The Young Turks - Clooney Drops Biden

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

Nancy Pelosi on Morning Joe won’t say if she wants Joe Biden to stay in the race. World leaders have noticed Biden’s ""deterioration"" from repeating the same stories to not even recognizing close allies, Ian Bremmer reports. Trump advisers hope Biden stays in the race, as they eye alternate scenarios." HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ https://www.youtube.com/user/theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER: ☞ https://www.twitter.com/theyoungturks INSTAGRAM: ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK: ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕 Merch: https://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. I am not going anywhere.

I'm not leaving. I'm not flavoring. Baga! Live from the Polymarket Studio in L.A. It's the Young Turks. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Casparian. And as always, we've got a banana show for you. Bananas, bonanza, whatever you want to call it, obviously fast-moving political climate where we don't know what the fate of the Democratic Party will be as Joe Biden continues to dig his heels in, continues to say that he refuses to step down from this presidential race. But we do have a lot of updates in regard to that very topic. So we're going to get to that at the top of.

of the show. Later on, though, in the second hour, I'll be joined by John Ida Rola, where we'll talk about some other topics in the news, including a new video that's been unearthed of J.D. Vance, a senator from Ohio, who of course is being considered as one of Donald Trump's VP picks. We also have some updates on Giuliani's bankruptcy efforts in order to skirt his legal liabilities to individuals he defamed. Those updates are incredible, and we have some more details about the insane things he's spending his money on when he should be broke. So we'll get to that as well in the second hour. As always, just want to thank you all for watching us.

If you're watching live, you can help the show and you can help grow our audience and spread the message of TYT by just simply liking and sharing the stream. You can also become a member and support what we do. You can help keep us independent by going to t.yt.com slash join or just smash that join button. If you're watching us on YouTube. Thank you. You had it ready this time, DJ Bart. You had it ready this time. All right. Well, without further ado, let's get to our first story. So you're saying the stakes are really high here.

The stakes could not be higher. Today, as we're sitting here, he's three and a half points ahead in the polls. He was ahead before President Biden had that very unfortunate debate. And the lead has been growing. But I have not seen anything remotely approaching the kind of plan we need to see out of the White House that can demonstrate that he can actually beat Donald Trump. People who think that this is just going to take care of itself, because somehow when it's just a contrast between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, that somehow the American people are just going to come around in the end and save the country from Donald Trump. I think we need to ask ourselves how we're in the position we're in today when he's already done all those horrible things. The pressure to have Joe Biden step down from the presidential race and have a Democratic replacement is growing. Who you just heard from is a United States Senator. In fact, the first United States Senator, Senator Michael Bennett, to now raise alarm publicly in regard to Joe Biden, his very clear cognitive decline. Klein and his low chances, nearly impossible chances of beating Donald Trump.

And I say nearly impossible when you look at the polling. I think the evidence kind of bears that out and we'll get to that in just a moment. But while a growing number of Democrats in the House seem to kind of like fall in line and begin supporting Biden despite knowing what the vulnerabilities are here, Bennett expressed the reality of Biden's chances in beating Trump in November. Here's more of what he had to say. You, Senator John Tester and Senator Sherrod Brown, all said during that lunch that you don't think President Biden can win in 2024.

Is that true? Well, it's true that I said that. And I did say that behind closed doors. And you guys and others asked whether I had said it. And that is what I said. So I figured I should come here and say it publicly. Why do you think he can't win in November? I just think the, the, this race is on a trajectory that is very,

worrisome if you care about the future of this country. Joe Biden was nine points up at this time, the last time he was running. Hillary Clinton was five points up. This is the first time in more than 20 years that a Republican president has been up in this part of the campaign. Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election and maybe win it by a landslide and take with him the Senate and the House. Understand that that was a Democratic United States Senator.

He's not coming out and saying these things because he's attempting to assist Donald Trump in winning the general election, which is one of the wackier claims that you will hear from what has now been dubbed Blue Maga on Twitter, on social media. These are individuals who have deluded themselves into thinking that Joe Biden absolutely should stay in the race. It doesn't matter that he is experiencing cognitive decline. Whoopi Goldberg famously said, she doesn't even care if he's pooping his pants. She will vote for anyone to defeat Donald Trump.

But you also have to keep in mind that the majority of voters in this country are not blue maga, including Democratic voters. There are Democratic voters who are absolutely concerned about Biden's mental decline. And more importantly, we all know that the presidential race, ultimately ends up getting decided by independent voters, swing voters. And independent voters are not partisan hacks and they're not individuals who feel this loyalty to one side or the other. And so there's a huge vulnerability here in that Biden doesn't have the loyalty of those kingmakers, of those individuals who are now watching the cognitive decline, seeing what's really playing

out in the news in regard to all of his slip ups, all of his memory lapses, all of his issues. And it is helping Donald Trump in the polls. And poll after poll now shows Trump with a pretty significant lead nationally, a significant lead in many of the swing states. And by the way, let me just remind you all, a lot of people were upset with me prior to the debate because we were covering the aggregates of those polls. We were covering the averages of those polls. And those polls indicated even before the debate that Trump had increased his lead in many of the critical

battleground states that Biden would need to win in order to win reelection. And so I give you all of that context because again, the people raising alarm, including Senator Bennett, are not individuals who are like secretly team MAGA or secretly rooting for Donald Trump. These are individuals who actually have the courage to tell it like it is, Be honest about Biden's chances of winning the election, and it's because they don't want Donald Trump to win. They don't want another Trump term. And what I thought was really interesting about Bennett's interview was not only what he had to say about Biden's debate performance and his low likelihood of winning, it's what he had to say about Biden's behavior after the

debate. And I think that what he says here is telling. It's something that Jenk has also said on the show, but it bears repeating. Let's watch. And the White House in the time since that disastrous debate, I think, has done nothing to really demonstrate that they have a plan to win this election, that they have a convincing plan to win in the battleground states where we have to win in order to win this election. And they need to do that. They have to demonstrate that to the American people. And by the way, this is not about ignoring the American people's concerns. It's not about brushing off the American people's concerns. They have to address the American people's concerns.

The people that I represent from Colorado have deep concerns about whether or not the president can win this race. So it's not just donors or the media. You're saying it's your voters that have concerns. These are my voters who said to me, I have been through this with my mom. I've been through this with my dad. I'm terrified about what it will mean if Donald Trump is elected president again. in this country.

So not only did he draw attention to the fact that Biden hasn't really done what he needed to do following that debate, I mean, he had one interview with George Stephanopoulos, it was a short interview. We also learned that, you know, Biden did two smaller interviews with black hosts of two different radio stations. And his team fed them the questions ahead of time, and he bungled one of those interviews pretty badly. And so that has not really done anything to convince.

Those voters who are in fact concerned, and that's the other thing that I wanted to point out about Bennett's statement there, I'm very happy about the fact that he drew attention to his own constituents, voters in his own state, who are Democrats and who are concerned about Biden's mental health and fitness to not only run again and win, but to serve another four years as president of the United States. This isn't a giant group of elitists who are going after Joe Biden. The elitists have rooted for Biden. In fact, one of the biggest elitists, Jeffrey Katzenberg, is the one who's trying to persuade people that Biden is totally fine, is one of the big wealthy donors to the Biden campaign. So this idea that this is all about elites trying to retaliate against Biden and get rid of him, that is a ridiculous narrative to say the least. And it is insulting to Democratic voters who are, in fact, concerned about Biden's mental health,

his fitness in office, and his ability to beat Donald Trump the second time around. Now, Bennett deserves credit for just telling it like it is, being very clear. He does get a ding for refusing to just simply say that Biden should drop out of the race. He just talked about the vulnerabilities of Biden, but he did so honestly, and I have a lot of respect for him for being able to do that. because I know the kind of harassment that anyone who tells the truth on this matter, on the Democratic side gets, especially on social media. But if you're a politician, especially if you're a United States Senator, I mean, you've got to grow a pair and you've got to do the right thing and be honest with

the American people. So again, Bennett gets credit for that. Who I feel does not deserve credit is Nancy Pelosi who had an interview on MSNBC. And she was asked about whether she believes that Biden should drop out of the race. And she, to me, seems concerned about Biden for sure. But she's not really saying, but she's not really saying it. And more importantly, okay, she's playing this little game about how it's not really up to her. So let's take a look at what she had to say and I'll break it down further. Does he have your support to be the head of the Democrats again?

As long as the president had the president, it's up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We're all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short. The, I think, overwhelming support of the caucus, it's not for me to say. I'm not the head of the caucus anymore, but he's beloved. He is respected, and people want him to make that decision. He has said he has made the decision. He has said firmly this week, he is going to run. Do you want him to run?

I want him to do whatever he decides to do and that's that's the way it is. Whatever he decides we go with and I've said everyone let's let's just hold off whatever you're thinking either tell somebody privately but you don't have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week. In other words, hold off with your public statements about Biden. Let's keep this as private as possible. Let's conceal the reality from the American people and continue being the cowards that the Democratic Party has proven themselves to be over and over and over again.

Now as you can see from Biden statement there, I'm sorry, from Pelosi's statement about Biden, she's being evasive because she refuses to say what she feels Biden should do. And while she's no longer the Speaker of the House, she was the Speaker of the House and a Democratic leader in the House of Representatives for a long time and is still seen as a leader in the House of Representatives, a leader in the Democratic Party. And so it would speak volumes if she actually had the courage to tell the American people on national television what she genuinely thinks. But what she tried to do there is kind of have her cake and eat it to, right?

Because she talks about the Democratic caucus and how they clearly would like Biden to drop out. But she refuses to disclose what she herself feels that Biden should do. And she also makes clear that she will support whatever Biden decides. And right now, Biden is being incredibly selfish, incredibly delusional about his chances of beating Donald Trump. And so the idea that the Democrats should just sit back and wait for Biden to make the right decision on this is ridiculous to me, especially considering who is advising him behind the scenes.

Yes, we've heard about Jill Biden, but now you have Hunter Biden advising Joe Biden to stay in the race. And I think that's absurd, to say the least. On July 18th, get excited. This is big! For the summer's biggest adventure. I think I just smurf my pants. That's a little too excited.

Sorry! Smurfs. Only dinner's July 18th. Now, after that interview, apparently there were some statements made about Nancy Pelosi that she didn't like. Not the kind of statements I'm making here. So apparently Pelosi had insisted after that MSNBC interview that she did not mean for her comments to be taken as a vote of no confidence when it comes to Biden.

She argued that there are some misrepresentations of what I had to say. Well, Pelosi, you're intentionally evasive in that interview, so it's easy to have whatever interpretation anyone wants to have about her statements. But according to senior Democratic aide, Pelosi knew what she was doing and said, Morning Joe is the president's favorite show. Pelosi knows he's watching. I mean, how Trumpian is this? Like I just love how Democrats were like super critical of Trump and his obsession with Fox News

or watching Fox News. Now they're like, Biden loves MSNBC, everyone knows that he's watching this MSNBC show. Okay, all right, but let me continue. So Morning Joe is the president's favorite show. She knows he's watching, she's not an idiot, she chose those words carefully. So at least one person, a Democratic aide, made clear that they feel that there was like a subliminal message in what Nancy Pelosi was saying there. I think Nancy Pelosi, much like every other elected Democrat, is worried that Joe Biden's

going to lose and he's going to drag down the entire Democratic Party along with him if he refuses to step down. I think that's what Nancy Pelosi actually thinks. Obviously I'm speculating because I'm not in her head and I don't know for sure. But what I do know, and this is based on reporting, you have all of these Democrats in Congress speaking to reporters saying, oh, we want him to step down, we're not happy about this, this This is terrible, but they refuse to say anything publicly about it because they're afraid of retaliation from their own party.

It's insane. We can't say the right thing, we can't say what the correct course of action moving forward should be because we're worried about besmirching Biden and facing retaliation for it. That's what's really happening here. There's a lot of cowardice all around in the Democratic Party. Now it's not just democratic lawmakers, though, who are concerned about Biden. TMZ obtained a video from a pedestrian who ran into George Stepanopoulos, who of course interviewed Joe Biden last week following Biden's disastrous debate performance.

There's a screenshot of the video in question. And since we don't have rights to the video, I'm going to go ahead and read a transcript of what was said. The pedestrian asked him, do you think Biden should step down? You've talked to him more than anybody else has lately. lately and Stephanopoulos says, I don't think he can serve four more years. So that's what he really thinks. And by the way, as the video was recording, it was facing down at the sidewalk. So obviously George Stepanobulus had no idea that he was being recorded as he gave a candid

answer like a real human being. But after the fact, he I guess felt bad about it and said that he shouldn't have answered a question from a passer-by. I'm happy that he did answer that question from a passer-by because now we know exactly what George Stephanopoulos thinks. And it is relevant considering, you know, he is somewhat closer to Joe Biden than other members of the media. And he did have that recent interview with Joe Biden. Finally, in an op-ed for the New York Times, George Clooney urged Biden to step down. Now, George Clooney's not a politician. He is an actor, but he's a huge Democratic donor and in fact was part of a fairly recent fundraiser for Joe Biden.

And I'm going to read a few excerpts from the op-ed that he wrote in the New York Times saying, quote, we are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won't win the House and we're going to lose the Senate. This isn't only my opinion. This is the opinion of every senator and Congress member and governor that I've spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly. And we know a lot of the people concerned privately are unwilling to say a damn thing publicly. I can't stand how cowardly people are, okay? It makes me pretty sick, especially when these are the exact same people who are consistently, incessantly talking about the threat of Donald Trump publicly. If you see Donald

Trump is a threat, then maybe you should act like it. So Clooney continues to write. It's devastating to say it. But the Joe Biden, I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe big effing deal Biden of 2010. He wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, who we respect, walk off air force one or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question. Now, the Biden campaign didn't like that op-ed. And I think what you're about to see is more indication that Biden continues to dig his heels in. So let's go to the next clip. In response to those comments from George Clooney, Jake, a campaign official who attended that Los Angeles fundraiser tells me that George Clooney left three hours before the president.

So clearly the gloves are off, Jake. But what does that mean that George Clooney left three hours? What's the point? The point of that is to suggest that Biden's stamina is better than Clooney's and Clooney didn't have, you know, eyes on the entire event. That's the response to the Clooney op-ed. Okay. Okay.

Really, that's the argument? Like, that's the latest insane claim that, that Joe Biden has more stamina than George Clooney. Really? Really. The biggest issue is that Biden will lose to Trump, and he will drag down the Democratic Party along with him. Okay, the polls bear that out.

In my opinion, the second giant issue, and this is something that maybe bothers me more than other people, and that's fine if that's the case. I am so sick of the disrespect that Democratic voters are receiving from the Biden camp right now. Allegations of bedwetting. You know, allegations that Joe Biden is actually this stand this guy with so much stamina. He's a dynamo, so energetic.

This idea that everything that we all saw with our own two eyes, everything that we heard with our own two ears in that 90 minute debate was all a figment of our imaginations and we're the crazy one. That is so incredibly insulting to voters. And they just keep doing it and they feel emboldened to do it because there is unfortunately a small group of Democratic voters, the blue MAGA crowd, who will defend Biden to the death. I don't even know how real this crowd is because everyone's basing it off of social media activity. What's amazing to me is how many people both in the media and in the Democratic caucus are so,

afraid of social media mobs that they will literally avoid saying publicly what they really think privately. Really you're afraid of social media mobs? That's what you're afraid of. And you're leading this country to some extent. You make decisions about legislation that impacts all of our lives as a pathetic coward. Anyway. But I don't know, maybe most voters aren't bothered by being insulted by Democratic lawmakers in the Biden camp. I know I am, and I'm sick of it. I'm not gonna fall for it, I'm not gonna buy the lies, I know what I saw, I know what I've heard, and this mental decline thing isn't new. This was an issue when Biden was running in 2020.

His condition clearly has only gotten worse since then, and if he remains in this race, Moving forward, there will be more examples amplified in the media of Biden experiencing mental decline. He will lose the election. He will drag the Democratic Party along with him. And the Republican Party is hoping he stays in the race. We're going to cover that a little later in the show. For now, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll do an update on the NATO summit. Biden was hosting it. Biden gave a speech.

did it go well? Well, you're going to have to come back and find out. We'll be right back. viewers, this is Brickhouse Mama 98, who says, had a freeing thought. I live in Texas. My vote doesn't count here anyway, so I'm going to vote for Dr. West if Biden doesn't step aside. Happy birthday to my fellow cancer sister, Anna. Mine was the fifth. Well, happy birthday to you too, belated birthday, of course, but a lot of July birthdays here at TYT as well, which is great. Our director today, Skip Velocco, celebrating a birthday in July. Our producer, Kate Bettino, also celebrating a birthday in July. Got a special place in my heart for cancer babies.

So, all right. Well, let's get to our next story because much has been made about Biden's appearance and speech at the NATO summit this year for obvious reason. So let's talk about it. Welcome. Welcome to the 2024 NATO summit. Secretary, you've guided this alliance through one of the most consequential periods in its history. I realize, I was talking to your wife, I personally ask you to extend your service. Forgive me.

They've seen the deterioration. They've seen him slow down. And it's not just physically slowing down. It's repeating the same anecdote twice in an individual meeting. I've heard that from a world leader today. It's not recognizing someone that he knew quite well when he came up and introduced them. Again, we're talking about a world leader here. These sorts of things, you can't not recognize them.

President Joe Biden gave his much anticipated speech at the NATO summit yesterday. And while Democrats are in absolute turmoil over his mental decline in the United States, It appears that international allies, our NATO allies, are in fact similarly concerned. And I'm going to get to that in just a moment, including more comments from Ian Bremmer, who you just saw in the compilation we just showed you. But I also want to just clarify something about what you heard from Joe Biden in that same compilation. It did, in fact, sound like he was saying that he was effing that guy's wife. That was not what he said.

He said, I was talking to your wife. But it did sound like the other way around. With that said, let's go back to Ian Bremmer, who is the president of a think tank called the Eurasia group. Let's watch. What do foreign leaders or allies think of President Biden right now? They don't think he can serve another four years. And I will say that is true of every leader that I have met with that's attending the NATO summit. It doesn't matter if they come from the right or the left wing of their respective political spectrums.

And they are, this isn't news to them. They've reported this from the G7 summit. They talked about this when they met with the president in Normandy. It's not that they don't like him. In fact, they're deeply concerned, NATO allies more than other countries around the world, very concerned about what it would mean if Trump were to become president, given his stated policies on Russia, Ukraine, and on NATO, and on the European Union. So I mean, it's not like they're saying, we don't like Biden, we want him to go.

They just don't think he's up to it. they increasingly think he's going to lose. I thought that the analysis you just heard there is spot on. And I am not surprised at all that the leaders of our NATO allied countries are concerned about Biden losing the election. You know, you have to keep in mind that when it comes to Donald Trump, he's actually kind of mixed on NATO. There was this idea that he was going to pull the United States out of NATO.

Obviously that didn't happen. allies didn't like Trump because he had a lot to say about their contribution to defense spending, which we'll get to in just a moment. But I think what they're more concerned about is the fact that, you know, when it comes to the constituents who support Donald Trump, there's a sizable portion of that constituency that wants to stop sending money to Ukraine. They are, in fact, America first. They have more of an isolationist mindset. And they want to stop sending money to foreign wars. And unlike the Democratic Party, to be quite frank, you know, Donald Trump seems to be a little more receptive to his voters. So I do think that they have more sway

over some of the policy decisions that Donald Trump might make. And these NATO countries know that Russia could potentially be more of a threat to their own sovereignty if Donald Trump does in fact listen to his own voters and stops assisting, you know, Ukraine, when it comes to fighting off Russia. And so that's what's really going on here. They're kind of panicking about Biden's chances of beating Donald Trump. But I also wanted to just briefly touch on a related issue. And that does have to do with the NATO funding because that issue came up both in Donald

Trump's recent Doral speech. He had a rally in Doral and during that rally he had something to say about NATO funding. And so did Biden. So let's start with this video with Trump. basically attacking Biden about NATO funding as Biden was at that summit. But six months later, I went back to the second meeting and I said, you know what? You're not paying your bills. You got to pay your bills. Somebody stood up from one of the countries, 28 countries and only seven were paying what they should be paying. 28 countries.

Think of that. And these countries, now we added a couple, but 28 countries. And they said, sir, could I ask you that? I said, you have to pay your bills. They said, sir, may I ask you a question. If we don't pay our bills, will you protect us from Russia? I said, you mean you're delinquent? They said, yes, we're delinquent. Let's say we're delinquent. Would you protect us?

I said, no, I will not protect you from Russia. The money came in by the billions. It came in. Okay, so I kind of hate the way Donald Trump frames the NATO funding issue, because he makes it seem like every country is supposed to give a certain amount of money. and like put it in a pot of NATO funding. That's not how it works. And I'm going to explain how it works in just a second.

But just one more quote from Donald Trump. This one wasn't part of his speech. He posted this on truth social, writing that when I became president, I noticed there were only seven of the 28 countries that were then members who were paid up. Most members were delinquent, some having paid very little, if anything. I found this unacceptable and insisted they pay if they wanted the protection of the United States, billions of dollars came pouring in. Okay, so let me tell you what the reality is, because again, this isn't like some NATO fund that every NATO ally contributes money to.

No, after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, NATO allies got together and they agreed, they pledged to each contribute 2% of their country's GDP on their own defense. And the whole idea, is to bolster their own militaries in order to fight off a threat. Now, Trump is actually correct that when he came into office, the vast majority of NATO allies were not hitting that 2% GDP target. And to his credit, he did pressure some of the countries to increase their contribution to their own militaries, to bolster the funding for their own militaries in order to basically have more might, should there be a threat from Russia. Now, keep that in mind as we go

to the next clip, because here you have Joe Biden talking about countries now hitting the target. Let's watch. And today, NATO's better resource than it ever has been. I want to pause on this because it's significant. In the year 2020, the year I was the year I was elected president, only nine NATO allies are spending 2% of their defense and GDP on defense. This year, 23 will spend at least 2%. So what's the truth? Okay, because now Biden's taking credit for NATO countries increasing their contributions to their own militaries and following through with the pledge. Donald Trump took credit. Like, what's the reality? Who deserves the credit? Okay, first of all, both

of them are getting numbers wrong. Now I should be clear that after the Trump administration, the number of NATO countries actually increased from 28 to 31. So now there are 31 nations who are part of the NATO alliance. And I want to tell you what the numbers were, both prior to Trump coming in and what they are now. So when Trump was elected in 2016, most countries actually were not meeting the pledge. Only three countries were. So it's funny because Trump said like seven countries were, but that's not true. Only three were and that included the United States, UK, and France wasn't quite there, but close enough. Okay, nearly 2% of their GDP went to their own military.

By 2019 though, the number increased to nine NATO countries. They were meeting their target. So Trump actually did succeed in pressuring those countries to follow through with their pledge and increase their contributions to their own military, right? So he does deserve credit for that. By 2023 though, the number of countries hitting the 2% GDP target increased likely due to the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine. So once Russia invades Ukraine, then you have the NATO allies realizing, oh, we need to bolster our military funding because Russia is a real threat. And only 11 of the 31 NATO nations were predicted to spend more than 2% of their GDP in defense in 2023, according to NATO.

estimates published in July, almost a decade ago, only three met that mark. Okay, so that was reported by ABC News. I wanna show you this chart, this is a super helpful chart that ABC News also published, and it shows you all of the various NATO countries that hit the 2% GDP mark. That includes Poland, coming in at number one. They contributed 3.90%, United States, 3.49%, Greece, 3.01%, Greece, 3.01%. Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Romania, Hungary, and Latvia, and the United Kingdom, and Slovakia, they all hit the target.

France is close, just like I mentioned earlier, but not quite a 2%. Now, the US was estimated to spend 3.49% of its GDP in 2023 on defense. We love spending on defense, right? We spent $860 billion. Poland did come in at first at 3.9% of their GDP, but, you know, their economic activity isn't quite as stimulated as the United States, so that would amount to $29 billion. The only other country estimated to pass the 3% mark was Greece with more than $7 billion. Now, the United States allocates almost twice as much of its GDP, $860 billion, as European allies and Canada do together.

roughly $404 billion, the U.S. contribution makes up two-thirds of the total NATO defense expenditures. This has been the case since the alliance was founded. Now I also want to be clear, though, it's the overall military funding that each country contributes, right, to their own military. And as we know, the U.S. loves to bolster military funding. And year after year, almost with zero debate, both parties approve increases to our military budget. And so, It's not that we're doing it specifically for NATO, we're doing it because this country is owned by corporations, including private military contractors. But the whole reason why I'm bringing this all up is because as much as people might hate

to admit it, Donald Trump did succeed in getting NATO allies to bolster funding to their own militaries. He does deserve credit for that. And sure, you can say that the number of countries hitting that target increased under Biden as well. It's just a little more murky with Biden because at that point, you have Russia invading Ukraine, and so these countries obviously had more of an incentive to increase their military funding in order to fend off a threat from Russia.

But if you're wondering overall whether or not Biden bungled the NATO summit, I watched his whole speech, I'm gonna be fair, I thought that the speech, all things considered, was good, to how Biden's been performing recently, that's about as much as I can say. And I think what's also telling is how NATO leaders, countries, the leaders of NATO countries are feeling about Biden. And as you heard from Ian Bremmer, they are concerned not only about Biden's mental fitness, but about his ability to beat Donald Trump in the general election. And I think that's information that people should take to heart.

We'll see if the Biden administration takes it to heart. Let's take a break. When we come back, we have more news for you, including how desperate Republicans are to ensure that Biden remains in the race. We'll be right back. Ice cream. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size? Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget.

After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. Welcome back to the show. Just want to read one comment from our viewer Black Scholl's son who says, it's Biden's job to convince me he deserves my vote, he's failing to do that. However, if he can bring back to life all the people killed in Gaza since, I don't know, he became president. Yeah, I'll never vote Biden again.

So this individual's mind is made, and I totally hear you on that. And by the way, we do have an update on Gaza later in this segment. And so let's get to our next story, so we have enough time to do. so we have enough time to cover that Gaza story. Before we get to that though, there's this. How can you assure you're going to be on, you know, faith that can intervene on your way to go to, you know, work tomorrow.

Age, age wasn't, you know, the idea is not too old. Did you ever watch the debate afterwards? I don't think I did now. He doesn't think he did? God, well, I'm proud of these, as I said. As I said, the first vice president, first black woman, served with a black president. I'm proud of the first black woman in the Supreme Court. There's just so much that we can do because together we, there's nothing.

Look, this is the United States America. More and more examples of President Joe Biden having difficulty just simply communicating are piling up. Compilations like the one that you just saw aired on CNN and voters. are obviously concerned about this. Democratic lawmakers are privately very concerned about Biden's impact on not only the presidential election, but down ballot races. Just that most of them are too cowardly to say a damn thing publicly or to urge him to step down and allow someone more competitive to run in the general race. But now, if you're wondering how likely it is

that Biden will lose to Trump in the general election, I think maybe, maybe we should take a look at how the Republican Party is behaving as all of this is playing out, because they absolutely want Biden to remain in the race. So let's check in with them. Starting with this headline from the Washington Post titled Trump advisors hope Biden stays in the race as they eye alternate scenarios. After dismissing suggestions, the president could withdraw. The Trump campaign is beginning to consider having to tweak its message. Now, in that piece, they write that the Heritage Foundation is already planning to mount legal fights should the Democrats replace Joe Biden with someone else.

You want to know why they would do that? I wonder why. Is it because they know that Biden is definitely going to lose to Donald Trump and they want him to remain in the race? So in the post, they write that lawyers at the right wing Heritage Foundation researched ballot access laws in all 50 states to be prepared to oppose any effort to remove or replace Biden after he officially becomes the Democratic nominee. So I would like to know, why is Blue Maga helping Donald Trump win the election? Do they not care about the future of this country? Are they not concerned about Trump dismantling our democratic process?

Do they not care about women's reproductive rights? I want to know why Blue Maga is in cahoots with the Heritage Foundation. They really need to answer for this. But let me continue. They argued in a Heritage Foundation memo that there are state laws that vary And depending on the state, they might be able to like hone in on a state or two that might have a law that would prevent the Democratic Party from replacing Biden. Now, to be clear, I don't think it would be a good idea for the Democratic Party to just

like crown Biden's replacement should he drop out. I think that you could have a short primary blitz where the delegates are able to vote and decide who the best candidate is. I don't think it makes sense to just settle for Kamala Harris because she's VP. I mean, what's the point of replacing Biden if you're not going to replace him with someone who's actually competitive? I'm not against Kamala Harris. She should definitely throw her hat in the, her name in the ring if she would like to, you know,

compete. But I do think that there should at least be some process to determine who the best candidate would be. Nonetheless, while the Heritage Foundation is considering legal means in preventing the Democrats from replacing Joe Biden, Republican lawmakers are considering the political means. And so they have indicated that they would attack any Democratic effort to replace Biden as an affront to Democratic primary voters and the Democratic process. Democratic primary voters? What primary? Did we have a primary? We didn't have a primary. We had a primary in 2020. Dirty games are played

during that primary. But okay, Biden was the nominee after the 2020 primaries played out. We didn't have a legitimate primary race on the Democratic side for the 2024 presidential election. What primary? And so since the Republican Party is using that talking point, that ridiculous lie that we had a primary in 2024, perhaps. Democrats who are providing cover for Biden should stop repeating that same lie. But they won't. They're gonna pretend like we had a primary, even though we didn't. Now one example of this tactic by the GOP is what Senator J.D. Vance said publicly after Biden's terrible debate performance. He said, what would be a bigger threat to democracy

than taking a candidate post-primary when millions of people, Democratic primary voters, have already voted and try to replace him with a convention, at a convention, with a few hundred Democratic leaders. That is the biggest threat to democracy that's been contemplated in American government in the last few years. Actually, what I find to be an affront to American democracy is the fact that the Democratic establishment did not allow for a primary on the Democratic side this time around and provided cover for a man who said that he was only going to run for one term and then step aside, belied about that totally refused to do so and is now dragging the entire party down with the help of a small portion of Democratic voters who are full-blown

lunatics providing cover for him. Okay, that's the reality of the situation. And I want to know why those lunatics are in cahoots with the Heritage Foundation and Republican lawmakers like Senator J.D. Vance. They need to answer for that. By the way, while they simultaneously point fingers at people who are telling the American public the truth about Biden's vulnerabilities and likelihood of losing the election. Now, David Axelrod, in my opinion, put it best. Of course, he was a former strategist to Barack Obama, contributor to CNN, someone that Joe Scarborough and Mika Brasinski clearly have an issue with because they're providing

cover for Biden and don't like what Axelrod has to say. But he does call it like he sees it when it comes to this issue. and he says that it sure seems Republicans want Biden to stay on the ticket. They think he's vulnerable and they like where they're at. You can see they are not excited at all about the prospect of him leaving the race. He is absolutely right about that. There was a story a day or two ago about what Donald Trump has been up to. He's been chilling on a golf course as he should.

I would be I would be so ecstatic if I were Donald Trump right now. were a member of the Republican Party, I'd be so happy. I mean, you're watching the Democratic Party melt down and you're also watching someone who will be very easy to beat, dig his heels in and refuse to step down from the race with the help of his wife and son. And I do think it's important to just remind you all of what the data is and why it is that Republicans want Biden to stay in the race. Let's start off with some of the national polling. Here's Harry Enton on CNN, doing a comparative analysis to where Biden was at in 2020 versus where he's at today. Right now, Donald Trump leads in an aggregate of national polls by about three percentage

points. If you go back four years ago at this point, Joe Biden was ahead by nine points. This right now don't look anything like what we saw four years ago at this point. I then decided to take it a step further. What was Biden's worst 2020 polling? position. He was ahead by four points, which basically match what he ended up beating Donald Trump by in the national popular vote. So this three point advantage for Donald Trump is Donald Trump's best position versus Joe Biden, whether you include the polls this year or you include the polls last cycle. The idea that the polls underestimated Joe Biden last time around, simply put, does not hold any water. I mean, how do you recover from that? And it's the

It's not just about the presidential race, which is bad enough, or at least looking to be bad enough. You also have Republicans salivating over the notion of Democrats also losing the Senate. So let's talk about the down ballot races. Let's talk about congressional races and how Biden remaining the Democratic nominee is dragging all of those down ballot races to failure, to defeat. Let's watch. But the fact of the matter is, you look at the national polling the generic congressional ballot choice for USF.

Look at this, CNN poll plus two Republican, Wall Street Journal poll plus three Republican, mom, it's university poll plus three Republican. Yeah, Joe Biden may be in slightly worse shape in these particular polls, but the fact is when Biden's down four or five, six points these polls, you can only run so far ahead of Joe Biden at this particular point, at least in the race for the House, it does seem like Republicans are ahead because Donald Trump is so far ahead. What's the Senate landscape? Yeah.

What's the Senate landscape? I mean, take a look here. GOP needs just a gain of one for control if Trump wins, and their path is extremely clear, because their best chance for a pickup opportunity is in West Virginia. That's a very likely GOP win with Joe Manchin retiring. And the best then pick up chance, perhaps to reverse that so the GOP doesn't gain, net gain of at least one, is Texas, but that's still a likely GOP win. So the fact is, if Donald Trump wins this election, the race for the Senate, for all intents

the purposes in my mind is over. Why does Blue Maga want to help Donald Trump win the presidency and Republican candidates in congressional races defeat Democrats? Why does Blue Maga want Republicans to control the House, Senate, and the executive branch? And by the way, I mean, we know what's going on in the judiciary. So three branches of government dominated by conservatives, why does Blue Maga want that? Are they ever going to answer that question? or are they just gonna point fingers and blame everyone else for refusing to gaslight the

American people and Democratic voters about the reality of this whole situation? I mean, I am so tired of deluded individuals sucking the air out of every room. They should be ignored. The facts should speak for themselves. Are you loyal to this country and the future of this country? or are you loyal to an 81 year old man who's going to lose to Donald Trump and drag down the Democratic Party along with him? Ask yourself that question if you're still providing cover for Biden. And more importantly, I really want to emphasize this. Serving as the president of the United States is not supposed to be a joke. And what is happening right now makes

that role, it makes a mockery out of that role. The idea that you can have a president who is unable to think clearly, unable to function well, and everything's going to be fine. I get it. People think, oh, no, no, no. I mean, you're not voting for Biden. You're voting for his cabinet. No, I don't, I'm not interested in voting for his cabinet. I want to vote for an individual who I trust to make good decisions, which clearly Biden is incapable of making good decisions because he remains in this race. But someone who also is able to appoint the correct individuals for the roles that they serve within his White House. And by the way, I mean, I look at the people he's already appointed in the State Department, people like Anthony

Blinken, not a big fan. Yes, there are some good appointments. Lena Khan in the Federal Trade Commission, I'm a fan of, the NLRB, much better under Biden. But I know. need a president who can function. The idea that Democrats are now promoting this notion that the country can be run and led by someone with significant cognitive decline is insane to me. Absolutely insane. And it makes a mockery out of the executive branch. We already know that the idiotic Democrats who have been providing cover for Joe Biden, gaslighting the American people about his cognitive decline, are certainly helping Republicans. Republicans want Biden to stay in the race.

They will be attacked, by the way, in various political ads if they continue to provide cover for Biden. And to be sure, some of those political ads have already been made. And now we're hearing that the House Oversight Committee, led by Republican lawmaker James Comer, have begun subpoenaing White House staffers to get some answers about Biden's mental health, about his health overall. Now, are they doing this because they're genuinely concerned about Biden? I mean, that's laughable, of course. No, they're doing it because they want to milk the cognitive decline as best they can to increase their chances of taking control not only of the executive branch with Donald Trump becoming president again, but also to ensure that Republican candidates in congressional races defeat Democrats.

And so, yeah, they're going to milk this. They're going to milk it for all its worth. And you're seeing it play out right now with the latest news about this subpoena. And so according to Axios, oversight committee, the oversight committee, chaired by James Comer, issued subpoenas to First Lady Jill Biden's top aide, Anthony Bernal, deputy chief of staff, Annie Tomasini, and senior advisor Ashley Williams. Now, will they follow through with the subpoena? I have no idea how that's going to play out. But what the House Oversight Committee wants is a hearing, as we all know, congressional lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle are less interested in legislating and more

interested in holding hearings for political purposes. And that's what the House Oversight Committee is doing here. It's election season. Again, they're going to milk this issue as much as they possibly can. So this has become just an albatross around the necks of the Democratic Party and members of the Democratic Party. And they're just going to, for the most part, privately about it, but publicly pretend like everything's okay and that Biden's our guy and we're going to stick by him no matter what. Insane. Comer stated in the letters to those individuals who were subpoenaed that he is concerned, but mostly he says that he's concerned that they've taken it upon themselves to run the country while the president cannot. And honestly, I am

personally concerned about that myself because I, I know that this is a representative democracy. I know that you elect the president, the person you prefer, who then appoints people. I get that. But there are decisions that lie with the chief, like the chief executive of the country, okay, the president of the United States. And a lot of those decisions have to do with foreign policy, military decisions, I am not comfortable with people like Anthony Blinken making those decisions, okay? I'm just not. And I look at what's happening in Gaza right now, and it should worry every single Democrat that this war is playing out in Gaza. We're sending tens of billions of dollars to Israel as this war plays out in Gaza. We're sending hundreds of billions of dollars to

Ukraine. Who's making these decisions? Is it Joe Biden? I have no idea, but it does not inspire confidence. At least it doesn't inspire confidence if you refuse to be a partisan hack and are more interested in the future of the country and you're more interested in ensuring that we have an executive branch with a leader who can think straight. This is just all so insane and obviously, again, I want to reiterate. Republicans aren't doing this because they're concerned about Biden's health. They're doing it because they want to exploit Biden's conditions.

Biden's condition for their own political purposes, and that's exactly what they should be doing as Biden's political opponents. You might hate it, but this is all predictable. All of it is predictable. And they're already attacking Democrats who have gone on the record to provide cover for Biden. Here's one of the examples. What would you have Joe Biden do to make the case that he's not an elderly well-meaning gentleman? see in the campaign. No question he's prepared to do this job today and would be where he reelected. I have a lot of confidence in his leadership. I have a lot of confidence in his leadership.

No question he's prepared to do this job today. Well, Bob Casey, I hope it was worth it. Because now Bob Casey, Democrat running in Congress, obviously getting attacked for lying to voters about Biden's condition. Some Democratic voters are going to vote for Biden no matter what. Not all of them though. And again, elections come down to swing voters, independent voters, and they don't have this ridiculous loyalty to one party or the other. And they're not going to be persuaded by some of the arguments that we're hearing from the

Democratic side, where they're just pretending like we should ignore the fact that the polls indicate Biden's gonna lose to Trump while they fearmonger about Trump dismantling our Democratic process. Well, if you're worried about Donald Trump dismantling our democratic process, you would try to prevent him from winning the election. The way you do that is ensuring that the strongest possible Democrat runs against him. We're not seeing that right now. We're not even headed in that direction right now. Some are arguing that, no, Biden's days are definitely numbered. He's eventually going to drop out. I'm not sure. And I think it's important to let you guys know that I'm not sure rather than just make a declarative prediction about what the future holds.

Right now, things are not looking good for Democrats, and this is all their own making. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, John Iderola will join me to discuss a lot of news, including some updates on Gaza.