4/11/24: Top Dem Inflation Gaslighting Shut Down Live, Trump Panics After Arizona Abortion Ban, Lead Found In Lunchables, Hamas Chief Family Assassinated, Tucker Defends Palestinian Christians, Media Smears Protesters As Authoritarian

Hey, guys, ready or not, twenty twenty four is here, and we here at Breaking Points, are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election.

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All right, Good morning, Welcome to Breaking Points staggers out today.

I'm here, Krystal.

How you doing doing well so far? How about you, Emily? I'm great to have you here.

Doing just about as well as John Bolton un CNN last night, who was proudly announcing that he is going to vote for Dick Cheney in twenty twenty four. He did it in twenty twenty. That's made with principles.

A little too on the nose. Honestly, to be voting for Dick Cheney in twenty twenty four is really wild.

At least vote for Liz Cheney if you're going to do it. Yeah, maybe even.

Work upgraded figure resistance model of warmongering. Yes, yes, yes, anyway, important things to get to. In addition to John Bolton's voting preferences, we have some inflation numbers that just came in yesterday.

Hotter than expected.

We'll talk about what that means for you, and obviously what it may mean for the political landscape as well. There's also another really fascinating story with regard to inflation data. A government agency was caught feeding secret inflation information to you guessed it, Wall Street, who can benefit to the tunes of hundreds of millions of dollars from such inside information.

In his campaign.

Yes, there's a sort of tale of two campaigns going on here, so we'll break that down for you. Also, turns out lunchables are even worse for your kids than you may have imagined, which is the problem for me personally, because yes, I do feed my kids lunchable, though probably not anymore.

So we'll break that down for you.

Very excited to be joined, honestly honored to be joined by ISRAELIJOURNALI is Gideon Levy today with Haretz. He's going to break down the very latest that is going on in Gaza, including an Israeli airstrike that killed the sons and grandchildren of a Hamas's political leader. Tucker kicked a hornet's nest over Palestinian Christians. Will bring you those comments and the fallout.

Emily and I, of course will react.

John Stewart with a great monologue calling out Biden's hypocrisy on Israel versus Russia and human rights. And I'm taking a look at Jonathan Chate's latest piece, which may be his worst yet, which is really saying something. So breaking down this piece where he's you know, he's going after protesters, saying that they're illiberal and authoritarian. There's a lot to say about that one. So let's to get to this morning.

Oh my gosh, absolutely, yes, all.

Right, So let's start with that inflation data.

Let's put the numbers up on the screen so you guys can see coming in higher than expected. This is per Heather Long from the Washington Post. She's got some charts there on the screen you can see as well. So she says inflation in March came in at zero point four percent for the month. That is an annual rate of three point five percent.

In the past year.

The forecast was four point three percent and three point four percent, respectively, so you can see higher on both of those metrics. She goes on to say that gas and rent accounted for over half of the March increase. Higher gas price and high rent are keeping inflation above three percent. She had another tweet where she broke down the specific increases in a variety of categories that were

Obviously that really hurts.

Electricity up five percent, restaurants up four point two percent, gas up one point three percent, and home health care for the elderly stored fourteen point two percent in the past year, the largest increase that we have ever seen in that category. So you clearly have a number of areas, in particular, some that are most near and dear to Americans in terms of their pocketbooks that continue to spike emily.

Yeah, that is a really good, good point. And I think another thing to look at here is that as the Biden administration, I know we're going to get to Biden's comments in just a second, they say inflation is coming down. The juxtaposition of these numbers with that, The important metric to look at is in some of those numbers that Crystal just pointed out, it's not even that

Yeah, and we know at this point, you know, at the beginning of the inflationary cycle, h the idea that corporate profits and basically profiteering was contributing to this was really dismissed as this fringe idea the further we got along, and that wasn't the only thing that was going on, but that was actually a significant chunk of it was corporation seeing and they would admit this on earnings call, Hey,

To do so.

There's actually legal action being taken against this in both federal and state courts.

So you know there are supply chain issues.

Each of these categories has their own specific story, but corporate profiteering is a big part of this, which was basically put off the table to talk about for a long time. Joe Biden has started to talk a little bit about the corporate part of this, but has done basically nothing about it. As you mentioned, he was asked yesterday about these inflation numbers.

Let's take a listen to his response.

Thank you, mister president. Last month, you predicted the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates thanks to falling inflation, but today data showed that inflation rose more than expected. For the third straight month. So how concerned are you about the fight against inflation stalling and do you stand by your prediction for a ray cut.

Well, I do stand by my prediction that before the year is out to be a rake cut, there's may delayed a month or so. I'm not sure that we don't know what the Fed is going to do for certain, but look, we have dramatically reduced inflation from nine percent now so close to three percent. We're in a situation where we're better situated than we were when we took office, where we're inflation with skyrocketing and we have a plan.

To deal with it.

Whereas the opposition, my opposition talks about two things. They just want to cut taxes for the wealthy and raise taxes on other people. And so I think they're they have no plan. Our plan is one I think is still sustainable.

I mean, this is obviously one of the biggest political risks for the Biden campaign. He's got a number of political problems ahead of him. Don't get me wrong, his age being one of them, his unconditional support for Israel being another one of them. But consistently voter say the economy, inflation even as consumer sentiment has improved a little bit and people's sense of the economy has improved a little bit, and we did get a really good jobs report last week,

I mean, that's astronomical.

Yeah, the amount of money that represents for ordinary people is huge.

That is huge.

It's huge.

And I continue to think the strategy of acting as though you know your eyes are lying to your your bank account is lying to I think that is a really, really big error for the Biden campaign. And it doesn't mean that like from a political strategy perspective, where you're spinning and you know you're doing the usual bs. I'm not saying Biden should walk out and take credit for it, though I would give him a lot of the blame, But I'm not saying that's what he has to do.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

And that was really underscored by a noteworthy moment from a top Biden surrogate, an ally, Jim Clyverd. He was on MSNBC, and his whole argument was very similar to what you're saying. It's like people just don't understand how great things are. And he's going on and on all that we brought inflation down and MSNBC lear has to break into his comments with a CNBC reporter with these numbers on inflation being hotter than expected just coming across at that moment.

So let's take a look at that awkward exchange.

It's an inflation today, it's about forty percent of what it was when Joe Biden took office, and so the inflation rates are down and people's incomes are up, not what they may here on social media. One of the focused group people talked about social media and the misrepresentation, disinformation. All of those things are out there, and that's the battle that we have to fight, and we've got to do a better job of fighting it more effectively.

So I'll validate that.

I think the disinformation out there is distorting the entire process. I think social media doesn't help, but there's also a lack of validation that these voters feel. And I'm going to bring in Ander Ross Sorkin right now because we've just got breaking news. The consumer price index increased at a faster than expected pace last month, a signal that inflation remains stubborn ley high.

And this has been their line, blaming disinformation for what people are able to experience in their own lives. I mean, four hundred and forty five dollars more per month for your groceries we had. Now we have actually in some instances wages surpassing the inflation rate, but you may have

And this seems to be the strategy that they're sticking with.

I mean, we're like a couple of months into the strategy now, and it's I mean you can see it in real time fail for Clyburn on Mourning Joe on Morning Joe of all places, where inflation to them basically means nothing. It means like maybe their intern gets them, you know, a medium coffee instead of a large coffee, but not even that, yeah, you know, when they go

But they keep Americans and a Navarro can play for words with friends, but.

It's like it's their crutch.

It's their crutches, like Donald Trump was horrible, so they don't have to talk in substantive terms about the economy. They don't understand that it's actually probably less risky for them to empathize with people.

It's a struggling right now.

That's right, And there's a way you could approach this.

I don't know that Joe Biden is personally capable of this, but there's plenty of evidence out there. Like I said that a significant chunk of this pain and this inflation is directly because of price gouging and corporate profiteering. So when you get a report like this, don't try to dismiss it, don't try to underplay it. Don't try to convince people that their lives are different than their lives

Were too dumb to understand, and what the reality of the economy is.

No, the economy is, you know, it's complex for some people. Sure, if you're an older person who has a home and a lot of savings, you're probably doing okay, even though you know for you inflation is a problem too. If you're a younger person, you're trying to get a home that is wildly out of reach, You've got student debt hanging over your head. You've got some real problems here. And it's not imaginary, and it's not because you don't

And my best guess as to why he's not addressing the price gouging as much as he could be just from your political standpoint, is that it broaches this issue of the legislation.

He's passed the.

Super high spending and he can defect. But that's what's interesting, because he did that in big ribbon cutting ceremonies with these bills.

He's very proud of these bills.

It's like this is what he wants to run on, but he's afraid to talk about them. It's a total catch twenty two and it's an unfortunate situation for him because he's afraid to talk about to validate that inflation is not going down.

What did he say, dramatically decreased?

He's afraid to talk about that instead of just coming out and saying I passed necessary spending, which I don't agree with but he could certainly agree with that. Say, I passed necessary spending and then corporations jumped on the bandwagon and are trying to take advantage of us trying to repair the country. But they don't even want to talk about that because they don't want to validate that people are really still feeling inflation.

Yeah.

I think the fact too, that analysis about corporate profiteering came from the left just constant. Like anything that left says or argues, the mainstream of the Democratic Party feels.

The need to be against other way.

Yeah, I mean really, since like the Clinton era, that is their natural instinct. That is certainly Joe Biden's natural instinct.

The grocery store.

They are experiencing their grocery prices being higher than they used to be, so we need to focus a bit more on that. And he is absolutely he is absolutely correct, And I don't think it's a mistake that since Klaan left, not that things were perfect when he was there, but there's really no affirmative economic agenda whatsoever. It's more of just like a hope and a prayer that things are getting better and will continue to get better, which you

Point six percent.

One theory I saw floated Emily, but I don't know if this is you know, this has backing or not, but it sounds kind of logical.

Is during COVID. People were driving a lot less.

There was a kind of a bonus on car insurance came down because it was, you know, less risky car insurance ensures. We're having to put out less money because people were just driving less. Presumably there's a similar dynamic going on with repairs. Because people were driving less, there were less auto repairs.

So now that you have.

A spike in driving, a spike in auto repair, perhaps that's what's driving this huge jump. But that is a massive expense for a lot of American households. Ninety percent of him, as she points out, own a car. So this is really matters.

Yeah, ninety percent of American households own a car. But it's always worth remembering actually that journalists are disproportionately clustered in New York City and Washington, d C. And listen, I didn't have a car for a really long time here, so it used public transit. I walked, And that's similar to a lot of journalists. So this is a big blind spot for the media. It always has been gas prices. Some journalists do have cars. Many journalists do have cars,

Yeah, no doubt about it.

And also, you know, many of whom want to help the Biden administration and don't want to talk about this too much and are subject to this same you know, shaming over quote unquote disinformation around the economy. So let's put this last piece up on the screen from the New York Times. Their headline, inflation was hotter than expected in March, unwelcome news for the Fed. They dig into

That is basically off the table.

Now, you know, it is most likely that rates will hold steady. I saw Larry Summers out there for what e's worth saying, you know, we have to now expect that it's possible we could even see go back to rate increases. This has a lot of political implications, although it's kind of you know, it's a dual edged sword. So on the one hand, when you get rate cuts, you get you can have a hotter economy. You also have lower mortgage interest rates, which come you know, really

And puncturing the narrative bubble of a lot of experts over the last several months. Not sure that will come as a surprise to anybody.

Yeah, that's true, though there was a lot of like, oh, we did it soft.

Landing, and you know, no.

Mission that were accomplished.

There was a lot of mission accomplished going on in the mainstream discourse, and I think this is a real reality check moment for them. At the same time, there is an incredible scandal unfolding at the Bureau of Labor and Statistics or here eyes glaze over. It has to do with non public secret information being released to a group of what they described as super users, who of course are all on Wall Street in position to make millions of dollars based on this non public information. Let's

I think that's to put.

It pretty mildly, a government economists had regular contact with quote super users in finance record show at a time when such information keenly interests investors, keenly interest them. Let me go ahead and read a little bit of this report for you. So this all started back in February.

Is there some official list of.

Super users who are being clued in on all of this information? And the bls, No, no, no, it's just a one off. This is not normal procedure. Don't worry about it. Well, now, we had a Freedom of Information Act request that showed that the agency, or at least that economist who sent the original email, was in regular contact with users in the finance industry. And what you can see here is one of those exchangers exchanges where a super user said, Hey, would it be possible to

I'm confusing myself. Statistics dahm, right about that.

Okay, So anyway, the fact that you have people in finance emailing this person.

Like, hey, can I get on that cool list?

Indicates this was not a one off, and they got their hands on additional emails, some of which did, in fact contain significant non public information. Now this is like some really wonky stuff about oh, we're making this methodological change and how we can calculate that housing inflation, et cetera.

But if this is what you do, and.

You're trading potentially one hundreds of millions of dollars based on this information, and what's going to do to the markets which you know, by the way, when this inflation data came out yesterday, a huge market crash. So if you have a heads up that that's the sort of thing that's coming, you can imagine the kind of bank that you can make off of that. It is an extraordinary scandal. And the last thing I'll say here is, you know, let me give you a sense of who

Revan Howard, I don't know who these.

People are in Citadel, which trade directly on their research, and at least one case, emails to super users appear to shared methodological details that were.

Not yet public. So it's exactly who you expect.

It's these in house economists, it's people at these firms that sell their research so other rich people can benefit from this inside information, and it's firms that can directly trade on this research as well.

So it's it's.

Honestly, it's pretty extraordinary, and frankly, based on the details that came out here, you know, the agency is not really commenting at this point, but this supposedly low level employee seems to have copied, you know, a large distribution list within the BLS. So the suggestion is he certainly didn't think he was doing anything wrong. And is very likely this was sort of you know, accepted or even authorized and directed from higher level officials who you know,

Yeah.

No, And a couple of points.

One The New York Times actually broke a lot of the story open because of Foya. They filed Foyer requests. I got this like vast scope of what had been going on. And all you need to know basically is that in the Time story, it says one of the BLS employees, and this is the Times rights. The BLS had announced the change in a news release in early January, but did not publish details about it on its website until mid February, two weeks after the email from the employee.

Wasn't public and hadn't been fully vetted.

So if the BLS is saying that it wasn't and was not appropriate to be sharing that information, just internalize that for a moment, because that tells you what you need to know. The BLS says this is not appropriate. There you go right, it's a high stakes not I shouldn't say error because it doesn't sound like it was an error. It sounds like it was systematic, so not

I'm surprised this isn't a bigger story, to be honest with you, because it also raises a lot of questions about like, Okay, well, if this was just what they were doing at BLAT, what other kind of non public information is Wall Street and their wealthy clients?

What are they benefiting from?

You know, it contributes obviously to not only the sense but the reality that there's one game being played among the wealthy and another one being played among everyone else. Just to give you a sense of the tone of these emails, that one that I mentioned and that you know definitely contain non public information, they say. On January thirty one, this employee send an email to his super users describing coming changes to the way the agency calculates

Yeah.

No, absolutely.

And the other thing at the end of the story that is noted is they say, you know, the after years of remaining loan stable, inflation started to take off in twenty twenty one and it has remained a major newstry ever since because it influences federal reserve policy. Is a major driver of market training. Well, yeah, no kidding. And on top of that, I think you put it really well in the beginning of this segment, Crystal, where

So the economy a big problem for Joe Biden. But Donald Trump has some problems of his own.

Emily, Donald Trump, you will be shocked to learn, has some problems of his own. Now, Donald Trump was in Atlanta yesterday. He bought some thirty milk chicks for people at a Chick fil A?

Did you see that?

I did see that. Do we know flavors? Do we have any any intel there?

Not that I'm aware of, but will certainly update everyone.

The obvious choice, go to choice at Chick fil A.

The frosted lemonade Chick fil A is incredible.

Die I'm a fan of the diet frosted lemonade.

Oh yes, yes it is.

Do you people still get canceled on the left for going to Chick fil A?

By the way, I was gonna sy I think you might.

Die. Frost the lemonade is amazing.

There you go, cancel Crystal hashtay. Let's get it trending.

But dontap was in Atlanta yesterday and he was doing some back and forth with reporters actually after he had touched down in Atlanta, And so let's actually just roll this clip of Donald Trump talking about the Arizona Supreme Court abortion ruling that thrust their abortion law basically an entire state of Arizona back to eighteen sixty four.

And I covered this yesterday, but you didn't mishear me.

Eighteen sixty four is where the Arizona Supreme Court said the law now stands with the abortion basically the abortion policy that when Arizona was a territory passed in eighteen sixty four. Everyone's pretty familiar with the story by now. But likely that'll be overturned in November. Not overturned, I shouldn't say that sounds like a legal term, but the people of Arizona will likely overturn that November. There's a bale initiative underway right now to enshrine abortion rights into

Arizona go too hard.

And Arizona go too more.

Yeah, they did, and that'll be straightened out.

And as you know, it's all about the states rights. I'll be straightened out.

And I'm sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into.

Reason and that'll be taking care of I think very quickly.

What do you think about Florida? Fort Hard is probably maybe going to change. Also, see it's all of what it's the will of the people. This is what I've been saying. It's a perfect system.

So for fifty two years people have wanted to end road me a way to get it back to the states.

We did that.

It was an incredible thing, an incredible achievement.

We did that, and now the states have it, and the states are putting out what they want.

It's the will of the people.

So Florida is probably going to change, Arizona's going to definitely change.

Everybody wants that to happen.

And you're getting the will.

Of the people.

It's been pretty amazing.

It's pretty amazing, he said, it's pretty amazing.

He said it's the perfect system, which I think some people in California would disagree with because they're basically ruled by referendum. If the people has some interesting effects in California. But that's his line and he's sticking with it. It's actually funny because he said on Monday, you put out a big statement that had a huge ripple effect throughout the conservative movement into abortion movement, saying this all needs

Crystal.

Yeah, well, I mean this was very inconvenient for him and for all Republicans, frankly, but especially for him because, like you said, he just did this whole thing of like, all is this beautiful democracy, will the people's states rights? And then Arizona's like, how about in our state we ban it completely in a way that would be acceptable to about five percent of the population who hold this position.

So his whole leave it up.

To the states thing kind of immediately undermined by the reality of this decision in Arizona. You know, I also think listen, he's he realizes abortion is a big problem. Yes, very clearly. Absolutely. I don't think there's really anything he can do about it, though, no matter where he tries to message himself, for what words he put, whatever he does, because the bottom line is he's responsible for Roe versus

He said, no, we don't have any more details about.

Okay, well, what if it was fifteen weeks, whatever, it was six weeks or is it just if it's.

A blanket abortion ban, would he not sign it?

There's also other questions, Emily, as you know, probably better than I do, some of the people who would potentially be involved in this administration, they're looking at the Compstack Act and enforcing that, which would be a de facto abortion ban without actually having anything having to be signed or passed through Congress.

So what about that? So it doesn't really answer.

A lot of questions about the sort of these sort of like nuanced in details, but it does show you politically he's trying to run as far away from this as he possibly can. But again, I mean, the Biden administration has already the Biden campaign has already put out a very powerful and emotional ad that Zager and I played on Tuesday on this issue. Trump has continued to you know, celebrate the fact that he was the guy that got Roe versus Wade overturned and frankly, you know,

Like Californians decide, right, Yeah, No, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Although so I heard Nancy Mace I talked about this yesterday on NPR kind of going with the strategy in these conversations with MPR and talking about how most Americans find themselves at this point of agreement in the second trimester.

So most Americans are.

Not on board with the full Democratic policy prescription, which is basically like row allowed for states to make their own decisions about what happened in the third trimester. And Nancy Mace and a lot of Republicans have said the best way for the GOPED a message the abortion issue is to talk about that and then talk about you know, sort of kicking it to the states after we find that point of consensus. People have tried the fifteen week

Nothing is working.

So that's where Trump came out and tried to going into the summer, neutralize the question of abortion by saying, this is my position, it's now up to the people. Interestingly enough, the Arizona Supreme Court had a similar point. They said this should be decided not by the court, but by the legislature and the people of Arizona, which is why they allowed the eighteen sixty fourth thing to go into effect. And the people of Arizona are going

If that's on the.

Ballot in Arizona, it could be on the ballot in a lot of other states too, and some of which are swing states.

It's all about in Florida as well.

Yeah, I wonder what you make of that, because listen, on the one handed, Florida's trend to the right seems pretty clear.

How much does Santus want to buy, like sixteen points or something.

I think Trump wanted by four if memory serves thereabouts, which is not like a crazy margin. It's not a massive mart And especially if you believe the polling, which I'm not sure if I do or not, but if you believe the polling that shows Joe Biden actually doing pretty well among older residents. Florida famously in Arizona two has a lot of older residents. It's I'm not saying Florida will be in play, but it's.

Not crazy to me at this point.

Since you have the abortion ballat initiative, you have a weed ballad initiative, you have you know, this older population which seems to be more friendly to Joe Biden than any other, you know, age demographic group that Florida could possibly be put back in play really kind of solely.

Based on this one issue. It's also wild.

I know you and Ryan did a great job covering this yesterday, but watching Republicans like Kerry Lake, who previously all is a great, great law that's on the books. We already got a great law in the books talking about this eighteen sixty four thing. And then when the court actually rules the way she claimed she wanted them to rule, she's running away as far and as fast as she possibly can. And you know, it was one

Split on the issue.

And I just don't think that there is really any messaging fixed for this because there's a big.

Reality problem right now.

And I know that the advice that the RNC gives and Nancy Mace was talking about, Donald Trump has tried to use as well as like, okay, we'll talk about the third trimester, because that's where Democrats are on the shakiest ground. That made a lot of sense when Roe was in place, because all of the battleground over abortion legislation was about the third trimester, because that was you know, that was effectively what Roe determined.

Well, that's not the battleground anymore.

Now.

The battleground is over these near complete bands. It's over things like IVF even stem cells, things like that being put back on the table in this real flashback to the early two thousands kind of debate. And I think the best Republicans can hope for is that this kind of you know, fades into the background that people are talking about it as much. But as long as you have these ballot initiatives and you have continued court decisions like what just happened in Arizona, good luck with that.

Yeah.

I mean, there's going to have to be a massive shift in public opinion and the cultural sort of position on abortion if Republicans want to push the issue forward without losing and suffering massive losses.

Biden knows this.

So Biden was also asked about the Arizona ruling yesterday at the White House.

Let's rule this, this is B three on.

The issue of abortion service factory. What do you say to the people of Arizona.

Right now, we're witnessing a law going place that dates back to the Civil warrior.

Elect me, I'm in the twenty twentieth century, twenty first century. Not back then you weren't even a state. I find thank you all very much.

So.

The senns you're hearing, the dulcet tones of White House reporters shouting at the top of their lungs is at Joe Biden as he leaves the podium and.

Beautifully slowly shuffles away.

We may have an entry for best bidens, questionably of all time there when he said, elect me, I'm in the twentieth century.

I guess that's incredible.

Better than the nineteenth century, which is but the Republicans are in that is the kind of choice that we're faced with in this election. But didn't exactly stick the landing there. But obviously I mean the fact that it's in eighteen sixty four law.

Yes, it is very it is very potent.

And I'm reminded very much of the ad that was run in the Kentucky governor's race a young woman who was raped to saying, listen, Daniel Cameron, the Republican if he's governor, I'd be forced to carry my I think it was her stepfather who raped hers baby to term. This was incredibly potent in that race, which you know, really shifted towards Andy Basheer, the Democrat it was able to get reelected, wasn't really even close at the end of the day, and Kentucky much more conservative on this

Abortion in the state of Kentucky. That was wild to me.

And obviously, you know, there are tons of extremely just heart wrenching, emotional stories out there that are all the result of Row versus Way being overturned. And you can bet you know Joe Biden's got a lot of other issues, this is the.

One area where the more.

This is being talked about, no matter how Republicans try to message, the stronger the Biden campaign's hand is here. I mean, I sort of feel like it's sort of the reverse of immigration. Is that issue for Republicans, which no matter what Joe Biden says, as much as he's like, I'm just like them, I'm just as you know, crol and hardlism.

I want to do what Trump wants to do.

It's a bad issue for them and there's really nothing they can do about it at this point without really shifting the cultural narrative about it, and the media narrative about it in all of those things in ways that I personally support. But the more you're talking about that issue, the more you're basically in quicksand for the Democratic Party at this point, it's the same for Republicans. The best they can do is just hope that it's not a big topic a conversation.

Yeah. Absolutely, there's really nothing they can do. I agree with that completely.

And there's been a flurry of stories just in the last couple of days about both the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign, because again, we're heading into summer now, we're heading into convention season. The parties are both I know, it's insane, both very busy planning for a summer of campaigning. And I'm actually really excited to put this next element up on the screen. This is before it really is hilarious, Crystal.

There's a two different stories here.

One is an Associated Press report on the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign, and some people were looking at it and saying, these are huge takeaways. Less than five staffers in each battleground state for Trump, they can't afford to hire staff until the summer, and GP staffers are trashing the twenty twenty four campaign.

Meanwhile, over at.

Vanity Fair, Gabriel Sherman tweeted his own story out where he said, for the May issue, I report on Trump's weirdly competent and savvy twenty twenty four campaign.

Yeah, and inside the terrifyingly competent Trump twenty twenty four campaign.

So it's unclear as to whether Trump is just extremely competent or so competent he's incompetent.

I don't know.

I just don't know what to make of it.

Actually, do you have any insights into what is reality here? Because as I was reading the piece that said, okay, they only have, it is kind of wild that you're this close to the conventions and everything ramping up, you only have like five staffers in battleground states. Meanwhile, they contrast the Biden ministry, the Biden campaign is doing a much more you know, traditional Okay.

We've got our offices open, we've.

Got our big staff on the ground, We're ready to do our mail and balloting push and all that stuff. On the other hand, when they ran in twenty twenty, the Trump campaign spent way too much money early and then they were screwed down the stretch.

I think in Georgia.

They only they spent a tiny amount of money on advertising because they just didn't have it. What's his name, Brad Parscal's not his name. He was really sort of thrown under the bus for spending wildly and you know, putting the campaign in really dire streets from a funding perspective, on the way, you know, on the way down the

So I'm not one hundred percent what to sure what to make of this.

On the one hand, I also think field programs, sorry, field people out there, are overrated. They don't do all that, especially in a presidential campaign where everybody already knows who the candidates are, they've got their opinions formed, etc.

On the other hand, I do.

Think that the mail in ballot initiatives and early voting initiatives that Democrats used in twenty twenty were so significant as compared to the non existent Republican efforts, and like anti Republican efforts, like the fact that they were opposed to.

Mail in balloting.

I actually think that factor alone was the game changer. So it kind of depends for me on how I look at this, whether this is actually consequential or not.

Yeah, and I misspoked this as an NBC story. There's another AP story we're about to talk about. But in this NBC news story, there's a source quoted saying this is like comparing a Maserati to a Honda twenty twenty head staff and the bodies in place to turn out the vote. This current iteration is starting from ground zero and we're seven months out from the election. Meanwhile, the Gabriel Sherman piece in Vanity Fair is talking about how Donald Trump

I guess she's won the popular vote, but that's you know, you're see one president.

Well, you know she's the rightful president if it weren't from leadmir Putiny. So anyway, all that is to say, this is a jexposition of a couple different things. On the one hand, you have a campaign that may be struggling to a wreck to that kind of infrastructure.

On the other hand, you have.

A campaign that is at least getting Gabe Sherman to believe it's so competent, because shockingly competent in fact, because Donald Trump is, it's not leaking. So like they would point to the crazies, like I shouldn't even say crazy so much as like the eccentric people that.

Were in his first campaigns.

Yeah, and just said they leaked all the time, and Trump would pit them against each other in ways that intentionally sewed chaos, and that in and of itself was a huge distraction. But now he's just laser focused on the job at hand. Doesn't matter though to your point, Crystal, if you also have to pay huge legal bills that are going to take away, no matter what, from his ability to campaign on the ground. That's why he's not doing so many rallies because they're stupid expensive.

So there are real challenges for him.

Being around the country in different courtrooms is going to be a real challenge for him.

So it's a couple of different things.

On the one hand, I do think he learned his lesson of you know, you really need to have He installed loyalists at the RNC, for example, like ousted Ron and McDaniel.

Here's the AP story. This is the next element.

As Biden tours the country and visits Swing states, their headline says Trump is fundraising and playing golf. You know, it's still Biden is really out there in a way that I find surprising. They're doing these really carefully, really carefully stage managed.

Events, and.

It's based what they can do at this point. But I'm sure Trump would be doing that if he could.

I think they feel like they have to to try to combat the you know, Biden's too old sense and Trump, meanwhile, I think, probably feels like my people are with me, like and I got other stuff going on, and I need to be raised of money because they are significantly behind. Even with this huge fifty million dollar fundraising event that they just had, they're still significantly behind where the Democrats are. And as mentioned before, some of that is bled out through legal bills as well.

So the problems for him are real.

You know, the two dueling narratives there, Both of them serve a sort of like useful liberal narrative. On the one hand, the Gabe Sherman one, the terrifyingly competent, Like even that language that's like the biggest Democratic or left of center or anti Trump fear is oh shit, last time we got lucky because he was incompetent. Yeah, so the worst of what he wanted to do, like stop

And he wasn't surrounded by yes men.

And that's right, he didn't have all his loyalists in place. So now this time around, he's got his ducks in a row, he's got all his loyalists in place, he's got a plan. It's going to be different, and the most terrifying version of Trump is going to occupy the White House. So that narrative is served by the Gabe Sherman piece, you know, the other piece of just like haha, will laugh at how this is like bumbling and or they don't even have staffers. They're on money, like he's

One indication of this, for what.

It's worth, is the predicted odds now actually have Joe Biden favored over Trump. We can put this up on the screen, So Biden is at just looking this morning, fifty two cents.

Trump is at forty six cents.

So, you know, for again, for what it's worth, the people who are trying to bet based on the outcome of this election, now there's slightly favoring Joe Biden. We've had a number of polls that have shifted in his direction, though it's still very much is a jump ball. And part of why maybe Trump is maybe taking on a little bit of water he can put this up on the screen is his legal troubles. You know, this is

It's happening.

They're still trying to delay it, et cetera, et cetera, but that looks like it's going to start imminently. All of these stories are in the headlines more and more as legal action ramps up, and maybe that's one of the reasons why possibly he is taking on a little bit of water here.

Yeah, Michael Cohene claims Weisselberg has a lot of knowledge of what happened in the hush money case, and jury's selection for that is set to start next week. I think it's yet to be determined what a fact these legal battles have on Donald Trump as we get closer and closer to the election, how voters react to it.

But you know, we were talking about this earlier in the show, Crystal.

I know for sure one thing that likely won't be the most effective for the Biden campaign is just leaning on the Trump is insane crutch over and over again when inflation is where it is.

Maybe, although it worked pretty well them in the midterms, I would have said that too true. But it did work pretty well for them in the midterms, and you know the.

But with the whole country, I mean in a presidential.

Maybe I don't know. I genuinely I really don't know. You know, I think abortion is way more potent than I expected it to be. People didn't vote on the economy in the way that I expected them to in the midterms, where Democrats really outperformed. We've had all of these special elections that have gone to Democrats, and it could be the case that when you have a general election and you have a much wider electorate, that some

So I don't know. That's where I am. I just genuinely don't know.

One thing I do know, though, is I am not gonna be sending lunchibules in my kids lunchboxes anymore. So consumer reports out with some new information about lunchables, the popular item packed in many school lunchboxes, including plenty of times in my kids school lunchboxes.

Now I feel like a terrible mother.

But also, and this is very notable, was recently approved to be included in cafeteria lunches. So kids are also you know, getting these as school lunch and their schools in many schools across the nation. Let's put this up on the screen with the details. So the headline here is should you pack lunchables for your kids' school lunch?

They say.

There's a lot to be concerned about in these kids, says Amykating, a registered dietitian at Consumer Reports. They're highly processed and regularly eating process meat I mean ingredient many of these products has been linked to increased risk of some cancers. We also found that some kids had potentially concerning heavy metal and how do you say this?

They late theay late levels.

And they're too high in sodium, especially for kids. Do you think the school lunch versions might be better? Sorry, they have even more sodium than the store pot versions. Bottom line, we don't think anybody should regularly eat these products, and they definitely shouldn't be considered a healthy school lunch, says Eric Boring, PhD, a Consumer Reports chemist who led CRS testing. Let me just read you a little bit more here about the lead and cadmium piece, which to

Emily, it's really I mean, I shouldn't say it's a shocking report, but it's shocking in the respect that we our food safety standards are so completely distorted. And one of the reasons for that is just actually even in the company that oversees launchroples in their name, which is

So way back in twenty ten, I out of nowhere decided to run for Congress. I was a new mom, And maybe this sounds silly, or maybe it sounds really I don't know how it sounds. But one of the things that really drove me to take such what at that point in my life was a really drastic step was I was shopping for baby bottles for my infant and realized I had to be really educated to make sure there weren't toxins in the baby bottles. And you

Because listen, I was under no illusions lunchibles were like the.

Greatest options for my kids, but I didn't think they were the worst.

Am No big deal?

Right?

If they have these occasionally, that's fine, right, No, apparently it's not.

And specifically you put this up on the screen.

Watch them posted a report a while back about how lunchibles ended up on school lunch trees and the sub had your weak rules in industry power have allowed ultra processed products onto the menu. And there's a lot of things going on here. So first of all, you've got school funding, you know, being undermined, which means both that you have fewer cafeteria workers will guess what, lunchables super easy.

You just stack them up.

Kids can grab them for themselves, and they are familiar with them and they're likely to eat them. Number Two, the group that makes these recommendations has a ton of received industry and has industry ties. So of course if you're craft times, they say, this is a twenty five

Yes, what are val Like? We're feeding kids.

Poison at schools. We're a wealthy country. We can't afford to have at least some decent, nutritious stuff that our kids are eating when they're trying to learn and their brains are developing and they're in this critical time period.

Yeah, a lot of this happened really quickly, and we were like the frogs in the boiling pot and didn't realize that we were guinea pigs in this mass experiment that had some really damaging consequences. One of the interesting things we can put the next element up on the screen about lunchables in particular. This was a San Francisco Gate story. There's some actually some good books that have been written or that touch on this topic of actually

Here's a great quote from the San Francisco Gate piece.

They say, if your impression is that the lack of nutrition in lunchibles is a byproduct of cost saving measures, Lunchible's history belies that perhaps the strangest thing about Lunchible's legacy is that its manufacturers repeatedly try to pivot toward healthier ingredients, only to fail every time. They just continued the lunchibles with fruit line. People actually might even remember

It just speaks to.

Exactly how backwards are approach to food food safety is. And I think we're starting to catch up and starting to understand the way that these foods are intentionally designed to maximize their addictive quality, is to maximize their non perishability or their slow perishability and all of that. It's really sad, but we've all been experiments in this for you know, decades. My mom's rule was I only got lunchables on field trips, and that was like the best, because I love pizza, lunchibles.

They're really good. They're really good.

Kyle loves people Pizza lunchable that is that is not surprising at all, so disgusting because they're not even heated. Uh, it's just like this cold bread. Yes it's great and it's like gross tomato sauce.

But you get to make it.

Yeah, that's but that was the thing.

So apparently the origin story is oscar Meyer had like balooney was not really popular anymore, and they had all this.

Extra bologny and they're like, what are we going to do with all this boloney?

And so this is what they came up with was, Aha, we'll market it to these kids and be like, oh.

You're in control.

You're empowered in your lunch because you, you know, put the cracker in the cheese and the meat together, so you're.

In control of the lunchible. You the kid, You the kid.

Yeah, and to and obviously listen as a parent, you know, I can relate to this. I don't know why I hate making school lunches like I hate making lunches. There's something about that. It's like the bane of my parental existence. And so if you've got this thing, you can just pull off the shelve and stick in the lunch box. It's pretty nice, right, So it appealed to the kids, appealed to the parents, and they started selling like hotcakes. But the problem was, to begin with, it actually wasn't

Already there's a monopoly story here too.

By the way, they're like, well, no, if you're selling them, we're going to figure out how to make them profitable, and so they crack the code of how to make them profitable and then the rest of his history. But you know, I also think it's the fact that the fruit ones and the more healthy ones failed also says something too, because it's not like, obviously, if you just get the lunch abowles out of the food system, then it's all going to be fixed. It's that you have

So anyway, the reason.

We're so attraction to these foods, at least you know, in the moment, short term, is because they're not There's these are combinations that are not found in nature, right,

Yeah, there's kind of a two income trap story here, yes as well, you know, as you need to income earners in the household time to you know, carefully prepare a healthy and neutrient.

Just lunch is less available.

And I don't know the story about lunch bols in particular, but a lot of these foods have been given the rubber stamp of healthy because they have corporate capture the at the regulatory agencies that allow you to put that you're healthy on the box of cereal, that you're a good source of whatever in the box of cereal, and it's just it's not really true in the big pictures. So it's really sad what we've allowed to happen to

How can you have a healthy, happy.

Family if what we are eating we are told is healthy and it's actually terrible for you, Like, that's not the pathway to fulfillment, success as a human being, just prospering as families. It's just obviously deregulating the industries that are our physical health when our physical health is on the line is probably not the way to go.

Yeah, there's a real conservative core value of putting actual family values, yeah, and protection of children above even like corporate profit margins, absolutely so I think that's an important note.

All right, guys, for the latest sound of Israel and Gaza.

Are very fortunate, Pete joined by a fantastic guest this morning, so let's go ahead and get to that. For the latest on developments out of Israel and Gaza, we are very fortunate this morning to be joined by an extraordinary journalist and Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy. He's also a calumnist for Haretz and an author. Welcome, sir, so great to have you.

Thank you very much for having me.

Let's go ahead and put Gideon's latest column here up on the screen. The headline here is no victory awaits Israel in Rafa, only more death and destruction. We just read you a little bit of this for the audience. On the eve of the possible quest of Rafa. One camp demands Rafa and another camp demands the release of the hostages. No one says no to the conquest of Rafa. No reservist threatens to refuse to serve in Rafa if Israel invades the city. In the face of the lust

I know their way of thinking, namely that without Rafa we will never break Hamas. But they say souls in Communis they say soul. So in Gaza city it's always like the horizon. The next stop will be the finest one, and you'll never reach it. Because meanwhile, in the north part of Gaza you see this Kramas is big. We have to know a few things about Rafa. Raffa is the southstu in the Gaza street, mainly operated by refugees from nineteen forty eight, a very poor place.

I've with them many times.

But in this war, in the last half year, one point two million uprooted people replaced. People were told by is to find rescue in Ruffe. Without any kind of infrastructure or water, would no place to stay, living in kind of tents. And now Israel wants to invade this biggest refuge place in the world, maybe the biggest refugee place. Sorry, And I asked myself where will those people go and who will guarantee their lives? Those are people who went through hell in the last half a year. Those people

Yeah, and I want to stay on that point of what could come out of it, even you know, sort of taking the net Yahoo argument at face value about how this is essential to the destruction of Hamas. From your perspective, if this is if this operation goes ahead, what even is the best case scenario for the net Yahoo administration, Because one thing we know for sure is that it's it's not going to destroy Hamas and an operation in Ravas there is just that's that does not

No, there is no best case scenario. There's nothing good in this scenario.

The best sending case scenario from their point of view was really to destroy Hamas. But we both agree that this is not achievable because Hamas is of being destroyed, and there is story such an organization. There is a way to harm the military capabilities, and this is what it done enough in the last half the year. There is no best case scenario. PONTANIAO. I'm afraid there are also different calculations. As long as the goals going on. His government is in power, there are no elections, and

Yes? Is it jitimate one?

Get in you right in your column. There is no opposition to war in Israel, and I wonder why you think that is. I mean, at this point we even have the US government acknowledging there's a famine at least in northern Gaza. We are seeing children who are starving to death, babies who are starving to death. We have somewhere around forty thousand Palestinians who have been killed, many of them the majority of whom are women in children. Why is there no significant opposition to this war in Israel?

Because something very dramatic happened on the seventh of October when Israel and israelis stall nose atrocities in the south, the killing the kidnapping and other crimes that were conducted there.

They decided that they are.

Not interested anymore at all any kind of embassy toward the Palestinians, in any kind of dialog with the Palestinians, in anything with the Palestian It's a very emotional, primative reaction, which I cannot criticize, but that's not the policy.

And above all the Israelis and Israel.

Go to the conclusion that after those crimes, has the right to do whatever it wants, and this is almost illegal, enormous as well as things like any country in the world, and it cannot do whatever. Words to this year have to add the fact that the Israeli media, free and commercial, private owned, had decided voluntarily that they are not going to batther the Israelis with scenes from Gaza.

You will not see the suppware, you will not see the starvation, you will not see the destruction.

Because we know you Israelis, you don't want to see it, and we will do this service for you, and we will not show it for me.

And that's that's fatal.

Because most of the Israelis are not exposed to nothing from what is going on in Gaza, and this shapes their mind.

They really believe that Israel.

Is killing only terrorists who deserve to be killed, and Israel is living peace ws in and are quite happy about this warm as they are very unhappy with the fact that the ostrigers are still missing. They are very unhappy with the killings of Israeli soldiers. They are very empathetic about the unbelievable human tragedy on the other side.

Well, and just on that point about the hostages, and while we're talking about Rafa, because that is front of mine for so many people, and as you were just explaining, is really public opinion. What's the potential outcome for the remaining hostages if there is a ground.

Operation in Rafa going forward? What's the potential outcome is there?

Is it possible that the kind of best case scenario of recovering hostages safely and getting families some closure or at least some certainty, is an outcome ahead or what do you make of that get in You.

Know, I don't know. I don't know, because nobody knows where are the hostages.

But I know one thing is really striving now for six months to release them through military pressure, very messing military pressure. Killings and destruction. It didn't work. Why would you work?

Now?

We have to realize that the hostages will and can be released only in one way, through a deal, and a deal means Israel paying for their release, paying not in money, but in terms of releasing a Palestinian prisoner, big quantities and other conditions. If joy is so eager to see the hostage frae, it should have gone for a deal long time ago.

I wanted to get your reaction getting in if we can put guys D one up on the screen. Yesterday there was an Israeli military strike that killed three children of the Hamas political leader is Mael Honiah and Gaza, along with a number something like three of his young grandchildren as well. There was a lot of theorizing that this could be connected to the ceasefire talks that are ongoing. I don't know how likely successful those ceasefire talks are going to be, but do you see these two things

The Isuelis claim the authorities claim that this operation was not approved by high levels. Is it true or not? I can't tell, but that's their claim. It was local commanders who approved this operation. If so, then something is very wrong in the decision making process of the Israeli Army because such sensitive operation, feeling six members of the family of Israeilanea in such a sensitive time, which goes for high ranks and politicians and government, shows that we

Be approved by the highest drinks until the primaryst so other either there is a plucky or they are lying and most possibilities I cannot tell you where is the truth?

I don't know.

I think it's now long been clear that the military operation in Gaza has not been some surgical hunt for Hamas. Obviously, Nanyahu has his own political considerations of just trying to hold onto power as long as possible. But from your perspective, getting what is the true goal, what are the true motivating reasons for the all out destruction and annihilation that we've seen, and starvation used as a weapon of war that we've seen in Gaza.

I truly believe that the main motivation is to punish, to take revenge, to show the people of Israel that we are doing something too, that we are teaching the Palestinians and Hamas lesson.

Every serious person knows that much more or will not come out of this war.

Nothing of the goals will be achieved, and nothing worth achieved than half the year. It's not that I'm speculating now. In half the year, one of the longest walls between Israel and Palace is the achieved nothing. Why to believe that another half the year will be any better? But by the end of the day, it's really to punish and to take revenge.

Is it legitimate? I doubt it. Is it justified? I don't know. Is it clever? I know that's very much.

What level of pressure do you feel personally?

Because I have to say, I really admire your courage being and as really journalists runing an Israeli newspaper and expressing opinions that, as you yourself will readily admit, are basically unheard of throughout most of Israeli society. What sort of personal pressure have you come under, especially post October seventh.

I must be friends with you and tell you that if from so many points of view, I went through was wars. From my perspective in terms of being exposed to pressure, to threats, and two Fotina even had the bodyguards because there was no other choice.

The main.

Loneliness, the main really challenge, is the fact that many of my friends changed their mind in.

This war and didn't turn back.

So part of what was called the Beascamp really changed its mind dramatically, and I'm more lonely than ever. It's not very pleasant, but it's much less pleasant to be in now refugure in rough at this I can ensure.

Yeah, well, we really admire your courage and your principles. I've been reading you closely for quite a while now, so it's an honor to get to speak with you, and I'm so grateful for you taking some time with.

Us this morning.

Thank you very much for having me.

It's our pleasure.

Stay safe.

Tucker Carlson over at the Tucker Carlson Network did an interview with a pastor in the West Bank, a Palestinian pastor in the West Bank that made huge waves sort of across.

The online right this week.

I would just want to start with a clip from the interview and then we can get into why exactly people are so upset about it. So here's a Tucker Carlson with Isaac Munther, a Lutheran pastor again in the West Bank.

If you wake up in the morning and decide that your Christian faith requires you to support a foreign government blowing up churches and killing Christians, I think you've lost the thread. Just to end on this, if you had a message for Christian leaders in the United States, whether in government or in churches, or just citizens who care about the religion their fellow Christians, what would it be.

It would be to remind them that when the state of Israel was created, it was not created on an empty land. It was created on a land that had many a self indigenous Potestinians, including Palestinian Christians, and that that state they support, that state they celebrated as a fulfillment of prophecy and the sign of God's state to the Jewish people. For it to become a state, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians were forced to

Father, thank you for your thoroughly decent and sensible analysis, and I hope it's heard by Christians.

Ruth the West.

Okay, so again the key Tucker Carlson quote.

There, if you wake up in the morning and decide your Christian faith requires you to support a foreign government blowing up churches and killing Christians, I think you've lost the thread. That could also obviously be applied to the United States in the Cold War era. We talk about

Interview for Tucker.

But his critics of him just having this conversation with this Lutheran pastor. You know, they said this particular pastor was championing Hamas because they pulled this clip of him in an address on October ninth saying, you know, one of the scenes that left an impression on my mind yesterday, and there are many scenes, is the scene of Israeli youth who were celebrating a concert in the open air just outside the borders of Gaza, and how they escaped.

Yeah, and that is a very uncomfortable fact. I think for people who are just lockstep, anything Israel does is fine. There's also obviously religious view. I mean, the religious group that has the most favorable view of the net Yahoo government is not Jewish Americans, It's white Evangelical Christians. So Michael Tracy actually tweeted this out, and I thought this

That they exist. That's why the pro war cheerleaders.

Are reacting so angrily to Tucker simply interviewing one of them. With regard to this pastory right I was familiar with. I saw his Christmas sermon which was beautiful and went viral, and I think, you know, spoke to humanity. I wouldn't say it was left wing. I would say it was pro humanity. In fact, some of the messaging and it was rather conservative, talking about the commercialization of Christmas and how Christmas is not about Sannah and a tree and gifts,

That's exactly yeah, yeah.

Bethline surveys show support for town of Christ's birth and confusion over its location. They also interviewed Americans who were pretty confused over what exactly was going on in Bethlehem, but that key data about seventy eight percent saying it was Israel's occupation is the reason that they left. And in addition, you know, obviously you have had churches under

We covered it here. I don't know if you all recall that or not.

But Idea have disputes it, which has also became an issue in this whole viral conflict Trinac.

By the way, I personally believe the eyewitness eyewitnesses who were on the ground versus the idea of who lies all the time.

But one of the oldest churches, maybe the oldest church actually in Gaza was bombed and lots of Christian died there earlier in the war. Sharin Abu Akle was Christian, was Christian Al Jazeera journalist. Obviously, the IDF story changed on her.

Well, they admitted they killed her though, yes, ultimately they admitted and again that she was a Christian Postinian Christian, and.

The attacks American too.

They attacked mourners at her funeral as well, if people recall but.

And so if we can't even talk about this, that's a little ridiculous.

Yeah, and even the you know, the pushback, oh this you know this pastor he said, X y Z listen. I don't know every word that this man has uttered and whether I co signed them or not. But that doesn't really rebut what he's saying, what Tucker's arguing here, and the comments I saw that he made about October seventh, you know, I tried to gingerly and very carefully make some similar remarks about the festival goers.

This is not in any way.

To sanction their murder, which was horrifying, which was an outrageous, indefensible atrocity. I'm not denying that, I would never deny that. But there was something that was worth commenting on about the fact that's so close to the Gaza strip, this open air prison. You had people who were going about their lives as if that was completely invisible, and that was the overall reality of Israeli society prior to October seventh.

Was this idea that.

We can just keep these people out of sight, out of mind. We can go ahead with normalization with Saudi Arabia, with other Gulf Arab states. We can just pretend they don't exist. And net Yahuo would say things like, you know, I can control the height of the flame. They would go in for these boeing of the lawn operations every now and again, but for your average Israeli they never really had to come into contact with Palestinians.

So that seemed to me more what he was commenting on.

But again, even if he said something about October seventh that I genuinely objected to, that does not undercut the argument that's being made now. Now, the other thing I would say is that you know, with regard to and choosing this particular issue to push on and focusing only on Christians as opposed to the many, many more tens

Speaking of which, yeah, we can just quickly give everyone a flavor of the backlash.

Put you two up on the screen.

One critic of Tucker who said, quote, there is no one in America, American life who thinks less of Christians than Tucker. He doesn't like Jews, but he at least doesn't think we're stupid. Even Trump's Bible selling is transparently transactional. Tucker's entire stick relies on his belief that Christians are dullible, gullible SAPs. That's from a senior editor over at Commentary Magazine.

Here's a tweet from David M. Friedman. This is the next element we can put up.

This was in Trump's Ambassador Israel, so particularly noteworthy that he made this commentary.

Yes, he said, Tucker my friend. Before the Palestinians took over Bethlehem pursued into the Oslo Cords of the mid nineteen nineties, Bethlehem was under Israeli control in his population was eighty percent Christian.

It was one of the centers of the Christian world.

Since Oslo and the resulting Palestinian rule, Bethlehem became eighty percent Muslim and Christians are afraid, but they don't speak out against Palstini authority because you just can't survive.

You know, this is an interesting.

Point because you talk about the Azads, you could talk about I mean, you could go into a lot from that point. But it's also just this idea that because Tucker interviewed this pastor, he doesn't believe that there are also Muslim persecutions of Christians like that happens too, Like

Look, I don't have a high opinion of Tucker Carlson, but you have to deal with like what he's actually laying out here and not just below always just chasing clicks.

Yeah, I mean, that's just cheap and easy.

To go back to the Freedman comments about oh, Bethlehem was under Israeli controlled its populous to eighty percent Christian. He says that resulting Palestinian rule is why Bethlehem became eighty percent Muslim and Christians are afraid. This goes back to the polling that I had before. Yeah, that's just not true if you ask the people that left, that's not the Muslim rule was what did I say three percent said that the rise of Islamic movements like Humas

These things are undeniable.

So you know a lot of and you hear this not just with regard to Christians, but you hear this with regards to other minority groups within Israel outside of.

The occupied territories.

Oh well, you know, if you're a Muslim in Israel, you'd rather be a You have more rights there than in many other countries in the Middle East. But they never want to talk about people who are living under occupation under this apartheid system. Yes, if you are a small minority group that does not threaten the demographic majority, they'll you be okay. But then if you say okay, well just extend those rights to the palestinane thrower living in the West Bank and in Gaza.

Can't do that.

And you know, to your point Emily about the about more universalist values, like I have no interest in and am opposed to Muslim fundamentalist governments, and I opposed to Jewish fundamentalist governments and Christian fundamentalist governments. And you know that's I believe in the pluralism and secularism that we have at our best here in America, and that is across the board and not subject to, you know, my feeling about one religion or another religion.

By the way, a lot of the Chinese nationals coming over the border right now say they're Christians who are seeking asylum here because of religious persecution in China, and so I think it's just another great illustration of how sometimes our reflexive categorization. And you know, we have different opinions on what's happening at the border, but we so many like human stories get lost in that categorization that's

I'm excited to hear it. What have you got for us?

There are countless Washington who've made an entire career out of being perpetually wrong, but in all the right ways. It's amazing how you can excel in this down simply by adopting all of the DC approved wrong takes, some by the way, with utterly disastrous consequences. One of the individuals who has successfully charted such a career path is New York Magazines Jonathan Chate, and now he has added

Or had he lived in Germany during.

World War II, excoriating those secretly plotting Hitler's overthrow, these are illiberal tactics, Chait may have declared. Now, not a single reasonable person would look back upon such a person in making these arguments and see righteousness, justice or liberalism. Instead,

He wrote, and I quote.

The notion that Bush made up the whole thing about weapons of mass destruction has taken root on the left and is creeping ever closer to the liberal mainstream. My fellow liberals who have taken up this line are once again making a disastrous misjudgment.

He argued in twenty.

Sixteen that liberals should quote earnestly and patriotically support a Trump nomination because Chate was so confident that Trump would lose to Hillary. Now after getting his Trump nomination, which wish, he then wrote this column, which Age, like sour Milk headlined, Trump won't win Michigan. In general, Chate's beat is to

The bidding of Vladimir Putin.

On the contrary, Pro Palestine activists have been relentlessly smeared, doxed, and subjected to abuse since the outset of this conflict and before.

By the way, you may.

Recall an entire multi day news cycle around the activities of protesters on college campuses. This smear campaign was then supercharged by billionaire Bill Ackman, who sought to blacklist pro Palestine activists from ever getting hired by anyone. You might recall Rashida t Lee being officially censured by Congress, backed by the votes of dozens of Democrats, for retweeting a protest call for equal rights for all over to the Sea.

Quote.

I'm not referring to tactics like holding protest march's speeches, social media posts, organizing uncommitted votes in the democratic primary, or other exercises of First Amendment rights. I'm specifically referring to a campaign to shut down speakers who oppose or even in many cases, simply decline to endorse the movement's agenda.

First of all, with.

Regard to the president, specifically, if Joe Biden would like to avail himself of more opportunities to speak to the American people, I know I for one, would really welcome that perhaps he could sit for more news interviews, since he has done vastly fewer than any other president in modern history. Perhaps he could agree to debate as opponents, as he refused to do in the Democratic primary and has as of yet not committed to do in the

Time and of ours.

By the way, Jonathan Chate closes out his piece with this line quote, If your movement's goal is to prevent those who disagree from expressing themselves, and you delight in meeting out abuse and humiliation to your targets, you're showing the world you cannot be trusted with power.

Yes, let's allow.

The serious people to hold power, the ones who are serious about supporting the slaughter of more than fifteen thousand children, As the world watches in horror. These are the types in whom Jonathan Chate places his trust. And if you don't like it, then you can send a strongly worded letter, so long as that it is in the proper cordial tone and doesn't have a prayer of changing a goddamn thing. And Emily, I also think this calm.

And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at Breakingpoints dot com.

All Right, guys, thank you so much for watching today. Emily, thank you so much for sitting in with Sager for Sager, thanks for having Sager in spirit.

Scaga was here in spirit, not in the chair, but he was here in spirit.

Zaga or we'll be back next week and we'll be back with our regular scheduled program.

And so guys, enjoy the weekend. We'll see you soon.