What a Weekday: Other Than That, Mr. Trump, How Was the Rally?
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Hi, I'm Jesse Tyler Ferguson, host of the podcast Dinners on Me. I take some of my favorite people out to dinner, including, yes, my Modern Family co-stars like Ed O'Neill. I had friends in organized crime. Sofia Vergara. Julie Bowen. I used to be the crier. And Aubrey Anderson-Emmons. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts.

You know where I was when I found out about that assassination attempt? Din Tai Fung. Not Din Tai Fung. A crossbow range. A state sale? A state sale. Who? It was Jean Smart. I was in Jean Smart's house. Wow. Wow. A lot of designing women's stuff? No, but immediately found her Comic-Con panel label from her Fargo panel. And then immediately knew where I was. Love it or leave it. It's love it or leave it.

So when I spent a year working on a script about America falling into a civil war because of a contested presidential election between a Republican demagogue and a Hillary-like figure,

I read a ton of pre-World War II history just about Weimar Germany and like what happened in that era. And I read this book by Sir Richard Evans called The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power and the Third Reich at War. It's this trilogy that I believe people view as the replacement for the rise and fall that one from the 50s or 60s, whatever it is, because this one is, I think, willing to describe the complicity of everyday Germans. Yeah.

Anyway, I was reading a lot about Weimar Germany, actually not really because I was equating Republicans with the fascists of 1930s Germany, but because I was interested in

how you go down that path. There was a line in that book, I'm paraphrasing it, but it was something like, if you had asked Europeans which European country would soon attempt to exterminate every Jew in Europe, they would have been like, oh, France. Of course, it's going to be the French, not the Germans. That doesn't make any sense. It would be the French. But what he talks about in that book a lot is the ways in which fascists exploit violence to their own end.

and lie about it and how they take advantage of chaos. And so when I saw that there was a shooting, that was my first reaction, especially once we knew that Trump had survived it. Well, when I saw the shooting, my actual first reaction was, oh, he's more wounded than he seems. And we're about to hear that once they got him into the car, things were much worse. And I was genuinely shocked

relieved because of just how destructive... I know there's a kind of edgelord thing to joke about how pissed you are. It didn't work. Fine. I get the joke. But like

We are lucky we don't live in the world the day after Donald Trump was killed in an assassination. It would be an absolute catastrophe. We're lucky he only got martyred a teeny bit. Yeah, 100%. It would have been, it is the power vacuum it would have created. Who would have been able to rush in there? We'd be standing there flat footed because that's what we do, baby. You know, we would have been. Houses just running around looking for revenge. Yeah, it would have been just so horrible. After Trump had won, I saw that writer, historian, Richard Evans, talking about

why violence against fascists is such a sucker's game. And it's because you will lose. They will be more violent than you. You cannot out-violence the fascists. That is not the way to succeed. It sort of, to me, is like watching it's like, oh, he is now in a situation where he is surrounded by people that he has chosen. And those people are not people who have any investment in his physical and mental safety. Right.

So it's like, oh, you have it's like watching the moment was like this is you are alone. Like they would sacrifice you to to achieve the White House. If you know, like you, you become disposable as soon as you need to be for like in fascist mind. So it's like he is the emblem, but also they want another one. You know, like I'm sure they want J.D. Vance to be like the next Trump, like.

It's it's it's it's you can't beat a fascist at not caring because that is the one thing that they can always do. Like everyone is a disposal to them. But you got to laugh. Anyway, we're here for another edition of What a Weekday. I'm here with Sarah, Kendra and Hallie. And after a weekend that contained a lifetime of news. Thousand years. Some weekends, nothing happens. Some weekends, a decade happens.

to abuse a quote by, I want to say Lennon. I'm not sure. We're not going to fact check you. Anyway, let's get into it. What a weekday.

Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday with one attendee killed and two others critically injured when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop. This is, of course, nothing to joke about, which is why there are no jokes here. This is not a joking matter, and we will not joke about it. In fact, we couldn't even think of any jokes, and we didn't make them or share them privately. We're just going to sit here for 40 minutes.

Trump's right ear was grazed by a bullet he then ducked behind the podium as Secret Service agents surrounded him on stage. Trump could be heard saying this. Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes. Let me get my shoes. He wanted his shoes. You can't scare the diva out of this guy. The diva runs deep. And it left Donald wondering, in a city like this, is it easier to lose your shoes than your ex? So stupid. Was that your joke? Yeah. Yeah, it was. That's what I thought.

All right, all right, all right. I mean, speaking of diva, that wig stayed laid. It's on tight. Look, obviously, this is not a time for joking, but I do believe it is a latticework of real hair combined with some kind of a material. There's been some research into this. It's an 80s technology that he's kept with. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think that's right. We're looking at a technology that we've moved past, but he's still very much about. Yeah, if you look at it, there's a latticework. It's interlocking. It swoops.

It swoops back around and I think it's probably sprayed with just an incredible amount of hairspray, which is why when you see him at the golf course or when you see him in other settings, he has the hat down because the hat is just his way of not having to do it. The bullet just fully bounced off of it. Yeah, it is. It's like a World War I helmet.

As the Secret Service tried to hustle Trump to safety, he paused to pump his fist for the cameras. A lot of people saw that photo and said Trump just won the election, but not me. I saw that photo and said, ugh. Perfect. It's a cool photo. We've got to face it. The photo journalists were journaling. That is such a... The fact that we have this photo and that Doug Mills from the New York Times has the photo of the bullet...

Right after it hit his ear, but before Trump realizes is extraordinary. There was so much speculating and saying, actually, it was the teleprompter. Actually, it was this. And it's like, no, there it is.

Yeah. If you were the photojournalist who took this photo, but you're still you in every other respect, do you release this image to the world? Knowing you'll win many awards. I love a Pulitzer. That's an important question. Are we ourselves yet have had the career of a photojournalist to put us in this position? Yes, but you have all of your same feelings about the world. Yeah.

But and feelings and ethics and yet also the same kind of level of ambition. Yes. So that even though so it would be us as people who spent our careers in photojournalism leading to this moment of having this photo, wanting desperately for Donald Trump to be defeated by Democratic means at the same time, recognizing this is important and recognizing that even if the photo is in some way helpful for Trump, you also are, I do think, duty bound in

to share a moment like this. I also think we don't know what the photojournalist thinks about any of this. Like, this could be a celebratory photo. You know, like, there are plenty of people, I'm sure, who want Trump to win. And then this photo is... Yeah, but I think just to your question, would you release it? I think I would, but I think I'd

I'd never sleep again. I think I would too. I think you have to. Now you could hold it. You could hold it. Like do a Bob Woodward. Yeah. Actually, I took this a while back. Yeah. But that does feel unethical. Yeah. It does feel as though you're trying to say the world shouldn't have seen this. And in some sense, if you're a photojournalist who spent your life in photojournalism, it is because you believe the truth itself. And also it's like,

Why is it up to you what people see or don't see? Right, exactly. Also, how is it up to you as to how people are going to interpret this photo? That's also true. I think maybe you would try to say, you would look to say, look, this is one moment and you would release a whole series of photos. Yeah, you release one where he looks like shit. Just looks terrible. Besides, a single photo is not deciding this election. That's what 90 minute debates are for.

Election officials from both parties condemned the violence, but almost instantly before anything was known about this shooter or his motivations, Republicans were pointing the finger at President Biden and Democrats. And I'll admit it's heartening to imagine Joe Biden inspiring anyone at this point.

Georgia Congressman Mike Collins said on Twitter, the Republican district attorney in Butler County, Pennsylvania, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination. Well, the joke's on you, Mike. Joe Biden wasn't planning to spend much time in Pennsylvania anyway. Travels hard on the joints.

Ohio Senator and soon-to-be vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance said, today is not some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination. First of all, we have no idea the motivations of this shooter.

to say that it is directly responsible or even indirectly responsible is obviously ridiculous. But the central premise of the Biden campaign is not that Trump is a fascist. It's, anyway, it's truly a wake-up call. Now, perhaps Biden will fully appreciate the effect his fiery rhetoric has on 20-year-old Republican gun enthusiasts. Yeah, we're gonna get through it today.

That's what we're going to do. Well, it's not a belly laugh. We have some clever turns of phrase in there. Something to make you think. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who himself was injured in a shooting in 2017, said for weeks, Democratic leaders have been fueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump's winning reelection would be the end of democracy in America. Clearly, we've seen far left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric has to stop.

Hate to be the both sides guy here, but part of me wonders if Democrats would have an easier time with this advice if Trump were to stop promising to end democracy in America. Meanwhile, Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett blamed women being cops. Somebody really dropped the ball. You've got a DEI.

Basically, a person, a DEI initiative person who heads up our Secret Service, you know, she was working at Pepsi before this. This is what happens when you don't put the best players in. It's a complete failure on

on our part. I like that DEI person as just a euphemism for, I believe his name is woman. There's a lot of people under that umbrella now. Yeah. As if working for Pepsi doesn't mean constant vigilance, never knowing if another one of Coke's assassins is waiting for you behind the vending machine. Plus, every time you go to a restaurant, you have to order a Pepsi. And then when the person just says yes, you have to say, but wait, you have Coke products, right? Why didn't you ask me, is Coke all right? Yeah.

You know? It was a long walk, but we enjoyed going there. Because if you work for Pepsi, you have to order Pepsi. And then they don't do what they do when you order a Coke and they have Pepsi, which I think creates this kind of chip on their shoulder mentality for the Pepsi people. It doesn't mean you're good at protecting the president. I also do think if some 20-year-old dingus gets a couple shots off at the president of the United States from a roof and clear line of sight to where the president is speaking, you probably have to resign. Like, I don't know what we're doing here. It's a real fucking, it's a real clusterfuck. It's kind of like the one thing you do have to do. It's a bad day for women. Yeah.

But I say to all women, just leave. Don't be cops. Don't be Secret Service. Don't be in the Army. Just en masse, just leave. That's terrible. No, why? Like, oh, so weird. I'm not going to encourage a person to be a cop. I'm not going to encourage them to keep doing. Hey, just get out now. Women, we're out of there. Just get out of there. I'm reading this book, The Demon of Unrest.

Yes, you've brought up one million times. I know. We always know what you're reading. Well, yeah, okay. You're going to know what I'm reading. By the way, that's not all I'm reading. That's the one I'm talking about. No, tell us. That's fine. It always bugs me that one of the worst presidents in American history is James Buchanan, who was the president before Lincoln. And he was also nicknamed Anastasia.

Aunt Fancy, because he never married. He was engaged to a woman briefly, and then she broke off the engagement because he was always too busy with work. Uh-huh. But he had a long-term relationship with a man who he lived with.

And their nicknames were Aunt Fancy and Miss Nancy. That's what people would call them. So they called President Buchanan Aunt Fancy. And also President Buchanan, his dithering and trying to have it both ways into the run up up to the Civil War was obviously catastrophic. And it just kills me that like the one president we know with almost certainty was a gay person was the fucking worst. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

He just whiffed it. We gotta get a good gay guy in there. Yeah. Well, we could have had... We don't know. I mean, I wouldn't be... We don't know who wasn't. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I just... We had the one that we're pretty sure about really fucking sucked. I believe he was from Pennsylvania and was pro-slavery. It was just... He was like a... It happens. A Republican waving a Confederate flag from Michigan. Just like, oh, so...

You're disgusting. Yeah. And because he can't stand not being the center of attention, Elon Musk chose the aftermath of the shooting to endorse Trump and reveal that two people had attempted to assassinate him in the last eight months. I hate people who have to make every assassination attempt about themselves. We get it. You inspire deep loathing. He doesn't get to use the word assassinate. Yeah, I agree. Someone tried to shoot you.

We don't even know that. I just, the only limits to what a billionaire can do on planet Earth is the imagination. The world belongs to these people. He is one of the richest human beings to ever exist on our planet. He can go anywhere, do anything, talk to anyone, buy anything, build anything. And what he chose to do was to post anything.

Day in and day out in a way that reveals that so much of what drives him is the fact that he has a terrible personality and the money doesn't help. Isn't that amazing? It's the money can't fix it. He has a terrible personality. He's not funny. He's not charming. He seems quite lonely. And-

like so many other middle-aged men who have been dumped or been divorced or broken up with or isolated in some way, the pull of Trump is irresistible. And it is so crazy. It's like Trump needs... There is some sort of like daddy...

thing with Trump just because it's like Elon Musk you have 11 kids like there is no time where you cannot be getting both like the work of parenting is hard but also like what you get from children it's like do you think maybe like your life seems hollow because you keep having kids and then you are obviously not parenting them like what if you tried to have a human family it is cool that all he wants in this world is to be funny and he can't be you can't buy it and we got it for free baby we got it all

Now I bought mine. What? I bought mine. And by the way, you'd also sell it. And you can tell it's not expensive. But you'd also sell it. In a heartbeat. Technically you are. Every day. That's true. Oh yeah. Huh. Look at that. I don't like thinking about it that way. No, we're just your dear friends who hang out. We're friends. This is just a funny group of friends hanging out. This is just a funny group of friends hanging out.

Yeah, that's the ticket. Law enforcement officials have not yet determined the motive of the shooter or linked him to any particular ideology, but they believe he acted alone. I think we can go ahead and assume that last one. These guys don't tend to be social butterflies, historically speaking. We do know that the shooter's AR-15 style rifle was legally purchased by his father. It's interesting that we're not talking about gun control at all in the wake of this.

not even bothering with the pro forma conversation. Guns are the broken step in America's staircase that we've been meaning to fix for years, but we never seem to get around to it. And we've stepped around it so many times that we don't even see it anymore. Even our wife has given up nagging us about it. And one day it'll kill us, but probably not today. And right now we just need to get to the kitchen.

Also, for some reason, someone in our house loves broken stairs and thinks it's awesome and thinks fixing the stairs is an attack on their freedom. Our founding fathers broke that stair. We got to keep it. That's right.

Trump, for his part, a couple hours after the assassination attempt, said,

God bless America. As would happen to any of us, it's clear Trump's encounter with his own mortality has made him more introspective than usual. The man came back from the edge of the abyss, bringing with him the inside, whoa, that's crazy. And I do think that's pretty relatable. Biden addressed the country briefly on Saturday night, saying that I'm sincerely grateful Trump is doing well and recovering. We had a short but good conversation.

This is how we end the male epidemic of loneliness. Fellas, just take a few minutes this evening and call up the worst person you know. Imagine that short but good conversation. Just so uncomfortable. Both of them. Hey, imagine Biden looking at Jill going, Trump looking at no one. In a Sunday night Oval Office address, Biden called on America to lower the temperature in our politics.

The temperature in our politics should be room temperature, said Biden, which for me is now ideally 78 degrees. He likes it warm. About Trump's supposed spiritual awakening, Tucker Carlson told Axios, I think it's real. Getting shot in the face changes a man, which brings us to the central question at the heart of all of this.

Is the ear a part of the face? Do you consider the ear face? That was my question. I mean, it is important to the face. It's central to the face, but you never said, oh, I got something on my face if it's on your ear. If it is the face, it's the furthest back point of the face. I think it's the border. I think it's head. I mean, it's for sure head. But I think that's what I would say. I would not say face. Your ears are on your face. But it's...

it's a negotiable. They frame the face. Yeah. They frame the face. They're attached to the face. But you would never say to someone, oh, there's something on your face and it's your ear. Yeah. And then you'd be like, well, actually, and then you never speak to them again. Right. Well, we figured it out. It's,

It's the head. Yeah. Tucker Carlson knows what he's doing. He knows how it sounds. Even head's wrong because if he said, I got shot in the head, it's like on your ear. You got shot on the head. Right. Well, right. You're using the words. I mean, I think because saying shot on the head implies a level of horror that this wound doesn't

So it's inaccurate because of how we would use the language, but not because it's inaccurate in some technical, logical way, which doesn't matter. So Trump wants unity, but what does unity actually mean to Donald Trump? It means that all remaining charges against him should be dropped in the interest of uniting the nation. Hey, so I had this spiritual awakening and realized God wants me to avoid accountability for my crimes. Just FYI, that's what God wants.

Except to you if you want to listen, but that's what God wants. And by the way, I hate to say it, I'm starting to agree. The man is on an unending fucking luck streak. He's the luckiest man in the world. It does stand to reason. I'm just saying I don't believe in God. I'm like, well, if I did, boy, the evidence is there.

Either that or God's looking at us and being like, I'm turning up the difficulty. I want this to be harder than you expected. How hard can I make it? We're in nightmare mode now. Politics has reached nightmare mode. It is also amazing that Trump went through a huge transformative near-death moment and comes out exactly the same person. Trump is a hostess Twinkie. It's going to taste exactly the same no matter where it's been, and you're going to regret eating it immediately. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

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There are those fire watch sites that are very, very high up that are even too high for helicopters. And so sometimes they have to use pack mules to get up to those fire watch sites. Something to think about if you really want to get away from politics.

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The attempted assassination was a nightmare for a number of reasons, not least among them that it derailed Democrats' efforts to replace Biden as the nominee, at least for a moment. A senior House Democrat told journalists that it would be bad form to make any statements against President Biden in the wake of the shooting, which makes no sense at all. Someone brought a gun to a Trump rally, so now Democrats can't fight for a better candidate to run against him. Why are we letting one Pennsylvania maniac decide our nominee? This is America. Every maniac in Pennsylvania gets a say.

Uh, that a member of Congress also suggested that the conversation was likely to stay dead saying we've all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency.

presidency. Well, that must have been a huge relief, shrugging off the immense weight of maybe at some point doing something. I will say that is one member of Congress and that quote was designed to make everybody furious and it succeeded. I mean, it was a member of Congress. I trust Axios when they say that a member of Congress said that. I don't know. It was like it was made in a lab to cause a backlash and put

put more attention on what it seemed that person was trying to avoid, or maybe not. I don't know. Nancy Pelosi playing three-dimensional chess? Honestly, if anyone could. Don't put it past her. Yeah. Don't put it past her. AOC, who has herself been riding with Biden, pushed back on that comment saying, if you're a senior Democrat that feels this way, you should absolutely retire and make space for true leadership that refuses to resign themselves to fascism.

So she does know how to tell people to retire. In more hopeful news, Politico reported that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi convinced Biden will lose has been working the phone since June 27th in hopes of finding a way to ease him off the ticket. Our best hope of getting an 81-year-old man off the ticket is an 84-year-old woman. And at some point, we should have a conversation about why we are ruled by octogenarians. But right now, we're riding with Nancy.

Nancy's got this. It's unbelievable. Grandma's and grandpa's all the way down. What a society. On Tuesday, the effort to replace Biden by members of Congress was back with lawmakers rejecting the push for a virtual roll call ahead of the convention, possibly as early as July 21st, which would lock Biden in as the candidate. Said the letter, this isn't even about Biden. We just can't face another Zoom call. Said the letter, this isn't even about Biden. Do you know how difficult it is to get 2,000 baby boomer Democratic delegates to go on mute at the same time?

Said the letter, as Democratic members of Congress, we represent the spectrum of views on this question. Some of us have called on President Biden to step aside. Others have urged him to stay in the race and still others have deep concerns about the status of the president's campaign, but have yet to take a position on what should happen. Or as we call that last group, little bitches.

Continue the letter. All of us, however, agree that stifling debate and prematurely shutting down any possible change in the Democratic ticket through an unnecessary and unprecedented virtual roll call in the days ahead is a terrible idea. And while we do know that terrible ideas are sort of our thing, our signature move, we're hoping for a bit of a rebrand. The letter warns that a virtual roll call could deeply undermine the morale and unity of Democrats from delegates, volunteers, grassroots organizers and donors to ordinary voters at the worst possible time.

Yes, yes. Our beautiful morale. Our perfect, wonderful morale. We must protect all of this morale we've been saving up. What if they damage our morale? I can't imagine a more dispiriting event than a Democratic convention in which Joe Biden has been the nominee for weeks. Because then also he has to talk. And then there's that.

Anyway, a new YouGov poll found Trump to be leading Biden in several swing states. We just can't ignore. Look, I think by today, the idea that we weren't going to have this discussion, I think, was pretty well at an end, which it should be, because we can't ignore Biden's challenges as a candidate just because Trump got shot at. You know what they say? Letting an assassination set the agenda makes an ass out of assination. Sarah Lazarus, everybody. Sarah Lazarus.

We did it, Joe. We did it, Joe. Of course, Biden, for his part, is out there on the hustings, making his case, pressing the flesh, dealing with the wounds on his skin from too firmly having his flesh pressed, and making his case directly to the American people. I've heard that you've never had a drink in your life. Is this true? That's true. I may be Irish, but...

The only Irish I've ever met that's never had a drink. Ever. Well, this is straight vodka here for us, so we can just get comfortable. Well, that's why I brought along tea. No, I'm just playing. I'm just playing. I believe I will have a drink. All right. Well, so starting off, I would say not so bad, but let's see if we'll need a drink after what comes next. When asked why he thought if Trump seemed to have support among hip hop artists, Biden pivoted to his own support among black voters and then...

trailed off. Every election that I ran, whether it was an on-year or off-year, I got over 90% of the black vote and the number of folks participating didn't slow down because it didn't reduce. So look, I, you know, Trump... Why shouldn't you? Let's say it's not someone who's lost their train of thought using a little cover, you know, a little, there's a word for a little trick to get out of

uh, revealing that they're not sure what to say next. Let's say it's not that. Why wouldn't you go on? You're at this interview to make the case against Donald Trump. You just spent a few minutes rambling about your own positives and defensively, uh, crediting your achievements and support them in the black community. Why not actually do the contrast? The whole point of this is do the contrast. Did a great job doing the contrast in, uh, Michigan over the weekend. The

The whole point of doing these interviews is to make that case. And instead it's, I'm the guy, I'm the guy, I'm the guy. I did this, I did that. It's about the past and it's not about the contrast over and over again. Even if he was fully intelligible, you know, it's like either he's hard to follow or he's making perfect sense being defensive and patronizing. That's our options right now. This got buried by Saturday, but Biden was in Michigan at some like diner or small event and told voters, I promise you I'm okay. Oh, I mean, nice to hear. It's just,

Just what a case to have to make. Well, just any situation where someone has to say that, it's like, well, I just feel like perhaps you're alluding to the fact that that's... There's an underlying issue here.

Well, just if you have to say it. If you have to say it. You have to say it because they don't want to think about whether or not the president's okay. No, it's terrifying. That's not what we're supposed to have to think about. Yeah. And that is what is on people's minds. And that is what he's been unable to get the conversation to move off of. A, because of how he comes across in these interviews. And B, because he's not able to pivot. He is not able to take a question.

The basics of politics. Candidate X, a lot of people are worried about your liabilities. Look, I've talked a lot about my view on my liabilities, but what I want to say is the importance of what we're trying to do on here are my positives. There's just the basics that he's not able to do. After being asked about his support for Israel, Biden said this. By the way,

I'm the guy that did more for the Palestinian community than anybody. I'm the guy that opened up all the assets. This was in an answer about Israel that even if you put aside the ways in which it was hard to follow and a bit confusing, and you just sort of took the way he was making the argument and made the most direct version of it,

It was not a persuasive or helpful case to make. It wasn't a contrast with what Republicans offer. It wasn't an argument that seemed to reflect the concerns of the people that you would hope be trying to reach through a conversation like this. It was just a kind of blizzard of words about what Zionism means, why he's a Zionist, defensiveness about politics,

His record, no real argument or case about what's happening or why what Trump would do is worth just a kind of flurry of argumentativeness that I like all that comes out of it.

If you're somebody who manages to see clips from this interview and you are deeply anti-Trump, but also deeply frustrated by Joe Biden's Israel policy and fears about his age, this interview is the opposite of helpful. And he's either trying to tackle the question of I'm okay, which he's not successfully doing. And then even when that is not the question,

He is not successfully persuading or campaigning. He's not delivering a message. He is in the speech. He did a great speech in Michigan. He can do it. He can do it on a teleprompter. He can do it at big events. But these interviews were meant to be part of the campaign, and they're just...

Unhelpful, I don't know what else say they're terrible then let's see what happened when he talked to Lester Holt you called your opponent an existential threat On a call a week ago. You said it's time to put Trump in the bullseye There's some dispute about the context, but I think you appreciate I didn't say crosshairs. I was talking about focus on yeah, the term is bullseye was a mistake to use or I didn't mean I didn't say crosshairs I've been bulls. I meant focus on him focus on what he's doing. I

focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate. I mean, there's a whole range of things. Look, I'm not the guy that said, I want to be a dictator on day one. I'm not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election.

Nobody said crosshairs. You never say crosshairs. Why bring crosshairs into it? Why are you playing on hard mode? You're losing on easy. And Lester Holt tries to help him and he comes back to crosshairs. And then this answer is defensive. The whole answer is defensive. Every question is turned into a gotcha question. This is not a hard question. I understand why Lester Holt was asking this question. I don't think it's an unreasonable question to ask. I think there's an argument that it's an unfair question or at least an obtuse question that

starts with the premise of there is rhetoric that is bad rather than what we're actually living under, which is a vastly more responsible, democratic, progressive movement of people who care about norms and institutions and inquiry and honesty and all the rest. And you have a kind of hostile, anti-democratic, often directly but

but more often indirectly promoting not violence than draconian and kind of Manichaean stakes. So yeah, the question is in some sense unfair. But that should have been the answer. But that should have been, sure. Joe Biden's been in politics a long time. He has political instincts. I'm not gonna call those instincts wrong. Maybe what he should do in that moment is say, hey, Lester, if people found the term bullseye inappropriate,

I respect that. And maybe even that was too much. Obviously, everyone knew what I meant. I won't use a term like that again, because I really care about making sure that we respect our opposition. That's why I work with Republicans. That's why I did these bipartisan bills. That's why I consider Republicans my friends. That's why I've been working in bipartisan way for the last 50 years.

But my opponent is the one that made fun of Nancy Pelosi when her husband was attacked. That my opponent is the one that made fun of a kidnapping. My opponent is the one that incited an erection, erection? My opponent is the one that incited an insurrection on January 6th. My opponent is the one that is using language that vilifies immigrants, that refers to them in dehumanizing way. My opponent is the one that has fanned the flames of hate and division in this country. That's why I'm running. That's what I'm trying to fight. And what I just did

is politics. Like, this was not some amazing fucking sentence. I haven't written a speech in 10 years. It's not that hard. There is, it's just a reticence for him to accept on any level that he might be the problem. Yeah. And it's like, that's what it comes down to. It's like, if there's, the door could open if a crack of light could get in and be like, oh, you know what, maybe I'm the problem. Then he would be allowed to have that conversation. Clearly he, that is the unacceptable thing to even ponder is that what if I am the problem?

From this conversation and the conversation that he had with Speedy, it really feels like he expects the media to be doing the job of articulating the parts about Donald Trump that he, for some reason, is unable to do. I actually don't believe he's able to do that anymore without a teleprompter. Everyone who's talking to him, again, I don't presume to know their politics, but want this to go well. It's like, want this to be a functional process and

And to have him be hostile in even this situation, which I agree is very like the most welcoming version of this, the easiest version of this and have him become defensive and hostile. You're sitting down with complex. It's not hard. It's complex. Yeah. I'm the guy that did this. I'm the guy that did that. Like that. It's very Trump. It's it's it. And it's just bad politics. It's just it's not effective. None of this is effective.

No one will move on from the age question without Joe Biden's permission is basically the situation. Yeah, you were saying yesterday that the best we can hope for from Biden is that he won't do more damage, but we need a candidate who can do more than that. Yes. Make an active case. Right. Look, he got through it.

Even, even the Oval Office address. And by the way, like Joe Biden has great speechwriters around him. I know Joe Biden's speech. They're great. They're very good. They know, they know what to do. Like he has their, the people around Biden are very talented people. I don't put this on them at all. I do not envy their position. I feel guilty about how antagonistic I am towards a Democrat when I know that how important it is that we elect a Democrat. This

This is on Joe Biden because nobody wants to put Joe Biden out there and have these interviews over and over and over again. I don't know what it's like when Joe Biden finishes recording with Speedy and walks off. What is it like? Who's watching him being like, all right, OK, landed the plane. But I do think it's human. I don't think it's political. I think it's human. I think it's psychological. And he's proud. This is the job he's been interviewing for for 50 years. He finally has it.

I think he genuinely believes that he is good at it and has achieved a lot, probably cannot see or will not see his own limitations or has convinced himself that even with those limitations, it is his job to get us to a victory and then we'll figure it out, whatever he's telling himself. There are people that are very close to Joe Biden, but a lot of people are just at work and Joe Biden's their boss. Right, yeah. You know, you can, you know, like, that's hard.

I think we should emphasize like he has done a good job. He has been good at it. But then when he puts out policies like the thing that he said to announce today about the rent control and like Nate capping at Nationwide at 5%, I want to be excited about that. That would change a lot of things in like my life and several other people's lives that I know. But I can't be excited about it because I don't trust the fact that he's going to be able to communicate what that means or get elected to pass it.

Well, yeah, I think that's yeah. It's like, yes, that's great. We think that's going to happen. I agree. And like, I do think there's a missing actually with J.D. Vance, who said this in his interview with Sean Hannity, which is whether or not it's Biden, what's coming next are Biden's policies. And I actually think that's a feature here. Like I you know, we should take Joe Biden at his word when he says, why are you running? Well, I want to finish the job. And and if that view is.

My unique set of skills and life experience put me in a position to achieve these international aims of a stronger NATO and domestically put me in a position to both use executive power in a way that was progressive and further reaching than previous Democrats and to pass legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, which was the boldest,

economic and environmental legislation in global history, while at the same time being able to pass bipartisan bills because of my relationships and my reputation as a bipartisan institutional figure. If your view is those things are unique to Joe Biden, I understand why you would say I must finish the job. And I think it is incumbent upon all of us to say that project continues regardless. Like the next term is a continuation of the work.

Joe Biden's administration is a continuation of the Obama administration. It is. And the next Democratic president will be

God willing, be building on the success of the Biden administration. They will continue that approach. There's no grand new shit. Like this is actually what he did, bringing Bernie and Elizabeth Warren in, bringing progressives in, building the relationships with progressives that have led to them standing behind him and them meeting with him to try to save his candidacy. Like the agenda he is putting forward, like that is a reshaped Democratic Party that reflects the outcome of the 2020 primary and the way Joe Biden represents

won the nomination despite objections from the left and pundits and doubts about his ability to win while at the same time bringing the whole party together from Joe Manchin to AOC. Like that's an incredible achievement that outlives his administration. And I do think like he says he doesn't care about his legacy and we should believe him on that. But if he does care about continuing the work,

Whether it's him or someone else, the job will be finished if we win. We just don't know that you can win. And so far, you're not making us feel very much better about it. As Biden was speaking to Lester Holt, the first night of the Republican convention in Milwaukee was underway and Trump attended the convention after announcing his pick for vice president

Okay.

Well, the good news is the next January 6th won't involve a violent mob. The bad news is it's because the mob will have been appeased, I guess, by winning. The mob is inside the house. Are we going to have to be the mob? We're the mob at that point, I suppose. Are we going to have to mob? No, we're not going to mob. We'd be such a bad mob. We're not going to mob. Our joints are so weak. We'll all be mobbing in our homes by online shopping and...

Oh, yeah. You want to tell them what you're shopping? Oh, that I woke up in the middle of the night and did two hours of online shopping from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m.? Listen, I've been on Japanese eBay. I get you. Oh. Yeah. I've been on regular eBay. What else are we going to do? What else are we going to do? Yeah. But AOC posted this question. Does anybody else remember that J.D. Vance Daylight Savings Tweet, which led people to discover this? I don't know.

As a parent of young children and a nationalist who worries about America's low fertility, I can say with confidence that daylight savings time reduces fertility by at least 10%. I'm glad that this was flagged. I have no idea. I mean, obviously, in some way, having young children and daylight saving time is reducing the amount of sex he's able to have.

Well, I think it's interesting because that's what I take it to, but then to conflate fertility with sex. But I suppose that is what he thinks. Like, that is their understanding of sex. It's like, well, we have less sex, so my wife won't get pregnant as much. It's like, well, most people, sex isn't one-to-one an experiment of your own fertility. You know what I mean? Like, for most people, it's like... I have a different interpretation. I think he's saying that it sucks to have young kids when the time changes because their bedtime gets fucked up and that experience is so unpleasant that people have fewer kids. Oh! Oh!

Oh. But he already has the kids. The word he wants isn't fertility. The word that he wants is like something shorter of birth rate. To be clear, terrible tweet. And he's not smart. So he's saying daylight saving time makes an argument against having children because they wake up too early because of the time change. So less people then want to have more children. Okay, okay.

So it's not a joke per se. But it took, this is like the 10th time I've read this tweet in the last two days and it just occurred to me that that's what this means. But this is like, it does feel like a Rosetta Stone for his belief system where it's like, what a long walk to. This was November 1st, so it would have hit this, he's talking fall back. So yeah. And it was during the pandemic, so.

We were all home kids. And again, I just don't like someone to describe themselves as a nationalist and then worry about a country's fertility. I think that's always a bad sign. Yeah. They're really on it. There was a lot of fertility talk at the convention last time. Not great. I forget what the group's name is, but the group that Elon Musk has shown a lot of interest in with the high birth rate group, they're having their first convention this year. Great. That's good. Anyway, lest you think nothing cool or good ever happens anymore, here's Senator Mitch McConnell being booed at the Republican National Convention.

Madam Chairman, Madam Chairman, the Commonwealth of Kentucky proudly cast 46 votes for the next president, Donald J. Trump. He did unite the country.

And finally, in New York, drones monitoring the shoreline for sharks and imperiled swimmers keep getting attacked by flocks of pissed off territorial seagulls. It's the new viral marketing campaign for Universal's upcoming reboot, The Birds 2. This time, it's birdsonal. Woo! Tally, tally, tally. Tally.

Howie, Howie. Hey, everybody, before we go, we have a bunch of shows coming up in Los Angeles. We just put out 13 new dates. So come see me every Thursday so we can laugh and most likely cry together about the news. If you're visiting LA, if you're in LA, if you want a reason to come to LA, come see the show live and in person. I'll also be in Madison.

We'll also be in Madison this Saturday, July 20th at the Barrymore Theater with special guests Victoria Vincent, Thomas Lennon, former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, and State Representative Francesca Hong. To grab tickets, head to crooked.com slash events. And that's our show. Thank you to Sarah. Thank you to Kendra. Thank you to Hallie. We are recording a live show after the Republican Convention in Madison on Saturday night. So love it or leave it. We'll be out on Sunday this week. So I guess I'll see you sluts on Sunday.

And you know what? I'm sorry, but we're going to have to leave you with this. What happens if you have another episode like we saw during the debate? What happens if I have another?

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