The Daily Signal - #405: Gov. Matt Bevin Believes the American Dream Still Exists--Because He's Lived It

Episode Date: February 25, 2019

Health care. Covington. President Donald Trump's attention to what governors think. Abortion extremism. School safety. On today's podcast, we have a wide-ranging conversation with Gov. Matt Bevin, R-Ky., on all these topics and more. Talking about Medicaid work requirements, Bevin shares details about his own rise from poverty--and why he still thinks the American Dream exists. Plus: Our producers, Michael Goodin and Thaleigha Rampersad, weigh in on the Oscars this year. We also cover these stories:•Vice President Mike Pence says "There can be no bystanders in Venezuela's struggle for freedom" and "Nicolas Maduro must go."•The House will vote Tuesday on a resolution to block Trump's emergency declaration.•Last month, only 20 percent of Democrats said they were pro-life. Now, it’s up to 34 percent -- a 14-point swing.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 Tuesday, February 26. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Daniel Davis. Well, today, Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky comes back onto the podcast. He and Kate will discuss the Covington controversy, poverty, health care, and a host of his conservative reforms in Kentucky. Plus, Delia and Michael weigh in on the Oscars. And before we get to our headlights, just a reminder that if you enjoy this podcast, please mention it to your friends and families. Please subscribe. And pretty please leave a five-star. our review on iTunes. We are here to make sure that busy conservatives can get the news highlights

and in-depth interviews they need every day, and we'd love your help in spreading the word. And now, on to our top news. Vice President Mike Pence continued to press dictator Nicholas Maduro's regime in Venezuela and remarks in Colombia Monday, saying to leaders around the world, it's time. There can be no bystanders in Venezuela's struggle for freedom. And he also said that Maduro has, no legitimate claim to power, and Nicholas Maduro must go. End quote. Pence announced new sanctions on four Venezuelan politicians and spoke about helping countries who helped Venezuela. Despite Maduro's brutality, we will press on.

As we speak, we're identifying new areas along the border where we can pre-position additional aid for the struggling people of Venezuela. Today also it's my privilege to announce that the United States will provide an additional $56 million to support our partners in the region as you come to the aid of the Venezuelan people fleeing from the deprivation and oppression of the Maduro regime. Well, Democrats are doing what they can to try to block President Trump's national emergency declaration on the border. The House is set to vote Tuesday on a resolution that would block the emergency declaration, though it's pretty much. symbolic given that the president would have to sign it for it to go into effect. The president is claiming access to $8.1 billion in federal money under the Declaration to build additional border wall.

Sixteen states are suing in response. How Speaker Nancy Pelosi characterized the national emergency as a threat to the constitutional order saying, quote, the president's act is lawless and does violence to our Constitution and therefore to our democracy. We do not have a monarchy. have a separation of powers in our country. A former Trump campaign staffer, Alva Johnson, is suing the president. The lawsuit states, like he has done with so many other women, defendant Trump violated

norms of decency and privacy by kissing Ms. Johnson on the lips without her consent in the middle of a Florida work event and in front of numerous other campaign officials, end quote. Johnson, who is the director of outreach and coalitions in Alabama, says the incident occurred in August of 2016. The White House is denying any misconduct occurred, with press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying in a statement, this never happened and is directly contradicted

by multiple highly credible eyewitness accounts. The Washington Post, which broke the news, reported that two people Johnson has named as witnesses, denied seeing any sexual misconduct. Well, some very good news here for the pro-life movement. A new Marist poll is showing a dramatic shift in public opinion toward abortion in just the last month, and it's particularly noteworthy among Democrats. The poll shows a dead split 47% to 47% between those who identify as pro-life versus pro-choice,

and that's a 17-point swing from January, where the same poll showed 55% identifying as pro-choice and only 38% pro-life. But perhaps most interesting is that Democrats are leading the shift. Last month, only 20% of Democrats said that they were pro-lifes. life, now that's up to 34%, a 14-point swing. And as for young people, Americans under 45 moved 19 percentage points toward the pro-life position. Barbara Carvalho, who directed the poll, says these numbers have been very stable over time, so the recent disruption is very noteworthy. And it comes as the president has put new focus on abortion in response to certain states, like New York, legalizing abortion

up to the point of birth. Naomi Rao, who was appointed to take Brett Kavanaugh's old seat on the D.C. Circuit Court may now be facing opposition from Republicans. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri told Axios in an interview that he was worried about Rao's positions on abortion, saying, quote, I am only going to support nominees who have a strong record on life. Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network pushed back in a statement, saying, Naomi Rao is President Trump's nominee for the second highest court in the lake.

because she is committed to the Constitution and because she has been a warrior in President Trump's fight against government overreach. Well, climate change is such a threat to the world that maybe we need to stop having kids. What do you think, Kate? Good idea? Great. Well, that seems to be what Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was suggesting on Sunday. Here's what she said while streaming live from, of course, her kitchen. Our planet is going to think disaster. if we don't turn this ship around.

And so it's basically like there's scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult. And it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question. You know, should, is it okay to still have children? And she also had these words for members of her own party who are not exactly a fan of her strategy. We need a universal sense of urgency. and people are trying to like introduce watered down proposals that are frankly going to kill us.

A lack of urgency is going to kill us. It doesn't matter if you agree that climate change is an important issue. At this point, it doesn't matter. If you believe climate change is a problem, that's not even the issue. It's the issue is how urgently you feel we need to fix it. Is she literally chopping stuff while talking? She was. I'm very impressed by that, actually.

I can listen to podcasts while cooking. I have never tried to do one. I mean, maybe 95% of her attention was on the chopping. U.S. District Judge Gray Miller ruled that it's not okay for the draft to include men, but not women, saying if there ever was a time to discuss the place of women in the armed services, that time has passed. He also wrote, While historical restrictions on women in the military may have justified past discrimination, men and women are now similarly situated for purposes of a draft or registration for a draft.

End quote. He did not, however, order the government to change the process now, reported USA Today. Well, Colorado will soon join the list of states aiming to bypass the Electoral College. Colorado's governor, Jared Polis, is set to sign a bill that would award his state's electoral college votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote. He called the Electoral College an undemocratic relative. of the nation's past. Upon his signing the bill, Colorado will become the 12th state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The other states in that compact have already passed similar measures, and their total electoral votes now add up to 172. The compact would go into

effect after it reaches 270. President Trump announced on Twitter Monday that a hostage, an American who is married to a Yemeni woman and who worked in oil in Yemen, had been released from Yemen. He wrote, quote, it is my honor today to announce that Danny Birch, a United States citizen who's been held hostage in Yemen for 18 months, has been recovered and reunited with his wife and children. And added, recovering American hostages is a priority of my administration. And with Danny's release, we have now secured freedom for 20 American captives since my election victory. We will not rest as we continue our work to bring the remaining American hostages back home. Well, up next, Kate sits down with Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin. Do conversations about the Supreme Court leave you scratching your head?

Then subscribe to SCOTUS 101, a podcast breaking down the cases, personalities, and gossip at the Supreme Court. Well, joining us today in studio is Governor Matt Bevin, Republican of Kentucky. So, Governor Bevin, you come to us straight from the White House. Can you tell us about your meeting there? It's been a good couple of days, actually, that we've been there. I've been there in conjunction with other governors from around the state. We've had both private individual conversations in my case with various cabinet secretaries and members of the administration, including the president, but then also collective meetings as well. And a lot of topics of conversation, as you would imagine, they've ranged from trade to transportation.

And those were probably the two most topical because they apply to everybody. Every governor in America is affected by both. But it was very productive. And I will say this, there has never been in the memory of any governor, and my own as well, just over the last four years, any administration that has ever met as much with, discussed as much with, cared about as much, or listened to as much the president of the United States now. The Trump administration really genuinely cares about what governors are saying, and there's never been any administration like it.

So how do they show that they care about what governors are saying? By asking our opinion on a regular basis, not only sitting down, going out of their way to proactively reach out. I personally get calls from the president. I'm sure I'm not alone. I know other governors do. He will proactively reach out to ask our input on things, to get our help on things, to ask for our two cents worth. And these are the kind of things.

And also to return a call. This is somebody that when you reach out to him, he'll either take the call or he's often busy, but will return it in very short order. And not always delegating it off to someone else. He's very hands-on. So too is the vice president. so to are each of the cabinet secretaries. I've never seen anything like it, and it's very helpful to those of us that are responsible for running our respective states. That's very interesting, and definitely not saying the media is reported on. Not at all. In fact, he has been so misrepresented with respect to how accessible he is. It's night and day.

So speaking of media coverage, I wanted to talk about the Covington, you know, the March for Life. the teens were accused in this media uproar of essentially acting like racist. And now one of those teens, Nick Sandman, is suing the Washington Post. Of course, a more video imagery came out that showed they were not being rude to the Native American activist, Nathan Phillips. So how did that affect the state? Is this, I mean, I remember just watching on Twitter, everything and being like, what is going on? Why are we focused on these high school boys? What was it like in Kentucky and how do people feel about it? I think the reaction in Kentucky was frankly no different on both sides. the equation than it was everywhere else in America. But I will say this, as to why they focused on

these boys, I think we know why. The fact that they were white males, the fact that they were there for a pro-life rally, the fact that they were wearing a hat that was perceived to be in support of this president, for those reasons alone, the fact that they're Catholic, the fact that they are, you know, fill in the blank. I mean, every single demographic that the media and so many of those on the left would have us believe our triggers for automatic racism were triggered by this young man. And he did nothing wrong. I mean, as you have noted, and as all the evidence has shown, and I'm glad that he's suing. I think I was frustrated by the fact that it took on the life that it did. I kept thinking this will go away because it's nothing. Once I saw a lot of

this video, even in the hours after the very first snapshots were released, I was amazed that it was taking on this life of its own. I thought it would die out. It just kept getting more and more frenetic. And this is what happens. Those that preach tolerance to all the rest of us are the most intolerant people. And those that would accuse us of racism are the most racist and bigoted people. And those that would ask us to open and embrace all ideologies have no acceptance of any idea other than those they agree with. And it's just outrageous to me. And I'm delighted in some measure that it was a private citizen and not someone in government who was attacked this way because he has the recourse of suing. And I hope he is well remunerated in his efforts.

Okay. Well, to switch gears a little bit, I wanted to discuss health care. The Heritage Foundation, our parent organization, was actually down in Kentucky last week for some events on health care, and they talked about the health care choices proposal plan. Essentially that plan, just to explain to our audience, I know you know about it, make some changes to Obamacare and would give the states more flexibility on how they spend their money. What do you think about that plan and what do you want to do on health care in Kentucky? I love it. I think the idea of turning control of dollars and of decision making to the local level. This is the embodiment of the 10th Amendment. You know, those powers not specifically given to the federal government in our constitution are the

responsibilities of the states and of the people. And this would be a perfect example of that. There's no reason why the federal government needs to be controlling these decisions and these dollars, give it back to the states, let the states have control, who better than the states to know what's in the best interest of their citizens. I love the idea. What are we doing? We are on many fronts, both through this proposal of 1332 waivers, but more immediately for us, through an 1115 waiver, we were the first state in America ever to be given

the opportunity to have requirements of either work or volunteering or some other engagement in order to receive Medicaid benefits. this would be only for the Medicaid expanded population. But we are pioneering things that have never been done in America in Kentucky because as somebody who grew up well below the poverty level, is somebody who grew up with no access to health care. I was an active duty army officer the first time I ever had health care in my life. And it was in my 20s.

I appreciate it. I'm empathetic. I know there's a need there. And what I want to see is what I know from personal experience to be true, that people who are engaged, people who have opportunity to pursue something but have an expectation that they do it, are much more likely to end up with better health outcomes. And at the end of the day, I don't just want quote unquote coverage if it doesn't result

in a change in health outcomes. I want a healthier population. And so we're working on many fronts to engage people in their own health making decisions because they'll be better off for it. So actually, that's really interesting because the work requirements for Medicaid has, of course, attracted a lot of criticism from the left. And people are saying, well, how dare you make health care dependent upon working? But you're saying you understand what it's like to need or to be in poor straits.

So why did you decide to pursue this and what sort of your response to liberal critics on this? It's interesting. The people who criticize this really don't know what they're talking about. They really don't. Really? Critics? I know. It's hard to believe. But here's the thing, too, they quickly say, oh, these people can't possibly do this. They have jobs. Perfect.

They've already met the requirement. This is, first of all, only applies to able-bodied working-aged men and women, people with no dependence. and it isn't simply work. They could also volunteer for 20 hours a week. They could be in school for 20 hours a week. They could be in a training program for a job that actually exists in their community for 20 hours a week, which we will get them connected to. They could be taking care of somebody that otherwise the government would be paying

for that person to be cared for for 20 hours a week. We're simply asking people to be doing something in exchange for something of great value, that liberals are outraged that they would be expected to do something in exchange for health care. but the people that are providing that health care to them have to do that very thing in order to pay for it. So I'm outraged that somebody thinks someone gets it for free when someone exactly like them goes to work to provide it to them and may or may not even have it themselves. So to me, it's an empty, empty excuse for not expecting more of people. People are more capable of things than the bigoted left would often believe them to be. Well, speaking of that, how did your own story make you feel?

that because, you know, we hear over and over, people can't move up in today's America. It's too hard. You know, there's privilege, all of this stuff. People can't get past it. But obviously you did. I mean, I literally at the risk of, you know, wow, and uphill both ways through the snow kind of a thing. I grew up in an unheeded house just south of the Canadian border. We had no central heat. I shared a bedroom with my three brothers, my whole life. We had no shower. We drove around $100 rusted out cars. We lived well below the poverty level. And here's what I know. American dream is a real thing. It's not, it's not an anecdote. It's not a historical thing of the past. It's not some dream or urban myth. It's genuine. It has been, it continues to be, but it's fragile

and it needs to be preserved. And if a kid like me, growing up in a community in which very few people would have ever done what I did, I never even flew in an airplane till I won a trip through 4H when I was 17 years old. I mean, for me, the world was a very small and insular one. For many people I grew up with, it stayed that way. But America affords opportunity for people. I chose to take that opportunity and I'm grateful and blessed to live in America. And I want the same for others. And it's insulting. It is bigotry and they would be outraged that you would say it. But when people on the left look down on people like I was and assume I don't have the capacity, the drive, the mental willpower or whatever to do more for myself, it is a level of bigotry that whether they recognize it or not,

assumes that I'm not worthy of being who they are. And I think it's insulting. I think it's wrong. And I think it's the exact ennathment of everything that the American dream has always been. Okay. Well, to switch gears again a little bit, you talked about foster care in your state of the Commonwealth address. And you said there's about 9,000, 10,000 kids in Kentucky who are in foster care right now.

Tell us why you're passionate about that issue and how you're trying to address that. Boy, we could talk for three hours. And I know we don't have that kind of time. but I am passionate about this for many reasons. My wife and I are blessed to have nine children. We had five of them were born to us, four of whom were adopted. This is near and dear to our hearts. This is driven by a whole lot of personal life experiences.

But at the end of the day, it's driven by this. We have in America 470,000 kids in the foster care system. Again, between 9 and 10,000 in Kentucky. In Kentucky alone, I've got more than 2,500 of those children that are waiting to be adopted, that just simply want a forever family. And every kid just wants to be loved. They want a mother and a father, or at least a mother or a father, somebody to love them, protect them, advocate for them, defend them.

These are all the kids want to encourage them. And the greatness of America is that we are so blessed with resources. There's no reason why we can't make room for every one of these kids. 470,000 kids in a nation of 350 million people or so. What are we talking? and 1.2, 1.3% of the population, maybe. Can the 98.7% of the rest of us not take care of these kids? I'm pretty confident we can.

So I just would encourage people at every turn. Do what you can in your community. Be a foster parent, be an adoptive parent, at the very least. Reach out to someone who is. Provide a meal. Provide some clothes your kids have grown out of. Provide a date night for them by saying,

hey, let your kids hang out at my house for the night. There's any number of ways we can fix this problem in America like that. We just have to be aware of it and we need to be passionate about stepping up. And this includes every governor and every legislature in the United States of America. It's a badge of shame if we don't. Yeah, it's such an important issue. And I know of a couple who has a little girl right now and they know that they might lose her when her, you know, grandmother comes out of jail or whatever it is.

But I know that they are showing that little girl such incredible love right now. And it's so beautiful. Here's the thing. Kids just want to be loved. and every kid deserves that. You talk about something that people should expect. In a nation like this, they should expect the opportunity to be loved and given a shot at the American Dream.

We've seen a lot of extreme abortion legislation recently. New York, of course, passed a law, Virginia, thankfully did not. New Mexico, I believe, is looking at extreme abortion legislation as well. What do you think is going on and what is Kentucky doing on this issue? I think what you're seeing is the guild is coming off the lily, the lily of, you know, rare, safe, and legal that has been foisted upon us, which supposedly those supporters of abortion only would want it under the rarest of circumstances. That's clearly never been their agenda, and it certainly isn't now, and they're not even now

pretending that it is. There's nothing about any of these pieces of legislation that are proposed and or past that you just mentioned that are anything about rare, safe, and legal. There's nothing rare about it. They're just simply saying, essentially, abortion on demand. and a child could be born, and if the parent doesn't want it to live, they would just leave it there to die. This is being espoused by people in elected office. It's being cheered in legislative chambers. It's sadistic. It is evil.

You can call it anything else you want. It is infanticide. It is morally repugnant. And the idea that as a nation, we would not be outraged. And the argument that, well, it's not convenient for people or financially feasible for them at this time. That's the reason to kill this infant child. but how much more feasible or reasonable or convenient or affordable is, say, a 14-year-old child with, you know, severe autism?

You know, that could also be demanding. Do we just say, hey, we did the best we could and we're just going to now put this child to sleep? And we should be offended. The same with euthanasia at any age, including for those who are elderly. The idea of government not doing its basic function, which is preserving the most vulnerable in society, is remarkable to me. seeing return to the very things that let's be honest, people like Margaret Sanger, who was a strong proponent of abortion and was a strong proponent of eugenics and who was the founder of Planned Parenthood,

she was unapologetic in her desire to rid the human population of what she considered to be undesirable people. And they were people who were poor, and they were people who were immigrants, and they were people who were people of color. And indeed, you look at where these abortion clinics are set up. They are deep inside those communities. And to this day, Nearly 100 years later, they are fulfilling her desire to cleanse what she considered to be undesirable people. And those of us who are seeing this should be outraged and stand in the gap. And this is what I'm grateful that states like Kentucky are doing. Yeah.

Well, on another somber note, school safety, you discussed it again in your state of the Commonwealth address. What's Kentucky doing on that issue? We are addressing it. It needs to happen, not just in Kentucky, but everywhere. You know, it's crazy to me. And again, we could have a long conversation, but the short version is we have young people increasingly going into school and doing harm to other young people. And this needs to be protected against.

But it's not just simply a function of putting up barricades and frisking kids and having metal detectors because that's what we do in prisons and violence still happens inside of prisons. The reality is this. It's a human condition. It's a function of the heart. It's a function of the mind. It's a function of the will of man to either do good or to do evil. And so we've got to look at the root causes.

We need to address behavioral issues. behavioral health, and we need to ask ourselves, why are our young people, why are they so devoid of appreciation for life itself? Why, because of our culture of death, have we created young people who would take their own lives and that of others? What are the root causes? What can we do to address this? These are things that have informed our conversations in Kentucky. We are going to strengthen and harden, as the term is sometimes said, our school facilities, but more importantly, we're drawing attention to the need for resources to address the fundamental root causes. You'll never fully be able to encapsulate evil. If people want to

do harm, they will, but we need to address this. And I'm grateful that our legislature has made this a priority in Kentucky. Last question. For those of us in the Washington, D.C. bubble, it's easy to not know what people in the heartland are actually thinking and want. I'm sure you talk to a lot of Kentuckians on a daily basis. What is D.C. see missing about what the people in your state actually want and or care about? For starters, nobody in Kentucky really cares about anything published in the Washington Post. And I mean that not to be pejorative about the Washington Post, but what often creates buzz in this town and is gossiped about and rumored about and discussed is of absolutely no

relevance to the people in the rest of America. It's just a handful, one or two percent of people outside of here that would even be aware of that. So my point being, what do people in the Heartland, Kentucky, and otherwise care about? They care about jobs. They care about the physical and the financial security of their families. They care about opportunity for their children. They do believe in the American dream and they want it to be possible.

They don't resent and reject the idea of upward mobility for themselves and others. They don't all resent it in others. They actually aspire to it and they want their children to aspire to it, the greatness of America. And I think this is why people don't understand. I will stay right here definitively right now with absolute confidence. Donald Trump is going to get reelected in 2020, barring some remarkably unforeseen circumstance. Because what people in this town refuse to believe, and despite their best efforts to make their wishful thinking come to reality, which is he's somehow not worthy, he's somehow not legitimate, he's somehow not liked, he's somehow not effective nonsense. We've never seen a president get more done.

They may not like his methodology, but his ability to get things done is untimely. paralleled in our political lifetimes. And I would say this, the people of Kentucky and the people of the rest of America, they recognize this. They may not even like the guy. They may not like his methodology, but they sure like to get things done. And as he says, and it is true, Americans like winners and Americans like to win. And we're doing a whole lot of it on the local and national and global stages in recent years. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Governor Bevin. Thank you. Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? I'm Rob. Bob Bluey, editor-in-chief of the Daily Signal, and I'm inviting you to share your thoughts with us.

Leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6205 or email us at letters at dailyysignal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast. Well, Sunday was the Oscars, which means now in the studio, we are joined by our producers, Michael Gooden and Thalia Rampersad to comment on what took place in Hollywood. This is now my official handoff to Michael. Take it away. All right. So T&G of the movies 2019.

I don't know about you guys, but my phone has been lit up like the 4th of July all day long from our listeners demanding our hot off the griddle takes on the Oscars 2019. And buddy, do we have them? T, so we're looking at last night. This was one of the first Oscars that did not actually have a host. Do you know why? No, please inform me. They were going through and they had Kevin. Hart as host, who is a very, very famous comedian, but some old tweets that he had tweeted out

a long, long, long time ago that a lot of people found very disrespectful and they were, came to surface and he basically had to step down. Right, because he's a bad person. I don't think he's a bad person. I think he made a many public meaculpus and saying that I'm sorry that, you know, I tweeted these things. They were insensitive. I'm a different person.

I've made amends, all of those things. And they still wanted his head for it, which is the state of things in 2019. My hot take, bring back Hugh Jackman from 2009 and watch him work. I honestly didn't miss the host. I didn't miss the host. They made a joke about it up front. But what they did, but even before that, which I thought was a brilliant take on it, was start the show with Queen.

Start the show with Queen. Listen, if the new trend here is to 86 The Host, which I thought was a little, you know, hackish, to be honest with you, start the show with an absolute powerhouse rock band. I will play that game every single year. If you want to, like next year, Metallica, perfectly okay with that. But the whole point was they were hoping to shorten the Oscars. And did they?

Absolutely not. It ran just as long. So I actually only watched the first hour. Did it run over three hours again? Absolutely. Yeah, I like to, I didn't think you need the host. I also didn't like Queen. I don't really like musical performances during the Oscars.

I think they should stick to movies or comedy. I think anytime you're trying to step in the shoes of someone like Freddie Mercury, and we're going to touch on Bohemian Rhapsody in a short moment, I thought Adam Lambert did a very commendable job of it. Honestly, there's a big shoes to fill, and nobody can sing or perform like Freddie Mercury did. So leading us into Queen, we're talking about Bohemian Rhapsody, because everyone's talking about Bohemian Rhapsody last night. It won a myriad of awards, and personally, I don't think it deserved about half of them.

So if it's one thing this Queen biopic did, for me, it was getting me to do my due diligence and research into what was true to life and what was. wasn't from the film's retelling of the band story. So while there is all this controversy surrounding the director and whether or not it should have even been nominated for Best Picture, I mean, that's almost irrelevant because we're focusing more on the storyline and how well Rami Malik did portraying Freddie Mercury. And just for those of you who are not following Hollywood closely, the original director, Brian Singer, has been accused of sex with underage men.

One of the things that I love about this film, and this is from a strictly editor's standpoint, which is kind of antithetical because it won best editing, and I don't think it deserved it, was its film continuity. It shot continuity and things. Now, this is something I found online, which fascinated me. Lee guitarist Brian May and the actual band Queen, there's a part in the live aid concert where he switches from his legendary red special guitar to a black telecaster to play a song called Crazy Little Thing Called Love, because you need a very country twang to that guitar,

which you can't get from his Red Special guitar, which you can't get from his Red Special guitar, special. It was a quick cut in that sequence, but they cut away to it to show that he switched that guitar. Only purists, only queen devotees will watch that and say, ah, they got that right, man. That is just an absolute labor of love. It's a minute detail that as a film editor, I absolutely dug 100%. So next on the Hot Topic list was Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. I actually loved a Star is Born. I watched The Stars Born last weekend, and I loved it. I thought it was a great movie. I thought Lady Gaga. was excellent. I thought Bradley Cooper was great. There were little parts of the movie that I didn't necessarily appreciate,

but I really appreciated it after watching the Barbara Streisand version, which I found to be a complete drag. What Celia is referring to is this very hyped up performance of theatrical. Of theatrical performance of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga singing a very, very, in my opinion, overrated song, shallow. Which also won Best Original Song. See, I have a problem with that. It's an okay song, as were a lot of the songs on that soundtrack.

Was it really the best original song of the year? Was the lyricist a little lazy in terms of crafting the lyrics, perhaps? But when I heard the song for the first time, I related to it. And I said, you know, this sounds like something I've heard before. And to me, that sounds like a hit. Yeah, they stretched one word over six bars of music. I don't find that especially interesting. What I do think was interesting was another song on that category,

which was when a cowboy trades his wings, his spurs for wings, which is from the movie The Ballad of Buster Scrugs, a criminally underrated movie on Netflix that I couldn't even get you to finish. You couldn't even finish. That was a Cohen Brothers Western anthology. It wasn't worth it. Oh my gosh.

The listeners, do yourselves a favor. If you are ever finding yourself with a good rainy Saturday, go on Netflix and watch the Ballad of Buster Scruggs. It is made much in the beautiful vein of the new true grit. It has touches of unforgiven in it. It is a gorgeously shot, wonderfully acted Western that you will not regret watching by the legendary Cohen Brothers. So were there any Oscar wins you guys were happy about?

No, we... So I will chime in and say that I was very excited about Best Original Song, as we just discussed with Chalo. What I wasn't happy about and didn't get a lot of play, but should have, was the visual effects that First Man took. And director Damien Chazelle, that was his production. So you know him from Whiplash and La La La Land. First Man was a snore fest. And anything else in that category should have won. He had Christopher Robin, Solo, a Star Wars story, Ready Player One, Avengers.

Any of those could have easily taken visual effects. I had not seen First Man, Big Shocker, but I have seen Ready Player One, and I am an absolute fan. One, that is a Steven Spielberg film. Ready Player One was a gorgeously visual film, and they really went for it. Now, did it have its mistakes and hurdles along the way? Absolutely. I had a ton of speed bumps that I could not say I'd watch this movie again for. One thing they did do, and this is coming from me as a film nerd,

who was an absolute freak for Stanley Kubrick films, was there absolutely accurate and just faithful recreation of the Stanley Hotel out of the Shining? That entire sequence deserved an Oscar because somebody had a Kubrickian level of detail to that sequence. I mean, the elevator with the blood coming out of it, the pattern on the carpet, the little touches here and there,

the Native American canvases on the wall, every single part of that was lovingly crafted with somebody who has a deep love for that. cinematic film. I'm sorry, nothing's going to hold a candle in my eye to somebody who really crafted a film around one they loved. You guys are film nerds and one ex a question. I wanted to ask was viewership for the awards has gone down a lot in recent years. Do you, A, did you actually watch it? And B, did you actually enjoy it? I mean, I found the first hour, frankly, to be pretty underwhelming. Like, it was people making awkward speeches.

The Oscars are like the Super Bowl for film. I don't watch the Super Bowl either. Well, it's fine. Honestly, too, it's a measure of success. And as much as people talk about the ratings and the viewership dropping, I think it's still, in terms of pop culture, needs to be discussed. And it's relevant. And people still pay attention to it. It's the highest award in town, regardless of our politics, regardless of our thoughts, regardless of how many people want to go off on a tirade.

No one asked for about Trump. It's still the biggest award in town. and something that carries forward so much so that later in their year, 25 years down the line, they still, even if they're nominated for an Oscar Academy Award nominee, it holds a prestige like no other. So like it or not, these awards are here to stay, and we, as film nerds, owe it to them to watch them every year, dissect it and talk about the movies we have and have not seen and openly critique them. I bet you within a decade, this will not be streamed on any network television,

and that if it acquires viewers online, it'll be under 15 million. I would like to officially document this as February 26th, 2019. The time Kate Trinko was just nationally wrong. I'll even bet five bucks on this. Big money. All right. Well, Michael and Thalia, TNG at the movies or G&T at the movies, I can never remember which. TNG, I believe.

T.M.G, I feel like you guys might disagree on the order there. But thank you so much. Always a pleasure. And thanks to our listeners for listening to The Daily Seg. Podcast brought to you from the proper H. Bruce Radio Studio here at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud, and please leave us a review or a five-star rating in iTunes to give us feedback. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast is part of your Alexa Flash briefing. We'll see you again tomorrow.

You've been listening to The Daily Signal podcast, executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis, Sound design by Michael Gooden, Lauren Evans, and Thalia Rampersad. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.