Transcribe your podcast
[00:00:00]

Back to school, shopping is as easy as ABC at Tesco make it a new year, a new look with our stylish range of F and F polo shirts and sweatshirts from as little as three euro minds tend to wander in the classroom, help them stay organized with binders, coloring pencils and geometry, sets only one euro each and really stock up when the school supplies with a wide range of big Sharpey and Stetler stationery sets better than half price. Tesco every little helps.

[00:00:31]

Hi, folks, it's Rick Wilson and welcome to The Daily Beast, the new abnormal. Hi, I'm Molly John Past, a left wing pundit and editor at large at The Daily Beast.

[00:00:41]

I'm also an editor at The Daily Beast, a former Republican political strategist, best selling author and full time troublemaker. We're here to have fun, sharp conversations with some of the smartest people in media, politics, business and science that help make what's happening in the country and the world clearer.

[00:00:57]

I'll try to keep Rick to the minimum number of F bombs and try to keep our kids, pets and other wildlife sounds from invading our.

[00:01:07]

Night four of five, night three thousand, night three of the Republican escape, yes, and night three, in fact, that guy week and we have pretty much the best gas ever marry Trump.

[00:01:22]

We do indeed. And folks, don't you worry a bit. We've got some excellent fuck that guy actually later this evening. I mean, weapons fucking grade, you will enjoy it. It will not be over quickly. What did you guys think tonight? I have to be honest, and I think it was deliberate. It was sort of this flat affect the whole night and sort of strangely, almost a little defensive feeling.

[00:01:45]

Yeah. I mean, it was incredibly boring.

[00:01:48]

But I, I, I, you know, I agree with you, Rick, that it was I think it was deliberate. And as hard as it is for me to believe, I think it might have been a bit, of course, correcting. But what worried me about it is that I think it made their message completely fictitious and mendacious message more effective.

[00:02:11]

I think you're right. I mean, there was a certain degree tonight of and it was very much the same sort of vomited out of a focus group, very talking to suburban the suburban Republican women that they've lost. It seemed like a lot of it was devoted to trying to say to them, hey, we're not as crazy as you think. Right?

[00:02:29]

Well, it wasn't a majority of the speakers women tonight probably. Yeah, I think that's probably a good bet.

[00:02:34]

The thing I'm always struck by I mean, I guess right night one was like this insane, evil Perot and sort of like Banana Republic shall riot like you expected them all to like pull off their clothes and like be in ice skating outfits doing the, you know. Right. And gesticulating like that. I wasn't expecting that. But it was like it was like, you know, it was like the producers. And then NITU was like a sort of retraction.

[00:03:07]

Right. And it was like Tiffany and Eric trying to convince you that their dad loves them. But night three was like this weird kind of Heritage Foundation pantomime of what a normal Republican Party would look like.

[00:03:21]

Yeah, I think there was a lot of trying to fake it till you make it tonight with the old GOP.

[00:03:26]

But the fact that you brought up the producers, all I could think of was springtime for Donald Trump and he went too far.

[00:03:36]

Mike Pence, it's true. With that speech by Kimberly Guilfoyle, like, you could definitely see her, like taking off her hat and like things exploding off the stage, you know, the feather boas.

[00:03:49]

Right, exactly. I mean, and then the floor opens up and she does a dive into a pool. Esther Williams are Esther Merman or whatever the hell she was. Esther Merman with the thing that was most disturbing about her speech is that it was recorded.

[00:04:02]

Right. Wow. This whole week. This whole week, it's like that's the best take. You got it. You've got a million dollar crew there with every camera in the world, the lights, the makeup, everything's perfect. And you what did you only do? One take? You don't do one for a safety at least.

[00:04:22]

Oh, it's just so hard. I mean, it's but it was interesting. I mean, there's so much bullshit at all of these. And tonight, Mike Pence like the line, you won't be safe in Biden's America. That's what Penn said. Pence is the head of the coronavirus task force. One hundred eighty thousand people have died of coronavirus. And he's saying you won't be safe in Biden's America.

[00:04:45]

The same thing about the economy.

[00:04:47]

Biden and Obama presided over the slowest economic recovery. But we're doing great now, like we got one hundred million jobs last month. Leaving aside the fact that we've lost 40 million.

[00:04:59]

You know, they promised at the beginning of this campaign all this is going to be uplift. This is going to be we're going to show the optimistic Donald Trump and the the future is going to be bright and shiny and gorgeous. And it's turned into this apocalyptic every other speeches like unless you vote for Donald Trump, the Marxists will be here like Mad Max ravaging your neighborhood. Motorcycle's all up and down your street.

[00:05:24]

It's going to be a terrible well, it's all they've got, right? It's true.

[00:05:28]

Culture wars, the last. It's their Alamo, as my friend regaling calls it. It's interesting to me that we're in this strange world of like the president's family and then a few people who aren't brave enough to say no to him. Joni Ernst must know this is not a smart move for her.

[00:05:47]

I'm not sure she seems not terribly intelligent to me. No, seriously, like who can say with a straight face that anybody is going to take our cars and our farms away from us? I mean.

[00:06:01]

Well, you know, and obviously the bigger threat than covid, of course, is the cancel culture. I mean, because I mean, good Lord, I. Nothing could be more deadly than cancel culture.

[00:06:09]

I wouldn't kill one hundred and seventy thousand people or anything, I mean, good Lord, but also Biden wants to regulate puddles, is what Joni Ernst said.

[00:06:19]

Joni should have stuck to her old line about castrating hogs, because let me tell you something, her whole campaign predicate and her ads were very slick. And other guys that did them, she played this folksy country, badass former army, blah, blah, blah. And she's like, I know about I used to castrate hogs. I'll get to Washington. And, well, she's gotten to Washington and she's basically carried water for Donald Trump like a champ.

[00:06:42]

There hasn't been any any hog cutting of any hog genitalia or any other thing since she got there tonight. Joni Ernst just sat there and with a straight Trumpy in style face told not just lies, not just political exaggeration or rhetorical flourishes. It was flat out bullshit. And there's no penalty for it in our political culture anymore. And that's Donald. I mean, he has given them permission to go forth and lie with dispatch.

[00:07:11]

I thought those were sepak level lies, like not on sea level lies.

[00:07:17]

You know, Mary, sorry.

[00:07:21]

So wait, that's Molly's fault.

[00:07:24]

You promised not to let our creatures and you failed. Mary, what do you think about Mike Pence? Like, how can anyone love Donald Trump that the relationship must be some kind of I mean, what do you what's the like psychological?

[00:07:41]

I don't even think they have a relationship pense sucks up to Donald and Donald. Let's it that's their relationship because pense is a total drip and his only value to Donald is that he sucks up to him.

[00:07:56]

He is to me sort of the embodiment of everything that's wrong with white evangelicals in this country. And the problem with allowing the erosion of the division between church and state that is supposed to exist and is enshrined in the Constitution. It's one of the big reasons where we're where we are.

[00:08:17]

There were was a school of thought of people who believed that Trump would dump pants for like a Nikki Haley. Yeah, it still might happen, though. Let's see how bad the next couple of weeks suck, do you? But he can't do that now.

[00:08:31]

Why? Because the posters of him, for instance.

[00:08:35]

Yeah, there are rules now about about who the nominee is, although there is there is in the RNC rules, a contingency for the guy gets hit by a bus or loses his mind or something. But it's a difficult it's a difficult enterprise, although I think Donald would be tempted by it, don't you, Mary? Because it's like a reality TV play. It's one of those things. Yes. Yeah. It'll it'll be dramatic. The ratings will be huge.

[00:09:01]

Right. And he'd think that he'd be one upping the Democrats, although I'm not entirely sure how. And could we seriously think that Mike Pence could not be convinced to step down of his own accord, like people think that Mike Pence has something Trump or that place now?

[00:09:17]

Right now, it's just that he's just a sycophant.

[00:09:21]

Look, you could present photographs of Donald Trump in a Moscow hotel room with a pair of highly trained, specialized, I'm worried, specialized Russian sex workers who are employed drop cloths, tarps and a series of sluices and pipes for these specific speciality of their show. And Mike Pence would say, well, that's interesting plumbing they have over there.

[00:09:44]

Yeah, I mean, the guy, the guy, the guy, he he's one of those guys where you want there to be like a Jerry Falwell secret to him. But the dull truth is it's probably not. He just. Is that like paint drying hypocrite? Yeah, I think you're right. Mike Pence after dark going. Oh, my God. Here's a question for the panel, though. If Pence got replaced, is it a bank or Nikki Haley?

[00:10:08]

Oh, Nikki Haley.

[00:10:09]

It's Nikki Haley. Yeah, first person. President Kim is in the same state in the Constitution. So Trump lives in Florida now. So she could do it no matter if she lives in D.C. or New York. But I think Nikki Haley would be more likely in some weird and some weird ways because being VP would actually give a walker even like a tiny bit of agency.

[00:10:26]

I don't know. What do you think, Mary? You know the psychology here a lot. Do you think Trump would ever give whatever elevate Ivanka like that? No. Well, first of all, I think it's it's too soon for her. Right. And she does not play to the base in the same way somebody like Donald does, for example. Yeah. Or and Nikki, as despicable as Varga is, you know, she's still not she's still a little too measured and reluctant to go all the way with the insanity.

[00:10:59]

Right. Because I guess she's protecting her brand in the event that she has to go back to New York, which is hysterical.

[00:11:08]

Nikki Haley has shown herself completely willing to go all in. She's a woman of color. And right now, Donald certainly and other people believe that that voters are just that stupid, that, well, one woman of color is the same as well with the same to Donald.

[00:11:26]

They exactly.

[00:11:29]

So. Well, it's true. It's a weird conundrum, I do think. Do you think any one of those speakers really, like, move the needle one way or the other tonight, though, for an undecided vote? I mean, it seems insane to me.

[00:11:44]

There are undecided voters. There's a smaller pool than usual. But remember what else? The other thing Donald's trying to do, he's trying to get to low propensity voters who didn't even vote in 16. They're looking for noncollege white men and women in the rural and urban areas because that's why this whole thing is culture, war, culture, war, culture war. That's its council culture. It's FOX. It's it's, you know, all the dangers lurking in the lurking in the wild against you.

[00:12:11]

Like, I always feel like the last three nights there were some speakers where I thought tonight there was a guy who was very elderly and who was a sports coach. I don't know much about sports. That was Lou Holtz. I don't know. Is that someone famous? Yes.

[00:12:26]

There was a period of time when Lou Holtz was one of the most famous people in America. Now he is a cranky old fart. He did not seem like he totally knew where he was.

[00:12:35]

I don't think Lou is done where he was since the mid 90s when he was the coach of Notre Dame.

[00:12:40]

Like there is that North Korean style kind of like and that is why we love Dear Leader.

[00:12:46]

And honestly, I as I said yesterday, I think there are parts of this where the North Koreans would be like, oh, is back, Donald. It's a bit much. It's a bit much. I mean, the only thing they haven't done, I guess, because they haven't had, like, a giant stadium full of people with flash cards to do this.

[00:13:02]

That's true. But the denial to me is kind of striking.

[00:13:07]

The cancer culture is more important than the than the pandemic. You know, that that seriously, it was as if we were still in twenty nineteen and none of this had happened. It was really just excruciating. You know, I think we all commented on Rich Grenelle Tonight, who, as well as being the former acting temporary provisional sort of five minutes director of National Intelligence, is now also in the Trumpy and Liars Olympics. I mean, Mary, what did you think of that performance tonight by that guy?

[00:13:36]

It was the worst, most damaging performance of the evening, if not of the entire convention, because the things he was lying about with a straight face, everything he said was a lie. And because Americans know nothing about foreign policy, they figured this was the former director of national intelligence. He knows what he's talking about. Nobody knows probably or very few people know as terrorists that why are reminded me that he was not Senate approved because he would never have been able to get Senate approved because he's so unqualified and incompetent.

[00:14:10]

I think you said that he was like a professional troll back in the day and the lies he told about how Obama and Biden spied and how the Russia hoax and the the Democrats evidence, quote unquote, evidence about Russian interference made him sick to his stomach because it was such a lie.

[00:14:32]

Meanwhile, the Rubeo report comes out saying exactly the opposite and a different similar. You know, that's the kind of stuff they're going to keep resurrecting. You know, it's also exemplified the thing I found most troubling about the entire evening, everybody lied through their teeth, knew they were lying. Yeah.

[00:14:52]

And felt perfectly comfortable doing it. It's yes, there are aren't words to describe. It is it's pernicious.

[00:15:00]

Yeah. That's the word.

[00:15:01]

What do you reckon they'll do before he became like this CIA head of Internet shopping, he was a press guy in the Pentagon for a while.

[00:15:10]

I ran into him over the years a few times. And and I always thought he was kind of a funny troll. I mean, he was kind of witty, you know, right wing troll. And he wasn't particularly ideological. You know, he was just one of the one of those one of those brose in Washington. But now he has bought in so thoroughly to the Trump situation that, you know, he is he will go down in infamy, I think, for a lot of this stuff.

[00:15:35]

And he's going to be a big part. I keep telling people this. He's going to be a big part of the October surprise. They're going to trot him out and say, well, he was the director of national intelligence. He knows exactly what's going on.

[00:15:48]

Do you think the radical leftist talk is actually because Republicans are preparing for Q and on to sort of make a parallel there?

[00:15:57]

As with most of what they do? It's projection because the truth of the matter is that the Republican Party, as it's currently.

[00:16:06]

Situated is incredibly radical, and the Democratic Party is lucky if it's a little bit left of center, you know, so radical leftist have no place in the mainstream Democratic Party.

[00:16:18]

Right. You know, so and that's been the case for a long time.

[00:16:22]

So I've I've always said if Barack Obama was really, truly a socialist Kenyan Muslim sleeper agent, he was terrible at his job.

[00:16:31]

Also, like Barack Obama would have been a Republican 40 years ago.

[00:16:35]

Yeah, sure. No, that's the Obama folks have said it before he won in 2008, in part because to a lot of suburban Republicans, he looked like one of them. He was meritocracy guy. He was called the affect. He was out there screaming to seize the means of production from the from the oligarchs.

[00:16:54]

It was just, you know, and also he was he was anti marriage equality. You know, he had some and he was he still believes in bipartisanship because I was pro-gay marriage before Barack Obama.

[00:17:06]

Oh, wow.

[00:17:09]

You're the radical truth.

[00:17:15]

Get back to school. Shopping is as easy as ABC. Tasco, make it a new year. A new look with our stylish range of F and F polo shirts and sweatshirts from as little as three euro minds tend to wander in the classroom, help them stay organized with binders, coloring pencils and geometry, sets only one euro each and really stock up in the school supplies with a wide range of big Sharpey and Stetler stationery sets better than half price.

[00:17:43]

Tesco every little helps. The new abnormal is going to release a limited run series of bonus interviews over the next few weeks starting in August, we'll release a new one each Sunday. But listen carefully. Only beast inside members will have access to these. So head over to a new abnormal dot, the Daily Beast dotcom to join. Now your beast inside membership helps support the great reporting at The Beast and podcast like The New Abnormal.

[00:18:12]

Thanks. Well, folks, it's that time again, as it will be every night this week for our special Fuck That Guy Week. Tonight we have some spectacular fuck that guy content, including a selection from Mary Trump, a selection from my co-host, Molly John fast. And I'll be bringing the heat in the follow up. So let's go with you first, Molly. John, fast, who is your fuck? That guy.

[00:18:35]

So I have long hated Tucker Carlson and he has also long hated me. I have long hated him for his misogyny and his racism. And Tucker Carlson is White Power Hour.

[00:18:47]

Tonight, there was this vigilante who killed two people who were protesting in Wisconsin after this, an unarmed African-American man who was getting into the car with his children was shot seven times in the back and is now going to be paralyzed forever or been in surgery and is very this vigilante who is 17 years old, crossed state lines. 14 are 50 50. Is that what it's called? Yes, it's called the nine 15 and murder of two people.

[00:19:19]

And so instead of reporting this as a normal person might, Tucker Carlson, he said, well, what was the guy going to do? The police aren't doing their job. So he was basically saying that it's OK. It wasn't basically he was saying that it's OK to murder people and it's OK to murder protesters. We got your back. White nationalists and anyone who knows about Tucker knows that Tucker speaks a lot of white nationalist speak in a prime time hour in a way that's made to sound a little less white nationalist.

[00:19:51]

But he really is like the biggest white nationalist on Fox. And it's so dangerous. And this is Lacon Murdoch's fault, because now Tucker does have advertisers anymore. It is really this is Lochlan and Rupert Murdoch are keeping this man on air and people are going to die there. And we understand that he's making you money and getting you whatever ratings these people have to look at themselves in the mirror and ask, is it worth it?

[00:20:17]

Oh, it is for them. That's the problem. And one of the great ironies, it's certainly not the most important one. But the truth of the matter is the cops weren't doing their jobs because the guy who murdered the two peaceful protesters was let go by the cops. Right. They didn't even stop him. But Tucker Carlson is like, fuck that guy. Take him off the air. It's time to stop the madness. People are going to die if they haven't already.

[00:20:43]

It's not just rhetoric. It's really human lives.

[00:20:46]

I've been seeing like the like the mentions of it. I haven't had thirty seconds to watch that, watch the tape or anything. But Tucker has poked his nose into these things far too many times for anything to ever be a coincidence with him. Yeah.

[00:20:59]

Right now we have our special guest, Mary Trump are, by the way, the favorite guest of this podcast ever. And she's going to tell us her facts. That guy, Mary, who is your fuck, that guy? Well, first of all, I thought the favorite guest was my bird.

[00:21:12]

So bad anyway. And the cat together. Yes, Linda, my fuck. That guy is whoever was responsible for putting that nun in the position. She was put in this evening to be at a political convention as a person of faith, which was utterly inappropriate and it never should have been allowed to happen. So fuck whoever that was, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Stephen Miller.

[00:21:41]

You turn over a greasy rock and Steven Miller is going to be there. You never be surprised by that.

[00:21:45]

But that nun did seem like a character out of a horror movie. Yes. Although I on Twitter was like, what does Mike Pence doing there?

[00:21:55]

All right. Rick Wilson, who is your fuck? That guy. My fox.

[00:21:59]

Like I tell you this, Donald John Trump, president of the United States. My reason for that this evening is that as we are recording this at twelve forty six a.m., a one hundred and fifty mile an hour hurricane is crashing into southern Louisiana and east Texas. It is going to cause untold devastation. It is going to cause flooding. It is going to cause deaths. And this hurricane is not predicted to go up to about Arkansas, take a right and drive through DC.

[00:22:31]

Oh, is it? Yes, it's going to take big oil. It's going to do a big oil.

[00:22:35]

Well, it's crazy. Crazy. But the reason Donald Trump gets the fuck that guy is that in this last year, they have been robbing FEMA emergency disaster relief funds to build this stupid fucking freedom fence. Oh, yeah, Freedom Fence.

[00:22:51]

And so FEMA, FEMA's short. Now they're going to come into this crisis short two hundred plus million dollars just in the last few months that was stolen to use for building the scam wall. And and furthermore, fuck Donald Trump, because this is a guy who if you're a president and you see a Cat four, Cat five hurricane coming at a place where we know. Does not function well when cat for cat five hurricanes come ashore and has and rarely has them.

[00:23:19]

Right, right. Yeah, I mean, call me crazy, but, you know, we had one called Katrina that you had heard of it. This administration that has been as lackadaisical as it always is about every other goddamn thing. And no, Sharpey is going to erase the damage the storm does. Yeah.

[00:23:34]

You know, that's money stolen from FEMA that may not have been needed if Banin hadn't stolen it from the Gulf.

[00:23:44]

On that note, we'll wrap up this episode of The New Abnormal for The Daily Beast in future episodes, we'll be talking with smart folks from The Daily Beast and beyond, from media, culture, politics and science to help us understand what's happening to our country and the world.

[00:23:58]

We hope you'll subscribe to us on your favourite podcast app and share the show on social media. We're just getting started and don't want you to miss an episode if you'd like to follow us on Twitter. I'm Molly Chang, Fast and Historic Wealth, and thanks so much for listening. And we'll see you again on the next episode.

[00:24:23]

Back to school, shopping is as easy as ABC at Tesco make it a new year, a new look with our stylish range of fancy polo shirts and sweatshirts from as little as three euro minds tend to wander in the classroom, help them stay organized with binders, coloring pencils and geometry, sets only one euro each and really stock up in the school supplies with a wide range of big Sharpey and Stetler stationery sets better than half price. Tesco every little helps.