This is the Patrick Eddingson show on TNT radio. All right, folks, welcome to the program. Once again, first hour we hear final segment of the first hourly welcome on to the broadcast TNT's political editor at large Basil Valentine, somewhere in the world, Basil, the big nights tonight with just a few hours away and the biggest TV debate, extravaganza, will take place in the United States. Everybody is waiting with bated breath. What type of Joe Biden will show up? The Democrats have warned everybody. This is a new Joe Biden. You will be surprised by his physical performance end of quote, and Donald Trump, they're going to go at it. Clash of the Titans. What do you know about this so far? Well, unless there's a secret alchemist in the Biden camp, perhaps someone with my name Basil Valentine able to produce the elixir of eternal youth, then I think we're going to get jacked up Joe if we get any reasonably coherent Joe at all. That is because he's well past his cell by date. As everybody knows, and it'll be past his bedtime as well. The debate is due to start at nine p.m. Eastern. That's the time in Atlanta where it's being held. That itself is well past Joe's bedtime. So I'll be surprised if he could even keep his eyes open through to the end, let alone be remotely coherent, but as we will come on to CNN are rigging the deck against him. I've heard they're going to start off by an all out attack on Trump using words like adultery, hush money, convicted felon really focusing on the Stormy Daniels business in a bid to rile him and unsettle him right from the start. Yes, there is an alchemist in the family as it goes. His son Hunter is a bit of a dab hand when it comes to mixing and matching chemical substances. So who knows? There's some some knowledge in the family there. Hunter might have a special cocktail for a dad, but I think Dr. Jill Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, not a medical doctor, a doctor of education, but she's probably got something special for Joe. There's a lot of rumors, B12 shots and feta means all sorts of cocktails, Adderall. There's all sorts of theories about how they can jack Joe up for the debate. And he only needs to be competent is for really a period of 90 minutes actually. So as long as you can get him on stage, get him to perform somewhat lucidly and sharp appearing anyway, and even if he collapses and ends up in an ER afterwards, it's a win for the Democrats. Am I over dramatizing this scenario about him? No, not at all Kerry Jean Pierre, the White House press spokesperson, said that she expects Joe to come out fighting just as he did at the state of the Union address. So it's what Hannity on Fox has called Jacked Up Joe, and I think that's what we'll get. We'll get the briefly supercharged, superannuated version worth pointing out. This debate is unusually early in the election cycle, still over four months to polling day. Is that because in two months' time or three months' time, Joe will be even more seen all than he is now. So the idea is to get him out now and then put him away in the cellar for the next few months while they rig the election. So you'll appreciate this bezel. CNN has just done its best to put the thumb on the scales on this. So the people that are choosing Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, these are completely never Trumpers. Orange Man phobia, TDS to the max. Now, Jake Tapper engages in that sort of practice, which we have discussed before, which is the fetishization of Hitler as it pertains to the Orange Man. We've got a highlight reel here. This is the moderator of the debate. He should have been recused from this whole Farago, but yet he is there. He's going to be running this thing. Let's go ahead and roll. This is Jake Tapper and his highlight reel before this debate. The dehumanizing rhetoric of Adolf Hitler is once again alive and well on a national political stage. This time, of course, in the United States, a couple of times over the weekend referred to immigrants from South America, Africa, and Asia. You did not mention Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia as "poisoning the blood of our country," which is not hyperbole. That does very directly echo Adolf Hitler's language before World War II to open up a copy of Hitler's "Mein Kampf," you would find a Nazi leader describing the mixing of non-jurments with George Germans as "poisoning." There's really no other way to say it. Donald Trump's language mirrors this directly. I wonder if Mr. Tapper feels the same way about non-Jewish immigration into Israel. Well, yeah, totally verboten. Of course, that's not up for discussion. A lot of people have noticed this, that these are not moderators. These are partisans. The fact that CNN has been allowed to do this, I think, is incredible in itself. Here is the gatekeeper reaction here. Incredibly obvious what's going on. They have been challenged on the air about this. You see the reaction from CNN. They can't really defend themselves. Let's roll this clip. Well, first of all, to take someone five minutes to Google Jake Tapper, Donald Trump, to see that Jake Tapper has considered to be like President Trump at Adolf Hitler. Ma'am, I'm going to stop this interview if you continue to attack my colleagues. I would like to talk about Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who you work for. If you are here to speak on his behalf, I will do have this conversation. I am stating facts that your colleagues have stated in the past now. We're going to come back out to the panel. Caroline, thank you very much for your time. You are welcome to come back. Unbelievable. So that's the media there. I thought the United States was supposed to believe in freedom of speech. We don't do that on TNT, do we? We let people speak their minds. What a difference, Patrick? So that's not the worst part of it. The worst part is they're going to be micromanaging who can be heard through the microphone and who can't. Now, I wanted to try to sort of I don't know if we have this clip ready or not, but yeah, producing. Okay, it'll be here in a minute. I'll give you. We'll have that up on the air shortly, Basil. But imagine this that giving CNN the power of controlling who can be heard and who can't, which speaker can be heard and who can't. Now, this is going to be a huge advantage to Biden because Trump likes to interject and imposes will on a live debate. And that's one of the great things about debates, isn't it? That it's a little bit rough around the edges and it really is a test to see who can handle himself, Basil, don't you think? Absolutely. Cut and thrust is what people are looking for. They want some drama. They want some theater. I mean, the pair of them are about 160 years old between the two of them. If they can't joust a little now, when can they? Exactly. This is almost like the infantilization of politics to the extreme. Now, I'm going to show you this clip. This is CNN. Watch the words they're using, how they're talking to their public about how they're going to be completely controlling this conversation with their new technology. This is shocking, but we have to see it. Let's roll it. If we go behind the podiums, you can see two green lights. When they're on, they signal to the candidate, his microphone is on. When the green lights are off, they signal to the candidate, his microphone is off. Now, I want to give you a sense of what it will look like for viewers at home. If a candidate whose microphone is off, interrupt a candidate whose microphone is on. So, I'm standing at one podium and I'll ask Phil to come in and take the other podium. And so, let's say I'm answering a question. My light is green and I'm speaking. Phil's microphone is off and his green lights are not illuminated. He's going to interrupt me as I'm speaking and this is what it will sound like. My volume remains constant while Phil's interruption can be difficult to understand. Now, let's try the opposite. My microphone is now off. Victor's microphone is off and he's going to interrupt me. My volume remains constant while Victor's interruption can be difficult to understand. The CNN's production team has shared this demonstration with the campaigns earlier today and we're sharing it with you, our viewers, so everyone fully understands how tomorrow night will work. Now, we should know by agreeing to participate in this debate, both campaigns and candidates have also agreed to abide by these rules. The CNN presidential debate airs live tomorrow night at 9 p.m. Eastern. You know what this reminds me of Basil is when you go onto an airline and they do the safety mask and the oxygen mask demonstration. They have these really cheesy childish videos so that everybody kind of is slow, whatever can follow it and understand. I mean, they're really treating the public like they're absolute morons, but maybe a lot of the CNN viewership might be. But what do you think of that one? Well, I mean, CNN probably delighted that they've still got enough clout to get one of only two debates really because nobody watches it and you would think with this opportunity to showcase their channel once again that they would do a better job than this. It seems they don't actually want a debate at all. They just want a series of set speeches. It's absolutely pointless if you ask me. I mean, the whole exercise is illustrative of the circus that American politics has become has been for some time, if you ask me. This is the third election in a row where the vast majority of voters are dissatisfied with the candidates from the two main parties. Where are the other candidates? Where's RFK? Where's Jill Stein? Where's Cornell West? We'd have a much, much livelier program if they were included. But as is the case in the UK, the major networks, one of their main function is to simply sheepdog everybody into this ridiculous duopoly. Now, I've no doubt that Trump and Biden will find plenty to disagree about tonight. But on all sorts of other things, notably the genocide in Gaza, they're in complete agreement. So, you know, the whole thing is a bit of a charade in the final analysis. I think Trump is likely to win if only because he's more coherent than Biden. If Biden gets away without making any major gaps, that will be interpreted as a window doubt. And the general thrust of the thing will be aimed at Trump's character. Biden can't run on his record. He hasn't got one. So instead, it's going to be just vilify Donald as much as we can. The thing that I've got a problem with this basil is that they've never had a presidential debate before this early between the two. Well, there should be the nominees. Normally, you go to the convention in the summer and then, you know, it's officially rubber stamped at the DNC RNC conventions. And then the debates begin. We're in the end of June here. They have no business doing a presidential debate at this point in the election cycle. So I'm a little bit confused and wondering why they're breaking protocol. It's been time immemorium. This is how we do it in America. They've changed everything. There's a lot of changes going on the Democrat. One argument is that three months down the line, Biden would have deteriorated further. So get it done now. We don't know who the vice presidential candidates are. We assume it's going to be Kamala Harris, but the Democrats are keeping that hidden because they know a vote for Biden is likely to mean a vote for Kamala down the line because he can't last another four years. Surely. We don't know who Trump's VP is. What about the vice presidential debates? I agree. It's ridiculously early in the cycle. Everybody will have forgotten what happened tonight come November. Everybody's likely to have forgotten what happens tonight in a couple of weeks time. It's really just an exercise in ratings for CNN. Yeah, I think it's going to be interesting as well. What comes after this? So there's definitely some strategy at play here. And if CNN doesn't play their cards right on this, they're really going to get accused of election rigging, election interference. Again, they have no business. I mean, I remember when the League of Women Voters used to organize these basil and that was a fair neutral organization, but these networks are absolutely partisan. I'll throw Fox News in there as well. They're just as partisan for the right as CNN is for the left. But I would think the only ones I would really accept in this case, Basil would be PBS, maybe NPR is out of the question. It's completely woke partisan organization, maybe PBS, League of Women Voters, possible other neutral organization. And that's it. These networks have no business running these circuses. Well, they're not even allowing reporters in the studio. Reporters are in a building over the road watching live feed. That's apparently in case of a medical emergency affecting either of the two candidates, which has led some to speculate that somebody's planning some kind of hit on Donald Trump and the Democrats will then have total control of the footage. That's how crazy things have got, Patrick. Well, you just raised the specter of possible vicious Black Swan event there, Basil. I mean, if that's the case, I mean, that is a good point. What could happen? Could Biden seize going to a catatonic seizure? Maybe they're worried about something that might happen to Biden, whereby they could just cut, they could just cut to break. And you know, if Jill had to come to us like at the D-day seller, at the D-day over the road. So they cut the feed. Whereas if the reporters are in the room and they see Biden stumble or collapse or something, then that's much harder to hide, even if 90% of them are his supporters, you know. And also, as you say, there's still speculation swirling around whether Biden or not is going to make it to November, whether he's even still going to be alive in November. You know, the possibility of parachuting somebody into the convention remains. Perhaps I'm speculating now, Patrick, that's why they're holding this debate early, because if Biden is absolutely abysmal tonight, then they've still got the chance to say, on your way, Joe, get somebody else in in September. And today won't matter at all. And a bit of a reverse conspiracy theory on this. What if some operatives at the Democratic elite establishment control center think, let's go hang Joe out to dry. If he turns in an abysmal performance, there'll be an absolute demand and a requirement that he be replaced at the convention. So that could also be that's a Machiavellian theory by me, of course. But would you rule that out? Well, that's exactly what I just said. Yeah, they could decide that if Joe isn't up to scratch tonight, then let's ditch him. So some contrast to say anything's better than Joe. At this point, he's an embarrassment. And it gives them the excuse internally, get the party will mobilize. The Democrats are very good at mobilizing when they agree on a direction. But there seems to be a lot of confusion in the Democratic Party and disagreement over whether to ditch Joe or let him run. So, I mean, I think this is an open question. Yeah, I mean, he may effectively be on trial by his own party tonight, you know. Yeah, I think you're not far out of the realms of possibility there, Bowser. I think that's a good call. So can you bet on this debate with the British bookies? I mean, how do you determine a winner anyway? That's the difficult part. Exactly that, you know, lots of different networks have different ways of calculating who won. There'll be endless polls, no doubt. I'm not aware of any betting as he on who won the debate. I don't think anybody's offering any odds. So I'll double check for you while we're online here. Yeah, we could also, I think another angle on that would be to you could have laid a bet down on the exchange early, whether Joe was going to make it or not. Well, I mean, it's still going Democratic candidate betting odds. You can get a very generous, if you think Joe's certain to be the candidate, you can get a very generous five to one on with Skybet. So in other words, you have 500 pounds on, you win another 100. Now, all those aren't odds that I would like to take about a horse race. Nevertheless, the way the whole thing is being presented tonight is that Biden is an absolutely stone cold certainty to be the nominee and therefore five to one on gaining 20% on your money in the space of four months is extremely generous. So the fact that the, you know, he's effectively given only an 80% chance by the bookies of being the candidate would indicate that, you know, there's still some possibility that he won't be. It would be very revealing bezel to look at those odds after tonight should should he turn it a poor performance. That will be very telling, won't it? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of Democrats, apparently they're planning now on boycotting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's trip to Congress. Of course, he's been invited by the speaker to address both houses again. But a group of prominent Israelis, including a former prime minister and ex head of Mossad have now added their voices to growing domestic calls in the US for Congress to withdraw its invitation to address it next month, calling the move a terrible mistake. Mike Johnson, of course, has disgraced himself really by openly inviting an indicted war criminal. Yoav Galant was in Washington today, and I was pleased to see that he was being hounded both at the Willard Hotel and in Congress by Code Pink amongst other groups. He has a lot of nerve to show up in Washington, DC. He's wanted war criminal. I don't know if they've issued arrests weren't yet, but he's on the ICC docket, one of the few and the proud war criminals from Israel, alongside Benjamin Netanyahu there. Isn't this an extraordinary time in history? We have two people potentially in the dock for crimes against humanity doing state visits in the United States. I mean, kind of reminds you of other scenes similar to this prior to 1930, 1939 Basil. Well, I would say that there's at least one person in the debate tonight, Joe Biden, who belongs in the ICC as well. I mean, he could have stopped all this carnage months ago, but has instead fully endorsed it. I mean, a lot of people are suffering from what we call outrage fatigue, Patrick. The scenes from Gaza are as hellish as ever. The starvation, particularly in the north is particularly abysmal at the moment. And yet this debate seems to be going on in a vacuum, millions of dollars being spent by both sides on all sorts of ads. People wonder, how did we allow the atrocities of the Second World War to take place? Why did nobody speak out? Well, we know why because we've got it. We play again in front of our eyes. We've got the worst scenes in my lifetime, the most abysmal human suffering imaginable. And yet, CNN and the two main parties in the United States, all carrying on as if everything in the garden is lovely, is it? Absolutely extraordinary. It is. It is. We live in incredible times, Basil Valentine TNT's political editor. Much appreciated. Thank you for joining us. There it is, folks. More top rate analysis. That's what we're delivering on this show. Thank you, Basil Valentine and also Chris Williamson. Top of the our news headlines coming up. We got a lot more on the other side. Stay with us here at TNT.
