All Episodes
Sept. 27, 2024 - Knowledge Fight
03:21:23
#967: Tucker, The Man And His Live Show

Jordan Holmes and Dan Friesen dissect Tucker Carlson’s 12th city tour, where he hosted Alex Jones—dismissed as a "freak show" by Dan—while promoting figures like Jones as credible despite his baseless claims, such as predicting 9/11 or globalist depopulation via AI and the Georgia Guidestones. Carlson’s paternalistic rhetoric ("love your people like parents love children") and attacks on domestic critics like Josh Shapiro felt manipulative, while Jones’ repetitive, unverified conspiracy theories (e.g., CIA-suppressed frog studies) relied on crowd applause over substance. Dan notes Carlson’s tour underfilled venues, like the Santander Arena with hundreds of empty seats, and mocks his performative outrage over foreign aid, contrasting with his support for violent policies under Bush. Ultimately, the episode reveals how Carlson’s platform launders extremism while his audience seeks validation over truth, leaving both hosts skeptical of its sincerity or impact. [Automatically generated summary]

Participants
Main
a
alex jones
infowars 13:11
d
dan friesen
01:44:42
j
jordan holmes
46:39
t
tucker carlson
dailycaller 27:43
Appearances
j
jack posobiec
r 02:09
|

Speaker Time Text
dan friesen
Hey, everybody.
Welcome back to Knowledge Fight.
I'm Dan.
I'm Jordan.
We're a couple dudes.
Like to sit around, worship at the altar of Celine, and talk a little bit about Alex Jones.
jordan holmes
Oh, indeed we are, Dan.
dan friesen
Jordan.
unidentified
Dan.
dan friesen
Jordan.
jordan holmes
Quick question for you.
dan friesen
What's up?
jordan holmes
What's your bright spot today, buddy?
dan friesen
Where do you go first?
jordan holmes
My bright spot is Jason Pargin's new book.
Formerly nom deplumed under David Wong.
Perhaps still.
I don't remember.
dan friesen
Sure.
jordan holmes
But his new book is out.
It's called I'm Starting to Worry About That Blackback, this Black Box of Doom.
Slight Unwieldiness of Title.
dan friesen
Sure, as is the fashion.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
But it's actually, it's very, very good.
It's a really, really good book.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to work out an interview stuff, but it's really good, and I think everybody would like it.
unidentified
Nice.
jordan holmes
I think it's like right up the alley of people having the type of conversation that is surrounding conspiracy theories all the time.
You know, it's one of those books that's like, it explores a bunch of different avenues that maybe you wouldn't have thought of.
dan friesen
I wish you would have given me this plug last time because I could have used it during my bright spot.
unidentified
Ooh.
dan friesen
Which I'll get to in a second.
Interesting.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Do you have anything else?
Sorry.
I realized that was almost cutting you off.
jordan holmes
No, I'm good.
Good.
Yeah.
dan friesen
So my bright spot is my secret mission.
jordan holmes
Yes.
unidentified
Of course.
dan friesen
I went to Pennsylvania.
jordan holmes
Yes.
dan friesen
You went to reading Pennsylvania.
Reading.
Reading?
Reading.
jordan holmes
I refuse to.
I do not acknowledge pronunciations at all anymore.
Anybody from Britain who tells me that this is how it's supposed to be pronounced is wrong.
So I accept the same thing for America, too.
dan friesen
I went there for the Alex Jones Tucker Carlson live show to take it all in, experience it as like in person because I knew we were going to hear about it.
We're probably going to cover it.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
I wanted to be able to tell you about the vibes.
I wanted to do a vibe check on it.
jordan holmes
It's good to have vibes.
It's good to not see it just through a computer screen sometimes.
dan friesen
So I could have read this book on the plane.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
If you had told me that it was connective tissue there.
jordan holmes
I see that now.
dan friesen
So yeah, I went for a real quick trip, flew into Pennsylvania and went to this stupid show.
Came back.
jordan holmes
God, what a waste.
I mean, I don't know what to say.
I admire you for the adventure.
I don't envy you for the adventure.
I am happy to be a middle-aged man who's staying at home with his dogs and wife.
That's great.
dan friesen
That does sound great.
And it really wasn't that much of an adventure.
I think that I got it in my head of this idea of it's happening.
This may never happen again.
True.
Shit's falling apart pretty well for Alex in a lot of ways that could be pretty serious in the near future.
Yeah.
And the idea of Tucker doing an arena tour and having Alex on as a guest, that's probably the odds of that happening again are pretty slim.
So it just came into my head as a joke, and then I couldn't not do it.
jordan holmes
I mean, it was hard to.
dan friesen
So I had to have the follow-through.
So anyway, we're going to be talking about that today.
And going to Pennsylvania to see this stupid show and then covering the stupid show.
jordan holmes
Yeah, what we can't.
What I just, I don't want to, I don't even know how to say it because we're a radio format.
But my man, your mustache is radiant.
dan friesen
Thank you.
jordan holmes
If you will.
It is fantastical.
dan friesen
I should explain that in order to go, I wanted to go in disguise.
jordan holmes
Incognito.
dan friesen
So what I decided to do was I decided to shave just my chin.
Right.
So I'd have the chopstash.
unidentified
Yes.
jordan holmes
The chopstash.
dan friesen
And I thought, well, no one will recognize me like this.
And no one did recognize me, actually.
No, no, no, no.
But I met up with friend of the show, Amanda Moore, there to go to the show.
And we were walking down the street outside the venue.
The first person I saw was somebody with a chopstash.
jordan holmes
I was like, welcome home, brother.
dan friesen
Yeah, I fixed my outfit perfectly.
I fit right in.
That's awesome.
But yeah, since I've shaved the sides, now I just have the handlebar mustache.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, it looks good.
You sent me a picture before you went, and I think you meant it as a joke.
unidentified
Sure.
jordan holmes
Genuinely.
Or, you know, if you fit the ground.
unidentified
You know what?
dan friesen
In hindsight, I'm not sure if it was a joke.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, it surprisingly looks pretty good.
It's like, oh, yeah, that fits on you.
dan friesen
This handlebar mustache, my plan with it is I saw a movie with Sam Elliott in it.
Might have been Ghost Rider.
Sure.
Ghost Rider.
jordan holmes
Ghost Rider, not Ghostwriter.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And I noticed that he's got this Western look of like the beard a little bit shorter than the mustache.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I was like, always a good one.
dan friesen
That looks good.
jordan holmes
That is a good look.
dan friesen
So I want to try that.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
That old-timey, like, oh, you have a mustache, but, you know, it's the old West, so it's been five days since you shaved.
So you got the beard, mustache, copy.
Yeah, that's great.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Look grizzled as fuck.
dan friesen
That's what I'm shooting for now.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yes.
More grizzle, please.
dan friesen
Yeah, Sam Elliott, but I'm a podcaster.
jordan holmes
You know what?
I thought that Sam Elliott being the greatest bouncer in the history of the world was badass.
But now that I know he could do a podcast, it's a cooler.
That's shit.
dan friesen
So, Jordan, today we're going to talk about this.
But first, let's take a little moment to say hello to some new wonk.
jordan holmes
That's a great idea.
dan friesen
So, first, Dunkey, the diaper warrior, who just turned one.
Thank you so much, Joanna Policy Wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
jordan holmes
Thank you very much.
dan friesen
Thank you.
Next, Dan and Jordan should go on the Blank Check podcast to discuss the David Lynch version of Dude and how much Alex Jones quotes it and the other works of Frank Herbert.
Thank you so much, Joanna Polsey Wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
jordan holmes
Thank you very much.
dan friesen
Thank you.
Next, I'd love a shout out to Just Sam.
Doesn't even have to be me.
Let's just say it's Sam who runs HR at my company.
I get all her emails.
I shouldn't see so she can get my shout out.
Thank you so much, Joanna Polsey Wonk.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
jordan holmes
Thank you very much.
unidentified
Thank you.
dan friesen
And we're going to technocrat in the mix, Jordan.
So thank you so much to Alex.
You're the best chosen brother I could have ever asked for.
And I love you, Zoe.
Thank you so much.
You are now a technocrat.
alex jones
I'm a policy wonk.
unidentified
Four stars.
alex jones
Go home to your mother and tell her you're brilliant.
Someone, sodomite, sent me a bucket of poop.
Daddy Shark.
Bomb, Jar Jar Binks has a Caribbean black accent.
He's a loser, little, little kitty baby.
I don't want to hate black people.
I renounce Jesus Christ.
dan friesen
Thank you so much.
jordan holmes
Yes, thank you very much.
dan friesen
I'm guessing that wasn't Alex Jones.
jordan holmes
I don't believe so.
dan friesen
Okay.
We'll never know.
jordan holmes
I mean, it's possible.
dan friesen
So I went to this event.
Like I said multiple times already, it was stupid.
Yep.
And we will cover that show.
But there was also a little thing that Alex and Tucker did before the show.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Which was Alex trying to interview him for his show.
jordan holmes
Right.
Gotcha.
That is a good idea.
That's content from me.
Double up.
Yeah, we're there.
We're in the same space.
Might as well shoot an extra half hour content.
dan friesen
We're at the hotel in Lancaster.
jordan holmes
Oh, my God.
dan friesen
And so let's go ahead and shoot a little video.
jordan holmes
Let's do it.
dan friesen
So here's where that begins.
alex jones
With only 43 days, that's a thousand hours to the most important election in world history.
I know it's a cliche, but it's really happening now.
Everybody can feel it and see it.
We're with America's favorite populist journalist, Tucker Carlson Tucker.
tucker carlson
Alex Jones, ladies and gentlemen.
Thanks for having me.
unidentified
Well, in your hotel suite here in whatever city we're in in Pennsylvania.
alex jones
At a secret location, I saw him in the restaurant, ran over and stalked him and said, You got to come up before you go to your big event tonight.
He said, Sure, I'll give you a few minutes.
So, Tucker, wow, a lot of serious stuff going on.
You want to kind of repeat what you were just saying before when we started taping here for pretty powerful stuff.
tucker carlson
First of all, it's not my event.
It's your event tonight.
And I can't wait in Reading, Pennsylvania.
No, I was just saying, we were just discussing the news, and you can feel that evil is on the march, actually.
dan friesen
So I left the Tucker event with a few very strong impressions, but none of them were as clear and as vivid as how much this man overuses actually as a catchphrase.
He uses it like a punctuation mark at the end of sentences, the way that some people used to do with literally.
It's just a rhetorical technique that he's using to try to emphasize the things he's saying.
But taken as a word that it means something, what Tucker is conveying is something along the lines of, I really mean this.
His use of actually is meant to augment sentences that sound extreme or like metaphors to assure the viewers that he actually means what he's saying.
Evil really is on the march.
This isn't just flowery language that I'm using for shock value.
Tucker says actually so many times and so condescendingly that I was tempted to make a supercut of every time he did it throughout the event, but then I realized that it didn't matter.
jordan holmes
We'd be recording tomorrow.
dan friesen
But then I did it anyway.
alex jones
Ah, god damn it.
tucker carlson
Actually, I was disgusted by it, actually.
And actually, I have fished here a lot.
Hurting.
alex jones
Like, actually.
tucker carlson
Our leaders did that, actually.
Damn you, actually.
There's no love, actually.
Actually.
There's a beautiful town, actually.
And they're not zombies, actually.
You're evil, actually.
They're violence worshipers, actually.
You can't be Dick Cheney, actually.
Sorry, it's not allowed.
They don't do anything, actually.
The animals don't commit genocide, actually.
dan friesen
So it's a little bit annoying.
He's a little bit of it's while I was sitting there watching the show.
I was like, oh my God, again, this is a lot.
jordan holmes
You know who everybody loved in junior high?
The kid who was like, well, actually, it's not what you say.
It's what I say.
dan friesen
It really makes him come off cool.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And like, I want to hang out with him.
jordan holmes
Everybody was like, oh, man, being around you is so enjoyable and fun when we don't get to say or enjoy things.
dan friesen
Actually.
So what Tucker is saying there in the clip, though, when he's talking to Alex, is true.
This show is not really a Tucker event.
It's meant to launder his guests to the Fox News Generation viewers that came along with Tucker after he got fired and went along to this new endeavor.
Many of the people who are on his show are selected specifically because they're the people who Tucker needs to convince the audience aren't that bad, like Alex or Kid Rock or Russell Brand.
This is about creating a new media ecosystem.
And an important part of that is making sure the viewers don't get a bad view of various figures who are going to play into that ecosystem.
The show is about selling Alex.
So Tucker exists on it in that capacity.
It's not a Tucker show.
It's a Tucker presents kind of situation where you want to be like, this guy is the prophet.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yeah.
unidentified
Great.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So he's not actually, I don't think he's buttering up, Alex.
I think he's, that's for real.
You know, this is your show.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, I believe that.
unidentified
It's a little bit, boy.
jordan holmes
How do you, how do you launder?
What would be the historical comparison for laundering a guy like this?
Like the Romanovs trying to launder, oh God, now I can't remember the name of it.
Rasputin?
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like Romanov's bringing out Rasputin, like, hey, ladies and gentlemen, we've got Rasputin.
dan friesen
It's pretty fun when you hang out with him.
jordan holmes
Yeah, looking like a fucking demon walking out.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I could see that.
dan friesen
I don't know, but I think that Tucker really needs to bank on Alex not being around much longer.
He really wants this whole game to work out.
Sure.
It's really inconvenient for Alex to continue to do his show and continue to be around because he's going to keep making all these bullshit, stupid predictions that don't end up happening.
And you're going to have to be like, oh, wait, maybe this guy's not a prophet.
Maybe he's an asshole.
jordan holmes
So you think Tucker's trying to vampirically suck out the very last drops of juice that Alex has got?
dan friesen
Yeah, kind of.
jordan holmes
I mean, no, it makes sense.
If you're a vampire, that's what you do.
dan friesen
If he's not, this is insane.
Any other motivation does not make sense.
jordan holmes
That is a great Sherlock quote.
It's like, well, obviously vampires are real because otherwise this human being is a fucking lunatic.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Occam's Razor tells me he must be trying to do something vampire-like.
So Tucker talks about how he's not worried.
He has hope.
You got to have hope.
tucker carlson
And I was just saying, we're saying, oh, what's going to happen in the election?
unidentified
We're talking about it off camera.
tucker carlson
And of course, I don't know.
I'm always wrong in my predictions, but I have a strong feeling of hope, and I'm not afraid at all.
I don't know why.
Because I think victory is coming.
And by victory, I mean specifically the victory of the human spirit over the machine, which is trying to crush it, which is anti-human and non-human, I would say.
But I'm not afraid for some reason.
I'm not exactly sure why.
It's like I'm so rich or something, but I'm not afraid.
I'm not.
But I'm not afraid because I feel on some deep animal level that these people just aren't going to win.
I mean, there may be short-term victories.
I don't know.
unidentified
But there will be no long-term victories for these people.
dan friesen
Tucker has every reason to have hope.
He's way richer than he's pretending to be, and he's managed to create a new space for himself outside of Fox News that's going to be profitable if Trump wins or loses.
No matter what, he's going to make a lot of money, and that's got to feel pretty good.
For most of his career, Tucker was a partisan hack on cable news entertainment shows.
He got paid by the network to say stuff that would get attention and viewers, which all worked in a really good balance for many years.
When Bush was in office, he was on the side of the power and mostly defended policies and rationalized why things were going.
You know, they were going as well as they could.
You know, we got to cut them on some slack.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
When Obama was in office, he was the opposition party and attacked proposed policies and demanded that everything needed to be going better.
Tucker was good at playing the game because he was a particularly interesting blend of smart and vapid, and he made it about as far as he could playing that game.
But signing up with Trump had its consequences.
He got huge ratings, so Tucker thought he was bulletproof, treating all the people around him like shit and doing patently libelous broadcasts about the 2020 election.
He got fired by Fox, and then he went on the whole structure of the game went away that he was playing for his entire career.
Tucker feels hope now because he's decided to play his own game free of the rules he's been restrained by before, and it's worked.
He's found the Holy Grail, an audience that doesn't have any standards at all, so long as you make them feel good.
If I were him, I'd feel great and hopeful too.
He doesn't believe all this shit about literal demons nipping at everybody's feet.
He's just found people who will give him tons of money to pretend to be worried about that.
And I don't know how a con man could be in a more hopeful situation.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
It's, yeah, it really pisses you off that these are the same people who think sex workers should be illegal.
You know, because I see very little difference between the two.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
I mean, you know, in terms of you make people feel good for money.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
I mean, I don't see much difference there.
dan friesen
I think that in my experience, sex workers don't often have supplement lines.
jordan holmes
Yes.
Again, they're better people.
dan friesen
So Tucker gets into complaining about probably the thing that carries him through the whole day.
Yeah.
Is in this interview and then later on the show he's going to complain about it.
And that was that he saw a picture of Zelensky signing a bomb with Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
Okay.
Wait, we were there with him at a photo op.
jordan holmes
Okay, he wasn't signing it, Joshua.
Josh Shapiro.
dan friesen
Okay, okay.
Although, I would be interested.
That would be a new one.
So Tucker complains about that.
tucker carlson
Well, I just saw a photograph of Josh Shapiro, who's the governor of Pennsylvania, who's evil, not saying that lightly, with Zelensky, who's campaigning for Kamala Harris and Democrats using U.S. military aircraft to get around using our tax dollars.
alex jones
Here in Pennsylvania right now.
unidentified
He's campaigning right now in the key swing state today as we speak.
tucker carlson
And I saw Josh Shapiro signing artillery-based shells with his name that are going to kill Russians in a war that we have not declared against Russia.
It will kill civilians.
And I thought, the evil is just open.
Can you imagine signing an artillery shell that's going to be used to kill civilians in a war that you're not even in?
alex jones
When it's the biggest nuclear power in the world, what'd you make of Biden going, yeah, we don't want the blame, but go ahead and use the storm shadows.
dan friesen
So Zelensky visited an ammunition factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania the day before this, and Tucker has decided that this was a Harris campaign event.
This is something I think is kind of on the line.
It makes total sense that Zelensky would visit this ammunition factory, and it doesn't have to be a partisan event.
Because the Republican Party is very much in support of Russia and Putin, the only people who would tend to show up for an event like this would end up being Democrats.
The timing is iffy, though, since the election is so close, and Pennsylvania is a swing state, so I can kind of understand having some complaints about that event happening at all.
I kind of get it, but also Tucker's being a little dramatic and going overboard about this whole thing as a whole.
jordan holmes
Yeah, he interviewed Putin.
Get out of here.
dan friesen
I don't think I would necessarily defend the simple act of autographing a bomb, but I also don't think that's weird in wartime.
Like a bunch of people signed the atomic bomb Fat Man that ended up being dropped on Nagasaki.
The problem isn't the signatures, it's the bombs.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
Earlier this year, Nikki Haley wrote, finish them on an artillery shell when she was in Israel.
And in the sake of fairness, I do have to say that Tucker did complain about this, as well as her saying, finish them in a news interview that she did.
I think it's less a case of intellectual consistency and more a matter of her being Trump's primary opponent at the time.
But, you know, in the interest of fairness, he did call that out as well.
jordan holmes
I mean, he did jerk off whenever Trump dropped the Moab.
dan friesen
True.
Also, Biden has not approved Ukrainian use of storm shadow missiles.
Alex is just making that up and hiding behind weird qualified language in order to pretend that's what's happening.
It's weird.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
But, you know, I guess if you're in Pennsylvania and you see this picture of people signing a bomb.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
That's all you need.
I mean, that's all the fuel you need for the day.
Getting real angry.
jordan holmes
You know, I guess it makes sense for everybody to do what it is that they are doing from where they began.
You know, like all the things that they chose that led them to this point.
But if I'm just sitting there, like, not knowing all of the details and I just saw this, I'd be like, all of you need to stop whatever it is you're doing and go do anything else.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Because what this is, is stupid.
dan friesen
Yeah.
I do think that I am unfortunately positioned to have seen this show because I understand a lot of the like, ah, I get what they're talking about.
You know, but it's truly dumb.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
This is truly dumb.
If you just look at it as like a, like you're saying, from an external standpoint, it's like, this is stupid.
jordan holmes
Yeah, it's just like, I get how everybody got here.
That's the problem.
Everybody stop.
Everybody just sit down like heads up seven up.
Can we play heads up seven up for like an hour?
And then by the time everybody's done, we'll figured it out.
dan friesen
We took a hundred wrong turns.
jordan holmes
Yes.
dan friesen
And each of those wrong turns kind of felt like, eh, maybe we're not that far off course.
But now we're here.
And this town is not where we were heading.
jordan holmes
Oh, far away.
dan friesen
This is bad.
jordan holmes
This is bad.
dan friesen
So Tucker talks about how his enemies, the problem with them is that they delight in killing.
Sure, they revel in murder.
jordan holmes
That would be a problem.
tucker carlson
Just the delight they take in killing and in blood.
unidentified
I mean, it tells you exactly who they are.
tucker carlson
These people are thrilled by the idea of ending human life.
They worship abortion.
They worship war.
They worship euthanasia.
They worship killing other human beings.
And maybe it's just my age or something, but I've never seen it with the clarity I see it with now.
And I see it as just undisguised evil, which is what they are.
alex jones
Why do you think the death cult is so undisguised now?
tucker carlson
Probably a combination of factors.
They are afraid.
They understand they don't have the consent of the people they govern.
So like the democracy talk is not only ridiculous, it's the opposite of the truth.
It's not democracy, of course.
And I think they know that, and it makes them nervous.
dan friesen
I get that Zelensky signing a bomb is a tough image for Tucker, but he needs to stop pretending that the people he supports aren't just as bloodthirsty and violent as the people he's critiquing.
His savior Trump took out an ad in the paper calling for the execution of the Central Park 5 in 1989 and hasn't been particularly chill since then.
I know that people remember that Trump paid to publish that open letter, but it's easy to forget what he wrote.
From that letter, titled, quote, bring back the death penalty, bring back our police.
Quote, Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts.
I do not think so.
I want to hate these muggers and murderers.
They should be forced to suffer, and when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.
They must serve as examples so that others will think long and hard before committing a crime or an act of violence.
Yes, Mayor Koch, I want to hate these murderers, and I always will.
I'm not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them.
I'm looking to punish them.
If the punishment is strong, the attacks on innocent people will stop.
He wasn't calling for some preferred policy.
He was expressing a deep desire for revenge against five dudes who were wrongly convicted of crimes that they'd later be exonerated for.
We could spend all day going over all the threats Trumps has made, reveling in violence and blood.
He threatened to obliterate Iran, bring fire and fury to North Korea, and he wanted to nuke hurricanes, which doesn't seem like a problem for Tucker.
unidentified
He's not thirsty for any violence.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
That's because the complaint that he's making isn't sincere.
Tucker's complaint is not real.
jordan holmes
No, no.
I mean, the French aristocracy were very much like, ah, this rabble.
They're so violent.
Now, stab him.
Stab him.
Stab him some more.
dan friesen
I just think that this would come off a little bit more sincere if the person that he defended and supported wasn't a complete lunatic bent on violence.
Yeah.
You know?
jordan holmes
Yeah.
I mean, it is, it is so wild sometimes because it's like, if it weren't Trump, you could see them getting away with it so much easier.
You know, like if like with Bush.
dan friesen
It's more believable if it's Ron Paul.
jordan holmes
Totally.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
It's totally more believable if it's anybody else.
But when it's Trump, it's like, guys, it is too obvious.
You can't launder this.
This is insane.
dan friesen
I get what you're doing with the demon stuff.
jordan holmes
I totally get it.
Totally get it.
unidentified
Everybody's like, no, no, no, we would be on board.
dan friesen
So, no, also, here's the issue, too: that no one worships any of the stuff that Tucker is whining about here.
Ironically, all of those things that he brings up are issues that Tucker's on the side that opposes self-ownership and autonomy about, like euthanasia and reproductive health care.
The reason he has to pretend that people support those things because they love death is that if he didn't, he'd have to deal with the issues like a rational adult and he couldn't maintain his positions.
It's impossible for him to justify the state telling you that you don't have the right to end your own life on your own terms and simultaneously pretend that he's so mad about the government controlling your life.
You know, like it's can't complain about regulation and be like, yeah, well, you know, euthanasia is possible to.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, it does feel like once you start calling for a theocracy, but then like the trick is, even if you don't, if you don't call for a theocracy, but you purely base everything on theology, then you're no, you're never held accountable to either.
You're never held accountable to what should the law be or like, okay, okay, fine.
We're doing your theology.
Are we, are we doing your theology?
Yeah.
Hold yourself accountable to that.
They never have to do either.
dan friesen
Yeah, it makes me think of a little bit later, Tucker says, like, I'm not a politics guy.
I'm an ideology.
It's like, go fuck yourself, dipshit.
Everything you talk about is politics.
You hosted Crossfire.
jordan holmes
Actually.
dan friesen
Shut the fuck up.
unidentified
Dweeb.
dan friesen
Jesus Christ.
So on the subject of reveling in violence, Alex remembers the story that he always tells about Richard Pearl.
alex jones
Right.
dan friesen
The merchant of death.
jordan holmes
The merchant of death.
dan friesen
Or the something of death.
Angel of death.
I don't know.
Anyway, that guy, fun fact, may be friends with Tucker.
jordan holmes
Sure.
alex jones
Quick story.
No, we got to go.
A few more questions.
Try to be gracious.
I remember it was a New York Times article.
I mean, it was a Washington Post back in the middle of the Second Gulf War.
It was like 2006 or so.
And Richard Pearl, they call him the Prince of Darkness.
Can't even find his ass with both hands.
Definitely can't get a woman.
He sidles up back when there were times we still told the truth occasionally to a bunch of gorgeous female reporters and they ignore him and he goes, Don't you know who I am?
And he says, I kill a lot of people.
They went, ugh.
I mean, imagine the job was like, I kill a lot of people within Obama.
You know, I'm really good at killing people with predator drones.
And the guy probably couldn't win a fist fight.
There's something inherently sick and twisted and also stunted about that.
unidentified
Oh, I remember Paul Wolf voice very, very well early in the war on terror.
tucker carlson
They called the GWAT showing up in some country that had supposedly some Islamist militia who was going to go to the scene.
And he was carrying in a shoulder holster 45, a 1911-style handgun.
And I was like, which I shoot for fun.
And I'm like, wow, it's a 45.
Does Paul Wolf is the only son the bullet comes out of?
And I remember thinking he doesn't need that.
He just turns him on to dress up like a cowboy.
alex jones
He's guarded by Blackwater.
tucker carlson
No, 100%.
dan friesen
This is all a lot of fun for them, I'm sure, but this conversation is pretty fucking stupid in context.
Alex has done multiple shows with a giant gun on his desk and frequently discusses weapons in highly erotic terms.
If Tucker really has a problem with people sensualizing violence or guns, he's sitting next to possibly the biggest offender in that realm.
Plus, I know that Alex only half remembers this story that he loves to tell about Richard Pearl, but does he not remember that Tucker was a huge advocate for the Bush administration?
Like, on November 11th, 2001, Tucker was hosting Crossfire and Richard Pearl was his guest.
Pearl was asked where the U.S. should attack after Afghanistan in order to further the war on terror.
Pearl replied, My candidate is a rock because Saddam Hussein is very dangerous.
He has weapons of mass destruction that he's used in the past.
Tucker replied, It seems to me that the case for taking out Saddam Hussein is pretty straightforward.
He has, as Mr. Pearl said, weapons of mass destruction.
We know he would like to use them against us.
Why wait until he does?
Consider it this way: if you had a neighbor who was heavily armed, a gun nut, and he was making threats against you, and you called the police and said, My heavily armed neighbor is making threats against me, they wouldn't say, Well, he's popular with the other neighbors.
We're gonna leave him there.
No, they would arrest him immediately.
They would take preemptive action.
Why shouldn't we do the same with Saddam?
The other guest on the show was suggesting that we take a more cautious approach, to which Pearl said, Quote, Hearts and minds and messages are fine.
I want to get Saddam Hussein before he gets us.
You know, we're not going to protect this country by winning hearts and minds when there are people like Saddam Hussein.
Tucker's response, quote, Get him before he gets us.
Well expressed by Mr. Pearl.
I think it was put another way, even more profoundly, by Donald Rumsfeld earlier today.
Later in the episode, Tucker and his co-host Bill Press were arguing about preemptively killing terrorists.
Press felt that even terrorists deserved a day in court, which Tucker was super against.
Discussing the prospect of trying Bin Laden in court, Tucker said, quote, at what cost?
He goes to trial, the jurors are killed, people are kidnapped, more terrorist acts are committed in the name of freeing him.
He has a platform for spewing his garbage for months, if not years.
It's ludicrous.
He doesn't deserve a protection.
He doesn't deserve a jury trial or protection of our Constitution.
Press replied, quote, You know what the cost is?
The cost is we show the world who we are.
We show the world that we have a system of justice that depends on evidence.
Tucker said, quote, that we're stupid and naive and soft-hearted and worthy of their attacks.
Tucker was compatriots with Richard Pearl, and he argued for the war on terror with a passion that he would now probably call bloodlust.
And then, when it didn't go well, he changed his mind.
By 2004, he told the New York Observer, quote, I think it's a total nightmare and disaster, and I'm ashamed that I went against my own instincts in supporting it.
It's something I'll never do again.
Never.
I got convinced by a friend of mine who's smarter than I am, and I shouldn't have done that.
jordan holmes
So smart.
dan friesen
Even in his backpedaling about his fervent cheerleading for war, he has to insist that secretly, deep down, he was actually right about this whole thing.
He was only wrong because he listened to this smart friend of his.
jordan holmes
See, it turns out that not only was he right all along, despite doing the wrong thing, embarrassingly in public.
And not just that, but the person that he was looking to as somebody who is smarter is actually now dumber than him, also.
So not only is he right all along and morally righteous despite having done all of the terrible things.
He's also coming out the smartest man in this whole thing.
It's so wild how great that is.
dan friesen
Who would have thought?
jordan holmes
It's crazy.
dan friesen
If you are opposed to a global war and support it aggressively in the media because some smart friend of yours told you to, you're a fucking idiot and you shouldn't be trusted.
If you're actually for the war and were for the war, but realize that now it's unpopular to have had that position, so you come put the story about how some smart friend convinced you to support it aggressively in the media, you're a fucking coward and I don't care.
You're just a dumb shit.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
Also, Alex employs former Blackwater contractors as his security now and currently supports Eric Prince creating a private army for Trump.
These two dudes are so full of shit that it can't even stay connected to the reality that they've created for themselves to play in.
It's ridiculous.
jordan holmes
Yeah, it's not fair.
unidentified
No.
jordan holmes
It's cheating.
It's frankly, it's cheating.
dan friesen
Oh, Paul Wolfler to use Blackwater.
jordan holmes
What?
It is so much like, man, it is sometimes whenever I listen to this, this is like, oh, God, if we had just held.
No teams.
Just hold everybody accountable for Iraq.
Just everybody.
I don't even care if they were involved.
Everybody.
The whole place.
You name it.
Where are we?
The Veterans Hall.
Hold them accountable for Iraq.
Where are we?
The bowling alley.
Hold them accountable for Iraq.
I don't even know who.
dan friesen
You bowled too well on 9-11.
jordan holmes
Exactly.
That is like, they hated us for our freedom.
dan friesen
Sure.
jordan holmes
Knock them down.
dan friesen
They hated us for our picture specials.
jordan holmes
Exactly.
But it is just like, this is what happens when you don't hold anybody accountable for this shit.
Like, he gets to get away with being on every side and still getting paid for it.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
And now we're here.
dan friesen
I think that there is a point to that.
And I think also there is a problem of accountability.
And that is that Tucker's not taking accountability for what he engaged in during the war.
He is pretending that, oh, I've taken, you know, I was wrong.
You know, like that.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
It's nominally on the surface, it presents as if it's a correction.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
But he's still like, when he turned around, he was blaming some smart friend for convincing him.
This is not accountability.
It's dodging that in the name of saving the brand.
Yeah.
And that's just disgusting.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So Tucker talks about how the media wanted to ask him about his tour.
Sure.
And he made some jokes.
jordan holmes
Oh, did he?
dan friesen
He's a jokester.
jordan holmes
He's a funny guy.
dan friesen
He's so funny.
jordan holmes
He's so funny.
unidentified
I got actually a text today from Jeremy Barr at the Washington Post when he was in Politico before.
tucker carlson
I read the Washington Post in high school, you know, every day.
1985, I was reading the Washington Post.
And the Washington Post is just so discredited and totally irrelevant, owned by the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos.
And he texts me and he's like, I've been following your tour.
I went to a couple stops.
Do you have a comment on your tour?
And I said, yeah, I mean, my goal is world domination and stripping basic human rights from the trans community.
Like, that's why I'm here.
And I just said that to him.
I was like, please quote me.
jordan holmes
I mean, it's like, I just don't care.
tucker carlson
I'm going to write that anyway.
I might as well tell them.
Yep, the point is global fascist takeover and the elimination of the basic human rights in the trans community because they think that.
I don't care what they think.
I'm not trying to win them over.
And I guess my advice to politicians would be follow suit.
Mock them.
It doesn't matter what you say.
They're going to write the same piece.
No one's going to read it.
The people who hate you already hate you.
The people who are open-minded wouldn't read the Washington Post on a dare because they know it's a joke.
And so don't give them respect.
Hoist the middle finger at every possible opportunity.
Or more effectively, just laugh at them.
Yeah.
alex jones
Because the only relevance they have is the relevance we give them.
I don't say that from a power trip position.
unidentified
That's why they want to censor us and put us in jail.
tucker carlson
So why would you ever feed them what they want, which is respect or deference or fear?
They want you to fear them.
unidentified
Hey, Jeremy Bart, the Washington Post, I don't care what you think.
alex jones
I stopped responding five or six years ago because every time I did, they just acted like they talked to me to build some fantasy.
tucker carlson
Well, why not just say my goal?
By the way, just for the record, I don't like power.
I don't want power.
I don't like anyone or trust anyone who wants power.
So that's my view of power.
dan friesen
Sure thing, man.
So I get what Tucker's going for here, but he sounds like a fucking dweeb.
The point is supposed to be that the media is hysterical that he wants to attack trans rights.
So it doesn't matter what he actually says to them.
That's what they're going to say no matter what.
The problem is that Tucker actually does want to restrict trans rights.
And most of the stuff the media accuses him of supporting is stuff he very loudly and clearly supports.
When he tells a reporter that his tour is about restricting trans rights, that's not a joke.
It's not, it's not like all that the tour is about, and he definitely wants to hurt other people too.
But telling this reporter that is not, like, it's not making a joke out of the media's hysterical picture of Tucker.
What it is, is Tucker encouraging people to just speak freely.
Stop hiding your bigotry because you're worried that the media will rightly characterize it.
It doesn't matter anymore because shame is dead.
Tucker is right, but he's lying about his intentions because he wants to sound cool.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, the joke is how toothless they are.
The joke is like, yeah, that's exactly what I am going to do.
Write it.
You think that when you write it and you tell people, you will be able to have an effect on me, and you have failed in that and you refuse to acknowledge it.
So you're a waste.
You're useless.
dan friesen
You're a waste.
jordan holmes
Which is right.
dan friesen
It's kind of the warped version of people being like, yeah, we worship the devil whenever they were into metal.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah.
Like they're into worshiping the devil.
dan friesen
If they were, that would be this.
But most of them weren't.
jordan holmes
We fucking murder people.
Well, yeah, but you do murder people.
Yeah, but we murder people.
That's not a joke, man.
We murder people.
dan friesen
No!
Aren't you people so extreme with your characterizations of us as murderers?
jordan holmes
Also, we murder people.
No, but I mean, the thing that's funny is that the joke is, what are you going to do about it?
Nothing.
dan friesen
No, yeah, that is the subtext of Tucker's joke.
Yeah.
Is what if I just yelled the N-word on stage?
He gives a shit.
jordan holmes
What are you going to do about it?
Nothing.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Loser.
dan friesen
So trans people apparently are possessed.
Sure.
And they feel really bad for them.
alex jones
Trans people, it's like some weird thing.
They just hate up.
tucker carlson
Like the amount of time I spend during an average day worrying about the trans community.
You know, I feel sorry for those people.
alex jones
What they're doing is not making their victims of a cult.
unidentified
They are.
tucker carlson
They're possessed.
Let me say one last thing, if you don't mind.
So we're doing this event in, you know, the biggest stadium in this part of Pennsylvania tonight with Alex Jones on the bill.
And I will say, you know, he had a little trouble finding a venue because we're like, Josh Jones, he's so scared.
dan friesen
Can't imagine why they had a difficult time finding a venue, these shitheads.
jordan holmes
Wild.
dan friesen
So the Santander Arena is where this took place, and it's the 32nd largest arena in Pennsylvania.
unidentified
Okay.
dan friesen
It's not the largest in the area.
Like, Allentown is about 40 minutes away, and they have the PPL Center that seats about 3,000 more people.
Some of those bigger stadiums that, you know, the 31 bigger ones are sports exclusive venues.
So you can't really include those in this tally.
But Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, if that's your first choice and you're Tucker, something is wrong.
The image is that he's much bigger than this.
And if you're having Alex Jones on, why the fuck isn't it somewhere in Texas?
He has zero connection to Pennsylvania, and it really screams of this is the only place that said yes.
All of that is fine.
I get it.
They're oppressed and times are hard for people who yell about how trans people are possessed.
I think Santander Arena is a fine venue, but the problem is that they definitely didn't sell it out.
If you're going to do a show at a 7,000-seat arena in a B slash C market when you're Tucker Carlson and your guest is Alex Jones, you better sell that thing out.
We couldn't fill an arena if our lives depended on it, but for Tucker, it's embarrassing.
Like, it was notable.
jordan holmes
I think if our lives depended on it, we could fill an arena, but only under those circumstances.
dan friesen
At great expense to ourselves, because we'd have to wrangle people to come in for free or something like that.
jordan holmes
If we are under threat of murder, we have a show, but if it doesn't sell out by the beginning of it, our heads will be cut off.
dan friesen
That was a show that was kind of the premise of a show I did when I first moved to Chicago.
I got a bar to agree to let me do a show.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
And they said that you can do it if you bring in $1,000 in bar sales the first night.
jordan holmes
Whoa.
dan friesen
And so I called it the $1,000 company.
jordan holmes
Nice.
Nice.
How did it go?
dan friesen
Did not hit that mark.
jordan holmes
Nope.
dan friesen
But we did get a couple hundred dollars in bar sales.
jordan holmes
Damn.
dan friesen
And so when I talked to the bar owner afterwards, or like the next day, I was like, hey, did we make the mark?
Are we going to be able to do a second one?
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
He pretended he had no idea what I was talking about.
jordan holmes
Never heard of you before, Mike.
I've never met you, kid.
dan friesen
Really just tried to put a fan.
jordan holmes
Fetch out of here.
dan friesen
No, he was fine with us doing more.
He pretended that he never said the $1,000 thing.
jordan holmes
That's smart.
dan friesen
He's really just trying to light a fire under me.
jordan holmes
That's smart.
All right.
Motivation's motivation.
I like it.
dan friesen
That show did not work out.
So they didn't sell out.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
But Tucker says that they did.
tucker carlson
You know, he had a little trouble finding a venue because we were like, Josh Jones, he's so scared.
Sold it out, like, immediately.
And I don't think that anybody tonight at that event will think, wow, Alex Jones is crazy.
I'm like, no, Alex Jones is like way ahead of his time.
There's not anything, I'm just guessing that you're going to say tonight that is particularly radical or far off the mark or not sort of obvious at this point.
unidentified
You were way ahead of your time, decades ahead of your time.
tucker carlson
I think you deserve credit for that just on fairness grounds.
And I'm determined that you get it.
jordan holmes
Fairness grounds.
tucker carlson
I feel bad.
dan friesen
Yeah, he feels bad that Alex hasn't been given a fair shake.
jordan holmes
Fairness grounds are.
No, it's no, I get it.
Fairness grounds.
Yeah.
dan friesen
What a big man.
Fairness grounds.
jordan holmes
No, fairness grounds.
dan friesen
So Tucker is absolutely lying about selling out the show, let alone selling it out immediately.
I checked the site the night before the show, and there's still hundreds of seats available.
And it's not resale tickets either.
These were first-time purchases.
There are probably 700 or so empty seats, which isn't awful, but that's like 10% of the venue.
As for whether or not anyone walked away from the event thinking Alex said some crazy stuff, that's anyone's guess.
When I got back to my hotel, I did overhear three people talking next to the elevators, and I didn't eavesdrop on them long.
But what I heard was one of them saying they had no idea what Alex was talking about, and that you kind of just have to convince yourself to believe him because he has so much deep information in his head that it's driven him to the point where he sounds crazy.
I suspect that there were a fair amount of people rationalizing his performance that way.
But that was the only review that I got from a random person.
jordan holmes
I like that.
I like that.
Give in.
dan friesen
Give in.
jordan holmes
Subsume yourself.
dan friesen
Yeah, yeah.
Profits would sound crazy, totally.
jordan holmes
Fair enough.
unidentified
All right, man.
jordan holmes
Sure.
I suppose abolish all responsibility.
For everyone.
Yeah.
dan friesen
Said too many things for me to fact check, so I'm just going to be like, hmm.
jordan holmes
I do.
I mean, it's a good lie, though.
It's a good lie if you're Tucker, because that is the thing that the WAPO people will do.
Like, for Tucker, is you just say, ah, we sold it out immediately because it sounds like maybe he could.
It sounds like maybe it'd be reasonable for him to.
So that's one of those things where it's like, you can't fact check 100% of everything.
So then the writer at the WAPO will be like, oh, cut this corner, and he'll just write, sold it out immediately.
And that's a good perception to spread.
dan friesen
And I don't want to be a dick about this.
Like, there were a lot of people there.
You know, I'm not trying to shit on it on that front.
Sure.
And I think that it's entirely possible that Tucker would have no idea what the ticket sales were entirely.
jordan holmes
I don't care.
dan friesen
Someone could have told him that they sold out or whatever.
Like, some aide might have told him that.
So I don't know.
I don't know if he's intentionally lying or if it's just a lie based on him not having the information.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, that's convenient.
And it doesn't matter to him.
What does it matter?
What matters is the perception that people think he sells it out, right?
dan friesen
I don't think any of his shows have sold out.
jordan holmes
Yeah, it doesn't matter if he makes that, but like when we sell a show out, it's like, that's a chunk.
dan friesen
We also will choose a venue that's within our range.
jordan holmes
Sure, that's definitely true.
That's definitely true.
dan friesen
So anyway, I mentioned earlier that Tucker is not political.
He's ideological.
jordan holmes
He's ideological.
dan friesen
This is where that comes from.
alex jones
What do you think will happen?
This is a big question, so I'm really out of silly life from Trump.
tucker carlson
I mean, I don't know.
I have a lot of theories about that.
Usually, my, again, my political predictions are wrong because my brain is not very political and ideological.
So I usually get it wrong.
I just keep going back to what I believe, and that is that I have two duties, and we all have two duties.
unidentified
And the first is to fight as hard as we can, nonviolently, for what we think is true.
Tell the truth, inspire others to tell the truth, be brave.
tucker carlson
Okay, that's our first duty.
And our second duty is to be hopeful.
Faith, hope, and love.
Like, we're required to be hopeful.
And they want to make us despondent.
They want to humiliate us and make us feel hopeless.
That's why they put like a retard in as the president's spokeswoman, you know, so we can look at her and be like, oh, this country sucks.
It's not even worth defending.
Katrina.
Like, if she's the spokesman, clearly, none of this is worth it.
alex jones
By the way, I got to say this.
I know you know this because he's well-read.
I know you are too, but I'm going to dig it up.
I remember a Bloomberg article about 15 years ago, there's been some others where the thing had headlines.
You can probably pull this out.
Let's be like the web, not taking your news search.
Davo speaks and says technocrats should run countries, not presence from it, or something like that.
And in the article, they say, We are discrediting nation states with our agenda and our control, and then it's going to demonize the nation, say, well, that all falls, we'll get full control.
So they're literally running our countries and knowing we're going to blame our governments and have basically cultural civil wars.
And then they come in and pick up the pieces.
dan friesen
He's speaking to them.
tucker carlson
Well, that's so obvious.
I walked down the street of the city where I was a really pretty little city, totally defiled and degraded by its leaders, garbage all over the street.
dan friesen
This is all blowhard nonsense from Tucker that sounds good, but doesn't actually translate to any real duties.
If he had a duty to tell the truth, he would have a duty to learn more about the people he's promoting as great leaders and truth tellers.
And he would have an obligation to never speak to Alex again.
If he had a duty to the truth, he would watch a little more of Alex's show to determine whether he's actually a prophet or if his team is just pretty good at selectively editing the thousands of hours he rambles on air.
I have no idea exactly what article Alex is talking about here in Bloomberg, but I'm guessing it's an opinion piece, probably about how technocrat-style leaders were appointed in Italy and Greece in 2011 as the countries tried to deal with the fallout of the financial crisis of 2008, 2009.
I think it's probably this.
There were articles in Time magazine with headlines like, quote, who, what, why?
What can technocrats achieve that politicians can't?
These op-eds were exploring the pros and cons of a more technocratic leadership as compared to politicians.
Most of the articles I can find reach the conclusion that it's a mixed bag.
jordan holmes
Who would have guessed?
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So Alex says this article from Bloomberg is 15 years ago.
So I don't know exactly what he's talking about.
But in 2017, they published an article titled, Why Some Nations Are Warming to Technocracy, which covered a new survey from the Pew Research Center and discussed its findings.
That headline could lead someone to think that they're somewhat warm or neutral about technocrats.
So you could get the idea that that reflects the editorial tone at Bloomberg.
But then in 2018, they published a piece titled, quote, We Need to Stop Giving Technocrats So Much Power, which is an article about recent comments made by a former Bank of England official named Paul Tucker.
It was critical of technocratic leadership and argued in favor of more regulation.
So maybe these publications are just posting things that if you take the headline out of, you can't characterize correctly.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Maybe Alex is an idiot.
jordan holmes
That could be.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So anyway, you've got duties.
jordan holmes
So here's what I was thinking while Tucker was talking.
I respect duties.
Everybody has duties.
dan friesen
Walk past the duty-free shop on the airport.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
jordan holmes
No, no, no.
I understand that.
I was thinking about how rich sons during the 14 to 1700s would often find themselves captaining a boat.
You know, if you were rich, then you'd get a boat and the boat would be how you got richer.
You know, you shipped places and you did stuff.
Makes sense, right?
And then all the stories written about mutinies were always like, oh, the mutineers were so mean to the captain who is such a good guy, super cool.
And it's like, nobody who mutinied could read or write.
So it's odd that all these stories are from a very anti-mutineer perspective, almost as though they were written by rich sons, a lot of them.
And I just think Tucker would be thrown off of one of those boats is what I'm trying to say.
Is that if Tucker was in the 1500s, he would be in the ocean.
dan friesen
He gives me that shitty laugh one time.
Oh, you're in the ocean, son.
You're getting wet, buddy.
jordan holmes
Hey, mutiny, my man.
dan friesen
It makes me think.
So when I looked at myself in the mirror with this handlebar mustache, the first thing that came to mind was Diedrich Bader in office space.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
jordan holmes
I remember.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And I was like, yeah.
Tucker on that boat would be like, I reckon you get your ass kicked.
You ask somebody to have a case of the Mondays.
jordan holmes
Yep.
You bet.
dan friesen
You're going overboard.
jordan holmes
Wrong spot.
Wrong spot to do this.
dan friesen
So you have a duty to fight as hard as you can and to have some hope.
And then I guess also a duty to be cheerful, which is unclear you whistle while you work or something like that.
tucker carlson
Your duty is to be hopeful.
That's your duty.
It's not just like some side benefit of good news.
It's like you're required to wake up every morning and determine to be hopeful and cheerful because you know that it's how it ends, which is in a great way.
So I'm not going to be deterred from hope no matter what they do, no matter how many retards they put in as the politician spokesman, no matter how much garbage they allow to accumulate on the streets.
dan friesen
Slurchar notifications.
alex jones
This is the on campuses.
The CIA.
The 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s wasn't classified in the 90s.
Look this up.
Look up CIA-funded ugly art, CIA-funded ugly architecture.
And it's actually in plans to have garbage and filth and not enforce stuff on low-level criminals to create ugliness.
And then that debilitates the mind, and then you accept higher forms of tyranny.
Same thing in Europe.
This is a formula.
tucker carlson
Of course it's a formula, but they're not going to break my spirit.
I don't care what they do to me.
dan friesen
What a hero.
So Alex is making all this up, but it's based on a real thing where the CIA promoted abstract expressionist painting in the United States as part of the Cold War.
They believed that homegrown artistic movements were a powerful propaganda tool, essentially making the argument that the Soviet Union was stagnant, as uncreative, and the system wasn't artistically alive.
We've talked about this in greater depth in the past, but essentially there was an office called the International Organizations Division that sponsored American art, like some jazz artists and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
They also promoted abstract expressionism, which Alex has decided to mean that they wanted to force ugly art on the public to make them spiritually weak.
It's all very stupid, but it's based on a twisting of a real, fairly strange thing that actually happened.
So, like, if you just kind of do a surface-level Google on this, you'll probably be like, oh, my God, Alex is right.
It's very dumb.
jordan holmes
I like the idea.
dan friesen
Tucker should know better.
His dad worked for Voice of America.
jordan holmes
I like the idea of the intelligence services having a real clear understanding of the art world and appreciation therein.
You know, like, aha, well, we got it.
We can't just tell people what's good-looking art and what's bad-looking art.
So, we got to go to Terry over here, the CIA's resident art specialist.
He's like, oh, no, Get that motherfucker Van Go out of here.
I don't need any of this shit.
dan friesen
I was reading an article about this, and it did make the point that at the time, the people who would have been in these offices in the CIA were largely rich people's kids who went to like Ivy schools.
jordan holmes
People who get tossed off of a boat?
Yeah.
dan friesen
Well, idle-rich types who are the people who like care a ton about art.
Yeah.
unidentified
A lot of them.
jordan holmes
Just insane.
dan friesen
So, like, maybe they did have an over-representation of people who had strong opinions.
jordan holmes
It would not surprise me.
It really would not surprise me.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
So, anyway, Tucker knows better than all this.
He's just letting Alex run.
But he does say something that I thought was pretty powerful.
And that is that he's not going to let his emotions be controlled by the media.
tucker carlson
They're just tiny little reptiles.
Like, I just have no respect whatsoever for the Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post and all this stuff.
I don't have any respect for them.
And so I'm not because I can control my emotions.
I am hopeful.
I have hope in greater things.
I don't care how badly you degrade the country.
You're not going to turn me into some hopeless robot.
Period.
alex jones
TuckerCarlson.com.
Are you going to add more dance?
And I'm hoping we're selling out.
People love it.
jordan holmes
We're done.
unidentified
I don't.
tucker carlson
We've got 16.
We've done 11.
You're 12.
You finish out the dozen.
And we're really grateful that you're doing it.
Thank you.
alex jones
In the future, someday, if we save the country, you're going to have to do a victory tour.
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
tucker carlson
And I'm going around the world after this.
alex jones
All right.
All right, folks.
TuckerCarlson.com.
We'll see you at Infowars.com or Real Alex Jones.
dan friesen
There's a certain irony that Alex is directing people to Infowars and his Twitter.
Well, there's a decent chance he won't own those things in the near future.
I don't know what's going to happen with the whole liquidation auction that has been going on, but there's a non-zero chance that he loses both of those things that he's plugging.
It's funny that Tucker says that he's not going to let folks from the Washington Post control his emotions because I think that he's super emotionally affected by the fact that the mainstream doesn't respect him and he's had to chase down this new audience of folks like Alex.
There are few media figures that I see that seem more emotionally driven than Tucker himself.
He is deeply emotional.
jordan holmes
He's a whiny little baby.
dan friesen
Yes.
And again, these shows didn't sell out.
The one with JD Vance, the GOP nominee for vice president, didn't even sell out.
It's easy to get that impression if you go to Tucker's website because once a show is over, the website replaces the buy ticket button with one that says sold out.
But I don't know if any of these actually sold out.
We're recording this on the 26th and tonight was supposed to be a show in Greenville, South Carolina, and it had to be canceled because Hurricane Helen, who's a Marjorie Taylor Greene, was supposed to be on tonight.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Canceled.
The last show of the tour is Saturday in Jacksonville with Donald Trump Jr.
And there's still a ton of tickets available for that.
This whole act that Alex and Tucker are doing doesn't work unless they pretend everything is sold out, which is why it's funny.
If they would just play slightly smaller venues, they could easily sell them out, but their egos don't allow that.
So they swing for the fences and then leave a bunch of seats empty.
Instead of accepting reality, they march forward, pretending they're at capacity and turning away thousands of people at the door because they're just that popular.
And it's very funny.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
You know, the Black Keys had the gumption to just cancel the tour and be like, you know what?
We really fucking miscalculated on this one.
Our bad.
You know what?
We'll redo this.
We'll kind of regroup.
dan friesen
Let's figure out where we're at.
We'll get dignity in that.
jordan holmes
Then we'll go forward.
We are not going to play to half-empty arenas because that's somehow sadder than playing to five people in a fucking birthday party.
dan friesen
And I don't know about the other dates on this tour.
Sure.
But that was not the case with this.
Sure.
It was not so empty that you felt the emptiness.
Sure.
Or that there was a reverb effect.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right.
dan friesen
Sound bouncing off walls.
Those are dark.
But it was not full.
Definitely.
So this is the end of the interview that they did in their hotel.
Right.
And so this is where we'll sort of dive into the experience of this whole thing.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
So I went to Allentown, or I flew into Allentown and then got to the show.
And yeah, I don't know, man.
jordan holmes
I don't know.
How long did you have to say?
So you texted me around like five, something like that, saying we were in line.
You in front of the show, Amanda, I assume.
Yeah.
How long were you in line for to get in?
dan friesen
Well, it was interesting because the line was pretty long.
It was like you had to walk quite a ways to get to the end of the line.
Sure.
But once the doors opened, it was moving pretty smoothly.
Like it wasn't that terrible.
It looked awful.
jordan holmes
It looked awful.
unidentified
Yes.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
It looked disorganized and like people were just all over the place.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
The line had a chaoticness to it.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
But it did end up being managed kind of okay.
I was overhearing conversations while I was in the line, and some of them were pretty scary.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Kind of involved how demons were coming after the children.
Wow.
There were people that were trying to register people to vote in the line, but I didn't see anybody take them up on it.
So like it was scary, kind of the idea that this is a voting drive.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
But then no one was signing up that I saw.
But one lady did thank them for doing it.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
That was fun.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
It felt insane but normal, you know?
jordan holmes
Yeah, You were just in, you were in Crazy Town.
And it turns out Crazy Town is fine.
It's just that the walls are all pink and the sky is made of jelly beans.
It's fine.
dan friesen
There were tons of Infowars shirts.
Yeah.
That is definitely true.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Well, I mean, if there were ever going to be Infowars shirts anywhere in Pennsylvania, that would be the place.
dan friesen
It was shocking.
Yeah.
I sometimes, because I listened to his show, lose sight of the fact that people like him.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
I kind of was sitting there like this many fucking InfoWars shirts, and these people probably don't live in Redding.
Yeah.
You know, so like, if Alex did end up in an airport, I could see three people hugging him.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
You know, like that kind of story that he tells, like, I don't believe in the there's a person who's like insulting him and then starts crying because everyone loves him so much.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
That part of the story is bullshit.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right.
dan friesen
But I could see Alex getting mobbed by folks.
jordan holmes
Yeah, because nobody's from there.
Yeah.
Nobody's going back home.
They're going to where they were when they got here.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Few people.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I could see him ending up running into a bunch of fans at a hotel or something because it's Redding.
But also, I think he stayed in Lancaster, so like he probably drove out of town.
jordan holmes
Right, because he doesn't want to see any of those people.
dan friesen
Secret location.
Right.
So we get in to the venue.
It's fine.
You know, like one of the things I noticed was there was a lot of concessions, which was very exciting for me.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
As soon as I got in there and I was like, this is boring.
I was like, I want to eat so much shit.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So I ended up getting a big pretzel.
And then I accidentally knocked over my Diet Coke and I felt really bad.
So that stopped me from getting more food.
jordan holmes
You know what?
This is something that concerns me.
This is something that concerns me.
I had not really and genuinely considered the idea of like going to a fucking what would it be?
A Lindbergh rally in like 1931 and them selling fucking pretzels.
dan friesen
Well, it's being held at like a minor league hockey stadium.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
dan friesen
There's a nacho standard.
jordan holmes
Halfway through, they're giving away tickets for the next game.
No, it's all there.
It all makes sense, but then you've got it wrapped around, like, and then we got to get rid of the, you know, and you're like, wait, what?
dan friesen
Back in the day, I would have been so excited by how many bars there were.
Essentially, you could have gotten so many beers all over the place.
But instead, I was like, fucking pretzel, very exciting.
I was very sad when Amanda went to go get some funnel cake.
She came back with the news that there were no funnel cakes.
unidentified
No.
dan friesen
Yeah, that was a real blow.
jordan holmes
Is that specific to this show or the venue entirely?
dan friesen
They might have run out.
I didn't probe for details.
jordan holmes
Running out of funnel cake battery.
dan friesen
That was where the night took a turn.
jordan holmes
This is how it is in reading.
It's terrible.
dan friesen
So we're in there, and one of the things that I noticed was: you know, they talk a lot about how they're independent and like you don't have these corporate sponsors.
But they did.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
They were just weird.
There was like Moms for America as a sponsor of the tour.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Parlor, social media site.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
There was a NyQuil knockoff that had antihistamine in it.
Make it drowsy.
Make you sleep.
unidentified
Hey.
dan friesen
Make America sleep great again.
jordan holmes
I wish that we could just sell straight out Purple Drake.
Just fucking, let's go.
dan friesen
I mean, it might as well be Zuquil.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yeah, let's just do it.
dan friesen
And there's a guy named Joe from Texas.
jordan holmes
Joe from Texas.
dan friesen
I assume he's running for office.
jordan holmes
Or is he just Joe from Texas?
dan friesen
He might be.
I get that.
I realized that I meant to look into who he was and I don't care.
jordan holmes
You can't.
He's just Joe from Texas.
He could be any number of Joes from Texas.
What if it is all of the Joes of Texas together saying one thing?
dan friesen
He had a crazy bushy gray mustache and a cowboy hat.
Of course he did.
jordan holmes
Of course he did.
dan friesen
He was a hit.
Also, Tucker played a commercial promoting his new nicotine pouch brand.
jordan holmes
What?
dan friesen
Yeah, he has a nicotine pouch brand.
jordan holmes
Wait, wait, what?
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
He has a nicotine pouch brand?
dan friesen
It's called Alp.
jordan holmes
Oh, my God.
dan friesen
And apparently, it's the manly alternative to the cuck brand he used to promote called Zinn.
jordan holmes
Oh, my God.
dan friesen
They refused to partner with him, so he threw a fit and pretended that they supported the Harris campaign, even though the company that runs Zinn, which is Swedish Match North America, which is a subsidiary of Philip Morris International, gave more to federal GOP candidates at a rate of 70 to 30%.
He's just pretending to be mad.
jordan holmes
It's the cigarette murdering company of our entire lives.
They're on the side.
If anybody worshiped death, it is literally Philip Morris.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
They snubbed Tucker, so he decided they were too weak for him.
He said, quote, I'm embarrassed to say it, but it's made by a huge company, huge donors to Kamala Harris.
I'm not going to use that brand anymore.
I mean, I think it's fine for like your girlfriend or whatever, but I don't think men should use that brand.
jordan holmes
It's that easy.
It's that easy, baby.
dan friesen
There's no evidence that the company is a huge Harris donor, but that was something that Tucker smeared them with to his audience in hope of stealing away part of the market for his own brand.
He's a total loser, and this whole thing is embarrassingly transparent, and he's selling nicotine pouches.
So, cool.
And like, he played a commercial for it, and I get that there's supposed to be some kind of humor in being like, this is what men do.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
But it wasn't funny.
The audience didn't laugh at it.
Right.
It just, it felt like a parody that is also serious.
Yeah.
Like he meant it.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
You know?
Well, this is sincere marketing.
It's not like.
jordan holmes
No, but this one makes sense.
dan friesen
It's not a parody of Budweiser commercials that are like, you know, full of.
jordan holmes
See, but this one makes sense because this is the brain exists right now.
It is aware enough to know that that should be ironically enjoyed the idea of requiring a product to reinforce your manliness.
Right.
It is not, however, ironic to do so for this brain.
So the brain is trapped in a space of like, well, obviously it's funny that we're talking about how it's men that do this.
dan friesen
And you're weak.
If you get Zin, you're a woman.
jordan holmes
But also, I will only buy products that are branded for men.
I will do both.
I will know that it's stupid and I will still buy it.
dan friesen
You have and are creating the anxiety around masculinity in order to sell this product.
Yep.
But you're also trying to make a joke out of that sort of, but I don't think you are.
unidentified
Yep.
dan friesen
It's very strange.
jordan holmes
Nope.
dan friesen
And I just think it's weird that I understand that Tucker is a well-known nicotine user.
Like he's talked about that a ton.
He's promoted Zin a ton of times.
jordan holmes
Sure, sure, sure, sure.
dan friesen
Just not for money.
Right.
And when he tried to get money from them, he said no.
And he's like, I'll do my own thing.
But it is still just weird that he has like a sort of tobacco replacement brand.
jordan holmes
I mean, yeah.
dan friesen
Like it's, it doesn't feel right for him.
He should be more moral than this based on the way he pretends to act.
jordan holmes
I mean, or the Marlboro man.
Like one or the other.
You can't go.
You can't go like, I'm a good person and also, no.
dan friesen
I sell this product that's addictive and I'm using fears about masculinity in order to sell it to children.
jordan holmes
No.
Be the thing that gives people those fears about masculinity.
The Marlborough man was so goddamn masculine and you felt emasculated when you were standing next to him.
Simple.
Tucker can't do that shit.
dan friesen
What about Joe Camill?
jordan holmes
He made me feel emasculated, but more in a am I turned on by Camill's kind of way?
dan friesen
He was pretty smooth.
jordan holmes
Yep, he was.
dan friesen
So like I mentioned before, the crowd was large, but it wasn't full.
Like you could look around the arena and see pockets of empty areas, but it still felt like there was a lot of people there.
And the energy was very weird.
It was very, very weird.
jordan holmes
Were people?
I don't know.
What would I say?
Like, if I'm going to see a Cubs game, or if I've got, like, I've been to the United Center to see shows, bands, you know, the whole thing.
I've been to arenas.
I'm not nine years old.
I've been to arenas.
There has always been a sense of palpable excitement and anticipation for when the performance is going to begin.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
What was that like for this?
Because it doesn't feel like it would be something that you're like, oh, I'm looking forward to hearing about these people talk about how demons are going to kill me.
Right?
dan friesen
Well, it was confusing.
And I had to sit down and really write out some thoughts the next morning because I was very confused at what I had experienced.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
And part of the reason is because there are structural problems with the show.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
So there was an opening act, who was supposed to be a warm-up comic.
Right.
And then there was like half an hour of stump speeches from his sponsors.
So the warm-up act was warming up for the people to do the sponsor speeches.
Right.
And then Tucker came out.
One of his sponsors introduced him.
And so structurally, it was very weird.
And I couldn't figure out how this is supposed to work.
The energy in the crowd was, you know, when you do stand-up and no one's a star, It really is important that the host bring it up, get everyone on the same page, and then bring people around.
jordan holmes
Turn them into a crowd.
dan friesen
Yeah.
If you have somebody who's a star on the show, it really doesn't matter.
jordan holmes
They're there to see that person.
They're already a crowd.
dan friesen
Right.
Yeah.
You can bomb as the host.
The opening act can bomb.
And then they'll go nuts for the headliner because they've seen them on TV.
jordan holmes
That's what they're for.
dan friesen
That's what this was.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Okay.
And that energy was very strange with anger.
jordan holmes
Right.
unidentified
Right.
jordan holmes
Because that's what it is not there to, like, I can't imagine being there thinking, oh, well, we're here to have a good time tonight.
Right?
dan friesen
Well, there are some people who are pretty drunk.
jordan holmes
Right.
But even then, like, isn't that like, I'm drinking to cope with how demons are going to rape my face, I guess.
dan friesen
I guess.
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Like, what are we doing?
What are you doing going to this thing?
dan friesen
I mean, I was there and I don't know.
Right.
I was very confused by it.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Everyone seemed to be like, that's what I keep saying.
It's like, it's insane but normal.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Like that, this is like someone is coming out and being like, they want to murder your families.
Right.
And then they're going, woo!
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And I don't get it.
It doesn't seem like fun entertainment.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And then, spoiler alert in terms of Alex's entire presentation and appearance, if you like Alex, he didn't say anything you've never heard before.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
It's all just playing the hits and all this.
It's a very boring, dumb appearance.
They kind of like him.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And if you don't like him, I think you'd be confused by the things that he's saying because he won't take a fucking breath.
Right.
And is saying all kinds of nonsense stuff.
Right.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
So in terms of entertainment, I don't get how it would have been a pleasant experience, but it clearly was for some people.
jordan holmes
Yeah, because if you're unfamiliar with Alex straight, no chaser, then no Chase or guys.
Nice.
dan friesen
He was there.
I saw him.
jordan holmes
Oh, yeah?
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Did he wave?
unidentified
No.
jordan holmes
I bet if anybody would have recognized you, it would have been Chase, and I bet he would have smiled and waved.
dan friesen
He followed Alex out onto stage to get footage of the giant crowd from behind Alex.
Sure.
Like a sizzle wheel.
jordan holmes
Doing the thing.
Ah, buddy.
Cameraman action.
dan friesen
Chase.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yeah, because if you because you're about 45 minutes behind any Alex conversation if you're not at all caught up.
Right.
So wherever he's talking, if you don't know the first 45 minutes, it's pure chaos.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
It's just chaos.
dan friesen
I think so.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And because I'm me, there were like at least five points where I knew exactly what he was about to say.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And at one point, I just was kind of bored.
And so I whispered to Amanda, like, he's about to talk about Chuck Schumer and the hamburgers and how they were raw meat.
And then he did.
Of course he did.
This is so predictable.
It's like clockwork.
jordan holmes
He's so boring.
Oh, my God.
Oh, God.
Guess what?
This is what Fish is about to play Farmhouse.
Exactly.
Here we go.
And there it is.
unidentified
It's 1 million% how that sounds.
dan friesen
And it felt dirty.
jordan holmes
Oh, that's weird.
dan friesen
So let's talk about this lineup.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
At 7:30, the show begins.
And there's this guy named Jason Hewlett, who was the opening warm-up comic.
He was doing musical impressions for 20 minutes.
It was rough.
jordan holmes
Wow.
dan friesen
Yes.
unidentified
Wow.
dan friesen
So one of the things that he did was he sang Journey.
He sang open arms.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
Come to you with open arms.
But he was doing it with like looking like a zombie, kind of with his arms out, because he was doing broken arms.
I come to you with broken arms.
jordan holmes
It was a bit.
dan friesen
It was a good bit.
He did an impression of the REO Speed Wagon.
Sure.
Because they hold their R's really long.
unidentified
I don't fight this feeling anymore.
jordan holmes
So when does musical comedy begin and being a bad cover band end?
dan friesen
Here's the problem.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
His impressions were fine.
unidentified
Okay.
dan friesen
Like he'd done some work on them.
Sure.
So, I mean, they didn't sound terrible.
Like, I think he was a competent hand at that.
Right.
There was no bits.
It was just nothing was funny.
jordan holmes
All right.
dan friesen
There was a point where I was worried that I dosed myself.
Sure.
And that was when, well, there are two moments in his act that I thought I was hallucinating.
One of them was.
jordan holmes
That's going to be on the, that's the bumper right there.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
I thought I was hallucinating.
dan friesen
So he did a bit about how he could never figure out what Axel Rose's voice sounded like.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
But then he realized that it was Marge Simpson.
And so he starts singing Welcome to the Jungle in a serviceable Axel Rose impression.
jordan holmes
Welcome to the Jungle!
dan friesen
Well, that's the problem.
He's doing an Axel Rose impression and then switches to a Marge Simpson impression.
They're very different.
jordan holmes
Yes, they are very different.
dan friesen
And in performing them, he's proven that they don't sound similar.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that is an interesting thing to do.
dan friesen
And so I was sitting there.
I was like, you have just disproven the premise of your bit.
jordan holmes
That's fascinating.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Has anybody told him that, do you think?
dan friesen
I don't know, but they were fine impressions.
That's the problem.
jordan holmes
Yeah, no.
dan friesen
It's fine.
jordan holmes
I mean, comedy's hard.
I can't imagine any gig I would want less, but if I was broke enough, would take faster than this terrible gig, right?
Like, I don't want to do this.
This sounds awful.
I'm gonna bomb.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
You're paying how much?
This is going to be an experience that I can tell people for the rest of my life I was there and I did weird shit.
dan friesen
Yeah.
I remember back in the day, like, if you're doing stand-up and you visit New York or something, you'll be kind of lucky if you can get up at a club doing a check set where they drop the check and no one's listening to you.
They're all filling out their credit card slips and stuff.
And it's a thankless, awful thing, but you'll get a few bucks.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
And you'll get to perform at this club.
That's exactly what he's doing.
He gets to perform in an arena, but like people are filtering in.
And most of them are confused or they're like, I grew up on REO Speedwagon.
And that's the recognition that they enjoy.
So the second time I was hallucinating.
He does a bit about how I don't exactly remember how this worked, but he was something along the lines of how they would do auto-tune.
Like how would Cher do it if there was no electricity or something like that?
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
And so he's like doing like blocking.
Right, right, right, right.
He makes his voice do the by putting his hand in front of his face.
jordan holmes
Sure, sure, sure, sure.
dan friesen
Amanda posted a video of this because it was just like, I don't know what the fuck is going on.
I felt like I was in another place.
There's no joke here.
He's kind of making this sound similar to the effect of auto-tuning.
jordan holmes
Sure.
unidentified
A lot of work for very little reward.
jordan holmes
But what if like three years from now, it's like it comes out, the documentary, Marina Bramovich documentary comes out and it's like, oh, he's been doing this kind of shit at weird right-wing rallies for the past three years.
Stare directly in my eyes.
That'd be an amazing documentary.
dan friesen
Sure, I'd watch it.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I'd watch that.
dan friesen
So then he just straight up saying Lee Greenwood.
jordan holmes
That's always a smart move.
dan friesen
I'm proud to be an American.
jordan holmes
That's a smart move.
dan friesen
There's no parody.
jordan holmes
That's just that.
That's literally how you would close a set if you're so terrible.
Hey, everybody, let's give it up for the troops.
dan friesen
If it was a parody of what he was doing, that's how it would end.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
It would have to, yeah.
dan friesen
And then he did a bunch of funny faces.
jordan holmes
Oh, boy.
dan friesen
Like his lip showing up.
jordan holmes
That was funny.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
All right.
dan friesen
And I mean, they were good, funny faces.
jordan holmes
No, they were.
You know, that must have been wild.
That must have been wild seeing Jim Carrey on TV for the first time and being like, look at that face.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
And that being the end of it.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Amazing.
dan friesen
It was like that.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
It's just, you know, I think we've talked about this a little bit about magic.
Sure.
How, like, in order to do magic, you have to really put in the time to do it.
And there's something you kind of respect about the effort that goes into that.
This guy had some decent impressions that sounded like a variety of different singers.
The face movements that he was making were pretty precise, and they involved different muscles of the face moving.
That would take practice.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
And so I felt really bad because it's not funny in the least.
There's no bits.
The show sucks.
jordan holmes
It's awful.
dan friesen
It's confusing that it's before this Tucker Carlson show, but you got to respect the craft a little bit.
jordan holmes
He's trying.
I can't think of anything more insulting to me personally than the idea of somebody being like, I have to compliment the mechanics of what you are doing.
dan friesen
He's put in some hours.
He's put in some work on this stuff.
And that I tip my hat.
jordan holmes
Yeah, no, I mean, there's something to be said about that.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So I thought for sure he was going to do this warm-up act.
And then, you know, you're going to bring on Tucker.
jordan holmes
Straight in there.
dan friesen
Because that's how most shows generally work.
But then the Moms for America person came out and gave a speech.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And everyone was kind of confused.
Right.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
I think they were pretty confused, but enjoyed her enough.
And then Joe from Texas came out and he gave a speech.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And this dude was awesome.
jordan holmes
He was awesome.
dan friesen
I don't know what he was talking about.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
But he spoke like Sam Elliott.
There was a drawl to him, a folksiness.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
He was talking about how, like, I'm going to paraphrase his story.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
One day when he was a kid, he had a bike and he loved this bike because it represented freedom to him.
jordan holmes
Yes.
dan friesen
He could ride and feel the wind in his hair.
jordan holmes
I follow along.
dan friesen
Some kid steals his bike.
jordan holmes
Motherfucker.
dan friesen
Right.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Stole his freedom.
jordan holmes
Yes.
dan friesen
Right.
jordan holmes
I'm now furious.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So he kicks the shit out of that kid.
He gets into a bike with this kid.
And I think he was saying he seriously hurt this kid.
jordan holmes
Boy, that's the wrong lesson to teach.
Yeah.
Okay.
dan friesen
And so his mom finds out.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And she's like, you got to tell your dad what you did.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Because you beat the shit out of this kid.
jordan holmes
All right.
This story has gone a lot.
Yeah.
dan friesen
And I think his dad is an alcoholic or something who beat him.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
And so he's like, I'm going to get beat for this.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
He's going to kick the shit out of me because I beat up this kid in front of the hospital.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
So he goes and he tells his dad what he did.
Yeah.
And his dad says to him, Son, did you like that bike?
And he's like, yes, sir, I did.
And so his dad's like, you did the right thing.
jordan holmes
Oh, my God.
dan friesen
You took your freedom and no one could take your freedom.
You did the right thing.
So the end of the story was that he didn't get beat up by his dad.
And then the place went nuts.
Like, they really loved the end of this story.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And I was listening to it.
I was like, this guy has a charm to him.
I don't know what the fuck he's doing here.
I don't know what he's promoting.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
I'm only three-quarters paying attention about this story of violence.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Huh.
dan friesen
Like, might have been a high point of the night.
jordan holmes
No, it's like because that's like an echo of the more common story of the standing up to bullies, you fight back, and then they're like, oh, you shouldn't fight back.
And then your dad is like, you stand up to bullies, even if that meant, you know, that's a fairly common story.
This one, it does feel like there should have been some acknowledgement of like, this was the wrong move.
dan friesen
And the tension of the story is whether or not his dad's going to beat him up for beating up this other kid.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And I honestly, like, I was reflecting on it after the fact.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
And I realized that until the end of the story, I didn't know what ending the audience would like.
jordan holmes
Interesting.
dan friesen
They cheered for him not getting beat by his dad.
jordan holmes
I think they would have cheered for a beating.
dan friesen
I think so, too.
jordan holmes
I think they would have also cheered for a beating.
This is what's wrong with being from where we're from.
We're like, ah, those people would have been happy with a beating or no beating.
dan friesen
I got a whooping, but I got my freedom back.
Exactly.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that would have been also.
Yes, you accepted the consequences, but you got your freedom back.
unidentified
Bye, bye bye.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
Something.
Anyway.
jordan holmes
Totally.
dan friesen
He was confusing.
jordan holmes
That's wild.
dan friesen
And then the antihistamine drink people came out.
It was called Sambrosa.
jordan holmes
Sambrosa?
dan friesen
Sambrosa.
jordan holmes
Sambrosa.
The drink of the gods.
dan friesen
So they tried to sell their product to help you sleep.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
They had this great line that was like, let Tucker wake you up and let us put you to sleep.
Or something like that.
You guys are assholes.
jordan holmes
That is amazing.
That should be.
Yeah, but that's also the most evil thing anybody could ever possibly say.
That's technocratic nightmare shit.
dan friesen
It's funny for me sitting there, though, because I can see the crass marketing that's going on and how abusive it is.
jordan holmes
Do they got an MC or is this shotgun style?
Really?
Out of control.
You don't have your own traveling house MC or something?
unidentified
Nope.
dan friesen
The singer guy came out, did his time.
Then the lady from Mobile for America came out.
And then Joe, John, Joe from Texas.
I can't remember his name.
Yeah.
And then the sleep drink people.
jordan holmes
They just don't care about putting on a good show.
dan friesen
It was all brokered time.
Basically, the arrangement is obviously that they give Tucker a bunch of money, so he wrangles a crowd for them to pitch their shit to.
It's a nakedly transparent sales event with a captive audience.
Like when people were filtering in and getting to their seats, you have the song comic warming people up, getting them excited.
And then the payoff of that, once they're seated, is all these ads that go on for like half an hour, 40 minutes.
And then Tucker comes out.
jordan holmes
Man.
dan friesen
And the place went nuts for Tucker, obviously.
jordan holmes
I mean, we're not, listen, we don't have any corporate sponsors.
We're not like that.
We don't have corporates, giant corporations.
They don't care about you.
Even if they did sponsor us, it's what?
One millionth of their budget.
These people that we bring out here, these people want to predate on you to your face.
They want to look you in the eyes as they steal from you.
dan friesen
Sambrosa.
jordan holmes
Sambrosic.
God damn it.
dan friesen
Joe with a mustache.
jordan holmes
Oh, Sambrosa.
dan friesen
He didn't know what he was selling.
jordan holmes
He's just being Joe.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Just Joe from Texas.
dan friesen
He's an eccentric millionaire who just wants to promote himself and tell stories that are kind of folksy.
jordan holmes
Kind of like it.
I didn't think that would be great.
dan friesen
That's Jimmy James style.
jordan holmes
That is Jimmy James style right there.
Absolutely.
dan friesen
And because I wasn't paying enough attention while he was on, I might have been going to get a pretzel.
No, I did that when Jack Pesobic was on stage.
Smart.
I wasn't paying enough attention to know what he was selling.
Right.
jordan holmes
Well, don't worry about it.
unidentified
Who cares?
jordan holmes
All right.
They go crazy for Tucker coming out.
dan friesen
They do.
Sambrosa salespeople do their pitch and then they get to introduce Tucker.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Or they brought him on stage.
unidentified
Right.
dan friesen
Which probably meant they paid a little more.
jordan holmes
I would assume so.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Otherwise, they would have had to fight it out with the other corporate sponsors.
Yeah, that'd be no fun.
dan friesen
So Tucker comes out and here, you ready to jump into the night's entertainment?
jordan holmes
All right.
I love this.
tucker carlson
Thank you.
I am legitimately glad to be here.
Thank you.
unidentified
Well, it is a great country.
tucker carlson
And thank you for saying that.
That has been, this is our 12th city.
And out of 16, and one of the things that I wanted, well, I love you too.
Thank you.
I wanted, you know, if you spend your life experiencing the United States through your phone, which I think all of us do, you really lose track of what it's actually like.
And you do.
And I do think that part of the lie, part of the plan for the rest of us is to convince us that our country sucks.
And that's not true at all.
And that's why it's been such a blessing to go coast to coast.
8.30 this morning, I was on the Conestoga River in your state.
Beautiful.
You could have been anywhere, Montana, New Zealand.
It was incredible.
And I ran into people in the park where I was looming, not in a threatening way, but wandering around one of your parks.
And they said to me, oh my gosh, we just saw Alex Jones wandering in the park.
unidentified
Actually, and they weren't afraid.
jordan holmes
They were delighted.
dan friesen
Oh, they weren't afraid.
So right-wing figures are apparently the cryptids of that weekend in Pennsylvania, just looming around in the park.
jordan holmes
That makes sense.
That makes sense.
dan friesen
So, yeah, I think that there's a nice USA chant.
Sure.
I think that if you listen carefully, you can hear my uncommittal clapping because I decided to be polite and do a little bit of soft clapping.
jordan holmes
All right.
dan friesen
Because I wanted to fit in.
I shaved my chin.
So I was like, let's just commit to this.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I get you.
Not for me.
I can't stand up at baseball game.
dan friesen
I had to, like, I felt like I had to do the sanding ovations along with them because otherwise I was going to be like, I was going to stick out.
jordan holmes
I mean, I will say it does get lonely when you're the only person sitting down in a 30,000 arena of people clapping for somebody who's a murderer and a war criminal or whatever.
dan friesen
Well, it wasn't pledging allegiance to anybody.
Sure.
I was just getting a better look at the stage.
That's how I told myself it went.
All right.
But yeah, I think that there were only two times that I almost audibly laughed.
Okay.
Maybe there was one that I actually slipped and I might have laughed.
But it was mostly just kind of nodding.
I was like, oh, oh, okay.
And then with, I hate to say this.
unidentified
Okay.
dan friesen
Because I do an Alex Jones podcast.
jordan holmes
True.
dan friesen
Alex was so boring.
And the only thing that's interesting is Tucker's intro speech.
I would not have missed out on much if I had just left after Tucker's intro.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Which sucks.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
But I mean, that's like it's almost, I'm almost, I wouldn't say I'm not glad.
I'm not glad.
And I, it's, but it's like, that's the purp.
The purpose is not to put on a good show.
dan friesen
No.
jordan holmes
The purpose is for this to be a thing that happened.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And to launder Alex to a new audience.
jordan holmes
The purpose is for nothing that's going on on the stage.
Nothing.
It's for next week.
Whenever it's like, oh, remember when Alex was in Pennsylvania?
He was so smart and he was so brilliant.
It doesn't matter what he said.
dan friesen
He just said all the normal stuff that he says and his catchphrases.
And then people cheered and they felt good and everyone was excited.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I mean, like, honestly, maybe if I'd never seen Alex talk before, I'd be like, you got to hear what this dude was saying.
There's some nonsense stuff.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Because it would be things I hadn't heard a hundred times before and we haven't talked about a hundred times on the podcast.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So I think that maybe the newness of Tucker's brand of whatever he was dealing with, I think, was maybe more interesting.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yeah, I can see that.
dan friesen
But yeah, Alex was a big dud.
And it was really funny because the chair wasn't quite big enough, and so his little feet were dangling.
And it's not funny to hear somebody yelling about shit, just sitting down with their little feet on the table.
jordan holmes
The little feet dangling?
No.
God damn it.
That had to have been on purpose.
dan friesen
And then Jack Pesobic, too, like, he came out and forgot to unbutton his suit jacket when he sat down.
So he looked like an idiot the whole fucking time with his suit like pulling apart.
jordan holmes
And it was really.
dan friesen
Yeah, it was really bad.
jordan holmes
Man, I can't dress myself and I don't do that shit.
Good God.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
That's bad.
dan friesen
So Tucker has met a lot of cool people on this tour.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
A lot of good people.
No angry people.
Not at all.
jordan holmes
Not at all.
tucker carlson
And they were great people.
And that's kind of the point: is that in 12 cities from East Coast to West Coast to the middle to back to the East Coast, I haven't met a single angry person.
I haven't met a single nasty person.
I haven't met anybody mistreating anybody else.
I met exactly the opposite.
I have met the warmest, kindest, most loving, hilarious, eccentric people I've ever met.
And those are the people I grew up with.
This is the country I remember.
And so, no, it's true though.
It actually is great.
And I've just been reminded of that.
So thank you.
And thank you for having me.
dan friesen
So gracious.
So I had a pretty similar experience on my whole trip.
Sure.
I didn't really run into any particularly angry people, but I did meet a bunch of people who were on the precipice of anger.
And I was keenly aware that if I didn't placate their needs to not be offended by wokeness, they would turn angry really fast.
I nodded along with a cab driver heading to my return trip to the airport as he lamented about how children's movies were pushing a gay agenda by including LGBTQ characters.
There were a couple of interactions I ended up in with other people around other culture war topics that felt the same.
It was incumbent upon me to moderate my response to their insane shit or else they would respond poorly.
It was very clear that that dynamic was in action.
Tucker is insulated from a lot of this type of interaction because his insane wealth and celebrity allows that.
Plus, he's on the side that's one step away from screaming at you for being an agent of cancel culture.
Most of the people who hate Tucker are just not going to engage with him or probably will never have an opportunity to.
I watched a little video of their meet and greet and it was just Tucker, Alex, and Jack Pesobic standing in front of a backdrop looking at a camera while a line of people came through and took pictures.
They barely even looked at the people as they were coming through and then they were whisked away really fast and you can hear Rob Dew muttering in the background, this is what America's about.
alex jones
Wow.
dan friesen
I'm sure that Tucker's not lying about how nice everyone has been on his tour because honestly, all of the people that I interacted with who had an insane and dangerous idea to share, they were really nice too.
They were nice because I let them be nice and I exercised extreme caution in how I challenge their very fragile ideas.
Tucker doesn't challenge any of those ideas and the most hostile people he could run into.
So I'm sure it's a pretty nice trip that he's had.
But if I had wanted to, I could have immediately just said, no, that's complete nonsense.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
And here's where this idea comes from, blah, blah, blah.
It would have been the worst person they could have ended up in a conversation with.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Because I would have deconstructed exactly why this is wrong and all of this.
But I just chose to be like, oh, how about that?
You know, and just let them talk.
Sure.
And because of that, we had nice interactions.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Because I was there.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Because I let them.
jordan holmes
Yep.
alex jones
Yeah.
jordan holmes
That's generally how it goes.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And that's a bizarre feeling.
That doesn't feel great.
jordan holmes
Well, I mean, on one level, everyone you meet, if you scratch them long enough and hard enough, will reveal believing something that is absolutely insane.
dan friesen
Sure.
jordan holmes
You know, like, and it doesn't even need to be big, you know, that time that I told you that I thought that you couldn't re-refrigerate beer or something because somebody had told me that was just in my head.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
You know, and if you scratch that, it's going to come out.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
The problem isn't that people do believe nonsense.
It's that some of that nonsense is terrifying and dangerous.
dan friesen
And it intersects with real-world hurt.
jordan holmes
And then it gets whipped up by people like Tucker who can stoke it without ever having to feel that same feeling of hostage taking, you know, that aspect of like, I know going into this interaction, I am not allowed to be me.
I simply cannot do that.
I have to exist in your space, period.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And, you know, to the extent that it's acceptable, I'm just going to ignore most of this insane shit you're saying or very softly push back on it in a playful way.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
For the sake of, I don't know.
jordan holmes
We're just sitting on a bench together, man.
We're going to leave.
You're going to go back to your life.
I'm going to go back to mine.
What are we doing?
dan friesen
And so I think there were two things that exist simultaneously that there's weird feelings.
And that's like, well, those were positive exchanges.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
And the parts of those conversations that didn't intersect with culture war bullshit and nonsense ideas that these people have were very pleasant talking about their families and talking about various things that they're interested in.
Sure.
Totally fine.
And I could have exchange with someone who believes the polar opposite of what I believe.
And that's heartening.
Yeah.
But it's disheartening that the only way we were able to achieve that was by me restraining some information that I have that would have been handled poorly.
I'm sure.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
I mean, you know, it's one of those things where their anger is what's going to come out sooner or later.
And for Tucker, he's trying to get them to spew it at anybody, right?
dan friesen
Let it fly.
jordan holmes
For, you know, in these interactions, you're just like, well, don't spew it at me.
There's no reason to spew your anger at me.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Right.
But that makes you feel like, well, I'm just letting the next person get that anger or something like that.
But it's like, the anger isn't the anger at the thing we're talking about.
It's there somewhere else and it needs to get out.
dan friesen
Yeah, and it's kind of like a, I'm not playing.
I don't want to dance.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
I don't want to do this.
jordan holmes
We're not.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
And it just feels weird because there is a sense that I got from each of these people that they wanted to dance.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And I just didn't play along.
And I don't know.
I have a lot of thoughts that I'm still kicking around about, like, what does this mean?
What kind of lessons can you take from that?
And I'm not sure, but it was weird.
jordan holmes
I mean, you know, the thing that's always struck me about groupings like that, gatherings like that, is like all of these people want to fight.
They are gathered in a place together, almost with the intent to fight.
And it's like, oh, you guys could just fight each other.
Just could.
dan friesen
Well, I think that's actually less.
My sense of it was less that they were getting all together to fight.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
What they were doing was getting all together to justify themselves.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
And to feel like there are many of us and we're good.
Yeah.
That was more what the vibe was than fighting.
Sure.
There's a lot of violent talk and a lot of that kind of shit, but overwhelmingly, it was more like, you're the good ones.
jordan holmes
Well, I mean, if you're saying the same thing as 6,000 other people, even though, you know, what you're saying might in your otherwise daily life sound absolutely crazy to the 6,000 people that you're surrounded with, makes you feel real normal now.
dan friesen
Yeah, it helps.
jordan holmes
It makes sense, yeah.
dan friesen
So Tucker's been in a good mood through most of this tour.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
But today he got in a bad mood.
tucker carlson
Uh-oh.
dan friesen
Because he saw that picture of Josh Shapiro with Zelensky.
tucker carlson
So with that said, and I've been in a good mood, despite being away from my wife and dogs, I've been in a good mood every day for the last 21 days.
Really until today, when I got back from wandering around one of your parks, and I see this picture of your governor.
You know, I actually don't really want to show up in somebody else's state and attack their politicians because that's not my state or Commonwealth.
But I saw a photograph of your governor, Josh Shapiro, standing with a foreign leader signing an artillery shell that is going to kill civilians in a country we're not at war with with a grin on his face.
And I had a couple of thoughts.
I was disgusted by it, actually.
I was enraged by it.
And here's why.
Let me be specific about here's why.
The first reason is, you know, I've been driving around Pennsylvania and actually I've fished here a lot over the course of my life.
And so I know the state pretty well.
And there are some, I mean, this is really one of the prettiest out of 50, maybe the prettiest in spots out of 50.
It's ridiculous how pretty it is.
But there are some hurting places in this state, like hurting, like actually.
dan friesen
Actually.
So the premise here is that I'm very mad hearing or seeing this picture of Josh Shapiro with Zelensky because I fish in Pennsylvania quite a bit and there's a lot of really nice nature stuff, but also people are hurting.
And that money could be used to improve their lives.
So that's the beginning of the premise.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Which I can understand.
I think you're going to have to do a little work on putting the sort of pieces together.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
But it's the beginning of like, I get your grievance.
So he goes on.
And he just develops this theme.
tucker carlson
But there are some hurting places in this state, like hurting, like actually, where people don't have jobs, where, you know, beautiful buildings in utter disrepair, walking back from dinner last night, people sleeping on the sidewalk.
You know, things that we should not put up with in a country with self-respect.
And our leaders did that, actually.
And so for anybody in charge of anything in this country, particularly in this state, to be spending time, money, or concern on a foreign country's problems enraged me.
It enraged me.
dan friesen
So Tucker is really mad that any time, effort, or concern is going to be placed on something foreign when there are people here who could be helped.
So I get the premise.
You get the premise?
jordan holmes
I do get the premise.
My next, my thought when he said that was Odin, okay, right.
There must be something satisfying about being able to tell Ravens to go peck a man's eyes out.
That's a satisfaction that I think we would all be appreciative for in certain circumstances.
And I think this would be one of them.
dan friesen
Sure.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
Because there's just no way to listen to a man say that like Tucker.
I'm like, oh, I was vacationing in Barbados when I realized that I don't want foreign aid going, go fuck yourself.
dan friesen
It's a chill, cool thing, and a good point.
Yeah, baby, so your idea of the Raven.
Yeah.
I don't know if you know this, but that's an Adam Carolla idea.
unidentified
Oh.
dan friesen
Well, back in the day, he used to talk about attack crows.
jordan holmes
Attack crows.
Sure.
dan friesen
You should have a team of attack crows.
They're very smart and you could train them to.
jordan holmes
They're very smart.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
I see a lot of videos now where people are like, if you give them food, whenever they give you like a dollar, they'll just keep bringing you money because they think that's how they're like, that's amazing.
They're smart.
dan friesen
Adam Carolla, the ace man, conspicuous in his absence as a guest on the show.
jordan holmes
I was going to say he might well.
He's lost some celebrity status if he didn't make it as a guest on this tour.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
There's a number of people who are sort of like, well, you could have.
jordan holmes
Did Chuck Norris get one?
dan friesen
No.
jordan holmes
Oh.
dan friesen
He might be real old now.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Like, he might be dead.
I don't know if he's.
jordan holmes
No, no, no.
He's got a new book out.
It's called Black Belt Politics or something like that.
Nice.
dan friesen
Nice.
Yeah.
So Tucker is infuriated by this photo op thing that Josh Shapiro and Zelensky did.
And he just doesn't want to be lectured.
He just wants to be lectured by these people.
jordan holmes
I swear to God, him lecturing me about him not wanting to be lectured by these people is wanting me to lecture him.
dan friesen
Shit turns angry.
jordan holmes
Okay.
tucker carlson
How dare you lecture me about problems in some other place, whether it's in Eastern Europe or the Middle East or I don't know, Central Africa.
I don't care.
I don't wish any of those people harm at all.
I wish everyone well.
But for you to spend your time worrying about that and paying for that when your own state, people in your own state are literally living on the sidewalk, damn you, actually.
I thought I mean that.
dan friesen
He means it.
So this is all fun and is getting the crowd worked up, but it's kind of dumb.
Tucker's show is largely lecturing people about problems in other countries and supporting foreign strongman leaders like Putin, Javier Millay, Naeb Bukele, Yerbor Sonaro, and Victor Orban.
The criticism he's making would be fine, but he's criticizing himself just as much as he is Josh Shapiro.
He just doesn't accept that criticism on himself.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I agree that people being unhoused is a serious problem and the government has a responsibility to confront it.
Tucker's ideology doesn't have a solution for the problem.
He's just using it as an excuse to attack supporting Ukraine.
But I have no qualms with taking housing insecurity as a serious issue that public resources should be directed towards solving.
The problem is that there's no connection between Tucker's feelings about people being unhoused and about the war in Ukraine.
Even if literally everyone in the country had access to affordable housing, he would still think we shouldn't give any money or time to Ukraine.
So pretending that his issue is rooted in some righteous indignation about how we should be using the resources for ourselves, that's a charade.
The bigger scam is that even if no money or time was being spent on supporting Ukraine, Tucker wouldn't support public assistance to provide people with housing.
He's just pretending he would support that because he knows that those optics are a weapon that he can use to attack his enemies.
He's scamming the audience by appealing to something that makes them feel like good people.
And by extension, he demonizes the people that he's opposed to.
Cultivating that feeling is really what 90% of the non-advertising part of this show is about.
That's the vibes that you're getting from him.
And I found that kind of interesting.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, that's like, that's America, man.
Like, that's the jump.
That's the, like, hey, you know what your real problem is?
Giving that extra cent and a half to fucking King George.
That motherfucker is your real problem.
dan friesen
Your real problem.
alex jones
No, no, no, no.
Give me your food, dude.
jordan holmes
Give me your food.
dan friesen
Give me your food.
jordan holmes
Give me your food because then I will give it to him.
No, It's him who's stealing your food.
I'm going to take it, though.
I'm going to take all of your food.
And then later you'll have some, maybe.
dan friesen
It's redirecting the intensity of anger is just dumb in this case because it's just one thing you don't support and another thing you don't support.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
And pretending you support one because it allows you to seem more righteous in your attack on the other.
I don't know.
It's uncompelling.
But there's just a lot of feelings.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
You know, like I mentioned this up top.
He's an emotional guy.
And this next clip, I almost like had my jaw on the floor when I was there because it's so sad.
It makes me so sad.
And I can't believe Tucker is saying this shit.
tucker carlson
A leader's only job is to take care of the people he leads.
jordan holmes
Period.
tucker carlson
It's not to end global climate change.
It's not to defeat Vladimir Putin or anybody else.
It's to protect and watch over the people he leads.
This is true of any organization, starting with the most basic organization in any society, which is the family.
A father's job is to watch over his family.
And if his kids are sick and have drug problems and he takes off to another country to deal with other people's children in a faraway land, he has abandoned his family.
And I don't care what story he tells you about himself and what a great and caring and compassionate person he is.
And I don't care how much he attacks you for noticing.
He is a bad father and a bad man because he has violated his sacred duty to his own children.
That's why he's here is to watch over his children.
And the same is true for all organizations.
Whether it's a military unit or the office you work in or the town you live in or the state you reside in or the nation you were born in, the people who run it have one job and that's to watch out for you because they're your leaders.
dan friesen
This clip is really helpful to understand Tucker's rhetorical framework.
He spends a lot of time whining about how the left wants a nanny state and then he rants passionately about how he wants a president who loves him like a parent.
It's incoherent and stupid because on a fundamental level, no one should want the relationship dynamic between an individual and the government to mirror that of a parent and a child.
On its face, it's idiotic.
And Tucker knows that perfectly well.
He absolutely does not want this to be his relationship with the government, but he knows that the audience he's cultivated feels good when they talk about a person in power loving them.
It's emotionally validating to imagine that your president loves you and feels responsibility to protect you like a parent does their child.
The government doesn't love you and you shouldn't want them to.
You should want them to govern effectively.
And sometimes that works in your best interests and sometimes as an individual, it doesn't.
I remember in this moment sitting in the arena just amazed at how petulant and weak it sounded.
Because the side point of what Tucker is saying is that he wants to be treated like a child.
That's the role he's assuming in this metaphor, in this allegory.
And he's encouraging the audience to assume that role as well, which I think sucks.
No organization should run like a family.
No business or government or office should have a paternal structure.
And I think that Tucker understands that.
It's just that his brand has become so entwined with yelling about families and insisting families are under attack.
So, this kind of grows out of that, and it sounds really stupid.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, it's a really good, it's a really good scam, though.
Like, the hey, listen, give up all of your agency so that a higher power male will do it for you is like the best scam.
It's the best scam.
Yeah, it's been going on for the whole time.
dan friesen
Well, and a huge part of this that is kind of a little too clear if you're paying attention is that like Tucker isn't really saying this about himself.
No, he's not saying that he wants to be the child of the government, he wants you to be.
Yeah, he wants to be exempted from this parent-child relationship, but he wants you in that.
jordan holmes
I'm going to tell you something.
I'm going to tell you something crazy.
I don't think a lot of cardinals view themselves as equal to a lot of the people in their parishes.
You know what I'm saying?
I don't think they, you know, even though their book might, you know, I think some have strange power dynamics that are played out, might have paternalistic power dynamics, too.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And so, like, this whole thing turns into Tucker yelling about how the government should love you.
jordan holmes
Oh, my God.
It was surreal.
That's creepy.
No.
tucker carlson
You take a city like the one I woke up in this morning where my wife went to grade school and it's a beautiful city built over centuries by hardworking immigrants, by the way.
German mostly, but probably from lots of other places.
And they spent hundreds of years making this a great city.
And I walked through it this morning on the way to the park, and the streets are covered in garbage and broken needles.
It's like, you don't notice that, really, Josh Shapiro?
You don't notice that?
How can you not notice that?
There's someone sleeping right there.
And you're lecturing me about Ukraine?
Damn you.
There's no concern at all.
And where there's no concern, there's no love, actually.
dan friesen
Actually, there's no love, actually.
The movie love actually.
jordan holmes
I was really mad that he said that and nobody was like.
Yeah, I know.
dan friesen
I did at the moment.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Okay.
dan friesen
I was almost wanted to break out into God only knows.
unidentified
I was very happy.
jordan holmes
He said the words.
We should all be like, yeah, he said the words, right?
dan friesen
It's the when your catchphrase is actually and you do that one, it really feels like there should be a buzzer or something.
Absolutely.
jordan holmes
Absolutely.
dan friesen
Or a wink, but he didn't really do any of that.
jordan holmes
Motherfucker.
dan friesen
Also, that just all seems so whiny and disconnected from the real problem he's pretending to be upset about, which is people not having homes.
For what it's worth, I walked around a bit in Reading and I didn't see much trash or humans sleeping on the street.
There were three shops that claimed to sell mystical objects that got me really excited.
Sure.
They were all closed on Monday, which sucked, but that's the extent of the negative things that I saw walking around Reading.
I don't know.
I think that Tucker sounds like a dork.
And I don't think that on a critical examination of the things he's saying, he could even justify whining about how much he wants the government to love you.
I think it's pathetic.
jordan holmes
It's, I mean, like the answer to 1984 or 1776 is very stupid.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
But the answer to 1984 is also not 1984.
dan friesen
More 1884 later in 1984.
jordan holmes
That's also not the answer.
dan friesen
But maybe, maybe the answer is being loved like a child by the government.
jordan holmes
Absolutely not.
dan friesen
Maybe it is.
tucker carlson
Concern grows from love.
It's organic.
It's easy.
You didn't have to read a book about how to love your children.
It came naturally to you.
They're your children.
jordan holmes
You should have read a book.
tucker carlson
And by the way, that's enough.
I should have.
jordan holmes
I know.
tucker carlson
I know.
One of them, you know, not super well-educated, non-geniuses.
We have a lot of dumb parents who are pretty good parents, not because they learn some theory about parenting from the Harvard School of Parenting, but because they love their children.
And if you love your children, you may make a mistake here and there.
jordan holmes
I have.
tucker carlson
Every parent has.
But over time, if your actions are guided by a sincere love for your child, that child's going to be okay.
Because that's all that matters.
And so if over time you totally ignore the material and spiritual condition of your people, if they wind up sleeping on the street and the storefronts are closed and the windows are broken and they can't walk to CBS without getting mugged, and it's physically unclean, that's not an accident.
jordan holmes
They don't love you.
tucker carlson
They hate you.
That is true.
Do not listen.
I talk for a living, so I think a lot about this.
dan friesen
This was just so weird.
So very bizarre.
Sitting there and watching this, I was like, I did not expect this would be the kind of breakdown that I'm witnessing.
jordan holmes
What?
Can anybody just do it?
You know, like, okay.
So when Bush, when Bush was like, I'm a regular guy like you, but he was also like a super billionaire, right?
Who's well-connected and his dad was the devil?
You know, like it was fine because he was absolutely as dumb as you thought he was.
dan friesen
And you would go, hey, hey, hey, hey.
jordan holmes
He was so stupid and you believed him.
dan friesen
So funny words, like strategic.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm going to hit the watch to me, hit this drive.
Yeah, he's an idiot.
So when he's like, I'm just like one of you, no, you're fucking not.
But also, in a way, yes, you very much are.
Maybe more so than a lot of people.
dan friesen
That's the tension of Tucker, though.
jordan holmes
Tucker is not at all that.
Yes, that's a bullshitter.
dan friesen
He wants to be treated like that, but also wants to be the like Ivy League guy.
There's an incoherence in what he's putting forward.
jordan holmes
And now here's Dr. the most decorated educated man of the.
We need to get rid of universities and everybody should be in a like, no, you're the guy.
dan friesen
Yeah, yeah.
jordan holmes
You can't do that.
dan friesen
Yeah, just it's weird.
jordan holmes
Why aren't they calling him out on that?
dan friesen
I think people just enjoy whatever he makes them feel.
So also, important point.
People do benefit from taking parents in classes.
Yeah.
There's a whole lot that you don't know going in.
jordan holmes
You don't know anything.
dan friesen
It feels a little strange to just sort of insist that everyone knows the right thing to do innately.
It's kind of unrelated to the convoluted point Tucker is making, but this mentality that people know how to raise their kids automatically is a pretty toxic viewpoint that feeds into the anxiety and stresses that come with postpartum depression.
Some people who suffer from that feel like they don't know what they're doing as a parent and that's an indication that there's something inherently wrong with them.
And reinforcing that idea is an impediment to getting them the help they need.
So fuck that.
jordan holmes
Oh, you'll just know.
You'll just know.
Well, I don't.
Oh, I have no, I have no answer for that.
dan friesen
It's alienating.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So Tucker's views about how much the government needs to be your parent are dumb and incompatible with his professed belief system.
And the analogy that he's trying to draw is a really unhealthy mindset.
It's just all bad all around.
I don't, I can't even describe how shocked I was by this.
I mean, so stupid.
jordan holmes
Sometimes I really do think, is it just showboating?
Are they just doing like the can can because they because they can get away with anything?
Like, why not?
What couldn't he say at this point other than like, hey, maybe we should respect gay people?
Like, that's it.
dan friesen
I think that could be trouble.
Maybe if he came out against Trump.
I think actually he could manage coming out against Trump.
I think it would be, hmm.
I don't know.
He did try and do the RFK pivot sort of uncommittedly.
That didn't work out.
I don't know.
I don't know.
jordan holmes
I think that was more RFK's fault than anybody else's fault.
dan friesen
What?
jordan holmes
Yeah, I'm going to go with maybe somebody should have looked into that freak.
dan friesen
Man, there's a hundred stories about him that we have not covered.
jordan holmes
Again, I think this is great.
He is the most fucked-up human being that's ever lived.
He should be fucked up like this.
dan friesen
True.
jordan holmes
It makes me feel good.
I was raised with a bad rape, but I'm way better than RFK Jr.
dan friesen
Oh, I mean, he has a lot of variables.
So we've talked a number of times about words.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
You think they mean something.
jordan holmes
I have been wrong about that for so long.
dan friesen
This is a constant tension in your life.
jordan holmes
It is.
dan friesen
And apparently, Tucker shares.
jordan holmes
I'm sure he's not creating my concern entirely by himself.
tucker carlson
No, no, no.
dan friesen
But he wouldn't be doing that through words.
jordan holmes
No, no, no, no.
tucker carlson
So I think a lot about this.
About words and their use.
And I use words we all do to communicate with other people.
It's what separates us from the animals.
It's not the opposable thumb.
Whoever thought of that is an idiot.
jordan holmes
It's language.
God thought of the opposable thumb, asshole.
tucker carlson
...about the way we feel and communicate that to another person to pass on information, to pass on our history.
That's what our culture is.
It's talking.
And that's great.
But words are also, if you think about it, a means of deception.
They are a vector for lying.
How do the lies reach you?
Because they come out of somebody's mouth.
So if you're in my business and you think a lot about language and you're around people who are lying for a living, after a while, you lose faith in it.
You do.
And after a while, at least if you're me, you decide, you know, I'm going to be a lot more like my dog.
My dog is not a fluent English speaker.
Genius, but doesn't speak English.
And yet, my dog and your dog and everyone's dog knows exactly what's up.
They can't hear a word you say.
They only watch you.
And when you move over and pick up the bowl, it's dinner time.
You didn't tell them that.
They're watching what you do.
And I've decided that's a much more accurate way to judge intent.
You can say, well, hey, I have a plan because I'm so compassionate.
unidentified
I really care about you and all your communities.
tucker carlson
First of all, anyone who uses the word community is lying to you.
Because there's no such thing as a community.
There are only people, actually, with names and fingerprints.
They're only individuals.
No woman ever gave birth to a community.
There's no such thing.
Talking about communities is a way of ignoring actual people.
Really, name three people in the community.
What are their middle names?
Who are their moms?
Do you know their moms?
You don't know anything about the community.
Community is a way to make your responsibility more diffuse and less specific.
dan friesen
What the fuck is happening?
So this is basically a textbook case of a stupid person's idea of a smart person.
Except I don't think that's what's going on here.
I think this is a cynical presentation on Tucker's part.
And he's doing a smart person's version of what he thinks a stupid person could relate to.
I suspect he has a great disdain for this audience and clearly thinks that they should look at their leaders as parents.
So it's not hard for me to imagine that he thinks they're pretty stupid.
Oh, yeah.
That certainly lines up with the picture that you get with him from the text messages that came out in the Fox lawsuit.
Seems like a real piece of shit.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
And maybe not the kind of person who's acting like this behind closed doors.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So what's this rant even about?
Words are important to transmit culture, but you could also use them to lie.
So you should act like a dog.
tucker carlson
Right.
dan friesen
Communities don't exist because people have fingerprints.
tucker carlson
Right.
dan friesen
This dude seems a little bit jacked up, but maybe he's just doubled up on his nicotine pouches and he's riding that high.
Whatever the case, this intro speech was all over the fucking place.
And while he's getting decent responses here and there, you can hear some points where he expected applause and it didn't come.
jordan holmes
Nice.
dan friesen
There is definitely moments where it's like, uh-oh.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
That was supposed to land and it didn't.
jordan holmes
All right.
I'm listening.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
That's nice.
dan friesen
He's not bombing, but he's not killing.
jordan holmes
I feel like, here's how I feel.
unidentified
If I'm, what would I say?
jordan holmes
If I'm one of those people in the arena, I think of myself as a warrior.
I think of myself as a person who has recognized that there's something wrong with this world and is doing something to change it, to fix it, to whatever.
And if that means giving Tucker money, then at the very least, I'll have fixed it or changed it or whatever, you know?
But at the heart of it is the warrior.
I am a person, you know, strong.
And then I just think of like Conan the barbarian listening to Tucker.
You know, like Conan the Barbarian being like, I get.
dan friesen
The government's my dad.
jordan holmes
I guess I'll do what you say.
So no crushing my enemies.
Just you'll do it.
Okay.
Like, what a sad to have Tucker be your front man.
dan friesen
Yeah.
Especially when it's this Tucker.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
Like, I think that's some self-respect.
Exactly.
jordan holmes
Conan.
dan friesen
Exactly.
jordan holmes
Jesus Christ.
dan friesen
This is weak.
jordan holmes
This is weak.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Do you remember in The Princess Bride?
That line, the line that will always stick with me is, we are men of action, you and I.
The lies are beneath us.
Fuck yeah.
Tucker Carlson, you are not that.
dan friesen
I mean, that's kind of the thing that I was like experiencing while I was there was kind of like, I don't even respect this.
Like, I don't even respect this enough to be really afraid of you or treat you with the respect that you want so clearly need.
But at the same time, all of this is scary and the ideas are dangerous.
Sure.
You can't just like totally be like, ah, this doesn't exist.
No big deal.
There were 6,000 people in this arena cheering for bigot shit.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yeah.
dan friesen
But at the same time, like, I have no respect for the presentation that Tucker's putting on.
He's very weak.
He sounds like an idiot.
And I can't not laugh at that.
jordan holmes
I mean, I bet, God, it makes you want to be at one of those early, those old revivals, before they had TV, before they had any of that, like Marjo shit, where it's like, all we have are practical effects, some people who dance, and a child that is really charismatic.
And they made a fucking show out of it.
dan friesen
And I bet Joe from Texas opened.
jordan holmes
I bet he did.
I bet he's a fucking vampire.
dan friesen
Yep.
So here was one of the places where Tucker, the expectation of what he wanted from the audience doesn't come.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
He tries to get himself booed by mentioning Philly, and it doesn't work.
Oh.
Also, he tries some jokes.
tucker carlson
But it's not just Josh Shapiro.
Trust me, it's a whole line.
It's decades of politicians who didn't love you.
That enrages me.
And then to see him direct his love toward a foreign leader and a foreign population that he knows nothing about.
He doesn't speak Ukrainian.
What do you know about Ukraine, Josh Shapiro?
No, it's a way for his friends to get rich and him to puff himself up like some sort of fake world leader and seem like he cares.
He's got bigger concerns than mine.
Geopolitical.
You may not know that word.
alex jones
Geopolitical.
tucker carlson
Trust me, Josh Shapiro has no freaking idea what that word means.
But more to the point, Josh Shapiro's only job is to protect and enhance the lives of people in Reading and Potsdown and every other town in this state.
Including, and I'm just gonna say it, and you're gonna jeer me, including Philadelphia.
alex jones
I know.
tucker carlson
Philadelphia, I get it.
But Philadelphia, whatever else that you can say about it, is filled with American citizens.
dan friesen
No one was booing for Philadelphia.
Tucker just kind of thought that they'd take a jab at the big city.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right.
Blue city.
unidentified
That's how disconnected from human beings they are.
jordan holmes
They're like, oh, well, the largest city is clearly the big blue city.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All these rural people will hate Philadelphia.
dan friesen
A bunch of the people there were clearly from Philadelphia.
jordan holmes
Philadelphia is not a fucking...
Oh, my God.
Oh, these East Coast elite.
unidentified
What?
jordan holmes
From Philly?
Philly is where you're going to be.
The roots.
dan friesen
Also, I get like the Josh Shapiro doesn't know what geopolitical means or whatever.
I get that, but that's a bad version of whatever the dig you're trying to make is.
It's just.
It sounds kind of dumb.
unidentified
I think this is.
dan friesen
It sounds a little drunk.
jordan holmes
I think this is disrespectful.
I think this is disrespectful to the craft of being a piece of shit who riles people up like this.
dan friesen
I agree.
I agree.
Especially because it's so pathetically like, I need the government to be my dad.
There is just like this weak softness.
And this was a point where I was like, oh, fuck yourself.
tucker carlson
And how is that city doing?
I mean, it's a reliable source of political power for creeps like Josh Shapiro, because it's easy to rig it in Philadelphia.
And that's what we spend all our time talking about.
But what we never talk about is the zombies walking under public transportation there.
And they're not zombies, actually.
They're Americans with names.
And they're dying.
And he doesn't care.
And giving them a safe place to shoot up is not love, it's hate.
jordan holmes
What?
That's hate.
tucker carlson
I don't care what they call it.
jordan holmes
Depends on what you're shooting up, obviously.
tucker carlson
And that's what I mean about language.
They can dress up hate as love.
Oh, that's love.
It's compassion.
It's caring.
It's harm reduction.
Really?
Your kid comes home and is like, I'm a junkie.
You're like, well, here's some needles.
I'm going to give you some you time in your room to shoot fentanyl.
What?
You're going to chain him to the freaking radiator until he gets better.
Of course, or do whatever you can to get that child off a drug that can and will kill him.
dan friesen
So this is the kind of thought that sounds insightful, but is actually really fucking stupid.
The way a parent might respond to their child doing drugs is different than how a government might respond to a resident doing drugs because the relationships and responsibilities are super different.
If you just take this line of thinking a couple steps further, I don't know if I can do that.
You could pretty easily see how it falls apart immediately.
Governments shouldn't do clean needle programs and harm reduction programs because what they should do is metaphorically chain you to a radiator so you get off drugs since that's what a good parent would do.
A good parent is also required to house and feed their child until they're 18.
So if the government should treat us like their beloved children, even though you're adults, shouldn't housing and food be free then?
tucker carlson
Yeah.
dan friesen
Let's extend it that way.
Parents also largely dictate the diets of their children because kids would generally not eat healthy unless parents push them to.
Does that mean Tucker thinks it's okay for the government to make us eat zabugs?
Because they should be able to mandate what we eat because that's what parents do.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
A parent might say that their kid is grounded unless they clean their room, and that's an expression of love, teaching the kid about responsibility, taking care of chores.
Does Tucker think that the government should be able to confine you to your house if you don't do the dishes?
Like, there's a thousand examples of this to the point where it's hard to believe that Tucker wouldn't put in a little more effort to make his point sound less clearly stupid.
As it stands, Tucker seems to want the government to exert parental control over him because it loves him, and he wants harsh sentences for victimless drug crimes.
This is super cool stuff.
jordan holmes
I mean, you know, I think what I find fascinating about it is that of all the things that he is talking about with parental bullshit and the comparison, the one thing that he is not talking about is the one that I believe is the underpinning of all of it, which is the concept of my house, my rules.
This is my house.
So long as you live here, I get to tell you what to do.
If you don't want me to tell you what to do, then go somewhere else.
dan friesen
I will kick you out of my house.
tucker carlson
Right.
jordan holmes
But that is final.
You understand?
So if you are making the comparison here, then you don't get to bitch about what the government's doing at all.
dan friesen
There is no real whining about tyranny if this is where you're coming from.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
It seems really stupid to have the complaints, the sort of niche complaints that Tucker and Alex do when you view things through this lens.
I don't get it.
It's dumb.
And I don't think that he doesn't understand that.
I don't understand how you could have a career like he has without conceptually understanding the problem and the inconsistency here.
jordan holmes
Let's follow it further.
Okay.
So this father of this family, he's not caring about his family.
Motherfucker is out.
He's out in Ukraine signing bombs.
dan friesen
Right.
Even though that was in Philly or Scranton.
jordan holmes
And even though he's sending money back to his family because he's getting paid for doing it.
That's not important.
So now this is happening.
All right.
And whatever he's doing doesn't matter.
He's gone.
And you don't like what he's doing.
So then what?
Do you replace your father?
dan friesen
Yeah, you get adopted by Putin.
jordan holmes
Do you, do you, yeah, I mean, right?
Do you like, do you vote him out?
dan friesen
Putin's your stepdad.
jordan holmes
And if that's the case, then can you choose any father?
And if you can choose your father, then you yourself are your own father.
By having the choice, you have taken control of your own life.
Congratulations.
We've just worked out why you're an idiot for believing all of this.
dan friesen
It's the paradox.
Yeah.
So Tucker says something really dumb in this next clip.
And I think it's revealing and almost mind-blowingly ironic.
unidentified
Okay.
tucker carlson
So the only way you judge people is by the effects of what they do.
You judge the tree by the fruit.
And you can say, well, I'm a lemon tree.
I'm a lemon tree.
unidentified
Bright, orange, tart, but delicious with Diet Coke.
tucker carlson
I'm a lemon tree.
Really?
Because those are pomegranates, honey.
Those aren't lemons.
You're lying.
You are not a lemon tree.
Those are pomegranates, I know, because there's the fruit.
You can tell me you care about the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but they're dying of drug abuse, and you're doing nothing other than sending more weapons of mass destruction to some creepy guy in a tracksuit.
dan friesen
So this is really interesting how Tucker uses the expression, you know a tree by its fruit.
He seems to think that it means that you can tell a lemon tree is a lemon tree if it produces a lemon, and likewise for a pomegranate bush.
But that's not what the verse in the Bible means.
And anybody who's read Matthew 7 would know that.
It literally goes on to say, quote, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Therefore, by their fruits, you will know them.
In Jesus' words, this means that the healthiness of a particular tree is assessed by the fruit that it bears.
Not that you can identify a tree based on what sort of fruit it makes.
It's very obvious from the verse.
And anyone who's taken the Bible seriously at any point in their life would not make that kind of conceptual mistake.
In order to have the interpretation Tucker has, you would have to have seen this verse in a meme, but never actually read the first books of the New Testament.
jordan holmes
You're going to be a real dick.
I've said this before, but I think the only thing that really would get in the way of Christianity spreading and taking over is the whole Christ thing.
Once you get rid of him, baby, open season.
dan friesen
Oh, gangbusters.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So making this kind of a mistake that Tucker's making is what they call a tell in the poker business.
This mistake reveals that he doesn't really know anything about the book that he's professing to center his life around.
He doesn't know shit about the teachings of the person he claims to serve and he's fighting demons for.
In an ironic way, this is the fruit by which you can pretty clearly know Tucker's tree.
It's a bad tree.
He's a tree that's full of shit.
The next verses in Matthew 7 are ones that Tucker should reflect on a bunch in the coming days.
Quote, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?
And I will declare to them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, evildoers.
If there's a hell, I'm pretty sure Tucker is destined to end up there.
And this kind of behavior is exactly why.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yeah.
dan friesen
This is sacrilege.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I mean, it does go back to that earlier, just like they are, they will not be held accountable to either.
dan friesen
No.
jordan holmes
They won't be held accountable to actual political ideology or religious ideology.
It is just, I am going to say what I need to say to get rich, to get power, to, and frankly, just because I'm bored and I hate you.
Like, it's if that makes that's the only thing that makes sense now for me listening to this is like, does he just want to go places where he hates people and then say it to their faces?
dan friesen
I mean, if so, congrats.
jordan holmes
That's fucking crazy, man.
dan friesen
But like, there was a part of me that if I take seriously what he's saying, if I believe that what he's expressing is actually what he believes, and like I come away with the feeling that what he's motivated by is he wants power to love him.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
That is like really what's driving this.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
And he feels that Trump loves him.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
And he feels like everyone else doesn't.
And so he's supporting Trump because he wants the figurehead of power, the manifestation of power to personally love him in the way that he feels that like Putin does or Orban or Bolsonaro.
These people love and respect him.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And he wants power to do that.
And I think that's sad.
But I also don't think that he's being totally straight up about his beliefs and what he wants.
So there is an element of it that could be like, he does just want to say, fuck you to my friends.
jordan holmes
I mean, he is fucking nuts.
I imagine, ironically, we would all be better off if his dad had read some books about raising kids.
dan friesen
Ah, yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And wasn't a spy.
jordan holmes
Just throwing that out there.
dan friesen
So in this next clip, Tucker says something that I think is kind of okay, which is that if you delight in the deaths of civilians, you suck.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
Great.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
tucker carlson
Anybody who takes delight in the death of civilians is a freak.
unidentified
That's just a fact.
tucker carlson
And there's something forbidden about saying that, particularly if you're on the right.
I've been on the right my whole life.
I've never been on the left.
I've never been some freaky liberal, okay?
Ever.
And I never will be.
So I think I have the authority to say: if you take delight in the suffering of other human beings, you're evil.
And I mean that.
That's what my religion tells me.
That's what common sense tells me.
That's disgusting.
That's disgusting.
And yet they do.
Because the truth is they're violence worshipers, actually.
They're violence worship.
jordan holmes
They are.
tucker carlson
They are.
dan friesen
So by this point, Tucker is about 15 minutes into his rant, and he seems a little fucked up.
Like, he was jumping topic to topic, making insane proclamations, and overall, seeming like maybe he was hanging out with Alex before the show.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
He's giving off Alex vibes.
jordan holmes
Sure, sure.
dan friesen
I do agree that delighting in killing civilians is bad, but it's probably a little meaningless to insist people are evil if they do it.
Plus, then we need to litigate what counts as delighting in killing civilians because a lot of Tucker's early 2000s career would definitely be characterized by including that.
This all just sounds like an uncentered, pandering, and confused demagogue trying to work a crowd and getting like 75% of the response they're going for.
But in that clip, he says that there's something wrong with killing civilians, and there's something forbidden about saying that on the right.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
What are you talking about, man?
jordan holmes
Man?
dan friesen
What are you talking about?
jordan holmes
I have no fucking clue.
dan friesen
Tucker, why don't you expand on that a little bit?
jordan holmes
Tell me more about that.
unidentified
Man, y'all are fucked up.
dan friesen
But those left people are weird.
Those are the people who are crazy left.
I've never been part of them.
jordan holmes
Fine.
Freaky liberals, whatever.
I'll take that.
I'll be a freaky liberal.
unidentified
What the fuck are you talking about, man?
jordan holmes
You're crazy.
dan friesen
See, they worship violence is the thing.
jordan holmes
I don't understand how you can be a freaky liberal who fucks all the time and yet also worship violence.
dan friesen
It's all in there.
jordan holmes
Too busy fucking man.
dan friesen
Nope.
jordan holmes
I'm dancing with my nips right now.
dan friesen
They worship violence.
And that is why Dick Cheney now supports Kambla Harris.
jordan holmes
What?
dan friesen
Right?
jordan holmes
What?
dan friesen
Because they all worship violence.
jordan holmes
What?
tucker carlson
They love violence.
That's why every federal agency with guns, they've taken over.
No, it's they love it.
jordan holmes
Who's they this time?
tucker carlson
Why do they love it?
Because it makes them feel like God.
That's why.
Because the one power that God possesses that we do not possess is the power to create and end life.
You can kill in self-defense.
We can argue about what self-defense is.
I mean, that's, you know, it's a whole conversation, which is a legitimate conversation.
But what we know we can't focus.
Or murder people to get rich.
You can't be Dick Cheney, actually.
unidentified
Sorry, it's not allowed.
jordan holmes
Okay.
tucker carlson
And so when Dick Cheney and his creepy, freaky little daughter join the Carmella Harris for president campaign, everyone's like, oh, that's so shocking.
I can't quite believe that.
No, no, no.
All the people who worship violence are now on the same side.
dan friesen
This is cute and all, but Tucker needs to drop the bullshit.
He fully supported Cheney when it mattered whether he supported him or not.
And he's not going to get a single point for being anti-Cheney now because he doesn't like Trump.
This is a coward's version of having principles.
And go fuck yourself.
If you follow the train of thought that he's on here, it goes like this.
The left worships violence because violence makes them feel like God.
This is because the only power that God has that we don't is the ability to create and destroy life.
Already, I have to stop and say that this isn't true.
God created the universe, which we can't do.
I can get someone pregnant and have a kid or kill someone.
I could do those things.
Those are literally powers that I have.
Tucker, it makes no sense here.
jordan holmes
One could argue those are the only final powers anyone has.
dan friesen
Yes.
Tucker is on one.
I do think that your responsive focus is right on because there was a sense in the room of like, what?
jordan holmes
Where are you going, buddy?
dan friesen
Come on, man.
jordan holmes
Hey, come on, man.
You're dipping off the wrong end of the knife.
dan friesen
I think people were a little confused where he was going, but then he got him back with the shitting on Cheney.
jordan holmes
Sure, sure, sure, sure.
dan friesen
So that's fine.
See, we can't kill and we can't make life because God could do that.
But, okay, I disagree.
But because we're not God, we can't kill people because they're in the way or kill people to get rich, which kind of implies that God can do that.
jordan holmes
It does, which is weird.
dan friesen
Why would God do that?
jordan holmes
Why would you want a God who could do that?
God wants to get rich.
What is going on, man?
unidentified
No.
jordan holmes
What is happening?
dan friesen
Yeah, Tucker was really spinning his wheels.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
I mean, I guess it really never occurred to me what it would be like to just be somebody who goes up on a stage in front of thousands of people and talks, you know, without chops, without having spent a long time figuring out, you know, like, oh, I've got this bit.
I've got this.
I've got this whole thing.
I've done this a million times.
Whenever I go out here, I am prepared for all of this stuff.
Right.
And I've got bits and I've got material.
And not just that, I've got the confidence in knowing that if my bits don't work, I'm in.
I can get in with these people and go.
Yeah.
This is awful.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And it's one of the things that actually sticks out about the difference between Tucker and Alex is that Alex is working the crowd.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Tucker, they'll respond well to things when he says them, things they like, but he has no control over the audience.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
He is not in any way engaged in like set a punchline or like the flow of where he, like how his monologue is going.
jordan holmes
Which is famous, yeah.
dan friesen
Yeah, he's going to get a positive response throughout for most of whatever he says.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
So I just don't think he cares that much.
And he sounds really stupid.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
It's so weird.
It's so weird because you expect like, oh, the people at that spot doing those things have to have worked their way up there.
And then it's like, man, I can go to a thousand two-year-in stand-up comics who have put more thought into the three minutes they're going to do to nobody than Tucker has.
dan friesen
I think Tucker has gotten to the point where he can do an opening monologue for a TV show in his sleep.
Yeah.
And I think that that's kind of some of the vibe that he's giving off here.
tucker carlson
Yeah.
dan friesen
Which doesn't fully work in a live environment, but he's playing with the crowd enough that it's not like totally jarring.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
But there's enough points where there's a disconnect that it feels like, a more capable hand could have done better here.
So Tucker goes on and sounds like an idiot some more.
tucker carlson
The one thing they're good at, the only thing, their unique talent, it's not building anything.
It's not creating anything.
When's the last time someone built something beautiful and useful in Redding?
When's the last time one of your leaders was like, you know, we're going to make it better in Redding?
No, it's been a long time.
Josh Shapiro hasn't done it.
But the one thing they are good at is seizing the moral high ground.
Immediately.
No matter what they're doing, whether it's giving drugs to junkies, crackpipes to crackheads, abetting the largest example of human trafficking in the history of the West, which is what they're doing right now, is they move 15 million people illegally into our country from around the world.
The girls get sold off to coyotes.
They did that.
They're human traffickers at scale.
dan friesen
Stude sounds like an angsty teen yelling about his parents, which makes sense considering all the other shit he said in the speech.
Immigration isn't human trafficking, and I don't particularly care about whining about who has a moral high ground.
That's abstract and kind of subjective, so it's not really a productive conversation.
However, the Northeast Fire Station in Reading had their grand opening on September 21st, just a few days before Tucker's show.
This is a very modern fire station that was in the works for almost a decade, and they literally had their ribbon-cutting ceremony a few days before this.
They used $5 million from the federal government under the American Rescue Plan, and it'll be able to serve the community much better than their previous outdated firehouse, not to mention the amenities it'll provide for the firefighters when they're not responding to calls.
It's a huge improvement.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
About a month before this, the Reading Skate Park Association finally opened a public outdoor skate park after years of trying to get this done.
They had a dedication ceremony in late August, and it was made possible by a $200,000 grant from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, as well as $200,000 from the America Rescue Plan and $855,000 from the Capital Improvement Program.
It really feels like Tucker just doesn't care at all to know about any of the stuff he says because the thing he plans on saying feels good, and the audience doesn't care if he's being accurate or not.
It's all just, it comes off as very dumb, but also cynical and malicious towards the crowd.
When's the last time that they did anything here in Reading?
A couple days ago, they opened this fucking firehouse.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I don't know.
It is, it is so much not perfect, but there is a counterexample of what you're fucking talking about.
jordan holmes
No, it's disdain.
It's disgust.
Like, the idea isn't because he's not coming in saying, oh, what is the government?
The government hasn't built this for you.
He thinks he's saying that, but what he's actually saying to these people is, you can't do anything for yourselves.
You know, I mean, your children.
You're not a community.
You're just a bunch of idiots.
dan friesen
You have fingerprints.
You're fucking people.
jordan holmes
If something happens to you, none of you are capable of banding together and helping each other.
If you need something, none of you are capable of coming together and figuring out a way to get it.
dan friesen
It does not come off complimentary.
No.
Towards what he seems to think.
jordan holmes
No, he's just a giant piece of shit, man.
dan friesen
But he also seems to be trying to do some bad comedy.
This next clip, I think, kind of fits that.
It's just, it's really weird.
tucker carlson
There was an analysis done.
Bobby Kennedy told me this, and I checked it.
It's true.
In the last election, Biden voters own 70% of the wealth in the United States.
And Trump voters own 30%.
And I thought to myself, on the one hand, it's like, okay, the Republican Party is now the party of working class people.
Great.
But then I thought, how do they get 70% of the wealth?
They don't do anything, actually.
They have no skills.
There's nothing they do that we really need.
In fact, most of us are bad.
I mean, ask yourself: if your average Biden voter somehow got pulled out of the workforce, would you be okay?
jordan holmes
No, I'm really.
tucker carlson
Like, how long do you think this country could survive without private equity?
jordan holmes
A week?
unidentified
Before we all just starve to death?
tucker carlson
How long could you and your family make it without a DEI consultant on site?
No, I'm serious.
unidentified
Could you get to Halloween?
tucker carlson
Or would one of your little children stare up at you with doe eyes and say, Mommy, I need a DEI consultant.
I need it now.
I need it now.
Honestly, I need a school counselor or some heavyset nurse to convince me to go trans.
jordan holmes
I need that.
tucker carlson
Honestly, I need Tim Walz talking to me about my sex life in high school.
dan friesen
So that thing he's citing about Bobby Kennedy, that told him that's not true.
unidentified
No.
dan friesen
He's misinterpreting data that showed the counties that voted for Biden represented about 70% of the aggregate gross domestic product.
That's not the same thing as Biden voters holding 70% of the wealth.
Bobby Kennedy is a fucking mess, so who knows what he actually understands.
But I don't believe that Tucker doesn't know that he's misrepresenting this stat for malicious purposes.
Also, he makes an interesting argument that Biden voters are unessential.
Alex has spent years talking about how calling some workers unessential during the pandemic was the first step in a plan to killing off most of the population.
So shouldn't that same logic apply to Tucker?
No, probably not.
If you listen to that clip, though, you can see a very fascinating glimpse into what this is versus what Tucker probably thinks this is.
He's doing his little riff about how Biden voters aren't important, and he asks, how long can we live without private equity?
The room is silent.
No one responds to that.
No one thinks it's funny, and no one cares.
Then he shits on the idea of a DEI consultant, and the place pops off.
This gets a good response because that's what the show is about.
The audience just wants to yell about the things they're supposed to be mad about, like wokeness.
It's a dumb show, but on some level, I think Tucker wants to be doing something that is a more potent critique of things like private equity.
But if you listen to this, it couldn't be more clear that these people just want to hear him say shitty stuff about the groups they don't like so they can register their approval with cheers.
That's what Tucker's work is.
He tries to make a dig at something that's a real problem in the country, and maybe we should address it.
And he gets crickets.
He jangles some keys in front of the audience by making a reference to a social media-driven culture war panic, and he gets cheers and laughter.
It's not much deeper than that.
Nope, that's a microcosm right there.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah.
Play Hotel California, Eagles.
Right.
Shut the fuck up and play Hotel California.
All right.
dan friesen
Maybe life's been good to me so far.
I know that's not an Eagles song as a Joe Welch solo, but still we want to hear it.
So I'm going to skip this next clip because I don't care.
It's just Tucker talking about how for a split second before she gathers herself, Kamala Harris looks scared when the cameras are on her.
unidentified
Okay.
jordan holmes
Great.
dan friesen
Don't care.
jordan holmes
Every time?
dan friesen
All the time.
jordan holmes
Every time.
unidentified
Okay.
dan friesen
So Jack Pesobic is the first guest he brings out.
And I don't care.
I went and got a pretzel in the middle of it.
I don't give a shit about Jack Pisobic.
He seems like a kid who's trying too hard, and I don't believe him.
But he's promoting his book.
He has a book called Bulletproof.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
We talked about this.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
He stopped the printing of it because there was a second shooting, assassination attempt.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, I recall.
dan friesen
Yeah.
And so this is developed.
And now he's not just doing a book, he's doing a full-on investigation of these assassinations.
jack posobiec
Tucker, I don't trust Josh Apiro.
I definitely don't trust Merrick Garland.
So what we've decided to do with this, it started as a book.
We're launching our own investigation into what went on, and we've hired a private investigative firm, and some of whom are actually in the crowd today.
It's just FYI.
And we are going to be expanding that investigation from Bethel Park to Butler, down to West Palm Beach, all the way out to Hawaii.
Tucker, we're going to go to Ukraine if we have to.
We are going to get to the bottom of what happened.
We're calling it the Bulletproof Project because I just don't trust any of these people.
I don't trust any of these people.
jordan holmes
Be careful in Ukraine.
jack posobiec
I may not go personally again over there, but the one thing that we have learned, Tucker, is this bounty, the $150,000, and I promised people that I would drop some news.
So I had the information about the bounty on Friday.
We found that out today.
I didn't know the Department of Justice would be publicizing the bounty like it's a John Wick movie, right?
And they put it out there.
Matt Gates comes on my show a couple of days ago, and he says there's five assassination teams targeting Trump.
Five assassination teams, three of which have foreign ties.
I think we know one of them already.
And then two of which are domestic.
What people need to understand is the bounty and the five assassination teams are tied.
It's like they're actually competing for this bounty.
Donald Trump's very life on the line.
And every time he goes up to speak now, he has to stand behind what I call leftist glass because they keep trying to kill him.
tucker carlson
He's a brave man.
dan friesen
He's a brave man.
So as a premise for a sincere investigation, this sounds so stupid, but it kind of sounds like a good book launch campaign.
jordan holmes
It does sound pretty good for launching a book.
dan friesen
Yeah, pretending to be investigating a rash of assassination attempts in an effort to create an over-dramatized story you sell as a book or maybe a series of books.
jordan holmes
Maybe a documentary.
dan friesen
That's a good scam.
But this dude just sounds like a fucking dork.
Does he actually think that there are multiple professional assassin teams that would accept an open competitive contract to kill the former president for $150,000?
jordan holmes
Nothing.
dan friesen
It's ridiculous.
jordan holmes
Are you telling me that, like, we could crown fund the murder of a president?
dan friesen
I get that it sounds like a lot of money to you or me in our lives, but in the world of crime, that's jack shit.
Alex brings in more than that many days just from the InfoWars store on a single day.
There's no way that's the going rate for presidential level assassins.
jordan holmes
Jesus Christ.
dan friesen
How does he think this plays out?
Like, someone kills Trump and then they call the State Department looking for payment?
Like, do they influence the globalists?
unidentified
Who gets that?
dan friesen
Do you need to bring Trump, like, a vial of his blood to prove you did it?
What do you do?
unidentified
I mean, well, this is dumb.
jordan holmes
This is stupid.
dan friesen
Yes.
jordan holmes
This is just too stupid.
You have to leave a calling card, obviously.
You have to leave your fucking assassin team's Joker card.
dan friesen
I should have.
jordan holmes
And that way everybody will be like, oh, it was them.
And then it'll turn out that actually that is your calling card to the assassin team that frames other assassin teams.
dan friesen
And like, obviously, if you're doing this and you succeed, you're going to get set up.
They're not going to pay you that $150,000.
We've all seen this movie.
It's a trick.
jordan holmes
What's wrong with you that you would take?
dan friesen
What are you?
jordan holmes
A bargain assassin?
dan friesen
Yeah.
This is dumb.
unidentified
Jesus Christ.
dan friesen
But fun.
So Tucker begins to bring out Alex.
Sure.
And you can tell the room, the energy shifted.
People were real excited.
unidentified
Okay.
tucker carlson
I want to bring out our next guest, who.
And let me just say, we had a little trouble finding an arena that would take him because he's so controversial.
And I'm grateful.
I'm grateful to where we are right now and to the people of Pennsylvania.
But let me just say.
dan friesen
So one thing you could feel in the room was the intensity of the response that Alex got was way higher than for Jack and probably on par with or higher than the response for Tucker.
This was a crowd that was excited about the idea of seeing Alex.
I'm a hater.
I love shit on Alex for his embarrassments, but in this case, it would be super unfair to do that.
The crowd was into him being introduced, and there were a bunch of Infowars shirts in the crowd.
He had fans in the building.
jordan holmes
Cool.
dan friesen
There's something about the way Tucker stops himself before thanking the arena that makes me think they told him not to say their name.
jordan holmes
Probably smart.
dan friesen
I don't know if that was part of the agreement of doing the show, but it feels intentional.
It's either that or he just like forgot the venue's name.
jordan holmes
Also possible.
unidentified
Also possible.
jordan holmes
He's a piece of shit.
Could go either way.
dan friesen
It's pretty conspicuous.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So Tucker is bringing out Alex, and the only rationale that he ever gives for being like, Alex is cool, is that he predicted 9-11.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
And so that's the credit.
jordan holmes
Is that really all we're going to do, huh?
unidentified
Yep.
All right.
tucker carlson
So Alex Jones was one of those people you're supposed to be very shocked by.
Here's the one fact about Alex Jones that I can't get over.
Alex Jones predicted 9-11.
And he did know to think about this for a sec.
And he did so on tape.
Now, I worked in television my whole life.
When you're on TV, there's a timestamp.
We don't need to guess.
I'm on TV for decades saying super dumb things, which live forever on YouTube.
Alex Jones, in the summer of 2001, said, you need to call the White House right now because planes are going to hit the World Trade Center and they're going to blame it on Osama bin Laden.
He said that.
I've seen the tape.
You can look it up.
So, no, check us out.
So, I lived in D.C. at the time.
Trust me, I was in, I had a daily news show on another channel.
Not one person was saying anything like that.
So, Alex Jones says that it's on tape.
We can prove he said that.
It happens.
Why didn't the U.S. government call Alex Jones and say, how could you have not clearly, clearly you're a prophet of some kind?
We need you in this global war on terror because clearly you can see things that nobody else can see.
That's incredible.
Have you even met anybody who's predicted something like that?
No, you haven't.
Like, I've never met anyone.
I met everybody.
I've never met anybody who did anything like that.
But instead of celebrating Alex Jones for making the most unbelievable call in the history of the news business, they said about the FBI sets about trying to destroy him.
And so begins this incredible saga of lies about Alex Jones, which you probably all heard about.
I'm not going to relitigate it, but that was the FBI that did that.
dan friesen
Probably best not to relitigate that.
So we've been over this a bunch of times, but Tucker is talking about an edited clip of Alex that he's seen and he's never thought to look more into.
Alex said multiple different things, but not together.
He said that people should call the White House and tell them not to blame a false flag on Bin Laden.
That is true.
He also speculated that the World Trade Center was a potential target because Bin Laden had already attacked the World Trade Center, and this was not an uncommon prediction, particularly in conspiracy media at the time, like with Bill Cooper.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
Alex did not say they were going to fly planes into the World Trade Center and blame Bin Laden.
He listed using dummy planes to create fake civilian casualties as one of the long list of things that were mentioned in Operation Northwoods.
These things that Alex said during his broadcast have been spliced together to make it look like a much more coherent prediction than it was.
And he's managed to fool Tucker Carlson, which honestly doesn't seem that hard.
Someone talked him into supporting the Iraq war.
So I don't really have a high expectation for his ability to assess information.
Also, I take some offense at the way that Tucker is derisively saying the words war on terror as if the very idea is a joke.
His career is built on defending that idea.
Shifting your position on something like this requires accountability, which he has not taken.
Nope.
And I find that to just be really gross.
unidentified
Yep.
jordan holmes
Yep, yep, yep.
dan friesen
Fuck these people.
jordan holmes
Throw him off the ship, bro.
Get him out of here.
dan friesen
So we, you know, I think it's sensible to think like, eh, Tucker's putting up with Alex, but he wants to make it clear in this beginning that, no, I love this man.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
He is the most amazing person I have ever met in my life.
tucker carlson
If there's one thing to know about Alex Jones, it's that.
And on the basis of that, I will always believe, and I will always say in public, that Alex Jones is the most extraordinary person I've ever met.
And so I'm proud to have him, not having him here because it's like naughty.
Ooh, Alex Jones is like, no, no, no.
I'm proud to know Alex Jones.
I'm proud to know the person who tried to warn the country about the worst terror attack in our history and was persecuted for it.
And with that, ladies and gentlemen, Alex Jones.
And it's so funny.
unidentified
Going back to the point, that intro was too good.
jordan holmes
Well, it's true.
alex jones
It's true.
Tucker's the best, not me.
Tucker, Tucker, Tucker.
dan friesen
Immediately, we're working the crowd.
alex jones
Yep, yep.
dan friesen
They cut out some of the like him coming out.
Yeah.
And it was just like a big pop.
You know, like, I don't know why they cut it out, but they edited a little bit there.
But nothing really wild happened.
jordan holmes
So they could say it was a 10-minute long-standing ovation.
dan friesen
It probably was.
jordan holmes
Yeah, so there you go.
dan friesen
It was a long-standing ovation.
That's worth a 10 minutes, but it was too long.
It felt weird.
jordan holmes
I bet.
dan friesen
Alex coming out with Chase Geyser behind him with the camera.
jordan holmes
So weird.
What are these people doing?
dan friesen
So Tucker refuses to be ashamed to know Alex.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Cool, man.
jordan holmes
All right.
dan friesen
Good for you.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Proud of you.
jordan holmes
Okay.
tucker carlson
And it goes back to what I was saying earlier: that the only thing they're good at is seizing the moral high ground, and they try to make you ashamed of the best things about your life, like being married or having normal kids or not castrating your children or whatever, or knowing Alex Jones.
They're like, oh, how can you know Alex Jones?
And I'm sick of it.
And I'm just going to say that Alex Jones is my friend.
There's nothing to be ashamed of there.
I'm not ashamed, and you shouldn't be either.
They should be ashamed.
He called 9-11 and they tried to put him in jail for it.
So, anyway, thank you.
alex jones
Well, thanks for having me.
unidentified
I got to say, I love you.
alex jones
This is a beautiful state full of beautiful people.
And when we get President Trump elected, all of us together are going to lift the curse off of this country and we're going to send the globalists to prison.
dan friesen
Alex knows not to end anything he's saying without some kind of a giant applause line.
jordan holmes
Yep.
And so he.
That's the way you do it.
dan friesen
Yes.
jordan holmes
What else are you there for?
dan friesen
Yeah.
But it's a little too much.
jordan holmes
It's a little too much.
How long does he got?
dan friesen
I mean, the whole show is about an hour and a half.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Tucker probably did about 15, 20-ish up top.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Jake Pesobic does about 20.
So maybe Alex is on stage for 45 minutes or so.
And he can't keep that energy up.
It's too hot.
Yeah.
And so that kind of there's diminishing return.
Quite boring as it goes along.
jordan holmes
Yeah, I mean, no, your classic rules.
First 10's got to be hot.
Middle 25, fucking, you know, have some fun.
dan friesen
That's Pesobic.
jordan holmes
Closers got to be fire.
dan friesen
But the 10-minute starting out top or whatever, the intro that Tucker did was not hot.
It was whiny.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And it came off very weak.
And then he had Jake Pesobic on, and it was kind of dull.
And then Alex comes in and business picks up.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Because he's yelling, oh, I got this a braggart.
jordan holmes
Sure, sure, sure.
dan friesen
And he knows what the audience wants to react to.
And so he's giving them that in a much more condensed and structured way than anyone else is.
And that's kind of all he's doing.
jordan holmes
That's what he's there for.
alex jones
It's amazing to meet all these great people, whether they're black, white, old, young, to see the electricity in people's eyes that are populists and that are Americans and that love God and that love children and love freedom and hate tyranny.
I can feel the strength in this auditorium and capacity in Renning, Pennsylvania.
And like I told the Globalist a long time ago, I don't know how all this is going to end, but if they want to fight, they better believe they've got one.
Hey, you said it.
dan friesen
You said the thing.
jordan holmes
Yep.
dan friesen
Fun.
jordan holmes
There it is.
dan friesen
So now there is something that's really strange about this that I wouldn't have really understood if I wasn't there.
And that is that Alex is staring off into the middle distance the whole time.
Great.
There is an intensity that he is not looking at Jack or Tucker because I think that he would get cues from them to shut up.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that would be a problem.
dan friesen
Yeah, so he's just looking off into nowhere being like, the globalists want to kill everybody.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right, right.
dan friesen
And it feels bizarrely antisocial.
jordan holmes
I can get no social cues and thus I am free.
dan friesen
Yeah, I will feel bad if I get that look from Tucker that he wants to say something.
jordan holmes
Oh, no, no, yeah.
dan friesen
And so as you're there, I mean, obviously, it's an arena.
And so you don't see that.
They're pretty small on stage.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So you see the video shot of their screen.
Sure, sure, sure, sure.
And a lot of the time when it's Alex talking, they're very careful not to show Tucker because I think he might have.
jordan holmes
He's annoyed.
Yeah.
Because he won't shut the fuck up.
dan friesen
Amused and somewhat annoyed at points.
jordan holmes
I like the idea of an aggressive solipsism competition.
You know, like, so you're in the same room.
How can you possibly not believe that there's another human being there?
Guess what?
This is how.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Good luck.
dan friesen
Good luck pretending I don't exist.
I'm allowed.
jordan holmes
I bet you.
unidentified
Yep.
jordan holmes
There you go.
Yeah.
dan friesen
So Jack brings up that Alex is anti-war.
That's something that is a real credit to him.
unidentified
Okay.
jack posobiec
The one thing I always give Alex props for that no one ever gives him credit for, Alex Jones has stood against war for 30 years every single day of his career.
alex jones
Well, but I'm for the war peacefully with information against the globalists.
The real war is here with the wolves and soros and Obama and the New World Order and BlackRock.
unidentified
They rule on us and we accept the challenge.
alex jones
We're taking the country back.
jordan holmes
Amen.
alex jones
1776.
jordan holmes
This is junk food.
alex jones
Use you tell him.
The answer to 1984 is 1776.
1776!
It began right here.
1776!
1776!
jordan holmes
You know, Alex.
jack posobiec
You know, Alex, the real.
We're only about an hour away from where they did the real 1776.
alex jones
That's why, exactly.
tucker carlson
Bless you for saying that.
dan friesen
Bless you for saying that.
This is so weird.
He's coming out too hot.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah, this is too much.
dan friesen
Too hot.
jordan holmes
It's too much.
I feel like I need to brush my teeth.
This is saccharine sweet.
dan friesen
But man, they're loving it.
alex jones
Oh, yeah.
jordan holmes
Hell yeah.
Oh, everybody loves that first bite.
dan friesen
The pep rally vibe.
jordan holmes
Jesus Christ.
Are they going somewhere after this?
dan friesen
I mean, Alex is clearly keeping the party going.
jordan holmes
Right?
Like, they were like, oh, yeah, let's go to the store.
Like, what are we doing?
Are we getting drunk?
What's happening?
dan friesen
I did overhear a lot of people talking about drinking at the hotel bar.
jordan holmes
Good.
dan friesen
Next door.
jordan holmes
I would need to do that.
dan friesen
Yeah.
So Tucker asks Alex a question, which I think is foolish in this environment.
But it's a question that's about like all of these secular people in my life, they've been talking about God a lot lately.
unidentified
Sure.
jordan holmes
How do you think?
dan friesen
What do you think about that?
jordan holmes
What do you think about that?
dan friesen
And then Alex just kind of, I mean, why ask him questions?
jordan holmes
Why would you, what, what?
dan friesen
It's just.
Get going down this road.
unidentified
Wind him up.
dan friesen
Yeah, yeah.
tucker carlson
Yeah.
And in the last year, I know more people in my secular world who were mentioning God in conversation.
And I've, I don't know if you're having this experience.
It's very striking to me.
Do you notice this?
alex jones
When we followed God, we had nothing but prosperity and success.
We got rid of God, everything fell apart.
I mean, people think Texas is a boom place.
It's got the crime, the filth, the Satanism, the degeneracy, the pedophiles.
Pennsylvania, gorgeous state, fell apart in 10 years.
California, one of the most beautiful places in the world, total deep red.
Ronald Reagan, total crap hole now.
Spiritual white.
And people are recognizing that because now they understand we're getting sucked down a vortex into literal hell.
We got to reach back up to God and God will take us out of this.
unidentified
Man.
tucker carlson
Is it?
You've been saying that for decades.
I've always wondered, I've asked you this like 20 times in private over dinner.
I'm proud to say we have dinner.
But I ask you, so you need to get a little bit of a picture.
I don't give a short answer, but since there are thousands of people watching, maybe you will now.
What's it like to be vindicated on everything?
dan friesen
Yeah, how does this hand job feel?
alex jones
Good?
jordan holmes
A little rubbery?
You know what?
It turns out I like a firm hand job.
Your lip shit is not doing me any good.
Yeah.
Oh, boy.
dan friesen
So Alex's question at least kind of got, or his answer kind of got back to God.
We're being sucked into the vortex of hell and God will save us or whatever.
It doesn't really directly address the secular people talking about God, but whatever.
It's close enough.
Yeah.
But then that question, what does it feel like to be vindicated about everything is greenwalled level?
This is sad.
alex jones
Yep.
jordan holmes
Yep.
How does it feel to be the most right?
But also, if you say something that disagrees with me, I'm more right than you, but also we won't talk about it on the stage.
dan friesen
So when Alex is being confronted with a question like, how does it feel to be vindicated about everything?
alex jones
Yeah.
dan friesen
He starts to realize, I think, a bunch of the shit I said hasn't come true.
jordan holmes
There is that.
dan friesen
We're supposed to be having an Ebola outbreak right now.
jordan holmes
That would be big.
dan friesen
And that did not happen.
jordan holmes
Nope.
dan friesen
So hold on.
I need to explain this somehow.
jordan holmes
No, you don't.
dan friesen
Yeah, he does.
jordan holmes
No, you don't.
dan friesen
And here's this is genius.
alex jones
I was making predictions with the proviso that if you call the White House and tell them don't fly planes to the World Trade Center and then bring in the police state and then invade the Muslim countries to bring them in here, you know, not even go after radical Islam.
If you do all, I was thinking if you call the White House and tell them don't do it, they may not do it.
But of course, I'd have a big enough audience.
People didn't believe me, so we couldn't stop them.
So I make these predictions about probable futures because I can see all the evidence pointing towards it so that we can stop it.
But now the good news with Elon and you and so many others that are fully awake and reaching a lot more people than I ever did, folks are really waking up and their knowledge curve is going parabolic right now.
So we're in the driver's seat, but that makes the globalists very dangerous and the empire is going to strike back.
dan friesen
How?
alex jones
Well, they always love to pre-program it.
So Klaus Wab is a cyber attack will make COVID look like a minor inconvenience.
How do a Russian accent of a German?
Of course you eat some bugs and you will love it.
But these are real quotes.
We don't need too many people in the future to polish the robots.
These are real quotes.
dan friesen
The real quotes.
jordan holmes
We got kind of a Boris and Natasha.
Then we got a Marvin the Martian.
And then I think we ended with the Schwarzenegger.
dan friesen
The Marvin the Martian might have actually been Dr. Strangelove.
jordan holmes
Oh, I can see that.
Yeah.
dan friesen
Yeah.
I think, because I feel like he's done that before.
jordan holmes
I can see that.
dan friesen
Sure.
So I think that it's good form to explain away why you're wrong about everything because your predictions stopped these horrible things.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Like he stopped the Ebola outbreak because he talked about it.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
Perfect.
jordan holmes
I like the idea.
What a hero.
I like the idea that it is only because you weren't popular enough that 9-11 happened.
dan friesen
Could have saved the world from 9-11 if people liked you more.
jordan holmes
If I understand correctly, if Alex was more popular, we wouldn't have had 9-11.
unidentified
Yep.
dan friesen
That's the real tragedy that people were resistant to his charms.
jordan holmes
I mean, I guess if we're going to do a Donny Darko style, where did it all go wrong time loop close?
We got to make Alex Jones a lot more popular in July of 2001.
dan friesen
Yep.
That's the key.
jordan holmes
That sounds right.
dan friesen
So I'm going to give you a choice.
Okay.
jordan holmes
Run away from reading Pennsylvania.
Is that how the choose your own event?
dan friesen
He didn't want it to end.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
He definitely was like, I'm glad that Alex is getting the adoration of this crowd.
I'm sure that's really happy for him.
I'm sure it feels good.
But it's boring as shit.
And he's just saying a lot of the same shit I hear him say all the time.
And Tucker's thing was really far more interesting from the psychodynamic perspective.
But here's my choice.
What's that?
For you.
I have a clip of Alex talking for two straight minutes, and it's nonsense.
Do you want to hear that or not?
unidentified
I mean, barely taking a breath.
jordan holmes
In all honesty, I might fall asleep.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
But go for it.
dan friesen
Okay.
alex jones
All you folks just want to be good, decent people and live a good life and experience God's great creation and love God.
You need to be gotten out of the way for the rise of their new Uber mentioned Superman.
So we're right back to all of that.
And that's why you have the official plan of depopulation by the UN down to 500 million.
That's an 80-plus percent reduction.
That's official.
That was on the Georgia Guidestones in Georgia until somebody blew it up, but nobody got hurt, thank God.
So the agenda is your garbage.
You're just a consumer.
You're like weevils in the pantry eating their flour or something.
And you just have to be gotten rid of because you don't fit into their beautiful, magic, wonderful plan.
I was watching the Devos group.
They have meetings all the time at their World Government Summit about a year ago.
jordan holmes
Through a palanteer?
alex jones
How were you watching?
He said, listen, people don't want your world government.
It centralizes things.
It's tyranny.
People are rejecting you.
We need diversity of countries and sovereignty and peoples, like firewalls in a building or bulkheads in a ship.
But in some of the other meetings, they had these globalists that are going, we're just doing something so beautiful, what we're bringing them.
I don't know why they're opposing us and don't trust us.
Well, because you just want to depopulate us because you're selfish, demonic pigs who love the raw power of destroying people because America, for all its faults, was the best house in a bad neighborhood.
And the whole world, the whole world for 200 plus years, but really the last 100, aspired to come here, aspired to have our freedom.
And the globalists can't have this country exist and have their horrible global technocracy, slave plantation, AI system in charge if there's a place that's still free and open compared to everywhere else.
So we've got to be brought down and used to bring tyranny to the world while we're being destroyed and while we're paying for it.
So the whole world turns against us and we collapse.
And so the idea of America is discredited so that other people around the world don't ever try to go the path of our republic, which is diametrically opposed to their globalist satanic death cult.
And that's why they're attacking America.
dan friesen
So that kind of, I think, is representative of his whole thing.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
Which is these long fucking take a breath kind of rants where people are confused.
They don't really know what he's talking about.
jordan holmes
They want to cheer sometimes.
alex jones
Yes.
jordan holmes
But he's interrupting them.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
He's on a razor's edge of saying stuff that's confusing and kind of boring.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Hitting applause lines, not accepting some applause points.
jordan holmes
Standing on top of him.
dan friesen
Yeah.
He's worried that he's not going to get the mic back if he lets them applaud.
jordan holmes
Right, right.
Because then Tucker or Jack can sneak in.
dan friesen
He kind of has no confidence in his ability to speak slowly and be listened to.
jordan holmes
Right.
Right.
dan friesen
Just is dumb.
alex jones
I don't know.
jordan holmes
I mean, I think his point that he's making is that if you don't want people to come here, you should turn it into a shithole.
And that's the globalist plan.
unidentified
Ooh.
jordan holmes
But he doesn't want people to come here.
dan friesen
It's true.
unidentified
So he should be a globalist.
dan friesen
I mean, I wish Tucker would ask him that.
jordan holmes
I mean, it feels like a fairly simple, straightforward reading of they're trying to, we were a city on a hill, blah, blah, blah, Reagan.
Now they want to take that away because we can't be an inspiration to everybody else.
Everybody has wanted to come here.
I hate immigration because of Reagan.
Now it's a shithole, so people need to stop coming.
Yeah, makes sense.
dan friesen
Speaking of Reagan, I didn't cut out this clip, but there was a part where Alex is talking about Bohemian Grove.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
And he's like, yeah, that used to be how they would compromise the Republicans by making them do gay stuff.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
And he's like, notoriously, Nixon and Reagan were the ones who said no.
unidentified
And I'm like, you had Bob Chapman on talking about a video of Reagan getting pegged.
jordan holmes
Reagan said, yeah, baby.
dan friesen
You're denying your own mythology.
Come on, man.
So Tucker does not get to ask many questions or butt in all that much.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
But he does say some stupid things.
tucker carlson
The thing that I can't get past is to put the destruction of other human beings as a goal is not a that's not a human desire.
Like animals don't commit genocide, actually.
That's not natural.
That's not natural at all.
Like there may be people in your way and you're a bad person and you kill them, but the idea of desiring to kill huge numbers of people, like that can only be supernatural, it feels like.
alex jones
And that's what the Bible tells us is there's an outside force.
dan friesen
Animals absolutely commit acts of genocide.
There are primate behaviors that fit this definition, and it's basically the whole idea of how lion social organization works.
Like, I do think that there is a philosophical argument you can make about animals not being capable of understanding an act of genocide.
Sure.
But things that would descriptively be described that's redundant, but as genocide are in the animal kingdom.
It's so stupid to just say, like, we must be a supernatural evil or whatever, but that's where they are.
jordan holmes
Okay, so there's a bunch of wasps that lay that while you're still alive, they lay their eggs inside of you, and then you live, and then the eggs hatch and then eat you alive from the inside out.
So you're awake and conscious as your insides are being eaten by another animal's offspring.
That's just also out there in the normal world.
dan friesen
That's in the natural world.
jordan holmes
Yeah, so I think.
dan friesen
That's not genocide.
jordan holmes
No.
dan friesen
But it's weird.
jordan holmes
It's freakier.
I would be less freaked out by somebody being like, we got to kill everybody than somebody being like, oh, I'm going to lay my eggs inside of you.
dan friesen
There's like funguses that can take over Bugs' brains.
jordan holmes
Totally.
dan friesen
To the point where I saw an energy drink that said it had cordyceps in it, and I said, no.
jordan holmes
No, That's how they get you.
dan friesen
Exactly.
jordan holmes
Predictive program.
dan friesen
I played Last of Us.
I'm not drinking this energy.
jordan holmes
Not a chance.
unidentified
Fuck you.
jordan holmes
Jesus Christ, right?
dan friesen
There's some strange stuff in the natural world that Tucker's not accounting for.
This is stupid.
Yeah.
So we bring up the gay frogs thing because Tucker's trying to whitewash and blunder all of Alex's greatest hits.
tucker carlson
I was talking to someone the other day who's not conservative who said to me off camera, you know, the chemicals in our water, for example, are changing the sex of frogs.
And I didn't want to be mean.
I didn't want to be mean.
But I did say, are you telling me they're turning the frogs gay?
And this person didn't get the reference at all and goes, yeah, that's basically right.
Everything you've said about the chemical poisoning of the human body is now just kind of accepted.
Like, is it weird to see science catch up to you?
alex jones
Well, I mean, look, what happened, and I knew what they were doing.
This is like 15 years ago.
I did like an hour-long analysis from South African University and a University of Japan, a university of, I think, Rice and the University of Berkeley in California, that just a little bit of atrazine would bend the gender of almost all the frogs, sterilize a lot of them, and turn a large portion of them where they would try to have sex with males.
It confused them so much in their development as embryos floating around in the creek or pond.
unidentified
Sure.
alex jones
And so I did all that science.
jordan holmes
Then I said, listen, you did all that science?
alex jones
Gay people or something.
This is about chemicals in the water that turn the friggin' frogs gay.
And I went on to say, and then their populations collapse and they die.
And the frogs are a microcosm of us.
Well, then every, within two weeks, every late-night comedy show, every one of them came out and did a monologue and attacked me.
And then it turned out later that they were being directed by major foundations and the CIA.
They even later bragged, oh, yeah, Chuck D. Schumer, we worked with a body with him and a foundation.
They actually came to them with a script that said, attack Alex Jones, because they went, ignore the hour of serious stuff he talked about, make it a joke.
So their joke about frogs made it blow up even bigger in their face.
dan friesen
So there really never was that much controversy on the basis of the claim that Alex was making.
Those studies about atrazine were real.
He's just exaggerating them and applying them to things that didn't relate, like saying that because it could make frogs change sex, that the chemical could maybe do that to people.
Alex screamed about how the water was a gay bomb and all kinds of shit, desperately courting attention.
And then some people gave it to him, generally by mocking him.
He's also fucking up his story here.
This was long ago.
And the whole thing about scripts and Chuck Schumer, that's a narrative he has about COVID and Jimmy Kimmel monologues.
He's just combining it all together because he knows that none of it's real.
He has zero respect for the audience that he's speaking to.
So he's just combining it all together.
alex jones
Who gives a shit?
jordan holmes
Was the CIA behind the Conan's puppet thing?
Is that the reason he does the thing with his hips?
Was it the CIA who came up with that?
The same guys who were running the art shows for the FBI.
Fucking, it's the Harvard lampoon.
dan friesen
I knew it all along.
jordan holmes
It goes all the way to the middle.
dan friesen
So Alex, I think, miscalculates a little bit.
I think he wants to impress people with like imagined primary sources.
And it really felt while I was there like he was losing the audience a little bit.
alex jones
It's been known forever, and that's Bertrand Russell.
He wrote back in the said, we ought to have a world government that just drops hydrogen bombs on most of the populations because the too big a population will have wars.
We have to have a controlled nuclear war and that'll fix it.
jordan holmes
And create all this.
alex jones
And he also went on to write a bunch of books.
You can go pull his quotes up.
And so, I mean, they used to have all these top globalists were very honest about it in the 70s.
They used to have, like Paul Ehrlich, you can pull this up on Twitter or anywhere X. Paul Ehrlich goes on a TV show in 79, one of the big Hollywood shows.
He goes, listen, we're working with the foundations, and we're going to have every father figure be lazy and stupid and dumb, and that'll break up the family.
And then the kids that do live, we'll control them by the state, but everybody else will abort the kids because there's too many people and we'll all be dead by 1987 at current rates.
It's a Malthusian.
None of it was true.
Like Al Gore saying about 2017, all the ice caps would melt.
They're bigger than ever.
It's all lies.
They know it is.
But back then, they were very honest about, he was all over, you know, 60 minutes, you name it.
Oh, yeah, we're going to destroy the family because the family creates people and too many people's bad.
They're public, so almost everything I say is from these dirtbag scumbags.
I mean, you go watch, you go read the World Economic Forum.
They say no humans by 2045, only cyborgs.
dan friesen
So I think the audience was just kind of like, come on, man.
jordan holmes
What are we doing here?
What are we doing here, buddy?
dan friesen
You won't stop talking.
There is no point to like, there's no time when you're given space to react.
There's nothing.
And you kind of just are like, wow.
You just keep saying things and people's names and shit that's not real.
jordan holmes
This feels more like a zoo than a show.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
If you're an adult and you're looking at this, you should be like, this guy has problems.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
You shouldn't think like, ah, this guy's interesting.
He's saying some hip stuff that maybe I should learn about.
He should give you a vibe that something's wrong here.
jordan holmes
No, I'm getting like, because I'm trying to figure out what this is because it's not a show.
It feels like a big tent circus.
It feels like a freak show.
Like they're wheeling in people that they keep in cages.
And they're like, it's Jack Pesobic, the man who's afraid of pizza.
And they just go, I like that.
dan friesen
On our last show, we had Kid Rock.
exactly like this is here's Alex Jones Tomorrow night we got Roseanne.
jordan holmes
This is wild.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
This is wild.
dan friesen
And you're not even getting the visual aspect of it where Alex is looking off into the, like, not making eye contact with Tucker.
They're staring into nowhere while he's talking about all these Bertrand Russell sources.
jordan holmes
Amazing.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Wow.
dan friesen
It's weird.
I mean, I don't know what other words.
It's just strange.
jordan holmes
It is trash.
alex jones
It's trash.
dan friesen
So I think Alex maybe is feeling a little bit of the like not getting responses because he's not giving a place for responses to happen.
jordan holmes
Sure, sure.
dan friesen
And so he wants to sound really interesting.
And so he just talks about how globalists are creating aliens.
jordan holmes
Okay.
alex jones
Tucker talks about aliens and absolutely stuff going on.
The globalists are making aliens by mixing humans and other animals and insects and plants.
And then they put them, they chestate them and use cow uteruses to grow them.
This is going on everywhere.
So there's like a breakaway whole civilization that's separate from us that the globalists have with life extension technologies and cures to cancer and Parkinson's.
But instead of giving us all the cures, they're keeping that for themselves and they're just getting ready to wipe all us out so we don't even have access to that, whether you think of it as moral or not.
dan friesen
Whether you think of it as moral or not, what?
I don't.
So we got aliens and cows.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Yeah, we've talked about this a bit.
jordan holmes
But are they, if they're, can you be an alien, period, if you are gestated and born from a terrestrial animal?
dan friesen
If so.
If so, then so many existing animals that have been bred by animal husbandry are aliens.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't know where the line is.
jordan holmes
I think that's what I'm interested right now.
After listening to all of this, I would like to know where the line between animal-human hybrid, alien, and just regular animals.
dan friesen
I think I can give you a general sense.
Okay.
Specialized dog breed.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
Totally fine.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Because dogs and dogs and all this is all like, yeah, whatever.
jordan holmes
All right.
dan friesen
Grasshopper and dog?
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
Alien.
It's weird.
The combination doesn't fit.
jordan holmes
I mean, but they can jump higher than pugs.
dan friesen
True.
jordan holmes
Probably healthier, too.
dan friesen
Maybe.
Maybe.
Grasshoppers have regenerative properties.
You tear off one of their legs.
jordan holmes
Too loud.
That's the problem with dog hoppers.
Right.
Too loud.
Barking and making noise with their feet.
No, get that shit out of here.
dan friesen
So I think people were interested by that.
Sure.
Aliens and cows.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
But also, he just keeps talking.
And it's great.
jordan holmes
Great.
dan friesen
Strange socially.
So Jack Pesobic is still there.
I think he was supposed to babysit Alex and keep him on track.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And he is doing none of that.
Sure.
He's doing nothing.
He's just sitting there passively while Alex steamrolls everything.
jordan holmes
They need a shot collar for him.
unidentified
Yes.
jordan holmes
That's what you need.
You need a buzzer.
You need a shot collar.
You need something that will be silent enough, but also noticeable enough.
dan friesen
Or Chase, because Chase actually thinks Alex is cool.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And so if he was out on stage, maybe Alex would be playing to him as opposed to trying to avoid eye contact with Jack and Tucker.
jordan holmes
He should be interviewing Chad GPT, is what he should be doing.
unidentified
He should.
dan friesen
He should.
So the whole Epstein thing comes up.
Sure.
Right.
And Jack Pesobic is there, and he's like, hey, you know, Diddy, he's basically Epstein, right?
jordan holmes
Yeah, let's talk about current events.
dan friesen
Hey, Tucker, you should get Diddy on the show.
jordan holmes
No!
dan friesen
It's very weird.
jack posobiec
And so I used to think that, you know, we got to protect Trump.
We got to keep him safe.
We got to keep him safe.
Now I realize there's somebody else we got to keep safe.
unidentified
We've got to keep Diddy safe because that's the next guy.
alex jones
They're going to Epstein.
They're going to vote for.
jack posobiec
This guy could tell: if you want to know how your government actually works, that's the guy we got to talk to.
Tucker, I don't know.
Maybe you have an inn.
unidentified
Could you get Diddy on the tour, maybe?
jack posobiec
No, I'm serious.
I'm serious.
This is how they run the government, though.
alex jones
This is only another Epstein.
jack posobiec
There's an Epstein operation, and there's a Diddy.
He's the Black Epstein, okay?
He's just the Black Epstein.
dan friesen
The Black Epstein.
I don't think Tucker wants to have Diddy on the show.
And Diddy might be busy.
He might be in jail.
jordan holmes
I think so.
dan friesen
But yeah, it's such a strange idea for Jack to suggest.
And if I were Tucker, I would not be thrilled about this being suggested.
Hey, maybe you have an inn with this guy.
alex jones
Why would I?
jordan holmes
Well, I mean, I'm sure I do.
Yeah.
I know him.
Yeah.
Yep.
unidentified
Yep.
dan friesen
You probably defended him from cancel culture within the last six months.
Sure.
He's so Alex talks about how with the Epstein business and all these folks, they're killing kids.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
And it's a little uncomfortable.
And I'm going to play this clip, and you'll hear a little bit of silence where the audience is yelling some stuff out.
And I'll tell you what that is on the other side.
alex jones
Okay.
And I'll tell you, they're not just raping kids.
And Epstein is all this stuff.
And I talked about it 15 years ago.
Let's first talk about it.
They're killing kids, ladies and gentlemen.
So they're only talking about 15-year-old girls.
They kill them.
tucker carlson
So can I just ask you to assess my last question to you, Alex Jones?
Is I'm not really sure how Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee.
dan friesen
So this is one of the more uncomfortable points of the night.
Sure.
Because people in the audience are yelling Frazzle Drip, which is a reference to a fake snuff film that allegedly exists where Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedeen are killing a child and drinking its blood and all this shit.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
It's a big QAnon thing.
Sure.
And I do think it was audible from the stage.
Like, I think they could hear that.
And that threw off Tucker's ability to ask the next question.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And it was notable in the room.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
People yelling Frazzle Drip.
It kind of was a harsh moment of like, I think you're serious.
I think you're yelling that seriously.
Yep.
It was a bummer.
jordan holmes
I desire record scratch sound effects when record scratch moments happen.
It feels like this would be break a record.
I mean, it's like a nonstop series of it felt like that in the moment.
dan friesen
Yeah.
It did feel like there was a potential for Tucker not being able to grab the steering wheel.
jordan holmes
Yeah, yeah.
dan friesen
Or whatever.
He manages okay, but there's those moments where you can hear somebody yelling some stuff out, and that's what's going on.
I think he's shaken by that because he realizes maybe how far some of these people are that are in the audience who are yelling shit out at you.
jordan holmes
Right, right, right, right.
I imagine, okay, so here's the stuff.
unidentified
Talk about the stuff, here's the way this goes.
jordan holmes
Here's the way this goes.
All right.
Somebody's shouting that out.
And then we don't jump cut.
We smash cut to the pearly gates.
And God goes, like, I bet you're all wondering how we got here.
And then the movie starts probably the same as 2001.
dan friesen
Beginning, it starts with Tucker seeing a picture of Josh Shapiro signing a bomb and getting really mad while he's at the park.
Yep.
Some shit.
jordan holmes
Jesus Christ.
dan friesen
So I found most of the rest of Alex's stuff just kind of not interesting, honestly.
jordan holmes
I'm shocked you found this interesting.
dan friesen
Yeah.
I don't think the audience of our podcast necessarily would find much of it interesting.
A lot of it is just repetitious catchphrase shit that he does.
But I also didn't want to end on that.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
So I have one more clip, and it's just Alex's closing thoughts as they exit.
jordan holmes
Great.
alex jones
And you've got to change your values to where you don't care what the world says or what the system says.
You care to do what the conscience that God gave you, and that guardian angel that you know's right there looking over your shoulder tells you to do.
And you've got to not be a coward and you've got to be strong.
And the minute you step across that point, you don't even have courage anymore.
You're on a mission and you're not possessed by the Holy Spirit, but you let it in and it's now driving and in control.
And now you got God behind you and nobody can stand against us if God's with us.
tucker carlson
Well, that is a hope point out, and I think that's true.
unidentified
And with that, Alex Jones, Jack Postobic, I'm proud to be friends with both of you.
dan friesen
Good for you.
I think that it was notable within the last like 10, 15 minutes.
There were people just kind of trying to beat traffic and leaving.
Yeah.
I thought Alex's voice might give out at a certain point because he was like I said, he came in too hot.
jordan holmes
Yeah, that's nonstop yelling.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
It doesn't feel like he was drinking a lot of water appropriately.
dan friesen
No.
No, he was hydrating a little.
Could have been teeto.
jordan holmes
You got to go hard.
You got to go hard on the water.
dan friesen
On the water.
jordan holmes
Because the alcohol is just going to ruin your voice even more.
dan friesen
Right.
So the show wraps up.
We leave.
And I'm going to get a lift back to the hotel.
Sure.
My hotel that I'm staying at.
And we're walking down the street because you've got to get a little ways from the arena before you want to call the ride.
No, and so we're walking, and we stop.
Me and Amanda stop for a little bit.
And we hear a yell from the crowd that is still around the arena, which is about a block over to the side.
Yeah.
Not very far away.
And it's like, oh, what's going on?
It must be the InfoWars mobile or whatever.
jordan holmes
Something.
dan friesen
The motorcade has come out really fast after the show.
jordan holmes
Okay.
dan friesen
They leave real fast.
jordan holmes
Gotcha.
dan friesen
And there's a big whoop from the crowd.
Everyone's very excited to wave at Alex as he drives by.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
And I realize they're coming in our direction.
And so I stand on the street.
I am not behind a bunch of people.
I'm just standing there.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
As their motorcade drives by.
The first car, I don't really see who's in there.
I'm not sure, maybe Alex's car.
Second car drives by.
Chase Geyser in the passenger seat, drives right by me, might have been five, six feet away from me.
jordan holmes
Jesus Christ.
dan friesen
He was smiling like the happy, like the cat that ate the canary.
He was having the time of his life.
jordan holmes
I bet he was.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
God damn it.
dan friesen
There was somebody.
There were not all that many people on the street who were watching the motorcade go by.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
But there was one person who was bowing at the cars.
And I thought that was really, really sad.
But yeah, I was pretty close to Chase Geyser.
And my reaction to it was just kind of like, I don't think I even wanted him to see me, but I was shaking my head.
I think it was just an involuntary response.
jordan holmes
Just like, this isn't how the world's supposed to work.
alex jones
Not even that.
dan friesen
It was just like a come on.
jordan holmes
Nah, get out.
alex jones
Come on.
jordan holmes
Nah.
dan friesen
So yeah, got to the hotel, went back, flew back the next day.
unidentified
Yep.
dan friesen
Been processing it since.
It kind of was stupid.
That's it.
That's all I really come away with.
unidentified
Sure.
dan friesen
Like, it just, I didn't need to go.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
I guess I'm glad I went and that I got to see those vibes.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
I got to feel something.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
But the show sucked.
jordan holmes
It wasn't a show.
dan friesen
Tell that to the fucking Singing Impressionist.
jordan holmes
Fair enough.
dan friesen
He was giving his all.
jordan holmes
Fair enough.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
In fact, I take it back.
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Out of respect for him.
dan friesen
For him, that was show business.
jordan holmes
That was show business.
I take it back.
I take it back.
I thought, yeah, you're right.
dan friesen
I think twice during his set, he referred to his own set as a Las Vegas quality G-rated entertainment.
jordan holmes
God, I love stand-up subtypes.
Sometimes I just love comedy.
I just really do.
dan friesen
He was Jay Harrisian.
jordan holmes
Yes.
Yep.
He had the Diamond of J's.
dan friesen
But, yeah, I don't know.
I'm conflicted because I don't regret it.
But I also don't think I added that much to my life by going.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
I can't have been like, I'm so glad I was there.
I got to see it in person.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
It's not that.
jordan holmes
Well, it was not.
dan friesen
I'm not going to tell you that.
I'm not going to tell the grandkids about it.
jordan holmes
No.
No.
unidentified
But I mean, what's, you know, what's life?
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Oh, it's not, you know, going into the fucking post office is an adventure if you have a better point of view on life than I do.
dan friesen
I guess the one thing that sticks in the craw a little bit is I do think that Alex's audience, there's more than you might like to imagine.
There were a ton of Infowar shirts there.
jordan holmes
Sure.
dan friesen
Now, granted, I don't know how many people flew in from where or whatever.
But like, he didn't sell the place out, but he's not a non-existent draw.
unidentified
Yeah.
dan friesen
So that's something.
And that kind of is.
But then the other thing is that I think Tucker is much more interesting than I think.
unidentified
Okay.
dan friesen
I feel like I want to talk about him more after this.
jordan holmes
Interesting.
dan friesen
The idea that he wants the government to love him like a parent is fucked up.
That's really weird.
jordan holmes
That's really fucked up.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
And that people would cheer for that is even more fucked up.
dan friesen
And I ask myself, is that a consistent belief he holds?
Is that something he was just feeling this night?
I'm fascinated.
jordan holmes
And I mean, if you reassess his entire career in the point of view of somebody who is always angling towards some adult male figure's love, I bet that probably checks out.
dan friesen
Bill Crystal.
jordan holmes
I bet that checks out.
dan friesen
Bush.
unidentified
Probably.
dan friesen
So I don't know.
I'm tortured a little bit because, on the one hand, Alex put on a better show, but because I know so much about him, he's boring.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Tucker kind of sucked and seemed weak, but because he was clearly dealing with something that is novel to me.
Right.
I found him more interesting.
jordan holmes
Right.
dan friesen
And Jack is in a dead third.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Oh, no.
He's on a $150,000 bounty hunt.
dan friesen
Yeah, he's also ran of this night.
jordan holmes
Wild.
dan friesen
He's below the singer.
jordan holmes
I mean, yeah, I think he put himself there, too.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
You got to take some chance.
If you're third build with fucking those two idiots.
dan friesen
If you're a third build with Alex Jones, you have to know that you're there to do a job.
jordan holmes
Yeah, absolutely.
dan friesen
You're babysitting.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
Weird.
It's just so weird.
I guess, but I guess it's because people go there to feel together with other people and they do not get that feeling.
So this is their church.
This is their mega church, you know?
dan friesen
Yeah.
jordan holmes
It doesn't matter what these people are saying.
You're not going to read the fucking book.
You don't care.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
I kind of feel like that's actually, you know, but what matters is you're there with all these other people, and all of them, despite them also not reading the fucking book, can all look at each other and go like, we all read the book, right?
And they'll all be like, yeah, of course we all read the book.
dan friesen
Ironically, it's being drawn together by the very human need for community, which is something that Tucker wants to take away from you.
Says doesn't exist.
Communities of people don't exist.
And yet, the feeling of being in communion with people is why you're there.
That's dumb.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
Anyway, I might do more episodes about Tucker's tour.
At least his intros.
I don't know if I want to listen to any of the interviews because I think they're probably stupid and mostly just his guests talking shit.
But these intros are weird.
And I think there might be something of value.
jordan holmes
Because he's always made it clear that he writes his own monologues, blah, But it's also clear from this that other people edited those monologues.
unidentified
Yeah.
jordan holmes
Yeah.
dan friesen
But they reflect a man who's dealing with something actually.
jordan holmes
Oh, my God.
dan friesen
Sorry.
So we'll be back.
Another episode.
jordan holmes
But until then, DB Do it at SaltTrade.com.
dan friesen
Yep.
alex jones
We'll be back.
dan friesen
But until then, I'm Neo.
I'm Leo.
I'm DZX Clark.
I am the mysterious professor.
jordan holmes
And now here comes the sex robots.
alex jones
Andy in Kansas, you're on the air.
Thanks for holding.
unidentified
Hello, Alex.
I'm my first name caller.
I'm a huge fan.
alex jones
I love your work.
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