← The Jim Acosta Show
The Jim Acosta Show
Brian Tyler Cohen on Lifting up Independent Media and Fox Gaslights after Trump's Gaffes with Juliet Jeske of Decoding Fox News
00:47:33
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- [00:07]
A
All right, welcome to the Jim Acosta show. And it's another day that ends in why in Donald Trump's assault on American democracy. It's also another day that ends in y and Trump's assault on American allies. NATO members are furious with Trump after he told FOX that countries in the alliance stayed off the front lines during the war in Afghanistan. There are more disturbing videos meanwhile, coming out of the ICE raids in Minneapolis and across the country. Let's discuss with YouTube and social media star Brian Tyler Cohen. Brian, it's been far too long. I'm glad we were able to do this. How are you? How's it going, Jim?
- [00:43]
B
I'm doing all right. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it. And, and congrats on, on what you're continuing to build. Very, very, very excited to, to, to see what, what your, what your platform has grown into and that you're embracing this independent media space.
- [00:56]
A
Oh, man, I, I love it. And, and we should talk about that at, at the end of this because to me it's, it's really critical to just about everything right now that this continue to flourish and thrive and grow. And you know, you were kind of at the forefront of this with, with some other folks and it's just so important right now.
- [01:16]
B
Yeah. I mean, especially in light of the, of the capitulation that we're seeing by a lot of these legacy media outlets. Like, you know, you would think kind of looking at the size of these outlets that like they are too big to fail. But in fact, because they're so big, because they're so over leveraged, it's really easy for Trump to exploit them because he knows their weak spots. He knows where they need government approvals, he knows where, you know, where somebody at the top needs to curry favor. Him, curry favor with him for some reason. And, and he exploits that every single time. And it's worked for cbs, it's worked for ABC News, it's worked for Metta and Washington Post and it will continue to work because, you know, there isn't the, the, the organizing that, that we need to see. You know what's so funny about that is like back during the Obama years, I think there was one point at which FOX was under attack or something like that. And you'll be able to speak on this better than I was. But all of the other news outlets came to Fox's aid and, and so eventually the administration relented. And yet now it's the complete opposite. You've got ap, for example, was barred from the press briefing room. And, you know, whereas there could have been a really effective boycott, just didn't happen.
- [02:22]
A
Yeah. No, it's so true. I mean, and to your point, I mean, I think it was a couple of things. One was one of the seats in the briefing room came open. This was a while back. This might have been during the Bush administration. And, and FOX wanted that front seat in the briefing room. And the other networks went to battle on behalf of Fox to get them that, that might have been Obama, might have been Bush. It was in that time frame. And then the other thing was Ed Henry, who was a Fox correspondent, was getting shut out of briefings and stuff. And the correspondence association came forward and said, you can't do. I mean, it's just time and again. And it's funny you mentioned all this because in a little later, I'm going to talk to Juliet Jeske with taconing Fox News. She does a great job busting Fox for all their funny business over there. And you're so right on cbs. I mean, when, when Donald Trump feels comfortable enough to say to the anchor of the CBS Evening News that I got you that job. I mean, this is, something weird is going on right now. Yeah, it seems to me, and the.
- [03:18]
B
Sad part is like, they, they don't, they, they don't recognize that engaging in these deals or selling your soul to Trump doesn't buy you the goodwill that you think it buys you. All it does is show Trump that, that you're weak, that you could be bought. Which is why he's never like, oh, you know what? CBS and ABC paid me my $16 million. They're good. They're on my, they're on my good side now, and I'm going to leave them alone forever. He just keeps hammering them because he knows they're weak because he knows he owns them. And, and that would be bad enough unto itself, but then for the next outlet to think, oh, well, this isn't going to happen to us. We're special. Like, he wouldn't possibly do that to us. We're going to buy ourselves all the goodwill we want and he'll never, never give us a hard time. Like, that's, that's almost the more pathetic part.
- [03:59]
A
Yeah, it's so true. And, you know, maybe we should talk. I think there's a little bit of a tie in to what took place in Davos and Trump on the world stage, he continues to insult American allies. And, you know, I had a recent conversation with a diplomat, you know, after that, that summit ended in Davos. And one of the takeaways that the Europeans are, you know, leaving that conference with is that flattery does not work. That actually flattery is the wrong approach to dealing with Donald Trump. That actually standing up to him, being firm with him and drawing some red lines around him is the way to go. And it leads to the point of, I think, what, what the media should do in this country, forget this bending the knee stuff and being soft with him. You've got to stand tough. And, you know, I think it's too bad that Brian, that folks are learning this lesson, what, now we're a year in and all the damage that's been done, but flattery doesn't work. Sucking up to him, bending the knee doesn't work.
- [04:52]
B
Correct. This, this, this policy of, of appeasement for Trump has only emboldened him to the point where he now feels comfortable enough because so many people have been kissing his ass for so long, he now feels comfortable enough to, to try and, you know, not only invade a sovereign country, but invade and annex a NATO ally, which would, which would effectively be a death knell for the, for the, you know, the global alliance that's led to the longest period of peace and prosperity in world history. And so, no, this is not the right policy. And good on Mark Carney for going out there and, and saying what he said at Davos against Donald Trump. Good on Newsom for being out there and, and making sure to give a kick in the ass to these other European leaders to let them know that that appeasement is not going to work for this guy. And, and the reality is Trump is not immune to pressure. He's not immune to public pressure. He's not immune to economic pressure. The fact that he relented on this Greenland annexation, or at least the tariffs on, on the, on the Greenland annexation is a response to the fact that the market tanked 2% over the course of 48 hours. And so he's still impacted by this stuff. He's still impacted by the no Kings protest. This doesn't just, you know, slide right off him. He clearly has a problem with all this stuff. He's clearly paying attention. And, and, you know, the fact that he's trying to quiet so many people, to silence so many people, to censor so many people would only happen if he recognized, rightly, the impact that all these people have.
- [06:17]
A
Yeah, no, he had to taco on the tariffs, and it's obvious he's coming back with his tail between his legs because look at the social Media post he put out on Truth Social aimed at Mark Carney, who you mentioned, the Prime Minister of Canada. Dear Prime Minister Carney, please let this letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada's joining what will be the most prestigious board of leaders ever assembled at any time. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Donald J. Trump, blah, blah, blah. First of all, this Board of Peace reminds me of the, and I may be dating myself. Brian, you're a little younger than me. The Legion of Doom on the Super Friends. Remember the bad guys, they had their own, like, super friends, but they were the bad super friends.
- [06:57]
B
The Legion.
- [06:58]
A
When Donald Trump is getting together with Pooh, Putin, Putin and Xi and, and all the other dictators and this is the Board of Peace. We really are living in the Orwellian 1984 upside down world. But your thoughts on, you know, kicking Canada out of the Board of Peace, whatever the hell that is.
- [07:13]
B
Whatever, whatever will Canada do if they can't be be on this Board of Peace alongside other defenders of democracy like Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia. I mean, it's, it's, it's a parody of itself. I mean, at this point, good on.
- [07:32]
A
We should get Kim Jong Un, like, yeah, why not?
- [07:34]
B
At this point, Canada, there's no world in which Canada would want to be in this. That's like that, you know, that's like me saying that, that, you know, I, I'm, I'm, you know, hereby, you know, rescinding my, my invitation to Taylor Swift to come to my birthday party. It's like she was not gonna, not gonna come to my birthday party.
- [07:55]
A
Never gonna happen.
- [07:56]
B
Not going to join this Board of Peace alongside monarchs, authoritarians, autocrats, like theocratic regime. It's just the whole thing is, is a joke and it's, and frankly it should be. If we were still in a world with some modicum of shame, it would be embarrassing for the United States to be, you know, in this, in this upside down version of the Avengers alongside these other autocratic countries with the, with the audacity to call itself the Board of Peace. I mean, Russia is, is according to Trump, so dangerous as to warrant needing to annex Greenland. And yet at the same time, they're a close enough ally to bring them alongside the US to the, on this Board of Peace. It just, it just defies logic, right?
- [08:39]
A
And now Trump is saying, well, we just want pieces of Greenland and, and by the way, I got this deal where I'm going to get pieces of Greenland and it Sounds like Putin saying he wants pieces of Ukraine. The whole thing is nuts. And the, The Danes are saying, no, you can't have pieces of Greenland like that. That's not what we talked about. You're not getting that. And so it just a couple. I mean, one of the things that makes me think is that this is not over yet, this whole Greenland thing. And I know people say it's a major distraction. It's the Epstein files and everything else. I grant you that may all be the case, but at the same time, it's just going to continue to destabilize this alliance if he just continues with this nonsense.
- [09:17]
B
Yeah, well, you know, autocrats and dictators famously stop after they just get a piece of what they want. That's what we've learned from history. Look, I think that this is a very, you know, tenuous attempt by, by Trump to claim to, like, try to try and kind of pull back from his majoritarian, from his maximalist position that he put forward at the beginning. And so he basically presents this thing as, okay, I want all of Greenland. And then if he can relent a little bit and say, okay, I just want a piece of Greenland, somehow it'll seem much moderate or measured by comparison, but annexing a sovereign country and a NATO ally is not moderate. Whether you're taking the whole thing or whether you just want a chunk of the country, that's not how it works. And, and, you know, good on the Danes, good on the folks in Greenland for recognizing that and not relenting or allowing Trump to shift the Overton window where it feels like, okay, well, as long as he just takes 10% of our country, then it's okay.
- [10:14]
A
Yeah. Yeah. And I'm going to talk with the former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta later today, and I'm anxious to hear what he has to say about this. I mean, when Trump goes out there and he's insulting the NATO allies and saying, well, they were. They weren't really on the front lines in the war in Afghanistan, as if they didn't suffer any casualties or deaths during the war in Afghanistan. I mean, it's just nuts, and it's just so insulting. It's so damaging to all these relations, these very important relationships that we have around the world. And. But, you know, we should. Brian, I, I do want to. I don't want to give short shrift to Minneapolis while I have you here, because, you know, again today we're seeing more crazy videos coming out of the Twin Cities, just insane stuff. There's. There's Also the situation of the little boy Liam, the five year old boy who was arrested by ice. He is in detention, by the way. Little Liam is in jail. He's in detention in Texas. That's, that's where Liam is right now. And there's Liam right there. And then the other thing we should show is I, you know, this is one of the more just outlandish pieces of video I've seen lately, Brian, which is there was a guy that they tackled, forced to the ground, and then they're pepper spraying him in the face. If we have that piece of video, we should play it and just talk about this. Look at this. Yeah, he's restrained right here. Totally. They spray him in the face anyway. And I mean, it just, this is sadistic shit, man.
- [11:50]
B
Yeah, it is. I mean, I wish I had words to describe the depravity of, of what they're doing. You know, the irony of, of Trump putting this, this whole idea for ICE forward as if they're going to, to be focused on hardened criminals when, when we've got a five, you know, being detained by multiple ICE officers. There was a, you know, an elderly man who was brought out in St. Paul in like negative 8 degrees or whatever it was in Minnesota the other day, and he was shirtless and like, he was in his house and they claimed that he had roommates that were, that were sex offenders and his family was like, this guy doesn't have roommates. He's like, he lives alone in his house. And, and so the whole, the whole thing is just, the whole thing is so depraved. And, and, and frankly, the American people can see that. I mean, the polling reflects that. You have a vast majority of Americans who are saying consistently that ICE is going too far. There's nobody who signed up for this lawless rogue secret police force. I mean, you know, this is something that, that Republicans, that conservatives have staked their entire brand on for, for decades that we've been hearing about how we, we, we need the Second Amendment, especially because the, because of the threat of a tyrannical government. And I think in their minds that it would happen at the hands of like these radical Marxist leftists. But, but the reality is it took the most conservative administration to deploy these lawless secret police onto the, onto the streets in America. It's, I mean, it's, it's happening at the hands of Trump. And, and yet all of the same people who, who bemoaned the, the prospect of tyranny descending upon the streets and raining hell upon this upon the cities and communities. They're silent in the face of all of this because God forbid they say an ill word of the God King and be on the receiving end of a mean tweet.
- [13:44]
A
Yeah. And on top of everything, I mean, they're, they're insisting that, you know, they can go into your home without a warrant signed by a judge. They, they say that they can go into your home with an administrative warrant, which is not the same thing.
- [13:56]
B
It's basically them policing themselves.
- [13:58]
A
That's right. That's right. And NB reporting not too long ago that they've been doing this for months now, that this has been going on for a long time. And, you know, I think the point that you made is absolutely perfect. I've been talking about this on my show too, which is the Republicans have been screaming about this forever, that Obama or Biden, they were going to send the police to your house and come get your guns, they were going to come into your house, violate your constitutional rights. And now it's, it's the Republicans who are doing it, and they're not stopping Donald Trump from doing it. They just passed this DHS funding bill, which is going to continue to do it. And, you know, there's no end in sight.
- [14:34]
B
I mean, how many times did we hear that Biden was coming to your house to take your gas stove? Like, I mean, it was like.
- [14:40]
A
Right.
- [14:40]
B
It ranges from the farcical, which is like the gas stove stuff, to, to the not so farcical, which is probably very much them, them raising the alarm about what's happening right here. But either way, I mean, my God, we have heard this for so long. You've not had any Democrat who's sending any police out onto the streets that, but, but now it's happening at the hands of, of this administration. And, and you know, they're, they're perfectly content to allow it to happen. I mean, ICE unto itself would have one of the biggest military budgets on the entire planet. And this is an agency that's proving on a daily basis that they are inept, incompetent, unqualified, and frankly, dangerous and should not be, should not be carrying the weapons that they're carrying. Renee Goode is a testament to exactly that.
- [15:23]
A
That's right.
- [15:24]
B
And again, the only silver lining here is, is that Americans are not blind to what they're seeing, despite the best efforts from this administration. And the polls, you know, are a reflection on that. But, but I think the important thing to note here, and we've got the polls right here on the screen.
- [15:39]
A
Yeah, look at these numbers right here. I mean, Brian, the best number that he has is on venezuela, but only 40, 41% approve of that. On immigration he's at 41%, but 57% disapprove. I mean, nearly six in 10Americans. I mean, that's. Now, that's a strong, a segment of the independence in this country. And it goes down, I mean, on economy and cost of living. Cost of living. That's what he was allegedly elected on. My eggs, my milk, my gas, my hamburgers.
- [16:06]
B
And I think, I think that's the important part to dig in on here because this, this behavior by ICE and the funding of ICE doesn't happen in a vacuum. The funding for ICE comes at the expense of something else. And we saw in the one big beautiful bill that the administration and the Republican Party were perfectly content to strip funding for the Medicaid recipients. 17 million Medicaid recipients who won't have access to Medicaid. They were perfectly content to strip funding to the tune of $186 billion for food assistance. Right now we just saw them refuse to extend the ACA subsidies for 24 million Americans. But there's all this funding now for ICE. There's all this funding so that these people can go into the homes of senior citizens and rip them out of the homes. There's all this funding so that they can detain the violent criminals that are five year old children wearing backpacks. The, there's all this funding for all of that. And yet no funding to protect earned benefits, no funding to protect health care, no funding to protect food assistance. No, there's this, this administration is putting on a clinic in what their priorities are. And whereas they, they conned people into thinking that they were going to focus on the little guy, that they were going to bring costs down, lower the, the price of, of rent and housing and groceries and eggs. They got so granular that they were talking about the price of individual eggs. Now that they've got power, all that funding is stripped away and instead they're focused solely on, on, you know, terrorizing communities with these ICE officers. They're focused on encrusting the Oval Office in gold, buying themselves, you know, retrofitting of Qatari jets, hosting crypto dinners, Great Gatsby parties at Mar a Lago.
- [17:43]
A
I mean, you could dressed up as dogs. They had a party where they were dressed up as dogs. Did you see? That was nuts too. Yeah, it's crazy. And, but I guess the question is in your, in your mind because You've been on this, you know, forefront of doing a progressive show in independent media. And, you know, you. You've had lots of great interviews with just about everybody under the sun. What's your sense of where things should go, how the party should handle this, what. What they should be driving towards heading into the fall? I mean, we saw yesterday there were, like, seven Democrats who joined to fund ice, but there are lots of. I mean, a big chunk of the Democratic Party right now says abolish ice.
- [18:21]
B
Yeah.
- [18:21]
A
And to your point just a few moments ago, where's the discussion on Obamacare? Where's the discussion on, you know, preventing hospitals from being closed and so on? I mean, you know, we got to get to these bread and butter issues, too.
- [18:34]
B
I think it would be. Look, I think the hard part is, is you don't want to seem like a robot and not talk about all of the things that are happening right now and just doing the thing that politicians usually do, which is like, okay, cost of living is going to be our thing. So even though all of this crazy shit's happening, we're not going to talk about ice, we're not going to talk about Greenland, because we want to talk about, you know, kitchen table issues and the cost of living. And I think that's a mistake, because if you're going to sound like a robot, I think the smarter thing to do is to acknowledge all of these things, acknowledge the depravity of all of these things, but then tie it back to the fact that this is what this administration's priorities are. I mean, this is where their focus is. We all know Trump. If Trump wants to get something done, he's going to get it done. He's not going to allow prosecutors to stand in his way, judges to stand in his way, courts to stand in his way, the laws, the Constitution. If this guy wants to do something, he gets it done. Which underscores the fact that when we're not seeing anything done on high prices, when we're not seeing anything done on health care, on jobs, on the stuff that actually impacts Americans, it's because it's a conscious choice by Donald Trump. He doesn't give a shit that that's why he's not doing any of these things.
- [19:40]
A
That's why he doesn't want to be a dictator on things that matter to.
- [19:43]
B
You, doesn't want to touch anything that matters to regular people. He is solely focused on himself, on. On making sure that he's surrounded by enough opulence and gold that his bottom line is Padded that he's increasing his net worth and he's putting that on full display. There's no way to hide that stuff. You cannot in good faith say that you've cut healthcare for, for tens of millions of people, but that it was more important to make sure that you have gold leafing in the Oval Office without, without kind of giving the whole game away.
- [20:14]
A
Yeah, and he's, he also tweeted, and I'm not going to put all the stupid that he posts, but he was posting pictures of the ark that he. Or the arch or whatever it is that he wants to, he wants to build. I mean, it's just so, it's comical and we should, I mean, I want to laugh, but we shouldn't laugh because it's, it's, it is kind of tragic that this is the president and he is, he, he's basically losing his mind is what's happening right now.
- [20:35]
B
Look, I think it's, I think it's perfectly valid to put that stuff up and to let people know what's happening, because Americans aren't dumb. Like, they can see that when their costs are going up. And his focus is on building a Trump arch that, like that, okay, this is happening at the expense of something else.
- [20:55]
A
That's crazy. And just finally, where is independent media going from here? It seems to me. I mean, Substack just announced that you're going to be able to watch Substack on Apple TV and Google TV and all the, these various apps that you get on your TV. I mean, I think that's a big development. YouTube, where you are and have a huge presence. I'm there too, but you have a huge presence there and it's continuing to explode. It's just incredible. Where do you think all this is heading?
- [21:21]
B
Look, I think, I think there's no, there's no, there's no doubt that the dominance of independent media is going to continue to explode. We've seen more people are watching YouTube now than are watching linear television. And frankly, it's sad to say, but I think in a lot of ways legacy media is kind of hastening their own demise by engaging in this stuff. Like what we've seen with cbs. Again, like, this is an audience that you've built up, an audience that has an expectation for some degree of facts. And when you kind of, kind of try to gaslight these people right to their faces, especially the people who are watching legacy media are usually higher information folks, higher information voters. And so they know, like, they, they can see this stuff happening. They Know, because they've watched enough media coverage on those same networks to see when it's happening to the network that they're then consuming. And so, you know, if, look, if they want to hasten their own demise, that's, that's on them. But I think that legacy media, that legacy media is doing, while they do that, it's going to be up to independent media to pick up the slack and fill that void. And, and, and look, we've had, you know, I do what I do because I got tired of the both sidesism that I saw from legacy media for so long. I think that finally has kind of set sunk in that people don't want to see. Okay, well, both sides are just as bad because while we have, you know, the American Gestapo marching through the streets, you have, you know, a Democrat who did, you know, whatever, whatever. Let whatever you have to point to, to make it seem like you're, like you're pandering to both sides equally. I think people are tired of that. Which is not to say that Democrats shouldn't be criticized, because I think they, they should be and they can be. And, and you know, I think the, the DHS funding bill, there were a handful of Democrats who voted for that. And that absolutely, absolutely deserves criticism as well. But I think more broadly, you know, there is, there is a desperate need for a progressive media ecosystem to take on a very well funded, a very well established right wing media ecosystem that has served as basically the propaganda arm for the Republican Party for the better part of a decade with no response from the left. And so I think that if the left is able to kind of get their voices out there, whether it's, you know, from, from folks like you to, you know, creators on TikTok or Instagram, whatever it may be, more is more. And the more voices we have, the better.
- [23:45]
A
Yeah, and collaborating like this is so important. You know, getting to speak to different audiences and just expanding the pie. I mean, Heather Cox Richardson was on with me one time and she talked about it, Independent news community. And I think that's just so perfect because you're so right. People are so frustrated and these legacy media outlets, they're doing it to themselves. Yeah, they're doing. If they're wondering why the CBS Evening News has lost 20% of its audience over the last couple weeks, it's because you have an anchor on there going, we salute you, Marco Rubio. Nobody wants to hear that on the CBS Evening News. Yeah, it's insane.
- [24:19]
B
Yeah, well, no, I think it's great. And I'm glad, you know, I've seen the way that this community has, has kind of embraced all the other players and I think that's great. And I think that there should not be a scarcity mindset because there are, you know, there is, there's enough, there's enough room for everybody. This is like the perfect example of a rising tide lifts all ships. I think that the more we can, the more we can help everybody else's audience grow, the more that those, when new people come in and log on to YouTube, log on to substack, they're not automatically sorted into big right wing networks. I think that, that helping grow all of these progressive networks is only going to, only going to lead to more people tuning into this stuff and not falling down any right wing rabbit holes.
- [25:00]
A
Absolutely. We've got enough rabbit holes. We need to avoid those at all costs. But Brian, great to see you, man. I'm so glad we do this. Let's do it again sometime soon. And I hear you have a birthday to get to tonight, so I'll let you go, but best of luck. Thanks a lot.
- [25:15]
B
Thanks, Jim. Talk to you soon.
- [25:16]
A
Good to see you. Thanks so much, Brian. Tyler Cohen, and he is just lighting it up on YouTube and I'm sure every who's watching right now is already aware of that. They're like, yeah, no, Jim, we, we already know Brian. He's, he's great. He's amazing. Let's, as Brian was just saying there a few moments ago, it was the perfect segue. It's almost as if he knew exactly who I have coming on next. But Brian was talking about the right wing media ecosystem and how it is just completely dominant right now when it comes to the media that we have in our lives. I mean, Fox is just the tip of the iceberg. You have all those little mini foxes that are on, on, on, you know, vertical TV on, on regular tv, but you also have so many other conservative media outlets. And it's important to have that discussion. And one person who's just been really leading the charge on this, doing a terrific job holding these folks accountable is Julia Jesse with decoding Fox News. Are you saying Julie, you can't hear me? No. You can't hear me?
- [26:19]
C
I can't hear you.
- [26:20]
A
Can't hear me.
- [26:21]
C
Okay, the audio went out.
- [26:22]
A
The audio went out. Okay, we have been seeing this issue a little bit this week. I'm gonna say drop off and go back in and we'll, we'll get her back in. But Juliet, I was just seeing her message just a few moments ago. So if you're wondering why is Jim slowing down as he's talking? I'm seeing Juliet send me a message saying, I can't hear Jim. And so we're trying to get, you know, get rid of those technical gremlins as we speak. But the thing that, that Brian was talking about, about the right wing media ecosystem, it's so very important. And Juliet with decoding Fox News, I mean, she's been really tackling this non stop. She. And you know, she and I have talked about this before. We'll talk about it in just a moment when she, she comes back on here. That might be Julia right there. Can you hear me now?
- [27:11]
C
Yeah, it's some. The audio just cut out and I didn't know what happened, so I back in.
- [27:16]
A
It's. It's.
- [27:16]
B
We've.
- [27:17]
A
It's been one of those weird weeks where it feels like, you know, is Stephen Miller like hitting a button somewhere, some control room? I don't know. It could be. God, you just never know. But Brian, Tyler Cohen and I were just having this conversation and he brought up Fox and he brought up the right wing media ecosystem that's out there and how they're just causing all these problems. And you know, you, you flagged for me what earlier this week that there I was again on Fox. They were ragging on me and I'm like, you know, one of the things they like to say is, Jim, you don't matter anymore. You suck. You, you, you, you've been blown out of the water. Trump got rid of you. And then. But yet they talk about me on Fox constantly.
- [27:56]
C
Constantly. It's like they find way. My favorite is when they just show your face and they don't, they don't actually talk about you. It's just your face in a graphic or one time on Fox and Friends they used your guest. They talked about your guest and they were there, you were on the screen. But they didn't.
- [28:11]
A
Yeah, like I trigger some like old MAGA people. Is that what it is or something. They're just like this will trigger our audience.
- [28:18]
C
Yeah, I think they're trying to. They're. I think they're, I think they post about you for the audience of one. And that audience would be Donald. Ah, yes, that's my theory.
- [28:26]
A
Because Trump is watching.
- [28:28]
C
Yeah. Just whenever they can. Just stick your face because he used your image once in one of his goofy. Oh, that all I remember they had. It was at Mar a Lago and a woman was singing a song about how the election was stolen. It was insane. It was a terrible song. And she was like, the election was stolen. And then they had this graphic on the screen and then just your face just. There you were.
- [28:50]
A
Yeah. I must make him spit out as Metamucil or something. I don't know what it is.
- [28:54]
C
It just, it's, it's, it's crazy.
- [28:56]
A
He starts throwing ketchup. But let's look at what you were. I want to talk about what Jesse Waters has been doing to gaslight the world, but let's show this quick. You've now dubbed this Acosta Watch, which I don't talk about myself in the third person because I'm not that kind of person, I swear to God. But you did make this thing, and it's really hilarious. We should show it if we have it.
- [29:15]
C
Costa watch. There you go. I would just hold my water sometimes and just for strength, I would look at this one reporter in particular and just listen to the bird.
- [29:26]
B
Did Acosta ever find out?
- [29:28]
C
No, it was under. I mean, I taught it in my book afterwards. It wasn't Acosta.
- [29:32]
B
Oh, really?
- [29:34]
A
Yeah. That's a good one. Because it's quick. It's fast. Very quick. So, Greg Gutfeld, it's, again, it's so weird.
- [29:43]
C
Like, why, man?
- [29:44]
A
Why, man? Why?
- [29:46]
C
I want to do a series of them because today they were talking about. Well, this week they were talking about Michelle Obama. Really? For no reason. It was like in my. On my spreadsheet because I keep track of every single segment. It will say. Sometimes it'll say Michelle Obama said something because that's all I. That's in the sub topic. And then the topic is Democrats are terrible. But I do that because it's like, it doesn't matter what she says. They just like, oh, my, she said something. And like, they do it to Rosie. And it's just. There's people that they just pick on for no reason. And I'm like, yeah, but one of.
- [30:21]
A
The reasons why I thought it was important that we talk is that they've been spinning themselves into overdrive trying to justify what Trump did over in Davos, try to build him up as somebody who had this big win over there. Even though he's back with his tail between his legs, he has this security agreement that is basically what we already have in NATO.
- [30:40]
C
Yes, yes.
- [30:41]
A
Completely pointless.
- [30:42]
C
Yes.
- [30:43]
A
And. But Jesse Waters on the Five, he has his own. His own primetime show. If you can't. If you don't have enough Jesse Waters at 5, you can get him at Some other time. But he. He was talking about how this was a master, you know, stroke of genius on Trump's part, and he was talking about the moon or something. What was.
- [31:02]
C
Oh, yes. He. He claimed that we owned the moon, we being the United States, and he was emphatic about this.
- [31:10]
A
Oh, yeah, but we don't own the moon, right?
- [31:12]
C
No, we don't own the moon. No one owns the moon. I thought that was just common knowledge, but Jesse Waters also once asked and then fought with a producer on his show. He said, do trains have wheels? And somebody was like, yeah. And he goes, I don't think they do. I. No, I don't think they. And I'm like, he's not.
- [31:34]
A
He's not the smartest one. He's not the brightest.
- [31:37]
C
Yeah, I'm, like, in my apartment screaming at my computer when he does this. But, yeah, no, he wasn't. He, like, fought with the person, and I'm like, I can't.
- [31:45]
A
Yeah, well, we should. Let's play the Moon bite. If we have the Moon bite, we should play it.
- [31:50]
D
I think we own it.
- [31:52]
B
And I'm.
- [31:55]
D
No, I know. I know we own it.
- [31:57]
A
Nobody. Nobody owns the moon, man.
- [31:59]
C
No, nobody owns the moon.
- [32:01]
A
Can we send Jesse to the moon?
- [32:03]
C
You should send Jesse to the moon.
- [32:05]
D
I think we own it.
- [32:06]
A
And just. I. I'm. I know we were spending money on lots of stupid right now, but I would pay personally for a rocket ship to blast him to the moon.
- [32:16]
C
Straight to the moon.
- [32:17]
A
Never to come back.
- [32:18]
C
Never to come back. No.
- [32:21]
A
But the one that I. And this is the one that, to me, takes the cake is. Is the Daddy's back one. We should. We should watch that one. Yeah.
- [32:30]
C
This is my original edit, and he's.
- [32:32]
D
Bringing home the bacon. Davos rolled out the red carpet, but Trump's a realist and he can read a room. Daddy can be great until you misbehave. Then you need him to whip you into shape. You might think Daddy's being mean, but when you're older, you realize that Daddy knows best. Trump's like, you live in my home. You're on the family phone plan. We have dogs that you never take care of. You said you would, but you never do. A little appreciation would be nice.
- [33:03]
A
First of all, a lot of this doesn't make any sense, but you. You decode Fox.
- [33:06]
B
That's your thing.
- [33:07]
A
What is he saying? Do we know?
- [33:09]
C
Oh, well, that the Daddy theme was kind of throughout the whole week, but that was from one show, just one episode. He's basically because The Secretary General called Trump daddy. And that was sort of in a weird.
- [33:25]
A
This was like a daddy thing.
- [33:26]
C
Yeah.
- [33:26]
A
Trump talked about Daddy, too. Right.
- [33:28]
C
And Trump got obsessed with that because Trump was using daddy as a, like a metaphor in what he was talking about. And so the, The NATO guy wanted to sort of ingratiate himself, you know, because they're just desperately trying to, like, if we praise him, if we flatter him, we can manipulate him. Right. So they. He goes, oh, well, you're like, daddy. And then Trump just ran with that. And then Fox, because they're trying again, to please Trump's ego and boost him as much as possible. But especially Jesse Waters, because Jesse Waters has creepy. Just layers of creepiness about him.
- [34:03]
A
Creepiness.
- [34:04]
C
Yeah, just layer upon layer upon layer of creepy. He was.
- [34:07]
A
Yeah. Him saying Daddy.
- [34:09]
C
Yeah.
- [34:09]
A
Is. Is. I don't like to think about that.
- [34:12]
C
Yeah, it's very creepy because he uses sexual references for no reason all the time. But he, he just starts going, well, hey, Daddy. Hey, Daddy. And then he turns this whole. Like, all this entire week, everything has been about, you know, Trump being the strong figure and in Jesse Waters mind, daddy. And he's scolding his children, which is the other countries in NATO, and they're. And it just, he keeps playing with it because I'm going to make a larger edit of it. But it's this whole bizarro world of trying to suck up to make Trump happy, because if Trump's not happy, he starts lashing out at Fox and. Which he's done and again, present him as this kind of master of the world, you know, this, this kingmaker of the world. He's. He's the puppet master. And everyone's just kowtowing to him and cowering beneath him when really, if anybody watched his Davos speech, you're stifling laughter or concerned that he keeps calling Greenland Iceland. You know, I mean, it's.
- [35:17]
A
Yeah. I mean, and that's part of what Fox does. Fox is there to take reality and turn it into propaganda.
- [35:25]
C
Yes.
- [35:26]
A
And they've got to figure out a way. They've got to figure out the talking points. They have to feed the anchors the scripts to. To talk about it in a certain way so it looks like he's always winning. And the weird thing about what I've noticed about Jesse and a couple of clips that he played is that he's kind of. He just sounds like Trump. He. They. They think they have to talk to him, I guess, through the tv.
- [35:47]
B
Yeah.
- [35:47]
A
You okay, Jesse? But he almost feels like he has. It's not just performing for the audience one, but it's sort of as the audience as Donald Trump.
- [35:57]
C
Yeah.
- [35:58]
A
Level of narcissism that they're feeding into.
- [36:01]
C
Kind of, you would call it like mirroring, sort of, I guess. Mirroring. Mirroring. Like that's an acting technique. Weirdly, when you mirror somebody's behavior, you mirror their body language, you mirror the way they speak, and it's a way to sort of connect with that person. It's an. It's actually weirdly, a negotiation tool. People do it in sales. Weirdly. I, It's. I always freak out when someone does it to me because I figure it out and I'm like, what are you. What are you doing?
- [36:27]
A
I know, I know. It's so strange, but they've been doing this all week long on Fox, and it's, I mean, it's important for people to recognize because this was. I mean, this was a really disastrous week for Donald Trump. I mean, he pissed off our NATO allies. You know, talked about things like, you know, they didn't really suffer any casualties during the war in Afghanistan, that they weren't on the front lines. I mean, now Kirstar, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, is.
- [36:52]
C
Yeah.
- [36:53]
A
Completely pissed off about that. The Danes are furious. And, you know, it takes a special kind of propagandist to, to make this look good back home.
- [37:05]
C
It is amazing because, yeah, I would think anybody objectively would watch just the, the speech he gave before he went to Davos was two hours long and it was rambling. It made no sense. And he went on these bizarre tangents that didn't make any sense. And then he gets to Davos and tells this incredibly insulting speech. I mean, I was yelling. Yelling profanities at my computer throughout a lot of it. Because when he's like, NATO would never step up for us. And I'm like, 9 11, buddy. 9 11. They stepped up for us immediately. They lost 850 troops. The non US NATO countries. Denmark had the highest percentage per capita.
- [37:48]
A
Exactly.
- [37:49]
C
In Afghanistan, next to us, we only beat them because we stayed in the war a lot longer.
- [37:54]
B
Right.
- [37:55]
A
Yeah. 457 for the Brits. 457 Brits died in Afghanistan, 165 Canadians and 44 Danes, as you said, they had the most per capita. But, yeah, I mean, you're right.
- [38:09]
C
Denmark has the population approximately of my home state, where I'm from originally, Missouri. So that's. It's a very small country. The Scandinavian countries don't have big populations. It's Norway's 5 million. Sweden's 10 million, Denmark's like 6 million. And I think Finland is around 6 million. I've, I'm apologizing if I'm getting Finland wrong, but I know the other three off the top of my head. And so these are small, small countries. So for them to lose 45 men in a war that they didn't have to, you know, because it's that. But that's NATO. That's supposed to be the spirit of NATO Article 5 collective defense. And for him to be so disrespectful, I mean, I personally find the, the line of you'd all be speaking German horribly offensive.
- [38:52]
A
Right.
- [38:52]
C
Because of the sacrifice of the other allied nations and the fact that I view World War II as 100% a team effort. There's no possible way we, I just, it's so insulting to the other allied countries who lost so much.
- [39:10]
A
That's why we had the allied forces.
- [39:12]
C
Yes. And the other thing that Trump seems to not realize, because he thinks like a child, is one of the reasons why the US had, you know, booming economy and was able to turn into this industrial powerhouse after World War I, after World War II is the rest of the world was decimated. And we had Pearl harbor, which was horrific. But we are, you know, our cities were not bombed. So we did, you know, we were able to just spring right back. And Europe was just, you know, largely destroyed, Japan was destroyed and Asia was destroyed. It was just a horrific, horrific thing. And I just find him just, everything he's been saying just so incredibly offensive and awful.
- [39:54]
A
And I, well, and for it to come from him.
- [39:57]
C
Yeah.
- [39:57]
A
Draft dodger. Yeah, he's a draft dodger. He had five draft deferments. He is Captain Bone Spurs. And you know, for him to go out there and say, well, you know, they just, they didn't serve on the front lines, which is a lie.
- [40:10]
C
Yeah, totally.
- [40:12]
A
You know, it's, it's awfully rich. And that's being nice. It's awfully disgusting coming from him, honestly, for him to make those kinds of comments. But, and it would, would have hurt somebody at Fox once to just call that out. I mean, I, he's saying it to Maria Bartiromo's face. I think it was Maria Bartiromo, right?
- [40:33]
C
Yeah.
- [40:34]
A
And, and she, she used to be somebody normal on cnbc and now she's on Fox. You know, she just has had the Kool Aid and, and she just says, she just goes along with it. And you could, he could just spew lie after lie to any of these anchors, and they don't say anything.
- [40:51]
C
I think. Yeah, it's. It's very disturbing how they also don't ever push back on things that are incredibly easy to look up.
- [40:59]
A
Yeah.
- [40:59]
C
You know, when this just. The NATO line, it's like. How do you not know that? I remember I live in New York. I've lived in New York for. It's going to be 25 years in April 1st. And I lived here during 9 11, and I had the ashes in my windowsill in Brooklyn three miles away. So the. Just any.
- [41:18]
A
Our generation lived through it. We went through it.
- [41:20]
C
Yeah, I remember it. I mean, I remember the fact that NATO scrambled and immediately came to the rest of. NATO came to our aid immediately. And I remember how. How much that meant to me as a New Yorker just tremendous. And for him to be so insulting, I just. Yeah, it's. It's. It's been a rough week. And he. I just think he looks like a buffoon. Like a clown.
- [41:42]
A
Yes.
- [41:42]
C
And. And Fox is just cheerleading everything he says and does. And it's just been a story. Astonishing. It's like how. What. It's like two realities.
- [41:51]
B
That's.
- [41:52]
C
It really is the best way I can put it.
- [41:54]
A
I know. And. And they've become state tv. And that's why what you do, Juliet, is so important. And. And keep us posted on those Acosta watches. Again, I don't like to refer to myself in the third person. Yes. It sounds ridiculous, but I do love the anchorman.
- [42:09]
C
It's an anchorman reference. Yes. I love that movie.
- [42:12]
A
I love that movie, too. We all love that. Again, it's our generation. For some reason. I was flipping around on the channels two nights ago and Old school was on, and I just had to sit there. I was like, halfway through, and I had. It was the scene when Will Ferrell's running through the streets butt naked. And I had to just sit there and watch the rest of the movie. And I just. I had, like, best times. I've had a really long time. And I just. That era, it was like, just so. That's. That's what we grew up with, folks. For the kids out there who are wondering. We were the badasses at one point. Now we're fucked like everybody else. Now we just want the kids to do it for us.
- [42:50]
C
So true.
- [42:51]
A
But, Julia, great to see, as always. Keep us posted on those. All those watches that you do.
- [42:56]
C
Yes, thanks for having me. It was great.
- [42:58]
A
All right, Sounds good. See you soon. Thanks, Julia. Really appreciate it. And gosh, that Jesse, he is creepy. It's so true. It's so weird. And Greg, Greg Gutfeld, I mean, I guess do you guys remember when I started all of this? It was almost a year ago. By the way, we're coming up on one year, the one year anniversary of this show here on substack and YouTube and Apple podcasts and all the places in my foray into independent media. And one of the things that happened almost immediately when I started this was like Greg Gutfeld was making fun of a plant that I had in the background and it was, it was not the best looking plant, but I think I just sort of in an impromptu way started doing Substack and people said, oh, just go, just start doing it. I was like, okay, I'll just start doing it. And there's a weird plant behind me. And, and Greg Gutfeld actually spent time on his primetime program on Fox talking about it. Flash forward to January of 2026, nearly one year later, and he's still talking about me on one of those stupid shows that they have over there, the Five, which is like the dumbest of all the Fox shows because it's like, you know, each of those hours on Fox, it's usually just one idiot talking into the camera and saying stupid things and spewing propaganda. And then at 5 o' clock every day they have this thing called the Five where four of the idiots get together and they all, or four or five of the idiots get together and they all sort of do the same thing. There's one lady there who speaks the truth. I don't, can't remember her name, but she's really good. But the others are just completely stupid. And Greg can't give it up. He keeps talking about me. Greggy. Greggy. It's just not going to happen, man. You just got it. You're going to have to come to, to grips with the fact that it's just not going to happen. I appreciate you holding that candle for me and letting that candle burn, but it is time to blow out the candle. It is just, it's just not going to happen. But thank you for, for letting me live rent free in your head for one whole year. It's, it has been nice living in your head all, all this time. The other thing I should point out is in about 45 minutes, I'm looking at the clock there on, on the screen in my, in my little studio here. About 45 minutes from now, I'll be sitting down with the Defense Secretary of, of the past, I believe during the Clinton administration, excuse me, in the Obama administration. Leon Panetta will be joining me. And Leon is going to be joining me to talk about all kinds of things, especially Trump's trip, Davos, and these really big problems that we're having in this country right now where, I mean, Trump is completely pissed off and alienated all of our allies. I'll have the former defense secretary, former CIA director. He was a, he was a chief of staff at one time. He was chief of staff to Bill Clinton and then CIA director and defense secretary under Obama. But a really great sharp political and national security mind. Really looking forward to talking to leon. That's in 45 minutes from now here on Substack. So we're going to jump off now and then come back at 5:30pm Eastern. And so smoke them if you got them. Or it's it's five o' clock somewhere, so crack open a cold one and we'll reconvene here in about 45 minutes with the former defense secretary, Leon Panetta. I'll see you soon. Thanks for watching. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. See you in just a bit.