Donald Trump is under intense scrutiny for allegedly betraying U.S. foreign policy by funding Russia’s war against Ukraine and enabling its economic and military aggression through oil purchases. This action, while framed as a way to lower diesel prices, is widely condemned as a direct violation of international norms and a dangerous act of aiding an enemy. The ceasefire proposal announced by Trump failed within hours, with no real de-escalation and a surge in Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. The administration is further criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, including claims linking Mifepristone to Holocaust-era gas, and for fostering an authoritarian mindset through rhetoric like live-streaming executions and xenophobic nationalism. Key figures such as Katie Zaccaria, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and J.D. Vance are seen as either complicit or attempting to distance themselves from Trump’s disordered policies. The broader political environment shows signs of instability, with Republican leaders expressing alarm, public opinion shifting, and growing evidence of systemic leaks and misconduct. Democrats are seen as gaining ground in several key states, raising concerns about a possible electoral reversal. Critics argue that Trump’s actions—ranging from illegal war with Iran to undermining democratic institutions—represent one of the most disloyal and morally bankrupt periods in U.S. foreign and domestic policy. The episode underscores a deepening crisis of legitimacy, with the U.S. increasingly viewed as a barbaric, lawless power in global affairs.
Does he want to just keep the war between Ukraine and Russia actually going, so he's playing both sides?
It has to do with Donald Trump's pathological desire to please his daddy, Vladimir Putin.
This is the product of a diseased mind, okay?
It's crazy. Aiding and abetting an enemy is a crime, right?
People would call it treason, except we haven't actually declared war on these two enemies,
so technically, legally, it's not treason.
But it's certainly traitorous.
This is one of the most demented, disloyal betrayals of the United States of America ever by a U.S. official, much less a president.
David, happy holiday. Happy holiday weekend.
Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day.
Oh, okay, that's the holiday. I always get confused by these endless holidays.
Well, at the White House, they think it's Columbus Day, and I just say Indigenous Peoples' Day.
Out of respect, but also to piss them off.
Okay, because we know that they're paying attention.
They are. They're constantly commenting on the Daily Beast.
Well, it's true.
They're obsessed.
Well, we have a new person in the White House press secretary's antechamber, Katie Zaccaria.
What do you know about her?
I mean, how many mad conspiracies has she put forward?
Quite a lot.
We should remind people, by the way, this is the Daily Beast podcast.
It is. Indigenous Peoples' Day.
We're recording this on Monday morning, and we don't know if Kimberly Guilfoyle will be marched out of the Hellenic Republic by the end of the day.
And we've got a lot to get to.
Elon Musk funding the midterms for the Republicans.
We've got Darlene Graham's even worse debate performance than the last debate performance.
We've got Donald Trump spiraling out of control, but we always have Donald Trump spiraling out of control.
More importantly, we have David Rothkopf.
David Rothkopf, who's spiraling in control.
That's me, spiraling in control.
Spiraling in control.
What do you know about Katie Zaccaria, the new White House press spokesperson, other than poor old Scott Jennings is in the fetal position, rocking back and forth?
Oh, poor Scott Jennings.
Well, you know, she is one of these in the mold, right?
She's got some Fox background.
She's got some right-wing background.
She loves conspiracy theories, apparently, which she promotes.
She's blonde, and she looks like the other ones, and her name begins with a K, and he's had three press secretaries, and so some wags online are calling them KKK for some reason.
Who was the other one?
Obviously, there was Carolyn Leavitt, normally spelt with a C, but I'm sure she wanted to be different.
No, no, she was different.
Do you think that she changed her spelling to Caroline when she was sort of 13, which is what a lot of girls do?
I just don't know, but I do know that this new one is, you know, she's already a mess.
I call them the Stepford Liars.
The Stepford Liars.
That's good.
That's good.
You know, they all look like they're out of Stepford Wives, and they look the same, and their job is to lie for Donald Trump, which she's already started doing.
Well, Sarah Ewell Weiss, one of our correspondents in Washington, wrote an excellent piece about one of Katie's conspiracy theories.
Which?
Which was that she says that the abortion pill, Mifepristone, was produced by the same companies that produced the gas that was used in the chambers in Germany in the Holocaust.
Zyquan B.
Yes.
Yeah.
No.
I mean, completely untrue.
It actually was produced out of a French lab by a Frenchman in the late 80s, I think.
So, a crazy conspiracy.
That's what she does.
She's just a right-wing shill, and, you know, it is a sign that Trump is having a hard time getting people who are not crazy conspiracy theorists to join the team, because he is circling the drain.
Like, look at the polls.
The Republicans are now going, oh, my God, the polls are terrible.
And look at what's likely to happen with him if the Democrats win.
And look at all the crazy shit they're doing in order to distract from this, you know, from…
You know, funding Russia's war against Ukraine and Iran's war against us to, you know, having FBI agents go through Ilhan Omar's home, which is unbelievably shocking.
I mean, all of those things are shocking.
You know, last week he was like, let's have a race riot and let's attack the Somalis.
He's losing it.
And so, who's going to join that team except somebody else who's already lost it?
Fair.
Fair comment, David.
So, can you bring us up to speed?
David, on his suggested ceasefire with Ukraine and Russia, which is supposed to be…
They're supposed to stop attacking each other's oil refineries.
Yeah, that didn't go so well, because he announced it within an hour there was a Russian attack on a refinery.
And last week there were 180-odd Russian attacks on a refinery.
And it has nothing to do with the ceasefire.
It has to do with Donald Trump's pathological desire to please…
He's his daddy, Vladimir Putin, you know, because his other daddy is long gone.
And Putin was the next best thing he could find, I guess.
But, you know, what he has done is he has struck a deal to buy Russian oil, which, of course, particularly Russian diesel, which we're not supposed to buy.
Nobody's supposed to buy because we have sanctions against Russia's sale of oil.
But he thought, well, look.
If I buy some of this, and he talked about initially three tranches, 300,000 metric tons, 500,000 metric tons, and a million metric tons, then this will help the American oil market and reduce the price of diesel in the U.S.
There are a couple problems with that.
First of all, the amounts that he's bringing in amount to a tiny fraction of U.S. consumption and will have no effect on the availability of diesel in the U.S.
Secondly, Russia's…
Diesel production is under siege, and they may not be able to meet this.
Thirdly, there are plenty of other people we could have bought it from.
Canada would have sold it to us for much less, but he wanted to buy it from the Russians.
And fourth is the big one, because those three are big.
It won't help.
It's not supposed to do what it's going to do.
But the big one is he's pumping money into Russia at the time that Russia's…
Russia is having an economic crisis, and Russia is having an economic crisis because it's using its money to attack Ukraine.
And so, you know, because money is fungible, what's going to happen?
Our U.S. dollars will make it possible for Russia to fund more attacks on Ukrainian civilians, more attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, more of their illegal, immoral war against Ukraine, more war crimes.
But it's worse than that.
Okay, it's worse than the fact that he's funding them in an attack against an ally who is a bulwark of democracy and defending all of us with their courage.
No, it's worse.
Because what else is Russia doing?
Well, as we've learned in the past couple of weeks, Russia is resupplying missiles to Iran, and Russia is supplying intelligence to Iran.
Well, who are those missiles aimed at?
Who is the intelligence intended to help them identify?
Us.
Donald Trump is helping indirectly to fund an enemy that we're in a shooting war with right now.
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David, do you think he understands that?
I mean, how can. Can this possibly be so?
And also over the weekend, we saw him calling for. Zelensky to step down, saying to the people of Ukraine, you need a new leader. In terms of his
own understanding, do you think, what is happening here? It's impossible to understand any kind
of strategy here. Well, first of all, why are you looking for strategy? He doesn't know what is going on. He may even believe this thing that he goes
around telling everybody, which is the reason diesel prices are high is because Ukraine is
waging a war against Russia. First of all, Russia is the one waging the war against Ukraine. And
secondly, the primary reason that oil and fuel prices are high in the world is Donald Trump's
illegal, reckless war with Iran. As, by the way, Zelensky pointed out over the weekend after Trump
called for him to be behind, to leave.
And, you know, it's kind of crazed in that regard. You would think that his
Secretary of Energy would have said, you know, Mr. President, why don't we buy the oil from
somebody else, from Canada, from India, from somebody else who produces more diesel and not
the Russians where it's illegal? But nobody said that to him. Or his Secretary of Defense would
have said to him, you know, Mr. President, probably not a good idea to be aiding and abetting our
enemy in the middle of a shooting.
Or when the next time a U.S. ship is hit or a U.S. person is hit, people are going to say rightly,
oh, that was partially funded by your tax dollars. The killing of Americans, the wounding of
Americans, the wounding and killing of our allies in the region will be funded by U.S. tax dollars.
You know, this is crazy. It's crazy. You know, this is, you know, aiding and abetting an enemy
in the middle of a shooting. So it's, you know, it's not all a treason, except we haven't actually
declared war on these two enemies. So technically, legally, it's not treason. I looked it up. You know, the last time somebody in the United States was put to death
for treason was in the Civil War. And you know what their crime was? They tore down an American
flag. During World War II, a bunch of the people who were convicted of treason were convicted of
treason by spreading propaganda. Tokyo Rose was convicted, but then she was pardoned. Other
propaganda spreaders. Some people were convicted of it for aiding and abetting, providing aid and
comfort to an enemy. Well, what would be more aid and comfort to an enemy like Russia, or particularly
to an enemy like Iran, than making cash available to them? But, you know, Trump has, since 1980,
oomph, been cozying up to the Russians and doing deals with the Russians. In 2013,
he pleaded with Vladimir Putin to come to his Miss Universe pageant so they could
see all the beautiful women together. He kisses Putin's ass in public. And, you know,
he has had Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Russia negotiating a deal where Russia,
if they stop attacking briefly, temporarily, Ukrainian energy resources, that they would
offer to buy part of the Russian oil company. They would offer to buy more Russian oil.
In other words, they're just sitting there giving goodies to Vlad. Of course, the Russians
have no part of it. When Trump announced his ceasefire over the weekend, which lasted 10
seconds, the Russians didn't even acknowledge it. They just kept fighting. The Ukrainians,
who are the ones who are the aggrieved party and actually our allies, they are not being
consulted and they're being portrayed as the villains. This is the, I mean, seriously,
we talk about this kind of thing on this podcast a lot.
The reality is this is one of the most demented, disloyal betrayals of the United States of
America ever by a U.S. It's crazy. I don't even understand
why it's not a bigger story. But I do know that Republicans on Capitol Hill are gagging
and say, oh, my God, we've got to stop this somehow, because we can't fund Russia and
help Russia fund Iran.
Do you think he will take any notice of the Republicans who are now saying this is not
on, you've pushed us too far?
Look, I doubt it.
I doubt it, because he knew there were sanctions. And the first boatload of Russian diesel was
sent out of Russia weeks ago. In other words, he cut the deal and set it in motion long
before he announced the deal and announced the arrival of the diesel.
I think what Trump thought, because he's not just disloyal to the country and has a diseased
mind, but he's also kind of an idiot, is he thought that the American people would
go, oh, he's lowering the price of diesel. Isn't that a great thing? Let's vote for the
Republicans. And this was one of his October surprises, except, you know, surprise, Don,
nobody wants a president who's a traitor.
Right. And he's funding a war against us. It's quite difficult to get your head around.
Do you think this is the worst moment in American foreign politics since you've been reporting
on it?
Look, I mean, waging a war against Iraq when there was no reason to wage a war against
Iraq when six to eight hundred thousand Iraqi civilians were killed, that was pretty bad.
Right. But this is, you know, but but, you know, there was at least a rationale behind
that war that we were trying to, you know, defend our interests. And at least we were
attacking an enemy. In this case, we're funding attacks on ourselves. Mm hmm.
That's that's what's, you know, cloud cuckoo land crazy about this.
It really is very strange. So, too, is Pete Hegseth's announcement that they're going
to live stream an execution and no one's defending Hassan, but the idea of live streaming his
execution. I mean, even Donald Trump actually has said he's not convinced it will happen.
Even Donald Trump, even J.D. Vance was like, well, I don't think it's going to happen,
but if it does, I'm not watching.
Well, J.D. Vance can't be on his book tour for Communion talking about re-embracing his
Catholic faith and then saying he's slavishly looking forward to watching an execution.
Right. I think the pope at that point would, if I had enough, he'd be like, you killed
the last guy. You're not going to do this now to the Catholic faith.
Well, the poor, the poor pope, who, by the way, is being operated on today for a lump
in his leg. So wish him well.
Oh, I am wishing him as well. I don't want him to die. I don't
wish him as well. I did not know that. Well, good luck with your operation, Pope. Donald
Trump said it might not happen. It's impossible. No terms and conditions on any normal broadcasting
platform, you know, even 4chan, if it's still going, I'm sure would allow this.
Trump TV.
Trump TV, which nobody is watching, David. We had more viewers on the Daily Beast TV
than Trump TV. You'll be pleased to know.
I mean, again, how long?
How low can things go?
They can't go lower than this. I mean, betraying the country, funding attacks on American soldiers
and sailors, that's pretty bad. Betraying our values, saying that we want to have Americans
watch a public execution of a guy. And why are they doing it? Do you think if the guy's
name were John Smith, they'd be doing it? No, it's because he has a Muslim name. He's
a person of color. Yeah, he did a terrible thing. He deserves to be in prison forever.
But let's be perfectly honest here. This public execution part is straight out of the fascist
playbook. Authoritarian leaders like to flex their muscles in public and say, "Don't mess
with me. Don't mess with me. I have no scruples. I will do whatever I need to be the strong
man and keep you in line." And, you know, the expert, I saw something by Ruth Ben-Gayet,
who you've had on here, who's an expert on authoritarianism.
And that's exactly what she said. She said, "This is what you'd expect, you know, Hitler
and Mussolini to do." And in fact, they did it.
There's also the argument that actually it does the complete opposite of what you want
to do. It doesn't act as a deterrent. It acts as a rallying point for people to start, you
know, frankly, creating jihad here. Well, it does. It also says, "We're a barbarian
nation." Mm-hmm.
You know, it reduces our standing. You know, another thing that happened over last
week was a senior justice on the International Criminal Court, a South African woman, won
the Nobel Peace Prize, which drove Trump absolutely crazy. It's so crazy that he had Marco Rubio
go out and say, "We're going to sanction people with the International Criminal Court."
But the reason the Nobel Committee granted her the prize was she has spent her entire
life fighting for the rule of law in the world and fighting for human rights.
Over a period of time, even as we resisted getting part of, becoming part of the ICC,
at least the United States would pay lip service to the idea that we were for the rule of law
and for human rights. Well, how do you do that when you're conducting public executions of people?
And the reality is, you can't. But Trump was outraged, and he said he should have won the
award. And he should have won the award eight times because he's won eight. He's solved eight
wars, which, by the way, is a completely made-up number. He hasn't done that. Ignoring the fact
that he is illegally killing people in the Caribbean and the Pacific simply for driving
their boats around, that he's waging an illegal war where they've killed 160 Iranian schoolgirls,
that he is, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. He's the least qualified person to win
this. But it all goes back to the barbarian strain in this administration. Pete Hegseth
sells warrior mentality, and he wants to look tough.
And ruthless and brutal. He doesn't want Anthropic to produce AI that has got guardrails because he
wants the deadliest, most lethal AI. Stephen Miller doesn't want to follow the law when he's
rounding up people in the streets, even innocent people, and sending them to countries they have
nothing to do with, or shooting them in the streets, or letting them die in U.S. prisons.
The United States has adopted, you know,
the entire playbook of, you know, North Korea. Now, you know, Trump says he loves Kim Jong-un,
and he's like, you know, the next thing you know, he's going to appoint his daughter to
succeed him as president, or as Kim Jong-un once did, put to death someone I think was a relative
even, by shooting them with an anti-aircraft gun, just to make a point. You know, so, I mean,
Donald Trump is among the barbarian leaders of this world, drenched in blood, no morality,
and with every act like this, or every threatened act like this, diminishing the United States'
standing and causing the world to ask this question, which you must get every time you
travel overseas, which is, have you lost your fucking minds? Indeed, it's one of the comments
that comes up so frequently when I look at, you know, the United States, and I look at the United
States, and I look at how people respond to, you know, our podcasts together, and people from,
you know, as far away as Australia and New Zealand, and then, of course, in Europe. They say,
what is happening in America? What is happening? So, we know who was in Europe last week. You
mentioned him just now, Marco Robbio, Secretary of State, hundreds of jobs, possibly still running
Venezuela, of course, head of national security, let down by one of his ambassadors. He is the
Secretary of State. He is the Secretary of State of the United States. He is the Secretary of the
United States. He is the National Security Advisor. I think he's also the archivist of the
United States. Yes, he is the archivist. Yes. You know, he's got a few, he's got a few of these
special roles, and he's desperately trying to sell himself as a normie, you know, like, I'm the normie
in the Trump cabinet. But he can't do it, because every time Trump asks him to do something insane,
he does it. Well, he was in Greece to basically lay out his campaign for 2028, right? Pete Hegsler,
the president of the United States, he's done that with his The State of the Force speech the week
earlier. Marco suddenly on the plane lands in front of the Acropolis, makes a speech sort of
alluding to all sorts of Greek philosophers and saying that the West must, you know, predominate
over the next century. And this decade will test that. And he, of course, will be the person ready
to step up for the test. Speaking to the Thucydides fan club in the United States, which is a big base.
But you know, he did something really, really good. He did something really, really good. He did something
really gross stuff that was very Hegsethian, if you will. Because essentially, what he was saying
is that he is a champion of Western civilization, by which he means European civilization, by which
he means Christian civilization. And it was related to a speech he gave a year ago at the
Munich Security Conference, which scared the crap out of everybody. Because it sounds like Victor
Orban. It sounds like Marine Le Pen. It sounds like Nigel Farage. It sounds like all the extreme
right-wing groups, where their sort of organizational principle is what they call
civilizational, which really means we want to keep European civilization white and Christian.
And in fact, one of the kind of gross and revealing elements of this was that Rubio, whose parents came
to this country from Cuba, said, well, I'm of Spanish descent. In other words, he portrayed his roots, you know, go
back as European roots, because that's okay. Because he didn't want to portray his roots as
Caribbean roots. Because, you know, some of the people in the Caribbean are people of color, and
that's not so good. But it was it was particularly gross. But he had another surprise waiting for him,
which he also mishandled him in Greece. And I know you were going to get to that.
You know, I'm going to get to it. The surprise is, well, actually, perhaps it's not a surprise
that his ambassador, Kimberly Guilford, formerly married
to, of course, Gavin Newsom, still so hard to get one's head around how you go from Gavin Newsom
to Don Jr. And then, of course, on to whatever's happening in Greece for Kimberly,
that she was demanding that a MAGA donor pay off her $100,000 Amex bill before she got confirmed
by the senator's ambassador. And when he, when he protested in a series of texts,
she was like, oh, my God, stop sending me texts. You're going to lose me the ambassadorship.
No one can know about this. Just go straight to Amex and pay the bill off. OK, no one will know
anything. And of course, he, Eric Dieters, a struck off lawyer from Kentucky, reminds me of
that character in Network. He's mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. So he's out
telling everybody what Kimberly allegedly was getting up to. Asked about it, Marco Rubio said,
we would never.
I'm going to comment on something like this isn't how we do things in America and in front of the
press. Of course, it's exactly what his boss does. What's what's going to happen to her? Does she
survive the day, David? We're recording this Monday morning. I doubt it. You know, if she
doesn't if she's not gone today, she'll be gone tomorrow. She'll be gone the next day.
Or does the news or does the news story just pass on? Do they just write it out?
I doubt it also, because somebody seems to be leaking on a daily basis stories
to the Wall Street Journal.
Don't you think the timing was odd, too, that this story would land in the middle of Marco's
visit? We had a previous story the week before saying that she'd become very close to a lobbyist,
that she was threatening the Greeks that if that, you know, America wanted to, they could upend the
Greek government, which point the energy, the energy secretary said, well, not so fast.
The Greek people will decide. But you're right. There's a systemic series of leaks.
There's stories about the Greek people. There's stories
about her having her lobbyist friends in meetings with her. There's stories about her at Davos
bragging about how they're all these rich Greeks who are flying her around the world to Gstaad or
wherever people like Kimberly Guilfoyle go and, you know, treating her in a certain kind of way.
This is, by the way, following all the stories of her inappropriate behavior, dress and everything
else. And didn't she fire one of her security detail because she didn't like the way they turned
left when they were driving?
At one point. And another, she called at 4 a.m. to get ice for her drink and they weren't available.
Well, you know, maybe, maybe.
I mean, you just can't get the staff, David. You cannot find the staff.
You can't. You really can't. But maybe, you know, picking, you know, your son's ex-girlfriend and
sending her to Greece to get her out of the country is not the best criteria for picking
an ambassador, particularly to an important European ally. But this is where we are. And I
just think the level of her corruption and the fact that there are receipts make it impossible
for her to stay in this job for any, you know, protracted period. And but Rubio's response to it
was pathetic. I mean, frankly, Rubio should have read the Wall Street Journal article,
told her to come home, step down. The Greeks should have sent her home. And then then she
could have resigned.
In a more traditional way. But, you know, that's not who we are. You know, when Rubio says we don't
do it that way, you mean, oh, you mean instead of the way we're planning to publicly assassinate
somebody on television that way or the way we're sending people out of the country without due
process to countries they have nothing to do with or the way we're gunning down, as happened last
week, a father in his car in Brooklyn when his five-year-old kid is in the backseat or the way
we have storms in the country. I mean, that's not the way we're sending people out of the country
armed troopers barging into Ilhan Omar's house, you know, because, you know, Trump is now got Todd
Blanche working as his secret police attacking his enemies. That's the way we are, Marco. I mean,
it's it's it's incredible. Can you imagine being Marco Rubio and waking up thinking today is my
big day? I'm going to make my speech. And then you are laid low by Kimberly Guilfoyle. And you
can't even say to the press, because I'm sure he had read the Wall Street Journal article,
you can't say anything because you know, you have to call Donald Trump and ask what to do
about his, you know, his
this gone rogue former fiancé daughter-in-law.
Marco Rubio made a deal with the devil.
He always wanted to be Secretary of State.
He always wanted to be up there.
He thought it was a stepping stone to the president.
And he was a strong critic of Donald Trump a long time ago, right?
He knew that Donald Trump was bad news.
And he thought, well, you know, if I get to do this,
then I can use it for my own benefits and I'll just swallow hard.
What he didn't take into consideration is what he should have known,
which is Trump is a serial violator of norms, values, outrage, laws,
you know, standards, underminer of institutions,
embracer of our enemies.
And that sooner or later, this was all going to land on him.
And, you know, you've got three people in this administration.
I think they're going to run for president.
Two of them, Rubio and J.D. Vance,
are desperately trying to figure out ways to distance themselves a little bit.
One of them is so dumb, he doesn't know he has to do that.
And that, of course, is Hag-Seth.
So, David, someone desperately trying to figure out how to justify the war in Iran,
Darlene Graham, did you by any chance watch any of her debate against Annie Andrews?
No.
No.
No.
No.
A local pediatrician who, at one point, had no prospect of beating her.
But now, like so many other seats in the country, it looks much tighter than it was.
And Darlene looks uncomfortable.
I mean, poor Darlene, right?
But she, you know, she doesn't know anything.
And Trump picked her because she would be loyal, as he picks everybody.
And she, every time she opens her mouth, she reveals she doesn't know anything about the world.
She doesn't even know what's going on.
She doesn't even realize that her brother was opposed to certain Trump policies, particularly
the ones that were soft on Russia, and that he would have been outraged by Trump's plan
to fund the, you know, Russian war machine.
But, you know, in this, you know, debate with this lovely woman who's a pediatrician, you
know, she has revealed herself to be a nitwit.
And all of a sudden. And all of a sudden has made Andrews look like, you know, kind of genius politician.
Because the reality is, she's also from South Carolina.
And she's very centrist, Andrews.
You know, she's, you know, strong stand on immigration, strong stand on, you know, fiscal
responsibility, strong stand on, you know, a lot of things that people of South Carolina
can relate to.
And she also knows what's going on.
And she has. Has been brutal in her debates with Darlene Grahame, including a reference in a debate
over the weekend in which she said, you know, Trump was making fun of her.
He calls her Tranny Andrews because, you know, what do they have but racism and homophobia
and, you know, hate speech, right?
And she says, no, my name's Annie Andrews.
It's been my name my whole life.
Unlike my. Opponent who's changed her name in order to be eligible for this job.
You know, and, you know, where there's a lot of that going around, J.D. Vance.
But anyway. Three times, three times J.D. Vance has changed his name, right?
So South Carolina once assumed to be a very safe seat.
Now, I mean, may still go to the Republicans, but it's much tighter than it was.
Tell us what you know about James Tallarico's disappearance.
What do you know about his disappearance from the campaign trail for a week?
All I know is that James Tallarico reported that he was sick.
There's no reason to believe he wasn't sick.
He took a couple of days off.
We've seen this in all campaigns.
Campaigns are hard.
You go out, you're working around the clock.
Sometimes people, Bill Clinton, Kamala Harris, they lose their voice.
You know, other people get, you know, briefly waylaid.
It's not like he's a Republican like, I don't know, Mitch McConnell who stops showing
up for the Senate for four months.
But Tallarico's back.
He's on the campaign trail.
He's running a good campaign.
He's ahead in all the polls.
And, you know, he's been pretty sharp in his response to Paxson saying, where's Tallarico?
By saying, you know, where's Paxson's spine?
He said he wants proof of life for me.
I'd like to see proof that Paxson has a spine.
Well, we know where Paxson is.
He's on a hot mic somewhere.
And we're saying something derogatory about Donald Trump, like Trumpapalooza didn't help
me at all.
I'm not allowed to run my own campaign.
And where is Ken Paxson?
Probably in one of his 15 homes, right?
Right.
He's got 15 homes on a small government salary, which is amazing.
The guy must be a master financier.
But Tallarico, by the way, is running some pretty good, pretty funny ads attacking this,
pretty hard-hitting speeches on it on the campaign trail.
And he's up for it.
five percent in the polls. And so when you look at what could happen in just a couple of weeks,
you know, nobody wants to take anything for sure because, you know, Trump still says he has the
right to send in troops wherever he wants. And Trump clearly has people, you know, Russell Vaught
and Mark Wayne Mullen and Todd Blanche and other people planning different ways to screw
with the election results. And there are already reports that the post office may not be processing
mail-in ballots as quickly as they should be or sending them out as quickly as they should be.
But the thing about this is, if you look at the Senate, which was considered a long shot,
Democrats could win in Texas. They could win in South Carolina. They will probably win in North
Carolina. They could win in Maine. They could win in Ohio. They could win in Iowa. They could win
in Alaska. The reality is the Democrats have a shot. And a couple of the sort of pundits who
handicap these things now say it looks likely the Dems may end up with a two-seat advantage,
or as we like to think of it here in Washington, D.C., a Fetterman-proof advantage.
Because, you know, that lunatic will switch parties if he thinks it will benefit him somehow.
Well, David, it's a holiday. We really shouldn't be here discussing this at all. You should be
relaxing. We don't want your voice to give out before the midterms, because on election night,
we're going to want to be talking to you, obviously, about what's happening. And we can't
have you. Are we going to do live Daily Beast election night coverage?
Well, I think we should, don't you? I think we should. I think it's. I do.
It's going to be a very exciting evening.
It could be, although, you know, I've done this before in live events. I remember once doing a
live event on the 2016 election, and we were at the comedy club, the comedy cellar in New York,
and 250 people absolutely sold out. And we had a bunch of pundits and a bunch of comedians,
and everybody got in, and it was like, Hillary's going to win. And this is great. This is New York
City. And it's fantastic. And then during the election night, the New York Times Needle,
which said who is more likely to win, gradually shifted. And around nine o'clock, it shifted over
to Trump was going to win. And the audience became deader and deader. And I was emceeing
this thing. And my wife was sitting, you know, in the front row, and she was like,
cut it. Get out of here. Let's get out of here. Because nobody could make anybody laugh. And we
walked through then the deserted streets of New York, as everybody was in absolute shock. So
we lived through that. We lived through the shock of Donald Trump being reelected. And I don't think,
you know, we should take anything for granted this time around. If people can vote, vote. If
people can help people vote, they should help them vote. If people can donate, they should donate.
They should do whatever they can. And maybe there'll be a good outcome. But
let's count those chickens after they hatch. Okay, well, we'll be back next week.
We've still got more. We've still got more time, David. We'll be back next week. Yes,
I just remember, you know, being excited to have tickets for the Javits Center for what I thought
would be a celebration of America's first female president. And it has yet to happen. It has yet
to happen. Soon, I hope. I wonder. I wonder. Anyway, great to see you on the holiday. Thank
you. And we will be back next Monday. And, you know, leave your comments, please, those of you
who've been watching us. And we'll see you next week.
I want to leave comments on YouTube about your favorite part of the conversation. And who do you
think is leaking about Kimberly Guilfoyle? It does feel like it's being orchestrated, doesn't it?
It does feel like it's being orchestrated. And every single day there's new releases. But
we also love it when people comment on this thing when it comes out live. And we join for that
sometimes. But in the interim, Joanna, happy not-so-Columbus Day. Thank you, David. I won't
be able to join live today. I'm going to be in the room. I think because I'll be flying back to New York. Regular viewers will know that
I'm not in our usual studio. I'm on the West Coast, but I should be back in the studio tomorrow. But
I will miss the live chat today. But I hope you will pop in.
I'll pop I definitely will pop I know people love it when you pop in great all right David I will
see you next Monday bye-bye big thanks to our production team Ryan Murray John Romero Rachel
Passer Heather Passaro and Neil Rosenhouse so the good news is we have so many bee beast tier
members now there are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Donald Trump is accused of betraying U.S. interests by funding Russia’s war against Ukraine and supplying it with oil, which undermines global sanctions and fuels aggression.
The administration’s actions, including promoting conspiracy theories by new White House spokesperson Katie Zaccaria, reflect a deepening of disloyalty and extremist ideology.
Trump’s proposed ceasefire with Russia collapsed within hours, and Russian attacks on Ukrainian refineries intensified, showing no genuine intent to de-escalate.
Trump is criticized for aiding Russia and Iran, including by allegedly supplying intelligence and fuel, while ignoring the moral and strategic consequences of such actions.
The Trump administration’s policies, including live-streaming threats of executions and targeting marginalized individuals, align with authoritarian and fascist playbook tactics.
Key figures like Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance are seen as trying to distance themselves from Trump’s radicalism, yet remain complicit in its policies.
Internal dysfunction is evident in appointments like Kimberly Guilfoyle’s controversial ambassadorship and allegations of corruption and improper conduct.
The political environment shows growing public unease, with polls indicating a potential Democratic gain in key states and a broader erosion of trust in U.S. leadership.
Summary:
S. foreign policy by funding Russia’s war against Ukraine and enabling its economic and military aggression through oil purchases. This action, while framed as a way to lower diesel prices, is widely condemned as a direct violation of international norms and a dangerous act of aiding an enemy.
The ceasefire proposal announced by Trump failed within hours, with no real de-escalation and a surge in Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. The administration is further criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, including claims linking Mifepristone to Holocaust-era gas, and for fostering an authoritarian mindset through rhetoric like live-streaming executions and xenophobic nationalism. D.
Vance are seen as either complicit or attempting to distance themselves from Trump’s disordered policies. The broader political environment shows signs of instability, with Republican leaders expressing alarm, public opinion shifting, and growing evidence of systemic leaks and misconduct. Democrats are seen as gaining ground in several key states, raising concerns about a possible electoral reversal.
S. foreign and domestic policy. S.
increasingly viewed as a barbaric, lawless power in global affairs.
FAQs
No, Trump's proposed ceasefire was short-lived and ineffective. It was quickly undermined by continued Russian attacks on Ukrainian refineries, and the plan was widely criticized as disloyal and strategically flawed.
Yes, Trump has been criticized for purchasing Russian diesel oil, which critics argue indirectly funds Russia's war against Ukraine and supports its military actions, despite sanctions and the U.S. opposition to such actions.
It undermines U.S. sanctions, supports Russia's war economy, and may fund further attacks on Ukraine. Additionally, Russia’s oil production is under strain, and the U.S. could have sourced the oil from other countries like Canada at lower prices.
Critics argue that Trump’s actions, including funding Russian oil and supporting Iran, amount to aiding enemies in active conflicts, which constitutes a betrayal of U.S. values and is seen as illegal and disloyal.
Yes, officials like Katie Zaccaria, the new White House spokesperson, have promoted far-fetched conspiracy theories, such as linking the abortion pill to Nazi-era gas chambers, which experts have dismissed as false and dangerous.
The administration is accused of promoting authoritarian tactics, aiding enemies, ignoring international norms, and undermining democratic values through actions like supporting public executions and undermining institutions.
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