5/22/23: Debt Talks COLLAPSE, Biden Caves On F16 Jets For Ukraine, DeSantis Secret Donor Call, Tim Scott and Chris Christie Set To Announce, Epstein Blackmailed Bill Gates, Pelosi Hides Feinstein Sickness, Used Car Prices, Migrant Hoax

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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Good morning, everybody, Happy Monday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Grissel.

Indeed, we do lots of stuff happening today and this week, both in terms of foreign affairs and here domestically. So first and foremost debt sealing negotiations that seem like they were going, then they broke down. Now they're back. We'll tell you the very latest stuff. Everything we know there. It's a very obviously chaotic and uncertain situation. Also, surprise, surprise, Joe Biden caved on F sixteen's to Zelenski called it here unfortunately, So we'll tell you the details about that.

It looks like he did.

And we have revelations about Dianne Feinstein being even more ill and in even worse health than we even knew about, so really sad and really kind of enraging. Details there regarding Nancy Pelosi, why she's propping up Diane Feinstein. We have some answers there as well. Before we get to any of that, though, thank you so much to all of the premium subscribers who signed up last week. We're getting super close to getting our new set. We're getting

That's right, keep that in mind for the exclusive reveal. And our plan has always been we've got to have big, big interviews with the new studio. We really want to make our mark on the scene and Luckily enough, RFK Junior actually just reached out.

Crystal wants to come back on.

Not only that, we'll have Maryanne on as well during that week, and we are working right now and getting another candidate, a major candidate also at the desk. So I know that it's something so important to everyone out there about having these big, big interviews, and yeah, I'm excited.

Yeah, Unfortunately, this desk it's just like, looks a little awkward with three people. As much as we love it with two.

People, I think it looks really nice, but when we have one, and I really want to be able to have two people on the set at least and have it look really nice. And the new set is going to be that way, so it'll be a great venue for more big interviews.

I actually so.

Bobby Kennedy texted me and encouraged me to share some of the exchange with all of you our audience. First of all, he said how grateful he was to be on the show, and he said, this is the kind of exchange I had at the dinner table every night growing up. I had fun, and I'd love to come back. I know he's got a big trip to the border planned. You know, I got a lot of questions for him there as I'm sure you do as well. So maybe we'll get him on the schedule for once he gets

Guy, classic guy. Yeah right, let's get to it.

All right, So debt ceiling a lot of developments.

As I indicated before, it looked like things were progressing.

Then there was a complete blow up.

Former President Trump wive in a not that helpful way to say Republicans shouldn't back down an inch. House Freedom Caucus also concerned that they're not getting enough found in the negotiation. So things broke down. But we do have a plan today for Biden and McCarthy to meet. Biden made some comments while he was in Japan about how he is viewing this negotiation.

Let's take a listen to that.

Before I left for this trip, I met with all four congressional leaders and we agreed the only way to move forward was in a bipartisan agreement. And I've done my part. We put forward a proposal of the cuts spending by more than a trillion dollars on top of the nearly three trillion dollars in depths of reduction that I previously proposed to the combination of spending cuts and new revenues. Now it's time for the other side to move from their extreme positions because much of what they've

So you can see some of how he is taking out his position, saying, look, these guys wanting to put new revenues on the table, oil subsidies to stripping those away, any sort of closing of loopholes, they won't consider any of that. And meanwhile, they want to take away assistance

Biden, you know, not.

Totally taking it off the table, but they've been sort of from the White House point cold water on that idea.

Let's take a listen to what he had to say there.

I'm looking at the fourteenth Amendment whether or not we have the authority. I think we have the authority. The question is could it be done and invoked in time that it could not would not be appealed, and as a consequence, past the dating question and still the fall of the debt, that's a question that I think is unresolved.

So not saying he's saying, listen, I think we have the authority, but in terms of it working those way through the courts, it's probably going to be challenged.

I'm not sure that that's the best option.

And the reporting behind the scenes also suggests that even though you do have you know, a number of progressive senators in particular, pushing for that, the White House seems to be very nervous about actually invoking it and going that run.

You know.

The other thing is that I'm realizing, and having spoken to some of the people who are involved in this, is that one of the things with the fourteenth Amendment is if you were going to do it.

You actually probably should do it before the ex of the.

Debt ceiling, because if you're trying to do it after the expiry of the debt ceiling, what ends up happening is you're going to have the crash.

Then you're going to have even more uncertainty.

You're going to remove some of the incentive to negotiate with Kevin McCarthy and all that to come to a legal or at least a solution that was previously accepted by the markets, and you're going to have to tack it to the Supreme Court, which then if they tank, it will go even more down and then you have to go back to the table, and you're basically extending the painful period of markets and negotiations.

The flip side of that is, so on the Fourteenth Amendment, the bet if you were to invoke it would be that the courts are more interested in protecting capital than they are siding with their partisan brethren, because obviously it's conservative, Republican Supreme Court. So if you did this beforehand, which I'm inclined to say, like you like if you were going to go this, or you should have just done

That from the beginning.

Part of perhaps a rationale for waiting is that you actually do want that pressure to be put on the Supreme Court. So it's like Chief Justice John Roberts, Do you really want to be the dude that crashes the entire global economy? Whereas if you haven't breached the debt ceiling yet, that gives them some comfort to take the partisan side kick it back to Congress and not have the sort of blood on their hands of being the

Had full control, I should have gotten rid of the debt sealing. That was what they really should have done.

But now that we're we are where we are, we have got to make it so that this type of type of brinksmanship is not the norm in Washington as it is becoming.

I was gonna say the biggest, probably the most foolish thing that was done, was when Biden, Schumer, and Pelosi did not pass a clean debt ceiling during the lame duck. I have no idea why they didn't do it. There really was no good reason as why they shouldn't have.

They should have gotten when they had full control, they should have gotten rid of the debt ceiling altogether.

And they just and you know why they didn't want to do it, because they wanted just to avoid a temporary headline before the midterms that they ended up doing pretty well in to be like Democrats raise the you know whatever.

To illuminating dead ceiling to google plex.

Or something like that, because you technically haven't need to put a number. The idea, and actually I think the correct number was to put a number that was so high it was effectively unprintable, and thus we would describe it in such a way that it wouldn't hit home, like a quadrillion dollars or something like that. Anyway, look, the mistake that they made was that they didn't do it.

So we have some indications.

Yeah, so.

Top line, Republicans want there to be a total drop indiscretionary spending in nominal terms. Biden has floated, Okay, how about if we have a drop in spending if you account for inflation. So number one, like top line, those are very different starting points. And you also have Biden setting spending caps for two years. Republicans want to set them for six years. So you have a difference in the top line number that's quite significant, and then you have a difference in the timeframe.

But perhaps even.

Trickier are some of the details here. Republicans want to actually increase military spending. Remember at the beginning, they were floating like, well, maybe we'll cut them, but no, that's not happening. They want to increase military spending. That means they have to cut even more from things that benefit

So that's a major issue.

You also have the fact, as I mentioned before, Republicans completely unwilling to put any sort of you know, closing the carried interest loophole, rolling back some of the Trump tax cuts for the richest among us, rolling back oil company subsidies. They will not put any new revenue on the table. So you just have some really pretty hard ideological differences here that are difficult to see how they're resolved.

You have the House Freedom Caucus.

Who are the ones that pushed this whole brinksmanship to start with. And it's almost like Kevin McCarthy, the hostage shaker, is also being held hostage by the House Freedom Caucus. It's kind of the dynamic that's going on here. So he has to make sure whatever he deal he strikes is going to be acceptable to the furthest right faction of his caucus, because otherwise his ass and his speakership is on the line here too.

This is actually something where people need to understand. McCarthy does not care either way. He probably would just do a clean debt ceiling if it was personally up to him, but that's not really what is on the table. What people don't understand is that McCarthy, even if he wanted to, could not sign a deal without the Freedom Caucus and without the chip Roys and all of them of the world, because not only could they the deal, they can also

The GOP Caucus.

They need to get the Freedom Caucus guys, Chip Roy and all those other people who are in there, because otherwise you're going to possibly negotiate a deal which will just get killed. The other thing is that a friend was explaining to me the way that the House has been set up under GOP rule. Not only could McCarthy and all of them not be able to get their votes, they wouldn't even be able to get it out of

They would not even let him do that.

So there are multiple blocks that are basically built within that. Effectively, between five to ten members of the House are the only people who you really are negotiating with in this current exchange, at least on the Republican side.

And let's look you want to say about them, I don't really agree with them on a lot, but.

They believe deeply ideologically we have to massively slash government spending.

They actually they actually.

Probably are people who would be okay with the military spending cuts and all that the negotiation compromises.

They're like, as long as we get our nominal, we don't care.

So then you've got the balance that you've effectively explained where we would have an increase right in military spending, right, and then a decrease in overall other discretionary spending, which is a very very tiny portion of government spending. And then finally, what I think is absolutely one percent dead and gone is the IRS.

I think IRS funding is gone.

There's I don't see any way that that will possibly come to the table. And there's also probably not all of the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, but portions of the Inflation Reduction Act which are dead and gone too.

Well. And here's the thing with the IRS.

You know, you just say, okay, we're going to cut some of this new spending on the IRS, that actually blows up the deficit, that creates a bigger hole that you have to fill with other cuts. Why because money spend on additional IRS agents to go after the wealthiest that actually increases revenue. So for every dollar you spend on IRS agents, it actually increases revenue.

In by more than that dollar.

So there, you know, ideological crusade against this new funding of the IRS that actually makes it so that the deficit is even worse, and the death situation is even worse, and so it creates the need, necessitates additional discretionary spending cuts, and makes things actually even more difficult. So that's why

I don't know.

It seems to me like maybe none of the potential outcomes seems likely to me, all of them seem like, I don't know how this is going to come together. Obviously something is going to happen. Somehow We're going to end up, you know, dealing with this situation. We always

That's what I would say.

I would say, status quo, we're probably going to default. Most likely, I would say more than fifty percent current status quo. I think that the entire game changes when there is a default. So if there is a default, at least in name only uncertainty in the market, you see a twenty percent drop in the S and P five hundred, that's when people start to freak out and

They're gonna be the first of all.

Well, here's the other thing.

I think Biden and the Democrats are going to be the first people to buckle, and we're going to see massive sequestration or something like that across the board.

Maybe right, Because the other thing is that some of these people, like psychopathically, don't really care if you lose your job and your life is ruined as long as it's bad for Joe Biden personally and so tanking the economy under his watch they look at that and well, that's too bad, but you know, it's bad for him politically, and maybe it hands us more power next election cycle. A lot of these people are craven enough to think

So we are mere days away.

At this point, I think it's time for everybody to really sit up and pay attention, because, as we laid out for you last week about the potential doomsday scenario scenarios, this is nothing to mess around with.

No, certainly, I mean, it will affect everybody's retirement portfolios. It could even affect some of the banks and cause a liquidity crisis, it could call it.

There's all kinds of crazy things. Nobody knows.

Nobody really has any idea how any of it would happen. And yeah, they create extraordinary pressure. And at this point until there is some sort of crash, I actually don't know if there will be a major movement. Okay, let's go in and let's talk about Ukraine. MAS updates in Ukraine. After the G seven summit in Hiroshima, President Zelenski made an appearance with President Biden. President Biden reversing long standing US policy policy that he himself set only a couple of months ago about No.

F sixteens to Ukraine.

Now, the initial announcement is that they will be training Ukrainian pilots on the F sixteen platform, with possible delivery in the months to come. Here is what President Biden had to say. Let's take a listen.

You know my private meeting with President Zelensky after the G seven meeting and with his staff, I told in the United States, together with our allies and partners, is going to begin training Ukrainian pilots in fourth generation fighter aircraft, including F sixteens. It is for them. I have a flat assurance from the from Zelenski that they will not they will not use it to go on move into Russian geographic territory.

Got a flat assurance.

I guess you could take that to the bank, right right, Well, it's interesting.

Let's go and put this up there on the screen.

January from twenty twenty three, just four months ago, President Biden walking across the South Line at the White House on his return, a reporter shouts out, will you give

Now people need to remember this about the F sixteens.

Even if the US doesn't provide the F sixteens to Ukraine, because it is our plane, we have to sign off on any export from any NATO ally or any ally actually that has them before they sell them. We get

Now, the other one, which is obvious to all.

Of us, is what qualifies Because according to the Russians, Crimea is Russian territory. Now according to US and according to Ukraine it's disputed or it's straight up Ukrainian.

Well, what does that mean? And what do we also know?

We know from our own reporting here at breaking points whenever we had our hands on those initial Pentagon documents.

Put this up there on the screen.

We know from our own intercepts of President Zelenski.

That the CIA and the US Intelligence.

Committee believes that Ukrainian President Selenski wants long range missiles and wants fighter jets specifically so he can strike deep inside of Russia. And if you're one of those NAFO idiots and if you think that we're lying, the Washington Post reported it too. It talked about, what do they say, Crystal, the aggressive behind the scenes presidence. This was like five days ago, you know, right before this announcement. So look, there is no reason to believe Zelenski literally at all.

Oh and then what the most recent Kremlin attack?

Right? Hey, Kremlin literally like a couple.

Of days ago, right, And so I already know that. You know, people are like, how can you blame I don't blame them. Nobody is blaming them. If I were them, I would be begging for F sixteen's be calling for no fly zone.

All of that.

Russia is the aggressor, there's no question. If they're using it just in a defensive capacity, that would be great. But there's a reason that President Biden and his advisors and many others did not want to do any of this. And it's specifically because the risk on this is so high. Once you know the CRIMEA scenario, it really is the

And I listened to Jim Sullivan try to explain why now and why not before he was in an interview with Jake Tapper, and of course Tapper's pushes like to the Hawker side, like well, why.

Didn't you give him sooner? Which, frankly, if you are going to give him an out, that's a good Question's actually.

A reasonable question, even though you know, I object to the fact that me he's always pushing the hawkish direction rather than like, what the hell are you doing here? What are you thinking? Why has your thinking changed so much that previously you said no and now suddenly you're sure. I'm sure it's going to be no problem whatsoever. Zelenski, of course, he wouldn't strike on Russian soil when.

We already know they are I mean, Biden.

I can't believe that he is this naive or foolish to think that really they're going to hold to their word and only defensive purposes, et cetera, because we already know that they have not held to that whatsoever. And to your points are are like, I don't blame them whatsoever. I blame our leadership, primarily because we are the ones that are driving this train. So Sullivan had no coherent

Yes, what's he going to push for next?

You know what's going to be the next step forward that eventually six months from now, that's going to be a flat no now and six months from now. But I don't be okay, sure, here you go, no problem. Where does how does this thing?

Ultimately? And this is extremely dangerous.

We know it's extremely dangerous based on the actions that Selensky's already taken and from the leaked intercepts that we know what he is pushing for even more aggressive action behind the scenes we have just are handing him a whole set of tools to engage in even more dangerous, even more escalatory action that could draw us even more

A fool, well, because we're the ones who have to rubber stamp it. Yes, Okay, ask yourself this, if what's a Russian allied nation. If Tajikistan bombed the US base in Afghanistan with the Russian plane, we're gonna blame Tajikistan. We're gonna blame Russia, all right, use your brain here.

And I actually don't even accept that the Russians didn't do anything, because I mean they had a draft, they called up a bunch of right men. I mean they have you know, they went back to hitting Kiev like they actually have done things and escalated in response to what they perceive as escalations from US and from the Ukrainian instagraup. So what's what's the next step up the escalation ladder from their perspective, And when do we get to a point where we accept, Okay, this risk is way too high.

To me, we are long past that.

Well, what's so stupid about it?

In my mind? And I already know the Ukrainian people whatever, these people will get very angry with what I'm saying is all.

Of this is over a scrap of eastern Ukraine.

Like, how in any world is this worth it in any way to all of our core national interests. We would never risk nuclear conflict over a scrap of disputed territory that has changed hand multiple times over the last several centuries. For what I mean, it's like, what possible benefit are we getting out of this?

Well, because they don't see it as over a scrap of land.

It's about democracy.

Well, I mean that's nonsense too.

They don't see it as being oh it's this great war between democracy and authoritarianism. They see it as part of this you know, global sort of like Cold War and Hot War. In Ukraine, they have said outright, you know, they want to weeke in Russia. They want to they hope Putin will be deposed and pushed.

Down over all of this.

At the beginning of this conflict, there were several times where they openly admitted what the real aims and goals were, because they don't want a Russia and China alliance that can you know, really rival US as superpowers in the world. So that's a real goal here. I mean, whatever you think of this conflict, don't believe any of the happy talk about oh this is about democracy, or about this is about Ukrainian sovereign you know, territorial disputes or whatever.

It worked out real well in South Vietnam and for exact for Presidents Lensky. We shouldn't forget that what was the one thing that he begged the American people for whenever he was here in Washington, and then frankly demanded publicly that we give him F sixteen's. He always gets what he wants. Here's what he had to say at the time.

We don't have the fight su jounts to deal with it to counter rock the Russian hips, and we really need this and really appeal to the President that they could start training Ukrainian pilots and the President Biden told me that it will be worked upon, and I believe that United States will give us the opportunity to defend our skies.

He was right, he made that prediction only three months ago.

Yeah, outside of the no fly zone, not one person could point me one thing that he didn't get eventually that from what he wanted. And on top of that, actually, let's go to the next part here, because it's so important, Crystal, is that this comes on the heels of a major

Now on that, I don't think there.

Is any dispute, but I am really beginning to feel like I'm losing my mind to here, Crystal. Because Zelensky poured billions of dollars of ammunition and artillery into this battle.

The theory was, well.

We're gonna keep killing as many Russians as possible. We're on the defensive, they're on the offensive. We can bleed him dry. This will be our stand. I mean, am I the only guy who remembers that he literally bought a brought a Brockmud flag to Washington that was signed by the guys.

That's that's how important.

This victory was like it was their Battle of the Bulge, like it was their big turnpoint. I mean, look, and I don't say this with relish. They just lost a major battle of attrition. Now everyone in the media is trying to spin it and they're like, oh, this is actually a pyrrhic victory for Russia.

Maybe.

I mean, certainly they lost a ton of people taking the city. I'm not saying it's to their benefit really at all. I mean, I don't think any of these people should be dying anyways, But there's a reason that they were fighting over this city in the first place. David Sachs actually had a pretty good summary. Number One,

For their counter offensive.

And you know why I'm thinking that, or why I think that there is some credence because US generals told them this months ago.

Put this up there on the screen.

This is from CNN, okay, and it shows, you know, the laundering of the deep state press. But they're like the US and its allies want Ukraine to change its battle tactics. In the spring, because they are pointing out that the Ukrainians have poured massive amounts of our US taxpayer provided aid into this battle.

They lost a ton of people.

It's been a brutal war of attrition, and at the end of the day, Russia has an industrial base and can draft as many people as it wants, and Ukraine is a wiped out country with no industrial base, no currency, completely propped up by the US and the Western allies basically at the charity of our taxpayers. They have nothing and they would fold instantly as opposed to where the Russians are. So if you look at the long term prospects on this, this is not a good sign.

Well, it's not good for them.

This is what the US was trying to persuade them. It's basically like, look, y'all, a war of attrition, this is not a good landscape for you because Russia has massive industrial capacity, and if we were going to go all in with Ukraine in a war of attrition, we would be ramping up industrial capacity. Obviously we're not doing that, just drawing down the stockpiles that we already have. So you have both sides in this bach.

Mot battle claiming.

That their goal is basically to turn it into a meat grinder for the other side and to you know, wear them down so that they're in a stronger position here for whatever offensive or whatever action is to come.

Credit. I mean, it is stunning actually to behold, and.

You know, I mean even now I'm reading they're like, as Ibakhok slips, Ukrainian forces pushed to encircle the city. You know, they're doing their best to try and retake some of the ground. So of course, look, it's not over now. They want to make the Russians suffer because they're going to have to hold the city after they took it, and it would be a bad look, of course,

I mean, that's insane.

And where's that spring offensive. We've been here in Seisa.

Too on that one. I have no idea, but I do know this.

They probably spent a hell of a lot of AMMO and artillery on this battle that our generals were like, hey, you shouldn't do this because it's going to bleed away from that and we don't have billions more dollars to send you, you know, our Congress, we're in the middle of a bet ceiling fight.

There ain't another fifty billion come in your.

Way, which could be the reason why Biden caves at this point for US sixteens, because I think you might you know, I mean, this is and this is always the logic is pointed out by our friend Bronco Marcitic, which is, if Ukraine is doing poorly, you know, just lost the Battle of back Mood, it's all right, we got to back them up so that they can gain leverage, so that they're in a better position for whatever negotiations may theoretically come down the line. And if they're doing well,

Altogether, both roads lead.

To us sending more, doing more, escalating more, and it just it just appears to be an endless cycle. So, you know, no way to know if that's the reason why F sixteen's have been proffered at this particular juncture, but I don't think it's crazy to imagine that either.

There we go, who knows. We'll keep everybody.

Updated, all right, So let's turn to domestic politics in a huge week, in some ways one of the biggest weeks yet in terms of the Republican primary. Let's start with Trump's primary rival here, Ron de Santis. He just had a pretty revealing call with donors. Put this up on the screen, where he made his strongest case yet against Trump. Now, let's just pause for a moment and note the grotesqueness of American politics.

Where your most sort of direct.

And honest comments come to a bunch of billionaire donor class elites. But that is the reality that we live in. Here, the headline is Biden and Me. DeSantis privately tells donors Trump can't win in a phone call with top donors, the Florida governor took his most direct shots yet at Donald Trump. He is expected to officially enter the presidential race. This article says next week. That would be this week

I'm the one who's credible.

To defeat Biden in twenty twenty four, and so that's why you should be on my team.

I mean, I think it's a good case. I think he might even be right. The only problem are the pesky GOP voters who have decided in the primary. And we've talked about this before. This a give me a great test as to my theory that Republicans, as far as I can tell, don't care about electability, or at the very least care much more about the person that

He's gonna lose, He's gonna lose, He's gonna lose, like we love him anyway. And then he won.

And so you can see from that why a lot of people have a tremendous amount of faith not only in Trump, but dismiss a lot of the electability concerns because they heard it for so long. They literally went with their heart and they actually got what they wanted well.

And I think it also shows you, unsurprisingly, the way the interests of the donor class and the interests of the base, so you're not necessarily aligned for the base.

Do they really expect.

To get anything out of Washington, whether it's Trump or Biden or whoever you know who is there at the White House. They don't really expect these people to be able to improve their lives with Trump. They feel like at least they get the fight and the you know, triggering the Libs that sort of bolsters them and you know, is something that they.

Enjoy to watch unfold.

Well, the donor class, they do expect to get something out of the occupant of the White House.

They want to get their tax cuts.

They want to get their brakes, they want to get their subsidies, they want to get that special treatment that.

They are well and accustomed to.

So for them, yeah, electability is kind of everything because they want to buy in on the winning ticket so they can get whatever goodies it is that they want to further fatten their own bottom lines. So there is a real divide in terms of the interest of these two groups of.

People on the electability piece.

I mean, maybe he's right and maybe he's not, because certainly, that six week abortion ban is going to be in every Democratic ad if you were the nominee going into the fall, and we've seen the way that that has turned into an extremely potent issue for Democrats in election after election after election. So you know, I think it's to me, it's very up in the air. Which of these men is more electable. We don't have an element for it.

But there was a.

Focus group, the results of which were just published this morning, of voters who voted for Trump in twenty sixteen and then voted for Biden in twenty twenty, and basically everybody in the group hates.

Both of them.

Biden they offered up were you know, a week tired, like the things that you would expect, but when you asked about Trump, the emotions were even stronger. It was like terrified, horrible, right, horrifying. These are not the exact words, but you can get the sense of like one was like not really crazy about this guy, and I'm not sure he's up to it, and this one it was like this is a horror show and we absolutely can't

A third party.

This is the electability argument that the Biden team has always banked on which is lesser or two evils.

You may not like me, you may not want me to run, but you don't.

Want to go back to this guy Trump either, and you know that's what they're hoping is going to work out for them. The one thing that I will say with regard to that focus group, I mean, number one, you're talking about fifteen people, so always take it with a great assault.

Number two.

Biden needed all fifteen of those in order to defeat Trump last time around. So if you're losing fix of those fifteen, either to third party candidates or to Donald Trump, I'm not positive that math works out for him, because don't forget, this was a very close race that came down to, you know, tens of thousands of votes and a handful of states.

It was not a landslide.

The other problem for DeSantis is that even though I do believe he would be a strong general election candidate, I'm not sure that he would win. But I do think that he would be strong just because you'd be stripped of some of the stop to steal nonsense, and he would at least, at the very least have to contest only on abortion and I'm not saying that he wouldn't lose that too, but I think it would be stronger ground, whereas Trump has to deal with both of them.

Well.

The problem, though, is.

That to coalesce all these people together, he needs the entire pop never Trump coalition, maybe not Trump coalition, and some of the Trump coalition.

And what's the issue? Put this up there on the screen.

Many Republicans who are in the party at the elite level don't necessarily think he can do it. We're about to talk about Chris Christy and Tim Scott and vivek Ramaswami and Nikki Haley and Kris san Nunu and Asa Hutchinson. And apparently this guy in North Dakota, Governor Doug Bergean wants literally before I've never even heard of this guy, Apparently he wants to run. Glenn Youngkin just put out a video which makes him look like he might run,

Cloba Charm was like, hey, you guys gotta get out of here. It's over.

You're dropping out of the race here endorsing Biden, and they said, okay, we're going to do it.

And because that.

Made it very very easy for him to come in and to beat Bernie on Super Tuesday. Well, the split field from twenty sixteen, we literally had a movie where this all played out. Crystal Republican Party officials desperately wanted John Kasik, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. They were like, all but one of you needs to drop out. We need to coalesce around a Trump alternative. And not one

You can just keep running.

So I think that it's the same you know, tragedy or what was a tragedy of errors like comedy of errors and Prisoner's dilemma that happened in twenty sixteen, which is playing out exactly the same way.

Now, yeah, let's move to this next piece of some of the candidates who are jumping in this week, because I think.

You're exactly right.

DeSantis really only shot was if he was strong enough a Trump alternative to clear the field of everybody else and have everybody coalesced behind him. That dream is dead. You now have put this up on the screen. Tim Scott has made it official, filing to run for president in twenty twenty four. We're going to get a big speech from him. Expectation is heavy on sort of biographical details. Tim Scott is embracing the movement conservative reaganesque type messaging.

That's the bet that he is making.

You know, we had a reporter on here last week just to play like Devil's Advocate in favor of Tim Scott, who said that the Trump people tell her that they are actually more worried about Tim Scott than you might think. That he unites a lot of factions of conservatives and is this very you know, likeable, effective politician, and so they feel like there may be more juice behind him than you might think. He also has a significant amount of money behind him too.

He's already launched a six.

Million dollar ad campaign in key presidential primary states that happen on Friday, and he is scheduled to announce actually today, so we'll get a sense of what that speeches and the details that are inside of it, and you know,

And at the same time, you got Chris Christy. You put this up there on the screen. New Hampshire media reporting multiple sources of direct knowledge telling me Chris CHRISTI will be announcing a run for president in the coming days. The campaign will focus on New Hampshire and will have a financial backing of Mets owner Steve Cohen, amongst other Remember when I was talking about delusional billionaires there, that's where it's coming from.

Well, let me say with Chris Christy, I don't think well, Chris Christy may be delusional enough to believe that he can win the Republican primary and be president, but what he laid down is basically like I can be the solution to this prisoner's dilemma. All you people are too afraid to attrack Donald Trump, and frankly for good reason, because it's never worked out well for anyone on the Republican side who came at Donald Trump. They always end

You know what it actually kind of hit home for me is I was like, if Chris Christy runs and he's going to be on the debate stage, I don't see any way that Trump would come to the debate because he would just beaying, why would I put myself in a situation where I'm going to take you where

Why would you even go?

I mean, look, maybe he'll go just because he can't stand the media attention of him not going. But at the same time, it's like it hasn't he's threatened and he's thought about it before. Vivike Ramaswami too. Just to show people about how many billionaires and others are out there.

Shopping, put this up there.

Rupert Murdoch actually just met with vivike Ramaswami in late April and New York, according to two people. One person described it as a getting to know you session, where Murdoch often meets with rising political figures. Look, what do you take away from that? It's that these guys they're craven in the way that they only care about what's good for them. They are incredibly fickle. So first Murdoch was all in on DeSantis and he's like, well, maybe you can't win.

So they're willing to just pull the plug from you.

They don't have as the level of organic support and all that, and without that, when their ability to just shift and walk away possibly from you know, DeSantis and go to somebody else. Apparently Ken Griffin, you know, is another billionaires thinking a lot like this. Well, if those are the people who you were entirely reliant on, you're in a bad situation.

Yeah.

They the billionaire class.

I mean there are just ideological in terms of what means for their.

Own bottles by and large.

And so yeah, they're happy to play the field. They don't have any loyalty. They want to get on the team of whoever is going to be the winner, who can give them those you know, special goodies or whatever it is they want out of the White House.

So yeah, there's there's no loyalty there.

And I think that DeSantis has shown enough weakness that the field is now very large. The piece about the debates, it's so, you know, I think you're one hundred percent correct. Trump is going to look at this and say, why would I open myself up to these attacks when I'm over fifty percent.

In the polls. I don't need to do that.

DeSantis has been a very cloistered candidate, is starting to open himself up and take more interviews and you know, sort of get into the fray a bit more. But he also hasn't performed all that well when he is in the mix, so you could very easily see him saying, you know what, this isn't really worth it for me either. And on the Democratic side, obviously, Joe Biden the danc have already said we're not having a primary, We're having a coronation, We're not doing any debates, forget about it.

That the entire public hates.

They don't feel any sort of pressure to hold themselves out to any sort of process of democratic accountability, and it's just a it's a really sad, pathetic state of affairs that we face at the moment.

Oh absolutely, And in terms of democracy, it's awful and it just shows you how like this system really needs to change, but it's not going to. My main takeaway though, is that it really is twenty sixteen all over again. It may not be sixteen candidates, but really, as evidenced by what happened in twenty sixteen, Kasik and Creuse alone were enough to split the anti Trump vote to guarantee Trump the nomination. It only took two, you know, semi

And you now is kind of a similar type candidate to Kaiseik Gues who's the governor of New Hampshire and they love him in that stage. He's one of the highest rated approval rating governors in the entire country as a Republican in the state of New Hampshire, which has been voting blue of late, and so very likely that he would win the New Hampshire primary, which is early on.

His bet is let me win in the early state.

You do in Iowa, need to gotta in Iowa, got to win New Hampshire. And so if you have one of those taken off the table by someone and then you have the vote super divided in Iowa, Iowa where there is a strong evangelical contingent that might you know, like a Mike Pence also and might have a lot of loyalties there as well, it makes the math very

There you go, all right, that's where the lay of the land is. Okay, let's go to the next one here, not surprising, but I guess stunning, just to see it all out in the open, plain English.

Put it up there on the screen.

Jeffrey Epstein appeared to threaten the Bailgates over a Microsoft co founder's affair with a Russian bridge player. So a lot of interesting characters at the center of this story. Basically, this goes back to twenty thirteen where Bill Gates apparently sorry twenty ten. Bill Gates apparently is obsessed with the game Bridge, like the card game. He met a Russian girl who was in her twenties who was apparently very

Bridge and spread the game of Bridge.

She asked Bill Gates for money. Gates apparently turned her down. Then Epstein somehow inserted himself into the mix. He ended up meeting this girl. This is all post sex conviction. By the way, by Epstein eventual release, he's a registered sex offender at this time. What he does is he apparently backs some of her charity and then she says, I want to go to coding school and he Epstein. She lets us drop in a meeting with Epstein. Epstein says, okay, I'll foot the bill for it. So this all appears

This is it. It's clear as day.

He used information that he gleaned from his personal relationships and extra marital affairs that would have been publicly embarrassing and used it directly in terms.

Of a business relationship.

Yeah.

And then this is clear cut.

Yeah.

And then the only question is whether there were also governments like our own right or Israel is exactly that also would have found that sort of compromising information on the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet useful to their ends as well, which is the other part of this that you know, I think we've all long suspected. But yeah, this was what he did. He would make you feel like he would do everything to make you

He'd figure out what type of sushi they.

Wanted, what were their little needs that they had that they needed met, you know, Noam Chomsky and whatever this account transfer was, Like, whatever problem you had, Jeffrey Epstein was going to be there for you to try to make it go away, and he was going to invite you to all these you know, Glamour's gatherings, et cetera, et cetera, and everybody was in the club.

So what's the problem here.

If he's being accepted by Bill Gates and all these other billionaires, then surely it's fine for you to associate with him as well. And then whatever compromising information he could get on you, you know, from being at his parties, being on his jet, being on his island, from knowing about your affairs, whatever it is, then he would weaponize to try to get from you whatever it was that he wanted.

So you can see the game here.

I mean, you see this uh Les Wexner, who was his primary benefactor obviously and probably the primary source likely of Epstein's wealth and his ability to live like a billionaire himself, even though there isn't a lot of record of him having a lot of like big clients that would really justify this type of lifestyle. Very similar dynamic there as well. And then it is quite a tantalizing and bizarre detail well that it was literally days before

What is clear to me is that what is very clear and obvious to me about what's happening is that somebody who has access to a whole lot of Epstein information leaked it all to the Wall Street Journal and they have been doing drib drib drib reporting about the Gnometomski meeting. They did the Larry Summers story originally, and I.

Don't think it takes much of a genius to figure this out.

I think it was the US Virgin Islands because the US Virgin Islands has an ongoing suit with Epstein about against Epstein's estate not only for the victims, but to expose some of his dealing.

Clearly, they have access to.

His calendars and to his emails and some other things and other information that's not come out publicly that now is being deployed in the press, most likely as an effort to try and get the Epstein State to settle or at the very least pay them, you know, whatever they.

Want in terms of that suit. Now I actually am against.

I just want this information published, and this is my message to the.

US Virgin Islands and others.

Get your bag, but also publish everything you got because this is such a matter of public interest now, you know, because this is only scratching the surface in terms of the wealthiest, most powerful men. We need to know more about the governments like aud Barack he is reelly Prime Minister who slept over at his house constantly, or Bill Clinton in the number of times that he, you know,

They met dozens of times.

I mean, you know, we even showed that former Obama lawyer who had met many times with Epstein then went to go work as a top lawyer I think for Goldman Sachs. I mean, there were several other meetings and things that have taken place, which it's very difficult to explain. And this lawsuit I think has the keys to a lot more info about him.

Yeah, well they just started looking at us as well, right, So, I mean it really is crazy the number of people that he in the highest echelons of society was able to associate and ingratiate himself with. Yeah, it really is astonishing. I mean you just look at these reports and you're like, was there any elite in the world that didn't end up having some sort of Jeffrey Epstein connection.

So the answer is no, yes.

So anyway, we'll see what the Wall Street Journal drops next. But this Bill Gates piece is pretty extraordinary.

All Right.

We have some more details about Diane Feinstein, oldest serving member of the Senate currently, who is in very poor health, who has facing calls to resign, who is clearly unable

She had encephalitis.

She contracted encephalitis that is a type of brain inflammation. She also developed Ramsey Hunt syndrome that can cause that facial paralysis that you are seeing there. They put on a statement that the encephalitis I'm talking about Feinstein's office, the encephalitis resolved itself, but she continues to deal with Ramsey Hunt syndrome. Let me just read you a little bit of this article so that you can see the technical medical details. She did return on May tenth, after

Ramsey Hunt syndrome she's dealing with.

Her aid statement contradicted the senator's own remarks on Thursday. According to CNN, the network quoted Miss Feinstein herself as denying she had encephalitis, saying, quote, it really has never been diagnosed properly, and it was a really bad flu.

It can result in.

Symptoms including personality changes, seizures, confusion, and problems with site or hearing, according to the Mayo Clinic. So her health and her ability to capacity to perform the most basic functions of this job already engraved out, just further degraded by the health complications that she is suffering, including brain inflammation.

Yeah, well, that is the part where I thought we should spend time because this shows you how craven and repulsive these people are. Yes, they are literally willing. Let's put this up there on the screen. They are literally willing. Nancy Pelosi has deployed her own daughter, who literally does not work for Diane Feinstein in any way, to be the primary caregiver and to shepherd her away from the media.

A black woman.

And if that black woman, who currently would be very likely to be appointed is Barbara Lee, who is running for the Senate against Adam Schiff.

And guess what, Pelosi endorsed Adam Schiff.

Therefore, if her and her henchwoman, her daughter allow find sign to go, then it's very likely that their chosen Adam shift candidate will not be the next Senator because whoever gets appointed to the seat very obviously would have a better leg up in the overall primary.

I mean, look, am I wrong here?

Or is that not the most obvious thing about what's going on the moment you learn it's Christine Pelosi, Pelosi's daughter rolling her around the capitol.

It's not Christine plus honestly her name is her oldest daughter.

But yeah, I apologize, I apologize.

Still a Pelosi daughter, Yes.

Pelosi daughter who was rolling her around the capitol.

How can you possibly think like this is not what's going on here?

Well, and you will recall when congressmon ro'connell, also of California, began publicly calling for fine Stein's resignation. Remember what the Pelosi people said to the press and what Pelosi said. Number one, she called him sexist, which is disgusting. Number Two, they insinuated that he was the one with the political motives because he supports Barbara Lee. I don't know if he's publicly endorsed her or not, but you know they're

Well, that was clearly projection. I mean they're the ones.

Who are this is elder abuse at this point, propping up Seinstein and at great risk to her own health and you know, survival, length of survival to come to DC and face this kind of intense media scrutiny and you know, long schedule when she should be at home recovering and enjoying.

The last years of her life.

So it really is disgusting to see the way that they are toying with, you know, the people of the country, toying with their own constituents in California, hamstringing the work of the Senate, and also this woman that they, you know, really pretend to revere.

This is incredibly damaging.

For her and just very no doctor would recommend that she go and serve in her capacity as US senator right now, because she is so clearly not up to the rigors.

Of that job.

Yeah. Well, I actually even read more about how many, unfortunately, many of the people who find Sime still at this point is able to recognize and to trust are all gone. Her former chief of staff, he's gone. Her husband died very recently. That was a big blow, But he was one of the only people who very likely could have been like Hey, Diane's time to hang it up, like we got to go.

And she won't.

She won't do it her own kids and apparently but also Pelosi and others who could do it just won't. And so I think it's obvious. I think it's very obvious what.

They able to get Krick and Adam's shift as senator. Oh, I mean that is that is gross on every level.

It is so gross.

This person that you consider to be a friend, and you're doing this to her her in service of your own like political agenda.

And that's the thing, is it.

Why else would her daughter be the one chauffeuring her around?

There's no other reason. Yeah, especially whenever.

You're well, they're very close for a long time. I know, no, okay.

Okay, just this appeared out of nowhere just to wheel her around the capitol. I don't believe it. I don't believe it for a second.

All right, talker, what are you looking at?

Well, in retrospect, probably the most insane thing that ever happened during the pandemic had nothing to do with lockdowns. It was simple and when we will be telling our kids about twenty five years from now, used cars went up in value the sky actually did turn green. I myself benefited from it. My jeep was involved in an accident.

This investigation sought to get to the bottom of.

One expert, who runs a car app that monitors prices across many dealerships, actually explained it this way.

Maker factories shut down during COVID.

When they spun back up, there's a huge shortage of semiconductors. With that shortage, they then prioritize their most expensive models over cheap cars. This way, the only ones that get produced actually make them a big profit. Then, though, when they get to the dealer, the dealer takes advantage of the shortage and the premium product goes even higher by racking up the price more.

Than they ever could have dreamed before.

Twenty nineteen, one government estimate actually found that auto dealers make up anywhere between one third and two thirds of all new car inflation that consumers are experiencing. It must be a good line of work if you can get it. These car dealers are printing money all throughout the pandemic, and now, as you can see from the chart before you, they continue to do so largely because they have discovered

The current average selling price of a used car.

Is some twenty eight thousand, three hundred and eighty one dollars, which feels crazy to say out loud in my head, that's what a new car to sell for.

Yet here we are.

This underscores again just how much the backs of the poor and the middle class are against the wall. A sizeable portion of the US population is quite literally a blown tire away from bankruptcy with very little options if they get in even a slight pegle where you need a new.

Vehicle other than the one which you are driving.

Really, what this underscores is the death of entry ease in the country. There are no more starter homes because the average price of a home is four hundred and thirty six thousand dollars. That's thirty two percent, an increase in two years. The average mortgage payment is now twenty three hundred dollars per month. That's thirty grand a year

To be like ninety grand. Now.

Average household income in the US is seventy five thousand, dollars, which means that for most people, they responsibly probably should not buy a house in this current environment. Roll in a car payment to that. Per Bank Create data, the average car payment today is between five hundred and seven hundred dollars per month.

Not only that, car.

Insurance rates have skyrocketed lately, adding an additional two thousand dollars per year. On average, the total of what I call the existence tax is actually getting to a point where, even on average income, it is getting straight up uncomfortable.

And I will end with this.

The way that economists and even people like us sometimes talk about inflation and overall prices, it really misses the mark. Yeah, core CPI, core inflation, all that stuff, it misses this point. Certain prices are just more important than others. The price of housing, the price of a car, the price of gas, the price of food, healthcare. Those matter more than any others.

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

Chrystal, what are you taking a look at?

Well, guys, the story had everything to make it catnip for right wing media. According to The New York Post, about two thousand homeless veterans had been kicked out of an other state New York hotel called the Crossroads in order to free up space for migrant asylum seekers. Now head of that nonprofit group, Sharon Tony Finch, relayed the harrowing tale of the New York Post. She said, one of the vets called me on Sunday. He told me he had to leave because the hotel said the extended

They ran wild with it.

Calumnist at the Post said Joe Biden should quote burn in hell for this. Fox News in particular, of course, they leaned in heavily to this two perfect tale of illegal immigrants, supplanting men who had served our country. On Outnumbered hosts said the incident proved Biden was a liar when he said God Bless the troops and that he's quote more concerned about the needs of the UN, about the World Economic Forum than he is about his own

He also noted that men who.

Were unwilling to answer were told to respond with I'm too traumatized to talk about it if asked. In the end, this lady did not even give these men the two hundred dollars cash payment she had lured them with. Now, after Fox spent hours flogging the story, in emotional language. They attempted to clean up their mess with a couple.

Of short corrections.

You can bet millions of people who heard the original story they will never hear that it all turned out to be complete and utter hoax. Workers for the hotel at the center of the lie they have been besieged by irate phone calls and physical threats. Now, the sad thing is this wasn't even close to the only national culture war story that was revealed as a hoax. Just in the last week, a Senate candidate who had claimed that he witnessed child sex trafficking while working at an

He continues.

I use the opportunity to take photographs of a child and send it to my followers. This is a topic of serious concern amongst my voter base, and I intentionally brought attention to a situation that simply did not occur. Goes on to express regret for slandering and investigating law enforcement officer, potentially endangering the child that he photographed, and causing cops to spend hundreds of hours investigating what was

That bike out again.

So instead of a racist Karen, this video might actually show the tail end of a pregnant nurse being mocked, harassed, and intimidated by a group of young men. Now we didn't cover any of these stories, not because we're such geniuses that we can intuitively spot every fake the incident hits the partisan press, but because we try not to do news analysis by anecdote. After all, let's say that

They can also be useful to help formulate a hypothesis than that you then test.

But on their own they're mostly just propaganda, mostly emotional manipulation.

Unfortunately, too, we have become a.

Nation of easy marks, millions of culture war poison brains, just prime for the next viral video or anecdote to confirm what we think we already know, with media goules ready to cherry pick stories to reinforce our elaborate mind palaces, and fame hungry Charlatan's ready to outrite concoct narratives that are tailor made to draw us in, with irresistible culture war bait pundits and influencers ready to pounce in order

To separate fact from fiction.

Be wary of these two perfect culture war flashpoints stories, reject the news outlets that routinely traffic in them, and be especially skeptical when a story matches up with your existing worldview a little bit too perfectly. This homeless veterans, and you think of this one.

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

Thank you, guys so much for watching. We really appreciate Crystal. You're going to be out tomorrow.

I've got kindergarten graduation apparently a thing. So yeah, we're in the all the end of school year madness. So I'll be out on Tuesday, but then I'm going to fill in for Ryan on Wednesday on Counterpoints.

So we're doing a little switch.

As you guys always wanted. You wanted multiple switcheroos, So that's there it is. We've we've got the you know, the game to please you, got the Bro Show, We've got the Girl what is it, the Girl show?

Whatever?

You ladies, ladies, ladies. So we'll see you guys tomorrow.

Me and Ryan.

Thank you for everybody who's been signing up premium. We really appreciate it helping us as we approach our new set, new studio, new vision for Breaking Points, breakingpoints dot com.

Otherwise, we'll see you soon.