Was There a Chinese Plot To Install Biden? Democrats, GOP Clash Over Trump's Fiery Speech on Voting

Summary

The Morning Meeting — July 17, 2026

Episode Title: Was There a Chinese Plot To Install Biden? Democrats, GOP Clash Over Trump's Fiery Speech on Voting
Host: Mark Halperin (with co-hosts Larry and Jaime)
Podcast: The Morning Meeting / 2WAY
Theme: A behind-the-scenes look at top news events of the day, featuring newsroom-style deliberation and listener engagement.

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the aftermath of President Trump's fiery speech about election security, allegations involving Chinese interference in U.S. elections, and reactions across the media and political spectrum. The team analyzes the editorial and political fallout, discusses hot Senate races (particularly in Maine and Michigan), and turns a critical lens on both the speech's substance and how media outlets handled (or ignored) it. The episode features listener engagement, debates on the weight of evidence, and a spirited discussion on the implications for future elections and political reputations.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Trump’s Speech on Election Security and Chinese Interference

• Speech Substance: President Trump alleged Chinese access to over 200 million U.S. voter records and accused elements within the intelligence community of withholding vital information from him as president.

  • Larry (12:51):
    "He’s asking the FBI to investigate those in the intelligence community who purposely withheld information from him in his presidential daily briefing. And if they broke the law, they need to be prosecuted. And he’s asked the Department of Homeland Security to find out exactly the extent of the damage from the Chinese accessing over 200 million voter records in this country..."
  • Jaime (12:06):
    "I think there's no result. I mean, I think that there was no. There was no real thesis. It was probably an unnecessary speech. And I just don't see anything coming from this."

• Alleged Chinese Plot: The heart of the allegation is that Chinese actors accessed key voter data, possibly undermining the integrity of U.S. elections.

  • Larry expands at (42:32):
    "It was the registration logs. It was the voter... registration logs, which Gavin Newsom and Democrat governors refused to hand over to the US Federal government. But the communists in China and Beijing have access to it, apparently by hacking."

• Media's Skepticism and Handling: Major networks either ignored or only partially broadcast Trump’s address, with conservative media (Salem, Newsmax, NewsNation) taking it but Fox and Friends skipping it, prompting discussion about biased editorial decisions.

  • Mark Halperin (8:31):
    "Even she didn't [mention the speech]. Larry how do you explain Fox and Friends not mentioning what the president said... an historically important address to the nation?"
  • Larry (8:56):
    "I think it’s journalistic malpractice... But I'm happy because it gives us a better opportunity to get an audience."

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2. Reactions from Political Figures

• Democratic Reactions:

  • Sen. Jon Ossoff's Response (10:32): "I heard a failed president desperately casting about for excuses to meddle in the upcoming election if he can, or to discredit the result when he loses decisively, as I expect he will..."
  • Sen. Chris Coons (11:22): "...tonight's address from President Trump was a tantrum of sinister innuendo, conspiracy theories and misdirection..."

• Republican/Conservative Perspectives:

  • Larry (12:51):
    "I think what comes out of it is exactly what the President said last night..."
    [See above quote for details.]

  • Listener Discussion (41:08, Greg Kelly):
    "Many of the allegations connect to China. The President’s planning a summit with Xi. If this were such a violation of American sovereignty... he should have announced the cancellation of the summit..."

• Media Choices Called Out: Halperin and panelists discuss how both mainstream and partisan outlets cherry-pick which events to amplify.

  • Mark Halperin (14:00):
    "Media made interesting choices. I don’t believe anybody took [Trump’s speech] all... Salem did, Newsmax did, News Nation did. But ABC and NBC didn’t take it at all..."

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3. Senate Races: Maine and Michigan Spotlights

Maine

• Primary Debate Critique:
  • Leading Democratic candidates widely criticized as unprepared compared to Sen. Susan Collins, giving her a clearer path to re-election.
  • Mark Halperin (17:49):
    "These folks are not prepared. They're not prepared to run against Susan Collins."
  • Jaime (19:07):
    "I'm moving past this state. I told you, I'm focused on Iowa and Ohio. I think we're going to get a decent Democrat, but it's going to be an uphill battle."

Michigan

• Haley Stevens vs. Abdul El Sayed
  • Stevens is seen as front-runner after strong fundraising, polling, and endorsements; El Sayed’s coalition under threat.
  • Larry (25:00):
    "Most of the negative oppo stuff that's coming out right now, a lot of it is from Republican quarters... If Haley Stevens wins the Arab votes... a lot of people think Kamala Harris didn’t win Michigan because of the Middle east situation."
  • Jaime (26:08):
    "Haley Stevens... has weathered the storm really well and she’s bouncing back... But one of the things... This is going to be a very tough general election because of El Sayed and his voters..."

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4. Broader Election Integrity Issues

• Media Skepticism & Public Trust:
  Multiple callers and hosts note the lack of trust in both political and media institutions, citing both under- and overreaction on political accusations (e.g., Russia, China, voter fraud).

  • Listener John (49:15):
    "What the President should have said... is hey, we found 280,000 illegal people registered to vote and 88,000 of them voted. Just cut to the chase right now."
  • Larry (51:19):
    "200 and plus thousand noncitizens who are registered to vote, that's just what's been reported from red states..."

• Taskforce for Election Integrity:
  Discussion that if the President wanted to be taken seriously, he should have paired his claims with a concrete, transparent process for investigation and briefing.

  • Mark Halperin (52:29):
    "There are two things he could have done differently... come in, as you said, with not just some sort of wispy potential problems, but actual...maybe even some indictments..."

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5. Winners, Losers, What to Watch

• Winners:

  • Larry: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson
    "Reported this week that he... has raised a record amount of money... He has isolated his districts... He also hosted me and Meredith on Capitol Hill this week."
  • Jaime: Sen. Jon Ossoff
    "President Trump has given Jon Ossoff yet another platform to expand his reach..."
  • Mark Halperin: Sen. Susan Collins

• Losers:

  • Larry: Mark Halperin (as a joke, for needing to rethink his "8 for 28" list)

  • Jaime: President Trump
    "I think he had to show strong international leadership, strong domestic leadership, and I think he squandered his time with the speech yesterday..."

  • Mark: Israel, due to House vote and mounting challenges in American public opinion

• What to Watch:

  • Michigan and Missouri primaries (Larry)
  • World Cup finals (Jaime)
  • Possible U.S. ground deployment in Iran (Mark Halperin, 36:11)

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Fox’s silence:
  • Mark Halperin (8:31): "Even she didn't. Larry, how do you explain Fox and Friends not mentioning... an historically important address to the nation?"
• On partisan media:
  • Larry (9:47): "It's a good example to prove that whether it's conservative media or liberal media, people make journalistic decisions not based on newsworthiness but based on whatever their own political bias tends to be."
• On Trump’s taskforce:
  • Mark Halperin (52:29): "If they're serious about this and they wanted coverage, you call all the reporters into the Roosevelt Room... you hand out the documents in advance..."
• On U.S. and China:
  • Larry (47:51): "They should cancel the summit. Donald Trump needs to stop saying that Xi Jinping is a good friend of his..."
• Listener Disillusionment:
  • John (49:15): "Just cut to the chase right now. You got my attention. So that's one frustration. Then my second frustration is with the media, with the lack of curiosity."

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Listener Interactions & Key Q&A Moments

• Greg Kelly (39:54–45:47): Challenges the panel to dig deeper into Trump's China allegations, criticizing the lack of substantive media focus; calls out "high maintenance" skepticism from media, drawing comparisons to Russia coverage.
• Jonathan Swan (47:03): Proposes hypothetical: if Biden gave this speech and still met with Xi, what would GOP reaction be?
  • Larry: "They should cancel the summit... the idea that we have to play footsie with them... is outrageous."
• John (49:15): Wants directness and clarity—"Just cut to the chase"—expresses disappointment in both Trump’s vagueness and media incuriosity.
• Dina (57:39): Asks about licensure in healthcare, citing Milton Friedman, in a lighter moment before closing.

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Other Major Segments

• Maine Senate Race: Candidates deemed weak, putting Collins in a stronger position — key coverage and delegate math discussed (17:13–20:51)
• Michigan Senate Race: Democratic primary becoming more combative, with national implications (25:00–28:33)
• Media's Coverage Choices: Noted that many major networks skipped Trump's speech entirely (14:00)
• Speculation for 2028: Predictive market odds discussed: JD Vance, Rubio, Gavin Newsom, AOC, but no Ossoff yet (36:30)
• Possible U.S. ground operations in Iran: Mark Halperin's weekend watch (36:11)
• Winners and Losers of the Week: Political reputations and shifting fortunes (32:14–35:07)

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Episode Tone & Takeaways

• Tone: Conversational, newsroom banter with a mix of humor, skepticism, and sharp political analysis; panelists often poke fun at themselves and each other, but pivot quickly to substantive debate.
• Message: The episode underscores widespread skepticism—both about the substance of explosive political claims and about the reliability of major news institutions. The importance of evidence, transparency, and clear communication is emphasized repeatedly; the current climate of distrust and partisanship is a recurring theme.

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Timestamps Quick Guide

• Trump Speech & Media Response: 06:40–14:56
• Democrats’ Reactions: 10:06–12:06
• Senate Races - Maine: 15:04–20:51
• Senate Races - Michigan: 25:00–28:33
• Winners/Losers Segment: 32:14–35:07
• Listener Q&A (Greg, Jonathan, John, Dina): 39:31–59:01
• Notable Quote, Mark Halperin on Trump's allegations’ handling: 52:29

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Memorable Moments

• Larry joking that Mark Halperin is the "loser of the week" (33:45).
• Lively banter about write-in campaigns in Maine (56:17).
• Listener Greg Kelly's critique of media double-standards and reluctance to cover new election interference accusations (41:08).
• Real-time rating of World Cup odds and use of prediction markets for political fortunes (36:11, 36:28).

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Summary prepared for listeners who want comprehensive, honest insight into the episode’s major threads—bypassing fluff and ad segments, while staying true to the podcast’s rapid-fire, irreverent, yet serious tone.

Transcript

[Mark]

I'm not sure.

[Jen]

Should we get inside this thing?

[Larry]

Maybe you should get inside the cage, honey.

[Jaime]

Oh, man.

[John]

Yeah.

[Larry]

It's dangerous.

[Mark Halperin]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the man entrusted with your Medicare Medicaid.

[Larry]

Come on, honey.

[Mark Halperin]

Drug approval. Listen to that last.

[Jaime]

You can't say they're not having fun.

[Mark Halperin]

What if we showed his father this video? What would his. And then said, your son is now in charge of the health care of everyone in America.

[John]

Listen.

[Mark Halperin]

Listen to this thing.

[Larry]

He'd be exceptionally proud.

[Mark Halperin]

Listen to this. Laugh at his wife's distress.

[Larry]

Oh, that's. That's just a loving relationship. They have fun.

[Mark Halperin]

Oh, yeah. It gets loved.

[Jaime]

She should be used to it.

[Mark Halperin]

Okay, here we go. This is the best part coming up. I like that one. Here's a little Cheryl, star of HBO's Curb youb Enthusiasm. Cheryl Hines, ladies and gentlemen.

[Larry]

She's got a little makeshift shield and weapon. It's like she's in Odyssey. She's a woman of Troy. Not funny. This is great. It's very charming.

[Mark Halperin]

Have you guys seen this?

[Jaime]

No, no, no.

[Mark Halperin]

It's my surprise gift for you for this.

[Larry]

I love it. It reminds me of my relationship with Meredith. It's great.

[Mark Halperin]

Now watch her. Watch her. Watch her race. Her race to the other side. And then we go back tight on the yak. Now, one point. At one point, the yak, they lose their. According to his tweet, they lost. They lost their guide. They couldn't find their guide. And. And. And they were then at the tender mercies of a vicious yak. At one point, he used his cell phone to bop the nose of the yak to repel it. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the morning meeting. That is our gift to you. About a minute of video of the. The Robert F. Kennedy. Cheryl Hines's on vacation, fighting off a yak. Hyma is in for Kevin today. Kevin's on assignment, meaning he's moving. And Larry is here after pulling a late night, covering a momentous speech in just a moment. Jaime, welcome. Thank you for being here.

[Jaime]

Good to see you. Hey, Larry.

[Mark Halperin]

All right. Our daybook for you. The president, United States is headed to Gotham City. He's not doing much before he goes. According to his schedule, he's just doing some executive time at this hour. And then at some point, he heads to Gotham City and he's hosting a FIFA reception at Trump Tower. Ladies and gentlemen, that's on Fifth Avenue, right on the same block with the Tiffany's. And the people who live in that area are just delighted to have their neighbor the president back home. Normally the street is closed. There'll be a lot of, a lot of closures today. I'm glad I'm not in Manhattan anyway. That's what the president's doing. There's not a lot on the daybook in general today, it being a summer Friday. Don't know what J.D. vance is doing except after, after our segment on J.D. vance and Marco Rubio today. I suspect he'll be in a crisis meeting with, with his, with his staff about how to deal with the Rubio vs. Vance comparisons.

[Larry]

They're best friends.

[Mark Halperin]

House and senator out. Mark Wayne Mullen is holding a briefing today not to apologize to the American people for killing someone deemed murder by many of the main Democratic Senate candidates in their debate last night, but rather to follow up on the President's historic speech where he will discuss the vulnerabilities in Americans elections. And then the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, Jaime, I usually refer to them as the all Powerful Rules and Bylaws Committee because man, those people make those people make their gods and goddesses. They make presents. They're meeting today, second day meeting to finalize the presidential nominating calendar. And I'm telling you folks, we're going back to lily white New Hampshire. New Hampshire looks mainly makes New Hampshire look like Fairfax county because there's a little bit of diversity there. But man, that's going to be critical to see. And I predict whatever calendar they select will be great for Pete Buttigieg. How's that? That's about it. That's about it. On the schedule. Quick ad and then we're going to get into things. We welcome your participation. We had such a great time yesterday with our community member from Maine, Michigan, rather, if you've never raised your hand. Janet, Janet, if there's nothing scary about it, we'd love some new folks today. Raise your hand. Plenty of time for your questions today as there was yesterday. Cozy Earth, our sponsor. Today they'll give you 20% off for being a member of the two way community. Just use the promo code. Morning as in morning meeting, bamboo sheet set. And the beach towels are available now as a package. The sheets are spectacular. The towels are great. If you got any beach time coming up this summer, you don't want to use an old ratty towel that feels like sandpaper. You want a Cozy Earth towel like everything else they made. Viscous from bamboo, not flimsy, not average, substantial and soft. That's what we say about the Cozy Earth stuff. I think those are the two best words I could think of to describe pretty much everything substantial and soft. Go to cozyearth.com right now use the promo code MORNING. Get 20% off everything and if you don't like it, if you say mark you miseled me this stuff's no good, you return it. Is that how you pronounce that, Larry? Mizzled?

[Larry]

I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

[Mark Halperin]

It says here miseld. Anyway, don't be miseled.com I think that

[Larry]

was an ad lib.

[Mark Halperin]

Use the promo code morning for 20% off and if you see the post purchase survey please, by all means, for the love of Jesus, the love of heaven, the love of pagan gods please say you heard about cozy Earth right here right here on the morning meeting

[Mark]

Choice hotels get you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember Same drive, different day don't you wish you were getting away? Pack your bags and come on through Texas, Ohio, Alaska we're up there too Comfort in it's calling your name Save on the stay oh, and free waffles are yours to claim well, I hope you like my little song book direct@source

[Mark Halperin]

hotels.com stock market chip makers sparked a sell off. Gas is up to 398. Larry by Monday could be at four bucks.

[Larry]

Gotta watch. Especially around Labor Day June housing starts

[Mark Halperin]

rebounded off off a six year low. I. I might have to steal gas this weekend. I'm confessing right now I can't afford it.

[Unknown Politician]

All right.

[Larry]

Oh, I. Gentlemen. Ev. Because I care about the environment, ladies

[Mark Halperin]

and gentlemen, I could. I could spend the entire hour showing you on camera and paper statements from leading Democrats denouncing the President's speech last night as craven news lists, exploitative, all sorts of things. But I think it's fair because he is the President. United States to start with the top of Fox and Friends to show you how Fox and Friends framed in their lead of their show at 6am flagship morning show. How did Fox and frames Fox and Friends frame the President's speech this morning? 116, please.

[Unknown News Anchor]

Brian is very jealous.

[Unknown Reporter]

Jealous?

[Mark Halperin]

Not jealous. I was just surprised.

[Larry]

A little surprised.

[Unknown News Anchor]

Little surprised? It's the girl. The girl starts the show today. It's 6am guys. Here on the east coast it is Friday. Yes, yes, yes. It's July 17th. Mrs. Fox and friends. The US striking dozens of Iranian military targets last night bombing a key hub on the Strait of Hormuz, the major blow to the irgc.

[Unknown Reporter]

Plus we're tracking major weather alerts across the country. Here's a live look at New York City. Just look at this. This morning, a wildfire smoke from Canada brings hazy skies to millions across the United States. Meanwhile, catastrophic flooding returns to Texas just one year after deadly flooding that hit Camp Mystic. Plus, the CDC and FDA believe they've traced the source of that parasite outbreak. We're going to tell you the details.

[Larry]

And can we eat salad again?

[Jaime]

Wouldn't that be nice?

[Larry]

Explosive diarrhea. That's always a big one.

[Unknown News Anchor]

Lettuce is so dirty. It is so dirty.

[Mark Halperin]

Lettuce is so dirty. Larry Lettuce is so dirty.

[Larry]

I covered the story during my show this morning, Larry.

[Mark Halperin]

Larry Yes. Last we checked, the entire three hours of Fox and Friends as, as of 8:00 o', clock, they had not mentioned the president's speech. Even, you know, they throw to that nice lady and they say here's so and so with the headlines. Even she didn't. Larry how do you explain Fox and Friends not mentioning what the president said before, during and after was an historically important address to the nation?

[Larry]

Well, this is one of the reasons why I don't work for or speak for Fox News because I think it's journalistic malpractice. We made a different choice on our program this morning. We went live at 6am Although I did say screw you, Canada because of our air quality. Right now that's just a nightmare. But then I went on and I played much of the president's speech. And by the way, we've made a different editorial choice here than Fox and Friends because we're leading with this story as well. So it just says to me that I'm not sure why they would do it, but I'm happy because it gives us a better opportunity to get an audience.

[Mark Halperin]

Jaime which is a beggar story, lettuce being dirty or the president's speech?

[Jaime]

Well, I bet the big lettuce lobbyists are going to be pissed about that. But yeah, I think the president.

[Mark Halperin]

Big lettuce.

[Jaime]

Yeah, big lettuce. Even if it wasn't a good thesis, I think the speech was worth talking about and it's a shame that we're not discussing what he talked about last night.

[Larry]

Yeah, it's news. Last I checked, their last name over at Fox News is news. But it's a good example to prove that whether it's conservative media or liberal media, people make journalistic decisions not based on newsworthiness but based on whatever their own political bias tends to be.

[Mark Halperin]

All right, I could show you a million things about the reaction. Here is the new leader of The Democratic Party, the singular presence to whom everyone looks now to say, trump says this. Ossoff says that. 109, please.

[Larry]

Oh, I thought you were introducing Ashley Webb from Maine.

[Jaime]

Too soon, ossoff.

[Mark Halperin]

Too soon, ossoff. 109.

[Unknown Politician]

And tonight I heard a failed president desperately casting about for excuses to meddle in the upcoming election if he can, or to discredit the result when he loses decisively, as I expect he will. I heard a president who, as his war spirals and as prices keep climbing for families across the country, is, as always, focused on his personal grievances for, focused on his personal shame and humiliation, and above all, focused on his personal fear of the accountability that will come when we win this fall. But this is important, folks, and I want you to hear me out when I say this, because I also heard a president, folks, clearly signaling his intent to attack these elections and to undermine voting rights.

[Mark Halperin]

All right, here's the statement.

[Larry]

I didn't hear that. Did you hear that, Jaime? Oh, sorry, Mark, go ahead.

[Mark Halperin]

That's okay.

[Jonathan Swan]

That's all right.

[Mark Halperin]

Here's Chris Coons's statement. He's not running for president, so we thought we'd show this, at least as far as I know. And this is, again, representative of a lot of Democrats said tonight's address from President Trump was a tantrum of sinister innuendo, conspiracy theories and misdirection. Should President Trump try to interfere in November's elections through illegal un American means, I believe he will fail. We're not going to spend a ton of time on this because we got a lot to get to. Hi, Mom. Hi, Ma. We wait to see what the Secretary of Homeland Security says. But what, what, what goes. What happens now? What's the fallout? What's the aftermath? The result of the president's speech last night?

[Jaime]

I don't think anything. I think there's no result. I mean, I think that there was no. There was no real thesis. It was probably an unnecessary speech. And I just don't see anything coming from this. I don't see unless he is willing to marshal a full contingency of troops and FBI and intelligence folk to bring some sort of resolution or plan. I don't see anything really happening. I think he just wasted his time last night giving a speech about Larry Lima.

[Mark Halperin]

Jaime says nothing. What comes out of this speech?

[Larry]

Well, I'm just confused because at first of all, what Mr. Coons and Senator Coons and Senator Ossoff described is not really the speech that was delivered. It was the speech that people suspected he might deliver but was actually free of personal.

[Mark Halperin]

What comes. What comes out of it.

[Larry]

I think what comes out of it is exactly what the President said last night, which is he's asking the FBI to investigate those in the intelligence community who purposely withheld information from him in his presidential daily briefing. And if they broke the law, they need to be fired. And if they broke the law, they need to be prosecuted. And he's asked the Department of Homeland Security to find out exactly the extent of the damage from the Chinese accessing over 200 million voter records in this country and the extent of how that might have compromised future elections. And again, I didn't hear him talking about past elections as much as about future elections and what it means to my vote right now. I think that's kind of important.

[Mark Halperin]

Here's what poly market wagers think about the prospects of the SAFE act passing. It's got such a long list here. Here it is. 17% chance that the SAFE act becomes law by the end of the year. 17% by. By the end of the year. Could happen in the lame duck.

[Larry]

No, no. I'm saying buy. Yes. Buy. Yes. For only 17 cents. That kind of bargain.

[Mark Halperin]

Hi.

[Greg Kelly]

Much.

[Mark Halperin]

Did the President increase the odds of passing the SAFE act yesterday?

[Jaime]

No, I don't think so.

[Mark Halperin]

No. Okay. I keep calling it the SAFE Act. It's the Save America.

[Jaime]

Save America Act.

[Larry]

Yeah.

[Mark Halperin]

I don't know why I keep calling it safe. All right. Don't want to dwell on this one either, but media made interesting choices. I don't believe anybody took it all. No, I shouldn't say that. Salem did, Newsmax did, News Nation did. But ABC and NBC didn't take it at all. CBS started late, cut out. CNN didn't take it at all. Ms. Now took a little bit of it. Did FOX take it all? I've read both. I was. I was.

[Jaime]

I don't think so.

[Mark Halperin]

I don't think they did, Larry. Will there be any fallout from that? The President's asking for retribution against some of the people who didn't take it at all. Will there be any fallout? Yeah, he did.

[Larry]

I didn't see. I didn't see him asking for retribution. I mean, he did. The fallout is that news organizations are going to continue to lose audience and platforms like this will actually gain audience because we take news events seriously whether we agree with them or not.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Mark Halperin]

Hi. Will there be any fallout from that?

[Jaime]

No, I don't think so. But I do agree with Larry. I think this is just another example where people are going to go and Find their news elsewhere.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah. All right. Maine Senate race debate last night. It took place in two parts. The first part for an hour with the four leading candidates and then four of the other candidates. Jaime early on said in a, in a, in a nice indirect way, this main Senate race is not going to be a big focus going forward. I've been saying, I wrote it in the Free Press on Monday. These folks are not ready for prime time. And, and they showed it last night. Even the New York Times, who obviously is rooting against Susan Collins. Here's how the New York Times characterized the debaters. 121. Their five takeaways included this. The candidates gave halting answers, convoluted responses with stilted deliveries. Now they, they thought of the, of the four on the main stage, Bellows, Jackson and Jordan and Wood. They thought they were bad. They thought Dr. What's his name? Shaw. Is that that his name? Yeah, they thought he was the best and by some standards he was better than the others. He's a little bit more practiced. But they were all, they were all minor leaguers. The person who's the front runner, ladies and gentlemen, 118, please, is Troy Jackson. You know Troy Jackson. This is a good, good reporting here from Bayless Wagner, a main reporter. How many times is each top candidate mentioned in the statement of intent for. From the perspective, Doug, it's this weekend. Some virtual, some in person, but all allowing for a remote possibility. The main counties will meet on Saturday or Sunday and they're going to pick delegates. Jackson is mentioned in the statement of intent from delegates 474 times. It doesn't mean all of them say they'll be Jackson delegates, but they're all writing, I assume mostly favorably about Mr. Jackson, way more than number two, Mr. Shaw, at 276. I got to tell you folks, I tried to watch this with an open mind, having made a little bit of fun of Mr. Jackson in the past. He's a state legislator, I'll say that about him. Here's Mr. Jackson and an answer about abortion rights. You'll recall he previously was pro life. He switched to pro choice. Here he is answering a question about what, what the Congress should do about abortion rights.

[Unknown Maine Politician]

And in here in Maine, I sponsored, co sponsored one of the most progressive abortion access bills in the country. While the rest of the country was going the wrong way, here in Maine, we've been going the other way. I supported making sure that low income women had access to abortion care. But yeah, I would definitely get rid of the filibuster I would definitely be willing to add more people to court because the way the rules are right now, we have people on there for a lifetime that are making the wrong decisions for everyday people across this country. And it's really making it hard for people to actually live in this country, and it has to be.

[Mark Halperin]

This is one of his best answers of the night, truly. His answers on foreign policy, his answers on federal policy. His colleague there standing next to him at one point said, something wrong. And she said, well, I wasn't really prepared that I didn't really think last week I was going to be running for Senate. She's one of the, like Jackson, she ran for governor and lost. And she's like, yeah, I was out in vacation on the river. These folks are. These folks are not prepared. They're not prepared to run against Susan Collins. The NRC Twitter account just had a ball all night mocking them. And Jaime, what, what can, what can national Democrats do, if anything, to try to, to try to salvage this race? Is there anything that can be done?

[Jaime]

No, and I don't. And I don't think Maine voters want national Democrats to do anything.

[Larry]

Yes, they don't.

[Jaime]

This is, this is where we are. You know, this is what, you know, this is what happens when you, when a candidate drops out and you have a very short period of time to find a new candidate. I suspected that the Secretary of state, Bellows and Jackson would have been a little bit more prepared. They'd been running, you know, in elections for at least. At least. But not.

[Mark Halperin]

But not in federal races.

[Jaime]

Federal races. But still, you know, you think they would be a little bit. I mean, Graham Platner had never run for anything, and he had done pretty well as a candidate.

[Mark Halperin]

He was a gifted candidate.

[Jaime]

So I'm shocked by it. But look, I'm moving past this state. I told you, I'm focused on Iowa and Ohio. I think we're going to get a decent Democrat, but it's going to be an uphill battle. And I think Susan Collins is in a better place today than she was two weeks ago.

[Mark Halperin]

Thank you for saying that, because I've been saying that since the start of this. I'm not defending Graham Platner. I'm just saying he had a movement behind it. These folks have got any great skills. I mean, even Larry.

[Jaime]

Even Larry can agree with that.

[Mark Halperin]

Larry, Larry, is it emphatically clear to you after last night that Collins is in a better place running against one of these people than a wounded Platner?

[Larry]

Oh, for sure. For sure. I think that the, the best chance they have, frankly, I think Shaw is their best bet because he is the closest thing to generic Democrat. Yeah, Generic Democrat still does well against Susan Collins and he is very generic. And I think that he might have the chance. I just don't think the problem is I don't think he's going to electrify the Graham Platner.

[Unknown Maine Politician]

Right.

[Larry]

Motivated voters. And so now we're. I Do you know, though, Mark or, or Jaime, do you know the. I know that the rules have been inclusive and, and transparent, but is it just a, a bare majority or, or a plurality of these delegates to win? Or do you. Are they going to go to a second ballot? In the third ballot state.

[Mark Halperin]

In the state convention, they're having one ballot and then the low, the low finisher is off and then they do another ballot. It's not, it's not ranked choice vote.

[Larry]

So there will be horse, like a little caucus, there will be horse trading and that'.

[Mark Halperin]

But, but it's not, but it's not optional to drop out. It's not like you can stay on the ballot as long as you want. The low person is off. Shaw. Shaw could be the nominee and I agree Shaw could be the nominee and he would be the strongest. But he's extraordinarily weak. He's extraordinarily weak. All right.

[Larry]

If we have time, as insightful as it was, to learn whose names are most frequently mentioned in the statements from the delegates, the fact that they're going to keep going back for more ballots and more ballots sort of mitigates the.

[Mark Halperin]

If we have time, we're going to double back and play for you. Larry's favorite of the eight candidates, but we don't have on for now. Associated Press with an exclusive story broke yesterday about The I, the ICE agent who's accused of shooting. The fatal shooting in Maine 127. It's quite a story by the AP. This guy is named David Brulee. It's. He has a history, according to his family, of terrifying and violent behavior. Uh, when his wife, when he called his wife recently to tell her that he was now going to work for the Department of Homeland Security, she thought he was kidding because she, she knew there was no possible way that he would be hired. Uh, and one of the family members shared with the AP of a voicemail from the guy from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat. We'll see what kind of questions at the unrelated press conference may come up for Mr. Mullen today. Larry, where is this story going in light of this disclosure?

[Larry]

Well, it is a disturbing report. And if it ends up being part of the evidence against what I expect to be a criminal investigation into Mr. Brulette's behavior, then that's obviously going to have an impact on the investigation. But two things can be true. He can be a troubled person, and yet at the same time, the action of using his service weapon in the course of his duty was justified.

[Mark Halperin]

Sure, but what about the culpa? Not his culpability, but the culpability of ICE to hire someone with this kind of background to. And give them a gun and tell them to go out on the streets? Do you see a problem there potentially for ice, if this reporting is true, that they hired a guy who, Who. I don't know what kind of background check he went through, but apparently they didn't call any member of his family?

[Larry]

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I know when I have friends who get jobs similar to that, I get phone calls if I'm named as one of the sources and references there. So that should be. That it should be scrutinized.

[Mark Halperin]

Absolutely, Jaime.

[John]

Yeah.

[Jaime]

I mean, that goes back to the crux of one of the big questions Democrats had in the fall and leading to the last set of murders and infractions from ice. Are these individuals being recruited and trained and vetted properly. And if this is true, then that's, that's, you know, there may be others that we should look into. And I think the president, if he wants to make, you know, continue to think about safety and protection, he should look at these, at these scenarios and make sure that the individuals he's hiring are also able to do these jobs in a safe and effective way. Otherwise there's going to be chaos in this country.

[Larry]

Just, I mean, for the sake of clarity, we should not call people murderers unless they're, at the very least, you know, charged with murder, let alone.

[Jaime]

I didn't call anyone murder. I said that.

[Larry]

You just said there were murders.

[Jaime]

There were murders.

[Unknown Maine Politician]

There were.

[Larry]

Well, it takes a murderer to murder someone. There were people.

[Jaime]

People.

[Larry]

People were killed.

[Jaime]

I mean, that's the minute.

[Larry]

Saying people were killed. I agree. That doesn't mean they were murdered.

[Jaime]

Under the auspice of ice, people were killed.

[Unknown Maine Politician]

Yeah.

[Mark Halperin]

The main Senate candidates all, many of them use the word murder.

[Larry]

Incredibly irresponsible.

[Mark Halperin]

Michigan Senate. This thing continues to turn so fast. Bernie and AOC are going in for Mr. Abdul. Abdul Mohammed El Sayad this weekend. But, man, we're adding the polling, the polling, the polling. Stevens is doing well in polls that people are touting public and private. She's, she's, she's out raising the final two weeks of spending. She's out spending him like her, her and her supporters. The, it's like 7 to 1 or 12 to 1 or something. She keeps getting endorsements and they're rolling them out every day. It doesn't feel to me just in my fingertip feel like it's heavy handed. The, the, the El said people are saying this is money against the Many a very nice phrase. But Larry, right now I don't think it's, I don't think it's ambiguous. Stevens is the front runner here and she may win easily.

[Larry]

This has been a horrible week for Abdul Al Said. And let me just say that unlike the Graham Platner situation, most of the negative oppo stuff that's coming out right now, a lot of it is from Republican quarters, which I find very, very interesting. And it might be because they're seeing what a lot of us are analyzing here, which is if Haley Stevens wins the Arab votes, which is a big vote right now, a lot of people think Kamala Harris didn't win Michigan because of the Middle east situation. Syed has set this up so much that it's AIPAC who's propping up Haley Stevens and it's the establishment and they're the, you know, they're trying to take this thing from them that those voters are, they're not Democrats, they're El Sayed voters and they will not show up in the general. That's why I think Republicans are throwing the oppo out.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah, I'm asking my colleagues to check are there any more debates in this race? Because I thought he kicked her butt in the debate. But, but maybe not. How. What can El say? I do. Bernie and AOC coming in could help, but he's not going to be able to raise enough money to be, to be equal on tv. What can he do?

[Jaime]

I mean, look, this is one of those scenarios where you have a very experienced candidate, Haley Stevens, who's been able to withstand a huge political storm over the last few months with El Said and Melly Marguero and all the things that are happening around aipac. But she's just been around for a long time and she understands, she gets it, her campaign team gets it. And so she's weathering the storm really well and she's bouncing back. But one of the things, I completely agree with Larry on this. This is going to be a very tough general election because of El Said and his voters who may not respond well to Haley Stevens. But if you see the Congressional Black Caucus PAC did endorse her today. And I think that's going to be one of the key elements of her campaign. Detroit and going to Dearborn and going to these areas where they have black voters and getting them to come out in a way that's going to be, I think, the factor that counts most towards some of the things that are going to happen if else he does not win.

[Larry]

What if Michelle we've been saying that for days here, Jaime, you're so right.

[Mark Halperin]

What if, what if Michelle Obama goes in for her in the last week in Detroit? Well, that's one of her dreams.

[Jaime]

You see that for her apex running with Barack Obama saying her name for the first time ever. Look, she would love that. I don't know if that's going to happen. She would love it. I think it would be helpful. But it seems like she's bouncing back right now and she's, she's, she's having a steady clip of, of headed toward the nomination.

[Larry]

Yeah, but there are, do you, do you agree with the reflection of the 24 election that Kamala Harris didn't win Michigan because of the Rashida Tlaib vote there in Hamtramck Dearborn?

[Jaime]

Yeah, I think you and I, Mark, and we've talked about this before. I think that is something that Kamala Harris is still not resolved yet, which is why she's calling Mandani and other members of that faction of the party, because she just has not resolved that. And that's going to be an issue for, for Democrats in 2028 in Michigan and in other states.

[Larry]

This is going to be.

[Mark Halperin]

Let me ask, let me ask this question. Let's say she wins the primary. Well, El Sayad endorser.

[Jaime]

I mean, I don't know, you guys, look what's happening. Well, I mean, I think he, Jasmine Crockett still hasn't done much.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah, I think, I think she will. I think he will. And even if he doesn't, will AOC endorse her? I think she will AOC because she

[Larry]

will what I don't endorse. But he's demonized.

[Mark Halperin]

I think, I think that happens as

[Larry]

the APAC candidate, though. He's going to throw down and endors

[Jaime]

a pack a very light.

[Mark Halperin]

I'll be, I agree with him. But I also think some other leaders in the Arab American community will endorse her and, and she'll unify the party more than Larry and Mike Rogers think. I think we'll see.

[Jaime]

And I think Melly McMorrow is going to be an important factor, too. She's going to have to endorse her pretty quickly again.

[Mark Halperin]

No more debate scheduled in that race. Horrible week. We're getting to your questions in just a moment. Please raise your hand. Horrible week for the vice president. Today. He was attacked by, by, what's that lady who writes to the Wall Street Journal there who lives in Alaska, Kim Kimberly Strassel. Kim Strassel said he's not spending enough time in the Senate where he's president of the Senate trying to move legislation. He's fighting with the Secret Service. The Jewish American community is just furious at him for things he said in that Rogan interview. He's, he's just taking a lot of heat. George, even George F. Will attacked him. Him. On the other hand, Marco Rubio, that was a joke. On the other hand, look at, look at what people are saying about the speech Marco Rubio gave. This is not the only person who says it, but, but many people are saying the speech Marco Rubio gave yesterday was spectacular. Here's Charlie Hurt. Here's Charlie Hurt, my friend over at Fox.

[Unknown Reporter]

Beautiful speech and an important speech and a reminder, as Griff knows well from covering the border, that we've kind of been asleep at the wheel as China has moved into our hemisphere and completely dominated a lot.

[Mark Halperin]

Point is, he loved it. Larry, I know you love them both. Is, is this week Another sign that J.D. vance has got some problems on his left and right flanks.

[Larry]

Rubio speech was magnificent. And, and so, and Scott Besant was great at that summit as well about terrorism and left. Yes, JD Vance has some problems. He definitely does. And he had a string of, a couple of good weeks, I think. I think that it was an unforced error to say the issue about Israel information. And at full disclosure, he cited an article that suggested that the network that I work for, the Salem network, is in some way unduly influenced by Israeli money, which is ridiculous because every person on our lineup has supported Israel for decades. They don't need to pay us to do that. It was an unforced error because whether you're Rubio or Vance, your number one goal if you want to be president, is to keep the Trump coalition together. And clearly, as you saw from a lot of big movers and big voices and profiles in that coalition, Vance made a few, well, I don't want to say enemies, but he didn't make any friends this week.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah. Jaime, are Democrats worried about running against Rubio, or do some of them like Rubio? Like, how do Democrats see Rubio right now?

[Jaime]

There's not a lot of. A lot of chatter about that. Look, we're going to have a primary of like, 30 candidates, so everyone's stressed about that. But I do think, and you and I have talked about this, and I think Larry, too, I think Secretary Rubio would be one of the more, if not the most formidable Republican candidates. And I think any Democrat, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, or Andy Beshear will. Or JB Pritzker will have to consider that. Look, I've talked. Look, you know, I don't have a lot of love for the. For the vice president. I don't think he's a really good politician. I don't think he's been a really good vice president. And I. And I. But I do think Marco Rubio has been an excellent Secretary of state, and he's been an excellent politician, and he is starting to show some personality. And, you know, when people see his family, there's going to be a lot of love for Marco, you know, coming off the midterms and going into 2027 that we can't even account for yet.

[Larry]

Mark, I remember heading into New Hampshire in 2016 before, he had that really poor performance thanks to Chris Christie hammering it. Democrats were saying out loud that they were afraid of Rubio then.

[Jonathan Swan]

Right.

[Larry]

And this is a much better, much different Rubio than that one earlier.

[Mark Halperin]

Here we go. Winners, losers of the week. What to look for? And then to your questions, please raise your hand. Larry, let's go quickly. Winner of the week.

[Larry]

Okay, okay, okay. We're under pressure. I forget who was my winner. Oh, yeah. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson reported this week that he. He has raised a record amount of money this year than any other speaker. Yep. He has isolated his. His districts that are going to make the difference down to about 16. And because of the recent Supreme Court decision, the RNC and all of these PACs are going to be able to be major players in those districts. And yes, he also hosted me and Meredith on Capitol Hill this week. I can be bought, ladies and gentlemen, not by the state of Israel, but if anyone wants to be my winner of the week, you treat me like a VIP like Mike Johnson did, and you've got my vote.

[Mark Halperin]

Jaime.

[Jaime]

Winner of the week, Jon Ossoff, the senator from Georgia. Look, I think President Trump has given Jon Ossoff yet another platform to expand his reach outside of Georgia and Look, I think he's going to win by six points. He's going to head toward the 2028 nomination with some strength, and he's going to be someone that people are going to be looking at all the time. And he's proven this week that he has the ability to go toe to toe with the top politicians in this country, and he's done well. And, you know, and I. You know, full disclosure. I worked for John Ossoff in 20, 2017. We ran for Congress, but he's gotten even better over the last 10 years. Just like Rubio.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah. The people who most. I know. Who most appreciate John Ossoff's skills are the people who've worked for him. And that's not always the case in politics. Larry.

[Jaime]

Lose.

[Mark Halperin]

Oh, my. Winner of the week is Susan Collins. It's so obvious, Larry. Loser. Loser of the loser of the week.

[Larry]

With all due respect, especially considering the hat. Mark. The loser of the week is Mark Halperin. Hear me out. He's gonna have to rethink his entire very popular and highly influential 8 for 28, because it looks like there's gonna be a new name in the mix. Roll the tape.

[Jaime]

Political ambition.

[Jonathan Swan]

Is that true?

[Unknown Reporter]

No.

[Jaime]

But people keep asking me if I'm running for president, and I don't know.

[Mark Halperin]

I might.

[Mark]

I'm serious.

[Jaime]

I don't know. I might because people keep asking me to do it. I actually think I would be a

[Mark Halperin]

really good President of the United States. Okay, like you're being serious.

[Jonathan Swan]

Seriously.

[Jaime]

No, I'm being totally serious. For the people to want me number

[Mark Halperin]

one with a bullet next month.

[Larry]

Yeah. Mark, Mark, Mark, I'm so sorry, but you're going to have to rethink everything now and rebrand it to.

[Mark Halperin]

I can tell you already, I'm going to have some new names on the list next month, but he won't be one of them.

[Jaime]

I'll leave my life for Don Lemon.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah, it's pronounced Le Mans.

[Jaime]

Look, he's from Baton rouge.

[Mark Halperin]

You know, L.A. number two, loser of the week.

[Jaime]

Look, I say there was all due respect and with much hurt in my heart, but I think President Trump was a loser this week, and I think he had to show strong international leadership, strong domestic leadership, and I think he squandered his time with the speech yesterday and opportunities this week to bring the country together and to be a true leader, particularly on the back of Senator Lindsey Graham dying.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah. My loser of the week is Israel. That vote in the House is. Is. Is super important. And the vice president attacked Them, they're, they're being hit from all sides. And there's a story in Politico about how some elements of the pro Israel caucus in America is fighting back. It's too little, too late. They got to start from scratch. They're just, they're, they're just, they're just in a world of hurt regarding how Americans see them. All right, Larry, what to look for this weekend?

[Larry]

Look for these final two weeks. Now we're in the final stretch of these final or three weeks of these final primaries, and this is where things get hot and heavy. I'm going to be watching Michigan even more given the latest polling and also some of the Missouri House races. And it's, it's getting very, very interesting here in the final stretch.

[Jaime]

Jaime, I'm gonna take a break from politics and head toward the World cup finals on Sunday and have a good time. And, and, and I, I.

[Larry]

You're going?

[Jaime]

No, I'm not going, but I'm gonna watch it.

[Unknown News Anchor]

Oh.

[Larry]

Oh, I wish I was going, but that'd be amazing.

[Jaime]

But I think it's gonna be a really fun game and I can't wait to see the match. Can't wait to see Spain versus.

[Mark Halperin]

All right, let's poly market that. What a poly market wager, say? 104, please. That's going to happen in the World Cup? Surprising to me. Spain is a better choice than Messi's. Argentina, 58.6% say Spain win. They were very impressive in the last match, without a doubt, but I was surprised.

[Larry]

It is difficult to repeat, let's face it.

[Mark Halperin]

I mean, I got to show you another poly market before I tell you what I'm looking for this weekend. I meant to show you this when we're talking about rants and rent. Vance and Rubio Poly market before we show you. Well, here it is. Who's going to be the president? Go ahead, put it up. Who's going to be present in 2028? JD Vance, 19 chance. Marco Rubio, 14 chance. Gavin, 11. Chance. AOC 8% chance. I don't see the word Ossoff on there, gentlemen. At least not yet. We shall see. Here's what I'm looking for this weekend. This is not a prediction. It's. It's mostly spidey sense and reading acts. Look for a possible ground deployment of American ground forces this weekend somewhere in, in Iran. I'm not saying a 10,000 force invasion, but look for ground forces. American boots on the ground in Iran this weekend. That's what I'm Looking for as a possibility. All right, quick word from a sponsor and then to your questions, please raise your hand. Ladies and gentlemen, if you need a new mattress, and many of you actually need a new mattress, but you just aren't focused on it, think about how long you've had your mattress. You should have your mattress no longer than Larry keeps T shirts. Larry, how long do you keep a T shirt? Actually, I can wear T shirts.

[Larry]

Yeah. Seven years until they get started. Nasty.

[Mark Halperin]

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[Eric Gertler]

From the state house to the courthouse, in the emergency room and in the classroom, Americans are losing trust in their leaders. In a 2025 U.S. news and World Report survey, 85% of Americans said government leaders care more about their own power than the people they serve. 73% are disappointed in healthcare leaders, 72% in business, and 68% in education. But there are still leaders worth believing in. I'm Eric Gertler, CEO and executive chairman of U.S. news World Report. This is the Best Leaders podcast sponsored by the Noble Reach Foundation. On this show, we'll go deeper into the stories, challenges and lessons of experience. Extraordinary leaders across public service, business, healthcare and education. You can find the best Leaders podcast from U.S. news World Report on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Mark Halperin]

All right, ladies and gentlemen, time for your questions. And we start with a man whose air quality is lower than his quality of life. Luckily, Greg is not in Gotham City. I won't say where he is, but I know he's not in Gotham City. Greg Kelly's here. Greg, welcome in. Haven't seen you in a while, my friend. Thank you for being here. Tell everybody if you want, where you are. If not, just what's on your mind. For Hyman, for Larry.

[Greg Kelly]

I happen to be in Palm Beach. I happen to adore this program, as you know, Mark, and I'm particularly delighted by Larry. But I'm incredibly disappointed today that there wasn't a more fulsome and honest discussion about what President Trump presented last night, the documents. That was a major historic speech and it has been. I think the extent of your summary was that Fox News downplayed it. And, and we've moved on. This is also a major failing for portions of conservative media because if dominant media, leftist media doesn't make it a story, conservative media doesn't have anything to complain about. So conservative media tend to move on as well. But there were substantive allegations made last night. There are documents to at least decipher. You can, you can dismiss them and the media last night. It is a media story. But I think before you get to the media component, you get to the substance of what the President alleged and what's in these actual documents. Use your immense, immense abilities of analysis.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah.

[Greg Kelly]

And to please engage.

[Mark Halperin]

So, Greg, I made the decision along with my colleagues that we can't spend. If we tried to, if we tried to unpack the thing in detail, we'd use up the whole hour. But I'll just say this. Many of the allegations connect to China. Okay? Many of the allegations connect to China. The President's planning a summit with Xi. If this were such a violation of American sovereignty, if what China did was so demonstrated and outrageous, he should have announced the cancellation of the summit. He should have announced new sanctions on China. He said nothing about China except accusations against what they did. So how do you explain that, Greg? If what China did was proven and so horrible, why isn't the summit canceled?

[Greg Kelly]

Well, then you can make the same case that many of you made about President Trump and Putin in Helsinki. You are all outraged, you, dominant media. I actually. Not me excluding you, Mark. But yeah, as you know.

[Mark Halperin]

But I'm asking you, because I'm asking you.

[Unknown Maine Politician]

It is.

[Mark Halperin]

How could he relevant know. How could he relevant.

[Greg Kelly]

You're asking, you're asking why aren't there more consequences to something that was unveiled? But you don't. And nobody is bothering, not only here

[Mark Halperin]

but everywhere else, because what.

[Greg Kelly]

Understand what was unveiled.

[Mark Halperin]

What was unveiled he said was. I'm just talking about the China allegations that China got the Voter file. You know how you can get the voter file? You can buy the voter file. Many states, you can just go online and download the voter file. So the fact that China has access to the voter file impressed me.

[Larry]

That's not what he said. It was the registration logs. It was the voter. Think about this for a minute. The communists in Beijing have the. Have the reg. No, they were registration. Voter registration logs, which Gavin Newsom and Democrat governors refused to hand over to the US Federal government. But the communists in China and Beijing have access to it, apparently by hacking. That's what he was talking about. Mark. Listen, Greg, I don't disagree with you. My 6am hour, I led with the speech. My 8am hour, I also had.

[Mark Halperin]

Tell us, tell us an accusation that you think deserves full discussion.

[Larry]

That the intelligence community had information and intelligence that China was interfering with the 2020 election and they purposely massaged the presidential daily briefing.

[Mark Halperin]

Who was.

[Larry]

Keep that information from the president.

[Mark Halperin]

In whose presidential administration did that happen?

[Larry]

Who's in confidence, Mark, if you're making the case that under Donald Trump he had people in his administration that were undermining his political presidency, I'm with you. That deserves some attention, doesn't it?

[Mark Halperin]

That's not.

[Larry]

But to just say, well, Donald Trump was president, just.

[Mark Halperin]

I got to stop you. That is a story. And then I want Jaime in, please. That is a story about if it's true. It's a story about the deep state's hostility to Donald Trump. It's got nothing to do with the integrity of our elections. It's a story about the deep state. It does.

[Larry]

If the president can't do anything to stop that.

[Mark Halperin]

But if he were president, he should have done something about it.

[Larry]

But if they're keeping the.

[Mark Halperin]

He should have hired better people. He should have hired.

[Larry]

Help me out, Greg.

[Jaime]

I think, I think my, I think my only. Look, Greg, thank you for that question. And I, and I respect what you just said. Look, I think it's incumbent on the president. If he wants us to pay attention to these things and take these things seriously, he's got to set up in a way that we're going to do that. He didn't do that. He didn't. He did. He's losing credibility. The reason why the media won't cover it because he, he has spent all these years talking about this in this election fraud that hasn't materialized. And so there was no credence in giving him any airtime for this speech. I don't necessarily agree with, with that route, but I'm Telling you, the President has not done a good job to convince us that he's can be taken seriously, can be trusted in these scenarios. And so I think he's got to go back to the table and figure out a way to go and rebuild trust with America so we can have a conversation about moving forward, protection our elections and doing those sort of things, not just taking his word for it.

[Mark Halperin]

I just, I'm sorry, I just got to be clear about something. If you take the accusations the President made, if they're true, they're serious and they deserve full discussion and full and full investigation, but it's not clear which of them are true at this point.

[Greg Kelly]

Okay, final word for me, if you don't mind.

[Mark Halperin]

Yes, sir.

[Greg Kelly]

Dominant media ran with Russia collusion for two years. It wasn't presented to them in a nice box like some are asking for right now. And ultimately, if anybody read the Mueller report, it came down to, I think, $150,000 worth of Facebook ads and an operation that was started by the Internet Research Group, the Russian arm in 2014 before.

[Mark Halperin]

President agree with you about this, Greg, but it's got nothing to do, respectfully, it's got nothing to do with the accusations that the President flung out there yesterday.

[Greg Kelly]

You guys, you're being, this is the problem. You're being. The media is being so high maintenance about this and everyone is pooh, poohing it and everyone is, oh, no, no, no. Or that news or.

[Larry]

Greg, I, I agree with you. Can I ask you a cousin, since you're in the media and you've been in the media a long time, is it possible that that's being done? Because if the media were to cover this now, seriously, they'd have to admit that they ignored this back when it

[Mark Halperin]

was not Fox and Friends in the New York Post who barely cover it, and we're great on Russiagate.

[Larry]

I was asking Greg.

[Mark Halperin]

Okay, Greg.

[Greg Kelly]

No, I don't think they feel self conscious or guilty about much of anything. But for another story that I think resonates more is how they treated Joe Biden for four years, concealing his obvious decline. And now we're treating them as if they're at all credible. Everything should be different.

[Jaime]

I just don't think that's true. He is defending Joe Biden and he was not treated like a king at all, believe me.

[Larry]

Well, nobody was treated like he was coherent.

[Jonathan Swan]

Yeah.

[Mark Halperin]

Greg, thank you, man. Great to see you.

[Greg Kelly]

Thank you. I really do adore this program and you gentlemen are amazing. Thank you.

[Larry]

That's why people like to click on this. Right there, baby.

[Mark Halperin]

Say Say hi to the lady whose name is on screen, Judith. People are a little confused about why Greg was identified as Judith.

[Larry]

Hey, you know, let him live his life, man.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah, yeah. Thank you for being here. Grateful to have you Brooklyn in the house.

[Jonathan Swan]

Yes. First, Greg, tell your father we need him to run for New York City mayor.

[Mark Halperin]

That'd be awesome, wouldn't it be?

[Jonathan Swan]

Yeah.

[Mark Halperin]

Mayor. If Commissioner Kelly were Mayor Kelly. That'd be incredible.

[Jonathan Swan]

So I want to talk about the president's speech and if we have time, J.D. but we could save J.D. for a different day. I'm a three time Trump voter. Imagine if President Biden would have given this speech last night and the outcome and. Mark, you stole what I wanted to say. An outcome would have been a summit with President Xi coming to the White House instead of announcing sanctions on China and a whole government approach to win off America off exports in China. What would the Republicans response to that

[Mark Halperin]

would have been, Larry?

[Larry]

Well, I think Republicans have been pretty robustly critical, suspicious, if not outright hostile towards the communists in Beijing. So it's a great hypothetical. Sadly, under President Biden, it would have never happened. I will say this, and I've been on record, and I'll continue to say they should cancel the summit. Donald Trump needs to stop saying that Xi Jinping is a good friend of his and that he respects him as a leader. This is outrageous. Either China's our adversary, if not outright enemy, or they're not. And the idea that we have to play footsie with them, given everything that was just said yesterday, is outrageous. And I'm hoping that that's actually the next shoe to drop.

[Jaime]

Hi, I'm a. Yeah, I mean, look, you guys know how I feel about China. I've been streaming for the last year and a half that we've got to take this more seriously. And I completely agree with Larry on this. And I don't think I have any edits to what he just said.

[Mark Halperin]

Haiba feels so strongly about it, he will not accept. When I have kung pao chicken delivered to his house, he sends it away.

[Jaime]

He says, peanuts. It's the peanuts.

[Mark Halperin]

It's the peanuts. I did it. Kung Pao.

[Larry]

No, no.

[Mark]

We love the culture. We love.

[Jaime]

Okay.

[Larry]

We love the Chinese who have come here to flee the communists. They're great Panda expresses up there with.

[Mark Halperin]

Go ahead and ask your advanced question.

[Jonathan Swan]

I think there's other people on there. So, I mean.

[Greg Kelly]

Okay.

[Jonathan Swan]

All right.

[Mark Halperin]

Come back another day. Thank you, sir. Grateful to you. Love having you part of Our community. Sorry here. John, welcome and thank you for being part of two ways Unmute. Tell folks who don't know where you are what's on your mind. For Jaime, for Larry.

[John]

Oh, thank you so much, Mark. So here's my frustration. I think a lot of people would sympathize with me. What the President should have said, and I'm a conservative, as if you remember, is hey, we found 280000 illegal people registered to vote and 88000 of them voted. Just cut to the chase right now. You got my attention. So that's one frustration. Then my second frustration is with the media, with the lack of curiosity. Clearly the President provided enough information to say we got to look into this.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah, so.

[John]

So those are my two frustrations. And so I'd like you to comment on that. And my second is about Iran and same frustration with Iran. This, the war with Iran, incredibly complicated. It's hard to negotiate with people who want to kill you. But General Kane in the military has done an amazing job and Iran, unless something dramatic changes, is going to lose. We will win this thing. And you can compare Ukraine's success against Russia and Iran having absolutely no success against us.

[Mark Halperin]

Well, they've had some success asymmetrically. But Larry, I want to take the first point about the President's failure.

[Larry]

I'm afraid frustrated consumer of news as well by the way, that 200 and plus thousand noncitizens who are registered to vote, that's just what's been reported from red states. The blue states like California, New York, Illinois, they refuse to hand over their rolls so they can't be investigated. I don't know what's involved in cross checking to see which of those voters actually did vote and participate. But you're right, that's a good point and it should be made. And I can't remember the second point from the President speech that you made. Oh, about Iran. Yeah, listen, you're right. Somebody compared the current situation in terms of the military engagement with Iran right now to trench warfare. Basically this is trench warfare, except it's a liquid trench. We're at sea. But this is a long protracted waiting game that eventually we will absolutely win. The question is whether we have the political will and the fortitude to be

[Mark Halperin]

able to play it through. Jaime?

[Jaime]

Yeah, I mean I would take the Iran piece last because we've been talking about this ad nauseam since the war began. And look, I think eventually we will win because we don't have a choice. But I have been so Frustrated with the lack of vision in getting us out this war as quickly as possible. I mean, we've now been in it for almost 200 days. And it seems like, I know Iran is weaker than they were, but they are still strong enough to have us in this protracted war, in this waiting game. And this is going to be something that's going to have a big impact on our midterm elections. And so I'm annoyed by that. And I don't think we ever should have given Iran the ability to do that. And then on, on, on the first piece, look, I, this, I, this is. John, this goes to my, my note earlier about the President not having a convincing enough thesis to, one, convince not only the American people to pay attention to last night, but the media and the apparatus. I think if the President is, if these things he said last night are true, then he's got to put together a real task force and go around the country, really convince Americans to get on board with him, to make these elections as safe and sound as possible. But I don't think that's his goal.

[Mark Halperin]

Yeah, John, I'll say this, I'll say this, that there's reports that the President almost was, was potentially going to say even less responsible, even less documented things that he did. And I don't doubt that because what he said was largely semi documented. But there are two things he could have done differently. If the goal truly was to get to the bottom of this and to raise the public's consciousness about the dangers to our election system, there are two things he could have done. Number one, he could have come in, as you said, with not just some sort of wispy potential problems, but actual, maybe even some indictments, maybe some, some, some, some real specifics about what had happened and what the consequences are. And number two, you saw in the coverage last night a bunch of reporters were trying to go on the website to see the documents, right? They couldn't because the site crashed and you can't read the documents in real time or you got to stay up all night to read them. If they were serious about this and they wanted coverage, you call all the reporters into the Roosevelt Room or the Cabinet Room, you hand out the documents in advance, you say, come, and we will walk you through what happened. We'll walk you through what we know. We'll walk you through what's still unknown. We'll walk you through the implications of it. They didn't do any of that. They said they're up on the website. If they're Serious about presenting this to make a persuasive argument. That's how you do it. You don't have the president come out and ad lib a bunch of things and read a bunch of things off the prompter that are just too vague to respond to and investigate.

[John]

Yeah, no, thank you. Yeah. My rally cry is let's just get to. Let's get to the truth.

[Mark Halperin]

Amen.

[John]

Get to the bottom of it right away.

[Mark Halperin]

Amen.

[Larry]

And again. And I know that I'm gonna be criticized for looking backwards, but I'm frustrated like John is because I remember when Joe Biden gave a speech in front of Independence hall making outrageous claims about Republicans saying that MAGA conservatives were the greatest threat to our country and our constitution that we have ever seen. And the media did not take a skeptical eye. They took it as the truth. And we had panel discussion after panel discussion on cable news about how big a threat mega Republicans.

[Mark Halperin]

But Larry, let's, let's throw out that irresponsible partisan media. Let's just focus on people who want to do. Do the serious work. Did you spend, did you, did you stay up all night investigating the Michigan?

[Larry]

I was up. I was up way later than I should. Not the Michigan claims, but I did look at the diet. No, what I'm most read in on, I did get the documents. The site crashed immediately. But by, by 9:30 the site was working and I got the documents.

[Mark Halperin]

But if you want to lead a national discussion about these issues, you can't do it this way. It's just not. It's just not. It's not reasonable. I'd like to get.

[Larry]

Well, I guess my point is that other presidents have done it this way and the media has picked up the baton and run.

[Mark Halperin]

But just because the other ones did it wrong and the media covered them poorly doesn't mean we should just say, well, that's okay then. The president in this case did well enough.

[Larry]

I'm a member of the media and my team looked at the documents and we had full presentations this on my show about the seriousness of these allegations and the documents that came from the intelligence community that modified the presidential daily briefing. It can be done, Mark. They're choosing not.

[Mark Halperin]

Not in every case, though. John, thank you. Grateful to you. Not in every case. It can be. It's not, it's not possible to like the Michigan claims.

[John]

Just.

[Mark Halperin]

You can't do it from a state. Eventually you can, but you can't do it in a news cycle. Jen, welcome and thank you for being here.

[Jen]

Good morning. First of all, I think Messi has a date with destiny. That would be the first thing I would say.

[Larry]

Let's go.

[Jen]

And then hand of God in Maine. I'm just really curious because I know every state's a little different. Is there a potential that all of these folks that are, you know, let's just say, upset with the direction of things and wanted to vote for Platner, could, could they do a write in vote? Could he. With a write in vote?

[Mark Halperin]

I don't know if write ins are allowed. I haven't seen any reference to writing.

[Jaime]

Yes, I don't think I. I have a look into.

[Mark Halperin]

I don't think so, because I don't, you know, it's not a real election, so the only way you can be on the ballot is if you. If you got the signature. So I don't think.

[Larry]

Well, unless. Unless Jen means in the general election. In the general.

[Jen]

Yeah, I mean, in the general. Not the.

[Mark Halperin]

Sorry.

[Larry]

You can always write in.

[Jaime]

In the general election, but there's not a lot of money and effort behind that and it takes a little. Yeah, I don't think there will be. I mean, it could be. Yes, it's possible. I don't think it's going to happen.

[Jen]

He could run a social media campaign to tell everybody to write it.

[Mark Halperin]

Jen.

[Larry]

He's still sitting on a couple million dollars, isn't he?

[Mark Halperin]

Jen? Present company accepted. Who should he do his first interview with?

[Jen]

Platner? I have no idea.

[Mark Halperin]

Don Lemon, maybe. Hi. Movie. Do his first interview with Katie Couric. Katie Couric. Larry, besides us, who should he do his first interview?

[Larry]

It's definitely going to be new.

[Mark Halperin]

I should.

[Larry]

I think he's going to do it with Tucker. That'll get the most eyeballs. If I'm Graham Plattner, I'll do Tucker.

[Jen]

So Katie Couric was at a rival high school of mine and so. Yeah.

[Mark Halperin]

Oh, Jen, thank you. Grateful to you.

[Jaime]

Good to see you.

[Mark Halperin]

All right, let's see. Let's see if we can sneak one more in here. Even though we're tight on time. Dina, we're short on time, but if you can be quick, please unmute and go ahead.

[Larry]

Hi, Dina.

[Listener]

Oh, thank you so much for the opportunity. Shabbat shalom to everyone. We're starting a new book in the five books of Moses. This week is Devarim. I don't know what it's called in English. I wanted to make a defense, the capitalist defense for El Sayed.

[Larry]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Listener]

Milton Friedman and I actually have his book right here on me. I will take it out. I knew you were going to follow me. Sorry, sorry. I have hit Milton Friedman's book freedom and Capitalism. Never mind. I don't want to take your time.

[Jen]

Yes, here, here, here.

[Listener]

Freedom and Capitalism. And in a later chapter, I don't remember by heart, Milton Friedman advocates for abolishing all licensure of all healthcare fields. And as a speech therapist, I approve. And so Mehdi Hassan said, of all people criticized El Sayed of inflating his resume by calling himself a physician even though he doesn't have an active license. Right, but I got it.

[Mark Halperin]

I got to stop you and just ask. If you have a quick question, you can ask it, but otherwise we're running out of time.

[Listener]

Well, do you agree that we should abolish healthcare licensures?

[Larry]

Okay, Larry, I haven't looked into the issue enough to form an opinion. I'm sorry, that's. It's not in my wheelhouse.

[Jaime]

I haven't looked into it either, but maybe not. I don't know.

[Mark Halperin]

All right, sorry, none of us know. But thank you for the question. Thank you for being part of two way. Apologies for cutting you off, but we got to go because I have to get over to Sirius XM at 10 o' clock to host the second hour. They're looking forward to seeing some of you over there. New episode of Next up is available to for you to watch. Now my guests include Tad Divine whose new book about Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign will shock and delight you. If you're interested in how the establishment worked to destroy Bernie Sanders campaign and his movement, at least tried. Emily Jasinski joins me to talk about why people feel so differently about the vice president. A 10 year old interview I did with Lindsey Graham about the death of his parents and my reported monologue on why Israel has such a big challenge now to deal with both Democrats in the House and the Vice president of the United States. Tonight on two way tonight, two best selling authors two has two spectacular journalists will join me, Alex Eisenstadt and Jonathan Swan. Jonathan Swan's never been on two way. Please come and ask that guy questions about his accent if nothing else. And this program will be back on Monday, 9:00am Eastern Time. And we are fortunate, we are blessed. We are delighted that Jaime will rejoin us on Monday assuming the World cup fever doesn't send him into a coma.

[Larry]

And, and Larry, he'll be wearing his lemon 28 hat.

[John]

Yeah.

[Mark Halperin]

Thank you all. Thanks to Jaime for being here. Larry, love you. And thanks to all of you for the two way community I'll see you on SiriusXM and then I'll see you again at 5 o' clock to close out the week. Have a great day, everybody.

[Larry]

Have a great weekend.

[Jaime]

Have a great weekend.

[Mark Halperin]

Sam.