Transcript
45 segmentsWe are joined now by Wilford Riley, who teaches political science at the University of Kentucky. Wilfred, I want to ask you about the condition of Mitch McConnell. I mean, he's a distinguished, I think, a decorated senator, I think, other than presidents. An argument can be made that he might be the most consequential Republican ever, to be perfectly honest, on the federal level. But we don't know really anything, anything concrete about his condition some three weeks later after having apparently a cardiac event that where he needed significant care in his home on the 14th. I mean, do you believe, and of course, our question of the day today was, is what rights do Americans, Kentucky and specifically have with regards to knowing Mitch McConnell's condition? What do you make of what we don't know and what we should know? Yeah, it's an interesting question. I mean, I'm not sure we have any rights per se at all to know his condition. I mean, he's been pretty good for Kentucky. He's a family guy. I understand the family's keeping a close lid on that. I also think we do sort of know his condition, right? I mean, we've seen the many strokes on TV. Right. And we also know, I mean, we all have seniors in our lives. We know no one's immortal. So, I mean, this has come up with Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein, Joe Biden. I would hope that there's going to be some honesty and some openness about this. But, I mean, I don't necessarily know if Mitch McConnell has that much time left without being glib. I mean, I think we can kind of assume what's not being said. It's, you know, thought and prayers to him. But we've watched this for a couple of years now. Yeah, I think there's obviously there's some decline, which is led to his, you know, has announced read. Scrolling with Haley. I am Haley Kareenia. I scroll with the homies here in the live chat because there's a lot to scroll through on X, on Instagram, on TikTok. Cutting through the clutter, one hot take at a time. Love seeing you all in the chat before the show. I tried to jump in just a few minutes before to say hello. I love the chat interaction. Thank you for helping. But I do it to get all of the videos and all of the content that you won't find anywhere else. with Haley. Just search that up and I will be there. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You know, it's now's retirement and subsequent election coming up in November. Charles Cory Booker raised the point that there comes a time, though, when his constituents deserve to know his condition and if he's even able to represent it to lead. I don't know that... Charles Cory Booker is wrong about that, to be perfectly honest. I think that when you run for political office, you sort of forfeit the levels of health privacy that maybe you and I might enjoy.
Yeah, I don't think Cory Booker has a bad point there. I mean, again, I would just say the two things like legally, we can't really demand much. And I think you can probably figure out where he is looking at the trajectory of those worsening many strokes. I would, I mean, I would appreciate it also if his spokesman or his wife, for that matter, I mean, came forward and said, this is what the case is. Again, I mean, until you make a full strategic decision, like who's the successor and so on, it's, There also are practical reasons for a powerful man not to do that. I mean, my understanding is Joe Biden never admitted he was dealing with senility. You know, after the debate, he said he'd had a bad performance. The doctors gave him something. And the Democrats just said, okay, well, enough of this. It seems like that's been happening a lot, Unk. But, you know, most of those guys aren't going to be. No one's going to be open and say, I've been senile for three or four years while negotiating with the Chinese. I mean, that brings international incidents and so on to the four. So hopefully we'll hear a reasonable honesty soon. Yeah, I mean, I think Mitch McConnell deserves some credit for knowing that he's got some issues and he can't continue. I don't think Joe Biden ever really had that, you know, that honest assessment of his own decline until he was basically told you've got to go. I mean, I think when you have people, though, like Mitch McConnell, that's as decorated as he is, I mean... What do you think the, the difficulty in retiring, though? I mean, when you're 84, I said earlier in the program, it's like, when I'm 84, the last thing I want to be doing is sitting in front of a microphone, you know, I mean, I just, I don't want to work until I'm 84. Why do politicians, I mean, I guess it's the allure of power, maybe, I guess, but what makes you, what do you think, you know, some of these senators and like Chuck Grassley's in his 90s, how Rogers trying to make it to his 90s representing the 5th District in Kentucky? What do you make of guys and gals working into their age and 90s? Why not just retire? Well, I mean, I think you and I are both, you know, well-liked local squire types. But I do think there's a difference when you're the president. I mean, these guys, I've interviewed and talked to a fair number of politicians when I was thinking about going the Americanist route in political science. And you have to understand. You do understand that these are guys that have dreamed of power in the way female movie stars dream of beauty since they were 14. I mean, the typical congressman was president of the student council, was on the prom court, ran for university student body president, worked on campaigns. And there you are in D.C. I mean, I personally considered an inferior city to Chicago or Brooklyn in New York, but, you know, one of the 20 cities in the world, and you're walking up the big marble steps with a staff behind you and so on.
And now, I mean, you've got your wife in the background saying, why don't you just come home and run the farm? I mean, that's not necessarily going to be all that appealing. It's like in another elite profession, who is the quarterback? Was it Tom Brady that blew up his marriage? His wife said, you know, I'm a model. I make money, too. If you play another season, I'm out. Tom Brady. Yeah. And he went to a different team and played a mediocre for him, sees this, and then he got divorced. I mean, I don't mean to laugh at it, but like... The spotlight of the NFL probably shines brighter even than the diamond in the wedding ring. Like, it would be hard to go from that to running car dealerships, which is what a lot of XQBs do. I mean, like, it would be. Tom Brady's Chevrolet wouldn't move the stirly emotions the way Tom Brady MVP or Tom Brady Super Bowl champion does. You don't think it's a little different. I mean, now, Tom, he could buy a whole mall or something. I mean, that's what Kyle Bowler did. You know, Kyle Bowler's face would shine completely differently if he got a chance to play with the Memphis generals in the USFL or something. Like there's 50,000, even for that, there are 20,000 people in the stand screaming the name of their city. You know, it's like the line in Gladiator where the guy is in a fight. He has to kill somebody. But then he looks up at the cheering crowd and goes, are you not entertained and raises his arms? Like all those people that are in the arena have real trouble leaving the arena. And that's why you see a 50-year-old Mike Tyson fighting Jake Paul on pay-per-vue. Yeah. We're talking with Wilford Riley from Kentucky State University. Let's shift gears main Graham Platner's campaigns on life support. He's not going to make it to the 13th, which I think is the deadline to be on the ballot. He's not going to make it. Everyone's retracting and pulling back and rescinding endorsements. And what he's being accused of, obviously is terrible. But. I mean, he said he's been accused of other things and things about him that we know are true that are nearly as terrible. And that didn't move the needle. I mean, the guy's got a Nazi tattoo. And that was not a bridge too far. You know, he's got, you know, text messages of him being misogynistic, being abusive. You know, you know, he's on an app that apparently is, you know, is frequented by pedophiles. And that was not a bridge too far. I think, you know, was it, was it these latest accusations or that his poll numbers were worse than they were three weeks? Scrolling with Haley. I'm Haley Karenia. I scroll with the homies here in the live chat because there's a lot to scroll through on X, on Instagram, on TikTok. Cutting through the clutter, one hot take at a time. Love seeing you all in the chat before the show. I tried to jump in just a few minutes before to say hello. I love the chat interaction. Thank you for helping. But I do it to get all of the videos and all of the content that you won't find. Anywhere else? Scrolling with Haley. Just search that up and I will be there. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. What was the reason? I think it's a combination of things. It's the straw that broke the camel's back. So I think a couple things about this. First, it is a darkly funny situation. I mean, my group chat, which is a mix of old Kentucky boys and Chicago Irishmen, is having a lot of fun like this.
And I mean, people are saying things like, who would have ever guessed the wife beating Nazi had trouble with women? You know, it's, and not all those allegations are confirmed. Of course, he did have the tattoo. We don't know about actual white supremacist sympathies. But Graham Platner has been accused of a huge number of things. You just did a good job listing them. I mean, he was on kick, which is the platform for high school party kids. at 32 or whatever it was. I mean, he talked about being intimately aroused by Portapotties after spending some time in the military and as a jock before that. He consistently has been a Monty Python-level bad candidate. And this is going to knock him out. I mean, this is a real allegation. This is that he could have been looking at teenage bikini picks, not that that's acceptable. An ex-girlfriend says, Graham Platner used some kind of tool or maybe some sort of military skill to break into her house. They began engaging consensually. She said, no, he continued. I mean, that's rape. Like, that's the crime over rape. Big fight broke out after that. They didn't talk. So, yeah, I mean, it's probably a rap for him. Could he have beaten that allegation? Yes, on top of the other 27 allegations, no. I mean, people know what kind of guy this is. The one thing I will say about this, though, not at all like a represent for the boys sort of front, but it really is notable. And the reason he could have beaten this allegation stand alone. It really is notable that we're now seeing these charges that are unsupported by police reports and so on against young male politicians in almost every election. We saw this in the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation race, a high school casual ex-girlfriend, if even at that level, came forward and said, he kissed me too aggressively 37 years ago. And, of course, that's not acceptable for a gentleman. But, again, no evidence of that. Couldn't recall where the party was. Brett Kavanaugh was almost knocked off, knocked off the roster. So... I don't know in each individual case who's telling the truth. I will say there's a lot to be said for the idea of a statute of limitations in court and even in the court of public opinion, where you should not necessarily be able, if you haven't engaged the police, you haven't spoken to a therapist, to come forward and simply say, you know, my ex-boyfriend was a wife-beater. And it seems to be mostly essay and domestic violence where we're seeing these allegations. But with Graham Platner, We've seen getting to the point, we've seen so many other allegations that I think most people are probably of the opinion. Yeah, this stuff happened. Yeah, indeed. We're talking with Will Ferreilly from Kentucky State University, teaches the political science. One of my listeners want me to ask you about the Stephen A. Smith comments when the Lakers, I think I made a couple of deals where I guess the core makeup of their team for next season is predominantly white player, white NBA players. And he was.
kind of mocking the Lakers like, you know, you goes, you guys are going to basically try to build a championship team around white guys. And it was said in a kind of a derisive way for sure. And it got a little traction on media, but people kind of largely moved on from it. What do you make of Steve and these comments? Was that out of bounds? And certainly if it were made in reverse about a black quarterback, it would be a much, much bigger deal. Would you agree with that? Yeah, so I think three things. First of all, I don't really have a problem with locker room trash talking. I mean, I mentioned my own diverse group of, you know, young to middle-aged executives reacting to Graham Platner with memes and so forth. I do think you should probably leave that in the bar, but it's not anything that's offensive to me. I do think that there is a huge double standard around this. Like, I don't like racism against whites. I don't think it has any dramatic effect in most cases. I don't think racism against blacks has dramatic effects in most cases now that anyone can start and incorporate their own business. Civil Rights Act is in place. But, I mean, I do think there's a level of kind of snickering toleration when someone refers to a white former partner as an alabaster disaster or something like that or makes jokes about the lack of athletic ability among Caucasians, which in Kentucky, I don't really see to be true. So there's the double standards, and there's the it doesn't matter that much. The one thing I will say about this. I also don't know how much he knows about the NBA for a sports commentator because, I mean, we've seen Larry Bird built championship teams, a Joker, Nicola Yokic built championship teams. Steve Nash was the MVP back-to-back in the league. Stockton? Yeah, Stockton. We've seen a whole bunch of the league's 30% Caucasian. So, I mean, Smith is more college basketball and a football commentator. I mean, I think he kind of just stepped on his tongue on that one because it's easy to respond as a nerd with all of these guys. But, yeah, I mean, the Lakers, the one thing I will say last thing, as an athlete, when someone says something dumb like that, you just kind of go out there and score 30 and prove them wrong. We don't want to hear Austin Reeves, who has one year of college, getting pedantic about race relations in modern America, just, you know, go out there and hit a bunch of threes. You know, and you look at the 86 Celtics team. Of course, I get to, me, again, we're talking about 40 years ago. It's a different era, I guess. But, you know, the 86 Celtics team is considered one of the best of all time, you know, and they started three white guys, you know, Michael Bird and Danny Aange. So I don't know. I mean, I think he probably said what a lot of people believe that, you know, the NBA is, you know, is probably predominantly. I don't know what the actual, you know, breakdown is. But the most of the best players in the NBA are. are black, and I think he probably said something that probably a lot of NBA fans think. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a casual bar room comment. It doesn't matter. I do think you couldn't say it as easily in the other direction, although Rush Limbaugh and Terry Bradshaw certainly made comments about black quarterbacks in the past. The athlete should respond out there on the court. You know, I...
I actually, if I had to really think about this, I would say people are sometimes undervalued in fields where they're good but underrepresented. Tom Sol as an economist comes to mind. If I were an NBA coach that actually knew how to play money ball, I would probably look for some of these white guys. Because they're not going to be necessarily assumed to be the scorers on other teams they were on. Contra is going to cost a little less. But if you've got some guy that used to be a starter for the Yugoslav national team, I mean, if you pass him the ball, he'll probably score the ball. The Patriots did this with receivers for a while where they had three Caucasian receivers, and they picked them all off on sort of the waiver wire. And I think one of them is going to the Hall of Fame. So if people are going to underestimate you, you can either lose confidence because of that or you can use that to your advantage. Wilford, I appreciate the time as always. Thank you much. Good talking to you. Good talking to you. All right. That's Wilford Riley from Kentucky State University. Hey, I'm Chris Van Fleet. Go behind the scenes and beyond the headlines with the biggest names in pro wrestling and beyond. Mr. Sandman. All I ever wanted to be was a pro wrestler. So I got to live my life and make people really happy. The heartbreak kid himself, Sean Michaels. Do you think there's anybody better than you were? I think I was great at what I did. And I think other people were great at what they did as well. Greatness is more of mindset, I think, than anything else. Mindset, motivation, insight with Chris Van Fleet. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. platform.