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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Indeed, we do lots of interesting stories that are breaking this morning. So Mitch McConnell freezing again, what the hell is going on here?
We will show you the video and we will discuss.
We've also cut a little bit of a pod save bro freakout over Biden's pulling numbers and how the hell he is tied with a man who has been indicted tiny one different charges. Give you their analysis, We'll give you our analysis and all of that. Also some new data from reporter Ken Clippenstein about how the FBI is hoovering up DNA information what that could mean for you.
We've got some new economic numbers that are looking pretty dire, especially for working class Americans racking up tons of credit card debt in a very difficult position right now. So we'll break those numbers down for you. We've also got
CNN going back to the big streaming place, Tiger. They're giving it another world, and they also have a new president of the network that they are bringing in from previously from the New York Times, So that is an interesting development as well, and we're excited to have on the show today a big zoomer debate to young TikTokers, one on the right, one on the left, debating you know who young people should and could support in twenty twenty four.
So that should be a fun one as well.
I think it'll be enjoyable. I just want to say thanks to everybody who's been signing up and been helping support us. We've in the latter stages of getting that focus group all together, so it's going to be a big deal for us to be able to have our own polling, our own focus group, and in partnership with a big firm here that we as trying to make some headways through the United States. So anyway, the point is is that you guys are the ones who enable
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to right now, what is the biggest news? Senator Mitch McConnell, the leader of the GOP in the United States Senate, freezing on camera once again in the middle of a press conference while giving one in Kentucky. Here's what happened center.
Here for election free short, here's what are.
Your thoughts on the point?
I'm sorry, I had a hard time here here. That's okay. What are your thoughts on running for reelections twenty twenty? Its what I'm on follog for about what running for re elections in twenty six? That's true? Did you hear the question?
Senator running for re election in twenty twenty six? All right, I'm sorry you all were gonna need a minute.
Anyhead's side? Okay? With us? Okay, somebody else have a question, please speak up? What efforts is.
David Camer's gonna have some bait on the campaign trail t when Kentuckian's over in November.
Senator Daniel Cameron, do you have a comment on Daniel Cameron?
Well, I thank you, element Ris, you join me very close, far and away. That that's tenor we could have nominated.
I've just straded the.
Goverment, increasing the Republican the government. Calm, my love, confert So I'm often this is good, Annie will be. I think we can do one more. What did your reaction on Trump's leadist and day?
Because would you support him?
As it's a question about Trump.
I'm not going to comment about the presidential race the Republicans.
Okay, thank you all, Okay, thank you, sorry, thank you. That was the full exchange there that we decided to show everybody Chrystal because it's very important. I mean, look, it's difficult to watch, there's no question about it. But and if he was a privatisen we would have nothing to say. But he's the leader of the GOP in the entire Senate. He's eighty one years old. This is the second time in in the last forty days that
this has happened. It wasn't that long ago. And I mean I posted this and one of the comments that really stuck with me was very simple, would you trust this person behind the wheel of a car? No? Absolutely not. And if that's the case, how can you trust that person with a senior leadership role in passing loss for three hundred and forty million citizens. It really is that basic.
It's this, it's Diane Feinstein. You also see something pretty disgraceful there with that aid, you know, trying to pretend everything is fine and just shouting the questions back into his ear. Just obviously she's like, I need to minimize the damage and all this. You also had one of the people who came over that was his Capitol Police protection officer, who I mean, for some reason didn't lead him away. It's one of those where I just don't know the level of deference that we're supposed to have
at this point. I mean, it seems to me like elder abuse, specifically with a Capitol police officer. You're charged with his welfare and as well being. You need to
get this man to a doctor immediately. I mean, I just don't know how at this point we're supposed to sit here in stomach these incidents again and again and again, and then the level of like hand holding that these people are getting, and also many of the reporters in the room, how's the very first question man who rod you, to his credit at the time that the first thing happened, the very first questions like are you okay? Exact what the hell just happened to you? Right? Why are they
all sitting there and pretending everything is fine? Yeah immediately? Or like what is going on? Are you having health problems? Like are you fit to serve?
The thing that really struck me with the AIDS is number one, what you're saying soger of, like, you know, the total lack of transparency, their attempt to cover up for the American people, the fact that like in Diane Feinstein's office, like that lady there, whoever she is, who no one voted for or elected, is probably really running the show her and who whatever other AIDS surround him and try.
To handle him. But number two, they're not panicked about this at.
All, which tells you that either they're like the most callous, unfeeling people on the planet or this happens all the time, all the time, and they know exactly what it is, and they are not concerned because they know this is routine. They know this is just the state of life that he's in right now. Because, my god, if this was someone you cared about even a little, even if you didn't care about them, you'd be like, we're getting you to a doctor, We're getting you to a hospital.
You could be having a stroke right now.
But both with the previous incident and now with this one which is coming what a month later on camera, how often is this happening? How often is this just the reality and state of affairs in terms of conjecture of like, what the hell is going on here? We learned last time that he's suffered a number of falls, he suffered a concussion.
We know that as well.
Could be lingering after effects. I did see Sanjay Goofdan CNN was floating. Could be later stages of Parkinson's disease can cause these kind of freezes as well. If you're like medication is wearing off, you could end up in this sort of incident. But the fact that there isn't an immediate freak out about it, to me is a real tell that this is going on all the time.
People can't freak out. It's bipartisan problem. You got the freaking leader this He's the most powerful Republican elected Republican in the entire country right now. It is absent what Kevin McCarthy. So I guess number two in some ways number one, because everything does move through the Senate, and the Democrats can't say anything because the President of the United States is just as old and has just as
frequent like crazy events happened to him. You referenced just earlier, the first event, as we said, this was less than forty days ago. This was on July twenty six. Let's all go and relive that incident, because it is so stark exactly how similar this entire thing was. Let's take a lesson and a string of exact same situation. Let's put this up there. Explanation from the senator's office. Here's
what they had to say, quote justin. Senator McConnell's aide says that the Minority leader felt quote momentarily lightheaded and paused during a press conference. While he feels fine, he will be consulting a physician prior to his next event. I mean, what level of gas lighting is this? It's outrageous to just say, listen, we've all experienced momentarily momentary lightheadedness. Okay, I think most normal people can relate even on one.
I mean personally, I'm not going to give him a pass on the first one, but the second one in the span of just a couple of like in less than a month, ludicrous. And also what you said, the fact the routine nature through which that the guard was handling it. Yeah, also the aid You're like, how much is this happened? About? How many times in a middle
of a conversation is a guy freezing? That is the type of tactics that you see in which they handle folks in a nursing home, and in many ways like that is what the Senate is becoming with Diane Feinstein, and with him he is almost worse than Feinstein, because Finstein is just your normal senator. This is a person in the position of immense leadership and say over the country. And the even worst part, as you said, is that his aids are very clearly running the show. How much
is even going on? And then you know bears a very personal question of like where are this man's kids and his way. If you care about this man, If his wife, Elaine Chat was an elected official, she's got to know more or was appointed official, I'm sorry, was somebody who should know more than anyone on the public eye of like how this is undermining not only democracy
but also is just a terrible legacy. Look, I mean at a certain point, like where do these people get like where are they How do they not step in and immediately try to put an end to this. I just don't I'm so flabbergasted by it. As I said, I would never put this person behind a vehicle if this person was driving around it. But you got to pull this man's license immediately. And I just the other day I think I told you this. I'm not sure
if I talked about it on the show. I saw a very elderly person almost hit somebody in the middle of a crosswalk and then started crying afterwards because they had clearly they didn't know what was going on. And I feel really bad for that person. But she almost hit another lady, you know, who was walking with her kid. And it's one of those where it's like this is a public safety concern at a certain point, and now
that's like that situation times three hundred million. Whenever it comes to the adults that he's.
Here, I mean, I wouldn't trust him with any basic intellectual task, let alone, you know, being one of the most powerful men in the entire country, if not planet. You know, there's a backstory here that's worth remembering as well, because it raised a lot of questions about his health
at the time. Which is previously, in the state of Kentucky, the governor gets to a point if for whatever reason, a senator has to step down and retire early before an election, the governor, who right now in Kentucky is a Democrat, gets to appoint their successor. They ushered through new legislation recently through the Kentucky Legislature which would change it so that it's the Republican held legislature which picks the successor.
And there was a lot that was read into that.
At the time about, oh, this is the Mitch McConnell succession plan. They don't want governor Democratic Governor Andy Basheer to be able to appoint his successor if he is unable to fulfill his whole term.
I think it's worth remembering that the.
Other thing i'd say sober is, you know, it would be one thing if this was like a beloved person with the frickin eighty percent approval rating in his state, that people really want to be there as long as you possibly can be here.
That is not the reality, Misch McConnell.
Even though Kentucky is, you know, a pretty Republican state at this point, Miss McConnell has one of the lowest approval ratings of any senator with their own constituents in the entire country. He is not beloved by his constituents. They would love to have a different Republican in that seat. And it's not like there's much risk that you're going to end up, you know, electing a Democrat at the
federal level in the state of Kentucky at this point. Yes, at the state level, they'll still vote for a Democratic governor, but the days of them voting for a Democratic senator for now are pretty seems pretty far fetched. So you don't even have to worry about the partisan control situation. So you're just holding on for the sake of holding on. You're holding on for the sake of power when you are in no condition to bield that power.
Effectively. I mean I lived in Kentucky.
I saw Mitch McConnell up close operate there not very long ago, when he still seemed really in command, really at the height of his power. The decline seems to have come pretty quickly and pretty steeply, but it's impossible for them to hide at this point.
And I do actually think that.
There's a possibility, just given the frequency now with which these events are occurring, and given all of the media interest in this, given the fact that there are a lot of people who would like him to move aside, I do think it's possible that he steps down in the not too distant.
Future, and I would hope so. But the Finestein situation was a break glass moment. It's like when you can be genuinely senile and still be told on camera how to vote and get away with it. What are we going to do? And like I said, I mean, it's a by Parson. People are too afraid of McConnell, not even of mcconald, they're afraid of his staff. Now at this point, they can screw you if you're a junior senator.
I mean on all kinds of little things, like they can schedule things so that it makes your life inconvenient. They can make sure they don't accommodate you. They can give you a basement office. There's all kinds of little things they can do to make your life act with hell.
With Finestein, they've basically, you know, she's become a pawn for Nancy Pelosi to try to get her chosen Democratic successor Adam Schiff in there. I mean, that's what's going on there at this point. And previously Pelosi and Obama propped her up when she faced a primary challenge because they didn't want someone who was progressive and maybe wasn't going to just you know, fall in line on literally every single thing that they want her to fall in line on.
So that's why they've propped her up.
With McConnell, I don't know what the political backstory is, who is enabling this, or if it's just all on him that he just wants to hold cling to power for the sake of clinging to power, or.
I mean the other thing with find seeing this point, like, I don't even think she's.
Self aware of how far gone she is because the brain is just like, I mean, it's sad, but it's obvious for everyone to see. With McConnell, I've got to think there's still quite a bit of awareness of how bad this has gotten and how different he is now from even just a few years ago.
Yeah, these people are just complete egomaniacs. It's completely insane. Let's go and put this chart up there, just to remind everybody we're currently living in one of the old Congress is ever the one hundred and eighteenth Congress only slightly less old than one hundred and seventeenth Congress. So everybody is wondering only because of a few gen z entrants which dropped the overall average. I mean, listen, McConnell is the second oldest Republican in the entire chamber, behind
Chuck Grassley. Senator find Sign and Grassley are both flirting there around the ninety years old. We have multiple members of the House of Representatives who are pushing eighty five, multiple over the age of eighty. It's a bipartisan issue, as I said, and one of the I did a monologue about this previously, which showed a chart which said that it was actually fascinating. I really do think about it.
We've talked about it since about how after Jim Crow ended, you had a new generation of blood all come in to the Senate and into the House because a lot of different people could vote. And it's one of those where I'm just trying to think of or imagine a situation where if more young people voted, if more people actually got engaged in the political system, we could end this. This is both an irresponsibility on their part, but some of it is on us too, because McConnell just got reelected.
He's not uphill twenty twenty six. It's up to him to basically write it out until his brain goes to complete mush. And then, as we found out, we find stein even then, as long as you get reelected and the machine bosses push you through, they'll still push yours around in a wheelchair. Let me subject you onto everybody.
Let me draw that on a little bit, because you did that monologue on this, and I thought it was so good because you got to the point of this is not just like about these individual egomaniacs clinging to power long past the time when they should have, you know, retired with a lot more grace.
It's really a failure of democracy.
And so it's not an accident that when you have the end of Jim Crow and you have an actual rebirth and flourishing of democracy, that you get a lot
of new life blood in there. It's also not an accident that now, when we have so many of our democratic institutions completely corroded and completely rigged too, that you end up with this state of affairs where you know, not just with McConnell, but we're about to have this election between Trump and Biden to old men that most of the country don't want to have either one of them in office?
How does that happen?
And what you bring up with the McConnell election is actually a really good point. How did it end up that Mitch McConnell gets re elected again and again even though his approval rating is one of the lowest in the entire country. And it's a number of things. I mean, one thing that is really clear. Kentucky's republican state. They want to have a Republican in charge, and so they're more inclined to vote in a Republican partisan direction.
That's their choice. That's fine, that makes some sense.
But the other piece is, okay, well, then why doesn't he face a primary challenge, Well, anyone would be terrified to primary him because of you know, the way money and politics works, the way that the heavy hand of the party would come down, the way that they wouldquash any potential political future for you.
So that's an impossibility.
And then even on the Democratic side, why wasn't there you know, a better challenger in place to even have a shot against him? And it was the same thing on the Democratic side, you know, they put their their thumb on the scale for Amy McGrath, who was a you know, very poor candidate and didn't have a shot whatsoever.
And so that's how you you the fact that.
These two parties, you know, prop up these candidates that no one likes her wants is part of how you end up with this situation as well. So when you think about money and politics, when you think about the party system and the way that works, when you think of you know, the partisan tribal divide, that also leads to people just voting for whoever has their partisan affiliation alongside them, that's kind of how you end up with this very regretful situation.
That's right, and unfortunately it has another regretful situation, which is that we have just as old of a president, except this one's actually running for reelection. And funny about where even the mainstream media can't deny polls showing that seventy some percent of the American people think Biden is too old. That's sixty nine percent of Democrats think Biden is too old to effectively run for reelection and to service president. Just listen again to the spin that his
aids tried to put on his age. Here was Karine Jean Pierre on CNN. Here's what she had to say.
It is hard for us to keep up with this president who is constantly, constantly working every day to get things done and making sure that we are delivering for the American people.
And that's what and I think that's what matters. I get it, I get what you're asking me. But the record matters. To Jake, the record matters too.
It's hard.
Where do they get this line from?
That?
It's hard to keep up with an eighty one year old man? Yeah, where is this coming? I mean, nobody win your right mind believes this. By the way, the last person who everyone said we couldn't keep up with his name was John F. Kennedy. He was our youngest president ever, and it also turned out that he was taking shots of meth in the back once a week.
That's hard of the reason why Doctor feel Good was literally shooting him up full of straight up met them fhetamine, which is why that's where the Kennedy vigor comes from. By the way, maybe. And so there's two things. A it's not true. If it is true, it is because he's definitely on the same thing. That's whatever Kennedy was doing, some sort of crazy amphetamine add or all or what are these other things. Either is actually quite troubling whenever
it comes to this date of the president. But it tells you a lot that that is the best that they can come up with. And Biden too, I mean all he's got He's like, just watch me, just watch me. It's like, dude, people do watch you. That is why they feel the way that they do. Yeah about you. It's because we've.
Watched well and I've said this before, I'll say it again.
If you're so vigorous and so on top of it, yea debate, Yes, prove to go out, do some interviews, do some contentious interviews. Go get on a debate stage and prove yourself to the American people, but they don't want to do that. I mean the part about look at the record, I actually think that's probably the best thing you can say, because he has accomplished. You know, he does have accomplishments that he can point to in office.
He can point to the Chips Act, he can point to the Infrastructure Act, he can point to the Inflation Reduction Act. You know, he can point to the Packed Act. There are things that he can point to that he's accomplished. And so you can say, like, listen, whatever his workday is, look at the results. That's what really matters. I think
that's probably their best argument. But to gaslight everyone and think we're gonna believe like, oh, we can't even keep up with him, please, Like we can see, we're not idiots. We can see what's in front of our faces. And we also have tons of reporting about how, you know, he gets up late and they don't schedule things in the morning. But then also they don't schedule things in the evening, and we see the vacation schedule, we see
the beach schedule, we see all of these things. So don't just straight up light I mean, this is like a Sean Spicer level like, oh no, actually, the crowd was way different than what you say. That's like that level of live because we can all see the reality of what you know, what he is at this age, at this point, like you.
Said on the schedule, I would be willing to forgive the nine am, you know, nine thirty ten am start times if this was a man like Bill Clinton actually famously stayed up until like two or three in the morning, used to talk on the phone, and then he wouldn't start to stay until like nine or so. But you can't have it both man. You can't be starting your
day at ten and then ending in at four. It's one of those where like there are white collar workers who are working harder than Joe Biden apparently in terms of their hours. And look, all of this would be quite reasonable for an eighty one year old private citizen who has like a side gig retirement thing going on, but it's not whenever you have one of the most demanding jobs in the entire on all of planet Earth with stress and then all of our fates writing on
his good judgment. So that's why I thought it was important put these two things together, where we are just being gas lit and lied to by the a's, by the people themselves too, the level of ego that all of them have. And you know, we can't let ourselves off the hook, like part of it is on us, part of it. We're the ones who allow this to happen over and over again. We've got it's not you know, Trump too, it would be one of the oldest presidential
candidates ever except save for Biden running against him. I don't know what it is. They have this congenital need recently to just keep electing these people to office. We have no shakeup of the system. And it's not look it's it's both. It's bidirectional. It's the establishment.
Awesome.
But some of it too, is like if people genuinely wanted to change, I think it would happen, and I don't know why to so much. So many of us just sit back and let it.
We'll love with no choices.
I mean, you know, think about like the Democratic primary that doesn't exist right now, right I just pretend like no one's running against him, they don't host debates, and then you know it's the fascists are at the door, which, by the way, I mean I am very much of the opinion that Biden is vastly superior to Trump my you know, personal political belief, based on what he's accomplished with regard to the economy, based on him getting out of Afghanistan, and so you you know, voters are left
feeling like I got no other option. And that's how you end up in this situation. You play that out in district, district after district, state after state, level after level across the whole country, and yeah, that's how you end up with this situation. Well, it's sick, it's not right, it is not right, and it is a real sign of national decline. Speaking of our current president trying to get re elected, there's a bit of a freak out
happening among the Podsave bros. It's been a lot kind of ongoing, but there's a new memo or substack post from one of them, Dan Pfeiffer, about the fact that right now, even with all the Trump indictments, even with this all living through four years of Trump, and even with them having a fricking thirty percent.
Approval rating being hated by like a majority of Americans, they're tied. They're tied.
If you look at the polls Biden Trump tied. So he dug into some of the numbers and is like, what the hell is going on here, Let's put this up on the screen because it was actually very interesting analysis. The headline here in his substack is called the message box. Why the twenty twenty four race is neck and neck right now? Despite ninety one felony charges, Trump is within a point of Biden. Here is why, And there were really two primary reasons that he points to. One of
them you can see they're up on the screen. He says Trump is holding more of his twenty twenty voters than Biden. Trump is holding on to about ninety one percent of twenty twenty voters, according to He's using the New York Times Siena most recent poll. That's what he dug into here for his numbers. So Trump is holding on to ninety one percent of his votes from twenty twenty. Biden is only holding on to eighty seven percent of
his votes. Now, that may not seem like a big difference, but when you remember how close that election was and how it came down to, you know, not that many votes and just a handful of states, that difference can be everything. The second piece that to me is probably even more important. For why Trump and Biden are tied right now is because of Biden's incredible decline and deterioration.
In support among young people.
So he, you know, at the beginning, he won young people overwhelmingly in twenty twenty. At the beginning of his presidency, he actually had very high approval rating among young voters, So it's not like they just you know, have hated Biden from the start. On the contrary, at the beginning, his highest approval ratings by generation were among young voters. That is completely flipped Fifer rights. Young voters are not yet as on board with Biden twenty twenty fours they
were last time around. According to Pew, Biden won voters under thirty by twenty four points in twenty twenties. It was not close, but he's only winning them now by ten according to that New York Times poll. Now, what he goes on to say is it's not that a bunch of young and youngish people are deciding to support Trump. They are just checking out of the election. Nine percent of eighteen to twenty nine year olds say they will
not vote if Biden and Trump are the nominees. Sixteen percent of thirty to forty four year olds are either planning to vote for a third party candidate or not vote at all. Again, it's not that they're you know, in love with Trump flocking him and droves. That's not what's happening. They're just disgusted with both of their choices, and so they're saying, I'm either going to sit it
out or I'm going to vote third party. And you know, Cornell West is running for the Green Party nomination, so they're going to have other options there.
Well, here's the thing, you know when you read it. Actually, this is why I thought we really should take some dive into this is because not only is it significant, but like as cringe as the pot save gros have been, these people did win two elections, right. Dan Peiffer was a communications director for Obama, and nobody is a bigger critic of Obama than me. I could give it to you all day, but they got the American people to buy what they were selling, you know, sadly for the
rest of us. And they were good at politics. So whenever you listen to their indictment really of the Biden campaign and why none of them supported him even in the first place. There's a reason nood Obama himself famously said, you know, nobody never underestimate Joe's the ability to f
things up. And in here what they point to specifically is Trump's strength, his ability to hold on to many of his voters, which always has been his strength, really from the beginning of the twenty sixteen primary, but then the very tenuous coalition that elected Joe Biden, of which we even said and saw very early on in his presidency. The slimmest margins deny you victory once again, the suburban middle class people. These people are all over the place.
Sometimes they're amt Romney Republicans, sometimes the Democrats. Depending on the vibe, they'll vote Democrats. Sometimes they'll vote for their local Republican. But they love Gretchen Whitmer, and they also love people like John McCain. Who the hell can them out? All right, So let's put them. Those are the people
who really added into the White House. But then you've got the diminishing returns there amongst Latino voters, You've got diminishing turnout amongst Black voters, and the young voter piece is really key. I think one of the reasons why he's pointed the young voters, because the drop off is so immense. If you see just a nine percent reduction or that that's it. You can kiss Georgia goodbye. You could kiss Arizona goodbye. Even in Philly. I mean places
like Philadelphia, Detroit, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Urban turnout in some of these places, which does rely on people who are disproportionately younger, that made some major difference. And when we're talking about some forty thousand votes across these three states, you just lost yourself the election in twenty twenty four quite easily. So they are not wrong to point at this. And I think that the smarter and the sober ones, people like Harry Enton and people like five for who
can the very least be honest. But like we're in real trouble right now. I mean Trump right now, he's doing better than he did in twenty twenty against Biden. Biden has got very very serious work to do.
Now.
I'll give the counter side. I think abortion is still the dark horse, and there's a reason why the Biden campaign and the DNC beat it to shrey, beat it to death. Every word the third word out of their mouth. It's like noun verb and abortion. That would be my strategy too, That's all I would talk about. It's very, very possible there's a silent pro choice vote out there that would either keep people at home who are pro choice who still can't like Biden, or just fortually come out,
hold their nose and vote for him. But I honestly think that's the only thing that could save him at this point.
Well, if we look at the special elections that have happened this year, and I think it was five thirty eight that crunch these numbers, Democrats have outperformed the expected partisan lean of these districts that have had elections this year by ten points, right, And it's basically because of abortion.
I mean, you see a really clear, you know, in Ohio on issue one, even though it wasn't even directly about abortion, it became tied up in this you know, pro choice pro life debate, and even in a state like Ohio that is pretty reliably we're right at this point, overwhelming victory for the pro choice side, and turnout through the frickin' roof.
You know, they had turnout that was.
Like it was a gubernatorial election for this random ballot initiative at a random time during the year, because it is that energizing and so, yeah, that is what the Democratic Party is banking on.
And you know, given the fact that they.
Aren't really putting for an affirmative agenda, given the fact that there were accomplishments I think at the beginning of the Biden administration, which by the way, is also why young people were happier with him at the beginning of the administration. You know, that seems to have been put behind. They're not really pushing anything forward right now. They're just banking on, Hey, we will make sure that things don't get worse in terms of abortion, we will make sure
that things don't get worse in terms of climate. But you know, I think the economic picture right now is another undertold story of why young voters are not feeling
the Biden love. There's a lot of celebration from the White House about the low unemployment rate and you know about some of the more positive economic numbers, but people are not feeling it, especially people just coming out of high school or college, trying to get in the workforce, trying to get imagine ever being able to own a home. We're going to talk some more about the economic numbers
later in the show. They're not feeling it. They're behind where their parents' generation was in terms of like basic benchmarks and life milestones, in terms of, you know, getting yourself on a pathway to some sort of middle class stability. There's also a lot of concern about climate and while at the same time as they passed Inflation Reduction Act, which has some positive movement in terms of climate change, they also are literally pumping more oil than like we ever.
Have in history.
They have just broke what was previously the Obama record, by the way for oil drilling. So you know, it's not like young people are enamored with the climate agenda. But the other thing I would say is even the specific policies aside, there has been so much contempt and so much disdain for young Americans and their candidates and
political ideology. I mean, just think of the treatment of Bernie Sanders supporters in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty, like how many years can you get away, which is basically like constantly shitting on a generation before they're like, yeah, I mean, if you don't want me here, then I'm not going to be here. So I think that level of contempt that has come from the White House and from the Democratic establishment is taking a toll here as well.
Yeah, especially amongst young Democrats. It would make the most amount of sense. I listen, I mean with the young voters, they are going to try and save themselves. Go and put this up there on the screen. Much to my own chagrin, it appears that quote Biden administration is moving to loosen weed restrictions. They're going to try and deschedule marijuana to Schedule three of entirely removing it from the
Controlled Substance Act. The HHS has apparently made a recommendation to the DEA that they move marijuana down to a Schedule three substances would change in the way that it is federally handled. Schedule three drugs are categorized as quote having a moderate to low potential for physical or psychological dependence. That includes drugs like ketamine and testosterone. This is after
a federal review of marijuana research by the HHS. The executive action that we'd previously seen about the pardons and all that was kind of a prelude to some of this.
What wasn't it.
Michael Moore, who would always say that this is one of the first things that Biden should do in order to reduce turn out.
That sounds right.
I believe he was, so. I guess we'll give political credit to mister Moore. He has always said that this was one of the easier ways in order to get younger people to come and vote. But I'm curious what you think, Crystal descheduling from one to three doesn't seem to ring the same as a legalization for marshaling younger voters.
Yeah, so, just to be clear, I mean number one. So two things are true. This is a big deal. It's one of the most significant changes to drug policy that has really happened in our lifetime. So it is really significant. The difference between Schedule one and two drugs and Schedule three drugs is significant. Now it is still considered a controlled substance. It is still illegal, and so they're not decriminalizing it. But Schedule one and two drugs
face really onerous regulations. Schedule one drugs are effectively illegal for anything outside of research. Schedule two drugs can be used for limited medical purposes with the DEA's approval, for example, through a license for prescriptions, and then Schedule three drugs, the restrictions around them are a lot more lax. It's a lot lower priority in terms of enforcement. And you'll recall that Biden had previously pardon a lot of low level, basically marijuana drug users as part of this push.
Because this he.
Launched this review before the midterms, which also is another tell that this is sort of seen in very explicitly political lens, which listen, I mean, I certainly support it, So whatever if it's a cynical move or not, I really don't care.
I think it's the right move.
It was insane to have it as a scheduled one truck, like you even have to acknowledge, so as a Schedule one drug with like you know, the hardest, most addictive substances you can imagine, is completely insane. Alcohol and tobacco, which are way more addictive than marijuana, aren't part of the Controlled Substances Act at all.
They're not on any of these schedules.
Now, if you were just to evaluate them based on their medicinal purposes and based on their addictive qualities, they would probably be Schedule one. But there's specific carve outs thanks to you know, cultural standards and industry lobbying for those two substances, so it was always insane to have marijuana as a Schedule one drug.
That was completely crazy.
Activists are really happy, obviously with this move, but it's worth remembering that this is not decriminalization. They quoted one in this political piece that said rescheduling cannabis from one to three does not end criminalization, It just rebrands it. People will still be subject to criminal penalties for mere possession, regardless of their legal status in a state level medical program.
But you know, this is something it's not just young people at this point, Like the American people are overwhelmingly in favor of decriminalizing marijuana, Democrats and Republicans.
It's a bipartis issue. It's one of those issues.
Where the movement on this in my lifetime has been really astonishing and quite extraordinary. But it is a particular you know, it's seen as a real issue for young people. And then the other piece that I would point to is the movement on student loan debt. You know the fact that there was any effort to cancel student loan debt obviously that most directly impacts young voters. Courts struck it down, they're trying to do some workarounds, they're taking
it back to the courts. In the meantime, they've got these what is ending up to be actually very complicated, but student loan debt repayment plans that are based on your income to try to ease the burden and make it easier to get forbearans, et cetera, et cetera. So
that's the other very explicitly aimed at young people. Move But you know, does marijuana even rescheduling marijuana and trying to do something maybe theoretically possibly in the future on student loan debt relief, I don't think it probably up for the fact that you have this economic landscape that
continues to be very difficult for this generation. I think that's kind of the key driving factor if I were to say, and the evidence I would cite for that is the fact that at the beginning of this administration, when war was being done and checks were being cut and people were you know, benefiting, so hopeful, people felt, yeah, there was there was action that actually materially benefited people, and all of that has been stripped away, and now
people are like racking up credit card debt and kind of hopeless about how this is all going to work out.
That's really your biggest problem.
But you know, rather than changing the substance of that, which would be very hard, they're doing other things, which again I support, but it's probably not going to be sufficient.
Well, we'll see. It seems the American people are united in ruining concerts and city streets to make it so you can't go anywhere without smelling weed. Right here in Washington, can see.
Figer's got a very get off my line.
I need to. I need to, I honestly, I need to move out. I need to just go to some like deep red state where there's no weed, because there's nothing you can if.
You move and walk down the Saint George County where I live, you'll be fine.
You will never scof Why do people need to ruined public parks with weed? I mean, I realized this is a whole other coments.
All right, let's get took of young voters.
This is I really enjoyed this so apparently randomly both Vi Vike Ramswami and Pete Bodhagic, who some of us have sort of compared them politically as like Forvike being like the Republican Pete for a variety of reasons. Apparently they were both at the same Hardball College Tour event in two thousand and four and got selected to ask questions when they were, you know, in college or just out in college or whatever. This is why the internet
is so beautiful that these clips just emerged. Let's take a listen to young Vivake and young Pete asking their questions.
Here refend schrupton.
Hello, I'm vivic and I want to ask you.
Last week on the show we had Senator Kerry, and this week and the week before we had Senator Edwards. And my question for you is, of all the Democratic candidates out there, why should I vote for the one with the least political experience.
Well, you shouldn't because I have the most political experience. I got involved in the political movement when I was twelve years old, and I've been involved in social policy for the last thirty years. So don't confuse people that have a job with political experience.
Who else, Congressman, why are you the only presidential candidate not attending tomorrow's euth orinswered Rock the vote for him?
And do you think young people's what's matter in your campaign.
They matter a lot.
That's why I'm here tonight.
So Sager corrected me. They're not literally the same of it. They were there a week apart. Okay, one was asking Reverend Sharpton. Obviously they're a question. The BIGS question is also funny because he's asking why should I vote for someone with no political experience?
He has no elected experience.
Copy'all show.
I thought sharpone a good answer there, to be honest with it.
I can't stand Al Sharpton any even that was a decent answer.
Well, now, I am not saying this, yere, but many are saying that this is proof that both of them are Cia.
You're saying. I'm not saying it. I'm just reporting to you what others on the internet are saying.
And I'm somewhat more stupithetic because what I read in the two of them is that they were deep political nerds. And I was a political nerd just like that, who also attended said political events when I was twenty one years old, So you know, I get it at a certain level. It was a crazy time, Crystal. It was November two thousand and three. We just invaded Iraq nine to eleven. Shit was wild, you know. So it's like you want to go to an event and you want
to make your voice heard. I will say Rock the Vote, My god, Like, what a cringe worthy effort in order to get young people to vote. If you do, you remember that entire remember, Yeah, it was horrible. That's up there with like the Dare campaign and stuff that should have remained in the two thousands.
I have an affection for it, nostalgic affection.
There's like West Wing episodes about how like Rock the Vote, like that's how you anyway, there's so much more to say about that Rock the Vote. As a former Rock the Vote T shirt owner, I don't know exactly where that went. Probably should have died. The point is, I think with these two is that you can see deep political ambition interests in all that very very early on, yeah,
in their careers. And I think, you know, that's probably one of the fairest critiques that always was of Pete buddhaj Edge, of Ramaswami and others, is that people find those who are so politically ambitious at such an early age honestly repellent. I mean I went to George Rushion University. Everybody liked that everybody there was like that, including me.
That's going back and looking back in myself. You know, you gotta be honest, you have to be self reflective kind of like who you are and where you fall. And it's one of those where most people don't want to most people do not want a politician to be the guy who wanted to be student council vice president when they were like fourteen years Yeah, and it's just
very clear like that's what these two guys did. I will say it is kind of interesting the two paths that they took, because Ramaswami eventually not only went to law school but became a biotech entrepreneur and as a New Yar billionaire. Where Buddha Jedge took the much more like traditional path of the PMC served in Afghanistan, you know, like went over there for like six maybe reserves like
all that other stuff. He did much more of a traditional like box check for a democratic politician, moved back to a small home in a very benevolent move, became the mayor.
You know, all of that.
Where Viveg it almost seems like took a u turn. He like went into the business world, made more money, you know, made enough money for the rest of his entire life many other lifetimes, and then came back to politics, which seemed to be looks.
For Republicans that would be more of a traditional But I don't know if he went down biotech lank because you want to be in politics, he probably is just like I mean, you probably just want to make a ton of money, which is fine. Clearly, I think clearly both a lot of ambition from an early wait your point, you know, it reminds me of a comment that Steve Bannon actually made I think about Marco Rubio a.
While ago that I thought was very evocative.
He's like, you know, Trump is different because he wasn't like Marco Rubio with his hair blow dryed in his briefcase at the RNC when he's fifteen years old. And that's kind of the vibe you get from both of these guys at the event.
It is also interesting to.
Chart their like political trajectory. Pete, by all accounts, when he was young, was actually more of like a Bernie Sanders social Democrat, and then because of the path of ambition within the Democratic Party leads you to being just like a died in the Wole neoliberal. That's where he ends up. And then favk Is, you know, I don't know what his political.
Path has been.
It seems like he was kind of a liberal at that time and then he becomes a really hard libertarian and now he's adopted like social conservatism and as more of a traditional conservative, but also still holds these very hard libertarian values in terms of economics, especially with regards to the Fed and monetary policy and things like that. He's very much like a Ron Paul guy with regard to the Fed. So in any case, it's funny that they were both there.
Oh absolutely, yeah, And I really don't know what to say other than it's like it's a pretty clear look into how a lot of these people are. And you know a lot of politicians are like this. Joe Biden, you know, is one of those guys always wanted to be president. It's like a red flag. And sometimes when you look back anyone who's obsessed with student government, Bill Clinton was president of I believe it was George Shown
for freshman class or a student body president. Yeah there, So you know, the ambition is deep.
People really they really prefer candidates that it feels like even if It's not true that it feels like.
They were like dragged to power.
It is a It is a you know, uncomfortable feeling to look at someone and be like, oh, from the moment that you were aware, you were like envisioning yourself taking the oath of office in the mirror, you know. But I think the reality for almost all these people is that they've been They've had these ambitions for a long time. Every guy navigating to try to figure out where they should land to be to get there.
Every guy thing is so important. That's one of the It was a real I think about it a lot in terms of the two thousand and four race where w famously I'm not sure if you ever won student body president, but I think he was the social chair of his fraternity at Yale, and it was like the social chair versus somebody like Carrie. Who look again, Carrie was like lusting after power from very early on. He was obsessed with the fact actually had the same letters
as JFK. You know, turned himself into a Vietnam like anti war acted. I'm not putting down his service, but he very clearly used it for his political ambition than at the time. Afterwards, whenever he returned. And it's like that the two contrasts to America, it was very clear people like the social chair vibe. Yeah, they liked the I want to have a beer vibe.
I mean, ironically, like George W. Bush was a Bush.
Yeah, he'd been his family had raised him to try to be president.
It's about it's about yeah, it's but the vibes were more like, Oh, I'd like to have a beer with you.
Even you're the son of like this incredibly wealthy, incredibly powerful political family over generations and generations, and you've literally been like molded into this little political animal. But because he was able to pull off the everyman vibe.
He you know, I mean Carrier Track vote. It's not like Carrie was what like came from nothing. It's like he also married into a half a billion dollar Hinz fortune and started windsailing and taking up he was. So that's the idea that he was JFK. And you know, it came to a he did not have even close to the gravitas of JFK. But second, it's like when you put that up, especially in the modern political environment,
that stuff is not going to work. So my advice to Ramaswami puta jedge and any you know, future kid who was like me, was doing cringeworthy stuff like this is don't do it. Actually you really don't want to. If that's something that you have any if you have any hope of going forward.
In policy, my advice would be it's okay to do it, but like have some core of like principles and values and ideology that you actually because that's also comes through if like I think about Combla where she was changing messaging depending on the seasons, trying to like, you know, have a brainstorming strategy session about what her core values are. Like that comes off where it's one thing to have ambition, Listen, we all have ambitions in different directions whatever. It's another
thing that your only ambition is about your ambition. It's not about doing anything. It's not about a greater good, it's not about any sort of value you want to put forward in the world.
People can really see that, and it irks them. It really irks them.
Okay, let's go to a next story. This is a very important one. Reporter Ken Clippenstein has been staying on this and has actually uncovered some really crazy data. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. The FBI is hoovering up DNA at a pace that rivals China and currently owns twenty one million samples and counting.
One of the reasons I actually found the story especially fascinating is it details the byzantine laws which the FBI is using both in loopholes and also explicitly to gain more DNA samples from American citizens at a faster pace than ever before. He writes, quote that the FBI aims to nearly double it's currently fifty six million dollar budget for dealing with the DNA catalog with an additional fifty three million dollars per year for its budget request of
fiscal year twenty twenty four. In an April twenty three statement to Congress, the FBI revealed that the significantly expanded DNA processing requirements of the FBI, and we're collecting some ninety thousand samples per month. Some of this crystal is based upon federal law where there is a database of the combined DNA index system that goes across all fifty states, which stipulates that originally, just if you were a violent or a sexual offender, they were going to take a
DNA sample for you for reference in the future. That eventually was then lay lowered down to like the misdemeanor level of crime. It eventually got to the point where if you are now even a person of interest in a crime, even if you've ever been convicted in a crime,
that you can have your DNA legally obtained. And is now expanding to the point where even in airports and in ports of entry, they are hoovering up DNA samples and basically through a quasi legal loophole, are expanding this with no recourse, no like, no due process about the invasion, you know, invasive privacy nature of any of this that rapidly expands that they can just do it and do with this data for whatever purposes that they want. Don't forget there was I forget which it was, the Golden
State Killer. I want to say, who they the serial killer? Who they were able to find him decades after he had committed his last crime, and he was a horrible serial killer to be clear. Where they checked his past DNA against open databases of like ancestry dot com, of
like people who had submitted samples. They were able to obtain like a search warrant or whatever for these and were able to connect it back to him via a semi distant relative of his who had submitted their DNA to one of these ancestry websites, which raised a lot of questions. You know, I'm not saying it wasn't good that we caught him. I think it's great. You think he'll die in jail, and that's good, especially recourse for
his victims. But it really opened my eyes that particular case where I'm like, wow, man, I mean, the the way that they are able to use this, It doesn't just implicate you. I mean if they even have a very distant relative or whatever of yours, they can quite easily use that should they ever want to in any of these types of scenarios. Very creepy when you start to think about it.
I think there's a lot to say about this.
First of all, your comments about how where this started and where this ended up really illustrates the problem the slippery slope with the security state. So it starts in a place that basically everyone would support, like sex offenders were taking their DNA, right, We're going to track this, We're going to keep track.
Of it to try to protect the public, and it would.
Be it'd be very hard to find a person who could be like, no, you're not going to do that, but you start in this place that is one hundred percent justifiable, and that would have broad public support.
And then over the years, it.
Just expands and it expands, and it expands, and it expands and it expands. And another thing that comes out of this is part of why their DNA tracking and database has really exploded in recent years, not all of but part of why is because under Trump, there was an order to start collecting the DNA information of undocumented immigrants. So this program starts under Trump at the time, because
it's Trump, it's very controversial. Well guess what now Biden's in office, He's kept the same order in place, and no one says sit about it. So it just continues to expand. The other piece of this is now, obviously, you know, the technology has gotten much better. It's become much easier and much faster, with a lot less resources expended in order to catalog and identify DNA. So as the technology actually we have a quote from this article
that makes this point exactly. They say the database is likely to continue proliferating as DNA tech becomes more sophisticated. Pointing to the advent of environmental DNA, which allows for DNA to be collected for ambient settings like waste water or air, goes on to say, just by breathing, you're discarding DNA in a way that can be traced back to you. So as the technology becomes more sophisticated and more seamless, you can expect this program only to expand further.
There's been an effort to increase the budget around collecting and tracking and storing all of this information. And you know, on the what people would say on the other side is, hey, you pointed to the Golden State serial killer. Isn't it good that we were able to identify this person and bring them to justice after all of these years?
Isn't that a good thing? Of course it is.
But it's also important to keep in mind number one, that on the other side of the ledger is the millions and millions of completely innocent people who now the government has all of this personal, private information about that's number one. But number two, DNA hasn't even been that effective overall in terms of identifying those who committed crimes and prosecuting them. Ken writs in this piece, DNA has played an important role, but less than five three percent
of the profiles have assisted in cases. By comparison, fingerprints collected by the FBI from current and former federal employees linked them to crimes at a rate of twelve percent each year, according to testimony from the Bureau back in two thousand and four, when fingerprint technology was far less sophisticated. Location being that it probably is an even higher match rate at this point.
So, you know, it's really troubling.
Our own intelligence agencies raised a lot of justified questions and concerns about the rate at which China was hoovering up all of and tracking all of this DNA information from their own citizens. And it turns out we're doing the exact same thing at the exact same pace and rate and size.
And scope and scale.
Yeah, that's the creepy part too. About how about the way that it's collected. And one of the important things to underscore about what we said is, you know, we have this idea from TV and from movies that it is used, you know, to great effect in many cases, and it is in some murder and rape investigations, but the vast majority of crimes and stuff don't entail those. Those are actually quite rare, you know, on a macro scale.
So then it comes to the question of like, well, what are we going to do with all this, and also to what end, you know, in the future. I've told the story before about how, you know, I entered
into the United States from Mexico. I was coming in through port of entry, and even though I'd never signed up for Global entry and I'd never you know, given any facial recognition or whatever, my face was used in a pilot program by the CBP or yeah, I think it was the CBP when I was re entering the United States and I had never consented to any of this, and they're just straight up using facial recognition software. I mean, it's one of those where like what I'm like, I
never asked for this. Wait, you know, if they can do this here, what is persopping them from doing the entire country? The answer is nothing, you know, in terms of whatever, especially when you're coming back in. This is just where it's so direct because you're looking directly into the camera. How many times are you on camera? And then somebody is scanning your face. Again, Look, you can make a reasonable case or like what you don't think we should have that for everybody comes to the country.
I don't know all right, but you know, at the very least like there needs to be some actual transparency and investigation or oversight into this. Because when you just start collecting vast DNA samples of your entire population to basically no end, and you have this readily accessible to law enforcement, you know, with what they need in order to tap it. Are we making sure they're proper safeguards
and all these things in place? You're real just one step away from a very bad situation where this data is used for nefarious purposes.
And it happens, and.
It expands with no notice, little debate, no explanation to the American people of what the pluses and minuses might be, what the risks and what the benefits are. It just happens and from you know, a small program really targeted to you know, basically as much information in data and DNA as they can possibly get their hands on over the course of you know, several decades.
That's how we see the size and scope of the.
Security state just continue to creep and creep and creep across administrations.
This one is truly bipartisan.
Right, happen under Trump, happened under Bid, and I'm sure happened under A. Bombs certainly happened under George W.
Bush.
It's the the uniparty is really involved in this expansion and very very little scrutiny of it ever. So you know, kudos to Klippenstein for doing this kind of reporting, exposing to all of.
Us what is actually going on here.
Yeah. Absolutely, So, We've.
Got some economic numbers that we wanted to bring you this morning, starting with the housing market, and let me give you a little bit of context here before I put the first article up on the screen. I mean, obviously we all know how expensive homes are, both in terms of the sticker price and in terms critically of
the mortgage interest rate that you have to pay. And of course the higher the mortgage rate is, the more important it is to have a big down payment, so you're paying down some of the principles so that you're getting hit with less of that mortgage interest rate, so
it's less critical, even though it still makes this huge difference. Well, in this landscape, if you are a young person trying to buy a house, good luck and one of the only ways they're able to pull this off and put this up on the screen, because we've got new numbers now to back this up. For under thirty homeowners intent, so forty percent rely on family money to cover their
down payment on that property. So basically, if you're under thirty and you want to get a house, you got to have mommy and daddy with cash in the bank ready to pony up your down payment, or you can forget about it. Now this obviously has huge implications for generational wealth, has huge implications for just like the story we tell ourselves in this country about the American dream about how anyone can aspire to this level of middle class prosperity and with the house and the white picket
fence and the family, et cetera. I mean, the new story of our economy is if mommy and Daddy aren't underwriting it, you can forget about it.
That what really came through from this with the amount of people who are doing this is we talked previously about the wealth transfer and how a great wealth transfer that's happening right now is really from elder from boomers who are either aging off and are dying or are already preemptively transferring helping out their elder Millennials have entrance
to the homeowner market or asset ownership. And because asset ownership at an earlier point and allowing it to appreciate their course of your life is a single best way in order to attain wealth in this country, the ability then in order to access that tap of wealth is so important. And if the only ability is to have well off parents, well you're in a real tough situation
if you don't even have that. And you know, the problem is is I was even reading more recently about how high interest rates have made it so that people are disproportionately finding it harder in order to get a mortgage. The reason why is that the bank can earn off of straight up deposits five or six percent or whatever
from the federal reserve or from T bills. So you better be a pretty damn good lender or a damn good borrower if you are actually going to be an attractive asset for them in that way, then it's even harder today to actually qualify. Specifically, I was reading for a jumbo mortgage because the competition for your business has just gone way down in the era of a high interest rate environment. On the one hand, that could be
a good thing. It means that you know, people aren't getting access to loans or whatever that they can't pay. But it's really difficult if you're a younger person, yeah, and you have to prove your ability in order to pay in the future, or if they knock you down in the price of house and the only way that you're even able to come to the price where you're living in an urban market or whatever is to have
the signature of a parent. What if your parent didn't do that, well, what if you're self made, what if your first generation college graduate, yeah, or any of those, It puts you in a very very significant disadvantage for your whole yeah, for your whole life.
And it really creates these hard class lines that it's like whatever station you were born into, that's what station you are likely to remain, regardless of how you you know, how well you do in school and you play by the rules and you do all the things that you're
supposed to do. If you don't have mommy and daddy able to stroke you a check for your down payment, it will be very hard for you ever to get on that home ownership ladder, especially if you live in one of these, you know, very expensive metro housing markets. Just to give you a little bit more of the data here, this was from a survey by Redfinn and they found that twenty three percent of homeowners under thirty used a cash gift from family members to cover their
down payment. Another twenty one percent used inheritance money. So that's where you add those numbers together, you get forty four percent who are using either you know, money from family member or some sort of inheritance to be able to achieve home ownership. And so you know, it really does kind of cut to the core of what we think about how this country should work and the upward mobility that should.
Be available to people.
They've coined this term NEPO home buyers to refer to young people who are relying on family money in order.
To get on this property ladder.
But increasingly this is the only way that young people are able to achieve those milestones. And at the same time, there's other numbers that are coming out about how difficult that can landscape is for a lot of people. In spite of some of the headline numbers that look pretty good of low unemployment rate and all of these things. But if you dig into those numbers even an inch, you see how much pain there is out there in the economy. Let's go and put this up on the screen.
This is in some ways one of the most critical indicators of how people are actually doing this. From the Washington Post, they say, delinquencies rise for credit cards and auto loans, and it could get worse with interest rates going up, more consumers have misspayments on household debt. Put this next graph up on the screen because you can see really clearly.
What's going on here.
Over the past two years, really, you've seen the number of delinquencies for all types of debt, whether it's consumer loans, credit cards, or auto loans. You see those numbers significantly
spiking and heading an upward direction. This track's very closely, of course, with the end of the pandemic era programs that helped people get through the pandemic, that provided people with a little bit of cash in their bank accounts, and it coincides with a Federal Reserve policy of hiking interest rates that of course makes all of that debt so much more expensive and so much more difficult to pay off. Let me just read you a little bit
of this article and then Getsager's reaction. They say, more Americans are falling behind on their car loan and credit card payments than at any time in more than a decade, troubling signal of consumer stress as higher prices and rising borrowing costs are squeezing household budgets. The pain, of course, they say, is most acute for lower income earners, who have largely used whatever they managed to save during the pandemic with the help of government stimulus, checks and breaks
on obligations such as rent and student loans. They've got a quote here from Mark Sandy, who's chief economist at Moody's Analytics. The increase in delinquencies and defaults is symptomatic of the tough decisions these households are having to make right now whether pay their credit card bills, their rent,
or buy groceries. So when you have inflation that has cooled some but still has goods, especially like critical things that people have to buy much higher prices than they were previouate prior to the pandemic, you have the end of pandemic era programs, and you have interest rates going up, making all of stats so much more expensive. You end up with a really dire landscape such as US.
Yeah, and you're looking at it and it's just clear that we're going right back to the days of the post Great Recession, which was actually some of the worst days in modern US economic history. I don't think you can really write it off. It was so horrible. It was one of those where we didn't realize how bad it was at the time because we had just gone through the Great Recession. But that is really when people got completely wiped out, and it really is reminiscent of
the Great Depression. The worst of the Great Depression was not nineteen twenty nine, it was four It was five years in because at that point you have the compounding poverty, you have the compounding inability to get housing, compounding inability in order to catch up, and that's when stuff really just starts to break, and that's when a lot of people just gave up the either exited of the workforce,
became permanent renters. That's also with zero interest rates. When ever, the billionaire class and the core corporations really got richer than ever and started especially accelerating financialization, So this is a really bad place to be to have consumer debt and all of that basically return to twenty twelve levels, except at that point there was at least some zero interest rate stuff going on that was juicing the broader economy. Now we don't have either of that. We even have
a reduction in overall earnings, and our growth is generally anemic. So, I mean, this just looks everything just feels very nineteen seventies right now.
I was seeing shocked by the average credit card interest rate that they have in here. It's twenty point six percent. Yeah, that's what was record high, twenty point six percent. So it just shows you when you get behind on those credit card bills, or if you're having to rely on credit cards in order just to make ends meet, how quick you can get behind and you know, basically have no prayer of ever paying that off. At twenty point six percent, I mean, that is really high, and that's
just the average. I means a lot of people have rates that are a lot higher than that. They also point to something we covered before, which is that total credit card debt just topped a trillion dollars for the first time ever, and I didn't know the statistic. There are seventy million more credit card accounts open now than just back in twenty nineteen. I mean, that wasn't that
long ago. Americans have opened up seventy million more credit account card accounts in that time with these high interest rates. And then the other thing that we're seeing is that, you know, we've had the rise of these buy now, paid later.
Services.
If you go on any basically consumer website, they have these options where you can pay for things and installments, et cetera. The importance of those services has also been rising. They say usage surged forty percent forty percent in the first two months of twenty twenty three. So it shows you that people are really struggling just to buy things
like groceries, other necessities, pay their rent, et cetera. They're having to lean on debt that has now very high interest rates in order to get that done, and they are really squeezed in spite of you know, any of the celebratory type top line numbers about unemployment being low, et cetera.
Yeah, these are the numbers that matter the most. And things were better, you know, a couple of years ago, and now they're getting bad and they're all on the uptick. So this is the single biggest problem crisis facing people, the ability to keep up with everyday life. And let me just echo away he said, Please do not go into a crazy amount of credit card like that debtless unless you really are in a bad situation. Twenty percent interests that is, you know, that is horrible because that's
five months and you basically doubled. I mean, what are you gonna do? And you know, especially if you can't make your minimum payments or any of that. So look, you know, I'm not gonna tell anybody how to live. I'm just going to beg people. Don't find yourself in that situation. I got friends and people in my life I know who are in that situation. It becomes overwhelming and all encompassing. In you could blink an eye and watch it all just quadruple triple or something like that,
and then you just feel helpless. You don't know what to do. So try not to put yourself in that situation. People were finding themselves in there in order to make general ends meets. I get it. I don't know what else you can do. You know, it's a real failure. Okay, let's go to the final one here, fun stuff CNN Plus. Of course, you know we dance on the grave here
for rightful purposes. We still are, by the way, the owners of that proud CNN nft of the first moments of CNN plus what they described as the most historic moment and seeing in history. Since they're launching their founding, and since it failed so miserably the first time three hundred million dollars, they've decided to do it again, except this time make it way worse and even more annoying. So let's go and put this up there on the screen.
It seems that Warner Brothers Discovery is now going to test out CNN news alerts while Max viewers are watching TV shows and movies on the platform. So I want everybody to think about your favorite show on Max formerly known as HBO Max. Let's think about Last of Us, The White Lotus, House of the Dragon. It's Sunday night, course Monday, whatever. You just got off work, you want
to catch up. You sit down in order to watch your favorite TV show, and you get a notification up there on the screen and says, do you want to watch Anderson Cooper right now, can't Can you imagine I would freak out, and especially if it became some sort of picture and picture situation. If you're going to ruin my Last of Us time or my House of the Dragon time, that's sacred time. That's like me actually checking out from the rest of the world and driving in
to George R. R. Martin. I mean, first CNN to invade that, especially after we all had to suffer the indignity of having the HBO name taken off. But I said, this actually is beginning to make sense because they did not want to sully the hallowed HBO brand by turning it into CNN Max, which is what this new live streaming service will be.
Now.
I guess to their credit, they're basically just repurposing current content they're going to live stream, like Jake Tapper Show or Anderson Cooper Show or any of these on there. So it's not like they're hiring Chris Wallace or any other jokers. Yeah, that they tried to do last time, but I mean it's still this is CNN. Plus, they're just they're doing what Peacock is done over on Peacock.
It is actually offensive, Like the idea of You're sitting there watching your show and you get some like news alert on your TV that says Trump just called Stormy Daniel's space or whatever.
Like.
Like, that's going to make me want to call the costs, like that is an invasion of my time and space and energy there.
It is wrong, it is horrible. I have to think that people are going to be incredibly irritated by it.
But you know, it's just hilarious to me as well, because Zucker expected CNN plus they launched this with so much fann there. You guys can go back and watch our coverage of it and our predictions that it was going to be a total disaster, and of course it was because what they were putting out into the digital ecosystem was just like a B team version, B rate
version of the actual CNN channel. Or it was like you, I wasn't it going to be like Anderson Cooper on Parenting and somebody was having a book Jack Taber was having a book club, all this kind of stuff, and like, no one wants to pay to watch this, this will be a failure, And sure enough it was.
They pulled the plug.
I mean, it was the smartest move, honestly, that probably conflict made was to immediately pull the plug on CNN Plus, which was losing cash handover fist, complete monumental disaster. And now they're just going right back to the well with It doesn't seem like any real, you know, new insight into how this.
Is gonna work out.
It's kind of incredible, but they feel like I mean, I understand the thinking from the perspective of they're looking at NBC slash MSNBC has made some kind of a digital play. Fox News has made some kind of a digital play. I don't know that any of these are really working out all that well, but they're doing it right. CNN knows the writings on the wall in terms of the normal cable news business. They know that they have to do something. That's why Zucher put so many eggs
in this basket to start with. But they just have no understanding of what a successful online streaming business would actually look like, and so they're just recreating CNN Plus. It's incredible, it's actually incredible.
They also did it at the same time that they are hiring a new chief. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. Mark Thompson has been named the new CNN Chief Executive. According to CNN and Mark Thompson is an interesting guy. He actually worked at the New York Times. He was one of the CEO of the companies that actually brought it out of really what was a business crisis for them. But here's the thing. This is a newspaper guy. He previously had worked over
at BBC News. The thing is about the way that the Times turned around is the Times currently is not a news business. It's a cookbook crossword business with a news arm. It's basically a liberal lifestyle brand that also has news. And that's traditionally how the news business works. People don't really like to pay for news. They pay for all this stuff and then it's it's subsidized by the news. Well, or the news is subsidized by that
other stuff. Well, how is cn I gonna operate like that? Yeah, I mean, look at the end of the day, they're We're fine. They've got these fake cable carriage fees that's going to subsist for them for the next couple of years. They are still rolled into a multi billion dollar corporation like Warner Brothers, Discovery, HBO, Max and all this other content can easily subsidize the news arm, but they want
it to be profitable the way that it is. How though, can you turn this around into a sustainable business asset? The Thompson strategy for making CNN successful would be to resuscitate Bordain from the dead and basically just make it so that he's on the air all the time. By the way, people forget this, he was the most successful thing on all CNN. That's not about strategy, y yeah, I mean, but I mean he was once in a generation. Like, where's it gonna come from? Are you going to find
another board? Am? Like you basically have to remove all the news content and make it so that the only profitable part of the network. No more primetime, no more news, any of this. You're just running cooking shows all day long or the Charles Barkley Galeka, what is it called? King, Charles King, Charles King, Charles, Like, that's what you would do every single day if you want to turn it into a business. But that's not how you run a
news business. So I really have no idea how he's gonna be able to do it.
I don't either, but I do think it's smart.
Higher and AlSi has a track record of taking a news operation and expanding it and getting people to pay for subscriptions in a way that you know, was sustainable. Like we've provided this contrast before, but at the Washington Post, you know, they saw subscriptions skyrocket during the Trump era. They bet the whole farm on Trump coverage. You know, democracy dies in darkness whatever, and so they went all
in on that. And then the moment that Trump is out of office and political interest wanes a bit, then their revenue is falling off a cliff.
They just went through another round of layoffs. You know, they're in a lot of trouble.
New York Times of course, also got that Trump coverage bump, but they didn't.
Rest on their laurels with that.
They also, you know, they acquired the Wirecutter, they launched NYT Cooking, They made it an audio destination with podcasts like The Daily that have been really really successful. And so they use the momentum from Trump to actually build out their business in a way that would be more sustainable. And that turned out and the games, like you talked about in sports and all sorts of things, so that turned out to be extremely intelligent. Now, can you translate
that into CNN. What would that look like? Of course, it wouldn't look exactly like the playbook that they ran at the New York Times, because print is different than you know, is different than cable news. But at least they brought in someone who has some track record of success that I can imagine maybe having some ideas here. I have no idea how it works out though, or what it looks like.
Well, yeah, good luck, good luck to our colleagues. I guess over at CNN, I guess we wish you nothing about the best. Yeah, I appreciate.
I appreciate having another go at CNN plus to keep an.
Eye on here. First though, I get interrupted. Oh man, I can't even tell you how angry it's going to make me. Crystal, What do you take a look at?
One of the dumbest fights ever has broken out between Democrats, Republicans, big pharma, and corporate media, which perfectly encapsulates the dynamic between the two parties, the pitfalls of our political system.
And basically why we can't have nice things. So here is the backstory.
As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden the Democrats passed some incredibly modest reforms to lower prescription drug costs. Under pressure from pharma lobbyists and their own corporate sold out caucus, they settled for allowing Maticare to negotiate prices on just ten drugs, with the new pricing not even said to kick in until twenty twenty six. So, for those who are keeping score at home, by focusing just
on seniors, you're already limiting the impact. By only negotiating prices on ten drugs, you are further limiting the impact. And by inexplicably pushing it out for three years, you are guaranteeing that no one will see any benefit whatsoever for the next two elections and cycles, curb stomping the possible political benefits as well.
In spite of this.
Modest, delayed, neutered impact, Democrats and Biden of course running around pounding their chest like they just slaid some sort of dragon. They know that, of course, we pay astronomically high drug prices as compared to every other country on
the planet. They know this is a massive pain point for tens of millions of Americans, and they know that doing anything about this insanity inducing, unconscionable state of affairs is extremely popular so Biden is leading into these wins on prescription drug pricing as part of his re election campaign, wildly overselling the benefits in an attempt to convince Americans that he has done a lot more than what he has actually accomplished.
So, since we took office, President Biden and I in our administration has taken extoric historic action to cut the cost of prescription medication for our seniors. We capped the cost of insulin at thirty five dollars a month. Now we will cap the total cost of prescription drugs at two thousand dollars a year. And we have made vaccines free of charge, which will save seniors hundreds of dollars
every year. Yes, and we finally allowed Medicare to negotiate the price of medications with big pharma companies to the benefit of sixty five million Americans.
At least historic action.
I guess it is a low bar when the recent history is just giving away the stored pig pharma and allowing them to steal from our tax offers and from our citizens. This is such, though a pristine example of the Democratic Party under neoliberalism, engineer some overly complicated water down reform voters should fall to their knees in gratitude for a modest and possibly imperceptible improvement, but still, in fairness,
it is at least an improvement. On the other side, if you listen to how the drug companies and the Republican elected media allies are talking about this, you would think Biden just engineered an entire government takeover a big pharma, which, by the way, is what they actually should have done Pharma, after likely being instrumental and making these reforms so pathetic to start with, Howled threatened to withhold key life saving drugs, spent tens of millions in negative ads against the reforms,
and ran to the courts crying that the price negotiations were unconstitutional and that every dollar cut into their profit margins was basically theft. As Merks legal filing pouted, this
is not negotiation, it is tantamount to extortion. The Wall Street Journal editorial board they just weighed in with their own hysterical gas lighting, describing these tiny Biden baby steps as command and control drug price controls I wish, and claiming that modest price cuts on ten total drugs coming in three years time would devastate research and development, depriving the public of critical life saving medications. Now, this complaint might be worth considering if big pharma was really in
the business of inventing life saving medications. In reality, every new FDA approved drug in recent history was initially developed using taxpayer dollars. Pharma spends much more of their time and their money focusing on how they can use patent lawfare to maintain their price gouging monopolies.
That's really the business they're in.
Now.
Elected Republicans are joining the fray, carrying water for their pharma donors and using pharma talking points to fear monger about these very modest proposals which just passed per Politico. Congressional Republicans slammed Biden's Tuesday drug price announcement, saying they will impose crippling price controls.
Quote.
I hope that our colleagues on both sides of the aisle can come together to mitigate these devastating effects that advance consensus based, market driven solutions to access A four ability challenges, said Senator Mike Krappo, the top Republican on
the Senate Finance Committee. Meanwhile, Trump at least has enough brain cells to realize this is the dumbest attack from Republicans of all time, so he staying his usual approach of vaguely posturing like he might do something on prescription drug prices, when, of course we all know the real truth. In a video on his website, he said, we've been ripped off by everybody for so many decades. We are
tired of it not going to happen. Of course, it did happen under his administration for four years with next to no action, and his proposed solution now is just to revive an executive order that has already been killed in the courts. Ironically, the massive freak out from Republicans, Pharma and their media allies might actually help to convince the public that the Biden administration must have really done something.
Given all the outcry, surely they wouldn't protest some so much over something so small.
Right.
The lesson I wish Democrats would learn is that since FARMA is going to have a next level meltdown over even the smallest threat to their profit margins, you might as well give them something to really melt down about. But instead we'll just continue in this psych Democrats will make things three percent better wildly oversell it, expect the
public to express their undying gratitude always and forever. Republicans will then march in to declare that this very mild improvement is actually an unconstitutional attack in America which will destroy the whole country. And meanwhile, the American people will continue to get absolutely screwed with no end in sight, just another day in our nation's capital. This whole thing has been so absurd to me.
And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at Breakingpoints dot com.
All right, sorry, we're looking at We often hear.
A lot from the nations of Eastern Europe about the war in Ukraine. The prime ministers of the Baltic nations, as well as Finland and Sweden are always salivating to push the US into war with Russia and to beat the war drum harder than anybody else in the NATO alliance. They want to give away the entire US store to Ukraine. But often a nord in the view of the Ukraine conflict is Hungary, which, unlike any of those states, actually shares a land border with Ukraine, and of course also
shares the long history of Soviet and Russian imperialism. The reason Hungary is ignored is because it explicitly has a different view of the Ukraine conflict than every other nation inside of NATO. These views are inconvenient, and thus you never hear about them. And no matter what you think about Hungary the nation, you still cannot be arrogant enough to dismiss the view then of a NATO member, a former victim of Russian imperialism, and a literal border state
to the war in Ukraine. Tucker Carlson sat down recently with Victor orbat and he's the leader of Hungary for his view of the Ukraine conflict, and some parts of this are vital for everyone to hear in America. Let's take a listen to the first part.
The view is that Ukraine is winning this war. It doesn't sound like that's true.
It's a lie.
It's not just to be understanding, it's a lie.
It's impossible.
Everybody who's in politics and understand the logic, the figures of the data low way.
Why is it impossible.
Because that way, the Ukrainian, the pore, Ukraine's die every day, Yes, hundreds and thousands. You know, my heart is with them.
So it's it's studged.
Before Ukraine run out earlier from the soldier's number of than the Russians. What finally, your count is boots on the ground, and the Russians are fastronger, fun, numerous, more numerous there anymore. So so the strategy but we are just supporting is a bad engineering of the strategy.
Okay, stark wards there to start us off, The narrative that Ukraine is winning is a lie, according to Orbon. Orbon says that the number of troops expended by Ukraine versus Russia, and he notes that the Russian colossus is ability to endlessly throw poor conscripts into the fray. The counterpoint to this, then is that the West must make it so that the war in Ukraine is so painful for Russia that they sue for peace or withdraw because
the population doesn't want to pay the price anymore. Here's what Orbon specifically had to say about that strategy.
To understand the Russians, it's a difficult thing, especially if you have an ocean between you and Russia. So when we speak about politics, I mean investorners. What is the focus point about conversation. The focus point is freedom. How to provide more and more to the people. Yes, when you speak on politics in Russia, this is not the
number one issue. The number one issue how to keep together the country because the country is very big and there's a privilege of the question how to keep together the country and not freedom. Freedom is just another issue, second, third, whatever. First, keep the country together, and that's generate a different kind of culture and understanding of politics. That's creating a kind of military approach like they have always on security, safety,
offer on geopolitical approaches. It's not our cultures a different approach. It's legitimate to have that because it's their history. But we have to understand that we cannot beat them as we do just now. It's impossible. They will not kill their leader, they will never give it up. They will keep together the country and they will defend it. We find once more, they will invest more if we send more technically, if as they will produce more. So don't misunderstand the Russians.
So they're not going to get sick, ad pertinent and fro Now, come on, it's a joke.
Come on, it's a joke. Strong words again, what is very important though about what Orbon said is our conception of how our population or some other Western nation may respond to saying and death is not the Russian view at all, both at a population level and a governmental level. Perhaps his most important insight there is the preservation of Russian territory and a broader conception of greater Russia historically is a vital national security interest to the Russian regime
for all time. Thus, when something is vital, you are willing to expend significant military resources, population, and endure pain to accomplish it. That has frequently been comparison of turning Ukraine into Russia's Vietnam. First of all, that's dumb, because
Russia already had its Vietnam, it was called Afghanistan. But the reason why our Vietnam was Vietnam and theirs was Afghanistan was that it was arrogant military adventurism focused on territory far away from the core security interests of both regimes. The populations of the US and the USSR saw clearly that the immense cost of said wars in far from places was not worth any notional benefit of continuing with Ukraine.
It is a very different story First of all, the West has basically given the Russians no option right now but capitulation. And second, it is literally next door for them, it's not far away. It is considered a core part of their sphere in their minds. And fighting and escalating there has a different cost benefit analysis for the Russian people and the Russian regime.
So what do we do?
We have a precipice. The current plan by Washington is simple, pour as much money into Ukraine politically and bleed the Russians dry with the hope that they eventually just fold one day. All of this is done with the Biden edict of nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine here too, Orbon popped the thought bubble of those in Washington, DC, making it clear the power behind this conflict is not Kiev, it is right here in Washington. Take a listen.
First, you should admit, probably publicly acknowledging, that the keys in your hand. So if you United States would like to have a piece next morning, there is a peace. Because it's obvious that the Ukrainians, the poor Ukrainians on their own, they're not competitive in this world. So if there is no money and there is no equipments, from the best time, especially from United States.
The word is over.
Yes, the solution is in your hand, is in the hand of the your president. The president followed the future one.
But you be solved.
The United States can do it, nobody else. It's not the solution for the Ukrainians. Of course, it's about Ukrainians. They cannot be neglected. They must be involved. But the rieof factor is not Ukraine. The reof factory is intention of the United States.
Yes, if our president wants peace, there will be peace. That's according to Orbon. This too is obvious looking at a basic chart of weapons and material going to Ukraine. We contribute more than the rest of the entire world combined, including the great powers of Europe. So obviously then we get the most.
Say.
I'm just gonna end with this. I'm not claiming whatsoever Orbon is the majority of view within NATO or even amongst former socialist republics. Obviously he is not. But it is vital to hear what he has to say, specifically because it allows for dissenting views and debates, descending views and debates, which did not happen when we lost our senses and we let every tiny nation of all of Eastern Europe into NATO without a single regard for the
consequence of the future. Our current policy in Ukraine is signing us up for never ending bills, never ending military supply, and never ending diplomatic problems at a time when our attention in a different region of the world has never been more important. So I was really struck by what he had to say. And listen, I get it. I know everybody hates Hungary whatever. Okay, their Christian nation, Yes, they don't like immigrants, etc. Put that aside. We're not
talking about that right now. We're talking about how do we see other how do other NATO Alliance members and people who were former socialist republics view the conflict, and where are we being honest about what the future looks like. That is probably the most stark admission that I have heard yet from an actual leader of NATO military state and who shares a massive land border with Ukraine.
Yeah. I mean, I have no problem with Hungary.
I do have some issues with Orbond, But I mean I think on this he's being way more honest than the thing I've heard from it. Yeah, American policy to be totally frank with you and you know, the part that really discussed me is we're effectively because he's obviously
correct that the US is driving this train. That the fact that, you know, the way the war has been conducted, the you know, continued effort to push on, the continued effort to thwart any sort of peace talks or diplomatic negotiations that are like that is coming from Washington.
We are driving this train.
That has always been really clear, and when you really think about that, you come to realize we're using the Ukrainians as pawns.
And it is a devastating tragedy in.
That country, the number of people who are being killed and maimed and the whole nation upended and destroyed.
And what is the plan, Like, what is the plan at this point?
Because even the thing that's articulated like, well, I guess we're just going to keep doing I mean, that's keep doing this forever, Like even though that doesn't really make sense, do we really?
How does that serve our interest? To anyone's interest?
So the clarity of saying yes, it's the US has driving the train, and stop with the learned helplessness too, of pretending like, oh, Ukraine's doing these drone strikes, you know, look for the deepest into Russian territory, and we wish they.
Wouldn't, but what can we. Of course you can do something. Of course you are not helpless in this situation.
So to hear someone, even someone that I'm not a fan of, laying out there what feels to me like some real, unvarnished truths, I think is very worthwhile to listen to it.
Yeah, I mean, and that's what really just comes across is where he's like, look, this is on you. He's like, you guys are the ones.
Who do it.
I also really enjoyed. There's some different moments where he goes at us arrogance. He's like, oh, you guys fought the Cold War and you think you know something about Russia. He's like, why don't you ask people like us who are actually ruled by the Russians. He's like, we understand them. He you know, he was arrested actually for protesting against the Soviet regime. This isn't somebody who is pro Russian
or whatever in any aspect of the world. He's just different in terms of his view of how they should conduct themselves in the Alliance. So anyway, but yeah, the other thing with that is.
He was explained, you know, he was explaining, like you have to understand how the Russians think. But I don't think the way that they view this is so different from how we were Like the sanctions for example, you know, we had this idea that, oh, the sanctions will make life hard and they'll fold whatever. You know, first of all our own experience of trying to use sanctions, it has never worked out that way. But you know, even with the Ukrainian expectation that attacks on Russian soil would
also weaken their resolve. I mean, historically it has had the exact opposite impact. If that happened to us, it would have the exact opposite impact. So I don't know that the Russian people, they you know, they've been propagandized and they're invested in this what is, you know, legal insane imperial project of putn that I don't support whatsoever.
But I'm not sure that the way.
That they view things is so different from how an American would view things if you put them in the same situation, the same protect that I don't disagree.
All, Okay, We've got a great debate for everybody the TikTok kids versus each other. Let's get to it.
Obviously, young voters are going to be really key in twenty twenty four, so we thought we would convene a big zoomer TikTok panel. We're very excited to have us joining this morning. We've got Harry Sisson. He is a very enthusiastic and outspoken Biden supporter. And we also have Link Lauren, who is a conservative, a little bit vivg curious, but I think still keeping his options open in terms of the GOP prime or fair to say Link, well.
I'm wait, wait, wait, whoa, I'm an independent Okay, okay, very common sense.
Moderate, Okay, all right, well we'll see about that as we get into the.
Conversation anti Biden. I'm anti Biden for sure.
Well that's gooreat Okay, Well we can get into all of that. Gentlemen, we're really glad to have both of you. Thank you for taking the time, Thank you for having us. Of course, so I wanted to start and Harry, I'll start with you, but I'll give you the same question to Link. You know, voters of your generation are basically not really feeling.
Either party so much.
And we've got some approval ratings of the leaders of the two parties we can put up on the screen here. So let's start with Joe Biden. I think he sits in this particular survey at thirty seven percent, and then Donald Trump very similar thirty seven percent, and Joe Biden sits at about the same percentage point right in the thirties thirty seven percent. So overwhelmingly unfavorable opinion of both
of these two individuals among young voters. So Harry from your perspective as a Biden supporter, what are your peers getting wrong?
I'm not necessarily sure it's what my peers are getting wrong. I think it's it possibly might be what the administration is doing wrong when it comes to messaging. Okay, I think that the admit the Biden administration has done so much for young people, you know, whether it's on climate change or historic investments in infrastructure or even education investments. There's a lot there that young people should be excited about.
I mean, the largest investment in fighting climate change ever is something that we can all be really happy about, really excited about. But I think that on the occasion the administration does a poor job of kind of pitching these things to young people, which is of understandable giving the error we're in right now with social media and technology. I don't think anybody has really perfected how we get
the message through social media. Like in terms of politics, I think a lot of people on social media have but not necessarily politics. So I think once we get that message out more, once we start saying, hey, look at all these amazing things that the Biden administration has done for young people, especially as we get close to the election, more money is involved in politics, opinions at least on favorability will start to shift.
Okay, I love, go ahead.
I love when the Biden administration says it's the messaging. They're like, people don't know how well we're doing for them. They just don't know how good they have it. It's almost like this cultural gas slighting, Like they think if they keep repeating Bidenomics, Bidenomics, Bidenomics over and over and over, young people are just going to have more money in their bank account. So it's not really translating. And I don't know if it's the messaging, because young people are
just stressed financially. That's what I read every week and thousands of comments and messages.
Link.
Let me just link to follow up on that.
Do you feel like the Republicans have offered an agenda that's resonating with young people or that you expect would resonate with young people. I do have some numbers I can put up on the screen for this as well. Sure, let's see gun put the third graphic up on the screen. This was some polling of how young people feel on a variety of issues. Is eighteen to twenty nine year olds. Over time, we've seen them getting increasingly progressive on a
variety of issues. Here you've got on stricter gun laws, wanting action on climate change, on same sex relationships, on food and shelter being a basic right. So do you feel I know you've got a critique of Biden here, and frankly it's one that you know I partially share, But do you think that the Republicans are offering something that could really fill that void?
Well, what I see from young people is they're much more beholden to policy than they are to political parties. So young people, they don't really care as much about Republican or Democrat. They want to vote for someone who's a transformational leader and who's actually going to help them. And I think young people really want someone who's closer to their age. To be honest, I'm not agis if Biden was some spry, whipper snapper, I'd say, go ahead,
run for a second term. But the guy's pretty much incoherent, works two hours a day in a stumbling and falling down, so most people do not want him to seek reelection.
So, Harry, you've been a pretty vociferous see laughing there about Biden's age. But I think it's a legitimate concern. So something percent of the American people agree, sixty nine percent of Democrats. Actually the vast majority of the people in your age group specifically, I guess kind of mine as well, also think that Biden is far too old to run for president. So whenever you're engaging, you know, with your audience, people who are you know, how do
you try and convince them? What's the response here to the critique?
Yeah, I mean, look, I don't think that talking about his age is wrong. I don't think that it's an unfair critique. And I understand why, you know, some people might be concerned about his age, right, I get it, But I think that when we're talking about age, policy and accomplishments matter more. And the fact of the matter is this president has been one of the most accomplished, in my view, one of the best presidents in mind.
And I'm happy to explain why just hold on the American Rescue Plan, the Byparsion Infrastructure Deal, a Bipartison, Savor Communities Act, the Packed Act, the Chips Act, rejoining the WHO, the Inflation Reduction Act.
I mean, list goes on, right.
I think that when you're looking at this president, look at the policy, look at the productivity of this administration as opposed to, Oh, let's just talk about his age, which, as I said, a fair concern, but in my view, what we get done is more important than the age of the candidate.
Okay, and then link you know what Chris Will asked you about policy and all of that. I mean, look, you went to NYU, both of you, gentlemen. Actually it's kind of interesting in order to think about two different trajectories crossing paths. I guess in the night, whenever we talk here about younger Republicans or even independent non democratic voters, do you actually see a more policy concern because mostly from what I could tell and from peers as well.
A lot of it is around cultural concern and there's nothing wrong with that, but I do think that that is a major animating factor. I'm curious how you square your answer with kind of that observation that we've generally seen as dissonance to like what the overall cultural left is doing well.
I definitely think the mainstream media is profiting heavy off of these culture war issues. And I knew Harry was going to have his DNC talking points. Who is going to list the chips at the inflation reduction as good stuff? No, no, I'm totally good for you. But I've been traveling across this country the past year, and when you go talk to maybe a rural voter in Iowa and a small town who owns a small business, they're not feeling the
effects of those things. So in a New York Manhattan liberal elite bubble, you can list all of those accomplishments, but when you go out into the real world, people just aren't feeling it. They want someone new, they want someone different. So I'm not taking away that he's got these things past and the debt ceiling and all of that but people still want someone new.
And I'll also point this out.
If he has all of these accomplishments, why is he still neck and neck with Trump in the polls. Wouldn't there be a massive margin why I said, always one point here, one point here, half a point here.
Wouldn't he just be winning by a landside.
If they say Trump's a criminal and Trump's been indicted a thousand times and Biden is so great, clearly it's not sticking. Yeah, except you know, when we look at poles at this time, at different elections, they were never right right, like Rudy Giuliani was leading at this point. And I find the point of, you know, the liberal talking point in Manhattan to be interesting because it's not just you know, me going to NYU saying all these policies are great. It's like, no, the American people are
really feeling this. Like the veterans who were exposed to talks of burn pits. Do you want to tell them that, you know, they're not actually feeling the benefits. The people who've had their kids lost to terrible mass shootings. Do you want to go tell them that the Byparts and Safer Communities Act, which expands red flag laws, background checks
are not significant. Do you want to go tell the record low unemployment, the people who now have jobs, the more jobs that buy like thirteen million jobs and buyd administration would go tell those people that this administration is not working for them.
I mean, or how about the people who were just coming out of COVID.
President Biden inherited a constitutional crisis from Donald Trump in citing an insurrection action. You know, people are not vaccinated, Unemployment still high, nobody's making any money. Then President byen comes in, buys a lot of vaccines, get this market, gets the job market back open by making crucial investments. I mean, if you'd like to go tell those people that what they experienced was fake, then by all means, But I think we're going to listen to the American
people especially. I mean, we can go into the women and their reproductive freedoms who are being stripped. I mean, how about that thirteen year old girl in Mississippi recently.
Who's now a mother.
I mean, do you want to go tell her that the Republican policy is working with this administration is fighting for when it comes to reproductive freedom is not real? I mean I think that sounds more like a conservative talking point and wherever you might be living right now, then you know the liberal Manhattan are combating like you know, average Americans or anything like that.
Link.
I did want to get your thoughts specifically on abortion, if you could respond on that piece, because obviously in elections this year and going back to the mid terms, it has been a.
Big issue for Republicans.
We just had an Ohio issue one which was very much a cro choice versus pro life. Even a red state like Ohio, overwhelmingly the pro choice side wins. So how do you think Republicans should be talking about that issue and how much do you think that that matters in terms of young people.
Well, I would say a ton of Republicans are pro life, so they're totally fine with everything.
But I'd like to point out I'm a gay guy.
I don't have kids, I don't even date women, so me opining on abortion probably not the best person.
An opinion life as I've for sure.
But when I talk to people, I do realize tons of this country they are pro life, and you're gonna have people who are pro choice.
So I'm not here to tell people who to vote for when they go to the ballot box.
I'm just here to represent the thousands of comments and messages I read every week from people across this country.
Oh, I will, I will, Yeah.
Republicans across the country are trying to take women's reproductive freedoms. I mean, it's that's it's that simple. We don't have to dodge the question. We can just be honest about it. Republicans across this country are trying to take women's reproductive freedoms.
We saw it on the debate stage, asked the Hutchinson bragging about all the pro life legislation is signed, Ronda Santis bragging about his heart built Tim Scott saying that he'll sign the most conservative pro life legislation of elected Donald Trump, saying that women should face women should face punishment if they get there an abortion.
We have Alabama now suing.
We're threatening to jail people who even assist women to get abortions. Not you know, the doctor, not the women, but even people who assist. This is the cris one of the biggest crisis of our times where we have Republicans directly infringing on the rights of women across this country and it's disgusting. So when you're looking at twenty twenty four, You're thinking, man, how do we get back to a time where women can actually choose what they
want to do with their body? You look at President Biden, You look at the Democrats who have a record of putting on pro choice judges to different courts, and even the Department of Justice right now under President Biden, under Attorney General Merrick Garland have sued consistently in these Republican states.
To get these bands over turned.
Now, sorry, I don't want to take up too much time, but this is a very important issue.
Well, Harry, how come Democrats didn't codify Roe versus Way when they could have? And how come, you know, even moving forward into this election, Because I'm on the same page as you are, I'm pro choice, you know, I would like to see Roe versus Wade at the very least be codified and put back into place. That's actually not the message, that's not actually what they're pushing for. What they are saying is we just won't do the
bad things that the Republicans are doing. Don't Democrats owe women, young people, people across this country more of an affirmative agenda to restore the rights that were lost.
Given that you do have these.
At what are, in my opinion or a chrocist situations of you know, thirteen year olds being forced to bear their rapist babies. Don't they have a responsibility to go further than just saying we're better than the bad guys.
Christ Like, I couldn't agree more, Right, I couldn't agree more.
I think that in my view, though the administration has laid out, especially President Biden, how they intend to reinstate these rights, whether it be through judicial nominees. President Biden has always said, I will appoint pro choice justices if there's no opening on the Supreme Court, if Clarence Thompson the seventies, Alito in the seventies, Robert who served for
fifteen years, President Biden has always said that. However, also President Biden said that he endorses removing the filibuster for codifying Robi Wade. Now, if we can get the Democratic senators that we need in the next election and retake the House, we'll do it.
I'm so confident that it will get done.
Now as to why it hasn't happened previously, you know, under President Obama had some super majorities, but a lot of those senators were from a lot more conservative states. The national sentiment on abortion wasn't the same. So do I blame those those southern or maybe not Southern Democrats, but those Democrats who were in those more conservative states for not using their power then and codifying it. Absolutely, But the political kind of landscape was just a little
bit different then. But it's still a missed opportunity, and I think if we get that opportunity again, we will take it.
Link Young voters number one issue at the polls. You said you're an independent, you're anti Biden. If you're young, why should you not vote for Biden? Well, I'm not here to tell anybody who to vote.
For, right, Okay, Why to make their own decision.
Yeah, Honestly, the biggest issue for me with Biden is the censorship on social media. I mean going back to court to try and overturn the lower court's ruling to censor social media content and steer the narrative. That's just never going to sit well with me. I think his calamitous trip to Maui last week really solidified it for me.
I mean, you go to Maui and give a speech about almost losing your corvette and a small kitchen fire and making lib jokes and comments when people have lost everything, they've been torched to the ground. They can't find their families, they can't find their kids. He's cracking jokes. Then he hops on a plane to go back to his eighteen million dollar mansion in Lake Tahoe and take Pilate's classes
and walk around a parking lot with a smoothie. I want a transformational new leader in this country to sit in the Oval office and really in that change. People need to see strength and see a real leader. And Joe Biden isn't giving me that, not giving young people that.
But link it's not just about what you're against, it's also got to be what you're for. Very likely, the publican nominee is going to be Donald Trump. You know, Trump also censored on social media.
You can see that, and you can see that.
You can go and read the Twitter and you'll see his administration doing a lot of the same stuff that the Biden administration was doing. In fact, I mean the hunter Byden laptop thing happened while Trump was still president, So let's keep that in mind.
That's number one. Number two.
I mean, in terms of hurricane response. He was, you know, very late in terms of response to hurricane.
Yeah, he took thirteen days. He showed up for two hours.
Go back and look out, Donald Trump.
Question, my question to you, my question to you directly, and then I'll get Harry in. My question directly is is Trump better than Biden? You know, would you if that's your choice, Trump v Biden or would you vote third party?
Like?
What would be your choice in that situation?
And why? For sure?
So the thing about American politics is you never know who's going to emerge.
I mean, look at how many candidates were on.
The stage last week, right, So I'm going to keep my options open and see who I feel in November of twenty Listen.
But let's be real. This is what it's likely coming down to.
Trump is like fifty percent ahead of everybody else. You know, Nikki Haley gained like three points after this debate. It's not enough to overcome.
But if you get very like the Coffins, if you have the trial.
I'm just trying to figure out where do you actually stand, Like, do you actually think Trump is better than Biden if that's your choice? Are you a Trump guy or are you on the fence. Are you looking at a third party candidates?
I've never said anything about nails in the coppin.
Yeah, let's yeah, No said definitely. So anyway, you know where that's your choice. Where do you stand, that's your choice?
Honestly, traveling getting to know these candidates.
I really like some other candidates, and I'm looking to see who's going to emerge in November of twenty twenty four.
Okay, see, but see.
That. I'd also like to point out.
Once we'll get to you, go ahead, go ahead.
Yeah, I'm an independent new media journalist, so I report on culture war stories. I follow politics very closely. It's not my place to tell people how to vote or exactly who I'm going to vote for. Harry obviously he made the decision to totally endorse Joe Biden.
And if they were paying for my flights and hotels, maybe.
I just hotels were paid for.
Please put me in contact with who's going I would love to make a decision.
I'm from a place of an influencer, so that's the difference.
He respond, Go ahead, and respond, go ahead, sorry, guys, I apologize a crystal crystal sacres.
So what we we just heard from my counterpart on the right is what we call a non answer. You you asked him a question, are you going to support Trump? He couldn't bring himself to support the four time indeted, disgrace warm president who's now a proven sexual abuse or rapist wait journalists.
Or or you know, rapists as deemed in courts in New York.
Right, couldn't just couldn't give you a determination there, but just to respond to what he said earlier, I mean, I think I think it's just when you asked him, like, why would he support Trump over Biden?
Right?
Why why is he voting for Trump? He then cited President Biden going to Maui is one of his big reasons, and he's like, oh, he took her, sure, and the grand But he wasn't clamoring. I don't think he's brought up the fact that Donald Trump took fifteen days to go to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Mario, which killed thousands, Right, there's no there's no criticism there.
He's like, oh, Biden took thirteen days.
And the reason that Biden took thirteen days is because now he was on fire, like it's on safe for the president and the Secret Service to travel there. Along with the federal response going on, and the and the governor there was like, yeah, within six hours, the President met our needs. On the tenth, President Biden signed an emergence.
Wasn't Tulci Gabert.
The next day, on the tenth, President Biden signed an emergency declaration. So look, you can clamor in with Toulci Gabbert this or that or President Biden, but you know, the people who are actually in Hawaii are saying, yeah, yeah, President Biden met all our needs within hours. Like he's been great. The federal response has been fantastic. I don't know, because I've.
Seen complicated Yeah, go ahead.
I've seen people.
I've seen people in Maui on their local news station saying screw Joe Biden. They put up a sign over their businesses saying We're sorry you lost your corvette in the fire. You know, like I don't know if the people in Maui were still but you know, God bless. I'm just saying, can.
Ike real quick?
Yeah go ahead.
Yes, this comparison between me and Harry, I feel it's a false comparison. Harry is an influencer who's decided to totally endorse Joe Biden, which is his prerogative right. I'm a new media journalist. My medium happens to be TikTok, right. It's not my place to opine or tell people who to vote vote for. I'm not owned by a political party. I'm not owned by media conglomerate. I cover the news.
I look at a lot of information and I give you my take.
That's it, Okay, So let's close.
Let's close by forcing each of you to sort of steal man the other one's position. So link what, in your opinion, is the best thing that Joe Biden has done and potentially the best reason for young people who are considering voting for him to vote for him.
Honestly, I can't think of one reason to vote for Joe Biden. I would say, if you're pro choice, you're definitely going to lean toward Biden, and I think that's up to a woman to make that decision. But for me personally, I'm not going to list all the accomplishments. We just heard Harry list fifty different things.
So one thing he gave, not one thing that you think that he did that was like, all right, that was okay?
I The thing is also, you guys, like I said, I'm not telling people to vote for Trump for Biden. I'm keeping options open. I really want a transformational, younger leader. I mean, look what happened with Mitch McConnell yesterday. Look at Diane Einstein, look at Joe Biden. Is it crazy to say, hey, can we have someone maybe in their sixties or fifties, someone who really speaks to us and understands the twenty first century issues we have with cybersecurity
and so many other things. Also, I don't really want a president pushing us deeper deeper, deeper into conflict with Ukraine, Russia, et cetera, just to be honest.
And we didn't even touch on that.
Okay, Harry, what about for you?
What do you think is the biggest mistake or disappointment of the Biden administration?
Wow?
The biggest mistake or disappointment the cocaine in the White House, the granddaughter, and.
The border O.
The border.
No, not at all.
Well, I'm from Texas, so I'm just saying, oh, you're from Texas. Yeah, so I'm saying open border is not really my thing. I'd like to well, listen, I'll try to answer the question. But if you were, if you had say no cards, if he wasn't answering, if you were, of course, of course, if he was honest and not disingenuous, he wouldn't be talking about an open border.
But in terms of.
Administration one failure. I think that the build back better. We had something great there and past was unfortunate. And I wish that child the child tax credit would have been longer. And I understand that politics Scott in the way, and maybe it wasn't it was was I'm possible with mansion in cinema, but I wouldn't necessarily call it failure, but something I wish it would have happened under.
His first child tax credit. Okay, gentlemen, each of you, this is a lot of fun. But link tell people where they can find you, and then Harry.
You can find me at It's link Lauren on TikTok and Twitter. And I also want to say thank you guys for having me and also for Harry. I really do wish you the best. I went to n Yu
also and I do like your content. I like seeing young people involved in politics for sure, and as a big brother, I just want to say I'm so excited to see you travel across the country and meet more voters in different areas and hear their needs and their concerns, because I do think your content will become more nuance, nuanced, and you'll have more empathy for other people.
Sure, but.
Listen, I won't.
I won't.
I won't throw the low blow. I want to throw the low blow. Listen.
I'm seriously wish. They have a show to do.
They have a show to do. They have a show to do.
All right, anyways, Sorry, guys, you can find me on every every platform. Harry Jasis and likewise Chris appreciate you guys so much.
Thank you.
There you go, okays, go by you guys. Right? Is that the is that the right one?
Harry is at the violet of the bobcat? I don't know.
Whatever.
All right, gentlemen, that was fun.
I really enjoyed that. For people who are just listening, you got to watch that man that was There was a lot of motive you have for which that was musty content. Thank you very much. For our producer Griffin, it was his idea in order to get this done, and he wrangled all the scheduling for that so We appreciate everybody who watches the show and it helps us out here Breakingpoints dot com. Everyone have a fantastic Labor
Day weekend. Everybody check out, have a great time. We will be back here on Tuesday and we'll see you then