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The Morning Meeting
This Week's Winners and Losers; New Allegations Against Democrat Wes Moore of Lying To Get a Big Job
01:05:30
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- [00:01]
Larry O'Connor
This is it. The world as you know it is over. Completely done. It's not about to be over. It's over.
- [00:09]
Mark Halpern
Some of the scientists who helped build AI are now sounding the alarm.
- [00:14]
Larry O'Connor
I was selling AI as a great thing for decades and I was wrong. I was wrong.
- [00:22]
Professor James Kenny
There's a longer term existential threat that will arise when we create digital beings that that are more intelligent than ourselves.
- [00:30]
Greg
We have no idea whether we can stay in control.
- [00:33]
Mark Halpern
While others say that AI will usher in unfathomable abundance, I've always believed that it's going to be the most important invention that humanity will ever make. This really will be a world of abundance. And among these fears and these fantasies, we seek the story of our future. Listen to the last invention on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:00]
James Patterson
I'm James Patterson. I write way too many books. Welcome to Hungry Dogs. The title comes from my maternal grandmother, Isabel Zelvis Morris. Nan used to always say, hungry dogs run faster, James. And I've been running fast ever since. Here's what will be coming your way soon, and this is a really terrific list. I think you'll hear from some incredible people like Stacey Abrams.
- [01:24]
Kevin Walling
Yay.
- [01:25]
James Patterson
BJ Novak.
- [01:26]
Kevin Walling
Yay.
- [01:27]
James Patterson
Kathy Bates, Dolly Parton, Josh Gad. And Pope Leo. Okay, maybe not Pope Leo, but who knows, maybe he'll show up. Hungry dogs run faster. Thank you, grandma, for turning me into a hopeless obsessive compulsive. Listen to Hungry Dogs with James Patterson. That'd be me on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you, thank you, thank you Foreign.
- [02:00]
Mark Halpern
Everybody, welcome. It's the morning meeting. I'm Mark Halpern. We've got our two great guest co hosts from yesterday back. Returning Jeopardy. Champions Larry o', Connor, Kevin Walling. Kevin, you said you after yesterday's appearance, you heard from a person or two in Democratic Party.
- [02:15]
Kevin Walling
Heard for more than a person or two folks on the hill, folks in the. On K Street, you know, kind of DC insider folks watching us yesterday morning, it's more than I've ever heard on any Fox appearance. So yeah, doing something right, it's part.
- [02:28]
Mark Halpern
Of the two way community cohesive feeling, part of a genuine group and. And regularly interacting. It extends not just to you, the great people across the fruited plain in what people disparaging myself flyover country, but also to D.C. insiders. That's the thing. We're bringing everybody together. You don't have to be in the Gang of 500 to enjoy the morning meeting in two ways. But it doesn't hurt. And they're part of the community as well.
- [02:52]
Kevin Walling
And they mostly agreed with my take. Some of them did not.
- [02:55]
Mark Halpern
All right, that's good to know. Anyway, Larry will be here in just a moment. He's having some tech issues. Let me run through the daybook. And as always, if you're here on the platform, want to get in the conversation, please raise your hand. Let's look at the White House pool today. The President is going to be doing right now an event at 3 o' clock that the pool covers. So the pool is vital for protecting the public interest all days. But today, NBC, Newsmax, Politico is the print pool. The one of the President's favorites secondary print, the Telegraph, and then the new media is the Blaze. And here's what the President's doing. 1:30 President participates in a Serengin ceremony for the CEO of the International Development Finance Corporation and Chairman of the Ex IM Bank. I'll confess, I don't know if that's one person or two. I think it's one. And then a bill signing ceremony of some sort at 3 o' clock yesterday, when the President signed an executive order, they opened it up and he took a million questions. So if you're planning to join us on two Way tonight at six o', clock, my guess is we'll have a lot of Trump sound bites. Larry, you got your audio up?
- [03:54]
Larry O'Connor
Absolutely.
- [03:55]
Mark Halpern
Oh, there you go. Welcome in, Larry. Larry, did you get any feedback for your appearance here yesterday?
- [04:00]
Larry O'Connor
Yeah, actually from. From unlikely high profile individuals in the conservative government sphere here.
- [04:08]
Mark Halpern
Interesting. All right.
- [04:09]
Larry O'Connor
Very important people. People who wear robes.
- [04:12]
Mark Halpern
Yeah, that's true. I know. I know two who wear robes who watch the show. At least two who I know of them. And Larry, did they say you got to step up your game? Kevin was eating your egg rolls.
- [04:22]
Larry O'Connor
I did not hear that.
- [04:23]
Mark Halpern
Did not hear that.
- [04:25]
Larry O'Connor
Okay.
- [04:25]
Mark Halpern
I don't know what the Vice President's doing today. The Senate's out. The House is sitting around trying to figure out what to do about health care. The leadership faces a devil of a choice. We'll discuss that in a minute. To satisfy all equities, Hakeem Jeffries, a press conference at 11. I'll make a bold prediction. I'm not Nostradamus. I predict he'll blame Republicans for taking away America's health care. Interesting. Out In California, the DNC's meeting in Los Angeles yesterday. Gavin Newsom was there and he was mobbed. Politico has a great story about how he was just the center of attention today, Ken Martin speaks. The DNC chair, former Vice President Harris also is talking and we'll see what kind of reception she gets. So in a moment, we're going to run through a bunch of topics, including the state of the two parties. It's kind of an up moment for the Democrats today. We'll talk about that and everything else. If you want to be in on the conversation, please raise your hand. If you're watching on x or on YouTube, please don't raise your hand. And please, whatever you do, do not put smack in the chat. Kevin and Larry are jousters. They're, they're combatants. They're their, their at loggerheads. And yet peace, love and understanding. It's everything out of their mouth. Peace, love, understanding little.
- [05:35]
Larry O'Connor
We'll see how long that lasts.
- [05:36]
Mark Halpern
Yeah, we'll see. Anyway, a quick message from one of our sponsors. The folks at Cozy Earth are doing a holiday present for you. 40% off everything on the site. Go to cozyearth.com use the promo code 2WMM and take an extraordinary 40% off everything. That's the bamboo sheets, the bubble cuddle blanket, the pants, the shirts. Again, if you haven't bought the pants yet and you're a man and you like pants that look good and feel comfortable, go buy a pair right now. No one who's I've not received a single person said, hey, Mark, you told me to buy the pants. You pressed the pants, you pulled the pants. You said the pants were great. I bought the pants. The pants are horrible. Not one, in fact, what has typically happened, people say, oh, my God, they're so great. And as you know, I hear often from spouses who say, my husband's never said anything about his pants and now he's talking nonstop about the pants. So again, go to cozyearth.com promo code to WMM to take an extraordinary 40% off everything on their cozyearth.com. now I'm going to read their slogan, which I like to read with great drama. Here we go. 3, 2, 1. Give the gift of comfort that lasts beyond the holidays and carries into a cozy new year. Thank you for attention to this matter.
- [06:42]
James Patterson
I'm James Patterson. I write way too many books. Welcome to Hungry Dogs. The title comes from my maternal grandmother, Isabel Zelvis Morris. Nan used to always say, hungry dogs run faster, James. And I've been running fast ever since. Here's what will be coming your way soon. And this is a really terrific list. I think you'll hear from some incredible people like Stacey Abrams Yay, BJ Novak.
- [07:09]
Kevin Walling
Yay.
- [07:09]
James Patterson
Kathy Bates, Dolly Parton, Joss Gad, and Pope Leo. Okay, maybe not Pope Leo, but who knows? Maybe he'll show up. Hungry dogs run faster. Thank you, Grandma, for turning me into a hopeless, obsessive, compulsive. Listen to Hungry Dogs with James Patterson. That'd be me on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- [07:40]
Mark Halpern
Lots of talk today about the president's political standing. The AP poll that came out yesterday with dismal numbers. Just calls and emails and texts all day yesterday from Republicans on the Hill and in the consultant class saying these numbers are not good. These numbers need to get better. Peggy Noonan today the voice of all of us, or at least the Gang of 500. Peggy Noonan column says Trump may be losing his touch at the end of his 11th month. He's surrounded by mood shifts, challenges and ominous signs. Peggy says by solving immigration, Trump's taking that kind of off the table so it's not pumping stuff up. And also says that Marjorie Taylor Greene's rebellion leads other people to say maybe they shouldn't. They can oppose Trump. And we saw that in Indiana yesterday. Three huge losses yesterday for the president politically loses in Indiana, loses with the Letitia James indictment and loses with Mr. Abrego Garcia, the third most famous Marylander of all time after Cal Ripken and Larry o' Connor is back on the streets. Now, a few things. The Indiana thing we talked about.
- [08:44]
Kevin Walling
Hold on.
- [08:44]
Mark Halpern
There's one other element I wanted to bring up. Oh, yeah, 105, please. The president also defies, according to Washington Post headline defies GOP critics by signing controversial order threatening states over AI laws. This is what the AI community wanted and it's popular with some. But, but, but some people don't like it because the states are going to sue and this could be overturned and it makes it less likely. Some say that they'll be losing legislation. And then the president, who has long flirted with with marijuana legal changes. According to the Washington Post, something I reported a while ago. The president's going to do this. He's going to reclassify marijuana. Washington Post breaking the story yesterday. Few people have matched it. Trump seeks to cut restrictions on marijuana through planned order. The president is expected to direct agencies to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule 2 drugs. Now, you'll notice the weasel words in both the headline and the subhead. Seeks planned expected. Yeah, the speaker of the House is not for this. There are people in the administration I can tell you who are not for it. And yet obviously, you know, do you think the President's doing this for political reasons or not? We'll discuss in a second. Finally, this Indiana thing. Big loss. The legislatures didn't go for it. Many of the legislatures resented in the Senate, resented the heavy hand, what they saw as heavy handed tactics from the White House. Eric Erickson, who's a great reporter as well as a great host, has sources in the, in the Indiana Senate and here's what he said. It's a little in the weeds, but Heritage put out a tweet right before the vote saying if you don't vote for this Indiana, you're gonna lose all your federal funding. And Eric reports this. This morning, one of the three persuadable Republicans I know in the Indiana Senate sent me a link to the tweet from Heritage saying you'll have your stuff taken away with F him as the only words with the link. A man on the fence made up his mind because of President Trump's over the top threat. There's some denials that they threaten people. But, but Mr. Ren in Politico reports what Eric is reporting, which is they did threaten people and it's pretty clear that they did. The President's tried to downplay his involvement by saying I didn't do much, but in fact he was calling people yesterday to try to sway their votes. Finally, the despite all the hand wringing about the President's political standing, Larry offers us up this tweet. 116 about the President's poll standing. This is from Larry, who is David D. Chapman.
- [11:12]
Larry O'Connor
He's a political observer in Washington and blogger, podcast host, kind of dude. But he, I checked the numbers out at the politics average. Okay.
- [11:22]
Mark Halpern
So Larry, Larry brought this to our attention. For all the handwriting about the President's standing, what is the President's approval rating as compared to Obama? Bush second term, Biden first term since he only had one term at this point in their presidencies, Trump 43, almost 44% approval. Biden 42, Bush 41, Obama 41, which makes Trump the most popular president of the 21st century at this point of his presidency. Again, the Biden's a little apples to oranges. So Larry, would you, would your general position be the president's doing just fine and this is maybe not his best week ever or they've got to fix some things?
- [12:00]
Larry O'Connor
No, absolutely, he needs to fix some things. And of course it wasn't a great week and his numbers are going down and looking troublesome, especially when you ask specifically on certain issues, his overall approval rating still is important and it's good. It's not great. But as you saw contextually and in perspective with other presidents, it's not as bad in the first. At the end of the first year and, and Trump seen worse numbers. Lord knows he's been down in the, the 38 level. I think at the end of 2018, I think it was 38 and a half or something like that. He is popular. His right now he's not pulling well on specific issues, most importantly the economy. And that's a problem for him and they got to address it.
- [12:43]
Mark Halpern
Larry, one more for you. Besides the economy getting better, right? To me, that's everything. And all this other stuff is just gives us stuff to talk about. What's number two? If you said let's make the economy better by the second quarter of next year. But what would number two be that would give Republicans more confidence about the midterms?
- [13:00]
Larry O'Connor
Besides that, some quality of life stuff. His efforts in major urban cities and urban areas in terms of utilizing law enforcement, federal law enforcement to reinforce local efforts, if he can show some tangible numbers there, show that the murder rate has gone down in D.C. show that we've actually had some improvement in crime because they've been able to work through ICE and through the National Guard reinforcements, and that's a quality of life issue that, that they'll be able to show and say, listen, we even went into these cities that are run by Democrats and we were able to do the job that I think would be critically important for that narrative.
- [13:31]
Mark Halpern
Kevin, what would you say the Democratic Party has done to put Donald Trump in this place, if anything? Or is it all just because the economy's bad and the White House is, you know, has had some losses in the courts, et cetera. Like if Chairman Martin said, Kevin, what should I be taking credit for? What would you say Democrats have done?
- [13:49]
Kevin Walling
Yeah, it's a good question. First off, Larry sounded more and more like Joe Biden. Don't compare me to the alternative. The almighty compare me to the alternative with that polling data right there. Listen, I think what Democrats are doing, right, is recruitment, right? So the amazing thing to me, in 2025, Dems have flipped 25 state legislative seats, Republicans have flipped zero. Right? So we're running everywhere. Candidate recruitment is important. I think the margin would have been even closer in that Tennessee special had we had a Democrat that sounded more like Nashville, Tennessee, and not running against country music and Nashville in particular. So candidate recruitment, I think engaging in Field work. You know, Ken Martin, as you mentioned, is speaking today. He's a former, you know, chair.
- [14:32]
Mark Halpern
But let me, but let me ask you on that, on that mechanical thing, because in the olden days, I would always have a good handle which party's technically superior, who's got better turnout to vote, who's got stronger state parties, who's using technology better. For some reason, I can't get a handle on that anymore. Is there any reason to believe that in these legislative wins, these down ballot specials, that, that it's because the Democratic Party are superior in some of these things, or is it simply because they're the out party and President Trump's, you know, despite what Larry says is somewhat unpopular.
- [15:02]
Kevin Walling
That, that certainly has a lot to do with it. I think, you know, if you look at the mechanics, you know, Ken Martin got some grief for fundraising numbers and where the budget is for the DNC because he's pushing so much more money out.
- [15:13]
Mark Halpern
But do we, but do we know that it's fact. But do we know the fact that it's happening? Like, can we say, oh, the people in Tennessee used iPads in a really clever way in door knocking, you know what I'm saying? Is there any indication there's a. But is there, is there any indication you have that that's happening?
- [15:28]
Kevin Walling
I would say the DNC is hiring organizers now for the midterms, and that's the earliest point that we've seen actual investments in field personnel on the ground. You also have these other groups like Swing Left, Right, that is usually like funneling money to candidates, but they're doing this national kind of grassroots field campaign.
- [15:46]
Larry O'Connor
It's working.
- [15:46]
Mark Halpern
Do you think it's working?
- [15:47]
Kevin Walling
I think so. If you look at some of the numbers in these margins where field is making a difference, especially in state legislative races.
- [15:53]
Mark Halpern
Larry, what do you know?
- [15:54]
Kevin Walling
Turnout.
- [15:55]
Mark Halpern
Larry, what do you know about the RNC's turnout operation and the state parties?
- [16:01]
Larry O'Connor
Well, it was pretty dismal in Virginia, that's for sure. Even though they touted that that was going to be their big effort in Virginia at the rnc. They said, oh, we'll handle turnout. It was bad. That said, I think that they've always been pretty good at the granular turnout with regard to identifying specific voters and the issues that matter most to them. The data they've got is pretty impressive. And I think that they've been upgrading as we go because they've had an influx of money on that. But I gotta say, honestly, I feel like this is just a secular Thing that happens in American politics all the time. You look at the triumph of Barack Obama in 2008, and by this time, end of 2009, going into 2010, the Tea Party movement was in full force. And the next thing you know, in those midterms, it was a huge swing. The pendulum always swings. And by the way, you know, the Democrats poured their heart and soul into that election in 2008, whether you were Team Hillary or Team Obama. And it became a mission, it became a matter of faith to get Obama elected. And once that was done, they all took a giant exhale. That's what's happened here. Look at the roller coaster that Republicans have been on with Donald Trump. But all through this. And I think Republicans are sort of like, okay, can we have a break for a year?
- [17:11]
Mark Halpern
I understand, but, but, but the redistricting thing is turning out to be a wash. Ish. Unless the Supreme Court overturns the Voting Rights act and there's quick action that even that is not the sure thing that some people talk about because they may not do it soon enough. And the courts may say, you can't do it right away. It's got to be for 28. And Larry, you're right that the pendulum swings, but where the pendulum typically swings is against the President's party in the midterms. Like that's the norm. So again, to me, a lot of the question about for today and for the next year, 11 months is what could possibly allow the President and the Republicans to defy history and keep the House. And the answer today is not a lot seems to be going well.
- [17:53]
Larry O'Connor
I agree. And again, I'm not whistling past the graveyard here. There are some trouble signs they're issued. But I'm also putting things in perspective if we could, and not, you know, panic about where things are right now. And I think that, like I said, the economy swinging back, getting some quality of life issues. And also, let's just be clear here. I know that everyone says, oh, well, you, you know, it's not fair to just say you gotta compare Trump or the Republican candidate to the alternative. But that's what elections are all about right now. Trump's approval is in a vacuum. What do you think of Trump? Not what do you think of Trump compared to X. When the Democrats choose their radical candidates and we can start scaring voters about what happens when they get into power, things change.
- [18:31]
Mark Halpern
Yeah.
- [18:33]
Kevin Walling
In Tennessee fairly effectively.
- [18:35]
Larry O'Connor
Right.
- [18:35]
Mark Halpern
I mean, she would have, she would have been a good, she would have been a good, she would have been a good candidate in Red Hook, Brooklyn, if you want some, if you want some green, shoot. If you want some Republican optimism, go read Kim Stossel's column in the Journal because Kim says there are, there are a bunch of primaries where the more liberal candidate can when we see that in the Texas Senate primary, potentially where the two liberals are the only two running now, and that, that, that could help Republicans keep the House and have a better year, not just an individual races, but I think, Larry, as you're suggesting, make those people the face of the Democratic Party.
- [19:04]
Larry O'Connor
Right? And mark one other. And listen, I have great respect and love Peggy Noonan, one of my favorite books that I own. It's on my shelf behind me, When Character Was King, one of the best Reagan books I've ever read by Peggy Noonan. Eric Erickson's been a friend of mine for 15 years. It would mean more to me if I heard from a Republican or conservative commentator telling me that Trump is history, Trump is toast, Trump is over. If they weren't already on the side of being skeptical, if not completely clueless about who Trump is and what makes Trump.
- [19:31]
Mark Halpern
Well, but let's, with all due respect to Eric, I understand, of course, they're Trump skeptics, to say the least. But, but again, but again, I will tell you that AP poll I heard from a ton of Republican strategists who are pure maga who said everybody needs to wake up in this Indiana thing. Not just does it mean they're not going to pick up two House seats, it means that the defiance will be seen elsewhere, just like the Marjorie Taylor Greene. Listen to this transition. Speaking of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ms. Now reports that she is trying to get a motion to vacate the chair and kick the speaker out. She's denied it, but now other organizations have said, yeah, she was asking around about that. The speaker faces this incredible revolt on discharge petitions. He faces this incredible dilemma. I mentioned earlier on health care because the moderates really want a health care package vote next week to include with, with changes, some sort of extension to the Obamacare subsidies. If you put that in the bill, it could bring down the bill. You give them a vote on the amendment and the amendment goes down. They could still bring down the bill because the moderates may not vote for it and the Democrats may not vote for it. So, Kevin, the Republicans are accusing Democrats of nearly not wanting a solution anymore, but just wanting the issue. If you were a strategist for Mr. Jeffries, Mr. Schumer, would you say, let's go all in to try to get a compromise. Probably not January and December, but in January. Or would you say, hey, enough's enough, let's just get the issue.
- [20:50]
Kevin Walling
I mean, probably, yes, in terms of forcing this vote again. We also have to remember January 30th, we're facing another government shutdown, Right. So we're going to do this whole kit and caboodle like we saw in September. Again, with those dynamics playing out, the margin is going to be even closer for Speaker Johnson. For him, January 5th cannot come soon enough. That's when Marjorie Taylor Greene leaves the House. We'll see if she is successful in face in putting forward this motion to vacate. But it's a miserable slog for the Speaker. I feel for him. I think he's more effective than any Republican speaker we've seen in recent memory in terms of corralling his caucus. But he does have that infighting between the moderates and the more conservative folks, the Freedom Caucus folks. He's meeting with some of the leadership today to talk about the path forward on health care, and we'll see what comes out of it.
- [21:37]
Mark Halpern
Larry, Larry, what's the vote going to look like? So go ahead.
- [21:40]
Larry O'Connor
But I was just gonna ask Kevin if he was ready to welcome Marjorie Taylor Greene over to the Democrat caucus.
- [21:45]
Kevin Walling
As long as she leaves you guys, as long as she leaves her space lasers at home, everyone's welcome in this big tent.
- [21:51]
Larry O'Connor
Yeah, see? Well, exactly. I mean, like, you guys mocked this woman and made fun of her. And actually, I think her, her peak moment was when she challenged Joe Biden to say Lake and Riley's name during the, during the State of the Union speech. And, and he mispronounced her name, of course. But that, that raised the issue of the, the violence that came across the board.
- [22:10]
Mark Halpern
Do you know what she's, do you know what she's scheduled to do two days after she leaves office? Go back on the View. Go back on the View, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, exit question on the Speaker. Will he be the speaker of the House on election day next year, yes or no, Kevin?
- [22:26]
Kevin Walling
Yes. Part of it is there's no alternative.
- [22:29]
Larry O'Connor
Yes.
- [22:29]
Mark Halpern
All right. Just making sure thing. I want to ask you guys, based on the previous conversation, this is a question at 80% serious. 20, 20% joke. If you did on a national poll, job approval rating for God the Almighty, because we said compare the Almighty, what would, how would God do with the American people for job approval, Larry, what do you think he'd get? Or she. What do you think he would get?
- [22:51]
Larry O'Connor
A 10 mark.
- [22:53]
Mark Halpern
10. 100.
- [22:56]
Larry O'Connor
No, I mean, sorry, 10 out of 10.
- [22:58]
Mark Halpern
No, on a poll. On a poll. Job approval. I'm not. I'm saying what would the percentage of the American people would say approve of the job God is doing?
- [23:05]
Larry O'Connor
I'm going to say Nothing other than 100%.
- [23:08]
Mark Halpern
100%. I don't believe that. Kevin, what do you think?
- [23:10]
Kevin Walling
I'm at 97%. I don't want to get smited walking out of my house.
- [23:13]
Mark Halpern
I'm going to get it on a poll. I'm not saying you guys don't approve of the job God is doing. I'm going to find a pollster and get.
- [23:19]
Kevin Walling
That would be a great poll.
- [23:19]
Mark Halpern
Do you approve? I'm going to put it in a list. It's going to be like. It's going to be like sample Schumer, 200. They have 200 heathens.
- [23:28]
Larry O'Connor
Atheists. Not allowed. Right. You actually have to.
- [23:30]
Mark Halpern
No, no, just the registered voters. What do you. Job approval of God amongst registered voters. And again, it's gonna be like Trump, Schumer, aoc.
- [23:39]
Kevin Walling
God is pulling better than those three.
- [23:41]
Larry O'Connor
Doing a hell of a job. God. All right. Doing a hell of a job.
- [23:45]
Mark Halpern
I know their pollsters. I know there are pollsters on Skull. Someone put it on your next poll. Send me the data. All right. This reclassification of pot thing, the politics of this are pretty clear. The data is clear. It's more popular than it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago. There are some people in the president's party who don't like it. It's. It's. You know, I don't think the president. The president historically has been very anti drug. His. His. His brother died of. Of addiction.
- [24:11]
Larry O'Connor
He has.
- [24:12]
Mark Halpern
He is not a user of anything. Doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't use drugs. Kevin, What. What if this is a political play, and I think most people think it is, Is this to turn out young voters for the midterms? Like, what's the, what's the political play here?
- [24:26]
Kevin Walling
You know, it could be. I think it's also just a realization, Mark, to your point, that the country's kind of moved on from this issue. So many of these states either have it legalized or medicinal legalized. And this is kind of just the federal government keeping up with the pace. And I think. I don't think it's going to be a factor in the midterms.
- [24:42]
Mark Halpern
You don't.
- [24:43]
Kevin Walling
For young people or any kind of people.
- [24:45]
Mark Halpern
Yeah. Larry, why is he doing this?
- [24:46]
Larry O'Connor
I have no idea. I've asked And I can't get a straight answer on this thing. I mean, obviously someone's advised him to do this and that it would be good politically, maybe in one state, state or another. I, you know, listen, I, I've always been pro freedom. I followed William F. Buckley's lead on this. When William F. Buckley said, the war on drugs has been a failure, it's time to legalize marijuana as I go. Well, it's okay with Buckley, it's okay with me, but I think this is a failed experiment. Anybody who spends any time in downtown Denver, any of our major metropolitan areas, it really has been a major problem. And it has. And I got to admit, I was wrong about this. I thought it was a good idea when it was proposed, but it's, I think it's become a disaster.
- [25:25]
Mark Halpern
I'll say two things. The president's pollsters have a lot of data that show this is very popular and is overwhelmingly popular to make this change. The other thing, speaking of Colorado, my friend who lives in Colorado wanted to get cable and he called the cable company and he said, I want to make an appointment. They said, it'll be three months. And they said, well, why is that? He said, because we can't hire anybody to work for us because everybody's high. No one wants to work. They're all just high.
- [25:49]
Larry O'Connor
Yeah.
- [25:50]
Mark Halpern
All right, that's that Maduro. But a number of things happened in the last 24 hours. More sanctions. The White House press secretary said, you know, sure, they'll seize more ships. And here's a CNN headline, US Sanctions. Maduro's nephews and shipping companies, it says, moves Venezuelan oil. The Venezuelan ships, a lot of them are not moving now because they don't want to be seized. And Maduro continues to be pretty defiant. So I'll just ask the question I ask you guys and everyone here regularly. Larry, will Maduro be still in power on New Year's Day, yes or no?
- [26:26]
Larry O'Connor
I'm going to, I'm going to go with no. I think it's going to happen sooner rather than later. Yeah.
- [26:31]
Mark Halpern
And without a shot being fired. Right, Right, Kevin?
- [26:34]
Kevin Walling
I'm going to say yes. I mean, one of the undercurrents of the story, too, is just how much Russia is propping up this regime, and it's almost going to become a proxy war for us, similar to the Cold War that we saw in the past, where, you know, the Russians are playing in our sphere of influence. We talked about this yesterday, and that skipper the oil tankers headed to a U.S. port, and we'll see if that's the first of a few ships to your point, Mark.
- [26:56]
Mark Halpern
I was. Yeah, I was, I was, I was. That he was going to be gone until yesterday. But I think I say this somewhat tongue in cheek, but entirely, I think he'll be in Maduro, will be inspired by the, the, the determination of the Indiana state senators who defied Trump. And he'll say, he'll say, if they can defy him, I can defy him. And I think he'll be gone next year, but I don't think he'll be gone by January. We'll see that.
- [27:17]
Kevin Walling
He was watching that Senate vote pretty closely, I bet.
- [27:19]
Mark Halpern
Yeah, exactly.
- [27:20]
Larry O'Connor
I think he's plotting his ex.
- [27:21]
Mark Halpern
He reads that. He reads Adam Wren religiously. All right, again, raise your hand if you want the conversation. A few more topics here. Russia, Ukraine, both Zelensky and Putin out in public in the last 24 hours. We don't often see Putin. Zelensky more often. Here's Putin at some event. I can't tell you what it is, but like Larry o', Connor. Putin had mic problems and Putin is. You just roll it, Paul, because there's no audio on it. Putin is very, Putin's very intolerant about technical problems. He does not like tech issues. So people are sort of looking at this and saying, man, he must have been pissed off that his mic didn't work. Again, you can hear the buzz like.
- [28:00]
Larry O'Connor
Yeah, you always hire a union, Mark.
- [28:02]
Mark Halpern
Always hire union, always. Even Russian unions.
- [28:04]
Larry O'Connor
Where's the Ayatsi going now?
- [28:06]
Kevin Walling
Here's definitely got disappeared after that press conference, I'm sure.
- [28:09]
Mark Halpern
Yes, yes. All right. Now here's President Zelensky. He went to a town that has been a central part of the war. And here he is. Play the video first, then we'll go the tweet because he's only speaking. Speaking a language I don't speak. But, but here he is doing his own video. The. The fourth wall shot. The whole thing is pure classic Zelensky. And now put up the tweet because we can't understand what he's saying. At least I can't. He's in a town, a frontline city of Kupansk. How do you pronounce that, Kevin? Anyway, I'll let you take it. That's Russia. Yeah. Russia claims to have captured the town, but Zelensky went there to demonstrate that in fact, it hasn't. And then he has this incredible quote. Going to read it. This is from Christopher Miller's tweet quote today. It is extremely important to achieve results at the front so that you can. Can achieve results in diplomacy. This is exactly how it works. All of our strong positions inside the country become strong positions in discussions about ending the war. And he talks about the narrative, about the importance of narrative warfare so that, you know, it's very. It's very fourth wall, very, very meta that he's basically saying, I'm going out here to show people that I'm helping the narrative. Because the Wall Street Journal has a story today that says, contrary to what some analysts argue, that Russia's not winning the war. That's that the Ukrainians are holding up just fine, and Zelensky's got a counter proposal of a peace plan. It's not clear what the US Thinks about. It's not clear what Russia thinks. There's a meeting in Europe this weekend that Zelensky's going to. That so far the US Is declining to go. Caroline Levitt said yesterday the president does want to be involved in meetings that are not super productive. So, Kevin, it seems to me everything's still ambiguous. There's some signs that we're headed towards the deal and some signs that we're very much not. Zelensky seems more open to giving up some land than he was a few days or weeks ago. Where are you today? Bullish. Bearish. What happens next?
- [30:03]
Kevin Walling
Yeah, Mark, I mean, that was an interesting tidbit that they started to float that there is some idea of territorial concessions, whether it's like a free economic zone, which is what the Europeans are calling it. We've signed on to that potentially as well, where to be kind of internationally governed to some degree. The one thing I'll note, too, is, you know, in kind of going through this story, the fact that oil exports from Russia are at the lowest point ever since the war started could also be, you know, an economic indication that Putin might be feeling the heat just a little bit. I don't think anything really motivates him because he has these delusions of grandeur going back to, you know, Catherine the Great. But we'll see if that, that pressure mounts and if. If he can get a little, you know, position with these territorial concessions, which has been his dream from the get go, besides from taking Kiev. We'll see if that, that, that kind of moves the ball down the field.
- [30:56]
Mark Halpern
Larry?
- [30:56]
Larry O'Connor
Yeah, I'm with Kevin. I think that that was. That was the fig leaf. I think that Putin needs to be able to sort of declare some kind of victory in safe face at the end of this, because it is. Otherwise it's a quagmire. It's a standoff. He can wait it out, I suppose, but not if the US Continues to fund the war effort, which I think Trump has indicated now that he's interested in doing. Let them fight it off and we'll keep doing it. So I think this is the way to make a break in the iceberg there.
- [31:23]
Mark Halpern
Yeah, totally agree with Larry. Well framed. One thing I want to Polymarket real quick because we had it before, but I missed it on my list. 118. This goes back to the pot question and whether the president will change how marijuana is scheduled. From our friends at Polymarket, where you can wager on just about anything. Will weed be rescheduled this year? You can see only 5% chance. Now, that Washington Post story may get people thinking it's gonna happen, but you can see it's been much higher over the last long period of time, but only down to 5% in the poly market odds. Okay, yesterday on Next up, you can listen to it now. Watch it now. I unveiled my 8 for 28, the top 8 most likely Democratic nominees. Again, these are nominees. It's not about the general election. We don't know what the nominating calendar is going to be, who's going to vote early, and this is a very influx field. We don't know who's going to run, et cetera. With all those caveats. Go watch my whole presentation. But here it is. Here's the list. This is 111, please. And guys, we weren't going to talk about this for two hours, although we could. Kevin, your party, you go first. Who would you move up and who would you move down on my list again? For those listening on the podcast, Gavin Newsom, most likely. Then Josh Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Andy beshear, Wes Moore, J.B. pritzker, AOC the top eight. And again, I factored. People say, well, what about Gretchen Whitmer? Well, I don't think she's going to run in the end, so I don't put her.
- [32:46]
Kevin Walling
Yeah, I mean, to your point, Mark, Gretchen has kind of said that she's not really interested. She's not building a national team or anything like that, which has been interesting to see. I would probably move Bashir up a bit or two. He just got named the head of the dga, the Democratic Governance Association.
- [33:05]
Mark Halpern
Now, let me, let me just stop you on that one. And then, and then, Larry, why don't you weigh in on Bashir and we'll do it like that you say you'd move them higher. And I've got other very smart people saying that. I will tell you, two of the smartest Democrats I know about presidential politics said the Bashir doesn't belong on the list. So it's a controversial one. Larry, would you move Bashir up or down or leave him like that?
- [33:22]
Larry O'Connor
No, I. I'd move him down. Well, again, by the way, all this is predicated one huge caveat. What's the calendar look like? What states are.
- [33:29]
Mark Halpern
Well, we don't know. We don't know, Larry, But I can't wait for that. That's a big factor. But. But where would you move? Would you make. Would you maybe move Bashir?
- [33:37]
Larry O'Connor
I'd move.
- [33:38]
Mark Halpern
More likely or less likely? Less. Okay. All right, Kevin, somebody else you'd move?
- [33:43]
Kevin Walling
I'd move Harris down.
- [33:44]
Mark Halpern
So just to be clear, just to be clear, Kevin says move Bashir higher. Larry says move him lower.
- [33:50]
Kevin Walling
So he leaves the governors. He's got that crossover appeal you talked about, Mark. He leaves the governor's office one year before the election so he can crisscross the country without having to govern.
- [33:58]
Mark Halpern
Yeah.
- [33:59]
Kevin Walling
Now he's the head of the dga. He's making all these national relationships.
- [34:01]
Mark Halpern
Yeah.
- [34:01]
Kevin Walling
Kamala Harris, I thought was an interesting point. Mark. She would. I'd move her down even with that.
- [34:06]
Mark Halpern
Lower, less likely again.
- [34:09]
Kevin Walling
She raised a billion and a half dollars, God love her, in 107 days with her book. Well, yeah, and there's this exhaustion.
- [34:16]
Larry O'Connor
Okay, so you a lot of that money from Joe Biden's campaign.
- [34:20]
Mark Halpern
I'm guessing you'd both make her less likely. Is that right?
- [34:23]
Larry O'Connor
No, I know. Absolutely. If she's running, how do you not make her a top three candidate? Actually, I think you need to move her up into the top.
- [34:30]
Mark Halpern
So. So Kevin would make. So again, you disagree. One of you would move Bashir high, more likely, one less likely.
- [34:36]
Larry O'Connor
I don't have a dog in this fight.
- [34:37]
Mark Halpern
Larry. Larry would make Harris more likely moving up ahead of Bishop.
- [34:41]
Kevin Walling
Larry wants to move AOC up to number one. I guarantee it. Okay.
- [34:44]
Mark Halpern
Kev, in terms of who he'd be, Kevin, anybody. Anybody else you want to move up or down?
- [34:48]
Kevin Walling
I'd probably move Westmore up, too. I mean, he's more like some questions. And you did a deep dive on him about his record and stuff like that. You know, he's going to win reelection by a huge margin in 2000.
- [34:59]
Larry O'Connor
Kevin. Kevin, you're asking to move up all of the people that you want to be, except maybe they're More moderate and more appealable.
- [35:10]
Mark Halpern
Larry. Larry, is there anybody not on my top eight who you think should be in the top eight?
- [35:16]
Larry O'Connor
No, I think you're good. I think that, I think that's the top eight. I mean, I'd like to think Rahm Emanuel could make a dent in the party.
- [35:24]
Mark Halpern
He was on the, he was on the bubble. But I had to give the Illinois slot to Pritzker because all my sources said more likely. Kevin, anybody not on my list, who you'd put on the list?
- [35:32]
Kevin Walling
I'm going to put a dark horse out there. Mark Cuban. You know, I think that there's energy out there for a non politician, as we saw with Donald Trump. You know, he's hired some folks from D.C. to help advise him. I would not be surprised. You know, he kind of, he had this delicate dance with Kamala to be VP and had some conversations. I would not be surprised if he throws his hat in the ring.
- [35:52]
Mark Halpern
Kevin, I have to say that although the president hasn't yet reclassified marijuana, it sounds to me like you might have been partaking. You've, you've learned, you've learned a long lesson of Donald Trump. Donald Trump.
- [36:04]
Kevin Walling
The date and time for when he.
- [36:05]
Mark Halpern
Said Donald Trump's election does not illustrate that some business person can just walk in and become the nominee of a major party.
- [36:12]
Kevin Walling
I mean, it worked for Wendell Wilkie.
- [36:13]
Larry O'Connor
All right, Kevin, if I may, here's the other problem. The Democrats live and die on this whole notion of expertise. You gotta trust the experts with these things. You can't let an amateur come in. We can't let. They are tied to the idea of a career politician being president. They're all about resume. They're all about track record.
- [36:32]
Mark Halpern
Well, well, they, historically, historically they have been. But let me make do one more caveat which I do on I, I lay out on next up, which is this in, in 2024, that we didn't really get a read on what the party wanted in terms of a nominee because it was an incumbent Biden and then Harris in 2016 and 2020. I would argue that if the Democratic Party hadn't rigged the system, Bernie would have been the nominee both years. And the party's only moved to the left since then.
- [36:58]
Larry O'Connor
I agree.
- [36:58]
Mark Halpern
So it's possible that I shouldn't have anybody on my list besides AOC and, and some other progressives. That's possible, right?
- [37:06]
Larry O'Connor
This is why my change, my change to your list would be moving AOC up because she is the one who represents where the real energy of the Party is right now. And I wouldn't move Buddha Judge down. I was very, very bullish on Buddha Judge about six to nine months ago.
- [37:19]
Mark Halpern
Yeah.
- [37:19]
Larry O'Connor
But he has been absolutely vanilla, pathetic, boring. I think in his moment, he's tried to do what Gavin Newsom's achieved right now. And I think that his stock is down.
- [37:29]
Mark Halpern
I just. As I say in my ratings rankings, he's a killer. He and his team are. They're killers, they're assassins. They. And he's run before and they know what to do.
- [37:39]
Kevin Walling
And so that's gaming Klobuchar.
- [37:40]
Mark Halpern
Yeah, exactly. I might move him down, I might swap him with Harris if I were doing it over again. But I'm just telling you, he's a, he's a very, very smart guy. The party really likes him.
- [37:50]
Larry O'Connor
I agree. He's impressive, don't you think? He's every cluster the last nine months. I mean, this has been his chance to stake his claim.
- [37:56]
Mark Halpern
You know, he's not the governor of anything. He doesn't have a platform. He's a dad in Michigan, so. But I take your point and I'll say as I always do, there's no perfect candidates. I can tell you what's wrong with all eight of these people. Speaking of which, Wes Moore yesterday, Last night. Our folks at Blanking now on the name of the Free Beacon. Thank you. The Free Beacon. The Washington Free Beacon. A great piece in the Washington Free Beacon about Wes Moore. It's complicated. I'm not going to run through the whole thing, but Andrew Kerr got the. Wes Moore's application to be a White House Fellow, which, which was a critical moment in his career. He met a bunch of people, Condoleezza Rice, et cetera, in the Bush White House. And to get that job, he put on his application. The application's available. It's a public document that he was a foremost expert on radical Islam because he wrote this thesis at Oxford. And if you go read the piece, Andrew's extremely fair minded about where the discrepancies are. And the more people claim they don't have the PhD and it's not in the library at Oxford where if you get your degree, your, your, your thesis is supposed to be there. So a lot of unanswered questions. Now go read the piece. You'll see. Wesmore was on Morning Joe. My friends there didn't ask him about this piece, much to my disappointment. If this piece were in the New York Times, the Washington Post, I said this last night. It would be everywhere. And it really should be. It really should be.
- [39:13]
Larry O'Connor
Hold on, hold on, hold on. Because I was on the air this morning. Yeah, Westmore was on with Joe and Mika and not one question about this story.
- [39:20]
Mark Halpern
Mark, that's what my colleagues tell me. I didn't see it on. But, but, but, but, but Larry, look, right now, do you think, here's my first question. Do you think the Washington Post and New York Times will follow up on that story?
- [39:32]
Larry O'Connor
The Washington Post has to, don't they? Has to backyard even if it's to run cover.
- [39:37]
Mark Halpern
Right, Kevin.
- [39:38]
Kevin Walling
Or even like even the Baltimore Sun, I'm sure Baltimore Sun.
- [39:42]
Mark Halpern
Anyway, my point, my, my main point I want to make about this is two things related to one to Westmore, One more generally, I'm telling you, Wesmore has a history of exaggerating his resume. He's got biographical problems for political benefit and his whole thing is biography. So you know, just watch that closely. And the office, the response from his office was, was not responsive. Not responsive. Number two, and I say this all the time and this goes to my list of eight. If you run for something before, it's not the same scrutiny. There are things about Gavin Newsom and Josh Shapiro that have never been scrutin. Once you enter the arena at this level, stuff's going to come out. The fact that this never came out about Wes Moore before is insane. It's insane. This document, the Washington Post looked at that document or the New York Times rather, and that brought out the question of saying he'd won a bronze star, which he hadn't actually been awarded. So just watch this space. Here's my question for you, Kevin. If you were advising one of the people on that list of eight and they said, Kevin, what should I do to prepare for stories like that? What should they be doing? Should they be hiring an opposition research firm to do self alpha now so not so as to be able to address stories in the next year.
- [40:54]
Kevin Walling
I mean I'm sure they all have, right? I mean they're all no elected positions.
- [40:58]
Mark Halpern
Totally disagree, totally disagree. They've done it.
- [41:02]
Kevin Walling
If you don't think Gavin Newsom has a whole file that he's prepared with his, his first rate team.
- [41:07]
Mark Halpern
He might have, he might have, he might have. But Westmore hasn't.
- [41:11]
Kevin Walling
And again then I think you sit down with a friendly reporter, you know, that's well regarded and you run through these things a year out from the election because you can say I addressed this a year and a half ago and let's move on. But mark those, those biographical problems speak to character and he's got, you know, he's a combat veteran, right.
- [41:30]
Mark Halpern
So he's got that established establishment, establishment media beat me a camera too.
- [41:36]
Kevin Walling
Yeah, you need to, you know, they.
- [41:39]
Mark Halpern
Need to, they need to follow up on this story. I'm telling you. Washington Post, New York Times, Wal Journal. You must follow up on this story. I'm not prejudging it. I'm not saying Wesmore lied. I'm not saying he didn't write a great thesis and I'm not saying he wasn't a nationally internationally known terrorism expert, even though the article makes clear that those things are in serious doubt. You must follow up on that story, Mark.
- [41:59]
Kevin Walling
And again, the governor, breadcrumbs along the way.
- [42:03]
Larry O'Connor
If they were able to get away with not following up on the laptop story, they're going to get away.
- [42:07]
Mark Halpern
Well, but they claim they've seen the light now. They claim that they know they need to be there. This story, this story is extraordinary. Great work by the Free Beacon, but it must be followed up on. All right, here we go. Last.
- [42:16]
Kevin Walling
Wait, hold on. I want to ask Larry, though, who does he most fear running against in 2028, who would be the strongest candidate?
- [42:23]
Larry O'Connor
I fear Westmore, big time. I fear Westmore.
- [42:26]
Mark Halpern
Larry, did you read, did you read the Free Beacon story?
- [42:28]
Larry O'Connor
Oh, yes, I do, but I, but I assume he's going to get a pass and I think he's a formidable candidate. He's my governor. I know what he's capable of and I fear him and I fear Gavin Newsom because both Westmore and Gavin Newsom have something in common. They can lie in such a genuine way and get away with it. And they continue to get away with it.
- [42:48]
Mark Halpern
Kevin, if you could pick the nominee now, not for your ideological predilections, but to win a general, who would you pick right now? No, no primary, no nomination fight. They're just the nominee.
- [42:56]
Kevin Walling
Who would probably Gavin Newsom. Yeah, I think he's got the, you know, he's got the chops. He's got the national. He runs the fourth largest economy.
- [43:03]
Larry O'Connor
Yep.
- [43:04]
Mark Halpern
Winners and losers of the week and what to look for this weekend and then your questions, please. Raise your hand if you want to get in the conversation.
- [43:09]
Larry O'Connor
Kevin.
- [43:09]
Mark Halpern
Winner of the week.
- [43:10]
Kevin Walling
Winner of the week. Texas Republicans again praising the other side, Jasmine Crockett. Entering this race, you know, it was already going to be nasty on the GOP side with John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, the Attorney General. We, you know, this should have been a jump ball for us. Now we're going to raise a ton of money and they're going to attack the heck out of each other and it's going to be miserable on our side, unfortunately.
- [43:29]
Mark Halpern
Yeah. LARRY Winner of the week Erica Kirk.
- [43:32]
Larry O'Connor
It pains me that she had to do what she did this week. A grieving widow and someone who's trying to continue the legacy of her assassinated husband at the age of 31 shouldn't have to confront the kind of hate and horrible accusations that have been made. But she did it in such a stoic and brave and courageous way. And by the way, Charlie's book is now sold out on Amazon. It's out of print. They're trying to print more.
- [43:56]
Mark Halpern
Winner of the week is Ken Martin, the DNC chair. There was lots of talk of replacing him. And after the Miami mayor election, after the mid the off year elections, I think he's safe now. He can just argue everything's working, everything's going great, and so he can focus on doing his job rather than people trying to replace him. KEVIN Loser of the week My own.
- [44:15]
Kevin Walling
Home state Congresswoman, Nancy Mace, who continues to bring up this stupid ass airport situation, which does nothing to help her governor's campaign. Pam Evatt, the lieutenant governor, is the front runner in that race along with the AG Alan Wilson, who is, you know, they're just taking it to her on this issue and she does nothing to support her governor's race with this, with this silly effort. And then to say nothing of the New York Times piece she wrote attacking Speaker Johnson and answering questions as to whether she wants to actually be in Congress.
- [44:42]
Mark Halpern
Yeah. LARRY Loser of the week Hoosiers.
- [44:45]
Larry O'Connor
Hoosier Republicans, as they, as they should be celebrating their incredible Big Ten championship and their undefeated run to a national championship. They are embarrassed and ashamed by Senate Republicans who just whiffed on a great opportunity to actually get appropriate representation in the House. That was, that was a pathetic display yesterday.
- [45:03]
Mark Halpern
Will they pay a price?
- [45:04]
Kevin Walling
Point to 19.
- [45:05]
Mark Halpern
Will they pay a price? LARRY Will they pay a price?
- [45:07]
Larry O'Connor
Yes. Yes, they will pay a price. You don't mess with Indiana. Who's your daddy?
- [45:13]
Mark Halpern
Okay, Loser of the week is the members of Congress who want to do something about the Affordable Care act subsidies. It's like there's a majority in both chambers to get something done. And they had all these little mini gangs, but they couldn't, they couldn't form one big gang. They had to have like nine different gangs all working for the same goal with different ideas. The fact that they couldn't get together even without the White House and leadership, I find it just ridiculous. Like you need to have some tactical sense, people if you want to get something done. You can't be working on 17 different projects. All right, Kevin, what to watch for this weekend?
- [45:46]
Kevin Walling
What I'm watching is whether this oil tanker story is sustained, right? I mean, this is again, we talked about this yesterday. It's incredible. And again, the video footage that we're playing right now, the fact that we see an oil tanker, Larry and I were talking about this yesterday with you, Mark. Can't remember in recent memory anytime like this that we've seized something like this, whether this story has legs and continues into next week and into the holidays.
- [46:07]
Mark Halpern
Yep. Larry.
- [46:09]
Larry O'Connor
Army Navy tomorrow. This is my daughter's plebe summer cover that she wore when she was going through plebe summer class of 20, 23. Dad, this is my daughter and three of the midshipmen that we sponsor at the Naval Academy. We are all in for Navy. They're having a great season. It's going to be a glorious patriotic day.
- [46:28]
Mark Halpern
What is Vegas? What does Vegas say the spread is?
- [46:30]
Larry O'Connor
I think Navy is favored by, I want to say five or six, which makes me nervous because army knows this is their season right now.
- [46:38]
Kevin Walling
We've got great bipartisan agreement on this. Go Navy.
- [46:42]
Mark Halpern
Last for me, looking this for the weekend. The story that's just continues to be undercovered, what is going on with Russia and Ukraine? There's meetings this weekend, Europeans and Zelensky to see if they can come up with something. So I'll be watching to see what comes out of that. All right, quick word from a sponsor, then back to your to your questions again. Raise your hand if you want to get in the conversation. The folks at Poncho Outdoors will give you $10 off your first order and free shipping if you go to ponchooutdoors.com 2wmm they've got you covered. Classics like denim and flannels, new styles, the Western polo, the tough thread. It's all comfortable, durable and versatile. Whatever season you want to wear it in. All their products right out of the box will fit great on you. The sizing charts are fantastic. But but let's say you buy something and the size doesn't feel right. They will not be happy. They'll be as unhappy as you are about that. So what they'll do, they'll give you free shipping, free returns, free exchanges, and they stand by every shirt. They'll make it right. If you turn out to buy it, you don't like it for any reason, you'll send it Back. Gear up for the fall with Poncho. Every piece built for comfort, performance, lasting style. Go to ponchooutdoors.com 2wmm$10 off your first order, free shipping. And then when they ask you how did you hear about Poncho outdoors? You say, Kevin. Kevin and Larry can't stop talking about it.
- [47:55]
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- [48:25]
Mark Halpern
All right, here we go to your questions. As you come in, you'll unmute. You tell everybody where you are and what's on your mind. There's no fighting in the war room. David March.
- [48:34]
David March
Yeah, let's hold on.
- [48:36]
Mark Halpern
There you go.
- [48:37]
Kevin Walling
Sorry about that.
- [48:37]
David March
Yeah, I'm actually, I'm came in mainly because of Larry's here. I'm a big fan of his work and I try to watch him every day when he's on, so. And I want to congratulate him. I hope he becomes a regular here. Replaces Sean Spicer. Sean was famous for being very active in the chat, but Larry, you blow him away today.
- [48:55]
Larry O'Connor
Oh, wow. Don't tell Mark.
- [48:57]
Mark Halpern
Yeah, I never read the chat. David, where do you live besides.
- [48:59]
David March
I live in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where I woke up to a very bizarre situation where a guy who's in a very comfortable conservative riding or basically a congressional district just crossed the floor to join the liberal government and he's in a situation where that writing usually will goes to us by 20 points. So I just. My question for both sides is, are your politicians just as ignorant as ours are on how they get elected?
- [49:29]
Mark Halpern
David, what a loaded question. I find you're.
- [49:31]
Larry O'Connor
You're a pro. Go ahead, you take this.
- [49:33]
Mark Halpern
I find.
- [49:34]
Kevin Walling
David, I love the doctor Strange. Strange love.
- [49:36]
David March
Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [49:37]
Kevin Walling
That's awesome, brother.
- [49:38]
Mark Halpern
I'm not saying nobody's going to get their hair must.
- [49:41]
David March
Exactly, exactly. People got their hair must this morning. Yeah, on my X feed for sure.
- [49:47]
Mark Halpern
Kevin, what do you think? Are our politicians out of touch?
- [49:50]
Kevin Walling
A lot of them are. You know, it's like, you know, we're still seeing the George H.W. bush with the grocery scanner in terms of just not knowing the. The.
- [49:59]
Mark Halpern
That was not a fair. That was Not a fair story.
- [50:02]
Kevin Walling
I know, I know.
- [50:03]
Mark Halpern
It's just a metaphor. We're just using it as a metaphor. That's fine.
- [50:05]
Kevin Walling
But they're still. They're still out of touch, certainly. And they live in this bubble. I mean, just, you know, David, you look at just the wealth inequality of Congress. Right. It might be the case, too, in Canada, too. Just the disparities in terms of who people are and what they represent.
- [50:19]
Larry O'Connor
Yeah. David, thank you for the kind words, by the way. That's very, very sweet of you, and I appreciate it. I think one of the real scandals as we're talking about redistricting and gerrymandering and everything that's going on in our country right now with our congressional districts, one of the real things that needs to be addressed is the fact that these things not just gerrymandered for party affiliation and party majorities, but also they've been gerrymandered in such a way that these congressmen don't really have to run a competitive race anymore. It's set up in such a way. So the answer is no. They don't know what gets them elected. Cause once they're in, they don't have to worry about it anymore. For the most part, every single two years, the House of Representatives boils down to what, like 20 seats, maybe, that are really gonna swing in one way or the other. And since they don't have. Yeah. And it's shrinking, Kevin. And so because of that, since they don't have to worry about it, they don't know actually what gets them elected. That's why when you run statewide or when you run for the presidency, it actually reveals a whole lot of things that are going on in this country that we don't often see on the campaign trail. Trump unearthed so much going on here that the House Republicans never knew about because they didn't have to care about it.
- [51:25]
Kevin Walling
Yeah. One other thing, too, I would add to that an interesting dynamic that we're seeing to Larry's point, is the fact that because these districts are so red and so blue, folks not from that district, not from that state even, are moving there to run. We saw it with, like, Alex Mooney in West Virginia, had no ties to West Virginia on the Republican side winning that district. We're seeing it in that Florida race, which is wild, where, like, you know, the guy, Madison Cawthorn, all these guys that have never. And gals that don't live in Florida are moving to that district. There were talks of Darrell Issa maybe doing that in Texas. So That's a newfangled thing, which isn't healthy for, for democracy either.
- [52:00]
Mark Halpern
Yeah. David, thank you for the question, Greg, Welcome. And tell folks who don't know where you are how fast that fan turns and what's on your mind.
- [52:08]
Greg
Hello, I'm from Des Moines, Iowa, and I just want to follow up on the marijuana discussion. My question, so I've been collecting over the last several years links to articles, journal articles on increasing number of studies describing and detailing the risks of marijuana use now that it's more prevalent, just quickly, higher risk of heart disease, stroke, heart failure, cancer, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, you know, one involve auto, accidental use, et cetera, et cetera. So my question is, are these, I know there's a, there's a groundswell and a wave towards legalization. Is it receding at all due to some of these concerns that are coming.
- [52:56]
Mark Halpern
Out more and more? The polling data does not suggest that that is deterring people, not just young people, from favoring it. And it's an extraordinary story because, Greg, even though the things you cited are not, it's not decisive, the research isn't decisive, it's pretty overwhelming. Now, what some people will say and what the industry will say is, well, what about alcohol? You can make a long list of things that are negative about alcohol, including traffic accidents and health, all the things on your list. I'm not sure it's the exact same list, but it's pretty close. And yet alcohol is not only legal and widely available, but celebrated for use in our culture. So that's an argument that as strong as the argument you're suggesting is, Greg, it's hard to rebut the question of alcohol. Larry.
- [53:44]
Larry O'Connor
Yeah, it's hard, but it's not impossible. See, the difference is alcohol has not gotten more potent and more powerful and, and more intoxicating. Alcohol is alcohol. It is what it is. I have a friend who, who smokes, who uses. She's a good friend of mine and I haven't touched pot since the early 90s, all right? And I was pretty young. And she said if you, if you, if I tried pot right now, she said it would blow my mind how much different it is and how much more powerful it is. So.
- [54:10]
Mark Halpern
But Larry, but Larry, But Larry, again, it's still the same thing if I go have three martinis and get behind the wheel of a car or if I have three martinis a day and then go see my doctor. Yeah, I mean, I mean, the difference.
- [54:23]
Larry O'Connor
Is that one joint, 30 years ago, I just would not have had the same Potency.
- [54:30]
Mark Halpern
Well, I agree with that, but that's, but that's non responsive to the question of why is it okay for people to use alcohol with impunity and not okay to use pot when there's same thing, there's health problems.
- [54:44]
Larry O'Connor
I understand that argument. And the fact of the matter is we as a moral and ethical society draw the line somewhere. Because I could take your argument, Mark, and say, okay then, now let's do heroin. Now let's do pcp. Now let's do.
- [54:56]
Mark Halpern
You know, just, just to be clear, I'm not making an argument about, about that. I'm just saying I don't, as, as Tucker would say, I'm just raising questions. Yes, I just, I just. Kevin, thoughts on, on, on what Greg is raising?
- [55:08]
Kevin Walling
Yeah, I mean, they're all good points. It is interesting, Greg, to your point that you haven't seen this kind of movement back to, you know, with all the legalization efforts. And now we have, you know, almost a decade. I think Colorado was the first state to legalize it recreationally. We now have the data out there. And you haven't seen that pendulum swing against it. You did see it a little bit with efforts like in Oregon to, to decriminalize all drugs. I think they're now realizing that was not a good idea. Right. Just from an economic standpoint, from a public, you know, public health standpoint. So that pendulum has swung a little bit back on the full kind of decriminalization of every drug. But we'll, we'll see what the, you know, what this executive order actually does.
- [55:48]
Mark Halpern
I never read the chat, but I do glance at it. Larry was not. Larry not only inhaled, his nickname was the Pharmacist.
- [55:57]
Larry O'Connor
I drove a VW bus in Orange County, California and it was like, it was like the Chum Gang where my pal.
- [56:04]
Mark Halpern
Yes, I think, I think Larry also a couple other nicknames. He was known as both Chong and Cheech and three time Orange County Hacky sack champion. So this is the old Larry and.
- [56:14]
Greg
I just close with a quote from Elton John. Cannabis is deadening to the soul. It leads to other drugs. When you're stoned, you don't think normally. So you know, if Elton John says it.
- [56:23]
Mark Halpern
Yeah. Hold me closer, Tiny dancer. Greg, thank you. Much appreciated. I will just say Donald Trump is literally the last president of my lifetime who I think would do this. He so opposes things like this. And it just shows you how overwhelming.
- [56:36]
Kevin Walling
And Joe Biden was the same way. They're old. I mean, Joe Biden.
- [56:40]
Mark Halpern
All right, quick, quick. Word. Got to get some sponsoring and then we'll try to get one more question real quick here. Chef IQ 30% off the entire site. Chef IQ.com promo code 2 WMM if you're going to cook over the holidays and beyond, buy the wireless thermometer, install the app and change your life or give it as a gift for someone. This allows you to monitor how long to cook something, when to turn it, when to take it out and how long to let it sit afterwards. It works on all, all manner of protein. Don't recommend you put it in a child, but anything else, put it, put it in the oven and this works to perfectly cook everything every time. For over the holidays you can spend less time hovering over the oven, more time with your loved ones or give it as a great gift to someone you love. And again, two way community gets an extraordinary 30% off with the promo code 2WMM. Go right now to chefiq.com get all your shopping done. Chefiq.com promo code 2WMM 30% off to cook better and easier and give the gift of good, well cooked food to someone you love right now. All right, do I need to do another ad here? I don't think I do, but I'm checking, checking the cell structure. No, I'm done. Here we go. Haley, welcome in. We haven't seen you in a while. Haley, tell folks where you are today. What's on your mind for Kevin and for Larry and good to see you. Happy holidays.
- [57:59]
Haley
Happy holidays, guys. So I have to jump in on the weed argument. I'm going to go from the other side. I'm going to come from the user side, which I do think that, Mark, you have a definitely excellent point saying that, you know, compared to alcohol, I don't think that there's a, you know, a big difference between smoking marijuana. I also think that there is a difference between buying marijuana off the street, which I think is very dangerous these days, and rather than in the states where you have legalized dispensaries. I do think the risk is, I think some of the research says like more than half, you know, has been eliminated just by the fact that they, that the drug itself has become legalized. So a lot of, you know, regulations and things like that happen. So I also think that it's a win, win situation. The federal government, if they do, if my understanding is correct, if they do declassify this, then they would be able to then get the tax dollars that they're not receiving.
- [59:03]
Kevin Walling
If I'm right, states are certainly doing that. Right.
- [59:07]
Haley
And I think because you can only pay cash right now, you can't pay with credit cards or anything. I just think it will be a big win win situation for our country if we were to, you know, declassify it and then have each state decide I don't want it. You know, each state can decide. That's I'm totally fine with. But I think that there's a lot of more pros these days than there is cons. I think if we're talking 20, 30 years ago, it would be a totally different story. But there have been a lot of companies, a lot of very, you know, smart people who have gone into this industry and tried to make it an industry where it's something that can be regulated, obviously, with 21 and up and everything like that stuff.
- [59:47]
Larry O'Connor
Yeah, I agree.
- [59:49]
Mark Halpern
Haley.
- [59:49]
Larry O'Connor
Listen, with all due respect. And I get it. You know what burns me about this? And again, I was on your side.
- [59:53]
Kevin Walling
No pun intended. No pun intended.
- [59:55]
Larry O'Connor
I'm pro freedom on this stuff. And I. And when all is said and done, I want to trust the American people and their judgment and let them make the decisions to get the government out of their lives. I'm with you. The problem is I feel betrayed by the movement. I was told, first we need medical marijuana for. To relieve people in horrible pain, that we're getting treatment and had glaucoma or catalytic or cataracts or whatever it was.
- [60:16]
Mark Halpern
Was the issue camel's nose. Camel nose, under the tent.
- [60:19]
Larry O'Connor
Yes, exactly. And then the next thing was, oh, now, now if we legalize it, we'll regulate it, we'll tax it, we'll make all this money out of it, and we'll get the criminal element out of it. And all of these things. It's this slow creep of this industry, and none of the things have come true. And I feel like we were sold a bill of goods. And now when you go, what's the pushback?
- [60:38]
Haley
Larry, I do think the criminal element has definitely gone down. I mean, I don't think we can argue. I think that they were switching, obviously, to much harder and worse drugs. I'm not going to argue that. But you don't see the. Once. Once the state started getting, you know, started legalizing marijuana, specifically with.
- [60:55]
Larry O'Connor
With all due respect, the. The criminal element is there. They're selling to kids because kids can't buy it in the dispensaries.
- [61:01]
Mark Halpern
Pretty soon, Larry, you'll be on a JetBlue flight. They'll say, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Sprite or a joint.
- [61:06]
Larry O'Connor
I'm gonna stick with the gummies, I guess.
- [61:08]
Haley
If only, Mark. If only.
- [61:10]
Mark Halpern
Yeah. Kevin. Kevin, there are people in your party, prominent people who are all in for reclassification and some for legalization and some who are not. Is your, would your party be smart to if the president does reclassify, do you think your party should say, great, great, Mr. President, or, or not?
- [61:28]
Kevin Walling
Yeah, I think so. And, and listen, I mean one of the interesting things, you know when marijuana was on the ballot in Michigan, right. A battleground state, recreational. It was Gretchen Whitmer's first race for governor. And more people went to that ballot box, voted on that ballot initiative and left the room. That was the top vote getter in terms of numbers than skipping the Senate race and the governor's race that year. So it's definitely a motivator. It tried to save Claire McCaskill. Medicinal was on the ballot in Missouri and you know, like minimum wage fights like marriage, as you know, gay marriage back in 2004. Democrats have used this to try and gin up the base in some of these states and it's worked to some degree.
- [62:08]
Larry O'Connor
Yes, sir.
- [62:09]
Mark Halpern
Larry, real quick.
- [62:10]
Larry O'Connor
When drugs and pot are criminalized, it allows police officers to make arrests or investigate people on that pretense. And usually those people end up being more hardened criminals for other purposes. If you look at the homeless explosion in Southern California and San Francisco and everything, there's a direct arc to them legalizing pot and having the homeless crisis explode. It also affects the mental health issue of those people who are already predisposed to living on the streets. That's one issue. And the second issue. Happy birthday, Haley.
- [62:40]
Mark Halpern
Thank you. Oh, Haley. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Haley. Larry, Larry's going to get you a bag of gummies. Haley. Thank you.
- [62:46]
Larry O'Connor
Grateful. Maybe a brownie?
- [62:47]
Mark Halpern
Yeah, maybe a brownie. Very grateful both to Kevin and Larry for joining us today, gentlemen. Outstanding. Loved having you and hope you'll come back later today. I got some two ways coming up to tell you about random offense with Ethan at 2 o' clock. And then I'll be on two way tonight at 6 o'. Clock. Larry, go Navy. And then right now you see it in the host. Well, take the, take the graphic down. Let's just get Professor Kenny in here to tell everybody what to do. Professor Kenny is added. Professor Unmute. Tell everybody what we're doing right now once the program ends.
- [63:25]
Professor James Kenny
Okay. Can you hear me?
- [63:27]
Mark Halpern
Yes, sir.
- [63:27]
Larry O'Connor
Yeah.
- [63:28]
Professor James Kenny
Hey everyone. We run a post show after the morning meeting and also after two Way tonight because people like to keep the conversation going. So today's Post show will have Mark Halpern on. Mark will be talking to the community. Yes. Yeah. Very honored to do it.
- [63:48]
Mark Halpern
Professor, if they want to join, how do they do it?
- [63:49]
Professor James Kenny
They have to. You can email me at Young James kennyahoo, but I've been putting the links and I've also sent everyone a private chat. I don't know if people check their private chats on this platform, but just go grab that link and come into the post show and discuss whatever you want to discuss with the community. And Mark, we'll see you in a few minutes.
- [64:13]
Mark Halpern
Mostly we're just talking about the Navy game, apparently. Again, thanks to everybody who was with us this week, both the guest co hosts and particularly Kevin and Larry today, and everybody part of the community. I'll see you right now with Professor Kennedy and the community on the private Zoom and then six o', clock, last show of the week. I'll see you on two Way tonight. Plenty to cover. Again, thanks to everybody for being here. We'll see you in just a moment.
- [64:34]
Kevin Walling
Have a great weekend, everybody.