D.E.I. Ain't It Great?

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand — "D.E.I. Ain't It Great?"
October 30, 2025 – iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This Armstrong & Getty episode jumps from the global political landscape and AI's influence on markets and society, to a deep-dive into the latest “ban books” debates, and a thorough roast of a new political memoir. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty maintain their signature satirical, candid, and occasionally acerbic tone, using current headlines as fuel for wider cultural commentary, especially focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and its role (and shortcomings) in contemporary American institutions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Hot Takes on Global Politics and Economics

• Tariffs & U.S.-Asia Policy:

  • The show opens riffing on President Trump’s meeting with South Korea and China’s President Xi. The hosts mock Trump’s exuberant self-assessment of the meeting ("I would say the meeting was at 12" [01:10]), noting how such rhetoric outpaces reality and highlighting global uncertainty with tariffs and economic threats.
  • Quote:
    “On a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 12. …That’s like turning your answer to 11.” – Joe Getty [01:18]

• AI-Dominated Markets:

  • The team breaks down recent surges in the stock market, attributing much of the growth to the so-called "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks (Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Meta/Google).
  • They discuss the risk of a bubble and the difficulty in predicting a burst.
  • Quote:
    “The best way to make money in markets is to spot a bubble early, hop on board as it inflates, and then get out in time.” – Joe Getty, citing Bloomberg [04:24]
  • Quote:
    “No, that’s the problem. That last part.” – Jack Armstrong, on market timing [04:40]
  • Jack expresses deep unease:
    “It feels so bubbly to me and… I’m gonna kick the hell out of myself that I didn’t listen to my own good judgment.” [06:27]

2. AI's Societal Dilemmas: Ethics & Tragedy

• ChatGPT Lawsuit & AI Suicide Risks:
  • A lawsuit alleges a teen’s suicide was facilitated by a chatbot, prompting a wide-ranging discussion about AI’s potential dangers when interacting with vulnerable individuals.
  • Quote:
    “ChatGPT says more than a million people a week show suicidal ideation on their site.” – Joe Getty [07:43]
  • The hosts condemn AI responses that might aid self-harm.
  • Quote:
    “Come on, ChatGPT, do better. …If I say I’m really depressed… and I think I want to kill myself—Terrific! Great idea. Here’s how to get a rope… No, don’t program it to do that.” – Jack Armstrong [09:03]
• AI as a Tool vs. Threat:
  • Joe discusses using AI daily and notes the Nvidia CEO’s belief:
    “People aren’t going to lose their jobs to AI. They’re going to lose their jobs to people who don’t know how to use AI.” [13:42]

3. Book Banning & the Culture Wars

• Detailed critique of PEN America’s book banning statistics, highlighting inflated and misleading definitions.
  • Quote:
    “Age appropriateness is not a ban.” – Jack Armstrong [17:37]
  • The team emphasizes how access restrictions for age-appropriateness are misrepresented as full bans, drawing a satirical comparison with Nazi book burning.
  • Quote:
    “This is not exactly Nazi book burning here, folks. Phony.” – Joe Getty [18:09]
• Reference to how most “banned” books are still available for purchase online, challenging the narrative of widespread censorship.

4. Sports as Shared Culture

• World Series & Social Fabric:
  • Joe and Jack profess their enjoyment of the World Series and reflect on how sports fosters rare, positive shared experiences, contrasting with contemporary social division.
  • Quote:
    “The first shared experience I’ve had with random people in I don’t know how long.” – Joe Getty [19:14]
  • They highlight pitcher Trey Yesavage’s unlikely ascension as a feel-good story of talent and resilience.
    • Quote:
      “He walked the first two batters… Coach jogs out, and before he could say anything, Yesavage said, ‘I know, I know, I’m good.’” – Jack Armstrong [31:33]
  • Comparison to Joe Montana’s famous Super Bowl anecdote for poise under pressure [34:46].

5. Political Memoirs: A Roast of KJP’s "Independent"

• A withering segment on Karine Jean-Pierre’s new book and disastrous press tour.
  • Quote:
    “Unless the title of the book was ‘I Was Awful at My Job,’ it’s misleading.” – Jack Armstrong [20:50]
• The hosts lampoon Jean-Pierre’s evasiveness and word-salad responses, especially her claim that her subtitle “A Look Inside a Broken White House” referred to the Trump administration, not her own time serving Biden.
  • Quote:
    “You write a book that says ‘A look inside a broken White House’… and then say, ‘Oh, I’m talking about the Trump White House.’ What?” – Joe Getty [21:53]
  • Gayle King’s incredulous interview is recounted, with KJP’s famous evasion:
    “With age comes what happens when you get older.” – KJP, read by Jack Armstrong [28:28]
  • The hosts speculate on the role of DEI/identity in her hiring—and firing:
    Quote:
    “Admiral Kirby’s really capable at his job. You are not… Not everything is identity politics.” – Joe Getty [27:04]
• General consensus: the press tour is a masterclass in self-contradiction and poor communications—the very things KJP was hired to combat.

6. Society, DEI, and ‘Upper-Class Twits’

• The episode closes with a Matt Taibbi quote, reflecting on how modern DEI narratives and “over-educated kids talking like Marxists” reflect the disconnect of elite activism.
  • Quote:
    “We’re in the upper class twits promoting revolution space. A script with which most of the rest of the world is sadly familiar.” – Matt Taibbi, quoted by Joe Getty [36:03]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• “On a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 12.” – Trump (read by Joe Getty) [01:18]
• “No, that’s the problem. That last part.” – Jack Armstrong, re: market timing [04:40]
• “If I… had taken every cent we had and… put it into those seven stocks… that’s just unbelievable.” – Joe Getty [03:54]
• “ChatGPT says more than a million people a week show suicidal ideation on their site.” – Joe Getty [07:43]
• “Terrific! Great idea. Here’s how to get a rope…” – Jack Armstrong, lampooning poorly programmed AI responses [09:17]
• “Age appropriateness is not a ban.” – Jack Armstrong [17:37]
• “This is not exactly Nazi book burning here, folks.” – Joe Getty [18:09]
• “The first shared experience I’ve had with random people in I don’t know how long.” – Joe Getty [19:14]
• “Unless the title of the book was ‘I Was Awful at My Job,’ it’s misleading.” – Jack Armstrong [20:50]
• “You were the press secretary for a former administration… and then when asked, you claim you’re talking about the Trump White House. What?” – Joe Getty [21:53]
• “With age comes what happens when you get older.” – KJP, ridiculed by Jack Armstrong [28:28]
• “Admiral Kirby’s really capable at his job. You are not… That’s where the analysis begins and ends.” – Joe Getty [27:04]
• “We’re in the upper class twits promoting revolution space. A script with which most of the rest of the world is sadly familiar.” – Matt Taibbi, quoted [36:03]

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Timestamps: Segment Highlights

• 00:36 – Show opens, global politics and tariffs
• 01:42 – Trump/Xi meeting and economic fallout
• 02:37 – AI and "Magnificent Seven" stocks discussion
• 07:12 – Lawsuit: ChatGPT’s role in suicide tragedy
• 13:42 – Nvidia CEO on AI, jobs, and market advice
• 15:32 – PEN America and book bans, definition critique
• 18:41 – Sports as a community bond (World Series)
• 20:39 – Political memoir madness: KJP’s book eviscerated
• 27:04 – The DEI debate, identity politics vs. competence
• 36:03 – Matt Taibbi on “upper class twits”

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Tone & Style

Armstrong and Getty maintain a sardonic, conversational approach, blending quick-witted satire and skepticism—especially when confronting platitudes from politicians, institutions, or corporate narratives around DEI. Their humor is often biting, balancing exasperation and levity, and the pair utilizes personal anecdotes to ground broader societal debates.

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Conclusion

Listeners get a tour of modern American anxieties—AI’s power and peril, cultural fragmentation, confusion over book bans, and rolling their eyes at DEI platitudes. With pointed humor and skepticism, Armstrong and Getty ask their audience to “put some pants on”—metaphorically demanding a return to substance and sanity in public life. This episode is especially memorable for its takedown of KJP’s memoir and its unflinching look at the strange shape of contemporary discourse.

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Transcript

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[Joe Getty]

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[Joe Getty]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center.

[Jack Armstrong]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Gettysburg.

[Joe Getty]

Korean President Lee Jae Myung hosted President.

[Jack Armstrong]

Trump today for lunch, which included seafood salad tossed in, Thousand island dressing, and long story short, now there's a 400% tariff on Korea. The is this.

[Joe Getty]

So Trump met with President Xi for two hours. How did it go? Here's his assessment. I guess on the scale of from 0 to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was at 12. There you go. I think it was a 12. That's like given 110. It's a, it's, it's a fanciful number beyond even what the top limit was for assessment. It's like turning your answer to 11. Yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right with you.

[Joe Getty]

On a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 12. Well, we will see where the tariffs end up. It's, they kind of put a, a pause on the hundred percent tariffs that were supposed to kick in on Saturday, which obviously would have roiled the world of economy in a way that you can't even imagine and were never intended to actually happen. And they're, they're gonna work out the details later and we'll discuss that whenever it happens. There's so many things going on in the world right now, as you know, that it's just, it's mind boggling if, whether it's the tariffs or the rise of China or Russian, Ukraine, global economy, AI. Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Mandani socialism, Marxism, Islamism.

[Joe Getty]

So Zuckerberg got beat up pretty good the other day by stockholders, I guess that we're not seeing the payoff on all this AI investment. And so he gave a big speech trying to convince them to calm down and it will pay off. Bloomberg, the business website, had an article out today saying AI is all that matters. Now for all the headlines today about the Fed and interest rates and all that sort of stuff, the Only thing that really matters is AI. It's either going to pay off the way people think it's going to or it's not. And it gets into the details on that. This is absolutely amazing with Nvidia becoming the first 5 trillion dollar company. Tesla getting close to an all time high. So the magnificent seven are your seven tech stocks. That's Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook.

[Jack Armstrong]

Google, Meta.

[Joe Getty]

Google. Yeah, that pretty much covers it. Those seven stocks are the main reason we set records on a near daily basis in the stock market. They're up 27% this year. That's a good return for a year. That's after jumping 67% last year.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

If I or you, if I or you or anybody had taken every cent we had and like taken a, taken money out of our house and sold plasma or done whatever we could have done to get more money into those seven stocks, they, they went up 67 and 24 and 27 so far this year. I mean that's just unbelievable. And it's either a bubble or it's not. The vast majority of people think it is a bubble, according to Bloomberg, but that's not a reason to get out. As they quote some genius. The best way to make money in Marcus is to spot a bubble early, hop on board as it inflates, and then get out in time. Well, of course that's about.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, that's the problem.

[Joe Getty]

That last part.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, oh, oh. Do you hear that? Oh my God.

[Joe Getty]

But if you want to be bearish, then you must have a good reason why the bubble is about to burst. And I'm not seeing any good reason for the bubble to burst yet. Yeah, here's, here's my experience and I'm no expert, but generally you don't see the reason for the bubble to burst ahead of time. In retrospect, you think, oh, that's why. Should have seen that coming.

[Jack Armstrong]

Or the explanation that you hear in advance is one of seven that are vying for acceptance, you know, in, in society. So yeah, I did hear that guy saying that. But there are a bunch of other guys saying the opposite. Not to mention to further complicate it, it might be a bubble for hair. Half of those companies and the other companies bring it home.

[Joe Getty]

So isn't so Bloomberg? It's pretty expensive to subscribe to it. It's like $40 a month to get access to their information and it's all written in economic ease. That makes me think they believe their audience is pretty well educated and pretty serious about this sort of stuff. Okay, then isn't that a pretty childish explanation of investing? The best way to make money is to recognize a bubble, get in early and then get out right before it bursts. Seems like the sort of thing you say to someone like me, not to someone who's like an expert investor to.

[Jack Armstrong]

Win at poker, get really, really good hands and bet a lot of money. Yeah, yeah, I know, you're right.

[Joe Getty]

So, I mean, if it's up 27% this year after going up 67% this year, seems like a lot of smart people would have thought, well, this is now it's the time to get up. I mean, we had a two thirds rise in this stock this year last year. Let's get out now. You know, missed out on that 27% rise.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, I know this, this, I hate this discussion. It makes me so uncomfortable because I just, I've got this bad feeling that I ought to just convert everything into gold, bury it in the backyard or cash or I don't know, something wampum trade with the Indian side. Just. It feels so bubbly to me and, and I'm gonna kick the hell out of myself that I didn't listen to my own good judgment.

[Joe Getty]

Well, I, you know, if we're gonna play the what if? I, I wish I would have diverse, diversify because that's what all the experts tell me to do for long term brilliance. I wish I'd have taken everything and put it into the big seven two years ago when it, it had doubled the year before.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

And you know, rode that wave. I'd be in a much different position. Oh well, whatever. You can't do that. Different AI story, which I thought was interesting. Chat GPT is being sued by the appearance of this kid who killed himself. The 16 year old kid who killed himself, who they say, going back and looking at his conversations with the Chat GBT bot. The Chat GPT bot explained to the kid how to kill himself, why he should kill himself, and how to write the suicide note.

[Jack Armstrong]

It came around to his way of thinking way too quickly.

[Joe Getty]

Chat GPT says more than a million people a week show suicidal ideation on their site. Ideation being explicit indicators of the potential planning or intent of suicide. Like you're, you're more than just contemplating, which I was told by a college professor is completely normal for, for all human beings to contemplate it. Occasionally the actually coming up with a plan and a timeline is a step further. Chat GPT says a million people a week are indicating they're doing that. Now that might Be part of their trying not to be sued to death.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's clearly defense.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is a society not in us problem.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, might be true also.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

And then what are these AI companies supposed to do with that? If there's just a. Lots and lots of people are gonna go on Grok or Claude or Chat GPT or whatever and say, you know, life sucks. I want to kill myself. And Grok is going to say, good idea. Here's the local salt locust. Local. It's like the Norm MacDonald joke. Here's the rope store, and right next is the creaky stool store. It's just down the street.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, right. But, you know, if. If I. My buddy comes and says, I'm thinking angan ending it all. And I say, you know, I got a good sturdy rope in the back of the garage here. Let me. Give me a second. I'll find it.

[Joe Getty]

I can't.

[Jack Armstrong]

As a defense, say, lots of people have suicidal ideation. I mean, come on, Chatgpt, do better. I know you're. You've designed yourself to kiss my ass. Like, great question.

[Joe Getty]

Perfect.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'll tell you. Great follow up. Okay, I know that's part of your thing. You're trying to appeal, but if I say I'm really depressed, I don't have a lot of fri. I have no friends, and I think I want to kill myself. Terrific. Great idea. Here's how to get a rope, you know, no, don't program it to do that. There are a few keywords involved, although those can be gotten around, too, I realize.

[Joe Getty]

But it's like when I was asking Grok questions about theology and the Bible and God and stuff the other day, and then I asked Grok, I said, do you believe in God? And she said, oh, yeah, there's got to be something more to life than just what we see here. And I thought there's no way you would say that if I was asking you questions about Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins and atheism.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, right. Yeah. You don't have any beliefs in anything. You're a collection of circuits. Of course, so's the human brain. Jack, I'm Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, but we don't. We are a collection of circuits and all that sort of stuff, and we want friends to like us. But if our friend comes to us and says, I'm thinking of killing myself, we don't say, I got a gun upstairs. Hold on a second.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, Exactly. No, we. Our algorithm says, oh, that's out of the effing Question. Or if our, if your friend says, hey, you know, I'm really turned on by like young girls. I mean, like really, really young girls. Let's talk about that. You would say, no, you're sick. We're not friends anymore.

[Joe Getty]

Grok would say, here are the directions to the grade school.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Or something similar. Or engage in one of those quasi erotic chat sessions that are now. Who, who was Elon Musk? Oh, that's right. There are a couple of different big companies including chat GPT, that are. Or OpenAI, I should say, that are now like, hey, everybody wants these damn erotic chatbot things with, you know, semi to full on porn pictures generated. So I'm in that business now.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. We didn't need more Internet pornography for society.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, no. You know, it's funny, for some reason it clicked in my head that in the early days, especially the very, very early days, Christianity was a very small sect. And then it grew and it grew and it grew to being a enormously important religion around the world. Still is. It could go back to being something like a fairly, you know, small sect of people who reject the sin of the world and live a very, very different life than the masses of people.

[Joe Getty]

Speaking of that, I've been reading Charles Murray's new book, Taking Religion Seriously. It is fantastic. If you, if you're the sort of person that like. Well, this is what he said. He said it's for the intellectual that feels weird about believing in religion because he's an intellectual. And he went off to Harvard and he said, I was taught very early that smart people don't believe this stuff. And I never really looked back. But then he decided, in his 50s, he, he wanted to take a closer look at it. And the amount of research he's done on a whole bunch of different topics around God and Christianity, it's freaking fascinating. And it's a, it's a four hour listen. I'm listening to the book, so it's very accessible. It's not thick theology, but if you like that sort of thing, it's among the best I've ever come across. Charles Murray's. Charles Murray's a heck of an interesting dude. Anyway, back to the. Before we take a break. So you got the stocks rising the way they are all around AI, yet you've got this problem of AI encouraging people to kill themselves or whatever. Is that a fixable thing? I don't know. I mean, maybe the bubble bursts around. We can't fix hallucinations, we can't fix it. Giving bad advice. There's just no way around this. Maybe that's where the bubble bursts. I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, it's already a really great tool. Profitable one.

[Joe Getty]

I use it every day.

[Jack Armstrong]

Pouring money into it like it's going to be the world changer of all time. Way out of proportion to the quality of the product at this point or the significance of the product.

[Joe Getty]

The Nvidia CEO wears the cool Tom Ford leather jackets all the time. He said the other day, people aren't going to lose their jobs to AI. They're going to lose their jobs to people who don't know how to use AI. Now, of course, he's got a, you know, a real stake in the game, but his suggestion was, you know, get involved. Start messing with this stuff and learning it and how you can apply it in your job. Don't think I ain't getting on that train. That's how you end up losing your job. That's what he says. We got a lot more on the way. Stay here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

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[Joe Getty]

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[Joe Getty]

Get this.

[Jack Armstrong]

A woman is suing SeaWorld for $50,000, claiming she was on one of their roller coasters and a duck hit her in the face. And for everyone else, it was the most entertaining thing they saw at SeaWorld.

[Joe Getty]

Aw.

[Jack Armstrong]

Why the shot at SeaWorld?

[Joe Getty]

I don't know. So KJP was the white House press secretary for Joe Biden during the that weird administration. She's got a book out, she's doing a book tour. And even the New York Times says it is an absolute train wreck of a disaster. And lefty publications are taking it apart. I don't know if that's just mainstream Democrats turning on the whole Biden thing, while at the same time, Gavin Newsom comes out yesterday and says, trump, Joe Biden's the greatest president of the last century. That's weird. But anyway, more on that later.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's ridiculous is what it is. So I found this really good reasoning by Abigail Anthony. She's writing in the National Review about PEN America. This is the organization that comes out with their report every year about that, claims that there have been a certain number of banned books. They're big against banned books. And she describes their methodology and why it so skewers the results. It's just an excuse for the left to have ammunition against Republican legislatures. For instance, PEN America's new report for the 2024, 2025 school year, titled the Normalization of Book Banning, records thousands of instances of book bans affecting nearly 4,000 unique titles across the country. But again, the numbers are wildly inflated. The main issue, she writes, is that the following definitions are employed. PEN America defines a school book ban as any textion, and I'm sorry, any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by government officials that leads to a book being either completely removed from availability to students or where access to a book is restricted or diminished. Diminished, Right, Right. And then the school book bands take varied forms, including prohibitions, as well as a range of other restrictions which may be temporary.

[Joe Getty]

So because that number is really large, 4,000. There's no way that it's that big.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's actually, it's somewhat closer to 7,000. Oh, 7,000 instances. 4,000 unique titles. One more sentence real quick. For example, if a book that was previously available to all now requires parental permission or is restricted to a higher grade level than the educators initially determined, that is a ban.

[Joe Getty]

Right. Okay. So there are 4,000 books that have been banned or diminished. Okay, well, how many of them were diminished? And what the hell do you mean by diminished? You went from saying fifth graders and below could read this to saying seventh graders and below. Big freaking deal.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, right. And Abigail points out age appropriateness is not a ban.

[Joe Getty]

Right, Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Of a book. Third graders shouldn't be reading this. Let's put it in the middle school library. That's a book ban. Not to mention, she points out, you can get all of these books in less than 24 hours on Amazon. So it's banned in what sense? Free to children in school libraries when it's inappropriate. Yeah. This is not exactly Nazi book burning here, folks. Phony.

[Joe Getty]

If you're a Democrat in the New York Times thinks your book tour sucks, you are not doing well. We'll get to that in a little bit. Among other things. Stay here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty. The three.

[Joe Getty]

One swing and a line drive. And that's a base hit into right field here. Comes Jimenez around third. He's coming in to score Guerrero to third. It's an RBI single for Boba Shet.

[Jack Armstrong]

And it's 51 Blue Jays here in.

[Joe Getty]

Game five quieting the Dodgers crowd. This is a good.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, sorry Star wars geeks. Every time I hear Boba Shet I think Boba Fett wacky minor character.

[Joe Getty]

Anyway, I'm really digging the World Series. I've watched pretty much every pitch and it turns out a lot more people are than have in quite a while for whatever reason because it's a Dodgers and Shoei Ohtani and I don't know what are people are so it could be a little. People are so sick of everything else. Like I mentioned the other day I was wearing Dodgers hat and the number of people that came up to me say oh you see that game last night? The first shared experience I've had with random people and I don't know how.

[Jack Armstrong]

Long and a shared. I was going to say non adversarial experience. Even though sports is adversarial, the enjoyment of it isn't. Yeah, I, you know if, if I got some friends who are big Eagles fans we can talk about football and kid each other about our rivalries but we have that shared enjoyment of it and we man we don't have enough of that in this country anymore.

[Joe Getty]

Up in Toronto, a full third of the humans that live in Canada had watched the two home games. I'll bet those numbers. Well, I bet those numbers are going to go up. They'll have half the country watching when they have a chance to win a World Series. What tomorrow night I guess Joe's going to tell us a story about their, their pitcher which is something coming up.

[Jack Armstrong]

But oh, he's a unique bird man. Unbelievable. He set records that go back to you know, Fortos McGillicuddy back in the 19 aughts. It's unbelievable.

[Joe Getty]

So we got another stupid political book out. I don't know who buys these things. I think you buy them to set them on your coffee table. I don't believe anybody ever reads them or, or they're. They only get printed to be put in the front of the newsstand at the airport to get you to come in and buy some gum. I've never understood these political books.

[Jack Armstrong]

I think a lot of the purchases are bulk purchases by various packs could be and political supporters. It's kind of end around bribes.

[Joe Getty]

The White House press spokeswoman for Joe Biden, Karine Jean Pierre, known as kjp has got a book out and it's been a mess, according to the New York Times. And this is a.

[Jack Armstrong]

Unless the title of the book was I Was Awful at My Job, it's misleading.

[Joe Getty]

This is from a New York Times news story. This isn't an opinion piece. This is the politics reporter just commenting on how the book tour is going for kjp. The name of the book is Independent because she switched her affiliation from Democrat to Independent after she left office. Oh, bold and. But the subtitle is A Look Inside a Broken White House, which I find interesting because apparently toward the end of one of her interviews recently, they, because they, they ask her about Joe Biden and all these different things and she didn't see any signs of him faltering in any way whatsoever. And she didn't see any signs of this or that or she wasn't around for this or that. And then the interviewer asked her at some point, so in what way was it a broken White House? I mean, that's the subtitle, but you've not given any indication of. And she said, well, I was, I'm referring to the Trump White House. I, I live in the present.

[Jack Armstrong]

What? Wait, what?

[Joe Getty]

You were the press secretary for a foreign administration. You write a book that says A look inside a broken White House. You don't have anything to say about a broken White House. And then when you're asked about it, you claim, oh, I'm talking about the Trump White House. What?

[Jack Armstrong]

You're not that White House, right?

[Tide Pods Announcer]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

You don't have any, you don't have any insight more than I do watching television about that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Childlike claim, isn't it?

[Joe Getty]

Well, that's idiotic. That's why they're calling it a train wreck. They go through a whole bunch of different examples. So far, Ms. Jean Pierre has come across in interviews as erratic and defensive rather than as a forceful champion for her old boss. Her attempts to defend him have come at a difficult, difficult time. Her message has not been well received. Along the way, she has struggled to answer questions. Exhibit A was an interview published on Monday with the New Yorker. I haven't read this. I'm going to now. Which has been described by many as an absolute train wreck, according to New York Magazine. New York magazine called the interview a train wreck.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yikes.

[Joe Getty]

An excruciating case study in denial, said one other, you know, mainstream, thus left leaning publication. Asked why she thought the party had given Mr. Biden the boot, Jean Pierre said, there's more to this than just that period of time. This is very layered right there's. A period of time that I questioned what was happening now. And she goes on and on and on. And as is described here in the New York Times, a word salad that left the interviewer and many readers perplexed. So, again, this is a New York Times news story saying she's putting out word salads that leave everyone perplexed as to what the hell she's talking about. The interviewer from the New Yorker, this guy named Chotner, Mr. Chotiner, said to her, sorry, I'm not trying to be dense, but I'm a little unclear what this has to do with Democratic leaders and Democrats in the country thinking Joe Biden was going to lose to Donald Trump. In other words, I don't understand what you just said.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. You haven't even come close to answering my question. You just talked at me.

[Joe Getty]

In another point in the interview, Chotiner asked Jean Pierre why she had written in the book that it was an insult to Kamala Harris, that people didn't want her to be the nominee, while she also wrote that the truth was, I never really believed Harris could win. How did you write both of those things at the same time in the same book? The interviewer wrote, Jean Pierre responded, well, two things can be true, right? The thing I say the second time actually proves the thing I said the first time, right?

[Jack Armstrong]

No, no, not remotely. Maybe she should have flipped frantically through her giant binder to find the answer to that question.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, they mentioned that at some point in this long article that she. That's the way she handled that. And she. She doesn't really have that for this circumstances. She goes around, well, you shouldn't need it. You. You, in theory, wrote the book, so you shouldn't need a binder to answer questions about your own book. The New York Times, the author of this article referencing the. The train wreck that was the New Yorker article that came out Monday. They tried to get a hold of her on Wednesday, but she was not available for an interview. You're on a book tour and the New York Times to call you, calls to ask you questions about your book, and you say, I'm not available. Wow. Because they're asking you about your disastrous New Yorker article that came out the day before. I mean, you're really in the bunker when your whole thing now is to try to sell books to make yourself some money. It's your last gasp of having any relevance whatsoever. And the New York Freak Times calls.

[Jack Armstrong]

To ask you some questions, wants to give you some more ink. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Scheduling problem. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

No time I'm very busy. Hey, you know, this is funny. Tell me if I'm wrong, friends both inside and outside of these studios. If somebody told you a year ago KJP is gonna write a book and then do interviews, isn't this exactly what you would have pictured? I mean, how could it be anything else? She is just, she's performing precisely as an author at, as she did as the press secretary. Floundering words, salady nonsense, full of self contradiction and frequent identity politics too. Are we going to get to that at some point or. No.

[Joe Getty]

She complains in there. So after October 7th, if you all remember, they brought in, what's his name, the spokesman from the Pentagon was answering all the questions.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can picture him.

[Joe Getty]

But Kirby, when they brought Kirby in to handle everything there for a couple of weeks, she really thought that was awful. You know, pushing aside the first openly gay black woman who was the official White House press secretary, to have this white male come up and mansplain things. Well, is obvious what was going on there. They realized she was over her head at a time when people were really paying attention and really needing answers to questions and, and they brought in somebody who knew what the hell they were talking about.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I'm going to say this slowly, sweetie pie, so you can see. Follow it. Admiral Kirby's really capable at his job. You are not at all capable of your. At your job. So they had him come in and identity politics is at the center of every breath you take, but not the rest of the world. He was really good at the job, you were really bad at the job. That's where the analysis begins and ends. I'm sorry to have been so blunt.

[Joe Getty]

The New York Times goes on to pile on. In another interview last week, Gayle King of CBS Mornings was openly skeptical of Ms. Jean Pierre for writing that she had never seen signs of Mr. Biden's decline. You even write, Kareem, that you were on the plane with him going to, to the debate and you didn't see anything. Ms. King said, referring to Mr. Biden's halting, fumbling debate performance with Donald Trump that caused him to have to drop out of the race. So you were on the plane with him the day that he had the complete meltdown and you never saw any indication of this. She responded that she had not happened to see Mr. Biden on the flight. But with age comes what happens when you get older. I never saw anyone who wasn't.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, wait a minute. Well, let me jot that down. Let me jot that one down. This is an alleged professional wordsmith of such skill that she is appointed to be the spokesperson for the potus. Say that sentence again.

[Joe Getty]

With age comes what happens when you get older.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow, that's good stuff.

[Joe Getty]

How about the fact that she says she didn't see the President on the flight. The plane ain't that big. And you're the White House press spokesperson. I have a feeling you have. You. You have access to the President. So that. I mean, come on. But this is the part. I already said this, but this is how they ended in the New York Times, because it's so good. And another curious moment in Ms. Jean Pierre's interview with Mr. Schoutner of the New Yorker. She said that her subtitle, A Broken White House, referred to the Trump White House, not the one she had worked in. The book for me, is really about the moment we're in, she said.

[Jack Armstrong]

But she wrote it last year, earlier this year.

[Joe Getty]

That is the most hilarious thing ever. I'm glad I read this article just to be aware of that. So her subtitle is, you know, Living in a Broke. My experience. No, it doesn't even say that. It just says independence. Stories of a Broken White House. That's what it is.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Stories of a broken hideous. Okay, tell us some stories. Because so far, you've got no stories about a broken White House. You say you saw no decline, you saw no backbiting. Where's the broken White House? Well, I'm referring to the Trump White House. That is unbelievable.

[Jack Armstrong]

Bizarre that it was even published and she's getting interviewed and everything. I mean, this is childlike.

[Joe Getty]

That is the most embarrassing thing I've ever heard. She should have to give her money back. If I'm the book company. I'm saying this is some sort of false. You claimed your. There's gotta be something. You contractually broke. Tales of a Broken White House. No, I mean this White House in which I'm not involved, that I wrote before the White House started.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Maybe there's a non compos mentis clause in the contract, or that is hilarious clause, as the Marx Brothers would remind us.

[Joe Getty]

And then, of course, the icing on the cake is after that disastrous interview, the New York Times calls for comment. She says, not available. You're on a book tour and you're not.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm not talking to the press.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that's great. Okay.

[Jack Armstrong]

Dei, Isn't it grand? It's wonderful.

[Joe Getty]

No kidding. That's the headline. Dei, Ain't it grand? We'll Finish strong.

[Jack Armstrong]

Next, Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Cher to third. Clemence of second under first double play, a World Series masterpiece from 22 year old Trey. Yes. Savage, 22.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it's amazing and I don't think you need to be a baseball fan to really enjoy a story of somebody who comes from a very, very low level and enjoys success. But there's, there's a great piece Jared diamond, the appropriately Jared diamond wrote about Trey Savage, the first two batters he ever faced in professional baseball in single A ball. Which is, I'm telling you folks, your cashier at Target makes more money and has a much more luxurious lifestyle than a single eight ballplayer.

[Joe Getty]

So only a slightly worse shot of becoming a major league baseball player.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's really neck and neck. So he walks the first two batters he ever faced in professional baseball. His pitching coach immediately comes out to the mound, jogs out to the mound and, and before he could utter a word to what he feared would be a flustered 21 year old. Yes, Savage spoke up first. I know, I know, I'm good. Having already diagnosed the problem on his own. And the coach said, okay, we're all good. And he went to the back to the dugout. And yes, Savage didn't allow an earned run that day. Shut him out. Less than seven months have passed since that inauspicious debut. And, and he wasn't in Dunedin.

[Joe Getty]

What is that, Oklahoma?

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't even know where that is for a single A. He's pitching in the World Series and dominating the Los Angeles Dodgers with one of the most fearsome lineups that has ever been assembled at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. Yeah, it's just an odd, awe inspiring, jaw dropping ascension. So there are. Go ahead.

[Joe Getty]

I love the way he handled that home run he gave up in the third inning. I mean, he, he, you know, he pitched an amazing. He only gave up one run. But that home run that he gave up, he didn't flinch. He didn't look. It was such a monster home run.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

I love the way that they replayed it several times. He throws a pitch, dude hits it so hard. Pitcher just like, okay, give me another ball. I mean, he was like ready to pitch again. He knew it was out.

[Jack Armstrong]

I know what happened. Yep, let's go. And that's, that's so in his character, which we'll get to, but it's worth mentioning. He, let's see, he introduced, he induced the most swings and misses since the system was created to count that sort of thing. He Became the youngest pitcher to rack up double digit strikeouts in a World Series game since somebody named Smokey Joe Wood did it in 1912. He struck out 12 batters, surpassing the World Series record set by don Newcomb in 1949 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. I mean, to break a record that's endured that long in baseball is just, it's crazy. And, and some of these stories I love so much and partly because as a youth and a young man, I was a pitcher and I love baseball and competed like a fiend. But after, let's see. So he, he got promoted to high A, which is different than a ball in Vancouver, first inning, familiar lead off walk in a home run. Pitching coach Eric Yardley went out for a chat. He told you, Savage, that he wanted to give him a little break to collect his wits. You. Savage looked at him and simply said, throw. Thank you. And Yardley, the coach, wasn't sure how to respond. Nobody had ever reacted that way to a mound visit. So instead of saying, I'm all right, I can get these guys, I don't know what happened. I missed with my curveball, blah, blah. No, he said, thank you. That was it. He was ready to go. It cough caught me off guard, says the coach. It's just like, yeah, perfect. Sounds good. He didn't give up another run. He did, however, finish with 10 strikeouts in 4.

[Joe Getty]

4 innings. Wow, that's just like the game last night. He gives up that home run. He didn't. It seemed to phase him. Not at all.

[Jack Armstrong]

It reminds me of the legendary story about Joe Montana in the super bowl in which they were into crunch time and everybody was puking up their guts and he looked into the stands and said, hey, look, John Candy and his teammates laughed and they went on to win the game.

[Joe Getty]

You know you want a happy Andy.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Final. Here's your host for final thoughts, Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hey, let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew. It's a team game around here too, folks. Let's begin with Michelangelo, our technical director.

[Joe Getty]

Michael.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I'm just looking here on Amazon for the KJP book because I have a table that when the logs when the legs is wobbly and I think.

[Joe Getty]

It will fit under it perfectly.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, good plan. Katie Greener, esteemed newswoman, has a final thought. Katie, that book would do a good job at a better job at holding up your table than she did at her job in the White House. Hey, there you go, Jack. Final thought for us so far.

[Joe Getty]

My giant inflatable pumpkin has not blown loose and gone down the street like it has in previous years because it hasn't been windy. So I'm hoping I can pull that off. It's always embarrassing to get a knock on the door from a neighbor. Hey, you're 20 foot pumpkins down the street. You might want to go get that.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right, I'm going to cede my final thought to the great Matt Taibi who wrote a piece that we cited. He in hour three of the show, I think kicked off hour three with it. He's talking about all the rich over educated kids who are talking like Marxists now. And he says we're in the upper class twits promoting revolution space. A script with which most of the rest of the world is sadly familiar.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, no kidding. Armstrong and Getty wrapping up another grueling four hour workday.

[Jack Armstrong]

Upper class twits indeed. So many people. Thanks. So little time. Go to Armstrong and yeti dot com. We've got some great new T shirts and swag for you for your favorite A fan maybe give it a day till our starve. The lazy shirts are ready to go.

[Joe Getty]

We will see you tomorrow with all the news then. God bless America.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty Pants.

[Joe Getty]

Put some pants on, you gotta put some pants on.

[Jack Armstrong]

Pants, you gotta put some pants on.

[Joe Getty]

If you get pulled over by the highway patrol.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

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[Joe Getty]

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