← Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
12/19/24: Elon Nukes GOP Spending Bill, Dems Brand 'President Musk', Gaetz Admits To Paying Women
00:51:26
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- [00:00]
Narrator
You wake up, put on your Ray Ban meta glasses. You're living all in. You realize you need coffee so you.
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User
Say hey Meta, how do I make.
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Sagar Enjeti
A latte brew two shots of espresso.
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Narrator
After Meta AI gets you caffeinated, you're ready for some beats.
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User
Hey Meta Play hip hop music.
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Narrator
You head to meet some friends but can't remember the place.
- [00:18]
User
Hey Meta Call Eva Ray Ban Meta.
- [00:22]
Narrator
Glasses the next generation of AI glasses. Just say hey Meta to harness the power of Meta AI shop now@meta.com smart.
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Savannah Guthrie
Glasses hi everyone, it's Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotney from the Today show.
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Hoda Kotb
Nobody does the holidays like today. From festive performances and great gift ideas to tips for the perfect holiday feast.
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Savannah Guthrie
Join us every morning on NBC and make today your home for the holidays.
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Crystal Ball
It's better over here. Now at T Mobile get four 5G.
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Jeff Stein
Phones on us and four lines for.
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Crystal Ball
$25 a line per month when you.
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Jeff Stein
Switch with eligible trade ins all on America's largest 5G network.
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Crystal Ball
Minimum of 4 lines for $25 per line per month with autopay discount using debit or bank account, $5 more per line without autopay plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge phones via 24 monthly bill credits for well qualified customers. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on a required finance agreement to bill credits end if you pay off devices early. CT mobile.com hey guys, Sagar and Crystal here.
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Various News Commentators
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show.
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Crystal Ball
This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right does not exist anywhere else.
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Various News Commentators
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Crystal Ball
We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you@breakingpoints.com Good morning everybody. Happy Thursday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have Crystal?
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Various News Commentators
Indeed we do. Washington just got very interesting whole showdown.
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Crystal Ball
Very shutdown.
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Various News Commentators
Elon Musk yeah, potential government shut down. What does Trump think? A lot going on. Jeff Stein's gonna join us to break down all of the madness and try to figure out where we are and what might happen next. To the best of any of our ability. We also have an update so the House apparently secretly voted to release that Matt Gaetz ethics report. So we've got Matt Gates response. Why did they do it? What do we expect to learn? Break all of that down for you. We also have a new healthcare whistleblower coming forward at the same time that Kathy Hochul is setting up a potential hotline for any CEOs who feel threatened. So a lot of response there. We've got some new details that have been revealed as part of a lawsuit against a bunch of elite universities, including some Ivy League universities, showing just how much preference they give to particularly wealthy and well connected students. Some of these details are absolutely incredible. We also have some of the first numbers post affirmative action of minority enrollment, how that's been impacted by the Supreme Court ending affirmative action at these schools. So that's interesting as well. And we've got some interesting comments on the Theo Vaughan podcast from Timothee Chalamet about how Bernie Sanders is a folk hero. Interesting moment there.
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Crystal Ball
We'll talk about it. Yeah, I listened to the entire thing. The game day Chalamet. That's not the real Chalamet, I've discovered. I had no idea. Chalamet is a full on theater kid from like the Upper east side or whatever in New York.
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Various News Commentators
Oh, really? I don't know anything about him.
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Crystal Ball
Tonight he was on college game day and he like had. By the way, I don't watch college football. All my football friends are telling me, they're like, oh my God, Chalamet was amazing. He made all of these correct picks. It's pretty clear somebody coached him about it because then when he was on Theo Vaughan, I was like, oh, this kid is like a full on theater.
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Various News Commentators
He's a renaissance man. By the way, why sports and theater Sagar, don't rein him in.
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Crystal Ball
I don't think so.
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Various News Commentators
Don't trim his tails.
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Crystal Ball
Look, Chalamet, I'm just saying I'm pretty sure that you were trained for that game day segment. And look, he's an incredible actor. He's one of my favorite actors in the up and coming generations.
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Various News Commentators
So he could pull it off if he was coached on how to absolutely.
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Crystal Ball
No question play the part. In my opinion, he was acting whenever he was on game day. Now I will say he's still an interesting guy. He's a little bit soft spoken and all of that, but I didn't know that much about him, about his background and everything. And he's like, yeah, I went to Columbia and I was a theater kid in New York and I was like, oh, okay, interesting Anyway, he is a better actor. He's definitely. Who's that other young guy who's coming up right now, Elordi? He's a better actor than him for sure. Women would probably disagree with. But anyway, let's get to Jeff Stein and let's talk about all of this government shutdown situation. Joining us now, Jeff Stein of the Washington Post, great friend of the show. Good to see you, sir. Thanks for joining us.
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Sagar Enjeti
Thanks for having me back on, guys.
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Crystal Ball
Absolutely. All right. So, Jeff, let's break some of this down, man. It's been a wild turn of events. First, there was a continuing resolution. That was a bipartisan deal. It was negotiated. Elon Musk takes to Twitter, he starts criticizing the deal. So does it make Ramaswamy, JD Vance, Donald Trump all start to jump in. And it appears that Elon's threat to primary House individuals who did vote for the CR appears to have been at least contributed to its downfall. That's what FOX News is reporting at least. Let's take a listen to that. We'll get your reaction. Tweets from Musk has that complicated this? Well, I mean, I think that there's always a lot of interest in what's happening up here. And this is more than interest. They're telling people if they vote yes, they should be voted out. The social media world is a part of our politics and I think members have to expect that there will be a lot of hard votes in the next couple of years.
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Various News Commentators
The fact is, is that, look, this is a sandwich.
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User
I don't know how else to say.
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Various News Commentators
That we're being forced into this position.
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User
They could have done a standalone.
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Various News Commentators
They did this because they knew that it would put members in this position to support it. We're damned if we do. We're damned if we don't.
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Crystal Ball
Now, the bill has about $100 billion in disaster relief, nearly 30 billion to restock FEMA's coffers. And there are lots of health care provisions. Jamming everything together in one bill means some Republicans will not support M. Johnson for speaker in January.
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Various News Commentators
Have any other of your colleagues said.
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Crystal Ball
That they're not voting for Johnson Express? I've talked to a few, you know.
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Sagar Enjeti
Who don't seem like they're going to vote for him.
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Crystal Ball
You have to ask them.
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Sagar Enjeti
I'm not going to betray anybody's position.
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Various News Commentators
Will you just vote president or will you vote someone else's?
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Crystal Ball
I'll vote for somebody else. So, Jeff, there's been a real. They've roiled on Capitol Hill. It's now Thursday morning, while we're all talking, the government shuts down tomorrow at midnight. People thought that this deal was done, it was dusted, it was sailing to a vote, and yet now we're at a completely new reset. So tell us what you know.
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Sagar Enjeti
Elon Musk is quite possibly the most powerful person in Washington. Donald Trump obviously is the source of his power. But Trump has a million things going on, and Musk seems really dialed in on these kinds of spending fights and has huge remit to. To sort of tell the Republican Party what to do on behalf of Trump. And, you know, it's the money, for sure. I mean, as you were saying, Musk has been threatening primary challenges against Republicans who are out of step with what he and Trump want. But I think it's. It's more than that. You know, when I talk to Republican lawmakers, they. They like the idea of being retweeted by Musk, as silly as that might sound, as a reason for how to govern. They want to be in his sort of aura. They feel that. That he has sort of a popularity and a vision that they want to be associated with. Someone was like comparing it to high school to me, where Musk is like the cool kid and people want to be at his table, and no Republican wants to stand out of that, of that mix, if you want to have a political future. And it's more than just than that, too. I mean, it's. It's, you know, Musk is really sort of assuming control for the Trump administration, incoming Trump administration, over spending and regulation, which is a huge thing.
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Various News Commentators
I mean, pretty much everything.
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Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, pretty much everything. Exactly. And for members. Right. If you want, you know, this project for your district and your constituents, you kind of need Elon Musk at this point to be on your side. So the stakes for them are existential and go beyond even the fear of Republican primary challenge. And, you know, did voters in November, were they upset about high grocery prices, or did they want the world's richest man to have discretion over the federal budget? I mean, that seems to be the question that, you know, Democrats are trying to push this morning. But I think it's a legitimate one.
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Crystal Ball
Yeah, we have some of that. A2, please, we can put on the screen just to give a taste of some of the Democratic reaction. So initially, you had Elon saying that we should shut down the government until January 20th. That'd be approximately 33 days. We then got some more reactions if we continue here with some of these images showing you. He says any member of the House or the Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years. What's even more interesting though, Jeff, is the plot twist that then Donald Trump has added. So can we put a three please up on the screen cuz this makes things even crazier. And this is from JD Vance, which was tweeted out as a statement from President Elect Trump and Vice President Elect Vance. They talk about the most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025. It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed. Meanwhile, Congress is considering another spending bill. The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the January 6 committee, which accomplished nothing. The bill would give Congress a pay increase while Americans are struggling this Christmas. Let's go to the next slide, please. Because he says increasing the debt ceiling is not great, but we'd rather do it now on Biden's watch. So he continues, he says Republicans must get smart and tough if Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want. Call their bluff. It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief. So now I think we have three separate things that are going on. Fight over the disaster relief, there's a fight over the $10 billion to farmers. And now Donald Trump is saying, no, Republicans, you don't even vote for a quote, unquote, clean CR first, maybe explain what a clean CR is. You only do it if we also attach a raise to the debt ceiling. So that adds another layer of what must get done in the next 48 hours.
- [10:41]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, I mean, we are facing a government shutdown. Musk seems to not be that alarmed by the prospect. I mean, the thing that I'm trying to figure out and calling sources, you know, yesterday and today that I can't really wrap my head around is why did Johnson not call Elon and Trump and say, like, hey man, like here's my plan. Are you going to go nuclear on me in public and like embarrass me and potentially cost my speakership? And I want to be very careful about how I phrase this because I don't have this fully confirmed. But the thing that lawmakers and aides on the Hill and some people close to Mar A Lago are telling me is that Johnson thought maybe incorrectly, but he thought that Trump had his back.
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Crystal Ball
Yes.
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Sagar Enjeti
As you were saying, the CR is just the idea that we will basically just extend funding for the government without much attached. And that's how you get this. This idea. Separately, you have this idea of an omnibus, which, like, you include a lot of different spending changes to the law now for Hill speak, that nobody but, like, three nerds in Washington should ever have to hear. They're calling it a chromnibus, which is the CR plus an omnibus. So, John, that. That sort of reflects what Johnson was trying to do here because he knew he was going to lose a lot of Republicans, you know, for. To get the spending deal done. He included a bunch of stuff that Democrats wanted and, and the. But the fact that nobody that Johnson was unable to have a conversation with Elon, have a conversation with Trump, like, what are they talking about when they go to, like, the wrestling match and, like, hang out?
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Crystal Ball
You're exactly right. They were literally together this week.
- [12:25]
Sagar Enjeti
And the fact that Trump is just so willing to say to Mike Johnson, who he's been photographed hanging out with all the time, like, no, like, you eat shit now, dude. Like, that's not like you're. You're in your. On your own is kind of breathtaking. I mean, it either suggests that Trump is just willing to, like, screw this guy who's been one of his most stalwart allies, or that Johnson is a spectacular, spectacularly inept House speaker who could not foresee the most obvious outcome from a mile away. I mean, I've been hearing from Trump people who wanted to kill this deal for a long time and thought that they could get Elon on board. Even the defense bill, they passed, you know, a roughly $1 trillion annual defense bill, which I think you guys covered $10 trillion in defense spending over the next decade, which Elon has Talked about the DoD budget being too big. And, you know, this whole time I was watching that fight, I was like, where is Elon? Right? Because he could have done to that bill what he did to this bill. It seems like maybe he just, like, wasn't paying attention enough to. To do that. But whatever the case, I mean, this is, you know, it suggests that we're going to be in for a very complicated few years if the coordination problems this early between Republican leadership and. And Mar a Lago are this. Are this bad.
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Various News Commentators
And some real power struggles ultimately between the richest man on the planet who has his own base of support and plenty of wealth to throw around in terms of primary challenges, et cetera, and who controls Twitter, controls this huge social media platform and can use it to push whatever message he wants to push, which has been in recent months, the same message that Trump wants to push but it really does set up this titanic clash of two power centers between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Let's put a four up on the screen. We have some commentary from Trump specifically which I wanna get you to weigh in on what I just said about the power centers. But also I wanna understand more why Trump is focused on the debt limit at this time as well. So this is from Truth Social. He says if Republicans try to pass a clean continuing resolution without all of the Democrat bells and whistles that will be so destructive to our country, all it will do after January 20th is bring the mess of the debt limit into the Trump administration rather than allowing it to take place in the Biden. Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should and will be primaried. Everything should be done and fully negotiated prior to my taking office on January 20, 2025. I mean, this is deeply confusing to me because it seems like he's almost advocating for the CR that Elon just completely tanked. And obviously this piece about the debt limit is very important to him. He keeps bringing it up. So why is that so significant? What do you make of this, whatever Donald Trump is trying to say here?
- [15:25]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, I mean, I think what Trump is saying, right, obviously there's not to get too into Washington speak, but there's like two key things as you guys understand, right? There's the funding of the federal government, all the government services, and then there's a separate question about the U.S. borrowing limit, which is the debt ceiling, which basically stipulates that, you know, the government can only borrow up to, I don't know exactly what it is now, but let's say like $37 trillion. And beyond that it becomes illegal for the government to do that, which means that we become very quickly in default of our obligations, which could cause a global financial crisis. Trump is saying like let's, let's make sure that that bomb, that second bomb is, is not on the table. Like I don't want to have to deal with this at all during my administration. I think he knows that if they don't deal with it now, he's going to have to figure out either A, how to deal with Democrats and give Democrats concessions to prevent the global economy from blowing up under his watch, or B, he's going to have to keep every Republican on board for a debt ceiling increase, which is going to be really, really hard. So, so I think it makes sense that Trump is like, let's just clear the decks on this right now. And I've actually, I Spoke to Democratic Senator Brian Schatz earlier this week. He was saying, like, I would love if Trump did this, because we think that this is a huge problem too, and we. We want to be done with it. I think the thing that I find most inexplicable about this or, like, haven't really wrapped my head around is, like, the timing is bizarre. Like, Trump was elected over a month ago, and we've known that the debt ceiling is going to be an issue this, this spring for two years. And if Trump had said to Mike Johnson, this goes back to sort of my point about the baffling, like, miscommunication here. If Trump had just said to Johnson, like, put this in the cr, I don't want to deal with the debt limit. We. I mean, maybe he did privately, and I just don't have the reporting chops to, like, figure that out. But, like, my sense is that this is a new ask that Trump is now putting out there, and it reflects, I think. I mean, I spoke to someone who was at Mar A Lago yesterday who was saying that, like, you guys in the media and you guys on the Hill, like, you don't understand, like, Trump is, like, feeling himself. Like, he is so confident. He thinks of his. This guy referred to Trump as, like, feeling like he's Charlemagne, where he's just like, this, like, globe striding, colossal figure, like, which, I mean, historically, like, he might be remembered as a quite a significant president. So he's just like, the CR and the omnibus and, like, this is, like, peasant stuff. Like, I don't want to be, like, sucked into this boring mess. So, like, and I get where he's like, Trump won twice. Like, he's just like, I don't need to spend my days appeasing people in Washington and dealing with this, like, mechanical stuff. But it also is, like, a huge problem for the functioning of the federal government if he's just gonna, like, barely pay attention in the last minute, like, throw out complicated, contradicting demands.
- [18:27]
Crystal Ball
Yeah, here's my theory of what happened. So I see this morning playbook is reporting, and it's kind of fits with some of the people I spoke to yesterday. They're like, Trump, this wasn't on his radar basically at all. He didn't particularly care. Elon basically decides to pick a fight. Him and Vivek on Doge on the cr. Trump wakes up to it. He gets kind of backed into a corner because enough people have now come out against the CR that it's not gonna pass no matter what. In terms of Republicans, including people like John Cornyn. Right. Somebody in Senate leadership. So then Trump is like, okay, well, we gotta do something new. Then a legislative aide down in Mar? A Lago says, by the way, Mr. President Elect, you may not know this, but the debt ceiling is up in June. Trump hates a debt ceiling. He doesn't wanna deal with it. He especially doesn't wanna deal with these Freedom Caucus guys. So he's like, okay, let's get it.
- [19:14]
Various News Commentators
Dusted to be able to do his tax cut.
- [19:16]
Crystal Ball
Exactly, he needs his tax cut. So he sees this and he's like, we need to get this shit done. We can't deal with this during reconciliation. And so he puts it in right now, as you said, you know, very, very little has changed, Jeff, in the last four years. I was definitely assured of more streamlined processes and others, but I'm getting a lot of rhymes. It hasn't been that long ago since I had to deal with this.
- [19:37]
Sagar Enjeti
I do think. One thing you put your finger on there that I think is really interesting is the idea that, you know, Musk is operating as an independent power center here. That's kind of what that, if that is true, that suggests that Musk's power doesn't just derive from Trump and this notion that these are co presidents and that Musk is like actually calling the shots here. I don't know. That's kind of what it sounds like to me. Right?
- [20:06]
Crystal Ball
Yeah. No, no, no, you are right. That's correct. I don't think that the. So from what I've been able to tell, definitely the Elon tweets, but especially the Vivek stuff attacking the CR that's totally independent, that was never signed off on. Remember, a lot of these folks are not even in the same room. Trump is down in Mar? A Lago, Elon is wherever, somewhere in the globe every once in a while. Pops up in the uk, San Francisco, et cetera. Vivek is here in Washington. None of these people are necessarily coordinating. Allegedly. There is a group chat with Mike Johnson, Vivek and Elon in it. Somebody never raised the CR apparently in said group chat. And so I think there's a very real chance of a shutdown here. What do you think?
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Sagar Enjeti
I mean, I think it's, it's. I'm ambivalent a little bit about, about sort of the substantive complaint being made here, because I do, I do think you talk to, you know, average people and it's like members of Congress can't read the bill before they vote on it. It's like 1700 pages and nobody knows what's in it before they are expected to support it. It's full of things that have nothing to do with keeping the government open. Like those are, you know, to, to be fair, I guess to Musk and Ramaswamy, like that, that is a thing that I think strikes people as a broken process. And they're saying, like it is time to end that broken process. At the same time, I mean, there's over a million government workers who are now at risk of having their Christmases and their families Christmases completely ruined, not to mention all the private sector workers who depend on it. And also the things that are in here that are objectionable include disaster aid and farm aid that, that a lot of people think is important. And Musk circulated claims last night about the bill that are just patently false. I mean, he said, you know, he cited a report that was saying that the bill includes $3 billion for the new Commander Stadium in Washington D.C. that's just not true. He said that he circulated a report saying that the bill has $60 billion for Ukraine. Like not true. So, you know, I hear where they're coming from. But if every bit of government legislation is at risk of being mischaracterized as it has by Musk and Ramaswamy, as I think they did, maybe not Ramaswamy, but Musk did, at least in this instance, it's going to be hard to pass anything of substance in the next four years.
- [22:30]
Narrator
You wake up, put on your Ray Ban meta glasses, classic style, innovative tech. You're living all in. You realize you need coffee desperately.
- [22:40]
User
So you say, hey Meta, how do I make a latte?
- [22:44]
Meta AI
To make a latte, brew two shots of espresso.
- [22:46]
Narrator
After Meta AI gets you caffeinated, you start walking to work and you need a soundtrack.
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User
Hey Meta. Play hip hop music.
- [22:54]
Narrator
With the built in camera, you snap a pic of a dope mural on the side of a building that you think is worth sharing.
- [23:01]
User
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Meta AI
Sending message.
- [23:05]
Narrator
After work you head to meet some friends.
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Meta AI
Hey, nice glasses.
- [23:09]
Narrator
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- [23:32]
Savannah Guthrie
Everyone, it's Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb from the Today show. We love this time of year. There's so much to celebrate that's right.
- [23:39]
Hoda Kotb
Nobody does the holidays quite like today all season long. Join us for special performances with the brightest stars.
- [23:46]
Savannah Guthrie
Plus festive recipes to whip up the perfect holiday feast and great deals on the hottest toys and gifts for everyone on your list.
- [23:53]
Hoda Kotb
So join us every morning on NBC to make today your home for the holidays.
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Crystal Ball
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Various News Commentators
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- [25:02]
Various News Commentators
It seems to me like perhaps the miscalculation that Johnson made is that he correctly perceived that Trump more or less didn't care and had given him sort of free rein to negotiate what he needs to negotiate. He has a very narrow margin in the House in terms of House Republicans knew he was going to have to rely on some Democrats. Obviously Democrats also still control the Senate. So he struck the deal he needed to strike in order to clear the deck in his language, get this taken care of, get the debt limit taken care of and live to fight another day and start fresh in the Trump administration. And the miscalculation was really not realizing. You do kind of have this co president situation. So it's not enough to have Donald Trump's buy in. It's not enough for Donald Trump to be like, sure, whatever, go negotiate whatever you wanna negotiate and just make sure that I can come in with the government funded and with the debt limit out of the way. He didn't realize, guess what, you need to also make sure that Elon's going to be cool with this. And that seems to me like where the real failure and miscalculation here was for Mike Johnson.
- [26:03]
Sagar Enjeti
I think that's well put. And I think, I mean, based on what I'm hearing this morning and last night, like Johnson could very well be toast.
- [26:11]
Various News Commentators
I mean, it seems like it.
- [26:13]
Crystal Ball
I agree.
- [26:14]
Sagar Enjeti
He seems like his days are numbered.
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Various News Commentators
But who would replace him is always the question, you know, like who can pull this caucus? Who does have the support of the full caucus and what are the demands on the future potential speaker gonna look like as well?
- [26:31]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, it seems like Trump alone could save him at this point. I get Tom Emmer is the name that comes up a lot. I know you don't have to be a member of the House to be speaker, so kind of opens up the possibilities.
- [26:46]
Crystal Ball
Rand Paul, just today we're about to cover it, said, why not just make Elon speaker of the House? Maybe it'd be easier, actually.
- [26:53]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, yeah. I mean, if he's. I mean, he basically is.
- [26:57]
Various News Commentators
Yeah. Well, if he was, he would be probably like the most powerful speaker in history in a certain sense. I mean, outside of the fact that the margin would be so narrow, how many seat margin do they have now coming into this next session, especially with Trump pulled a few out of the House for his administration, Matt Gaetz resigning, so it'll take a while to fill that seat, et cetera. So it's extremely narrow. But I think when Elon says jump, the Republican caucus is pretty clear. Says how high?
- [27:25]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That seems like the question I've had for the last year is, or the last few months, I guess, is there are so many Republicans who resist some of the ambitious goals that Musk and Ramaswamy have set out. $2 trillion in spending cuts, revamping the DOD, cutting pork barrel spending out for this or that district. The list goes on and on, all these regulations that they want to cut. And then there's sort of like the. It's not really my lane, but sort of, you know, Patel and you know, what Trump does with the DOJ and, you know, what he does with the irs. You know, those are all questions. But this is, I think. I think it's fair to say this is the first sustained barrage by Musk, his first real sort of flex, his first test of can you get congressional Republicans to sort of listen to you? And it's not entirely Musk, obviously, like, conservatives in the House have been a problem for leadership for like, over a decade now. So I don't want to, like, say it's purely, like, sweet, generous from Musk, but I think by any standard, the test we saw, really, the first test which will set the course of the next few years, suggests that Musk is in charge and that there is no willingness in the Republican Party and ability, maybe I'm repeating myself here, but to stand up to him and to stand out and put your head above the sand.
- [28:57]
Various News Commentators
Yeah. Jeff, my last question for you is. Elon is a fan of Javier Milei and sort of anarcho capitalist. He's this very somewhat doctrinaire libertarian outside of where he wants his own government goodies, et cetera. His Ideology is not the same as what Trump has articulated to the country. I mean, Trump has never been like an austerity Paul Ryan Republican. One of the reasons he's been so successful, for example, is pledging, I'm not gonna touch Social Security and Medicare. Elon Musk would love to cut Social Security and Medicare. Probably the most clear cut example of where there is a real divergence is Trump has been pretty consistently in favor of a aggressive regime of tariffs. Meanwhile, Elon was out tweeting praise for Javier Milei, rolling back tariffs in his home country. So help people to understand. It's always tricky with Trump talking ideology because he doesn't have that firm of an ideology. I think Elon is a much more ideological, actually figure. Where are some of the frictions between Elon's ideology and at least what Trump has articulated his ideology to be to the American public?
- [30:09]
Sagar Enjeti
I think that is one of the most important questions that we're going to see play out over the next few years. As you're saying, Crystal, Trump rose to power in 2016 explicitly saying that he would not touch Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid, arguably the three most important programs in the federal budget, provide health care and pensions for tens of millions seniors and other poor people and other people in this country. Now, I think in his second term, choose my words carefully here. I get the sense that Trump is softening on that a little bit. And what I mean by that is Trump has always said that he stands for eliminating waste and fraud and abuse in say, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid. It's really though, of those three, I mean, Medicare is kind of the crucial one. There's so little waste in Social Security because, you know, you're just sending checks to people for, for their retirement programs for very straightforward. Medicare, though, is complicated. And there are things in Medicare that people that I do not think are sort of out to hurt grandma that can be sort of revamped or changed or that there can be cost savings. I think what, what Trump seems to be suggesting to want to do to me, which I think is, is, is an interesting shift from his first term. And, and as you're suggesting puts him more in line with Milei and, and, and Musk is to say, actually I'm going to propose changes or cuts to Medicare, but I will insist that this is just waste. And any dorky Washington Post reporter that suggests that this is Washington, that this is Medicare cuts, I'm just going to yell at and be like, you are lying about what I'm doing. I'm just doing reforms to Medicare that aren't touching the program and adjudicating the question of if that's a cut, if that's slashing Medicare. Is, is, is a sort of epistemological, like metaphysical question that is hard to get like a very and straightforward answer to because legitimate people can have legitimate different, different interpretations of what that means. But, but some of those, I mean, we'll have to see what he actually does. Some of those programs could, if cut could lead to, you know, to less care for seniors. At the same time, there is waste in Medicare and some of the things necessary to do that could just look like waste to I think a good faith person trying to reduce the federal budget, which is a complicated and nuanced picture but and one that I think will be impossible to write in a story without like millions of people being like, you're an idiot, who is mischaracterizing things. But I think that is sort of the dynamic that's shaping up.
- [33:05]
Crystal Ball
Welcome to our lives there, Jeff. All right, man. We appreciate you joining us. Thank you.
- [33:09]
Various News Commentators
Great to see you, Jeff. Happy holidays.
- [33:10]
Sagar Enjeti
Thanks for coming on, guys.
- [33:13]
Narrator
You wake up, put on your ray ban meta glasses, classic style, innovative tech. You're living all in. You realize you need coffee desperately.
- [33:23]
User
So you say, hey meta. How do I make a latte?
- [33:26]
Meta AI
To make a latte, brew two shots of espresso.
- [33:29]
Narrator
After meta AI gets you caffeinated, you start walking to work and you need a soundtrack.
- [33:34]
User
Hey meta.
- [33:35]
Narrator
Play hip hop music with the built in camera. You snap a pic of a dope mural on the side of a building that you think is worth sharing.
- [33:44]
User
Hey meta. Text my last photo to Eva.
- [33:46]
Meta AI
Sending message.
- [33:47]
Narrator
After work, you head to meet some friends.
- [33:50]
Meta AI
Hey, nice glasses.
- [33:52]
Narrator
Ray Ban meta glasses. The next generation of AI glasses. Just say hey meta. To harness the power of meta AI. Listen to music, make hands free calls with open air audio and built in microphones and so much more all while staying present to the world around you. Shop Ray Ban meta glasses@meta.com smartglasses hi everyone.
- [34:15]
Savannah Guthrie
It's Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb from the Today show. We love this time of year. There's so much to celebrate.
- [34:21]
Hoda Kotb
That's right. Nobody does the holidays quite like today. All season long. Join us for special performances with the brightest stars.
- [34:29]
Savannah Guthrie
Plus festive recipes to whip up the perfect holiday feast. And great deals on the hottest toys and gifts is for everyone on your list.
- [34:36]
Hoda Kotb
So join us every morning on NBC to make today your home for the holidays.
- [34:43]
Ad Voiceover
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- [35:45]
Crystal Ball
At the same time, Democrats are seizing upon all of this and they have one goal. They want to drive a wedge between Elon and between Donald Trump. They have now taken to the moniker President Musk. You saw the debut of this on CNN last night. Let's take a listen.
- [36:00]
Jeff Stein
President Musk this morning made it clear with all his vast government experience, which is basically he became rich on the federal gu government, that he doesn't want Republicans to pass this. And seemingly Vice President Trump kind of backed him up then at that point. And what it says about the politics is this is going to be a messy four years, the whole debt ceiling thing. Donald Trump is making it clear that he wants the debt ceiling to go up. By the way, the debt ceiling is going to have to go up, but he doesn't want to have to take ownership for it because he will again for four years. Look at the Democrats and blame them. And so what this says about the politics is good luck for the next four years. I don't think they'll shut the government down because ultimately they'll, they'll want to get home for Christmas. They'll do like a one month CR pretending like that's going to fix everything. But yeah, I mean, I think President Elon has made it clear what his agenda is going to be for the next four years.
- [36:50]
Crystal Ball
All right, so that was Adam Kinzinger, Democrat now, hilarious, but former Republican member.
- [36:55]
Various News Commentators
Of Congress we can talk about. Familiar with him. January 6th committee. Anti Trump, et cetera, pro Ukraine.
- [36:59]
Crystal Ball
Basically the congressman from Ukraine lost. Anyway, we can continue. The point is, is that that is now a very popular moniker. The Democrats are going with Bernie Sanders, including. Let's put this up there on the screen. Democrats and Republicans spent months negotiating a bipartisan agreement to fund our government. The richest man on earth, President Elon Musk, doesn't like it. Will Republicans kiss the ring?
- [37:19]
Various News Commentators
Yes, they will.
- [37:20]
Crystal Ball
Billionaires must not be allowed to run our government. Well, our president is going to be a billionaire. That's a little bit difficult.
- [37:26]
Various News Commentators
Yeah, well, it's different.
- [37:27]
Sagar Enjeti
Oh, sorry.
- [37:27]
Crystal Ball
No, he's not a real billionaire. Is that correct from Jamie Pritzker?
- [37:31]
Various News Commentators
Well, I think what he means is unelected billionaires. It's one thing when you were actually, you know, won the popular vote and people backed you. I don't think that they thought that they were voting for Elon Musk necessarily.
- [37:42]
Crystal Ball
See, I don't know about that. We have this poll we can discuss. Let's put this up there on the screen. Do you approve or disapprove of Elon playing a prominent role in Trump administration? This is from Quinnipiac. Sample size 924 people. Let's say 53% disapprove, 41% approve. I don't know quite yet. I mean, Elon does have a pretty high approval rating with the American people, especially with Republicans, certainly with Republicans, to see what that is. I mean, you know, he was up there with Bezos and the other industrialists for a while in terms of the most popular people in the country. Took a huge hit, obviously, after he started getting political. I think the big question is not about even like small d Democratic question around Elon. It's about Trump. There's a huge question here about how long Trump is going to allow this. So there's a couple of things that are happening right now. Trump seems to have made peace with the Elon stuff because he has now decided to make the debt ceiling part of his crusade. But, but look, Trump doesn't care about spending and he doesn't care about debt. Okay. You could just look at his previous administration, if you're curious for evidence on that one. He doesn't care at all. But the thing is, is that if he gets backed into an unpopular corner, as we've seen a million times, he'll drop you. And so if Elon starts to cause political problems for Trump, that I could see to be a real issue. So, for example, let's say there is a shutdown in the next 48 hours. All of us, especially me, we're all getting on airplanes, right? Pretty soon, I think 50, some 60 million people are gonna take a flight in the next two weeks or so. You wanna know how TSA functions during a shutdown? It's not pretty. I've seen it before. So imagine that. Imagine we have that and we have headlines all across the country. Not to mention what just happened yesterday. The s and P500 dropped by three points. We have the largest 10 day, we have the largest daily decline in the Dow Jones in the last 50 years. Things are not great right now. They're a little precarious. We're going into a situation where very nervy. I would say let's say we have a. By the way, government shutdown always nukes the Dow every single time. You're gonna have a thousand point drop, another one like that. Let's say the S and p drops another 3%. And so you could even have a. We have more political chaos around the debt ceiling, that's another couple percent. So S and P, let's say it's down by 10% by January 20, the day that Donald Trump takes office. That's a whole other picture from your nice mandate and all these other things. If that starts to fall on Elon, as we know with Trump, nothing is ever his fault. And so if this starts to fall on Elon, you could have a situation where on day one of the actual administration there is some sort of split between the two. I would not be surprised by that outcome. Especially if we do go to shut. People hate when the government shuts down, you know. And look, I know it's tried, everybody talks about it, but like, look, everyone always focuses on the soldier pay. They usually take care of that. I'm talking about like seniors applying to Medicare get denied tsa, everybody. Oh, now we have six hour lines in the airport. There's no FAA problems, by the way. I'm not sure if anyone's aware, but we're actually in the middle of a presidential transition right now. Good luck with that. In terms of making sure that if all those people can't come to work, it's like, how are they gonna leave anything in preparation? I know all of it sounds extremely stupid. Oh, we don't need the government. It's like, yeah, we don't need it. Until you have to go to tsa, you have to wait for seven hours.
- [40:50]
Various News Commentators
The other thing is, part of what they put in this bill is disaster relief. I mean, people in North Carolina and throughout that whole hurricane path were devastated, still recovering. And that need is extremely urgent. It's crazy.
- [41:03]
Crystal Ball
They haven't even passed it yet it should have been passed day of.
- [41:05]
Various News Commentators
I agree, I agree. It is nuts. And yet, I mean, that's part of what is entangled in this bill. There's also some farming that is incredibly important for farmers because the previous farm bill never got passed. So, you know, levels have been stuck in terms of what they've been counting on. So that's important, too. I just wanted to mention there is one provision in here that I actually really support, and I think you do, too, which is the reining in of pharmacy benefit managers. Yeah, there is two that's included in this bill as well. And it's one of the things that it gets derived as. Oh, you just threw in these things that have nothing to do with just funding the government. But it also would be actually a really good reform that would help to bring down prescription drug costs and has a significant amount of bipartisan support. This is something that Josh Hawley's proposing alongside with Elizabeth Warren, that is also entangled in this whole thing. So it's not just. I mean, the federal government shutdown is bad enough that creates a lot of headaches and a lot of problems, but there's also funds in here that people are really relying on. So the other piece with Elon is. I mean, number one, he's the richest man on the planet. Like, none of this is ever gonna affect him or really anybody that he probably knows at this point in his life. The other thing is he doesn't really know anything about the government, is my sense. I don't think he really understands how important some of these pieces are. I don't think he really knows what it means if the federal government shuts down. So it's easy enough for him to tweet, like, just shut it down until Trump comes into office without really having a grasp of what the implications of that ultimately are. But to go back to this question about the potential drama playing out between Elon and Trump. I think you're right, Sagra. And the reporting suggests that Trump was cool with this negotiation. It actually serves his interest quite well because he certainly doesn't care about the spending at all. Whatever. It's fine. It got the debt ceiling out of the way. He wants to be able to do his tax cuts for the rich, extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs act in the New year when he comes into office. You need to have the debt ceiling cleared to be able to accomplish that. And so it served his interest. All of the spending pieces that Republicans could object to basically get pinned on. Oh, well, the Democrats were in power it's not our fault. It's like Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer, whoever. It's their fault that they had these provisions that maybe a lot of Republicans aren't particularly supportive of. And then he can start with the government funded and with the debt ceiling out of the way. So he really did get backed into a corner here. And I don't know if he feels that way or not, but part of the goal of this, calling him President Musk, et cetera, is to irritate Trump and get under his skin and threaten his ego. So I think it's one thing if this becomes a political problem for him and government shutdown's always very unpopular, you get this sense of just total chaos already before he's even set foot back in the White House. That's an issue. But the other issue is this is a man who has a very fragile ego. And if he feels like, my God, people think Elon is more powerful than me, I don't think he's gonna like that. And we also know think about how he, in that debate with Kamala Obama, think about how he took the bait on literally everything. So it's not like he's capable of sort of, like, rising above it. That has never really been a Trump strong suit. On the other hand, I think ultimately, in a battle between Trump and Musk, Trump wins. But Elon has his own cards to play because he does have so much money and can fund primary challengers and has his own base of support, has his own media platform that he controls to his own ends, that is extremely influential, both in terms of the Republican base and in terms of the national conversation and elite media. So it's not like he's not that he's without any of his own cards to play in this chess match saga. And one last thing I was thinking about is, remember when Elon was tweeting about who he wanted, what he wanted Howard Lutnick for chargery? Is that what it was? And then he ends up not getting picked for chargery. He gets put in at comic. But he was able to do that and assert what he wanted for the government, even though he didn't get his way. There was no blowback from Trump on that. And I almost feel like that was a kind of, like, testing of the waters of how much he could. Oh, there's no question how much he could freelance. And he's sort of like a toddler, like, pushing the bounds, pushing the bounds, pushing the bounds of what he can get away with.
- [45:25]
Crystal Ball
This is all in Donald Trump's court right now. And if it works out, then it's fine. Right? Because if this works out, honestly, it'd be pretty good for Trump if you can get the debt ceiling off the table, that's fantastic. You really don't wanna deal with that while you're in office and you can just focus on your tax bill and all that. I have a difficult time thinking that will happen. But look, we'll see. I mean, this could drag on for probably days. Honestly, Congress could be here all the way till Christmas. It wouldn't surprise me.
- [45:47]
Various News Commentators
Yeah, well, the other thing is, I don't think Democrats are in the mood to rescue them.
- [45:50]
Crystal Ball
No, here's the thing. Why would you, right? Because you're letting this all play out. If the government shut down, there's always a fight about who's responsible, et cetera. But there's enough tweets out there now from Elon Musk.
- [46:01]
Various News Commentators
It's pretty clear who's shut down, right?
- [46:03]
Crystal Ball
There's enough tweets out there, there of Elon being like, shut down the government. Right?
- [46:06]
Various News Commentators
Yeah.
- [46:06]
Crystal Ball
And like I said, in normal times, government shutdowns are like, it's kind of a wash. People usually don't like em. But I think during Christmas, I think it would really. The travel stuff I think could really cause a lot of headaches. And you know, by the way, the Biden administration has every incentive to make it as painful as possible because something Obama did, which was very smart, even though it was all propaganda, is during the 2013 shutdown is even though we didn't have to, they just closed all the national parks. Even though they didn't have to, they started to. They made Americans feel it, the shutdown. So if you're Biden, you've got 31 days left in office, you're like, screw it. Boom. You know, you want to tamp down the temperature or you want to tamp down any positive feeling in the country as much as possible. And now imagine this. We have an inauguration to plan. This entire city is about to get shut down. There's a million National Guardsmen and all these other people are supposed to to descend on this place. And you gotta plan all that when people literally aren't even allowed access to their email accounts. So it could be a complete shit show is my point.
- [47:05]
Various News Commentators
You sent this in this morning, Sagar. David Plouffe, host, fantastic campaign aid for Kamala Harris.
- [47:11]
Crystal Ball
That's right.
- [47:12]
Various News Commentators
He's so good. Also, obviously was a very significant strategist for Barack Obama. But anyway, he tweeted unless it's to get rid of the debt ceiling permanently, there should be no Dem votes to raise it prematurely. Now a lot of talk about mandates, landslides and trifecta. Let those claiming absolute power use some of it to deal with the debt ceiling next year. And I saw Chris Murphy tweeting about this as well. Senator Chris Murphy. And I think there are a lot of Democrats who feel this way of like, okay, you guys wanna deal with, go ahead, be our guest. You all figured this out because we are not gonna come and ride to your rescue. I think the only thing that would potentially cause Democrats to really come back to the table because they did spend a long time negotiating this deal with Mike Johnson. Ultimately it didn't just come out of the ether. This has been months in the making. But I think the only thing that would really cause them to come back to the table would be something like getting rid of the debt ceiling permanently. Which the debt ceiling is this archaic, meaningless, stupid thing that only gets used as a hostage taking mechanism at this point. So if they could get the debt ceiling taken out permanently, that would be worthwhile. But I seriously doubt, seriously doubt that austerity minded Republicans are gonna wanna go along with, with getting rid of the debt ceiling forever.
- [48:26]
Crystal Ball
The alternative is Trump mints the coin, which if anyone would do it, he would be. He doesn't care about it.
- [48:30]
Various News Commentators
So true.
- [48:30]
Crystal Ball
He's just like, screw it, I'm just gonna do it.
- [48:32]
Various News Commentators
So true, so true. So maybe, maybe that's where we're headed. And that would effectively nuke the debt ceiling.
- [48:39]
Crystal Ball
Yeah, it would be over.
- [48:39]
Various News Commentators
Yeah, it'd just be over if he minted the. Because then once he's done it once, then everyone will just be like, yeah.
- [48:44]
Crystal Ball
That'S what this is what we did.
- [48:46]
Various News Commentators
It's over. This is what we do.
- [48:49]
Narrator
You wake up, put on your Ray Ban meta glasses. Classic style, innovative tech. You're living all in. You realize you need coffee desperately.
- [48:59]
User
So you say, hey Meta, how do I make a latte?
- [49:02]
Meta AI
To make a latte brew two shots of espresso.
- [49:05]
Narrator
After Meta AI gets you caffeinated, you start walking to work and you need a soundtrack.
- [49:10]
User
Hey meta, play hip hop music.
- [49:13]
Narrator
With the built in camera, you snap a pic of a dope mural on the side of a building that you think is worth sharing.
- [49:19]
User
Hey meta. Text my last photo to Eva.
- [49:22]
Meta AI
Sending message.
- [49:23]
Narrator
After work, you head to meet some friends.
- [49:25]
Meta AI
Hey, nice glasses.
- [49:28]
Narrator
Ray Ban meta glasses. The next generation of AI glasses. Just say hey Meta. To harness the power of Meta AI Listen to music, make hands free calls with open air audio and built in microphones and so much more. All while staying present to the world around you. Shop Ray Ban meta glasses@meta.com smartglasses hi.
- [49:51]
Savannah Guthrie
Everyone, it's Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb from the Today Show. We love this time of year. There's so much to celebrate.
- [49:57]
Hoda Kotb
That's right, nobody does the holidays quite like today all season long. Join us for special performances with the brightest stars.
- [50:05]
Savannah Guthrie
Plus festive recipes to whip up the perfect holiday feast. And great, great deals on the hottest toys and gifts for everyone on your list.
- [50:12]
Hoda Kotb
So join us every morning on NBC to make TODAY your home for the holidays.
- [50:19]
Ad Voiceover
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- [51:20]
Crystal Ball
Talking and speaking of the House of Representatives, let's put this up there on the screen. The House Ethics Committee has now secretly voted to release the Matt Gaetz ethics report. So let's take everybody back in time to November. Whenever Donald Trump wins the election, he shortly afterwards makes announcements about who are gonna get appointed to major cabinet positions. One of them is Matt Gaetz. As the Attorney General of the United States Matt Gaetz resigns from Congress as a result of this nomination. However, it quickly comes out that at the very same time the House Ethics Committee was slated to release a report about Matt Gaetz involving ethics complaints about him and his involvement with young girls and even allegedly somebody who was underage. Again, allegedly. Keep in mind, the Department of Justice did investigate this and he was never charged. Well, all of this then comes full circle when the so called ethics report was allegedly going to get released. If Gaetz stayed in the nomination process, it appears crystal that he had to drop out as a result of that because multiple senators said that there was no way in hell they were ever gonna vote for him and that it would eventually become a public circus. So he drops out of that. So now he is both no longer in Congress and no longer an incoming member, or at least cabinet administration figure in the Trump administration. He has since announced he will be taking up a position at One American News where he'll be hosting a primetime show. So Matt, welcome to the media game. It's great to have you.
- [52:50]
Various News Commentators
It's probably the lane he should be in, to be honest.
- [52:52]
Crystal Ball
Oh, absolutely. He's always been good at it. Yeah, let's be honest, he's talented, he's good. Right. He's got a big, he's got a lot of people who like him and at this point he's got a big personality. Exactly. That's what you need to be in this game. So I have no doubt he'll be successful. Now we thought, okay, it's dusted ethics report, it's never gonna come out. They say, no, no, no, no, no. He's not getting away so free. Even though he won't be the Attorney General, even though he's not even a sitting member of Congress, screw him. So basically they are still furious with him. Kevin McCarthy, who previously had allegedly read this report and it said previously he's like, I've read all the reports, I've seen the text messages. That's the only reason Matt Gaetz hates me. Cuz Gates is one of the people who got McCarthy kicked out. It is speculated that McCarthy encouraging all these members of the Ethics Committee, many of whom he raised a lot of money for, and he's like, no, no, no, get it out there. He's like, screw him, we gotta nuke his public reputation. So it appears that this is a behind the scenes long campaign by Kevin McCarthy to try and to get this to the front. And it has been successful, at least in terms of the vote. We haven't gotten the report yet. And by the way, I just wanna say, for all these reports, release all of them. Anybody? Sure, every single one. That's everybody. Invest any payoffs, every ethics complaint, et cetera. You know, here's the thing, they don't. This isn't a criminal proceeding. It's not about due process. If you're a member of Congress, you should be held to a higher standard.
- [54:10]
Various News Commentators
Fair.
- [54:10]
Crystal Ball
Than the rest of us. So I'm happy about it. Actually fair.
- [54:14]
Various News Commentators
Yeah. No, Kevin McCarthy is gonna hunt Matt Gaetz until the day he dies. Like, that is pretty clear. And I mean, there's some really basic, just like, human lessons here, too, which is this would not be happening if Matt Gaetz hadn't been like, people hate this guy. Like, people in Washington Pockets in Austin really hate him. In Austin really hate this guy because he was an asshole and they just didn't get along with him. I mean, it's really not ideological. The only ideological part is, like, the fight he picked against Kevin McCarthy, which, even though it wasn't really ideological, there were some things that he wanted out of that and that he aligned himself with. The small group that could hold up Kevin McCarthy's nomination is sent to speaker of the House. So to the extent that that was ideological, I guess. But most of this is just personality. And so, yeah, they took a secret vote. This happened apparently, a while ago. We're just now learning about it. And the report is supposed to be released sometime in the coming, relatively soon, coming weeks. And I also think it's pretty clear that you can say Gates, who I don't know, that he has a lot of shame, did not want this to come out because when he got the Attorney General nomination originally, he didn't have to. He did not have to resign from Congress. That is not a thing you have to do. And then not only did he resign, and when he resigned, that report was supposed to come out two days later. So he did it, like, in the nick of time. He resigns, and not only does he resign from this term, he's like, no, no, no, I'm just gonna resign the seat I literally just won reelection for. I'm also gonna resign that seat in an. Also an attempt to keep, apparently this report from coming out. So, you know, he. There's. There are things in here that are clearly embarrassing to him that he doesn't want to see the light of day. We do have a response from Matt. We can put this up on the screen that is. It's interesting what he has to say here. I'll just read the whole thing and then. Sagar, I get your reaction to it. So he says, the Biden Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations. I committed various crimes. I was charged with nothing, fully exonerated, not even campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me. Apparently, many people do that. Then the very witnesses DOJ deemed not credible were assembled by House Ethics to repeat their claims absent any cross examination or challenge from me or my attorneys. I've had no chance to ever confront any accusers. I've never been charged. I've never been been sued. Instead, House Ethics will reportedly post a report online that I have no opportunity to debate or rebut. As a former member of the body, in my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated, even some I never dated. But who asked? I dated several of these women for years. I never had sexual contact with someone under 18. Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court, which is why no such claim was ever made in court. My 30s were an era of working very hard and playing hard too. It's embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now, but at least I didn't vote for CRs that F over the country. So there you go. There's his response. Of course, the most noteworthy line there is that he sent funds to women he dated and even some he never dated.
- [57:18]
Crystal Ball
But who asked? I never dated. Just who asked? Wow. You know, that's a generous guy. Sounds like a good guy.
- [57:24]
Various News Commentators
He's a generous guy. He's just a nice guy.
- [57:26]
Crystal Ball
When people come up to me, I always give him money. Right. That's what you should do. That's out of the goodness of your heart. It's the holiday season, you know, who amongst us is not the son of a Florida scion millionaire? It's just the whole thing.
- [57:38]
Various News Commentators
Whose best friend is in prison for what? Taxes, fraud or.
- [57:41]
Crystal Ball
I don't even, I don't even remember. Yeah, the whole, this whole thing with the yacht and who. The guy who was partnered with, I think.
- [57:47]
Various News Commentators
Oh, that story is too.
- [57:48]
Crystal Ball
There's a problem there and everything. Blackmail, that was a whole other thing. Don't forget Matt Gael, his father is very, very wealthy and powerful. I think he's a former public official as well.
- [57:58]
Various News Commentators
Anyway, so one thing I think part of maybe the rationale and why people were compelled to vote for this report to come out is because even though he's taken his one America News Network gig, I mean, it's not clear he's done with politics.
- [58:11]
Crystal Ball
Yeah.
- [58:11]
Various News Commentators
So I think it is an attempt also to spike his reputation and limit his prospects of coming back in. What's going on with this Florida Senate seat?
- [58:21]
Crystal Ball
Yeah, that will. That was a big question. And actually I don't think he was ever in running for Senate really because.
- [58:25]
Various News Commentators
There was some talk about that.
- [58:26]
Crystal Ball
There was some talk of it. It seems that Lara Trump, who is Trump's sister in law or Sorry, daughter in law wants the job. That's Eric Trump's wife. And she was obviously a major figure at the rnc, and so she's got a lot of interest in politics. She's a Florida resident, Ron DeSantis under a lot of pressure to appoint her. It's not yet matter. It's not yet clear whether he's gonna do that. Then there's a big question about Gates and his future. Apparently he allegedly been wanting to run for governor. So apparently that's something that was there at least for after desantis is gone. So you could see how one America could kind of be a bridge thing for him before he ran for the governor. But apparently him and DeSantis hate each other, so there's a lot going on here. I don't know what it is. Interesting. But yeah, the Florida Senate thing, I think Lara Trump will probably get it, but we'll see. Interesting. I mean, I would assume that she.
- [59:13]
Various News Commentators
Had also been talked about for running for the North Carolina Senate seat.
- [59:17]
Crystal Ball
That's right. That was previous. But I think whoever it is, what is his name? Thom Tillis. I think he's the one who's. I think he's running for reelection. So that one's not going to be up and he seems to be playing better with MAGA and probably not going to face a primary. And it's just way easier to just get appointed to a seat and then defend that seat in a special election, which he almost certainly would win now that Florida is a red state. So.
- [59:37]
Various News Commentators
Yeah. The other thing is, I think DeSantis maybe a little bit has his own eye on that Senate seat. He could appoint a kind of placeholder who's alive if you wanted to. You know, he hasn't agreement with that. They're not going to run again.
- [59:47]
Crystal Ball
I don't know if he would. He hates Washington. I mean, he hated being a congressman. I don't know why you'd want to be a senator. I mean, a senator. Yeah, just to stay in the game. That'd be the only reason if you, if you really wanted to. But I mean, by all accounts, he really did not like going back. But yeah, I don't know. We. It's. It'll be, It'll be interesting.
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