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The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 465 of the In The Tank Podcast. We are back after taking a week off while preparing for Heartland's 40th Anniversary Benefit Dinner and we have a lot of news to cover. In the time since our last episode, we have had a presidential debate, accusations of cheating during the debate, and yet another attempt on Donald Trump's life. The In The Tank crew dives into the absolute horrid state of our media industry before talking about the state of the race with only 46 days left before the 2024 presidential election.
TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT Part 2
NYT - Agents Delve Into Life of Apparent Would-Be Trump Assassin
The Blaze - Nearly 3 in 10 Democrats polled say it 'would be better if Trump had been killed'
TRUMP HARRIS DEBATE
The Federalist - 25 Lies Kamala Harris Told In Her Debate Against Trump
ABC WHISTLEBLOWER
Washington Times - ABC News faces questions over handling of Trump, Harris debate
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/sep/17/editorial-abc-news-faces-questions-over-handling-o/
Daily Mail - The bombshell claims of 'ABC whistleblower' who says Harris got help in debate
46 DAYS LEFT TIL ELECTION
Fox News - Polling guru Nate Silver predicts Trump has 64% chance of winning the Electoral College in latest forecast
538 - Who Is Favored To Win The 2024 Presidential Election?
Creators & Guests
Host
Host
What is In The Tank?
The weekly flagship podcast from The Heartland Institute features in-depth policy discussions connected to current news. Host Donald Kendal leads the discussion with the usual crew of Heartland Institute Vice President Jim Lakely, Socialism Research Center “Commissar” Justin Haskins, Editorial Director Chris Talgo, and others at this national free-market think tank. The entertaining and informative discussions often hit topics such as the environment, energy policy, Big Tech censorship, the troubling rise of socialism, globalism, health care, education, that state of freedom in America and around the world, and much more.
This podcast is also available as part of the Heartland Daily Podcast, the “firehose” of all the organization’s podcasts that take deep and entertaining dives into public policy.
Alright. We are live, and we are back after taking a week off while we were preparing for Heartland's 40th anniversary benefit dinner, and we've got a lot of news to cover. So in the time since our last episode, we had a presidential debate. We have accusations of cheating during that debate. We've had yet another attempt on Donald Trump's life.
Donald Kendal:So we're gonna be diving into the just absolute horrid state of our media industry before talking about the state of the race with only 46 days left before the 2024 presidential election. Buckle up because we've got a lot to talk about on this episode of the
Jim Lakely:podcast.
Kamala Harris:I can imagine what can be and be unburdened by what has been. You know?
Donald Kendal:That that is right, Kamala. And this is the In the Tank podcast. As always, I'm your host, Donald Kendall. Joining me today, I've got a full crew. I've got Jim Lakeley, VP of the Heartland Institute.
Donald Kendal:How are you doing today, good sir?
Jim Lakely:I'm doing very well. I'm a little concerned about you, Donnie. That that might have been the most low energy, cold open I've ever heard you, read off, to start off the show. So, you know, it's not like you have, you know, 2 young boys that you're trying to raise and, you know, maybe be open that or anything like that. But Yeah.
Donald Kendal:2 young boys that are sick with a fever and not going to school because they're both sick. So yes.
Jim Lakely:Yeah. So you have you have some things things going on. But, yeah, it's great to be back in the saddle and back on the show, after taking last week off to prepare for our 40th anniversary benefit dinner at the Heartland Institute. It was such a great night. It was fantastic.
Jim Lakely:So maybe we'll talk a little about that later.
Donald Kendal:We probably will. Chris Talgo, editorial director here at the Heartland Institute. How are you doing today, good sir?
Chris Talgo:Doing good, sleepy downy.
Donald Kendal:Is it that bad? Maybe maybe I'm just coming down with something. I'm not entirely sure. But, Sam Karnick, senior fellow for the socialism research center. New title.
Donald Kendal:Same great insights. How are you doing today, good sir?
Sam Karnick:Good, Donald. Thank you very much. How are you doing?
Donald Kendal:I'm I you know, I thought I was doing wonderful, but maybe I'm, maybe I'm dragging through this. I'm not entirely sure.
Sam Karnick:Go sleepy. If I ask. Don't go don't go by appearances.
Donald Kendal:Sleep drowsy Donald's, I guess, is what
Chris Talgo:Drowsy Donald. That's good.
Donald Kendal:That's my nickname for today. Yep. So benefit dinner, that was, that was, you know, I kind of expected to do an episode last week. You know, we do our show on Thursdays. The benefit dinner was on Friday.
Donald Kendal:I think in years past that we've we've done an episode in that day prior to benefit dinners. But while I was just looking at the slate in that week leading up to it, of the stuff that I needed to get done before that benefit dinner, I was like, there's no way. There's no way we're fitting in a show. So sorry for the no notice that we weren't doing a show last week, but, you know, we're usually pretty good about doing shows whether there's rain, sleet, or snow. So, yeah, you know, we got a lots of stuff to to catch up on.
Jim Lakely:And there was so much to talk about. It was a very newsy week, and then we just had the debate. I mean, that debate between Kamala and Donald Trump seems like 3 months ago, and it was last week.
Donald Kendal:Yes. Yeah. The news cycle. We've had, like, 15 different news cycles since then. But you know what?
Donald Kendal:There there's still some stuff to talk about, and we're gonna we're gonna get we're gonna get to a lot of stuff in this episode. So, those people that are watching the show, you can see this new little feature that we got going on over here. This little sidebar that's gonna be showing all the different topics that we're gonna be talking about. I think it's a a pretty cool little, you know, nod to, like, what sports center or something like that used to do that, or maybe they still do. I don't watch sports center anymore.
Donald Kendal:But, that's that's we're gonna we're gonna stick to this model. So you can kinda see all the topics that we're gonna talk about, right there on the sidebar. So pretty cool.
Chris Talgo:Just a just a very quick, comment on SportsCenter. So ESPN, I used to be a humongous fan of ESPN. Used to watch SportsCenter, all those shows, part of the interruption. I cannot believe how woke it's gone. I just subscribed to ESPN plus just because I wanted to watch those 30 for 30, the the library.
Chris Talgo:Even the 30 for 30 library is just full of woke nonsense. We did this whole thing about Derek Jeter, and it was, half produced by Spike Lee, and it was just race, race, race, race, race. So, man, I I just I can't stand ESPN anymore. It sucks.
Donald Kendal:That's unfortunate. That's unfortunate. But but yeah. So, Jim, as Jim mentioned, we had our benefit dinner. It was great.
Donald Kendal:I think, I think it went very well. No no hiccups or anything. No speakers being stuck at the airport or having their planes delayed or anything like happened in past years. But, Jim, I don't know. I won't you were you were, you know, milling about with all of the, attendees.
Donald Kendal:Did you get nice comments? Did everyone enjoy their time there?
Jim Lakely:We we had a a lot of great comments. So I think, you know, it was one of our best ever. I mean, the heartless too, we take a lot of pride actually in pulling off and executing flawlessly large events like that. Our climate conferences that we've done 15 of those all around, the country and some international spots. So, you know, I was kinda stage managing it, you know, making sure all the speakers got to where they gotta be on time, try to stay on schedule.
Jim Lakely:We went a little long, but having more program than less program is, not something most attendees would complain about. Our featured speaker was the great Nigel Farage, the leader of the reform party in the UK, the the captain of Brexit, the person who got that over the line. And it was my pleasure to basically be his body man, all day Friday, and then we had some time with him on Saturday. We went to cigar lounge and recorded an interview, that, Andy, our producer Andy, the great producer Andy, was with us, and, we helped I helped him set up a 2 camera thing. And, so we're gonna have a nice interview with him.
Jim Lakely:We've talked to him for about 40 minutes, and we're gonna be releasing videos of that conversation very soon. Doctor Jay Bhattacharya, the, the leader of the Great Barrington Declaration, when he put his reputation and his job on the line to tell the truth about pandemic and vaccines. He was a featured speaker, and then doctor Larry Arnn, the president of Hillsdale College, the very worthy recipient of our Heartland Liberty prize is probably not an institution in America that is doing more to, teach the future generations what America is all about and why and why and how it needs to be preserved. So I know some people in the chat right now watching this, on YouTube live. We're there, and we appreciated seeing you guys there, and, we hope to see you again at the next one.
Chris Talgo:Just wanna add one one thing. So I've I invited my parents to this and, one of my sisters. And, afterwards, we talked about it, and, my dad and mom both thought that the Nigel Farage speech was the greatest speech that they've ever seen in person. So I think that's pretty significant. That's pretty great.
Jim Lakely:And and everybody would be able to see these these, presentations. The speeches from our benefit dinner, we're gonna be posting those on this very YouTube channel and Rumble, within the next week or so.
Donald Kendal:Oh, fantastic. I was gonna ask about that. Very nice. Well, we've got a lot to talk about, so we should just jump into it here. So first topic of discussion would be, what I've labeled here as Trump assassination attempt part 2, maybe the sequel.
Donald Kendal:I don't know what we're gonna call it when they eventually make a movie out of our whole timeline here. But, this this news dates back to Sunday, which seems like ages ago. I think everyone's, like, moved on past all of this. So so but we're gonna talk about it because this is obviously worth talking about. So everyone knows the story, at least you should.
Donald Kendal:Around midday on this past Sunday, news came out that there was another attempt on Donald Trump's life, this time while he was out golfing. Donald Trump was on hole 5. Secret service was scouting the next hole and, saw a muzzle sticking out of the fence and bushes. Secret service engaged. The suspect and the suspect fled, hopped in the car, took off.
Donald Kendal:Witnesses saw the suspect run. They took pictures of the car. They got the license plate number. Authorities, using that information were able to track down the car and the suspect via license plate readers on the highway. The suspect identified as Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested.
Donald Kendal:Investigators found in the bushes a scoped rifle, a GoPro camera, and ballistic bulletproof plates to offer protection in this, like, sniper's nest that was set up in the bushes. And I think that most people's reaction to the story was, again, seriously? Like, we like, this just happened a couple of months ago. So, Chris, I'm gonna throw it to you first. What what were your thoughts, when you when you first saw this story?
Chris Talgo:I I was extremely surprised. I told you I I actually had walked in from the golf course and, went to the to the clubhouse, and it was on the TV. And I was just like, oh my god. Not again. So, wow, I was really surprised.
Chris Talgo:But, more information's come out, and there's a lot of questions about this one that need to be answered. So this this guy was traveling all over the world, Hawaii, Poland, Ukraine, Romania. He was trying to put together mercenary forces in Ukraine. First of all, this guy was, let's just say not the wealthiest person. Last check, he had $68 to his name.
Chris Talgo:So how did he afford to travel internationally and stay in Poland and Romania and Ukraine and Hawaii for, you know, weeks, if not months? How did he fly to Florida? How did he just happen to, you know, stumble upon a stolen car with stolen plates and a, AK 47 with the serial number scratched off. They're pretty interesting. So I'm I'm it's way too early to jump to conclusions here.
Chris Talgo:I think the media has a really bad, tendency in these days to just always try to jump to the conclusion. But let's just say that there's a lot more that needs to be, investigated here in terms of his ties to I mean, there are people who were with him in Ukraine who alerted the FBI and the federal government on multiple occasions saying this guy is extremely dangerous. He's talking about assassinating Putin. He's talking about assassinating Biden and Trump. He's talking about assassinating Kim Jong un.
Chris Talgo:This guy is just really dangerous, and, here we are now. You know? And, you know, think all I can say is I mean, it's terrible that the Secret Service let this happen, but there's also another big question that that needs to be answered. He was there 12 hours. So he was there well before the golf event was even announced because this was a last minute golf outing announced.
Chris Talgo:So how did he know that?
Donald Kendal:How? Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's definitely an interesting question, and I'm sure I don't I don't even know because it's, like, on one hand, like, this is crazy news. But on the other hand, the way that the news cycle goes, it's like, oh, yeah.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. We already forgot about that.
Jim Lakely:Like, the the
Donald Kendal:first assassination attempt is so, like, ancient history at this point that, like, I feel like the average person's, like like, almost forgot about it.
Chris Talgo:But it's funny but it's funny that you bring up the past assassination attempt. Yeah. That happened July 13th. We still have no answers on that. So there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered in terms of that and in terms of this one.
Chris Talgo:Why did they not scout the the golf course ahead of time? The the hole the 5th hole is or the 6th hole where he was in the bushes was a was first of all, this is Donald Trump's golf course. He's played there multiple times. The Secret Service knows all the vulnerable points, and that is the most vulnerable point. Why did they not have someone there ahead of time?
Chris Talgo:Why did they not, you know, scout the entire premises ahead of time? So there's all sorts of questions here.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. Sam, what were what was your reaction to this? Because mine, I am, like, incredibly skeptical of the headlines that I see, and I always think, like, what what is the least interesting way that this headline could still be somewhat accurate?
Donald Kendal:And my my thoughts when I saw the, the headline about, like, shooting in the area or something like that was, like, alright. There was some gang interaction 4 4 blocks away, and they're making it seem like it's some Trump thing. And then I was like, later when I found out, like, no. This was actually somebody in the sniper's nest trying to take out Donald Trump that I was like, what? This is insane.
Donald Kendal:What were your reactions?
Sam Karnick:Well, first of all, obviously, it's it should be shocking, but it it really wasn't to me. It it's just seemed inevitable that this is going to continue to happen. It was interesting that, a day or so later, Trump and, Biden spoke by telephone, and, Biden said, you know, Trump said we need more, we need more protection over here. And Biden said, yes. So we you need more protection.
Sam Karnick:We have to ramp that up, said so, all you have to do is get Congress to give us more money. And I just thought that that was absolutely brilliant. It's like, well, okay. I can forgive the debt of, former students former college students who, forgive their college debt just by waving a magic wand, but I can't get protection, which is already on the books to a presidential candidate just seems a bit odd. So these things are done by choice, and I and we're going to continue to go down the path of asking these questions, why did this or that happen?
Sam Karnick:All the elements of it that seem to come together to lead to and a very strange, as the New York Times put it, apparent assassination attempt. It all seems very strange how these things come together. And yet when you look at it, as you as you point out, that all of a sudden it's forgotten. It's forgotten just a few days later. And that's very interesting because Charlottesville is not forgotten.
Sam Karnick:It's just misremembered, that that Trump said that there are good people on both sides of the tearing down statues debate. I guess you could say a good person could believe in tearing down statues that don't belong to them. I suppose it's possible, but seems to me that's they're wrong. So if anything, Trump was more right than than the the people who claimed that there, that that there's only one side of that. But the notion that that now that he was saying that Nazis are good, is is now part of the, the history of the United States apparently, and you can say it in a debate.
Sam Karnick:And the the debate so called moderators who are, questioning everything that is said by the one candidate, we'll
Donald Kendal:see what we'll do. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get into all of that for sure. Okay.
Chris Talgo:One other one other quick point that I gotta make real quick. So the the secret service used to be under the treasury department, and, now they are under the Department of Homeland Security. Mayorkas has not even mentioned this yet. How is that possible? How is it possible that the Department of Homeland Security has fumbled this this badly, and we have not even gotten a statement from the head of the Department of Homeland Security?
Chris Talgo:I find that unbelievable. And, also also, I've lost confidence in the secret Service just like I've lost confidence in the FBI. Now I've lost confidence in the entire Department of Homeland Security. So this is, you know, this is just really, really does not bode well for Americans having confidence in these institutions that we really should be, you know, able to rely upon.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. No doubt. I mean, did we ever get a press conference after the July 13th attempt? I know that they they did a press conference and people were expecting them to answer some questions, but they came out immediately and, like, yeah, we're not answering any questions about that. We're just talking about the r and c and how we've got
Sam Karnick:it covered.
Chris Talgo:Local local officials held the press conference, the secret service refused, and that's exactly how this happened. And thank God for, Ron DeSantis because he's doing a, a supplementary investigation of this. Mhmm. Because guess what? We can't trust the FBI.
Chris Talgo:We can't trust Christopher Wray. And they're who they're they're in charge of this right now.
Donald Kendal:Jim, I mean, you could you could take take this in any direction you want. I mean, there's, obviously, your, you know, your just general reactions, the the diminishing trust, if there is any, in our institutions. We can get into the media side of all of this, but, just your initial comments.
Jim Lakely:Well, first of all, Chris, to to what you brought up, you know, the media is not getting the answers to the first assassination attempt, let alone getting any answers to the second assassination attempt. And they are purposely not investigating this. They're purposely not covering this the way you would think they normally would, because this would that would keep it in the news, see, and make people maybe they'd, end up being sympathetic to Trump as you you know, human nature is to be sympathetic to somebody who has survived 2 attempted murders, one of them on live television. And so, the media doesn't want that. I mean and since, you know, Trump is Hitler.
Jim Lakely:Right? So, our corrupt media thinks that covering 2 assassination attempts on Donald Trump in the span of 8 weeks would be like, you know, they would probably think it was a bad idea to cover Operation Valkyrie against Hitler. So that, you know, So now so the the media, if anything, is probably just disappointed, and we're gonna be playing clips to show how, disappointed they are, that he hasn't been taken out yet. Yeah. It is an outrage that that, Mayorkas has not immediately, after the first assassination attempt, said we will spare no expense or resources of any kind to ensure the safety of the Republican candidate for president and the former president of United States Donald Trump.
Jim Lakely:Nothing approaching that kind of seriousness of mission has occurred in either the Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security, and it is, it is great that, Ron DeSantis, since this is you know, he says, look. This is an attempted murder in in my state of Florida. This is this is a state matter in that in that regard. So we're going to investigate this, you know, this attempted murder of Donald Trump on a golf course in Florida. And, so that is the only chance we will have to actually get to the bottom of it, and I hope he does that investigation quickly, transparently with regular updates on what they have learned about this would be assassin, the second would be assassin in 8 weeks.
Jim Lakely:You know, Donnie, we you and I met in the office, last week as we're getting ready for our benefit dinner. And I was just you know, we were chatting and it's like, this is so bizarre. We actually are talking about 2 attempts on Trump's life in the span of just 8 weeks, and we'd already forgotten really much for the most part the first one, and then it happens again. And I was talking, to a friend, and I was, you know, contemplating something that just seems crazy. And I started thinking to myself, what would happen if the 3rd time's a charm?
Jim Lakely:And let's just say sometime a few weeks before the election, the assassin succeeds in taking out, some a man who is universally described by every democrat in the country and every media outlet, that is consumed by the masses as a threat to democracy. When the when Joe Biden calls him basically and his supporters fascists, you know, what do you think is going to happen? So what so what happens if, say, just, like, 2 weeks before the election, the next assassin succeeds? What happens then? I mean, are are can you still vote for Donald Trump?
Jim Lakely:People have already mailed in their ballots. Would it just be that, JD Vance is sworn in as president and then picks his own vice president after inauguration day? Who knows? But these are conversations we now have to have because Donald Trump is not safe. The idea that anybody could get within a mile of him without without being checked out and without, you know, that I'm being checked out and being approved to be there is mind blowing after already one assassination attempt.
Jim Lakely:Yeah, just this is just this is crazy, and I think this is purposefully crazy. Our our institution should be reacting very differently to this amazing turn of events in this country, historic turn of events, and it's not happening.
Donald Kendal:Right. Yeah. No. It's it's, it's it's absolutely nuts. And we could talk about, like, the we could talk about the media's response.
Donald Kendal:I think after the first one. We we spent a lot of time talking about I think we played, like, montages of people calling them a threat and, you know, like, the next Hitler and all of that sort of stuff. And just, like, the rhetoric that, like, you know, almost justifies somebody taking some sort of action if they buy into the rhetoric. Right? And, you know, we could we could do that after the first attempt, the second attempt, the third attempt.
Donald Kendal:We could all we could talk about that story for sure. But this one was this is kind of interesting. We've got a couple of clips that I think kinda show the spectrum of the response by some in the media. The first one is Hillary Clinton. And before we play this clip, reconfirm to me, Jim, that this was after Sunday's events.
Donald Kendal:Right? This this Hillary Clinton talking after Sunday's events. Okay. Just I just wanna make sure because it's so bizarre in that context. So let's go ahead and play that clip of, Hillary Trump attack.
Donald Kendal:Let's go and play that one, please.
Kamala Harris:You mentioned the press, and sadly, the press is still, not able to cover, Trump the way that they should. They careen from one outrage to the next. What was outrageous 3 days ago is no longer on the front pages even though it threatens, the physical safety of, so many, peep and I don't understand why it's so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous, Trump is. Journalists, should, you know, really try to achieve objectivity. And by that, he said, I mean, they should cover the object.
Kamala Harris:Well, the object in this case is Donald Trump. His demagoguery, his, danger to our country and the world, and stick with it. Part of what Trump is counting on is for people to get desensitized. Americans need to understand that they have to take Trump both seriously and literally. He has said what he wants to do.
Kamala Harris:He and his, allies with project 2025, his desire to be a dictator at least on day 1, all of that is in the public record. And I believe that more Americans have to be, you know, willing to endure what frankly is discomforting and and to some extent, kind of painful. To take him at his word and to be outraged by what he represents. And
Donald Kendal:Yeah. So, Chris, the media is not doing enough to make, Trump out to be the next Hitler according to Hillary Clinton. I mean, come on. Like, what? What do you what what's your reaction to Hillary Clinton?
Chris Talgo:Oh, my reaction is thank god she did not win in 2016. Thank god. My my other reaction is just go away. Please stop it. You know, she's promoting some new book that she's got.
Chris Talgo:So, yeah, she's making her way. I'm Rachel Maddow and the usual talk shows. She was on Morning Joe this morning just spewing this ridiculous rhetoric. I mean, I don't think anybody takes her seriously. She is just, you know, the the epitome of the establishment and everything that, you know, Americans, I think, are just sick and tired of, and, I think she just needs to go away.
Donald Kendal:I mean, Sam, I I don't know if you have the same amount of vitriol for the the mainstream media that, like, let's say, Jim has, but, I mean, that's that like, that's that's a bizarre statement from Hillary Clinton. Like, does she not know what the media does day in, day out with Donald Trump? They don't have a consistent narrative demonizing him about everything that he does. And the idea that, like, some outrage of last week isn't on the front pages today or something. It's like, well, first off, how much stuff are you gonna put on the front pages?
Donald Kendal:And as you mentioned, like, they're still dredging up the good guys on both sides in the January 6th and, you know, all the other stuff that he's, like, taken out of context against him. So what is she talking about? Is she even in reality? What what's your take on it on those comments?
Sam Karnick:Everything is about the accumulation of power and centralizing power among a smaller and smaller group of people. And so with Hillary, the the the issue is that, well, this works against that because this person could even in fact get elected because because, people might be sympathetic towards somebody who's been shot at a zillion times and and has, you know, raised his fist in triumph, when when they just missed his, killing him. And and, he also seems to have a lot of people that for some reason think he's sensible and and and in fact, a a good guy when in fact, we know what the truth is. We are the, the arbiters of truth. We're the arbiters of what's real.
Sam Karnick:And when the press fail to tell, our story, then they are failing to be objective. And the problem here is that the press in history have seldom been objective. That was it, in fact, a progressive era, innovation. The notion that the press are objective and that you can trust the press. Well, the whole idea was that they're the experts.
Sam Karnick:They know best. They know how to process information. They know how to figure out what's true and what isn't. And then you need to sit down and listen to them and and do as they say, or do as they imply. The problem being, of course, that what they used to have before the progressive era is in in, say, you were living in Chicago.
Sam Karnick:You would have 3 or 4 or 5 newspapers, and one would be very strongly democrat, one would be very strongly republican, and then you would have, sort of, in between, 3 other newspapers that would take different positions. But they were per they were perfectly open about their partisanship and about their, biases. And I think that's a legitimate way of of, of presenting, the news to say this is coming from this perspective. If you if you don't agree with that perspective or you don't want to hear it, you don't have to. The problem we have now is that it comes from a certain perspective.
Sam Karnick:That perspective is portrayed as objective, and you are not even allowed to hear the alternatives, up until, of course, Elon Musk bought Twitter.
Donald Kendal:Right. Right.
Sam Karnick:They they had complete control even over the the social media links to these articles and so forth. So the problem that we have is that the this expert class, this this small group of people that wants to centralize power because they know best has recognizes that if information is allowed to get out and they are not able to control the narrative, The term the narrative just means the myth. We live by myths.
Chris Talgo:Mhmm.
Sam Karnick:And so the the the narratives we live by are the myth that the central government knows what they're doing, that the, big, that the biggest corporations know what they're doing, and that it's all for the benefit of the public, and that the universities are teaching people to think, and that the schools are teaching young people to, be able to do math and and read and all the things that they need to improve their lives and and, become good and responsible citizens. These are all myths. And so Hillary is saying, they have got away from the myth for a couple of hours. We can't have that.
Chris Talgo:Yeah. Right. Just just, you know, I've been watching the mainstream media for 20 years now almost on a regular basis, and I can tell you that since 2016, since 2015, since Donald Trump, you know, announced that he would be running for president and started to win some primary races, the, the the mainstream media has gone from being biased towards Democrats to being literally a, like, functional arm of the Democrat party. And I think that's a good segue into our next one because, gee, we now know that this debate was rigged.
Donald Kendal:Oh, well, yes. Yeah. We will get into that. Not gonna use that as a segue because there's a couple of other things that I wanna talk about. Jim, I'm gonna go to you, but I wanna play this Cuomo clip because, it looks like he's he's off CNN.
Donald Kendal:I don't follow Cuomo.
Chris Talgo:He's on NewsNation.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. So he's he's moved on to NewsNation, and, maybe he's not just getting the daily briefing reports on the narrative. And he had this to say about the most recent Trump assassination attempt that I think goes completely polar to Hillary Clinton's comments. So let's go ahead and play that Cuomo clip, please.
Chris Cuomo:You can think what you want about Trump. He does not have many more full throated critics of what he says and does than me. Okay? And yet I called him today because I am ashamed of how we are responding and not responding to the threats on him. And I feel for his family.
Chris Cuomo:And I know you can roll your eyes and say, oh, yeah. He asked for listen. That's your choice, and I think it's a wrong choice. Okay? What is going on with us?
Chris Cuomo:I don't get it. That's why I reached out to Trump. I wanted to just say, listen. I'm really sorry that this is going on, and it's being dealt with this way. Not because I'm in favor of his politics or what he says.
Chris Cuomo:I criticize him all the time. That's my job, and he deserves it. But he doesn't deserve this.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. So I think a lot of his comments are in response to this, wave of thinking from many on the right, where it's like, the guy didn't even the guy didn't even get a shot off. Like, why are we pretending like this is important? Let's move on. You know?
Donald Kendal:Like, basically, let's not make a big deal out of this because that might make him more sympathetic in the eyes of your average voter. The the the shooter, that wasn't even an assassination attempt. He didn't even shoot him. He didn't even have line of sight on him. I've literally seen comments like this.
Chris Talgo:I think
Donald Kendal:he's, like, dismissed this whole thing as being not worth talking about.
Chris Talgo:I think he was also responding to that poll that came out that 3 in 10 Democrats said that they wished that he would have actually died, and 24% said that they're not sure. That means half more than half of Democrats actually want Donald Trump to be assassinated. Like, wow. That's
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Yeah. Well, since you brought
Jim Lakely:it up,
Donald Kendal:I'll I'll tee that up before before I go to gym. But, there is an article that's, published by The Blaze as titled nearly 3 in 10 Democrats polled say that it would be better if Trump had been killed. So it says Scott Rasmussen's RMG Research conducted an online study of a 1,000 registered voters for the Neapolitan news service earlier this week to gauge the public's response to the latest known attempt on the life of president Donald Trump. It says the question that was most staggering results was, quote, while it while it's always difficult to wish ill upon another human being, would Americans be better off if if Donald Trump had been killed this last weekend? And, they they showed that a staggering 28% of Democrats answered yes.
Donald Kendal:Says only 47% of Democratic respondents indicated that America would not benefit from the assassination of the Republican candidate, and 25% said that they weren't sure. So, Jim, have we seriously gotten to a point in this opposition party either believes it's better off if Trump were assassinated or undecided on the matter? Like, that just seems pretty outrageous. What are your thoughts, Jim?
Jim Lakely:Well, I mean, I'm glad that poll was conducted because it confirms what a lot of us know in our hearts, and in our brains that half this country and and there there you go. Half of Democrats either wanted him to die or didn't really not really sure. You know, I guess it would have been okay. So kind of passive about it about that idea. I I guarantee you at the height of, Barack Obama's powers, even the vile, disgusting Hillary Clinton, If you were to poll Republicans, there is no way anything approaching that number would be, would be polled among Republicans who wish their political opposition dead.
Jim Lakely:And there is a reason why, either half of Democrats are either actively wanting Donald Trump slaughtered, murdered because and then the other, you know, and then the rest of them, you know, kind of whatever about it. And it's because they have been conditioned by their media to to to think that that would actually be good for the country. That it that Donald Trump is such a dangerous man and a threat to our democracy and a threat to the very soul of this nation, which is what, Joe Biden said in his famous blood red speech in Philadelphia, flanked in the background by marines to make sure that you get the message that anybody who supports Donald Trump is an enemy of America. There was a there was a disgusting piece of filth on MSNBC, just last week. I think it was Elie Mystal.
Jim Lakely:I think that's his name. He has a he has a big q tip gray q tip as a as a as a hair hat, you know, and we'd probably find a picture of that of that piece of garbage. And he says that the problem is not even really Donald Trump. The problem is all the people who support him. And all the people that support him whose whose slogan is make America great again, who wanna return to normalcy, who don't wanna see their country and their constitution shredded, who believe in free speech and and the importance of the second amendment.
Jim Lakely:The media in this country treats everybody who thinks like a normal American thought, like, 20 minutes ago as the enemy of the state. Hillary Clinton has used the term enemy of the state when it comes to Donald Trump. And in that regard, they are right. He is an enemy to the state, the deep state. And he is a friend of freedom loving Americans.
Jim Lakely:And the reason why, that even, you know, that that interview with Hillary Clinton and she looks horrible, horrible. I think being a horrible person comes out on your face because she looks like garbage. She looks terrible. And the reason she can say just 2 days after a second assassination attempt on Donald Trump and still characterize him as a danger and a threat, not just to America, but to the world. And that's how you get half this.
Jim Lakely:That's how you get this this division in this country. That is something that we have never seen when people talk about, you know, they say that, J6 was the most dangerous time for America since the Civil War. No. I actually think now is the most dangerous time for America since the civil war because our media and one party in this country is doing everything it can to demonize anybody who doesn't think exactly like them. That is extremely dangerous in this country.
Jim Lakely:And I'm not calling for, you know, anyone to be censored or for anyone to be attacked or even harassed. I'm calling on some people that have to be people on the left who have some sense and who love this country and can see plainly what is going on here. This is the real danger in this country, and that's why we're probably going to see a 3rd, maybe a 4th attempt on Donald Trump's life before November. And that's only, what, 46, 45 days away. This is this is insane.
Jim Lakely:What's going on? And we're gonna have another clip that I'm not even mad enough yet. The clip we're gonna play later, with, Karim Jean Pierre, the spokesperson, for for the Biden White House. I mean, I need to calm down before we play that because I'm getting a little excited, But they will not stop. They will not stop, frankly, until Donald Trump is dead.
Jim Lakely:And they're just upset that they're over 2, but they're gonna keep trying.
Donald Kendal:Well, Jim Jim Rantz, are sponsored by support like viewers like you that are watching this right now. And if you wanna donate to the show, you can by going to heartland.org/inthetank, and donate directly to the show. We're demonetized by YouTube, but donating that way makes it so that YouTube doesn't take a cut. So if you wanna support the show, that is a great way to do it. Jim, I wanted to move on to the next topic, but, you promised that video, so let's go ahead and play it.
Donald Kendal:I I tried to give you a couple of seconds to calm down, but, yeah, let's let's play let's play that, that last clip that we have on this topic.
KJP:Just to clarify, so you're saying that the president and vice president believe that former president Donald Trump should be toning down his rhetoric. So I'll say this, president Biden has been clear eyed about the threat, that the former president represents to our democracy. He's been clear eyed about that.
Peter Doocy:2 days since somebody allegedly tried to kill Donald Trump again. And you're here at the podium in the White House briefing room calling him a threat. How many more assassination attempts on Donald Trump until the president and the vice president and you pick a different word to describe Trump other than threat?
KJP:Peter, if anything from this administration, I actually, completely disagree with the premise of your question, the question that you're asking. It is also incredibly dangerous in the way that you're asking it, because American people are watching. And to say that to say that from a administration who has consistently condemned political violence, from an administration where the president called the former president, and was thankful, grateful that he was okay, from an administration who has called out January 6th, called out the attack of Paul Pelosi, Pelosi, called out and said we need to lower the temperature after the Butler incident. Incident. And now for you to make that kind of comment in your question, because it your question involved a comment and a statement.
KJP:And now for you to make that kind of comment in your question because it your question involved a comment and a statement. And, you know, it is, that is also incredibly dangerous. When
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Only only we're allowed to, to say that rhetoric leads to violence. You know? You can't say that. You can't accuse us of that.
Donald Kendal:Sam, I don't know, comments. I don't know anything that we've talked about so far. It's it's
Sam Karnick:just so much to say. I thought the last exchange was emblematic of the situation. Donald Trump has repeatedly said that they're after you. They're not just after me. They're after you.
Sam Karnick:I'm just in the way. And, I don't think that the powers that be necessarily want Trump dead. They just want him not as president. And if it takes that, it it they just don't seem to be, bothered by the notion that, well, if it takes an assassination, that's well, sometimes, you have to break a few eggs. So we'll do that.
Sam Karnick:You know, that's cool. But but look at it this way. If you want to test whether Trump is right about that, look at what has happened in the nation's cities really since 2016, but accelerating in around 2019 and 2020. Well, the the the cities have become many of them are hellscapes. The the you see the the homeless, encampments in many of these towns are this is disturbing.
Sam Karnick:It it this is America. You know, I'm like the drunk uncle here. Technically, I'm not drunk. No. I am but I'm like the drunk uncle here.
Sam Karnick:Is this America? But but when you think about it, this is not the way we perceive our country. That we have, expansive homeless encampments where there's no law. Where what happened in Seattle, with the with the, encampment there, the autonomous zone, trying to take over part of the city, that that has become just commonplace all across the country. And people are being shot at.
Sam Karnick:They're being killed. They're being harassed. These are ordinary, regular American people are under fire. And you can tell you can tell us that the the crime rate is actually down and so on and so forth, but that's rubbish. We're living it.
Sam Karnick:We know what's going on. And we can see that this is absolutely awful conditions, and it it is just not, it's not acceptable, quite frankly. But they are the the powers that be, the the central government, the the institutions of our country, the so called private institutions, most of which have been taken over in various ways by government. Yeah. They're all, together on the notion that if the American people don't do right and vote the right way and follow our instructions and talk exactly as we want them to speak, then they need to be punished.
Sam Karnick:We need to get them in line. And, we if it if it includes, killing a few people, well, that's okay. And if it includes an assassination, ultimately, because that's what has to happen, well, sometimes abortions just have to happen.
Donald Kendal:Chris, Jim, final comments on this. We have to move on to our second topic.
Chris Talgo:Yeah. Just real quick. I'll say I cannot believe that KGP is still is the, White House press secretary. And, I mean, j j, circle back Saki was was terrible. She is 10,000 times more terrible.
Chris Talgo:All she does is look at that binder for her answers and just spouts whatever's in the binder. Wow. I'm I Yeah. I mean, she's she's gotta go. Gotta gotta fire her.
Jim Lakely:Oh, yeah. I mean, Peter Doocy, god bless him. He's the only, reporter in the White House, press corps, which I used to be a member of 20 years ago now. Gosh. I'm getting old.
Jim Lakely:Who will you know, when he asked the question, how many more assassination attempts is gonna take until you guys stop calling him a threat? I mean, that was, you know, cathartic to hear that coming out of a reporter's mouth. And KJP, you know, frankly, how dare she have a response like that? You know, we we're told constantly by these guys and gals, these these people that, you know, Trump's rhetoric, you know, puts people's physical safety in danger all the time. But no one is ever harmed.
Jim Lakely:You know, that's just it's weird. Right? But, you know, these guys cannot sufficed Trump all day long every day for years years years, sic the deep state on him, you know, bring up some phony phony baloney, indictments and charges and and try to throw him in jail, you know, for years. And there's no accountability for all of this rhetoric that even comes out of the president's mouth. She wanted that's why I put those 2 little clips together because you you need the context of her being asked about that.
Jim Lakely:And she said twice that Joe Biden was clear eyed about what a threat Donald Trump is. And so there there's no accountability for any so, again, supposedly, Trump's and and JD Vance's rhetoric puts people's physical, you know, safety in danger. Although no one has ever no one has ever harmed. Right? I mean, it just and so but if we're going to play this game, how about applying it to your words when it's resulted in 2 assassination attempts on Donald Trump?
Jim Lakely:Nope. They just run from that. And then she has the gall to say that even asking the question is dangerous.
Donald Kendal:I think
Jim Lakely:there are not instruments to measure the amount of contempt I have, for this for this White House and for, Korean Jean Pierre based on that answer.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Yeah. No. It's it's insane. And and surely, well, I don't know.
Donald Kendal:Maybe not surely, but maybe we'll get more details on all of this and the, you know, the the alleged, you know, assassin and all of that sort of stuff. And we'll talk about it in future weeks. But, we gotta move on to the next topic here. We gotta move on. So so I don't wanna spend a whole lot of time on this.
Donald Kendal:That is, of course, the Trump Harris debate. You know, this is like I said, this was, like, 25 news cycles ago. But the general consensus is that Harris won the debate in terms of public perception. I can only attest to this, partially because I can't stand these debates. It's seriously like torture listening to them, but I don't see many people that are, like, disagreeing with this idea that, like, kind of Harris was the winner.
Donald Kendal:Does anyone want to object to that?
Chris Talgo:I completely object to that. So I watched the entire debate in full, watched a ton of com, coverage after the fact, and been really watching, the, polling after this. So according to the political pundits, Kamala Harris had the greatest performance in the history of debates. She outdid Abraham Lincoln. I mean, it was just wow.
Chris Talgo:Wow, man. It was amazing. Right. But according to the people, she actually did not do that great of a job. Reuters came out with a poll.
Chris Talgo:I think it was the the day after saying, now that you've seen the debate, who are you more likely to vote for? Kamala Harris or Trump? 60% said Trump. So when and I mean and that's just one poll. There have been other polls that have that have said the same thing.
Chris Talgo:So, yeah, Joe Scarborough, Mika, all them say that, that Kamala Harris had the greatest debate ever, but she really didn't because you know why? She didn't explain anything to the people. The people who watched that debate wanted to get clear answers on her economic agenda, what she's gonna do about immigration, and other things. She didn't do any of that. She just she she, you know, did her her I'm a middle class person, which is actually not true.
Chris Talgo:Blah blah blah. So, yeah, so she didn't fall on her face and and, you know, launch into word salad after word salad. She sorta kinda made sense, I guess. But she did not offer the, American people any details on the policies that really, really matter to them. And although the, pundit class said, oh, Trump was terrible, the people thought, actually, Trump did a great job.
Chris Talgo:You know why? Because he just kept saying, you know what? There's 3 things that matter. The economy, the border, and crime, and he's dead 1000% right about that. Those are the issues that people care about.
Chris Talgo:The the debate, they wanted to make it more about abortion and these issues that are on the periphery. Those issues don't matter nearly as much to people as the big three, the economy, crime, and the border. And Donald Trump did a great job, I think. I mean, he could have done maybe a little bit better, but he did a very good job of keep pivoting back to that, back to that, and back to that. So, I mean, just, you know, based on also, when you look at where, polls are now because we're, more than a week out, there's been no incredible bounce for Kamala.
Donald Kendal:Sure.
Chris Talgo:Actually, she's doing worse than in many of the the polls. So, no, she did not win that debate. Yeah. Maybe according to, Van Jones and and, you know, other other, you know, commentators on CNN and such. Yeah.
Chris Talgo:She, you know, probably outperformed what they expected of her, but the American people saw right through that. And that is a huge, you know, thing that that, Kamala Harris cannot overcome because she refuses to give detailed answers on what she would do. And the American people know why she's refusing to do that because either, 1, she doesn't know what she's gonna do, or number 2, she's trying to, do a bait and switch and say, hey. I'm gonna be a moderate. And then, you know, day 1, she's if she were to win, which I don't think she's going to, she'd go in and be the most progressive, crazy, socialist, communist, Marxist, you know, president in all of human history.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Well, there's also this, like, this this trying to, like, paint her as this, like, outsider when she's, like, currently in the administration right now. It's like they should be treating her more or less like she's the incumbent, but, they're like, you know, they're not holding her responsible in any way to what's going on in the economy right now. And that's actually, like, the thing that got me the most in the 15 minutes of the of the of the, debate that I actually did watch was, like, the first question. ABC correctly identified that the economy, you know, that's, like, the biggest issue, the one that's most important to voters, and they asked Kamala Harris about her plan to help the economy.
Donald Kendal:And she started talking about her middle class upbringing before, know, talking about other stuff that her administration would do with elected, stuff that we talked about on this podcast in past weeks. And I just thought, like, Trump missed an opportunity to just, like, hammer her on the fact that she's currently part of the presidential administration. Like, what what why is it some magical thing that if you were to become president, now you're gonna be able to get all these, like, left wing ideas through? I just feel like it could have been, like, a 1st round knockout.
Chris Talgo:True. But but but his his closing statement, he said that exact thing. And the closing statement is what I think is gonna actually resonate most with people because, yeah, you know, the opening the opening questions, you know, probably people, you know, kind of forget them, you know, after a while. But Donald Trump's closing statement was was a very powerful closing statement because he said, you've been in the White House for 3 and a half years. Why haven't you done this already?
Chris Talgo:And the American people in you know, they they know that.
Donald Kendal:Right. Right. Sam, I, I kinda cut you off earlier when you were bringing up, the kind of the lopsided state of the debate and, you know, one side getting fact checked constantly on, you know, a whole boat bunch of stuff, yet Kamala Harris was able to get away with the fine people lie and the, you know, Trump saying that there's gonna be a bloodbath lie and, you know, one one lie after the the January 6th police deaths. She talked about how that there's not one member of the United States military who's in, active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world for the first time this century. She was able to say that she wasn't in favor of defunding the police.
Donald Kendal:None of these things were fact checked, but, again, it's like, should we be surprised? Like, I'm not surprised. Like, it's it's I don't know. What are your thoughts?
Sam Karnick:Well, given that these these debates are not actual debates, of course. They're just sort of joint press conferences. Right. And in a press conference, the questioners can make the questions whatever they want them to be. So that's the the problem in terms of decide the problem in deciding who wanna debate, I think it should be solved very simply, which is what are you trying to accomplish?
Sam Karnick:Which in any debate is, of course, to move some people into your column some voters into your column. And in a a situation like we presently have, there are a few swing states where you really want to move those voters. So what we had here in this debate was, the you can see the 2 different, objectives, the of the 2 candidates and their teams. Trump's was to hang, the Biden administration around Harris's neck and make her deal with that and and leave that with the voters that this person who's running for president against me is going to be like the Biden administration, only worse. So that was his objective.
Sam Karnick:Harris' objective clearly was to say that Donald Trump is not qualified to be president of the United States because of his bad character. So her goal was to say orange man bad. Okay. Well, here's the thing. Orange man bad, everybody already knows that.
Sam Karnick:Everyone already has their opinion of Trump. They'd they're going to vote for him or not vote for him based on what they think he will do to the country, largely. There are some people who simply won't vote for him because they can't stand his personality. But in general, people already knew what they thought of Trump. He was not on trial there.
Sam Karnick:Harris was on the trial run. And Harris needed to distance herself from the Biden administration. She failed to do that. She didn't really even particularly attempt it. She tried, in a desultory manner a couple of times, but really didn't, score anything there.
Sam Karnick:And Trump, followed up on his goal, which was to hang that administration on her neck, weigh her down with it, and he did that successfully. As as Chris pointed out, The the final, statement of Trump was all about that. But throughout the throughout the debate, his whole, his whole agenda, although there were moments where he felt a need to protect himself from, more, horrible claims about what an awful person he is. But and and, I I can I think we can all understand that, we can relate to that if if you're really getting pounded on all the time? You feel like, come on.
Sam Karnick:I'm not really that person. But the key thing is that he needed to hang the this, all the disasters of the last 4 years around her neck, they are. And he then could hope to move some, swing voters into his some undecided voters into his column. And in that way, I think he probably succeeded. That some people said, yeah.
Sam Karnick:I just I just don't believe in this this woman. She's just the same thing, only worse. Harris did not manage to did not do anything that would move any voters. Because if you're an undecided voter, you know all this about Trump already, and you're still undecided. That to me says that you think that he's basically a he's pretty good for the country, but he's annoying.
Sam Karnick:In which case, I just heard suspending an hour and a half, 2 hours saying he's annoying doesn't move anybody. So I I think that the way the way I look at it, Trump won because he could move some votes, and, Harris lost.
Donald Kendal:Jim, you can either take first swing at the next topic, or you can, offer your comments on this topic. What do you what do you wanna do? Oh, you're muted. You are muted.
Jim Lakely:Working on stuff on the background, so I don't wanna you have the clickety clack of my keyboard on need
Donald Kendal:the explanation. Just go ahead.
Jim Lakely:Yeah. We don't need the explanation. So
Sam Karnick:just I
Jim Lakely:was just gonna point out that, Kamala Harris has not received any post debate bump in the polls, which is what you would expect if she demolished Trump in that debate. I actually thought Trump did pretty well in about the first 20 minutes. He was, almost low energy. Like, you're cold open today. It was, like, very calm.
Jim Lakely:And then, both Kamala Harris and, of course, the two moderators who were working for the Democratic, party and Kamala Harris, knew all the buttons to push and got Trump off message, and he just started getting angrier. And I don't blame him because it was, it was 3 on 1, and, I think he handled himself pretty well, you know, all things considered. And he did have a nice, closing statement, and he was able to make, you know, the point that all these things you wanna do. What do you mean turning the page? What do you mean a new way forward?
Jim Lakely:You've been in office for 4 years. Right. I thought it amazing. If we had an honest political press in this country, they would be laughing in the face of the Democrats right now saying that, you know, you guys are the incumbents. You're acting like Trump is the incumbent.
Jim Lakely:That was what's so was so bizarre about that whole debate. The whole debate was acting as if Trump's been president for the last 4 years, and he hasn't been. That's obvious to everybody. So, you know, I think in the end, I think Chris is right. I think Kamala actually had a lot to do in that debate to convince people to vote for her.
Jim Lakely:I mean, Donald Trump is the most known political commodity in on the globe. You know? He has his voters already. You know, he want he needed to persuade people who, don't really like him and maybe don't even wanna vote for him that the economy is in the garbage because of the policies of the Biden Harris administration, and I think he'd he actually accomplished that, pretty well. So
Donald Kendal:Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I don't know. It's it's in it's not shocking to me the way that that whole thing went down.
Donald Kendal:It's kind of how I expected the first debate to go down to kind of, like, really kind of, like, prop Joe Biden up, almost literally at that point. But, you know, it's it seemed like they were a little bit more successful this time around. And in the aftermath of the debate, there's been an interesting document circulating around, that, I don't think that it's been confirmed or anything. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding that this is an unconfirmed story. But, again, circulating online is a supposed sworn affidavit signed by a notary containing statements from an ABC employee blowing the whistle on underhanded practices by ABC when putting together the debate, as well as claims about ABC News in general.
Donald Kendal:But according to this affidavit, ABC provided the Harris campaign with various accommodations, including stuff relating to the size of the podiums to the use of split screen to favor Harris. According to the documents, quote, it was agreed that Donald Trump would be subjected to fact checking during the debate while Kamala Harris would not face comparable scrutiny. This particular point was apparently agreed upon during conversations with the Harris campaign, conversations that had not been had with the Trump campaign. Apparently, Harris was provided with sample questions that were very similar to the final questions used during the debate. And, also, according to this document, the Harris campaign imposed restrictions on the questions, that were gonna be posed to the candidates, including demands that, quote, no question regarding the perceived health of president Joe Biden, no inquiries relating to her tenure as attorney general in San Francisco, and no questions concerning her brother-in-law, Tony West, who faces allegations of embezzling 1,000,000,000 of dollars in taxpayer funds who may be involved in her administration if elected.
Donald Kendal:Chris, I'm gonna go to you on this one because this seems almost too on the nose to be believable, but at the same time, we are live living in a complete clown world. So who knows? So what what are your thoughts on this supposed affidavit that's going around?
Chris Talgo:Okay. Well, first of all, I used to think that NBC was by far the worst of the worst when it came to fake news. I have changed my opinion on that. It actually is ABC. Okay?
Chris Talgo:And that's been, confirmed by this debate and the fact that George Stephanopoulos, who basically runs ABC News, is a die hard Democrat who served as Bill Clinton's chief of staff. And, just, like, just think about that for a second. You've got someone who served as the chief of staff for a former democrat president running the news division at ABC. How is that possible? The ABC has just gone down the rabbit hole of, you know, fake news media.
Chris Talgo:I I can't stand to watch the ABC, you know, news at night anymore. It's just terrible that their their Sunday show is, you know, awful. Like I said earlier, and this, you know, is is an indictment of the entire media, but ABC, I think, is the worst offender in this in this, exact election cycle. They've literally become instruments of the Democrat Party. And like you said, I mean, obviously, we don't know if this is 1000% true, this this, you know, this whistleblower account or so.
Chris Talgo:But based on what I saw, it really seems like it. And, you know, now now that this did come out and I think back, why didn't they ask all those questions? You know? Like, those those are the questions that were on the top of voters' minds. So, you know, ABC in recent years has really gone downhill.
Chris Talgo:I was also really disappointed when, the word came out that they, refused to, blow open the story on on Epstein because of their, you know, desire to remain good with the royal family. I mean, like, are you kidding me? Like, just say the news. Tell us the news and be honest about it. But, yeah, this is just really par for the course, and ABC News sucks.
Chris Talgo:Boycott it, everybody.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. I mean, Jim, I'm curious to see your thoughts on this. Like, up and and until, you know, this gets confirmed or, you know, dismissed as just being some forged document or something like that, like, we still all saw the same thing. Like, it's very likely that all of that stuff is true. There's just no whistleblower coming out and saying it.
Donald Kendal:Now maybe that's being a little too cynical, but, like, again, like what Chris said, it's like you you look at it, and you almost, like, have to believe it's true based on what went down in the debate. But what what are your thoughts on this one?
Jim Lakely:It's not possible to be too cynical. We're talking about the American corporate media here. And I thought going in, I you know, I only have jokes. You know? I know that we were texting each other and stuff before the debate, and, you you you were smart.
Jim Lakely:You didn't watch it. Anywhere participating in a live
Donald Kendal:I kept out after 20 minutes. I'm like, I'm done.
Jim Lakely:Yeah. You you checked out. But, smart man. I, I stayed for the duration of it. But, you know, I joke beforehand.
Jim Lakely:It's like, you know, well, obviously, Carmel's gonna get the questions beforehand. I mean, if you remember, there was a lot of, you know, there was a lot of controversy about how, you know, the negotiations were going to do the debate in the first place. It almost, you know, supposedly almost didn't happen. And, you know, this memo lays out what anybody with eyes would see would be the conditions for Kamala Harris to participate in a debate, with Donald Trump, and that is that she would be prepared for the debate in some capacity by the debate moderators themselves. The, Lindsey Davis, is that her name of the David Nieren, Lindsey Davis?
Jim Lakely:Yeah. I read somewhere that she was a sorority sister
Sam Karnick:of
Jim Lakely:Kamala Harris. Wow. Of all the journalists in all the world, she gets it. She gets one of her moderators is an old sorority sister of hers. And the president of NBC News, I'm sorry, ABC News introduced Kamala Harris to her husband.
Chris Talgo:Mhmm.
Jim Lakely:What a coincidence. Oh my god. I can't believe it. And if you put those things together and you couple it with the attitude that the media has right now and that they're selling to the American people, that the election of the the reelection of Donald Trump would constitute a existential threat to America itself, and then put all those other pieces together. Of course, there was going to be cheating on behalf of Kamala Harris.
Jim Lakely:They they don't care. They don't care about credibility. Trump in 2016 broke so many institutions, but especially the media and especially Hollywood. And they remain broke, and they're gonna they're gonna stay broke. And I don't think they can ever be fixed because they have given up all all pretenses of credibility.
Jim Lakely:The media didn't really have a lot of credibility to begin with. Now it's completely shot. So, yes, this interesting about this, I don't know if you mentioned these details in your setup, Donnie, but the this whistleblower, if you notice on the letter, it's dated September 9th, the day before the debate. He wrote this out before the debate on purpose. He mailed it to he mailed a certified letter on September 9th to, house speaker, the the speaker of the house representatives, Mike Johnson, again, to prove that this was done before the debate because he knows he knew this was happening beforehand.
Jim Lakely:And then he mailed he mailed, like, several versions of the letters, like something out of some kind of spy novel or something. Right. Sure. You're out of a movie. Right.
Jim Lakely:And so so he saw this happening. If you believe that this is legit, and I guess, well, maybe one day find out soon whether, you know, whether it is legit, but it it didn't come out of nowhere. I don't think it's fake news. We should actually get to the bottom of it. This person should be interviewed, somewhere.
Jim Lakely:There should be some proving of this, but, an indication that it is true is that ABC gave a pretty non denial denial about it. They said they didn't give the questions beforehand to Kamala Harris. Well, maybe not the questions, but the topics. So they didn't ask about the topics. They just addressed the questions.
Jim Lakely:And again, we have to look at this in the context of the 2016 election when Donna Brazil, when she was working for CNN, gave the questions to Hillary Clinton before the before the debate.
Donald Kendal:So
Jim Lakely:when you have Democrats running every news outlet and institution in this country, and that includes Fox News, guys. Gotta break it to you. This is the kind of thing you end up with, which is why people come to YouTube to watch podcasts like this, to get more honest assessments of what's going on in the world. And, yeah, so the credibility of of the media is gonna be gone. Election night is going to be a complete poop show because they're not gonna call any states.
Jim Lakely:And so, yeah, we got I gotta make sure, I may need blood pressure medicine by the time we get to November 5th.
Donald Kendal:Sam, I I I'm curious to see your thoughts, about this supposed affidavit. Before you talk, though, make sure you unmute yourself. We don't wanna pull a gym here. But but, yeah, I don't I don't know. Like, it it just I I I forgot about that that detail that it was you know, this was, like, sent around before the debate, but this just seems like something if this were to come out, like, 10 years ago and whatever presidential race was happening 10 years ago.
Donald Kendal:It would be, like, the biggest news story, biggest biggest controversy, elect election controversy of, like, that era. And now it's just, like, page 12 news. So what what's your thoughts on this one?
Sam Karnick:Well, I think, the point you made about how the, media and especially the news media are crumbling through their own corruption is accurate. I think it's very interesting that that we're skeptic that we're expected to be skeptical about a claim that the debate was rigged. Think about that. That's the myth of objective journalism.
Donald Kendal:Right.
Sam Karnick:It's a myth. It's was never true, and it's definitely not true right now. You know, when when all the, when when all the journalism of the thirties and forties and fifties, which was supposed to be a very good time for journalism, when when that was all occurring, it was all in favor of the state of the of the form of, organization that our government and society had during that period, and, that has, concentrated since. So for us to say, well, gee, I wonder that, you know, this is sounds of course, it's dubious to claim that they that they rigged the debate. No.
Sam Karnick:It shouldn't be dubious at all.
Donald Kendal:Well, I'm sure.
Sam Karnick:Be that, of course, they sure. They rigged the debate. We just got what's dubious is that we somehow got evidence system.
Donald Kendal:Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Donald Kendal:I I totally forgot about that one, about, like, Hillary Clinton getting the debate questions. Like, I totally forgot. That's been memory hold, like, along with a whole bunch of other stuff. But, yeah, like, you're absolutely right. It's like, I almost need proof that this wasn't fixed.
Donald Kendal:You know, like, that's Right. That's the sort of evidence that I want.
Sam Karnick:And this is what's happening this is what's happening to all our institutions. They're becoming so inept. But when when and when Chris mentioned the homeland security, the first thing I thought of is that thing was bad from the start. That homeland security was a bad idea, and it was a and it's been horribly executed. And my contention is that our government and all of our major institutions are are both incompetent and malevolent.
Sam Karnick:They're malevolent toward normal human beings, people who just want to, do do their job and maybe make the world a little bit better so that they can get some profit from it and be able to eat and have a roof over their head and so forth. And, the the our government and institutions seem to dislike that very badly, and they would rather have everybody either be in the governor's mansion or a homeless encampment. That's the way it looks. And it's not a shock. And not nothing that happens anymore should be a shock because of the combination.
Sam Karnick:That it's an incredibly fascinating combination of incompetence and malevolence. You don't really see that very often. The late Soviet Union, there is there's where you get that.
Donald Kendal:Alright. We Cuba. We're we're 11 minutes long already, but, the sidebar promises we're gonna talk about one more topic. So we're gonna go to that. Chris, this was your, your idea to have this as a segment.
Donald Kendal:We've got 46 days left before the election, and I'm curious of kind of, like, the state of the race. Because if you just, like, kinda go by just what's in the media ether out there, it's like, oh, yeah. Kamala Harris is just crushing it. She's absolutely crushing it. But you could look at, like, a number of things that give kind of contradictory.
Donald Kendal:Like, when I was pulling together the show notes for this, I was finding, things that were kind of contradictory. So one of them was a Fox News article that says polling guru Nate Silver predicts Trump has a 64% chance of winning the electoral college in the latest forecast. However, I also found a article from 538 that's titled who is favored to win the 2024 presidential election, and I think they had it, like, 64% Kamala Harris. So what is your read on this current state of the race, Chris?
Chris Talgo:Okay. National polls don't matter. So just take all the national polls and throw them in the garbage because that's where they belong. All that matters are the swing states. And when you look at the swing states, especially when you look at the real clear policy average, Trump has a lead in 5 of the 7 swing states.
Chris Talgo:If he maintains that lead in those 5 swing states, he wins the electoral college hands down. I also do wanna say that here we are 46 days to the election. Let's go back to the same exact point in time in 2016 and in 2020. Donald Trump was down by double digits nationally at this exact point in time in both of those elections. If you care about national polls, which I really don't, they're about tied.
Chris Talgo:Okay? When you look at the swing state polls at in 2016 and in 20 20, at this point in time, Donald Trump was down between, like, 3 to 9 points in every single one of those swing states. He now is leading in 5 of 7 of those swing states. So I think those are the polls that really matter. I do put, you know, pretty good emphasis on, Nate Silver's, election model.
Chris Talgo:And, regardless of that article, I don't know who wrote it or what it is, but according to, his algorithmic model, Donald Trump is supposedly going to win by or or is not supposedly going to win is, has a 60 percent chance of winning as of right now. One other quick thing I just do wanna mention, the teamsters union. It's been almost 4 decades since the Teamsters Union did not endorse a Democrat candidate for president. Guess what just happened yesterday? The Teamsters announced that they will not endorse Kamala Harris.
Chris Talgo:Now they did not endorse Donald Trump, but they released a poll among their rank and file members. That poll showed that 60% of Teamsters Union rank and file members, not their leadership, say that they are going to vote for Donald Trump. That is a historic change of events. If the Teamsters Union, the union of all unions, which is supposed to be, you know, basically controlled by the Democrat party, is now flipping at a 6040 clip to Donald Trump, Kamala Harris cannot win this election. Now when you combine that with, some of the other, polls that have come out showing that Donald Trump has about a 30% of the black male vote, that is very bad news for Kamala.
Chris Talgo:Donald Trump has a significant, lead in in, what he had among the Hispanic vote at this point in time, both in 2016 and 2020. So first of all, I I I don't I don't trust polls because 2016 and 2020 showed us that they are just really not accurate. Pollers, pollsters have a tendency to, over, you know, to over poll, democrats. When you look at some of the the the best polls, Tref Lager Group and some others, they show that Donald Trump has a very, very good chance to win, at least 5 of those 7, swing states. And, also, you know, we're not paying as much attention to the house races and senate races.
Chris Talgo:But as of now, the Republican Party is going to maintain its, its, lead in the house, its, majority, and, they are almost guaranteed to, have the majority in the senate. So things are actually looking very good for, 2025, for the Republican party. I am not a diehard Republican by any means. However, every 4 years and every 2 years, we face a, a choice, And that choice, like it or not, is a, you know, is is basically between 2 extremes. When it comes down to it, the Democrat party, especially, you know, in in recent years, they have become so, you know, the the antithesis of of my personal values of low taxes, low government, more personal freedom.
Chris Talgo:I can't help but say that I'm, you know, supporting the Republican party. In the past, I have voted libertarian. I don't think I'm gonna be doing that this year. So, I'm gonna do all I can to make sure that the Republican party, has a landslide victory, and I think that that is going to happen barring something insane happening between now and then, and I would not discount that. So
Donald Kendal:Let's just say that the
Chris Talgo:comments caveat.
Donald Kendal:The comments from all of our panelists are their personal opinions and not necessarily reflected Well, absolutely. Organization as a whole. That should be said at the beginning of every one of these episodes.
Sam Karnick:Of course.
Donald Kendal:You know? Jim or Sam, we are 16 minutes long in this episode. Do you have any comments on this final section of 46 days left before the election? Let me have it if you do.
Sam Karnick:Yeah. I'll jump in real quick. The the fact is that, Trump is looking good, and he's very much a closer. He's very good at at closing, an election. He always he always increases his, numbers as, time goes on.
Sam Karnick:And that is, again, because of the personality thing. People don't wanna vote for him, but they will because they know he's the better. He's he's better for them, for their pocketbooks, and now for their physical safety. I will say this, though. What, what I would expect is given well, given that Kamala Harris is now heading toward the same territory that Joe Biden was when he was, when he was basically removed, when he was removed from the candidacy.
Sam Karnick:I think we should expect something interesting to happen within the next couple by the end of
Jim Lakely:the month.
Chris Talgo:Yesterday yesterday, Donald Trump held a rally in Uniondale, New York and had more than 20,000 people in that and had 50,000 people waiting outside. That was in New York state. Donald Trump's internal polling must be very good if he's spending time in New York state and not going to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and the others because I I'm I'm willing to bet that he is very confident that he has those on lockdown as of now.
Sam Karnick:That's the real way to know who's winning is by what they do.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I'll I'll I will say that I wouldn't be surprised if Donald Trump wins by a wide margin, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he just completely gets swamped out. So I have no idea.
Donald Kendal:I have no predictions. Jim, final thoughts on this episode before we wrap it up.
Jim Lakely:Well, yeah. I mean, I remember in the 2020 election, one of Donald Trump's last rallies was in, well, about where he got shot, a few weeks back in Western Pennsylvania in, in Butler County. And it was an enormous success. There was multiple tens of thousands of people there. Meanwhile, you know, Joe Biden was campaigning from his basement and any outdoor rallies he did have.
Jim Lakely:People were sitting in their cars, or they were in those absurd little white circles with a couple of things, you know, 10 feet apart. It was like so it was it was a joke. And so all of the things that you could see with your eyes told you that Donald Trump was going to win was going to win reelection. And then you most people went to sleep on election night thinking Donald Trump had won reelection. And then counting continued to happen or not happen in right in the places that it needed to in order to put Biden over the top.
Jim Lakely:So, if you if you're on x, follow a guy named Larry Schweikert. He is, a friend of Heartland. He's done a few events with us here over the years. He has been his his job basically is he's been looking at the voter registration in all the swing states. And republican voter registration and this has gains over the since in between the two presidential elections.
Jim Lakely:Republicans are gaining in in states like Pennsylvania and Nevada and Arizona and Georgia. And so they're beating the, Democrats at that part of the ground game. We we will see. I what's gonna be really frustrating is that the, we won't really know who is president until the people who run the elections in those key states are done counting. So, you know, the there's the the Hugh Hewitt is a radio host.
Jim Lakely:He had a book. Gosh. It must be 20 years old now where it said, if it's not close, they can't cheat. And so that's the way I'm thinking about the 2024 election. We'll see.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. And we got several weeks of the show between now and then, so, surely, we're gonna have more sections talking about, kind of the state of the race and the lead up to the 2024 election, but that is going to do it for this week. I wanna thank all of you who have tuned in for this episode of the in the tank podcast. Join us every week for a new episode for those audio only listeners that are probably catching the show on a Friday or later. Please leave a review for us on Itunes.
Donald Kendal:That would be greatly appreciated. And also considering consider joining us a day earlier on Thursdays at noon, central time, where we are live streaming this on Facebook and YouTube and Rumble and x. And you can join the conversation for your comments and questions in the chat. Maybe we'll show your comments on the screen. Maybe we'll address your questions on the fly.
Donald Kendal:You could also help out the show financially by, going to heartland.org/inthetank and donating directly to the show. We have been demonetized by YouTube. So you can't do it that way, so you gotta do it this way, which is better because now YouTube doesn't get to tax it at 30%. You could also help out the show by just hitting that like button, subscribing if you haven't already, sharing this content, or just leaving a comment under the video all helps break through those big tech algorithms to prevent content like this from being shown to more people. If you'd like, you could follow us on Twitter at in the tank pod.
Donald Kendal:And if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for the show, feel free to email us at in the tank podcast atgmail.com. Jim Lakeley, where can the find people find you?
Jim Lakely:Atjlakeleyonx@heartlandinstonx, and always visit
Donald Kendal:heartland.org. Fantastic. Chris Talgo, what do you have to pitch today?
Chris Talgo:I have nothing to pitch today, Donnie. I'm sorry.
Donald Kendal:Matthew words. Find them on the golf course, folks.
Chris Talgo:Yes. I will be there this weekend.
Donald Kendal:And and Sam Karnick, where can people go to find your work?
Sam Karnick:At s t karnick on x and on, all the other social media there, you'll find me. And, check out my subs tech, which is s t karnick.
Donald Kendal:Fantastic. Alright. Thank you all for tuning in, and we will talk to you next week.
KJP:Turn that off.