Donald Trump is subordinate to taking orders from Vladimir Putin. Trump is weakening the US military, our alliances, our economy, and have produced what is really one of the most extraordinary acts of betrayal of the United States by any public official ever, and in that I include Benedict Arnold. But he also minimized. He said, "Well, you know, the fresh is giving any help to Iran. It's not that much. They won't give more if I have my way," which acknowledges that they actually are giving aid to Iran. And that's kind of the most extraordinary part of this. We're in a shooting war with Iran, and the president of the United States is helping our enemy attack us. Holy s**t. I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. Welcome to Mondays. It must be David Rothkoff. We're going to be talking about Trump and Putin and Xi, and their plan to have a summit and leave Zelensky out as they plot to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. We're going to talk about JD Vance being monstered at one of his debates. We're going to be talking about hope in the form of John Ossof, Abdul Al-Sayed, and James Talleriko. And, well, I think that's enough for Monday. We're also going to be talking about who's really behind the riots in Paris. Those terrible pictures that we all saw over the weekend, quite shocking. So let's get into it. Just before we do, don't forget to subscribe to the Daily Beast. Wherever you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, we appreciate your support. We are independent. We're independent media. We're not supported by some huge conglomerate. And so we appreciate your support. You can show that by subscribing to the Daily Beast by joining as a member of the Beast Community, a Bee Beast tier, or a member of the Beast. And we have now our very own beast in David Rothkoff. David, it's Monday. I can't believe since we last spoke David Rothkoff, Kimberley Gilfoil has been fired. Which, by the way, we predicted. We said within 24 hours she would be gone. And she was gone within 24 hours, just as we said. That's right. Well, Katie Zachariah has been hired and fired. So we almost don't need to speak about her. And much more importantly, Ukraine has been relentlessly fired upon. We want to talk about your excellent column on substack, which I will make its way to the Daily Beast about how we all thought stupid us that the Cold War was over and that America and the West had wrought one. And it turns out that Trump is cozying up to Putin. He put out a remarkable truth social post yesterday. Basically saying that he and Putin and she were going to figure out the solution to the Ukraine war and Zelensky wouldn't be involved at all. Now, we've heard this before, of course, but this seems to be getting more serious. Well, it's getting worse. What's happened in the course of the past week or so as the Trump is completely come out of the closet. And of course, as we've discussed, you know, that this has got many, many flaws with the logic, right? First of all, the diesel we're getting from Russia is not enough to make a difference. Secondly, they're overcharging for it. Thirdly, they may not be able to produce it. But fourth, you know, if we give them billions of dollars, what are they going to use it for? It frees up money so they can attack you. Crane attack, Ukrainian civilians make the world less safe, commit more war crimes. But if that's not bad enough, they're also using the money or their money. Russia's using their money and we're now feeding into the pool that feeds this to help Iran. And Iran, of course, you know, they're giving missiles to, they're giving intelligence to. And Iran is using that to attack us. So Trump is using our tax dollars to support attacking us and our allies. And you know, for those of us who've been saying for a long time the biggest enemy that the United States faces is its own president, this is literally coming to pass. That he is taking the US government, the power of the US government and directing it the way that could result in the death of U.S. soldiers and sailors. But what's interesting is it's not just that he made this announcement of this diesel deal which they've been working on for weeks since we've already received some of the diesel. It's also that on Friday, and as we record, this it's a Monday, but on Friday night he announced that he was going to wave all the sanctions against Russia that were included in the Graham Act. And he's because he said it was in our national interest to do so. It's also because Trump, together with his buddy, Elon, at least for a while were behind suspending Starlink services to the Ukrainian military, which are vitally important to their defenses. And of course, Elon said it wasn't, it was the White House and the White House said it was Elon, but we know that that decision could not have been made without Elon saying it was okay and without Trump saying it was okay. And then over this past weekend, Trump did a couple of truth social posts, one of which you just referred to, where it looks like the plan now is for Trump and Putin and a season paying possibly to meet to talk about how they want this war to come out. But he also did another one in which he tried to justify what he is doing and say, well, this is in the US national interest in Zelensky is really the problem. And so forth. Of course, Zelensky has been trying to manage this whole thing. But last week he said very directly that the US has betrayed us. They have switched sides. They are now on the wrong side of history. And it's true. And I think, you know, we've been talking Trump Russia for so long that we don't really get the gravity of the fact that 35 years after the end of the Cold War, which we patten ourselves on the back for winning. The president of Russia is dictating to the president of the United States. The United States is using its assets to support Russian bulls just like a satellite in the former Soviet Union would be supporting the former USSR. Clearly, Trump has the subordinate relationship here. You know, Putin's the dumb. Trump is the bottom. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. And there's no mistake about it. We've seen so many instances where he's sort of fond over Putin said he trusted Putin more than he trusted the intelligence community. That was in 2018. Right. Well, then he trusted his own intelligence community. Right. I mean, a remarkable thing to say. Right. And so we've seen this coming and we've said, Oh, this is he's leaning in a bad direction. But he's gone past leaning now. And he also minimized. He said, Well, you know, if Russia's, you know, giving any help to Iran, it's not that much. And, you know, they won't give more if I have my way, which acknowledges that they actually are giving aid to Iran. We're in a shooting war with Iran, shooting more with Iran. And the president of the United States is helping our enemy attack us. Holy shit. If there's a weight loss goal, you keep chasing and never quite reaching, you're not the only one weight loss by hymns can help you finally close the gap with access to a range of FDA approved GLP one medications, including the wagovi pill and the wagovi pen. Wagovi is the first of a GLP one weight loss medication available in a pill. And it also comes as a pen. So you've got options hymns is more than just a prescription nutrition and lifestyle guidance a part of the plan, along with access to 24/7 messaging with your care team. So you've always got someone in your corner ready to reach your goals, visit hymns.com/beast to get personalised, affordable care for weight loss, hair loss, sex, testosterone and more. That's h-i-m-s.com/beast hymns.com/beast. Individual results may vary and stopping treatment may result in weight regain. Weight loss by hymns is not available in all 50 states. And wagovi is the registered trademark of Nova Nordisk A/S. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, wagovi clinical study information restrictions visit hymns.com. Well, and right up to the midterms too, you would think that this would be a decisive factor in the midterms. And it may be a big part of it in terms of gas prices being high. I just want to read people, for those of you who don't follow truth social like we do, I'm just going to read you a first couple of lines from it. My decision on Russia is a very simple word. I'm just putting on a nasal British accent, which bears no resemblance whatsoever to Trump.
except that I'm trying to differentiate between me speaking in him. I'm in the process of negotiating peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine. I don't want to do anything that will drive foolishly Russia away from the bargaining table. Great progress is being made. That includes current hostage negotiations. Exclamation point. I think that document at this time will do that and I can sign it later or any time that I want. Perhaps more importantly, Russia is doing very little if anything to help the Islamic Republic of Iran compared to what they could be doing. I don't want to keep it that way. That's stupid people get it the way. I mean, we've talked before about the lack of presidential authority in these communications which presumably Natalie Harb is frantically typing out with her very polished pointed nails and wearing the same pair of shoes that she wears every single day. New shoes. New shoes with bare legs to make her legs look longer. But there is nobody pushing back on Donald Trump here. Why isn't JD Van saying what are you doing? Why isn't Pete Heggs that saying what are you doing? Why isn't Marco Rubio saying what are you doing? I mean, we've talked, Michael Wolfe and I have talked about this extensively. You and I have talked about this extensively. This is the government of one man and he's surrounded by young women who sit and take down his midnight ramblings and shoot them out to the world. Well, but he's surrounded by literally legions of enablers. It's not just the young women. It's the Stephen Miller. It's the people in the cabinet. You talked about it's the sub cabinet. It's the Congress. It's governors and sit mayors. Where is the outcry? There actually is some, right? There actually is, I mean, even Ted Cruz over the weekend said we shouldn't be suspending sanctions on Russia. But it's very soft and it doesn't get to the core of the matter. And over the course of the past four or five days, we've seen a series of things, right? I just listed them. I expect it's going to accelerate. I expect there will be more sanctions lifted. I expected they will announce more deals. We know that Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner, when they're in Russia dealing with Putin, they've already been talking about buying $20 billion worth of international assets of the Russian oil company. We know that they've been talking about other kinds of deals, lifting sanctions on other kinds of Russians. But, you know, like, you know, done, give us a break, okay? Or Natalie, whoever's writing this, give us a break. When you say you're negotiating a hostage deal, that nobody's heard anything of, right? And you say that you're somehow against all this hostage taking. And two weeks ago, your son got married and the guy who paid for the wedding was seen as somebody who may be behind the kidnapping of Ukrainian children, who is an aid in an accolade to Putin. This is the oligarch Kremlin. This isn't your Kremlin. Yeah, I love your accent. I got to tell you every Monday I show up here and you turn into all these people. Is that his name? Who paid for Don Jr's wedding? Well, he paid for the after party, right? The fireworks and some of the other. Well, he paid for the hiring of the island. I mean, it's a ludicrous sum. But the good news is they had a great time. They posted lots of pictures of themselves looking thin and beautiful, David. On a Caribbean island that Don Jr's father couldn't be bothered to go to. Couldn't be bothered to go. Imagine your son getting married and not being bothered to go. Well, or that somebody from the CIA or somebody said, Mr. President, if you go to this thing funded by this Russian oligarch, then you are going to be seen as holding hands with him, which he is, which they are. Well, he was holding hands with them anyway. Well, we did, but I think that he has, or at least until recently, he has tried to present the idea that he was not completely under their thumb. And I would say, as of the past week, that's over. The whole idea that we won the Cold War over Donald Trump is subordinate to taking orders from Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin, you know, this kind of, you know, those stories that came out after World War II that there were some Japanese guy and he was living on an island for 20 years and he thought the war was still going on and he was still fighting it. Well, here is this KGB guy, Vladimir Putin, who, you know, still believes in the old Soviet Union, feels the end of the Soviet Union was the worst thing that ever happened in history. He said that. And he wants to restore Russia to Soviet glory and Soviet dominance and achieve Soviet goals. And you know, remember, Chris Jeff, he said, we will bury you. And, you know, there was a myth that he also said, we'll do it, we'll have fire in a shot, that's, he didn't really say that. But the point is, that's what they're doing. Donald Trump is weakening the US military, he's weakening our institutions, he's weakening our democracy, he's undermining our standing in the world, he's weakening our alliances, he's weakening our economy. And now, in addition to doing all of these things which are kind of on Vladimir Putin's to-do list for Don, he's now doing this thing of overtly helping Putin and overtly blaming Ukraine for the illegal Russian aggression and war crimes that have taken place against Ukraine. The Russian oligarch, I just found his name, Umar Kremlin, was the Russian oligarch, and it was, I think I said Yuri actually, I was using an all-purpose Russian name for which I apologize, shout out to pro-publica for uncovering that story, which had enormous detail in it. Even Donald Trump knew it was a bad look amazingly and said to John Jr, you're supposed to pay the money back. When you said it, it sounded like the title of a Dust AF ski short spare, the oligarch Kremlin, you know, it sounds like, you know, a short story. And, you know, it's a heatiest story, he's a bad dude. But as we've said before, he has also been a Russian boxing promoter, he's been involved in this kind of whole sleaze-oid world of Nick's martial arts and whatever, which Trump is involved in and, you know, his whole ties to the Nick's martial arts world. But he has been involved with Russian boxing promoters going back to the 1980s and 90s when one of them, a predecessor of this guy in this job, had an apartment in Trump Tower that he was running illegal gambling operations out of and had ties to the Brighton Beach Russian mob. This is a 40-year Donald Trump story, not a recent development. David, I think you and I should hire an apartment in Trump Tower and we should do our podcast from Trump Tower and beam it out as our acts of defiance on Mondays. I like it, we'll call it Inside Trump's Tower. Oh, that's good. Inside Trump's Tower, that's very good. So how does this end? I mean, do you think that Donald Trump is doing this now because he thinks that he'll lose the house and that the house will somehow curtail his behavior here and that he won't be able to get away with this if the Democrats get a majority, and possibly in the Senate? Well, I mean, clearly he thinks that's possible, right? He says it's possible. People around him say it's possible. He is already, you know, trying to blame other people. If this happens for Republicans for not following his instructions, he's going to try to call the results of the election into doubt. There are a bunch of stories, even on 60 minutes, stories pointing that state and local officials say there's been more interference from the federal government than they've ever seen before in elections. So clearly he's worried about that, but I think inside your question is something people aren't talking about. And that is why come out of the closet now? Why provide this money to Putin now? And I think one of the reasons is that Putin is in real trouble economically. And he is in real trouble militarily. The Russian military has lost 1.5 million soldiers, either to death or being wounded. They have not gained ground at a long time. Ukraine has the upper hand. Ukraine is delivering devastating blows inside of Russia with its drone attacks. The momentum is on Ukraine's side. And Trump talks to Putin a lot. And clearly Putin has said to him, I need help now. Now, Trump does that, you know, follows through because he's been trained to follow through with what Putin says. But I would say there's another thing. We have seen Trump as far back as 2016 say, Russia helped me win the election publicly, right? And we know that one of the number one forces interfering in our elections are Russians, Russian bots, Russian bot farms, you know, etc. And I just would expect over.
the next several weeks that we are going to see--and it's not even that long, right? It's two and a half weeks or just over two weeks. I would expect that we are going to see interference. We were already starting to see it. Disinformation on social media. Other kinds of things that are more typically associated with Russian intervention. So that the timing of this is associated to Russia being in a pinch, and because Trump is in an electoral pinch, and those things coincided, and have produced what is really one of the most extraordinary acts of betrayal of the United States by any public official ever, and in that I include, you know, Benedict Arnold. If your plumber arrived with a wrench and said, "I've always been curious about pipes," you'd probably show him the door, because when something really matters, experiences into bonus, it's the whole point. That's why so many people turn to Morgan and Morgan, making it America's largest injury law firm. 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Knowing that he played golf with Trump endlessly, that Trump was often, here's the last person that spoke to him, and Lindsey Graham was oddly effective doing that, managing to be the last voice in his ear, and knowing that he was very pro-U grain. Do you think we're actually seeing an absence of Lindsey Graham here? There's two possibilities here. One, you listen to my DSR Daily podcast, which I did on Monday more, or two, you were psychic, because on that very podcast. I did not listen to it this morning. I listened to it frequently. Yeah, well, I said something I shouldn't have said, and I shouldn't say it on the Dailybeast podcast, whether it's so many more people listening, but I'm going to say it anyway. It's a little odd that Lindsey Graham died suddenly, isn't it? So do you think it's possible that Russians were behind Lindsey Graham's very fast death? Is that what you're saying? No comment. If I were Darlene Graham, I would feel very nervous running for his seat, not only because she doesn't know anything, and so she looks crazy foolish in the debates that she's had. But I wonder if. Well, I wonder if that's true. Who knows, right? It's just, you know, the Russians do have a habit of getting rid of the people who are obstacles for them. And, you know, it looks like, you know, right around the time that Lindsey Graham died, give her, take a couple of weeks, the escalation of these negotiations of Whitkopf and Kushner into all these incentives for Russia. Everything oriented towards pumping money into Russia began. Now, you know, I mean, we got enough conspiracy nonsense going on in the world. We don't have to start new conspiracy theories. And when you have something happen that's so extraordinarily out of context for the United States, so extraordinary, such a reversal. I mean, at literally at no point from 1945, through like a year ago, would you ever have imagined the U.S. leader essentially bending the knee to Russia's president and saying whatever you say, boss? But that's where we are. And also, we can't forget that Lindsey Graham had just come back from Ukraine. He literally had just come back. I think that very morning he disembarked from the plane. Right. And actually, when he died, there were some people going, isn't that a little weird? And people who are associated with Ukraine said, well, you can't say that because that'll make it look like the Ukrainians can't protect visitors to their country. And so this has been bubbling up for a while. Look, we don't need to go and promote a conspiracy theory. It was convenient for the Russians that that particular voice was silenced at precisely the moment this policy shift and ratcheting up took place. And of course, Lindsey Graham's father died when he was, yeah, well, died relatively early. I think he was 59 when he died. So it was something that appeared to run in the family, but nevertheless terrible timing for the Ukraine that Lindsey Graham, the staunch defender, died when he did. Yeah, no, and it's just like all those other people have a history in their families of flying off of balconies or those guys in England dying of plutonium. I mean, there was a lot of that going around back then. Yeah, that's good. It's a good response. All right. I think in this point, David, we need some hope. We need some hope. Is there any hope out there on the horizon? Is there any hope at all? Sure. Sure, there's hope on the horizon. Have you seen the polls? I mean, if there's, look, I don't think we're going to have free and fair elections. I think the question is how free and fair will our elections be? Well, and how resounding a result that then makes any kind of marginal, free and fair issues redundant? Well, that's right. Last week, I did a podcast, I talked to a guy named Don Byer. Don Byer is a congressman from Northern Virginia. We were talking about AI and some other stuff, but during the conversation, he said that he's on one of the committees that's looking at the election results and where there are opportunities. And he said that right now, the Democrats were tracking 40 different districts that they thought they had a chance of swinging. Wow. Now, he said there were five that he thought there was a chance of swinging the other way. And of course, you know, a lot of these might not turn out this way, but that's a really extraordinarily high number. And the poll results that have come out today, poll results that came out over the weekend are the worst that Trump's ever seen, lowest approval ratings. The approval rating on the economy is something like 20%, 22%, 70% of the American people don't think he's doing good things for the economy. The majority of American people think that he is illegally gaining from the office, that he's illegally profiting from the office. Almost every initiative of Trump's including the war, including the tariffs are hugely unpopular and you've got Republican candidates everywhere, disavowing them, you know. And so, you know, there is a lot of reason to believe that if we just said free and fair elections, it would be a wave election. The Democrats would win. They would pick up the house. I mean, I can't even believe we're saying it, but you know, there is a pretty good chance, even, you know, Nate Silver and some of these prognosticators have said the Democrats have a good chance of taking the Senate, maybe by two seats. And that would be, you know, life changing for Trump. He's not going to get anything he wants through. The Democrats will try to get things through and he won't sign them. Will they be overridden? I don't know. Will there be gridlock in Washington? Probably will Trump revert to executive orders? Yes. But I think what Trump is afraid of is that things that he's done are illegal, that they are not protected by the immunity that he gained in the Supreme Court case in 2024. And that, you know, his life could come falling apart. Also, will they, you know, impeach Pete Hegseth who richly deserves to be impeached? Will they impeach RFK Jr. richly deserves to be impeached? Will they go after people even like Marco Rubio? You know, one of the things that just as a parenthesis that really is on my mind about this Kimberler Gelfwell thing is ever, you know, that there's now, you know, new reports that there's more corruption and everything else. And she's going to spill the tea. And great. Hope she does. But Kimberler Gelfwell was one ambassador to one country. We have about 180 plus ambassadors. We have 93 vacancies. Marco Rubio has gutted the state department. We don't have diplomats. We don't have diplomacy because as you said in your reference to Michael Wolf, we have, we have one person making foreign policy, one person articulating foreign policy, one person to whom foreign governments must apply if they want the support of the United States. And we have gotten rid of all the pros, all the professionals who are out there. And it's just astonishing that here we are two years into this administration with it. Counting Kilberley Gelfwell, 93 ambassadorial vacancies.
Well, it's just, I mean, normally we're quite lighthearted on a Monday, but it's so much going on right now of enormous consequence. He did change his hair color. All right, let's have a moment on Trump's hair. Can we flash up his hair? What was going on here? Was this just bad lighting? He's got this new dark hair, and we know he's not happy with his hair because it's a rally earlier this month in San Antonio in Texas. He caught a glimpse of it on the back of the enormous screen. And he was like, oh, I'm not happy with that because he could see a little ball patch. What do we think of him going dark here? I mean, it's a very strange look for him. Do you think it somehow reflects his inner mood or the country's mood? What is his higher reflection? Yes, yes. His head is reflective because there's no hair on it. But the notion that he said, gee, I think I'm thinning a little bit back there. When everybody knows he's like bald, and he's got this pile of cotton candy or whatever on his head that he's spun around. But the notion that he still thinks he can stand in front of a crowd of people and say, oh, yeah, I'm just thinning a little bit. Um, is like, oh, I think I put on three pounds really fatty. No, and no, but I mean, you know, nobody believes that stuff. But it is a sign of the incredible desperation that Donald Trump is going through right now. And I wrote a column last week for the Daily Beast. And what I said, the October surprise is that every single day of this October, Donald Trump has done something to reduce Republican chances of winning. That, I mean, you would think he's been in politics a while now. They're people around him who've been in politics. They know what the people want. And they would say to him, hey, let's not double down on this war people hate. Let's not do things that will increase the cost of gas or diesel more. Let's not double down on the tariffs. Let's not double down on, you know, our bending our knee to our enemies overseas. Let's not double down on some of the attacks that we do that are incredibly ugly and unpopular. And yet every day, and by the way, he then goes to some of these, you know, these rallies and he goes, you know, Ken Paxson, you know, he's a really difficult guy or the or, you know, conversely, oh, that candidate, he's really appealing. He's looking his ass. He has a great ass. I mean, Trump is flailing. Trump is flailing. Trump is flailing. But there are certain democratic candidates who aren't flailing. We've got a clip of John Ossof here. Can we play that the great senator from Georgia? Now, remember, they promised to lower prices on day one. Instead, under the failed president, Donald J Trump, it costs more than ever in American history to fill up your truck, stock your fridge, visit the doctor or power your home. They promised to drain the swamp. Instead, it's the most corrupt administration of all time and everybody knows it. Everybody knows it. Everybody knows it. Does everybody know it, David? Everybody knows it. And I got to tell you, you know, Donald Trump may think they're Republican candidates with a nice ass out there. But how can you not fall in love with John Ossof? He is so good looking, so poised. He sounds like, you know, the last American political leader I know who sort of had that vibe was Barack Obama, where he's just able to hold an audience in his hand. And assertively, you know, unlike most other candidates, he's not couching this. He's not talking to a consultant about what to say. He's just saying it like it is. Well, and he has such an interesting delivery, too, because he's not yelling at anybody. He's talking at a normal pace. He seems calm. And as you say, he seems to have complete command of the material. You're not afraid for him. And I get this sense of generational change. This is a guy who's in his 30s. He's already been in the Senate for a while. The Republicans are so convinced he's going to win again in Georgia. They're not spending money to defeat him anymore. They've given up on this race. And although he said over the weekend, I'm not interested in running for president, you know, let's set that aside. If he were elected president in 2028, in January of 2029, when he was inaugurated, I think he'd be 41 years old. He is the future. He is one. You know, and there are other people out there, Taloriko Mamdani. There are other people at AOC, who's a similar age. There is a new generation coming. And they don't speak in these newly mouthed, equivocating, you know, both sides is kind of things that make democratic leaders so aggravating. At a time of national crisis. Chipping away at credit card debt can feel like making the same payment month after month and getting nowhere. 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[email protected] to get your first year of monarch core half off at just $50. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with codebeast. Well, last week, James Talleriko did a town hall with CNN where they flung a lot of sort of opponents at him. I didn't feel any anxiety for him that he wasn't on top of the material and that he couldn't answer honestly. And I think we've gotten used to the words "salards" of candidates who are so anxious and they're already trying to figure out as they're speaking what the reaction on social media will be. And as you say, you have a new generation who grew up much more comfortable around social media. Understand what's going to go viral as that orsof clip did. And have a confidence that they're not going to be yelled at or scolded by the party for slightly edging off party lines. And I think it's very noticeable. We've got another clip here from Abdul Al Sayed who's running in Michigan against Mike Rogers. Can we play that clip? You don't disagree on that. So I think it's you who needs to understand the constitution of it. This guy who asked that question was a plant. His name was Tommy. Tommy from the right who supports a Christian nationalist doctrine and who went in and said, "Do you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?" And Abdul Al Sayed said, "Why are you asking me this question? Of course I disavow the Muslim Brotherhood." And he said, "You know, he completely shot the argument down just like there was a Telleriko exchange last week or a few days ago in which this woman decided she was going to go after him on, you know, the Bible and seems to neglect the fact that he's actually studying to be a pastor. And then he had all of the theological receipts that he needed in order to completely deconstruct her arguments. And the thing is with Abdul Al Sayed, he's a guy from Michigan who grew up in Michigan. He studied to be a doctor. He went to Columbia. And Oxford, one for each year. He's a great scholar. And he's devoted his life to public service. And he's doing great because he can just speak the facts. He doesn't have to lie. He just talks about who he is and what he's trying to do. And Mike Rogers is running against him. Says, "Oh, he's a terrorist and Trump says he's a terrorist." And, you know, JD Vance says, "Telleriko's gay." And Trump says, "Telleriko's vegan." Again, this is flailing. It's flailing. It's flailing. We've got a clip of James Telleriko who's announcing the clear eyes, full hearts talk. We know what it takes.
to win. It's time to bring your friends, your family, and your neighbors to the polls. Sending James Tallerico to the U.S. Senate is going to take everything we've got. So David, I mentioned the CNN town hall that James Tallerico did where he seemed completely in control, despite, as you say, a Republican plant trying to corner him on his knowledge of the Bible. What do you think of Tallerico's chances here up against Ken Paxton, possibly the worst ever candidate? But nevertheless, it's Texas. And I have friends in Texas who are saying, no, Paxton is still going to win. He's unpopular, but he is going to win. Well, look, he could have been. It's Texas. And they're doing a lot of things to make it hard for Democrats to vote. And Paxton was part of the government. Paxton was a crook. And so you never know what kind of exploits they're going to pull. But if you look at the polling, Tallerico's got an edge. And the Democrats have the best chance to win back this seat in a long, long time. And part of that is due to the fact that Paxton is terrible, that a lot of Texas Republicans, including John Kornin, the guy who currently holds the seat, hate Paxton, that the Republicans ran in the primary against Paxton, the Republican Senate campaign committee, ran anti-Paxton ads that talked about him as being a serial cheater and corrupt and so forth. And one of Trump's least popular decisions with his own party was backing Paxton. So again, a lot of it depends on how much a wave is in the election and to what to extend people actually get that chance to express their will in the vote. But Tallerico is a better shot than a lot of other people. And he's the future. Tallerico is the future. And people get that. People want to change. In fact, if there is one candidate that always wins in U.S. elections, that is always the most popular, it's changed. It's changed. People don't, you know, they're frustrated with Washington. Washington is corrupt. Washington moves too slowly. Washington is a lagging indicator of our needs. Washington is out of touch with them. They believe the system is rigged out people in Washington and rich oligarchs. And they want change. And Trump said, "Hey, I'm changed." Everybody said, "Well, he's crazy." So he didn't look like anything I've ever seen before. Let's vote for him. No, it's like, "Oh, yeah." You know, he's not, you know, there was this myth that went around even since like Ross Perot in the early 90s. The thing we need in American politics is non-politicians. Very firm. You know, we need business people or something. Well, of course, if Trump doesn't disprove that, I don't know what, you know, I mean, being a politician actually implies that you understand how a political system works. You understand the laws. You have some capacity to get things done within that system. And that business people tend not to do real great in that environment because it involves compromise, process, things they're not used to, things they find frustrating. And so, but, you know, the American people wanted change, and Donald Trump looked as different from any politician as anybody they've ever seen. And he's literally the first president we ever had elected who had no public service experience prior to his being elected. But proudly, proudly had no public service experience. Well, exactly. And now here we are. We're sort of God willing, coming to the end of this era of Trump that began when he comes down the golden escalator in 2015 and really ratchets up when he gets elected in 2016. And so, you know, it's over a decade. We've still got a couple more years of this. But people are tired of the fighting the high prices, the inability to deliver, the endless wars, the corruption, the feeling that, you know, we're failing as a country. You know, the fact that I don't know. Sometimes you watch Trump on TV or you watch the Republicans on TV. And you're like, I think I need to take a shower. This is just too gross. Okay, so let's now play a clip of JD fans. Obviously, the vice president somewhat blindsided here by a griefing military husband. It is a hard price to pay. Though the Iranian drone was the weapon that killed my wife, there were a lot of mistakes, and a lot of fundamental failures that led up to that. I believe CBS has reported on that. My wife has told me things before she passed. There are other soldiers that know things that are being quiet about certain aspects of this. There's a failure in the leadership. And I want to know how this administration is going to start holding those leaders accountable for the actions and the deaths of the soldiers that we that we honor and that we love. So, Joey, first of all, look, I/O and the whole country owes your family a debt of gratitude that is quite literally impossible to repay. I won't pretend that anything that I say is going to make it better or easier, but I hope it helps a little bit to know that your wife was a precious human being who served her country honorably, and I'm never going to forget about her. I'm never going to forget this conversation. And I want to continue this conversation offline because that raises the second point. When you talk about failures that were, that we were implicated, the administration, the Department of War, whoever you want to say was implicated in. I want to know about that stuff because if there were failures and I don't doubt there were, I just this literally the first time I've heard of this is this conversation. What do you think of his response? It was certainly more elegant than his president's response would have been. I mean, I can imagine that Donald Trump's response would be your wife was a loser. She was a sucker at a loser. I thought J.D. Vance handled that with some grace. Come on. A piece of shit in a Brooks brothers suit is still a piece of shit. And what he said was absolutely outrageous. This is the first time he's heard of failures in a war that is widely regarded as a failure. Fair. Totally fair point. Yeah. Okay. This is the first time he's heard of failures when there have been countless stories about how our bases throughout the region were not ready to defend themselves against drone attacks. That this is the first time he's heard of failures when Pete Hegseth has depleted all the reserves of the military in terms of munitions has mismanaged the entire war. This has been a panic plate of failures from beginning to end and he has been in the room for every crucial decision. Now, he's already out there trying to say, well, I was the one who was against all this and he's already trying to position himself for 2028 saying, well, I don't don't tar me with this brush that you're tarring, you know, Trump and everybody's closer to it with. And that's why I think he's such a sleaze bag because he's out there. He's defending it. He is supporting it. He is behind it. You know, he's referring to the Department of Defense and the Department of War when that's not its real name. He defends Pete Hegseth and he's lying to a man whose wife died needlessly. Okay. And that's the point. Correct. It's okay. Good point. Good point. Well, but this is that look, you know, typically the thing that you say is that your wife did not give her life in vain, right? She did. Her life was wasted. We shouldn't have been in this war. She shouldn't have been at risk. And this woman and her family are now irretrievably damaged by terrible decisions at the top. And so she did die in vain and he couldn't say that because everybody knows it. Yeah. Okay. Fair. I stand corrected. I stand corrected. So the other thing that was very noticeable over the weekend and I have to say I went down a complete social media rabbit hole on it last night was these terrible riots in Paris and across France. You know, terrible images of the plastil Republic where actually I lived for a year, just damaged tear gas, water cannons, shops being looted, French business people pleading with the rioters to leave them alone, really sort of devastating. The social media makes much more immediate now than certainly the television coverage of the riots in the 60s and 70s. What did you make of this? To what extent do you think this is being riled up by enemies outside of France?
has closed ties to Moscow and closed ties to the right wing movements across Europe, that she is getting money from those movements that she had us in the past, and that there are agitators within the crowds as there have been in other situations throughout Europe. Does that mean that students are not outraged at the situation or the cost of living or other problems? Of course they are. But that is the kind of situation that skilled operatives of the type that get deployed thereby people like the Russians can take advantage of. Do I expect there will be more unrest? Yeah. If it cuts against Macron, I expect there will be more unrest, because even as we're looking at our election, I think as you look around the world, the global right wing, FNO nationalist movement that's led by Putin, but that includes a whole bunch of other people is making gains. It looks like in Brazil, despite all the crimes of Yar Bolsonaro, his son is about to be elected president and will almost immediately pardon him. In Germany, we have seen the rise of the right, and the rise of the right is continuing in Germany, and there was an interview over the weekend with the woman who's the co-head of the party, alternative for Germany, and she was spending the whole time doing what? Defending Russia, saying Russia was not at fault in Ukraine, that it's the Ukrainians, and that Germany shouldn't support Ukraine anymore. In England, you have Nigel Farage and you have the reform party, and in France, you have a Marine Le Pen. Even if there are setbacks for the right here in the United States, and again, there's going to be a lot of hanky-panky between now and the end of it all, this movement is not going to reverse itself. This movement is going on around the world. I mean, just last week, Narendra Modi, who's part of the movement, arrested 40 journalists because they were writing stories that he found uncomfortable and trying to push the needle in India. We have an election coming up in Israel, which Bebe Netanyahu is part of the movement, may not win the election, but he might be able to hold on to power, and even if he doesn't hold on to power, people who agree with him are going to have enough power that they're not going to give up their influence over the outcomes in Israel. It's possible for Americans to get very narcissistic and say it's all about us, and frankly, we deserve a break from the relentless trumpiness of the past 10 years. But I do think it's worth keeping our eyes open to the fact that Vladimir Putin and people who support Vladimir Putin are actively trying to undermine democracy and the Western alliance and the values that we have stood for in country after country after country. It seems so grave what's going on out there, and as you say, there'll be lots of hanky-panky between now and November the 3rd when the midterm election actually happens, although early voting has started in many states, starts in New York, where I am on Saturday. When does it start where you are, David? I don't know because I voted by mail, but vote by mail. If you can, if you can. Well, look, I think there's going to be a lot to follow here, and the best way to follow it is, of course, the daily beast. Now, our correspondents are out in earnest at the moment because there's so much going on, but you've put it in such a good wider perspective for us, and why we all have to be so concerned. I think we do, but the other thing is, this is not happening to us here in the US. It is happening because of us. And so, if you haven't voted, vote. If the person next to you hasn't voted, help them to vote. If you haven't contributed to a campaign and you have an extra dollar, give the extra dollar. If you haven't, you know, gone out and canvas for people, then do that. If you see something happening that's wrong, call it out. If you have a social media platform and it's only 10 people, that adds up, right? A thousand people with 10 person platforms is 10,000 people. It makes a difference. So, you know, the next two weeks are one of these periods where the news doesn't happen to us. We make the news. And that's what to keep an eye on. And frankly, you know, that's where, you know, there's big following that the Daily Beast and other independent media have can really make a difference. Well, I was going to see, leave your comments on YouTube because they also get read. They get read not only by us, but they get read by other people listening to the podcast and by other people, of course, on YouTube. David, it's always good to see you. Thank you for your time. I love your t-shirt, B beast. Can you just show it? That's right. Just lean back so we can all see it. Lean back. Yeah. And you know where I got this t-shirt? Where did you get this t-shirt, David? Was it from one of cash betels t-shirt sites? Because remember, his qualification, his chief qualification for being director of the FBI is that he had a t-shirt business. But could have been because I just got it online. I just had it met. I just made it up. You had it met? Well, it's very good. I appreciate you wearing it. And we appreciate your contributions to our understanding of the madness of what's going on. I have one of my closet in a size small for you. Excellent. Then I'm coming down to Retrieved. David, I'm coming down. I will look forward to seeing you next Monday. See you next Monday. David, it's always good to see you on a Monday. Thank you for putting our world into some kind of perspective. And if you have been, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to leave us a comment about your favourite part of the conversation. Possibly, David batting down my assertion that JD Vance had actually given quite a good response to that poor man who lost his wife. I don't know what I was thinking there. I had a moment of sympathy for JD Vance having to deal with such a tragic situation, but that's my bad. And I was put right by David Rothkoff. But let us know what else you've found resounding. And I think a lot of people listening to this podcast or watching this podcast will also be astonished at the idea that somehow Donald Trump is rolling over to the Russian president who knew that we would see that in our lifetimes. So if you have been, thank you for joining us and big thank you to our production team John Romero, Ryan Murray, Rachel Passe, Heather Pissaro, and Neil Rosenhouse. So the good news is we have so many B beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.
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