Dave Smith (6:17)

Accidentally kill them sometimes.

Robbie Bernstein (6:19)

They've killed more journalists in this conflict than like in any other modern war. But they're saying the reason they won't let any western journalists in is because they're just worried it's dangerous over there. And oh my God, it's just so, it's a, you know, it's almost like, you know, like in, in like high school, like debate clubs or something like that. You know how the thing is that they force you to argue both sides of a topic. And you could see where like there's some, there's some utility in that exercise for like a 16 year old. You know, it's like, I want you, you know, I, I could see that, like if you, you had like a 16 year old who's doing a debate thing, you're like, I want you to argue the pro choice side and then I want you to argue the pro life side and I want you to steel, man, each side's arguments. You know, you could see where that's a good, like intellectual exercise. There's something about listening to people debate that we're like, at a certain point you're almost like, look, I gotta tip my hat to you because I understand that this is really unfair, that I drew the side that has the truth on it and you drew the side that's based off pure and, like, good for you. You know, maybe this is. This is what I was gonna say. Something up I shouldn't say, but I was gonna say it. Maybe it's the Jew in me that really appreciates it. You know, they go like, hey, listen, I admire the way you're trying to argue this point, and you just cannot do it. But, dude, she's arguing at one point that it wasn't fucked up that Israel didn't allow any food or aid in for three months because they had already allowed enough aid and food in, that it should have been enough calories for all the people of Gaza, but Hamas was hoarding it. But then you're like. So I sat there and I went, okay, wait a minute. So if Hamas is hoarding the food and aid, then you're not depriving them of food and aid? Who are you depriving of food and aid? Oh, yeah, the civilian population. That's who's left, right? Like, if Hamas already has what they need, then keeping it out isn't keeping it out of the hands of Hamas. It's keeping it out of the hands of the babies. Like, what are you talking about here? There's just so much. There's just so many things like this. She. At one point, she argued that. That we know the Hamas, the. The Gaza Health ministry numbers are bullshit. And Pierce was like, well, how do you know what are the real numbers? And she goes, I don't know. I don't know what the real numbers are. And then she goes, well, how do you know that their numbers are. And she goes, because Hamas lies. And he goes, well, how do you know Hamas is lying? And then she goes, well, we know Hamas is lying because even Hamas revised down their number of dead civilians at one point. And I was just like, no, that's a. That's a point in my favor, not yours. Like, it's. It's amazing how they, like, they. They try to take that as a. Wait, so you're saying it's proof that Hamas lies because they revise their numbers down? Why would they revise their numbers down? That's a point toward them being honest, like, against their own interest. They advise, like, why wouldn't they just not revise the numbers and keep them artificially high? Why wouldn't they double them or triple them? It's like. Anyway, it's all just, like. It becomes infuriating when you're actually arguing with someone like that because you're just like, oh, you don't even. You don't even believe The. You're saying you're just like, look, this is my job. I took on a client. My client is Israel. I. I know they're guilty, but the code of a lawyer is you still have to present the best defense you can, even for a guilty client.

Dave Smith (9:51)

I'm getting a housekeeping knock, which I've already addressed three times.

Robbie Bernstein (9:57)

Are you over. Are you in the hotel longer than you're supposed to be?

Dave Smith (10:02)

Oh, my God. I don't. Don't get me into. I called ahead, had to get through, said, I'm only making the reservation. I got work I got to do. Made the arrangements. I check in at 2 in the morning and they're like, yeah, that's not here. We can't help you out. And had to wake up early this morning to go down. They've already knocked on the. It's just. Listen, no, I've been there.

Robbie Bernstein (10:22)

I've been there before. It's also whenever you need special accommodations at a hotel, whenever you call ahead, as somebody who's just traveled a lot, whenever you call ahead and you need to make the accommodations, first off, you're going to get the nicest lady that's ever worked at that hotel. You know, you're going to speak to Helen, and Helen is just the nicest lady. She has assured you that they have everything you need. No problem. You can do all of this as soon as you get there. Be like, who told you this, Helen? I don't know a Helen. Do you guys know a Helen? Everyone does. Like, I've never, I've worked here 20 years. I've never met Helen. And you're like, oh, man, this is. They don't have any of it. Okay, anyway, let's get into the show. I'm looking forward to, to that episode of Pierce coming out. I think you guys will enjoy it. Never know. It's all. Usually it's the day of or the next day, so probably out today or tomorrow. Okay, so let's get into some stuff. One of the topics. We did discuss this a little bit on the members only stream, but there's some new stuff that's come out and it's. I cannot overstate how much I love that Jake Tapper is going on this goddamn book tour. It's just so great. It's just like one of the best. It's this. It's an obvious attempt at, you know, it's a propaganda tour. It's an attempt to alleviate the indictment. Am I using these words right? But you get what I'm saying. It's an attempt to let the corporate press off the hook for the failures of not covering the blatantly senile president. It is. You would think that right away, like if you were in a smoke filled room, there's some Bilderberg meeting or something like that, and you were plotting out how do we get the people back to CNN or how do we, how do we have a limited hangout where we admit that Biden was senile, but we. You don't give up all the information. You would think that if this was proposed, someone in that room would have gone, guys, this is not going to work. This is just all, all you're going to do is remind everybody of how senile Joe Biden was and how the entire media covered it up. Yet regardless, they continue this tour, I've enjoyed every inch of it.

Dave Smith (12:43)

Not only is it great, but this is even a shift in the propaganda and spin that they're trying to push. So I thought that this was actually the most interesting of the Jake Tapper clips so far.

Robbie Bernstein (12:54)

Yeah, well, he's been doing a whole bunch of shows. I will say that of the ones that I've seen him do, I thought Megan Kelly gave him a little bit. You know, she did a decent enough job, but even her, and I say this about Piers Morgan as well, who I'm very grateful to for platforming me all the time, but I say this about Piers Morgan. Stephen A. Smith was just ridiculous. And with Bill Maher, all of them have just been pathetically soft. I mean, like it is just a guy's coming on here and telling you that there was no way we could have known or reported that the emperor was naked. It's just too ridiculous. And they're, they're attempting, it seems to let him get away with that, at least to some degree.

Dave Smith (13:38)

I thought Megan Kelly dug in.

Robbie Bernstein (13:40)

He was good. Yeah, she was the best. She was the best. But I guess, I guess even with her, I felt like she eventually let it go and then like let him just get his piece out. But she did ask some good questions. But it should be, I think it should be even harsher than what she did. She was clearly the best of the, of the group. All right, let's. So this is a clip from Bill Maher's show where Jake Tapper, and as a co author, everybody leaves him out of this conversation. But they were on. Let's, let's go to the club.

Ron Johnson (14:13)

Policy. It seemed like under the Biden and.

Jake Tapper (14:15)

We couldn't admit it was a problem.

Ron Johnson (14:16)

But can I say, and the Democrats. Okay.

Scott Horton (14:18)

Yes. Well, I don't. I think you're complimenting it by calling it a policy. Just not, not, not to talk about my book again. But one of the things we discovered when we did this book, original back.

Dave Smith (14:28)

A little bit to Bill.

Scott Horton (14:29)

Senator. Senator.

Robbie Bernstein (14:31)

Yeah. Like just a little bit before then, probably. And my mistake, this is not his coauthor who's on with him. I misremembered this. That was the other interviews. Is worried he might get sent back.

Ron Johnson (14:41)

Right. Well, we don't have a great history of sticking by our promises.

Scott Horton (14:47)

No. Same happened in Vietnam, obviously. Same happened in Korea.

Ron Johnson (14:50)

And the Kurds, remember, the Kurds promised them a lot. Yeah.

Jake Tapper (14:54)

Yeah. Although, to be fair, we took in a lot of Vietnamese refugees and they're around Northern Virginia today, and they're great contributors to our society. I mean, let's also not forget what immigrants do. I mean, immigrants founded Google, ebay. Right. I mean, they're great contributors to our economy, to our society. We are a country of immigrants. Right.

Scott Horton (15:15)

Five of our top 10.

Robbie Bernstein (15:17)

But you would run already right there. This is, there's even. I do find this to be something. And this is kind of aside from the topics that we're going to get into. But don't you. Rob, I find this kind of interesting. You know, I just had a big immigration debate, so this stuff has kind of been on my mind. And also, it's just, it's a big topic, but it is interesting where you'll see these things that, like, proponents of mass immigration and then proponents of immigration restrictions will do on one side or the other. But it's almost like, well, look, if you get to do this on one side, then we get to do this on both. Like, you could sit here and say, well, look, there are these, you know, like, look, the, say the, the Southeast Asian immigrants or the Vietnamese immigrants who have come in after the war have been assimilated quite well, and things are going quite good with them. It's like, okay, well, which immigrants haven't been assimilated? Well, like, are you criticizing the ones who haven't been. Are you. You know what I'm saying? Like, so then is it also the case that I get to, like, if I, I'm just saying, if you get to brag about the ones who have assimilated. Well, do I get to, like, I'm from New York City. Do I get to point out Chinatown where literally they have their own language, their own stores, their own. They. None of those speak the language. Good luck. Go through Chinatown and try to find I mean, the kids do. But go through Chinatown and try to find someone over 40 who speaks English. Like, next to impossible. You go into there, they have stores in Mandarin or Cantonese or whatever, like on the wrappers. Okay, like, if you're gonna go, hey, look, there was a immigrants founded Google or something like that. You're like, okay, how about the ones who did 9 11? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, they, they were foreigners who were in the country and. Or it's like, you know, the, the. The immigrants who are criminals. It's just weird that people get to, like, point to the immigrants who contribute to the country while ignoring all the rest of it. But anyway, just a thought.

Dave Smith (17:17)

And it doesn't speak to. You could probably just have the upside of immigration if you didn't just poor everyone across the border. And I'm going to guess if you even look at the specific examples, I don't know them of these CEOs. My guess is they didn't just illegally come over our southern border.

Robbie Bernstein (17:33)

Yeah, that would, that would be my guess for sure. I also said this is not mine, but I did. I quoted this in the debate. I gave her credit, but it was Ann Coulter's, which I always thought was a great point, because she was arguing with someone who said that immigrants commit crime at a lower rate than the domestic population. And her first response that was that that's not true. And if you look into the studies, that's actually like, bullshit, which I think I tend to think she's right about, although it's not. It's difficult to measure. I've been looking into these studies in preparation for that debate I did. It's just very difficult to measure because the truth is they don't keep good data on this stuff. Even the Cato guys admitted that. And they did one study in Texas. But, like, Texas was one of the only states that even kept good data, so it was like, almost impossible. Anyway, regardless of that, the point is, she. Ann Coulter goes. Which I thought was a great way to look at it is she goes, yeah, but I don't care if they commit crime at a lower or a higher rate. The fact is they're committing crimes. And she was like, that's like saying that, like, if you have had a refrigerator full of food and half of it is. Is spoiled or rotten, and then you went to the supermarket to get to go shopping, and you were like, well, a third of the food you got at the supermarket is rotten, but that's a lower rate than the food that you have in your refrigerator. It's like, yeah, but the expectation when you go to the Supermarket is that 100% of your food will not be rotten. Like, that's the. Why are, why am I bringing more rotten food into my house? I already have a problem with rotten food here. And so it's like, to your point, it's like, yes, the whole idea of an immigration system, of having immigration policy at all, the idea is that you want to bring in the people who are going to contribute to your country and not the people who are not going to contribute to your country or be a drain on your country. And so the fact that you can point to some people who contribute and then therefore turn back to the Biden policy and say, hey, let's remember when he had this policy of millions of people pouring over the southern border illegally that there are good things that immigrants do. It's like, well, yeah, that would be an argument to not have 100% closed borders and to have an immigration policy. But that's not an argument for open borders or de facto open borders. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Small Batch Cigar. Been telling you about these guys for a while. A really great company and Father's Day is coming up. I know fathers are notoriously difficult to shop for, so here you go. It's a real easy one. If you got a cigar lover in your life, they are going to love this gift. Go check them out@smallbatch cigar.com they have free shipping on every order. Almost every order arrives within two to three days in the continental United States. They have the most thorough packaging in the industry, including Boveda packs in every purchase. So you know your cigar is going to show up in good shape. They have an amazing selection of rare, limited and hard to find cigars. Plus you earn 5% reward points instantly. So go to smallbatch cigar.com use the promo code problem and you will get 10% off your order plus those 5% reward points that I mentioned. Smallbatch cigar.com promo code problem for 10% off. All right, let's get back into the show. Okay, let's go back to the, to the clip.

Ron Johnson (20:53)

Backlash to that. You we had an open border policy. That's okay. But, but you would admit that that's where this feeling comes from. Of course it's carried out in a horrible way, but that's where if you do something, there's always going to be a counter to it.

Jake Tapper (21:08)

I think there's a Bit of just racism baked in Trump's thing. There absolutely is Democrats.

Ron Johnson (21:12)

There was also an open border policy, it seemed like under the Biden, and.

Jake Tapper (21:15)

We couldn't admit it was a problem.

Scott Horton (21:16)

But can I say.

Ron Johnson (21:17)

And the Democrats. Okay, yes.

Scott Horton (21:19)

Well, I don't, I think you're complimenting it by calling it a policy. Just not, not, not to talk about my book again, but one of the things we discovered when we did this book, Original Sin, me and Alex Thompson is there. There's a senator, Senator Bennett from Colorado, who went to an event in June 2024 where Biden seemed non functioning, and he left that event. And this is in the book thinking, this is why our border policy, our immigration policy is such a mess. This guy can't manage the portfolio. There are competing groups within the administration and he's not engaged for whatever reason. And that's why this policy is such a mess. And I know that the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, mayorkas, he thought there was going to be an order early on in the Biden years shutting down the border or at least providing more security. And the order never came. So people talk about what are the repercussions of Biden not being what we expect a president to be, just in terms of functioning 100% of the time. This is one of those things. So I think calling it a policy might be a little optimistic.

Dave Smith (22:20)

Can I pause there?

Ron Johnson (22:20)

Honestly, it's not just Biden.

Dave Smith (22:22)

There you go.

Robbie Bernstein (22:23)

Go ahead, Rob.

Dave Smith (22:24)

Now you have the Biden border wall cover up, which is that they were not trying to get as many people over the border as possible, but it was because of Biden's dementia, he wasn't able to actually enact policy, and so he overlooked it. And just to talk about how ridiculous this claim is, firstly, go watch Meyer. Meyer Carditis and all those hearings. He was border foushee. He was lying through his teeth. And later, when they, when the election came around, they decided to actually deal with the border when they lied to the American people and said, hey, we have to legalize 5,000 people coming over a day, otherwise I can't shut down the border. And nobody bought that bullshit. And it became a sore talking point. They managed to shut down the border. They intend. And someone was creating policies for the parole system. Someone was creating policies of just looking like. And there were NGOs down there bringing people over. There was a movement within the Biden administration to get as many people across that border as possible. I can't tell you the specific reason why it was happening. I Don't know who was involved with it, but it was going on. So point number one is this is bullshit. This is now the COVID up of. No, they didn't actually intentionally do it. It was that Biden had dementia.

Robbie Bernstein (23:31)

Fine.

Dave Smith (23:31)

Even if Biden had dementia, so Mayorkas couldn't do anything. There was nothing that could be enforced. He didn't need an executive order to shut the border. You're not supposed to have people pouring over. The Trump administration did it instantly the second that this administration was out. That's one. Two is whoever this guy is who observed that Biden was so incapable of doing his job that he was creating a border problem, the fact that he didn't act as some sort of a whistleblower and every other person that observed Biden's behavior, then you are responsible. If you're observing that the commander in chief can't do his jobs and that there's a crisis because he can't do his job, you have a responsibility to report on that and make that storyline known. So no matter what, there's fault within the Democratic Party for what happened at that border. And you're now listening to this guy who not just wrote the book trying to cover up for the dementia, but now the dementia cover up is going to include. Well, all these failed policies were a result of that dementia, which, yeah, they should have told us about, but no one needs to be accountable for.

Robbie Bernstein (24:26)

Yeah, dude, very well said. And I do appreciate that you consistently call my orcas myocarditis. I do just think that I find that very charming. No, it's. No, that's right. You know, it's, you know, I said literally just to go back to this just in my mind, but I said on this Piers Morgan debate that I was on at one point where I said, when it comes to international law, I'm Lysander Spooner. Like, I don't. And I said that I go, look, either international law allows Israel to do what it's doing to Gaza or it's been powerless to stop them. Either way, it's unfit to exist. You know, like, and, and, and then I said, you know, it clearly seems to be the latter, not the former. I mean, the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes. So like the international law is trying to do what it can, but it's powerless to stop it. At the same, in the same sense, if the Democratic Party and the media apparatus, like if this is what you're claiming, the president is so senile. Because think about what this claim is here. He's. This isn't just like, oh, he has bouts of senility. You're saying he is so senile all the time that he does not even know what his border policy is. He's not even aware of, like, one of the most consequential, important policies that he has. And yet that still doesn't get reported, that still the media apparatus is still so incompetent that this doesn't become a major story, then it's an. It's still an indictment of the entire media apparatus. But also it's just, you know, like, Jake Tapper's being a little bit cutesy here when he says, then it's not a policy. No, it's still a policy. And it's like saying, like, you know, if I'm like, hey, I'm not driving my car. I'm not in my car right now, but you can see my car going down the street. That doesn't mean it's not a car anymore. That doesn't mean it's not being driven anymore. It just means that somebody else is driving this car or the car is in neutral and it's falling down the hill or whatever. But, like, even if you're saying Joe Biden had no idea what this policy was, it was the policy. And don't sit here and tell me for a second that Joe Biden, the defense is actually that he was so senile that everyone else in the government was just waiting for some executive order to come down that never did. By the way, lots of executive orders did come down. Why wasn't this one of them? He wasn't too senile for all the other executive orders or other people around him just wrote them and then auto penned his name on them or whatever you want to say. But no, I'm sorry. And then also, right, Rob, to your point, somehow he wasn't so senile that this policy couldn't be reversed as he headed into an election year. Right. Like, so what are we talking about here? No, this wasn't a. This was a policy. It was intentionally done. Now, if you want to argue to me that Joe Biden was so senile that he didn't even know the policy was being done or he wasn't even aware of it. Sure, I'm. I'm all ears. I'm open to that. But somebody there is responsible for this policy, which was done intentionally to flood the country with millions of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers and all types of people who did not immigrate to the country legally. And so you know, it's just, it's a pathetic, it's a pathetic attempt to kind of rewrite history and, and let everybody else off the hook, even though by its own logic just be another indictment of the entire system. So anyway, it's just a goofy, A goofy claim and ridiculous logic to try to somehow say that. Yeah, okay, well, like, for example, right, Joe Biden wasn't. He wasn't more senile on the border than was on Ukraine. Right? He was the same amount of senile for all of the policies. And yet Ukraine funding kept happening. You know, like, all of these other policies went on. And so why is it that this one policy was, like, affected by his, him being senile when, like, clearly the same apparatus was at play there? Why weren't people around Joe Biden just writing an executive order for him and getting him to sign it? And, you know, and then again, of course, much like with. And senility in general, they're like, guys, we, we were here, we watched the coverage of. We know what Democrats were about it. All of this stuff forever. We have the video, it's online. We can all find it. People make amazing montages of this every single day that we all laugh at as we look at how dishonest all you guys are. You guys were sitting there saying that there is no crisis at the border. So if the truth is that at the time you were going like, oh, my God, this crisis is so horrible and Joe Biden's just so senile that he's not dealing with it. What you told the American people was still that there is no crisis until, you know, it was too late and you couldn't deny it. And, and then remember, Rob, because we cover again. It's like, this is the thing, we do a show four days a week. We cover this shit all the time. Maybe we're not experts, maybe we're not geniuses, but we do talk about this shit all the time. And I'm definitely smart enough and know enough to remember that all of you guys blamed Donald Trump for the crisis. You said that it was him, it was, it was he who killed the immigration bill in Congress that would have solved this thing. And we pointed out at the time, that's bullshit. The immigration bill was, was a monstrosity. It would have been terrible. But regardless, all of you guys, you can't just pivot from. This was Donald Trump's fault and he did this just to help his election campaign into now, oh, I guess it was Joe Biden's fault, but he was senile. So no one's really to blame. It's so convenient. Rob, the answer from Jake Tapper's book and what these guys are saying is that no one is really to blame except for all the people who are out of power. Now, we could talk. We could never blame them when they were in power, you see, but now that they're out of power, it's Joe Biden and his family and his close advisors. Those were the culprits, you know, as soon as they're out of power, it's so just like. It's so pathetic. It's so pathetic because it's always like, what the. What the press is essentially guilty of is sucking up to power and always defending power. And now they're trying to prove that wrong by trashing people once they're out of power who they never would have trashed when they were in power. It's like, sorry, that just solidifies the case against you. It doesn't help.

Dave Smith (31:02)

Well, sucking up to Democratic or, you know, part of the machine power. They like criticizing Trump, but.

Robbie Bernstein (31:09)

Well, yeah, but point stands. But the point is, even when they were criticizing Trump, they were sucking up to the CIA, they were sucking up. You know what I'm saying? Like, they're still kind of like, on the side of the power that they felt that he was a threat to. So. Yes, but. Yes, I get your point.

Dave Smith (31:23)

And just speaking to the absolute nonsense of what Jake Tapper is saying here, you can watch hours of footage of Meyer Carditis in front of Congress, in front of the Senate going, the border is not a crisis, and we are doing everything we can and we care and we're trying to. Did he ever once make a statement of, well, I just haven't gotten orders from Joe Biden or. We need the following action to be taken. He never once made that claim. The claim that he made was he lied through his teeth and he ran cover for what seemed to be someone in the deep state or the administration that wanted as many people coming over that border as possible. And so he spent hours. I'm telling you, he was border fauci. He was just lying through his teeth. No, it's not a crime crisis, but we do care. We are working hard. We're doing our job. That's simply not true. I have to speak for my department. We are doing our part. And they go, well, then why are the numbers. Look, we're doing every. Well, it's not working. No. And they even tried to impeach him. But, I mean, this is. This is from two three years ago. But what, what Tapper is saying here is just not true.

Robbie Bernstein (32:23)

Well, by the way, and there's something that's different about immigration, particularly with like, birthright citizenship and just with the, you know, the lack of appetite by the American people for any type of, like, violence within the United States of America, where it is almost like, I think in some way it's like immigration and the death penalty are like the most permanent of government policies. You know, like you could, if you, look, if you imprison someone falsely, you, okay, you took that, that time from them. There's a permanence there. But, you know, you can release that person, you can clear their name, you can even compensate them for the time that they were locked up. If you have a bad tax policy, you can issue rebates. You know, you, like, there are, there are things, there are government policies that you can theoretically undo, maybe not in totality, but like, to some degree, but like the, the death penalty. You can't, you know, you kill somebody, they get exonerated by DNA evidence 15 years later and you just go, ah, shit, we killed a guy. You know, and in some senses, immigration policy is similar to that. You know, it's like you, you're simply never going to be able to deport everybody who came in illegally. And, and, and I don't even think the Trump administration is trying. I think they've kind of given up on, on that idea, if they ever even believed in it. But there is something where you go, like, look, man, when you just, like when you against the will of the people, just flood millions of people into a country, like, you changed that country in a way that will not be undone. And when you did it like this, where you're lying through your teeth as mayorkas was, it's like, man, there really should be some type of punishment for that, that you get to sit there and just say, oh, there is no crisis, There is no crisis. This isn't happening, and then go, oh, yeah, totally happened, but it was just because this guy was senile. Anyway, moving on. Like, moving on. You've, you know, like, I don't know, it's like a permanent change to the country that you can't undo.

Dave Smith (34:40)

And Bill Maher's response to this is pretty good. It's just like another minute. But Bill, Mark. All right, let's hop on this in a decent way.

Robbie Bernstein (34:47)

All right, let's play the rest of the clip.

Ron Johnson (34:50)

I mean, I did, I mentioned this during the show that our governor here recently reversed one of the policies we had here, which was free medical care to undocumented migrants, which pissed off a lot of people who think that that shouldn't be happening, that, you know, we should take care of our own and that's why our taxes are so high. And, you know, it was a rather generous policy you got as someone who wasn't even a legal citizen, including, like, being driven to appointments. I think I read now. I mean, if that's something that a state like California, which is right on the border of Mexico, is offering, can you blame people for pouring over.

Scott Horton (35:30)

I love all these changes that Newsom's doing. The conversion on the road to Des Moines.

Ron Johnson (35:36)

Somebody.

Robbie Bernstein (35:37)

Can you just pause it there?

Ron Johnson (35:38)

What we were talking about.

Robbie Bernstein (35:39)

You pause it there for a second. This, to me, was the most incredible moment of the whole thing. Is that did Jake Tapper have the nerve to just. By the way, I agree with what Jake Tapper is saying. He's absolutely right. But the unmitigated nerve of Jake Tapper to claim that. Oh, yeah, this guy Gavin Newsomo, his conversion on the road to Des Moines, for those people who don't get the reference, Iowa is the first primary in the presidential elections. And so he's saying, oh, yeah, you know, he's. Oh, now that he wants to run for president, all of a sudden, he's waking up. Jake Tapper, go look at your coverage of this. While Joe Biden was still. While Joe Biden was still in the White House and the plan was to run him, once again, you were. Not only were you not covering any of this, you were actively demonizing people who were telling the truth about it. Your ENT network made up ridiculous justifications about cheap fakes and sharp as attack and all this, so don't sit here for a second and then criticize that guy for making a. This conversion on the Roy on the road to Des Moines. Okay, that being said, Jake Tapper's hypocrisy aside, he is right. I mean, it is so hilarious that, like, I don't, you know, obviously there are individual people who are involved, and these people are concerned with their own self interest. It is crazy to me that anybody looking at this wouldn't go, oh, yeah, dude, we got to find someone new who doesn't have this nonsense on their track record. And this applies to Jake Tapper and it applies to Gavin Newsom. You know, like the idea that even if CNN wants to rebrand and say, look, we're going to write a book, we're going to do a big expose on the scandal that was the COVID up of Joe Biden's senility, wouldn't you think that has to come with like a new anchor who we just brought in and we're going to, you know, frame him as like, I'm a no nonsense truth teller. So Jake Tapper's out, but I'm in. And let me tell you the truth that he wouldn't tell you, but you can't just have the guy who was doing his bidding turn around and say, now that you know, it's, it's all this. I said this on the Members Only episode, but it's all this Stephen A. Smith, Jake Tapper, like Gavin Newsom, all these guys. This, in this game, track record is everything. That's what you're judged on, your track record. That's what me and you are judged on, Rob, on our track record. On what of the major issues we've gotten right over the last few years. And in our case it's all of them, but in their case it's none of them. And I'm sorry, but it doesn't like to come out now. It's like Stephen A. Smith, it's like sitting there being a good little Democratic foot soldier the entire time. And he may be able to claim like one time he said, Joe Biden does seem a little old or something like that. But you're sitting there. And then what? After Donald Trump wins every single swing state and the popular vote, and then once the entire culture has shifted away from like the insane shit of the last few years, and then once the, you know, the, the Republicans control the House and the Senate and the presidency and the Supreme Court, then when the Democrats approval ratings are at 25%, you'll come out and say, you know what? I'm gonna say it. And I don't care if anyone doesn't like it. There's some problems with these Democrats. Okay? That doesn't get you any street cred. You got to say it when it actually meant something. Anybody could say it after the fact. But like all this stuff with, it's unbelievable to me that they'd go, okay, yeah, our presidential candidate for next time. You'd understand the Democrats going, yeah, probably should be someone who doesn't support the taxpayers being forced to provide medical care for immigrants. But like, then it's got to be a new guy. You can't just have the same guy end the policy now. Like, it's just too, it's too ridiculous. No, no, like, no, thinking human can't see through this. Do you want to jump in Rob, or you want to go back to the clip?

Dave Smith (40:08)

I don't think that there's much more from this clip to be played, but I don't, I don't actually remember.

Robbie Bernstein (40:13)

Let's jump in just for, for a couple more seconds because I feel like there was one more thing that I wanted to, to.

Ron Johnson (40:21)

Somebody's got to do it. I mean, this is what we were talking about.

Jake Tapper (40:24)

Look, I'm a Democrat who believes that health care is a human right. But the bottom line is there are a lot of Americans who don't have health care. And it's about to get a lot worse because of the bill that Republicans just passed in the middle of the night. 15 million Americans, not illegal immigrants, 15 million Americans who are going to lose health care because of what Trump and the Republicans are doing. So we've got to keep that context in mind. But the reason why people are pissed off is because a lot of people don't have good enough health care in America.

Ron Johnson (40:51)

But what the Republicans would say.

Dave Smith (40:53)

All right, so by the way, we.

Robbie Bernstein (40:54)

Pause there conspiracy theory.

Dave Smith (40:55)

And he, he's skirting what the point was, which was clearly there was government policy that was incentivizing people to come over and that this is foolish. If you're looking to have less immigration, you can at least just make it less favorable for people to try and sneak in illegally. And of course, they don't want to speak to the fact that there were Democratic policies that were clearly incentivizing this behavior. And so he just skirts it to a lefty talking point about health care for Americans.

Robbie Bernstein (41:23)

Well, isn't it, isn't it so incoherent though, to say that like this world, which is, you know, how the left uses this, these, the idea of rights, but they're referring to like positive obligations, whereas like all, like natural rights theory always relied around, revolved around negative rights. So like the idea that nothing is owed to be provided to you, a rights claim is that something shouldn't be done to you for exercising those rights. So like, you know, the, you, you may have the right to defend yourself, you might the right to bear arms. But no one's arguing that the government has an obligation to provide you a gun. It's just that they can't stop you from going and getting a gun. Now again, the government does stop you from going and getting a gun in many cases. But regardless of that, the theory of.

Dave Smith (42:16)

Speech doesn't mean that they're handing you a speech of what you say that would.

Robbie Bernstein (42:19)

Right. Or, or that they have to Hand you a megaphone or that they have to publish you in a newspaper, or that they have Right. It's just that no one should stop you from exercising your right. So in that sense, yes, we believe in the right to health care. Like you have the right to go find a doctor and, you know, trade his services for your money at an agreed upon price. But the way this guy is saying it, right as, as lefties like to talk about it, if they go, well, look, he goes, look, I'm a Democrat who believes that health care is a human right. Well, in that case, how would you be opposed to providing health care to illegal immigrants? Are you saying you're for denying them a human right? Like, what does this even mean? It's totally incoherent.

Dave Smith (43:03)

That's the only way that makes sense.

Robbie Bernstein (43:05)

Well, right, exactly. So it's like, why would it be the case that you, if you believe it's a human right, are you saying human rights are only for American citizens? Because that's not how human rights are supposed to work. Are you admitting to being guilty of crimes against humanity if you don't have the government provide health care to illegal immigrants? And no, it is not simply the case that this is Americans being mad that they don't have good health care. Don't get me wrong, there's. There's lots of problems with the health insurance industry. I, it's all due to government intervention. But I'm, you know, like, I am, I'm not thrilled with how much it costs me to, to insure my family. It's outrageous. But we have good health care. I do have good health care. I still don't want my tax dollars being paid for illegal immigrants health care. And it's not because I'm angry that I don't have good health care and the government's taking care of them. I just, I simply think it's, it's an outrage to force the American people to cover health expenses of a group of people who have not even been invited into the country and their first act is coming in against our laws. I find that totally appalling. And look like it's like charity is only noble if it's done voluntarily. And if you want to help somebody out, then sure, go for it. But the fact is that most Americans feel like we have our own problems, we have lots of our own citizens who have lots of issues, and that the fact that you are forcing the taxpayer to cover the health care of illegal immigrants before our own government is even addressing the problems of our own Citizens is an outrage. It's appalling. And so it's just all, whatever, it's all just wrong and stupid. The issue isn't that, that, you know, people are just like, well, my health care is not even good, so we can't provide them with good health care until my health care is good. It's more like something. It's more like the view that it is not a given that America has an obligation to take in the whole world if the world wants to come. It's not anybody's birthright to, to come to America. And the idea that if you just come here illegally against the wishes of the American people, that therefore not only do we owe you that, but we also owe you some stuff on top of it is just absurd. It makes absolutely no sense. And by the way, this is the truth. For all positive rights claims, like all of the claims of like housing as a human right or healthc care is a human right or all of this stuff. And this is, by the way, something I've said for years. There are these different kind of schools of thought and different camps of political ideologies. There are, you know, like Alex, who I debated from, from Cato, who I just debated recently, there are like libertarians who support open borders. Now, I don't agree with them. I think they get the theory wrong and they get the policy wrong. But it is at least to some degree a coherent worldview to say that like I'm for basically the government doing nothing in the economy, either the government doing nothing or the government doing absolutely next to nothing, not intervening in the economy, not taxing people, not providing positive rights for people. But I'm for an open government policy over an open borders policy. There's at least some coherence to that. I think there's more coherence to a libertarian policy that says we don't believe in unrestricted immigration, obviously, but there is something about the left wing worldview where they'll say things like this, where they believe in a lax immigration policy and they also believe that health care and housing and education are human rights. And there is just, it is such a contradictory way of viewing the world. It's like it's. So you're telling me that the, your policy view is that the world has a right to come here and also we, the taxpayer have an obligation to provide them with a house and with education and a job and health care and all of these things. Explain to me how that works, because that is just like there is, it is the most like what was interesting about this. If you remember, Rob, there was this, there's this interview with Bernie Sanders. Was. Ezra Klein was interviewing Bernie Sanders. I believe it was in 2016. Might have been 15, but I think it was 2016. I'm sorry. Yes, yes, yes. Either 2016 or 2015 is when he was running for president against Hillary Clinton or right before. And he asked him about open borders. And Bernie Sanders, because he's an old school, you know, socialist, he's not like one of these new woke kinds of. He just goes, open borders. He goes, that's a Koch brother policy. And he was. And Ezra Klein was like, no, no, no. Like, we're lefties. We like open borders. And he was like, what? No, that's what the right wingers want, open borders. He goes, that. But in a way, it just, it made so much more sense. If you were a democratic socialist, then of course you'd have to believe in strict immigration control. How else could you. I mean, Rob, look, if you, if you believe in unions and high minimum wage and health care is a natural right, and education as a, as a human right, and housing as a human right, well, how can you do all that when you have wide open borders? You can only do all of that if. Right. Like, it's totally contradictory. Now, that does not mean, therefore, the libertarian open borders advocates are right. They are incorrect, but at least there's a coherence to their worldview. Whereas like with these, these democratic socialists who believe in open borders, it's totally incoherent. Just makes absolutely no sense. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, a brand new sponsor we're very happy to have on board, and that is Massa Chips. Did you know all chips and fries used to be cooked in tallow up until the 1990s when big corporations switched to cheap processed seed oils. Today, seed oils make up to 20 of the average American's daily calories. And recent studies have linked seed oils to metabolic health issues and inflammation in the body. Massa decided to do something about it. They created a tasty and delicious tortilla chip with just three ingredients and no seed oils. With just three ingredients and no seed oils, these chips don't only avoid all the bad stuff. They taste incredible. Masa is crunchier, tastier, and sturdier than other chips. Doesn't break in your guac, you know what I mean? I like having a strong chip. Check them out. 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Dave Smith (50:41)

One more.

Robbie Bernstein (50:43)

All right, sounds good. Okay. What do you, what do you want to do for the, the next topic, Rob?

Dave Smith (50:51)

You getting me a second year? I mean, we can go with firstly there was the incident with the, well, I don't know. You want to go with the, you know, they're claiming that Doge is going to continue. We've got the senators who are pushing back on Donald Trump's budget. Oh, let's go with that. We have the clip of, of the speaker of the House.

Robbie Bernstein (51:09)

Yeah, let's talk about that.

Dave Smith (51:10)

Talking about how he's a fiscal conservative.

Robbie Bernstein (51:12)

It was Tom Elliott's tweet. Again, great Twitter. Great, great Twitter followed. Tom Elliott does a great job of just, just cataloging the liars and I do like that he, he wrote this, this is, he does the old Michael Malice thing which is the best. He goes. Speaker Johnson, who increased the debt $1 trillion every 100 days since being named, says I am a fiscal hawk. I just thought that was a great, great introduction. So here is Speaker Johnson talking about the latest monstrosity of a spending bell.

Jake Tapper (51:49)

What's going to happen?

Robbie Bernstein (51:50)

Well, the Joint Committee on taxation is projecting just 300 of a percent on growth. But let me just ask you, I want you to address the concerns of your colleagues. Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Rand Paul, why doesn't this bill do more to address the debt and deficit? Mr. Speaker?

Jake Tapper (52:08)

Yeah, well, listen, I agree with my good friend Ron Johnson, for example, a lot of the comments that he stated about government spending. We have a north of $36 trillion federal debt right now and it is the largest national security concern for the U.S. i am a fiscal hawk. Many of my Republican colleagues in the House feel the same way. But it did not. We didn't get in this situation overnight, Kristen. It took us decades, many decades of Congress's frankly mismanagement of the public fisc to get in this situation. And the last four years the Biden administration increased spending dramatically. So it's going to take us a while to get out of it. We can't flip a Magic switch and reverse it overnight.

Robbie Bernstein (52:45)

But this already right there.

Jake Tapper (52:48)

Right direction.

Robbie Bernstein (52:51)

Yes, you can. What is this? That we didn't get here overnight. Therefore we can't flip a switch. Like, well, actually, you can. You could just stop spending all of our goddamn money. It's just such a ridiculous, like, thing to sit here and be like, well, you know, look, I agree with you. I'm a fiscal hawk. And in fact, the fact that we're $37 trillion in debt, this is our number one national security threat. Like, oh, all right, great. So then we're all on the same page here. So we definitely shouldn't add to the debt then. Right, because it's our number one national security. So he's going to sit here and say, listen, I agree with you. The President agrees with you. Every Republican agrees. We're all in agreement. And sure, we have control of the House, the Senate, and the presidency, but, you know, we got to add a little bit more of the debt. I mean, you can't Biden spend so much. Can't just turn this thing around. Like, I don't know, like, it's. It's on the level of being like, you know, you're like, hey, you're morbidly obese and you ate nothing from dusk till dawn or whatever. You ate nothing from morning to night. Let's say you did nothing but eat cheesecake. Like, this is really bad policy and it's going to result in disaster. And you go, yeah, I'm with you. It's the biggest threat to our body right now is that we're so morbidly obese. And you go, yeah, but I noticed you just bought two more cheesecakes. And you go, well, look, I mean, we ate a ton of cheesecake yesterday, and we can't. I can't just hit some magical button where we don't eat cheesecake today. It's like, no, actually, yes, you can. You could just not have any more. That is totally possible. But you're telling me, if you were to say, hey, I can't just push some magical button where we pay off the $37 trillion in debt, like, okay, Fin, but you could definitely write a bill that doesn't add to it. It's just such a ridiculous argument. And I'm. Listen, I'm as much of a cheesecake hawk as anybody. We just got to eat a little bit. Just a couple more cakes. What are we, what are we talking about here, guys? You don't spend any more money.

Dave Smith (54:55)

Or in your cheesecake example, if you're Caught that red handed. You can at least go, well, for tomorrow, I'm only ordering one cheesecake. And we're making improvements here, and we're gonna wheedle down. But when you order, if you ate two today and you're telling you, hey, I know it's a problem and you're going to three tomorrow, doesn't sound like you actually care about the problem. And so for him to be up there and go, oh, yeah, I agree with all these people. I'm a hawk just as much as they are, but at the moment, we just gotta, we gotta spend more than we ever did. And I can't tell you when we're ever gonna ramp that down or make the correction. But now's just not the time. Doesn't. Doesn't sound like you're a fiscal hawk, my friend.

Robbie Bernstein (55:30)

As I've said before, Rob, if D.C. had a motto, it would be now's not the time. Now's never the time. Unless.

Dave Smith (55:39)

Yes.

Robbie Bernstein (55:40)

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. When it comes to dropping bombs, shutting down the country for Covid, then it's always the time. It's almost always the time to drop bombs on innocent people. But, yeah. You know, I'll say this. You had Donald Trump winning every swing state and the popular vote. You had a major cultural shift, a major, major cultural awakening to the corruption of government. You had Doge come in, which was enormously popular, and it was exposing all types of government corruption. You have a Republican, you have a House and a Senate whose slim majorities, but have majorities filled up by Republicans who all go off all day long about how they're against big government and therefore fiscal sanity. Just like the speaker here said, he's a fiscal haw. Now is the time. Now might be the only time. Now is the best time. It's the best goddamn shot. We'd have to actually have some meaningful reduction in the size and scope in government. And the reason why we're not having that is because Mike Johnson loves big government and Donald Trump loves big government and the entire Republican establishment love big government. That's why we're going to continue to have big government. And don't let them fool you with any of this other. Sorry, look. And to the entire MAGA movement, we're either just like the fucking Democrats or we're not. We're either in a cult as well, where they could. Where one day we'll repeat the line. Yes, sharp as attack. Joe Biden is sharp as attack. Joe Biden's so old and senile that Kamala Harris has to run. Yes. Kamala Harris is hope and joy. Yeah. Like, we're either cult members like them, or we're independent critical thinkers who are allowed to tell the truth. And the truth is that this was the absolute best time to actually cut some government spending. And the reason it's not happening is because almost no one in the Republican Party actually believes in that. And it's clear to see there's a few people. Rand Paul, Thomas Massie. I'll even give a. What's his name, who they. They mentioned here. Ron Johnson. Okay. He's not quite as much of a hawk as I'd like him to be, but at least those guys do, to some degree, believe in cutting the size and scope of government. The rest of them simply don't. And you're gonna call this thing a big, beautiful bill. It's. It's just disgusting. And it's an. I'm sorry, what Mike Johnson is saying here is just. It's an insult to all of our intelligence. All right, let's. Let's keep playing. Bring it back just like a few seconds, Natalie. And, and let's play a little more from the clip before we wrap up.

Jake Tapper (58:16)

Is the largest step forward in the right direction that Congress has ever made. I liken this to an aircraft carrier. You don't turn an aircraft carrier on a dime. It takes a mile of open ocean. This is the biggest turn in that wheel that we would have had in generations. And this is the first of a number of steps. This is a key point. This is not the only reconciliation bill. We're going to have a second budget reconciliation bill that follows after this. And we're beginning next week, the appropriations process, which is the spending bills for government. And you're going to see a lot of the Doge cuts and a lot of this new fiscal restraint reflected in what Congress does next. So stay tuned. This is just pause.

Robbie Bernstein (58:54)

Let's just pause it right there for a second, okay? No, you won't. We're both on record making our predictions now. No, you won't. You will not see a lot of the Doge cuts reflected. They'll find a way to spin it so that they can claim that some of them are. But I'm sorry, look again, all of these examples of, like, it takes a long time to turn a ship around. All right? The problem is, like, let's say you're in a car and you're doing 90 miles an hour and you're headed off of a cliff, okay? If I get behind the wheel and I step on the accelerator. And now I push more on. And now we're doing 95 miles an hour. I can't really claim that I'm turning it around. And if spending is going up and the deficit's going up and the debt is going up, then you're not turning the ship around. You are accelerating in the direction of disaster. That is not being a fiscal hawk. And try to spin this any way you want to. And look, I'm just, again, there's some younger people who listen to the show. I have the benefit of a little bit of wisdom now that I'm getting old. I've just been through this before. I've been through this every Republican in my lifetime. So I was born during the Ronald Reagan administration. So I lived through a little bit as a baby of Ronald Reagan, but, you know, whatever. I was like five by the time he got out. But I, you know, whatever. I've read a lot about it. I know about Ronald Reagan. George H.W. bush was the second Republican president of my lifetime. George W. Bush was the third. Donald Trump is the fourth. Fourth and fifth, depending on how you want to carve it up. Every single time spending went up. Spending went up under Reagan, under George H.W. bush, under George W. Bush and under Donald Trump, and under Donald Trump again. And not by a little. Major spending increases. Entire new departments of entitlements were created. I think of George W. Bush's Medicare Part D, okay, no Child Left behind was created under a Republican president. It's. And every single time, Rob, they got some story like this. Yes, we're raising spending and adding to the debt and all of this, but it's a big part of this huge ship being turned around. And believe me, in the appropriations process, Rob, that's where we're really going to get to cutting spending. No, you fucking won't, you liar. You big government loving liar. Not happening. All right, Rob, I'll give you the final word and then let's, let's wrap up.

Dave Smith (61:35)

I think we thoroughly trashed the Republican Party that seems to have zero interest in what whatsoever at this point in time of trying to actually cut spending. And now you, you know, you had Elon Musk saying, Doge is a movement. They're going to continue my movement, and they're making bold claims. There was an interview with JD Vance and he said that we're absolutely going to be continuing doge. This, this was just the start of Doge. And there just seems to be a lot of promises from the administration of, no, we're doing it, we're doing it. It's coming, it's coming. Trust the plan. We're going to do it. But then as you get further and further along, it doesn't seem like they're ever actually taking any actions towards what they're promising you.

Robbie Bernstein (62:14)

Yep. So it's just like, that's the thing. And then what they count on is that by the time it comes, you'll already be, this will be in the rear view mirror and you'll be infuriated about the latest progressive thing that they did. And so you'll fall in line supporting Republicans beside this. But like right now, while it's being like, let's just be clear, spending isn't getting cut. Epstein files aren't being released. Like the, the, all of the, these promises are just not happening. And they're not happening for a reason. And it's because the Republicans don't want it to. They don't actually believe in this stuff and whatever, let that prediction bear out. Let's see if Mike Johnson's right or if, if we're right about that. But yeah, this is, I've just seen this game, I've seen this movie too many times.

Dave Smith (63:00)

And just one more thing on that is that for the, for the Trump loyalists, I think for people that are actually concerned with these things, if there's enough public interest in them, you might force their hand. Believe me, if no one, if no one doesn't shut up about and the Republicans actually get punished and start looking like they're expanding the debt more. And it's funny that NBC gets to be on there, aren't we concerned about the debt? But the Republicans are almost falling into this trap where they're never gonna be able to talk about debt again and they're not gonna be able to talk about the deep state again. And if you are looking for these things to actually be fixed, Trump is in office now and you go, hey, I'm looking for this to happen. They might do it. But I think if you just stand around, go, trust the plan. Trust the plan. No, you can't criticize them. They're better than the Dems. I think it's a lot safer for them to just not touch any of these things. And so they won't.

Robbie Bernstein (63:49)

Yeah, 100%. All right, that's our show for today. Thank you guys for, for watching, listening. Appreciate you. Porch tour.com comicdab smith.com go check out run your mouth. I'm very interested to watch that Scott Horton episode. That sounds cool. All right. Catch you guys next time. Peace.