The Ricochet Podcast - Wrapping up 2017

Episode Date: December 22, 2017

This is it. folks — our very last show of 2017. To help us take a look back, we’ve enlisted NewsMax CEO (and Trump confidant) Chris Ruddy who give us the inside Mar-A-Lago POV. Also, we tackle the following questions in this show (h/t: The Commentary Podcast): The best thing Trump did in 2017 The worst thing Trump did in 2017 What you thought would happen in 2017 that didn’t happen? Source

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Whether it's communications or security, Innovate has you covered. Visit Innovate today. Innovate, the IT solutions people. Ready? Three, two, one. Ho, ho, ho, merry podcast. That really dates it, doesn't it? What if you're listening to this after Christmas?

Well, if you are, great. You don't care when, as long as you listen and as long as you realize that this... I'm sorry. Let me start again. I'm too ebullient. Three, two, one. We have special news for you. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

Are you going to send me or anybody that I know to a camp? We have people that are stupid. Guess what? We're saying Merry Christmas again. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. It's the Ricochet Podcast. I'm James Lilacs. Peter Robinson is here and we're going to be talking to Chris Ruddy of Newsmax and look who's coming down the chimney with a big

red bag. It's Rob Long. Let's have ourselves a podcast. It's the Ricochet Podcast, number 383. Holy crow, we'll be at 400 soon, and we'll get there thanks to wonderful sponsors like Eero. Are you tired of paying for high-speed Internet, only to be frustrated by a weak Wi-Fi signal and serve partners to your house?

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is finally over, and we'll tell you a little bit more about Tracker, T-R-A-C-K-R, and your special coupon code in just a bit. And of course, we're brought to you by Ricochet.com. Once upon a time, yearn and yearn ago, we would say, here's Rob Long to tell you about it. But Rob went on walkabout. He went

missing. We never did. Wait a minute. Wait. Wait. Got a job. Yeah. I know that. I know that. That genial chuckle. That elitist sort of swanning about with a croissant in one hand and a cappuccino. Interrupting.

Yeah. So, James, how are you? Merry Christmas. And same to you. And tell us what you're here to say. I'm here to say this. And if you're listening to this podcast, you are clearly, you know what Ricochet is, and you are,

you must be a fan, because you've been listening and listening and listening. Let me tell you something. It's the end of 2017. We've been through a lot together on this podcast and various other places. We really need your help. We really need you to join. If you've been listening, you've been meaning to join, if it's the thing you've been trying to do

for a while, we need you to do it, and we need meaning to join, this is the thing you've been trying to do for a while. We need you to do it, and we need you to do it today if you can. Ricochet, as you know, is the fastest-growing, smartest, most civil conversation between the center right on the web. We put out these podcasts for free. We do all the advertising to support it. And we need members. Members keep the trains running on time and keep the payroll checks not bouncing. And so what else can I say?

We have a great bunch of tiers of membership. They all have little premiums attached to them. They even have a podcast. If you just want to listen to the podcast, go right ahead, listen to the podcast, but please listen as a member. Go to ricochet.com. Multiple tiers of membership. Multiple tiers of membership. I remember when it began years so long ago, Rob, there was just one basic price, and it was the cup of coffee.

And as I said to you then, as I said back then, it's going to end in tears. Sorry. Peter, well, cheers. You did, actually, yes. Peter, welcome. Peter Robinson, happy holidays. Merry Christmas, all the rest to you as well.

How are you faring in this week where millions are going to die, frankly, because of the tax cut? Those who weren't killed by the end of the Paris Accords and the net neutralities, quietus, are probably going to be finished off by the tax cut. How are things looking there in California? I've had it. I've had it so completely that three days from now, we're traveling to Mexico. Oh. I am making like George Clooney and leaving the country. Godspeed.

I see you like Linda Hamilton in that Jeep stopping for gas on the way out as the storm clouds gather before the Skynet strikes. Rob, how are you handling it? Are the dead heaped in front of the churches like in the movie Life Force with people pitchforking them at the lorries? It makes me laugh. I keep looking at this tax cut, which is all it really is, this tax cut. I mean, I think it's a little too grand on our side to refer to it as tax reform. It's not really. But it's a very, very good tax bill. It's a very, very good tax cut. It's a – for once, for the Republicans, it's kind of a fair tax cut. Often, you know, I mean often the rap on Republicans is true, that we tend to favor the rich.

We tend to favor trickle down. This one seems pretty across the board, especially when you consider that half Americans pretty much don't pay income tax. So the idea that this is going to end the civilizations we know it seems kind of to me it seems kind of crazy even if you oh my god even if you loathe trump surely you should keep your powder dry for something other than you know a pretty aggressive but basically capital R establishment Republican tax guy, don't you think? Oh, totally. Actually, James, I thought that with Rob having been gone for several months now, you and I would have to wait some time. It would take us a little while to correct his thinking. I was expecting him to come in and say something just outlandish. He's been living in the West

Village in the city on the island of Manhattan. He's been living in the West Village in the city of on the island of Manhattan. He's been back to the television industry. We needed time to work on him. Rob, amazingly enough, Rob has it exactly right from the get go. The hyperventilation on the other side over what is frankly a pretty modest and entirely reasonable. You may disagree with it, but it's an entirely reasonable tax package taking the corporate rate down to 21%,

which just puts us in the middle of the pack for corporate tax rates in Western countries, developed countries, I should say, not West. Japan is included in that group. And it cuts the rate for individuals a little bit and it increases the standard deduction, which is going to help even people who pay very few, very little in income tax. It's a pretty modest, pretty reasonable measure.

And the idea that Jerry Brown called it evil, that Nancy Pelosi is describing it as the end of the world that Chuck Schumer calls it immoral. They have – I really don't know where the Democrats go. If the economy continues to grow briskly and we've now had two quarters in a row of over 3 percent growth, which is the first time in some years when we've had back-to-back quarters of over 3 percent. If that continues into another quarter and a quarter after that, I just don't know what the Democrats do. If the state if the state is your god tax cuts are blasphemy i mean very nicely put right that's very nicely put become a moral issue i i was standing i was standing in a beautiful kitchen that had been renovated about three or four years ago to neighbor's house later at a holiday party a

solstice party last night and they were joking about the sort of scoffing at the tax cuts. People sitting, standing around saying, oh, well, you know, it's going to trickle down. It'll trickle down. It'll create jobs. They're all laughing and saying the code. Oh, trickle down. Yeah, that's really going to do it. And I said, I mean, mind you, everyone is standing in a kitchen that was renovated because the person who owned the house paid taxes at a level that allowed them to have the capital to build this.

So obviously, they don't think that she should have been taxed more because then she wouldn't have this nice kitchen. And since she's a good, decent person, she's allowed this kitchen. The idea of lowering taxes even more so that other people who make less than her should have a nice kitchen. Well, you know, those folks, you know, they probably are just eating at Walmart anyway, takeout. But I couldn't control myself. And I actually said, well, what are you going to do with the money if you get a tax cut? Are you going to burn it? And they looked at me like, who the hell is this guy? And I realized, what the hell?

Let's go all the way. And I said, the last time I got a big tax cut out of the Bush administration, I spent all the money on house renovations like this. I hired a guy who ripped up the steps. I hired a guy who ripped up the steps. I hired a guy who brought in the stone. He hired a guy who hired a forklift. All the money went to hiring people, and they paid taxes on what they – and at the end of it, I had the staircase replacing the one that was unfit according to the city codes, and it increased the property value of my house.

Everybody won. That money didn't evaporate everyone looked in their drinks and nobody could really say anything about that and it's not like i won but i'd spoken this strange doctrine right i come from the valley with news of a new idea. Well, what's amazing about that story, actually, James, is that I know all that for a fact that you did that because I read about it on your blog. Right. I mean, you used to write all about that stuff, and I never actually connected it with tax cuts. But first of all, look, obviously there's first principles here, which is that you know instantly what a person thinks about government and money when they say this is theft, that this tax cut is theft. The idea that keeping more of your money or allowing people to keep more of their earned money is somehow stealing from them is – you either fundamentally believe that or you fundamentally don't, and that's what side you're on but the also the idea that that a good portion of these tax cuts i mean the corporate side anyway were obama era suggestions i

mean um uh standard middle of the road democrats and standard middle of the road republicans have been saying for almost now a decade and a half that corporate tax rates are too high that they need to be lowered. Obama used it as a cudgel because he thought Republicans would give it on other things, but it wasn't as if he wasn't saying that. So there's a huge part of it, besides the part that gives people more money in their pocket, the part that gives the corporations more money in their greedy little coffers so they can – I don't know what they can do with it. This has been sort of, you know, kind of shrugging acceptance for at least 10 years from the Democrats. So the whole thing, and what's bananas is what happens if, what happens if, I mean,

this is a question I would ask for people like me too, who, from Trump, you know, makes us a little upset in the stomach. What happens if this is as bad as Trump gets? He's kind of a loathsome individual. He tweets filthy stuff. He's kind of low rent, nasty, kind of not a nice guy, and kind of emotionally unstable. But that's as bad as it gets and as good as it gets is a tax cut um uh conservative judges uh maybe a few other things and then you know kind of a nice pruning shears to the uh bureaucratic state for the next we'll ask our next guest exactly that but i should note that when it comes to the tax cut we were

talking about and i was talking about at this party, as I'm standing there, my phone keeps going off with these notifications from American Express telling me that my daughter has applied to another college. And I'm looking at this, and it's like $70 of application fee. Bing, bing. And so I'm looking at my – each one of these represents a huge expenditure theoretically down the road in tuition. And my phone is just keep reminding me of impending impoverishment and what bugged me was that i had to be on the lte on data because i was slightly away from my own house it was across the street but you know if i had a stronger wireless system i could have been on my own network practically across the street in the neighborhood which reminds me i've got to pick up

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Bet within 48 hours of race. Main market excluding specials and place bets. Terms apply. Bet responsibly. 18 plus gambling care. This is Total Betting. all. Installing, managing, supporting, and reporting on your entire IT and telecoms environment so you can focus on what really matters, growing your business. Whether it's communications or security, Innovate has you covered. Visit Innovate today. Innovate, the IT solutions people. ... promo code RICOSHAY to make the shipping free. And our thanks to Arrow for sponsoring this, the Ricochet podcast. Now we bring on our first guest, Chris Ruddy. He's the CEO of Newsmax and a close personal friend of the 45th president of the United States.

Newsmax, if you're curious, can be seen on channel 216 on DirecTV. Welcome. Rob, Peter, and James. I just hit the three wise men. Peter, take it. I have to dip away for a second here. Chris Ruddy, thanks so much for joining us. Here's the question. This past couple of days,

zero Democrats voted for the tax reform package that I believe the president is going to sign Monday. I'm not sure that I've got that date, but he's going to sign it within something like 72 hours at the most. And I just looked this up. In 1986, the number of Democrats in the Senate, couldn't find the House numbers, I'm fumbling around, but I found the Senate numbers. The number of Democrats who voted for the tax reform in 1986 was 33. It was a broadly bipartisan measure. Now, not a single Democrat has voted for tax reform.

What does your friend, the President of the United States, make of that? Well, I don't think Donald Trump cares that the Democrats didn't vote for it. And it's not really surprising considering the political environment. But, you know, he gets blamed for a lot of the bipartisanship that's going on, Peter. But the truth is, it all started with Barack Obama. Remember the days when he rammed down the $800 billion stimulus bill? And he had, what, no votes or close to zero votes on the Republican side for that bill? The health care bill? The monumental bill affecting 150 million, 200 million Americans' health care coverage?

Right. And he had maybe two Republicans. I think Arlen Specter was one of them that supported him. But he didn't care. They just ran it through. Bush had worked very carefully, as you know, and even Reagan, to develop a bipartisan consensus. I prefer that method myself. I prefer that when the Republicans and Democrats work together, I think it creates an environment where the legislation is longer lasting and more effective at the end of the day for everybody. But I can't blame the president for not going ahead with this. Yeah. I've got one more for you, Chris, and then I know Rob is champing at the bit to come in here. And here's my question. Over the last few days, we've started

to see even quite grudgingly in the mainstream media list of president trump's accomplishments first the argument was he was incompetent he can't get anything done now the new argument that appears to be taking shape is he's actually a little too effective he's getting the wrong things done from their point of view but from the point of view of those who support him the effectiveness is beginning to become clear to them, too. Why do his approval ratings remain as low as they are? Well, I think there are two separate issues. One is he has been the most transformative president that anybody can remember in our lifetimes.

And I think and the thing they don't talk about that he's done so effectively is the bully pulpit transforming the power of the president without putting through legislation, just using your administrative actions, executive actions, and the force of your persona. He's also transformative in the communications. And I know you were there with Reagan, the great communicator. This man has increased the level of engagement to a new level. And now some people may say that's for the worse, does not have a positive effect with Twitter and all of that. But it's besides the fact that it's been very transformative. It has a huge impact.

And I think when you know every board, Fortune 500 company across America, saying how do we help our workers, how do we pay back, 500 company across America saying, how do we help our workers? How do we pay back? How do we give back? How do we keep jobs in this country? Those discussions were not going on before Donald Trump became president. In fact, you know, this week, AT&T, Boeing, a number of companies say we're going to give every employee. That's Donald Trump. That's not the chairman of AT&T. They want to be on best behavior because they're afraid he's going to call them out if they buy share buybacks. 200,000 employees of AT&T will receive $1,000 Christmas bonuses explicitly because of the tax bill.

Yeah. According to AT&T itself. I think AT&T should be applauded for that. I think they are great corporate citizens, and I think that's a sign of it. But I do think that Donald Trump helped push the needle there and all over the place. In Europe, I mean, 22 nations in Europe are suddenly increasing their defense spending. If Germany's GDP for defense is rather small, if we had the same GDP, we would be able to put almost every American kid in college, certainly undergrad in this country, for free. In Germany, the kids do go to college for free. We're paying for their defense. Donald Trump's saying, hey, wait a minute. So he's these nostrums and accepted views, he's challenging. I think that's positive. Now, there's some negatives, but I think for a guy that's been the first nonpolitician, I think he's had some amazing accomplishments.

Hey, Chris, it's Rob Long in New York. Welcome. The traditional – not traditional, but the past two or three presidents, they have noticed that when they disappear a little, their approval ratings go up. Barack Obama noticed that. George W. Bush noticed that. Bill Clinton noticed that. When they become less the center of the story, they somehow get a little bit more leverage. Has Donald Trump rewritten that, or would you suggest to him that advice? Just maybe cool it a little bit with the becoming the center of every controversy, and you might end up getting that number that's now in the very low 330s to maybe up to 40, maybe inching up to 50, considering he just gave everybody a very, very, very large tax cut.

Rob, this is, I guess, a good follow-up also to Peter's second half of his question, which I didn't really answer, but is the Gallup poll and the approval ratings. They're bad. They're not good. And they're in the mid-30s. If you look on the historics on Gallup, and I like Gallup because it's a good benchmark because you're comparing apples to apples with other presidents. I don't like the way their polling's done as registered voters. So I think the numbers are skewed down. But if you compare other presidents, any president that's at 38 or lower usually has white ballots of losing the House and the Senate in the congressional elections.

We know that Obama had a 43 percent and he lost both the House and the Senate in 2010. We know Bill Clinton had a 46 percent approval rating and he lost the House in 94. Trump, as you say, Rob, is at 35 today. I've actually spoken to the president about this and we actually spoke a couple of weeks ago at the White House. And I said to him, this is the big challenge for you is getting those poll numbers up. It's really important because you have these accomplishments. You're under siege by the media. You have to think of a new strategy. And the president doesn't like to gallop numbers. He's talked about this, I think, publicly, that that's not a good poll. I agree with him. I don't like how it's calibrated, but I do think it's a good standard or benchmark.

And I do think he has a problem, and the problem is the press hates him. They want to destroy him, actually. If you watch CNN or MSNBC at all, it's like living in an alternative universe. You think this guy is a puppet of Vladimir Putin and a treasonous person on the American throne. I mean, it's just sort of shocking. And, you know, Fox probably goes completely the other way. I think, you know, when Bush was there,

Reagan was there, I criticized them. And I think President Trump, you know, he knows, we sometimes critique, I didn't like his health care plan. I critique that. And I think he dodged a bullet by that not going through. But I think this tax plan is about 80 percent great. It's going to be one of the biggest, best tax cuts in the history of the country. And some of the things are just incredible about it. One is that nobody talks about the repatriation of the $3 trillion in offshore money. That is not even calculated by the CBO. And I think that's going to be more incriminative than any other part.

I agree. So I think the approach, Rob, to getting those poll numbers up, which are critical for not only the Conggressionals, but a reelect scenario, and getting election legislation through, and avoiding these attacks by the Democrats and maybe an impeachment process, is to become more bipartisan. And when Trump did look like he was going to do a deal on DACA back in September, his poll numbers went up about five points in Gallup. They went up exactly over the weekend almost. People were so relieved, I think. So I have a follow-up for that. Compare the past two presidents. Since you brought up Obama, Obama was personally extremely popular, and he won this massive popular vote victory, 53%. And yet he lost the House and the Senate. He was arguably politically just a disaster for the Democrats.

They lost the House. They lost the Senate. They lost state houses. They lost governorships. They lost their AAA teams. They lost their – if you're the NBA, they lost all the college basketball stars. And then you have a president who is by any measure unpopular, that is languishing in the very low 30s and maybe ticks up a, a tidal wave, a tsunami, or do you think it's going to be sort of standard what the voters tend to do? They did to Clinton.

They did to Bush. They did to Obama. When the guy on the top, they give him a little obstacle. Do you think this is going to be something that enters into the history books this midterm, or do you think it's going to be ho-hum, this is what happens in American politics? I think we're facing a political earthquake next year. There's a lot of indications it's coming. And one is we saw what happened in Virginia where all the polls were off by five or eight points

in favor of the Republicans. So they were underestimating Democratic energy and strength. That election in Virginia is usually a very good one for Republicans and certainly at the House and those in the state legislative level. And it was just really bad this year, as you know, and the Democrat won. And then Roy Moore, we saw a 30-point swing over the previous Senate election. So that's huge. And then we had four or five House special elections in safe Republican districts. All of those races moved in favor of the Democrats by 15 to 25 points. And the Republicans won, but just barely in most of those. So this is an indication, I think,

and here's the problem that's going to happen. This tax bill is passed late. You will see some tax reduction in paychecks. But the stimulative effect won't take place really for years two and three. And, in fact, we know when Reagan did his tax cut, it really didn't hit until 84, and they were passed in 81. So give it two years, but it's not enough time. And I think the press has been spinning this tax thing so negative. And there'll be a lot of people that are upset about losing this deduction or that deduction. They won't look at the big picture. And I think right now, if I had a guess, I mean, I think the Republicans lose 20 to 30 House seats.

And I think that we, it's just going to be lucky if they keep the Senate. They could lose it. It could be a couple of votes either way. Chris, last question. Ouch. Chris, last question. And I might say that that could change, obviously, with with circumstances, I just think. But after that election, I think it's actually very good for the president.

I think he will have an easier ride right into the real because the stimulant effect is going you just suggested and if the republicans lose the senate within one month at the most there will be moves there will be calls for impeachment how can you say the president will be in a better position i think it's going to force donald trump to become much more bipartisan as Bill Clinton. He's suddenly going to be Mr. Nice Guy with the Democrats. He had a long history of being very close with Democrats. He's going to realize they're going to have a lot of leverage over him on those investigations. And not really, not that there's nothing, there's anything there, but the subpoena power is so enormous.

It's going to bottle him up, tie him up, and try to embarrass his administration. So I think usually presidents react to that in a fairly accommodative way. And actually, that might be good for democracy at the end of the day, if we had a more bipartisan, I would much prefer to have a Republican Senate. I think it's really important for the Trump legacy because of the confirmation of judges and other appointees that we keep that Senate Republican. So that's like a mission. This is the Chris Ruddy from Nassau County, Long Island, the kid who grew up in Nassau County. You've got to learn to work with the

Democrats because that's just the way life goes. James, I was going to say, I'm a Republican. I'm here. And you and I are the only two people who remember that guy. Okay. I was going to say that I'm here in deep red Minneapolis and in a newsroom where people are quivering over the fact that there's an imminent constitutional crisis,

that the whole Putin thing is going to come to a head very soon, and Mueller will be fired, and the country will be paralyzed. Now, outstate, no, that's not the narrative. They want jobs. They want to see the economy do better. But here, that's what everyone is thinking about, and that's what drives the narrative. So do you think that there's anything to this, that there actually is going to be before the election some disposition of the Mueller investigation that takes impeachment off the table when should things flip after the midterms? solutions for your business at innovate we are the it solutions people for businesses across ireland from network security to cloud productivity we handle it all installing managing supporting

and reporting on your entire it and telecoms environment so you can focus on what really matters growing your business whether it's communications or security, Innovate has you covered. Visit Innovate today. Innovate, the IT solutions people. That the Mueller disposition will take impeachment after the midterms or before the midterms? Before, before. I'm missing the logic there. I think that Mueller's going for Trump's jugular. I think he's going to do something very aggressive.

This investigation is going at lightning speed for these type of probes. Mueller only came out in, what, April? He's already gotten two major indictments, two major pleas. I think there's some more indictments that are going to come up in the very early part, at least one more in January, February. This guy's moving, and he's already got the National Security Advisor. He has the former campaign manager. These are high level people he's targeting. So I think he's going to go, you know, I, at the end of the day, really do not, I don't believe this Russian collusion story. I actually think the Russians helped Trump in the, I'm sorry, they helped Hillary in the election

because if you look at the poll number, she actually outperformed Obama in many, many states. And so I don't think that they swayed the election at all. And I do think that at the end of the day, the president wasn't involved in anything. And if there was some guy named Papadoulos that took a meeting, I don't think that's collusion. Well, we'll let you go, but we have to ask, are you hopping on a jet to Mar-a-Lago for a gala Christmas event soon to come? Actually, I'm about ready to pull up at the Trump Golf Club right now for lunch. The president's flying in a one o'clock. I think I'm going to miss him today. Usually he pops over to the golf course in the mornings, but I will probably see him over

the holidays a couple of times, and he's usually in a very festive, amicable mood when he's down here, because this is the winter White House. All right. Well, Merry Christmas to you. Enjoy the Diet Cokes that will no doubt be pro-offered,

and thanks for coming on the podcast. Hey, Chris, thank you. Merry Christmas. Diet Cokes. will no doubt be proffered. Thanks for coming on the podcast. Merry Christmas. Diet Cokes. Merry Cheeseburgers. Well, that sounds not too bad, actually. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Thank you, gentlemen.

Diet Coke and Cheeseburger. There's nothing wrong with the Diet Coke and Cheeseburger. It sounds pretty darn good. We have a new burger chain. Yeah, right now. We've got a new burger chain here in town, and it's been amusing because they ruined one of my orders. And so I wrote them a nice letter sending them pictures of the thing, and they said, oh, we're very sorry. That's just not how we do things, and they sent me a gift certificate. So I went back.

I used the gift certificate and actually had a burger that was worse than the first one that they gave to me. They apologized profusely. What's the chain? I'm not going to say because they've gotten their act together. They fired the guy who was bad. They actually said, we have a problem. We have a problem with that guy. We're going to go and train him a little bit more.

Like, ah, that's how tight the labor market is. They can't just fire him and put another cook in there. So they gave me another gift certificate and said, it'll be waiting for you in the office. So I go the next time and I tell them my name and they come back and they they gave me another gift certificate and said, it'll be waiting for you in the office. So I go the next time, and I tell them my name, and they come back, and they can't find the gift certificate, because they didn't slap a tracker on that sucker. Oh, okay.

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Do we have a podcast next, by the way? Are we doing an end-of-the-year recap? I don't think we are. I think this is our end-of-the-year recap. This is, well, we could, no. I will be, I really will be in Mexico next week. So, who knows? They have telephones in Mexico.

Pujol. Pujol is where I need in Mexico. Pujol. Pujol is where you need to eat. Pujol. Pujol. Enrique Olvera is a fantastic chef. Great restaurant in Mexico City. Pujol. One of the restaurants here in Los Angeles, in New York, called Cosme.

It's just great. And then he opened a little kind of drop-in bar downtown. That's great. The guy's just a little kind of drop-in bar downtown that's great. The guy's just really genius, just wonderful. Pujol. Okay, Pujol. This is one of the many things that's so lovable about Rob Long is you can name

a city anywhere in the Western world and throughout at least half of Asia and he will be able to tell you the restaurant. Exactly. Well, we won't get to the... We won't get to the best restaurants next week because we won't be here next week. This means this is it. All right, guys. Some questions here.

John Podhortz in the commentary podcast had some questions that I think are apt. First one, the best thing Trump did in 2017. Defeat ISIS. Defeat ISIS? Defeat ISIS. Oh, he did? Yeah. Rob? I'm trying to find something that's I'm trying to find a little weird thing.

I think the tax bill is a significant political victory for the president. I think when the president of the United States pushes through a tax bill that gives everybody a tax cut, that is a victory. But it just seems like maybe that's not the most interesting, best thing he's done. So let me – give me one second. Let me think. Well, Peter, let me ask you this though. Sure. one second let me think well peter let me ask you this though sure when we say trump defeated isis of course we don't mean that he he suited up and waded into the fray and commanded the troops you

know like some of the illustrations have him standing on tanks with a grin pointing into the no um what he did was he you get the sense that he on weapons free he unleashed the strategy and then it's a case not of somebody saying this is my this is what i want you to do but saying what what do you want to do you haven't been able to do before? Precisely right. That is exactly right. Okay. The Obama people decided they needed to take on ISIS as well.

And so there were American troops on the ground working with Iraqi allies. The Iraqi allies were more numerous than the Americans by some large margin. But what was happening was that during the – under Obama, we and our allies would push ISIS around, push them out of an area, push them out of a city and then permit them to regroup and surprisingly often eventually infiltrate and recapture territory. And Donald Trump let Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis do what Jim Mattis believed needed to be done. And this is all on the record. Jim Mattis has spoken in these very words. And they actually increased the American troop levels slightly, not dramatically, but slightly. And Mattis changed the terms of engagement so that our strategy became surround and annihilate. Right. Don't shove them around. Defeat them. I remember the wave of horror that swept through the newsroom when Colin Powell said, we're going to cut it off.

We're going to kill it. Yes. Kill it? That's so mean. My dog just made a reaction to that. So that's great. So that's a change in attitude. Do you think that applies elsewhere to the Trump administration?

In other words, he's not sitting around calculating the details of the tax plan. He's letting the people who know what they're doing do it and then saying, I'll sign off on it. Sure. Well, I mean, where that's very clear is that he's accepting recommendations for judicial nominees. And he's also over at EPA. He's permitting Scott Pruitt, who knows exactly what he's doing at EPA, to rein in the overreach that that agency has engaged in for a number of years now. Yes, Trump is getting out of people's way when they know what they're doing. I would answer that two ways. One, I would say that clearly the tax bill did not, the origins of the tax bill were not of the White House. The White House was

not driving that move, but it did support it. And I think that really helps. But I would say, here is my non-answer to your question, but I think it's, I sort of stand by it, even though it's utterly unsupportable and unprovable. I think the most significant thing, the biggest win, and I'd say wins that the Trump administration, Donald Trump himself has sort of racked up over the year, are unknown to us right now because they're things they didn't do. They are jobs they didn't fill. You know, every time you read in the New York Times or someplace like, can you believe it? All these jobs at the department of something, something are unfilled. That to me is like music to my ears. It's like a beautiful, soothing, easy listening symphony because all the stuff that's not getting done, all of the regulations that may be trimmed and cut and snipped, we have no idea where – what the benefits of those things are going to be, that inaction is going to be, but I guarantee you it's going to be huge. Let me just say one more thing about Donald Trump.

I mean I'm not warming to the man, but I have to give him some respect here. The AT&T announcement this week that they were going to give everybody a big fat bonus. 200,000 employees. He jumped on that. Yeah, 200,000. He jumped on that news. It was like Christmas morning to Donald Trump. See, he said.

See, I told you. Now, AT&T, I'm sure, is filled with decent and good people. But it also has a rather controversial merger plan that the Department of Justice has been against for, I don't know, the past month. But it's very important. They want to buy Time Warner.

And they were not quite denied it yet, but they were told they're going to deny it. And I would be surprised. I would be shocked, in fact, if that merger with a few cosmetic changes did not go through why he puts the president it puts the left in the position of saying that they're trying to buy public goodwill for this thing and they have to the left has to come out against thousand dollar bonuses for two and they have to right right

which is quite clever on the part of the companies that are doing this. I mean it's this big public bribe for goodwill responding to – I mean – so yeah, I mean the optics as they say are good. But in order to get angry about it, you've got to get mad about the worker drones who supposedly have had no increases in salary since 1943. You've got to be mad about them getting a nice bonus. But this feels like American politics to me, and it makes me happy. Yes, I agree. With a perfectly legitimate merger on the – no, they did not anticipate any trouble for the Department of Justice, but they want to curry favor with the administration, and

the way they curry favor is they give all their employees $1,000. That's not bad. I mean, that is the way American politics from a small-town mayor machine to the president of the United States has behaved since Truman. This is great Truman politics, and it makes me feel good because it's normal. What would Jimmy Stewart say in a Capra movie though? Come on, come on, come on. That's debasing all we stand for. He would say it's great. It's great.

You're getting everybody money. It's great. What could be better? Alright, so the worst thing that Trump did in 2017, Peter, you've been a defender reluctantly and then not so reluctantly. What's the worst thing? The worst thing to... This doesn't go to policy, but the worst thing to me... Yeah, I mean, the worst thing to this is this doesn't go to policy but the worst thing to me yeah i mean it's the worst thing to me is the tweets that have been insulting

the insult directed at who's the woman who sits next to joe scarborough the insult thank you mika or whatever mika mika brzezinski thank you very much i would have got it even anyway mika brzezinski that insult when he insults people personally, it's stupid. I just do not buy the argument. I'm beginning to understand the argument that tweeting permits him to communicate with certain kinds of people. Fine. But there's a whole category of tweets that just doesn't do him any good, that are demeaning and disgusting, and he ought to to quit that was the worst he did in 2017 rob yeah i i agree with peter my problem is that he did it daily sometimes multiple times a day and i don't think it's necessary i don't think it's useful i don't think it's going to get him where he wants to get i think he's going to pay a big price for that um i don't think that donald trump has rewritten all of the rules of american politics i think he has going to pay a big price for that. I don't think that Donald Trump has rewritten all of the rules of American politics. I think he has a wave of change in American politics, and that's perfectly legitimate that you're allowed to do that. But he hasn't rewritten them.

This is still a 51%, 52% nation. And he's leaving, as they say in business, he's leaving money, easy money on the table. Yes, he is. I agree completely there's about a i would guarantee i would i would proffer with zero evidence that there's 10 to 12 to maybe 15 percent uh of the of eligible voters likely voters registered voters however you want to put it who would happily vote for donald trump happily happily tell pollsters they support him, happily give him the approval rating that he needs to govern effectively in this country, happily do that. Just such a low, emotionally needy, sour jerk.

I agree with both of you, but I'll add a second one here. Maybe the worst thing he did was to at the end endorse Roy Moore. Oh, related. Same sort of thing. But it really aligned the presidency and the GOP

with more statements and said that these things are acceptable when it comes to comments about Muslims, about homosexuals, about women and the rest of it. Thank you for confirming every cliche and mischaracterization about those who come to the party

for reasons of economics and social stability. And being a grifter on top of it. Not only that, not only being a dinosaur, but also being a grifter. This question it like not only that not only just being a sort of dinosaur but also being a grifter that's that's yeah this question is in the lineup if you were to ask me what am i most relieved about in 2017 it's that roy moore just will not be in the senate the guy is gone oh that's a relief yeah uh from the jpod sequence also sort of related to what you just said peter what what did you think would happen in 2017 that didn't happen, Rob? Well, I, uh, this is a, it's a hard thing to admit. It's, it's not,

I did not wish this, but I thought, I really thought Trump wasn't going to make it. I thought he was going to have a heart attack, uh a stroke i really did i mean the people i know who covered him and during the campaign and covered him in the early part of the of his term were alarmed at the rapid weight yes yes yes he's a 70 plus year old man who does zero exercise well you know cart around a golf course. He gained like 30 pounds, 35 pounds. That's not something that when you're 70

you can kind of do. There seems to be no turning back on the candy and I guess the Diet Cokes are probably okay, but all that stuff. I think his health was going to be in real trouble, but it wasn't.

It hasn't been. He just may be indomitable. That may be what we got. He's a battery. He regards himself as a battery, and batteries have a set amount of charge to them. So that's why exercise actually can use up the energy in your battery. So that's probably it. So Rob thought he was going to kick.

Peter, what did you do? Yeah, I made two mistakes in my own thinking about this past year. One was that I thought they would come up. I thought they would stitch together some kind of healthcare reform that would repeal Obamacare. And I just misread that. That turned out to be much more complicated than I expected. It turned out that there are two – on healthcare, there are two really irreconcilable wings of the Republican Party. They just couldn't get a deal done.

I misread it. Excuse me. Sometime in the last, say, two or three months would get off the Russian collusion story as it began to become clear, as indeed it is now very clear. There's just no evidence of anything that arises to the level of collusion, let alone to the still higher level of illegal activity between the Trump campaign and Russia. And I thought they'd back off. I was wrong about that. They've doubled down, they've tripled down. And I think Rob actually has been saying this for some time now, but what we have, the country is less polarized than the media, the New York times. I'm sure they know exactly who their readers are and they have made a commercial decision just as straightforward as the decision at Fox news, just as straightforward as the decision that Rush Limbaugh makes every week when he's talking to his sponsors.

And they know who their audiences are. And the mainstream media is now a media that appeals to an audience on the left. Their demographics, no doubt, they're complicated. The Washington Post probably skews older. New York Times, my guess would be, skews a little bit younger. But they are playing to audiences on the left, and they will stay on the left because they have economic reasons to do so. Right? And it must be said, they are having a banner year.

The Washington Post especially, the New York Times especially, having a great year. Yes. Naturally, they are soaring. They have learned, I i think what fox news always knew which is that give people what they want the problem is that when you flip around between cnn and msnbc and fox news you really are getting these bizarre prismatic views of what's going on in america it's a disaster either way when Roy Moore lost, Fox News was covering some kind of Hillary Clinton something or other. It's very

strange. It's a very strange moment in American news when all sides seem to have taken leave of their senses. That said, you have to give credit to a guy like Chris Ruddy, who runs a top-notch news organization.

Newsmax. I don't think we plugged it enough. We should plug it again. He collects some great – he covers the news. He covers the opinion. So the opinion editors are great there. He does all sorts of like – but he's fair. That's, I think, what's extraordinary about it.

He started out as a friend of the president, but he is clearly fair to the president. Non-contiguous information. He's fair to the candidate yeah when you have non-contiguous information streams to use the boring term uh people get you're right in their bubbles and it's prismatically reflected and nobody knows what the other side is talking about although i do because i live in a newsroom and i walk past cnn all the time and i see what they're talking about but when i talk to people on uh on the uh the lefty side of things and ask them about the Obama-Hezbollah story, it's blank looks. It hasn't sunk in yet.

And this is political, for heaven's sakes. It's dismissed. It's not important. I think it's going to be a larger story. When I look back at what I thought would happen in 2017 that didn't happen, it was an interview with Jennifer Rubin at the Chestnut Tree Cafe having some victory gin explaining why she really loved a big brother now and had come to that decision on her own so what did what did happen in 2017 guys that you didn't think was going to happen what happened that you did not expect

peter you go uh sure sure so what's happening this is a little bit difficult to state because we don't know much about it but what's happening is that uh saudi arabia jordan already had jordan and egypt of course already have formally speaking peace treaties with israel but saudi arabia and the g Gulf states are working with Israel more and more as Iran rises as a threat to all of them. And as the Gulf states find their oil revenues decreasing, thanks to fracking here in this country, the age-old real enmity between the Gulf states and Israel,

well, I don't know whether in some ways it's i don't even know quite how to describe it what we know for sure is that they are working together in ways that three four or five years ago would have seemed inconceivable and that is that's i don't know quite what it means it makes me feel better uh and it's big that is a large development yeah i think that's that's a that's a big development it's taken place i think in the background for many years i mean i think it was past four or five years there's been a masad desk in uh the saudi interior internal security offices and there's been a saudi desk in the Mossad offices, meaning they have

an exchange program, which is something that only friends do, or only people who expect to be friends do. The Mossad, the Israeli intelligence forces are considered the best in the world,

only if you don't include Jordan. And Jordan is supposed to be the very, very best because they have to, because they have nothing. So all they have is their intelligence, and that's what's kept them alive all these years. I think – I would say, to be fair, to be honest, what happened in 2017 that I didn't expect everything because I didn't expect to have President Trump. I thought we'd be here with President Hillary Clinton. So I can't claim to be sort of – I can't claim a small oversight because my umbrella myopia was so huge that I missed the big story of 2016, the latter part of 2016.

I would say that I – I mean is so sour grapes on my part i expected trump to be presidential yes yes yes i really did i got that one yes and so i'm mad at him because he didn't do that uh uh at all and i really expected him to sort of figure out that this was the easiest part of his job was to be a gracious and an honorable and role modelable leader. And he just isn't. No, there's more fun to be a television personality. But you're going to say, Peter? No, no. I was just when,

I mean, Rob, I'm just agreeing. I hadn't thought of it this way before, but in some basic sense, all he has to do is what dozens of soap opera actors do every single day, hit your marks and say your lines.

It's not that hard to be presidential, and he just won't do it. I want to go back to Iran for a second here, because, not literally, but you said it's all shaping up the age-old enmity, etc., which seems to be so, and the changes in the

KSA are heartening as they appear to be moving towards the 21st century, at least perhaps the early 20th. So here's the question. We know that Barack Obama wanted to reach an accommodation with Iran and bring them into the family of nations. God knows why. Whatever psychological, philosophical, intellectual game was afoot there will be for future historians. We know that Bush was disinclined to push his advantage after we had them surrounded uh do you think that donald trump is the guy who's going to bring the who would not um hesitate to bring the fight and escalate uh tensions with iran in order to change the government be that blunt who goes first well i could jump in there i i i i think that i mean things aren't don't happen on a straight line they especially don't have a

straight line in iran iran has for the past four or five years, flirted with revolution and flirted with a radical change in government and come very close to it several times. So there have been many, many times when it seemed like waiting, watchful waiting, was the right thing to do. And that seemed like, at that time, given what you knew, given what the history of Iran was, that seemed perfectly legitimate. I think it probably still does seem legitimate if you sort of read it between the lines of people covering Iran and what they're saying. But I think the idea of using our,

encouraging our allies in the region, many of whom are not friends with each other, to oppose Iran at the same time to oppose ISIS, which is not the same thing by any means, is probably the right strategy. I think that the benefit of the Trump administration is that it recognized early on that Syria was lost, that Bashar Assad was going to regain control,

and that the death and destruction and misery in Syria was going to ultimately be for nothing. And that is what has happened. And to understand that there was probably zero that the United States could do about that. Well, so on Iran, my – I don't disagree with the word Rob said. I don't – my reading of this is that on military matters, Donald Trump defers to James Mattis and John Kelly and H.R. McMaster, these thoroughly professional soldiers that he has around him. Jim Mattis is secretary of defense, of course. I know two of the – I know James Mattis pretty well because he was a fellow here at the Hoover Institution. H.R. McMaster less so, but he was briefly a fellow, so I know him through that.

They don't pick fights, these guys. So, um, big, I, my sense of it is, and here the hope may be the father of the thought, but my sense of it is that the most important activity concerning Iran right now is taking place in ways and in places that we will never, ever learn about. The question is, can the rising younger generation in Iran overthrow the now aging autocratic, theocratic regime? Is there a way that Israel can help them? Can Jordan help them? Can they send in supplies? And we'll never learn quite what's going on there. But that's my hope, that there's some kind of offensive taking place that we won't know about.

Right. Well, here is the $2.50 podcast tier question, the last one I'm going to give to you guys. Right after I say this, however, because you're going to want to stick around for this last question. And while you're sticking there, listen. I'm going to give you the three most important words when it comes to getting a good night's sleep. Comfortable, comfortable, and comfortable. If you want the best sleep of your life, you have to be comfortable. That's what all the sleeping pills are trying to tell you, right? But you don't need that. You just need bowl and branch sheets.

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the Ricochet podcast. Rob, sending out his laundry and the rest of it reminds me, you know, on the ship, I never saw you on any of the ocean vessels working down in the laundry room doing your own stuff like the rest of us. You just hung it all there in those elegant wooden hangers and let people...

My question, though, is... It's the benefit of an unmarried dude. you get to take everything out yeah i i thought it would be you learn how to do things that otherwise your spouse might do but no you just pay somebody else to do it uh 2018 of course the chase pal is going to bring a post election cruise for national review it won't be called post-election it's going to be more of a you know uh taking the temperature of modern conservative thought and the rest of it. And I'd like to think that Rob Long would be there. So that would be the big story for 2018, Rob Long and our crew so we can do that late night show and have fun in the Caribbean.

But that's probably not what you guys are thinking is going to be the biggest story. What do you think will be the banner headline, the biggest word they're going to put in the papers in the year to come. Republicans will pick up four seats in the Senate and Bitcoin will triple in value. Bitcoin plunged 24%. Whoa! That's a buy signal.

That's a buy signal. I would caution anyone listening to this podcast that to take Bitcoin investing advice from Peter Robinson is a very it's a proposition I would give Peter Robinson $10,000 right now if he could explain

in any way any coherent way what Bitcoin is and how it gets around but okay not that I could either big story I think either. A big story? I think the big story will be that the country moves farther apart, that Democrats commit a certain kind of ideological suicide by moving sharply to the left

instead of to the center where they belong, where the money is for them. And that will be, I think that will be the big story. Interesting. For me, the big story of 2018 has to do with a letter that we got yesterday at home which says that my daughter's foreign exchange thing has been granted and she's going to Brazil. Oh, wonderful. So everything else to hell with it.

That'll be it. I mean, I'm the kind of father right now who, if she's 30 minutes late, I check the Find My Friends app to see if she's left the cafe at 12 o'clock yet and be in rural Brazil. Fun! Anyway, we'll go with this.

Favorite Christmas song, Guy. And Peter, yours is, It could be in rural Brazil. Fun. Anyway, we'll go with this. Favorite Christmas song, Guy. And Peter, you're going to be singing it in Mexico City, right? We will be singing it in Mexico City. In 1959, when Fidel Castro took over Cuba, my father-in-law, who had studied at Georgetown, took his family to Washington. He felt comfortable in Washington, so he moved them there. He had an older brother who had married a Mexican woman, and his older brother took his family to Mexico. With the result, all these years later,

that there are cousins in Mexico that my children have never met, and we are going down Christmas to New Year's to meet people in Mexico who are very close relatives of my children. My wife hasn't seen her cousin in 35 years, 35 years, something like that. So we are going to Mexico to see the unknown cousins. And you'll be singing Feliz Navidad since that's the oldest Spanish. We will be singing. You know what? There's an absolutely beautiful Feliz Navidad by Michael Buble and somebody else whose name I can't recall.

Buble's Spanish is terrible, but it's a beautiful version of Feliz Navidad. Yeah, so Feliz Navidad is my favorite Christmas song for now at least. Rob? Well, that's a great story, Peter. I was wondering why you're going to Mexico. That's beautiful. You'll have to – I want a full report. You'll have to do. I want a full report. My favorite Christmas Carol right now is,

um, well, I know. So it's just what I've been listening to lately is have yourself a merry little Christmas. That's my favorite sort of how I should say Christmas time. Um, but I've been listening to the,

this is now a hipster version of me. I've been listening to the, the is now a hipster version of me, I've been listening to the Sufjan Stevens Christmas album, which is beautiful, and his Come Thou Fountain of Every Blessing is fantastic. It's a fantastic, fantastic version of that

old hymn, which I think is mostly a Christmas hymn anyway, but it's my favorite one. So I have given you the secular, I've given you the religious. Okay. I actually, the more I think about it,

this, I don't have a favorite Christmas song. There are ones I love for different reasons. I have a favorite Christmas album, period, that my father always played. He got it at the Goodyear store in 1965. Part of the great songs of Christmas series that they have.

Bert, shut up. He needs to go out. And every song on the album is perfect. It defined every song for me for the entirety of my life. And the performances from the sort of slightly creepy Maurice Chevalier to the Anna Maria Alberghetti with an incredible crystalline voice.

Bert, stop biting my foot. Did they do that every year? Yes. Because a big part of my childhood is listening to that. incredible, crystalline voice. Birch, Birch, stop biting my foot. Did they do that every year? Yes. Because a big part of my child was listening to that. They did. Firestone did them as well. So you had competing Christmas albums from tire manufacturers.

He really has to go. And so do I. We all have to go. All right. He's got my foot. I'll be in Mexico. Where will you boys be? Where are you spending Christmas? I'll be in Dallas, Texas. Minneapolis, Minnesota. And then Fargo, North Dakota, the heartland, the dead center of the continent,

and the point from which everything else spins, right? This podcast only spins on and on because it's been brought to you by kind folks like those at Arrow, Bolin Branch, and Tracker. Please support them for supporting us. You'll find all of the necessary links and URLs at Ricochet's page. And if you enjoyed this show, of course, we advise you, we demand you, we beg you to go to iTunes and give us a nice little review, which helps other listeners discover the show. And please, podcast listeners, which obviously is you, $2.50 a month. Dirt cheap if you join. And that'll help keep Ricochet going

as well. Rob, great to have you back. Peter, enjoy Mexico. Merry Christmas, everybody, and we'll see you in 2018. Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas, fellas. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 I'm watching it flow I'm the people around Baby, please come on The church bells are down I'm ringing a song

What a happy sound Baby, please come on They're singing Dexel But it's not like Christmas at all Cause I remember when you were here And all the fun we had last year Pretty lights on the tree I'm watching them shine.

You should be here with me. Baby, please come home. Ricochet. Join the conversation. And all the fun we had back then If there was a way I'd hold back this tear But it's Christmas Day Please Please

Please Bye. you