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- [00:00]
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- [01:01]
Narrator/Storyteller
old Audrey and her mom Sarah saw the eviction notice taped to their apartment door. As she half listened to Audrey talking about her day at school, a piece of mail caught Sarah's eye. She picked it up and then dialed a phone number.
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Rocket Money Advertiser
Thanks for calling Pacific Source.
- [01:16]
Pacific Source Representative
This is Laura.
- [01:16]
Narrator/Storyteller
She figured her health plan wouldn't be able to help.
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Will Sommer
Actually, I think we can.
- [01:21]
Narrator/Storyteller
Sarah learned that Pacific Source provides members with support beyond healthcare, including connecting them with housing. Help Pacific Source Health Plans all right, folks, it's happening.
- [01:33]
Sam Stein
After months, years of trying to convince Will Summer that we need to do a live show on Mondays and call it MAGA Mondays. We're doing it. This is our first live show. It's me, Sam Stein, Will Summer, author of the False Flag newsletter here on Monday at 10am we're going to try to make this an every week thing if it doesn't kill us. And we're just gonna talk about the weird that happened on the Internet over the weekend. It's gonna be inane, but I think it'll be informative too. And for instance, today we're gonna be talking about what we got. Cash Patel chugging beers with the Olympics hockey team chugging. And then just like, I can't have any more beer and just, just tossing it. It's like I've had too much. I'm going to get into the chugging method and all that. I want to go deep on that. And then we have Tucker Carlson and Mike Huckabee, the ambassador Israel starting an incredible diplomatic incident with a inane interview that resulted in real problems. I think from a geopolitical perspective, we'll get into that. And then, of course, we got to go with Will's favorite subplot. Uh, the James Fishback gubernatorial candidate in Florida, which gets messier. Will got candidates saying, you're not a real griper. You're not. It's like normally you'd say thanks, but not in this case. All right, Will, any initial thoughts before we dive into it?
- [02:57]
Will Sommer
No, I mean, I'm happy to thank you for everyone joining us. You know, I think this is going to be an exciting new franchise for us here. And look, I mean, as I expressed when we were kind of figuring out what day to do this Monday, I think is great because on the weekend, you know, things kind of tend to get a little crazy for, for our, the MAGA people I report on, you know, there's always a lot of drama for whatever reason. I think going into Friday, they get a little restless and often, you know, things spill out. So I'm excited to be here.
- [03:25]
Sam Stein
We gotta make you saying restless into a meme of some sort. All right, let's start with. Let's start with Cash. Let's play the video. This was skyrocketing around the Internet yesterday. So basically, if you haven't, if you've been living under rock. U.S. olympics hockey team men's beat the Canadians in overtime.
- [03:39]
Will Sommer
Golden goal.
- [03:40]
Sam Stein
I. I don't really understand why they go three on three, right, in overtime as opposed to four on four. It was really quick in the overtime period and then this happened. And the setup here is that Cash Patel, our director of the FBI, has a lot on his plate. The bureau is in shambles, apparently, according to reporting. And then in the days leading up to this, there was a bunch of reporting, including from number of outlets like Ms. Now that said, hey, he's going to Milan and he's going to go check out this hockey event. And this is a potential misuse of government resources. The FBI director has to fly on a government plane for security reasons, but it's a heavy cost to taxpayer and Cash. Patel has been highly critical of past FBI directors for doing this because it's unnecessary now. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. And then.
- [04:29]
Will Sommer
Well, I was just going to say, I mean, this is kind of the really puts the capper on Cash's love of using the private jet. I mean, people may remember in the past he went to see his girlfriend sing at a wrestling match. And as you said, you know, he has to take the jet? Yes. He reimburses the government for personal trips or whatever percentage of the trip was personal at the cost of a commercial airline fare. So let's say he paid for this whole flight. Like he would have flown to Milan. So what, 1200? At most. $1500. Mississippi now says the. The real cost to the government is like $75,000. I kind of suspect it's higher than that, but, I mean, it's a huge amount of money.
- [05:06]
Sam Stein
Huge, huge amount of money. And the other thing is, though, is that in the lead up to it, the public affairs office at the FBI was insistent, like, well, no, no, no, no, no. This is an official trip. He's got these four stops in Italy. He's meeting with all these people there. They're going over security functions at the Olympics. They're, you know, taking notes for potentially security functions that the FBI will be in charge with. For the FIFA games. It may be incidental that he goes to a hockey game, but that's not the purpose of this trip. And if you look at it, it clearly was the other way around. It was like he built these official functions around his desire to go to Milan to watch the hockey game because he's a huge hockey fan. And so, yeah, they took it on the chin for that.
- [05:51]
Will Sommer
Yeah, among other things. Cash Patel plays on a hockey team called the DC Dons, sort of a intramural hockey team. So, yeah, he loves hockey. And this is. This is clearly what they're up to. Now that he's taking heed for using the jet for personal business, they'll kind of look. I mean, people will meet with the FBI director. I'm sure they can kind of come up with these kind of pretextual appointments. You know, one of them was, well, you know, the FBI is involved in Olympic security, so he's got to go. And it's like he's going at the end of the Olympics, though, you know, I mean, wouldn't it make more sense maybe like three weeks before the Olympics? I mean, this idea that it's just. He just had to go to Italy during this one week period. I mean, it's just so ridiculous.
- [06:32]
Sam Stein
And this kind of. Yeah, and then becomes even more ridiculous because at first it was like, well, is he gonna be secretive about it? And then the first inclination that he was there was that he was kind of captured in this. It was either an Instagram live shot, and he's in the locker room and he's just sort of smiling. He's looking happy, and you're like, okay, he made it down to the locker room. He clearly was there. That's. You know, the COVID is blown. He. He definitely went to him a lot to watch this hockey game. And then he. Then there's a video that emerges that's tr. Incredible. Let's watch the video, and we could talk about it on the flip side.
- [07:21]
Will Sommer
You would think he's the MVP of the game. Of course they're playing Toby Keith. This is not what he did. Rival reason. Because any hockey players were like, no,
- [07:37]
Sam Stein
they got to start making up. All right, keep going, Cash. So look, couple things here. One is, I. I checked because I was like, he looks really small. They must be wearing their skates. They're not. He's just small. They're. I. You look. I, like, did, like, little z reaction. I was like, oh, yeah, those are shoes on them. They're. They're not in their skates. He's just a small guy. The beer chugging is what's incredible to me. So here you have Cash. He's in the locker room after the victory. They're all going crazy. And he's the FBI director. And it's. To me, it's like, I don't know. If I were in that position, I would probably just be like, congratulations, man. Like, really proud of you. Did great for the country. It was like, hand me a beer. I'm going to chug it.
- [08:28]
Will Sommer
Well, this is what, like, Comey and Mueller would do. I mean, they would go into the locker room. You know, they would. They would douse themselves in Gatorade. Where's my Michelob? Yeah. I mean, in that video we're seeing, Cash is surrounded by the hockey players, and they're all just jumping up and down, and Cash is just chugging. I really. You know, this is. They say online, like, like, bro thinks he's on the team. I mean, it is crazy. Like, I. Like, maybe he's friends with the hockey players. He obviously is.
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Sam Stein
He said he is.
- [08:54]
Will Sommer
I mean, he's one of America's most prominent hockey fans, obviously. Like, I mean. And look. I mean, if the FBI director was like, you know, obviously, he has a private jet at his disposal, among other things. I mean, if the FBI director was like, I'm obsessed with the thing you do. I'd be like, all right, that's cool. And so, you know, maybe it is genuine. They all love Cash, but it is. You can't have the FBI director chugging beers and, you know, jumping around like this.
- [09:14]
Sam Stein
It's insane. Banging the table. I was trying to figure out what, what was the beer he had? I, I know we said it was Mikola, but I couldn't tell was it. Are you sure it's Mikob?
- [09:24]
Will Sommer
I think the, the discussion has been that maybe it was a Corona or I guess that's maybe later. I think that's when Trump calls them. It's a Corona. But yeah, he.
- [09:32]
Sam Stein
So there's another video. We're not going to play the other video. It's like a three minute video. Afterwards, he's still in the locker room and Trump calls and he's on Cash's phone. You could see that the phone has dt, the initials Donald Trump on it. And he's, you know, they're just like talking about. Trump is in heaven. He's like, you know, talking to the boys about how great it was and makes a bunch of jokes about how great the goalie was. Then he makes a joke about, oh, I'm gonna, gonna have you at the State of the Union address on Tuesday. He's giving State of the Union address. It's like, I guess I have to invite the women's team. And then. And all the guys laugh. And then in the middle of it, Cash is holding the phone with one hand and just pops another beer with another hand and he's just drinking more beer. And like, I guess, I don't know. I'm sure this is going over. Tell me, well, how's it going over in. In like the MAGA world? I know there's some people who want to spin it as eyes just being a dude and this is awesome, but like, is everyone feeling that way?
- [10:29]
Will Sommer
You know, I am seeing a lot of the. There was not a huge reaction to it. I think this is sort of the kind of thing that you want to kind of tamp down and sort of ignore that, that you go, oh, maybe we're going to go to war with Iran or, you know, talk about something else. But I'll tell you what, Cash does have his haters. Yeah, the haters have been going wild. And you know, Chief Cash's chief hater, a former FBI agent named Kyle Seraphin, who I've written about as sort of like the bogeyman who, who haunts Cash's nightmares. He actually was like, I think one of the first guys to really highlight. He was like, hey, there's that first video where they, they pan. It's like, okay, hockey player, hockey player. And then Cash Patel kind of a jump scare. It's like, oh, is that the FBI director? And I feel like, Even the past 24 hours has become so normalized. But, you know, it's. It is a crazy situation. And I think. But even. I mean, this doesn't look good. I mean, but ultimately for Cash, this is such a key one Trump can't get rid of. Because he needs, like a. Just total band. Well, because he needs like a, Like a.
- [11:27]
Sam Stein
Like, I'm putting another sycophant in there. I disagree with you. Put another sycophant.
- [11:31]
Will Sommer
I don't think you could find a lowlier sycophant than Cash Patel. I. I do, like, legitimately think it's hard because, you know, for example, like, they have that guy who's the deputy FBI director who kind of replaced Bongino. It was the Attorney General, Missouri. But that's a guy who, I don't know a lot about him, but has his own kind of rise to power. I mean, Cash Patel is a guy who's completely dependent on Trump. The other thing I would add quick here is Cash Patel is really like, one of the government's most prominent bros. I don't think he gets enough credit for it, but, I mean, he's in hot. He's doing hockey. He was using the jet to go to MMA games. I mean, he's really, like, blown out in a big way and obviously using his government jet to do it.
- [12:08]
Sam Stein
It's absurd. I mean, it's just. It is absurd. There's, in theory, a lot on the FBI director's plate. Like, Nancy Guthrie is still missing. That's been a priority of Cash. He spent. Wasn't he. Was he out there? I forget. He spent a couple days where he's. Yeah, he went out there. He's prioritizing it. What the. They haven't caught whoever abducted Nancy Guthrie. I mean, come on. Like, there's so much going on right now, and we're about to go to war with Iran potentially. I mean, there's going to be obviously heightened domestic threats because of it. He's out there chugging beers in. In the bowels of the Olympic Stadium. Like, come on, man. It's. It's crazy to me. Now, of course, all the. All the MAGA folks that I saw were like, wow, this is gonna be awesome. Like, you know, stop being so, you know, uptight about it. This is just loving country. I. I don't know. Honestly, I don't think so. And maybe Trump likes this stuff. But my theory, the case is that if there's something that's going to harm him, it's not that he bros out or goes to these events. Like Trump does the same thing. It's that he looked like a, you know, he looked a little bit like kind of pathetic, like I'm part of the team. And then chugging the beer, which Trump absolutely does not do. Like, that's not in Trump's vocabulary to do that stuff.
- [13:25]
Will Sommer
Yeah, I mean, he looked like a fool. And, and, and I think like that's also what the flying to see the girlfriend thing plays into. I mean, it's one thing to kind of like flex in this way. Or I think if he was sort of looking like, oh, you know, I'm hanging out with the fellas. But, but as you said, at the point where you're kind of pouring thirsty,
- [13:39]
Sam Stein
like not literally thirsty and figuratively thirsty. It's unreal to me. And then he put out. What did he put? He put a tweet out. He was defending himself. He said, oh, you know, I just love America. And to all my media haters, here it is. You can see it for the very concerned media. Yes, I love America. Was extremely humbled when my friends. Are they his friends? Do we know this?
- [14:01]
Will Sommer
I mean, he obviously had something. People have compared it to the moment in heated rivalry when one of the hockey players calls down the smoothie making guy onto the court after he wins onto the ice. He's like, you know, we need cash.
- [14:16]
Sam Stein
Do you think they're friends with him? Because they're like, this dude's the head of the FBI.
- [14:22]
Will Sommer
Yeah, I better not. You know, we gotta make sure to invite him.
- [14:27]
Sam Stein
We were just asking where you were. We saved you this beer. Here's a gold medal. Cash, please. Please don't do anything to my family. Cash. Yeah, okay. We could take the tweet down. So, yeah, that's Cash's weekend. We'll just. For. For prosperity. The other thing is he. Like we mentioned above, part of the issue here is it's just pure hypocrisy. I mean, he was very critical of Chris Ray, the FBI director, for using the government funded jet for personal travel. We could play the video here. This is just him talking about Chris Ray using the jet to go on vacation. Let's play the video. I'm not saying take all their funding. I'm not the defund everything guy. I'm just saying Chris Wray doesn't need a government funded G5 jet to go to vacation. Maybe we ground that plane 15,000 every time it takes off.
- [15:19]
Will Sommer
This is our minimum.
- [15:22]
Sam Stein
Just a thought. Thank you.
- [15:24]
Will Sommer
I know the penny bencher over here. I mean, you know, in the reaction to the sort of the initial Cash jet controversy, his side was saying, well, you know, Cash decided that we're going to land at the Army Air Force Base, the military air force base in Washington, rather than use Reagan Airport. It's like we're going to use regional airports to save a little marginally on like the landing fees. Yeah, you know, I think we kind of blew all that with this one trip to Milan. So I, you know, so much for that.
- [15:51]
Sam Stein
This doesn't even get to the DHS jet that they're trying to buy for Corey and Christina. But that's another topic for another day. All right, we spent a good 15 minutes on that. I'm ready to move on. There's other things that happen. So I was not following this one. We're going to go to Tucker Carlson and Mike Huckabee. I admit I was not following this as closely. So can you do the sort of like 30,000 foot summary of what exactly happened here?
- [16:14]
Will Sommer
Yeah. So Tucker Carlson obviously has been a big detractor of Israel and Mike Huckabee is America's strongest soldier for Israel as the ambassador to Jerusalem. I mean, he is he. So at one point, I think a few weeks ago, he said, tucker, you son of a gun, why don't you interview me? You come to Israel and I'll show you how it really is. And it's so nice. In particular, they've made a lot of like Tucker said that Christians in Israel are sort of abused by the government or, or by Jewish activists. And so he said, you know, we're going to show you how nice the Christians have it here. And then this kind of Tucker does fly out there on a private jet. There's, there's this kind of like, interesting, like contra terms where he claims like the embassy wouldn't provide security for him to travel from the airport. And then there was kind of this implication that the Israeli military was going to shoot down the jet because Tucker said, well, you need to provide them with like my tail number so they know I'm not like a hostile jet. And they said that won't really be necessary. I think they just know it's like a civilian jet. And then he said, like, that's crazy, you know, and so let's just say, you know, this is a case student stop.
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Sam Stein
Just up. So Huckabee invited him.
- [17:19]
Will Sommer
Yes.
- [17:20]
Sam Stein
And he did it under the idea that here's this incredible vocal critic of Israel, I can win him over with my southern charm and convince him that Israel is Actually good. Just as long as I get him to Israel and he can see for his own eyes.
- [17:35]
Will Sommer
Yes. And Tucker, I think, was very concerned about the get him to Israel aspect.
- [17:40]
Sam Stein
And Tucker in turn, thinks he's going to be abducted or killed.
- [17:43]
Will Sommer
And so ultimately, the compromise they come up with is they're just going to do an interview in the diplomatic terminal at the Israeli airport, and then they're going to. Tucker will then escape immediately afterwards. And so they have this interview. Mike Huckabee, I will say, sounds like a lunatic. He does not come off very well. I mean, he really, like, people are like, I can't believe this is an ambassador. Like, you watch it, you kind of get into the rhythm. I mean, it's two hours long. And the big moment comes when he says that. Tucker says, well, you know, there are these kind of hardcore Israeli Zionist activists who they want the concept of Greater Israel. So Israel encompassing parts of Egypt all the way to the Euphrates river in Iraq. Would you be okay with that? And Huckabee says, yeah, and essentially like Israel taking over the whole Levant, all of that. And you, you won't be surprised to learn some Arab countries that would be encompassed in Greater Israel were not thrilled.
- [18:38]
Sam Stein
So, yeah, that's not the only thing that Huckabee got tripped up on. There was another moment we didn't even put in the prep doc, but I'm trying to describe it correctly, where Tucker was like, do you believe that, like, you know, the opinions of Americans voters are important? And Huckabee's like, absolutely. They mean everything. And then Tucker's like, well, 80 don't want a war with Iran. Should we not go to. And then Huckabee's like, well, we should still go. It's just like, like, so, yeah, that was bad, but that, but it was bad on all sides. Like, it was just a very bad interview for both people because at one point. Let's play here. Tucker accuses the current president of Israel of falsely of being on Jeffrey Epstein's island. And again, this is false. I believe it's based on some AI thing or something. Let's play the video quickly.
- [19:24]
Will Sommer
President of Israel, current president. I know you know, President Herzog know him very well, apparently was at Pedo Island. That's what it says in the disclosures. And of course, we know that the former prime minister, he. Barak. Yeah, so. So I can give a little background there. So the one of the Epstein emails that came out said, oh, by the way, the president of Israel is this Herzog guy is going to be visiting Epstein. I guess he didn't call it Epstein island, but, like, But. But epst that he'll be visiting my island. And so Tucker's making a reference there, and then there was some kind of AI generated imagery that was circulating. And so he's saying it really confidently, but, you know, the Israeli president came out and said, that's not true at all. Like, and I think heavily implied some lawsuit would be coming for Tucker. And so then Tucker had to put out a video saying, oh, my gosh, I certainly don't want to jump to conclusions about anyone in my commentary, you know, so. So he retracted that.
- [20:15]
Sam Stein
Retract it, but not apologize.
- [20:17]
Will Sommer
He did apologize. He said, you know, I'm. It was very. It was an unusual tone to get from Tucker. I. I will say that this kind of like, oh, you know, we're running. We gotta. This is an Edward R. Murrow situation. You know, we have to be really rigorous.
- [20:30]
Sam Stein
So why would. Why would Huckabee want to even bother with this? I mean, honestly, it seems to me like Tucker's kind of a lost cause on this stuff, at least. And. And there's no point in trying to engage because you know what you're gonna get. You're going to get him trying to trip you up and make you look like an idiot.
- [20:43]
Will Sommer
I think Tucker may have called his bluff here. I think he may have. Huckabee may have thought Tucker wouldn't go to Israel. And then that might explain why the embassy was being so weird, according to Carlson, where, you know, he's saying, you know, we're not going to provide you security or anything like that. And then ultimately there's like, all right, fine, you know, we'll just go to the airport. The other thing I would add, though, is, you know, Tucker's claiming that when they were at the airport, they, some of his producers were detained and there was this kind of this scuffle, you know, that there was this threat of maybe, you know, some of them will be trapped in Israel. Some of the surveillance footage came out that appeared to show Tucker looking pretty. Pretty buddy buddy with these security officials, though. So it's a little unclear, you know, how serious of a threat this really was.
- [21:25]
Sam Stein
That's like a Nancy May situation.
- [21:28]
Will Sommer
Yeah, exactly. Iconic airport footage. You really, really play so much into our current events these days.
- [21:33]
Sam Stein
It's amazing. I just. You go somewhere, you make up some sort of airport confrontation, and they have security footage.
- [21:41]
Will Sommer
Turns out they have cameras at the airport. I wish I had.
- [21:43]
Sam Stein
Yeah. Who knew who knew that they were filming this stuff? What's your current take on Tucker's, like, status in the conservative ecosystem? I'm always sort of perplexed. Like, sometimes I feel very powerful. Sometimes if he feels more marginal. What's your latest state of play on that?
- [21:58]
Will Sommer
You know, that's a good question. I think the. There has been a lot of pushback to him. I mean, I. I think in part it's because with the war in Gaza over for now, I think Israel seems like somewhat less of a pressing issue in American politics. I mean, that may change a lot, you know, tomorrow, you know, if we invade Iran. Sure.
- [22:16]
Sam Stein
But.
- [22:16]
Will Sommer
But I think that there's sort of this sense I. He seems like. I feel like a lot of people are starting to say he's a kook. And I think, like, the more kind of traditional Ben Shapiro conservative, pro Israel types are getting a lot more offensive against him. So, again, I mean, he. He is sort of always in this kind of, like, weird space where, as you said, he's very influential in some ways because he has a big audience. But I think in other ways, like, people are very hostile to him.
- [22:39]
Sam Stein
Yeah. But every now and then, he'll just pop up at the White House, it feels like. And you're like, oh, yeah, shit, he still matters.
- [22:45]
Will Sommer
Yeah, that's true. And, you know, I mean, perhaps a sign of his influence will be if we do go to war with Iran, because in that case, he obviously, I don't think, really has a voice in the administration. No.
- [22:54]
Sam Stein
It does bring me back to the initial bombing of Iran where everyone was freaking out. Remember, like, this is in conservative universe, too. And then, of course, the bombing did not. There was no backlash. I should say there was backlash, but Iran did not, you know, hit us back for it. And those voices seem to be quieted. You don't see that, really. Honestly, you don't see the same sort of trepidation on the right as. Even as we're building up to go to war with Iran right now.
- [23:21]
Will Sommer
Yeah. I mean, I think after the. The first bombing in Iran and the Maduro stuff, I just feel like the right is just like, all right, whatever. I guess we're going to do intervention. You know, so much for, you know, America first or right.
- [23:31]
Sam Stein
Although Rogan had it. You saw. Did you see Rogan? Joe Rogan had a little bit of. There's a viral clip going around where he was like, what the. There's too much news going on. Like, this is incredible.
- [23:40]
Will Sommer
Like, it's just.
- [23:41]
Sam Stein
I sometimes don't want to unplug. He's like, gonna go to war with Iran. So it's like some people are seeing it. It's just. But I'm with you. I think that people have just gotten used to it at this point because there hasn't been American casualties, Knock on wood.
- [23:55]
Will Sommer
I think that's right. I mean, you know, at the point where, you know, after the Venezuela raid, you had people like Nick Fuentes, who claim to be these kind of big doves in terms of foreign policy, saying, you know, oh, this is sick. You know, like, like, I feel like a real fallback for even these kind of, you know, these dovish figures is saying, you know, like, just like so sexing the American military in action. Or, you know, more and more we see people say, and this doesn't really apply to Iran, but they'll say, hey, that's the Don Row doctrine, baby. And you know what that is? Yes. That was the COVID of a New York post from a few months ago. That's not a real thing. He was like, hey, hey, it's the Don Row doctrine. Yeah.
- [24:30]
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- [26:00]
Sam Stein
yeah. All right, last topic of the day. Your boy, your boy Fishback. I mean it. This is getting like absurd. So James Fishback for people who don't it's getting absurd. It's been absurd. James Fishback for people who don't know is this 30 something far right wannabe griper maybe Groiper who's running for governor in Florida. He is. It's hard for me to assess and I'll ask you, and I want you to take this in a second how real it is or how serious people should take the bid. It's running against among others Representative Byron Donalds Congress who is widely considered to be the front runner for Republican party for governor and usually the front runner kind of doesn't engage with these like far off middling challengers. But that seems to not be the case anymore where Byron Donalds has gone heavily after Fishback over the weekend among other things accusing him of not being a real griper. Is that the video we have?
- [27:07]
Will Sommer
Yes.
- [27:07]
Sam Stein
Let's play this video and then Will's gonna take over after this.
- [27:11]
Will Sommer
The people that run their mouth will never walk up to you or walk
- [27:14]
Pacific Source Representative
up to me and say what they say.
- [27:15]
Sam Stein
Of course he said oh wait no not this video. Let's pause it for a second. I'll get to that. Anyway. Yeah, yeah this is a different video Anyways. Well did talk a bit about what Donald's is doing here.
- [27:27]
Will Sommer
I think Donald is getting a little, little concerned to be honest with you. I mean I, I think he on one hand James Fishback is a truly ridiculous character. You know I've written about him. He is a sort of what we might call a talented Mr. Ripley type and a sort of a charlatan in many fields. This is very well documented in court records. You know you said he's 30 something. I was going to say his girlfriends aren't always because you know famously he's been accused of dating a 17 year old when she was in his anti woke debate program and he was in his 20s. And so this is guy is not a guy who should be governor Florida and so Byron Donald's however I think you know there was some polling out and I think from one of these like Patriot polling firms but this showed that, that Fishback is getting you know into the double digits that he's not at 1% anymore and you know take that with a grain of salt. But it is interesting that that Byron Donald is going on the offensive more and is, is you know he's saying, James Fishback wouldn't say that to my face. It's like, I'm sure James Fishback would love to. You can see him trying to get into that event.
- [28:26]
Sam Stein
Yeah, we're gonna play out. Yeah, we'll put that in a second. But what's crazy to me is that Byron Donalds is like, you're not a real griper. You're no racist. And I'm thinking to myself, if anyone said that about me, I'd be like, thank you. Yeah, you're right, I'm not.
- [28:41]
Will Sommer
Well, do we have that you're not a real griper tweet?
- [28:45]
Sam Stein
Yeah, let's put the tweet up. Okay, there it is.
- [28:48]
Will Sommer
I hear you crashed out. And so the crucial thing here is the third paragraph where he says, you're no racist. You're no groper, you're no anti Semite.
- [28:59]
Sam Stein
You're.
- [28:59]
Will Sommer
What people hate about politics is the implication that people love the gripers and the anti Semite.
- [29:04]
Sam Stein
But I get what he's trying to say. He's trying to say you're just pretending to be a racist in a group because you think it plays well, but you're actually not.
- [29:12]
Will Sommer
Yeah. And yeah, that is, that is definitely true. I mean, he, you know, he's had all these, these pivots. James Fishback was, I think a year ago, a real big pro Israel guy. He was writing for Barry Weiss in the Free Press. He wrote so much, so unbelievable. He loved them so much that he put up this college student who is his minion into creating a fake identity to email the Free Press and say, wow, I really love James Fishback.
- [29:37]
Sam Stein
You gotta hire him more.
- [29:39]
Will Sommer
I mean, it is, it's crazy. And now he's just like, you know, I'm, I'm, you know, he's also just incredibly racist towards Donald. But as you can see, I mean, this. Yeah. It is, I think, striking to say that, like, to see that Byron Donald sees the groiper thing as compelling enough that he has to say, hey, man, you're just adopting that, that identity.
- [29:57]
Sam Stein
Yeah, we laugh about it because it's crazy. But like, James this week is authentically racist towards Byron Donalds. It's calling him Byron.
- [30:06]
Will Sommer
He says, he said he's a slave. He's going to send him back to the ghetto. I mean, it is, it's not even this kind of code word. I mean, sometimes you'll call him like DEI Byron or whatever.
- [30:14]
Sam Stein
Yeah.
- [30:15]
Will Sommer
But I mean, it is, it is really sick stuff. Yeah.
- [30:18]
Sam Stein
Yeah. And it's, it's Disturbing, honestly, that whatever traction he's getting for it, he's getting some, he's clearly getting some traction. I mean, this person should be dismissed from public life.
- [30:29]
Will Sommer
He has these college events where it's like hundreds of, of kind of disaffected young men.
- [30:34]
Sam Stein
Weren't you in some focus groups where they were like, I like this guy?
- [30:38]
Will Sommer
Yeah, we did some focus groups with Sarah Longwell where they would say, you know, like, I, I like Fishback because what they, and they brought him up by, you know, organically, and what they liked about him was he has these, I think, what a very good politician. I don't think the ideas are good, but it's a good tactic to come up with kind of a novelty law. And so in this case, taxing only fans creators at 50% of their income. And then one of the only fans ladies said, you know, hands off my money, pal. And then they got into a spat. But I mean, it's these kind of things that generate controversy and people, you know, I think young men in particular, just briefly, I think there's this real kind of like, oh, I hate the, I hate only fans because it's, you know, taking all the, the trad women away from me.
- [31:20]
Sam Stein
Has it?
- [31:21]
Will Sommer
I don't think so. No. I, I, I think I, I don't think the situation is as catastrophic as they, they think.
- [31:30]
Sam Stein
Just went on a different path than I thought. All right, so as you noted, as we played briefly, we'll play the video now. Fishback did decide to try to confront Byron Donald's to his face, or at least to create the illusion that he was. I don't even know if Donald's was there. I, I just like this video because the, the, the thick tri state accent of the cop comes through so great in this video. But let's, let's watch.
- [31:58]
Will Sommer
The people that run their mouth would never walk up to you or walk
- [32:02]
Pacific Source Representative
up to me and say what they say.
- [32:04]
James Fishback
He said, I'm Kamala Harris. That's interesting.
- [32:07]
Pacific Source Representative
Right there.
- [32:08]
Sam Stein
Listen for the cop.
- [32:12]
Rocket Money Advertiser 2
Stop right there.
- [32:12]
Will Sommer
Sorry. Stop right there.
- [32:14]
Sam Stein
Stop right there. Stop right there. So stop right there. It's not real until you stand right
- [32:20]
Will Sommer
here and you say it to my face.
- [32:21]
James Fishback
Will I be arrested if I walk into that building and ask Congressman Donald why he would slander me and my family that way?
- [32:26]
Sam Stein
You cannot go well until then.
- [32:28]
Will Sommer
Not sure how I feel about that neck tattoo on Fishback security.
- [32:32]
James Fishback
He has ordered you to arrest me.
- [32:34]
Will Sommer
Universe, you're less than nothing.
- [32:36]
James Fishback
He has told the university to arrest me if I Walk into this building. He has done.
- [32:41]
Will Sommer
Suede chore coat. Looking good.
- [32:43]
Sam Stein
Yeah, looking great. Okay, so what. What was that? Do we know?
- [32:47]
Will Sommer
So. So Byron Donalds is having an event, I think, at Florida Gulf Coast University. And the key thing to understand about James Fishback is his whole thing is going to university. So I don't know if he sees this as his turf or whatever, but they're trying to have this confrontation. The other thing I would say about James Fishback is you have to keep in mind, as you see his antics here, these kind of frantic Steadicam antics of his. He is in a. In a real life, uncut gem situation with his finances. He owes $2 million to his former hedge fund employer. They are repossessing everything he owns. They repossessed his Tesla. He bought a fancy watch. They are trying to take that. So as he's doing all this, he's like dodging these creditors. So that, I think, plays into his frenetic behavior.
- [33:30]
Sam Stein
There's no way he's taking campaign donations, just using them for birthday, of course.
- [33:35]
Will Sommer
Hey, dude. For next week's False Flag.
- [33:39]
Sam Stein
All right, last thing on this. There is this. There's this questionable accusation of arson that's happened where Fishback says someone tried to burn down his house and then put up a video where he's holding a gun. And he's like, well, I guess we have the. Oh, is that the still footage or we have video?
- [33:58]
Will Sommer
I guess I think we just have the footage there.
- [34:00]
Sam Stein
Okay.
- [34:02]
Will Sommer
Magazine is not in. I'm not a big gun guy, but.
- [34:05]
Sam Stein
Okay. Well, maybe he's practicing some things.
- [34:08]
Will Sommer
Kind of like when Malcolm X would be at his window, right?
- [34:10]
Sam Stein
Yeah. Yeah. So do you. What is your, like, suspicion level here of whether the arson is real or not?
- [34:17]
Will Sommer
So this was a. Yeah, this started a few weeks ago where Fishback was like, someone tried to set fire to my house while a campaign meeting was going on. And then you look at what the fire was, and it was like a brush fire that encompassed maybe 4ft square, if that, I guess. And it's very far from the house. I will add that, you know, on one hand, if you look at it on Google Maps, the house does have a lot of, I would say, uncut brush. So maybe someone just tossed a cigarette as they were going by spontaneously. It does make one wonder. And the fire department has said, especially, I would say, given Fishback's history of sort of duplicity and other matters, but the fire department department has said that they are not investigating this as an arson. I do Think I checked with the police. They referred me to the fire department. From my perspective, if I was a police officer, if someone tried to burn down the home of a gubernatorial candidate, that would strike me as a potential criminal act that I might want to look into. So it does make me wonder what really caused it.
- [35:13]
Sam Stein
Yeah, I don't know. Don't think this is the most trustworthy narrator. He did seem to have a nice video ready to go with the gun and everything. What do you. What for. Do we know when the primary is for. For this race?
- [35:25]
Will Sommer
I'm not sure.
- [35:26]
Sam Stein
Okay. Do you think he has a real chance? Honestly, no.
- [35:32]
Will Sommer
I think ultimately, I mean, like, I don't think people in the villages this. The are. Are like really going crazy for fish back. I mean, ultimately, I think the question is how does he. How does he place. I mean, at this point, I kind of. Is he like the second place candidate? I mean, I think this, like, lieutenant governor who's running his sort of. The primary is August 18th. Okay, we got a while here. We have time for more antics. There's potentially more arson that could happen. There's more. There's more things that could be repossessed. So there's a lot more beats in this story still to come.
- [36:02]
Sam Stein
Jesus. Okay, and then last question for predictive measures. Cash is future. Like, do you think he's got, like, he's gonna serve the full term?
- [36:12]
Will Sommer
I think Cash is going to serve the full term, and I think he's gonna get an even bigger jet.
- [36:16]
Sam Stein
Okay, you keep talking for a second because I'm gonna pull up with a
- [36:19]
Will Sommer
little hockey rink on it.
- [36:20]
Sam Stein
I want to put the poly market odds here, pal. You keep talking, Keep talking.
- [36:25]
Will Sommer
Okay, so I think the. The other interesting thing about Cash is in terms of the jet. Let's see, where. Where has he been? He's been to Las Vegas, obviously, Sin City where he lives, but I. But I believe that one overlapped with an MMA fight. Obviously he went to Miami for the mma. You know, I was thinking it related to the thing about him being like, really a bro. I mean, part of that obviously is dating a country singer. So I think there's a lot, a lot going on that. That Cash is sort of. Is this the. The face of American masculinity? Is it time for clavicular to step aside?
- [36:56]
Sam Stein
I couldn't find Cash Patel resignation on this. There was out by August 31, 2025, but that obviously came and went. So if you bet on that, you're an idiot. We'll see. Do you think the hockey team shows up at the State of the Union.
- [37:12]
Will Sommer
Oh, good question. Probably. Why not?
- [37:14]
Sam Stein
Well, it's tight.
- [37:16]
Will Sommer
Yeah.
- [37:16]
Sam Stein
The skating is tomorrow night. I mean, like, that's really tight. And then they have to get all the hockey team and the women's hockey team. Right.
- [37:25]
Will Sommer
It's a lot.
- [37:26]
Sam Stein
I don't know. All right. As of now, I'm just looking by AI market position. 0. Probability to leave by 2026. 0. That's according to Kalshi. I don't know, it seems like I feel like you should at least have a little bit of odds there. All right, cool. We'll be better prepared next time to do the Kyle she type stuff. Should have done the research. Well, this was a good one. A good inaugural Mega Mondays for folks who are watching. I hope you appreciate all that Will does on the weekend. He basically ignores his wife and kids and stays on the Internet for hours to get the best stuff. In fact, he actually has his kids looking on the Internet so they have multiple screens going and they. They flag things for dad saying, hey, dad, did you see this video?
- [38:11]
Will Sommer
They're on. On gab for me. Yeah.
- [38:14]
Sam Stein
Training future false flag interns.
- [38:17]
Will Sommer
All right, buddy.
- [38:18]
Sam Stein
I appreciate that. For those who watched us, thank you so much. I hope this was fun and informative. We're gonna try to do this every Monday for the foreseeable future. Think it works? If you like it, subscribe to the feed. Subscribe to the Bulwark. If you have some thoughts on it and how we can improve it, drop them in the comment section. We are eager to figure out if there's good ideas to make this a better experience. Although I think this is pretty close to perfect. Will, buddy, talk to you later.
- [38:46]
Geico Commercial Auto Insurance Representative
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- [38:50]
Will Sommer
Hey, good morning.
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Geico Commercial Auto Insurance Representative
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- [38:56]
Will Sommer
Yep, they sure are.
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Geico Commercial Auto Insurance Representative
We make it easy for him to save on all his insurance needs. All the in one place with coverage that fits his business and bottom line. Oh, I shouldn't have looked down.
- [39:06]
Sam Stein
It's all right.
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Geico Commercial Auto Insurance Representative
We're so far up here.
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Rocket Money Advertiser 2
Look at me.
- [39:09]
Sam Stein
Take a deep breath.
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Geico Commercial Auto Insurance Representative
I'm good.
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Sam Stein
So good.
- [39:11]
Will Sommer
Get a commercial auto insurance quote today@geico.com and see how much you could save. It feels good. To Geico.
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