0:01

Welcome one and all to the rare

0:03

Frantastic Thursday here on the

0:05

Day of the Court. I'm John and

0:08

Arola. She is Francesca

0:10

Ferrantini, Francesca. How's it

0:12

going? Hi, it's been too long and my

0:15

God, your hair. And I don't

0:17

know if this joke's already

0:19

been made, but it's been

0:21

a long time. I'm so

0:23

sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm

0:26

so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It's

0:29

been made, but you

0:31

already were a nerd, John. But

0:34

now you look like the

0:36

nerd candy. You look like

0:38

nerds. That's just what you, you

0:40

know those little guys? That's what

0:42

you look like. Yeah, so I'm

0:45

both nerds with an S and now also

0:47

nerds with a Z, basically.

0:49

Yeah, exactly. See, I was going

0:51

for Cyberpunk Hacker

0:54

Assassin and I landed

0:56

at Dork, unfortunately. I

0:59

thought I was aimed right and then it

1:02

went that way. I feel like there needed to be sort

1:06

of like some kind of like buzz, like strategic

1:08

buzz on the side, you know? But

1:10

then you still would have- You mean like go like undercut? Exactly,

1:13

exactly. I'll do it. A little lightning

1:15

bolt. I'll do it. Yeah,

1:17

you can definitely do it. Yeah, to

1:19

avoid being called a nerd, I need

1:21

an illusion to Harry Potter on

1:24

my head. But anyway, look, you're saying

1:27

I'm going to ask you again at the end of

1:29

the show because there's a chance that

1:31

you'll be into it by then. I found that it

1:33

grows on people. I found that it does. It's

1:36

kind of growing on me. I wanted a little bit shorter. I

1:38

kept it longer so that people could see more of the

1:40

purple, but it's longer than I would normally want. But

1:43

anyway- I like it. You look

1:45

like you taste like blue raspberry. I

1:49

would love to get through one day

1:51

of my life with no one speculating

1:53

about what I taste like, actually. Donald

1:55

Trump is now, of course, a convicted

1:57

felon. And with that comes some consequences,

1:59

some legal. political, some sort of striking to

2:02

the core of what it supposedly means to

2:04

be a conservative. For

2:06

instance, the NYPD has now moved

2:09

to revoke Donald Trump's license to

2:11

carry a gun, which he had.

2:14

He had a concealed carry permit

2:17

and three pistols registered under the

2:20

permit. Now he has not been able to carry

2:22

a gun since I think mid 2023, because of

2:24

the legal process and everything

2:26

that was stopped. But now they're

2:29

formally moving to revoke it entirely.

2:31

And that obviously is going to get to

2:33

that's going to annoy some right wingers. I

2:35

don't think it's going to super bother Donald

2:38

Trump because I don't think he cares at

2:40

all about guns. The idea of him holding

2:42

like a revolver or something just is hilarious

2:45

in its face. Come on, can you

2:47

imagine him with his little gun? He

2:49

would accidentally shoot and kill

2:52

Giuliani and then be like, oops, you

2:54

know, but like you naughty

2:56

boy, these things are pretty

2:58

light. There's no way Francesca that

3:00

when he holds one of

3:02

his guns or whatever,

3:05

he does not make pew pew noises, 100%.

3:08

He can't sit behind like the wheel of

3:12

a truck without going like, God,

3:14

he's definitely making pew pew noises.

3:17

But that's the most that he can do

3:19

thanks to his concealed carry permit being taken

3:21

away soon. But obviously far more

3:23

damaging to Trump would be the sort of

3:25

consequences that hurt him in November,

3:27

not in the holster, but in the election,

3:29

and we might have

3:32

those a little bit. So

3:35

the New York Times talked to 2,000 voters

3:37

who had previously been polled in April and

3:39

May. And back then, this

3:41

group that they talked to supported Donald Trump

3:43

by three points. They've

3:46

been re-contacted since the verdicts, and

3:49

now they support Trump by one point.

3:53

What is wrong with our country? Okay,

3:55

look, it's a two point move. We'll

3:57

see if it's durable or whatever, that's

3:59

not nothing. But

6:00

what do you make of this so far, Francesca? Yeah,

6:02

it's not a good look for Donald

6:04

Trump to be a convicted felon. I

6:07

do not understand anyone trying to spin

6:09

this any other way. And more interestingly,

6:12

it's with these young voters

6:14

of color who Donald Trump

6:16

is trying to cozy up to by

6:18

being like, see, you're

6:21

disproportionately incarcerated and they're going after me.

6:23

Let me release sneakers. It's like, that's

6:25

not working for you, bro, none of

6:27

this is working for you. And the

6:29

fact that also he was convicted

6:32

of a crime that honestly, so

6:35

many other rich elites probably unlikely get away

6:37

with, right? Falsifying

6:39

your business records. This was on top of, of

6:41

course, the now, I guess reduced to $400 million

6:43

that he had to pay in his previous

6:47

trial defrauding the New York taxpayer by over

6:49

inflating his assets and whatnot.

6:51

It's just like, this

6:53

is not an everyday guy. This is

6:55

not someone who's had a small marijuana

6:57

possession and has been hit with a

7:00

massive fine over it or incarcerated

7:03

unjustly. No, he's a rich guy

7:05

who thought he could just

7:07

get away with doing whatever the hell and he

7:09

couldn't. And

7:11

no people like it's like very like, your little

7:13

toxic ex and you're like,

7:15

am I going to go back to the toxic

7:17

ex now that he's a convicted felon? No, because

7:19

conjugal visits are going to be a whole thing

7:21

and I don't want to do that. But-

7:24

With Trump they'd at least be brief. Very

7:27

brief. Yeah, two and a half minutes honestly, or what

7:29

did Stormy say? Yeah, so here's my

7:31

favorite part about this though, we cannot gloss

7:33

over the NYPD taking away

7:36

Trump's guns. They're

7:38

literally coming for his

7:40

guns. The NYPD, which probably gave

7:42

him the guns to begin with,

7:45

let's be honest, was probably a gift.

7:47

Right under Mayor Bloomberg's NYPD

7:49

or something, he probably has a

7:51

golden gun. They're taking it away from him.

7:53

And of course they should have because this

7:55

is a guy who basically was like,

7:57

what if I shot someone on Fifth Avenue? It

10:01

is a form of Navalny. It

10:03

is a form of communism

10:05

or fascism.

10:09

It's not any of

10:11

those things. They're different. Communism

10:14

or fascism or interior decoration,

10:16

it's a form of something

10:18

people. No, and God,

10:21

the fact that Donald Trump, who has

10:23

spent years cozying up to the sort of

10:25

autocrats who do imprison or kill

10:28

their opponents like Alexei Navalny was

10:31

killed by Putin's regime. That

10:34

they're like, they're awesome, they're the best, they're so

10:36

strong, they're so smart. And then

10:38

the second you face a fine or whatever,

10:40

you're like, I'm Navalny,

10:42

hashtag world Navalny. No,

10:44

you don't get to be Navalny. You love

10:47

the guy who did the form of Navalny.

10:50

What do you think? Well, I just think it's funny

10:53

because if Trump were a Russian dissident,

10:55

let's put aside that he is absolutely

10:58

not and is at this point, I

11:00

think openly colluding with Putin. He, if

11:03

he were, let's say a Russian dissident,

11:06

he wouldn't be Navalny. He would

11:09

be some dude we'd

11:11

never heard of because Navalny

11:13

withstood months and months,

11:15

years in like a Siberian prison

11:18

doing hard labor. When

11:20

Trump would have been one of the dudes that like

11:22

tapped out day one, you know what I'm saying? Like,

11:25

my God, the shovels are, I'm

11:27

like, he would like no disrespect to Russian

11:29

dissidents. But the guy would

11:32

not have survived very long like Navalny. So I

11:34

like that not only he's a political prisoner, but

11:36

kind of the one who's been through the most

11:40

as if like, come on, stolen

11:42

Valor, my guy. No, he would have cracked in

11:44

five minutes and by the way, so would I.

11:47

But anyway, that's why I'm not claiming that

11:49

I'm in a form of Navalny. No, it's

11:51

just so it's like, it's not even like

11:53

stolen Valor. It seems bigger than that, more

11:55

comical than that. Do

11:58

you know who this guy is? First of all,

12:00

don't even really have to come up with a

12:02

comparison to what Trump would be in the Russian

12:04

context. He's one

12:06

of the oligarchs here, he'd be an oligarch

12:09

there. He'd be the same person that he

12:11

is. He might be getting peed on more

12:13

frequently in Russian hotels than he was since

12:15

he was born in America, but most of

12:17

his life would be exactly the same. But

12:20

anyway, Tudor Dixon in that video said that

12:22

she was scared of what might come next.

12:24

I don't think that she actually is. First

12:27

of all, she knows Trump isn't gonna go

12:29

to prison. He's probably still gonna become president.

12:31

And if he does, what comes next is

12:33

exactly the sort of authoritarian stuff that people

12:35

like Tudor Dixon love. Trump has been pretty

12:38

openly talking about it. But

12:40

wouldn't it be terrible to

12:42

throw the president's wife and

12:45

the former secretary of state? Think

12:48

of it, the former secretary of state, but the

12:50

president's wife into

12:53

jail, wouldn't that be a terrible thing? But

12:55

they wanna do it. So, it's

13:00

a terrible, terrible path that they're

13:02

leading us to. And it's

13:04

very possible that it's

13:06

gonna have to happen to

13:08

them. Yeah, so along the

13:10

way, it's like, no, wouldn't it be bad? So

13:14

bad, I might have to

13:16

do it. I might have

13:18

to, they pushed me into it. I haven't

13:21

been saying anything for years and years about

13:23

how much I'd like to lock these same

13:25

exact people up, but I might have to

13:27

do it. And what I'm alluding to there

13:29

is that he is continuing, continuing to lie

13:32

about his open, sheared

13:34

advocacy for locking up his political

13:36

opponents. Here it is. A certain

13:38

way, after we won against Hillary,

13:41

people would say, lock her up,

13:43

lock her up. And

13:45

I said, wouldn't it be terrible if

13:47

I locked up the wife of

13:50

the president of the United States former and

13:53

locked up the former Secretary

13:55

of State? It's

13:57

a terrible thing. You're starting if you wanna bring the country.

18:00

the idea for something. So first

18:02

of all, being Palestinian is now an insult that

18:04

you can apply to a person. It's

18:06

not an identification of the geographic area that a

18:08

person was born in or whatever. It's

18:11

not an insult that you throw at people. And

18:13

while he's played, he's dabbled with him

18:15

being the one who gets to declare if

18:17

Jewish people are sufficiently Jewish. He's done that

18:19

for years. If you vote for a Democrat,

18:21

you're not really a Jewish person. Now,

18:24

on a specific issue, if you disagree with him, or if

18:28

you disagree with Netanyahu, you

18:30

don't get to be Jewish anymore.

18:32

You don't even get to be

18:35

American anymore, you become Palestinian. So

18:37

for the many citizens of Israel

18:39

that don't agree with Benjamin Netanyahu, you

18:42

guys are Palestinian according to Donald Trump. It

18:44

seems sick to me, Francesca, what do you

18:46

make of it? It

18:49

absolutely is sick. It's absolutely a

18:51

slur in his mind. It's in

18:53

lockstep with people like Senator Tom

18:56

Cotton saying things like all the

18:58

little Gazas. In

19:00

universities around this country, basically like,

19:03

as if that's a bad thing,

19:05

little Gazas that basically deserve to

19:08

be bombed that have their little terrorist cells

19:10

of people who don't want

19:12

genocide. But I think this

19:14

is deeper. I mean, Netanyahu and the Israeli

19:16

right, and I would argue

19:19

the Zionist project more broadly is

19:22

about calling anyone who doesn't

19:25

support them fullthroatedly, not Jewish, including Jews.

19:27

So if you're Jewish and you criticize

19:30

what the state of Israel does, suddenly

19:32

you're actually a self-hating Jew. You're not

19:34

Jewish. I'm actually looking to your background,

19:36

are you really Jewish? I'm going to

19:39

tear you down and smear

19:41

you. And it just shows that this is

19:43

not even about, this is not about Judaism.

19:46

And anti-Zionist Jews have been crying this from the

19:48

rooftop since the beginning of

19:50

all of this, is that this

19:52

government does not represent me and my faith.

19:54

In fact, it is right wing and the

19:57

likes of Donald Trump using the Palestine as

19:59

a slur. trying to wield

20:01

Jewishness in the face of

20:03

progressive Jews around the world

20:05

is absolutely a clue. It

20:08

is the hallmark of what

20:10

this nation does, which actually

20:12

is anti-Semitism itself. Yeah,

20:14

it's just, it's absolutely gross. I mean, look, I'm

20:16

not Jewish. I don't speak with Jewish people. You

20:18

can Jewish, individual Jewish people can decide whether they

20:20

find it to be offensive or not or whatever.

20:23

But like I imagine other versions of that

20:25

being applied to different groups and I can't

20:27

imagine anyone liking a person like Trump believing

20:30

that he's the guy that gets to decide.

20:33

But anyway, it gets

20:35

worse actually. Here's more. So

20:38

number one, they have to finish the job. Israel

20:40

has to finish that job. They have to finish

20:42

it quickly, strongly, and they have to

20:44

get back to life again because

20:47

it's taking too long. They have to finish

20:49

the job. Saying go in, win, and finish.

20:51

Gotta win, gotta win. The

20:53

attack on October 7th, and it's getting

20:55

more and more demeaning it. I

20:59

have people now telling me they don't think the attack ever

21:01

happened. And take a look. You

21:03

watch the news reports. I have

21:06

the 50 minutes of video. Sure, I know

21:08

you're doing so do it. But here's the thing. You

21:10

watch these people on television, and then

21:12

just like you have Holocaust in ours

21:15

also, they say the Holocaust never took.

21:17

It's the exact same people. They're

21:19

saying it never happened. AOC

21:22

plus three. Israel

21:25

was the most powerful lobby

21:28

in the country 15 years ago. Today

21:31

between Tlaib and AOC and all

21:33

of these people, what they're doing,

21:36

Israel, they don't have the back

21:38

end that they once had. Okay,

21:42

so a couple things. First of all, there was

21:44

a weird cut in the middle of that. We

21:46

didn't add that. Fox interviews of Trump now just

21:48

feature random unexplained cuts apparently designed to protect Donald

21:50

Trump from things that he's said. So just get

21:52

used to that now. Also,

21:54

he implied that AOC plus three, one

21:57

of the worst designations he's come up

21:59

with. basically the squad, are

22:01

denying that October 7th happened. That

22:04

is a sociopathic smear.

22:07

That is a massive lie. Honestly,

22:10

they should sue. They should literally

22:12

sue because that is

22:14

insane. They have not done that.

22:16

They've never done that. That is

22:18

utterly insane. But also,

22:21

there's so much in that. The- Can I

22:23

just point out though, briefly- On that point

22:25

of people denying that

22:27

October 7th happened, notice

22:30

that he said initially in that sentence, I'm

22:32

hearing people who say October

22:34

7th ever happened. Now the way he entered

22:36

that was almost like those

22:39

people are people he knows, are people

22:41

who are on the

22:43

ground, almost like people like Nick Fuentes

22:45

or Candace Owens. And these people also deny

22:47

the Holocaust. Yeah, we know.

22:50

We know they're your followers. They

22:52

are Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens. He didn't

22:54

start off smearing AOC. Maybe

22:57

I'm reading it wrong. But it sounded

22:59

like he was sort of in the

23:01

air. People are denying it even happened like

23:03

the Holocaust. We know it's the anti-Semites who

23:06

love you. But yes, to

23:08

smear the AOC plus three John, I read

23:10

it a little bit differently and this whole

23:12

AIPAC is the victim. I see it as

23:15

they're running scared, man. AIPAC is putting $20

23:17

million for trying to feed Jamal Bowman in

23:19

New York. They are scared to death of

23:21

the squad actually trying to advocate for what?

23:24

For ceasefire. Yeah. Meanwhile,

23:26

those two guys are like, no,

23:29

just finish it. Just finish it and get

23:31

back to life. Well, those of

23:33

you who are still alive after the finishing, I

23:35

guess, but the people that would die aren't really

23:37

people anyway. They're just an insult I use. But

23:41

honestly, I don't really expect anymore from

23:43

Donald Trump. I don't think that he can be reached.

23:45

So I'm going to turn my attention to Sean Hannity

23:47

just briefly, because Sean Hannity was there. And when Trump

23:49

said that, he said, yeah, get in there and win.

23:51

And I have a challenge for Sean Hannity. Feel

23:54

free to send him this video. I know that he

23:56

likes challenges. He did MMA once and I know that

23:58

because he's never stopped talking about

24:00

it. So Sean Hannity, here's a little challenge for you. What

24:03

I want you to do is I want you to get

24:05

yourself powerful flashlight, one of those mag

24:07

lights, the things that can be used for self

24:09

defense by blinding someone. And I

24:11

want you to unzip your pants and I want

24:13

you to look down into your tidy whiteys and

24:15

I want you to get the biggest beam of

24:17

light. So you have the best chance possible of

24:20

finding at least one ball in there. Why

24:22

don't you say what you actually

24:24

effing mean? Get in there and

24:26

win. Get in there and

24:29

win? What are they playing foosball?

24:31

What do you mean when you say

24:33

that? What will getting in there and

24:35

winning actually look like? You are fine

24:38

with tens of thousands of

24:41

civilians, men, women and children,

24:43

the elderly, grandmas, infants being

24:45

blown apart. Then

24:47

have the ball to say it. I know

24:50

you'll never reach two, but maybe if you

24:52

look hard enough, you'd ship things around, you

24:54

can find one testicle so that you actually

24:56

say the sociopathic things that you believe. That's

24:59

my challenge to Sean Hannity. Like

25:01

no disrespect to survivors of testicular

25:04

cancer. Because I feel like they have

25:06

more strength in that one.

25:09

It's a metaphor. It's not a physical thing. But then

25:11

I start. It's a metaphor that I'll probably get in

25:13

trouble for. I'm mad. I apologize.

25:16

I love a good mag light in

25:18

the pants. I mean, that's very important.

25:21

But I will. Yeah. Look,

25:24

we just saw leaked

25:26

text messages from Eric Prince, again,

25:28

former Black Water mercenary head, brother

25:31

to Betsy DeVos. And

25:33

in that chat, the worst group chat

25:35

ever, they talk about

25:38

someone says, why don't we just napalm

25:40

the tunnels in Gaza? Remember,

25:42

tunnels in Gaza were also used for

25:45

medicine, for food, for things that were

25:47

denied the Palestinian people of Gaza because

25:49

of the blockade that has been in

25:51

place since 2017, I believe. There

26:01

are shades here, right? Republicans,

26:03

absolutely, when they want it to be

26:06

done, they're like, yeah, just drop a

26:08

nuke. Forget about the radiation

26:10

that will immediately blow into Israel itself.

26:12

A hundred percent. This is a very

26:15

small amount of land we're talking about.

26:17

But like, John, Israel

26:19

just dropped a bomb on a UN

26:21

school and killed 45 people yesterday. What

26:25

do they want? Like, how

26:27

much faster can you go? I think

26:29

the IDF is going pretty damn fast.

26:33

Yeah, I look, we know what they want. Again,

26:35

yeah, they're calling for weapons of mass destruction to

26:37

be used. They're calling for, by the way, they're

26:39

getting what they want. You get

26:42

it. You're getting exactly what you want

26:44

on the right. Israeli airstrike early today,

26:46

hit a UN school complex in central

26:48

Gaza. There was a shelter for thousands

26:50

of displaced Palestinians who are fleeing the

26:53

fact that everywhere else has already been destroyed. Dozens

26:55

of people were killed in just that.

26:57

The IDF said the attack had targeted

26:59

Hamas operatives. Palestinian officials said it had

27:01

killed civilians. We have a

27:03

big pile. You can't see it on camera. It's a big pile of oops. We're

27:07

just going to take this one and put it on top

27:10

of the big pile of oops from the IDF. Oops,

27:12

we killed the aid workers. Oops, we

27:15

did it again. We killed dozens of

27:17

civilians. Oops, hope

27:19

they finish the job soon. Anyway, again, apologies

27:22

for some of the things I said. I

27:26

don't like seeing a billionaire talk

27:28

to a millionaire about how people

27:31

who have nothing aren't being killed fast

27:33

enough. You have to apologize. I'm sorry.

27:35

I never pull the you're

27:38

offending blank group on you, John, because

27:40

I offend everyone. All

27:42

I was thinking was like, damn, I don't think Sean

27:44

Hannity would have the temerity. He has no, even in-

27:49

He has paid $25 million a year

27:51

to do this, to advocate for mass

27:53

destruction. To advocate for mass murder and

27:55

to not even, again, have whatever the

27:57

intestinal fortitude to say that's why. he's

28:00

doing. He is a cowardly

28:02

fascist, he's a cowardly advocate for genocide. And

28:04

with that- When he gets clowned on all

28:06

the time by Trump though, that's the best

28:08

thing about Hannity is like, if he's not

28:11

in perfect lockstep, Trump will, cuz there's also

28:13

a point where Trump gets a little bit

28:15

like, it's uncomfortable to have people

28:17

up his butt like that much. 100%, yeah. He

28:20

starts to like shake them off sometimes. And

28:22

it's always fun when he does cuz then Sean, he's

28:25

like, I'm sorry, sir. Yeah. Honestly,

28:27

look, we can advance my metaphor to help Sean Hannity

28:29

out a little bit. What you do is, when you're

28:31

done searching down there, you take the mag light and

28:33

you just leave it in your pants. That way you

28:35

can pretend to have some confidence the next time that

28:38

Donald Trump cucks you to your face. I'm

28:40

trying to be helpful. I want this

28:42

program to be a place of solutions. So

28:46

this vote, right

28:48

to Contraception

28:53

Act failed in the Senate today. We

28:55

had to get 60 to get past the

28:57

procedural hurdle. 39

28:59

nays, you were one of the nays.

29:02

So for folks who, why

29:04

vote nay and explain how that's

29:06

not a bad issue for Republicans.

29:08

Yeah, this is just a shame

29:10

that the Democrats are willing to

29:12

try to politicize whether or not

29:15

women have access to contraception. I

29:19

agree. It is a shame that that's

29:21

the best cover that Tim Scott could

29:24

come up with. So yeah, there was

29:26

a Senate bill to make sure that

29:28

states cannot restrict your access to contraception.

29:30

Because of course they shouldn't. Almost no

29:33

one who's not an elected senator on

29:35

the Republican side thinks that they should.

29:37

And so we do the bill. And

29:40

almost every Republican, only Barring 2 and

29:42

we'll get to that, vote to stop

29:44

that. Because apparently they do

29:47

want states to be able to

29:49

restrict your access to contraceptives. And

29:51

that to Tim Scott is political. Now what he

29:53

could have done alternatively is just

29:55

vote in favor of it. And then it's done. And

29:58

then it's not a political thing because we all America

32:00

has been amazing and transformative and

32:02

yeah, there's

32:05

been some small pieces of legislation that

32:07

have been good. But really,

32:09

what he's running on and

32:11

what he should be running on is

32:13

not rolling back a fundamental right that

32:15

not just women but all people have

32:17

had access to abortion

32:20

and now contraception. Again,

32:22

we all know they won't stop at abortion,

32:25

they're continuing to go for contraception. And I

32:27

take issue with Tim Scott for

32:29

women, because this bill was not about

32:31

women. And what do men

32:33

around this country want, not being able

32:35

to access condoms or anything?

32:37

So you want to pay child support

32:40

for a bunch of kids that you never

32:42

wanted, but no, and yeah, but then the

32:44

right's going to browbeat you about

32:46

being a failed dad and want a

32:49

deadbeat dad and what? This is

32:51

ridiculous, and it absolutely is a violation of

32:55

a right to privacy. This

32:57

is a right to privacy. This is

32:59

the most clear violation of the right

33:02

to privacy. If you truly believed in

33:04

small government, you would stand up for

33:06

the right to contraception, to an abortion,

33:08

and to do whatever the hell you

33:11

want with your intimate partners. It's

33:13

just and decide when you want to have a family. It

33:15

is just clear Christian

33:18

nationalist psycho crap that

33:21

doesn't hit. People don't

33:23

like it and especially the people that

33:25

Trump needs, again, we know suburban women.

33:28

Yeah, and I want to get into those

33:30

consequences because he keeps undercutting himself, but I

33:32

want to talk about the end result of

33:34

the vote. So the Republicans

33:36

successfully blocked a bill that would have protected your

33:38

access to contraception, your ability to get birth control

33:40

condoms, those sorts of things. It was the Rights

33:42

Contraception Act, it would just prohibit local state or

33:44

federal governments from restricting access to it. It should

33:47

be the most obvious thing in the

33:49

world to regular people, both Democrats and Republicans. It

33:52

is, but unfortunately, the Republican senators are

33:54

out of their GD mind. And

33:56

so everyone but two voted against

33:59

it, two. He

38:00

wants to be chosen to be VP. It doesn't

38:02

look like that's gonna happen, but that's the goal.

38:05

And if you had that very difficult

38:07

goal being Byron Donald's, how would you

38:09

stand out to Donald Trump and other

38:11

senior Republicans? I don't

38:13

know, you might plausibly make some super

38:15

weird revisionist history comments about Jim

38:18

Crow. But that said, here's his response to

38:20

Abby Phillips. Nobody

38:22

ever made nostalgia, that was never the

38:24

point. It wasn't even about that. So

38:26

where now I'm gonna get my backup

38:28

is, I didn't say

38:30

that, I didn't even insinuate that.

38:33

That is where the media and

38:35

yes, Hakeem Jeffries. You didn't insinuate.

38:37

What exactly didn't you insinuate? I'm

38:39

just trying to understand what you're saying. What

38:42

didn't you insinuate? The

38:45

premise of your question, I

38:47

did not insinuate. That is what people are

38:49

trying to weave into what I said. What

38:51

I said is crystal clear, it's on my

38:53

social media. Go to at Byron Donald's on

38:55

X. You can see the full clip. Okay,

38:59

so he's got his backup because he's very, very

39:02

tough. All these politicians are very, very tough. So

39:04

that's not what I said. I didn't say that.

39:06

I didn't insinuate that. I didn't imply that. Okay,

39:09

well, let's go to his original commentary and we'll

39:11

see what he did or didn't insinuate. So

39:14

one of the things that's actually happening in

39:16

our culture, which you're now starting

39:18

to see in our politics, is

39:20

the reinvigoration

39:24

of black families with

39:27

younger black men and black women.

39:29

And that is also helping to

39:31

breathe the revival of a black

39:33

middle class in America. You see,

39:35

Durridge and Crow, the back family

39:38

was together.

39:42

Durridge and

39:44

Crow, more black people

39:46

were not just conservative, black

39:48

people always a bit conservative

39:50

minded, but more black people

39:52

voted conservatively. And

39:56

then, H.E.W., Lyndon Johnson, and then

39:58

you go down that road. now

40:00

we are where we are. What's happened in

40:03

America the last ten years, I say because

40:05

it's my contemporaries, it's Wesley's contemporaries. You're

40:08

starting to see more black

40:11

people be married in homes,

40:14

raising kids. When you

40:16

home with your wife raising your kids, and then

40:19

you look at the world, you're saying now wait a minute,

40:23

tell them now, this does not look right. It

40:26

doesn't look right because that was

40:28

nostalgia. I mean, I'm

40:31

not saying that he's saying, let's go back

40:33

to that. But he brought up

40:35

a horrible time and only talked

40:37

about how the great things

40:39

that were there. You could maybe talk about

40:41

some of the bad things, there was

40:44

some bad aspects to it, I

40:46

think. So that does come off like nostalgia.

40:48

When you go back to this time and

40:50

you imply that simply because people were conservative

40:53

that that was better and that outweighs

40:55

all of the systemic and

40:57

structural racism, the individual bigotry,

41:00

the lynchings, you could go on and

41:02

on at book length and many, many,

41:05

many people have. That's a

41:07

weird comment to make, I think. And

41:09

also just really fast. I also hate the fact

41:12

that it plays into some of the tropes about

41:14

black families, especially black fathers

41:17

not being involved in the lives of their

41:19

kids. I was at one point writing a book about weird

41:21

myths that are just accepted in our politics. And

41:23

by the way, actual surveys, actual

41:25

studies show that black fathers are generally

41:28

more involved in the lives of their

41:30

children than any other racial group. And

41:32

it's so bizarre that America popularly

41:35

believes the exact opposite of that. And

41:37

so I think that people should fight back against

41:39

that myth. But there's a whole lot of weird

41:41

mythologizing going on there. What do you make of

41:44

it, Francesco? I

41:46

have a lot of thoughts, but I think for

41:48

me, I don't know what he was saying at the

41:51

end there. I'm willing to believe

41:53

that maybe that clip went on, but maybe

41:55

only from my sanity to imagine that he

41:57

sort of saved himself. A couple things stand

41:59

out. one is that he then says, we

42:02

were more together then and the family was

42:04

more together under Jim Crow and then Johnson

42:07

and went on and on. No, no, no,

42:09

and then the Civil Rights Movement and

42:11

then MLK Jr. and then Rosa Parks and

42:13

then Ella Baker and then all of these

42:16

incredible black leaders fought for your ass to

42:18

be sitting where you're sitting and smoking a

42:20

cigar and on the mic right now, like

42:22

I'm sorry, but he just single handedly threw

42:25

under the bus the entire movement that he

42:27

was throwing under the bus the entire movement

42:29

that transformed this country and laid it all

42:32

on the steps of Lyndon Johnson, like, what

42:34

are you talking about, dude? And then the

42:36

other thing that I think is really sick,

42:39

and I see this with the feminist movement

42:41

as well and anti-feminist

42:43

female influencers, is that

42:46

they see that the promise of feminism

42:48

or what he's saying, the promise of

42:50

integration, the promise of equality actually

42:52

hasn't delivered for black Americans or

42:55

black Americans or

42:57

in the case of feminism hasn't delivered equal

42:59

pay for equal work. And what these

43:02

reactionaries do is they try and sell

43:04

their own communities on saying, actually,

43:06

maybe it was better before when we

43:08

didn't have equal rights and we were

43:11

just subservient. Because at least we had our

43:13

place or we knew our role or at least our

43:15

masters were kind to us or the white people were

43:17

kind to us if we

43:19

did certain jobs, right? And the same

43:21

thing with the anti-feminist backlash,

43:24

they're convincing you, instead of

43:26

moving forward with the project of real

43:28

equality, instead of moving forward and actually

43:31

deepening the civil rights movement or

43:33

the feminist movement, and actually

43:35

tackling some of the stuff that's structurally keeping

43:37

folks back, it's no, no, no, no, no,

43:40

let's run back to when we were subservient, let's

43:42

run back to second class citizenship

43:44

because it was better

43:46

back then, which is also wildly untrue. Yeah,

43:49

and look, again, you could have

43:52

had a version of what he

43:54

said with nuance or an accurate

43:56

understanding of what parties

43:58

were advocating for what. that time. And

44:00

you could talk about all about that. You could talk about

44:03

what the current Republican and Democratic parties are doing for

44:05

different communities. You can do all of that. He

44:08

didn't. He gave a super simplistic selective

44:10

reading of the history to imply that

44:12

if black Americans become conservative, then all

44:14

of a sudden everything will be great.

44:17

And by the way, I wouldn't be so

44:19

critical necessarily of what he leaves out of

44:22

his argument. If he didn't go on to

44:24

make the case in that interview with Abby

44:26

Phillips, that he says himself, I'm

44:28

one of the best communicators in the

44:31

Republican Party. You're the one saying that

44:33

you left a lot of people with a

44:36

very fair read of what you said, that

44:38

there was some nostalgia for a bizarre concept

44:40

of what life under Jim Crow was like.

44:42

And so there, I think it's a little

44:45

bit fair for people to be more critical.

44:56

How many TV clips have you

44:58

seen of a battle in Ukraine?

45:00

Zero in the last six, seven,

45:03

eight months. It's one

45:05

sided. Putin just kind

45:07

of sitting back watching what's going on, wondering, hey, when

45:09

y'all gonna come over and we'll draw

45:11

a line here. He doesn't want Ukraine. He

45:14

doesn't want Europe. He's got enough land of

45:16

his own. He just wants

45:18

to make sure that he does not have United

45:21

States weapons in Ukraine pointing at Moscow.

45:23

Yeah, a couple. Happy

45:26

Toberville is not only automatically the

45:28

dumbest person in any group of

45:30

humans that he's in. When he

45:32

is around farm animals,

45:34

he's middle of the pack at best.

45:37

There's definitely, pigs have emotional intelligence and

45:39

stuff like that. They can sometimes open

45:41

up locks. There's no way you're telling

45:43

me Tommy Tuberville is as smart as

45:45

your average pig. Not even like a

45:47

pig that had a good upbringing and

45:49

a good education. Just a regular run

45:52

of the mill laying in the muck

45:54

pig. Mucking it up, Tommy Tuberville belongs

45:56

in the muck more than the pig

45:58

does. I would send the pig to

46:00

Washington. But that's his read about Ukraine,

46:02

and about what Putin wants. Putin does them

46:04

on and he's got plenty of land already.

46:07

Dear God, also, how

46:10

many videos have you seen? Well,

46:12

clearly there's no war cuz Tommy Tuberville hasn't

46:14

seen the video. Russia lost

46:16

nearly 40,000 fighters

46:19

last month, okay?

46:21

Now, you can decide whether that

46:23

makes it a one-sided war or

46:26

whatever, but the war is definitely

46:28

on. Cities are being bombed, they're

46:30

being struck with missiles. Ukraine is

46:32

fighting back, including striking into Russian

46:35

territory. Does he know that any

46:37

of this is going on? Literally,

46:39

does he know anything about the

46:41

situation there, Francesca? No, I mean,

46:44

all of it is to paint

46:46

Putin as some sort of dove.

46:48

He actually just wants

46:50

peace. I mean, when I see

46:53

that clip, obviously the massive stupidity,

46:55

not understanding or paying attention to

46:57

anything that's going on, but also

46:59

it's political. And it is complete

47:02

weakness. The Republican Party, the vast

47:04

majority of them have been told

47:06

or believe or, no,

47:09

their line is, Putin's a good

47:11

guy. He's our friend, and we're

47:13

absolutely okay with the former president

47:15

and now the leader of our

47:17

party, cozying up to Putin and

47:19

doing all kinds of things, right?

47:21

And the first thing, obviously, was

47:23

in 2016 or 2015 changing

47:25

the GOP party platform to say that

47:27

if Russia invades Ukraine, the GOP says

47:29

that they will not get involved and

47:31

they'll allow it to happen and they

47:33

will not arm Ukraine. And it's just

47:36

like, so pay

47:38

attention to how massively compromised

47:40

the Republican Party is

47:42

by the Russian government. And

47:45

also, Putin's openly said he wants Ukraine. He's

47:47

not gonna get it all. He will likely,

47:49

if it ends, get a portion of Ukraine,

47:52

right? And this is sort of like the

47:54

question now, is Ukraine gonna be able to

47:56

take back some of its

47:58

region or the

48:01

Donbass and whatnot. But it's just,

48:04

it's like, no, no, that's exactly what he wants.

48:06

He said it from the beginning is what he

48:08

wants. Well, and at least if that happens, then

48:10

we won't have to worry anymore. Because right now,

48:12

you have the border between Ukraine and Russia, and

48:15

he's uncomfortable because there are weapons on that side.

48:17

But now, if they carve out some of Ukraine,

48:19

and then they have that, now you have the

48:21

line between Ukraine and Russia. And

48:23

wait, no, then the bombs will be

48:25

there, and he'll still have the same

48:27

justification. Wait, and even if he took

48:29

all of Ukraine, then the next country over would

48:32

have weapons. Wait, this seems kind of convenient from

48:34

Putin's point of view. What's not convenient,

48:36

by the way, and I'll only throw this out there, to

48:38

remind him that I provided Putin a very easy solution

48:40

this long time ago, and I'll remind you of that

48:42

in a sec. But they lost 40,000 fighters

48:45

last month. They lost in one day, 1290

48:48

troops, over 100 vehicles and 65 artillery systems. Since February 2022, they

48:56

have had over half a million

48:58

casualties. Totally needless,

49:00

totally has nothing to do with

49:02

the Russian people. They gain nothing

49:04

from any of this, and the

49:06

solution is what it always has been.

49:09

Go that way. Just turn

49:11

around and go to the east, and then

49:14

keep going to the east until you hit

49:16

Moscow or whatever, and then that will

49:18

be it. And you'll deal with lost to

49:20

hundreds of thousands of people and tons of money, and

49:22

it'll be just really bad for the Russian people, but

49:24

at least they won't lose anymore. And

49:27

they're only dying for the

49:29

benefit, the glorification and ideological

49:31

sense, or perhaps the economic

49:33

benefit of Vladimir Putin and some Russian

49:35

oligarchs who are already doing pretty well. There's a plausible

49:37

case you made that Vladimir Putin is the richest person

49:40

in the world. I think he'll be fine either way.

49:42

So just go, just

49:44

leave. Maybe that's simple, but it actually

49:46

would solve the problem. Anyway,

49:49

unfortunately, that's all the time we have for the first hour of the

49:51

show. More to come in the aftermath, everyone. Don't go anywhere. We'll be

49:53

right back.