“Doing Something” Shouldn’t Mean Doing Something Dumb (Ep 1205)
In this episode, I address some of the positive signs emerging in the fight against the Coronavirus. I also address a stunning admission by Joe Biden in the disastrous Democrat debate last night. Finally, I address some of the terrible government proposals to rescue the economy from the Coronavirus downturn, and what we should really be doing.
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Rabid Never-Trumper George Conway posts the dumbest tweet of the weekend.
Another rabid Never-Trumper (Rick Wilson) hopes Trump supporters pay a terrible price during the viral outbreak.
The Senate is reviewing the FISA renewal and the Coronavirus package.
This change to existing law would dramatically help older Americans weather the stock market storm.
AOC never misses an opportunity to advertise how little she knows about so much.
Joe Biden attacks they energy industry in the debate last nigh
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Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino.
All right, more hysteria-free coverage of the coronavirus, I promise you, here today.
Thanks to everyone who tuned in to my interview with Dr. Centeno.
I thought that was really informative on my YouTube channel.
We got that today.
There's other news out there as well.
I want to tell you what's going on with this relief package, what's bad about it.
There's a lot of awful things in there.
Maybe some good things in there, what we should be doing.
Stay tuned.
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Welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.
Producer Joe, how are you today?
Fine.
Well, I'm well and staying inside.
That's how I'm doing.
I gotta tell you, you know, I talked to Joe before the show frequently, folks.
You know, I always break down that fourth wall here and I've never heard him so, uh, usually Joe's a pretty chipper guy.
Chipper.
Pretty much all the time.
So I get it.
Yeah, I get it.
I'm with you, buddy.
I know it's tough.
Yeah.
But again, I can't say enough, folks.
It's not false optimism.
I said this on Twitter.
I'll say it today.
I'm not here to be a cheerleader.
I'm not here to pump you full of false optimism.
We are the United States of America.
We have been through two world wars, a civil war, a revolution.
The Spanish flu, polio, we have been through this.
We will get through this.
There will be a vaccine, there will be treatments, and we will get through this.
I'm absolutely sure of it.
I'm not here to pump false sunshine up your caboose.
You're all mature adults, you don't need it.
We'll get through this.
So again, I'm gonna give you the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Please stay tuned.
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All right, Joe, let's go.
And away we go!
Yeah, we will not be giving up our opening bell anytime, sorry, no matter how bad things get.
So, ladies and gentlemen, we must resist the temptation right now as liberty-loving patriots and supporters, obviously, of the greatest country in the history of humankind, the temptation to, quote, do something if that something is bad.
I can't say this enough.
The temptation now to do something is an avenue for the government to do really awful things.
This is not exclusive to Democrats either.
You may perceive this, if you're a liberal listening, as a partisan attack, and listen, many of my things, and there will be some of those during the show.
This is not that one.
Republicans and Democrats alike have this tendency in a national crisis to respond quickly to this public outcry, to do something, and to do something terrible.
There are some things we can do that are good right now.
And I think the president and the vice president and his task force are doing a lot of them.
There are also the temptation to respond to public pressure, to do something, to do awful things, like we did during the financial crisis back in the late 2000s, where what did we do, Joe?
We wound up bailing out a bunch of companies that did not deserve it.
Yes, we did.
That was our money.
Big mistake.
But everybody's, do something, do something.
No, do something right.
Okay, having said that, again, everything you need to know in an hour here.
Hysteria-free coverage.
What do you need to know about the coronavirus relief package passed last week by the House that the Senate is going to look at this week?
Here are the takeaways, and a lot of them, ladies and gentlemen, are not good.
Doing something bad right now is not helping.
It's not only misfeasance, it's malfeasance.
Misfeasance being not doing anything and allowing something bad to happen.
Malfeasance doing something worse that makes a bad situation worse.
I'm sorry, but this is a bad deal.
Let's go to this Wall Street Journal article.
Had the best summary I've seen thus far of it.
And we'll go through the takeaways calmly, and I'm going to tell you why this stuff is a bad idea.
And more importantly, I'm going to leave you with what I think is a good idea, what I'm getting from some people, and what I hope people will consider.
By the Wall Street Journal editorial board.
Virus relief, but new business burdens.
The House bill imposes paid leave mandates that may never go away.
Ladies and gentlemen, how is this going to help your small business employer?
I'm not sure how this is going to help.
Let's get to it.
No time to waste here.
I got a busy show today.
Takeaway number one.
This House bill, again, was passed by the House, not passed by the Senate, has not made it to the President's desk.
I'm hoping the Senate fixes this debacle.
The House bill includes some sensible emergency health measures, including waiving insurance co-pays for diagnostic testing and treatment.
But, ladies and gentlemen, let's be honest here.
Back to the piece.
Nothing in healthcare is free.
Nothing.
There is no such thing as free.
There's no money fairy.
So don't be surprised if private insurers raise premiums next year to make up for the cost.
Having said that, we're in a crisis right now.
I get it.
Maybe not the soundest of economics, but if that's what's going to solve the problem right now, waiving co-pays for people who don't have money to go get tested.
Okay.
I get it.
All right.
Back to the piece.
Part one.
Treatment and testing, ladies and gentlemen.
It's important.
We don't want people running around out there for treatment and testing and not getting treated because they don't have the money.
So treatment and testing costs for the uninsured will be covered by the federal government.
Folks, again, there is no such thing as a free lunch, but this is one of those crisis situations where if there are people out there who don't have insurance for whatever reason, they've been laid off from their job, they don't have insurance for their kids, they can't afford it.
There's been a member of my family who called me about this the other day.
I'm obviously not going to say who, but If you think you have the coronavirus and can spread it, folks, I'm sorry, but this is one of those collective crises where, yeah, we're gonna need someone to step in.
And that may be us, collectively, through our tax money.
I get it.
Again, it's not free.
We're all going to pay for it later in the form of either higher taxes or premium increases.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is delusional.
Stop using the word free.
Delayed payments, whatever you want to call them, it's not free.
There's no such thing as free.
Having said that, I don't think this is the worst idea in the world right now.
Again, you have my email.
It's on my website.
We always love to read your feedback.
Fine.
You disagree?
I understand.
I'm a small government, you know, conservative who believes in big R God-given rights.
Having said that, we are in a crisis right now.
I don't want people running around in this crisis who don't have the money for copays or anything else not getting tested.
It's a bad idea.
Some of the bad stuff now.
By the way, oh wait, before we get to that, sorry, glad I didn't put that up.
You see, you were a little slow on the tree, but you helped me there.
We got to close the borders, folks.
I'm sorry.
Amen.
The Dow opened up down dramatically.
We have to close the borders now.
A two-week moratorium on travel across the border in the United States, with the exception of emergency vehicles and commerce.
We have cleared travelers to do that.
There should be no recreational travel and obviously no illegal immigration into the United States.
Whatever we can do to stop that now, we need to.
This is almost like common sense.
Yeah.
I was having a Twitter exchange with Nan Hayworth, who was a former congresswoman from New York.
It was pretty good.
And she said the same thing, like, how is this not common sense right now?
You want to provide government-sponsored, tax-provided testing to people who are uninsured right now?
Fine.
But it shouldn't be open season to come into the United States if you think you're sick to get testing.
That should be common sense.
Unfortunately, common sense is not so common in Washington, D.C.
Let's go to takeaway number two from the Wall Street Journal piece.
This House bill.
Folks, it's a no.
I'm sorry.
It's a disaster.
Do something does not mean do something bad.
Quote Wall Street Journal.
Less targeted portions of this bill is a 6.2 percentage point across the board increase in federal payment rates to states for Medicaid reimbursement.
Folks, this is a terrible idea.
It goes on.
All states will get additional Medicaid funding regardless of how much they spend fighting the coronavirus.
What?
Who thought this one out?
What?
This will help state budgets if tax payments slow, but it would make more sense to compensate states directly for the coronavirus-related costs.
Folks.
Yeah.
Again.
This is what's so frustrating being outside of the DC bubble.
I know why you're doing this because the Democrats love Medicaid and any excuse to piss away and flush down the toilet, any taxpayer dollars, they'll take it.
And candidly to rhinos too, this is a terrible idea.
Why are we bumping up across the board Medicaid funding to states that may not be having a severe crisis like Washington, California, and New York?
Why are we doing that?
West Virginia right now has no cases.
Maybe we should prioritize Florida, California, states.
Why would you do an across-the-board payment?
It makes no sense.
When are we going to start viewing money as a scarce good?
And stop pretending the money fairy exists.
This is a really stupid idea.
Across-the-board bumps in Medicaid funding to everyone?
Why?
Why?
Shouldn't we be triaging our payments based on the places that need it?
I mean, how does this not just make basic sense?
Moving on.
Another bad idea in this bill.
This is a disaster.
No, that was the last one.
Next one.
Another terrible idea.
This thing, ladies and gentlemen, waiving work requirements, this is a terrible idea.
Quote, most spending in the bill is intended to mitigate financial hardship and relief in a crisis, which is a proper role for government, is a quote from the piece.
Not my words, theirs.
States will be able to request federal approval to dole out emergency food stamps and waive work requirements.
Fine.
Most provisions expire at the end of the calendar year when the Public Health Emergency Declaration is lifted.
But the political temptation will be to make this permanent.
Big mistake!
Ditto for the bill's 26 weeks of extended jobless benefits.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry, this is a bad idea.
For a total of 52 weeks.
I know a lot of you are yelling, hold on, hold on, I have an idea for this.
Please.
Extending it to 52 weeks in states that see unemployment bump up over 10%.
Folks, it's a bad idea.
It's a bad idea.
We have to start viewing public funds right now in a triage fashion.
This goes on through the summer.
We could be blowing a hole in the federal budget.
We will never be able to repay.
We're already $22 trillion in debt.
We have to be smart about this.
Waiving work requirements.
Okay, now I get it.
For food stamps, fine.
But that better sunset.
But extending unemployment benefits now I think is a bad idea.
Let's talk about now Wait, one more.
I'm sorry, one more piece from the Wall Street Journal, another highlight, which is a terrible idea.
Under the bill, employers with fewer than 500 workers will be required to cover 10 days of leave for workers who are sick or have to self-quarantine.
Workers would also be guaranteed 12 weeks of leave compensated at two-thirds of their regular pay after the first two weeks to care for themselves or family members.
The government would compensate employers with a tax credit.
Folks, again, this is not a good idea.
These small business mandates will put the small business you work for out of business, and you'll have no job long-term.
This is the time to be smart, to do something right, not just to do something because it sounds good.
None of this is going to be free.
We have to start thinking short-term, mid-term, and long-term.
So what is the solution?
Here's an idea worth entertaining.
It has some downsides, but it's from the Wall Street Journal.
It's a separate article.
Let the Fed minister an antiviral shot.
By Kevin Warsh.
An emergency lending program would keep a liquidity crisis from turning into a solvency crisis.
Folks, again, right now we're not dealing with good ideas.
We're dealing with less bad ideas.
You want to keep small businesses and other businesses in business?
Open up liquidity lines.
Open up a government-backed credit facility.
Check this piece out.
Here's a proposal.
Thousands of banks could be on the front lines for this.
They would underwrite loans, basically to small businesses, based on the quality and value of the collateral and the expected cash flow of borrowers, evaluating applicants based on their credentials as of January 1st, before the pandemic.
Borrowers would need to demonstrate they are unable to obtain credit elsewhere, but are solvent, consistent with the requirements of the Federal Reserve Act.
Not a bad idea, ladies and gentlemen.
Let these private banks get in there.
Look at the collateral.
Businesses that are struggling may have to lay off workers.
Give them a line of credit.
This government-backed facility, it'll be through private banks.
The government can back it up.
For now.
But these have to be solvent companies.
Why?
Ladies and gentlemen, you don't want companies that before the pandemic was declared, and before we knew about the coronavirus, who were going bankrupt and were terrible in business, you don't want them siphoning off money from companies that were doing fine that are suffering because of the pandemic.
Right, right.
We can't take care of everyone.
I wish I had better news.
Everybody's going to take it on the chin.
Every single person in America cannot be guaranteed right now that life is going to return quickly as it was before January 1st.
That is fantasy land.
I'm not giving you that on this show.
I'm giving you the truth.
But companies that were doing fine before this, that have collateral, that have the ability and just found a liquidity crisis, meaning they can't get access to funds to pay bills, to pay invoices.
It would not be a bad idea to get the private banks involved and to tell them if they're good collateralized companies, let's lend to them at a higher rate than normal, which disincentivizes them from going to the government first.
But let's at least guarantee them some liquidity so that these companies and you can stay employed.
I'm not talking about good ideas anymore.
We're talking about less bad ideas.
This is a less bad one than lapping on a thousand new, hey, it's going to run a mile and a half, let's run three miles, adding extra laps onto companies who are already struggling to hold their breath, to get their breath back for this mile and a halfer.
Mandates, all of a sudden, they don't need new mandates.
They need liquidity and cash.
What else can we do?
Just my proposal here.
Republicans and Democrats could get together right now if they had any common sense and say, listen, we're in the middle of a crisis.
This is going to require there's going to be a hole in this budget.
We are committing jointly.
To when this is done.
To a serious cut in government spending so we don't wind up insolvent and bankrupt as a country.
You get it.
Oh, Dan, that's never going to happen.
Fine.
I'm just telling you what should happen.
It only makes sense.
Be counter-cyclical.
We're in a downturn.
We've had trouble.
Serious trouble.
No one expected this.
If you were to commit publicly in a bipartisan fashion, Towards serious, sensible government spending cuts in the future to make up for the spending now, we would put the bond market a bit at ease more.
Of course they won't do that because it makes too much sense.
Why are we spending money on shrimp running on treadmill studies?
Do you know how much discretionary garbage spending we have in the budget?
Second, commit to a spending cut in the future here?
Bipartisan?
If you had any guts, you'd do it.
Second sluice, you gotta cut taxes now.
You have to put money where it matters, folks.
I know to Democrats and Liberals, this is anathema.
I know it's poison to you.
You have to get over it.
People need money.
Their money, they earn.
They are going to be laid off.
You want a payroll tax cut?
I don't think it's the best idea, but fine.
I'll take it in exchange for a cap gains tax cut.
People can free up assets.
An income tax cut, people can free up more of their income.
And a corporate tax cut, so companies that pay corporate taxes can say, oh, evil corporations.
Ladies and gentlemen, small businesses pay the corporate tax too.
Did you not know that?
We need money out there.
Not fake money, not money fairy money.
Companies' money, investment money, and income earners' money.
They need more of it.
Do it now.
Do it now.
You want to rescue the market?
You want to get out of this?
Pledge to cut spending when this is over.
To put a floor on this, what's going to be a disastrous hole in our budget.
Commit now.
Cut taxes across the board.
Dramatically.
Dramatically.
Let people make long-term investment decisions now, while assets are cheap.
Here's another great idea.
Daily Signal piece.
Folks, please read the show notes today.
I put together a good set of articles.
Again, Bongino.com slash newsletter.
I'll email you these articles every morning.
Please.
It's a great article.
Adam Michelle, Rachel Gressler.
How Congress can help retirees amid the market turmoil.
Daily Signal.
Ladies and gentlemen, a lot of people are selling their assets right now.
I'm not your financial advisor.
I'm not.
I'm buying.
If you want to sell, I understand.
You have your own risk profile.
I'm not telling you what to do.
I'm not in any position to do that for you.
I don't know your personal situation.
I'm not a liberal.
I'm buying.
A lot of people are selling.
A lot of people are selling right now because they have to.
This is a terrible idea, especially our retirees.
Daily Signal, you want a proposal?
Scrap all of these mandatory distributions and retirement accounts.
Quote, Daily Signal.
For older Americans, the law doesn't allow them to ride it out.
As of 2020, did you know this, Joe?
Americans age 72 and older must take a required minimum distribution from their retirement accounts.
This is stupid!
Yeah, didn't know that, no.
The age 72 requirement marks an increase from 70.5 that applied prior to the passage of the SECURE Act in 2019.
Get rid of this right now!
That minimum required distribution is a percentage which increases with age of retirees' accounts on December 31st, the prior year.
What does this mean, folks, in plain English?
The stock market's now down 20% over the last month.
Older Americans now have to sell because they have to take distributions.
Scrap this right now.
Scrap this bill right now.
Let them keep their money until this recovers.
Why are you making them sell?
This makes no sense, ladies and gentlemen.
Folks, listen, this isn't phony virtue signaling.
I don't have any grandparents left.
I wish I did.
I just lost mine.
Last grandparent is many of you know, 96.
Why are you forcing them to sell to people like me?
I'm 45.
I have 50 years to ride this out.
If I live as long 50 years, why are you forcing them to sell?
Folks?
I'm not kidding.
I don't want your stocks cheap.
I don't.
If you have to sell and you're risk... Fine, do your thing.
I'm not telling you what to do.
I'm simply suggesting if you don't want to sell, why is the government making you?
I don't want your cheap stocks.
I don't.
I have 40 years to recover my money.
Why are you making a 70-year-old go bankrupt?
Ladies and gentlemen, this makes zero sense.
I get it.
You want to do something.
Do something smart!
Fed's cutting the rate now to 0 to 0.25%.
Again, good time to mortgage your house, remortgage your house.
Say, oh, it's great for us.
No, it's not.
You know why?
It's going to take away from people saving who live off fixed incomes who now can't get any interest on anything.
Folks, there's no free lunch here.
There's no free lunch.
None.
There's no money fairy.
The Fed's gonna purchase 700 billion in assets now.
Where are they getting that from?
They're gonna print it.
Quantitative easing.
Ooh.
Monopoly money time.
Where's that worked before?
Never.
When?
Oh, it rescued us from 2008.
No, you rescued us from 2008.
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
None.
Okay.
Let me get to my second sponsor here.
Folks, I'm going to get to this next.
I'm getting a lot of questions.
Tons.
Can this election, presidential election, be postponed?
The short answer, probably not.
I'll get to the deets on that in a minute.
Today's show also brought to you by our friends at Helix, which, gosh, has Helix come in handy for me lately.
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Okay.
So I'm trying to be responsive.
I know I don't want to do 24-7 corona all the time, but ladies and gentlemen, the corona issue right now has become... The reason I'm covering this from different angles, it's not just the coronavirus anymore.
That segment we just covered was an economic block.
The fact that the economic issues are caused by the corona and the coronavirus outbreak, we got to cover it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But there's other questions coming on the election issue.
I got a ton of emails on this again.
Can we postpone the election?
I saw this up at a website, DYNUZ.
It's in the show notes.
I've never heard of it before.
I don't know what it is.
Some aggregator.
But check it out.
It's up in the show notes again.
Bongino.com slash newsletter answers all your questions.
Could the election, the 2020 election be postponed?
Well, they say only with great difficulty, and here's why.
So, from the piece, I'm just gonna read it straight, because again, it's an audience question, you have the right to know.
The short answer is probably not.
The date of the general election, ladies and gentlemen, is set by federal law, has been fixed since 1845.
It would take a change in federal law to move the date.
It would mean legislation enacted by Congress, signed by the President, subjected to challenge in the courts.
So again, the short answer, is it possible?
Yes.
Likely, no.
They say to call that unlikely would be an understatement.
It goes on, quote, and even if all that happened, there wouldn't be much flexibility in choosing an alternate election date.
The Constitution mandates that the new Congress must be sworn in on January 3rd, and the new president's term must begin on January 20th.
Those dates can't be changed just by the passage of normal legislation.
The short answer, is the presidential election going to be moved?
Probably not.
Probably not.
It's a quick one.
Get through that fast.
Now, some good news, ladies and gentlemen.
A lot of people are helping others out there.
I've seen tons of tweets, people going shopping for their elderly neighbors, who understandably, given the high-risk population they present themselves in, being elderly in the presence of the coronavirus, people are doing really good stuff out there.
I'm telling you we're going to get through this.
I think I'm going to get to some testing things in a minute that I think will help as well.
But I wanted to be, hopefully, a force for some good here and get some information out there.
Hat tip to Heather Hunter, a friend.
She was a producer at a radio station I used to do some work at.
But she put this out on Twitter and I saw there's a website, SHIP.com.
They are not, full disclosure, they are not a sponsor.
They did not pay for this at all.
I'm just putting it out there.
SHIP, S-H-I-P-T, not SHIP, S-H-I-P-P-E-D.
S-H-I-P-T dot com.
They deliver groceries for you.
If you happen to be elderly and you listen to my show or high risk, diabetes, immunocompromised.
Remember, it's not just elderly folks.
You're immunocompromised, you're in your 30s or 40s.
You don't want to take the risk.
This company apparently sends shoppers out to pick up your groceries for you.
Again, I have no financial relationship with them.
They are not a sponsor.
I'm just putting that out there.
Some other things.
Walmart.
Paula said this morning.
Walmart has delivery.
They deliver.
Walmart's been delivering to my house.
We've not been going into Walmart.
Now, are you going to get everything on delivery?
Probably not.
Disclosure, I own Walmart stock.
Had nothing to do whatsoever with me telling you that.
I just want to be fair and honest.
I owned a lot of stock in Walmart.
Not a lot.
I shouldn't be dreaming.
I'm not like Steve Jobs.
I'm a 10% Walmart.
I own a couple of stocks.
I'm just saying, because honesty matters here.
Amazon.
Amazon delivers.
I get it.
It's owned by Bezos.
I own some Amazon stock, too.
I'm just telling you.
Amazon delivers, too, obviously.
If you've never tried it, you don't like me, and I like Walmart personally a little better, but give it a shot.
I order from Amazon, too, sometimes.
Omaha Steaks.
Again, disclosure, they are a sponsor.
Omaha Steaks has meat.
You're running out of meat?
I'm only saying it because we went there this weekend because my wife, who's a genius, they were running out of meat in the supermarket, said, what about Omaha Steaks?
Again, their sponsor has nothing to do with me telling you this.
Some are, some aren't.
I'm just trying to put that information out there.
Omaha Steaks.
I'm not even giving you my promo code because I just want to do that.
I'm not trying to like profit.
I don't get any.
If you order from Omaha Steaks, I make no additional money at all.
Also another sponsor is Patriot Supply.
They sell long-term storage food for emergencies.
They are a sponsor.
Again, I make no money extra if you buy it or not.
The website's preparewithdan.com.
It's not my website.
It's theirs.
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I order.
I just spent $500 on emergency food.
I'm just trying to give you a portfolio of options and disclosing any financial relationship I have with them.
It's only the right thing to do.
Showing you again why you should never take advice from liberal social justice warrior morons, especially like the delusional morons at Media Matters who spend all day in their mommy's basement in Snuggies roasting s'mores, begging mommy to decrease their $100 a month rent while watching conservatives on TV.
Here is the biggest moron over there.
A guy by the name of Andrew Lawrence, who watches me on TV all day, who I just wanted to note, again, why you should never take life advice from dumb liberals.
Here's Andrew Lawrence on Twitter on January of 2019.
Ladies and gentlemen, he thought it was hilarious that we work with a website, Patriot Supply, that sells what he calls apocalypse food.
He said, folks, I'm here to tell you Dan Bongino is selling apocalypse food at preparewithdan.com.
He thought that was hilarious.
While he's in his Snuggie on a line at the meat counter begging for some hamburger scraps.
Thanks for the mention, dude, by the way.
You know?
Really?
Yep.
Oh, he's probably sold a ton of it.
Yes, sir.
He's what a goof.
I know what you wanted to say there.
You caught yourself.
Yes, I did.
Thank you.
Nice job.
Nice job.
Why you should never take advice from liberal social justice warriors.
It's not apocalypse food.
It's storage food for emergencies.
My man.
You dope.
I will always keep them as a sponsor.
You know why?
I live in a hurricane zone where sometimes the store shelves down here go barren.
You don't like emergency food?
You don't need it in 25 years when it runs out?
They didn't even pay for a spot on the show today!
Great!
Throw it out!
That'll be the best day of your life!
But I'm not the guy online like Andrew Lawrence with his Snuggie eating a leftover s'mores from his couch room two weeks ago on a meat line at Walmart begging for a half a pound of hamburger.
I wanted to say more about this, but I don't want to waste any time, seriously, with this loser.
I just wanted to show you, again, these people get paid to watch us all day and poke fun at us.
Trappers, you're all crazy.
Sure.
Nice job, dopes.
Okay.
A little bit of a break from the macabre bad news.
We need a Never Trumper TDS Level 6 update.
You just need it.
Because the Never Trumpers are totally melting down.
And I only do this update again because I want to... There's got to be something that you can take out of this to show you that the...
Never Trumpers out there, these so-called Republicans who think they're fighting for the party and our principles.
They have no principles at all, ladies and gentlemen.
They are only committed to taking this president down because they didn't support him in the election when he won.
They supported other Republican candidates.
A lot of them have consulting businesses, political consulting.
I know, I know them.
One I worked with, full disclosure.
One I worked with, who turned insane.
They are now losing money left and right because they cater to the swamp, the Republican swamp.
Trump is not part of the swamp.
And as a result, they're pretending that they're saving the Republican Party while they're collectively acting in group stupidity solely because they hate this president.
It has nothing whatsoever to do with principles.
You don't believe me?
PJ Media.
Look at this loser.
George Conway.
George Conway, king of the never-Trump idiots.
This is an actual article of PJ Medeo being the show notes today.
George Conway gets destroyed on Twitter after suggesting the White House physician isn't a real doctor.
Holy smokes!
Now, he tweeted out there, oh, look at this, the White House physician's a DO, an osteopathic physician.
So?
To all you osteopathic physicians who went to osteopathic medical schools.
I didn't know you weren't real doctors.
Apparently, you didn't know either.
How about that?
Ladies and gentlemen, for those of you... I'm not a doctor.
Obviously, a medical doctor.
My brother-in-law is.
He's a great guy.
There are MDs and DOs.
There are very smart DOs, very smart MDs.
As many doctors can tell you, some MDs, maybe... Very few, but some DOs... That has nothing to do with anything.
But George Conway, who in a time of crisis has nothing to do In his own Snuggie—must be a big Snuggie, by the way— George is sitting on his couch like, he saw the credentials, D.O.
That's what you think to tweet, look at this, the White House physician's just a D.O.
Yeah, you're just a D. Forget D.O.
Even Paula thought that was funny.
I know I should laugh at my own joke.
I didn't plan that one.
I'm sorry, it just came out of nowhere.
Not bad, huh?
Well, I'm not usually as witty as your joke.
It doesn't end there.
Again, this is your Never Trumper update to show you these people have no principles at all.
These are not serious human beings.
Here is perennial zero, Rick Wilson, who we have all seen with the craziest Never Trumper of all, the shaman in a village of idiots, Red State.
Never Trump or Rick Wilson says the quiet part out loud.
He hopes Trump supporters pay, quote, a terrible price because you deserve it.
Nice job, Rick.
Nice job.
We're only going through a national pandemic year of an unknown virus where nobody's even sure the mortality rate, the infection rate yet.
But yeah, let's pile on and say, tell Trump supporters you really deserve to pay the price for this one.
Nice job.
Big D.
He's a serious guy.
Joe, where are all the dumb ones?
Rick Wilson's a serious guy, along with XXL-wearing, Snuggie-wearing George Conway.
George Conway slash D. Not D-O.
He leaves the O out for obvious reasons.
Oh, it gets better!
Here is total psycho Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post.
I mean, lost her mind years ago.
Not even coherent anymore.
Suggesting in this cut here, this video audio cut, that Trump supporters and Republicans are going to be infected with the coronavirus at a higher rate.
I'm not kidding.
This is a real cut with the always confused Joy Reid.
Listen to this level six TDS stupid right here.
There's also a Washington Post piece that talks about the fact that older Americans are more worried about coronavirus unless they're Republican, Jennifer.
We now have a situation where Trump's own people are actually in greater danger, but those of us who live in this earth can't even reach them.
They're not listening to anything that any of us say, including someone like you as a former Republican.
You can't reach them.
No.
And there is a particular cruelty, irony, that it is their core viewers, the Republican older viewers, as Eric said, who are the most at risk.
And when you think about it, which party immediately canceled all of their rallies?
Which party immediately started having their political figures really portray and use their lives as an example. It was
the Democrats. So there are going to be, I hate to put it in these terms, there are going to be less
Democrat deaths because of there will be less mass gatherings. There will be less opportunities
for people to congregate and share this horrible disease. So it is a really a very short-sighted
strategy.
But I think now the name of the game is, how do they get back on planet Earth?
And part of the way I think they're doing it is down the memory hole.
He jumped on this right away, don't you know?
It was because of all that planning that we're doing so well.
Which is head-spinning for the rest of us who watched him for weeks say this was a hoax.
But this is how they do it at Fox News.
Suddenly he's been the most pre-active president.
Whoa!
Jennifer.
Please.
Seek help.
Please.
For the sake of you or those around you.
Please seek help.
It's not a joke.
You need it.
You are a seriously disturbed person.
One, Trump did not call the coronavirus a hoax.
You dope.
How many times are you going to lie about that?
Second, Republicans are going to be infected more.
Democrats, what, have some kind of anti-corona gene?
And then third, Fox News is hyping this?
Fox News.
Does she even watch Fox News?
It has been walled.
Again, disclosure, I work there as a contributor, has nothing to do with these comments.
Fox has been wall-to-wall coverage.
They have a Democrat on Andrew Cuomo on the network right now with a live press conference.
Are you this stupid?
Former Clinton flack and full-time dope Joe Lockhart on Twitter got out in front of this dude this weekend, saying, when all this is done, there's going to be some kind of reckoning for Fox.
Shut your pie hole, you dope.
Are you kidding me for Fox?
I'll get to some of the media nonsense in a minute.
Fox was the problem here?
That's hilarious.
Gosh are you people stupid.
All right, getting back to this testing thing I told you, I'm trying to go back and forth, proposals, serious stuff, stuff you need to be aware of.
Let me get to my final sponsor first because I want to motor through this.
I've got a lot of stuff to get through still.
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Okay.
I'm using a lot of Wall Street Journal content today, but regards to the testing issue, because we want to put out a lot of substance out there as well.
I'm going to disagree a bit with the administration here, and I read this article and they convinced me.
Widespread testing is probably a better idea at this point.
Now, obviously now, given the limited availability, now, if you're high risk or showing symptoms, law enforcement officers, our military folks, our heroic at this point, hospital and healthcare employees on the front line, you have my hat tip to all of you.
God bless you.
You got real guts.
And we love you for it.
But when testing becomes more available, and it will be, they are putting this out.
Believe me when I tell you this is a full, all-government effort to get this going.
This article in the Wall Street Journal makes some sense.
She says, the author, it's dangerous to test only the sick.
Random sampling is essential to learn the truth about the virus spread and the deadlines.
What does she mean?
This makes sense, folks.
She's basically saying if we only— say this just to prolong itself throughout the summer.
I'll just read it from her because this makes sense.
Testing only sick or symptomatic patients will not get us to the truth.
To see why who we test matters, consider the flu.
Its mortality rate is around 0.1%, meaning that if everyone infected with the flu tested or not, one in 1,000 die of it.
If we only tested people who are hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, The mortality rate jumped 75-fold!
Similarly, with the coronavirus, testing only sick and symptomatic people will result in an overestimate of mortality, which is going to heighten fear and anxiety and worsen their economic effects.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think the author is right.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah.
A lot of sense, doesn't it?
Folks, and I know the administration is working on this.
They are doing the best they can.
But we are, you know, we have to be candid on the show.
This is a solid, sensible approach.
I bring this up because I was talking to my wife here before the show, and obviously we have Fox on in the background.
And on Fox and Friends, they interviewed a woman who had recovered from Corona.
Ladies and gentlemen, she's fine.
That is obviously not indicative of every case.
Obviously.
Just like the flu.
Some people it's bad.
Some people it's worse.
Some people get a flu shot.
I got the flu.
I had the flu shot.
I had it for two days and I was done with it.
So did my daughter.
It was a mild case.
It was still a case.
The only cases we're hearing about now due to testing are the dramatic ones and the really bad ones, which may be giving people a false sense of the severity of the crisis.
Not the existence of it.
It's clearly a crisis at this point, an economic one and a healthcare one.
As I've said to you from the beginning, Despite the liberal hacks who listen to my show, who will lie to you endlessly.
We have never questioned the seriousness of this.
It is serious, period.
The question is, how serious?
So we can gauge the risk in our personal lives.
Again, the flu is deadly.
But as I said to you when I opened the show, what is it, two weeks ago now?
Why do half of Americans not get a flu shot?
Because half of America, they're not dumb.
They've taken into account the risk.
And they don't think it's worth it.
That's their call.
Because they think the flu, given it's very low mortality rate and some of them are healthy, say, I'll take my chances.
I don't feel like going to get it.
That's their call.
Not mine.
I get a flu shot.
Paula didn't.
We're not dumb.
But we do that because we understand the risks of the flu.
The author of this piece is making a good point.
Nobody understands the risks of corona right now.
All we're seeing is people dying and they're really sick patients.
We're not hearing enough.
I think Fox did the nation a big service this morning by putting this lady on saying, listen, not everybody, it's not a death sentence for everybody who gets it.
That way we can start to price our risks and see what we're going to do.
Personally, we're all big boys and girls here.
We can make our own decisions.
But to do that, and I think the administration may be going down this road as these tests become more available, we're gonna need some random sampling in communities as well.
Because the only cases we're picking up right now are the people who are sick enough to go get tested.
Which is making the mortality rates and the science skewed.
Smart idea.
Alright.
We're getting through this.
We're getting through this.
I'm going to give you a fake news update in a minute because there's a lot of fake news going on.
Tell you who to trust and who not.
You can trust our show.
We're out here.
We're footnoting stuff.
We're quoting from legitimate news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere.
You can't trust the fake news.
But before I get to that, I want to get to a tweet by Tom Fitton because there is other news going on.
Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schiff is panicking for a couple of reasons.
Number one, the president tweeted out about potentially pardoning Mike Flynn.
And Schiff, of course, doesn't want that because he wants Flynn to start talking about what really happened.
But other than that, and I'll get to some more Flynn stuff tomorrow.
It's important.
But Tom Fitton's Twitter feed was gold this weekend.
Two things in one tweet.
Breaking!
Adam Schiff's lawyers, paid for, by the way, with your tax dollars, went to court on Friday to keep his secret, illicit subpoenas targeting Rudy Giuliani and Devin Nunes' phone records and other innocent Americans secret.
Gee, why would he want that?
Well, it goes on.
There's another tweet on there.
At the bottom.
Huge cover-up.
Tom Fitton.
The CIA and DOJ refuse to confirm or deny records or emails tied to the alleged Schiff, quote, whistleblower.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a big story.
For two reasons.
Adam Schiff is a full-blown government tyrant.
As we discussed last week, I believe on Friday's show.
His targeting of Devin Nunes and Rudy Giuliani's phone records.
In Rudy Giuliani's case, without formal notification to allow Giuliani to proceed using his legal rights to fight the subpoena, is the stuff of full-blown third-world tyrants.
Schiff is now panicking because now there's a subpoena for Schiff's information, or excuse me, a FOIA request, and they don't want to go into court to fight it.
I thought Schiff was all about open information.
Hey, we should know who Devin Nunes and Rudy Giuliani called.
Adam, that replies to you too, doesn't it, bro?
Not so much.
Adam Schiff is panicking in court.
He's got lawyers paid for by your tax dollars fighting him because he's a chump and a coward.
But why is the DOJ and CIA hiding email records of their communications with the fake whistleblower in Schiff's office?
The answer is, Because people from the NSC worked in Adam Schiff's office who knew the whistleblower, and I think they want to keep that pretty darn quiet.
Topic I'll cover in my next book, which we're in the midst of writing now.
There are other things going on.
I'm not letting any of it go, and I'll get to Flynn tomorrow.
That's going to be a longer segment.
The DOJ, Joe, and the FBI lost, air quotes, some key records for Mike Flynn.
Crazy how they keep losing stuff.
Golly!
We lost it, huh?
I don't know what happened.
Jeez.
They think we're suckers.
They really think we're morons.
Okay, fake news update.
Important because we are here to give you the facts, but we're also here to show you the non-facts and who you can rely on to always spin your wheels in a national emergency.
Here's fake news update number one.
This is actually kind of, again, a piece of comic relief.
So as you know, the Google website, they are putting together a website, which is going to be helpful in determining, again, using their data vacuuming up abilities, Google.
They're putting together a website to help Americans find testing spots and things like that.
Well, President Trump put that out at a presser and the media said, that's fake news.
Google's not doing that.
Well, they are.
Because it was fake news by the news.
It was totally unhelpful in this crisis.
But again, they're blaming Fox, Joe.
Fox did this.
So here's the president at a press conference this weekend coming out in a short clip here.
Who just, as someone, I can't say any better than this.
I pulled this off a Twitter feed and the guy just said, this is just savage.
It is.
Listen to this.
I don't know where the press got their fake news, but they got it someplace.
But as you know, this is from Google.
They put out a release and you guys can figure it out yourselves and how that got out.
And I'm sure you'll apologize, but it would be great if we could really give the news correctly.
It would be so, so wonderful.
I know I shouldn't be laughing right now, but folks, come on.
That last line is hilarious.
Right?
Isn't that funny?
It would be really wonderful if you guys could get the news right.
That would be really... I don't like crying on the air, but that was pretty savage.
In the most calm, peaceful way possible.
It would be really great if you guys could get the news right for once.
Let me go to these tweets from CNN, showing you again why, please, I'm begging you, do not waste your time with CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, or The New York Times.
It is not an information stream.
It's a propaganda stream.
Every significant story they can get wrong, they will.
Here's tweet number one from CNN about this same story, about the Google website they were putting together for watch.
CNN politics, for us to watch out for the coronavirus.
Brian Fung.
Google says it's not publishing a national-scale coronavirus site anytime soon after Trump announcement.
Oh man, they really got Trump there.
Look at that stupid Trump put that out.
What a dope CNN corrects him right here.
Let's go to tweet number two.
Maybe not so much.
Let's go to tweet number two.
There we go!
Here we go!
Google will partner with U.S.
government to develop a nationwide coronavirus website.
Company says.
I'm confused here.
Me too.
That's kind of a massive correction, isn't it folks?
I mean, they dig their own graves.
I'm just humbly and with the greatest of respect asking you to please stop paying attention to these idiots.
Their heads are in their rectums right now and they can't remove them.
Here is the great Dr. Anthony Fauci on CNN this weekend.
Just humiliating the, and again, in the nicest way possible, the interviewer who you have the lead public health official, or one of the leads on this, Dr. Fauci, an expert in infectious disease on your show.
You have limited time.
You probably have a 10-minute segment.
With commercials, it's probably six minutes.
So what does this not-so-smart interviewer decide to ask Dr. Fauci about the president touching a microphone at a press conference?
I'm not kidding.
Here is CNN.
This is where the left gets their news from.
Listen to this and listen to Dr. Fauci.
Listen, can we just get serious here?
Check this out.
I want to take a look at this picture.
You actually touched the same podium.
I'm sure you've seen this in microphone as the president and other CEOs, even at the same time.
The vice president has taken a test for coronavirus.
He tested negative, or the president has tested negative, I should say.
Has Vice President Pence.
Have you taken a test?
Are you going to take a test?
No.
Well, I'm not taking a test for the summer.
I have no symptoms.
I have not.
I'm practicing pretty good.
Social distancing.
But it's hard to fully do it as we speak.
But not everybody in the United States should take a test.
I mean, I have no symptoms.
There's no reason for me to take a test.
If I'm in a situation where I'm at a higher risk, I will take a test.
The picture you showed about the microphone, let's get real here.
I mean, there are certain things that you have to do.
If I left the microphone at that, you would see nothing but the microphone.
My putting my two fingers to get the microphone down isn't that bad.
So I don't think we should make something of that.
I'd like to see people more doing this as opposed to shaking hands.
That was a real question.
Again, Joe didn't edit that.
Joe and Paula have been working overtime for the show, because if you notice, we're covering, wouldn't you agree, Joe, a lot more content per hour here?
Yeah.
Because it's just, which I usually try to stick to two or three key stories.
There's no time for too much going on.
So they're working overtime.
Paula was cutting tons of screenshots, Joe video.
This is what you waste your time on?
The president touched the microphone you spoke at?
That was a real question.
I'm sorry if you watch CNN.
That is 35 seconds or whatever of your life you'll never get back.
All right, moving on.
More news.
There was a Democrat debate last night.
In case the whole universe missed it, which they did.
It was really, I mean, the best way I heard it described was, It looked like a fight over a parking spot in a Florida condo association.
It didn't even look like a debate.
It was such a train wreck.
I can only sum up the debate.
I'm going to play one piece of video and show you one story because it was nothing of substance.
Joe Biden still doesn't know what state he's in and Bernie Sanders is still a communist.
There was nothing of substance at this debate at all.
But showing you again how hilarious this debate was.
Here's Joe Biden trying to call out Bernie.
Bernie, you're taking money from Super PACs.
That was actually my Bernie voice.
Bernie.
Yeah, Joe.
Tell me where.
Tell me the Super PACs.
Name the Super PACs.
Joe Biden.
Yeah, I'll name them, Bernie.
OK, go ahead.
Listen to this.
This is hilarious.
Watch this.
You get rid of the nine Super PACs you have?
I don't have nine Super PACs.
I don't have any Super PACs.
You have nine.
You want me to list them?
No.
Yeah, you go ahead and list them.
OK.
Come on.
Give me a break.
No, I won't give you a break on this one.
Okay, list them.
God, give me a break.
List them!
I don't even care if Bernie has Superbad.
I don't even care.
But that's hilarious.
You have nine Superbads.
And he volunteers it.
Yeah.
You want me to list them?
Go ahead.
List them.
That's your debate.
Again, I'm sorry if you wasted two hours of your life last night.
Go to Netflix next time and go pick something, anything.
I like that show, The Toys that Made Us.
You gotta watch it.
It's so cool.
How G.I.
Joe and Star Wars.
You'll learn more than you did at the debate last night.
Again, Bernie's still a communist and Joe Biden still doesn't know where he is.
There was one takeaway, though, and this is a heads up.
You work in the energy industry, which is basically all of us.
I don't work in the energy industry.
You sure?
You fuel your car?
You own a business?
A factory?
You want to drive around?
The energy industry is all of us.
But specifically, the energy industry direct employees out there.
Did you catch this little gem from Joe Biden last night?
Look at this article in the Washington Examiner.
It's important.
In all the melee, this may have gotten missed.
Oh, Joe Biden says no new fracking for oil and gas.
Josh Siegel, Washington Examiner, be in the show notes.
Oh, really?
Pennsylvania, Texas.
Want to see your economies collapse tomorrow?
There's your guy, Joe Biden.
Moderate, with the air quotes.
Oh yeah, he's a moderate, all right.
What the frack is he thinking of, man?
You scared me there for a minute.
I know.
Luckily I heard that R in the beginning.
I was like, Okay.
Well, he does all the edits, so I shouldn't be scared.
He can edit that right.
What the frack is right?
What the frack?
Ladies and gentlemen in Pennsylvania, get ready.
If Joe Biden's serious, get ready for your state to be bankrupted.
Oh, dude.
You want to be a net importer of oil again?
You don't like fracking?
That's the dumbest talking point ever.
No fracking.
Good.
Everybody pay attention.
Keep that article.
Gosh, we're actually going to get through this.
All right, I want to leave you with some on a high note.
I saw this article this weekend.
I was going to read it off my phone because it's a quote, but it was very inspirational.
It's by a guy named Matt Smethurst.
It's called C.S.
Lewis, obviously the famous C.S.
Lewis, on the coronavirus.
Now, it's a quote, a quotation, a passage from C.S.
Lewis, and he was asked once about how we should live in this new atomic age.
In other words, when the nuclear bomb was invented, how do we live now, knowing we could all be annihilated in a snap?
So he wasn't obviously talking about the coronavirus in this quote, but I read it and I read through it.
I've tweeted out a couple of times and it's, it's short.
We can take about a minute.
I'm going to read it for you, but ladies and gentlemen, it's really worth your time right now to think about this, how prior generations have been through so much more than this.
And we have always come through on the other side, stronger, more prosperous and ready to rumble.
Let's get our big boy pants on and let's go to fight.
We're ready.
Listen to this quote.
I'm going to read it for you.
I'm telling you it's worth your time.
Make you feel better at the end of the day.
He says, again, he's being asked about living with the atomic bomb.
He says, in one way, we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb.
How are we to live in an atomic age?
I'm tempted to reply.
Why?
As you would have lived in the 16th century when the plague visited London almost every year?
Or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night?
Or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, syphilis, paralysis, air raids, railway accidents, and an age of motor accidents?
In other words, don't let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation.
Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented.
And quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways.
We had indeed one very great advantage over our ancestors, anesthetics.
But we have that still.
It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances, and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made, and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together.
If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb, when it comes, find us doing sensible and human things.
Praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing our children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts.
Not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs.
They may break our bodies, a microbe can do that, but they need not dominate our minds.
