The Great Distraction

Summary

Kennedy Saves the World – “The Great Distraction”

Date: August 25, 2025
Host: Kennedy
Guest: Jimmy Failla

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Episode Overview

In this episode titled “The Great Distraction,” Kennedy and guest Jimmy Failla provide a sharp, humorous critique of current political leadership and cultural phenomena. Through their signature banter, they dissect the tactics of political figures like Gavin Newsom, analyze the branding strategies prevalent in modern politics, and explore how virtue signaling and misguided cultural shifts have led to a soulless monoculture. Their discussion ranges from high-level observations about elections to laughs about Cracker Barrel and nostalgia, all centered around the theme of how “the great distraction” keeps attention off real problems.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Gavin Newsom’s Strategy and Self-Branding

• Parody and Self-Glorification: Kennedy points out that Newsom’s “parody” of Trump is actually a self-promotional tool, allowing him to glorify himself while feigning satire (00:24–00:42).
• Failure Upward: Jimmy describes Newsom’s increasing national profile as a failed local leader who tries to “fail upward” by positioning himself as a resistance figure against Trump, taking advantage of political theatrics (01:21–02:10).

“So what he’s doing is he wants the attention in a way that allows him to claim he doesn’t.” — Jimmy (01:13)

2. The “Oxygen Mask” Distraction

• Deflecting from Real Problems: Kennedy suggests that political leaders use conflicts with Trump as distractions (“oxygen masks”) to keep attention off their failing cities and policy issues (01:48–02:10).

“The oxygen mask is the great distraction that takes everyone’s eye off of all of the very serious problems.” — Kennedy (01:48)

• Economic and Social Failures: Jimmy lists the real issues plaguing California—including homelessness, business exodus, and lack of rebuilding post-wildfires—criticizing Newsom’s anti-business stance (02:10–03:04).

“He sucks and he’s trying to fail upward by becoming the latest guy for people to channel their Trump hatred through.” — Jimmy (02:58)

3. Politics as Branding Exercises

• Voting for “Cool” Over Competence: Both hosts observe that modern voting, especially on the left, is about branding rather than effective policy, dating back to Obama’s presidency (03:54–04:29).

“You vote for the candidate that you think looks the best on your brand.” — Jimmy (03:56)

• Emergence of “Hot Topic” Candidates: Jimmy compares this trend to retail stores selling coolness (“Hot Topic president”)—policy and leadership matter less than viral image (04:29).

4. Masculinity and Political Figures

• Absence of “Manly Men”: Kennedy jokes that Democrats have pushed strong, masculine figures out, leaving a lack of relatable leaders (04:54).

“Democrats are looking for a manly man because they have invited any sort of strong, masculine, normal guy to leave their party.” — Kennedy (04:54)

• Gaffes and Poor Campaign Choices: The duo mock New York mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani and others for stunts that backfire, exposing a lack of political instincts (05:19–05:49).

5. Dismal Field and Political Sadness

• Bleak Leadership Prospects: Both agree the 2028 Democratic “standard bearer” is likely yet unknown, because the current crop—including Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, and Wes Moore—is uninspiring and tone-deaf (06:16–07:36).

“Watching Kamala speak is like going to a bar at midnight sober… everything is just annoying. The music is a little too loud. It’s a little too dark. People next to the bar talking a little too close. They’re not making any sense.” — Kennedy (06:44)

“If you’re the sober person, that’s also what the rest of life seems like if you were Joe Biden.” — Jimmy (07:10)

6. Virtue Signaling Language and Monoculture

• Lingo Over Substance: They reference the center-left group “Third Way” and critique terms like “triggered,” “othered,” “intersectionality,” and “birthing persons” as alienating jargon (08:24–09:11).

“It was all these, these virtue signaling code words.” — Kennedy (08:42)

“I talk about it with my Latinx friends all the time. Enough is enough already.” — Jimmy (08:50)

• Example of Cracker Barrel: The change at Cracker Barrel—removing “insulting” lines from a peg game and closing stores—is used as a metaphor for cultural overcorrection and soulless monoculture (10:05–10:54).

“Everybody is trying too hard. And it’s creating this monoculture that has no soul.” — Jimmy (10:55)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------|-------| | 00:59 | Jimmy | “The word you’re looking for is sociopath.” | | 01:48 | Kennedy | “The oxygen mask is the great distraction…” | | 02:58 | Jimmy | “…he’s trying to fail upward by becoming the latest guy for people to channel their Trump hatred through.” | | 03:56 | Jimmy | “You vote for the candidate that you think looks the best on your brand.” | | 04:54 | Kennedy | “Democrats are looking for a manly man because they have invited any sort of strong, masculine, normal guy to leave their party.” | | 06:44 | Kennedy | “Watching Kamala speak is like going to a bar at midnight sober…” | | 08:42 | Kennedy | “It was all these, these virtue signaling code words.” | | 10:55 | Jimmy | “Everybody is trying too hard. And it’s creating this monoculture that has no soul.” |

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:24–02:10: Gavin Newsom’s Trump parody and the “great distraction” theme
• 02:10–03:04: California’s problems and anti-business policies
• 03:54–04:29: Politics as a branding exercise
• 04:54–05:49: Masculinity void in Democratic leadership
• 06:16–07:36: The bleak political field for Democrats
• 08:24–09:11: Critique of virtue signaling language
• 10:05–10:54: Cracker Barrel as a cultural case study

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Overall Tone and Takeaways

This episode is characterized by Kennedy and Jimmy’s quick wit, sarcasm, and a mix of political disappointment and comedic resignation. They lambaste politicians across the board for substituting distraction, branding, and empty signaling for genuine leadership—warning of a political and cultural world that is increasingly “soulless” and disconnected from real people’s concerns.

Their approach is irreverent, full of jokes, personal anecdotes, and biting observations that will resonate with listeners who feel alienated by modern political theater and virtue-signaling culture.

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Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Hello and welcome to this episode of Kennedy Saves the World, the world that will soon be run by Gavin Newsom. Jimmy Faylor's here because it's Monday.

[B]

Hey, Jimmy.

[A]

Hey, Jimmy.

[B]

Hey, there.

[A]

So, Jim, I just. I. I can't get over. So Gavin Newsom was doing a Donald Trump parody.

[B]

Y.

[A]

That really is just an on ramp for him to talk about himself in the way he wants to talk about himself and glorify himself in a way that is not parody at all.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then when someone calls him on, he's gonna be like, yeah, I was kidding the whole time. Yeah, I get it.

[B]

The word you're looking.

[A]

This is the thing. I'm big and beautiful, but I really am. But I'm not. I'm just kidding. Totally serious.

[B]

Oh, it's so funny. The word you're looking for is sociopath.

[A]

He really is. He. It feels like he's a sociopath.

[B]

Yeah. But what he's doing right now is. Funny that you articulated it the way you do, because it does remind me of the girl who would walk around with just, like, a piece of rice over each nipple and be like, why is everybody looking at me? And that is like. So what he's doing is he wants the attention in a way that allows him to claim he doesn't.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I'm just trying to cartoon Trump. No, obviously you're trying to play yourself up because he knows the way the Democrat Party works. Brandon Johnson's doing this. Wes Moore is doing this. These are all people who have failed their locales on a criminal level, but know there's upward mobility. If you get engaged in a fight with Trump.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

If Trump gives you the oxygen and this lasts for, like, three weeks, you could become the resistance figure that puts you in the lead.

[A]

But that's a really great point. Yeah, but. But just the oxygen. Because they're dying. Their cities are dying, their states are dying. They have. They're plagued by so many problems of their own creation that. Yeah. The oxygen mask is the. The great distraction that takes everyone's eye off of all of the very serious problems.

[B]

If you look at, like, the fundamentals of his leadership, specifically, we know all about the homeless problem and the high speed rail and of course, the abundance of homes that have been rebuilt since the wildfires, meaning none. Okay. And then the. The fact that 300 businesses have left California, three bed bath and beyond left last week. Really think about how bad you are as a governor. Okay. You run a state that's filled with illegal Mexicans and you lost the only store that has a quesadilla maker section. Okay. They have a section devoted to quesadilla. Gone. Okay. I feel like he's been so anti business. And at its core, that's what ultimately feeds crime problems. That's what feeds, you know, more of the homeless problem and the drug problem, everything between. So he sucks and he's trying to fail upward by becoming the latest guy for people to channel their Trump hatred through. Yeah, that's who he is. So.

[A]

But my fear is if Zoran Mamdani can become mayor of New York, and by all accounts, he will, based on the polling, based on the candidates that are staying in the race, they don't care. Their egos are bigger than their love for the city. They want to lead, which, you know, at this point, none of them ever will. Adams will never lead anything again. Cuomo's politically done. Curtis Lewis was never a viable candidate. But if Zoran Mamdani can win the mayorship of New York, then Gavin Newsom can become president. Like, you can have policies that are so contrary to growth, prosperity and thriving, and people go, oh, yeah, that's totally going to screw me in the hiney hole. Yeah, I am voting for that. Give me more of it.

[B]

Because what happened is in specific, I think, to the left more than anybody else is it's a branding exercise. And you vote for the candidate that you think looks the best on your brand. And this started with Obama and it was the end of, obviously, a two term Bush presidency and a very unpopular war. And Obama didn't come along with a particularly good, good record. But he was cool, you know, in the Zeitgeist, in that moment, he was cool and they made it cool to vote for him. And they ran on something that sounded empowering. Yes, we can. Do you remember that? I know, but yes, we can, Michelle.

[A]

But yes, we can.

[B]

But when you talk about the branding exercise and how if you can become like a Hot Topic president, that's what Mamdani is for mayor. That's what Newsom's hoping to become. Okay? And you completely distance yourself from any accountability for your own leadership or lack thereof. And it works. So that's what Newsom's hoping to do. He's hoping to become like the Twitter tough guy strongman, as he said, he's fighting fire with fire. Okay?

[A]

But obviously Democrats are looking for a manly man because they have invited any sort of strong, masculine, normal guy to leave their party. They handwritten invitations, please just go. And so now they're like, where'd all the guys go, and you know, they've got Mamdani. Can't even bench press 135lbs. Never should have tried the dumbest fire.

[B]

Whoever'S in charge of the campaign because they should have known better than to do that was.

[A]

So the fact that anyone put him in that position and he agreed to it just betrays total lack of political instincts. That's fatal. And then you have Tim Walls, who, you know, who's whose biggest accomplishment as governor was putting tampons in the boys room. Those are your two guys that are like literally anyone, any. And then they see that Gavin Newsom is doing a Trump bit still, and that's all they have.

[B]

It's become a sad reality show. That's what it is.

[A]

And voters can't be that desperate. Don't go anywhere more. Kennedy Saves the world right after this.

[C]

It's the Will Kane Show. Watch it live at noon Eastern Monday through Thursday on fox news.com or on the Fox News YouTube channel. And don't miss a show. Get the podcast five days a week at foxnewspodcasts.com or wherever you download your favorite podcasts.

[B]

If I had to guess, I would say there's 20, 28. Standard bearer is probably somebody we're not talking about right now. That's going to have some distance for a while, but it has to be.

[A]

It has to be.

[B]

How could you lean into any of these? Go. No, this is the guy. Like, the idea that they're doing the Kamala speaking tour now, which is, you know, we always make that joke about how, like, you know, her speeches are profitable because you could charge people to get out. Like, what is the motivation? What would really be the motivation to go to a speaking tour about how she lost?

[A]

Yeah, because you know what? Watching Kamala speak. Speak is like going to a bar at midnight sober.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, it's a good way to play sober. It's just like everyone. Everything is just annoying. Like, the music is a little too loud. It's a little too dark. People next to the bar talking a little too close. They're not making any sense. But that's what. That's what a comma speech is like.

[B]

And. And you want to know what's funny about that? What you just described in terms of going to a bar sober at midnight is like if you're the sober person. That's also what the rest of life seems like if you were Joe Biden. You know what I mean? Everybody was too loud. Nothing made sense. You were confused. And so either of those two scenarios don't connect with anybody. So I rule out her Newsom. This is sad. We've. Joe Scarborough said it was sad. He said it was embarrassing. He did.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Last week we played on my show. So rule him out. West Moore's trying to fight with Trump. Baltimore just sued Hyundai. Do you remember this like a year old story?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They sued Hyundai because the cars were.

[A]

Too easy to break into.

[B]

The actual legal equivalent of look at what she was wearing. A municipality said, look at what she's wearing. Your honor, she wanted her car.

[A]

She was asking for it.

[B]

So that to me is a disqualifier. The Brandon Johnson thing, are you watching him in Chicago now? He's like, we're gonna stand up against tyranny. Like, we're trying. This is what's so crazy about how they've lost the plot is they're so transactional that the Democrats are now attacking the Republicans to protect inner cities. Like we are here five years removed from 2020, trying to tell Democrats that black lives matter. That is insane. Yeah, that's insane. But that's where we are. But there can't be these people.

[A]

There's a center left organization called Third Way.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they released like a mission statement of things that Democrats should stop.

[B]

Oh, the words. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

It's like, stop using the word triggered. Stop using the word othered. You know, stop talking about intersectionality. People don't talk this way.

[B]

Nope.

[A]

And it was all these, these virtue signaling code words.

[B]

No. I'm sick.

[A]

Flash. And it's like, who is this pleasing Nobody.

[B]

That's, it's. I'm sick of all, like the specialized verbiage. I talk about it with my Latinx friends all the time. We're just. Enough is enough already. You know what I mean?

[A]

At Cracker Barrel, at the new Cracker Barrel, where you finally feel safe.

[B]

Oh, the new Cracker Barrel that you talk about the birthing person of all evils. Because that's where.

[A]

That was another one on there.

[B]

That's where.

[A]

Stop saying birthing persons.

[B]

Yeah, please. And yes. Stop. It's, it's, it's just there. Stop being what Cracker Barrel has become.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Nobody asked for that.

[A]

My aunt has been a server at Cracker barrel for like 20 years. And I love her. She has 75 stars on her apron. That's how good she is.

[B]

A lot of flair.

[A]

A lot of flair. When we would go see my grandmother in Brownstown, Indiana, we would always go to Cracker Barrel like it was a treat. Especially as kids. And we would load up on the retro candy and just have the time of our lives. And then finally, they got Cracker Barrel barrels in Oregon. They all closed.

[B]

Is that true because of crime?

[A]

It's insane.

[B]

That is crazy.

[A]

Just in time for the reboot that nobody wanted. And so my brother is going back to where we're from in southern Indiana. He's like, I want to go to Cracker Barrel, but now I don't want to support them because this is such a bad choice, and it puts people in the worst position.

[B]

Oh, amen. And I will say this as someone who grew up on. I don't want to say grew up, but from my mid-20s on in the time I knew Jenny, we would always go to Cracker Barrel.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I truly love Cracker Barrel. And what it represented to its customer base was like, you could unplug. It was like, almost like an autonomous zone, you know, between North Korea and South Korea. There's, like, there's not going to be any fighting. Like, you can't get mad at a Cracker Barrel. Okay. You're eating a Kit Kat the size of a beach towel. You're playing a peg game. You know, chicken dumb. Of course you do. It's amazing. But do you know they changed the peg game, and it no longer says if you leave more than three, you're just plain dumb. For real. They changed it so it doesn't insult people because they don't want to. You will get your feelings hurt while you're waiting for the pancakes. You know, but that's. I just. Listen, everybody is trying too hard.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it. It's creating this monoculture that has no soul. That's what happened to the Democrat Party. That's what this Cracker Barrel thing is, even if it's not articulated in the name of politics as far as they see it. To the rest of us, that's what it looks like. There was a Public Enemy song called who Stole the Soul. Cracker Barrel. And maybe whoever made up those Democrat words, Chuck D. Get Chuck D on the phone. He hasn't.

[A]

I'd like to think that Chuck D is a conservative now.

[B]

Yeah. He has to be.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Are you kidding me? Is a guy that cares about the inner cities. Yeah. Flavor, flavors. He was on Celebrity Apprentice, wasn't he?

[A]

Yes, he was.

[B]

We got pe. The Democrats are screwed.

[A]

How low can you go? Democrats. All right. Go. Have a wonderful week. This has been Kennedy Saves the World, along with Jimmy Fallow. I'm Kennedy. It's a big deal. Listen. Ad free with a Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts and Amazon Prime. Members can listen to this show ad free on the Amazon Music app. Oh, go ahead and leave me a review while you're there. I'd love to hear what you have to say. You've been listening to Kennedy Saves the World on the Fox News Podcast Network.

[C]

This is Jason Chaffetz from the Jason in the House Podcast. Join me every Monday to dive deeper into the latest political headlines and chat with remarkable guests. Listen and follow [e-mail] or wherever you download podcasts.