Do you all remember when Hillary Clinton picked Tim Kine to be her running mate. That was something It was something pretty boring, It was something pretty ineffective. Cain was kind of an obscure member of the Senate. He was not particularly well known or noteworthy on the national stage. I think the pick of Cain was kind of a surprise to people in twenty sixteen. Virginia was not really
viewed as a battleground state. Trump wound up surprisingly making it competitive, but nobody, you know, thought of Virginia as a swing state. He was portrayed as a moderate, but was you know, still able to have Republicans kind of ding him for voting for Democrats with Democrats most of the time. He was kind of milk toast. He was kind of boring. There wasn't really a whole heck of a lot to say about him, and I don't think anyone really thought of that as an inspired pick by
Hillary Clinton. But it was also, I think a thing where this is not someone who is going to be threatening to Hillary. I think Tim Waltz, the governor of Minnesota, is the next Tim Kane, only I think possibly worse. I think he's he can very easily be painted as a much more radically left wing figure than Kine. I think it's going to be very hard to portray Waltz
as moderate. The only reason I think Democrats will be able to portray Waltz as a moderate Democrat is because he is an old, overweight white guy from the Midwest. They're kind of banking on you looking at him and saying, well, he's an old, fat white guy from the Midwest. Old fat white guys from the Midwest generally are not radical liberals.
An old fat white guy from the Midwest who's wearing a suit in every photo of him, I guess Michael Moore was an old fat is an old fat white guy from the Midwest, but he never wears a suit. So I think people assume that, well, here's this old fat white guy from the Midwest. He wears a suit. Like, what percentage of that demographic is a radical liberal? But Waltz is radically liberal. He's radically pro transgenderism, he's radically pro abortion, he's radically oversaw. He was governor during the
twenty twenty George Floyd riots. So if you don't like how the George Floyd post George Floyd riots went in Minnesota. He's the guy to blame. Gosh. I just think it's such a weak selection, and I think what's happening here, though, is a couple of different things. One is, I think this is the Democrats really not wanting to deal with the question of Israel and Palestine and how that issue is going to be sorted out within the Democrat electorate.
Harris has I think, very deliberately signaled a kind of ambiguity. Democrats realized with Biden was too old. He was perceived as two pro Israel. All these young Democrats were fleeing from him. They brought in Harris. Harris immediately did a couple of strategic things to sort of signal she might be more pro Palestinian than Biden. There were reports that went out saying that she wasn't going to bring back Jake Sullivan and Anthony Blincoln and the Biden foreign policy crew.
Some report that she she refused to show up for Benjamin Netna Who's address before the Joint Session of Congress, even though she's President of the Senate and that would have been appropriate for her to go. She deliberately did not go. She clearly made that choice, but still she hasn't actually really openly signaled any big break from the Biden administration's policy. So I think she's threaded the needle perfectly.
Older white Democrats still like her, but she is sort of reeled back the younger, more pro Palestinian Democrats who were sick and tired and fed up with genocide Joe Biden picking Waltz rather than the much more obvious choice Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, who I was hoping against Hope. I was desperately hoping she would not pick Shapiro. I was desperately hoping she wasn't going to pick Shapiro. Why because I think if she picked Shapiro, she'd win
the election. I think it would guarantee that she's gonna win Pennsylvania because he's actually been a fairly popular governor. After the shooting in Butler, after President Trump's near assassination, Shapiro actually gave a press conference. He's the governor of Pennsylvania. The attempted presidential assassination happened in his state, and he gave a great press conference heralding the heroism of Corey Comparatore, the Trump's supporter in the crowd or fire chief who
died in the shooting protecting his family. He gave a great press conference honoring the guy, said that the flags need to be flown at half staff in his honor. Uh talked about a horrible thing. This what he was
great and he's a great speaker. He's relatively young. I think a lot of people were looking at him as like, well, why don't you know when when it was clear that Biden was going to drop out, a lot of people were saying, well, why not have an open Democrat convention process and maybe see if this guy wants to be the presidential nominee? What why why just coronate? Why just have this be a coronation for Kamala Harris? Why not
have this guy do it? A lot of people were saying, I feel like Trump when I say a lot of a lot of people are saying it. Very many people, the best people are saying that. A lot of people are saying, so why do they not pick Josh Shapiro cause he's Jewish and he supports Israel And that's kind of sort of an issue for a lot of people on the left.
They're not very happy with that.
And there was that story that he had volunteered for the IDF when he was like twenty or something.
I mean, like.
Not the There is this undercurrent of where support for the support for Palestinian statehood and opposition to quote, the Israeli state.
And its colonial activity.
It's a very fine line where you go from anti Zionism.
I e.
The idea of a Jewish state in Palestine to flat out anti Semitism. I feel like it's very easy to cross the line from one to the other. And frankly, Democrats have a problem with that that there is a enough of a group of voters for whom that's a big deal, and specifically there's some voters in Michigan and some voters in Minnesota for whom that's an issue. Dearborn Michigan, very heavy Muslim population, various quarters of Minnesota, big Somali population,
very pro Palestine, not very pro Israel. It's frankly, it's a very awkward situation for Democrats because I think if you take away the whole Israel Jewish connection and you're just looking at Waltz on the one hand and Shapiro on the other hand, it's clear whom you would have chosen. Shapiro is younger, he's a better speaker, he's more charismatic. His state is a much more critical swing state that is much more decisive for the outcome of the election.
He's got much more of a future in American politics than Waltz does. And maybe that last point is the other dynamic. So I do think the Jewish thing is a real thing. I do wonder also, though, if Waltz being older and being non threatening could be a thing. Look, Harris just showed that a vice president can upset a
president and become the nominee over the president. Now, in fairness, that was a kind of an extraordinary circumstance where it only happened because the president was so senile, obviously senile and old, and so obviously unable to win, that the donors had an intervention. But we've now demonstrated that this is a thing. And I think, much like Hillary, Harris picks someone who wasn't threatening, I mean, Shapiro. If you're gonna put Harris and Shapiro's side by side, that's the thing.
Harris is not that bright, or at the very least, she certainly doesn't come off that way when she doesn't have a teleprompter in front of her, and the two of them sitting side by side, it kind of becomes obvious which of the two is the more impressive person with Waltz. Look, this is that's what Walls is. Minnesota is a pretty darn liberal state. It's kind of closer to being a swing state this time around, maybe, but Democrats should win Minnesota. They should win Minnesota every year.
Ronald Reagan didn't even win Minnesota in a state where he won forty nine out of fifty state in the nineteen eighty four election, when Ronald Reagan won forty nine out of fifty states, the one state he didn't win was Minnesota. Democrats should win Minnesota. And it's basically this. If you run a cardboard box with the letter D on it in the governor's race for governor of Minnesota, nine times out of ten that cardboard box is going
to win. Tim Waltz is that cardboard box. Basically, he is just the general manifestation of Democratic Party policies, all of the run of the mill Democrat Party policies. He's super pro trans, super pro abortion, super pro this bro that he does what Planned Parenthood wants.
He does what.
He's just pretty darn average. He is an average, unremarkable liberal. He's a big, big, fat guy in a suit. He's just not anything to write home about. He's not the most charismatic guy in the world. He's the kind of guy who can win governor of Minnesota and probably can't ever become president. He's just one of those guys, like kind of like Scott Walker, the former governor of Wisconsin. There's a time when every conservative America was like, Oh,
Scott Walker, he's so amazing. Oh, this guy is gonna be the next president. Oh, he's so amazing as governor of Wisconsin. Then he gets on the debate stage in twenty sixteen, Everyone's like, this guy's pretty boring.
That's Tim Walls.
Okay, He's just nothing to write home about. So I think this is really a pick from a position of weakness on Harris's part. Harris is trying to avoid problems rather than hit home runs. She's trying to draw a walk rather than hit a home run. She wants a pick who's not going to do anything that detracts from her campaign.
She's playing it safe. Waltz has not much to.
Ding him for, although he does have the George Floyd riots, but maybe she just figures, Look, the media is not going to talk about that at all. There's not much hay Republicans are going to be able to make. It was too long ago. No one's going to care. Waltz was re elected governor of Minnesota after the George Floyd riots, so it's going to be really hard to ding him for, Oh, look how terribly you handled the George floy You let
Minneapolis burn. He can say, well, apparently the people in Manyapolis thought I did a find job, you know, a good enough job that it wasn't my fault, because they immediately re elected me in twenty twenty two, after all the George Floyd riots in twenty twenty.
So, I don't know.
I I find it to be a this is a play it safe pick on Harris's part. It's not a home run swing. And I guess I just wonder. I wonder about the inevitability fact. Maybe I'm giving into despair. But when we return, how I fear this is just becoming another twenty twenty Next on the John Girardi Show, I just want to express my fear.
And before you say, stop talking light there. You're playing into their hits.
Guys, I'm a local radio host in president California. Pretty sure my fear is not going to lead to the outcome of the election changing. Okay, So don't conflate my expressing these views on the radio with something that's actually.
Having a national impact.
All Right, this is my fear, and it could be just I'm a prisoner of the moment.
It could just be.
Democrats are excited for the first time in months because they were able to ditch their obviously senile candidate for someone younger, and she's getting a bump in the polls because of that. And we're in the bump. Okay, we're at the bump. Things will regulate after the Democrat convention in August. Things will regulate and course correct in September, and Trump will kind of come back up in the polls,
and that's where the election will be. Harris will still not be able to shake the reality that this is not a great presidency for her to run on. She is the incumbent, she is the vice president of this administration. In this administration has overseen a pretty cruddy economy that the fundamentals of this election are still pretty strongly in Trump's favor. Biden did not do a great job. Harris inherits the blame for Biden. The economy is bad, all this stuff is happening, okay, And yet, and yet I
still kind of fear a couple of things. I fear the way that Harris is just not being asked any questions whatsoever. She's just cruising. No media has asked her any questions about all the issues she's flip flopped on. No media has asked her any questions about anything dodgy in her past. She's just kind of of running what a lot of people are identifying. This is a rerun
of the twenty twenty campaign strategy. Joe Biden was sitting in his basement in Delaware, campaigning via zoom, not being interviewed by a bunch of reporters, not having to ask a bunch of tough questions. He pops in for a couple debate performances where he did okay, not great, but okay. Trump was a little too aggressive, yelled, came off bad, and Biden wins. It's close enough that you know, if there is Democrat vote, Shenanigans.
Close enough that they could win.
I'm just afraid that that's kind of the trajectory we're on.
That's my fear that Harris has brought back enough Democrats who are like abandoning the Biden Ship that they're gonna have enough of a critical mass of votes to keep it close enough that they could use their sort of advantages, not even the flat out cheating, but like, you know, the kind of the zuck Bucks stuff where they put all kinds of Zuckerberg funded election volunteer people to sort of just purely there to get out the vote in you know, Democrat heavy urban centers and swing states.
I just have this.
Strong sense that we're heading towards a similar conclusion. And the big wild card.
That I just.
It's still looming is Trump is going to get sentenced in September for the prosecution in Manhattan his conviction. He was found guilty by the jury in Manhattan for falsification of business records.
Again.
You know, we've talked about this a number of times on the show. I think that the whole charge was ridiculous. I think the conviction was ridiculous. I think the jury instructions by the judge the whole time were ridiculous. I think the judge should have recused himself. This is a judge who was a Biden donor, small dollar donor whose daughter had worked for various Democrat campaign causes the whole thing stank to high heaven. But Trump's gonna.
Get sentenced, and what if he sentenced to go to jail. It's not like Biden is gonna pardon him. Biden can't pardon him. It's a New York state crime.
It's not Kathy Hockcule is gonna pardon him. And I think the media has already effectively memory hold the assassin, the assassination attempt. It's like it never happened, Like like the media has moved on. Nobody talks about it. Nobody talks about the fact that one of the two major presidential candidates almost got assassinated, was like two centimeters away from getting his brains blown out. It's like it it never happened. It's not the biggest story. It was not the biggest story of July.
It just wasn't.
As far as the amount of press coverage, Biden dropping became the bigger story. And basically the media just decided showing pictures from the Butler shooting. They couldn't do its disinformation basically purely on the basis that Trump looked so cool and reacted in such an awesome way that it's basically a Trump campaign ad just to show the pictures. That's basically in the media's reasoning for why they don't want to keep showing pictures from the camp from the assassination.
Like the AP had one of their leading photo editors say that this is basically propagandizing to show this photo.
What do you mean if propaganda?
Yeah, sorry, that he reacted in such a totally badass way. Now, that's my fear is that the media is so all in. They've basically hugely weakened all of them. All of the Republican critiques against Biden as being too old, which were enormously successful, they've taken those all off the table for some reason. Even still right now, it's almost like Republicans arguing, hey, Kamala Harris should be held responsible for the fact that Biden is still president, like is he even competent to
be president? And she's still covering up how senile he is, And it's like nobody cares all those stories that were being leaked about how senile Biden was all of a sudden, those none of those stories are coming out anymore. We're just gonna pretend like there's nothing wrong with the president, that he didn't drop out because he was senile. So I don't know, I just feel like there's this sense of inevitability that the media so firmly controls the narratives,
is so firmly influencing people. And plus I mean, just anecdotally I'm hearing from it. Just Harris got so much money in the immediate aftermath of Biden dropping out, and she's running ad after ad after ad after ad all over the country, and I'm not seeing any Trump ads. I'm seeing people complaining about this in Pennsylvania, like where are the Trump ads. I don't know, I'm just not
confident in the Trump team's strategy. I think the whole idea of trying to nitpick whether Harris is authentically black or she's presenting herself as more Asian, Like even if that's true, it was so stupid, like there was no way you were gonna win that there was just no way, Like I guess I really get the sense that Republicans have no idea how they're supposed to attack Harris, which it boggles my mind given that she seems so eminently attackable.
She's flip flopped every position she's had. She was one of the most liberal members of the US Senate. She was an aggressively left wing California Attorney general. Like there are so many things to dinger for, just say she wanted to ban fracking. She wanted to ban fracking. She's only flip flopping because she's trying to win Pennsylvania, like it's easy.
And I just feel like Republicans are gonna lose it.
And I feel like Trump's going to turn to his more destructive tendencies of saying unhelpful things because he's never really been able to control himself. I don't know, I just I feel like there's this inevitable trend. All right, when we return, I want to talk about Kamala Harris's husband, Doug m Hoff, and that story, Yes, the story with the nanny next on the John Girardi Show. Doug m Hoff, the husband of Kamala Harris, has had quite the news
cycle just over the last weeks. Amazingly that this news cycle didn't happen when Harris was picked as Joe Biden's vice presidential nominee back in twenty twenty.
But you know, the media was too busy.
Not covering anything negative about the Biden's or the Harrises or Harris slash m Hoff. So. M Hoff was married previously and got divorced, and he got divorced in part because he cheated on his wife. He had an affair with the couple's nanny, nanny who was babysitting their kids. Less talked about in the whole thing is that the nanny got pregnant and did not keep the baby. That is a euphemism for saying that the baby was aborted. Em Hoff has a long track record as the second
dude or the second gentleman. I guess, as you know, first lady and second lady when you're the wife of the president or vice president, and I guess first or second gentleman will be the title for the husband of the president or vice president should the president and vice president be a woman. So his technical name is the
second gentleman. M Hoff is sort of a public figure, not as dominant as Jill Biden, but somewhat you know one click below, and was very vocal, among other things, in supportive abortion Rights has tweets and things like that to crying the overturning of Robi Wade, very supportive of his wife's pro abortion efforts, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. This sort of combined with a recent statement by Pete Boodhagige,
the Transportation Secretary. So there was a recent zoom call White Guys for Kamala Harris where a bunch of white guys talked about how horrible their white privilege was and says how say talked about how important it was to support Kamala Harrisy at all these prominent white liberal democrats talking about how wonderful Kamala Harris was and raising money on a big zoom call, and Pete Bootage spoke during it and talked about how abortion rights help men to
be more or free legal abortion helps men to be more free. A curious comment. More free? How more free?
Why? More free? For what?
And it gets to an ugly part of the abortion debate that I think is not talked about enough and needs comment, and that is.
How often.
Abortion is not a tool for women's freedom or women's choice. In fact, most of the research indicates that the vast majority of women who choose abortion are not doing so from a position of great freedom or choice. In fact, about sixty to seventy percent depending on the survey. The
most recent survey indicates it's about seventy percent. Seventy percent of women report that their abortions were against their preference, that the abortion was against the preference of the woman having the abortion, meaning I would rather keep this baby, but I feel constrained by my financial situation. I would rather keep this baby, but my partner does not want me to keep the baby. I would rather keep this baby, but my family does not want me to keep the baby.
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We a Right to Life of Central California have encountered this directly. You know, we have our sidewalk ministry where we're interacting with couples going in and out of playing PARENTID and we have not infrequently seen situations where this says, well, my boyfriend really wants me to have this abortion. I don't know, but my boyfriend's really pushing me to have this abortion, and the boyfriend's like, she's having this abortion. Is that choice?
Is that freedom? And it's not necessarily outright coercion, but there's pressure, there's implicit threat, especially in a non marital situation, of I really don't want you to have this baby, and if you do, I'm out of here. The fact of the matter is that abortion is very often a tool, more so for men's freedom than women's. It's a tool for men to have the freedom not to take responsibility for their actions. It's a tool for men to have the freedom to avoid the natural outcome of their own
irresponsible behavior. And there are other prominent examples of this in American public life. The journalist Jeffrey Tubin, before he was caught trying to pleasure himself during a zoom call with his colleagues from The New Yorker, had a whole incredibly messy affair where he had a relationship with the daughter of one of his work colleagues and then tried
to pressure her to have an abortion. And for all the rhetoric about women's choice and all the rhetoric about female autonomy and autonomy over our bodies and my body, my choice, choice, choice, choice, choice, choice, we overlooked seventy percent of women who have abortions.
It's not their first choice.
It's not the choice they will they want to make, and we somehow allow men like Doug m Hoff, like Jeffrey Tubin to exist in society and to exist as people offering their opinions on this topic without laughing or far worse, laughing or shaming or running them out of polite public society. This is like we talk about cancel culture and how much I despise that term. I think the term cancel culture is stupid. All cultures cancel. It's actually correct to cancel things that are really really bad.
That there are all kinds of things in our culture and society that rightly are not allowed within polite society. Okay, you know, being a neo Nazi cancelable activity. That's a good standard. Being a neo Nazi, or even an old school not a paleo Nazi, whatever, any form of Nazism bad cancelable. If I come on this radio show and talk about how wonderful Adolf Hitler was and how I keep, you know, a copy of mindcom by my bedside, I'm not going to have this radio show very long. And
that's probably the best thing. That's a very good, wise decision on the part of iHeartMedia. They make that decision. Okay,
so we should cancel certain kinds of behavior. How is it in our society that men, powerful men who behave irresponsibly cheat on their wife, gets some other woman pregnant and then she has an abortion, conveniently getting rid of a responsibility for this man who behaved in such an irresponsible way, And then that man later on has the gall to talk about how important abortion rights are for freedom. What a self interested piece of.
Word. I can't say on the radio. It is so revolting.
And yet conservative men are the ones who aren't allowed to talk about abortion. Oh, conservative men are the ones who want to quote control women's bodies, not the men who pressure women to get abortions because they don't want
to be responsible. But no, it's the conservative men who say, I believe that every single human life, mom and baby has infinite value, That we cannot directly kill, that we cannot put enmity between babies and society, That we cannot look at the direct, active killing of another human being as the solution to societal problems like poverty or lack of health care access, or a difficult relationship or whatever
it is. That killing cannot be the solution in this case that I have nothing but love and care and affection and a desire to help both the mom and the baby. But no, I want to control women's bodies. I conservative, pro life man. I want to control women's bodies. No uterus, no opinion, Get your rosary off my ovaries. But a piece of you know what, like Doug Emhoff who knocks up the babysitter, recks his marriage, and then the babysitter has an abortion.
Oh, his opinion on abortion.
This rich, powerful white guy who is benefiting tremendously from the avoidance of responsibility that abortion represents. Oh, he gets to talk about abortion because he's the one who really cares about women, Right, he's the one who really cares. I realize this won't be a big electoral issue. I don't think Republicans are going to be able to make much hay out of this, because God knows, the minute
Republicans start talking about abortion, they screw it up. God knows they won't be able to actually articulate this well. But someone like Doug Emhoff should be more than laughed out of polite society. He should be driven out of polite society on a rail he should be tarred and feathered and put on a rail out. It's so revolting, it's so disgusting. It shows how the pro choice left is just a complete fraud. It's so fraudulent in its claims of caring for women when they allow that that's
what abortions about. When men like Doug m Hoff benefit from abortion in this way, it's disgusting. All right, calm down and we'll lend the show on. We're gonna add to a hard transition in the next segment. All right, when we return some lighter fare, I'll talk about my pet peeves while watching the Olympics.
That is next on the John Girardi Show. All right, just do it, a big palette.
Cleanse after that segment about Doug em Hooff, jesuise, what a revolting person he is.
All right, I want to talk about the Olympics.
So a pole vaulter, a Swedish pole vaulter, just set the world record. This guy named Mondo Duplantis set the world record in the pole vault, wins gold medal, sense sets a world record. He is representing the nation of Sweden.
NBC then proceeds to do like they do their their sort of primetime you know, Olympics coverage, and they have interspersed with you know, it's all pre recorded stuff from earlier in the day, and they're sort of showing, oh, here's the gymnastics, here's of this, and in between some of the actual sports, they have these sort of little puff pieces about like, oh, this is you know, this is so and so, so and so she's from you know, she's from Manhattan, Kansas and she grew up always dreaming
that she would be a pole vaulter and blah blah blah blah blah, and she went to Kansas State and here's her family. And they do a lot of these sort of puff pieces about the athletes and talking about their backgrounds and their family and interviewing people and it's very nice. So they do this about this Swedish Swedish pole vaulter. This kid was born and raised in Louisiana. He went to LSU. He was born in Louisiana. Not only did he go to LSU, both of his parents
were athletes at LSU. I guess his mom is Swedish, so he allegedly has dual citizenship. He decided to pull vault for Sweden because apparently the US Olympic Committee wouldn't let his parents be his coach, so he abandons the US of A. And this kid was like name like the Louisiana Gatorade Boys Track and Field Athlete Superstar of the Year. If you're from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and you're pole vaulting over alligators, you are not allowed to pull vault for Sweden.
I'm sorry.
And there are a bunch of these Olympic athletes who are all born in America and for some reason or other, maybe get in a fight with the US Olympic Committee or this or that they're representing other countries during the Olympics.
I am sick of this. I'm sick of these Benedict Arnolds.
Like, look, if they want to go do that, fine, but NBC stop doing puff pieces on these Benedict Arnold traders going and pull vaulting for Sweden. I guess he does have dual citizenship, but the kid was born in Louisiana, went to LSU. That medal should count for the United States. Sick and tired of this jingoistic John Girardi coming out during the Olympics. That'll do it for the John Girardi Show. See you next time on Power Talk