THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 51 — Joe Biden's "Big Boy" Press Conference
There's only one topic on everyone's minds right now: Will Joe Biden make it to Election Night as the Democrat candidate? Did his "Big Boy" press conference save him, doom him, or (best of all) keep the battle going indefinitely? Charlie, Jack, Blake, and Tyler talk about the ongoing Democratic implosion and Trump's imminent VP selection, and then turn to a crucial question: Can Charlie pass the dementia test that Biden is refusing to take?Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Our reaction to Joe Biden's speech, his big boy press conference, and also I take a dementia test live on air.
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Okay everybody, this is Thought Crime Thursday.
We are taking the big boy press conference.
With us is Blake, Andrew, and Jack.
Andrew, what is your initial reaction to Joe Biden's marathon press conference?
Shaky, feeble, but not disastrous.
Probably the best possible outcome for us.
Jack, what do you think?
I think it started out Bad, but he actually got a little bit more stable as it went on.
He got his feet under him.
I think obviously he wasn't prepared going into it, but as we got to this point it seems like he's actually starting to get there.
That being said, I don't see anything in this that's really gonna stop some of the things that his own party's been saying about him.
Yeah, the predicted odds have just flipped, by the way.
Joe Biden is now the frontrunner to be the Democrat nominee.
Again, he's back.
He's back on top.
It's up and down.
He was able to speak for 10 minutes straight.
It swerves 20 points every day.
But the amplification—I mean, he called Zelensky Putin.
He called his vice president, Vice President Trump.
Every error is now amplified.
It is.
100x.
And it's so funny because, like, you can think of a defensible thing.
Like, you or I could make a mistake, like, calling it President Putin of Ukraine.
Of course.
Because you mix those strings of thought.
It's a pattern, though.
But it's a pattern, and he has no give on this.
But, as we said, he did muddle through the press conference.
He was able to answer the questions, which might have been canned for all we know.
That was a leak that they had today, that they have all these faked questions for him.
Yes.
So that is, I guess speaking selfishly, the perfect thing for us, which is we want this to go on whether they dump him or not.
You want it to go on as long as it possibly can.
Yes.
You want it to really rip the party apart.
You want whoever loses to be extremely bitter about it.
It's ripping the party apart.
Yes.
Because the coup is not done.
It's not!
This is not going to quell the rebellion.
Joe Biden's going to go off stage and say, didn't I do great?
And the Democrats are going to say, our internals have you down 10 in Arizona.
This is perfect because he will think I did fine.
I answered the questions.
I flubbed one name here and there.
Who cares?
His family will say the same thing.
But no one who thinks Biden needs to go will think, oh, this is great.
If we have a bunch of these, we'll win the election.
And nobody who thinks Biden is fine thinks it's fair.
By the way, can we just... the questions that were asked were so unbelievably light.
How about this?
Mr. President, credible reports say that you need a diagram to be able to take the stage.
Is that true?
How about that as a question?
Yeah!
Right?
I mean... Mr. President, today there was a report that you need to get the questions in advance when you talk with your own cabinet ministers.
Yes, your cabinet secretaries.
Yeah.
Like, hello?
I will say, I mean, I think that a lot of the questions are dealing with the elephant in the room, right?
Because a lot of people were like, is the media going to continue covering for him?
I think it's very simple.
The media realizes that, or at least they believe, that there will be a better chance for a Democrat in the White House if they get Joe Biden out.
So they're incentivized now to get him out.
Also, CYA, they get to play the victim like they too were lied to, now they're upset.
I don't believe any of that stuff.
I think they were all sort of in on it, and then when they realized they couldn't cover it up anymore, now they have to act shocked, right?
But the questions now are about journalists saying, ooh, I got the one question in on him that he couldn't answer, that he looked really bad on.
So I think there's an incentive to ask tough questions, and I think they're doing it.
Every single reporter thus far in the press has been asking, Yeah, and again, the flubs are what's gonna go viral, and they should go viral, because it's now a pattern of this.
And so, what did I say when I walked in?
I said, I think Biden stays.
Now do you agree with me?
After 15 minutes of him meandering about China incoherently?
I think ultimately he will go.
I don't know what the timeline for it will be.
I've gone back and forth.
Right after the debate, I think I pegged about 40% chance he'd leave, which was pretty high.
And it's swerved up and down.
Every day it'll be, one day I'll feel, this is it, the cascade has hit, he'll be done by tomorrow.
And then Biden will hit back and say, I'm not leaving, I don't know how much more clear I can be.
And I'll think, oh, I guess he survived.
I want everyone to understand how this is an ideal situation for us.
So Joe Biden might get a slight internal Democrat bump out of this.
Survive.
And what happens Monday, guys?
The most sustained anti-Biden programming It's like he now has to withstand four days of Republican
convention, of scripted programming, of this is why this guy is the worst president in history.
Your border is open, 10 million foreigners, look at all the wars, you can't afford anything.
And so he's now going to have...
Understand, there has been no campaign in opposition to him for like two weeks.
It's been Trump doing an event and all this.
And I think, Jack, I think Trump has been handling this correctly.
Allow the bad headlines, allow it to occur, show the acrimony in the Democrat Party.
The clips alone we are getting of Democrats attacking Biden are delicious.
Well, I want people to consider something else today, too, because go and turn and take a look at your calendar or take a look at your phone.
What day is today?
Today is July 11th.
So in, you know, Earth Prime or whatever, in the first universe, this today was supposed to be the day that Wan Mershan sent to be convicted, he might be sentenced to jail, house
arrest, who knows, he was supposed to be arrested, handcuffed, this is what they wanted, I'm
saying.
And instead, they have to do a press conference to prove that their candidate, the sitting
president, is still lucid enough to actually stay in the race.
It's absolutely insane to think that it's gone such a 180.
I mean, it's miraculous.
It's just miraculous.
And by the way, just so everyone understands, yesterday a report came out where New York Democrats say we are now a battleground state.
There are reports that the map is expanding for Biden and the bottom is falling out.
And I don't think, I think people don't quite grasp, every one of these major Democrats on camera saying Biden can't win, Biden can't win, Biden is not.
There is now a $60 million ad buy that will begin right during the Olympics, hammering Biden, funded by Miriam Adelson.
There has been no air coverage whatsoever.
I don't even know if you'd ever need a single Republican name.
You should just put out every single thing of Biden flubs, Democrats trashing Biden.
You almost barely need to have anyone run for the Republican race.
Well, yeah, I mean, the issue that I think is in front of us, Andrew, is that this is like the best possible outcome for us.
Biden's numbers are not going to recover because of one press conference, right?
I mean, they might take up a little bit within the internal Democrats, but he is just one more flub, one more thing away from Yeah, I mean, people also need to remember the timeline here.
We have been watching, holding fire, hold, it's like that Braveheart scene, hold, hold,
we haven't done anything Andrew.
But next week that changes.
Yeah, I mean, people also need to remember the timeline here.
So to your point earlier, Charlie, it's like the best possible outcome is that he does
just enough to hold on.
And from what I can tell, that's kind of what it appears to be.
Super shaky.
Everybody's holding their breath the whole time.
But it looks like he's going to get through it.
We'll see.
He's still on stage.
Here's what I will say, though.
Timeline.
It's July 11th.
We have the RNC starting essentially on Sunday, but really on Monday, taking us to July 19th.
They have a virtual roll call on July 21st, and that's actually where the delegates have to pledge their support in keeping with Ohio, which I believe had an August 17th deadline.
The DNC was not until August 17th or 19th.
So they've got, Joe Biden has to barely white knuckle this thing, cling on to power and really really support within the the the dnc delegates
to do these got ten days he got ten days now i'm season is suck up a lot of that
attention so if you can get to the lester holt interview which it was going to be a monday night
i i i don't see how they have it anytime to do what they need to do they're gonna remove
uh... by the way we we cut out uh... people are saying that uh... joe uh... just started glitching more in the last
five minutes He started combusting a little bit.
But I'm going to read this text to you.
Yeah, I know, the drugs are wearing off, that he's starting to yell, he's doing all sorts of stuff.
I'm going to read this text from a top-level reporter.
Do you, Blake?
The avalanche will occur to remove Biden if and when Biden either passes on a major opportunity
to course correct or flubs it. I don't quite understand what that means. Do you, Blake?
What's that again?
Passes on a major opportunity to course correct or flubs it.
I think maybe they're saying it was an opportunity to either tank completely or completely fix it, and instead it just continued the same thing.
Like literally right now, the presser that should have been gone an hour ago, I'm talking to tons of Democrats.
Even the ones who say he should go would reverse field if he had showed capacity.
On the other hand, if he doesn't show capacity, then it's curtains for him.
Oh, sorry.
I misunderstood.
They're saying if Biden either flubs up badly or if he just refuses to even go out on a chance to do it.
If he canceled this press conference, for example, that would show he can't do it anymore.
Knowing Democrats like I do, the reporter writes, they're looking for a kill shot in either direction.
What he's doing right now would be okay for them pre-debate, but a disaster right now.
It's bad.
I think a great one.
Ezra Klein is very much like a normie Dem.
Very much speaks for establishment.
Very insufferable.
He used to be more radical, actually.
Well, keep in mind that Dems have just gone so insane that I think that's a big part of it.
But he's also very honest about the Democrat Party.
He's honest about the Democrat Party, I would say.
I think he's kind of lizard-like in a lot of ways.
I enjoy this tweet from him because it goes with what I want.
He says, what I'm hearing from, he said this at 1 10 p.m.
Eastern today.
What I'm hearing from congressional Democrats about Biden is this.
He has done nothing to allay their fears, but his defiance and his fury has been enough to stay their hand.
This is arguably the worst of all worlds.
Democrats realize they are drifting towards a grim march to defeat, led by a candidate they have no faith in.
But they have no plan to do anything about it.
Congressional Democrats aren't at the point where they're going to abandon Biden en masse, nor are they at the point where their confidence in him is restored.
They need a process that will get him to one side or the other end fast.
So Jack, what are you seeing and hearing here as you're trying to listen in as Joe Biden continues?
I'm being told that he's starting to combust a little bit, losing his stature.
What do you think, Jack?
Jack is listening to something.
Andrew?
No, give me one sec, because I had the audio up.
Yeah, so he's getting cranky now.
You can tell that the drugs are wearing off.
So he's hitting, we're just at the one hour mark, by the way.
He was the one who delayed this thing two hours beyond where he was going to be started.
It was originally supposed to be at 5.30.
Then they said they were scheduling it back to 6.30.
Goes over, has that press conference where he's, you know, recalls Zelensky, President Putin.
And I was just listening back here, I'm pausing it real quick.
But yeah, he's starting to get cranky, he's starting to get really upset.
You can tell he just physically doesn't seem like he wants to be there.
And if you're looking for good optics to come out of this, you're not really getting that strong, confident,
relaxed feeling from him.
Because we can all remember, by the way, those press conferences that Trump used to hold
when he was president, and he would just sit there for, and sometimes they'd be completely impromptu,
and he would just come down to the Brady Press Room, or be on the South Lawn of the White House,
or in front of the West Wing, and he'd start going.
In fact, I would even say that the...
That this press conference, if you take it as a whole, may have actually been detrimental to Biden other than the fact that he had to do it.
He just had to do this.
Wait, did Biden release his delegates?
That's what I'm saying.
That just happened a minute ago, supposedly.
That's what I'm saying is that he was combusting and he released his delegates.
I just see that.
Yeah, yeah.
Apparently they said he's free to vote for whoever they want.
And he says they won't vote for someone other than him, but he says they're free to do it.
Oh boy.
Is that an official releasing of delegates?
I don't know.
I don't know.
We're gonna get this in as soon as we can.
Politico had this morning that Biden campaign was actually calling around to his delegates,
that's probably what they were asking about, to ensure whether or not those delegates
were planning to stay committed, because I think there's been this story floating around
that some of the Biden delegates have been starting a group chat, dozens, by the way,
dozens of dozens, according to Politico, have started a group chat saying that they're gonna push
for the opening of the rules at the DNC to allow for an open floor vote at the convention.
And Biden basically, you know, I'm sure he's saying that, you know, he's trying to say it and sound confident, but it's not a conversation we're going to be having right now.
We're getting the clip, so just stand by and we can all watch it in just a second.
But I think it sounds like typical Joe Biden bluster, right?
Like, I'll challenge you to a push-up contest or a golf match.
It's kind of one of those verbal flourishes of his, but that is a huge mistake if he just did that.
Because people will take him at his word.
But, I mean, it doesn't have to sound like a document or something to actually let that happen?
Like, I release you, here you go?
I truly don't know, because one thing that people are bringing up is Democrat rules literally say that they have to vote for their candidate unless, like, in all good conscience they cannot.
Like, there's totally a safety valve.
Is that right?
Yeah.
The real obstacle here is there's all these fantasy scenarios about getting the delegates to vote another way, but these delegates are all people picked to vote for Joe Biden by the Biden campaign.
Now, I'll bet a lot of them would be willing to defect regardless, but will over 50% of them be willing to defect?
I doubt it.
Or it'll be hard, especially if Biden is saying they can't.
And a lot, even if they are told you can vote for someone else, they might think they're not allowed to.
There's that line from Ezra about his fury is real, which is if you're a top Democrat, I think there is an element where you might as well just go all out against Biden because your big goal is just don't have this election be a disaster.
Yes.
But if you're a low-end Democrat, you actually do have something to lose if Biden does somehow survive this and then is like, everyone who came after me, you're done.
You have to wonder, with all the electeds and Pelosi, what data are they seeing that we aren't seeing?
Right?
I mean, because remember, Pelosi was awfully confident going into the 2022 midterms.
There will be no red waves.
She saw a lot of things in the data that we didn't see.
Now they're really hyperreactive.
Well, we had that leaked polling shortly after the debate that was Worse than all of the public polling we're seeing.
Yeah, that Puck News stuff that's saying Minnesota's super close, New Mexico, Virginia's in play, every major swing state is solidly Trump.
So that was really bad.
I wouldn't be surprised if high-end Democrats, maybe some of them, have more knowledge on Biden's health.
Maybe they're literally just been told, it's Parkinson's, this is going to get worse.
And so they know that Biden will almost certainly substantially decay by election day and there's like no hope that he'll stay in it.
Those are probably the big ones.
They might have some data and they might have... So this is it right here.
This is Joe Biden releasing his delegates.
This is the biggest news.
PlayCut 128.
If I may, your convention is coming up where your delegates are pledged to make you the official nominee.
If they have second thoughts, are they free to vote their conscience?
Obviously, they're free to do whatever they want, but I get overwhelming support.
Overwhelming support.
Well, I mean, so that's a question.
What do you mean they're free to do whatever they want?
You don't know!
That's going to be what's exciting about it.
Well, I don't think that's true anyway, if you're just following the rules of the DNC.
They are pledged delegates, which means they've been submitted by the Biden campaign as pledged to him.
Uh, if he's saying they're personally free to do whatever they want, you know, then you could be looking at something like the, uh, the, uh, the faithless elector strategy from 2016 rearing its ugly head saying that, well, even though someone's committed to be voting for someone that they need to pull back, like this is why we saw Trump's electoral college go from 306 to 304.
But I don't know.
I don't know if the DNC legally allows that unless there's a rule change.
Well, no, to Blake's credit, I mean, this is an important distinction with delegates, right?
When you vote in a primary, you're voting for delegates that have pledged To Joe Biden, right?
But there is a release valve.
So you're not actually, in one sense, you're not actually voting for Joe Biden.
You're voting for the delegates because you know those delegates and who they've pledged to.
But there usually is a release valve.
And I know that there was reports of group chats with the delegates seeing if they could change the rules and do it in secret so that basically they could vote for somebody else, toss the convention into chaos, but do it with no egg on their face and no So I want to read headlines here.
We got the whole war room here.
It's really helpful.
ABC News.
be able to worm their way out, which suggests that they do have a way out.
So I want to read headlines here.
We got the whole war room here.
It's really helpful.
ABC News, Biden holds first press conference in months as Democrats raise concern over
candidacy.
CBS says, Biden, quote, I'm not in this for my legacy.
I'm in this to complete the job I started.
Newsmax says Biden confuses Zelensky with Putin.
Biden refers to VP Harris as VP Trump.
Which he did.
Fox, Fox is Biden completes gaffe-filled press conference.
Okay, fair enough.
But all things being equal, is this enough to demand him to leave immediately, Blake?
I don't think so.
I don't think it will flip anyone who wasn't already, you know, Biden's got to go.
Now, what we don't know for sure is, how numerous is that?
We talked a lot about Mark Halpern today.
He's been saying, every Democrat I've spoken with in private admits Biden has to go.
Now, he did another live stream today where he said, well, Biden's looking pretty firm.
They might not be able to get him out.
It goes back and forth every day.
The fluidity here is remarkable.
It's a degree of escalation where the Democrats keep bringing out more weapons.
OK, now we're going to get George Clooney to do an op-ed nuking you.
With Obama's approval.
Now we have lawmakers, more of them coming out.
There's reports that over the weekend it could be dozens of them will come out and say it.
And each escalation where Biden is supposed to take the hint of it's bad, you should gracefully step aside.
He's saying, nope, screw all you guys, flips them the bird, keeps going.
And there's sort of a thing where Ultimately, the only way you can force him out is you invoke the 25th Amendment on him, which would require Vice President Harris to flip, 50% of his cabinet to flip before he fires them.
And then if he still defies that, you need a majority vote of Congress.
And in theory, it's possible Republicans could say, well, the president says he's fine.
Why would we go against the president?
In truth, I doubt they would do that because I think it would undermine the GOP attacking Biden.
You could still be the candidate, but no longer be the president.
Yeah.
Oh, that's true!
He could still be the nominee!
He could still be the nominee and get 25th Amendment.
He's like, I'm still on the ballot, pal.
You know what they actually might start doing if they were, you know, you might, what if you actually start seeing a fusion of the two positions?
So you see, they realize they can't get rid of him without his voluntary agreement and his acquiescence.
He's not going to do that.
And so what if you start getting Democrats saying, well, vote for Biden, but Kamala is really going to be the one in
charge.
And they start kind of like, they start kind of like trying to merge the whole thing where,
you know, they bring back the co-presidency talk of the Clinton era and say, well, you're
really getting two presidents.
And he did certainly mention a couple of times, I think during this own press conference when
he was asked that Kamala is more than qualified to be president.
I do think that's going to be a headline out of this, by the way.
And, you know, you might start to see this weird kind of fusion where people say, well, you know, even if he has a bad day, Kamala can step in.
It'll be fine.
So let me let me read some headlines.
Immediately, ABC News is now pivoted.
Another Dem lawmaker urges Biden to withdraw from race following press conference.
I mean, it's like within minutes.
The media is not laying off of it.
The media is not backing down.
Democrats aren't backing down.
And I think one of the most interesting things here is, Nate Silver pointed this out, where he says, if you're a Democrat who has concluded that if Joe Biden is the candidate, we have a zero percent chance of winning or something so low as it doesn't make a difference.
Then you really have no incentive to not just go maximum scorched earth.
And a lot of the pro-Biden gamble is, you guys can't attack me too much because you'll make this unwinnable for us.
You'll make it so if I stick around, we cannot win.
Yes.
And they'll want to hold back on that.
And instead, if they've concluded it's really zero, they have incentive to just burn everything down as much as they can.
Jack, I want to go back to July 2016.
It might have been August.
The Republican convention in Cleveland.
I was there.
I think you were there.
I was there.
You were there.
Isn't that funny?
We were all there.
We didn't know each other.
Isn't that just amazing?
Jack, Trump had a lot of opposition throughout that summer, but it was nowhere near this, was it?
There was actual consolidation behind Trump at that convention with a couple defectors.
This is the greatest inner party fighting leading into conventions we've ever seen.
I mean, it's certainly the biggest, I think, since the Johnson era, since 1968 era, since the 60s, for sure.
And it's also on the Democrat side, funny enough, that you don't usually see these types of floor fights.
You might say Reagan's first run in 76 against Ford, there was a huge consternation against Ford.
Yeah, against, well, an incumbent president with an asterisk, because nobody had ever voted for Gerald Ford to be vice president or president.
So that's why, you know, there was this huge piece and, and, you know, Ted Kennedy ran against Carter again in 1980.
So gave him a strong inner primary, inner party primary then, but it didn't, I don't believe that actually made it to the floor.
So this might be the first, you might see this, you know, so if you're the Biden campaign right now, all right, put it this way.
If you're the Biden campaign right now, you want to do as much as possible to put this to bed now.
And you certainly see that from, as Blake has pointed out, They wanted to happen as quickly as possible so that they can do all of the things they need to do to switch the cart over to Kamala Harris and think realistically the only person they would be able, possibly legally able to do that to, would be Kamala Harris other than massive, massive changes going on.
But from the other perspective, you might start thinking, alright, if we can't get rid of him, So I want to get some CNN tape here.
They're still saying he should drop out.
Like, full throttle.
That he should drop out.
that they're trying to do right now, then you're gonna start thinking floor.
You're gonna start thinking how do we open up the convention and take this to
the floor in Chicago. So I want to get some CNN tape here.
They're still saying he should drop out, like full full throttle that he should
drop out. Andrew, what is your reaction to the press fallout here? Yeah, I
mean this the ABC News has the congressman from Texas.
I'm trying to get his name.
He is now the newest.
It seems like this was obviously teed up.
He was ready to go with this hit.
So this seems to me a plot, right?
This has been planned.
And you go back to what Speaker Pelosi has been telling the caucus behind closed doors, right?
Yes, Jeffries is in charge, but arguably Pelosi still holds Way more sway.
And so what she's been saying is if you're in a safe district and you want to air those grievances, go ahead and do it.
If you're in a toss-up district, you know, actually let me say that again.
If you're in a toss-up district, air your grievances out loud.
If you are in a safe district, why don't you come and air them, you know, behind closed doors.
Don't air your dirty laundry.
And so I gotta presume this guy from Texas is in a toss-up district.
Further, you misspoke.
was pre-planned so I think there's a lot of orchestration going on here they're
trying to chip away chisel away make the pressure so extreme that he's gonna he's
gonna give in but again timelines against him if he just digs his heels in
I just think I think he's I think we're I think he's gonna survive I think that's
my I think so I think that's my take let's play cut 131 answer vice president Harris as vice president Trump right
now is using that to mock your age and your memory.
How do you combat that criticism from tonight?
Listen to him.
This concludes tonight's press conference. Thank you everybody.
Thanks everyone.
That's his answer. Listen to him.
I mean, but he seems psychologically, Blake, defiant, strong-headed, bull-headed.
He is not moving.
You know, one of the best.
He thinks he's the greatest president ever.
Yeah, I think this is I think it's like the entire Democrat establishment bought the fake persona about Joe Biden that they built to win in 2020.
This genial grandfatherly Uncle Joe.
Joe Biden's kind of a jerk.
Kind of an a-hole.
Bad terms, I guess.
I don't know.
It's a PG-13 thing.
This is a guy who, I think he went several years without giving an interview to the press.
He doesn't like the press.
He raised Hunter Biden as his child.
He raised Ashley Biden as his child.
They're both appalling.
His family cashed in in extremely trashy ways off his vice presidency, which he used to
enrich himself.
And his presidency.
Selling paintings.
Yeah, so he's really bad in all of those ways.
He basically had his son go work for a credit card company that he was a shill for in Congress.
He just, he's a bad guy.
And then he thinks he's awesome.
And truthfully, I guess he did win in the 2020 election.
He won in 2022 when everyone said he was down.
So he would have reason to feel smug and think, all these people doubted me.
They said I couldn't win the nomination.
They said I couldn't beat Trump.
They said that I couldn't win.
If he loses to Donald Trump, he will go down as the most hated living Democrat figure.
and they stink and I'm amazing and him getting dementia would only make these
thoughts stronger. If he loses to Donald Trump he will go down as the
most hated living Democrat figure since who? I mean if he loses to Hillary
Clinton I mean they hated Hillary but it would be more than Hillary.
All right, hang on one second, guys.
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What are we reading here, Blake?
Well, I was thinking, uh... We found a dementia test on the internet.
Oh, yeah?
We were wondering how one... Oh, I would do?
Yeah, we were thinking how you would do, so here's test one.
Is there a suspicion that I have dementia?
You never know.
What is today's date?
From memory, no cheating, you can't look.
Month, date, year?
Thursday, July 11th.
What year?
2024.
You're wrong, it's 2025.
A whole year has passed, Charlie.
Is that right?
While you were in your hyperbaric sleep chamber.
It's already Project 2025?
Yeah, no.
Project 2025.
Yes, please.
And then, do we have this ready to go?
Can you have it on screen?
We want him to look at it.
There's two pictures he has to identify.
Alright, let me see.
At the bottom, can you tell what that is on the bottom left there?
Is this an eye test or a dementia test?
It's a dementia test.
It looks like a wreath.
Okay, good enough.
What's the other thing?
A volcano.
All right.
I guess, I mean, you're doing okay.
Question three.
How are a watch and a ruler similar?
They both have numbers on them.
Anything else?
They measure.
Yeah, I guess they measure.
There you go.
Anything else?
They're both nouns.
They have 12.
12.
Yeah, I guess they both have 12s on them.
Yeah, okay.
Alright, alright.
How many nickels are in 60 cents?
Nickels are in 12?
I didn't say nickels in 12.
He's got dementia, everybody!
He's losing it.
How many nickels in 60 cents?
Yes.
That would be 60 cents.
Oh, he answered it.
He said 12.
I said 12.
No, you said in 12.
You said in 12.
You were totally discombobulated, Charlie.
He's completely dementia-addled.
Guys, we need to invoke the 25th Amendment at turning point.
There is no 25th Amendment there.
Thankfully.
But I thought I answered it right, didn't I?
You are buying $13.45 of groceries.
How much change would you receive for a $20 bill?
For a $20 bill?
Yeah.
I would receive $6.55.
Oh, that's pretty good.
You got that one on your first try.
Keep going.
Boomers can't do that.
All right.
Boomers can't do that, you said?
Zoomers.
Oh yeah, you're right.
I grew up with that.
Yeah.
Name twelve animals.
I have to do this now?
Yes.
Cat.
Dog.
Cow.
Platypus.
Salmon.
Tuna.
Mackerel.
Sardine.
Eagle.
Turkey.
Lion.
Tiger.
Is that twelve?
That's twelve.
Okay.
I think only four of them were things that you don't currently eat.
You know, close enough.
Yeah, I was thinking it would be fun to ask him.
So, okay, I'll stop quizzing you all the time.
No, I think it's hilarious.
But, uh, one of the things that I actually do do... I don't have dementia.
Well, I mean, you did fuzz with the nickels thing a bit there.
I did good on the nickel thing!
Okay, alright.
Small update.
So, Charlie, real quick.
The ABC was Lloyd Doggett from Texas.
He had already declared that he was calling for Joe Biden to step down, so he wasn't a new... Oh, okay.
That was your dementia talking.
Secondly, the... I'm looking at the war room, actually.
So, I'll do my best for Biden.
So, the other thing is that Peter Doocy, quote-unquote, did what he had to do tonight.
You're telling me for the first time.
When he leans in.
I'm so quiet.
There's a Blue Anon.
I need to have a fair shot.
Pal.
There's a Blue Anon conspiracy theory that they're intentionally sabotaging Biden.
Yeah, tell us about that.
Yeah, so after he did the interview with Stephanopoulos, you know, his audio was very soft and it was like very crackly because he was very weak.
And this guy did an analysis where he says that they intentionally sabotaged Biden's audio so it would sound even worse.
Too raspy.
It's too raspy to make it sound really bad.
And they're all doing this because it's part of the plot to bring Biden down.
And what's funny is I can't even—it did sound bad, and for all I know it could have sounded better, but I feel like the Occam's Razors, they probably just have incompetent sound engineers.
All right, keep the dementia test up.
Here's one of the best parts is question six on the dementia test is at the bottom of the last page in the blank provided write, I am done.
And then what happens is you get to question 12 in it and it says, have you finished?
And you're supposed to remember to write, I am done.
They're at the bottom of the test.
At the bottom of the test?
Yeah, at the bottom of the test, because otherwise you'll write yes, or whatever.
But they can forget by the time they finished it.
But isn't the telltale one the clock?
Yeah, that's one of the ones in here.
So, problem eight, the drawing test, I don't know if you want to do it, is draw a large face of a clock, and place the twelve numbers in it, and then place... Is this number eight?
Yes, this is question 8 on the test, yeah.
And so, draw the face of a clock, put the numbers in it, and have it be 5 minutes after 11 o'clock as the time.
Alright, this is very hard.
This is actually, I do not think, I think that every Gen Z-er has dementia.
They certainly act like it a lot of the time.
What time do I have to say?
5 minutes after 11 o'clock.
Okay, let me think about this.
It's how they phrase it.
It's been a while since I've actually looked at analog, so... I think that's pretty good.
What do you think, Blake?
All right, let's see.
Okay, you also... Yeah?
7 and 8 are getting a little adventurous there, but... This is not an art contest, okay?
It says, on your clock, label L for the long hand and S for the short hand.
You can tell which one is which.
You have to label them.
It says in the quiz.
Charlie's gonna be at his next speech and be like, I aced the cognitive test.
Oh, I will.
I'll say, I aced it.
What do you think?
All right, okay.
Not bad, right?
That's all right.
That's all right.
You did it better than I did.
Now another test.
Show it to the camera.
Another test.
No, it's pretty good.
I did it.
So we did a hard mode one before we came out here.
Apparently another test that's not on this one, but a common one, you saw one, was naming types of fruits or vegetables or naming things that all start with the same letter, like a bunch of words that start with the letter P.
You want me to do that now?
If you want, can you name things that start with the letter P?
President.
Anything besides platypi?
President.
Uh, pencil.
Pen.
Um, there's plenty of other words that start with P. Oh!
Okay, alright!
You got some forward there!
I'm right here, Charlie!
I'm right here!
Okay!
Posobic.
Picture.
Hey!
Posobic.
There's plenty of other words.
Yeah, and so what we thought would be a fun one is... I might have to mention, you never know.
Draw a clock, and at each hour point on the clock, you have to draw a fruit that starts with the letter P. That's part of the test?
No, it's a new test we created just for you.
Plum, pomegranate.
There are 12 fruits that start with the letter P. Passion fruit.
I am very much impaired with my artistic abilities or lack thereof.
Boy.
There's an example of a cube right there.
That's still a cube.
You just need to copy it.
You know, it's pretty rough.
But it's... I did it from memory.
That is a high... That is a very ugly cube.
I feel like that's like a... What's the guy who did all those... The Dutch guy who did all the optical illusions or whatever with the water?
That's still a cube.
This is the worst cube in the history of cubes.
But it's still a cube.
It's like an M.C.
Escher cube.
You know I screwed up the length If Joe Biden's brain was a cube it would be that one I'm not I'm not there.
All right, so I'm maybe on dementia.
You know, I screwed up the length on one of these. That's what I did.
This is a collapsing cube.
If Joe Biden's brain was a cube, it would be that one.
If it's art, I'm not there.
So I'm maybe on dementia. What else you got?
They have all these picture-based ones that would be hard to do off of here.
What is one that Trump could ask in a debate to expose he has dementia?
Honestly, asking him to draw the clock could be a fun one.
Put him on the spot.
I brought a pen.
They can't do it?
I mean, he probably could in a no-holds-barred debate, but probably not in a structured debate.
I think the 12 things with the same letter would be hard for him.
Name 12 words that start with the letter, you know, W.
He'd get stuck.
Or ask him with that change question.
It's like, if I bought something for $13.45, how much change would you have to give me for a 20?
Or they do seven random words in a row and ask him to repeat them.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, wall, mic, computer, glass, or whatever, yeah.
That's another one.
So, what's the verdict?
I don't have dementia.
I'm still worried about... This cube is a real problem.
The cube's a problem.
The 60 cents with the nickels.
You're like a, you're like a reverse splits guy.
You're like, if you give Charlie something impossible to do, he'll ace it.
If you give something easy to do, he'll make it look hard.
And that's, that's just, Charlie, I've known you a long time and that's basically really true.
The harder it is, the more you excel, the easier it is.
You know, you're like, you're like those teams that play up to their opponents.
The more challenged I am?
Yep.
Someone mentions a good one is ask him to recite the months backwards.
The months backwards?
Yeah.
Or have him do the alphabet backwards.
December, November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, January.
Yeah.
That could be a tough one.
I think a better one, alphabet backwards, because that drips a little bit.
I can't do that.
C-Y-X-W-V-U-T-S-R-Q-M-L-K-J-I-H-G-F-E-D-C-B-A.
W-V-U-T-S-R-Q-M-L-K-J-I-H-G-F-E-D-C-B-A.
Yeah.
You have practiced that.
M-L-K-H-W-E-G-S-T-O-N-M-L-K-J-I-H-G-F-E-D-C-B-A.
So, here's kind of the consensus here.
Let's go to Vice President because I think it's important and it's kind of tied into this.
I feel like if Trump could ask him, he might literally be asking someone right now, can I delay this choice until after the RNC because he's like playing chicken with the Democrats.
And he doesn't want to pick it till after they've— We're definitely in uncharted territory.
This is the latest Republican VP announcement since, like, the 70s, where they used to do it on TV at the convention.
So, the betting odds think J.D.' 's the favorite, and it seems like it's J.D., Burgum, or Rubio.
There was a clip on Fox News of Karl Rove and Mark Thiessen going after J.D.
Vance, and I want us to defend J.D.
Vance.
Mark Thiessen came out and said, oh, J.D.
Vance has Rust Belt appeal.
He only won his Senate race by six points, but Mike DeWine won by 20 plus points.
So I want to address this if somebody can find this clip of him.
And also Karl Rove came in and was basically like, yeah, Mitch McConnell bailed out J.D.
Vance and he shouldn't have done that.
I actually have it right here.
And let me just first address this.
That Mike DeWine was running against a fake candidate where J.D.
Vance was up against one of the best-funded, most popular Democrats in Ohio, Tim Ryan, and still beat him by six points, right Blake?
Yeah.
So it seems as if the establishment Republicans are doing everything they can to stop J.D.
Vance right now.
For sure, for sure. I think Vance is definitely a VP who would be able to,
like, he's viable as a way to continue Trump's legacy afterwards. It would really show that
MAGA as an ideology is here to stay. Whereas I think they'd believe if they could get a very
establishment VP in, well, if something happens to Trump, then, oh, we've got our guy there.
But it also, it means there's no obvious successor to Trump after his term is up, or if there is, it'll be this establishment guy and they can try to pivot the whole party back.
I think they see a lot of opportunity if they can get their guy in as Trump's second-in-command.
Jack, how are you thinking about this veep stakes?
Some people thought it was going to be Saturday.
I think that's increasingly less likely, to be honest.
It looks like it's going to be in the convention, during the convention.
Your thoughts, Jack?
Well Trump actually said that himself, I forget which interview it was, but it was one of his call-in interviews recently this week, he's done a lot of them, and he said specifically, to be able to do the naming during the convention as well.
I think you should.
I think that's the traditional way to do it.
The really traditional way to do it, by the way, where you build up the suspense, you make it more of a show.
You know, you have, it's like the, it's like giving the rose out on The Bachelor,
that kind of thing.
And we know that Trump as a showman, this is the kind of thing he likes.
And the ratings will increase.
Yes, and the increase of the ratings, et cetera.
It gives that level of hype.
And plus, by the way, it's, look, we know the RNC is coming up.
They're not gonna reschedule it at this point or anything like that.
So it keeps the focus on Biden for as long as possible.
And then it brings it in.
I do, by the way, agree with the analysis.
That the question is, do we go down an establishment road or we go down a MAGA road?
And it really does seem, and you can see poll after poll show, that the grassroots are with J.D.
because they view him as someone who really has that MAGA mantle.
I was with him at NatCon when he gave the speech last night, and it was just full-on America First, just full-on America First policies and articulated in a way that you would never hear from anyone prior to this generation who's been in politics.
I want to go to two things.
I want to get CNN's first reaction after the press conference, but I want to close this Veep thing.
This is Karl Rove going all in for Doug Burgum.
Play cut 132.
Going to save Pennsylvania?
I don't think so.
Okay, Karl, before we go to your Democrat friends on this panel, I want to give the remaining Republican conservative a chance to weigh in here.
What do you think he does?
What should he do?
Well, it was actually $35 million that was spent on behalf of J.D.
Hanson.
I stand corrected.
Mark is absolutely right.
Absolutely right.
Look, I'm with Josh on this, though.
Of the three that names have mentioned, Doug Burgum is not only the safe pick, but also gives him some advantage in that he's got a successful governor who's the governor of the second largest energy-producing state in the Union.
And if you want to make energy Uh, an issue in the campaign.
Who better than that?
But I'm with Josh.
I think we got to think about Donald Trump as not just simply the former president and potentially future president of the United States, but the executive producer of The Apprentice and there may be a couple of twists and turns before this thing is all done.
Alright, Juan, who scares you the most as a Democrat?
I think Rubio.
Thanks, Juan Williams.
Really, really great insight.
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Okay, this is CNN's first reaction after the press conference.
Let's play Cut 133.
Did the president put concerns about his candidacy to rest tonight enough?
Well, certainly not.
I mean, he obviously was up there for nearly an hour and was able to speak on a variety of topics, but he spoke in sort of the way we've come accustomed to hearing Joe Biden.
Certainly nothing that resembled what occurred on the debate stage, but obviously still at times rambling, at times mixing up words.
That last question you heard about at the very top of the presser, mixing up saying Vice President Trump instead of Vice President Harris.
And then 134.
I think he definitely bought himself some more time tonight.
But I'm not sure that the bleeding will stop.
What I'm hearing from members on the Hill is that there's deep frustration with how the President and his team have handled this situation.
And breaking news, Jim Himes, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, calls on Joe Biden to step away from the campaign.
He says, he tweeted, Joe Biden's record of public service is unrivaled.
His accomplishments are immense.
His legacy as a great president is secure.
He must not risk that legacy, those accomplishments, and American So I have a theory here that I want to make sure is said, which is that I believe that Pelosi is slow-dripping these and that there's going to be a cascade this weekend.
Pelosi and Obama are very close.
Andrew, I'd love your thoughts on this.
CNN is operating like the Obama network.
MSNBC and Morning Joe is like the Biden network.
CNN is all in as if they're doing the Obama bidding.
Think about it.
They have Axelrod.
They got John King.
All of the Obama alumni are housed at CNN.
MSNBC is a different era, more radical.
CNN is more transactional party politics.
They want Biden out.
CNN is still calling for removal.
And I'm watching all the headlines right now.
CBS, ABC, they are back into doubt swirl as top Democrats call for Biden.
The headlines right now are about the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee.
You're trying to tell me the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee would do that without approval of Nancy Pelosi?
Yeah, I think your read is spot on.
I mean, we have, I think that makes 16 House Dems that are now openly calling for Joe Biden to step down.
And I have noticed that disparity as well.
It does seem like, you know, as much as we talk about the power centers within the Democrat Party being, you know, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, you know, Schumer quietly leaked this week that he's willing to dump Joe Biden and that that got leaked to the New York Times.
I would say I would say MSNBC morning Joe definitely feels more like they're on Team Biden.
You've seen Nancy Pelosi go on MSNBC in the past and get very testy with some of their anchors.
So I think your read there is probably spot on.
There isn't there's this other, you know, Insight here from Charles Gasparino.
He said, breaking an alternative view from a CEO who knows Joe Biden well, says no effing way he's dropping out.
Here's his take.
Joe Biden couldn't care less what the elite in his party think, what the elite fundraisers think, or anyone else.
He really does hate them.
He'll take their money, but he knows they'll look down on him as some rube.
Plus, he thinks he's earned the presidency after so many times, and there's no way he's giving it up now to go down in history as a loser who dropped out because he isn't tough enough.
He only cares about his wife and his family, and he will tell everyone else to F off.
Here's my theory about what's going on with Obama based on the CNN article.
I think that's really smart, Andrew, is that I think that Obama and Pelosi have developed a plan and we're living through it right now, which is Obama probably told Nancy, uh, look, Nancy.
Joe's not going to listen to me unless there's the conditions around it.
So we've got to start to deploy some of the members of the House.
So it's easier for me.
What I'm saying, Blake, is that I think Obama and Pelosi have developed a plan.
Create all of the chatter and Obama goes in for the metaphorical kill.
What do you think?
You know, another interesting part, though, that is in the same CNN article that just was published a few minutes ago, and it says, let's see, Obama has been fielding more calls than he's making, people who have spoken to him say, when he does talk to anxious Democrat donors and officials, he's been listening more than talking, carefully avoiding taking positions that he assumes would quickly leak.
What I think is funny there is I think a lot of Democrats naturally feel Obama should be leading them.
And so they're all calling him and they're asking what to do.
And Obama isn't saying anything.
He's not really doing anything.
And so I do wonder, maybe it'll just turn out that Obama didn't actually do anything, and people are just attributing it to him.
Clooney calls him because he's his friend, and he's saying, oh, yeah, Obama, I'm writing this op-ed.
And he's like, yeah, Clooney, that's crazy what you're doing.
Oh, he won't say it that way.
But no one really says, oh, Obama ordered the op-ed or wrote the op-ed for Clooney.
Or even was the source.
They just sort of said he talked to him about it.
And that's what they're saying here.
Everyone just calls him.
So my thing, Charlie, and you know Obama probably better than anybody on this panel right now, but I mean, Obama to me is not the guy that wants to get his hands dirty.
Right? I mean, and he's very, very savvy when it comes to the media.
So I think he's going to exert a soft pressure campaign, but he's going to let the chips fall where they will.
I mean, I think that it's very clear that Obama harbors those concerns.
He did issue that one tweet saying, hey, we've all had bad nights or whatever.
He's basically been quiet since then.
And I just don't think he's going to want to get his hands dirty
or want any fingerprints back to him.
But I do believe that him and Pelosi are both and Schumer are all three sort of working
and pushing to exert as much force as they can possible.
But ultimately, I think they don't want to injure him so badly that if he
Here is Rachel Maddow.
They got her to work on a Thursday, which is rare, next to her twin, Chris Hayes.
that he could win.
I think we might be close to there or already there, but they've got a hell of a machine and Biden knows it,
and he's got all these illegals and he's gonna veto the SAVE Act.
So who the heck knows, but at the end of the day, they're trying to injure him, not mortally wound him.
Here is Rachel Maddow.
They got her to work on a Thursday, which is rare next to her twin, Chris Hayes, PlayCut 135.
I think that what Nicole points out about the reality about polling numbers for incumbent presidents
and the real history of that versus what President Biden said,
which was not actually factually accurate as far as I can tell, that's worrying
because it makes me worry that the president is being given information about his political standing
that may not be based in reality, that may be sunnier than is real.
Rachel Maddow being the voice of reason in the room.
Man, apparently ABC is now saying Democrats told them they were hoping Biden would screw up.
No, that's what I'm saying, is that they were cheering for it.
They were cheering for it.
And then probably on the flip side, Trump was probably like, go on, Joe, hold on.
And that would make sense.
He is his vice president after all.
I will close with this and you guys can keep going for a second here.
And I want to just play through this, and Blake, it was your idea that I took and I built out on the show.
And Andrew, you thought it was smart.
If they really wanted to get rid of Biden, you peel off a White House aide, offer them a book deal, get them a primetime interview, and they go into great detail of, he doesn't know where he is, he doesn't have any capacity to lead, as brutal as possible, this thing is over.
There's so much money in Democrat politics and the stakes are so high, it kind of blows my mind that that just doesn't happen.
Someone says, we're passing the hat around, everyone puts in 50k, and we find the first Oval Office aide that we can who will tell.
And it doesn't even need to really be a lie.
It sounds like this is all true.
So you just need to get them to say it on camera, instead of being some stupid leak that's in CBS.
Andrew, what I'm saying, though, is that they have not deployed everything at their disposal yet.
No, I don't think so at all.
I think you're right.
I think what I'm curious to see, you know, we keep saying the RNC is going to suck all the media oxygen out of the room.
I'm starting to just kind of ponder, what if that's exactly what they want?
They want a quiet week to really dig in behind the scenes.
That's smart.
So that every move they make doesn't have to be amplified a hundredfold.
I mean, everything they've done, even that Joe Biden can't do anything but fail
to meet those expectations because everybody's hanging on every word, right?
So I think maybe next week could be a reprieve from this media scrutiny.
They focus on the RNC.
They get behind the scenes where they're really good operators.
I mean, if you want to see a backroom dealing movement, I mean, just look at the Democrats.
This is what they do, right?
So they're going to hatch some plan, exert some force.
And then, like I said, the RNC ends on the 19th.
They've got the 20th and the 21st, I think, to get it done before that roll call.
I mean, it's possible this could be actually an opportunity for them.
I gotta dash.
You guys can keep going and keep the Thought Crimes going.
I will hand it off to Blake.
Oh boy, it comes over to me.
Do we have that much else we want to say, guys?
It's like, I've got one thought that I do when I say, and it's that, look, the debate audience is a singular So the people who listen to ThoughtCrime every week and watch Charlie and watch my show and watch War Room and Tucker and all this stuff, we're in the day-to-day politics business.
We're the news junkies.
We're in that.
And so the press conference is, by its own inherent nature, only going to be speaking to those type of people.
The debate is something completely different.
I mean, I think we saw when producer Angelo had the numbers earlier, there's something like 50 million We can't unring that bell.
I saw a Democrat said earlier today that it doesn't matter if Biden goes up there and starts doing push-ups on the stage.
It's not going to change the fact that people saw what happened on that debate stage.
So you can prove that, okay, maybe he doesn't always have a bad night and every once in a while he can kind of get through some things, but what happens when he does?
And the simple fact of the matter is that people don't pay attention to politics in this country, certainly not as much as they were In the past.
And they saw the debate.
That was the first impression.
It's very, very hard to undo that.
And so, while tonight, yeah, I think I agree with the one CNN correspondent who said that this bought him some time, certainly with his own situation, but it doesn't fundamentally change the conversation and it's not going to.
Yeah, basically I agree.
I think they don't have an obvious or easy way out of the jam they've gotten themselves into.
And I think if they're not able to convince Biden to gracefully step aside, and they need to realize that quick, they need to realize all they can actually do is they have to start lobbying members of the cabinet, and they have to basically say, you need to force Biden's hand more directly. Because I think if you
get to the point where you don't even necessarily need to do it, where you just have it being
talked about that the cabinet could actually do this, or maybe even some specific members of the cabinet
come out and say they're willing to do this, I think at that point he probably does have to go.
But it would be a very tough spot for You'd basically be doing a coup d'etat against your own party, your own president, and your party's own democratically chosen nominee.
It's not a good spot to be in, but I do think it's very funny that it's happening to the party that won't shut up about defending democracy.
They're trying to find the best possible way they can to make it so they have no primary process.
Party leader is chosen by a completely opaque process.
There's been talks about having a secret ballot with the delegates to their conventions, so that would mean the nominee would be chosen by people who you would not even know who they voted for, so you wouldn't have any idea who was responsible for picking the nominee.
It truly is richly deserved that Democrats would get themselves in this stupid disaster of a position.
Here's a question I have, too.
Go ahead, Andrew.
Well, I just think that you have to look at this with an understanding of personal incentive structure.
So, on the one hand, you have George Clooney, who let them all hang out there, wrote an op-ed, put his name on it, that was like the shot heard around the world.
Most people, and there's 15 House Democrats, certainly, that are in these swing districts that are trying to distance themselves from Joe Biden because now the House has gone plus generic ballot, plus two, plus three Republican, right?
So that all makes sense.
Personal incentive structure.
But when you look at like an aide inside Biden's White House that would have to take a risk to do this, and Biden ultimately holds a lot of the cards here, it doesn't back out.
If you're outed, your career could be over.
You could be, you know, a pariah.
You could never work in town again.
Same for a lot of these power players behind the scenes.
They have a personal incentive to not push too hard.
Because Biden's probably going to stick around, right?
What happens then?
So you have to understand the amount of risk that these people are taking.
In other words, a lot of them are cowards and they're not going to just say what they want to say.
That's why I appreciate what Senator Bennett out of Colorado did.
He said, yeah, I said that behind closed doors.
You guys leaked it.
I'm going to own it on CNN.
All right.
Fair enough.
That takes a little bit of courage, some integrity.
Most people do not have that kind of courage.
I think that's just an absolute fact of life and especially so when you're talking about high stakes DC politics on the Democrat side.
So I just don't think that the incentive structure is there for a lot of these people to take that big of a risk because they don't know what's going to happen and they know how stubborn Biden is.
It's unreal to me how hard they're fighting through this.
I think Biden's team, whoever's most loyal to Biden appears to be his 23-year-old social media interns because they're trying to tweet their way through this mess.
So a few minutes ago, Biden actually tweeted about the Vice President Trump thing.
Because Donald Trump said on Truth Social, he did a thing, Crooked Joe begins his big boy press conference with, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President.
Great job, Joe!
And then Joe Biden's official account tweets back, Yes, I know the difference.
One's a prosecutor and the other's a felon.
Now, I don't know why Biden would just attack his own vice president that way, but I guess he's really, he's really living on the edge right now.
They're taking a new approach, you can see that.
They're trying to be more aggressive.
This is something that I want to say to the people out there who are like thinking that, you know, the people who always say that, okay, the election's a loser, you know, the election's going to be stolen, it's totally rigged.
And just, guys, would they be going through on their own side all of this?
Would they be forcing themselves to do all of this?
Would they be putting themselves through such a humiliating ritual, seeing the media completely do the 180 that we've all seen, seeing as whoever is giving the orders?
Look, I said on this show, what, two weeks ago now, that Obama flipped the kill switch.
But, you know, that seems to be what's happening.
But they wouldn't have done all of that, and they wouldn't be be doing all of this if the election were a fait accompli
because they have some sort of quote unquote secret mechanism to swing the election in their favor.
Whatever they're able to do in terms of ballots, it's not enough to overcome the gap
of the collapse of Joe Biden that we've seen.
So that means that guess what boys and girls, this election actually is a jump ball.
It actually is something that you can fight for and it actually is something that is winnable
for the other side.
That's why they're freaking out right now.
Should we close it out with image number?
Do it.
Put it up.
There we go.
Nice to meet you, President Putin.
Here it is.
Nice to meet you, Vice President Trump.
It's a brave new world we live in, guys.
Reality is being rewritten as we speak.
I don't know who will be the Vice President tomorrow.
I don't know who will be the President of Ukraine tomorrow.
It seems to be changing by the moment.
It's basically President Biden's world, and he remakes it according to his increasingly melted-down brain's will.
I think everybody needs to leave here with a prediction.
I predict he stays.
I predict Biden is the nominee.
I think he will fight on, but I do think by the end of July, I think Biden will be out either directly or he will have announced that he will be departing at some point in the near future.
I think he stays unless there is a major health incident.
I don't think the shaming is going to do anything.
I don't think the drying up of donations is going to do anything.
I think it's going to be a major health incident that requires him to step down in any way.
If so, if so, they would hold it for the announcement at the convention.
Okay, actually, I think so.
Everybody's hedging.
I just called it straight up, but that's fine, guys.
Let's play.
This is an interesting clip that we just got.
This is Secretaries Blinken, Austin, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan when President Biden said Vice President Trump.
This is a candid look at them reacting.
Play cut.
I guess you guys know what cut it is.
It's 1.39.
I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President, though I think she's not qualified to be President.
So let's start there.
Number one.
The fact is that the consideration is... It's Jake Sullivan just with the hand on his mouth.
Painful.
Yeah, and you can see by the way that Keep in mind, these are the guys that, and Politico says, by the way, it's a conspiracy that me and Sean Hannity and Stephen Miller have cooked up.
It's a conspiracy that Joe Biden's age was kept from everybody.
Yeah, no, it was a conspiracy, actually.
It was a conspiracy by the people that you're sitting looking at in the front row right there.
It's a conspiracy by people who are in the media to not tell people what this was like,
people who spend time with him.
We've all seen the things publicly, so we know that in private, it must be 10 times worse.
And by the way, it's not us saying that.
You can read the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times or Axios
or any of these mainstream politicos, got a ton of pieces on this,
of these publications who admit it, George Clooney, who admitted over and over and over.
Our point is you knew and you said nothing.
That was the conspiracy of silence that went down here.
And so, I really do think that this puts every, the big spin on this is,
and no one's really talking about it tonight because we're talking more about the press conference.
He was talking about national security issues.
But at the same time, we also know that this is the guy who's ostensibly in control of America's foreign policy, America's nuclear arsenal, America's national security, and we don't even know if this is the guy who's actually making the decisions.
people on this and I think it's really something that the House GOP should get involved in.
What's actually going on inside the White House?
What's actually going on within the cabinet?
Who's making the decisions?
Who's calling the shots?
And I think Ben Shapiro, or somebody made the joke earlier, who should we ask?
Should we ask Jill?
I know it was, excuse me, I'm getting my clips mixed up.
That was Peter Doocy who asked that, who should we ask?
Should we ask Jill?
I would really like to know the answer to that question.
I don't think anybody knows.
I mean, it's his inner circle, right?
So we've got Jill Hunter essentially acting as a chief of staff right now, reports have been suggesting.
I don't know how real that is.
Do you think that we should say nothing or that House Republicans should actually go on offense and try to really pin this down?
I tend to think that You right now you hold your fire mostly.
You sort of let it play out because it's painful enough to watch.
Never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake.
They attribute that to Napoleon.
I don't think he actually said it, but it's a good idea regardless.
I think it makes sense if it's not coming from Trump because then you just give them more opportunities
that they have to lie.
So you get them in front of a camera.
Don't do the staff depositions.
Don't have Trump be involved, right?
Make it Comer, make it the weaponization committee, make it one of these things to go in
and actually start getting, then they've already brought up, I think,
three officials from Jill Biden's office that are gonna be going in.
I just wanna see a steady stream of, like we're saying, opportunities for people from the White House
to explain to folks what's going on inside.
That's all it is.
you Yeah, I mean, keeping him on the back foot, there's an argument to be made there.
And not coming from Trump, I think that makes it better.
But you got to play your, just let them continue to implode.
Let the drama play out, because it's all crazy.
It's all crazy.
None of it's good.
And seeing, you know, you got to imagine, Jack, if Trump had Just a split press, 50-50, right?
Ensure alternative media and alternate channels have emerged and they're more powerful than they were, you know, four and certainly eight years ago.
But if Trump had just a little bit of honest media attention, I would assume his numbers would be five points higher, you know, in each election cycle, right?
But he was constantly, especially in 2020, I mean, it was just like 95-5.
There was that Harvard analysis about the press coverage of Donald Trump, and it was 95% negative, 5% positive.
So when you have this glaring onslaught of negative attention, just beaming down
on the Biden campaign and the Democrat machine at large, I mean, you're talking about like three
to probably seven points, somewhere in between there, that this is gonna drive down everything
across the board for the Democrats.
And I would say, yes, keep them on their back foot.
Keep raising questions they need to answer.
But don't turn it up to a ten.
I would say turn it up to a five or six.
Force questions in awkward press conferences.
Leave it at that.
And that's why, I mean, I sort of sympathize with Trump wanting to potentially delay his VP announcement because that's going to be a positive swing.
It's going to be a nice beam of attention.
And also wanting to wait to see what happens here because they're destroying themselves in real time.
None of us have ever seen anything like this.
I think that's safe to say.
Amen.
Blake, final thoughts?
I look forward to seeing how this ends, because yeah, we've never seen anything like it, and it's the addictive part of politics.
It's that real feeling that anything could happen, and it's all very entertaining.
And the best part is, it's almost entirely bad for people I dislike.
And so, the stakes are low, because almost regardless of what happens, people I dislike will be really unhappy.
So, as a future president once said, I like to see bad people fail.
I like to see bad people fail a once and future president.
Folks, thank you so much for watching ThoughtCrime this week.
Make sure you're following, you're subscribing on all the podcasts.
And remember, as always, go out there and commit more thought crimes.
