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Trump and Harris are bringing the 2024 race to podcasts

Posted on by L. Dreeye
Trump and Harris are bringing the 2024 race to podcasts

Choose your poison: Over the weekend, depending on your political taste, you could choose between listening to a comedian insult him on stage at Madison Square Garden at a campaign rally; watching a sitting US representative and a vice presidential candidate play video games and talk about eliminating the filibuster via Twitch; hear the presidential candidate’s thoughts on the psychology of whales; or listen to a vulnerability researcher (?) and a presidential candidate chat about birth order.

Our sharpest political minds are not.

It’s as if everyone is avoiding talking about the real issues – how to reduce inflation, how to get government spending under control, how to make Social Security solvent, how to create an orderly and fair immigration process, or how to improve quality. our schools. The podcast industry dealt a gloriously devastating blow to cable news between the last election cycle and now, creating a whole bunch of scrappy independent upstarts that presidential candidates (and their political consultants) are finally realizing is an important way for voters to get news . and comment. Unfortunately, the candidates’ own heads appear to be filled with nothing but nonsense.

First, the predictable scandal: Tony Hinchcliffe, the offensive comedian known for his off-color jokes, took to the stage to open for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden yesterday. He joked about the Clintons, Diddys and Latinos “having babies” and how they loved to “go inside” – “just like they did in our country!”

He also said, “I don’t know if you know this, but there’s literally a floating island of trash in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” It has become a political scandal that could threaten Trump’s ability to win Puerto Rico’s Electoral College votes. (Oh wait…)

“When some idiot calls Puerto Rico ‘floating trash,’ know that’s what they think of you… That’s what they think of those who make less money than them,” said New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in his report. Q&A with Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. (They’re apparently pretty friendly now, or so they’d like voters to believe.)

“Can’t deal with this dude asking someone to change their tampons while he himself was shitting bricks in his Addicted after realizing a Trump rally was opening and feeding red meat racism along with a crowd of other fanatics in a foaming crowd, not ironically: I’ll make you one of them.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote to X. “You don’t like Puerto Rico.” You like to drink pina colada. There is a difference.”

Were the Puerto Ricans who attended the rally offended by this? Not really, at least it seems so. But this whole saga is actually quite symbolic of how this whole election went: we have almost completely neglected to talk about the real issues. The Trump campaign continues to stir up controversy, time and time again, while the Harris/Walz campaign often positions itself as the opposition to the Trumpists, reactive and apoplectic, but rarely actively determining what they will actually do.

Trump told Rogan: The craziest, twisted, and sometimes entertaining presidential candidate met his match in the craziest, twisted, and sometimes entertaining podcaster, and it was wild. Donald Trump and Joe Rogan talked about the psychology of whales. They talked about how Trump had staffed his administration. They talked about the Chips and Science Act, which aims to reduce dependence on chips made in Asia and provide subsidies for companies to make semiconductor parts here at home, which Trump called “pumping billions of dollars into rich companies.” saying he instead favors imposing high tariffs on companies to try to boost the growth of American manufacturing capacity. He explained his comments about the “enemy from within” and explained that he believes this means that there are “people who I think really want to make this country a failure.” At times he became quite sarcastic towards the ladies on View.

Meanwhile, J.D. Vance—ostensibly a political operative for the Trump campaign—talks about globalization on comedian Tim Dillon’s podcast. Vance said, “London doesn’t feel entirely English anymore,” while “New York is, of course, a classic American city. I think over time New York will start to feel less American.” (Is he saying that large cosmopolitan cities acquire a certain uniformity over time? What exactly is he predicting or talking about?)

Trump’s protectionism, Hinchcliffe’s off-color jokes, and Vance’s vague problems with globalization all combine to paint a portrait of a campaign with very different values ​​and priorities than, say, mine.

Here’s Kamala: The Democratic presidential candidate went on vulnerability/empathy/shame researcher Brené Brown’s podcast, and there was… like, a whole lot of nothing. Brown asked Harris a lot of questions about her background – birth order! Harris’ sorority nickname! – but they never got to anything serious. They talked about the core values ​​of “courageous leaders.” If you played a drinking game where you take a shot every time someone said “life experiences” or “Venn diagrams,” you would be face down on the carpet.

We may not deserve better from our leaders. Perhaps our politics were always destined to come down to this. But how depressing it is to see all of this laid out in front of you, through hours and hours of detailed content on various podcasts, consumed by polar opposite parts of America that increasingly seem to believe they have very little in common with each other.

Scenes from Miami: I’m in Miami for an event organized by Founders Fund, and yesterday I visited a Catholic church that is in full force against Florida’s 4th Amendment, which would add abortion protections to the state constitution, including the text: “No law. shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion until viability or when necessary to protect the health of the patient, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.” (More about Amendment 4 here.)

Abortions after 6 weeks are currently outlawed in Florida, and doctors and activists are campaigning to draw attention to the extreme cases where women find themselves in medically difficult situations because the law allegedly does not make it clear that doctors are allowed to perform abortions after 6 weeks. termination of pregnancy under circumstances that threaten life and health. Proponents of the amendment argue that Amendment 4 will make that clear. The Florida bishops, on the other hand, write: “We call on all Floridians of good will to oppose the legalization of late-term abortion and oppose the abortion amendment. By doing so, we will not only protect the weakest, most innocent, and vulnerable to human life among us, but also countless women across the state from the harms of abortion.”

QUICK HITS

  • On Saturday, Israeli fighter jets struck several “air defense systems, missile production facilities and launch sites” in Iran, it said. Bloombergin response to Iran’s attack on Israel earlier this month. The attack did not cause much damage in terms of casualties (four Iranian soldiers were reported killed), but it exposed critical vulnerabilities in Iran’s weapons and nuclear development infrastructure. A U.S. military official, “speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said President Joe Biden’s administration was working with Israel to develop a ‘proportionate’ response and called on Iran not to retaliate further,” the report said. Bloomberg.
  • During a campaign stop in West Philadelphia, Kamala Harris “announced a plan to boost Puerto Rico’s economy and power grid,” again according to Bloomberg.
  • Egypt has proposed an initial two-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to exchange four Israeli Hamas hostages for some Palestinian prisoners, Egypt’s president said on Sunday, as Israeli military strikes killed 45 Palestinians across the enclave, Reuters reported.
  • An interesting trend is how young women are avoiding wearing wedding and engagement rings on a daily basis; Being a surfer, I can’t wear mine most of the summer, but I didn’t realize that everyone else was copying me.
  • This “head coach” New York Times This article is the most disgusting thing I’ve read in a long time. long Bye. Use with caution.