I Know Trump’s Favorite Dem Is 'Unfit' for Office | The Daily Beast Podcast

I think he's unfit for office. John Fetterman had an incapacitating stroke. And John Fetterman has obviously not recovered from. That's true. We see how addled he is and the simplicity of the response. and the engagements with. His staff on questions, for example, about the murder of Renee Good and Alex,

the childlike, teenage like sophistry, the degree to which this man is publicly manipulated by Fox News. You read all of the things that come out of Fetterman's mouth is very childlike. view of the world. I'm cold. This is the Daily Beast podcast, and today we are covering John Fetterman. Is he actually fit for office?

You'd be surprised what our guest on today's podcast thinks. We cover Iran. What's happened to the Strait of Hormuz? Jeff Bezos, what is he going to be actually remembered for? Similarly, Marco Rubio, and how are the plans. going to celebrate Trump's 80th birthday? Yes. The president of the United States leans into his ninth decade. We have three weeks to count down before we get into it.

I'm just going to ask you, please, to smash. the subscription button wherever you get your podcast. We're nearly at 700,000 subscribers, so please help us get to our current goal. And those of you who are regular listeners. and viewers will know that we've had some technical hitches. when we've been doing some of our podcasts, including Inside. Trump's Head, due to how can I put this, the lack of bandwidth. at my parents home in Yorkshire, in the UK, where I've been.

for the last month, and the internet, which my mum. refers to or referred to as the vibes. Anyway, big thanks to my neighbors. Claire and Brian, who helped us out. when our connection went down. midway through the podcast. So close observers will notice a dramatic change of background. Anyway, let's get into it with Steve Schmidt of the warning,

the former Republican. He's been in politics all his life and now, of course, a co-founder of the Save America movement. Steve, let's get into it. Steve Schmidt, you are fresh off. your 24 hour reading of The Epstein Files. This is something save America, the Save America movement that you've. co-founded, has pioneered this week.

How did it go? And have we forgotten about the Epstein files? Did Trump win the Epstein files? I don't think that Trump has won the Epstein files. But first off, it's good to see you, Joanna, and good to be back with you. I think that the erasure. temporarily of the Epstein Files from the corporate media, the failure to cover the story, is really an admission of the corruption.

that so many of us indict on a on a day to day basis, and none of it is lost on the on the American people. I said on this podcast some months ago. that we would get into this time of year, and he would be down to about 30%. And he's after you did say that, you did say that it.

and that means that means that. an enormous number of. people have jumped off of the Trump ship. And there there's this blindness in so many people. who are fiercely opposed to Trump, to that reality, because they are fixated by the multitude. still on the ship and aghast by it, by their aggression.

towards all of the concepts that we all supposedly believed in, that we all stand together in salute, say, when we're gathered ecumenical at a baseball game. Right. And the national anthem is played. I saw you, I saw you, you posted Steve. You posted yourself and Dean Blundell at the Yankees this week. Yeah we did. We Dean and I go to a lot of baseball games together.

and and most of those games are in Toronto. And you know where I spend where I spent about. six months of the year in and all of the baseball season. And if you're an American in a Canadian city, when the American anthem is played and you. you are forced to confront. the dichotomy of those words if they ever had any meaning of you, the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And yet our flag was still there. And that's the central question of this Trump era, and the abominations. in this unbridled corruption that were besieged by. There's a there's a question at hand in the country. for the American people about whether we're going to tolerate it or not. And the writing is on the wall for for MAGA. I can tell you what I think is going to happen, but. we're going to know for sure inside of inside a few months.

And the answer to the question. is really decisive for the future of the, of the country, because indifference towards what's going on means and indifference to the loss. of a way of life that people won't be indifferent towards once it's gone. I promise them that. But, Steve, can you help me with one thing, which is that, you know, you were a Republican. I understand you're no longer obviously a Trump Republican.

How do Republican. politicians square Trump's behavior? I mean, he has road roughshod through. all politicians, through Congress, through the Senate, through everybody. So if I. were a Republican Congress person, I would be extremely anxious about what my own president. is doing to my party for my voters as the midterms approaches.

I mean, it really feels I've never seen anything quite so much. as a government of one, which obviously we've discussed, but it's never been so obvious as it is now. And if I were a Republican politician, I would be furious with my president. Why aren't they? Well, I think they I think they are right. And I think a lot of that fury is steeped.

in the self loathing of cowards. They are abuse. victims who tolerate the abuse. that are complicit in their in their own abuse. It's a form of self-abuse and debasement that they have submitted to. And the evidence of, of what they used to believe is carved in granite. We have it, we know it. We know that every one of them was opposed to Trump when he came down the.

and the escalator, and they have submitted to him out of cowardice, and they've made the calculation politically that they cannot survive. disobedience and and and be and make it through a Republican primary. And so you'll see some cohort of them. now trying to having made it through a primary. is jump off of the bullet train, so to speak. And it's going to be tough to dismount the train at 200 miles an hour.

from the side door, so to speak, and they're doomed. They've lashed themselves, they've lashed themselves to it. But it is an extraordinary. Everyone is fascinated by different things, right. That that provoked them into careers and and everything else. I don't know, you know what young Joanna Coles, right.

You know, some of the things that kind of pulls you into. into journalism and and wanting to ask questions of people. But I was always fascinated by. things such as growing up by Jonestown. Right. Which which occurred when, when I was nine years old. Like, why would 900 people, right. Drink the Kool-Aid. Right. What? Why? Right. The Heaven's Gate cult.

I'm I'm rereading the William Shire. book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. And Shire, the foreign correspondent with CBS, was there for all of it. He was he was there in Germany from from 1932. forward. And what you were seeing is. not unprecedented in history. What you're seeing is the submission of.

principal. for the opportunities. that present themselves from the obedience. that rewards the ambition of people. who will align themselves towards the wrong to get ahead. And this this is a great drama, right? This is this is what Shakespeare wrote about. This is right. This is the this is this is what the Stoics meditated about.

And and we have to, as a society, decide some very, very big things. through an election process that we're actually going to have. Despite all of Trump's threats and vituperation and rhetoric against it. Okay. Close observance of this podcast will notice. we've had a sudden change of background. That's because I had technical difficulties.

here in crazy Yorkshire. So I've had to run my neighbor's house where their wife I, or the vibes, as my mom used to call it, are now happily working. So Steve, I'm sorry about that interruption. Thank you for your patience. We were discussing how how the Republicans are now. in this sort of Shakespearean slash bizarre. mirror madness world, with. Trump riding roughshod across them, and apparently. there's nothing they can do about it as they face the midterms.

No, they should read, read some of the Stoics, read, read some of the classics, read their Shakespeare. They have lashed themselves to the mast and the. in the in the die is. is is cast and they're going to face it and it's going to be a brutal, brutal reckoning. I'm a I'm a huge John F Kennedy fan.

And I think for Democrats, I would if, if I had if I had my way, I would. I would pull all of their members into mandatory retreats. where they were forced to listen. to FDR speeches and John Kennedy speeches. But when it comes to understanding the Republicans, John Kennedy. had this great line in his inaugural address, which is, beware.

the foolish man who seek power by trying to ride. the back of the tiger, only to wind up inside. Right? And that is what we are. We are witnessing the hollowness of ambition, the concept that there is nothing. that has greater value than more. more stuff, more power.

Me, me, me. And I think it will be repudiated. with disgusting contempt. by a majority of Americans. who don't necessarily like each other very much, but have the shared common interest. of putting a check on Donald Trump's power and an appreciation. that whenever contempt they may feel for each other inside.

of a vast coalition, there's nobody who feels more contempt. for anybody than does Donald Trump towards them and all of us. I know it's it's really remarkable that they haven't been able to somehow. bandy together and form some kind of resistance to him within the party. Do you think there would ever be a sort of breakaway group of the Republicans? I mean, I'm still in the UK, where I've been for the last month, and what we've witnessed here is the breaking apart of the two party system.

and this now really 4 or 5 parties who are really viable in an election, not for overall power necessarily, but we've certainly seen the breaking up. of the equivalent, the British equivalent of the Republicans and the Democrats. You've been a student of American politics all your life. Do you think this might be a tipping point where where we see. because we've got essentially the Trump Party. or the Democrats and there's nothing in between?

Well, I, I think what's going on in. Great Britain is of really, is, is. is a precursor to what we could see in the United States. And, you know, I could talk on a, on a 60, 70 year basis about how US and British politics have altered one another. and how Labor and Conservative prime ministers have set the stages. or been reactionary from the election.

of various American presidents and movements. But but certainly what goes on in the UK. has had a gravitational pull, a tidal pull, if you will, on what happens in the politics here. And you're seeing a disintegration of old institutions. The Democratic Party is the oldest political party in the world. The Republican Party is third and the Tory party is is number two.

And so the disintegration of of some of the oldest political parties. in the in the world, in the font of where, where Western democracy emerged from, parliamentary democracy is a big thing, not a not a small thing. And the forces that are driving it. are the same forces that are disintegrating, the bonds of affection between Americans and, you know, disintegrating.

the institutions of the, of the Republic. So, look, I we're we're going to have a very disruptive. election cycle in 2028. I Democrats are going to have a big election victory. And, and I think that they have a lot of delusional leaders like Chuck Schumer. And I'm counting down for the moment when Chuck.

Schumer does his Sally field speech after the election, right? When he's like, they like me, they like me. It was a victory for me, for Schumer and I. And I think that what a lot of the geriatric Democratic leaders. don't appreciate is the contempt by which they're held, right, that the people are held to lost two elections to Donald Trump. And so I think there's going to be a lot of Americans in that proverbial lifeboat, like the people who got off the Titanic, that they're in the North Atlantic. No one wanted to be in a wooden lifeboat in the North Atlantic Ocean.

on a moonless night at three in the morning on April the 15th. But it'd be the alternatives, right? It beat all the alternatives. And that's what the Democratic Party. represents in this, in this election, it's going to be a wipeout. People are going to revolt against all of this insanity. And and they're going to put their hopes into a Democratic party. that that will have one clear mandate, which is to make all this bullshit stop, bring it to you.

Interesting. So. So what is Save America, the save American movement. doing to remind people that Donald Trump will be 80 in 3 weeks? How are you planning? You have the most creative and amusing ways. of of illuminating something. Here is a moment where where it's possible to remind people. this is the oldest president in American history.

And perhaps some of what he's doing is. because he's effectively too old for the job. So what is Save America up to? I know you've got plans. We we are debating what to do about about his birthday. I'll be honest. If I had my way about it, we would. We would burn him in effigy for his, for his birthday. And maybe we'll we'll call on people to do that digitally.

Nobody should just go out and burn anything in their, their community. without without calling and coordinating with the fire department first. But I but I mean it it's an it's an it's a, it's a, it's a free speech act. that is appropriate. in this moment. towards a wannabe American tyrant, the American, the American Nero.

who has taken a day, flag Day, June the 14th. That Flag Day is is is really a commemoration of the day. that George Washington took command of the Continental Army in 1775. And I can't imagine a more vulgar. and desecrating event than the South Lawn.

being turned into a bread and circuses. mixed martial art arena, a spectacle for the privileged. who will pay obscene fees. to sit under corporate sponsorship. at the people's House, which he knocked down half of it. And it's an exhausting event. But there is when you think about this fight.

in the nature of fighting, we are in a fight. There are there are only two ways to win a fight. You either bring your opponent to submission. or they bring you to exhaustion. and and the danger. in, in terms of losing a political fight. to Trump has never been.

fueled by popular sentiment, by the idea that there would be some supermajority. that would get in line or support. for affections with all this filth. Right? The the danger has always presented itself, and that there would be enough. people who became apathetic and indifferent enough to this. right as the consequences came to.

right as the as the misjudgment. of trusting this man came, came due. right, that they would turn off as opposed to being. And that's why the Democratic Party's. greatest, greatest mistake could, could be to embrace a reciprocal cynicism. This is this is a moment where the cynicism. has to be met by the light of a new idealism, and that that's of the most paramount right, paramount importance.

coming into this election and coming into 2028. Well, it does feel like there is a generation of new Democratic. politicians, many of them who've served in the military, many of them who are now in Congress, people like Mark Kelly. And thinking of Congressman Seth Moulton. You see Graham Plattner challenging and winning. in terms of getting the primary. for the Democrats in Maine, as the senator there to go up against Susan Collins.

So it does feel like there is a new generation of of Democrats. who are energetic. Obviously, James Talarico, who won the primary in Texas. So, as you say, we're in a sort of transition moment for the Democrats. You know, one of those people that seems to be bang in the middle, although a lot of Democrats are saying he's oing towards. the Republican side now is John Fetterman.

Strange leaks in New York Magazine this week about him, at one. point claiming he wasn't sure what affordability was. What do you make of John Fetterman? I think he's unfit for office. You think he's unfit for office? Go on, Rob, I think. I think that we live in an age where, you know, sometimes, right.

It's uncomfortable to directly hit the. nail on the proverbial head. John John Fetterman had an incapacitating stroke, and John Fetterman has obviously. not recovered from that stroke. And we know that from the. testimonies, so to speak, from. so many people that work for him. And we see how addled he is.

in the simplicity. of the response and the engagements with, his staff on. questions, for example, about the murder of Renee. Good. And Alex pretty almost a child like, teenage like sophistry. The comparison. But what about Kyle Rittenhouse? Right. And I and I and I think you have to look at that psychologically.

Can we just remind people. So John Fetterman had a big stroke. When was this 2022? It was before he was elected to the Senate for Pennsylvania. Right. So he'd been he'd been lieutenant governor of the state. He has an enormous stroke. He then gets selected. Nonetheless, he has a bit of time to recover, gets elected as senator,

I think several months after he talks about his depression from that stroke. and the difficulty of the recovery from the stroke. So sorry to interrupt your flow, but I just want to put it in context for people because it's so easy to forget. He narrowly. wins an election against Doctor Oz. that Oprah is really decisive. in, because she comes out in the last week of that election.

and is basically like thumbs down on on Doctor Oz. And that's a that's a huge moment. Fetterman has had this debate, and Fetterman is incoherent in this debate. Fetterman comes in to the to the to the Senate. And he's he's very disabled from the from the stroke. And Fetterman announces, as you. as you just pointed out that he's suffering from a depression.

and he's hospitalized for that, for that depression. And he comes out of that hospitalization. And John Fetterman, over time, begins this transformation. There's been a lot written about how he behaves around. people, the changes at, estrangement with his wife, with his family. It's all been documented. But you but you see also in real time, the degree to which this man is publicly manipulated by Fox News, right?

That he's welcomed that, that he's given a safe harbor, that he's given a safe space to come on. and to be venerated, to be made to to feel important. And again, psychologically, all of. the political campaigns I've been involved in, you know, particularly at a presidential level, require.

some at some degree to put these people on a couch. And, and you, you sit around in a room. and you have a lot of conversations about it. And in the case of, of John Fetterman, I think that this is a person whose self-esteem is so broke. and so shattered that he suffers. from this disease of of depression. that would validate him.

is is not love. is is not the affection of. of people that brought him to where he is, but rather. the faux affections of his enemies, of people. who make them and disdain him and he and he seeks their approval. And you, you read all of the things that come out. of Fetterman's math, a very childlike view of the world.

And he's a person, and he should never have been celebrated for dressing. like a. like a child in a in a grown ups job. He's the United States senator from from Pennsylvania. And his and his attire and his demeanor and his comportment. was always a disqualification. The notion that Conor Lamb. was disqualified by by progressives right against this guy.

shows the rottenness of some some aspects of all of that. But but but John Fetterman is going to be be a senator whose. defeated in the primary should he choose to run a lecture for for election. And if he switches parties and and he's a good fit for MAGA, then he should switch parties and he'll be defeated. in the general election in, in in Pennsylvania.

But the but one of the big mistakes that Chuck Schumer made. was the amount of money you spent electing. John Fetterman while spending $0, electing. Tim Ryan against the $60 million that Republicans spent electing JD Vance, because maybe JD. Vance wouldn't be vice president, and we could have Tim Ryan in the Senate. if it wasn't for a really stupid decision made by Chuck Schumer. Right?

So, I mean, one of the reports on. Fetterman has him saying he's responding to an article about. how annual health care costs are now about 4000 per American family. And he goes, how should it cost free? He wrote, which still sounds to your point, like he's got some kind of language issue post-stroke, which often people do. I don't understand what affordability it is. Leaving aside the grammar of the sentence, how damaging is it for the Democrats.

to have someone saying, I don't understand what affordability is? I mean, I mean, what is going on that he would say that even. I don't think he's associated with the Democratic Party, right. He's associated with. MAGA, and I think. he's a character in the Star Wars. creature Cantina, right, of of MAGA characters.

And I think that's doomed for him in Pennsylvania. Again, John Fetterman is a rich kid, right? The working class, working class guy. So that is that is par for the for the course. Right. Like, yeah, he doesn't he, he in fact. Right. He, he doesn't know. He doesn't know. Right. He's never not had a safety net right below him. His wife has Richie knows.

He doesn't know. Right. So that's it again. Right. That's a very honest, unfiltered expression. Right. A Chauncey Gardner like expression. that in this instance cuts cuts against them. But yeah, I mean he's never struggled. He doesn't know he's a person of of incredible privilege. You had this cynical shtick that got him that got him elected. That is out the door for for a lot of the reasons,

I suspect that we just that we just talked about that you here's. this emptiness inside that that can't be craved by praise. Right. It's so like what what fills this hollowness, I think, is, is the affections of of people who disdain them. People. People that were his enemies. Like for some, for some reason. Right. He he feels nurtured by Fox.

News and I can't you got to have a. Specialty in the human psyche. that's deeper than my, you know, to, to to get deeper than that on it. But that's what it is. I wish that I had been on some of your fly on the wall. sessions when you were with John McCain or George W Bush, and you were putting them on the on the psychologists couch. So we're recording this on Friday afternoon.

It's Memorial Day weekend. Obviously, people are going to be in their cars. They're going to be seeing the price of gas. again, reporting this from my end in Europe, people can't believe that the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz. seems to have left the front page amid. Donald Trump's, you know, he attention grabbing slush fund. What has happened to where are we in terms of the war?

And do you think people will standing by the gas pump this weekend. as they drive off to the beach or to the lake or to the mountains? Do you think people will, you know, be like, wait a minute. What's going on here? Well, the last the last ten days. I've been in, I've been in California. I've been in Iowa, I've been in, I've been in New York.

And gas is really expensive everywhere. And when you, when you go to fill up, you were well past. the holy shit point of wow. And you know exactly. who's responsible for it. Now here, here is what I think is. there's there's two issues and you can go down. Either either road because this this a media corruption story.

And, and this is also a losing a war story. And the amount of American losses. Right. Bye bye. Terms of planes, material bases is staggering and unreported. There's no coverage of it. There's no images of it. There's no it's blacked out. No transparency. There's no reporting.

Right. It. Well, what do you mean, American losses? What do you mean? The damage across the across the Middle East. to American facilities, to American. is the damage to American aircraft, to American drones that have been that have been shot down. The reality of naval engagements. against Iranian drones and forces, none of it is reported.

And the. reality is, is we are losing a war. in route to having lost the war. And the clearest evidence of that. is that in the real world, countries like South Korea and Japan are negotiating fees. to transit the Strait of Hormuz, that. before this was an international waterway.

It is now an Iranian tollway. The reason it was an international waterway. was because of the United States Navy. And the reality that this is an international waterway. and the right to navigate was preserved by the US Navy. But the US Navy can't preserve the right. to navigate through the Strait of Hormuz, because the US Navy.

can't defend the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian attack. And and that means. that a balance of power is shifted. Iran has defeated. Israel in the United States, and has made it a country. that every powerful nation in the world has to deal with directly. to get the raw materials and resources. it needs to sustain their high functioning GDP.

In the modern economy, that includes the helium. and the hydrogen and the oil. and natural gas. That transit. through 20% of it, through the Straits of Hormuz. And Donald Trump's going to capitulate to that. He's going to move on to an adventure in Cuba, which won't be America's first. go round, the merry go round.

in terms of military adventurism in Cuba. But but Cuba has a potent military. It is a large island. It is a jungle island, and it is a mountainous island. And Cuba's have long periods of political instability. And and what Donald Trump has every ability to do is set off. a refugee crisis of unequal measure.

towards South Florida. And again, at the height of 1944, at the height of American military power, the industrial age, we produced almost 10,000 airplanes, 8900 that year. The Ukrainians produced 8 million drones last year. How many drones do to Cubans have? Is Miami susceptible to those drones? It's 90 miles away.

We should appreciate that what has been. made clear in the Straits of Hormuz. is that the new age of warfare, made clear in Ukraine, has equalized America's advantages. because our offensive platforms such as an offensive aircraft carrier, the range of the planes is exceeded. by the range of the drones from land.

that can sink the aircraft carrier. if enough of them were to swarm. Wow. So you actually think there's a scenario where Cuba could send. drones to Miami? Who? Who knows? Ray. Does Cuba have drone capability? Is there an element of the Cuban military. that would that would that would that would fight back?

What I said at the beginning of the of the. of this adventure disaster in Iran. was that if there if there was one thing that all of us should be able to agree. on, right, of any person of common sense. after 25 years, it's a lot easier to start these wars than to end one. We just watched them start a war. After the loss of wars.

in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Iran that we've lost. And now on to Cuba again with no plan. How much, how much money are we going to be into. rebuilding Cuba for. on top of rebuilding Gaza for. what about Wisconsin? What about what about Michigan? What about Alabama? You drive across Louisiana. It's like driving in a third world country.

You know, it's antithetical to what he ran on. And it's not. on huge, huge cohorts of his voters. Right. And that's what's so sort of puzzling and peculiar. And yet so many leaders do it in their second term. They try to sort of, you know, strut on the world stage. because they're getting less love at home and they end up tripping over their own. feet, don't they?

It also seems for Marco Rubio to secretary of state, national security adviser, whatever else you can throw at him, that. this would be a mistake right now. to go after Cuba, when the American plate seems well. and truly full with all sorts of unresolved issues. Do you think that he is in a position to persuade Trump not to do this, or do you think he wants him to do it. because his parents came from Cuba and this is his own personal?

Well, it's a personal mission for him. I don't I don't know the answer to that. All all. arrows would point towards. Marco Rubio fancies himself as the great liberator. of of Cuba, right? He is a he's a person.

If you were to if you were to analyze him, against his conduct. Right. Which is which is to let's say, let's take all the things. that Marco Rubio once said he was for. Then let's add on the Bible verses that he began tweeting during the Trump era. And as he grew closer to Trump, that tweeting increased, right? He became holier as he became more MAGA.

right through the destruction of the diplomatic corps, the dissolution of USAID, the cessation of food aid, medicine, all these vital humanitarian aid packages. across the world to save that, save that, save millions, millions of lives. This is a person who's ambition. to do things.

that he came to power decrying. seems rather boundless, right? So so, you know, is is Marco Rubio. the type of guy who looks himself in the mirror. and sees those green fatigues on, right, that like maybe proconsul of Cuba, right. Is is the next is the next title there. I don't I don't doubt it.

Doubt it for a second that he's not a restraining influence on on Trump. and I and I also think he's wholly ignorant. Right. You know, just just because someone's from England. doesn't make them a student of English history, right? I don't there doesn't seem to be a lot of connection. You know, between Marco Rubio and the realities of what. a guerrilla war on Cuba could potentially look like. Right. Although he might. he might think that it would be easier to be in Cuba trying to rebuild it.

than it is sitting in Donald Trump's cabinet next to him as Trump swivels. his eyes around the cabinet table, looking for who to blame next. For sure. Right. And you know, I. you know, there's no. there's no shortage of South Florida Cuban Americans, right. That that'll make a lot of money, right. That the military owns owns all the real estate in Cuba. So who who knows what's what's going on.

But but the idea. that we're going to be able to. because little Marco says, take over the country. without without casualties, without difficulty, without cost, without pain is not something I think these have. these people have any credibility to, to to predict. And I don't trust them and nobody should trust them.

And the again the taste for adventurism. is, is escalating at a, at a, at a level. and at a level of disregard. for, for the lives of American forces, let alone of the human beings on the other. end of the power of America, forces that they should disturb anyone. Right. Well, that's the summer note on which to enter Memorial Day weekend.

But you have to promise Steve that you will come back and unveil. your plans to note that absolutely, absolutely of our 80th, 80th birthday for Donald Trump. leaning into his ninth decade. Yeah. I just want to say, like last thing, you mentioned the the the Epstein. reading room where people got together and they read for 24 hours. It was a Lysa Orleans who's a.

public defender. by career in New York. and as a big social media presence. and is an activist on all the political issues of the day. She was her idea to do it. She said, you know, somebody should do this, and the facility is down there. And so we did it. And that's a good thing. about being part of a group like this is that when someone has a good idea, you can execute it, and there's a lot of people invested in wanting.

to push back and resist this with as much ferocity. as some of the richest. and most powerful people in the world, like Jeff. Bezos, want to get on their knees and submit to it. And I and again, I think, you know, for, for, for a generation, people are going to be writing books that are less about the politics. and more about the drama of the psychology of this moment. Right. I want you to read one of the posts that you'd actually made about Jeff Bezos. this week. You say today's oligarchs build panic rooms and bend the knee.

Jeff Bezos has made a deliberate choice. He's chosen accommodation over resistance, and he exposes the emptiness of the elite rhetoric. If you're on the side of America, which is what he said he was, you don't. normalize authoritarianism. What made you decide to focus on Bezos? He's an important figure. in the collapse of the American republic.

He is one of the supreme cowards of the age. In addition to culturally being the Supreme Bulgarian. of the United States, with his only real peer. being Donald Trump, his only real peer being Donald Trump. As a as a as a vulgarity. He's a he's a figure of the frivolous,

of the excess of of the elite. And I don't America has never been a country that punishes success. But the constant in your face. from the wedding, the cost and. the deluded arrogance that. anyone wants to hear from him about anything.

as some type of sage. He's a person. who history is going to remember brutally. He's carving a legacy that's more Henry. Ford than than Thomas Edison. And what he's going to be remembered for is destroying. the public reputation of The Washington Post. What would it be remembered for. is breaking his word to Katharine Graham?

Would it be remembered for his all the tawdry ness. of his, of his escapades. with his with his Mrs. Everybody? What he's going to be remembered for. is Donald Trump, right? What can it be remembered for? Is Donald Trump? Okay, I will try and bear that in mind when I reach for Amazon.

to order something because it's so convenient. It's hard to give up. But, Steve, you're hard to give up too. So we're going to have you back gradually. We're going to have you back soon before Trump's birthday, before his birthday, before his birthday. Four score. Full school, full school. Steve. Thank you for bearing with us through our technical difficulties. And hopefully next time I see you, I will be in the studio and things will move more smoothly.

Take care. Joanna. So wherever you. are a very happy Memorial Day to you. and just don't look at the gas as you put it in your cards. The one day you should give yourself a break. Big thanks to our production team who withstood. the technical difficulties with great patients. Ryan Murray, Rachel Purser, Heather Pissarro and Neil Rosenhaus.

So the good news is we have so many beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.