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Hey, pull up a chair. It's Hacks on Tap with David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs, and Mike Murphy. Hacks on Tap
What I've done since I've changed the law, what's happened? I've changed it in a way that now you're in a situation where there are 40% fewer people coming across the border illegally. It's better than when he left office. And I'm going to continue to move until we get the total ban on the total initiative relative to what we're going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers.
President Trump? I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either. This is Houston. Say again, please. Houston, we have a problem. All right. Here we are, fellow junior astronauts in our post-debate show. I'm sorry if my signal's a little scratchy, guys. I'm sitting here at the departure lounge at Air Portugal at JFK. It was a grim night for America. What do you all think?
I don't even know where to begin. Those first 10 minutes of that debate were a nightmare. They were the nightmare scenario. I mean, we talked about it at length earlier in the week, you know, that Biden needed to be engaged, needed to be on the attack, needed to drive a message, needed to reassure people who had concerns about his campaign.
fitness. And he came out and he seemed lost from the beginning. His voice was shot. I mean, it was almost as if it was calculated to, you know, exacerbate those fears. And, um,
You know, I think he got more energetic as the night went on, but the night was lost already. And, you know, I can tell you and I'm sure that, Plouffe, you had the same experience. My phone was blowing up there on the CNN set with lots and lots of prominent people and a lot of prominent Democrats saying we're fucked.
Yeah, that was the international texting thing. It was like the day after Pearl Harbor. And still this morning. Well, who knew that discussion we had earlier in the week about the replacement scenario was so on point. But listen, I'll start with some caveats, which is one, I think Trump had a pretty bad night too. And I look at it through the lens of, was anyone who was undecided now going to move to Trump? I really don't believe so. And that's the tragedy, really. And secondly, you know,
voters parse this a little bit differently than we do. And, you know, some of the focus groups that some of the news organizations did last night, you know, they were all very critical of Biden. It just exacerbated their existing concerns. But, you know, they were pretty harsh on Trump. So, you know, I doubt we're going to see some seismic change in the race. But the truth of the matter is,
You know, David, this does remind me of 2012, but but on the inverse close race. But we had small but persistent leads in the battlegrounds. Trump has that right now. So Biden has to address his biggest challenges. And the one most in his control was to convince people that he was up for this job. And obviously he did the opposite last night. And, you know, at the end of the day, I'm not sure we have another debate. If I were Trump, I'd seriously consider not doing it. You're not going to do it. We'll see.
Right. So, you know, I just think these these linger and I think that we're left with the situation because he's Donald Trump. It's not like this is going to turn into an eight point race. It's still going to be close, but it was a huge missed opportunity. And I just think, you know, we've all debated or sorry, we've prepped candidates. Trump provided so many openings and some of them Biden tried to take advantage of. But, you know, he just couldn't land the plane.
And so they just didn't stick. And so here we are where I think there's going to be a freak out for days here. You know, the Biden campaign is saying, of course, he's staying in all the candidates who would run if he didn't or issuing expressions of support, which is right. So at the end of the day, this is going to come down to Joe Biden's closest advisors. And I think the one thing I see people saying who want to be an optimist and all shut up is, well, George W. Bush lost his first debate and he won.
Barack Obama lost his first debate in 2012 when he won. But huge differences. Well, maybe that was the whole thing, Plouffe. Maybe they studied those earlier debates. Well, listen, maybe this is a genius plan to drive down turnout. You know, they want a low turnout election. So maybe that's what this is about. I'll tell you, I...
It was a complete disaster. And I agree about Trump. He was awful. But it didn't matter because Biden was so busy confirming everybody's worst fear and making every Republican attack seem completely true. So now Biden is going to be in this hell week, not only of all the process reporter of sources close to the governor of whatever think he shouldn't run and all that. There will be a legitimate public painful discussion about whether or not he can do the job of president.
And that is not political hackery. That's actually a legit thing now created by last night. And that's going to take space and that's going to move numbers. I agree. I don't think Trump gained anything, but Biden made it all about Biden by not being up to it. That is the stark truth. And look, David and I have gone back and forth on this, but we fundamentally agree the only people who
who can make the choice to replace the nominee are Joe Biden and Jill Biden. And that is probably unlikely knowing them, but I would not underestimate the pressure they're going to be under and the pressure is going to be right. I mean, a message that we've been pitching for a while here on Hacks that I think we've been happy to see them adopt, which is I'm about you, the middle class, Trump's about himself.
That went out the window last night. Yeah, where was it? It's about him. And we didn't hear it in the debate. The debate thing was about tools. Biden does not have the tools. Tragically, it was the saddest debate I've ever seen because I'm for Biden. But it's undercut. Is Biden the selfish guy now stepping back?
And I think a lot of people are going to think he is. Guys, I literally was up all night because I find this agonizing. You know, first of all, that debate was a microcosm of the race, right? You had a thoroughly disagreeable, mendacious Donald Trump up there. And I do think that
he reminded people why they didn't particularly like him in the first place. I don't think he, you know, I know there was a lot of sort of triumphalism among Republicans, but all I could sit there thinking was, man, if this guy had a viable candidate against him, deep, deep trouble. But so, you know,
David, you're a logistics whiz. Let's just fantasize for a second here, because I think there are problems with an open convention that we should talk about.
Someone told me this morning that they thought that there would be barriers to getting a different nominee on state ballots, but I don't understand why, because those usually key off of the convention.
Right. Ohio might be the one place, but that's not going to be competitive. So but again, this is the fantasy part of the discussion, because, as Mike said, unless Joe Biden and Jill Biden decide they're going to step aside, it's not going to happen. And I see no evidence that it will. But, you know, if in some miracle scenario he decides to step aside.
You know, you basically are going to have to get close to 2000 delegates. That's the that's what's crazy. It's gross because it's not voters, it's delegates. But I assume in that scenario, a bunch of people, including the vice president, potentially, but certainly other governors and senators get in their auditioning.
And as we talked about last week, Mike says there's perhaps a scenario where somebody gets so much momentum, everybody else gets out and it's not contested in Chicago, perhaps. But I just don't think it's going to happen. And that's the tragedy of where we are, is Donald Trump is about the most beatable Republican nominee you can imagine. Yeah.
And I will say this. You guys know this. The political graveyard is littered, Ron DeSantis being the last member of that graveyard, with candidates who look great on paper and can't hack
the scrutiny of a presidential race. So some of the people that look great on paper right now in the Democratic Party won't withstand the glare as you say, the MRI of the soul. Which is why we needed a primary. But somebody will. And I think they would walk into the White House. But that's not the race we have right now. And, you know, at the end of the day, you know, but listen, it's not helpful. It's going to hurt their fundraising. It's going to hurt enthusiasm. And I agree more than anything else. It's painful for people. They're hurting, man.
Let me just tee off on what I was pitching. And again, we are in fantasy baseball land. But if Joe Biden woke up today and said, God, I hate Donald Trump and I really want to screw him, I don't think it's necessarily a binary choice between
You know, an open convention, Democratic mayhem, AOC on the eighth ballot. And we take Biden to war here for the rest of the time, which is not optimal, to say the least. I think there is a scenario where Biden and Jill make the decision. And again, fantasy football here.
But then Biden decides to lead this. And because I think there'll be a surge of affection for Biden if he does it. And he will be the patriot in the race. And he says...
I'm for Gretchen Whitmer and Warnock or whoever the two superstars are. The thing about Gretchen is you get one, a very capable person from a critical state. You get the first female Democratic nominee after Hillary. And if you manage that first four days right. And I think the affection for Biden, there would be a stampede to his choice if it looks smart. And the historic nomination of a female, probably an African-American running mate, whoever it is.
That surge, there would be polls a week later showing them five, six up on Trump easily. And boy, the Democrats would be drunk with gratitude for Biden and they'd feel winning. Now, it may not sustain. You're right. Pressure test. I mean, she's been pretty well tested as a statewide governor, but presidential is different. But I think you could go thundering into the convention with risk, but not mayhem. Yeah, well.
Yes. Listen, I mean, the question is, there's risk everywhere you look here. Exactly. There's risk everywhere you look. But last night, the downside risk of Biden became much, much more pronounced. They asked for this debate. Right. This is the thing. They had to know. The staff had to know. No staffer who's not working for Trump would ever have asked for and delivered that debate. So it had to be Biden.
Biden had to have gone to the staff and said, I want to debate this son of a bitch. Let me do it. And nobody said no. I mean, that's the only theory I have to explain it. Maybe there's another one. Well, but maybe it was a good idea. But ideas, they require good execution. And the thing that really bothers me, makes me angry, sad, all the things is,
He and of course, he knew how important this was. Most important 90 minutes of his life and important 90 minutes in American political history. He knew what he had to do.
Yep. And I think the biggest problem is how old he looked and how weak he looked. But also, you know, he didn't talk about Project 25, 2025, what Trump's going to do. Their middle class message, I'll fight for you. Trump will fight for himself, as you guys said, was nowhere to be found. And then those key moments around abortion and immigration and inflation were garbled. So that's my concern is it's the moment he knew how big it was. His team knew how big he was.
and he couldn't deliver. And the only way out of this is another debate, because listen, they can have four events a day where Biden looks energetic and can run great ads and put Trump on the defensive on TikTok and Instagram and all the things. But that's not going to answer the central question that was in the race prior to tonight. Last night is even more so. Yeah, I agree. Try a little bit. Just I just don't think.
If you're Trump, you're just going to say, I don't want to put poor Joe through that again. Exactly. Yeah. And the other thing is, I don't think a bunch of prep is going to fix Biden's problem. You know, his problem is geriatric medicine. He doesn't have the toolbox. He can't do it. There's no better version of Biden coming forward, which is the real terror, because he's now opened this debate, and I don't think he has a way to close it of can he do the job. It just...
It was just so cruel to him that, as David said, David Axelrod, the first five, seven minutes there of the slow walkout and the first time he did the slack-jawed resting face kind of looking in the middle distance, it was just devastating. And how do you unsee that? And how do we get new Biden doing the triple axel? I don't think that Biden exists.
What, of course, you know, and Murphy, I'm not sure this would have mattered, but the rules, you know, there's no no audience turning off the mics, I think, hurt by like if this was a town hall debate where they both had to engage with voters. Now, it might have been painful to watch Biden walk over to those voters, but he's an empathetic guy. So, you know, if there is going to be a second debate and I agree, I think Trump's going to say no way, no how. But if there is, I think trying to get an audience not of hacks, but of voters would be pretty important.
I agree. It would maybe bring Biden to life. But, you know, again, we're looking for a miracle cure here for something that was pretty a priori true last night. The move is that Biden has to step aside, but there's no way to compel him to other than shame. All right. Well, let's let's play out the other thing. What happens now? What what short of another debate? He's going to have a convention, you know, which also could be a star crossed affair. And my guess is they're going to
kind of they'll they'll scoot him in and out of that he's not going to hang around but I mean now doesn't want to miss the early bird at Denny's sorry couldn't resist one one age gag honestly if this is his obstacle how in the world do you do you do it I mean I think probably what you have to do is just
irradiate Trump, you know, from start to finish. Yeah. And state of the union, put them on a prompter and let them do a half decent speech because it's totally scripted. And, you know, hopefully he can just belt it out like he did the state of the union. And that's all you got and, and irradiate Trump. But the problem is the race isn't about Trump. It's about Biden. And that's what's killing them. Yeah. Yeah. What I'm looking for though, because we've got to give people some ray of hope here is,
Assuming that he does not submit to the realities and that he stays, what does this assembled group of political wisdom do?
What would you do? I mean, I said one thing, which is I think you just got to your media and your surrogates have to just go relentlessly after Trump. It doesn't exactly solve the problem, but it at least holds a place. But what do you do to the team? He never goes anywhere without Buttigieg, Mitch, Raimundo all around him. It's the action squad. And he's Professor Xavier.
You want a contrast between the Biden team and the Trump team. President is a team sport. And you get all the brilliant 40 and 50-year-olds out there, aggressive. And Biden is never alone again.
Yeah. Well, listen, I think you irradiate Trump and then the best you can do is a vigorous schedule where I agree, Murphy, it's the cabinet. Also, you know, Whitmer, Shapiro, Governor Evers in Wisconsin, all these battleground states in Arizona, Katie Hobbs in North Carolina, Cooper, we've got Democratic governors, you know, he should be campaigning with them. And the one thing that worries me is like, I thought Kamala Harris was very good last night. She said, listen, we got off to a slow start. Now she can't trash him more than that, but it admitted that
But if there's a sense that, you know, that the moderators were unfair or he did a really good job when he didn't, like, I think Biden would say, yeah, I had an off night.
But let me tell you what being president is. It's about making decisions, hiring good people, having the American people at heart. And that's what I'll do. And then attack Trump. It's not going to solve the central issue. So all you can do is, I think, by some major factor, increase the argument against Trump in every way you can. And I think Biden's going to have to be out there more. And some people may say, well, God, after last night, why would you do that? I mean, it's not going to be worse than last night. I mean, you know, it's just not. And the other thing this is, you know,
This pains me to say, but we go back to the State of the Union. And my sense is it was the setting, it was the prompter. Yeah. You know, but maybe there's been some more decline. We have to be honest about that. You know, it has been three or four months. And hard months, hard months. Right. Well, and the question is, if there's been decline in the last three and four months, what do we anticipate in the next three or four months? But the one question I have about your thing, Murphy, is...
What is it like
Does that come across as the team or does it come across as the kids taking grandpa down to Denny? No, no. That's the downside. But my view is we've crossed that line. Right. We're not talking about a living, breathing candidacy here. So you're going to – I mean, here's another thing I'd do. I'd have him in a 60 Minutes interview this weekend. And I would program him to be, look, it's not my style to stand up and trade insults with a toddler. Right.
So, yeah, I had a bad night. But let me tell you from my heart what I'm trying to do here. Get him one-on-one with somebody, roll the dice. And if he's incoherent, then guess what? It's done. It's already probably done, but at least see if he can perform. And if he can, you get a bounce back and you're not hanging out there alone for the next five days with the debate about how can he handle the nuclear codes. I mean, now we know why he didn't do the Super Bowl softball interview. But he's either got to get back at bat and do something or...
Or, and it may be too late for that, by the way, but I'm grasping to try to find something to do now. I understand. That was kind of the theory behind the debate, right? Right. We're a big restart. We're going to show them.
Look out, Trump. Tragedy of this. And listen, the Biden campaign will do this. It's just not going to be as effective. Like all three of us have spent time watching our opponents debate and think about, OK, what's our what's our plan that night? The next day, what are we going to drive for a week, two weeks? Trump gave so much material from, you know, I didn't have sex with a porn star to like one of the most important issues to people. Childcare wouldn't answer it.
One of the most important issues to people, the opioid addiction wouldn't answer it. That fits under the frame of he's such a narcissistic asshole. All he cares about is himself. Like Trump gave us so much material. And so the Biden campaign has got to find a way to drive that. It's going to be far less effective.
But that's the other thing they have to do. But I agree with Murphy. Listen, there will be people who say, look, Uncle Joe needs assistance. But that's just the reality of where we are. And so I think he's got to lean into. And by the way, there's contrast there, which is who is Trump going to hire? You know, you know, there is value there. That's why this is actually this VP decision is meaningful because it is the first presidential decision.
And so will Trump's choice reassure people? Actually, I thought Rubio did pretty well on CNN last night. Yeah, Marco can slide under a closed door, but he's the right cynical choice for Trump. On the other hand, feral Trump will smell that, you know, he'll need five more food testers. Did you see his interview? He was, you know, Aaron Burnett, I guess, interviewed him and asked him about the
revision in the constitution that said two people from the same state couldn't be president and vice president. And he kind of laughed and says, that's still in there.
I mean, he was good. He seemed relaxed. And but, you know, I still kind of I kind of think the Burgum choice. It sends a reassuring the establishment would like the Burgum thing. I've had more than a few Trump hating senior Republicans say, look, I can live with Burgum because I know he's lying his ass off. And if Trump were to choke on meatloaf, the country would hold together.
Yeah. Yeah. But so we extol the virtues of Bergen. We extol the virtues of Rubio, which probably means advance will be the nominee. But yeah, or a Kardashian. That'll be the big surprise. But I actually I think when, you know, there's maybe more more meaning on this pick now because I think people are grudgingly going to give Trump another look.
you know, these people who are hanging out. But man, I think you could cut a lot of ads out of his stuff last night. By the way, the thing at the end,
where the two guys were arguing about golf. Yes. I felt like, oh, my God, I've been dropped in the middle of the villages, and I'm watching a couple of guys in their golf carts. When I did the poll to the Bob Barker-Adam Sandler golf fight before, how little did I know? Yeah, man, you were prescient. I think Biden would win the contest carrying the clubs, but it would take two days to complete the thing because we'd be moving at snail speed.
Yeah, it was horrible. I mean, boy, I'll bet they were the Chinese must have had an emergency Politburo meeting, which is this can't be legit. This is some kind of trick. The whole thing. They're out foxing us. It can't be this bad. Americans aren't that stupid. What's going on? Figure it out. Because it was it was so depressed. I went home, got a bottle of whiskey and watched the last hurrah. It just broke my heart. I saw some dial reports from yesterday. Yeah.
And Trump really did dial poorly. Yeah, well, they hate him. It was largely, you know, his gratuitous nastiness. Right. I mean, they don't like his positions. I mean, he...
You know, took a beating on that. You know, he did well with immigration. He took a beating on everything, almost everything else. So, you know, abortion rights in particular, health care taxes did poorly with all of that. But the thing that really rankled people was him just being a jackass and being nasty. I agree. That's why the Biden move is to sit down with that spring chicken, Leslie Stahl.
and do a one-on-one thing for 60 where Biden talks about, you know, I just, I don't like being a jerk. I don't make it all about behavior. And that's why the bad night. It's just now I'm busy being president. I have to go argue with a toddler baby who's saying I'm a Chinese robot. I mean, really?
Really? Let me tell you, there are people who can't afford their diabetes medicine right now. What do they think watching that crazy debate? And just try to be human, regular Joe, and then go on about abortion for a long time. There's a move there. But again, I don't know if he's going to drift off to space. His resting face where the jaw opens is deadly. You can't see that again. We've all prepared people for debates today.
And, Buff, you know the people who prepared Biden. They're very experienced. I think Michael Sheehan was there. I'm not sure. You know, who is an expert on TV. Yeah, they've all left the country. Presumably, they practiced. They showed him what it looked like.
You know, I don't understand how that could have happened. I don't understand how the first 10 minutes could have gone that badly. One thing I will tell you is he arrived 15 minutes before the debate. And I'm wondering whether that was a mistake. But, you know, he was I honestly believe if he had performed well.
the way he performed in the last half of the debate from the beginning, it still wouldn't have been good, but it wouldn't have been the disaster that it was. So why did he start off so badly? And the question wasn't exactly a trick question. Yeah. And Trump, you know, I would say must have practiced a thousand times. And listen, Trump got worse as the thing went on. But as we've learned those first 10 or 15 minutes,
You know, sort of impression cement. So, yes, you spend a lot of time practicing when your opponent is speaking. What do you do with your hands, with your eyes? How do you look? So they did all that. So I'm sure that team, you and I have worked with them, Axe.
you know, they went into it with a plan and Biden just couldn't execute. Which he did four years ago. He did four years ago. It's not the same guy. That's the problem. It's not the same. There's no toolbox. And in 2012 and in 2016, yes, we know he's got it. Right. That's the thing. It's not the same guy. So,
But I agree with you, Murphy. Whether it's 60 Minutes, I'd even go on Fox. I'd talk to every TikTok influencer I could, every YouTube. You just got to cover it. And listen, there's going to be painful moments and all that, but it won't be as painful as last night. That's the best that you can do.
But that's what's so concerning to me. And the other thing, you mentioned the golf ridiculousness and they spent like 10 minutes, you know, saying who was the worst president. Quite frankly, that wasn't on either of their sheets, right? Right. These guys hate each other. I think they probably were getting tired.
And so there was a lot of sloppiness. But but, yeah, the economy was the. So the thing is, you know, they're running ads now saying I'm about you, Joe Biden. I'm about you, the workers. Trump's all about himself. That should have been the first 15 seconds. Of course. Of course. And it wasn't. He went into stat land. And, you know, but we talked about our we all kind of knew that's what he'd do. Look, he's uncoachable.
Yeah. That's the problem based on his age. I, I have a bunch of director friends and I have one who was talking about an actor saying, boy, 28 years in the business. And I've never had an actor who's undirectable.
And Biden at his age now is uncoachable. And we just saw Biden being Biden. There was no technique or anything. Maybe they told it to him. I don't know what they did at Camp David, but it sure didn't penetrate. Buff, let me ask you a question, too. I know I want to hear from both you guys on this, but on the first one in particular, because of the precincts that you cover, what was the—I saw some of it, but what was the tenor of social media coverage?
last night? What were the social media wars like? Do you have a sense of it? I mean, yeah. And so here's the thing last night, but most importantly today through the weekend, you know, this becomes a battle of memes and short form video. And, you know, I didn't have sex with a porn star is definitely getting some traffic. But, you know, the memes around Biden's age, his face resting, that is going to dominate. So the issue is Trump was awful.
I thought. Yeah. When you think about it through the prism of what he had to do, but the people who didn't watch the debate, I think mostly what they're going to see is these memes about Biden and his age. So this is really important. Like, it's not like it's going to get better because I think as bad as it was last night, the original audience is probably going to give Biden a little bit more.
Well, I wouldn't say positives, but it'll be mixed. The people who didn't watch the debate, that's all they're going to hear. Right. That also includes Murphy. The people who didn't watch the debate last night also happen to be the people who are hanging out in this race. And so the people who you most need to convince are going to get this, their information from, you know, TikTok and Instagram. No, all this bad stuff, it's going to get worse and worse because they're going to hear, they're going to hear a terrible debate. So they're going to go online and they're going to see slack jawed,
zombie Biden, the mummy, then it's going to be terrible. Then they're going to see the high tone debate, or at least they're going to hear about it, of the Tom Freedman's of the world saying he's got to step aside. He's not up to it. And that's going to burn and burn and get bigger and bigger and bigger. And then they're going to see the political hack saying, holy Christ, we're going to lose. We got to get rid of this slow horse. So this thing is going to be six, seven days of hell. And Biden's got to get on TV and do something to try to arrest it. But if I
The only thing to do. But if I had to bet, I'll bet that'll be terrible, too. So I don't think it's a zero chance that he's hounded out of the race. But if he wants to hold the Democratic Party and the country hostage and refuse to step aside, yeah, sure, he can. There goes the selfishness argument. And Trump will have an excellent chance to win, even with his awfulness, because Trump managed to blow. Excuse me. Biden blew Trump off the stage last night in all the wrong ways.
It actually made Trump's lunacy less relevant. I mean, I heard from a lot of incumbent and incumbents who are on the ballot or who have an interest in
folks on the ballot and they're in full out bedwetting, pearl clutching panic. I don't blame them. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, someone said one candidate sent me a clip from a airplane of, I guess, was it Robert stack or Lloyd bridges who said, I picked the wrong week to stop stiffing glue. Yeah. Pluff. I got to believe if you're Chuck Schumer, if you're Hakeem Jeffries, you're,
If you're, you know, a candidate running for governor, you know, Stein in North Carolina, this has to be deeply concerning.
Yeah, because, you know, the truth is because the Republicans have a bunch of shitty candidates in the House and Senate, which is kind of the story of the last decade. Democrats have a chance to overperform, but not if Biden is losing, you know, competitive districts and states by, you know, anywhere from two to six points. So those people won't say anything publicly. But I think I ask the question will be, let's say Wednesday or Thursday of next week, as we really begin to get a sense of where the race might have shifted.
And if it has even moved a couple of points more negative, you're going to see those candidates probably not on the record, but a sense that things have gotten worse for those candidates. And, you know, the Republicans are out there talking about maybe we can get the 54, 55 in the Senate.
which seems like a stretch. However, if Biden were to lose a Pennsylvania or Michigan by three, four points, right. So yeah, there's going to be absolute panic and it could cause us the house because New York and California were already not where we needed them to be vis-a-vis the presidential. And we need Biden to be strong in those blue States to max our house wins. Here's a scary California number, by the way, I saw a poll done about two weeks ago and
in L.A. County, 10 million people, you know, almost as big as like Illinois or Ohio, Democratic-based county, Los Angeles City and all the little cities around it. Biden's fave unfavorable. This is done by a reputable Democratic pollster you guys both know personally. Biden was 52 over 46 fave unfavorable in L.A. County. This is before the debate.
So it's not like he had an eight-point lead. Boy, this could really blow the lead for him. He was in a pit to begin with.
And now this. We're skipping the mailbag, hackaroos, because, well, we're heading to the bar. We need a little medicine after the debate. But we'll be back. So send us some fresh questions, including about the debate or anything else. All you got to do is email us at hacksontap at gmail.com, hacksontap at gmail.com. Or you can record a question on your phone on voice memo.
or a similar app and just email it to us. Don't make it too long. We're the Bloviators around here, and be sure to include your name. And then finally, we even have an incredibly high-tech 1962-level device
phone answering machine somewhere in an off-track betting parlor in Chicago, all you got to do is call the impossible-to-remember number, which is 773-389-4471. I'll repeat it because who can remember that? 773-389-4471.
Yeah, just leave us a message with your question and name. Keep it 20, 23 seconds or so. Maybe you'll hear yourself right here on Hacks on Tap. We love questions. Send them in and we'll jump on those next week. We're going to sign off, but before we do, I thought that we should give a last word to Jon Stewart. Let me just say after watching tonight's debate, both of these men
should be using performance enhancing drugs. As much of it as they can get as many times a day as their bodies will allow.
If performance-enhancing drugs will improve their lucidity, their ability to solve problems, and in one of the candidates' cases, improve their truthfulness, morality, and malignant narcissism, then suppository away. Guess what, everybody?
They should be taking whatever magical drugs can kick their brains into gear. Because this ain't Olympic swimming. You know what I'm saying? Oh, he solved the Middle East, but he was doping, so it doesn't count. There's going to be an asterisk next to his presidency.
And by the way, if those drugs don't exist, if there aren't actually performance enhancing drugs for these candidates, I could sure use some recreational ones right now because this cannot be real life. It just can't. We're America. God.
I think he kind of sums up everybody's feelings right there. Yeah, yeah. Well, we will see. It's going to be an interesting five days here.
I've got one fast, shameless plug on another topic, a little refresher. I had a lot of fun with Elena Ciccatelli doing the EVs for Everybody podcast, and she's launched it, and it's all about the auto retail business and EVs. It was a lot of fun. So you want to get away from politics, check out EVs for Everybody. It was electric, I'm sure. Yes, it was high voltage. We all need all the escapes we can get. But Stuart, actually, MSNBC did this. It was only four people, but this debate watch party with undecided voters in Arizona.
last night. And one of the voters said after watching Trump, he's like, hell no. But after watching Biden, he was, oh no. And I think that's kind of where we are, which is people feel this. And by the way, I just want to say,
I am worried. You mentioned the people who didn't watch the debate are, for the most part, going to over skew is sort of undecided. Are they going to vote? A lot of them young. So I do think there's going to be a difference between swing voters over 50 and how they rationalize this choice. If you're 18, 20, 22, and you saw that debate or clips of it.
You know, the age thing is more pronounced with that cohort. That's one of the reasons Biden's struggling. So I think as you think about the Manhattan Project to recover from this, that is the toughest on the pyramid. Bobby Kennedy got some votes last night. You know, I know he's a listener. So, Mr. President, you're patriot. This is easy if you make it easy.
Wire the nomination for Whitmer and somebody and destroy Donald Trump. You will go down in history a lot better than you are right now. Do the right thing. We're not asking you to land on Anzio Beach here. You know in your heart what to do. And for crying out loud, buy an electric vehicle, will you? Yeah, American made.
Or an electric scooter. Yeah. Yeah. That's how we get the kids. You got it. We're putting, you know, he'll do a little pirouette and a bird chase Trump around. I can see it now. It's been great to travel this nightmare. Thank you. And we hope that you'll come back soon. Absolutely, Axe. And if you watch David and Kelly and Conway, their podcast, The Campaign Manager. And we're doing it. We're launching a new podcast next week. The Pearl Clutch.
So get your grip ready. You're going to need it, Democrats. Holy crap. All right, guys. We'll be back next week. See you guys. See ya. See ya.
