Hegseth Confirmation Hearings, TikTok Sunday Ban, Bill Burr Wildfire Backlash | PBD Podcast | Ep. 535

Summary

Podcast Summary: PBD Podcast | Ep. 535 Title: Hegseth Confirmation Hearings, TikTok Sunday Ban, Bill Burr Wildfire Backlash
Release Date: January 16, 2025
Host/Author: PBD Podcast
Description: The PBD Podcast delves into current events, trending topics, and political issues impacting life and business, featuring insightful discussions and guest appearances.

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1. California Wildfires and Insurance Challenges

The episode opens with an in-depth discussion on California's escalating wildfire crisis and its profound impact on the state's insurance landscape.

Key Points:

• Insurance Rate Hikes:

  • CSAA Insurance Group CEO, Mike Zuckerman, highlights the urgent need to adjust insurance premiums to reflect increased wildfire risks. He states, “Adjusting insurance prices to match the increased wildfire risks is essential to ensure sustainability” (04:39).
  • Tom Ellsworth compares rising home insurance costs to car insurance premiums, emphasizing that higher risks naturally lead to higher costs. “If your car insurance goes up because of poor driving, your home insurance should similarly reflect wildfire risks” (12:15).

• Personal Impact:

  • Patrick Bet-David narrates the story of Francis Buschetti, whose insurance premium surged from $4,500 to $18,000 annually. Unable to afford necessary tree removals, Francis opted out of insurance altogether, resulting in complete loss of his home during a wildfire (15:48).

• Regulatory Changes:

  • Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara declares an emergency, allowing non-licensed adjusters to manage claims under strict supervision. This deregulation aims to address the shortage of qualified adjusters but raises concerns about oversight and quality control (26:00).
  • Tom Ellsworth and Adam Sosnick debate the implications, agreeing that while deregulation may be necessary in crises, it potentially lowers standards and accountability in the insurance process (28:04).

• California Exodus:

  • The panel predicts a significant exodus from California due to unaffordable insurance and skyrocketing rents post-wildfires. They estimate a recovery timeline of 5 to 10 years, with many residents relocating to less wildfire-prone states (21:10; 25:47).

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2. Confirmation Hearings: Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense

A major segment focuses on the confirmation hearings of Pete Hegseth for the position of Secretary of Defense, scrutinizing his qualifications and readiness for the role.

Key Points:

• Qualifications Debate:

  • Adam Sosnick raises concerns about Hegseth’s experience, questioning how a combat veteran with limited managerial experience can effectively oversee the Department of Defense.
  • Tom Ellsworth supports Hegseth, arguing that Trump’s leadership and strategic decisiveness make him a suitable commander in chief, despite Hegseth not having been a CEO (56:01).

• Leadership vs. Military Experience:

  • Patrick Bet-David emphasizes the importance of transferable leadership skills from business to military roles, stating, “Leadership is transferable. Understanding how a company is run can translate to running large organizations like the military” (58:07).
  • The panel discusses historical precedents, comparing Hegseth to previous Secretaries of Defense who also lacked traditional military leadership backgrounds, suggesting that effective leadership can compensate for non-traditional experience (60:36).

• Interactive Segment:

  • The hosts engage in a mock confirmation hearing, highlighting the rigorous questioning Hegseth faces, including inquiries about gender roles in the military and his stance on combat positions for women (62:00; 67:20).

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3. Bill Burr on LA Wildfire Management

Comedian Bill Burr appears on the podcast to critique online narratives surrounding the management of recent LA wildfires.

Key Points:

• Defense of Firefighters:

  • Burr vehemently defends the efforts of firefighters, dismissing online accusations of mismanagement. “They’re actually doing a great job” (03:35; 68:18).

• Criticism of Media and Public Opinion:

  • He criticizes media outlets and internet trolls for spreading misinformation and undervaluing the heroic efforts of first responders during the wildfire crises (70:00; 72:20).

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4. TikTok Sunday Ban and Potential US Shutdown

The discussion shifts to the looming threat of a TikTok ban in the United States, exploring the legal, economic, and social ramifications.

Key Points:

• Imminent Ban Details:

  • Adam Sosnick outlines the potential ban timing, stating TikTok may be removed from app stores by January 19th, barring Supreme Court intervention. “TikTok faces a ban Sunday” (03:33; 84:39).

• Ownership Speculation:

  • Speculation arises regarding Elon Musk acquiring TikTok’s US operations to circumvent the ban. The panel debates the potential outcomes if Musk takes over, including ad rate manipulations and competition with platforms like Twitter (84:39; 90:15).

• Impact on Youth:

  • Concerns are raised about TikTok’s influence on Gen Z, with predictions that banning the app could bolster Trump’s appeal among younger demographics who are disillusioned with Biden’s policies. “The algorithm is shaping and influencing public opinion” (88:39; 94:17).

• National Security and Data Privacy:

  • The primary concern centers around data privacy and national security, questioning whether TikTok’s data could be accessed by the Chinese government. The hosts emphasize the importance of protecting American user data from foreign adversaries (87:58; 94:04).

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5. GOP Tax Leaders and Small Business Tax Cuts

The podcast examines GOP efforts to retain the 2017 tax cuts, highlighting their significance for small businesses amidst rising tax concerns.

Key Points:

• Potential Tax Increases:

  • Jason Smith warns that without making the 2017 tax cuts permanent, small businesses could face tax rates 43.4%, exceeding prices paid by businesses in China. “Small business owners are at risk of paying more tax than businesses in communist China” (95:11).

• Economic Optimism:

  • Conversely, small business optimism has surged to a six-year high based on Trump’s economic policies. The hosts discuss how these tax cuts have historically stimulated growth and how their expiration could dampen economic confidence (95:53; 96:40).

• Political Spin:

  • Adam Sosnick criticizes Democratic narratives, asserting that expiring tax cuts equate to tax hikes, framing it as a political maneuver to undermine Trump’s economic legacy (96:40).

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6. Michelle Obama Skipping Trump’s Inauguration

A contentious topic is Michelle Obama’s absence from Trump’s inauguration, sparking debate over personal animosities and political statements.

Key Points:

• Reasons for Absence:

  • Vinny DeMarco speculates that Michelle Obama’s decision stems from deep-seated animosity towards Trump, referencing her past criticisms of his lack of diversity and leadership style. “Michelle Obama not attending shows she's vindictive and prioritizing personal interests over America” (101:00).

• Public Perception:

  • The panel discusses the implications of her absence, likening it to political gestures that could influence public opinion and highlighting the symbolic importance of former first ladies in national ceremonies (102:24; 105:28).

• Comparative Analysis:

  • Patrick Bet-David draws parallels to previous first ladies and their causes, emphasizing the role Michelle Obama could have played in unifying the nation. The discussion underscores how personal relationships and political beliefs intersect in public appearances (107:50; 112:55).

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7. Gaza Ceasefire Deal Between Israel and Hamas

The podcast covers the recent Gaza ceasefire deal, analyzing its terms and potential effectiveness.

Key Points:

• Deal Terms:

  • A phased ceasefire begins on Sunday, involving Israel’s military withdrawal, release of Israeli hostages, and exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Joe Biden claims the deal will provide much-needed humanitarian aid and reunite hostages (99:03; 101:00).

• Skepticism and Criticism:

  • Patrick Bet-David expresses skepticism about the ceasefire’s longevity, referencing past hostage exchanges where disproportionate terms favored one side heavily. “One Israeli hostage, one Palestinian prisoner” (125:12; 125:27).

• Long-term Impact:

  • The hosts debate whether the ceasefire will lead to lasting peace or simply pause ongoing conflicts, citing historical precedents and the inherent challenges in negotiating with deeply entrenched adversaries (125:54; 129:43).

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8. Brad Pitt Online Scam

A surprising and lighter segment discusses a scam involving Brad Pitt’s impersonation, leading to significant personal and financial loss for a French woman.

Key Points:

• Scam Details:

  • A woman named Anne was duped by an individual posing as Brad Pitt’s mother and subsequently as Brad Pitt himself. The scammer fabricated a romantic relationship, persuading Anne to transfer $850,000 to purported medical treatments (130:10; 133:00).

• Emotional and Financial Toll:

  • The podcast host shares the emotional distress and personal fallout Anne experienced, including divorce and severe depression, highlighting the sophistication and personal impact of such scams (132:23; 133:07).

• Preventative Advice:

  • Adam Sosnick urges listeners to stay vigilant against such scams, advising suspicion of unsolicited romantic advances offering significant financial incentives. “If somebody tries to tell you to leave me for $5 million and it’s Brad Pitt, don’t fall for it” (131:52; 132:28).

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Conclusion

Episode 535 of the PBD Podcast offers a multifaceted exploration of pressing issues ranging from California’s wildfire-induced insurance crisis to high-stakes political maneuvers surrounding Trump’s inauguration and major policy decisions. The hosts provide critical analysis, personal anecdotes, and engaging debates, enriched with notable quotes and timestamped insights, making the episode a comprehensive resource for listeners seeking to understand the intersection of politics, business, and societal challenges.

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Note: Timestamps in the summary reference minutes and seconds within the provided transcript.

Transcript

[Patrick Bet-David]

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[Adam Sosnick]

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[Patrick Bet-David]

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[Tom Ellsworth]

Treating yourself without cheating.

[Adam Sosnick]

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[Patrick Bet-David]

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[Vinny DeMarco]

Learn more@Factor Meals.com.

[Adam Sosnick]

Adam what's your point? The future looks bright. My handshake is better than anything I ever saw. It's right here. You are a one of one my.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Son.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Of our lives. Don't do it, baby. Oh, we're on. Are we on? I would never sing so hang on.

[Adam Sosnick]

Episode 535 and Tom does the same thing again. He does. We're singing a song but Tom has to be the person that everybody listens to. The song. Thomas.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah.

[Adam Sosnick]

This is what we deal with on a daily basis, folks. You don't witness Tom's bullying behind closed.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah and then they talk about us.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Like we're bullying egomaniacs.

[Adam Sosnick]

Seriously.

[Vinny DeMarco]

He just put a border here so I can't pass.

[Adam Sosnick]

Listen. All right, let's, let's, let's get into we got a lot of stuff to cover here with you as usual. California is getting nastier and we have some new stories to talk about with California. Louisiana insurance giant makes prediction after devastating fire we'll cover that LA landlords jack up rent by as much as 124% floating price gouging laws during deadly wildfires that's what's going on there. Trump inauguration is around the corner on for on Monday here's what to know about guest list schedule performance and more. Michelle Obama skipped Jimmy Carter's funeral Michelle Obama is also skipping the inauguration will be have you know obviously Vinnie has the most creative speculations on why he thinks but we'll process why that is and we'll talk about that. GOP tax leaders US small business could pay more tax than small businesses do in China if Trump cut expires small business optimism surges to six year high based on Trump's policies Iran never plotted to kill Trump during campaign Iran's president tells NBC News okay Denmark opens back channel to Trump to discuss Greenland that's a Wall Street Journal story take away from Pam Bondi and Pete Hex said their confirmation hearing Pam and Adam Schiff had a very friendly conversation together Elizabeth Warren asked a question from Pete Hex said about being a general his response is beautiful. We'll talk about that. Bill Burr eviscerates effing idiot Internet trolls who say the LA Wildfire were mismanaged. He actually says they're doing a good job. The people that.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Great job.

[Adam Sosnick]

Actually doing a great job. Yeah. Bill Burr said that. TikTok responds to rumors China wants to ask Musk to buy the platform. Pure fiction. TikTok faces a ban Sunday. Today is Thursday in three days time. Sunday's the last day for TikTok. Is that what it's looking like? Based on According to the.

[Tom Ellsworth]

According to the federal legislation on the books right now. They've got a deadline.

[Adam Sosnick]

Here we go. Okay. TikTok faces a ban Sunday. TikTok preparing for you. A Sunday shutdown. Everybody's talking about that. We'll address that as well.

[Tom Ellsworth]

The pen will show up Monday.

[Adam Sosnick]

Wall street journal. Even Harvard's MBAs are struggling to land jobs. Starbucks major reversal in policy that will force customers to pay nine suspected Tren de Aragua gangbangers charged for brutal kidnapping. That's from Daily Caller. Gaza cease fire deal reached between Israel Hamas truce to begin Sunday and Joe Biden took credit for it. Eagles fan who cursed out this other lady at insults at the Packer supporters fired from DEI focused consulting job and then why 2025 will be the year of the alpha male. Adam has a lot of stuff to say about that as an alpha male. He claims he is. And then Brad Pitt, this guy. It's just folks. But Vinnie told me with this story we have to cover this. A man claims to be Brad Pitt sends pictures and messages to a lady who is married to a very wealthy man and she actually decides to leave him for Brad. If this thing is true.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Hold on. I double fact checked it. But wait till you see the photos. I can't wait for that.

[Adam Sosnick]

I can't wait for this. I can't wait for this. And then we got a couple other things with on the addendum as well. But before we get into this, maybe even a Diddy story that we got to cover on the freak off tapes with the documentaries coming out. So one thing I do like to do here, if you're at value timing, we like to make predictions. Okay. And we have a lot of fun with predictions. If you watch the podcast, we make predictions. We play the game of predictions. So do you think you're pretty good at making predictions? Do you yourself? You're like, I'm very good at making predictions. Well, guess what? We're playing a game. And it's the first 100 days of Donald Trump as a president. And we're playing this game on VTNews.AI with a leader's bulletin, with a contest, with recognition at the end, with prizes at the end. And here's how it works. Every day, VTNews AI is gonna post a prediction for you to make on the website. And you go out there and make the predictions yourself. And by the way, to participate, all you have to do is put your email there. It's free. You don't have to do anything else. For some of you that want to take advantage of all the features that VTNews AI gives upgrade, use it. We use VTNews AI for our podcast all the time. And here's how it works. It's starting today. And the way the scoring system works is the sooner you make the predictions. Like, Tom is doing it right now to get the highest scores. Look, he's doing it right now. He's not even waiting for us. Tom's been doing this so fast because he wants to be ahead of everybody. But we're going to show you how this works. So here's 14 predictions that are officially available on the website. Some of them are going to be funny, some of them are not. And some of them are going to tell you exactly how many points you can get on those if you get them right. There is more points if you answer faster. So if you want to put a reminder on your phone in the morning, each prediction will be posted on the website at 9:00am Eastern Standard Time. So, Rob, let's read some of These predictions on VTNews AI from the top to bottom. And Vinnie, Tom, Adam, if you guys want to score your predictions now, you can. Let's go through them.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I'm going to go. Okay, so.

[Adam Sosnick]

So number one, I'm not logged in, but we can start it here right now. So, number one, how many former presidents do you think will attend Trump's inauguration? Okay. None. One, two, three or four. Okay. And if Michelle doesn't show up, it still counts as Obama showing up. So four is everybody shows up three years, one of them doesn't show up, et cetera, et cetera. Number two, Trump has stated he has 100 executive orders planned for day one. How many executive orders will Trump execute by the end of January 21st? That's a day after inauguration. You have the breakdown on how many is going to do. Go to the next one, Rob. Okay. Which Trump cabinet appointee confirmation hearing process will take the longest? If they are all confirmed at all, you can pick and choose which one those are they're right there. Go to the next one. Rob, what will the state of US Border security look like at the end of Trump's first week in office? It gives you options on what to do. 5. What will happen to Truth Social one month after Trump takes office?

[Vinny DeMarco]

6.

[Adam Sosnick]

Will Trump pardon Snowden the first hundred days? 7. Will Trump restart the Keystone pipeline the first hundred days? Eight. How many of Trump's core cabinet members will change within the first hundred days? Will Trump once again remove the US from the Paris climate accords in his first 100 days? 10. How will inflation compare on the day 100 versus his first day? 11. Will Trump evoke an executive order in his first hundred days to resume construction on the southern border, the wall that he wanted to build? 12. Who will receive executive pardons during Trump's first 100 days? Rob, can you open that one up because that's 800 points and I want. You got a few of them right there. Who do you think is going to get that? Will be Biden, January six Writers himself, Fauci, Mayorkas, or none of the above. Go to 13. I got two more to go. Will an incident that creates a security concern happen during Trump's inauguration? And last but not least, will Trump take executive action against TikTok in his first hundred days? If you are good at, by the way, behind closed doors, I just want to prepare you guys because Tom is an NBA and the rest of us don't. Tom's been talking shit that he's going to kill us in this game because Tom is very good at these types of games. So if you want to join us, we're going to go all the way to the 100th day, which means the 100 day will be 100 days from January 20th. So it's not going to be done till February, March, April, end of April. Okay, maybe May 1st. And then the winners will have some special surprise and prizes for you guys. So go to VTNews AI and start posting your predictions. Now you do get points the earlier you post. So the second person gets fewer the third view or fourth viewer. And the leaders bulletin will be posted with your name there. Make sure your name is there so we can track you. You will see the Leaders bulletin of people with the highest scores on their predictions. All right, so let's get right into it again. Go to VTNews AI. VTNews AI to become the news Tridamus.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Very good.

[Adam Sosnick]

The Trump tradamis. Okay, all right, so the things that's taking place right now, I want to start off with this first story tomorrow. And the first story is Los Angeles Insurance giants makes prediction after devastating fire in la. Watch this, folks. Okay, and we've been talking about this, Mark. Mike Zuckerman, CEO of CSAA Insurance Group, highlighted the grave risk to California if homeowner insurance available becomes unavailable due to wildfire, stating not being able to insure homes in California against these kinds of risks will completely upend the state. CSA is the third largest insurer in California, continues to write new policies, but declined to renew 5,500 policies in 2024. Okay, just 1.2% of his total policies due to wildfire. Zuckerman emphasized the necessity of adjusting insurance prices. I'm going to read this one more time, folks. He emphasized the necessity of adjusting insurance prices to match what the increased wildfire risks. Explaining this is not a sign that wildfire wildfires aren't insurable. It is a sign that insurance companies need to be allowed to change to charge the prices that match the increased risk in order to ensure. While CSAA raises home insurance rates by 6.9% this year, other insurance such as Allstate and State Farm have implemented double digit increases or left the California market in its entirety. Tom?

[Tom Ellsworth]

Well, I got a couple things on this and what he's talking about is the overall market. So CEO of insurance company, you would expect him to talk about the overall market, but I've got some, some stats down underneath this. He's right that if they have increased risk, they increase the price. Anybody that has a teenage driver and they got two tickets in their first 18 months of having a driver's license, your car insurance goes up and you're, and then you tell your kid, hey, you're, you're on my insurance policy but you know, you can't get any more tickets and you went to traffic school for that one. You can't do that because take a look, your mom and I are paying higher. Car insurance. People in America, American families know about this. You've heard about this, right? So guess what? It's the same thing if they think that your house is at risk maybe because brush clearance hasn't happened properly or you're in a wildfire area and they're concerned about it. So the insurance companies are acting, oh, here comes a word. Rationally, in a normal market, do they want your business?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Of course they do.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Do they want to raise the price so that you don't do business with them? No, no, they don't. But if you're selling me, you know, bananas and fruit and it costs More to get here, the shipping. Then you have to charge me more for a basket of bananas, right? Because you say, well, the fuel was up, the shipping was up. I don't know. I went down to the dock and I bought it through my fruit wholesaler. Tom. I had to raise. Everyone seems to lose their, their sense of understanding that that's what's happening here. And all these headlines are crazy. But I'll tell you something else that's crazy. When the rates were going up, people changed coverages of the policy. You know, you can save on your car insurance policy. You know how you do it?

[Vinny DeMarco]

I, I call the insurance company, I go, you know what? I don't need this. I don't need, like I lowered the, the, the cost of, like if somebody else gets injured on my accident, the deductible, everything.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Maybe you say, well, you know what, I got a little bit more money now. I don't need 500 deductible. I can do 2,000. So the first 2,000 of a car crash is mine. And guess what? And they say, oh, that's great, Mr. O'Shauna, you just saved 8% on your premium. That's the way it works. Well, check this out. Yesterday I dug into it. Insurance analysis group says 74% of homeowners are underinsured for what's called the complete loss. And ale you know what ali is alternative living expenses. Alternative living expenses are usually only 20% of the coverage you choose to have on your house. So if your house is 700,000, your alternative living coverage is 20% of that 140 grand. And if it takes three years to rebuild the house, you are going to blow through that. Or if rents go up, and we're gonna see that story a little bit, you're gonna blow right through the lid on that. And guess what you're gonna have to do? Decide to sell the property or figure out a way to self finance.

[Adam Sosnick]

So let me tell you guys what happened here, like a perfect example of a story. Francis Buschetti in California. He owns a house in Palisades. He's been there for decades. He's been living in Palisades for 50 years on and off. But he's owned his house for a couple decades, give or take his insurance premium. Last year, he gets word that his premium just went from $4,500 to $18,000 a year, 1500amonth from 4,500. Rob, if you want to pull up the story, Francis Beccetti, Brandon, if you guys can send it to Rob Soyeza to pull it up. This is a Wall Street Journal story. It went from $4,500 to $18,000 a year. A year ago, he gets this letter, okay? When he gets this letter, he sits there, he says, there's no way in the freaking way I can afford to do this. So he doesn't do anything with it. He goes to the fair plan, which the fair plan is $3200 a year. And they protect your house, I think up to $3 million, okay? But when he goes to the fair plan to approve for it, they tell him to cut 10 trees on the side of his house, okay? He looks at the cost of cutting the 10 trees. He says, I can't afford to do this. So he decides to not cut the trees. So he doesn't even get the fair plan. Then he goes and does something in California, they say, going bear, that means you don't have any insurance. That's what it's called, going bear. I'm going to go bare. And I have nothing. Not fair plan, not homeowner's insurance. He has nothing.

[Tom Ellsworth]

And you can do it if you have no mortgage.

[Adam Sosnick]

You can do it if you have no mortgage. You know what ends up happening? His house burned down. Oh, man. 100% of his house burned down. So guess what he doesn't have to do right now. He has no insurance to pay for it. No fair plan, nothing to do anything with it. By the way, the fair plan, I'm talking to a fellow yesterday who is very successful real estate businessman, and we're having this conversation. He's here. We've known each other for a long time. You know who he is. And I just want to keep it private because the conversation that we had. And he's here, we're sitting in a hangar having a great conversation together. His house burns down in Malibu.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Wow.

[Adam Sosnick]

The guys next door, a lot of the people there whose house has burned down in Malibu, a lot of them had only the fair plan. The fair plan apparently only protects up to $3 million, and they have $250 million. So you got a $20 million house with only a fair plan. That $20 million house is now only getting a $3 million insurance policy to rebuild. That $17 million has to come out of whose pocket? Right there. Look at this. California's fair plan ensure payments for natural disasters up to what? $3 million for residential policyholders. So imagine you're sitting there saying, where the hell am I going to come up with this other $17 million? You're not. But a Guy's going to come to you and say, look, I know you kind of screwed here, and to rebuild, I'll give you $5 million. And that's exactly what we're talking about.

[Vinny DeMarco]

That's awesome.

[Adam Sosnick]

Which, by the way, watch what happened yesterday. Gavin Newsome yesterday tweets out a video from the podcast. If you can go to. If you can go. You can go right there. This is Gavin Newsom, and he says this is absolutely false. It's from his account. I signed an executive order to protect residents from predatory land speculators and developers. Here's Vinnie talking about this in this clip.

[Vinny DeMarco]

And they. And look what he did. They had those fact checkers go in.

[Adam Sosnick]

And say, I saw that. Community notes. So go a little. Go a little. We got to give credit to who posted this as well. So Wall Street Apes posted, and in the description, it says, california Governor Newsom officially setting the stage for developers to come and buy up the devastated land in la Pacific Palisades. Play the clip if you can. Rob, from the podcast, if you can go and play this clip. Go for it. Watch this.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Where Newsom is talking about calling Josh Green. The Maui fires, okay? They exposed the same stuff that's happening right now. Government failure, delayed response, ignored warnings, and all these priorities. He says something about reimagining California, where he calls the Maui guy. And this is what bothers me, Tom. Those people that you're talking about now that have nothing, okay, that the house was worth, let's say, 10 million in regard to insurance. Now somebody comes and wants to buy up the land, Tom, they can offer them way less and say, listen, everything's gone. You didn't have the right insurance. We're going to give you this much money, cash. Tom, get, go, go about your business. Am I right?

[Tom Ellsworth]

People had their house paid off.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yes.

[Tom Ellsworth]

That for some of them that don't have the resources and were underinsured, that is their only choice.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay? So watch this. So, so, so Tom and Vinny are talking about this now. Watch this. Go back to my account, Rob. Go back, if you could, to the Twitter. You just go back. Yeah, there you go. Zoom in on that same thing. Zoom in if you could. His executive order, after the team looked at it. Okay, the executive order, he said to not allow people of predatory land speculators and developers for people to come and pick it up is only for three months.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Weird.

[Adam Sosnick]

And it mandates property offers that meet market value. How long do you think, when we're talking about. How long do you think it's going to Take to clean out the debris alone for homeowners and then for people to say I want to sell the house. How often did you say I want to sell my house? 90 days that he sell the house. How often have you done that? It doesn't happen like that unless you're like a peak, peak, peak, peak market where everything's going like this. But in a situation like that, this is going to take six to 12 months. So yeah, we put in, we put an executive order to protect on all the lip service stuff. No, this is just a public political PR stunt. People are being impacted right now directly and this insurance could be the number one reason why. Leads to the California exodus. And by the way, here's the part you can sit there and try to spin it all you want. You know how long it's going to take to clean this. I'm having a conversation yesterday, we're having a meeting with the mayor of Fort Lauderdale. We're sitting, having a conversation together. And the amount of people right now that are looking at moving like cities that, like cities in Texas, cities in Nevada, places in here, like we're already getting people asking that they want to come down here. We're already getting people interested out or leaving because how long, Tom, and this could go to any one of you guys here, this goes to everybody. And folks, you're listening to this comment, bro. Rob, can you put a poll? How long do you think it's going to take those areas to recover from this where it goes back to normal? 1 to 3 years, 3 to 5 years, 5 to 10 years or 10 years plus? Run those numbers. Tom, how long do you think it's going to take?

[Tom Ellsworth]

I did some research on this. At the end of three years, less than 20% of the homes will be finished.

[Adam Sosnick]

Less than 20%.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Three years from now, they estimate 17 to 20% of the homes will be Finished three years from now. And those will be some of the smaller ones, these bigger ones in Malibu. These are five year projects that are going to act to go through a thing called the Coastal Commission advance permitting. So there it is, 17 to 20% in three years.

[Vinny DeMarco]

So I would say five to 10 years. And ask you a question. So let's say you had that. How much was that guy's house? 15 million. The one the Palisades that burned down and now they're only going to give him.

[Adam Sosnick]

No, he has not saying the Malibu house is on the water. That all burned down. Most of them burned down. If it's 20 million, you only get 3 million from the fair.

[Vinny DeMarco]

So now, so now here's my question to you. Now you have that 3 million, you have to rebuild. Listen, you're not going to have the 20 million. So now that property, you're going to build a, let's say you're not going to build a twenty million dollar house. You're gonna what, build a three million dollar house. Now you can't, that's possible, but that's what I'm saying. So now that's, that's get going to my point. So now you're going to take that money, that land. What can you, what are you going to do with that land? You're just going to sell it? Is that what you're going to do? Do you just sell the land that I have?

[Adam Sosnick]

Well, listen, here, here's what it comes down to. How many of those buyers bought it that have an additional 50, 100 million sitting there? How many people that like for example, when a person buys a million dollar house, just make it simplified, bring it to a million dollar house. If a person buys a million dollar house, how many people have a million dollars in cash?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Very few, of course, very few.

[Adam Sosnick]

How many? What percentage you think, how many?

[Patrick Bet-David]

If you buy a million dollar house.

[Adam Sosnick]

How many people that buy a million dollar house have a million in cash?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Less than 5%.

[Adam Sosnick]

Would you agree on that? I think it's maybe even smaller than that.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Watch this, I'll give it to you, give you the stats. So home purchases were down 70%, you know, here in South Florida. And of the remaining, so that means you're only selling 30% as, as much as two years prior. Make sense? 70% down 30%. Of the 30% they said that 50% were cash buyers. So that's 15% of the original total. So using stats from South Florida, it estimates sort of higher end homes. About 15% of them are full cash buyers.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay, so then if you look at that, so let's say 15% of people have the cash okay to buy.

[Tom Ellsworth]

But that sounds about right.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay, let's just say 5 to 15%. So now that's at a million go to the $20 million homes in Malibu. What percentage of the people that bought a $20 million have $20 million?

[Tom Ellsworth]

It goes up, but it's probably only 30% it's going to go up. That's the afford those houses.

[Adam Sosnick]

Now of the 30% that have the money to be able to pay for those houses, how many of them are going to say yeah, yeah honey, let's make this mistake again? No, in California is going to protect us to the. No, it's going to be a new person that wants to take the risk. So they're going to sell out a discount. How much is that discount? Depends on how much insurance they had. There's a lot of things that's going to come into play here, but the real is this is not done. 2500 votes. Most people said it's going to take five to 10 years. Look, 72% of people say it's going to take more than five years for this thing to come back up. 72% is going to take that long for it to recover. Adam, final thoughts?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Well, you know it's funny because I get all these emails from insurance companies and you know, we're in this industry. I got an email from the insurance department of California. Now typically I just delete this. What do I care about the insurance company? I'm in. I'm in Florida. But what I found is interesting is this. This is from scroll all the way to the bottom. Just so you see. This is from state of California. If you go to the very bottom, this is signed from Ricardo Lara, the insurance commissioner of California. I actually want to get your perspective on this if you've ever seen anything like this. It says whereas the dwellings of the thousands of California residents that have been destroyed or damaged hundreds of businesses structures have been destroyed damaged and tens of thousands of California residents that have been evacuated of their homes by the Palisades eaten several fires. Boom, boom, boom. Whereas the magnitude of these fires are associated insurance claims are likely to create a shortage of qualified insurance adjusters. So now I, Ricardo Lara, the insurance commissioner of the state of California, in accordance with the authority of the vest in my section yada yada yada, hereby declare an emergency situation to exist with a respect to the adjustment of insurance claims arising from the wildfires. And he gives three main points. Therefore, I authorize the following. Number one, the work performed by non licensed adjusters is under the active direction control, charge and or management of qualified insurance adjuster qualified manager. That makes pretty much sense. Qualified. Here's where it gets weird. Number two, the non licensed adjuster register with the insurance commissioner within 15 days of the date to which the non licensed adjuster commences the claims adjusting activity in connection with the wildfires. So that. Scroll down Rob. All claims adjustments. Basically how I'm interpreting this, you tell me you don't even need license adjusters. You don't even need to be quote unquote a a person who has been vetted. This is not something that there's such a shortage of this assurance adjustments that they're basically making exceptions here and they're giving this. Here's the final part. Any qualified adjuster, qualified manager, insurer authorized to do business in California activity, directs, controls or charges and or manages or non license adjuster may be held liable. Have you ever seen anything this where it.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yes.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Tell me if I'm wrong.

[Adam Sosnick]

But let me tell you what if.

[Patrick Bet-David]

You don't have insurance? License.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Let's say, hey, hey guys, we need more life insurance in California. We're underinsured.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Hey, you don't even need a license.

[Adam Sosnick]

You know what this is to go sell. I got you.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Okay. You know I'm trying to understand. Yes, go ahead.

[Adam Sosnick]

But this is a Ricardo Lara. You think he's a liberal or a conservative? Most people that work in the Department of Insurance. Rob, can you look up who this Ricardo Lara is? Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, and see who appointed him. Ok, Ricardo Lara, insurance commissioner, who appointed him?

[Patrick Bet-David]

He's in California.

[Adam Sosnick]

So you have to zoom in a.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Little bit, speculate that he's.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay. He ran for Senate as a Democrat in 2012, 2019. Okay. He served as California Senate. Okay, so guess what? Here's a Democrat that is forced to deregulate. This is a form of deregulation. Because think about it. Pre1929, people who sold stocks didn't have series 7s. You're just like, I want to sell stock. No, there was no licensing. There's no such licensing. Only came after all the people got caught manipulating the stock market. The big crash. And then FDR goes to Joseph Kennedy, brings him in to start sec, SEC gets started. Then they start saying we need fingerprints because you're handling people's money. Then the Series seven, take this test, take that. Then investment. You know, all these 1934, all this 1933, that's when all this stuff gets started. Right. So this is a form of deregulating to accelerate. It's almost a contradiction for them. They don't know what they're doing is they're deregulating. They're lowering regulations, they're lowering the barrier of entry of doing something like this because their over regulation has limited the amount of people they need as adjusters to come and help them out.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Sure.

[Adam Sosnick]

You understand what I'm saying?

[Patrick Bet-David]

No.

[Adam Sosnick]

In your mind, what you're saying is they're lowering standards to get anybody to come in. Both could be true, but to them it's a form of deregulation. Tom, would you Agree.

[Tom Ellsworth]

I completely agree. And what they're trying to do is, let's say Pat.

[Adam Sosnick]

Does that make sense?

[Tom Ellsworth]

Let's say Pat.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yeah. Well, I guess my only question would be there's over regulation and there's. Under regulation.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yes.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I mean, I've seen you. I mean, how many. How many Insurance Agents has PHP?

[Adam Sosnick]

Nearly 60,000 licensed?

[Patrick Bet-David]

So you have standards there. You have a fast start, like.

[Adam Sosnick]

We do. We do. But I mean, you can't just.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Nobody can just start selling insurance.

[Adam Sosnick]

But I tell you, okay, what do I need to do right now to sell what license do I need to do Facebook ads for your company of 10 million a year? There's no license, so why not? But that's the point. Is it a good thing or bad thing? It's a good thing.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I see what you're saying.

[Adam Sosnick]

So do you necessarily need a license to sell insurance? In some places, maybe, Maybe not. Driving cars, Is it good that we're giving people. I agree. So you see how this works?

[Patrick Bet-David]

I mean, I wouldn't know anything about that, but.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay, but. But the point is, in some area, it does. In some area, it doesn't. When you're dealing with people's finances, it's probably good idea for you to go out there and learn some of the rules and regulations and stuff and learn, you know, the continuing education is actually a very good thing that they're doing. It's needed, trust me. Because we had a lot of headaches with that with some people. But going back to you, Tom, form of deregulation.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Yeah. So, Adam, let's say you're Allstate and I'm State Farm. The number of people we have to send an adjuster out to take pictures. Your car gets in a crash, a guy comes out, the camera takes pictures, surveys your car. Unless it's on a tow truck in a junkyard. Right.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Okay.

[Tom Ellsworth]

That's the adjuster. So what they're saying is that you and me, we're like, how are we going to get. How do we set appointments? It's going to be a month to set all these appointments for an adjuster to go out, take pictures, site survey, they'll put a drone up. You know, I read about this, and that's what they need to do. The chimney was standing. The thing's completely done. They see the rest of the street and then that. That now goes to Pat and Vinnie, who are now in the claims office looking at it. Okay. Yeah, I just got from the adjusters here. I see what your property was. So they need. They're going to have the adjusters go out and do it. Previously the state put all these restrictions so you and me didn't have enough adjusters. Now we've got emergency adjusters. So we can get the information into the claims people and we can start helping them. And I bet you that this was the insurance people like you and me, the carriers calling Sacramento and saying, listen, you've, you've, you've put a lot of restrictions on us on the past, but we need an emergency certification program so that we can get adjusters out taking pictures of property, meeting with our customers so that we can get their stuff into the claims office office and start the process. And so this is, this is a liberal doing something that doesn't look liberal, but he's doing it because I think.

[Adam Sosnick]

That the, he has no other choice.

[Tom Ellsworth]

The carriers are screaming.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah, so, so do you think so, Pat, we're on the same page, but you're asking a very, very good question. At a time like this, I think they're actually making the right choice. They have to do this right now. At a time like this, they're making the right choice.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Has insurance, the concept of insurance, whether it's home insurance, whether it's auto insurance, whether it's health insurance, whether it's life insurance, has it ever been this much on the forefront? A month ago, the number one story in the world was Luigi Mangioni about the concept and the situation.

[Adam Sosnick]

I don't know. You're making a very good point now.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Homeowners insurance.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I'll say this. I see so many people that have car insurance, but they don't have life insurance. I see people that have renters insurance, but they don't have disability insurance. The number one asset in your life is not your car, it's not your house, it's not your business, it's you. So this is why I think people are so wrapped up about insurance.

[Adam Sosnick]

I mean, look, the good thing with insurance. Here's a good thing with insurance, specifically life insurance. Not, not, not a lot of other stuff. I've been in Insurance for 25 years. I can tell you how many times the death benefit wasn't paid out. And each time the death benefit wasn't paid out, there was something to do with the beneficiary that they had somebody else pee for them, that, that somebody else do the blood for them, that there was some kind of first two years in contest laws where something happened. It's very few, but it's very few. They pay out. They pay out. Now when it comes on to auto insurance, other stuff. Those guys will do anything and everything they can to not pay out. So many people have bad experience of only getting 3,000 on a car being totals like, what are you talking about? It's $22,000. What am I going to do with 3,000? It's very different with life, than auto, than health, than homeowners. We have to isolate all of these very, very different spaces.

[Patrick Bet-David]

In my opinion, humble opinion, I know plenty of life insurance professionals. I don't know too many, like, you know, renters, insurance professionals.

[Adam Sosnick]

Let's get to the next story. So check this out. This kind of going still with la. I want to get to the story here. LA fires causing landlords to jack up rent as much as 128% and flouting price gouging laws. During deadly wildfires, Louisiana landlords are illegally raising rents above the 10% limit imposed during this state of emergency declared by Governor Newsom. After wildfires destroyed 12,000 structures. A five bedroom Santa Monica home increased from 12,500 to $28,000 a month. 124% hike. Chelsea Kirk from Strategic Actions Just for a Just Economy compound and crowdsourced spreadsheet documenting such violations. While Jason Oppenheim at Netflix is selling Sunset called the practice illegal and immoral. Real estate agents report widespread gouging with Samira Tapia finding nearly 100 listings out of 400 surveyed that violated the price cap cap. In one case, a North Hollywood rental rose by $800 overnight to $5,700. Laura Kate Jones noted that landlords are exploiting desperation. People are so panicked and desperate to get into a house right now that they're throwing money into the wind.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Tom I think there's two sides that I feel on this. First of all, I do think that if landlords are doing this much of a gouge just because they can, you know, there's a certain part of me that just that doesn't like that. But the other side of it, once again, consumers, this happens to us all the time. Have you noticed what an Uber cost in New York City or LA between 5 and 7pm? Guess what? Surge pricing. What do you mean? Surge in what? Surge in demand. Surge in demand goes up, prices go up. So people understand we pay this in our lives all the time. Guess what? You know, you wait until a week before you travel. The plane tickets more, of course, but you go to see your mom.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Do you get your plane tickets ahead of time?

[Vinny DeMarco]

One month, I think it's 2020. Two days is like the average.

[Tom Ellsworth]

And why do you do that?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Because it's cheaper.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Why is it cheaper? Because all 300 seats are available.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Exactly.

[Tom Ellsworth]

When there's only 10 seats available and there's 11 people on the website trying to get the last seat check, the price, the price goes up. So surge pricing happens all the time. But I think somewhere between, you know, 175% hike and a natural increase because the, there's a shortage in available renters. You know, there's, there's also, you know, do you want to operate a business in a neighborhood and be known as a good and friendly business person?

[Adam Sosnick]

Of course.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Do you want to have customers like that? Sure you do.

[Vinny DeMarco]

But.

[Tom Ellsworth]

So there's going to be surge pricing, there's going to be things like this. But I do think some of this is, you know, in, in the realm of super spiking and alternative living expenses. Pat, we were just talking about what if only 20% of your coverage, those alternative living expenses, and you forced the rent to go here, you're going to be out of, out of coverage quickly.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah. So. So a part of me with, with this rate hikes that are taking place, there's, there's words you can say to them on what they're doing. And, you know, it's, it's. But at the same time, in my opinion, I, I want them to do it.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yeah.

[Adam Sosnick]

Do you know why I want them to do it? I want them, I want them to be able to do it because you'll learn about, you know, you learn about what they're like and who they are. Yeah. You want, you want to learn to say that this is what they're doing now. Right. And, you know, this is an offer. Like, remember the guy, the Mattress Houston guy? What's his guy's name? Mattress.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Mattress Mack.

[Adam Sosnick]

Mattress Mac. Right. The super bowl hurricane hits, Mattress Mac. What does he say? He opens it up and he helps people out. Mattress Mac. This guy's loved in a city. Mattress Mac. When hurricane hits, he opens it up. Do you remember what happened in Houston when hurricane hit, what Joel Osteen's church did?

[Vinny DeMarco]

They wouldn't let nobody close the doors.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Anybody come in and sleep with the Lord?

[Tom Ellsworth]

No, no, no.

[Patrick Bet-David]

They should have.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Let's just talk facts. The facts were they closed their doors rather than open them as a relief center because they didn't want all those people and potential damage or all the cleanup they were going to have to do. They closed the doors. That's a fact.

[Adam Sosnick]

There you go. So that, and then he had to Come back and explain himself a couple of days later.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah, but they did.

[Adam Sosnick]

And guess what? You know, that's a mistake. It doesn't mean he's a bad person. It just means we learned you made a bad mistake. Hey, look, that's what that's about. You'll learn. You'll learn about these types of moments. But at the same time, when you're looking at what's going on right now with California, businesses are doing that, what else do you think is going to happen? That. What do you think construction companies are going to do? You think they're going to give a discount?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Hell, no.

[Adam Sosnick]

Here's what a construction company is going to say. He's going to be like, hey, man, Johnny, I want you to help me rebuild my Malibu home the fastest. Tom, Respectfully, I have 80 other people that are asking me to do it, and I'm all. I'm about to go into contract. What's the guy offering you? He's offering me 600 bucks a square foot. He's going to. I'll do 800. Okay? So now he calls him. He says, hey, man, Pat's wanting to do it for 800. I'll do 900. What do you think this construction guy's. Which job you think he's going to take? Honestly? Actually, think about it.

[Vinny DeMarco]

The one that's going to get.

[Adam Sosnick]

What do you think he's going to take? Like, what do you think happens when war happens? Are weapons of mass destruction discounted? No, like, when war happens. Do you think they're selling, you know, planes, all this. Hey, guess what? These missiles are on discount because there's more.

[Vinny DeMarco]

No, no. The price stays the same.

[Adam Sosnick]

They sell. Tom, what's. What would.

[Tom Ellsworth]

No.

[Adam Sosnick]

Are you looking at Vinny like he's an idiot?

[Patrick Bet-David]

He knows what he's talking.

[Adam Sosnick]

You want to say something? Go ahead.

[Patrick Bet-David]

No, go ahead, say something.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Yeah, if they.

[Adam Sosnick]

No, I think you want to say something, though. Go ahead.

[Tom Ellsworth]

No, I don't. I don't have anything to say. I'm reacting. Sorry.

[Adam Sosnick]

So.

[Patrick Bet-David]

So when.

[Adam Sosnick]

When. When this happens. When this happens, the market goes higher, the demand goes higher. Whether that's a good thing or not. It's what the hand you're dealt. It's the hand you're dealt. You're dealt that hand. You know what I'm saying? So what are you gonna do in that moment? You don't know. I mean, this is a bigger travesty than people are thinking about. People are going to leave. They're gonna sit there and have to make a decision on what they're gonna do. Here's what they're gonna do. Say to people that want to stay in California, you're like, I'm not leaving California. What area in California do you want to live in after this?

[Vinny DeMarco]

They still.

[Adam Sosnick]

What is an area in California that has no trees or no wildlife? No. Any of that. So where would you go to city?

[Tom Ellsworth]

Downtown, Mojave Desert, Lancaster.

[Adam Sosnick]

That's what.

[Vinny DeMarco]

That's exactly the point. Yeah. Because you're not downtown expensive as.

[Adam Sosnick]

You're going to go to a place that's Lancaster.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Oh, my God.

[Adam Sosnick]

You're going to go to a place that's away from everybody. You're going to have to make some changes because it's going to keep repeating itself. This is a bigger thing than people are thinking about. And Exodus is around the corner and a massive one. Adam, final thoughts.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Well, you know, obviously we're. We're focused on California right now, but we dealt with this during COVID I mean, I moved from Miami to the. One of the greatest cities on the planet, Addison, Texas, to join PBD and valuetainment. We started the PBD podcast. And a year and a half later, after I left Miami, I called my landlord. Here's actually a perspective. I was paying about $4,000 in rent for a sick condo downtown Miami. Views, views, views. Amazing. During COVID my lease was up. I was like, look, man, I'm out. I'm moving to Dallas. He's like, I will lower your rent. Please stay. I was like, I'm leaving. He goes, I will cut your rent in half. I was like, oh, my God. Like, I don't think you understand. I'm leaving. I'm out. A year and a half later, I call him, we move back, we get the office in Boca. I call him, and then now we're get the office in Fort Lauderdale. I say, hey, by the way, I'm moving back down. Is that unit still available? It is. Oh, great. What are you charging for rent now? He goes, let me check real quick. He goes, $8,000. I said what? I said a year and a half ago, I was paying $4,000. You offered me two, and now you're charging double. He goes, hey, that's the market, bro. What's my point? Free market capitalism is prevailing laissez faire economics. It is what it is. Just because there's disasters, just because there's Covid. Just because there's. The world is on fire is going.

[Adam Sosnick]

To the opposite side.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Exactly.

[Adam Sosnick]

Very good point. On the opposite side, supply and Demand, you have too much of it. What do you do? You're now discounted.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yes, yeah, exactly. I mean, we saw, we see in New York, they have rent control or there's price control. These are all sort of forms of what, Communism, socialism, collectivism. So the free market at the end of the day is going to dictate how we all.

[Adam Sosnick]

Let's go to the next story. All right, so Rob, if you want to pull up Pete Hex said and Pam Bondi, when they're being sworn, when they're going through their hearings, maybe let's look at what happened here. Some of these things, guys, it's so entertaining watching this. Rob, I'll let you pick whichever ones you want to pick. Maybe pick the one where Elizabeth Warren is saying, if you're a general, you know, and if you're going through this, go for it. Watch this, exchange to your folks.

[Vinny DeMarco]

In other words, you're quite sure that.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Every general who serves should not go.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Directly into the defense industry for 10 years.

[Adam Sosnick]

You're not willing to make that same pledge.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I'm not a general. You'll be the guy. Let us just be clear. In charge of the generals. Dude, did you see the guy next to her?

[Adam Sosnick]

Hilarious King.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Hilarious King.

[Vinny DeMarco]

He almost had a heart attack.

[Adam Sosnick]

What else do you have with. Is this Bondi?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yes.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay, let's see this. Because this is, this is entertaining. Go for it.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Has called for it publicly.

[Adam Sosnick]

You are aware of that, aren't you?

[Tom Ellsworth]

No one has asked me to investigate, but the President has.

[Adam Sosnick]

The president has called.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Ms. Bondi, please answer my question right now.

[Adam Sosnick]

You are aware of the roof, Ms.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Bondi, your robberies are 87% higher than the national. That's what I want to focus on.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Senator, do you have the power to.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Say no to the President?

[Vinny DeMarco]

And what you're suggesting today by your non answer is you have the independence.

[Adam Sosnick]

To say no to the President.

[Vinny DeMarco]

So let me ask you a different question.

[Adam Sosnick]

Also requires you, if you're going to be a good Attorney General, to be.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Able to tell hard truths to the President.

[Tom Ellsworth]

So my questions now are, can you.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Tell hard truth to the President? So let me start with an easy truth that you could speak to the President. Can you tell us, can you tell him that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election? Can you say that? Do you have the independence to say that?

[Adam Sosnick]

Do you have the, the gravitas, the.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Stature, the intestinal fortitude to say, Donald.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Trump, you lost the 2020 election?

[Tom Ellsworth]

Can you tell us that here today, Senator? What I can tell you is I will never Play politics. You're trying to engage me in a Gotcha. I want to ask a question. If you can speak truth.

[Vinny DeMarco]

So let me ask you another.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Like you did leaving your colleague Devin Nunes memo.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah. Bingo.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Look at the size of the ring.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Or I will look at every file. I am. Of course you won't.

[Vinny DeMarco]

So will you advise the president?

[Adam Sosnick]

Can I answer the question?

[Tom Ellsworth]

Well, my question. I would have plenty of staff. You said. Of course you want.

[Adam Sosnick]

You. You'll be able to review.

[Tom Ellsworth]

I'm not going to mislead this body, nor you. All right.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Let me ask another question.

[Adam Sosnick]

You don't want to answer that.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Let me ask.

[Tom Ellsworth]

You were censured by Congress for comments just like this. That is so.

[Vinny DeMarco]

It will also be important.

[Patrick Bet-David]

This episode, this episode of Jerry Springer was one of my.

[Vinny DeMarco]

He's absolutely. He's one of the worst. He's in the top five of the worst. And he knows what's coming too. He knows.

[Adam Sosnick]

Is there another one, Rob? Is there anything else with Pete you have or Pam?

[Patrick Bet-David]

I have a bunch of.

[Tom Ellsworth]

So I have Pete Hegseth defending his seven year old daughter to Tim Kaine.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Pete Hegseth saying that he was the.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Victim of a coordinated smear campaign. I have Pete Hegseth with Kirsten Gillibrand.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Kirsten. Kirsten Gillibrand. And then I also have Pete Hegseth defending women in the military.

[Tom Ellsworth]

I think the Gillibrand.

[Adam Sosnick]

Oh, you know which one is good? So. So play the one about women in the military where, you know the comments he made in the past before women shouldn't be in front lines. Yeah, this is the one.

[Patrick Bet-David]

And then there's a great clip to.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Follow up where he explains his support.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay, go for it. Play this.

[Patrick Bet-David]

You said in your statement you don't want politics in the DoD.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Everything you've said in these public statements is politics. I don't want women. I don't want moms.

[Patrick Bet-David]

What's wrong with a mom, by the way? Once you have babies, you therefore are.

[Vinny DeMarco]

No longer able to be lethal.

[Adam Sosnick]

I mean, you're basically women after they.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Have children can't ever serve in the military.

[Adam Sosnick]

It's a.

[Patrick Bet-David]

It's a silly thing to say. It's a silly thing to say beneath the position that you are aspiring to.

[Adam Sosnick]

By the way, whoever was Pete's hair, you know, hair stylist, they did great. You got to get a shout out.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Pete's an absolute stud.

[Adam Sosnick]

He is.

[Patrick Bet-David]

And they're just trying to come up and basically lambast them and bring them.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Down as Secretary of Defense.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Will you support women continuing to have the opportunity to serve in combat roles.

[Patrick Bet-David]

She's a Republican who serves.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Senator, first of all, thank you for your service. As we discussed extensively as well. My privilege and my answer is yes.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Exactly the way that you caveated it.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yes. Women will have access to ground combat roles, combat rows, given the standards remain high and we'll have a review to ensure the standards have not been eroded in any one of these cases. That'll be part of one of the first things we do at the Pentagon is reviewing that in a gender neutral way. The standards ensuring readiness and meritocracy is front and center.

[Tom Ellsworth]

But absolutely, it would be the privilege.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Of a lifetime to, if confirmed, to be the Secretary of Defense for all men and women in uniform.

[Adam Sosnick]

Let me ask this question.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah.

[Adam Sosnick]

So do you think it's a good idea to have women on the front lines? You're a former vet, your Air Force, you know, you were airman of the year out of all the soldiers in Air Force the year. You got it. Do you think women should be on the front line?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Okay. And since we haven't been in actual fighting war, we haven't invaded, we haven't done anything in how many, what? 20, 20 years? I think there is 10. What? I mean, come on. I'm talking about combat, full combat. I'm talking about Iraq and invading. That was like when we were, when we were watching the tanks and the Hummers going in. I'm, I'm not a fan. Listen, they, I, I'm a fan of women joining and if they could play key roles in like comms or like they could assist in the combat. But ground troops running in on the ground, boots on the ground and war. I'm not a fan.

[Adam Sosnick]

Why not?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Because what if they do have to get to a situation where it is hand to hand combat with another man? What are the, what are the odds, you think the percentage of that guy winning that hand to hand combat? Because at the end of the day, he just nailed it. There's standards, Pat. You have to pass on all different s. Every soldier has to have the same qualifications because let's be honest, if we're talking about all war breaks out and it's her against another guy, one on one, he's going to win 95% of the time. Look, I'm just being so. No, I'm not, I'm not for boots on the ground fighting, but any other supporting roles, you know what I mean? Like drones or on that stuff. If she's lethal in that sense, that's Fine. But on the ground, I'm not a fan.

[Patrick Bet-David]

It's pretty simple to me. Men are not women, women are not men. So therefore, we are not equal. We are equal under the eyes of the law. We were not equal in stature. We're not equal in size. We are not equal in strength. We are not equal in speed. If we were, go let the women of the WNBA play with the NBA guys. All right. Go Let men and women compete the ufc. Let me know when Ronda Rousey shows up against Conor McGregor. How she does. Good luck, ladies. So in the military, sure, women can be in the military, but not in the roles fighting against men. You know, I had dinner.

[Adam Sosnick]

You've never seen GI Jane with Demi Moore.

[Patrick Bet-David]

She's.

[Adam Sosnick]

You've never seen it?

[Patrick Bet-David]

I've had, you know. You know, I've had personal Demi Moore. She is gorgeous.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Hello.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I would whoop whoopi.

[Adam Sosnick]

Maybe. Maybe one of the best movies to highlight Demi Moore's greatness and her God given gift was the movie called Indecent Proposal.

[Vinny DeMarco]

No, of course.

[Adam Sosnick]

What is the guy's name? Robert Redford.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Robert Redford.

[Adam Sosnick]

Freaking movie.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Give you a million dollars.

[Adam Sosnick]

That's when Sade took off. Because that's shade.

[Vinny DeMarco]

That was the movie.

[Adam Sosnick]

That's Sade's song. Is in the movie. Yeah. Indecent Proposal. So Ordinary Love. Ordinary love is.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Is no.

[Tom Ellsworth]

The way she looked in that movie. She invades my bedroom. I surrender.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Tom. You and your horizontal mambo number five. It's always clip it. Unbelievable. But I mean, she was gorgeous right here. Oh, ain't nobody intimidated by Demi Moore. Other than maybe if you're scared to get a girl's number. But, you know, I had dinner with a girl who serves in the idf. Do you know in Israel that every single civilian has to serve two years in the military? I think for men it's two, for women it's one. And I said to the girl, I said, well, why is it just one? And for what she called. Well, she's telling me, well, we are different than the. The men. The. The men are the fighters. We. I was in the air force. I didn't fly the plane. I sat in the back. I did logistics. She's telling me all this stuff.

[Tom Ellsworth]

She's in his house.

[Vinny DeMarco]

She sounds like she was in the movie Rat tattooing.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yes, that too. My French accent is. I was. Maybe she was a little French.

[Adam Sosnick]

We are good.

[Vinny DeMarco]

But she was.

[Patrick Bet-David]

The point is this. She's saying that men and women are not the same. That she doesn't want to be in combat. None of the women that she knows wants to be in combat. They have different roles.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah.

[Patrick Bet-David]

So why is that different?

[Adam Sosnick]

I love the fact that he's having a conversation, and I love the fact that he didn't back down and get scared. He says if you meet the standards. Great. Like what you said. But, Tom, I got a question for you. And specifically, I'm coming to you with this one here. I want you to watch this clip by Senator Gary Peters, Democrat, Michigan. I don't know who he is, but by the way, I actually think it's a very good question he's asking because for me, I'm trying to hear questions like, you know, how it's kind of like, oh, there's nothing on my side that the guy's gonna be. When you're choosing a candidate, you ought to be wanting them to be asking anybody tough questions. Right. No matter who it is. This is a very fair question to ask. Rob, if you can play this clip and on time, I got a question for you. Go for it. In a large organization, and I'm sorry.

[Vinny DeMarco]

But I don't see that in your background.

[Adam Sosnick]

There are a lot of other things you can do very well. You're a capable person. But I'm not. I do not. You have not convinced me that you're able to take on this tremendous responsibility with a complex organization and having little or no significant management experience.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Senator, I'm grateful to be hired by one of the most successful CEOs in American history. Should I be confirmed?

[Adam Sosnick]

No, no, Rob, this is in the clips to.

[Vinny DeMarco]

No, he's talking about the CEOs.

[Adam Sosnick]

You can pause it right there. This isn't a clip. But the guy asks a question and he says, pete, you have not represented more than 100 employees, max, in your career. And 100 employees. It's not employees. I think it's troops in the military that he had. So you don't have. How do you go from 100? Right. And Rob, if you want to listen to it yourself first and then. And then see if this is the one. How do you go from 100 to all of a sudden now leading something like this that's this massive. So here's the question. Do you think which of the two matters most? A Trump who's never been in the military. He's never served in the military, but he's the commander in chief. That phrase, commander in chief is a military phrase. Yes, President, maybe it's a political phrase, but commander in chief is a military phrase. What's more important to You a person who's never served to be the Commander in Chief. This person's never served, but they've ran a big organization, very successful in business, very successful in, you know, entertainment, and now they're gonna come in, run the country, which he's done now twice, or somebody who has served, but no bigger than hundred to now get the responsibility of nearly a trillion dollar budget and hundreds of thousands of people that he has to manage. Which one of those two are you more comfortable with and which one of them are you not comfortable? Maybe you're comfortable with? Both of them.

[Tom Ellsworth]

So I am more comfortable with. I am very comfortable with Trump as Commander in Chief because he demonstrates that he's very strategic, he's very decisive and strategic and decisive, which Jimmy Carter wasn't. And that hurt Jimmy Carter because he was not strategic, he was not decisive, even though he was a decorated, very smart, very smart submarine commander, nuclear, submarine program. So he was in a very complex. But Trump is decisive. He's a negotiator, he's run a large organization. And isn't it interesting understanding the pitfalls of the large organization? He creates DOGE and puts guys in charge of it to go attack the bad part of large organizations. So I am very comfortable in Trump and his role on the two angles. I'm very comfortable about his strategic side. I think things are happening around the world like yesterday, the ceasefire, because people fear his decisive and strategic side. And he's run a large organization. I think Pete understands the outcome of the Department of Defense as being part of it, but I think it is a fair question. Pete, I think, is going to have to rely on other Cabinet members, you know, Secretary of Commerce and people that have run large organizations. And I think that's the purpose of the Cabinet and the purpose of his relationship with his boss. And if you don't think DOGE is also going to be looking at bad spending at the Department of Defense, you're not paying attention. But I think it's a valid point to be asking, are you ready to run this large organization? I'm more comfortable with Pete there because of who his boss is going to be and because of the people that will be around him, specifically Doge.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yeah, I think what you're asking is a very important question. You're basically saying, are you more comfortable with a CEO, businessman, entrepreneur, founder, taking over the role of commander in chief of the military? Or you're more comfortable with a former military, someone who's never run a company, ascending to a role where he's now The CEO of the military, I'm more comfortable with the first one because leadership is transferable. How often do you see a CEO of a certain company, Uber, then he goes, becomes a CEO of Starbucks. He doesn't know anything about coffee. He was driving cars. But he understands leadership. He understands basically how a company is run. He understands all the different elements of their. Well, what he's talking about with Pete Heth, and I actually think it's a fair question, and I'm quite biased. I'm rooting for Pete like the guy rooting for the guy.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Everybody should.

[Patrick Bet-David]

But he's never run a company. He's never been a CEO. He's never been the top of the food chain. When he says, yeah, I had the opportunity to work for somebody, my mind went to, he worked for Roger A. No, he's talking about Donald Trump. So does Pete Hegseth have the knowledge? Does he have the skill set? Does have the. Does he have all the skills to pay the bills? Yes. But does he have the authority, the leadership? That's what's in question right now. Well, so we're going to find out.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I want to put it in question, bro. 20 years combat veteran, has medals to prove it. And my thing is this with him and with Trump. I want both of these people to be America first. Pete Hecseff is America first. Donald Trump is America first. They're not dei. They're not woke. Bullshit. They're not trans in the military. Listen, at the end of the day, guys, we want killers to be in the military. I'm sorry to be so freaking blunt. And we want killers. Everybody else, all these terrorists, Adam, all Hamas, all these China, they have killers. They have people that are ready to fight. And that's what we need. And Pete is a g. His predecessor, Lloyd Austin, did you guys know this? Kind of like a dereliction of duty. He had surgery. He had prostate cancer. I'm happy he's okay. He had prostate cancer, underwent surgery. So from December to like January, a couple days. He didn't report it. He basically went mia, Tom. Which is. It's not illegal, but you're breaking protocol. You can't just disappear. And then all of a sudden, like, oh, yeah, by the way, I was having surgery. Okay, so you want. If you want to talk about professionalism and being. Stepping up to the job, I think Pete has it. And it's not like he's just standing in there by himself. He's going to be surrounded about other people that know the job. They're going to fill him in. I'm completely happy with him and that his boss being Trump.

[Patrick Bet-David]

So I'm going to give you a little pushback.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Go ahead, push.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Because on the surface, I agree with you. I wanted to be America first. I want them to love America. I want them to have the skills to pay the bills. I. We're in a complete agreement there. But I think where PBD was asking, and I'll give a weird analogy. Who. Who's the guy that you just had the podcast two days ago? Basketball player Scotty Pipp. Okay, cool. How many former great professional athletes, NBA players, for this example, have gone. I'm talking about the goats. Have gone on to become. Become awesome coaches in the NBA.

[Adam Sosnick]

Not many.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Okay. Or awesome GMs, or even owners. I mean, Michael Jordan, that's one of one. So I think what you're getting at is just because you're a good player, just because you can put the ball in the bucket or in the military, just because you're good at it, doesn't make you the guy that can run a company. This is, I think, what you're asking. Yes or no?

[Adam Sosnick]

For sure. Yeah. So to me, it's. Tom, you were going to say something about this? No, I. I like what Vinny's commentary. What do you agree with Vinnie?

[Tom Ellsworth]

I agree Vinnie's commentary up to a point. He is going to be surrounded by great people. He will be recognized by. By, you know, the. I think, you know, the five. The five. I can't even say the word. You know, Army, Air Force, all the departments and Coast Guard. Right. The. The five departments in Department of Defense. I think he's going to be represented by the men and women serving there and highly respected because of his combat experience. But actually, that's what you want in the Commander in chief. You want all of them to respect the commander in chief, to know that you're not gonna be sent into foolish battle and he's gonna be strategic about the way he deploys you. But I agree with what you say up to a point. But I think it's very valid what they're bringing up. But I think if I was just looking back at the past Secretary of Defenses, you had people that lacked any military experience whatsoever. You had people that were bureaucrats and had never run large companies. And I think what we're seeing here is the bright lights of inspection that the Democrats are choosing to use for this confirmation season that have not been equally applied in other confirmation seasons.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I want to ask PBD a question, because you were in the military. You were in the army first. What was it? What was your division?

[Adam Sosnick]

You were 101st Airborne.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Okay. So I don't think any of us have questioning Pete Hegsec's loyalty, love for America. I think if there is a question is are you ready for this job? Right. What do you think, Pat? Is he ready for this responsibility? He's never been a CEO.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah. So let me. I'm doing exactly what Tom's doing. So Rob, if you can go up and look at previous Secretary of Defense right now, it's a guy named Lloyd Austin. Yeah. Okay. He served.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah. He was a four star general.

[Adam Sosnick]

He was a four star general. So think about that. A four star general. Right. So then you had David Norquist, okay. Who himself was a 34th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense and Emblem, national defense. And then what was his background on what he did? Was he a four star general? Was he, what did he do before previous to that? Department of Defense, Acting Secretary of Defense. I don't know what his background is. If you want to look it up, Tom, David Norquist. Okay. And then you have Chris Miller. Right. And then you have Mark Esper.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Okay, Mark Esper. Under Trump.

[Adam Sosnick]

Right. Under General Mattis, you have. Well, you go through this and you kind of see a couple things. You see moral authority and you see somebody who has had high level of managerial leadership opportunities and examples. By the way, nowadays to be a general is you're, you're essentially a little bit more politician than you were 50 years ago. It's not what a general used to be years ago. So I don't know. I think it is a valid question to be asking on the executive side. I thought it was a very good question to ask. And you know what's the great thing about that? He gets to go prove himself to the market.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Good.

[Adam Sosnick]

And say, I'm actually going to be a good executive. Great. Let's see what he does. But the reality of it is if there's anything he's going to be reading up on right now, it's not going to be history of the military. It's going to be more about leadership and executive like, you know, he needs to go read Five Temptations of an Executive by Patrick Lencioni. He needs to go read a lot of Drucker. He needs to go read a lot.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Of Lincoln on leadership.

[Adam Sosnick]

Lincoln on leadership. He needs to go read a lot of books on managerial. By the way, this one's very interesting, Rob. If you want to play this one here, it's fairly easy. It's fairly short to the point and you'll see where he's going with this. Go ahead, Rob.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Okay.

[Adam Sosnick]

Objection.

[Vinny DeMarco]

It will be entered.

[Adam Sosnick]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Pete, I'm actually going to ask you.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Questions because I want to hear your answer.

[Vinny DeMarco]

How many genders are there?

[Adam Sosnick]

Tough one.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Boom.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Senator, there are two genders. I know that.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Well, I'm a sheehy, so I'm on board.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I'm mostly she.

[Patrick Bet-David]

His last name.

[Tom Ellsworth]

The diameter of the rifle round fired.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Out of an M4A1 rifle. 5.5 sets of 556. Yeah. How many push ups can you do?

[Adam Sosnick]

47.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I did five sets of 47 this morning.

[Adam Sosnick]

My. What do you think? What do you think?

[Tom Ellsworth]

Our most important strategic base is in the Pacific.

[Vinny DeMarco]

In the Pacific? Guam is pretty strategically significant. Boom. How many rounds of 556 can you fit into the magazine of an M4 rifle? 30.

[Adam Sosnick]

30.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Depends on the magazine, but standard issues.

[Adam Sosnick]

30.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Come on, everyone knows that.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I could be the second. What size round is the M9? Beretta?

[Tom Ellsworth]

Standard issue sidearm for the military. Fire.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Nine mil. A nine millimeter. Senator.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Yeah.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Who was buried in Grant's tomb?

[Tom Ellsworth]

What kind of batteries do you put in your night vision?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Goggle lithium Duracell.

[Tom Ellsworth]

So right there you're representing qualifications.

[Patrick Bet-David]

That's great. Okay, so Benny, by the way, shout out to you. You knew all the answers.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I don't know if you cheated or. No, I didn't cheat.

[Patrick Bet-David]

But this is the stuff you learned in the military.

[Adam Sosnick]

He's the Airman of the year. This is a guy that's a. I can shoot anywhere to shoot.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I could shoot.

[Adam Sosnick]

Have you ever seen him shoot?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Very good shot. Oh, I mean we're good.

[Adam Sosnick]

No, no, no.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I'm a trained.

[Adam Sosnick]

I know what I'm doing.

[Patrick Bet-David]

This guy forgets his gun in half the meetings.

[Vinny DeMarco]

What are you talking about? I'm a killer. Anyway. But at the end of the day, the Secretary of Defense. What's his job? What's his job? He advises the President on military policy, oversees the entire armed forces that Tom said. And ensures civilian control of the military and manages defense. If you think about it, veteran experience, leadership. Okay, he was a officer, the veteran Ford Foreign wars leader. He understands operations, he knows what he's saying. And here's my question. The Department of Defense. Are you guys happy with the state of the Department of Defense right now the way that it is right now? Okay. Zero. This is going to be a breath of fresh air and I can't wait to see. And by the Way, Pat, this is a job you can get fired. Donald Trump could easily. If you're not doing well, you're out.

[Adam Sosnick]

Guess what? It's one of the questions on VTNews.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Oh, is it?

[Adam Sosnick]

If the people that get the executive jobs, how many of them will not have their job by the end of the 100 days?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Oh, he loves zero.

[Adam Sosnick]

One or two, three to four. You have to go there and before.

[Patrick Bet-David]

We move on, do you have.

[Adam Sosnick]

Since I've already participated. Guys, go to vtnews.AI. you'll see the first 100 days. Go participate. If you think you're good at making predictions, go start with these first 414 predictions on VTNews. AI, go ahead.

[Patrick Bet-David]

By the way, before we move on, do you have the clip from the senator from Oklahoma, Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, where he's talking about the drinking because they were pressing him on drinking. This is a big deal.

[Vinny DeMarco]

And Tim Kaine. Tim Kain's Tim, no lips.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Okay, so if you find that, I'll basically say this. He goes, so you drink alcohol, right? He's like, yeah, I've had a drink or two. Have you ever showed up to work drunk? He's like, what are you doing right now? Like, I've had a drink or two. Here, watch.

[Vinny DeMarco]

This is it.

[Patrick Bet-David]

The hypocrisy is hilarious because I googled.

[Vinny DeMarco]

It and I googled it and went through a lot of different sites and.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Really, it's hard to see.

[Vinny DeMarco]

But in general, the US Secretary of Defense position is filled by a civilian. That's it.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Is this the alcohol part?

[Vinny DeMarco]

If you have served in the US.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Army forces, basically, I guess your job.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Okay, back up, back up.

[Tom Ellsworth]

The senator from Virginia starts bringing up.

[Vinny DeMarco]

The fact that what if you showed up drunk to your job?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Here it is.

[Vinny DeMarco]

How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Tim King by the room starts laughing.

[Vinny DeMarco]

You guys asked them to step down and resign for their job. And don't tell me you haven't seen it, because I know you have. And then how many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Ooh.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Did you ask them to step down? No, but it's for show. You guys make sure you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy because the man's made a mistake and you want to sit there and say that he's not qualified. Give me a joke.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Give me a joke.

[Vinny DeMarco]

It's so ridiculous that you guys hold yourself at this higher standard and you.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Forget you got a big plank in your eye.

[Vinny DeMarco]

We've all made mistakes.

[Adam Sosnick]

I've made mistakes.

[Vinny DeMarco]

And Jennifer, thank you for loving him through that mistake. Wow. Because the only reason why I'm here and not in prison is because my wife loved me too.

[Adam Sosnick]

Wow.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Wow.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Senator. Senator. Mark, Buddy, by the way, shout out to you. Calling out the hypocrisy from Congress, grilling him on his personal life.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah. And shout out to Tim. Not qualified. He is Tim Kane's hair. Did you see Tim Kane's hair?

[Patrick Bet-David]

It's falling apart. Not on how qualified he is. Not as he deserves a job. What does your personal life look like? And he asked him how many of you have shown up drunk to work.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Because if that's the answer, you would.

[Vinny DeMarco]

All lose a job. Look at Tim. Tim Kane is the like who. Who was.

[Patrick Bet-David]

He ran with Hillary.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I know, I know. But who. Who was. What's her name's Vice President Tim Walls. That's the two Tim Walls back in the day. By the way, he combs his hair with the same balloon that Bernie Sanders combs his hair with.

[Patrick Bet-David]

That's the same balloon that he made. Is that you're going personal attacks.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I'm not personal. It's a balloon hair.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Looking at the job.

[Adam Sosnick]

Go ahead.

[Patrick Bet-David]

The point is this guy Mark Wayne Mullen made a great point.

[Adam Sosnick]

He did that.

[Patrick Bet-David]

If you guys are all judged on drinking.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Give me a joke. Give me a joke.

[Patrick Bet-David]

You know, you give me a joke.

[Tom Ellsworth]

This has been said a couple of.

[Adam Sosnick]

Times and he sounds Middle Eastern when he said, give me a joke. What is this?

[Patrick Bet-David]

My friend, my friend, Give me a joke.

[Tom Ellsworth]

They are much more careful than ever. And they. All of these folks know that they're on tv. They're on. They're being covered on all the major networks. But previously when it was just CNET and not all committees were there, there were multiple times where people would say you're badgering the witness about something. That if we were all tested, we don't have enough people to come in here and have a committee.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yeah, that's true.

[Tom Ellsworth]

And they're saying the same thing, right?

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah. Good for him for doing that.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Shout out to Mark Wayne.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah, I like that. I like what he's saying right there. Okay, let's go to the next story. Bill Burr, folks. Do you have this clip? Rob eviscerates effing idiot Internet trolls who say the LA wildfires were mismanaged. Okay. He is on. Would show Jimmy Kimmel.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay. I'm glad he has his name tag on the. On in case we forget it. So. And go ahead, Rob. Clip With Bill Burr, Liberal. Yeah.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Come on.

[Adam Sosnick]

Thanks.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Very good to see you.

[Adam Sosnick]

I heard you had to evacuate your home.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yes, yes. Like most people, I had to. I got lucky.

[Tom Ellsworth]

You know, the winds moved, but, you.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Know, the fire was coming and all that stuff.

[Patrick Bet-David]

So I feel lucky.

[Adam Sosnick]

Are you guys back?

[Tom Ellsworth]

And I think everybody did a great job.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Great job.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I like the Internet, you know, right?

[Adam Sosnick]

I know, right?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Oh, my God.

[Vinny DeMarco]

All of these fire experts. Why did you just fly a helicopter.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Into the ocean and then just. I don't know, because it was 100 knot winds.

[Vinny DeMarco]

You want to do that?

[Tom Ellsworth]

You want to do that at night, you lunatic. How are you?

[Vinny DeMarco]

This was definitely mismanaged. That's a big word we're hearing now.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Mismanaged.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Like some idiot on the Internet knows.

[Tom Ellsworth]

How to manage the worst fire in.

[Patrick Bet-David]

L. A sitting there in his underwear.

[Vinny DeMarco]

You know what? Looking at the footage on the Internet.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I have determined that this here was mismanaged.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Vinnie. Well, first of all, this is from a guy that openly says he doesn't read. And you can obviously see why, like, first of all, beyond ridiculous. Does anybody out there, you guys, our audience, anybody, believe that they did a great job or what they're doing? This dude is completely out of touch. Okay? He also. There's another clip, Robbie. I'll just say it. He criticized CNN on the same, on the same episode that the healthcare industry, the United Healthcare CEO's assassination. And he supported the accused, Luigi Magione. He goes free, Luigi, because he's comparing them to insurance practices. Oh, yeah, that's. That's who he is. But okay, so they did a great job. Let's go over the facts, Bill. 1200 structures destroyed. 12,000. I'm sorry, 25 lives lost. 40,000 acres burned, and they're still burning. And there's more fires being set as we speak. I saw one last night. A couple. They got another guy for starting another fire. And that's a great job. I mean, how much more would have to have been destroyed for you to say it was a failure? Okay? And your house didn't burn down, Bill. He's excited. Yeah, my house didn't. And that's why you're going to start criticizing and talking shit. And nobody is blaming the firefighters, okay? They're heroes, okay? They're out here risking their lives with inadequate resources. The governor's full of shit. Everybody knows he's full of shit. No matter how much he tries to fact check and be his thing. We just fact checked him right here. But that's not the point. The issue is Years, years of poor decisions, mismanagement, and the neglect that set the stage for disaster. And let's. Let's go back to who Bill Burr really is. During the pandemic, he criticized those. I don't know if you have. Rob, do you have those? Where he criticized anyone who opposed masks and vaccines. This guy in 2021, he criticized anybody refusing. And he said, it's so effing dumb, this. I don't trust it. You're all full of shit and you don't trust it. Highlighting everybody's reasoning. This is. This is who Bill Burr is. And then in 2020, on Rogan, he defended wearing masks. When Rogan questioned the necessity, he responded, I'm not going to sit here with no medical degree listening to you all with no medical degrees acting like we know what's better than the cdc, okay? This guy's probably quadruple vax and has taken every vaccine. And then in 2021, he criticized DeSantis for banning mask mandates in the state, referring to such politicians as effing pieces of you know what? And then I tried to realize it, like, how does somebody who's, to me, one of the top 10 comedians of all time, where's this shift? Where does this. You believing the Internet? And to say that it was a great job. Then I realized, think about the household. His wife. You guys remember his wife, Nia Renee Hill? She was at a UFC match. She got great seats because of probably Dana White and the Joe Rogan relationship. She's sitting behind the president United States, who's very close with Donald Trump, and she's flipping the bird.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Look at.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Look at Bill Burr's face, and look at her flipping the bird. And then in my head, Tom, I'm like, what. What would make somebody have this much hate. Emerson College. She went to Emerson. What kind of school is Emerson?

[Patrick Bet-David]

That's a very liberal college.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Oh, okay, so it's one of those. Okay. And then back in 2018, she got upset for being mistaking the Internet that he's talking about, for mistaking her for Regina King. And she called it a racial stereotyping. She blamed white media creators for not being able to tell black people apart. But here's the kicker. You're married to a white guy. Okay? It's like the Don Lemon thing. They always preach that white people are evil and that they're the biggest problems, but you're all married to white people. So is Don Lemon. Okay?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Don Lemon is married to a white.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Guy, a white man. But white people are the problems. Gay yeah, but it just.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Get out of here.

[Vinny DeMarco]

It just goes.

[Tom Ellsworth]

And he's good at it.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah. It just goes to show you how out of touch somebody like Bill Burr is. And I don't care what people say about his comedy, he's brilliant. But to say some dumb shit like that, I not only disagree with it, I, I hope like whoever's in his ear, and I think we know who it is, you need to get out of that woke mind virus shit, cuz it's not working.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Well, Vinnie, I'm. You know, with everything there's nuance. Some things you say that are right, some things you say that are wrong. Let me just address the biggest incorrect statement you said.

[Vinny DeMarco]

What?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Are you ready for it?

[Vinny DeMarco]

What?

[Patrick Bet-David]

You came out there and you said the following. Bill Burr, one of the top 10 comedians of all time. I almost lost my mind.

[Vinny DeMarco]

You don't think he's in the top 10?

[Patrick Bet-David]

I don't think this guy's in the top 100.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Really?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Is he a good comedian? Has he had a good career? Stop it.

[Vinny DeMarco]

No, he's in the top 10.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Stop it.

[Vinny DeMarco]

You don't.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Let's. Let's let the audience. Okay, let's.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Can we make a bet though, really fast?

[Patrick Bet-David]

What are you, 10 all time?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Hold on, hold on. Let's make.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Kidding me.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Could we do this bet if he's. If our audience goes, what would you say? 75 or higher. The best top 10? If he's in the top 10. $100.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I'm not gonna bet this just because saying.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Let's do the bet. He's in the top.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Sometimes the audience will say that.

[Vinny DeMarco]

No, no, no, no.

[Patrick Bet-David]

98. Chance we didn't land on the moon.

[Adam Sosnick]

Comedian of all time.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Bill Burr, in my opinion, is nowhere near the top 10.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Okay?

[Patrick Bet-David]

He ain't Chappelle, he ain't Chris Rock, he ain't Jerry Seinfeld. He ain't close.

[Vinny DeMarco]

He's up there.

[Patrick Bet-David]

However, we do know that he's married to a liberal black woman who's flipping the bird to Donald Trump. Okay, all good. But by the way, let's figure out if you know who's going to have the deciding vote.

[Adam Sosnick]

You were about to make a quick hundred dollars.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I don't need the money. I just want to make the state. Bill Burr ain't that dude. He ain't that dude. I'll give him a shout out for.

[Adam Sosnick]

Being a white comedian who has California. What he said.

[Patrick Bet-David]

But what I will say is great. Since when are we listening to a comedian's opinion on anything? With this, with the fire, who cares? But speaking of celebrities whose houses are burnt down, Mel Gibson, James Woods, Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Miles Teller, Anthony Hopkins. Let's. They're gonna get a say here. Let's let them ever say, you know, so I was gonna have a say in this. The tens of thousands of people whose houses have burned down and the hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions of people, whose lives are going to be completely uprooted, they're going to have a say, and they're going to have a vote in the upcoming election whether Gavin Newsom, whether Karen Bass, whether any of these people should retain their positions. My speculation is if they're not drinking the water that was just burnt down and having weird stuff in their water, these people are going to be looking for new jobs. That's my.

[Tom Ellsworth]

So I think it's really easy as a comedian to just get invited on a show and go on a riff. It's very hard to. And that's an opinion, and you can just spout off all you want. It's very hard to face facts and go on a riff like that. And so he's throwing his opinion out there. He's dropping the profanity in there. Oh, would you fly helicopter? And you do that. And so I just put very little in it. And he's been given a stage by liberal publicist Jimmy Kimmel that I can't even call him, in my opinion, a talk show host or a comedian in his own right, because he's become a political pundit and a PR mouthpiece for all that he believes in and has become really difficult to watch. Not my opinion. The opinion of many peers, including those who are signing his paycheck inside of a large office building. And so I just put very little stock in this. And, you know, I will say this. I'll go. I will agree with Adam. Write that down. Agree with Adam. When you go down the list, the Pantheon, the Hall of Fame, and you go, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle and others. Freddie Prince, I think was a genius and gone too soon, you know, and the spaceman, the man in the mirror.

[Adam Sosnick]

Right.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Thank you.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Andy Kaufman.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Andy Kaufman.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Improvisation.

[Tom Ellsworth]

I'm up to 11, and this guy's not even there. And I'm.

[Patrick Bet-David]

And Tom's not even funny.

[Tom Ellsworth]

I'm not a connoisseur of comedy.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Right.

[Tom Ellsworth]

I. I just think, you know, Bill just needs to save it. You know, there's.

[Patrick Bet-David]

He's not looking.

[Tom Ellsworth]

He's not looking at the fact, by the way, Tom.

[Patrick Bet-David]

But you know what?

[Tom Ellsworth]

I'll tell you what I'll defend. I'll defend his right to say what he said, but then I'll defend my right to just say what I just said and go.

[Patrick Bet-David]

If his. If his house burnt down, I guarantee you'd be singing a different tune. Correct. Now when I said, come on, Tom, let's let the. The boss have a say here before you get a pow pow. We don't need that. You think Bill Burr is a top 10 comedian? Do you think what he said was right? Give your speculation.

[Adam Sosnick]

This is going to sound weird. Guys. I listen to. If I tell you top 10 comedians I've listened to the most. Bill Burr is my top five of listening to. But I'm not like I've listened to many. I found that Lenny Bruce is Rogan's favorite comedian. I've never listened to Lenny.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Sickest gift you've given to Lenny.

[Adam Sosnick]

I know. But what I'm saying to you is I'm not in this world to know. You asked me different sports that I followed. Could tell you. You ask me every clip of every time Bill Burr was on Conan O'Brien. How many times have I watched each one of the 15 clips? It's 100 plus times. Yeah, I can like Hillary Cl. You know, she dressed like a real estate agent. You look at her, you know, I was kind of glad, you know, he came out. And when it won, you know, we thought this was such a big thing. You know, the hockey thing when we won. This is like, you know, with the Gibson home run, like he, the stuff he does is. He's very good.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Am I Since you're a sports player.

[Adam Sosnick]

Chapman, Philadelphia, when he got up there and does a Philadelphia. It was a Philadelphia. Yeah.

[Vinny DeMarco]

For 20 minutes.

[Adam Sosnick]

Dude. I've watched that thing a hundred times. I hope your mother like the stuff that he does. You like this guy. However, I'm not. I'm not having that debate. That's not in my priority, Adam.

[Vinny DeMarco]

So I'm a different.

[Adam Sosnick]

Let me just make my point. Let's get movements. Honestly, we got a few stories I want to get into. This is not that important. I love that he knows the playbook to go out there and say something that nobody else is saying and everybody else reacts and he gets 100 million views. Good for him. Okay, now all the other stuff with California to say that the other people can't say anything. The helicopter. Why you go fly the helicopter? What are you talking about? That's the Job of the guy that if crisis happens, he's supposed to go out there and save people's lives. Don't take the damn job. What do you mean? You go fly the helicopter. No, the other people that don't do it, they don't want that job. That's the point. I don't want that job. I don't want to be that person. The other person's taking that job. So, no, I fully disagree on what he's talking about. There are the people that are in it that are being directly impacted who have the highest moral authority of giving feedback of what happened. When you think about the state of California, you had a reservoir called the Santa Ines Reservoir, 117 million gallons of water in it that's been empty since February of last year due to a hole on the COVID because of bird poop. They were worried about that. They couldn't fix that quickly. That Michael Schleppenberger that's being on Tucker Carlson is saying, we asked other people that are running other reservoirs saying if the reservoir is empty for a week or two, we panic. We fill it up asap. And you mean to tell me, as a governor in the state of California that has access to 1300 reservoirs, that's how many reservoirs California has? Don't you think, as a governor of a state that, you know the biggest crisis that happens in your state is either earthquakes or fires, generally more fire than earthquakes. Don't you think you would have a chart on the wall to be looking at how your reservoirs are doing? Specifically in Palisades, your celebrity Hollywood actors that invite you to dinners are the ones that are going to be directly impacted by this. And you have a reservoir that's been empty for almost a year. And you're not watching this. You don't need a MBA or a bachelor's or a master's in water and fire to understand that? That's a dumb move. That's dumb. And that's called horrible leadership by the man running that state. This is why so many people are reaching out to me right now about getting behind somebody for California, for a governor, and wanting to find ways to get this guy to resign or do a recall. Yesterday we looked at the Lieutenant General of the state of California. So if he resigns, his same exact person is going to get in there. Lieutenant General is this lady called Lena Konalakis. So resigning is actually not the solution. It's recalling and getting somebody else in there and getting people that are willing to go out there and give a message in California that are able to sell and evangelize and others getting behind it. There's going to be a lot of stuff happening right now in California, folks. Stay tuned. You're going to see some major things taking place in California of people pushing for a recall. This was a travesty. This was tragic. And no, you don't need education to look at these things and do a little bit of research and say none of this makes any sense. It just doesn't. It comes down to leadership. So. But anyways, Will I still listen to his comedy? 100%. It's funny as hell. Old clips of his okay, TikTok Tom, I'm coming to you with this one. TikTok responds to rumors China wants to ask Musk to buy the platform Pure fiction. Rob, is that a video clip that we have or is that just a story because it says yellow?

[Patrick Bet-David]

I have an old video clip, but this is Elon Musk being asked about.

[Tom Ellsworth]

TikTok and the potential band and his.

[Adam Sosnick]

I'd love to see it. Yeah, go for it. I can't say I have a strong opinion on TikTok. So you have an opinion on whether it should be banned or not?

[Tom Ellsworth]

You know, I'm generally against banning things.

[Adam Sosnick]

So I probably not be in favor. I mean it would, it would help Twitter, I suppose, if TikTok was banned because then what a great time on Twitter and less time on TikTok. But even though that would be that even if it would help Twitter, I would be generally against banning of Very honest answer. Okay, very honest answer on what he's saying there. But let me read this story to you guys folks on what's going on here because TikTok dismissed rumors reports by Bloomberg that Chinese officials were exploring having Elon Musk acquired the US Operations to prevent a ban under protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary controlled application app Tick Tock, stated Fox Business. We can't be expected to comment on pure fiction is what he said. Okay, then there's another one coming up here from Forbes talking about the fact and also Reuters TikTok preparing for US Sunday shutdown sources all tell Reuters TikTok plans to shut it up shut its app up in US for users on Sunday when a federal ban on the social media app could come into effect unless the Supreme Court moves to block it. The outcome of the shutdown would be different from the mandated by the law. The law would mandate a ban only on new TikTok downloads on Apple and Google Apple stores, while existing users could continue to use it for some time under TikTok's plan, people attempting to open the app will see a pop up message directing them to a website with information about the ban, the sources said. Requesting anonymity is the matter is not public. The company also plans to give users an option to download all their data so that they can take a record for their personal information, they said. Privately held ByteDance is about 60 owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock, General Atlantic. And while its founders and employees own 20%, it has more than 7,000 employees in the U.S. tom?

[Tom Ellsworth]

Well, you just, you just covered it there. And so inside all of that you just read. Absolutely correct. So is TikTok going off the air on the 19th? No. Is the 19th an important deadline? Yes. That means on the 19th, no new users will be able to download it for the first time because it'll be suppressed from the app store. So it'll be out of the app stores for Google and for iOS Apple starting on the 19th. Unless there's an intervention, which there's not going to be right now because the Supreme Court says, nah, we're not, we're not going to mess with that. So as of right now, they come down, what that mean? If you have TikTok, you could keep using it for some time. What is that? Well, that's this interim period there where they have to sort out ownership of US assets. However, 24 hours later, I believe you're gonna see a stroke of the pen. And one of the 100 executive orders from Donald Trump is just gonna say something very simple. He can't repeal the law that was heading in front of the Supreme Court and the executive order. But you know what he could do? He could basically sign an executive order that says, hey, wait a second, let's take a little more time to look at this or let's do this. Or he could sign an executive order saying, I'm asking for a moratorium on the law while the ownership is sorted out. And they'll say, well, wait a minute, that's what the deadline of January 19th was. We were giving them time to sort it out and they didn't do it. So I think that's what you're gonna see. I think Trump's gonna intervene. Executive order. But I believe, as I predicted, that ultimately, now we gotta be careful here. The US assets will go to Musk. I believe Musk is gonna put together the deal to pick up TikTok United States. Why? Because then if I'm Musk, this is what I would do. I would say on ad sales, I would move the ad rates and Ford Motor Company comes up, says hey, we want to advertise our small EVs and some other things on TikTok to people. Great, 70% of your ad buy can be TikTok, but we'd like 25% of the ad buy to be Twitter X. Oh yeah, and the rates have just gone up.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah.

[Tom Ellsworth]

If you have another social media that's similar that you'd like to go spend money there, do it. But my rates just went up and I think that's normal capitalist response because that would help X and that would help that. But here's the part to remember. Nobody is talking about the gorilla in the room, which is the algorithm. And does the data leave the US and end up on servers that are inspected and otherwise controlled or accessed by the ccp? That is the question that everyone's asking, saying, okay, what if Elon Musk gets the US assets? What about the algorithm that they're using and does he get that so we can make sure that we know what's going on? And what about all the data? Are we going to close any back doors where CCP ByteDance can get their hands on the data for long term surveillance, long term database of US customers or you know, their own ad redirecting? So don't know. What do you think when you say.

[Adam Sosnick]

All this with specific to TikTok? I mean, look, a part of me thinks I hope the ban happens on Sunday and let me explain to you why not. Not for the reasons you think. If it happens on Sunday, here's what it means strategically, how many people will be flipping out and who will be flipping out if TikTok is banned on Sunday? Think about age, category and demo. Who will be pissed on Sunday? What age?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Gen z, you know, 15.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Oh, 15.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yeah.

[Adam Sosnick]

How addicted are they to tick tock?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Ridiculous.

[Adam Sosnick]

How important is tick Tock to them? How a big part of their lives is tick tock?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yeah, huge. I would argue that their lives have been dramatically altered.

[Adam Sosnick]

Give me sex, gender, specifically male or female?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Girls.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I would say 65 female than male.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay, so check this out. So imagine 19th, who's the president?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Donald Trump.

[Adam Sosnick]

20Th, who's the president?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Donald Trump.

[Adam Sosnick]

So in the history books, if Joe Biden wants to take credit, the fact that Hamas is releasing the hostages and saying, oh, because of me, they're afraid of me. Okay, so guess what, you're the one that shut down TikTok and then Trump will be the one that opens up TikTok. Imagine that younger generation, they're going to sit there and be like, dude, listen, listen, this guy at least allows that. So in a strategic standpoint, I think it helps on the Trump side. Just like the same way, you know, Elon said, you know, Twitter, TikTok, it helps Twitter. Right. So Trump, Biden is over here talking about the fact that hostages is because of him. And then they came back and said, now it's not really because of him. Trump's the one that asking him to stop and all this other stuff. Great. I think that's that part of it. The other part is I think TikTok's going to be around. For the people that are worried about TikTok, they have nothing to worry about. I would like it not to be. Not to have anything to do with Biden, not to have anything to do with China. 0. I want nothing to do with them. I want somebody here to own and I would like somebody to own it. That is not a monopoly. Because if, if Zuck and this is the behind closed doors. If you think about how Elon is making this argument to Trump, here's how Elon's making the argument to Trump to allow elon to own TikTok. You ready? What does Zuck own?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Facebook Meta.

[Adam Sosnick]

And what did he buy?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Instagram.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay. And what's Instagram more comparable to TikTok or Twitter?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Instagram is more like TikTok.

[Adam Sosnick]

And is Facebook more like Twitter or TikTok? Facebook is closer to Twitter. Okay, so guess what? So he's like, dude, he owns Facebook and he owns Instagram. Well, listen, if I own X, you really want to protect the long term? Let me also, on TikTok, it's a good argument. It's actually a good argument for Trump to be like, yeah, well, Zuck owns those two. So it's either break all of them apart and a person can only own one of them to have a monopoly law kit in place, or if you're going to ask if you're going to allow him to own both, you may as well allow elon to own TikTok. I think somebody else should own TikTok. If you ask me. I would like to have other people own TikTok and I would like to have somebody else on Instagram not have both of them be under Zuck. Just my opinion, your Mr.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Beast was made a video on X.

[Adam Sosnick]

And he's trying to say he wants.

[Vinny DeMarco]

To get a couple of billionaires together to. To purchase it, which would be freaking.

[Adam Sosnick]

I saw that. Yeah, I saw that. And I'd like competition. I'd like competition to See who wants to buy it.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah.

[Patrick Bet-David]

What I would not like to see is Elon Musk by Tick Tock. If you haven't noticed this, you know, oligarchy of technocracy and these technocrats where what, a handful of people just are going to run our country. The Mark Zuckerbergs of the world. The Elon Musk of the world. I'd like to avoid that. If there's a third person that can come in that could buy Tick Tock. All right, I'm willing to see that conversation. So just what is it going to be? The Elon Musk vs Jeff Bezos vs Mark Zuckerberg next 40 years? I'd like to avoid that. Maybe there's a different person to come here. But you said that you'd like to see TikTok get shut down Sunday. I would like to do that. There's a not. There's not a lot of things that I'm not sort of moderate about. I'm pretty reasonable, moderate person. Maybe I'll do this. Maybe I'll do this. On TikTok. I'm more in the camp of absolutist. I haven't heard any compelling good reasons that we should keep Tick Tock in this country. There's a little bit of reasons I haven't heard much other than we believe in free speech. Yeah. In America, we believe in free speech. This is a Chinese owned company. Nobody's objecting to that. How many social media companies that are owned by American companies are allowed in China?

[Vinny DeMarco]

None.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Zero. Tick tock, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat. None of it. None of it. None of it. None of it. So why are we even talking about banning Tick Tock? Why are we even talking about it? You know, remember when the Tick Tock CEO went and testified in front of Congress and he's like, Singaporean, I don't even know about. Where's China? What are we talking about? China. Come on, buddy. Come on, buddy. So when they have like think about the most famous congressional hearings of all time. When there's smoke, there's fire. Watergate. Yeah. It turned out that Nixon knew what he was doing. The 911 hearings. Turns out there was something going on there. The Iran Contra affair. We know this building. We know some stuff that's going on there. The college protests, when this, when the, the, when the university presidents don't. Oh, there's anti Semitism. Where I don't see it. What are we talking about here? So when the Facebook hearings and Mark Zuckerberg had to testify, there's valid Reasons for why they're having congressional hearings. Why we're Talking about banning TikTok is because it should be banned.

[Adam Sosnick]

Right? As long as it's not linked to China, I think we can keep it here.

[Patrick Bet-David]

But it is going to be linked to China.

[Adam Sosnick]

If it's not, I'm okay. If it is, I have a very big problem. And if I'm Trump's advisor, I am using these next four years with leverage to say if you want ByteDance to own TikTok and be here, you have to let Zuck, Twitter, YouTube, everybody enter into China.

[Patrick Bet-David]

They're never going to do that.

[Adam Sosnick]

But then guess why are we doing it.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Exactly.

[Adam Sosnick]

And if there's anybody that can negotiate to get that done, it's there you go. Art of the deal.

[Patrick Bet-David]

What do you think is the biggest concern when it comes to TikTok? Is it the data? Is it the national security? Is the data privacy?

[Adam Sosnick]

Is it the shaping of the young people's mindset is, number one, it's more than anything else. The algorithm for you to destroy the minds of the youth is the way you destroy the future of a country. So it's, I mean, and that, that's, that's the number one. It's not even close.

[Patrick Bet-David]

So beyond national security, it's shaping and influencing public opinion.

[Adam Sosnick]

Security would have rotting the minds of the kids. I'd like to get to the algorithms. I'd like to get to the next.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Point is it should be banned.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah. Okay, next story here that we want to go to is. Let's go to this one here. GOP tax leaders. US Small business could pay more tax than small businesses do in China if Trump cuts expire small business. At the same time. That story flips with small business. Optimism surged to a six year high based on Trump policy. So, Rob, if you want to play that clip, is that the clip that explains what's going on here with the small businesses?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yes.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Regarding the Trump tax cuts and why.

[Patrick Bet-David]

They need to be made.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay, go for it. Go ahead.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Americans are demanding we restore prosperity and.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Build upon the success of President Trump's.

[Adam Sosnick]

Economic policies that gave the American people the best economy in my lifetime.

[Tom Ellsworth]

However, that effort is at risk if.

[Patrick Bet-David]

We do not make the 2017 tax cuts permanent.

[Vinny DeMarco]

If Congress fails to act, the average.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Family of four will end up paying.

[Vinny DeMarco]

The equivalent of nine weeks of groceries in higher taxes. After four years of sticker shock at the grocery store, that's the last thing families need.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Who was that lady speaking?

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay, so now this guy who's talking about the tax Guys. Okay, so let me read this to you. House Republicans, Jason Smith talking about the 2017 tax cut. 20 small business owners will be hit with a 43.4% top tax rate more than 20 points higher than what business pays in communist China. Okay. Representative Jody Arrington criticized potential increases, asking what's pro American about this? And then they continue to explain the fact that according to reports from Ernst & Young, 25.9 million small businesses in the US currently utilize a deduction which provides tax relief for qualified business expenses. Tom, thoughts on the story?

[Tom Ellsworth]

This is why small business people were at the polls. This is exactly what they feared. Under Kamala Harris, we would have had higher taxes than in communist China. So under a quasi Marxist that we almost elected, this is, this is what was sitting in the balance, America. This was hanging in the balance. She was going to let this expire. That was the plan. And now they're pointing out that, hey, Trump, thank goodness you're here because we need you to extend the cuts that you had had before. Not just cuts, the tax policy that was, that was growth oriented, sensible, in my opinion, very fair tax policy. And they're pointing out they're ringing the bell right now and what they're ringing the bell about, and God bless Jason Smith from Missouri, you know, Republican from Missouri, and Jody Arrington, Republican from Texas, they're ringing the bell and what they're saying is, hey, man, in the middle of the inauguration, in the middle of getting all these people confirmed, in the middle of all the stuff going on, don't forget my constituents, we have to stand for the small business owners that voted on November 4th. And we have to make these tax cuts permanent because they voted for it. And it's going to help the businesses, help the economy, help what's going on? Do you hear what he said? He was very clear. The qualified business expenses, being able to deduct expenses as a business, it jumps up and it is equivalent to nine weeks of groceries. That's how big of a tax cut. And Kamala Harris and the Dems are gonna say we didn't raise taxes. Oh, those were Trumps and they just expired. No, their expiration was your increase. It was your premeditated increase. That's what you wanted. And thank goodness the small business optimism is up. And you wanna know why it's up? Because they are optimistic about the economic dynamic that's gonna be put in front of them. And what is that? Hey, the tax cuts you've been operating under through Covid, you operated under before Trump, you know Trump's first administration operated under and all of this, they're gonna be safe, and you're gonna be able to continue and grow and expand your business even after this time of inflation, even with interest rates up, back down. This is a very, very big deal. Can you see Vinnie? Oh, I didn't raise your taxes. I just let the thing expire. That's political spin.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yeah, that's.

[Tom Ellsworth]

That's like. That's like Newsom speak. How would you feel if you're a small business guy?

[Vinny DeMarco]

I'd be furious. After I voted for it.

[Adam Sosnick]

And they.

[Vinny DeMarco]

And they.

[Tom Ellsworth]

After your angry wife convinced you to vote for Kamala. And then this is what happens to the business. And you got to walk into the kitchen say, hey, honey, look.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah, I'd be over.

[Tom Ellsworth]

It would be the.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I started drinking again. I'd start drinking again.

[Tom Ellsworth]

You'd be the angry husband.

[Vinny DeMarco]

You're damn right.

[Tom Ellsworth]

And then she'd be the. Oh, my guy won. And she'd be the angry.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yeah, I'd be furious.

[Adam Sosnick]

Well, the good. The good news is small business owners are happy about the fact that, you know, Trump's getting in there for the policies, which means optimism is higher. And I think that's a good thing. Let's go to the next story. Michelle Obama to skip Trump inauguration CNN story. So Michelle Obama, first lady of Barack Obama wasn't at Jimmy Carter's funeral when him and Trump were speaking, if you remember. Not him, Michelle. When Obama and when Barack and Trump were speaking, Michelle wasn't sitting there. And now we're hearing about the fact that Michelle Obama is also not going to be at the inauguration. And there's a lot of different theories. Why is she not coming? Michelle Obama will not attend it inauguration. Breaking with the traditional former first ladies participating in the ceremony, her office stated former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the sixth state inaugural ceremonies. Former first lady Michelle Obama will not be attending inauguration without providing further explanation. Michelle Omar's previously expressed animosity towards Trump, accusing him of endangering her family through his rhetoric. Reflecting on attending Trump's 2017 inauguration, she said in a 2023 podcast. There were tears. There was that emotion. But then to sit on that stage and watch the opposite of what we represented on display. There was no diversity. There was no color on that stage. There was no reflection of the broader sense of America on that stage. Vinnie, I'll come to you first. What do you think is going on here when Michelle Obama not attending? Let's give serious commentary. What do you think, Vinny?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Well, first and foremost, your husband was the President of the United States for eight years. And again, we're the most racist. This is the worst country ever. I just. I think. I think, personally, it's something deeper. Let's not forget. Well, first of all, she doesn't show up to the funeral. That has nothing to do with Trump. This is the funeral of a past president. It. You. You have to go. Unless, God forbid, there's something wrong with you. She was on vacation in Hawaii. Okay? On a vacation. And this. This, to me, it feels like. And she's not coming to this one. This feels like an episode of. Of House of Cards where Frank Underwood's wife wants to leave him for crazy. Kind of. Kind of makes sense in the. In this sense, she wants to leave him, but they're all acting as if it's something else. She was visiting her sick mother and all that stuff. But let's not forget Michelle has been open about her tough marriage with Barack. And she even said that there was a decade where she couldn't stand him. Okay? She couldn't stand them. You know, and that's marriage. You know, long time. You got. You guys get the. Get the. Get the picture. But I think this is something. I think this might be something deeper. You could play the whole, I hate Trump and I don't want to be there. I feel. This is my opinion, and I've heard rumors about this online, too, that there might be something deeper. They might not be happy with each other. She said she couldn't stand them for 10 years. Maybe she can't stand him right now. And maybe this might be the end, which I think that's where I'm at. I think this could be deeper. Tom.

[Adam Sosnick]

Tom, what do you think?

[Tom Ellsworth]

Well, no jokes.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I'm being dead serious.

[Tom Ellsworth]

No, no, I'm saying, for me, I'm. I'm not going to make any comments here. It's. It would be very easy to do so. But I'm going to look at it this way. The world is watching. And I actually get emotional when I think about this. The world is watching our transfer of power. The world is watching. And there's a time to be orderly and to demonstrate our leadership and our strength as a country. And I'll be honest with you, this is disappointing to see that the outgoing first lady over the last couple months. Not outgoing. She was the prior First Lady. To see her not attend. It's like, unless, you know, Kate, William's wife in the uk, she's sick. She had cancer treatments, but they wanted to Keep it down. So she didn't attend things. Unless Michelle is sick and they're just leaving it quiet, then I think that, you know, she should be attending. And I have to say this. Trump did not attend Biden's inauguration.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Thank you.

[Tom Ellsworth]

And so I have to look at it and say, hey, come on. No matter how bad the campaign, no matter how bad the attacks, we need to stand on that stage together and show the unified force of the United States of fricking America. And I think you should be there for that moment. You can. Even in the pit of angst and disgust that is the political election cycle, you can take two hours even in the cold and stand there in front of the rest of the world and say, we may fight with ourselves, but you don't wanna fight with us.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Very good point, Adam.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Look, I thought it was such a great moment when Trump and Obama were sitting next to each other, joking around, having a conversation at Jimmy Carter's funeral. I thought that was compelling. I thought it was needed. I thought it was unifying. I thought it was synergistic for America. I think we need stuff like that. I agree with Tom. I don't like the fact that President Donald Trump, who lost the election in 2020, didn't show up to Joe Biden's inauguration. I didn't like that. I think that Trump is hopefully turning a new page. He's sort of playing with house money. I think he's hopefully going to extend an olive branch and be kinder and nicer and be more inviting to people. Michelle Obama not doing this just shows that she's vindictive and she's emotional and she's playing the race card. You know, for me, if Barack Obama didn't show up, yo, we got a problem. We have a story. If this dude. I mean, if Michelle Obama doesn't show up, we show that you're petty. It shows that you're not willing to put America first and you're putting your personal interest first. Okay, Michelle, thank you. By the way, has any couple in America had a worse year than the Obamas?

[Vinny DeMarco]

I don't think so.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Have they?

[Adam Sosnick]

No.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Because between the scolding, between the looking down, between the talking down to people, you know, between the. The. If you're black and you don't vote for Kamala, it worked. Zero. So Trump's coming in round two. Barack Obama.

[Adam Sosnick]

Michelle Obama on the low. Couple things. One, remember, Melania didn't attend the invitation that the Bidens gave to go there, and Melania didn't go. Trump went I don't know if you remember. That was, like, six weeks ago. Five weeks ago, when the bi. When. When you remember there was a picture of Joe Biden and Trump and they were talking to each other, and Jill was there, but Melania didn't go.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Okay, this is what event five weeks.

[Adam Sosnick]

Ago, guys, Just type in Joe Biden. Type in Biden invites. Biden invites Trump. Melania skips to the White House. Yes.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Sosnick]

Five weeks ago, guys, when the meeting took place and Melania chose not to go. Yeah, there you go.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I'm okay with that.

[Adam Sosnick]

Melania chose not to. Melania expected to skip Wednesday's White House.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Well, this is after he won the election.

[Adam Sosnick]

I understand. I'm trying to make my point, and you're giving commentary.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[Adam Sosnick]

I get it. So Melania Trump expected to skip, so she skipped. Which, by the way, it's fine. Okay, so now Michelle wants to skip this. Totally get it. Melania just had a book come out. Jennifer's reading her book, and she's loving the book. Here's Melania talking about her experience with Michelle Obama when they came in. I've never seen her talk about this stuff. Okay. She is now openly talking about some of the stories. Okay, go for it. Rob, play this clip. What is it like when you're moving back in the White House? Are you. What's different this time? The difference is I know where I will be going. I know the rooms, where we will be living. I know the process the first time was challenging. We didn't have much of the information. The reformation was upheld for us from previous administration. But this time, I have everything. I have the plans. I could move in. I already packed. I already selected the, you know, the furniture that needs to go in. So it's very different transition this time, second time around.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Well, you decorated exactly like. Like it was before, or are you making changes?

[Adam Sosnick]

A little bit of changes, not much. How have the Bidens been? Have they been accommodating, and are they still living there? They're still living there, and they will be out on January 20th. So what happened is, on January 20th, the transition team has only five hours to move Biden's out and to move us in. So everything needs to be planned to the minute. I would be in the White House and, you know, when I need to be in New York, I will be in New York. When I need to be in Palm Beach, I will be in Palm Beach. But my. My first priority is, you know, to be a mom, to be a First lady to be a wife. And once we are in on January 20th, it's. You serve the country.

[Vinny DeMarco]

What a night and day difference. You heard what she said, Pat. She did. She used a different word. She said upheld. They were withheld it. That means when she came in with Barack and Michelle, they withheld information and they basically said, to hell with you, you're on your own to come in.

[Adam Sosnick]

That's what she's saying.

[Vinny DeMarco]

That's what she's saying.

[Adam Sosnick]

She's saying the fact that they were not helpful and. And again, listen, drama like what you said, a little bit of what Michelle is doing and hey, I'm not going to be there. I think it's going to be totally fine that they're not going to be there. The reality of it is what Trump won, they're in there. Michelle gets. Melania gets to go back in and do whatever she wants to do with the way the White House gonna look day one, history books are going to favor Trump's. That's what's gonna happen. And that above anything else. I can't see why it's tough for Michelle to be there fully. I can't see what's gonna be tough for her to be there. Vinny, what are your thoughts on it?

[Vinny DeMarco]

I have one question. I want your honest opinion in regard to Trump not going to the inauguration when Biden won. And this. I'm being dead serious. If you believe and you knew and you had proof in your heart of hearts that they cheated, the Biden administration cheated the deep state, cheated all the voting, all the regulators. It's a fact. There's no, there's no joking. FBI was at Twitter. You know, all that and it's a fact, guys. It's not bs. Would you. Just because it's procedure. Would you. Tom, you showing up saying I'm cool with it, that's number one. I want that question. If you guys can answer that would. I wouldn't have gone. That's me personally. If they cheated, I knew they cheated. And number two, at the funeral, Adam, you're saying he was sitting next to Barack and it was fun and it's cordial. It's bringing back America. When he walked in front of them, Barack Obama tried destroying him. Hillary Clinton tried destroying him. The majority of the people in that room tried to literally kill him. Okay? Put him in jail for the rest of his life, make him broke. And a lot of people would say that Butler shooting and all that, all that, that's all deep state shit. How can you in your right Mind say that that's a good thing for us. And I want to know what do you guys think about if you knew that they cheated?

[Tom Ellsworth]

I'll give you a real world example that comes out of multiple biographies.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Go ahead.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Richard Nixon said, we knew and we had evidence that the Kennedy crime family, through the liquor associations stole West Virginia. West Virginia was won by Richard Nixon. We knew that they had topped up in Illinois through Daley's crime machine in Chicago. And we knew it was gonna be close, but we figured Kennedy's probably gonna win it in Illinois. I did not think it. Richard Nixon has talked about all this and the biographies of people that work with Richard Nixon talk about it. Kennedy stole the election in 1960 with his father's finger on all kinds of buttons. And you know what Richard Nixon said? I did not think that a full blown attack was good for the country and he would be elected in 1968. I think that even if you're, we're talking about transfer of power, I think for two hours you demonstrate the leadership of the country that you wanted to lead to rest of it. And by the way, I cannot imagine what it would have felt like to have the passion to serve that I clearly see. President Trump has to have to go through how he had to defeat the media, he had to defeat the rnc. Of all the opponents he defeated, he didn't just defeat Hillary Clinton on that November morning when he won, he defeated so much more and the establishment. And then four years later to feel like, I can't believe the empire struck back. I can't believe that that would, I just can't imagine what that would have felt like. But for two hours on the nation's capital, you can transfer power as painful and as difficult as could be. That's my opinion. And Richard Nixon said, for the good of the country, I'm not going to push this. So we have a real world example.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I'm interested in seeing this one thing. What is Melania's objective going to be in this second administration? Because, you know, what is the role of the first lady, Right?

[Vinny DeMarco]

They have a cause, right?

[Patrick Bet-David]

They have a cause. So just let's go down the causes that I even recall in my lifetime. I president, I was born and Reagan was the president. Nancy Reagan, her cause was just say no. The war on drugs. How'd that work out? Not so good drugs. Michelle Obama, her whole thing was, let's move, let's fight childhood obesity and let's eat healthier. You guys are having fattier, fatter, more obese. Kids than ever America. We talked. We said that they just outlawed red dye number two, the food in America. Joe Biden's cause was education. And we can all basically argue that it's been indoctrinated.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Dr. Joe Biden. All right, sorry.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Put a doctor on. Her name, Melania. In a ironic twist, do you remember what her objective was? And her cause was be best. So cyberbullying. If there's anybody that knows a thing or two about cyberbullying. Donald Trump. So it's gonna be very interesting to see what her. Another. What her next objective will be. She's no longer raising Baron. He was a kid when she was there. The guy's 18 years old, crushing at NYU. She no longer has to support Trump in that matter. So I'd like to see what she does.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I don't know what Pat, because I know you want to move on, but what do you think? And I get it, what he's talking about, about the institution and, And. But if they're trying to kill you and they're trying to destroy you and they cheated, would you. You personally. I know who you are. I know exactly who you are. You're gonna show up, and just because you're supposed to show up knowing that they cheated, that's. That's giving in to the. To. To their actions. That's me. I want to know if you like.

[Adam Sosnick]

So I'll tell you. We're in Hawaii. It's March of 09. It's me, Jen, my dad. And we're there. And I know what happened, what the company I was a part of did to me. And it was unbelievable what happened. And everything was documented, everything that happened, and they eventually had to apologize for it when I flew out to Atlanta and I sat in with 20 people. But after they apologized, I wanted to be the CEO of that company, and I wanted to eventually run that company. Okay? And I felt I would have done a good job to do it. It was important to me to do so. And we're in Hawaii. It's me and another guy named Jeff. Jeff will remember this vividly. They asked me to go to Hawaii. I went. I did not want to go to Hawaii, but I went. And the guy comes and he asked me to speak. And I said, scott, respectfully, you don't want me to speak. He says, what do you mean? I said, I'm telling you. I'm telling you as a favor to you. You're the president of company. You do not want me to speak. I'm not going to speak. I'M here, but I'm not going to speak. So don't ask me to speak because it's not going to be something you're going to like. Nah. What are you talking about? You guys said, I'm telling you, I'm not speaking. So me and Jeff went, told them, and boom. And the people that were there and know the story, it's probably 25 people that know the story. They know exactly what happened. I showed up and we did our thing, and then six months later, we started php. And then when they sued us and they had. They. They got people to be pinned against me. They pinned them against me by stuff that they said. So there was a. The lawyers in a room, and they're sitting there with everybody else, and everybody has throw me under the bus, right? The people that didn't come with us, One of our guys, his name was Muhammad Love. This guy. He was like, pat, I'm all you. A Muslim guy who. I can't give you his last name. I'm not going to give his last name. So I don't want to expose him. But he comes and he said, I hate Patrick. He's this, he's that. He goes in there, he records the entire thing, and he says, patrick, I was in the room for three hours. All these people that you helped, this guy said this. This guy said that. This guy said this. I have the entire recording here for you to listen to.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Wow.

[Adam Sosnick]

I said, muhammad, let me start off by saying to you, I appreciate the loyalty. I broke the disc. I trashed it. I said, I'm moving on. I'm not even looking back. Guys, when I move on, it's over. No, no, I move on. When I move on, I move on. And we'll never listen to it. Never. Of the people that were in that room with the lawyers, more than half of them came back to our company. Okay, think about it. The people that helped them sue, more than half of them came back to the company, and we moved on. Having said that, that's like 100 of a percent of what this guy went through on the national stage. This is not social. This is not any of that stuff. Having said that, remember one area, I'm very consistent when I express myself about the president. And I said this on Pierce the other day. He's in the best flow state I've ever seen him. His level of consciousness right now, it's the highest it's ever been in my opinion, from what I've seen. I don't know the man. We've only Spent probably few hours together, not a lot. So. And that's here, Mar a Lago, a couple other interactions that we've had and in 2020, you know, business plan. In my business plan page two for my own self, I said, you are battle tested. But just like the video games, there are levels to this game. The next one will be a big one. If you make it through the next level, you will exponentially grow. Few things you will have to embrace. Which fights to fight, which fights to ignore, prevent being provoked. If you're going to fight, fight up, not down. Negative, bitter, entitled victims with time on their hands will try to get under your skin. This is their way of getting confirmation and validation. Don't fall for this trap. Mark Twain once said, you can't argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and beat you. With experience, I have learned over the years that people like to verbally hit below the belt. That's Mark Twain. Be self aware of this. Be like the water well. And I've said this before, focus on signal instead of noise, right? I think 2020, the noise got ahold of Trump, period. And this time around he is the noise. And he signaled he was focused on getting the job done. A lot of people, like I talked to some guy the other day, he says, oh my God, how does it feel? You were one of the top 10 people that helped him get elected with all this stuff. And I said, I said, I said, what we did is nothing compared to what he had. 99.9% of him winning is him. Of course, God, and all the stuff that happened with the shooting. But for man to be able to go through hell like he did the last 18 months, I don't know if in the history of America anybody's ever had to go through that before. And that is why my level of respect for him being able to handle the pain, the noise, all of that is so high. And he prevailed and he prevailed. And you can see that on Melania's face. You can see that on his face. You can see that Both Melania and Trump went to the funeral of Jimmy Carter. She was willing to hug Mike Pence's wife and she never once got up up to the point that even the other guy got up to a liberal guy, that climate change guy, Al Gore got up, Mike Pence got up and he even talked to. But notice where she sat. She sat to the left, away from everybody. Typically, a man sits in the aisle. If you ever sit in a. I never sit in the middle and gen sits in the aisle. I sit in the aisle. And part of it may be because she didn't want to sit next to Brock. It's just a male, female understanding sexual thing. But now listen, they prevailed. History books are going to favor these guys. And some of the best books and movies and documentaries we ever watch is going to be about this guy. Stay tuned. Future looks bright. Okay, let's finish up with a couple other stories here and let's wrap up. Okay, so we got the stories with do we want to go Hamas? Do we want to go Eagles fan? Do we want to go alpha male? Do we want to go Brad Pitt? Do we want to go. Do we want to go Ceasefire real quick. What time is it, Rob? 19. Can we. Adam, can we do two stories? Okay, so let me go through the Hamas real quick. So Gaza ceasefire deal reach and then we're going to do Brad Pitt and rap up Vinny. So Gaza ceasefire deal reached between Israel Hamas truce during Sunday. Rob, it looks like you got a video. Is that the one of Biden? If you do prepare it, I'm going to read this real quick. A phased ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas will begin on Sunday according to US and Qatari officials, ending 15 months of war that killed over 46,000 Palestinians and displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million residents. The six weeks truce includes Israel's gradual military withdrawal, the release of 33 Israeli hostages, and an exchange for Palestinian prisoners. US President Joe Biden stated this deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much needed humanitarian assistance and Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families for more than 15 months. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Raham Al Thani announced the agreement in Doha negotiated by Egypt, Qatar and US Support with pact. The pact follows an Israeli offensive launched after Hamas's October 7th attack. Adam?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Okay, so don't look now as people are starting to get optimistic and be excited about this peace deal. Breaking news ceasefire deal in limbo as Hamas threatens to to basically renege on the deal. So anyone that's ever heard me say, you can't negotiate with terrorists, this is what the state of Israel is doing. My message to the Palestinians and the Palestinian people out there while they're trying to do this deal and I'll just break down the deal real quick. You got to give the people of Palestine something to live for, because right now all they have is something to die for. You know, when I had the argument with discussion with Bassem Youssef, I said you have to shift the focus from GDT to gdp. There's countries in the Middle east that are thriving. Look at what's going on in the UAE. Look at what's going on in Saudi with MbS. Look what's going on in Qatar. Look what's going on in Kuwait. There's no terrorism. There's economic prosperity, there's peace. There's nothing like that in certain parts of the world. Palestinians, the in Lebanon right now. God bless what's going on there. Syria, it's a mess. You have to give these people a greater cause than just killing other people and being a destroyer. There's builders and there's destroyers and there's creators and there's people who just want to tear it all down. Right now, their sole objective is just tearing down Israel. They're not talking about building up Gaza. They don't build up, they build down. That's why they take in billions of dollars. They didn't build infrastructure, they didn't build parks, they didn't build hospitals, they didn't build nursery school, they didn't build any of that. They built tunnels. So if you want to break down the deal, if it even gets to phase three, there's three phases of the deal. Phase one, they're going to have a six weeks of ceasefire, which in my perspective, I don't even think that's going to last. Good luck telling terrorists not to shoot missiles into civilian zones. Good luck. We see what's going on with that. And then they're going to exchange hostages for prisoners. So it's just hostages, innocent people for people in prison. So if they get to phase two, which is a permanent end to the war, if they get to phase three, which is the remains of hostages, you know they're going to get. Do you think about this for a second? If they do these three things, six weeks ceasefire, ending of the war remains, do you know where they're going to end up? Exactly where they were. October 6th of 2023. What the hell was the purpose of this war? Your city's been ruined. You've lost tens of thousands of people. You're going to get back to where you were October 6th. Nothing's happened. You've done nothing. You've accomplished nothing. And they talk about, all right, we're going to have this prisoner exchange. What's the value of life between an Israeli and a and the Palestinians? This isn't my opinion. Look at the template. In 2001, 2011, there was a hostage exchange for one Israeli soldier. One Gilhad Gilad Shalit. Do you know how many Prisoners. They swapped for this one.

[Vinny DeMarco]

How many?

[Patrick Bet-David]

One. Take a guess.

[Vinny DeMarco]

One for one.

[Patrick Bet-David]

One for one Israeli prisoner.

[Vinny DeMarco]

How many?

[Patrick Bet-David]

How many? How many? One Israeli hostage. How many Palestinian prisoners did they swap?

[Vinny DeMarco]

50.

[Patrick Bet-David]

50. Okay.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Was it?

[Patrick Bet-David]

No. You're close. How many? What do you think, Tom? Well, do you know the answer?

[Tom Ellsworth]

No.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Say the answer.

[Tom Ellsworth]

No, But I remembered it being like, like, like 30, 50. I don't remember the exact number.

[Adam Sosnick]

All I know is you said you're going to be quick, and I'm sitting here waiting.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Just take a guess.

[Adam Sosnick]

1,000.

[Patrick Bet-David]

You're absolutely right.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay.

[Patrick Bet-David]

For a thousand Palestinian prisoners, you get one Israeli life. So they're dictating what the demands are. Do I think that this ceasefire is going to work?

[Adam Sosnick]

You don't think it's going to work?

[Patrick Bet-David]

I don't think it's going to work.

[Adam Sosnick]

Not even under Trump?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Under Trump, we're going to see what happens. I'm saying this deal right now, I don't think this is going to.

[Adam Sosnick]

This is the Qatari Prime Minister. Look who he's giving credit to. Go for it. We just talked about him. Right now. Go for it. And captives, in order to establish a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire, in addition to.

[Patrick Bet-David]

The delivery of intense relief aid into.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Our brothers in Gaza Strip here at the outset, I would like to extend.

[Adam Sosnick]

Appreciation to our partners in Egypt, United.

[Vinny DeMarco]

States, namely the US elect's envoy, Mr. Steve Wotkop, and the Middle east and Northeast coordinator, Mr. Brett McGurk, for their extensive effort that have.

[Adam Sosnick]

He ended in. And did he say Trump, Rob? Did he say.

[Tom Ellsworth]

I didn't see Trump in there.

[Adam Sosnick]

Okay.

[Tom Ellsworth]

He said president Elect. You see that?

[Adam Sosnick]

President Elect. So he's talking about President Trump. And then, by the way, now play the clip of Biden taking credit for this, if you could.

[Patrick Bet-David]

I'm sure.

[Adam Sosnick]

So watch this one. Your folks.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Will hold, I'm confident. Thank you.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Books. Credit for this, Mr. President. You or Trump?

[Adam Sosnick]

Is that a joke? Is that a joke?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Sosnick]

Thank you.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Sure.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Yes.

[Patrick Bet-David]

As if Trump had nothing to do with this.

[Adam Sosnick]

Yeah. So this is the point that's just kind of funny when you're going through this and taking credit. By the way, you know what this reminds me of one President Jimmy Carter.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Yeah.

[Adam Sosnick]

But in that moment, it was different. It happened right before President Reagan became president. And President Reagan kind of gave a little bit of credit to Carter. In this case, he's taking credit, saying it's because of us that they did this. And it doesn't seem like it's even happening anyways. But let's Go to the last story here. Vinny. I'm really wondering if the story you're about to say is true or not. But if it is true, this may be the funniest story of the year about Brad Pitt. Go for it.

[Vinny DeMarco]

So a 53 year old French woman, just her name is just Anne, was deceived by a scammer impersonating Brad Pitt, leading to her divorce from her husband. And she lost approximately $850,000. The scam began in February 2023, when someone posing as Brad Pitt's mother contacted Ann via social media. And she said that her son really needed someone like Ann. Okay. This was followed by a message from the scammer pretending to be Brad Pitt. The impersonator used AI generated images and videos to convince Ann of his identity, even lying. A story about needing funds for kidney cancer treatment. Okay, look.

[Patrick Bet-David]

How happy is it?

[Vinny DeMarco]

Look at me. Can we just show this one? Where's the one where he has a sign that says and I love you so believing she is in a romantic relationship with the actor, she divorces her husband, transfers all this money to the scammer. And this. This continued to 2024. Mid 2024, when she. Guess how she realized she was duped?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Oh, when he didn't show up.

[Vinny DeMarco]

No, no.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Ready for this.

[Vinny DeMarco]

She saw reports of Brad Pitt's real life relationship with Ines de Ramon. So this girl's like on tmz, she's like, who the hell is that?

[Patrick Bet-David]

Do we have a picture of this woman?

[Vinny DeMarco]

No, no. Trust me, you don't want to see her. I want to say they don't have her, but look at that. Look at this one. I love you so much, my wife.

[Adam Sosnick]

You're joking.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I'm not joking, guys.

[Patrick Bet-David]

This dumb bra gets everything she deserves.

[Vinny DeMarco]

But you ready for this? I. I agree. The emotional and financial toll led. I mean, this isn't funny. She was hospitalized for super severe depression and she filed a complaint and investigation. But dude, like you realize. Okay.

[Patrick Bet-David]

And she divorced her husband. Could you imagine where the husband is right now? He's like, are you.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I mean, but look at the, like the photos and I. I wish we had the videos of.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Show me what this woman looks.

[Vinny DeMarco]

There's the montage. Guys, go to the montage. Rob, look at all like. Guys, look at the surgery. Look at the surgery. One go to the bottom right. Look.

[Adam Sosnick]

Oh my God.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Look at the surgery.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Just a.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Like, who's taking a photo in there? And. But the odds are there's some Indian guy out there that scammed that's bragging to his friends, like Raj for that bit. Almost a million dollars, that is.

[Patrick Bet-David]

This is.

[Vinny DeMarco]

I had to do one million rupees. I had to fact check. It's 100 real. And then they had to take a story offline because people were going after her and trying to find out who she is. But you can find out.

[Tom Ellsworth]

You know what? This, this scammer better hope that her brother or a cousin is not like a veteran with PTSD and a short fuse.

[Vinny DeMarco]

But this is France. I mean, they're in France, bro. But what a. Well, then she. Her husband, the one she left her, he's 20 years her senior. Or she's. She's 20 years younger than him and she's gone. How. How do you get duped? Is that he's.

[Tom Ellsworth]

He's the guy.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Is that her robbed?

[Patrick Bet-David]

According to the Telegraph, that is the.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Woman believed to be.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Get out of here.

[Tom Ellsworth]

According to the Telegram.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Look at him. Post surgery.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Look at.

[Adam Sosnick]

You know, guys, I mean, you cannot. This is.

[Vinny DeMarco]

This is.

[Tom Ellsworth]

You can't make this up.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Like, the scammer must have been like, are you.

[Adam Sosnick]

Part of me is so shocked right now.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Unbelievable.

[Tom Ellsworth]

I mean, it's been 20 years. 20 years, guys, since that poor Nigerian general who needed our help.

[Patrick Bet-David]

$500 so he could get out, which.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Was like the scam of 20 of 2002.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Vinny, remember that 100 bucks?

[Tom Ellsworth]

Do you remember that guy? If you could just help me with.

[Patrick Bet-David]

500 bucks, I will split my kingdom with you.

[Tom Ellsworth]

Kingdom with you as a Nigerian general that was in.

[Vinny DeMarco]

Trust me. Just tell them you're Leonardo DiCaprio. It'll work. It'll work. Oh, my God.

[Adam Sosnick]

I watched a movie recently called Bookkeeper. I don't know if you've seen it or not. Bookkeeper with the bald guy. Jason State.

[Patrick Bet-David]

Whatever.

[Adam Sosnick]

Jason Statham. And it's a story about somebody that gets this Exactly. Happens to them. Internet scammer, like, hey, wireless money, whatever. Bitcoin, stuff like that. And they do. And more than $2 million an older lady gives. And the movie starts from there. Oh, and this guy goes back to find out exactly who did it. And there's an office that's sitting there doing this to people from. I don't know where it was based out of, but it's a worth watch. Everybody should watch this movie to just get an idea what's happening with this. I gotta wrap up.

[Patrick Bet-David]

What's the famous quote from P.T. barnum?

[Adam Sosnick]

What is it?

[Patrick Bet-David]

There's a sucker born every minute. There we go.

[Adam Sosnick]

There you go. All right, well, guys, if you get a DM from somebody saying that Brad Pitt, it's fake, please tell your wives, okay? Tell your wives. Tell your wives. And say, babe, if somebody tries to tell you to leave me for $5 million and it's Brad Pitt, Brad Pitt is doing totally fine. Do not fall for that, okay? Do not fall for that. Anyways, look for the news. The Nostradamus. Nostradamus. Can you say three times, say, go to VTNews AI. Make your predictions. Thousands have already done it. Go do yours. Go to VTNews AI. And after you vote, you can't change your vote. By the way, once you do it, you can't change it. Leaders bulletin. You will see the first leader's bulletin on January 20th. Put a reminder on your phone every morning, 9am there's higher the points the sooner you vote. And tomorrow the great Scottie Pippen's podcast goes out and oh, my God, I think the NBA is going to react. After some of the stuff that he said, Thomas, he said, I think the Indian is going to react. Some people are not going to be happy about it. But look, it is what it is. I can't wait for this thing to go out to see it. God bless everybody. Take care. Bye.