The joyful warrior's stolen valor (08-12-2024--Hour2)

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: 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, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: All right, so the last hour, we went over the scandal that has erupted over the weekend about J.D. Vance and the picture of him at a Halloween party. And there's a, I don't know if you're aware of this, there's another, I mean, I don't want to call it a scandal. Just some questions. Some questions. And some fact checking of the GOP pouncing and seizing.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Um, on particular claims regarding Tim Walls. Tim Walls. The, uh, the pick for vice president by the vice president, Kamala Harris, who I don't know if you're aware of this, but she's bringing the joy back.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: She's bringing all of the joy to the campaign, to politics, to America. We were joyless before. And now we have the joy. Thank God for Kamala Harris, who apparently, I guess she's been working on the joy and how to bring it to us all over the last four years.

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_00]: She's been, I mean, as MIA on producing the joy for us as she was on, you know, figuring out the root causes of migration. But, um, but now, I mean, at least she's here now.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: She's not going to tell us how she's bringing the joy. It's just, it's just her laughing, I think. I think it's just the laughing, the laughing. I'm not sure. But it's all about the joy. And she's, this is intentional.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I submit to you that this narrative of the joy is simply leaning in to the weird cackling that she does. And it's a, it's a tell that she doesn't know what she's doing. Like she, I've said this before. She's the kid in class that did not read the book, but then has to get up in front of the class and deliver a book report.

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And rather than just go, you know, admit that, oh, I didn't read the book. I had this thing or whatever. No, she goes up there and she tries to just improv her way through it.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's how she ends up in these interviews. Well, I'm sorry. She used to end up in the interviews. She doesn't do those anymore. She hadn't done interviews in a very long time.

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, she may at some point find somebody that will lob some softball. I would submit Robert Costa from CBS.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_00]: He apparently does very, very good interviews if you're looking for softball leading questions in order to induce, you know, answers from Democrats like he did with Joe Biden.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I've got that clip too. Got the clip from Joe Biden this weekend.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_00]: But Kamala Harris, the kid that didn't read the book, now delivering the book report and tries to tap dance their way through the book report.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: By like giving you explanations of the title of the book, you know, like there was a mockingbird and mockingbirds fly.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Mockingbirds are well known in America. And if you kill a mockingbird, then you end up writing about killing the mockingbird, which is a bird that flies in America.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what makes it so vital at this moment to read about the killing of the mockingbird.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. That's the kind of book report she delivers. And the whole time she's thinking, I am totally nailing this.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: That's how you end up with her looking over the shoulder of Donald Trump, cheating off his paper.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. Where she's like, oh, tax, no tax on tips.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00]: No tax on tips. That. Yeah.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_00]: She adopted that. She totally ripped off Donald Trump on the no tax for tips.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: This is the woman, by the way, who cast literally the deciding vote in the Senate because as vice president.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. You're the. You're the tie break vote.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So she broke the tie in order to pass the law that hired all the IRS agents to then go after people for not reporting their tips.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: So now she's she's out there stumping about how she's not going to tax the tips because her classmate there.

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_00]: That was his answer in his essay portion of the test.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And she looked over his shoulder and saw it. And so she she, I guess, took that.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. The whole joyful thing is just it's just nauseating to me.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So I think that they're leaning into this, the cackling.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I think they know this is problematic because it looks weird because it's her tell.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: She starts laughing uncontrollably for longer than it really takes.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Look, I am not above laughing at my own jokes.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I give you the rim shot here in order to induce you to laugh.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_00]: So it's not so obvious that I am laughing alone and my own joke.

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_00]: So I get that. OK, I'm totally on board with the laughter at your own jokes.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: But I don't laugh hysterically uncontrollably for.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, anything more than about a second or two, and she just keeps going and going and going.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think they realize this is problematic.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: And so they're going to brand it in marketing.

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_00]: You call it hang a lantern on it. Right.

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you've got this issue.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, people are going to talk about it.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's a it's a concern.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: So you have to address it.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_00]: You can either try to ignore it, pretend it doesn't exist.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: But if it's so well known that everybody, you know, is aware of it, then you got it.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: You got to address it.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think then she I think her team is hanging a lantern on it because it's obviously intentional.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_00]: This whole joy aspect.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_00]: It like when Tim Walls came out with Kamala Harris, the first speech in Pennsylvania after they humiliated Josh Shapiro there.

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. And they get on the stage and Tim Walls makes this comment at the time about I just want to thank Kamala Harris.

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_00]: For bringing joy back to politics.

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, OK, first off, politics should not be filled with joy.

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_00]: OK, politics is how you settle disagreements before violence.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, yes, if you want to try to have some, you know, some decent discussions and that sort of thing.

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: But joy is not a word I would ever associate with politics.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. Especially controversial politics.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Differences of philosophy.

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Number one. Number two.

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_00]: What exactly is she bringing back?

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Is it I mean, is it like Justin Timberlake where the sexy was gone and then he brought it back and nobody knew it was gone?

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And then people just assume that it was missing, but then he brought it back.

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_00]: So he gets credit for it.

[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Is that the idea here that we're going to just credit Kamala Harris for bringing the joy back where nobody can ever remember there being joy in the first place?

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Or if there was joy that actually was missing at some point.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_00]: But whatever, I thought it was a very odd line.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And then I kept hearing it and then it was like, oh.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, this is intentional.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: This is the thing they're trying to do.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: And the media was like, join back.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Got it. OK.

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_00]: And then they ran with it.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's why we're seeing all of the coverage now about all of the joy that has been brought back.

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Time magazine.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Her moment.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_00]: That's the that's the title of the cover piece on Kamala Harris.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And it's got her very Obama like looking up into the clouds sketched, you know, like a black and white, a little bit of blue in there.

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_00]: You've got AP.

[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Harris is pushing joy.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Trump paints a darker picture.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Will mismatched moods matter?

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_00]: By the way, this always reminds me whenever I see a question in a headline at a news organization.

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Just always keep in mind that when the headline writer.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Puts the headline in the form of a question, you know, two things.

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Number one, they are lazy.

[00:08:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And number two, because just asking the question that.

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's just a lazy way to bait you into reading the story where you will.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Number two, find out that the answer is usually no.

[00:08:52] All right.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Whenever you see a headline that asks a question, generally speaking, not always, but generally the answer is no.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_00]: They're just asking in the form of a question in order to, quote, answer the question.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_00]: No.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_00]: But they want to do the story.

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And so they're going to ask it as a question.

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_00]: OK, so here is the AP at the top of his first speech as her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, turned to Vice President Kamala Harris and declared, thank you for bringing back the joy.

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_00]: The next day, Harris took the theme a step further, branding the Democratic ticket as, quote, joyful warriors.

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Contrast that with former President Donald Trump, who opened a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida a few days later by saying, quote,

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_00]: we have a lot of bad things coming up.

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_00]: And then he predicted the U.S. would fall into economic depression unseen since the dark days of 1929 and maybe even another world war.

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Democrats are playing up their sunnier outlook, promoting the idea that voters can be inspired to support someone and not just cast their ballot against the other side.

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_00]: The Trump campaign argues their candidate is reflecting the dour mood of the country and dismisses the idea that a growing contrast in tone and upbeat attitude will decide the presidency.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, this might work, folks.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_00]: It might work.

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_00]: The happy warrior like that, like the sunny disposition.

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_00]: That was Reagan.

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Donald Trump is not that.

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think he ever has been that.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And of all the guys that could have actually spoken to it, like this guy who did all these projects, like he could talk about how great America is.

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_00]: But he doesn't.

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_00]: He talks about making it great again.

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Sort of like bringing the joy back.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_00]: He's going to bring the greatness back.

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I will say, and I'm not trying to be provocative here, but I will say also Ron DeSantis had a pretty good stump speech that was optimistic here, too.

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_00]: But the Republican voters chose otherwise.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_00]: The Minnesota governor's relentless positivity is meant to give supporters a jolt of new energy and keep the momentum going.

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And Biden, you'll recall, he would often end his speeches saying that he'd never been more optimistic, right, about America.

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_00]: But the problem is he built his whole reelection bid before he, you know, quit.

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Branding Trump as an existential threat to democracy.

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_00]: And he would always offer dire predictions about what happens if Trump gets back into office.

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's sort of a dark disposition, too.

[00:11:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So this could work.

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And it could work for some deeply psychological reasons.

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_00]: The Harris-Wolz campaign is really leaning into this whole bringing the joy back.

[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_00]: And there was a video that really captured it well.

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_00]: It was a video from like a nightclub or something.

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_00]: You got all these people and they're in there dancing and raving.

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And then they started flashing video clips of cackling Camilla.

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, it's like she's like she's literally cackling, laughing in the videos.

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And they just lose their minds.

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_00]: They're just ecstatic.

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And James Lindsay, the guy who runs the website and his substack and podcast called New Discourses.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_00]: He was one of the guys that did the hoaxes on the social sciences and the publications where they got published completely made up, you know, social science, soft science crap.

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And it got published and they did it.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_00]: He, along with Peter Boghossian, Helen Pluckrose, they put these papers into these publications in order to prove the corruption of these publications and the entire field of, quote, soft sciences, social sciences.

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, James Lindsay.

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_00]: He says the camelomania is a state of religious ecstasy based in the blind hope of destroying their class enemies, which has been renewed in her in her candidacy because Biden had no chance.

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_00]: The ecstasy had died.

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_00]: There was no joy in Bidenville.

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Because Joe couldn't perform and they could see that.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, he's not going to win.

[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my gosh.

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: They were all depressed.

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And now she comes along and now the ecstasy returns.

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_00]: It's called radical joy.

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: It's a form of, he says, fervent mania.

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_00]: He then goes on to point out how in Mao's Chinese communism, the word for a local communist functionary who oversaw implementation was what was called a cadre.

[00:13:39] [SPEAKER_00]: The word used in English today for the same role, he says, is organizer or community organizer.

[00:13:48] [SPEAKER_00]: In 1937, Mao outlined a broad vision of cadres as quality personnel capable of linking the CCP with the masses in the places where they worked.

[00:13:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And this was spelled out literally in the Little Red Book.

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Mao's Little Red Book.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Our party organizations must be extended all over the country and we must purposefully train tens of thousands of cadres and hundreds of first rate mass leaders.

[00:14:14] [SPEAKER_00]: They must be cadres and leaders versed in Marxism, Leninism, politically farsighted, competent in work, full of the spirit of self-sacrifice, capable of tackling problems on their own, steadfast in the midst of difficulties and loyal and devoted in serving the nation, the class and the parties or the party.

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Not the kind of party that J.D. Vance went to with the wig, the communist party, right?

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_00]: That's the psychology behind this.

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_00]: The joy, the fervent mania.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I do have some messages here.

[00:14:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me get to them.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Chris says, Pete, the worst part of the J.D. Vance photo has nothing to do with his dress.

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_00]: It was the red solo cups.

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you even remember the sinister implications of those?

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_00]: J.D. Vance is a gang rapist, Pete, a cross-dressing gang rapist.

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Wasn't that from the Kavanaugh thing?

[00:15:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my gosh.

[00:15:19] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd missed it, Chris.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_00]: I completely missed the lead on that.

[00:15:22] [SPEAKER_00]: You are correct.

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_00]: What is this?

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm listening to you on the radio right now, Pete.

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_00]: You have said a few times that you like to pronounce names correctly.

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Wait, that doesn't sound like me.

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00]: You've been pronouncing Kamala's name in three syllables with the stress on the second syllable.

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_00]: According to the liberal media and Kamala herself, her name is pronounced in two syllables with the stress on the first syllable, Kamala.

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Kamala.

[00:15:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's still three syllables.

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Or if you break it into three syllables, pronounced correctly, the stress is on the first syllable, Kamala.

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't care.

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Because it's one of those things where I thought I was saying it right, and then I thought, oh, I'm not saying it right.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_00]: So then I tried to say what I thought was right, and then I saw – it's one of those words where, like, I don't know which one is right as I start to say it.

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So I just call her Madam Vice President, you know.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Kamala?

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Kamala?

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Kamala?

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_00]: I call her Kamala.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't I call her Kamala?

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Kamala?

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't care.

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_00]: So next up is from Chip.

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Happy, happy, joy, joy.

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Can we stand four years of Ren and Stimpy?

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_00]: That is a good question, President.

[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Or Chip, rather.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_00]: That is a good question.

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think so.

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_00]: But look.

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_00]: See, Hillary Clinton was a prophet.

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_00]: She said we needed fun camps.

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Remember that?

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_00]: She suggested that we have fun camps for adults.

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_00]: The problem was she was not the best messenger.

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Because you think Hillary and you don't think fun.

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the one with the cackle, like, I could see that she would – I mean, like, she's a bit of a better sales agent for that idea.

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_00]: So, fun camps.

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Here we come.

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Dennis says on Kamala's flip-flop, if she really wants to create joy, she should start inhaling that laughing gas again.

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_00]: We need to return to the old cackling Kamala.

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_00]: That said, I think her cackling actually sounds more like a laughing hyena.

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Nonetheless, come on, Kamala.

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Get back to what gave you those all-important vibes.

[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, it'll come back.

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_00]: I think she is going to – I think she's going to – as soon as she sits for an interview, it's going to happen.

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Right now, she's running this campaign, another, like, version of a basement campaign.

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_00]: She goes.

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_00]: She does her speeches with a teleprompter.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody's, like, squee!

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_00]: You know?

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And then she goes to some other location.

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_00]: At some point, somebody's going to get to throw her a couple of questions.

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And then I think you're going to start seeing that same old delivery.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Gary says, these extremely online libs really have not lived a normal life that most people identify with.

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I've seen drag events for fundraisers at churches in the 2000s.

[00:18:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody cared about drag.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_00]: It was mainly a joke until the last decade where we think it's for kids and not a joke.

[00:18:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is pretty amazing how quickly that changed.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And then Shadow of the Magi asks if I had heard the news that Dr. Fauci has COVID again.

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_00]: I did hear that.

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I believe he is vaccinated and has received six booster shots.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_00]: And he's still got it.

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I almost wonder if he's got some sort of, I don't know, depressed immune system.

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he's more susceptible to it.

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_00]: J.D. Vance.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_00]: How much time do I have here?

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I'm going to have time for this.

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_00]: 2.53.

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I can play this.

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Let me play this clip.

[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Minnesota National Guard Command Sergeant Major Doug Juleen.

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay?

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And he goes on CNN over the weekend to explain Tim Walz and how Tim Walz, quote, retired,

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_00]: rather than go to combat with his troops that he was in command of.

[00:19:54] [SPEAKER_02]: The other issue I did was is that the individual that approved this was two levels higher than myself in the enlisted corps

[00:20:01] [SPEAKER_02]: and should have had Tim Walz come back to me and talk to me about this and discuss this as to why he was going forward now,

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_02]: or not going forward now, after he had already told me he was going forward.

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_03]: I understand, Sergeant Major.

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_03]: Now, thinking about that timeline, I think it's important the way you've laid it out,

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_03]: because it sounds as though, yes, he was entitled to retire.

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_03]: There was a protocol where he was supposed to go to you, you say, for that approval,

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_03]: but there was somebody he went to instead of you, which has caused some level of consternation.

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_03]: But in the way that he's handled how he decided to retire,

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_03]: I do wonder what you make of the way his retirement is being characterized now by political figures and others

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_03]: who are saying that somehow he has stolen valor, number one, or that his retirement was an abandonment of his duties.

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_03]: How do you feel about the experience that you are describing to us right now being described as political talking points?

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_02]: The real thing is, is that the level that he held at that time, which could have been either a first sergeant,

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_02]: but he was conditionally promoted to command sergeant major,

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_02]: he knew the rules or the policies or the procedures and the manner of how to address issues going forward.

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_02]: If this would have been an early entry, low-level ranking individual, different story.

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_02]: We would have understood that, okay, he didn't understand the processes and the procedures.

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Tim Walls knew the processes and procedures.

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_02]: He went around me and above and beyond me and went and basically went to get somebody to back him,

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_02]: to get him out of there without, it was just a backdoor process that he handled against me

[00:21:45] [SPEAKER_02]: or against the battalion out there.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_03]: Is your concern that it's, oh, go ahead, but I do want to ask this question quickly, sergeant major,

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_03]: and I appreciate your time.

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_03]: But is your concern about the manner in which he did not speak to you or his decision to retire,

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_03]: which he, as we've talked about, he would have been entitled to do,

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_03]: which causes the most concern?

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_03]: Because that is the focus that so many people are wondering about,

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_03]: whether he has done something wrong in service or done something personally to offend you.

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_02]: No, he did something wrong in service, as I stated before.

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_02]: He knew the policies and procedures and how we go to leadership and address issues

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_02]: or discuss issues and concerns out there.

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Again, backing up, he had told me, no, I'm going forward.

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_02]: We're going to go with the battalion and go from there.

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm under the believing he told me he was going forward.

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm underneath that believing that he's going forward.

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_02]: He went around me, which he should have addressed it with me

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_02]: so we could help do some things out there.

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Which, by the way, this guy, Julene, he says that Walls had told him

[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_00]: for like half a year prior at two different occasions

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_00]: that he was ready to go, go to be deployed with the battalion.

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_00]: And so they started doing all the prep work.

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_00]: They did the meets and stuff with the units that they would be supporting

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_00]: because they were National Guard.

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And Walls kept saying, I'm going with you.

[00:23:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going anywhere.

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to lead the troops.

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And then when they go into this meeting, there's somebody else there.

[00:23:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, well, where's Walls?

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And the other guy, Barron's, he's like, oh, yeah, he's out.

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_00]: He retired.

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And that was not following the proper chain of command.

[00:23:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And what this guy, Julene, that you just heard from, Sergeant Major Doug Julene,

[00:23:37] [SPEAKER_00]: what he said was that had Walls gone to him as he was supposed to do,

[00:23:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Julene would have said, no, you're not retiring

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_00]: because you've done all of this prep work already

[00:23:47] [SPEAKER_00]: and your troops need you because we've just prepped all of this entry.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And now you're failing.

[00:23:56] [SPEAKER_00]: By the way, the Harris Walls campaign, they came out this weekend and said,

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_00]: oh, he may have misspoken about his military history,

[00:24:05] [SPEAKER_00]: whether he served in combat,

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_00]: which he has led people to believe that he did when he did not.

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_00]: That's stolen valor.

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think I speak for everybody when I say that the real scandal here

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_00]: is how Republicans are going to react to this story.

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's the real problem.

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Because when this scandal is about a Democrat,

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_00]: the story is the Republican reaction to that scandal.

[00:24:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Now, if this story was about a Republican scandal,

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_00]: well, the story is the scandal, obviously.

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I just played for you a clip from Minnesota National Guard Command Sergeant Major Doug Julene.

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_00]: J.D. Vance is going to reference this in an answer to Dana Bash on CNN the next day.

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_04]: And on the question of when he left the National Guard,

[00:25:02] [SPEAKER_04]: he filed his election paperwork February 10th, 2005.

[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_04]: That was a month before the National Guard even announced

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_04]: that it was possible that they would deploy to Iraq.

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_04]: And it ended up being two months.

[00:25:13] [SPEAKER_04]: He retired two months before they actually got the paperwork.

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_01]: But on CNN last night, Dana,

[00:25:18] [SPEAKER_01]: one of the people who was actually in charge of him

[00:25:20] [SPEAKER_01]: said they knew they were going to deploy to Iraq in February of 2004.

[00:25:24] [SPEAKER_01]: So, or excuse me, fall of 2004.

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So he knew he was going to Iraq.

[00:25:27] [SPEAKER_01]: He decided to quit, to retire, whatever word you want to use.

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Retire.

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Because, whatever, because he wanted to run for Congress.

[00:25:35] [SPEAKER_01]: He lied about that.

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_01]: He said that when he decided to retire,

[00:25:39] [SPEAKER_01]: he did not know that he was going to Iraq.

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_01]: That is another untruth, as even his senior military officer said.

[00:25:45] [SPEAKER_01]: So again, I'm not criticizing the service.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm criticizing the dishonesty.

[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Dishonesty spoken in favor and for the purpose of political benefit.

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that the most important thing here, Dana,

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_01]: is it goes to Kamala Harris' judgment.

[00:25:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Tim Waltz is ultimately going to be the vice president.

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Kamala Harris is in great health.

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure she's going to be president if she wins

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_01]: for four or maybe even eight years.

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Why did Kamala Harris choose a person

[00:26:09] [SPEAKER_01]: who has lied about their military service?

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that is a serious lapse in judgment.

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't want to hear from a campaign spokesperson of Kamala Harris.

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I want to hear Kamala Harris herself address what I just said.

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_04]: You know, I've seen a lot of statements from veterans

[00:26:23] [SPEAKER_04]: including those you serve with saying

[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_04]: it's just untoward to be criticizing somebody who served for 24 years.

[00:26:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Dana, I'm not interested in the ad hominem.

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I've heard from a lot of veterans groups who criticize Tim Waltz.

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_01]: The question is, he said he served in war and he didn't.

[00:26:40] [SPEAKER_01]: That is a dishonesty.

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I really, I couldn't care less what one or the other person says about it.

[00:26:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I care about what the truth is.

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_01]: The truth is that Tim Waltz didn't tell the truth.

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And importantly, Dana, this is about Kamala Harris's judgment.

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that when you ask why has Kamala Harris allowed the border to be wide open,

[00:26:58] [SPEAKER_01]: why has Kamala Harris supported policies that have promoted the increase in inflation,

[00:27:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it goes to the heart of her judgment.

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that's what we should be talking about.

[00:27:07] [SPEAKER_04]: One last question.

[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_04]: Donald Trump didn't serve in the military.

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_04]: He received a medical draft deferment for bone spurs to avoid serving in the Vietnam War,

[00:27:16] [SPEAKER_04]: reportedly as a favor to his father.

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_04]: Do you find that shameful too?

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that Donald Trump didn't serve in the military, but he didn't lie about it, Dana.

[00:27:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I've known Donald Trump for a long time.

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_01]: He really honors our veterans.

[00:27:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So you think he had bone spurs?

[00:27:27] [SPEAKER_01]: My service.

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Donald Trump didn't lie about serving in the military.

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_01]: He didn't say that he went to Vietnam when he didn't.

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_01]: This is the problem.

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't criticize anybody.

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Whether they served our country or not, I think it's honorable to serve.

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_01]: But obviously a lot of people have reasons for not serving.

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I criticize somebody for embellishing their record for lying, saying, I went to war.

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Dana, do you think that it's a problem that he said, I went to war, but he didn't actually?

[00:27:50] [SPEAKER_01]: That seems to be a problem to me.

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, they've corrected that.

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_04]: Let's move on to...

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_04]: Let's move on to another important issue to voters.

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, she's awful.

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you do not loathe her enough, however much you loathe her.

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, is she employed by the campaign?

[00:28:09] [SPEAKER_00]: See, when you start looking at journalists, journalismers, as I call them, as Democrats with bylines,

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of this stuff makes a lot more sense.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_00]: At every step along the way, she's trying to correct him using Democrat talking points.

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And she delivers them as if this is the truth.

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and they corrected that.

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, and he's exactly right.

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_00]: They corrected it, quote unquote, by basically admitting that he had been lying about it.

[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_00]: They corrected it.

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So, by correcting his previous statements, it means those were not correct.

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_00]: So, when he, for example, in March 20, 2005, press release from Tim Walls,

[00:28:54] [SPEAKER_00]: As Command Sergeant Major, I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but also to serve.

[00:29:00] [SPEAKER_00]: If called on, I am dedicated to serving my country to the best of my ability, whether that is in Washington, D.C. or in Iraq.

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to speculate on what shape my campaign will take if I am deployed, but I have no plans to drop out of the race.

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_00]: This was when he was running for office, running for Congress.

[00:29:18] [SPEAKER_00]: He said he's not dropping out.

[00:29:20] [SPEAKER_00]: This was in March, but then he dropped out.

[00:29:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And he knew.

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_00]: And he told people that he didn't.

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_00]: That's been the line so far.

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_00]: All this time has been, oh, he didn't know.

[00:29:30] [SPEAKER_00]: They didn't know.

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_00]: But he had knowledge.

[00:29:33] [SPEAKER_00]: His commanding officers have said he had knowledge.

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_00]: That they told him and the leadership back in the fall, before 2005.

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Fall of 04, they were told.

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_00]: And then he says, I'm going, when he meets with the commander.

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And then he says again, a couple months later, oh, yeah, I'm going.

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Tells him again.

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And then goes above that commander and retires.

[00:30:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And notice when he says retire or quit.

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_00]: And Dana Bash says, retire, retire.

[00:30:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Like, got to frame it.

[00:30:08] [SPEAKER_00]: It's retirement.

[00:30:10] [SPEAKER_00]: But J.D. Vance is saying he quit.

[00:30:11] [SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[00:30:12] [SPEAKER_00]: That'll do it for this episode.

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening.

[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast.

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here.

[00:30:23] [SPEAKER_00]: You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepcalendorshow.com.

[00:30:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, thank you so much for listening.

[00:30:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And don't break anything while I'm gone.