5/30/24: Trump Trial Verdict Imminent, Trump Promises Tax Cuts To Donors, DNC Moved Online, Israel Says Gaza Forever War, Biden Ally Flips Over Israel, GenZ Says US Dying Empire, P Diddy Grand Jury

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, we have a girls show. Welcome to Breaking Points at Crystal. How are you doing this morning?

Doing good?

Always a pleasure to be here with you, Emily. I love your vibe. The way you start is so different from Sager.

Because I don't scream. Is it because it's good for your ears? You feel like it.

Just feels like a vibe just sort of ease into the show.

I like it.

I also like, I'm just not realizing that producer Mac gave us specific mugs for each show. I have the counterpoints mug, but he gave you the break mug.

Yeah, the indeed we do.

One's just perfect.

We're just absolutely going full steam ahead this morning.

Big show.

Yes, great guess coming up in the A. By the way, to break down this huge news about the Trump trial. The jury is quite literally out right now.

Yeah, that's right.

So this is the one Trump trial that actually is likely to happen for election day, and the jury is deliberating. So we've got Bradley Moss coming back on the show to tell us what he made of the cases that were made on both sides and what he reads into the jury. Tod come back and ask for a few things, So we'll get all of that for you as we await a verdict. We also have a bunch of twenty

We asked Bradley Moss if.

He would speak to that as well, and he said, quote, hard pass, hard past.

You know, and the one point, well, I know, we'll talk about it in the block, but this is a billion dollar empire really, I mean, Ditty is a business.

It's not just about Ditty.

It's about how powerful businesses were involved in this PEPs of years.

So yeah, I mean it's it is about this culture of complicity. I mean, how many people knew what was going on. Because we're now up to potentially a dozen different victims. It really is far reaching, and you have to imagine that there were many people who knew and just turn to blind eyes. So once again the powerful protected at least for some significant period of time before we jump.

Into the show.

Thank you guys so much for hanging with us as we switched to locals.

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Overall very smooth, but there have been a few bumps as these things go. So if you are still having any issue whatsoever, email support at locals dot com and CC breaking Points Premium at gmail dot com.

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I wanted to give out producer Griffin's phone number, but I was told that was a bridge too far.

I was ready to give out the address so you could go protest downside his house if you want, if you're not happy with the experience, but we'll keep it at the email for now. All right, let's go ahead and turn to the Trump trial and what is going on there. So we are very fortunate to be joined by legal expert Bradley MOSSI is here to break down what we know of the Trump hush money trial.

Great to see is always.

Bradley, absolutely always having to join.

So let's go and put this up on the screen.

I got a tear sheet here talking about what could happen if Trump is in fact convicted found guilty here, he would go and be reviewed by York City's Department

Sure, so, the prosecution I think did more or less the best they could with what is ultimately a circumstantial case. They built sort of a wall, a foundation of various pieces of evidence and testimony to surround the only key eyewitness who can talk about the connection of Donald Trump to these falsification of the records and the underlying intent, and that person, of course, is Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen has his own issues when it comes to credibility and ethics.

He's not the greatest witness on the planet.

Which is why the entirety of the prosecution's case came first to surround him, to reinforce them so that if for any reason there were concerns in the jury regarding some of the credibility of his testimony, they had corroboration that could reassure them.

That was the prosecution's burden. That was their job to do.

I think they did a pretty decent job at it, certainly enough to likely convict when it came to the defense's case, and I have to assume some of this was client driven as opposed to what the lawyers truly wanted. Remember, one of the lawyers left before the trial even began, most likely because of the client's prefer strategy. But it was all based on idea that this was all live, not that yes it happened, but here's why it's not a crime, or yes it happened, but here's why. It

I don't think they expected a quittl. They might be looking for jury though.

Oh interesting, And yeah, there was I saw you actually tweeting about this yesterday. There was all kinds of controversy about the jury notes that were requested, about the jury instructions. The jury is continuously deliberating today. What did you make of the You know, it was sort of like skirmishes on Twitter over what was true and what was false

Yeah, so so far, you know, we're just trying to read tea leaves here.

We're trying to get into the minds of jurors, and none of us truly know what's happening in that room. But from what we saw from the notes, the information they were questing, it was largely focused on the testimony of David Pecker from the National Inquirer and his conversations both with Trump and with Cohen.

Dating back of twenty fifteen.

That speaks more to that intent element, that secondary part that bumps it up to a felony. That speaks to the idea of whether or not this was done with the intent to commit another crime, potentially a campaign finance issue.

That doesn't speak to the falsification.

So if you are trying to infer where the jury's looking at this right now, they might buy that there was falsification of the business records, at least the misdemeanor. What they're not certain yet on is whether or not they there was enough evidence to bump it up to the felony if they can reach decision that there was a unanimym sorry, a unanimous decision that there was an intent to commit another crime, and then they can decide which of those other crimes they're allowed to select from

A yeah, what is your set? I mean, obviously none of us can really know, but do you have a guess of how long it may take for them to deliberate, especially given the fact that already yesterday we're getting these notes and requests and they're clearly dealing with some of the core substance of the case.

So it'd be interesting to see one well, you know, as the jury comes back in this morning and they have this read back and this extra information that we're requesting from the judge, just to see how long that takes to go through. But if you're Donald Trump right now,

Interesting, and I want to ask about this analysis that conservative attorney, although fairly anti Trump, attorney Andy McCarthy wrote a National Review. He said, listening to the presentation of evidence in the prosecutor's marathon summation, the jurors were undoubtedly convinced that prosecutors do not have to prove the FIKA violation to find Trump guilty. Rather, the judge and prosecutors have led jurors to believe that the violation of FIICA

Not to beat a dead horse.

Yet again, McCarthy continues, but this evidence is utterly inadmissible against Trump. Yet Mershan has allowed prosecutors to tell the jury about the police and non prosecution agreement dozens of times. So if Donald Trump is convicted, that argument is going to be amplified, obviously on the right and by a lot of Trump voters. What do you make of it? I mean, I know that's sort of a can of worms.

Yeah, So let's be honest here, They're going to be inflame no matter what if there's a conviction. It didn't matter how clean or perfect the case was put on.

What Andy has gotten into here is an issue.

Of legal nuance that is part of the realities of a lot of the pre trial fights that were done by between the parties before and Judge Mshan and how it was outlined that the case would proceed.

You know, when it comes to trial litigation.

I kind of view it as the way people always say, don't watch how the sausage is made, because you'll gross you out, You'll never want to consider eating it. Don't watch how trial litigation happens, the nitty gritty details if you ever want to have faith in the criminal justice system, because it's not pretty. But what has to be done here for the prosecution to get a guilty verdict, and this needs to be very clear because there was a lot of confusion yesterday with the jury instructions.

There needs to be a unanimous.

Verdict by the jury that Trump falsified or caused the falsification of the business records. There needs to be a unanimous verdict that he did it with the intent to commit another crime. Those parts have to be unanimous. Where there is room for some discretion with the jury is what the other crime was. They don't have to decide as a unanimous group. They can, but they don't have to side as a unanimous group that it was the feat of violation, that it was state tax law or

Supreme courts never ruled on.

Obviously, that may be an issue for appeal that would be fascinating.

But Donald Trump here.

Is ultimately a victim of the very kind of laws he always trumpeted in New York, as you know, combating crime. He just doesn't like it because it's being used against him.

So if I'm hearing you correctly, you basically think an acquittal is likely off the table because of the defense that the Trump team chose to present.

Is that correct? Which is what McCarthy thinks too, by the way, correct?

Yeah, I mean anything's possible. Jury's are completely unpredictable. We never truly know. That's the beauty of the jury system. But I don't think anybody realistically believes at this point

And so can you walk us through Since you think an acquittal is more or less off the table, barring some you never know kind of a circumstance can you walk us through, Okay, if he's found guilty, here's what happens next, and what that process looks like. And if there's a hung jury and a mistrial declared, what does that process look like.

Sure, So, if there's a hung jury, there's two issues. One there's the political ramifications, which is he'll declare victory anything short of conviction.

Donald Trump will declare victory.

Say, look, they couldn't even get a jury of twelve Trump hating evil liberal communists to convict me. Clearly, these pep to charges are garbage. If he is convicted, to be very clear, he is not going to get hauled off and sent off to rikers that day. It's not happening. There will be a hearing set for a sentencing. There'll be a pre sentencing, there will be any number of documentations and briefs submitted by both parties to the judge based off of New York state law in terms of

He's not going to get.

I think it's four years is what he could get under the law. He's not getting that. If he gets something, it'll be three to six months at most. That is where the issue of this past criminal contempt, what we saw with the gag order violations, that's where that may come into play. Is whether or not Judgemarshon considers that as an aggravating factor, saying I was considering probation, but forget it. Now, I'm putting you on three to six

Well, and that was just going to be my last question is you know, based on what we've seen from Judge Murshawn, what can we expect about how he'll handle that question.

I think from what we've seen in his past analysis, it's going to be a very thorough discussion.

You know.

I understand it's the thing right now amongst conservative pundits to trash him left and right because of what his daughter does or because of how he's ruled on some of these pre trial issues.

And that's fine. It's for some memento who can say what they want. I think he's been a pretty decent jurist.

He's cut back a lot on what I thought the prosecution wanted to do in their presentation that they ultimately ended up favoring Trump a little bit and narrow the scope of the government's presentation. I don't expect anything draconian, even with the aggravating factor. Again, I don't see anything more than a few months if he sends him to prison time at all. There's no chance that it happens in the sense of Trump being sent to prison before the election.

And if he is convicted, if he has found guilty, I presume he can avail himself of an appeals process.

What does that look like? How does that play on?

Yeah, he can almost certainly, and of course will immediately file and appeal that will wind his way through the New York Capel courts. That doesn't necessarily put a hold on his sentence. His lawyers certainly could ask for a stay of the sentence pending resolution of the appeals.

That would be up to New York appellate courts.

But a lot of this becomes ultimately irrelevant post November because if Trump wins, there's no chances going to jail anyways at that point as a sitting president. If he loses he's got those other three criminal cases that are.

Still on tap to come to trial one day.

Eventually, maybe in twenty twenty nine, he'll almost certainly start cutting deals to minimize jail time so he doesn't spend the rest of his life in jail at that point.

All right, last question, so I know you're not going to want to answer, but what do you think are the odds of conviction versus hunguri People.

Keep asking me this if I'm sitting at the table in Vegas, and I absolutely have to place a bet right now, I'm leaning towards conviction. Everything indicates the jury's questions are leaning along those lines. But you know what, juris are unpredictable, and we won't know until we know.

Bradley, So great for you taking the time with us this morning. Thank you so much for your analysis.

Absolutely have a good one.

So great to hear Bradley Moss's assessment there. I mean, honestly, watching it, Emily, I've had no clue which way things are going to go, and I'm.

Not the legal expert.

So good to hear his analysis there. And even you know, just to he's like, you know, resistance pro Joe Biden guy but we've found his analysis to be pretty even handed when it comes down to it. The other thing we wanted to get into is, you know, the big question is does this matter politically. CNN's Harry Enton actually did a whole analysis that found in terms of the trial, there has been basically no movement from in the polls from the beginning of the trial to now like literally none.

They did present a like he did nothing wrong.

It was a perfect phone call kind of a defense which he felt that the jurors and I think most people would find kind of unbelievable the idea he did nothing wrong. There were probably stronger avenues for them to pursue in terms of just like you know, casting doubt on whether it was solely for campaign reasons, and casting down on Michael Cohen, etcetera.

Yeah, And it's funny that CBS question because MPR tested this as well. But like the question of is somebody guilt, there is Trump specifically guilty of a crime. If I were taking that poll and not listening closely, I might be like, oh, he's probably guilty, because in my mind, I'm thinking probably guilty, yes, of baying of a hush paying the hush money to Stormy and having an affair

But they're in the defense of the Trump prosecution.

They would probably say he's probably going to be convicted anyway either way. I mean, this Manhattan Jerry is probably gonna convict Donald Trump.

Hard to say, like, I still have no idea what's going to ultimately happen here, you know. On the political front, I think that most normally type voters aren't really getting into the nitty gritty of like some of the legal arguments you're raising, and like the specifics of how this was this novel legal interpreted and required this other crime to make this one a felony, et cetera. It's a totally Most of it is viewed through the typical lens of ed do you feel about Donald Trump?

Like do you think he's a criminal or not?

And most of that is going to come down to partisan affiliation. Now, I do think that there is on the margin some like you know, people feel, and I think rightly feel that.

Like the document's case, it's.

Kind of open and shut, like it's kind of hard to deny that there were some real problems the way he handled that whole situation, obstructing justice and whatever. Even if the original keeping of the documents was an innocent mistake, the fact that you went to these great lengths to cover it up, I think most people look at that like, okay, yeah, there's something wrong there, and also they know the way that other people who have mishandled classified documents have been treated.

They already know.

How they feel about Donald Trump. So the only question that remains is like, Okay, if he's actually convicted of a felony, does that hit in a different way than just thinking that he's guilty of a felony.

And I don't really think so.

I don't really think this is going to move the needle really one way or another. Probably, but I can't say what with one hundred percent certainty.

Yeah, I think that's the right take.

I mean, when a former president is actually sentenced, I mean, this is not something that we've seen, like Nixon was pardoned and people were upset about it at the time, although people look back on it now as like a noble decision by Gerald Ford. It's we haven't seen a former president gets sentenced to four years potentially, as Bradley was just talking to us about.

And I don't think we know how we're going to react to that.

Yeah, I agree, with you that if I had to put money down, I would say probably, this doesn't move the needle a lot. If anything, the NPR point mentioned earlier found like fifteen percent of Republicans said that this makes them more likely to.

Support Donald Trump.

And to the extent that the Bragg case has mattered at all in the election. People forget that the Ron DeSantis bump that he had going into the primary disappeared when Alvin Bragg, Like that's when his numbers started going down. Is when brought this case or the news that Brag was going to bring this case. As that happened, Trump's numbers went up to Santus's numbers went down. So I think it did really have an effect in that sense.

I think it's very unlikely he's a sentenced to a significant person term, but even if it's three months, yeah, it's person you know, you're thinking about when we did the Republican focus group, and you know, you had a room full of people who were real Republicans, not Rhinos, and even some of the people who were Trump first in the Republican primary context, when it was like, Okay, well, what if he's facing prison time, they're like, I.

Just that's too much.

Yeah, But I think you made the most important point, which is, like, I think people are very bad at anticipating how they're going to react to certain things until they happen, and so I've been really skeptical of all these polls that have said like, oh, well, if he's convicted and if he's facing prison time, then you know, fifty percent of voters say that they're out and they're not going to vote for him. I just I don't

Ended up bringing to all of the other cases, and now all of the other cases are just not going to I mean, probably the right One of the most important things to say here is that a lot of these other cases are not going to be tried before the election, and that was Democrats really intentionally. Basically, we're throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick legally, and it's not hard to find, you know, questionable legal decisions by Donald Trump, who as we're going to talk about.

You know. It's just it's not that hard to see what sticks.

And that was their strategy and this is the only one they're probably going to have before November.

Yep.

All right, so we'll see how it all plays out. And let's go ahead and get to that news about twenty twenty four.

It was a really interesting New Washington Post report out by Josh Dassie. We can put this headline up on the screen about the campaign strategy that Donald Trump is using behind closed doors in fundraisers.

I think one key part.

Of this report, Crystal is Trump is allegedly telling a lot of these billionaire donors.

Basically, I'm not happy with two to three million.

I think he says he's quote not very happy if they only give.

Two to three million.

He wants more like twenty five million dollars from some of his top donors. And as he's making those asks, he's also unsurprisingly mentioning that his tax cuts will expire

He means when he says that.

In fact, he has been pretty open about making that pitch to wealthy individuals. I think Kyle did Kyle flag this next sot We're going to roll into it in just one second. Just that's a little teaser. Stay with us, because it goes back to twenty sixteen, actually goes back to twenty fifteen. This is another report from Washington post, we can go ahead put B two up on the screen. He's also telling people that he is telling donors he's

Take a look.

I just remember it's very important. All of this money that I was talking about a little while ago, all of that money comes from my friends, guys that I know. I used to be one of them. I know the system better than anybody. All of that money that's going to Hillary and Jeb and Scott and Marco and all of them, the people that are putting up that money are It's like puppets being being You saw that they had it on Jimmy Fallon. I better not do it anymore,

When a guy gives.

A million dollars and much more than that, you know some give much more. But do you think they're talking about like nothing, they're talking turkey, They're talking lots of different things. And with me, I don't need anybody's money. I don't want anybody's money.

So a lot of times, a lot of times, that's all of his donors and special interests out there.

So that's what it is.

That's what And by the way, let me just tell you we needed tickets.

You can't get them.

You know who has the tickets for the I'm talking about to the television audience, donors, special interests, the people that are putting up the money for it is the RNC told us we have all donors in the audience, and the reason they're not loving me. The reason they're not excuse me, the reason they're not loving me is I don't want their money.

I'm going to do the right thing for the American public.

I don't want their money.

I don't need their money.

And I'm the only one up here that can say that.

So that was obviously a mashup from the twenty sixteen Republican primary. You heard Donald Trump in a debate, you heard him also on a campaign stop in New Hampshire and Crystal. It's actually a pretty interesting about face for Donald Trump with these two reports from the Washington Post. Yeah, and I say about face, but it's you know, it's always been his point that I alone can fix it. I know the system, and I alone can fix it.

They loved that Donald Trump.

They felt like he was not beholden to any special interests. Now that he's been in this position of power, he defeated whatever you think about him, defeated the establishment in these presidential primaries in twenty sixteen, defeated Hillary Clinton in twenty sixteen.

He is now begging for donor cash because he does need their money.

Well, I mean, he's just dropped the pretense. And it was always a pretense. But I think people forget what a powerful part of his pitch in twenty sixteen, this was historying the swamp right. Listen, I've been there. I know these people. I know what they think they're getting with that money, and I'm not part of that. I can fund myself now. He never actually did that to any significant extent, So it was always a lie.

Although he had way less money, he spent less than Hillary Clinton did.

But one of the things, there's a few things that are different now. Number one, at that point he actually had to try to appeal to people. Now, it's sort of like locked in his supporters on the Republican side, they are one hundred percent locked in, and in a sort of reverse effect, of what the Democrats are doing. In a certain sense, he's running against how bad Joe Biden is. In the same way Joe Biden is running

Possibly yes on that one.

The trail blazer, he's blazing that trail for other olive arcs.

To make sure that they can get those gold bars when and how they want to.

God bless Bob Mann does.

That's really the bottom line.

They're doing the lord's work, Awes.

But I also think, you know, there's something to the fact that now he's just letting it all hang out. He needs the money. There's a level of desperation to it. So it is it is something to behold the as you put it about face, because he just he doesn't talk at all like he used to in twenty sixteen.

But he said something so interesting too, which is that people's positions on Trump and Biden are so polarized that

Well that's the other piece is the billionaire class is more comfortable with him now. Now he always had a certain number of billionaires supporting him, but now we've even seen people like Jamie Diamond signals like, yeah, I'd be okay with another Trump administration. I think a few things happened. Number one, those tax cuts. Number two, that set really hates the Biden administration's position on anti trust. And I mean you just only have to look at the Wall

That and also on labor.

These are major, major rubs with the billionaire class, and Trump was incredibly friendly to them. And you know, oil industry executives know they're going to get what they want from a Donald Trump administration. Your average runn of the middle billionaire knows they're going to get.

Their tax cuts.

Whatever oligarchs want to see their monopolies continue to grow and flourish, they're going to get that under a Trump administration versus Biden administration. So you know, I think that's part of why there's such a just overt comfort with him this time around, where last time they just weren't sure, right, there was at least enough of a populis pitch that they're like, I don't know, and uncertainty and chaos, it's

It worked out perfectly well for us.

Yeah, No, I mean I think that's right.

I'm sure there's a pretty obvious argument from Trump's behalf that he ideologically agrees with tax cuts and he ideologically agrees with oil executive, so he'd be interested in, you know, giving them their leases and all that stuff anyway. But it's another thing to make that clear at the donor meetings, like, yeah, you know you know where I am on oil, right, mister oile executive. Well you know where Joe Biden is on oil, right? I mean it's it does get into Bob McDonald's territory.

Yeah, but they all do it.

They really do all do it, absolutely no thought about it.

All.

Right, So let's move on to another Washington Post story.

Just reading lots of the Washington Post yesterday, Crystal, this is about Joe Biden the DNC. Just actually look at this headline. It's kind of funny. It made me laugh.

DNC prepares to nominate Biden via quote virtual role call before convention. This is the lead of the story.

The DNC is preparing to nominate President Biden as the party's presidential nominee through a virtual role call ahead of its August convention in Chicago, an unusual step to ensure that Biden can meet a deadline to appear on the ballot in Ohio. The move comes despite a special legislative session in Ohio this week that Governor Mike Dewin, who

Philadelphia rally. Stephen puts it, it's about half full. Look at all of that empty space.

If you're listening to this, it's a gymnasium, and half full I think is actually yeah, half full, this is That's one way to put it. And finally, even in the state of Virginia, a lot of Washington Posts in Virginia coverage this or day. A Roanoke College poll found that Biden and Trump are tied in Virginia, and that's.

At forty two. Forty two. These numbers are atrocious.

So that's a state that I think Biden went by close to ton points.

I think that's right close to time point.

I mean right now.

The conversation after last election in Virginia was like, oh, Virginia's is a blue state now, like it's over and then you get Glenn youngin that wins and that starts to like, oh, maybe it's more of a purple state still. But if Joe Biden is tied in Virginia, if this is any we're close to accurate.

I mean, it's just it's.

A rough and Virginia, you know, being a native Virginian and having a good sense of the politics there. As the northern Virginia suburbs have grown, they have really become the dominant political force in the state.

And those are exactly the like suburban, mostly.

White, affluent, college educated voters that Democrats are supposed to be flourishing with at this time. So if you're tied in Virginia, I don't know what the rest of the landscape is. Dire Now this is all the caveats, it's early. It could be wrong, et cetera, et cetera. We'll see, but it is yet another warning sign and yet another reason why now a majority of Democrats are like, maybe I wish it'd switch the candidates.

Still, that's not happening. Don't get your hopes up.

But you know, it's astonishing sign of weakness that within this is an incumbent president, Like it should be a no brainer that this is your guy going forward, but it is actually a no brainer that he is incredibly weak when you compare him to literally every Democratic Senate candidate is outperforming him in the states where they're running.

You know, the online convention situation.

Their excuse is this Ohio situation that gave them a good excuse to do this online. But we had already seen these rumblings of maybe we're going to move a bunch of the convention online because we're nervous about what the protests are are going to do, Like we don't want those disruptions, you know, we're concerned about that. They're

Board with that and democracy, Yeah exactly.

But anyway, so that's what that's the direction they're going. And they're so terrified of their own voters that they're doing their nominating convention online.

It's really it's really something.

They're afraid of.

And maybe we can add this in post one of my favorite things from the DNC back in twenty sixteen.

They're afraid of Susan Sarandon. The pictures of Susans random in the crowd.

Looking furious as the Bernie protesters like actually stormed the DNC, And they know that there's more of that coming, especially with the way that Biden and other Biden sergets Kamala Harris, have been greeted on college campuses recently. They know that that's what awaits them over the course of the summer when Biden's out campaigning, especially at major events like a nomination thing.

So, you know, and you've got a number of uncommitted delegates, you know, and the uncommitted vote did well enough that there is a camera, I think dozens of uncommitted delegates who are going to be there on the floor.

So they want to be able to tightly control that.

The mayor of Chicago, who's relatively new, and that the DNC is going to be held in Chicago. The mayor has been very you know, comparatively compared to Joe Biden, quite friendly towards the protest movement. He is himself came from you know, labor background and the sort of like activist background, So they feel very comfy with the Governor of Illinois.

Jabe Pritzker.

They feel like he'll do, you know, call in the riot cops and do whatever it takes to crush the protests. But they're less confident that the Chicago mayor will just like, you know, put the boot down the way that they want him to.

So I think that's part also of the calculation.

Year of why they're moving the nominating portion online. Now. They say, there's still going to be like a symbolic role call in there, and there's still gonna be stuff that's in person at least at this point. But it's a measure of how scared they are of their own people that you know they're going in this direction.

Yeah, absolutely, And then the polling results bear that out when you have likely voters. That ron out College poll was of likely voters, So that's not just all adults. These are people who are actually likely to vote. You know, turnout's going to be a huge problem for them in a place like Virginia if you have affluent voters who are just less motivated to go out there and pull the lever for Biden, maybe because they're on one side of.

The Israel war or another.

You know, Biden hasn't really made either side happy throughout the course of the last half year or so on that so it's got a real problem.

I think the key thing.

Looking in that Virginia polling, they ask people whether they saw the Trump years as mostly good for the country or mostly bad, and he got much better numbers on that question than Biden did. Forty four percent said they view the Trump years as mostly good and thirty three percent said mostly bad. The Biden years only twenty five percent said mostly good and forty seven percent said mostly bad. So listen, I think there's you know, some rose colored glasses.

In fact, I've.

Been questioning whether our typical view historic view of incumbency has sort of flipped on its head where now because people are just so dissatisfied with where the country is. In general, being an incumbent is a disadvantage in a sense because people feel what they feel right now and they directly blame the present for it, just like you know with Trump, and that was blamed to be had

Downside that you're in office right now.

And I do think that's part of what's going on with Joe Biden and Donald Trump right now.

But I also think that there's a reality.

We've showed a lot of the charts on this show, people's net worth, you know, not declining, the social safety net from COVID being completely dismantled in the Trump in the Biden era, the child tax credit, things that really bolster people, all of that going away. At the same time, you have inflation spiking, and you know that's getting involved in foreign wars, and people, however they feel about those wars, feeling like you're more focused on that than you are

Trump promising billionaires tax cuts and oil leases. Biden hobbling from campaign stop to campaign stop.

We are so lucky, We're.

Just the glories of democracy. Incredible, such a choice we've got here.

What a wonderful year, What a time to be alive.

Well inspiring, speaking of those were in conflicts crystals, move on to Israel.

Yeah, so we've got a lot to update you on here. Let's put this for a first piece up on the screen, which is probably the most significant. Israel's National security advisor just announced he expects Israel's military operations in Gaza to continue through at least the end of the year, pearing to dismiss The New York Times writes the idea that the war could come to an end after the military

Of view, Yeah, I mean talk about the potential for a quagmire. I mean what's happening right now, just bulldozing, turning into a parking lot, the swath of land, creating so many refugees, the humanitarian crisis as a response from a kind of realist foreign policy perspective, and I know, n Sozacker, I've talked about this. I mean, it doesn't even Ryan and I talked about this yesterday. Does it make the Israeli people safer?

No? In the long term, No.

Because if this goal is the unattainable ambition of quote annihilating Hamas, and the way the war has been prosecuted so far, if you take those two things and have your primary benefactor of the United States of America say they support a two state solution, and your own Prime Minister net Yaho's saying absolutely not, we support a one state solution because you're not compatible partners for a war, even though the United States continues to be a partner

Yeah, anyone who I think is looking at this subjectively has to say that from the beginning. I mean, it's not to justify any sort of extremism, but your mother, brother's sister, cousin, on a goal, whoever that you love and close to murdered in a horrific way, babies incinerated and intense. How do you think that's gonna you know, stoke your heart for peace and love towards the Israelis.

But Joe Scarborough is.

Doing his best, he's having to go back and rewrite history, and you claim that actually we won the Vietnam and the Iraq wars in order to somehow defend the Israeli actions here. Let's take a listen to what he had to say recently.

What is Israel to do?

Are they supposed to just sit there while conditions in Rawa get worse while the possibility of famine spreads and while Hamas regrouped. I mean, let's just state the obvious. The United States would never do this. We didn't do this in Mosul. We didn't do this in Afghanistan. We didn't do this in Iraq. We didn't do this in Vietnam. We didn't do this in World War Two. If we were struck, we struck back until we won the war.

And kill hamas terrorists.

There is so much about that that drives me insane. I mean, first of all, he oh, they just sit back and let people suffer. Now they are causing the suffering. The starvation isn't just happening. They're blocking the aid, and aid has dropped something like sixty percent since they invaded Rapa, by the way, and you already had people who were starving to this. That's number one. Obviously, the claim that we won in a ra in Vietnam, or that our approach there was great for us are great for the

And even in Mossel, which he brings up. I looked at it.

Again, massive indefensible slaughter. In most ten thousand civilians killed for to get roughly four thousand ISIS fighters. That is a ratio of seventy percent killed worse civilians. Again, I think that is wholly unacceptable. The ratio in Gaza is worse.

Well, rewriting history.

And I'm chuckling while we're talking about this horrible, tragic situation because Mika Berziski's father is obviously one of the most famous key Cold warriors. So when you have Joe Scarborough mentioning Mosil, mentioning Vietnam, he's sitting next to the daughter of again like one of the most notorious Cold War and I would say not in a good way. I mean, he bragged about being the sort of brains behind the idea in the Carter administration to start funding the muja Hadeen in Afghanistan.

I mean, this goes back back decades and I.

Think it speaks to how entrenched the foreign policy establishment is in defending fifty years of field policy.

Have you seen any of the clips though of as a big New Brazinski Mika's dad lecturing Joe on Israel. I have not, Oh should, I'm gonna send you some things, because there there are. There's at least one interview where he just goes in on Joe. He's like, honestly, your

So I highly recommend.

You check out those clips because they are quite quite enjoyable.

I just reference something that's this worth digging into more.

Again, we really don't know exactly what the death toll is in Gaza, but there's a lot of talk about, because it's the health Ministry, which is Hamas controlled, quote unquote, that perhaps the death toll is being overstated. There are a lot increasing numbers of experts who are saying it's much more likely that it's actually being understated. Let's put this up on the screen. This is from Haretz, again,

Yeah, and that's I think an important point in of itself that we actually really don't know, we really like the full extent the scope of what's happening. Yeah, someone mentioned this the other day. We actually didn't have a death count out of Dresden, like an official death count out of Dresden until I don't know, like thirty years ago, twenty years ago, something crazy like that.

It took years to put the.

To get like a final figure that people were comfortable with and so that can go in both directions. And so because we don't know, you are a lot of people who are supportive of the occursion into Offa saying, well, we just we don't know the death toll has been so far. You know, the IDEAF says it's doing everything to minimize civilian.

Casualties, et cetera, et cetera.

But actually there's a lot of I think significant reason to believe that we are missing deaths, that people are under the rubble, that you know, there's just there's so much destruction that.

We're missing the full extent of it.

So for all the the for all the conversations about potentially overcounting, really, even as again someone who has generally been you know, not necessarily since October seventh, but before that, generally pro Israel, I look at this and I think people are really missing a big part of the picture.

Because you asked the question too. I mean, even people who have chronic illnesses and they you know, can't get their insulin or you know, early on in the conflict, we had numbers coming out about huge spike. I think it was like by one hundred times the number of kids who were suffering from severe diarrhea, which is one of the leading causes of death for children around the world.

So that's not some little thing.

You have a hospital and healthcare system that is just decimated. I mean it is really doesn't even hardly function at this point. It's unbelievable what these doctors and nurses are able to do.

There's one hospital in Rafa right now.

They've closed other hospitals as one remaining hospital functioning right now.

So in that context, how would you even have any idea who is sick, who is dying, what it's a result from. And are people who are say dying from starvation or dying from a lack of you know, the medicine they need for chronic long term conditions, or there are no cancer hospitals operative in Gaza anymore.

Who's maimed for life? Right like who's who's that's right?

Will never be the same because they lost the leg, they less an arm, they lesson I.

Yeah, I think anyone in Gaza will ever be the same, certainly, you know, in a certain sense, I don't think anyone will ever be the same. So in any case, this will be you know, one of the long term reckonings of this war is exactly what was the death told, because I don't think we have any idea right now. There's one other significant piece of military news. This is something to track really closely. Put this up on the screen.

Fire with the IDF.

You have the Egyptian government, which you know, in spite of whatever rhetoric they might use, is you know, very pro Israel. They get tons of money from us and they do what we want. That's basically the bottom line ever since Camp David. With regards to egypt population, on the other hand, feels a very different way, very sympathetic to the Palestmine cause. And so you have these Egyptian

Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely the death of the Egyptian. I mean, this week has been.

A rolling disaster for the Biden administration and their position on the conflict, their attempt to publicly walk a fine line for the politics of the conflict. It almost defies believability. But how bad this last week has been specifically, Well.

That's a good transition to the next piece here, because you've had a real sort of breaking of the dam in terms of a mention before. It's becoming increasingly difficult to defend Israeli actions, even from people who have been very sympathetic. Peers Morgan for example, really coming out strongly condemning the attack on Rafa and the you know, dozens of Palestinians who were murdered inside of tents. This one I didn't see comings So put this up on the screen.

It was made by Boeing.

You again have multiple outlets who are reporting this, and yet Tony Blinken, he doesn't really know. Who can really say, let's take a listen what.

Weapons were used or how they were used. All of that needs to be.

The product of a deliberate but also fast investigation.

And this is what they do every time, Emily, that something happens that they can't really defend. Well, we don't know, there's going to be an investigation. We're going to look into it. These reallies are going to look into it. We'll get back to you, and they, of course never do.

You're right, that has actually been the direct playbook every time that this has happened, you know, or I mean, they've been dealing with it all week. With the red lined thing, it actually reminds me of that almost exactly, and how they changed, like they move the goalposts every time. It's like, well, if you consider it this way, or if you consider it that way, if you look at it from this direction, we don't really know or it doesn't really count.

I mean, it's just it's a joke.

Yeah, it's very obvious at this point. You also have another State Department official who has resigned. Let's put this up on the screen. This was a career State Department official who was specifically involved in the Biden administration's debates over Israel's conduct in Gaza, citing disagreements with a recently published US government report that claimed Israel was not impeding

Officials who read the letter.

Said, you've had a number of other Biden administration officials who have resigned for very similar reasons. This letter in particular. I'm sure you guys probably remember this. We covered this in the build up to this. The US has laws in place that say you can't legally the lay He Act, you can't ship weapons to a country that is committed using them to commit war crimes or that is blocking

And they said, well, there's.

Some problems here and we're concerned, but ultimately no, we think it's all finding good. Now, every independent organization that has looked at the AID situation specifically has said Israel is blocking AID. You know, people starving to death, like it's You've got trucks lined up for miles and miles and miles at the border. It's very clear what's going

Well, and this is yeah, I think this is a huge, a huge, like ongoing theme is all the ICC conversation, for example, is that Israel and.

The United States.

This is not a new thing, but when humanitarian aid or international law is something that is beneficial to their foreign policy for public relations or political purposes, it becomes very important.

Right.

And on the other hand, you have people in the Israeli government or you know, and their supporters.

Around the world saying like, this is a war.

What do you think war is? This is what war looks like. And those are inconsistent positions. Now, it's true, you can wage war, and you know, necessarily, even if you it's the most just war in the history of mankind, there will still likely be civilian casualties.

That's the tragedy of war, even of just war. But these two.

Positions are not compatible. To say, on the one hand, international law is extremely important in Ukraine and in Russia, and when it comes to Israel, well, they're not a partney to the ICC, like you know, doing the best that they can.

It's one or the other for broad purposes.

And that's a really really frustrating thing. Again, like I said earlier, generally before October seventh have been pro is rule.

I think they had to.

Respond to October some I think we agree on that they had to respond to October seventh in someway or another. But since then all of this in the service of a cause that's impossible, which is annihilating Hamas, like the actual ambition impossible, technically impossible at this point in time unless you are okay with mass civilian casualties. And I think that's what a lot of people don't want to say aloud.

And here's the thing is, I think they always knew that that goal was impossible. I don't think that, you know, we're telling them anything they didn't realize from the beginning. There were comments made from our own defense officials, you know, at the beginning of this war, saying this is basically impossible if you were going to even try to do

You need to work with.

The population, You need to give them some other path that is more appealing than what Hamas has to offer. And so the goal has always been annihilation. I think Professor Meersheimer is correct when he says, you know, the long term goal and certainly the accelerated goal here was

I don't know what to tell you.

For some reason, this is the image that went viral, which was kind of strange, but here we are. But more interesting to me is the fact that you now are at a point where Hollywood, which was very reluctant. You remember in the early days, there were huge recriminations over anyone in Hollywood we said anything that was remotely pro palace in your remotely critical of Israel, massive career consequences, et cetera. You're now at a point where people apparently

Now I'm not in Generation Z, but I will say the all eyes on RAFA meme. That a picture that we just showed on the screen, And if you're listening, it's probably what you all saw on your Instagram. So that was the most viral at least political thing, but probably a cultural thing period that I've seen on Instagram since the BLM squares the Black Squares. Oh really, Yeah, I haven't seen anything go that viral since then. So it speaks to we're going to talk about this later.

It's easy for people.

Yeah, it's an easy, I guess slogan for people to get behind. And I'm not begrudging people who posted it, but I think that's probably explains why it was more. It was used more than other propoustine means have been.

Yeah, it was just yeah, I mean, who knows why things go viral, why a particular thing takes off, you know, was it because of the size of the account, that initially posted it. I have no idea, but is it was weird because there were so many actual horrifying images coming out Rafa that the one that went viral was this ai ai not even looking like.

Rafa, shipping container, boat car whatever it was, but it looks.

Used car lot. I don't.

I saw someone say this is like shipping containers and Argentinas. I don't know what it was. It wasn't Rafa. I don't think it was real at all. But in any case, I think some of these pop stars who rely for their stardom too on young people are feeling more and more pressure. You also see Maclamore, who kind of you know, was like relatively irrelevant to the cultural scene, came out with his Propalace, I mean a hit and has had huge you know, it was like had a career high

I agree, And of course, yeah, I should say it wasn't just because it was simple that it went viral, was because it was something simple that happened, or that went viral after the mistake.

What did now? Who call it a tragic magic?

So even when you have Israel conceding that those images were real and a quote tragic mistake, that's actually different than some of the other tragedies that we've seen unfolded World Central Kitchen, et cetera.

That they actually did ultimately use similar language with World Central Kitchen. But after a while race, after they've exhausted every other and it was the same here. You know, first the IDF was crowing about they, oh, we got these two Hamas bad guys, which maybe they did, maybe they didn't. We don't actually have proof, but that was their original was like, yay, we're awesome, look at how

But it seems to mething that happened, that turnaround was faster this time.

But it was, yeah, because it was the pressure was really really high from the US and well from people in the US and pressuring their own politicians and.

All of that.

But you know, ironically, I saw Ryan sharing this, so Bbe describes it as a tragic mistake, which seems to indicate some regret for the loss of Palestinian civilian life. There was a Palestinian Israeli who posted similar concern for the loss of Palestinian civilian life in Rafa, who was arrested for posting that on social media. And Israel fantastic democracy,

In other news, the American Empire is dying according to an entire generation of people. Yeah, it's really what we have in front of us. We can put this first tear sheet up on the screen. A dying empire led by bad people. That's just the headline. Poll finds young

Fact earlier in the show.

So of nine hundred and forty three eighteen to thirty year old registered voters blueprint. This dem firm asked them to respond to a series of questions about the American political system. Forty nine percent agreed to some extent that elections in the country don't represent people like them, Fifty one percent agreed to some extent that the political system in the US quote doesn't work for people like me, and sixty four percent back to the statement that quote

There are notes.

I want to know who.

It's really Those are the seven percent of voters of the people that will actually go for Biden, like the youth for Biden. Like it's just all that, it's just Harry, yes, yes. But it's also worth noting that that wording is so funny to me because it says you're either somewhat agreeing that nearly all politicians are corrupt, Like it's so like the way that it's it's worded is so like hedging.

You know what I mean, You somewhat agree that nearly all politicians are corrupt. That's just.

I mean, how could anyone disagree with that? Who are the seven.

Percent of these people?

Well, the sea before continues, well, forty five percent of people pulled to their own lives would be either a lot or a little bit better than their parents. The same wasn't true for how they felt America as a whole is doing. Fifty four percent believed the country is going down hill. I feel like Crystal, maybe there are a lot of breaking points viewers, and here we can start to put some of these numbers up on the screen.

This is D two.

D two is America's jaded youth vote. This doesn't matter who wins elections, nothing changes. Strongly agree, twenty percent somewhat agree, twenty eight percent somewhat disagree, and strongly disagree. Those are only at thirteen percent, respectively. So that's only twenty six percent of eighteen to thirty year olds who disagree.

Who say that elections may somewhat matter exactly.

I mean, it's just.

And then I only think about the pitch that Biden is making two young voters, that is, your life is literally on the line in this election. That's how much it matters. And then you look at these numbers. They just don't agree with you. They just don't agree with you.

And he needs I mean, he desperately needs young voters, desperately needs young voters, because we've seen not just young voters falling away from Joe Biden, but some pulling five on the margins where it's really gonna matter for Joe bart for Joe Biden in a state like Wisconsin where those college towns are super influential, and that's you know, swing states all over, Like those college towns are very influential in the swing states, people actually moving to Trump

But even he didn't like that one, never really leaned into it. No, Yeah, I mean I love a dying empire led by bad people. I feel like that should be the name of our election coverage.

Nailed it pretty well. I would say we should put that on a mug.

Very dying led.

By bad people again who could disagree. I mean, honestly, I know they only focus on eighteen to thirty year olds, but I think you would find a lot of some sentiments, especially in the next age group up like millennial slash gen X. I think you would see a lot of similar sentiments, and then you'd as you got older, you would find people who were a little bit more positive, a little more hopeful about the electoral system, and felt like Moore was on the line with regard to this selection.

And you know, for.

Young people who like me see this as a genocide and see it as a stark moral line. That's just not going to be a compelling pitch. You have to change the policy, and there is no sign that they have any intention of changing the policy. So yeah, it's pretty dire numbers. It's huge trouble for Joe Biden. The fact it's a democratic pulling firm actually is significant because it means they would kind of be inclined towards showing some more favorable numbers.

Towards Joe Biden.

But it's also just a dire statement about how decrepit and how in decline the state of our democracy is. When you have this many people in younger generations, which are supposed to be the most idealistic, the most hopeful about the future, saying no, I don't have that hope. I don't think things are getting better. I don't think there's an inevitability of progress. I think we're backsliding and going the wrong direction. I mean that those are dire warning signs for the country as a whole.

Imagine trying to do those old school rock the vote campaigns with this generation seriously.

And that brings me to the next thing we wanted to talk about.

We're super fascinating data hear from the Washington Post when America was great according to data, we can start to put some of these next charts up on the screen. But just reading from the Post's analysis, Okay, so for haters, there's no time like the present. That's what the Post found. That's how they and that's how they phrased what they found.

I can't give a.

Little bit of recency bias here, I'd.

Say, yeah, and I look a little bit. It looks exactly like a backwards L. I guess, I mean it's not quite a j because that line is so for all of them and then goes up so starkly. It really does look like a backwards L here. Yeah, And as we keep going through these charts, because there's more interesting stuff here most crime least happy families think.

That is a funny one because that's actually like measurable.

Yes, and then eighties and nineties, like.

Other things, are an opinion, you know, the least happy fail. Even the worst economy, the only one, even the worst economy people have now rated worse than the nineteen thirties.

That one looks more like a U.

Yeah, only one where thirties.

Yes, because it's also very high in the nineteen thirties and then pretty consistent throughout the mid century, well throughout the whole century, actually between nineteen thirty and again like twenty ten roughly, So that's an interesting one. And but again the rest of these look like backwards l's. We keep moving through the deity here the worst three.

This is good worst music.

It's not quite as severe as spike as the political ones, but you still see a decent spike around twenty ten. Worst tell vision looks similar to worst music. Worst radio programming goes up around I don't know twenty ten as.

Well, and worst movies.

Also goes up around maybe like two thousand on that one. So basically, across the board, what you're seeing is an increase in let's say this is the best way to put it. Across the board, you're seeing steep increases in.

Let's say I like dissatisfaction. Yeah, with American culture.

You know what's funny though, is they also asked the opposite question. They asked like when was the best radio programming and the best sporting events and the best television. And there was a lot of recency bias there too, where there were a lot of people who were picking

I think the worst one.

I think it just speaks to this deep sense similar to the semaphore polling about the sense that it's, you know, a dying empire led by bad people of decline, you know, of things are degrading and things are chaotic, and things are going off the rails, and you know, I'm just I'm like expressing that in all of these different venues, even in things like the best radio programming or the worst radio programming, the worst news reporting, et cetera.

Well, and starting in nineteen thirty year between the two World Wars, and so the twentieth century, despite two horrific world wars, was a there was just.

A lot of hope in the West.

The West was a very hope full place after sort of enduring those two incredibly incredible tribulations, and people came out of them with a lot of hope. And it's just very interesting that the hope is what's I think being sucked out.

And you see that in some of these numbers. I think we have a couple more.

Numbers, we have more elements in this block just to run through. Yeah, worst fashion, most war, shortest life expectancy, Oh my, goodness, we're sporting events. Actually, the shortest life expectancy one is interesting because it did start to decrease. American life expensive did start to decrease right around where people start picking up on that in the graph.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, and obviously a lot of war too.

Yes, And you see that spike in the roughly looks like the nineteen forties, which makes sense.

But then during the Cold.

War period where there were wars all over the place, it wasn't really that cold of a war because we were fighting or aiding people in hot wars all around the country or all around the around the world. That was different in we have one more element here, few ast scientific breakthroughs.

That's a loss of hope too. It feels like you see.

An increase there that's rushed Outlet's book on decadence.

I highly recommend reading that one.

Least racially equality starts to spike. It was higher in the nineteen thirties, least gender equality higher in the nineteen thirties, but starts to spike again around the twenty tens.

A lot of this crystal.

I also see some fascinating studies on how media influences the way we see race relations that when media coverage, for example, if you ask people how many shootings of unarmed black men there are, or.

Actually just black Americans there.

Are, people will wildly overestimate it in times of media covers. That's really heavy and it also reminds me of some of these other things too. Just you can see how when the media is telling us one thing, we were really perceptive to the media narrative, despite how much we hate the media.

Yeah, it's kind of interesting too. Yeah, I mean, I think we have this sort of innate to the human experience. We always overestimate something either that we experience or that we're like seeing on the news, how prevalent it is, whatever that thing is in society. So, like, you know, the life expectancy thing makes sense because we just covered on this show how our life expectancy is here in the US is declining a pretty rapid clip, and that

This next put up a.

D four because this is interesting too in terms of how interesting our partisan valance impacts the way that we see things. Now, this has been the case for quite a while. When you have a Republican president in office, Republicans are much more likely to say the economy is great, and Democrats are much likely more likely to say the economy's trash. And you can see how things totally reverse course the instant that Joe Biden is elected in twenty twenty.

I like it.

And you know another thing is Democrats now tend to be more affluent and so they're more invested in the stock market, which is a change. Obviously it wasn't always like that, but it's been a flip and a small one for now. But I think that's still relevant here that you know, when the stock market is doing well, it doesn't mean the economy is great, although that's what they tell you constantly and CNBC and you know, sometimes they add nuance to it, but it's not the same thing.

A great economy.

Yeah, and those that tried actually reminded me two of the crime numbers we showed, because it's again, you know, when the media like you were pointing out crime in the eighties and nineties. I mean, we're going to get to this in just a second. Let's PUTD five up on the screen. Which decade would you most want to live in? The Republicans really into the eighties, Democrats lesson to the eighties.

It's also into the eighties.

Yeah, Independence into the eighties.

I's love in the now.

But just in terms of crime, as we were talking about again, like people forget how bad it was in cities in the eighties and nineties, and.

DC is a good example of that.

Media coverage about crime is reasonably tough, and what's happening here in DC, but even here in DC is not We're not at the levels that we were in DC in the nineties. Yeah, it's actually ninety n close.

And also this is another one you were talking about,

And this is super interesting.

Let's end on D six here because it sort of speaks to the psychology that's going on.

The Washington Post writes, So we.

Looked at the data another way, measuring the gap between each person's birth year and their ideal decades. So that's what we're breaking down here. The consistency of the resulting pattern delighted us. It shows that Americans feel nostalgia not for a specific era, but for specific age. The good old days when America was quote great. Aren't the nineteen fifties.

Gone on YouTube.

No, not aware of it.

It's all it's not people like you and me watching it.

It's gen Z.

They're watching these these time caps with these windows into what life looked like before so and that's how they react to the videos that like, everyone seems so happy, it seems so simple. And in the Washington Post description, here they say, you know, your parents are the correct answer to any question. You never heard of war crimes, trip,

Yeah.

My son is literally about to turn eleven, so he's right in there. Yeah. I mean, it's funny with this stuff because on the one hand, I feel like there were a lot of things that were superior about like the pre smartphone. Agree, I mean, the smartphone is really the tipping point, right.

I think so, And I think that's why you see a lot of those numbers spik around twenty ten.

There was more like human connection, we're seeing each other in person, more ability to disconnect from the news, and less like you know, social media bullying and all of that sort of stuff. On the other hand, would I want to get rid of my smartphone? No, you know, because like obviously there's positive of me. I mean to me, when I think back about when I started driving, when I was sixteen and I didn't have Google Maps, I

Did anyone get that? Is crazy to me.

The amount of like soccer games that it was like, I'm going to be five minutes late, not for the warm up before the game because my mind was like missing a street and I used to be like, well, what are you doing, just like get to the soccer game, And now I'm like I couldn't do that. It's like, what do you mean turn on this road and then turn on that road?

You want me to remember the direction?

And even with the map quest like you miss a turn, it's not updating automatically where you now have new directions.

Okay, we'll take this other route.

No, you missed a turn, Like what are you gonna do?

Yeah, you're done. You can't readjusts. You have to like get unfold the map and the box. Yeah we route.

So I stop at a gas station and ask for directions.

I had to do that. I was trying to get to the University of Maryland. I was terrifying. I missed exits because you were going to be there because there were like you know, it's where four ninety five and I don't want something in two seventy or something splits off and I missed whatever I was supposed to do, and I was like, I'm just not going to find it. I'm not going to find it. This is never going to happen. So there are some things that are more positive about.

Definitely, and we've just like stumbled into the biggest conversation of our generations about like the benefits of some of this, like hyper modern social media based technology like the smartphone and everything. So, yeah, we could go on for we could do a whole episode on this alone. Yeah, I would give up my smartphone though, I would would I would brave the maps. No, I can't do it because I'll miss the text from Sager memes.

We need you to fill in.

Uh Snager sending like Andrew Schultz clip. I dn't miss that.

Yeah, exactly exactly.

You can't. You can't give it up. I did think it was super interesting the tracks with what probably we all experience, especially as some of us get older, but that it's so consistent whatever your whenever you were fifteen basically is when you.

Thought the music was the best, it's snl phenomenon.

Yeah, whenever you were eleven is when you say families were the closest. Yeah, whenever you were like nineteen is when you think that music, events and fashion like things that you're starting to get into once you get older, you're starting to get a job and have money to do these things. That's when you think that was the peak. And across generations it's super super consistent. Those things I think will be the same for gen Z and general like.

Or that's what Matt I'll think when producer Mac is interviewed by Upholster thirty years from now, he'll be like, oh, oh yeah, I remember that Drake.

That was the golden era.

We've never had a better, never had it better.

Although being a music of my era, I was gonna say, don't date yourself.

Christ too late for that, guys.

On a much more serious note, these allegations and the investigation into Ditty is getting really serious. We can put the first hairsheet up on the screen. This is CNN reporting. Oh I'm sorry, we have a slot, but CNN actually had an exclusive report showing that the dj is prepping to put Ditty in front of a grand jury, and that's going to be probably in relation as CNN is

For money laundering.

All of these new charges getting added. So after the CNN article ran, they did a quick announcement about what their reporters have found on the area yesterday.

Let's take a listen.

Since November, you'll probably remember that Combs has been named in eight civil lawsuits, seven directly accusing him of sexual assault.

The biggest escalation since those March raids on Ditty's homes in Los Angeles and Miami. We are now hearing that federal investigators are preparing to possibly bring witnesses in front of a federal grand jury in New York City. What we have heard is that possible witnesses have been notified that they could be called to testify. Now, sources do caution that investigators are still in the process of gathering information.

We also hear that the.

Majority of the accusers who have filed these civil lawsuits against Sean Ditty Combs have been brought in for questioning and again some of them being called in newnumerous times. We hear that many are cooperating and even handing over evidence that they feel could be relevant into this federal probe. Now, a spokesperson for Homeland Security did not respond to our request for comment about the presence of a grand jury,

I have a source who tells.

Me, quote, this is much bigger than just these lawsuits.

And it's actually much bigger than just Ditty. I think that's a really important point that we alluded to at the beginning of the episode. We're talking about a billion dollar empire, and so in a lot of ways that the early iteration of the me too movement brought in complicit corporations. Basically, in all of these suits, it's not

Now, after those searches on his homes.

Both in LA and Miami back in late March, it was they are now looking into, as the CNN reporter said,

People obviously will.

Remember that he vehemently denied the allegations as they've come out, said eight civil suits filed against him, since that one was settled with Cassie Ventura right away.

I mean he settled that suit what twenty four hours.

Yeah, and after she filed it, it was instantaneous.

Speaking of which, speaking of video, we now know that a hotel was allegedly paid fifty grand for that horrific video we covered here on the show of Diddy beating the heck out of Cassie, and that has been that was from twenty sixteen, and it just came out what earlier this month, in twenty twenty four.

Yeah, and after it came out, then he apologized. Prior to that, he had denied absolutely everything. And yeah, we're talking about allegations that's been decades, decades, she said, eight separate civil suits filed at this point. You know, the videotape that CNN is reporting on here is very noteworthy. Some of the allegations against him is that he had filmed people having sex without their consent, So question mark if that's part of what's contained on this video tape.

We don't know if it was part of what.

Was seized in these raids or if they were able to obtain it through some other means. But you know, some of the allegations are that he was drugging victims and then raping them. Some of the allegations are of the sort of violence that we saw on camera with Cassie. So the picture that is coming into focus here is incredibly far reaching. And you don't have that long of a pattern with that many people over that many years without having other people know and be involved. And he

I'm usually, you know, inherently skeptical or reflexibly skeptical when the Feds start cobbling together drug cases, money laundering cases.

But the video is so powerful.

And the testimonies of women that have been coming out in the last.

Half a year are just so so powerful.

That you know, and knowing by the way that they have tapes more tapes that this tape existed, that it was sat on since twenty sixteen. Some of these suits, like the Little Rod suit named Cuba Gooding Junior, implicated other celebrities.

You know, this is this.

Is obviously a very bad situation for Diddy's future as a free man, because these are incredibly serious. Some of them go back decades, but also some of them are super recent, like the one that names his son and names him as this was from a yacht worker actually being a party to the abuse.

That's very recent stuff.

We're talking within the last couple of years, you know, revenge porn stuff that's, as you mentioned, videotaped assaults allegedly. So if they're putting together, if they're leaking to CNN that they're putting together quote bulletproof indictment, these videos support the case that it's it's actually likely they've got something pretty serious on him.

Yeah.

Last thing I'll say about this I think is worth noting is part of I mean that Cassie video, if you guys, is just unbelieve, I mean psychopathic, like he's a monster. Yeah, there's just no denying it looking at that video. But What was also really noteworthy is she had described in the civil suit she filed that specific interaction.

Bit by bit, but I mean.

It was identical which she described was identical to what was reflected on the video, which gives a lot of credence to everything else she had to say.

Totally, and they settled, remember amicably, that was the quote with no admission of wrongdoing on Detty's part.

It happened really quickly.

But that's the power of money, is that you can get people to settle quote amicably with no admission of wrongdoing within twenty four hours, even when a video like that exists and you know it.

Yeah, unbelievable stuff and I definitely want to keep an eye on. Thank you Emily for filling in. Always a pleasure.

Thank you for having me here. It's so much fun.

Worked out well.

Since you're the Diddy expert now, since you dug in on the Cassie videos, I'm glad to have you to break all of that down.

We should have Mac do all rap segments in the future.

Absolutely, these are senior rap correspondent.

Oh perfect. We should put that on business cards for him.

Thank you guys so much for watching again. I'm just going to say one more time. If you're having any issues Premium subscribers with Locals Support at locals dot com email them CC Breakingpoints Premium at gmail dot com. We will get whatever problem you're having. We'll get it figured out straightened out for you. Thank you, guys so much for all the love and support as we make this transition, which we are really excited about what it's going to mean for the future. Sager will be back next week.

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