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Hey guys, Ready or Not 2024 is here, and we here at Breaking Points are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election.
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But enough with that, let's get to the show.
All right, let's move on to some pretty noteworthy comments that are being made on the Republican side about their economic plans.
We just got some footage of Mike Johnson talking about their plans to continue to undermine, go after, dismantle, repeal, et cetera, the Affordable Care Act.Let's take a listen to how that went.
Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, was campaigning in Pennsylvania in a House district and was talking about Obamacare.I think we have this exchange.Let's play it.
No Obamacare.The ACA is so deeply ingrained.We need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas.
So he says no Obamacare, says massive reform to the health care system.Obamacare is pretty popular.
You know, this is one of those things, Sagar, Obamacare is now at this point very popular.It's so popular they no longer call it Obamacare.They now call it the Affordable Care Act.
And healthcare is one of those issues that has been, when you ask people what their top issues are, healthcare always ranks very high up there. And yet, neither campaign has made it a focal point.
The Harris campaign sometimes talks about reducing prescription drug costs, but the bigger ambitions around even a public option, that is completely invisible.But Trump also has not talked about health care.
Last time around, he famously tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act and failed with the John McCain. you know, coming in and deciding he wasn't going to do it.
And so, you know, you still have the true believers like Mike Johnson, who is the Speaker of the House, who is, you know, absolutely dedicated to repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Yeah, I wouldn't say Obamacare is popular.I would more say that repealing protections in Obamacare is unpopular. I mean, if you look at it, people hate the healthcare system, which is basically what it is right now.
I hate the healthcare system.But they don't want to go back either to what it was before because they want to maintain the coverage for pre-existing conditions and some of those reforms that have been important.
That is the key.But in general, if you ask people, do you like your healthcare system?No.Are healthcare prices too high?Yes.
That's what Republicans always delude themselves into thinking that they'll be able to do.I mean, just recall 2018 blowout midterm election almost entirely because of the ACA vote.
You can ask any of the Republican candidates, specifically in the swing states, every single one of them blamed the vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act as one of the reasons they lost.
Martha McSally down in Arizona, that's literally why Kyrsten Sinema is in the Senate, which is kind of wild to think about. This does get to a broader question, though, of what the hell is going to happen if Donald Trump does win.
Let's put this up there on the screen.And you can basically find signs for whatever you want.So, currently, this is in the New York Times.It's called the Group at the Center of Trump's Planning for a Second Term.It's one you have not heard of.
I have heard of this.I did a monologue about it years ago.It's called the America First Policy Institute.It is run by a woman whose name is Brooke Rollins. She was the, ran the domestic policy council under Trump while he was in the White House.
This is one of those institutions which has like Larry Kudlow and others on the board.Huge amounts.
She founded it with Larry Kudlow.
That's right.So you got Larry Kudlow, Linda McMahon, who was an official part, former small business under Donald Trump, now part of the transition team under Donald Trump. also very influential on that.You've got a lot of billionaire donors.
If things go in this direction, where Brooke Rollins, for example, becomes the chief of staff, which had been floated there in the past, we have a very clear sign of what the so-called corporate direction is going to look like for the Trump administration the second time around.
Now, the other counter case, I guess, to all of this is that you do have factions, like within the Trump campaign itself, of people who are not happy with Brooke Rollins or do not agree with her direction.
For example, Brooke Rollins and kind of her ilk were very hard in pushing against J.D.Vance as the vice presidential pick.Now clearly he will be there. in the White House if they do win, so will he?
I mean, why would you want somebody like that who literally ran the Chief of Staff?It could set up a fight around that.
You have Johnny McEntee as well, previously, who worked in the Trump administration, PPO, had been attached to Project 2025, but I think he's gotten more of a pass than everybody else attached to Project 2025.
Is that the dude who just said that women shouldn't be able to vote?
Well, he made a joke about that on his TikTok, Kristen.
That is correct.Love that one.I laughed really hard.I forget exactly what his channel is called. some date right or something like, anyway, he's got a lot of followers on TikTok, that's all I know.
That guy, those people could very much not agree with Brooke Rollins, but I'm setting people up here for if an eventual Trump wins, there are gonna be some absolutely titanic fights kind of around,
who's gonna staff the White House, specifically what the foreign policy vision will be on the economic, you could have Steve Bannon, who's very much opposed to this type of wing of the party.Will he be allowed back in there?
Will Rollins be the one that is there?It can really set us up for some 2017 era fights like there were between Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon in the White House, or Gary Cohn and Steve Bannon, or Peter Navarro and Steve Mnuchin.
I know this is probably ancient history to some people, Those were very, very consequential for the policy direction that the Trump White House eventually ended up going in.
I mean, I think there are a few things we can already say for sure.I mean, they're gonna extend the tax cuts and jobs.
I think they're gonna- Oh, that's like not a question.
You know, then there's a significant tax break for billionaires, for corporations, the wealthiest among us.I think the choice, you know, the centering of Elon Musk is also incredibly significant.
Elon is like this, you know, hardcore, like, let's cut $2 trillion from federal government spending, which by the way, is more than all of the federal government's discretionary budget.
He is a fan of Javier Mele, who positions himself as an anarcho-capitalist down in Argentina.
And he's talking about how he wants to put the country through this sort of like economic shock therapy that is going to be deeply painful in the short term.
I played some of this in my monologue the other day that you can listen to, but just for people who didn't catch it, he said in one of, I think this was in one of the like Twitter live things or whatever, he talked about how Trump's agenda is going to cause hardship, temporary hardship, but that it is necessary.
Let's take a listen to that.
We have to reduce spending to live within our means. Yeah, that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.
He sort of re-emphasized this in another exchange on Twitter.You can put D5 guys up on the screen where you have this one Twitter user.He's laying out what he thinks is going to happen in a Trump term.
If Trump succeeds in forcing through mass deportations, combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit, there will be an initial severe overreaction in the economy.
This economy propped up with debt and artificially suppressed wages.Markets will tumble, but when the storm passes and everyone realizes we're on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy.
History could be made in the coming two years, to which Elon Musk, who again, The plan is to put him in charge of this, you know, massive government oversight agency says sounds about right.
So effectively like, yeah, we're going to cause a severe market crash and depression in the short term.No problem.Which, by the way, is what's happening in Argentina right now.
Well, I was going to say, like, that's honest.And I support that.I actually support honesty.I support just being real with people.I've said it here before.Mass deportation.
Do you support the program, though?
Oh, mass austerity?Well, first of all, I don't support it.
No, because it's not going to happen.First of all, it's also not going to happen.I tweeted this yesterday.We all need to stop pretending that Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are going to vote for a $2 trillion budget cut.It's never going to happen.
If anything, they're going to increase defense spending. I will call it here right now.The deficit will go up under Donald Trump.They will extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.They will increase military spending.
They will maybe cut discretionary spending by 1 or 2%, which is like 0.001% of the overall federal budget.They won't touch entitlements.Social Security and Medicare funding, et cetera, will continue.
And he will end, if he does win, in office with a significantly bigger picture on the deficit that looks exactly like it is today. I will call it here.There's no way any Republican or Donald Trump administration will go in a different direction.
On mass deportation, Fisher King is correct.I mean, look, this gets to the heart of the entire debate.It is probably good for overall top line GDP to have mass immigration. and specifically illegal immigrants.
That's true if you look at human beings as literally economic utils.And yes, there will obviously be a market correction.I've been honest about that before.I think people who support mass deportation should as well.
The question is, is what type of society do you want to live in and what type of overall economy?It's definitely not good. for overall GDP, necessarily, to have higher wages for people who do construction.
Like, that's obviously going to increase, quote-unquote, prices.Yes, it's true.We should all be honest if you support that policy.Now, do you think that's better in the long run?Yes, I absolutely do.
I mean, I can't sit here and say that tariffs are going to lower prices for everybody, but I think it's good.
I think it's important, you know, that washing machines or TVs that cost $400, if you buy it for $600 but it happens to be able to made here, yeah, I think it's worth it. Is it easy for me to say?Absolutely.
You can vote your conscience and do whatever you want.But that's kind of where I look at it.So, first of all, the Elon 2 trillion thing, again, it will never happen.It's almost not even worth taking seriously.
Like, especially in a divided government, or even with Donald Trump, look at the past record in terms of what the deficit happened and in terms of spending.Like, there is no indication that any of this happened.
Even if Elon is in charge of, what is it called?The Department of... There's a government efficiency.Okay.
In order to promote his like crypto favorite cryptocurrency.
Hey, I'm still pro Doge.I'm still holding.Which is disgusting.I'm still holding my Doge.I haven't sold it yet.
I mean, I guess there's a couple things.So first of all, I think it's noteworthy that Trump himself has embraced this austerity politics, which is the, you know, old school Paul Ryan Republican position.
Yeah, but it is kind of popular too.People hate the federal government.
They like, yeah, they like the idea. Yeah. You should support this program because it's not—you're going to support this candidate who embraces this program because the program he's pushing for isn't actually going to happen.
And, you know, so you don't get to pick and choose, like, the parts that you like and don't like.And this is what a lot of the business community, by the way, has done with Trump, where it's like, well, we don't really think he's going to do— the
who previously, you know, sort of positioned himself against normal Republican austerity politics of the Paul Ryan Tea Party era, has now embraced Elon's idea of slashing $2 trillion from the federal government budget, which again, sounds all well and good until you realize that is more than all discretionary spending and would have a huge impact on basically every single federal government program, including ones that are, you know, very important to people.
Let's take a listen to that.
role for Elon Musk?So Elon has a lot of roles he could take because he's a very exceptional guy.But he has a thing.He feels there's such waste, fraud, and abuse in our budgets.And he's right.
So I'm curious, Sagar, do you feel like there's been a shift in Trump's economic positioning? No, because I mean, this is very different from the way he positioned himself in 2016.
That message is actually quite popular.Now, when it comes down to it, people hate the government.People think it's inefficient.It is inefficient.The Pentagon literally can't pass an audit.
Like in terms of cutting and all that, there are certainly places that we could cut, but it's not all that popular amongst Republicans.
When it comes down to it, when appropriations happen and an actual federal budget, again, you have to answer this question.Do you think $2 trillion is going to get cut? Not in a million years.Is Donald Trump gonna cut Social Security and Medicare?
No, absolutely not.What is Donald Trump and the Republicans Congress actually gonna pass?TCJA, and maybe, if there's a Democratic House, they'll do some child tax credit bargain to get that through.
Half CTC, half TCJA extension, some corporate tax cuts and others are gonna get left on the table, and the deficit's gonna go up. Like, this is where we have to be real.
Even if Yvonne was in charge of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, like, again, mechanically, people need to understand how the government works.What are you going to do?
You're going to ask the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, to commission some blue ribbon report or whatever. that's going to bring back to you and it's going to take a year to give you a report about what can be cut and what's not.
But again, the way that we know how government works is Congress has to sign off on every single appropriation and the executive has basically zero authority outside of some very narrow definitions.
about what they can and can't spend money on unless the Congress literally agrees to it.So this is where you're saying can't pick and choose.I'm not picking and choosing.I'm being totally real about what this will look like.
And frankly, this gets to a little bit of something that annoys me is Silicon Valley arrogance around the government, where they just claim things like you can cut $2 trillion.
I'm like, you don't know anything about Washington if you think that that's going to happen.The people who are correct are the Wall Street guys who are like, yeah, there's no way that an across-the-board tariff is gonna happen.
which is, again, true, because it would take an act of Congress.At best, you'll have soybeans, steel, and crops get hit with tariffs again, which is what happened last time, or critical metals or whatever, like they can in the Commerce Department.
Our taxes are probably gonna go down, and they're correct.Because that's a fulsome picture of Donald Trump plus the Republican Congress if they have a united government.
And even if they have divided government, some version of that is going to get through.So this is just like a very realistic view of what this looks like. And if you believe that Elon's gonna cut $2 trillion, you're an idiot, honestly.Yeah.
How do you feel about the closing pitch of the campaign of we're going to repeal the Affordable Care Act and crash the economy?
Well, yeah, that's stupid, okay?Well, in terms of the Affordable Care Act, that's actually the dumbest one.On mass immigration, people do support mass deportation, specifically Republicans.
But on the issue of Affordable Care Act, wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole, and it certainly does get to the political genius of Mike Johnson.But look, people who are out there, you should also be honest.Yeah, that's what Republicans support.
You know, the mean, median Republican in Congress, they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act.So if you care about that, you should definitely consider that whenever you're voting.I'm not gonna sit here and cover for them.
They're idiots in terms of what they think.
All right, let's go ahead and move on to the latest comments from Bill Clinton out on the campaign trail, stumping for Kamala Harris in the state of Michigan, and talking about his view of Israel's war in Gaza.Let's go ahead and play that.
I have to be careful what I say because there's only one president at a time and none of us can get ahead of where we're going.But I think we're gonna have to essentially start again on the peace process.
And I understand why young Palestinian and Arab Americans in Michigan think too many people have died. sensitive, I get that.
But if you lived in one of those kibbutzim in Israel, right next to Gaza, where the people there were the most pro-friendship with Palestine, most pro-two-state solution of any of the Israeli communities were the ones right next to Gaza.
And Hamas butchered them.And so then, the people who criticize it are essentially saying, yeah, but look how many people you've killed in retaliation.So how many is enough for you to kill to punish them for the terrible things they did?
That all sounds nice until you realize what would you do if it was your family and you hadn't done anything but support a homeland for the Palestinians and one day they come for you and slaughter the people in your village.
You would say, well, you'll have to forgive me.I'm not keeping score that way.It isn't how many we've had to kill because Hamas makes sure that they're shielded by civilians.They'll force you to kill civilians if you want to defend yourself.
And he went on from there.So, basically, nothing is Israel's fault.
The unbelievable devastation that we've seen in Gaza, where it's just total annihilation, every building, school, mosque, hospital, et cetera, the kids buried under the rubble, the starvation, whatever. None of it is Israel's fault.
It's just all the fault of Hamas, who, you know, are the ones that use Palestinians as human shields.And so, therefore, it's all justified.
It's all just self-defense, which, at this point, if you are still arguing that this is just self-defense, like, I just — I don't know what to tell you, because we're talking about not just Gaza.We're talking about the West Bank.
We're talking about Lebanon.We're talking about Syria.We're talking about Iran.Like, how many places do you have to attack?
Actually, I just saw an analysis this morning, Sagar, that there's been over 1,000 buildings in Lebanon destroyed, which, you know, Hezbollah didn't have anything to do and the Lebanese people certainly didn't have anything to do with the October 7th attacks.
From a political perspective, this was in Michigan.
This is the place where the Harris campaign has been trying to improve their standing with groups of voters that have understandably fled them, Arab American and Muslim American voters in particular.
But by the way, I don't like when we keep it that narrow because there are vast swaths of the Democratic base, including young voters, including non-white voters who are deeply concerned on a moral basis about Kamala Harris's support for this genocidal policy vis-a-vis Gaza.
And here you have Bill Clinton in this critical swing state, you know, definitely not the message that they want to be putting out there.
Well, yeah, it's just very much like an old man moment takes to the campaign trail.Certainly, yeah, there's a lot to say, I think, about just in terms of like Biden and Clinton and a lot of the flashbacks to these 90s politicians.
I don't know why they have Bill Clinton campaigning for them.I don't know.I mean, look, he's a good.
He was a great, I mean, he was very popular.He was.He was one of the most effective politicians of all time.
And he has lost many steps.
It was McDonald's.When he stopped eating McDonald's and he went vegan, like whenever he gave that up after his fifth quintuple bypass or whatever, it was over for him.
He was causing problems for Hillary back in 2008, remember?
Yeah, he said something about black voters.
He said Obama should be getting his coffee and stuff like that, remember?
Yeah, it was in South Carolina 2008 It's been a minute since this man was effective out on the campaign trail And you're still rolling his old ass out like what are we really doing here just in terms of strategy?
It is he is younger than Joe Biden though.Yeah wild true I think it's maybe like the same age as Trump.
Uh, I think he's 78.Yes.He must be that right?Yeah, that makes sense.
Let me look.Yes 78 the same age.There you go Incredible.Trump kept eating the McDonald's and Bill Clinton went away and, you know, it was a big mistake, apparently.
McDonald's actually is a key part of the American presidency.
Yeah, just don't get the quarter pounder right now.
The more unhealthy that you are, the better a president that you are, in my opinion.All right, but let's continue with Israel stuff.There's actually an interesting story I wanted to highlight.Let's put this up there on the screen.
from the Times of Israel, where Trump apparently, according to them, Israeli sources, told Netanyahu he wants the Gaza War over by the time he enters office.
He said, according to Netanyahu, several times, win the war quickly, do whatever you need to do, but basically, you need to wrap it up by the time that I take office, because he doesn't want to deal with the political and the geopolitical fallout of that situation.
Now, obviously, kind of a difficult prospect, Because what it would mean would be ending the Lebanon incursion, ending—I mean, how do you—what does even the end of quote-unquote war in Gaza even look like?
Because that would require a literal withdrawal.
And that is the key piece right there.Ryan and Emily had a very interesting guest on yesterday.I encourage everybody to listen. What Bibi is hoping is, because, I mean, I think it's pretty clear Bibi would like Trump to win.
The overwhelming majority of Israelis would like Trump to win.Like, it's, the polling is not even really all that close.
And the question isn't, okay, you know, at some point the, you know, the aggressive level of bombing that we've seen, at some point that ends, and then what comes next?
And Bibi, in order to keep his coalition together, effectively needs to resettle Gaza. Like that's what Ben Gavir and Smotrich very affirmatively want.That's what other Likud party ministers have been going to these resettlement conferences.
And the concern from Bibi is that Kamala may actually, now you can, you know, have they drawn any real hard headlines?No, at this point, no.But may actually make some moves to keep them from resettling Gaza.
And if he's not able to do that, then his coalition effectively falls apart. So we know Trump is, he's talked about, you know, Waterford Kushner talked about Gaza's waterfront property and potential development possibilities.
We know that Mary Maddison, as part of condition for her overwhelming massive support in dollars for Donald Trump, wants to be able also to annex the West Bank.
So, you know, I think part of the game here in terms of what Bibi wants out of this political context is, and out of this political contest, is what comes next?
Am I allowed to just move forward with resettlement and ethnic cleansing, or is there going to be any sort of opposition whatsoever in the White House to that?
I think really what Trump is, is Trump doesn't care necessarily about that situation, but for him and his people, they just don't want to deal literally with the ongoing war.And so they're like, look, man, you need to speed it up.
And by the way, it's beneficial to them because it causes problems for the Democratic candidate.Kamala can't even do an event without getting interrupted by Gaza protesters at this point.
Let's go next to JD Vance spoke, made some interesting crypto comments, where if you read between the lines, the pro-Israel lobby won't be too happy about this one, on the Tim Dillon Show.Let's take a listen to that.E2, please.
Obviously, you know, Israel has the right to defend itself, but America's interest is sometimes going to be distinct.Like, sometimes we're going to have overlapping interests, and sometimes we're going to have distinct interests.
And our interest, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran.We recognize, okay, Israelis, Gulf Arab states don't like Iran, so let the Israelis and the Gulf Arab states provide the counterbalance to Iran.
America doesn't have to constantly police every region of the world.We should empower people to police their own regions of the world, right? And one, we would save a lot of money.Two, we'd save a lot of focus.
But unfortunately, I think Harris, she's got this weird thing where I actually think she kind of likes war.Maybe she feels like a tough guy about it.I don't know why it is.
But they've actually pursued, even though they say they want to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties, They've pursued the pathway that maximizes those casualties.They say that they're pro-Israel.
They've pursued the pathway that has prolonged the war as long as possible, which is bad for Israel.And they seem to be sort of sleepwalking us into a war with Iran.It's like the dumbest of all possible worlds.
Mm, all right, what did you make of that?
That's like a crypto, that, by the way, is about as close as you're ever gonna get to some quasi-Israel criticism or whatever in a world where Miriam Adelson's shelling out the big dollars, but I appreciated it nonetheless.
I think it is clear that the Trump campaign has been much smarter in pursuing a strategy of trying to persuade key demographic groups that they're a place that they can go if they're disgusted.
Now, I think if we look at Trump's comments, for one thing, they are not in line with- They're very different.Yeah, they're not in line with what J.D.is saying here.
Less cogent, shall we put it kindly?
Trump uses Palestinian as a slur.Trump thinks that Israel should strike Iranian nuclear facilities, which would help to escalate the war in the region.Trump was very hawkish, extremely hawkish vis-a-vis Iran when he was president.
So the idea that he had any instinct towards withdrawing from the region is just, I mean, It's
When you look at the totality of the messaging coming out from the Trump campaign, most of it is very much in line with Miriam Adelson, Rudy Giuliani, Trump himself, you know, the problem is that Biden's holding them back.
You don't hear too much of the perspective that's being offered here from JD Vance, where he correctly, by the way, points out that even if you are just narrowly trying to pursue the interests of Israel, This has been damaging.
I mean, the country economically has suffered greatly.The governing coalition is constantly on the brink of collapse.You have massive foreign direct investment that is fleeing the country.You have people, human beings who have left the country.
And contrary to the idea that all of this war making throughout the region is going to make Israelis any safer, it's only put them at more risk because now you still have people who are evacuated from
northern Israel who are unable to return and no one in sight with that either.So, I mean, he is correct in that point.I just don't think that that is the, I don't think that that is the view of Trump.It's certainly not the view of Trump's donors.
And, you know, Trump is happy to sort of let people go out and freelance whatever they think is going to be effective to appeal to that audience in the moment.It doesn't necessarily reflect any sort of a broader shift.
But they've been much, much more intentional about trying to do the Muslim outreach and the Arab American outreach, especially in the state of Michigan.And that shows in the polling numbers.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.In fact, we have evidence of that strategy.Can we put E4, please, up on the screen?Here you had a letter from Trump.He said, to the Lebanese American community, during my administration, we had peace in the Middle East.
We will have peace again soon.I will fix the problems caused by Kamala and stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon.
They want to see the Middle East return to real peace, a lasting peace, and we will get it done properly so it doesn't repeat itself every five or ten years.So that obviously directed at the Michigan Arab American vote.
And it's interesting too because the Trump campaign is basically like scrolling through ethnic minorities. And then releasing letters to it, which, look, maybe it's the correct way.
Not the way I would like to see politics, but he had another post where he's like, to all the Coptic Christians out there, I will stand up for you in the Middle East.
I will make sure that we will not, what was it, the whole Azerbaijan thing, you know, Azerbaijani, Azeri, you know, aggression on, between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
But my point is just that he seems to be just scrolling through these subgroups and just putting out a letter where, you know, it really could be impactful.
I mean, I guess if he sees the election that way, then that explains why they don't like the Puerto Rico comments.
Yes, I agree with you.Again, this is not how I think politics should be.Like, dear Lebanese Americans, or whatever, let me do policy based on your homeland.Okay, I think that's a little weird, but you know.
I mean, it's frankly more something that you saw, like, it feels very Democrats in 2016.Like, let me put out a letter and have on stage someone from your specific, like, demographic identity group.
Feels like the direction that the Trump campaign is going in.But, you know, with regard to Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, less so young people who I think are either going to vote for Jill Stein, by and large, or they're just not going to vote.
I think, obviously, there's a huge opening here that is no one's fault but Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and the horrific policy that they have pursued, which has been deeply destructive and deeply immoral.
and which she has been unable to separate herself on.And then, you know, you have people like Bill Clinton who go out there and say the things that he says.
And it's not really, even though he said the quiet part out loud, but his comments are perfectly in line with the Biden administration strategy and the way that they've approached things.
Like, that is the position, is Israel always, no matter what Israel does, We'll stand by them.It's always self-defense.It's never their fault.The civilian death is never their fault.They bear absolutely no culpability whatsoever.
And we bear no culpability, even though it's our bombs being sent, et cetera, et cetera.So, you know, Bill Clinton is out there effectively articulating, just in a more clear-cut fashion, what the actual policy of Biden-Harris has been.
Let's move on to Stop the Steal.Wanted to do this segment, we'll round it out today.We'll try and make this a consistent part of the theme.If Trump does end up losing the election, I'm sure you're gonna hear a lot more about this.
But one of the things we did last time, back in 2020, is we just went through every single major claim around Stop the Steal, every lawsuit, what the adjudication was, what the litigation looked like, what the judge ruling, what the claims.
So we're gonna start first with Donald Trump.He made some comments while he was doing the garbage thing. around the election.Let's take a listen.
and taken care of.They were corrupt.They were corrupted, but I think it's been taken care of.
You called for law enforcement to investigate.
I was going to say, do you anticipate to declare victory on election night?I hope that we're going to declare a victory.
I mean, they spend all that money on machines.Paper ballots cost you 8% of what a machine costs, 8%.
All right, so there you go, and said maybe in terms of we'll look out for if it's a corrupt election, but I don't think it'll be a corrupt election.
Nonetheless, there have been- He also put out on True Social, Pennsylvania is cheating and getting caught at large scale levels rarely seen before.Report cheating to authorities.Law enforcement must act now.
I mean, you know, we laid out the – he is clearly – and Republicans in general are trying to lay the groundwork of like this – if we don't win, it was stolen, right?It was rigged.
And there's a lot more concerted effort in advance to lay that groundwork. than there was last time around.You can go watch our segment about how this could all go down.
The things that make it, this sort of premeditated and very well funded, by the way, effort in advance is something that is actually worse than last time around.On the other hand, you now have the Electoral Count Act.
Donald Trump is not the President of the United States, so that puts a lot on the other side of the scale.But it's very clear what he's trying to lay the groundwork to do.
Which, also with regard to this Pennsylvania thing, and Pennsylvania has been a big focus on the right side, or I'm sure you've seen as well.
This kind of bit them in the ass previously in Georgia when they were running in these runoff elections, both of which they lost after Trump had just lost.
Because there was so much conversation about how the vote had been rigged and the election was stolen, etc., etc., that they depressed their own turnout.Cuz people felt like, well, if it's just gonna be stolen, why bother vote whatsoever?
So there is a risk. in advance, too, of trying to, in advance, convince voters that, like, oh, this thing is rigged and people are cheating at large-scale levels rarely seen before, as Trump says in his true social posts.
Right.So let's go through.So we did a roundup on social media of all the big controversies.We're going to start with this one.Let's put this up there. from Michigan.This is from the Michigan Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson.
Now, according to the Secretary of State of Michigan, there are quote, issues with Dominion voter access terminals and counties that use them in the voter access terminal. Specifically, it appears with the terminals that are handicap assisting.
Now voters using this on election day will either have to vote straight ticket or manually split their ballot, unlike how Michigan voters usually have the option to select straight party option and then override their party selection for certain races.
Benson said that this was an issue that has frustrated officials in places where these machines are used.Quote, I think all of us who use Dominion Again, this appears to be what is it in the assisted ballot casting part of the area.
from early voting, so it's not all, but of course, wanted to go ahead and flag it here.And it is one that has already been acknowledged by the Secretary of State, of course, and then also has been a nationwide thing.
That said, I don't know, you can look at it either way. People sent it and were like, well, this is evidence that there's problems.
I'm like, yeah, but I mean, if you're evidence of a quote unquote problem or cheating, why would then the secretary of state come out and acknowledge it and say that we are working on it?
So look, no one's going to sit here and claim that there's no issues or whatever, but it almost seems like the opposite where they're coming out.
acknowledging in the future, talking about this quote-unquote fix, and exactly which type of ballots it can affect.So regardless, you can just say that's the explanation for what it is.
And if it comes, you know, in the future as subject to some lawsuit or whatever, this is the origin.
Yeah, that's a great point.It's also not clear which side this would theoretically benefit.The idea is just like, it makes it, those particular machines make it more difficult.
to vote split ticket instead of just straight D or straight R. So again, it's not really even clear which side that would potentially benefit, but it just makes it more cumbersome for people who are voting at these disabled access terminals, which is unfortunate, but not cheating.
It's just like more cumbersome for them.And I think it's smart that she announced this in advance to sort of pre-butt any potential like allegations after the fact.
Yeah, by the way, lecture for election people, just say it all out in the future and avoid the mess of next time.Let's go to the next part.Let's put this up there on the screen.This was another big one.You probably saw it everywhere.
ABC News, 16 WNEP, the affiliate, people were saying, look, they already called it for Kamala Harris.Well, the alleged response or the reason for why they had this, what was it, reporting for Harris
Trump that showed up in the middle of a Formula One race on ESPN, ABC affiliate, was that there was some graphics testing package that they were doing that appeared to have up on the screen.
I also think we should just interrogate the thought process here.Is the thought process that the media is going to rig the election by pre-calling it for Harris
and they're gonna work then with the Secretary of State and Pennsylvania to just put up fake numbers?And why would you then do a dry run ahead of time?Like, what is the logical explanation?
This is where the low IQ nature of this stuff honestly just drives me crazy.What is more likely, a graphics thing or a concerted effort by WNEP to pre-call the election?Like, what world do you think we're living in here?
All right, and look, I already know there's gonna be some butthurt Republicans in the comments being like, ooh, fake, whatever.But it's like, look, be real with yourself.If you believe that, honestly, you're an idiot.
Like, I don't know what else to tell you.If you really believe that that's a concerted effort to like steal the election by WNEP, ABC affiliate who put up the wrong graphic.
Yeah, because local news graphics teams are of course the most crack in the business.I'm just like, what are we doing here?
Is this just me working here to know, so obviously, how many times do you watch this show and the wrong graphic goes up on the screen?
Right, right.Yes, people who have put up the wrong graphics plenty of times.No offense, Eric, in the control room.No offense.It's true.It happens to the best of us.
As someone who's been part of a network like MSNBC election coverage, all of the networks, you know, they preload fake election results. in order to test out how it looks state by state and make sure their stuff is running.
In fact, we just did a test here.Mac and Griffin did a test of our election graphics literally yesterday, guys.
And it could have been mistakenly put on YouTube.It only took one clip.That's true.
Yeah, they uploaded the clip.
And it would have been uploaded.
They uploaded the clip, but for, you know, I guess private or whatever only, but, you know, very easy to accidentally click the wrong thing and it goes public.And then, oh my God, we're part of the election conspiracy.
So just ask yourself, Occam's razor, which is more likely.That's right.At the same time, we have had some, a few wild incidents occurring at polling stations during the early vote.We can put this up on the screen.A machete wielding,
young Trump supporter was arrested on a variety of charges for menacing people who were going to vote.I believe this occurred in Florida.
So they held a... Neptune Beach Police Department held a media briefing following the arrest of a man in connection with an armed disturbance that occurred at the Beaches Branch Library, a polling location.
You can see him there with the Trump signs and the machete, and I don't know what he thought he was doing, but it was pretty menacing, stupid, and illegal.
Good work with that.And he was arrested.
He was arrested.This one... Yeah, this is my personal favorite.
...is really wild.Put this up on the screen. This dude who ran for, I believe, Congress.Yes.This is Kansas City.So former GOP candidate.He stole ballots in, they describe, a scheme to create controversy.
So effectively, he got invited because he is sort of like a local, you know, guy who's well-known.He ran for Congress, et cetera, et cetera.So he got invited to this public test they were doing of their election system.
Part of the test was to demonstrate to the public, like, this is all clean and free and fair, and we've got an organized system, et cetera.
So he goes to this test, and it was live streamed, the whole thing, so people could see everything that was happening, which is how he got caught.
And he stole two ballots, folded them up, and put them in his pocket, and then starts whispering to someone like, oh, the count of the ballots is wrong, I think they're missing some ballots, blah blah blah, after he was the one who stole the ballots.
And since it was on the live stream, he got caught,
And before, but before he was caught and people went back to the live stream and saw this all happen, he went on a Facebook live and was talking about how, oh, there's election fraud and they're short multiple ballots, blah, blah, blah.
Again, because he's the one that stole the ballots. So this was an effort to try to create a narrative about how the election's rigged and it's stolen and you can't trust the results, blah, blah, blah.
And this guy got caught red-handed being the one doing the ballot manipulation and stealing these ballots during the test.So amazing stuff.
Two more election updates.There was one that came out of Michigan.There was allegedly, there was some one voter ID where multiple voter IDs have been linked to duplicate ballots in Michigan.
The Michigan Secretary of State has confirmed to the RNC that those duplicates will not be counted and it was a glitch in the system.You know, if anything, the infrastructure at this point for
We will continue to do so, and in almost every case, you've either been responsive or whatever, or it just turned out to be total bullshit.The other one that has come up now is the judge has extended mail balloting in Bucks County.
There was a whole lawsuit about this, I just thought I would mention it, where they were trying to close early voting at, I think it was a deadline, 5 p.m.
on October 29, to judge their rule that violated Pennsylvania election code and that they will then extend normal early voting for normal business hours before the close of business on November 1.
So I guess you still have a day and a half or so to go and to take advantage of that.In terms of the timeframe, I think they also limited it from 8 a.m.to 5 p.m.But there you go.So look into that.
If you live in Bucks County, PA, beautiful place, by the way, New Hope, Pennsylvania.
I think overall, one thing we noted last time is that the election apparatus really is a patchwork.You really are dependent on these individual local counties to run this election.And so, of course, there are going to be anomalies.
There are going to be glitches.Every election, people are upset because they had to wait in line too long or they feel like, you know, there's always, every election, there are going to be some issues that crop up because it's
human beings trying to do a thing en masse in jurisdictions across the entire country at a time of a lot of heightened anxiety, tension, etc.
So just take all of that in because there is something that goes awry or whatever, they don't have enough ballots, whatever happens, that is not evidence of a mass coordinated scheme.
It's evidence that human beings are fallible and there will be some technical issues and glitches on election day.That is, I can tell you with 100% certainty, that will be the case.
Right.And yeah, look, if it does look connected, if you can prove it, send me the evidence.I'd love to see it.Please, I beg you to send it to me.It's the story of the century.If you can prove it, send it.I'll take a look.
And then just last thing on that. because everyone's always like, oh, why can't we be like Brazil or France or India?Well, because we have this little thing called federalism.
So you should ask yourself, do you really want the federal government to run all elections in this country?
I don't want that, at least.I kind of want uniform rules, though.
Well, that's a different story in terms of rule.But I'm saying in terms of the actual bureau running the overall election, that's a terrible idea and is the absolute antithesis of the Electoral College and specifically of federalism itself.
So that's how it's always been.I think it's probably better.If anything, the decentralized system certainly has its annoyances in terms of why it takes forever and all of that.
The alternative, you know, in a French or an Indian or whatever system is that the government itself is the one that runs it, which obviously is a massive conflict of interest there.
Yeah.Yes, indeed.But yeah, I would like, I personally would like to see federal set like consistent rules instituted across the jurisdiction so that everybody has the same rules when it comes to mail-in ballot
early in person, voter ID, let's just have, yeah, convicted felons, let's just have it be standard so that you don't have the right to vote in one state but not have the right to vote in another, which I personally think is preposterous, but in any case, that's the system we have.
Yeah, we'll see you guys tomorrow.Ryan and Emily, we're gonna do a little remote election preview thing so we can break down whatever comes on today, latest polls, et cetera, so make sure to join us for that.
That's right, we'll see you then.
