← After Party with Emily Jashinsky
After Party with Emily Jashinsky
FBI Finally Investigating Brennan and Comey, with Matt Taibbi, and Why Biden's Doc is Just the Start
01:14:47
Emily Jashinsky is joined by Matt Taibbi of Racket News to talk about the breaking news on the FBI finally investigating John Brennan and James Comey, the terrible media coverage about it, X CEO Linda Yaccarino leaving and what that means about Elon Musk, and more. Then Christopher Bedford of BlazeMedia joins to discuss why Biden's "Doctor Kevin" is just the start of the investigation into Biden's cognitive decline, the real state of a MAGA civil war, and more. And Emily closes out the party with some final thoughts on why the Jeffrey Epstein story matters. Tax Network USA: Call 1-800-958-1000 or visit https://TNUSA.com to speak with a strategist for FREE today Delta Rescue: Visit https://DeltaRescue.org to learn more
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- [00:01]
Emily
If you could hear love, what would it sound like? Son, can we talk about your drinking? Yeah, Dad, I think we should. Helping those closest to you think about their excessive drinking. Maybe that's what love sounds like. More@rethinkthedrink.com an OHA initiative.
- [00:38]
Matt Taibbi
All right. Hi everyone. Welcome to 10pm Actually, welcome to Afterparty at 10pm of course, we are here Mondays and Wednesdays Live. 10pm I'm getting into kind of a rhythm. We're several weeks into this now, but more importantly, I hope you're getting into a rhythm, too. We have a great show tonight. One of my very favorites, Matt Taibbi is here. And if you've been going, if you're like an OG listener to some of the work that I've done, you will recognize the next name. That would be the one and only Christopher Bedford. Backed by popular demand, really in my, my podcasting portfolio. People just can't get enough of me roasting Chris Bedford from the, from the Blaze. That's a tradition that goes back about half a decade now. So Chris Bedford from the Blaze is going to be here. Matt is going to talk about major updates, major updates in the case of John Brennan, major cases, updates in the case of James Comey. So Matt's going to break that down for us. Talk a little bit about Elon News. Linda Yaccarino is out as the CEO of X as of today. So we've all kinds of stuff to get into with him. And Bedford's gonna break down some new updates in the Biden health case. Biden's doctor, you will probably be surprised to know he's not super interested in talking more about what he knows. So we have all kinds of good stuff. Before we begin though, I have to tell a little bit of a story here. My wonderful boyfriend knocked on my door about an hour ago with a mason jar full of a suspicious looking liquid. And it turns out the suspicious looking liquid is actually delicious. It is a Doug Brunt margarita recipe that my boyfriend dropped off for me because Megan kindly saw my cocktail poverty the other night and I was, I was drinking a Modelo. Love a Modelo, but I'm not good at mixing cocktails, so the recipe was pass along. The worst characteristic in that I probably have period is that I have a strange tequila allergy. I've always taken pride in not having any allergies. No offense. People have allergies. Not being one of the like peanut kids. As a millennial, there were certain tables you can create. Couldn't eat your peanut butter and jelly sandwich with sandwich at. At lunch, you know, circa like 1998. So I took pride in that. But somewhere around the age of 26, just even a little bit of tequila doesn't go well. So this is with rum, and it's incredible. So it's like new hack unlocked. Thank you to Megan, thank you to Doug, and of course, thank you to my wonderful boyfriend, who got on his vintage motorcycle. He has a new Honda Trail 90, zipped over and made sure that I had this in time for the show. Now, before we bring Matt in, I actually want to raise my glass of rum margarita to our unofficial mascot. We thought it might happen, but the light behind us did actually just fall over. Perfect timing. But here is. I'm going to show this on my own because I want to even zoom in. Our unofficial mascot of the show is Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader. Let me just zoom in here. It has been discovered that this man is Photoshopping hilarious pictures of himself and has been for a long time. Look at this. I mean, if you're listening, I can't do it justice. I can't possibly do it justice, but you can see the background of his pictures are bent. It's, like, amazing. Anything that is solid and straight in the background of his pictures are completely bent. This is the House Minority Leader. This is the man who is supposed to have the torch passed to a new generation of Democratic leadership. Look at this. People are analyzing the Photoshops. He's always trying to pose like he's an absolute. Like he's the coolest guy. He's very relatable. And the. The reality is that he's actually, like, Photoshopping these pictures to. To make himself look amazing. And he pulled it off right. Like, this feels to me like a man that I can trust. What's the Wendy Williams quote? He is the moment. He is. I don't remember. I have to. I'll look it up and we'll come back to it. We'll circle back to it at the end. But this is a true scandal that has been unfolding quietly. We didn't notice it until recently after he posted that incredible picture of himself with a baseball mat. He became the unofficial baseball bat, became the unofficial mascot of the show, and we couldn't be prouder to have him on board as the unofficial mascot of After Party. But on that note, enough about Hakeem Jeffries. We have Matt Taibbi, editor in chief of Racket, one of, I think, the indispensable sources in all of journalism. He's joining us now. Matt, thanks for being here.
- [05:25]
Christopher Bedford
Thanks, Emily. I appreciate it. I'm glad to be on.
- [05:28]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, it's great to have you. And on an important day because as you reported, pretty big news on one of your, like, signature beats, and that's FBI Director Cash Patel has opened criminal investigations into John Brennan and James Comey from for, as you write, quote, offenses related to the Trump Russia scandal, colloquially known as Russiagate. The opening of criminal probes into the two of the most powerful enforcement chiefs of the Trump era marks the first steps towards consequences for the elaborate and historically unprecedented intelligence fraud that for years consumed American politics. And this follows the ICA scandal of the week before. We're going to get into all of this because, Matt, you make it very intelligible to people who don't follow follow it as closely as you do. But let's just start with these investigations against Brennan and Comey. Seems like a pretty significant escalation. Tell us what's going on.
- [06:19]
Christopher Bedford
So I was able to confirm this morning that they've opened up criminal investigations at the FBI pertaining to Brandon and Comey and that those were as a result of a criminal referral from the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, who, as you know, last week also released an eight page report on irregularities with the process of creating the Intelligence community assessment of 2017. But it's a significant step forward for anybody who's followed this incredibly annoying story for the last nine years because, you know, this is now the boomerang coming all the way back. You know, once upon a time, everybody was waiting for indictments against Donald Trump or people in the Trump family. And now it looks like they're, you know, there's a realistic chance that there may be cases that end up in court against figures like James Comey and John Brennan. And that's good news.
- [07:26]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah. And the question now is actually what some of these, what some of the investigations could turn up. And I think we have this video because you sent out a separate note today to Racket subscribers. People should subscribe to racketracket News. That was a clip of Kash Patel on Joe Rogan. The FBI is like transferring buildings at the moment and it's all like, very bizarre. But this is Cash Patel maybe previewing something when he was talking to Joe Rogan recently. And we can go ahead and roll this clip and get your reaction map. We just think about this, me as the director of the FBI, the former Russiagate guy, when I first got to the bureau, found a room that Comey and Others hid from the world in the Hoover Building, full of documents and computer hard drives that no one had ever seen or heard of, locked the key and hit access and just said, no one's ever going to find this place.
- [08:26]
Christopher Bedford
What?
- [08:27]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, so my guys are going through that right now.
- [08:31]
Christopher Bedford
What's in there?
- [08:32]
Chris Bedford
A lot of stuff.
- [08:35]
Matt Taibbi
This is amazing clip where Rug is just in the background being like, what?
- [08:40]
Christopher Bedford
No, he's like Brad Pitt in True Romance in that scene. It's great.
- [08:46]
Matt Taibbi
I love that you had that right at the top of your mind. You're like, oh, yeah, it's Brad Pitt.
- [08:53]
Christopher Bedford
No, no, but that. That was an interesting thing. And, you know, everybody is sort of passing that around the Internet. But then as I was calling around this morning, somebody close to the. One of the investigations told me, like, yeah, he was. He was actually. That was actually a slip. Or he did actually refer to this investigation when he was talking to Joe. So that is a true thing. It's not something that people are just saying on the Internet. And it's also interesting because it brings in. There are really two parallel tracks to this investigation. I think that's one of the things that's confusing people there. There was a huge investigation that was run out of the House Intelligence Committee for years. It began with, oddly enough, Cash Patel working for Devin Nunes. But all that stuff was housed over at Langley for years. It's been locked up there since 2018, and people haven't been able to get at it. Trump tried to try to declassify it. So that pile is now meeting this other new pile that the Justice Department just found, they say, in the old Hoover Building by chance, just because they happen to be moving out of the Hoover Building. It's so random. It's like the perfect ending to this idiotic story.
- [10:13]
Matt Taibbi
I mean, it really is. The only way that you ever end up getting, like, certain classified information is that they just accidentally leave it in a room and moving the Hoover from the Hoover Building because it's the great. It's the greatest combination of incompetence and, like, secrecy. And that's really the story of the FBI.
- [10:31]
Christopher Bedford
Oh, totally. Yeah. No, it couldn't. There couldn't be a better resolution to this whole thing. If there's actually damning evidence on any of those documents or hard drives that Cash is referring to. I mean, that would be hilariously funny and kind of the perfect resolution to this whole thing. But we don't really know what's on there. We do have a pretty decent idea of what's on the other stuff. And that's probably going to be the predicate for these perjury conspiracy investigations that they're pursuing.
- [11:06]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, that's one of the things I thought you did a really good job of running down. And that's one of the questions I have for you right now is what it's hard for me to believe that they open these investigations, Cash Patel opens these investigations and they don't end up in charges against Brennan and Comey, particularly for perjury over whether or not the Steele dossier was involved in this ica. That became big news last week because the CIA under Director John Ratcliffe, who is very well regarded in the MAGA world and is close to Donald Trump. Frank released a Matt. What was the document formally? It was like a memo.
- [11:44]
Christopher Bedford
Yeah, it was called. It had some bizarre name like tradecraft, Shortcomings of Something something something. It was a very forgettable title. But, you know, it got kind of lukewarm reviews among hardcore Russiagate followers and even among people who had conducted the original House Intelligence Committee investigation. You saw Rick Crawford from the Intel Committee talking about how the CIA was attempting to whitewash everything that happened. He sent a letter, angry letter to Trump about that. But I think that was actually just a misunderstanding. The. It appears, from what I, what I hear today, it appears that, that Ratcliffe wrote that very short eight page thing in a way that was specifically crafted to give, in a narrow way, to give cash away, to open up some perjury investigations and then everything else can come in afterwards. But that document is not the be all end all of everything that they found. It's, it's just, it's designed to, for utilitarian purpose.
- [12:59]
Matt Taibbi
So that's a really important point because the big picture zooming out of all of this is whether or not they said the Steele dossier was immaterial to opening up the Trump Russia investigation when they did, and they were passing along what's called an ICA internally. And so there's a big fight over basically whether or not they used this opposition research to target a political opponent. A political opponent and then the sitting President of the United States, one of the most undemocratic schemes that we've seen happening. And the Peter Strzok text message about an insurance policy basically tells you all you need to know about their mentality here. But I want to put two headlines up on the screen. This is F2. This is the Politico headline about the Ratcliffe memo, which said, CIA review of 2016 Russia election probe finds no major Flaws, which Matt, you wrote about also. Apparently I hadn't seen this, but Kendall any and also known informally as Fusion Ken because of his obvious connections to Fusion gps, which was peddling all of this opposition research. What he, he went on MSNBC and said the Ratcliffe Report didn't show any Joe Brennan had done any wrongdoing, let alone a crime. And you kind of fixed this. Let's put the racket headline, this is F3 up on the screen. But at the same time, there's something interesting about Politico reporting that essentially this was, this was a letdown, that there wasn't much in it, that it almost like didn't accuse anybody of wrongdoing because that's kind of what the people you were talking about said your reporting suggests that actually it was maybe the first step into investigating perjury regarded to the Steele dossier. Is that correct?
- [14:44]
Christopher Bedford
Yeah, I think that's right. But by itself, the Radcliffe Report is still pretty bad. And it also move, moves the ball forward significantly. There, there were some things, I mean, I spent a month on this question last year in February working with Michael Shellenberger on the question of what was in that House Intelligence Committee report. And it was very similar to the WMD story. Essentially Brennan, Comey and the NSA when they were putting together the intelligence community assessment that came out in the first week of 2017. You have to remember that Russiagate at that point had stalled out. All the various investigations had finished there. There had been a story in Mother Jones, David Corn by David Korn suggesting that the Russians had blackmail material on Donald Trump. And that didn't go anywhere. So there was nothing left. The Russiagate was about to be kind of a non story. And then they dropped, you know, Barack Obama commissioned this report. And the only way that they could say in the report that Russia specifically interfered to help Donald Trump was if they brought in material from the Steele dossier because they didn't have a source on this. So that's how this whole thing was put together. That's what's in the Ratcliffe report is essentially like documentary confirmation that John Brennan overrode his internal controls. They told him that they shouldn't use this stuff, that it didn't meet even minimal standards of anything. And, you know, he said no. And there's a written thing by him saying no. I think it warrants, you know, consideration. And that's the reason that's relevant, is because he's on the record saying otherwise in testimony. So there's your case right there. If you want to make a perjury case.
- [16:45]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, there's such a circling back to that video of Cash Patel and Rogan. You also made a good point about this and I'm curious to hear more of what you think because, you know, the internal machinations of the media really well and how government tries to spin reporters and the position that it puts reporters in when they're giving newsworthy information, even if it's also clearly trying to get ahead of something or to disrupt a bad news cycle. And so the obvious connection that a lot of people have made is this is happening amidst the fallout of over Jeffrey Epstein, basically the DOJ basically like closing the case on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, saying there's, there's no more disclosures coming from us, nothing to see here, no incriminating client list, no credible evidence of a blackmail operation. It's all very ridiculous. But then we hear that from the FBI, they're opening this long awaited investigation into two of the major villains of the Trump era, John Brennan and James Comey. So your point, and flesh this out for us a little bit, is that clearly this was already percolating according to your sources, when Cash Patel went on Joe Rogan show. So maybe is it possible that the story that I think was originally given to Fox News, the exclusive on this, was Epstein related, but the actual investigation or the actual investigations themselves maybe weren't?
- [17:58]
Christopher Bedford
Yeah, what I was told is that the investigation's been going on for months. I don't know the actual, what the deal is with how the Fox story came out, but I do know that there were rumors flying all over the conservative media world this weekend that something about Russiagate, much bigger than the Radcliffe Report, was about to come out. So, yeah, it's possible that's politically related that, you know, maybe the timing on the, you know, the announcement of an investigation that that could be related to the Epstein fallout. But there's no question that we're working on this and that they have been working on this. I mean, this is, this is the reason that Cash Patel was named FBI director. I mean, this is the case that put him in that office. And it would be an enormous shock if they weren't working on this from day one, frankly, of, of his tenure there. So. But we know that they've been working on it for at least two months, from what I understand.
- [18:58]
Matt Taibbi
The other thing I wanted to ask you, because you put it well in your racket piece, was just sort of about the motivations going into this. Obviously there's anti Trump, but like seeing the Forest for the trees, you write. Had Russiagate not taken place, the expansion of the drone program in the Middle east during Obama's first term likely would have been at the forefront of John Brennan's legacy. Now, his role as a Trump antagonist, fighting from within government and without will define how he's remembered. I think he, he's still frequently on msnbc. He might even have a NBC contributor. I would have to check which one is it?
- [19:30]
Christopher Bedford
I'm pretty sure he's, he's like a paid contributor. He's not, he's not like a full time anything, but he's got a contributor deal.
- [19:39]
Matt Taibbi
That's insane. I mean, it's completely insane. So tell us a little bit more about James Comey and John Brennan. Coming off of. Comey's been around for a long time. Brennan's been around for a long time. But coming off of the end of the Obama administration, as all of this stuff starts building up, what's going through their minds, as best as you can tell, now that we have almost 10 years in the rearview mirror?
- [20:06]
Christopher Bedford
Well, it's funny because one of the most interesting new details in the Ratcliffe memo is that the FBI wouldn't sign off on the intelligence community assessment, according to Ratcliffe, unless the Steele dossier was included in the final product. And that's something that none of us had ever heard before. But it makes a lot of sense because the steel material really came through the FBI. The FBI used it in their FISA application. They were politically committed to it. And by the fall of 2016, they also already knew they had serious problems with that document, maybe even some legal exposure. So the idea that maybe Comey says to Brennan, well, if you include this thing and throw the weight of the CIA behind it, I'll sign off on your conclusion, your unsupported conclusion that Russia interfered to help Trump because they hadn't done that previously. This is something that people forget. The FBI had refused to say that through December 2016. So, yeah, that makes sense. And we also have to remember that there were kind of two different tracks of Russiagate beginning in 2016. There was the FBI's investigation and then. But also the CIA was also working on different aspects of it. And I think the ICA is where they come together and become a single kind of unified investigation.
- [21:45]
Matt Taibbi
It was weirdly so. I don't even know what the best word for it is. Incoherent. Because throughout the early days of the Trump administration, he turned out quietly to be kind of hawkish on Ukraine. And it just, I Know, they created that impeachment scandal over the Zelensky phone call. It all looking back ten years later, as Trump is utterly frustrated with Vladimir Putin. And Matt, like you, you know, I was going to say the Soviet, but, you know, Russian politics, you. You lived there. It's just crazy to me how much of this came from these old Cold War maybe grudges, reflexes. And looking back, it's utterly bizarre what it did to our politics.
- [22:36]
Christopher Bedford
I mean, the whole thing is so crazy and comic that, you know, if a screenwriter came up with it, you. You would throw it away. It would be. It would be a bad script. It would be unbelievable. Even some of the details, you know, Donna Brazile tweeting out, you know, we can't be having the communists dictate the terms of the debate, you know, with the big hammer and sickle and everything. The degree to which people were blending Russia and the Soviet Union. Remember the COVID story in New York magazine, this idea that Trump had been recruited by the KGB back, you know, before disco or whatever it was, and nobody cared that those were two different countries, that the, you know, the Soviet Union and Russia were, you know, not contiguous government, continuous governments. It was all just based on this kind of muscle memory thing that Russia's vaguely an enemy and that they have tremendous intelligence powers, whereas, you know, at the time, you could say that they were good in the intelligence game, but they. There's no way that we can attribute turning an election to Vladimir Putin's Russia at that time. Anyway, I think that was absurd, but everybody bought it, so, you know, kudos to them.
- [23:58]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, those, those Facebook memes were just incredibly powerful. We are so weak as Americans that you can. You can meme anything and we'll believe it. I wanted to get your take on the Linda Yakarino News. This is F4. So she actually resign, signed as the CEO of X today after two years and said when Elon and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it'd be the opportunity of a lifetime. I'm immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility, protecting free speech, turning the company around, transforming X into the Everything app, and goes on to say, I'll be cheering you all on as you continue to change the world. Yakarino came in and was expected and I think was clearly at least better on the question of content moderation than what had been seen previously at X. She was an Elon ally, obviously, and correct me if I'm wrong, Matt, but two years ago is about when Twitter file stuff Started happening. Is that. Is that timeline correct?
- [24:55]
Christopher Bedford
So she came in right as the Twitter files were ending. Okay, okay.
- [25:01]
Matt Taibbi
And did you have any interaction with her? Did you have an impression of her at all?
- [25:06]
Christopher Bedford
I didn't. So I was being shown the door right around the time Linda came in. And there was some criticism within the social media world landscape that she had been brought in to help bring ads back to the platform by basically reinforcing some of the standards that the previous regime had done, which includes suppressing certain kinds of content that people don't want to see next to ads. So she was thought of as kind of an industry villain coming on the way in. But from what I understand, she ended up in a lot of internecine arguments with Elon, which probably isn't a surprise to anybody. And that announcement that she just. That you just read from to me, that's just one big few, you know, like, I'm out. I'm out of here. So it's interesting, you know, the. This. This arc that Elon's on. He's. He's become this incredibly fascinating character in American history, and he just. It's not clear whether he's fully in control of anything right now or whether this is strategic. Who knows?
- [26:27]
Chris Bedford
I.
- [26:27]
Christopher Bedford
You never know with him. He's genuinely hard to read.
- [26:32]
Matt Taibbi
Well, actually, that's kind of interesting because, again, like, you were sort of. You had some contact with him throughout your reporting on the Twitter files and found him. I think maybe the best word is to be sort of capricious. Is that right?
- [26:46]
Christopher Bedford
Yeah, he was just. I mean, you always want to try to size up people who are giving you information and try to understand what their motives are, what they want out of the relationship, you know, whether they're doing it for altruistic reasons or whether out of self interest or whatever. But with Elon, it was impossible to tell what he really wanted out of the Twitter files. He did say that he wanted to bring back some credibility to the platform by being open about, you know, the old practices that had gone on there. But he. He would change his mind, you know, on the drop, at the drop of a hat, you. You would be having a cheerful conversation with him in one minute, and then it would turn dark in the next. And, you know, I'm someone that. I pride myself in being able to try to read people, and I. I had no idea what was going on with him, so I'm probably not alone in that department. So, as other. Other people have said the same thing. But, you know, he is incredibly energetic. There's no question about that. And he gets. He. He manages to do quite an awful lot every day. So that's. That's fascinating.
- [28:05]
Matt Taibbi
Well, yeah, it's worth mentioning as well that this happened on the heels of the absolute GROK meltdown that, you know, as recklessly, I think, as the. The term anti Semitism gets thrown around, what GROK has been doing in the last 24 to 48 hours, just like, abject anti Semitism.
- [28:22]
Christopher Bedford
I haven't even heard that. What's going on? Oh, really?
- [28:26]
Matt Taibbi
So wild. Like, it's. It's just responding to, like, people with Jewish names and saying every damn time. It's just like, oh, my gosh, dark, dark stuff. So I wonder if your point about Yakurino being someone from the industry who. Who wanted to bring ads back to. Back to the platform, then she's like, this is. I'll never be able to go anywhere else after GROK doing this, after, you know, what's happening with Musk. And on that note, Matt, we have a question. Our team sent along a question from Ronald Jacobs in the YouTube chat who says, matt, what is the current state of social media censorship? Do you see a future where Google or Facebook roll back their content moderation? We've seen a bit of that. Do you think that's the sort of permanent trajectory, or is that going to flip again?
- [29:13]
Christopher Bedford
I think that's what the companies would prefer to do. And, you know, we saw all the platform heads at Donald Trump's inauguration, and a lot of people were wondering, well, what's going on with that? Why are they suddenly making this political display? And to me, the answer is pretty simple that they. We've seen with Trump's executive orders and with JD Vance's speech that the United States is putting an enormous premium on trying to throw off sort of the shackles of European sort of content standards that are imposed by laws like the Digital Services act or the Online Safety act in England, the Online Arms Act. And what Mark Zuckerberg said is that we can't do anything about that stuff without the help in the backing of the United States government. And I think they would prefer not to have to, you know, abide by all of these foreign speech codes and even our own informal ones. But they need the United. The backing of our government in order to stand up to those countries. So, yeah, I think there is a future where that could happen. The problem is that, you know, the Trump administration hasn't been great on this issue, frankly. Right. Like, they. They're not organizing a centralized Digital censorship operation the way, you know, as was being planned previously. But they haven't been great either, so, you know, we'll see. I still have hope for it.
- [30:52]
Matt Taibbi
Is a strange dichotomy of, like, Secretary Rubio, on the one hand, getting rid of the gac, the Global Engagement center, and then on the other, you know, the administration is pulling Ramesa Ozturk off the street for an op ed. It's a really bizarre juxtaposition.
- [31:07]
Christopher Bedford
Yeah. And using AI to scan social media postings to make determinations about whether or not a person is, you know, they're worthy of being let into the country. Kind of exactly the same thing we didn't want to see from, you know, old Twitter. It's algorithmic analyses and, you know, for use and Shadowland. Right. So, yeah, it's weird, but it is what it is.
- [31:39]
Matt Taibbi
Before I let you go, Matt, this actually reminds me. I wanted to ask you about this great piece that you wrote. I want to say it was back in May. You wrote a piece called Ode to Scum. And I know you've gotten a lot of questions. I'm sure you've gotten a lot of, like, text messages and DMS about this piece, but I thought it was. I mean, I remember reading it at the time and just like, Chee cheering along with it. As someone on the right, I was, like, cheering along with it. And you said, I'm often asked, what happened to you, man? And I laugh it off. But now I'd officially be lying if I didn't admit to maybe being affected by overexposure to a certain kind of person. There's some dubious human categories I haven't spent time around. Child traffickers, maker of. Makers of computer viruses, torturers, necrophiles, zoo necrophiles. What the fuck is that?
- [32:20]
Christopher Bedford
It's a zoo, necrophile, sleep with dead animals.
- [32:26]
Matt Taibbi
Okay.
- [32:29]
Christopher Bedford
It'S a joke.
- [32:30]
Matt Taibbi
You learn something new every day. Really, you do. I'm sure there are others. For my money, though, there's no more shocking and shamelessly repulsive animal than the righteous progressive, particularly ones in media. And this actually goes right back to the censorship question is, like, there's been so much talk about a vibe shift. Matt, I was just at the Aspen Ideas Festival for, like, a week. I'm telling you, the millennials, people my age, there were a lot of pronouns. There were a lot of. There was a lot of sort of therapeutic talk and rhetoric. A lot of the stuff that we saw in 2020 that we found objectionable, it seems like, to Me, it's still happening and you probably get the brunt of that. I don't know. Tell us more.
- [33:12]
Christopher Bedford
Yeah, I mean, I worry about that because you see all of these poll results talking about people under a certain age category. There's a sizable percentage of Americans who believe there should be laws against hate speech, which, you know, has traditionally never been against the law in the United States. There are people who misunderstand what the First Amendment allows, what it doesn't allow. And I think, you know, people, young people in America are moving more in the direction of a kind of a European understanding of speech where there's a harm standard that outweighs the individual freedom standard. To me, that's troubling because that's what's always distinguished the American system from everybody else's is that ours is based on this idea of inviolable inherent human rights. But young people, now, I mean, maybe it's not young people, but maybe it's just people of a certain political bent. They don't have a whole lot of patience for a certain kind of speech. And I think they're trying to achieve, for instance, on the issue of Israel, I think they think, hey, if censorship gets it done, we're for it. And you know, that's very troubling. It's like this short term thinking and it's what we saw in 2020 after the George Floyd riots when everybody was just in a mania to stamp out speech they didn't like and you know, fire people for harm or you know, for. Remember how people lost their jobs just for co signing The Harper's letter. J.K. rowling. Right. That kind of thing is him coming sort of coming back into vogue and I thought it was dead and you know, it's, it's like Friday the 13th. I guess he's coming back out of Camp Crystal Lake again. And so, so yeah, it's back and it's too, it's too bad but you know, we'll have to see how far it goes. But my worry though is that, is that the numbers, the demographics are so overwhelming with people under a certain age group on this issue. That and people like you and me, I think our views are going to be considered anachronistic fairly soon.
- [35:31]
Matt Taibbi
Well, that sucks, right? Doesn't it?
- [35:34]
Christopher Bedford
Yeah, yeah, I hope not, but maybe.
- [35:37]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, well, no, it's, it's a good point because there's, there's no real baseline for Gen Z of the prior ethos. Right. Of the right. The, the Anti Defamation League, like literally defending Nazis, which I heard the, the executive of the ADL talking about at Aspen very proudly that they do that. But does it seem like that's what Chase Strangio wants to do?
- [36:02]
Christopher Bedford
No. Yeah, I think the old Ira Glasser model has been switched out for the Chase Strangio model. And look, they would say it's just a different way of trying to get at the same end, but I think it's short sighted and they'll find that out. And one of the things I warned about when I testified in Congress about this issue was that, hey, if you, if you're okay with these tools, you have to be willing to let some other political entity use them. And, you know, now we see all these people complaining about First Amendment violations by the Trump administration. I feel like saying to them, yeah, that's why you got to stand up for this stuff all the time, right? But, you know, it is what it is. So we'll see.
- [36:50]
Matt Taibbi
Matt Taibi, thanks for staying up late hanging out with us and thanks for everything you're doing at Rack Up.
- [36:55]
Christopher Bedford
No, likewise. Thank you, Emily, and good luck with the show.
- [36:57]
Matt Taibbi
Thanks. Appreciate it. Well, stand by, everyone. We have Christopher Bedford waiting. I've kept him waiting and I have zero shame about keeping him waiting. So I just want to say if you are stressed about back taxes, speaking of waiting, maybe you missed the April deadline or your books are a mess. Do not wait. The IRS is cracking down. Penalties add up fast. 5% a month up to 25% just for not filing. But there's help. Tax Network USA can take the burden off your shoulders and stop the spiral before it gets worse. They have helped thousands of Americans, whether you're an employee, a small business owner, or haven't filed in years. Messy books, no problem. They've seen it all and know exactly how to clean it up. I bet Chris Befford is the type of guy with, with messy books. We'll ask him when he comes in. With direct access to powerful IRS programs and expert negotiators on your side, Tax Network USA knows how to win. You'll get a free consultation, and if you qualify, they may even be able to reduce or eliminate what you owe. More importantly, they'll help protect you from wage garnishments or bank levies. So don't wait for the next irs letter. Call 800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com to talk to a real expert at Tax Network USA. Take the pressure off. Let Tax Network USA handle your tax.
- [38:14]
Emily
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- [38:46]
Matt Taibbi
We are joined now I see him waiting with his head in his hands. He's so sleepy. By Chris Bedford, senior politics editor for Blaze News and author of the beltway brief on TheBlaze.com Chris, how bad are your books? You have messy books, back taxes.
- [39:07]
Chris Bedford
No, I don't. Well, I, I filed for an extension. I actually had my stuff together. Everything was together. And then my accountant got sick.
- [39:17]
Matt Taibbi
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No. And then your dog ate your.
- [39:20]
Chris Bedford
Well, by the time my accountant logged back on, I was like, oh. Anyways, I had some technical questions I thought were easy. They were not easy. So all that, everything is filed, every document's been gathered, but I have to go through my a year of credit card statements to find out what was a business expense and what wasn't.
- [39:38]
Matt Taibbi
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy every year.
- [39:41]
Chris Bedford
You know, you just pour yourself a whiskey and you just go through that paper.
- [39:45]
Matt Taibbi
So I actually want to ask you about this because Megan and her wonderful husband Doug had like a cocktail recipe passed on to me today and you know about my late in life tequila allergy. It's very sad. This is a margarita where the tequila was substituted for rum and it's incredible. Chris was a longtime bartender. He makes the best drinks of anybody that I know. And that's St. Alex. I'm from Wisconsin. And this is really good, Chris. Like the, the margarita with rum in it is fantastic.
- [40:12]
Chris Bedford
You know, a margarita with ruminate, you basically add a little bit of orgia and the bitters and you've got yourself a Mai Tai. I mean you got this, you got the orange liqueur, you've got the lime for that. That citrus margarita's got a little bit of sugar in there as well. You got rumors, you add some bitters. I mean my Mai Tai recipe is one part rum, half part org yet which is like an almond syrup half part orange liqueur, squeeze of lime, dash of bitters, one part rum, one part rum, a lot of rum.
- [40:45]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, I mean rum is great.
- [40:46]
Chris Bedford
Cheers.
- [40:47]
Matt Taibbi
There's nothing Wrong with. Oh, you have the tiki mug.
- [40:49]
Chris Bedford
Okay, so I have the Steve Bannon tiki mug.
- [40:51]
Matt Taibbi
That's the Steve Bannon tiki mug. Tell us the story. Can you just tell us the story of why you have a Steve Bannon tiki mug? Because I think it goes back to Tucker. Is it a Tucker thing?
- [41:00]
Chris Bedford
No, it goes way back to this Capitol Hill bar. They used to throw tiki parties once a year around the elections and they would release commemorative mugs. By the time I got there, trying to find some tiki glasses. I think probably for one of our bartending videos back in the day, they were sold out of everyone except for the Steve Bannon one and the Obama one, which I didn't understand at the time because Obama had left office but he was still popular. I have since realized why. It's this cool looking tiki like totem pole thing. And I told somebody once, hey, this is so cool Obama mug. And she thought I was making like a crude racist joke.
- [41:36]
Matt Taibbi
You wouldn't. No, you wouldn't do that.
- [41:38]
Chris Bedford
Yeah, I know. My mind is so pure, like fresh fallen. I didn't even know why she would think that. But because of that they carved this dancing guy in the back with a VP hat supposed to be Joe Biden just to show that it was. Was in fact Obama. And I insisted. And she's like, it was basically like somebody insisting that their racist joke was not racist to her. And it kept on getting worse.
- [42:02]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, you didn't win that conversation.
- [42:04]
Chris Bedford
There was no way she had made a judgment call.
- [42:06]
Christopher Bedford
She had moved on.
- [42:07]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, she probably wasn't wrong in the big picture, Chris. Actually, yeah, people can go back and watch our cocktail videos. They're all on like the Federalist YouTube. But yeah, you would, you would mix cocktails. There's a good Christmas one. Actually. Maybe we should re up that Christmas.
- [42:23]
Chris Bedford
Time and a great margarita. One that really offended a lot of people.
- [42:27]
Matt Taibbi
No surprise there. So I think you're offended by this. I think a lot of people are offended by this. Let's bring in this is. This is F8. This is Joe Biden's former doctor refusing to answer questions. Dr. Kevin, maybe I should just have you explain this story. But yeah, he's pleading the fifth. Dr. Kevin O' Connor will respective will respectfully decline to answer any questions that might be posed to him by this congressional committee. This news broke today. Chris and our friend Rachel Bovard posted on X. Classic Bovard. Hold him in contempt and then straight to jail. The Navarro Bannon standard. That's the Standard the Liz Cheney Democrats set. And no one is above the law. Was that shrill enough? Was that. Was that enough righteous indignation?
- [43:23]
Chris Bedford
That's classic Rachel. She's got. She's got a. She's got high speed and then super high speed.
- [43:31]
Matt Taibbi
We love her.
- [43:31]
Chris Bedford
Fantastic. So I call her all the time when I need to sound smart about something, but I actually wouldn't hold Dr. Kev in contempt so quickly. I mean, I would keep that card ready to go, but, I mean, what are we trying to do here? We're trying to prove that soupy brain president was in fact soupy brained at the time. Dr. Kevin is. He's like the mob doctor. You don't. Who cares? You don't need to arrest the mob doctor who is like, you took care of. What I want to know is which gunshot wounds were you taking care of? Which bosses were you covering up for? Who was. Who was criminally misusing the president? So, like, I would actually make them all kind of sweet promises, like, hey, listen, we promise you complete immunity. We promise you that we're going to have immunity from ethics boards. We're going to try to figure out how to do that. I've never done that before.
- [44:21]
Matt Taibbi
You've never behaved ethically is what you mean.
- [44:23]
Chris Bedford
Oh, I'm always ethical, just not always moral. It's. Ethics is my favorite class. The only class I probably liked in college. It gets dark real fast. Anyways, I would make him all kinds of promises, like, listen, you're safe document. You're safe with me. I'm not after you, but I am after people who you worked for. I mean, was he calling the shots? Absolutely not. He was. He's pleading the Fifth because of self incrimination. That's not a really good look for a doctor in general. But he's not the one I'd be after. I'd be going after people who are higher up in the administration who signed off. And that's how you do it. You can't just put. You could put the mob enforcers and the mob doctors in prison all. All day long, but you really want to go for the kingpins.
- [45:06]
Matt Taibbi
Hmm. But ultimately, you wouldn't be opposed to the Bovard standard here, which is saying, hold them in contempt and then straight to jail, because that's what Liz Cheney and the Democrats did. And in order to sort of get out of this doom spiral, and this is a controversial argument, by the way, even on the. Right. But in order to escape the doom spiral. Yeah. Okay. In order to escape the doom spiral, you have to fight fire with fire.
- [45:32]
Chris Bedford
That's the only way. That's literally the only way. It's peace through strength. And I'm so happy that this administration, the Republican mindset has shifted so dramatically because there are a lot of different Republican presidents in the past who would have come in and said, we're going to take the higher road, we're going to be holier than thou. You take the high road or I'll take the high road. You burn my village down. And this administration doesn't act like that. That's not what they're about. They're going to go in there and, and we've had a rough week for administration watchers in some ways. But there's also. This is a serious administration, much more serious than the first one. All the people are in place, mostly the right people on board. The efficiency, the willingness to move together as a team. I mean, look at that strike in Iran. You know for a fact that there are people, high ranking people in that cabinet who didn't agree with that strike. There was no leaks to the New York Times, there was no leaks to Washington Post, anonymous letter written people.
- [46:32]
Matt Taibbi
There's been all kinds of leaks about Bridge Colby in the last couple of days in Ukraine.
- [46:36]
Chris Bedford
Yeah, well, he's in trouble inside the Pentagon, but I mean, in the White House itself, the Pentagon's got more leaks in the Iraqi navy and they don't like Elbridge Colby. But within the White House itself, it was a unified team moving in one direction. And that is an important thing to have on foreign policy. It's an important thing to have in domestic policy. Once you leave those discussions at Camp David, you move together as one team. So, I mean, I would, I would threaten him. Absolutely. That's the only way that, hey, I'll cut you a break.
- [47:05]
Matt Taibbi
But would you do it? Threatening is one thing. Would you do it and put him.
- [47:08]
Chris Bedford
In jail if he refused to cooperate, if he's a dead end witness? But the whole point of this is to flip him, to make him scared, to make him say I could lose my license, to make him say I could lose my freedom and then say, actually, don't worry. Have I got a deal for you, Doc, Have I got a deal for you. Let's sit down, let's talk about this. Let's talk about the people who made you. Because I know you didn't want to do this. I know you're a good guy. Somebody made you do this and I want to get that guy, you know he's a bad guy or Woman. Probably a woman.
- [47:42]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah. Well, wait a second.
- [47:46]
Chris Bedford
These are Democrats we're talking about, Emily.
- [47:49]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah. Are you saying that this doctor may have perhaps been beholden to a higher doctor, someone who could have been our surgeon general, Dr. Jill Biden.
- [48:01]
Chris Bedford
Yeah. Thank you for using her proper address as well.
- [48:05]
Matt Taibbi
This is extremely sexist not to, frankly.
- [48:08]
Chris Bedford
Well, guilty, I guess.
- [48:11]
Matt Taibbi
So this is to just put a point on this. One of the things O'Connor says he doesn't want to do is reveal confidential patient information.
- [48:19]
Chris Bedford
The.
- [48:21]
Matt Taibbi
The committee doesn't necessarily, for what it's worth, need to get him to reveal or to, like, break doctor patient confidentiality. There are all kinds of questions that are on the periphery of the actual doctor patient relationship that could be useful to get Dr. Kevin on the record about from the House Oversight Committee. On that note, Chris, though, you were just going in this direction of something you'd written about recently. And you write a great newsletter. It's called the Beltway Brief. You can get to that on blaze.com bedford/bedford right there. What a ridiculous URL. But you can get it there. And Chris's F9. You wrote a piece that was headlined, Rumors of a MAGA Civil War are just wishful thinking. And for the sake of having a little bit of fun here, I wanted to raise you. Raise you. I see your headline and I raise you one. Nick Fuentes talking to Alex Jones. This is S5.
- [49:23]
Nick Fuentes
Well, the reason I. I think it's over and I'm. I'm just done with him is because he's really betrayed us on a lot of the key issues already. I mean, this is the first six months of the second term. And the big question which was hanging over people like you and me, and by that I mean people that are paying attention. We knew the problem from the first term is that he had bad personnel. And that's a fair problem to have. He's an outsider. He's inexperienced. He relied on Reince Priebus and Paul Ryan and these other people to basically run his first term, and it was a disaster.
- [49:58]
Matt Taibbi
So Fuentes, who of course openly refers to himself as a racist at this point. That's not.
- [50:04]
Chris Bedford
I think that's been. That's been his deal for a while.
- [50:06]
Matt Taibbi
He told Candace Owens recently that he used to refer to himself as a racialist, but now he just calls himself a racist.
- [50:12]
Chris Bedford
Those are the creepy ones.
- [50:14]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah.
- [50:15]
Chris Bedford
I mean, I grew up in Boston. Like, I don't really. Like, I'm used to people just having dislike for, like, other types of white people. Like, it's pretty standard. But the racialist means you're.
- [50:24]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, no, I've experienced that. And that's like, your last name is Jashinsky.
- [50:30]
Chris Bedford
Where would you say that comes from? Let me measure the circumference of your skull. Yeah, like that's what racialists do. They're creepy.
- [50:36]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- [50:38]
Chris Bedford
Grandpa's racist, you know, so I'm saying.
- [50:40]
Matt Taibbi
All that is to say Fuentes is a representative of the MAGA base. Of course, all of that is worth saying. But give us your argument amidst the serious fractures over the one big, beautiful bill that was ultimately passed and everybody is, like, eagerly touting it and has been over the course of the last week, big signing ceremony and, you know, as. As much as many, like, bitter pills as people were forced to swallow in, like, House Freedom Caucus and also Lisa Murkowski. It's a strange coalition. Now. There's furor and uproar over the Jeffrey Epstein stuff. There's anger over the Ukraine stuff that we just mentioned. Bridge Colby wanted to focus more on China, and people are inside the administration leaking to NBC and all of those different places about how terrible Bridges because he has a smart strategy and all of that. So, Chris, it. It seems like there is a MAGA civil war, but you say there's not. So make the case.
- [51:36]
Chris Bedford
Yeah, I think there's a lot of excitement, too. And first of all, I'm not angry at you for platforming 20, but I am angry at you because now I know what he sounds like, and it sounds exactly like what I thought.
- [51:47]
Matt Taibbi
I mean, there's not a lot from.
- [51:49]
Chris Bedford
Yeah, it's not a lot of alpha energy. There's something that's kind of creepy, like, makes you move down away from the bar. Even if he's just sitting there talking about puppies and flower petals. Just like this guy's weird, I would.
- [52:01]
Matt Taibbi
Say, especially if he's at a bar talking about puppies and flower petals.
- [52:05]
Chris Bedford
Yeah, I guess that's probably not what the kids talk about these days.
- [52:08]
Matt Taibbi
A lot of your clientele talk about that.
- [52:11]
Chris Bedford
Talking about skull sizes. Yeah, but. So this is a. This is a blip. I think the epine thing is something that is an obsessive matter for a lot of folks. At the end of the day, you kind of have to step back and look at this and say, well, what. What were we hoping for? What we're expecting. I know what some people were hoping for, which was the untangling of a great web of extremely powerful people. So the question is, I don't know if the DOJ was incredibly stupid and incompetent on this matter and talked a big game that they were unable to deliver, or if they got in over their skis and above their pay grade, into matters that they're actually not really allowed to expose. And it's not worth it to put Bill Clinton in prison at this age or a disgraced British royal in prison at this age. It's not worth unraveling operations run by different people who may or may not be friends and allies or even internal. But my point with this piece is that the big beautiful bill is one of the more consequential pieces of Republican legislation in my lifetime. This is a delivery of the ability to deliver. President Trump's promises were just over 10 years from when he promised to build that big beautiful wall. And while Mexico hasn't quite paid for it, it's going to be finished by the end of his term because of the money that was delivered here. 46 or $47 billion for internal immigration, deportations and policing. That's massive. That's not just money for the border, which is secure right now with the help of the military and the Customs and border Patrol in local police, but this is empowering local police agencies, state police agencies, and federal police agencies to actually go after illegal immigration within the homeland and go at people who are honestly have taken over different neighborhoods. There are dangerous neighborhoods that are no longer recognizable by some of the residents who may be illegal immigrants from that same country. But the kind of people that the United States let in legally because they don't have Ms. 3:13 tattooed or symbols for it on their body. The Trump tax cuts, I actually think.
- [54:21]
Matt Taibbi
Your tattoos would be flagged if you were coming. If you were like coming from Ireland, someone would be like, no, no, we're.
- [54:28]
Chris Bedford
Not letting that guy in. Absolutely not. Is that a gang tattoo?
- [54:31]
Matt Taibbi
Straight to Seekat, straight to Bukele.
- [54:35]
Chris Bedford
My tattoos didn't go over well in Central America either, because having a tattoo in some of these more rural communities basically means you're in a gang. Like, you don't. You don't just get one because you're 18 or 19 and stupid. You have them because you're dangerous as well. So people thought I was. I also walked a dog on a leash when I was down there. So people thought like, this guy's an eccentric, violent gang member. He was 7 inches taller than all of us. The tax cuts are going to be crucial, the jumpstart to the economy, the actual administration that is now really hell bent on protecting American industries. Renegotiating trade deals and reshoring the American economy. That tax write off, I think I was with you when we found out about it, for building industrial infrastructure inside of this country, you can write off 100% of that on your taxes. That's incredible. So these things that seem like a huge, massive explosion are not actually. And even the Ukraine thing, I think that's really fundamentally misunderstood by a lot of folks now. I don't think that we're going to get peace in Ukraine any day now. I think that Vladimir Putin knows that the American administration lasts somewhere between four to eight to maybe 12 years before there's a change in policy. And he's outlasted numerous presidents in his time. He's also not going to just walk away from territory that it looks like they're getting in, aren't really in a big risk of losing. However, the mistake that Elbridge made and the mistake that Hegseth made, aside from not simply checking with the White House, was they assumed, I think correctly, that President Trump's against the Ukraine war. He wants peace, but they forgot that his overriding and overwhelming aspect of his philosophy and his personality is sealing a deal. And when Putin is embarrassing him and making him look like a jerk and refusing to negotiate, there's no way in hell he's reducing leverage on the guy. He's not going to walk away from that. This is not the way he operates. It's not the way he deals. So maybe this is more personal, but I don't think it's a massive break with actually the kind of foreign policy that he has conducted or that he has advertised over the years as Donald Trump. A lot of people like to paint things onto him. They like to. And this is what makes a powerful leader a powerful leader. They paint their own ideas, philosophies and dreams onto. Onto strong men or powerful men, whether it's Barack Obama or whether it's Donald Trump. And they feel like when their personal desires have been betrayed, that he has betrayed them. But there's no shift in the loyalty on Capitol Hill. In fact, I would say that these Capitol Hill loves war, so this is actually a good thing for them. There's no, I don't think there's any discernment. There's some bewilderment, but there's not a massive shift amongst the American base, the Trump voting base, over this sort of thing. It's not like there's really an actual 80% of this country that's in the middle. That's maybe was true at some point in fantasyland history, but it's certainly not true right now. There's no. So these things that they're palace drama, but they're also a symptom of our success as an American people, which is that the Trump administration is their enemies in the deep state, in the intelligence apparatus, in the media, and their actual political enemies across the aisle from them. The Democrats are completely on the back foot. There's not a siege mentality right now, either inside the administration or outside, like there was in the first administration. So when you've got that sort of success and when you've got these things, you're going to have more party squabbles, you're going to have more fights over, well, how true is this to what we're here to do? How true is that? So there's no risk of a breakup, there's no risk of people. Actually, I think that the Iran war actually caused more trouble than this for the administration. And it's all completely overblown. And I think it'll be greatly overshadowed by the successes of this administration with the money that they now have and the powers that they now have. So when voters get there in November, when voters get there two years from November to the booth, these issues are not going to be something that's a threat to the coalition. That's wishful thinking by its enemies.
- [58:45]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah. And there's a distinction between the Maga coalition in D.C. and the MAGA coalition among the electorate. So I think.
- [58:53]
Chris Bedford
Yeah, we don't have four wheelers here. Actually, we do, but not the MAGA.
- [58:56]
Matt Taibbi
Coalition, I was gonna say. So let me.
- [58:59]
Chris Bedford
There's only one boat in D.C. that's a Maga boat and I love it.
- [59:04]
Matt Taibbi
Yes, yes. It's, it's a hell of a boat. Maybe we'll have Corey on soon. Actually, talk about his, his Megabot. That's. You go follow Cory and Ganimort on Instagram to see his various exploits with riding around the Potomac river through some of the most high traffic areas full of hysterical. He has a flag right now that has Tom Homan's face on it and says, ice, ice, baby. And it just is.
- [59:32]
Chris Bedford
I don't even know where he gets this merchandise, but it's, it's, it's amazing.
- [59:36]
Matt Taibbi
Probably makes it. But anyway, Chris, before you run, as you sip out of your abandoned mug, what are you drinking tonight, by the way?
- [59:41]
Chris Bedford
I'm drinking a Mai Tai.
- [59:43]
Matt Taibbi
Oh, okay.
- [59:44]
Chris Bedford
I'm in a Paradise island mood. I don't watch that. Bravo.
- [59:48]
Matt Taibbi
That's right. Yeah. He watches the battler. Not Bravo, but let me get your. You're. You're a gentleman. And probably had something to do with the Daily Caller having for a long time. It's men's fashion correspondent B. Roger Stone. A look here at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who I think maybe is the. He. He is the iconic American right now. He is the man onto which we are all projecting our hopes and dreams. He appears to have been caught in a very minor Photoshopping scandal that people shouldn't be paying much attention to. They should be paying more attention to the outfits he's putting together and the just air of relatability and casualness that he projects when he poses on train tracks. So, Chris, let me get.
- [60:36]
Chris Bedford
I don't think that's Akeem Jeffries.
- [60:39]
Matt Taibbi
What do you think it is?
- [60:40]
Chris Bedford
Who is that?
- [60:42]
Matt Taibbi
That's pretty sure it's a game. Jeffries really rate his outfit? That's what I was gonna ask you. Obviously, you're from Boston, so you're not gonna like the Yankees drip, but how becoming is it of a House minority leader to be straight repping the Yankees on a train track and sweats? I guess. I don't know.
- [61:02]
Chris Bedford
I guess you kind of have to. I guess that's cool. I mean, if you want to be the House minority leader. Who takes. Who takes pictures? Like you'd put them on a CD you tried to sell me for $5 outside a convenience store. It's a very not cool look. I think I accidentally took better band photos in college spring break.
- [61:19]
Matt Taibbi
That is what it looks like. You're right. It's like when we all had flip phones.
- [61:22]
Chris Bedford
It's Battle of the ba. It's giving Battle of the Bands.
- [61:25]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah.
- [61:25]
Chris Bedford
And the sleeves are too long and baggy and. Did he Photoshop that one, too?
- [61:30]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah. You can see actually here. I mean, I'm all about this. I'll go ahead and pull it back up again. You can see in the background here. And I'm just gonna go full screen for the heck of it on this one. You can see how the rails are bent.
- [61:42]
Chris Bedford
Yeah.
- [61:43]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah.
- [61:44]
Chris Bedford
And he did that also with the park bench to make it look like his hips weren't quite as wide as they were, which. And you know, the most embarrassing aspect of this is a dude photoshopping his hips. It's like more embarrassing than just rocking your mom bod.
- [62:00]
Matt Taibbi
You've not done that.
- [62:01]
Chris Bedford
It's totally. Now, I. I don't know how to. And I don't know if you. If you follow this, but I'm a. I'm a fitness influencer now. I don't need to do that anymore.
- [62:11]
Matt Taibbi
I heard that from Laura Ingram.
- [62:12]
Chris Bedford
Yeah, she's on my fitness journey with me.
- [62:15]
Matt Taibbi
Did she refer to you as a linebacker? Yeah, like on national television.
- [62:19]
Chris Bedford
It was one of the. It was one of the nicest things that anyone has ever said to me, especially you. But the nicest thing you've said to me is reminding me.
- [62:29]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, no, you're right.
- [62:30]
Chris Bedford
I'm an influencer. What can I say?
- [62:32]
Matt Taibbi
On a curve. Yeah. Follow Chris for more fitness tips. He'll have all of them. They won't stop coming. Bedford, this has been wonderful. We haven't had a chance to do one of these podcasts in like a year, so it was a great opportunity to chat. Appreciate it.
- [62:48]
Chris Bedford
I hope. I hope to come back in time for Festivus.
- [62:51]
Matt Taibbi
Yes, of course.
- [62:54]
Chris Bedford
Grievances.
- [62:55]
Matt Taibbi
Yeah, Whatever it takes to do a Festivus episode. We'll make it happen. We'll make it happen.
- [63:00]
Chris Bedford
Well, thanks for having me to shinsky. And congratulations on your success with this awesome new show.
- [63:05]
Matt Taibbi
Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Now go to bed.
- [63:07]
Chris Bedford
Good night.
- [63:08]
Matt Taibbi
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- [64:15]
Christopher Bedford
I like to stop by the bar.
- [64:16]
Matt Taibbi
After, have a few cold ones. I don't drink at all until 4 o'.
- [64:21]
Christopher Bedford
Clock. We limit ourselves to one bottle of wine a night.
- [64:25]
Emily
Excessive drinking has a way of sneaking up on us, a few drinks, a few nights a week, it can add up and suddenly we're at greater risk for long term problems like heart disease, cancer and depression. Reason enough to rethink the drink more at rethink the drink.com Noha initiative.
- [64:43]
Matt Taibbi
Now, before we wrap up, I wanted to go back for a moment to the Epstein story because both Ben Shapiro and the president himself have had thoughts that I think are worth just since we covered this with Megan the other night. Going into given that this is very important and the question of how it matters compared to other stories is still relevant. Right. You know, a story can be important and can be not the most important thing in the world to everybody at any given time. People still have kitchen table concerns, obviously, and still have concerns about the cost of living and all of that. And we're going to get into it for a moment. So let's first take a look here at Donald Trump in a Cabinet meeting, which they now routinely bring reporters into and take questions in front of the whole Cabinet. So Trump is actually flanked here by I think Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi is sitting very close as well and answered some questions about this as well. So let's go ahead and listen here to Donald Trump. Your memo and release yesterday in Jeffrey Epstein, it left some lingering mysteries. One of the biggest ones is whether he ever worked for an American or foreign intelligence agency. The former labor secretary who was Miami U.S. attorney Alex Costa, he allegedly said that he did work for an intelligence agency. So could you resolve whether or not he did? And also could you say why there was a minute missing from the jailhouse.
- [66:21]
Donald Trump
Tape on the man said, yeah, sure, if I could. I just interrupted.
- [66:25]
Chris Bedford
Sure.
- [66:26]
Donald Trump
Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking. We have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time and do you feel like answering?
- [66:46]
Emily
I don't mind answering.
- [66:47]
Donald Trump
I mean, I can't believe you're asking a question, Epstein, at a time like this where we're having some of the great, greatest success.
- [66:54]
Matt Taibbi
So I'm actually going to stop it there because the, the news from the FBI, as much as, you know, the, the cliche saying that you don't hate the media enough is, is often true. In this case. The FBI put out its own statement, its own memo. It was leaked actually to the quote, unquote mainstream media, but to the corporate press, to Axios in the Sunday night news Dump in which they basically said, we, the Epstein case, don't think any further disclosures would be warranted and frankly, didn't find any incriminating evidence of a blackmail scheme and didn't find any incriminating client list. It was credible evidence of a blackmail scheme. They said they didn't find an incriminating client list. So there's a very legitimate reason to be asking that question to the President of the United States and particularly to his Attorney General, who was the person who made the decision to obviously close the case. I think her name was literally on the memo. So on that note, gotta, gotta, just had to stop. Here's, here's the rest of Trump's comments.
- [68:04]
Donald Trump
And also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration, but you go ahead.
- [68:13]
Matt Taibbi
Sure. So Ben Shapiro, who should be noted, is allergic to conspiracy theories. He's a. I think he has a helpful skepticism about a lot of different things. And I'm working on to pull this clip up. As you can see, he says basically that most Americans don't care. Here it is. I'll just, I'll, I'll let Ben say this so that I don't end up paraphrasing him.
- [68:41]
Ben Shapiro
And he says, guys, don't we have better things to do? You can understand his irritation. The man is trying to negotiate an end to a war in the Gaza Strip. He's trying to negotiate an end to a war in Ukraine. He's attempting to revivify the American economy. He's attempting to crack down on illegal immigration. On a list of American priorities. By the polls, the Epstein Maxwell case comes in pretty close to zero, just on a list of priorities. However, when President Trump speaks for the American people more generally and he says, guys, don't we have better things to do? You can understand his irritation. The man is trying to negotiate an end to a war in the Gaza Strip. He's trying to negotiate an end to a war in Ukraine. He's attempting to revivify the American economy. He's attempting to crack down on illegal immigration.
- [69:27]
Matt Taibbi
So I just want to say, I just completely disagree with Ben on the point that you can understand the President's frustration because this was the concept of restoring transparency, especially as it relates to places like the CIA and the FBI, was an important element of Trumpism. And I think that, on the other hand, Ben is absolutely correct. This is not a kitchen table issue for most voters. It is not urgent enough that it is. And this isn't everybody. For most people, whether you think it's right or wrong. It is not what drives them to the polls and it is not what determines if they vote R or D or independent in any given election. People vote based on We've talked about this over the last few weeks because there's our own Mamdani. They vote based often on their immediate economic interests or their families immediate, urgent interest. And it's not everyone again. But I think Ben is correct that most people aren't sort of spending their time like I do in the online fever swamps, picking apart every little detail and trying to peel back every layer of the Epstein onion to get to the truth. At the same time, it is a non inconsequential part of people who care deeply about this because one now the FBI is saying thousands of people were victimized by Epstein. Ken Klippenstein actually put in a comment request with the FBI and said why is this suddenly a number in the memo they released suddenly on Sunday. Why is this number suddenly so much higher? We've heard dozens from the FBI in the past that Epstein had dozens of victims and now we see that number is thousands in this memo. What happened? And the FBI didn't give any answer that shed light on the question. So there's a lot going on here. Potentially thousands of victims of a very serious crime by a man who was, you know, has immense connections to very powerful people and could frankly still be influencing our foreign policy one way or the other, whether it's in Russia, whether it's in Israel, we don't know. I'm not saying either of those things are true. But the credible allegation here. We talked on Monday night about how Vicki Ward said she had four sources on the record that said Epstein belonged to intelligence. You have a former U.S. attorney in Miami and labor secretary under Trump who said he was told to go easy on Epstein because he belonged to intelligence. These are not crazy people throwing this stuff out there. These are serious accusations. And when somebody that powerful is so many powerful connections potentially belongs to intelligence. What's the reason for that? Well, it's to control them. And I would commend to everybody my colleague Sagar and Jetty's conversation about this with Tucker Carlson on his podcast just in the last couple of days because I think they went through how this could be affecting our foreign policy very effectively. But it's not a crazy thing for people in the MAGA coalition who saw, as we talked about with Taibi earlier, how the FBI and the CIA weaponized their surveillance powers, how, for example, they didn't follow. They lied on a FISA application, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance act, which was something that came during the church, after the church committee as a reform that was not sufficient in this case to hold back the nefarious behavior of our intelligence community. That's why people in the MAGA coalition care about this issue. So I disagree with Ben that it's understandable that Trump's frustration here is understandable. I think he said openly that he would look into all of this and be transparent about all of this. And the people he appointed to these positions said that they would do the same. Pam Bondi in particular, he should be very upset with. So yeah, I think it's well worth keeping an eye on the story not merely for the palace intrigue and that it could very well be something that pulls the coalition more permanently apart, but because also it does matter to people. And it goes to this question of trust and character that you know of people who are, who are saying you can't trust anyone else. So trust me, you can't trust the Jeb Bush Republican Party and you can't trust the Hillary Clinton Democratic Party. So trust me, who are then engaged potentially in another cover up. So it's not an immediate kitchen table issue. I get that. I think Ben's right about that and I think it's an important point for people who are capital T, capital O to online like myself, to keep in mind. On the other hand, it's not also something people have zero concerns about. I saw someone post and forget who it was, that they don't have anybody, they don't know any like real person who's not, you know, super online who really cares about this issue. And I just don't think that's true. I don't believe that at all. Maybe you can comment and, and send emails as always. I'm emilyevilmaycaremedia.com emilyvilmaycare media.com I've, I think I've responded to almost every single one of your emails. I do read them, I do appreciate them. So if you disagree, let me know. But I think this is something that absolutely resonates in a time of just cratering institutional trust. It is not only a serious issue in and of itself, but it's also a symbol of this transpartisan untrustworthiness that you know, if you're, I'm not Gen Z, I'm a millennial. But if you're Gen Z and you grew up after 911 and you were born into the Great Recession era and then spit out into the Russiagate era and then spit out from that into the COVID era. My goodness, you just have grown up in a very different country than every generation before you. So that's why I think this, this resonates. And we'll keep talking about it here, of course. So make sure you're tuning in Mondays and Wednesdays. I I hate ending the Wednesday shows now because I know there are so many days until the next show. On Monday. We're here Mondays and Wednesdays live at 10pm we are so grateful to everybody in the audience. Make sure that you're subscribing. It helps a ton. And make sure you're ready to watch live at 10pm Mondays and Wednesdays. Thank you. And we will be back with more on Monday.
- [76:19]
Emily
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