The Darrell McClain show
Independent media that won't reinforce tribalism. We have one Planet; nobody's leaving so let’s reason together!! Darrell, McClain is a Military veteran with an abnormal interest in politics, economics, religion, philosophy, science, and literature. He was born and raised in Jacksonville FL, and went to Edward H white High School where he wrestled Under Coach Jermy Smith and The Late Brian Gilbert. He was a team wrestling captain, District champion, and an NHSCA All-American in freestyle Wrestling. He received a wrestling scholarship from Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa. After a short period, he decided he no longer wanted to cut weight which effectively ended his college wrestling journey. Darrell Mcclain is an Ordained Pastor under The Universal Life Church and is still in good standing, he's a Believer in The Doctrines of Grace Also Known as Calvinism. He joined the United States Navy in 2008 and was A Master At Arms (military police officer) He was awarded several awards while on active duty including an expeditionary combat medal, a Global War on Terror medal, a National Defense Medal, a Korean defense medal, and multiple Navy achievement medals. While In the Navy he was also the assistant wrestling coach at Robert E Lee High School. He's a Brown Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under six six-degree black belt Gustavo Machado, Darrell Trains At Gustavo Machado Norfolk under the 3rd-degree black belt, and Former Marine Professor Mark Sausser. He went to school for psychology at American Military University and for criminal justice at ECPI University.
The Darrell McClain show
2024 Election, Tariffs, and Global Politics
Is the 9-5 workday dead? Join The Darrell McLean Show as we dissect the explosive political landscape leading up to the 2024 election, featuring the closing pitches of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. From Harris's candid sit-down with Charlamagne Tha God to Trump's defense of tariffs on Bloomberg, we challenge typical narratives and explore the potent political messaging at play. We'll also delve into the controversies sparked by former President Barack Obama's comments on voter turnout and the implications for his successor's campaign.
Our conversation takes a closer look at economic policies and their ripple effects on the American economy, with a particular focus on tariffs and manufacturing. Trump’s stance on protecting jobs faces scrutiny alongside the broader challenges of globalization. Meanwhile, peculiar incidents, like Kristi Noem’s rally mishap, offer lighter moments amid heavy economic discourse. We also explore the implications of potential Justice Department actions and the surprising prospects of breaking up tech giant Google.
In a world of shifting geopolitical ties, we pull back the curtain on Bob Woodward’s insights into Trump’s interactions with global leaders, including Vladimir Putin. The episode touches on President Biden's candid frustrations with key figures on the world stage, while National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan provides a nuanced perspective on international strategy and misinformation. As we explore these multifaceted issues, we invite you to question the narratives shaping our political and economic future.
Welcome to the Darrell McLean Show. I'm your host, Darrell McLean. You're listening to episode 428. Let's get into the show. Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are making their closing pitch for the 2024 election. They are starting to make the media rounds and a lot of contentious interviews, of course, have been taking place. Kamala Harris went on the famous show, the Breakfast Club with Charlamagne Tha God, where she had to answer some questions for what the former president, Barack Obama, had done in a campaign rally that I'm going to get into. On the other side of listening to some of these key takeaways, I do want to say President Obama was out there last week waving his finger at black men.
Speaker 2:When are Liz Cheney and Hillary Clinton going to wave their finger at white women? When are Bill Clinton and Joe Biden going to wave their finger at white men? Because 52% of white women voted for Trump in 2016. 55% voted for Trump in 2020. They all voted against their own interests. When are their finger waving going to start?
Speaker 4:at them. Well, thank you for highlighting that. I do have the support of over 200 Republicans who worked for various administrations, including everyone going back to Ronald Reagan, to the Bushes, to John McCain and Mitt Romney, and including Liz Cheney, and I'm very proud to have her support, and I believe that they, who many of them, who may have voted for Trump before are supporting me because they know the stakes are so high in terms of our very democracy and rule of law.
Speaker 2:So the finger wagons should start today or tomorrow.
Speaker 4:Well, I think what is happening is that we are all working on reminding people of what is at stake, and that is very important.
Speaker 1:Let me play a little game here that I just sometimes I call it the Negro whisper game. When Barack Obama was actually president there was it was very contentious among people inside of the black community that they would always say that Obama was grandstanding and lecturing them about things that they were not actually guilty of. The Congressional Black Caucus, for example. When Barack Obama went to them and told them to stop murmuring, stop complaining, put their walking slippers on, take their slippers off, put on their shoes and march, people in the Black Caucus thought that was ridiculous, especially being that you had some of the actual people who have worked on civil rights legislation, who have worked on civil rights legislation including then John Lewis, who has beaten on the Elvis Pettus Bridge right next to Martin Luther King, sitting in the audience, who have been sitting in Congress for years, actually working. So he had stopped walking, he had stopped being a community organizer, a community activist and our civil rights activists, and actually went to the Congress and started writing legislation. So that was seen as somewhat a time where Obama was grandstanding, trying to pretend like legislators weren't legislating, when it was actually policy he just did not want to touch. There was all these other times where any time the Democrats took, as Obama called it, a shellacking, he pointed the fingers right back at his base who had actually voted for him, and not at the larger population of, let's say, hispanics or white working class voters who had not voted for him. I think it's fair to say that anybody can look and see that most black Americans vote for Democrats in large numbers, group who historically always votes for them the most, instead of trying to win over the group of people who historically are swing voters or who historically do not vote for them. I think it was easier to stomach a lot of this stuff when Barack Obama was president and he was pulling in votes for himself. It becomes a lot less salient when Barack Obama is not in the legislature, he's not in the executive branch and he is trying to use a kind of racial, uh camaraderie to get you to vote for someone else, especially when he tossed in to black men in this particular speech that it's not about her, it's not about our policies, uh something, and he said something the line you just don't like women, and I don't know if that was going to pull in the people that he thinks it was going to pull in, and I also think it was somewhat disgusting and weird when you look at the fact that he's talking to a crowd of black voters who are obviously at a Kamala Harris rally because they are more than likely going to vote for her. So to use them as a proxy in order to talk to other people that are not there, I think missed the mark. But we will let you hear that later on and see what your opinion on it is.
Speaker 1:So, of course, if you are familiar with the show, the Breakfast Club, charlemagne Tha God, you can see Charlemagne kind of plays this role of sometime outsider. Sometimes I would categorize him as a resistance type liberal. He's going to talk about Project 2025 a lot and obviously he's on the richer economic side of the black community. So I would say that's why I'd say he's more of a resistance type of liberal. It's very hard to hear or see if he's voting Republican or has voted Republican, especially when I look at the contentious interviews he has when Republicans goes on the Breakfast Club. But I am happy that he does allow people from different sides of the aisle to go on the show. So he did ask her one other question about her. I would just say her repeating herself often are the question of why she's so scripted, and is that genuine?
Speaker 2:Now you know one thing they've been saying a lot of your press is get criticized. You know, folks, that you come off as uh, very scripted. They say you like to stick to your talking points or some media says you have that would be called discipline, oh okay okay, we're going.
Speaker 2:No, okay, some people say you have an inability to fearlessly say who you are and what you believe. I know that's not true, but what do you say to that criticism? And there's a fair for snl to make fun of it. True, but what do you say to that criticism?
Speaker 4:And, as a fan, for us to know, to make fun of it Hasn't Maya Rudolph been wonderful? Yes, I think I have nothing but admiration for the comedy and I think it's important to be able to laugh at yourself and each other. But what? Do you say to people who say that In the spirit of obviously comedy and not belittling people as my opponent would do. But what do?
Speaker 2:you say to people who say you stay on the talking points I would say you're welcome.
Speaker 4:I mean, listen, here's the thing I love having conversations, which is why I'm so happy to be with you this afternoon and the reality is that there are certain things that must be repeated to ensure that I have everyone know what I stand for and the issues that I think are at stake in this election. And so it requires repetition. You know, some people say that until someone has heard the same thing at least three times, it just doesn't stay with you. So repetition is important.
Speaker 1:So in this particular clip, I find it somewhat interesting. I could say I somewhat have mixed feelings on it, because I do think, as a marketing standpoint, of course, it's always good to nail your point home by repeating it over and over again. I think, if we are grading it on a fairness level, when you think about the former president, donald J Trump, especially when it comes to some of his rhetoric, you somewhat know what you're going to get. You kind of know that Donald Trump's going to say somewhat the same things he's been saying since 2016, variations of it, and you know that his supporters are going to like to hear him. As sometimes I say, bring home the hits.
Speaker 1:I think with Kamala Harris, the real problem is not that she's scripted.
Speaker 1:I think sometimes the larger electorate thinks she doesn't have enough scripts. So and what I mean by that is when she has asked something that she does not know, you can somewhat see that she has not thought about it in long form or she has not formulated a policy. Is that completely fair? No, only in the sense that, because the wave of Trump era populism, there is no real policy there. There is just animus about certain issues that are real issues like the border, but not real serious plans that are going to fix or address the issue. There is a lot of bringing up issues. I'm not sure if there are salient policies to fix said issue. So at least I would say, at least I think that both are staying on message. I think the hunger is that people want more substance from these candidates and I don't actually think that they are going to get them. There was one more question in this particular interview that he, charlemagne, asked Kamala Harris about, and that was the case of the border.
Speaker 2:But doesn't the Biden administration have to take some blame for the border though, a lot of the blame, because I mean the first three years y'all did get a lot of things wrong with the border, charlemagne, within hours of being inaugurated, the first bill we passed before we did the Inflation Reduction Act, before we did the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, before we did the Safer.
Speaker 4:Communities Act to deal with gun violence. First thing we dropped was a bill to fix the broken immigration system, which, by the way, trump did not fix when he was president, and you can look at every step along the way. We then tightened up the asylum application process. We then worked with what we needed to do to secure ports of entry. We did a number of things. Congress has to act to fix the immigration system, and it has been broken for a long time. Congress has to act, but it does not help when, finally, a bipartisan group got together to fix it and Donald Trump told them hold on, don't do that, because it won't help me.
Speaker 1:Let's move on to former President Donald Trump, who had a very contentious interview over with with the Bloomberg interviewer about a tariff throwdown, and this was something that got a lot of rounds in the mainstream media.
Speaker 7:You're also talking about 10%, 20% tariffs on the rest of the world. That is going to have a serious effect on the overall economy and, yes, you're going to find some people who will gain from individual tariffs. The overall effect could be massive.
Speaker 3:I agree. I agree it's going to have a massive effect, positive effect. It's going to be a positive not a negative. Well, just Let me just no, no let me, I know how committed you are to this and it must be hard for you to you know. Spend 25 years talking about tariffs has been negative and then have somebody explain to you that you're totally wrong.
Speaker 2:It'll have a negative, it will have 40 40 million jobs.
Speaker 7:There's a lot of jobs to rely on, they're all coming back.
Speaker 3:Those are 40 million jobs.
Speaker 7:Those are 40 million jobs in america that rely on john deere.
Speaker 3:Great, they announced about a year ago they're going to build big plants outside of the United States. They're going to build them in.
Speaker 7:Mexico, they're also going to build these stores. That's right.
Speaker 3:I said if John Deere builds those plants and not selling anything into the United States they just announced yesterday they're probably not going to build the plants I kept the judge.
Speaker 1:So that was in the Chicago Economic Forum, which is Bloomberg, and I don't know if you heard the last portion of that when they were talking about John Deere tractors. And that was when there was a plant somewhere where they were talking about leaving the country, moving the country somewhere else, and Donald Trump had threatened them and said he would basically put tariffs on the company so high that they wouldn't make a profit or that he would try to outright ban them from being able to sell those in America. And they changed course and, of course, if that is true they changed course, you can say that he saved those jobs. This is something we have to discuss, which is a larger question of what actually happened to American manufacturing, and, of course, my answer would say that American manufacturing took a big hit because American business owners, who don't think of capital as being patriotic, but more as capital just being global, that a lot of the American manufacturers took their ball and put it in other countries because they wanted to have cheaper production costs and a lot of that production costs were the labor groups are also known as workers, so they wanted to pay workers lower wages and they wanted to skate a lot of the safety regulatory restrictions that they think make their jobs harder in the United States.
Speaker 1:In the United States, and that is going to always be something that each generation is going to have to deal with when you have an economy in any place that is built on manufacturing, they will always have a bit of a gun to the head of the worker and to the larger American economic system. If the company can always just pick up their ball and take it to another country because they have less strenuous rules than we have in America or because they don't have to pay wages the types of wages that we have in America, the minimum wage in America at this very moment, federal minimum age, is $7.25. On the hunt to find another country that wants to pay someone a lot cheaper than that, I really start to question. I would just say what your main goal is. If it's not anything other than maximizing profits at the and with the American worker kind of left holding the bag but that's another conversation for another day, justice.
Speaker 7:Department is thinking about breaking up Alphabet, as Google likes to be known. Now, should Google be broken up?
Speaker 3:I just haven't gotten over something the Justice Department did yesterday where Virginia cleaned up its voter rolls and got rid of thousands and thousands of bad votes and the Justice Department sued them that they should be allowed to put those bad votes and illegal votes back in and let the people vote. So I haven't gotten over that. A lot of people have seen that they can't even believe it.
Speaker 7:The question is about Google, President Trump.
Speaker 3:Yeah, look, google's got a lot of power. They're very bad to me, very, very bad to me. I mean I can speak from that standpoint. She's been very, very bad to Israel and she's been very bad to Jewish people and I say it If anybody I know is Jewish and they would vote for.
Speaker 3:Kamala over me. They should have their head examined. If any senior doesn't vote for Trump, we're going to have to send you to a psychiatrist to have your head examined. I'll tell you what any African-American or Hispanic and you know how well I'm doing there that votes for Kamala, you know how well I'm doing there that votes for Kamala you got to have your head examined because they are really screwing you. They are really screwing you.
Speaker 1:There was another clip that was making the rounds that just because it's not audio friendly, I can't really play it, but I'll just describe it. And that was this rally that Trump was at with the governor, kristi Noem, and there was a portion where it looked like she had said something like do you want us to play your songs? And I think what was supposed to happen was that former president was supposed to, while the songs were playing, was supposed to go out in the audience, or maybe people were supposed to come on stage and give him a meet and greet, and what ended up happening was, for around 30 minutes, the former president stood on stage and they just played music and he just stood there as kind of doing the Trump dance, fist waving dance, and, of course, the media had a lot of fun with that clip. It looked like that not only did the former president not necessarily know what to do, but there was a failing among the staff because they didn't do anything about it. They didn't bring anybody for him to meet, they didn't. It was just kind of a former president up there, uh shaking, uh shaking his fist, dancing around, uh, vibing out to some of his favorite songs for about 30 minutes and, um, um, surprisingly enough, a lot of people actually stayed to to watch that. I'm not sure if I would ever be interested in an event from any politician who's just going to dance around on stage for 30 minutes. I came to hear any policy prescriptions, but Trump giveth and Trump taketh away. When it comes to some of the entertainment type of aspects of him versus some things that do scare a lot of people, type of aspects of him versus some things that do scare a lot of people.
Speaker 1:I'm going to do um, a bit more of these uh clips from the uh Trump versus uh Kamala. What a media tour blitz. Uh, just, um, just because we haven't, or I have not, talked about them in a in a law firm way that way. There was something that happened before and that was the Kamala Harris interview with 60 Minutes Right now. The vice president went on and talked about owning a gun or economic plan and immigration and how her rival, donald Trump, backed out of the interview.
Speaker 1:Now, it was somewhat contentious that Donald Trump backed out, not because he has to do the interview, but because I think that there was a very, very long time since a candidate has backed out of it. It's something that both candidates have done for a very long time and it portrayed people. It gave people the ammunition to say that Donald Trump has been trying to avoid the media, which I think he somewhat answered that question a little bit with the Bloomberg Economic Forum. But I think that someone having him sit in a somewhat contentious meeting or interview for, as they call it, 60 minutes would have been something that I think a lot of people wanted, been something that I think a lot of people wanted, but the Trump campaign did not see that as fruitful. So we have four key moments from the Kamala Harris interview right now.
Speaker 5:And this is a. The news story was written by Neha Massey. Four key moments from the Kamala Harris's 60 Minutes interview. Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on a 60 Minutes election special on Monday night, a long-standing tradition for major party presidential candidates. During the primetime interview, correspondent Bill Whitaker grilled Harris on a wide range of issues, including how she would fund her economic proposals, gun ownership, the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East and the Biden administration's border policy. Her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, backed out of the program last week after previously agreeing to be interviewed, cbs said it added that the Trump campaign gave shifting explanations for the cancellation, including that the interview would be fact-checked. Trump campaign manager Stephen Chung took aim at the program last week, saying the interview had not been scheduled. They also insisted on doing live fact-checking, which is unprecedented. He wrote on X. Harris targeted Trump for backing out, saying in the interview that viewers can watch his rallies and see that he talks only about himself. In the days following their debate last month, trump said he would not debate Harris a second time. Cbs said the Monday night election special was possibly the last opportunity before the November 5th election for a national audience to hear from both candidates individually. Here are the highlights from the interview with Harris.
Speaker 5:One economic agenda. The Democratic presidential nominee was questioned on how she would pay for her economic proposals, which include bolstering small businesses, expanding the child tax credit and banning corporate price gouging for food and other groceries. Whitaker cited an estimate by the Nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget that her economic plan would add $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. The non-profit estimates that Trump's plan would add $7.5 trillion. I'm going to make sure that the richest among us, who can afford it, pay their fair share in taxes. Harris said, arguing that her plan would strengthen the economy and Trump's would weaken it. It is not right that teachers and nurses and firefighters are paying a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations, and I plan on making that fair. When asked how she would implement that in the real world, including gaining enough votes in Congress, harris suggested that public support for such plans would help drive support among lawmakers. When you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress, they know exactly what I'm talking about, because their constituents know exactly what I'm talking about. She said their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses.
Speaker 5:Two gun ownership. Harris, who has spoken multiple times on the campaign trail about owning a firearm, offered more details about being a gun owner. I have a Glock and I've had it for quite some time. And I mean, look, bill, my background is in law enforcement, she told Whitaker, who asked whether she had ever fired it. Yes, of course I have, harris said with a chuckle At a shooting range. Of course I have. In the presidential debate in September, harris said she was a gun owner and disputed Trump's assertions that she would take guns from people. We're not taking anybody's guns away, she said. Later during a town hall with Oprah Winfrey, harris reiterated that point. If somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot.
Speaker 5:Three escalation in the Middle East. Whitaker began the interview by asking Harris what the United States could do to prevent an all-out regional war in the Middle East, where the conflict has recently escalated, noting the anniversary of Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, harris said the war in Gaza has to end, maintaining both that Israel has the right to defend itself and that too many innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed. She was asked whether the United States lacks influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Whitaker pressing her on the Biden administration's calls for a ceasefire being at odds with Netanyahu's actions. Do we have a real close ally in Prime Minister Netanyahu, whitaker asked. I think, with all due respect, the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? Harris said and the answer to that question is yes.
Speaker 5:Four immigration Harris was asked about her recent visit to the border town of Douglas, arizona, and new restrictions imposed by the Biden administration that have sharply reduced the number of unlawful border crossings after what Whitaker called a historic flood. In their first three years in office, the Democratic nominee defended the administration, saying that the first bill it submitted to Congress aimed to reform the immigration system, but that it was not taken up. She went on to fault Trump's role in derailing a bipartisan border security bill. Donald Trump got word that this bill was afoot and could be passed, and he wants to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem. So he told his buddies in Congress kill the bill, don't let it move forward.
Speaker 5:She said Trump's public criticism and mischaracterization of the bill helped torpedo it. He has pledged to launch the largest domestic deportation operation in history and regularly uses inflammatory rhetoric against immigrants. When Whitaker pressed Harris on whether it was a mistake to loosen policies that offered a path to legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants. She called US immigration policy a long-standing problem and solutions are at hand, and from day one, literally, we have been offering solutions. Harris responded, adding we need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem. Yasmeen Abu-Taleb and Amy Wang contributed to this report. There we have it.
Speaker 1:I have to admit I did find it somewhat hilarious when Kamala Harris said that she was going to get something passed because, once the once the Congress or the Senate or whoever the legislators saw that a large portion of Americans agreed with it, that it would happen, been it has been a longstanding tradition that, no matter how Americans feel about a certain type of policy, it could be the 60%, it could be 80% of American agreement. If the people who pay politicians, uh, if the donor class, uh, do not like the policy, the policy is going nowhere, uh, do not like the policy, the policy is going nowhere. And so I did find that to be a tad bit hilarious, uh, and disingenuous, because we all know if you look at public policy and what the populace wants versus what the small portion of people who pay most of the taxes in America want the people who pay most of the taxes and the people who pay for election campaigns you know the people that like share, like the Edelman wife who just sent, I think, some 78 million dollars yesterday to the Trump campaign. Or your George Soros who sends 100 millions of dollars to district attorneys who are more progressive, district attorneys who are more progressive. Those are the people who actually get the legislation that they want put in place, not the everyday people. They're just kind of cogs in the democratic machine that we call elections, but when the elections are over, you don't get a lot until it's time for your next honeymoon to come up every four years, where they have to ask you for something else. So I did find that quite interesting.
Speaker 1:Look, there's something else that I want to talk about that is different, and that is I've read almost all of the Bob Woodward books since Donald Trump was president, especially the tapes. I was very shocked that Donald Trump allowed him to have this much access to him. Now there is another Bob Woodward book that is coming out, called War, and it's actually set to be released sometime next week. So I'm going to read that book as well when it does come out, and there are some takeaways that the media is reporting that I'm going to not talk about in whole, but just say in part, and I'll do some of the update when I actually can get my hands on the book and read it. But the one was Trump apparently sent American made coronavirus tested Putin.
Speaker 1:So when Trump was president in 2020, he sent the coveted tests for the disease to the Russian president Vladimir Putin during the crippling shortage of the United States around the. The disease of the Russian president Vladimir Putin during the crippling shortage of the United States around the world, and the book somewhat explains how Putin was actually petrified of contracting the deadly illness. He accepted the supplies but cautioned that President Trump not reveal that he had shared them, concerned for the political fallout that the United States president would suffer if people found out. Please don't tell anybody. You sent me those, putin said to Trump, according to Bob Woodward. Woodward also reports that Trump's reply was I actually don't care, fine.
Speaker 1:The book All War also suggests that Trump and Putin may have spoken as many as seven times since Trump left the White House in 2021. On one occasion this year, trump sent an unnamed aide away from his office at Mar-a-Lago Club so he could conduct a private phone call with the Russian president. According to the book, campaign official Jason Miller was evasive when we were to ask him about the contact in eventually offering. I have not heard that and I don't know what they were talking about, so I'd push back on that. The another takeaway is Biden's profanity lace outburst about Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu War portrays Biden as a careful and deliberate commander-in-chief, but combustible in private, about intractable forces and foreign leaders, especially Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden called Putin the epitome of evil and remarked to his advisors about the Russians' counterpart that, effing Putin, the intelligence community believe racial enemies, namely the idea that Ukrainians were lesser people and that the Russians was a significant factor in Putin's designs on Ukraine's war. As war explains, the book quotes Avro Hannes, the director of the National Intelligence, saying that Putin he is one of the most racist leaders that we have seen.
Speaker 1:Biden's anger towards Netanyahu boiled over in the spring of 2024, according to Woodward, as Biden's concluded that Israel's prime minister interest was not actually in defeating Hamas but in protecting his own political career. Biden went on to say that, son of a B Bibi Netanyahu, he's actually a really bad guy. He's a bad, effing guy. Biden reportedly told his advisors Harris's two-track approach with Netanyahu is something the book is also going to highlight. Harris delivered high-profile remarks after July face-to-face meeting with Netanyahu shortly after she became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. She seemed to separate herself from Biden's approach to Israel's war in Gaza by speaking forcefully about the positions of the cost of the military campaign and pleading to not be silent about Palestinian suffering. Her public tone surprised and infuriated Netanyahu, because it's marked a contrast with her more amicable approach during the private conversation that she has shared with reporters. The book quotes the Israeli ambassador in Washington, michael Hesrock, saying she wants to be very tough in public, but she's actually wasn't that tough privately. The episode is one of the several in the books about Harris who appears as a lawyer number two to Biden, but hardly influential herself in any major foreign policy decisions.
Speaker 1:The fourth one is a frantic de-escalation in the face of possible Russian nuclear force. So Woodward details to some of the stunning intelligence capabilities that allow Washington to foresee the Russians' plans I'm sorry for an all-out war against Ukraine in early 2022, including human sources inside of the Kremlin. This insight, however, got to Biden, and it got to Biden administration only so far as it sought to foreclose Russia's nuclear option in the fall of 2022. The option seemed like a live one, as US intelligence agencies reported that Putin was seriously weighing the use of tactical nuclear weapon, at one point assessing the likelihood to be at 50%. An especially frantic quest to bring Moscow back from the brink came in October of that year, when Russia appeared to be laying the groundwork for escalation by accusing Ukraine of preparing to detonate a dirty bomb. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin denied Russia's accusation in a phone call with the Kremlin's defense minister, sergei Sochi. Jake Sullivan, biden's national security advisor, instructed Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky's team to summon the International Atomic Energy Agency to absolve themselves immediately, and Biden called out Russia's apparent scheme publicly, while probably leaning on China's President Xi Jinping to emphasize to Putin the dire consequences of nuclear weapon uses.
Speaker 1:And the last point the book is going to talk about is the persuasive influence of the Saudi crown prince, muhammad bin Salman, known by his initials as MBS. It is not a major figure in the book, but it looms large at critical junctures, with key assessments of him delivered by Democrats and Republicans alike. Muhammad, currently the prime minister of Saudi Arabia, matters greatly as a de facto ruler of the Arab world's wealthiest country. He cultivated close ties to the former President Trump, who made it to Riyadh his first foreign stop as president. So too he has been to the crucial matters of significant interest to Biden, especially oil supplies and the prospects of normalized relations with the state of Israel. Woodward summarized the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's perception of the crown prince. This way, mbs was nothing more than a spoiled child. One of Saudi's royal important interlocutors has been actually Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina. The Republican senator kept Biden's aides oppressed of Muhammad's perspective on the possible normalizations of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. According to the book, it also kept the Gulf leader in communication with former President Donald Trump During a March visit to Saudi Arabia. It recounted in the book that Graham proposes to the Crown Prince that they call the Republican presidential candidate. Mohammed bin Salman proceeds to conduct the conversation with President Trump over speaker phone. On an earlier trip, graham had asked the Crown Prince to contact Sullivan so the senator could inform them both about the discussion with Netanyahu. Hey, here I am with Lindsay. The Saudi Royal reportedly announced to Sullivan over the phone.
Speaker 1:So again, I've read all of these books that Woodward has put out about. Well, since the Trump administration, trump for some reason gave Bob Woodward an unprecedented amount of contact with him, and the last book were the tapes and that was kind of interesting to hear all of the stuff. That it's not hearsay, because there's actually audio of Bob Woodward and President Trump talking. There is a quote said a long time ago. I want to say. It came from the architect, karl Rove, who said several presidents have given access to Bob Woodward and it always come at their peril. And I would just say this while I do think it's great to have a free press, if I was a press secretary, if I was in the public relations committee for any president, if Bob woodward came calling I would not be answering.
Speaker 1:Let's uh get to some more of the combat, uh in the contrast in the audio with uh kamala harris and uh donald trump as we ease closer and closer to the climax of this presidential election. But it's not just you versus trump, it's you versus misinformation. Yes, that's right, and climax of this presidential election. But it's not just you versus Trump, it's you versus misinformation. Yes, that's true, right. And one of the biggest pieces of misinformation, one of the biggest allegations against you, is that you targeted and locked up thousands of black men in San Francisco for weed.
Speaker 4:Some say you did it to boost your career. Some say you did it out of pure hate for black men. Please tell us the facts. What's the facts of that situation? It's just simply not true. And what public defenders who are around those days will tell you? I was the most progressive prosecutor in California on marijuana cases and would not send people to jail for simple possession of weed, and, as vice president, have been a champion for bringing marijuana down on the schedule. So instead of it being ranked up there with heroin, we bring it down, and my pledge is, as president, I will work on decriminalizing it, because I know exactly how those laws have been used to disproportionately impact certain populations and specifically black men.
Speaker 4:One of the biggest challenges that I face is mis and disinformation, and it's purposeful because it is meant to convince people that they somehow should not believe that the work that I have done has occurred and has meaning. My work, from the beginning of my career through today, has been about, for example we've talked about it whether it be on HBCUs, whether it be on healthcare, black maternal mortality. I am singularly many would say one of the highest level leaders in our country to bring the issue of black maternal mortality to the stage of the White House to address it. The work that I've done that has been about focusing on my knowledge and my experience and my life experience of knowing the entrepreneurship that we have in the community, the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams, and then tapping into that so that not only is my work been about ensuring that we have some of the lowest black unemployment ever in our country, but that also knowing that that should be a baseline, that everybody has a job and what we should be invested in is also building wealth in the community and intergenerational wealth. And I have many, many examples of that. But again, examples of that. But again, part of the challenge that I face is that they are trying to scare people away because they know they otherwise have nothing to run on.
Speaker 4:Ask Donald Trump what his plan is for black America. Ask him, I'll tell you what it is. Look at Project 2025. But you know, I'll tell you what it is. Look at Project 2025. Project 2025 tells you. The plan includes making police departments have stop and frisk policies. The plan includes making it more difficult for workers to negotiate drug prices. You know what we have done. He said he would. We did, which means that that's how we brought down the cost of prescription medication. His plan includes making it more difficult for working people to get by and to destroy our democracy. You know what he says he'll do Terminate the Constitution of the United States.
Speaker 4:I grew up in the black church. I grew up attending 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, california. Yes, church, yes, that is church. My pastor is Amos C Brown of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, california yes, california.
Speaker 4:I have, throughout my career and as vice president and recently, been actively engaged in the church and church leaders, not only so we can share in fellowship, but so we can share in what we can do together. That is about supporting the community, the strength of the community, the cohesion of the community, and it is my longstanding work and therefore my pledge going forward. I will always work closely with the church because I understand who our church leaders are and who the congregation is. We are talking about people who are driven by faith and the ability to see what is possible by faith. Where I was raised and I know many of us were understanding that our God is a loving God, that our faith propels us to act in a way that is about kindness and justice and mercy, that is about lifting one another up. And let's talk about the contrast here. Donald Trump and his followers spend full time trying to suggest that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, which is absolutely contrary to the church I know he sells Bibles, though.
Speaker 4:Where our church and my church is about saying true leadership. The measure of that is based on who you lift up and right. And then he's selling $60 Bible or tennis shoes and trying to play people, as though that makes him more understanding of the black community. Come on.
Speaker 7:And the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget, which is a bipartisan outfit, put out some predictions the other day. If you add up all the promises you've made and your plans would add $7.5 trillion to the debt. That's more than twice the total for Vice President Harris. You're on course to push up debt up to 150% of GDP. This is a very business-like audience. Why should they trust you with that?
Speaker 3:Because we're about growth. She's got no growth whatsoever, and we're all about growth. We're going to bring companies back to our country. You look at even today, as I was driving over, I see these empty, old, beautiful steel mills and factories that are empty and falling down. Some have been converted to senior citizens homes, but that's not going to do the trick and we're going to bring the companies back. We're going to lower taxes still further for companies that are going to make their product in the USA. We're going to protect those companies with strong tariffs, because I'm a believer in tariffs. I'm not sure that you are. I don't think you are, but I congratulate you on your career. To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff, and it's my favorite word.
Speaker 7:It means public relations. Now to respecting and encouraging a peaceful transfer of power. Well, you had a peaceful transfer of power. You had a peaceful transfer of power compared to Venezuela, but it was by far the worst transfer of power for a long time.
Speaker 3:The primary scene in Washington was hundreds of thousands, the largest group of people I've ever spoken before and I've spoken before and it was love and peace. And some people went to the capitol and a lot of strange things happened. A lot of strange things with people being waved into the capitol by police, with people screaming go in with that never got into trouble. You know I don't want to mention names, but you know who they are. A lot of strange things happen but you had a peaceful, very peaceful. I left. I left the morning that I was supposed to leave. I went to florida and you had a very peaceful transfer it's a lot about tariffs.
Speaker 7:you look at the american economy 40 million jobs rely on trade. It counts for 27% of GDP. If you cut that off, that's also going to have an effect on many, many business people here. Tariffs also have another side. Isn't that something that you have to acknowledge? You could be plunging America into the biggest trade war since Smoot-Hawley, but there are no tariffs. You're going to stop.
Speaker 3:There are tariffs already? No, there are no tariffs. All you have to do is build your plant in the United States and you don't have any tariffs.
Speaker 7:People, a lot of places like this. There are a lot of jobs that rely on foreigners coming in. You're going to basically stop trade with China. You're talking about 60% trade on that, 60% tariffs on that. You're talking, as you said, 100%, 200% on things you don't really like. You're also talking about 10%, 20% tariffs on the rest of the world. That is going to have a serious effect on the overall economy and, yes, you're going to find some people who will gain from individual tariffs. The overall effect could be massive. I agree. I agree. It's going to have a massive effect, positive effect.
Speaker 3:It's going to be a positive, not a negative. Let me just no, no, let me tell you. I know how committed you are to this, and it must be hard for you to spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you're totally wrong.
Speaker 7:The markets are looking at the fact you are making all these promises. Latest one was car loans. You're flooding the thing with giveaways. I was actually quite kind to you. I used $7 trillion. The upper estimate is $15 trillion. People like the Wall Street Journal, who's hardly a communist organization. They have criticized you on this as well. You are running up enormous debt.
Speaker 3:What is the Wall Street Journal now? I'm meeting with them tomorrow. What is the Wall Street Journal? They've been wrong about everything, so have you, by the way You've been wrong.
Speaker 7:You're trying to turn this into debate.
Speaker 3:It's not a debate. You're wrong. You've been wrong all your life on this stuff. The Mercedes-Benz will start building in the United States and they have a little bit, but do you know what they really are? Assembly like in South Carolina, but they build everything in Germany and then they assemble it here. They get away with murder because they say oh yes, we're building cars. They don't build cars, they take them out of a box and they assemble them. We could have our child do it.
Speaker 1:We're going to end the show on the comments that Obama made where he is said to have been chiding black men, and I'm going to discuss this on a later episode about some of the backlash of these comments. Thank you for tuning in and we will see you on the next episode.
Speaker 6:I just want to say speak some truths that you don't mind, because my understanding, based on reports I'm getting from campaigns and communities not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running.
Speaker 6:Now I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers. So, if you don't mind, just for a second, I'm going to speak to you all directly. Seems to be more pronounced with the brothers. So, if you don't mind, just for a second, I'm going to speak to you all directly and say that when you have a choice that is this clear when, on the one hand, you have somebody who grew up like you, knows you went to college with you, understands the struggles and pain and joy that comes from those experiences, he's had to work harder and do more and overcome and achieves the second highest office in the land and is putting forward concrete proposals to directly address the things that are vital in our neighborhoods and our communities, from housing to making sure that our mothers and our fathers and our grandparents can afford medicine and making sure that we are dealing with prices that are too high and rents that are too high and are committed to making sure that we maintain the Affordable Care Act.
Speaker 6:So everybody's got to help and cares about things like education and entrepreneurship in our neighborhoods and that's on one side and on the other side, you have someone who has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities but for you as a person communities but for you as a person and you're thinking about sitting out. But you know, here comes the poop and you're coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses. I've got a problem with it because part of it makes me think I'm speaking to men directly. Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president and you're coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that. And I think anybody you are talking to in a barbershop, anybody you are talking to in your house, in your family, at a church, who is coming with that kind of attitude, I think you have to ask them well, how can that be?
Speaker 6:Because the women in our lives have been getting our backs this entire time. The women in our lives have been getting our backs this entire time. They've been raising us and working and having our backs, and when we get in trouble and the system's not working for us, they're the ones who are out there marching and protesting. And so now you're thinking about sitting down or even supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you because you think that's a sign of strength, because that's what being a man is putting women down. That's not accepted. That's not it. This shouldn't even be a question.