Media fails its first test after WSJ bombshell (12-20-2024--Hour2)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] I was not planning on staying with this White House press briefing. I usually never do, but I am now because, like, I am, like, honestly, I am, I am shocked. I am shocked that after the Wall Street Journal report, this press briefing has not had a single question yet about whether or not Corinne Jean-Pierre knew about Joe Biden's mental incapacity.

[00:00:55] Whether or not Joe Biden had to be protected from basically everybody in all decision making aspects. Like Jeff Blair asked or said in his piece at National Review,

[00:01:09] We have been subjected to four years of a farcical semi-presidency, one whose drift is now so easily explained by the simple fact that Biden was little better than a front for an unelected committee of top men who sent us careening from one international and domestic disaster to another.

[00:01:30] And the most shameful aspect of it all was Biden's acquiescence to this. Detached and unable to remember details, unaware of what his own administration was doing, unable to speak with minders to anyone for more than a few minutes.

[00:01:48] He allowed his staff to run the world and weave a cynical campaign of deception as he sought another four years in office.

[00:01:57] And now I'm supposed to believe that people in the media have learned their lesson. Oh, my gosh, I was deceived.

[00:02:03] You're not acting like you were deceived right now. Literally should not get in the way right now.

[00:02:10] You should choose the American people first. They're asking about the omnibus crap.

[00:02:16] They're asking about the shutdown. They're not asking anything about that.

[00:02:20] They are still participating in the charade.

[00:02:23] Continue to implement, excel the implementation of key priorities that the president has had, meaning the bipartisan infrastructure legislation.

[00:02:32] Who's the president?

[00:02:33] The Chips and Signs Act. We want to make sure that those investments, that continues.

[00:02:37] And we want to excel on that. And we've talked about continuing to lower.

[00:02:41] Here's a so here's a question. You talk about.

[00:02:46] Corinne Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary, you're talking about all of these priorities, the things that he really believes in.

[00:02:51] OK, tell me about that conversation.

[00:02:54] Did he actually espouse these things to you?

[00:02:58] Or did some other people come up with these ideas?

[00:03:03] How was this stuff? Who how was your briefing book written?

[00:03:05] All those bullet points that you're reading, these these three talking points that just keep going over and over and over again,

[00:03:11] but with different facial expressions. I'm just kidding. It's the same facial expression every time.

[00:03:15] But like did the president help craft those?

[00:03:19] Tell me about that process. Walk me through it.

[00:03:22] We'll be confident that in the event of a shutdown, there would still be a smooth transition.

[00:03:26] Another one.

[00:03:27] Innauguration process.

[00:03:28] Another one. Like, really?

[00:03:29] That has been the president's commitment.

[00:03:30] Are you for real people?

[00:03:31] And that you've heard directly from him.

[00:03:33] We want to make sure that there is a responsible, committed to a responsible transition.

[00:03:40] And as you know, his team.

[00:03:42] This has been going on for over half an hour and they haven't asked a single question.

[00:03:45] The team has been preparing for months to make sure that happens.

[00:03:48] I will say, though, if there is a shutdown, and I don't want to get too much into hypotheticals, but this is the reality,

[00:03:57] transition activities will be restricted.

[00:03:59] No!

[00:03:59] And with limited exceptions, obviously, but such as prevent imminent threats to the safety of human life or the protection of property.

[00:04:08] Those are the things that we would, you know, that we would have to be concerned about.

[00:04:15] And so we're doing everything to ensure a smooth transition.

[00:04:18] So are you saying that if you don't, that if the government shuts down, you won't protect Trump?

[00:04:24] Is that the idea?

[00:04:25] We can continue to have this smooth transition, smooth transition of power if they stop threatening a shutdown.

[00:04:34] And, you know, they have an opportunity, Republicans in Congress have an opportunity to keep the government open so that we can continue.

[00:04:43] Yeah, they're going to do that, I think.

[00:04:44] They're going to run a clean CR for you.

[00:04:46] And then you'll be able to keep things operating at current funding levels.

[00:04:53] Just two clarifications, I guess.

[00:04:56] The first one, is this trip to Rome the last foreign trip that the president will take?

[00:05:01] What I can say is the president's going to Italy and is going to go on a CONUS trip in January.

[00:05:07] I'm always very careful.

[00:05:09] Anything could happen.

[00:05:10] But what I can say for sure is that the president's certainly going to be going to Italy.

[00:05:15] We announced that.

[00:05:16] We'll have more to share.

[00:05:17] I don't have anything else to share.

[00:05:18] And then secondly, related to the CR, given what you said about the president's views on debt limit increases or eliminating the debt limit,

[00:05:26] does that mean that that would be something that would be vetoed by the president if it reached his desk?

[00:05:31] I'm not going to get into hypothetical.

[00:05:32] I'm just not.

[00:05:33] I think what is important here is there is a.

[00:05:35] All right.

[00:05:36] Yeah.

[00:05:36] There's a bipartisan blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:05:38] Yeah.

[00:05:38] You don't want to get into it because you probably don't have any idea.

[00:05:42] I'm curious.

[00:05:43] So, like, what happens?

[00:05:44] Let's say.

[00:05:45] Let's say that that gets to the.

[00:05:48] It clears the House, clears the Senate, goes to the president's desk.

[00:05:51] Again, see, when I was a reporter, I would ask these questions like this all the time, which is walk me through.

[00:05:56] Like, walk me through your day.

[00:05:58] Walk me through this decision making process.

[00:06:00] Walk me through the meeting that happened where this thing happened.

[00:06:03] Right.

[00:06:03] Tell me the story.

[00:06:05] What happened?

[00:06:06] Right.

[00:06:07] Walk me through it.

[00:06:08] So walk me through it.

[00:06:13] That is amazing.

[00:06:14] That is absolutely amazing.

[00:06:16] We have had a president that is non-compos mentis for four years.

[00:06:21] And the media is like, oh, my gosh, we had no idea.

[00:06:25] We were deceived.

[00:06:25] I can't believe it.

[00:06:27] Right.

[00:06:27] We're seeing these mea culpas.

[00:06:29] Chris Salilla is out there.

[00:06:31] Salilla is a Salisa, whatever his name is.

[00:06:33] Right.

[00:06:33] And he's out there.

[00:06:33] He's like, I was working at CNN and I maybe I should have pushed harder.

[00:06:37] OK.

[00:06:40] Yeah.

[00:06:41] You guys shouted down everybody that was like, wow, Joe Biden.

[00:06:45] Looks weird.

[00:06:45] Well, Joe Biden needs special shoes.

[00:06:48] Wow.

[00:06:48] Joe Biden just fell off a bicycle.

[00:06:50] Wow.

[00:06:50] Joe Biden can't string together a bunch of sentences.

[00:06:53] Wow.

[00:06:53] Joe Biden's voice seems really weak.

[00:06:54] By the way, did you hear this?

[00:06:55] They hired a Hollywood guy to come in and help coach him to make his voice stronger.

[00:07:03] To try to offset the the the weak, raspy sound of Biden's voice.

[00:07:09] And your first opportunity to hold the powerful accountable for their lies to the American people.

[00:07:18] Your first chance to do that was today.

[00:07:23] And I'm being charitable because I know y'all knew.

[00:07:26] But this is your first chance to distance yourself.

[00:07:31] To send a signal that like I didn't know what was going on, but you can trust me to tell you what's going on.

[00:07:37] Like that's the that like that's the most salvageable position you've got at this point, which is not a good position to be fair.

[00:07:43] But that's where you're at.

[00:07:45] Right.

[00:07:46] You're now in the position you have.

[00:07:49] You have to choose.

[00:07:50] You were either duped and you suck at your job or because that's literally your job.

[00:07:55] Right.

[00:07:56] Or.

[00:07:58] You're part of the cover up.

[00:08:00] And that is what this was.

[00:08:01] This was a cover up.

[00:08:03] So are you part of the cover up?

[00:08:05] And I think I now have my answer.

[00:08:07] See, part of this is and I recognize like I tried to give people the benefit of the doubt.

[00:08:12] And sometimes that means I get hurt.

[00:08:15] That is true.

[00:08:16] But.

[00:08:17] I have.

[00:08:20] A place in my heart for journalism, for the press.

[00:08:26] I used to be a reporter.

[00:08:28] I went into that line of work because I believe in the constitutional necessity, the civilizational necessity of a free press.

[00:08:39] And so it's hard for me to actually understand that there are people in this profession and not just some, but apparently every freaking person in that room.

[00:08:53] Not a single person asked a question.

[00:08:55] A single person asking a single question about that Wall Street Journal report where they told that she wouldn't answer it.

[00:09:03] More of a reason to ask the question.

[00:09:06] What are you even doing there?

[00:09:08] You spent half an hour asking every permutation of the same question, which is, can't Joe Biden come out and play?

[00:09:17] That's what you were asking.

[00:09:18] Can he come out and make an address?

[00:09:20] Can he come out and say everything?

[00:09:21] Can he come out and say these things?

[00:09:22] There was a guy.

[00:09:23] I don't know who he is.

[00:09:24] I've seen him before.

[00:09:25] I think he works at CBS or CBS News.

[00:09:30] And he was like, you do a fantastic job of advocating for the president and his positions.

[00:09:35] But don't you think it might be helpful for the American people to see the president?

[00:09:42] No, I don't need to see Joe Biden anymore.

[00:09:45] I don't.

[00:09:46] I don't need to hear from him.

[00:09:47] I don't need to see him.

[00:09:48] Nothing.

[00:09:49] I want to see and hear from the people that are actually calling the shots.

[00:09:53] That's who I want to see.

[00:09:54] That's who I want to hear from.

[00:09:55] I want to see and hear from the people that have been lying about Joe Biden's mental acuity for four years.

[00:10:01] I want to see and hear from the people that would tell visitors, hey, when you come in to meet the president, you know, we may have to cancel if it's a bad day.

[00:10:11] He has good days and bad days.

[00:10:12] And so if it's a bad day, we're going to cancel.

[00:10:13] But if you get in, you're going to get 30 seconds.

[00:10:16] Say what you need to say in like maybe five or six sentences.

[00:10:18] And even if Joe is blankly staring at you, he may not speak to you, but that's OK.

[00:10:25] We'll let him know what you said afterwards and just keep it really simple, short words, you know, and just kind of say your thing.

[00:10:32] And then we're going to get you out of there.

[00:10:35] That's what they were doing.

[00:10:36] And they were doing it from the beginning.

[00:10:39] From the very beginning.

[00:10:42] Who was doing that?

[00:10:44] Were you doing that?

[00:10:45] Corinne Jean-Pierre?

[00:10:47] Were you part of it?

[00:10:49] What role did you play in the cover up?

[00:10:52] That's the question to ask her.

[00:10:54] What role did you play?

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[00:11:58] Wait, this is Nurse Frank.

[00:12:01] Didn't I ban you from the show?

[00:12:03] No, you got upset with me one day.

[00:12:05] No, I banned you, Frank.

[00:12:06] That's how that goes.

[00:12:07] But I appreciate you holding for, what was that, 40 minutes today?

[00:12:11] And I think you held for about 40 minutes yesterday.

[00:12:15] No, you got banned.

[00:12:16] And you're an anti-Semite and a bigot.

[00:12:19] And so I banned you from the show.

[00:12:21] That's why that happened.

[00:12:23] But I did feel like I wanted to waste your time as you wasted mine every time you call.

[00:12:28] Merry Christmas.

[00:12:31] And that is me being nice, by the way.

[00:12:34] All right.

[00:12:35] Robert, welcome to the program.

[00:12:37] Hello, Robert.

[00:12:37] How are you?

[00:12:39] Good afternoon, Pete.

[00:12:40] I waited about three minutes, so I appreciate the promptness.

[00:12:47] Like you, Pete, I'm a giver.

[00:12:51] Oh, good.

[00:12:52] And I tend to see things in the positive light all the time.

[00:12:57] So you and I have at least those couple things in common.

[00:13:00] Pete, I don't ever want to hear the word gaslighting again from the left.

[00:13:06] Speaking of giving, President Biden, who is still our president, I'll admit that.

[00:13:11] It's a fact.

[00:13:12] President Biden has been giving a lot lately.

[00:13:15] He's given President Trump and the first buddy, Elon, and anyone else involved, the carte blanche to gaslight.

[00:13:25] And also to do any kind of pardons they want to do, given what Biden did.

[00:13:33] Corinne Jean-Pierre is an embarrassment to her profession, and she will not be missed.

[00:13:41] No, she's awful.

[00:13:42] I've never seen a press secretary as bad as she.

[00:13:47] And I don't know.

[00:13:48] Like, she was – we did this story – or covered it.

[00:13:51] Somebody else, you know, did this story about how they were trying to force her out, remember, a couple of months or a year ago or something, and she refused to go anywhere.

[00:14:00] Like, she dug in, and they had lined up a job for her and everything because they knew she was terrible.

[00:14:07] But, yeah, I mean, she gets up there.

[00:14:09] She reads from her binder, her two or three talking points, and the press just lets her get away with it.

[00:14:14] It is – it is.

[00:14:16] I am surprised.

[00:14:17] I am surprised because I thought that the Wall Street Journal article was going to, you know, open the floodgates for honesty to actually break through.

[00:14:25] And even now, it still doesn't.

[00:14:28] Well, Pete, as you know, the left-leaning press will cover for their side unless they have no choice.

[00:14:35] I mean, I go back to the debate between Biden and Trump.

[00:14:39] When I watched that debate, I thought, well, Biden is actually doing a little bit better than what he normally does.

[00:14:46] Because I had been watching him closely for years, objectively.

[00:14:51] But I was amazed at how the press at that point – at that point reached – there was a critical mass reached.

[00:14:58] And they knew at that point that they couldn't cover for him anymore.

[00:15:02] Right.

[00:15:02] At that point, they had no choice.

[00:15:05] Right.

[00:15:06] They got forced to pivot.

[00:15:08] Pivot, they did.

[00:15:09] Then they were like, well, what are we going to do?

[00:15:11] And remember, because up until that point, nobody wanted Kamala Harris.

[00:15:15] That's why they didn't want to force Joe Biden out, because Harris was sort of the insurance policy, because she was terrible for the Bidens, right?

[00:15:23] That was the Biden insurance policy, was to put in a Veep that nobody else wanted.

[00:15:29] She was so bad, she couldn't even win her home state, dropped out before any primary votes in 2020's election – or, sorry, 2016's election.

[00:15:39] And they put her in there, and they didn't want her in there.

[00:15:43] They said she was awful, and that was the impediment to removing Joe Biden.

[00:15:46] But then eventually, they were like, okay, yeah, we can't rehab this anymore.

[00:15:50] The gig is up.

[00:15:51] Like, put her in.

[00:15:54] And then it became, she is amazing!

[00:15:56] Just overnight, complete pivot.

[00:15:57] It was amazing.

[00:15:58] Yeah, it's truly remarkable.

[00:16:00] Robert, I appreciate the call, sir.

[00:16:01] Merry Christmas, and have a great weekend.

[00:16:04] All right, hey, real quick, if you would like to get your product or service in front of about, eh, 10,000 people multiple times a day,

[00:16:12] send me an email at Pete at ThePeteCalendarShow.com and ask me about advertising.

[00:16:17] It's super affordable, it's baked into this podcast forever, and podcasts have a higher conversion rate than other social media platforms, making it the best bang for your buck.

[00:16:26] Send me a message, Pete at ThePeteCalendarShow.com, and I can show you how it works, run the numbers with you.

[00:16:31] Again, that's Pete at ThePeteCalendarShow.com.

[00:16:35] If you would like to send emails, Pete at ThePeteCalendarShow.com, on Twitter, at PeteCalendar.

[00:16:42] By the way, I will not be here next week or the following week.

[00:16:46] We will have fill-ins.

[00:16:47] If you get the podcast, you will get those fill-in programs also.

[00:16:53] And so you can, you know, you don't have to change your routine, even though I'm changing up mine.

[00:16:58] Just for two weeks, I'll be back the first Monday of 2025.

[00:17:03] And you can get the podcast, by the way, at ThePeteCalendarShow.com.

[00:17:06] And if you missed any previous episodes, like, you could spend the next two weeks going back, like, one would empty out the inbox, clear emails and stuff.

[00:17:15] You could listen to the old episodes.

[00:17:18] And, you know, look, it's just a suggestion.

[00:17:21] I'm not telling you how to live your life.

[00:17:23] I'm a libertarian.

[00:17:24] Like, come on.

[00:17:24] All right.

[00:17:25] From Russ, he says, the damn breaking on Biden world is necessary for Democrats.

[00:17:32] They're staring down two paths.

[00:17:35] The first path, the last four years have been exactly what Americans can expect from the Democrat policies.

[00:17:43] And they have no regrets or anything that they would change.

[00:17:47] Plus, Kamala Harris ran a flawless campaign.

[00:17:50] Right?

[00:17:50] That's one path that you can take.

[00:17:52] Everything was great.

[00:17:53] Everything was awesome.

[00:17:55] Right?

[00:17:55] Like, that's the one path.

[00:17:58] The other path is it was all Joe Biden and his closest advisor's fault.

[00:18:04] And, man, did they fool us all.

[00:18:06] Right?

[00:18:06] Those are your two paths, if you're willing to lie, obviously.

[00:18:11] Right?

[00:18:12] I mean, because both of these are not true.

[00:18:15] But I think Russ is correct.

[00:18:19] Democrats have a choice to make here.

[00:18:21] What path do you take?

[00:18:22] And, by the way, media does, too.

[00:18:24] Media has a path.

[00:18:26] And I thought that they were going to take the path of burning the Biden legacy and saying,

[00:18:35] we didn't know any of this that was going on.

[00:18:37] I can't believe that they kept him, you know, cordoned off from everybody.

[00:18:42] And maybe that's me.

[00:18:45] I have been.

[00:18:46] There was a caller who used to call me Pollyanna Pete.

[00:18:49] What was his name?

[00:18:50] Up in Asheville.

[00:18:51] We used to call him tinfoil something.

[00:18:56] He welcomed it.

[00:18:57] He joked about it.

[00:18:58] So, there wasn't like a negative.

[00:18:59] I wasn't.

[00:19:00] It wasn't a pejorative.

[00:19:01] We had debates all the time about that stuff.

[00:19:03] But he'd always say, you're Pollyanna Pete.

[00:19:06] Tinfoil Tom, I think, was his name.

[00:19:08] And so, he came up with that moniker because he's like, oh, yeah, you're naive on all of these things.

[00:19:15] And maybe I am on this.

[00:19:17] I just thought this was the easiest path to take.

[00:19:20] Like, you now have the cover, right?

[00:19:23] You have the permission structure in place now because of the reporting at the Wall Street Journal.

[00:19:29] Now, you can say, oh, me too.

[00:19:31] Hashtag me too.

[00:19:32] You could say, I was also kept in the dark.

[00:19:35] They wouldn't let me get close to him.

[00:19:38] Russ also says, I often wonder if KJP is the worst to ever do the job

[00:19:43] or if she is actually doing the best that could be expected of anybody trying to put a positive spin

[00:19:49] on the worst president and administration to ever do their jobs.

[00:19:52] That, I have heard this question before.

[00:19:57] No, she is the worst.

[00:19:58] She's just awful.

[00:20:00] Nothing about, like, nothing about her is believable.

[00:20:03] That's the thing about a press secretary is that there has to be some level of believability,

[00:20:09] some level of credibility.

[00:20:12] If you get up there and you start reading off of a script with bullet points

[00:20:17] and then you adopt this affectation that you have this stuff committed to memory,

[00:20:24] and so I'm just going to tell you, you do the head bob thing

[00:20:27] and you kind of, you know, you do the shoulder dip, you know,

[00:20:31] where you kind of, like, lean to a side and one shoulder dips down

[00:20:34] and you start, you know, doing the thing with your hand in, like, the circular motions.

[00:20:38] Like, all right, come on now, you understand what's going on here.

[00:20:41] This is all very obvious and let me be very clear.

[00:20:44] And you say, let me be clear a dozen times in every sentence.

[00:20:47] And it's quite obvious that you are reading the things that you're pretending everybody knows,

[00:20:54] but you need to read them, right?

[00:20:57] Like, it's not credible.

[00:20:59] It's like in the documentary The Simpsons,

[00:21:03] when Krusty the Clown beat his brother Cecil for the clown job, right?

[00:21:10] And what, or sorry, not Krusty, but the sidekick Mel, or no, was it, yeah.

[00:21:15] Like, yeah, when sidekick Cecil lost out on the job, he wanted to be Krusty's sidekick,

[00:21:20] and he didn't get the gig.

[00:21:21] Why?

[00:21:22] Because he didn't have dignity.

[00:21:24] And the pie-in-the-face gag doesn't work, Cecil, unless you got dignity.

[00:21:31] If you're just like, yeah, I'm going to do a pie-in-the-face now.

[00:21:34] Ah-ha-ha, ah-ha, look at me.

[00:21:35] Like, oh, gosh, this is just embarrassing.

[00:21:37] It's not funny.

[00:21:40] That's the problem with Corinne Jean-Pierre.

[00:21:43] Except it's with credibility.

[00:21:45] She doesn't have the credibility.

[00:21:46] So when you're standing up there saying everybody knows this thing,

[00:21:49] everybody knows you don't even know it because you're reading from a script.

[00:21:52] And then you're acting like I'm the idiot when you're the idiot.

[00:21:59] Michael says, I feel sorry for Joan Pierre or Joan Pair.

[00:22:06] Joan Pair.

[00:22:08] Whatever.

[00:22:08] For having to stand up in front of the press and have to lie,

[00:22:11] to make up stories, to spin the words, to protect Biden.

[00:22:14] And like you said, she's terrible at it.

[00:22:16] Right.

[00:22:16] See, I think Michael's right there.

[00:22:17] I think the key here is that she is being tasked with something that is very difficult,

[00:22:22] and also she sucks at it.

[00:22:25] So that's, it's like a multi-layer problem going on here.

[00:22:31] Pete, if they asked her any of the questions that you raised,

[00:22:34] she will leave the podium, says Mark.

[00:22:36] That's possible too.

[00:22:37] Then, then, then that's the video clip.

[00:22:42] See, I think, I think that, I called it packed journalism, and that is what's going on.

[00:22:52] But it's like a click in junior high.

[00:22:56] You know?

[00:22:57] And like this, and I remember that time.

[00:23:00] See, I was always one of these guys, like I, I kind of,

[00:23:02] I bounced around between all the different clicks.

[00:23:07] Um, I had a, I had a foot in all of these little worlds.

[00:23:10] Uh, I had a lot of feedback then.

[00:23:12] And, uh, and so, like I never, I never liked that.

[00:23:16] I never liked this idea, like, oh, these are the cool kids.

[00:23:19] They sit at this table.

[00:23:20] And I was like, eh, you know?

[00:23:21] I never liked that.

[00:23:22] I would sit wherever I wanted to in the cafeteria in college.

[00:23:25] You know, there was, uh, at Winthrop, they had a, um,

[00:23:28] a raised sort of platform where they had tables up above and stairs,

[00:23:33] like three steps, just, you know, a little bit of a platform.

[00:23:36] And then they had longer tables up there.

[00:23:38] And everybody called it Mount Olympus because that's where all the Greeks,

[00:23:43] that's where all the fraternities and sororities, they all sat up there.

[00:23:45] So we all called it Mount Olympus.

[00:23:48] Well, when I eventually joined a fraternity and I was, I joined late, um,

[00:23:53] just to meet new people and get new experiences and stuff.

[00:23:57] And I would go up there and eat with them,

[00:23:58] but I would also go back down and sit down below too.

[00:24:01] Like I did, I didn't care.

[00:24:02] It didn't matter to me.

[00:24:03] Um, and that's what the press corps strikes me as.

[00:24:07] And one of the things about being in those clicks is that you, um,

[00:24:12] you know, not to say certain things because you don't want to jam up your

[00:24:15] fellow clickmates, right?

[00:24:19] Clickers, clickians, click Owens, whatever.

[00:24:22] Like you don't want to, you don't want to mess up the world and the vibe going on

[00:24:28] there by making the teacher mad at you.

[00:24:32] That's who they remind me of.

[00:24:34] Really?

[00:24:34] Now that I think about it, actually, I'm thinking, these are the kids that reminded the teacher

[00:24:39] that she didn't assign us homework for the night.

[00:24:42] You know, that kid, that's who they remind me of.

[00:24:45] Brown nosers, thrown sniffers.

[00:24:50] There are other phrases that I shall refrain from using.

[00:24:53] I mentioned Cheryl Atkinson.

[00:25:24] She said,

[00:25:26] the answer simply couldn't be that it wasn't.

[00:25:29] I've written quite a bit about this, but we as journalists too often decide the story in

[00:25:35] advance and shape the facts to fit the narrative rather than gathering information and letting

[00:25:41] that, uh, that tell the story, whatever it may be.

[00:25:44] Anyway, the Democrats were blaming Republicans for the shutdown.

[00:25:47] So we were calling Democrats and the Obama administration for ideas to report what was

[00:25:52] the real impact.

[00:25:53] Taking our cue, those officials fabricated impacts that we could then report on.

[00:26:01] For example, they cordoned off outdoor public monuments in Washington, D.C.

[00:26:07] We knew and even discussed in the newsroom that this made no sense.

[00:26:12] These monuments were not manned to begin with.

[00:26:15] The only reason to cord them off from the public was so that visiting tourists would see

[00:26:19] the impact of the shutdowns and then the news media would have something to take pictures of

[00:26:23] and interview people about.

[00:26:25] There are other examples, but this is the one I remember the most.

[00:26:29] I remember that one too.

[00:26:31] Remember the World War II veterans on the flights where they, you know, run,

[00:26:35] they fly veteran World War II vets up to see the World War II memorial and they had shut

[00:26:41] it down during one of these shutdowns.

[00:26:43] They, they put up barriers and stuff.

[00:26:44] And these World War II vets are like, look, we stormed the beach at Normandy.

[00:26:49] Your barricades are not stopping us.

[00:26:50] They just ripped them down.

[00:26:53] Insurrection.

[00:26:53] No, they, uh, they ripped them down.

[00:26:55] They just went in like, you're not going to stop them from doing it.

[00:26:57] They, these are people think about how stupid this is.

[00:27:00] If you don't, this may blow your mind.

[00:27:02] If you never, if you weren't aware of this, if you, uh, uh, aren't old enough to remember

[00:27:07] this, they literally closed.

[00:27:09] They put up cones and barriers on the shoulder, on the side of a road where you could see Mount

[00:27:16] Rushmore from people would pull over to the side of the road on the shoulder and they would

[00:27:22] take pictures of Mount Rushmore.

[00:27:23] Cause it was a nice big open plains area and you could see them, the carvings in the mountain.

[00:27:28] And so the park service put up cones along that road to prevent people from taking pictures.

[00:27:35] They put up, this was a hilarious one.

[00:27:37] Remember they put the, uh, uh, like the rope line or whatever around old faithful, the geyser.

[00:27:42] So you couldn't, so you couldn't go up next to it, take a picture of it.

[00:27:48] This is how stupid it was.

[00:27:51] And then these stories were just pushed out.

[00:27:54] And this was really before Twitter kind of came into its own.

[00:27:58] Twitter had been around for a couple of years by that point.

[00:28:00] But at this point, like you start seeing these ridiculous photos as they're trying to make

[00:28:06] people hurt.

[00:28:07] That was what they were doing.

[00:28:09] They were using the shutdown to make people hurt for political advantage.

[00:28:12] And that's what Republicans are afraid of now.

[00:28:14] And that's why, look, if you just pass the clean CR, pass a, a disaster relief bill,

[00:28:21] and you make everybody vote on them.

[00:28:23] And then we will know.

[00:28:24] And this will give Democrats the opportunity to vote against a clean CR or vote for it.

[00:28:29] I like, if I was them in the house, I'd vote for it.

[00:28:32] And a disaster relief bill.

[00:28:34] If I'm a Democrat, North Carolina, I'm voting for that.

[00:28:38] And then you got Republicans that would probably vote against it because it would be new debt,

[00:28:42] a hundred billion dollars.

[00:28:43] That's not paid for.

[00:28:45] And they could vote against it, but you would then have a bipartisan vote on that.

[00:28:48] See, here's the thing.

[00:28:49] When you split these things up and you make people vote on the individual issue,

[00:28:53] this is crazy, but they vote on the individual issue.

[00:28:56] I know it's crazy.

[00:28:57] All right.

[00:28:58] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:28:59] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:29:14] Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.