Free Speech Nudes

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Welcome to the next level. I’m JVL. Before we get started, hit the like button, hit subscribe, follow us all the things. And while you’re at come over to the bulwark dot com and check out all the stuff we do over there. We put out great pieces for free every day with no ads or anything like that.

And You can sign up to get newsletters from me and Charlie Sykes and and we have podcasts. We have all the things. Go to the bulwark dot com and and join us. I am joined by my best friends, Sarah Longwell and Timothy Miller of The Bulwark. Guys, happy anniversary best friend.

Happy anniversary twenty years. I saw a

photo of

you

from your wedding day on Twitter

earlier today.

Yeah. You have

only aged like a week. I mean, yeah, I I guess the hairline is a little different and color is a little different, but that skin, I don’t know if you’re moisturizing, but your skin looks you might have even dropped a few LVUs. You’re looking you’re looking great. Twenty years.

What what’s your secret? Twenty years. The secret is marriage. The secret is being married to the right person. Mhmm.

That’s that’s it. You marry the right person? Everything else is great. It’s like they say about jobs. Right?

You know, do do a job you like and you never work a day in your life. It’s like that, but with marriage. Anyway

That doesn’t sound right. That sounds like anniversary JVL, but okay. We’ll take it.

Listen. I I’m sorry. Thank you for starting us with Sunshine, but we gotta go to a dark place because earlier this week, a former president of the United States, a man who was often misunderstood and vilified by people who were deranged and couldn’t stop being fixated upon some of his in felicities and his occasional crude tweets that that that gentleman said that he wanted to be installed as president even if it meant overturning parts of the constitution. And this caused — Wow. — I mean, people

were shot at Jimmy Carter. Are we really just putting them out there like that? This this age that he’s making that kind of suggestion. I just I think that that’s a rude for whoever is Jimmy’s handler.

All across the country, Republicans were shocked. At this. And some of them some of them were even able to say in written statements, which center justified instead of left justified because they’re animals that that they they thought that if a person a person were to say that, that it would be bad. And

that my brown statement.

Right? My brown statement. Right? The senator, my friend. He

said he said my statement In the tweet, he said my statement on the former president’s comments.

The former which former president?

Which one? Connor. I’m telling you, Jimmy. Jimmy has been Jimmy’s been getting a little weird. You’re talking about baracko metric, insane, Obama.

Wait, Jimmy. Okay. Yeah. Go

ahead. So I was just gonna ask you guys if if have we finally crossed the line? And now finally, people Charles Cook from National Review, sick of it. Are any you guys sick of this to which you replied, Sarah? Maybe.

Guys, I

this That was the sickest burn I’ve ever seen. And something really I think that for your soul underrated. It was the greatest tweak in the history of

the world. Say, like, people people who are not like, it’s such okay. First of all, someone should have taken my phone. I didn’t need to do this. And also, my big concern was that when I said maybe that people would think that maybe I’m not sick of it yet, but actually I’m expressing an equivocation on whether or not I personally am sick of it.

Because of course, how you want to respond is, yes, see, we were when we said never in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, We might never, and you meant maybe. But instead, instead, I just said maybe because Charles Cook himself was the author. He typified that that ability to say, you know who can say about this guy yet. We just don’t have enough evidence He has not yet said, and to be fair to Charles Cook, he hadn’t at that point done the coup. And he hadn’t called for overturning the constitution and he hadn’t lost about the election except what he had done at that point was he had done I mean, let’s just go through some I don’t even know if I can remember them all now.

It’s been so long ago, but he had done access Hollywood. So he had he had done some sexual assaultee you know, locker room talk. He had stood on the stage with Vladimir Putin and cited against America’s intelligence community. Mhmm. He had had an had been impeached WANTS, RIGHT, ALREADY.

YEAH. THE MUELLA REPORT, WHICH THESE GUYS ALL SAY RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA WAS ALL A HOAX, FOUND LIKE ten COUNTS OF OBSTRUCTION k. There was all the executive orders

— Muslim ban.

— issued there’s a Muslim ban — Childs.

— about the

time he said he — he was gonna order order American soldiers to commit war crimes and that that he promised that the soldiers would obey him because he’d make them. Oh,

yeah.

You’re just protest. Right?

To your guys. To the testers so he could walk across So there

was was that thing where he he went to foreign leader and demand that the foreign leader interfere in American elections or otherwise he’s gonna withhold vital

military or anything. What about

the what about the What about the What about the North Korea leader that he said they exchanged words of love. He’s like, murders his people.

And a fair enough Charles. So a fair enough,

Charles. He’s he’s tired now. And he’s

tired. It’s tired actually.

Happens to be the case that, like, person that he writes. Love letters too is the alternative.

Right?

So it’s a very convenient time for him to get tired. I mean, many many other people have been tired for a long time, but he’s gotten tired right now, right when his governor has the chance to be his placement. I you know, I think it’s good. Should we be welcoming his tiredness and saying, come on, Charlie, Welcome aboard to the good ship bulwark. No?

You

know, welcome to your

TDS. Here’s Yes. He says he is bad. Yes. He’s a bad orange man.

Thank

you. Right. We’re good here. I I have said over and over and over. Over and over and over that I hope that Donald Trump this does not win the Republican nomination.

Okay? And that if he won the Republican nomination, it would be bad for America. Right? There is only one reason why I would want him to win the nomination. Mhmm.

Zero reasons for me. And that one reason would be to watch all of these people go crawling back and then say, Well, I no. I it is a binary choice.

That

student line I would like

them to have to choke on the binary choice again. I’d like to watch them all go back and say, Well, we’d have guardrails and I mean, Joe Biden has been horrible. Look at him. It’s a look at that student loan thing that he tried to do. Really, there’s no difference.

Because every single one of them would do that. Wouldn’t do that. And I hope it doesn’t come to that. It’ll be very bad for America and and I will I will register as a Republican and vote for Rhonda Santos in the primary if I if if I can. Uh-huh.

We’re

not there yet. I’d just like to say. But

that’s had. That’s the one part of me that that does wish that Trump were to win the nomination because I wanna see them all choke on it again. I’m

not willing to bet the country on our, like, proving a point to them. So so I won’t

be there, however. But

you’re not you’re not going to play with our the old wrong starting to make me see over a over a minor Twitter feud. Not

they’re not minor Twitter feuds, though. This is these this is these are people, like, actually watching this right now. Tim, I I did use restraint to not jump into the fight you were having with that other random anti anti guy who was suddenly like,

Trump is an

existential threat. And he’s doing that thing like you have to get on board with the scientists. Anything you do to crowd

out? Existential threat.

Yeah. I know. It’s amazing. Did that just

happen this week? Yeah. The Constitution Truth. What was that?

Like John C. Riley. Did we just become best friends? Thank

you for not chiming in. And I have to can I just confess something we’re here among friends at the next level podcast? I was having that fight. This is I’m just I’m almost too embarrassed to say this, but I need to do it. It’s like it’s like confet I don’t do confession anymore.

So I need you guys are my confessional. I guess JBL is the most Catholic and good standing. So I’m gonna need you to give me some hail Marys or, you know, our fathers here. I was having that footer fight while we were Christmas tree shopping.

Wow. Yeah. You

were, like, at

your family. Yeah.

We were at Christmas tree shopping. And

That’s terrible. That’s

terrible. Yeah. I always have

enough fight. And then Tyler goes, ask me to go pull the car out. Then I go to get in the car and I sit in the front seat and I looked down and he replied again, I was like, this fucking guy. This fucking guy and I start replying to him and typing to him. I’m like, I was like, did you support Joe?

But I was like, this is real now. Today is when you’re demanding that this is a binary choice against Trump? And just and Tyler, he calls me. He’s like, are you ever gonna pull the car around? I was like, yeah.

I don’t have to take a minute. I don’t have to take a minute. I was distracted.

Sorry. I’m stuck in

traffic. I’m sorry, bud. It’s working at

all. These guys literally are saying things like, if you don’t support any alternative to Trump and we’re like, I who was it that spent? Forty million dollars trying to defeat him while you guys all screamed at us. Like, who was it? Was it us that that that actually lifted a finger to defeat him?

While you guys yelled at us and told us that we were, like, Rhino Cox, grifters and everything else, I can’t take it. So listen. This is petty. That’s what he said. It’s petty, and it is not it’s, like, to to to answer JBL’s question, do we not I I I I do not want Trump to die.

I don’t want anyone to die ever. Just

putting that we have on the podcast. Except

for Hitler, you know, who people that Trump hang out with seem to like very much these days. Even

though the microphone that you’re using right now, I doubt

Hitler invented this. Invented it.

Picking right back to you. What I feel like

that is a bad is I I’m not that’s not enough for me. Sorry, Kanye. That doesn’t that in the highways. Okay. Anyway, Anyway, anyway.

Yes. We should. We should all be on the same team nominally going forward of but it is hard because we were all on the same team once before. And then we all watched them. Not only did they go to the other side, not only did they full on carry water from They spent the whole time shitting on us.

I don’t swear on these podcast stories. But not and oh, that’s I don’t wanna

spoil things for you, but they have to keep doing that going. No.

That’s right. That’s right. I get it. Like,

that’s the other the other part of this deal is, even if they try to dump some, they have to keep cropping on you guys. That’s fine.

This is why I’m I haven’t been in yoga for a few weeks, which is why I was tweeting at the at the And

either at

the NT entities at a Christmas tree place. So gonna do a yoga session tomorrow. It’s gonna be fine. Whatever. He just wants to terminate the constitution.

He had that thing on terminate. Terminate some article from the constitution. But, you know, you’re taking we’re we’re taking a little seriously, you know, little too literally. I mean, you know, terminate the constitution kind of, like, in general. Could

mean anything. It could be

very exciting. Right? I don’t I so I have a I have a question for you guys about this. This is my I’m doing a poll on not my party this week. Among for the teams to ask them what they want me to do.

Like, what are we supposed to do about this? You know, we talked about this a little bit last week with the Kanye dinner. But, I mean, on the one hand, it should lead the nightly news. Right? We don’t in the post World War two era, you know?

We haven’t had any presidents suggest we terminate the constitution and make themselves dictator? Candidates for president. It’d be a first. We haven’t had any candidates president. I don’t we don’t think we’ve got any senators or members of the house.

I don’t think I don’t think we’ve had any prominent, any elected official at any level outside of, like, Lyndon Morrish or something? I don’t think Lyndon has, but someone, you know, maybe a gadfly. I don’t think we’ve had any politician of either party suggest this. And this man was the former president. So it should probably, like, leave the nightly news.

Right? On the one hand. On the other hand, it’s, like, I really don’t wanna talk about him anymore. And so as you’re tired of it. Right?

As you’re sick of Me and Charlie agree on this. I am tired of it, and I want I’ve wanted to end for a long time and tried to make it end. And so, like, what how are he supposed to handle something of this day? Because he’s gonna keep doing this. Right?

He’s gonna keep doing this. I don’t know if you saw it the same word. I don’t know if

you saw. He walked it back. No. No. Sorry.

He didn’t walk it back. He denied. He said it. Oh, he

denied. Did he shifted. But

that’s perfect Trumpism. And he’s helpful to these people. Right? Because this again, this is what he always does. Right?

He’s on all sides of everything. And so, you know, he can say, look, I I condemn the Proud Boys. Right? And then the Proud Boys people know that he didn’t really condemn them. Yeah.

Right? And this is And so he’s like, you know, he said when he needs to about the tournament and the constitution, but then he also has given deniability to the people who then wanna be able to point and say, look, see, He never said that. He was, you know, it was a fake news media thing.

Yeah. So

it’s

that’s that’s this is like the first savvy thing he’s done in two weeks. Yeah. It’d be nice to have them have been convicted and not have to

deal with this. Right? Because

it’s a it is a legit question. Right? It’s like, should we even have to him. If the democrats hadn’t pursued such a partisan process,

then — I know. — maybe the Republicans could have done that, but they just The Democrats The way they conducted themselves is a

great punishment. If they did

at

the right moment, the right day, I could if they’ve if they’ve done that impeachment just in the exact second when it was politically viable. Maybe they would have just

they would have predicted

him. They didn’t

wanna take a couple of days after being attacked. And having to be, like, in lockdown. And

mister McConnell took a vacation, actually, during that week. The senate was out of session. No.

I mean, John Bolton has had some very stern words the way the democrats conducted that impeachment process, Timothy. Why can’t we

just be in a world where everyone is like, Nazi dinner is bad? Terminating the constitution bad, let’s all move on. Right? Like, that would be but we can’t do that. They’re preventing us for being able to do that because that’s not strategic.

They don’t that’s not the right thing. You know, we’ve gotta just we gotta stick

on you know, like, what that’s that’s That’s not the problem, Tim. That’s not the problem. The the problem is that some significant percentage of the country And we the three of us can argue about how big it is. But let’s let’s call it thirty percent of the republican party. Right?

Which is thirty percent of the republican party is a significant percentage of the country itself. Right? It’s like right. A a significant percentage of the country wants

this. That’s the

story

I was trying to tell

you. That was interesting. The story

I wanna tell you earlier was that I was on Seaspan this weekend. Missed that. It’s on Washington Journal. Oh, on Saturday? And While your

family was shopping for their Christmas tree

No. They were but they were doing something else. I don’t know. It’s been a Saturday morning. And I the way I chose to spend my Saturday morning, nine AM.

I was sitting down in Washington Journal, and I was talking about The Focus Group pod. You know, I was talking about why the focus groups and the voters and the moving on and whatever, but at some point we moved to the collars. And and I had mentioned that It had been ill advised for the president to have dinner with a noted anti semite and a self pronounced white nationalist. At some point, I started, I did get a little ramped up. One of the callers felt like I had said that, you know, I suggested voters thought this was not good, not something and he and he called up and he said you know, I think not good is not not not a big enough, whatever.

And I was like, oh, you know, I was characterizing, broadest spot to voters. But yes, Actually, this is this is part of the problem is is that you do have to sort of condemn this full throatedly and Republicans are doing this. And I got rolling. I got rolling on the idea that, like,

In the

year of our Lord twenty twenty two, it is actually insane. It is insane to think that the former Most recent past president. The most recent past president just had dinner with this anti semite who then afterwards tweeted out a star of David with a swastika in the middle. And that the other guy is, like, I’m not calling him in white nationalist to be, like, extreme or to to amplify it. Like, That’s how he talks about himself.

He holds White National’s conference. There’s no ifsans or buts about this anyway. So I get rolling, and I do this whole thing about how this is unacceptable, and we should not accept this. And as I as I as I went down, next caller, next caller says, well, I know after that rant that this lady is a communist. And and then he yelled at me, and multiple people did this.

When he got done yelling at me, the host was like, any response. And I was like, I kinda

Sir. Sir. Excuse me. Sir, before you hang up, go drive into a tree. Nope.

I

didn’t. Did you see

that? No. I

didn’t. I I I began That’s a good response. Began to respond with a okay. I sort of was like, okay. Like, guys then are public in my whole career.

Like, whatever comments, but then I was like, you know what? Actually, stop. Sorry. I’m not gonna dignify this name a colleague with a response. I didn’t say that.

But the but the point is the point is many collars called up to tell me how Great. Donald Trump was in how he’s the only president, whoever has kept his word, who has done anything. And I was eyes, how many people were continuing? And actually, one way the host interrupted one of them and said, yes. But, sir, what do you make of the fact that he had this dinner with people and the guy said, well, everybody’s entitled to their opinion.

Have

a question for you. Is this just enough to make you just say? You know what? I am a communist. You’re right.

And communism, where is the hammer and sickle? You know? I mean, these guys, they’ve been calling us, you know, that’s what the other guys say. Right? They’ve been calling us racist and Nazis.

They’ve been yeah. They’ve been calling us racist and Nazis all these years. I got mad. So yeah. You’re right.

Fine. I am. I am a communist. Okay? Isle, Lennon.

Always love Lennon. V i, Lennon. That’s been a big big fan, not Not I am the walrus linen, v i linen. Huge fan. No?

Did you consider that? Yeah. You guys I didn’t

consider that. Best. I didn’t consider that. But I just I just I used it as a look, I I think we don’t have to argue over how big it is because I don’t think we know yet. I think, obviously, Trump is in a much weakened position.

But I was a little surprised how many calls I was getting with people who were still very attached to Trump. Very much interested in and it was certainly not disqualifying that he had done these things. No. And there are a

whole bunch of people who are just the the real team players. Right? The always Republican types who are just gonna suit up for for anybody no matter what. And when Trump is ever in a position where the evil fake news media and woke socialist Democrats are on one side of an issue and Trump is on the other side. They’re just gonna side with Trump reflexively.

Whether it’s the Kanye stuff, or whether it will be the debt ceiling fight or whether it will be an indictment from the Department of Justice. Right? And because there are a bunch of those people, Republicans aren’t gonna be able to attack Trump on this. Right? I mean, thinking about this, Donald Trump may be indicted while running for president.

And his

rivals will not be able to use that fact against him. His rivals in fact

will have to testify to how innocent he is. And how corrupt the justice department. Just think about the constitution just as we’ll prime example of this right now, this

whole thing. Like, The number one issue for Republicans right now on Fox News and Republican commentators is the threat of the big tech media to our sacred constitution. Right? Like, our first amendment rights are being abridged. It’s every hour on Fox is about this right now, the big big tech.

Kevin McCarthy is planning on on doing a reading of the constitution when when the house convenes in January. And yet, you know, minus a few, you know, very tepid statements. Like, there is no ability or to forget appetite, ability to attack Trump on this. Right? Or for fear of you losing all of your credibility with a base.

So, like, this is the like, Trump went right at the prime issue right now ostensibly, like, the performatively prime issue of the of the Republican Party, which is protecting the constitutional rights that are supposedly under threat from the big tech woksters. And, like, Nothing. They can’t even find them on that point. They got them. They had to kinda be with them.

Yeah. I can’t tell you now. And again, a

a couple of articles. And this is because there’s some large percentage of voters who are with him and they can’t they can’t get cross wise with those people. Please. Alright. Have we chewed this for enough?

Can we move on? Because I wanna talk about the the the big tech woke mind virus, Twitter, Twitter thing. But I I first, I wanna talk about Bolen Branch, ours sponsor. I started my Christmas shopping this weekend. I don’t know about you guys.

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level, twenty percent off is a pretty good deal. For Sarah’s for Sarah’s purposes, could we before next week do a little recon on like when the last day you could order your Boling branch gift is and have it still make it there. Yeah.

This is this is true. The fact that you’ve started Christmas shopping is like, I don’t even understand. Like, I don’t understand people who don’t just What? Well, you got a panic shop on the twenty second or twenty third. And then be really mad and start complaining about supply chain issues and all of that when you can’t get anything delivered by the twenty fourth when

you need it. Who’s doing most of the Santa shopping in your family? Well, Santa.

I don’t understand the question. Yeah. Forty minute.

Who’s writing the letter between you and Karen? Who’s writing the note to Santa at the North Pole?

Oh,

Santa does. Putting in the requests. It

is it is not me. It is not me. I Although, I have some specific things that I’m attached to to getting. There are, like, a couple things, like, My kid really wants a a leaf blower. Oh, I

have some experience with those. I I actually think

my kid might be like a ninety year old man The other thing he wants is a metal detector. So we can go out and they make them for kids. So you could, like, go out and, you know

Oh, there’s especially fun on the beach when you’re a

kid. I’m not sure that leaf blowers are good for the environment. So that’s something you want to look at. To make them

light enough for a small child, I think there’s like a there’s one that’s gonna have like a little battery. Packer. So

battery

power He

can borrow mine. I have a steel b r seven hundred, which which shoots out close to a thousand cubic feet of air per minute at, like, two hundred and fourteen miles.

Gone to the bad place now. He’s talking dad stuff.

Alright. So Twitter Files. Elon Musk with his friend, my neighbor, actually, Matt Tyebe. So I live in a a normal person, New Jersey town. Matt Tyebe, the great socialist champion lives in the most expensive and fanciest town in our county in New Jersey, which is, I guess, not assigned he’s a grifter or anything.

Well, you

should go Halloween. Next Halloween, you should go to his No. I should do that. But that’s that’s enough over there.

Such an interesting guy.

A rich neighborhood, though, they give out the best candies. You know, the

So the fearless journalist, Matt Taiby, is doing PR work for Elon Musk and spreading Tim — Yep. — can you just for the five people left in America who haven’t heard this, can you just give them the the thirty second overview

of this, please? Sure. I’d love to do that for you. People might remember in October of twenty twenty, There was Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, and a blind computer repairman were shopping around a few documents that they purported to be from Hunter Biden’s laptop. Outlets from the Wall Street Journal to Fox News and other woke Liberals rejected it because it seemed very suspicious that drunk Rudy and this blind man were were passing around this material.

The New York Post, on the other hand, decided that it thought they thought it looked like it was in ship shape. So they wrote a story about these documents the lead reporter on the story wouldn’t put their by line on it because they weren’t a hundred percent sure

it was because it was so good. Yeah.

No. Because it was on they they weren’t certain that it was true. Oh, I see. So

Twitter is that I’m sorry. Tim, you know more about media than I do. Is it normal that a paper has the lead reporter on our story saying, hey, guys, I don’t know if this is true, and the paper then says, no, we have to publish it. Yeah. Or does it go through that first, the most time?

Have normal.

That’s how yeah. Usually the other way around. Yeah. Because that’s that’s my my understanding is, normally, it’s the reporter saying, I’ve got this stuff, you’ve got to publish it, and it’s the paper saying, Well, have you asked everybody twice if we can figure out dotted all your eyes and

crossed your t’s? So then they put a different person’s name on there. That’s another kind of unusual thing. So Twitter looked at this information, and I think even at the time wrongly, but defensively, decided that they’re like, we think this might be hacked. This might be another Russia hack job.

We already got fucked over by the Russians in twenty sixteen. We’re gonna delink this link. That was a decision they made. Mhmm.

And so nobody in America could see it.

Well, Facebook and Google both allowed people to see it. And the New York Post is one of the top five biggest newspapers the country. So I do think the people

Oh, but you couldn’t get to the news you couldn’t get to New York Post website. Right? That You could

you just go to New York Post New NY

Post dot

com. Yeah. Yeah. N like post dot

com. Oh,

there’s plenty of access to it. And and so

— Well, that that’s weird, man.

— about about thirty six hours later Twitter changed their mind and said, yeah, you know, we

got

over our skis on this. There were some internal emails where some of the people come off as kind of live. In wanting to keep it delinked. Other people come off as quite prudent, trying to determine what the right thing to do is, thirty six hours later, they they allowed the link back on the site and turned out that actually, against all odds, the blind repairman did have control crash that laptop, it seems like, which I, you know, I I don’t think even Steve Bannon and Rudy were sure. It was really true when they were pushing it, but it did turn out to be true.

And so now in the benefit of hindsight, you know, that that decision looks even worse. The former CEO Jack as testified in front of congress saying, I thought this was a fuck up. We turned it around forty eight hours. We’ve put in some new protocols. And I don’t know.

In some ways, it’s kind of a no farm, no foul situation. I I think in a lot their ban, I think, brought a lot more attention to the story, really, because there was, like, the strike and effect isn’t it true

though? Tim, isn’t it true though, that there’s been some very sophisticated modeling, which shows that that first thirty six hours on Twitter with the crucial period for seven million voters. I don’t

think I don’t think that

if if if seven million people had gotten that in that first thirty six hours from Twitter only, then they would have voted differently. I don’t think that model

Twenty twenty. I think so. And I

do

think then if anything, I’d brought more attention to the story. That said, what’s the fuck up? What’s the fuck up by the Twitter? Okay. So now we fast forward two years.

And Matt Taebi and Elon Musk have decided that they want to release all the files about this to demonstrate that the big tech media is out to get god fearing Americans and contrarian cryptobros and other tech bloggers. And so Matt Tavy did a very extensive thread that basically revealed two things. One, everything we already knew about what I just said, but all the internal emails explaining the internal corporate goat rope of people being like, should we do like it? Should we put the link back up? What the fuck should we do?

Where’s the trusted safety guy? Oh my god. We’re a big corporation. We’re growing up and everybody’s criticizing us. What do we do?

K. So they released all those emails. And then he released another series of troubling emails. And these were from the Biden campaign. He notes that the Trump campaign also sent very similar ones.

We didn’t share them. To Twitter suggesting that certain tweets be taken down. Now this this could be problematic. Right? You might think, well, well, poll poll yeah.

Politicians shouldn’t be tellers

to enemies. What to take down? Biden campaign. I mean, Joe Biden was president then. Right?

And he had the president then? He was a

he was a private

citizen.

Oh, you should you should not be able to. Okay. So so He

was running for president. He was. But

Trump also said some things. So Matt Taibi, Put up a screenshot of some of the tweets that Biden’s team suggested to be taken down. Some sleuths, Internet sleuths, went to the way back machine, looked at those tweets, and they were all basically pictures of Hunter Scott. Oh, I mean, there were some other things in there. Some of them were Hunter Scott and family pictures.

Some of them were Hunter Scott and other women’s vaginas. Those women probably didn’t appreciate being on the Internet against their will. Some of them were hunter getting his feet rubbed, while he smoked crack and like you could see the outline of his cock. It was mostly his cock. And people then and Twitter decided to take those down because I don’t you know, it’s not Hunter could send a tweet out of his pet genitals if you wanna do.

That’s allowed on Twitter. Yeah.

Is that that’s

allowed on Twitter? You can send out a a talk shot Yeah. We’re gonna get you on all Twitter. Tell you, we’ll we’ll talk about

that another

day. Oh, man.

Shockingly, shockingly, Dick Picks are not, not something that I would I thought that Twitter

was like Instagram that you couldn’t no. That’s not true. That’s true. That’s true. That’s true.

That’s true. You can you

can put up your own. If you wanna do just a Twitter search for yourself, I bet you could find one pretty quick. But if you wanna do it yourself, the Twitter’s decided that’s okay. What you can’t do is, you know, you can’t take somebody else’s penis and put it on your Twitter page against their will. That that breaks the terms of service.

Because that sensor

It breaks the terms of

service. So Twitter took down those But but what about isn’t that free speech? It is not. Actually.

Isn’t isn’t your your publishing of of somebody else’s photos, free speech?

I don’t believe so. No? No. And so Twitter took those down. And now there’s this big hub up.

Some of them were by famous people or formerly famous people like the former actor James Woods. And these people are now James has been on Fox a bunch, and and these people are upset that those that those links were taken down at the request. Of the Biden campaign. And so in short, the story is that Elon Musk has revealed that everything that Jack already apologized for about taking down New York Post story is true. And that in addition to that, Twitter has took down pictures of Hunter’s penis.

At the request of the Biden campaign. That is the number one story on Fox News for the past about ninety six hours now. How’s that summary for you, Sarah? I know that you’re more of an outsider to this. I don’t know

why. Like, mainly, I don’t care about the president’s kids. Even the Other kids. Trump’s kids. Yeah.

I read

about

Eric content. Eric Trump content. Eric and Larry No. And, you know,

it’s like it’s like I scan it. Right? Like, I I do know because it’s like in my feed that apparently, Eric Trump is defending and saying that the family does not think Kimberly Gilfoyle’s will. But, like, okay, I just picked that up in a scroll. The same way I had picked up in a scroll that like something was going on with Hunter.

I did know that there was genitalia involved, but I didn’t can I didn’t know why. I didn’t know why. And I’d never I didn’t try to understand because I just can’t get myself to care about this stuff that much, but I’m really glad you explained it. Well, that

puts you very out of step with the Republican base. Because this has been a this has been an extremely important first amendment constitutional issue for people that cared very deeply about the protection of the Constitution in all its articles. Is the way that

you presented it? Not that I’m doubting your objective truth about this, but like is it all the the genitalia or were there other things that people are mad about?

TAYBE only has we only know what he has given us. Right? So I’m sure sure that Twitter deleted other things. Right? I think that conservatives are upset that, like, you know, fart muncher forty two, like, got banned because he tweeted you know, something about Hunter Biden smoking crack maybe or, you know, who the hell or sent a racial slur out in a in a tweet that was otherwise substantive about the nature of Hunter Biden’s work with Burisma.

You know, I’m sure that there are other and Twitter tweets are gazillion deletes it to a gazillion tweets today because the fuck in the world is is fallen and there are a lot of sinners and a lot of people break the terms of service. So I’m sure there were other things, but the examples that they provided that Matt Taebi provided of the tweets that were deleted at the Biden campaign’s request all of them that we can find in the way back machine. There are one or two that have that have disappeared from the Internet. But all of the ones that we can find in the way back machine at least include a hundred Biden’s genitalia. They also some of them include other things.

And again, me and going green, and I’ll just gotten to fight about this on Twitter. Well, during the workday, that was Christmas tree shopping. And again, he is, like, trying to be, like, you’re trying to minimize this by making it all about the deck tweets. But, like, the big story is the New York Post de linking. And I keep it going to Glenn, like, I agree with you about the New York Post de linking, but but you know who else agrees with you?

The former CEO of Twitter, Jack, who changed the policy. Apologize for it. Testified in front of Congress. Apologize for it. And you know who else agrees with you.

The new CEO of Twitter. Who’s taken over and and is obsessed with this issue and has changed it like, what what more do you want? Do do we need to have a public flaying of Jack Dorsey, like, should we bring him in in the town square and and whip him a few times? You know, should the government take over Twitter like, what

do you want? Glenn is just trying to have a good faith honest debate about the media and technology. I mean, that’s that’s all Glenn. So so yeah.

So there were some people at at Twitter that got a little hot on on the banning of that New York Post story, but okay. Humans fuck up sometimes. Like, they fixed. I I just it’s been two years. It’s been twenty five months.

So I I do think that, I guess, if you had someone on, like, Eli Lake, or Glen here who could could probably give you some more in-depth commentary about the other, like, who, Tim, did you read if you read this email from the lawyer to this trust and safety team. You would see that they weren’t even following their own policies. And boy, do we really care about following policies in the letter of the law as evidence fire report for Donald Trump. So, you know, yeah, sure. You could paint a, I think, a more damning picture than the line that’s painted of Twitter, but, like, it’s all about that New York Post issue I already have apologized for.

The new information that they tried to make a big deal out of was that that was this Biden communicating to Twitter about certain things they wanted deleted and Twitter deleting them. And they were like, well, this proves that they’re taking instruction from the Democrats, but it’s like, Okay. Well, maybe with let’s see an example of that that doesn’t include Hunter’s penis. Because I can tell you if if George p Bush’s balls were all over Twitter. When I was working for Jeb, I very easily could have contacted Twitter and been like, please take down the pictures of George P.

Bush’s balls being tweeted by White Geneside sixty two. And they would have done that. And it wouldn’t have had anything to do with liberal bias. Like, that’s just Twitter responding to that to their to their terms of service. So, Sarah, do you think

any of this catches on anywhere outside of the very online right? Like,

can

Fox successfully main main line this into, like, the actual normal You know, Fox watching Bubba? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, not not

the particulars. Because if you knew the particulars, it sounds like you might not think it was such a big deal. But the ball of grievance, right, which is big tech censoring the rights. Balls of

Yeah.

The

big

ball of grievance. As well as the fact that Hunter Biden. Yeah. I don’t

I like,

the Hunter Biden Twenty twenty was told.

Fact

that Hunter in himself. And but here’s the thing, like, when I talk about Trump’s kids worked in the White House, like Jared, was this, like, shadow chief of staff running he got billions of dollars from the Saudis and, like and I think it’s insane that he had his kids working in the White House. Just insane. But, like, other than that, I don’t care about them. But they were actually installed in my desk.

So, like, Hunter Biden,

doesn’t work in

the White House. And unless somebody has which I I I cannot follow with the ins and outs of the heart of our minds. But unless somebody has some evidence that whatever Hunter Biden was doing is somehow linked to Joe Biden. Participating in corruption, either it’s just noise. To your answer to your question, of course, they will It’s it’s what they’ve got.

You gotta understand how both sidesing This is happening in Georgia. Right? Unfortunately, we are taping this on Tuesday as we do not have the results of the Georgia runoff. But one thing that is amazing is that the human beings’ ability to look in Churchill Walker and say, okay, he states an unequivocal pro life position. In fact, no no exceptions for, you know, rape and incest.

Yet, has has apparently been accused allegedly of paying for many abortions. He has not allegedly definitely has children that he did not recognize that he fathered out of wedlock. He has his own son who spoke out in terror of him from violence and had to move his ex wife is testified to her being putting a gun to her head. Did you see did you see today that

he in an interview with a local paper, thinks that he’s running for the house? I did see that.

The house. Yeah. That’s great. I mean, but I mean, that like, the and then there’s just, like, the general not being qualified for the job thing. But also, Also, Rafael warnock, when he got divorced, there was an incident in which his ex wife accused him of running over her foot with the car pulling out of the driveway.

The police in the paramedics came, they did not find evidence of this, but She accused him of this. And so you see both sides, the same, the same. And bath is how people people This

is what you’re hearing in book of scripts you’re saying. The people are a little lost. It is. That’s

right. And this is how this is how both sizing works. Right? So, like, Trump is the most corrupt leader in history, the amount of corruption, like just the sheer volume of it. Is so insurmountable, so difficult to even get your head around.

I could rattle off a few right now, things like having the secret service, and everybody’s and all these foreign dignitary stay at his hotels, for example, the dealings with foreign leaders, Jared, installing Skitznaya’s, like, just staggering amounts of corruption. And but that’s why Hunter Biden is so important. Right? Because you got it both sides. You got it.

These guys are equally corrupt, and that’s how you do it. And it it works in a

lot of ways. What

Republicans, I think, maybe don’t fully appreciate, is that elevating the Hunter Biden stuff doesn’t help Ron DeSantis. It helps Trump. Right? Because Trump is the victim of Hunter Biden. Trump is the one who was done dirty by this.

And Republicans have talked themselves into believing that what their voters want is a forward looking vision of the

future. I

do not know what Republican party they are Watching the Republican Party voters wanted the White Water investigation, the one of the Arkansas files during the Clinton years, they were obsessed with Barack Obama’s birth certificate for all of his residency. I think he did did you see the god. I’m having a senior mail. What’s the guy’s name with New York magazine? Does he

interviews Isaac? Isaac Chutner. Isaac Chutner? Do you see his interview of, like, that the head of the some Republican Jewish organization in New York because — No. — trying to explain his defense of Trump.

And then all of a sudden, the guy who started volunteering going down the I still do have some questions about why Linda Lingle was was was blocking the birth certificate. And Isaac’s just like, dude, just stop. You’re gonna make yourself look at it. And he’s like, you will not tell me what to talk about, and the guy goes on. So even today, even even many years later, still.

They’re not not a hundred percent sure about the long form. Anything that is backwards looking

helps Trump. You know, that’s

a good point, but I will say this is the part I think to the Hunter Biden thing as best I can tell is that they think that when right. Because the idea of the election being stolen has become a very broad interpretation of what it means to be stolen. And one of the ways it potentially was stolen in their minds is that if that Hunter Biden information had not been suppressed, by Twitter specifically — Yeah. — that that would have meant that Joe Biden would have lost. That was the key thirty

six hour window when millions and millions Americans were looking to make their decision. Well, I do

think that was that was there supposed to be there, like October surprise. Right? And as a result and and so this is if I had to make a charitable defense of them, my argument would go something like, by Twitter casting doubt on its offense TICITY. IT NEVER GOT TAKEN SERIOUSLY BY THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA OR ANYBODY ELSE AND SO NOBODY REALLY LOOKED AT IT AND IT WASN’T GIVEN ANY CRIIDENCE PRIOR TO THE ELECTION AND THAT And now it’s all turned out to be true. And so our grievances that they would have changed the outcome of the election.

It’s a tough counterfactual too.

Is it a tough counter I mean, again, It it was covered at many at many places. I had the New York Post question, their own reporting, New York Post owner reporter question. It was a a very unusual story. You know, the news isn’t clean. People don’t just realize, like immediately, you know, in complex stories, what all the truth is.

Like, it takes time. I I Fox didn’t confirm the New York Post story for two days. Twitter had relinked the New York Post story before Fox confirmed that one of the emails was accurate. So, like, I sure. I guess.

Like, that’s a fair complaint. I’m sorry. The Twitter was on thirtieth for thirty six hours. But, like

Yeah. What I what I meant is like, we we can’t know. I think we can’t

know. We just I don’t

know. Right. Well, this is what I’m saying. It gives it gives another out to the right. This is this where Blake Masters has gone.

Right? Blake Masters has moved on to the look, everybody knows the election wasn’t fair because big tech had it in for for president Trump. And now they it’s I see. See,

look at the Twitter feed. That proves the election was the thing that pisses me off,

though, for us for my time and and talking to, like, these voters in Arizona. It’s, like, it’s a fucking like, they’re playing a game. Like like Blake Masters is a smart person playing a Word game. You know, trying to, like, be very careful about what he means by the election being stolen, but the people listening to him aren’t hearing that. Like, they they aren’t hearing that, oh, that you know, Twitter was a little unfair to Donald Trump.

Right? Like, that’s not how they’re processing it. They’re processing it as they stole this from us. We won. We were heading to this great Mega Future and and these shadowy elites.

Rob, that’s how that’s how the people, if you ask them, like, what they you know, like, they’re not they’re not they’re not

catching his his little fancy wordplay. I don’t wanna shock you here, but I get the sense that Blake doesn’t really care too much about the what happens to the people who listen to him? He just wants to vote so that he can get stuff. Like this is, you know, I would say he’s not overly concerned with whether or not people parse him the the way in which connects them or disconnects them to reality. The good

news is I my friend Teddy Slipher over at the at talk reported that that Peter Till has a sad about Blake’s loss. And he’s just not sure he’s gonna contribute any more money, and he’s kind of he’s in a dark, dark place about the political. He’s

gonna have to drink the blood and attention to the boys. Alright. The primary calendar is finally finally maybe being fixed by Democrats. Biden wants to center it around Michigan, Nevada, and South Carolina, which a seems to make

sense. Really, I’m sure it’s still in there. This

new answer in there sort of? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The answer is still in there.

Anyway, the Iowa cocks is have people forgotten what an absolute cluster fuck they were last time around? Where nobody actually knew who won the Iowa caucuses. And I think Peter said nobody knows. Pete was robbed. Pete won.

He

didn’t want it. But he won narrowly and nobody knew it for so long that, like, it

was too

deflating. He didn’t get the bounce. He didn’t get the mow that he could have gotten out of there.

So unfair. You

know, it was big tech. Big tech conspired to keep Pete down. Do you hear me say most? No.

The

big mow. Yeah. I don’t I’m not

following. It’s a bush thing. Oh, god. I can’t

no. I can’t explain this joke to you. No.

No. Like like, okay. Well, anyway It was it was a gay joke.

It was a gay joke. I was just

Oh, like, homosexual.

Because Pete, he didn’t get the big

bang.

No. That’s

cool. Did you

say that? Got it.

Anyway, what do you guys think of this? I I am in favor of it because Iowa’s caucus system is ridiculous and Iowa’s a weird state and I don’t know. Like, I’ve spent a lot of my life as you have Tim driving around Iowa and New Hampshire during election time. There are many things which I liked. About those states and those primaries and caucus, which were interesting, but also on the other hand, like, I don’t think it served the Democratic party very well in recent years.

Yeah. I mean, good riddance to Iowa is as

far as I’m concerned. I do I have a sauce spot for New Hampshire. I I

think that and I and I just I do because you’re a Republican who likes squishes. Republicans’ squishes do well in New Hampshire. That’s

part of her and why? Yeah. No, don’t. But it also, you know, independent voters, good to vote there. And there really is a level of engagement among people in New Hampshire, not throughout all parts of the state, but in certain parts of the state that is not parallels in other And even in in Iowa, there’s not kind of more than in other states.

Like, Nevada, I don’t love Nevada’s just being involved in this at all. Nevada’s sorry, John or Austin. Nevada’s had a few nice. Nobody they’d also don’t seem to know how to count votes in Nevada. Nobody cares at all.

It’s a very transient state. It’s a

transient population.

Yeah. It’s a transient population. It’s not a community oriented. So I don’t I don’t love about it. I think moving South Carolina first makes a ton of sense.

I mean, South Carolina has been the state that has mattered for Democrats. Black voters. It is it is the Democratic coalition. Right? It’s black voters and, like, suburban Charleston.

Right? Like, that’s who is who represented there. So it’s represented a coalition. Selfishly. I think that it it will have a moderating influence to move away from caucuses and towards a a primary first, which is good.

So I think it makes sense. I think Michigan makes sense as a substitute and Georgia as well. So I I I like it unbalanced. I like the moderating influence. I like the diversification.

I don’t I don’t want little New Hampshire to get screwed because I do think there’s something special about New Hampshire as as far as like the level of sit at the engagement of the citizenry. But as it currently stands, I think the plan is to do South Carolina Saturday, New Hampshire on a Tuesday, and then whatever, I I think Nevada, Michigan or the next Tuesday. New Hampshire

has not been at all predictive of Democratic nominees. For, like, that twenty is true. That’s

a true statement. I mean, it it

Wildly out of step with where the That’s a true self is, which is kind of a

problem there. Sarah, do you

have thoughts on this? You look bored. No. There

is breaking news that Manhattan jury has found two Trump organization. So the Trump organization, their company is guilty on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud. And falsifying business records connected to a fifteen year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives, the Trump corp and the Trump payroll corp were found guilty on all charges they faced. Donald Trump and his family have not been charged in this case, though.

Oh,

so they’re

total cheeration. That is great news. Cheers to you guys and have a cocktail after this. And the Trump corporation stuff to me has always been like, you can’t even find a Trump defender who will who will say, Oh, yeah. I think the Trump the things run up and up with Trump.

Right. Back at the Trump organization. I mean, even people who like Trump are basically like, yeah, he ran a scam, but whatever. He’s more clever than the deep state. So that’s why we like him.

You know? So it’s it’s nice have a little bit of accountability here. Let let squeeze a few more pennies out of them. Yeah.

Anyway, pro South Carolina glad to be done with Iowa. Iowa progressives were not, I think. I I this early this is just a better early state for democrats. Makes more sense. Oh.

So

I have

something I wanna talk about, which is this so if you so today, one of the big things that have happened is they were they presented Michael Fannonone and some of the other officers in the January sixth trial, I believe it’s a gold star — Congressional gold

medal. Congressional

gold medal for their bravery on January sixth, and Kevin McCarthy. I wrote about

this on my newsletter today. I

read it Did you read it? Yeah. I wanna talk

about it. That’s what I wanna talk about. It is astonishing to listen to Kevin McCarthy’s speech about honoring these brave men and women who defended the capital, and the best like, honestly, you know I like my civil politics. I like it when people are civil. I like it when we find ways to move on.

I do. I do. I do. But officers, Sicknick’s family, as they went to shake hands, refused to shake Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy’s hand. His family did.

And I don’t blame them

one

bit. And I heard, like, an interview where somebody’s saying, like, don’t you think in this context you should have shake shake in their hands? Because, like, Mitch has Mitch has got his hand out there. He really wants to shake their hands. And they were like, no.

They resurrected Trump. They didn’t do anything about Trump. And and I was yeah. They’re right. I would just like to say they’re correct.

And the cynical, like, watching Kevin McCarthy

talk about

honoring these people after he went down and resurrected Trump after Mar a Lago refused to convict him.

It’s

he’s disgusted. Didn’t someone

explain to them? That these guys are the team normal Republicans and that that Mitch McConnell gave a very strongly worded speech on the floor of the Senate. Yeah. Maybe someone should talk some sense into those. Oh, so like

sick sick sick extruthers are some of the worst people who are like, They’re like, he didn’t die from January sixth. It was become the the medical examiner was inconclusive, they said he died of preexisting, you know, I’m like, you think this healthy dude on duty dies of a heart attack without getting bear sprayed and, like, manhandled at this. Like, it’s insane.

Anyway

Incidents.

Just

a coincidence. Yes. They have the sky the next day. Now, fuck all those people. And good luck.

They have the clarity the cystic family and Fanao and who I love and and all of them, Gennel, Harry Dunn, of of having these guys’ number. Right? Like, they know what they did. They know what their job was. They know what people who acted honorably in the face of that big threat.

How how they acted, and and they see clearly who didn’t. Right? And it’s like, you know, a lot of times we get stuck in our you know, where you get these political bullshit arguments where you’re trying to kind of wade through all the BS and the spin and be like, who can we you know, throw a bone to, etcetera. And it’s like, for them, it was black and white. Right?

And and and, you know, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell’s maneuvering, like isn’t well, it wasn’t isn’t good enough. And and I and I think that’s clear. And I’m happy that they were recognized. I think that history will look very kindly on them and very poorly on Kevin McCarthy. And and so I I thought it was a very nice melt That’s why these families have

support Rhonda Santos in twenty twenty four. It’s a binary choice. And they’ve got a moral obligation to do it. Alright. Listen, it’s been a good show, long show.

Everybody. Hit the like button. Hit the subscribe button. Go and leave us five stars on on Apple podcasts because those things help. Believe it or not.

Don’t have

any other chatter? You don’t you don’t have any kind of like anniversary, you know, a little behind the scenes? Is there gonna be a little some snuggle here? Yeah. I

that that’s This isn’t

the show. This isn’t the show for that. This isn’t the show for that. However, when we do our event in Seattle with Dan Savage of Savage Love, Maybe that’s maybe I’ll bring out some questions. Maybe I’ll go for some advice.

January twenty first. January twenty first put it on the calendar. Can

we can we mention that real quick? We’re

doing event three of us are going out to to hang with Dan Savage. And I’ve been doing this in Seattle. My brother’s in Seattle. I’m super excited to go see him. Anybody who is in the Seattle area should come out and hang on.

Tell us about your

brother. Is the younger brother,

older? Younger brother. Does

he share your interests? What are JBL’s interests? My

brother runs a book.

I don’t know.

Tell of it. His interests are okay. His interests are movies, watches, internecine, Catholic. To to disputes. And, you know, word Smith word Smith

I’ll give you I’ll give you this real quick. So about seven years ago, eight years ago, my brother emails my me and my sister at three o’clock in the morning. And the subject header is. I just bought a boat. Mhmm.

And he had gone he’s gone and bought a forty two foot every man’s yacht, a sort of historic powerboat that he keeps on whatever the lake is out there. He’s like Powell in Seattle and not, like, anyway, the board knows unions. He’s union like yeah. Not like that. Oh, that’s Nevada.

Anyway, I had never in my life known that my brother was interested in in yachting, and he lives the kind of responsibility free life where, you know, going and purchasing a large boat is a kind of thing you can do. You’re saying your brother’s butcher than you. He’s

a little butcher. Like, if if if his photo was on the Marquee instead of yours, it would it would have a little less of a gay magician vibe and a

little bit more like a I like to fish. I know there’s like a butcher. I mean, he’s got like two percent body fat because he doesn’t have children and can work out whenever he wants. So he’s in tremendous shape. Okay.

Yeah. I’m just saying he’s he’s not encumbered by a great many responses. He’s a good man. Madam.

And all and all of you guys, Come on now. Make a little weekend, I mean, it’s a Saturday. Come out. So you can see the space needle? It’s gonna be a lot

of fun. See how it was a great town. Oh, it’s

gonna be so uncom after ball. What? What’s him? And he said, you’re gonna talk about sex the whole time. Well, no.

Well, no. Well, no. Wait. I

have some questions. I may have to

leave the room. Do

I get to ask the first question? Will be

up with just us, you know? So we’ll just we’ll just hang out. It’ll just be the next level thing. And then you can go to the back of the room. Have a cocktail or two, and choose to listen to the witness talk or not.

Maybe Dan Savage wants

some questions for you, Sarah. Are

you? Absolutely not. Absolutely enough.

Lovely evening. Alright. Guys, thanks for being with us. We’ll be back again next week. Bye.

Bye.