Home
cover of episode Kamala Harris Doesn't Exist

Kamala Harris Doesn't Exist

2024/10/10
logo of podcast Part Of The Problem

Part Of The Problem

Chapters

Dave analyzes Kamala Harris's unique campaign strategy, marked by a significant lack of traditional media appearances and a noticeable absence of a defined political platform. He discusses her recent interview blitz, suggesting it indicates a potential weakness in her campaign despite favorable polls.
  • Kamala Harris's campaign is remarkably different from previous elections, lacking a clear platform and relying heavily on the existing Democratic machine.
  • Her recent increase in media appearances may indicate a perceived weakness in her campaign despite seemingly positive poll numbers.
  • The strategy of avoiding interviews seems to have worked initially, but the current blitz suggests a change in approach.

Shownotes Transcript

This Halloween, ghoul all out with Instacart! Whether you're hunting for the perfect costume, eyeing that giant bag of candy, or casting spells with eerie decor, we've got it all in one place. Download the Instacart app and get delivery in as fast

This Halloween.

Ready to start talking to your kids about financial literacy? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app that teaches kids and teens how to earn, save, spend wisely, and invest with your guardrails in place. With Greenlight, you can send instant money transfers, set up chores, automate allowance, and keep an eye on your kids' spending with real-time notifications.

Join millions of parents and kids building healthy financial habits together on Greenlight. Get your first month free at greenlight.com slash wondery. That's greenlight.com slash wondery.

Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. A special thanks to those of you guys watching live at partoftheproblem.com, the only place to get all of the episodes live, ad-free, uncensored, right here at our own site. I know, by the way, we had some issues with the streaming yesterday. I got off the phone with a

Lewis, who, who had just had a meeting with our, uh, all our tech people who run the site and all, all the issues are being, uh, addressed within the next week. They're going to roll out the 2.0 version. So thank you guys. We apologize. There's always some issues when you launch a new thing like this. I think we've been pretty good, uh, uh,

But thank you guys so much for subscribing. Rob is out today. He's got gigs this weekend leading up to him filming his first special, which I'm very excited for all of you guys to see. PorchTour.com is the website to get all of his ticket links. And then, of course, I...

I am jumping on an airplane first thing in the morning, headed out to Detroit this weekend. I'm very excited. I love that club out there. I love Detroit in general. My first road stand-up comedy shows that I ever did were in Detroit many years ago. It was in 2008, and it was right after...

the like the financial crisis and Detroit was in this really weird place where like the car companies were all failing and evidently every job in Detroit is somehow connected to the car companies. So like everyone's job was at risk. And I was a brand new comic. I've been doing comedy less than two years now.

And it was the first time I ever left New York City to go do road shows. I was opening for Jay Oakerson. And, you know, I'd probably like, I had done a lot of comedy clubs in New York City, but we went out there to Detroit and it was like a 350 seat room, which was like the biggest crowds I had ever played for in my life. Aren't we having some trouble with the site here? I don't

I'll see if we can't get that back up and running. Anyway, it was really cool. We sold out the entire weekend and it had nothing to do like Jay. You know, Jay's big now and has like an audience. But at the time he wasn't selling any tickets. It was just that like Detroit was in a dark place and they wanted to come out and they were like the most electric best crowds ever.

So anyway, that was my first road gig. And we were there in Detroit last year at this place. It was a great, great time. So I always have a special place in my heart for Detroit comedy audiences. So I'm very excited to go back there. And as I admitted on the last episode, I'm a little bit sad that Rob's not coming with me, which is I hear how gay it sounds when it comes out of my. But it is a little bit weird. I never go like I never really travel alone.

And this is, I'm just like, well, what am I going to do all by myself? But anyway, I'll be at the shows. So hope to see some of you guys out there. And then we got Kansas city coming up in a couple of weeks. Um, Poughkeepsie, uh, Philly in Philly. We just added, um, uh, another show, uh,

So that's the ticket links aren't live for that yet. But we just that we just got that approved this morning. So there will be another show added to Philly. I think that one is already close to selling out and it's a month away. So there we I think we're going to do a live stand up show and a live part of the problem podcast in Philly. So that should be a lot of fun. Okay.

Let's get into today's episode. So I had a few things that I wanted to talk about. They all kind of revolve around a similar theme. And then if there's time, I'll also take questions from the live chat. This is why you got to sign up at partoftheproblem.com. You could be a part of the show too. Okay, so...

What I was going to talk about today was Kamala Harris, the Democratic machine to some degree. So it's this election, which is getting really close, is a very interesting one.

And it's just so much different than any other election that we've ever lived through. There's really nothing you could compare it to. Obviously, politics in America have been radically different since Donald Trump has gotten into the world of presidenting. He's, you know, there's just something not when I say radically different, I don't mean radically different in terms of like,

Actual policy. Donald Trump was never a force, you know, who came in and actually was a threat to the establishment or something like that, or nobody, you know,

no serious person, I don't think, has thought since Donald Trump, you know, was a candidate first in 2016, president for four years, and then whatever exactly he's been for the last four years. I don't think there's ever been anyone who really knows what they're talking about who thought Donald Trump was a real threat to power. And when I say that, I mean, like, nobody actually thought, like, you know, I bet Donald Trump might audit the Federal Reserve.

or abolish the Federal Reserve, or Donald Trump might really put weapons companies out of business, or big pharmaceutical companies out of business, or Donald Trump might abolish the CIA, or abolish the FBI, or like, all I'm saying is like a move that would be a real threat to the real existing power structure. I don't think Donald Trump's ever been that. I'm not sure he even knows that that's the real power structure, let alone knows that

how he would go about dismantling them, let alone actually wants to dismantle them. I like, there's nothing in that direction. That's not really what Donald Trump represents, but what he does represent was, um, a radical departure from the way American politics is typically done.

It's something that Mitt Romney did not represent, you know, and we've seen over the years that the the establishment has really lost their minds about Donald Trump. And then that's been a whole interesting dynamic to see how much they overstep and reveal themselves when they're, you know, furious. Yeah.

That's kind of how, you know, it's a weird thing in life, but that's kind of how it goes. You know, there's a reason why a lot of like great fighters like I'm a big fight fan. I love the UFC and boxing and I grew up watching boxing, but I now I watch mostly UFC stuff. But there's always been an element in fighting where there were people who who talk shit.

And that might seem like, oh, it's just like childish or something like that. But there's actually much more to it than that. There's a reason why like Muhammad Ali used to talk crazy shit to Joe Frazier. And it wasn't just that he was immature or being a dick. It was a strategy. It was that he wanted to get you really, really mad. Because when you're really, really mad, as people in life know, you become unguarded.

in a different way. Like you just, there's, you know, there's, if you've ever been in a, in a relationship, let's say that wasn't the best relationship. Um, there's things that you might say when you're furious about,

That you really do kind of mean like maybe you don't mean it 100%, but like there's something in it, but you wouldn't normally say it. But if you get angry enough, then like the truth, that thing that you're holding on to can be revealed. So there's something about that. When you get some, when you can get someone like white, hot, angry, they're not going to be guarded in the same way they typically are. And they might even reveal who they really are.

And so I think that's been in many ways the most interesting part of the Trump dynamic is that he gets everybody so angry that they kind of reveal who they truly are. That has been fascinating. Anyway, this is in many ways this election is the culmination of the Trump moment.

Whatever that means. And I don't know that we exactly know what it means yet. Either this is going to be the end. Donald Trump loses this election, whether legitimately or illegitimately, and he goes away and we go into the next chapter of American politics, or he wins and he has four more years and then we go into the next chapter. But either way, this is kind of the culmination of that. Now,

The other dynamic, obviously, that's very interesting in this race is that he's running against Kamala Harris. The, you know...

candidate who's very different in a lot of ways from any previous candidate and one of the major differences is she Typically, you know typically candidates win a primary and then get here. That's not how she got here she got here because the corporate media and the White House has been covering up the fact that the president is senile for four years and eventually they couldn't keep that contained anymore and they kind of had no other option so they ended up going with her and

Now, according right now, most of the polls would tell you that it's an extraordinarily tight race, but Kamala Harris has a slight lead. Now, the betting markets are saying something else. The betting markets right now are saying it's a pretty tight race, but Trump has the lead. I don't know what to make of any of this. I got to be honest. I just have a really tough time believing that.

that if there was a free and fair election today that Kamala Harris beats Donald Trump. She has so much more organic support than her. It seems hard to believe to me that she's winning. I don't know, and I don't know that we'll ever find out the answer to that question. We will find out the answer to what happens in the election that we have. Whether it'll be free and fair is...

I don't know. Maybe you know the answer to it. I don't think you do, but I certainly am not gonna pretend to. One of the things that's, okay, so here's basically what's happened recently is that Kamala Harris has had

You know, she's a she's a truly remarkable and unique candidate in a lot of ways. And one of the ways, as I've I've mentioned this before on the show, but it's it's worth repeating because I think it is kind of the most important thing that's going on in this campaign is that Kamala Harris is truly different from every other candidate in the sense that she doesn't exist.

And I know some of you could say, OK, yes, she exists as a person. I'm sure you've seen videotape of her. There is a person who goes by the name Kamala Harris or Kamala Harris, as she likes to be called. But when I say she doesn't exist, I just mean that it's there's never really been anything like this. You can't really point to anything like Kamala Harris, a candidate who is not running on

Her presidential campaign from 2020, where she did as much, many of you may not remember, but she did run for president that year. She did not leave much of a...

Footprint, but she ran she's not running on any of the policies that she ran on. She's also not running on Joe Biden's track record. And so instead, she's essentially running on nothing. And so what you have with Kamala Harris is more so than any previous candidate, more transparently, more nakedly. It is just the machine.

It is the machine versus Donald Trump. That's kind of what you've got here. It's truly amazing that they could just sub out one candidate and sub in the other one with no feathers ruffled at all.

It doesn't change the calculation for anyone. I do not think there is one voter in the United States of America who was like, I was a Biden guy, but I don't support Kamala Harris. I just don't think that person exists. And if there is, there's like one, you know, and I don't even think there's one. But essentially, that's that's the game here. We just swapped him out, swapped her in. Now, she has been avoiding voting.

to an extraordinary level up to this point in the campaign. Like it's truly remarkable how few interviews she's done. That has changed in the last couple of days. And they've sent her out on interviews

A kind of blitz of doing interviews now doing the safest ones for sure, but they're sending her out and every time they send her out, you kind of just get reminded why they didn't have her doing these to begin with. You kind of understand why. However, there is something interesting about the fact that they're sending her out.

And to me, there was a clear strategy of avoiding interviews. I don't think you could even argue that that was the strategy. She was doing speeches off teleprompters, but she's not doing any interviews. They finally sent her out for one. If you remember the first one on 60 Minutes, she didn't even do it alone. She did. Or was it not? No, I'm sorry. 60 Minutes was just recently. She did whatever the one with Dana Bash, I think, was the one where she brought Waltz with her. And.

So they finally do it. It's like an 18 minute interview. She brings a partner with her. They're just, you know, they really don't want to do these interviews. Now that strategy, according to the polls, has been working. So what I'm kind of deducing from this is that if they're sending her out on a blitz of media appearances now when they clearly didn't want to, and she's clearly not very good at this.

That tends to me to indicate that they don't actually think she's in such a good position. And they think that she's going to have to do some of these interviews in order to get over the hump. If they thought that she was winning without doing them, I don't think they would send her out to do these. So that's kind of my...

gauge of where the race is at but to to the point i was making before there is i mean there is a reason and it is fairly evident why they do not typically send her out to do these interviews we're going to play a few clips and uh and kind of go through all of these um no particular order in in how they go there's just a bunch of moments uh so uh harris did um

She did The View. She did Howard Stern. She did 60 Minutes. And of course, this is all following the Call Her Daddy podcast that we mentioned the other day. By the way, I will say, and this is perhaps a little bit

or just looking at things from my perspective, but it is very, like I just saw that Trump was on flagrant on Schultz's podcast. Congratulations to those guys. That's a big, a big interview to get. And Andrew and Anakash are my boys. I've known those guys for a long time, but it was, I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I am actually very interested to watch that one. But yeah,

It is kind of interesting, right, that for, you know, as somebody who's a podcaster who's like in this world, it is pretty interesting that even now, now we've gotten to a point where both of the candidates recognize that if they want to reach voters, say, like under 40.

That this is the way to do it. That you're just not going to reach those people by talking to anyone at CNN or ABC News or something like that. The way to reach those people is to go on these podcasts with gigantic audiences. And there is... There's just...

There's something about that that you could tell like that's a big deal. That's a big deal that now they go to this kind of like alternative media. So anyway, Kamala Harris has been doing a bunch of these. Let's play some of these clips and break it down and see what we're dealing with here.

All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Lumen. Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath. And on the app, it lets you know if you're burning fat or carbs and gives you tailored guidance to improve your nutrition, workout, sleep, and even stress management. All you have to do is breathe into your Lumen first thing in the morning, and you'll know what's going on with your metabolism, whether you're burning mostly fat or carbs.

Then Lumen gives you a personalized nutrition plan for that day based on your measurements. You can also breathe into it before and after workouts and meals so you know exactly what's going on in your body in real time. And Lumen will give you tips to keep you on top of your health game. Your metabolism is your body's engine. It's how your body turns the food you eat into the fuel that keeps you going. And because your metabolism is at the center of everything your body does, opt

Optimal metabolic health translates to a bunch of benefits, including easier weight management, improved energy levels, better fitness results, better sleep, etc. Lumen gives you recommendations to improve your metabolic health, and it can also track your cycle as well as the onset of menopause and adjust your recommendations to keep your metabolism healthy through hormonal shifts so you can keep your energy up and stave off cravings.

So if you want to take the next step in improving your health, go to lumen.me slash problem to get 15% off your Lumen. That's L-U-M-E-N dot M-E slash problem for 15% off your purchase. Thanks to Lumen for sponsoring this episode. Let's get back into it. Well, if anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?

There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of... And I've been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact. Well, if anything... All right. So this was the first interview of the latest bunch, after the Call Her Daddy one, but before the other two. And I did think this was a really bad moment for Kamala Harris's campaign. I will say...

You know, she is somewhat in a difficult position here. It takes a little bit of skill to...

find the right answer to that question. But man, she did not give it. She didn't even really try. But obviously, OK, Kamala Harris is trying to distance herself from the Biden administration because Joe Biden's very unpopular. And what's even more unpopular than Joe Biden are his policies.

And so she does not want to be married to them. This is why she's running as the change candidate, even though, you know, the sitting vice president running as the change candidate is somewhat ridiculous, but okay, that's what they're going with.

But she needed, you know, she's in a difficult situation because she is the current vice president. And so as the vice president, you don't exactly want to like show disloyalty to your commander in chief. That's, you know, like even if you politically want to distance yourself from them, you take on a whole new set of political issues. If you're the sitting vice president who's trashing the president, like then it's like, oh, you're like a traitor kind of.

But at the same time, she doesn't want to marry herself to those issues. But she needed to thread the needle in some way where she goes where she could have easily said something like, look, I don't think it would be appropriate for me in my capacity as vice president to talk about what policies I disagree with. But I do have a different vision. I do have a different direction that I'm going to take things in. But instead, what she said was just, I can't think of anything.

That's a bad answer because now you are marrying yourself to this administration. So she goes on The View, has a major unforced error that now opens the door to shape the rest of the campaign to be like, well, listen, she said it. You hear you have the words coming out of her mouth that there is no...

There's nothing she nothing major she could think of that she would have done differently. Now you kind of own the policies. So already really bad, really bad result for Kamala Harris. All right, let's go to the to the next clip.

You recently visited the southern border and embraced President Biden's recent crackdown on asylum seekers. And that crackdown produced an almost immediate and dramatic decrease in the number of border crossings. If that's the right answer now, why didn't your administration take those steps in 2021? The first bill we proposed to Congress was to fix our broken immigration system.

knowing that if you want to actually fix it, we need Congress to act. It was not taken up. Fast forward to a moment when a bipartisan group of members of the United States Senate, including one of the most conservative members of the United States Senate, got together, came up with a border security bill. Well, guess what happened? Donald Trump got word that this bill was afoot and could be passed.

And he wants to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem. So he told his buddies in Congress, "Kill the bill. Don't let it move forward." But I've been covering the border for years. And so I know this is not a problem that started with your administration. Correct. Correct. But there was an historic flood

of undocumented immigrants coming across the border the first three years of your administration. As a matter of fact, arrivals quadrupled from the last year of President Trump. Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policies as much as you did? It's a long-standing problem. And solutions are at hand. And from day one, literally,

We have been offering solutions. What I was asking was, was it a mistake to kind of allow that flood to happen in the first place? I think the policies that we have been proposing are about fixing a problem, not promoting a problem. OK, but the numbers did quadruple. And the numbers today, because of what we have done.

We have cut the flow of illegal. What a mess. Thank you, Russell Brand. I forgot about that part. Yeah, yeah, that's a mess. All right. I mean, look, when I say this is what I mean when I say she doesn't exist. Like there's just nothing.

There's nothing there. The question could not be more specific. The question was like, hey, look, you took these executive actions that do seem to have cut down the flow of illegal immigration. Should you have done that earlier? Was it a mistake to loosen these restrictions and then tighten them up? And she goes on blaming Congress and blah, blah, blah. And he goes, yeah, but the numbers quadrupled.

And she goes, yeah, well, we're trying to solve a problem, not exacerbate a problem. Okay, that is not an answer. And for her to say that, you know, well, it's Congress's fault because we need an act of Congress. Okay, but none of that explains why the numbers quadrupled under your watch. You know, none of that explains why you wouldn't take these executive actions earlier. And also, what...

What is your guarantee that Congress is going to be radically different next year from this year? What if you also still don't have Congress? Then what? And so, look, again, this is Kamala Harris is going out and doing these interviews now. And she's when it comes to policy, she's giving you nothing.

Absolutely nothing. Not even pretending to actually have an answer. I mean, like a lot of these people, they will give bullshit answers or they'll give policy answers that sound good but aren't really going to work or aren't going to be able to be implemented. But she's not even doing that. She's just saying we're for solutions. We're not for problems. Oh, that's great. I mean, yeah. Okay. We're all for solutions here. What's yours? Okay.

Why did this problem happen to begin with? I mean, this is just like even I'm not pretending that the average American is like a policy wonk. But even regular people are going to be able to see that that was nothing. That was not an answer to a question. You're not even pretending to have one. It was pretty bad.

All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is sheath underwear, longtime sponsor of this show. I've been telling you guys about them for years because I really love this company and I love the product. It is the most comfortable pair of boxer briefs you will ever put on your body. I have had my sheath underwear since they started advertising with us. It's over three years ago and I still have the first two pairs that they sent me and they still feel as comfortable as the day I first put them on. It's an

unbelievable product. It's a great company and they're part of what keeps us going. So if you want to support this show, support our longtime sponsor, Sheath Underwear. And while you're at it, you're going to get the best pair of boxer briefs you've ever owned. Plus, when you go to sheath.com, use the promo code problem20 and you're also going to get 20% off your entire order. That's sheath.com, promo code problem20 for 20% off your entire order. All right, let's get back into the show.

And it actually gets worse. So let's keep playing. Tell you what your critics and the columnists say. Okay. They say that the reason so many voters don't know you is that you have changed your position on so many things. You were against fracking. Now you're for it. You supported looser immigration policies. Now you're tightening them up. You were for Medicare for all. Now you're not.

So many that people don't truly know what you believe or what you stand for. And I know you've heard that. In the last four years, I have been vice president of the United States. And I have been traveling our country. And I have been listening to folks.

and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground. I believe in building consensus. We are a diverse people, geographically, regionally, in terms of where we are in our backgrounds. And what the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus, where we can figure out compromise and understand it's not a bad thing as long as you don't compromise your values.

to find common sense solutions. And that has been my approach. I mean, wow. Wow. What a whole lot of nothing. What a whole lot. I mean, imagine somebody asking you, you ran a presidential campaign four years ago, centered around these major issues, and you've backed away from all of them. Now you say you don't believe in any of them.

And you go, so what accounts? People say, he almost asked her the question. People say you don't exist. People say you're not like, we have no idea what you stand for. You were running for president and we have no idea what you're running on. And her response is I've traveled the countries and met people where they're at and were diverse and compromise is good. Like, yeah. What, what?

Listen, the thing about it is, right, is that we all know the answer. Everybody knows the answer. Kamala Harris and her team somehow have not come up with anything to which, you know, it seems like it wouldn't be that hard to say, hey, I've changed my mind. And here's why you come up with an idea for why you've changed your mind.

But she doesn't want to say that because, look, we all know what the answer is. Why was Kamala Harris running on banning fracking, on Medicare for all? Why was she running on that in 2020? And why is she not running on that now? It's very simple. She was running in a Democratic primary in 2020. And her estimation was that those issues would be popular within a Democratic primary.

Now she's running in a general election and she knows that those issues will bury her. And she never really believed in anything because she doesn't believe in anything except getting power. She was running to try to win then. And she's running to try to win now. And the calculation for what will win is different. That's it. That's the whole thing. And you know, this, this, uh, you know, the thing is, uh, specifically with Medicare for all Medicare for all is, uh,

very popular amongst like a certain group of Americans. The problem is that, and you might hear this by the way, you'll hear progressives, progressive commentators, even some who I kind of like, but they'll say this sometimes and they get it all wrong, but they'll say Medicare for all is popular.

Like if you just poll the American people, it is. And that is true. It does. If you just ask the American people, do you like Medicare for all? You'll get over 50 percent who will say yes. You know what? Because Medicare is pretty popular. And so it for all it's like, OK, fine.

The thing is that if you dig into the polling a little bit, when you ask any type of like follow-up question, like if you, so here's a weird thing about Americans, right? How you phrase things matters a lot in terms of how popular they are. So if you were to say, if you were to ask in a poll, do you support Medicare for all? You'll probably get pretty good numbers. If you were to say, do you support socialized medicine?

you get pretty bad numbers. They're the same thing. But it's just depending on how you say it, you get different results. The issue with Medicare for All is that when you get into the specifics, it becomes wildly unpopular. So if you, and they've done this in polls, but if you ask, if you say, hey, do you support Medicare for All? You'll get good results. If you say, do you support Medicare for All if it means an increase in your taxes? The number plummets.

Now, how exactly do you expect this is what Chris Matthews kept asking all the candidates after the Democratic primaries in 2020. I don't know if he ever grilled Kamala Harris about this, but he certainly did Elizabeth Warren and I think Bernie Sanders. But if you just go, OK, so let's say you look at your your paycheck.

Let's say you have a job where there's withholding taxing. You know, you look at your paycheck and you see the Medicare portion, like what's taken out from Medicare every week or every two weeks. So that covers the health care of everybody, you know, 65 and older who uses Medicare. So now we're going to extend that to everyone. What do you think that does to the number that's taken out?

Do we need to take out more money or less money if we're going to, you know, give Medicare to everyone to not just the popular, not just the older population, but the entire population? Obviously, the number has to go way up. So then why don't you go ask a poll question? How do you do you support Medicare for all if there's a substantial increase in your taxes? Now it's crazy.

crazy unpopular. It's one of the most unpopular positions. And you could say, do you, uh, do you support Medicare for all? If it means you get kicked off of your private insurance right now, then it's totally unpopular. And there's no way to do it unless you kick people off of their private health insurance, right? The government can't take over the entire industry unless you're not allowed to have other competition in it. And so there, so anyway,

That, in a Democratic primary, it sounds nice to just say Medicare for all. But when you're running in a general election, that issue will kill you. It will destroy you. And that is the reason why Kamala Harris is not running on it right now. It has absolutely nothing to do with traveling the country and realizing how diverse we are and how much we need compromise. It's simply that the policy is wildly unpopular and she knows it won't help her achieve power.

And, you know, so anyway, what you're left with here is a non answer to why she has abandoned every every policy that she ran on. Do we have there? I think there was another video, I think, of her on Colbert. Did I just get that one to you? Because that was the other one that I thought was fairly interesting and worth playing. I think I might have, you know, I might have sent the wrong one and sent. Yeah, I think you sent the one of the quadruple.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I did. I messed up. I sent one of the videos twice instead of... I'm sending the right one here. Let me see if I can just easily find it. If not, we'll skip it. But there was one point where she was asked about why she's the change candidate. But I wanted to see if I can find that. Sorry, guys. Bear with me just for a second here. Oh, I did. I messed it up. Well, anyway... Huh? What?

Um, yeah, let me see if I, uh, let me see if I can find it quickly and send it over to you because this one is worth playing. This was her when she was on, uh, Stephen Colbert, I believe. Let's see. All right. Hold on.

No, that's the one. She did break out a new accent. That was pretty funny as well. But aside that, that's how much she's not a real person. She doesn't even have a freaking voice. She doesn't even have one consistent voice, yet alone consistent policies. No, but whatever. I can't find it, but it's fine. But if you guys haven't, the answer was essentially because she's not Biden.

She's not Biden and she's not Trump. They were like, how do you represent change? And she goes, well, I'm a different person. You're like, oh, geez.

All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show. This is for the responsible adults out there over the age of 21 living in states where Delta 8 is legal. If you want to get high on Delta 8 THC, the place to do it is YoDelta.com. YoDelta has gummies and vapes for all of your getting stoned needs. And from what I understand, it's great stuff. Everyone at Gas Digital raves about it.

So if you want to get some Delta 8 THC, go to YoDelta.com, the official Delta 8 sponsor of the Gas Digital Network, and use the promo code GAS for 25% off your entire order. Once more, that's YoDelta.com, promo code GAS for 25% off. All right, let's get back into the show.

So this is her counter to her admission that there's no major policy that she would change in the Biden administration. But she is not Joe Biden. Okay, all right. Yeah, I think so. Let's play this. Polling shows that a lot of people, especially independent voters, really want this to be a change election and that they tend to break for you in terms of thinking about change. You are a member of the president administration. Under a Harris administration policy,

what would the major changes be, and what would stay the same? Sure. Well, I mean, I'm obviously not Joe Biden. -Um... -I noticed. And so that would be one change in terms of... -Yes. Yes. -But also, I think it's important to say with, you know, 28 days to go, I'm not Donald Trump.

And so when we think about the significance of what this next generation of leadership looks like, were I to be elected president, it is about... Frankly, I love the American people, and I believe in our country.

I love that it is our character and nature to be an ambitious people. You know, we have aspirations. We have dreams. We are... We have incredible work ethic. And I just believe that we can create and build upon the success we've achieved in a way that we continue to grow...

opportunity and in that way grow the strength of our nation. So for example, my economic policies, I think of it and I've named it as creating an opportunity economy. So it's about things like investing in small businesses. I love our small businesses. The woman who helped raise us, we call her our second mother because my mother worked long days and hours.

She was a small business owner. So as a child, I grew up knowing that a small business owner is someone who is a leader in the community, hires locally, trains locally, builds businesses.

contributes to the civic and the cultural fabric, right? So my plan includes extending a tax deduction for start-up small businesses to $50,000 instead of what currently it is at $5,000, 'cause nobody in 2024 can start up a small business with $5,000. My...

My, I believe, and you know, I spend a lot of time talking in particular with young families, young people across our country, and frankly, Stephen, the American dream right now is really elusive for far too many people in terms of even aspiring to own a home.

It's too expensive. We don't have enough housing. We have a housing shortage. So part of my plan is to work with the private sector, with builders and developers, to build 3 million more homes by the end of my first term, and to give first-time homebuyers a $25,000 down payment assistance so they can just get their foot in the door to homeownership, which is the fastest and the most efficient way for people to build intergenerational wealth. These are the ways that I think about...

how we build up our country in a way that is about supporting the middle class. I come from the middle class. I'm never gonna forget where I come from. And I know that the middle class and strengthening the middle class is how you strengthen America and our economy.

Well, your opponent, your opponent and his vice president. All right. So we can come back to this one a little bit because there's some more of that clip left. But I mean, am I exaggerating at all when I say she has nothing? She literally it's just like that. You know, I used to make fun of Donald Trump for for being this way, but she is so much worse. She is like she is a third grader who's like didn't read the book.

And the teacher's asking them questions. You remember that kid like in your class? Maybe you were that kid. I've been that kid a couple of times where you just straight up didn't read the book. And then some teachers asking you questions about the book. And you're like, I just got to bullshit my way through this and just make it seem like I'm kind of saying like unobjectionable things that everyone kind of agrees with. And like, why are you the change candidate? How are you going to be different from Joe Biden? And like, well,

Well, Americans have dreams and aspirations and hopes and small businesses. How great are small businesses? Don't you just like small business? I knew someone who ran a small business. You ever seen a small business? You ever gotten up close to one? They're really small. So you got to get really close in order to see them. And small businesses eventually can become bigger businesses. And that's really the goal for like, it's all just nonsense. Her start, her starting pitch.

is essentially all she gave you. I'm not Joe Biden. And I think it's important to tell you, I'm not Donald Trump. Like, you know, you don't exist when you have to tell people that you exist. Like if you ever have to explain to somebody that you are you, then obviously there's nothing there.

And it's just it's now, of course, she's doing these interviews where the friendliest interviews where Stephen Colbert just accepts that and then moves on as if like he's not going to ask her a follow up question like, but specifically, how are you different?

I also got to say, and maybe this is just because I'm me and I have my own political views and my own bias, but isn't it phenomenal that here you have the Democrat candidate and when it comes down to it, all she can actually get out of her mouth there is that I'll lower taxes.

I mean, she's going to say it's a tax credit. I mean, you know, so only for people who start small businesses, you'll lower taxes, but she's

That's really the only substance of what she offered. Like, wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to pay as much of your money to the federal government? Like, yeah, that would help people. Sure. That would help small businesses. But this is far from like a unique idea or something nobody's thought of before. And this is and it's not even like in line with what Democrats typically like to push.

So she's just like, I don't know, I'll lower the taxes for people who have small businesses. That's how I'm different from Joe Biden. That's why I'm the change candidate, because I'm saying I'm going to lower taxes on small businesses. Like, OK, lower taxes on everybody. That'll help everybody.

I mean, this is the genius policy wonkery that we're getting. Is that okay? You'll have to pay. I mean, by the way, I'm all for that. Sure. Tax credits, as many as you can. I don't think it should be limited to people who run small businesses. I think there's no reason why you wouldn't want to lower taxes for people who just work jobs. By the way, a huge percentage of small businesses in America are essentially that they're just the jobs, but like it's more,

I mean, I don't, I forget these numbers. I used to have them all memorized, but an enormous percentage of small businesses essentially make no profit and they just make enough that the owners can bang out a salary and basically that's their job, but they get to be in control of it. And so they like doing that. But like, why should, why should like the, the wife who like, if, if, you know, say like an accountant is married to like a firefighter or something like that,

Their taxes shouldn't be lowered, but if they start a coffee shop, then they should be. I mean, it's not exactly clear why one choice should be rewarded and the other one should be punished. But regardless of any of that, this is just, it's just, there's nothing there. There's no answer for why she's the change candidate. She said something, she alluded to a new generation. So, okay, she's a different person and she's younger.

Now, when we say younger, you know, she's not young. But yes, compared to Joe Biden, I guess she is a different generation. She's from she's from the generation that had the automobile. And Joe Biden is not. There you go. Change candidate. Here, let's play the rest of this clip and see if there's anything else worth discussing. The debate said, well, Kamala Harris has been vice president for three and a half years. Why hasn't she fixed everything already?

Can you describe to them what the job of vice president is like? And what have you told Tim Walz about the job? Have you described to him the vast powers vested in the vice presidency?

I-I did-- I have pointed out through my three and a half years of being vice president that it's "vice president." -Mm-hmm. -And, um, and there are a lot of responsibilities that you take on. But, you know, it's just a-- Did you see that kid who was interviewed after their debate? -Mm. -And-- Oh, you have to see it, Stephen. -Go ahead. -And he gave a-- just a total civics lesson about the role of vice president. -Oh, yes, yes. In the audience. -Oh, yeah, yeah. -Exactly. -He was in the audience. -Yes. -I-I encourage anybody to look at it on YouTube. -Yes. -It was so good. -Yes.

But, you know, Tim Walz, I have to tell you, someone asked me recently, what's the last big decision I made that was a gut decision? And when I was looking at potential running mates, there are incredibly talented, experienced, wonderful people. And ultimately, I chose and asked Tim Walz because just my gut...

told me that he will be what I think we want in our country. You know, he reminds me of people I grew up with. We grew up in two different parts of the country. You know, he grew up in a rural area in the Midwest. I grew up in California. Seemingly, if you look at the two of us together, we have nothing in common. But he's the kind of people I grew up with. They may have been a different race in a different part of the country,

hardworking folks, folks who are plain talking, who care about family, care about community, care about hard work. That's who Tim Walz is. He's going to be a great vice president. All right. Man, you think she's trying to get white Midwesterners to vote for her? I just really like, you know, these are the people I grew up with. She goes, these are the people I grew up with. They may have been a different race. They may have lived in a different part of the country. You grew up with people who lived in a different part of the country? Like what?

Also, I just love, by the way, the I mean, Stephen Colbert, and this is the other thing that you see here with these interviews and the ones that she's chosen to go on is that it is like clearly I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say he is carrying her.

Like he's not asking her questions. What's his name over at 60 Minutes at least posed some tough questions to her. Colbert is literally just, he's telling, he's not even asking the question. He's starting with the conclusion and going, you know, a lot of people use this line on you that you didn't get it done while you were there. Do you have to explain to them what the job of vice president is? Like how pathetic is this? It's like, look, obviously,

You are not the president over the last four years, three and a half years. But how exactly is this actually a campaign strategy to downplay your own resume?

Just imagine that for a second, that you have to sit here and your best political strategy is to go, this is a bullshit job anyway. I don't have any real power. No, the problem with this is that she has repeatedly bragged on the campaign trail about how she was a part of every major decision. And Joe Biden is saying the same thing. So I'm sorry, but like you can have that one way or the other, but you can't have both.

And you can't sit here and say, like, I was a huge part of this administration. I'm qualified to be president because let's face it, her qualification for being president is just this job. She didn't win a primary. She didn't win a single delegate when she ran for president. So her claim to this position is that I was part of this administration. You did kind of vote for me. You voted for me and Biden.

And so you can either claim that or you can claim, oh, the vice presidency is like a bullshit role that doesn't really do anything. The thing about it is, is that that is typically true. It is typically true that the vice president doesn't really have a very consequential job. Obviously, there's exceptions to that, most notably someone like Dick Cheney. There are occasions where the vice president is actually has has a lot of power within the White House.

But nobody really believes that Kamala Harris is one of those people. This is how much no one thinks Kamala Harris is one of those vice presidents. Even while the president is senile, even when we all kind of know that we don't really have a president, we know that Joe Biden isn't really running the show. And still, nobody even speculates that Kamala Harris is really running it.

If you were to ask anybody right now, you know, obviously it's not Biden. Who do you think's really running the White House? People will tell you Obama. People will tell you Jill Biden. People will tell you Sullivan or Blinkit or whoever. Nobody is seriously saying, I think it's Kamala Harris who's pulling all of the strings. And that is worth paying attention to.

All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show. Brand new sponsor we're thrilled to have on board, and that is Native Hydrate, a zero sugar electrolyte and amino acid drink mix that supports hydration, energy, and muscle health. Native Path's Native Hydrate is a thoughtfully designed formula packed with electrolytes, branched chain amino acids, and

all nine essential amino acids to help with muscle recovery, bladder health, and overall vitality. Plus, there's no sugar, no artificial additives, and it's third-party tested for purity. With Native Hydrate, you can fuel your body with essential electrolytes for cellular hydration and the amino acids it needs to absorb and retain those vital minerals.

Unlike other hydration drink mixes, Native Hydrate contains just 230 milligrams of sodium for optimal daily hydration. Native Hydrate is only five calories per serving. Every order comes with a 365-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free.

free. Go check them out at nativehydrate.com slash part of the problem to see what Native Hydrate could do for your health. That's nativehydrate.com slash part of the problem. And the promo code is part of the problem. All right, let's get back into the show. You know, like it's pretty, there's a few things that are very interesting about this presidential race. One of them is that we don't have a president currently, but even more interesting than that

is that the power structure, the machine, is fine with that. They really like not having a president. They like it so much that they were going to try to get this guy elected again. They were going to try to get Biden reelected. It's just that his debate performance was so pathetic that nobody could unsee what they had seen, and then they recognized they had to get rid of him. And now they really like this woman who doesn't exist.

who stands for nothing, who's running on nothing, who can't answer a very simple direct question. And so then the thing that you kind of realize from that is like, you're like, oh, that's how it actually works. That our government isn't actually run by the people we vote for. The president isn't actually running the federal government. Other power centers are. And they very much like for someone, whether it's Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, a different type of somebody who doesn't exist.

That's what they like. Look, you could look back to, and we only know this because of the heroic Julian Assange, but if you look back to the emails that Assange dumped where Citibank told Obama who his cabinet was going to be, they literally instructed Barack Obama at the time he was president-elect to

This is who your cabinet's going to be. And you know who his cabinet ended up being? Exactly who Citigroup told them. That's what they want. And this will also tell you why they hate Donald Trump so much. It's not any of the things, like I said in the beginning, it's not that Donald Trump is some real threat to power. It's not that Donald Trump...

He doesn't really have a he doesn't even have a surface level understanding of of most issues. He does not have a deep understanding of any issue. And I don't believe he's learned much from his last four years. As I said last episode, I think him buying this around propaganda was complete bullshit. It was him buying that bullshit just indicates how much he still doesn't get this. But the thing about Donald Trump is that love him or hate him. He exists.

That's essentially what it is. He's real. And he Donald Trump is a person who's used to being in charge of stuff and who views himself as being in charge. And you know that when Donald Trump was president and if Donald Trump is president again, he will have this silly idea in his head that he's the president of the United States of America. That's their essential issue with him.

is that he'll kind of have the attitude that I'm the president. And I think this is something that Americans don't really understand. That has not been the case for most of modern American history. I think the last two guys before Trump who really had the attitude that they were president was Jack Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Both of them got removed.

In one in more gruesome fashion than the other. But look, I mean, you go look, Tucker Carlson has done a great job of covering the, the Nixon thing, but believe me, if none of you guys have done a deep dive on Watergate and how Nixon got removed, I mean, it was, it was,

It's cartoonish how obvious it was that this was a setup. Was a bunch of CIA agents broke into Watergate without Nixon knowing it? And then they basically got him to cover it up. And then once he was part of the cover up, he was implicated. And then the story was broken by Bob Woodward, a naval intelligence officer who was not a reporter at all, got the biggest story in the history of America. That's an interesting coincidence.

So then, OK, fast forward, Donald Trump, he's Trump. So he thinks he's the smartest guy in the room and he thinks he's the boss of all bosses and he thinks he's really going to run things. And then he wins the election. So he comes in with the attitude that he's the president of the United States of America. He doesn't have the same attitude as Obama. Is a city group isn't going to send me my cabinet? I'm going to pick my cabinet. And then what ends up happening? Oh, what a shock. All of the intelligence agencies frame him for treason.

And all they tell the American people for four years is that he's a Russian agent, a sleeper cell of Vladimir Putin. The most ridiculous, unbelievable lie that you could come up with. And there's a million things to criticize Donald Trump for, but he's not a Russian agent. That's not one of them. Anyway, to me, this is the strongest case to vote for Donald Trump.

I'm not saying I'm going to vote for him, but the strongest case to vote for him is that at least you're not just giving the machine a victory without a candidate. At least you set the precedent that you have to nominate someone who exists. It's not perfect, but at least it's something. All right. That's going to be our episode for today. I will see you guys tomorrow, Friday and Saturday out in Detroit, comicdavesmith.com for tickets. Catch you guys next time. Peace.

Behind every BP fill-up, thousands of people across America go to work every day. People producing energy offshore. People turning it into products at our refineries. People doing R&D to make products that are better for your engine. People trading and shipping fuels to their destinations. And the people who help you at one of BP's growing family of retail stations.

They're part of the more than 300,000 jobs BP supports across the country. Learn more at BP.com slash investing in America.