The BradCast w/ Brad Friedman
'BradCast' 9/16/2024 (Amid Trump's racist, anti-immigrant screeds, why do his supporters still back him?)
On today's 'BradCast': We begin with an update on the second attempted assassination of Donald Trump at one of his Florida golf courses on Sunday. In California on Friday, Trump told many lies about immigration, the economy and wildfires, and threatened that, if he is re-elected, he will withhold disaster funding from the state if Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom does not comply with his vague demands. Trump refused to denounce the slew of bomb and terror threats against the residents of Springfield, Ohio, in the wake of his false attacks on the town's legal immigrants. With all that Americans now know about Trump, why is the presidential race still tied with Vice President Kamala Harris? Callers weigh in on why they still support Trump or remain undecided on how they will vote.
- Broadcast on:
- 16 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
Do you denounce the bomb threat in Springfield, Ohio? I don't know what happened with the bomb threats. I know that it's been taken over by illegal migrants. No, actually, they're not illegal. They're migrants, but they're not illegal at all. Don't you care about bomb threats, sir? Well, I don't know why I came here tonight. Why? I've got to feel there's something right. No, L.A. I'm so scared of you, because I've followed my chair. And I'm wondering how I'll get downstairs. Clowns to the left of me, joke us to the right. Here I am, it's not getting rid of you. I am. From Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles, this is the broadcast. That's heard on KPFK 90.7 FM in L.A. 98.7 at Santa Barbara, 93.7 at San Diego, 99.5 FM in Ridgecrest and Shine a Lake. Also in California, in Red Bluff and Redding, on KFOI and Round Mountains, KKRN, up in Oregon on the Central Coast on KYAQ, Cottage Grove's KSO, Eugene's, KEPW, Landchester, Pennsylvania's WNews, Maui Hawaii's KAKU. In Columbus, Ohio, on WGRN, Palinville, New York's WLPP, Rochester, New York's WRFC. Down in New Orleans on WHIV, out in Gallup, New Mexico on KNIZ. Concord, New Hampshire's WNHN, Fayetteville, Arkansas's KPSQ in Seattle on KODX, Richmond, Richmond, Virginia's WRWK, Fairmont West Virginia's WEFR, Jamesville, Wisconsin's WADR in Minneapolis, St. Paul's, AM950, KTNF. We also stream coast to coast and around the globe every day on the internet, on the Progressive Voices channel, Net Roots Radio, Radio for Humans, Nicole Sandler.com, Radio Free Brooklyn, No Lies Radio, Detour Talk, and most of your favorite podcast sites, Blanketing, Planet Earth. I'm Brad Friedman. Your friendly investigative blogger, journalist, Troublemaker, Muck Raker, and all around Swell Fellow, says me from Bradblog.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. We frequently hear on this program from Democratic supporters who call in, or at least folks on the left, even if not necessarily Democrats. And in light of what was clearly, according to pretty much every legitimate poll or pundit, even over on Fox News, if you can find a legitimate pundit over there, a massive win for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump last week in what may be their one and only presidential debate before election day, which is some 50 days or so from today. I expect that we would likely have a bunch of Harris supporters call in once I open the phones today. If need be, I will be happy to talk to such folks, but despite the clear win for the Democratic nominee at the debate just one week ago, I know it feels like a month ago already. Desi Doyan, it feels like a month, not just less than a week at this point since that debate. I know, I was gonna say it feels more like it's been about three weeks, three months, five years. I don't know, everything happening everywhere, all at once. Well, despite what was, if you may remember way back when, when we had that debate about six days ago, the pre-election polling, if you still have confidence in it, still suggests that the race to become the 47th president of the United States is by and large a tide race. Harris has a modest one to three point lead in most of the national polling averages and similar leads in enough of the so-called battleground states to win the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election if she wins all those states. But all of those numbers fall within the margin of error for these polls. In short, right now, the race is a tie. For some of us who continued to be gobsmacked by that fact, given the threat, the clear threat that Donald Trump poses to democracy itself, to the nation, to its people, and yes, to its migrant community, not to mention the constitution itself, at least as I see it, based on what I see as actual independently verifiable facts, I know that there are many out there, including myself, who wonder what Trump supporters must be thinking that they still back this guy. Well, now, well, I know the bulk of our audience leans progressive. I know for a fact that we have a lot of Trump supporters who do regularly listen to this program, even if they're just hate listening to me. But I know from many of them, well, they'll send me emails, often just after we get off the air. So what I wanna do specifically today is invite Trump supporters to give me a call at 818-985-5735 to explain why they actually still support this guy, given all that we know about him, and given the events of the past week since the debate, in which he bellowed and out-and-out evidence-free claim that so-called illegal immigrants have taken over a town in Ohio and are eating the pets of the people who have long lived there. 818-985-KPFK, if you are a Trump supporter, I would love to hear from you as to why. Now, I promise to be nice if you are, but I will likely challenge you on some of your beliefs or ask you questions about them. But since these are your public airwaves as well, they are all of our public airwaves. I wanna make sure to give you a chance to use those airwaves to make a case for your candidate today. Of course, if I don't hear from y'all, well, then I may just have to allow Trump opponents or Harris supporters, et cetera, to make their case on air. So I will leave that to you, 818-985-5735. I'll put Trump supporters at the top of the line today. Desi, let me know if they're a Trump supporter, write it down on the call screen there and we will get to them first. Before we get there, however, I do wanna touch base on a number of related news items since that debate last Tuesday. As you know, we're watching developments today and what appears to be a second assassination attempt against the former president over the weekend, this one at one of his golf courses in Florida on Sunday. The Secret Service opened fire on a gunman now being identified by news reports as a 58-year-old man named Ryan Wesley-Routh on the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump was playing on Sunday. It had been unclear as to whether the man reportedly armed with an AK-47-style rifle and a long-range scope, unclear whether he fired any shots before fleeing the scene just before airtime apparently. It is being reported that he fired no shots and was never within sight or range of the former president on that golf course. After running, he was later detained. He was identified as a resident of Hawaii, though we don't have a lot of confirmed information about this guy. The New York Times reported that they had interviewed him actually back last year in 2023 as part of a story about Americans volunteering to help Ukraine after Russia's invasion. Though he had no military experience, he told the Times last year he had traveled to Ukraine and was willing to fight and die to help Ukraine and seeking to recruit Afghani soldiers to join the effort in Ukraine for some reason. Now, Trump was uninjured and evacuated from the course. Vice President Kamala Harris posted on Twitter, sometimes known as X, on Sunday afternoon, after the incident, to express relief that Donald Trump was not harmed. She tweeted, quote, "I have been briefed on reports "of gunshots fired near former President Trump "and his property in Florida and I am glad he is safe, "adding violence has no place in America." President Biden echoed similar thoughts in his own statement, noting, quote, "There is no place for political violence "or any violence ever in our country," explaining that he had, quote, "directed my team "to continue to ensure the Secret Service "has every resource capability and protective measure "necessary to ensure the former President's continued safety." News organizations and social media warriors out there have been gathering what information they can about the suspected attempted assassin, though there is a lot of misinformation out there as well. So we're gonna sort of let things shake out a bit before reporting too many details about the man who evidence suggests was suffering from mental illness issues, raising the question as to how he was able to get access to such a deadly weapon in the first place. It is, however, worth noting here that one of Donald Trump's very first acts as an executive upon taking office back in 2017, January of 2017, was to sign a measure that made it easier for those with mental health issues to obtain deadly weapons. He used to brag about that. On Twitter in 2020, according to Reuters, a man with this guy's name, in at least an account in his name that matched the suspect's name, expressed support for Democratic US presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, and mocked Joe Biden as, quote, "sleepy Joe" echoing Donald Trump's then nickname for the president. According to CNN, the same Twitter account, back in 2016, had claimed that he had actually voted for Donald Trump that year. Don't know if that's true, but if so, that would echo a point of note in the previous assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, in July by, yes, a registered Republican at the time. Despite their calls for Trump's safety and their condemnation of political violence, both before and after this apparent attempt on Trump's life, in the previous failed attempt, Trump nonetheless blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris for the attempt on the scuttled attempt on his life, citing the, quote, "retaric" of both the president and the vice president, claiming the suspected gunman was acting on the Democrats, quote, "highly inflammatory language." Quote, "Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at," Trump said to Fox News, "when I am the one "who is going to save the country, "and they are the ones who are going to destroy the country, "both from inside and out." It's hard to think it's the rhetoric of Biden or Harris, given that Trump's own comments there, not to mention hundreds and hundreds of other ones like it, charged that Biden and Harris are, quote, destroying the country. After all, if it's being destroyed, you know, what wouldn't any patriot do in order to save it, right? That, of course, follows years that Trump has spent characterizing those who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on 20 in 2021, sending more than 140 law enforcement officials to the hospital with serious injuries, characterizing them as heroes and victims and hostages of the deep state and of Democrats. He has falsely claimed that the Department of Justice has been weaponized against him and other Republicans. That may come to surprising news to, I don't know, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, to Hunter Biden, to the New York City Mayor and the New York Police Chief, all Democrats, all who have been investigated and charged and convicted in many cases by the Department of Justice that has supposedly been weaponized against Republicans and Donald Trump. Trump has, as recently as this summer, welcomed far-right pro-Nazi figures to speak at events at his own golf course in New Jersey, praising them with videotaped remarks and, of course, a guy who has been using a false narrative to help spark violence against immigrants living and working legally in a small Ohio city over the past week since the debate when he falsely claimed that so-called illegal immigrants from Haiti were eating the pets of people who lived in this town. I'll get to a bit more of that and your calls shortly, but as Trump was out here in Los Angeles for at least part of this past weekend and we've got a lot of listeners in Southern California today. I feel like I need to touch base on just a few comments that he made while out here, including, yes, threats against the people of the state of California. Now, not that voters in California, in general, need much convincing to vote against Donald Trump. He lost to Hillary Clinton here in the state back in 2016 by more than 4 million votes. He subsequently lost to Joe Biden here in 2020 by well over 5 million votes. He was, however, out here over the weekend, hoping to raise money speaking at his golf club here in Los Angeles and telling a whole bunch of lies about California. And even as dozens of climate change-fueled wildfires have been raging up and down the state, as an extreme heat wave has finally blown out of Southern California for now, Trump also used his time here in the Golden State to, well, threaten essentially to let the entire state burn down if he becomes president again after the 2024 election. So as a California resident myself, I do feel some responsibility to sort of both push back against his California-based lies today and make sure that California voters are informed by knowing about Trump's weekend threats to the state and make no mistake, he made threats against the state. The president of the California Professional Firefighters Union said this weekend that former president Donald Trump, quote, "should be ashamed of his threat to withhold federal firefighting aid to the state if he were elected." Brian Rice, the president of the California Professional Firefighters Union, which represents more than 35,000 firefighters across the state, said in a statement on Saturday evening that it is, quote, "shocking that we have a presidential candidate who is threatening our public safety." His rhetoric is dangerous, Rice said. His ideas on public safety are dangerous and his ignorant rhetoric has grown exponentially, Rice charged. In a news conference at his Rancho Palos Verde Golf Club on Friday, Trump said that in a second term, he would stop sending California firefighting aid unless Governor Gavin Newsom, whom he repeatedly called "new scum." 'Cause he's a grownup. Unless a new scum enacted his policy priorities on issues such as water and taxes, the former president's threats came amid a tangent on California water and land management policies and water allotments for farmers, according to the LA Times. Trump said of the California's Democratic politicians, quote, "With this group, everything is dead. "The automobile industry is dead. "The water coming here is dead. "And Gavin Newsom is gonna sign those papers," he said, not specifying which papers he was actually referring to. - And Gavin Newsom is gonna sign those papers. And if he doesn't sign those papers, we won't give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don't give him the money to put out his fires, he's got problems. He's a lousy governor. But we have tremendous amounts of millions of gallons of water that's shoved right into the Pacific Ocean where it doesn't make a dent. And all of that water is gonna take care of California and nobody can make a bigger promise than that. - So if Gavin Newsom doesn't do some unspecified things should Donald Trump become president, he's going to punish the state. He's going to let it burn, let it burn to the ground, let all the people in it die. He doesn't care unless Gavin Newsom does Donald Trump's bidding, whatever that bidding may be. And by the way, giving federal money to California, California puts more in to federal taxes than any other state in the union and it doesn't get back what it puts in. Quote, "Every voter should be made aware of this." Donald Trump just admitted he will block emergency disaster funds to settle political vendettas. Gavin Newsom wrote on Twitter saying that Trump was revealing who he was. Newsom said, "Today it's California wildfires. "Tomorrow it could be hurricane funding for North Carolina "or flooding assistance for homeowners in Pennsylvania. "Donald Trump does not care about America. "He only cares about himself." Rice, the president of the firefighters union, compared the comments with Trump's 2018 visit to fire ravaged paradise. Remember that? When standing amid the ruins of the most deadly fire in California history, which caused 85 fatalities, displaced more than 50,000 people, destroyed more than 18,000 structures here in California, caused an estimated 16 and a half billion dollars in damage, standing amid all of that, as Rice recalled, Trump remarked that the fault was California for not maintaining the forest floors. It's your fault, California. And of course, when he was saying California wasn't maintaining its forest floors, he was talking about utter nonsense. He was trying to say that, "Oh, that in Austria they rake their forests." No, they don't. That doesn't happen, that's not a thing. - As a matter of fact, he said, and I'll quote here, quote, "I go to Austria," he said at the time. The head of Austria tells me quote, "We have trees that are much more flammable "than what you have here in California. "We never have forest fires "because they maintain their forests," Trump explained. Austrian officials previously debunked that nonsense about their forests, including that they have, quote, "more explosive trees," that's what Trump claimed. Not a thing? The country's then ag minister, Elizabeth Costinger, wrote in an article in the London-based independent in 2020, quote, "To clarify, no, "we don't have any exploding trees in Austria." Trump's threats to essentially let California burn on Friday come as wildfires over the past week have scorched more than 100,000 acres in Southern California alone, and they are ongoing. They have displaced thousands of residents in the mountain communities. They've burned dozens of homes. As of today, noted the firefighter union president Rice, thousands of firefighters are on the front lines, responding to wildfires throughout the state, and countless Californians are in harm's way as they heed evacuation orders. Rice said in the statement, nevertheless, former President Trump expressed that he would play with their lives and their homes if he does not get what he wants. He would rather watch our state burn in the name of his political games than to send help if he were to become president again. The former president's threat, he said, is, quote, "A serious public safety issue. "It is a disgrace to our nation, "and to every Californian that this man "has a platform to threaten our livelihoods, "safety, families, and our state," he wrote. But some of you may feel different, and I know, like I said, I'd love to hear from the folks in our Southern California listening area. Please explain to me 'cause I know there's a lot of you out there 'cause I hear from you via email after we get off air, but now's your chance. Come on air, 818-985-5735-818, 985-K-P-F-K, 985-K-P-F-K, come on, and explain to me why you still support this guy. You live here in California, presumably, and we're all over the nation, of course, if you're streaming live on kpfk.org. We'd love to hear from you as well, particularly if you are a Trump supporter, as to why. A lot of us don't get it. A lot of us hear stories like this about what Donald Trump is saying about California, about the threat that he appears to be willing to put the state in, and we wonder how can people still support this guy? Well, you can call and tell me 818-985-K-P-F-K. He also used his remarks at his golf course here in L.A. on Friday to lie, again, about immigrants. He claimed that thousands of people are right now being killed by, quote, "illegal immigrants" in the U.S. This is not supported by evidence, however, as AP notes citing FBI statistics, which found no evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities, seeing the greatest influx of migrants like New York or, yes, Springfield, Ohio. Where Donald Trump last week at the bay claimed that they were eating the dogs. In fact, national statistics show that violent crime is on the way down and that migrants are far less likely to commit crimes than good old American citizens are. Trump also charged, again, falsely, that the Harris and the Biden administration are secretly flying in hundreds of thousands of, quote, "illegal immigrants." AP's Fact Check report that migrants are not secretly being flown in to the U.S. by the government under a Biden policy in effect since January 2023, up to 30,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela can, in fact, enter the country monthly if they apply online with the financial sponsor and arrive at a specified airport paying their own way. Biden exercised his authority under a 1952 law that allows him to admit people, quote, only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. That is part of the reason why 20,000 migrants from Haiti have legally been allowed to take up residency in Springfield, Ohio over the past five years, five years. Yes, including when Donald Trump exercised the same authority, allowing Haitian refugees to legally move to Springfield, even as Trump continues to claim that they are illegally in the country. And apparently, eating the pets of people who live there, as he did during his embarrassing debate performance last Tuesday in Philadelphia. But of course, he and his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who certainly knows better, have stuck to their guns here, resulting in, yes, political violence against the town of Springfield, Ohio, including bomb threats last week that closed down City Hall and a number of schools out of concern for the safety of Springfield residents, all of them. Over the weekend, two Springfield hospitals had to lock down on Saturday after bomb threats. Once again, yes, putting people at risk. Wittenberg University closed all of its campuses for the upcoming week and moved to remote classes after these reported threats. Clark State College similarly went to remote classes for the week after receiving threats. That as Donald Trump was literally blaming Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for violence due to their supposed rhetoric against him. And as Trump himself refused to condemn actual bomb threats against the people that he is pretending to give a damn about, the people that he's pretending to care about in Springfield. Do you denounce the bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio? I don't know what happened with the bomb threats. I know that it's been taken over by illegal migrants, and that's a terrible thing that happened. Springfield was this beautiful town, and now they're going through hell. So he doesn't know what happened with that bomb threat with those multiple bomb threats that shut down schools and city hall and hospitals and universities and has the town terrified. He doesn't know anything about that, but he does know about these illegal immigrants who are not illegal and who are making the town of living hell because he's pretending that they are. That, by the way, as Nazis, yes, literal neo-Nazis. And Ku Klux Klan groups have now begun to descend on the city of Springfield, Ohio, passing out racist leaflets, headlined foreigners and Haitians out before going on to use some vile words and racist threats that I'm not gonna repeat, calling for quote, "mass deportation" and "America first." Now, who else other than the Ku Klux Klan uses that phrase, "America first?" It'll come to me. 818-985-5735. Can you defend that? Trump refuses to condemn any of this, but the good news is the woman behind an early Facebook post that was spreading a harmful and baseless rumor about Haitians eating local pets, this Facebook post was cited by JD Vance and Trump, which helped thrust this small Ohio city into a racialized tinderbox at this point. That woman admitted she had actually no firsthand knowledge of any such incident at all, and she is now filled with regret and fear as a result of the ensuing fallout. She lives in Springfield. Quote, "It just exploded into something "I didn't mean to happen." The Springfield resident told NBC News on Friday. She said that there are very real problems related to Springfield's population boom that caught the struggling city off guard. Springfield was not prepared to address the housing and healthcare and other service needs that came with the sudden increase of new residents over the last five years. When Haitians arrived, yes, beginning when Donald Trump was president. Still, she never imagined that her Facebook post would set off a national news cycle, and now she clearly regrets it. So too does the Republican governor of Ohio, Republican governor Mike DeWine on Sunday. As he said on ABCs this week, he rebuked the false conspiracy theories that have been amplified by disgraceful former president, Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating people's pets in Springfield, Ohio. This is a piece of garbage that was simply not true. There's no evidence of this at all. There are hate groups coming in to Springfield. We don't need these hate groups. This discussion about Haitians eating dogs, it's just not helpful. And again, these people are here legally. They're here legally, and they wanna work, and they are in fact working. And when you talk to the employers, what the employers tell you is, we don't know what we would do without them, this discussion just has to stop. We need to focus on moving forward and not dogs and cats being eaten, it's just ridiculous. And again, that's the Republican governor of Ohio, saying these people are here legally, and the businesses in Springfield, Ohio are grateful they need the workers. Speaking about what's going on for his own constituents in Springfield, Ohio, where Ohio Senator JD Vance, says Donald Trump's running mate has helped spark this madness. Regarding migrants who, as the Republican governor notes, are there legally, despite Trump's false claims to the contrary over the weekend, when he refused to condemn bomb threats against the people of Springfield whose votes, he's apparently hoping to win. All of that after Trump was absolutely trounced by Kamala Harris in last week's debate, and maybe that's why he needs to push this. Maybe that's why it works out for him to allow this violence to happen, to encourage this violence to happen. Bomb threats, I don't know anything about bomb threats. Trump made very clear that he had no actual plans to, well, do pretty much anything about anything during that debate, but he still insists that he actually won the 2020 election, and he cited authoritarian strongman Victor Orban somehow as an authority on his own strongman aspirations for the presidency, should he win this November. Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people. So let's be clear about that, and clearly he is having a very difficult time in processing that, and world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump. And when you then talk in this way, in a presidential debate and deny, what over and over again are court cases you have lost, because you did in fact lose that election, it leads one to believe that perhaps we do not have, in the candidate to my right, the temperament, or the ability to not be confused about fact. - Victor Orban, one of the most respected men, they call him a strong man, he's a tough person. They said, why is the whole world blowing up? Three years ago it wasn't, why is it blowing up? He said, because you need Trump back as president, they were afraid of him, China was afraid of him, North Korea was afraid of him. He said, Russia was afraid of him. Victor Orban, he said, the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president. But when this weak, pathetic man, and you know what, I'll give you a little secret, he hates her, he can't stand her, they threw him out. And yet with all of that, all that we know about him, as we are some 50 days away from election day, with early vote by mail balance, already going out to voters in some states, the polls remain by and large tied. Leading to what I know is the question that I hear, most from folks, how can that possibly be? How can half the country still be supporting this guy? Which is where you, dear listeners, and yes, I know there are Trump supporters among you, where you come in today. Give me a call, 818-985-5735. Tell me why, after all of that, and so much more, you're still planning to vote for Donald Trump. As I said, I will be kind. I may challenge you politely, if appropriate, but I genuinely do want to know why, as I know that many other Americans, about 80 million of them also want to know as well. 818-985-KPFK, if you'd like to make your case, over our public airwaves, across one of the most powerful transmitters, and largest listening areas west of the Mississippi. If you're not a Trump supporter, but rather simply refuse to vote for Kamala Harris, I also welcome your explanation as well. 818-985-5735, where you formerly undecided, but last week's debate move you in either direction. I'd love to hear from you as well. If we don't hear from any of those folks, well, I will open it up to Harris supporters to ring in on how they think she did in last week's debate, or anything else that I've just covered, but Trump supporters, well, you'll go straight to the top of the line. 818-985-KPFK, let me take a quick break, and we will come back with your calls. Luther from Arkansas, hang in there. I'm gonna go to you first. I'm Brad Friedman, and you are listening to The Bradcast. (dramatic music) - What the public hears on the public airwaves matters. At The Bradcast, we do our best to bring you accurate news and analysis on the issues that actually matter, and we do it all independently, without corporate or political influence. But we can't do it without you, now more than ever. Please help us stay on your public airwaves by going to Bradblog.com/donate to help keep us going. That's Bradblog.com/donate, and thanks. - In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there. They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there. People love Springfield, please don't eat my cats. Why would you do that eat something else? People love Springfield, please don't eat my dog. Here's a catalog of other things to eat. They're eating the dogs. ♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪ ♪ They're eating the cats ♪ ♪ We're back ♪ ♪ We're back ♪ ♪ We're back ♪ ♪ Bradcast ♪ ♪ Bradblog.com ♪ Looking forward to hearing from Donald Trump supporters right now, 818-985-5735, to explain to me why, after all that we know about this guy, you're still supporting him. I genuinely would like to know. Let me go to Luther, who was actually, I think, visiting in Burbank, but he is from Arkansas. Hey, Luther, welcome to the Bradcast, sir. - Oh, thank you very much. Yeah, I told you, Gail, there, I'm gonna tell you the truth why I support Trump. - Okay. - You know, and I'm not stupid, he's dumb as a post, but I support him like all the rest of us that support him because he's against the color, it's as simple as that. I know you ain't gonna like what I said, but it's the truth, he's against the colors. You like him because he's against the color. Do you like him because he's a racist and you are a racist as well? - Well, you can call me that, but, you know, I stand up for the rights, you know, of the white man. And I don't like him, I think he's a despicable man, if you want to know the truth, he's dumb as hell. Talking about, talking about, talking about. - But aren't you, aren't you despicable, Luther, if you think that whites have certain rights and privileges that people of color do not? - They always did, always did. White people founded this country. You can say the Indians were there first, but they couldn't hold it, couldn't hold it. It's just like what's happening in the gods over there. - Now, are you really putting me on here, Luther? Is this really the way you feel? - That's the way I feel, the way, last time voted, what, how did you get, what, 83,000 votes, 80,000 votes? It's the way a lot of people feel. They're not going to tell you this, they're not going to tell you this. - All right, they're not going to tell you that they are racist, and that's why they support him. Even though he's-- - I'm only reason, I'm only reason, I'm telling you because we ain't stand on face to face. If we tell us to end face to face, I tell you something different. But we're not face to face, you don't know who I am. I gave you my name, I'm not going to give you my last name. But that's what I'm telling you is, this is how a lot of people feel. Why else do you think anybody else would be voting for this guy? I mean, this guy, he wanted us to all drink Clorox. I mean, there's thousands of things he said, well, we're not all stupid, but it's racist. I mean, let me ask you one thing. You know, when the Medicare bill was signed, you know, a lot of people down my way didn't want it because the color could get it too. You know that, right? I understand the racism that has been in places like Arkansas, that still is, that is in places out here. And it's in California, okay, thank you for saying that. Oh, of course it is. Of course it is. I just don't understand why you're not pushing against it, why you seem to be kind of proud of it. The only reason I'm out here because my daughter, she's been, it looked like she may get engaged to a Chinese man and we just can't have that. I'm trying, I'm here to try and stop and put a stop to it. It's not the way it's the way I am. You know, Luther, I understand that's the way you am. You realize that people are going to listen to the show. Are you making fun of me? No, I might be, but you realize people are going to listen to this. Well, you said the way you am, that ain't correct. You said the way you are. You realize the people are going to be listening to you on the show and think that you're putting us all on, that I've somehow put you up to this call. But why would you ask for people who were for Trump and you wanted to know why? I mean, they're not going to give you, and the people who were for Trump ain't going to get you. There's no convoluted reasons why they're for Trump because they don't have none. It's a claim in your face. Why do you think the most avarities these people, especially from where I'm from, are for Trump? Why do you think that? I just heard on the news. You were calling to tell me. That's why, Luther-- That uneducated white people are voting for Trump. That's where his base of his thing is. I gotcha. That's why. I'm an uneducated white man and I'm voted for Trump. So why would you think I'm putting you on? Well, 'cause you're not afraid to admit it. And I hear you, Luther. I appreciate your call. I really do. 818-985-K-PFK, well, maybe there's your answer. Show over. Do we need to go out to anyone else? Let me go to who do we have here? Summer in San Pedro. Summer, welcome to the broadcast. Do you share Luther's thoughts there? No. OK, good. All right, so what's your, are you a Trump supporter? I like Trump. I'm actually a Democrat. But now I'm a little confused. Yeah? Why are you confused? Why are you confused? Well, I just think that Trump just say the things that people is not gonna say, but they true. You know what I'm saying? I don't know about the cats and the dogs and all that, but a lot of, I'm black. A lot of us do not go to restaurants because we don't believe it's chicken. We think it's the cat and the dog, and it's not. It's funny, but that's why we don't go. We cook our own stuff, most of us. You know, the ones that I know. And I just, and Kamala, I don't know. She must, she should be like a PTA teacher or something like that. She smiles a lot and I don't think that she should be the first lady president. She's just not strong enough. Like Hillary, you know, she should have been like the first one. So, so Summer, let me ask you, you just heard that caller, Luther. I'm assuming he's not putting us on. I'm assuming what he says is, you know, he, well, he says that he thinks Donald Trump is terrible, a terrible person, dumb as a post, but because he, because he doesn't like the collards, he's all for him. Now, how does that make you feel as you said you were African American? How does that make you feel that you're still considering voting for Donald Trump, who is beloved by racists the world over, Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, who showed up in, in Springfield with passing out these flyers calling for mass, or deportation. There is no place in America for this filth. The Ku Klux Klan saying exactly what Donald Trump is saying, foreigners and Haitians out. And yet you're considering voting for him, right? Yeah. And why? Why? Why? Summer. Because he was black. We can learn the black people did. Okay. But why would you vote for? Yeah. Why would you vote for Donald Trump? Just in one sentence. Why would you consider that? I just think he's the better candidate did her. That's all. I think that she's going to have people question on what to do, you know, because I just don't think that she's capable of being the president. So I believe he'll do what he wants to do. He told her he said, I don't have to write a bill. I just did it. So if you just really want to go do it, go do it. So she's just not strong enough. Okay. And I want somebody to be strong in there for our country, you know, yes. Even if they even if they hate you and your people, right? Well, see, you got to remember that even when you we went, I'm not around Donald Trump or no, no, none of the presidents and Congress or nothing. I don't run a people I like. So we're guys helping me wake up every morning, you know, making sure I wake up. I'm blessed like that. You know, we all are. And I go out there and do what I need to do for me. All right. So I don't give anybody helping me do nothing. So me voting for her or voting for him, I just don't believe that helped me or not. Gotcha. Thank you. Most of us do. You know, we're out here. Take care. And I note that it says that you're undecided. I hope you'll stay in touch as the weeks move forward if you if you change one way or another. Good to hear from you, Summer. I really appreciate you calling in 818 985 K P F K. Let me go to Andrew in Los Angeles. Hey, Andrew. Welcome to the broadcast, sir. Hey, how's it going? It's going. Okay. Why are why are you a Trump supporter? Um, I just been a Trump supporter since, you know, he's been a good guy since our his first term. We were really good. And when, you know, Biden came in, he made a mess of everything. So let me let me let me let me, I want to give you time to talk, Andrew. But you said things were, you said he's a really nice guy and things were good. What was good when he was, you know, I was making money. I wasn't, I wasn't hurting. Are you hurting everybody? Yeah. I'm hurting pretty bad now. What? Why are you hurting? Pretty bad. Why are you hurting now? Work is harder. I mean, they pushed wages up, but I mean, didn't help. All they did was, I mean, everybody shouldn't understand that inflation goes with wages. It's not a joke. It's how those. Yeah. But your wages are up and wages are essentially almost exactly the same as inflation has been since the pandemic, since it was, I believe mishandled by Donald Trump. So your, your wages are up. So you're able to afford the same thing you were able to afford before. Why is it so difficult now? Well, you're getting less for what you're paying now. You're actually getting less. What do you mean? You're getting less. You're getting less. Everything is less. What do you mean shrinkflation? They've made things smaller, is that what you're saying? As we progress, our wages do not follow inflation. They do not. They have not ever followed. Well, actually, they are. Well, actually, they are. They mean we have, we have four years of a break where the two gaps were not, were not increasing the state. And when we had Biden, the gap got huge. Now you got Kamala in here, who is running for VP, or sorry for president, but she is a VP. And she is promising everything to everybody, but she can go do it right now. Everything she promises, she can do it right now. You can step out of her office, go tell somebody and do it right now. Why don't she do it? Well, because actually, because the actual, because, because the vice president does not have the power of the presidency and the power of the presidency does not, until. You're competent. Hang on. Why not? Well, you asked me a question. The power of the presidency does not include, until recently, violating the law. So she's not the vice president. As she's not the president, she's the vice president. She would like to pass things through Congress as legitimate presidents try to do. And so no, she can't just go out there and do, you know, she's promised $50,000 to small businesses. You need a program for that. She can't just wave a wand and do that. These are the things that she hopes to work with Congress to bring about. And what you've been doing in the past four years, she's done no this. You're going to do it. Well, are you, are you on for the last four years? Well, are you unfamiliar with the American Rescue Plan? Are you unfamiliar with the chips act? Are you unfamiliar with the inflation reduction act? Are you unfamiliar with the, the infrastructure, they, they're not false promises. What are they false? How are they false promises? It's all on paper. They can do it now. It's not actual on paper. It's 800,000 new manufacturing jobs in the US. It's one, it's, it's hundreds, if not thousands of new factories in the US as manufacturing is being on shore through the bipartisan infrastructure act, through the chips act, through the inflation reduction act. What do you mean it's on paper? Is it because you don't know about it? No, if they have it on paper for this whole time, why haven't they done anything? Why haven't they done it? If they have done it, that's why we have an economy that is the envy of the world right now. Our economy is a joke. Everybody should know that. The economy is a joke. How is it a joke? How is it a joke? Because how do we have an economy? The definition of economy is sustainable. Our system is not sustainable. It's crumbling in front of our eyes. Our whole system is crumbling in front of our eyes. So inflation is inflation is. So inflation is. So inflation is messing it up. Inflation is. Okay. Inflation is lower than it is in any industrialized country in the world. Unemployment is at 50 year lows. I'm not sure what you're talking about as far as the economy falling apart before our eyes, before I let you go. Andrew, if you could just give me one example of the economy falling apart before our eyes. Oh, stock market's at record high, by the way. So how is the economy falling apart before our eyes? The only people that are making money are the ones that already have money, not the ones that don't. Did you have money? Did you have money during Trump? I've never had money. That's why I don't have any. None of us have money. Only the people that have money are making money. The people that don't have money are sitting around watching the people with money make money. You told me at the beginning that you were making money under Donald Trump, so now I'm a little bit confused. But I appreciate your thoughts on this, Andrew. I do. You've got to make something to survive, right? What is life of all you're doing and surviving, not living? Thanks, Andrew. Appreciate it. 818-985-K-P-F-K. Let me go to Ed in Los Angeles. Hey, Ed. Welcome to the Brandcast, sir. Hello. Hi. Hi. How are you? I'm good. You're on the air. Why are you a Trump supporter? Is it any for the any of the aforementioned reasons that because you're a racist, because you feel that Kamala Harris is too weak to be president or that you feel that the economy was fantastic under Donald Trump, even though unemployment came about and crashed two levels that was and the stock market with it that was levels we hadn't seen since the Great Depression. Well, let me start off by saying I have always been a Democrat. I voted for Obama. In 2016, I was really nervous about Trump, like everyone else, but as the country chose him. Yeah. Okay. Kind of, we all kind of witness that what he promised he did. So on the first week of office, he signed a couple of executive orders that it was so quick. I mean, I don't remember exactly what it was. Yeah. I was going to say executive orders for what? I mean, he did sign an order that would allow people who are mentally unstable to make it easier for them to get firearms. But he, as far as his promises, I mean, the big one, of course, that he was going to build a wall and Mexico was going to pay for it. He neither built the wall nor did Mexico pay for it. So what promises did he actually keep? That was more of a personal goal for him. But as far as something that would benefit everyone, he did put a lot of things into play and a lot of things did not really bolt well. But in the end, he did pass a lot of, he's trying a lot of laws. Okay. He did what? Okay. What did he do in China? What did he do in China? Well, no one that helps under his presidency. Okay. Really? Look, I am a Democrat. Mind you. That's okay. I don't care. I'm not. I do see. I do see how people are nervous, but he did do what he promised he would do first thing in office. And what anyone was saying, I'm just trying to understand. Name one thing that he promised he would do that he actually did in office. I do not remember the name of it, but he said as soon as I get off it, I will stop the help for illegal immigrants. Okay. He did do that. Stop the help for illegal immigrants? Yes. There was, yeah, the DACA and all that stuff. He got the ball rolling on that, right? No. No, no, he did. No, no, he didn't get the ball rolling. There was no immigration reform, essentially nothing changed other than the problem that has been a problem for years. It continued to get worse. What did he change? Like I said, he didn't pass the help. There was help. I was going to illegal immigrants. This kind of stopped. Okay. No, that's not true. This stuff. Okay. It kind of stopped. Okay. I mean, I mean, the whole immigration thing will never be fixed anyway, but he did do it. What is it he was going to do when he first got into office? But you can't think of any examples. And I'm not trying to harass you in truth. I'm just trying to understand. And if you could name one thing, I mean, DACA, he didn't pass. DACA, he scuttled that, you know, to allow dreamers to, you know, have a path for citizenship. Right. He didn't allow that to move forward. So as I live in LA, I did see these in my own eyes, there were a lot of people getting rid of illegal immigrants. Okay. This happened very quickly, very fast. And I mean, I am a citizen here, I'm a U.S. citizen. Yeah. But at the same time, I saw this as a way to kind of reduce the crime and the out of control, just illegal immigration here. Okay. And it did help. Okay. It did help. I didn't notice, but I take your word for it. At the top of the hour, Ed, I want to try to get in another call or two. I really do appreciate your thoughts on that. I didn't, I lived here as well. I didn't see it as you did, but obviously you saw it that way. And I understand. And I appreciate you calling and letting us know. Let me see. Do I have time for Justin in Long Beach? Hey, Justin. Welcome to the brand cast, sir. Hey, I'm okay. You got to be quick about it, though, because I got to get out at the top of the hour here, Justin. Okay. So what I feel is I feel that Donald Trump is not racist at all. I feel like, you know, he wouldn't have said that black people are the backbone of America. He wouldn't have said that America wouldn't be anything without black people, me being a black person. I think Donald Trump is doing what he feels he needs to do. I feel like Kamala Harris haven't proved herself for us to vote for her neither. I mean, I'd like Donald Trump for the fact that he's against just letting the immigrants take all the quote unquote American jobs as well. You know, it's kind of like 50/50. I feel like I want to vote for Donald Trump, but it's kind of scary because some things, you know, he's on the fence about and then Kamala Harris, she don't even really speak about. She kind of shies away from a certain thing. Very quickly. Like what things does she shy away from when a lot of the black people ask her about what she's going to do for them. She made a statement saying, Oh, I can't do it just for black people. And when she wants to cater to the black people to vote, make it bold is a reason to be voted for. Yeah, I don't think I heard her say that neither do I think I heard Trump say black people were the backbone of America. That would be nice if he said that because it's actually true. But where did you hear him say that? I've seen a lot of stuff on YouTube, different interviews that he had. If you've seen when he, when he went to the interview at the, with all the black news castes and stuff like that, he was giving a lot of respect to a lot of the black people that did do a lot of things for America. Okay. Well, the, the black journals association. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? If you, if you got a sight to that, and if you find a moment, my email is bradcast@bradblog.com. I would love to see where he said that black people were the backbone of America. And listen, guys, thanks. I appreciate the call Justin. I hope you'll look into some of those things that you think he said or that you think he did because I'm not sure you're getting great information. I blame myself for that. I blame the rest of us in the media who do a crappy job of serving the electorate, you know, who, who don't inform them as we should as our only real job, as our only real reason that we have dispensation in the constitution for, for, for free press. I believe that is an exchange for serving the people and educating the electorate. I think we've done a terrible job, but I'm going to work to improve. And I thank everyone who called in today to take on this topic. Let's do it again in the not too distant future. Really appreciate it. And I'm sorry to those folks who I could not get to, but thank you for trying. We'll try again soon. My thanks to my producer as well, Dizzy Doyan, to my board operator Wendell Handy and to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us. If you missed any portion of today's program, you can download it anytime for free at bradblog.com if you want to share it with your friends, your family, your relatives, your enemies, bradblog.com. Drop me an email, as I said. I am Bradcast@bradblog.com on the Facebook's Mastodon since I'd still known as Twitter. I am the Brad Blog. We will see you there until we see you here next time. Hopefully tomorrow I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck world. ♪♪♪ You're listening to the Bradcast. We are 100% listener supported, thanks to listeners like you, who drop by bradblog.com/donate. (upbeat music)