This Is The Dark Reason Trump Terrified Graham

0:00This podcast is supported by Anthropic, the public benefit corporation behind Claude. Everyone's got a hard question about AI. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai slash Spotify and keep thinking. That's claude.ai slash Spotify. I felt very clearly he was afraid of Donald Trump. I don't think that there's anybody in Washington at any informed level who was not aware that Lindsey Graham was gay. But Lindsey Graham was also in the closet. What did that mean to Donald Trump? I'm not sure that it meant anything more to Donald Trump than he had something on Lindsey.

0:49Lindsey Graham was an absolute suck-up. He decided that this was how he was going to play this. Sucking up was the basic price of admission. It was the entire thing. That was what you had to do in order to get more access, in order to sustain access. It was just a question of how much sucking you were willing to do.

1:15Michael. Joanna. Why are we being quiet this morning? Because do we... Death, because of death. Because of death. OK, so the slush fund, big slap in the face for Trump from the Miami judge. Mitch McConnell, dead or alive, hostage videos. Lindsey Graham, definitely dead. And has, I guess my first question for you inside Trump's head, which is where we go three times a week to poke around and see what's left in there, is, well, let me read the truth social that Donald Trump put out on Sunday. Well, maybe it was Saturday night. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known, is dead.

2:05He was always working and was a true American patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed. Three exclamation points. Details and arrangements to follow. So sad. Single exclamation point. Is it possible that Donald Trump is actually sad about Lindsey Graham? Well, let me, I think my answer to that would be, involves the setup to this, to how a truth, one of these posts gets done. And this is a definitely, I will guarantee this, it's a Trump saying, Natalie, we need a post on Lindsey. That's it. So that's the sentiment here. Okay, this is interesting because I had an argument with someone over the weekend about this.

2:50And I said, why can't we have a president that just puts out something that feels solemn and slightly formal? And he was like, you've missed the point. This is how people talk. This is why people love Donald Trump. Well, yeah. And it's a sort of a double point here. He gets this because they know, the staff, Natalie particularly, knows that they have to write in Donald Trump's voice. But surely this isn't Donald Trump's voice with three exclamation points. It feels like a teenage girl. It feels like Natalie Harp's voice. It is Donald, well, Natalie Harp's voice and Donald Trump's voice intersect at some point.

3:28Right. Because she does, I'd say she does the overwhelming number of posts are from Natalie. I mean, there are a lot of the posts that are from him. But I'd say because considering how many posts there are, I'd say she does three quarters of the posts. So she's the social media whiz behind him. What's interesting is how few people are on Truth Social. I mean, obviously his true socials get picked up, but it's amazing how he'll post something like this and there's 4 ,000 likes. I mean, we've discussed this before. I mean, this was a constant theme during the campaign because he would post in this obsessive, crazy, pathological fashion.

4:16And the staff would say, oh, my God, thank God he's not on X or Twitter. Oh, interesting because nobody sees it. God, no one sees this. Right, except they do see it. Well, no, actually, they don't. There are so many. So all we see is those few that actually surface in the media. Otherwise, first thing, you can't keep up with them. Right. And secondly, the entire media would be nothing but Donald Trump's posts otherwise. Well, you can clearly see who's got inside his head over the weekend because there was a post of John Ossoff looking like, well, it said Pee Wee Herman, and then there's a picture of Pee Wee Herman and John Ossoff.

4:59And then there was a picture of Alfred E. Newman on the cover of Mad next to James Tallarico with one of his teeth blacked out. Okay, that's Natalie. Okay, that's Natalie. I mean, she's the art. Donald Trump doesn't do art. Right. So when he's posting himself as Jesus, that's Natalie, is it? Totally Natalie, yes. Right. Interesting. And then the other thing, and it's interesting, I want to come back to the question of whether Donald Trump is upset about the death of his friend Lindsey Graham. His golfing buddy, right? They golfed over 150 times. He has a lot of dead golfing buddies. But those foursomes, it's just, you know.

5:40There's always one person that's not able to come. That's a very, very curb your enthusiasm line. But the – so this idea that Lindsey Graham's sister is going to replace him in the – Darlene. Darlene in the Senate, you know, basically take up his stub term. And then the – so I think that we're explaining that. That is being explained as Donald Trump posted a truth social about this, and that's why it happened. That's not why it happened. Why did it happen? Well, first thing, it always happens. Nobody wants an empty seat. Nobody wants the process of calling a special election takes X amount of time.

6:33They want somebody who will cast the reliable vote. They want someone in the confirmation hearings this week who's going to vote for Todd Blanche. Exactly. So they do this. So that's the – and it's also a kind of a tip of the hat thing. Everybody likes this, the voters in South Carolina. It's a death thing. It's a death thing. I think it's remarkable that so many – I mean I was looking it up. I think 38 widows have followed their husbands into their seats in the House and then eight senators. You know, it's a commonplace thing. There's actually even there is a West Wing episode about this. OK, I just want you to know that were you to have a crash on the jitney and to sadly be no longer with us, which I hope doesn't happen, I'm not going to be calling your sister.

7:28I like your sister very much. I've met her. I don't think that she would be as good as you are at going inside Trump's head. You would call my wife in a heartbeat and she would fill in and no one would remember me. Yes. Okay, Victoria, we have a plan B should something happen to Michael. But. This podcast is supported by Anthropic, the public benefit corporation behind Claude. Everyone's got a hard question about AI. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai slash Spotify and keep thinking.

8:08That's claude.ai slash Spotify.

8:13This is more about, not about that custom, which is a weird custom. You're absolutely right, but it is a... It's totally weird custom. It's the epitome of Nepo or Nepo. Is it Nepo or Nepo? It is Nepo. But yeah, I'm not sure. It's not because it's not really nobody is really getting anything. It's just literally you're a placeholder. Give me the family. It's a political tip of the hat. It probably actually doesn't happen if the if the if the particular whoever dies is a hated person in the state. And they probably then they probably do something else. But, you know, names in politics are a big deal.

8:56Brands, brand names. So, but this idea that this came from him, I mean, I just want to, I think it's important to understand these truth social and these truth social posts are essentially a major tool of this administration of Donald Trump. This is all lobbying. People call him. They're online. Can he do a truth social post about this? Can he do a truth social post about that? We need this. We can't get this through. We can't get this on the media agenda unless he does this. I myself have gotten truth social posts about myself. I've gotten Donald Trump to say terrible things about me because it, you know, helps sell books.

9:48whoa you've got donald trump to say terrible things about you because it sells books so so you just you just tweet about my book i need you to treat social about yes yes i i wouldn't it would be more complicated than that i will go to someone i know in the white house um who then will do me a favor and then will suggest to trump that you know i'm a terrible person and um so for For example, with your first book. So this is all everybody. So remember this. This is all everybody is kind of. There's an act of manipulation going on. So everybody's working it at all times. So, for example, with your first book, when I think he asked for an injunction, didn't he?

10:32Yes, that was legitimate. I mean, it was not legitimate, but that was spontaneous. Okay, that was spontaneous. But otherwise, you've just been hustling the president like everybody else. Yes, of course. I mean, there's a few others that he's just he's expressed genuine ire. But otherwise, it's it's people calling, you know, somebody calling me. I mean, there's one person from the White House who I remember there was a particular post about me. And then this and then this and the person in the White House called me and said, you owe me. interesting so so can we just get back to my first question please is donald trump sad is he impacted emotionally psychologically by the sudden death of someone who does appear to have been a friend or at least a golfing buddy over 150 games um is he is he impacted emotionally and psychologically by Lindsey Graham dying.

11:33I mean, the man was nine years younger than Donald Trump. Yes, I mean, I wouldn't go... He's not breaking down about it. But did he... I mean, I think so, yeah. I mean, you know, yes, he's a golfing buddy. I think he's lost, literally, it's true, he has lost a lot of foursome members. And it does, you know, I'm sure it does affect him somewhat. But, you know, he's the president of the United States. I mean, let's not even see this exactly in a Donald Trump context. He's the president of the United States. He's dealing with lots and lots and lots of people in a professional capacity at all times.

12:22So how much? Yeah, I'm sure he's. But wasn't Lindsay someone who was very useful because he was carrying information back and forth? Yes, but that becomes a political setback. I'm sure that he sees this as a political inconvenience. Right. So you knew Lindsey Graham. Thoughts?

12:47I liked Lindsey Graham. I mean, I liked him, you know, a great deal, actually. Now, I think I would say that about anyone who talks to me in a relatively unvarnished way. So you have a kind of relationship with sources that develop over, you know, how open are you going to be with me? It's not only how open, but how informative. You know, you speak to a lot of people, you call up a lot of people, and then you get the same old stuff. You didn't really even have to speak to them. You could have just imagined what they would say. Lindsey Graham, I would speak to him, and then he would say something interesting, something funny, something, you know, a slight turn on what you're asking him about.

13:45Oh, I hadn't thought about that. And he would do it. he had the ability, you know, and he didn't really know me. We didn't know each other very well. But he had the ability to kind of create that kind of rapport. And he was, I think it was, and I think this is an important... He was a source for your books, is that what you're saying? Yes, he was a source. But in fact, I think he was everybody's source. Right. I mean, I've often thought that in Washington, there are only five sources and they are the five sources for everybody. Right. They're just people who decide to talk. There are people who decide to talk.

14:30There are people who like to talk. There are people who who who who see an advantage in in in having their story, their version being being being top of mind. You know, there was a Woodward and Bernstein story about, you know, Deep Throat. And it came out that Deep Throat was, they identified him as Mark Felt, who was, I think, an assistant director of the FBI. But the truth is, Mark Felt was everybody's source during Watergate. So that was a kind of one of those interesting constructs. I mean, we've given him a name and he's deep throat in parking lots and all that. But everybody, Mark Felt talked to everybody during that period.

15:29Okay, so Lindsey Graham was a source of some of the stories about Trump. Did Trump know and mind?

15:40I don't know. So, you know, that's an interesting question, and I don't know the answer. And remember, Lindsey Graham, it wasn't as if he was necessarily dissing the president. I mean, he was giving a, I would describe it as giving a full picture. He had a sense of the contradictions going on there. He had a sense of the game, of playing the Trump game. And I would say two things about Lindsey. There are two ways of looking at this, that here was a guy clearly who enjoyed playing the game. He was a guy who clearly understood the game. Here was a guy who very much he was willing to be Trump's caddy if it got him what he wanted.

16:37That was the game. So I put that on one side. The other side is I felt very clearly he was afraid of Donald Trump. Go on. You know, and he would talk about this, about Trump was a, you know, I remember once he described Trump in animal terms. He's like, you know, you don't know. I mean, it's like a wild animal. You don't know if he'll turn on you. Like the bison in Yellowstone that just tossed that poor grandfather in the air. Yes, and Donald Trump kind of looks like a bison. Yes, we've always said he looks like a bison. Right. But I felt that. I felt that that was that he understood that he was playing with fire.

17:20He understood that Donald Trump could, was a very volatile presence who could, if he was unhappy with you, he would take it out on you. And, you know, behind this, there was this thing. So Lindsey Graham was by, you know, I don't think there's anyone, there was no question of, there didn't, I don't think that there's anybody in Washington at any informed level who was not aware that Lindsey Graham was gay. But Lindsey Graham was also in the closet. So, you know, he's 71. And when you say he was gay, did he have relationships? Did he have lovers? Or was he gay but didn't act on it? No, I think he probably had relationship.

18:07I don't know. But certainly that was always the discussion. So there was always the thing. And within this was also a discussion within the Trump circle. So this was very known. And what did that mean to Donald Trump? You know, I'm not sure that it meant anything more to Donald Trump than he had something on Lindsay. And the thing that you're saying he had on him was that he was gay. He knew he was gay. I think that there was, yeah. I mean, again, this is, Lindsey Graham never, he never said, I'm gay and Donald Trump is going to, you know, if I'm going to use it again. Yeah, if I don't suck up to Donald Trump, I'm screwed.

19:02Never, of course, never anything like that. But again, that sense of Donald Trump as this unknown, a constant variable. What is he going to do? Everyone's got a hard question about AI. Your job, your kids, where it's going. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai slash Spotify and keep thinking. That's claude.ai slash Spotify. And Lindsey Graham having something that he was vulnerable over, because one assumes that... Of course. Or certainly when he first got elected, obviously less so now, but representing South Carolina.

19:56Yeah, no. And even now, I think it's, you know, I mean, 71 years old and you haven't fessed up to this. Yeah, I mean, I think now Lindsey Graham obviously also knew the game. You know, people are this is politics. This is power at a very high level. If you're if people will do anything to you, nothing is off limits in this context. And you will also do anything, right? So he would swap 180. 80, I mean, what was it? Donald Trump said 40 minutes after Lindsey Graham said January the 6th is enough. Enough is enough. I'm out. 40 minutes later, he called Donald Trump and said, oh, that wasn't me. I didn't really mean it.

20:40I don't know why I said that. Oh, yeah, no, no, no. And we shouldn't. I mean, Lindsey Graham was an absolute suck up. He decided that this was how he was going to play this, how he had to play this, how he, how, how, to what advantage it would be to play it this way. An absolute suck up. I mean, an embarrassing suck up. And people within the Trump circle would joke about this. You know, if you needed somebody to reassure the president, you call Lindsay. Lindsay Coves and tells the president, you know, So you're fantastic. Yeah. Right. And also it got him what he wanted, which is proximity to power.

21:24I mean, it's such a – it's so evident. It was so open, his constant changing of positions, that this is what you had to do to get proximity to power to Trump. Yeah, no, and I think it makes the point. The more you suck up. Mm-hmm. So sucking up was not just the price of, you know, the basic price of admission. It was the entire thing. That was what you had to do in order to get more access, in order to sustain access, in order for your access to be greater than anyone else's. It was just a question of how much sucking you were willing to do. But we've also discussed how Trump wants people to suck up, but he also despises people who suck up.

22:16It's a complicated thing how to do that. And I often think that that was why Lindsay and so many others then would have a parallel life talking about Donald Trump. I was just going to say, right, that the way that you offset the suck-uppery and the shame of the suck-upperie is that you then try and tell truths about Donald Trump and undermine him in a different way. But it's very, you know, I mean, this is not, so it's not, understand this, it's not just, oh, all I have to do is suck up to Donald Trump and then I get what I want and that's just basic and easy. it's very difficult because you have to suck up to Donald Trump at the same time he's showing contempt for you sucking up so how do you navigate that without killing yourself and did Lindsay Graham maybe he did maybe I don't think he did I think it was an aortic schism no but if we say if we say he might have we just sort of you know that'll be conspiracy clicks right a whole new business.

23:27A whole new business. So before we go on to the ultimate conspiracy going on right now, which is Mitch McConnell, did Lindsey Graham like Donald Trump? Was he a necessary evil for Lindsey to get as close to power as he could? And maybe Donald Trump was the president that gave him. I don't think really like is a consideration in this context. He's the president of the United States. He's capable of giving you anything that you want, of extending you power beyond your wildest dreams. No. So you don't really think in terms of liking. And if you were forced to think in terms of liking, no, you would say, no, this guy's a monster.

24:13And do you think he will get his Russia sanctions? Reward in heaven. No, I wasn't going to say that. I was going to say, do you think he will be able to get his Russian sanctions bill through? I mean, that was his plan for the week. Yeah, well, death often helps you in these things. Yeah, people, it's another death tip. We have to give this for the memory of Lindsay. So Darlene will step in for Lindsay, and she and Richard Blumenthal, senator from Connecticut, who was working on it with him, will get it through. I'd say there's a good chance, yeah. Okay, so next question, given the Nepo nature of American politics, should Elaine Chao just step in for Mitch McConnell at this point?

25:10No, well, he has to be dead. Well, does he have to be dead or couldn't he just step aside? I mean, he doesn't seem to be speaking. That's the weird thing. Why didn't they just release a video? Everybody has a cell phone. It's very straightforward. Well, you know, this is, you know, there is no conspiracy. This is only a conspiracy that you and others have created. This is a. I haven't created this. Laura Loomer. Laura Loomer. Okay, this is, this is, yeah, and this is the click conspiracy. Let's go to something that's probably much more basic here. The guy is in terrible shape. He's at the absolute end of his career.

25:51Nobody wants to say to him, now put this on him at this point. You're out. You're in such bad shape. I think that this is just a kind of a courtesy moment which his family especially is observing. And they're saying, we don't care about this. We don't care what people say. All our only concern is this guy is suffering. He's had a long career. He doesn't deserve this. and we are trying with as much dignity as possible and there isn't much letting this run its course. And we don't care about Trump who we really hate actually and we're not really thinking about the Senate. We're not thinking about the business of the Senate or the business of the country.

26:43We're just thinking about, you know, Mitch, our husband or father or whatever. But that's his team is actually putting out statements saying Mitch is very much engaged. He's, you know, we're having discussions about Iran, which we're going to come on to in a minute. Well, yeah, he's probably there's some on some basis. Yeah, well, I think that he can probably listen and probably is somewhat responsive. Yeah. I mean, I think he's quite a... He's in bad shape. He has been in bad shape for a long time. So this should not come as a surprise. And they're just trying to run out the clock with as much sensitivity to him as possible.

27:32So that's the conspiracy. Sensitivity. Okay, so look. Lumen sensitivity. So Laura Loomer, not one for enormous amounts of sensitivity, it appears, says he's in a persistent vegetative state, that she put this out on social media, and that the White House, who will call her if she gets things wrong, hasn't called her about this. What do you mean the White House will call her if she gets things wrong? Well, she says that she speaks to the president sometimes. She only does what the president wants. So this is she's acting. Remember, Donald Trump hates Mitch McConnell. I would say right up there with all of the people that he hates.

28:14Mitch is maybe right at the top of that list. And so, yeah, so I think he's now torturing Mitch in his final moments. Interesting. So Trump is torturing Mitch. Yeah, clearly. I don't know how we continue talking about this, but the Strait of Hormuz is closed again. The memo of understanding seems to be disintegrating as we speak. I mean, it's kind of, no, no. I mean, I was thinking about this. This is yet another seminal moment in this ongoing war that Donald Trump can't extract him or... or the United States from. So, and we just go on these cycles again. Just, it's just on repeat, you know, and Trump is always on repeat because he has such a limited range of intelligence.

29:17Finally, this is what this is about. Limited range of understanding gives him a limited range of options. And so we're back again to where we were, if not last week, then the week before. and several, many, many weeks before that, saying that this is a Donald Trump who promised no forever wars is now in, obviously, is a forever war. Do you think he regrets it? Yeah, well, I think he regrets being in a forever war, yeah. Does he, but I think you're asking a different question. Does he believe that what he's done, that he made errors that have gotten him into this position and gotten the United States into this position.

30:07No, he never acknowledges an error, doesn't seem to have the capacity to or the self-awareness to appreciate that he might have made an error. You know, this is just, again, someone else's fault. everyone's got a hard question about ai your job your kids where it's going anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way because there's hope in hard questions ask yours at claude.ai slash spotify and keep thinking that's claude.ai slash spotify so he really does seem to be in a situation where the memo of understanding has evaporated each side is attacking the other again this could go on and on yeah that's what's called a forever war yeah and again clearly of his making the memo of understanding was was meant all things to all people.

31:13Therefore, you know, the Strait of Hormuz, you know, that point of vulnerability, which has from the beginning of this war, has stood out. And now this other weird thing of him charging. Right. So both sides now want to charge for the Strait of Hormuz, right after Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, head of national security, governor of Venezuela, whatever he is, all his different jobs, said it's against international law for anybody to charge. But this is a Trump thing, and you can see how he does it. We're going to charge. No, I'm going to charge. You know, it's that old, fuck you. No, fuck you.

32:00Right. So he's learned his foreign diplomacy from watching Scorsese movies. Yeah. Well, it's just, again, to understand the limitations here, just the limitations of intelligence, which is what it is. I mean, he just doesn't know what to do. He reacts in such a narrow fashion to almost anything. Think about his language. The language is always narrow, the same language for any situation, the same 11 words used over and over again. Right. Well, I feel like we're using the same words over and over again for the Strait of Hormuz because what else are you supposed to say? I mean, it feels like we're now stuck in this, as you say, forever.

32:49Well, we of course are stuck. So, and we're stuck because of his limitations in getting us into it and then getting us out of it. Well, and also his sort of obsession with being what he thinks of as the smartest man in the room, when in fact they've fired all the smart people who had a sense of nuance and who'd negotiated with Iran before. Yeah, well, which wouldn't make any difference because remember he doesn't listen to anyone. Right, okay. I mean, that's why he fires these people, because they try to tell him things. And he doesn't want to hear. Doesn't want to hear. All right. So are the Democrats going to be able to articulate this in the run-up to the election?

33:37And we mustn't forget that Trump is addressing the nation on Thursday at 9 o 'clock, apparently, Eastern time. He's going to talk about election fraud. he's basically laying out his campaign strategy, which is to sow doubt in the American election system, which for the most part is pretty damn good. Yeah, what's the question? Well, the question is, the question is, are the Democrats going to be able to use the forever war and show voters that actually five presidents were begged by Netanyahu to get into this war, turned it down and Trump was the only fool that was bamboozled into it. I think it's just the price of the gas pump.

34:26I think the explanation for this is complicated and now it's going to be exacerbated by the fact that no one knows where this is. What's happening there now? Are we at war? Are we not at war? do we have a ceasefire? And we will have another ceasefire. Remember, this is going to go again and he's going to give whatever it takes. There will be another ceasefire in the next two weeks, three weeks, something like that. And then we will go through this again. So it just gets so tedious and boring and people switch off because they're like, I can't stand any more of it. I don't know what's happening.

35:07I don't need to understand it. Exactly. Um, so, but it, but they do understand if the, if the price of the gas pump is, is, um, um, hurts, then, then that will have an effect. But Trump also knows this. So he's looking at this too, say, what do we have to do? What do I have to give them now at this to maintain the price, you know, to bring the price of gas down? He's already bragging about bringing the gas, the price of gas down as though he as though he's not the reason it did not go up. As if he weren't responsible for the lift in the prices. All right. So let's come on then to your, I thought, quite surprising column on Substack about Bernie Sanders.

35:51Please explain. We're in this moment by what is the Democrats, the entire Democratic Party is in a, you know, holding their skirts around them because of all of these fairly far left socialist candidates are winning Democratic primaries. I mean, unexpected. I'm not sure this should have been unexpected, but it is to the establishment, the party leaders, completely unexpected. And they completely don't know what to do about this. And it's now is a situation, is the Democratic Party at war with itself? and I mean I was thinking about this and I was thinking where who are these people too I don't know who these people are I mean none of them has seemed to ever have had a job before and you know that one person identified as a grad student um um you know they and more importantly none of them have created jobs right well they haven't done anything they're they're they're just literally people who have a, who stand for this ideological position, but with no evidence that they can turn that into accomplishments or legislation or, so you think, what is this?

37:20Who are these people? How did they get there? And there is probably an answer. They got there because of Bernie Sanders. They're all Bernie Sanders people. He endorses them. That's how they get elected. He, you know, and I was interested in it. Last year when Bernie Sanders and AOC did this oligarchy tour, and everybody sort of, the Democrats especially, poobahed this and this. They would go around from city to city and turn out 25, 30, 40 ,000 people. So that reminded me of when Donald Trump did this in 2016 and the Democrats said, oh, yeah, that's so, you know, Bush. The Republicans said that.

38:06So Bush League. Right. No, the Democrats said this is Bush League stuff. You know, this is not how we do politics anymore going from, you know, stadium to stadium. What is this, the 19th century? Right. We're going to fill Hillary with her policy statements. Yeah, who couldn't turn out, you know, 30 people. So I was thinking about that and I was thinking that this is, you know, there is something here. There is meaning here. There is power here and power that the Democrats are ignoring. And over all this period of time, this tenure, this Trump period of time, there's only one Democrat who has consistently been there, not gone away, continued to build his base.

39:00His people have radiated out into the broader political field, electing these people. I mean, all of these, the people who are getting elected are being elected by people who have worked for Bernie. Right. So who's the guy? The guy over this long period of time, this one Democrat, it's Bernie Sanders. And how old is Bernie now? I want to read one paragraph from it. He's 84. He's 84. So we go 10 years ago when he first emerged as the unlikely national figure. Sanders' age was held against him. 10 years ago it was held against him. even though he was leading a youthful uprising. However, age was hardly his only disqualifier.

39:44There was his quixotic socialism, his unreconstructed leftiness, and even more difficult and irritating in grown-up politics, his almost belligerent moralism. Moralism. I love that paragraph. And then let's also talk, because there's another very observational point of us here. This is great. There are those of us old enough, this would be me, you, to see with some amusement Sanders as an entirely recognizable figure from a time when lefty Jewishness was, well, leftiness itself of a rather hoary sort. Jewish summer camp, socialist uncles, folk music, and in my case, a brief teen tenure as a member of the YPSL, the Young People's Socialist League.

40:39It seems somewhat hard to reconcile the Mamdani's and the AOC's and the El Syed's, that's the guy in Michigan, and Chevalier's New York, and EGAD the Platonist, though hopefully there isn't more than one, with this tradition. not unlikely these Sanders Knicks have little idea that their socialism springs from this Jewish neighborhood so interesting yeah no so and and I think that that at the end of the day who is there who is the democrat that is rises above all others you know and there's and there's a big you know this big kind of kind of search for who is the most ascendant who is the ascendant democrat But you're not suggesting that Bernie Sanders at the age of he would be 86 would run in 2028?

41:30No, but I'm suggesting that this Bernie bros or these Bernie sisters or this Bernie cadre is what, because Bernie is now too old, probably too old. These people are the replacement of that. They are what's rising because of Bernie, because he is the uncrowned king of the Democratic Party.

42:23Spotify. Uncrowned King. Okay, so your friend Andy Beshear is now making noise. And of course, you think of if the Mitch McConnell situation were happening in California, I think Gavin Newsom would have been having a field day with this. I think he would have been out there, would have been frantically posting. He would see this as an opportunity for Gavin Newsom to step forward. Andy Beshear is a little bit more reticent. Andy, this could be your moment. But he senses that there is a moment and he might be able to seize it. So he's been teasing us with the idea that he might apply to appoint a special senator while Mitch McConnell is sitting on the sidelines like this.

43:06Right. He seemed very tentative about it. He told MS Now on a Sunday night, which if you want to bury the news or bury an idea, that's a good place to put it. Both on a Sunday night and both on MS Now.

43:24Well, the guy is running for president, yes. And somebody said, I mean, this apparently can't happen. So the law was changed. It used to be that the sitting governor could, in the event that there was a vacancy, he could make the appointment. This, several years ago, was changed, perhaps anticipating Mitch's certain decline. And now the law provides for a special election. A special election, I think, relatively soon also. Well, I think he can appoint someone and he's saying that he's not acknowledging the change in the law. So he wants to hold the whole thing up with a legal challenge, which would be an interesting thing for Andy Beshear to do to get on the national radar.

44:18There is a moment here for Andy Beshear to break out of his milk toast, good old Kentucky governor, and actually take a stand. People might like it. He could make some good trouble. Well, possibly. I mean, it's a dicey thing for Andy Beshear because, you know, Mitch McConnell is very popular in Kentucky. It's not dicey in terms of him thinking about his future. He has to make some noise. Nobody knows who he is. But that's what you have to do when you're a governor of a swing state. You have to balance that. Yes, you can make national noise and become an American liberal. hero, but then you're going to have to return to your own relatively red state.

45:10So if you were advising him, as he was summoned to do last summer at a dinner for him, or not to advise him, but to share ideas. Well, share ideas, listen to his ideas. Listen to his policy paragraphs. Yes. He's good looking, I will say. I think he's got better looking. No, I think he should probably. I mean, he probably, he has to decide what he's going to do. Is he the straight Pete Buttigieg? No, no. Pete is much more charismatic. Pete is a pretty good retail politician. I mean, out there, I mean, he's a... But Andy Boucher must be quite good because, as you say, he's a Democratic governor in a red state.

46:00Well, I think one of the ways you get to be a Democratic governor in a red state is that you act more like a Republican. Well, perhaps people don't know he's a Democrat. Yeah, that's the point. I think it's, I mean, you bore everyone to death. I mean, I think that can be, that can work and seems to have worked for him. I don't know how you do that. And there's a lot. I mean, right now, Andy Beshear and a whole list of other people in the Democratic Party who are not Bernie Sanders, but who are in their own way competing with Bernie or being measured against him. You know, what's the, you know, the contrast gainer, that is a significant element of modern politics.

46:52Why do we have Donald Trump? Because he managed to look different from every other person in the Republican Party. And because he put out this tweet about, or this truth social about Lindsey Graham that sounds like a teenage girl, and it's oddly effective. Right. So that kind of thing. Can you communicate? Can Andy Beshear communicate? You know, it's a reach. Perhaps he should do his version of this. Lindsay will be greatly missed exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point. Literally what everybody is told in corporate America, never use an exclamation point. It's embarrassing. It's emotional.

47:32And of course, Donald Trump does it. So sad, exclamation point, no space. The lack of grammar in this really irritated me. But maybe Andy Beshear needs to do that. Yeah, well, I think Andy Beshear has to figure out how to be Andy Beshear in a way that is, I guess, surprising to people, I guess, that gets attention, which is probably a contradiction in terms. So unless... I cannot imagine what makes Andy Beshear president. Not that he would be a bad president. He seems like a very intelligent, reasonable guy. And I think maybe that's what you try to argue. The country is now run, the world is now run by crazy people.

48:33What has happened at this moment in contemporary history is that the crazies have been allowed to rise to the top. And Andy Beshear very much seems not crazy. Okay. That's some campaign. I am not crazy. I am not crazy. I am not crazy. All right, so we have many questions. Max, the intern, has been collecting your comments and questions, and we've got a few questions I want to address directly with you. First question, Michael, is from someone called David Burton, and it's, I've just got to ask, does Mick, odd nickname for you, bleach his eyebrows? I had never noticed your eyebrows before. No, I think what you would notice is that I don't bleach them, and perhaps I should.

49:30What color would you bleach? Well, if you bleach them, you're going to bleach them blond, I suppose. I don't know. Or white. It doesn't even cross my mind. David Burton, you didn't tell us. Do you want him to bleach his eyebrows? Someone says, does anyone have the vaguest idea on how to talk to these two? Does that mean we're untalkable to, or she's trying to reach us? This is from Kelly Key Sands. Kelly, we have, well, you've just talked to us. But it might mean something else. It might mean like we're like Donald Trump. You can't, you know, all we do is talk and we don't let anyone. Right. We have a resistance to more information coming in.

50:08We totally forgot to comment on, as several people pointed out, but Natalie Brown in particular pointed out that we didn't mention the fact that Trump talked about the Islamic Republic of Japan. and I missed that well he did we missed a lot of it because and where did he talk about that was that in a post it was in I think it was when he was on the plane he's always on the plane which plane well good question Air Force, Griff Force One and here is rather a good joke from Lindsay but the Qataris Griff Force One Well, Griff Force One is the Qatari plane that we have spent$600 million at this point refitting with all sorts of things.

50:58But he got$400 million worth of value from the plane. And then he gets to keep it. Or does he? Okay, this is from Lindsay Viath. Quite a good joke, actually. What happens to a liar when he dies? Well, I see the punchline here. Okay, well, give us the punchline. It's a good one. He lies still. I thought it was a good joke. Thank you, Lindsay. We're up for jokes, actually. Expands the limerickness of it all. Michael, there is no pro-abortion. It's pro-choice. Good point out from Lee Dipp. But why do I have to subscribe to someone else's language on this? It's pro-abortion. It's like you believe that abortions should be legal.

51:45We call it pro-choice because we think that that will somehow elide the fact that an abortion is being performed. It's taking place. All right, well, you have your point of view. There you go, Lee. This is what happens if you take on Michael. Be prepared for his response. Joanna, I think you display enormous patience dealing with Michael's continual rudeness and dismissiveness. For many, many years. Many, many years. Okay, and then final comment for today. Praise for the production team. Yes. Great visual design here on YouTube. Best chapter names. Okay, final limerick from edits this week. Trapped for now in a cosmic glitch, are twin phantoms, Machaba and Mitch.

52:36Perhaps they're still alive, or does the devil have to decide of his two new arrivals, which is which? Okay, so we've also got some more art projects set in. This is for you. I'll give you a wrapped version, but this is kind of genius. Have a look at them.

52:58and are these are this is from someone called robert are these robert thank you are these coasters these are coasters look how good they are these are fantastic coasters where he robert says he noticed that we drink but we don't have any coasters so that's because we have formica I know we have for Mike about how nice to have a design appropriate coaster. Thank you. And now we have an artist who's been inspired by us and done some portraits. Your portrait is on the way. How come you don't have an Inside Trump's head T-shirt? Well, we should get Inside Trump's head T-shirt. I'm not going to wear them.

53:40Well, I would like to wear one. Yeah, I know. We should get one. And actually, we'd love your feedback on this. We're playing around with the idea of merch, and I think we're going to launch an Inside Trump's Head subscription, whereas part of the subscription, you get a mug. That's all you get? Well, you get access to, you get special access to you and me. You get a full uniform, hat, T-shirt, coasters, mug. Maybe, well, anyway, the point is it's underway. It's underway. Would you like to look at the portrait that someone did of me? And they've done one of you, and it's on its way, apparently.

54:15it just hasn't mine got here first and this is from Rebecca I think it's Rebecca Fetone anyway huge thanks I like this I like this this is a it's a portrait of me and the portrait of you is coming now the question is will they be doing a portrait of you as you are now or when you are at school with all your hair I love that picture we showed people I think we should show it to people again. We're going to flash it up for people in case they missed you with long hair. If you have been, thank you for joining us. We'll be back on Thursday with more Inside Trump's Head and preparing you for the president's speech on what we think is going to be his view on election fraud.

55:00And of course, tomorrow... It's so fascinating that he would pursue this. I mean, this is a loser issue. I think it's a loser issue too. I don't think people believe it, But maybe enough people believe it. I mean, people still think he won 2020. It's curious. And, of course, tomorrow the Todd Blanch hearings. Oh, we should have gotten to Todd Blanch. That's just interesting. I mean, Todd is a really interesting figure, and, again, one of those figures, not unlike in Lindsey Graham to people who have decided that they have to do this. they have to swallow when it comes to Donald Trump. And they're going to get something for that.

55:47And they're doing, you know, the Todd Blanche thing is justified on he's the client. Now, in fact, he is not the client. So that's an interesting thing. The United States is Todd Blanche's client. Right. But it is very much I do what the client needs me to do. Well, we'll see the hearings start tomorrow and see whether or not any of the Democrat questioners. And amazingly, the hearings start. Chuck Grassley gets to ask the first questions, and Chuck Grassley is, I think, 93. Well, I'm sure he can still ask a question at 93. Well, Mitch McConnell can't. I mean, they just... And he's nine years younger.

56:32And then Lindsey Graham was nine years younger than Trump. And then eventually if you do that one more time you're gonna get too much. Oh, no Actually Lindsey Graham is at my age That was that actually hit me at that moment. I saw that I thought first thing he looks terribly looks I think he looks much older than I do

56:55No, he does he does he does and he was always rushing off to keep too. I mean he'd been there Or Kiev, however you pronounce it um ten times. He'd been there ten times. He'd just come back from a long flight and that tragic thing of him saying to someone, I don't feel great, them saying apparently you need to go and see a doctor and he was like I'll go and see a doctor after I've done meet the press tomorrow. There's a terrible, yeah, there's a terrible, that a man would rather go on television to discuss, I guess, his plans for Ukraine and getting his bill through, then he would go to a doctor.

57:35You could argue that he was putting the country first and Zelensky first, or you could argue that he was desperate to be on television. Television first. Television first. Yeah, he could have gone on the following week. Anyway, that's what happens with an aortic dissection. You don't have much time. I should think a lot of people are panicked by that. I bet there'll be tons of people calling their doctors now. Yeah, well, it's that interesting thing that when I was a kid, I remember everyone, they would say, how did that person die to drop dead? Yeah, yeah. And no one drops dead anymore. It's the more the Mitch McConnell slow exit.

58:20Not with a bang, but a whimper. Okay. Anyway, on that note. On that note, we will see you on Thursday. Okay, you can thank the production team now. Max, the intern. We've actually got a news fellow with us as well this morning, Charlie Shirtwood. Charlie, the news assistant. Ryan, Heather, Ben, Neil, Doug. I'm just making up names. Rachel. Rachel, Heather. John. John. John. P. Q. Q. All of them. All of them. The entire office. So the good news is we have so many B-beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out. And we really appreciate your support.