Mainstream v. Extreme
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Hey, pull up a chair. It's Hacks on Tap with David Axelrod and Mike Murphy. On behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey, on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and look out for one another...

On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America. So there you go, guys.

The suspense is over. She has accepted the nomination. Yeah, she made it. Yeah. It was a close call. That roll call was nip and tuck all the way. Didn't know what would happen. So, I mean, I got to be honest with you. I think she stuck this landing about as well as she possibly could have.

And I think the convention, for all of the little hiccups that you'd expect in a convention that basically had to be turned around in time,

three weeks was really, really well conceived in terms of symbolism, in terms of messaging. I mean, I think this went about as well as you could possibly have hoped. Anybody want to jump in here? Yeah, I was getting a little worried. First of all, I fundamentally agree. I think they had a good convention. It had a few bumps, but fundamentally excellent job by the convention team and Stephanie and everybody. My

I kept thinking, you know, all right, how's this going to play in Livonia, so to speak, West Wayne County. And by night three, I was feeling like it's no surprise the Democrats get all their votes out of 477 counties in America out of 3,100. Because I was feeling there's this kind of careful balance of how much they go into the lefty stuff and the identity stuff. And I was feeling like they were, I liked the kids from the football team. I wanted more of that. But

But all that stuff is window dressing, and there were some real highlights. What counted was her speech, and she did it. And it was a strategic speech. I don't think it'll go down in the annals of great oratory, but this convention was about defining her, and that, I thought, boiled down to really two things.

Her husband's speech, which I thought was a home run as far as filling in new information. God, she's a human. She's got a life. What animates her? And her speech about what she believes. It was strategic. It was a leap for the center. They're trying to dump all the old baggage, which is smart. They played national security strong. That is not her background. I mean, part of the, as a cynical political consultant, the stuff that made me laugh was the, you know, she's negotiated 118 treaties. Anything you like, she did it.

But sending that signal of toughness was brilliant. So I give the speech a strategic A, and I think she is defined in a place now where this race has gone from Democrat wipeout to real race where she even, I think, has a better set of ingredients to win in front of her than Trump does. And, of course, he's crazy, which is helping her and hurting him.

I will say that there are two things that Mike said that I totally wildly agree with is that this will probably get me excommunicated from some church somewhere. Not another one, my friend. I don't think you're in danger of that. That happened a long time ago. From the Church of the Poisoned Mind. Look, I...

I don't have that much use for Oprah at this point. And, and as part of the, I thought her speech, she's a great performer. You're not getting a car. I'll tell you that. Yeah. Yeah. Let's take a minute to memorialize the sparkling, journalistic career. I may be killed. I may be killed for that. I look, she's great. And I like anything that steps outside of politics and, and, and as someone who's above and beyond politics, but yeah,

You know, that's the thing that Mike was saying. And I was sitting there worried all night that Beyonce was going to show up last night. And I love Beyonce. I love Beyonce. But like, I was like, I, man, do not.

Let Beyonce overshadow Kamala Harris. Do not make another Hollywood person rolling in here. And I was so glad when, when no special guests showed up and they, they, the program last night was not that great except because it highlighted her and it made sure they got her on in prime time. The first, the first one of the week where someone who Tim wall spoke as late as Joe Biden did.

But they got her on in the 10 o'clock hour. They got her off not that long after 11 o'clock Eastern, maximum audience. And I thought that the other thing that Mike said, I understand that the national security is not her background, but I thought not only did she sound tough and hawkish, she sounded...

comfortable in that space. And the word, the word, the most important word of the entire speech to me, lethal. I mean, there was a lot of subtle work done in that speech to reinforce her security credentials and to assert toughness. And the notion of, and the left was freaking out about this online saying we'll have the most lethal army and the most lethal armed forces in the world. That was a projection of a thing that was really important. And she seemed very,

Very comfortable. She didn't seem awkward. She didn't look like Mike Dukakis in the tank talking about that stuff. It came out sounding authentic from her, and I thought that was super important. I thought the speech was, last night, her speech was strategically...

you know, brilliant. You're right. It was great. Not great oratory. Not like, not, not Barack Obama. Who cares about that? If they get the strategy, right. Yeah. A hundred percent. But you know, let me just, I agree with everything that you guys said, you know, and it wasn't just on the commander in chief stuff, but the border and other things. She did a lot of good work in the speech, but you know, there are, the biggest thing is the point you guys are making about strength.

I mean, she looked like a president up there. She sounded like a president up there. She looked strong. Fierce. And that...

is that was Trump's big advantage over Biden. Yeah, that's the subversion of this thing. They're taking strength. Even the dark cloak. She didn't do the stupid red suit. It was all very sober and grown up and time to get the adults back in charge. And it's a brilliant flip on Trump because now he's the weak old man. Yes, exactly. And she's the dynamic future, which is they're turning her into the change candidate. Yes. And they're getting away with it. That's been true from the beginning. You know, this is the advantage of

There are a lot of disadvantages to being vice president because you get marginalized. But the advantage is people don't really know you.

And, you know, you're known, but you're not known. And she had a chance this week and the convention had a chance to paint a portrait of her that was much, much, well, it's fuller than people knew and much different than people suspected. And it wasn't just her speech. I mean, when you look back on this convention and

and you look at the Obama speeches, for example, they painted her story into the fabric of the American story in a very, very powerful way. And the whole week they've painted Trump out of that story and out of those values. So she was mainstream. He was extreme. She was strong. He was, as she described, he is, as she described him last night.

an unserious person whose election could have serious consequences, dangerous consequences. I mean, I really, yes, I mean, you know, I give them some grace for whatever, you know, you think was lacking here or whatever you think was too much of one thing or too much, because I

You had the melding of two campaigns and two conventions over a short period of time. A lot of petitioners at the table, probably. Oh, God, unlimited. Yeah. And we've given her props in advance, and I think she deserves them now. Stephanie Cutter did a magnificent job, I think. Yeah, no, I agree. I want to tell a funny Cutter story during the convention. So I get a call from my wife.

From Hollywood. I'm driving across Iowa listening to this thing. And she says, all right. At Pilates, I just saw the head of huge music company. Beyonce, he says, is going to be there. Beyonce. And then somebody else calls me. It's Taylor. So I'm like rolling my eyes because I'm thinking like don't overshadow her. You know, pink is perfect. So but I can't resist thinking about it. I said, so I text cut her.

And I say, I know you're busy, but if you do have Taylor Swift popping through the floorboards as the encore song, steal the Republican proud to be American, do a much better version of and blow the place away. And she goes, we don't have a special musical guest. This goddamn thing is taking a life of its own. No, because, because, because TMZ or somebody, right? I'm sitting on the CNN set and there are people who are insisting that she's coming. And I'm like,

No Romney had to put out a statement. No, I'm cutting my line. I'm telling you. I just, I mean, I've talked to the organizers. I talked to the organizers. There's no one coming. It was Michael Jordan. It was her. It was, it's like, you know, yes, Taylor Swift. And I said, no guys, she's the star of the show. Okay. She's the star of the show. At some point yesterday, there was a rumor on social media that George Bush, the George. Yes. I saw that. He had to put out a thing too. Fucking crazy. All this got, uh,

I tried to float the Pope and nobody was buying. Yeah, I offered to bring my guitar when Cutter texted me, no. I said, you know, all right, I'll do that. Another act of Republican subversion there. Then I think her battery died. Okay, let's take a break right here for a word from our sponsor, and we'll be right back.

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Not to gild the lily on Stephanie Cutter, but just you guys having done conventions from the inside know this. She spent months building a convention for Joe Biden pre-debate. Then...

There was Joe Biden post-debate when a lot of people that Joe Biden wanted, that originally had been scheduled to go to the convention, Joe Biden no longer wanted at the convention because they weren't, they had turned against him or they were being disloyal. So they remade the convention in the month after the debate, still assuming that Biden would be at the center of the convention, but a different kind of convention, and then the

The switch flipped again. Yeah, incredibly hard. The woman has built three conventions in the last year. And so when I say, I just wish Tim Walz, given how good that speech was, I just wish it hadn't been at midnight. You know, like just for the sake of reaching more people. That's not a shot at Stephanie. The only sad thing is they had to cancel the all-Walkers drumline thing she had set up for the president. And that would have blown the roof off the place. That's the problem with a convention where...

There are too many people at the table who want to, you know, serve their political interests.

needs by getting every, and we talked about this the last time, every Huey, Dewey, and Louie up on the platform to get their time. Half of them at least could have been cut, but I don't think that was her. I don't think she had the power to cut them. What do you mean? No, she didn't. No, she did not. Listen, I'm a cutter through and through, so I'm not. And I'm happy that she's now going to be advising on message in the campaign because the other thing about this convention is like

You know, they the flags, the USA chants and the description of an America. Listen, guys, let me just add this as part of this.

You know, last night there were there was this flag waving flurry and I can't remember what triggered it. And there was young Gus Walls with his father. And the day that no, but this was the day after his speech. I know where you're going on this. Yes. Yeah. No, listen, I knew immediately when I saw this young man and he moved.

me like everyone else that, you know, he probably has some challenges and just as my own child, uh, uh, does and that he's struggled with in life. And those became, you know, these, uh, what, what I think the PC word that's used as neuro diversity issue, but he has, you know, what we used to call developmental disabilities or intellectual differences, uh,

And the brutality online by some of these, you know, Ann Coulter and others ridiculing this young man for displaying his love for his dad online.

was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. So fast forward to the next night, and there he is with his dad, surrounded by these flags. And to me, the America that Kamala Harris and the convention described was a big, generous, embracing America that had room for everybody, that has room for everybody, including a young man like Gus or like my daughter Lauren and...

I think in some ways the symbols were the same, but the message was different and was much more expansive and positive and optimistic. Well, that's the whole key. If they have Ted Lasso versus Voldemort and Trump wants to be Voldemort...

It's gold for them. It's the rocket fuel because they need a huge crowbar thematically to not make this fire the Biden team part two. But being VP, she's already 100 yards away from Biden. Her image was

lightweight, not effective VP. That's not a great image. Which every VP gets. Right, right. She had, in my view, in the first year particularly, a worse version. Yeah, yeah. And then she had the legacy of a crappy campaign. And, you know, what the hacks are still saying is they marvel at the great conventions. Can she keep it together? We remember last time. And every sign she's showing us is she can't. But anyway, that long leash,

The fact that she wasn't seen as a central player in the administration has given her one, the escape key. And now because she is new and different and young and generational, not Joe Biden saying fire the Harris, you know, the Harris team. This was a turn the page. No, no. She's slipping the straitjacket Houdini style here.

She has changed now in a change election. So if they can sustain this through the second look of September, I do worry they're too cocky. But fundamentally, they got all the I don't think they're cocky, brother. I got to tell you, I know that I think the that convention was such a sugar bomb thing.

but it's unavoidable. Go ahead, John, to go back to this optimism thing. You know, um, we got Tim walls instead of, uh, Josh Shapiro and, and Tim walls have been fantastic and otherworldly that someone who's better has performed on the big stage in a way that you can never, could never expect anybody who'd never been on stage that big before. But,

But the one thing that I miss from Josh Shapiro rhetorically, which has been his constant framing of Donald Trump when he says, stop shit-talking America. Donald Trump constantly shit-talks America. And if you heard at the end of Harris' speech last night when she talked about

In this very end, she had this emphatic thing of, you know, about what it means to be an American. You know, to go to your point about positivity, this is the difference, right? She's not just, you know, she's not just young while he's old. She's not just sane while he's crazy. He's not, it's just not...

She's not just cognitively all there while he's declining. He says he is a just inveterate shit talker of the country. It's like just the, and she has the ability to embrace that Reaganite optimism, that Obamaite optimism. That is, you know, I don't know, maybe, I know a lot of the rules and policies have changed and we're all old and shit, but like, I still don't think that like, that even though there's a lot of anxiety in the country,

I don't think that shit-talking the country constantly, shitting on the Olympics, that's not the way you win. It's not. Yeah, yeah. On election day, you're not seen as on the side of America. It's going to be a short night. No, she—I mean, the contrast with Trump is so strong. And honestly, look, my sense is that the—

and it might be a somewhat informed sense, the portions of the speech in the middle where she took direct aim at Trump were probably the least impactful parts of the speech. We've heard it all before. Yeah, well, we talked about this last week. It's built in. The implicit contrast of someone who is future-oriented and suffused in middle-class values and unbiased

who appreciates what this country is and represents what this country is and has this optimistic view of the future while Trump is grinding and, you know, which he was doing all night long. Yeah, we have some sound on that we should get to, but I just want to hallelujah that they are they and I think they know this, but it's so tempting to trash Trump. It's the easy applause.

But if she's the change vibes candidate, they use the horrible new term that I hope goes away soon. Then stick with that. Be the sunshine. You know, don't play the other game. Commit. It's

It's going to be interesting in the debate to see how do you strike that balance in the debate with, uh, Baltimore standing right next to you. You laugh at him. That's the thing. He is becoming an object of ridicule now and nobody ever laughs at Superman, which means he's no longer Superman and run with that. The implicit contrast with Trump in her speech last night, Harris's speech were striking, but the person who really did that better than anybody. And it actually reminded me of, uh,

her husband some years ago, Michelle Obama, when she did that riff about, you know, Kamala Harris, like all of us don't have the expectations of, of, of the affirmative action of generational wealth. And, you know, she went, she, that, that was a classic and David Axelrod, uh,

it was, should be memorable to you too, because it was Michelle Obama's version of taking down Donald Trump without mentioning him in the way that Barack Obama took down the Clintons without mentioning them at the JJ in 2007. It's like the critique, you, you didn't, she had not mentioned Trump's name, but she had a five stanza riff where she basically took shots at Trump that were clearly a Trump. Uh,

but never had to mention, invoke the name Donald Trump. And again, it recalled to mind your former candidate doing that to all of Clintonite politics back in the fall of 07. All right, we're going to leave for a minute to pay the power bill, and then we'll be right back.

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As I sit here today, I have no reason to believe that this isn't still the race we know, which is that it's very, very close in the states that you need to win in order to be the nominee of the party, these battleground states. And it's going to be a few days before we see if anything has changed as a result of this. I mean, they laid a great foundation here, but we just...

but we just don't know. But my point before was, first of all, what is the way forward for Trump? They do want to paint her as the incumbent, him as change. They took a huge hit this week, and I think you're right. The truth is,

Nobody really believes that Kamala Harris has been the policymaker in the Biden administration. And you'll notice the only place where she connected herself to Biden by name on policy was on Gaza and basically gave him the responsibility for that one. Yeah, he's working on that. I got to go lead a crowd in a couple of chants. I think...

Here's what they're thinking. I mean, one, they're all killing each other because now Corey Leandowski's back. Kellyanne Conway's sneaking around. You know, it's Stalingrad inside the campaign. I wouldn't be surprised to see La Cevita think, you know what, time for me to run and be out. Or Trump to fire him, which is what Trump normally does in the summer of a general election. Or La Cevita to say he got fired, and okay, there goes the chancellor. Anyway, there's a lot of that going on. But to the extent they're trying to figure out,

What's up? Half of them think fire Kamala for Biden inflation, basically do the search and replace on the campaign they had before. And I think she's now full of Teflon as the generational change candidate. So I think that's going to be hard as hell to prevail with. It can hurt. All right. So what's plan B? Plan B is all right. What do you get? Don't get fooled again. It's the same crowd.

You know, what's her plan? We see the flaw. We see the celebrity. They roll out that old thing, which I never really liked against Obama. But they think internally it worked for a while. And they pivot to Kamala has a plan. Kamala's left-wing plan. Every time she's been in office, the rhetoric has been good and the results have been hard left.

the Willie Horton 2.0 stuff, the failure on the border. She's a PR candidate. It's all special effects. And they just pound away on that and try to engage ideologically as much as they can. Yeah, I think that's right.

You hear that. I mean, you hear some of those talking points and, you know, it is kind of hilarious to hear them say, well, we want to hear from we want to hear substance like, you know, like Trump is their economic model. Yeah. I mean, come on, man. Yeah. But yeah, but they got something. She has historically been a progressive who moved to the right and she did more of that.

That's not untrue. But that is not what people... People don't know her, and the Harris campaign has moved quickly to fill in the blanks in a way that is really, really helpful. I mean, she could not be more mainstream. Yeah, and that's what the speech was all about. They're trying to preempt that attack, but there will be $250 million of...

San Francisco left-wing stuff and the 19 campaign and they have video and it's something. But look, it's also the case that for people who, you know, want to, but for people who don't know that much about her, it's, she has, I totally agree. She's vulnerable on those left-wing positions. She took in, in, in 19, in 2019, she's vulnerable. She, but she's,

primarily, in fact, her resume is primarily that of a prosecutor. It is hard to turn, even if you're a relatively liberal prosecutor, you're a district attorney and an attorney general. You've got a long record of putting people in jail. That is a, that's, that's a little bit of Teflon that you carry with you. Right. And they've been hammering that trying to get in front of it. But, but I will say, but I just want to say one other thing to go back to, to David, your point about level setting, just about Trump. I have been, I've been saying, well,

on our last episode and other places, you know, how, how is he going to win if he can't drive anything like a consistent message and given how he has flailed and, and, and all his, he's had maybe the worst five weeks of his entire time in public life in terms of his just batshit craziness and his inability to keep,

a coherent thought. But I will say last night I ran into your old friend Patrick Gaspard, and when I asked Patrick what he was worried about, he said, I'm worried about the fact that Donald Trump's, essentially, I'm paraphrasing, he said, I'm worried about the fact that Donald Trump's had the worst five weeks of his political career and his favorable numbers have gone up.

His numbers haven't moved. That's wrong. There may be some marginal gain maybe in his approval rating. But they haven't collapsed. No, but his favorable number is terrible. He's 22 points underwater when you ask, what do you think about this human being? People do not like him. Always.

All his energy is economic cure, and that's melting away as it becomes a change election, I believe. I simply meant to say that his numbers had not—I understand people don't like him, and I think Patrick understands that, too. I'm just saying his numbers had—after all of that, he had not eroded it further than

given how fucking crazy he's been for the last five weeks. A normal candidate, you'd see them sag even more. He just doesn't move. There's not a lot of elasticity in this electorate. There is not a lot of elasticity. Basically, you've got a very divided country. There is a small number of voters who are up for grabs. And so, you know, it's going to be this way from now to the end. But he keeps...

She has driven him batshit crazy. And he keeps reminding people, you know, before the attitude among a bunch of folks who were voting for him, particularly among these swing voters, was,

Well, he's an asshole, but at least he knows how to run a government or he knows how to run the economy or whatever. But now the asshole quotient is just growing because he can't help himself. Right. And I think that is a real myth that, yes. There's another aspect of this, though, and I think the D's miss it, which is why is Trump's favorable crappy, but his ballot is hanging in there?

There's a big chunk of ballot that's not about her, not about him. It's people who think we've had it with the Democrats. They can't run the economy. They covered up an old guy in the White House. They want to defend the cops everywhere. They've run every big city in America into the ground. They want to raise my middle class taxes. They love the welfare state. They are way too woke. That's the ballot energy that is stronger than the Trump energy on the personality of what a Donald is.

And that's going to be part of how they come at her. She's part of that crowd you want to get rid of that screwed everything up. And that's why what she did is try to get her own identity, but she's got to get some of that chorus to pipe down a little. Let me just say one thing about this.

presidential politics and you guys, you've written about it at a high level. You've participated at it at a high level. There will be the TV wars. And yes, there's going to be hundreds of millions of dollars spent to paint the picture that you suggest, Mike. There'll be hundreds of millions of dollars to counter that. And that's why nothing really has moved against her, despite the fact that they've run a shit ton of commercials about

that already and she's done her prosecutor or ag stuff tough on the border and yeah now i i was like winding up for a big point and i can't well i'll make it for you because we're both thinking the same thing as long as she manages her brand well every day with what oh yes that's it and what she does and how the debate goes she can overwhelm all that because it's a draw

Hey, I got to go on another podcast in a while. Can you come on with me and keep reminding me what I was thinking when I stopped? I'm really tired. But yes, my point was, I'm sorry, John. My point is presidential politics, especially at this point in the campaign, is so much governed by the moment-to-moment politics.

Behavior of candidates, which people see on constantly. I mean, they're under constant and people default to what they see in real life, even when they're being bombarded with ads. She looks great.

Nothing like the caricature that they're trying to paint. Exactly. And that'll break through in the end if they run the most important thing, earn media. Well, hey, should we listen to Trump on Fox for a minute just to give him a little equal? Well, let John has a point. It's a very quick point, which is to say, if you think about he's terror at his worst right now, she's on a roll. So,

So like we have 70, whatever days left, what's going to change that? You know, if it's a tie race, she loses, she's got to get some, you know, because of the electoral college situation and because Trump always does better than, than his polling shows.

So what's going to change it? What's going to stop her momentum? Well, I think she's going to pull ahead in the national poll. Right. But there's only three things that can happen now, right? One is Trump performs incredibly well. Not likely. The other is she makes a mistake. And the third is some external event.

But there's no reason her momentum doesn't continue. And the most likely of those things, I mean, we can't control for external events, but the way more likely thing is within her control. Because if she continues to perform well...

Trump shows no sign of being able to drive this to break her momentum, right? So it's kind of like, as long as she can, to your point, Mike, it's like... Well, no, she's winning. Every tie day is momentum for her with Trump. And then, boys, that debate looms so large. So large. Yeah. September 10th. Okay, gentlemen, we will be back in a minute, but we have to pay a few bills.

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Equal time for Trump. Let's talk about it. I want to get to that stuff just so we can hear it. The insanity of Trump post. Yeah, so he called into Fox four minutes after she was finished. And even the Fox people, rumors are my friend Brett Baer was seen having a couple of stiff drinks afterward. And I'll

Brett, send me your bar tab. I understand what you went through. Let's listen to Trump calling in. And the beeps you hear our forensic hack on tap experts think is Trump jabbing at his phone for some reason. We're not trying to launch a bomb or, you know, a missile or something. And by the way, if you live in a northern plain state, listen, there's a Canadian invasion coming, apparently, according to the former president.

It was a lot of complaining. She didn't talk about China. She didn't talk about fracking. She didn't talk about crime. She didn't talk about 70% of our people are living in poverty. She didn't talk about housing, really. The trade deficit, she didn't talk about. Child care.

trafficking that she's allowed to happen because she was the border czar and she presided over the weakest border in the history of our country. It's an invasion. I was there today, as you know, Brett. It's an invasion of our country taking place at our border, our southern border. It's a total invasion. And now it's starting at our northern border also through Canada. And she didn't talk about any of that.

because she talks, but she doesn't do. It's no action. But, you know, look, other than that, it was a nice-looking room.

Okay, that's the highly poll-driven and strategic response. Well, you know, John, you can appreciate why he would feel so let down by the speech because of the masterpiece that he delivered in Milwaukee, which was the portrait of issue-specific rhetoric, you know. I just want to share some of the highlights of his true social feed last night. First, there was Where's Hunter?

In the middle of her speech. Then there was Walls was an assistant coach, not a coach. She blamed, at one point she said that Harris had caused the October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas.

She also, is she talking about me? Was one of my favorite things. We're talking about projection and confession. And it just goes on and on. It's an amazing spree of things that he wrote here. And then he's like, okay, true social is not getting me what I need. I got to get on the phone with some of these anchors and make an ass of myself there. Poor Bannon wasn't even answering the phone last night. Oh, Christ, I can't take it.

Yeah, well, I don't know how many calls he gets where he's at. Well, no, there are ways to get cell phones there. Yeah, anyway, yeah, he probably traded cigarettes for... Anyway, so we are going to... Today, Robert Kennedy Jr.,

his, his, his grand journey ends. And apparently with an endorsement of Trump. Yeah. I was going to ask, is that lockdown that he's going to do? So that's, I think so. Yeah. I think so. The kooky crazy stuff in one basket. I like it. Well, listen, I mean, here's the question. Here's the question I have for you guys. And maybe we touched on this the other day, but there isn't, there are implications of this. You know, there are two theories. One is,

Trump has a high ceiling and a low floor, and the fewer candidates you have in there, the better it is for Harris. The other theory is the only people Bobby Kennedy Jr. has left after Harris got in the race are the crazy anti-vax conspiracy theory people, and that vote is likely to flow to Trump.

I guess the third question is, does standing with a nutball like Robert Kennedy Jr. actually drive people more away from Trump? So that's my question to you big geniuses.

What do you think? Well, one, I'm reminded of when they gave Stalin a letter from the Pope saying stop killing everybody. And he said, how many tanks does the Pope have and crumpled it up? I don't think Kennedy delivers much. I don't think he could deliver a pizza, let alone significant votes. But to make it clear thematically, put all the nuts in one basket. So I don't think it's a big deal. Was that a Pizzagate reference? Yeah.

Anyway, go ahead. I know for a fact he can deliver a pizza. He showed up at my apartment a few nights ago with a pizza. Wrong. Got the order wrong because of the brain worm. That wasn't pepperoni on the top, too. That was bear. Oh, boy. Yeah. No, I'm afraid he's going to... I told you I'm afraid he's going to be head of the National Park Service just so he can get all the bears he can eat. Anyway, go ahead. I think it all kind of cancels itself out, but I would be just a little worried because I do think in that second camp, I mean, there's...

I don't know what happens to the crazy anti-vax people, but it's clear that his presence in the race was helping her.

I mean, if you look at all the polling, she performed better in every single battleground state poll when his name was on the ballot. Which is a reversal from Biden. Yes, right. I'm not psyched about it. If I'm the Harris campaign, I'm not psyched about that. Probably doesn't move much, but this is going to be a close race. And on the basis of available data, it would have been better for him to stay in the race for Harris. Murphy, we got to go, so give us a benediction. Yeah.

I'm all, no, I don't remember enough Latin from my Jesuit education. In nomine Patris. Excellent. In nomine Patris. Spiritus Sancti. I forget. Yeah. Go in peace. Yes.

Zai gezunt, you guys. I'll be the same. May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead. There you go. I'll finish up with the Irish one. Okay, we're wrapping up. I think it is true, gentlemen, right, that we are not on next week because we're doing this special episode here. But then we will be back with plenty to talk about.

Oh, boy. There will be. No mailbag today either. We didn't have time. But send us some fresh questions for when we're back after next week, Hacks on Tap.

at gmail.com, hacksontap at gmail.com, or our magic number where you can leave a live voicemail. Keep it short, or you can even do voicemail on your phone and email us your audio question. The number is 773-389-4471. I'll repeat it because who can remember that? 773-389-4471.

Still my favorite part of the show. Yeah. Yeah. He does. He does. He does ringtones also. After all my jokes.

What a terrific city Chicago is. Yeah, man. It's the best. I'm so honestly, give me 10 seconds here. I love this city, man. This is my town. And I'm so proud that it showed so well in this week. And I apologize to all the people who've never been here before who came for the convention, who I told that we have this weather 365 days a year.

That isn't true, but it's still a great city. And I hope you all come back. They know you're in politics, so they didn't trust you. You're okay. You're in the clear. I'll see you guys next time. All righty. Off we go. Thanks. Later, Gators. Bye.

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