Will Cain Country - Democrats Spark OUTRAGE For Honoring George Floyd On Memorial Day (ft. Wade Stotts & David Hookstead)

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Memorial Day is a day to remember our nation’s fallen soldiers; unless you’re a Democrat. In that case it’s a day to honor… George Floyd?! Will is joined by Host of ‘The Wade Show with Wade,’ Wade Stotts, and Outkicks’ David Hootstead to break down the left’s new favorite holiday, before taking a look at Hasan Piker’s Cuba trip subpoena and Dave Portnoy’s response when asked if he would have Graham Platner on his show.Plus, Will and David take a look at the gradual ‘woke-ification’ of sports media after accusations began circulating that Jaxson Dart was “dividing the locker room” with his political views.Subscribe to ‘Will Cain Country’ on YouTube here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch Will Cain Country!⁠⁠⁠Follow ‘Will Cain Country’ on X (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), Instagram (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), TikTok (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), and Facebook (⁠⁠⁠@WillCainNews)Follow Will on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WillCain⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

St. George Floyd and the movement he inspired with the host of the Wade Show, with Wade, Wade Stats. Plus, Graham Platner and Dave Portnoy, Hassan Piker, and the SEC going after AOC with David Hookstead. It is Will Cain Country, normally streaming live at the Will Cain Country YouTube channel, the Will Cain Facebook page, but always here for you, even after a holiday weekend by following us at Spotify or on Apple. Land of the Walking Dead, we're dropping like flies. After two weeks of fighting Hunter virus, turns out I think I had COVID reminded me suspiciously of 2021. We've lost Dan. We've lost Pat.

We're down to the reserve squad. We got Matthew, but we also have, hey, hanging out with us today. The host of the Wade Show with Wade, Wade, Wade Stott, and coming up a little bit later, outkicks David Hookstead to help us come back from this holiday weekend until everybody can get off injured reserve. Let's get into it now. Though, with the host of the Wade Show with Wade, it is Wade's thoughts hanging out with us on Will Kane country. What's up, Wade?

It's a thrill to be here, Will. You know, I saw this morning, I didn't know this about you, that your first name is Charles, Charles Kane. which, you know, Giant of Journalism, Charles Foster Kane, from the Citizen Kane. I didn't make that connection before, but, you know, two Giants of Journalism, cinematic figures. It's a thrill to be with one of the Charles Cains of journalism this morning. Yes, one of the giants of journalism. I appreciate that way, I appreciate you putting me in my proper context and place in history. Some should suggest my nickname should in fact be Citizen Kane.

Happy for George Floyd Day, Wade. Happy Memorial Day. Happy George Floyd. Absolutely, yeah. I did celebrate privately yesterday. Happy George Floyd Day to you as well. But, you know, we all celebrate in our own ways, and we got to see plenty of public celebrations from political figures.

And I was thrilled just with the cringe. I just let it wash over me as I scroll through Twitter yesterday. On Memorial Day, on the day that we honor our fallen. Interestingly, the city of Minneapolis doesn't seem to understand the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. taking the time after a bit of George Floyd celebration to say we honor all who served. That's for Veterans Day. Memorial Day is for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in defense of this country.

But they took more time to celebrate George Floyd. Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry, wrote on X. Today we remember George Floyd, who was murdered by a former Minneapolis police officer six years ago. That moment changed our city forever. It undoubtedly did change their city forever. city of Minneapolis Wade did the same. They posted today, we remember George Floyd with a picture of the city corner, the block, where George Floyd's life came to an end. And it also was the beginning of the end for Derek Chauvin. And then finally, Governor Tim Walts in Minnesota said

six years ago today George Floyd's murder started a global movement for change. Let us continue working to build a society that lives up to its democratic ideals of liberty and justice for all. And what strikes me here some six years later is how few Americans truly know both Wade, George Floyd, and, as noted by Governor Tim Walts, the movement he inspired. How little even today they know of that movement. Let's start with George Floyd. He's being turned into a saint. Yeah, the further you get from the event.

it is kind of this is when things kind of stratify so if you have at the moment when this sort of thing happens in 2020 people see it and they go they have an immediate reaction they either go oh well that seems awful what a horrible thing to happen we also have to remember that as it happens and when it happened in 2020 this was after months and months of people being cooped up in their houses everything in their lives being different everything that they were told was important about their lives being either taken away or entirely transformed and so you So when George Floyd as a story drops into your life at that moment, then yeah, it takes over and you are told this is actually the most important thing in the world right now. And the relationship that people have to it at that moment is going to be very different from six years later. And so you've got it kind of stratifying into people who were interested in the George Floyd story at the time in the same way they were interested in like Tiger King. Like it was it was a phenomenon of the time. And they got worked up about it in the same way. that got worked up about Joe Exotic. And then you've got other people who that was a sort of seminal religious event in their lives.

And yes, as you mentioned, St. George Floyd, there's, that's a real stratification in the world between people who were either interested in it at the time and then have moved on, at least see it in some kind of context, or the people who at the time saw it as sort of an op or sort of a work, what people were doing with that story. And then other people, yeah, who it's become a thing that they, I guess Jacob Fry is just using it for political points and hoping that there's enough people there who are still buying into this kind of religious view of the event. But yeah, it's a it's a stratification for sure. And I think that fewer and fewer people, it's going to work on fewer and fewer people. But I guess Jacob Fry is just hoping that it works on enough people who live in Minneapolis. Jacob Fry's using it for political points, but everybody's using the story of George Floyd for some. something. That's illustrated by how divorced the story is from the actual facts. It's facts that we still can't even reconcile with today, Wade. I mean, on one hand, we still have reports,

and people are still much like the very fine people hoax, learning the facts that George Floyd had fentanyl in his system, metabolic fentanyl in his system, which suggested he had taken fentanyl earlier in the day, and then attempted to swallow drugs in the, in the, in the back of that police vehicle that he was placed in before spitting them out, but some of it got into his system, and he had lethal amounts of fentanyl in his system, and yet it was simplified into that image of Derek Chauvin, standing over George Floyd or kneeling on George Floyd, and to the day, Derek Chauvin has paid the price for a story, much more so than the facts. Yeah, I think somebody mentioned yesterday, and this is just a

true if you watched the entire video as the video came out that George Floyd was saying I can't breathe before he was on the ground George Floyd was saying I can't breathe when somebody was just holding him by the arm but the time that people use is the is from the video of him having you know being on the ground and saying I can't breathe but he'd been saying that exact thing for a long time and so the again the story gets simplified to again about 30 seconds or just an image and then yeah that does either either that image will work in a religious on people or it weren't won't and it usually depends on where the trust in these institutions is so

if if that story was already in your head that cops are just trying to find black people to kill for no reason if that's if that's the story in your head then you watch that that video see that image in that light and if it's if that's not the story that's going on in your head then you go oh what happened tell me the story what happened you're you're trying to get some context and yeah You cannot sort of go on the high of that moment from when nobody had context. Everybody's just trying to rewind to before we had the full video, before we had the transcript, before we had the autopsy and the amount of fentanyl in a system, that everybody saw, everybody sort of either saw those toxicology reports or did not or ignored them.

And so what Jacob Fry, what anybody in Minneapolis is trying to do is rewind to a moment when they could use that for the maximum amount of political points. and they just can't anymore. Well, here's why that's so powerful. To your point, why are we revisiting a story from six years ago? Because on Memorial Day of 2026, many figures within the left, including Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, take that moment to once again memorialize George Floyd. And perhaps they're trying to recapture that moment, as you point out, from 2020,

a moment in which people set aside reason and logic. They set aside facts and they latched on religious. to a story. And it wasn't just the story of George Floyd. It was the story he was meant to represent. And that's why this chart that was floating around this weekend on X, I've seen before, but really, really shocks you and shows you the power of story, narrative, and misinformation. It is from 2000, it is a poll done, roughly, I believe, in 2020, 2021, and it is off of statistics, given from 2019. It separates people into five political groups, very liberal, liberal, moderate, conservative, and very conservative. And it asks them, it asks these people, how many unarmed black men

were killed by police in 2019? Now, we'll focus in on the very liberal. 15, almost 16% of very liberal people believe that the number is about 10. 31% believe the number is about 100. 31.4% believe that about 1,000 black men were killed by police in the year 2019. 14.2% believe the number is about 10,000, and about 8% of the very liberal believe that the number is more than 10,000. So if you add that up, more than 50% of very liberal people believe that more than a thousand black men, unarmed black men were killed by police.

The actual number, 12, 12 unarmed black men were killed by police in that year. But this story made it such that people believed, and that's just the very liberal. I will tell you, Wade, I'm a little surprised even as you move down the scale from liberal to moderate and even conservative, how many people believe that 1,000, 10,000, more than 10,000 unarmed, black men have been killed by police in a single given year. But this is what happens when you make people turn off their brains and buy religiously into these stories. And this 2020 and then going into probably 2023 might have been, I think, the last sort of time when the media thought that they had won everything. And they had every reason to think that. They had the sort of liberal media

thought that whatever we say becomes the narrative forever. And this chart shows that, yes, that was true, especially at that time. And so there, right now, back here to 2026, the goal is, okay, let's rewind and grab the moments, the last few moments where we had entire total narrative control and people weren't trying to deconstruct everything that we did. If you search the name George Floyd on most social media today, a lot of it's going to to be like really kind of distasteful memes and sort of videos like it it does not have the same kind of religious significance to younger generations uh and i think that that is that's a sort of

the the george floyd bubble uh i hate to call it that but that that's going to pop and i think it already has popped at some level but you will always have i think you always have a sort of the true believers who will hang out i think that the liberal media i think the democrats generally what they're trying to do is hold on to and hold on to those true believers. The problem, though, is that they assume that that true believer number is a lot bigger than it actually is. I have a feeling that the, as this sort of entire narrative control has evaporated over the past few years, that the more you appeal to those things, the smaller your group is going to get, the smaller your audience is going to get. You go back and appeal to

George Floyd or you go back and appeal to a bunch of different things from, again, that 2020 to 2023 kind of period. There's a reason that people don't talk about the Ukraine war in the same way that they did in 2023, but they did right away. But the people that you find talking about George Floyd, the people who are talking about the Ukraine war in the same way that they were in 2023, you're not talking to people who are following along with stories. You're talking to people who have taken on sort of badges of religious identity and identification. My guess is that that is a losing strategy, but I don't think that they have any other option, if you're the left or if you're the Democrats.

Well, to the extent that those people still exist, to your point, I live through that time frame, so in some ways I'm incapable of distinguishing parity from reality. So I saw this this morning. It's under the moniker Reverend Ray Christman or Sistman in the post reads, George Floyd deserves to be buried in Arlington Cemetery with the rest of America's fallen heroes. Turns out that is parody. It's not a real account. But for a moment, Wade, I was like, wow, that's someone who still believes, to your point, in those years between 2020 and 2023. Yeah. And I've also fallen for these things and then realized afterwards that the Twitter username is like a Mo's joke from The Simpsons. So like Dr. Racist Man, it just happens to tweet. But yeah, no, it is wild because again, we lived through this. We saw people say, that. exact kind of thing. And how much more ridiculous is it to say that he should be buried in

Arlington Cemetery than to say that he should have the only funeral in existence for a year? Or to say that the mayor should bow down before his golden casket and weep, make a kind of public proclamation afterwards and still be talking about it. I think that, again, I think that the joke's funny. I like the tweet. But man, oh man, the thing that was actually happening was much more insane. Let's take quick break. But continue this conversation with the host of the Wade Show with Wade. It's Wade Stotz on Will Cain Country. Welcome back to Will Cain Country.

We're still hanging out with the host of the Wade show with Wade. Wade Stats. Exactly. Exactly. Reality was indistinguishable from parody. Okay, but I do think you make an interesting point about that stuff doesn't seem to work in 2026. The ask of the public to turn off its brains and accept without chewing, just swallow. Narratives that are obviously false, doesn't really seem to be the go-to playbook of the

left at the moment. The go-to playbook of the left at the moment is to openly embrace radicalism. That is, I think, is personified well by the likes of Hassan Piker. Hassan Piker doesn't hide who he is. He is open about who he is. Hassan Piker, the far-left streamer, has been issued a subpoena from, I believe it's the Office of Foreign Asset Control, OFAC, list because of a trip that he took to Cuba, along with Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin. And he's been issued a subpoena. He's being investigated. As part of that, Piker is saying some interesting things. Wade, he said, basically admitted something that we've reported on extensively here, that much of the left's protest movement has been funded by a man living in Hong Kong and American citizen, but under the power and control and in league with the Chinese Communist Party, Neville Roy Singham. he is drawing the fire, Piker, of maybe that type of Democrat who thrive from 2020 to

2023, Jasmine Crockett, who says maybe if you hadn't told people not to vote for Kamala Harris, you wouldn't be being investigated right now. But Piker's different than Jasmine Crockett. Jasmine Crockett is a 2023 Democrat. Piker is a 2026 Democrat, which is open, honest, and out there about their own radicalism. I think that's totally fair. And, you know, I don't know anything. I've never been in law.

I've never studied law. But I cannot imagine. The trouble is that, yes, the Democrats, they're open, much more open about it. Hassan, I don't know how many hours a day he streams, but man, that guy talks a lot. And I can't imagine, if I were his lawyer, having to comb through hours and hours of daily footage of him just talking about whatever pops in his head being open. and then having to be in a court of law, having to be his representation. I cannot imagine the nightmare that he is having to go through. However, it seems like it's going to be a field day.

It's going to be a party for whoever's trying to, for the people who are trying to show that he has some connections. Because the clips that are already coming out that are just showing how open he has been about his connections to these people, I, yeah, I do not envy his represent, his legal representation in this. But yes, I think it is true that there is a distinction between the Jasmine Crockets and the Hassan Pikers. The issue, though, is that they are both trying to get the same end result. The Jasmine Crockett is trying to sort of, she said, okay, if you would have voted for Kamala Harris, then you would be safe right now, meaning that they know that the Democrat Party has been a safe haven this entire time for Hassan Piker types.

Hassan, I think what he recognizes is we're going to have to be more open. We're going to have to be more honest about this stuff because we don't have entire narrative control. We've just got to get our radicals radicalized. And if the radicals can sort of do all the footwork, so I just sit here in my room, I stream all day, and then the radicals go out and do the footwork, do all the sort of violent stuff that I wish, that I want people to do. The Democrat Party's always been a safe place for that, but he recognizes that we, What we need right now is the true believers to go do their, do my evil bidding for me. And I get to be safe because all I did was just talk on a stream.

The issue is that, no, there actually have been plenty of things that they can get him on. And I hope they get him on every single one of them. But I will tell you, Wade, and maybe I'm being a prisoner of the moment, and I would have been a prisoner moment in 2023, the modern breed of Democrat, which we will more accurately describe as a Democrat socialist, I will use that phrase because it is their chosen self-description. And I'm not sure that they're completely hiding the ball. Some do believe in democratic socialism.

Some believe in pure socialism. Others, I think like Piker are ready to embrace. Although he says he's not a communist, he's not opposed to communism. But they are some ready to embrace the hammer and the sickle. You could always look at a Jacob Frye. And you could always look at a Jasmine Crockett. You could always look at a Cory Bush and you could laugh. You could always make them a joke.

And I think the general public could see in them the joke. But there is something in the authenticity of the radicalism of a piker that will pull in, I believe, a moderate who might not even necessarily believe in the full extent of the ideology. So let me now move to the most obvious example. And that is Graham Platner. Graham Platner is the Democrat socialist, right? Graham Platner is somewhere in the vein of the ideology of Hassan Piker. He's already survived. Almost everything you could imagine when it comes to embarrassment.

Things that you would presume might end a Jasmine Crocky. Masturbating public porta-potties being turned on by the blue toilet fluid at the bottom of a port-a-potty. A Nazi tattoo. Insulting main voters. and yet you will find somewhat self-described lefties attracted to Graham Platner. And the reason for that, I think, is that he gives, like Piker, this image of masculine authenticity to who he is and what he believes. And ultimately, I take that much more seriously than I do the clowns of 2023. I think that's exactly right.

Well said, I think that the issue for these people is that it is a sort of new era of politics where everybody is saying what they mean, or at least trying to come across as saying what they mean, which, yes, is a sort of masculine trait. When you see Graham Platner, when you see Hassan Piper saying radical things or doing radical things, people don't necessarily see the politicians as anymore. kind of I just want the normal guys, I want the adults back in office. What they see now is I want to elect or vote for or watch on a stream the guy who's going to be the biggest hammer against who I see as the sort of evil orange president. They just see for the forces of evil have taken over and what they want is the most radical person who can do that. And so if you if you bring up, okay, Graham Platner has all these embarrassing gross things he's said. Well, yeah, he's he's a hammer. He's a guy who's going to come in and take out all the evil guys.

So you can't use the same kind of weapons. You can't say, oh, he's kind of a bad guy. People want to elect a sort of bad guy. The sort of comic bookization of everything has meant that now people go like, oh, yeah, he's like Batman. So, yeah, we used to vote for Superman, but now we vote for Batman. The simplifying of everything down to sort of comic book tropes, It's like, yeah, he's sort of like a bad guy, but he's going to fight the really bad guys.

He's a questionable, he has questionable morality, but at least he's going to get the worst guys around. And I think that is what people are seeing and much more, much more a fictionalization, a sort of cheapening of the political discourse that does turn things into violence and people recognizing, okay, things are much more pitched than they used to be. And so, yeah, we're going to get worse and worse people. And so I think that that's something that the right has to figure out, the Republicans have to figure out how to answer and appeal to people who are not radicalized, appeal to people who are ready to just have a good country that works well. Let's make this thing work for people. I think that's an interesting point that you bring up,

that he pointing out he's a bad guy doesn't hurt him, in fact, may help him because they want the bad guy to go fight. their minds, the evil guy. They want the bad warrior on their side because they're already fighting the greatest bad guy they could imagine in Donald Trump. All right, let's bring in Outkicks David Hookstead to join us now for this conversation as we expand on Grand Platner. David writes for Outkick. He's got a very successful YouTube channel and he's going to join us alongside Wade's thoughts here today. David, what's up? Good to see you. Good to see you. Well, thank you for having me.

David Wade, let's keep going on Graham Platner because this got my attention this weekend. In sort of Wade, like we were talking about that masculine image of Graham Platner, his team seems to recognize that. And his press secretary had a great idea. He's like, let's get you on Barstool. And so he reached out to Barstool's El Presidente, Dave Portnoy, the press secretary. And the email exchange has been published. because Dave Portnoy put it out. And I'll read to you guys what it says,

because I think it's pretty fascinating. It says, hey, Dave, something different for you. Main Senate candidate, Graham Platner, is putting a 30-second ad on NESN. That's the New England Sports Regional Network. During a Red Sox game that attacks the private equity grip on the team, I wanted to let you get in early on this. It's an example of Graham's popular streak

in talking about shit people are pissed off about, like the Sox and Big Bad John Henry. And then it goes on. Portnoy doesn't respond to which the press secretary then says, just nudging this along, I think it'd be fun to get Graham with you or a colleague talking about private equity and the socks. And then finally, Portnoy responds. Hey, Jeff. Now, this is the Nazi guy, right? Yeah, I'd be happy to talk to him about that tattoo and him being a Nazi. I'm not as interested in his baseball takes. Let me know when we can set something up. to which the press secretary says, nice one, thanks Dave. Dave says, is that a no? And then the press secretary says, if we can get to a place where this is a productive convo,

I will give it a think. Finally, Portnoy says, what's that mean? You reached out to a Jew to poo-poo a Nazi. I'm not Bernie Sanders. If your boy isn't a Nazi and can handle me one-on-one in a convoy, set it up. If you think he can't,

you should do some thinking for yourself. and whether or not I'd want to glamorize this clown. So pretty fascinating back and forth. David, I'll let you take it. But nobody in Platon's team thought, hey, Portnoy's a Jew. He might not be super hip on the Nazi tattoo. Yeah, you would think they would have had some research there. Obviously, as you said, Dave Portnoy is Jewish.

He's also outspoken about anti-Semitism, things of that nature. The former Marine who had a well-known, I will say, a very well-known Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest, probably not the greatest guy that Dave Portnoy is going to have a chummy-friendly interview with. Having said that, Dave Portnoy has a huge audience, a huge, huge audience dominated by young men who aren't super political, but just like to be bros. If Platner actually had a little bit of boldness in him

and thought he could defend that tattoo or apologize for it in a sufficient fashion, he should have done the interview, and he could have come out looking like a changed person, a grown-up, someone who made a mistake when they were younger, and now, you know, his right at his wrongs. And instead, he gets humiliated with that portnoy email exchange. Yeah, you know, wait, I actually think the more I think about it and listen to David, this is actually kind of an example of why Platner has a chance because he is playing on this masculine, bro-y vision of Democratic socialism. Like, this was probably actually worth the effort. If he had landed this with Portnoy and if he had landed with Barstool. And to your point, David, he still could.

If he thought he could have that conversation with Dave, it's a huge win for Platner, Wade. I think that's absolutely right. It was a good call for the PR team. However, along with all the other points that have already been made, Dave Portnoy, if you're familiar at all, if any of the audience is familiar with all with Barstool, they know that Dave Portnoy is very comfortable with open conflict. And if you go into a situation, you send him an email, you're ready to go, hey, I want to go on your show, you are going to be ready for open conflict, whether it's about sports or about your tattoos, whatever. And so Platner, at least his PR team, isn't confident that Plattener can handle open conflict about issues that will absolutely come up, issues that will be front and center for his campaign.

I don't I it's it's a PR team that doesn't necessarily believe that he can handle the kind of interview that he that they're asking for him to do. So it's it's smart in one sense. Yes, it would have been a good fit, but I don't see anybody in doing a barstool interview where it's going to be just phony baloney sort of like puff piece stuff like yeah, go in ready for conflict and if you can handle it if you are trying to put off this sort of masculine vibe, then yeah, be ready to go in for open. conflict, have fun. It's going to be good. However, I don't think Graham Platner, I don't believe that Grand Platner could handle that, and I don't think either does his PR team. Let's take a quick break, but we'll be right back on Will Kane Country. Welcome back to Will Kane Country. Yeah, I don't know if he could. I don't know. Something that I'm thinking about, Dave, Wade just brought this up, you know, there is a movement right now, and Platner's a great example of it, of being able to forgive people for not just their weaknesses, but for,

for their sins. There's an embrace of being the bad guy. And pointing out that Platner jerks off in Port-a-Potties ultimately probably doesn't hurt him that bad. And one could argue even helps him because they painted Donald Trump as the ultimate evil, so you might as well pick your own bad guy to go fight the battle. But I do wonder, and I always forget my history,

there's something about the post-Woodrow Wilson years up through FDR, where I lose track, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, exactly the order. But one of those presidents, and it is either Harding or Hoover, that does start with an H, ran on the campaign of a return to normalcy. I do wonder post-Donald Trump, does the left ease off? I think the answer to that is no. But I do wonder, do you know how many times I hear from people that are like, I really like Donald Trump, I just wish he wouldn't say.

some of the stuff that he says. I hear it all the time. I do wonder if there's an appetite for a return to normalcy, Dave. Unfortunately, I think due to social media, in large part, due to the dopamine hit people need immediately when they get on X or Instagram, YouTube, whatever it might be. I don't think so because rage sells, right? Rage gets you the headlines. And hate does the same thing. And it's easy to disregard your opponent when you essentially dehumanize them, right? And there's no incentive, particularly on the left, to stop that. That's why we've seen repeated assassination attempts. That's why you've seen attacks carried out elsewhere. I wish I was as optimistic as you were, but no, I actually think as time goes on, it will get worse and worse as people become

more and more detached from reality. And that is unfortunately very sad. But the Conversation we're having here, very rational, well thought out, normal tones, not yelling. This has become the exception to how people communicate now. Everyone's tough behind a computer screen. Everyone's tough behind their phone. Unfortunately, it's become the new normal. I don't think it's ever going back. I don't.

Okay. You're probably right. So this isn't an argument to tell you that you're wrong. Let me just try to muster. Let me just try to muster rebuttal. See what you think, Wade. This is going to be a correlation. This isn't going to be a strictly logical causation.

Okay, I think it's pretty fair to say. People are into physical fitness. People are into living longer. There is a trend. It is popular to eat right, to exercise. It is popular to make good physical choices. That doesn't mean we all can do it on a day-to-day basis. It doesn't even mean that we ever do it.

But we, at least, you know, we like that. the idea of it, all of us. And it takes some effort. It truly takes some effort. You got to listen to two hours of Andrew Huberman. You know, you got to really figure out this month if you're supposed to be eating fats or butter or whatever it may be. But I do wonder if that trend can spill over to the mind. That's kind of something I think about. And I wonder, Wade, like there's got to be a recognition that what we're feeding our brain is unhealthy. We talk to our kids about it. Yo, 15-second videos consumed over a two-hour period.

That's probably not the best thing for your brain. And so forth. And so I just wonder, you know, there are some truisms that have withstood time, you know, rhetoric, logic, ego, id, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, whatever. There are some things, right, that are timeless. And I wonder if that could ever be a trend. Like, where someone could look at somebody and go, that's not persuasive. I know what you're doing.

I know what you're playing to. I am going to be attracted to more high-quality message. I will be interested, to your point, if as the Democrats have turned themselves into a weapon to finally try to fight Trump on his own terms, being sort of openly having conflict, saying the things you mean, if that sort of thing will then turn around and bite them

when their opponent is J.D. Vance. So I can see J.D. Vance being a kind of post-Trump figure, not a Trump replacement figure. Marco Rubio could be a similar sort of thing. I think those guys could work well together. What I see if the mega coalition can continue to post-wins, I think that it will be interesting to see if the Democrats seem more and more like the people who continue to have their hair on fire when they're reacting to J.D. Vance, who doesn't come across as sort of Orange Hitler. It will take a major effort, PR effort for people to turn him into that over the next couple of years. My guess is that they will push too hard against Trump. By the time Trump gets out, then they're fighting a totally different guy with the same weapons that they've developed over the course of 10 years. I will be interested.

I think that there will be – I can see individual burnout on Twitter. I can see people – I can see Twitter itself. I can see different social media platforms kind of getting tight. Everybody's getting tired of being on there. I am curious if there will end up being a sort of, if the reaction to that is, I don't know, just I'll put a guy in office and not think about it for four years. It could be that. It could be that that happens with J.D. Vance.

People and then that the only people left on X are the addicts, which are not a significant voting block. Right. By the way, I can simultaneously feel two things at the same time. I can feel that X is a major contributor to the savior of this country, that it broke that misinformation fever pitch that we were in. You were talking about earlier, Wade. And at the same time, I'm probably in that group of people you described a moment ago where I'm losing some interest in X.

I still use it, so that's not fair. Like, every day, I go read some things. I scroll it. But I'm not a great contributor to it anymore. I don't really post a lot. It's just lost something for me in terms of, I don't know, wanting to be in the fray of whatever is happening on X. I don't know, to your point, wait, if that's a larger thing that is happening.

I'm sure that Elon has metrics that say, no, no, more popular than ever. I think probably a lot of that has to do with the international influx of people coming in. So if Americans at some level realize, okay, we've, through X, have broken up the, sort of monopolies, duoplies, whatever of mainstream media. Okay, it's done its job. We got Trump into office. And then if people, if a huge amount of Americans eject, we've still got, I think there's been another billion and a half people who've gotten on the internet in the past since 2022. And so the numbers may be great. But my general, again, it's just a vibe, just a feeling, is that people are kind of stepping back and think, from thinking that,

that Twitter is politics and politics is Twitter. Now, I have two teenage boys, and they do not. X is not part of their diet whatsoever. Now, David, you're doing great stuff on YouTube. Both of you guys are doing great stuff on YouTube. They will watch YouTube. They do Instagram and TikTok. They do those things, but they're not big consumers.

And maybe you age into X. Maybe X is more of a thing you pick up, I don't know, at age 26 or 27, Dave. Yeah, I think there's always trend lines that change, right? YouTube, especially with younger people, it's been built to appeal to a very young audience as they continue to kind of grow out their base, their long-term business plans. And YouTube is great. We're all on YouTube right now, and YouTube is an endless source of knowledge. And it's not a direct interaction, right?

On X, you get that immediate dopamine hit, that adrenaline rush. If you're arguing with something or somebody or you see something that, you know, fires you up. On YouTube, you're like in a movie theater, right, or you're at home watching TV. So it's not a back and forth interaction, which by itself, probably at a default level, is healthier. But I actually agree with what you said, too, about losing interest with X. Ever since the Iran war started, I've pretty much set my X fee to just get straight news updates and not get into this debate back and forth with a million and a half people, with a million and a half different opinions. I think that's the best way to use X.

I'm here to get the news. I'm here to get rapid updates. I'm not here to argue with some blue-haired person whatsoever. That, to me, is the healthiest way to go about it. I'm still old enough that every time somebody says blue hair, I have to go, wait, old or weird? Like, which one are we talking about? This takes a moment. Weird or old?

Which one are we talking about? I know you're referencing weird. Speaking of which, okay, Wade, so earlier you said that, like, and I think that you're right, we'll call it mass psychosis. That's a term that many people have used. We can notably start in 2020 and may have ended in about 2023. Mass psychosis on a whole host of issues. COVID, race, a lot of issues, where people uncritically swallowed things by the gallon.

It probably started before that. I know it started before that because very fine people predates that. It could have started in about 15. You know, it just hit its apex in 20. And, okay, maybe the argument it didn't need. stop in 2023 either. It's just on a glide downhill because you still have stories like this, which maybe they're notable now in that they are sort of outliers. This is from the Daily Mail. Here's the headline. YMCA in Liberal City finally cracks down with new rules after trans woman

exposed pre-op privates in female locker room. Pre-op privates. To which X did put a community note, this is a penis. You are referring to a penis, a pre-off private. So maybe, maybe we are at least in corners of this, David, still in mass psychosis. Maybe, but you know what I thought first when I saw that tweet? Because the Daily Mail is a United Kingdom, British, but over there, that publication. And I wondered, my first thought was, if they had written what we just said about, that's a penis. Is that a hate crime over in the UK? Can the publisher get arrested for that? I don't know. It's a serious question. Yeah, I don't know. I also love the implication that a penis is just something that hasn't been cut off yet. Like, it's just a potential, uh, potential surgery.

I love that implication. Pre-op private. That's not my penis. That is my pre-op private. I am in the right locker room. Don't you dare write the headline to call that a penis. See, Crazy is still alive and well. It's still here with us. All right. Wade Stotz, the host of the Wade show with Wade. We appreciate you hanging out of us today. Dave is going to continue hanging out with us. But, Wade, we appreciate you being with us for 40 minutes here as we limp along without two of days, Dan and tinfoil pat today. Thank you, Wade. It's been a pleasure. Thank you, sir. All right, David Hooked is still with us here today because I want to talk about a few things from the world of sports because the world of sports does seem to be someplace wildly where crazy hangs on the longest day. And let's start with Jackson Dart. New York Giants quarterback Jackson Dart introduced President Donald Trump at a rally last week.

I will say my eyebrows raised. I was like, wow, look at Jackson Dart because there was a there was a recognition. Like I knew, okay, this is not going to go over extremely well. And it did not. I think the first notable thing that came out was Abdul Carter, the second year, going into a second year linebacker with the Giants tweeted, what are we doing here, man, or something like that, to which that gave license to everybody. That gave license to sports writers. That's when I say everybody. I was talking about sports media to jump all over Jackson Dart and accuse him of dividing the locker room.

which is a super weird thing to accuse him of. It's Abdul Carter that was dividing the locker room. Jackson Dart was just doing something, granted, pretty political, but that so many other athletes have done. From Steve Kerr and Greg Popovich to athletes who endorsed Kamala Harris, but it, I guess, is only allowed to be done in one direction. That is what kills me. It's the hypocrisy.

I personally as a sports fan when I turn on the TV and I'm watching the Detroit lines or the Wisconsin Badgers, I don't care one bit. who anyone on that field voted for. All I care about is are we going to win the game? And if you can win the game, I don't care if you go vote for Xi and China at the end of the day because I'm paying to watch you play a sport.

I'm not paying for you to share your political opinions or that I should care. So if it went both ways, it wouldn't matter. But to your point, we all know that if Jackson Dart went out and campaigned with AOC, nobody would really care. People might make fun of them on Twitter, but nobody would really care.

He wouldn't be accused of separating the locker room. It absolutely only goes one way. I'm fine with athletes loving whoever they want to love, endorse you, whatever they want to endorse, but it should be treated the exact same no matter who it is. And furthermore, if the president of the United States, I don't care of the party one way or the other, ask you to introduce him in a rally,

and you are okay with that. You don't viscerally hate his political views. I don't see anything wrong with that. I've met Joe Biden twice. Don't agree with any of Joe Biden's policies. Still took up the opportunity to do it because that's the president of the United States at the time. So that's how I view it. I think 95% of people in America view it that way.

But unfortunately, the media and the Jamel Hills of the world do not. Let's take a quick break, but continue this conversation with Outkicks, David Hookstead on Will Kane Country. Welcome back to Will Kane Country. We're still hanging out with Outkick.com's David Hookstead. I think that you are right. First of all, I was on ESPN at the time, and I disagreed with my now colleague, Laura Ingram, about the shut up and dribble concept. I did not believe in shut up and dribble. I do believe that if you have an opinion, you should be prepared to defend that opinion.

In other words, if you say something, you're not shielded from criticism. You can receive criticism. But as long as you're informed, I'm okay with that. You know, my criticism of Steve Kerr is less that he's. he is talking and more what he is saying and that it comes with a healthy dose of condescension and never a challenge. But 95% of people, I think, do believe exactly like you said. Unfortunately, it's just probably 95% the other way in sports media.

It's really, it is more liberal than the mainstream media. I think that's fair to say. sports media is more liberal than mainstream media because at least in mainstream media there is fox you know there there are independence on the internet and in sports that's why barstool which by the way isn't even that conservative and certainly not from top to bottom it's really more about portnoy that people point to who's really in the end not that conservative or Pat McAfee, who would I would say the same thing about, just isn't doctrinaire liberal. That's why they receive so much hate because they are part of the, that's why I did when I was at ESPN, why Clay Travis does, because we're part of the 5% in that industry.

Without question, I'd add Bobby Barak to that list too. He has the courage to stand up and say things people in the sports media don't like. There's no industry in the world that hates its consumer base more than sports media. media. Let's go back to COVID, just for some examples. When COVID started, how many writers were saying we got to shut down the college football season? Can't play it. Can't play. It was crazy. Steve Kerr, to your point, Steve Kerr got asked about the atrocities of China. This was a few years ago. And his response to the media was, well, no one ever asked me about AR-15s in America. He should have been shredded for comparing the Second Amendment to the atrocities

of the Communist Party in Beijing. And very, very, very few people at the time did it. I did it. A couple other people did it. That's crazy. Sports media, and you've worked in it for a very, very long time. You were prominent at ESPN. You know this better than anyone.

They do not represent the average fan in an SEC or Big Ten football stadium. They simply do not. Right. Yeah. And as we speak, sports rights, politicians are asking black athletes in the south, the NAACP has put this out, boycott. Stop. Stop playing in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia. Stop playing college football. Stop playing high school football. They're asking these athletes to give up their future because of redistricting. Well, I actually made a joke about this on Twitter. I was being sarcastic. It apparently did not land as sarcasm because I said I love the idea. I think all these star athletes, would be much happier in the Big Ten. Oh, I saw this.

Specifically, the Big Ten School in Madison, Wisconsin, which I, of course, have no connections to. It is, I thought it was quite funny. People thought I was being serious and I was getting torched for it, but it is what it is. Asking young athletes, black, white, picker race,

doesn't matter to me to forego playing at a major SEC University and giving up the money and the connections, in the future that comes with, that because you don't like redistricting or you don't like a political law, why should that 18 or 19 year old sacrifice for the NAACP? Isn't the NDACP last time I checked supposed to be putting those people in the best situation possible? Again, it's hypocrites, it's hypocrisy,

it's lunacy. And I don't think they're going to come to the University of Wisconsin, but if they want to boycott and you're a five-star quarterback and you're black, you are welcome in Madison with open arms. Yeah, you need this. You need this to happen for Wisconsin. You do. You sound a little like AOC, but we understand that yours is a sarcasm. I think we have this, David. I think we have this. Matthew and Fran can pull us up if we have it or let me know if we don't. But the SEC, and I think it was put together by LSU, put together an awesome video. So AOC gave her speech a week or two ago. And she said, we're going to pull up to the south. The north needs to pull up to the south.

I mean, what that means, I don't know. Is that a call to action, a call to arms? Is that a revisit of the Civil War? I don't know. But I hadn't even seen her name check each individual state, but I guess she did. It sounds really aggressive when you hear her, by the way. And in the SEC put together this video with every team in the SEC. And I think this is a cherry on top.

They used Green Day, which is somewhere right now, you know, Green Day is rolling or, you know, upset that this was done because they're huge libs. But I think we have it. Let's play this if we can. This is what the SEC or the LSC Tigers cut in response to AOC. We don't yet have it, but it's her pulling up, her say, pull up to Mississippi, pull up to Georgia, pull up to Tennessee, pull up to Louisiana, intercut, David, with videos of, you know, you know, LSU running out of the tunnel, Neeland Stadium in Knoxville, you know, players, the University of Texas celebrating touchdowns. It's pretty awesome.

So I did get the opportunity to see that video last night. It is absolutely epic. It looks like a pregame like you got a night game down in Texas. You got a night game with the crimson tie in Alabama. You know, they'll play like that 30-second fire reel. That could have been ripped directly from that. And I will say this about AOC. don't agree with her at all.

But, but I understand why she is as popular as she is with some people. Charisma, relateability, likability. I think she's a more dangerous candidate than people want to admit if she does run for president, even though I personally don't agree with the thing she says. Yes. Okay. I think AOC has some charisma and potentially gives herself a higher ceiling. than simply a congressman from the Bronx.

But for example, I don't know, there's something about AOC that gives you the vibe of the view, that she says things at times that are absurdly stupid. You know, and maybe it's me being a sexist, but I look at a guy like Platner, and I go, okay, that guy actually represents. He might be a torchbearer for this far-left movement. I'm not sure he'll win in Maine. But he might actually end up being more of a torchbearer than is in the world of possibility for AOC. Hmm.

I see the point you're making. And I think with, you know, you go back to the Platner, the Reddit post, the, you know, the things he said about war. Even as Chris Kyle comment, like, he's always going to be able. able to lean back and say, I was a Marine. I did four combat tours. How many people criticizing me did one, how many people criticizing me have ever even joined the military? There's an authenticity there. And people are like, oh, yeah, this guy went to war four times. Like, at some level, he's at least got to be tough, and we respect tough people. AOC does not have that edge whatsoever. My fear with AOC is similar to Obama when he was running in 0708 is she's got just she can she knows how to

play the media to a degree she knows how to get these rallies and I think it'd be a huge mistake to write her off is oh she's the little our little communist she's our little communist from New York people didn't take Obama all that seriously at the very start it was Hillary you know Hillary's going to roll and then he started getting massive rallies Trump the same way I'd be very careful what you wish for or if Republicans are like, let's hope she runs. But do you see her? Do you see her?

Obviously, you're referencing a potential run for president. I mean, do you see a world where she could win Georgia, which is probably necessary or South Carolina, which is probably necessary or North Carolina, which is probably necessary? Okay, she could maybe win New York. She could maybe win Vermont, New Hampshire. She might even be able to win Michigan or Illinois or California.

or California, but you need more than that to become a president. And saying things like it's time for us to pull up on the South, I just think she, I don't know, I think that if she were simply representing, the thing is, if they're going to go this way, if they're going to go the way of democratic socialism, I guess this is what I do believe. It's going to have to have a masculine face. It's going to have to be combined with a Piker type figure, a plighter. I don't see Elizabeth Warren being able to be that person. I don't see AOC being able to be that person.

I think it's going to have to be somebody that provides a muscular vision of democratic socialism. The Platner election, I think, will set the template for whether or not what you just laid out, that masculine socialist idea works. If he wins, and again, we don't know a lot of time left. We'll see what happens. If he wins, it essentially is you can have all the views of Bernie Sanders. but if you went to war and you talk abrasive and you're rough around the edges, you drive a pickup truck, that's good enough.

Like, that's a good enough cover outside politics to get your radical policies still elected. Because you need men. Right. I think at some point, the recognition is you need men. And people like AOC and I think James Tala Rico in Texas are going to have trouble getting men. and your path to wider office can't be built upon simply single young women. And so who are the men they're going to gravitate to democratic socialism? It's blue collar, middle America, factory workers.

I mean, it's in me, in my opinion, a large part of the coalition that switched from Obama to Trump, back to Biden, back to Trump. That's the group that can swing elections. We just watch it happen several different times, right? And again, the marine thing with Platinum. is fascinating to me because I think men 21 to 30, they don't care about his offensive Reddit post. I don't think they care at all. And they see, hey, he's a Marine.

He talks like I do. He swears like I do. He's got a pickup truck like I do. This guy's like me. I'm voting for him. And they might not have any idea what he believes past that. Right. I think that's right.

I think that's right. That's why I see, I'm not sure it will be him. like as a person. But I think that's the vision. That's the person they're going to have to find, the one that we just described. If this, if democratic socialism isn't simply a flash in the pan for, you know, 20 to 27-year-olds, if it is actually the direction of the left, they're going to have to find a better torchbearer. They're going to have to find someone. And I don't think it's probably even Gavin Newsom, even though he has a, I mean, I would offer Gavin Newsom does have.

some masculine imagery to him, but he's too slick, too polished, too politiciany, to quite honestly, establishment Democrat for him to be that guy. And so whoever that person is, to your point of Obama, we may not know who that person is yet. I'm not saying it's Platner, but I'm saying we may not know who that person is who should be looking at Platner going, I could be that vision of the left. a lot a lot to your point a lot of time left on the game clock if you will a lot of distance on the runway but i agree with your overall assessment that is probably the prototype they're going to need now then who do they run up against in the general election on the republican side that is a

whole different dynamic whole different calculus newsome people can smell a snake coming from a mile away i don't think he can convince people in my hometown in wisconsin i don't think you could find anybody who would like Gavin Newsom. I know people I grew up with who would probably like to drink a beer with Platner, without hesitation. Yeah, I think I could say the same thing. I don't think they'd like him. But if he were at the bar,

they might not move to the other end of the bar. Bingo. And Newsom would probably send him to the other end of the bar, you know, sitting over there drinking a white wine. All right, David Huckstead, Outkick. Check them out at YouTube as well. We're doing some great stuff as well. Thank you so much for hanging out with us today, David. Thanks for having me, Will. All right, David Hookstead at Outkick.com.

Okay, we appreciate you hanging out with us as well today. Make sure you follow us on Spotify. Apple. We'll be back here post Memorial Day every day for you at Will Cain Country. Follow us to Spotify or Apple. We'll see you again next time. Listen to ad free with a Fox News podcast. plus subscription on Apple Podcast, and Amazon Prime members. You can listen to this show, ad-free on the Amazon Music app.