5/28/25: Leaked Kamala Speech, Jordan Peterson Vs Atheists, Trump Wild Pardon Spree, Elon Turns On Trump Budget
01:08:19 Share

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, this is Jenny Garth from I Do Part Two. Ozempic and a pill. It's oral semaglutide and is now available from Future Health. Go to futurehealth.com to get affordable access to oral semaglutide, Ozempic, and Zepbound for only $3 a day. No insurance needed. Visit futurehealth.com, future without the E, to start losing this week. Future Health Weight Loss.

Data based on independent study sponsored by Future Health. Future Health is not a healthcare services provider. Meds are prescribed at provider's discretion. It is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to ChumbaCasino.com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumba Casino has over 100 online casino style games all online.

absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now at ChumbaCasino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply.

Wouldn't it be great if for every customer call you missed, you were given a second chance to make that connection? With Ruby, you don't have to hope for a second chance. Ruby is the remote receptionist company who screens, transfers, and takes messages 24-7, all while making your customers feel special. We do everything an in-house receptionist does, only better. See why thousands of businesses trust us to enhance their customers' experiences. Never miss a customer call again. Visit ruby.com, or better yet, call us at 844-922-8000.

900 R-U-B-Y. Hey guys, Sagar and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else. So if that is something that's important to you, please go to BreakingPoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our

full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at BreakingPoints.com.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris was down in Australia for what else? Ryan and I wanted to be there. We couldn't make it. The Australian Real Estate Conference 2025, where she delivered remarks, presumably for a fat speaking fee, and actually started weighing in on some of what's happened over the course of the last year or so. Let's roll this first clip. Leaked video.

of former Vice President Kamala Harris. Right now, currently, we should add one of the frontrunners for the 2028 election if you look at polling and a potential candidate still for California government. Can you imagine how much liquor they go through at the Australian Real Estate Conference? Sounds amazing. We really should have been there next year, 2026. We're going to go ahead and take a look at the clip. I do worry, frankly, about what's happening right now in our world. I do worry that it is important to

that we remember history. It's important we remember the 1930s. It's important that we remember that history has taught us that isolation does not equal insulation. It is important that we understand and remember history which taught us the interdependence and interconnection between nations. History that has taught us the importance of relationships of trust, the importance of friendships,

integrity, honesty. As I said, I think your best work is ahead of you for sure, 100%. I am unemployed right now. LAUGHTER You know I must make trees? LAUGHTER

Okay. So what you heard her just say there, other than the importance of friendships, which we can all agree on. Yeah. Evergreen sentiments is a comparison to the 1930s, but not in the context of rising fascism and authoritarianism domestically, but isolation, which is a criticism of Donald Trump's foreign policy, obviously, through tariffs and other efforts on the world stage, which I don't think

you can really call isolationism, but that's what the sort of neoliberal community sees these moves as, I suppose. Well, in her defense, there is an interesting parallel, and there's a book out now-ish about this, making parallels between the kind of post-

World War I or leading into World War I period and now, which is that the 1880s and up through up until World War I were this first period of

of the, you know, which, you know. Yeah. Like internationalism becomes a real thing. You also have the international working people's, you know, movement, the communists, you know, it's international. Like they call it, they saw themselves as bringing the working classes of the world together. It's the predicate of the entire Cold War, Red Scare. Yeah. And then World War I happens and...

The rise of nationalism that was a reaction to globalism and globalization in the 1900s and 10s creates World War I and then produces this intense retreat away from globalization into the post-World War I period where everyone is kind of retrenching and isolationism becomes the dominant ethos.

Which then produces like even hyper-nationalism and then we get World War II out of it. The book argues that what the proponents of liberal globalization the first time around didn't understand is that it was actually making things worse. It was making things better if you lived in London and you were in the top 5 to 10%. There was some famous quote, you could...

order something, you know, you could order anything you wanted from around the world and have it by the end of the day in like 1910 or in London or something. But that was you. Like that was not 90 plus percent of people from England. And it particularly was devastating for people around the world. And so she's right that there is this interesting

parallel going on in that isolationism can lead to cataclysmic world war. It's a paradox. Well, how could that possibly be? Do you think that's what she meant, though?

Because I see it as more... I think she's just throwing out platitudes. Well, she's definitely doing that. Yeah. But I think it's also because her worldview is shaped by the post-Cold War Fukuyama internationalism, which is very different from... She also very much wants the U.S. to continue to be the global cup. Exactly. There was a moment on Charlemagne where he's like...

The first caller was like, why are we spending all this money on these wars? Yeah. And she's like, because, you know...

you know, if we retreat, we're not safe. And like, so she really like makes this argument that the U.S. has to be a global superpower or else our national security suffers. And nobody buys that. Well, it's interesting because I think also Trump does buy, like Trump has the same general perspective. He has a different way of getting from point A to point B, but he would also say that America's empire, America's prosperity depends on its empire. He just

would say he wants it to be a more logical empire. I mean, that's the Greenland, Panama approach, Taiwan approach to all of this. He thinks it should be a more, like, a more, like, logical, efficient empire than a sort of sprawling USAID empire. So what Tucker Carlson refers to as gay race communism. That's the, that's the...

What's he called? Gay race communism. Gay race communism, which should be a bumper sticker that you have on your van, by the way. Would I be for it or against it? You're very for it. Okay. Race. I'm not even trying to make sense.

But I mean, you'd be for it and against it, I suppose. But that's what they would say, right, that it's not about the sprawling like USAID, pro-China integration with our adversaries and all of that.

So it's in the same way, in a way, it's the same thing, but it's a different approach to it. And I think Kamala Harris situating herself in this way as, I mean, polling again, it doesn't, it's not a surprise that because of name recognition, she's at the top of polls when you look at 2028 presidential candidates. I think it's, it's,

She's definitely not running away from it. There was a quote in The Times recently of Kamala Harris saying she's staying in the fight, I think is the paraphrased version of what she said. So she may be speaking at the Australian Real Estate Conference 2025, but she is very much still fighting.

involved in American politics. She could run for California governor. California is one of the largest economies in the world, just as a state alone. It's one of the, I think it's like top 10. Yeah, it's huge. So she's not going anywhere, that's for sure.

And we may end up using what we're about to talk about as the headline for this segment if we do. Apologies for making you sit through the Australian Real Estate Convention. But in more Kamala Harris news, in the Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson book, Original Sin, there's this anecdote that says that she was quite angry at Anderson Cooper for pushing her.

so aggressively on why is Joe Biden having a medical episode in front of the entire country during this debate and not letting the kind of scripted line that she had come up with just sit and then move on. And so Harris told her colleagues, quote, this mother grabber doesn't treat me like the dang vice president of the United States, she said to colleagues. So in the book,

The longer episode is kind of where we'll play the Anderson Cooper clip in a second I remember we covered it at the time. Yeah quite something So it goes through her watching the debate with her her her staff and She's like, you know, how are people responding and they're like boss people are calling for him to drop out like he's literally dying up on stage and

And the Biden campaign reaches out to her and says, why don't you go ahead and cancel all these media hits that you have tomorrow? Because I don't really see, we don't really see what the upside is in you going on and talking about this. And she said, no, absolutely not. I'm going for it.

So then they sit down and they debate how they're going to respond, what talking points can they come up with to respond to this medical episode that the entire country just witnessed. And they talk so long, they miss CBS this morning because they just talk right through it. They miss another one. And then...

They go on Anderson Cooper and they had come up with the line, well, just, you'll see the talking points. Let's roll this Anderson Cooper back and forth. - He was a very different person on the stage four years ago when you debated him. You must, I mean, that's certainly true, is it not? - Anderson, the point is,

The point has to be performance in terms of what a president does. A president who incites an insurrection against the Capitol. But I got the point that you're making about a one and a half hour debate tonight. I'm talking about three and a half years of performance in work that has been historic. But is that the man who we saw on the stage tonight? Is that the person you see in meetings every day? Anderson. Anderson. Oh.

According to the book, the Biden staff loved that line. And that wasn't part of the talking point, but this line she came up with. You're talking about an hour and a half debate. I'm talking about three and a half years of genius delivering for the American people. The Biden campaign loved that. All of it was pointless. There are not words that you can put together.

To make people unsee what they saw. But this is a problem that Kamala Harris never will ever, ever, ever run away from. And it's one that the book identifies. The book shows that she identified immediately. It's obvious that she's locked into this position where, as she says in the book, what do I do if I distance? What do I look like if I distance myself from Joe Biden? I look disloyal.

And she's not wrong. I mean, you'd look like... And if you don't, you look like an enabling moron. Yeah, and she will never get away from this. I mean, there's no way. This is the defining... I mean, she was the vice president. It's not like she was the green job czar. She was the vice president of the United States and was regularly... That clip you just saw was literally right after the debate, but she has three and a half years of defending him. So that's how most people remember her.

She was a senator before. So people's memory of Kamala Harris prominently is as Joe Biden's vice president. And I just think it's a permanent stain that she's never really going to be able to shake. Yeah. And they Democrats deliberately nominated the person who was in precisely the worst position to talk about the thing that people were most concerned about at that moment, which was this lie that they all told about

whether or not Biden was there or not. Yeah. Like if they depict anybody else, Shapiro, Whitmer, Newsom, literally any other human being other than the vice president, they would have more distance from Biden and more ability to say, I was just as shocked as you were when I saw that. And I am angry about the cover up. You can't have the vice president because the vice president would have to admit that they weren't actually in the meetings and paying any attention in order to

Yeah, it's interesting because that shows... It's that Johnny Cash song. Which one? I mean, I don't think he wrote the song, but it's the one where the only way that the guy could get off of the Capitol Punisher getting hanged is to admit that he was in the arms of his best friend's wife. Because his alibi was, to him, worse than just getting hanged for a murder he didn't commit. Yes. It's interesting because it shows Kamala Harris being...

sort of undermined by the things that made her vice president, which is that she's, she was a black woman, which is why they kept her on the ticket instead of going for another vice presidential candidate because they didn't want to look. And you see this come out at some points in the book too. It looks horrible if you pass up the opportunity to have the first black woman president. And then you're like, nope, we are going with

we're going to run Josh Shapiro as vice president or we're going to then have this little mini primary skip over her. So then she gets put in this position because she was seen as the necessary heir apparent. And I mean, any sitting vice president would have been in that position, but I think they were especially wary of having a mini primary because it would look like they didn't have faith in this pick. So it's just like she was...

She was in an awful position that I don't think she's ever going to recover from. Now, granted, she could still win different elections if they're in a lesser of two evil situation where there's a horrible Republican candidate. In California, that's obviously not—wouldn't surprise anybody. But—

So it's possible she continues to climb the ladder, but whether she's actually able, her national reputation is ever able to recover and she's actually going to be seen as a real leader in the Democratic Party again, I think is unlikely because this is everyone's memory of her. And I just don't know how you recover from that without changing completely a total transformation of Kamala Harris. And that also seems very unlikely. She's got time. The song was written by Danny Dill and Mary John Wilkin.

Originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell. Lefty Frizzell! The Long Black Veil. Oh, Long Black Veil, yes, yes. You can probably play that, right? Oh, absolutely, yes, and have. Beautiful song. Beautiful American song, too. All right, up next, Jordan Peterson getting dog-walked by a bunch of college kids.

Hey, this is Jenny Garth from I Do Part Two. Ozempic and a pill? It's oral semaglutide and is now available from Future Health. Go to futurehealth.com to get affordable access to oral semaglutide, Ozempic, and Zetbound for only $3 a day. No insurance needed. Visit futurehealth.com, future without the E, to start losing this week. Future Health Weight Law.

Are you struggling to find an effective mental health medication? Meet the GeneSight test.

Whether it's medication for anxiety, depression, or ADHD, the GeneSight test is a genetic test that analyzes how your DNA may affect medication outcomes. Along with a full medical evaluation, test results can inform your provider with valuable insights to help guide treatment. Your unique genetic blueprint may also lead to significant savings on medications, a

According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Current Medical Research and Opinion, patients who received GeneSight testing saved on total annual medication costs, took their medicine more regularly, and were on fewer medications by the end of the study compared to those who received regular treatment. Ask your provider about the GeneSight test today and move forward on your journey to mental wellness. Or visit genesight.com for more information.

Again, genesight.com for more information and to move forward on your journey to mental wellness. Unlock smarter learning with Lenovo AI-powered PCs powered by Intel Core Ultra processors. Head to lenovo.com and choose from multiple devices to fit your passions.

If you're a gamer, you can spend less time stressing about GPUs and CPUs and more time dominating with your AI-enabled smart engine, which optimizes your game performance in real time. Or maybe you're a scientist on the verge of a groundbreaking discovery and need a device with a longer battery life and AI-enhanced tools to give you extra time to finish your research.

or you're a musician preparing for your biggest break and need better, faster AI tools to make digital art a breeze, like creating band posters and t-shirt designs. Or you're a soon-to-be graduate needing to catch a recruiter's eye to land that dream job. So you need

cutting-edge smart tools to build your portfolio from scratch. That's the power of Lenovo with Intel inside. Plus, college students and teachers get 5% off with an education account on Lenovo.com. A better future is waiting, and it needs you.

Well, Jordan Peterson made a splashy appearance on The Jubilee Show, and boy, do we have a couple of clips. It did not go well. Basically, nobody thinks it went well for Jordan Peterson. That includes corners of the right that typically defend Jordan Peterson, who is controversial on the right. We'll get into all of that because this confirms a lot of the criticisms of Jordan Peterson. This was a debate that was originally billed as one Christian versus 20 atheists, and

and that was the title of the Jubilee video. We are going to get into why that's controversial and why that became controversial. Before we do, take a look at this first clip, D1. So do you believe in the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good notion of God? What do you mean by believe? Do you think it to be true? That's the circular definition. What do you mean when you say you believe? How is that circular? Because you added no content to the answer by substituting the word true.

And believe. I said you think it to be true. All right. So if you believe something, you stake your life on it. What do you mean by that? You live for it and you die for it.

That's what I mean by that. It isn't something that you say, it isn't something that's associated with logical consistency, it's not declarative, it's not propositional, it's not a figment of your imagination, it's the presupposition of your attention and your action. And you're either fragmented, in which case you worship multiple gods, or there's some unity at the bottom of it that makes you an unstoppable force.

Okay, so you're saying that you don't believe something if you wouldn't die for it? Not really, no. Okay. So then... How would you define belief? Something you say? Can I explain? I could believe it is the case that this pen exists, but if someone threatened my life, I would lie in order to be able to save my life. I think you would do that too. You wouldn't lie to save your life? Don't be so sure. You wouldn't lie to save your life? How much do you know about me? I didn't lie to save my career. I didn't lie to save my clinical practice.

Would you lie to, like, save your children, your mom, your dad? I don't think lying would save them. Can there ever be a circumstance, logically, that lying could save someone's life? Yeah, and if you're steeped in sin, you're likely to live in circumstances like that. I'll give you an example. If you're, like, in, like, Nazi Germany, and it is the case that there's, like, Jewish people in your attic, and you're trying to protect them, would you lie to, like, the Nazis? I would have done everything I bloody well could, so I wouldn't be in that situation to begin with. It's a hypothetical, and it's not answerable. You can't answer hypotheticals?

No, I can't answer a hypothetical like that because it's far- What? Did you eat today? Look. Did you eat today? Don't play games. I'm not playing games. Yes, you are. If you present me with an intractable moral choice that's stripped of context and you back me into a corner, you're playing game. I just told you I would do everything that I could to make sure that I'm never in that situation. By the time you've got there, you've made so many mistakes that there's nothing you can do that isn't a sin.

Being born in Nazi Germany and trying to protect people that you care about like you could there could be a Jewish friend that you have and you want to protect them. I think you should have them in your attic. I think you should just give up on that line of questioning. Give up on just like trying to clarify your position? Because I don't like you. Are you like uncomfortable with me asking this question? It's just a basic hypothetical like I could ask

It's just a basic hypothetical where you put Jews' lives at stake in Nazi Germany. That's just a basic hypothetical. Obviously, you would lie in that scenario to save their life, but you're not trying to answer this question. So what you're trying to do is you're trying to muddy the waters when I ask you, do you believe this? Do you think this to be true? So you don't actually have to answer the questions. And plenty of Christians don't like that because they clearly see that you don't really want to be associated with Christianity. I can imagine that I was in a situation where the best I could do as a consequence of my previous mistakes

was to tell the least amount of lie I could manage. All right, so Ryan, first of all, I would lie to save you, but we're all chomping at the bit to respond to that before we do. Let's roll this next clip of another person getting the better of Jordan Peterson in this exchange. Let's go for your definition of worship again. What's your definition of worship? Attend to. Attend to. Prioritize. Do Catholics. Sacrifice for. Do Catholics attend to.

Do they prioritize Mary over all other human beings? No, I didn't say over all, did I? I didn't add that to my definition. You understand. I said there was a hierarchy as well. So you can attend to something trivially or you can attend to it deeply. And now you're adding stuff to the definition. But your original definition. I added the hierarchy part at the beginning. Are you familiar? You just didn't understand it. Are you familiar with the Immaculate Conception? Why is that relevant? Because you go to a Catholic church, don't you? Or you've attended recently. You're interested in Catholicism, aren't you?

Sure. All right. Are you familiar with their doctrines? Somewhat. Okay, you're familiar. Their doctrines are very deep. How do they regard Mary? Why are you asking me that? Because you're a Christian. You say that. I haven't claimed that. Oh, what is this? Is this Christians versus atheists?

I don't know. You don't know where you are right now. Don't be a smartass. Well, either you're a Christian or you're not. Because I won't talk to you if you're a smartass. Either you're a Christian or you're not. Which one is it? I could be either of them, but I don't have to tell you. You don't have to tell me. I was under the impression. I was invited to talk to a Christian. Am I not talking to a Christian? No, you were invited to. I think everyone should look at the title of the YouTube channel. You're probably in the wrong YouTube video.

You're really quite something, you are. Aren't I? But you're really quite nothing, right? You're not a Christian. Okay, I'm done with him. All right, so that guy came out later and said, indeed, the event was billed to the people during casting and who were invited as Jordan Peterson, as a Christian versus 20 atheists. And so the controversy, because the video has since been changed to from,

one Christian versus 20 atheists, to Jordan Peterson versus 20 atheists. But what is a Jordan Peterson? Yeah, define a Jordan. Can you define a Jordan Peterson, right? But Jordan Peterson, if you are a Christian, people know that Jordan Peterson has long been seen as very problematic because he goes out and does these things

what are billed as very deep academic lectures on Christianity, but cannot bring himself to ultimately say that he believes in the truth of the resurrection. He believes that Jesus actually died and raised, was raised from the dead and is not, is more of like a, maybe the right way to say it would be a cultural Christian. Like the heretic. He's definitely a heretic. Um,

But everyone has sort of given him some patience because he's sort of discovering. It's almost like Russell Brand, right? Like he seems like he's on a journey. Let him cook. Right, right, right. But in the process, he has said some things that are just utterly heretical. He is a terrible representation of Christianity. But the 20 atheists brought that out better than most conservatives ever have in conversation with Jordan Peterson. So what did you make of it, Ryan? Yeah.

The whole thing is comical. The guy's such a fraud. And the final line was devastating because it was blunt, but also earned. Like he said he wouldn't say whether he's a Christian or not. And then he used the line, you're really something, aren't you? Set him up.

for this frying pan across the face. - Walked right into it. - And you're really nothing. And so, the kid had such a delightful retort because it works on so many levels. It's like, okay, you're nothing, 'cause you won't say whether you're a Christian or you're an atheist, and yet you showed up here at this debate where you're supposed to be a Christian.

You won't allow anything to be defined, so you constantly escape having to make any genuine analysis or give any thought to anything. But it works on the deeper level that there is nothing there. And you should clean your room. That's his big thing. You should actually do that. It's smart. But he can't answer the question of why, ultimately, to the satisfaction of really anybody. Just that it's...

Christians would say there's a reason that you should do that, but he's never been able to get from point A to point B on that in a way that... The first one was hilarious where he's like, I would not have put myself in that situation. I would have done things to prevent it. So what are the things that he could have done? The kid mentions one of them. You could be not born in Nazi Germany, but in the hypothetical, that's not an option. You were born into that. After that,

Is he saying that he would have, through force of will, prevented the rise of Hitler? Yeah. Is he saying he would just not have actually participated in rescuing Jews from the Holocaust? He's making this absurd— Or is he saying he would have been a Nazi, so therefore he would have been actually knocking on the doors, not on the other side of it? What he's saying actually does not make any sense, and that's what everyone—there's no logical route.

to the point he's making because that would be predicated on this idea that truth prevents awfulness from happening, that a culture can be sort of like based on universal truths and it will all be great, which is not Christian at all because the truth, the fundamental truth at the heart of Christianity is that man is fallen. So if you're a Christian, even that, even classical liberalism and democracy doesn't save you from evil.

So it doesn't save you, prevent you from being put in those awful positions. So no, that doesn't make sense in of itself. But Ryan, also Jordan Peterson is...

sort of in this position where I don't know if I blame him or Jubilee because he's talked about himself as, you know, people ask him if he's a Christian. Are there other Christians you could get? Of course, but he also doesn't even ever agree with anybody saying he's a Christian. He always sort of takes it and says, well, I'm a new kind of Christian. That's one way he's answered the question. The other way he's answered the question is by saying, you know, I'm a Christian in the deepest possible sense. He says he believes, this whole thing is that the stories are

Christianity, Judeo-Christianity, are these like human archetypes that are based on the truth about humanity that's inside of us. Because he's a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and so he pulls that out and says this is very like Jungian approach to what truth is. And then Christianity through that lens is true in the sense that it's human.

It's just a mess as you're trying to work that out in public and also be treated as like a political spokesperson for the right. So I feel like I don't know whether Jordan Peterson agreed to that or if Jubilee invited people to do one Christian versus 20 atheists.

I don't know if Jordan Peterson, I mean the kid who we just played, I don't know if he's a kid, but he came out, he looks young, and said, Suez Canel. No, that's a callback to earlier in the episode. But he came out and said Jordan Peterson seemed to know that that was what the debate was being billed as before. Right. Yeah, of course he did. Anyway, Jordan Peterson got wrecked. Well, my final take on Jordan Peterson is just that he is a person who said something really obvious before.

At a time when it was somewhat difficult to say something like that and he made a good point What was the point it just says his interview? No his original interview that went mega viral he had already started to have some presence before this but about like biological sex and

This that interview goes mega viral. That's where he took off Okay Yeah catapults him to huge fame after that the book comes out and becomes this massive bestseller and I think the book did some real good and I also think it was low-hanging fruit and so because of that he was catapulted into mega stardom, which is difficult for anybody to cope with he seems like he's coping with it not particularly well and

top of that he was famous for picking some low-hanging fruit and that doesn't make you a genius, you know to sort of make a point about biological sex and then to make some decent points for young men. It was hard to say those things at the time, but it doesn't take a genius. But I think he's been thrust into this position where everyone expects him to be a towering thought leader and

And he never really came from that background. He just, he said something. He thought he did. Right, right, right, right. It's easy to confuse it when everyone is, you're selling out, you know, massive venues around the country and you have a massive bestseller and everyone's telling you that. People are paying money for your advice, big money for your advice. So I sort of think that's the position that he's found himself in now. And at UnHerd, we've covered this debate about cultural Christianity a lot. Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote the essay for us about how she's

now a Christian, not just a cultural Christian. This is something real going on. I interviewed Alex O'Connor after he moderated a debate between Dawkins and Jordan Peterson, which was just as frustrating as this because Peterson cannot bring himself to say that he believes. He'll use different definitions of true.

about what's true about Christianity. So let's find another representation on that side of the debate, I think, at this point going forward. We can no longer rely on Jordan Peterson to represent a sort of cogent side of the right going forward. He's on his own journey. All right, Jubilee, get it together. Love, Cook.

Hey, this is Jenny Garth from I Do Part Two. Ozempic and a pill? It's oral semaglutide and is now available from Future Health. Go to futurehealth.com to get affordable access to oral semaglutide, Ozempic, and Zepbound for only $3 a day. No insurance needed. Visit futurehealth.com, future without the E, to start losing this week. Future Health Weight Loss.

Are you struggling to find an effective mental health medication? Meet the GeneSight test.

Whether it's medication for anxiety, depression, or ADHD, the GeneSight test is a genetic test that analyzes how your DNA may affect medication outcomes. Along with a full medical evaluation, test results can inform your provider with valuable insights to help guide treatment. Your unique genetic blueprint may also lead to significant savings on medications.

According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Current Medical Research and Opinion, patients who received GeneSight testing saved on total annual medication costs, took their medicine more regularly, and were on fewer medications by the end of the study compared to those who received regular treatment. Ask your provider about the GeneSight test today and move forward on your journey to mental wellness. Or visit genesight.com for more information.

Again, genesight.com for more information and to move forward on your journey to mental wellness.

Are you shopping for a new laptop while still trying to keep up with technology and AI? Talk about feeling burnt out. But no more. Lenovo.com makes it easier than ever to find the perfect PC. In fact, we'll break it down for you. Step one, shop our lineup of AI PCs powered by Intel Core Ultra processors. Because why deal with downloading new software when you can buy a smarter PC that already comes with all of the AI features and tools?

Step two, find the one that fits your passion. Whether you're a creative genius, a research scientist, a hardcore gamer, or a future CEO, no dream is too big.

That's the power of Lenovo with Intel inside. You can keep up with your ideas as well as any challenges you may face. Step 3: Add to cart and purchase. Oh, if you're a college student or a teacher, make an education account through us and get 5% off your whole order. Shop now at Lenovo.com. A better future is waiting and it needs you.

Let's move over to Trump, who is now engaged in a pardon spree. And we'll talk about a whole bunch of these that he just did. Todd and Julie, what are their names? Todd and Julie Chrisley. From the reality TV star. Chrisley Knows Best, yeah. So they're getting a pardon.

Ken Vogel has a piece in the New York Times about this fraudster whose mom gave a million bucks to Trump and did three fundraisers for Trump. Paul Walsh got a pardon just before he was about to report to prison, I believe. I don't think he ever actually had to go to prison. We'll talk about his crimes. They're really atrocious. And then a sheriff in Virginia.

who was basically selling fake badges and letting rich people be fake deputies in order for bribes, in exchange for bribes. He also got pardoned. So let's start with the first element up here. There's Alice Johnson, who was pardoned during Trump 1, and Trump is so proud to have pardoned her. She was in prison for selling drugs and running a kind of drug empire.

And she's now sort of become the pardon czar. She was over-prosecuted. Yeah. And that's the argument he's going to make about these other pardons. Yeah. Mostly a weed dealer, right? Or was it crack? I thought it was crack. It was crack. Anyway. Go back and look. Yes. So anyway, here they are in the Oval Office calling up Chrisleys. That's a terrible thing. It's a terrible thing. But it's a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean. And I hope we can do it by tomorrow. Is that okay? We'll try getting it done.

tomorrow so give them i don't know them but give them my regards and wish them wish them a good life mr president yes thank you for bringing my parents back yeah well they were given a pretty harsh treatment based on what i'm hearing and congratulate your parents congratulations savannah and alice had a lot to do with this and just congratulate your parents

And I hear they're terrific people. This should not have happened. So and you just boy, they have they have good, good children. You're no longer children. But I'll say it anyway. They have good children, don't they? So top reality TV stars, they were busted for tax evasion. Yeah, this is not not one I get super worked up about because they did some time. They did the crime. They did some time. And does the world necessarily benefit from them spending 20 years in prison? No, I'd like

I don't want people to get special treatment just because... They're getting special treatment. Obviously, they're getting special treatment. Literally special treatment. They're literally getting pardoned by the President of the United States. Yeah. Now, so that is ridiculous and outrageous. But setting that aside, you know, you do your tax evasion, go do a little bit of time. You don't need...

to lock these nonviolent people up for decades. - The Alice Johnson pardon, people remember from Kim Kardashian spearheading that effort, I think with Van Jones as well. But that was coupled with what was called the First Step Act, which was a large scale policy effort

But this is, you know, not that. This is very much—that's the kind of difference between targeting one over prosecution and then coupling it with a big policy act. That's not what's happening in this case. This is literally just special treatment based on Savannah Chrisley—

And that's who he was talking to. He was talking to the Chrisley's children. Savannah Chrisley was the voice that you heard. Did you watch that one? That show? I watched it when it first came out. It was pretty... I feel like it cooked the first couple of years, and then it went downhill. Like all reality shows. Yeah, it went downhill. But that was the era of Duck Dynasty, when these big networks were trying to appeal more to middle America by putting these family sitcom-type reality shows out. And it was fine for a little while, but it just...

it wore off, the luster wore off pretty quickly with that one. They're not the most appealing characters. Yeah, and the argument on their behalf was that the IRS and the lead IRS person that was going after them had their face up on a bullseye and really wanted them and considered them to be like Trump's

kind of avatar. He said they were the Trumps of Georgia. Right. And so there was some political motivation behind going after them according to this defense. And, you know, all right, they got him. They did a little time. Let him go. It's fine. There are

Their tax advisor also went to jail, was also prosecuted for this. They were found guilty of tax evasion and bank fraud. Basically, they were hiding their money to defraud the IRS and banks is what they were found guilty of, as well as the tax advisor, the financial advisor in this case. We don't have to dwell too much on the Chrisley case because there are a couple of other ones. But I will just say, Ryan, I remember at the RNC,

I was sitting in the press thing watching the kind of boring stuff happen before you get the keynote every night. And Savannah Chrisley came out and did this like utterly, what's the right word, like obsequious pitch to about her parents to Donald Trump. And it was so.

so cringe worthy because it was so it was such a nakedly transactional attempt to free her parents from prison and I remember thinking oh my gosh this is going to work and

Sure enough. She went on Laura Trump's Fox News show just in the last several weeks. And Savannah credits that with bringing it to Trump's attention. She said just in the last 24 hours, like he watches every edition of that show. And I'm pretty sure it's what brought it back to his attention. So it's just sort of funny how easy it is to cooperate with Donald Trump, how easy it is to negotiate with Donald Trump. You just have to. I remember watching this at the RNC and hearing her compare their plight to Trump's plight.

and just thinking, oh my gosh, this is going to play him like a fiddle. Yeah, one of the things, like the word downtown, is that one of the ways you're supposed to pay Trump now is not just the Trump coin, but you're supposed to quote unquote invest in Melania's documentary. Because there's all these legal ways you can move money. Like, hey, you put in...

Put in a million dollars, you become an investor in this documentary. Oh, it turns out this documentary is not going to make any money. It's a write-off for you. It's a business loss. You invested it. You lost it. But it's a legal bribe. The other way, of course, is Trump sues you with your CBS.

And then you pay him a settlement. So there's all these clever legal ways to do bribery. Some of it is just you just give him a million dollars, which is what Paul Walzak's mother did. So move to the next one. Great story by Ken Vogel in The Times. So this is a guy who dropped out of college and then inherited his –

We're a meritocracy. So he inherited his mom's nursing home company in Florida. Red flag already, nursing home company in Florida. The way that all companies work is you withhold money for Social Security, Medicare, payroll taxes from your employees, and then you send that to the state and the federal government. You withhold the tax money.

And then it goes back to the state because it's not your money. Like it's, they earned it. It's their paycheck. But you, you do handle it. Like the businesses handle it. The business, if you notice on your paycheck, this, this money is withheld.

There is a bank account that that withholding goes to before it is sent off to the government. And what a company can do, what a CEO can do is just take that money. Yep. And that's what Walzak was convicted of doing. He took that money. He bought a $2 million yacht and lived just a normal, you know, Bergdorf, Goodman, Cartier, just lived enormously large.

With stolen money. His mom, you know, you know, who was wealthy from having run this nursing home company, you know, hosted three fundraisers for Trump. So it gets you in the good graces. Big fundraisers, too. Yeah. And but then it was she paid, what, a million dollars. You know, so they reached out to like they're trying to get this get the son clemency.

So she reaches out to do this. She then gets invited. So this is how this works.

They know she wants something from them. Yep.

and from reporting to prison for an 18-month sentence that had been handed down just 12 days earlier. A judge had justified the incarceration by declaring that their, quote, is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for the rich. False. Nice try, judge. There literally is a get-out-of-jail-free card for the rich. It's not gold like the Visa card, but it could be. It might as well be. A million dollars. Yeah, and so...

wildly insanely corrupt. This is a person who stole money from working people to buy, literally to buy a yacht and then used some of that stolen money or his, I guess his mother, let's assume she didn't steal the money, used money that they made on the backs of the workers, we can at least say that, and paid it to Trump and now he's, and not just commuted, like there's different, you can do, you can commute a sentence

Which leaves the felony on your record. And he could have said, I'm commuting the sentence, but you still have to pay the restitution to the workers, 4.4 million that you've been sentenced to pay. You can also just do a full and unconditional pardon. You know what? You want to keep their money. Right. You earned it. Right. How'd you earn it? By having the password to the bank account and moving it from them to yourself. So...

And won't spend a day in jail. Yeah. And you can keep, go ahead, keep the money. No, this story by Vogel is insane. And it also gets into the wild connection between the Ashley Biden diary, Project Veritas. Oh, we didn't even talk about that. Lay that element. Because that's the argument that his mother made. That his mother was involved with this Ashley Biden diary and that the law enforcement came after them

And so this was actually all payback. It wasn't about the workers that he stole the money from. This was payback. So yeah, what was the...

You guys remember this Ashley Biden diary? It's a whole—I mean, the diary is a horrible, horrible— Like she went to this rehab. She left a diary behind. That had allegations that were disgusting. Somebody—that it—basically it said, was it weird that my dad would shower with me or something like that, right? When she was older, yeah. Yeah. Like 12 or something like that. Yeah, she was—it was— Some creepy stuff in there. Yes. And—

No smoking gun, but creepy stuff. Yeah. And who knows if that's true? It was a diary of someone who was mentally unwell in rehab, but it was there. Right. And then somebody finds it, sells it. There's this whole sordid Coen Brothers-esque scheme. It is very Coen Brothers. That winds up with it getting published online.

Project and then very project very tough like Oh Keefe got raided over this. Yes. Yeah that yes exactly So a man who's friends with Fago contacts her about the diary Ken Vogel writes when she was first told of the diary. She said she thought it would help mr. Trump's chances of winning the election And then they brought that diary to a fundraiser at her home that

Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle attended. The diary was shown. And Trump Jr. was like, get this away from me. This is, yeah, Trump. I think this is one place where Trump Jr. actually did the right thing. He was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Don't do not involve me with this. It's crazy. It's just such a crazy story Donald Trump jr. Is like this is This is too much the fact that this is this woman was involved in that it like you said it's Coen brothers asked the only way you can even look at it and he was so then it starts getting bought and sold and

Right. So Walshack was about to be sentenced. But he was sentenced. He was about to report to prison. He was about to report, and Ken Rice came, quote, just in the nick of time, clearly. And one thing just to note there is it's similar to the Savannah Chrisley case of people knowing how to make these appeals. So the mom, Faga, was apparently openly making an appeal based on her—

Really? Like the persecution. We were persecuted. Yeah, exactly. Yep, exactly. So now we have this other story. This is I believe the next element yet. This is E4. So this is a story of Sheriff Scott Jenkins, who Trump is giving a quote full and unconditional pardon to. He was also he was the one who was about to report. CNN commentator and future Kentucky senator. Oh, Scott Jennings. Scott Jennings. Scott Jenkins.

who was convicted on federal bribery charges last year. He was about to report to prison. I think today he was about to report to prison. And then within 24 hours of him reporting to prison, Trump pardoned him. So from Reuters, they write, he was quite a former Virginia sheriff who served an area about two hours outside D.C., was convicted by a jury in December 2024 for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointments.

as auxiliary deputy sheriffs. He had been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. And Ryan, I suppose there's potentially an argument that the sentence and also the Chrisley sentences are long. Too much. I'm with them. Okay, 10 years for that? And you took $75,000 in campaign contributions, which is different than taking it in cash money.

And in exchange, you made the local car dealer like a fake cop. You let him be a fake cop for a day. It can be dangerous. Like Oklahoma, there's this case in Oklahoma where they let this rich guy be a fake cop and he shot and killed a guy because he meant to pull his...

taser and accidentally pulled his pistol and killed a man. So, like, this is, to me, if you want to take your fake badge and go home with it, like happens with nine-year-olds, fine. But, like, you give them a fake badge and a real gun and no training, now the community is the one that's going to pay so that you can get these bribes. Yeah. But still, 10 years is a little bit excessive.

Yeah. And that's the argument Trump's going. He keeps saying he's a big Trump guy. And they're like, they came after me because I'm a Trump guy. And you heard. Right. And that works so well on Donald Trump. And everybody knows it works so well on Donald Trump. And he said it in the Chrisley conversation with Savannah. He said they were treated very badly. And so, yeah, it's what Blagojevich got this to. Right. Yeah.

He sort of made a turn to being pro-Trump, and that's all it took. And I don't know, Ryan, if Trump is being taken for a ride so much as he just enjoys the deference and the obsequiousness. Anybody who goes through the criminal justice system comes out hating prosecutors. Including Trump, yeah. Yeah, and so he feels that. Yeah.

If I ever get convicted of anything, I'm going to remind Trump of all the nice things I said about him. You have so many clips. So many good clips. I mean, endless reel. I compliment his sense of humor a lot. So just let's clip this one and save it if I ever need it. This one's for Ryan. Never get caught stealing people's tax money and buying a yacht with it.

And let's just mention, of course, Joe Biden had an unprecedented pardon policy. He pardoned family members, corrupt family members, pardoned Anthony Fauci. Absolutely, that all happened. He pardoned this terrible sex criminal in Pennsylvania. Preemptive pardons. And those are always favors, right? People would say, why would you pardon that guy? It's a favor to someone, right? Someone got that in front of him. Must have. Yeah. So, yes, Joe Biden was...

unprecedented in that respect and was transactional in that respect. This is a different level. Obviously, this is a level of people nakedly making transactional appeals to the president and him responding when you get that sort of obsequious approach. And usually they wait till presidents wait till the end of their term. They're so embarrassed about this stuff. That's interesting, right? He's doing it

right out like Tuesday afternoon. Yeah. It's a really interesting question about what norm or to what extent that sets a norm going forward and to what extent Biden's pardon set a norm going forward because those were quote unquote preemptive pardons of people who hadn't even been convicted. So Trump has learned that nothing matters.

But that's the era that we live in right now. This last decade, we're 10 years since Trump descended the golden escalator. And we're learning that we don't actually know what the norms are anymore and where they will be in the post-Trump era if we ever approach such a moment. Up next, we're going to talk about the energy portion of Trump's massive, big, beautiful reconciliation package, which bizarrely,

helps China develop its energy infrastructure and will destroy ours both clean and dirty. We'll see. Stick around for that.

Hey, this is Jenny Garth from I Do Part Two. Ozempic and a pill? It's oral semaglutide and is now available from Future Health. Go to futurehealth.com to get affordable access to oral semaglutide, Ozempic, and Zepbound for only $3 a day. No insurance needed. Visit futurehealth.com, future without the E, to start losing this week. Future Health Weight Law.

Are you struggling to find an effective mental health medication? Meet the GeneSight test.

Whether it's medication for anxiety, depression, or ADHD, the GeneSight test is a genetic test that analyzes how your DNA may affect medication outcomes. Along with a full medical evaluation, test results can inform your provider with valuable insights to help guide treatment. Your unique genetic blueprint may also lead to significant savings on medications.

According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Current Medical Research and Opinion, patients who received GeneSight testing saved on total annual medication costs, took their medicine more regularly, and were on fewer medications by the end of the study compared to those who received regular treatment. Ask your provider about the GeneSight test today and move forward on your journey to mental wellness. Or visit genesight.com for more information.

Again, genesight.com for more information and to move forward on your journey to mental wellness. Unlock smarter learning with Lenovo AI-powered PCs powered by Intel Core Ultra processors. Head to lenovo.com and choose from multiple devices to fit your passions.

If you're a gamer, you can spend less time stressing about GPUs and CPUs and more time dominating with your AI-enabled smart engine, which optimizes your game performance in real time. Or maybe you're a scientist on the verge of a groundbreaking discovery and need a device with a longer battery life and AI-enhanced tools to give you extra time to finish your research.

or you're a musician preparing for your biggest break and need better, faster AI tools to make digital art a breeze, like creating band posters and t-shirt designs. Or you're a soon-to-be graduate needing to catch a recruiter's eye to land that dream job. So you need

cutting-edge smart tools to build your portfolio from scratch. That's the power of Lenovo with Intel inside. Plus, college students and teachers get 5% off with an education account on Lenovo.com. A better future is waiting, and it needs you. ♪

The House passed a reconciliation bill, the big, beautiful bill, as everybody knows, takes a sledgehammer to Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act and all the clean energy tax credits in that. But something strange has happened on the way through the House and over to the Senate, which is that the dirty energy industry, the fossil fuel industry, has realized that it takes a sledgehammer to

as well. And so to talk about this and to walk us through how it is and why that is and what's going on is Ducky Hune, who is a...

The founder of a dirty energy company is trying to make it as clean as possible It's called C - I say dirty energy because it's involved with fossil fuels A lot of your career has been trying to make fossil fuels cleaner But not trying to kind of eradicate, you know fossil fuels because everybody in the energy industry as I understand it now correct me if I'm wrong It's pretty agnostic

You know about energy source like people are just like how do I get the wattage? Like how do I get the electricity? What's the most reliable and the cheapest way that I can? You know get you know move energy from A to B and and sell it and so this the clean energy kind of dirty energy divide within the industry isn't really a salient necessarily as it used to be and this this bill

Seems to be smashing both of them at the same time. So, Ducky, can you walk us through a little bit about what are the key elements of the IRA that are being nuked, so to speak, by this bill? And what will the effects be on projects that are either ongoing throughout the United States or are planned for the coming years?

Well, you're right on a lot of those points. So when you think of energy, I think you want to take a step back and see it's more of a transition than clean versus dirty or fossil. So the transition is really what is kind of getting lost in this new bill.

A lot of the fossil energy guys, which obviously is natural gas and coal mainly, obviously oil in there as well, they were investing a lot of time and resources to processes that would clean up

Their existing facilities, existing fuel sources like carbon capture. They were transitioning to hydrogen, investing a lot of money there. So those technologies were packaged in the IRA system.

as transitions to clean existing fuel sources and introduce new ones that fossil, you know, legacy fossil guys could participate in. Obviously, the other end of the spectrum or the solar battery wind guys, those guys are definitely a lot more advanced in this transition. So I don't think it's really a competition. I think it's more of...

um this transition that is getting uh i think it could be on the you know on the chopping block here i i'm just unsure where who wins really who who wins in this uh whenever we're cutting these uh these incentive programs uh because uh just like solar was you know 20 25 years ago uh we advance a lot of those technologies uh but production went to china uh and uh

Unfortunately, it looks like we might have to do the same here because they've invested in a lot of these technologies in parallel with the United States. But a lot of production was slated to come to the United States for these projects because of the IRA. And unfortunately, I think...

if we don't kind of nip this where in the Senate, a lot of these projects might end up going back to China or Europe. Yeah, and you're talking about fossil fuel projects.

Right. And so that's right. If you can put up F1 here, this is the utility industry complaining. They're talking about clean energy. But if you read deeper into the story, they're talking about they're talking about the entire thing. You know, I've seen you make the point and I've seen others make it as well, that in order to you know, we're talking about A.I. and other other computing. Trump says everything is computer requiring something like a doubling.

of U.S. energy production over the very near term. And I've seen you and others talk about the fact that the natural gas turbines that are needed to ramp up, let's say you love natural gas, you hate clean energy, you just want to burn natural gas. The turbines needed to produce energy from it

are facing something like, you tell me, something like a 96-month backlog, or 10 years almost, like if you wanted new ones. Can you walk us through, what does it actually mean to produce this energy? Right, so these projects that the IRA kind of incentivized, they're long duration. There's a lot of engineering that goes into these projects. So even on a short scale, if you didn't have these projects in development before,

I mean, these are three to five year projects. So a lot of these have not hit the ground yet, so to speak. So in the realm of natural gas,

I mean, everyone's always said natural gas is a transition fuel, and in the near term, I believe we do have to ramp up natural gas with a lot of carbon capture, if possible. I mean, that seems to be kind of left in the lurch now to meet these energy demands. But the big gas turbine manufacturers, GE, Siemens, Mitsubishi, I mean, I think on a very conservative level,

estimate they're five years out from delivering. Even if you, I mean, we're going back to kind of putting deposits down to get in the queue, essentially, kind of what we were back in the early 2000s, the last time natural gas was relevant. So,

Yeah, we're going back to the five-year wait and if AI does ramp up aggressively. I mean, we're talking about maybe 10 years backlog. So none of these are going to happen quickly. I think everyone should understand that. I mean, these big AI and data centers and crypto announcements, I think –

I think everyone's a little too optimistic if they're thinking, you know, one to three years. You just can't get these components. I mean, gas turbines are one thing. I mean, I don't know if you've heard about the transformer issues. Another key component that, you know, the backlog has just ramped up tremendously since COVID and doesn't look anywhere near resolving itself.

Now, I want to roll this clip, F2, of Elon Musk, who is going to be on CBS Sunday Morning this week. And they're revealing sort of teaser moments from that conversation. And Musk sort of talks about the quote-unquote big, beautiful bill in this exchange. We can go ahead and roll the clip. You know, I was like disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it.

and that reminds the work that the Doge team is doing. I actually thought that when this big beautiful bill came along, I mean like everything he's done on Doge gets wiped out in the first year. I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don't know if it can be both. My personal opinion.

So there we have clean energy, domestic manufacturing slash assembly man, Elon Musk, looking at the big, beautiful bill with a dose of realism after he spent, I guess, the last six months or so in Washington, D.C. So I wanted to ask, I mean, a lot of people

on the right are actually criticizing the bill for not going far enough on dismantling the IRA. That's something a lot of people want to see happen when it goes over to the Senate. But my understanding is also that some of what the bill does is meant to disentangle production from China and bring it back to the U.S. It sounds like the way that they're going about that, I mean, it's the foreign entity clause in the bill. It sounds like some of the way they're going about that is actually counterproductive,

possibly as well. Can you just kind of flesh out that dynamic for us?

Yeah, I mean, it is puzzling. You know, the intent versus the reality of it. I think it's going to be difficult to get these projects off the ground with those kind of last-minute tweaks to that bill, especially the foreign entity, because we still don't make a lot of these components in the United States. Obviously, we were...

Getting there, but I don't think we would have really justified making all the smaller components amazing of the larger components that would Comprise of these projects, but yeah, it's a big hurdle. Can you explain that? So the foreign entity of concern is basically referring to China the bill says Correct me if I'm wrong here. The bill basically says if if you're getting components from China or investment or investment, okay or investment from China and

then you cannot get the access to the tax credits, which make the project kind of pencil out in a financial way. So as somebody who's involved in the industry, how possible would it be

If you were told, okay, you want these credits, every component and all investment must come from the U.S. I guess you can get French investment, but you can't get Chinese investment. You can't have Chinese components. Could you get a project going anytime soon under those circumstances? Sure.

You could get break ground, but lead times would definitely delay the project tremendously. I think another component of the kind of last minute...

negotiating for this bill, I think the more dangerous component is the start time. So a lot of these projects- - Explain that, this is a really interesting component. - Right, so a lot of these projects, so they didn't scrap the IRA per se, but they did put some stringent regulations like the FEOC and then the start time for a lot of these projects to qualify for the incentives or 60 days.

from the final passage of the bill. So that's really a killer right there. I mean, I think that would kill 99% of the projects that are slated to come. - And you have to finish by a certain time too? - Yes, you have to finish by 2028. And like I said, these projects are long lead time, a lot of engineering involved. And some of these projects are really relying on incentives that were finalized in January.

So a lot of these financial modeling, the projections, I mean, they're still in limbo. So you're not getting to a final investment decision considering the uncertainty, essentially. So yeah.

Even the projects that were heavily financed by, you know, let's say big oil or oil and gas or big energy companies, legacy companies, I don't see them getting through, especially with the 60-day start time. I mean, we're talking about a project that would normally go through engineering in two to three years and then saying, you know, you have to break ground 60 days after finalization of this bill. I think that's...

that's really killing all the incentives that are in the IRA to begin with. So basically, if we zoom out to the broader goal of onshoring, nearshoring, friendshoring some of these industries,

The bill, I guess, is from that perspective then actually kind of hurting its own goal or undermining its own goal if it is onshoring, nearshoring, friendshoring, because maybe the ultimate goal or the less honest goal is just to hurt the industry's period, the clean energy industry's period. Like, what do you make of what the we were talking earlier about who benefits? Like, what is the actual end goal, do you think, based on what's in the bill?

Well, I mean, that's the confusion I have for sure. I don't know who benefits. I think a lot of the benefits that we've already seen from the IRA have benefited a lot of the Republican states and Republican districts. I mean, maybe to the tune of 70% or to 80% of the jobs created are going to those districts.

And we're talking about hundreds of thousands of jobs here. And some of those plants that relied on those incentives may lose them and close. So, I mean, it's really confusing to me who benefits. I mean, it's tough because, obviously, we're talking about a lot of new projects in addition to the ones that already opened. So, I mean, we're talking about hundreds of thousands more jobs going to a lot of red districts. So it's confusing to me what benefits

You know, who wins? I mean, I don't know if it's a zero-sum game. I mean, I think everyone can benefit from this, but I think everyone could lose too, right? So I don't think there's any clear winners to me. And for people who want to read more about that, we can put up F3. You can find this piece. Ducky had recommended this at Latitude Media.

As you're talking, I wonder if the answer to this question of who benefits, ironically, might be China. If you want to develop these both clean energy projects and also projects that are making fossil fuel energy cleaner, it seems like the place that is making that possible after this would be China. And it seems like the bill is... If you wanted to write a bill to basically stop...

the development and production of energy in the United States, you couldn't do much better than the way this bill is currently written. Well, that's what it seems like. I mean, just like I mentioned with the solar industry 20 years, you know, we did a lot of development in national labs and then we sent all the manufacturing to China. I mean, it's unfortunate, but yeah, I think they're pretty happy about the prospects of this. Yeah, and China doesn't even have much of a lobbying operation in the U.S., like basically zero.

And they're getting a bill that is just straight up written for them. It's amazing. We'll see. We'll see what the Senate does. It's very confusing. Yeah. Yeah, the Senate, I think, is going to have some real tweaks to this part of the bill. Yeah, because North Carolina, and Doug, you might know, last question for you, you might know a little bit about this. North Carolina senators, I know, are both concerned about what this is doing to Solark because...

North Carolina has become one of the kind of leading builders of solar energy and now this is going to take a sledgehammer to that. And it's an industry that supports Republicans and hires Republicans to work in it. So you've got North Carolina, maybe you've got some Texas, which has a lot of energy production, including clean energy production.

Do you have a sense of, although I guess Democrats are there, are there Republicans who might have the strength to push back on this? I hope so. I mean, I know, I don't know if a lot of your views knew. I mean, there was a letter that, you know, a lot of Republicans drafted, you know, 20 some odd, you know, senators and House members.

um supporting you know the the the benefits of the ira uh unfortunately 20 of those house members uh kind of signed on to this last minute so hopefully the senators kind of have a little more um influence on this uh and don't have uh

Well, have the right kind of influence, essentially, to support their constituents. Or we'll see them go in another direction. And just support China. What are you guys doing? A lot to be determined in the next month. It's an incredible watch. Ducky Hume, founder of the energy company C-. Thanks for bringing us up to speed on this. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. All right. Be well. Honestly, I don't get it.

What are you all doing? Don't look at me. What do I have to do? This is your responsibility. How is this my responsibility? You need to clean this up. It's insane. And his point about how we developed the solar industry in the 90s, 2000s, and because it's associated with hippies or whatever, and it was manufacturing, we just shipped it off to China, and now look how that's working out. And now here we are, 20 years later,

like doing the exact same thing? Listen, I'm all for innovation and renewable energy sector because it gets you off the grid.

You don't have to worry about the government controlling your energy sources. And a lot of what his company does, or his companies that he's founded over the years, like I was saying, it takes waste products and they take fossil fuels and they try to reduce the carbon emissions and the pollution related to it, acknowledging, which the left doesn't really like to do, acknowledging that fossil fuels are going to be here for a very long time. And if they are getting burned,

How do we reduce the emissions and pollution from them in the meantime? All that entire industry being built up, it's just going to go to China. I mean, on the other hand... And like with the transformers, without the transformers, you don't have energy production, which, you know what? This AI sucks. So if these goons don't have enough juice for their AI, fine. Good. Find it in the sun. Except they're going to win. You're going to get rolling blackouts.

Their AI is going to get the energy. Yeah, that's true. On the other hand, the IRA was grifty. I mean, you had John Podesta overseeing the, you know, longtime lobbyist overseeing the distribution. No, no, Tony Podesta is the lobbyist. Well, he was, I mean, John Podesta was a lobbyist as well. Who did he lobby for? The Podesta group. No, no, that's Tony Podesta. No, back in the 90s. Oh, in the 90s. Yeah. Was he in the 90s? I thought he's always been in the...

I think the Podesta group was founded like late 80s, early 90s. Anyway. Was John Podesta? I mean, he was always... Anyway. Anyway, we can look up John Podesta. The producers literally got it out here just now and were like, get it out. Tony Podesta is the scuzzy lobbyist. Tony Podesta is definitely a scuzzy lobbyist. But anyway, they put John Podesta in charge of distributing some of the IRA. All that is to say, we will see what happens when the bill goes to the Senate. Republicans want more cuts, but of course they also want to undermine China and China

near shore and reshore all of these wonderful industries. So good luck to them. Also, while keeping Elon Musk happy and having a tiny margin in the House and actually the Senate as well. And by the way, they also think they need this to augment the tariff pop.

So best of luck to the GOP and to all of us, really, who will have to be dealing with the consequences. Yeah, so dumb. So dumb. Stay tuned here to Breaking Points for all of the details. BreakingPoints.com for a premium subscription. We will be doing a Friday show this week. We do Friday. AMA right now, right? AMA. AMA is coming right up. We only get to participate in that if you are a supporter of our journalism by going to BreakingPoints.com and becoming a paying subscriber.

Same if you want to watch the second half of the Friday shows. So breakingpoints.com. Head on over. We'll see you if you're sticking around for the AMA in just a bit.

Hey, this is Jenny Garth from I Do Part Two. Ozempic and a pill? It's oral semaglutide and is now available from Future Health. Go to futurehealth.com to get affordable access to oral semaglutide, Ozempic, and Zetbound for only $3 a day. No insurance needed. Visit futurehealth.com, future without the E, to start losing this week. Future Health Weight Law.

Are you still quoting 30-year-old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past.

Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now. It pays to discover. Learn more at discover.com slash credit card. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report.

Spring is here, and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered. A cabana? That's a no. But a banana? That's a yes. A nice tan? Sorry, nope. But a box fan? Happily, yes. A day of sunshine? No. A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats.

This is an iHeart Podcast.