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The Jim Acosta Show
Bizarre WH Behavior Swirling Around Trump Health Questions with Mehdi Hasan and Doctor Rob Davidson
00:41:34
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- [00:00]
A
All right, welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. It is another day that ends in Y and Donald Trump's assault on American democracy. And one of the things that they've been doing lately over at the White House, playing sort of hide the football. When it comes to Trump's health, it's been sort of Lucy in the football trying to get a straight answer as to what's going on with Donald's health. He was out of the public eye for several days up until today. And then he finally surfaces in a meaningful way. I guess if you want to say that it depends on your definition of the term meaningful. And he's doing this dog and pony show about space force, one of his favorite subjects. But let's talk about this with Dr. Rob Davidson. Rob, great to see you as always. I guess let's jump into this. I mean, we're just seeing him in the last several minutes. He was on some right wing radio show earlier in the day and sounded really awful. But your sense of it, the way they have been just kind of hiding him, he finally gets out there. He sounds, I guess, Trump like if you want to put a term on it, but he doesn't look great, doesn't sound great. He still has this business on his hand.
- [01:05]
B
Yeah. I mean, he certainly seems, for a guy who like started out coming in calling Jeb Bush low energy, kind of as his sort of inauguration into politics back in, what, 2015. He seems pretty low energy. Now. This is a nearly 80 year old man. Right. My wife is a family document. We were just talking about this about 20 minutes ago. She said, listen, he's an overweight old man driving around in an old car. Basically, things start to break down when you drive an old car. I mean, I've got a car with 300,000 miles. Things start happening as you get older. And that seems to be the case. I think the real concern here is there's a long history in this country of covering up health issues of presidents all the way back to Woodrow Wilson, fdr, Reagan, certainly Biden in the last administration. And this White House said they were going to be radically transparent. Right. And so when you come in with that expectation of yourself and then you just aren't sharing nearly enough with reporters who need to be asking probably more questions about, you know, how the president's really doing.
- [02:15]
A
Yeah. And then apparently this just happened in the Oval Office. He was asked about this video that's circulating online where there's a window to the residence that opens up and somebody throws a bag out the window. Everybody who's been paying attention to social media over the last several days has seen something about this. Trump just said, no, no, that's AI generated. And the reporter, Peter Doocy, shows him the video on a phone. But the White House has already dismissed this to another reporter and said, oh, it must have been a contractor or something. Like, I know from covering the White House, those windows don't typically go up because it's a major security issue. That's bulletproof glass on the White House. There's just been these weird, strange, you know, the fact that he's been out of sight, the strange stuff with the makeup on the hand, your sense of all of that. I mean, it just. Something doesn't add up.
- [03:07]
B
Yeah, something doesn't add up. And again, I mean, he's got swelling in his legs, right? And they told us, well, that is from venous insufficiency. That is a common thing again, for olderweight elderly gentlemen. That is extremely common. But then they really should be sharing aspects of his workup that led them to that diagnosis. You know, an elderly gentleman who gets swelling in the legs and their energy is low, that could be something going on with their heart. So likely he would have an echocardiogram, an ultrasound of the heart, probably something that should be shared if they're being fully and radically transparent. You know, what is this ejection fraction? That's how well the heart squeezes. We should be able to know that. And the reporter should be asking that. I mean, I saw they kind of dredged up Ronny Jackson again, the former White House physician, who is now the kind of radical congressman from Texas, former ER doc, not proud to say as an ER doc. And he again made the statement, the healthiest president in the history of this country. I mean, that is just objectively impossible to be true. Right. Not saying that he's dying or that he's an imminent death door, like Alex Jones seems to think, but like to say that and then to not present evidence of the workup they've done. I don't know how they get away with it, except that this is their mo, Right? They just, they say what they want. They tell you, we'll let you know in two weeks. And then two weeks passes and nothing happens.
- [04:31]
A
Yeah, I mean, somebody just needs to ask them the question, what's going on with your health? Tell us what's happening with your health. And they just don't ask those kinds of questions. It drives me nuts. But then there was also the pictures they were putting out over the weekend. Of him going out to the golf course, and he just looks like. I mean, I'm sorry, I hate to say this, but he looks like shit. He just does not look good. And I don't know if it's because he doesn't have the orange makeup on or he puts that on in the car before he gets to the golf course, but he just doesn't look great. But you're absolutely right. I mean, this has been. This is not a Trump issue. I mean, it. White Houses have been covering up, you know, presidential health issues forever. I mean, that. This has been going on, what, since Spanish flu? This is. This is not unusual.
- [05:18]
B
Right, right, right, right. Yeah. So they're falling right in line, and they're doing what they said they wouldn't do and what they accused Biden of doing. Right. They're doing exactly that. So I think, yeah, we need transparency. The rumors only fly when the White House isn't sharing factual information and letting people know what's really going on. That's how. If there's really nothing to see here, they should just open up the books. He has. He has the right to privacy, but in some ways, you become president, you give up some of those rights of privacy, and, you know, the country gets to know who's.
- [05:49]
A
But he's fought against that. He's fought against that. Yeah, he. I mean, he hasn't released his health records. There was a weird situation that went on during the 2016 campaign where they, you know, there are people with his, you know, his campaign who went into the offices of his old. His old doctor. I mean, there's just always been weird stuff going on with Trump and his health. And you're absolutely right. If this were Joe, it would be going nuts over this. And it just makes sure, you know, I mean, is somebody going to write a book about this? I mean, this is just six days, by and large, up until this point.
- [06:28]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [06:29]
B
He's a guy who doesn't shy away from the public. And the fact that he has and they've sheltered him from the public makes you wonder and makes you want to ask more questions and get more answers.
- [06:40]
A
Yeah. Hey, Wally. Gotcha. And I know you have to go soon. Your thoughts on what's been happening at HHS under RFK Jr. That's another one. I wrote about this a few days ago. I mean, it's outrageous what is happening at the cdc. We are. We are basically putting ourselves in a position where this country could get blindsided by a deadly virus, a deadly pandemic, and you just don't have all hands on deck anymore where, I mean, our defenses are down essentially.
- [07:07]
B
Yeah, you don't, they're dismantling it as we speak. They're, they're endangering the lives. Dr. Dimitri Deskalakis, when he wrote that long post on his resignation, I think that's how you say his name, you know, said it right. You know, political interference in HHS shouldn't be tolerated. That's why, you know, the purge either self imposed or imposed from the administration is happening. And you know, I saw one thing from the fda, J. Bhattacharya, I think his name is saying, oh well, the public doesn't trust some of this stuff. Right. The lack of trust in the MRNA and the vaccines. Well, like they created that distrust with all the disinformation and now they've assumed power of the whole apparatus. And because of the distrust that they fomented. Right. They started and they perpetuated. Now they're saying we have to go a different way because people just don't trust what we're doing. You know, we shouldn't trust what this lot is doing. I think well minded physicians, people's individual doctors are the ones who are actually looking out for them. And to a person that I've talked to, that I've seen talking about this, we are all completely appalled. And yeah, you're right, this endangers lives. People will die because of RFK Jr because of the work he's doing over there. And frankly, we need to have. I know he's going to have a hearing with the Senate coming up this week about the 2026 Trump healthcare agenda. Well, so far that healthcare agenda is taking away vaccines, taking away health care from people, making healthcare more expensive. Really anxious to see what some of those folks in the Senate, including Senator Cassidy, maybe more than anyone, what their questions are like and how we can answer those questions because I think this guy shouldn't have been there in the first place. I think it's, he's past time where they need to demand some real accountability or he needs to see the door.
- [08:50]
A
Yeah, no, and, and we can't say we weren't warned. I mean Donald Trump said during the campaign he was going to let RFK Jr run wild on public health and he is letting him run w wild on public health. There's no question about it. I agree with the comment that's coming in right now. Senator Kennedy, or Senator Cassidy, I should say, of Louisiana bears some responsibility here. The Senate has a function where they can block nominees you want to talk about a nominee that should have been blocked, should have never gotten to final passage. It's RFK Jr. There's just no question about it.
- [09:22]
B
Absolutely. We had 22,000 and some odd doctors in our committee who signed a letter to that effect. And we, you know, we, we lobbied these senators. We did public communications around in their. In their states. And, you know, and people were given assurances from Cassidy. That's why Thom Tillis voted for him. That's what he still says to this day. And he regrets that vote. I don't know if Cassidy regrets the vote, but, you know, they're in a position at least to do oversight of one last vestige of control that Congress has over with this administration. I hope they exercise that right or that, that duty of oversight. And again, I hope there's some pressure from within. You see Donald Trump questioning his decision even today on a truth truth social post where he talked about Operation Warp Speed and how great it was, but maybe it wasn't. And Bobby's over there and CDC is being ripped apart. I mean, this guy's twisting himself into a pretzel trying to defend Bobby Kennedy. And I think he probably even understanding that's getting harder and harder to do.
- [10:18]
A
Yeah, I mean, Operation Warp Speed was, was his venture. I mean, that happened under his administration. Of course, he doesn't want anybody to know about that anymore, but. All right. Dr. Robert Davidson, great to see you, as always. Thanks for doing this. I know it was last minute, but thanks for jumping on. Everybody's been just obsessed with this, with this health issue, and I don't know if they're fully resolving this. I really don't. But thanks for making time.
- [10:45]
B
Absolutely. Thanks, Jim.
- [10:47]
A
All right. Good to see you. All right, I'm going to. Thanks to Dr. Rob Davidson with Paging America. Great guy. Always enjoy talking to him. I want to try to go very quickly. My friend Mehdi Hassan, who is standing by. We just cooked this up in the last couple of minutes to have Mehdi. Come on, folks. I'm still in Ireland, by the way. If you're wondering where I'm at, I'm still in Ireland. I'm trying to get back, hoping that all of our WI FI signals are working. Of course. There it is, just fine. Mehdi is right there, as always. Looking great to see you, man.
- [11:17]
C
Good to see you, Jim.
- [11:19]
A
No weird bruises on your hands, I see. It looks like you're doing fine.
- [11:22]
C
No, I'm all right. I'm all right.
- [11:26]
A
What the hell? Have you seen anything like this what is going on with Trump's health? This is insane. And a few moments ago, he was saying the bag that went out the window must have been AI. There was no bag that went out the window. But the White House had said to some other reporter, it must have been a contractor. You got J.D. vance out there saying, Trump's doing just fine, but if something were to happen, I'll be fine as president. It's been a weird week.
- [11:50]
C
Very weird. I mean, it's been a weird nine years. But, you know, every week gets weirder than the you and I being there. From the very beginning, Jim, from 2015. I moved to the US in 2015, just weeks, by the way, before Donald Trump came down that golden escalator. So he has defined my entire life in this country. Oh, boy. Look, even if I did have bruises on my hands, I'm not the President of the United States. I, I'm allowed to have bruises on my hand and not tell you what they are. He is the President. He's never released his medical records fully, just as he's never released his tax records. Everything he does, Jim, as you know, is projection, right? So they spend years saying, Joe Biden is demented, he has bad health, there's a health cover up. And then they come to office and he is demented, he has bad health, there is a cover up, right? Whatever he says, every accusation is a confession. When it's Donald J. Trump, and look, he can't help lying like a crazy person. I only watched some of that press conference, but the bit you mentioned about the White House, the bag being thrown out of the window of the residence, another bizarre image. If it was Biden, it would be on a loop 24 hours a day on your old cable channel and my old cable channel. And yet not only is it not on a loop, when he's asked about it by Doocy of Fox, right, The Fox journalist asks him about it. He says it's AI Doocy, then shows it to him on his phone. He says, that's AI. Then, Jim, he says people blame AI for anything they don't like. As he does exactly that, right, quiet part out loud with Donald Trump. And then we have to be reminded that the White House already put out a statement saying it was real, it was just a contract, throwing stuff out. So as usual, Donald Trump never throws more people under the bus than his own people. He always has people go out and defend him and then he throws them under the bus. They'll come out and say, no, he didn't mean that. And he'll say, yes, I did mean that. They'll say, no, it was a real picture, but it was maintenance. He says, no, it was AI. He obviously didn't get the memo before this press conference. But the whole thing was damage limitation. And as is often the case with Trump, he just did more damage.
- [13:42]
A
Yeah, I mean, in just the last several minutes. I mean, there are folks pointing out in this Oval Office press conference or whatever that was. You know, his hand is discolored again. You know, one hand looks normal or kind of normal for him. Trumpian, I guess. The other hand has the strange. You know, he doesn't even do the blending, as you and I both know from sitting in the cable news.
- [14:02]
C
Tanning, makeup, tanning, blending, whatever word you want to use. Jim, I didn't see all of it. Did anyone not ask about his hand? Do you know, I didn't watch yours. Did anyone ask. I don't.
- [14:12]
A
I did not see whether or not they. I don't think they did ask him about his damn hand.
- [14:16]
C
That's insane. That's insane. What a dereliction of duty. From the White House press corps.
- [14:21]
A
I'm looking for.
- [14:22]
C
You were there in the first term asking awkward questions that he didn't like. Obviously, there are fewer of you around now. They now have that extra seat at the White House briefing room for the weird, wacky fox far right influencers who get to sit there as well and ask questions about Bill Clinton murder conspiracies. So, of course, they've made it much easier to avoid these questions. But it should be a huge question, not the biggest question, America, but one of the big questions is, what's up with the President's hand? How is his health?
- [14:46]
A
Well, and Peter Doocy used to ask Joe Biden about this all the time. I mean, it was like once a day he would ask about Joe Biden's are you going to die today? Peter Doocy would ask. And that sort of thing.
- [14:55]
C
Did you hear the bit where Trump said, well, well, Biden never did press conferences, and no one ever asked about his health. No one ever asked about Joe Biden's health. Were we living in different countries in 2024?
- [15:07]
A
We've all been lobotomized, I think, is the problem. I don't know what's going on here, but the thing that Trump did talk about, I mean, a couple of things he talked about. One is, I mean, he did say they're going into Chicago. And I suppose, you know, for as dishonest as he is, I mean, sometimes he just Says it out loud. It sounds as though this is gonna happen. And it's not like D.C. where you know, it's legally squishy. And it looks like he could do it. I suppose he technically could do this in Chicago. Even though the governor and the mayor say, will say, get the hell outta here. This is a, we're heading into just a very, I mean, I think, dangerous moment. Mehdi.
- [15:43]
C
Dangerous, Very dangerous. I mean, he bragged about the military today, saying, why don't other governors call me? We have a great military. That is not what the military is for. The military is to fight external enemies to protect the nation from threats that are foreign. There's an entire piece of legislation, the Posse Comodartus, which says you cannot use the US military for domestic law enforcement. A judge this morning said Donald Trump violated that law by putting the National Guard on the streets of LA against the governor's recommendation. So on the same day, literally the same day that a judge is saying, what you did when LA was illegal, he comes out and says, well, I'm gonna do it in Chicago too. And he said, today I may go back into la. What a weird world we live in, Jim, to stop and think about. Not only do we have a president who defies court orders, you and I predicted that last year. We said if Donald Trump comes back, he's gonna be lawless, he's gonna defy court orders. But even I didn't predict that. He just, on the same day that he's defied the court order, he's doubling down. Most people go, oh, I broke the law. Hope no one notices. He says, I broke the law and I'm going to do it again and again. And in Chicago, all that's gonna happen is that Pritzker is gonna get a huge boost to his 2028 presidential ratings by standing up to Donald Trump. I was just in Chicago on Saturday and are furious about the idea of the military coming in. The mayor, who is a super unpopular mayor, just put out a statement on Saturday executive order saying, we're not gonna cooperate with ICE or federal agents. No one's allowed to have masks in Chicago. And his poll ratings, I assume, are gonna. And Donald Trump does help out his political enemies in this way. But the serious point is this. Do we want to live in a country where the default position for people in power is to use the military for law enforcement, for riot control, for crowd control, for sanitation? Jim, here in dc, as you know, they're going around picking up trash because violent crimes are at a 30 year low. So they're going around picking up trash, which apparently costs a million dollars a day. If you paid the DC sanitation service, it's like 30 times cheaper. So these Doge people who wanna save money, hey, Doge, I've got some place for you to save some money. Use the DC Sanitation folks, not the National Guard, to pick up trash. But look, it is very dark. Remember he said last year, I'm going to go after the enemies within. The vermin will have the military. Me, you probably, I'm assuming. Kamala Harris certainly came out and said, hey, he's going to use the military to go after his enemies. He's saying it. Oh, tds. That's hyperbole Tract Arrangement Syndrome. Of course he's not going to do that. Oh, exaggeration from the. He's doing it.
- [18:13]
A
And it's way worse than what we were all saying.
- [18:16]
C
Yes, it's way worse.
- [18:18]
A
Yes, it's way worse.
- [18:20]
C
He's going nationwide in his first six months. He's already done la, he's already done dc, now Chicago. I should remind the viewers watching, just to be clear, this has nothing to do with crime, right? This has nothing to do with crime. 13 of the 20th cities with the worst violent crime murder rates are run by Democrats. Yes, but in red states, we are not seeing red state governors being bullied in this way. We know that the red states of this country have the murder problem. Right. In every year between 2000 and 2020, the per capita murder rate was higher in red states than in blue states for every year, for 20 years straight. Right. So the crime problem, the violent crime problem, the murder crime problem is in red states. But we are not seeing red state governors getting the same pressure. In fact, Speaker Mike Johnson was on Fox, and on Fox, they asked him about Gavin Newsom, pointing out that Louisiana has a higher murder rate than California. And he just dodged the question because they don't.
- [19:10]
A
And it's been a while since you and I last did one of these things. I do wonder what you think about Gavin Newsom. I mean, J.B. pritzker, I mean, they, they have been putting the pedal to the metal and, and being a lot more aggressive than what we've seen out of the Democratic Party for some time. And I think it's. It's a damn good thing for the Democratic Party. There's sort of like. There's like a faint heartbeat now once again. And maybe it only happens because Trump is picking on them, picking on their cities and states and so on, but I just curious what you think it seems to me this is the way they should go. This is the right approach.
- [19:43]
C
Yeah, more, more. This is the floor, not the ceiling. This is the bare minimum that Democrats in office should be doing. And when I say Democrats, I often say big D and small D. Because you don't have to be a member of the Democratic Party. I'm not a member of the Democratic Party. You have to be someone who believes in democracy. Right now, democracy's under assault. We have a two party system, and therefore we expect the other party to be standing up for American democracy. And that party happens to be called the Democratic Party, which is helpful. But look, Gavin Newsom was late to this. I think he spent a lot of this year calling it wrong with the whole anti woke jumping on. You know, he had Steve Bannon on his show and he let him talk nonsense about the election. He had Charlie Kirk on his show and they were kind of yucking it up. I know he tried to defend it, saying, I'm trying to reach out and talk to people. Bullshit. Right. We all know what he was doing. I think it backfired. I'm glad he's moved on for it. I'm happy to forgive and forget for now.
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A
He's.
- [20:31]
C
He is now taking the fight to the Republican Party in tomato. He's doing it in a very successful way. The Gavin Newsom Press Office Twitter account is genius. I say that without any. It is genius. What he has done with that Twitter account to mock Trump and get under the skins of the FOX folks has been brilliant. And I think actually standing up in the way that the Illinois and California governors do, every elected Democrat, especially in Congress. You folks in Congress, I'm looking at you Democrats in Congress who have been spineless, feckless, weak, obsessed with bipartisanship. Hakeem Chuck or Catherine Clark, all of those folks need to learn some lessons from Democratic governors in terms of how to stand up. You still have Hakeem Jeffries going on shows saying it's time for bipartisanship. No, it is not.
- [21:11]
A
Yeah. That's not what Donald Trump is saying. I mean, they have to wake up to the world that we're in. And I mean, not to get too local newsy here, but Muriel Bowser, the mayor of D.C. sort of welcoming Donald Trump, I can't imagine. I mean, it sounds like maybe she's not gonna run for mayor anymore, but to me, the default position should be, this guy is a danger and you have to treat him as such. And that's just the way it is. You can't get around it. And of course, you've heard him say over.
- [21:38]
C
Yeah, I just saw a comment. One of your commenters, Theresa Wren, just wrote, no more letters. No more sternly worded letters. And I should point out, cause I've just written a piece for the Guardian. It's coming out tomorrow on Jeffries and Schumer. So they're really on my mind right now. Both of them have talked about letters in recent weeks. Like, beyond parody. Like, Hakeem Jeffries went on TV recently. He said the DCAG wrote a very stern letter. I liked that letter. This is not the time for letters. I get it. Lawsuits, courts, yes, important. But if you're messaging to the base and to the American people is about letters, then you've lost the argument.
- [22:09]
A
Well, and it's also like saying RFK Jr should be fired. No shit. Of course. Yes. He shouldn't have been fired.
- [22:15]
C
The minimum, the bare minimum.
- [22:16]
A
Not just fired.
- [22:18]
C
We need to go beyond talking about firings. I know we're only six months in, but we need to go beyond talking about firings and talk about accountability. Democrats need to be saying right now, you, you, you, you, you'll be in front of a committee next year when we win back the House.
- [22:29]
A
I agree with you.
- [22:30]
C
You, you, you will be in front of the DOJ when we House people have committed crimes in plain sight.
- [22:36]
A
No, next year should be about the two A's affordability and accountability.
- [22:40]
C
Yes.
- [22:40]
A
And it should be. It should be on a bumper sticker. Accountability is coming. If you are cooperating with these ICE raids, if you, I mean, it just, it should just be plastered all over everybody's TV screens. The other thing that I just wonder, you know, how the Democrats are going to handle is the Epstein files. Because now that they're all, I guess, allegedly back in Washington and now they're starting to have press conferences with some of the Epstein victims tomorrow morning, I.
- [23:05]
C
Believe, Ro Khanna and Thomas Massey tomorrow morning on the Capitol Hill.
- [23:08]
A
I think that, you know, obviously this needs to be put back front and center. And as I was saying last week when Trump was engaging, was it last week or the week before Trump was engaging in all this dictator talk and saying, oh, people would like to have a dictator. If it means lowering crime in this country. If you're the dictator, you can release the Epstein files. I mean, you can.
- [23:25]
C
Oh, there's many.
- [23:25]
A
You don't have to drop him out the window. They can. He can open up the window at the White House.
- [23:30]
C
Did you pop it out just on an aside? Did you see his answer on the window. He went into a long spiel about how Melania wants to get fresh air, but the window weighs 600 pounds. How do you know this shit? Like, what are you. This is what you know. You know nothing about the world, but you know the weight of the White House windows. And I'm sure he's not lying. I'm sure he probably had some conversation about it. But, yes, he could throw the Epstein files out of the White House window for someone to catch. I do hope that Democrats don't bottle this as well. Again, Congressional Democrats, very weak, very feckless, very compromised. I'm sure many of them. You know, I see people on Twitter, Jim, saying stuff like, well, if the trials come out, wait till you see what happens to Bill Clinton. I'm like, good, let's find out what happened to Bill Clinton.
- [24:12]
A
And that's what I say.
- [24:13]
C
No sway for Bill Clinton. Like, that's the whole point. Those of us who actually are consistent think that people who did bad things with Jeffrey Epstein or associated with Jepstein, and nobody's suggesting Brooklyn to commit any crimes, but if he was running cover for. If he was inviting him to events and at least mainstream his social profile, which we know top Democrats did, we know many members of our society, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, they may not have committed crimes, but we know they definitely helped mainstream and rehabilitate Epstein even after his original 2007. 08 conviction. So, yes, we should know about all that. And look, this is low hanging fruit, Jim. This is a scandal. Donald Trump wants to go away. It's very easy for Democrats to deal with it. Another one recently was this Israeli Cyber Division official who was let out of Las Vegas after allegedly being involved in some child sex ring. He was arrested. They let him. They gave him his passport, let him leave the country. Why is that not a bigger scandal? Imagine if Joe Biden had done that. Imagine if a Qatari or Saudi or Iranian official had left Vegas after being arrested and Joe Biden's State Department had let him go. It would be on Fox on a loop for 24 hours a day.
- [25:17]
A
No, you're right about that. And the other person who gets away with stuff, right, left is JD Vance, the vice president who goes on vacation all the time. And seven vacations. Kamala Harris had gone on seven vacations in seven months. It would have been on nonstop on Fox. And you know what did he. They raised the river levels or something so they can go on a. I mean, this is some tech. This is like, this is obnoxious. Even for tech bros like entitled Gilded Age tech Bros. And he gets away with it. But your thoughts, though, because this is like a bit of the parlor room talk these days, is if the worst were to happen or however you're interpreting this in terms of Donald Trump going by the wayside and JD Vance suddenly becomes president, your thoughts on if something like that were to occur?
- [26:04]
C
So obviously, if something were to happen to Donald Trump, he is the successor. He's the vice president, constitutionally will be him. There's a different debate to be had, of course, as you know about 2028, where Donald Trump kind of threw him under the bus, then kind of anointed him, then told Marco Rubio the other day at the cabinet table, marco, you shouldn't run for anything else. You saw Rubio sinking further into that seat. All Rubio's been doing for seven months is sinking further and further into the seat when he was with Trump. But yeah, Rubio didn't like that. But look, whether he runs in 28 and who the Trump successor is, if there's a Trump successor, if Trump lets us have an election in 2028. For now, to deal with your immediate point, yes, J. Vance would be the president. J.D. vance is a very dangerous figure. In some ways more dangerous than Trump. In other ways less dangerous because at least he's sane. But in some ways he's more dangerous because he is someone who has a very clear agenda in a way that Donald Trump doesn't. He does have a vision for changing the government in the way that Donald Trump is kind of, you know, impulse driven. He is backed by some of the worst people like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk and others. You know, you want to talk about multi billionaire right wing tech bros obsessed with all sorts of fantasies about, you know, no government and libertarianism and eugenics and all sorts of other not living forever and all. And he's backed by these people. He's a creature of Thiel. Like JD Vance does not exist without Peter Thiel. His entire career, both financial and political, was bankrolled by Peter Thiel. And people can just Google Peter Thiel or read the piece that we published at Zette about how dodgy Peter Thiel is. But yes, I think he would be dangerous. I think there would be a honeymoon period for the Republicans anytime there's a change in leadership. The American public are very generous and very forgiving. You remember when Kamala Harris took over from Biden, she got an immediate bump. I think the Republicans right now Trump is in the doldrums his poll ratings are some of the worst in history. It clearly Republicans a boost, but JD Vant has the charisma of a wooden chair. So I don't think he would be that big a threat in 28, to be honest. I just. Or you sofa. He was the guy who was actually. Indeed, indeed. I don't know why you would mention a sofa. He dragged down the ticket last year. Right. He was a deeply unpopular vice presidential running mate. The cat lady thing became a thing. He spent much of the time apologizing. Obviously he gets a pass, as you say, he's not a black woman. Right. So he's a white man. So he gets a huge pass for the mediocrity, for the over promotion, for the constant vacations, for berating a foreign leader in the Oval Office in a way that no vice president has ever done before.
- [28:20]
A
The thing that, and I'm not saying, you know, it should happen or should not. I'm just saying if it did.
- [28:24]
C
LW says don't insult wooden chairs. Sorry. LW says don't insult wooden chairs. My apologies. Sorry.
- [28:30]
A
And it's not as furniture of choice. But anyway, I'm just joking when I say that. I'm purely joking. But no, the thing that, that I think would shock a lot of Americans and surprise a lot of Americans is that people do not follow this Peter Thiel stuff the way you and I and the viewers who are watching this right now do. And I mean, it would be a rude awakening, I think, for a lot of Americans in this country to understand just how, I mean, in the grips of that crowd, J.D. vance is, I mean, he is part of that crowd. Very much so, yeah.
- [29:01]
C
J.D. vance, a couple of years ago when he was interviewed, I think by Vanity Fair, they were talking about the new right, which he's very much part of Christian nationalism. And he talked about, you know, he laid out, he laid out what Trump is doing now. He wasn't on the ticket then. He was just a junior senator from Ohio. And he said, look, if the Supreme Court tries and stops Donald Trump when he comes back to office from doing what he wants to do, Trump should say, you and whose army? Right. That's what Vance said a couple of years ago. So he was prophesying what was coming this way, that Trump would come back to office and would defy the Supreme Court. I think the American public don't know who Peter Thiel is the fault of that is partly our media, partly it's the Democrats. Let's be very honest. The Republicans have been so successful at taking the most random fringe people. Some random guy with 20 followers on Twitter is suddenly held up on Fox as the avatar of the modern Democratic Party. Random people are linked to mainstream Democratic politicians. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris. Mainstream Democrats have to constantly apologize for some random person who they had nothing to do with. Some local official, some guy on Twitter, some fake activist. Republicans are masters of making those people household names. Meanwhile, actual billionaires funding the Republican Party are completely anonymous. The American public does not know Peter Singer is, does not know who Peter Thiel is. Only knows who Elon Musk is because of the cars and because he decided to buy Twitter and make himself a main character. But in general, most of the far right billionaires have kept a low profile and the liberal media and the Democratic Party have allowed them to keep that low profile. Shamefully, in my view.
- [30:25]
A
No, you're absolutely right. And I mean, my God, if there's a, if there's a case for 60 Minutes to jump in and some of the investigative outlets that we have in this country to jump in and start doing these profiles, Good luck to 60 Minutes.
- [30:36]
C
Now. Now officially owned by, now officially owned by the son of a Trump donor, the one of the richest men in the world, Larry Ellison, who was election denier as well.
- [30:44]
A
We'll have to put our hopes in South Park. Maybe south park can do the expose on all of this and the Daily.
- [30:51]
C
Show as long as they let it last. That too is probably on the chopping block.
- [30:54]
A
Mehdi, we should definitely talk about Gaza. Israel's begun another ground operation there. Your thoughts on where things stand in that regard, where it's going. I'm in Ireland right now and I will tell you, I don't know if you've ever been to Ireland. This surprised me. How I mean where the views are as it relates to Gaza. Here in Ireland, they're extremely sympathetic towards the Palestinian people there and the Palestinian cause. But your thoughts on where things stand right now? Not to ask you a totally open ended question that you can go forever and ever on.
- [31:27]
C
No, no, let me just address the two parts of your question. One on Ireland, the Irish people, God bless them, Spanish people, a lot of European countries, the rank and file regular voters have not backed their governments pro Israel stances. Actually the Spanish and Irish governments have been relatively good comp to the German or French governments. The Germans have been awful in terms of this genocide, in terms of their complicity in the genocide. I think that the public opinion is changing around the world, Jim. Here in the United States, you saw The Quinnipiac poll that came out last week. A majority of Americans want to end arms sales to Israel. 50% of Americans say it's a genocide. Only one in three Americans says it's not a genocide. So the American public has switched. Earlier this year, Pew found that for the first time ever, a majority of Americans now had a negative view of Israel. That's never happened before. So the Netanyahu has led Israel into that kind of isolated place with his genocide, with his man made fact, with his indictment at the International Criminal Court. On Sunday, Jim, the Israeli security cabinet met. And for the first time in modern Israeli history, the entire security establishment, the generals, the head of the air force, the navy, the Mossad, all of them said to Netanyahu, do not carry on this war into Gaza City. Do not try and conquer all of Gaza. It will not save the hostages. There is a deal on the table which Hamas has signed. Remember, we keep being told, if only Hamas signed it. Hamas has said we're up for the deal. Netanyahu is saying, no. The head of the Israeli military said it is up to Benjamin Netanyahu to sign this deal. We've done our part. There is nothing more the military can do. He must sign this deal. That's the head of the Israeli military, not some lefty anti Zionist, the head of the Israeli military. So Netanyahu has isolated himself at home abroad. And look, one important point for your viewers watching here, Joe Biden, and I've said this many times, was deeply complicit in this genocide. He gave Netanyahu everything he wanted, madly. Even though he knew Netanyahu was working with Trump against him. And Biden went along with it. The whole bear hug bullshit. Now you have Donald Trump, who's gone even further than Biden. And Netanyahu said explicitly to his cabinet. Jim, this is reported in the Israeli press that Donald Trump backs me. He wants me to go all in and get this done. So people who unfortunately thought, oh, Donald Trump will be anti war, he'll be less interventionist, he'll be tougher on being a dealmaker. Oh, yeah, bullshit. The guy goes around seven wars. No, you've worsened the worst genocide of our lifetime. Everything Netanyahu is doing right now, Donald Trump is 100% complicit in.
- [33:37]
A
And I think that Netanyahu is right. When he thinks that Donald Trump is in his corner, I think he's right.
- [33:44]
C
And Jared Kushner, who was at the White House. Jared Kushner and Tony Blair. Jared Kushner and Tony Blair, who reportedly have presented this plan to turn Gaza into the Riviera, which sounds lovely, but it's a bullshit plan which involves ethnically cleansing the Palestinians. Palestinians are given $5,000 to get lost and a year's worth of food to leave the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, they're gonna build AI powered smart cities and an Elon Musk manufacturing zone. This is the kind of pretentious bullshit that consultants give you. And this is the kind of bullshit that Donald Trump and Jared Kushner are cooking up. It's ethnic cleansing. Let's just call it what it is.
- [34:17]
A
Manny, great to see you, my man. Thank you so much. Thanks for jumping on late. I had to talk about the bruises in Ireland and people wanna know what's going on with these bruises.
- [34:27]
C
It's always a pleasure, Jim. Enjoy the Republic of Ireland.
- [34:31]
A
Good to see you, sir.
- [34:32]
C
I will.
- [34:32]
A
I've had many Guinness, as it may show, but thanks. Thanks, Mehdi. See you. Bye bye. Bye, bye bye. All right. There's many. Hassan, always a pleasure to talk to him. And, you know, you just wind him up and let him go. That's the great thing about Mehdi, and he's just so passionate on the subject of Gaza. And I will tell you, I am not overstating this. I've been in Ireland for four or five days. Somebody just asked, have you seen Rosie? To be continued on that question. Very smart viewer there just asked, have you seen Rosie? To be continued. I cannot disclose from this location right now whether or not that kind of interaction, that kind of meeting has occurred. This is one of those cliffhangers, folks. You remember the old fashioned cliffhangers, the old westerns that would show on TV way before I was born. You may remember them. I don't remember them, but. Or maybe it was Batman, the TV show. Same Bat Time, same Bat Channel. You have to tune in to find out whether or not a meeting of the minds did occur over perhaps a pint, perhaps a two pint or two occurred here in Ireland. I don't want to give it away just yet because I want to save something for the next program, But I can't overstate how lovely and how wonderful the people of Ireland are. I have had such a fantastic time. I don't know if folks have been following any of this. Probably not. You've been enjoying your Labor Day weekend and so on. I was in New Ross, Ireland. I spoke at the Kennedy Summer School, which is an event put on in part by Purdue University and some of the many wonderful people that they have in Irish politics here. They get together in New Ross, Ireland, which is the family homestead, the town the Kennedy family came from. And they put on this event every year. I got invited to speak. We spoke about democracy and so on. There were lots of other great panelists and other of folks involved in these discussions. And I just cannot say how wonderful the people of Ireland are and just how much I've enjoyed this experience here. This is my first time to Ireland, and it's just been a pure joy for me, in part because my mom, her side of the family hails from Ireland, a place called Sligo, which is on the West Coast. And I didn't make it up there this time, but I plan on coming back. If there's one thing that the Irish people have convinced me of is that I need to come back time and time again. But one thing that you do find when you dive into the politics here is that there is real concern. Real. And I've noticed this. I've been to Europe three times this year. I went to Norway, went to Portugal, and now I'm here in Ireland. Each time that I've been here, the concerns that exist among the Europeans, our major allies, our longstanding friends on the other side of the pond, how deeply concerned they are about Trump's second presidency, what they see as just as complete kowtowing to Vladimir Putin, the way he has not been a partner for peace as it relates to Gaza, as it relates to Israel's assault in Gaza, they just see right through the phony baloney coming out of Donald Trump's mouth on a daily basis. And one thing that they've been obsessed with, I will tell you two things they've been obsessed with, because the questions came to me time and again while I was over here. One was about the Epstein files. Yes, they're paying attention to the Epstein files over here in Ireland. They pay attention to American politics quite a bit. But the other thing that they're very interested in is they want to know what's with the bruise, with the blending. He's not doing the blending and the makeup and the blending. They're very curious about Trump's health. And something tells me that Donald Trump today did not do himself any favors when it comes to dispensing the rumors, dispensing the talk, the conversation about his health. But make no mistake, folks, we have some real friends over here in Ireland, just some wonderful people who care deeply about the United States. After all, John F. Kennedy hails, his family hails from just south of Dublin here in New Ross. And just a Lot of pride in the impact of Irish Americans on American politics. And it's just been an absolute joy and a pleasure getting to know the Irish people here. I should be wearing green right now. They gave me a US Ireland pin. I should have put that on for this. I'll wear it tomorrow or the next day. I'll wear it this week. But it has been a real thrill for me to be over here and hope folks at home have tolerated just a little bit me being slightly away from things. But I'll be back again hopefully tomorrow, traveling, I think traveling back tomorrow and hopefully later on. I'll have some shows later on this week with some really important guests. But My thanks to Dr. Rob Davidson for jumping on late. My thanks to Mehdi Hassan for jumping on late. Just a terrific guy. Always enjoy talking to him. And it's funny, when he, he was saying the Democrats should be talking about accountability. I hope that the viewers, the regular viewers here are, are saying Mehdi, Jim was talking about accountability too, because I was also saying it's about accountability. But, and it is about accountability. And we're going to continue to hold Donald Trump accountable on this show whether they ask the right questions or not inside the White House. But really appreciate everybody tuning in and everybody jumping on. It was kind of last minute today, but I could not resist when he got into that Oval Office and he started talking about it being AI that they threw a bag out the window. What the hell is going on inside? Does anybody, could somebody tell me what is going on inside this White House? What is going on? It sounds like a cover up, it looks like a cover up. And I'm not talking about the poorly managed cover up on the hand here. I'm talking about the COVID up that appears to be the case with Donald Trump's health. Why are they saying he always playing golf with so and so? And it turns out it was a week ago. He's playing golf with so and so. Why is J.D. vance talking about taking over the presidency and they're throwing bags out the way. What the hell is going on over there? I'm not the one, you know, tying all this stuff together. It's just been out there over the last several days. Yeah, a little strange, strange things afoot over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But in the meantime, reporting tonight from Dublin, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good evening, everybody. I'll see you and I'll spill the tea on whether there was a Rosie meeting. I'll talk about that a little later. I don't want to get into that right now. We'll talk about that later. Have a good night, everybody. Take care. Bye. Bye. It.