← Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
2/27/25: Tesla $400 Million Coverup, Saagar Rips Trump 'Gold Cards', Near Plane Crash, Tapper Gaslights On Biden Age Coverup, Bezos Bans Anti-Oligarch Speech
01:00:22
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- [00:00]
Krystal Ball
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- [00:31]
Sagar Enjeti
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- [01:00]
Ashley Kinetti
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- [01:30]
Sagar Enjeti
Hey guys, Sagar and Kristal here.
- [01:32]
Krystal Ball
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.
- [01:39]
Sagar Enjeti
This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.
- [01:45]
Krystal Ball
So if that is something that's important to you, Please go to BreakingPoints.com, become a member today and you'll get access to our full shows unedited ad, free and all put together for you every morning in your inbox.
- [01:56]
Sagar Enjeti
We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you@breakingpoints.com let's get to Tesla, shall we? Because this is in terms of some of the fallout overseas and actually this is the curiosity of as Elon becomes more political. Yes, his wealth is extraordinary and all of that. How much of it, if it declines, will affect his overall performance, his doge, you know, image and all of that, I genuinely have no idea. I tend to think Tesla's his baby. It's the center of gravity of all of his net worth and power. But maybe he just doesn't care anymore. He's realized enough gains, he doesn't care about the company.
- [02:36]
Krystal Ball
So Tesla, I was looking, makes up about a third of his net worth. So it's certainly significant in terms of his wealth. And right now it really is struggling. I mean, the stock price is way down. Put this up on the screen. Tesla stock is really, I saw someone describe it as basically like a meme stock. I mean, the valuation doesn't really comport with reality anyway. And now they have this huge drop in, in sales. And that's part of what is driving this drop in terms of the, the stock price. Let's put the next piece up on the screen so I can explain more the numbers behind the drop in sales. In Europe in particular, Tesla sales have dropped almost by half, 45% year over year. And if you just look at the eu, it actually has dropped by half year over year. So back In January of 2024, they sold some 15,130 Teslas in the EU. This year it was only 7,517. Now you may say, okay, well maybe EV sales overall are declining. Not so. EV sales year over year are actually up. It's just Tesla sales, which are way down. I do think a lot of it has to do with him becoming this very toxic partisan political figure. And you have to remember he weighed in. I mean, obviously he's like controlling our entire political system at this point, but he also intervened in Germany and the sales in Germany are down something like 63%. So it's an even greater drop. He also was meddling in the uk. There's been a drop there as well. And there's been sort of a general European rejection of this foreign billionaire, richest man on the planet, trying to meddle in their politics. And also you have to think about the kind of consumer who is typically buying an electric vehicle. Most of them are liberal or lefties. So to have someone who is so closely associated themselves with Trump and the AfD and you know, waiting in on the grooming gangs debate in the UK or whatever, that's going to be a problem for the Tesla brand. Now, there are some other factors that I think play into this that aren't just about Elon's politics. Although, like I said, I do think that that is a significant part of what is going on here. One is, as we've been discussing, BYD is selling fantastic EVs, and so he's got more competition in terms of the electric vehicle market. And then the other one is people are potentially waiting for there's like, a new model of the car that's coming out in the spring. You probably know more about that than I do. So maybe they're just waiting and holding off for, like, the latest new thing to come out. But I don't think it's deniable at this point that his brand is a big part of this drop. There's also a drop in China that I would probably attribute more to the domestic competition.
- [05:13]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, market.
- [05:14]
Krystal Ball
And there's about a 13% drop here in the US of Tesla sales. And of course, they also have just become this very visible symbol of him. So you've had Tesla owners putting those bumper stickers on that are like, I bought this before I knew Elon was crazy. You've had some instances of vandalism. I don't know how widespread that is, but like cybertrucks getting spray painted with swastikas and Tesla charging stations being spray painted with swastikas, et cetera. So it has become this kind of, like, touchstone of resistance, visible symbol of him, et cetera. And it is significant to his net worth. But I wish, I thought that it would, like, matter and sort of check him and that this is, like, really going to hit him where it hurts. But the truth of the matter is, as long as he's in control of the federal government, he has all of our tax dollars backstopping his net worth. And I do think his primary at this point, ideological goal and like, company passion, is more SpaceX and the goal of getting to Mars. So I don't know if. I don't know if this is going to mean anything to him or not very possible.
- [06:15]
Sagar Enjeti
I'm not sure. We reached out to Doug Demiro, by the way, try and get him back on the show to talk about the Chinese EVs, because I saw a video of him just talking about how good they are and about why he's like, without tariffs and if we have pure capitalism, he's like, we're going to get destroyed in this market. So I'm actually really curious to see if we can try to talk to him about it, as you said. Look, obviously there's a new model, so there's some stuff going on there. Tesla's strategy as well has changed significantly. They cut a lot of their prices for this. If There is lessening demand. It could feed more into that. They still have the production on their side as opposed to every other company. There's still big questions as to whether the Trump administration will continue some of the EV incentives that are there. It's actually a big open question as to whether Elon would even want those EV incentives.
- [06:59]
Krystal Ball
No, he wants them to go away.
- [07:00]
Sagar Enjeti
And this is right, because it would subsidize the competition, which, let's be honest, not as good, and has way bigger production problems. So it's much more of a subsidy for Ford, GM and for the big three automakers than it is for Tesla, which has a proven, you know, it has factories, it has charging stations. It already has like the biggest market share out of all of it. So it would only make even more of a reason to invest to buy a Tesla.
- [07:25]
Krystal Ball
No, I think he, he sees it as a benefit.
- [07:27]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah.
- [07:28]
Krystal Ball
For which it mostly is EV credits to go away. He sees it as hurting his competitors more than. Then it hurts him. And I do think it's important to remember Tesla benefited from huge amounts of government cash. They were really on the verge of going under. And Elon personally begged the Obama administration. The emails that you launched, the emails have been released of him really hat in hand, like, we have to get this loan that enables them to be able to buy the factory in Fremont and live to fight another day and build up this successful car company. The other thing I didn't realize this is all from this Washington Post reporting. The other thing I didn't realize is a third of Tesla revenue actually comes from selling these, like, EV credits. And it's not just federal. A lot of that is state too, because California, of course, has very stringent emission requirements. And so Tesla, as an ev, zero emissions, they can then sell their credits to other automakers who need to be able to lower their emissions. So they sell and trade these credits on the market that makes up about a third of their revenue. In fact, the first year that Tesla was profitable at all, it was all because of these state and federal credits that they were able to sell. So, I mean, this is really the story of Elon. He benefited massively from government taxpayer subsidies, dollars, loans, contracts, et cetera. But now that he's made it into this post position, he wants to pull up the ladder and make sure that other companies can also benefit from that kind of industrial policy, which is why he would be perfectly happy to see the EV tax credits go away, because he thinks that will hobble his competitors here domestically. Now, I'm sure What he doesn't want to see go away are the ban on importing BYDs. I think he will make sure that that restriction on the market stays in place too.
- [09:21]
Sagar Enjeti
For me it's not about Tesla. It's true. We just can't allow that. We're going to destroy our entire car market. I mean if you. And this is one of those where the car industry in America is maddening and yet necessary, both from a jobs perspective, but just from the ability to manufacture. I personally, if I had the choice, there's no question in my mind I'm buying Xiaomi or byd. But I'm not going to like as an American consumer. And this is where I'll even argue against my own freedom. I shouldn't be allowed to because our manufacturing sector those job like it's just too important to the United States and to our future defense capacity. And I don't begrudge the Chinese, you know, good. If anything, I admire you, your ability to prop that up in a 15 year period. We can learn from it. We should absolutely study it and see what we can do to copy it. But yeah, I mean this is not even about Tesla. I'm just like, we cannot let these companies go bankrupt. Like World War II is often overused. But you know, if you look back in the day, the ability for those GM factories to overnight go switch to war production is super important. And when you lose that, then you become the country that we are right now, which is a husk of what it used to be that produces nothing and has 25% of its GDP riding on Jensen Huang's motorcycle jacket, which I don't want to live in that world. Right?
- [10:37]
Krystal Ball
No, I don't even, I don't disagree with you. I don't even disagree with Elon getting that loan at Tesla at a time when he needed it. Because no, I think it should have come with requirements for workers to unionize and things like that. What I object to is that the industrial policy he benefited from, he wants to now shut off the tap and spigot when it comes to his competitors. So in any case, there's another piece of this that is really important, which is Ryan and Dropsite did a fantastic job breaking the story about this supposed $400 million contract for armored Teslas coming out of the State Department. So they just looked at the list of procurements. Whatever they see, this contract is the largest line item and lo and behold, it is for Tesla's $400 million, the largest contract coming out of the State Department. So let's put the story up on the screen. This was Ryan's original story, now updated, says armored Tesla was forecast to win $400 million State Department contract after Trump's election. So after this was discovered, then they went in and changed the language so it no longer said Tesla, it said armored electric vehicles. Then the story was that, oh, actually this was initiated during the Biden administration and the number wasn't 400 million, it's really 408,000, something like that. So that was. Their story is like, oh, actually this started under the Biden administration and we didn't have anything to do with it. And this isn't going to happen anyway. Now we have another piece of the story. Put NPR did this reporting up on the screen. So they were able to obtain the original State Department document that shows the Biden administration was not awarding a $400 million contract. They were awarding only 483,000. And sometime after Trump was inaugurated, that amount got boosted from 483,000 to 400 million. So either this is an extraordinary clerical error that just happened to ignore to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars to the dude who is currently running the federal government, or they intentionally went in to try to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into Tesla and basically got caught. Now, this amount of money, by the way, just so you understand how much this is in the context of these State Department armored vehicles, and this would be to like armor up cybertrucks. A bunch of experts said this may not even make sense to use cybertrucks for this purpose anyway. But putting that aside, this would mean that they were replacing all 3,000 armored cars and SUVs around the world that are used to transport diplomats, VIPs, other officials working for the State Department, replacing all of them with cybertrucks, which are expensive, and then armoring them, which is also another, let's say, $80,000 to armor these things up. You have to go at that incredibly maximal approach to even come close to the $400 million that Elon was set to have sent to him. So it really looks like a potentially massive scandal and very clear example of self dealing and just theft and robberies, effectively, of the American taxpayer to take this $483,000 contract and just secretly boost it to $400 million. So, worth a lot more investigation here because like I said, it's either a very convenient clerical error or naked robbing of the public purse by the dude who is running the government right now.
- [14:13]
Sagar Enjeti
I'm gonna go with the job for Doge. This sounds like a good job for Doge, doesn't it?
- [14:17]
Krystal Ball
Interesting. Well, Ryan's reporting seems to have spiked the deal, so.
- [14:21]
Sagar Enjeti
Yes, and this is another thing.
- [14:22]
Krystal Ball
Ryan is journalism matters.
- [14:24]
Sagar Enjeti
Ryan really is the goat in terms of his ability to sniff some of this stuff out. And if you think about his track record, I've been seeing it recently, it's not only stuff like this, but the Romanian election. I mean, huge amounts of drop site reporting is responsible for Elon himself and Mike Benz digging into the Romanian usaid.
- [14:41]
Krystal Ball
And it's connection news. I know it's a brand new thing already essential.
- [14:46]
Sagar Enjeti
It's just incredible. So anyway, that's we. We stand Ryan here over.
- [14:50]
Krystal Ball
Ryan Grimm may have single handedly saved the government more than the entire.
- [14:55]
Sagar Enjeti
No, I'm talking about here. He could save the government here and he could save the government of Romania.
- [14:59]
Krystal Ball
I'm talking about. He's probably saved more money, like actual money, but for the federal government than the entire Doge elon Musk project, etc.
- [15:07]
Sagar Enjeti
Be possible. Let's blow this last one up here from usaid. This was flagged by Pedro Gonzalez. He's always an interesting figure. I'm not so sure though what to make of this. So he says, do you think Musk went after USAID because of its woke or because his rival had just recently scored its first federal contract? Is it possible he's using culture war stuff to mask an agenda? So apparently In August of 2024, OpenAI had revealed its first agency customer for ChatGPT Enterprise, which was USAID would use the tool and then apparently it was canceled by the USAID cuts that were there. I'm not so sure if that one is or is not the agenda that Pedro flags, but it does get to the whole idea of conflict of interest in the first place. It's like if you're gonna have personal agendas and Stargate and all this other stuff, then how can you be sure that this is being done for correct purposes? As I've said, I'm a Claude guy, I'm not a ChatGPT person, but I would just ask that we would try to reward a contract on some sort of competitive bid or not. I can have open questions in our mind. This isn't the biggest scandal, but it is still important. It's still important.
- [16:16]
Krystal Ball
It's just important to realize how many. Whether this was the motivating factor for Elon going after USAID or not. The fact that we have to question that, that's the point. And with USAID in Particular you have that. I mean we know he despises Sam Altman. They're locked in legal battles, he goes after him, they're fighting over the origin and the development of OpenAI, etc. So certainly convenient for him that this contract is, I'm sure at this point completely spiked. Dealing a blow to not only someone that he has personal animus towards, but also to a significant competitor. And I think Elon cares a lot about winning the AI race himself. So you've got that. You've got. Apparently USAID was also investigating the like starlink Ukraine situation that was going on. So you have that as a potential motivating factor as well. And then also, as I mentioned to you, USAID was involved in like backing the end of apartheid. He may hold a grudge over that as well. We don't know. And maybe it was none of those. Maybe none of those factored in the fact that we have to ask and we don't know. And he has so many personal interests intertwined in almost all of these agencies is a problem. It's a big problem in and of itself. And especially because Trump has just given him free reign to really do whatever he wants. And some of the moves do seem just naked self deal. I mean the $400 million Tesla contract, obviously nakedly self dealing, if that was intentionally changed, that's insane, right? Insane levels of corruption. You also have attacks on very specific offices within agencies that happen to be the ones that were going after Tesla or going after SpaceX and investigating them for alleged infractions and violations. So some of it just seems very difficult to deny, especially when you look at the overall picture.
- [18:03]
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- [19:02]
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- [21:03]
Sagar Enjeti
All right, let's get to the Golden Visa. I felt compelled to weigh in on this. I did not realize that Ryan and Emily were gonna be so supportive of what I think is such a trash program. So let's go ahead and play Trump's words first about how this is all gonna work, and then I will give you some analysis. Let's take a listen. Does this reflect a view on your.
- [21:23]
Unknown
Part that the American immigration system has never been properly monetized as you feel it should be.
- [21:29]
Well, not so much monetized. It hasn't been properly run. I get calls from, as an example, companies where they want to hire the number one student at a school. Person comes from India, China, Japan, lots of different places. And they go to Harvard, the Wharton School of Finance, they go to Yale, they go to all great schools and they graduate number one in their class. And they made job offers, but the offer is immediately rescinded because you have no idea whether or not that person can stay in the country. I want to be able to have that person stay in the country. These companies can go and buy a Gold card and they can use it as a matter of recruitment. At the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt. We're going to, we're going to pay down a lot of debt with that. And I think the gold card is going to be used by, not only for that, I mean, they'll be used by companies. I mean, I could see Apple. I've spoken with Tim Cook and by the way, he's going to make a $500 billion investment in the cut in the country only because of the results of the election. And I will tell you, the people that can pay 5 million, they're going to create jobs, they're going to spend a lot of money on jobs. They're gonna have to pay taxes on that too. So they're gonna be hiring people, they're gonna be bringing people in and companies in.
- [22:49]
Sagar Enjeti
Okay, so let me just go off on this a little bit. So let me give you guys a list of the countries that currently have so called golden visas. This is not a novel idea. It already exists across Europe and most Caribbean nations. So we've got Portugal, Spain, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, we have St. Kitts and Nevitz, Dominica, granada, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Lucia. And then there are a kind of like in America where we have something called investment programs and others in Australia, New Zealand, in Singapore as well. Now what do all of these countries have in common? They are either failing European nations with massively high unemployment rate which are selling access to Russian oligarchs and or rich businessmen across the world to the Schengen area and to the protection of the European Union. Or they are tiny little Caribbean nations which are basically selling citizenship for tax haven purposes, mostly used by crypto people and, or others who wanna escape the grid. Now why would you auction off the most powerful passport in the world for $5 million to a global elite class whose only purpose of buying the so called Golden Visa would be to use the United States as a tax haven for their ill gotten gains and or to launder money in our country. Now maybe you could justify that, but we already have a massive problem here of specifically these types of global individuals who rape their country's economies, bring it here for what purpose? To park money in the world's greatest and safest economy. So let me give you guys some figures. In Miami today, 20 to 25% of Miami's real estate market is owned by foreign nationals. In New York City it's 10 to 15% of the overall market. In Los Angeles it's 5 to 10%. In luxury areas it's actually more like 15 to 20%. All of these are held specifically by the types of shady characters that we don't want in our country. So this is part of the problem that we have in terms of our amazing cities. Places like San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, places Americans maybe should be allowed to live, are dominantly driven, especially at the luxury level, by these filthy rich foreign nationals. It's not fair both to the Americans who, you know, make this country and or hold this citizenship. But worse, the type of person who buys the Golden Visa is the exact opposite of like who you would want. And it also perverts the idea of citizenship itself. Citizenship is not supposed to be bought and sold like an auctioneer's passport. The purpose of a citizen is to have obligation to the country, not just to look at it as some sort of tax purpose. Now if the Caribbean nations and all that wanna do fine, you know, that you guys gotta make money somehow. We are the world's richest and most powerful nation. So that's my long screed. The Golden Visa is a preposterous and stupid idea. The current investment visa is plenty fine because it actually requires business investment, which would allow job creation and all that to happen. That's the way that Australia and a few other countries do it. But even then again, I have seen this program so perverted by the ultra rich like oligarch class. And in America, if we're gonna sell our pass, this is my final thing. We need a much bigger number than 5 million. It needs to be like 100 million. And that money needs to have a proven track record of actually going to its citizens. And they shouldn't be allowed to buy up a shit ton of real estate. So that's the end of my long rant. I just think it's disaster. It will massively if this were to go into Effect. Can you imagine the real estate markets in Los Angeles, in Chicago, in Miami, here in Washington, D.C. what do you think these people are gonna. American real estate is the gold standard market of the world. That's why they already park their cash here through all these shady LLCs. We don't need your money. We don't need you at all. You guys can stay in Cyprus or wherever the hell you're from.
- [27:02]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, I mean, this is sort of an extractive parasite class of global elites. And to your point, I'll just add this. In Spain, they actually rolled back their Golden Visa program, which was initially put into Place in 2013. And the reason that it became really unpopular and they rolled it back is because exactly what you said it was associated with, like, criminality and money laundering, and it helped you drive up the already high prices of housing in major cities. So, I mean, this has already been somewhat of a problem in places like Miami and New York, where so many of the condos are just permanently vacant because they're owned by these various oligarch, like, billionaires from around the world who are never there. So it really does sort of strip the vitality out of communities. It drives housing prices up and encourages and facilitates illegal activity. So not a great direction to go.
- [27:56]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, I just can't stand it. I was thinking about it, if you want to. Now, I'm not saying everybody should be able to retire or whatever, but in the most beautiful place in America, I acknowledge supply and demand. But when you look at the most, at the crown jewel places in the United States, places like La Jolla in San Die, and the average home price is like $7 million, you're like, okay, so who the fuck are you? And you start digging into it and you're like, oh, so a bunch of Saudis own this, this and this same thing in Beverly Hills. They literally make a joke about it over there, about all the people there are from Saudi Arabia or who are foreign nationals who'd use it as some sort of plaything. Do you think it should be a plaything? My modest ask is it should be a plaything, at least of American entrepreneurs. Okay. And not necessarily of the global elite class. We basically. Same with Miami. I love Miami. It's a cool place. Wouldn't wanna live there, but it's nice. Should it really just be the playground of South American criminals and. Or like oligarchs who are afraid that the Argentinian or Brazilian government could fall and seize their money at any time? No, it's not right. And then people, what happens you start to get pushed out more and more and more, and your city just becomes like a haven, an extractive place where people drive in from the burbs to serve some Chilean oligarch. It's like, that's not how America is supposed to work. It's not a real city, has no character and any of that. Or it becomes, like, ultra segregated and in some sort. What's that movie? I'm thinking of the Matt Damon film Elysium. Elysium. It becomes some sort of Elysium type place. That's already the case, in my opinion, for all of America's great cities. They're completely inaccessible to even people in the top 5%, let alone the top 2% of wealth. It's outrageous. So that's my modest proposal, is America should be a place that Americans can afford and. Or have, like, somewhat aspirations to Beverly Hills, San Diego, all these other places. Good luck. You know, it's like, it's not gonna happen. You could be filthy rich and you're still competing against some Saudi prince. I just don't think it's right. And that's the problem I have with this Golden Visa program. And as you said, a lot of the places that have implemented them, they hate the type of people that end up buying this car.
- [30:09]
Krystal Ball
Portugal hasn't liked it either. The EU is really discouraging, right, because.
- [30:12]
Sagar Enjeti
You'Re selling access to the European Union.
- [30:15]
Krystal Ball
I mean, you're just basically selling out your country. And then it also has not, like, raised that. If Trump's, oh, it's going to raise trillions of dollars. No, it's not like that has also not panned out in any of the countries that have tried it whatsoever.
- [30:25]
Sagar Enjeti
So I don't need some Russian oligarch or whatever coming over here and buying even more property in Williamsburg or in tribeca or Manhattan. Those places are plenty expensive as it is anyway. All right, so my rant is over. Screw the Golden Visa. We don't need it. You guys can stay wherever you are. Let's get to Southwest, shall we? Yeah.
- [30:43]
Krystal Ball
So air travel has been obviously a consistent concern over the past several months. And even going back years, we've been tracking how, you know, the decline in air safety and how nervous people are now to fly. And this image I'm about to show you is not gonna make you any less nervous. Let's put this up on the screen. This is a near collision as the Southwest plane is landing at Chicago Midway Airport. And just as it's about to touch on the ground, it has to Pull back up to avoid this fricking private jet that then is taxiing down the Runway in front of it. So quick thinking and quick acting by this Southwest pilot. Kudos to them. You can see it here in slow mo just how close they are to a horrific collision. But that was not the only incident where this occurred within 90 minutes. And we could put this next piece up on the screen with some of the details here. Within the span of 90 minutes on Tuesday morning, two airplanes, one at Reagan national, which was just the site of that horrific deadly passenger plane crash just a couple weeks ago, and the one we just showed you at Chicago's Midway International Airport. Both were forced to abort landings to avoid collisions, according to Federal Aviation officials. So an American Airlines flight that was arriving at National Airport from Boston was making its final descent, suddenly had to cancel its landing, climbed toward the skies, accelerated away from the airport. The last minute move allowed it to avoid colliding with another plane that was about to take off from the same Runway. And that's according to the faa. The airplane's pilots were told to scrap the landing by an air traffic controller to ensure separation was maintained. And then the incident that you just saw around 8:50am Central Time, the pilots of Southwest Airlines Flight 2504 traveling from Omaha had to cancel the plane's landing at Chicago Midway after a business jet entered the Runway without a authorization. So two insane and terrifying incidents. Like I said, kudos to both of those pilots for being able to make those maneuvers. My understanding is the one that you saw in Midway was a bit of a closer call than the other one. But both of them, it's like, what the hell is going on here? And in addition, Katie Pavlich, we can put this up on the screen. She was on a flight headed to some conference and she says her flight was just about to take off and the pilot, it slammed on the brakes upon departure. We were seconds from being off the ground. Terrifying incident, apparently. Sagar, she updated and said this was some sort of a mechanical issue or failure. I don't know what the hell is going on. Of course, you know, this comes amid the backdrop of air traffic. The FAA has not been immune from Doge cuts. They say that they aren't firing any air traffic controllers. But a lot of the support staff, it's been reported, have been. Some of the support staff have been let go. You've got now Doge engineers. Sorry, yeah, SpaceX engineers affiliated with Elon, running around this place and continuing to have terrifying incidents like this. There has been A shortage of thousands of air traffic controllers for years. Now, I have no doubt that there are some federal government agencies that should and could be trimmed down and too much staff or whatever, the FAA is not one of them. This is one where you really need to staff up, you really need to invest because air travel safety matters to people. And all of these incidents are horrifying.
- [34:10]
Sagar Enjeti
Well, what's interesting about air travel is if you think about it, it's got a very different permission structure than almost everything else. The number of acceptable accidents is what, zero? Yeah. So even with a failure rate of minute percentile, it's still too high. And it's one of those where you need to have the hundreds of billions of dollars that flow through the airlines and that the bedrock of like international travel and all is built on is when you get on a plane, it's not a problem. And so that's why even events like this, or like 9 11, for example, can wipe out an entire sector of the economy. And it's one of those. It's just fundamentally different. I mean, you and I are a business. Like we operate on a very different risk profile, right? Like we can absorb various different hits or we can think and take risks, et cetera. You can even do that in a car. As a society, we've just taken and accepted like we're gonna have like X amount of fatalities a year. And like that is what it is. But it's different for airlines just because it's like control thing in terms of who's in power, but also just because if you started to see like cascading events and all that, it would remove and suck complete trust out of the system. So that's where I worry about the most. And I just think what we're watching here, it's not a doge issue because this is like a decade long thing. It's about lack of prioritization by the government. It is also a lot of privatization and financialization in the airline sector. A lack of oversight over probably the last 20 years. Like when we talk about mechanical failure and all that, and it just culminates where it's kind of like the Chinese EV thing. One day you just wake up and you're like, oh shit. Like maybe these planes are not nearly as safe as they used to be. So it both happened over a long period of time, but it also wasn't that, you know, it wasn't that long ago that we didn't have incidents or questions like this all the time. It could be a matter of information, but I do still think it's unacceptable to have things where they are right now, of course.
- [36:04]
Krystal Ball
And, you know, the way it relates to Doge is because the whole ethos of Doge is privatization is stripping the government down and outsourcing everything. And that is the ideology that has led to the FAA being so bare bones that you have that you're short thousands of air traffic controllers. That is the mentality that led the FAA to basically outsource their own safety regulations to the industry, where they're effectively regulating themselves. And, oh, yeah, this plane is safe. No problem. Don't worry about it. That's the mentality and the ideology that led us to that place. And now Doge has put that ideology on steroids. That's why it matters. And it's also, you know, I mean, this is a perfect emblem of, as you were saying, Sagre, like when you're running Twitter and you cut a huge proportion of the staff and the Twitter spaces with Ron DeSantis fails, like, that's really bad for Ron DeSantis and did not help him. It was embarrassing for Elon. It was really pathetic. And then, you know, Trump did spaces as well, and it also didn't go all that well. But no one's gonna die, right? Some functions of government are absolutely critical. They're critical for life and death. They're critical for food safety, they're critical for veterans benefits, they're critical for elderly people who are relying on that Social Security check. They're critical for moms who are showing up at the hospital, have a baby, and who are on Medicaid. It shouldn't be run like a business, because sometimes the results of failure are truly, truly catastrophic. And so this is a primary emblem of that where the core ideology of privatization and strip the government down, that is being pushed by Doge is exactly how we got to this place where people are now second guessing air travel in a way that has never been the case in my life. I mean, I can speak for myself. Like, I don't want to get on a plane right now.
- [37:59]
Sagar Enjeti
Well, because it's not just this. It's near misses. It's the Boeing shit, the blowout. And it's like, I mean, as I'm in the crash, I'm not gonna just. I still think people should get on a plane. It's good for you. Get on a plane and go and travel. I've flown plenty since all of these crazy things. Am I clutching the thing a little bit more? Am I looking over in the window thinking about it just Making sure and be like, all right, you know, what's going on here?
- [38:19]
Krystal Ball
Every time we land, even that just makes it so much less of a pleasant experience. Yeah, I used to get on a plane, not think about anything. And they actually interviewed a dude who was on this plane that had to quickly take back off the one at Regan National. And he was like, I was already really nervous because of the crash that just happened here. And I was feeling the sense of like, okay, we're only. We're two minutes to landing. Like, we're almost there. It's gonna be fine. He's kind of white knuckling it. And then just before they touch down this sharp, you know, ascent, and he's freaking out. Freaking out. I'm sure everybody on that plane was absolutely freaking out, like, what the hell is going on? So, yeah, it makes you so that if you're on the fence, you're like, I don't really want to sit there in terror for several hours. I'm not really in the mood for that. I'm not an adrenaline junkie.
- [39:10]
Sagar Enjeti
It doesn't help that every single day I drive past 66 crosses or whatever, which is for all of the people who died on that Reagan flight. So if you live in the DMV area, there's. Yeah, it's like a literal. I mean, it's a good thing, you know, obviously, to remember.
- [39:23]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, the people die.
- [39:24]
Sagar Enjeti
It's just every day I'm like, oh, fuck, man. Just see the planes come in.
- [39:29]
Krystal Ball
There were actually a bunch of people from my little town that had been coming back from a hunting trip.
- [39:33]
Sagar Enjeti
Really?
- [39:34]
Krystal Ball
That actually read about that. Yeah, a hunting trip. They were. They were like, contractors, like, you know, working in the construction industry. And so, yeah, that. That hit close to home for sure, for a whole lot of people. But, you know, it just. It gets into your head, and even though you could tell yourself the statistics, oh, it's safer than. You know, you're more. You're safer there than you are driving in your car to get to the airport or whatever. But when you're up in the air, it's a different kind of a vibe. You want to know that, like, okay, everything is locked in, and they got this under control.
- [40:03]
Unknown
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Sagar Enjeti
Play the Godfather now@Champacasino.com Welcome to the family. No purchase necessary VGW Group void We're prohibited by law 21 + terms and conditions apply. Let's get on to Joe Biden. So this just had to put this one in the show cause it's like a little bit too perfect in terms of the way that this all works. So obviously, what was the greatest scandal of the Biden administration? If you're a Republican, you're gonna be like, oh, Hunter Biden. It's like, no, it was the fact that this senile dementia ridden old man was basically given a free pass up until six months before election day.
- [43:00]
Krystal Ball
Undeniable.
- [43:01]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [43:01]
Sagar Enjeti
Up until he melted down in front of all of our eyes. And that we basically had like some shadow morons like Jake Sullivan and others run the entire, entire United States government. It was genuinely like a Republican fever dream of reality. And yet now we're allowed to talk about it. And that's perfect in terms of a new book that's being released. Let's put this up there on the screen. It was announced yesterday from CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson. It's called Original Sin. President Biden's decline, its cover up and his disastrous choice to run again. Okay. And actually if you read the book jacket, it's even more shocking because they talk specifically on the back of the book where they're like, it wasn't a bad debate, it wasn't a cold. It was a systematic campaign to cover up. Yeah, here I have it in front of me. What the world saw in the 2024 debate was not an anomaly. It was not a cold. It was not someone who was under or over prepared. It was not someone who was just a little tired. It was the natural result of an 81 year old man whose capabilities had been diminished for years. B, his family, his team let their self interest and fear of another Trump term justify an attempt to put at times an addled old man in the Oval Office for four more years. What was the extent of it? Who knew? Was it a conspiracy? We will let the facts speak for themselves. They say it was based on 200 interviews with Biden officials. So I wanna split the difference here for Alex Thompson. As people know, we had Alex Thompson on the show. Legit dude. Now, did he call out the Biden stuff as much as I would've liked? No. But was he ever denying the reality of Joe Biden being an adult old man also? No, he took it seriously. He did a lot of reporting about it. And actually he was one of the only critical Biden reporters the entire time about how shit was really going on in the inside and about how people were terrified really of Biden's age. And so when Biden dropped out of the race, he was a go to for here on this show and for a lot of other People. Tapper, though, is a whole other story in terms of CNN and how they treated the Biden age allegations until it became undeniable. We're gonna show people a clip in a little bit, but I just think it's ridiculous that Tapper is acting as if he was some sort of lone voice out there trying to tell the truth when he was just as complicit in attacking people who were bringing up Biden's age as all these other idiots in the mainstream media. So. So I'm gonna read the book. I'll be honest and honestly, Jake, it's.
- [45:32]
Krystal Ball
Gonna be a blockbuster.
- [45:33]
Sagar Enjeti
Jake, please still come on the show. I wanna talk to you about it. We could talk about this face to face. Alex, I know he'll come on. Well, at least I hope so after all of this. But I don't. I just feel like if it's a little too cute right now to put something like this out there and just act like you had no idea the whole time. Jake, you're one of the best source reporters in Washington, man. Like, if you wanted to, you could, but you just decided not to.
- [45:58]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, I think that's, for me, the biggest question, because we're gonna show a clip that is really bad about him being. Oh, he has a stutter. Like, oh my God. Anyone who engaged in that is like stutter discourse.
- [46:09]
Sagar Enjeti
You're done. If you believe that, you're an idiot.
- [46:13]
Krystal Ball
In fairness, that was back in like 2020. It was stupid that you. I mean, obviously we know how we cover at the time, right? Weeks, like, it was so obvious. If you looked, even in 2020, if you compared him then to when he was vice president, it was very clear. This was not about a stutter. This was about. This is an old man. And guess what? Aging only goes in one direction. You're not gonna get younger over the course of your time in the presidency. So anyone who wanted to see the signs could see the signs. But even beyond that, because he wasn't the worst of the mainstream press in terms of covering up even into his presidency and running for reelection. Whatever. There are some clips floating around of him challenging Karine Jean Pierre on his age and concerns around that, et cetera. But I think your point is a really important one, which is that you are deeply entrenched in the firmament of dc. You are very well sourced. You keep those relationships. Did they trick you? Were you part of the COVID up? How did this get by you to the extent that it did when just regular Americans across the country, Democrat, Republican, independent, Alike were able to more accurately understand the extent of his decline than the Washington press corps and Jake Tapper being one of them. So that's my question here, like you said. That being said, I'm gonna read the book. I have no doubt it's gonna be a blockbuster. I know probably Alex wanted to have Jake on it because it will also, like, they'll get every media appearance they could possibly want to issue with this. And it's kind of amazing to me that it still is not seen as the massive scandal that it truly was. I mean, this was a gigantic cover up. And if you're someone like me who's very upset about Donald Trump being back in the White House, like, you should care the most deeply. Because I think if there had been a Democratic primary process, if people have been allowed to run and voters have been allowed to truly make a choice, Democrats would have been in a much better position going into this election. And given the closeness of the election, I think it's reasonable to say it's very likely they would have prevailed. So, yeah, it's gonna be interesting to read. It's gonna be interesting to see who knew what and when. But I have some questions for Jake Tapper. Like, for you, what did you know and when? Why weren't you asking questions? Why weren't you really taking it seriously? Were they just able to trick you or were you part of sort of intentionally, intentionally hiding just how bad the extent of the decline truly was?
- [48:55]
Sagar Enjeti
Absolutely. So with all that, let's take a listen to the Tapper clip. It's from 2020, but this is him on Biden's age.
- [49:00]
H
How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?
- [49:07]
Ashley Kinetti
First and foremost, I had no idea that Joe Biden ever suffered from a stutter. I think what we see on stage with Joe Biden, Jake, is very clearly a cognitive decline. That's what I'm referring to. It makes me uncomfortable.
- [49:21]
H
You are. No, it's so amazing to me that.
- [49:26]
Ashley Kinetti
Try and figure out an answer.
- [49:27]
H
A cognitive decline.
- [49:28]
Ashley Kinetti
You're trying to tell me that what I was suggesting was I think you.
- [49:32]
H
Were mocking his stutter. I think you were mocking his stutter. And I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline. I would think that somebody in the Trump family would be more sensitive to people who do not have medical licenses diagnosing politicians from afar. Plenty of people have diagnosed your father from afar. And I'm sure it offends you. Your father in law from afar. I'm sure it offends you. You don't have any standing to say.
- [49:58]
Ashley Kinetti
I'm not diagnosing him what I'm saying.
- [50:00]
H
James, you just talked about a cognitive.
- [50:01]
Ashley Kinetti
Decline that Joe Biden is.
- [50:04]
H
I have one last question for you, Laura.
- [50:05]
Ashley Kinetti
You can't on stage and it's very concerning to a lot of people that this could be the leader of the free world. That is all I'm saying. I genuinely am sorry for, for Joe Penn in it.
- [50:15]
H
I appreciate it.
- [50:16]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah. How do those kids, those persons inflicted with stuttering, feel? This is the sanctimony, the attitude. That's the problem is that people like us and others, any reasonable person was able to just be like, yeah, I don't think so. He's like, he miraculously had a stutter that materialized in 2020, even though he's been on a camera for 45 years. And I personally saw Joe Biden at a campaign rally in 2012. That is the Biden in my head. And I remember seeing him in 2019. And just like, oh man, I attended Joe Biden's as a journalist, very last speech as vice president in 2016, which again is in my head three years later. And I was like, dude, this is totally the different person back then. And as he was president, it was the most openly discussed thing by anyone who was not connected to, to institutional media. And this is the type of bullshit that they used to basically silence and to smear people who were bringing up the most obvious. So, like, as you said, I'll buy the book.
- [51:19]
Krystal Ball
Okay, Sorry, I will buy it.
- [51:23]
Sagar Enjeti
You got me? All right.
- [51:24]
Krystal Ball
Hopefully maybe they'll get us a review copy. Some of us have to pay.
- [51:26]
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, that's true. Since we're. Yeah, we can probably get a free review copy. But maybe, honestly at this point I should just buy it after this point of talking about it. But the point, I guess, of all of it is just to say you had the opportunity to know you did definitely participate in all of this. And don't be coming around here acting like you're some, you know, Seymour Hersh or whatever, sniffing out the greatest story in the world. Like you're not and it's fine.
- [51:51]
Krystal Ball
Did he engage in any cheap fakes discourse?
- [51:53]
Sagar Enjeti
I don't know.
- [51:54]
Krystal Ball
That would be truly unfair.
- [51:55]
Sagar Enjeti
I'm not one of those Twitter discourse guys who goes back and checks everybody past posting history and all that. But on this one, I just think it's egregious to act as if you were a forward facing person with credibility. And I actually feel bad for Thompson because he genuinely was on the story at the time as opposed to Tapper. But I get it. It's Washington. You need to make some money, so we wish you the best.
- [52:22]
Unknown
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- [54:54]
Krystal Ball
All right, we got one more media story for you guys. This is actually pretty significant. So Jeff Bezos yesterday puts out this tweet indicating that he is going to end the Washington Post tradition of publishing a range of viewpoints on their opinion page and is only going to basically push a pro oligarch agenda exclusively. Not that it's a surprise that that's Jeff Bezos preference, but pretty interesting to make it just completely brazen. So let's go ahead and put this up on the screen. This is the message that he sent to all the staff and journalists at the Washington Post, which of course he owns. But also he put this down on Twitter. He says, I'm writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages. We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two personal liberties and free markets. We'll cover other topics too, of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others. There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader's doorstep every morning a broad based opinion section that sought to cover all views. But today the Internet does that job. I am of America and for America, proud to be so. Our country. Do not get here by being typical. Big part of America's successes been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical, it minimizes coercion and practical. It drives creativity, invention and prosperity. I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admired, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him if the answer wasn't hell yes, then it had to be no. After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift. It won't be easy. It will require 100% commitment. I respect his decision. We'll be searching for a new opinion editor to own this new direction. I am confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I'm excited for us together to fill that void. This makes me basically short circuit because what I want you to understand is when Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, talks about free markets and personal liberty, he doesn't mean like for example, the freedom of his workers to be able to form a union or to go to the bathroom when they need to his drivers to have enough of a break to not have to pee in a bottle while they're delivering packages. When he talks about free markets, he does not mean the type of free markets that would lead to Amazon being broken up because it's a gigantic monopoly that has rigged its own algorithms. That's not the kind of free markets that he's talking about. What he's talking about is for the ability of him, an oligarch, to have unbridled power and freedom for himself and unlimited coercion and exploitation when it comes to you. That is the agenda that he is talking about pushing here. And it is also quite noteworthy, coming after he blocked the endorsement of Kamala to try to curry favor with Trump. Is it Trump's inauguration completely trying to suck up to him? And Trump has obviously handed his administration over to the richest man on the entire planet, the preeminent oligarch of all oligarchs. And Bezos is basically saying, I'm going to get rid of any of these hippies and liberals who might criticize that direction and make sure that when the CFPB is gutted, they're on board with it. When the National Labor Relations Board can. They can't issue rulings, as has been done, they're gonna be on board with it. That's what this is actually all about.
- [58:33]
Sagar Enjeti
I completely agree. And the thing is with Bezos is I also just think there's a lot of Elon envy going on here in terms of his personal jealousy. My analysis of Bezos is that he is humiliated by the whole democracy dies in the darkness stuff previously and. Or didn't pay attention either. Or he wants to fire many of the people who work for him who he thinks are too woke or are embarrass or whatever. But the problem is, is he doesn't just come out and say it. And so he invents all of this cockamamie bullshit that we're all supposed to believe. So, for example, we're no longer gonna endorse any candidates miraculously in 2024. Right? So we're gonna create this, like, principled standard when everyone's like, dude, we all know what you're doing here. Same thing. Personal liberty and free markets. Okay, surely from a business perspective, if I want personal liberty and free market opinion paid, who am I going to? The Wall Street Journal or, sorry, Jeff Bezos at the New Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal, which has a century of standing up and literally carving out this niche for itself. Or the Financial Times. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go for the latter just as a consumer. So, what, in an office space meme elon way, what do you do here? What is your purpose? Here, it's like the purpose here is to serve your own personal end.
- [59:49]
Krystal Ball
And.
- [59:49]
Sagar Enjeti
Okay, okay, that's fine. It's your right. You own the paper. You can do as you would like. But spare us your sanctimony. Spare us all this fakery. Spare us this idea that you care about personal liberty and free markets. You don't care about personal liberty. You're the second largest employer in the United States who routinely cycles through all of these people, discards them as trash, has completely realigned our markets, lobbied against free market, like true free market principles. I mean, just, you know, stop. Just stop this idea that you believe in free speech. Do you know how many conservative books and others were banned on Amazon? Remain banned, actually, up until, I think, two weeks ago. There was a Ryan Anderson, who is a guy who wrote a book about some transgender issues. His book was banned on Amazon for five years and only recently was reversed, obviously, as a result of this. But I'm just saying, like, it's capricious. It's done in a nature where it's all up to his own own, like, personal whims. So just spare us, dude. Please. Let's stop pretending.
- [60:55]
Krystal Ball
Also, many people pointed out the irony of backing supposed personal liberty and free speech at a time when you're censoring your own on your own platform, saying, those viewpoints aren't gonna be allowed here.
- [61:05]
Sagar Enjeti
This is where I get it.
- [61:07]
Krystal Ball
Preposterous.
- [61:07]
Sagar Enjeti
You can employ who you want. Is that censorship? Like, no, not really. But the point is, is that you're doing it out original, which. What do you believe? That's what I just come back to. Was it democracy dies in the darkness, which you did under your leadership? Was it reversing the editorial direction and hiring a British tabloid guy to rebuild your business? Cause if you want a new business, let me tell. Take it from somebody who owns a media company with you. Don't do this. This is really stupid. Who's signing up for it? Anybody who wants this viewpoint subscribes to the Wall Street Journal. And why would they trust you? Anybody who wants this democracy dies in the darkness stuff has already canceled and has decimated your subscription business. So you're using this effectively as a propagandistic tool to bolster your own net worth and to curry favor. Okay, fine. You know, you're actually just in the right tradition of William Randolph Hearst and all these other people from the days of old, but they were a lot more explicit about it, whereas you're trying to dress it up in all of this principle and I'm holier than thou. We will never just endorse one candidate or another. It's like, oh my God, like, just shut.
- [62:15]
Krystal Ball
Remember how after being, oh, we don't do endorsements anymore. People can decide for themselves. Then they weighed in with endorsements.
- [62:22]
Sagar Enjeti
Exactly. Every cabinet. You're exactly right.
- [62:25]
Krystal Ball
The cabinet picks. It's like, what?
- [62:26]
Sagar Enjeti
And miraculously picked all the Washington choices. And then we're like, oh no, RFK Jr. Or whatever. Just so happens that Amazon wants to be a huge player in the healthcare space. Right? It's like, in the same way we can talk about with Elon. I mean, remember also. So the problem is the press always comes to their defense. And in a sense, their crocodile tears today are useless. I'm not talking about Jeff Stein, but I mean, you and I remember when Bernie Sanders pointed out the Washington Post ownership by Bezos. They were furious with him. They have never acknowledged oligarchy whenever it was used as a tool for the Capital D Democratic Party. It's only now that they're willing to talk about it. Part of the reason a lot of people don't even take them seriously and think they're full of shit. Which I think is fine. But can we all just like come together now and be like, this is ridiculous. You know, this whole Bezos project, the way that he uses the op ed page and all. There's no noble, you know, idea or any of this. And if anything, Zuckerberg's Contortia and Elon's like, actions and Bezos and all that just, it tells us what they're all about. So like, let's just be honest here.
- [63:34]
Krystal Ball
That's the only silver lining, is that it's no longer deniable. It's like, you know, I mean. Cause yeah, that Bernie thing really sticks in my craw because their coverage of Bernie Sanders was so negative and so dishonest that like total smears and fake fact checks and all this stuff. And he said like, hey, maybe the fact that it's owned by this very wealthy oligarch, maybe that has something to do with their perspective on my democratic socialist approach. How dare you, sir, suggest that the one of the wealthiest people on the planet who owns the newspaper would have any say over the nature of their coverage. It's like, okay, all right, well, now we see, we see what the reality is. We see what is entailed when you have oligarch owned media and he's just effectively coming out and saying it. So yeah, I think that is the one silver lining is it is no Longer in any way deniable whatsoever. And you asked, what does Jeff Bezos actually believe? We know what he believes. He believes in himself, his own self interest, like whatever's good for. That's what he believes in. That's why when he thought it was good for him to be part of the resistance and democracy dies in darkness, that's how he positioned things. And now that he feels this vibe shift and he wants to curry favor with the Trump administration, he doesn't give a shit about the Washington Post as a business venture. He cares about it as a tool for his own power. And that has always. That is not new. That has always been the case. So same with Zuckerberg. When it was cool to be. When it was cool to be woke, he was woke. Now he's moving his content moderation to Texas and he's wearing his chain and hanging out with Joe Rogan. And what, like these people are shameless in service of their own power and their own self interest. And that is what's going on here. Absolutely. Let me just roll through the rest of these elements. We mentioned Jeff Stein, who, you know, fantastic economics reporter there. He says massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos in the Washington Post opinion section today makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there. I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of coverage. But if Bezos tries interfering with the news side, I will be quitting immediately and letting you know. Marty Baron had weighed in before. Previous editor in chief of the Washington Post, very well known. I'm gonna put this up on the screen from the Daily Beast, he says, there is no doubt in my mind that Bezos is doing this out of fear of the consequences for his other business interest, Amazon, the source of his wealth and blue origin, which represents his lifelong passion for space exploration. Barron wrote Wednesday he has prioritized those commercial interests over the Post, and he is betraying the Post longstanding principles in order to do so. I think that is fairly undeniable at this point. And he also points out, which I didn't even realize, he says it was only weeks ago the Post described itself as providing coverage for, quote, all of America. Now its opinion pages will be open to only some of America, those who think exactly as. As he does. Also worth noting, Sager, Amazon had floated that, what, $40 million Melania documentary. So also funneling cash into the first lady's bank account, to the Trump family bank account there, as well as one more way of currying favor. The Trump administration Pretty happy with this. You can put this tweet up on the screen. This is Steven Chung is assistant to the President and White House director of communications with a little Grinch evil smile in reply to Jeff Bezos. Note that he sent out here last piece I'll put up on the screen. This is from Saurabh Amari who actually writes a newsletter with Emily over at Unherd Ryan. Emily had him on the show recently. He says Jeff Bezos rebrands a Washington Post as the billionaire billionaires think tank. And he says one of the world's richest men wants his newspaper to push policies that favor the rich. That's the upshot of Jeff Bezos announcement today. Henceforth, the Amazon boss decreed his paper's comment pages will promote libertarianism, quote, free markets and personal liberty and will not publish opinions contradicting these central principles. While the story has a dog bites man quality, breaking tycoon prefers low taxes and weak unions. It's still a dismaying turn since the Wall Street Journal comment pages where I cut my teeth are also strictly committed to free market libertarianism. It leaves the New York Times opinion page as the only national print outlet where writers can argue for greater union density and more robust antitrust enforcement, say or against Wall Street's hollowing out of the real economy. And I'm sure Stoller could spend hours regaling us with tales of how Jeff Bezos is the antithesis of someone who was committed to actual free market competition. So just coming out and overtly backing this pro oligarch agenda and also signaling like a rightward shift for the paper in the era of Donald Trump.
- [68:30]
Sagar Enjeti
That's what I mean though. It's actually, it's not right word in a sense. It's just the most naked. Like when you say personal liberty and free markets, it's really just a libertarian like mascot off. Actually it's not even libertarian. It's what corporate capture libertarian. It's like corporate libertarian.
- [68:48]
Krystal Ball
Yes, that's right.
- [68:48]
Sagar Enjeti
And just openly saying it, you don't believe in personal liberty, dude. Like you don't believe in free markets. It's just the worshiping of those ideals and frankly tricking a bunch of idiots into backing it so that you continue to get your tax benefit cuts, your preferential treatment, making sure that you don't face even like modest workforce concessions. That's what this whole thing is. And look, I mean in a way, thank you for telling us the truth finally. It was obvious for some of us. Perhaps it will be obvious to the rest of you and maybe the corporate press will stop defending them, although I highly doubt that because they're subject to many of the same pressures. True. All right, we will see you guys later. Make sure you guys subscribe so you can watch the Rohit Chopra interview. Really looking forward personally to taking a look at it. Supporting that type of work here we do at breaking points. Otherwise we'll see you you later. When it comes to playtime, never let your squad down. Unlock elite gaming tech@lenovo.com Push your gameplay.
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Krystal Ball
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Sagar Enjeti
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Krystal Ball
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Sagar Enjeti
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- [70:51]
Ashley Kinetti
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