. . . So you're probably going to hear this a lot as we get closer and closer to the election, is that we're down to the final sprint to November 5th. So welcome everyone to the Don Lemon Show to Lemon Live where you, your voice is heard. And we're so happy to talk to you about what's happening. The race is, I said after Labor Day, that is when there is a full presidential race going on. And it is neck and neck right now. So this is, I'm going to give you the latest polling and I'm going to talk to Pete Handbee who knows all about this. And we're going to talk about something interesting and a concept that I, not even a concept, but something that I think is a reality that folks may be on the left are not paying attention to and they should pay more attention to it. And I think that folks on the right sort of have an idea of what's going on. And it's giving them a bit more confidence in what you see in the polls. So according to this brand new CNN SSRS poll released this morning, Vice President Kamala Harris is just barely leading the former President Donald Trump in battleground states. Okay, so Harris is ahead of Trump in Georgia. She's ahead in Michigan. She's ahead in Nevada and Wisconsin. Though her slight lead is either within or just barely outside of the margin of error. So the candidates are tied 47% of Pennsylvania. Trump leads Harris by five points in Arizona. So much, so much to break down. I'm grateful to have this fantastic journalist returning an old friend of mine and a former colleague, Mr. Pete Hamby, an Emmy award-winning journalist who reports on politics, media and technology for Puck. He's also the host of Puck's The Powers at B podcast, which is fantastic. You have to listen to it. And I literally just listened to his episode today with our good friend, Tara Palmeri, who has been on as well. Pete, good to see you, my friend. How you doing? It's been a long time. It has been a while. I was at the LSU game over the weekend in Vegas on your beloved Tigers. How do you bring that up? What do you are? I was in the LSU section. I was pulling for the Tigers. I was really disappointed. It's terrible. Five season opening losses in a row. Not great. And I was with the USC person having Labor Day dinner cookout, which I want to talk to you about, because I was also with some young people. Some of them were, you know, their kids, right, who were part of this whole crowd. So I want to talk to you about all of that. Okay. So this is what we're going to talk about, Pete. Reflections on my last chat with you in July. Trump and Harris ad spending, Harris and young voters. And after Peter Lee's, we're going to talk about Tim Walts, this family controversy that is going on. Okay. So Pete, just to give you some context, the last time we spoke, this was on July 2nd, just before the 4th of July, just three days after Donald Trump and Joe Biden had debated. And I've re-listened to that show just this afternoon. And let me just tell you, it was depressing. Neither of us thought that there was a strong likelihood of Biden dropping out. We were both considering the idea that Trump could win and win big. Are you shocked about just how much has changed in just eight weeks? Yes, because we've never seen this before. I talked to you about this last time, actually. I had the benefit, I think, different from other journalists of interviewing Kamala Harris in March for my Snapchat show. Good luck America. I spent time with her. And like a lot of campaign reporters, I hadn't spent a lot of time with her in person since 2020 when she ran what was really just a terrible presidential campaign. And so you had all these impressions of Kamala Harris that she had churned through staff in the vice president's office. She was kind of listless, kind of lost on immigration on other issues. And I had interviewed her. It turns out she got a little bit better. And that was in March. She was, you know, and that happens when you're vice president. No one pays attention to you. Really, after a while, they pay attention to you when you mess up. But otherwise, you know, you do media interviews. She was touring college campuses. She had been meeting with world leaders. You just get some batting practice. And so when I interviewed her, I was like, oh, she's better than I thought. This might be the best I've ever seen Kamala Harris, in fact. And so in that whole Biden psycho drama of July after the debate, you know, I talked to some Democrats who were like open primary, like, let, let Josh Shapiro run and put Gretchen Whitmer in there. And I was like, I think Kamala Harris is the best option, not just because her name's on the ticket and she's got the money. But I think she could be pretty good. So less surprise that she's stepped up to the moment, but still surprise given, you know, all of the criticism she's faced over the years for her performances, etc. And not having a real ideological North Star. I think there are still questions about that clearly given her changing positions since 2020. So not surprised necessarily that Kamala Harris has done so well, but just am surprised by the movement since she's, she's come in among all the voting groups that Democrats thought were lost that they were, they weren't hitting their 2020 numbers. I mean, in the key battleground states, like Biden was polling on average around 43 points in those seven grounds when he dropped out. And Kamala Harris is running five, six points ahead of them now still ties race, but I've been surprised. Have you? Yeah, I have you and I've been doing this for a long time. Right. And I mean, to see what happened over the last eight weeks is truly unprecedented, I believe. And it's just been an offset of watching it. But I had a very similar experiences, you know, seeing Kamala Harris at events, speaking at essence, just sort of behind the scenes. And there was she felt more confident. She had sort of a bigger, stronger presence. Do you know what I mean? The sort of confidence. Yeah, confidence is the right word. She just felt more confident. She was focusing on abortion rights, post-dobs, right in her strike zone, attacking Donald Trump. This is a thing when she was running for president in 2019, 2020 in the Democratic primary. When you do that, you have to come in, you have to figure out what you're running on. Maybe you're a single issue kind of candidate, like Bernie Sanders was or even Barack Obama in 2008. He started out as the anti war guy. She came in and she just sort of like raised her hand on every progressive issue that was sort of buzzy and chic in that moment. Her campaign was very focused on the conversation in DC and on Twitter. Now, she has a singular opponent. And as a prosecutor, that's good for her. She's running against Donald Trump. And she has the benefit of stepping just right into a huge machine of a campaign with a ton of money, with messaging, with boots on the ground and battleground states. So, you know, she's a little bit lucky in that sense. But, you know, you don't become vice president by accident. She is there for a series of reasons over many decades. And yeah, I'm glad you said that. I remember you were down at the Essence Fest and people were like, "Oh, she's pretty impressive." And she stepped in on offense and she's still mostly on offense, I think. And when she is on offense, you know, she can be pretty formidable. I don't think there's anything that Trump's no pun intended wisdom and experience, right? If you've been doing something for a long time, you feel more confident and she just felt calm. And there was a presence about her that she didn't have before when I saw her at Essence. And then I saw her at, oh, I saw at the White House for Juneteenth. And again, even the way she spoke at the White House, I thought it was different. I thought it was more confident. But listen, speaking of, you know, your reflections over the last two months on Tuesday. You spoke with James Carvel and Mary Madlin, which I can't believe the two are married. And there's a great piece on the pluck website about your conversation. I just want to read a couple of quotes from it, okay? So Carvel told you, quote, he said, "Three minutes into the debate," I said, "I'm taking two gummies and listening to country music. Effit," although he didn't say, "Yeah, if you know what he said, right? I think he said, fuck it." And my phone was just lighting up with text. Peter, you know, Carvel is, you know, he was attacked by a lot of people eight weeks ago for trying to push Biden to drop out. And he feels justified, correct? Because I spoke to him. Yeah, I mean, as well, he should. He should, exactly. So Axelrod, similar thing, the Pod Save America guys, you know, Tim Miller of the Bullwork crowd, Sarah Longwell. They should feel justified. The interesting thing with the through line with all of the people I just mentioned is they have experience working at all levels of politics, all the way up to presidential campaigns. And they've done it for a couple decades, or more than that, in James Carvel's case. And so you have people with experience who were watching Biden in that debate. And, you know, I kind of felt the same thing. I'm not saying I'm as wise as any of those people, but if you've been through losing campaigns before, they just take on this smell of death. And how is Joe Biden going to fix that? How is he going to, you know, when two candidates are so well-known and well-defined, and their images are so baked in with voters, and then donors were freezing up and saying, "I'm not giving money anymore." The writing was kind of on the wall, and so Carvel, to his credit, just has this experience, and they sounded the alarm with, you know, what, two months until the convention. And rightly so. I mean, Biden was on pace to lose the election. That finally got through to Biden's inner circle. I tweeted that Puck story last night, and there's some sort of snarky know-it-alls, you know, on Twitter. That's where they live, who were like, "Get Carvel and Madeline out of here." Like, these people are irrelevant. That's a nice word for them. Yeah, but like, it works on Twitter. It's, it's, these people have experience. It shouldn't be dismissed just because they're not, like, exes and those people, they're not, like, living in the, you know, churning out, like, data and models for the, the Biden campaign or whatever. It doesn't mean they're not smart people with lots of experience. The other thing to Don, which you know so well, is they don't live in DC. They're not very online. Most of there, at least in Carvel's case, like the campaigns they've worked on, it's not just Bill Clinton, you know, he worked on a bunch of Pennsylvania, Senate and Govraces back in the day, et cetera, et cetera. Normal people out there were raising questions about Biden's age and ability well before the debate. And after the debate, it was unfixable. You know, and so you have the Biden people and the White House people pointing to certain polls, cherry picking certain data, saying no other Democrat can beat Donald Trump. And if you've been around the block a few times, you just look at the debate and what happened afterwards and you say, "That's not true." And James Carville was one of the people leading the charge. I thought it was a good moment to interview him. Well, some of the people, you know, my contacts at the White House are saying the same thing. The only person they ever beat Donald Trump is Joe Biden, right? So, you know, they're sort of parroting what the folks were saying. But what you've been hearing, but listen, I had to say, even the folks here who are, you know, very strong supporters on this and subscribers on this program, they were upset when I would tell them like, you know, Joe Biden, this is what's happening. People are saying he's too old, that he needs to drop out, that his debate performance didn't go well, "Oh, they didn't want to hear it." And I said, "I will always tell you the truth whether you want to hear it or not because you need to know this." And lo and behold, he dropped out and I said, you know, I told you guys, you just listen to me because there are a lot of folks out there, especially in this space, as you know, they'll tell you what you want to hear because they want clicks, they want subscribers, they want fans. I'm not here for that. I would love as many clicks and subscribers and fans as possible, but I have to tell you the truth. So I mentioned at the top of the show that I listened to your conversation with Tara Palmeri on the Powers at B this morning. And there were two, you two discussed it both. Jeff Rowe, the longtime GOP political operative and Ron DeSantis, his former top strategist, that he actually agrees with James Carvel about one thing, and that's these lotate drinking, drinking men. The Carvel said to you, "Look, every election there's a fashionable demographic, soccer moms, and NASCAR dads, but I think the demographic that has to make the most difference between them. The most difference in the election is our demographic. That's college educated white males." I want to talk to you about this because I have, you know, I have a certain feeling about this and a certain perception that I'm not sure that people agree with. So talk to me a bit more about these lotate drinking men and why they're so important. I mean, the reason that came up for me with James Carvel is I went on Bill Maher on Friday night and Maher asked about Gen Z. And I know we're going to talk about this later in this episode, but Gen Z men, young men, are a problem for Kamala Harris. And so I asked, you know, Carvel's definitely not Gen Z, but again, he's got a good antenna. You know, he like has a way of talking about voters is interesting. So I was like, how does Kamala Harris fix her problems with young men? He totally changed the subject and said, you know, you just said it. He said college educated men, you know, some exposure to the stock market. They care about their, you know, their nest egg. They live in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia and Atlanta, etc. Those are the most important voters and that's boring. It doesn't get a lot of attention. It's like easy to write a story about a suburban white guy who likes golf and, you know, wears khakis. But those are the kind of voters who voted, for example, in Georgia for Governor Brian Camp, a conservative Republican who likes guns, but also against Donald Trump because they thought Donald Trump was too chaotic. And Biden won, like in 2020, the, the demographic that got written about the most were like suburban women and then over 50 black women. But the thing that Biden did, too, was he flipped a lot of these latte drinking and we assume milk, almond milk, voting men in the suburbs back from Trump. They voted for Obama, then they defected from Hillary and then voted for Biden again. So those are high propensity voters. They probably have moderate centrist cultural opinions. And then, you know, are probably a little conservative economically. Now, Kamala Harris is gaining with them. She's outperforming Biden among men right now. And she's doing pretty well among white men right now, too. But importantly, and she can make this up for sure. She trails Biden's 2020 numbers with men by four points. You just got to make up those numbers to match Biden's 2020 margins. I think she can. But this is what we saw at the convention, Don, when we were there. Kamala Harris was on that stage, country first. We have a lethal fighting force. You know, I'm going to do a middle class tax cut. She didn't talk about identity. She barely talked about race. Remember in 2016, Hillary Clinton's convention, she wore a suffragette white. It was all about making history. I'm with her, Lena Dunham spoke this convention. It was about issues, and it was about the middle. It was about swing voters in the middle. She was going to wear a white and do the same thing. And she turns out that she didn't do that. But Pete, I have you for a short amount of time. And I just want to, why don't we go to that because she may be winning among those latte drinking, you know, men. I guess it's white guys, right. But let's talk about the college students because actually, you know, I was with some college students who attend Villanova, which is a suburbs was the main line of Philadelphia, right, in Pennsylvania. And what I heard from them sort of goes along with this conversation that you had with Bill Marsh. So let's play this in the new and I will talk about it. Here it is. Kamala Harris has barely moved the needle with young men. They have gone more toward Trump. There's a lot of reasons for that. I think Trump has exploited culture war stuff. You know, he appears on hyper masculine podcasts and he just seems like a fun bro. He's not going to ban your zins, you know. This could actually be, this is a real issue for Kamala Harris, though. Like, this could be fatal for her campaign. So if Democrats need to win 60% of the youth vote to win the White House, Hillary came up short, Obama did it, Biden did it, Kamala Harris is right now at like 55% of the youth vote. If she doesn't get to 60, she could lose the election and it's because young men, Gen Z men, are breaking to Trump. They're not going to vote. I mean, I agree they like him better. They're the ones who are going to stay home. And, you know, that he's the towel snapping camp counselor. You could call him having a good sense of humor. But the thing is, Joe Biden was such an underwhelming prospect that I think it made an awful lot of young men, including of color, think that Trump would be the better deal. I imagine a lot of them would find, you know, the exuberance and the promise and what is it, the joy of Kamala to be something more exciting. And so I would hope that that might help tip some of this, but would have to really, you know, decisively tip it. Okay, so I think that they're being a little smug. And I agree with you. Because when I spoke to these kids, they said, look, we are, you know, they have a, they like Trump, right? And they don't necessarily want to like him. They believe that they're forced to like them because they believe that their schools are too liberal and they have to deal with pronouns. And they can't really say how they feel in class, even if it's a political science class because they're afraid that their grades will, you know, that it's going to affect their grades and their scores if they actually say how they feel. So they said to me, I would never say it in class. And these are kids that you would think they come from liberal families. And you would think that they would have a completely different outlook on the election. They said, I'm voting for Donald Trump because of these reasons. And every single person I know is voting for Donald Trump at my school and at other schools as well, but they will never tell you that publicly. I think that those guys, I think Bill Maher, and I think John McWhorter are being a little bit smug and I'm not so sure that those guys, those college kids are being picked up and polling. I think, by the way, I think that's an open question about this cycle. You know, we talk about shy Trump voters. You know, I think that's a lot of pollsters say that's actually an overrated thing. It's so hard to reach young people, especially so the people you were talking to Don at Villanova. That's the younger side of Gen Z. A lot of those people were in middle school when Donald Trump got elected president. They've come up in a world. He's the only Republican they know. They don't remember George Bush and Mitt Romney necessarily. And as a corollary to that -- Obama that much, by the way. Yeah, exactly. No, I'm saying, but among Republicans, like the issue set they've grown up with and the media environment they've grown up with, it's all about this culture war identity stuff. All the things you just mentioned in polite society, it's getting less so now. I think there's been a little bit of a backlash to the politically correct, you know, era of like 2019 and those democratic primaries. And I think a lot of -- I hear that all the time from young men. It's like, and like, I'm going to work on what's -- He's not just men. He's not just men. Oh, I was just saying there's women too. Yes. Okay. So I think, like I said, in the Bill Maher hit, and John McWhorter said the same thing, Trump seems fun. That's part of it. He's in their TikTok feeds, like swinging golf clubs with Bryson DeChambeau and going to UFC fights. They're leaning into the manosphere, as it's called. Yeah. They're going on Lex Friedman. They're going -- Yeah, exactly. That's how people are getting their news in that demo. Very much. Let's play. This is -- Lex, speaking of, he's being very strategic about going on these sort of bro, you know, podcasting shows, the Joe Rogans of the world, the people who, you know, follow Elon Musk. Who else is it, you know, in that group? You know what I'm talking about. So it's like, so Lex Friedman and he -- This is what you were talking about. He's not going to take your Zen, as you said, or science. What is it? What is it, Zen, Zen? Okay. So here is Donald Trump on Lex Friedman talking about drugs. I think about psychedelics. So I'm not a drug guy, but I recently did ayahuasca. Yeah. And there's a lot of people that speak to sort of the health benefits and the spiritual benefits of these different psychedelics. I think we would probably have a better world if everybody in Congress took some mushrooms, perhaps. Now I know you don't -- you stay away from all of that stuff. I know also veterans use it for dealing with PTSD and all that kind of stuff. So it's great and it's interesting that you're thinking about being more accepting of some of these drugs, which don't just have a recreational purpose, but a medical purpose, treatment purpose. So we put out a statement today. We're going to put out another one probably next week. Be more specific, although I think it's pretty specific. And we'll see how that all goes. That's a referendum coming up in some states, but it's coming up and we'll see how it does. I will say it's been very hard to beat it. You take a look at the numbers. It's been very hard to beat it. So I think it'll generally pass, but you want to do it in a safe way. Yeah, so I mean, there you go. And he's also -- who is a guy, the comedian that he was on? Theo Von. Theo Von. A couple of weeks ago, talking about Theo Von had a drug problem and they were talking about it. He goes, "Oh, I just did too much cocaine." And he's like, "Oh, it seems pretty harsh." But I'm telling you, and as you know, working for Snapchat, that stuff penetrates. And I think it is penetrating with these young men and young women. That's what they watch. Donald Trump, by the way, saying, "I'm not a drug guy, but I did at Ayahuasca recently. It was a very funny line." The willingness of Trump to just go into these spaces and hang out and talk and listen at Theo Von, talk about doing coke. Like, you can't imagine Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, or Tim Walz doing that because they would be worried about offending other groups, probably within the Democratic coalition, even if they even went on those shows. Harry Sanders has gone on Theo Von. He's gone on Joe Rogan. He's sort of someone who is also, you know, all those podcasters that we're talking about, like, they're not necessarily Republicans. And a lot of these young men you're talking about, and we're talking about these Villanova kids, aren't necessarily Republicans. They're not Republicans. A lot of them are. They're Trump voters. They're Trump voters. And when they call me, I go on. I went on the Milk Boys. And I mean, most of the conversation, they just kept talking about COVID and the restrictions and the lockdown. It's still a thing for them. But, you know, again, as I said, it penetrates. That's what they watch. Yes, that is their media environment. And just to cinch it back, I mean, the NBC News did a poll today where they basically surveyed Gen Z voters and among registered voters between 18 and 29. So there's these under 30 voters. Kamala was at 50. Trump was at 34. Kamala is way doing significantly better, maybe not way better than Biden among young women. She's winning young women by 30 points. But she's only winning young men by four points over Donald Trump. Like I said, Hillary lost in 2016 because she didn't hit that crucial 60% number among young voters. Obama did, Biden did, and Kamala Harris needs to. Maybe if she overperforms young among young women, that'll make up for the deficit among young men. But that's frozen. Like the young men thing is frozen. And who do you get on to validate Kamala Harris on Lex Friedman, on Theo Von? Like, who is the celebrity? Who is the surrogate? Who is the person in the Democratic Party who can go into those spaces and say vote for Kamala Harris? Maybe it's Bernie. Maybe it's Bernie. But I can't think of like even like Buttichitch doing it. Like it's just hard like Democrats. This is the other thing. I'm sorry to say it. A lot of young men just think Democratic Party is stiff lame. It's a bunch of finger wagging people who are telling you like how to think and what to do. And that's changed since the Obama years. Democrats were cool. They're not cool anymore. Harris has made up some of that deficit. Yes. But it's still very hard to see someone from her campaign going on Theo Von or Lex Friedman and talking about Iowa's chips. Again, I think it's fascinating. And being out there, when you were talking about you and I talked just before we were on and we talked about the content that I was doing at the convention on my way to the convention and that stuff. That stuff penetrates as well. I didn't. People talked about that more than much of the stuff that I talked about when I was in cable news, right? They're like, Oh, I saw your interviews out there and they're like, Oh, are some people were saying, Don Lemon is back out on the street doing whatever. I'm doing that because I choose to do it because I want to hear from those people. Everyone does MOS from local news on up to network news. Every time I did a breaking news story, whether it was in this country in war, when I went to Ukraine, I did man on the street. It's called talking to voters. That's what you're supposed to do. So I was out yesterday on Wall Street talking to voters, hearing the same thing from men that you're saying now. Now Harris, before I let you go, I want to talk about Harris's digital strategy, because it appears that she has a very strong digital strategy. And I'm going to play this tick tock thing, but I'm going to tell you the difference between her strategy and the Trump campaign strategy. Here's her tick tock for young voters. I believe in punishment for abortion. Yes or no, as a principle. The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment for the woman. Yeah, it has to be some form. On abortion, I will bring it up. We did a great thing. We got rid of we did something that for for 52 years, people have wanted to do. They wanted to get rid of Roe v. Wade. We broke Roe v. Wade and we did something that nobody thought was possible. A lot of things were done with Roe by killing it. Number one, we brought it back to the Supreme Court that made that possible. They did. And I want to thank the six Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, for the wisdom and courage they showed on this long term. Very contentious issue. So related to this as the whole. Okay, I think we've seen enough. So this is, I just want to give you some context here. That's that's from Kamala Harris, the official campaign account. They put out this tick tock video today. And I should have warned you because it's a little bizarre, but that's a style of mean that very, very popular among young people. It's called the subway surfer mean. And I added it, you know, this, they did a mashup here and they talked about abortion and all that. And that's because of the attention span of young people. So I think they're spending a lot on this stuff and hasn't Trump basically given up when it comes to, you know, sort of ad spending and things like this in major battleground So, no, he hasn't given up. He's trailing, like if we're talking about spending money on television and digital, he's like getting out spent like two to one in battleground states and nationally his super packs are finally starting to come in a little bit. Pennsylvania and Georgia, they're definitely putting money into though. But I think, I think, by the way, the thing that's interesting about Kamala's tick tock strategy. Like Trump owned tick tock when Biden was in the race, not just in terms of the volume of content, but the tone and sentiment of the commentary. There's a Democratic firm called FWIW that tracks sentiment on TikTok. And they basically found that like before Biden dropped out. Most Biden TikToks like 90% negative sentiment around them. Like since Kamala's gotten in, it's completely flipped. Most like the majority of Trump content on TikTok. Not, not the stuff that his campaign is making but just other people, other creators, it's negative commentary. Kamala Harris is like 80/20 positive negative. That doesn't win you an election, but it helps with the vibes and the enthusiasm and helps people think I could be with her. But you know, the thing that they need to do, it's smart they're doing that by the way, Kamala Harris has still has the pressure of introducing herself and what she's going to do. She needs to explain what she's going to do for voters, who she is, her background. People are still waiting to hear that, even though you and I know everything about Kamala Harris. And so she's attacking Trump a little bit less because she still has to introduce herself. The attacks against Trump are happening in formats like that on TikTok and advertising. Obviously from Surrogates, she'll attack Trump, obviously, but she still needs to introduce herself. And so just running clips and reminding voters of what Donald Trump is going to do and has said in the past is valuable. By the way, also in part because of what we just talked about. A lot of people on TikTok don't remember the bad stuff about Donald Trump from his first term. It's called Trumpnesia, right? They just weren't paying attention. He's reintroducing himself as well. Like he is, you know, he's sort of a new kid. Like Kamala Harris is a new candidate. She's sort of done this, you know, reintroduction of herself. Brand, you know, makeover. And I think Donald Trump is doing the same thing. But just real quick, I'm going to put this up because I want to show you the difference between you and you and Tara talked about this difference between Trump ad spending. Because this is nuts to me. The only battleground states where Trump is even close to match in here, matching Harris and spending Pennsylvania and Georgia. So what I mean by given up, it's like they've given up in Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina. You say I'm wrong about that. No, I think so. Future ad spending. Okay. I've seen some different numbers here. So Trump has super PACs coming in. This looks like campaign only spending. The allied groups for Trump are putting more money in between now in November. My question with all this is, and I said this on the podcast today. I am curious how much that stuff moves the needle in year 2024. Right, right, right. It could be an ad on, you know, the local news on broadcast network. It could be an ad on, well, TikTok doesn't allow political advertising, but it could be an ad on Facebook or whatever. Does that stuff work? I don't know, because, you know, Biden was putting a lot of money into states a whole year out spending Trump, like two to one, three to one. His numbers didn't move at all. We'll see. We'll see. But I mean, the thing you are right about and this graphic is right about is Democrats have a huge cash advantage. Since Kamala Harris entered the race, two to one out spending campaigns and allied groups, Democrats to Republican. Kamala Harris has so much money. She just gave $25 million to the House and Senate campaign committees for Democrats. She's giving it away. Ad inventory. So we'll see how you rather have the money than not. Yes, please advertise on the Don Lemon Show. And yeah, and on the powers that be on, I mean, that would be great. I'm so happy that you're here to talk about that. Look, you're right. I don't know if it makes a difference. I mean, even a big interview from my former network, people are like, it's a wash. I don't think it changed anyone's mind on either side. Yeah, everyone who is just sort of dug in on how they felt about it. I asked people who's going to win the debate and they're like, depending on who they wanted to win the election. And what did you think of the interview? Same thing. It depends on who they supported for. I didn't think I thought it was great or, you know, she didn't conduct herself well. Thank you, Pete. Thank you, Don. Good to see you. Good to talk to you. Come back. All right. Take care. Thank you. All right. Great. Go Tigers. Okay. So listen, that is Mr. Pete Hamming. I think Pete is right about the stuff that he's talking about. We had him for 30 minutes, but I want to talk to you about, you know, let's talk about the young people. I know you guys don't like to hear this and I know that you probably think that, you know, young people don't vote. I don't believe that's going to happen this time. And I don't think that Democrat should be so smug and so overconfident about this because as I go out and I'm telling you, when I talk to people, talk to voters, that is what I'm hearing from them. And I'm hearing, look, it's kind of difficult to approach someone on the street and ask them questions because most of the time they don't want to talk, but they'll go, Oh my gosh, they'll stop and say, Oh my gosh, Don Lemon. And so they feel like they know me. So they will talk to me. They probably in ways that they won't talk to a random pollster or a random focus group person. And so they open up to me in ways that they wouldn't. I believe to other people. So I think that there is a hidden youth vote, especially among young men. I think there is a hidden black vote and even a hidden woman vote for Donald Trump from people who may not be picked up in the polling. That's all I'm saying. Now you guys know how I feel about Donald Trump. And you know that I'm on the side that supports democracy winning in November. So you know that I'm just telling you, be forewarned. And you heard what Pete Handy says, she has to get 60% of the youth vote. Traditionally, in order to win the election, and she's not she's in the 30s now. So perhaps she will make that up with women because of the abortion or women's reproductive rights issue. Perhaps that will happen. But this is Donald Trump is appealing to young men. He's going on these podcasts. He's going on these digital shows and through social media, etc. It's really where it's happening. It's not happening on the networks. It's not happening on cable. I'm not speaking disparagingly of anyone, but that is not where it is. It's on social and it's on digital. Another Lex Friedman clip that is appealing to young men. This is what Donald Trump is doing. This is his rebrand. I want you to listen to this one now. People are very interested in footage of UFOs. The Pentagon has released a few videos and there's been anecdotal reports from fighter pilots. So a lot of people want to know, will you help push the Pentagon to release more footage, which a lot of people claim is available. Oh, yeah, sure. I would do that. I'd love to do that. I have to do that. But they also pushing me on Kennedy. And I did release a lot, but I had people come to me and thank me not to do it. But I'll be doing that very early on. Yeah, no, but I would do. Okay, so that he's talking about UFOs and he's talking about Kennedy. Now, remember, I don't know if you remember my conversation with Candace Owens as you talked about Kennedy assassination and there's this conspiracy theory around it. She had just read this book and, you know, that was about, you know, how can there only be one shooter and whatever. That's what young people are interested in. And not necessarily conservative young people, some of them conservative, some of them not, but just sort of the Trump voter as Pete Hamby said. And so he's going and he's appealing to those people. And again, I don't believe that those folks are being picked up and polling. I go on some of these shows, and I know, you know, how they operate. They don't. It's not really about facts. It's about what they're interested in. It's about a lot of it's about conspiracy theories. A lot of it's about things that aren't necessarily spoken about among mainstream media and among mainstream politicians. Okay, the political class. So, I do think that that is a demographic that the Democrats are not hitting. And I think that Donald Trump is doing a good job hitting that demographic. I'm just saying. Remember what you guys were mad at me about Joe Biden when I brought you the news about what was going to happen and they were going to push him to drop out and blah, blah, blah, blah. And you're like, I don't want to hear that. Who is who side of you on. I'm on the side of truth and I'm on the side of informing you guys. I'm just saying. I don't believe the polls are accurate. Okay. That's all I'm saying. So I want to share some gears now. I want to talk about the young voters that Pete Hamby talked about. I thought that was fascinating. Okay. Young voters won't be responsible. I believe for a second Trump presidency, perhaps. Well, they are sort of responsible because they ultimately go to the polls. But what have they been guided by? What preceded that GOP leaders will be responsible really. So I listened to this phenomenal monologue. It was on MSNBC today. Then I want you all to hear play it. The table just randomly were five different people and sitting there. Four of them. Four of them. Former Republicans. We just happened to come together. There was no like sort of planning. I didn't call, you know, tell me, let's call our former Republican friends. These were just friends, people from different walks of life. And, and, and all people that left the Republican party, all people who had voted for Republicans in every election for president their entire life until 2016. Some of them voted for Donald Trump in 2016, but yeah, didn't in 2020. One of them said after January 6 that that was enough. We, we have Jimmy McCain here again. We had David French on the show. We, you know, you look at Elise Jordan, you know, who sort of a more libertarian, but always voted Republican. It's, it's really shocking that Republican leaders and the House and the Senate on the state level aren't more concerned with all the Republicans they have lost. And I will say again without going over it, but all the elections they have lost in consecutive years since 2017. And it does beg the question. If they lose again, will they then see that they have to turn, turn away from from Donald Trump? I'm not saying they go back to Ronald Reagan. But they certainly can adopt some of the positive elements of Reagan, Reaganism, and then, you know, move forward with other conservative viewpoints that Donald Trump is just completely abandoned. So he's, you know, obviously talking about his experience with Republicans and also the experience that you were you, we heard Pat to me yesterday on CNBC, sort of saying what Joe Scarborough was saying there. And also the folks who are at the convention who spoke about how they felt about Donald Trump, etc. So we know that there are Republicans who are disaffected Republicans who are obviously never Trumpers and they feel the way that they feel. But again, you know, I just want to sound the alarm that not everyone just as he was at a dinner and or with friends and they started talking about how they felt about it. And I was at a dinner with friends and I was shocked. I was shot by what I heard about young people saying what they're going to do. Now, perhaps the disaffected Republicans, maybe they're will to get rid of Donald Trump is so strong that they will come out in droves. Perhaps Republican women will be so turned off about someone telling them what they can do with their bodies, even if their lives are in danger that they will be so moved to go to the polls. And support Kamala Harris rather than Donald Trump, perhaps that will make up for the deficit in young people that Kamala Harris needs I know that people say young people don't go to the polls traditionally that's true, at least not to the extent that that older people go to the polls. Okay. Now, one more thing before I'm going to get to this wall story this there's a family dispute with the walls family, but I just want to play this this is another thing that Donald Trump is discussing that if he went on to the polls, who conservative media which he mostly does he very rarely does media that's outside of his, you know, people who just don't salivate and love him and kisses but But have you're anyone asked him about Jeffrey Epstein. These are the kinds of questions that he's getting on these shows and he's answering them. And it is. And young people are finding them satisfactory. Watch this Jeffrey Epstein is what he was asked about launch. The big people went to that island. But fortunately, I was not one of them. It's just very strange for a lot of people that the list of clients that went to the island has not been made public. Yeah, it's very interesting isn't it. Probably will be. So if you're able to you'll be. Yeah, certainly take a look at it. Now Kennedy's interesting because it's so many years ago. They do that for danger to because, you know, in dangers certain people, etc, etc. So Kennedy is very different from the abstain thing. But the I'd be inclined to do the Epstein not have no problem with it. So there you go. I've not seen that on mainstream media. People talk about it all the time on social media. People talk about it all the time on podcasts. But that is the problem with many in the traditional press right now. I would have asked that question. I would also have asked different questions to different candidates that you never hear on old school. Traditional corporate media that you never hear. I found that answer fascinating. I wanted to hear in the fact that he says, Hey, perhaps I'll release it. And you know, he said he'd never been. Out of his not not someone releasing a statement. Not someone saying the files don't show, but he's actually saying it himself. So I found that fascinating. Okay, so let me know what you think in the comments because some of you were talking about the the sound bite with him in the comments about what he said about Jeffrey Epstein. Let me know what you think. Okay. Joanne Leslie says lies. She believes that it's lies. Cassandra says agreed, Don. I want to know what you think you agreed about. Bring Dan Rather's backs as Eric B. Yeah, bring back Dan Rather and a lot of other people who were not afraid of the corporation right the overlords. Anacoma says liar. Look, but he lies all the time since these are are I don't know if he's lying or not, but at least he was asked the question and he responded to it. Right. And if you don't ask, you won't get the answer. Or as they say, hungry, hungry mouths don't get fed right a closed mouth. Excuse me, closed mouths don't get fed. So if you want to get fed the answer, you've got to ask the question and let's ask the question and he got the answer. Okay, so here's a wall story in this mixture. Okay, here we go. So Minnesota Governor Tim walls, you know, he is running for vice president with Kamala Harris, who wants to be the president. His brother said on Tuesday that he doesn't agree with the Democrats policies, but express some remorse for inserting himself into the spotlight after he posted on social media last week that he is 100% opposed to his brother's political views, and was considering officially endorsing former president, Donald Trump. Now you may recall last week, he posted on Facebook, and this is a full screen that he put up on Facebook. Okay, so he put this on there and he says, have a talk with your brother, right? That was a response. Michael says, I haven't spoke to him in eight years, I'm 100% opposed to his ideology. My family wasn't given any notice that he was selected and denied security. Okay, which is a bit bizarre to me because perhaps there are some issues there and I would not be my sister or brother was somehow picked to be the vice presidential pick up and be talking shit about him on social media. Even if I had a disagreement with them, I would not be putting my business in the street, right? It's family business, which needs to stay at home. So anyways, he said, haven't spoken to my brother in eight years, my family wasn't given any notice that he was selected as VP, and with denied security days after. So, and then he further posted, cryptically, this, he says, I thought hard about doing something like endorsing Trump. The stories I could tell, Tim Waltz is not the type of character you want making decisions about your future. Then guess what, in an interview with news nation, he revealed this, watch it. I was referencing, I'll give you one example we talked about it before that my little brother when we were younger, we would go on on the family trips and in a station wagon. And the thing was, nobody wanted to set with him because he had car sickness and would always throw up on us. That sort of thing. There's really nothing else hidden behind their people are assuming something else. And this is the last the media will hear from him. There is going to be no further statements to anybody. Really? Come on, Jeff walls, really. That is that to me sounds ridiculous. It sounds like he's jealous. I mean, why on earth would you do that? And I would say that about any about any someone from whatever side of the aisle. Why are you out there talking about it? Because your brother got car sick. I know people who get car sick all the time. That's your justification for saying that you don't like you wouldn't trust his policies. Like what is going on with you. That you would do that. I mean, do you guys disagree with me? It sounds like. It makes him sound ridiculous. And silly. And petty. He goes on and look, I'm not sure who else put him on. He went on news nation, but I didn't see him anywhere else. Perhaps other stations realize the ridiculousness of his statements and what he's asserting and they said, I don't want to put this foolishness on. Ziggy is in the comments saying he's off of his rocker. I'm not going to say that, but something is going on. Lizzie McDee says very petty and I believe, yes, it is very petty and it is bizarre. I don't know what what's wrong with him. Why would he do that? So another story that we're going to talk about and listen, I just just remember now that he is 18 years old. He is an adult. It is fair game. This is not a negative story about Baron Trump. Okay, because we're going to talk about Baron Trump. So, actually, this is more about the president than it is about Baron Trump, the former president. So the former president down Trump, his youngest child, Baron Trump spotted arriving at NYU New York University on Wednesday to kick off his first day of college life. Good for him. I hope he has a great time and a great college experience. He's a towering 18 year old who was flanked by Secret Service agents as he stepped into the downtown Manhattan campus with a black backpack casually slung over his shoulder. Dressed in a white polo, black pants, Adidas snacks, Adidas sneakers. Baron's first stop was a dean's office before being whisked off to classes. Okay. So, okay, all well and good. But it's interesting to me, I think it's great that he's going to college. I think it sucks that he has to have Secret Service around him. I think any child who's going to college, you know, just as the Obama's daughters did and the Clinton's daughter and all of them that they have to have these people following them around. They can't really lead a normal life. But I think it's really interesting that he is going to NYU, you know, a university in New York that Donald Trump has demonized the city for being a wash and crime and murder and now it's suddenly safe enough for his son to attend college. It's good enough for Baron to attend college. But you talk shit about New York City all the time. And also about liberals on college campuses New York University is one of the most liberal colleges out there. It's just the hypocrisy again, I think it's fantastic that nothing against Baron Trump. This is not about Baron Trump at all. This is about the hypocrisy of his father and New York City. One would think that you would want to send your child to a conservative university in a red state that you think would be better, not only for ideology, but also for your kids safety and experience. But when people say that Donald Trump doesn't believe most of the shit that he says and that he's doing it for political purposes, and that he is co opting the mega crowd, and that he would much rather spend time with what he calls the elites, rather than the people who go out and vote for him and stand in line for hours and vote against their own interests. And you know, whose unions are being demolished workers rights because of him. Their taxes are higher because of him. He doesn't want to hang out with those people. He'd much rather be having dinner with someone like me, or going to a celebrity party, or spending time in New York City. Because that is the experience that he has chosen for his young child perhaps Melania chose chose it as well, but I'm sure he had some input. He's a kid's dad. Let me know what you think. So I'm so glad that you guys could join us today. I really want to know what you think in the comments. I really appreciate you joining us. It's, it was a great, it was a great, not quite full hour that we got to spend today. Pete Hamby had to go a little bit early because he had some other issues that he had to attend to. I happened to go to the US Open today, which was fascinating to watch the crowds out there, the tennis players, such athleticism. And folks were stopping and they were asking about the book, right? They want everybody wants to know about the book. So again, the book is on preorder. Make sure you order it. We're going to start having readings. And there it is in the top of the chat, right? I once was lost my search for God America. Let's put it on the New York Times best self speaking of New York. Let's put it on the best seller list list. It's already on the some of the best sellers categories and on Amazon. And the religious category, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But let's make it overall. One of the top selling books in the country, if we can do that. Okay. So the poorly educated DJ T hearts a poorly educated, unless they are his kid says Liz can't wait Don says Shimona Bendolf. Thank you very much. I feel sorry for Baron says Kathy Brown. Look, I'm sure Baron has a very nice life. I don't feel sorry for him. I think he's got, I think he's his mom. I think she's a good mother. I think she keeps him out of the phrase. She tries to keep him away from political stuff. Kids are kids. I don't want to talk about kids. I'm not, again, in what I was saying is not about Baron Trump at all, although he is an 18 year old. He's an adult now. But this is more about his dad. Okay. What about a T shirt says Darius Shannon? Maybe we'll get some merch. We're working on that. Um, so anyways, thank you guys. He's not a kid anymore says Clint Westman. I agree. I agree. I agree. It's not on Apple says Anita. What's not? Oh, you mean the book? Go on Amazon. Go to Barnes and Noble. Go to your, your local bookstores website and you can order the hard copy and you can order the audio version. The audio version is me. You'll get a sample of it. And when I, when they sent it to me, I was so animated. I was like, Oh my gosh, I seem like I'm like jumping out of the ear, my earbuds when you hear it. But it's mostly in the parts where I talk about being in church and I, and, you know, going in my holy role or Baptist church as a kid and all the songs. Okay. Thank you. Well, but I'm, I'm doing your, I'm so glad that you're excited about the book. I am as well. Please hit the likes. You know what? Thank you so much. I forgot about that. Kristen Thompson, Tom and Thompson. Thank you. Please hit the like, like and subscribe. I would really appreciate that. You guys, we have a lot of people watching and not even half of you have hit the thumbs up button. So make sure you hit the thumbs up button. And yeah, so I'll get out of here. I'm not going to keep you long today. And I will see you tomorrow at five o'clock. All right. Thank you guys. Have a great evening. [BLANK_AUDIO]
