← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Loading summary
Transcript185 lines
- [00:01]
A
Welcome. It's verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And if you are excited that Joe Biden might be going to prison for classified documents found in an office, well, you've got to be disappointed. I just. Senator, this is this whole story. I'll give you my theory. I think that they have set this up to say, look at how you should handle this. This will be used as precedent to then say, Donald Trump is a horrible person, deserves to be indicted and even go to jail for this. This has been done too perfectly. And I'll ask you, as a former. I say former lawyer, practicing lawyer. When was the last time you hired a lawyer to move your office? Like, as a mover? And he's like, oh, my lawyers were packing up an office, an old office. I don't buy that for a second.
- [00:54]
B
Well, to be fair, my wife Heidi has used me to move her office more than once.
- [00:58]
A
But.
- [00:58]
B
But that's more a matrimonial thing than a professional. Yeah. Look, let me start out by saying, when this news broke, I immediately jumped on Twitter and tweeted a very simple tweet. Convene a grand jury.
- [01:13]
A
Like it.
- [01:14]
B
Now, I don't actually mean convene a grand jury, but the reason I tweeted it is because if you're a leftist, if you're a journalist, if you're a Democrat, if you're an operative, if you're one of the gazillion Twitter trolls that are out there and you see that convene a grand jury makes your head explode. So you've got to say, no effin way. Do not convene a grand jury. Because. And I really wanted to hear the becauses. I really wanted to hear why lefties explaining why we should not convene a grand jury. And listen. This episode, I think, demonstrates absolute and complete hypocrisy. This episode demonstrates one of the things that, that you and I said on this podcast when the Mar A Lago raid happened, when the media was hyperventilating over, oh, my goodness, there were documents in Trump's archives. Every president of modern times has had documents. And there's been an ongoing back and forth. When presidents leave, they take documents, they write autobiographies, they write memoirs, they write books. This has been true with George W. Bush. This has been true with Bill Clinton. This has been true with Barack Obama. And you know what? This is true with Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. The problem here. So. So you suggested they're doing this as like a.
- [02:47]
A
It's just too perfect. The Story is too perfect. My lawyers are packing at my office. We then contacted the authorities immediately. We then went to the doj. We followed the protocol. We let them have them within 24 hours. It's too perfect.
- [03:01]
B
Okay, so, so I don't agree with you.
- [03:02]
A
All right, then please explain to me what I'm missing.
- [03:05]
B
Look, I don't think it's perfect. I think the Biden guys are crying and like, oh crap. I think they were packing it up and they discovered. And they said, oh crap. And they did decide to turn it in. So, so look, that's the right thing to do, sure. But I don't think this was orchestrated at all. I think this hurts them profoundly. Okay, so where were these documents? They were at an organization that is entitled the Biden center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania. Now, what is the Biden center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement? Among other things, in an institution that has received $54.6 million in donations from communist China. So I want you to think about this. Hunter Biden is out doing business with China, making millions of dollars. He's earning 10% of dollars in loans on top of that 10% for the big guy. That big guy would be Joe Biden, the President right now. And at the same time, China is giving $54.6 million to the Joseph Biden center at the University of Pennsylvania. And it just so happens this center that is being funded in very significant part by communist China has classified documents there illegally. I gotta say, if you're a Democrat, I don't care how Machiavellian you are, I don't care how much you're like, okay, I'm trying to think. Not four dimensional chess, but nine dimensional chess. This is zero dimensional chess. This is just a friggin mess. So the Democrats are not happy about this. But the beauty of it is it illustrates the utter and complete hypocrisy of the press and all the Democrats because if they explain, if they try to dismiss it away. Well, look, he was vice president, he had lots of documents. He had things in there. You know, it, it, it is part of the natural process. Oh, oh, wait, wait. This kind of undermines our narrative that, that Donald Trump is, is a master spy committing espionage. By the way, you want to know someone who actually committed serious crimes with classified documents? You ever heard of Sandy Berger? Yeah, Sandy Berger was Bill Clinton's national security advisor. He went into a classified pants, right? Classified skiff, which is so, have you ever been in a skiff?
- [05:28]
A
I've not.
- [05:28]
B
Okay, I've been in a skiff many times. A skiff is a big, secured room with, like, big, heavy metal doors. And it. It's a skiff is designed so, like, you can have. You can take no electronics in there. So when you go into a skiff, you got to give your cell phone, you got to give. I wear a Fitbit on my wrist. You gotta give your Fitbit. You gotta give, like, everything. You have no electronics, you go in there. And it's designed so the Chinese, so the Russians, so no one can penetrate and do surveillance. It's basically a. A steel and concrete box. It's a big room. Sandy Burger went to a skiff of the National Security Council, and he found some classified documents that apparently he found problematic. And what he did. You referenced it. He. He took the documents and stuffed them down his damn pants, Literally stuck them down his damn pants, and he walked out of the room, and he got caught. Now, listen, if Joe Biden were caught with classified documents in his underwear, that would be a bigger problem. To be clear, I'm not sure, but.
- [06:36]
A
Okay, only because I know the system's rigged.
- [06:38]
B
To be clear, we don't necessarily know whether Joe Biden has classified documents in his underwear now or not.
- [06:43]
A
I don't think he would know either.
- [06:45]
B
But this is a different scenario. And when the Mar A Lago raid happened, we did a podcast where you and I talked about it, and all of the media was clutching their pearls and saying, oh, my goodness, this is the most horrible thing ever. And I made the point. I said, listen, presidents, when they leave the White House, they go to wherever their next location is. They move a lot of documents out. They. They are preparing for the presidential library. So if you want a library, the Ben Ferguson Presidential Library, the Monument to Ole Miss tennis, I love it.
- [07:21]
A
See, now. Now you're making me think of running one day. I'm just for that right there.
- [07:24]
B
I'm kissing up to you big time. But look, you take your papers with you now. Do you take the nuclear codes with you? No, because you're not a moron, right? But you take a lot of stuff.
- [07:36]
A
With you because it's your presence. It's your legacy.
- [07:38]
B
It is your legacy. You're looking at writing stuff. You're looking at history. You're looking at creating a library. That's what all presidents do. Now, much of the overheated concern I think about Trump was taking what all presidents do and exploding it. Why I think this. This news development is so problematic for the mainstream media narrative is. Well, if Joe Biden did it. Either it's a big deal and throw his ass in jail, which they're not.
- [08:11]
A
Willing to do, or everyone does it and it's not a big deal. Which would mean Donald Trump's documents are not actually a big deal.
- [08:18]
B
So that's their problem. And so it's why I'm not given to this was a plan to show look how moral we are. I think they were like, oh, crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. I think that that was their reaction when they found it. Did the lawyers pack it up? No, of course not.
- [08:35]
A
That was my question about the big lie. It's not the big lie. It's usually the little lies that get you in trouble. I don't believe.
- [08:41]
B
I had a former boss who was a very senior lawyer in the government. And when I was a baby lawyer fresh out of law school, he said, okay. When you're a senior lawyer in the government, often people will come to you and they'll say, okay, so I've got a dead body. Is that a problem? And you're sitting there as the lawyer. What?
- [09:05]
A
Yeah, of course.
- [09:05]
B
Is that a problem? Are you out of your friggin mind? Yes, that is a problem. I think what happened here was the same that they had people packing up. They're packing up, they open a box and they're like, oh, oh wait, this says classified at the top. That's kind of a problem. Let's call somebody. They probably first person they call is not a lawyer and they say, okay, we've got a bunch of documents. They classified or top secret or say sci code, code. We don't know what they said. We don't know what they were.
- [09:34]
A
I do actually believe them when he says, I have no idea what they were. Okay, I believe it.
- [09:39]
B
But I also believe Joe Biden has no idea what the classified documents are. They showed him yesterday in the Oval Office.
- [09:44]
A
Bingo.
- [09:44]
B
Absolutely, absolutely. Believe he has no idea what was at Penn. But somebody found them. Somebody called someone higher up and at some point someone higher up in the Biden organization said we had to call a lawyer. And they call a lawyer and the lawyer says, you've got a dead body. What do you mean, is this a problem?
- [10:04]
A
Yes, it's a problem.
- [10:05]
B
You got a bunch of classified documents. And so the lawyer said, okay, we're going to come over, we're going to look and we're going to unpack it. And oh, we got classified documents. And by the way, this is what lawyers do to fix things is when they discover it they go call and try to turn it in. So, look, I get the sort of media narrative of we want to show the right way to do it.
- [10:28]
A
I mean, it's clear. It's too perfect, in fact.
- [10:30]
B
But nobody in their right mind would do this. This so complicates. If the Biden Department of Justice tries to indict Donald Trump, they will deal with a thousand questions of why are you indicting Trump for doing what Joe Biden.
- [10:47]
A
Literally the exact same thing.
- [10:48]
B
Yeah. No, it's so they might say, oh, it's different, it's more, and maybe it's true. But at the end of the day, the broader point that they're trying to criminalize, they hate Donald Trump. They don't want him to be elected president. They want him permanently ineligible. They are willing to say, hold on.
- [11:06]
A
Say that again, because I think people may forget this. The whole reason why the FBI, in my opinion, went into Mar A Lago and the Democrats wanted this, and the DOJ wanted this, is because they want to charge him with a crime so that therefore, if he's charged that crime and convicted that crime, he would be ineligible to run for office.
- [11:24]
B
So, look, let me be clear. Joe Biden and the elected Democrats in Congress and the Democrats in the White House hate Donald Trump. They loathe him. They think he's the embodiment of evil. The deep state that is burrowed into the Department of Justice, the FBI, to the CIA, to the entire Alphabet soup of the federal government hates Donald Trump. As we've talked about on this podcast a bunch of times, my most recent book, Justice Corrupted, talks about how the left has weaponized our legal system, how they burrowed into it. By the way, for the folks listening to this podcast, if you haven't bought the book, go buy the book Justice Corrupted. It'll walk you through. Look, I revere the Department of Justice. I revere our legal systems. And I am angry that these partisans, starting with Barack Obama and even worse under Joe Biden, have turned them into political weapons to go after their enemies. But the problem is they hate them so much that the ends justify their means. So, for example, one of the things we know about the ridiculous Russia prosecution is there was a senior lawyer at the FBI who fraudulently created a fake document and submitted it to a federal court. He was prosecuted for this. So this, this, this federal lawyer was going after Carter Page, who was a kind of ancillary foreign policy adviser of the Trump campaign. And the FBI was investigating Carter Page because he had talked to suspicious Russians. Now, you talk to suspicious Russians. That. That's not unreasonable for the government to say, why are you talking to suspicious Russians? The FBI sent an email to the CIA and said, hey, is this guy.
- [13:07]
A
Carter Page, one of your guys, a source? Yeah, literally. Is this guy one of your guys.
- [13:12]
B
And is working for you?
- [13:13]
A
And even to ask that question, they had to have been tipped off by somebody. You might want to check with the CIA, because Carter Page may be their guy.
- [13:22]
B
And he sends the email. And what does the CIA say?
- [13:26]
A
Yes, he's our guy.
- [13:27]
B
He's our guy. He's doing this for the United States of America. He is helping us by talking to sketchy Russians. So what does this lawyer for the FBI do? He takes the email from the CIA and he alters it. He creates a fraudulent counterfeit document, and he takes the sentence he was. He was a source, and he adds the word not to say he was not a source. Now, let me tell you this, Ben. If you did this in civil litigation, if you took a document, a piece of evidence, you altered it to make it 180%, 180 degrees, the opposite of what it was, and you submitted it to a federal court, you'd be doing hard time and someone would be saying, benjamin, don't bend over for the soap. That's just the simple reality. If I did that, you don't get to create fraudulent documents and submit them to a federal court and get busted.
- [14:25]
A
And not be held accountable for it.
- [14:26]
B
And that's what the Deep state was doing. And so when you look at this, their degree of loathing for Donald Trump when they went after him, the reason for the Mar A Lago raid is they hate him so much, they wanted to go. They wanted to prove him guilty of a crime, but in particular, they want to prove him guilty of a crime that renders him ineligible to run for be elected president. Now, listen, if you're a Democrat, you don't want Donald Trump to be elected. Okay, fine. There's a democratic process. You can go and try to win at the ballot box. But what they're trying to do here is corrupt the justice system. And the day of the Mar A Lago raid, you and I did a podcast where I said, it ain't gonna work. If they think some federal court is gonna say Donald Trump can never be president again. The chances of that success, I believe, are 0.0%, maybe.
- [15:21]
A
Trump, you have a lot of faith in the system. When you say that there's gonna be people that listen, go. How can you say that when they just they just raided Mar A Lago. How can you say that when they fraud, they made fraudulent documents against Carter Page? How can you say that when the FBI director knew that the Steele dossier was a source document from the Democrat National Committee and Hillary Clinton and the lawyer was lying to the FBI? You got to understand why people are going to listen. You going, how can you have such confidence that this is never going to happen when we just witness all the things I just mentioned?
- [15:51]
B
Because at the end of the day, the federal courts have not been thoroughly corrupted.
- [15:55]
A
Okay?
- [15:55]
B
So there have been hard partisans that are burrowed into the FBI, that are burrowed into the doj, that have corrupted justice. Watch. That's why I wrote the last book. Look, I was in 2001, I was what's called an Associate Deputy Attorney General in the US Department of Justice. And the Department of Justice is an institution I respect deeply. It has an incredibly long history of being apolitical. I've said before, I don't want a Republican Department of Justice, I don't want a Democrat Department of Justice.
- [16:26]
A
You don't want a right leaning or left leaning. You want a nonpartisan.
- [16:29]
B
I want a DOJ that follows the damn law. I want an FBI that follows the law. If you're a child predator, the FBI ought to catch you and the DOJ ought to prosecute you. If you're a mobster, if you're, if you're a money launderer, if you're a crack dealer, the DOJ ought to go after you, the FBI go after you. But if you are of the wrong political persuasion, and I don't care if whether that is right leaning or left leaning, it's not the DOJ and FBI's job to go after people on either side. They ought to stay the heck out of it. And I will tell you with an enormous frequency, I talk to people who are either currently at the FBI or the doj, or who are alums of the FBI doj. They come to me and particularly the current folks, they're really upset because they've spent, Imagine, Ben, you've spent 10 years, 20 years, 30 years devoting your life. You believe in your life mission, the rule of law. You believe in protecting people. You believe in protecting kids. I mean, there are so many heroes that work as these institutions and they've seen these rabid partisans take over the senior career positions and just corrupt them from within. It's fundamentally wrong. And so listen, were there some documents that should not have been at Mar a Lago perhaps, and the judicial Process will play out on that. But my point is that's something that every prior president has done, that when it comes to the documentary history and the chain of custody of documents from the White House to the former president to the former president's library and often their negotiations, the archives, when you think of the chief criminal law enforcement organizations of the United States, the archivist of the United States of America is not high on your list.
- [18:23]
A
Yeah.
- [18:24]
B
And historically, there have been negotiations and discussions back and forth between the archives and former presidents and the libraries.
- [18:31]
A
Right, Even the libraries, because they want to see this stuff. They want to have this stuff. And there's these debates that happen. I remember when I was going to the bush Library opening 43, there was debate.
- [18:41]
B
You and I were both there. We saw each other.
- [18:43]
A
Yeah.
- [18:44]
B
We didn't actually even know each other very well.
- [18:46]
A
That was such a cool thing because, like, I was. I got to be a part of that campaign, a part of that administration. And there's history there that happened. But I remember the debates even then. There were a lot of things that happened, specifically with the war on terror post 9, 11, that were fought over of. Could the public have it? Could the library have it? Could they see it? Could it be in display? Could it be in the. In the library? You know, so you could look it up, basically. You could go in and see parts of the history. And I remember some of those grand debates because our thought the archives were being a little bit overzealous and like, saying no too often when he's like, look, this is part of the history of my administration. This needs to be on display for the American people.
- [19:25]
B
And every former president wants to tell that narrative. And they hold on to documents. And I will say, listen, in my time in the Senate, I've read a lot of classified documents. And one of the virtues of being in the Senate, I haven't had this issue because I don't take classified documents out of a skiff. So there are no classified documents.
- [19:45]
A
I got it. I got to pull back the curtain so people understand how this works. Because everybody's going to want to ask the question about to ask you. When you become a senator, do they teach you the protocol of classified documents? Like, right away, do they explain you. They gotta stay in the. In the, in the skiff? Is there a skiff in the Senate side? Like, can you talk about that? And then. And then what is the protocol for that ever? You can't make cop. Like, this is pretty simple.
- [20:07]
B
Okay, so in the Senate, at least, there's A skiff down in the basement of the Capitol. So if you're going down there, we go down there fairly regularly for briefings, and there are hearing rooms. So, for example, I spent six years on the Senate Armed Services Committee. I'm currently on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. So we regularly have classified hearings in the scif. And there's a hearing room, and you go in, and they have lots of. It's actually very funny. They have lots of posters that are sort of scary World War II eras of somebody talked and people died, and they're sort of posters about protect classified information. And you go in, and I inevitably, I take my iPhone, I hand it to Gray, who is with me at all times. I handed my iPhone, I handed my AirPods. I don't know if AirPods are questionable or not, but I just give them to them anyway.
- [20:54]
A
Yeah, why not?
- [20:54]
B
And I give my Fitbit. So you just want no electronics because I don't want the Chinese hearing me. Sure. And you go in and you sit. So if it's hearing, you sit in a room, and the room is, I don't know, 30ft by 50ft. So it's sort of like in a hearing room.
- [21:09]
A
It's not that big.
- [21:10]
B
It's not huge on purpose, though.
- [21:12]
A
Designed that way.
- [21:13]
B
Right. It's down in the basement of the Capitol, and it's designed so that no.
- [21:17]
A
Listening, no penetration of anything.
- [21:19]
B
And you'll have testimony. I've been in that room with testimony from the Secretary of State, the head of the CIA, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Defense, or a lot of times, you'll have testimony from the Assistant Secretary of State, the Assistant Secretary of Defense, and you'll have classified briefings about Iran, about Ukraine, about Russia, about China.
- [21:37]
A
So when people. To paint that picture of. I remember after 9, 11, there was a lot of people that testified on public hearings, and they would say to the senator, senator, I can give you a close classified briefing on that. I can't say that publicly. I can certainly give you that answer, Senator offline. Basically, in the skiff, that's what. That's where this room would come into play.
- [21:56]
B
So I've been to dozens, if not probably hundreds of hearings in a scif where you hear classified information and with some frequency. At those hearings, you're given classified documents, and they'll have all sorts of markings about the level of classification. There are lower levels and higher levels of classification, and you can read those documents. And my general practice is I'll read them the skiff, and I leave them there. There's no issue for me a classified documents, because I don't take them out. I come in with nothing and I walk out with nothing. So there's no issue. Now, there are other times where there is, for example, classified reports that for some reason or other, someone will say, you should read a classified report. So when I was leading the fight against The Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, skipping Ukraine, and I passed twice major sanctions legislation to stop the pipeline and successfully defeated Russia, defeated Putin, there were multiple classified reports about the efforts to build that pipeline. I went to the SCIF over and over again, and I would read reports from the CIA, from the dei, the Director of National Intelligence from different intelligence agencies, and I'd read the reports and I would learn things. But you can't go and repeat the reports. There was another instance where the no.
- [23:09]
A
Staff member, like, that's literally you and other senators and the heads of the. Of the CIA that you could have those discussions.
- [23:16]
B
So I usually have a staff member who's a senior staff member who has security clearance, who he or she can come in and read some classified documents. I've got a higher security clearance than any one of my staff. So there's some documents. So sometimes a staff member will be able to read some documents. But the really classified documents, I'm the only one that can read. And so it'll vary. It depends on who's on my staff. In the 10 years, it's varied who's been on my staff. I like to have at least one person with a security clearance because it's nice to have a staff member who could read through a bunch of documents and brief you on it because the volume of it is significant. You know, I remember at one point there was a classified document on UFO sightings. And I went in wanting to see, okay, what does the government know on UFO sightings? I'm really curious. I've got to say. I've never been to Area 51. I'm really bummed. I've been 10 years in the Senate.
- [24:05]
A
Like, how do you get that tour? You should sign up for that.
- [24:08]
B
So I went in and read it. I'm not going to repeat anything that was in the briefing on UFO sightings. I will just say this. I was incredibly underwhelmed. I was like, all excited. Give me little green men, tell me stop. And I just laughed. And I was like, oh. So there's a whole. And. And in the White House, down in the National Security Council, there's a whole skiff. The security room is a Giant skiff. Many of the confidential briefings are down there. There's a difference between the nuclear codes. XB302. I'm making up numbers. So if the prosecutors are coming to lock me up, I think XB302 maybe. Isn't that the new COVID variant? Did you see Jimmy Fallon singing about the new COVID variant?
- [24:58]
A
No. I'm not saying.
- [24:59]
B
Okay. It was the most absurd thing I've ever seen. Diaz play a clip from Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight show just singing about this variant.
- [25:08]
A
There was alpha, then delta, then omicron X. But this latest variant might be the best. It's XBB 1.5. Another brand of COVID It's a new strain, but it isn't the same. Sounds more like Elon Musk. His name.
- [25:30]
B
Look, I gotta say, Ben, I know Jimmy Fallon, which is a little bit bizarre. I don't feel. I don't.
- [25:37]
A
You would. Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel. I had no idea that you guys had this connection to each other like this.
- [25:42]
B
So it's an interesting dynamic. So I've been in the Senate 10 years. When I first got there, every late night host would have senators and national figures on both Democrats and Republicans. It's one of the ways the world has changed. So when I was a brand new senator, I was on Jay Leno, I was on Jimmy Fallon, I was on Jimmy Kimmel, I was on Stephen Colbert. It was part of the job. In the last five years, I don't know of a single one of the late night comics that has had a single Republican on there. They become left wing shills. I will say of all of them, Fallon was by far the best. Now some of that is because Fallon does the Tonight Show. Fallon inherited Jay Leno's audience. And by the way, Jay Leno was the first one I went on. And I'm like, when I went on.
- [26:36]
A
His show, dude, that guy's awesome.
- [26:38]
B
In my opinion, it was like 2013, 2014. I was brand new in the Senate and I'm like walking out going like, holy crap, what am I doing on Jay Leno? Like, it was weird.
- [26:46]
A
That's a big deal.
- [26:47]
B
Yeah, it was, it was bizarre. So Fallon inherits Jay Leno's audience and Jay Leno's audience. The Tonight show audience is still. Much of it is with the American Midwest. It's, it's, it's red America. Sure. It's it, it. And so of them, I mean, Colbert is viciously left wing.
- [27:08]
A
Yes.
- [27:10]
B
Kimmel has become viciously left wing.
- [27:14]
A
Total disdain for flyover country Fallon.
- [27:18]
B
Look, the guy probably leans left, but he's pretty.
- [27:21]
A
He's pretty. If you had to watch one, that's one I'd watch.
- [27:24]
B
So I will tell you an interesting thing. When Jay Leno got cut from late night tv, I was a newbie senator. I made a phone call. Do you know who I called?
- [27:33]
A
Who?
- [27:34]
B
Rupert Murdoch.
- [27:35]
A
No way.
- [27:35]
B
And I called Rupert Murdoch and I said, Rupert, let me encourage you. Fox should put Jay Leno on late night tv. I actually think it is important for America that comedy matters, that culture matters, that entertainment matters. And Jay Leno. I don't know Jay well, I don't think he's a conservative. I assume he's left of center, but he spent years speaking to the middle of America. And so what Jay Leno would do is he would make fun of both sides of the aisle.
- [28:05]
A
And not in a vicious, evil or mean way.
- [28:08]
B
He wouldn't be.
- [28:08]
A
He wasn't trying to destroy your life.
- [28:10]
B
By the way, making fun of Republicans is fine. I mean, you and I make fun of Republicans, like if you can't laugh.
- [28:15]
A
But it wasn't mean spirited.
- [28:18]
B
And when I got to say, when I pitched it to Rupert, he kind of laughed at me. He thought. He did not think it was serious. I still think the country would be better off to have. I think comedy is powerful.
- [28:29]
A
Yes.
- [28:30]
B
And I think. And one of the problems. Look, I love to laugh. Did I tell you about game four of the alcs? Astros against the Yankees?
- [28:43]
A
No.
- [28:44]
B
All right, so game four of the ALCS was a. Yankee stadiums. The Astros had won three games in a row. I went to Yankee Stadium.
- [28:54]
A
Okay, that. This I do remember. Yes. But I don't know which story you're going with, but yes, it was really fun to watch on TV because you were behind the plate and everybody was freaking out on Twitter, which made me laugh.
- [29:04]
B
All right. I sat directly behind home plate in the second row. So you're right on the damn tv. Shot behind home plate. You were close enough, you could call the balls and strikes. You could practically smell the umpire's cologne. And let's be clear. I'm behind home plate in Yankee Stadium in a bright orange Houston Astros jersey. There were more than a few Yankees fans who suggested that I do something anatomically impossible.
- [29:38]
A
Yes.
- [29:40]
B
Most fun I've ever had in my life. Because, look, you're an Astros fan. You're sweeping the damn Yankees and you're kicking their home.
- [29:47]
A
Yeah, it's better than almost winning at home that game four.
- [29:50]
B
Okay, so sitting in front of me was Lorne Michaels, the producer, Saturday Live. He was directly. Was in the front row, directly behind home plate. And so kind of midway through the game, I introduced myself to Lorne Michaels, and I said, you know, Lauren, I've been watching Saturday Night Live my entire life. And he responded, well, so have I. I said, yeah, but I started at 4.
- [30:18]
A
Yeah, he's an older guy.
- [30:20]
B
I'm a lot younger than he is. I literally, as a little kid, grew up. And I did say to him, I don't want to repeat what he said, because I think that's probably not fair. But I'll say what I said. I said, you know, Saturday Night Live was a lot funnier before they came became so damn political. I like comedy, by the way. I like comedy that makes fun of Republicans or Democrats. There used to be a time when we could laugh. Late night television has been destroyed. But of all of them, it used to be Jay Leno was the best. Sadly, when he was. When he was pulled off air, my futile attempt to convince Rupert Murdoch to put him on air didn't succeed. So he was done, and Fallon got on. And he was actually. Was a nice guy. I went on. I did Fallon's show actually on my daughter Caroline's birthday, her eighth birthday.
- [31:14]
A
Wow.
- [31:15]
B
April 14th. And it was really cool. And we did a fun. He had a whole skit set up where he played Donald Trump, and it was the middle of the presidential primary, and he was calling me and. And it was. It was funny.
- [31:26]
A
And it was a comedy skit.
- [31:28]
B
It was a comedy skit. And. And he wasn't a jerk. So if you watch this skit that I. We just played the segment from where Fallon is, like, singing about the latest variant of COVID 19. My God, late night comedy is dead. It's been destroyed. Like if you are a propagandist for Dr. Fauci, and for. At one point he says, you know, make sure to wear a mask in indoor facilities. And mind you, Jimmy Fallon's not wearing a mask. None of his staff's wearing a mask. None of the band is wearing a mask. None of. But you know what? When I did the View the day after the Yankees game.
- [32:10]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [32:10]
B
You know who's wearing a mask?
- [32:12]
A
Who?
- [32:13]
B
Every single member of the audience.
- [32:16]
A
They were trying to protect you, sir.
- [32:17]
B
Okay. None of the crew of the View, none of the hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, wasn't wearing a mask, but they made every single audience member wear it. And look, I wish we could laugh. I wish culture wasn't so political. I wish Late Night Comedy. And by the way, let me give you an example of what I think is fabulous comedy. And this may get me in trouble with some people. One of my favorite movies. You ever see the movie Team America?
- [32:50]
A
Oh, yes.
- [32:51]
B
Team America, World Police. Now listen, it is raunchy as I'll get out. I'm admit an embarrassing thing. So I love Team America. I took Heidi. Heidi doesn't like movies much. She almost fell out of the chair laughing so hard. We did a family vacation with Heidi's parents and we brought a dvd. This was a while ago, so it was back when DVDs existed. We brought a DVD of tea Americans. It was so funny. And we're playing it to Heidi's parents and I guess I forgot just how profane the movie is.
- [33:19]
A
I'm remembering it now vaguely. And I do remember it was like a lot of curse words and a lot of politically incorrect lines, so. But hilarious.
- [33:31]
B
Every third word is an F bomb. Yeah. And so we're sitting there watching it with her parents and Heidi and our newlyweds and her parents literally were on a houseboat on Lake Powell out in the middle of the wilderness. And Heidi's parents literally got up and left because it was so. It's funny. But I was like, okay, I'm sorry. I feel really bad. I didn't mean to inflict this on my mother in law.
- [33:53]
A
Yeah.
- [33:53]
B
But look, Team America is a movie that. It ridicules Republicans.
- [34:00]
A
Yes.
- [34:01]
B
But it ridicules Democrats. That's actually good comedy. I'm good with that.
- [34:06]
A
At least. It's every equal opportunity offender Today, late night comedy today.
- [34:11]
B
SNL is all about being a political mouthpiece. And it's not about actually telling jokes. Jerry Seinfeld said he doesn't do stand up anymore.
- [34:21]
A
He's afraid.
- [34:22]
B
Yeah.
- [34:24]
A
Bill Burr, I don't know if you know who Bill Burr.
- [34:26]
B
I know who he is. I don't know him.
- [34:27]
A
I think he's.
- [34:28]
B
But he's. He's very funny.
- [34:29]
A
Hysterical. And if you listen to him, he goes after both sides. He was in Houston and we went. And I laughed because I. We went with friends and my wife is the. I call it the, the more judgy one, if that makes sense. I was like, look, I'm going to laugh my tail off, but if you're next to me, I'm not going to have as much fun. So you're going to sit two seats down. I'm going to sit next to my buddy and the girls can sit together and the guys can sit together. And so she's three seats away, just so I knew I could have a good time. And finally, about 25 minutes in, I looked down and she's dying, laughing. And I looked at her, I was like, you can't judge me now. You can't judge me now. But my point is he was an equal opportunity offender. If you listen to his comedy, he'll attack the people.
- [35:10]
B
That's great.
- [35:11]
A
And that's what we.
- [35:12]
B
I wish I had more than I love George Carlin. Now listen, George Carlin probably would agree with almost nothing that we agree. Yes. Although I say this, George Carlin was an old school liberal. So he believed in a free speech.
- [35:25]
A
Yes.
- [35:26]
B
Today's Democrat party that does not censor everyone. They would hate George Carlin. So I kind of hope, and maybe I'm deluding myself that Carlin would appreciate the free speech ethos. And I've got a pretty strong libertarian sentiment. But Carlin is funny as all get out.
- [35:46]
A
You go back to Bush and I love where this podcast has gone tonight. This is really fun. You go back to Bush and they were just relentless on beating up on Bush 43 in late night. Yeah, but some of it was funny. Like it was even talked about at the White House the next day.
- [36:01]
B
Obama, they broke it. Yes, Obama. They broke it because they couldn't make fun of, of, of who they thought was the chosen one.
- [36:10]
A
Right.
- [36:10]
B
And say, well, they were so terrified. It's where late night comedy. Look. SNL has some of the great. Chevy Chase, brilliant playing Gerald Ford falling down. And by the way, Gerald Ford is probably the best athlete to ever be president, the United States. He was all American University of Michigan football player.
- [36:29]
A
I didn't know that. I really, I, I didn't. No, no.
- [36:32]
B
He was a serious, like, I don't believe there's ever been another all American athlete.
- [36:37]
A
He was a legit athlete. College like, like, like the real deal.
- [36:41]
B
Chevy Chase fell off of ladders fell down. And the entire country thought of Gerald Ford as a klutz and an oath because of Saturday Night Live. You look, if you were, if you.
- [36:53]
A
Go back in the day, Saturday live, and you look at the gaffes from Biden, now we'll play a gaffe from today. Great example. Let's go back to what we're talking about, the classified documents. Let's play this. And I thought he was really on, on point because I think his staff prepped him and said, hey, your response to these classified documents is incredibly important. You nail this. But even at the end, he couldn't hold it together. Very Yet DS hit play first.
- [37:20]
C
Let me get rid of the easy one first. People know I take classified documents and classified information seriously. When my lawyers were clearing out my office at the University of Pennsylvania, they set up an office for me, secure office in the county capitol. When I. The four years after being vice president, I was a professor at Penn. They found some documents in a box in a locked cabinet or at least a closet. And as soon as they did, they realized there were several classified documents in that box. And they did what they should have done. They immediately called the archives, immediately called the archives, turned them over to the archives, and I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office. But I don't know what's in the documents. My lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were. I've turned over the boxes. They've turned over the boxes to the archives. And we're cooperating fully cooperating fully with the review and which I hope will be finished soon and there'll be more detail at that time. The first question now, I forgot.
- [38:34]
A
He's like, he nailed it. And then. But my point is Saturday night question, I forgot. And he says, first of all, at the beginning, if you listen, is first of all first thing. And then he doesn't even remember what the first thing was, which is what you just did. How Saturday Live would have had the time of their lives with this moment. They will not criticize them this week. No one in late night's going to criticize them for that. Criticize they. I don't think they'll do a skit.
- [38:54]
B
They'll gently pop Biden for being old and senile. Doing that.
- [38:59]
A
Well, yeah, okay. Oh, barely. But not this one. They won't.
- [39:02]
B
But okay. Obama, he did nothing wrong. And you look back from Chevy Chase to Ronald Reagan, who they viciously Destroyed, to Bush 41. Dana Carvey, you remember, he used to go, Nagada. Nagada. In fact, it was one of the funniest things. After Bush was defeated, he went on Saturday. I think it was Saturday Night Live, or maybe it was Letterman. I remember. What?
- [39:23]
A
Not gonna do it.
- [39:24]
B
Yeah. He was talking, and Bush 41 said to Dan Carvey, naga da. What is that? I don't say it was funny, by the way, remember, Dana Carvey not only played Bush 41, he also played Ross Perot.
- [39:35]
A
Yeah.
- [39:35]
B
There's a giant second sound from the South. A giant second sound. It was ridiculously funny. You look at Will Ferrell as George W. Bush. Amazing side Splittingly funny. The entire history of SNL mocking politicians. All right, Sarah Palin.
- [39:55]
A
I can see Russia from my porch.
- [39:57]
B
Do you know?
- [39:58]
A
Never was said by the. Never said it, but everybody thought she did.
- [40:01]
B
So I'm willing to bet of our listeners and listen, our listeners on this podcast are smart. They're engaged, they're politically involved. I'd be willing to bet 90% of our listeners believe that Sarah Palin said, I can see Russia from our house because almost everybody does. She never said those words. Where did those words come from? They were Tina Fey. Yes. Playing Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.
- [40:26]
A
And it was brilliant.
- [40:27]
B
I can see Russia from my house. And I gotta admit, look, I consider Sarah a friend.
- [40:32]
A
I laughed because it was amazing.
- [40:34]
B
It was ridiculously funny. Comedy has been destroyed because A, they won't make fun of the left, B, they are relentless partisans attacking anyone on the right, and C, they're now willing to be shills for the authoritarian state. And so when I hear Jimmy Fallon singing about the latest COVID variant, it makes me sad. It makes me sad for the death of comedy.
- [41:06]
A
Yeah. Because now it's propaganda.
- [41:08]
B
Some other comedy, and it's like the 13th strike of a clock. It destroys any credibility. A comedian ought to have the integrity to say, I'm gonna speak truth to power and not speak power to truth.
- [41:29]
A
Yeah, I agree with you there. Last question. Back to the documents for a moment. This comes out. You hear Biden. We just played that clip. Him trying to clean it up. Is there anything that really happens with this?
- [41:42]
B
Number one doj? I'll ignore it.
- [41:44]
A
Okay. And how big of a saving. You believe this is significant, though, for Donald Trump?
- [41:51]
B
Not in the legal sense, but in the public opinion debate sense. It becomes. It's why I sent the forward tweet. Convene a grand jury. I actually don't think we should convene a grand jury. So that tweet was not.
- [42:06]
A
That was to make them defend it.
- [42:08]
B
It was to hypocrisy. Prompt them to give the reasons why that shouldn't happen, and press it.
- [42:16]
A
Is everything.
- [42:17]
B
I do think the public narrative has become infinitely complicated by the fact that Joe Biden not only did the same thing, but did the same thing at a center that received over $50 million from Communist China that is literally being paid for by the Chinese communists. If you think of places to store secure, classified documents, places being funded by the Chinese communists perhaps shouldn't be on.
- [42:49]
A
The top of your list. Yeah. Just promise me if there's ever a hearing about this, you will ask, what's the hourly rate for lawyers to move people? I just have to know that I. I gotta know what moving company like, did you. Did you. Did you hire that happens to be lawyers? I gotta know that question.
- [43:05]
B
Well, if you need to move your house, I'm gonna tell you right now, I ain't gonna do it. And I'm not. And there it is.
- [43:12]
A
We'll leave it at that. Senator, it's pleasure. We're here in D.C. together. It's always fun to be in the nation's capital with you. We will see all of you guys back here on two days, so make sure you grab our podcast then. And don't forget, hit the subscribe button, the auto download button. You'll get the podcast automatically for free every time we publish. And you never know when those extra episodes are going to pop up, so you don't want to miss those. We'll see you back here. Have a great week, my friends.