From the Sky News Center. This is Paul Murray Live.
Well, good evening, everybody, Happy Monday. James Borrow sitting in here again in the man Cave for one more week on Paul Murray Live. And by the way, how absolutely phenomenal was that documentary on the sixtieth anniversary of the
Australian Hey, fantastic stuff. Now, normally I like to kick things off with a bit of domestic politics, but let's be honest, there is really only one story going on at the moment, and that is the continued reverberations from the attempted assassination of former and now even more likely future President Donald J.
Trump. Got a bunch of great guests.
Coming at you from here in Australia and overseas in the United States. But before we start bringing in our brilliant panels, let's lay down a few markers about where we are and where we've come in the last twenty four hours now point one. The politics, the political fallout of what just happened yesterday, are beginning to become clear now, however awful, and though they could have been a lot worse, however awful, the events of the past twenty four to
thirty six hours have been well. They are going to be felt right through November. The images, of course, of Donald Trump bouncing back after being shocked, pumping his fist in defiance, and all the rest have given new life to what was already a surging Republican campaign. Republican voters now have a huge enthusiasm lead over the Democrats in their minds. They've got a massive reason now to go out vote, get their guy in. And remember, America is
not a compulsory voting country like Australia is. New polls just released show Trump with a two to one likelyhood of winning Pennsylvania wisconstin Michigan. The betting firm Polly Market also says Trump is a seventy seven percent likelihood of winning Georgia, seventy eight percent chance of winning Arizona, and he's got a seventy nine percent chance of winning Nevada.
These are huge gains in the polls, and Donald Trump has told Washington Examiner reporter Selena Zito that he has also gone and torn up his speech for the coming Republican convention. He said he now wants to use that speech to bring the country together now. Trump called Zito earlier today to check in on her. She had been right there at the rally nearby when the shots were fired. Have listened to what she had to say about that call, and I.
Asked him if I could interview him, just talk to him about those moments and about how this changed him. And that's when he said, well, I was going to do a speech that was going to be a real humdinger. I think that's where his exact words. But you know, everything changed in that moment. He said he was going
to focus on bringing the country back together. He thought that it was very, very important that in that moment when that happened to him, he understood this is what he was, what he wants to do, what he's supposed to do.
And you know what, I think it's going to be a real humdigger one way or the other. So that's going to be one to watch Friday our time here in Australia. Just a reminder, by the way, I'll be bringing you a heap of convention coverage Friday night at eight pm here on the US Report. But before that, Trump, also in that call with Selena Zito, reflected and shared a bit of what that moment was like where he stood up and raised his fist and what that meant and why he did that.
So it wasn't about him at that moment.
He wanted to project to those people, and he says he loves these people and they are the back.
But this is a rustbelt area.
This is a blue collar, white working class, mostly crowd, and he wanted to project to the He thought it was important to project to the country in that moment that everything was okay, that he was okay and the country was okay. And I thought that was I thought that was really fascinating.
Look, God, I want to make too big about a deal about this, but remember Donald Trump is a guy who could have stayed just being a rich property developer who was also a pop TV celebrity, and now because of what he wants to do for the country, he is getting shot at again because of his vision for America. And I think that gives a bit of an indication of what he's all about, not what CNN and MSNBC in the Washington Post tell us we should think he is all.
About so hell of a thing, a hell of a thing.
And meanwhile, on the Democrat side of the polic well, I reckon all of that talk since the assassination attempt about Biden stepping out of the way for Kamala Harris all over done. Kamala Harris is not going to step in. There's not going to be any contestant convention next month.
According to multiple reports, Democrats are pretty much resigned now to a second Trump term because what happened in Pennsylvania Saturday night local time has changed the race and made it, at least for the moment, all but irrecoverable.
For the left.
Things can change, but that's where we are. Kamala Harris, who may have been calculating behind the scenes now she in no way wants to be anywhere near the top of a ticket that is likely to hit the wall in November. And Democrat power brokers, well, just put yourself in their position for a second. Do you think they have any appetite for sticking a black woman on the ballot and having her lose forty five states in a landslide?
Absolutely not.
Now let's get to the next issue here point two, the Secret Service and just how this whole event could have happened. And I gotta say I have the greatest respect for the agents who work for the Secret Service and pledged to put their bodies on the line to protect elected officials and candidates and former presidents and other individuals. But as with so many other things these days, well
when it comes to the management, that's another story. The Secret Service held a bizarre press conference earlier today in which they didn't take any questions about the attempt on Donald Trump's life, but instead just talked a whole bunch about how it's all good. They don't need to chase their plans at all going into the Republican National Convention
this week in Milwaukee. Secret Service officials went around and around with reporters on how they planned to secure the convention site, but the answer was always to say, what happened this weekend, they said, isn't changing anything.
I'm the RNSCUP.
Coordinator, so I can only speak to the national Special Security event. The plans that we have in place will continue as it is, and we're confident in those plans.
And there was also this bizarre moment.
Currently, there are no known articulated threats against the RNC or anyway visiting the rn state. That's important because we also need to help the public if they see something during this time, or I feel uncomfortable with something, Please let us know, let your local law enforcement agencies know, or the FBI.
I want to hit or call the FBI?
Did he just do?
A guy from the Secret Service? Just do the old if you see something, say something routine. I'm sorry, but in Pennsylvania, weren't there a bunch of people saying they saw something and they were ignored? And we also know that other people talk to law enforcement said there's a
guy up there and nothing was done. Appears Now, look, we're going into this convention and I feel like we still don't have a lot of answers to key questions about what happened, Like how did some random who lived an hour away from the speech site decide with about a week's notice that he was going to go and take a shot at Donald Trump? How did the shooter get up onto that roof? Why wasn't that roof secure? What happened between Secret Service and I think this is
absolutely key. What happened between Secret Service and and the local law enforcement that was supporting them. That meant there was no communication between one another about that threat. Why did it take so long to respond? I'm not the only one with questions listened to this year from NBC News.
A senior Secret Service source familiar with the planning of yesterday's event tells NBC News that the roof where the shooter was located was a well known, high priority vulnerability. It was identified just the day before during a security walkthrough. We've also just learned that there were two counter sniper teams on site and that the counter sniper did not need approval to shoot, one source telling NBC News that prior protocols were not followed.
Yet the sniper's only return fire after that would be assassin squeezed his trigger. What happened here look between when it comes to the question of is it a stuff up or a conspiracy? I think generally the stuff up wins nine times out of ten. But it also looks like the same war on competence that has damaged so many other institutions, both private and public, has also opened a front within the Secret Service. We need to know why and what the effects of that are. Now, finally,
let's go to Joe Biden. Joe Biden spoke today from the Oval Office, and he tried to pull the United States together.
We Kenna, we must not go down this road in America. We've traveled before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer, whether it's with members of Congress and both parties being targeted in a shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on January sixth, or brutal attack on a spouse a former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, information and intimidation on election officials, or the kidnapping plot against the city governor. We're an attempted assassination on Donald Trump.
There's no place in America of this kind of violence, for any violence ever, period, no exceptions. We can't allow this violence to be normalized. You know, the political record of this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that.
Look, did you notice something about what he did there? He basically talked all about bad behavior by the right, and of course that should be condemned, But the only thing from the left that he talked about was this assassination attempt on Donald Trump. There's so many other things we could talk about, and it's great what he's trying to say here, but the fact is, Joe Biden and the Democrats have repeatedly done everything they could do to
turn up the temperature, to dial up the rhetoric. Let's not forget that Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, all the rest of the senior Democrats right on down the line have done so much to dial up America's rhetorical thermostat that Biden's sudden call for unity suddenly looks suspiciously like a jailhouse conversion. Democrats have based their entire twenty twenty four campaign, in fact, really their entire reason for being on this idea that Donald Trump is some sort of unique and
scary threat to American democracy. Who if he's elected, the whole thing is over, Which is why I think it is so wild seeing them all send their best wishes to a man. Just last week they were calling a new American Hitler. This is a great problem for the Democrats. Any attempt, any attempt they have, any attempt they make to where the temperature takes away from their very reason for being. They're all out of other ideas. So the big question then for the Democrats, what what on earth
do they campaign on? I guess we're gonna find out soon enough now to unpack this and much more, I want to bring in before we get in the panel, one of my favorite people and my favorite guests, Deputy opinionator of Newsweek magazine, Batia Angar Sargan. So much to talk about, Basia, Welcome to Palmriray Live. Now let's talk about this here. What's been going on in the last
twenty four to thirty six hours. Joe Biden now count campaign on the Trump is Hitler idea and his opponent has just been the victim of political violence of the worst sort. So what do the Democrats now have to campaign on? You tell me?
Thank you so much for having me, James. It's great to be here with you and your viewers. It's a really good question. Can I tell you what I've been struggling with personally over the last forty eight hours. I'm struggling with on the one hand, doing what I personally can do to lower the temperature and speak in a way that people who disagree with me politically can hear it, even perhaps at the expense of the sharpness of my
analysis because it is critical of them. And then on the other hand, telling the truth, James, And the truth is this, there are two sides in America. One of them is heavily armed, and the other side routinely engages in political violence. Okay, that is the truth here. It's that the vast majority of political violence in America is coming from the left, even though the right is heavily
armed thanks to the Second Amendment. Meaning they go out there on the left and they call their political opponents politically violent and a threat to democracy, while relying on the forbearance of their heavily armed neighbor to not actually engage in political violence. That is the really disgusting thing that is happening here. When President Biden goes out there and blames all political violence on the right, he knows
that they will not retaliate. They know that despite an attempt on Donald Trump's life, there will not be a single riot. Nobody picked up arms. Nobody on the right actually wants to see this country devolve into civil war
because they love this country by and large. And that is the real discussing thing here, is not just the mendacity and the lying, but the absolute projection of their own political crimes onto a side that actually could do far more damage due to the Second Amendment, and yet doesn't because of their love of this country.
And that's the thing. Watchia.
I was watching that speech live earlier today, and you know, I'm listening to Joe Biden list this sort of laundry list of things, and I'm keep on waiting and thinking, you know, where's the mention of the riots in twenty twenty, where's Antifa? Where's the attempt to kidnap and do god knows what to justice Bread Kavanaugh? A million other sorts of things. And yet you know, there was absolutely nothing there.
But I would say, beyond the violence, patcha, I'd love your thoughts on this, there's also that kind of legal delegitimization that they do. You know, from the start of the Trump presidency it has been all about trying to delegitimize him through a bogus Russia hoax and the Steele dossier, when the Hunter Biden laptop came out, where they lied and they got intelligence agents to lie about it. And
yet all of this stuff is legal. And yet that seems to me to be really sinisterly undermining elections and in fact, undermining democracy one hundred percent.
When you have control of the vast majority of American institutions, you can enact state violence against individuals through the court system, right through jail, through the criminal justice system, through all sorts of institutions that are no longer treating Americans equally
based on their political values. And of course, the media does not enact physical violence on people, but it has developed this narrative around Donald Trump, which is totally false, totally invented, totally made up, that he's a threat to democracy, as you say, because they have nothing else to run on, and in so doing, they have hidden from the American people the truth that you have allowed me to say on this show repeatedly, which is that Donald Trump is
a unity candidate. When you look at the policies, these are things that are extremely popular with the vast majority of Americans. I do hope that he will talk about that at the R and C. It's great to hear that he's going to focus on unity in his speech. But in telling a false story about America and convincing millions of Americans that this man is a threat to them, the media has done something akin to violence.
So let's throw forward there. Let's assume that the polls are correct, donald Trump wins a second term. Let's assume that you know that Axios report today that the Democrats are in despair that they're going to lose and they're going to have another second term of Trump comes up. Do you expect that a the Democrats will take their medicine and go back and say, hey, let's get back to working for you know, working people, which we used
to be the party of fifty years ago. Or do you expect that they're going to try and use the courts and the bureaucracy and their friends of the media to simply undermine a second Trump administration.
I actually do think the election is going to be closer than the polling is showing today. So it was sort of post assassination attempt. Is the bump is going to dissipate a lot of people, especially in the top twenty percent, really really really don't like Trump, and those people show up to vote, and so I do think that it'll be closer than you know, I don't think people should take their foot off the pedal, despite what I consider to be the very pop popular name nature
of Trump's agenda. You know, honestly, James, what seems to me more likely is that Trump will win and then the Republicans will do everything they can to go back to the pre Trump RNC Nikki Haley Ron the Santas version of the party, and then the Democrats will become competitive again. That's probably what's going to happen.
So we'll get Romney back in twenty twenty eight. But Batcha, let me just ask you finally. One of the things I've been really struck by is how, you know, for so long, you know, people on the right have been
being accused of conspiracy theorists. Yet I spend time on x or Twitter, and probably bit too much time on x or Twitter end up, and it seems like the left is now completely consumed by all of these wack adoodal conspiracy theories that like, oh, you know, Donald Trump states this and had some twenty year old shoot at him so you get a good photo at all of this. I mean, do you think that this paranoid style has just overtaken the left of America?
Now?
I think people descend into conspiracy theories when they don't want to admit the truth. Anybody seriously consider that should go and read Malania Trump's letter. It is obvious that this is a woman. I mean, to me, it seems obvious that this is a woman who begged her husband to drop out of the race so that his son won't have to grow up without a father. This is a real family we're talking about. It's obvious that she the pain in her letter at watching her husband almost
be taken from her was so real. People should really go read it. She calls for unity, and honestly, James, we're going to keep hearing about how Trump is calling for revenge and blah blah blah from the mendacious media. He has only called for unity. His camp has only called for unity. His wife has called for unity. They have called for love and respect for our fellow Americans, as opposed to the left, which keeps talking about unity
but will not take any responsibility for what happened. And so keep an eye on that, and your viewers should keep watching people like you, James, who tell the truth.
Thank you so much, Bascha. And you know when you were talking about you know that letter and said this is a woman, I thought, well, the Left can't even tell you what a woman is. And I think that's the difference between the two sides here. Thank you so much for your time. We'll catch up again soon. Now it's time to bring in your favorite Monday panel, Sky News contributor Sam Crosby and National Senator Matt Canavan. Thank
you both, gentlemen for joining me. Let's keep on the big story this assassination attempt the Prime Minister came down. I thought really hard on all of this and the attack in a press conferences.
Actually, let's have a look at that.
This was an inexcusable attack on the democratic value that Australians an American share and the freedom that we treasure these values once that you're not to countries.
You know, Sam, I actually thought that the Prime Minister was far more articulate than Joe Biden was in all of that, And I thought that his words and just talking about the special nature of Australian politics and he's able to go to the shops and go to a gig and whatever and not be surrounded by this bubble was really I think special. But you know, at the same time, and he made some really good points about that.
But at the same time, this is the same guy who's let his electorate office down in Marrickville be closed for months by Palestinian protesters. Is there a sort of a dichartomy here between the fire words he has said and kind of how he's acting in letting some of these protests that are affecting our political life keep on running.
Look, it's a it's a fair point. I'm not sure what the answer is and whether or not you necessarily want to send the AFP in to move the protesters on. But I thought his message around lowering the temperature of the political debate was a really powerful one and a really good one.
And I won't lie.
I certainly thought about my own role on this show, you know, having a fullsome conversations with, among others, Senator Matt Canavan. You know, perhaps maybe I should have a bit of a reflection as I think we all should about the role as political as the role that political commentators that we all play, and you know, to the extent that we are all palpable in elevating the political temperature in Australia.
Well, I think I think Sam, we all elevate the debate here in Australia here on programs like this, and I hope that's what we do. But Matt Canavan and I kind of wish we're all here to have a big kind of bipart of the group, hug. But Matt, you know, let me ask you your thoughts on the Prime Minister's remarks. I thought, again, I thought that they
were very good and articulated, reasonable remarks. But is there also a danger that in all of this talk of lowering the temperature, that that could be used I guess by some in the media or others to start to, you know, police the bounds of what it's acceptable to talk about.
Where do we draw that fine line, Matt Canavan.
Well, well, there is a lot and look, yes, you're right, I thought the minister's words were entirely appropriate and well made. I don't think it's that much of a fine lin. I certainly don't have any complaints with you, Sam, and I support a robust political debate. We should be willing to go into a battle of ideas. The focus should always be on the ideas, not the person. I suppose summed up in the old saying that you should play the ball, not the man. And I think fortunately in
Australian politics we don't see too much of that. Sometimes, of course it can go a little bit hard, but it's pretty clean. Whereas you see what's been going on in the US, and I've been warning about this for years, the increasing your weaponization of their judicial system to go after individuals, the ridiculous comparisons of people to fascist dictators.
All of this sort of.
Language has led to this environment of the United States, which look thankfully, I don't think is reflected.
Here largely in our political dialogue.
Seeing pockets of it, though, with the likes of the pro Hamas protesters. It's disgraceful and I don't blame the Prime Minister for that. It's a very difficult issue to deal with, but we've got to make sure we do not go down this US path of weaponization of judicial systems,
the politics of personal destruction. It's very corrosive to the society, to the politic and let's hope we can't carve our own Australian way here while we're being robust but also being able to have a beer after the TV cameras turned off and we can all have a laugh afterwards.
Yeah, well that's exactly right. But I mean, Sam and I know we're talking a lot about American politics, but this has such huge implications I think for absolutely everything that's going to happen in America. What happens in America always winds up washing up one way or the other here on our shores. What I was talking to my previous guest about this, the Democrats have now pulled their ads. They don't want to be seen to be sort of in bad taste capitalizing on all of the sort of
the events of the last twenty four hours. But at the same time, you know, you do have to wonder if the Democrats who've campaigned I'd love to ask your opinion on this step, what you think, where do they go in terms of their messaging when so much of their headline messaging has just been vote Democrat, Trump is hitler. How do they how do they come up, you know, with a more positive messages of that.
Well, I think you're absolutely right, and I think this is one of the many reasons that the Democrats are in a little bit of a crotch right now. They don't quite know where to go. I think Trump's messaging about his speech coming up is interesting, talking about He's going to bring the country together. I think the real opportunity here is here now for him not just to capture his base and energize his base. That's done. They're
going to be at the polls in their droves. I think there is a chance here for him to capture Independence, which up until yesterday I didn't think was possible. You know, the Independence would either stay away or vote Democrat. After I think the sympathy and the outpouring of sympathy for President Trump, I think the Independents are genuinely up for grabs. So you're absolutely right. I don't have an answer for the Democrats about what they do with their with their message.
You know, the economy is roaring along in America, so I think because it's running on these well exactly that that was going to be my point for because it's such a polarized, two speed economy. If you're part of the very lucky groups who have white collar, tech based jobs, yeah,
your stop portfolio is zooming ahead. If you're part of the you know, the great unwashed, the rest of us, you know, and the eighty percent of the country, you're not experiencing those those games of the s and P five hundred and every other measure that economically in the past has been such if predictors of us returning presidents.
And I mean, look, that's the same situation here. You know, if you've got shares you've got investment properties, you're laughing. But if you're just you know, a wage earner, you're moving backwards. And we've seen that under the Albanesa government.
But Matt, what do you think though, Matt can of it because once you start to dig underneath that message Trump is evil, you know, he's the next Hitler, And saw how much of that distracted for the fact that actually their real policies are really really unpopular because they're about you know, the green energy stuff that makes everybody's power more expensive. They've got to buy an ev and
they can't do the things they want to do. It's about you know, open borders, especially on the southern border, which means you know a lot of chaos, dysfunction in the city's crime comes along with it, and of course depressing wages. So how much of what we've seen over the last few years out of the Democrats is really just a where to kind of you know, as Paul always says, it's a magician's distraction trick. You know, don't look over here what we're doing, look over here at how we will Trump is.
Look.
I think you're right.
I think the Democrats will have to jettison that over the top rhetoric now in light of these tragic events, in some senses, it may be a blessing for them, because I don't think that that sort of microwave to scare campaign from the Russia hoax days is doing that much. It's not very effective, So maybe it's opportunity for them, But I agree with you, it's probably where do they go?
And they seem a bit shell shocked right now.
But look, I also think the other thing that you haven't said here, and probably the thing that might trump if you like, excuse the pun response from the Democrats is the so to speak, is the response of Donald Trump himself. I mean, the Prime Minister was right that it was an attack on democracy, but it was an attack ultimately repelled by the defiance, the resilient ins and
bravery of Donald Trump. I mean, everybody saw that, and pretty much everybody except you most died in the world activist democrat is very impressed with how a man who had just been shot immediately gets up and shows that level of defiance and that's leadership. It's just right there on your TV screen and he's running for the leader of the free world world and he's just put in one of the best job in devies you ever could For that, he's shown real leadership.
And I mean, look, if you're if you're a g or you're putin or somebody like that, and you look at Donald Trump's performance, and you look at you know, how Joe Biden is going. I think you know he'd rather on the other end of the red phone. But let's move domestically here, because we have had some big domestic news here today. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is now talking up a big budget surplus. He's saying that this twenty twenty three, twenty four foot after your surplus is going
to be what he says, in the mid teens. Now, Sam, this seems very convenient. Is this part of their setup for early elections?
I wouldn't have any idea about that, But I got to tell you, I am completely torn on which way they should go here. On the one hand, I am very much in favor of running up a massive surplus and trying to constrain monetary policy as much as possible so that interest rates will come down. Putting that money into the economy will only put more and more pressure on the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates, which is incredibly hard on people that simply can't afford increase in
interest rates. That said, I work every day for charity for Vinnie's that sees some of the poorest and most marginalized people in society. And so when I hear that the federal government is sitting there with billions of dollars in unaccounted for revenue, I see the faces of people that we can only help minorly every day, and we can't help the extent that we need to. And I think, Wow, give some of that to the charitable sector, you know, we could do some real good with it.
Well yeah, but also maybe give it back to some of us who have been hugely overtached and stung with bracket creep every year for the past god and se many years. But Matt Canavan, let me just ask you about this really quickly.
So much of this.
Surplus, it's based on the thing that Leber cleaves to Hey, coal, isn't it.
It's a big reason.
It's a big reason the strength of our resources sector has been getting us through these last few years. And effectively, the whole government's narrative about their budget approach is built off the back of the mining industry, of coal, of ironylre, of oil and gas as well. It's not their decisions
that have delivered these surpluses. In fact, when you drill into the budget and go to the table of truth as it's become known on about page ninety of the budget, shows that this government has spent more than any government over the past in this century, in fact, than two other examples during COVID of course that was special and Kevin.
Rudd during the global financial crisis.
They trump every other government in terms of spending beyond that, and they've done that during an inflation.
Crisis that has fueled that inflation crisis.
And paradoxically enough, another reason for these boosted unexpected tax revenues is that very thing, is it inflation. Inflation is very good for governments because, as you alluded to in the question, James, it pushes people up into high tax brackets. You end up paying more in taxes and the government gets more from you. So this is not good news for the Australian public. We've got to get spending under control.
Sam's first instinct is right there. I recognize his compassion, the good work he does with Saint Vincent's there, but we have to get spending out of control to help all Australian struggling with the cost of living.
I'm loving this, lowering the temperature love and here we're having it that. You're absolutely right here. Thank you guys so much for your time back Canavan, Sam Crosby, thanks and Matt you are absolutely right. We will never get inflation under control if we do not do something about this fire hose of government spending. Now, don't go anywhere after the break, A lot more fun coming up. Stick with us here, Christian Abraham and Graham Lloyd will continue
to break down the historic Trump rally shooting. Do not go anywhere Paul Murray Live after the break. Welcome back to the program. James Borrow. Sorry here filling in for Paul on Paul Murray Live. Let's continue our debate, and joining me now is libertarian commentator Christian Abraham and associate editor at The Australian Graham Lloyd. Welcome to both of you. Now, guys, I'm sorry we got to just keep talking about this crazy stuff that's been happening in the last thirty six hours.
Thank god President Trump is all right, but there's so mu much fallout coming out around this. A former staffer, a Democrat, sorry, a current Democratic staffer for a Democratic congresswoman has gotten into an awful lot of trouble for her controversial comments saying that she hoped the shooter who targeted Donald Trump quote wouldn't miss next time.
Now.
This is Jacqueline Marsaw is her name. She put this on Facebook saying I don't condone violence, but please get you some shooting lessons so you don't miss next time. Oops, that wasn't me talking, now, Graham. I've been seeing not just her, I've been seeing this from an awful lot of people, academics, government staffers, people who should really know better. What is with this real bitter vitriol at a time when Joe Biden and everybody is telling us to lower the temperature.
Well, it goes to show the extent to which the people are divorced from the reality of what they're talking about it in the public square.
The thoughts are just abhorrent.
And the fact that someone would put their name to it and put it out into the public really shows the extent to which there's been a dehumanizing of political opponents. And I think the important thing there is Joe Biden
and Millenia Trump and others. They've all come forward and they've spoken about Donald Trump the person rather than the politician, and his sort of likes and hobbies outside of politics, calling him Donald and I think that's what's been sacrificed in the way politics has been conducted, and that leads to people thinking it's fine to make these sort of tweets.
Yeah, and Christian, I'd love to hear what you think about this too, because you know, we have a sort of situation where people's speech is getting them into real trouble. But you know, where do you fall on the free speech line. I mean that people can say offensive things, but then if they get called out on it, and there may be some circumstances where people could you know, wind up being canceled on the left, where for years now we've been hearing about people being canceled on the rights.
What are your thoughts, Kristen.
Well, when you have association with an employer or a political party, you have the there is the ability for them to sanction you of some sort for saying those kind of things. And apparently she is no longer a staffer with the Democrats anymore because of that. And that is your writer's free speech. You can say what you would like to say, but there is also repercussions that
comes from you saying those things. So who needs international enemies when you have everyday citizens in America like that? And I remember when Donald when Donald Trump got elected, my partner, which was a Trump fan, which I was not, he told me that Trump could elected and I said, don't you think that someone is going to make ans
have an assassination attempt on Donald Trump? And that just kind of goes to show where the American politics is at that that is such a common discourse in today's society that don't you think someone would try to assassinate Donald Trump? And it's sad. It's sad that our politics has gotten to that point.
Yeah, I mean, I think look, that was the thing that when everything when all those events unfolded thirty six or so hours ago, that people, you know, were shocked. But I think an awful lot of people said, you know, given the way people speak about this, and you know, from Joe Biden on down speak about Donald Trump, is anybody actually surprised that this sort of thing would have happened but let's stay in the US. And one of the things that I think is really interesting is here
what is going to happen at this convention? And the Secret Service has gone and said they're not planning on making any changes to the security arrangements for the convention.
Have look at this.
We are confident in these security plans that are in place for this event, and we're ready to go. It's been an eighteen month process. It's the we've worked together over that eighteen months to develop operational security plans for any and all assets of security related to this event.
Graham.
They seem awfully confident for a bureaucracy and law enforcement agency that just had a near miss with the absolute worst tragedy that can you know, befall them, which would be the loss of somebody that they're protecting. Are they
being a bit overconfident? And what do you make of some of the reports that the Secret Service has become too obsessed with diversity goals and things like this, and it's bureaucracy rather than you know, its endgame of which is, you know, in this case, to protect individuals who are connected with the US government.
Well, certainly the attention has swung immediately to the Sacred Service and whether they've watch this or how it has been botched, and of course institutionally they have to say no, Look, we're very good at what we do, and we have all the right plans, and everything we were planning to do at the convention stays in place and it will
all be safe. But as the investigation goes into what happened with the shooting incident, we're going to I think get a real insight into what's happened there to the chain of command, the capacity to protect and other things. Because from the videos that I saw from the Wall Street Journal and other places, they certainly had guns trained on this shooter before he started firing, and there was raised earlier in the program that the protocol is to
shoot without approval. Well, that certainly didn't happen. We need to know what's who's making the decisions here.
Yeah, Christ what are your thoughts on what we've seen and particularly the government and the bureaucratic response. In One thing that I've heard is that there's this sort of link between the Secret Service and Homeland Security and local law enforcement, and apparently nobody was talking to each other, and you had a lot of people who weren't really trained for this kind of work doing this. I mean, where do you think the investigation is going to wind up leading us here?
Like all big investigations, I don't think it's going to end up leading anywhere that gives the American people all the world answers. There are two kinds of people with work ethic out there. There are the people that turn around and go, look, I'm going to go through everything with a fine tooth comb and we have diligently work through making sure that we haven't made another mistake like
we did previously. And then there's the people that go, well, you know, she'll be right, And it's either arrogance or laziness or content that kind of makes you have that perspective or that approach to it. And it is interesting how the gunmen could get past the Secret Service at
that rally. And there's the two ways that I'm looking at it is either they went really hard and they are absolutely confident because they already had ramped up security for this conference, or the alternative is they don't want to do their job properly and they don't want to ensure that President Trump is protected as much as he can.
Be well either way.
I think you know the most important thing here is that the government gives us absolutely full transparency on what went wrong, who the shooter was, because anything that seems like it's a cover up is just going to feel more conspiracies and we do not need that now. Christian Graham, stick around after the break because we're talking about a lot more, including wild staff and accusations involving the CFMU. You're not going to want to miss set. Stick around
more debate after the break. Welcome back to Paul Murray Live. James Borrow here in for the great Man. Joining me tonight is libertarian commentator Kristin Abraham and The Australians Associate editor Graham Lloyd. Both of you thank you so much here for being on the panel with me on Palbury Live. Let's talk about some domestic politics here, particularly all of these wild allegations about the CFMU, Vike's links, alleged links between organized crime and the construction division of this union.
Kristin Abraham, You've got I think some thoughts on this. I would love to hear what you have to say.
Thanks James, and thank you for having me and asking this question. I've been waiting a long time to talk about the CFMU, so thank you. I want to start by saying that Setka, John Satka, bit the hand that feeds him and the Labor Party has retaliated because of this. And I'll preface what I'm about to say with this is my opinion. It's alleged in twenty two that the Labor Party made a deal with the CFMEU and John Sadka to abolish the abccs so that the CFMEU put
support behind Anthony Albneasy. Now, the Labor Party is renowned for keeping their promises, and sure enough, when they got elected they abolished the ABCC the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which had been giving the cfme you greef for the behavior that they were engaging, and they had taken them
to court so many times. And the reason why I'm telling you this is as a HR professional, as someone that specializes in employerer relations and industrial relations, and that in my free time I engage heavily in politics.
I am well.
Acquainted with the cfmeu's antics that has been ongoing. Setka overplayed his hand, though he publicly threatened the AFL had umpire and said that he would delay AFL projects because that this floke worked at the ABCC. And so now this public threat, Labor Party has had nothing but to retaliate. And they haven't all of a sudden uncovered all of this information. They have always known where the bodies were buried.
They have always known, or allegedly always known that there was this kind of criminal conduct in the Labor Party in the cf MEU, but it had served the Labor Party's purpose and now it doesn't anymore because these public threats have come out and the tail is now wagging the dog, and they have bitten back really hard. And I'm glad that the Labor Party is biting back really hard,
because I'll give you an example. In twenty twenty two, we had the Victorian state election and the federal election, and the CFMU took their workers into the lunch room and they said, look, the Labor Party is the reason why we get these jobs. They're the reason why we get the contracts, and they're the reason why you stay employed in civil construction. So you should be voting for the Labor Party in twenty twenty two. So that to me, is not a union that's a mob.
Yeah.
Look, I mean and it's absolutely you know, these links between labor and the CFMU and what the CFMU is alleged to do to make the cost of construction and everything else so much higher.
Graym lloyd, Is there a.
Real problem with the links between the ALP and the CFMU.
Well, I think there's a real problem to the extent that the CFMAU is getting a priority treatment in government contracts and the costs of those projects is costing tax payers a lot of money. I think to reinforce what was just said of John Secker three weeks ago was telling the Prime Minister to stay in his lane and remember who appoints MPs, and that's the Union, not the government. So Tony Burke, as the relevant Minister, has no option but to show that the government is in control of this,
not the union move. But we basically have an organization that inflates costs and allegedly has been infiltrated by organized crime and violence. It needs to be sorted out.
Well, indeed, absolutely right now, Look, I want to just finish on a late note here. We've been dealing with an awful lot of heavy stuff here tonight. It has been confirmed that King Charles the Third and Queen Camilla are set to visit Australia and Samoa in October. Now they're going to come and they're going to be a beautiful act and New South Wales.
Graham.
It's Charles's first visit to Australia since twenty eighteen.
Are you excited?
Well?
Excited?
It probably isn't the word, James. But it's remarkable, isn't it the will of time?
Charles?
Now, King Charles has been dismissed, overlooked, reinvented and rehabilitated so many times. But I must say he seems now to be on a bit of a high. So a lot of people want to see.
I'm ambivalent and Christind Abraham, what do you think there seems to be Victoria seems to have missed out in the itinerary.
What do you reckon on that? Real quick?
Well, I want to take this opportunity to formally invite them to Victoria if they're not going to come. As a young person, we can kind of feel disconnected from the monarchs from time to time. So there is a part of our Australia or Victorian history and an institution sure revolver upstairs. You're in Victoria, yarakay be great for young people.
If I would love to see you.
Charles the third ed Cavilla to a revolver, that would be absolutely amazing. Guys, thank you so much, Christ and Abraham Graham Lloyd, thanks for your time tonight and thank you for joining me on Palmurray Live.
Stay tuned now for the late debate