Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Election Day CNN Appearance: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1680

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

In this 1680th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike plays behind the scenes audio of his Election Day appearance on CNN. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Silverwax, Yes We Are Open, Nick Ainis and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Hello there, it's 6 24 a.m. on Monday, April 28th. This is election day. I'm up early because I was asked to join CNN this morning with Audie Cornish at 6 20 a.m. for a 6 35 appearance, but my WebEx link expired. So I've just called the producer and said, I need a new link. So I have a new link so I have a new link now I'm gonna click it I've done so now okay this is good news it has not expired this is my second CNN appearance okay I'm now looking at myself cheese all right let's join good morning this is Marcella from CNN can Can you hear me there? Yes, I can. How are you? Good and you? Good, good.

Great, great to have you here today. I'm going to take you into the control room, okay? Stand by. Okay. Yes, yes, thank you, thank you. I have to put together my papers. Good morning, search for Ida in the Atlanta control room now. Can you hear me here? Yes, I can. Hello. Very good. Thanks for joining us. We're in a break right now. That's why you're not hearing anything. You'll hear the show again in about two minutes. Okay.

Once we get started back into the segment, you're probably about four minutes in once we get started there. So, can you give us a count to 10 for an audio level? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Perfect, thank you. Do you have any control on the camera framing at all? No, last time you kind of cropped in, I don't have any control there. Okay, copy that. Perfect. Thank you. Perfect. Thanks. We're going to make a lot of money and we're going to cut taxes for the people of this country. It'll take a little while before we do that. President Trump is asking the American people to trust him, arguing that his tariffs and

trade war will pay off. But a new CNN poll shows that voters' patience is wearing thin. All right. Can you hear the show? Okay. Yes, I can. Joining me on CNN. Perfect. Thank you.

About four minutes out. Or here's what's happening right now. President Trump says that a third term is, quote, not something that I'm looking into. Those comments coming in a new interview with the Atlantic that was released just this hour. In a few minutes, I'll be joined by one of the reporters who did that interview today. Opening statements will begin in the trial of three former Memphis police officers accused in the beating death of Tyree Nichols. It happened during a traffic stop in 2023 and led to national protests. They're charged with second degree

murder. They've already been found guilty of witness tampering in a federal check one check one. In just hours, Border Czar Tom Homan will hold a special news briefing on the Trump administration's immigration policies. Expect to see him questioned about the three children who are US citizens who were recently deported to Honduras with their mothers. If you choose to put your family in that position, that's on them. But having a US citizen child after you enter this country legally is not a get out of jail free card.

It doesn't make you immune from our laws. A colleague of a Wisconsin judge who was arrested says what happened to Judge Hannah Duggan was an attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate the judiciary. The FBI arrested her Friday, accusing her of trying to help an undocumented immigrant avoid ICE agents. She is charged with obstruction. I think they're trying to send a message to chill the judiciary, to punish someone with an uneven hand, to be handcuffed and to be brought into this situation.

It's just appalling. President Trump doesn't see it that way. We have to be proud of our country. We can't let these people stay and the courts are allowing them to stay. We're just not going to allow it. Okay, group chat is back to talk about this. And Alex, what were you hearing from the White House about how they want to talk about this particular case? Because there has been this question about how the president deals with the judiciary and what they can do about it, and her taking this action of reportedly

having their defendant exit through a non-public door is seen, I think, pretty aggressively. But they are completely unapologetic. And in fact, they would actually prefer to talk about this as a political matter. And also, even as a legal matter, the fact is that they are intentionally defying or pushing the bounds of you know, the checks and balances with the judiciary.

But they, you know, there is sort of an, you see this in this Atlantic, New Atlantic interview, there is sort of this like feeling of invincibility that they feel and they are going to push and push and push and eventually there's just going to be multiple showdowns with the Supreme Court. So this judge, Hannah Duggan, she's at the Milwaukee County Circuit and basically courthouses but also schools, hospitals. There are a number of places where ICE agents have been told it's okay, whatever courtesies you were extending, you're not doing that. And this is the gray area in this conversation

with this particular judge. But Stephen, you've talked a lot about this pushing of boundaries. Were some things always just courtesies? They weren't rules. He's not destroying all of democracy by coming up against those lines. I think that's true to some extent.

I think what's very interesting about Trump is that, and if you look at him in comparison to recent presidents, they all understood the breadth of presidential power that they could use, but they made a decision not to push to those boundaries because they believed that was... It might be politically damaging. Or they also thought they could open themselves up to impeachment, right? Especially in the last few democratic... Check one, check one. Trump has basically walked across all of those rules.

And I think what's going to be really interesting to see is, with future presidents, is if they use that latitude that has been created, you know, the tools of the imperial presidency, or if Congress finally, at some unspecified date in the future, decides it wants some of its power back. Yeah. I look at right now, most second term presidents, you're not thinking about a reelection, right? So this is the time when you're not trying to win the base, but this story is a winning issue for the base.

It's like MAGA catnip. And so I look at him pushing the bounds. And my biggest question is why? Because he came out with this 2028 hat, his press secretary, Carolyn Leavitt, told Axios, that's just a hat. It's not a real thing. But if it's not a real thing, why push the limits to this extent? Is it for what political purpose is it?

All right, we're going to hear more actually from from the Atlantic reporter who was on this case. Now, Donald Trump's name, of course, is not on today's ballot in Canada. But I want to talk about it because his threats of annexation and tariffs are actually overshadowing the election there. You put your vote where it counts a little more in this situation. Is that just because of Donald Trump?

Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately. Yeah. The biggest thing in Canada is we have friends all over the world. How many friends does Americans have right now? Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney vying to continue leading the country, his conservative rival lagging in the polls.

Joining us now, Toronto Mike, host of the Toronto Mike podcast. Toronto Mike, welcome back. And I remember the last time we talked, you described this shift in real time, that you were hearing people move from what is a very strong conservative movement in Canada to where we are now. This is Prime Minister Carney talking about Trump, making him an issue.

Take a listen. The president, his ideas and his head of his designs, wants to break us so he can own us. The question is, who's going to stand up to that? I'm ready to do it. Is that now the referendum that people are voting on? Without a doubt. Good morning again, Audie, from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It's tough to focus on the typical federal issues, you know, immigration, taxation. It's tough to focus on that when your sovereignty as a fiercely independent

nation is at risk, at stake. So I think most Canadians who have voted, and many have, but many will vote today, are voting on that singular issue. Who do you want at the helm to take on your president and his threats to make us a 51st state and these tariffs? The Secretary of State for the U.S. Marco Rubio actually has defended Trump's call to annex Canada. So to your point, I want to play this for folks. What the president has said, and he has said this repeatedly, is he was told by the previous prime minister that Canada could not survive without unfair trade

with the United States. At which point he asked, well, if you can't survive as a nation without treating us unfairly in trade, then you should become a state. Can you talk about that in particular? Has there been, has the spurred conversation within Canada about, hey, can we stand up on our own?

What are we capable of? Yeah, without a doubt, I've heard your president make those remarks and then I heard your Secretary of State echo those sentiments. Part of the problem here is that this subsidy keeps getting referenced as if the United States is subsidizing our country, Canada, to the tune of like 200 billion dollars but

that is not actually a subsidy it is a trade deficit and it's closer to 63 billion dollars but this trade deficit is in place simply because as you know we have 10% the populace as the United States of America so the economics are faulty and as a result, Canadians are wondering if it isn't wise to have a world-class economist at the helm at this time to take on Trump as our sovereignty is threatened. Right. Even though in the past it was a liability, right, that he hadn't been in government. So this is a remarkable shift in fortunes for him.

Toronto Mike, host of the Toronto Mike podcast. Thank you so much, appreciate your time. Thank you. All right, now we're gonna catch up on a case from way back. Kim Kardashian will finally see the people accused of robbing. Thank you very much for joining us today. We really appreciate it.

No, I enjoy it, anytime. It's been decades since that night in Paris. All righty, let's do it again sometime. Have a good day. Thank you. Bye. The Nampaw Gang are now going to court. So they're accused of getting away with millions of dollars of jewelry, including Kardashians, $4 million engagement ring from her now ex-husband. And there you have it. In real time, I recorded the whole experience. I always have to remind myself that I'm used to going 60 to 90 minutes. If things are going really well, I will go two hours, maybe three hours. But my last CNN appearance was 4.5 minutes.

Excuse me, I need a little coffee. minutes. Excuse me, I need a little coffee. What happens to me is this time I wasn't nearly as nervous, but you sit there in the last, I'd say the last two minutes before Audie, you know, talks to you and you sit here and you're alone in the basement and it's early. My alarm doesn't typically go off for another 40 minutes. Actually, 50 minutes. So you're sitting here in your basement, in your studio, and you're waiting to go live on CNN, your mouth starts to get dry because you're nervous. And it wasn't nearly as bad this time as last time. But you're bracing yourself for like four and a half minutes.

Yeah, four and a half minutes is what I was bracing myself for. And what I remember from last time is by the time you're warmed up and ready to say something intelligent you're being played off four and a half minutes is nothing so this time it felt like I haven't taken a stopwatch to it but it if it was four and a half minutes it felt like it was 60 seconds but there you go my second CNN appearance I maybe I'm the official Canadian correspondent for a CNN now I don't know we'll see if I get a third but wow that just happened