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Total Softball Trump Interview STILL Goes Horribly Wrong
Donald Trump had an in-person interview with OAN’s Dan Ball and the pair discussed their criticisms of the Joe Biden presidency, election conspiracies, COVID-19 and much more. Nearly a year past the 2020 presidential race, Trump remains obsessed with Joe Biden having defeated him and pushing the “big lie” narrative to protect his ego. Luckily for Trump, OAN is one of the few places where he can still voice the “rigged election” narrative without pushback, and he took full advantage of it. The ex-POTUS said, “they cheat on the elections, they don’t need votes. . . you look at 43,000 votes were found last night. They cheat on elections. When you cheat on elections you don’t have to destroy the country, They’re destroying our country.” On COVID, Trump and Ball agreed that the death count was inflated by the media to make Trump’s presidency look bad. In actuality, COVID numbers are most likely low-balled because access to testing was hard to come by, especially early on in the pandemic. Trump repeated the lie that, “if somebody’s dying of a heart attack and dying of cancer and they’re somewhere close to being somebody with COVID, they put it down as COVID, because believe it or not, the doctors get more money.” Just like how he can’t get over the “big lie” narrative, Trump cannot get over the fact that his failed response to the pandemic is partially what defined his presidency and a major reason why he wasn’t reelected in 2020.
Absolutely Bonkers Hearing with Generals Goes Horribly Wrong
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testified before a House panel yesterday to talk about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Both men, but especially Milley, have drawn the ire of conservatives over the past few months and this was a prime opportunity for right-wing lawmakers to go after them. Representative Pat Fallon of Texas asked Milley to comment on why he called a botched drone strike “righteous,” even though drone strikes were never something Republican politicians cared about under previous administrations. Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida made a fool of himself by holding up the book Peril and telling Milley, “you spent more time with Bob Woodward on this book than you spent analyzing the very likely prospect that the Afghanistan government was going to fall immediately to the Taliban.” Representative Vicky Hartzler of Missouri called on General Milley to resign over his decision to tell China the US wasn’t about to attack them after Donald Trump was throwing a hissy fit in his final weeks in office. And Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina went further, saying President Biden himself should resign over the thirteen Marines killed at the Kabul airport last month. These Republican lawmakers may have gotten the soundbites they were looking for, but they did absolutely nothing to shed light on military matters of actual significance.
From yesterday’s show:
Trump Skipped Anesthesia During Surgery to Avoid Giving Pence Power
According to accounts from Stephanie Grisham’s upcoming book “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” Donald Trump skipped anesthesia for a colonoscopy he got at Walter Reed Medical Center in 2019. The reason he underwent the procedure without anesthesia was so he wouldn’t have to temporarily relinquish his presidential powers to VP Mike Pence. At the time, reporters were perplexed by the visit and the White House’s claim that it was part of Trump’s routine annual physical. Trump reportedly wanted to keep the procedure secret to avoid being made fun of by the media and late night talk show hosts. As Grisham wrote for her book, “as with covid, he was too wrapped up in his own ego and his own delusions about his invincibility.” Colonoscopies are not at all uncommon, and if Trump had put his ego aside he could have used it as an opportunity to spread awareness about routine screenings. George W. Bush temporarily relinquished power to Dick Cheney when he had one done in 2007. But Trump, concerned primarily with his own ego and unwilling to pass up his presidential power for even a few hours, wanted to keep this medical procedure secret.
From yesterday’s show:
Trump Told Putin He Had to Pretend to Be "Tougher" on Him
Another story from Stephanie Grisham’s upcoming book “I’ll Take Your Questions Now” is about Donald Trump telling Russian President Vladimir Putin he had to act “a little tougher” around him, but only “for the cameras.” Trump said this at the 2019 Osaka G20 summit at a time when Russian interference in the 2016 election and human rights abuses by the Kremlin were frequently in the news. He reportedly said to Putin, “I'm going to act a little tougher with you for a few minutes. But it's for the cameras, and after they leave we'll talk. You understand.” Trump also joked with Putin about the issue he had with journalists who published so-called “fake news.” The ex-American president told him, “you don't have this problem in Russia” — an allusion to the Putin government’s suppression of a free press. These accounts from Grisham play right into the narrative that Trump is enamored with authoritarian leaders and wishes that he could have been one himself. While Trump also had this affection for Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Vladimir Putin had an extra special place in his heart.
More on the show:
--Isaac Bogoch, infectious diseases physician and scientist based out of the University of Toronto and Toronto General Hospital, joins David to discuss the latest COVID pandemic updates, including vaccination, case and death rates, and much more
--YouTube fully bans all content considered to be "anti-vaccine"
--Arizona Trump audit supporters turn on each other after the total flop of the audit proving Joe Biden actually won by even more than originally reported
--Fox News uses deceptive charts and graphs multiple times this week to make bogus political points
--Donald Trump is ahead of Joe Biden in a hypothetical 2024 faceoff for President in a notoriously unreliable Rasmussen Reports poll, but the gist of the poll is likely accurate
--Voicemail caller has done his research and figured out the origins of the COVID pandemic
--On the Bonus Show: Los Angeles moves towards banning unvaccinated from most businesses, Biden admin will try again to end Trump's "remain in Mexico" policy, obesity rates rise during pandemic, much more...
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