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Commentary The Coffee Klatch ... December 14th 2024 Robert Reich, Michael Lahanas-Calderon and Vishal Shankar Robert Reich: Mangione, Manchinema, and Man of the Year PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ-I5R_TazY Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I am about 6 years older than Robert Reich and have now followed his public activities since his days in the Clinton administration in the 1990s. I like what he worked on back then, and continue to like most of what he stands for and has done since then! I am appalled at the political dimension of the United States essentially going back to the Reagan era when the Republican Party took control of the economy after a very difficult decade in the 1970s with the Nixon crisis and the oil shock of 1973. My view of world affairs may not be the most in vogue, but it is based on a quite good knowledge base that I have accumulated over the years ... decades! I think it is fair to say that Reagan more than any other single person enabled China to build its economy and become the dominant producer of goods on the planet. This worked for Reagan becausse it was essentially the only way he could deliver 'profit' for his (Republican) supporters. Fast forward about four (4) decades and the 'primacy of profit' in Republican policy formulation remains in place. When Reagan came into the White House the average per capita GDP was in the middle with about 50% of the population above the average and abotu 50% of the population below the average, something like a 'normal' distribution. Over the next 40+ years since then that mix has 'scewed' so that now maybe 20% of the population is above the average and a whopping 80% is below the average. It comes as no surprise therefore that the stock market in the USA is at record highs while the economic 'happiness' of most of the general population is 'unhappy'. In his first term as President, Trump made inequality worse and it is very likely that his policies will be even worse in the second Trump administration. It will be bad! The only question is 'how bad?'! Peter Burgess
Mangione, Manchinema, and Man of the Year \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich Premiered Dec 14, 2024 999K subscribers ... 173,021 views ... 8.6K likes The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich How should we address the outrage at our healthcare system? Is the antitrust revolution here to stay? What's Manchinema's next move? And who's running the show in Trump 2.0? We break it all down on this week's Coffee Klatch. Transcript 0:00 and it is the Saturday coffee clutch uh Heather loft house can't be with us today uh but uh I am just so pleased that our colleague Vish vishall Shankar uh can be with us uh Vish uh where are you where are you actually sitting today uh yeah so I am calling in from Madison Wisconsin Madison Wisconsin a the hard bed the hard bed of progressivism in America and it has been a lovely two degrees Fahrenheit this week a little chly for me well I'm in New York City where it doesn't it feels like two degrees but that's compared to California and Michael Lanes Calderon uh so good that you are here and with us and you have uh you have great fans a lot of people watching this uh coffee clotch they say Michael Michael we want Michael we want more more Michael well it helps to have a fabulous team uh that includes folks like Vall here so with that do you want to get into what we're going to talk about today well yeah please yes what are the what are the 1:04 highlights well we've got a lot to get through um obviously we're going to be talking about the news that's in everybody's feeds about uh Luigi mangion United healthc care we're going to also cover things that have probably been drowned out of your feeds that we think is still important for you to know about including the latest on Kroger Albertson's failed merger the nlrb uh updates on the DNC and of course the numerous Trump appointees that continue to flood in into the news oh bad bad bad bad bad news well let's start with magone I I I don't know how you two feel uh but the thing that really amazed me was how he became and is actually right now kind of a folk hero I mean this is a coldblooded I mean an alleged coldblooded murderer right I mean in my feeds at least I don't know if this is true of yours but I it is there is way more sympathy for this character I ever would have imagined the 2:04 mass media or would have been allowed to cover and I think that in some ways that that's exactly the tension we're seeing the mainstream media has been very reluctant I think to address the mass resentment at the healthcare system in general um but I mean Bob really we're here to ask you about this how do you feel M you want to ask me well I I think you're the one wait a minute you you you guys are the ones who use the term feeds when you're talking about news I mean I'm old enough I talk about you know the newspaper or above the fold or things like that uh look I can't explain why he is becoming a folk hero except that uh you know people hate the health care you know bureaucracies and the private Health Care Systems uh everybody has been you know I think everybody I know uh has uh been hung out to dry uh by insurers who say uh you know we can't help you or we're going to delay it or confusion or bureaucracy uh and then there is also 3:06 the uh what might be called The Patty Hurst factor that is you have somebody who is uh not lowincome uh who is actually somebody who is who looks you know pretty attractive um and and Who U who is high income and uh is kind of privileged and here is a high income privileged good-looking man who has Young who has who has done a terrible deed and so people could he be a folk hero well I suppose so yeah and I mean I think to some degree you know it it's a it's a representation I mean these are all representations right all of the figures in this story are representations of bigger problems within the system and a sense of powerlessness that people feel wouldn't you say fish what do you think uh well I mean there have been so many reactions to this story and I I felt two that really captured all the complexities of what's going on and speak to what a lot of people are feeling uh came from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio 4:06 Cortez this week uh reading from from Bernie's quote quote it goes without saying that the murder of this gentleman is outrageous and unacceptable but I think what the outpouring of anger at the healthcare industry tells us is that millions of people understand that Health Care is a human right and you cannot have people in the insurance industry rejecting needed health care for people while they make billions of doar dollars in profits a similar quote from AOC of course we don't want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents we also don't want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis and people are led to some of the worst not just health events but the worst Financial events of their and their family's lives I think for people who are surprised it's a wakeup call for how much of this exists in our society well it's undoubtedly it's wake-up call uh but it's just it's interesting to me if 5:04 he uh if if the United Health CEO had been assassinated by some kid on the street uh especially a young person of color I'm not sure that uh it would be an excuse for all of this anger at the health care System to emerge do you I mean I think that as you said before I the fact that he comes from a privileged background to some degree and I mean phenotypically just looks like he does is it changes the narrative for a lot of people and I think that we're just going to have to continue to see how this plays out but clearly it's on the minds of millions yeah I mean it just underscores uh the system that would prevent the most needless death and suffering is one where we don't treat Health Care like a for-profit uh commodity and we can exploit people's lives but it's one where we recognize it uh as a human right a human right well 6:02 that's that's that's critical I mean we're spending this country is spending almost 20% of the entire gross domestic product on health care we have the worst Health Care outcomes still of any advanced country that is spending a fraction of what we are spending on health care and it's outrageous I mean you've got these healthc care bureaucracies the private ones that are making off like Bandits I mean the the CEOs of these companies are making 10 1520 million a year uh and other Executives I mean it's a it's it's just it just typifies the kind of uh sickness and I don't I mean in in all in all ways uh that has made people so cynical about our system and distrustful of all of the big institutions in our society uh and I think leading ultimately to Donald Trump just to offer a small Ray of Hope um in a very very troubled system if I may transition us to some news you probably didn't hear about the FTC won its case 7:07 to block the Kroger Albertson's merger does that strike you good news great news amazing news it's great news But the irony is that Lena Khan who has been you know chair of the Federal Trade Commission I mean her days are are numbered I mean she's she's basically out uh there's a new commission head Trump has a appointed uh who will be in February 20th 21st assuming uh that everything goes as planned uh he doesn't even have to be confirmed that gives the Republicans a a a a a majority on the commission are we going to see the same kind of aggressive antitrust action we saw under Biden I doubt it well that's a good question for you Vish uh I believe you actually have a little bit to tell us about Trump's appointee I do yes so um Trump is slated to replace Lena Khan 8:02 as chair of the FTC with a man named Andrew Ferguson who is a current Republican commissioner on the FTC uh and just a few highlights of his resume he is Mitch McConnell's former Chief legal advisor oh fabulous a corporate lawyer for big corporations navigating merger transactions and a clerk for Clarence Thomas he got a he got a ther I mean he all the notes there Vish isn't he also uh kind of against he's gotone on record as being against uh big high-tech companies I mean wants to break up some of the biggest high-tech companies isn't that true that it's true to some extent uh what's interesting is that Ferguson he was actually uh openly campaigning for this job in Trump World he was circulating a one-page fact sheet that had stated his agenda if he were to be made FDC chair uh and it includes quote reversing Lena Khan's anti-business agenda and quote stopping her war on 9:06 mergers so I you know I I just don't see uh the kind of good antitrust enforcement that we've seen under con uh continuing under Ferguson who you know quite frankly strikes me as a corpor oh absolutely I no but the one little piece of this I'm looking for Bright Silver Linings the one little piece of this that I thought was a silver lining was that Ferguson like JD Vance also is very negative and very suspicious toward these gigantic uh you know Google and uh and and Facebook meta and and the other three or four gigantic high-tech agglomerations I think it'll be interesting to see how it plays out and I mean one other Ray of Hope I would add is that while Lena Khan might be departing the FTC I think uh her vision of what antitrust can B is definitely here to stay I think a lot of judges in the federal Judiciary uh have found her 10:05 arguments and the arguments of the FTC under her compelling uh and I think for anyone who's interested anyone who loves facts as much as I do uh the American economic Liberties project has put out a 15 page fact sheet on all of the wins for consumers workers and small businesses under Lena Khan's FTC so I mean definitely go check that out because among I think all of Biden's appointees she is certainly uh the one who has delivered the most for I think she is she is you make some very very important points a vis and the the fact that she has in effect educated the federal Judiciary about the importance of antitrust uh is a big big deal I mean I remember when Robert Bourke uh wrote his you know his his Treatise on antitrust uh and that and everybody in the Reagan Administration and then everybody subsequently assumed that 11:00 antitrust was a dead letter it was wrong uh it was harming consumers and so by the time you came even to the Clinton Administration uh there was almost no antitrust I mean Lena Khan uh and Jonathan caner at the antitrust division of the justice department under Biden uh really have both of them have revived antitrust and it really speaks to the importance of these appointees right and the role of the Senate advise and consent um if I remember correctly Lena Khan got a pretty solid majority of senators to vote for her it was something in was it in the 70s V do you remember something like that I don't remember the exact number but there was a significant bipartisan crossover I think antitrust is going to be one of these issues uh that we see going forward is immensely popular with the electorate across party lines uh and continues to have bipartisan appeal in Congress yes absolutely Mike Lee has been a very strong proponent of antitrust of of all people this is the Utah Republican uh member the Senate senator who had has been you know so conservative in almost every other area of public policy antitrust should not I 12:06 mean you know it is it is really a conservative Doctrine I mean you want to break up these monopolies so that the market works better well I think that brings us back to the hard cold reality of the Republican party and accepting nominees who want to help workers and help consumers because we had a big vote in the Senate this week I don't know if either of you heard about this but uh there was an nlrb that's the National Labor Relations Board commissioner who was up for renomination and if this person had been nominated it would have ensured a pro-worker majority on the nlrb for what was it two more years Vish is that right I believe it was yeah through at least the first half of the second Trump Administration and guess and guess who uh knocked her down I mean mansion and Cinema I mean surpris there I mean they 13:00 the two Democrats who actually are are closeted Republicans I mean and and who have actually done more to destroy the Democratic party as we know it and the Biden administration's goals from the beginning uh I mean they ought to be they ought to be relegated to the dust heap of democratic history well and in fact that is exactly what's happening is they are on their way out of the Senate if I remember correctly and not only that I heard that our our friend friend the senator from Arizona had actually missed several votes in a row but made a special point of coming back to vote against this particular nominee so so what what what do you think both of you what do you think is going on what is her motivation why she's on the way out uh what what is the big deal why who's paying is is it a payoff a corporate payoff I mean what's going on I think it's key to look at this vote as not the one of the last votes that mansion and Cinema overcast but one of the first acts of their soon to be lobbyist 14:01 careers I mean Bob I know you have talked before about how uh Cinema is very very close to the private Equity industry I remember it came up uh during the build back better and inflation reduction act when they were looking at uh closing tax loopholes that benefited that industry private Equity private Equity I I'll tell you wherever the roads head into the darkness of of corporate sort of greed uh it it's private Equity leading the way uh and I don't want to I don't want to you know question Cinema's Integrity but you may be you may be right Vish I mean half of the members of the Senate half of the members of Congress now who retire are retiring into government lobbying jobs uh that pay you know at least five to 10 times what they were making when they were in Congress uh and maybe let's see let's see what sentiment does the revolving door keeps spinning yeah the revolving well and on that note how do 15:04 we stop it I mean I think that we've got a big DNC leadership race coming up there's a lot of people vying for the top position there's a lot of talk about how to free the Democratic party of this corporate influence V uh know we talked a little bit about this last week but you were not on the coffee clot why is this so important the DNC I mean only 46 or some odd people are going to be voting uh on February 1st for the Democratic National committee chair why should anybody else care I think who will become the next DNC chair has a key opportunity to rebuild and Rebrand the party and really restore a lot of The credibility that's been lost uh by the Takeover of big money uh into the party I mean I I want to highlight this letter from the Congressional Progressive caucus this 16:00 week that uh I think really outlined some good priorities for whoever the next DNC chair is uh cracking down on Super PAC spending and dark money and corporate pack donations and Democratic primaries uh prioritizing Outreach to young people and the low-income workingclass base and sounds like a good idea I mean yeah exactly and something you've talked about a lot Bob maybe you know 30 plus years at this point embracing economic populism I think I think you've been talking about that since the original economic populace in the 1890s yes I have I started in 1883 but here's the question for both of you I mean how the Democratic National Committee the reason for being now uh is for being a giant fundraising machine all right I mean for for basically uh going through the list of multi-millionaires and billionaires and giant corporations and getting sucking up as much Corp as much money from the 17:00 moneyed interests as possible how in the world do you expect uh that this Democratic National Committee is going to be turned around to the point where it actually rejects big money I think it's essential that somebody like Rah Emanuel doesn't become shair I mean this is why we're so excited about Ben wickler is because he's one of these people who recognizes that the future of the party is in young people it's in small dollar uh donors uh it's in connecting back with the Grassroots and the parts of the country uh that have felt left behind by the Democrats okay here so here's the question uh looking at the election we've just been through looking how much money uh kamla Harris actually accumulated in a very short amount of time uh relative to what looked like a very small amount of money comparatively speaking uh for Donald Trump Donald Trump obviously prevailed does that mean that we don't have to worry about big donations Big Money I mean that it's 18:02 possible to do this with small donations I think there's still uh an important role of big money uh particularly in Democratic primaries we saw this past cycle uh particularly from the Israel and the crypto lobbies millions of dollars flood into down ballot primaries a lot of it from Republican Mega donors to be spent against uh Progressive candidates for congress Progressive incumbents uh in New York and Missouri uh Big Money Packs actually succeeded in outing two of the most Progressive members of Congress Jamal Bowman and Corey Bush so I think if there's anything the Democratic party should be doing it's uh telling its candidates and telling the party uh this is not an acceptable system we need to stop uh corporate pack donations and dark money contributions uh to candidates who are running in these primaries yeah I think that's absolutely essential I agree Michael do you have anything you want to add well I think 19:01 that I actually want to bring us to the next item on the agenda because as much as I love talking about how the Democrats need to get rid of big money which they do I think we need to bring our Focus back to the incoming Administration did any of you see the Time Magazine cover this week no but I imagine I heard about it I mean this is uh not only Trump this is Trump's second time on the cover of Time Magazine I mean it's not the odd to he I don't even think anybody gets Tom magazine anymore do they do you know anybody who who actually sees maybe in line at the supermarket or you know at a gas station or something I mean I'm old enough to remember a time when Time magazine's cover was actually important but I think the symbolism of it and obviously Donald Trump loves the idea of being on the to I mean he's he's uh he's relished uh his time the One Time Magazine he did get before yeah I mean I feel like I see this every year 20:02 is the Time person of the year is not an endorsement of somebody's character it's just you know whoever was the most newsworthy for better or worse uh in the preceding year I think in the past it has gone very famously to Adolf Hitler and Henry Kissinger the reason I bring it up is not so much the the cultural and political influence of Time Magazine but rather who owns Time Magazine I believe it's Mark benof from uh I think Salesforce Salesforce yes I think that it points to a broader Trend that we've been seeing in this last week I mean over the course of the campaign but also in the leadup to the incoming Administration coming in of these Tech billionaires making inroads to either flattering Trump or I mean some might argue a form of briber attempting to bribe the incoming Administration buying Time Magazine uh not a huge investment perhaps for a tech billionaire but Bezos and and Zuckerberg separately from this also donated a million dollars each to 21:01 Trump's inauguration fund I mean this is you know Trump change for them but it it's making a point right it's it's a giant what it's the point is they that they are just they are demeaning themselves they are they are supplicants they are doing whatever they possibly can to be submissive and to tell Trump they will do his bidding I mean anybody who thought that the CEO class or the billionaire class class or any of the people who have achieved those top rungs in America will be in any way a firewall against Trump you just just forget it I mean these people are are they are among the the first to want to sell out because they have so much because they have so much at stake I mean look at look at uh Bezos he Amazon uh is really a a big deal government contracts there are government litig there litigation against Amazon I mean uh you know Amazon 22:01 is a gigantic Corporation Bezos didn't even want the Washington Post his Washington Post uh to come out in favor of kamla Harris I you know one of the most important things that can happened uh during the course of the next Trump Administration starting January 20th is that people see what's actually happening in this country they see the structure of power for what it is you know that all of this wealth at the top in terms of individuals and big corporations is being translated into power that is hurting average people wow you can say that again uh I'll say I'll say you want me to say it again I will say it again no no no no but um I think that you make a good point and I think that in addition to this you know these attempts at flattery that we're seeing from the billionaires and the multi-millionaires outside of the administration um you've got a lot of I I think what some people are calling you know a form of obedience in advance across the board I mean did you hear about I mean the FBI director 23:05 Christopher Ray said that he was going to step down before the incoming Administration actually and by the by the way can I just interrupt you pleas I mean Rey has three months left and his tenure H as as as FBI director is it three month three years three years I'm sorry three years and and the idea is the whole notion of establishing these 10y year periods of time for FBI director is to get the FBI directors out of politics uh so he's stepping down three years before he's supposed to step down because he doesn't want to be fired by Donald Trump well you know this is another way uh that kind of uh anticipatory obedience uh is is completely out of hand and out of control and giving Trump even more power that he already has oh certainly and I think that there's I mean there's a lot to talk talk about in terms of appointees and changing roles so I want to jump straight into that Vish you 24:02 actually came with a list for us I think of some of the appointees that maybe people haven't heard as much about that you think they should I did I did yes and this is GNA be my favorite section of the show this week because I doubt I get to say my Mantra which is Personnel is policy I mean you want to say it all together personel is policy person policy okay uh I mean yeah the people who run the Federal Executive Branch and all the Departments and the agencies they have extraordinary amount of power over our day-to-day lives and I I think a lot of people just you know don't really know who these people are or what they believe so let's get into who these people are and what they believe uh you guys you guys ready for my list yeah H hit us with number one let's go all right we only have uh you know 10 minutes per person um yeah I'll get into the list um and shout out real quick to the wonderful Watchdog groups that uh have 25:00 been doing a lot of research on these people uh accountable. US public citizen uh my friends at the revolving door project uh but number one on my list is a gentleman named Russell VA and this is Trump's pick to lead the Office of Management and budget uh which I think a lot of people don't know a lot about but it it is the office that helps the president prepare his annual budget request for congress uh and examines all of the various agency programs to ensure they comply with the president president's policies this he was om director under the first Trump Administration right he was that's correct so I mean out of all of them we have the clearest idea of what he believes and what he intends to do and unfortunately uh there's not a lot of good stuff in here um so for example under Trump 1.0 uh VA praised the trickle down tax cuts that he saw were exploding the deficit uh he embraced Trump's scheme to replace career civil servants with political hacks uh helped Trump withhold Aid to Ukraine which culminated in his first impeachment uh and helped Trump stall the Biden transition after it was clear that Trump 26:06 had lost the 2020 election okay you so not I'm not gonna vote for him does he have to be confirmed by the Senate unfortunately does and it doesn't seem like the Senate Republicans are going to put up much resistance or fight no but you you what you didn't say is he is the major author of project 2025 that's correct yeah uh and on this note I think two alarming things that hopefully Senate Democrats can highlight during his confirmation hearing is one uh VA has openly called himself a Christian Nationalist and sought to infuse this ideology directly into the federal government uh and two he has a two decade plus uh record of supporting huge cuts to the social safety net and key uh programs like Social Security and Medicare I mean actually under Trump 1.0 he gave the sign off to every Trump budget proposal that included cuts to Social Security and Medicare uh I mean 27:04 well you know Elon Musk let me just just say I know you want you have a long list but I want to just point out that Elon Musk and his co-chair of this whatever who knows what government efficiency actually means I mean it's in the eye of the beholder uh but uh vivc ramas Swani and musk both have said uh without much contradiction that social Medicare Medicaid are on the table uh Republicans in the house have also said they are all on the table uh so here we have these these billionaires and and musk and brah swam are both billionaires they are heading up this efficiency commission uh that is going to be targeting things like Medicare Social Security and Medicaid uh even though they are also trying to get a in a continuation of the giant tax cut uh that was passed in 2017 and and is is kind of and it continues on through 2025 28:04 I mean th this is this is the reverse Robin Hood that we are dealing with here I mean people ought to be I mean why aren't Democrats screaming about yeah and just on a personal note as someone whose parents are nearing and well one has just signed up for Medicare and the other is nearing Medicare age it's astonishing to me that these beloved and important programs are have been at the top of the Republicans chopping block for decade I mean practically since the very beginning right AB absolutely I mean 1935 Social Security the Republicans accused it of being socialism and want to get rid of it and as it has become more and more Central to the public and the most popular government program the most successful government program in terms of eradicating or reducing poverty among seniors this is what they want to do this is what they want to do and and and Medicaid let me just while you while I 29:01 can talk about this Medicaid Medicaid half of the nation's children are dependent on Medicaid and yet they are talking about reducing Medicaid we're demanding work requirements or or having block RS or whatever they're doing I mean this is this is also insane this is this is this is just morally criminal no doubt no doubt all right on to the next morally Criminal nominee V hit us yeah if we want to get deeper into Insanity uh let's talk about the second person on my list who is Pam Bondi now this is Trump's pick to replace Matt Gates as his attorney general nominee she's the former Attorney General of the State of Florida uh probably one of the most right-wing Attorneys General uh the time she served uh I think two things to know about her one she is a fierce loyalist of Donald Trump she was a very early backer of his 2016 campaign uh and was actually one of the lawyers uh one of his defense lawyers in his first impeachment trial uh and I mean the ties go back a little 30:04 bit deeper too in 2013 Trump gave one of her packs a $25,000 campaign donation uh and this was awfully suspicious timing because it was reportedly around when the Florida Attorney General's office was considering opening a fraud investigation into Trump University you guys remember that scam I well I also remember Trump saying in the 2016 uh primaris he said well of course I give big money out because when I call on somebody to uh to you know for their help they help me because I've given big money out yeah I mean I mean and Pam Bonnie was one of the most you know explicit uh beneficiaries of trump money I mean it'll shock you to learn that after receiving that donation the Florida Attorney General's office did not open a fraud investigation into I'm shocked shocked the last two I had on here uh Billy long who's going to be the IRS commissioner uh I mean this is 31:02 somebody who has called for dismantling the IRS uh to repeal all estate taxes which would benefit the exceptionally wealthy uh even once pressured the IRS to investigate the Humane Society and strip it of tax exempt status because it supported a state ballot initiative to crack down on abusive dog breeders this past week Elon Musk uh asked his 205 million followers on x what should be done about the IRS uh and gave them as one option deleting the IRS and that not surprisingly is what most of his followers want to do delete the IRS yeah it's a term he's fond of because he's extremely online far too online yeah I'll quote uh our friend Lindsay Owens from groundwork uh Long's nomination marks quote open season for tax cheats let me can can I just emphasize here that the tax cheats the people who are benefiting from a weaker IRS are the people who have a lot of 32:05 money the people who are avoiding uh the IRS audits the people who are failing to pay what they owe I mean average working people you know they they either their IRS taxes are withheld from their paychecks or they don't really owe all that much because they don't earn very much I mean we're talking about we're talking about the people who are at the highest reaches of America they're the ones uh who an a strong IRS would actually would actually threaten all right Vish let's keep going last person on my list uh and this is an interesting one this is Trump's Chief of Staff Susie wilds and I think Bob you'll know from serving in the cabinet just how powerful the role of Chief of Staff is I mean this is the president's uh gatekeeper essentially they control access to who gets into the Oval Office office what shows up on the president's desk uh and 33:01 I mean we have a clear sense of what's going to be going on in the Trump Oval Office because she is a longtime uh corporate lobbyist uh some of her clients have include I mean some of her clients include this is crazy a tobacco company that uh sought to block federal health regulations on candy flavored cigarettes which are uh attractive to Children a a foreign News company whose owner has been indicted for money laundering a waste manager company that has resisted removing nuclear waste from its radioactive landfills I mean it goes back to what you're saying Bob I me this is going to be an Administration by of and for Corporate America and the billionaire class Trump campaigned as he did in 2016 as somebody who would be a Tribune of the working class and I hope somehow uh the Democratic party and others and the media make it very clear what he's doing and what he will do and then uh when he's in in power after January 20th uh what he does do and what 34:00 these people are going to do to shaft average working people I mean obviously in the first Trump Administration the word did not get out because uh the working class thinks he still is a hero well he's not well on that note Bob do you want us to spend a few minutes on your favorite appointees of choice well I if we have time we have time certainly please the only point I wanted to make Michael is that a bunch of hiso appointees I'm not going to even talk about Robert F Kennedy Jr that's that's a that's a separate category but a bunch of his appointees uh really have dedicated themselves to rewriting the history of January 6 2021 that is they are intent I mean this is Pete Heth for example uh who Trump has now gone to bat for again uh to be uh the def def Chief uh and and is putting a huge pressure on Joanie Ernst uh you know bullying her to 35:04 get to to to affirm him uh confirm him as defense Chief uh he has portrayed January 6th and the January 6th riers as Patriots I mean I you know this is all of this all of the focus on Heth has been about his sexual harassment and his history of sexual harassment and his his being fired from uh two veterans groups uh for uh drunkenness and for apparently mismanagement of of money uh but but his notion that these riers are patriots he is the person who will be in charge or Trump wants to be in charge of the military and then you have Chelsea gabard who called January 6th and the January 6 hearings you know which I think were the best what really marked a high water point for the House of Representatives she called those hearings a show trial uh and then you have hash Patel uh 36:03 who's moving Trump wants to be the head of the FBI uh he uh says that the FBI was responsible for January 6 that FBI agents created January 6 uh the the riot at the capital uh and then finally you've got people like Pete Morocco do you know do have you heard of that is certainly a lesser known Trump transition team member please tell us okay Pete Morocco he's working in the Trump transition he's he's actually helping with a lot of personnel decisions in hiring he and his wife were caught on camera inside the capital on January 6 they are part of the group that is actually were among the riers uh I mean it this is this is amazing the extent to which Trump is Staffing his administration with not just election deniers but people who are denying the historic fact that we all saw on 37:06 television uh of what happened on January 6 by people who were actually there it sounds like which Ison we there I mean I'm perhaps one of the the people who will receive a day one pardon from uh Mr Trump when he arrives wow well I think we've covered a lot of ground and there are a number oh well actually there was one other appointee that you wanted to talk about wasn't there Bob well there's there's David welon and there's Aaron Siri these are people who are under the radar they are part of the Robert F Kennedy Jr crowd uh but Aaron Siri uh he was gonna be you know he's he's very close to Robert F Kennedy Jr he was a lawyer for Robert F Kennedy Jr he's probably being pulled out in fact he is being pulled in uh but he is somebody who actually uh was against using the polio vaccine 38:02 he says the polio vaccine uh harmed America's children wow well Bob you were there when these inoculations were you know first I was inoculated I was one of the first in ules I mean I was I was you know at the age of six I lined up scared to death because of a needle going in my arm uh but I knew children in my class uh you know in first grade uh who were in Iron lungs I mean who had been who had been hit by polio like Mitch McConnell I mean this is not an abstraction the you know the polio vaccine uh is uh and and has almost eradicated polio from the from the globe I mean can you imagine somebody at a high level in the Trump Administration who is actually uh disparaging the polio vaccine I mean we're what planet are we on well it's a good question and I ask myself that more and more often uh and I 39:04 especially ask that of myself when our colleague Vall here finds clips from the archive of which we actually have a very interesting one that relates oh is this another one of this is another one uh one where you were guest hosting the Bill O'Reilly show back when they allowed you to do that with somebody who is going to be leading I believe the CDC is that right fish yes this is uh this is Dave Welden who at the time was a republican Congressman uh and you were interviewing him Bob I believe on a bill he had introduced to ban human cloning which led to a very memorable I remember that all right well let's take a look in the xfile segment tonight human cloning can politicians ban this controversial science from moving into the 21st century well I think the question you really should be asking is do you want to be a clone uh people run around saying all these potential uses but who would actually want to be the Clone Congressman how I just had a question 40:03 for you how likely do you think it is that somewhere in the world a human being has already been secretly cloned I ask you the question because in a recent Fox News poll 60% of Americans who were pulled said they think it is likely that there are already clones Among Us and Congressman I want to thank you be with you good to see you coming next should president Bartlett crack down on Tony Soprano is chains of love the weakest link okay not my finest Hour U and not my finest interview uh but uh honestly I'm I'm more intrigued to hear your review of The Sopranos after that well you can go back to the archives I mean are there I mean I he did not he did not answer my question did he are there clones walking Among Us hard to say I guess more likely today than for in retrospect probably today not even among the top 10 craziest things that Fox News 41:03 viewers might believe uh well not only the fox viewers but also uh among among Trump's picks for his administration uh I would say 10% are cloned I would 10% we're going to cap it at 10 we don't want to go 15 I would not no I'm going to be conservative I would uh to to quote the late great Jedi Master Yoda uh begun the Clone War has okay yes indeed all right anyway listen I we have to we we we've gone way over time I want to thank all of you out there for bearing with us I want to thank Vish and Michael when I laugh and we others of us laugh about what is happening it's not laughter as in this is easy and light and funny no it's laughter as in can you believe uh and I think uh to some extent uh laughter is the only thing we can possibly do right now uh that kind of can you believe 42:03 laughter uh so thank you all thank you all for joining us and uh again Vish Michael thank you for joining us today we'll see you all next week [Music]

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