7/17/26: Trump's Wild Elections Speech, Tucker Praises Democrats On Israel Vote, Embarrassing Biden Book Tour

17 Jul 2026 · 1 h 31 min · 34 chapters

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In short

Breaking Points Fridays episode reacting to (1) Trump’s primetime election-integrity speech alleging 2020 election interference by China and a “deep state” coverup, (2) Tucker Carlson praising Democrats over an Israel-related House vote, and (3) escalating U.S.-Iran tensions including strikes and Strait of Hormuz risk.

Guests (and backgrounds)

Shelby Talcott, journalist at Semaphore, specializing in defense/intelligence/policy reporting; interviewed about White House reaction and the contents of declassified documents. No other named guests appear; the rest is host commentary.

Key claims

Trump’s speech relied on declassified CIA/FBI-related materials posted via a White House website, but hosts argue the documents suggest only modest interference attempts rather than a “stolen election” scale. Talcott says Republicans feared the speech would worsen 2020 claims, but it largely stayed within a reviewed script (CIA-reviewed per John Solomon). The speech also promoted the “Save America Act,” which Talcott says the White House is pushing despite Senate vote obstacles.

Notable examples

Trump cited Venezuela’s Maduro plot as a vulnerability model; hosts mention a DHS review alleging 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote in several states. Later, Tucker praised Democrats for voting against increased Israel aid; the episode discusses Iran claiming strikes on U.S. facilities and reports of shipping disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

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Independent Media's Impact

0:57 to 2:18

Discussion on the role of independent media in the elections.

“Lachlan, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.”

Setting the Stage for Trump's Speech

2:18 to 3:16

Preview of topics including Trump's speech, testosterone directives, and U.S.-Iran tensions.

“It is Friday, July 17th here at Breaking Points Fridays.”

Analyzing Trump's Election Claims

3:16 to 4:26

Insights into Trump's claims about the 2020 election being stolen and international interference.

“Shelby Talcott from December 4 in just a minute.”

The White House's Response

4:26 to 5:40

Discussion on the White House's reaction to Trump's speech and their concerns.

“It was supposed to kind of augment his point about how these electronic voting machines can be tampered with.”

Production Quality and Trump's Delivery

5:40 to 7:07

Critique of the production aspects of Trump's speech and its implications.

“this idea that there is some vast international conspiracy that the American deep state and the media is in on to hurt him at the ballot box and that elections are insecure.”

Examining Trump's Document Claims

7:07 to 8:19

Analysis of the documents released during Trump's speech and their validity.

“I was watching it on the White House feed.”

Bringing in Shelby Talcott

8:19 to 9:46

Introduction of Shelby Talcott to discuss Trump’s speech reactions.

“My quick, well, so my quick read on it is that there's probably a kernel truth in a couple of things.”

Shelby Talcott's Insights on the Speech

9:46 to 11:44

Shelby shares insights about the White House's expectations and reactions to Trump's speech.

“But let's get into the reaction I've seen so far.”

Analyzing Trump's Logic on Election Interference

11:44 to 13:51

Discussion on the inconsistencies in Trump's claims about election interference.

“What do these documents posted on the website actually say?”

Trump's Allegations of Voter Fraud

14:00 to 15:00

Explore Trump's claims about non-citizens voting and the alleged international conspiracy.

“And that does appear, like, what it's looking like to me so far is a question of scale that he wants to allege.”
Show all 34 chapters

Examining Trump's Election Speech Clips

15:00 to 17:00

Analysis of clips from Trump's speech on election integrity and manipulation.

“Okay, and let's also then, Griffin, play the Venezuela clip just so folks get a taste of what was happening.”

The Complex Politics of the SAVE Act

17:00 to 18:45

Discussion on the SAVE Act's implications and political reception among Republicans.

“of walk the line between the 2020 wildness and what our intelligence actually shows?”

Strategic Timing of Trump's Primetime Address

18:45 to 21:40

Analyzing the reasons behind Trump's decision for a primetime address on election security.

“Can we talk about the SAVE Act for a second here?”

Trump's Frustration with Media Coverage

21:40 to 24:10

Exploration of Trump's tensions with media and implications of his remarks during the speech.

“acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, a few weeks ago.”

Fox News Response to Trump's Claims

24:10 to 28:00

Discussion on how Fox News handled Trump's speech and the implications for media integrity.

“And Shelby, finally, he implicated NBC and I think ABC News in some plot and threatened to revoke their licenses, or at least he said they should have their licenses revoked at one point.”

Teleprompter Troubles and Trump's Attention to Detail

28:00 to 31:04

Discussion about Trump's teleprompter operator issues and his obsession with presentation.

“I was just going to say, Emily also mentioned that he was off kilter, but that's because he didn't have his favorite teleprompter operator.”

Shelby Talcott's Insights

31:04 to 31:41

Shelby Talcott shares her work and thoughts on upcoming election integrity issues.

“I still almost said Twitter at Shelby Talcott.”

Tucker Carlson's Controversial Remarks on Israel

34:33 to 42:01

Analysis of Tucker Carlson's comments regarding Democrats and Israel aid amid ongoing conflicts.

“Well, one Tucker Carlson was not impressed with the speech.”

The Impact of Age on Republican Voter Dynamics

42:01 to 45:02

Explore how generational shifts among voters are affecting the Republican party.

“But if that happens, this into the future, it's clearly not going to be a viable position for Republicans.”

The U.S. Stance on Iran and Military Actions

45:03 to 49:14

Discussion on Trump's rhetoric about Iran and the implications of U.S. military actions.

“That's an interesting point because obviously Trump has had a hard time rallying like the international community around the Iran war.”

Testosterone Deficiency and Military Readiness

49:15 to 51:34

Examine new military policies regarding testosterone levels and service member health.

“So if Trump is looking back on Vietnam as like an instructive parallel for a potential long conflict with Iran, good luck.”

Military Recruitment Changes and Cultural Reflections

52:12 to 56:00

Discuss the implications of changing recruitment ages and cultural sentiments around military service.

“Every single day, you are pushed to your absolute physical and mental limits to master the profession.”

Testosterone and Military Recruitment

56:00 to 1:00:08

Exploration of the impact of testosterone levels on military recruitment age adjustments.

“I think it's a male versus female thing, probably.”

Biden's New Book and Media Appearances

1:00:08 to 1:04:47

Discussion of Joe Biden's new book and his media appearances, highlighting the perception of his presidency.

“Well, let's turn our attention to another high T individual.”

Jill Biden's Media Tour and Controversies

1:04:47 to 1:10:00

Critique of Jill Biden's media tour and the implications of her actions regarding her husband's presidency.

“So they're trying to play him off Oscar music style, and he's putting his finger up.”

Discussion on Political Age and Competence

1:10:00 to 1:12:04

Exploring the age of current politicians and their ability to govern effectively.

“But imagine he did really well if it was a stroke, right?”

Wisconsin Elections Breakdown

1:12:04 to 1:13:28

Analyzing the upcoming Wisconsin elections and the potential impact of candidates like Francesca Hong.

“Well, I think that's going to do it for this segment.”

Election Integrity and Public Trust

1:13:28 to 1:15:58

Discussing public trust in elections and the implications of election night vote counting.

“And bear in mind, Bernie trounced Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin.”

Spencer Pratt's Political Journey

1:15:58 to 1:20:06

Examining Spencer Pratt's evolution in politics and the implications of his media presence.

“Like if you look across the board, people's trust in institutions obviously is down, but trust in elections is down and it's not just Republicans.”

Animal Rights and Political Alignment

1:20:06 to 1:24:00

Exploring the intersection of animal rights and political issues among conservatives.

“He's registered Republican, but he's running as an independent, running as an independent.”

Debating Jeremy Scahill's Interview Style

1:24:00 to 1:33:10

Exploration of Jeremy Scahill's questioning approach towards Ro Khanna during an interview.

“He did a pretty good job, I think, of framing it as this isn't good for anybody, including them.”

Behind the Scenes: Eric's Role

1:33:10 to 1:34:25

Discussion about Eric's contribution during the interview and some behind-the-scenes anecdotes.

“Eric loved his style and how he really stepped up for the team, covering Emily's family emergency and Ryan being a no-show.”

Ryan's Lookalike and Comparisons

1:34:25 to 1:37:00

Lighthearted banter about Ryan's resemblance to a controversial figure and the resulting jokes.

“So if Ryan didn't notice, then, you know, I think.”

Ryan's Lookalike and Comparisons

1:38:12 to 1:38:36

Lighthearted banter about Ryan's resemblance to a controversial figure and the resulting jokes.

“People with the Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited 2 % cash rewards on purchases.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. A home World Cup only happens once in a lifetime and we are not missing a second. I'm Castle 1021. On the 1021 podcast, me and the crew break down every match like it's personal. The drama, the upsets, the debates you'll be having all day. Soccer, culture, and chaos in one place. Pick a side? We already did. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:57Lachlan, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song. Well, I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia, A-O Rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y 'all? It's your girl, Sam Jay. And we're the hosts of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together, where We're breaking down the biggest headlines, the viral moments, and the stories everyone's talking about across women's sports.

1:32From game-changing performances to culture-shifting conversations, we'll give you our takes, our debates, and a few laughs along the way. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to Everyone Watches Women's Sports on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Sagar and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.

2:02So if that is something that's important to you, please go to BreakingPoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at BreakingPoints.com.

2:18Saagar Enjeti:Hello. It is Friday, July 17th here at Breaking Points Fridays. Uh-oh, it's me and Emily. Emily, how are you? I'm good, man. You're doing the soccer thing where you scream at the beginning of the show, which the people love. So if it's working, go for it. I was screaming all last night at the TV when we were watching that beautiful Trump speech. Sorry, the rest of the Friday hosts, they had a Taco Bell party without us. And so it's just us here today. It would actually be much more likely to be the other way around, to be fair. Yeah, well, you know what? We're more Del Taco, aren't we? We're Del Taco conservatives.

2:57Saagar Enjeti:So, you know. Never once have I had Del Taco, I'm ashamed to say. Wow. Try their cheeseburger. But anyways, we've got quite a, that's my order of Del Taco. We've got quite a show today, setting aside the fast food anomalies. Trump gave a riveting speech that saved democracy in the nation. We're going to get into that with Shelby Talcott from December 4 in just a minute. We also have some high T testosterone directives from Pete Hegseth. Got some more strikes in Iran with the U.S. and Iran trading strikes over control of the strait. And what else do we have? Oh, we might get into a little bit of Biden towards the end.

3:39Saagar Enjeti:But wow, Emily, we stayed up last night to cover Trump's big speech, his big announcement, which essentially, correct me if I'm wrong, was that the election was stolen in 2020 by China. Well, he was a little more, for example, in Playbook this morning, you could sense, Politico's Playbook, you could sense his aides breathing a sigh of relief because they didn't know how much he would be riffing and how much he would stick to the carefully constructed script. And Shelby can tell us more about this. But I think it was probably a restrained version of Trump still, though, arguing there was a vast international conspiracy to tamper with American elections starting in 2020.

4:26He talks about how Maduro sought to change vote tallies in Venezuela. That was one of his big points. It was not about the United States. It was supposed to kind of augment his point about how these electronic voting machines can be tampered with. And his argument was that Maduro had tried to do it. His argument then was also that China had tried to interfere on behalf of Joe Biden in 2020 and that the FBI slow walked. By the way, if they were doing that in 2020, it would have been under Donald Trump's first administration. But anyway, that the FBI slow walked an investigation into Michigan Democrats trying to have some type of voter interference scheme.

5:07He said the CIA or he said the deep state tried to cover up China's election interference and immediately dumped a bunch of documents. Like, Griffin, I went to the White House website as the speech was happening and there were zip files. on the website. They created a website for the speech. And there were four points, and every single one of them came with its own zip batch of documents, which people have been piecing through. Some are rather amusing. Some are a bit more serious. But he's trying to create this idea that there is some vast international conspiracy that the American deep state and the media is in on to hurt him at the ballot box and that elections are insecure.

5:53And he did a big plug for the Save America Act, of course, at the end of the speech. So my read on it is that just politically, you have a president who is, his frustration is clearly boiling over. And Griffin, on a production level, you rarely see such an L from Trump. Like the staging was off. And why am I mentioning that because, again, I think it just speaks to him being beyond frustrated and starting to spiral a bit. Like inflation is really stubborn because of the Iran war, in some sense because of the Iran war. Obviously, the Iran war has been intractable for him, stubborn, dare I say, and his numbers are showing it.

6:36And clearly he's frustrated. Plus, he can't get Congress to pass his signature piece of legislation. So it felt like he was frustrated. You joked before we came on air that it was giving Joe Brandon.

6:51Saagar Enjeti:He's brandoning in real time. Yeah, it was giving Brandon a little bit. The lighting was really harsh. The mic was so hot. It made him sound really hoarse and it made him sound just weird. And the staging was off kilter. Like you had this gold curtain covering most of the backdrop. Yeah, you can see it here. It's not in this clip. I think Fox zoomed in on the shot. I was watching it on the White House feed. And the White House feed, you got the white wall behind it. So it was off center. So anyway, let's take a listen here. That's probably the biggest crime. Yep. And his government strategy against the United States was focused on undermining domestic confidence in the U.S.

7:31president. They wanted to just make you sound like your president wasn't so hot when actually your president has done a great job. And they did everything possible to do exactly that.

7:44Saagar Enjeti:China was trying to make him not hot when he was very much hot. Yeah, this was so boring, I have to say, just incredibly boring. And, you know, you went to the website. I went to the website when he announced it, and it was very Obamacare because it said temporarily shut down. Oh, really? The website was not active when he first mentioned it. He mentioned quite a few websites too, actually. But yeah, we're supposed to go to a website and learn it all. And I guess we'll get more to this with Shelby, but I didn't see anything in these documents that actually ascertained his claims at all. Did you?

8:20My quick, well, so my quick read on it is that there's probably a kernel truth in a couple of things. Like, for example, we do know that from Peter Strzok to whomever else, there were people inside of the FBI and the CIA, like the CIA was organizing signatures for that 51 former intelligence agents letter that got leaked to Natasha Bertrand at Politico saying the Hunter Biden laptop was fake. So obviously there were people who were using their like intel positions to undermine Trump and that happened during his first presidency. So it wouldn't be insane to me if the presidential daily briefing memos that he released, which are highly redacted, so I don't think they're conclusive at all.

8:56But if those were reflective of some real effort to keep intel about Chinese election interference away from him, it wouldn't surprise me if that had happened. And it also wouldn't surprise me, the stuff about the Michigan voter registration thing wouldn't surprise me. We saw that happening in weird ways in 2020 across the country, but that doesn't amount to a vast international conspiracy to install Joe Biden into office. So the scale and scope of it, I think are the big question is what I would say. So I think we should bring in Shelby to tell us how people inside of the White House are reacting to this.

9:33Shelby Talcott of Semaphore joins us now. Thank you, Shelby, for being here and for staying up late to cover the speech last night so that you could cover it, of course, for your own publication, but also here on Breaking Points. More importantly, for Breaking Points. Yes, of course. Sorry, Ben. Yes, sorry, Ben. But let's get into the reaction I've seen so far. Some of the kind of beltway rags, as we call them, in the biz, Shelby, saying that the White House is breathing a little bit of a sigh of relief right now because people didn't know to what extent Trump would be riffing in his big primetime address last night.

10:08It looks like he's stuck pretty closely to the script, but I don't know. Can you give us what you're hearing from your sources about what the expectation for the speech was and then the reaction to the reality? So Republicans writ large, I think we're really nervous ahead of this speech because, as we know, the president has been focused for years on the 2020 election. We're getting into the midterms. There was a real concern that if the president came up last night and said the 2020 election was stolen, yada, yada, yada, that that was going to really set them back. And so I actually think for a lot of Republican lawmakers, this speech could have gone a lot worse.

10:51He did really stick to the script. You know, John Solomon told reporters afterwards at the White House that every single word of this was reviewed by the CIA. So the administration was taking sort of the legal aspect of this, I think, pretty seriously. And it's notable that the president didn't go off script because, I mean, this is maybe the first, the third time ever that he has stayed on script. And so that's really unusual and I think speaks to just kind of how focused the administration was on what they can say and what they can't say.

11:27Saagar Enjeti:So what were the big takeaways? Because from my layman's experience, it seemed like he was insisting that China in some way affected the 2020 election. But then the documents revealed on the website, according to multiple outlets, don't really say that. What do these documents posted on the website actually say? Yeah, so there were several documents. And I think the big takeaway for me is that, you know, when you heard the president's speech, he was sort of, I think, insinuating a lot more than the actual documents say. So the documents do do note this sort of push from China. But we've also known that for a really long time.

12:08The administration knew that during the first term, like that wasn't necessarily new. And they didn't go so far as to say China did affect the 2020 election. Right. And then there was the Venezuela. aspect, which I thought was really interesting, where the president was talking about this alleged plot by the Maduro regime to influence Venezuelan elections. And the Trump administration believes that that has sort of vulnerabilities for the U.S. elections. But again, the actual documents that the administration posted don't necessarily back that up. They don't go as far as the president was going.

12:44And so for me, the takeaway was that the president sees a lot of these documents as sort of proof of his 2020 stolen election claims, but the actual documents don't go as far as the president is going. But what I also thought was really interesting from the actual speech is we've heard Trump directly say the 2020 election was stolen, et cetera, for years now. And I thought he was much more couched in his analysis. And you could see how the administration was trying to frame this as this is all about looking forward. This is all about election integrity, even as all the documents that were being released were talking about past elections.

13:27Saagar Enjeti:And specifically on that timeline, Emily, before we I just have one more follow up on this. So China, according to Trump, not these documents, China steals the election in 2020. But then now that they've accessed and are successfully hacking our elections, then they allowed Biden to win. So what is the but then they allowed Trump to win again in 2024. So what's the logic there? Yeah, I think that that's an example of sort of the president looking at maybe one specific aspect and coming to a conclusion that the documents don't necessarily conclude and then kind of. just ignoring the rest in his mind.

14:09You know what I mean? Yeah. And that does appear, like, what it's looking like to me so far is a question of scale that he wants to allege. There's this vast international conspiracy. And what the documents show is probably some modest attempts that aren't entirely surprising to the intelligence world. And there's this DHS review we should talk about as well. Trump says his Department of Homeland Security did a big review of voter registration rules and found, I think it was like 278 ,000 non-citizens had been registered to vote in California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. The states are already pushing back on that.

14:48But Griffin, I want to see if we could just roll some tape here of a couple of the clips. Let's go with the votes clip here. Put together, these disclosures reveal an election system so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it. It is not defensible. Okay, and let's also then, Griffin, play the Venezuela clip just so folks get a taste of what was happening. At one point, Shelby, he blamed the media. We'll get your take on that too. Many people have questioned whether it could actually be possible to electronically manipulate vote totals or change election results on these terrible machines.

15:26Today, we are releasing documents that show the CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot to do a big number in favor of the corrupt Maduro regime in Venezuela. And that's exactly what happened, conspiring to digitally rig their own country's elections in 2020. And that's what they did. This reporting included precise details about methods to regime develop to digitally alter vote totals and ways that could not be detected even with an audit, no matter how deep they went. This intelligence underscores why we must take urgent action to ensure that our own system can never, ever be hacked or compromised like it was in the past.

16:17The fourth set of documents. So that's really interesting, the way he finished the last point there, Shelby, because it's obviously giving Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, but he's very, like, much different. He's much more restrained, obviously, than they were. But in this big speech, he's talking about, I mean, I think he might have even started with this point about how it was proven by Maduro, allegedly, that you could tap into the electronic voting machines, which is that he was changing, that Maduro was trying to change vote tallies electronically. And Trump at the very end there said, it's been proven that it can happen.

16:54And then he very carefully says, you know, we know our elections have been corrupted. So is this an effort to kind of walk the line between the 2020 wildness and what our intelligence actually shows? Is any of this from Maduro possibly now that he's been imprisoned in the Southern District of New York? There have been conversations about, or Delce Rodriguez, obviously, who is now basically being told what to do by Secretary Rubio per reporting. Like, that seemed like maybe the riskiest part of the speech. Yeah. And I think that this, my understanding is that this came from sort of a CIA discovery, not necessarily from Maduro himself post arrest.

17:35Of course, I'm sure that they're talking to Maduro and maybe we'll learn more. And I'm sure that they have asked him about this because Trump is so focused on it. But I did think that that language that he used was really interesting. And I think it just goes back to my earlier point of this was a very carefully reviewed speech. And I remember talking to Trump administration officials when they were on the campaign trail, and they were, a lot of them, sort of understood that they weren't going to be able to get Trump to stop focusing on the 2020 election, but hoped that he would. And so there has been sort of this years-long acknowledgement among at least some of the administration officials that this is not necessarily the best thing for the president to focus on, but we can't get him to not focus on it.

18:22So let's try to figure out a way to work around it. And I think this is sort of the first time that you're seeing that they've actually been able to get him to kind of walk around the 2020 stolen election claims instead of, you know, hurtling straight through it.

18:42Saagar Enjeti:Okay. So it's kind of like a participation trophy that he's getting here. That's nice. He was also talking about the SAVE Act. Can we talk about the SAVE Act for a second here? He mentioned that quite a few times. And, you know, that's to, you know, secure our elections ahead of the midterms. But kind of feels like the midterms are already here, that if they even pass the SAVE Act, it would probably not be implemented in time for the midterms. How is he thinking about all of that? And are Republicans, like, hoping that he also kind of drops that? And what's the popularity amongst the GOP in terms of this SAVE Act?

19:20Republicans are past the point, I think, of hoping that he's going to drop it because he very clearly isn't. And this, for people who don't know, the SAVE Act has been a focus of the president's for a few months now. And he's actually held up other legislation, bipartisan legislation, in order to try to get it passed. And so this is something that he has been sort of acutely, acutely focused on, regardless of the fact that lawmakers have come to him and said, we don't have the votes to be able to do this. And so ostensibly, I think that the speech was an effort to get Republicans to pass the Save Act because his the president's thinking was, I'm going to present all of this evidence to show that our elections allegedly aren't secure enough.

20:08And that will change some of these lawmakers' minds. And then this piece of legislation that I want will get passed. That was sort of the whole background reasoning behind this primetime address. I don't know that it's going to work, right? We talked to a lot of Republicans beforehand. We talked to Republicans afterwards. I think people are pretty set in their beliefs at this point about the SAVE Act. And there's no path right now to breaking a filibuster in the Senate either, which the president has called for. And Shelby, I'm sure you saw this Daily Caller report at the time that John Throon, in a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans, basically said, according to multiple sources, that there are some senators who just hate Trump so much that they will refuse to support the Save America Act.

20:54And the reason I put this up on the screen is that I'm curious for your take on the genesis of this speech. Like, is this something that is rooted in Trump's frustrations with Senate Republicans about the Save Act? Is this him genuinely concerned about the midterm elections, which he's also said he doesn't care about? And he's not on the ballot. So is this him trying to claw his way out of where the numbers have gone over the course of the Iran war. Gas prices still hanging pretty high. It could go higher because the MOU blew up, basically. What was this coming from? Why did this have to happen last night?

21:32Why did he decide to make it a primetime address? What was the thinking, as best as you can tell, behind it? So the big reason why it's happening now, I will say, is because the president appointed acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, a few weeks ago. And one of his directives from the president was, I want you to go in there. I want you to declassify all of this stuff from past elections regarding election integrity. And so that was a direct directive for Bill Pulte. And so he went in and on day one started trying to do that. And so that's, I think, the timeline wise, why you're seeing it all of a sudden sort of seemingly randomly come up.

22:14But I also think that the president's thinking on this is he wants to pass the Save America Act first and foremost. And I think it's less about the midterms, which he has grown to care about more than he did a few months ago, and more about his focus, his continued focus on the 2020 election. Interesting.

22:42Saagar Enjeti:What signals that he is caring more about the midterms now? I mean, he's been quite rambunctious with this Iran war, and that seems to not be going well. The economy, gas prices, what was the moment that signaled to you that he's actually cared or worried about the midterms now? I get that sense from people who are close to him inside and outside the administration who have admitted to me in prior months that he is not as focused as they would like him to be on the midterms. And so they have argued that they've seen a little bit of a shift. And I say a little bit. It's not like he is, that is the only thing he's focused on, right?

23:22He's still very much focused on his legacy. He's still very much focused on foreign policy, despite lawmakers urging him to just ignore all of that and talk about the economy and try to get gas prices down. But I think that they sense that over the past few months, he's had some wins, and that has gotten him more interested in the midterms than he was prior. I think originally, his thinking was, and he said this out loud, was, well, you know, every time if a Republican is in office, we do poorly in the midterms. If Democrat is in office, they do poorly in the midterms. So he was kind of like, what's the point?

24:02And I think that the advisors close to him who care really a lot about the midterms have been able to convince him at least a little bit that it is actually important. And Shelby, finally, he implicated NBC and I think ABC News in some plot and threatened to revoke their licenses, or at least he said they should have their licenses revoked at one point. And right. At one point, by the way, or I should say overall, it did seem like the speech was a bit low energy and it did feel kind of off kilter for a man like Trump that like love him or hate him. His skill is television. He schedules his primetime address and it just felt weird for Trump, but we shouldn't downplay, I guess, the severity of what he was alleging and the directions he did go in at certain points, talking about potentially revoking media licenses.

24:52It's a threat that he's made over the last 10 years. But Shelby, why are you complicit in this and why do you hate America? That's my question. Yeah, I'm trying to get out of here. Someone's going to like deceptively clip this. Yeah, that's right. We should. No, we will not do that. But how serious was that moment? And is that also reflecting anything? I guess it's probably not new. He's been doing this over the last 10 years. But I don't know. To me, he just seemed really frustrated, more so than usual in that speech last night. Yeah, it's not new. But also, this term, you have seen him actually act on some of these threats against media companies and against media individuals.

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25:31So I would take it pretty seriously, because this is something that he has grown increasingly frustrated about as much as he has this sort of relationship with the press where he'll answer our calls and he'll, uh, you know, attack a reporter and then talk to them in private and act like nothing's wrong. Um, he has grown really, really frustrated overall with the media. And you've seen that you've seen that in how he has directed the DOJ to go after reporters. You've seen that in the way that Brendan Carr is operating on that side of things. And so I would take that threat seriously. And I do think that there is a growing frustration from him because he feels like nobody is taking these claims seriously, that really he's one of the only people that is still focused on it.

26:26Saagar Enjeti:Well, so it's a very lonely at the top. And And speaking of media companies not taking it seriously, Fox News was very, very careful in their reporting of this speech. I think they're still feeling the sting of the Dominion lawsuits. I think they hear election integrity and they feel trauma, trauma triggers from that. So Fox News, I don't know if you caught any of their coverage, but they were very, very careful to say that even they cannot confirm any of the allegations in the speech or reaction to that. It doesn't surprise me after the lawsuit. And I think that's the reason why a lot of the networks were reluctant to air it live, because you knew that it was going to be about elections and you just don't know what the president is going to say.

27:14And he does have a track record of saying things that aren't backed up by the information that we have. And so I think a lot of the networks took this as, you know, a precaution. I'm sure that they talked to their lawyers who said, listen, this is just not worth it. We'll air portions of it after the fact. We'll talk about it, etc. But Fox is in an interesting position, right? Because they are a conservative leading news outlet that the president watches a lot. But I thought it was really telling that they were so careful in how they were describing his allegations and noting that they were not able to independently verify it.

27:55That came straight from the lawyers, I'm sure.

27:58Saagar Enjeti:And Emily meant—oh, sorry, go for it. Go for it, Griffin. I was just going to say, Emily also mentioned that he was off kilter, but that's because he didn't have his favorite teleprompter operator. No, no, no. Yeah, possibly. This is what I was going to say. I'm vindicating here. I think it was a new guy. It was a new guy. So this teleprompter operator who has now been implicated in a Calci trading situation, and they're trying to maybe get like a settlement where he just says he won't do it again and pays restitution. He'd been with Trump for, what, 10 years, Shelby? So you can tell us now. He had a new guy doing the prompter last night.

28:36Yeah, so Caroline Levitt confirmed that the individual who was the subject of this investigation, who was placing bets, and I think he got like$100 ,000, which I don't know if that's worth ruining your entire life over. That's a question for another day. She confirmed that he is on unpaid administrative leave. And so he was not operating the teleprompter last night. Well, the clips that we've shown so far, this has absolutely nothing to do with anything. But the clips that we've shown so far were zoomed in by the networks. I think we were showing Fox clips. And what you saw on the White House feed was different.

29:16It was completely off center. And it's driving me nuts. Yeah, you can see the white at the end. Yes. And Shelby, it's just, again, it's a small thing. It means absolutely nothing. You care so much about this.

29:25Saagar Enjeti:It's so funny. I'm just saying for Trump, that's weird. Like he never lets that stuff happen. It is really interesting because as we all know, Trump is a performer at heart. He did television for years. And over the years, people have talked about how obsessed he is with how things look, right? He talks about his administration officials being out of central casting. He likes how people look. He will sit down before an interview and there's clips of him out there. There'll be a water next to him and he'll say, no, no, let's put this on this side. And then he'll say, okay, let's move it back. He knows down to the lighting.

30:07He actually will control the lighting. He'll say the lighting should be like this, like you should have it on this number, this warmth. He actually is that detailed. You saw him at the recent, he recently was interviewed by NBC and it was like downpouring rain and whatever structure they were in, I think was like entirely metal. And he was so frustrated by the noise of the rain. He ended the interview. And I think that was part of the reason why it was because there were like all these technical logistical issues. And for him, that like doesn't compute.

30:41Saagar Enjeti:Fascinating. This teleprompter guy, he went down for making like$100 ,000, which I shouldn't be a lot more than that if you know the words that are coming up. These are somehow very conservative bets to me. I think if the speeches are going to continue to be this boring and lethargic, bring that guy back. Let's get the old guy back in there, okay? Let's have some fun. Let's have some fun. Shelby, any final thoughts? That's it for me. All right. Thank you for joining us. Where can people find your work? obviously Semaphore. And where can people find you online? I am on X. I still almost said Twitter at Shelby Talcott.

31:20And then I post on my Instagram, which is just S.B. Talcott. Very nice.

31:28Saagar Enjeti:She's one of the best. Follow Shelby. And we'll, of course, see you soon for potentially more election integrity or whatever else happens this year with the midterms. Thank you. We'll see you soon. Thanks. Right now, the greatest tournament on the planet is happening on home soil, and the whole world showed up. Every match, somebody's dream ends, and somebody becomes a legend. And if you're feeling all of it, the nerves, the heartbreak, the pure joy, you need people to feel it with. That's us. I'm Castle 1021, and this is the 1021 Podcast, where the World Cup meets the culture. We react to every twist, say the takes nobody else will, play the games, call the shots, and celebrate this beautiful game the way it's meant to be.

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34:33Saagar Enjeti:Well, one Tucker Carlson was not impressed with the speech. Maybe this was taped before the speech, but one Tucker Carlson went on a podcast and said, God bless the Democrats. Let's take a listen. I'm so thankful. We were saved by the Democrats. Don't often say that, but it's true in this case. Ten years from now, no member of Congress is going to vote to appropriate money to the IDF because by that point, we'll know exactly what they did in Gaza. So what they're trying to do is codify this and take that decision from a public democratic forum, the Congress, the lawmaking body, and move it to the Pentagon Procurement Office, which is totally opaque.

35:12And that's why BB is like, oh, really? We think we should get off US military aid. No, you're trying to make it permanent in a way people won't perceive. So with O 'Connor, for example, we don't agree on much, but we strongly agree on this. Well, I'm still an outlier on the right, and you guys are too. But on the left, I know from going through airports two days ago, this is a huge issue on the left. And God bless them for making it that against the wishes of their leaders, by the way. Chuck Schumer doesn't want to talk about this, but a lot of Democratic voters do. And I just think representatives watching those three races in New York City, those primaries where Mondani got behind three Democratic socialists and they all beat incumbents.

35:57Like, wow, how'd that happen? Israel. That's how it happened. All right. So that was him on with the American conservative definitely taped, not with the speech, but that was him on with Harry Berger, American conservative guy. They have a good podcast. And Griffin, it does -

36:11Saagar Enjeti:The conservative guy's last name is Berger? That's awesome. He's Glenn's old producer. Oh, very cool. Yeah, he's probably wouldn't call himself conservative, but he does work at TAC anyway. So that's Tucker saying, actually something that reminds me of when he apologized, Griffin, for supporting Trump after the Iran war was launched and saying that he regrets it and has guilt over it. So not entirely surprising, but probably will send Tucker into another controversy spiral on the right for saying God bless the Democrats. But, you know, meanwhile, let's actually just talk a bit about developments in the Iran war, because right now, as we're recording this, according to CBS News, Iran's Revolutionary Guard claimed a new series of strikes targeting U.S.

36:58military facilities across the Middle East on Friday. I'll just put it up on the screen. They say that's bases on Syria, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and Jordan. In Syria, they claim to have sent, quote, large numbers of criminal American forces to their deaths. We don't have any updates about that so far on Friday from the American military. Ship crews on the Strait of Hormuz, CBS says, are unwilling to make the risky trips to the Strait of Hormuz because of the breakdown of the ceasefire. They said they've gone back. This is they're quoting the CEO of a Greek maritime risk management company who said, quote, we've gone back to the worst case scenario.

37:35Nobody is willing to move. The U.S. military said it completed a sixth consecutive night of strikes early Friday, hitting, quote, dozens of Iranian military targets. So again, Griffin, if you're Tucker Carlson, you probably do have a lot of guilt at this point. This is the one thing you had been advocating over and over again against. And then even when some people on the right thought Trump had struck what felt like a durable MOU with the Iranians, it pretty quickly fell back into the escalation trap territory. Yeah.

38:08Saagar Enjeti:So, I mean, Tucker is reacting to this vote to fund aid to Israel that the largest amount of Democrats ever voted against. Even people that, you know, people like Rep. Adam Smith, who are, you know, about Zionists who now see the writing on the wall. Now, it still did pass, but I mean, it was a sea change to see people like Pelosi even see where the winds are blowing, which I think makes, you know, if Pelosi, who is, you know, on her way out, can see where the wind's blowing. But we still have people like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the people that are supposed to be like around for longer.

38:51Saagar Enjeti:They're still going to die on this hill, I think is quite stunning, to be honest with you. What is Catherine Clark? Yeah, Catherine Clark is the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives, not somebody seen as like a squad adjacent person in any way whatsoever. So to see that the number two House Democrat wouldn't even go along with Jeffries on that is really powerful. And to Tucker's point, he said he discovered this in an airport. I think he probably knew this long before. But Griffin, this has become, and you know this, the animating force behind the 2026 primary season for Democrats.

39:30It is where the energy is. It is the central litmus test for Democratic candidates, even to the point where candidates who, in the case of Scott Wiener, simply didn't say they believed it was a genocide quickly enough, are getting shouted out of a pride box. parade, pride event, because again, like he was just too late to it. That's how central of a litmus test it is. And for Hakeem Jeffries to not pick up on that, to still vote the way that he did, I don't know, maybe he's just trying to run out the clock. It's crazy.

40:02Saagar Enjeti:Yeah. And it's like, you know, I think the lines that I hear from the more centrist liberals is just like, why is everyone still talking about Israel? Like, why can't we care about this or that. And it's like, well, they're dumping like$40 million into races across the country. Like it's they have made it impossible to ignore. I would love to have to get to stop talking about Israel and AIPAC. You know, we have to talk about it every week because they are central players, not only in the war that was started, that's raising all the prices in our economy, but in our basic democratic process all across the country.

40:45Saagar Enjeti:So, you know, we would love to stop talking about them. But there's also this question, you know, like, where does like, in your opinion, Emily, like Tucker's, where's Tucker's like base operate? Because if you look at like MAGA base polling on the, they still support the war. So is Tucker's audience now Now, MAGA, is it just young barstool conservatives and then some like disaffected Democrats? You know, I know that Cenk Uygur at the TYT has been trying to make this sort of this MAGA left alliance or what have you. But it really seems like based on this vote that just occurred, that now Tucker is saying God bless them for, that the real route to checking Israel is not with the Republican Party.

41:36Saagar Enjeti:It's with the Democratic Party. At least for now. I mean, that's one thing Republicans are underestimating is how much the public opinion has shifted, particularly with Republicans under the age of 30. So that doesn't necessarily mean there's a change coming imminently. It just means that their position is probably unsustainable, depending on, again, like we're in the middle of Iran is claiming that they killed a bunch of American soldiers. And our military is denying that today. But if that happens, this into the future, it's clearly not going to be a viable position for Republicans. But the question is, there's still plenty of boomers voting Republican.

42:16It's not as polarized with Gen X Republicans. The question is, what happens? When does it become when do millennials and Gen Z voters hit critical mass in the Republican voting bloc? So I get that. So I think for now, it's clearly is from the Democrats. You have people like Thomas Massey who are, you know, as he talked about on Breaking Points this week with Ro Khanna trying to buck the trend a bit. But they're still in the minority. And that's where I think Tucker's audience, to get back to your question, comes from is, yes, MAGA is overwhelmingly still behind Trump on the Iran war. MAGA is favorable towards Israel, but there has been some peeling away of people from MAGA.

42:57It's not a lot. It's a slim minority. Those are the people I think that are listening to Tucker, along with the record number of Americans who identify as independent that we've seen. I think it was Gallup that had that polling. So I think it's people who are more and more identifying, not even as Democrats or Republicans, but as independents. And then also the people who peeled away from MAGA because they thought the one thing Trump would never do is start a war in Iran, which I think it doesn't make a lot of sense to think Trump would not start a war in Iran. But here he was last night talking about how we are winning big in Iran.

43:29Barrels of oil. We are likewise winning big in Iran. And you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly. America is back and doing really well.

43:41Saagar Enjeti:We're back and doing really well. Meanwhile, I wanted to flag, there's been some dust-ups with lots of boats in the strait. U.S. Central Command posted that American forces have redirected three commercial vessels trying to run the blockade, disabled one that didn't comply, and boarded one to ensure full compliance. And I think they have some images here that they threw up of boarding ships. And I do think that this did spook the Iranians a little bit because their one, for lack of a better word, Trump card is control of this straight. And it does seem like as we are resuming hostilities that we're trying to make a bigger show that we are controlling the straight and taking away that card from the Iranians, which I think means that the Iranians have said they're going to have to escalate.

44:35Saagar Enjeti:Um, it does feel to me like the Iranians are really scared of sort of a, like a, like a media story of them actually blowing up like big commercial ships. They've kind of pulled back and, and like restrained themselves from a big slideshow of images where they seem like the bad guys, where they're, where they're taking down a bunch of ships in the strait. But it does seem like with efforts like this, that they're going to have to potentially do that. What do you make of that? that point. That's an interesting point because obviously Trump has had a hard time rallying like the international community around the Iran war.

45:10And I think it's not necessarily because, you know, some of some American allies wouldn't support, especially like more neoconservative folks in those governments wouldn't support a robust military action against Iran. It's probably just because of the way Trump has executed it. Even the fact that we're talking about the Strait of Hormuz right now shows why some of those allies probably have not rallied around Trump. It's just that the Strait of Hormuz was open and the traffic was flowing freely. I mean, the prices in other countries are way more dramatic. If you think that they've been bad here, in places like Australia, they're dealing with this on another level entirely, and they have been over the course of the war.

45:51So I could see how Iran wouldn't necessarily want to give members of the international community who might be American allies' reason to change the way they see the war and to maybe be more supportive. So it could be coming from something like that. But I also think it's worth noting, this is Senator Tommy Tuberville, who was on, I think this is Newsmax, recently saying, this is just in the last 24 hours, quote, I'm all for President Trump and what he does. He knows a lot more about it than we do. I don't think we would put ground troops in Iran. Now, ground troops on Karg Island is different because it is away from mainland Iran.

46:31And I have seen more of a drumbeat Griffin towards potential action on Karg Island just in the last couple of days. So that leaves us back in the escalation trap territory. And even the fact that this is the Strait of Hormuz, which was open. I just it's so ridiculous to even be talking about it because it's not him saying we are winning big in Iran. It makes literally no sense whatsoever, because by that standard, we had won so resoundingly before the war because the train of Hormuz was open and ships were flowing freely through it.

47:10Saagar Enjeti:I am fully tired of the winning here. And it does seem like we are in that escalation trap in that loop. Trump has mentioned we've done forever wars in the past. Vietnam took 19 years, you know, Iraq, Afghanistan. But, you know, Vietnam was not able to halt the global economy, which which then, you know, it questions whether like can this actually go on forever? I mean, we could do it for a little bit, stop, refuel again, I guess. But it does seem to be just structurally so different that that I don't think we can continue this and continue to put these strains on the economy with any kind of political future for the Republicans.

47:54Well, I just don't think the American people, I mean, Vietnam was so different because most of the public was bought into this idea for a long time until we lost so many people in that war. The public was – nuclear warfare was fresh on everybody's mind, literally people diving under desks to do nuclear drills. And the public was much more bought into this idea that the Soviet Union and containment – or let's just say the Soviet Union was a really serious foil to the Western system. And you had that buy-in for containment-type policies and things like the war in Vietnam, where people were genuinely afraid that there was a serious kinetic constant threat of nuclear retaliation from the Soviet Union and a mass casualty, potentially apocalyptic event at any given moment.

48:43And there's nothing like that right now from people related to Iran, which doesn't even, unlike the Soviet Union at the time, does not have nuclear weapons. And so that's, it's much harder for the president to, if he's looking back at Vietnam for the politics of this, which some conservatives do because they look at how Nixon handled it. Now there's a big Nixon renaissance on the right and say, you know, you had the silent majority of the hippie backlash and all those sorts of things. It's not even close in terms of the politics, though, like it's it's not at all in anywhere near what that was.

49:20So if Trump is looking back on Vietnam as like an instructive parallel for a potential long conflict with Iran, good luck. Right now, the greatest tournament on the planet is happening on home soil. and the whole world showed up. Every match, somebody's dream ends and somebody becomes a legend. And if you're feeling all of it, the nerves, the heartbreak, the pure joy, you need people to feel it with. That's us. I'm Castle 1021 and this is the 1021 Podcast where the World Cup meets the culture. We react to every twist, say the takes nobody else will, play the games, call the shots, and celebrate this beautiful game the way it's meant to be.

49:57Loud, proud, and a little bit crazy. Upsets, penalties, the goat debate that never dies. We're in it with you, all the way to the final. So don't watch it alone. Bring the passion, bring the hot takes. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

50:19My first guest is Paris Houghton, Shakira, Luke, and Yerin, Samira, and Gracie. I'm so excited. On the bouncy bed. You have surprises? Many surprises. Welcome to Sweet 305, where the group chat comes to life. What up,. It's like a way to say, Hello, friend. Hello, best friend. Hello, sister. What up,. Look, I've never seen it talk to anyone. Except with my children. My children know. Yes. I'm my lover. Oh. Oh. That's incredible. The movie. You're the only person I know that loves the yellow starburst.

51:05This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Brennan, and on my podcast, Disgraceland, I tell the stories behind music's biggest names, the moments, rumors, and real-life events that help shape their legacy. Like the story behind Sonic Youth that starts with downtown New York cool and ends with album art inspired by a true crime. Sonic Youth was not fronted by a groupie hustling alpha like David Lee Roth. No, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore was an artist in love with a fellow artist who just happened to play bass in the same band with him and his other artist friends.

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52:19Saagar Enjeti:so thankfully we have a new strategic solution to uh change the momentum of the war because it seems like too many of our soldiers are low t now i've been saying this for a long time emily you have you say this every day i'm really happy that the secretary of war pete hegseth came out and he's changing all that at the department of war we have the most elite warriors on the face of the earth. Every single day, you are pushed to your absolute physical and mental limits to master the profession. You demand your all and you give it. But while we invest heavily in our weapons systems, platforms, and gear, our most decisive tactical advantage will always be the individual warfighter.

53:05We have a sacred duty to maintain that advantage, which is why we must constantly look for new ways to optimize your performance, your resilience, and your long-term health. And to meet that commitment today, I'm authorizing a new screening program for testosterone deficiency for our service members, ensuring you have the right testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best. Because it's well-established science that as we age, testosterone levels often naturally drop under the supervision of our world-class medical professionals war fighters age 30 and older are going to be tested annually as part of their periodic health assessment it's a health assessment that happens every year we're just adding this test those under 30 can voluntarily choose to get the test as well okay good treatment is recommended It's entirely your choice to receive testosterone replacement therapy.

54:05Saagar Enjeti:All right. So we're going to get everyone on testosterone. How do you feel about that, Emily? Is this a breaking points policy? Will this also be implemented for our team so that we can also operate? I'm not saying that the women, I don't want to single out any sex, but so that maybe the men on the show could operate at their highest level. I've been giving the men estrogen, which I thought, you know, would help. You've been dusting Ryan's coffee. I have. I have. Sagar's specialty brand of coffee or whatever. You know, this also leads, I think, a little bit. Sagar's probably all for this, by the way.

54:44I wish Sagar were here because he would probably fully endorse this from Secretary Hegseth.

54:49Saagar Enjeti:Yes. Everyone should get a testosterone and a pack of Zin, which I'm sure they already have. Now, this kind of also leads to a flyover that occurred that was getting some comments. Have you seen this flyover, Emily? No.

55:12Oh, was this 4th of July? I think I saw this.

55:14Saagar Enjeti:If you're just listening to the podcast, we've got a U.S. Navy jet fighter flying feet above a beach of onlookers here that maybe this was the first guy to get on some tea here. He was just high teeth, high teeth flying. Well, actually, Griffin, this reminded me. Go ahead. Are you are you are you a fan of this? Is this patriotic, near collisions with crowds of people? I got a still image here. I also want to pull up while you react to it. Oh, yeah. That's incredible. I mean, listen, that's impressive flying. It's a dangerous flying. That's impressive flying. Yeah. You know, the flyers just don't really ever do it for me.

56:00I think it's a male versus female thing, probably. I know men get really excited about the planes going fast.

56:07Saagar Enjeti:It's not my thing. I love it. And I want to I want to one up it. I want to say, you know, let's not just flyovers. I want to do drive overs. I want to lay down in the street and have the tanks roll over me. You know, I want to I want to sit between the tracks. You would like that. Well, on a serious note, did you catch the point where he's talking about as you age, your testosterone goes down? It reminded me of people probably remember back in March. The Army, I'm looking at an ABC News headline, quote, extends maximum recruitment age to 42, allowing older recruits to join. So it might actually be reacting to the fact that in order to meet recruitment targets, I would imagine that's why they extended the age.

56:52I don't want to mock it too much. So that's a jump from 35 years old to 42. That happened during 2006. That was the Iraq war. But then they brought it back down to 35, according to this ABC News report. Marines capped at 28, I think. Like, listen, it's not entirely crazy as people are just like maximizing longevity, living longer, those sorts of things that you would bump it up to 42. The average 42-year-old who would be interested in joining the army right now, that is to say self-selecting group of people is probably healthier than they were, I don't know, 40 years ago, just based on like what your biological age is.

57:36I don't know. There's a lot of unhealthy Americans out there, of course. But anyway, maybe this is what it's about is they have an older group of people joining the Army now and you can screen yourself for testosterone.

57:51Saagar Enjeti:I want to meet the 42-year-old that's signing up to get involved. That would be a very interesting breaking point interview. Someone was very happy about the testosterone news, though, and one Jesse Waters on Fox. Let's hear what he has to say. you lose your endurance muscle mass so yeah i want these guys on it but you know what's going to happen the guys that don't need it are going to take it to triple boost right and then they're going to get out there and women on base you guys better be careful port calls women in asia you better be careful because these guys are going to be animals you better watch out you should have held his hand i yeah but i don't know if i would have all right so jesse likes it watch out in asia they're gonna rape you which by the way from jesse waters who has admitted to having an affair with his producer this man knows uh high t behavior so well yeah maybe maybe uh you know uh So high T that he tried to have a fist fight with Ryan Grimm.

59:03Saagar Enjeti:That was a low T. That was probably pre-testosterone because I think he got his ass kicked. High T Ryan. Ryan should be the one lecturing us about testosterone. I would love to see Ryan on some testosterone instead of what he normally does, which is microdose. But maybe we can all microdose a little T, but maybe leave the pork call women alone, if we can, if we can avoid it, or we'll have to go back to estrogen. My take on this is that it seems like it might be a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but it seems rather telling that they decided to make a big public show of this with a message from Hegseth, like a direct-to-camera announcement bragging about it.

59:53I could see that there's probably... possibly some medical rationale for doing this. But Hagseth doing this like direct to camera, big rollout of it is somewhat amusing. All right.

1:00:09Saagar Enjeti:Well, let's turn our attention to another high T individual. I, of course, am speaking about Joe Biden, who is out with a new book about his times and travels. Let's take a listen.

1:00:27Since I was the presidency, I've had a lot of people ask me, Joe, what have you been doing?

1:00:37I've been spending a lot of time with my family. I've been dealing with a cancer diagnosis, and I've been getting treatment, and it's been going really well.

1:00:44Saagar Enjeti:Oh, good. I want to take all those over their prayers and support and well wishes. They've spent the world to me and to Jill. I've written a book about my time as president It's called Promise Me America It's coming out in November It's available for pre-order now Alright, well it goes on for another minute 30 that I will not subject people to but let me just say so he's going through a cancer treatment but he was going to be president again and this is an edited thing that he probably got multiple takes and is still slurring through it. I mean, what an incredible, I guess just an ego that he's still willing to walk out there when I think the majority of the Democratic Party wants to never hear from him again.

1:01:36It's amazing. And the book, actually, now that you say that, it's worth mentioning, is coming out, I think, November 17th. So it's coming out after the midterms, which Jill Biden did not have the courtesy to wait for. Jill Biden dropped that book, what was it, last month? and has been on a disastrous media tour. Do you have the clip, Griffin, of... It's horrible. Horrible. Crystal said this in our group chat yesterday. I was watching it and thought that I was actually physically going to have some type of allergic reaction. This is 90 Second and Why. A weird moment at the end of a Jill Biden book talk with Whoopi Goldberg.

1:02:14If you're listening to this, they're on stage at 90 Second and Why. Biden himself is in the crowd. and they are clapping and turning to him.

1:02:31All right.

1:02:33Saagar Enjeti:So lots of applause. He's wandering up to the front. He's sauntering up. Saunter. Slowly. All right. All right. Oh, Joe has a question. like you couldn't ask it later who do you love most in the whole world whoopie

1:03:04and so I'm going to do the last

1:03:11I love you most Joe is that the answer he wanted Yes.

1:03:21Overwhelming. Well, that's what keeps him on his toes. He's never 100 % sure. I always keep him guessing. Is that not true? He's doing the sign of the cross.

1:03:32Saagar Enjeti:Mm-hmm. I thought you'd like that, Emily. The first thing I have to say is, please remind people to pick up... Now I know it's his book. So Whoopi's trying to reassert control over the stage, but Joe has not laughed. Joe is frozen at the front here. Oh, yeah. They roll out a racial slur. Wait, really? I missed that. Let's go back. To pick up. Now I know it says books, but look up. Oh, yeah. It looks like books. Oh, my. Unbelievable. What? What is going on? Jill, you're not you're not senile. Like what is that possible? It's infectious, maybe. Yes, you're right. But I'm going to remind them. but I'm to remind people to pick up books on your way out.

1:04:26The name of the book is The View from the East Wing and that concludes our conversation. Thank you so much.

1:04:35Saagar Enjeti:Okay, so now they hug and now Joe is still there and he's trying to get some more words in. He's like a sad puppy.

1:04:46Saagar Enjeti:I'm going to have to lower the... So they're trying to play him off Oscar music style, and he's putting his finger up.

1:04:58Saagar Enjeti:Sir.

1:05:03Saagar Enjeti:So now they hand him a mic. This book, which comes out in September. Do I have to remind him this is my event?

1:05:17the only thing jill does better than right she's a beautiful woman oh wow

1:05:26i always say that about crystal as you wander around the stage the only thing crystal's better right she's beautiful woman

1:05:36Saagar Enjeti:beautiful woman incredible that's the if that's the one thing she's right about it's that That was terrible. Yeah. These people don't understand that everyone hates them now. I mean, I guess, I mean, like, maybe the people in that room are fine or whatever. But, I mean, it's, like, Jill Biden, Jill, not Joe, is such a villain. Like, the fact that this is, like, some level of elder abuse that she was trying to drag him through. I mean, this guy can't operate a car, much less like a golf cart. And she wanted this guy to be in office for another four years so she could, what, like, do more rearrangement of the rose garden?

1:06:20Saagar Enjeti:Like, it's just so slimy and evil. But I guess you got to sell your books. Got to get your book sales out there. But I cannot imagine him doing four more years in office. Yeah, it's great to never lose sight of that. And you probably remember when it was Favreau on Pod Save a couple of months back was talking about how it's not as though people are going to the polls and saying, I refuse to vote Democrat because I don't trust the Democratic Party that told me Joe Biden was fine and should be president and then, you know, prevented us from having a real primary after he had to drop out in the debate.

1:06:57But it's something that lingers in people's heads and probably is a huge barrier for them to voting Democrat in the future. Now, Republicans will have a similar problem with Trump, probably, where people just don't necessarily trust all of the folks around Trump. If they're running for if J.D. Vance is running for office and there's a general election and he's the Republican nominee, Trump is at 56 percent on popularity, unfavorability, I should say, in the real politics average right now. So it's not like it's just a Democrat problem. But when you see videos like this, I think it does remind people of how much enabling complicity and just evil there was surrounding Biden.

1:07:35The media's unwillingness to publish tough stories until like the very last minute is just crazy, is absolutely crazy. And yes, the White House was threatening people, bullying the press and trying to conceal this. and they couldn't at a certain point, they couldn't keep a lid on it. But to see it now and think that he could be the sitting president of the United States is just, yeah, it's a reminder of how, I think you're right, Jill Biden ends up looking truly despicable because she's out there hawking her book. Her husband's the president, the former president, and they're making him like sit and they clearly don't want to deal with him when he wants to say something.

1:08:17They're making him like sit in the audience. He doesn't want to just sit in the audience. He wants to say something. He wants to promote his own book. And they're like, get out of here. Get out of here. This is the Jill show.

1:08:28Saagar Enjeti:Yeah, I mean, I think like a smart Democratic Party would get rid of her completely. Like, I think they should. I mean, I don't know. No one's going to read these books. They're just going to fill up warehouses somewhere. Whoopi should refuse to do events like that. 92nd and Why should refuse to do events like that? Yeah, I mean, it's absolutely absurd. And I just wanted us to just take a trip down memory lane to when things could have been changed, when there could have been a pivot. Jill Biden stuck her nails in even deeper into probably my favorite quote of the 2024 election, that you knew all the facts.

1:09:06Saagar Enjeti:You answered every question. This is after Biden's disastrous debate. Let's drop it. Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. You knew all the facts.

1:09:22And let me ask the crowd, what did Trump do? Lie. So she writes about this in her book and says she believes that Biden was having her husband. At one point during the debate when he crashes out and says we beat Medicaid, she says she thought he was having a stroke and then went on stage afterwards. and says, you did a great job. You do all the facts. And talks about in the book, what was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to do? No, don't do the event afterwards. Cancel the event. If you thought your husband had a stroke, get him to a hospital, ma 'am.

1:09:59Saagar Enjeti:Yeah, she said it was a stroke. But imagine he did really well if it was a stroke, right? That's pretty good. That's a good point. That's a good point. Actually, if anything, she was just being honest because he did know all the facts and answered every question despite having a stroke, which is something to celebrate. Yes. And I guess that takes us like full circle from what, you know, felt like Trump in some stage of the brandoning, decaying process. I think he's Trump is just more at the lethargic kind of sleepy Joe, I would say, stage. We're not at the wandering stage with Trump as much. But wow, we truly do have some of the oldest politicians that have ever spoken to or been alive.

1:10:48Saagar Enjeti:I mean, it is truly embarrassing. So I think we will leave. Well, you said alive, but we don't. We're not fully sure about that. There's a man right now who is in control of a committee that does defense appropriations as we are funding the war in Ukraine. and are now basically at war in Iran, who there's serious debate about whether or not he's alive, and that would be Mitch McConnell. So while you said they're alive, I just wanted to add that clarification, Griffin. It's a bit unclear. You know, I appreciate that flag. And actually, in context, I have a lot more respect for Mitch McConnell because he's not trying to speak.

1:11:28Saagar Enjeti:He's not trying to put out a book. He doesn't know all the facts. He's not going to answer every question. Exactly. That's classy. I respect that. You know, like we don't. Finally an honest politician. And I don't have to deal with his wife. His wife just immediately just disappeared to China. She was in China and didn't think she had to come back, even though we now know the 9-1-1 call is that he was unresponsive and CPR was being performed. It just didn't warrant her returning from a trip to China where she was meeting with some of Xi Jinping's top allies. So good stuff. Thank you, Elaine. Ciao.

1:12:03Saagar Enjeti:The love story of a lifetime. Well, I think that's going to do it for this segment. All right, let's answer some questions from the Breaking Points members. Of course, you can submit one yourself if you become a member at BreakingPoints.com, and we try to read them on Fridays. Let's start with Bohegas Kevin. Would Emily consider giving a breakdown of Wisconsin's upcoming elections? Now, I have been tracking one Francesca Hong, another DSA candidate, another crazy communist who is running for governor of Wisconsin. Now, what do you think her chances are? Well, I think they're probably not terrible.

1:12:46If we're talking about the primary, I think it's possible she wins the primary. Wisconsin, I think people forget, is one of the kind of traditional socialist bastions in modern American history. So it's not like completely insane that a socialist in Wisconsin would have some chance in a general election. That obviously gets a lot tougher. But we should, Griffin, I think, zoom in on that race. I want to say it's the week after the Michigan primary. So it'll be front and center in the weeks ahead. But it's definitely an interesting Democratic primary to watch just because you have a state like Wisconsin with a history of socialism, with a lot of the problems that DSA folks are talking about.

1:13:33And bear in mind, Bernie trounced Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin. Like it was not even close in the primary in 2016. So not crazy that Francesca Hong. I just don't I don't know. Like, we should have her on. Obviously, I'm the right. I think we're watching next week. So, okay, good. Yeah, I'm on the right. So my perspective is deeply skeptical, but we'll see what happens. I was driving through. Because it's just the DSA thing? Well, I mean, not just the DSA thing. I probably have more in common with some DSA folks on particular issues than I do with some Republicans on particular issues, but also a bunch more differences.

1:14:10But still, I'm driving through rural Wisconsin. I was driving through rural Wisconsin on Tuesday, and the amount of Trump signs, still significant. I drove past one that was like homemade, big sign on the highway. And it said King Trump, 2028. King Trump, 2028.

1:14:31Saagar Enjeti:I love that. Homemade. Incredible. You got to get one of those in LA. Put it outside your apartment. Yeah, absolutely. I would get completely evicted. I would have to get Spencer Pratt to protect me on that one. Who is Spencer Pratt? You know, he's like, he's fully, he's fully, he tried to be a little like MAGA light, but now he's like full, he's full like MAGA. How do you, how do you feel about Spencer Pratt right now as a sore loser, but now kind of like social media pundit? I think Spencer Pratt's still really interesting. Probably, so Trump, we didn't even mention this earlier in the show, but Trump brought up the Pratt race in his speech last night.

1:15:12and this is where the election stuff is kind of frustrating from my perspective because it's just indisputably true i was arguing with some uh people on my instagram about this like it's indisputably true that when you have dms arguing with people i love it wasn't the dms it was in the comments section um but it's indisputably true when you have this pattern where votes come in on election night nithya raman is crying the margin is massive and then over the course of the week, it changes. Yes, I understand fully the reason that happens. Mail-in balance. She cries all the time. Well, that's fair.

1:15:46But I understand fully the reason that happens. It is going to make people think crazy shit's happening in the background, no matter what. And I think the same thing is true with the electronic voting machines. They just make people feel weird. And so there are real questions. Like if you look across the board, people's trust in institutions obviously is down, but trust in elections is down and it's not just Republicans. And so I do think there is room for us to come to some solutions about how to do this better. But it makes me so frustrated when Trump, I think, preys on, you know, this is what he did in 2020, like went in super crazy directions and preyed on people's legitimate concerns about, for example, Mark Zuckerberg coming in, pouring all this money into like dem areas disproportionately to Republican ones.

1:16:35That's a real thing. That is like an actual billionaire coming in and trying to shift the election in ways that make people uncomfortable. But then you just end up with this silly stuff. But you're actually in L.A., Griffin. So I'm kind of curious for what your take is on Pratt right now. I think, just let me tee this up by saying his new war foundation is explicitly, yeah, is explicitly going to be acting in a journalistic capacity. And my theory of that case is smart new media politicians realize, like Momdani did, that bringing new information to voters, remember his food kiosk? Actually, it was a food truck video, right?

1:17:13During his campaign.

1:17:14Saagar Enjeti:The halal-flation? Yes. It was him bringing new information on social media. That's what does well on social media, is like, I am exposing something. And I think that's what Pratt is actually kind of doing right now in ways that Dems are not prepared for unless they're Momdani-pilled. Yeah, but the thing about Pratt that was like sort of like confusing and frustrating. Like he doesn't really know where he's running because I do think that Pratt was probably charismatic and forceful enough to peel off some normie liberals. Like I talked to a few normie liberals who even think that something was like funky with the election or what have you, that it was odd that Pratt was up and down.

1:17:58Saagar Enjeti:Now, in reality, it would be insane for the commie Karen Bass to rig the polls. Karen Bassura. For her to rig the polls so that Nithya, who is much more likely to beat her in a one-on-one than Pratt, like she wanted Pratt to be in the top two with her. So it would be insane for her to rig the election to knock out Pratt from the top two generals. So it just doesn't make sense on a stolen election strategy. Well, unless it was a Nithya thing. That would be his rebuttal. I'm not saying it was, obviously. I'm just saying you can see where people would be like, Nithya can't tie her shoes. She can't even cut a video.

1:18:41Saagar Enjeti:She's going to steal the elections. I mean, I'm sorry. That's also, I think, complimenting Nithya a little too much. But with the Pratt thing, it's like he did have a shot at it. But in the last two weeks before the election, he's like in New York City. He's going on Gutfeld and Fox News. Yeah. What a mistake. Like he should have been going on Pod Save America. He should be talking to fucking Alana Glazer. He should be he should be trying to talk to Amy Poehler, you know, about whatever, whatever the fuck happens on the Amy Poehler podcast. But I mean, maybe that maybe they wouldn't have let him on.

1:19:22Saagar Enjeti:I think Pod Save would have let him on. so I just think it was a total mistake strategically for him in how he played it so I kind of lost what little respect that I had for him and I'm like where's the reality show I want the reality show now I guess but you think he's going to be doing sort of a vertical new media thing where he just like whines and complains because I don't think there's any political future for him in California especially as he seems to post loss be kind of pulling off the mask and even being more clearly right wing than before. So that's a good point that if he's going to go full MAGA, he becomes less viable in California because his he was insistent during the election that he was running as an independent.

1:20:10He's registered Republican, but he's running as an independent, running as an independent. And there are a lot of voters in like if you go inland in California, it gets much redder pretty quickly than like it's there's less. people, obviously, but it does change. And it's just a kind of different state the further inland you go versus the coast. So there's something there. I mean, there's something there for a person who does a good job at like meeting the moment, as I think Pratt did during the election. But to your point, if that's the trajectory long term, it probably does make him less viable.

1:20:46on the other hand I do think if he starts going back to the roots of the Pratt campaign several months ago where he's like going into Skid Row and being like why is this getting bigger what are they doing to dogs that stuff can be powerful but if it's combined with full MAGA it's certainly not going to be viable I think that's right Griffin

1:21:06Saagar Enjeti:we do need to save the Skid Row dogs that's actually how I first experienced the Pratt campaign is I was helping volunteering at Skid Row. And I had no idea that all the people at Skid Row were like, were like Ridoids because we were talking about the dogs. And that's why we need Spencer Pratt. I was like, oh, what? Really? You were out there harvesting ballots for Nithya Ramen and Skid Row? I was. I was. I was taking a hit off the crack pipe. I was signing people up. It was incredible. But were you out there helping puppies? because you do yeah i mean it it is it is terrible down there and and when i tell people about it they treat me like i'm a crazy fox news alex jones host when i talk about the horrible things that happen down there but they are really happening um and that was pratt's that was like pratt's power in a sense to to talk about some of the things that we that are happening that are real and, you know, that the city in certain ways is falling apart.

1:22:09Saagar Enjeti:So that was his power. The group that's mostly responsible, at least from an outside organization perspective, nonprofit perspective, for pushing to end gain-of-function research and undermine the credibility of Anthony Fauci is called White Coat Waste. And we've had them on the show before. It involves people who used to be with PETA and said, we think we can get Republican voters to support ending animal testing, even if they don't have like a super moral PETA style ethical objection to it because it's like wasteful government spending. But during the pandemic, they used that and actually had like a major priority on the beagles accomplished because they said, we're going to work with Republicans.

1:22:51And now you see a lot of Republicans like Nancy Mace and others being like, actually, this is terrible. Like they worked with the Maha movement. And sometimes you can get shit done that way.

1:23:00Saagar Enjeti:Why do conservatives own the animal issue? Why do you think that is? That's new. Is that new? They seem to be ahead of the game on that. Oh, it's totally new. There was that beagle rescue that was not political. It wasn't a rhidoid thing. But I do see the conservatives, is it because it's an easy moral issue for them to talk about when they feel like they don't have a lot of other moral issues to stand on? I don't know where it's coming from. And but it does seem like they care a little bit about more about dogs than than homeless people and their rights and experiences on the streets. But I'll take what I can get as a dog lover, I guess.

1:23:38I don't know. I thought it was interesting how Pratt was pretty. He did a good job of breaking the Republican. What's the best way to put it? We've now spent so much time on Spencer Pratt, but like he did do a good job. But he did a good job of not falling into the trap of how Republicans typically talk about homeless populations and addicts on the streets. He did a pretty good job, I think, of framing it as this isn't good for anybody, including them. And the dogs were a gateway drug to that point. I feel like where you just say nobody is thriving in this situation. But yeah, your point about how it's an easy moral victory is well taken.

1:24:17Saagar Enjeti:So let's get away from Pratt for a second. I'm sure he'll be rearing his head again in future AMAs. This person doesn't have a name, just called Subscriber. Would you call Jeremy Scahill's session with Ro Khanna an interview or an inquisition? For what it's worth, it sure felt like an inquisition to me. I thought it was horrible. Emily, you've seen the clips. Well, Taibbi wrote a post yesterday. Let's go. Laying into Ryan and Jeremy. He criticized Ryan for petting his dog during the interview, but that was Ryan's cat, I believe, not Ryan's dog. But that was a criticism. Yeah. He was really critical.

1:25:00He was really critical of Jeremy for being, I think he would probably say, performative and not looking to get a real answer out of Roe, but just looking to make a point and make an argument more than elicit an answer. I actually disagree with that. My take on it is that Jeremy comes from a position where he genuinely believes what he's saying. And his frustration with Ro, I'm very curious what you make of this, Griffin. His frustration with Ro Khanna is that he's come out here and positioned himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause. But from Jeremy's perspective, as somebody who's been in those trenches for a long time, he's saying nobody is going to push Ro Khanna.

1:25:46to be consistent. And I agree more with Roe on his position than I agree with Jeremy's position. But I actually thought that was a fairly courageous line of questioning. And I thought he was trying to get a real answer out of Ro Khanna about whether the, quote, armed resistance of Hamas had any legitimate military or could make any claim to legitimate military action on October 7th. Now, obviously, that was a terrorist attack. Jeremy was saying that it started as an attack on military institutions. Seems to me like it was a planned terrorist attack. But I thought from Jeremy's perspective, he was pushing Kanna to be consistent.

1:26:29And I do think he was trying to get him to say yes or no, genuinely. So I totally disagreed. I thought it was, if you have Jeremy's worldview, and you're looking at Ro Khanna become the sort champion of the Palestinian cause in the American Congress, then asking whether there is any legitimate room for an armed resistance against the Israeli government seems like a legitimate line of questioning if that's your worldview. So I totally disagree with the criticisms of it. I don't know, but I'm curious what you thought.

1:27:05Saagar Enjeti:Yeah, I guess if Roe was like, well, you can attack the military bases but then when you attack the the music festival or whatever that's when it becomes a terrorist attack or something i do think it's interesting that for the last two years the litmus test has been is it a genocide which wrote rana has has said but now now we're going to go to was october 7th justified which i think is very interesting and really you know But he wasn't saying—

1:28:05narrowing it down to that and trying to say, is that acceptable at any level whatsoever? And I thought that like seeing Ro's answer was genuinely valuable. And even Jeremy's critics seem to have thought it was valuable because they've used it to explain how Ro, from their perspective, his worldview falls apart when pressed on that particular question. Now, I don't agree with that, but he wasn't saying like, do you justify a tax on the music festival? And you're saying, is there any legitimate military, like, I don't know. I think he was using an example to make that point.

1:28:42Saagar Enjeti:Yeah, which I think, of course, there is. If you're being occupied by a foreign power, I think these are actual, like, laws, like, laws of war that you are allowed to engage in military actions against an occupying force, an illegal occupying force. What would you say to that? I was thinking about this over the course of the week, and I think that's part of what the problem is for Palestinians who are in Gaza and want a solution to the problem. It's like your option right now is Hamas, which is terroristic. And you don't have like sort of a best way to put it, non-terroristic, more legitimate representation.

1:29:34Saagar Enjeti:Sure. I mean, it was said in the interview. Oh, more. Rose said, I'm more Dr. King than Malcolm X or what have you. But they tried the Dr. King route. and, you know, they did the march of return. They all got shot in the kneecap. That's also mentioned in the interview. That's what Jerry said, yeah. So at what point then do you, have you exhausted all options or what have you? I mean, I think Roe's been really brave, braver than most Democrats on this. And I also respect that Roe is willing to just kind of sit there and like, you know, duke it out and fight it out. I think like most politicians are not going to do that.

1:30:13Saagar Enjeti:and I think that they should because regardless of Roe's answer, there's some respect there to go through that interview. And I also, I guess, because I don't have anything super smart to say, I wanted to mention what Ryan kind of said in the post-interview once Roe was gone. He made this comment about Lincoln that when Lincoln was running, when Lincoln was president, he was never saying the things that the abolitionists would say, sort of the most far left abolitionists, things that every, I think, American today would feel like is the normal base reality. That segregation is wrong, you know, that we need racial justice.

1:31:00He wasn't saying burn the Constitution, go full John Brown. Yeah.

1:31:04Saagar Enjeti:Yeah, he wasn't saying any of that stuff, but he was, you know, behind the scenes working with, you know, abolitionists and organizers and all that stuff to create a coalition that included the most far left abolitionists and more of the, at the time, more of the kind of the weaker liberal positions on this. And so I thought that was an interesting point, too. And I do think that is somewhere where Roe can kind of fit. Well, yeah, and he does come from the tradition, like he mentioned, of Gandhi. Like his grandfather, I believe, was an associate of Gandhi. And that's where I come down to. I think it's part of the problem with the IDF is that you end up justifying mass civilian deaths for a particular goal, and you're going in a really bad direction.

1:31:54And that is obviously, obviously a massive problem if you're genuinely trying to justify October 7th or any other terrorist activities from Hamas. And it sucks if you're a Palestinian who doesn't want to see that happening to Israeli civilians either. And you're in this position where they're like basically between a rock and a hard place. It's something, of course, that every political movement has dealt with. to the point about Malcolm X, the point about, I mean, think about like the anti-abortion movement, which I consider myself a part of. They historically in the last 30 years have dealt with this question.

1:32:28It's not really something people talk about now. But they were saying, if you genuinely believe that thousands of babies are being slaughtered every single day, then that's why people were saying, well, let's go ahead and firebomb abortion clinics. Not good. It's not good. It's not the right answer. But it's not unique to one political movement or another. The question of what justifies the protection of human life is a real one.

1:32:59Saagar Enjeti:Yes. So I think we've come down on it was an inquisition, but a just inquisition by Jeremy Scahill. It was an inquisition. not all inquisitions are bad they're not all made the same um all right let's do one last one now this is an amalgamation of multiple multiple comments here um so everyone's asking about eric

1:33:27Saagar Enjeti:so we had an interview with uh donovan mckinney who's running for congress in in michigan uh Jake Mogul asks, will we be getting more from the Wednesday host? Eric loved his style and how he really stepped up for the team, covering Emily's family emergency and Ryan being a no-show. Yes. So I'll give a little bit behind the scenes here. When we bring people in remotely, they are on Zoom call. And the Zoom window had Eric at the bottom under Ryan because Eric is our studio manager that runs the controls. So Eric's name was on the Zoom call, which confused Donovan and made him think that Brian's name was Eric.

1:34:12Saagar Enjeti:So it's not Donovan's fault. It is my fault. That has now been changed. It now just says breaking points. And by the way, that doesn't mean he's not a real breaking points fan because if that happens and you're maybe nervous and you're doing a media hit and you want to make sure you get it right, in your mind in those high pressure moments it can go to weird places like you can suddenly be like oh okay so i'll just i'll do what's on the screen or like am i wrong like i feel like you're being gaslit you're like it says eric i know that's ryan but it says eric yeah he's a big ryan fan um so i think i think that was that was that was my fault but then it ryan you i told ryan after you got to correct him at some point you got to say something and i say and we we told Ryan after the interview and he goes, oh, really?

1:35:01Saagar Enjeti:He didn't even notice. So if Ryan didn't notice, then, you know, I think. Okay. So this is actually more funny behind the scenes because, so I was back in Wisconsin from my grandfather's funeral and travel got super messed up because it was in the middle of like basically nowhere. And so we're scrambling to make this happen, which is why I was coming to everybody from the Milwaukee airport. But I'm getting the show messages as I'm going through security and I'm getting random notes from Griffin saying like, no, we need to end this before there's another Eric. Correct him. I'm like, what the fuck is happening?

1:35:41Saagar Enjeti:We've reached the maximum of Eric.

1:35:48Saagar Enjeti:That's awesome. And finally, we'll end with a really fun one from benjamin krebs ryan can you address allegations you're distantly related to the gilgo beach killer rex hugherman you look eerily similar i'm gonna throw this up on screen this does not look like ryan no it does not but people think that ryan looks like tate reeves who i could say does look a little bit like the gilgo beach killer um this is so Ryan, yeah, put this up. Ryan owns this. He posts this on X all the time. I think it's an unflattering comparison because I don't think it's, I think Ryan's got some real riz on Tate Reeves, but Ryan owns this comparison.

1:36:31I think it's the hair and the glasses when Ryan was doing Rising did look like this. Yeah, the hair and makeup woman at Rising when we were co-hosting there definitely gave Ryan the Tate Reeves.

1:36:44Saagar Enjeti:Wow. Well, for audio-only listeners, Tate Reeves looks like if Ryan was not on Ozempic and high T. This is a low T. This is a low T version of Ryan. He was the Republican governor of Mississippi. All right. Well, I think on that note, that's going to do it for us on this Friday show. It was a Griffin and Emily show. We barely made it, but we are here. And I think we did okay. I thought we did okay. I'd give us a five out of ten. I thought we, I was going to suggest we do a review of the new Armie Hammer film, Citizen Vigilante. Oh, we should do that. An ooey bull flick. So look forward to that potentially as a weekend clip sometime.

1:37:33Saagar Enjeti:Have you seen those clips? They're terrible. They're so bad. Oh my gosh, they're so bad. The funniest part of all of it is that Armie Hammer says he cried when watching the footage. It's like, bro, like, how are you surprised? You shot the footage. You think I didn't cover this on After Party? I was all over that leak to puck news from Armie Hammer. Give me back on After Party. I thought that we cried. Such bullshit. Give me back on After Party. We got to talk about it. All right, guys. Everyone enjoy your weekend. And we'll see you back on Monday with a far more traditional Breaking Points program.

1:38:08Saagar Enjeti:and we'll see you all later. Bye-bye. Wasn't that delicious? So good. Your bill, ladies? I got it. No, I got it. Seriously, I insist. I insisted first. Oh, don't be silly. You don't be silly. People with the Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card prefer to pay because they earn unlimited 2 % cash rewards on purchases. Okay, rock, paper, scissors for it. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. No! The Wells Fargo Active Cash credit card. Visit wellsfargo.com slash activecash. Terms apply.

1:39:06podcasts. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. The dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. We're launching Podlandia AO Rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Kreisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here.

1:39:39You fully improvised, not just words, but a song. Well, I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia, AAO Rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.

From the publisher

Emily and Griffin break down Trump's elections speech with Shelby Talcott from Semafor. We ask Shelby if there is any substance to Trump's claims about 2020, Maduro, China Hacking and more. Then we turn to Tucker praising Democrats for voting No to funding Israel as well as more U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz in attempts to control boat traffic. We take a look at Pete Hegseth's new 'High Testosterone' soldiers and finally an insanely embarrassing Biden book tour moment.

Shelby Talcott: https://x.com/ShelbyTalcott

Emily: https://www.youtube.com/@AfterPartyEmily

Griffin: https://www.youtube.com/@choomroomYT 

 

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7/17/26: Trump's Wild Elections Speech, Tucker Praises Democrats On Israel Vote, Embarrassing Biden Book TourBreaking Points with Krystal and Saagar · 1 h 31 min
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