JR Afternoon with Chris Renwick

Unpacking the Gaetz Saga, Kennedy Controversies, and the Media’s Tug-of-War

November 21, 2024 ~ Chris Renwick and Richard Helppie, host of The Common Bridge podcast, explore political dynamics, from humorous anecdotes to serious analysis, touching on Matt Gaetz, media strategies, NDAs, and evolving Latino and Black voting behaviors.

Duration:: 9m
Broadcast on:: 25 Nov 2024
Audio Format:: other

Hey, do you guys remember the show, uh, kids say the darnedest things? I've got a, I've got an entry into that, uh, that list, that show. I'll, I'll tell you what, uh, what Jake said to me this morning coming up at, uh, 335. It was hilarious and I don't, I didn't even really know how to correct it. I did my best, but, uh, it was, uh, it was wild. So I'll, I'll tell you about what he said coming up at 335. Uh, meanwhile the big news today, Matt Gates has withdrawn his name from consideration for, uh, the attorney general spot that Donald Trump, uh, nominated him for, um, and it is certainly sent shockwaves throughout the political landscape. Let's bring in Richard help. He's the host of the common bread podcast on sub stack.com and he joins me. Uh, riches. Good to have you back. What did you make of the, uh, Matt Gates news today? Um, it was expected, frankly, uh, when Gates's potential nomination was a, a, a, a, a, was announced. I said, okay, this is the Harriet Myers of this cycle and we're now going to find out who the real attorney general candidate is. Of course, if you remember, Harriet Myers was, uh, nominated to the Supreme Court by George W. Bush, um, uh, woefully, uh, unqualified and then, uh, to the relief of everyone in the political class, Myers was withdrawn and, uh, Sam Alito, a staunch conservative was put in by Bush. And I think that's what we, we've got going on. Um, and so that's, so that, that, and I'm totally disagree. I think that the interesting thing now is then how the spotlight shifts because now we're getting more information on Pete Haggseth and, and of course this narrative that, uh, Tulsi Gabbard is some Russian spy and, and of course RFK junior to the HHS. I mean, the RFK appointment was the least surprising appointment of anybody. I mean, it was, it was telegraph throughout the course of the campaign. As soon as RFK hopped on the Trump train, it was very obvious what, what he was destined for. Um, what, what do you make of some of these other nominations and, and the, the real viability of them? Well, at a broad level, Trump's taking the contest for the next logical battlefield. If you look at his first administration, if you look at this past campaign, it was all played out in this established media ecosystem. 22 of his 28 nominees have media experience. That's the game they need to be good at 11 of the 28 have either legislative or governing experience. And that's when you look down the lineup, you've got people that have got chops that can take on this attack journalism that's, that's going to be coming and coming fiercely. Have you been surprised by some of the information that's come out? I mean, to me, it's not a surprise when you make a nomination of any sort, whether it's to a cabinet position, to the Supreme Court, all of a sudden, um, you start to get leaks of information or, um, you know, a, a ding on their record here. They once ran a red light, uh, whatever it is, uh, or, or ranging from that to the, to the more serious. Um, have you been surprised by kind of the, the, the information that's come out on these folks? No, not terribly surprised, but I listened carefully about what the source is. So by way of example, someone signed a non-disclosure agreement. The whole essence of a non-disclosure agreement is, Hey, you know what? We can't agree. We're both going to quit talking about it. All right. And the matters put to bed, but they're always brought up as if someone has done something wrong versus we need to put this behind. NDA's are pretty boilerplate. Exactly. And, and, uh, that boilerplate, they're, they're not uncommon. Put it down. They're not. And look, if you've ever been involved in a lawsuit, um, people make wild, uh, accusations that they know that they can't back up, but somebody can dig out the court filing and go, oh, the, this person was accused of this, that or the other thing. Um, real quick, you, you made mention of a couple of these. So RFK might take, this is the best pick yet. And had the Democrats not directed their nomination outcome again, he may well have been elected president as a Democrat. And now he's got his former party in a position of defending obesity, bad food, drug dependence, and you know, if he gets on a roll, an indefensible war. So I think it's a great pick. Um, you know, Tulsi Gabbard, uh, uh, for intelligence chief, you're not going to pick one of the 51 intelligent chiefs that signed on to a letter of that Hunter Biden's laptop was rushing this information. And there was a long story in the New York Times, uh, trying to take down Tulsi Gabbard this week. And the essence was she doesn't think the war in Ukraine is a great idea. She's been speaking out against it. And since Russia doesn't like it, therefore she's a Russian agent. That's what the story said. And to your earlier point, the United States has turned its back on two missile treaties in one in 2002, they walked out of the anti ballistic missile treaty never discussed it with Russia and then put missiles in Eastern Europe. And in 2019 walked out of the intermediate nuclear force treaty. And if we still study history in school, the 1960s Cuban missile crisis was resolved when the Kennedy administration quietly agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. So here we are 60 some years later on the brink of nuclear war over basically the same issue. You know, I won't. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, there's no doubt that, that there is a certain element of a smear campaign or, or trying to, to, to discredit a lot of these, these selections. And that's again, boilerplate, but it's also when Democrats don't have control of any chamber of Congress when they didn't win the White House. It's really the only tactic that they have currently. And so it's trying to what sway the American people. Well, the votes have already been cast. You know, the other thing too that I've heard a lot on, on television news media lately is well, you know, of 55% or 45% of, of Latino men voted for Donald Trump. And what we hear a lot from the immigrant community, people have come to the United States through the proper channels, done there, the, the work to get in legally. Those are the people that really despise what's happening at the border the most. Those are the people that said, well, you just jumped in line. You didn't do any of the legwork to come in properly. And so what's the, the answer to that from the news media? It's, well, Donald Trump is turning their back on them because when he says he's going after criminal, criminal migrants and people who have come to the United States, many of these people are viewed at as criminal, even though that they may have a job and pay taxes and have overstayed their visas. They are viewed at as criminals, even though they may have voted for Donald Trump. And then the same thing is being said about the black community that Donald Trump went out and made such great inroads with, with African American voters that some of these appointments are contrary to what he's, he's talked to these communities about is, is there any truth to that? Do you think? I don't. It's, well, let me put it like this. If you're looking at it through an identity politics lens, then yes. But remember in the election leading up to it, the Democrats and the established media ecosystem told us all people of Latin descent and there's 21 Latin American countries are all supposed to vote a certain way. Black men are all supposed to vote a certain way. Black women are all supposed to vote a certain way and they didn't. So they voted for what Trump has presented and what he has presented is a secure border. And I don't know how he's going to do this, a deportation. But if they're smart about it and there's ways to get this to happen by way of example, some of the things that came from the Obama administration, from the George W. Bush administration. If you're in the country and you register and you pay a fine, learn English, don't have a criminal record, you get to stay and if, you know, you don't, you don't get it. Right. Yeah. And a lot of this, we just don't know the logistics yet of how it worked. But I assume we'll find out pretty quickly here probably day one when Donald Trump takes the oath of office. Richard help me, the host of the Common Bridge podcast. Thank you, my friend. Good to catch up. Always Chris. Take care now. You too. Take a break.