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The Morning Meeting
Trump Trolls Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries With Vids, Pics as Democrats, GOP Duel Over Shutdown
01:03:30
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- [00:22]
Max
It's too late.
- [00:29]
Mark Bedner
All right? Jump out of that. Every show's got to start.
- [00:34]
Sean
Political Freeway.
- [00:35]
Mark Bedner
Political Freeway. Welcome, everyone, to the Political Freeway. We're riding. We're riding like bats out of hell.
- [00:41]
Sean
Shut down HOV Lane, baby.
- [00:43]
Mark Bedner
The Pope coming to the defense of Dick Durbin and every liberal who texts and emails me telling me that Donald Trump has lost his mind. The weave is now a sign of advanced dementia. We'll cover all that and more. The Professor, Marianne Ginger, everybody here on today's episode of the Morning Meeting, welcome in. Thank you for being part of it. If you want to be part of the conversation here in the two way platform, please raise your hand. If you're watching x or on YouTube, do not raise your hand. It's back in the chat. Presidential grace to all. Dan, what does your sleeve say on that shirt? Anything?
- [01:18]
Dan
It says conversations like no other.
- [01:21]
Mark Bedner
Yeah. And mine says peace, love and understanding. And both Jermaine here today, please. Peace, love and understanding. Yeah. Chuck Schumer's on Morning Joe right now. Let's take a listen.
- [01:38]
Dan
We're just going to wake everybody up with this.
- [01:42]
Sean
To help the American people out of the health care dilemma. But in the meantime, we are going to be fighting everywhere, on TV stations like yours, in the social media, in picketing, in protesting, in emails, in every way. And when the average American says, why the heck did I get a bill that raises my health care costs, doubles them, we're going to be pointing out it's the Republicans who did it. And we're also going to be pointing out that we asked them three times to vote on extending the ACA credit, which would make this all better. And they voted no three times. So what's our job? Our job is to represent.
- [02:19]
Mark Bedner
Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead.
- [02:21]
Sean
I'm sorry, let's get to your job. Second, I just, while you brought it.
- [02:24]
Mark Bedner
Up, I want to expand this out just a bit beyond this current fight to a bigger issue that is really impacting America. If you're not in Medicare, good cue to dump out of it. We'll keep monitoring it. Why did we take that live? We took that live because this program is based on Network News Division's morning meetings. If you, if you've ever had the pleasure to listen in on one, you know, they're really, they're unusual, they're unique. They're. The best way to know what's going on around the country and around the world is the networks use all their resources to tell you what's going on. And if you were sitting in one of those meetings, and on a day like this, Chuck Schumer popped up on cable. Somebody in the room would say, hey, turn that up. Let's listen. And then they would. And then they'd find it wasn't that interesting, so they'd go back out of it.
- [03:08]
Sean
I'm not like Mark, you took all the jelly donuts.
- [03:11]
Mark Bedner
Exactly. Quick word from our sponsor. Just a minute. And then we're going to get into the daybook and beyond. But Sean, what's your headline? If you were, let's say, a New York Post headline writer, the so called wood, the front page of the Post, what would your headline be for the shutdown so far? If you're. If you're publishing right now, New York Post would headline. What would it be?
- [03:32]
Sean
Oh, God, that's a. That's a high task. Yeah, Chuck's. Chuck's throwdown. I need a few minutes. That one.
- [03:42]
Mark Bedner
I. Dan, you got any idea? I must do this for the moment.
- [03:46]
Dan
Stupid is as stupid does New York Post.
- [03:51]
Mark Bedner
I do, I do. Maybe. Maybe down Chuck. As opposed to. All right, quick word from our sponsor. Quick word from our sponsor. And, and then. And then we'll get right into it. Dan, I see you're wearing your, uh, fairway and green shirt. Shanto, just tell everybody briefly what you're wearing today.
- [04:13]
Dan
End of the week. Very excited for it. My wife's getting her stuff soon. Yep.
- [04:16]
Mark Bedner
Just. Just briefly. Our friends at Fairway and Green have outfitted you in what? Sean, just tell us what it is. Is it Mark?
- [04:22]
Sean
It's a large quarter zip pullover in a dark shadow gray, emboldened with the morning meeting logo on the left sleeve. On these cold fall mornings, nothing better than a fairway in green quarter zip. Like I said, the dark shadow gray hides some.
- [04:37]
Mark Bedner
You know, it can spill on it.
- [04:39]
Dan
I never charcoal.
- [04:40]
Mark Bedner
I never read the chat, but someone just put in for the New York Post would Chuck roast.
- [04:45]
Dan
I like it.
- [04:46]
Mark Bedner
That's. That's the winner.
- [04:47]
Dan
So I love the New York headlines.
- [04:49]
Mark Bedner
Well done, Jeff. All right, this, this episode brought to you by our friends@takelean.com. takelean.com. I'm going to tell you at the end of this brief advertisement how you can get, believe it or not, 20% off. Avoid fad diets, juice cleanses, cabbage soup. You don't want any of that. By the time most of us have hit 60, they lost and regained lots and lots. Hundreds of pounds. That does a lot of damage to you. Doctors call it, Dan. They call it weight cycling. Don't want to do that. So what you want to do is you want to get help, not weight cycling, but losing weight in the healthy way. Non prescription lean created by doctors. It's an oral supplement. It's not one of those GLP1 injectables. The science behind it, you can read about it on the website. It's out that helps you maintain healthy blood sugar, helps control appetites and cravings and burns fat by converting it to energy. Go to the website right now. Takelean.com 20% off use the promo code Mark or as they say at the Red Sox games, Mac 20% off promo code mark. Takelean.com thank you for your attention to this matter. And now we head straight into the daybook where probably the marquee event of the day is a bunch of cable news hits. You're just going to see surrogates on both sides. Just just announced moments ago on the Punchbowl Twitter feed, Russ Vogt is headed to one o' clock meeting with the House or the congressional Republicans there. You see the pool today for Today's exciting activity, iHeartMedia is the radio pool. Important to know the president's only got one right now signing executive orders 4:30 in the Oval. Currently closed press, but that could open wide. And if it does, you'll see full coverage on Two Way tonight. So the other big marquee event, Caroline Levitt, New Hampshire's finest will brief at 1pm plenty of questions sure to come on the shutdown. JD Vance has already been on Fox and Friends this morning. Expect him to be around with the strategizing on this House is technically out. But the House Democrats are around Chuck Schumer already on Morning Joe and earlier on cnn. Let's play that. Play Chuck Schumer on cnn. He's asked if he accepts the appellation, the Schumer shutdown. Roll that please.
- [07:06]
Sean
Saying that every Republican.
- [07:08]
Mark Bedner
Who'S gone on TV the last, what.
- [07:10]
Sean
Nine hours or so has called this the Schumer shutdown. What do you think about that name? Well, it's really the Trump shutdown. Let me say something to you, John, that Republicans thought that they could barrel us into a shutdown because they didn't want to protect the health care of the American people. Well, now they've seen they can't bully us, they can't barrel us. They don't have the votes to push their partisan bill through that did nothing to protect American health care. So the solution now is is for both sides to sit down and come to an agreement that protects American health care all right.
- [07:51]
Mark Bedner
On the Hill, Johnson and Thune joint Press are at 10. At the same time, House Democrats are meeting privately. At some point today, there'll be another test vote to see whether Democrats can get or Republicans can get more than three Democratic senators to join in on that contretemps to try to pass a CR. And House Democrats at 11:15 are holding a press conference in Denmark today. Europeans are meeting on security, reacting to the most undercovered story in the history of the world, Russian violation of NATO airspace. And there were some very down job numbers out today. Well below expectations to say the least. All right, as we said, and by.
- [08:38]
Dan
The way, Mark, we're probably not going to get the Labor Department's job numbers on Friday.
- [08:43]
Mark Bedner
We are, we aren't going to get, we aren't going to get them. And if you want to go to a park, it might be open, but you won't get full guided tour. In any event, Rand Paul is going to vote no on all the CRS because he doesn't like it. So they need to get five more votes of Democratic senators than they got yesterday. And they got three yesterday and two of them were somewhat unexpected. Senator from Maine, Senator from the Silver State, all voted yes with Fetterman. And now people are looking at Gene Shaheen, they're looking at Maggie Hassan, Gary Peters. That doesn't get you all the way there, but that would mean they'd need only a couple more. So Sean, my view from talking to people, particularly Democratic senators who are a little upset or concerned is this could end today because Democratic senators might cave and that wouldn't be Schumer caving. That would be moderate ish senators giving. Is that not the way this is like most likely to go?
- [09:38]
Sean
I don't think there's any other way that this goes. I mean, I think it's just going to be a slow attrition of, of like you'll pick up one or two and then it's going to be hard to be the one that is going to face the pressure. So, you know, they pick up Peters and then they go, okay, does Maggie Hassan say I got to do this? But I think, you know, we need five. I think you might pick up one or two on the vote today and then it's just going to be a matter of drip, drip, drip.
- [10:05]
Mark Bedner
Dan, these senators who voted yes yesterday and the ones who might vote yes, how would they be coordinating with Schumer? Would they be, would he be trying to hold them in line and, or would he say, you do what you need to do. How does that dynamic work?
- [10:19]
Dan
Well, usually you would not want to anger your leader and you not want to blindside your leader. But given the bind that Schumer is in, I, I, I would imagine that they're going to give him a heads up. We've talked about this the whole time. No one sees an exit plan for Chuck Schumer other than what we just described. I don't necessarily think they'll cave today, but I do think by the end of the week they may but aren't.
- [10:43]
Mark Bedner
Wouldn'T they kind of be bailing Schumer out, in other words?
- [10:45]
Dan
Of course, yeah, he'll kick and scream and say, you know, gosh darn it, but, but there's no other option out of this. Like, it's just like Obama was never going to sign a bill to undo Obamacare. Trump's never going to sign a bill to undo the big beautiful bill.
- [10:59]
Mark Bedner
So Sean, would the White House, if Schumer, if Schumer called JD or some, but somebody, I don't know who he would deal with at this point. But if Schumer said, look, I'll get you the eight votes but you got to give us something, would the White House at this point be willing to give him anything? Or they'd say nothing, just we'll, we'll first open the government and then we'll figure it all out.
- [11:17]
Sean
Yeah, we'll give you a goose egg because it's not happening. I mean there's no, they don't need to give them anything. And frankly, the funny thing about this sequentially if you play it out is that the ACA is what will be negotiated after the continuing resolute. I mean the continuing resolution just buys you time to negotiate. So if you give away that, what you want to negotiate on, you're screwing yourself after the seven week, you know, during that seven week period. So there's no way and there's no need. I mean at the end of the day, these guys are very happy with this, with, with the shutdown. And by the way, total side note, Today, based on DOGE buyouts, 150 federal employees are going bye bye for good because of the Doge deferred buyout program. So this is going to be like 50,000, you mean 150,000 and you're going to have another bunch of furloughs. As I said earlier, these guys are being very strategic about their handling, how they're handling this. We where the pain is going to get felt and they're just going to, they're riding high. They have no reason to give them anything at all. And the more Democrats that come over, the more that it makes it like they go, why would I negotiate? Look at this. Here's another one that came over to. I mean.
- [12:30]
Mark Bedner
It'S being said by Democrats and some in the media that the President is worried about the shutdown, that it could hurt his poll numbers. He's upset. Here's the Vice President of the United States on Fox and Friends seeming like he doesn't have an effing care in the world for a second. Because I think it's important for the American people to realize that the far left faction of Senate Democrats shut down the government because we wouldn't give them hundreds of billions of dollars for health care benefits for illegal aliens. It's actually not even all Senate Democrats. I was really gratified to see that a few of the moderate Senate Democrats voted with Senate Republicans last night to keep, keep the government open. This is basically Chuck Schumer. Chuck Schumer. He's worried he's going to get a primary challenge from aoc and so he's shutting down the people's government to give in to sort of the left wing coalition and their party. And it's craziness and people are going to suffer because of it. I mean, people who benefit from low income food programs are going to suffer because of this. If you're flying today, I hope of course you arrive safely and on time, but you may not arrive on time because the TSA and the air traffic controllers are not getting paid today. Our military is not getting paid today. Starting today. And obviously the longer this drags on, the worse that it is for the American people. Sean, is there any truth to the notion that the President, as compared to the people around him, might panic and say we need a deal. Is there any truth to that?
- [13:53]
Sean
Not right now. Maybe in a few days. Right now he's fine.
- [13:57]
Mark Bedner
Yeah. Dan, I don't, I don't care about the polling on this. I know people poll it. People aren't real Americans aren't paying attention. They have no idea what the real issues are. So I don't know. Do you care about polling on this right now?
- [14:10]
Dan
No. I mean, I think Steve Elmendorf said it on two way tonight last night, which is polling is a rear view mirror sampling. But if you play it forward when services start getting cut, and Rachel talked about it yesterday on the morning meeting, that's when people get grouchy, people get upset and they're just like, God damn it, I want my services back and just figure this out. And I think when you hear JD Vance's messaging and you hear Chuck Schumer's messaging, you know why Republicans have the upper hand. I do think Trump in the long run is worried about the healthcare credits. That's a different issue and it does split the Republican Party. And there were stories yesterday about how there's a faction of Republicans that don't want this to ever be touched. And I think that that is a problem. But I don't see how this ends other than Senate Democrats folding to borrow.
- [14:55]
Mark Bedner
Go ahead.
- [14:56]
Sean
No, I was just gonna make two quick points.
- [14:57]
Dan
Rachel, I teed you up.
- [15:00]
Sean
There's two quick things that are very interesting about this. Number one, as I said yesterday, remember, this is the entire government that shut down in the past. We normally have passed the military construction ea so that certain benefits, literally when JD Says that the military is not getting paid, they're not getting paid. And, and there's a difference between an officer not getting paid and an E4 and E5 that's getting 20 grand and, and you know, getting by maybe going to the commissary and things like that that are now going to get shut down. So you are really making an impact on these folks. I mean, I remember when we shut it down in 94, I was a, I think I was making $18,500 as a Senate staff assistant. We got, they, they did, they did a bunch of like the credit union did, these emergency loans where you could come in and borrow your paycheck. And I'm sure that's all gonna happen. But this one, I think is gonna get felt by people who, who haven't been really impacted in previous government shutdowns in a way that matters a lot more when you're overseas and you're an E5, E6 or out on a ship and you're wife or your husband is being told, hey, I don't know that I can pay the rent. That's a very different situation.
- [16:06]
Mark Bedner
Yes. Invariably after the shutdown, people's back pay gets paid back. But some people live paycheck to paycheck, obviously. And so getting the pay in a few weeks or whenever doesn't matter. To borrow one of the finest lines from Woody Allen's Annie hall, we happen to have Rachel Bade right here aforementioned. And Rachel, sometimes my colleagues, when they send me like a note describing who's on the show, they'll say, veteran journalist Rachel Bade, you're too young to be a veteran journalist, but you're very experienced journalists and you know about the shutdowns. Thank you for joining again. I'd love to hear just your latest reporting and sense of, of where we stand on the prospect of more Democratic senators voting for the CR what the White House posture is. Take it away. Thank you for joining.
- [16:47]
Rachel Bade
Sure. Of course. Look, this hasn't happened in six years. So I think over the next week or so, if it lasts that long, we're just going to have this, you know, gut wrenching reminder of what shutdowns mean. I mean just going back to what Sean was talking about and Dan before, you know, hundreds of thousands of federal workers being home. I mean it's not just some people who live paycheck to paycheck. Most people cannot go without getting a subsequent paychecks. Like that's just the reality of things. Troops not getting paid. I mean all Republicans have to do is go on TV over and over again and talk about these impacts. I mean air traffic controllers, don't you want to fly safe? Okay, what if they don't show up because they're not getting paid? That's a real problem. Right. National parks, what's going to happen there? What if you need have a question with Social Security? You can't get a hold of anything permitting. I mean if you're a company, you're trying to get a permit. Good luck. So it starts to really hurt right now. And that's why, you know, I mentioned this last night on to a 2 APM. You know, the conversation is going to shift from the ACA tax credits to the emergency and that's why the pressure is just going to scale skyrocket on Democrats right now. I think the fact that Schumer lost three people last night shows kind of where this is going. Right. And I do think more people will peel off now. I don't know if it'll be one or two at a time or if they'll all jump together. One thing I do want to say about Schumer is that typically the leader is supposed to give these members cover. So you know, instead of just saying okay, you know, we know where this is going, you can, you know, go out on a limb and be pummeled by the party. It's his job to give these people cover too. So I'm going to be watching him pretty closely.
- [18:25]
Mark Bedner
Rachel, if it is, if it is, the three who voted yes yes voted yes yesterday. And then we add Shaheen and Hassan and Peters who are the next most likely to get to eight, you'd need to you'd need two more. By my back of the envelope math.
- [18:41]
Rachel Bade
I would look at Kristen Gillibrand. She is currently running the Senate Democrats campaign arm. She's, she's smart about this stuff. She knows this is not smart. I mean, she may not say it, but I would bet she does. And, you know, during the March shutdown, there was a private meeting where Democrats were debating whether or not they wanted to actually take things to a shutdown. And she was one of the more vocal people, I believe there was reporting at the time that she was yelling about how stupid it would be to do something like this.
- [19:09]
Mark Bedner
So look, all right, one more. We need to give us one more name.
- [19:13]
Rachel Bade
Peter Bennett. Michael Bennett. Did we say Michael Bennett?
- [19:15]
Mark Bedner
No. Michael Bennett. Michael Bennett's a good one. Yeah.
- [19:20]
Rachel Bade
He's also, he knows, I mean, these people have been around for a long time. They know shut down, politics don't work. They don't. It doesn't work.
- [19:26]
Mark Bedner
Mark Bedner in the chat adds Ossoff as well. So that's pretty cool.
- [19:30]
Dan
Ben Ray Lujan, because New Mexico has a huge federal presence and he's up as well.
- [19:35]
Sean
Look at that, though. We've just.
- [19:36]
Mark Bedner
That's a universe. That's a. Well, no, we're well above 8. I mean, that's a universe that gets you to 12.
- [19:41]
Dan
And Jackie Rosen now is hung out on a limb with, with Cortez Mastro. I mean.
- [19:45]
Mark Bedner
Yeah, yeah. Rachel, anything else you see moving today besides this question of Senate Democrats and the OMB director on the Hill, anything else you're watching in terms of moving pieces? First of all, do you know when the vote's going to be?
- [20:01]
Rachel Bade
I don't. No.
- [20:02]
Mark Bedner
Okay.
- [20:03]
Rachel Bade
I try to get my toddler to school this morning. I haven't checked in on vote times, but no, I think, I mean, another big dynamic, we talked about it yesterday, is like the president being this wild card. Right. Sean, you were talking just a few minutes ago about how, you know, right now there's, there's just posture and this belief, you know, there's no reason to give an inch. I totally agree with you. I think they don't have to. I think the pressure is going to build and Democrats are going to cave at some point. But I don't know that it's a question about being panicked as much as it is a question about President Trump, you know, being like, loving to be, you know, the master of the deal. I am curious what you make of that, because like I said, I was told that he is intrigued by this and if he Even like gives Democrats even a little bit of hope that maybe, maybe he's going to make a deal with them on aca, you know, health care credits. Then I think this could actually drag out a little longer. So I'm curious, as somebody who's very.
- [20:55]
Sean
Close with him, Sean, I just think that what I said before, they're basically saying the deal is to be had on phase two. Don't give up, give up the store. Now. I also think that the people surrounding him, Russ and others have made it very clear that we can actually get a bunch of the agenda done during a shutdown because of the unique circumstances that that allows us in terms of federal government, federal employee, federal policy. Russ has been, I think he said this yesterday. It's absolutely, I think when Russ was in eighth grade, he wrote a paper on what I do during a government shutdown. So he's fired up, ready to go. And I think they've made sure that they know what the plan is and what they can do. I don't think it lasts much longer than the weekend, but for a lot of the pain reasons, I also still believe that there is a valve which is let's get military pay, let's get veterans pay. Let's get a bunch of this, veterans benefits. Let's get a bunch of this stuff. That's essential. There's three bills that are teed up that they could just say get those off the table. We'll at least minimize the pain. So I think that's a valve that could be opened up in the next few days.
- [22:06]
Mark Bedner
Yeah. Rachel, thank you for coming to come back regularly. Please keep us updated. Grateful to you. All right, a couple more topics and then we're going to go to your questions. Please raise your hand if you're here on the platform and want to get in. This relates to the shutdown. The president's now, two days in a row posted videos of Hakeem Jeffries that many find offensive. Hakeem Jeffries is acting like it's the worst thing Donald Trump's ever done. I don't want you to play it. I just want you to put up the truth post. This would be 109A. Don't play the video. Dan, two part question for you. Is Hakeem Jeffries actually offended or is this just crocodile tears to, to, to show indignation and fighting spirit? He's actually angry.
- [22:43]
Dan
Yeah. I mean, I think it's both. I think he finds it condescending and belittling. But I just think it's not a good Look, Trump looks like he's having fun, and Jeffries just looks kind of like, just like he's losing his cool and he's angry and the way he's lashing out is comical. It's Capitol Hill press conferences. Nobody pays attention to them.
- [23:05]
Mark Bedner
Yeah. And as you pointed out, he could be. He would benefit if he had more like Gavin Newsom's social media posture. I mean, but my second point. Yeah.
- [23:13]
Dan
He should put out an Obama 28 hat.
- [23:16]
Mark Bedner
Yeah.
- [23:17]
Dan
You know, like he should just troll Trump.
- [23:19]
Mark Bedner
My second, my second question to you, My second question to you is Steve Elmendorf, last night on two Way Tonight, basically said the President should be so dignified that, that he should never do anything like this. Like.
- [23:32]
Dan
That's right.
- [23:33]
Mark Bedner
Are we sort of past that? I mean, I'm not saying. Look, I'm not saying, but I mean, I mean, this doesn't seem to me like in the top 3,000 of offensive social media posts by Donald Trump. Doesn't seem like in the top 3,000. Maybe I'm insensitive. I don't know. Just seems like, it just seems like it's a little. The toothpaste has left the barn, as we say in Illinois.
- [23:53]
Dan
Well, absolutely. I think this is where Trump lives in Democrats heads. And I think if I'll say it for the thousandth time, I would troll Trump with humor. I don't know why the party loses its you know what and goes to the New York Times editorial page to say how awful it is.
- [24:09]
Mark Bedner
Right. Okay. So every so often it's irregular. It's not periodic, an often misused word. It's irregular. I just get besieged by Democrats who say, mark, why aren't you covering Donald Trump's obvious cognitive decline? And they take the weave and they say he's suffered decline. Now, when we had Joe Biden suffering cognitive decline on full public display, there were people who said privately he's much better. And that was sometimes true. Here's the president yesterday in his very long speech to military leaders gathered from around the world. This, this excerpt was highlighted by, by our friend John Ellis as, as something people pointed to, to say, well, obviously now the President has completely lost his mind. Here's Donald Trump on Tuesday. We were not respected with Biden, and they looked at him falling downstairs every day. Every day the guy's falling downstairs. He said, it's not our president. We can't have it. I'm very careful, you know, when I walk downstairs, like I'm on stairs, like these stairs. I'm very, I walk very Slowly. Nobody has to set a record. Just try not to fall because it doesn't work out well. A few of our presidents have fallen and it became a part of their legacy. We don't want that. Walk nice and easy. You're not happy. You don't have to set any record.
- [25:31]
Sean
Be cool.
- [25:32]
Mark Bedner
Be cool when you walk down, but don't, don't bop down the stairs. So one thing with Obama, I had zero respect for him as a president, but he would bop down those stairs. I've never seen da, da, da, da, da, da, bop, bop. He'd go down the stairs, wouldn't hold on. I said, it's great. I don't want to do it. I guess I could do it, but eventually bad things are going to happen and it only takes once. But he did a lousy job as president. A year ago. We were a dead country. We're dead. Okay, all right. This country is going to hell, Sean. I look at that and I say, that's, that's par for the course. There's. I don't, I don't, I don't see cognitive decline in there. Am I, am I, am I running coverage for Donald Trump or is that just the weave?
- [26:17]
Sean
I honestly don't know why it's any different than any other speech he's given in 10 years. I was like, where's the, what's, what are we looking at here?
- [26:23]
Mark Bedner
Yeah. All right, Dan, Why do I, Why did, why does that speech cause so many Democrats to text and email me saying, mark, the whole show tomorrow should be devoted to Donald Trump's. What are Sean and I missing?
- [26:34]
Dan
Look, I don't think he's showing signs yet of mental decline. The irony is, I think where he is slightly declining and the reason that he actually got on to make that statement yesterday is he is starting to physically slow down. I mean, you saw it even at the end of the campaign that he struggles at times to walk upstairs. He had trouble getting on the big rig at the stunt they did with the garbage truck. He really struggled to kind of grab it and get up. It's been reported by several places that one of the reasons he does most of these executive orders and press conferences in the Oval sitting is he does struggle to stand for long periods of time in dress shoes these days. Again, natural for an 80 year old to start having all of this. But to me, there's more signs of his aging physically than there is mentally at this point. That press conference could have been from the 1980s.
- [27:24]
Mark Bedner
Yeah. All right.
- [27:25]
Dan
How he acts.
- [27:26]
Mark Bedner
All right. Two more topics, mixed reporting this morning on Hamas's posture towards the Trump 20 point plan. Here's a headline from somebody. Put up the headline, I find the number. If you insist.
- [27:40]
Sean
But somebody.
- [27:41]
Mark Bedner
Wall Street Journal. Hamas indicates it is open to Trump peace plan as it faces pressure. That's in the Journal. But the BBC is reporting that Hamas is likely to turn down the plan. There's a Journal headline, hamas indicates it's open to Trump peace plan as it faces pressure from Muslim nations. Milton's group has expressed reservations about the terms Arab mediators say. So that's a little bit mixed, but open to it. The BBC suggesting they're going to be against it. Gentlemen, do you have any thoughts on this? Obviously the president said he'd give him a couple days. So we're either at the deadline or getting near it. Either of you have a feeling about where this is headed?
- [28:17]
Sean
I just got to believe that if you're Hamas and you don't take this and you're either getting back channeled by the other Arab states and said we really didn't mean to sign that, or you're putting, you're literally creating a death wish because they're not. I mean, I think at some point Trump's just gonna tell Bibi, well, we tried, go for it.
- [28:37]
Dan
Yeah. I think the interesting thing is, I mean, on some level, and I'm just saying this as a political analysis, like it's bad for business for Hamas to cut a deal. Like for Hamas survives because of the outrage and the idea of never give up. And that's. But they get their funding through the Middle east. So if their funders say that's it, no more. If Iran tells them, if the, you know, people in Oman and other places that backdoor money to them say that's it, we're cutting off. If you don't accept this, then I think they, they'll have to. But otherwise fighting is good for business for them.
- [29:09]
Sean
Just, I think that's the key. That's the key though. Is, is it. What are they, are they being back channeled? Hey, we signed this or we said this stuff because we were forced to, or we kind of thought we had to, but you guys are good with us, don't worry. Or hey, we meant it when we signed it and that's the tell in the whole thing.
- [29:26]
Mark Bedner
All right, one more story then to your questions again, sporadically, not periodically, up pops the story of prominent liberal Catholic American politicians being denied communion by their local parish because of their position on abortion. Liberals say, well, this is Unfair because why are you giving communion to people who, for instance, who support the death penalty because the church also opposes the death penalty. Again, this pops up with Nancy Pelosi, etc. And Joe Biden. Now it's popped up John Kerry. Now it's popped up with Dick Durbin, who was slated to receive an award from the Chicago Archdiocese last night. He rejected the award. He said, I won't accept the lifetime achievement award because of controversy. He was being given it for his position on immigration because Democrats are more aligned with the Catholic Church on immigration policy than Republicans are. What's different now and the reason why we're talking about it, besides I'm a sucker for all stories involving Dick Durbin is the Pope is not only an American, but he's a Chicagoan. So here's the Pope speaking about this delicate issue for the church about what to do about American politicians who may be pro life or pro choice may be pro death penalty. Pro anti death penalty. Here's the pontiff.
- [30:39]
Max
112 I'm not terribly familiar with the particular case. I think that it's very important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during, if I'm not mistaken, 40 years of service in the United States Senate. I understand the difficulty and the tensions, but I think, as I myself have spoken in the past, it's important to look at many issues that are related to what is the teaching of the Church. Someone who says I'm against abortion but says I'm in favor of the death penalty is not really pro life. So someone who says that I'm against abortion but I'm in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States, I don't know if that's pro life. So they're very complex issues. I don't know if anyone has all the truth on them. But I would ask first and foremost that there be greater respect for one another and that we search together both as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois, as well as Catholics, to say we need to really look closely at all of these ethical issues and to find the way forward as church. The Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear.
- [31:58]
Mark Bedner
Thank you.
- [31:59]
Max
Thank you very much.
- [32:01]
Mark Bedner
Just to be clear, if the guy wants to host or co host a two way, His Holiness is welcome at any time. Amazing. Dan, just your general thoughts on this, on his weighing in on this perennial issue as it pertains not just to Dick Durbin, but more widely to Catholic American politicians of Both parties.
- [32:18]
Dan
Yeah. As a Democratic Catholic, I mean, amen. That somebody is putting this all on the table. I think, as you say, Democrats have pulled their hair out for years that the one issue that conservative Catholics have just not wanted to give up on is the issue of abortion. But here you have all these Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, who literally go to church every single week, are good practicing Catholics, and somehow, because of one issue, they're not allowed. Sean, you're shaking your head.
- [32:45]
Sean
You can't be a good practicing Catholic that promotes the killing of the innocent, of innocent babies. You cannot.
- [32:51]
Mark Bedner
Can you be good practicing Catholic if you support the death. Support the death penalty.
- [32:56]
Sean
No, you actually can't. No, actually, that.
- [32:59]
Dan
And you can't be for the inhumane treatment of immigrants. God.
- [33:03]
Sean
Great. And tell me, who supports the inhumane treatment. Treatment.
- [33:07]
Mark Bedner
Just. How about the. How about the death penalty, Sean?
- [33:09]
Sean
Teaching of the Church is clear on the death penalty. If you are pro life, you support. There are exceptions that the Church has made for the death penalty, however, so.
- [33:19]
Mark Bedner
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Sean. I still don't understand your position.
- [33:22]
Sean
Yeah, no, my position is that. That you are. If you are pro life, you are pro life. And so with respect to the death penalty, the Church is clear that it does not support the death penalty with the exception of. Of certain extreme conditions.
- [33:35]
Mark Bedner
Right. So many, many Republicans who support the death penalty and are Catholic, shouldn't they be denied communion at the same standard as denying communion to people?
- [33:43]
Sean
They're out there promoting the death penalty. I think there's a big difference. How many people were put to death by the death penalty last year in America? 10.
- [33:52]
Mark Bedner
I don't know that that's the standard. It's. It's what your public. It's what your public. It's what your public policy position is.
- [33:57]
Dan
Right. They constantly call for the death penalty. I mean, and I'm going to go back to. You can't tell me that the treatment of immigrants is humane. Even the Church has criticized it. So whatever we in the Church have criticized, whatever we think.
- [34:10]
Mark Bedner
The Pope. The Pope has.
- [34:11]
Dan
The Pope is our leader, Sean.
- [34:13]
Sean
Yes. And I will say that there is a difference between what the definition of treating someone humane is. I would argue that someone who enters a country illegally and then expects benefits.
- [34:26]
Mark Bedner
You would, but. You would, but you're not the Pope. And the Pope doesn't agree with.
- [34:29]
Sean
The Pope has not weighed in on that.
- [34:30]
Dan
But this is where I think it's great to have a Pope put it all on the table. Catholics can debate.
- [34:35]
Sean
I will say this. The one difference with the Durbin thing is the following. There is a big difference between the Pope preaching tolerance and understanding and giving an award to someone that openly defied church teaching on an issue and supported the killing of innocent life. That is a big difference. You don't give awards to somebody like that and then say, okay, well, here's the teaching of the church. Can't do it, John.
- [34:59]
Dan
If, if, if, if the standard for Catholics is you follow every, every Catholic teaching, no award would go to any.
- [35:05]
Sean
Politician ever, then maybe they shouldn't give awards to politicians.
- [35:08]
Dan
I'd be good endorsements.
- [35:10]
Mark Bedner
Okay, one more shutdown. One more shutdown element. We're not even going to talk about. We're just going to play George Stephanopoulos with the speaker from this morning's Good Morning America and then we're going to go to your questions, but just to kind of tee up the conversation. Everyone will have their own opinion about this exchange in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. This morning, the Democratic proposal is designed to prevent millions of Americans from losing.
- [35:35]
Sean
Their health insurance, losing Medicaid coverage, or paying higher health care premiums.
- [35:39]
Mark Bedner
Why are you against that?
- [35:41]
Sean
Oh, my God.
- [35:42]
Unknown Republican Commentator
That's an absurd statement, what you said there. Let's be clear about what happened last night, George. No, George, let me tell you what happened last night. Everybody can go and review the facts for themselves. 44 Senate Democrats voted to reject a clean, nonpartisan continuing funding resolution to keep the United States government open. The Democrats said instead that they wanted to give health care to illegal aliens instead of keeping critical services provided for the American citizens. That's what happened, plain and simple. Every Democrat in the House except one, voted against the clean continuing resolution. It was nonpartisan in nature. There are no policy riders on it that Republicans favored. It's exactly what Chuck Schumer and other Democrats voted for in March. But they've changed their tune. They changed their tune because Chuck Schumer is having political problems right now. That's just a simple fact. And everybody knows that he's trying to outrun the far left portion of his base. So he's decided to inform inflict pain on the American people.
- [36:38]
Mark Bedner
Here are the facts. The proposal does not provide health care for illegal immigrants.
- [36:42]
Sean
Illegal immigrants cannot buy health care under.
- [36:44]
Mark Bedner
The Affordable Care Act. How much longer is this? Health care subsidies? How much longer is this? Immigrants are ineligible for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Program. The Democratic bill does not make them eligible.
- [36:56]
Unknown Republican Commentator
It does, actually, because what it does is it unwinds the changes that Republicans put put into the big beautiful bill, the big signature legislation that we passed and signed into law on July 4th that has been very successful in ensuring up Medicaid for the people who are actually eligible to receive it. What we did in the bill, and the CBO just verified this three weeks ago, the Congressional Budget Office, the non partisan arbiters of everything up here, they said that those provisions have helped to reduce premiums.
- [37:23]
Dan
Why?
- [37:23]
Unknown Republican Commentator
Because we've got ineligible recipients off of Medicaid, illegal aliens and able bodied young men who are riding the wagon who are not eligible to be there. Medicaid is intended for specific populations of US citizens, I.e. young pregnant women who are down on their luck, the disabled and the elderly. Those resources are being drained from those folks. And so we fixed that. We reduced fraud, waste and abuse in the program. Chuck Schumer's counter proposal on the CR would reverse that. That is a simple fact.
- [37:52]
Sean
The CBO did not say immigrants. You've made your point right there.
- [37:55]
Mark Bedner
Let me ask you about President Trump. All right. I think from now on I will be calling it the Stephanopoulos shutdown. What do you think of that, Sean? Like that Stephanopoulos.
- [38:03]
Sean
I mean, I gotta be honest with you. The last two weeks have shown that ABC has decided to go full msnbc. It's embarrassing. That is the idea that he thinks he's a host. He should have been back behind the podium for that. That was embarrassing. The bottom line is, by the way, when Maxine Waters was asked this yesterday on the Record. I'll play the clip tonight on my show for anyone who wants to see it, they asked her, do you support. And she said it shouldn't matter your citizenship. It should be for everyone who's in this country. When Savannah Guthrie asked the question of every Democrat running for President, would healthcare in this country cover everyone in this country, legal or illegally? Every single person raised their hand. There is no denying this. And the bottom line is the speaker was right. All this does is extend current law, current spending for seven weeks, full stop. That was embarrassing.
- [38:52]
Mark Bedner
Dan.
- [38:55]
Dan
Look, this is what you're going to see. If you turn on certain conservative channels, you're going to see it's all about illegal immigrants. You turn on progressive channels and you're going to see this is about health care.
- [39:04]
Mark Bedner
Max, is that a real.
- [39:05]
Sean
We can agree. At least we can agree that ABC is a progressive station.
- [39:08]
Mark Bedner
Max, is that a real background?
- [39:09]
Max
That is a real background.
- [39:11]
Mark Bedner
Where are you?
- [39:11]
Dan
Dubai?
- [39:12]
Max
I'm at Casa Cipriani. The back is, oh, downtown yeah, absolutely.
- [39:18]
Mark Bedner
That's amazing. It's a little crisp out there today.
- [39:20]
Max
It's beautiful today.
- [39:21]
Mark Bedner
Yeah. Yeah.
- [39:22]
Max
When it gets warm, it gets warm. It's gorgeous.
- [39:25]
Mark Bedner
Yeah.
- [39:25]
Max
A couple of things.
- [39:26]
Mark Bedner
Hold on. I got one more question for you. Is the sweater mustard?
- [39:33]
Max
It is mustard.
- [39:35]
Mark Bedner
Very good. Very daring. Very daring of you. If I tried to wear mustard on the show, there'd be nothing.
- [39:40]
Max
We have breakfast. Yeah, come on down, Sean. Anytime.
- [39:43]
Mark Bedner
All right. Okay.
- [39:44]
Sean
Wait.
- [39:44]
Dan
You own it. I'll take a free membership.
- [39:49]
Mark Bedner
All right. Maybe we'll do the show from there tomorrow.
- [39:54]
Max
You would? I would love to have you.
- [39:55]
Mark Bedner
Okay. How's the WI Fi, Max? It's probably good. You seem pretty good.
- [39:59]
Max
WI Fi is great.
- [40:00]
Mark Bedner
Is it. Is it a members only thing?
- [40:02]
Max
It is members only, unless you are a hotel guest.
- [40:05]
Mark Bedner
Okay. But you can get us in.
- [40:07]
Max
I could get you indefinitely, Dan. I don't know. But.
- [40:12]
Mark Bedner
All right, well, we'll. We'll talk about it. Because I'd love to do it from down there. I gotta check the weather though. And, and, and Dan, we could start wearing our cold weather.
- [40:20]
Dan
Absolutely.
- [40:21]
Mark Bedner
Fairway. Fairway and green stuff. Max, thank you for your patience. Thank you for being part of the two way community. The floor is yours for da. Dan.
- [40:28]
Max
And a couple of things. Number one, George Stephanopoulos is not on a progressive channel. He's on abc, which has a broadcasting license. So that if I was the Republicans, I would sue an FEC complaint as an in kind. In kind donation. And. And George Stephanopoulos, I mean, he was a Clinton hatchet man. How he's non partial reporters beyond me. Second, Dick Durbin. How is somebody still considered a public servant when they're enriching themselves for multiple decades? The term really needs to be reevaluated. Like if your business is politics, your business is politics. And you're enriching yourself being a politician. You cannot be a public servant. You are. You're. You're enriching yourself. You're. You're in the business of politics. And that's okay. But at least, you know, be. Be real about that. Finally, I'd like to understand. Everyone's talking about this CR and this shutdown. This is just adding another. Correct me if I'm wrong. I defer to Sean. Another $1.9 trillion on our deficit discontinuing resolution. We're not doing anything, you know, great here. So how is this even a. I'd like to understand how this is a debate adding another $2 trillion of debt onto us at these spending levels. I'm Pretty much, you know, throwing my hands up on this. I'm confused.
- [41:52]
Sean
You're right. I mean, I, to be honest with you, I can't believe that we continue to get to these places, meaning that we haven't done more to rein in government. We're staring down the barrel of $37 trillion. $4 trillion.
- [42:06]
Mark Bedner
Huh?
- [42:07]
Max
38.
- [42:08]
Sean
Well, 37, you know, @ that point. And, and we're, we're overspending by 2 trillion a year. I mean, I, I just, to me, the whole notion that this isn't a bigger issue is embarrassing. And, and the, the funny thing is, if you're a Democrat, taking the current levels is probably the best deal you ever can get. This is a joke. We should be cutting, not continuing.
- [42:31]
Dan
Republicans have absolutely no desire to cut.
- [42:34]
Sean
I mean, I don't disagree with you on that.
- [42:36]
Dan
It's a total farce. It always has been. I mean, and Max, I'm glad that you are very upset about Durbin Enriching. I'm sure you're equally outraged by the Trump family. Equally outraged.
- [42:48]
Max
Donald Trump was a business person who did this. That's, by the way, he is the.
- [42:54]
Dan
Only reason that that crypto thing took off is he's President of the United States.
- [42:57]
Mark Bedner
Max, was Donald Trump your landlord?
- [43:00]
Max
Yes, he was my landlord. He was my landlord. Absolutely.
- [43:03]
Dan
Max. Max, I have a question for you.
- [43:05]
Max
I paid rent to the Trump Organization.
- [43:07]
Dan
Max, Paul Pelosi is a businessman. He's been an investment banker since the 70s. You have no problem with if your history is a business person? I have no doubt that it's good.
- [43:16]
Max
I had no problems with Paul Pelosi making money on his own. Paul Pelosi trading on insider trading that his wife gave him. That's a problem. You and I would be buried under the prison for that.
- [43:26]
Dan
So, so, so would the Trump children.
- [43:31]
Max
Donald Trump's. Donald Trump's net worth went down as when he became president, the United States was already a multi billionaire. The children were completely debanked, deep platformed and because of that found a new avenue to make money. I'm not here to defend somebody making money in the private sector, but someone like a Dick Durbin, a Nancy Pelosi. Anybody who's in quote unquote public calling themselves a public servant is laughable. I don't HEAR Donald Trump Jr. Calling himself a public servant.
- [44:04]
Dan
Yeah, but I don't know how much Republicans have self awareness of how absurd what you just said is. But the bar has been shattered. If you think that Gavin Newsom's kids wouldn't say let's go start crypto companies and do everything. Like it's absurd.
- [44:20]
Mark Bedner
Why?
- [44:21]
Dan
You just are.
- [44:21]
Mark Bedner
Max, the fact, the fact that they were already rich does not mitigate. Does not mitigate the outrage of their leveraging the public office.
- [44:30]
Max
I don't disagree with you. The same thing with Jared. However, they don't put themselves with a. This halo of I am a public servant.
- [44:38]
Mark Bedner
I wish, I wish they would because then maybe they wouldn't exploit the office.
- [44:43]
Dan
So because we own the corruption, we talk about corruption.
- [44:49]
Mark Bedner
Max, come on. Max. Max, come on. Anyway, go on Twitter, Max's Twitter account. You can read about how he, the Trump helped him with his pizza operation. Max, we'll see you tomorrow. See you tomorrow morning. We'll see you tomorrow morning. Maybe. Dan and I are going to look into it. Jen, welcome in.
- [45:05]
Dan
We're going to Soho House. Yeah, okay.
- [45:07]
Mark Bedner
Thank you for being part of Two Way Jen. If you're not too busy just doing what you're doing. Tell us where you are and what's on your mind. Jen? Jen, you with us? Jen? That's the first.
- [45:20]
Dan
This is a two way first.
- [45:21]
Mark Bedner
Jen, you there? Hello? This is weird. I don't know what's going on.
- [45:28]
Dan
You're on.
- [45:29]
Mark Bedner
No, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. You're not ready? All right, gentlemen, I'll mute you and take you off.
- [45:33]
Sean
This is like the.
- [45:34]
Mark Bedner
Come back if you're very confusing. All right, here's. Here's a man who's always ready. Long time radio shock jock. That was me, Michael Graham, who's going to tell us about the two New Hampshire Democratic senators, both former governors who may well break the shutdown log jam. Ladies and gentlemen, the Granite States. Michael Graham. Welcome, sir.
- [45:58]
Michael Graham
There was a lot of chatter because Senator Shaheen was in that clutch on the floor of the Senate last night. We're all watching and it looked like she was trying to talk sanity to her party. But in the end she voted with the majority. I mean it's. That's one of the things that's so funny. There are politicians around the country in places like Arizona, New Mexico and Mass. And New Hampshire Democrats are view. Well, they're more swing. They are, you know, bipartisan. They 99% vote with leadership because that's how we, we work. Hey, Halperin, do you see the political story about how the White House is going to leverage a primary against New Hampshire Governor Kelly to force her to draw new maps?
- [46:33]
Mark Bedner
I did.
- [46:34]
Michael Graham
Crap. I just. I don't know who's writing this stuff. It, it is total crap. Not even close.
- [46:39]
Mark Bedner
That they're not going to do it or that it wouldn't work.
- [46:42]
Michael Graham
They're not going to do it and it wouldn't work. And she's not drawing new maps. This is all my theory is that because Johnny Sununu is polling within single digits of Chris Pappas to replace that, everybody on the, the Congress side, the nrc, nrcc, they just, they just want every fight they can have up here to get more money to try to make it close. And so that's what I think.
- [47:04]
Mark Bedner
Sununu, is Brown going to drop out of the Senate primary?
- [47:07]
Michael Graham
Brown's not going to drop out. Brown started the race with a chip on his shoulder. Now that Sununu's in, he has seven chips on each shoulder and he is out. Swing away. And this is my message to the Johnny Sununu fans. Remember the scene in the first Rocky when they're in the corner and, and Apollo's waving at the crowd after that first round and his manager says he don't know this is a damn show. He thinks it's a damn fight. Scott Brown wants to fight.
- [47:30]
Mark Bedner
Who's, who's the favorite to win that seat right now?
- [47:35]
Michael Graham
Oh, Pappas, New Hampshire does not vote for Democrats at the federal level, period. Check your Republicans. Thank you. Thank you, Republicans. Not going to happen. Johnny Sununu will lose to Chris Pappas. It'll be a fun, interesting race, like 2014 with Scott Brown, but he'll lose.
- [47:53]
Mark Bedner
Interesting.
- [47:53]
Michael Graham
Okay, but here's Bible question for you guys.
- [47:56]
Mark Bedner
Yeah.
- [47:56]
Michael Graham
So Representative Maggie Goodlander sent, you know, voted for the shutdown like the rest for Democrats and she sent out this tweet and I, I found it off putting, but maybe I'm just a jerk. It's terrible that these workers are going to be out of their jobs. It's terrible that the janitors will be mopping away with no pay. It's terrible. So I, Maggie Tamposi Goodlander, $40 million trust fund Baby, married to Jake Sullivan, who literally owns part of a golf course of Florida. I'm going to give up my pay for the next week. I just, I mean, I talked to some Republicans who think, no, it's good. It's, you know, you're on the side and the little people. I found it off putting. I was just curious what you guys thought. That's why, why bugged you this morning.
- [48:33]
Mark Bedner
Thank you for your time. Okay, Dan, go ahead.
- [48:35]
Dan
I mean, you're a rank and file House member. It's something to Say it's a way to try to show I'm with you. I don't think.
- [48:42]
Mark Bedner
Is she giving it back to the treasury or donating it to a charity?
- [48:45]
Dan
She.
- [48:46]
Michael Graham
It's just a tweet. So she didn't say. But here's a. Someone said to me, well, you know, Trump's not taking any money. Yeah, but Trump didn't vote to take other people's money. If she had voted against the shutdown and then said, this is terrible. Look what you're doing to my poor people. I'm with them. I can get paid. I think it was great. I think she looks like a jerk. I think it's like, hey, it's just a paycheck.
- [49:06]
Mark Bedner
Sean, Sean, what do you think?
- [49:08]
Sean
First of all, I don't think you're a jerk. So that. Just get that out of the way. Second, I. Look, I think this is like, it's stupid politics. I get it. It's showy. It's. In some ways it's cute because everyone goes, didn't you hear? She gave back her salary. But I'm with you. Like, if anyone who really thinks about it, it's like, who. I mean, this whole thing is so stupid. I love when people are like, I'm donating my. You know, and it never really goes back to the treasury. It doesn't pay down debt. I mean, it's all. It's all. It's like writing a letter to FEMA after a storm and saying, I request assistance as if they didn't know. I mean, it's politics. It's part of what you do. It's pr. So I give her a little bit of credit for doing it, but anyone with a brain knows that it's just that, a stunt.
- [49:53]
Michael Graham
And I think the problem for Dan is that when your message has been government shutdowns are always bad and you Republicans look like idiots, which I think they were. I was, when I was very young, when Gingrich did it the first time. I thought it was going to be great. Learned my lesson. I've hated them ever since. It's just, to me, it's like, you know, it would be like the American Heart association saying, we love cigarettes. Buy a pack today. It just seems so off brand for Democrats to be on the. Isn't this, you know, I'm glad we shut down the government. We're doing the right thing. It just seems odd.
- [50:21]
Dan
Yeah.
- [50:22]
Sean
As a side note, considering your example, if you start to realize some of the stuff that the Heart association, others have done to sell out it actually is probably not a bad example.
- [50:31]
Mark Bedner
Michael, thank you. We'll see you soon. All right, David, welcome in. Tell folks who don't know where you are what's on your mind. And there's no fighting in here. This is the war room. Sorry, I was trying to get you and I were both trying to mute. I'm from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Welcome in, sir. Thanks. And I'm like the equivalent of like an RNC county chair here. So you ever have any questions on what's going on up here in the Great White North, I can answer. Grateful to you. I was wondering about Hegseth speech yesterday because that's something that doesn't seem to have been covered much here. And just the fact is that it's a good time to come along because unfortunately, with all the threats going on in the world today, the United States is woefully unprepared for modern war conflict. And I was watching Colin Powell's chief of former chief of staff talking about if the United States went to war with Russia, there would be 40,000 dead Americans in the first month. So this is something you guys got to get prepared for. You are not ready. You have not run anything like a forager exercise. I was working on a piece for strategy and tactics and it was on a place called the Soliki Gap, which is a strip of land between Poland and Lithuania. The plan there is to hold off The Russians with two under strength brigades, about 6,000 men, while a rapid reaction force of 40,000 troops mobilized. They've never done it. And to go and try and rescue them. Okay, David, hold on, hold on. We got the point, Sean, is David, right that we're, we're paper tiger, woefully unready to fight a serious conflict?
- [52:11]
Sean
I don't think we're woefully unready. I do think that we need to reset our priorities. And what the Secretary was saying yesterday is important. There is especially post Covid standards have fallen, priorities have changed. And the focus on what we need to be doing to be ready to take on the enemy has not been the number one priority. And so I don't think we're at that level that you described, but I do think that there needs to be a refocus.
- [52:37]
Mark Bedner
Dan?
- [52:38]
Dan
Yeah, I don't think that the military kind of collapsed in the last four years. I do think that if you look at the future of warfare and we're seeing it in Ukraine with drones, with cyber security, like the, the way wars are fought is rapidly changing with technology and we need to update it. And I think it's no longer the Post, you know, worrying about Russia rolling through Poland to fight World War III again. It's also, you know, how do we combat China and global actors.
- [53:07]
Mark Bedner
David, thank you. Grateful to you. So one of the things I keep telling folks, the reason why I don't agree with Sean, respectfully, that mom Dhommi is 100% is because we haven't had debates and the ad wars have not started. The outside groups running negative ads against them. And today, just moments ago, Andrew Cuomo released his first ad of the general election. Here it is.
- [53:29]
Dan
I'm Andrew Cuomo, and I could pretend to do a lot of jobs, but I know what I know and I know what I don't know. And I do know how to make government work. I'll hire 5,000 new cops to partner with local community groups and keep our families safe and will get the homeless off the streets and into the help they desperately need. There are a lot of jobs I can't do, but I'm ready to be your mayor on day one.
- [53:59]
Mark Bedner
All right, were those shots of him doing stuff? Was that AI or is that real? Anybody have a view on that?
- [54:04]
Sean
There's no way that.
- [54:07]
Mark Bedner
All right, Dan, what do you think of that? It's not a negative ad. It's got. It's a high concept thing. I mean, those, those fake jobs things go by so quickly. I'm not sure normal viewers going to see it. But what do you think of the spot?
- [54:20]
Dan
The message is good. He's a little stilted delivering it. It's not the smoothest delivery, but the message is good. And if you had the volume off, I think most New Yorkers would agree with it.
- [54:29]
Sean
Sean, look, I think it's a cute ad. The problem that Cuomo has, and so I'll give him credit, it looks good. I agree with Dan. I think the delivery is a little off. He looks a little stiff. But at the end of the day, the problem is, is that people remember what he did as governor. And that's part of the problem. He doesn't come off as this. It's not like he's an. He was an effective governor post Covid and can say, guys, remember me? I'm the guy who fixed New York. I'm the guy who did the following. Let me be your mayor. I can do this. I think there's still a residual reminder to a lot of folks that like, hey, that's the dude who masks us that did all this stuff with seniors and ventilators. And I mean, like, this is not a guy who has a strong track record. And obviously, a lot of the other issues that he had from an HR perspective, he is not exactly somebody who I think people are looking at and said, this is Mr. Fix It.
- [55:15]
Dan
Well, that's where ultimately he's going to have to. Then the second half of that ad is in the future is going to need to be the contrast, because it's. It's. It's comparing me to the alternative, not the. And that's what he has to hammer home.
- [55:26]
Sean
100.
- [55:26]
Mark Bedner
Yeah. All right, we'll talk about that in a second. Just play it, Paul. Play it again. I just want to see the top and see if those things are obviously AI or they're possibly real. Just play. Play the top again. Where he's. What is he. He's like a. He's a conductor. Maybe freeze it. Yeah, subway conductor. But just freeze it on. Not the subway one, but the next one.
- [55:45]
Dan
I'm Andrew Cuomo, and I could pretend to do a lot of jobs.
- [55:50]
Mark Bedner
All right, that's not even him.
- [55:51]
Dan
All right, that one.
- [55:52]
Mark Bedner
Freeze that one. Freeze that one. Is that it? Is that even Andrew Cuomo superimposed? No, no. He looks kind of like. What's his name from the E Street Band in the Sopranos.
- [56:03]
Dan
Oh, Stevie Van Zam or whatever.
- [56:05]
Mark Bedner
Looks a little bit like Stevie Van said, doesn't he? See if there's another one. See if there's one more.
- [56:10]
Dan
And I know what.
- [56:12]
Mark Bedner
Yeah, what? Like, that's like. He's like a stage hand.
- [56:15]
Dan
I mean, I don't think. I think it's a little overworking.
- [56:18]
Mark Bedner
All right, let's just workshop. This next one will be a negative ad. Maybe there'll be one more. Oh, wait.
- [56:23]
Dan
Look at the bottom. Wait, go back for a second and look at the bottom. Yeah, it says AI.
- [56:29]
Mark Bedner
There you go. This political communication was. Now, is that legally mandated?
- [56:33]
Dan
I wonder if it is in New York.
- [56:36]
Mark Bedner
Yeah. Look at that. Nice eye, Dan, whether the next one or the one after, that's the first negative ad. Dan, what would you focus on? Would you focus on crime or competence? What would your frame be on the first negative ad against Mom? Donnie?
- [56:51]
Dan
Yeah, I would focus on crime. Yeah. And quality of life.
- [56:56]
Sean
Because, look, I think all of the above.
- [56:58]
Dan
He needs.
- [56:59]
Michael Graham
He needs.
- [57:01]
Dan
Ultimately, he needs the black community to come with him. He needs the Latino community to come with them. And so you need to go. They want safe neighborhoods. You want opportunity. And I think you have to also go on the fact that Mandani can't Do all this on his own.
- [57:15]
Mark Bedner
Yeah. Sean, how negative do you think he can go? Is there any danger of a backlash?
- [57:20]
Sean
No, you got to rip the, I mean, I would just rip the band aid off and go full assault. You got to just make it clear this city is going to go to hell in a handbasket. He's inexperienced. He's. I mean, you're going to run this like he's a Republican. He's dangerous and scary. He's going to change New York forever. The fabric of our city that we love is going away. I mean, if I were him, I'd lean in a family, too. You remember my father. Our, our, our family's been serving this state in this city forever. We can't let this, you know, New York will be.
- [57:47]
Dan
I also think the fact that he's 33 or whatever it is. 33, 31 years old. Like, they're going to go after that too.
- [57:53]
Mark Bedner
And if you, and if you were the campaign or the super pac, would you go after. In either a separate ad or the same ad, would you go after Sliwa, Would you say these are two guys who aren't ready to run the city? No, no, no. Why not?
- [58:04]
Sean
No one, because anyone is voting for Curtis right now, is a diehard Republican or is voting. I mean, like, they're not.
- [58:11]
Mark Bedner
But I think, but I think the math suggests that he has to get a decent number of Republican votes.
- [58:15]
Sean
I think you do that when you make that broader argument. There are cities that stake the future and the fabric of New York City is at stake if you vote for this guy, that there's a subtle hint to anyone who's voting for.
- [58:26]
Dan
Yeah, I think that gravity is going to make it a two person race. And you just let that happen. You don't need to kind of try to knock Sliwa off it just ultimately, I think his numbers will go from 19 to 15 to 10.
- [58:39]
Mark Bedner
And I don't, I don't think the data supports that.
- [58:41]
Sean
But I also. Now, either get them or not. Like, you can't do that. Can I? Just one, one quick political issue that I want to make sure we're on record. Yesterday, Ohio missed its deadline for redistricting. Utah announced that it's potentially going to redistrict, not in a favorable way to Republicans.
- [59:00]
Dan
Democrats.
- [59:00]
Mark Bedner
Yeah.
- [59:01]
Sean
More competitive, one less so. But this issue of redistricting and sort of the grand plan. I think we can talk about this later, but I just want to make sure.
- [59:11]
Mark Bedner
And I still say the undercovered part of this is what the courts might do. The courts may strike down some of these things like Texas, I think is hearing their thing today and the courts may say no, you can't do it for all sorts of possible reasons. So it may be not as great for Republicans as thought two ways today noon. Meghan McCain interviewing Mike Pence, former Vice President Mike Pence, noon Eastern time. Please join Megan then six o'. Clock. My guest on two WAY tonight will be Leland Vitter, author of a new great new book about his family and his dealing with his autism diagnosis as a boy. And Leland's a great journalist and we'll talk about all the news of the day. And then finally, bridge of fantasy, 7pm on what is the mainstream media on real America, 7pm Eastern time. So noon 6 and 7:10 Eastern time. Thank you all for watching. We'll be back in 23 hours.
- [60:03]
Sean
Yeah, I've got a couple guests tonight too, just FYI.