Even If You Have Ebola!

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand – “Even If You Have Ebola!”

Episode Date: June 2, 2026 | Podcast Host: iHeartPodcasts

---

Episode Overview

This episode features a lively, fast-paced discussion focused on California’s gubernatorial primary, with an in-depth interview with Republican candidate Steve Hilton. The hosts dissect the dynamics of the race, the importance of voter turnout, and broader state policy issues. They also dive into national stories—most notably, a tense update on Middle East foreign policy involving Trump, Netanyahu, and Iran. Finally, the episode closes with juicy TV industry insider gossip about a reported revolt at CBS’s 60 Minutes.

---

Main Theme

The Crucial California Gubernatorial Primary & Voter Turnout

• The core focus is the importance of voting in California’s governor’s race and the real possibility of political change in a traditionally blue state.
• The hosts stress the potency of even small voter turnout, calling on listeners to vote “no matter what”—using the hyperbolic rallying cry, “Even If You Have Ebola,” to emphasize urgency and get-out-the-vote energy.
• The episode also touches on economic, business, and regulatory challenges facing California, as well as national and international hot-button issues.

---

Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Steve Hilton Interview: The Stakes in California

[01:30–09:31]

• Race Dynamics: Steve Hilton (former Fox News host, business entrepreneur) is interviewed as one of three leading candidates. A “top two” system means party doesn’t guarantee a slot; Republicans risk being shut out.
  • "A vote for anybody except me just helps the chances of two Democrats in the top two... It's actually a dangerous vote." — Steve Hilton [03:10]
• Energy for Change: Hilton claims 56% of Californians believe the state is heading in the wrong direction, suggesting “majority for change” could finally flip the state.
• Voter Turnout: Hosts urge, “If you have Ebola, show up and vote. Whatever it takes.” [04:13, 12:47]

Notable Quotes:

• “I'm fighting like I'm third. We need to believe that one and act like it because if we let this chance slip away, we are going to regret it so massively...” — Steve Hilton [02:22]
• “There's really only one vote that can guarantee that the chance of change is kept alive and that's a vote for Steve Hilton.” — [03:10]
• "If you're not one of those people, by God, if you have Ebola, show up and vote. Whatever it takes." — Host [04:13]

---

2. California Economy & Regulation

[04:45–09:11]

• Business Exodus: Discussion about businesses fleeing blue states like California for friendlier climates.
• Hilton outlines his economic recovery plan:
  • Cutting state costs and bureaucracy.
  • Lowering taxes (first $100,000 income tax-free).
  • Rolling back excessive business fees and vehicle registration charges.
  • Cutting regulatory bloat estimated at $745 billion/year.

Memorable Moment:

• “The total cost of bloated regulations in California on the economy, $745 billion a year. If we cut that out...we would overtake Germany and be the third biggest economy in the world.” — Hilton [06:18]

• Contrast with Opponents: Hilton labels Steyer a “billionaire climate fanatic” and Becerra “a career politician”—predicting higher gas prices and more stagnation under either.

---

3. The WiFi Bomb Joke Flight Incident

[16:13–19:47]

• Airline Threat: A United flight is turned around after a teen’s Bluetooth device named “the bomb” triggers security protocols mid-flight.
• Hosts debate whether the reaction was overblown or justified, with humorous takes on generational humor and intent vs. disruption.

Notable Quote:

• “Human beings used to understand that if the intent doesn’t equal the disruption, and it’s a child, you roll your eyes, you give them a good spanking—whether real or metaphorical. Let’s go to Spain.” — Host [19:19]

---

4. Trump-Netanyahu-Iran Tensions

[20:29–32:30]

• Trump’s Posturing: Coverage of President Trump’s reportedly “desperate” attempt to finalize a peace deal with Iran, including profane phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
• White House Leaks: Trump allegedly told Netanyahu, “You’re effing crazy and you’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.” [22:00–22:32]
• Strategic Analysis: Hosts argue Trump is being played by Iran, eager for legacy-defining deals, possibly at the cost of American and Israeli interests.
• Media Reactions: Noted how media narratives flip depending on whether the U.S. is perceived as too close or too harsh with Israeli partners.

Notable Quote:

• “I think brutal religious zealot negotiators are playing Trump… They don’t have a single effing intention of [honoring a deal]. God, I’ve been watching this for decades. Yikes.” — Host [26:46]

---

5. Media Industry Drama: 60 Minutes vs. Barry Weiss

[32:57–39:33]

• “Black Thursday” at CBS: Insider scoop on CBS’s internal struggles as new leadership (Barry Weiss and Nick Bilton) push to reform '60 Minutes.'
• Scott Pelley’s Revolt: The prominent anchor allegedly rants for 15 minutes against management and is told, “You’re not going to intimidate me...Enjoy the bagels.” The staff cheers for Pelley as the boss exits. [35:45–37:41]
• Discussion about resistance to change, the network news “ice cube melting” as digital media converges, and speculation about whether Pelley will keep his job.

Notable Quotes:

• “Scott Pelley has mistaken famous for important. Those are two different things.” — Host [37:03]
• “You have another meeting with him, and if he doesn’t come correct, you get rid of him. You fire him.” — Host [39:00]

---

Other Memorable Moments

• Voter Motivation Humor:
  “Political or bowel?”
  “Both, especially as you get older.” [10:16–10:17]
• Host on Young People’s Perspective:
  “Four years later when you’re 22 seems like, you know, you’ll be dead by then.” [10:40]
• Audience as Decision-Makers:
  “Can we put it to a vote of the passengers? ...Do we want to turn around or do we want to go to Spain?” [18:23]

---

Timestamps of Key Segments

• Steve Hilton Interview & California Primary: [01:30–09:31]
• California Business & Regulation Discussion: [04:49–09:11]
• Flight “Bomb” Joke Incident: [16:13–19:47]
• Trump–Netanyahu–Iran Drama: [20:29–32:30]
• 60 Minutes CBS Drama: [32:57–39:33]

---

Summary & Tone

The episode is packed with urgency, wit, news analysis, and grumpy-yet-hopeful energy. The hosts maintain their trademark irreverent, sharp tone throughout, weaving humor and sarcasm (“If you have Ebola, show up and vote”) into discussions of high-stakes political and industry drama. Both California’s election and the state’s future are presented as being at a genuine turning point, with the listener squarely in the crosshairs of history.

---

For anyone interested in California politics, media shakeups, or global power games, this episode is a must-listen for sharp analysis and plenty of memorable moments.

Transcript

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.

[B]

Yes you can.

[A]

A five minute quick and easy calorie burning workout.

[B]

Give it a try.

[A]

Come join our sweat sesh on TikTok. Turn someday into Right now with Buddy by Jake Radio. Non stop workout music and expert tips 24 7. Hey. Head over to iheart.com search body by Jake radio and stream it for free right now. Awesome health and wellness tips 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

[B]

Remember, stick to the fight when your hardest hit.

[A]

It's when things seem worse that you must not quit. Don't quit. Body by Jake Radio where hope meets momentum. Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free. Have a great day.

[B]

I Heart Radio. Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center.

[A]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[C]

Armstrong and Getty.

[A]

And now here's Armstrong. Wrong.

[B]

And yet.

[A]

In the governor's race, President Biden's former HHS secretary Javier Becerra has surged. Now considered neck and neck with Democrat Tom Steyer and former Fox News host Republican Steve Hilton. Now in the governor's race, the top two candidates will advance to November's general

[B]

election regardless of party.

[A]

So there could be two Democrats or Democrat and Republican.

[B]

There's only one man on planet earth that can stop Becerra or Stire from ending up being governor of California. And that is our guest today, Steve

[A]

Hilton, former host of the podcast California Rebel Base, former Fox News host and truth teller Steve Hilton joins us now. Steve, how you feeling?

[C]

Goodness me. So it's on me. It's all to save California. That's a lot, guys.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And a few million voters. Yes.

[B]

It's all on you. Well, how you feeling on election day?

[C]

I'm feeling good. I'm feeling confident. We feel that we are on track to get into the top two. Most of the polls and there's been a lot of them in the last week or so have shown me either leading or number two. That's good news. However, there was one poll that showed me third just slightly, just behind Becerra and sty. A very close race. And so I got to tell you and everyone listening, I'm fighting like I'm third. We need to believe that one and act like it because. Because if we let this chance slip away, we are going to regret it so massively because I really believe that this is the year we can stop the insanity and get our beautiful state back on track because people are done with these Democrats. You look at the energy in LA for Spencer Pratt, you see the energy in my events up and down the state. And here's a very important number just in a poll that came out at the end of last week, 56%. That's the proportion of Californians who think that we're going in the wrong direction. In other words, there is a majority now for change in California means we really can win in November. But it's only going to happen if you kept me in the top two. And so this is the very important point everybody listening has to understand. In California, today is the day to vote. A vote for anybody except me just helps the chances of two Democrats in the top two. And I'm specifically talking about the other Republican in the race, Chad Bianco. I know there are some Republicans out there who say, look, Steve looks like he's got this. He's leading in the polls. He'll be fine. He'll be in the top two. Let's give our vote to Chad so that maybe we can get two Republicans in the top. That cannot happen. He's too far behind. I'm sorry about that. It's not personal. It's nothing to do with anything that we can affect at this stage. It's just the math. It's not just a wasted vote. It's actually a dangerous vote because it could help get two Democrats in the top two and then we lose our chance of change. Please don't take that risk. I'm really asking every single person who cares about the future of California who wants change. There's really only one vote that can guarantee that the chance of change is kept alive and that's a vote for Steve Hilton. Do it today.

[A]

That's 100% true. But I don't want to skip over the more basic and important point that turnout is always small for these elections for primaries. And it's the activists in the one party fixography of California who will show up. Those who are milking taxpayers dry will show up. So if you're not one of those people, by God, if you have Ebola, show up and vote whatever it takes.

[C]

I know.

[B]

Wear a mask. Turn out.

[A]

Yeah, wear a mask. Just be, you know, please, finally we

[C]

can agree we should wear a mask.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. You know, Steve, it's funny. In my voracious preparation for the show today, I came across three articles right in a row about giant corporations and or giant incomes leaving blue states and crushing those states finances because they're so unfriendly to business and wealth creation, that sort of thing. Are you how people understand how successful business benefits, benefits them not government handouts, but what a vital economy.

[C]

Well, they generate the jobs, the wealth, the opportunity. If you don't have business, who's going to create the jobs? If you don't have jobs, who's going to pay the taxes? Everything depends on that. It really does. I've been a business. I've been in business most of my career. People know me from Fox, but I've worked in business all over the world. Most of my career in business. I've started companies of my own, including a couple of restaurants, a tech company here. That's what it's all about. And as you say, we're driving away the jobs and the opportunity. This is why we today in California we have the highest unemployment rate in America and the highest poverty rate in America, tied with Louisiana. And that's because Chief Executive magazine in their annual survey described that the ratings from actual business people, California, 50th out of 50 states. The business climate, it is an absolute disgrace what's been done. That's why it's really at the heart of my plan to turn things around in California. My mission is very simple. Cut your costs, help your business fix our schools. If we do that, we'll restore the California dream. Businesses will be coming back and tax revenue will increase even as I cut taxes. Because here's the other part. We've got to cut the bloat and the bureaucracy. We've got this insane, bloated nanny state bureaucracy in California that's built up over 16 years of one party rule bossing us around from morning till night telling us how to live, how to raise our kids, how to run our businesses, what car to drive, what can I have to live and how to cook our food. Enough. Leave us alone. You're crushing us with all of this. We did a calculation, we put it out last week. The total cost of bloated regulations in California on the economy, $745 billion a year. If we cut that out, and that's my plan, we would overtake Germany and be the third biggest economy in the world. The business going back, the jobs will be here.

[A]

I was just going to say the gas tax goes up again July 1, goes up another 2.2 cents tax increase.

[C]

You want immediate reasons to vote for me today? This is what we can get going very quickly. When I'm elected governor, we will. The gas tax is something that we can deal with because the cost of gas is not just a tax. It's all these regulations that are driving the industry to almost disruption in California. I can Open up oil and gas production in California through an agency called CalGEM. That'll start to get gas prices down. My target is $3 gas. We can cut the bloat in the budget. The governor sets the budget. Then cut taxes, your first hundred grand tax free. The best way we can put more money in your pocket is to stop taking so much out of it. Another example, getting rid of the small business tax, $800 a year, every business has to pay in California, even if you don't make any money, drives people crazy. Vehicle registration. We pay hundreds of dollars a year to register your car or your truck and maybe over 1000 for some people, even as high as 2000. In other states it's under 100 dol. My plan is to strip out all the nonsense. So we just do the basic registration fee, which is $71 per vehicle per year. These are all simple, positive, practical things we can get done. But you've got to go and vote for it today, otherwise it won't happen. Because with Steyer, the billionaire climate fanatic, you're going to get $9 gas. He's going to make everything worse. But Sarah, just the same, he's been a career politician in the Democrat machine for 36 years. He was asked the other day the Kamala Harris question on the View during the election. Oh, is there anything you'd do differently? Do you remember? She said nothing comes to mind. Same with Becerra. Do you remember that? It was answered the same question. This is seriously what he said. This was on cnn, Alex Michaelson, he said, the host said to Becerra, you know, things aren't great. We got the poverty, the homelessness, all the things I just mentioned. Is there anything that you'd have done differently to Gavin Newsom, who's been in power, the Democrats been in power all these years? Becerra says, well, you know, it can't be that bad because lots of people are still going to Disneyland.

[B]

Oh, my God, we gotta get that audio. That is something. Hey, I know, I know you've got to go. I want to put something on your radar really quick. Bill Maher, Friday night talking about how Mississippi's beating California with schooling. Texas is beating California with green energy. Those are great talking points. Anyway, have a great day. Good luck out there.

[A]

I'll go vote for you, Steve Hilton. Get out, buddy.

[C]

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Go get him.

[A]

Yep, you got it. It's got a chance. Got a chance. So you're saying there's a chance.

[B]

Yeah, chance to get in the top Two, definitely chance to actually become governor. I don't know.

[A]

Well, it will get so much attention. Oh, because he's a compelling character. His, his arguments are crystal clear and they're, they're right. He's, he is a very, very effective communicator. So, you know, is it a, you know, as they say, used to say in boxing, it's a puncher's chance. Right.

[B]

Well, one thing you learn by getting older is movements happen over time and you get all caught up in like an individual person and they.

[A]

Political or bowel?

[C]

Just.

[A]

I'm trying to clarify here. Both, especially as you get older. All right.

[B]

We're seeing some movement, I think maybe by next quarter.

[A]

Don't rush it, don't rush it.

[B]

Movements happen over time and you know, you fight this fight and he could lose. I hope he, I hope he ends up governor, but he could lose in a close race. But all those arguments have been had and he got a bunch of people stirred up and then maybe the next time around. And it's frustrating when you're young because, you know, four years later when you're 22, seems like, you know, you'll be dead by then. I know just because I have a couple of teenagers and the way they look at the world and time is so different than me.

[A]

But

[B]

it'll be interesting to find out California is still not miserable enough to try something new if that ends up being the case.

[A]

Right? Yep, you're absolutely right. So what a beautiful segue this is from our friends at SimpleLife. In the US there's a break in every 26 seconds. In California, that's probably every six seconds. That means somewhere right now an intruder is getting closer. And the problem with most security systems is they only alert you after the break in has already started, which is too late, obviously. That's why we both love Simplisafe so much. Using the outdoors camera series 2 and advanced AI alerts, SimpliSafe's you US based live agents. Hello. Identify threats in your property and help deter them. Stopping crime before it starts. Now that's peace of mind.

[B]

U. S Based live agents. How much do you love that? If you actually have a question. Wow. Simply safe. They earn your business every single day. No long term contracts. That means a lot.

[A]

And yet it costs less than the junky old security systems we all got used to with monitoring and deterrence plans. Starting around a dollar a day, everybody can enjoy the benefits of Simplisafe. Probably get a discount on your insurance too. Makes it so easy to set up. Get the same peace of mind we have right now. Get 50% off your new system. SimpliSafe.com Armstrong that's half [e-mail] Armstrong there's no safe like Simplisafe.

[B]

Trump yesterday said he really doesn't care if the whole peace talks thing breaks down. He's bored with the whole thing. He actually said that to a reporter, which is an interesting strategy. It's a message for Iran. I think it's an attempt to not look desperate. But anyway, we'll talk about Iran a little bit later. Have you heard the story about the plane that got turned around because of the teen and the name of his wi fi? Have you heard this story?

[C]

No.

[B]

Wow, that's a good one. Among other things. On the way. Stay here.

[A]

If you're not one of those people, by God, if you have Ebola, show up and vote. Whatever it takes.

[C]

I know.

[B]

Wear a mask about turnout.

[A]

Yeah, wear a mask. Just be, you know, please.

[C]

Finally we can agree we should wear a mask.

[A]

Armstrong and getty.

[B]

Armstrong and Getty here for hims, there are all kinds of great weight loss approaches that fit into your world out there. They've got them at hims with a wide range of affordable GLP1 options.

[A]

You've got weight loss goals, but hitting them is another story. Check out Weight Loss by hims. It's designed to support you in losing the weight and keeping it off. And Hims now offers access to an affordable range of FDA approved GLP1 medications, including the WeGovy pill, the WeGovi pen.

[B]

Through Hims, everything happens online. You'll connect with a licensed provider who will determine if treatment's right for you and then if prescribed, your medication is delivered right to your door. No insurance necessary.

[A]

Ready to reach your goals? Visit hims.comarmstrong to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you. That's H I M S.com Armstrong hims.com Armstrong Weight loss by hims is not available in all 50 states.

[B]

Wegovy is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk.

[A]

As to get started and learn more,

[B]

including important safety information, WeGovy clinical study

[A]

information and restrictions, visit HIMSS.com turn someday into right now with Buddy by Jake Radio Non stop workout music and expert tips 247 hey. Head over to iheart.com search body by jake radio and stream it for free right now. Awesome Health and wellness tips 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Remember, stick to the fight. When your hardest hit, it's when things seem worse that you must not quit. Don't quit. Body by Jake Radio where hope meets momentum. Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free. Have a great day.

[B]

Do you see any of the bombing in Ukraine from Russia overnight? And they're still bombing them. Might turn out to be the biggest attack since day one of the war anyway.

[A]

Many civilians dead.

[B]

One of the things they blew up was a Chinese electric car dealership. Just destroyed it. Now I wonder how China's gonna react to that. I gotta believe President Xi says, hey, yo. Because they're really trying to get that going. You know, they really are trying to make a foothold, you know, get a real strong foothold on being the dominant car maker in the world, let alone electric car maker in the world. And Russia just blew up their big dealership in Kiev.

[A]

I'd say it's a minor wedge between them because the whole attack on Ukraine's been really inconvenient for China. I want to talk more about the UKRA/Russia Russia situation. Putin's growing desperation. And one of the titles I proposed for the show was the Storm before the Storm. I ought to explain what the big storm I'm talking about is. So stay tuned for that later this hour.

[B]

We're going to beat the crap out of Scott Pelly and he deserves verbally,

[A]

verbally, you're going to beat the crap out of me.

[B]

And then I've got to lean back in the most pompous way possible and put my glasses in my mouth and look off into the sky.

[A]

Oh, my boy.

[B]

He's hard to take. And he was hard.

[A]

Flex a little bit under his sport coat.

[B]

Wait till you hear what he said to his bosses yesterday. This is an interesting story here that came out the stunning moment a United

[A]

flight from Newark to Spain turned around mid flight.

[C]

Someone decides to name their Bluetooth devices

[A]

are in four letter words.

[C]

So they're evacuating their craft.

[A]

That four letter word air traffic control was referencing was Bomb. This screenshot shows what passengers logging onto their own devices saw that device named bomb on their list. A passenger who saw this alerting the crew. Flight 236 departed Newark Airport around 6pm Saturday bound for Palma de Mallorca, Spain with 190 passengers and 12 crew on board.

[B]

So we're about to hear from the pilot and what he said over the. You can see the Grand Canyon that we'll hear the pilot here in just a second. But you know how you can name like your Wi Fi or your Bluetooth or whatever, right? My, my, my Wi Fi at Home is the bomb. So when I search for it, I never really thought about it. That was just a clever name for when I'm looking, searching, you know, if I, if I get a new TV and I gotta. And it shows me all the WI FI from all my neighbors, and then mine is the bomb. And I log into it. But this kid had named his Bluetooth the bomb. And the pilot said this.

[A]

We're gonna be returning back to Newark because we have one passenger that seems to be making a.

[C]

A funny joke that isn't so funny.

[A]

And it's all going to be compromising

[C]

the safety of this body. Federal agents will be coming on board

[A]

and they will be doing a search for the person and which is a very serious issue.

[B]

So, wow.

[A]

Here's my question. How long did it take the passengers to beat the young man to death? You're heading to Spain and they got to turn the plane around.

[B]

Well, like I said, my WI FI is named the bomb. So did this kid name his Bluetooth bomb knowing it would get picked up on the plane because he thought it would be clever, or is that just what he had named it? And so that's two things. And then I thought it was kind of interesting. You know, it's a joke. But you're still turning the plane around and doing this.

[A]

I mean, you just announced strongly it was a joke. But they, they got regulations.

[B]

Well, I'm sure they do have regulations, but. But to me, this would be one of those. Can we put it to a vote of the passengers? Look, we got a teenager who thought it'd be funny to name his Bluetooth thing the bomb. I don't have any reason to think there's actually a bomb. You look at the kid and it's some. You know, you can just picture the sort of teenager that would do this. Does he look like a terrorist? No. Do we want to turn around or do we want to go to Spain?

[A]

To Spain.

[B]

I would vote.

[A]

Bueno. Yeah, I'm thinking it must have been like a Bluetooth device. Yeah.

[B]

Because at least on one of my things you can rename it. You could have it be Apple headphones if you want. Which I just leave them named that so I know what that I'm talking about. Or you can change it to a name if you want.

[A]

Right? Yeah, I was just looking at that. Oh, man. You know, I can see from the perspective of a 15 year old why that would seem funny. Oh, Lord, son. Bad decision. But you know, human beings used to understand that if the intent doesn't equal the disruption. And it's a child, right? You roll your eyes, you give them a good spanking, whether real or metaphorical.

[B]

Let's go to Spain.

[A]

Well, you know what? I'll lift my sangria to that idea. Hey, kid. Kid. Seriously, what are you doing?

[B]

I thought it was funny.

[A]

All right, we're going to Spain.

[B]

Exactly. Any who right in the castanets.

[A]

Huh? What? No. No physical violence.

[B]

So Joe opened the show basically saying Trump is desperate for a deal with Iran. And is that what's going on? There is a fair amount of news yesterday around yelling at Netanyahu and dropping F bombs and telling Iran, I don't even care anymore. I'm bored with the whole thing.

[A]

Yeah, women and dealmakers can smell desperation, and I think I smell it.

[B]

Is that my problem? So we got details on that coming up.

[A]

Stay here.

[C]

Armstrong and Getty Here at the White

[B]

House, President Trump spent his time in

[A]

meetings, including calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Hezbollah.

[C]

Through intermediaries over the weekend, President Trump

[A]

says he's not hurry to reach a deal with Iran.

[B]

Earlier, he posted on True Social he

[A]

thinks the negotiations will continue at a rapid pace. And earlier, in an interview with CNBC News, the President did not sound as optimistic.

[C]

Here's what he said.

[A]

I don't care if they're over. Honestly, I couldn't care less.

[B]

And added that protracted negotiations have started

[A]

to get very boring.

[B]

So that's an interesting thing for the President to say. Was that designed to try to convince the Iranian leadership, whoever's making the decisions, that he's not desperate? Look, I don't even care.

[A]

This is dragging on too long.

[B]

I'm bored with the whole thing. I don't even care.

[A]

I don't take it at his word. It's posturing, I think.

[B]

But does anybody feel a threat from him at this point? I doubt it. I'd be shocked if he, like, really, really, you know, started bombing him again. Anyway, apparently Trump was pretty angry that Netanyahu was continuing to attack Hezbollah because he thinks it's throwing off the whole US Ending the war with Iran thing. And he was on the phone with Netanyahu yesterday. And here's a little reporting from msnbc, actually quoting Axios on this story. Axios has some new reporting on that

[A]

call between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. The President reportedly lashing out at Netanyahu during expletive laden conversation. That's according to U.S. officials and a third source briefed on the call. According to one US Official, Trump Told Netanyahu he was effing crazy and that the Prime Minister would be in prison if it were not for Trump. Likely referring to the Israeli leader's years

[B]

long corruption trial, the president adding, quote,

[A]

everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this. That's the President of the United States.

[B]

You're effing crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this. What the f are you doing? He said now. I thought it was interesting. Mark Halperin's reporting was this is like the fifth president because Netanyahu has been prime minister a few times and longer than anybody in Israeli history. So he's worked with, I think four or five presidents and, and they've all ended up up frustrated by Bibi Netanyahu and cussing at him, all of them. So the unique thing here is that somebody leaked out the private phone call, not that somebody was cussing at BB Netanyahu because Trump did. I mean, Biden did it and Obama did it and Bush did it. I think maybe even Clinton did it.

[A]

I wish I knew more about the context of when they did it because I agree with what you're saying about the leaking. I feel like that's a different topic. But all of those presidents contributed to what led to October 3rd. And that is the idea that you could. 7th. Sorry, 23. I knew that was wrong when I said I was like, wait a minute, one of those. Anyway, October 7th, the idea that you can negotiate with Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and, and get them to be good actors if you, you know, cut the right deal, they're completely wrong. And I think Bibi knew that at the time. But putting that aside, I happen to agree with, for instance, the. Well, the Wall Street Journal's news piece on this is entitled Trump Pushes to End Lebanon Conflict in Hope of Unlocking a Deal with Iran. Their editorial board's headline is Iran Gets Trump to Rescue Hezbollah. And I happen to agree with that. I think Trump, Trump is willing to subordinate anything to his personal interest, his ego and his desired reputation as the greatest dealmaker who's ever lived. He's willing to subordinate Israel in a second to getting what he sees as the big win or avoiding the big loss in a way that I think is really, really unhealthy. Bibi has become completely convinced that there is no living with Hezbollah and Hamas and Iran. They made that clear on October 7th when they were pretending for years, saying publicly, look, we've given up the terrorism game. We just want to govern. We just want to bring peace to the territories. We're nice fellows. Then, the moment they saw the opportunity, they slaughtered, raped, tortured, burned and took thousands of Israelis hostage. And Bibi and the Israeli people said, nope, that's over. We're going to beat you now. And anything that gets in the way of that beating, I am against.

[B]

So Trump watches a lot of Morning Joe msnbc, so he knows that a constant refrain on MSNBC is, Bibi, Netanyahu runs a corrupt government, and the moment he leaves office, he's going to be charged with all kinds of things and he's probably going to end up in prison. So that's on Trump's mind because they talk about that weekly on msnbc. How true that is, I don't know, because I don't follow internal Israeli politics, but it certainly could be. So that's what Trump was talking about. You'd be in jail. I saved your ass, et cetera, et cetera, by, by getting you reelected, campaigning for you, basically. But what's interesting is the media, the same media that loved the story whenever that was, a month or so ago that Netanyahu came to the United States, told Trump what to do, that he wanted Trump to go to war against Iran, and Trump did it. We're dancing to Israel's tune. We are a puppet of Israel and the Jews, which fed the left and the right wing, anti Israel people and everything like that. That same crowd last night, I was watching, it was saying, and this is the way Trump talks to an ally. So, okay, you're not happy. No matter what happens, either you're dancing to his tune or you're not being nice enough to him. Which is it?

[A]

Yeah, that's an excellent, excellent point. Iran, you know, they are the living proof of, you know, sung to and other military geniuses saying, you must never, ever underestimate your enemy, if anything overestimate him. And I don't think Trump and I could be wrong. There could be stuff going on behind the scenes that it completely blows what I'm about to say out of the water. And if it does, I will manfully come to you good people and admit it. I think brutal religious zealot negotiators are playing Trump. They're playing Trump against Netanyahu. They're trying to rescue their, their surrogate, their proxy, Hezbollah, by saying, look, Donald, we would rush to the table and settle this whole nuke thing. If only that mean BB would stop beating up on Hezbollah. Please make him stop. And then we'll make a deal with you and they don't have a single effing intention of doing that. God, I've been watching this for decades. Yikes.

[B]

Uh, I'll bet Trump hasn't is part of it has not been following like the Palestinian conflict and all that over the many, many years. What about people who say Iran's going to come out of this in a stronger position than when the war started? That doesn't make any sense to me. But I hear people saying it all the time.

[A]

Yeah, you know, no, it's a bad argument. They have the shred of truth in it in that the Iran's realized, wow, we really can control the Strait of Hormuz and screw with the world economy.

[B]

That was always true.

[A]

Make them stronger.

[B]

That was always tr. Just didn't know it apparently or didn't dare do it.

[A]

And it was different leadership at the time. But no, they're not stronger. Quote unquote. They can't project any power. They can barely defend themselves. It's ridiculous. More on that in a moment after a word from our friends at Ruff Greens. Closer to home. Your beloved pup Jack had a funny idea for a movie. A little while ago.

[B]

On your way home with your new baby, you stop and get a puppy.

[A]

Puppy, right. Kill me. Kill me anyway. But we all know the, the joy and love and everything of having a puppy and a dog. And you, you want them to be healthy. You want them to live longer. Most dog owners don't realize that the dog food is not really enough for your dog's health and nutrition. That's where rough greens comes in. It's America's number one dog supplement. You sprinkle right on their food.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Did we already say made in the usa? Because that's really, really cool. For pennies a day, you can give your dog what their food is missing. Live probiotics, products, enzymes. You gotta have the enzymes. Omega oils, plus over 20 vitamins and minerals and it ain't gonna cost you nothing except for the shipping to try it. Get a free jump start trial bag today. You just cover shipping. Go to roughgreens.com and use the discount code. Armstrong.

[A]

Yeah, it's R u f f greens.com isn't that charming? Rough greens.com discount code armstrong. Rough greens, they make any dog food better for what it's worth. And I think most of you know this. I, Joe, am not Trump deranged at all. When he's right, he's right. When he's wrong, he's wrong. I hope, hope I'm wrong, but I feel like he's getting played.

[B]

I don't know why he doesn't go back to bombing. What's the main thing keeping him from bombing the crap out of him.

[A]

He's desperate to open the straits and get the world economy humming again and gas prices to drop in the US and if we were to restart the kinetic effort to bring Iran to heel, that would postpone that.

[B]

So perhaps for months back when he said, you know, we're gonna wipe off civilization off the face of the earth and all that sort of stuff. And I never believe, believed that he meant that. But was he never ever going to start bombing him really hard again? Was that never really on the table? I don't know.

[A]

I just think his, the number one legacy he wants to leave behind is that he's the greatest deal maker to ever walk the planet. Well, and he sees a giant opportunity.

[B]

Like I said yesterday, I do think this is true. We'll find out. I think what he's got going for him is I don't think people pay much attention to this and we have short memories so he could walk away from this. And you know, to my mind, why did we do it? Wasn't a very good, we didn't make a very good deal, blah, blah, blah. But nobody's going to care. Nobody's going to pay any attention. I don't think he's going to get hurt by that in the polls really. They'll try to make a big deal out of it, but most people don't care. They, they, most people, the average person would think it's over, cool, good. Not care about the result at all. That's not good. I don't like that you should care about the result or whether they get a nuclear weapon, but I don't think most people care.

[A]

Meanwhile, if the IRGC leadership was listening, they would be texting right now saying, fellas, we've manipulated every US president since we took power in 1979 and we're manipulating this one. And guess what? We're going to manipulate the next one.

[C]

Ha ha.

[B]

Well, they're gonna get a nuke then. That is gonna be a big moment.

[A]

I truly thought Donald Jay was finally the president who was going to do something about it. Well, remember, really something.

[B]

After the epic fury began, George Will in the Washington Post, who couldn't hate Trump more, said the return of American deterrence. He was so happy that we'd let the world know. No more pushing us around. I'm not sure that's the way the world's gonna feel if we walk away from this.

[A]

Yeah. The next two weeks to me will be. What's the term they use in fancy pants circles? It will be declarative, definitive. Something like that.

[B]

Big effing deal.

[A]

Yes, that's what I was going for. Because if two weeks from now we're having the same conversation, that's, I think, everything you need to know.

[B]

So Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes yelled at his new bosses yesterday. Like really yelled at him. Got in their faces. See what you think of that.

[A]

He accused Barry Weiss of trying to kill 60 Minutes. Not at all. Flamboyantly, overly dramatic and flappingly stupid. Shut up, you idiot.

[B]

Yeah, it helps to get paid whatever he gets paid $20 million a year to get in your boss's face. But get that and other stuff on the way.

[A]

Stay here, Armstrong, and get. According to reports, Graham Platner, the main Senate candidate with a Nazi tattoo, exchanged sexual texts with several women while he was married. Worse, he met them on the app. Ok, Hitler.

[B]

Oh my God. That's funny. I love his listening. Dang it. That's a good joke. You should listen to the show. It's good sometimes.

[A]

Yeah, I was asking Siri a question for this segment.

[B]

But anyway, so people in the media love.

[A]

I want to be in on it.

[B]

People in the media love media stories. So I hope this is as interesting to you as it is to us. But they had quite the meeting at CBS Yesterday, particularly around 60 minutes with their biggest star. And I'm the only one on this show, I guess, that still believes 60 Minutes is a big deal, an important piece of media landscape, and I'll be sad to see it go. I think it's. I think it's important. But Barry Weiss. So she left the New York Times because it was too woke and she couldn't work there anymore. And then she started her own thing and made a gazillion dollars, then got hired at CBS as the news editor in chief and has been doing all kinds of stuff over there, including taking on 60 Minutes, which had gotten too far from its original purpose with some ridiculously woke stories over the years that included specifically, oftentimes Scott Pelley, who features in the story. He's one of the lead journalists and has always been really hard to take. He's so freaking pompous. Anyway, so in addition to the fact that Barry Weiss is the overall boss, the specific boss of 60 Minutes is this new guy, 49 year old tech journalist named Nick Biltman. So they knew that this was Going to be contentious. Their first big meeting with the new boss before they had reached out to Scott Pelley over the weekend and. And. And tried to smooth things out before the meeting was even going to occur to avoid the kind of catastrophe that ended up having yesterday. Nate reached out to Scott Pelley and say, you're a very valued part of this. We respect your passion and commitment to the show. You know, you're part of the plan going forward. We're on board. But Pelly was apparently loaded for bear. And as soon as they sat down, he launched into Bilton and Weiss being unqualified and all this different sort of stuff. I like that after a 15 minute, 15 minutes is a long time heated back and forth between the boss Bilton and Scott Pelley built. Stands up and says, enjoy the bagels. Got up and left the room.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Oh, first he said, and I love this line. He said, you're not going to intimidate me in front of this group of people. I want that to be clear. He said to Scott Pelley. And then Pelly goes on and on and on about him being unqualified in this and that. And he got up and said, enjoy the bagels and walked out. So that's how that ended yesterday. That's a hot meeting right there.

[A]

Wow. I wish we had more time. We have so much good stuff. So Bilton really did a nice introduction to me about the. The journalism is the key, but the old style of TV is going away and we need to make sure we're relevant. Bl blah blah. And broadcast is an ice cube that is melting. Okay. He said, saying that the show had to adopt. Barry loves 60 Minutes. She loves it. At that point, Pelly jumped in. She is murdering 60 Minutes. He said it's his opening line. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and she's been doing exactly that. She has no qualifications for her job. You have slender qualifications for the job. The changes she's made at the Evening News have been catastrophic. So why should we expect any of this is going to get better?

[B]

I don't know this big Nick Bilton's guy background, but saying Barry Weiss has no qualifications in the modern media landscape is hilarious. She might be the most qualified person on planet earth to understand the current media landscape.

[A]

Yeah, Scott Pelley has mistaken famous for important. Those are two different things.

[B]

And he's enlightenment in the past.

[A]

Yes. Oh, absolutely true. And resistant to change. Extremely comfortable and very, very rich. Which might make any of somewhat belligerent when big change Came.

[B]

Oh, I left out one part that's very, very important when he. So the boss stands up and says, enjoy the bagels, and walks out after saying, you're not going to intimidate me. Crowd erupts in cheers for Pelly having driven him out of the room. And he could hear it after he shut the door. Wow.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So that's what they're dealing with, I imagine they said, I would imagine he's a big enough guy, him and Barry, to not be butthurt over this about the personalities. They're just saying, thinking, okay, how are we going to handle this? Because we got a serious revolt on our hands.

[A]

Right. Well, what we didn't mention, part of the reason Pelly was so. But hurt was that CBS had fired Tanya Simon, the previous executive producer and her deputy, along with Sharon Alfonsi was insufferable and Cecilia Vega, an event that Mr. Pelly referred to as Black Thursday.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Black Thursday. Yeah, we don't really have time for this. We've got some great audio of Scott Pelley interviewing serial liar, former acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, who was right in the middle of the Russia collusion hoax thing, and then doing an extra interview about how incredibly credible Andrew McCabe is and how he must be taken very seriously. And Donald Trump is clearly a Russian agent. He was so careful, McCabe, about what he said, blah, blah, blah.

[B]

So your guess as a guy in the media, does Scott Pelly keep his job or do they decide we can't obviously move forward with him there. He can't be lecturing us in the crowd cheering. We got to move on.

[A]

You give it 48 hours, let everybody cool off. You have another meeting with him, and if he doesn't come correct, you get rid of him. You fire him. Clean house. The ice cube is melting. With all due respect to your affection for 60 Minutes, which is still an excellent news program and I enjoy it most days, most weeks, the ice cube is melting.

[B]

Well, I'm not denying I'm in. I mean, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm in this business also, and I've noticed. I've noticed the changes. Yes. No, the ice cube is clearly milky. I'm melting. I'm not denying that.

[A]

So make it a big move to change. I think it would be fine. It'd be fine.

[B]

Yeah. And cheaper, which is always important. We're going to talk to Lon He Chen about politics on this election day, among other things in our three Armstrong and Gettysburg.