Loading summary
Transcript56 lines
- [00:00]
Rubrik Agent Cloud Advertiser
AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R U B R-I K.com a lot of supplement.
- [00:31]
Momentous Creatine Advertiser
Brands chase trends, but if you're serious about your health, we know research backed science is what actually moves the needle. Momentous works with the best brains in human science to create every formula and every batch is made of pure ingredients tested for safety and does not contain fillers so you get the best long term results possible. Creatine isn't just for muscle gains, it's essential daily fuel for your brain, body and long term performance. Momentous Creapure Creatine is backed by leading performance experts like Dr. Andrew Huberman and Dr. Stacey Sims. Sourced exclusively in Germany, Creapure sets the gold standard for creatine, delivering the purest form creatine monohydrate that's rigorously washed and never cut with fillers. With over 2,000 five star reviews, over 112,000 customers have seen the results firsthand with Momentous. The fundamentals are done right. Right now, Momentous is offering our listeners up to 35% off your first subscription order with promo code Acast. Go to livemomentous.com and use promo code Acast for up to 35% off your first Subscription Order. That's livemomentous.com promo code Acast.
- [01:38]
Jim Acosta
Did I talk too much? Can't I just let it go? I wish I would stop thinking so much.
- [01:43]
BetterHelp Advertiser
Take a breath. You're not alone. Counseling helps you sort through the noise with qualified professionals. Get matched with a therapist online based on your unique needs and get help with everyday struggles like anxiety or managing tough emotions. Visit betterhelp.comrandall podcast for 10% off your first month of online therapy and let life feel better.
- [02:18]
Charlie Sykes
I'm Charlie Sykes. Welcome to the to the Contrary podcast. This is we're recording this on the Feels like the kind of still the morning after the no Kings rally. I'm joined by Jim Acosta. Boy, we have a lot to talk about. I want to talk about Donald Trump's parent tantrum in the Oval Office with Volodymyr Zelensky. He's got a war of words with the President of Colombia itching to go to war with Venezuela. We have all of that And I want to talk about the. The fact that the President of the United States posted an AI video of himself shitting on the protesters. And I'm sorry, I apologize for the language, but this is not the moment for euphemism. So, Jim, let's talk about the no Kings rallies. Probably one of the largest events. Protests in American history. Seems to have been overwhelmingly peaceful, extraordinarily well attended. Your thoughts?
- [03:10]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, I mean, in some ways, it's kind of demonstrating that you don't necessarily need a march on Washington like we saw in the 1960s. You have a march on Main street taking place in cities, in towns, all over the country. And the one in D.C. was huge. Make no mistake, I was in that crowd. We were doing some live coverage with Don Lemon and. And Joy Reed. And, you know, it was. It was. What did Donald Trump say about January 6th? It was a love fest down by the National Mall. And, you know, I thought it was really inspiring, Charlie, I really did. You know, to see Americans pick themselves up off the floor, dust themselves off, especially a lot of progressives, but also disaffected conservatives, independents and so on. Children, elderly, people of all races, you name it, working class folks. You know, it was a really diverse mix of people. And these are folks who are just fighting mad and saying, you know, mad as hell, and I'm not going to take anymore. And I, I thought it was. I thought it was just fantastic. And I, I suppose that is part of the reason why Trump had the reaction that he had. And he, you know, he is determined to be the president for only half or less than half of the country. And he demonstrated that over the weekend.
- [04:28]
Charlie Sykes
No, I'm gonna get to that in just a moment. I was really struck by not only how huge and peaceful the protests were, but yet people were mad as hell. But there was a sort of a street carnival vibe to the whole thing. I was up in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Massive turnout, lots of American flags, clever signs, no one behaved inappropriately at. And people were really in good spirits. And I think that to a certain extent, that seems to have annoyed MAGA more than anything else, that you kind of had the celebration of Americanism. Nobody was phased at all by this war of words.
- [05:05]
Momentous Creatine Advertiser
This.
- [05:05]
Charlie Sykes
This is going to be a hate America rally. Antifa and Hamas people took that as the joke that it was, and so it was successful.
- [05:15]
Jim Acosta
Of course.
- [05:15]
Charlie Sykes
Now the big challenge is, what now? What happens next? These things are necessary, but they are not sufficient. Okay, this was a good morale builder, but, you know, the real question is, what happens next. Where does that energy go? Because we wake up the morning after, Donald Trump is still in charge. He's still in control. The political dynamics have not changed. So where do you take something like that? It made for great social media, but big question mark, does it mean actual political change?
- [05:49]
Jim Acosta
You know, I don't know if it gets, you know, the resistance movement that far down the pike or Democrats that far down the pike in terms of, you know, booting the Republicans out of power in the upcoming midterms, but it is a starting point. And this was, you know, no kings. One was sort of the starting gun firing, and this was maybe the first or second lap around the track. There's a lot of race to run. There's a lot of race to go. There's no question about it. And we have to sort of get out of this instant gratification mode in this country. Donald Trump and the Republicans and MAGA spent about the, the, the last decade building what is in place right now. And it is, it is. It's like that boulder rolling, rolling towards everybody in Indiana Jones. And, you know, it's still rolling. And my sense of it is, is that, you know, folks have to steel themselves for the, for the possibility that this is going to be a long struggle. The Democrats do not have their act completely together at this point. You're seeing some more fight in this shutdown battle that we're taking. That we're seeing in right now, that we're taking in right now. But I don't get the sense that they've coalesced around a message. The message seems to be healthcare, which strategically makes a lot of sense. I'm not sure if it lights a big fire under a lot of people. And so they're gonna have to figure this thing out. But at the very least, it shows that there's a pulse. And for the longest time there over the first six or seven months of this new administration, I mean, people were, A lot of people were in the fetal position and they. People were finding real estate in Portugal, places like that, and googling visa for Ireland and things like that. And I think what you saw with Weekend Charlie was a recognition that this is a battle, this is a fight, this is a struggle. Trump and Maga, they're not going to give this up very easily. I hate to be Debbie Downer on a Monday, but this is going to be a long.
- [07:59]
Charlie Sykes
I think it's absolutely right. That's not a downer. That's just a reality check here.
- [08:05]
Momentous Creatine Advertiser
Yeah.
- [08:06]
Charlie Sykes
So the president and you said Something that I think is very, very important, which is that Donald Trump barely even pretends that he's the president of all Americans. I mean, he is. He's been the divider in chief from the beginning. The post that I wrote yesterday about all of this was the question, you know, after the no Kings rally and after Trump's reactions, who really hates America? You know, this whole notion that Donald Trump is the champion. You know, he wraps himself in the flag, in patriotism, and yet at some point, you know, doesn't patriotism involve actually liking or respecting your fellow Americans? And is there any greater expression of his contempt for fellow Americans and their constitutional rights than posting an AI video of himself as King Trump dumping a load of shit from a jet fighter? Now, again, I know that we're being trolled and we're being told, you know, can't we take a joke? But when you have, and this is what I wrote, I said, I want people to think about this. On the 18th day of October in the year of our Lord 2025, the President of the United States, the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the world, the successor to Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, Nobel Prize nominee, depicts himself dumping a load of feces on fellow Americans. Now, Jim, we've been talking about this for a long time, but it doesn't seem sufficient to say that it's not presidential. To me, it was this sort of quintessential sense of how much contempt and loathing Donald Trump has for the actual, real, lived reality of Americans who may not support him.
- [09:53]
Jim Acosta
No, I think that's dead on, Charlie. I just wrote a piece for Substack myself, and I suggested that this does mean video is a gift from the gods for Democrats. Democratic ad makers should be putting together their own ads right now with their own twist on the Trump dumping on America video. And instead of Trump unloading gallons of crap on Times Square and other American cities, the new ad should show Donald Trump dumping, showering money on Wall street and foreclosure notices on farms in Iowa. It should show Donald Trump showering meme coins on his family from a gilded Qatari 747, by the way, not a fighter jet. And. And while rural hospitals are being boarded up, this is an opportunity to show the American people that Trump has been dumping on on all of us, and not just Democrats, not just people in the media and progressives and that sort of thing. He's been dumping on his own people for some time.
- [10:59]
Charlie Sykes
And I really like this.
- [11:00]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, yeah. No, and I. I think I Think. I think it's. It, It. It neatly illustrates what he's all about. Yes, he, he loves to take a. On Democrats. He shits on them all the time. There's no question about it. But the reality is, the reality is, is that his policies reward the oligarchs, reward the very rich in this country, and it, and it gives the rest of us the shaft. And to me, you know, Top Gun, you know, get the top gun filmmakers out there and let's go, let's, let's put together an ad that really tells the story well.
- [11:38]
Charlie Sykes
And, you know, I think, you know, part of his, his appeal has been that, that argument that, you know, I am for you, the other side dislikes you. And I think you, you turn that around on him, you know, because he's, he's not for you. You know, here's somebody who's waging war against fellow Americans, and you've, you've articulated all of that. You know, the interesting thing is, you know, people like J.D. vance reject the idea that America is an idea, you know, that we're supposed to, you know, regard America as, you know, it's the blood and soil. We are, you know, a specific set of people with a specific destiny. But Trump and Vance not only dislike the idea of America, they dislike the lived reality of America as well. And I think that that is, you know, turning that around saying, you know, is this guy really for you? Does he really respect you? Does he really like you? You know, here's somebody who.
- [12:24]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, Charlie, Remember those ads where he said, kamala is for they. Them and Trump is for us. It was an effective ad. Yeah. No question. Was a key ad of the campaign, but it was a lie. He's not.
- [12:35]
Charlie Sykes
Yeah.
- [12:36]
Jim Acosta
If you're a MAGA person, he's not for you. That's. That, that is, that's. That's the. If the little toto pulls the curtain back and we see the true wizard of the Oz, the land called Oz, it is Donald Trump pushing the buttons and pulling the levers for people like himself and not for his own supporters. People like his own supporters who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, farm assistance subsidies, people who need a helping hand from time to time. That's the real America. And I used to go to these rallies all the time, Charlie. I've been to all 50 states in large part because of Donald Trump's rallies. And I remember going to those rallies and telling my colleagues, you know, the people that I'm seeing in these crowds look like Democrats to me. They're Showing up in their work overalls, their construction boots, their hard hats. And they weren't cosplaying. They were coming from the factory, they were coming from their blue collar jobs. And Trump, to his credit, tapped into something, there's no question about it. But he did a bait and switch with them. He gave them cultural hot button memes and videos and ways to get under their skin about foreigners and people who aren't from this country and so on, in exchange for vacuuming money out of their bank accounts and giving it to the very rich in this country. And Democrats just have to be smarter about delivering that message.
- [14:09]
Charlie Sykes
Well, they do. Okay, so let's talk about the last week in the Trump presidency. You have been following this for years, and it has been an amazing seven or eight days. We had the, it was just a week ago that you had the, probably the best day of his presidency, where he is signing what looked like the ceasefire peace deal, obviously has not held up between Israel and Hamas. Clearly feels himself. I mean, this guy, you could sense that he thought he had the wind at his back. So he's immediately pivoting from, you know, solving the problems in the Middle east after a thousand years, because only he could do that to, you know, trying to broker once again a piece with Russia and Ukraine. Just sort of fast forward to the end of the week. Just a reminder, you know, all of the speculation about, you know, is Trump pivoting away from Vladimir Putin? Is he really, you know, you know, fed up? Is he going to pivot toward Ukraine? Well, that got blown up on Friday, didn't it? Because Vladimir Putin played him again. There was the threat of Tomahawk missiles. Vladimir Putin proposes a summit in Budapest with their fellow, you know, wannabe autocrat Viktor Orban. Zelensky comes to Washington, D.C. and apparently all the reports that I'm seeing, it was another, it was another shit show that, you know, ranting and raving, telling him he should give up. So give me your sense about, you know, where, where we're at with the president of, of peace in both the Middle east and your take on the Middle east and, and his continuing attempts to appease Vladimir Putin.
- [15:43]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, I mean, you used some salty language earlier, Charlie. I'll use them now. I mean, the idea that Donald Trump is a peacemaker or a man of peace or deserves the Nobel Peace Prize is a crock of shit. Of course it is. At every turn, he favors Vladimir Putin. Putin at every turn. I can't think of a situation where Vladimir Putin did not come out on top in any dealings with Donald Trump. And there's something. There's something weird going on. I don't know what it is. It's sort of like a Scooby Doo mystery. At the very end, you know, they'll pull the mask off of old man Withers and, you know, and we'll figure it out, we'll solve the mystery. But for whatever reason, at every turn, he favors Vladimir Putin. And I was shocked to see on Friday, and this comes from my ears, covering the White House. Zelensky's at the White House. He's meeting with President of the United States. And then after that visit is over, he's not doing a press conference from inside the White House. They booted him out to Lafayette Park. He was standing in Lafayette park giving some comments to the reporters out there, which, first of all, I thought was a massive security issue. I could not believe that. I saw him standing out there in front of. I haven't heard anybody talk about this, but he's standing outside the White House fence in Lafayette park talking to a group of reporters. That was dumbfounding to me. And at the same time, it just sort of. I mean, he would not have done that to Vladimir Putin. For Vladimir Putin, he rolls out the red carpet, right? Get to go for a ride in the Beast in Alaska. What was he doing on American soil in Alaska? My God. And then. So he elevates them, elevates Vladimir Putin whenever he gets a chance. And now they're going to go to Viktor or Bon, and he's going to give Hungary a commercial, you know, basically PR coup of seeing Trump and Vladimir Putin in Hungary, in Budapest.
- [17:29]
Charlie Sykes
Give me a break.
- [17:31]
Jim Acosta
So that, again, is another win for Vladimir. And I think. I think Putin, you know those. Charlie, playing the long game, he just is. And he knows that Donald Trump helps him play the long game. He can grind down gaming, he can grind down the Ukrainians by continuing to play Trump like a puppet. And, I mean, you look at what's took place in the Middle east, yes, we all are very glad to see the images of the hostages coming home. There's no question about it. But this was a hostage for prisoner swap that we've seen before between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This has occurred before. And we're already seeing that peace agreement fall apart. And is Trump too lazy to put together a real peace deal that's going to hold? It seems to me he's just going to let Netanyahu do what he wants, as he always has, which is why Netanyahu wants Donald Trump to be in the White House. And so Trump talks about solving seven wars. Sometimes I wonder if he's seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers too many times. I don't know why he keeps gravitating.
- [18:39]
Charlie Sykes
Seven means a lot to him.
- [18:41]
Jim Acosta
Well, seven means a lot to him. But I mean, you know, as he said the other day, I don't think I'm going to heaven. Did you catch him saying that, Charlie.
- [18:48]
Charlie Sykes
When he was on airplane?
- [18:49]
Momentous Creatine Advertiser
I did.
- [18:50]
Charlie Sykes
I don't know what.
- [18:50]
Jim Acosta
It's no shit. Yeah.
- [18:53]
Charlie Sykes
There's interesting things, you know, scrambling around in his brain. But let's go back to the Vladimir Putin because, you know, you're talking about how he's. He continues to play Donald Trump. And this account over the weekend in the, in the New York Times, I thought was so revealing. And the headline was Putin's Trump Strategy. Lots of flattery and talk of business deals. And it says, Let me just. Even as Mr. Putin has pounded Ukrainian cities and waged grinding warfare in the country's ease, he has invested dozens of hours into flattering Trump, dangling the prospect of Russian American business deals and sending the message that Russia is open to talks to end its invasion while it continues. It looks like Vladimir Putin, old KGB agent, he knows. He understands exactly how Trump's mind works. You suck up. You know that it does. There's no geopolitical vision here. There's no larger sense. You suck up to him, you dangle more opportunities for graft and grift in front of him, which the whole world has figured out, and you buy yourself more time to keep doing this. He may be frustrated at various times with what Putin is doing, but. But he's always going to come back when he hears his master's voice. And it's that story, flattery and business deals, you know, that's in the rest of the world. So many stories.
- [20:09]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And didn't we have video of the leader of Indonesia the other day asking to talk to one of Trump's sons? You know, I mean, there's a For Sale sign hanging in front of the White House, ladies and gentlemen. And when Trump's flying the Qatari plane, I suppose the for sale sign will be on the Qatari plane, but this is who Donald Trump is. And I, you know, this is what occurred to me at the end of the first term, that the ultimate problem at the end of the day for Donald Trump is that he doesn't understand the job of President of the United States. The job of President of the United States is to serve The American people, not serve yourself. And he just sees it that way. He sees it as serving. It's there to heal whatever psychological wounds he has, his narcissism and so on. But he's also, he and his family, I mean down to Baron, they're enriching themselves, you know, in unlatant, unbelievable ways.
- [21:03]
Charlie Sykes
See this, this story, I'm really glad you brought this up because these are these huge stories that tend to fall between the cracks. That hot mic moment with the President of Indonesia. So here is the President United States talking to the President of Indonesia who says at some point, you know, can you have Eric call me? Eric Trump, the. Yeah, well, whatever. You know, one of the fail sons and you know, Trump says, yeah, he's a good boy, I'll have. So they're basically cutting a business deal, the Trump business, while the President United States is doing diplomacy. Now again, you know, at one time that would have been a major scandal. By the way, you know, the biggest story from last week, I thought that again, the danger is that we lose it. You know, are the reports that they are now going to be weaponizing the IRS to go after progressive organizations. I mean, you and I are old enough to remember when the use of the irs, the attempt to use the IRS to go after political opponents was an article of impeachment against Richard Nixon. Now it's just a one news cycle story that's going on here. Any thoughts about the John Bolton indictment which came like one day before the pardon of George Santos. And I don't wanna miss the commutation of yet another deeply, deeply corrupt politician who was so corrupt that his fellow Republicans expelled him from the. And yet because he sucks on the right nipples of maga, he's, he's a free man right now. So again, isn't one of the case, you know, for my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law.
- [22:42]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, I think that we are seeing a spoil system on steroids right now. It's, it's just unreal. You know, Trump is, is doing these things, I think to just show that he can do them. Just say, I can do whatever I want. I am the king. And dictatorships and authoritarian regimes and monarchies, the people in charge get to run their judicial system like this, where if you criticize, if you are a sharp critic, if you're an opponent of the regime, you get tossed in jail. And if you are out there to support Trump, then you get benefits. It comes with fringe benefits. And yes, John Bolton, I mean, if you talk to the Experts, they will say, I had Frank Figluzzi on the other day and he was saying, you know, there, there are elements to the John Bolton story that are troubling.
- [23:37]
Charlie Sykes
Maybe they're there.
- [23:38]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, he was being investigated during the Biden administration and so on. And I totally get all that. But at the same time, the timing of this is unreal. You have Comey, Letitia, James and Bolton back to, back to back. The timing of it to me is, looks very corrupt and it gives the appearance of big time impropriety and it's just not how we should be running our, our country and our, our justice system. But, you know, George Santos gets let off scot free. He gets, he gets sprung from prison and you know, not a, not a, I mean, not a cry of foul from anybody on the Republican side. They're just like, yeah, this is how it goes now. Just let him out.
- [24:22]
Charlie Sykes
Well, you know, I mean, it's crazy. No, you're making an important point here. And I haven't fully developed this idea, but, you know, the ongoing criminalization of the Trump administration has the effect of binding people more closely to maga. Because right now, here's the thing that if you are in that tribe, you know, there's the prospect that you will, you know, never be held accountable legally, that as long as you never say a single word that is critical of Donald Trump, as long as you keep singing from the hymnal, you have an automatic get out of jail card across the board. On the other hand, if you do break with Donald Trump, if you do, you know, go off on your own, there's the chance he will come after you. There's, there's, you know, you think about the kinds of people like John Bolton who now face, you know, the prospect of indictment and imprisonment. So as this goes on, and again, sort of like the Mafia, you know, the, the more egregious the behavior, the tighter people have to stay to stay in that tribe because, you know, within the tribe is safety, outside the tribe is dangerous. And so you see this, this sort of North Korean style rhetoric so much because that is what you have to do to stay under the umbrella of Donald Trump's beneficence and avoid his wrath. And again, maybe I'm going a little bit too far here, but the fact.
- [25:48]
Jim Acosta
That, yeah, George Sanderson I suggested should have Trump showering pardons on his cronies too, I mean, that may, maybe that should be another illustration that should be in that, that ad. But I mean, this is, it's not who we are. And I think it's part of the reason why you saw people showing up in force on Saturday. I think that there's a real recognition that we're up against it right now.
- [26:15]
Charlie Sykes
And it is getting worse. I mean, it is getting worse. So let's talk about a little bit. This is almost a sideshow at the moment, but it does sound like he is itching to actually have a war with Venezuela, even though the Maduro regime, which, by the way, is completely, completely loathsome and authoritarian in its own way, is doing everything it can, apparently, to appease Trump. And then we have this little outburst on the side where the President of Colombia, which has, we haven't had conflict with, says, you know, there was an innocent fisherman that you just blew up. You murdered an innocent man. And Trump's response is to go after the entire country of Colombia, cutting them off from aid. So now we are in a war of words with the Colombians. I mean, it just, it feels that it is this kind of, this out of control, you know, government by whim, day to day, almost unpredictable.
- [27:12]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And Charlie. And you know that the Colombians have been real partners with the United States when it comes to drug interdiction and so on. And so Donald Trump is, you know, he's, he's claiming that he's going after drug cartels by, you know, droning them and so on, and yet he's now going to alienate a major partner in that effort. It just goes to show you that this is all scattershot, and it's based on what you and I were talking about earlier, which is it's all about, you know, who, who kisses up to him, who kisses his ass. And, you know, I think that the President of Brazil demonstrated during the United nations that there is a path for some of these other heads of state around the world in their dealings with Donald Trump. And you know what? It may cost a little bit here economically for some of these countries, but I think history will remember them well. And I mean, that's been my question throughout this entire ordeal with the Venezuelans, where Trump is. They're just bombing these drug boats. You know, I talked to Jim Himes the other day, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and he, he used the words murder. He said, we are murdering people in the Caribbean. That is a, a direct quote from the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, because we just don't know. I mean, we, we think we know because of, you know, drone technology and so on, that they, they basically know who they're Taking out. But as that column, as the Colombian president said, that we. They killed an innocent fisherman. So it makes you wonder, were there any kids on board with these drug cartels that were running these boats? Were there teenagers? Were there innocent people that were being used as human? We have no idea, because they're just getting blown out of the water instead of being interdicted. I mean, Charlie, you know, you and I both know this has been going on for a long time. The Coast Guard or the Navy, I mean, the dea, they can interdict these. The authorities can interdict these boats out on the open seas and, you know, under the threat of being fired upon, do. Do basically what needs to be done, which take them into custody and try them for what they're doing.
- [29:18]
Charlie Sykes
Well, another one of the big developments from last week was that the admiral who is in charge of. Of that abruptly, his res. His resignation. I mean, I was concerned, you know, the days before that this was going on, and. And we had not seen any sort of dissent or resistance from the chain of command. Well, we're starting to see that. So, yeah, there.
- [29:40]
Momentous Creatine Advertiser
There.
- [29:41]
Charlie Sykes
There are some green shoots, you know, besides no kings, you know, the universities suddenly seem to have found their backbone as well. I don't know about you, but I imagine you had the same reaction when you saw all of those reporters leaving the Pentagon on mosque, turning in their car than bending the knee. It does seem as if there is that collective action we haven't had before. You know, people looking over their shoulder and going, okay, I'm not alone here. I'm not alone. No kings. The reporters across ideological lines decided, bullshit, we're not gonna sign Pete Hegse thing. The universities, one after another, saying, we are not going to assign that Trumpian compact. So, I don't know. There were some positive developments last week.
- [30:24]
Jim Acosta
Week, yeah. No question about it. I wish we had seen the White House press corps do that when the Associated Press was being targeted by Trump at the very beginning of this new administration. I mean, that was what I was advocating, that the pressure just walked out and not covered him and not given him his pictures. But what was interesting about the way things went down over at the Pentagon is that instead of going after one news organization, they went after everybody. So it sort of created the COVID politically speaking and journalistically speaking, for everybody to say, to hell with this. We're not going to put up with this. And it just goes to show you that Pete Hexseth is not ready for prime time as a defense secretary. He has a team around him that is not ready for prime time. And so of course they did something ham handed that made the press look great. I mean, I thought that it was wonderful to see them all marching out of the Pentagon. You don't need to. I mean, it's good to be there. It's one of those places where reporters can roam around and talk to generals and get, you know, get information and so on, but that's how it should be. And you could cover this stuff from the outside, too. Everybody's got a phone, everybody's got signal, everybody can text. Pete Hex should know all too well, everybody has signal, you know, and so the reporters can still go do their jobs and get their scoops. But to target them in this fashion, I thought it made the press look good. And so I'm sure Trump hates that. He probably thinks this was stupid what they did over there. And he's right. He would be right.
- [31:51]
Charlie Sykes
You raise an interesting point though, because this, of course, is not an outlier, that this is not going to be the last time they do it. And the next time they do something at the White House, it will be interesting whether the White House press corps takes your advice. And, you know, having seen that, okay, this is what real journalists look like, we can actually do this. We do look pretty good. You might have that kind of reaction again, you know, when this inevitably happens. Jim Acosta, thank you so much for joining me on this Monday. I appreciate it very, very much. Thanks for being on the podcast.
- [32:22]
Jim Acosta
You bet, Charlie, anytime. Great to do it.
- [32:24]
Charlie Sykes
And thank you all for listening to this episode of to the Contrary podcast. You know why we do this, why we're going to continue to do this, because now more than ever we have to continually remind ourselves, number one, that we are not alone. And number two, we are not the crazy ones.
- [32:50]
Rubrik Agent Cloud Advertiser
AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation at rubrik.com that's R U B R-I K.com avoiding your.
- [33:21]
Thumbtack Advertiser
Unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start. Thumbtack knows home, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is. With thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates and read reviews all on the app. Download today.
- [33:45]
Boost Mobile Advertiser
Boost Mobile is now sending experts nationwide to deliver and set up customers new phones.
- [33:49]
Charlie Sykes
Wait, we're going on tour?
- [33:50]
Boost Mobile Advertiser
We're delivering and setting up customers phones? It's not a tour, not with that attitude. Introducing store to door switch and get a new device with expert setup and delivery. Delivery of Available for select devices purchased@boostmobile.com.
- [34:00]
Rubrik Agent Cloud Advertiser
AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R U B R-I K.com if your eyes are.
- [34:32]
Warby Parker Advertiser
The windows to your soul and your glasses are the windows to your eyes, then it's pretty important to find your perfect frames. That's why at Warby Parker, we've made shopping for eyewear as easy and fun as can be. Peruse endless styles in our stores, or use our app to virtually try on frames and get personalized recommendations. To find your next favorite pair of glasses, sunglasses, or contact lenses, or to locate your nearest Warby Parker store, head over to warbyparker. Com. That's warbyparker. Com.