Nashville's Morning News with Dan Mandis

The Chris Cross Hand-Off

19 min
Mar 31, 20262 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

The episode features hosts Dan Mandis and colleagues discussing Jade Ivey's controversial comments about Pride Month and the NBA's response, along with coverage of anti-Trump 'No Kings' protests and their perceived lack of coherent messaging. The show also touches on Don Lemon's potential presidential ambitions and media coverage of political protests.

Insights
  • Conservative media strategy focuses on amplifying perceived contradictions and absurdities in progressive activism to delegitimize movements rather than engaging substantively
  • Sports leagues face tension between corporate social responsibility messaging and player speech restrictions, with selective enforcement creating credibility questions
  • Protest movements with diverse messaging and unconventional participants are vulnerable to being framed as incoherent or performative by opposing media
  • Media figures from declining platforms may leverage political ambitions as a narrative to rebuild relevance and audience engagement
Trends
Selective enforcement of speech codes in professional sports based on political alignmentRise of counter-protest culture and viral video documentation as political engagement tacticsMedia fragmentation creating parallel narratives around same events with opposite interpretationsCelebrity/media figure political ambitions as audience engagement and relevance strategyProtest aesthetics and visual presentation becoming primary focus over substantive policy messaging
Topics
NBA Player Speech Rights and Religious ExpressionCorporate Social Responsibility vs. Free Speech in SportsAnti-Trump Protest Movement Organization and MessagingMedia Coverage Bias and Narrative FramingPolitical Candidate Viability and Identity PoliticsConservative Media Strategy and Audience EngagementLGBTQ+ Advocacy in Professional SportsProtest Movement Effectiveness and Goals
Companies
Chicago Bulls
NBA team that terminated Jade Ivey's contract following his comments about Pride Month
NBA
Professional basketball league criticized for selective enforcement of player speech policies
Dallas Mavericks
Mentioned as potential team that could sign Jade Ivey; Mark Cuban's ownership discussed
AT&T Stadium
Venue for Lone Star Smoke Out festival mentioned in advertisement
People
Jade Ivey
Former Bulls player terminated for calling Pride Month 'unrighteous' in social media video
Dan Mandis
Primary host of the show discussing current events and political commentary
LeBron James
Referenced for criticizing Daryl Morey's comments about China's Uyghur camps
Daryl Morey
Called out China for Uyghur Muslim concentration camps; faced NBA backlash
Mark Cuban
Discussed as potential owner who could sign controversial player Jade Ivey
Don Lemon
Former CNN host considering presidential run; discussed lack of self-awareness about rules
Barack Obama
Referenced as counterpoint to claims that rules are different for Black candidates
Donald Trump
Central figure in anti-Trump 'No Kings' protests discussed throughout episode
Jesse Waters
Created four-minute montage of No Kings protesters showing perceived lack of coherence
Joy Reid
Referenced as covering No Kings protests alongside Don Lemon and Jim Acosta
Jim Acosta
Referenced as covering No Kings protests alongside Don Lemon and Joy Reid
Quotes
"If there was an NBA player saying, man, these Christians are so backwards and bigoted when it comes to the LGBTQs, they would be celebrated."
Dan MandisMid-episode
"Sun-Zoo, Art of War, never interrupt your enemies while they're making a mistake."
Dan MandisMid-episode
"I think I could be president of United States. I could definitely run this country better than Donald Trump."
Don LemonLate episode
"The rules are different for me. I don't get it. Like the lack of self-awareness, he does know that we had a black president, right?"
Dan MandisLate episode
"It's just cultural decay."
Co-hostMid-episode
Full Transcript
I don't want to think. Three days, one epic festival. Riley Greene, Co-Wetsell, Shabuzy, and Barbecue from the nation's best pit masters. April 24th through 26th outside AT&T Stadium. Get tickets now at LoneStarSmokeOut.com. I don't know, Joe, did you hear that last commercial? If you listen closely to that last commercial... Yeah, I heard you laughing. You'll hear when Chris Hans scared the living crap out of me. So I'm reading the commercial, and then I look to my left and Chris, his face is just staring at me creepily and very intently. I mean, it's... And it scared me. Okay. I don't think that you should be putting the blame on me or on Mason because you're a little jumpy this morning. What's gotten into you? I've had a lot of Wally's Bean Machine coffee. As a matter of fact, if you would like to upgrade the coffee in your office, Wally's Bean Machine.com. Thank you for the softball there. You got it. Knocked it right out of the park, didn't I? We're throwing oops. Okay, real quick. So have you heard... What's this guy's name, Joan? The Chicago Bull? Jade Nivee. Okay, so you're familiar with Jade Nivee and what he said? Yes, yes I am. Horrifying what Jade Nivee said. Just horrifying. You want to hear it? We can't keep letting him get away with this. No, we can. Here's what he had to say. Jade Nivee, a now former. The world can proclaim LGBTQ. Right? They have... They have... They proclaim Pride Month and the NBA. They proclaim it. They show it to the world. They say, come join us for Pride. For Pride Month. To celebrate unrighteousness. They proclaim it. They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it in the streets. Unrighteousness. So how is it that one can't speak righteousness? How is it one that... How are they to say that you... Man, this man is crazy. I'm not good. So that's pretty much what he said. He was doing it. He had had his phone steadying on his leg while he's driving. So you're looking up at him talking. Just sort of talking about Pride Month and the NBA. He's not on the court. Right. He's not in a press conference. He's just sort of vibing. They're in the car talking about Pride Month and his distaste for it. The Chicago Bulls bounced him. They kicked him off the team. I mean, it is crazy. How can they get away with that? If there was an NBA player saying, man, these Christians are so backwards and bigoted when it comes to the LGBTQs, they would be celebrated. Absolutely, they would be celebrated. So I don't know. Some people are saying he's got a lawsuit. I don't know. I mean, I just... I think it's wrong that they kicked him off the team. It's not surprising that they kicked him off. And it should... We should note that he is a born-again Christian. And he has talked about how when he was, you know, previous to finding the Lord, he was a fornicator and all of these other things. And he was a sinner. And so now he is a very outspoken, born-again Christian. I mean, I don't even think you would... Would you consider that very out... I've got updates. I've got big stories. We'll sort through the truth of what's really going on. So buckle up. Here it comes. The Vince Show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Spoken? No. He literally just called it unrighteous. That's it. I don't see why this is a big deal. He didn't even go full chapter and verse on him. Right. You know what I mean? And here's the deal. I mean, they got so upset at them. They got, the NBA got so upset that he called them unrighteous. You know, they took such offense to that, really? Like, they... It's an insane notion that they feel so badly about being called unrighteous. Well... This is the same league that when Daryl Maury called out China for the Uyghur Muslim concentration camps, LeBron James said, well, as he holds a book upside down, said, well, he's just not as educated as he needs to be. Well, and you could probably talk about, you know, some of the folks in the NBA, you know, some of these folks. Not the best. Not the best. Not exactly morally upstanding citizens. No. Yeah, this is where the NBA is going to draw the line. Yeah. So... It's insane. Do you think another team will pick them up? I hope so. They have to. There's got to be a team that's underperforming for sales. Wait, here's my question. Is he any good? Yeah. I don't even know if he's any good. Let me look him up. Yeah. I mean, I think he's a backup. Like, he's not going to become another Colin Kaepernick. No. Like, on the other side. I don't think so. I mean, he's averaging eight and a half points per game, two and a half rebounds, one and a half assists. He's not playing that much this season, but he's been dealing with limited minutes about 18 a game because of injuries. Yeah. You know, Mark Cuban owns the... Does Mark Cuban still own the Dallas Mavs? I think he's back to owning the Dallas Mavs. Okay. Maybe Mark Cuban. I think you need a more small market team that is not making the Jersey sales because if they sign this guy, it would be the number one selling jersey in the NBA overnight. And we've seen that time and time again with leagues like the NFL where guys weren't kneeling during the anthem, their jersey became the number one seller. Yep. All right. Well, hopefully he'll sign on to another... I don't follow basketball like at all. No. Like, I just, I don't like basketball. You don't like it? No. I don't. Any particular reason? No. I just don't like it. Speaking of the gays, did you see that we missed one of the biggest clips from the No Kings protests? No, I didn't. That's radio transition gold, by the way. Yeah. I need some video, Mason. So I DM'd you this because I was cracking up on my ride in here when I wasn't looking at my phone. And this guy, this guy is at the No Kings protests and he brings up the Straits of Hormuz. Okay. All right. Well, isn't it a little bit homophobic that we're so focused on the Straits of Hormuz and not the gays of Hormuz? Yes, I agree. Yes, for sure. Why do you think they're willing to leave the gays of Hormuz behind? I think it's just history, historically, like, you know, gays have always been very discriminated against, which is wrong in so many levels. Even in war. Yeah, even in war. It just takes more reform in government, obviously, and then also educating society. I just feel like if we're going to go and say, oh, we can't leave the gays, we're going to go behind. I don't think we should go and say, at all. But if we're going to the gays of Hormuz, we could turn it into Fire Island. For sure. So, well, somebody please think of the gays of Hormuz. We have focused so much. And I've, I, I have, I'm guilty of this as well. And I apologize to the audience. I have been too focused on the Straits of Hormuz and I haven't thought about the gays of Hormuz at all. I just got a note from the NBA next month will be the gays of Hormuz month. Celebrated with the NBA. That's amazing. Stunning and brave. Stunning and brave. That's exactly right. She has no idea she's being trolled. She's being serious. You know what the thing is though? And I don't know how much you've been listening today, but I could have, I could have turned the entire four hours over to these stupidity of some of these folks who were out there at the No Kings rally. It is a nonstop. It is a nonstop parade of morons and clowns and misfits. They call them useful idiots for a reason. Yeah, that's what they're calling them. Have you noticed this? We talked about this early, early in the show where the people on the left are now, it's like, I've got a question for Maga. Why is it if you support Donald Trump so much? Why is it that you're not protesting in support of Donald Trump? I'll wait. Have you seen that? I saw like four of them today. It's because we're working. Well, it's because we're working. And as I said earlier, I think they're doing a great job of just going ahead and stating their case, i.e. the gaze of Hormuz. I think that they're doing a great job of stating their case. And why, why possibly would we want to counter protest that really great message? Sun-Zoo, Art of War, never interrupt your enemies while they're making a mistake. But I will point out there were counter protests, not many and not in the number that we saw the No Kings, but there were counter protests out there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Quite a few. Yeah. I know that there is a big, I'm waiting for a punchline. No, no punchline. I think that there was a pro Donald Trump going into Iran. It wasn't a protest, but it was a rally. Yeah, it was Iranians. Yeah. Yeah. A bunch of Iranians or Persians, but I mean, they are, they are really excited that the president has gone into Iran. So, you know, one of my favorite videos and I didn't have, there's so much cursing, I couldn't use it. But there was one video where a Persian was being attacked by one of these anti-Donald Trump No Kings protesters about Iran. And the Persian, the guy from Iran is like, actually was a female, said, you're really going to criticize me for my educated opinion on Iran. So, I have no clue as to what even you're talking about. And it was, it was rather epic because the No Kings person just got absolutely put in her place. Yeah. I think I saw that video. She's holding a stop bombing Iran sign. Yes. It's like, I'm Iranian and I'm actually really excited about the bombs. Yeah. Yeah. Did you see the, okay. So, earlier, I did show this on, on, on, on the Super Talk TV. Remember yesterday I was obsessing about the guy in the, in the diaper. Yes. And I couldn't find the grown man in a diaper. Well, one of... You spent your afternoon Googling it. I, one of our, one of my crack listeners sent it to me out of California. No diaper pun intended. Yes. Karen, thank you. Yeah. The grown man in a diaper. He's wearing a diaper. He's wearing a really long, it's supposed to be like a long red Donald Trump tie. And he's wearing, you know, like a Burger King kind of a crown. And this is the mentality of these folks. Jesse Waters, I don't know if you saw it, but Jesse Waters had an entire, like, almost four minute montage of these folks that were out there. And they're just showing their dumbness. Yeah. And it would have been more apropos if he didn't have... Hi, I'm Joe Salci. Hi, I'm the host of the stacking Benjamin's podcast. You know what? A lot of us get taxes wrong. Filing your taxes is basically data entry. There's been this trend of people going, oh, it's so cool to file my taxes in August. It's so awesome. Don't worry. I have an extension. It'll be fine. I'd like totally do it later. Stop. Do your frigging taxes now. That was a really good fashion voice. Did you like it? You do that more frequently, please? Yes. Every show for now. Stacking Benjamin's. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Have on a diaper because as we know, Democrats crap all over everything. They do, actually. You want to place a little bit of this Jesse Waters thing? Do it. All right. Real quick, this is... And the reason why it's so funny is because they all just look so silly. No Kings Day. No freaking Kings. No Kings in the USA. No Kings Day. Woo. Yeah. Nope. So one of these guys was dressed as a purple, was that a rhino or hippo? I don't even know. Whatever it was, but it was dressed in a costume. You also had a guy that was dressed as a little mouse. Were they the inflatable costumes? Yeah, like an inflatable costume. Do you know what I've seen as a counter protest to those inflatable costumes? What's that? Because a lot of the Antifa members are wearing them. People will sneak up and there's a fan. There's an exhaust fan to like blow it up and people will squirt fart spray into the fan and then you can't get out of it. I need to get me some fart spray. You know, over in Seattle, they have all the frogs. So they had all those inflatable frogs marching in a parade on Saturday too. They're obsessed with their frogs. I don't understand. Like, I'm wondering, am I missing some sort of a cultural sign here with all of the furry costumes and all this? Just cultural decay, Dan. Is that what it is? It's just cultural decay? It's just cultural decay. Well, you'll notice it's their side that is culturally decaying. Yes. You know, it's not our side. This, though, was my favorite. We described this person earlier as like a little person. I don't know if it's actually, if she's actually midget-sized. Not that it matters, but I thought that her opinion was kind of midget-y. Gaze! What are we going to do to the king? We're going to shut him down. How are we going to shut him down? The impeachment. If there's impeachment, that means there's a Congress and Donald Trump can't be a king. Right. Right. Why is Donald- Yeah, I mean, love that. She sounded hammered too. Impeachment. We're going to impeach him. Well, you know what? It wouldn't surprise me if she was. Are they paying these protesters in fireball? I don't know, man, but it's clear. And, you know, I was talking to Matthew Hurd earlier about this, about, you know, whether or not these have actually really accomplished anything, I don't think that they have. Like, do you think that they've accomplished anything? Joan, you can get on this. Do these things accomplish anything other than give conservatives something fun to laugh at? I think that's pretty much the only accomplishment. Yeah. I mean, we're- It's campaign ads. We're laughing at them. We're sort of trolling them. And we're showing America what the anti-Trump mentality really is like. You know what? Let me correct that. They have accomplished something. We are now much more focused on the gaze of Hormuz. Yes, we are. And we ever have been before, and I will give them credit for bringing light to that issue. Yes, there, of course, is that- It shines the light on there crazy as what it is. I mean, it just gives us the ability to peer into the minds of these. Like, they're so crazed by Donald Trump that it's completely sent them over the edge. Did you see the coverage of the No Kings with- It was Don Lemon, Joy Reed, and Jim Acosta? The three of them. The three Amigos. The three Stooges. Stooges, babe. The three Stooges, absolutely. Although, I feel like we're besmirching Moe, Larry, Curly, Shem, and the rest of them. Yeah, I guess you're right. By the way, and I'm looking for the audio, and unfortunately I can't find it. Is this it? No, Don Lemon is talking about how he may be running for president. Don Le- Don Le-mon is going to run for president. Don Le-mon, he's giving some indications. I can't wait because when he gets bounced out in the first round, he's going to be like, it's because I'm gay and black. Well, yeah, that's what he's going to say. One of the things that he said, I don't know, I can't find the darn audio. But one of the things that he has said is that, I want you to realize, okay, when he says the rules are different for a black man and women running for president. Okay, we had Barack Obama for like eight years. I don't understand what rules are different, Don. I would like to know that. He won twice. Barack Obama did indeed, went twice. So, just, you know, it is the usual, oh, here it is. Hold on real quick. I hope there's no cursing in this. We'll find out together. Will we? We had an episode earlier. I don't want to talk about it. I don't think Don Le-mon or Joy Reed would use foul language, Dan. No, not them. Hey, Mason, pay attention. There might be cursing in this because Chris hasn't previewed the audio. I wanted to. I know people are going to think I'm crazy. This is going to be the headline and people are going to laugh about it. I think I could be president of United States. I could definitely run this country better than Donald Trump. Do you think you might ever run for office? Oh boy. That is a long pause, Don. So cringy. This is cringe. I hear that all the time. First I hear. Do you, Don? No, he doesn't. Do you hear that all the time? He does not. Oh please. I don't want to ruin my life. Why would I invite that sort of even more criticism or whatever? Why would I want to ruin my life with people? He's going to ruin his life more than he already has. Yeah. He says the guy facing federal charges because of the actions and decisions he's made in his life. And he's completely destroyed his career. Digging into, you know, everything about me and campaign ads, putting everything that I've ever said that's deemed controversial. I've never said that I was going to grab anybody by the pussy. Oh, that's all right. It's all right. It's a new story. Okay. Right? We're okay with that, right? I'm fine with it. How does he feel about the gaze of her moves? Right? So that doesn't surprise me, Don. I've never said that a woman had blood coming out of her wherever, but also I'm not a white man. Here it is. And the rules are different for me. I don't get it. Like the lack of self-awareness, he does know that we had a black president, right? And we, there's also a gay white guy that has run a couple of times that can't get any polling either. Is it tougher because he's white? And Barack Obama wasn't black. Fully. Yeah. Okay. People say the same thing about Michelle being a woman too. It's like the rules, I believe sadly are different for women. They're different for Hillary Clinton, for Nikki Haley. They're different for Kamala Harris. Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley. I just saw her on Fox News. Matter of fact, I know you'll be shocked by that. You might want to bring out your, because we're at Fox News and we suck. We haven't used that for a long time. All right, we got a lot of people in the text line when you talked about the frogs in Seattle wanted us to play the other thing. They said, you know why the frogs are marching in Seattle? It's because of all the chemicals in the water. Oh yes. Okay. Very good. Yeah, that's a good one too. You still playing that? Sometimes. It becomes less funny and then it becomes funny again. So here's the fun. I listened to your show, obviously, and I don't care how many times I've heard it. I laugh every time. Every single time. People have reasons for needing water filters. Three days, one epic festival. Kylie Green, Co Wetzel, Shabuzy and BBQ from the nation's best pit masters. April 24th through 26th outside AT&T Stadium. Get tickets now at LoneStarSmokeOut.com.