Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Ketchup Makes Me Sweat

37 min
Feb 25, 2026about 2 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Armstrong and Getty discuss Bill Gates' admission of affairs and connections to Jeffrey Epstein, analyzing how Epstein used leverage and blackmail tactics with wealthy individuals. The hosts also cover Trump's State of the Union address, focusing on the Democrats' refusal to stand for prioritizing American citizens over illegal immigrants, and debate the effectiveness of political messaging around immigration and economic policy.

Insights
  • Epstein's power over wealthy individuals came from his ability to connect people and create obligations, which he weaponized through blackmail when necessary—suggesting a calculated shift from favor-trading to coercion when relationships didn't serve his interests.
  • The Democrats' refusal to stand for a basic statement prioritizing American citizens over illegal immigrants creates a powerful visual contrast that could have significant political legs in upcoming elections.
  • Tribal politics is corroding democratic institutions; politicians refuse to acknowledge valid points made by opponents purely because of partisan identity, even on non-partisan issues like honoring crime victims.
  • State of the Union addresses function primarily as preaching to the choir—ratings are high among supporters and low among opponents, limiting their persuasive power on undecided voters.
  • Economic messaging around inflation and affordability remains effective because price increases have a long tail; prices rarely decrease, making cost-of-living concerns persistent regardless of current economic metrics.
Trends
Weaponization of personal information as leverage among ultra-wealthy networks and their advisorsPartisan polarization preventing bipartisan consensus on basic governance principlesGrowing public concern about insurance costs and affordability outpacing traditional economic indicatorsPolitical theater and visual messaging becoming more important than substantive policy debate in major speechesDisconnect between stock market performance and average citizen perception of economic healthIncreased scrutiny of billionaire philanthropists' personal conduct and ethical standardsState-level insurance crises in high-risk areas like California affecting housing and economic stabilityTariffs becoming a partisan issue despite historical bipartisan support among progressives
Companies
Microsoft
Bill Gates founded Microsoft and was the world's richest person during his tenure as CEO before transitioning to phil...
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Gates acknowledged his affairs and Epstein connections damaged the foundation's reputation and values, though he clai...
Whole Foods
365 brand is Whole Foods' generic ketchup line, mentioned as a hipster alternative to mainstream brands like Heinz.
People
Bill Gates
Microsoft founder admitted to affairs with Russian women and connections to Jeffrey Epstein, claiming no criminal inv...
Jeffrey Epstein
Convicted pedophile who used blackmail and leverage to control wealthy individuals, including threatening Gates over ...
Donald Trump
Delivered State of the Union address focusing on economic turnaround, tariffs, and immigration policy; received mixed...
Melinda Gates
Bill Gates' ex-wife who left him after 27-year marriage; Gates admitted to affairs during their relationship.
James Lindsay
Anti-woke commentator cited for analysis of how tribal politics and partisan identity poison democratic discourse.
John Roberts
Chief Justice who shook hands with Trump at State of the Union; appeared distant compared to other justices.
Amy Coney Barrett
Supreme Court Justice who notably did not shake hands with Trump at State of the Union address.
Brett Kavanaugh
Supreme Court Justice who did not shake hands with Trump, reflecting ongoing tension over judicial decisions.
Larry Summers
Former Treasury Secretary under Obama; cited as warning that inflation reduction act would cause inflation, not reduc...
Major Garrett
CBS News correspondent who analyzed Trump's State of the Union strategy of creating visual contrasts with opposition ...
David Axelrod
Obama's former campaign manager who critiqued Trump's speech for failing to persuade undecided voters despite strong ...
Mark Halperin
Political pundit who called Trump's State of the Union address one of his best speeches ever delivered.
Quotes
"I like ketchup. It makes me sweat, but I like it."
Jack ArmstrongOpening segment
"The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens."
Donald TrumpState of the Union address
"I'm once again explaining to you that the friend-enemy distinction in politics is poison. The Democrats refuse to stand because the enemy stands, and for them to stand would be to be seen standing with the enemy. It rots your soul."
James LindsayReferenced by hosts
"I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit."
Bill GatesFoundation speech
"You have to show multiple forms of identification to be allowed to shovel your neighbor's driveway in a snowstorm, but cannot demand ID for voting."
Donald TrumpState of the Union address
Full Transcript
This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty. And now, here's Armstrong and Getty. It's time for Tonight Show Sponsors. Tonight Show Sponsors. Tonight Show Sponsors. Chewy, make the mailman carry a 65-pound bag of dog food. Panda Express. Our name sounds like we serve panda, but actually, maybe. 365 tomato ketchup. If you really didn't want anyone to come to your barbecue, you could have just canceled. Apple Watch. Spend $300 for your wrist to tell you to go for a walk. I don't know that 365 ketchup. I don't know either. The brand? Some sort of hipster Whole Foods ketchup. I like ketchup. It makes me sweat, but I like it. It makes you sweat. Me and everybody in my family, I'm getting the weird face from Katie, me and both my brothers, we eat ketchup, and immediately we burst out in sweat, and it's a hilarious joke among all of us. Like if we're out to eat whenever we get together for the family, we're all with napkins dabbing at our bald heads. You've got the ketchup sweat. Sweat just rolling off our head from eating ketchup. Wow, I've never heard of that. Oh, yeah. Have you ever run into anybody outside your family who has this? I don't know. Actually, when I just think about it, thinking about it right now, it makes me a little moist. Wow. Well, that's right up there with, Katie. Bananas and banana-flavored things make me cough. 100% of the time. Really? I wonder if there's something you guys are somewhat allergic to in these things. Or something terrible happened to me in my childhood that I've repressed. There's that. To answer your question, 365 is Whole Foods generic brand. Oh, I will not sully my tube state. If you didn't want anybody to come, why didn't you just cancel your barbecue? Okay, I get it. It must not be as good as Heinz or Humps, which are the main brands of ketchup. Are you a ketchup man or a catsup man? Oh, God. Ketchup? I think I'm ketchup. You don't like it when I say catsup, Katie? No, do you say palo and milk, too? The Bill Gates thing kind of shows what Epstein was all about. Oh, by the way, we're going to play a few more highlights again from the State of the Union address. The two greatest things being introduced in the hockey team. I mean, it's got no significance really politically, but it was an awesome moment. I thought it was really, really cool. What did have political significance was saying, hey, stand if you think American citizens are more important than illegals. And all the Democrats sat. It's just amazing. But more on that coming up in a little bit. So Bill Gates, still one of the richest people in the world. You know, he was the richest man in the world for a very, very long time. Back when he was dealing with Epstein. He was the richest man in the world, Microsoft founder. He gave a speech to his foundation, which now he's all about philanthropy at this point in his life. But he gave a speech to his foundation yesterday, admitting to a couple of affairs that he had palled around with Epstein somewhat, but that he never did anything illicit and never saw anything illicit. So I guess he just wanted to say, hey, I cheated on my wife, but I'm not a criminal or a pervo. I guess that's and so don't right. Don't leave our foundation. Don't stop donating it to it. Whatever. I guess that. Yeah, I want to come clean with my entire relationship with Epstein, what it included, what it didn't. I think it's probably a good maneuver. He admitted he had two affairs with Russia. Well, he's already his wife already left him. So, you know, what's winning and what damage you can do at this point? He admitted he had two affairs with Russian women while married to his now ex-wife, Melinda Gates, issued a groveling apology, says the New York Post. for his links with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Gates is 70 now. He told staffers at the foundation yesterday that he flew on the plane with Epstein, spent time with him in the United States and abroad, but didn't participate in any crime. I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit. To be clear, I've never spent any time with the victims, the women around him. Gates first met Epstein, first met him in 2011, which was after Epstein had been convicted for procuring a child for prostitution. Yeah. So you meet this guy after he's a convicted force, a child into prostitution dude. God, I would think you'd have handlers or whatever that would vet these people and you would think, I don't want to be associated with this guy. Yeah, I don't want to steal your thunder or anything. Gates talks about the incredible connections Epstein had, you know, to billionaires who could help with the philanthropy. But, ooh, that's a big overlook. Gates has always denied doing any wrongdoing over his Epstein links, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He and his wife filed for divorce in 2021, ending a 27-year marriage. That's a long time to be married. I did have affairs, he said yesterday. One with a Russian bridge player who I met at bridge events. and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities. Wow, I was picturing hot Russian 23-year-old floozies. He wants to make it clear that they were cerebral. Well, they might have been cerebral, and I don't floozy, whatever that means. I mean, I know what that means, but in this context, the bridge player, I linked to a couple of different stories. Nobody's got an age on this woman. She was in her 20s, and it looks like from the pictures, her early 20s, and Gates was in his late 50s at the time. She looks like she's 22, and he's in his late 50s, and she's a bridge player, and they were hooking up. I ain't saying she's a gold digger, but she ain't playing bridge with no broke software executive. And probably the same with the nuclear physicist. Right. But here's the interesting part to me. Epstein Epstein had previously threatened Gates over the affair with the bridge player and used that as leverage. Oh, my. So, Epstein, why was Epstein aware of these affairs? Most people try to keep their affairs really, really quiet. Why was Epstein aware of them? Did he have some role in running these women at Gates? I think you're leaping to a conclusion that might be correct. But at the very least, your billionaire private plane buddies, he's a womanizer, you're banging a hot Russian. It comes up. Does it? Man, I wouldn't, I would think you'd keep that quiet. But anyway, Epstein met the bridge player girl who was quite young, but an adult, while seeking financial backers for a bridge academy before he paid for her to attend software coding school. So, Epstein met this woman and knew her. Then Gates meets her in 2010 at a tournament they were playing in. So, I don't know. I think Epstein put them together. That would be my guess. Anyway, again, this is where it gets interesting. It gives you an idea of the way Epstein operated. In a July 4th, 2013 email to this guy, Nikolic, that's his last name. That's Gates' chief advisor for science and technology. Epstein sends an email to one of Gates' top people and named two women that Gates was having an affair with. And the pedophile Epstein claimed the women risked, you know, this risks becoming an overnight sensation. Bill risks going from richest man to biggest hypocrite, he says in the email. Melinda, a laughingstock. Pledges will disappear as well, Epstein told. So Epstein just out of nowhere sends an email to one of Bill Gates' top people and say, yeah, he's having two affairs. And boy, wouldn't that be a shame? I'll bet this would be a really big story. And here's what would happen if everybody found out. Is there anything close to a threat? Because I have a different theory. Okay. Just weeks later Epstein sent a resignation email to himself in which he seemed to be writing as this Nikolic dude During the past few weeks I been caught up in a severe marital dispute between Melinda and Bill So the email tried to suggest that Nikolic had assisted Gates in securing medication in order to deal with the consequences of sex with the Russian girls, which I assume would be some sort of medicine for a disease you picked up with your affairs. So Nicolet claims emails were not written on his behalf or at his request. So Epstein wrote these emails. He had to be either sent to the guy or was planning to send them to the guy and say, I think this is what you should do. Had to be. Now, what he was trying to get, that is not known. But he was trying to get something. Wow. Yeah, that's a twist. So Epstein ghost wrote resignation letters for the second in command, mentioning the Russians and implying the clap. But it gives you an idea of what was going on in that world with all these people and the sex and how out of nowhere it seems like Epstein could come to you and all of a sudden, Yeah, this is going to be really uncomfortable for you unless this happens. Yeah. Whatever that this is. I have all sorts of theories about how that could have happened. After a quick word from our friends. Toward or untoward? Oh, un. Completely un. All un. The big un. Capital un. You don't need to be as rich as Bill Gates to love. Simply safe home security to protect yourself. The stuff you've worked for. The ones you love. 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There's no safe like SimpliSafe. To be fair to Bill Gates, he did say I apologize to people who are drawn into this because of the mistake I made. It definitely is the opposite of the values of the foundation and the goals of the foundation. Are your goals or not to procure young women? That's good to know. Gates previously said he was foolish to spend any time with Epstein. I thought it would help me with global health philanthropy. In fact, it failed to do that. It was just a huge mistake. What did Gates say that Epstein turned from the great doer of favors? Because that was his power. and that's been documented in a couple of different places we've talked about it he connected people he did favors for people they were obligated to him they would do him a favor etc that was what it was all about with the rich and powerful what made him switch from the great doer of favors to the don't you f with me you have no idea how good i am that was hinted at by that It's fake resignation. Right, right, right, right. I don't know. But so he could go either way. So he wants to get you in a bad situation. And then it's either favors. You know, we can keep the bad situation quiet. You know, you do favors for me, I'll do favors for you, and we'll have a great relationship. But if for some reason you're not willing to do a favor for me, or who knows what, I got this over you. And I'm willing to talk about it. Apparently. Yeah, I think you're overestimating how much a part of his act that was, but it was plainly a part. Well, what's that email he sends to Gates number one with, boy, this is going to be a sensational story. It's going to destroy the foundation. All I'm saying is that he would probably very rarely play that card because that would, if he got a rep among all the rich and powerful who hung with him and all that, oh, he'll turn on you like a jackal. It would have fallen apart. I say it was 95% positive and one out of 20, he'd have to maybe twist an arm a little bit. Some of it you wouldn't need to say out loud. If you were getting together with underage women and Epstein knew about it, you don't need to send an email pointing that out. Or even 22-year-olds. Yeah, or you're having an affair, period. Or you're a CEO of a company. You're not supposed to be banging 22-year-old Russians. Yeah, card players. Bridge players. chess players. Whatever bridge is. I don't really know what bridge is. It's a card game. Well, I know it's a card game, but I haven't the slightest idea how to play. I don't either. It's difficult. Your partner gets mad at you if you play badly. She looked very young. Anyway, if you have any thought on this, text line 415-295-KFTC. Armstrong and Getty. Polish kids are telling us Trump's State of the Union didn't go so well. The only problem? It's tomorrow. Rate Trump's State of the Union speech 1 out of 10. One's the worst. 10's the best. Negatives. And why? I think we all know. A lot of reasons. What about the State of the Union last night? One to ten. It was like a wire to, I mean, it was all over the place. I'm going to give it a one. And why do you say one? I just, I don't think he's very articulate. How did Trump do with the State of the Union? Zero. Yeah, I didn't really watch it much. I watched it for a little bit, but, you know. And the punchline is? George Washington University students, yeah. As she said, I asked them the day before the speech. everything's performative. That is unbelievable. Wow. Everybody's got their role to play. That fits in with, I was just reading something from James Lindsay who we really like around here. He's one of your anti-woke leaders. And he's talking about a couple of different times where the Democrats wouldn't stand up for people who were victims of crime or whatever. Anyway, James Lindsay wrote, I'm once again explaining to you that the friend-enemy distinction in politics is poison. The Democrats refuse to stand because the enemy stands, and for them to stand would be to be seen standing with the enemy. It rots your soul. It destroys you from the inside. I would agree. Just judge these things on an individual basis without any... That's entirely tribal. If you've got some woman there whose kid died and people are standing and saying, you know, we feel bad for you, go ahead and join in on that. It's not going to hurt anything. One of them I wondered about a little bit. Got to be delicate here because it's a child and it's a tragedy. But they Trump introduced this this girl who was at that horrible situation with that camp in Texas where the flood came and swept away and drowned all those kids. And you had a girl who was rescued by a firefighter or whoever rescued her. I mean, that story is great, obviously. But you had the little girl there and she stands up and everybody's cheering. and they fist bump? I thought that was kind of weird. I mean, to each their own. But that kid went through, I can't even imagine the PTSD around that. All your friends drowned in front of you and you nearly drowned and got pulled out of the water from the bottom by this guy. And now you're smiling and fist bumping at the State of the Union address. Just seems weird to me. And all the parents of the kids who did die or at home, that's extremely, I didn't say that. That's extremely uncomfortable. You're putting that awful thing you went through into kind of a happy, fist bump, smiling thing. You know, it's the kid gets to do whatever. But it just seemed oddly placed to me. I would have said ixnay on that one. As a parent? No, as the president. As a political person. Right. I might have saluted the first responder. Absolutely saluting the first responder perfectly makes sense. The girl being there just seemed, I can't even imagine what that girl went through. We're going to play another moment from the introducing the hockey team and everything like that. And everybody cheered that. Almost everybody. There were a few people that didn't stand up even for the hockey players. There's no helping you. I don't even know what that is. But the not standing for you prioritize Americans, citizens over illegals. no Democrats stood for that of course 70 some Democrats didn't show up at all but none of the Democrats who were there stood for that and I think that moment is going to have legs we got a lot more on the way hope you can stay here if you miss make it to the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand Armstrong and Getty A short time ago we were a dead country Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. The hottest. That's nightclub manager Hal Mankiewicz talking about his hot... No, that's the president. You know, I read from the Wall Street Journal editorial board week before last on how there's a lot of great signs with the economy and they pointed them all out. But with the whole, you know, Mark Twain lies, damn lies and statistics, every president in my lifetime has painted a portrait of the economy being fantastic or bouncing back or roaring or whatever. So you can come up with numbers that make that point regardless. But yeah, I would say so. He's got, I mean, certainly the stock market numbers. I mean, you can't argue with those. Yeah, yeah. On the other hand, the affordability issue is real. Emotionally, it feels very expensive out there. Well, inflation has a very long tail because prices don't come down generally. They stop rising, maybe, but it's fairly rare that they come down, you know, en masse as a whole. I feel like people talk too much about the price of bacon or eggs and not enough about car insurance. I mean, what the hell? Speaking of the Journal, they had a great piece the other day about how wildly desperate people are in various parts of Cal Unicorni in particular to get homeowners insurance. You can't even get anybody to write you a policy, and the state's insurer of last resort, whatever it's called, some ridiculous name, is just completely drowning in unsustainable obligations. So anyway, yeah, that's a great one. Insurance and vehicle costs and repairs and just all that stuff. Anyway, the president did talk a fair amount about economics. And yes, earlier in the show, we saluted the master stroke of making the Democrats sit through a long round of applause for the idea of, yeah, citizens get priority over illegal immigrants. No, they don't. No, they don't. We're Democrats. We like illegals better. So that was great. But let's talk economics a little bit. Michael, we'll start with a 120. All Democrats, every single one of them, voted against these really important and very necessary massive tax cuts. They wanted large-scale tax increases to hurt the people instead. But we held strong and with the great, big, beautiful bill, we gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great students. Can we put the person in charge of audio in Leavenworth, please, first of all? That's inexcusable. Being in the business we're in, trust us, it's inexcusable that the microphone was cutting out the way it was. 70 Democrats didn't show up. What are we doing as a country here? What are we doing, people? And we've gone from a moment not very long ago at all when you lie while Obama was lying was seen as just shocking. Now it's nonstop. You scream things constantly and nobody even does anything. So here's a question for you. I've always enjoyed when the, what's it called when the prime minister has to take questions from parliament and he stands there getting yelled at. I've always loved watching that. And the back and forths and the heckling and stuff like that. Honestly, I don't think this is better. I thought the old thing was better. But I heard the heckling and stuff during that clip and I thought, yeah, screw you. Go get him, Donald. It didn't bother me anymore. No. Because it was nonstop. It's lost its power. Very much. Anyway, back to, oh, the T word. Trump's obsession with tariffs, for God's sake. Next clip. One of the primary reasons for our country's stunning economic turnaround, the biggest in history where the Dow Jones broke 50,000 four years ahead of schedule and the S&P hit 7,000 where it wasn't supposed to do it for many years, were tariffs. And then just four days ago, an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court. It just came down. It came down. Very unfortunate ruling. But the good news is that almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal that they already made. Right, Scott? Knowing that the legal power that I, as president, have to make a new deal could be far worse for them. and therefore they will continue to work along the same successful path that we had negotiated before the Supreme Court's unfortunate involvement. Saying the tariffs were one of the primary drivers of the turnaround is ridiculous. It's laughable, but he's obsessed with it. What are you going to do? So I was watching the pregame, and he also got the angle that a lot of the most prominent Democrats have been wanting tariffs forever. Your Bernies and Elizabeth Warrens and that crowd, they love tariffs. Yeah, you're far lefties. I was watching some of the pregame on ABC, and when Trump walked in, ladies and gentlemen, the king of the world, and everybody cheers and goes crazy like that, and then he walked by the Supreme Court justices, and they said, oh, he shook hands with John Roberts, but obviously, notably, did not shake hands with Amy Conan Barrett and Judge Kavanaugh. He didn't shake hands with any of them. He shook hands with the chief justice and that's what he decided to do. It wasn't a sign of anything, but they talked about that for minutes and tried to pretend that was a notable thing. I did think it was notable, but not at all surprising that, you know, broad smiles and laughs and chuckles and handshakes and back slaps. Then he got to John Roberts and it had a very, hello, Newman, look to it. Definitely. That's fine. They're pissed off at each other. That's great. The republic still stands. I got to believe that some of those justices, the three that were called a disgrace to their families and on the tape from foreign countries. I mean, I'd be a little butthurt about that to use the parlance of high school people. Yeah, I would agree. That was so wildly out of bounds. But I think they're at the point that it's like, that's Trump. yeah they just they don't want violence to be visited on them by the maniacs who would take all that seriously and believe it anyway uh it was uh it was okay in our republic stance uh let's skip ahead to 122 this this finally is the administration articulating something that god dang it i wish they'd called me and said hey joe take half an hour and come up with some good messaging on this topic it would have been easy go ahead michael under biden and his corrupt partners in Congress and beyond, it reached a breaking point with the Green News scam, open borders for everyone. They poured in by the millions and millions from prisons, from mental institutions. They were murderers, 11,888 murders. They came into our country. You allowed that to happen. And record-setting inflation that cost the typical family $34,000 in just a speck of time. Now the same people in this chamber who voted for those disasters suddenly used the word affordability, a word they just used it. Somebody gave it to them, knowing full well that they caused and created the increased prices that all of our citizens had to endure. You caused that problem. You caused that problem. I thought that was a good point You passed the multi-trillion dollar inflation reduction act that everybody including Larry Summers former Secretary of the Treasurer under Obama said that wasn't going to reduce inflation, it was going to cause inflation and it did That was a little rambly and indirect but at least they're making the case Can we play just the first part of 135 just for anybody that didn't hear it, just that first part please. But the second part's great too. Come on. You want the short version or the long version? I don't know. Whatever. 135B there, Michael. If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Isn that a shame You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up you should be ashamed of yourself and he is right about that you should be ashamed of yourself and that went on for a minute we edited it so you wouldn't listen to a minute of applause but everybody in that building standing except for a single Democrat over the notion of you prioritize U.S. citizens over illegal immigrants. You won't agree with that? Yeah, I think that came out wrong. All the Republicans standing in only one Democrat. All the other Democrats were sitting. I didn't even know one Democrat stood. Okay, maybe I misunderstood what you said. I probably said it wrong. I say things wrong all the time. All the Democrats sat. All the Republicans stood. And what was so great about how long the applause was, they just could stare at him and like point at him and laugh at him sitting there. I can't even wrap my head around how you can in government, the way he phrased it, I thought it was perfect. Is the federal government's primary job to prioritize American citizens over illegals? And you can't say yes to that? Yeah, I know. You can be all kinds of, we need to have more government programs and they get free health care, all kinds of different stuff. But you can't prioritize a ueticism over illegals. So you're going with the, there are no such thing as an illegal or there's no such thing as a citizen? Is that what you're going with? Pleasing the 10% of Americans who agree with you. God, that's got to be a tiny group. Although, I don't know, I wasn't around some of my hardcore Trump-hating friends. Maybe them sitting down and just, yeah, don't give him the satisfaction was all you were hoping for. It doesn't mean they agree with that. It's just you can't possibly give in to him and do what he asks you to do. Which brings us right back to James Lindsay's point that you brought us last segment about how corrosive and poisoning that is. I will not stand with my enemies even if they're right. Even if I agree with them. I thought that was a great, obviously a stunt, but I thought it was a fantastic stunt. and that should be in every dang ad in the country right before the midterms. You want to vote for the party that doesn't think you're a higher priority than people who sneak across the border. Okay. Yeah, no kidding. Absolutely brilliant. This was, too, I love this, 137. It's a totally different topic. And even the new communist mayor of New York City, I think he's a nice guy, actually. Speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy. Just said they want people to shovel snow. They got hit hard. Wants them to shovel snow. But if you apply for that job, you need to show two original forms of ID and a Social Security card. Yet they don't want identification for the greatest privilege of them all voting in America. Now it's no good. No good. That's true, too. We talked about that the other day. And so nuts. You have to show multiple forms of identification to be allowed to shovel your neighbor's driveway in a snowstorm, but cannot demand ID for voting. Are you kidding me? You have to go to a website. I'm just shaking my head in disgust. Fill out all kinds of forms and paperwork to be able to help shovel cars out when there's a giant snowstorm. That's New York. That's the warmth of collectivism. Good God. I want to play the very charming, I thought, and entertaining hockey clip from Trump when we come back. Among other things to talk about. Stay with us. Armstrong and Getty. I think of it, 46 shots on gold. And I asked him, the one shot, the one where you put your stick in the back and it hit the neck of your stick and bounced off. Do you practice that or was that little lucky? He refused to answer that question. But I just want to tell you that the members of this great hockey squad will be very happy to hear, based on their vote and my vote, and in this case my vote was more important, that I will soon be presenting Conor with our highest civilian honor, which we will be given and which has been given to many athletes over the years. but when I say many, not too many, like 12, it's called the highest civilian honor in our country, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He kept that goal free from pucks, is what he did. Miraculous. Give me a list of former Presidential Medal of Freedom winners. I'm going to ask Claude. You're not the boss of me. I'm going to ask Claude. Just because I'd like to know who's on that list. Because you said earlier, does the hockey goalie deserve that? But I think there's like... I'm guessing Muhammad Ali might be on there. Yeah, and like Clint Eastwood and just all kinds of different people. I thought that, hey, do you practice that or was that a little luck? He didn't answer that. There's no way to practice that. How about asking all the other members of the team, what do you think? And he said, if anybody says no, I won't do it. But is everybody in agreement with giving the goalie this medal? And they were all, yeah. Yeah. That was cool. Yeah. So I didn't watch the State of the Union address. I haven't watched one in many, many, many years. I think they're mostly pointless, and nobody will be discussing this at all going forward, except for maybe that whole do you prioritize Americans over illegals thing, which definitely could have legs. Anywho, I was listening to some of the punditry afterwards, and Trump, for as hated as he is by the mainstream media, got better reviews than usual. Here's Major Garrett on CBS News right after the speech last night. Major, you've seen a lot of these, I think, more than any of us. What stood out to you? Well, look, before the speech, many Republicans said one of the priorities for the president was to make sure Americans after this speech had a sense that the opposition party was off the rails, was crazy, their terminology, not mine. Many of the contrasts the president articulated tonight were to drive that message forward, that not only do I disagree with the opposition party sitting before me in Congress, but I disagree with them so strongly, and they with me so much, that they can't even applaud basic common sense thing. And that line that you mentioned, that he added to the speech, whether it was ad-libbed or not, the first obligation, American citizens versus illegal aliens, was meant to create a visual moment of perpetual contrast. Yeah, and it was pretty successful. Here's David Axelrod, who was Obama's campaign manager first time around. I mean, and I think he did well from their perspective for the reasons that you say, John, and he used the gallery very skillfully to kind of simulate empathy, which is a thing that he's been lacking, and that's sort of a surrogate for that. The question is, he started off the speech by saying, this is the turnaround for the ages. And as you know, because you're traveling around the country, people don't think the direction is right. And I don't think this cured that. So we'll see. But I don't think a lot of the people who needed to be persuaded probably were watching this speech. Yeah, that's an excellent point. The ratings for these State of the Union addresses are high among the people who voted for the president and low among the people who didn't every time. Like my parents wouldn't watch Joe Biden give the State of the Union address. Huh. Yeah. So you're preaching to the choir. So I guess you're trying to convince your own crowd that things are good? How about the few persuadables out there still? I have no idea. No, I don't know either. I'd be interested in the ratings. Like, how many people watched the whole damn two-hour thing? It's got to be practically nobody. Joe said earlier it might be low double digits, like 15 people in the whole country. We got one email. I said it was fabulous. Yeah, we did get a couple emails. People watched the whole thing. Well, good for you. I just... Hmm. You don't have, like, another show or a hobby or anything? We're coming off as bad Americans, but that's... Take a hell of a lot of patience. A book? A Netflix series you want to see another episode of? Something on the stove? Dog to walk? Walk with your sweetheart? Got an itch somewhere? Nothing. An itch? Nothing better. Scratch my ribs. Nothing you'd rather do. But Mark Halperin, one of my favorite pundits, thought it was Trump's best speech he's probably ever given. If you miss a segment of this show, get the podcast. 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