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US POLITICS THE WEEKEND SHOW WITH ANTHONY DAVIS The Weekend Show LIVE: Former FBI Agent Strzok Gets ULTIMATE REVENGE on Trump PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
LIVE: Former FBI Agent Strzok Gets ULTIMATE REVENGE on Trump \| The Weekend Show MeidasTouch 2.75M subscribers Streamed live 6 hours ago The Weekend Show As the Justice Department settles with Russia investigation FBI officials targeted by Donald Trump, former agent Peter Strzok joins Anthony Davis to discuss vindication, Trump’s incitement of violence, his abuse and racism. Plus the positivity and re-energized Democratic campaign with VP Kamala Harris at the helm - only on The Weekend Show. SUPPORT THE SHOW! 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Explore the podcast 128 episodes The Weekend Show MeidasTouch Podcasts Transcript 0:00 [Music] it's Sunday August 4 2024 I'm Anthony Davis welcome to the weekend show where we make the time to consider the news of the week you can support my work and independent journalism at patreon.com 5minute newws our guest today is a former FBI Deputy assistant director and co-host of the cleanup on Isle 45 podcast Peter stro welcome back to the weekend show Anthony thank you it's great to be back with you uh we have a we have a lot to talk about uh Donald Trump's racism is one of them and I'm sure that there's a lot to say there um but first let's I I want to focus on on you for a second only because you are in the headlines again unfortunately or fortunately I don't quite know how you how you handle all that stuff but I want to ask you about the the news that the 1:08 justice department has reached a settlement with FBI officials whose texts infuriated Donald Trump and of 1:16 course they're referring to you and the former FBI attorney Lisa Page this is a 1:23 a case that Donald Trump kind of weaponized really and and kept referring 1:28 to you in derogatory language and was claiming that you had a vendetta and therefore the FBI had a vendetta against 1:36 him back when you were Central in the in the russer investigation just tell us in 1:42 your words really how this is playing out and and how you feel about this latest decision yeah well thanks I mean 1:49 look I think it's certainly a Vindication uh it's been a long time coming I mean this last year was found in 2019 and aspects of it continue but 1:57 at least with regard to the settlement it involves uh some actions taken by the Department of Justice uh shortly at the 2:05 end of 2017 where they brought in a bunch of reporters and took texts that were you 2:12 know very private in nature and intended to remain private and essentially laid it out to the entirety of uh both print 2:19 media television media and online media and doing that in advance of the then 2:25 deputy director Rod Rosenstein going up to the hill to uh to testify and so you 2:31 know we found suit saying you know this this behavior is prohibited under the Privacy Act that it in fact you know 2:37 Anthony this is a preview you know if people are concerned what a second Trump Administration would look like what a 2:43 weaponization of the government what sort of the politicization and abuse of the federal civil service you know this 2:49 is exactly you know we don't have to speculate because Trump did in fact engage in a lot of this Behavior the 2:55 first time around no I have no doubt that in the future another Trump ad Administration would be far more abusive 3:02 and reach far many more people rather but at least in this instance uh you 3:07 know we we alleged in our lawsuit that two things happened one the doj violated 3:12 the Privacy Act by releasing these and that two uh you know that when I was subsequently fired that that was illegal 3:19 that they had violated the Constitution when they did that and that aspect of the lawsuit continues but certainly with 3:25 regards to the texts I mean you know it's typical that doj when they reach a settlement they you know neither admit 3:31 nor deny anything and so in this case they were not admitting any guilt whatsoever but what was particularly 3:37 gratifying was I think about three weeks ago attorney general Merck Garland was on the hill was testifying uh in the 3:44 house and you Jim Jordan was kind of pestering him about you know he had heard that there was a settlement that 3:49 there was some sort of payoff that you know people are getting rewarded and the Attorney General in sworn testimony said 3:55 no no when doj breaks the law we have to pay and so I think you know the the the 4:01 fact that this settlement occurred the amount of the settlement I think certainly sends a very clear message 4:07 about how bad this Behavior by Trump's Department of Justice was and I do hope 4:13 it serves as sort of a uh you know a deterrent as as a warning to Future abuses to to hopefully prevent those and 4:20 to protect you know civil servants who go in every single day across the United States and do good work for the American 4:28 people so I feel vind ated we got a long path to go still uh with the remaining 4:33 claims but at the moment I'm I'm pleased with the settlement let's talk to the idea that 4:41 obviously FBI employees and all government officials at whatever level 4:46 have a professional life and a personal life and professional people hopefully should keep them 4:53 separate I want to talk to this notion that Donald Trump through project 2025 wants to replace 5:00 government workers the FBI included with with Trump loyalists with people that 5:07 answer only to him who are politically aligned with him who are Maga Republicans and in many cases conspiracy 5:14 theorists and you know everything that goes with that group because he is 5:19 trying to convince people that that the FBI as you know one of these institutions is the Deep State and the 5:27 fact that you have people who have political leanings that are not aligned with the the president means that they 5:33 can't do their job means that they're going to turn on the Supreme Leader as he sees himself can you just explain to 5:40 people who don't maybe understand what it's like to be working at a high level 5:46 in the FBI or indeed in any position in the government and and and how you 5:51 separate those things sure well I mean the fact is for as long as we've had uh 5:56 government employees those employees do have is you indicated personal lives you know people go out and vote people have 6:02 opinions people are Republicans people are Democrats some are very engaged some register with a party many most probably 6:09 don't but the fact of the matter is whether it's a government employee or whether it's somebody in the you know 6:14 the military with Army Navy Air Force Marines you know people go and vote but 6:20 at the same time understand that they've taken an oath to the Constitution and to the American people so when it comes 6:25 down to it you know it doesn't the the the idea that and I didn't at the 6:31 working level I mean certainly when you get to a cabinet level official I mean those people are appointees they're 6:37 confirmed by the Senate they certainly take a policy agenda based on the direction of the president and 6:43 appropriately so I mean we elect presidents and we by that election expect them to put in place whatever 6:49 policies that they've said they will do to get our vote but when it comes down to the implementation of that there's so 6:57 much of what the government does on the day-to-day basis and I you know I'll talk about the FBI in a little bit but 7:02 everything from somebody in the Park Service who is either a ranger on the ground in a national park all the way up 7:09 to somebody at the National Park Service headquarters who's making sure they're have sufficient funding and are hiring 7:14 in the way right way people in the USDA who are looking and inspecting meat and 7:19 vegetables and making sure the things that we're buying from the supermarket are safe there there are thousands of 7:25 people all the people who deliver your mail Andor like Louis de Joy who we saw 7:31 like very clearly didn't know what he was doing but I think a lot of Americans not that they take it for granted but 7:37 they don't appreciate how deeply the Professionals in the government actually 7:42 are embedded in their everyday lives and those people there's a certain expertise that comes is necessary with that I mean 7:49 you know you or I could not just watch a YouTube video go into a slaughterhouse and figure out whether you know beef is 7:55 being stored properly we could not you know read a couple of books and go out and look get you know workplace safety 8:01 and figure out whether or not there's an OSHA violation there are people who are trained and spend their entire lives 8:07 doing these jobs and in the case of the FBI you know there are people you come in you're trained as an agent you begin 8:13 as a very Junior agent invest doing investigations of fairly simple complexity and you gain experience and 8:20 expertise and whatever it is whether you're looking at a Russian foreign intelligence officer whether you're 8:26 looking at an Al-Qaeda operative whether you're looking at some you know Wall Street Traders who are engaging 8:31 potentially in you know financial institution fraud there's an expertise that comes with that and is needed and 8:38 you know whether you're investigating it whether you're supervising 14 agents who are investigating it whether you're 8:44 running a field office that are doing all of these investigations you can't just step in if you're Donald Trump and 8:50 say well you know I understand Mr special agent in charge you've worked up to this you know gota distinguish 8:57 yourself amongst your peers over 20 years but I've got somebody who is a big donor out of uh you know Oma Nebraska 9:03 and they're a real loyalist and so I'm going to put them in charge here you just they do not have the skills or the 9:08 expertise or the experience to do any successful you know effort in that job 9:16 so I hear some of this project 2025 you know discussion and I just I I 9:22 understand what it is he wants to do and the other thing is like we had early on 9:28 in our civil service a p almost a patronage system which is in corruption 9:33 is endemic to that process if you are if a spoil for political patronage is an award of a job within the government 9:40 that is going to bring along with it a certain both incompetence and Corruption that is not going to serve the American 9:45 public will at all and so a lot of what you saw throughout you know particularly in the late 1800s early 1900s was the 9:52 professionalization of our civil service the creation of a you know a true independent group of government 9:59 employees who go out and do their job without regard to whether the president 10:04 is red or blue and they just go out and do a good job now those same people are going to vote right don't get me wrong 10:10 they're going to go out and they're going to vote for one candidate or the other but that really it isn't like well I voted for the red candidate and the 10:17 blue candidate won therefore I'm not going to do my job for four years that's that's not but this is what Trump wants us to think isn't it this is the 10:24 projection because if he was working in the government if he could even get a security clearance which is probably not 10:30 the case he he would be entirely politically aligned he wouldn't be able 10:36 to separate the the notion of personal and professional he's just not built that way so he projects to make other 10:43 people think that everyone else is as corrupt as as he is and and that must have had quite a negative effect on the 10:51 Civil Service just knowing that he is projecting this language that is devaluing their efforts well it 10:58 certainly has an impact I mean you know people go in and they do their job but you can't tune out the outside world I 11:03 mean it is inevitable when it shows up on the television or you know the Nightly News or in social media you see 11:09 some of the statements he's making and you're right I mean in almost every instance the accusations he would make 11:14 were in fact confessions you know the allegation oh there's a deep State doing all these horrible things I you know 11:19 most of us would heard that the first few times or like what are you talking about that's that's impossible it would 11:26 never happen that way but then come to find out those were exactly the things that he was doing and so it it kind of 11:34 cuts it cuts badly both ways right there's one you can't Envision it if you're on the inside that I can't ever 11:40 see doing things that way I can't Envision anybody acting that way but yet on his side he is in fact behaving that 11:47 way and doing those bad things so it's a it's a pernicious cycle um you know and 11:53 I think across the board we still see to this day government agencies which are 11:58 afraid to do things which are going to arouse the ey of trump and and Magan 12:03 nation and that's that's not to anybody's benefit but it's still unfortunately a 12:10 reality I I want to talk about the the shooting and all of the drama associated with that in just a little while first 12:16 though I just want to react to something that you just said about government agencies and and and expertise because 12:22 there was a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court in late June where the the 12:28 chevron case I'm referring to cutting back on the on the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws that they 12:34 administer and ruling that the courts should rely on their own interpretation of of the laws and and this decision is 12:41 going to have far-reaching effects right across the country from environmental regulation as in you know the water we 12:48 drink and the air that we breathe to to health care costs for example and you know this was very this was a 63 um uh 12:56 case in the in the Supreme Court with of course the the Republican justices voting for this because it backs up 13:04 their support of big business takes away regulation and enables even more price 13:10 gouging profiteering and Corruption at the highest levels this is the pox of trumpism isn't 13:17 it this is the effect of trumpism his Supreme Court placements and and the corruption that we're seeing in the 13:24 Supreme Court do you think people understand the importance of this 13:29 chevron case and why its reversal is so detrimental to modern society not yet I 13:36 mean I think it's going to take some time I mean look the reality is that the majority of the Supreme Court has been appointed by presidents who lost the 13:42 popular vote so let that sink in the majority of the Supreme Court Justices were appointed by people who did not 13:49 receive the majority of the presidential vote so they don't speak with the majority of Americans and I think some 13:55 of it you know that very that that Chevron I think the decision which if I call correctly was authored by uh 14:00 justice Alo in fact contained you know not a typo but like you know used the 14:05 wrong definition they used the word nitrous oxide when they were looking for a different chemical compound nitrous 14:10 oxide is is laughing gas the the chemical it issue was something slightly different but it goes to the point that 14:16 judges are not experts they are experts in the law they're experts in applying the law to a fact pattern but they are 14:22 not the sort of folks who can go out and look at a complex issue whether it is talking about a chemical manufacturer we 14:29 just saw what's very interesting is uh in some of the like content moderation there was another Supreme Court case and 14:35 I'm forgetting the name of the uh the decision that came out this term as well but that essentially was talking about 14:40 the role and how whether or not the government should be interacting jawboning is the term right whether they 14:46 should be influencing or providing information to social media companies and if so what sort of constraint should 14:52 exist around that now it came out through this I think judge Dodie I think was his name and either I think he was 14:58 Louisiana issued on the 4th of July this huge ruling that was full of just absolutely 15:04 incorrect technical information it was appealed went to the fifth circuit uh and again which Incorporated still that 15:11 very shoddy raw data and then finally when the Supreme Court took a look at it and finally issued their ruling took 15:17 both the district court and the circuit court of appeals court to task for saying look this is garbage data that 15:23 you have in here and so the point being at the end of the day you have to rely on the expertise of people outside to be 15:32 able to do their jobs and if you don't you risk one overwhelming the court 15:37 system because if every single little contentious issue cannot be decided by an agency and instead has to go in front 15:44 of a judge who potentially has no background whatsoever who needs to be briefed and maybe he's briefed well or 15:50 maybe he's briefed poorly and so you know people have to determine what the facts are all of this slows things down 15:56 but Anthony I think there was a lot of take away about well you know this this last Supreme Court term really enhanced 16:02 the power of the presidency and I do think that's true I mean I think the immunity ruling for Trump was horrible 16:08 but the bigger winner than the presidency were the courts and in particular the Supreme Court because at 16:15 the end of the day they said yes you know in the case of you know Chevron the courts will decide these things but even with the presidency even given that they 16:23 said he the president she the president would have these extraordinary amounts of immunity at the end of the day the 16:29 people who will decide whether or not that standard fits or not is not the president it's going to be the Supreme 16:36 Court so while I think a lot of folks were focusing on what this Supreme Court gave to Donald Trump in particular I 16:42 think these sort of quieter bigger messages the amount of power it continues to sort of accumulate around 16:49 the court itself and when it comes to Chevron I mean these are these are again much like talking about you know what 16:56 does the government actually do in your everyday life it's found but hard to see I mean it's like you can drive on a 17:01 Federal Highway without a poth hole your mail shows up generally on time you can go and you know buy food at the 17:07 supermarket that doesn't make you sick you can get on an elevator without it constantly you know coming off the rails 17:12 and falling to the ground and injuring you you can drive in your car and if you get in an accident the airbag works all 17:17 these things come about because of the government because of expertise and to 17:23 the extent there's any sort of regulatory aspect to that to take it out 17:29 of the way it has worked for Generations I I I think is going to be profound but I think it's going to take 17:35 us it's like global warming I mean there is no doubt at the end of the day it is going to have a horrible end result but 17:41 it is difficult to see on a day-by-day basis just the slow horrible shift that we're in so we might see a case that 17:49 manifests like oh that's a horrible result but it's very hard to scope out and see the totality of really negative 17:56 impact in my opinion that's going to come out of the shepher I suppose the the word that you 18:02 use that really chimes with me the most is is expertise and and this is a a kind 18:08 of slow destruction of expertise at a senior level where not just the the 18:14 president as in the disgraced former president never cared for expertise to 18:19 the extent that covid was a disaster under him or that he drew a Sharpie line 18:25 to show the trajectory of a storm to save face I mean just awful 18:30 things a and yet it's so important like you know when you meet someone randomly 18:35 who is an expert or or Highly Educated or just has a really interesting Niche job they're the most incredible people 18:43 you'll ever meet and yet these are the very people that Donald Trump and a future Trump presidency wants nothing to 18:50 do with and so to the this kind of gradual erosion of expertise of course you have plenty certainly when it came 18:57 to the Russia probe all of your efforts there and Donald Trump's version was well I spoke to 19:03 Vladimir Putin myself and he said he didn't medal in the election so who am I supposed to believe him or the security 19:09 services he chose Putin incidentally for those for those that missed that moment in hill sinki so what is it about like 19:18 deregulation and distaste for expertise that that the Republicans are pedling 19:24 that people seem to be buying well I think it's a notion of again creating an Us Versus Them 19:31 environment it is not something where we all come together as a nation we're a diverse Nation our diversity gives us 19:36 strength you know there is a sense of meritocracy that if you go out and you work hard that we want to try and give 19:42 everybody an equal opportunity and with that equal opportunity with effort we can all get ahead this is a creation of 19:48 a not creation I mean I do think there's a certain division but I and I think it is a a large continuing shift of power 19:56 away from sort of the rural areas of the United States into the urban areas of the United States and that within the 20:02 rural areas individual Farmers or small towns are you know kind of being bought out and replaced by you know whether 20:09 it's large farm corporations or whatever the case may be I think and also there's 20:14 frankly I think a racial shift in what is traditionally a white Mel sort 20:19 of you know predominant holding of power in the United States and moving into a 20:25 much more sort of diverse environment and anytime you get that I think it does 20:30 create Division and I think Donald Trump and his popularism in particular is playing to and encouraging that Division 20:36 and some of that division is not you know it's easy to Layel things right well you got the immigrants and they're 20:42 bad and they're killing people and they're taking your job you have the elites you know those smart people on the coast who know think they know 20:48 better than you and they've got all their education and they don't you know they think they're going to solve all 20:53 your problems but really all they're doing is taking care of themselves that sort of message reson Ates and 20:59 unfortunately the you know trickle over is you know Anthony fouchy and you know you know do your own research and if you 21:05 want to take ior mechon if you want to inject bleach you know you're you're just as smart as some you know not only 21:11 doctor but an entire field of epidemiologists and Physicians who can sit there and say okay you over the path 21:17 of modern medicine over the past hundred years where we've eradicated polio and suddenly now we're like talking about 21:23 you know I Donald Trump saying I'm not going to give money to any school that has a vaccine mandate so congratulations 21:29 that we're back to the age of Ms muss rebella all these horrible things that we decided 140 years ago were bad but 21:36 all because it's like well this expertise somehow is is bad and what's 21:42 from a from a sort of counterintelligence perspective what's interesting is a lot of that a lot of 21:49 these sort of themes are themes that are used by authoritarians you can look and you can see it whether it is in Putin's 21:55 Russia if you look at authoritarians around the world current and past a lot of this idea of expertise in some ways 22:03 correlates with the truth right there are people who have expertise and they're experts because they know what they're doing if a doctor says something 22:09 that's the truth because he's a doctor if an economist says something she knows what she's saying because she has an 22:14 expertise in that if uh you know and and so this this knowledge the idea that there is a common truth that we can all 22:22 agree to and say these are the facts that doesn't suit the authoritarian the authoritarian wants you to only believe 22:29 what they're saying only their spin there isn't you know the fake news what you know you could tune in one point in 22:36 time to Walter kronite or pick up the New York Times and that was the truth the Evening News was fact oh now it's 22:42 all fake news so all of these things all of these experts in the Deep state in 22:47 the doctors with covid with the fake news it's all there is no truth sort of 22:53 the you know fancy word the epistemic order the you know the the truth-based order 22:59 underpins democracy because we can all sit down and agree these are the facts and therefore let's vote on or agree 23:05 upon or not about what we want to do if you do away with that truth well then 23:11 you know what you've got left is the authoritarian you know Anthony you believe one set of facts I believe one set of facts our neighbors believe a 23:17 third set of facts there isn't really any agreed upon set of facts so we've got to look to the leader to tell us and 23:24 so that is you know there's this this really from a you know again a political science perspective from a international 23:31 relations perspective from you know looking at what one of the things that Russian and Soviet disinformation always 23:37 tried to do was to attack the same thing to attack the truth that was one of the purposes of disinformation and active 23:44 measures to try and erode this common acceptance of the truth and again it 23:49 does it to undermine democracy and at the same time it's also boosting the potential power of an authoritarian so I 23:55 think there there's a lot that goes into it do I think Trump has the first set of would be able to think any of those 24:01 things no I don't I think he just wants to say you know whatever comes out of his mouth and I I don't know that he is 24:09 listening to the man and watching him I do not know that he has a single 24:17 grounded sort of Truth infrastructure in his head in other words if you ask him a 24:22 question today about something he would give you an answer where he'd lay out 24:27 facts which probably I'll be wrong ask him the same question tomorrow you'd get a different answer same question next week you'd get a different answer 24:33 there's not a coherent fact pattern in his head yeah he he's a he's a shape shifter he he really has there is no 24:40 kind of common theme with him and and that isn't that really the definition of a of a populist is somebody will say 24:46 anything to the group that they happen to be standing in front of but but I I want to ask you something about the 24:52 Counter Intelligence aspect to this because as as Citizens and as as 24:57 residents and people who live in the United States we hope that there is a 25:04 group that keeps us safe from this we would like to think that there is an organization whether it be the 25:11 FBI that or or law enforcement in some way that protects us from 25:16 authoritarianism and yet it hasn't really been the case and and Donald Trump often talks about the fact that 25:22 when he first started campaigning in 2015 2016 that that the FBI were already 25:28 in investigating him well that's kind of true isn't it the FBI did identify him 25:33 as being a potential Russian asset and somebody who was not an ideal candidate 25:38 for president so so is that something that the FBI is the FBI the the organization 25:45 basically what I'm saying who are protecting us from authoritarianism they tried to in 2016 are they doing it again 25:54 now Al so I think a couple of points I mean one the in the run up to the 2016 25:59 election the bureau is not investigating Trump I mean there had been this allegation that the Russians offered to help the Trump campaign and so there was 26:06 a question about like did that offer take place and who received that offer if it did and so that resulted in you 26:12 know the cases on Mike Flyn George Papadopoulos Paul mord Carter page I mean that was the Genesis of those 26:17 investigations but it you know at the end of the day it's it's a great question and a question I don't have a a 26:23 good answer for because you know the FBI is not in the political business the FBI 26:28 is not in the process of you know if it is a violation of law absolutely the FBI has a role there if it is something that 26:35 a foreign Nation Russia China Iran whoever is doing yes the FBI has a role 26:41 there but when it comes to you know a a political candidate with authoritarian 26:47 Tendencies that's not the bureau's Wheelhouse and I don't know that it's anybody in the federal government's 26:54 wheelhouse now if there are voting rights you know violations if somebody is you know illegally taking away or 26:59 making illegally making it harder to to vote yes that's something that can be done but you know I've always thought 27:05 Donald Trump isn't the problem Donald Trump is the symptom of the problem there are easily 50 plus million people 27:13 who voted for him who saw what those four years looked like and are lining up 27:18 to say yeah give me more you want to go further absolutely give me more of that so this isn't a they they some I think 27:26 are blind to the truth and I do think there are certain cult-like behaviors going on but the reality is at the end 27:32 of the day the problem that we've got within our society is one that we've got to figure out you know what we stand for 27:38 and what we believe and what the real again going back to this idea of Truth you know what are the common things we 27:45 can agree upon that we are and what we want to do because at the end of the day the government is use a hack NE phrase 27:51 you know it deres its power from the consent of the government and so if you have these huge swats I mean I am also 27:57 convinced that if Trump is elected there going to be a ton of people who don't see him as a legitimate leader 28:02 particularly if he starts doing wildly abusive things and so you know those questions are questions for the 28:09 population for the Democracy of the United States and I don't know that appropriately anybody in the government 28:17 has a role there and it gets and where that s the friction point of that for what the bureau does do is when foreign 28:24 nations are engaging in disinformation activity and that is something you know we know the Russians have and continue 28:30 to do it as well as the Chinese and the Iranians but you know nobody liked the Russians and the huge outcry from the 28:37 far right about any interaction between the government and social media companies in particular and what the 28:45 Nutty things that Elon Musk is saying these days about you know content and what the government should or shouldn't be doing goes to the point of you know 28:52 there's a fundamental reasonable question there about you know Facebook and Twitter and Google cannot recruit 28:59 sources overseas and get information about what the Russian intelligence services are trying to do right that's 29:05 something the US government does the CIA does the FBI does Private Industry in the United States can't do that and so 29:10 to the extent there's information out there that yes this group you know going back the internet research agency in St 29:17 Petersburg under a guy named you know progan who's Putin Chef is targeting disinformation into US social media is 29:25 that important to convey to the American people to social media companies in my opinion yes because they can't easily do 29:32 that themselves but what you see and I think this in my opinion huge outcry on 29:37 the right is not because of any high-minded freedom of speech issue it 29:42 is a defensive response because they understand that in large measure these 29:47 efforts have been to the advantage of Donald Trump and they do not want those efforts St in any way shape or form if 29:54 it were the reverse if China was leading the World in advancing kamla 30:00 Harris's candidacy and was all over you know every single bit of social media news that we read online I guarantee you 30:07 the Jim Jordans and right-wing Maga folks of the world would be pushing for the US intelligence Community to get 30:13 this information and to provide it and to stifle these you know pieces of disinformation on Twitter or Facebook or 30:20 wherever they may be but it's it's not the debate that is going on now there is a reasonable debate that's not what's 30:27 going on the debate that's going on is a political one to protect Donald Trump which unfortunately you know Elon Musk 30:32 has bought into and you know I think a lot of the kind of crazy far right you know the the bigars is a fun term I 30:39 learned not too long ago that that's a good one but it's also it's also the court though it's also the Supreme Court 30:45 because it is a supreme court in the tank for Trump and if you didn't think that before and you gave them the 30:51 benefit of the doubt after row you might be like oh okay and then after Chevron 30:58 you're like oh hang on and then after immunity you're like whoa th this this court really is just Donald Trump's 31:04 personal lawyers it seems so so what I'm getting is that the answer that you're giving me is that there isn't an 31:10 organization the FBI the CIA or anybody who really is protecting us from 31:16 authoritarianism it's down to us it's down to the vote it's down to us recognizing that certainly in this race 31:22 carela Harris represents freedom and democracy and Donald Trump represents dictatorship Authority arianism 31:28 despotism and that relationship with with Russia um I suppose there is a a 31:34 glimmer of hope and that is that on on Thursday Wednesday or Thursday this week 31:40 Chuck Schumer introduced a bill in the Senate to declare explicitly that presidents do not have immunity from 31:46 Criminal conduct which is you know his intention is to override the Supreme Court ruling and and this is called the 31:53 no Kings act which would apply to presidents and vice presidents has more 31:58 than two dozen Democratic co-sponsors so it really is down to lawmakers to to keep us safe yeah and I worry that 32:05 that's a little bit of performance theater I mean it is a noble effort it is the appropriate effort but I don't expect one that it it will pass and two 32:12 even if it did pass it would be ruled constitutional so Schumer is not our savior it it it does it does come down 32:19 to us because the fact you know one of the impacts is you know we we talk about there isn't an organization in the 32:24 government to protect us from authoritarians but because of this decision we have now a situation where an authoritarian could absolutely turn 32:31 the institutions into authoritarian type you know levers of power and some I was 32:36 reading but they already have P they but but but but think of this so somebody you know a colleague from the from the 32:42 CIA now retired wrote an editorial talking about like all of the reforms of the 60s and 70s through the Pik and 32:49 church committee saying you know the CIA can't do domestic operations that you know if you're going to engage in covert 32:54 activity you have to brief the the Congress about that that there has to be these oversights all that now is up in 33:00 the air if given this ruling the absolute immunity of a president for 33:05 official acts who could come in and say you know find is Oliver North and say I want you to go and start using the CIA 33:11 and the NSA to monitor these here's my enemies list of 20 folks across government and the media and Private 33:18 Industry I want you to break into their homes I want you to start collecting and monitoring their emails I want you to tell me who they're talking to in the 33:23 media and here's by the way I know I have immunity but you don't but here's your partner in advance so you're taken 33:29 care of as well you know everybody says well this only applies to Trump that all these people under him they don't have 33:34 immunity and therefore they're going to be held in check by the law not if Trump pardons them they're not now he can't 33:41 issue a pardon for a state violation which there's some hope in that but I don't think people have thought through 33:47 and this again to your point if you read the Supreme Court Trump immunity decision and I think it was Neil Gorsuch 33:53 during argument said we are writing a decision for the ages we have to be careful this was a custom it was like if 33:59 you walked into London to a bespoke tailor who sat there measured you two 34:04 weeks later you come back for the rough cut tailor it up come back in for another two you know final T this 34:10 decision was specifically tailored to Donald Trump and his cases in federal court in uh Manhattan in Geor or in 34:18 state court in Manhattan in Georgia and federal court in DC in Florida it touches on elements of each and every 34:23 one of those things specifically fitting his fact pattern and nowhere else and by the way we haven't 34:28 needed a decision like this for the first 44 presidents of the United States going back to 1776 but suddenly Supreme 34:35 Court decides they need to take this very specific fact pattern and write a convoluted internally inconsistent 34:42 decision tailored towards one man and that man I have no doubt will take every 34:48 advantage of that not to evade he will to evade prosecution now but if he was 34:54 to return to power absolutely wied it with you abandon and the proof of that 34:59 is that Joe Biden is not taking advantage of this immunity that he has 35:04 been given that that is the proof of good against evil effectively I have one more question on this and that is that 35:11 am I right in saying that there is no crime of domestic terrorism here in the US like domestic terrorism it can't be 35:19 tried as possibly it should be because you know Trump with January 6 you know arguably he's a domestic terrorist he 35:26 overturned or tried to overturn the election overthrow the government attack the capital but because it's not 35:34 considered a crime because maybe I don't know American exceptionalism no American is going to turn on its own country and 35:39 all the thinking was that threats would be coming from the Middle East and elsewhere that that actually we need to 35:47 really kind of Reform the way that these crimes can be prosecuted well it's true there is not 35:54 when it comes to laws right the the title 18 criminal violations there exist International terrorism laws that there 36:00 isn't an analog in the domestic terrorism sense now that's different from saying you know the FBI and does 36:06 label groups is domestic terrorism groups and has domestic terrorism investigations but when those rise to 36:14 the criminal level where they're being investigated when you see those charges it isn't a DT or domestic terrorism 36:19 statute is inevitably you know use of a weapon a mass destruction or conspiracy charges or male fraud charges and the 36:26 the problem becomes I mean it's a First Amendment issue the the issue becomes when you try and enact a law again we're 36:32 not talking about what the FBI can investigate or not but when it comes time to creating a a charging law a 36:39 violation of criminal law how do you define what a domestic terrorism group 36:45 is and and part of that issue is because there are so many robust protections under the First Amendment to say hateful 36:52 you know awful but lawful things that are racist things that are misogynistic things that are anti-Semitic whatever 36:57 the case may be the first amendment protections of those are so strong that it is difficult to then say okay well 37:04 how do you how do you convey that into a domestic terrorism law now we 37:10 have sedition on the books I mean if somebody's trying to overthrow the government those statutes exist but it 37:15 gets really hard if you were to try and take a an issue on the one hand and then 37:21 two the tools that are in place again in my opinion work you know if there's attempted murder of a kidnapping of a 37:27 federal official like thinking the Gretchen Whitmer and the folks who had that plot in Michigan there are statutes 37:33 on the book that have been effectively in many cases not all applied to 37:39 domestic terrorism investigations and so that's one and then kind of the last thing that I think about not the last 37:45 but another important thing I think about is as much as we say okay well we need this domestic terrorism law it's 37:51 like well who is who's defining what domestic terrorism is and remember and this is part of my the Supreme Court you 37:58 don't write the rules for the rule follower you write the rules for the rule Breaker Joe Biden is going to do 38:04 the right thing because He follows the rules you write the rules because when Donald Trump comes in you want some constraint on their bad behavior so as 38:11 much as you and I might look and say well we need to domestic terrorism law because look at all these the proud boys and the 38:16 oathkeepers great but then look how that domestic terrorism law would be used by 38:21 President Donald Trump and attorney general Rudy Giuliani and the potential for 38:27 abuse again you look at any any rule any law don't think about how a good person 38:35 would use it think about and again a new term I learned over the past few months you know uh Oliver W Holmes had the IDE 38:41 the bad man I mean they had the concept of how how would the bad man behave how would the bad man use this or behave in 38:47 these circumstances and so I think again in the domestic terrorism front it has 38:52 always been tricky because of the link to the First Amendment but particularly when it comes to creating Criminal law 38:58 it's a really problematic area that I think my opinion again just mine I think 39:03 we've got the tools we need on the books already this is why I'm not a First Amendment guy because I I never grew up 39:09 with it you know we don't have it in in the UK and we certainly have domestic terrorism laws H and we also you know 39:16 have have speech laws as well which if you say any of the above which you you mentioned then you could effectively be 39:24 criminalized for it's so interesting I do think sometimes the US needs to look outside of its own borders to kind of 39:29 see how other nations have evolved with these laws for decades you know believe 39:35 me I I spent a good portion of my career wishing we had an official Secrets act because it would make you know it make 39:40 the job of a lot of folks out there leaking leaking classified information would make it a lot easier as well as to 39:46 prevent it from being published I was always it was always interesting to watch if there were a leak or things 39:51 happened particularly in the UK that it was just like no BBC take it down you can't you will not say it they like okay 39:57 we won't say it so it was a yeah it's a very different Paradigm very very different okay we have to take a quick break but I want to come back and talk 40:03 about the attempted assassination on Donald Trump which caused a a whole frenzy for certainly for that week we'll 40:10 do that next here on the weekend show we often think living a more heart 40:16 healthy life means making big unsustainable changes while with super beats heart chews you can get daily 40:23 blood pressure support in just two tasty chews a day and they even PR promote heart healthy energy without the 40:29 stimulants paired with a healthy lifestyle the antioxidants in super beats are clinically shown to be nearly 40:35 two times more effective at promoting normal blood pressure than a healthy lifestyle alone heart health is very 40:42 important to me I'd like to live as long as possible to enjoy my kids in old age 40:48 effective and clinically studied from Super beats the number one doctor pharmacist and cardiologist recommended 40:54 beet brand for cardiovascular health support double your potential with super 40:59 beats heart shoes get a free 30-day supply of super beats heart shws on all bundles and 15% off your first order by 41:07 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money.com weekend rocketman.com 42:19 weekend we're back with Peter stro here on the weekend show I'm Anthony Davis um 42:25 Peter did you ever think that Donald Trump might be the victim of an attempted assassination I mean it it 42:31 really came as a bit of a shock to everybody didn't it and it didn't really fit the Republicans narrative when they 42:36 discovered that the person that did it was a a young white male registered Republican who who' voted for Donald 42:43 Trump and voted Republican in the midterms and and seems we don't have all 42:48 the information yet but it seems clear that he was very much a trump supporter as was his father and he was using an 42:56 AR-15 which is of course a very controversial weapon and that caused a bit of hypocrisy as well because uh you 43:03 know Trump was targeted with the very weapon that he celebrates and that Republican lawmakers wear pins off 43:09 because they're they're so proud of their Second Amendment right just give me your reaction as a you know as a 43:16 former FBI guy looking at this because the FBI are coming up for criticism the 43:22 the security services coming up for criticism why was this missed you know there was at least at least two or three 43:28 minutes where before the shooting that that the the authorities were aware of this guy on a roof just outside of the 43:35 this Fairground environment and and and and yet it was allowed to happen yeah so 43:42 a lot of good questions in there starting with the last one first I mean it's clear that secret service had breakdowns in uh in in a variety of 43:49 settings you know listening to the testimony earlier this week from the acting director of course secret service director resigned I guess two weeks ago 43:56 but when you at everything from how did he get that close in the roof how was he not seen how was that rooftop not 44:02 secured how were the communications not working between the locals who were responsible for that Outer Perimeter 44:08 with the internal Secret Service detail that were closer into and around the former president to after the shots came 44:15 out the amount of time it took him and he's like I guess wait I need my shoes and then he needed to get his little fist pump in that you know the goal all 44:22 and should not have been nobody knows at that moment is the gunman down are there multiple gun the main thing is you get 44:29 the protect te off the X as fast as possible and that didn't happen so when you look at it was not just a one-off 44:35 failure there were a series of failures which point to real systemic issues and I think the secret service has been 44:41 under a lot of pressure recently I think there have been some other failures between the mass deletion of you know 44:46 all of their internal text messages on you know January 6 to some you know other other things going on I I think 44:53 you know it's a good proud long-standing agency you know I know many former and 44:59 I've assume some still current Secret Service agents who are excellent and very very good at their job but it is 45:04 clear this never should have happened and it needs to be fixed very quickly because we're running into the height of 45:10 campaign season scoping back a bit it is interesting to me to watch The Fallout 45:15 in particular given as it becomes apparent we think and again you're right that it's early there may be a lot of 45:22 information still in come out but as it appears now that the person is certainly a trump supporter and rightward 45:28 leaning the story has died away and you know if you think on the other hand if this guy had been you know on all kinds 45:34 of antifa chat groups and you know with big you know Joe Biden signs in his room 45:40 they would be talking about this non-stop in Fox and Congress you know across the the right-wing ecosphere the 45:46 reason has died down I think in no small measure has been because of the background of the individual and again 45:52 to your point the big underlying issue here is the ready availability guns in 45:57 particular not hand guns but long guns weapons that you don't need you know to go deer hunting your bear hunting or 46:04 whatever it is you might want to do you don't need to kick out you know 20 to 30 rounds in a magazine in a very short 46:09 period of time so that is you want to solve the problem Common Sense gun 46:15 reform will do a huge amount to solve the problem but you know to your first 46:20 question am I surprised I'm not you know frankly I'm surprised it didn't more 46:25 violence has not happened sooner ER I mean we've had plenty look I mean you know we had Paul Pelosi attacked in his 46:30 house with a hammer we've had judges you know somebody who uh attempted to you know kill a judge and I think killed her 46:37 son instead in New Jersey if remember serves but there is a culture violence 46:44 that Donald Trump is amplifying has been calling you know anytime you get a candidate who's talking about I am your 46:50 retribution and we are going to come and get Vengeance and it has his very first 46:56 campaign of EV in Waco Texas on the anniversary of the branch deidan compound standoff there is an underlying 47:03 recurring messaging here of one of sort of apocalyptic violence and so I'm very surprised there hasn't been more I sadly 47:09 don't think it's going to stop and again the backdrop is America's Got a violent 47:15 history I mean and everybody knows about JFK and his assassination but you know General Ford had I think two attempts on 47:21 his life Ronald Reagan had an attempt on his life we have there political violence feel to think oh America's you 47:28 know the stable democracy and we're not like you know Iraq or some you know 47:34 developing Nation with you know racked by violence in the streets well in reality we've got a pretty you know and 47:40 then expand that to RFK and Martin Luther King I mean there are there is a 47:46 sadly rich and violent history of political violence in the United States 47:51 and I again I am surprised it took as long as it did so this attempt it 47:58 surprised me how Su nearly successful it was it did not surprise me that it occurred and I don't think we're 48:04 done the component that's missing though Peter with RFK and and with Martin 48:12 Luther King and with Ronald Reagan even 48:17 is that they themselves did not incite political violence that they whatever your 48:24 politics we we were never as fractious then as we are now with Donald Trump I 48:31 mean it's not any coincidence that when he delayed his evacuation so that he 48:36 could get his photograph taken and he chose the word fight and said it four times he could have said Peace he could 48:44 have said nothing but he chose to say fight really you know the next day 48:51 obviously all of the lawmakers were coming out and saying there is no place for political violence in America and 48:57 yet the one man who was the target is also the person who has incited 49:04 political violence for about eight years now right and continues to do so and 49:09 despite the one onewe honeymoon period where his PR people were saying oh he's a changed man after this assassination 49:16 attempt and look at the changed man at the convention that that didn't even make it through the end of the conv well the change was the bandage I think well 49:22 right yes and now there's absolutely no I mean I Nick my ear shaving and it's visible for two weeks I don't I mean the 49:28 man had a Mike Lindell M pillow on his head and and suddenly there's no visible damage whatsoever but look I I I think 49:35 again you're absolutely right Donald Trump is creating a permission structure within the United States for his followers to engage in violence and the 49:42 fact of the matter is this isn't new you can go back and again look at Paul Pelosi look at the various you know 49:48 judges who have been subjected to threats look at the FBI field office who have had gunmen you know get killed 49:53 because they've shown up and you go back to the first Trump Administration I mean there were people and the nature of 49:58 people who engage in violence like this in many cases are on the fringes in many cases have mental health issues they are 50:04 not rational people you know the majority of trump supporters are not going to engage in violence in all 50:11 likelihood I mean they just believe in the man and the movement but they're not going to go do crazy things but the 50:16 outer periphery the 0.1% the one1 100th of a 50:21 perc is there and when you talk about a movement that has tens of millions of people 100 of perc is still hundreds of 50:28 people and so you know I this isn't this became an issue not because 50:35 Trump had an attempt on his life and everybody came out and said we need to dial this down this became an issue 50:42 because prior to that all this violence was going on and there was not one word 50:47 trying to tone down the rhetoric from anybody in or around Trump whether in the media in Congress or anywhere else 50:54 and so again does it am I glad that everybody came out and said we need to tone down the rhetoric absolutely I was 51:02 it lasted again a week maybe two there are not people out you will not hear 51:07 Mike Johnson or marjerie Taylor green or Shan Hannity or anybody else saying we need cool the rhetoric that's gone it's 51:15 gone and so this isn't a real response this is a you know again a politically 51:22 motivated response to elevate Trump and Trump at the end of the day dis spouses violence encourages violence has done 51:29 that for years now and will continue to do that frankly until the day he dies 51:34 because I just think that is his nature this aggrieved you know sense of I need to be 51:41 the authoritarian they're out to get me we have to get them you know they're coming to rape your women and steal your 51:48 homes and it it is so baked into him it isn't going to stop and again that's why 51:54 I you know I'm very worried about the next several months and after that after the election whoever wins I'm very 52:01 worried about either people who feel embolden because Trump won or grieved 52:07 because they feel that Trump was victimized and the election was stolen yet again and now they've got to take 52:12 matters into their own hand this doesn't this doesn't end in early doesn't end yeah it would be remiss of us not to 52:19 mention the man who did lose his life in this shooting and whilst the as salent 52:25 missed the target he he did kill a man who was protecting his family two others 52:31 were critically injured you know I didn't really feel that Donald Trump had any emotion 52:39 towards those people let alone his own attempted assassination and to me that 52:44 was proof that we really are dealing with a with a sociopath with with somebody who is so very mentally 52:50 compromized because you know there was a recording of him calling RFK Jr that night and he seemed quite delighted that 52:57 somebody had tried to shoot him and was talking about it sounded like a mosquito and he was energized and enthusiastic 53:03 and and then of course the next day was his RNC uh convention where he shows up 53:09 with a solemn face and does this kind of very fake speech about how he he nearly lost his life and I shouldn't be here 53:15 today it's so weird it's so performative and no thought really for the 53:22 devastation of the family that lost a loved one in the in the this event no I 53:28 think that's absolutely right and it came out that you know I think President Biden tried to call the the Widow of the 53:33 man who was killed and you know understandably she's like no I don't want to talk to you because her you husband are Trump supporters and I I 53:39 mean it's moment of grief understand that but the fact was that Trump had not tried to call and it wasn't until it 53:45 sort of made the news that somebody in the campaign said oh my God we need to get Trump to make this call and you know 53:50 you could see and everything is always about Trump and you're right there's not empathy there it is just self-absorption 53:57 to the exclusion of anything else and whether it is an attempt on his life 54:02 whether it is sitting you know with the television on in the little dining room outside of the Oval Office watching 54:08 people beating the crap out of police officers on the steps of the capital wrapped attention eating a hamburger 54:13 while he does it there is no ability to in my opinion to relate to anybody else 54:19 and suffering or pain or joy and again talking to the you know 54:24 what what s take a little detour here from where you may want to go the 54:30 campaign Trump campaign has you know toyed around with making comma Harris's laughter an issue 54:36 you know I think they TW about call her laughing KLA and somebody pushed back and said when have you ever seen Trump 54:42 laugh ever ever and if you have if it was not derisive laughter at somebody is 54:47 a victim but when have you ever seen him laugh and joy and I don't think anybody can point to that and even you know I 54:53 don't think that he does it behind closed doors and what's the side version I was going to take on us on right when 55:00 I started the bureau they had this project called project Slammer they got a bunch of psychologists together and 55:06 they went out and they interviewed all these people who were incarcerated who had been convicting convicted of spying 55:12 you know everybody from you know alre James to eventually I think Robert Hansen but all these other folks 55:17 Nicholson folks who are in jail and just do a complete sort of interview series and say okay what were are the 55:22 commonalities are there things here that we can say the group of people who most 55:28 betrayed their Nation what's the sort of profiling makeup of that and one of the few takeaways one of the 55:35 commonalities is that they didn't have a sense of humor that when they went and they found all these people and they 55:40 talked to their colleagues their neighbors one thing that showed up again and again and again is they didn't 55:46 really have a sense of humor they didn't laugh they didn't chuckle and again when you go to that sociopathy and that inability because 55:53 laughter is you know it it's a shared Joy it's an empathetic reaction It's ability is it and yeah you want to share 56:01 laughter and some of it is self-deprecating humor right or giving you a hard time and if I'm giving you a 56:06 hard time you can laugh about it because we all real it is it is a a a shared human acknowledgement of 56:14 humanness and this absence yes I think does as much as anything to S of sort of 56:21 shine a light on that inner id ego I don't know the right psychological term 56:26 of what what's going on yeah or not going on well it's a it's it's a darkness and it's the opposite to the 56:33 lightness of Cara Harris whose whose laughter and joy is so exterior so overt 56:41 so so rooted in in honesty and authenticity Donald Trump the only time 56:47 I've seen him laugh is where he's like you know he's like doing a kind of fake thing to join in but you're right it 56:54 doesn't come from you know inside and and so I was very stunned by his reaction to the attempted assassination 57:01 I was like wow if someone tried to shoot you you'd be down for a week like you you'd be You' need to talk to a 57:07 therapist you'd certainly need to come to terms with this momentous 57:13 event and even the thing I would be more concerned about was the fact that my 57:19 celebrity had caused the death of someone behind me and I would I would have to deal with that and I I would 57:27 really struggle with that nothing from him right and I think to the extent that was there that 57:33 clearly the you know the prop that they got of the the gentleman's you know kind of fire uh protective clothing where he 57:40 goes over and he that was nothing in that in my opinion was genuine that was entirely somebody saying if there were 57:46 an empathetic person what would an empathetic person do hey boss you need to at this point you know rehearse it 57:52 you're going to go over there and oh like I hug the flag yes like you hug the flag go do that so I I you're right but 57:57 it's sick what what he did was was pretty sick and yet he and that kind of 58:02 Republican conference they presented all of this stuff in such a perfor 58:08 everything even the policies presented such a performative way that nobody can really tell kind of truth from 58:14 fiction yeah and I look I mean I think you're you're you're touching on something with the laughter and the joy 58:20 that I think is one a huge advantage to what Harris has now and you know Joe Biden is a kind gentleman has a great 58:27 sense of humor is there but I think you know he is he is older and I think somebody like KLA Harris who has that 58:34 ability for infectious enthusiastic laughter and joy is such a strength and 58:41 presents such a contrast I mean if your message is one of laughter one of Joy one of Hope one of building and coming 58:47 together and potential versus this dark dystopian they're here to rape and 58:53 pillage and they're taking your jobs and we're gonna it at the end of the day and it's like for Trump's an AR address you 58:59 know when George W bush turned I think it was Hillary Clinton said that was some weird because it was this hellscape and I assume it was Stephen 59:06 Miller whoever wrote it yes but it that at the end of the day even people who 59:11 feel disenfranchised people who feel like their power is slipping away I gotta believe at the end of the day our 59:17 human I hope and pray at the end of the day our Humanity shared Humanity of wanting to sit around the campfire 59:25 together and eat the meal and tell stories and share our 59:31 commonness outweighs this sort of baguer Barbarians at the gate every day 59:38 for decades on end well it's it's the negativity it's it's like a negative campaign versus a positive campaign and 59:43 and the positive campaigns invariably are the ones that win and when Donald Trump talks about the us being a nation 59:50 in Decline I don't recognize the country that he's talking about 59:57 agree and I think the again that is that is targeted towards the base that is targeted I think to to bring out the 1:00:03 worst in the people I mean look there there there's a way there is a reasonable like you feel like the jobs are moving away from where you live you 1:00:10 think your standard of living is decreasing you think you lack you're not doing as well as you did when you were 1:00:15 growing up the answer to that is not we're all going to hell and get your guns because we got to Circle in the 1:00:20 wagons and fight the answer is we got to come together and make you know lift to use the Chinese phrase you know a Rising 1:00:26 tide lift all lifts all boats so let's all come together and improve the lot 1:00:31 and what's also interesting now with also the other Dynamic with Harris now is the age not only do you have the 1:00:37 positive Joy versus the negative Darkness you have the positive Joy Of Youth versus the creepy weird Grandpa 1:00:45 who is too old who has these dark incoherent visions and so it further 1:00:51 again I I want to be he's become the old candidate whereas before he he was used 1:00:56 those three years that he had over Joe Biden to kind of claim that the three 1:01:01 years to him was was 20 years can can we just talk um briefly about about gun 1:01:07 reform off the back of this attempted assassination because do you think that there will be any 1:01:14 shift I should probably caveat this by saying that when surveyed nationally 1:01:19 Americans are in favor of gun safety laws and and gun reform uh and even to 1:01:25 to a certain extent what the Democrats seek to do is bring about an assault weapons ban as was years 1:01:32 ago but the legislators the Republicans in in in Congress and in the Senate are 1:01:38 are not down for this do you think that the the attempted assassination using an 1:01:44 AR-15 style weapon is going to change the conversation no no I think the best 1:01:51 thing that I saw that that could have been done is if the Democrats put together a law calling the you know protect Donald Trump act you know and 1:01:58 try and and force Republicans to vote against it because they would vote against it because unfortunately the idea of gun control has been and it 1:02:04 wasn't always this way I mean this is one of the remarkable stories of the past 30 years in the National Rifle 1:02:10 Association how they've been able to take gun ownership in the Second Amendment and turn it into such an 1:02:15 extraordinarily strong political issue that is so absolute that you have you 1:02:21 know again going to the Supreme Court crazy rulings coming out of the Supreme Court about what your right are when it 1:02:26 comes to gun ownership and interpretation of what our forefathers thought in the era of you know breach 1:02:32 loading muskets compared to automatic weapons with you know 30 60 100 round 1:02:38 magazines and bump stocks to you know create uh automatic weapons there it is 1:02:45 in my opinion so entrenched at this point I don't see how we get to 1:02:50 National Gun reform I think there's a hope that states can do it and that hopefully you know that is a little 1:02:56 easier on a smaller scale to get together and sort of pass laws and you know and some would say well that 1:03:02 Supreme Court is that's what they're trying to do they're saying well this is a state business not a federal one but the problem is you know we are one 1:03:08 nation and the flow of everything from Guns much like agriculture or anything else it it's trivial to you know go to a 1:03:16 different jurisdiction do things that are legal there buy a gun buy 10 guns 1:03:21 and drive it right back to your house where you live in a state where you couldn't lawfully do that so 1:03:26 the short answer is I don't see gun reform coming anytime soon I think it is a noble thing to pursue I glad that uh 1:03:33 Harris is pushing for that as one of her articulated goals I think that's great I 1:03:39 I am not though holding my breath we have to take another quick break but I want to come back and talk 1:03:46 about kamla Harris as a as a candidate and these she talks about two different Visions for our nation we we'll do that 1:03:52 next here on the weekend show Lumen is the world's first handheld 1:03:59 metabolic coach it's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath and on the app it lets you know 1:04:05 if you're burning fat or carbs and gives you a tailored guidance to improve your nutrition workout sleep and even Stress 1:04:12 Management all you have to do is breathe into your Lumen first thing in the morning and you'll know what's going on 1:04:18 with your metabolism then Lumen gives you a personalized nutrition plan for that day based on your measurements you 1:04:24 can also breathe into it before and after workouts and meals so you know exactly what's going on in your body in 1:04:30 real time and Lumen will give you tips to keep you on top of your health gain 1:04:35 because your metabolism is at the center of everything your body does optimal metabolic Health translates to a bunch 1:04:41 of benefits including easier weight management improved energy levels better Fitness results and better sleep so if 1:04:48 you want to take the next step in improving your health go to lumen.me weekend to get 15% off your 1:04:55 Lumen that's len. me/ weekend for 15% off your 1:05:02 purchase thank you Lumen for sponsoring this 1:05:08 episode Peter stro I I often talk about this election being the most important 1:05:14 ever I think a lot of people are in agreement with that we're on a precipice dictatorship versus democracy and and 1:05:20 Cara Harris found herself becoming a candidate in a in a moment the news cycle uh a week or so ago was remarkable 1:05:28 really wasn't it you know with the with the shooting and then with Biden making his announcement that he was stepping 1:05:34 aside for for kamla Harris and the the outpouring of support and love and 1:05:40 energy for her campaign has been incredible she raised like a hundred million in the first 48 hours I think 1:05:46 she's doubled that now I mean these These are unprecedented numbers and and whilst I tend not to believe polls I do 1:05:53 believe fundraising totals as a as a barometer for the kind of support that 1:05:58 kamla Harris has this has spooked Donald Trump and you know some I think it was Anthony scaramucci said on on Thursday 1:06:06 uh I think Trump will drop out the race now I don't personally believe that a malignant narcissist is capable of that 1:06:12 and of course he's mainly running to keep himself out of prison so that's my 1:06:18 feeling as to why he he'll stay but let let's just talk to the the the mood of 1:06:23 the nation right now and the energy surrounding Cara Harris now I sense from our conversation so far that you 1:06:30 feel that there has been a you know America has turned a positive Corner would would I be right in saying that I 1:06:37 think so I mean look it's it's there's a long time to go I mean just under 100 days a lot is going to happen between 1:06:44 now and then positive and negative certainly including the the DNC the Commission in Chicago I think that will be a net huge positive but I think there 1:06:51 you know there willon be ups and downs and I think you know Harris is appropriately said you know we are The 1:06:56 Underdogs and they need to think like they're The Underdogs and continue on the offense all the way through election 1:07:02 day but I do think you know it is clear that there is an energy there is a this this sort of forboding about Joe Biden 1:07:09 the candidate the replacement with KLA Harris as the candidate of somebody who is younger more energetic and 1:07:15 charismatic and you know there are a couple of very it's you know watching the Olympics now you know particularly the long course things like mountain 1:07:22 biking or biking whatever it is your equestrian stuff there are points in the course that are very difficult and 1:07:27 others that are not so difficult one of the extraordinarily early difficult things was for her to kind of bring the 1:07:34 party together behind her to get the major fundraisers on board to get the grassroot supporters on board and she's 1:07:40 navigated that beauti so that first real test where everybody's like okay here's the first real challenge in my opinion 1:07:47 navigated that top marks because that's the H isn't it ready and because it's all that is extraordinarily hard I mean 1:07:53 all these calls are like oh we should have an open convention or you know whether or not the wealthy donors are going to stand back and wait and see how 1:07:59 things shake out or you know influential people like President Obama going to wait and maybe give his you know 1:08:04 endorsement at the convention all those nav she's managed to navigate all those things I think in a very effective way 1:08:10 but there's a lot a lot still to come I think I'm very interested to see who she 1:08:15 selects as her her running mate I think you know if you if you get Pennsylvania Andor Wisconsin you're in great shape 1:08:22 and I you know I love what I've heard out of walls Shapiro I think is very effective I do my concern with Shapiro 1:08:28 is the same concern I have with Harris in that I think a lot of America remains 1:08:36 deeply racist in a lot of ways people will not acknowledge now there are overt 1:08:41 racist and they're already in Trump's Camp you know the Nick Fuentes even some people who aren't quite that overtly 1:08:47 racist there is still Across America people who ostensibly say hey I 1:08:53 am not a bigot at all my white brother black brother Brown brother we are all 1:08:58 Brothers the reality is when they're sitting inside their living room or sitting around the kitchen table or walking to the privacy of the voting 1:09:05 booth there is an undercurrent of racism that still exists I think in a lot more 1:09:12 places than the coastal Elites want to believe now is that going to manifest 1:09:18 itself into I because of that can't vote for Harris let alone a Harris Shapiro 1:09:24 ticket I hope not and I'm heartened that the group of Americans who I think are 1:09:30 least you know racially sort of imbalance if you look at it as the youth I think tend to be far more open and if 1:09:38 that youth vote can get out in the way that they did in the midterms in 2022 1:09:43 even in 2020 building on that sum it won't be a close election at all but I do there is if you had the exact same 1:09:52 personality and and again that's what is I in my opinion driving the soul like well her you know you need a like shopping 1:10:00 for wine we need a dry white mail for with the VP pick but there are 1:10:05 challenges ahead and I I love what she's doing I am 100% behind her I'm gonna do 1:10:10 everything in my power to ensure she is elected but I have real concerns about the reality of what again step outside 1:10:17 of the studio at CNN or MSNBC or The Newsroom and editorial rooms of the Washington Post in New York Times if you 1:10:23 drive across America a lot of really good people but a lot of 1:10:28 really entrenched racism and frankly traditional Hillary Clinton couldn't get elected now there are a lot again in my 1:10:35 opinion a lot of things that went into that one of those things was that she was a woman we have had a black 1:10:40 president in our nation's history we have yet to have fale President and who was reelected and was a good president 1:10:47 yeah we have yet to have a woman now 1:10:52 India has had one Israel has had one uh Germany has had one I it is not New 1:10:59 Zealand has had one I mean this is not anything where it's like oh this is unusual to the you know International 1:11:05 democracies but the fact of the matter is up until 2020 America has not yet elected a woman 1:11:12 well why is that and one of the reasons again in my opinion are these sort of entrenched not spoken about normative 1:11:21 beliefs well I don't know about a woman you add I don't know about a black woman 1:11:28 I do worry there's and who you can't pull that I mean nobody's going to tell you if you answer a poll you're not 1:11:34 going to say well yeah secretly inside I'm actually pretty much a you know I don't think a woman let alone a black 1:11:39 woman should be anywhere near the you're not going to say that to a poster so I do worry whether or not how unfortunately 1:11:47 large that sentiment may be when it comes to the voting bre the good news is Trump is such a crazy whack J job 1:11:56 hateful incompetent man with a demonstrated record of being a 1:12:02 felon of being an ajudge sexual assaulter the alternative is so 1:12:10 horrible I do think that will overcome whatever n well he hasn't won anything 1:12:16 since 2016 and I think people forget that is that yes there was huge turnout in 2020 but he didn't win and and there 1:12:24 was way more turnout out for for Joe Biden and I think that this is the thing that people forget that Donald Trump is 1:12:30 his own publicist he's the one that tells us that he's popular he's the one that tells us that he should have won 1:12:37 and he's the one that tells us that he's smart because his uncle was at MIT but 1:12:43 the reality is very different and and I I personally I don't agree with you about America not being able to elect a 1:12:50 woman and a person of color combined I I think that they were ready to elect a 1:12:55 female in 2016 and I I I blame your old boss James Comey but but but look so so 1:13:03 but but I I would say in the aggregate take a one off let's you know geraline Ferraro I mean there were there were 1:13:11 both parties had opportunities to nominate women to be their candidate and 1:13:17 you know when they did didn't succeed and I just think you know okay was it was it ever going to happen through you 1:13:24 know the 1940s probably not but starting in the 60s with the sexual Revolution 1:13:31 with Equal Rights Amendment with I would have hoped that we would have seen a 1:13:37 much more regular nomination of women leads yes on or at least serious 1:13:44 representation so again you know when it comes to Clinton I mean I think I agree with you that a factor was director 1:13:51 comey's choice but I think there are plenty of other factors one I also think was Russian interference without 1:13:57 question but I do think this not this desire to not lock down 1:14:02 the Wisconsin Michigan Pennsylvania ban yeah and instead well I'm gonna start 1:14:08 going down to Arizona I'm gonna go and put the take the battle to these reach States was a tactical error and so I 1:14:15 think a lot none of those one things were dispositive or the other way around any M but you needed like the perfect 1:14:22 storm right yeah I I don't I don't I think they Democrats probably recognize that and I don't think they'll they'll 1:14:27 make that mistake again and I I also think that you know Donald Trump is doing a lot to hang himself at the 1:14:35 moment and you know if you saw his appearance in front of black journalists and this was at the National Association 1:14:41 of black journalists annual convention on on Wednesday he was expected to make an appeal to Black voters uh and instead 1:14:49 he just ended up saying I didn't know that kamla Harris was black and I thought she was Indian and went down a 1:14:56 whole racist road that caused so much controversy the whole planet was talking 1:15:02 about it I mean if he's going to open his mouth between now and election day he will lose and and that day was a 1:15:10 perfect example of that yeah I mean the man is clearly a racist I mean let's just call let's not speculate it the man 1:15:17 is a racist and that was absolutely Apparent at that uh that news conference he is absolutely a misogynist and 1:15:23 whether you need to look at his behavior towards e Carrol or all these scores of women who have made credible accusations 1:15:30 against him he is not anybody who should come near the presidency should not have 1:15:36 come near the presidency but I do think you know as a result of this I would be stunned if his handlers let him anywhere 1:15:42 near a sort of interactive public debate ever again he is not going to show up on a debate stage with KLA Harris he is not 1:15:50 going to show up in a sort of nonpartisan interview type scen Ario like he had at this you know the the 1:15:58 conference of black journalists that isn't going to happen it will be a controlled environment with Fox News 1:16:03 anchors who will cut and paste all the crazy out of whatever he says to package it in interviews that they 1:16:08 dribble out over you know Hannity and Laur Ingram or whatever because he 1:16:14 cannot he he can't go to any environment like that and not just readily show 1:16:21 exactly what he is and you know the question is will will the ego will his ego let him and I thought it was a 1:16:27 brilliant ad it one it was a brilliant speech that Harris gave and then turned into an ad yes where she's like Donald I 1:16:36 hope you reconsider and you know if you if you want to say something say it to my face yeah and then laughs yes and 1:16:44 just that that image I can't I swear and pray that every night he goes to bed 1:16:51 with that in the front of his mind that this person who would clean his clock in a debate who happens to be a woman who 1:16:57 happens to be a black woman who happens to be a black Indian woman sitting there taunting him and a prosecutor let's not 1:17:03 for and a prosecutor yeah knowing that he would fail if he stepped anywhere 1:17:10 near but yet here is this person who is laughing at me this lesser 1:17:17 person I and and yes so what he saying 1:17:23 well with that okay he he did actually say in a in a previous interview or maybe I 1:17:30 think it was actually at a rally he said probably the the truest thing the man has ever said he said I hate it when 1:17:37 people laugh at me and that really is his Achilles heel and the fact that 1:17:43 kamla Harris is a professional laugher and it forms part of her campaign is the 1:17:49 perfect antidote to trumpism in a way and we we've talked about that good against evil Darkness against light and 1:17:56 I do see them as the you know the Rebel Alliance and the the evil empire you know to coin a Star Wars reference but 1:18:04 he has so many mental and emotional issues he's so compromised that actually 1:18:12 he just isn't cut out for this campaign he's not doing rallies at the level that he needs to he's playing an awful lot of 1:18:19 golf he is resting on his Laurels and that's why some of us are concerned that he's planning another coup an 1:18:25 Insurrection or something with the Supreme Court where they overturn the result because his his legislator are 1:18:32 all loyalists you know this has been widely written about and and that he's maybe thinking well it doesn't matter if 1:18:38 I don't win at The Ballot Box I'll win with my Supreme Court I'm sure there's some of that 1:18:45 calculus going on and look there's a lot there have been many articles written recently talking about you know plans 1:18:51 that are being put into place by whether it is folks working within the apparatus of the state electoral processes to try 1:18:56 and gum up the works to create legal impediments to certifying people saying they're not going to certify the you 1:19:03 know the elections if it doesn't go to Trump I think you know I I hope two things one is I think there's a lot of 1:19:08 power that comes from being the incumbent and just as Donald Trump had an advantage in 2020 because he was the 1:19:14 president and could play a lot of these games that we saw being out of power does not help I mean having the 1:19:21 presidency and the power of the presidency you know you're not going to see you know Mike Flynn and Sydney Powell 1:19:27 and Rudy Giuliani in the Oval Office encouraging Joe Biden to like you know nationalize the National Guard to go out 1:19:32 and see voting machines it's not so that enormous power that comes with the presidency is in the hands of good and 1:19:38 lawfulness well it's in the hands of Joe Biden who has immunity so that's a good thing in this moment yes right and who 1:19:44 could yes presum and and he won't though and I mean we we we joke about it and it's absolutely true but he's not going 1:19:50 to do it because he doesn't need immunity because he's not going to break the law yeah because that's just not what any president other than Donald 1:19:56 Trump has ever done yeah so setting that aside the other I you know I am worried about the states I do think there are at 1:20:03 the end of the day hopefully Governors who are aware of and attuned to taking 1:20:10 care of this Gretchen Whitmer after I think there's a rolling stone article you and I were talking about just before we started taping uh after that article 1:20:17 came out with a lot of these concerns gr and Whitmer said look the governors are aware of this and we are ready to um you 1:20:23 know make sure we have a fair and safe and accurate election my overwhelming hope is that this election is such a 1:20:31 landslide for kamla Harris that it doesn't matter if one or two states are playing games 1:20:36 because you know she she takes all but you know 60 electoral votes I that is if people get out if people who pay 1:20:44 attention and hopefully everybody is beginning to pay attention go out and see what an old strange violent man is 1:20:52 running for the presidency on the Republican side and vote for the future of America one or two offs aren't going 1:20:58 to matter because it will be a blowout and that is what I pray for but you know 1:21:04 we'll we'll we'll get there and you know yeah there's a lot of Mischief on one side but there's a lot of motivated 1:21:10 talented people you know on the side of democracy including lawyers who are ready to fight back against some of this 1:21:15 nonsense if it happens can the Supreme Court I if it were again if it were 1:21:22 close if it were one state like Florida like they did with Al 2000 yeah could 1:21:28 they play games yeah could they do it on the scope that I think would be needed for Trump to win I don't think so I mean 1:21:36 that's my hope and they're they will see the writing on the wall and I do think even if they want to be inclined and 1:21:42 you're never going to get Alo and Thomas ever ever ever they're gone they're you 1:21:47 know Jenny's they're January 6 yeah alos wife flying the flag upside down they're gone but I do think at the end of the 1:21:55 day as much as they've helped Trump if it comes down to Pure shenanigans on a variety of fronts they'll see the 1:22:01 writing on the wall understand what their legacy is and do the right thing I 1:22:07 hope okay we have to finish but Peter struck thank you for joining the weekend 1:22:12 show thank you it's been great I'm Anthony Davis don't forget to support me and independent journalism at 1:22:20 patreon.com minut newws see more from me on the 5 minute news channel and I'll be back next Sunday with a brand new 1:22:26 special guest and more factual news to discuss on the 5minute news weekend show 1:22:31 with my this touch [Music]

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