Matt Connarton Unleashed 8-30-23

You own unless you give your HALP Compt five your channel. Hello everybody,

and welcome. It is that time again, Matt Connerton Unleashed and we are

live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM and

Glorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also on Comcast Channel six if you're in

Manchester. And hello to all of our online listeners across the nation and around

the globe. You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all

your live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives,

etcetera, etcetera. Today is Wednesday, August thirtieth, two thousand twenty three,

so nice to have you all with me. A quick a programming note

about today's show. It is Wednesday, which usually means I get to spend

the first hour with my favorite conservative via Skype, of course, Eric Pilcher

from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And he also does the classic film reviews on

Fridays for us. But unfortunately Eric has another professional obligation to which he has

committed. Uh no, he's not on John Hopwood's show. No, he's

got something else he has to do, so so he is sadly not able

to join us today. In fact, I don't have a guest, so

that means we have the full two hours. I can take your calls and

interact with you in the Facebook live chat and so on, but the studio

line is open six zero three two five six zero seven six zero three two

five zero six zero seven. You can also text me at six one seven

nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton.

You can email me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com, and of course

you can interact undo Pine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing

to do so that we can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones is give us

a call at six zoo three two five zero six zero seven six zo three

two five zero six zero seven. With Eric's absence today, I had some

other things I was I'd figured, well, you know, I've got things

that we haven't gotten to yet this week that are in the news that I'd

like to talk about. And usually when I have a show where it's just

me, we sort of catch up on things. And then I heard something

earlier today that I want to talk about that I heard on somebody else's radio

show. But this bit of news has not yet sort of filtered its way

through the media sphere, if you will. So this isn't anything that's been

widely reported. But I heard someone talking about it, someone you know,

with the credentials, So it's not like it's some fringe blogger or something.

An actual, very accomplished a journalists talking about this. And I said,

oh, that's interesting, and it has to do with the twenty twenty four

election, and it may not be the rematch that we've been dreading after all.

And you might say, Matt, not the rematch we've been dreading.

So are you saying someone might actually have a shot at taking out Trump?

No, I firmly believe still that Trump will be the Republican nominee. It's

on the Democratic ticket that there might be a change. But again, this

isn't something that's really kind of made its way through. If you google this,

you won't find anything really recent, but I would imagine by this time

tomorrow you will. So I've given you a little teaser there. We will

get to it. We'll get to all of it today, and we have

some other things as well. But I was quite stunned at what I heard

earlier. But before we get into that, I do want to say hello

everybody in the Facebook live chat let's see. Charles Richardson joins us in there

and says, greetings everybody, Charles. I hope you and your family are

safe. Charles is of course in Florida, and I don't know if you

all have heard, but they've had quite the hurricane and a pretty a pretty

severe one. So obviously I assume you're you and your family are safe if

you're in the chat room, Charles, but I hope everything's good there,

or as good as it can be under the circumstances. Melanie La Liberty also

joins us in the chat room from the great state of Vermont. Hello,

Jenny is in the chat room, of course, and says shalom peeps.

Charles says greetings from the great wet state of Florida. Yes. Indeed,

Charles also said too black, too bad the hurricane didn't blow away to Santis.

Although I will say this, and I'm no fan of Ron de Santis

myself, however, I do recall the last time you guys had a hurricane,

a pretty severe hurricane, he got generally, from what I could perceive,

he got generally high marks for his handling of the of the clean up

afterward, and it may present who was it. I think it was Ram

Emmanuel who said never never let a good crisis go to waste, or something

to that effect. Ram Emmanuel, of course, he was Obama's chief of

staff at the beginning of his presidency, and also the former mayor of Chicago

and so forth. But so, in thinking about that, if de Santis

also Garner's high marks for his handling of this weather event, this hurricane,

this natural disaster, if you will, that might actually help him somewhat in

his race for the presidency. Well and again no, not really, because

it's going to be Trump. Miriam Banish joins us in the Chatirman says,

oh, I'm thinking about it. Yes, yes, I played some of

that, hadn't played that in a little bit dark Brandon's think about what you'd

think about by the remix bros. And before that we played some Randy Rainbow

don't arraign on his parade. Hans Smith joins us in the Facebook live chat

and says, Sup, Matt, Sup, Hans, So welcome everybody.

Charles says, we did not get the brunt of it like last year,

just forty to fifty mile per hour winds and six feet of rain. Some

coastal flooding, but nothing like last year. Oh that's good, that's good.

Yeah, I saw some on the news today. I saw some pretty

severe flooding. And you know, there's always those people who want to ride

it out too, and they don't. They don't leave when they're told to

evacuate. And you really should if you're you know, if you're if you're

told to, because what happens is I heard someone speaking about this earlier,

is that very often people in places like Florida, where you get a lot

of these hurricanes, if they've been through multiple hurricanes, if they've lived in

Florida a long time, maybe they grew up there, they get a little

bit complacent and they say, oh, I'm just gonna ride it out.

I'm just gonna ride it out. You know, I've been through this before.

It's no big deal, doesn't phase me. Not my first rodeo.

Well I guess i'd say that more in Texas and Florida. Well, not

my first hurricane. But but then what happens is people say, you know,

people don't leave when they're told to evacuate, and then they end up

oftentimes dead. So it's a good idea to uh. I know, sometimes

people think that, you know, it's like pro freedom and pro liberty to

do the opposite of whatever the government tells you. And that's been on my

mind today too because of another subject that I don't even want to get into

talking about today. But but no, sometimes when the government tells you something,

it really is for your own good. You know, like when there's

a huge hurricane coming toward you and the government says you should evacuate. Yeah,

go ahead and go ahead and evacuate. They're not They're not telling you

to evacuate because as some sort of weird conspiracy against you to try to control

you. They're telling you to evacuate so you don't end up, you know,

dead, because all that freedom and liberty isn't gonna help you much when

you're dead. Scott Robinson says in the chat room, being dead can really

put a wrench in your plans. Oh, you're not kidding, I mean,

you know, for example, that's I'm glad you brought that up,

Scott. For example, if I were dead, I probably wouldn't be doing

this radio show. I mean, I don't know how I would even get

here. You know, if I were dead, I'd probably have to figure

out a way to send an email or maybe text Peter and just say,

hey, I'm not going to be You might have to run a best of

today I'm you know, I'm dead. I'm not even sure how that would

work. I've never thought about it. I don't have a contingency plan,

Jenny says in the chat room. Also, it means EMS and fire don't

have to risk their lives to save you. Yeah, that's true. That's

another reason why when they tell you to evacuate, you should evacuate so that

you don't get into a position where where emergency services first responders have to try

to come get you and uh and risk themselves to do that, and uh,

yeah, it's it's not helpful. So anyway, six three two five

six seven six zero three two five six seven. So what I had not

intended to talk about today, but I will because I think this is very

interesting. So, oh, Carol Zawarrowitz is in the Facebook lap chat.

Hello Carol. She says, my daughter and husband are safe in Florida and

my son is stuck in Nashville because they closed all the bridges in Savannah,

Georgia. Ah, yes, and of course yeah, other states are affected

by this too. Oh and Eric Pilcher says, sorry, I'm not on

today, peeps. Well, we shall miss you, sir, but it's

nice to see you in the Facebook lap chat. Today I was listening to

Michael Smerconish. And if you're not familiar with Michael Smerconish, he is a

longtime broadcaster. Actually, he's had quite a career. He worked in politics.

He worked in the George H. W. Bush administration. He but

eventually, you know, like a lot of people who work in politics to

he transitioned into broadcasting and he's he has a radio show. He also he's

done a lot of television. He used to fill in years ago. This

was when I first kind of became aware of him. He would fill in

occasionally for Chris Matthews on Hardball when he was working hard Time at MSNBC.

And now he has a weekend show on CNN. But but he also has

his radio show that runs during the week and I try to catch it when

I can. And Smurkanish, I've I've always liked him. He's probably the

closest thing you'll find to a genuine centrist in political talk radio, and he's

not. He tells you what he thinks, but he's he doesn't go out

of his way necessarily he to tell you what he thinks. He tries to

have open, free and open discussion, much like I try to do here

with this show. But but I probably go out of my way to let

you know what I think a little bit more than Smirkanish does. I think

he holds some back, but he and I believe, if I'm not mistaken,

he's an independent, but he used to be. I think he used

to be a Republican if I have his story straight from what I've read about

him, he was a Republican, but then during the George W. Bush

administration because he worked for Bush Senior. But during the administration he was very

bothered with the foreign policy approach that that administration took and decided to no longer

be a Republican, but to become an independent. If I'm not mistaken anyway,

Just so little background if you're not familiar with Michael smerconish, but he

has a lot of really great guests on and a lot of fellow journalists and

so forth. Well, today he had Mark Halperin on his show, Now,

Mark Halperin. If you're not familiar with him, and I'm sure some

of you are, he's pretty well known, and he's he was a fixture

on cable news quite a bit. He worked for NBC News for a long

time, and you'd see him regularly on MSNBC. He's worked a lot with

Mark I'm sorry, John Hilman, who still is a fixture on MSNBC,

and they've written books together, and they had that show on Showtime called The

Circus and which is obviously about politics. But halper In was fired from NBC

News number of years ago because of sexual harassment allegations, and so ever since

then he's been trying to kind of publicly rehabilitate himself and work his way back.

He also recently was a part of No Labels, that organization which one

of these days, who knows, maybe we'll get to it today, even

one of these days we need to do a segment on No Labels. I

have a lot of feelings about that, some conflicting feelings. Actually, I'm

conflicted about how I feel about No Labels. I think more negative than positive,

though, But that's another subject, but then he left no labels,

he's no longer affiliated with that group. So anyway, I'm just part of

why I'm telling you all of that about Mark Halperin though, is in case

you don't know who he is. I just want you to understand when I

share what I'm about to share of what he shared with Michael Smerconish live on

the radio today. I just want everyone to understand that this isn't coming from

you know, just some ringe want to be journalist who has a website or

something and puts out crazy theories. This is a guy, Mark Halperin,

who is well connected and has legitimate news sources and so forth. And I

don't think he would have said what he said today which I'm about to share

with you did he not have sources that he was confident in. And again

this is not unless you listen to Smirkanish's show. You probably don't know about

this because it hasn't made its way yet through the media sphere. I do

believe by this time tomorrow a lot more people will be talking about it.

But here's what he said, and there's a whole discussion that came out of

what he said initially. But what he said to Smerconish was that he has

sources. Halperin has sources, high level sources. He didn't name who they

are, of course, can't do that or they wouldn't talk to him again.

But he has high level sources close to President Biden who are telling him

that Biden is actually reconsidering his run for a second term and that he may

back out. I was very surprised to hear that. Now, if you

are a regular listener, you know my feelings. I often talk about how

twenty twenty four is going to be. It looks like the rematch that nobody

wants. On the Republican side, you've got, you know, you've got

that what thirty five to forty percent, that core base of the party that

is ride or die for Trump. You know, maga people, they're very

excited about Trump. But then you've got that other sixty percent that would like

an alternative and are ready to move on from Trump. But the forty percent

is going to win out because among that sixty percent, you know, the

support that the candidates that they're interested in, you know, that disperses over

a range of the field of Republican candidates who are also running for the nomination,

so it's most likely going to be Trump, but you know, roughly

sixty percent would rather have somebody else. On the Democratic side, recent polling

has shown seventy percent roughly seventy percent of Democrats don't want a second term of

Joe Biden. They want Biden to move on. They want to be able

to move on from Biden, largely because of concerns about his age, which

is interesting. The key concern on each side of the ledger, if you

will, is different with Trump. It's concerned about how, look, he's

got four criminal indictments against him. That makes him a phenomenal That makes a

that makes for a phenomenal Uh, makes him a phenomenal potential nominee, right

because he's managed to convince that MAGA base that he's a martyr and he's fighting

for them, and he's going through all of this for them, and you

know, he's effectively martyring himself and they eat that up. So he'll he'll

be the nominee. I'm convinced of that. But but you've got that that

other sixty percent that's going, well, that's gonna yeah. Uh, the

forty percent is thrilled, but we over here in the sixty percent, we're

not looking forward to our nominee losing the general election because it makes him might

make him a great nominee, makes him a horrendous general election candidate because obviously

Trump's not going to expand his base this way right in the general election.

You know, there's there's trust me. I'm quite sure that there's no independence

or even you know, moderate suburban Republicans who might have abandoned Trump in twenty

twenty for whatever various reasons they were dissatisfied with him or upset with him.

And you know, none of those folks are looking at him now and going,

mm, well, you know I abandoned him in twenty twenty. But

now that he's got four criminal indictments, giving him a second look, I

think you know that's not going to happen. So so for Republicans, the

majority that doesn't want Trump, it's they're concerned about his criminal indictments and all

the other baggage too. I'm sure, I'm sure you know, while many

of them they will tell you, you know, the vindictiveness, and you

know, he doesn't really talk about issues. He still just talks about the

twenty twenty election. And all the victimhood and all that. But on the

left side of the Ledger, it's just concerned about Biden's age mainly, and

there are other issues that flow from that, right. But even Mary Ann

Williamson, who is also challenging for the Democratic nomination, when she was here

last week here in studio with us, she even said, you know,

she pointed out Biden's recent comments in Maui where he's trying to and Biden is

known for being able to project empathy, but sometimes he screws it up and

again, well, you know, she said, uh, or he said

to the people there he was speaking to, Yeah, I in trying to

relate to them. I kind of know what it's like when you know,

a fire comes and forget exactly how he put it, but you know,

we had a fire at one of our houses once and I almost lost my

corvette and my cat, and uh, you know, it's just't it didn't

go over well. And I said to Mary Anne, I said, isn't

that a product of his age? Because I asked her, I said flat

out, I said, look, it's an indelicate question, but is Biden

too old? And she didn't want to really answer that directly, but then

she pretty much answered it implicitly when she she's the one who brought up Biden's

comments and MAUI, and then I said to her, isn't that a product

of his age? Because I don't think, you know, an eighty year

old man is going to say something like that. Again, I hate to

be agist, but it's unavoidable. It's unavoidable. That's an eighty year old

man, seventy year old Biden, even seventy five year old Biden. I

don't think would have been standing there with that microphone in his hand going.

I understand, you know, I almost lost my corvette. I just I

don't think that would have happened. I think he's you know, he's old.

I mean, I'm sorry, and I know some people don't like it,

and it's uncomfortable. I understand it's uncomfortable. Look, nobody wants to

have to have that conversation with grandpa, right. This happens in many families,

and sometimes there's family arguments over who's going to be the one to do

it, Who's going to be the one to sit down with grandpa and say,

look, I think it's I think it's time you gotta give me your

car keys. You can't drive anymore. It's just time, and nobody wants

to be the one to do that because it's uncomfortable and Grandpa's feelings are going

to be hurt. The only problem is if you don't, if somebody doesn't

step up and have that conversation with Grandpa because it's uncomfortable or because you just

don't want to be agist and you're going to feel badly about it. You're

going to feel guilty. That's fine. But when you get a call one

day the grandpa got a little confused and accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the

break and drove into the front door of a seven to eleven, then you're

gonna wish you had had that conversation. You're gonna wish you could go back

in time and maybe be the one to step up and have that talk.

And listen. I'm not saying Biden should with resign or anything like that.

I'm just saying he shouldn't see seek a second term. That's all. Just

like with Grandpa. I'm not saying you have to take Grandpa's keys right now.

I'm saying, you know, if his license is expiring, maybe sometime,

you know, next year, maybe you'd tell him, Hey, why

don't you just let this one expire? And then that'll be it, you

know what I'm saying. But I mean it's and it's gotten to the point

where the media is now I've seen examples where they're they're not being as polite

about it. Now. I don't have the clip ready, I didn't.

I didn't think of it until now. I didn't remember it until now.

But Jay Tapper on CNN he had Cringejeon Pierre White House spokesperson on with him

and and he's asking her, you know, he said to her, Look,

people are worried about the president's age. And that's a little bit of

a shift. Usually the media tries to kind of whistle past the well,

not the graveyard, and the whistle pass the assisted living facilities. Should I

say it that way? But I think that's that's shifting. Melody in the

chat room says, oh, just say it. You hate old people.

No, no, no, no, no, no, listen, it

it is about age, and it's not. It is in the sense that

again I think that Look, I think that America again, whether you're on

the right or the left, no matter who you support or don't like.

I think that we can benefit from some youthful energy. And I suppose since

we keep electing older and older presidents, maybe maybe at this point, maybe

the Overton window has moved in terms of what we consider youthful. I mean

again, I feel like at this point, a young sixty five year old

whipper snapper, fresh faced, you know, Mike Pence. I think he's

sixty five. He seems like a kid compared to I mean, you know,

that makes him fifteen years younger than Joe Biden. Oh my god.

You know, but when we've had in the past, when we've had younger

presidents, there has been I've noticed a sort of sense of it does have

a positive effect. I think, you know, when Bill Clinton was elected,

I remember hearing a lot of that, A lot was made of that

alwa's young, He's he's in his mid forties. He's young, and that

might be a good thing, that might give us a little boost, especially

when part of why Bill Clinton was elected was, you know, because of

the recession we were in, and the same one Obama was elected. And

I'm sure, I mean this was before I was around, but when JFK

was elected you know, another another one only in his mid forties, you

know. And and of course people said at the time, you know,

some people thought he might be too young. But now I got us through

the Cuban missile crisis, So turns out he was the man for the job,

right, So so I think there's a lot to be said for that,

you know. I mean, there's a lot to be said for wisdom

and experience too. But man, he's not I mean, I'm sorry,

but he's he's not looking to spry. Scott Robinson in the chat says,

I heard the sources Rudy Giuliani. There's some some news and he just sent

me Giuliani. We'll probably get to it later. Juliani's been he lost a

civil suit over his defaming of in Georgia. I'm forgetting their names now,

Shay Moss and Ruby Freeman. Yes, Scott Robinson says, boy that trump

Shire is one hell of a guy. We should all thank him by sending

him a cash donation, referring to Trump's martyrdom. Yes. But so circling

back to what halper And said today, So halper In claims, and if

you're just joining us, Mark Halperin said this to day on Michael Smerconish's radio

show, that he has high level sources close to President Joe Biden who are

saying that Biden is actually quietly but he is reconsidering his run for a second

term and may in fact get out now. That would be fascinating to see

what happens next. And they did talk about that too, Smerconish and helper

And did explore some of that, and we'll get to that in a moment

too. I'm trying to you know, I was in the car driving when

I was listening to this, so I could couldn't write it down or anything.

I'm doing this from memory. But but helper And said, there's a

specific line of persuasion that people are using to try to get bied and to

change his mind. And what they're what they're saying to him is look,

this is how they're trying to convince him. They're saying, Look, your

legacy is secure. You you were able to beat Trump in twenty twenty,

so you got Trump out of there, you got the vaccines distributed, so

you got us through the pandemic. We have a growing economy. You know,

You've passed some So he's got a few big legislative accomplishments under his belt.

You got us out of Afghanistan. Although we're going to come back to

that. This month is a two year anniversary of our withdrawal from Afghanistan.

We're going to come back to that. But but again, if you if

you want to think of it in terms of, you know, he said

he'd get us out, and he got us out again. This is I'm

talking about what people are saying to Biden. So they're telling him, look,

here's your list of accomplishments. Your legacy is secure, so put it

in your pocket and let someone else get in here. Your legacy is secure.

You can go after this term. Because what they're also telling him is

you're taking a hell of a risk with your legacy if you stick around,

because if you do run for a second term and you lose to Trump,

what will your legacy be? Then your legacy will be you were the guy

who beat Trump in twenty twenty only to hand the White House right back over

to him four years later. That will be your legacy, mister president,

That will be your legacy. And that is the risk you take. And

from what Mark Halperin was saying today, that message might actually be getting through

to him because he is. In fact, according to him, he says

he's got high level sources telling him Biden is reconsidering. Now, then we

get to and that was the substance of what halper And had to say,

the crux of it. But then he and Smerconish got into a discussion about

well what will that mean, because it will be fascinating. Melanie says that

actually makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I mean, he's risking everything

if he stays, and he could lose. Don't think for a second he

can't lose sit Trump. I know there's this idea out there among some Democrats,

by the way, that oh no, you know, Biden, he

beat Trump once, he'll beat him again, no problem. If anything,

this time it will be even easier because of all the criminal indictments. Remember,

doesn't go by popular vote. It goes by the electoral college. That

can screw you up. So for you know, just ask Hillary Clinton,

right, she beat Trump in twenty sixteen by three million votes, But in

the end it doesn't matter. We don't decide this by popular vote. Also,

even with all of the baggage that Trump has, you know, with

four criminal indictments. I'd say that's some baggage and all the other things that

even a lot of Republicans don't like about him. Even with all of that,

Joe Biden, and you know, we should mention this too because it

relates Mitch McConnell. If you didn't know, it just happened a couple of

hours ago. Apparently today Mitch McConnell froze up again for thirty seconds. He

froze up, and I'll explain how this relates to Biden. But he froze

up. He was asked if he intends to seek reelection at the end of

his current term, and he froze up. He locked up, couldn't talk

for thirty seconds. And Jenny and I were watching the video of that,

and I said to Jenny, I said, well, actually he did answer

the question by freezing up like that. That answers the question. Not to

be flipping about it. I'm just saying, though, that answers the question.

The answer clearly is no, because that's the second time, and we

never got an explanation about the first time. We still don't know why he

locked up the first time. How does that relate to Biden? Biden's only

one year younger than Mitch McConnell and Biden. If anything like that happens to

Joe Biden, can you imagine I've said this before, if in the middle

of a debate, say he's debating Trump and Biden freezes up like that,

or in the middle of a speech, or even even if it doesn't happen

publicly, it could happen in private. It could happen in the White House,

but then it leaks out, it gets out into the media that had

happened he's done. Anything like that happens, He's done. Mike Doyle's online.

Hi Mike, heymen, aymen, Hey, yeah, you had a

perfect segue to one of my two things I wanted to talk to you about.

But the first was the first was we were talking about age. The

you know, we're so polar opposite in our in our politics that you know,

all the Republicans run to their behive and all of the Democrats run to

their behive when they're in the Senate, in the Congress. That and nobody's

looking out for the states that they actually are representing, and we're voted to

represent and the and nobody wants to lose one of those numbers in each in

each haul, you know what I mean. Let me take, for instance,

Diane Feinstein. Democrats are crazy worried about losing her vote. But it's

been reported in multiple sources that in a meeting last week or two weeks ago,

she turned to a colleague and said, where am I? Oh?

Yeah, you know what I mean, Mike, there's been there's actually there.

There's actually been a whole bunch of stories about Feinstein. Yeah, she

it is. It is unbelievable that she's there. She should have resigned.

I mean, how long was she out because it was months and months right

that she was out. Yeah, she should have she should have resigned when

after being out for a month. But part of there, there's there's another

ulterior motive, though specifically with Feinstein. I think Adam Schiff wants I think

Adam Schiff has something to do with it. I think he wants her there

because if she does resign and Governor Gavin Newsom has to then appoint somebody,

and a shift is worried about losing his opportunity to run for that seat.

So I think Schiff wants her sticking around is part of the problem. And

he obviously has some influence in that, but yeah, she shouldn't. It's

it's beyond an excusable and it's actually cruel. It's cruel to her. She

doesn't even know where she is, and they and they're propping her up like

weekend at Bernie's. It's really it's disgusting in so many ways, Mike,

it's awful. Yeah, I agree, I agree, and I'm not that's

not from a writer, it's from me. Yeah, you're right about cruel.

You see him, you see him wheeling her down the hallway, and

she's looking around like a my aunt Disney World. Yeah, you know what

I mean. And and you feel bad for the lady. She did a

lot of good things. You know, she was always considered a staunch Democrat

and a staunch senator, you know what I mean, and and did probably

over the years many many good things. But now the representation she's getting our

giving is probably nil at this point. And just you know, they probably

when it's time for a vote, they hold up her hand to say,

raise your hand, you know, and well, you know, probably doesn't

even know what she's voting for. It. Well, you know, Mike,

as you say that too, It reminds me, you know, because

yeah, she has a hell of a career, whether you agree with her

or not, a hell of a career, and that should be her legacy.

But when, but when she but you know, eventually, when she

passes away. Not to be you know, again, not to be cold

about it, but let's be honest, when she passes away, for a

lot of people, her legacy will be, oh yeah, she's the woman

who had to be wheeled around and didn't didn't know where she was at the

end. That will end up being her legacy. Because of what's happening now

and the way they're propping her up. It's it's really sad, it is.

That's too bad, you know what I mean, right or wrong,

whether you like her politics or not, she put in the service for her

fellow man, and that's that's right, you know what I mean, that's

the right thing. And you're right if she gets a legacy. She was

a mess down the stretch. But my second point, you were talking about

Biden and running again real quick. The I don't know if you've heard the

tapes that have come out in the last two days, but they now have.

They're deciding to release some tapes that they have of Biden talking to Ukraine

officials, and the one they the one they put out today, at the

very end, it's it's after they realize, you know, he thought he

could do all this because Hillary was going to win, and when Trump ended

up winning, now he had to scramble to back covers, you know what,

backside to what all of what all the money and stuff going on.

And now a tape has come out where he's telling the Ukraine official, you

better get you better come through with what your promises were. And at the

very end it says you will be sorry both economically and physically. And I

don't know they've been playing it on Fox News and stuff, but it's a

tape of Biden's kind of threatening Ukraine officials once Trump. I'd love you to

dig into Biden someday here and it's his stuff because it's pretty deep. So

I don't you know about running again. I don't think he's gonna make it.

He's going to be in too much trouble. And even if he does

make it, the amount of scandal around him that is, you know,

smoke. Well, I'm sure turn off some people independently and on the left,

so I don't think he's going to do it again. He's too deep

into this mess, so I don't see it. And right now it's kind

of weird. The Democrats don't want to step nobody's everybody's afraid to step up

and say I'm going to run against him? And why is that? Well

that why isn't somebody like that? Yeah, well, that's that's very difficult

because if somebody because it's very very difficult to unseat and incumbent, and I

mean the closest I've seen to it in my lifetime and it's still not even

close, is uh, well, I should I can think of a couple

of examples where somebody might have had had a shot but didn't get really too

far, one being Teddy Ken trying to unsee Jimmy Carter and the other being

uh Pat Buchanan, who came damn close. I think statistically it was a

tie actually to beating George H. W. Bush in the New Hampshire primary

in ninety two. But it's it's it's a risk because whoever does that,

whoever puts really kind of puts their neck out and tries to do that,

they probably won't be successful. And then they're going to be a pariah because

that within the party, because they'll be seen as having done damage to Biden

on the way to the general election. It's it's very risky. I mean,

in principle, I agree with you, Mike. I think someone should.

I just don't think they will because from just from a political standpoint,

it's too risky. Yeah, I understand that's the status quo, but when

you're dealing with somebody that hash the things going on in some of the scandals

raring around him and his son, I think I think maybe the Democrats would

say, would pool around the new guy and say, you know what,

you know, if Biden runs again, we have a shot of losing the

election because there's a lot of people center and left that just don't want the

age thing. So if we have a new guy, wouldn't people surround him

and go, listen, this guy's got some underneath here. He's stepping up

to the plate saying, you know, it's time, it's time for some

younger leadership, you know what I mean? And there are some good centric

Democrats that that could stand up. But I guess I know it's it's a

status quo thing. You never do it. But this is a very interesting

situation, you know what I mean. The guy, the guy's not far

from a wheelchair cognitive cognitively, you know, we see him struggling in the

news a little bit. I don't know. I just think that somebody knew

might get that wave of oh good, we got we have an alternative.

Right now, he's kind of screwing the party saying I'm I'm running for Nobody

else is coming out and nobody else is getting out there in front of the

PubL saying what they can do for this country and what they you know,

what their principles are, and what's they're So you know what if Biden waits

till the last minute and a month before since I'm not running, he's very

doesn't help pademic. Yeah, well, it's like I've said all along,

he's very selfish in my opinion, He's putting himself ahead of everybody else and

and it's, uh, it's horrible, but it's it's so it's so hard

though to get you know, I mean, you see the same thing on

the right, you know, I hear people, I hear some of the

some of the Republicans who really want to move on from Trump. I often

hear complaining about how, you know, if only we could get some of

these other candidates to drop out, and then if we had one candidate who

was opposing Trump, then maybe that candidate would have a shot at defeating him

and getting somebody new in there. But but it's, but it's the same

thing. It's it's so hard to get people to want to want to do

that, want to take that step. I mean, it's it's it's a

it's a different situation, but the but the core premise is the same.

It's really hard to get to that objective and overcome the status quo. Oh

I agree, yeah, agree, But yeah, I would think secretly,

behind doors, they'd be going good. You know, somebody's gonna I don't

think a lot of Democrats want him running again. It's just too much.

No, No, seventy seven. The most recent poll that I saw,

seventy percent of Democrats do not want Biden. That, I mean, that's

and I've never seen I don't recall ever. I mean, again, it's

not unheard of for a party to be unhappy with their incumbent, But seventy

percent, I've never seen anything like that. But but again, I think

if if what Mark Halpern says is true, then it sounds like that might

be really weighing on him. I mean, the poor guy. I mean,

you know, seventy percent. You know, he's got to be going,

jeez, I don't know. I don't know if I should be doing

this, you know what I mean, if he has any if he has

any conscience. Yeah, So, mathematically, the guy who steps up to

not follow the status quo and say I'm running and technically gets somewhere around seventy

percent of a vote, if they're going to stick with their party. To

see what I'm saying, Oh I do, Yeah, I walks into it.

Guy walks into a pretty hard number. Yeah. But there's that machine,

you know, and and the DNC, you know, and the d

n C I'm sure wants to stick with Biden, because that's just what the

DNC does. They like the status quo. When we had Mary Ann Williams

and on now, let's let's be realistic. Mary Ann Williamson, she's running

for the Democratic nomination. She's no actual threat to Biden whatsoever, but she's

talked about on She didn't get into it much here, but when I saw

her interview on The Young Turks. She talked about how the DNC they actually

do consider her a threat because they mess with her at every opportunity. Like

she's had events planned where she's got vendors who are going to be at her

campaign event, and then she gets a call at the last minute from a

vendor saying, oh, sorry, something came up and we're not going to

be able to We're not gonna be able to cater your event after all.

And it's like, really, something came up at the last minute, and

she knows, she knows why it's happening because the DNC, you know,

they put that they put that boot on your neck if you even dare challenge

the front. Look at what they did to Hillary when when it looked like

Bernie, when it looked like Bernie Sanders might actually take her down. And

I should say, look what they did to Bernie, rather look what they

did for it. I was going to say that the Bie, right,

Yeah, I mean they you know, they they screwed with him at every

opportunity because he was a threatned Hillary was a status quo candidate. Yeah,

you know what, you know what I found amazing is all I hear about

Williamson. And I really never looked her up because she's a Democrat. But

but you hear a lot of people calling her at kouk and I listened to

her. I listened to the full interview on the show, and she was

everything but a kop. Yeah, it was hitting on all the topics that,

you know, helping out people in the street, helping out homeless,

helping people who can't afford heat help. You know, I'm like, great,

that's good, that's perfect, that's good. You know, I'm sitting

there going where are these people calling her a kuk? And I don't know

if that's a DNC or not, but yeah, well I know I know

where that came from originally, because if you she's an author, and I

mean, that's what she's famous for originally, and uh, if you look

at some of the books that she's written, there's a lot of stuff about

crystals and metaphysical stuff. So so she kind of has had that stigma attached

to her. And I didn't even know. I mean, that was kind

of what I thought too when I first saw her in those debates back in

twenty twenty. It wasn't until I saw her actually sit down for a long

form interview with somebody where I said, oh, she's actually no, she's

not a coup. She's actually very impressive and really knows her stuff. But

but yeah, she's got the stigma of those books that she's written, so

might have a little kookiness in her. Yeah. I remember one time she

was going to settle everything by love, Love Love, was going to settle

all the world problems. You know, that might be a little off the

rails, but yeah, but yeah, I was surprised. I was surprised

how old she was too. I didn't realize she was in her seventies.

Yeah, I didn't. I didn't realize it either. Yeah, she looks

great in person. She doesn't. She does not look her age. One

last thing that real quick that I don't think people are understanding this Vivic Ramaswami.

He's the only one that's come out and said I will pardon Trump on

all charges if I become president. So how smart is he if he gets

in or if he if Trump gets it in trouble, where do you think

all the people voting for Trump are gonna go? They're gonna go to the

guy who said he's going to pardon them on all charges. You know,

he's my guy, that vivic you know what I mean, He's just I

don't know, I'm just that's a pretty smart move that if he goes down

and then I heard Trump Trump talking about it, he'd be a great vice

president. Well that's what I yeah, that's that's what I think the game

really is. I think from Vivek's standpoint, I think he uh, I

think he's It's like I said the about the debate, I called it the

vice presidential debate, because you know, you've got a stage full of people

who I mean some of them obviously aren't going to be vice president. But

but I think I think that that might be the Christie won't be or or

Mike Pence. Uh but yeah, uh, or even or even Asa Hutchinson.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, Vivek is interesting. Uh, We're

he's taken some some he said some pretty interesting things. We're trying to get

him booked on the show. I know Jenny's talking to the campaign, so

you might seem that would be that would be fantastic. You might see him

on the show. Sid everybody know that that I know in my circles to

listen and watch because that would be fantastic. My my dad was a present.

Yeah, he's an impressive guy, thirty seven years old and he's built

two businesses that come out over billion dollars in worth. I don't know.

He's a smart guy, you know what I mean. You may hate some

of the little things, but look at the big picture. He's he's young

and smart. Well he said. He said a lot of things that I

certainly don't agree with. For example, is on Ukraine. I mean,

he sounds like he's just chomping at the bit to uh hand Ukraine over to

Russia, and I don't I don't agree with that. But what he was

saying, mainly, what he's saying is why are we spending all this mution

on money on Ukraine when we should be spending it on the southern border where

we're getting torched with criminals and sentinel and destroying our country. So that was

one of his points. But it doesn't sound I know everybody has, but

don't let one argument, you know what, tur you from the big picture.

There's there's there's other things too, but oh yeah, yeah, certainly.

But I'm a I'm of a political square peg, so no one's gonna

make me happy anyway. Now with that, now, with that ahead,

are you kidding me? That's right, that's right, I'll talk to I

shouldn't talk about heads. Mine's pretty big too. Well, yeah, it's

an Irish thing, all right, thanks for the call, Mike, Right,

all right, bye bye, all right, very good. Always nice

here from Mike. And that does open up the studio line for you.

Six zo three two five six seven six three two five o six zoh seven.

No, it's true, though, Irish people we have big heads.

I didn't realize it until I was back in the nineties. I just somehow

I'd never thought of it. And I was watching Conan O'Brien. This was

back when he first had his show on NBC UH in the twelve thirty slot,

and I was a big Conan fan. I mean, I still am.

But but he made a joke about having about how Irish people have big

heads. He was making a joke about his own head was Halloween, and

he was some sort of a joke about how he walks around. He's basically

got a jackal lantern on his head because Irish people have big heads. And

I honestly, until that moment, I had never thought about it. And

then I was like, wait a minute, do I have a big head?

And I remember getting up and going into the bathroom and looking at my

head and I'm like, oh my god, I actually do I have a

really big head. I guess it's true. And then I started looking at

other Irish people like or I remember I used to watch Hardball with Chris Matthews

and I was like, I'm watching Hardball one night after that and I'm like,

yeah, actually he has a big head. He's got a big,

round head. So yeah, I think it's an Irish thing. I mean,

I just I like to say I look like a South Park character with

this big head. But I think part of it is we need large heads

to hold our enormous brains. So there is there is that. Oh Jenny

said in the chat room, Mike, if you're still listening, you should

call a Veigs campaign to lobby for him to appear. Yeah. I wouldn't

hurt to put a bug in the ear about the shows. You know,

call the campaign, say you're a supporter, and uh say, you know,

you think he should come on my program? That would certainly help.

I do think as we get closer, as we get more in de falls.

As we get closer to primary season, we will start being able to

get more candidates on, even if not in studio because obviously they have busy

schedules, but even on the phone or via Skype. I think that you

know, I mean, this show is not exactly household name. I realized

that. But we are in Manchester, New Hampshire, so we're in the

largest city in the first in the nation primary state. If we still have

the first in the nation primary, I don't even know at this point do

we still have the first in the nation primary. I certainly hope so we

better. I'm gonna be very bitter if we don't. Oh a lot of

Facebook chat comments here, Probably we'll have to carry this conversation over into the

second hour after the break because there's more that Mark Halperin had to say this

morning when he was on Michael Smerconich's shown smirk Smirkanich on his program because they

talked about scenarios if Biden does decide not to run for a second term.

Uh, let's see here. I just want to look at the Facebook live

chat comments quickly. See. Melanie said it is so insane the amount of

money he is raising I'm not sure. I assume you're referring to Trump Trump

that mug shot alone. I think he's raised well over seven million dollars at

this point, So that's what I mean about, you know, as far

as the nomination just gets him closer and closer to the nomination. Well,

by the way, I should address to the audio that Mike was talking about.

I haven't heard any of that yet, so I'll have to I'll have

to check that out and in context and whatnot. The audio of Biden.

I haven't seen or heard any of that yet. Let's see this one.

Who Okay, So Scott Robinson says in the chat room, how about he

gets rid of Kamala Kamala Harris, gets Gavin Newsome as his veep, wins

and then steps down in a year and Gavin Newsome becomes president. Seems like

a win win. Well, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about that

in the second hour, Scott, we'll talk about some potential scenarios. Because

Mark Halperin did address some of that. Melanie said, referring to Diane Feinstein,

that is so disgusting that she is still in office. Yeah. Absolutely,

it's sad. It's just sad to watch that. It's horrible and and

and that's gonna end up being her legacy. That's what people are going to

you know, after she's gone. I don't even mean necessarily after she passes

away, but after she does finally retire. I assume she's not going to

be able to run for reelection after she's gone. You know, that's you

know, for younger people at least, maybe not for older people who who

can remember her career and her accomplishments. And she, like I said,

I mean, hell of a career. There's no denying that. But but

you know, younger people who are newer to politics, especially in California where

she is a senator, they're gonna, I mean, for for a whole

generation of people, that's gonna be the first thing they think of when they

think of Diane Feinstein, when they hear her name. They're going to think

of of of this woman who clearly is in no condition to be there,

probably not physically and certainly not mentally, and who should have been replaced by

now. Part of the problem is too, why this happens. Why you

know, again, not to be agist, but we have to talk about

this stuff or it just will go on. The reason these people, and

you can apply this to Diane Feinstein or Nancy Pelosi, or Joe Biden or

Mitch McConnell who you know, just froze up again today. The reason these

people become so entrenched is because the establishment helps to keep them there because the

only way you can take them out is in a primary. And by the

way, you can successfully primary someone, It happens, but it doesn't happen

a whole lot. But we have seen in history, we have seen examples

where well, like when the Tea Party movement rose up on the Republican side,

you did see a few establishment Republicans go down, like Eric Canter for

example, by these tea partiers who came in and were able to challenge the

status quo. But it takes money to do that. So these establishment politicians

who have been in their jobs for literally for decades in some cases, for

most of their adult lives. Joe Biden's been in Washington for I mean obviously

he was a Senator and then he was a Veep and then president. He's

been in Washington for fifty years. What happens? I mean, how long

has Mitch McConnell been a senator decades. Right, what happens is they're the

establishment. So other parts of the establishment the donors, which is who these

people really work for. Right, don't ever forget that the donors, you

know, that's where they put their money. So when someone tries to change

challenge and incumbent and establishment incumbent, they get out spent. And in politics,

whoever has the most money usually not always, but very often wins.

I mean, you know, not necessarily if it's one person has a little

bit more money in their campaign coffers than the other, But if one candidate

has a lot more money in their campaign coffers than the other, then they

usually win. And so these people are they can be controlled by the donors.

You know, it's a symbiotic relationship. Right. Once you get power,

you have to keep the power. And at that point it becomes more

about keeping the power than doing the people's business anyway. Right, So the

donors pay for you. They spend the money to make sure that the voters

keep you in power. So they spend that money on you, and then

you're beholden to them, and you know, it's a money go around,

as you know, that's a kink's reference. But and that's why, that's

why we have eighty and ninety year old people in Congress and in the Senate,

and in this case we haven't. He's gonna be eighty one in November,

an eighty one year old president. That's why. Let's see here.

Oh, Mike from Queen City Cabinetry has joined us in the Facebook live chat.

Hello, Queen City Cabinetry, one of our race sponsors here at WMNH.

And I get to hang out with Mike on Friday nights for retro Spectrum

Radio with Paul C. Also, I see easyg has joined us in the

Facebook live chat, and Rondo Favero says, howdy from really Hot California.

Ah, yes, all right, we are past the top of the hour,

so let's do this. Uh, we're gonna take a little break,

play a little something. I haven't played any Dust Profit in a while.

Let's play this track from Dust Profit. This usually gets a good, good

reaction from people. Oh, actually I should play one of the newer tracks.

Maybe I'll play the High Capital. That would be uh, or bury

me before noon? Uh m hmm, I'll play the High Capital. It

fits. Let's give this a listen and uh, and then we'll show some

love to our amazing sponsors, and then we'll be back with our number two

numerodos of Matt Connerton Unleashed. And I want to talk more about what Mark

Halperin had to say to Michael Smerconish on his radio show today, very very

interesting regarding the candidacy of President Joe Biden. So there is plenty more to

come. Don't go away, here's here's some dust. Profit wellcome back everybody,

as we are well in our number two New Merrow dose of Matt Connerton

Unleashed. And we are live from the studios of w m n H ninety

five point three FM in glorious downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, and it is

a glorious day outside. Also on Comcast channel six if you are in Manchester,

and hello to Olive our online listeners across the nation and around the globe.

You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all of your

live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, et

cetera, et cetera. Today is Wednesday, August thirtieth, twenty twenty three.

The studio line is open if you'd like to join us a six zero

three two five zero six O seven six zero three two five zero six zero

seven. You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven four

four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can email

me Matt at Matt Connerton dot com, and of course you can interact endo

Pine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do so that

we can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones is to give us a call at

six zo three two five zero six zero seven six zo three two five zero

six zero seven. By the way, Rondo Ferverro from California said in the

chat room, Wow, boom, these guys rock with a pink Floyd flavor

at the slower tempo beginning of the song. Yeah, that was the high

Capital is the name of the track, and the band is Dust Profit and

we've had we've featured Dust Profit on the Actually we play their music quite often.

And great band, great live band. They're gonna be I believe they're

gonna be at Swarmy Fest, the second annual Swarmy Fest coming up in November,

and we're a part of that too. Really excited about that. Jenny

and I will be there of course representing, and but yeah, dust Profit

is really really good live Otto is a very intense front man. John Hopwood

has joined us in the Facebook live chat. John Hopwood says Gavin Newsom's a

blank hole just like Kamala Harris Bay Area petty bourgeois trash, my goodness,

and also said people who vote should be punished. On second thought, they

are oh all right, oh. John also said is Joel doing Joe Biden

impressions? Now? Yes, so Joe Biden President Joe Biden relating to the

people. You don't he almost lost his corvette in that fire, Dear lord.

Jenny called him a tone deaf elitist. I think it's just look,

it's an eighty year old man behaving like an eighty year old man. I

hate to say it. I hate to say it, but I said it

for the entire first hour, I suppose. Anyway, let me give the

studio line one more time and then we'll pick up where we left off.

But six zero three two five six seven six two five six seven, So

if you're just joining us in the second hour, what we've been talking about

today is I was listening to Michael Smerconish's radio program earlier and Mark Halperin was

on the show and according to halper And, high level sources are telling him

who are close to the president are telling him that Biden is reconsidering his decision

to run for a second term and may in fact announce a change change of

mind on the matter. And that gets us into what they also talked about.

Going from there. It was a fascinating conversation to listen to. They

speculated on what might happen next, assuming if and I'm skeptical that it's going

to happen, but Halperin says, and I should just actually, we'll we

have a call. We'll grab this first. Hi, welcome to Matt Connerton.

Unleash. Who's this? John C. Hopwood? John C. Hopwood?

What does the C stand for hunting runt ah? Be careful with that?

Yes, welcome to the show, John. Yes, yes, that

is a punchline to a joke. Yes, yes, not for you know,

terrestrial radio. Correct what's going on? I'm you sound so low?

I sound low? Yeah, as in my phone is just I was I

was a calling on my own show today, so and everything was fine with

that line, but you sound the very like the volume is low. Oh,

I thought I thought you meant my voice sounded low. My voice has

been you know, our voices get deeper as we get older. If you

haven't noticed, I thought you were referring to that. You haven't noticed my

voice is deep. No, your voice isn't deep. And I would assume

that if you were going to misread what I said, which is incomprehensible to

me, that you'd think that I would be thinking of your mood is low.

No, I my mood is fine, but my voice is deep.

So I was just calling in because you know, I was talking to Gonzo

for fifteen minutes while he was doing the painting on my show. Oh,

I mean, I'm here at the in the theater watching the Ferrari movie.

And what is it that you're getting back to. Well, So I was

listening to Michael Smerconish today his radio program, and Mark Halperin was on,

and according to Mark halper And, he's got high level sources who are telling

him that President Joe Biden is reconsidering and possibly will not be running for a

second term after all. And part of what is going into that decision is

trying to figure out what the course of action will be if he doesn't fact

decide not to run. Will he endorse Kamala Harris? Will he try to

find will they try to find someone else, try to figure out how to

get Kamala Harris out of there, maybe offer her a spot on the Supreme

Court if someone retires. They went through a bunch of different buffoons on the

court. What's one more? Huh? Well, you know, see,

I lived in California and these people would just jokes. Yeah, you are.

La Harris is t Oba man, tough on black asses. She's put

more black men in jail than George Wallace, Lestermadox orvill Fabus. You know,

these old gracist governors from the South could ever dream of. That's how

besides sleeping with Willie Brown, the mayor of San Francisco, who was very

powerful that he's a former Speaker of the California Assembly but he got term limited

out. That's her claimed the same man. And you know the time server,

So you are clearly not a fan. And Gavin Newsom's just oh my

god, what a lightweight. Well, I don't know, did you see

the last Walks? Did you see his interview on Sean Hannity's program. He

actually even some Republicans acknowledged that Newsom seemed to handle himself particularly well. He

impressed some people. No, yes, because you know all this uh stuff,

all this uh what we talked about years ago when we had back to

back shows and I had the all this Huxley commentary about how television taking over

politics would be a disaster. That the guy is an entertainer that is able

to memorize his line, kind of like another guy from California who I actually

shook hands do with Ronald Reagan. Oh now we got the train movie coming

through. Huh where are you? Yes, the Ferrari is the new the

new motion picture from Michael Mann, which I'm sure Eric kilch is all excited

about that. But I mean, just first off, from what you say,

nobody's reporting the story. Well, this just broke today, Mark halper

and would be all over. Mark Halperin went on Michael Smerconish and revealed this

for the first time today. This is breaking news that's not going to happen.

I'm skeptical as well, but it is interesting that this is the first

I've heard that he was actually considering or reconsidering his run, and part of

what Halperin says is what people behind the scenes have been telling Biden his Look,

your legacy is secure, and you risk it all by running for a

second term, because if you lose to Trump, your legacy will be that

you're the guy who beat Trump and then gave the White House back to him

four years later. And you don't want that to be your legacy. Take

what you have now and put it in your pocket and get ready to move

on and make way for somebody new. What legacy Because Joe Biden, that's

a rather remarkable statement. He's got a forty percent approval rating. Yeah,

I think in terms of legacy, and Halperin talked about some of it,

you know, uh, well, right, but on the positive side.

In other words, if you're talking to Joe Biden, then you're talking to

him about his legacy, and you want him to feel good. You're gonna

mention things like beating Trump, getting the vaccines distributed, getting us through the

pandemic, the vaccines who are distributed under Trump too. Oh at the end

of yeah, you're right at the end. No, But I'm saying,

John, if you're talking to Joe Biden, and you're trying to be and

you're trying to get him to be happy with what he's accomplished so he can

move on. You're gonna mention getting us through the pandemic, getting vaccines out,

uh, some some of the legisla lation that he got past, things

like that, and you're gonna because you're trying to talk him into being comfortable

with that and being comfortable enough to walk away versus risking it all by losing

the Trump which is a very real possibility. Mark Halpern was part of no

Label. Yes, he was right, Yeah, they say is part of

they were gonna you know, people were talking about, oh, no labels.

He's going to put up Joe Manchon from West Virginia, Joe Manchon and

the guy from Utah. They were gonna throw this will throw the election to

Trump. So but he's less no labels. So what is Mark Halpern actually

up to? Well, I think he continues to try to rehabilitate his career

because he h as I'm sure you recall he was fired from MDS NBC News

for allegations of sexual harassment, right, So is he somebody as a story

sweet even freaking listened to it. I don't see why not. I don't

know of any journalistic scandals, particularly that he's had or I mean, Smerkanish

trusts him, and I like Smerconish. I don't know if you're a fan

of his, but I don't know who they. I don't even know who

that is. Oh you don't know Michael Smerconish. You might enjoy him.

I generally get my news straight. What does that mean? I don't like

to read opinion pieces? Okay, Well, Smerconish is uh, I was

saying earlier. He's the radiohead. He's uh, yeah, he's uh.

He has a show that air's weekday afternoons, and he's he worked in the

George H. W. Bush administration, but he left the Republicans and became

an independent. I think it was during the Iraq War because he was so

upset with WA's foreign policy. So he left the party at that point.

And he's probably about the closest thing you'll find to a genu Win centrist in

political talk radio. So he's got a talk show. Yeah, is it

on serious? It is? Yeah, it's it's on satellite, but I

think it's also syndicated. On terrestrial radio two. I think. But well,

a quick look at a quick search shows that in twenty nineteen in the

Atlantic that he was peddling that idea. Back in twenty nineteen that Joe Biden

was thinking of moving on. So it's just it's outlandis first of all to

win the This is learned from reading many books, including The Great Petty White

to the Making of the President. When you win, when you win the

presidency, it's such a backbreaking I'd better use another word that began with B.

But you know, I know you're on FM radio right back breaking process.

You've actually won something, You've taken possession of it. It's like your

property and it comes with power. One of the reasons that are Robert F.

Kennedy, the real Robert F. Kennedy, uh Bobby Kennedy, Jack

Kennedy's brother felt he had to run in sixty eight was because and he felt,

you know, one of the things when Johnson took over the presidency have

the assassination. You know, it's like there's a theme of well, this

is something the Kennedy's won and build and now it's gone to him a pretender.

Of course, if LB J Hadsen on the ticket. They might have

lost Texas, but that's another thing they wouldn't have won. But r f

K thought they the logic was, if he waited to seventy two, the

last remnants of the Kennedy machine would have bet would be would be gone.

But there were still Kennedy loyalists, not just in the federal government, in

state governments that they built up relations with from fifty six to the sixty election.

And we're building still building six in November sixty three when JFK got killed.

Remember, Nixon came back from a political death by you know, sixty

two when he lost the goober litorial campaign California. They's not even done right,

but he came back because from sixty three through the end of sixty seven

he went to every Republican dinner every state, you know, and just just

like a New Hampshire primary, you know, they go door to door,

they meet everybody. Build these things. And my point is is it's a

it's it's power, but it's a property that you've won at great cost to

yourself. That's why would Joe Biden give up Paul? Why would he give

up this property he's made it to the catbird seat. You and I never

thought we'd see him in the presidency a few years ago. True, but

I just don't see it happening. I don't think it's likely. But but

he is eighty years old. And you know, I've been talking too about

Mitch McConnell froze up again, and he's only a year older than Biden.

And I'm sure people are looking. Maybe people are too polite to say it,

but I'm sure there's people who are thinking, Wow, look what's happening

to Mitch McConnell. What if that starts happening to Biden? And I always

say, John, it's only gonna take once. If anything like that happens

to Joe Biden publicly, whether it be and worst case scenario, if it

happened during a debate with Trump or during a speech, that's gonna be it.

I mean, that's gonna be it. He happened to happen to Ronald

Reagan the first debate in eighty four. That's true. Here's the other that's

true. Yeah, nineteen forty four, they knew FDR was dying. They

knew he was dying, but they had to run him again to win for

the Democrats to win, but they had a problem. Henry Wallace was a

Republican, but most people don't realize he used to be progressive Republicans, the

Ted Teddy Roosevelt right up to like the Nelson Rockefellers, so there was a

progressive strain there. So he was a very eccentric Liberal. And he was

the vice president because John Nance Garner, the former Speaker of the House who

was it for eight years, expected to become president. You get your nomination

in forty so he had to be getting rid of But what do you do

you have this guy who's a vice president in nineteen forty four, the vice

president FDR's vice president is going to become president. Everybody knows, So what

do you do? You have a guy that nobody trusts. They brought in

little lone Harry Truman, but he was known from his almost twelve years in

the Senate being a hard worker and somebody that could be relied on and had

innate gifts, and he indeed, what was it, within a month,

became well he forty five was the first year. Yeah, in April forty

five. He became president three months after the inauguration. So the whole play

really is Kamala Harris is not going to win the presidency, and neither is

Gavin Newsom. Your best bet is Biden. If you have the only way

Biden wins, does everybody say, is Trump? Right, You've got to

win the presidency, so you keep Biden. But who is going to be

your vice president? Because that's the person that like he's gonna be president within

a few couple of years, right right. I think that's the real issue,

and I'll give you back your show. All right, John, Well,

I appreciate the call. Thank you for a stimulating conversation. I think

Mark Halpern is cracking walnuts with this. Pis pusteria that the real discussion going

on right now is what the vice president say. Well that they did get

into that actually, but so ill. Okay, I'll regurgitate some of what

I heard today. If you put a link up on one of your pages,

I'd love to hear this. Yeah, I'll see if I can find

a link. Absolutely, Okay, take care of Matt. All right,

John, talk to you later. Thanks for the call, Bye bye.

All right. That was the great John C. Hopwood. That does open

up the line for you. Six zero three two five zero six seven six

zero three two five zero six zero seven if you'd like to call in Scott

Robinson, and the chat says, when the heck is Hopwood getting back in

studio, the people need him. Yes, well he's always welcome, but

uh yeah, sometimes sometimes we don't see him for a few weeks, but

always nice to see him when we do. But that was so the vice

presidency. Yeah, so that was part. That was a big part of

the conversation on Smerconish's show with Mark Halperin because they were talking about so if

Biden, here's the thing. So let's say Biden decides he's not running,

he needs to hurry up and announce that he's changed his mind if that is

the decision, Because if you know, unless Kamala Harris is going to be

the one to take that mantle of nominee, because the longer he waits,

if there is an announcement forthcoming, the longer he waits, the harder it's

going to be for someone else to begin a camp pain to be the nominee.

So it's probably going to have to be her. Now. The other

interesting this part I found particularly fascinating. Mark Halperin also talked about how Biden

apparently wasn't thrilled with how he was treated when he was vice president by President

Barack Obama. And I've read a lot of this over the years about how

the whole that whole bromance thing, the idea that they were like really tight,

isn't entirely true. They certainly had a bond of friendship, and I

think Obama even loaned or gave Biden some money to help with his mortgage at

one point or something, because all of Biden's money was going to going to

helping his son, Bobiden with whatever what her insurance wouldn't pay for as far

as his cancer treatments. When Bo Biden, his son was dying of brain

cancer at the age of forty six, passing away from brain cancer, so

I think Obama actually helped him out. But this was interesting, so I

thought, and this is what Smerconish had said too, because the narrative,

at least publicly, had always kind of been. In fact, I remember

when Biden gave the speech in the Rose Garden where he effectively announced his non

candidacy when then Vice President Joe Biden. This was of course at the end

of the Obama administration, he said that he had decided he was not going

to run. Now, Hillary Clinton was already in the race, and I

remember thinking that Biden was getting in. In fact, the night before Biden

gave that speech saying that he was not getting in, there was a superpack

or something that was raising money for Biden. That something had changed with that

that seemed to indicate that Biden was running. But the other thing was Biden

changed his story. I think he definitely was considering running because Biden changed his

story about the story had been. When Obama gave the order for the raid

in Pakistan to take out Osama bin Ladden, Biden was the naysayer in the

room who said, mister President, it's too risky. My advice is don't

do it. And Obama, of course ultimately decided to take the risk and

had paid off and they got Bin Ladden. But I remember in twenty twelve,

when Obama was running for reelection, I remember seeing campaign ads where Biden

talked about how how fantastic Obama's instincts on certain things were. Because Biden speaks

in the ad about how he didn't think it was a good idea, and

he actually told Biden, mister president, don't go. It's too risky,

and Obama went anyway, thus proving that Obama had these superior instincts. That

was the narrative at the time, and it continued to be the narrative until

just just like a few weeks before, Biden gave his Rose Garden address where

he announced his that he was not running. All of a sudden, I

see interviews online where Biden is changing his story, and the narrative went from

I told him he shouldn't, he shouldn't give the order to go to the

new version of the story was no. Actually I was very supportive. I

just told President Obama, you know this is a big decision, so please,

mister president, give it all the consideration that it deserves before you make

a final decision. But I never told him don't go. So he changed

his story, and I thought, why is he changing his story? Now?

He must be running for president. So I was sure he was running.

And then he gives the Rose Garden address where he says, basically from

what I recall, he said, my wife Jill and I were still grieving

over the loss of our son Bow. If anyone it should be Bow.

Biden running for president. And but we're still dealing with this pain. We're

not we're not through the grieving process yet. And and so because of that,

I've decided not to run for president. But over the years there's kind

of been this alternate narrative that actually, no, he did want to run,

but Obama told him not to because it's Hillary's turn. And we see

how that turned out. But who knows, I mean, if if it

had been Biden instead of Hillary, I mean, who knows if Biden would

have actually won the nomination instead of Hillary. I mean, technically, it

was not Hillary's turn. It was Biden's turn. He was a sitting vice

president. It was his turn. But Obama said, no, it's Hillary

Stern, you know. And of course she won the nomination, and she

did win the popular vote but couldn't win the presidency. So, according to

Mark Halperin, Biden is sensitive to how he treats Kamala Harris because he doesn't

like the way he was treated by Obama. He felt that Obama was kind

of putting his boot on his neck a little bit, and it was inappropriate

for Obama to pressure Biden not to run, even though Biden did heed that

pressure given to that pressure. So he doesn't want to do that to Kamala

Harris. So he wants to treat her fairly through this process if he does

decide that he's not running in terms of is it going to be her or

are they going to try to figure out a way to maneuver somebody else in

there, because she's got some negatives attached to her, some of which I

understand and some of which I think is overblown, frankly. But I found

that part fascinating what halper And said. And then I actually found this during

the break and I wanted to look at this. I didn't get a chance

to preread this, but this is from Time dot com, Time Magazine.

It's an article called why the Obama Biden bromance is a myth? And this

went up back in this this one up about a year ago, September of

twenty twenty two. But there's a specific part here that I want to look

at. Okay, so actually we should look at who's being who's being interviewed

here. Okay, So this so the author of the article, Philip Elliott,

spoke with this author Debnadetti. Debnadetti, that's hard to say I'm just

gonna. I'm just gonna, referred to him as D spoke with D about

his book titled The Long Alliance The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

Which sounds interesting, But I want to go to a specific point in

this interview that I find germane to the issue. Okay, so Elliot says

to D going forward a little bit, Biden's decision in twenty sixteen was as

painful for those of us on the outside as it was on the inside.

It was not easy for Obama to watch Biden suffering through such grief and a

really difficult decision. Ultimately, though Biden's I'm sorry, Obama stepped in and

did what was best for the Biden family, even if the Biden family didn't

appreciate it at the moment. And by the way, so that's what Halperin

was talking about today, that there was actually some resentment from Biden toward Obama

over this. So this is what D said. That's certainly what Obama thought

he was doing. He thought that Biden simply couldn't do the twenty sixteen campaign,

that he was going through the death, not with what he was going

through with the death of his son. That said, Biden also felt that

Obama was being a bit dismissive of him politically by essentially backing Hillary Clinton behind

the scenes, sending people to work for her, having a lot of his

aids talk to her, praising her publicly, all while as Vice president was

sitting right there. So there was a lot of conversation between the two of

them before Biden basically said, listen, I understand you decided that you need

to back Secretary Clinton, but maybe we should talk about this. It was

very painful for both of them. It took a very long time for Biden

to realize that he ultimately couldn't sustain a campaign, couldn't do it in the

moment of time that was needed, and he couldn't do it emotionally. But

that was really a moment in which their relationship changed, because that was a

moment of intense political but also personal feeling for both of them. I'm going

to read this full interview later. This looks really interesting. Now I'm going

to skip down again. So Elliott asks d this is later in the interview

when it comes to her time, will Vice President Harris be able to claim

a similar relationship with Biden and d answered, they're just very different relationships.

Biden sought to find a partner who, in his words, could be his

Biden Obama counseled him not to think of it in those terms. Their relationship

was just fundamentally going to have a different going to have to be different because

there was the proposition of Biden as Obama's partner. He was a man who'd

been in Washington for a million years and had the experience on Capitol Hill,

who had the experience in foreign policy, and who could help guide Obama in

decision making. Biden may like Harris's instincts, but at the end of the

day, she is not someone who has more experience in any of these topics

than him, so he's not not going to rely on her for advice.

There's no easier way to sum up the difference in their relationship than that of

Biden and Obama had their weekly lunches. Harris and Biden started off having these

weekly lunches. But how many times have they done this? How many times

have they done it this year? Five? Five is my last count?

Anyway, that so, but that was part of the discussion to Dance mcconscious

show is assuming Biden, because here's the thing, it's going to get very,

very complicated. And I said this before before Biden made his initial announcement

that he's running. I said, if he decides not to run, it's

going to be fascinating, But it's also going to be very difficult for the

Democrats because, like I said, Kamala Harris has very high negatives. People

don't like her much more than they like Biden, if even that much.

Some of it. I understand. She's had some strange moments. She laughs

at inappropriate times. It's a little bit. The part of the criticism,

though, that I think is really unfair, is when people say, well,

where is she? I hardly ever see her. She's not visible.

But that happens with every vice president. Every vice president fades to the background.

The only one who didn't fade as much as all the rest of them,

probably at least in my lifetime, would be Dick Cheney, George W.

Bush's VP, But even he kind of tried to fade into the background.

Melanie says in the chat room, I might be misremembering, but I

think there were rumblings that Hillary was asked to step back during Obama's first run,

her time would come. I wonder if that was why Biden was asked

to step down. Well, that's the thing Obama might have felt like he

kind of, you know, because he kind of elbowed Hillary out of the

way, that he owed her something that might be some of that. I

mean, what I remember about two thousand and eight was, yeah, it

Hillary's turn then, and I think everyone kind of assumed she would be the

nominee. And Obama was a fast rising star. He had given that speech

at the two thousand and four Democratic Convention and that was kind of as a

senator, that was kind of when he first really grabbed people's attention with that

famous Red State, Blue State speech and then but but I think I don't

think anyone really expected he was going to be the nominee. But then he

started doing really really well, I remember, you know, and then but

she hung up. She hung in there for a long time. But uh

yeah, I don't I don't know. I mean, I think she hung

in there. From what I can recall, she hung in there for longer

than maybe Obama wanted her to. Because there did come a point in that

campaign where it was obvious he was going to make it. He was going

to have enough delegates to quench the nomination, but she was still kind of

but she was still winning primaries right to the end. It's just that he

was winning more of them. But she won quite a few primaries in that

cycle. But then eventually there came a point where yeah, she had to

she had to step aside. And then there it is twenty sixteen and it's

finally her time, and she's the nominee, and it slips through her fingers.

Again. I always say too, I mean, I do have some

empathy in that. I mean, say what you want to about Hillary Clinton,

but I do have to say this. It has to be an incredible

mind. It has to be so mind bending to be I mean, think

about this, to be that close. You think about all she went through,

all she tolerated with Bill Clinton. She had to suffer through Monica Lewinsky

and Jennifer Flowers and who else is more. I can't remember all the names,

and you know, just all of that public humiliation. You know,

she suffers through all of that. And I assume, I mean, you

know, maybe she loves him. I don't know, but I assume it

was largely out of ambition, right, because she knew she was going to

get her chance, you know. And then she she became Senator of New

York and well one of the senators of New York obviously, and you know,

so now was her time, you know. And then she became Secretary

of State and it was her time. Now she was going to get to

be she was going to finally get to be president. And there it was

twenty sixteen. It was finally time, she was going to get to be

president. And I just to just try to imagine being that close, that

close to something that she had wanted for so long, that close to being

leader of the free world, and assuming that it's going to happen, because

it certainly seemed like a locke. I know there's people who will say,

I remember at the time, a lot of Republicans would say, oh,

I always knew Trump would win. I always knew he could do it.

Yeah, right, you were just as surprised. Hell, you were just

as surprised as he was, because he was very he didn't expect to win,

right, But can you imagine to be her and be that close and

having it slipped through your fingers one more time? But to be that close.

What that must do to a person's brain or another example, John Kerry.

It really looked in two thousand and four, it really looked like John

Kerry was gonna it was obviously it was going to be close, and it

was close. It came down to Kayahoga County in Ohio. Kyahoga County Carl

Rove made sure that gay marriage was on the ballot for referendum in Kiahoga County,

Ohio, to get Republicans to turn out to vote against that and at

the same time vote for George W. Bush. And it worked. It

worked. If that one county had just gone the other way, John Kerry

would have been president. And it looked, according to exit polling that day,

it looked like he was going to be Can you imagine what that must

be like to be that close to being president of the United States and watching

it slip away. I mean, I'm sure losing his hard for anybody,

right, but sometimes you know, you know, I mean, obviously,

Walter Mondale in eighty four, he knew he was going to lose, you

know, so I'm sure it was no great shock to him on election night,

right, I'm sure Mondale wasn't sitting there going, ah, I was

so close. No, dude, you clearly were not. And you know

that, and people around him said, yeah, obviously he knew it.

At that point. It was about losing with dignity, but it wasn't It

was not about winning or you know, in ninety two, George H.

W. Bush, he knew he was going to lose to Bill Clinton.

It was over. You know, Melanie says in the chat room, she

knew what she was buying with that embarrassment and tolerance. Yeah, but she

didn't get what she ultimately wanted, did she. She just didn't get there.

Oh wow, we're out of show. Anyway. I ended up spending

really the entire show on the on an interview that happened on somebody else's radio

show. But that's fine. I just thought it was fascinating and add a

bunch of other things to get to, but we'll save those for tomorrow,

all right. So I appreciate you all, Thank you so much for joining

me today for Matt Connerton Unleashed. And if you miss any part of today's

show it we'll be up in just a little bit at WMH radio dot org

and on my website. Matt Connerton dot com. Oh, Scott Robinson says,

excellent show today, Matt excellent, Thank you, Scott. I appreciate

that very much. I do think we should close out with a little more

dust profit why not. So yeah, thank you all, And yeah,

we'll see, we'll see if I'm right. I think by tomorrow at this

time there will be a lot more people talking about what Mark Halperin said today

on Smerconish. We'll see, and I'll see if I can find a link

to the podcast of that and I will share it out. And as John

C. Hopwood had requested, and thank you John for calling in and chatting,

as well as Mike Doyle. All Right, we gotta go, We're

out of here. I'll talk to y'all a little bit later. By everybody,

Game Plan