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What do we have, Crystal Inde, we do.
We got some big breaking news this morning. Mayor Adams of New York City is indicted. Right now, the charges are sealed. We are awaiting them being unsealed. But we still have a lot of details that we can get into on that. Kamala Harris yesterday made a big economic pitch. She gave a big economic speech in Pittsburgh. She also sat for a hard hitting interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Rule. So you have something to say about that side.
Just think I was forced to watch the whole thing, forced the stuffer through pharma commercials, and I didn't even get anything out of it. So I'm salty Dan that went to bed late, so there's too much goal.
He became salty though, Yes, salt tax did come.
Up, right, but no answer, but no answer.
We'll get to it all right, so we'll show you highlights, low lights, all the lights from that. We're also keeping close eye on Lebanon and Israel is threatening a ground invasion there, so very serious and significant developments, deeply troubling. Of course. We're taking a deep dive this morning into the Senate map, which has some interesting, interesting developments on the Democratic side, which races they actually think are the most gettable in which they're kind of given up on,
So we'll get into all of that. We've also got some rare good news. Overdoses are down. Overdose deaths are down significantly, so nobody knows exactly why. They're probably confluence of factors that go into that, so we will discuss and looking forward to speaking with my friend journalist Torre, who has some exclusive details for us about the abuse
of Ditty. He's got a new piece up about Cassie in particular, but he also has a personal family member who had a run in with Diddy that was to call it a red flag would be a major understatement. So he'll give us all of those details. But before we get to any of that, we also have for you lovely people, a new discount.
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you're all welcome. That's what you get from our annual membership. We want to make sure that we can get as many people in here as possible. You can not only get to support the show, but you'll get exclusive election content that's going to be behind the paywall. We already have a forecast segment that our premium subscribers got to watch, our election predictions, and a lot more that's coming up that we're planning.
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And that's really exciting, very excited about that. We've got a great election forecaster, Logan Phillips, who's going to be doing some exclusive content for premium subscribers on a weekly basis. So if you can sign up, you get that discount. With that being said, let's go ahead and get into the show here. We can put this first element up on the screen. Everything we know about this indictment of Mayor Adams. This came down late last night, at least late in my book and in your book.
Soccer n thirty late.
That's pretty late.
Yeah.
So in any case, he has been indicted on federal criminal charges. We have some indications it may be a fair of violation. I'll tell you more about that in just a moment, but officially the charges are right now sealed. There was also a search by federal agents of Gracie Mansion, that is the residence of Mayor Adams in New York City this morning early. Unclear specifically what charges or when he will surrender to authorities. Federal prosecutors are expected to
announce the details of that indictment on Thursday. So we can put the next element up on the screen actually, which goes through some of the timeline. I recommend if you haven't been following the story, go back and watch the interview we did last week with Ross Barkin breaking down what the hell is going on here, because there has been a long, more than a year build up to this moment. First of all, you had his phones, Mayor adams phones seized in what appeared to be an investigation.
They raided the home of his chief fundraiser. And this particular investigation, it appears to be around the allegation that Mayor Adams took money from Turkish government sources and then intervened with the Fire department as the Turkish government was trying to build a consulate in Midtown Manhattan and the fire department had safety code concerns and reportedly allegedly Mayor Adams intervened and pushed them to okay the opening of
this building in spite of those safety concerns. That is the best that we know about the allegations that he is facing. But in addition to the focus on him, his administration has been besieged by four different federal investigations. Just in the past number of weeks. He's had four separate high level officials resign. He is himself facing calls to resign and was even before it became official that these indictments were coming down. So AOC actually got a
little bit ahead of the curve. Just yesterday she called for his resignation. He sort of alleged that she was racist for suggesting that, But he will be the first sitting New York City mayor to actually face federal criminal charges, So this is quite significant. This is someone Sager, of course, who was once tod talked about as the future of the Democratic Party. He's a former cop. He won the mayoralty. Of course, all the action in the New York City
at this point is on the Democratic side. So it was the primary that was the big deal, pretty crowded primary field. He was against Maya Wiley and another woman who was even further left. Her campaign kind of imploded there at the end. Don't know if your member there.
Was her name, o god Arthia no Garcia.
Yeah, it was Cynthia Garcia. Something like that was my brain, Sorry whoever you are. In any case, I remember the primary quite well. It was a big deal that he won. He ran on this very like fund the police thing, and a bunch of centrist Democrats absolutely love that and thought this guy was the next, you know, the next Democratic superstar. They apparently undug much into him, both in terms of previous allegations of corruption and also just in
terms of basic competence. One thing I've enjoyed about him is some of his like really bizarre content that he's produced. Just go and look at you know, Eric Adams being asked what was the best part of last year in one word? Or go and look at the compilations of him saying like, New York City is the Islamabad of America. New York City is the Kuala Lumpur of America, et cetera,
et cetera. But these are very serious allegations and a very serious situation for the City of New York, which even putting aside the corruption, this is one of the points that Ross Barkin made. It's not like he's done a good job as mayor. So it'd be one thing if you had a corrupt mayor. Many big you know, American cities do, but he was actually delivering for constituents. Ross pointed out, there is not one major initiative that you could point to that has really been a success
under Mayor Adams. So there is nothing, so to speak, to sort of offset the clear swirling corruption throughout his administry.
There are some other countries we've learned a little bit about this morning that the mayor is emburiled with. But before we get to that, let's look at his response. Very classic, maybe Trumpian. Some might say, yeah, let's take a lesson.
My fellow New york Is it is now my belief that the federal government intends to charge me with crimes. If so, these charges would be entirely false, based on lies, but they would not be surprising. I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target, and a target I became. I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit. If I'm charged, I know I am innocent, I will request in immediate trials so the
New Yorkers can hear the truth. I have been facing these lies for months since I began to speak out for all of you, and their investigations started. Yet the city has continued to improve. Make no mistake, you elected me to lead this city, and lead it I will. I humbly ask for your prayers and your patience as we see this through. God Bless you, God bless the City of New York. Thank you.
All Right, there you go. So Adams is now he's a Republican. He's basically like, because I courageously spoke out against the migrant crisis, That's why they're coming after me. Probably a little bit inconvenient that the investigation probably long predates a lot of at least the migrant situation in the City of New York. As we said, it's not
just Turkey. Turkey seems to be the most ironclad, yeah one, but there are six other nations that they are looking into, and those include Israel, Qatar, China, South Korea, and Uzbekistan. That the mayor's dealings with those fine countries are also criminated.
I was gonna say he is an equal opportunity, He's equal opportunity corrupt allegedly for the lawyers, and you know, I almost have to respect that now, as you said, he is the first mayor to be federally indicted while in office, probably not the first mayor who should.
Have been indicted. But this will be very.
Interesting for a variety of reasons, because I think what it comes down to with Eric Adams is not just the far violations that they seem to be exploring here, and the allegation specifically is that they funneled money not to himself personally, but to his campaign, which actually worse because FEC law is so iron glad that if you really did mess that up, or if they have evidence to that regard, you're dead. You know, in a federal court, it's almost impossible to beat a charge like that.
Yeah.
The thing, the weird thing about FEC laws is that, on the one hand, of course, we know money flows like wine throughout our campaign election system. Like if you follow the available loopholes, you can do almost anything you want. One of the red lines is foreign government, oh cash, and so yeah, it's you know, and of course is to be governed by New York State laws and New York City regulations as well. These are federal criminal violations
that we're talking about here. Pharah, We've been throwing this term around for Foreign Agent Registration Act. That speaks to the you know, interactions with Turkey and other countries potential allegedly trading campaign contributions for favors for foreign governments. That's the core of what we know is likely to come out here. I was mentioning before he's had four major resignations in his administration. This investigation is far from the
only one. There's all kinds of other alleged corrupt dealings going on, So it just seems like the whole thing is kind of rotten to its core in a variety of different ways. His chief counsel resigned, his police commissioner resigned. His education chancellor and health commissioner have both said that they are also resigning. So you also get to a point where it's like, Okay, dude, even if I believe you, which I don't, But even if I believe you, how
are you going to function? Your administration is crumbling before our eyes? How are you going to be able to run? This has got to be one of the toughest jobs in all of politics, being New York City mayor. How when you already weren't doing a good job. Are you going to continue to execute on this very high level, very weighty, difficult position. And so you know, that's one of many questions that he is now faced with. I'm trying to get a sense of what could happen here.
So voters in New York City don't have an option to recall him, so that's not on the menu. He of course could resign if he does. Jimani Williams, who's the New York City Public Advocate and who's more of a left leaning figure and who has been a critic of Adams and has been calling for him to resign, and is also a likely mayoral candidate in the event that he does resign and there is a special election, he would fill that post until they do have a
special election. There are a number of other people who also are likely to throw their hats in the ring. One of the people who is, you know, a high profile who may use this as an opportunity to make his political comeback, is Andrew Cuomo, former governor of New York. So that's something I watch for here as all of this unfolds. There is this code on the books in New York that's been used very rarely and not since FDR with Governor of New York, where Governor Kathy Hokeel
could actually force him out. There's a somewhat complicated procedure that she would have to follow. Like I said, it's almost unprecedented, but that is a theoretical possibility that exists as well. So those are some of the directions that things could head in next. But as you've heard from him as of now, defiant and not planning on resids.
Yeah, and I have even seen the other people in the New York City machine to build a Blasio was on CNN late last night and he was like, well, just remember innocent and proved till proven guilty.
And I was like, h interesting. So you know, de Blasio, I guess is the price of me. I thought's the same.
I thought he would have been an enemy of his, but may hey listen, you know he was also mayor of New York. So the movie doesn't want to normalize those people getting indicted. So anyways, from what we can tell so far is that of course he is fighting the charge or whatever. The eventual charge of this comment hasn't actually happened yet. All we know is that the mayor has been indicted, that his residence has been searched,
his phone has been seized. There's widespread corruption allegations surrounding every person that is around him, and this really does just seem like a network of just complete chaos because he's facing, at least from what we see so far, this discreete far a charge, but many of the people around him are facing far more serious corruption allegations in terms of like the police commissioner involved in being some
shakedown scheme with his brother. Again, you need to go and watch our segment with Ross bark And who does a good job of breaking all of this down.
It just does seem that.
It flowed from the top and there was a lucy goosey attitude. And this is something that has characterized Adams from the beginning, this whole like did he even live in New York City question, which is a legitimate question for a while, where he actually even lived in the city itself from the beginning, and then he has he what he I think he's gonna do. No Mayor, as I understand it, has done a more serious job of trying to cultivate the wealthy elite of New York City.
So there's famous pictures going around now of him and Diddy whatever.
Well, he isn't he the one that gave Diddy the key, the.
Key to the city. Yeah, he literally gave him the key to the city. Not that long ago, obviously, since it was twenty one.
Yeah, by the way, there was some widespread allegations around.
That already at that point.
But I mean everything, he's got pictures with famous people, like, he really relished the ceremonial job. He obviously traveled the globe as the mayor of New York, and so I think he's going to try and leverage some of that fame and some of those contacts itself. I will be curious to see if he does become a Republican kind of ceremonial figure, because he's trying to use immigration as the reason.
For why he got himself invited. It'll be fun, it'll watch.
That's the move, deeply, honestly coming after Himyah, it was smart, that's if. I mean, that would be the corner to run to, Like, Democrats are not gonna defend you at the core point, they're done with you, and so yeah, Republicans will believe the like, oh, it's the deep state targeting me because I spoke out about them. They were
a good number. We'll buy that. So if his political career is done in New York City anyway, that would be a good way for him to get a new sort of you know, national influencer gig or whatever on the right. So yeah, he'll be on Fox definitely guarantee. Oh you could guarantee they would eat that up all day long. Let's get to Kamala Harris with Stephanie Rule on MSNBC.
Yes, that's right.
Stayed up late last night to watch Kamala Harris on MSNBC's MSNBC Stephanie Rule. Interview is approximately a twenty five minute interview.
Leola said, state up late and it happened at seven o'clock.
Did have it?
That's late, it's late. You shouldn't have a television on at seven o'clock or right, if you go to bed at eight o'clock, the TV's not supposed to be on two hours on red light classes anyway, we moved past that. So Stephanie Rules, she has the interview with Kamala Harris. Like I said, approximately twenty five minutes. The focus of the interview was on the economy.
Now buy and large.
This was about a softball as it gets, with some mix of serious questions in there. There were no follow ups or any of that. Nonetheless, there were still some interesting moments. Perhaps the most interesting moment was, Hey, you say that you're better for the economy. Polling shows that Trump still looks like he's the one better to handle it.
Why do you think that is? Let's take a listen.
The last four years there have been tremendous economic wins, and you've just laid out a big plan. But still polling shows that most likely voters still think Donald Trump is better to handle the economy.
Why do you think that is?
Well, here's what I know in terms of the facts. Donald Trump left us with the worst economy since the Great Depression. When you look at, for example, the employment numbers.
It was during COVID and employment was so high because we shut down the government.
We shut down the country.
Even before the pandemic. He lost manufacturing jobs, by most people's estimates, at least two hundred thousand. He lost manufacturing plants. Asked the autoworkers how he lost autoplants? We have grown over twenty new auto plants. He has an agenda. Let's just deal with right now going forward, not to mention
what happened in the past. He has an agenda that would include making him more difficult for workers to earn overtime, an agenda that would include cutting off access to small business loans for small businesses, an agenda that includes tariffs to the point that the average working person will spend twenty percent more on everyday necessities and an estimated four thousand dollars more a year on those everyday necessities, to the point that top economists in our country, from Nobel
Laureates to people at Moody's and Goldman Sachs, have compared my plan with his and said my plan would grow the economy. His would shrink the economy. Some of them have actually assessed that his plan would increase inflation and invite a recession by the middle of next year. So the facts remain that Donald Trump has a history of taking care of very rich people. And I'm not mad at anybody for being rich, but they should pay their
fair share. But tax cuts for the billionaire in the top corporations in our country and then not really paying much attention to middle class families.
So obviously it was more of a dodge, and it was like, well, here's what I would do on the economy.
That's why I'm better.
Yeah, I don't think it's like the worst thing in the world.
I am glad that she at least was like, well, look, you know, on unemployment, they love to use this great depression line. It's just ridiculous because we're in the middle of a pandemic, and that was the government policy, was to furlough people and put them on unemployment.
Whatever. We'll put that aside.
The truth is is that that is probably the best that she can get. Another thing I took notice of is the word Biden was not mentioned once out of her mouth. I actually went back and checked just to make sure. Basically, she is running as far away from Joe Biden as you can without like hurting feelings. I think at this point she didn't run on any She didn't actually mention any of the signature Biden administration policies that have been put into place, none of the American
Rescue Plan, nothing about the IRA. It was purely like looking forward. I think that's smart actually, because people do not look fondly at the Biden administration, and they really do blame them so she's trying to present herself as new blood. Something that I think that it comes back to in the debate was that it always felt like Trump was the incumbent, and it still feels like that
right now in this interview. And I think that's must have been a strategic thing that the Trump people have had difficulty with, where they need to try and put her as the face of incumbascy and remind people that she's been in office now for three something years. Sure, she didn't have any powers to the vice president, but tying her to Biden is the best thing that they could possibly Yeah, for sure, and I strategically, I mean, obviously the pressed Stephanie in particular is like in her camp,
so she's not going to do that. But that was the framework that I saw that and I was like, it literally feels like Trump is in office right now and she's running against that.
Yeah, when you're not running, but you've been you've been in the White House for three years.
Yeah, that's a good point. And yeah, you can point to the media all you want, no doubt about it. And you know, obviously Steph Rowle and we'll talk more about that.
We will show you inhabitants.
They knew that Kamlak could get away with dodging almost all the questions, essentially.
Do you might support it or not? And she just moves right past it. I'm like, Stephanie, what are we doing here?
Yeah? And I mean Kama is good at like delivering the talking point she has. She did perfectly find there with here's why I'm better than Donald Trump and Goldman sex is my economic plan is better, et cetera, et cetera. But what a more uh flexible or skilled politician will do when they're dodging question is not just like from
the outside avoid answering it. Bill did give some quick nod to an answer, and then they'll move into what it is they want to say right like you could say at the beginning of that listen, he's a businessman, and I get it. People just instinctively think that that makes you good on the economy. But here's why they're wrong. Blah blah blah blah blah. And those are the sorts of things that someone who's a little bit quicker on their feet and a little more comfortable in these situations
can pull off. And that's why they're very careful about who they put her on with and how often they put her out, because if you did have an adversarial interview, obviously they're going to follow up. Obviously they're going to try to hold your feet to the fire. Okay, well what about salt? You didn't answer my question? Well, why do you think it? Okay, that may be fine. You may think you're better than Donald Trump. The voters right now don't agree. So you didn't answer, you know why
you think that that is. But she knew that, you know, on MSNBC, with any of the host on MSNBC, she wasn't going to get that, and so she was able to just kind of go through her talking points and so overall, like she did find in this interview, there were no catastrophes because it was a comfortable landscape on
you know, turf for her to operate on. One of the things I'll say about the media strategy is it is a little perplexing why given that it's pretty clear the number one issue that voters have the voters you're still undecided. The biggest issue they have with her is they're still not totally sure what she's going to do. So you would think it'd be like Okay, if you're not comfortable with, at least put Tim Walls out there.
Like every day on cable news. He's comfortable in these settings, day after day after day saying here's our top through ride. You know, it's gonna be housing, it's gonna be the told tax credit, it's going to be the small business and whatever. There's three like things they want to hit again and again and again. I don't know why they don't do that, at least with Tim Walls, Like I kind of get it with Kambloa because they're just nervous that she's going to screw it up and she why right,
But to me, that's strategy. It's way too cautious. And then it makes all of these settings so much higher stakes for her When she does actually give an interview, even with a friendline.
The entire media was watching this interview. Why because there's not that many interviews. So that's the risk, is that Trump does the flood the zone strategy. He's constantly even though he's doing way less rallies and all these other things than previously, he still does a decent number of rallies. Last night, he actually made major news on Ukraine in
his speech. My point is only just that people are not glued to the screen every single time Trump talks because he Trunk's Trump talks a lot more than her on average, and will eventually do media, press conferences and all that. With Kamala, she's the one where you it's a self inflicted wound when you set upset piece events and it just goes okay. And that's kind of how
I would characterize this. I think it was okay. But if the number one reason that these uncommitted voters are wondering should I vote for you or not, a lot of it comes down to policy and actually answering questions, feeling you have command.
And I didn't get a lot of.
That, especially if we look at the specifics on some of her flagship proposals.
She has a few memorized.
She's like twenty four thousand dollars down payment, assistant's fifty thousand dollars small bills, but then Stephanie rules like, so what about the salt deduction? Nope, we're not talking about that. On taxes, she does that totally vague thing where she's just like nobody under four hundred thousand dollars a year will have their taxes raised, and like, well, what does that mean, Like, do you mean you're going to increase
the individual rate over four hundred thousand? Does that mean you're actually she said, one hundred million Americans will get a tax cut.
Well a tax cut?
How how from the TCAJA, which specifically do you think you want to do? On the manufacturing stuff, she's like, again, tariffs, but she's very pro building American manufacturing. Like, wow, that's pretty you know, it doesn't really work out. And actually, even Stephanie Rule was like, come on, even Joe Biden has kept a lot of tariffs and increased tariffs while he's in office. So there's a lot of weird like ideology does not mix. There's a lot of talking points.
I saw some of that in the price control answer, where again basically zero specifics on any of this. It was a lot of just righteous indignation, which is fine. I mean, look, you're a politician, but I still think Americans are asking you for something. So just to show you, this is what she had to say.
But a serious problem over the last few years has been inflation. Luckily it's cooling, but prices are still hot.
Yeah, I agree with you.
You've said, you want to take this on by going after those who engage in price gouging. But as somebody who supports free markets, who's a capitalist, how do you go after price gouging without implementing price controls Because once we get in the zone, people start to get worried and they say, I.
Don't know what she's stands for.
So, just to be very frank, I am never going to apologize for going after companies and corporations that take advantage of the desperation of the American people. And as Attorney General, I saw this happen in the midst of an emergency, whether it be an extreme weather event or even the pandemic. We saw it where those few companies, not the majority, not most, but those few companies that would take advantage of the desperation of people and jack up prices. Yeah, I'm going to go after them. Yes,
I'm going to go after them. And that is part of a much more comprehensive plan on what we can do to bring down the cost of living, including housing, including the everyday needs of the American people.
So what did you think of that, Crystal, Because the way I would answer that question is when a lot of undecided voters say that I think you're too liberal, and somebody tease it up for you. She should have said something like, do you think Arkansas or socialists? Because they have priceuging laws that are on the books, and that is the framework that I will use to make sure that people pay less at their grocery store.
This was just I don't know, there was just there's nothing going on there.
I mean, your answer is good, but to be honest with you, I thought this was a great answer because normally I would expect her to kind of back down, Oh, we'll let you know I'm free market and do the whole leg Oh and Dick Cheney endorse made out socialists.
We'll get to that speech.
I actually thought that this was a fantastic answer. It was like, because Stephanie Rule is like CNBC on MSNBC, very closely like Wall Street a line. I don't know if you guys are remember she this whole like she was so mad at Joe Biden for going after Park Avenue in one speech where he sounded some populous notes like that's her, that's her orientation. So I was worried in this interview that Kamala would be looking too much
to cater to that Wall Street orientation. And this answer, while yes, vegue and as like someone who's wonky and wants to know the specifics, etc. Doesn't get into that whatsoever, But as a political answer, I actually thought it was fantastic. I'm not going to back down. I'm not going to be called when people are taking advantage of the American people, I'm going to go after them. I'm going to be tough on them. That's what I did as Attorney General. And to me, that's not even like really a left
right thing. It's more of just like squarely leaning into a populist orientation. So personally I thought this was one of her better answers.
To be honest, Yeah, I don't know. I just keep coming back. I understand where you're coming from. The more that I look at that and people are like, I think you're too liberal, I do think that this and the Dick Cheney stuff, I don't think that that works for the whole. I think you're too liberal. That's not something that people who are concerned about that are. What they're kind of looking at is probably both cultural and I think that the Arkansas framework or even some sort
of specifics you could allay those concerns. She did show a lot of ideological flexibility in her speech. I'm not sure if you caught that.
Oh yeah, yeah, and we'll get to that in a little bit, But this answer would pull it like eighty percent sure. I mean, if you look at the price gouging, her price gouging policy, it was literally supported by like eighty percent of people. So I don't think people think of this as like a liberal issue. I think they see it as like you're standing up for us, You're taking on and it's been the case throughout the pandemic.
Even at the height of inflation, the American people were much more likely to blame greedy corporations than actually the Biden administration was so for me for her to lean into that and actually, you know, put some oof behind it and not back down even in the face of a somewhat adversarial question from Stephanie Rule. You know, I was heartened to see that, and I thought it was a great answer. I thought politically, I thought she was on very you know, strong ground there.
Sticking with the MSNBC thing, regardless of how maybe one answer or not one reason that they decided to pick Kamala Harris was or sorry, Stephanie Rule was because literally just days ago she was on Bill mahersh show defending Kamala for not doing interviews, and by the way, after the interview was conducted, gave a glowing spot about how incredible she did in the interview. So just to give you a taste of who the interviewer itself was and what she most recent we said here it is.
It's not too much to ask Kamala say, are you for a Palestinian state if Hamas is going to run that state?
Okay?
Yes or no?
And let's say you don't like her answer. Are you going to vote for Donald Trump?
No, I'm not going to vote.
Not running for perfect She's running against Trump. We have two choices, And so there are some things you might not know her answer to.
And in twenty twenty.
Four, unlike twenty sixteen, for a lot of the American people, we know exactly what Trump will do, who he is, and the kind of threat he is to democracy.
I don't know.
It's unfeared me to be more on the.
Problem that a lot of people have with Kamala.
Is we don't know her answer to anything.
Okay, answer to everything, and.
That's why I would never vote for him, and people should vote for him. But people also are expected to have some idea of what the program is of the person you're supposed to vote for. They're just not supposed to say, well, you have to vote for why because X is this, that and the other.
Let's find out a little bit more.
And I don't think it's a lot to ask her to sit down for a real interview as opposed to a pump case in which she describes like her feelings of growing up and openated, nice laws.
Then I would just say to that, when you moved to Nirvana, give me your real estate broker's number and I'll be your next door enable.
We don't live there, so there's your taste.
Basically, not only does she openly support Kamala Harris, she was defending her for not doing interviews and for not having specifics.
The best part, that's so embarrassed.
That's humiliating.
The best part, Crystal is that afterwards there was this weird after the interview aired, Stephanie was on with Chris Hayes, and of course I stayed up. I was like, Okay, I'll keep watching this and she was like, you know what you had there. It was a real interview. It was a normal interview.
If you're worried about taxes, you got your answer right there. I'm like, no, you didn't. Saying I won't raise.
Your taxes under foreign k is the most meaningless sentence in.
All of politics.
Joe Biden said that I'm pretty sure Donald Trump has said something a version of that.
Why should I believe you? What are you even talking about?
So for her, in particular, to be a financial journalist whose entire.
Job is literally about the specifics and.
All this, to have done this spot and then get the interview confirmed with you what two days later, that's humiliating. And it's also humiliating for the network because they were touting this as like some big newsmaking event, and I was like.
This, this is ridiculous. This is the whole thing is a farce.
I mean, okay, if you're just a political analyst and you're saying, you know what, I don't know that the voters really care that much about like the white paper on policies, that's fine. You know what, that might be true. That might be true.
If you're Quentin Tarantino, that's fine, right.
Although I do think that she's not even really right on that, because there is still this lingering sense of I really want to know what the priorities are, right, I need to know. It's not even so much about the policy details. It's just like a who are you at your core? What are you going to fight for? What is the Day one agenda? What is it? Really? That's the thing that still needs to be filled in.
So I don't even totally agree with the political analysis, but as a journalist, as someone who's supposed to actually care about what are the policies that are going to be enacted? What was it going to mean for business? What is it going to mean for small business? What is it going to mean for regular people? How can you not push to get those answers? Because remember, this isn't someone who went through a primary process where we got to see debates, where she got to be pressed
by other would be contenders on a debate stage. None of that happened. So all we have are these little glimpses of whatever it is they're gonna, you know, they deign to give us, And those answers can end up being very consequential if she is actually elected president, even if it isn't what everybody in the country is, you know, checking off their list. The Stephanie Rule talks about it at the end of that video. If you keep going even if it's not that you know. A student debt
is a perfect example. Biden made certain promises on student debt that once you get an office. Got an office, he clearly did not want to do anything on student debt. But because he had repeatedly promised certain things on the campaign trail, activists had a cudgel that they could wield to at least force him to try to do something, and they did alleviate some student debt. Now, he still didn't go as far as his campaign promises, and there's a whole reason, you know, they would blame it on
the Supreme Court. We won't get into all of that, but it's pretty clear to me if he hadn't been forced to make those pledges on the campaign trail, he wouldn't have done any of it because he clearly didn't want to. So, yeah, it matters that you get her on the record on some key issues so that that can be used if she is president where you can say, hey, you promised to do this. You promised you wouldn't do that.
Why are you proposing this now? And that sort of pressure can actually effectuate some kind of change, So to just like throw up your hands and like, oh, I don't even care. Why should we even try? I mean, the opponent's Donald Trump. It's just it's it's pathetic. Like
I said, it's it's embarrassing. And you know, I suspect that this interview with Stephanie Ruhl was probably already in the works before this bill maher appearance happened, But it's illustrative of why she's chosen, right, It's I llustrative of why she's chosen. And then the other reason she's chosen is because Kamala Harris realizes, Okay, I think people who are going to vote on abortion, they already know who they're voting for. People who are going to vote on immigration,
they already know who they're voting for. The remaining undecided voters, by and large, serreck. There's exceptions, but by and large is going to be about the economy. She has somewhat closed the gap from where Joe Biden was visa v. Trump. We actually have a Washington Post tear sheet. We can put up. This is a seven guys. So Trump had a twelve point lead over President Biden on who would be better suited to, you know, to handle the economy.
He now averages only a six point edge on the economy, which is actually pretty solid for Democratic candidate, especially against Donald Trump. Fox News found fifty one percent writer shared voters favor Trump on the economy, compared with forty six percent who favored Harris. There's a number of other poles a site here that show similar shifts towards her, even though he still holds somewhat of an edge. So the other reason Stephanie Rule gets chosen is because she is
a financial journalist. She does have more of an economic focus, and it pairs with this Pittsburgh economic speech that Kamala Harris delivered on the same day.
Yeah, that's right. Let's get to some of that. Some of that speech.
We have one clip of it here on manufacturing.
Let's take a listen.
Now, look my opponent, Donald Trump, Well, he makes big promises on manufacturing. Just yesterday he went out and promised to bring back manufacturing jobs. And if that sounds familiar, it should. In twenty sixteen, he went out and made that very same promise about the Carrier plant in Indianapolis. You'll remember Carrier then offshore hundreds of jobs to Mexico under his watch. And it wasn't just there. On Trump's watch, offshore went up, and manufacturing jobs went down across our
country and across our economy. All told, almost two hundred thousand manufacturing jobs were lost during his presidency, starting before the pandemic hit, making Trump one of the biggest losers ever on manufacturing.
Not bad.
I thought it was overall like a fine enough answer. I won't go into all the specifics whatever, But I think what it comes back to is not just the leaning of the speech. Keep in mind that was the Economic Club of Pittsburgh. That interview was also conducted in Pittsburgh. This is what they're leaning into, especially there they had
the steel workers endorsement. There was actually an interesting question to Kamala on the steel workers and whether that US steel plant should have been sold to Nippon feel, which the Biden administration has decided to block. That's a policy that she came out in favor of. So I thought that was interesting. We have one more section here that we can play from the speech. Let's take a listen.
As president, I will be grounded in my fundamental values of fairness, dignity, and opportunity, and I promise you I will be pragmatic in my approach. I will engage in what Franklin Roosevelt called bold persistent experimentation, because I believe we shouldn't be constrained by ideology and instead should seek practical solutions to problems, realistic assessments of what is working and what is not.
I thought that was interesting, decality access of I mean, that's that is actually what I expected more from her. And listen, I mean we're to put my own politics and how I think about things to the side. I think that probably is on the mark of what people want to hear from her. The undecided economic voter is like, oh, I'm not ideological, I'm practical.
People like that idea.
Practical often meets billionaire like brother in law who was the council for Uber.
But whatever, we'll put that to the side.
My point is that rhetorically, I didn't think it was the worst thing, and that is something. Of course, you also get a lot of elite donors and other people who've been in her ear.
Who are like this is what you need to say.
So it was an interesting little flash in terms of the interview, particularly the price couching answer, like you said, but then also the way that she talks at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh. By the way, anything Economic Club is like full on the business community, yeah type thing.
And that's typically where these types of speeches are given.
I mean that it gives a little bit of Hillary Clinton, like I'm a progressive, gifts things done. Just give a little bit of that. I mean, listen, if you're gonna nitpick, you say, like, Okay, FDR is representative. She's citing FDR there, and he is representing a very specific, like ideological frame, one that I hoy support and one that's a good number of her policies also are quite in line with and some of the Biden Ara policies as well in
terms of domestic economics. But then she's also claiming like, oh, I'm not ideological. I mean, you can see the poll testing of some people say you're too liberal. You need to position yourself at this sort of like tough, pragmatic, just competent figure. And so that's what she seeks to do in that speech. I watched the whole speech. I thought it was I thought it was pretty solid. She
threw out it. In terms of her contrast with Trump, the clip we showed you Visa v. Manufacturing was a kind of a good example of the contrast she seeks to set up. We saw a lot of this, you know, in the debate in her DNC speech, et cetera, where it's like he's for the rich, for the middle class. She had this line about, you know, he's for the people who work in the skyscrapers, for the people who build the skyscrapers, which I thought was a pretty good contrast.
And so that's what she's trying to set up with regard to what she talked about there with the carrier plan. I don't know if you guys remember that at the beginning of Trump's twenty term in office back in twenty sixteen, and there was a whole you know, he made a big show of trying to save these jobs at the carrier plant, and then after all the fanfare dies, they
get outsourced anyway. And there's a few failures you can point to, you like that, Lord's Town being another one where a lot of promises were made to people and he didn't care enough to really follow for you to pay attention, and that fell apart. The Fox con facility in Wisconsin is another one. Her numbers are correct in
terms of manufacturing under him versus under Biden. And it's particularly relevant right now because Sagery probably saw this right now Trump is doing it's a very Carrier esque move, So trying to recapture some of those twenty sixteen populous vibes where he's threatening John d with a two hundred percent tariff if they move more production to Mexico in particular.
And so she's trying to point out, like, yeah, we've heard this before, but it never actually works out the way that he says because he doesn't follow through, he doesn't have a plan, he's not actually doesn't actually care about this stuff is just a show. So anyway, that's
a contrast. She's trying to set up. The one thing I'll say about the limited media strategy, which I think is abhorrent for democracy, one thing they might be betting on is because there's like a scarcity of Kamala, it does mean that those speeches, this interview with Steffanie Rule, et cetera, become flag get more coverage like we watched it and we covered it, you know, in a way that Trump another Trump interview on Fox News would be
like if something really pops, we'd cover it. But because there is such a scarcity of kamala, all of these things become bigger events and become a bigger deal. That may be part of the calculus that's going into this as well. So we've been tracking closely the escalating war Israel versus Hisbola in Lebanon and some deeply troubling news coming out just recently. As put this up on the screen, it appears that Israel is preparing for a potential ground invasion.
This is from the Financial Times. They say Israel on Wednesday told troops prepare for a potential ground offensive against HESWLA in Lebanon, as Joe Biden warned, and all out war is possible, but pushed for a cease fire deal. Let me just continue to read some of the details here from the Financial Times, the IDF's chief of staff told troops airstrikes on Lebanon were not just aimed at degrading the Lebanese militant group, but to prepare the ground
for your possible entry. Quote we are preparing the process of a maneuver, which means your military boots, your maneuvering boots will enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hesbela has prepared as a large military outposts. They also said that they were calling up two reserve brigades, although this is less of a show of force then prior to the grand invasion of Gaza, however, we've already seen massive carnage,
somewhere around six hundred Lebanese people killed. The Lebanese Health Ministry is saying that a majority of those, if not all of them, those are their words, were civilians. We know quite a number of children and women are among those who were killed by the Israeli air strikes already. So we're looking here at a very likely potential even further.
Escalation, very very very possible.
And even worse is that we have basically a total failure of US diplomacy. We're already getting embarrassed on the national stage. So, for example, we have here Tony Blinken getting asked about the situation.
Let's take a listen to what he said.
Does the US support what Israel is doing right now in terms of this escalation in order to later deescalate and get to the negotiating.
What we support is solving the problem of making sure that people can go home. But we believe the best way to solve it is through diplomacy, not through war.
Why does the US not have or use more leverage over Israel. It's ally we are the supplier of the bulk of its weapons of war. And yet there are countless examples and you probably know them better than I where Israel seems to flout what the US is asking or suggesting.
Why is that we have a long standing relationship and security relationship with Israel, including making sure that it has what it needs to prevent the many enemies that it has from attacking it, to deter them, and that's important to avoiding.
War as well.
And in this instance, there is a real problem that needs to be solved. Again, from our perspective, the best way to do it is diplomatically. We're engaged with Israel on that, We're engaged with others in the region on that, and we need to, I think find the opportunity now to stop any escalation, prevent a full scale war, get people back to their homes.
So that's what he has to say.
And yet just this morning, after the US and France released some sort of tea spire proposal they tried to intimate it be if was on board, the Prime Minister at Israel's office in the middle of the night puts out this statement, the report about a ceasefire is incorrect. This is an American French proposal that the Prime Minister has not even responded to. The report about the purported directive to ease up on the fighting in the North
is the opposite of truth. Think about that. So, not only so our Secretary of State Goo is on television We're about to get to this. Our president also went on television basically touting the ceasefire proposal and almost implying that they had agreed to it. And then the Israeli has come out and they're like, no, we're not an agree And by the way, not only do we not agree, we're actually not agreeing at all to any lack of escalation in fighting.
So our troops are already on the way.
We've got forty thousand at a minimum, there's probably gonna be fifty sixty thousand that are going to be somewhere in the region, and things are just very very close to popping off full scale. And meanwhile, you know, Tony blinkoln is on television just talking about how great it is to supply his row weapons. The President's on TV downplaying this entire thing.
It's crazy. The whole situation is nuts. Yeah, it truly is.
Forget my language. I mean, BB has turned Biden and Blincoln at all into his little bitches like that. From the beginning of this war, Biden has said, Blincoln has said, all of them have said, the top priority is to keep it to s from escalating into a regional war. By the way, we cross that bridge a long time ago.
But now we're talking about massive bombing campaign in Lebanon, Lebanese civilians being guilt, threats of turning Lebanon into Gaza, which means utter and complete annihilation, and now a ground invasion, no end in sight. And the best they can do is go on television and say, well, they have the right to defend themselves. But I mean, I guess I kind of wish they would do it diplomatically, but like, we'll support them no matter what. It's like, what do
you think you're going to get? By the way, these guys want Baby in particular, want Trump to be president. They would love nothing more for a big, messy Middle Eastern disaster in September and October to hand Trump the White House again. I just I mean, it's so absurd, it's so stupid, so morally depraved. I have no words for it whatsoever. And yet here we are. And I
don't know what happened with the ceasefire proposal. If the US really genuinely thought Bibe was on board with it and then his ministers freaked out and he backed off of it, I don't know. But the truth of the matter is because the far right ministers in his government are willing to wield what power they have and threaten to collapse the government and for BB to pay a
political cost. They have much more power in the situation than the superpower that of which Israel is supposed to be the client state that is arming and funding all of this, because they're not willing to use an iota of pressure. And I don't want to lose sight either of the fact that the willingness to continually ship arms with absolutely no conditions on Israel is a dramatically unpopular position. Newpole only twenty three percent of Americans. This was written
up at Responsible Statecraft. By the way, only twenty three percent of Americans want the US to send uncondition aid to Israel, including a majority of Republicans, are opposed to sending unconditioned aid to Israel. And yet this is treated like you can't even float it, like it's impossible to even put on the table, And so the results are entirely disgraceful and entirely predictable, going back to like the
utter humiliation here. Yet Biden on the View yesterday talking up this theoretical ceasefire that BB's already come out and shot down. Let's go ahead and take a listen to what he had to say on.
All out war is possible. But I think there's also the opportunity we're still in play to have a settlement that could fundamentally change the whole region. And look, one of the things that I found is there's the Arab world very much wants to have a settlement because they know what it does for them. They're willing to make arrangements with Israel and alliances as if Isel changes some policies. And I've known bbing it now for a long long time and I'm a very strong support of Israel, and
make no bones about it. I said years ago I was a Zionist. All the Zionist means is that there needs to be in Israel, and they have a possibility, I don't want to exaggerate it, but a possibility if we can deal with a ceasefire in Lebanon, that it can move into dealing with the West Bank. But we'll also have gossip to deal with. Yeah, and so, but it's possible, and I'm using every bit of energy I have with my team, and you know, from the Defense Department, you know it well.
So, I mean, we already know the answer to that one that didn't work out. I mean, the idea he still thinks that there's some broader solution here within the absence of him forcing it to happen and using pressure is just probably. You can't even believe that he believes it at this point, and so no, I can't actually really you think he's that foolish, rain ish shot.
He lives in a fantasy world. Also, we're the laughing stock.
I'm watching this British show right now called Industry, and they have this scene of the American President of the Treasury secretary being like, and we have a president who still thinks it war with Japan, and there the world is laughing at us, laughing. Bbe is laughing. Look at this meanwhile, you know's and you caught this. I I don't even know how.
I missed it. You see that little Ukraine pin there.
Our president is wearing the flag of a foreign nation on his lapel. Okay, you know, these are the types of things in the Obama era we actually used to care about. But the whole thing is just so insane because it's a client state, like you said.
Where the superpower.
Our Secretary of State, which used to mean something, goes on television and it's just humiliate. Our president goes on television whose brain is shot.
And he's like, well, it's super possible to prevent an all at war.
And at the same time, like, look at the actual things that are happening on the ground. Tens of thousands of American troops already there and or on the way to the region with one hundred percent commitment defending them against whatever situation that they get into.
I mean, there's only one pact for all of America that that applies to. That's NATO.
We don't even have a security guarantee with Israel in that regard, why.
Do we do this. There's no reason for us to get into this.
Yeah, Ryan and Emily covered yesterday which should be also a massive scandal, which is that the State Department producer report saying, which is kind of obvious, but anyway, saying that hey, Israel is blocking our aid, like they are the reason why our aid isn't getting to the people we want it to get to. That is extremely consequential because if that finding is determined, then you are not
allowed by US law, forget about international law. By our laws, you are then prohibited from shipping arms to a nation that is blocking your aid, which I mean seems kind of logical, right. Tony Blinkin came in and said, no, I don't believe that. I don't buy it, and I'm just going to make my own determination, and then disregards that report and goes to Congress and says, no, we think they're doing their best effectively to enable you know, the continued shipment of arms. This is a violation of
our loss. It is illegal that we are shipping these arms to Israel. Forget about morality. Forget about strategic interest, forget about all of that. They are violating our own laws blatantly. In any sort of a sane society, this
would be a massive explosive scandal. And instead, because the mainstream coverage and the corporate process is so you know, ideologically aligned, here, you'll barely hear anything about I believe is pro publica that broke the news on this, And so you know, here we are and Gaza is already annihilated, the West Bank is on its way to bet Gaza, and Lebanon's now on its way to be Gaza. And the best that our president can go out and do is like meekly float a ceasefire proposal on the view
that immediately gets shot down. Brock Revied reported on this theoretical ceasefire deal could put this up on the screen, even though it's sort of pointless at this point. The idea was for some quote unquote pause, I guess, a humanitarian pause in the fighting, and lemanon resumption of negotiations
in a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal. It has been apparent since October eighth that Biebe has no interest in a long term ceasefire deal that he would have to be dragged to it through the force of US pressure, and never along the way has the US decided, Hey, maybe we should switch strategies here. Maybe if we want
a different outcome, we should try a different approach. Lastly, just in terms of some of the broader context of what this is going to mean, let's put this up from Times of Israel, which more of a right leaning English language publication in Israel. The headline here is Israel's pounding haswla but in war, the Iran backed force will be a lethal foe. You know, they're still outmashed. Of course,
we're arming Israel, so superpowers arms to Israel. They've got a lot going for them, but they have quite a bit of capability, and they also have the inherent advantage of being the defending parties, so you know, it allows them strategic advantage. Just from the jump some of the reporting here, Heswela now has forty to eighty thousand short range unguided rockets, some sixty to eighty thousand long range
unguided rockets that can reach one hundred kilometers. Ballistic missile Arsenal is smaller but can reach much further into Israel. We saw a missile that was shot down headed towards the God headquarters in Tel Aviv. In an all out war, They say Hesbla could use its firepower number of ways they could use unguided rockets against population centers to rode the public's will and trust in the government and to
disrupt the functioning of the country. They also talk and this was interesting Sager about the way that how important drones are, but not the really big sophisticated drones. It's the fact that they have all of these smaller drones that they can use to potentially like swarm and overwhelm Iron Dome, and that they've been testing out some of this, you know, since two thousand and six. They haven't been just rusting on their laurels. They've been trying to figure out,
you know, how they could be more effective. So, you know, this is a much vastly more sophisticated adversary than Hamas in Gaza. You know, they have real weaponry from Iran and have built up their capabilities. Yes, they suffered a blow in those you know, pager in walkie talkie attacks which not only took out a number of their people but also has I'm sure made communication very difficult. But this is a much different adversary than what Israel has face.
Look I keep saying this, you know, the drone point is very important. Russia is getting drones from where Iran has Bola is sponsored by who. Iran also has Bulla fought what a decade in the Syrian Civil War. Syria was the real experimental ground for the beginnings of this small Chinese drone warfare. Isis has Bola. All of these are their organizations. You can go watch it if you want.
It's all right there on telegram. But then in Ukraine it got gasoline was poured on the fire, the technology got back, and then the widespread application of these and the use of them by the armed forces and by the like at the industrial state level in terms of launching them towards Ukraine, it's been a real way that
they've been able to penetrate air defense systems. This is a massive problem, not just ra Israel, for all of us actually, if you think about it, because we have these super sophisticated systems which are supposed to against ICBMs, but it turns out these tiny, little cheap drones are very easy way to defeat those systems, and we don't
have a particularly good answer. This is exactly what they would have to face, a much more technologically advanced enemy, much more capable of fighting force has been battle tested, far more battle tested than the IDF has and the people in Israel who actually have to fight they know this. They have to call up already multiple reservists. It would devastate their economy even more than it already has.
Don't forget.
I mean, this war has been a disaster for them. It's cost them hundreds of billions of shekels and decimated their workforce. They still have that controversy where like half their population doesn't even have to fight, so this would be huge. I mean, they haven't lost all that many soldiers in Gaza relatively compared to what they would in a real Lebanon conflagration. So I'm worried about it, I
really am. And already they shot down this ceaspar proposal, even though you have what the US, Japan, the UA, like all of these major powers that have signed on to it.
It doesn't matter. They just don't care.
They don't care, and why should they. Why should beb in particular, because you know, when he sees very clearly what his political imperative is. And so listen, it's one thing, you know, Israel just using their air force to go in and balm, that's you know, warfare on easy mode. But if there's an actual ground invasion, they're going to suffer losses of you know, the sort that they have not yet had to suffer in the context of this war. And it's just you know, then you're inviting. Okay, is
Iran getting pulled directly into this? How are we impacted, how our troops in the region impacted? How much more directly do we get pulled in? And then the you know, the level of suffering is just unending, and as I keep saying, no end inside. So that's what we're looking at today. So apologies, guys, we talk too much. We got two into the other stories. So we're going to do the Senate breakdown of where things stand next week in the show, but we wanted to make sure to
get this rare good news into the show. We can put this up on the screen. Overdose deaths. After a rapid escalation and a terrifying trend, we finally see a downward decline and it's quite significant so far this year, it looks like there's been a roughly ten point six percent drop in overdose deaths, and actually some researchers think that when the data is completely in that it's going to show an even larger decline than that ten percent.
One researcher thinks they may see twenty percent. In some areas, they're seeing as much as thirty percent. In fact, specifically in the state of Ohio, which is a state that has been heavy hit by hard hit by opioid deaths, overdose deaths are down thirty one percent. Missouri seeing a similar trend. They've seen overdose deaths in the beginning part of this year falling roughly thirty four percent. That builds on some progress that was made last year as well.
And Saga, there's a lot of nobody really knows why. Right, There's a basket of potential plausible causes. One of them is just COVID is behind us. The pandemic was part of but you have to look. You know, the deaths were skyro before COVID as well, so that can be the entire explanation. You had the Biden administration making a lot of moves to make the overdose reverse drugs Narcan is the sort of most common brand name. The lock Zone is the name, I believe of the actual drug itself,
and suboxone, which is meant to reduce opioid cravings. They've done a lot to make that more widely available and to make Narcan in particular available over the counter, and also pressured a lot of businesses and whatever to have it on hand, et cetera. I think that's certainly a part of what's going on here. There's also a study that came out this morning that said it looks like ozeenpic may lead to reduction in opioid overdoses, so that's
interesting something to look into as well. And then there's also been a difference in the mixing of street drugs. Sentanel is now being cut frequently with a different drug that doesn't lead to those cravings and that sense of withdrawal kicking in quite as quickly. So part of it may be people are going longer between their dosages, leading
to fewer overdose deaths. But you know whatever, the pieces are certainly good to see a little bit of good news on this front, because the numbers have been so devastating and so catastrophic.
It was a number one cause of death I believe, for even surpassing car accidents for younger people in America.
So it was a total disaster. I'm of a couple of minds.
I'm very happy that people are not dropping dead, but unfortunately, all the data says that most of these people are still using drugs. And if you're using fentanyl, opioids or whatever, yes, it's great that you're not, you know, dropping dead, but you're going to die very very soon. I mean, like the data is clear about infection, about HIV, about hepatitis,
about that life that they're living. It's almost certainly going to lead to crime that you're going It's almost an inevitability from what I've seen so far in terms of like long term usage, committing petty crime. You're going to end up yourself from present. You're going to ruin your life and ruin their lives of a lot of people around you. So I'm up two minds of it. I'm very very happy that people are not dying of fentanyl
with drugs. It does appear that fentanyl reduction and supplies to you appears to have played some part in this.
But the knock stone and.
The wide availability and all this, but America is still sick. You know, the number of drug users has not gone down, if anything, actually probably gone up. And if you look at the fentanyl usage and all that, it's almost even sick because now people are not dying. There almost seem to be like managing it, right. But that's all I'm saying is there's no managing just not dying. Like there's a whole realm of misery and all that. Go to the downtown of any major city and you'll see it
for yourself. People really bent over, you know, doing the fentanyl lean It's everywhere, and it still makes me really sad.
Of course, the problem is not solved. No one's saying that, But I mean the idea of harm reduction, which I certainly support and which certainly played you know, at least some role in the reduction and depth is that you just you live to fight another day. You live to have that opportunity to get into recovery and to get your life together and to get clean and sober. You just you know you're able to continue that fight. And you know the fact that that play to key part
in this I think is really important. But it is of course not the end of the story. I mean, still recovery programs are dramatically you know, underfunded, there are not enough beds available, and you know, you still have the underlying whatever, the underlying problems of despair and inequality and housing on affordability and homelessness, like those things have not gone away. So obviously this is not to clear
mission accomplished. But when you see a significant drop like this, I think it's important to stop and take a look and say, Okay, well what worked here, what's repeatable? You know, what can we say about how we're able to accomplish this reversal of a trend that until just two years ago seemed like it was just on a continual literal death march forward. So that's why I wanted to make sure that we talk about it, because even if you know, obviously,
like I said, no one's declaring mission accomplished. But when you see a thirty percent drop in certain states in Ohio, Missouri and other places, twenty percent drop, ten percent drop, and potentially more overall, that's something significant that is happening, and that is a lot of lives saved by some confluence of factors here. And I think the availability of nilock zone being one of the factors that's contributed.
Unfortunately, one theory I s offloaded is that harm reduction may not have had to do all that much with it, is that the drug cartels have just remixed because they're like fentanyls, bringing too much heat to the drug industry. That was a theory I sto offloaded by some law enforcement I know, it actually seems very plausible.
Other very grim theory is just that so many people already died. That like a lot of the people who were the most likely to be vulnerable have already died, which is incredibly dark. But so there'll have to be a lot of research about what contributes to this declinent. And you know, just like with the the rise and fall of violent crime, which we're now on another major down swing in terms of violent crime. Sometimes these like
the causes are debated for decades. There still isn't a consensus about why crime declined so suddenly in the nineties. There's a variety of contested theories, but there still isn't like, you know, something rock solid that people can can point to. Some people point to the removal of lead, and it.
Might and I actually think there's a huge I actually think that.
Is too and the reduction and violent crime right now, again it may just be like, oh, we're not in the pandemic anymore.
Well, people are contesting those numbers.
From what I understand that the violent crime because this is a big, big I've been thinking about doing monologue on this, just because I love crimes. Is that allegedly FBI reports that there's been a three percent drop in twenty twenty three from the year before in terms of violent crime. So that is the official FBI number, but there apparently has been a reduction in the number of cities that report crime to the FBI.
So the FBI crime stats themselves can be very easily juiced.
If people remember, I've done multiple milogues about mass shootings. If you classify a mass shooting as three people as opposed to four, it all changes And then if you're like, is it really a mass anyway? All I'm saying is be careful in terms of siding that I do think crime has gone down relative to where it was, but you know, some of the drops that people are talking about, I'm not so sure.
But point is only just that I don't know. I have a hard time.
Like I said, I'm worried about it because if you still have hundreds of thousands of people who are addicted to street drugs, like just because you're not dropping dead today, like your your life is over to a certain extent if you keep using for the next four to five years, just from what we see with the infection data and all of the other like horrible diseases that you're likely
to contract with living this life. So this is my general problem with harm reduction is that most people who are for it do not support the regime that they have.
I don't think that, no, I mean most people are for harm reduction are also for a broader expance, but they're.
Not for punished like I said, in.
Portugal are treating it as a health crist.
But that's my point.
In Portugal, if you shoot heroin up on a bench, you're going to jail or rehab. You don't have a choice, like you should be locked up if you're using street drugs on the street. Most people are just not for that. Who are quote unquote for harm reduction, like you need a significant punitive regime people who are addicted.
We've had a significant imputative virgin yeah, but that has not been effective.
But I mean, you have to have some if you want to have a legalization regime, you can't have it where it is right now, where people who are just on the street using drugs, even if you give them a hotel room, they're still going to use drugs in the hotel room, and they're going to ruin their life,
they're gonna burn through all of their savings. So I mean, the truth is that in Europe they have a very paternalistic attitude towards this, where they're like, yeah, it's fine, you can use, but if you're using in public and you're causing disorder, it's.
Over for you. You're going to rehab or you're going to jail. We don't have that.
We have the streets of San Francisco, but that's also Los Angeles.
It's also part of harm reduction because you're right, if you're just buying street drugs, you're at greater risk because unless you're testing, and that's actually another thing that they made more available testing strips. But unless you're testing to know what's exactly in those drugs, you are putting yourself at greater risk. But you know, as I said, before step one is just keeping people alive. But it's only step one, that's just the beginning of the of the journey.
But to see this significant downward decline as something definitely too I'm encouraged by.
I'm happy about it, but you know, at the same time, like I don't want to just be like, oh, that's mission accomplished, should give out free needles. It's like, no, you people need to go to rehab, Like we got to clean up our streets and make sure that this is not acceptable. And a lot of the drug addicts are quoted in that NPR story are like, yeah, we used together. Now I'm like, this is horrible, Like we're creating like fentanyl circles so that people can just.
Well the reasons together.
The reason they say that is so that if somebody overdoses right when dying, someone kind of and minister in narcan.
Right, but they're still using that fentanyl and street drafts and living this horrible lifestyle like that is something that needs to end. And so that's just when I think that a lot of people think that this is the correct end state where it's like, oh, just give everybody narcan, and it's like, no, we actually need to get people not addicted to opioids. Ope, he's got an eighty eighty
something percent recidivism rate right now. Like the level of punitive measure that needs to be put into place actually force people for withdrawal and even ninety days is not even close. So anyways, people are getting an insight into the big debates around this.
But do you support the wider availability of narcan?
Yeah?
Absolutely, of course, but it has to be paired with again, just giving narcan to a sixteen year old McDonald's employee and being like, hey, if somebody overdoses in the bathroom, just hit him with some narkhan and then everyone county police is like, oh, we got another one. And then even if you do go to jail for petty crime, you get released and you're back on drugs and very likely to part of the stork.
It's not just narcan, it's also the increase availability of suboxone, which reduces cravings for oloids. You support that.
Absolutely, So anything method ons to box zone and the lack zone, all of those other things. Great management programs have mixed results in terms of how they actually lead to, like long term lack of ricidism, My point is that there needs to still be much more punitive measures on forcing people to go to very extensive rehabilitation, not of their choice. Ninety days is simply not enough. There's not
enough state resources behind this. And then the other flip side of that is that people just let these people live in squalor in these like crime written you know, like what skid row in Los Angeles, and just because they're not dying in skid row does not mean that that's still not like an imminent crisis. That's the point that I'm just trying to make, is that there still needs to be a significant change in the justice system to actually force a lot of these people to go through the choice. A.
Is that the is that a health system health crisis.
No, it has to come through the justice system.
Because if you just give people like, oh, you can go to re have if you want, a lot of these people like using drugs, let me the.
Bad part again, drugs are still criminalized, so we have the system that you seem to want to have.
No, it's not.
Drugs are still criminalized and we don't have enough recab.
They're criminalized or they de facto legal in the state of California, which they are, which is these people just living.
Are we just taller and they don't get arrested?
I mean, are well for one thing, Gavenusom is doing a lot of the things that you would want them to do, not yet. But we're also not just talking about California. In fact, California isn't one of the states that has the highest rate of overdose death. Those are primarily red states. Is the Apalachian States. It's Tennessee, West Virginia, and Ohio. I believe that have the highest rates of
opioid overdoses. I don't think anyone would accuse them of being like, you know, no coastal liberals with their drug policy.
Well, in fact, they have a worse attitude, right like I just said about somebody like, oh, these idiots are doing it again, and they just let them live in basic squalor in these houses and shoot up and nobody really does.
Anything about it.
I think, Look, I'm not saying it's the only answer. I'm saying that you still have to have a lot more punitive measure, and that's simply just celebrating the fact that there's still hundreds of thousands of people addicted to street drugs is bad.
It just seems like you're like not really encouraged at all by the fact that there's been something implemented that actually work to keep people alive, because I think it's what you want them to do.
Because I think this is the end state that a lot of the pro drug people want. They want people to just not die of drugs, but they're fine if people are addicted to drugs. I don't think that's an acceptable that's outcome.
I think what we've seen is that our regime of criminalization hasn't hasn't been effective. And you know, we've had this regime of the War on Drugs and the criminalization of drugs for you know, one hundred years. You know, that regime was in place as the spike was going on. There are plenty of places where drug use is very much punished and there is a punitive approach to it, and this is the first time we've seen something that has really worked. So to me, that's incouraged.
Well.
But they legalized drugs in the state of Oregon and it was a complete disaster and they literally had to reverse it because the population saw what the results of that were. So I'm just saying, you know, it's not all rosy. On the other end of that too, I think the current drug regime.
I'm just trending angry by the data.
I'm not angry by the data, and so like I.
Thought this would be something and be like, Wow, it's something encouraging that happened. What happened here?
I think I watched with a great dismay at the celebration of just the fact that it's like, oh, it's great, this is it. We basically problem I.
Just has any who has said that. I've literally not seen anyone be like this is great, problem solved. It's just like, Okay, we made one step forward, what worked? What can we build on? How can we continue this trend? I have maybe you can name some names, but I don't see anyone doing like a mission accomplished banner right now.
You're right, it's I guess it's more about the trend and the overall project of the so called harm reduction movement, which is just something I really don't agree with in terms of the philosophy of it just needs to be safe to be able to use drugs. It's like, no, using drugs is bad. Living this lifestyle is bad. There's safe heroin addict that lives out there. Like guess if you're getting clean heroin in Portugal, you're still ruining your life.
But it's true.
The bottle are staying alive, absolutely, of course. And you support harm reduction, you just want it to be compared with more criminalization.
I mean you're I mean again, yes, where you're talking about.
If you support the Portuguese model, you support a highly punitive system, which is one where drugs are legal. But if you are outwardly using them in public where they are right now, you have serious legal consequences. Right You're going to fit Well, I don't where's the serious legal consequences, That's what I'm saying.
Well, but in Portugal there's managed, state administered sites, yes, where you can go and basically get your dose. You support that?
No, not really, especially right now with the current system. If we got to a place where we had the punitive measures in place, then yeah, I've said this before, if we were going to lag.
Drugs, we'd have to actually do the Portuguese model.
What I see right now is instead of preference for the so called like harm reduction, which is not paired at all with any of the punitive measures of the force rehabilitation that they have in the countries where they do have a much.
More relaxed drug regime. Well, we can't have one of the other, right.
With that, I actually but I actually think it's not the worst of all worlds because at least people are staying alive. So do I think it's you know, the end all be all? Are there more things I would like to see done, of course? But do I think it's a significant step forward that fewer people are dying?
Yeah?
And if harm reduction alone, and again I think it's too simplistic to even say that that was the only factory here, but I think it clearly was a factor in what's going on here. Do I consider that progress even just alone, even if you don't do the whole comprehensive Yeah, I can. I absolutely am very pleased to see this. And I don't see it as like a
double edge sort or anything like that. I just think it's better that people are alive and have that chance for another week, another month, another year, another decade to be able to you know, get clean and get their life together, et cetera.
Yeah, No, I'm very glad that I'm glad that people are alive and they're not dying and it's not the number one cause of death. The dismay that I have is that this would norm what is happening right now. For example, cocaine. Cocaine used is actually quite down right now, and it's because people are afraid of fentanyl. So are they going to read this study and they're like, Oh, it's cool, we can just start using cocaine again. It's like, no,
cocaine is bad. Actually, Like I didn't think you'd have to say that, and so it's.
Not always bad.
Well no, I think, Okay, you know what, go out.
There, try it for yourself. Ten years, let's check in and let's see what he's doing better in life.
Look, well, alcohol is incredibly degus drug that I'm completely societally sanctioned. So some of the judgment that we put on different drugs is more about like our conception in society than the reality of the cocaine is worse, dangerous and real for them. But in any case, harm reduction was effective here. I'm glad they're doing it. I hope it continues, and it's one step but not the whole program.
Oh well, believe it there. Okay, let's get to Ditty.
So, guys, of course we've been covering the downfall of Sean Dittycombs, including the new indictment that we've learned a lot of details about. But we're lucky to be joined this morning by a longtime friend of mine and fantastic journalist, Torre, who has a new substack. Tell people where to find your new work.
Tore Culture Fries is the name of the substack. It's Torre dot substack dot com. Doing a lot of reporting on the Ditty situation there amazing.
So Tori has a new report up this morning that looks specifically at some exclusive details of how R and B singer Cassie was trapped in what you describe as a ten year nightmare. In the headline, you say how did he used her album to control her? And you were able to speak with some folks who were close to Cassie, So it talked us about some of these new details that have yet to be revealed.
Yeah, I have. I had a long conversation with a longtime friend of Cassie's. She was working on an album for ten years. This is an incredibly long time to work on an album. She thought she was really working on an album. She had songwriters, she had hot producers, she had big artists coming in, rappers and singers to collab with her. They made a lot of songs, but there was never a release date, there was never a title.
It was never intended to come out. It was a giant pacifier to keep her happy in between the times when Ditty was ready to do freak offs, and it became this carrot of if you want to continue doing the album which you love, then you got to do the freakofs It has to be both. It can't be one or the other. And this is a way that
he controlled a lot of people. If you want to stay around me, you got to participate in this over here, whatever it is that I want you to do, And that way you get to continue pursuing your professional dream. So it's really tragic. The best years of her creative life were spent thinking she was working on her sophomore album and about to blow up great label. Ditty's behind me, We're going to be huge. But it was all a sham.
Yeah, And so just so people recall, I mean, first of all, Cassie had some certified bangers, some great hits, super talented, beautiful, I mean, she had everything that it took. And then she also is in part the person who helps to kick off this whole series of events that leads to the federal charges against Ditty, because they had that look back law in New York that allowed her
to file civil charges against him. He settles quickly, but not before a lot of the details emerge of her allegations of years and years of torture and abuse by Ditty. She also is the woman who appears in that horrifying hotel security camera footage where he is beating her and
dragging her back to the hotel room. So Cassie is really central to this, and I think what's part of what's been important about your reporting and your reporting here in particular, is that it centers the survivors here as well and really helps to share the level of abuse
and try that they went through over years. Oh and she also is the one who you know, possibly did he may have blown up her boyfriend Kid Cutty's car in the driveway too, because we have the arson charges in this federal indictment that haven't been detailed yet.
You know, part of the thing is that people are saying, how did this happen? How did Cassie rise up to stand up to him when so many other people wanted to and didn't feel comfortable. Because Ditty was so powerful, she's able to escape from him when kim Porter suddenly passes away. He's so bereft and upset about that that he's not really paying attention to anything, and so she's
able to escape. Within a few months of basically running away from him, she's pregnant, she's in a committed relationship. She ends up marrying this man. At the end of the year, she has his baby, and by then she's in a whole thing. She has a whole new life, and she is too far gone for Diddy to be
able to get her back. And in that moment, going through rehab, going through therapy, having her parents, her friends, a husband who's supportive, children, she changes and she grows, and she's saying to herself, I want to be the stand up person that I want my kids to be. I want to be a good example for them, and that leads her to say, I have to stand up for the girl I was, because the girl I was who he controlled and beat up I'm not that person anymore,
and I need to stand up for her. And at that point she says, I'm going to stand up to him, and so many people were afraid to do that, and she breaks that glass ceiling and pushes in there. She says to him, look, I wrote a book for thirty million dollars. You can have the book. You'll have my silence. Nobody will have to know what happened. But this person, Puffy, is surrounded by enablers, and nobody around him who might Anybody around who might say no is pushed off. And
so he's surrounded by enablers. An this is an odd deal. Thirty million is nothing to him. He's a billionaire. At this point, he says no, and then she goes far with the lawsuit. Then everybody hears what happens. Then the federal government's like wait, wait, wait, wait, what happened? And then all this and all this starts. But he could have stopped this, but he never thought that she was strong enough to actually stand up to him, because I.
Never well, yeah, it's decades of the abuse that he had. Tori, you got quite a bit of attention. You put out a TikTok that detailed the ditty story and how it was actually personal to you. Why don't we take a listen to some of that. That's going to be f two guys, and we're going to get your reaction.
The Diddy situation is personal for me. I take no joy in the man's downfall. I just want to see justice. But I too felt his wrath. I knew this man for decades. I interviewed him many times. I went to some of his PG rated parties. We had a professional relationship until something happened.
So tell us a little bit about that. Can you expand on what happened?
Yeah, you know, I had a family member who was trying to break into the entertainment business. I felt like this is a situation where I should use my connections. I called Puff. I had never asked him for a favor. We didn't have like a personal relationship. We didn't hang out,
but we had a definite, years long professional relationship. Will you please, you know, hire my family member to be an intern in your situation, you know, because I thought that would be good for him break into the music business. For about three months, it was very excited.
You know.
They had a great time traveling around go to the mansions whatever. And then the whole internship suddenly stopped, and I'm calling and saying, Hey, what's going on? How come you're not going to the internship, You're not going to work? And it was silenced for years. I did not find out until years later that Puffy had said to him, you know, either you come home with me tonight or the internship is over. And at that point I was blown away that that had happened, that that had been said.
You know, my family member said no, which ended the internship, and you know, I was shocked. I was hurt. I was blown away that that that Puffy would be would do that.
One of the questions that's emerged now is if this was just like an open secret in the industry, I mean, the number of people who were likely involved, the number of other individuals who had stories similar to the one that you were privy to, or worse. I mean, you know, you have been around this scene, You've interviewed a lot of the major players. Was that your sense was that this was sort of an open secret? Had you heard other rumors within the industry?
I mean.
To a certain extent, Surely, if I thought that I was putting my beloved family member who I'm very close to and loved immensely. If I thought I was putting them in any sort of danger of the sort we now know is possible, I wouldn't have done this at all. Right, So I could not have known the extent of what we're talking about at all.
Yeah, did I hear route?
I mean, I don't know. I don't really remember feeling like, oh my god. I know everybody is saying, oh my god, I heard back when I was in middle school, this is going on. I really don't know how prevalent this was as far as the rumors getting around. We knew about his violence. We knew, you know, he threatened me, He threatened Danielle Smith at Vibe, he threatened he beat up Steve Stout, you know, I mean, like we knew that he had this massive temper.
He threatened me.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, he There was a record review that I wrote where I criticized one of the lines that he said, and he called me and he was very nice and saying, can you please remove that line because that is annoying and hurtful to me, And I'm like, no, I'm not going to remove that line, and then he starts screaming and yelling at me and like I'm going to ruin your career and all this stuff, and like I kind of stopped listening because it was a very loud,
angry volume, like oh my god, like whatever. And then he sort of and I'm not really responding to that, and then he sort of comes down emotionally and he's like, so can we remove that line? And I'm like, no, no, we cannot just remove that line.
And that ended that.
But I thought that we had gotten back to a place of equanimity. Like he pushed me, challenged me, I stood my ground. And then and not long after that, I got invited to a white party in the Hamptons, which was this fabulous daytime affair, everyone wearing white. It was very cute, but.
This is he ended up.
He was sitting right next to me and dressing me down quite forcefully, and he was very upset with me, and you know, it was it was one of those things that I was like, wow, like he's got quite a temper.
Oh so he invited you there basically to like humiliate you effectively, or to have a chance to yell at you in public.
I don't.
I don't know. I don't know if it was that. You know, this is a person who's very mercurial and changes. He could have screamed at me in a way that caused others to look. I don't think others who are at that party would would remember or were conscious of, Oh, Puff has given it to Torre. Yeah, he have said all right, forget it, let's move forward and embrace him
and help make him think like he's still cool with us. Interesting, and then saw me and got mad and that, you know, I mean I saw multiple emotional reactions in the phone conversation.
Right like, yeah.
So I don't know that it was a setup. I mean, that would be a long way to go first set. I don't think it was that. I think that he just changes emotionally from moment to moment. There's so many moments when he does something he gets super triggered and his explodes and then next thing you know, he's on his knees begging someone to please forgive him for what he did. So there's rapid emotional changes coming from this person and Tori.
There's obviously a lot of chatter about who could potentially be caught up in this next. Are there other big name celebrities who may also be implicated, who may also go down? Because, I mean, the federal government is alleging this is a racketeering scheme, like this was a criminal enterprise. Do you have any insight into who's getting nervous, who should be nervous, if anyone's nervous any of that.
I mean, there's one name. I mean, you know, Cuba Gooding Junior did some things that should have him nervous. These are in a criminal complaint that's already a lawsuit that's already out there. But here's the thing. A lot of people seem to think that Puff will be able to snitch on others and thus reduce his time or get out of this entirely, and that completely misunderstands the situation that we are in and what it means to
cooperate with the government. He would have to say, I can tell you about a massive criminal conspiracy, far bigger than the one that I am involved in, and one
that you need me to help you. Like if he's a mid level mobster and the government is like, we don't know how to get the top guy, and he's like, I can explain to you how to get the top guy, or I can explain to you how to take down this other family that is something, but Puff cannot say, Hey, hey, you know what, this rapper, this basketball player, this governor whatever came to my party and he did X, Y and Z. Okay, that's a year off your sentence. No, no,
no, no no. You are the regular leader of this. You are the facilitator, creator of the situation. There's no way that he's going to be able to talk his way out of this.
Gotcha?
Got it?
Well, guys, go give Tori a followers subscribe on substat culture fries and also over on TikTok, where people have been very interested in what you have to say, as we are here as well, and very grateful for your time. Always great to see you, my friends.
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