How you doing? How are you? Getting in okay or was there cavity searches? There was a cavity search and it was good and long enough. I sure went back for seconds. And they said, we don't, we never had anybody come back here. You're good. It's not thanksgiving. You're clean. He said, could I come back tomorrow to get cold leftovers? Welcome to SmartLess. SmartLess. SmartLess. SmartLess. Guys, take a breath and think about what this is about to be. It's fucking insane, you guys.
Oh, we're all insane. Do you guys have good questions? I have a couple of areas. Wait, wait, not prep. I did prep. I thought a lot of conversations with people. I've got 18 questions. Oh good, I'll just follow you. I was not joking when I said, I think it's good that we have questions, but I also want to entertain conversations. It's not going to conversation. And through conversation, questions will come out. Is that right? I think so.
I'm telling you when you woke up today knowing that this is going to happen. Are we recording right now? Yeah. Are we really? Yeah. Oh, this is a whole different way. We can say where we are because it's after the fact. So we're here. No, don't say it. We're here on Central Park South with a beautiful second story view of the park. It's a little second story as beautiful views. But, oh, rainy. Yeah. And we very rarely have more than one guest. Sometimes we have two.
When we were the times we did it. No, we had bands on a lot of time. We have two. Like Billie Eilish and Finn. Yeah. Radiohead. Radiohead. Yeah. Dran-Dran. Killer. No, that was just Simon. Do you rent? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you'll be familiar with one of them. The other two he wanted to bring along, I guess his buddies. He gets a little nervous. We've had him on the show before. Yeah. The guy he worked with. Yeah. We don't really do repeat guests. He was insistent. I'm excited to him.
Can I just say we're sitting here in this hotel. As we've already said. It's 2024. Four years ago. Less than four years ago. We started doing this podcast. It was a COVID baby, as we call it. Came out of the gate with Jack Shepherd. He was the gay with Jack Shepherd. And we put it by the set the bar high with Jack. And then now here we are in New York. Four years later, scraping the bottom of the barrel. And we're looking at with a dude and we got Rob Armjurve. And we got Bennett Barbercal.
And we got MGT. Michael the G Terry. And we're all here in New York. And it's fucking wild, guys. Yeah, we're all on. And I want to say to you guys. This is cool. You got to stop and like recognize it. Michael, I just want to say, Michael, how is it for you? Delightful. Delightful. And I'm proud of us. We haven't screwed it up yet. Bennett, what do you think? It feels amazing. It's weird, right? These weird adjectives aren't credible. We've been saying to take a breath.
Rob yelled something from over there. Fantastic. Rob got it. Rob got it. We did limit the meach to one word. And Rob doesn't even have a microphone. So it's a thank you for your contributions. We have been reminding ourselves to be present though. And we love to get a ride with my guy that I sometimes hire for like when I do a Broadway show. Who drove when he was doing? You know Sean did a play a Broadway last year. No. Yeah. And it was called, go get me Oscar. I think. Right. Right.
It wasn't at the top of the top of Chico. At the top of Chico theater. Yeah. And I'm so he came so will I said do you want to ride? Because I think Jason's close really close to the hotel. So will came straight up. The first thing I put my pants on and I walked out to living room with my shirt and my pants on. I reached my pocket and I found money. I found like 30 bucks. Sean, great. Sean pulls out because he turns this guy to him and he goes, look at this. And we go what he goes.
He's got like 31 dollars. Look at all this money. I have to see today's a big event for you. Yeah. So the drag cleaner is just drag cleaner. I haven't been here for six months. I just put these pants on. And I was like, oh, I guess I wore them. And there was just the one just the one pair of socks that you stole from a youngster. You were babysitting or? I know you don't know where the skin ends and the socks start. You know, it's fairly high class guest today.
You didn't think you'd go with it with a full length sock. I was guilty. I didn't have socks at all. I know, but that's the way to go. I know I should have gone full length. How do you decide what clothes day here in your apartment in New York? What's the math that you do on that? I don't, I just, you know, there's like a couple t-shirts and clearly a couple pants. I mean, pants is a stretch. They're jeans. No, they're not. They're pants. Sorry, they're a stretch jeans.
No, no, no, they're a stretch. They look like jeans. They're a dress pants. They're a brushed cotton jagged. Yes, thank you. But they're in a five-pint cut. I mean, Jason looks like he's doing a whole different. But I'm also living here and I don't have, you know, present in the United States clothes with me. I can look good. I said before you look very rugged and sexy. Thank you for your match. I'm playing a guy that's made a lot of bad decisions.
You know what I like about your hair is long enough that when you're wearing the headphones right now, it's keeping the hair back and you've got kind of like a soccer, like a European soccer player vibe. Slowly, slowly, slowly, winking hair. The slow winks we could do with that. Half-wanks too. They're more, they're more lid squeezes. They're so gross. So you guys have, do you have important questions loaded? Do you have fun questions loaded? A little bit of both. A little bit of both.
You've got some policy questions perhaps? Yeah, my, my obviously have more to do with relations with Canada. I'm sure. Are we going to, is that one of the borders we're closing? I hope not. You know, because how are we going to get all our stuff across, eh? I'm still moving cigarettes. I don't care. I'm muleing some of that sticky BC bud through the interior. I'm coming down through Furny BC, hey? My brother found a good path last year. Let's see what they have to say about that.
Sure. I want to hear what they're saying. Yeah, I wonder, I'm sure they don't want to get into the micro of policy and stuff like that. They're not, they're, I'm sure they would, they'd like us to find a middle ground between drive time radio and, yeah, yeah. And some hard hitting, uh, meet the press conversation. Yeah, but I mean, I, I, I can't, I don't know how to formulate those questions.
I'm not going to. Well, you know what's interesting is, is that the three of them obviously are very connected. And they, they're all sort of from the, the same sort of class, uh, of Democrats. Right, that they, they were around Obama was a rising star, you know, president Biden's been around since the 70s, who is Senator, et cetera. Obama came up as this young star in the early 2000s. Nobody will forget his fiery speech of the Democratic Convention in 2004. How amazing that was.
So they're all part of the same governor and, yeah, Clinton was a governor and then he was a superstar back to back. Back, yes, Arkansas. Thank you. I'm, but back to back of, uh, president United States. So they're all, they all, I think have very, they're similar, my point is they're similarly minded when it comes to sort of policy. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Et cetera. And well, it's cool that they all are like together. I don't know that I, I don't know they've ever seen that or like witness that.
Yeah. I mean, I don't need it in the state of Georgia. Yeah, W and his dad together. You know, but didn't the three of them get together for the last election a bit? And they sort of, um, I'm thinking of the three tenors, I think. These are not. This is a primary. By the way, we have to do this. We don't do the three tenors right after this. We should just start. Let's start the interview mistaking them for the three tenors. So when do you guys have you, have you been in rehearsal? Like what?
Because the radio city showed tonight should be getting the coups. They're so excited for the set. What's your warm up like? Will there be solos? Are you guys just saying all the songs together? Yeah, I remember all the singers. And your accents are fantastic. Yeah, exactly. Well, guys, I'm honored to be here not just with them. I'm honored to be here with you guys. Likewise. This is a great occasion. Not just in the podcast, but in life. Yes, tell me your name. And I'm saying, it still will.
Yes. And I'm really psyched that I get to be here with you guys during this. Likewise. It's not lost on me. Not to pat ourselves on the back, but just say briefly. Very proud of us that we haven't screwed this up yet. And that Mr. Biden called us again. Yeah. And wanted to do this again. Wanted to bring his family. Just so, so flattered and humbled. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. Did all of it. Here we go. It's a sonola. An all new, super presidential.
Smartness. All right, I'm over there, right? We're just going to come in and ask the microphones too. Yeah. So I had fun time. Yeah. So yeah. I think we have those headphones right there. Okay. And I'll miss you a little bit. Thank you, sir. Mr. Clinton, have you done any time, Mr. Clinton, in Lake of the Ozarks? Oh, yeah. Right. Because that was just that's in your neck of the old woods there. Yeah. You want it up or down? I spent a lot of time. I've been to every.
I've been to every voting precincts. And the Northern Arkansas Ozarks. And I have. I had one of the presidents of Walmart. Sure. Came from a little town in the. In the Ozarks near the lake of the Ozarks. And I went up. They had a day for him. I went up there once. I can hear fine. Okay. So I'm mostly around there. I'll go. But was that whatever a vacation spot for you? No, I didn't take any vacations up there. I was working up there. But I was here with Beach Dolor.
But that's a big spot for folks in that part of the country. Oh, yeah. It's really, it's breathtaking and beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, that lake. I mean, judging by your show, Jason, seems like a pretty dangerous part of the world, too. Well, we didn't really spend a lot of time in there. Yeah, we just spent a lot of time with the nice part. You know, not much of a show in there. My family vacation there once when I was a kid and they everybody got drunk. What a surprise.
Yeah. I still remember when it was all illegal. We had a sheriff from up there that had a jail where the cells were all below level. Below the water level? No, below ground level. So they were all platforms. Uh-huh. When it was all still illegal. You might have held a lot of money. That's crazy. Is it legal in Missouri and Arkansas yet? Are you planning it sort of? But when it's all about what he is. But I've done down these two basically scout out every state. We're looking for a ski.
Can I go here? Is this okay? Well, it's a sequel. You know, we've done the only one in Missouri. It was more fun when it was illegal. Uh-huh. Yeah, exactly. Well, well, you should have had me write in some of your scripts where you should have been illegal. I want to start by, you know, out first of all, this is huge for us. And what an massive honor to be sitting with the three of you looking at us. It's so bizarre. It's crazy. We, we, we, we, we wonder how we ended up. I know.
I've got questions for your staff and your questions are only going to grow as to why you did it. Yeah. And we were saying earlier, four years ago, we started this podcast during COVID as a way to kind of connect with each other. And we ended up connecting with a lot of people out there. And, uh, and for us, it's a real thrill to be here. Did you ever get a trump? Uh, we couldn't make his deal. No, we're letting, we're letting other people get him. Yeah. Well done. Thank you. Bravo. Bravo.
But it is, it is momentous for us. And especially during this time that we're in right now, uh, to, to have your time. So we thank you for your time. Yeah, yeah. This is huge. How do you all know each other? Okay. That's not over yet. But it is, I mean, I've worked for both of you a long time. Yeah, I know. It's not the first time that you three have combined forces to really kind of, um, do what we all need you guys to do, which is, keep you in office.
Um, but does it, does it strike you as like, how is it even necessary to have half a president campaigning against the other guy? It is shocking to me that it takes the amount of effort to, to be competitive against someone who just, in my opinion, is, uh, just running for the wrong thing. Well, lots of change to lots of change in how you communicate, lots of change and information and so much disinformation out there.
Uh, you know, it's, uh, it's really, uh, and it's hard to communicate in today when you do accomplish some, uh, probably some, uh, improbable things. Yeah. And, uh, but he, uh, well, and we, uh, I'll say to Mr. President, not to get you out, but you have accomplished a lot of incredible things. In all three of you, you did in your presidencies, did amazing things. President Clinton, you left this country with a surplus, uh, which is the first time I've been done in a number of years.
Uh, President Obama, uh, you passed the Affordable Care Act, uh, really started to tackle social issues. Uh, President Biden, you know, you look at the job, your job is numbers. You look at, uh, the way you're battling inflation, which is not been easy. Uh, and you've done it with a lot of headwind and you've had a lot of people, a lot of voices and a lot, and we live in a time where there are a lot of voices.
And my question is considering the amazing work that all three of you have done, and especially the way you're doing right now, President Biden. It's so difficult. The messaging is getting, is, is so tough to, to get the message out there because there is so much noise. What can we, what can you do? Just keep talking about it. Just keep laughing to connect with people as though how they're being affected. Why it's happening?
You know, one of the things that's really startles me is, I'm optimistic. I'm generally optimistic. It's starting to break through. There's so much we have an opportunity to get done in ways that these guys set up, and we're now going to be able to close down. But for example, you know, when we got elected, we were told we couldn't get any done. We couldn't get any pass. Well, we got a little thing called a billion, three hundred million dollars to rebuild our roads, highways, Internet.
We got the chips, you know, I've traveled around the world and said, why don't you come and invest in the United States of America? We got $650 billion invested offline. And on the chips act, we got about $56, $70 billion. And they're employing people. And it just starts, it takes well to kick in though. But are they, but are they, it seems like they're only watching certain things, reading certain things. Everybody's so siloed in the way in which they receive information.
Could it be as simple as you, and don't, you've got very smart people to suggest what it is that you do. But like, could it be as simple as just like granting an hour to Sean Hannity and sit down and go, you tell me why the people who follow you think I'm not a good president. And just to answer his questions, call his bluff. I mean, because the information, the facts are all there.
It's particularly for that, that, that group of people, what you do is so much better suited than what the other agenda is talking about. So is it just a matter of just getting on that network? I don't get it. First of all, you guys are exactly right. Joe's got an unbelievable record of accomplishments. If you had told me that the unemployment rate after COVID was going to be back down to 4% or lower. Yeah. Lowest in 50 years, isn't it? Absolutely.
And if you had told me that 50 million jobs would have been created, that wages are higher now than they were pre-pandemic. And the most jobs created in history. In this four-year period, yes. In this four-year period, you've got, you've got African-American unemployment, right? Which is always higher than the general population, the lowest it's been since record keeping on the issue was taken. So, Joe's got a strong message to tell. Jason, you're right. The media environments changed.
During Bill's presidency, during my presidency, you already had Fox and Rush Limbaugh and so forth. But it was still going through basic broadcast TV. And the average person was still kind of getting a mix. Some dissenting views. Part of what happened is that whole ecosystem moved on to social media. And once it's on social media and it's on an algorithm, and everybody's just getting their news selected essentially to suit their biases. Right. Pena trading that is real tough. It is very hard.
What do you say to the people who say on the other side the same thing? Well, you know, I would argue that actually they've got some legitimate points in the sense that, you know, there's a side that doesn't recognize conservative thought or, you know, isn't respectful to, you know, some traditional values that they care about and so forth. The difference, though, is, and Jason touched on it, there's a difference between facts and opinions.
And the one thing that our side still pretty much sticks to is the facts. You may not agree with whatever is in the New York Times or whatever is on MSNBC, but generally they're not going to just make stuff up. Correct. And, you know, look, I was in office in 2016, and I would have loved to pretend that the election outcome wasn't what it was. Right. That was painful. Right. Right. But we said, well, here are the facts.
And there's a system of government that transcends that is more important than whoever wins this particular election. We're going to abide by those facts and stick with democracy. Right. Right. Right. And that is a shift that's that's taking place. Now, last point I'd make though, because you asked, you know, Jason was asking, what do we do? I think Joe's point is right. And that is you just keep on showing up and delivering the message wherever you can, however you can.
And if you talk to folks enough, all of us, Bill, Joe, myself, all have the experience of going to places where we may not be the most popular person. People may have some priests conceive notions about Barack Hussein Obama. Right. Right. Yeah. But if you show up and you make a human connection with people and you talk to them, we'll be right back. This show is sponsored by Better Help.
So I just got back from the East Coast where I'm fortunate enough to have some very good friends that live there, but also good friends that live here on the West Coast as well. So, you know, talk about social battery, right. Your social battery can get drained so easily because you want to see all the people that you love and all the people that are important to you, but you do have to kind of schedule time for yourself.
So the balance of like the desire to see your friends and the guilt of not seeing them, but also needing your rest to reset yourself from the trip, right. It can be so easy to ignore our social battery and spread ourselves then, especially with social gatherings picking up after the winter.
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And it seems right. And the other guy. He has no problem throwing anybody who's not with them under the bus. When I got elected, I said I'm going to be president for everyone. We have put more money in the red states than blue states. Not a joke. Across the board. Across the board, there's more money total invested in the red states and the blue states.
Because then I'm going to be president for everyone. Do they know that? Well, I think it's beginning, but whether they did or not, I have an obligation to see. To take care of the country. But it's beginning to sink in a little bit. And you know, you have like for example, do you ever think you'd see these guys are great speakers or great presidents. Did you ever think you'd see a state of the union like the two I've had? No, no.
Frankly, a little shameful as a new mayor as the newest American here. Yeah, because I'm Canadian. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, you know, Canadian. Well, I got a Canadian brother in law. Canadians are interesting because they sneak up on you. You know, remember that movie in invasion of the body snatchers like they look like us. But you don't really know when I saw you at the Raptors game. Yeah, actually, I love I love me some Canadian.
I'm always looking behind me when Will and I are walking just like certain of the Canadian. Is there is there is there is and I don't mean to sound cynical with this, but there is a bit of a show element that the other guy seems to really relish in. You know, some of those being in saying things that really attract, you know, some views, some clicks like, you know, he's a fun show to watch.
Like the nicknames. Now, I know you, you three are uniquely qualified in keeping things classy and elevated and and and keeping, you know, respect around the office and the job, et cetera. But is there ever a thought of how one might be able to tack slightly towards the show to sort of combat that a little bit and you're starting to do it just a little bit president Biden.
And I think it's it's really like people are loving you're sort of giving it to him a little bit. Now, I know that's not, you know, some sort of contrived calculation you're making. Is there a response? Yeah, exactly. But is there any thought to like it's time to kind of pull the gloves off a little bit and if they want a show, we'll give it to them. Well, I'm not so sure about the show, but I think if they want the truth, we'll give it to them. Yeah, amen.
And just just go straight at them. Look, you know, like I said at the grid, I did, you know, this guy came up to me, asked me for more some money. And I, you know, I told them, Don, I can't help you. We can make jokes about it. But the end result is, look, we've all know every major world leader. And I've, I think one reason the Barack asked me to vice president, I had some foreign policy experience.
And I've known these folks for a long time. I go to all these conferences that we all know and Bill just came back from one on his own. And he'd helped us in Caribbean. And, you know, almost every single time, not a joke, guys, whether it's the G7, the G20, all these heads of state, they'll wait till they can get me alone and grab my money and say, you've got to win. Because, because quote, my democracy is a state. Yeah, they're democracy. Yeah.
Not let me, but since I'm not directly involved, I'll give you an example that I just had. Not very long ago, I went to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to celebrate the anniversary of the decision to expand NATO and include the Czech Republic and Hungary and Poland. And they know what it's like to live without democracy. They know what it's like not to be free. They are adamantly in favor of president Biden's support for Ukraine.
And they think we did the right thing to expand NATO. And they know what's Russia's fault, not ours. And what's happened in Ukraine. So it was amazing. All of them came to me and said, please tell me you're not going to put us through all this again. Yeah. Please tell me America's not going to run away from the world again. We need you. And in Poland, which is a very conservative country, culturally, religiously.
They just voted overwhelmingly to throw out the old party because they thought they were too close to the Russians and put in the government that you dealt with when Hillary was Secretary of State. Yeah. Because they support a free Ukraine. Yeah. And I just showed up, man. I didn't go there to do a they like me because I was with them in the beginning, but they are worried about tomorrow. I think I think Bill's points and and Joe's points important.
You know, look, we all know America's not always lived up to its ideals. We got our warts. You know, we got issues. But we do set the tone around the world. And part of what happened before Joe got elected during that four year period folks around the world started feeling as if the ideals of human rights, freedom, democracy that nobody was looking after that.
Nobody was promoting that nobody was minding it. And people like Putin became in Bolton. And you saw the Chinese and even countries, the word democracy start backsliding because they do still look to America as an example of what they hope. Multiracial, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, big country can look like that maybe people can still get along and accidentally do it each other, even if they don't all look the same and don't all talk the same and all come from the same place.
That's what makes America exceptional. And if you start getting into a situation in which we don't believe our own declaration independence, if we're not acting on behalf of the things that we say we stand for, that has ripple effects all around the globe. And these guys are exactly right. I just came back from Europe. And every meeting I had, the only thing people were concerned about was what's going to happen in this next election because they understand what the stakes are.
I'm sorry, just on that point, President Obama, were you surprised during those five years of the last administration, how quickly that protection and passion for democracy was diluted? How prime the country was to just sort of dissolve and get lazy with it and let it go?
You know, I will say and Bill saw this begin to happen during his presidency, it then accelerated during my presidency. I have been surprised that there haven't been guardrails inside the Republican Party. Trump didn't surprise me. I mean, I don't know. No, I mean, you watch Trump's campaign, you watch his career. If you know anybody who's hooked, I mean, he comes from New York, there's nobody in New York who does business with him.
No, or lend him money. He's not considered a serious guy here, but I was surprised he was elected, but I wasn't surprised in terms of his behavior. I did expect, and I suspect Bill and Joe, you'd agree with this, that there would be some folks in the Republican Party who would say, no, you can't go that far. You can't start praising Putin and saying that his intelligence is better than the US intelligence agencies.
Were you surprised that there were 60-some million people that bought it and voted for him and did it again? Well, I think that we can't discount the fact that the world's changing quick. And when the world changes quick, people get scared, and they get confused, and we had a historic recession in 2008-2009, where the financial system almost collapses.
We end up having, obviously already gone through 9-11. You've got globalization. You have suddenly people feeling as if they're losing manufacturing jobs, some of the towns that Illinois, where I was representing Arkansas, where Bill was working. You see people starting to feel like they're losing status. Suddenly, you've got the internet and social media, and people are being flooded with all kinds of stuff, and they don't know how to sort it all out.
And when people get scared and concerned, then the appeal of somebody who says, I'm going to make it like it used to be where you don't have to worry about it. You know, men or men and women know their place, and that message can sometimes have some appeal. Look, again, I love this country. I am so... You better. Canadian. It is the best country in the world. You've only been to two countries, but... It's a phenomenal country. When it's at its best. It is the best.
No matter what you say, no matter how you characterize it, there's not a single country in the world that does not think we're the single most consequential country in the world. Not a single one. Including our enemies. Including our enemies. I mean, across the board. Especially if there's a problem around the world. But there's a natural disaster if there is a crisis. Nobody's calling Moscow or Beijing expecting them to help. Everybody's looking to Washington.
Well, but beyond that, here's a deal. Look, you think about it. When Trump got elected, he said he's going to go America first, to America alone. He's... Look, when he talks about his best friends being Kim Jong-un. And I'm serious. Hey, listen, he won two golf championships last week. The regular championship title, senior. I told him when he won. I told him he came into the upstairs oval, and we bumped into each other and said something about playing golf.
I said, look, I'll give you two strokes if you carry your own bag. Hey, do you know this? You could make it. President Biden, do you know that Kim Jong-un, he had 18 holes in one once? Yeah. So we're not far off that with this guy. I'm looking forward to your guys' merch coming out. Do you guys have an apparatus, a mechanism whereby you can contact one another like this without anybody connecting the phone? Look at that phone. It's called a smartphone. Do you have one of these? What do I mean?
Can you... But can you do that? Great. Okay. Just text each other? Yeah, I mean, like emojis and stuff. I don't text much, but we, uh, pick up the phone and talk to each other. I love that. Do you really? But no one else listening and no one else connecting the call. We don't know. We can't be sure of that. We're not positive of the cyber side. But does President about like, he picks up and he goes, hang on, I'm going to add President Clinton. Yeah. Can I merge calls?
That's a little too advanced. Right. You might need a 25 year old day to help on the merger thing. But I'll cut somebody out. I mean, one plus one plus one makes 10 with you guys. So I just... Yeah, I'm glad. I want to know, like, do you all miss something specific about the holding office? Obviously, except for you because you're in office. But do you guys miss something? I miss not having an office. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Well, look, everybody talks about Air Force One.
Yeah, sure. Marine One. Yeah. It's pretty convenient. I won't lie. Um, but I'll tell you the thing I miss the most is, you remember those music concerts? I used to do it, uh... You can basically invite anybody. Yeah. And you have this concert. Right. And I mean, we got, you know, Stevie Wonder. Yeah, yeah. Paul McCartney. Everybody will show up. They'll show up. Yeah. And they've got... They do these rehearsals the night before a lot of times.
And you can kind of sink down and you could just sit there and watch... That's so cool. Yeah, Mick Jagger practicing with BB King or something on a Blues night. I do miss that. That's so good. I'll see. I miss the fact they don't play a song when you're walking in room anymore. Sure. Oh, we've done that today. I was lost for three weeks, but I left office. But let me take something serious. This is one reason that I so badly want, present-by-demo to be reelected. What I really miss is the job.
Not doing it. I'm glad I believe in the two-term limits strongly. Yeah. But what I learned was, on the worst day, when nothing was going right, problems were everywhere. There was still something you could do. It would make somebody's life better. I love that. There is no job like that on Earth. I love that. And I want somebody... Who appreciates that. ...that I trust to make the most of that every day. Thank you. ...because there'll be bad days no matter who gets elected.
But he'll get up and he'll start thinking about that. And I think his opponent will be thinking about... himself. ...and who I can get even with. You know, who I can send away, who I can manage. His judgment... Joe Biden will make the best of the bad days. And the team that you have assembled and your comfort with deferment, you know, you're... I don't know.
For me personally, I just... I love leaders that have the confidence to hire those that they respect, that might make them a little nervous. And also not to think that you're the... You're the spark of sky about it. You're gonna have every... You know, we've had people like... We had leaders like that in the middle part of the last century who were put into government by presidents of olds. And they made a lot of decisions that they thought that they were right about.
And they were terrible people. And when you let someone... When that happens, when you think that you've got all the answers is the moment you don't. But Ron Claim, you know, bringing us out of COVID, like it's just... And on and on and on. The way in which that you've surrounded yourself with the absolute best... I made a commitment. I made a commitment. I made a commitment. I have an administration that looked like America. I have more women in my cabinet. I have more.
I've appointed more black circuit court judges and every other president combined in American history. I've kept my commitment up, putting a black woman on a Supreme Court. I have an opportunity to go out and get the best people. And by the way, I sometimes pick up on these guys who they think are the best people. And I'm looking for people that most of all though, not just are good, but care about what they're doing. Whereas the other guy is only hiring people that won't talk back.
And that's like... Well, mine talked back. Yeah, well... One of those things... One of those things that you look back on, because the other guy is... As we know, no capacity for this. And President Obama, I'll start with you. What are the things that you think about that keep you... Are there things that you look back and you go, geez, I wish... I wish that had worked out a little bit better. Not necessarily regrets, but things that you would wish...
Handing off the baton, in 2016, yeah, definitely. But I think Bill's point is the right one, which is... When you're sitting in that office, you are essentially a really runner. You've taken a bunch of problems from the previous president, and you're working through them as best you can, you're running the best race you can, and then you hand it off.
During that time where you've got the baton in your hand and you're running, if you are focused on every day, can I make things a little bit better? Because you're not going to make them perfect. There are too many problems, they're too hard. If you can make them a little better, then a lot of people are helped. So the Affordable Care Act wasn't perfect. We didn't get everybody health insurance. But we got tens of millions of people... Yeah, really big. We got tens of millions of people...
You could say the real hell that I show you. That was a big fucking deal. We got tens of millions of people health insurance. And my successor tried to kill it. Didn't succeed because it was starting to actually work. You get a pass on to Joe, and what does he do? He then takes what's already in place and builds on it. Expands the subsidies so that more people can start getting on it. Expands Medicaid so that more people can get on it.
And so with all the changes he made, health care in America is still not perfect. There are still folks who are having tough time. But what has happened is that even more people have gotten coverage. And now Joe Caps insolent at 35 bucks, which means that people who've got diabetes and really desperately need help. They're not getting price gouged. And he's negotiating with a big farmer to make sure that drug prices are affordable, the way they are in Canada.
And so what you get are these incremental steps. To answer your question, well, you're never satisfied when you leave because there's always going to be a bunch of stuff that's done. But I couldn't have done the Affordable Care Act if Bill hadn't made the effort he did around the Children's Health Insurance Program. And Joe then builds on us. And that's what you're hoping for each and every time. And let me say this, the last point I'll make. It's not always just Democrats.
George Bush and I had a huge number of differences. But he set up this program called PEPFAR. That provided drugs and support and help for people in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world who had HIV during the midst of the HIV AIDS epidemic. And because of his program, tens of millions of lives were saved. And we then built on that program. So it doesn't just have to be a partisan thing.
Part of what you want though is somebody with Joe's decency and basic focus on the American people and who have a sense of responsibility to say, all right, I've inherited some stuff. Some of it's good, some of it are problems. What more can I do? And that's the attitude Joe has. We'll be right back. Hey, smart list listener. We get support from Viator. You know, Scotty and I took a vacation many years ago. We geeked out because we liked the movie Amadeus. We went to Austria.
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So then what are the issues coming up that people are focusing on that you believe are the wrong things, or they may be the right things, and what should they be focusing on? I think they should be focusing on a couple things. Number one, we're going to the second term God willing. We're going to make sure that we do something about gun violence in this country. The idea that we allow salt weapons to be sold with magazines with under rounds is just bizarre.
Well, President Biden, I'm so glad to hear you say that because that was going to be my other question, which is the Democrats never said we want to take your guns away. Absolutely not. You never said that. No, by the way, we've got to be smart about what's going on. You just don't need to kill a deer with an AR-15. The second amendment, which I, when I talked law school, the second amendment wasn't absolutely never.
You weren't able to have a cannon when you were, you know, the side of the liberty is floored with a blood of patriots. I mean, it's a bunch of crap. Well, it kind of brings us back to... President, we have a listener question that he already knows about. But if you want to read it to him, to listen or call on question. Oh, okay. This is unusual, but I think I know it's from... What a caller here, Mr. President. I'm assuming he's talking about Mr. President Biden here.
You have done so much for this country in the past three short years. You've been the architect of an incredible bipartisan infrastructure deal. Under your leadership of America has been running a white hot economy. Inflation has been plummeting and unemployment remains in an all-time historic law. But like so many Americans, I dread the possibility of having to listen to the grading voice of a narcissist manchild on our airwaves for God knows how many more years.
He's a bully that can barely manage his own personal own life. His own personal own life, I have a feeling, says about me. Has the strangest tan, no, that's will. And he takes golf way more seriously than any adult man should. So Mr. President, my question is, now that you're sitting directly across from Will or Nat, is there, I mean, is there nothing you or Congress can do to get him to shut his big fat mouth? I'll take my question, my answer off the air. That's Justin T. from New York City.
Justin Thoreau. Justin Thoreau, it's sleepless. We don't know if it's Thoreau. Justin, there are certain powers to be on the President. That's will be on my presidential path. I asked you, President, by the last time if you'd make me golf star. You never answered me. I had to call Trump. He might be sure. I want to know, like, God... I just wanted to say, we're kind of back where we started, which was the whole idea of the messaging and what's good for people.
And we're all so hung up on, are you Democrat? Are you blue or red? Yeah, but that's what a campaign's are for. Look, the average voter wants to do the right thing. But how much bandwidths they have for politics? I mean, they got to pay the bills. They got to take care of the kids. Health care. They got to make sure your school businesses are all right. If you have children who are school age, I mean, there's just so many things they have to do. That's our job. That's partly why we're here.
That's why you're doing a public service by asking this question to let that... That's what campaigns are for. It seems like... They're sort of making it sort of this binary choice between social issues or pocketbook issues. And if you're going to go for the social issues, then you're going to take a hit on the pocket. If you're going to vote for pocketbook issues, you're going to lose all the social issues. But that's not...
But here's the truth. The truth is, almost all the rational positions on social issues and on those issues that are, like, unions, for example, they all, in fact, grow the economy if you do the right thing. They grow the economy. They grow the economy. The economy grew under Bill. It grew under Joe. It grew under me. And the reason it grows is when everybody's got a stake. When everybody's making money. Morale. When people are getting paid decent wages, they have decent benefits.
They feel better. They go shopping. They might even listen to this podcast. They're going to be pretty bored. But the point is that American economic history shows, whenever prosperity is broadly based, and all of us ran campaigns with this basic premise, that if you give everybody a fair shot, everybody does better. So this whole idea that we've got to somehow make it great again is a fallacy. It's such a joke. Because we've never been in better air. And please, my next question, die hard.
Is it a Christmas movie? I'm kidding. If there... A present Biden, if you could resurrect one person from the past to come hang out in the Oval Office, you update them on the current state of things, what's their advice? Who would you bring in to give you some perspective on? It'd be hard choice for me between Lincoln, because we are such a divided nation and how he dealt with it. And possibly Roseville. But look, I think that the country is a much better shape than we're talking about it.
Not only fun, it is. When we have the best economy in the world, the strongest one in the world. Everybody knows how China is going to eat our lunch. Notice who China is coming to talk to all the time now. The idea that Russia was going to... I want to tell you a quote. I got a call from Dr. Kissinger before he died. And I asked him to give him a call. And he said the following thing. He said, you know, he said, not since Napoleon, has Europe not looked over its shoulder, Russia was dreaded.
And then you guys came along, your strength and netty, you expanded it, and that's changed. You've changed it all. Well, this guy's changed it all, but he doesn't care. He doesn't care. And that's what the rest of the world looks at. It says, do you have any interest in our concern? Can you imagine us being able to avoid a European war? Can you imagine us why the hell we set up NATO in the first place? Can you imagine what we're... I mean, there's... He has no sense of anything.
He doesn't believe in anything. We know that, right? There's no... He believes in one thing. He believes in selling what he's going to benefit him personally. Right. I do think that there's one other thing. You're talking about Jason's social issues versus economic issues. And why is it that sometimes things look good, but people don't feel good all the time? Part of it is, as I said before, things are changing. Folks are nervous.
But underneath all the polarization that people are getting through with the economic talk and social media and cable news, Bill's point about the average person just wanted to do the right thing. They actually don't want folks arguing all the time. They're really not looking for sort of a death match on every single issue. They'd like to see people treating each other decently. They don't want to go to Walmart and argue with their neighbor. Or if you're in a little league, right?
And you're sending your kids soccer game. And you got the parent next to you. You want to talk about kids and soccer. And I do think that underneath all this demonization and anger that people make money off of and that gets a lot of clicks, people do want to see some decency and common sense. And I think Joe represents that. And his administration represents that.
And if we can break through all of us doing the work of a campaign just to remind folks of what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature, then I think we're going to be okay. But the challenge we've got is anger and resentment and calling people names gets more attention. And we do have to... One thing we do have to... I'm not sure Jason that in order to do the show, the performance you talked about, that it has to be pugilistic, that it has to be hitting the other guy in the nose.
It does have to be entertaining. You do have to be able to build Joe, when I'm doing okay. It's about telling stories that people can relate to. People can't relate to facts and numbers and figures as much as they can relate to stories. And to people... That's what people relate to. And that performing by telling people stories, reminding them who they are, what family means to them, what it means to struggle and overcome.
Joe, you know, what he had to overcome in terms of getting where he was, Bill, a master storyteller, talking about what it was like, growing up, single mom, Arkansas. And those are the things that really, I think, resonate with people. And if we can get more of that instead of the kind of name calling that we're seeing out here, I think we'll do okay. That's why you let people know you understand what their concerns are. Look, I mean, think about it. Everybody's gone through some tough times.
But one of the things, my dad used to have an expression, swear to God. He said, Joey, your job's about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's being able to look at your kid in the eye and say, that's the three of us have tried to do. Look, if you want to be, if you can earn a billion bucks and you do it legally, great, I'm a capitalist fine. Just start paying your damn taxes. You know what a billionaire is paying taxes?
There's it. Why do we have just one example that you're extreme? We have a thousand billionaires in America right now. If they pay to 25%, instead of 8.2% what they pay now, just 25% that raise $400 million or the next billion dollars or the next 10 years. We could take care of childcare, which increases productivity. We could take care of elder care. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. We're going to grow 25. Why don't they pay 40? Look, here's a deal. Everyone else is paying. Now who's Canadian?
Yeah. No, no, but I'm just making the point that you don't have to be extreme and anything to get this done. Don't forget that Trump's dad once said, get that family out of 14G. Listen. Listen. If this comes out, and we, and it's helpful at all, is there a chance that the three of us could be on a bill of your designation as President Biden? Maybe a special $250 bill or something? Something like that. Oh, I see. Our dumb faces on it. Think about it. Don't give us an answer.
We'll see you with inaugurations. $3 bill. $3 bill. Thank you. Well, I've been called that square as a $3 bill. But anyway. Honestly, and listen, we've taken up way too much your time. You gentlemen are very, very busy. We thank you. We really, really are. Thank you. Thank you. Just moving to be part of the three of us. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much. It's really important. Appreciate you. Thank you, Jess. Thank you. Have a great time. Thank you. Have fun tonight. All right, guys.
Wow. Oh, boy. That was cool. That was. That happened right there. I'm very proud of us for keeping it together. Keeping it classy. How are you feeling? How are you guys feeling about it? That's crazy, right? Yeah. And what's that happened? I feel very, I feel like I'm in good hands, right? When I'm around those guys. Absolutely. Boy. Anyway, that was a real privilege for the three of us. I agree. I hope our listeners enjoyed that as much as we did. A respective of your political affiliation.
Being able, you know, three knuckleheads like us, and across from three leaders of the free world is nothing the three of us ever expected we'd be able to do. Absolutely. So, absolutely. Thank you guys as a historical enabling that. Yeah. How about the Secret Service people on the way in and on the world? And on the way. Sean was disappointed because he'd heard he was having the impression that we were going to have a visit to the Secret Circus. And he thought that that was the thing.
He thought that there was a secret. Yeah. And so he thought. I bought peanuts. I got like, he wanted to see bears running bicycles. I'm like, I could see that at home for free. So. Wait. So let me ask you guys, were you, were you nervous? Because at the beginning of it, I remember saying, I thought it'd be more nervous, but because they're so relaxed. And I feel like, you know, they just speak so free. You feel like you can not, you're connected with them.
That I, I, the nerves went away a little. They're very good at disarming the, the, the, the, the folks that are sitting across from them. They were, they were very chillaxed. I found them to be very chillaxed. And that's how I described. I was, I was, but then when I wasn't talking, I was nervous. And I was listening to you guys. I was like, I gotta say, I felt pretty chillaxed. Like I, and I know, you know, you know, one more time I'm going to hang up. I'm going to hang up.
I want it back in that. By the way, I think it was you that explained to me what the Netflix and chill phrase is. I never knew what the hell that meant. It annoyed me quite a bit. But then was it you that told me it's code for having sex? Is that right? Well, I don't know if I want to get into more like the fact that you're a dad or that we're back in 2017. I don't know which one I want to hit first. You know, by the way, you guys heard this band public enemy. Fuck me, man. This is a group.
I do want to say with the presidency, it was incredible. You know, and I mentioned this too, which was that the one thing that you can't deny, no matter where you are on the sort of political spectrum, if you will, is that under President Biden, the jobs numbers have been incredible. And I think that he has earned the moniker. Yeah. Joe Jobs. Joe Jobs. He is Joe Jobs. That's great. That is great. That's great. Yeah, Joe Jobs. Yeah. Joey Jobinstein. Sure. Yeah, sure.
Whatever you want, Joey. Joey Job. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Job is great. I love that. Well, because what unemployment is at a 50 year low, right? Yeah. I think we covered the economies at an all time high. It really is. Meaning inflation is going to work itself out, but that's not his fault at all. No. That was something that the COVID and the whole, all that's other stuff, I'm not smart enough to describe.
No, and we never went into that recession that they thought would happen in that, and that a lot of that was due to, due to supply chain stuff issues, et cetera, et cetera. So we're definitely back on, but the one thing that you can't argue with is, is the jobs, like these jobs, just irrefutable, right? So again, I don't care where you fall. I'm not saying he's better than your guy or your guy, whatever.
I mean, he is, but what I'm saying is, whether you're a Republican or Democrat, you need a job. And he's, he's the guy that's bringing it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you have Obama and Clinton, and then we used this one before, but it's pretty beautiful. Go ahead, Sean. And when Biden, Biden, and Biden, and Biden, and Biden, your jobs. Smart. Smart. Smart. Blast. Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Rob Armjurf, Bennett Barbaco, and Michael Granterry.
Smart. Blast. If you like Smartless, you can listen early and add free right now by joining OneDri Plus in the OneDri app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen and add free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at OneDri.com slash survey. Hello, I'm Johnny Knoxville. And I'm Elna Baker, and we have a new podcast that's called Pretty Sure I Can Fly.
Yep, we've teamed up with my friends and bar mates from Smartless to create a podcast where we talk to folks who have more balls in a bowl in Allen. People who accomplished something extraordinary despite people telling them that it couldn't or shouldn't be done. You'll hear stories about the Air Force doctor who buckled into a 600 mile per hour rocket sled and became the fastest man on the planet. And a man who wrestles alligators and sharks for fun. Do not do this.
You'll hear about a foul mouth moonshiner. Got a two inch deck and a six inch tongue and know how to use both of them. And an even more foul mouthed female stump pilot. We got bowl writers. Balloonists. Bob Sletters. And big wave servers. People who lay their balls on an amble and hand the other fellow the hammer. I bet you've actually done that, Johnny. Maybe for sweeps. Follow pretty sure I can fly on the Wondery app. Or wherever you get your podcast.
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