UNBIASED - RFK Jr. Announces Independent Run; Senators Visit China, First Post-Pandemic Visit, What to Expect in the House This Week, Appeals Court Pauses Dissolution of Trump's Businesses.

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

1. RFK Jr. Announces Independent Run for President, Drops Democratic Bid (3:56)2. Bipartisan Group of Senators Visit China; First Post-Pandemic Congressional Visit (8:47)3. What to Expect in the House This Week Ahead of Speaker Election (11:07)4. Appeals Court Pauses Dissolution of Trump's Businesses, Allows Trial to Proceed (16:25)If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and share it with those you know that also appreciate unbiased news!Subscribe to Jordan's weekly free newsletter featuring hot topics in the news, trending lawsuits, and more.Follow Jordan on Instagram and TikTok.All sources for this episode can be found here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You are listening to the Jordan Is My Lawyer podcast, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Enjoy the show. Welcome back to the Jordan is my lawyer podcast. Happy Tuesday. Right off the bat, I just want to talk about a couple of things. You may be wondering one, why this episode is shorter than usual. And number two, why you didn't see the Israel Hamas conflict included in the description. Number one, I plan to do an episode dedicated to what is going on in Israel right now. I just didn't want to include it with a whole bunch of other stories because I think there

is so much to talk about that it does deserve its own episode. So I want to, once I do do that, run through the history of the conflict, you know, everything leading up until now. I also want to answer some questions. I posted a story asking you guys to submit questions about it. So I want to answer those too. With that said, that episode will likely be live on Wednesday. So long as everything goes to plan, worst case, I will release it Thursday. I'll still do my normal Friday episode, but it's basically just going to be one extra episode this week. Whenever big events

happen, I often do special reports. And this is just one of those things that I feel should have a special report. I think it's important to everyone is as informed as possible. So that's what I'll be doing for that. Now, as for the length of this episode, it's shorter because I'm dedicating so much energy this week to that special report episode. So for this episode, I just kind of toned it down a little more than I usually would. With that said, I know last week, maybe it was the week before, I had asked you what your thoughts were on shorter episodes, so like 20 minutes or less. And a lot of you, the general consensus was that you like episodes in the 25 to 35 minute range. I did have people say, you know, up to an hour. I had some say they prefer shorter episodes, but ultimately what I decided is I would keep doing what I've been doing since I started this. So 25 to 35 minutes, sometimes I go up to 40 or 45 minutes. But for those of you who want shorter episodes, I figure you can always split the episode in two. Maybe you come back to

it. But you know, I think 30 that 25 35 minute mark is really what I need in order to get the detail out. Because one of the main pieces of feedback that I got is you guys appreciate me for the detail I go into, so I definitely don't want to take that away. So from here on out, episodes will be anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes. It could vary depending on the episode, but I just wanted to acknowledge I do know this episode is a bit shorter. Just know that it's because my energy is going into three episodes this week rather than the usual two. Now, as for today's topics, we will be talking about RFK Jr. announcing he's running as an independent. We'll be talking about the bipartisan group of senators

that met with President Xi in China. We'll be talking about the upcoming speaker election and what we can expect this week. And I also want to give a quick update as to Donald Trump's appeal and what that means for the dissolution of his businesses in New York. Before we get into the stories, let me just remind you, if you haven't left me a review already, please do so if you like what you hear. If you have, thank you so much. And of course, yes, I am a lawyer.

No, I am not your lawyer. Without further ado, let's get into today's stories. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was previously up until Monday running in the 2024 presidential election as a Democrat, announced on Monday he will instead run as an independent. Let's talk about this. If you are not familiar with RFK Jr., that is his nickname, so if you hear me say RFK Jr., I'm of course talking about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He is the son of Robert F. Kennedy Sr., who was the 64th United States Attorney General. More notably, he was a United

States Senator from New York from 1965 until he was assassinated in 1968. When he was assassinated, he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. RFK Jr. is also, though, the nephew of former Democratic President John F. Kennedy. As I mentioned, RFK Jr. is also, though, the nephew of former Democratic President John F. Kennedy. As I mentioned, RFK Jr. originally launched his campaign as a Democrat, but he didn't make the strides he planned with the Democratic Party for a few reasons. Mainly, it's because President Biden is the incumbent, but it's also because RFK Jr. has some views that kind of put him at odds with some Democrats. So he's not the typical Democratic candidate in the sense that he shares, you know,

most of most of the same Democratic views. He's actually anti-vax and he is against aid to Ukraine, just to name a few. So rather than go up against President Biden for the Democratic nomination, he felt it was a better move to switch over as an independent. He feels he has better odds that way. So I want to talk a little bit about what his priorities are, according to his website. This is what he plans to do should he be elected. He's running on the idea that people who work hard should be able to afford a decent lifestyle. So what he says is he will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He will prosecute union busting corporations so that labor can organize and negotiate fair wages.

He'll expand free childcare, drop housing costs by $1,000 per family and make home ownership affordable by backing 3% home mortgages with tax-free bonds, cut energy prices by restricting natural gas exports, support small businesses by redirecting regulatory scrutiny on large corporations, secure the border and bring illegal immigration to a halt, negotiate trade deals that prevent low-wage countries from competing with American workers, rein in military spending and use the resources to fund infrastructure, healthcare, higher education, childcare, and domestic prosperity, reverse the chronic disease epidemic, clean out corruption in Washington, D.C., establish addiction healing centers on organic farms across the country, make student debt dischargeable in bankruptcy,

and cut interest rates on student loans to zero, and cut drug costs in half. And he says that he will fund all of this by ending what he calls the military adventures and regime change wars like the one in Ukraine and ending corruption in Washington. So again, I'm just I'm just citing to his website. He believes that the money that was spent on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya is enough money per family in the United States to pay off medical debt, credit card debt, provide free child care, feed every hungry child, repair our infrastructure, and make college tuition free and still have money left over. Additionally, he says that by ending corruption in Washington, the corporate giveaways, and the bailouts, the country will

bring in far more money. So he made this announcement that he was switching at noon on Monday. He held an event in Philadelphia where he launched his new slogan, Declare Your Independence. And, you know, after he made this announcement, he got some backlash from Republicans. There's also been some Democratic politicians that say this could be dangerous for President Biden, Hillary Clinton being one of them, and interestingly enough, his own siblings. So his siblings released a statement on Monday following his announcement that said this. And by the way, RFK Jr., he also goes by Bobby. So just note that when I read this, it says, The decision of our brother Bobby to run as a third-party candidate against Joe Biden is dangerous to our country.

Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision, or judgment. Today's announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country. End quote. And it was signed by Rory and Kerry Kennedy, Joseph Kennedy II, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, which again, are four of his siblings. The next story I have for you is about Majority Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and other senators meeting with President Xi of China. So a group of six senators led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer met with President Xi in Beijing on Monday. This trip was intended to advance United States

economic and national security interests in China, and that included asking for competition reciprocity. So in other words, making it just as easy for American companies to compete as freely in China as Chinese companies are able to compete in America. Schumer said that the meeting lasted longer than the expected 80 minutes, and he said he felt that President Xi was engaged during the meeting, but that he was also disappointed by what he described as China's lack of sympathy for Israel. So meaning Chuck Schumer was disappointed by China's lack of sympathy, and he took that opportunity to address it with President Xi. According to other reports, Xi told Schumer that the United States and China have the

most important bilateral relationship in the world, and that their common interests outweigh their differences. So this trip started in Shanghai on Saturday. They then went to Beijing on Monday, and they'll now travel to South Korea and Japan. The reason that the visit to China made the news is because, first of all, it's the first congressional visit to China since before the pandemic. The last visit was 2019. And also just because of the recent heightened tensions that the United States has with China. So we know that the United States has with China. So we know that the United States and China have really had tensions for quite a long time. But recently, since let's say the pandemic, we've had the pandemic, we've had, you know, China's support

for Russia with the war in Ukraine, we've had the United States support for Taiwan, you know, in China wanting to take control of Taiwan. Now we have this Israel conflict. So eyes were on this meeting to see whether it increased those tensions or reduced them somewhat and, you know, what the meeting means for a possible meeting between President Biden and President Xi later on. Now, this is typically where I would take a break in the episode, but because I said this episode is shorter, we're just going to power through. So the next thing I want to talk about is the House and what they're doing about the Speaker. House Republicans are supposed to nominate a representative for Speaker this week. However, it does seem that House Republicans are

pretty divided between the two candidates, which are the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan. He is a Republican from Ohio and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who is a Republican from Louisiana. Former Speaker McCarthy said that he would take the gavel again if the conference wanted it. He said when he was asked in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, a radio host, whether he would take the job again if those eight Republicans who opposed him previously retreated in their position. And what McCarthy said was, quote, look, whatever the conference wants, I will do. I think we need to be strong. I think we need to be united. The eight, in my view, don't look to be. It was a personal thing, end quote. So that's, of course, him alluding to what he has said in the past, that he believes Representative Matt Gaetz wanted him out

as speaker for personal reasons. And oh, one other thing I wanted to mention, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, he did get Donald Trump's endorsement. But basically what will happen this week is that both parties hold party conferences to vote among their members and decide who they want to nominate to lead their party. Of course, we have the two Republican candidates that I just went over, and then Democrats will likely nominate their minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, who is their minority leader currently. That is not changing. But both parties typically present a nominee. And, you know, the fact that the Democrats will also put forth a nominee is more of a formality because the majority party typically always

prevails with their nomination. That's just how it goes because of the voting threshold. So that's just more of a formality thing. Once each party chooses their nominee, it'll go of the voting threshold. So that's just more of a formality thing. Once each party chooses their nominee, it'll go to the House floor for a vote. Each nominee is read aloud. The votes are tallied. Whoever gets the simple majority of the House votes wins. Now, just because a lawmaker, a representative voted for a nominee in the closed door meeting with their party doesn't mean they have to vote the same way once the floor vote happens with the full House. For instance, Kevin McCarthy won the majority of the Republican vote in a closed door meeting in November 2022.

Then when it went to the House floor, that's when 15 rounds of voting took place. He had a really difficult time because some of those Republicans were holding out. So just because you vote for a nominee in the closed door voting doesn't mean you have to vote for that same nominee once it comes time for a full House vote. And also, when it goes to the House vote and the nominee's names are read aloud, other people can be nominated and they don't have to be House representatives. So, you know, during McCarthy's election, when those 15 rounds of voting were taking place, President Trump was nominated as speaker.

There was a time where President Biden was nominated speaker. So it doesn't have to be a House representative, but it always has been. So there's never been a time where the Speaker hasn't been a representative. So just note that, that if you do see other nominations, that's why. It's because other people can be nominated, but it's nearly impossible for those people to get the majority vote. Where we're at this week is that informal closed door nomination step. On Monday, the House GOP held a candidate debate and discussion. On Tuesday, there will be a candidate forum, and then there will be an internal election on Wednesday. However, just because that internal election happens on Wednesday, it's being said that they don't know when the actual full House

vote will take place. That could take shape as early as tomorrow, but as of the time I'm recording this, they just don't know when that full House vote will be. In the midst of all of this, one thing I did want to mention is that there was a proposal submitted by one representative. His name is Chip Roy. He's a Republican from Texas. And basically what that proposal would do is it would require a lawmaker to get a majority of the entire house in order to secure a party's nomination for speaker. So rather than just getting a majority of the party conference to get the nomination under this proposal, you'd have to get the majority of the full house. And this proposal is meant to make sure that the nominee has the requisite support before going to the floor vote

and sort of avoid what happened with McCarthy. But the GOP is split as to how they feel about it. Jim Jordan seems to be backing the proposal, whereas Scalise seems to be against it. Basically, what it would mean is that the nominee could only lose four Republican votes, and that's just because of the way that the House is split. So that's what's going on with the proposal. They were discussing it Monday night. As of the time I'm recording this, we don't have an update on that, but we may have an update by the time this episode goes live. So just to give you kind of a general understanding of what that proposal is, that's what you need to know. And finally, I just wanted to mention an appellate ruling

in Donald Trump's civil fraud trial out of New York. I did include it in Saturday's newsletter, but for those of you who don't get the newsletter, I did just want to give you an update on here. Basically what happened is you probably remember when I reported on the judge ruling that Donald Trump and his co-defendants had committed persistent and repeated fraud, and along with that ruling, canceled the business certificates of the defendants involved in the lawsuit, which meant that Donald Trump's businesses would eventually be dissolved. First, they were going to appoint an independent receiver, and then the dissolution would follow. Very shortly after that ruling came out,

Donald Trump and the co-defendants did appeal that ruling. And the update is that the appellate court said, we are going to pause the business dissolution process, but we're not going to pause the civil trial that's happening right now. So basically when Donald Trump and his co-defendants appealed, they asked for two things. One was to pause the dissolution of businesses, and the other was to pause the civil trial happening in New York. So that is the appellate court's ruling that I thought you should know about. And that concludes this episode. Please stay tuned for my episode dropping on hopefully Wednesday, possibly Thursday, all about what's happening in Israel. It's so important. We are all informed and I am doing my absolute best to research as much as I possibly can.

So I can get you all of the information that I feel is important to know and assess in making all of your opinions. I hope you have a great week and I will talk to you in a few days.