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Episodes Episode #2352 Segments
NewsReaction Politics as Persuasion

Back to episode — Episode 2352 CWSA 01/13/24

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at materials that are so secretive you can't even make a copy. So you have to go see the originals in a special little secure building because that's our top, top, top secret. Nothing is more secret than stuff that's in a SCIF. So of course the representatives can't tell us what they saw because they get to see it but it's top secret. So what did Tim Burchett say after he saw this stuff? He said…

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not just of the week, of the year, of the decade, of the century, of the entire history of humanity. It would be the biggest story of all. There wouldn't be no bigger story, right? And it disappeared. The biggest story in the history of humankind if it were true. But CNN decided that wasn't newsworthy.

Here's what I think. I think at the top of the news pile they know it's not true and so they don't want to be the embarrassed ones who write about it. So maybe everybody's hoping somebody else will cover it. It's like, well I hope you guys cover it because this one doesn't seem too true to us.

I just think about the fact that Tim Burchett is a Republican and I'm pretty sure that Fox News didn't cover the story, did they? Did Fox News cover it in let's say written form? They may have had a video like others did. It's weird that it exists only in video because they're making it disappear pretty well anyway. So it might be some kind of a Dilbert situation cover-up that's accidental or intentional. Who knows?

Trump lost a lawsuit. I guess he was pressing a lawsuit against the New York Times over reporting about his financials and he lost. So he's going to pay the legal fees, $400,000. So does that tell you that Trump lost because he has to pay $400,000? Depends what you call winning.

If I were these reporters I would say to myself, I sure hated my last year. I just spent a year defending myself in court and buying lawyers and borrowing money. And yeah that's great that I'll get reimbursed but I just lost a year of my life. Do you think Trump is happy with the outcome? $400,000 to send a warning signal to anyone else who would use what I'm guessing was maybe not the most confirmed information or maybe they didn't put it in quite the right context that showed both sides. I don't know what the claim is exactly.

But don't you think it sends a chilling message to other reporters that if you're going to write about Trump maybe you better stick to the facts that you're really sure about? Know what you think? So I would call it a success for $400,000 at his level of wealth to send this warning shot across the bow of reporters who might be looking at more let's say speculative stories about him. Yeah, it's a brushback pitch. I think he got his money's worth if that's the end of the story. It just cost him $400,000. He got his money's worth.

So I guess on Monday Iowa goes to vote in the primary for the Republicans. And the big stories about that are number one the weather. So apparently the snow is just insane. So the ability of old people especially to even get to the polling places and or the caucus places I guess would be very limited.

Now what does this tell you? I'll tell you the message I'm getting from this. Every time you think you're in a system where the system is working to express the will of the people so that the people can see for example that their vote counted and they picked the people that they want, I feel like there's always — it's l

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ike Charlie Brown's football — there's always something that's like pulling the football back just before you kick it. And I feel like the Iowa results are going to be based on the weather. Does it feel like that to you? Basically just think about this. Vivek just absolutely blanketed that state like nobody's ever done before. Not only did he cover more of the precincts, he covered every one, whi…

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