Why Trump Can't Stand His Nobel Prize Humiliation | The Daily Beast Podcast

Hugh. The Nobel Peace Prize has clearly been on Trump's mind because on Wednesday. he went on one of his weaves about it this thing, it lives in his mind. And of course, we know why it lives in his mind is because Barack Hussein Obama. got it. Donald J. Trump did not. The winner comes out and immediately laughs at Trump. There’s an intriguing message here. I think he said by the Nobel Prize committee, were not giving this to you, and we're going to give it to somebody who it is impossible to impeach. her integrity. It's impossible to impugn what she has done unless you're Donald J.

Trump, and we will see how he does it. We'll see how he attacks Navi Pillay. I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. It's Friday which means it's a catch up of the week. with Hugh Dougherty The Daily Beast’s Executive Editor. There is no news that Hugh hasn't read, doesn't have an opinion on. So we're going to be talking about. idea to stream an execution.

Seriously, we're going to talk about. John Ossoff emerging from his debate. We're going to talk about the two mikes, Mike Collins and Mike Rogers. Which one is standing against whom. And of course, let's go into a little bit more of Kimberly. Guilfoyle financial shenanigans. And Eric Dieter, who's come out roaring. against Don Juniors former fiancé. But, Hughie, I think we have to start with the news of the day.

The news of the day Donald Trump again. failed to get the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, Joanna, thank you for being here. Actually, before we even get into that, there's one thing I do want to say on your behalf. If you are not already subscribed to The Daily Beast, please. join our growing family. We are hitting for a million subscribers on YouTube. Thank you to everybody who does it. Give you a ready, subscribe, give us a like even become a Daily Beast member.

There's lots more to be done. What's more to be said? But yes, the Nobel Peace Prize. Is there any prize that Donald Trump has wanted more? And is there any prize that he keeps not getting? Well, we learned this morning who's getting the Nobel Peace Prize. And let's just say that nobody is doing. that at the ceremony. So interestingly, not only did it not go to Donald Trump, but the winner, the winner, Navi Pillay,

who's a former UN human rights. and judge at the International Court of Justice, and certainly not someone, I think, whose name trips off. everybody's lips because she's been very much under the radar. She actually referred to Donald Trump when she discovered she'd won the prize. She did. And we have an amazing clip that we can show a of what happened. very much.

if you clap a little bit more. I may share this prize with the Trump. A sense of humor. A sense of humor. She's funny, she's clever. She puts war criminals on trial. I mean, she has an absolutely amazing. background resume. She is, she was. And one thing we should say is in this video, she got the. She learned that she had received the Nobel Peace Prize.

when she was actually at the same court in Europe. Berg, with the Nazi war criminals, were put on trial and found guilty. So it an extraordinary sweep of history? Yeah. A fantastic sweep of history, actually, for her to be recognized. So, of course, Donald Trump claims that he should have got it. because he's actually ended a wars, though of course, the Ukraine and Russia war continues, despite the fact that he promised. at the election that he would end it in his first 24 hours.

And it was really a very simple thing to do, very simple thing to do. Hugh, the Nobel Peace Prize has clearly been on Trump's mind. because on Wednesday he went on one of his weaves about it. So perhaps he was hoping. for a more positive end to his week than he's actually had. Let's see if we can play that clip. Last time, they gave it to a young lady who's a fabulous person, and she said she didn't deserve it, that I deserved it, and she gave it to me. And I said, wow, what an honor.

I settled eight wars. Another one is coming. I got all the hostages back. I did things that nobody else has ever done. I'm not bragging. I'm just telling you the facts. No president probably has settled any worse. I settled eight wars. New president has settled any wars I settled. It was, It was a lot. It was a lot. We've this thing. It lives in his mind. And of course, we know why it lives in his mind is because.

Barack Hussein Obama got it. And Donald, Donald Trump did not. And we also know that, you know, one of the things that that makes it this very clear. this morning, the winner comes out and immediately laughs at Trump. And one of the obsessions that Trump has had. is that the world was laughing at America before he became president. And I think people will remember. when he went to the United Nations and said, people used to laugh at us.

They're not laughing anymore. And people started laughing at him. There is nothing that gets inside Trump's head. Sorry, Michael Wolff, I'm not crawling in there. I'm just using the phrase, there's nothing that gets that gets up in his feelings. Like people laughing at him. He's going to be furious. Interestingly, a couple of hours have gone by and we have not heard. the Fury and, you know, the anger that we would expect, that we expect from to have, but plenty of opportunities for that to come.

And yeah, it does not look like this. Very distinguished 80. She's 85 by the way. this jurist Navi Pillay I've you know this very distinguished and respected. figure is going to be in the Oval Office handing over anytime soon. I'm sure he'll attack his truth Social. Sooner rather than later. Natalie Harp is probably sharpening her nails to get ready to start. frenzied typing his outrage.

I mean, it's not been a great week for Donald Trump, let's be honest. And of course, he was hoping he would win the Nobel Peace. Prize and get it in a bona fide way, as opposed to what happened to him. last year when he snatched it practically out of the hands of Venezuela's. and then, of course, dismissed her and said she wasn't popular enough and got in bed with, with the, you know, Nicolas Maduro number two. See, Rodriguez, what an extraordinary turn of events. He grabs the Nobel Peace Prize from the actual winner.

as she's trying to give it to him and. and then basically casts her off. Yes. And it's we'll see how we'll see how he attacks. Now Navi Pillay, one of the, one of the things that she is being. or that has led to her being honored in this way, is that she expanded the definition of genocide to include rape. It was something that had, you know, we know this is one of the horrors. of genocides past has involved horrific mass rapes.

And she was able on the International Criminal Court. to expand the definition there. And, of course, you know, rape is a touchy topic for for Donald Trump. He has been accused of it. He has been found liable for sexual assault. And we saw him. expressing sympathy for the Cornell seven who have been accused of rape. So it's it's it's an intriguing there's an intriguing message here, I think, being sent by the Nobel Prize committee.

We're not giving this to you, and we're going to give it to somebody who. it is impossible to impeach our integrity. It's impossible to impugn what she has done. Unless unless you're Donald J. Trump. And we will see how he does it. Well, I think in that we've there as well. You see his grandiosity. And I don't know if he actually believes that he's ended eight wars. I don't know if he even knows the countries that he's talking about.

We know that he wasn't much of a traveler. No, I mean, he would go from golf course to golf course, largely in Europe. Before he became president. He'd only been to Washington seven times. before he became president in 2016. So it's just a sort of fascinating idea that he thinks he has ended a wars. And we actually had. And I hope he can flash it up on the screen. For those who are watching this on, on YouTube. A diagram of all the wars that he says he's, he's.

ended in countries that I'm confident he has no idea where they are on the map. And he has no idea what the wars were about. But but this sense of himself as a peacemaker. is fascinating, given how antagonistic he is and how vindictive. and how he's used this second term. for retribution of his enemies. It's it's I sorry, I just want to go aside.

And one thing of his knowledge of geography, is that in his first term, he described two countries that most of us have never heard of. He talked about Nepal and Button. That was in fact Nepal and Bhutan. And then he read he read off the off a prompter. He read A country called silent. when he obviously meant Thailand. The, the whole psychological peacemaker thing.

It's it's extraordinary because. Yeah, this guy is boasting about dropping bombs on Iran. He's boasting about, you know, annihilation. And he has launched more strike. these new strikes and South, Central and South America. against drug boats or alleged drug boats, supposed drug ports. He's called them terrorists. There's a sort of bloodthirsty that I know we're going to talk about and, you know, relative to Pete, but there's like he is he he Trump.

and at the end of his first term ordered a whole with the federal executions, something that had not happened, you know, for many, many years. In a sort of frenzy at the last minute. And at the same time, he's determined that he wants to be remembered. for ending eight wars. And, as you say, where these wars are, what happened, how they came about, how they ended. None of that matters. The number itself is kind of fungible. And he's always like, there's another one on the way. Well, it's clear or not, Ukraine and Russia,

that's not going to get settled anytime soon. It's obviously not Iran. That's not looking good. It's not Yemen. That's not looking good. I don't know, perhaps. Is there one in a country that we don't know about that. we've we've all been mispronouncing? I always get up thinking I'm going to eat healthy today. But then I look at a sad. bowl of salad leaves and I think, well, that's not going to get the job done. That's when I reach for.

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and use Code Beast for an additional $10 off. Once again, that's com beast. for 20% off your first subscription order. and an additional $10 off if you use the promo code Beast. Well, perhaps Steve. Wyckoff and Jared Kushner are on their way right now. to try and do some business deals because they've discovered and apparently.

they're the only people. They're the first people to discover that. international diplomacy goes much better if you're doing some business deals. I'm always just mindful of how Donald Trump, instead of. going to Vietnam, told how I'd stern that he was actually living. a personal Vietnam, trying to dodge catching S.T. eyes when he was out nightclubbing in the 70s and 80s. And he said that was my personal Vietnam. So that's that's really what what he thinks about being a soldier.

and being at war. But it's about avoiding catching an STI. There's no way that this whole, you know, the whole thing about Vietnam, look at his age, look at what happened to people of exactly that age. Look at how defining it was for those those at the tip of the boomer generation. It was the thing that defined their youths. And there's no way that that is not that's not weighing on them. There's also no way that he has any empathetic understanding of war.

There's no sense in which this is somebody that read, I don't know, you know, we're talking about Vietnam. Did he read The Things They Carried, which is, you know, most. most people have read either at school or subsequently, did. he watch any of the war movies with any sense of, that they were actually about futility and doesn't look that way? This is a guy that watched Patton and thought it was an inspiration. and didn't read any of the more critical historical facts around it. It's all central casting.

It's it's. not it's I think the thing is, it's not real. And the Nobel Peace Prize is a kind of symbol of this because we can. look and say, yes, this is exactly what. winner after winner after winner has done. You know, Nelson Mandela, who, who, by the way, Navy. I was involved in defending people like that. That's who gets a Nobel Peace Prize. And I think the sense that you get from.

Trump is he just wants this, this great British freeze. I'm going to use a bauble. like a suborbital, a bauble, a shiny object. And it's the it's the ultimate shiny object because he can't get it. exactly right. And of course, President Obama did get it. Yes. As you as you mentioned earlier. So talking about bloodthirsty. Let's discuss Pete decision. That he wants to steal.

the execution of the. the shooter of the Fort Hood massacre. I mean, this is this is unfathomable. In 2026. And obviously, it would be against the terms and conditions of any regular platform. So this is something that the Pentagon is saying that it will be doing. They will be streaming the firing squad.

execution of an American. So let me just set up how we found out about this, which is, I think, really instructive about Pete. Peter went to San Diego. On Thursday, he went to apartment it. Do you mean San Diego, the city that Donald Trump said? Oh, not much of a price to pay Los Angeles. If the Iranians go after Los Angeles, San Diego, the price of.

we cannot say he is putting himself in that line of fire. Finally, a brave defense secretary. waiting there for the Iranians to strike. And so he went there. He he was supposed to welcome back. And, you know, his job was to welcome back the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln. that we all remember that name as though edged. in, you know, really in the annals of shame. It was put at it was sent, sent on its mission to the Gulf.

It was kept there for the longest period of time ever. The US air craft carrier has not docked and given people some shore leave. Once they are. trying to take his own life by by jumping overboard. And luckily it was saved. And the whole the whole strike group, the aircraft carrier and the destroyers. and other vessels that escort it, they have admitted that there were. eight suicide attempts. The you know, we heard from relatives of those on board.

about the appalling conditions about the food, and this this crew was finally steaming back. to its home port on Thursday. Peter could have just welcomed them and thanked them for the service. But instead, he also did an interview from the flight deck. with a right wing YouTuber, a YouTuber, a blogger, called Jack. And at the end of this interview, which was mostly Pete. Hicks, is complaining about the media for reporting on what had happened.

on the USS Lincoln. He was asked about the upcoming firing squad execution, which had already been announced by Pete. that this would be done by firing squad of Nidal Hasan. Nidal Hasan murdered 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. Absolutely horrific watch terrorist attack on US soil. after September the 11th. He had been in touch with Anwar al-Awlaki,

the preacher, the American born preacher of hate. And he appeared to have been inspired by him. He was not. We don't nobody believes he was directed. He was basically the sort of archetypal. one world terrorist attack, but American born. And this was not, you know, kind of from foreign soil. He had been a psychiatrist in the American Army for his career. He was a due to be shipped out of gas, and he went and shot 13 people.

And at the time, it became this conservative. talking point that the Army did not charge him with terrorism. Now. we there's no. point in real estate this he was found guilty. and he was found to be eligible for the death penalty. And then he was given the death penalty. Death penalties did not happen under Obama. Trump one did not move on this death penalty. Death penalties did not happen under Joe Biden. He was fiercely opposed to death penalty and commuted many of the sentences. on death row that left.

Nadal Hassan as a very unusual prisoner. Normally, on federal death rule, you are under the age of the egis. of the Justice Department, but. suddenly has his own death rule with its own person on it. The military have not done an execution since 1961. This is something we have never seen. And, you know, I was going to say in our lifetimes, there are people obviously there are people watching this,

who date. back, you know, who are, I'm sure, more senior than I am. But we have never had in the United States a firing squad, the execution or in the military system since World War two. And we have to look back even further for other examples. So he has got on the deck and in this, in this interview, and he's kind of wearing kind of fake uniform. Let's be honest for subject guys. What about this? And this suddenly says we are going to make sure that people see it.

And he doesn't quite elaborate on it. So obviously everybody, including ourselves. Our reporter Lauren Hartley, was immediately in touch with the Pentagon. And they said on background, a Pentagon official says it will be live streamed. And she told me this, and I was, you know, my job was on the floor. The idea that there is going to be a live stream. of an execution, first of all, Joanna, you're right. It's completely impossible for any normal platform to do it. If we tried to do that on YouTube, in which we are, you know,

many people are watching us that breaks the terms of service. We would be we wouldn't just be, you know, suspended or sent a nasty email. We would be deleted. They would never want they would never allow a stop, would a video ever again. It's. Well and Congress would be up in arms. Yes. And it would be up in arms. It would be. I mean, this is of such barbaric imagination. It's incomprehensible. And it takes us back to a dark moments in American history,

the last two public executions of some sort of historical doubt. about what's classified as the last public execution in the United States. The more high profile of the two of them. And you will not be surprised that that this happened. to a black man in 1936 and Winnsboro in Kentucky. The execution of Renee, went completely wrong because the executioner turned up drunk.

And people there was a crowd who watched the spectacle unfold. Of course, there were doubts over the integrity of the trial, and it was so bad that the state of Kentucky had decided. at that point I had to abolish public execution, given. that we've just also had a terrible week where Christa Pike, was twice, twice, injected and and woke up four days later and said, where am I? Who are you?

To the people in the room. I mean, the what happened with the with the execution that you're talking about. that went wrong. The execution had turned up drunk. But how was the plan? What was the plan? To actually execute the prisoner? This this this prisoner was hanged and the new surroundings neck. And because the executioner was drunk, nothing happened for this extended delay. And eventually the sheriff's deputy stepped in and caused the gallows to, you know, the the to open and the drop and and and therefore execute the prisoner.

The next year there was another kind of public execution in Missouri. That's it. And, you know, this is something that we're both from the United Kingdom. Charles Dickens led to this practice ending in the United Kingdom. That's how long ago it is. Well, public executions take place where they take place in North Korea, in Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iran. Iran and Iraq. And, you know, how could I forget?

And of course, we believe, because the Taliban is back in power. They were famous before 2001 for absolutely horrific public executions. And, Somalia. There appeared to be public executions there. It is largely a non-governmental space for this has been happening. Yeah. Public executions are horrific. And the other thing. you've mentioned, all those countries, they don't live stream them. Do we think that he was drunk when he suggested this? I mean, is a man who was intoxicated when he was,

running to veterans affairs organizations and promised that if he got the job. in the as the secretary of defense, that he would stop drinking. I'm going to advance, a theory that. No, I don't believe he was intoxicated. In fact, I believe what he is is intoxicated with power. And I think this this I, you know, absolutely. George dropping announcement has been condemned widely,

as you can imagine, by human rights groups. Hillary Clinton has just. been tweeting about it this morning saying it's beneath the dignity of our country. I think this is a conscious effort by us. to position themselves to run for president. What we know about what will happen. The Army has regulations on executions, those regulations, 80, 17 pages of them. They date back to 2006 and they've not been updated. And they make crystal clear that executions.

are by lethal injection and are not public. It's spelled out in these these regulations. They were adopted. by the chief of the Army Staff and the Secretary of the Army at the time. They haven't been overturned. They haven't been updated. So it's almost inevitable somebody is going to go to a court, a military court, and say that he's not following Army regulations. This is not going this is illegal. It's almost inevitable that that if that gets appealed, maybe it ends up in front of the Supreme Court.

It kind of puts a Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas in a bit of a spot. But, you know, even the most, you know, Brett Kavanaugh, conservatives are hardly going to say, yeah, let's a public executions. Yeah. I can't see even Amy Coney Barrett agreeing with that. Call me. Barrett is a devout Catholic, and the Pope is very, very clear that the execution is not good. It's not allowed. It's not Catholic doctrine and conservative political, conservative.

Catholics in this country have managed to kind of quietly get away with it. But making it a public thing is bad. My theory is that he knows this is going to be blocked, and he is going to make it a cause celebre, either in office. as secretary of Defense or if he is getting booted after the election. And I know there is some skepticism that that might happen. I know Michael Wolff thinks he's actually more likely to stay than to go right now, but either way, he has just given himself epic amounts of publicity.

and an epic amount of appeal to a particular base. Yes, I was going to. ask you if the midterms go badly for the Republicans, which by at least. by the polls and goodness knows, the polls have been wrong before. But, if the polls are right, there will be a shellacking for the Republicans in the midterms. Donald Trump will probably look for someone to blame because that's. what he does.

And Pete Hegseth, he's already said in public that Pete. sort of persuaded him to to try the war in Iraq, and he's. sort of distancing himself from it, or at least he has. He has done. So it's possible that Pete Hegseth would be a sacrificial lamb. after the election, in which case he's established a base. and a connection with the MAGA base for his own platform for 2028. And as you say, this becomes a causal air. Yes. And it's worth remembering that the Dow Hasan.

this was a celebrated as celebrates a horrible word. But this was a, this was already a case that was a coastal web that in that. conservative MAGA ed, it's. it's in there, it's it's in it's in the lizard brain. People will remember it. And I think for, for Hegseth, this opportunistically. is a great talking point, particularly if he gets fired. If he doesn't, it's still great as a as a talking point among among that group. And I you know, I think.

I can't. see it as anything other than absolutely barbaric. And I kind of feel like it's hard to imagine that many right. minded people, right thinking people would not take that view. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about an appeal to a base. Yes. And also no one's saying that Nidal Hasan, who strangely, was a psychiatrist, is a good guy here. Do you think that Pete Hegseth,

old employer, Fox News, would run the footage. if the Pentagon streams this, does the footage. get run by Fox News and the other news channels, do you think? I would say absolutely not. I think even. even if you are thinking this is an amazing piece of television, you are also, if you're a Fox News, if you're any of these thinking. there is no prospect of Democrats.

not going after you, of people suing you, of difficulties. just unwrapping and unwrapping for, for weeks, years to come. The one, the one up side of this would be. Absolutely. We know it would get an audience. Of course it would get an audience after that. There is only downside. There is nothing that is going to be good about it. And obviously the, you know, the key. broadcast networks of NBC, ABC, CBS.

have licenses which can be, you know, standard. There are there are fundamental standards that can be enforced. And there's there's no there's no great word for this, but what are we going to call a pornography of death or something? There's no way that that is something that people are not going. to be absolutely outraged would be. that could even be considered to be on their screens. I think the fact to me, the facts as they present themselves right now.

are that this is not going to happen and that dilemma is not going to come up, but that is going to exploit it to his own ends. I should say, by the way, that many of. announcements, in fact, don't even get airtime on Fox News. There is a conspiracy theory among MAGA. that he has been banned from his old network and from his old network. Well, I wonder if he was also trying to distract from his workouts. He is. I mean, I'm convinced that he wanted to be secretary of defense.

because he just wants free training, free gym time every time you see them. And he's sort of straining on some kind of obstacle course, trying to look as is, as if he's super buff. And I'm like, why are you wasting our time and the military's time. by running around pushing up weights and trying to do pull ups? It's ridiculous. But he didn't look as if he was in the best of of things this week. No. And I'm sure you'll remember, Joanna, that there was a time, I don't know, 10 or 15 years ago when military training fitness was incredibly trendy.

and people were doing it in urban parks with former members of the military. Pete Hex is has, as you say, he's got real ones on hand. And we've got an amazing clip that shows what happened when he got a workout. We should have the Hill music.

We really should. He reminds me of when my younger son was four. He got some camouflage gear which he put on. He got some army camouflage gear. He put it on in his bedroom and he said, can you see me? Can you see me? And he was convinced that he disappeared. Pete, we can still see you. Even if you're in camouflage gear. We can still see you. It's just. It's just remarkable. I'm a slightly aging runner, Joanna.

I run a bit, and every time I do, you know, a five K or whatever. Each time it's like, oh, God, it's getting worse for me. So I would have sympathy for hexes, but you brought that on and self. You know what? Let's have that clip again. Let's play that clip one more time. Let's play it one more time. It's Friday. We need something. We need a laugh at the end of this week. Let's see it one more time, please. Oh it's fantastic.

I've got a fire in my mind. Okay, so last night, lots of debates, lots of debates. We're we're recording this on a Friday morning. By the way. I just want to refer people to tomorrow's Inside Trump's Head, where. Michael Wolff and I double down as Donald Trump would do on Pete Exit. And we go into his background. Why is he like this? Also, what is what does Jennifer Hegseth think about them? Stream live streaming and execution?

I think we need to know. She's a former Fox News producer. They met on Fox News. We should find out. Is this the two of them channeling their desperation for ratings? I wonder? Anyway, we should. We should find out what Jennifer thinks about this. But last night was debate night. And in Georgia. It was Mike Collins versus Jon Ossoff, the Democratic hopeful. It was. Well, it was I make Collins versus Jon Ossoff. I, I think a debate is a generous term.

Other people have called it a murder. It was an extraordinary hour of of television. Join us of 39. We have seen him dismantle Trump appointees. Mike Collins, we've got a picture of them up on screen right now. To those who are watching it, you will be surprised to learn that. Mike Collins is only 59. He looked like a man who had been torn apart, and he really was.

Jon Ossoff is. You know, John Ossoff. is the sitting senator, which always gives you an advantage. And he came in and he started by saying, this is going to be the trial of Mike Collins. And he hammered Mike Collins over what is an absolutely extraordinary. So a track record that Mike Collins has of our proximity. to vile anti-Semitic white supremacists. And that's just his family.

That's just his family. We've got to put in fact, this is the this is the moment to play this clip. Let's play the clip. Let's play the clip. Mike Collins is attacking your voting rights, but that's not a surprise when you consider who Mike Collins is. This is a man who cheered on a group of young men. who are mocking a black woman on a college campus with monkey sounds. If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a Billy club.

I mean, first of all, whose held the town Billy club except. going to say great, such a great use of it. And to to mention John Lewis in Georgia. You know, this is the reference is so perfect, so emotionally resonant. And the problem is that Mike Collins. this isn't this isn't a wild accusation. This is based on reality. John Collins, son in law of white supremacist John Collins son.

in law, tweeted, A vile. meme is. one way to one thing to call it, which was anti-Semitic and said, oh yeah, my wife, my wife made it for me. You know, Mike Collins has a selection. of a campaign volunteers and workers who are revealed. this week have been associated with former members. of a explosive white nationalist group, not National. Not white nationalist group had been set up.

by a guy who said, I'm a fifth generation member of the KKK. Mike Collins has never been in a position before like this, but John also went after him and went after him and went after him. And at one point the moderator started to ask the questions as well. And I said, what do you tell your daughter? And what do you see at the family dinner table about this white? There's these white nationalist, links. And his response was to say, that's my family,

which is not the response you want to hear. Why? Why do you think he agreed to this? Because we know that John Ossoff has emerged over the last year. in particular, as I mean, your word was dismantle. I think of him almost as a. I mean, it's as if he's filleting a fish when he, he confronted him. in one of the hearings when he was asking for 1.5. trillion, he brilliantly attacked Jay Clayton,

who's been put in charge of national security, Donald Trump's. choice for national security. And and when Clayton wouldn't say that Trump had, had lost the 2020 election, Ossoff gave it a beat. And then he said, isn't this humiliating for you that you can't say it? Isn't it humiliating? And Clayton just sat there like a fish gaping out of water. and mixing my metaphors there because I'm thinking, basically,

Jon Ossoff stripped Clayton of a backbone. And of course, now Clayton has just been put into run AI. Yes. Super intelligence. Yeah. National security. We know who. Thanks to join us, there's one thing he doesn't have is super intelligence. He looks like a fat, sweaty old man. And this to be this debate last night with Mike Collins. It was absolutely. It was forensic. It was clinical.

Why? You never have to make Collins turn up. Well, the simple reality is Mike Collins is down on average. in the polls at the moment. He is down nine points to join us off. Now to put that in perspective, join us off one. in a runoff by just 45,000 votes. It was a tiny sliver of victory. And in six years he has turned that from being somebody who had to go. to a run off against a deeply flawed candidate, David Perdue,

a man who'd been caught red handed trading stocks during Covid. He turned that round into this, you know, astonishing lead in what? For a time, we thought of as, you know, a deeply Republican state in Georgia. clearly recently become a bit purple, but he's turned that into the extraordinary lead. If you were Mike Collins, your only chance of any are, you know, any takedown of John Ossoff would be to have a debate. But you have to be intellectually prepared and you have to not have.

more baggage than, I don't know, GfK arrivals. Yeah. I mean, it was also interesting because as we know, because of John Ossoff. filleting at with Jay Clayton. and with Pete Hegseth, he's really emerged as a Democratic, I guess you could say, darling, we've seen clips of him and he's done. short bursts in select committee hearings when you've only got. five minutes for questions. Here. He was a exposed for an hour.

and he totally commanded the stage. Yes, he's up against a weak opponent. However, Mike Collins is not someone that really brings very much to the table. He also looked like he was gasping for oxygen. And as you say, he's 59 years old and he'd aged by the time the hour was over. So I think there will be a lot of sort of, you know, huge size of relief about John Ossoff that he appears to have. really what it takes to go the distance should he become a candidate in 2028.

Oh, there's no doubt that that these this debate sets him up. If he wants to run in 2028, it sets up this that Georgia. the if. the if the Republicans had planned to keep spending money in Georgia. I think it's very unlikely that they would do anything other than. pull it out now and move it to places where they need to shore up. a struggling incumbent or a struggling candidate like him in South Carolina. I this was, no doubt about it, the strongest.

And also, you know, it wasn't it wasn't just that it lasted an hour. The clips of it this morning are huge on social media, because Jon Ossoff is such a good orator that he speaks at a cadence that appears. to be perfect for Instagram, for Facebook, for, for Twitter, for, for social media. And that, of course, will only grow momentum for him. But he was not the only person. Of course, you just said, you know, debating last night.

In fact, it was battleground state after battleground state. So let's move to Michigan, where Abdul Al said. was up against another mic, this time Mike Rogers. Exactly right. He does $2.7 million in Florida. My guy. Yeah. I'll talk. Did you sell your yachts? I never owned a yacht in Florida, brother. Oh, really? What you got? You had two of them. Let me tell you this one thing. To yacht Mike to your yacht Mike. Mike. I mean, how do you feel about that? That was a good. That was a good in there. I'll say he's a he's also a again, extremely good for social media,

this younger generation of politician coming up now who understand. that the audience is not just. in the debate room or on the television that's broadcasting it. It's out there on social media. Well, you know, I have to say it is 41 Mike Rogers. And again, I have to say there seems to be a pattern here. Mike Rogers is only 63. It doesn't look great. He also aged. in the hour that he was facing Abdul.

I think this was quite odd. This was a much coarser debate, and this race is much closer. While also is, you know, somewhere around between 7 and 9 points on average, ahead of my Collins. The polls in Michigan are putting LCD. ahead by maybe a point, maybe two points on average. There are some that are showing him not head at all. And there are no there are no polls in Georgia. that are doing say Ossoff is going to win in Michigan.

This is a real battleground, a real battleground state. And LCD has been a controversial and at times troubled, troublesome candidate for the Democrats. Those issues came up again last night. He was asked about Israel and he was asked about Iran, how he handled himself on that stage. He was faster. He was younger, he was punchier. I think anybody watching this would say it was a punch up. It was a fight. It was a brawl. It kind of liked any substance.

The or sort of one was a prosecution of a flawed candidate, but also got lots of lots of detail in about what he would do. about the flaws of Trump's economy, about the difficulties that people feel. And in Michigan, those things, when they get mentioned, were much more in the context of two guys having a fight. So I think there's no doubt that the takeaway, the winner of this, this, this battle was Abdul said you looked.

he looked sharper. And, the question there is, does he convince. the people that were unwilling, were reluctant to vote for him? And that's much harder to tell. and fair to point out that Mike Rogers was a popular congressman, although he fled to Florida at the moment, his congressional duties were finished. He did. He bought he bought a house for $1.6 million. And. well, he claims he didn't have any stone there, but it did have a boat lift. I don't know what you have a boat lift for if you didn't have a yacht.

Who knows? But it's interesting. The interesting thing about Mike Rogers was a prominent Michigan politician. for a lot of time, and this is an election in which it's pretty clear. that being a prominent politician may actually run against you. He had thought a, you know, to some extent, probably not wrongly in terms. of what has happened in the past, that having had a lot of exposure. to the people of Michigan over a long time would be a good thing.

Abdul Saeed has been able to. put a lot of that rounders neck. He he raised issues from Mike Collins's. past, including privacy and surveillance. Mike. Mike Collins chaired the House Intelligence Committee in the late. 20 tens. And there's a notorious moment in which warrantless surveillance. that was being done by the by the Bush administration is raised. And he says, well, if you don't know, your privacy has been breached, then that's not a problem.

Now, that quote has been around for, you know, multiple years, but El-Sayed was able to situate it with this outcry, which is particularly strong. in, in Michigan and in a few other states, about flock cameras. People feel that they are being spied on, and Abdul Samad was able to tie. that to his record. So having this record you would have thought in the past would be a strength. He'd been on TV. People knew he was a congressman. People would say, oh yeah, I trust that guy. And instead, Abdul El-Sayed was able to prosecute his record, impeach him,

as it were, as as a candidate by pointing to what he'd said in the past. And that's that's a pattern that we have seen across the country. that people quite clearly are responding to an idea of change. So we've got. John Ossoff, a Democratic darling. We've got El-Sayed, who's been more problematic. for the Democratic Party but is emerging as more of a darling. and will certainly emerge as a darling if he can win Michigan.

with a James Talarico. James Talarico now ahead in the polls over. Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, of course, Donald Trump's candidate, he put him in there. over the right wing John Cornyn, because John Cornyn had displeased him. Ken Paxton, possibly the worst candidate currently running. even his own party, impeached him when he was attorney general of Texas. But James Talarico has been missing in action for the last few days.

Yes. Happened to him. James. Last seen in public. or in person on September the 28th. He came to New York to do a fundraiser. These candidates come to New York all the time. There's a lot of billionaires that are right around here. And they are willing to give money. Much more. There's much more money available in New York than elsewhere. So people come here. And that's when he was last seen. After he got back, he went to an urgent care.

His campaign have said. And he has the flu. And he has not been seen since. No, this is problematic, right? Talarico is a very successful candidate. So far, he's only 37. He's been a member of the state House. He has a credible, charismatic presence. He has an amazing amount of money that he has raised, and. he's obviously up against this deeply flawed candidate, Ken Paxton,

a man who, by the way, this morning, the fourth leak of a. tape of him saying stupid stuff has come out. Oh, what was this morning? So I missed it because obviously we had we've had a couple, not least him. blaming the president and saying that the Trumper palooza. was a disaster for him and that his numbers had gone down. And since Donald Trump was putting himself on the ticket. Yes, this morning, the guy cannot stop himself being taped. This morning he is discussing John Cornyn and saying that John Cornyn wants him to.

lose. And, revealing and one of his aides. reveals an anecdote that John Cornyn, in fact, told somebody else. Yeah, he wants Ken Paxton to lose the Republicans learn a lesson. No. Sure. Ken Paxton, you know, wants to know this, but he doesn't want. everybody in the wider world knowing that John Cornyn wants him to lose. And instead, you know, this tape is crystal clear.

Clearly taking an iPhone really close to him, like, I don't know, does a guy not realize he's being taped all the time? Can he not just shut up? However, we have, you know, Huson, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, the deep red, the deep blue parts of the state. now have a problem that James Tower is not expected to be seen until Sunday. So he's been out of action for 12 days, and maybe he's lost his voice. Do you think it's possible he's lost his voice?

Do you think it's possible? He's experiencing enormous stress. because there's a lot riding on him at this point. He can't have imagined when he embarked on this that the campaign. would become a quite so high profile. There's no world in which he anticipated this. You know, this is somebody that, the momentum started for him when he went. on Joe Rogan and Juror organ had money because Joe Rogan lives in Texas. That projected him into this sort of podcast world.

He was incredibly fluent. He could not have expected that he'd be running against somebody. So fraud. And he could not have expected the money to flow in. He couldn't have expected that a Barack Obama would be on the phone to him. So yeah, that sounds incredibly stressful. They do talk a lot. I can understand that. I'm sympathetic. Just talking here is giving me a sore throat. And to those in the comments who point out I like the sound of my own voice, you are not the first. My mother beat you to it.

So you can be sympathetic. But come on, you know, this is a chance to flip Texas, and you vanished. What? What? Well, let's let's give him a QE. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's assume that flying to New York, he caught some sort of bug on the plane. He went to urge care. They've said to him, take a week to just get better and then give it your all. for the next two weeks before the actual midterms anyway. James. Hillary, we wish you a speedy recovery.

We interviewed him on the Daily Beast podcast, I want to say 4 or 5 months ago now at this point. And. he actually had a sore throat when we interviewed him. Now I'm remembering we interviewed him in the evening. There it was after a fundraiser that he'd had. He came on. It was quite late for us. I think it was 830 for him in the evening. So perhaps he's just run himself ragged and he needed a bit of time to recoup.

Well, you I think you've been very sympathetic, Joanna. I'll just. Let's hope it's not the plague. The plague? The plague. Well, that's a good point. In Russia this week, thanks to and, you know, funded in part by this plague. brought to you by RFK junior, who allowed money to go to that lab. K junior back with measles. It's just remarkable, isn't it? More cases of measles since I think. collectively the mid 1990s, at this point, five people have died of measles,

a disease that are basically disappeared from America 25 years ago. And it's come roaring back under the egis of of RFK junior. Still junior as Michael Wolff always jokes at 73, our final story is. poor, hapless Marco Rubio, who has flown to Greece to give his sermon on the Mount. Okay, okay. He was standing in front of the pantheon, not actually the Mount, but.

he's giving his. his defense of Western culture. He's essentially raising his hand and saying, I am going to be running. And this is about the future. of our century, and it will be decided in the next decade. About Western values. And I will be your proponent of Western values. And what does he get asked about? He gets asked about the ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, formerly married to Governor Newsom,

formerly engaged to Donald Trump Junior. and now, well, now in the pocket of Eric. Details. Please explain. Please explain. For those of you. who haven't been following this story, it's just it's crazy. Even by McAdams, it's crazy. What an extraordinary odyssey. Kimberly Guilfoyle, you've covered some of her accomplishments. The one that we all know. is that amazing moment in 2020 at the Republican National Convention.

And we can play it now, ladies and gentlemen, leaders. and fighters for freedom and liberty and the American dream. The best. I mean, that is. She looks so awkward doing that, doesn't she? She just looks so awkward. It's a Vita. It's a Milda Marcus. I mean, it's it's just it's amazing. And she ends on a flat note as well, which is, you know, sort of,

there are probably a Greek rhetorical term for what she did. She has been made ambassador to Greece after her split from Donald Trump Junior. Some people said it was consolation prize. Other people said, slightly. more darkly, it was to get her the hell away from Margo. Well, I think that was Donald Trump that said that, I believe, was her saying, we have to get her out of here. But but. the problems and challenges of being an ambassador.

normally are getting on with the locals, learning the local language. None of that has been a problem for Kimberly Guilfoyle. The problem is that her former sponsor, a man who gave her hundreds. of thousands of dollars this week, Eric Deters, has released a cache of texts and signal messages. and documents and contracts which have borne open. this extraordinary an extraordinary scandal.

in which she told him how to wire $100,000. to her to pay off credit card debt without being caught. Just to be clear, this was to pay off her credit card debt. as she was going through Senate confirmation hearings. Correct. Because she said her view was that these debts. would stop her from being good, firmed as her ambassador. So Eric is a businessman, a former lawyer, conservative talk radio host, in the greater Cincinnati suburbs.

He lives in Kentucky. He has run for office in Kentucky. And, he is now. a man scorned. He wanted Kimberly Guilfoyle help to. to boost a court case, which he has been bringing for many years. on grounds of alleged medical negligence by a doctor. That doctor went to Pakistan. Of where? He has not been extradited. He wanted the US government to extradite the guy. The doctor is the doctor is normally defended by an insurer.

That insurer said, well, the doctor in fact, we can't defend the. we cannot, you know, get involved in this litigation. because the doctor was willfully committing misconduct. We only cover, you know, non willful misconduct. And the insurer is ultimately owned by Berkshire Hathaway. The the Warren Buffett's vast conglomerate. So this is a sort of this story has tentacles. And this guy needed he felt needed help from MAGA world to push this case.

And this case would obviously make him rich by winning it. That's how these compensation cases work. And what he wanted to do was to get exposure. He wanted to get in front of people like Donald Trump. Kimberly Guilfoyle, apparently, you know, seemed to have helped him do that. He wanted to be on Tucker Carlson's podcast. And he said that if he got in Tucker Carlson's podcast, he would. he would give Kimberly $1 million. Tucker Carlson, of all people, was asked about this and said, that sounds nuts.

It does. It is. So they had this arrangement before she was going to be confirmed as ambassador. The exchange text, the exchange signal messages among the among. the messages are telling him, please don't text, please use signal. Signal deletes the messages. He was screenshots all this. He obviously knew something was up. And then finally she's in front of the ambassadorial, you know, the front of the Senate for her confirmation,

and she is asking him for this $100,000. And he is furious because he didn't get anything. He didn't get anything that he asked for. And he went last week or. or the week before. to Susie Wiles, among others, saying, if you do not get me, I'm meeting. with the IRS and take some action on the things that I have keep asking for. I'm going to publish all these. And he did. It's amazing. He also is a bit of a musician, a bit of a troubadour, and he'd written a song.

He refers to himself as a Kentucky outlaw. because he was struck off as a lawyer in Kentucky. A judge decreed him as a basically chaotic and anarchic. And so he's really, reorganized himself, I guess you could say, or recalibrated as a Kentucky outlaw. He's written a song called Kentucky Outlaw, and another request. he had of Kimberly Guilfoyle was to get the lyrics in front of MAGA.

musician kid Rock, because he saw kid. Rock as an outlaw, too, and Kimberly failed there. So I wonder, I mean, this is the most egregious pay to play, story one can think of and unusual in that you've got one party. just giving up all the good so we can see the text. We can see the text from Kimberly saying, honey, I just need you to wire me this money and him saying, you know, hey, my wife's going to go nuts if she sees that I've sent you $100,000.

And then you have Kimberly saying you are going to cost me my ambassadorship. because she knows that this is not going well for her. This story was in the Wall Street Journal, who only last week. did another story about Kimberly Guilfoyle, where it became clear that she had threatened. a group of Greek ministers, suggesting. that America would be able to undermine the Greek government.

as they were trying to do in Romania, at which point the Greek energy minister, who she was meeting with, took umbrage at this and told her that actually it was the Greek people. in a in their democracy who would decide the future of the country, not America. So she's obviously been throwing her weight around to, yes. And I. that she was lectured on democracy in Greece. because that's where Marco Rubio went to talk about, the birth of democracy.

This whole this whole story is it's so crazy. It's not even the only bad leak out of the embassy. This week, we also learned that she has been accused. of being a diva, of extraordinary mistreatment of the embassy staff, that. she demanded one of them get out of bed and get her ice cubes at 4 a.m. because she was partying. She had two of them demoted as drivers because she didn't. like how they take a left turn. And,

she has been, you know, spring champagne and shouting abuse. And it's just it's an extraordinary note. I just see the United States ambassador to the Hellenic Republic. That's a title. You could get a prize if you could name any previous ambassador. And you would certainly get, you know, more than a prize for being able to name a scandal. This is strategically actually kind of an important country. It's it's, you know, between, you know, where.

where Europe meets Asia, it sits, it used to say on the, you know, the boundaries of communism and capitalism and. Well, and also where, where it meets the Middle East, right? Yes. And, you know, there are, you know, there is there are huge American. strategic interests in Greece and stability. But all of that, for years this has been a, you know, a very, very stable relationship that Greece has had through. some through through the American ambassador. And now we have absolute chaos.

The Democrats are going to be all over this. She tried to get this debt. paid off before she was in front of the confirmation committee. But Jamie Raskin, the, who's going to be who. if there is a blue wave, will be an absolutely key figure in. in the Democratic House points out that the rules begin when you are nominated. So everything that she did during her, during the period when she was nominated. and when she went to as she takes this guy at one point and her school,

everything is is open to scrutiny. and the Democrats are obviously going to scrutinize this and they are going. to have the opportunity to get to get Eric detours in front of them. They're going to get all his files. Clearly. I think he's probably trying to trying to send them them now. And they are going to be able. to open they are going to seek to open up Kimberly Guilfoyle books. And I think, very tellingly, the last 24 hours.

there has been stone cold silence from MAGA about Kimberly Guilfoyle. Where does this leave her boss, Marco Rubio? Marco Rubio has just been in Greece. As we said. He's made his opening gambit for his own presidential run. We're assuming 2028. He's completely undermined by all. the questions from reporters, because this story is breaking. and clearly timed to be as disruptive to Marco Rubio as possible.

She is his employee. She works for him. He is secretary of state. Shouldn't he have fired her by now? Well, obviously, I mean, the obvious answer to that, Joanna, is yes, but here's Marco Rubio's problem. He has had been stuck with a series of ambassadors. who come directly from Donald J. Trump this scandal. Unbelievably, there's another ambassador involved in it.

One of the things that Eric Deters wanted. to get was access to a man called Billy Long. Billy Long was a Maga congressman. He was then made IRS commissioner. And this is a point when he was Iris commissioner, he was trying. to get Kimberly Guilfoyle to get him a meeting with Billy Long. That's one of his grounds of dissatisfaction that Kimberly Guilfoyle. didn't pull off what he wanted. She simply failed to deliver on any of details requests. It might actually be her best defense that she didn't do anything.

She just took the money. And. But Billy Long is now the ambassador to Iceland, so we have two people involved in this scandal. There's another scandal this morning unfolding in the Middle East, with Tom. barrack being accused locally of eating a friend's business deal, their ambassadors caught up in difficulties around the world. Are those, you know, the one to Belgium. Put cash Patels a girlfriend, I should say fiancee.

Congratulations to her. Alexis Wilkins on stage to celebrate July the 4th. There is. You know, there's this crazy list of ambassadors. They are obviously not what Marco Rubio would want to have. as serious and sober people pushing his view of the world. But all of them were imposed from Mario by Donald Trump. He can't really fire them without inviting Donald Trump to fire him. He is obviously, he went to Greece to position himself. These glorious shots, the the sunset behind him,

the the golden light on the Acropolis, the, the references to Greek civilization, the linking of Greek civilization. to the United States, you know, the United States independence and democracy. It was made for television. And nobody is playing it. Nobody is looking at it again. He took that camera crew and a crane and he got asked about Kimberly Guilfoyle. He's got to be fuming, but he's pretty stuck.

And also as her boss, that's who the Democrats are going to summon. in front of a committee. And I don't know, do you fancy your chances against join us off. and people like that Marco Rubio, they've going to have an absolute. ton of evidence handed to them by Eric Deters. And he's you know, what's he going to do is going to go through. the burn book against John, or what's it going to say to him? You know, this is really not a good place for for Marco Rubio to be in.

He clearly, you know, Marco Rubio is is a major figure. I'm sure he can survive this, but it's going to be embarrassing. And why is he not fires her? Well, because he can't. And people. say that nobody's laughing at America. It's like a comedy, a new it's new episode of a comedy every day, Hugh. It's always. It's always a trip catching up with you. But this week, well, what a week. What are we week?

So many things we didn't discuss. That I know. I can't wait for Michael Wolff on Hegseth because there is so much there. And I knew you were going to be talking to Kurt Anderson as well on Sunday. I am, I am, so Huey will regroup next Friday. or being well, and I will see you back in the office on Tuesday. And everybody have a wonderful holiday weekend. And you know, if you need to cheer yourself up, rewatch those clips.

of John Ossoff from last night's debate, or Hegseth being lapped. or being lapped. I'm not. saying I would have done any better, but I'm not running the War Department. Huey, have a great weekend. I will take you. Big thanks to our production team Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Passa, Heather Pesaro, and Neal Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many BBC tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.