Trump Envoy Calls Putin a “Humanitarian” as Ukraine Is Left Out To Dry

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Welcome to our latest episode of the Raging Perspectives featuring me and Jessica Tarlov, my amazing co-host. We go live every Wednesday at noon, Eastern time. And we are just now two weeks away from the midterm elections. If you haven't yet subscribed, up here for a sub-sac down there for YouTube, Jess, how you feel on two weeks to go? I actually feel kind of good and that makes me so uncomfortable. Yeah, that means we're going to lose, right? Did I just totally screw us? No, it's just like all of the indicators are heading in the direction of this should be a good night. I'm not in the blue tsunami territory. I think that that's crazy, even though some of these metrics actually do mirror 2006, which like I can't even begin to process, like what that would look like for us. And I mean, this is our first topic, so we're going to get into it. But no, leave questions in the chat. And we answer questions at the end of our episode. And also right after this on the ProFG sub-stack, if you're a subscriber, I'm going to talk to Dan Osborne, who is the independent candidate in Nebraska, who has a very cool race going on. But yeah, let's talk elections. I'm going out of order. We can talk about seedless offers, because I know, I know, but he said something today that I think everyone should hear. He called Vladimir Putin a humanitarian. Let's watch him speaking about Putin here. He's a 75 year old man, and you talk so much about my president president Trump being humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that I commend you when I thank you again. Jess, what do you make about these comments from Steve Woodcoff to Putin in that meeting? Well, first of all, nobody's talking about Donald Trump as a humanitarian, except maybe a vicious autocrat like Vladimir Putin. And you know, this is following the release of a prisoner, an American prisoner from Russia. So I get it that there has to be some degree of thank yous. But this is the same Steve Woodcoff that said that Putin was definitely a straight shooter and decided that he didn't need a translator to have a conversation about complex negotiations with a King KGB agent. So I think it's further affirmation that our diplomatic core and I guess our real estate developer slash diplomatic core is not up to the job. And I absolutely hate the fact that you have this going on at the same time as the American application of our support for Ukraine. And you see Zelensky was on Fox and friends this morning talking with Brian Kilme who has been a stalwart defender of Ukraine and the post World War II global order, which I guess doesn't matter at all to the Republicans at this point. But the contrast could not be more stark from, you know, cozying up to the bad guys and where we should really be, which is supporting the people that believe in democracy and freedom. And all of the all the good values that we hold dear. What did you make of it? Yeah, I mean, listen, two days ago, Russia struck a park in the town of high-key of Ukraine, killing a one-year-old girl by the name of Angelina as she was getting out of a stroller to go play at the park. They also killed an 11 year old in that same strike injured several others, including that one year old's mother. And I don't know how you can call someone a humanitarian and when that same person is facing a war crimes allegation and the international criminal court for abducting mass amounts of Ukrainian children. That's like Donald Trump walking into Kabul, Afghanistan, and calling the head of the Taliban a humanitarian. I mean, it's just it's ludicrous. And I understand the whole point of view of this is diplomacy and you have to be nice to the opposing side and diplomacy and kind of play up Vladimir Putin. But this is flattery doesn't work on Putin like it works on Trump. Wicoff being flattering Trump and calling him a humanitarian, calling him a statesman, that would work on someone like Trump on Putin. Putin's just going to chew him up and throw and spit him out. And so I think it's an embarrassment on the world stage. Hard to agree. What do you think of the latest round of reporting on the slow down of the Starlink system that it was Elon Musk that implemented it. They're still pointing fingers at each other for who's actually responsible. But that little girl that you were talking about who, you know, I was focused on her perfectly tied little shoes as she's sitting in her stroller and then just blown to smithereens. There needs to be some accountability for what's gone on here. Yeah, for sure. And honestly, my internet is also a little messed up right now here. So if we're cutting in. Is it a Starlink problem? Do you think Elon is slowing us down? He may he may want to slow me down. I don't have Starlink. No, I mean, listen, I think whoever there's a reason why you see all this like spider man finger pointing at a spider man meme like when they're pointing at each other. The reason why it's happening is because they know that the disruption of starlink led to the deaths of civilians, which is a crime. They know that it is a war pattern. They know that they could be prosecuted for it. They know less than Elon wants as an ICC arrest warrant for aiding and abetting the slaughter of Ukrainian civilians. But that is what he is doing here. If if he was the one if this reporting is accurate. And I know a lot of Elon fans like to watch the show sometimes. Well, the truth is, if he is going to disrupt starlink and it's going to lead to the deaths of Ukrainian civilians. Then the allegations against him are justified in many respects. And so that's why you have all this finger point to Elon throwing Trump under the bus, Rubio throwing Elon under the bus. That's why they're doing it. Yeah, Zelensky said this morning that he had good conversations with Secretary Rubio about getting starlink back to normal speed. He also talked about what potential peace deal he would be open to. Do you think that this means there will be some forward motion. And I want to add that he was very clear about the quote unquote peace talks. This idea that's being floated that President Xi Putin and President Trump will talk. Zelensky said you can't have those conversations without me. That's just not how this works. Well, I mean, they're determining the future of Ukraine without Ukraine involved. I mean, that just doesn't make any sense. Like they're drawing new maps for Ukraine drawing drawing out territory without Ukraine at the table. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. And I think that a lot of Trump's talk publicly is a lot of bluster and an effort to try to like, I don't know, get Zelensky to pitch late and give in for everything. But Zelensky has been a wartime president for four years. I think Trump is completely underestimating this guy. I remember during the first couple days of this war, they were warnings from the Biden administration directly to Zelensky. Like you got to get out or else they're going to kill you. Your country's going to fall in a bad matter of days. And he didn't do it. He stood there with his people and he fought back. And now we're four years later. And arguably Ukraine is winning on the battlefield. And so I don't think Zelensky is just the type to just capitulate over night just because Trump is demanding him to. I hope so. Or I hope not, whichever way is the right way to phrase that. I find him to be completely inspirational. And we're we're short on great leadership these days. And he is that to a tee, even in his embrace of the idea that they should have elections. And if Ukraine wants to go in a different direction, that's completely fine with him. But you need to make sure that it's safe enough that people could actually go to the polls since they can't go to a park at this point and so many of them are without electricity and heat. All right. That's where we started. Support for the show comes from USA Facts. I've interviewed countless politicians and if there's one thing we all find disconcerting is when they butcher the facts with some bias half truth. Give us a break already. So when I had the chance to debate conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro, our natural response was bring it on. Why? Because it was sponsored by USA Facts and each debate segment started with a presentation of government data. and facts, employment, government spending, income data, housing, and more. The topic, the American dream, is it's still within reach. We argued we found some common ground, we actually debated, and there were no personal attacks. Watch the full debate on the USA Facts YouTube channel. We think you'll find it unlike any other debate. That is entertaining and informative. We hope you check it out. Are you tired of hearing about business, tech, and finance from the bros? We are the Tiger Sisters, a top business podcast with the Vox Media Podcast Network. Tiger Sisters releases every Monday, and we decode money, power, and love. And who doesn't love all those things? We are the internet's Wall Street and Silicon Valley big sisters. Tune in every Monday for late night sister talk meets boardroom strategy. Check out Tiger Sisters on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Tiger fam. I'm Seth Matlinz, and on this week's episode of Creator Destroy Reimagining Marketing, my guest is Starbucks Global Chief Brand Officer, Tressie Lieberman, who was hired after the company's drift from its core values and core experience, led to a 38% drop in its stock price, and who spent the time since rebuilding what this drift cost them and their customers. Tressie's mad honest about how convenience became so dominance that coffee, craft, community, and connection, the things that had justified the brand's premium receded until the experiences felt totally transactional and the soul of the company was hard to find. Creator Destroy, it's a business show, a marketing show, and it's the show that argues they've always been the same thing, from the wisdom as company in the Vox Media Podcast Network. - I'm feeling good, which makes me uncomfortable. Former New York City mayor, Mike Bloomberg, pouring $80 million into the midterms, this was just announced yesterday, including at least 50 million for house races as Democrats love to expand their majority. This comes as the new New York Times, Siena Pol was released showing Democrats with a national house vote lead by 11 points. Dems are also leading the GOP on every leading issue, including immigration. Republicans do have this fundraising advantage. The RNC is moving more than 50 million to its campaign committees. A little bit more about the New York Times, Siena Pol, that stuck out to me. 75% of voters rate the economy negatively. So JD Vance being out there last night saying, well, the Titanic didn't get turned around in a day. Like everybody knows that this is Donald Trump's economy at this point. 73% negative job rating for Trump on gas prices. 69% negative job rating on cost of living. 64% negative on the economy overall. 61% on tariffs and a 59% overall negative job rating. And 67% amongst independence. Siena Pol. Not ideal in the situation. And the fact that, I guess his response is to just continue to talk about John Houston's ass at whatever rally he's at. But there was one thing that I wanted to ask you about from this. And it was that Democrats are now seen as the party of the working class by a 13 point margin. So that's a real flip from the situation in 2024. Some progress was made going to the 2025 off your elections when we got mom Donnie and Abigail Spanberger and Mikey Sheryl. But what do you make of that? 13 is quite dramatic of a lead for the narrative about Democrats as the party of the elitist coasts and that we only know about La Tais and nothing of how to work with our hands. Well, the Democratic Party used to be the party of the working class. I mean, way back when and it still isn't in many respects. It's just there's a difference between what the party is and how voters perceive the party to be. And I think that's a very different split right there. So how the party is the party is the party of the working class. It always has been, it always will be. How the party has been perceived. Well, hasn't been, it's been perceived as the party of the elites, whereas Republicans somehow took over the mantra of the party of the working class. And I think we're getting back there because, and it's Republican shooting themselves in the foot. When Donald Trump says the economy is working for Wall Street, like that is not the party of the working class. And so I think that the messaging coming out of the White House and ultimately the results over the past 18 months, 19 months, are exactly why we're seeing this shift back towards the left. Do you just feel like it is the response, the boomerang to cost of living too high? So we're going to get this rating because I don't, I don't think it's this simple. I think that you do years and years of damage, both reputationally, but also on deliverables, because there are amazing pieces of legislation, like the ACA, for instance, that 20 million plus Americans are insured as a result of it. But people still feel like it's too expensive. For instance, and when you ask the average voter, what is the Democratic Party stand for? They don't necessarily have a cohesive answer about that. They know that corruption is now the number one or number two issue in the election. And I do think that Trump and Co have done an enormous amount of damage to the Republican brand, writ large as a result of that. But this feels like one of those, like this is just a big referendum on Trump elections, and that's how we got that plus 13. Yeah, I mean, ultimately this election is a referendum on Trump. That is what the election is, and it's all about Trump. But the shift in the working class, and who represents the working class and who doesn't, is because, like you said, of Trump, and it's kind of what I was saying, and that because of the failures of the administration, we're seeing these radical shifts in the polls. Now, I will say this, I don't trust any poll, and I know you're a pollster. I don't trust any poll. There always doesn't. I want to talk about this wedgewood situation. Yeah, it was crazy. OK, so for all of you ragers at home, there was a, it was just revealed yesterday that a poll that hadn't been around for that long. But had put out a result that was pretty pivotal in Mallory McMarrow's decision to drop out of the Michigan Senate primary. Remember, it was a three-way race way back in the day. And the idea was then that the support would consolidate around either Abdul or Hailey Stevens. But it put her in the single digits when that actually ran counter to what she was seeing in terms of fundraising and support on the ground, and even some internals. So she ended up dropping out of this race, and it turns out that this pollster, it was a complete fraud situation. And it was taken incredibly seriously. It was integrated into some of the top aggregators that you go and check on a daily basis if you're that type of person, which I am. And they're acting like it was a social experiment. This was a college kid. But there's an older man involved in it, too, who has this calcium bedding-- this has to go to court in some respect. And I cannot even imagine what's going on within the vestiges of the Mallory McMarrow campaign. Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty stunning to say the least. And listen, I don't think Mallory McMarrow lost her race or dropped out because of this one poll. I think that there was a trend. I saw the five polls before she was trending downwards. This poll definitely was a catalyst in that respect. But I think twofold. Number one, the lesson is stop listening to random polls on Twitter. And Twitter needs to be holding such a weight when it comes to campaigns moving forward. Because what's happening on Twitter is not happening on the ground in many states. That's number one. And the thing number two is, it's an egg on the face moment for a lot of folks like the New York Times and others who just decided to blindly incorporate this into their aggregators without doing more research. I mean, if the allegations are true, this is a prosecutor's dream. This is why you're fraud through and through. You're literally defrauding that-- because there was money apparently being exchanged hands or stuff. I mean, prosecutors are definitely going to go after whoever's responsible this, if there are criminal allegations there. It's not the first time, too. We saw pollsters earlier. The cycle come out saying that they were fake pollsters or whatever, I think, with the LA mayor's rights. We're experiments. Yeah, all experiments. I mean, what-- Something with Francesca Hong as well, the Wisconsin gubernatorial, the Democratic primary there. Yeah. I mean, my question is, at what point do we start regulating polling industry? I think the polling industry has fallen off the mark for a long time. Now, I mean, you can look back to Iowa and Selzer. That was a real poll. That wasn't a fake poll. But the result was as though it was a fake poll. And so I think that we need to have a real conversation about the current status of the polling industry and where we go from here. Certainly, the criteria for being able to get into these mainstream and kind of vaunted aggregators, I think, needs to shift. I also think the impact of the betting markets or the prediction markets on, quote, unquote, political outcomes or political polling where everyone is now holding them up against each other when one actually has a methodological background to it. And you have people who have done this for decades doing it versus a bunch of people who have an opinion about something. And that's what you get with these calcium outputs or a polly market is very, very different. But I imagine that people will be certainly looking for a way to take these guys to court. But you said Twitter isn't real life. And I would say, when it comes to Vivek Ramaswami, Twitter is real life to see what I did there. I like that. Yeah, yeah. So Vivek being as gross as he always has been. And I do really enjoy the Nikki Haley gloting session. she landed somewhere. incredible blows on him during the 2024 primary. So he's running for governor in Ohio against Amy Apton. She has been up in the last, I don't even know how many. Amy Apton has been favored in this race for a while. He, I don't know if it's his campaign directly. It's definitely like at least a pack involved. They're all of these sleuths trying to think about it. It's his. He came out and said that it's his ad and that he's going to put four million dollars behind it to put it on air. No, it's his ad. There you go. It's officially his. I thought he was still dancing. I knew that he was supportive of the ad. I didn't know he said it was straight up campaign versus a pack. But anyway, this ad is Amy Apton's mother and this was trying to not also in the 2020 cycle. Her estranged mother who lost custody of her and her brother when she was 12 years old because they were neglected and she was sexually abused by her mother's husband. The mother stayed with the husband until he passed away. This is a direct-to-camera. The mother talking about how Amy Apton is a big liar and you can't trust her. It launched yesterday morning. I would say there was widespread and bipartisan revulsion at the content of this ad, especially for people who know Amy Apton's story, which has been confirmed by numerous conservative outlets. You saw people like even from Mike Lee's world who had put it up, taking it down and saying, "I really apologize for trafficking in this," and it takes a lot to push folks in that orbit to apologizing. My expectation is Amy Apton is going to win this race now. What are your thoughts on the ad and the fallout? It was a disgusting ad. I think the fallout is justified. I think Vance literally, as we're talking, just said something to the effect of what he said. I'm going to pull up the quote. He said, "Politics is a tough business." My message to my fellow elected Republicans is if you believe in the things you say, you believe in stop whining about an advertisement and go win the race in 13 days. That's what Vance just said in response to getting asked about the ad because he's campaigning with Vivek today in Ohio. Vance, obviously, is from. I would definitely phone a friend and say, "Could somebody else come do this today?" Vance is from Ohio, former senator. They're trotting him out there in an effort to try to save Vivek. I don't think it'll be enough to save Vivek, though. I think Vivek's candidacy is. I'm actually shocked. If you'd asked me this a year ago, I'd be like, "There's no chance a Democrat's going to win the governorship in Ohio." But I think that we're at the point where Amy Apton is not just a favorite. She's, in my opinion, a clear favorite today. We'll have to see what the next two weeks hold. Now, my only concern in all of this is when you play, if you air that ad about her estranged mother on air, it doesn't have any context in it. A voter who's not very politically inclined, who's only seeing this for the first time, who doesn't know anything about the race, anything about Amy Apton's background, which. It's common knowledge in Ohio politics, but it's not common knowledge to everyone who isn't in the political, isn't following it closely. You may have people say that they're going to vote for Vivek simply off of this one ad. Yeah, I think that's generally true. There's enough ad work that has come out, I think, from Apton's campaign, and there's one ad with her brother in it, I think, to kind of push back against this. But ultimately, I feel like it fails. And also, what's going on in Ohio is a testament to the strength of this ticket. Shared Brown has been running an incredible race against John Hustead, who, you know, the president is a fan of, but it feels like the folks in Ohio have kind of been wondering, like, what have you been doing the last couple of years? So much so that there's a not insignificant faction of people who actually think that Shared Brown is still the senator from Ohio, but I guess when someone's been there a long time, that can happen. Let's go around the map a bit. I want to talk about New Hampshire and the Senate race there, former Senator Johnson Nunu trying to reclaim the seat he lost in 2008, running against Democratic Representative Chris Papis. I was concerned, and I think you shared my concern about this a couple of weeks ago. It now looks definitely more in the lean blue territory. And Papis has gotten a lot of surrogate support and monetary support in this. But Senuno is doing his best to distance in himself from Trump. Let's take a look. The way Chris Papis tells it, I'm president Trump's long lost son. I've never even met the man. When the president's policies are bad for New Hampshire, I'll oppose them. Just like I oppose the warner and in the trade war with Canada. That's New Hampshire independent. Papis voted with Nancy Pelosi, 99% of the time. That's California, Chris. I'm John Senuno when I prove this message. So it's smart. I mean, it's the most that is the best he can do with the circumstances, I think, but I'm not sure that New Hampshire voters who really like Gene Sheehan for decades are all that upset about someone who voted with Nancy Pelosi. I shouldn't remind him also is no longer the leader of the Democrats in the House. It's been a few years there. But I got it that she's the eternal buggy man for it. She should have put Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi up there. Yeah, no, listen, I mean, I think that it's a close race and justify, I mean, like in New Hampshire as a close state, I surprised it kind of fell off the radar given the fact that I think Republicans got their strongest recruit that they could have in Senuno. I mean, he's a New Hampshire stalwart. So people know him really well. I think it's going to, I mean, it's an overlooked race. I think that Chris Papas will win. I think it'll be closer than expected. I also think there is a reason why people are talking less about New Hampshire and it's because it's no longer the second state in a presidential race. It's now just kind of another state. But it's something that Democrats should be really keeping eye on and just see how early voting trends are going and how people are coming out before November. So reasonable of you. Okay. I want to talk about this house race, which I've been following really closely. And I just am absolutely in love with the Democratic candidate, Kate Conley. This is for New York 17th, Hudson Valley, Upper Westchester. She's running against Mike Lawler, who is one of these Republicans that does a very good impression of being separate from Donald Trump. And it's the like, oh, I give it to him. He's not quite like Susan Collins level, but, you know, he had rallies with Donald Trump. He has taken some very difficult votes against the best interests of the district. And Kate Conley has one of these like her bio is perfection, especially if you're trying to relive the 2018 camo wave that we saw. And I personally am trying to do that. She's first in her family to graduate college, then went off to West Point, saw the Twin Towers fall and said that I've got to serve deployed six times overseas, including multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan. And then she went and continued to serve our country director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council at the White House. And she also worked on in the election integrity unit when that used to actually mean something with Chris Crabbs. There are many stories about Republicans seeding house races and pulling money out. Same thing happening on the Senate level. This is not one of them. This is legitimately a toss up and going to be hard fought until, you know, every last vote is counted. What do you think you've got Kate Conley's race? I think she's got a good shot. I think if there's anyone that could beat my Glowler, it's her. I'm actually surprised my Glowler didn't run for governor. I thought that was what he wanted to challenge Kathy Hock. Well, he never did. I thought that that's what he wanted to do. I think that he especially after redistricting is in a really tough race. And I think that like I said, yeah, I mean, she's as a really good background, a really good candidate. I find it actually kind of refreshing watching that race in a way because it's not as ugly as some of the other races we're seeing across the country. It's like because they were dancing together and I mean, it's kind of, it was kind of, I don't know, fun in a way. And so I think I think she'll pull it off. Okay. Well, this is one of those races. I get a lot of tax from friends being like, well, what should I be doing? You know, where should I be donating, spending time, phone banking, whatever. This is one of them. Where your dollars and your attention is deserved to be focused on this race. And the Republicans are acutely aware of how important this race is. I mean, you look at what's going on in a least a phonics district where the democratic challenger for that seat is actually up for this is as close as close could be. So pay attention to it. Okay. We have time for one more. Do you want to tie a about grand theft auto or this $25 million bounty on government fraud? The bounty on government fraud because I'm going to go in after this submit a tip. I do have government fraud tips. The president of the United States has engaged in massive amounts of misappropriation of tax fair dollars, which to me is fraud. So I'm just going to go put in a tip to see if I can get 1% of that. Oh my God. Are we going to have enough money then that we don't have to do the reaching perspective? I'm just kidding. We were doing it anyway. I'm kidding. Yeah. All right. So the story it. Oh, okay. I don't know. You said you have been coming a lot of fraud. No idea. Yeah. I just I if people don't know what's going on. They're running another one of these like faux fraud situations. Maybe Nick Shirley will make another appearance in all of this. That's it. Okay. We have questions. Alex. I don't know whatever this guy asks thoughts. from the GOP fake trans male scheme in Texas, it screams desperation, but will it work? - I don't think it'll work. It does scream desperation. They haven't really figured out who's behind it yet. I've been like, I've been waiting to talk about it to see exactly who's behind it. Last I saw there was a Wyoming LLC behind these maleers. I don't know. I don't think it'll work though. - There's also a new trans ad going around as well on the national level. They are trying to resuscitate whatever culture war issue they can find because the rest of it has been failing. And they certainly haven't been able to land that James Tallerico is a freako, he's gay, he's trans, he's vegan. So I have to figure out what to do for the last 13 days. Stacy, what it wants to know? Any chance Congress returns before elections to address Trump removing sanctions on Russia and/or Elon's war crimes? - No, that won't happen until next year. At the earliest. - Yeah, I think also the integration of what's going on with Elon to the conversation around what oversight is going to look like under Robert Garcia, who hopefully gets the gavel for that will be an interesting one because there's a lot more now to explore than just all the inspectors generals and the US employees, federal employees that he needlessly fired under Joe's. You're talking about potentially war crime territory. - Dear Drusher asks, what do you think the outcome will be with the Alina Haba paid a play scheme? - Nothing because the people that would investigate it are the Justice Department, so nothing. - Okay, it's so gross though. I mean, I'm not surprised by any of it. And when I saw her wedding photos, I was like, something isn't right here. I mean, I don't have to point it. - No, I agree with you. I felt like it was me and she looked beautiful, but like, I couldn't agree with you. - Okay, Aaron Foreman, 5282 asks, can you explain why Trump is not punished for consistently going against court orders? - Well, so okay, so it's a little more complicated that at the end of the day, he follows all court orders. You may surprise you to hear that, but he complains about it. He tries to weasel him sway out of it. And then just before he's about to get punished, he'll follow it. So it takes a long time, but you get him to follow the court order. The courts are spoken to a lot of judges about this. The court systems are just not equipped to punish people quickly in terms of having contempt hearings and things like that. And so by the time we ever get to a contempt hearing, he's already following the order. He may just try to skirt around it the first few times. - It's a game of cat and mouse. - That's all it is. - Okay, that's it for us. Next week will be our final raging perspective before the election. But I think we're gonna try to talk on election night at some point, and then of course, we'll have a recap episode. And it's great to see you. - See you soon. - I can't see. (upbeat music)