"3 Presidents"
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fellas how you doing uh how are you was getting in okay or was there uh cavity searches there was a cavity search anyway it was good it wasn't long enough actually went back um for seconds and they said we don't we never had anybody come back it's not thanksgiving you're you're clean yeah he said can i come back tomorrow to get cold leftovers

Welcome to Smartless. Guys, take a breath and think about what this is about to be. It's fucking insane, you guys. Yeah. It's insane. Do you guys have good questions? I have a couple. Sort of.

I have areas. Way to not prep. I did prep. I did. I thought... I had a lot of conversations with people. I've got 18 questions. Oh, good. I'll just...

I'll just follow you. I was not joking when I said, I think it's good that we have questions, but I also want to entertain conversation and listening. Let's just make it a conversation. And through conversation, questions will come out. Is that right? I think so. Oh, boy. So how are you guys feeling when you woke up today knowing that this was going to happen? Are we rolling yet? Are we recording right now? Yeah. Are we really? Yeah. Oh.

So this is a whole different... We can say where we are. I got to put on my radio voice. We can say where we are because it's... Because after the fact, yeah, we're at the... So...

Don't say it! No, I'm kidding. Well, we're here on Central Park South with a beautiful second-story view of the park, if second-story is beautiful views. A little rainy. Treetops is nice. A little rainy. And we very rarely have more than one guest. Sometimes we have two. When were the times we did it? When we have bands on, a lot of the time we have two guys. Like Billie Eilish and Finn. Radiohead. Radiohead. Yep.

Duran Duran. Killers. Oh, no, that was just Simon. Duran. Duran. The Killers. The Killers. The Pesh Mode. The Pesh Mode, right. That was great. So today we're doing a first time. It's a little risky. There's three of them. But it's kind of a band full of rock stars. Bear with us. Yeah. They're like the police. Yeah. So you'll be familiar with...

One of them. The other two he wanted to bring along, I guess his buddies. He gets a little nervous. We've had him on the show before. He wanted to do it again. They're guys he worked with, I guess. Yeah, we don't really do repeat guests, but we made an exception here, and we certainly don't let people bring buddies, but he was insistent. Can I just say, I'm excited too, can I just say, we're sitting here in this hotel room, as we've already said. It's 2024. Yeah.

Four years ago, less than four years ago, we started doing this podcast. It was a COVID baby, as we call it. Came out of the gate with Dax Shepard. Came out of the gate with Dax Shepard. Which was great, but I set the bar high with Dax. And then now here we are in New York. Four years later, scraping the bottom of the barrel. With a dude and his buddies. We got Rob Armjarv. Arm.

And we got Bennett Barber Cow. And we got MGT, Michael the G Terry. Yeah. And we're all here in New York and it's fucking wild, guys. Yeah. And I want to say to you guys. Yeah, it's pretty cool. This is awesome.

This is cool. This is one of those life moments, right? You got to stop and recognize it. Michael, I just want to say, Michael, how is it for you? Delightful. Delightful. That's it. Delightful. And I'm proud of us. We haven't screwed it up yet. Bennett, what do you think? It feels... It's amazing. It's weird, right? Wow, these adjectives are incredible. We've been saying to take a breath. Rob, yell something from over there. How are you feeling? Fantastic.

That's Rob. We did limit them each to one word. And Rob doesn't even have a microphone. So thank you for your contributions. We have been reminding ourselves to be present, though, and take a breath. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. Now, Will came up to get a ride with my guy that I sometimes hire for, like...

When I do a Broadway show, my driver, Mikey. Who drove it when he was doing, do you know Sean did a play on Broadway last year? Jesus, no. Yeah. What was it called? And it was called Go Get Me, Oscar. I think. Right. Right? And it was, wasn't it the Topo Chico? Yeah, the Topo Chico Theater. Yeah. And so he came, so Will, I said, do you want to ride? Because I think Jason's.

close, really close to the hotel. So Will came straight up. The first thing, I put my pants on and I walked out to the living room with my shirt and my pants on. I reached in my pocket and I found money. I found like 30 bucks. Great story. But here's the best part. Sean pulls out and he goes, he turns to Scottie and he goes, look at this. And we go, what? And he goes, he's got like $31. He goes, look at all this money.

And we go, yeah. And I go, so the pants are clean. Obviously, today's a big event for you. Yeah, exactly. So the dry cleaner's just... He hasn't been here for six months. I haven't been here for six months, so I just put these pants on. And I was like, oh, I guess I wore them out. And there was just the one pair of socks that you stole from...

a youngster you were babysitting or? - I know, you don't know where the skin ends and the sock starts. - You know, it's fairly high class guests today. You didn't think you'd go with a full length sock. And Will doesn't have socks at all. - I know, but that's the way to go. I know I should have gone full length. - Shawny, what do you decide? How do you decide what clothes stay here in your apartment in New York? Like what's the math that you do on that?

I don't, I just, you know, there's like a couple T-shirts and clearly a couple pants and... I mean, pants is a stretch. They're jeans. No, they're not. They're pants. Sorry, they're stretch jeans. No, no, no. When I said stretch, I... They look like jeans. They're dress pants. They're brushed cotton jeggings. Yes, thank you. But they're in a five-pant cut. I mean, five-pocket cut. Well, look at Jason. Jason's in corduroys and a...

Yeah, but Jason looks like he's doing a whole different-- But I'm also living here and I don't have, you know, President of the United States clothes with me. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -You know? You look good. I said before, you look very rugged and sexy. Thank you very much. I'm playing a guy that's made a lot of bad decisions. You know what I like about-- Your hair's long enough that when you're wearing the headphones right now, it's keeping the hair back and you've got kind of like a soccer-- like a European soccer player vibe. He's slowly winking at you. The slow winks we could do without. And they're half winks too.

They're more lid squeezes. That's so gross. So you guys have, do you have important questions loaded? Do you have fun questions loaded? I have a little bit of both. A little bit of both. You've got some policy questions, perhaps? Yeah, mine obviously have more to do with relations with Canada. Sure. Right? Sure.

Sure. Is that one of the borders we're closing? I hope not. You know, because how are we going to get all our stuff across, eh? I'm still moving cigarettes. Fuck, I don't care. I'm mulling some of that sticky BC bud through the interior. I'm coming down through Fernie, BC, eh? My brother found a good path last year.

Let's see what they have to say about that. Sure, I want to hear what they have to say. Yeah, I wonder, I'm sure they don't want to get into the micro of policy and stuff like that. I'm sure they'd like us to find a middle ground between drive time radio and some hard-hitting meet the press conversation. Yeah, but I mean, I can't, I don't know how to formulate those questions. Well, you know what's interesting is that the three of them obviously are very connected and they're all sort of from the

the same sort of class

of Democrats in that, right, that they were around. Obama was a rising star. You know, President Biden's been around since the 70s. He was a senator, et cetera. Obama came up as this young star in the early 2000s. Nobody will forget his fiery speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, how amazing that was. That was amazing. Clinton was a governor. Clinton was a governor, and then he was a superstar back-to-back. Arkansas, right? Yes, Arkansas. Thank you. Good, Sean. Thank you.

but back-to-back President of the United States. So they all, I think, have very... My point is they're similarly minded when it comes to sort of policy. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Et cetera. Well, it's cool that they all are, like, together. I don't know that I've ever seen that or, like, witnessed that. Yeah, I mean, you didn't even see George W. and his dad together. Didn't they? But didn't the three of them get together for the last election a bit? Didn't they sort of... You're thinking of the three tenors, I think. Ha ha!

These are not... By the way, we have to do that in the system.

If we don't do the three tenors right after this, I quit. We should just start, let's start the interview mistaking them for the three tenors. So when do you guys, have you been in rehearsals long? Because the Radio City show tonight should be getting the acoustics. We're so excited for the sound. What's your warm-up like? Will there be solos or do you guys just sing all the songs together? You guys are slimmer than I remember opera singers.

And your accents are fantastic. Really, it's amazing. Well, guys, I'm honored to be here, not just with them. I'm honored to be here with you guys. Likewise. This is a wonderful occasion, not just in the podcast, but in life. Yes. Tell me your name more often. It still will. Yes, it will.

And I'm really psyched that I get to be here with you guys doing this. -Likewise. -It's unreal. It's not lost on me, not to pat ourselves on the back, but just to say briefly, very proud of us that we haven't screwed this up yet and that Mr. Biden called us again and wanted to do this again, wanted to bring his friends-- Just so, so flattered and humbled and yeah, it's crazy.

Ditto to all of it. Here we go. It's an all-new, super presidential smart list. All right, I'm over there, right? We're just going to come in and test the microphones, too. Yeah, thank you. So headphones on, yeah? Yeah, headphones on. Grab those headphones right there, please. Okay. And I'm going to swing this in a little bit. Ah.

Thank you, sir. You're welcome. Mr. Clinton, have you done any time, Mr. Clinton, in Lake of the Ozarks? Oh, yeah. Right? Because that was just, that's in your neck of the old woods there. Yeah. Do you want it up or down? I've spent a lot of time. I've been to every voting precinct in the northern Arkansas Ozarks, and I had one of the presidents of Walmart. Sure. Came from a little town in the...

in the Ozarks, near the Lake of the Ozarks. And I went up, they had a day for him, and I went up there once. I can hear fine. So I've moseyed around up there. But was that ever a vacation spot for you? No, I didn't take any vacations up there. I was working up there, but I was up there all the time. But that's a big spot for folks in that part of the country. Oh, yeah, it's breathtakingly beautiful.

Yeah, that lake gets a lot of work. I mean, judging by your show, Jason, it seems like a pretty dangerous part of the world, too. Well, we didn't really spend a lot of time in there. Yeah, we didn't spend a lot of time with the nice part. Not much of a show in that. My family vacationed there once when I was a kid, and everybody got drunk. What a surprise. I still remember when it was all illegal. We had a sheriff from up there that had a jail where the cells were all below...

Below the water level? No, below ground level. So he was, they were all pot farms. Uh-huh. When it was all still illegal. Wow. He made a hell of a lot of money doing it. That's crazy. Is it legal in Missouri and Arkansas yet?

Are you planning a trip? Sort of. But when he did it... You basically scout out every state. It's like, can I go here? Is this okay? Well, it's a sequel. We've done the old... Honey, we're going to Missouri. It was more fun when it was illegal. Uh-huh. Yeah, exactly. Well...

I love doing it. You should have had me writing some of your scripts for you. I want to start by, you know, first of all, this is huge for us. And what a massive honor it is to be sitting with the three of you looking at us. It's so bizarre. It's crazy. We're wondering...

We're all wondering how we ended up going out about it. You've got questions for your staff. And your questions are only going to grow as to why you did it, as the further we get into it. We were saying earlier, four years ago, we started this podcast during COVID as a way to kind of connect with each other. And we ended up connecting with a lot of people out there. And for us, it's a real thrill to be here. Did you ever get Trump? No.

Couldn't make his deal. No, we're letting other people get him. Yeah. Well done, Will. Thank you. Bravo, bravo. But it is momentous for us, and especially during this time that we're in right now, to have your time. So we thank you for your time. Yeah, yeah, this is huge.

How do you all know each other? I'm kidding. That was my opening. But it is... I've worked for both of them a long time. Yeah, I know. It's not the first time that you three have combined forces to really kind of...

do what we all need you guys to do, which is keep you in office. But does it strike you as, like, how is it even necessary to have half a president campaigning against the other guy? It is shocking to me that it takes the amount of effort to be competitive against someone who just...

in my opinion, is just running for the wrong thing. Well, a lot's changed. A lot's changed in how you communicate. A lot's changed in information. And so much disinformation out there. And, you know, it's really... And it's hard to communicate even today when you do accomplish some...

improbable things. Yeah. And, but he... Well, and I'll say that, Mr. President, not to cut you off, but you have accomplished a lot of incredible things. And all three of you did in your presidencies, did amazing things. President Clinton, you...

left this country with a surplus, which is the first time it had been done in a number of years. President Obama, you passed the Affordable Care Act, really started to tackle social issues. President Biden, you know, you look at your jobs numbers, you look at the way you're battling inflation, which has not been easy. And you've done it with a lot of headwind and you've had a lot of people, a lot of voices. And we live in a time where there are a lot of voices. And my question is,

considering the amazing work that all three of you have done, and especially what you're doing right now, President Biden. It's so difficult. The messaging is so tough to get the message out there because there is so much noise. What can you do? Just keep talking about it. We just have to connect with people as to how they're being affected, why it's happening. And you know, one of the things that's really...

startles me is I'm optimistic. I'm genuinely optimistic. Oh, my. And starting to break through. There's so much we have an opportunity to get done in ways that these guys set up and we're now going to be able to close down. But, for example, you know, when we got elected, we were told we couldn't get anything done. We couldn't get anything passed. Well, we got a little thing called a billion, $300 million to, you know, rebuild our roads, highways, Internet,

We got the chips and I've traveled around the world and said, why don't you come and invest in the United States of America? We got $650 billion invested offline. And on the CHIPS Act, we got about $56, $70 billion. Mm-hmm.

And they're employing people. It takes wealth to kick in, though. But it seems like they're only watching certain things, reading certain things. Everybody's so siloed in the way in which they receive information that...

Could it be as simple as you... And you've got very smart people to suggest what it is that you do, but could it be as simple as just granting an hour to Sean Hannity and sit down and go, you tell me why...

the people who follow you think I'm not a good president. And just answer his questions, call his bluff. I mean, because the information, the facts are all there. It's particularly for that group of people. What you do is so much better suited than what the other agenda is talking about. So is it just a matter of just getting on that network? I don't get it. First of all, you guys are exactly right.

Joe's got an unbelievable record of accomplishments. If you had told me that the unemployment rate after COVID was going to be back down to 4% or lower...

lowest in 50 years, isn't it? Absolutely. And if you had told me that 15 million jobs would have been created, that wages are higher now than they were pre-pandemic. Yeah. And the most jobs created in history, correct? In this four-year period, yes. That's unbelievable. In this four-year period, you've got African-American unemployment, right, which is always higher than the general population, the lowest it's been

since record keeping on the issue was taken. So Joe's got a strong message to tell. Jason, you're right. The media environment's changed. During Bill's presidency, during my presidency, you already had Fox and Rush Limbaugh and so forth, but it was still going through basic broadcast TV, and the average person was still kind of getting the mix. Some dissenting views. Part of what happened is that whole...

ecosystem moved on to social media. And once it's on social media and it's on an algorithm and everybody's just getting their news selected essentially to suit their biases, penetrating that is real tough. It is very hard. But what do you say to the people who say on the other side the same thing? Well, you know, I would argue that actually they've got some legitimate points in the sense that, you know, there's a

that doesn't recognize conservative thought or isn't respectful to some traditional values that they care about and so forth. The difference though is, and Jason touched on it, there's a difference between facts and opinions. And the one thing that our side doesn't,

still pretty much sticks to is the facts. You may not agree with whatever's in the New York Times or whatever's on MSNBC, but generally they're not going to just make stuff up. Correct. And, you know, look, I was in office in 2016, and I would have loved to pretend that the election outcome wasn't what it was. Right. That was painful. Right. Yeah.

Right. But we said, well, here are the facts. And there's a system of government that transcends that is more important than whoever wins this particular election. We're going to abide by those facts and stick with democracy. Right, right, right. And that is a shift that's that's taking place. Now, last point I'd make, though, because you asked Jason was asking, what do we do? I think Joe's point is right.

And that is you just keep on showing up and delivering the message wherever you can, however you can. And if you talk to folks enough, all of us, Bill, Joe, myself, all have the experience of going to places where we may not be the most popular person. People may have some preconceived notions about Barack Hussein Obama. Mm-hmm. Right? Jesus. Yeah. But...

If you show up and you make a human connection with people and you talk to them, we'll be right back. And back to the show. It makes your job harder, does it not? I'm asking you, when you wake up in the morning and you have people who say that they're opposed to what you do or what you believe or whatever, and yet you still have to govern and serve them no matter what. You do. Right? And the other guy...

He has no problem throwing anybody who's not with him under the bus. Look, when I got elected, when I got elected, I said I'm going to be president for everyone. We have put more money into red states than blue states. Yes. Not a joke. Yeah, yeah. Across the board.

Across the board, there's more money total invested in the red states than the blue states because I'm going to be president for everyone. Do they know that? Well, I think it's beginning. But whether they did or not, I have an obligation, it seems to me. Yeah. To take care of the country. That's the job. But it's beginning to sink in a little bit. And, you know, you have, like, for example, did you ever think you'd see these guys are great speakers or great presidents? Yeah.

Did you ever think you'd see a State of the Union like the two I've had? No. No. Yeah. Frankly, a little shameful. As the newest American here. Yeah. Because I'm Canadian originally. Yeah, I remember that. You know, Canadian... Well, look, I've got a Canadian brother-in-law. Canadians are interesting because they sneak up on you. You remember that movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Yeah. Like, they look like us. Yeah.

But you don't really know. Wait, I saw you at the Raptors game back in the day. Actually, I love me some Canadians. I'm always looking behind me when Will and I are walking, just like a certain other Canadian. Is there, there is, and I don't mean to sound cynical with this, but there is a bit of a show element that the other guy seems to really relish in. He loves being and saying things that...

really attract, you know, some views, some clicks, like, you know, he's a fun show to watch, I'm sure. Like the nicknames. Now, I know you three are uniquely qualified in keeping things classy and elevated and keeping, you know, respect around the office and the job, et cetera. But is there...

ever a thought of how one might be able to tack slightly towards the show to sort of combat that a little bit. And you're starting to do it just a little bit, President Biden. And I think it's really like people are loving you're sort of giving it to them a little bit. Now, I know that's not, you know, some sort of contrived calculation you're making, but

It's a response. Yeah, exactly. But is there any thought to like, it's time to kind of pull the gloves off a little bit and if they want to show, we'll give it to them.

Well, I'm not so sure about the show, but I think if they want the truth, we'll give it to them. Yeah, amen. And just go straight at them. Look, you know, like I said at the Gridiron dinner, you know, this guy came up to me, asked me if we could borrow some money. That's a great line. And I, you know, I told him, Donald, I can't help you. But all kidding aside, we can make jokes about it, but the end result is, look, we've all know every major world leader, and I've...

I think one of the reasons Barack asked me to be vice president, I had some foreign policy experience. And I've known these folks for a long time. I go to all these conferences that we all know. And Bill just came back from one on his own. Great help to us in the Caribbean. And, you know, almost every single time, not a joke, guys,

whether it's the G7, the G20, all these heads of state, they'll wait till they can get me a loan and grab my arm and say, you've got to win. Because, quote, my democracy is at stake. Their democracy. Let me, since I'm not directly involved, I'll give you an example that I just had. Not very long ago, I went to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to celebrate the anniversary of the decision to expand NATO and include the Czech Republic and Hungary and Poland.

And they know what it's like to live without democracy. They know what it's like not to be free. They are adamantly in favor of President Biden's support for Ukraine. And they think we did the right thing to expand NATO. And they know it's Russia's fault, not ours, what's happened in Ukraine. So it was amazing. All of them came up to me and said,

Please tell me you're not going to put us through all this again. Please tell me America is not going to run away from the world again. We need you. And in Poland, which is a very conservative country culturally, religiously, they just voted overwhelmingly to throw out the old party because they thought they were too close to the Russians and put in the government that you dealt with when Hillary was Secretary of State because they support a free Ukraine.

And I just showed up, man. I didn't go there to do a They Like Me because I was with them in the beginning, but they are worried about tomorrow. I think Bill's point and Joe's point is important. You know, look, we all know America's not always lived up to its ideals. We got our warts. We got issues. But we do set the tone around the world. Mm-hmm.

And part of what happened before Joe got elected, during that four year period, folks around the world started feeling as if the ideals of human rights, freedom, democracy, that nobody was looking after that. Nobody was promoting that, nobody was minding it.

People like Putin became emboldened. And you saw the Chinese and even countries that were democracies start backsliding because they do still look to America as an example of what they hope...

a multiracial, multiethnic, multi-religious big country can look like. That maybe people can still get along and act decently towards each other even if they don't all look the same and don't all talk the same and all come from the same place. That's what makes America exceptional. And if you start getting into a situation in which we don't believe our own Declaration of Independence, if we're not acting

on behalf of the things that we say we stand for, that has ripple effects all around the globe. And these guys are exactly right. I just came back from Europe, and every meeting I had, the only thing people were concerned about was

what's going to happen in this next election because they understand what the stakes are. I'm sorry, just on that point, President Obama, were you surprised during those five years of the last administration how quickly that protection and passion for democracy...

Was diluted how prime the country was to just sort of dissolve and and get lazy with it and let it go You know, I I will say and Bill saw this begin to happen during his presidency it then accelerated during my presidency I I have been surprised that there haven't been guardrails inside the Republican Party and

Trump didn't surprise me. No. I mean, I'd like... He was the natural conclusion to me. No, I mean, you watch Trump's campaign, you watch his career. He's never changed. If you know anybody who's... He's a huckster. I mean, he comes from New York. There's nobody in New York who does business with him. No. Or lend him money. You know, he's not considered a serious guy here, but...

So I wasn't, I was surprised he was elected, but I wasn't surprised in terms of his behavior. I did expect, and I suspect Bill and Joe, you'd agree with this, that there would be some folks in the Republican Party who would say, no, you can't go that far. You can't start praising Putin and saying that his intelligence is better than,

The US intelligence agencies. Were you surprised that there were 60-some million people that bought it and voted for him and then did it again? Well, you know, I think that we can't discount the fact that the world's changing quick. And when the world changes quick, people get scared and they get confused and...

We had a historic recession in 2008, 2009, where the financial system almost collapses. We end up having, you know, we'd obviously already gone through 9/11. You got globalization, you have suddenly people feeling as if they're losing manufacturing jobs. Some of the towns that in Illinois where I was representing, Arkansas where Bill was working, you see people starting to feel like they're losing status.

Suddenly you've got the internet and social media and people are being flooded with all kinds of stuff and they don't know how to sort it all out. And when people get scared and concerned, then the appeal of somebody who says, I'm going to make it like it used to be where you don't have to worry about it. And, you know, men are men and women know their place and everything.

that message can sometimes have some appeal. Look, again, I love this country. I am so... You better. I'm Canadian. It is the best country in the world. Well, you've only been to two countries, but... But it's true. He watches CNN International, though. It's true.

Because you know what? I agree with that. And by the way, it's a phenomenal country. When it's at its best, it is the best. The rest of the world looks to us. Absolutely. No matter what you say, no matter how you characterize it, there's not a single country in the world that does not think we're the single most consequential country in the world. Not a single one. Including our enemies. Including our enemies. I mean, across the board. If there's a problem around the world,

You know, if there's a natural disaster, if there is a crisis, nobody's calling Moscow or Beijing expecting them to help. Right. Everybody's looking to Washington. But beyond that, here's the deal. Look, if you think about it, when Trump got elected, he said he's going to go America first, America alone. Look who he talks about his best friends being, Kim Jong-un.

I'm serious. Jack Nicklaus. Hey, listen, he won two golf championships last week. The regular championship and the senior. I told him when he won. I told him he came into the upstairs oval and we bumped into each other. He said something about playing golf. I said, look, I'll give you two strokes if you carry your own bag. LAUGHTER

Hey, do you know this? President Biden, do you know that Kim Jong-un, he had 18 holes in one once? Yeah. We're not far off that with this guy. I'm looking forward to your guys' merch coming out. Do you guys have an apparatus, a mechanism whereby you can contact one another like this without anybody connecting? Like a bat phone? It's called a smartphone. Do you have one of these? What I mean is...

Continue. But could you do that? Great. Okay. Do you guys text each other? Yeah, I mean, like emojis. I don't text much, but we pick up the phone and talk to each other. I love that. Do you really? With no one else listening and no one else connecting the call? We can't be sure of that. We're not positive of the cyber side. But does President Obama, like he picks up and he goes, hang on, I'm going to add President Clinton. Yeah.

I'm going to merge calls. That's a little too advanced. Right. You might need a 25-year-old aide to help on the merger thing. I'll cut somebody off. I mean, one plus one plus one makes ten with you guys. I want to know, do you all miss something specific about the holding office? Obviously, except for you because you're in office. But do you guys miss something? I miss not having office. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Look, everybody talks about Air Force One. Yeah, sure. Marine One. Yeah, yeah.

It's pretty convenient, I won't lie. But I'll tell you the thing I miss the most is, you remember those music concerts I used to do at... You can basically invite anybody. And you have this concert. And I mean, we got Stevie Wonder. Yeah, yeah.

Paul McCartney. Everybody will show up. They'll show up. And they've got, they do these rehearsals the night before a lot of times and you can kind of sneak down and you could just sit there and watch Mick Jagger practicing with B.B. King or something on a blues night.

I do miss that. That's so good. I miss the fact they don't play a song when you walk in a room anymore. Sure. Oh, we should have done that today. I was lost for three weeks after I left office. But let me tell you something serious. This is one reason that I so badly want President Biden to be reelected. What I really miss is the job. Not doing it. I'm glad. I believe in the two-term limit strongly. But what I learned was on the worst day,

When nothing was going right and problems were everywhere, there was still something you could do that would make somebody's life better. I love that. There is no job like that on earth. I love that. And I want somebody that I trust to make the most of that every day. Yeah, thank you. Because there'll be bad days no matter who gets elected.

But he'll get up and he'll start thinking about that. And I think his opponent will be thinking about... Himself. Yeah. Who I can get even with, you know, who I can send away, who I can manage. His judgment is... Joe Biden will make the best of the bad days. And the team that you have assembled and your comfort with deferment, you know, you're... I don't know. For me personally, I just... I love leaders that have...

the confidence to hire those that they respect, that might make them a little nervous. And also not to think that you're the smartest guy about it. You're going to have every... We've had leaders like that in the middle part of the last century who were put into government by presidents of old...

And they made a lot of decisions that they thought that they were right about, and they were terrible people. And when you let somebody... When that happens, when you think that you've got all the answers is the moment you don't. Like Ron Klain, you know, bringing us out of COVID. Like, it's just... And on and on and on. The way in which that you surround yourself with the absolute best this country has to offer. I made a commitment. I have an administration that looked like America. I have more women in my cabinet. I have more... I've appointed more black...

circuit court judges and every other president combined in American history. I've kept my commitment of putting a black woman on the Supreme Court. I've had an opportunity to go out and get the best people. And by the way, I sometimes pick the phone and ask these guys who they think are the best people. And I'm looking for people that most of all, though, not just are good, but care about what they're doing. Whereas the other guy is only hiring people that won't talk back.

You know, and that's like... Oh, mind talk back. Yeah, love it. What are those things that you look back on? Because the other guy has, as we know, no capacity for this. And President Obama, I'll start with you. What are the things that you think about that keep you... Are there things that you look back and you go, geez, I wish that had worked out a little bit better?

Not necessarily regrets, but things that you had wished... Handing off the baton in 2016. Yeah, definitely. But I think Bill's point is the right one, which is when you're sitting in that office, you are essentially a relay runner. You've taken a bunch of problems from the previous president and you're working through them as best you can. You're running the best race you can and then you hand it off. During that time where you've got the baton in your hand and you're running...

If you are focused on every day, can I make things a little bit better? Because you're not going to make them perfect. There are too many problems. They're too hard. If you make them a little better, then a lot of people are helped.

So the Affordable Care Act wasn't perfect. We didn't get everybody health insurance. It was a big deal. Tens of millions of people. Really big deal. We got tens of millions of people. You can say the real quote on the show. It was a big fucking deal. We got tens of millions of people health insurance, and my successor tried to kill it. Didn't succeed because it was starting to actually work. You get it passed on to Joe, and what does he do? He then takes...

what's already in place and builds on it. You know, expands the subsidies so that more people can start getting on it. Expands Medicaid so that more people can get on it. And so with all the changes he made, you know, healthcare in America is still not perfect. There's still folks who are, you know, having a tough time. But what has happened is that

even more people have gotten coverage and now Joe caps insulin at 35 bucks, which means that people who've got diabetes and really desperately need help. They're not getting price gouged and he's negotiating with Big Pharma to make sure that drug prices are affordable the way they are in Canada. - Thank you, I'll take credit for that. - And so...

What you get are these incremental steps. To answer your question, Will, you're never satisfied when you leave because there's always going to be a bunch of stuff that's undone. But I couldn't have done the Affordable Care Act if Bill hadn't made the efforts he did around the children's health insurance program. And Joe then builds on us. And that's what you're hoping for each and every time. And let me say this, the last point I'll make. It's not always just Democrats.

George Bush and I had a huge number of differences, but he set up this program called PEPFAR that provided drugs and support and help for people in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world who had HIV in the midst of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. And because of his program, millions of lives, tens of millions of lives were saved. - That's a fact. - And we then built on that program.

It doesn't just have to be a partisan thing. Part of what you want, though, is somebody with Joe's decency and basic focus on the American people and who have a sense of responsibility to say, all right, I've inherited some stuff. Some of it's good. Some of it are problems. What more can I do? And that's the attitude Joe has. We'll be right back. And now back to the show.

So then what are the issues coming up that people are focusing on that you believe are the wrong things, or they may be the right things, and what should they be focusing on? I think they should be focusing on a couple things. Number one,

We're going to, in the second term, God willing, we're going to make sure that we do something about gun violence in this country. Yes. The idea that we allow assault weapons to be sold in magazines with 100 rounds is just bizarre. Well, President Biden, I'm so glad to hear you say that because that was going to be my other question, which is the Democrats never said we want to take your guns away.

Absolutely not. You never said that. You said, "We gotta be smart about what's going on." You just don't need to kill a deer with an AR-15. The Second Amendment, which I-- when I taught law school, the Second Amendment wasn't absolute ever. You weren't able to have a cannon when you were, you know, the side of the-- the liberty is water with the blood of patriots. I mean, that's a bunch of crap.

Well, it kind of brings us back to... Mr. President, we have a listener question that he already knows about, but if you want to read it to him, it's a listener call-in question. Uh-oh. Okay. This is unusual, but I think I know who it's from. We have a caller here. Mr. President, I'm assuming he's talking about Mr. President Biden here. You have done so much for this country in the past three short years.

You've been the architect of an incredible bipartisan infrastructure deal. Under your leadership, America has been running a white-hot economy. Inflation has been plummeting and unemployment remains at an all-time historic low. But like so many Americans, I dread the possibility of having to listen to the grating voice of a narcissist man-child on our airwaves for God knows how many more years. He's a bully that can barely manage...

his own personal, his personal own life, I have a feeling this is about me, has the strangest tan, no, that's Will, and he takes golf way more seriously than any adult man should. So, Mr. President, my question is, now that you're sitting directly across from Will Arnett, is there any, is there nothing you or Congress can do to get him to shut his big fat mouth? I'll take my question, my answer off the air. That's Justin T. from New York City. Justin Theroux. Justin Theroux, sleeveless. We don't know if it's Theroux. Justin...

There are certain powers that are beyond the presidency. That's well beyond my presidential power. I asked you, President Biden, last time if you'd make me golf czar, and you never answered me. I had to call Trump. He wasn't sure. I want to know, like... I just wanted to say we're kind of back where we started, which was the whole idea of...

of the messaging and what's good for people. And we're all so hung up on, are you Democrat? Are you blue or red? Yeah, but that's what the campaigns are for. Look, the average voter wants to do the right thing, but how much bandwidth they have for politics. I mean, they got to pay the bills. They got to take care of the kids' health care. They got to make sure you're

The school business is all right if you have children who are school age. I mean, there's just so many things they have to do. That's our job. That's partly why we're here. That's why...

You're doing a public service by asking us questions. That's what campaigns are for. That's what you have to use them for. It seems like they're sort of making it sort of this binary choice between social issues or pocketbook issues. And if you're going to go for the social issues, then you're going to take a hit on the pocket. If you're going to vote for pocketbook issues, you're going to lose all the social issues. But here's the truth. The truth is,

almost all the rational position on social issues and on those issues that are like unions, for example. They all, in fact, grow the economy if you do the right thing. They grow the economy. The economy grew under Bill, it grew under Joe, it grew under me. And the reason it grows is when everybody's got a stake,

When everybody's making money. Morale. When people are getting paid decent wages, they have decent benefits, they feel better, they go shopping, they might even listen to this podcast. They've got to be pretty bored. But the point is that American economic history shows whenever...

prosperity is broadly based, you know, and all of us ran campaigns with this basic premise that if you give everybody a fair shot, everybody does better. So this whole idea that we got to somehow make it great again is a fallacy. It's such a joke. You got to fill in with fear. Because we've never been in better. And release me on my next question. Die Hard, is it a Christmas movie?

I'm kidding. President Biden, if you could resurrect one person from the past to come hang out in the Oval Office, you update them on the current state of things, what's their advice? Who would you bring in to give you some perspective on? It would be a hard choice for me between Lincoln, because we are such a divided nation and how he dealt with it,

and possibly Roosevelt. But look, I think that

I think the country is in much better shape than we're talking about it. I don't mean finance. It is. We have the best economy in the world, the strongest one in the world, period. Everyone, if you know how China's going to eat our lunch, notice who China's going to talk to all the time now, right? The idea that Russia was going... I want to tell you a quote. I got a call from Dr. Kissinger before he died, about 10 days before he died, and I asked me to give him a call.

And I call and he said the following thing. He said, you know, he said, not since Napoleon has Europe not looked over its shoulder at Russia with dread. And then you guys came along, you strengthened NATO, you expanded it, and that's changed. You've changed it all. Well, this guy's changed it all, but he doesn't care. He doesn't care. And that's what the rest of the world looks at us and says, do you have any interest in our concern? And can you imagine us being able to avoid a European war?

Can you imagine us, why the hell we set up NATO in the first place? Can you imagine what we're... I mean, there's... It's just, he has no sense of anything. He doesn't believe in anything. We know that, right? There's no... He believes in one thing. He believes in selling what's going to benefit him personally. Right. Well, and I do think that there's one other thing. You were talking about, Jason, social issues versus economic issues and...

Why is it that sometimes things look good, but people don't feel good all the time? Part of it is, as I said before, things are changing. Folks are nervous. But underneath all the polarization that people are getting through TikTok and social media and cable news, Bill's point about the average person just wanting to do the right thing, they actually don't want folks arguing all the time. They're really not looking...

for sort of a death match on every single issue. They'd like to see people treating each other decently. Right, they don't want to go to Walmart and argue with their neighbor about whether they're a Democrat. Or if you're in a little league, right, or you're sitting at your kid's soccer game, and you've got the parent next to you, you want to talk about kids and soccer. And I do think that underneath all this...

demonization and anger that people make money off of and that gets a lot of clicks. People do want to see some decency and common sense. And I think Joe represents that. And his administration represents that. And if we can break through, all of us doing the work of a campaign, just to remind folks of what Lincoln called the better people.

angels of our nature, then I think we're going to be okay. But the challenge we've got is anger and resentment and calling people names gets more attention.

And we do have to... One thing we do have to... I'm not sure, Jason, that in order to do the show, the performance you talked about, that it has to be pugilistic, that it has to be hitting the other guy in the nose. It does have to be entertaining. You do have to be able to...

Bill, Joe, me, you know, when I'm doing okay, you know, it's about telling stories that people can relate to because people can't relate to facts and numbers and figures as much as they can relate to stories. Right, and to personal experience. And personal experience. That's what people relate to. And that performing by telling people stories, reminding them,

who they are, what family means to them, what it means to struggle and overcome. Joe, you know, what he had to overcome in terms of getting where he was. Bill, a master storyteller, talking about what it was like growing up, single mom, Arkansas, and

Those are the things that really, I think, resonate with people. And if we can get more of that instead of the kind of name calling that we're seeing out here, I think we'll do okay. That's the way you let people know you understand what their concerns are. Look, I mean, think about it. Everybody's gone through some tough times.

But one of the, they wanted, my dad used to have an expression, I swear to God. He said, Joey, a job's about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's being able to look your kid in the eye and say everything's going to be okay. And there's a shot of it.

That's what the three of us have tried to do. We've tried to-- we're not-- if you-- look, if you want to be-- if you can earn a billion bucks and you do it legally, great. I'm a capitalist, fine. Just start paying your damn taxes. You know what a billionaire is paying taxes-- By the way, we have just one example that you're extreme.

We have 1,000 billionaires in America right now. If they paid a 25% instead of 8.2% what they pay now, just 25%, they'd raise $400 million over the next billion dollars in the next 10 years.

We could take care of childcare, which increases productivity. We could take care of elder care, which increases productivity. Let's do it. Screw 25. Why don't they pay 40? Look, here's the deal. That's what everyone else is paying. Now who's Canadian? No, but I'm just making the point that you don't have to be extreme in anything to get this done. Don't forget that Trump's dad once said, get that family out of 14G. Hey, um...

Listen, listen. If this comes out and it's helpful at all...

Is there a chance that the three of us could be on a bill of your designation, President Biden? Maybe a special $250 bill or something? Something like that. With our dumb faces on it. Yeah, I think it should be. Think about it. Don't give us an answer. We'll see you at the inauguration. $3 bill. $3 bill. Thank you. Well, I've been called as queer as a $3 bill. But anyway. Honestly, listen, we've taken up way too much of your time. You gentlemen are very, very busy. We thank you.

Thank you. Really, really cool. Thank you. It's just moving to be in front of the three of you. Thanks, guys. Thanks for doing this. Thank you so, so much. Really important. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Have a great time. Thank you. Have fun tonight. All right, guys.

Wow. Oh, boy. That was cool. That was... That happened right there. I'm very proud of us for keeping it together, keeping it classy. How are you guys feeling about it? That's crazy, right? Yeah. I feel very... I feel like I'm in good hands, right, when I'm around those guys? Absolutely. Boy.

Anyway, that was a real privilege for the three of us. I hope our listeners enjoyed that as much as we did, irrespective of your political affiliation. Being able, you know, three knuckleheads like us sitting across from three leaders of the free world is incredible.

Nothing the three of us ever expected we'd be able to do. So thank you guys as listeners for enabling that. How about the Secret Service people on the way in and on the way out? You know, Sean was disappointed because he had heard, he was having the impression that...

we were going to have a visit to the secret circus. And he thought that that was the thing. He thought that there was a secret. Yeah. And so he thought... I bought peanuts. And he said he wanted to see bears riding bicycles. I'm like, I could see that at home for free. Wait, so let me ask you guys, were you nervous? Because at the beginning of it, I remember saying, I thought I'd be more nervous, but because they're so relaxed and they feel like...

You know, they just speak so freely. You feel like you connect with them.

that i i the nerves went away a little bit they're very good at disarming uh the the the the folks that are sitting across from them they they were they were very chillaxed i found them to be very chillaxed and and that's how i would describe i was i was but then when i wasn't talking i was nervous and i was listening to you guys i was like you i gotta say i felt pretty chillaxed like i and i know you know what i mean one more time i'm gonna hang up okay i'm gonna hang up shut the computer back i want it back in the

By the way, I think it was you that explained to me what the Netflix and chill phrase is. I never knew what the hell that meant. It annoyed me quite a bit. But then was it you that told me it's code for having sex? Is that right? Well, I don't know if I want to get into more like the fact that you're a dad or that we're back in 2017. I don't know which one I want to hit first. You know what I mean? Yeah.

By the way, have you guys heard this band Public Enemy? Fuck me, man. You're killing me. This is a group. You're killing me. I do want to say with the presidents, it was incredible. You know, and I mentioned this too, which was that the one thing that you can't deny, no matter where you are on the sort of political spectrum, if you will, is that under President Biden, the Jobs numbers have been incredible. And I think that he has earned the moniker Joe Jobs.

Joe Jobs. He is. To me, he's Joe Jobs. That is great. That's great. Yeah. Joe Jobs. Yeah. Joey Jobinstein. Sure. Sure. Whatever you want, Joey. Whatever you want. Yeah. Joe Jobs is great. I love that. Joe Jobs. Well, because what? Unemployment is at a 50-year low. Yeah. Right? I think we covered. The economy is at an all-time high. Yeah.

It really is. Inflation is going to work itself out, but that's not his fault at all. That was something that pre the COVID and the whole, all that other stuff. I'm not smart enough to describe, but no. And we never went into that recession that they thought would happen. And that, and that a lot of that was due to, due to supply chain stuff, issues, et cetera, et cetera. So we're definitely back on. But the one thing that you can't argue with is, is the jobs like irrefutable. Right. So again, I don't care where you fall. I'm not saying,

he's better than your guy or your guy, whatever. I mean, he is. But what I'm saying is... Whether you're Republican or Democrat, you need a job. And he's the guy that's bringing it. Yeah, because he's Joe Jobs. So you have Obama and Clinton. And then we used this one before. But it's pretty beautiful. Go ahead, Sean. And Biden. Biden. Biden.

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