it is not passing the smell test. You know, and I think that the reason why Republicans pull this kind of, you know, is because it doesn't have to pass the smell test. But, you know, based on some of, like, if you could, tell us a bit about the makeup of the kind of electorate in Montana because it is an

interesting state in that, yes, it has been trending red. But tester is a long time Democratic senator that has been there. And I feel like this is a state that probably has a lot of libertarians that probably doesn't like to be told, you know, how they should be voting. And have, like these kind of political tricks. Yeah. And actually originally this bill stalled when it was first proposed and it was going through committee, it got tabled for a while. And there was this perception that even the Republicans in the state legislature were like, oh, I don't know, this is just so blatant. You know, it's very obvious what's going on here. And then it suddenly picked up momentum again. Some Democrats I spoke to suggested, you know, maybe there were external forces. You know,

there was more of a motivation that came to get it through. But yeah, Montana is. a state that has been trending red, but it is still elected Democrats. Tester is, he's like the Joe Mansion to make a West Virginia comparison of Montana. I hope he's better than Mansion, but please, yeah. Well, yeah, he's a moderate guy. He, you know, has a platform that really fits with what Montana Democrats are willing to turn out for. And he is somebody who doesn't necessarily run as much on party as he does try to run on principles and politics. Republicans really really didn't want Tester to run again. He was wishy-washy and if he would run. And when he did, you know, it definitely changed the playing field. There was no Democratic backup. But in the state,

he is considered to have a decent chance of winning this race. But the top two thing could make it definitely more iffy. There are libertarians in Montana. The question is, would they vote Republican or would they turn out at all or could Tester win those libertarian voters too? Can you talk to us too, right? Like, when we're thinking about 2024, obviously, all eyes are on the presidential. All eyes are on whether Donald Trump is going to run while he's on trial, which I'm pretty sure he will. But we have also the Senate to be paying attention to that has a razor thin majority. So can you talk to some of the other vulnerable places that we see in the Senate that are up in 2024? Yeah. So 2022 was pick up opportunity after pick.

pick up opportunity for Democrats, and they did manage to gain seats. 2024, Democrats almost across the board are on defense. But as a Republican playing field, it is their pickup opportunity year next year. The biggest states that Bolts are looking at where Democrats are going to be on the defense, either in red states or in swing states are Ohio. Sherry Brown is up for re-election, and Ohio is another state that has voted red in recent years. John Tester in Montana, Joe Manchin in West Virginia, if he does choose to run again. and then Arizona is just this giant question mark of if cinema's going to run again,

if we're going to get Gallego as the Democratic nominee, that whole state's a little bit of a shit show right now. And all of these things that Democrats are going to have to be on the defense about, it's just like Republicans dream year. And then Democrats, you know, don't necessarily have the same pick-up opportunities. There are some who have argued that maybe they could do well against Rick Scott in Florida. There are a couple other states where you do have these like candidates that want to pitch a populist move like in Missouri. That's a long shot, Texas, extreme long shot for Democrats

to win there. So they're really in preservation mode next year to try and keep the Senate, whereas Republicans have this idea that they could potentially flip the Senate or at least make gains and maybe get it back to a 50-50, whereas right now it's 51-49 for Democrats. You know, and here's the thing, while I understand the numbers that you're kind of laying out, but how do you think that the way that Republicans are playing at the state, and local level and these kind of dirty politics, the overreaching that we're seeing with regard to abortion, the targeting that we're seeing of the LGBTQ community, the quote-unquote anti-wokeness because they want their constituents to be asleep. How do you think that that is

going to play out over the next year plus? Because while, yes, they have gerrymandered and voter suppressed their way into having a quote-unquote good year, what we've seen in Wisconsin, what we've seen in other places, are voters waking up and recognizing that they have more choices and more power than the Republican Party would lead them to believe. So I will say Republicans are going to have to answer to a lot of those things next year. Abortion is going to be a huge one. I do think Republicans in the Senate might have a tad easier over time because they can't really do much over the next few years in the House.

They're still passing these kind of performative messaging bills nonstop, McCarthy. and co have made this gambit of trying to put Democrats in corners on very odd and not necessarily timely policy issues or resolutions. But in the Senate, they're just kind of stuck. They're doing nominations mostly, a lot of judicial nominations. I do think that one thing that really plagued Senate Republicans in 2022 was that they had really not their best nominees. They had nominees with candidate quality issues. And they do seem to be trying to spin that this year and be a bit more aware of it. NRSC National Republican Senate Committee, which is the Senate Republicans campaign arm, they historically didn't really wade into primaries, let the primaries work themselves out,

and then they would support the ultimate nominee. But they got Hershal Walker last year, and they got Dr. Oz last year, and they got some folks that didn't do very well in their swing states. Yeah. And so now I think they're trying to, or they've at least show that they're trying to put their thumb on the scale for certain candidates in states and that they're going to be a little more outspoken about who they would actually like to be their nominee. Like Pennsylvania is a great example. Doug Maastriano, a very far right guy, has been toying with the idea of running for Senate, but NRSC is pretty openly saying they would like Dave McCormick, a hedge fund guy who could self-fund and is pretty, you know, relatively moderate to Dave McCormick to run. So they seem

really cognizant, but they need to buckle it down this year if they want to actually be able to pick up these seeds. You know, it's interesting because so many people are saying, look, Republicans, you know, particularly, and I'm going to use Tennessee as an example of what we just witnessed in the state house with the ousting and now reinstating of the two Justin's, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones in the statehouse there. And what many, you know, pundits are saying is that, like, Republicans are over their skis. There is this craven, power hungry grab. that is not as underhanded and is not as behind closed doors as they think that it is. And that where they believe that constituents aren't paying attention, folks are paying attention.

And they are more tapped in, particularly Generation Z. And there's also this belief like, oh, they're so far out on their skis that they're going to rein themselves back in. But are you seeing more of the continuation of like the cookie cutter Trumpist that is being pumped out and being. put on the Republican conveyor belt, or is there this moment of, aha, maybe we've gone too far? I don't think that aha moment has happened. It depends where you're looking at as far as Republicans. I think that aha moment has happened perhaps with some of the highest levels of Republicans. Like, I think some Senate Republicans are having that aha moment and that, you know, their Trumpian candidates did not do well last cycle. Trump himself, his endorsements, didn't seem to carry the weight

that they used to. And now that presidential contenders are coming out, you see them sort of being willing to consider other options openly, whereas that would have been very taboo even a year ago for a Republican to do, to consider crossing the MAGO world. At the lower levels, when you're looking at the House, for example, and when you're looking at state legislatures, I don't think that aha moment has happened. So many of these state legislatures in particular, like in Tennessee, are just very, very gerrymandered. There are super majorities for Republicans. And I don't have a lot to lose. I know the Tennessee state legislature, for example, a lot of the folks in it ran unopposed.

There's been historic underinvestment and state legislatures and Democrats are part of that. And so it's just, you know, I think that that aha moment may come, but for a lot of folks, I don't think it has. One of your other pieces that you did, which I want to switch gears to, so much for somber, Dems fundraise off of Trump indictment. So a lot of the things that have been saying since the indictment came down from Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, is that this is going to be great for Republicans, right? Like this is what they're going to be driving out forward. Look, it is a witch hunt.

This is our savior. And then on the reverse side, that this is going to be really, you know, damaging for Democrats because it's going to show this politicization of the office, of the Manhattan DA's office. What do you make in the article that you worked on about the ability of, of Dems to try and fundraise, but kind of, you know, play it safe. Yeah, it's a very delicate line they have to walk on this Trump indictment. And as we know in the article, it's all levels of Democrats from the Democratic Senate campaign arm to the Democratic House arm to the state legislature arm.

We're fundraising off this and a number of candidates as well. There is this tone that Democrats, at least in public comments, are trying to strike of not being overexcited and not trying to dump on Trump. and say like, oh, we got them and make sure that it's keeping level headed, especially ahead of prosecution where Trump is constantly saying this is a witch hunt, like they're politicizing it. It's this, that, and the other, and other Republicans are trimming in with him. But there is, you know, a need to fundraise. And this is something that gets people to, in theory, open their inboxes and maybe throw in a couple bucks. And so I think it's a tricky line that

Democrats are walking. It seems like they've maybe been doing okay with it so far. But I think it'll be something that they have to be particularly careful about how they strike their tone on as, you know, we get these months and months of potentially a trial and maybe further indictments coming through. What's the difference between how Donald Trump, and I'm not, you know, I'm not putting words in your mouth, these are mine, has been able to grift off of his indictment. I mean, he's raised, I believe, over $10 million at this point, probably higher since the last time that I looked since the indictments came down. His constituents seem ready and willing to throw money at his own private criminal charges, right? This is not, for instance, like the, oh, the election was

stolen from you. This is his criminal problem, not his constituents, and yet they're throwing money at it. How is that different than the language and the kind of fine stepping that Democrats have to play with their constituents and this leaving a bad taste in their mouth? Yeah. So we definitely heard that a lot in reporting out that piece. And I think it's definitely something that folks have questions on is why do Democrats? get some more questions on fundraising off this than Trump, who did bring in a lot of money. I think the difference is that the Trump side, you know, he has this narrative to his base that they will continue to hang on to, that he is being politically persecuted, that they are targeting

him because they don't want him to win reelection. And so to his constituents, to his base, it really matters. With Democrats, I don't think it's necessarily as much about their base. I don't think the average Democratic voter who's opening those emails is going to be like, oh, God, I really don't like that they're fundraising off of this. I don't think most people would necessarily think much of it. I think it's about avoiding giving Trump and Republicans ammo and something to feed into their own argument, you know, that they can't pull out and say, look, well, they're fundraising off of this.

They're getting money off of this. They must have some political motivations here to the indictment. So I think that's sort of a line they're walking, not necessarily that they're going to piss off their own voters. Got it. Okay. I mean, that makes sense. It's just, you know, what's always annoying to me, actually, nauseating is that mainstream

media always wants to get into the mind of for whatever reason of the white racist Trump voter. Like what are they thinking and why did they throw their money at this man and never really digs into, in my opinion, the complexity of the Democratic voter whose tent is much bigger, whose motivations are a lot different and understand that because I get those emails all the time that says Trump was just indicted, we need your help, you know, type of things. And for me, it's not a turnoff. It's like, I don't want that man in office. Like, so for me, it's like, yeah, I'm going to give you the money because we need to protect our democracy. So the tone and tenor is different. Whereas with Trump supporters, it is about this grievance. If they can do this to me,

then they're going to come for you. And it's just like, unless you're a criminal, probably not. Which I think is really, you know, the difference. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's definitely a striking difference in how these will come across. And the thing is, like, I think Democrats really, seized the moment as it happened, at least as we saw, where they did it for probably one or two days and we saw like this fundraising flurry and they have been rather quiet sense versus, you know, Trump's got his truth social and he's, I guess, truthing is how you would say it. No one knows. On his little platform and nobody knows.

And, you know, he's going to keep hounding this and trying to take it to the bank for months. Last question for you, Ursula, is we saw Senator Tim Scott announce his presidential exploratory committee. Lord knows why, and who told that man that that was a good idea. Nikki Haley, haven't heard much from her since her announcement. Ron DeSantis has yet to formally announce but is clearly hiring people for a political action committee. How long do you think that it will be before we have a solidified Republican field? I'm going to guess end of summer, probably the latest. I think DeSantis is taking his time. He wants to get through this legislative of session and have his victory lap on things like the abortion restrictions he's trying to pass,

you know, permitless carry, things that have been going through in Florida lately. I think Tim Scott will see a formal announcement eventually. That's just my prediction. And then I don't think we're going to get a ton others in the field. There are always a couple more candidates that are out there floating their names. But I think, you know, I would guess by end of summer. And the question is, how long those candidates that don't necessarily have a chance of winning the nomination hold on there's always this 2016 fear that trump likely you know many say wouldn't have gotten the republican nomination if there hadn't been so many republicans in the race in 2016 and the question will be whether so many Republicans come in the race in 2024 and potentially split those

theoretical anti-trump votes again and potentially could have the nomination and be the 2024 nominee all over god i just i really my stomach and my mental health cannot handle a repeat of that Ursula Perano, thank you so much for taking the time to join the new abnormal. Really appreciate it. And folks, check out her latest piece. Montana GOP has ployed to sink John Tester, a new election law. Danielle Moody. Andy Levy.

Danielle, who is your fuck that guy to close out this beautiful week? You know, it's so hard to sort through the bin of white supremacy. But, you know, if someone bubbled up to the top, Someone bubbled up to the top. And it is a Nebraska Republican state senator, Steve Erdman, who decided to take to the Nebraska Senate floor to say the entire truth. Andy, out loud as to why he would like a six-week abortion ban to take hold in Nebraska. Nebraska currently has abortion is allowed up to 21 weeks and six days of pregnancy. And so what he said, and let me just read it verbatim, because boy, is it rich.

Quote, our state population has not grown except by those foreigners who have moved here or refugees who have been placed here. He goes on to say, because we've killed 200,000 people, these are people we killed. Then he goes on to talk about the aborted fetuses and say, quote, they could be working and filling some of those positions that we have vacancies for. It's how do I peel this apart for its obscene racism and just pure fuckery? First of all, you know, I'm not a scientist or a doctor. Sure. But I'm pretty sure that it takes 18 years to enter into the workforce.

course. So those embryos turned baby turned person, I don't know if those vacancies would still be around that he is referencing. So that's number one. And then number two, just wow, we don't have enough white babies. That's the reason for the abortion bans. Just so everybody knows, it's not just about controlling uteruses. It's about specifically controlling white women's uteruses to ensure that they are forced to create more white babies so that they are not replaced. That's the goal here, folks. It is fucking sick and disgusting. But Erdman said the quiet parts that we've all known out loud and on the Senate floor.

Well done, sir. Well fucking done. Yeah, a couple of things here. One, you said it takes 18 years for the baby to enter the workforce. I think these days it's now of like 14 years. years. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah. So not quite as long. At least pretty soon, I think we're going to have retire the saying the quiet part out loud because there's no quiet part anymore. You're right. Like they're just saying it now. And it is just, you know, we see this in Tennessee. We see it in

Nebraska. We see it in Florida. We see it all over the place. It is just the codes are going away. And, you know, the code words. And they are, they are just straight up saying stuff. And it is, I guess on the one hand, I think maybe it's a good thing because I think there are people who fall for the code words, like, you know, law and order or whatever, who actually are like, oh, no. Well, no, that's not what I. Maybe it's just a good thing to have it. Just put your cards on the table. Just say straight up, I am a racist and I want a white supremacist country. Yeah. Just come out and say it and stop hiding. But on the other hand, it's just, unreal to me. You know, our whole lives were taught. Things get better. And, you know, the long arc of history bends towards justice and all of that stuff. And man, it doesn't feel like it lately.

No, we're just on the long part. But I did just come up with a maybe a new slogan for the Republican party. Please, white women, be as submissive as Tucker Carlson as to Trump. There you go. Yep. Absolutely. So Andy, to round out this week, who is your fucking? guy? My fuck it guy or fuck that guy is this is a story that I think is turning out to be pretty big. A whole bunch of documents got leaked lately, national security documents classified stuff. And some great reporting by the Washington Post by Shane Harris and Samuel Oakford has basically uncovered that the guy who leaked it is this guy who was like a forum moderator on Discord. Discord for people who don't know is sort of a chat type service that's used a lot by video gamers.

It's used for other things too. But it's always been popular with gamers. This little chat room, which is run by a man who called himself OG, he started posting stuff, basically transcripts of classified documents that he had brought home from his job. He apparently worked on a military base. And he apparently did it because he wanted to seem cool to the much younger. younger, you know, teenage, whatever, members of the forum. Mm-hmm.

I think this is the first time we've got a leaker who was trying to impress teens. It's funny, except that apparently some of this stuff is, you know, yes, we overclassify stuff, and there's a lot of stuff that's good when it's leaked. I don't know. Some of this gets to assessments of the Ukrainian military capabilities and stuff like that. And it's probably stuff that doesn't need to be known publicly, doesn't need to be known to Putin, for example. I think there's things in there about just how much we have penetrated the Russian military service or how much the Ukrainians have. Again, stuff like that seems like, eh, maybe we don't need that to be public.

All these guys met, they met on a Discord channel that was for fans of a YouTuber who streams videos about guns, body armor, and military software. But then there were some members who wanted to talk more in a smaller group about video game tactics. So they started this group that was led by this OG guy. And that's where he leaked this stuff. And from there, it got out to other Discord servers, I guess, Discord channels. And from there, it was a short trip for it to become public. And it's just unbelievable that this was all done to impress the teens. And adults, stop trying to impress teens.

you're not, first of all, you're not going to. Do you not remember being a teenager? Part of being a teenager is you're not impressed by adults. And you can try to be the cool, basically the cool dad, all you want. And it just, it doesn't work. And certainly don't we classify documents in an attempt to be cool. So apparently they may be closing in on this guy. We don't know his identity yet.

Is it Trump? Because he had a bunch of, he had a bunch of documents. And he was waving them around trying to impress everybody. so I'm wondering was the initials DTJ for life or something? I can't picture Trump calling himself OG. Okay. That seems weird. But whoever this guy is, fuck that guy.

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