The Daily Signal - #351: Liberals Say Trump Is Destroying Their Marriages

Episode Date: November 29, 2018

A New York magazine article chronicles how some couples think their marriages are struggling because of the emotions surrounding politics in post-Trump era. And first lady Melania Trump's red Christmas trees are creating an uproar. The "Problematic Women" discuss this, and more in today's show.We also cover these stories:--President Donald Trump is in Argentina for the G20 summit, where he will not be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as previously planned.--Michael Cohen, the former lawyer for Trump, pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to Congress.--Between 2016 and 2017, the suicide rate increased by 3.7 percent, and deaths by overdose reached a new high of over 70,000.The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, November 30th. I'm Daniel Davis. And I'm Kate Trinko. We're going to kick it over to Kelsey Harkness, Bree Payden, and Ginny Montalbano for problematic women today. They are going to talk about how some women think Donald Trump is destroying their marriages, and of course, Melania Trump's infamous red Christmas trees. But first, we'll cover a few of the top headlines. Well, President Trump is in Argentina for the G20 summit,

where he will not be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, previously planned. The president announced on Twitter Thursday that he was canceling the meeting due to Russia's recent aggression toward Ukraine. Last weekend, the Russian Navy seized Ukrainian ships and sailors, which they are still holding captive. Michael Cohen, the former lawyer for Donald Trump, pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to Congress about how long Trump was speaking about a possible Trump project in Moscow. Cohen now says, contrary what he told Congress, Trump continued to discuss the project throughout part of his presidential campaign. Well, President Trump has denied pursuing that real estate project, alleged by Michael Cohen.

Here's what the president said about the project on Thursday. It was a well-known project. It was during the early part of 16, and I guess even before that, it lasted a short period of time. I didn't do the project. I decided not to do the project. So I didn't do it. So we're not talking about doing a project. We're talking about not doing a project.

The president also called Cohen a weak person and accused him of lying in order to get a reduced sentence. Well, President Trump is ready to fight back. He told the New York Post in a new interview, if they go down the presidential harassment track, if they want to go and harass the president in the administration, I think that that would be the best thing that would happen to me. I am a counterpuncher and I will hit them so hard they'd never been hit like that. end quote. The Post also reported, quote, the commander-in-chief said he could declassify FISA warrant applications and other documents from Robert Mueller's probe and predicted the disclosure would expose the FBI, the Justice Department, and the Clinton campaign as being in cahoots to set him up, end quote. Well, the Senate Judiciary Committee has canceled votes on judicial appointees in the wake of opposition from Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. Flake has vowed to oppose all judicial nominees until the Senate votes on a bill that would protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from potentially being fired.

That bill was blocked earlier this week by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Flake holds the deciding vote on the Judiciary Committee, which is split 11 to 10 between the two parties. He's shown no sign of letting up in his opposition to Trump's nominees. The future is here. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstein told the Hill TV show Rising in an interview that he sees the U.S. about a decade, having a continuous man presence on the moon. It has to be at least two years on Mars. Yeah, no, I think we're probably within 10 years of having continuous man presence on the moon.

The President's Space Policy Directive 1, and this is very exciting. He says we're going back to the moon. This time, the word is sustainably. But what that means is we're going to stay. So right now we're building a space station. We call it gateway that's going to be in orbit around the moon. Think of it as a reusable command module where we can have. human presence in orbit around the moon. From there, we want reusable landers that go back and

forth to the surface of the moon. We think we can achieve this in about 10 years. Well, life expectancy in America is on the decline, according to a new data released by the Centers for Disease Control. Between 2016 and 2017, the suicide rate increased by 3.7 percent, and deaths by overdose reached a new high of over 70,000. The average lifespan of America now stands as 78.6 years, a drop from last year of 78.7. In a statement, CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield said, quote, life expectancy gives us a snapshot of the nation's overall health, and these sobering statistics are a wake-up call that we're losing too many Americans too early and too often to conditions that are preventable. Starbucks told Business Insider it will start rolling out new tools

to ensure customers don't watch porn at its location. While it's not allowed to watch porn at Starbucks now, the company doesn't have any filtering software that prevents it. A group called Enough is Enough had been pressuring Starbucks to change its system. With CEO Donna Rice-Hugh saying, before the change was announced, Starbucks is keeping the doors wide open for convicted sex offenders and others to fly under the radar from law enforcement and use free public Wi-Fi services to access illegal child porn and hardcore pornography. Next up, we'll have our problematic women discuss how marriages are being hurt in the era of Trump.

Want to get up to speed about the Supreme Court? Then subscribe to SCOTUS 101, a podcast about everything that's happening at the Supreme Court and what the justices are up to. Did you know you can now listen to all of our events through SoundCloud or just by visiting our events page on heritage.org? You now have access to hundreds of events and compelling discussions on policy issues from your car,

on the train, or the comfort of your own home. Visit heritage.org slash events for more information or search for the Heritage Foundation on SoundCloud. We are here today for problematic women. I'm Jenny Maltabano and I'm joined by Kelsey Harkness of the Daily Signal and Bree Payton of the Federalist. Guys, thanks for being here. We have a lot to unpack today. Let's get started right off the bat. There's a new article out called Donald Trump is destroying my marriage. And in the article, they highlight some pretty startling statistics about marriage and relationships in the Trump era. one that caught my eye is 29% of respondents to one of their survey said that their romantic relationship had been negatively affected by Trump's presidency. But is this all Trump's fault? Like can we blame President Trump for people having romantic issues or relationship problems?

Absolutely not. Yeah, I don't think so at all. I think that there's something else probably going on in your marriage and this is probably the scapegoat here. interesting part of that statistic that you cited, a lot of couples have the same opinion about Donald Trump. Like, either don't like him or they like him. It's just like varies to the degree of which they dislike or like him. So in one story, there was a couple who identified as John and Samantha in this New Yorker story.

And they're both from New York. And they said that they both hate Trump equally. but John says that Samantha spends a lot more time and energy talking about how much she hates the president. So he says she's gone from zero to 60 and while I think I hate Trump as much as she does, Samantha is much angrier and more obsessed with it. When the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing started going down, she was just like completely obsessed with all the details of, you know, the ongoing hearings and all the accusers that were coming forward. And she would repeatedly like just watch it on TV all day long and like call now Justice Kavanaugh a rapist. and the husband would chime in and be like, he's not a rapist. And she would get really upset.

So it's just like a different level of obsession for these two in this instance. Well, it seems like Kelsey, that civility in general is just kind of going down the drain. I don't think you can blame Trump for that because like Breed just said, especially with stuff like Kavanaugh, the left is the one that they've really been driving this trend. I completely agree. And I think you saw that reflected in this article in one of the stories. They're all going by using pseudonym so we don't know their real names, but there's a 30-year-old who, with her husband, has children. And she said she's been spending her evenings going to political meetings until 9.30 p.m.

And she says this has caused a strain on their relationship because he's not out there going to these meetings, although he doesn't like Trump either. He doesn't not like Trump enough to go to meetings and not, not. spend time with his children, you know, during his evenings. And I think this is a very concerning trend that I see popping up in a lot of different articles where we're seeing parents value politics over their children. It's one thing to be in an engaged, informed citizen. It's another thing to be choosing politics over spending time with your family. You know, you can go to a march, you know, there's absolutely a time and a place for political activism, but to make it a routine thing where it sounds to me like this woman was neglecting time with

her children, I think that's very alarming. And it's why we have such insubility because people care too much. And I constantly, when I am talking to people from the other side, I have to remind them that you're allowed to not like the president. But in this country, if you don't like him, you know, he's been present for two years. We're okay. And we also have checks and balances. And they work. So, you know, the world's not going to end. You know, our lives do not depend on your political activism until 9.30 every night. Exactly. Well, it seems like people are using their absolute hatred of Donald Trump to justify them saying things or doing things that are creating problems in their relationships, not just romantically, but in general. Well, 13% said they

cut ties with 13% of Americans in one study said they cut ties with friends or family over political differences. And another study, one third of participants said they cut ties with friends or family. My mom's college roommate slash best friend, pretty much her whole entire life since high school, they stopped talking over the Trump thing. And my mom who voted for Donald Trump, she was like, I don't care that you voted for Hillary Clinton. You know, like, I can still be friends with you. this isn't that important to me. But she is like completely obsessed with the president and obsessed with me on tweets at me every single day. And it's like because, you know, I'll be tweeting things that she disagrees with.

So she has become like really obsessed with it and can't even like handle having a relationship with my mom, her best friend and like, you know, made of honors in each other's weddings over the president. Wow. So it's a real life example. Like this is real. It is. But on the flip side, there is hope. I have to say I have about four or five best friends, and one of them, she's very liberal, lives in California, interned at the Supreme Court, and we'll occasionally talk about things,

especially if it's Supreme Court related. But other than that, unless it's something super important, we just don't talk about it. Our relationship is not based on what Trump is doing, what he's not doing. It's been very refreshing. But you know who's also been in the news, of course, because she can't do anything right, is First Lady Melania Trump. So Slate Magazine took a pretty hard shot at Melania Trump's Red Christmas Street. in her decorations in general.

They called them Christmas trees of death, and their piece wondered, what message is she trying to send? And I have to tell you all, they reference death and darkness. Every chance they get, in this article, entrails of death, flavor of death, blood red cones.

I mean, it's unbelievable. They reek of the threat of execution. You just can't make this up. It should be on the onion, I think. And I had a chance to do a press preview of her decorations. they are stunning, they are so well thought out, and it really showed me that anything she does will be taken the wrong way.

Had she gone super traditional, they would have said, oh, she's lazy, she's not innovative. Bless her heart. And so I want to throw to a clip really quick of her addressing it. I thought it was one of her most human moments. It made me genuinely laugh. Talking about opioids and getting the message out, and what is the media, I'm telling you, I can't believe this,

what are they hung up on with the First Lady right now, the red Christmas trees in the White House? Now, I will tell you, on the flight over here, my wife said, I want a red Christmas in my house now, too. Are we kidding? This is what they worry about when lives could be saved. We are in 21st century, and everybody has a different taste. I think they look fantastic.

Everybody will come over and visit it. In real life, they look even more beautiful, and you have all very welcome to visit the White House. the people's house. I don't know if she could have said it any better. That was with Eric Bowling this Wednesday at an opioid town hall. A little tangent there, but I think an important tangent. I absolutely.

And I have to admit, don't get mad at me. Don't at me on Twitter. I think the red Christmas trees are pretty fugly. I would not put one up in my house. They just look like these red blobs to me. but I loved her decorations last year. I like most of the decorations. The red trees are just, they make a statement.

But although I might not like the look of them that much, I love the fact that Melania put them up because we all know she is the queen of trolling. And whether or not she's sending some type of signal or message with these trees doesn't even matter because she has now gotten the left so upset. with trying to figure out. It's so entertaining to watch this fallout on Twitter,

how much people care about trying to figure out what these red trees represent. So all the more power to her. And I do think all of her decorations are beautiful. The red Christmas trees were just a lot for me. Bree, I know you had some thoughts. So I have heard from the people that did see them in person, like you and Amber Smith, they said that they look good in person, but don't really look that good in pictures. I haven't seen it in person. I don't know. In pictures, I think they look kind of weird. But I think, I mean, I thought her decorations last year were really, really good. And people were acting like, that was really scary and terrible and weird. And like the white hallway with the white branches, they were like, oh my gosh, that's terrible. So I just think no matter what she does, they're going to find a way to criticize it in like a really extreme way. And I think that, you know, it's one thing to say, oh, these trees are ugly. I don't like them. It's a different thing to say, this is.

our execution of our death, of our country, and this is Handmaid's Tale, and to, like, Photoshop Handmaid's Tail bonnets on them. Like, that's another level. And I am proud that she's doubling down. And you know what? She's right. People have different tastes. She thinks that they look good.

This is her decision that she gets to make in the decorations. And you know what? Their decorations. It doesn't matter. Okay. Well, indulge me on this, either of you. If they are Handmaid's Tale Christmas trees, what does that mean? Is Melania trapped in Gilead or is she the one running Gilead?

I think she's just playing with everyone. If it is like a fashion troll, which she is known to do, she is known to do these trolls. If it is kind of a troll at them, it just, yeah, exactly. Like she's having fun at their expense, right? And I think that this is the way that she has been dealing. She didn't want to be first lady. She's made that clear. But now she's in this position and she's trying to handle it the best way that she can.

and she has to deal with people who are just hysterical all the time. I would totally make fun of them and, like, have fun with it, too. Well, and I think two things can be true at once, right? We know she's the queen of trolling, even if she doesn't admit it. But also, she genuinely thought these were beautiful. And the message she's sending is certainly not one of Christmas trees of death, like Slate is trying to say here. They call her a bitter queen.

I don't know. I just thought, really, that's what you're focusing on today. And, like y'all said, I mean, she really did set the bar really high last year, so high that out with. were attacking the nutcracker. I mean, at the end of the day, I love Melania because Melania is always going to do Melania. And as to the haters, I think she would say, I really don't care. Well, and on that note, we're going to move on to a topic that Kelsey has covered and continues to cover extensively.

Linda Sarsour was one of the head of the Women's March. She's back in the headlines because Kelsey and Bree has taken her in eternity to disavow Louis Farrakhan. and his anti-Semitism, but she did release an apology of sorts recently. Kelsey, what did you think of the apology? Why is it hypocritical? So, first off, just to clarify, she didn't really apologize. She never used the words, I'm sorry. That said, this was an attempt at some sort of apology,

but that's what's so frustrating about it, is that she put out this long, long statement, without ever actually saying she's sorry for her ties to a man who compared Jewish people to termites on Twitter and still has a Twitter account, may I add. So I think this non-apology is really frustrating and I think she only did it to keep her position as a leader in the Women's March. She was facing a lot of criticism. You know, I think in light of the attack in Pittsburgh after that, I think Americans are finally waking up to the fact that anti-Semitism exists in this country and it's a real threat. And they're starting to take it seriously. And they're starting to take the women's marches ties to an open anti-Semite seriously.

We saw Alyssa Milano speak up about. it, say she's not going to associate herself with the women's march until they disavow their ties with this man. And then we saw the original founder of the women's march who's, you know, who thought up the entire DIA of marching after Trump was nominated president. We saw her actually call for new leadership, you know, because of the current leader's inability to denounce hate, which is what this group claims to stand against.

So I think it's really frustrating to see her still in her position. I don't think this story's over yet. I think she still needs to do more to disavow this man personally. Okay, this is what I hate so much about 2018, which is that people feel like they have to make statements about things.

that don't really say one thing or another, right? Like, oh, people are calling for Linda Sorcer to make an apology. So she releases this long statement, but she never really apologizes. Like, this whole moment that we're having right now is so dumb to me. Like, either apologize and distance yourself from this person or say, no. They have said, you know, anti-Semitic things, but I don't care, right? Because that is clearly that's- Responsible for what he said.

Right. And I do think she writes that. And I do think there's something to be said for that. that she should not be held accountable for his actions. But the problem is she and Tamika Mallory, who is also a leader of the Women's March, have continued to support this man without making clear that they are not okay with all these things that he said. And that's the problem. Right.

And that's the lack of clarity in her statement is the issue. Like either apologize and say, I'm sorry, and truly distance yourself or say, no, I'm not going to. Right. Don't release this statement that's kind of not one thing, not another, trying to kind of distance yourself, but try to also have a relationship with this person. Either have a relationship with them and say, I don't care that they've said this or say, no, this is really wrong. I'm not going to continue to associate myself and the movement that I'm a part of with this brand. Right. And I think that this kind of weird, like, what's that word? Tight road walk exercise that a lot of people are doing because they feel obligated to do that is really annoying. I think that, when people want to double down and when they don't want to apologize, they should do that, right? And if they want to truly apologize, then they should do it and they should do it fully. I hate these, you know, half-donkey things. And I think part of your frustration stems from the fact that this is a narrative that,

you know, in the conservative news media we've been covering for so long and it's getting so old. Like this should be so easy to do to denounce these awful, awful things that he said. but still she refuses to do it. So I personally think in the way we communicate this is we should of course continue to hold Sarsore and Mallory accountable until they actually do say they're sorry. But more importantly, I think we need to hold accountable all the millions of women in this country

and in the world who are out there supporting the women's march because they are supporting leaders who are refusing to denounce someone who has said, Again, some very awful, hateful things against Jews. You make some great points there. It seems like every time we talk about the women's march now, they're just losing more and more influence. They're making some bad decisions.

But we actually have some good news now. It's been reported that abortions in the U.S. hit a historic low in 2015. That's down about 2% from 2014. And the reason why the Washington Post referenced 2015 is because that's the most recent year that we have the abortion data for. Brie, I know you've written about this a little bit. But why are the numbers down?

What does this mean? So they're not truly sure why the statistics fell. And also, we don't really know for a fact that abortions have fallen nationwide because several states, California, Maryland, and New Hampshire don't report the abortion statistics that have been within their states. So for all we know, the abortion rate could be exploding in those states and falling elsewhere, and we just don't really have the full picture. And that's part of the problem with abortion statistics and data is that, you know,

they really aren't required to report federally. The CDC doesn't track the number of women who suffer injuries at the hands of abortion doctors. They don't track the number of women who have to get transported to a hospital due to, you know, illnesses or get treatment a couple of days after the fact this is something that's not monitored at all. And I think that that's shocking and horrifying, even which I'm very pro-life and I think that abortion is terrible in all circumstances. But even if you are someone who is pro-choice, you should be demanding accountability for these things, right? And we see this, we just see gross negligence at the hands of abortion doctors and the abortion clinic industry time and time again, not just with Kermit Gosnell, but with other late-term abortionists like him, like the one in Maryland whose name is escaping me at this moment. But the fact of the matter is that women do suffer injuries and harm from this practice, and it's not being reported.

And just the fact that the latest statistics that we have is from 2015 and it's only reporting from 47 states. I mean, that's abysmal. And another part of this that's abysmal and shocking is that while abortions fell among all women, the number of black women that are getting abortions still is the highest cohort of any women. Okay, so among white women, among a thousand white women, or I'm sorry, nationwide per 1,000 women, there's only 6.8 abortions that happen per 1,000 women. But among black women, every 1,000 women that get surveyed, 25 have had abortions. So it's clear that the number is just astronomically higher when you compare that number nationwide.

And I think individuals who are African Americans need to start speaking out about this and what's happening and why are African American women being singled out in practices like this. It's awful. We talk about the ways that they're marginalized. I mean, we as in the media and a lot of that being leftist media talk about the ways that black women are marginalized and you never ever hear that statistics cited. No, because people don't care to keep track of abortion statistics and it's awful and appalling. Well, and to me, you need the full picture. So like Bree said, people should be demanding no matter pro-life, pro-choice, whatever you are. You should want all the facts in order to lay out the full picture of everyone to understand what's happening.

happening. Well, for our last topic, as someone who used to watch Rudolph year-round, and I was actually Rudolph for Halloween several years when I was younger, this next topic really made me mad. So the Huffington Post is saying that the classic movie, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is, quote, problematic, which is very ironic given our segment right now. And it makes me wonder, is nothing sacred? Now the left has to destroy holiday classics. Nothing's safe. They're coming for everything, which is absurd. I mean, this is. is a kid's claymation movie, which I actually, this is probably

kind of a hot take. Claymation. Yeah, that's what it's called because it's like made out of the weird play. I didn't know that. Yeah, I actually hate all of the Christmas Claymation movies. I hate all of them. So Michael is frantically waving inside the room telling us that he agrees with what I'm saying

here. They're all terrible. They're all bad. The premises are awful. Rudolph Rednose Rainier, no exception. But it But it's a kids movie and it's okay. The premise of a lot of kids movies are that, you know, you may face bullying. You might face people being mean to you, but you have to rise above it. And that's the story that happens here.

Yeah. The underlying message is it's okay to be different. It's not only okay to be different. You can rule the world if you're different. And so, you know, maybe there were some weird interactions going on in this movie. It's always interesting to go back and watch children's. movies through the lens of adulthood. But, you know, the ultimate message that I remember when I was a child watching this movie

is that differences are good. And I don't understand how we can twist that into being so problematic in today's culture. And in the end, he triumphs. I mean, he saves the whole. Right. So I don't understand the issue. And the weird thing about the Huffington Post video about this was that they were like, oh, Santa, they highlighted tweets from people criticizing it.

one of the treats was like, Santa clearly is racist because he doesn't like Rudolph. And it's like, okay, we're talking about reindeer. We're not talking about races of people. Like, what are you doing right now? Like, this is about animals. Like, let's not make this a weird. Yeah, like, stop trying to make this a thing that it's not. Like, just let it be a weird clamation movie that sucks. Well, everything is always about Trump and I have to, you know, obviously bring this segment back to him and point out. and point out the fact that when these ridiculous videos and news stories go around about this Fox outrage, it just pisses people off. And it's exactly why we now have a president who actually does engage in culture wars because I think so many Americans are fed up about a lot of the ways that, you know, seemingly innocent ideas are being twisted. to be so problematic in today's world.

Well, I never thought I'd hear Rudolph and Trump in the same sentence. But that's 2018, I guess. Brie, Kelsey, thank you so much. Thank you. Well, that's going to do it for us today. Thanks so much for listening to The Daily Signal podcast, brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud.

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