The Dems Are Still A Hot Mess

what's up everyone welcome to a brand new episode of part of the problem i am dave smith he is robby the fire bernstein how are you feeling today rob i'm doing well how are you my friend very good very good i can't complain i'm excited uh to go uh to go back to perryville uh with you this weekend we had a we had a great time last time we were there but it's been uh at least i know you've you've been there i think more recently but i haven't been there in what is it now few years i'm excited because i was uh i'm driving to and from there and their beers are delicious and i usually drink exactly one but this time i'm staying over and i'm gonna have myself a good time oh yeah typically we'd be driving back at the end yeah there you go well i'm i'm gonna have myself a few beers there too and then make mike harrington be my designated driver and drive me home while I tell him how much I love him for three hours on the ride home. So I never tell you how much I love you. I'm so proud of you. Oh, we should mention it here because I did see that they put out the flyer, but also Rob will be on Timcast on Thursday night. So Rob's going down to the area a little earlier than me and he's going to go do Timcast. We're very excited for you to do that show your first time on there. So that should be a good one. Make sure you guys check that out. Support Robbie the Fire in all of his endeavors, including Run Your Mouth and Porchin and all that stuff and his, you know, headlining shows on the road and stuff. After Perryville, what do we got? We got the whole weekend in New Jersey coming up the weekend after that. So come on out to the dojo of comedy. Comicdavesmith.com for all those ticket links. And of course, my amazing wife's children's book is now available in paperback, Healthy Hibernation. You can go get it over at Amazon. And a bunch of people have been getting it and we've been getting such positive feedback. It's been very, very nice. So thank you to everybody who's purchased a copy. All right. So let's get into some stuff today, Rob. It's been, you know, I almost feel it's almost like a bit of a moment. I felt like for the last couple days where you're almost like it's like we've just been in a deep sea of Epstein files. I kind of feel like I'm coming up to the surface and just taking a breath and almost looking around and going, oh, OK, well, where does this where is everything now reorganized or reshuffled in the political landscape? I did see I was reading a bit about this earlier today, but I saw the there's been a few new polls that have come out that have record low approval ratings for Donald Trump, which is. Shocking. I thought we were in the best economy ever. Yes, we're in the golden age of winning or something here. Let's start out with the clip from the very reliable news network, CNN, who we always side with. Some bad news in the polling for President Trump. His approval rating hitting new lows. CNN's Harry Anton is running the numbers on this one for us. Hello, Harry. Hello, Kate. Where does the president stand? Happy Washington's birthday observed today. That's what it is in the state of New York. I'm a New Yorker through and through. Let's take a look at another president, though. President Donald John Trump. Look at this. I got four numbers across for you on this screen here. They are all second term lows for the given pollster. What are we talking about? APNOR, 26 points below water. NBC, 22 points below water. Yahoo, YouGov, 20 points below water. Quinnipiac, 19 points below water. So we're ranging from negative 19 points all the way to negative 26 points. You know, Kate, there's this question that folks keep asking, you know, where is the floor for Donald Trump? And I'm not sure there is a floor because if there is one, Donald Trump, at least in term number two, has just fallen through it to another low level. How does this compare with his first term and how does this compare with Joe Biden? OK, so we look at these numbers right here. One of the things that Donald Trump had been arguing, his proponents have been arguing, oh, you know what? He's doing better than he was doing in term number one. No longer is that the case. What are we talking about here? OK, net approval rating at this point in the term. Look at this. Twenty two points below order on average when you average all the pollsters from the last night. That is actually lower. That is lower than he was at this point in term number two, term number one, when it was 17 points below order. So he's doing five points worse, five points worse. And he's doing way worse than Joe Biden was doing at this point in his term. Number one, when he was 13 points below order. So the bottom line is this. Donald Trump is setting new records for himself in term number two, setting new records for himself compared to where he was at this point in term number one. And he's doing worse than Joe Biden, which is, of course, the comparison that Donald Trump does not want to be because we all know what happened to Joe Biden. His party lost the House in term number one, that midterm elections. And of course, Joe Biden was not reelected to another term. At this point, the numbers are no bueno for the president of the United States. What's all right. I'm sorry. I got to say something. Sure. I hate that guy. And he sounds like Marco Robio doing a Donald Trump impersonation. and I've never heard the word more water underwater more times. And while I guess the reporting is, you know, fake news. And so there's really no reason to see what CNN has to say about poll numbers. It's not a bad breakdown, but my God, did that guy annoy me? Oh, yeah. No, he's brutal. He's really got just the type of like awful gay energy that you don't want at a party with you. Um, I was picking up with, with the Marco Rubio flavor. I don't know. I mean, one way or the other, um, he's gay either literally or figuratively. Um, well look, I mean, as I kind of always preface, um, with this stuff, first of all, uh, I never put too much stock in any of these polls. I do put more stock in the trend lines from the polls. You know what I mean? Like if the same poll jumps up 15 points or down 15 points, that kind of indicates that something's going on there. And look, I also should say, I do, I think one of the silver linings about where the United States of America is at politically is that presidents are just disliked now. Now, this is very different from like when I was a kid there, you would see those numbers in the positive. Now it's just a matter of how negative your approval rating is. It is, it's almost always a minority of the country who supports the current president. But that being said, if you remember, Rob, we did a year ago play a few clips of these same two people at that same monitor talking about how Donald Trump had record high approval ratings. And there's really no question that in the last year, Donald Trump's approval ratings have been crashing and it's largely a reflection of his failure as president. I mean, I just think that's kind of obvious. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is The Wellness Company. Every workout, injury, or surgery creates microscopic good and bad damage inside the body. Muscle inflammation and tissue breakdown can peak within 72 hours after physical stress, which is why recovery matters just as much as training. Meet Regenerate from The Wellness Company, your new recovery resource. 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Remember when that was a plan? We were going to abolish the income tax because the tariffs were so good. Anyway, so one of the things that's been kind of interesting over really just the last couple of days, I've been seeing there's been several viral moments moments amongst kind of leading democratic figures. And, you know, it's like, there's something interesting. Okay, Donald Trump is obviously tanking, and his administration's a catastrophe, and he's losing support, as he should. But then you turn around and you look at the state of the Democrats, and it really is still such a mess. Like, it kind of can't be overstated how much this is like, they really just do not have their shit together. It's still, there's still no leader has emerged. The leaders that they have are so enormously flawed. And there is this real question where like, you know, look, I mean, I think there's no question that the Republicans, at least at this point, at this rate are going to get creamed in the midterm elections. But when you start looking beyond that to like, okay, then what, what is done with that? It is still, we're in a position where it's very hard to see who kind of takes over as the leader of this party. And so what is the alternative here? Anyway, I mean, like, you know, we're still in the same position where we got, you got Gavin Newsom, who's somewhat slick as a politician, but has this albatross around his neck of being the governor of California, which is going to be very, very difficult to have that track record and do it, you know, win a campaign. And then you have AOC, who's, Rob, what can you say about her? Well, and I've said numerous times, she's too stupid to run. And I think later in the episode, we're going to have some clips that showcase that. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, we could do that now if you want to. There's a couple AOC clips that have been going viral from the last few days. And it is, you do kind of, uh, it look, she's not quite as bad as Kamala Harris, but she is really bad at this. She's really, that really is the problem with AOC. She's almost, the thing about AOC is that it's like, I think progressives like the idea of her. Um, and, and in many sense, I guess some progressives liked the idea of Kamala Harris, the idea of the first you know black female president or something like that but it's going to be really hard to actually defend what she says here let's or sorry go ahead i think aoc is fine when she's kind of in the lane of talking social justice type issues or hey we got to do more for the poor but the second you want to have a more substantial conversation uh you can see that her knowledge and acumen or ability to express a point of view is pretty thin. And she doesn't have the Trump flavor of being able to just go, I don't have to explain this because it's me. I'm super smart. I'm so successful. I'm going to make you successful. She doesn't have that thing. And so her limited trying to explain things that are just over her head, I think immediately comes clear of, I would not want to put my faith in this person running the country. Yeah. Let's sit here. Let's go. We got a couple of clips of AOC here. Let's let's play the first one. Either order. It doesn't matter. What happened in Venezuela, for example, it is not a. It is it is not a remark on who Maduro was as a leader. He canceled elections. He was an anti-democratic leader. That doesn't mean that we can kidnap a head of state and engage in acts of war just because the nation is below the equator. Well, the Congresswoman reportedly waiting for a potential White House. The thing that people are jumping on her, which I think, you know, is a little bit unfair is that. But I mean, Venezuela is not below the equator. that being said i think like it's it's it's a that's a gaffe that you know people could make it's she tried to describe it in a you know funny way or whatever anyway it is kind of entertaining that she said below the equator and the country is you know above the equator but you know who's going to get hung up on details like that i thought what was more interesting about this um was and look i don't even know if either of us would really disagree with anything she said there other than the equator part that we might take issue with but uh there is rob i mean do it like the democrats are still in this lane where she is where they're doing the fake hispanic accent when you say a word like this and i just um i i don't know i i genuinely i mean i don't mean to be like kind of petty here i actually think there's something kind of significant to this I still think if you remember, Rob, I made a lot of this last year when Donald Trump's approval ratings first started really dipping. And I thought it was really interesting that his ratings were dipping, but the Democrats weren't rising. It's like a bunch of people were turned off by Donald Trump, but still not going back to the Democrats because we're still not doing that shit again. And I do think there's this thing where essentially that that now look, I know you could say that AOC is whatever she is. She's she's part Hispanic or whatever. And so she speaks Spanish or something like that. But there is a weird thing that people do. It's this weird progressive virtue signaling where when they say a word like with that's a Spanish name, they have to break into this thick accent that they just weren't speaking in. like it's not like you have uh uh you were just speaking without a thick spanish accent but all of a sudden when you say a spanish word you have to speak and we don't do it for anything else we don't nobody is you know you would never say like oh i was i was in london and then i got on the the channel and i went over to offrancai like you just no one does that you know what i mean like you just you go london france mexico like i don't know it's just like no one actually ever goes so we were out in California and then we drove downtown Mexico. And sorry, that wasn't very good. Anyway, there is something where I think there's like, look, that whole thing has been so soundly rejected by super majorities of the American people, like wokeism and all of that, like, that's just one little indication that you're a woke person. This is what progressives do. There's constantly it's constantly like virtue signaling, you know, like signaling that I'm in. I'm the good person who's in this click. And we've all just rejected that shit because it's, you know, it's so awful and stupid and selfish and immature. And so it's just I don't know. I mean, I don't mean to make too much of a little thing. I actually look at that and I go, I don't think any, you know, I had said last year, actually in a weird way think she's the front runner just because Newsom's got this baggage and she's three clicks to the left of him, which is actually probably closer to where the party base is than he is. But the more I look at this, I don't think anyone doing that can win. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Knick Nacks. If you love nicotine, but you don't want to be dealing with big tobacco, you got to check out knickknacks. Knickknacks are small, minty, and they hit harder than your stepdad after a long shift. Brought to you from Spokane, Washington, knickknacks are packed with real essential oils for real flavor, available in both three and six milligram strength, and they have nine delicious flavors. No smoke, no pouch, no BS. Pop one in your mouth and enjoy some good old-fashioned American nicotine. You can go check them out today at knickknack.com slash Dave and use the promo code Dave for 20 off or use the store locator to find knickknacks near you Warning this product contains nicotine nicotine is an addictive chemical that nicnac slash dave knickknack slash dave promo code dave for 20 off all right let's get back into the show in today's america at least like on a national level i don't know what do you think uh personally my favorite aoc is when she's a room full of uh Bronx black people and she puts on the black scent. So that's my personal favorite variation of AOC. But the talking standard, perfect English and then switching to Mexican annunciations or Hispanic annunciations is pretty goofy too. Dude, it's so brutal. It's so brutal. Like, do you ever see it? It is in a weird way, the same thing. Like you ever see like a, like I have like a few friends who I've seen do this when I was young, but like when they'd, they'd start like talking black around black people. Yeah. We all kind of do it. Just not on stage in front of cameras when you're giving a speech. Yes. Yeah, I guess so. But like, no, look, I'm not saying even like a little bit of doing it, but I'm saying like when it's like a dramatic shift and you're there and you're watching and you're like, dude, I was just talking to you. I know like it's, I know how you really talk and it's just like cringy. And it is something that, but it's not a coincidence that, uh, um, And I think this was something that was very appealing about Donald Trump as a candidate to a lot of people. And say whatever you will about Donald Trump. He is authentic in a very strange way because he's such a strange person. But like Donald Trump is himself. If Donald Trump goes and speaks to a room, it doesn't matter who's in that audience. He's speaking the exact same way every time. The progressive Democrats, all of them, dude, all of them. Like, I mean, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, AOC, Gavin Newsom, all of them. Joe Biden was famous for that. I mean, there's the most hilarious compilations of these guys that you can go find where they will straight up just become a different person. Like they're so phony and full of shit that they will just speak to a different audience and all of a sudden have a completely different. You know, Hillary Clinton would go and speak at like a church in the South and she'd get up there and she'd literally be like, y'all ain't going to try to fool me. None now is yeah, you know, like, you know, who the fuck is this lady? Like, this is just not at all who you are. They all do that. And AOC is very guilty of that, too. And I think it's going to be interesting I mean obviously 2028 is a while away here But I still think that the Democrats Have not really These people have not adjusted to the fact that I don't think that shit's going to work anymore It's just been too exposed I've been doing a running series on Run Your Mouth Of remembering just how dumb the Democrats are And it's incredible because we spend so much time focused on Donald Trump, who is messing up horrifically and is quite irritating. But every time you see, you get a little glimpse of a reminder of why we hated the Democrats so much. And they have no bench whatsoever. I think Newsom is the front runner and he has a slickness to him. And it's probably going to come down to how bad the economy is and how much there's a flavor of throw the bastards out, particularly if it's Ruby or advance running. and there still is a lot of discontent with the way the Trump administration essentially lied to us about getting out of wars and cleaning up government spending and even doing deportations and the laundry list of things we've complained about the Epstein files would be the most recent but yeah the Democrats have no bench and every time they still flirt with these ideas that were widely rejected in the last election you do kind of scratch your head and go how are you guys not get in this yeah yeah well i mean i guess the kind of the question in a way becomes like look how many people are the reason why again like you said the reason why the democrats are in a decent situation right now is purely because of how much the trump administration is fucking up right that's it there's nothing else that they've done except happen to be sitting there as the opposition party while your opponent makes a ton of mistakes um but yeah i mean well i don't know Rob, I mean, there's a whole lot of us people. I mean, you know, I'm, I don't know how big of a voting demographic it is, but there's a decent sized voting demographic who fall into the broad camp of being like, I supported Donald Trump in 2024. And I don't see, I don't see, I mean, aside from obviously if Thomas Massey were to run, I'll support Thomas Massey and whatever he does, but I don't see a path toward getting guys like me and you to just be supporting a Rubio or a Vance. I don't think there's any chance of that happening. And so, and I don't know that there's really the same version of the Democrats. Like how many people are there who voted for Kamala Harris, who just like refused to vote for the net? Probably not that many. And so we'll see. I guess what it will come down to. And I, I did not actually vote for Trump, but I was rooting for him. And I think it will come down to put it this way. If Newsom is running and Newsom is running on, we're going to start regulating Bitcoin. We're bringing back green energy. We need to censor the Internet for medical discontent. And he starts flirting with all the horrible Democratic ideas that you feel like you need to vote against because they're actually dangerous just to live as a free person in this country. You'll see more enthusiasm for even a bad Republican. but no, that's true. If he's, if he's smart enough to be neutral or if I don't think AOC is the person, or if they're smart enough to have someone to pretend like they're going to clean up government corruption and that we're not supporting foreign wars and we're rolling back support for Israel and really playing to, uh, kind of, I'm going to say the feeling in people's hearts of that this country is working against them and engaging in evil around the world while we're not concerned with domestic policy, our own economic prosperity. I think there's a lane for success for the Democrats. Yeah. Well, the thing about it is, Rob, is that they never run on any of that stuff. They never run on, we're going to do, we're going to do internet censorship and we're going to, they're not going to run on that. Joe Biden ran on a return to normalcy and being a one-term president and blah, blah, blah. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's not, they're going to run on, they do run on green energy and essentially increasing socialism. They might not put it quite in the terms that I did, but it's pretty transparent when they're talking about dangerous of other people's opinions on the Internet that that translates to Internet censorship. Well, look, I mean, I am genuinely scared of what of the Democratic establishment retaking control, because I do think they're going to have to try to crack down on speech this time. And I think they're going to come back with a vengeance if they come back. That being said, I'm just kind of starting to look at what who is going to be that person for them. And I well, look, I'll get to where I'm going with this eventually. But let's let's play the other clip of AOC. There was another AOC one, which is fun. I think what we identify is that in a rules based order, hypocrisy is vulnerability. And so I think what we are seeking is a return to a rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the West, we'd look the other way for inconvenient populations to act out these paradoxes. I think what we identify. You get that, Rob? You know what? Maybe she's too smart for me because I'm not sure what she said. I literally don't know what she said. She went full Cammie Harris on that one. Just putting words together that sound nice. She's just like, I don't know. I've heard a smart person say rules-based order once, so maybe I'll throw that out there. Yeah, I don't know. AOC is simply not ready for a presidential run. She's just not. It's a weird thing because she can, as you kind of mentioned, In some settings, she can be kind of charming and kind of be like, oh, she was a pretty good messenger for this or that. She's got she's she's I think it really is like she's too much of a lightweight intellectually. She doesn't actually know anything or have anything to say. And there is something I think just particularly after Hillary Clinton and after Kamala Harris, this particular brand of like woman who's completely full of shit saying nothing in many words is not going to is not going to fly. That is my guess. I will say, Rob, and this is kind of what I was leading to before. I think, listen, I'm not trying to say anything too bold or, you know, over the top here. I think right now the sleeper is Stephen A. Smith. now I'm not saying he's going to be the nominee that's still a long shot but Stephen A. Smith really seems to want to run for president he went out of his way there was like 6 months, 8 months ago where he had this thing where he went out of his way to say I'm not closing the door on that someone was asking him and he was like yeah I am considering it and look I mean obviously Stephen A. Smith has some issues like he doesn't know anything about politics dude he even said rob i don't know if you saw this the clip there's like six months ago something like that where he said i'm not closing the door i am seriously considering it you know a lot of people want me to run it i'm considering it and he goes you give me a couple years to hit the books and really read about policy and i'm gonna come out prepared and ready to do it and i it was just like i don't know for whatever to me it was like the most infuriating, insulting fucking thing to say. Like, first of all, like the idea of like, I'll hit the books and figure out the policy thing. Like I've already decided I want to run for president and yeah, we'll get to that whole policy thing at some point. You go, but you don't even know what you're, what side of the issue you're on. Like it doesn't even, what do you mean? The policy isn't the thing you could figure out later. That's supposed to be the driving force for why you'd want to run to begin with because you care so much about issues of policy. He's literally, this is how vapid this guy is. He's just admitting that like, oh, that's yeah, that's what I believe in. We'll figure out along the way. It's also just like, I mean, I don't know. It just, it shows you how fundamentally unserious of a person he is that to even think dude, like to say like, oh, I'll hit the books for a couple years and then I'll be ready to run for president of the United States of America. It's like me, Rob, if I were to go to you, I've never boxed in my life. I've been on the inside of a boxing gym twice in my life ever. Me and my friends used to throw on the gloves and box at my buddy's backyard or whatever. That's about the most boxing experience I had. But it'd be like if I were to you, Rob, I was like, you know what? I'm going to start boxing. I'm going to go join this gym. You know, I'm gonna go join this really good boxing gym. And you'd be like, Oh, okay, cool. That's a cool thing to do. And I go, I'm gonna do it for like a couple years. And then I'm going to challenge for the light heavyweight title of the world. You'd be like, wait, wait, what? There's no, there's no possible way in a couple years, you can be good enough to be at the app. Like, I don't know. I'm just I've been obsessively studying this shit for 20 years, dude, the idea that you're going to catch up in a couple years to even be on the level of like, a podcaster, let alone anyway, it is ridiculous. He caught a case of confidence. Yes. But that's the point in a way, all of that is just an issue for guys like me and you to be like, that's bullshit. You don't really know what you're talking about, but as Trump's proven, that isn't actually what matters. Dude, that's not what fucking matters. And I got to say, dude, I'm just saying, looking at the field right now, like if you remove all like ethics or, or like values and beliefs or anything like that, right? Like if you could just remove all of that and let's just say this was just like, it was your job to get Stephen A. Smith elected. You know, if you could put yourself in that, in that frame of mind, I'd be excited at the prospects right now. Like if that was just the job again, remove all morality and ethics. And it's just like, this is all in a vacuum. And it's just, you get, you get a hundred million dollars. If you can get Stephen A. Smith elected and you're completely in charge of his campaign. I'd go, dude, I think we can win this thing. And I think I could get this for you. Like if you let me fucking do, and here's why again, I'm still admitting it's a, it's a long shot. He's the dark horse. He's not the favorite. it. No, no racist pun intended. Um, but he, uh, here's the thing. Stephen A. Smith has a unique set of skills that actually really help in this situation. He is, um, Stephen A. Smith is a sports radio click bait, start an argument guy. He'll take really provocative positions. He doesn't even believe half of them, but he'll defend them to the death. And he's very good on his feet. He's very good at, he's had decades of just practicing this skill of shallow bullshit, surface level debate that plays well on camera. And like, that actually is the level of debate that presidential candidates have to deal with. He's good at reading the room and saying the thing that will get the majority of the room to start nodding. He's good on camera. That's all he's good at is on camera. And that's essentially as Trump has proven what the whole game is. And there's a big one, Rob. He has, this is really the biggest one. This is why my eyes would get wide in my amoral universe where I make $100 million if he gets in. He is completely unattached to all of the failures of the Democratic establishment. All of them. He has nothing to do with any of them. And he's quite comfortable to throw them under the bus. Yeah, Biden was a mess. Yeah, Kamala Harris was terrible. Yeah, Obama is divisive. Yeah, he does not attach to any of it. That is the advantage that Donald Trump had in 2016, is that he could sit from a bird's eye view, take these popular positions and then just blast everyone and go, oh, I don't know. You guys are the ones who broke this. Me, I was over there in the private sector winning. I don't know what that, you know what I mean? Like, and I don't know. I just think nobody else is emerging. This guy clearly wants to do it. and he is positioned and skilled to maybe be able to pull this job off. That being said, it'll be, I mean, he's awful and doesn't know what he's talking about and isn't impressive or smart, but I think there's potential there, Rob. I don't think he should be underestimated. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Brunt Workwear, the most comfortable, durable work boots you will ever own. They sent me a pair of them. I know Lewis loves them too. I wear them all the time. They're typically speaking, and we've all known this, if you want like a good pair of work boots, they're going to be brutal on your feet. And if you want a real comfortable shoe, they're not going to be very good to work in. Brunt has changed all of that. They've made the most durable work boot that feels like a sneaker that you've had for five years. It's like literally the first time you put your feet in them, It's just incredibly comfortable. So if you or someone in your life needs a good pair of boots for a job site or working outdoors, and they want to be comfortable, definitely go check out Brunt Workwear. And right now, you can also get $10 off when you use the promo code PROBLEM at bruntworkwear.com slash problem. That's bruntworkwear.com slash problem. Promo code PROBLEM for $10 off. All right, let's get back into the show. Well, I guess being good on television, unimpressive and not smart, it's all a pathway to success in politics. It's a winning formula in politics. That's a winning formula right now. Here let play this clip of Stephen A Smith going super viral Let play this clip because this did catch my eye It kind of demonstrating what I was just saying Did you worry about racism if you ran for president? No. I know it exists. I know that you can't escape it, but I do not believe it is as prevalent as some on the left would like us to believe. I do believe a vast majority of Americans judge you on the content of your individual character rather than the color of your skin. I think a lot of people in America, especially in this day and age, now more so than ever before, it's not about race. It's about the fact that they don't give a damn about it because they got their own problems. That's entirely different than believing they are superior to you and they want to hold you back from ascending. That's not what's going on to the degree that it was decades ago. What's going on now is that we have more white Americans and others suffering and worried about the state of our nation. And because they're concerned about that, that's where their worries lie. Do you worry about racism? Listen, dude, look, I understand what he said there is just fairly simple. It's being universally very well received. And it is in a way, I got to say, look, Donald Trump, in the same sense, it's almost kind of similar to Donald Trump, as we've been saying, in a lot of ways. Stephen A. Smith, much like Donald Trump, has no views on policy whatsoever. He's not like us. He doesn't have views about policy and you're very interested in it and you've read several books on the subject and you feel that this argument is correct. But what he does have is, and Trump had this too, it's an ability, they're very, very good self-promoters and self-marketers. And when, like, what he just kind of did there was actually, I think, fairly sophisticated and represents a lane that Democrats could fill. You know, like what he what he just did there, right, was they go, oh, well, essentially the question isn't even the question. The question is, what are you going to signal right now? It's well, we all know that you're a black man and we live in a systemic racist society and therefore you are a member of the oppressed group. So you'll be running as a member of the oppressed group, right? Like that's essentially the question, even though, by the way, there's we had a black president who got reelected and served two terms and was very, very popular, at least at the beginning of his presidency and won in a landslide. And but what Stephen A. Smith does there is he rejects the premise of the question and he goes, no, I'm not running that way. I'm not running as I'm a member of a marginalized group. And he pivots in a way he, he takes it and goes, no, I'll be channeling that into like an anti-woke pro populist message. No, the answer isn't that white people are also evil and that's why they hate black people. The thing is that white people are getting screwed over the same as black people are getting screwed over and it's being done by them against all of us. that is a that is a really fucking powerful political lane to run in then that is where and i'm not sure the party is smart enough to figure this out but that's where the energy is or that's where the potential is for the democrats it's what the democrats if they were smart should be running on is like get away from this racial identitarian shit because that is not popular and it's not true in any meaningful sense. But this is the thing, Rob, right? This is why Donald Trump has really screwed over J.D. Vance's presidential aspirations here, is that what Donald Trump's essentially done is he's left the populist lane open now. And the question is going to be who can take that, who can run in that lane? Now, it's going to be next to impossible for J.D. Vance to do it. This is how J.D. Vance, this is how he won his Senate campaigns, was running as a populist, and it's how he ran for vice president. I don't think he's going to be able to do that again in 28. and I don't think anyone short of Thomas Massey would be able to do that on the Republican side maybe maybe Rand Paul could but or maybe there's someone I'm just not thinking about but I don't really think anyone else can and I don't think AOC she's just too married to all the woke shit for her to be able to let it go it's too much her identity and Gavin Newsom of course is just too much of an elitist to run as a populist. He clearly is of the ruling elite. And so Stephen A. Smith seems to be the guy who could do this over there. He's famous. He's wealthy. He's used to being on camera. Rob, I mean, again, it's kind of the same point we just made, but we know a thing or two about politics here. We care about people who are well-read and make good arguments and have the correct policy but does is that actually what wins elections or is it being rich and famous and good on camera you tell me on the uh republican side if it's not in 28 uh it'll be in 32 but i think josh hall he's kind of set him up as the uh well-spoken handsome populist uh and i don't agree with him because uh he's basically just become a social democrat in his defense of medicaid and other social programs but in terms of uh trying to win a populist uh election i think he's somewhat setting himself up for that uh in terms of on the democratic side you know it's interesting because i think the elites like the fake divisiveness and you're right that steven's playing a winning hand but i think in part the democrats almost don't want to explore that lane because they kind of they kind of need that fake divisiveness of that it's not us versus them and it's not the elites cheating us all out of our money. It's you and your small racial group and some other actual group in the population that has kept you down and not money printing and other agendas. Now, Stephen Smith's not going to put together that it's the Fed. He might come to inflation, but I don't think he's going to quite understand that money's more available for the wealthy and people with assets. Yeah, well, look, I mean, And there's no question. Yes. No, he's not going to figure out economics in the next few months that he's hitting the books. I think that you're right that they, broadly speaking, the elite would rather there not be a populist campaigner for obvious reasons. And this is a big part of the reason why the D.C. establishment had such a huge reaction to Donald Trump running for president to begin with. It's a reason why they had a reaction against Bernie Sanders running to be president. And Bernie Sanders, look at him. He's not a real threat to power. He's been in the Senate for fucking ever. He's not a threat to power in any meaningful sense. but Bernie Sanders is running a campaign where he's telling you know an army of young people that it's the billionaires and the big banks and you know okay despite him getting a whole lot of things wrong there are a lot of billionaires and big banks out there that have a lot of influence over this system and you start pointing the finger at them and they don't like that too much and same with Donald Trump is all to drain the swamp is not the message they want to hear However, I think it's becoming more and more clear that that's the only message the people want to hear on both sides. On both sides, people are well aware of the fact that DC is just the most corrupt goddamn town in the universe. And Stephen A. Smith, to me, seems, again, very Trumpian in the sense that I don't think he really cares about anything other than like, oh, this could be huge for me. I could be the winner. I could be the guy who does this thing. And I think they'll smell that all over him and realize that he can be completely controlled. And so, you know what I mean? Like, I think there's a chance there to make this win. And look, we still do. I mean, not so much in the democratic primaries, as you know, Rob, but there is still a democratic process. And that's the reason why Bernie Sanders was able to give Hillary Clinton a lot of problems and the democratic establishment, it cannot be overstated how weak, how much weaker they are now than they were when they were able to just say, Hillary Clinton has been anointed. She's been the one who's chosen. She's going to do this because people have followed the democratic establishment into eight years of Donald Trump now. And so he's just, he's going to be in a much better situation to do that. I think that he was, I'm checking in on the chat here a little bit. Go ahead. If there's a Democratic primary, I think Stephen A. Smith can wipe the floor with both AOC and if Kamala Harris decides to try and do a reboot. I think he will have a problem with Newsom, who will be able to play the card of, hey, I actually know how to do this job. And while you and I will be able to see through it and go, hey, you got this terrible track record, he does a pretty good job of pretending like California is wonderful. And people seem to buy it from him. Look, this is the thing that Stephen A. Smith is really good at, though, dude. And this is why I think he's a sleeper. He is really good at debating whatever the issue is. Like, Stephen A. Smith is the type of guy who you could go, okay, your take is that Jordan is better than LeBron. And he could go out there and argue with the biggest LeBron fan and have a ton of shit to say and never fucking hesitate and never have a moment of being, looking completely certain and confident the entire time. And then you could grab him and go, okay, now you're going into this debate and you're debating that LeBron is better than Michael. And he'd go, no problem. And go in there with the exact same confidence and the exact, and I'm telling you, dude, you put him on a debate stage, even with Gavin Newsom, he's gonna be a problem for these guys, dude. I know this stuff very well. I know like how debates work, especially these bullshit presidential debates. And like, he's got a set of skills that'll be a problem. And all he's got to do to even what you said there with Gavin Newsom, he'll, he'll prep for that. He'll prep for like, Oh, what are the five talking points that I can just dominate him with and really pick apart how bad California is. He, I think, I think he could be trouble for them. We'll see again. This is all very early. um checking in on on the chat here if you guys have any questions or comments go ahead and put them in the chat we'll try to get to a few of them by the way if you want to watch the show live and ad free and uncensored uh and you want to get the members only fourth episode a week sign up over at part of the problem.com and you also get to be in the uh in the live chat um i said uh m uh marjorie taylor green is being floated out there i don't think she's uh really got the presidential quality i like i like marjorie taylor green she's been she's really surprised me and been a lot better than i thought she would be but i don't know rob i don't see her running for president um a little bit too much love a wild card if you ask me yeah i don't see that one either and i also think uh having left congress i don't think sets her up better right right yeah no i think that's a that's a very good point um um this is a what is this hold on natalie what is this aoc video that you got. Oh, is this a new one here? No, that was, that one was from a, for me and it's old. It's funny. I thought, I thought it was recent and I should have noticed cause I was looking, I was like, man, did they also see you get attractive again? Did they clean her up? And then I just realized it was from 2022, but I do think it displays her lack of understanding of basic economics and a fundamental flaw in a, in her general approach to these things. All right, here, let's play it. And it gets more interesting in the second half where she's explaining how the benefits of COVID should not be faulted for inflation, but the entire thing's worth a listen. Okay. I want to ask you about inflation and interest rates and Fed Chair Powell, who recently said that the strong labor market made it appropriate for him to soon raise interest rates. I wonder what your take on that is. Well, you know, I think particularly when we have this conversation in the context of inflation as well, it's really not just labor. It's not just rising wages, but there's a lot of different dynamics that I think are contributing to the increase in prices, whether it's supply chain complications. Yes, labor issues, but sometimes lack of labor, a lack of the ability to be able to work consistently in their jobs. which is also tied to pandemic controls. And also there's a real distinction to be made between inflation and price gouging. And there's a lot of evidence that particularly industries with high concentrations, corporate concentrations, whether it's almost oligopoly level industries, a lot of these price increases are potentially due to just straight price gouging by corporations. Are you concerned about inflation and higher interest rates and the impact on working people? These aren't fair questions. Wherever prices are increasing. He's asking, why are you asking all these big boy questions? A little AOC here. Also, I mean, whatever. I mean, by the way, do you remember back in 22 when this was like the talking point that the left, all the left could come up with was like, oh, no, it's just that the corporations are so mean. So they just jack it like, again, like, what exactly even is the definition of price gouging? Like, is there a certain percentage of profit that then that's gouging versus not gouging? It's like, you almost like wonder, like, with some of these people, like, do you have to take it back to the most basic of economics to just go like, you go, okay, okay. So first of all, corporations are so greedy that they're price gouging. Well, why are they doing that now? Why did they happen to just get greedy after you infuse $9 trillion into the economy? Like, why weren't they really greedy before? By the way, also, like, why don't they charge even more? Why did they stop there? Like, why? I don't know, like the, you know, the corner store that sells milk, why don't they charge $100,000 for milk? I mean, is it because that corporation isn't that greedy? They just didn't want to gouge and other ones did. No, dude. Everyone who sells a good is trying to sell it for the most that they can sell it for. Everybody's trying to profit as much as they can. And then this crazy dynamic, consumers are trying to get it for as cheap as they can get it for. it's like they have no idea that there's this fundamental like balance in the economy that right think about anybody who works a job you want like you want to get paid 10 million dollars a year and your boss would like it if he could pay you nothing and you would do the job why does it end up being around where well because there's a market and you got to find a price where it's enough that they'll pay you to keep you coming to work as if they go too low, you'll go now I'll go find something else. And if you ask for too high, they'll be like, no, we won't make any money if we pay you $10 million a year. So you find a, you know what I mean? You find a price in the middle. Yes. Greed, whatever exactly the fuck greed means. I love when Milton Friedman used to say, what is greed? And he goes, of course, none of us are greedy. It's always the other guy who's greedy. but yes that is a that is what we would call rob a constant it doesn't go up or down corporations always want to make the profit that they can make um so anyway uh there's also a storyline of if you wanted to talk about corporate greed i think if you were to look at a walmart it's a greediness of the way that they're uh squeezing suppliers or maybe even importing cheaper goods because American manufacturers couldn't provide the goods at the prices that they're requiring. But you know some of these producers some of these bigger companies they uh really squeeze the producers of we buy a lot of your content but you got to get it for this low of a price the idea that walmart my model is trying to squeeze uh consumers and try and uh have the market for the highest prices that's not that's not the way walmart operates walmart's trying to hire the entire way that walmart took over was by undercutting everyone's prices. That was their greedy bet. And it worked. And they took a Walmart would close it, you know, like people would always say, right, Walmart closes down all the mom and pop shops. But no, it doesn't. It doesn't, you know, closes down the mom and pop shops, the mom and pop shops customers who chose to go to Walmart instead. And why do they do that? Because it's cheaper. And, you know, it's, it's, it's easy for leftists to look at this and just like, if you raise prices, that that's because of corporate greed. If you lower prices, that's because of corporate greed, you're putting mom and pop shops out of business. But like, no, that's actually for poor people. It's a really big deal when you lower the cost of clothes for children and food and whatever electronics and toys and all that stuff. So, you know, there was an old, there's an old, uh, like free market, uh, joke where it was something about, um, it was, uh, it's like three businessmen are in jail and, uh, the first guys in and they go, what are you in for? And he goes, uh, um, price gouging. And then the, uh, he goes, I was charging more than my competitors. So they charged me with price gouging. And then they asked the second guy, what are you in for? and he goes, predatory pricing because I was undercutting all of my competitors. And then they go, the third guy, what are you in for? And he goes, I charged the exact same thing as all of my competitors. So they got me for collusion. And like the joke is just that like, no matter what, their same answer will always be, oh, it's corporate greed. But like, I'm sorry, that just doesn't make any sense. All you gotta do is think about this. Use your like common sense and think about it for five seconds. It's like this doesn't make any sense. All right. I think the second half of this is is particularly telling of her acumen and even her ability to defend socialist policies. All right. Let's see. And it's making it difficult for someone to be able to feed their family. That is always going to be a major point of concern, primary point of concern. But the real key is making sure that we're diagnosing the causes correctly, because the danger here is that if we say we're helping working people too much and say that the cause of this is, oh, it's because we provided too much assistance during the American Rescue Plan, stimulus checks were too generous. That is why we are dealing with the problems that we're dealing with now. What that's going to result in is a pullback in the assistance that some families need the most right now. And when we already talk about the cessation of the child tax credit. The stupidity of if we gave people too much free money and that drove up prices, the idea that we then shouldn't give people free money because it doesn't actually work. because there's another side to the equation of if people have too much free stuff, it actually makes things more unaffordable. Well, we can't say that. Even if that's what's happening in reality, we don't want to say that because then the conclusion would be it's bad to give people free stuff. And we can't possibly come to that conclusion. Even if that is reality, we can't come to that conclusion because it would undermine my entire identity. It would undermine my entire philosophy. And so let's ignore the unintended consequence of pretending like we can give people free stuff because sure, in this environment, it didn't work out well and it drove up prices. But if we acknowledge that, then we can't continue to do this thing. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. No, that is some high level question begging right there. I mean, it is right, like pure circular logic that essentially goes, well, you know, I get I really don't like us being out here saying socialism is the reason for price inflation, because then that's going to lead to less socialism. And so, I mean, right. It's like, look, you may not like the idea that injecting trillions of dollars into the economy makes the existing dollars less valuable. all. I think you may not like that, but that's like, these are the laws of economics. These are very basic laws of supply and demand. And yeah, that's quite the defense for it. Yeah. But if we say that, then people won't want more government programs. Well, yeah, I mean, that's right. If we, if they understand that these are the costs associated with them, then yeah, that would be the logical conclusion to not want any more of this. It might be nicer. Fart smells like fart smell like cookies, but they don't. Yeah, right. Exactly. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Lovebird Foods. Guys, it's a new year. Everybody's trying to be healthy. And that's what we're all thinking about at the beginning of a new year. Do this for me. Go grab your box of cereal right now and read the ingredients in it. Just a box of cereal if you have one in your house. Odds are you're going to find refined sugars, red 40, synthetic pesticides, seed oils, a bunch of words you can't pronounce because it's not real food. It's a science experiment. And Big Food has engineered these cereals with cheap synthetic junk to drive cravings so they can make more money. 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So if you're ready to take back your breakfast, go to lovebirdfoods.com slash Dave and use the promo code Dave for 25% off your first order. You can also find Lovebird cereal at Walmart, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and other major retailers nationwide. Once again, lovebirdfoods.com slash Dave, promo code Dave for 25% off your first order. All right, let's get back into the show. So, okay. Is there, was there more to this that you thought was a, I mean, that was the moment that I really was like, wow, this is incredibly stupid, but there might be more to it. Well, you know what? Let's switch over to him because I wanted to play just before we get out of here because there was this other clip of Hakeem Jeffries that was going viral. And I just thought this was interesting because, again, it speaks to the fact that – and Hakeem Jeffries is, at least in my life, I think – I mean, I've thought there were examples like this in Republican leadership, certainly in the Trump era. But at least to some degree, right, when it was Pelosi in leadership or when it was Schumer, there was kind of like a feeling that they ran the DNC or they ran the Democratic establishment. Hakeem Jeffries just seems like he's just like a figurehead like this, you know, but it goes to show you how much there is no leadership in the Democratic Party and how there is no lane that they've picked. So here was, this is Hakeem Jeffries. He was on with Joy Reid, who needs no introduction. And also that guy who, if you remember, we responded to the video he made about how brown people are so much better than white people or something like that. These guys represent the kind of like one wing of the left, which would be like the just openly vicious racist wing of the left. I don't know. It's a thing that like, I think this has changed a little bit. But in my life, in our culture, there's for several reasons, and a big part of it is how much the narrative has been controlled. It's very easy for people to just recognize bigots on the right. It's for whatever reason a little bit tougher for them to recognize it on the left, but that's all these guys are. But so here you have Hakeem Jeffries being grilled by the woke racist wing of the Democratic Party. So let's watch that. With impunity. Representative, may I? I'm going to give you some numbers. Just today it came out that ICE is using $38 billion to convert warehouses into camps. I'm going to call them concentration camps. Your colleague, Representative Raskin, went to one just yesterday in Maryland and said there were 60 people, 60 people cramped like sardines in one room who only had access to one toilet. 65 percent of people taken by ICE had no convictions. That's from the Cato Institute, a right wing institute. ICE has killed eight people this year alone that we know of. Two of them, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretty. The latest polls came out this week, AP polls. Over 60 percent of Americans now disapprove of ICE. That means in three weeks, it's gone from 30% to 60%. Now, if I may, I'm going to be a bit blunt here. Leaders lead. And what we've seen is people are impressionable. If you lead on something, people will follow. It seems the wind is behind your back for the first time ever. ICE has a history. CPP has a history of terrorizing Black and brown communities. People are asking themselves, why are we, our taxpayer dollars, paying for masked, lawless men to terrorize our communities, kidnap people, take children, and kill Americans. So I ask you, I'm doing a follow-up to Joy, because I want an answer to this. You said you want to rain in ice. I'm saying, I'm talking about the long term now, why not lead and say abolish ice? Because what you're telling us is you want our taxpayer dollars to pay for a lawless, massed, armed agency to continue terrorizing our cities. And I'm trying to figure out how you, as a leader, can be telling Americans. All right. So let's pause it right here just for a second. Cause look, this, first of all, it's pretty funny that he says Cato, the far right institution goes, yeah, but what are they on immigration? They're the biggest like open borders, you know, uh, advocacy group. So that's not exactly making the point he thinks it is. Um, and just leave aside almost for a second, the bullshit in this guy's question. And the fact that this is the same guy who we have on tape, just uttering like racial superiority about his group you know what i mean but anyway whatever feelings you have about this guy and joy and read they're both dumb you know uh not even leftists they're dumb uh essentially establishment hacks um but i just want you guys to like think about that this is the answer that democratic leadership has to this question here's hakeem jeffries I don't understand anything that you just said when I've made clear that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people, not brutalize or kill them. That's the whole reason we're in this fight right now. That's the whole reason the DHS. I mean, goddamn Rob. I mean, just like, this is fucking. That's Pam Bondi level right there. Stock market's up. Dude, but even just like, I don't know, man. I just feel like reading one book about economics should inoculate you from ever being a leftist. Just like to even like be saying like, even when they say these things, they go, I believe taxes should be used to make life more affordable. Okay. Well, here's the thing about taxes. they um by definition make life less affordable because we have to pay them like how how do you you know what would make life affordable more affordable for every goddamn working person in this country is lowering their taxes that's what would make life more affordable the idea that you're just going to say there we're gonna i'm gonna try to make you richer rob by giving you a big bill what's the what's the problem with that thinking but i guess he does concede it shouldn't be spent for the government to brutalize you or something like that but look i mean he's asked point blank a very clear question here like why not just go abolish ice Why is that not your position? And his response is, I don't understand what you're saying. I don't even understand here. Let's let's keep playing. It's getting ready to shut down. That's why you agree. Abolish ice. That is. Listen, I'm going to use the language that I want to use. You can use the language that you want to use. And the language that I'm using right now relates to these type of bold, meaningful, dramatic changes that are designed to save lives right now in communities that look like the ones that I represent. And that's the goal. So let me ask you this. And holding up a single Democrat together in the House and in the Senate is what we're trying to do to give us the best shot to win this fight right now while we're in the minority. My question, though, is more about... Yeah. So, OK, so again, this is this is just pathetic. they have no ability like when he says he goes i'm going to use the words i choose to use and you use the words you choose to use and it's like dude it's a very specific question here are you for abolishing this organization or not and he can't just muster up the fucking backbone to go well no i disagree with that you know i think we should rein in abuses by ice but i don't think we can abolish ICE. And you can't, you know what I'm saying? Like he can't, he can't just like make an argument for why, like, no, look, our answer can't be abolish all border enforcement, abolish border patrol, abolish ICE. That can't be our answer. That's not, you know, like he can't, but again, this is pathetic and would never win. You know, who would do that? The Stephen A. Smith, but whatever you say about him, he would sit right there in the pocket and go, no. And I think if you want to run on Biden's immigration policy, good luck with that, but you're going to get destroyed. Like there's no way you're winning an election like that. And democratic leadership doesn't have the balls to do that. I don't think AOC or Gavin Newsom have the balls to do that. Smith endorses Smith. I do not endorse. I don't think, listen, short of like Thomas Massey wants to run. He's got my endorsement. Um, I ran Paul or somebody like that. Um, I don't think I'm going to be in the game of endorsing politicians who I don't really like, uh, in the future. I got burned in that game. I don't think I'm going to do that again. Um, but Hey, we'll see who knows where, uh, the country is going to be by the time it's actually, uh, getting to 2028. But anyway, look, man, obviously the theme on our show for, for a while has been how much the Trump administration is fucking up in a monumental way. And that's all still very true. But man, the Democrats are still a hot mess of garbage. That's worth that's worth being reminded every now and then. All right. Catch you guys tomorrow. Brand new episode. See you guys in Perryville, Maryland on Saturday. That show is almost sold out. Grab tickets if you want to come out. All Catch you guys tomorrow. Peace.