‘Democracy’ Party Nullifies Another Inconvenient Election

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Thursday, the 9th of July, 26. I'm Guy Benson. Welcome everyone to Guy Benson. We are together for the next three hours as we are every weekday between 3 and 6 p.m. Eastern. It's a show that becomes a podcast when we're done every day on demand, no charge at all, totally free. Plus bonus Guy Benson on the weekends, Guy Benson.com, Fox Newspodcast.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a Fox News political analyst. I was on America's Newsroom this morning and Stuart Varney's show. Also a senior columnist at the Washington Examiner. If you want to reach us here, GBS at fox.com, the email address. Give us a follow if you would on social media at Guy Benson's show. You can follow me as well on a personal level at Guy Benson. Great lineup today. We are starting later this hour with Yemisei Agbe Wally, Democratic strategist. She's had quite a lot to say about Graham Platner, who's now out. Oh, we'll get to that here in just a moment. She has some thoughts. She's been great, honestly great on this. Can't wait to talk to her. Then Daniel DiMartino will join us in the next hour. He's a Venezuelan who's moved to the United States. He's immigrated here. And I want to talk to him about Latin American politics, but also... What is going on with the rise of socialism, which he escaped? He and his family had to escape from Venezuela. Why is it all of a sudden seemingly very attractive to a lot of voters, especially younger voters in this country? We'll have that conversation. Jessica Tarloff, our friend from the five, she will join us. maybe on some politics, but we've got to catch up personally on a few things because she hasn't been on in a while. There's a lot going on. So I'm looking forward to having Jessica on. And then Donna Rotuno is out there in Utah covering this trial of the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk. I think it's a very important story. The evidence is just overwhelming. More of it admitted today in these preliminary hearings. We'll get an update from Donna on the ground in Utah later on. But as I just mentioned, the big... political story of the day is something that we've been sort of waiting for now for a couple of days. And that would be the end of the Graham Platner experiment in Maine. He's out. He announced he is suspending his campaign. This was in a long, self-serving, self-absorbed, I think at times, delusional, rambling, what, 11 or 12-minute video. Like selfie video he put out. And reportedly that was one of his demands. If he was going to cave and get out of the race as the nominee who was just elected, I'll have some more thoughts on that in just a second. He apparently said, now I'm going to say everything that I want to and you're not going to stop me. And so he said at all. And now you've got the Democrats in the state scrambling to figure out, okay, who's next? We had our primary. We don't like that anymore. So that's gone. New plan. Who's it going to be? And there's a whole list of people who are now jumping in or rumored to be considering it. The Susan Collins people, right? Susan Collins, the incumbent Republican, long time, very moderate, very consistent and reliable senator, like not necessarily ideologically reliable from my perspective, which sometimes.

frustrates me, but in terms of showing up, doing the job, being an adult, she is slow and steady and has been for a long time. And people are wondering, well, is this good news for her or bad news? I've seen a few stories like, oh, this is really a big problem for the Susan Collins campaign. Well, maybe I don't know how it's going to go. I think she is a proven known quantity, the known commodity in Maine. For better and for worse, and remember last time out, she was expected to lose handily based on all the polling, and then she won easily, right? So I would never count Susan Collins out by any stretch, but yeah, it does actually follow that when there's an election and then it's gotten rid of, they just erase it. And the person that you've been preparing to run against for months is no longer there and they just parachute someone else in. That's going to change the plan. And it could complicate some things. So we'll see how the Susan Collins campaign adjust to all of that. But there are some big, big problems that the Democrats have internally within the state of Maine. And then I do really want to talk about... the implications of this now canceled primary election. They had it. There was a winner. It wasn't close. But the party is saying, never mind. First, let's hear from Mr. Graham Platner himself, who is alleged by multiple women to be an abuser and a predator. That's on top of everything else that we know about him. From the Nazi tattoo that he has on his heart. to the lying about the Nazi tattoo where he was caught, even cornered on MSNBC or MS now is what they call it, cornered with a very simple question about the timeline of the Nazi tattoo, and he was stunned like a deer in headlights for about two seconds and then gave an insane lie answer. Imagine the amount of lying you have to do to lie so often that you don't even... really bad an eye for more than half a second when you have to come up with a new lie on the fly about the Nazi tattoo that you've had on your body for years and you've known it and you've told people and then you're pretending that you didn't know and were horrified and all of that. Then you look at his online presence and everything that he posted there, his treatment of women based on earlier allegations in the New York Times. Some of the other proclivities and peccadillos. The sexting, the very strange account on that kick app that experts have called a Predators Paradise. I mean, the list goes on. Horrible comments about women and fellow soldiers and rural white people and seemingly everyone called himself a communist. I mean, it's just like it's a long bill of indictment against this guy. And the Democrats were fine with all of it. They were fine with all of it. They might grimace a little bit, but ultimately they were willing to indulge it because they thought he was their best chance to beat Susan Collins. At least that's what the Obama Podbrose told us. He's the best and only chance to beat Susan Collins in Maine, and he's a good, decent man. We were assured by one of them.

And then the rape allegation dropped, one that we had been hearing about for a while behind the scenes. It went public in Politico. The woman went public on camera with CNN. And then all these people who had seen all of that or disparaged it or written it off or ignored it or whatever, all of the other baggage pointing in the obvious direction that this was a scumback, a disturbed person. I mean, set aside the left-wing ideology and all the destructive policies he wanted. This is not someone who should have any power in this country. And only after the rape allegation came in, by the way, from a left-wing woman, because the right-wing woman who alleged abuse, they all, or many of them, said, well, that doesn't really count and we don't believe her right-wing operative, blah, blah, blah. But here's a left-wing woman, and they were anxiously watching the polling fall for Graham Platner and thinking, oh, well, maybe he can't win. Maybe now he's going to go from a slight favorite or a wash to an underdog to worse. And the worst case scenario for them is losing, losing the seat which is central to their map back to power and a majority in the Senate. That was the decisive factor, not the ideology which many of them love, as terrible as it is, not the just character deficiencies, which is not even close to capturing how messed up this person is. They were willing to smile through or even embrace a lot of that. The ultimate sin committed by Graham Platner in the eyes of the left was the fact that he might not win anymore. So he had to go. So all these people suddenly pretended to be shocked, shocked and stunned that this person might actually be a really bad guy and never mind. I rescind my endorsement. And it got louder and louder and basically everyone ran away from him. And now sure enough, he's out. But as I mentioned, he is not going quietly. He put out this very lengthy video, part of which was this cut 15. Much like October when the first attack started, much like the news that was created the week before the primary, there is a reason that this is happening now. I only have until July 13th until I am officially the nominee. This was the last week. to try to get me off of the ballot. And that's why this is occurring. It's not the false allegations, though, that have brought us to where we are. It's the fact that they are being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure on us. We live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It is a system that is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed, they can be crushed.

And he was saying, D.C. did this. It's all the blaming and finger-pointing everywhere else. He said there's a reason this is happening now. Well, the reason that it's happening at all is because of the things that you did, sir, over and over and over again. You brought this on yourself, and he's saying, oh, these are false allegations. I don't believe him. because he lies constantly. In fact, he was asked repeatedly by journalists, by podcasters, by senators, right at that emergency meeting that they had before the first big allegation from a woman came out or several women came out that New York Times. Before that, there were rumors. So they had him down to D.C. Come on down, Graham. We got to ask you a bunch of uncomfortable questions. And he every step of the way would assure people, nope, there's nothing left. There's nothing left to drop. It's over. Don't worry. And then it was a lie. And he knew it was a lie. He knew other stuff was coming. But he just lies with like a sociopathic ability. So he's calling these false allegations. I don't believe him. There's some strong evidence that he is not telling the truth. I'm not sure if I were a juror based on what we're seeing. I would convict him of something, but I don't believe him. And this is a question about whether he should be a candidate for high office. And if they were truly false, I think he would fight them and not drop out, right? He is knuckling under. He is surrendering to a political establishment. And what he didn't quite say, although his people have been really going at it hammer and tongs with the Democrats, this was not some Republican right-wing thing. The Republicans would have waited, and apparently the Susan Collins campaign had even more stuff on him, they'd have waited until after he was officially on the ballot. Whatever happened with the timing of this, I think he blames, of course not himself, Parrish the thought, but he blames the establishment of his own political party. And part of the question I have is how his core supporters and voters, many of whom remain loyal, how they're going to feel about the old switcheroo that they're about to do. having brow beaten him out of the race for, I think, legitimate reasons. I think the red flags were everywhere, and they ignored them until they thought, oh, we might lose. Oh, what high-minded heroes these people are. But they think they are, and they pat themselves in the back. Aren't we good for forcing them out of the race? It's not because of your principles. It's because you feared losing. Oh, and one more thing. And this was a point that I wanted to make. And I did so. I hinted at it last night on a special report before he dropped out. And I kind of laid the ground for it. I made the point again this morning on America's newsroom. I will not be lectured to by these people about democracy ever.

They wrap themselves in the flag of democracy, and they're the great defenders of democracy, and isn't this so important, and everything we dislike is a threat to democracy, and especially Donald Trump and a threat to democracy, and January 6th, which, by the way, was very bad, and I was very critical of it. But the idea that these people have some sort of moral high ground on democracy. Are you kidding? And I said this to Bill Hemmer on TV earlier. Stop me if this starts to sound familiar. There's a really important election the Democrats are having to nominate a candidate in a key race. There's a campaign. There are elections. Lots and lots of ballots are cast. A winner is crowned. It's overwhelming. They've got their candidate thanks to the election. And then something happens. And they decide, oh no. Maybe this person is not viable as a candidate anymore. And by the way, these were not bombshells out of nowhere like shocking the world. These were things that have been warned about for a long time. And the warners were called all sorts of names and dismissed, and there was indignant rejection of those arguments, and they just plowed forward anyway and got their candidate in their election. All that be downed, we're fine. And then, nope, it got bad enough. Just kidding. This is a problem. Let's nullify the election. You got to win. This person maybe can't win anymore. They've won an election, but who cares about that? Election, you know, election or a schmection. It doesn't really matter to them. It's like they view many of them in that party, the self-appointed. Pro-democracy, democracy champion party, they view their elections as like exhibition games. Just go out there and try some things and have some fun, everyone. And then if it doesn't really work out for us in our power interest, then all of those votes just go in the garbage can and we're just going to do something different. Democracy at work. There were about 215,000 Democrats who voted in Maine like three or four weeks ago. 72% of whom voted for Graham Platner. And now, apparently they're going to have like five or 600 people choose a replacement, disenfranchisement rate of 99 plus percent for democracy, you see. Just getting started. On a Thursday, it's Guy Benson. Stay tuned. Always fresh, always fair. Guy Benson. Summer means firing up the grill, getting together with friends, and making the most of the weekends. Total Wine and More is my first stop, whether it's seltzers and ready to serve cocktails with a cooler or a good bottle of bourbon. Everything I need is at Total Wine. With the lowest prices, it's easy to stock up for whatever the weekend brings, and I can get everything I need in one stop. Shop total wine and more, and get ready for your next summer party. Spears are not sold in Virginia or North Carolina. Drink responsibly must be 21. I'm Guy Benson, we're back. And if you didn't catch my very subtle comparison in the last night, but of course I was...

recalling Joe Biden. And what the Democrats did last cycle. So last cycle, they did this to their presidential nominee, had a whole national primary, elected Joe Biden, their incumbent. He's good to go. Four more years. Trust us. You liars, you cheap fakers, people are saying he's unfit to do it. Not true. And then there was the debate. confirming everything we knew about the problem. They're like, oh my goodness, why we must nullify our entire election and just put someone else in there. And that's what they did. Here we are in the very next election cycle. The Democrats themselves have said this is the most important race in the country in terms of their Senate hopes. Without Maine, they don't really see a realistic map. And there were all the problems littering this man's past and present. Like liars, partisans, doesn't matter. And then the thing that they also knew was coming, the senators were asking him about it. Then it arrived publicly like, oh my goodness, we might not win. Sorry election. Bye-bye. Into the dumpster you go and we're going to do something else with some party insiders and get a better candidate who might have a better chance of winning. Then they'll turn around and lecture the rest of the country with these sermons about democracy. When they treat their own elections like it's like Model UN, where they all have a nice little time together, and then if necessary, it just all goes away. Poof. Democracy in action, according to the Democrats. One of whom joins me next.

Want to elevate your travel experience? Here's how. With a Delta Sky Miles Reserve American Express card, you can relax before your flight in the Delta Sky Club with up to 15 visits per medallion year. And now through July 15, 26, you can earn up to 125,000 bonus miles, so you're closer to your next adventure. The Delta Sky Miles Reserve Card. Check out the new design at www. delta.com slash Spotify. Minimum spending requirements and terms apply. Talking about the issues you care about, Guy Benson. Back here together on Guy Benson, Guy Benson.com. Podcast always free. Privileged to have back on the airwaves with us, Yemisei Agbe Wally. She's former chief of staff and advisor to the Biden White House press office. She's a Democratic strategist and founder of podium strategies. Yemisee, great to have you here. Thanks for having me back, guy. You bet. Okay. Let me just first compliment you on your tweets recently. They're just golden. So good. Some of my friends are texting me like, whoa, she is in Fuego. I'm like, I know. I'm just sitting back and watching it. And it's got to be on some level. alarming because you're seeing some of the things going on within your party that led to this moment. And obviously you're frustrated deeply by it, to put it mildly, but also vindicating because the things that were right in front of all of us that were so obvious that you were getting attacked for and other people were getting gaslit on, it all just sort of blew up here. So you're doing a pretty... dramatic round of told you so's kind of a bit of a victory lap although it probably doesn't feel all that much like a victory just talk us through how you're feeling about this this platinum mess well i have been saying that this man is a problem since october when the reddit comments that were uh racially insensitive and the tattoo dropped basically within days of each other i said this guy was bad news and i was told that i don't understand working class voters that I don't understand white voters, that I don't understand Maine. And I was told that repeatedly every single time that I was asked on news, on podcasts about the race and Maine and what was happening with Graham Platner. You'll never be able to add me to a supercut of people complimenting that man. I thought that he was a moral husk of a human being. And as somebody raised by two working class immigrant parents, I knew that working class people actually have the strongest values because they have worked so hard to obtain. things and also maintain the level of comfort that they have and that they provide to their families. So.

I saw a red flag, and a lot of us were waving it, but what we were drowned out by is the noise that happens on the far left, who in Graham Platner, in this costume, saw a hero. And they saw something that they thought Democrats were not. And I think this whole entire simulation or experiment, I hope, has taught a lot of people that character actually does matter. And that, Graham Platner, who they thought had the objective of beating Susan Collins really. only had the objective of beating his own party within his own state i think calling him working class is sort of a joke because it doesn't really seem like he's done much working um and is a nepo baby rich kid and also award of the state getting a lot of government benefits like i think working class doesn't seem like uh a qualifier descriptor that actually fits the man, but I guess it was sort of like a minstrel show, a class minstrel show. Yeah, and can I say, I thought that when it was revealed that he wasn't working class, when the Hotchkiss and the $200,000 loan and oyster business propped up by mommy, all of that I actually thought was like, okay, fine, you don't care about the Nazi tattoos, you don't care about how black and Jewish people fail, that's fine. Do you at least care that he lied about his narrative? And that was... That wasn't even fully addressed. And the tipping point for me truly was when he did his cover interview with Chris Hayes on MS Now. And he was asked questions about the New York Times article, which I also thought was going to be the line. And a lot of people ran cover for this man. And I just will not allow them now that we are on the other side of this to say, well, I always had a feeling or I felt something was not right. No, you were willing to ride it out all the way to the end with this man. I've taken a few shots at the Obama Pod Bros. And they have a lot, I mean, between Hasan Piker and the Pod Bros, I mean, these are some of the most influential people, it seems, in left politics right now. And kind of their ringleader was talking about how. He knew that Graham Platner was a good and decent man and all this stuff wasn't fair. It's also wild to see Hasan Piker saying, oh, well, the Nazi tattoo was always a red flag for me. Was it? What evidence do we have that that was a red flag for him at all? And I'm also a little bit surprised that Hasan Piker is walking away supposedly because of the alleged rape. I mean, Pikers on the record saying he does not care. that Jewish women were raped on October 7th by Hamas. So I don't understand where these lines are if they exist. It seems like the line is, can he win or not? And when they decide no, that's the line. It also is frustrating because they were so blinded and to go back to Gaza. They made that an issue that Graham Platner ran on. When people ask me about his policies, I say this wasn't a man that ran on policies. He ran on aesthetics and vibes. And then he had a hodgepodge of buzzwords, billionaires, corporate elites, socialism, and also Israel and Gaza. Recent polling shows that 3% of Mainers.

vote based on foreign policy. I do not know what someone in upstate Maine is thinking about Israel and Gaza when they're just trying to live their day-to-day life. He really ran on somebody else's ideology. And what those folks found out is that he's a con man. I want to play you a clip. I know that you have seen it because you commented on social media. This is... You can maybe tell us about this cast of characters. But again, this is part of like the pod universe on the left. I know there's been a lot of hand-wringing about the manosphere and right-wing podcast and right-wing media and all that. But there's a whole wild world out there on the left. And there's a woman that you've tangled with on these issues. And here was part of her, I guess, confession, if you will, of how she views politics and character, to your point, in Cut 21. I don't really care if, say, like, Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez go home and they're a secret Nazi, but they go out and they vote for the right things. Like, we're talking about politicians as, I mean, for the, I don't know what I'm like, I'm like, that's a, I think these are the lines that people are talking about. Some people care about that exact thing. She said, she said the quiet part out loud. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, talk us through that. Yeah, yeah, who is this and what are we hearing there? Emma and Sam Cedar, who do the majority report of a far left podcast and who were one of the biggest supporters of Graham Platner and have since Emma has made, you know, a direct-to-camera, mea-culpa, pseudo-apology, and is now doing a tour of all the podcasts talking about how she was conned by Graham Platner and she was lied and deceived by his team. And now she's talking about, you know, but well, ultimately. I don't really care what the person's moral character is. And to assume that a Latino woman from the Bronx and a Jewish man would be secret Nazis is wild to me. Although I think she's just saying could be in fill in the blank. I don't care. I don't care what they do as long as they vote our way. And it's very interesting because I think if you're so worried about this genocide, I probably wouldn't want somebody who was a secret Nazi and just assume that they would vote my way. Genocide in quotes versus an actual Nazi genocide. Yes. It is very, very frustrating to see these people not actually absorb any lessons learned here. They wanted Graham Platner because they thought that Graham Platner was the antithesis of their view of Democrats. And they thought that Mainers were going to go along with it. And they pulled somebody, they pulled somebody who to me was created in a lab by. New York City consultants, Morris Katz, who put Graham Platner together like Frankenstein, is born and raised in New York City. And Emma herself is from a very privileged background in New Jersey, went to private schools. And they said, we think we can conjure up our idea of working class. And we think whatever we serve them on a Graham Platner, they'll accept. And frankly, that was rejected. And this is a professional humiliation that I think a lot of people should sit with and learn from. But I believe that they will learn nothing from this. Yeah, I saw Megan McArdle made a good point. Some people have called Donald Trump sort of like a poor person's vision of a rich person. I think Graham Platner was rich people's version, rich leftist version of a working class person. And that's what they put forward. It's blown up and we'll see where they go from here. Yemisei, our guest here on Guy Benson, Yemisei, thanks so much for your time. Thank you, but, Guy. As soon as we come back, I think a really important underreported story you need to know about.

It is very strange, very, very strange, that the first descriptor of Rahm Emanuel is that he's pro-Israel. The very first thing, his name, his birth date, then the bio begins with pro-Israel. That is not an accident at all. That brings us to a piece that was written and published yesterday in the Washington Examiner, where I'm a columnist. by a man named Larry Sanger. I only became aware of him recently because he's sounding the alarm on this. Here's the headline, which sort of speaks for itself. I co-founded Wikipedia, but an anonymous mob runs the show, and now I'm banned. So Mr. Sanger here founded Wikipedia. But the left-wingers who have taken this thing over, and they've got their armies of minions that do this in the back end, they not only dominate the content curation and the edits and the changes, which is deeply Orwellian, but they are, unsurprisingly, I would say, extremely hostile to people who might question them. or might try to reform the system so they can't exert all this control over information, therefore over the narrative, therefore over perceived reality in a lot of ways. And so one of the people raising red flags about this was Larry Sanger, who founded the thing, and they've banned him from the platform that he created, co-created. He writes, I have been permanently blocked from editing Wikipedia. The website I named... and led in 2001. Yes, really. I can hear you asking how. What's going on over there? The incident reveals something truly damning about, quote, the encyclopedia that anybody can edit. The irony is that not even a co-founder can edit it if he is attempting to implement his program of reform. And he goes through and talks about what's going on. And he says there's this cabal of people who are... exerting their influence and their power in order to do this. He says by calling them a mob or a blob, I do not mean to suggest that there is no center of power. In fact, Wikipedia is ruled by a few hundred anonymous demagogues who dominate the rest. They go by twee handles. It's a dictatorship of the twee. But they wield their power. through the Genesequois of vague rules, vague threats, and vague alliances. He says we know that some of these special interest Wikipedia editorial groups exist offline, so they collaborate and coordinate. You might say collude with one another, including one group called guerrilla skeptics. And some journalists have dug into this, finding that there's certain patterns that reveal what is termed a gang of 40 accounts that together dominated articles about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with definite signs of off-Wiki, meaning offline coordination. There are a lot of people who call themselves anti-fascists on Wikipedia. Probably activist funding pays some of them to edit.

But they're anonymous, so how can we tell? And there are a few kernels of evidence along the way here, but you have a lot of people clearly who are working anonymously away from public view in a very opaque, politicized way to try to distort reality. One of their top priorities seems to be the Israel question, which again is a very odd fixation. for a lot of these people. Here is how Larry Sanger concludes his piece at the Washington Examiner. Here, then, is the ugly picture that emerges. Wikipedia is decidedly not a lovely, idealistic project staffed by student scholars and retirees who just want to share their knowledge to benefit the world. To be sure, there are people involved for whom this is true, but the site has manifestly been captured by a small click of ideologically motivated bullies. They manipulate and intimidate the other participants, and anyone who does not fall in line, like me, is banned. They wield a lot of power in a petty and vicious way. Money clearly does change hands. In some cases, it resembles a shakedown. Considering the size of Wiki, PR, and the like, it may be millions of dollars per year. Wikipedia is one of the most powerful media platforms in history. It is past time we learned who really controls it. So he's calling at least for a basic modicum of transparency to unmask some of these bullies, this mob, that is trying to warp reality and factual information for their own ideological and political ends. And I think this is something plus the other related issues that I alluded to earlier that is of utmost importance moving forward, especially in a society that reads like books and history and all that sort of thing, less and less. Wikipedia is like a quick cheat sheet go-to. That plus AI, if you can control that ideologically, you can control a lot. And I think ignoring that would be a grave mistake. Another hour of Guy Benson coming up next. Someone who used to live under socialism will join us talking about the politics of the Western Hemisphere and what's happening here in America. You don't want to miss our conversation straight ahead.

Need a laptop that's built to perform and designed to last all day? Select Windows 11 PCs starting at 49999 are now at Best Buy. Learn more at Best Buy.com. Best Buy. Imagine that. generation of conservative talk right here right now fair fun and backed by the trusted voices and reporting resources of fox news you're listening to Guy Benson and now here's your host Guy Benson It's a new hour here on Guy Benson on this Thursday. We are so delighted that you're here with us. Thank you very much for listening always. Guy Benson.com is our online home. There's content there, lots of good stuff, including, of course, the free podcast. It's every day. It's on demand. It is free of charge. Guy Benson.com, Fox News Podcast.com, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. You can email us, GBS at Fox.com. Follow us on social at Guy Benson. follow me and or follow me i would say at Guy Benson on many of those social media platforms well i'm pleased to welcome back to the show daniel de martino he is a manhattan institute fellow and an immigrant to this country from venezuela daniel it's great to have you back Great to talk to you, guys. Let's start with your home country. And what has just happened there very recently, devastating earthquakes that have trapped so many people. I've seen some of the stories. It's been very, very harrowing. What are you hearing and seeing about the aftermath? Yeah, well, it's just been the worst natural disaster in Venezuela in history by the number of deaths. We don't know yet the number. We just know that up to 50,000 people were reported missing at the peak and that the U.S. Geological Survey had estimated at least 10,000 people would die. The government has reported only about 3,000 deaths so far. And that's where we are. The response to the earthquake is what really angered a lot of people and really the anger on the ground from the people I know and what you see on social media that they say is terrible. And that is because for the first two days, the government just didn't do anything. And then when they did show up, which they showed up after actually the international aid arrived, the U.S. and other countries. When they did show up, they showed up to steal the belongings of victims from the earthquake and to steal the humanitarian aid that other Venezuelans were giving. And so that's been the problem. The focus now is how do you rebuild, right? Because with a socialist regime in power, who's interested in building homes for poor people who lost them?

Yeah, I think there's a couple key questions here that I want to continue down these paths actually with you because, first of all, and maybe I'm wrong about this, but if you look at a place like Venezuela, which used to be a very wealthy country, right, it was the wealthiest in Latin America, if I'm not mistaken, by some margin, and it has been just destroyed by socialism and communism, some combination thereof, hardcore left-wing politics from... Chavez to Maduro, Chavez dead, Maduro now rotting in a jail cell in this country. That's great news, but they did a lot of damage. And I wonder not to talk about a natural disaster through an explicitly political lens too much, but I wonder how much of the damage of a crumbling country was made worse, was exacerbated by that rot caused by failing policies for so many years. Guy, it is absolutely political because just a few years ago when Chile had an over 8 degree earthquake, which is much stronger than the 7.2 and 7.5 Venezuela had, because this is an exponential scale, not a proportional one, only a few hundred Chileans died. And in the case of Venezuela, it's going to be over 10,000 for a weaker earthquake, right? It's the same reason why over 100,000 people died in Haiti in the earthquake in 2010, 2011. That was because Haiti was... a very destroyed, run-down country, that's a consequence of government policies, right, and its history. And it's the same case in Venezuela. Rich countries can deal with disasters. It's also why, and I know earthquakes are not related to climate change. It's a totally different phenomenon, but the whole issue of, you know, hurricanes or whatever you think with temperatures on the sea, you can only deal with it if you're a rich country. And so getting rich is the most important thing, not, you know, changing the climate, because by getting rich, by protecting our infrastructure, by moving better, we can adapt to the lock of nature. You also referred to the failure of this regime, and it is still the remnants of the Maduro regime running the show. Maduro was exfiltrated by our... guys and gals and they did an incredible job and it's a new day in Venezuela in a lot of ways except it's the old crew some of them who are still in charge of government and I understand why people would be outraged that they did such a terrible job and then a predatory job after this huge natural disaster of course people would be furious with the government I just wonder because I I can imagine You and I exchanged messages the day that the Maduro operation was executed to perfection. At the direction of and under the orders of President Trump, I think that was a great decision that he made. I can imagine it might have been one of the best days of your life, and a lot of Venezuelans felt the same way. I just met one of them the other day, actually, he's living in America, how his family was overjoyed by what happened and is still very happy about it. That being said, I think there is a question, at least in my mind.

And you can speak to this much better than I can, which is why we asked you to come on, that there has to at some point be movement in a better direction. And I know that the goal was eventually to get to free and fair elections that have been clamped down and destroyed again by the socialist government. It seems like the Trump administration kind of had their... henchwoman from the existing regime as a placeholder for a while to extract some of what we wanted out of the country. And I get that in terms of our interest in this country, but still part of our interest is American values and free and fair elections. I know that President Trump and Marco Rubio are immensely popular figures within Venezuela. The current leader, quote unquote, is not popular at all. There's other people and alternatives who are quite popular among the Venezuelan people. the anger directed at this government, given the fact that we are now, to some extent, propping up this government, what do you think we're looking at in terms of a time frame here of getting to the next stage of this political rebuild? Well, let me set some facts here about what's happening and what could happen. So, yes, elections have been the goal from the beginning, from what Marco Rubio has said. The question is when? because they need to happen under the Trump administration or they won't happen. That's an important fact. The second issue here is that the regime does not want those elections to happen. They want to delay them so that they can stay beyond the Trump administration. This is why this is not a question about promoting American values. This is a question of America's interest, because America's interest will not be a poor country run by a narco-trafficking regime that is still the same people when Trump leaves office that goes back to exporting drugs. and confiscating property if they remain in power. Because that's what's going to happen if there are no elections. It's not like we just turn them into some sort of free market capitalist dictatorship al-Singapore or UAE. That's not what we're seeing in Venezuela. I wish that was the case. If that was the case, who needs democracy, right? But that's not the case in Venezuela. And so... The question is who is going to win? Because there are many interests at play. There's a huge lobbying effort on both sides, it seems, if you look at what's happening in with regards to the Venezuela issue, of people trying to get the Trump administration to just accept Delsey and people trying to get the Trump administration to accept Delsey. Delsey is this holdover. Yes. dictator, yep. And the thing is, even if you said, well, what the Trump administration should do is get DELC to reform the institutions in preparation, right? That sounds like a very reasonable thing. The problem is there is not a single Venezuelan who is college educator, let's say, and who has, you know, some sort of integrity, willing to work for the DELC regime in preparation for the shifting institutions.

There's not a single person. In fact, I have sources who've told me that the U.S. wanted to get better people in the central bank and all the financial institutions of the Venezuelan government, and they couldn't find a single Venezuelan economist who was willing to take the job. Because nobody's willing to turn its reputation and work for a murderer like Delsey Rodriguez, which is why the political transition at the top of elections seems to be more important, in my opinion, if you want a transition in the institutions. Are you confident that those elections are going to happen within the next one, two years? I don't know what the time horizon looks like, but what do you think? I don't know. I don't know because I see a lot of people, to be honest, guy, who are totally paid off influencers online who have been trying to, well, since before Trump took down Maduro, the same people who had been trying to get him to lift sanctions. and do some kind of intent with Majuro and understanding and deals are the same people who are now lobbying for there to not be elections in Venezuela, right? You know, you probably saw the political report about all the influencing network that included some important Republican donors, but also Biden people that were working together to lobby the president to protect Maduro. included a former congressman, included a former Biden's national security advisor. And so this is what we're dealing with, right? We're dealing with a regime that has a lot of money and interesting saying in power. And it's trying to lobby people in the Trump administration to protect themselves. I hope they lose. I hope America wins. I just can't predict the future. Same here, my friend. But you can predict certain things like, will socialism work? somewhere the answer is no it always is i want to explore some of that as soon as we come back daniel de martino with us on Guy Benson keep it here same issues but with a fresh perspective Guy Benson This is going to be an extremely busy month. I have to watch 104 soccer games. Follow the pregame, the post game, yell useless opinions at the TV. It's a lot. So I knew that when it comes to screening for colon cancer, the choice was clear. The Coligard Plus test. It can be used at home and can only take 15 minutes, so I can do it during halftime and not miss any action. If you are 45 or older and at average risk, ask your healthcare provider about screening for colon cancer with the Coligard test. You can also request a prescription at coligart.com.

Back here on Guy Benson, our guest is Daniel DiMartino. He's a Venezuelan immigrant to the United States. He's a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. All right, Daniel, let me ask you about this. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington State. She was for a while the chair of the House Progressive Caucus. She was just the other day, again, doing what we hear from these people all the time, singing the praises of Cuba's health care system, their universal health care system. And she said, Cuba has shown us what universal health care actually looks like. And she said that it's like better than what we have here. Meanwhile, you juxtapose that with an island-wide blackout that we just saw a few days ago. I can't imagine that's helpful to their health care system or anything else. But what do you make of comments like that when you see Americans, and this dates back to Michael Moore and others through the years saying, well, look at Cuba and their paragon of health care policy. Well, I know that Hajapal had a tough pregnancy. She speaks about that very often, and she speaks about how Cuba has the best infant care and maternal care in the world. Why didn't she go give birth in Cuba? In fact, I give you another bonus. Cuba has birthright citizenship, too. She could have had a Cuban child. What an amazing blessing, right, given that they have all these beautiful rights and system. So why don't all these socialists just go and get treated in Cuba? Would she advise her daughter to go give birth if she has a child in Cuba, given that they have such a wonderful universal health care system that she places? No, she doesn't, because she's lying. She does not care even at all about Cuba. I don't think she does. I think that her goal is to use that island to lie to Americas to implement those policies here because they want power. Nobody who places the Cuban regime is doing so in good intentions, especially not. highly educated people in power, elected office like Hajapal, right? Like, I can understand a college student who's never read a thing, bracing Cuba, right? It's out of ignorance, but she's not doing so out of ignorance. It does seem as though a lot of people throughout Latin America voters are rejecting left-wing politics and socialism, having seen the failures over and over again. Just recently we saw Peru, we saw Colombia. Of course, a huge one being Argentina, where I was just down there recently. There's hope for the reasons that we just talked about in Venezuela, given what happened there. There are a few other examples. Yeah, Chile, Costa Rica, right? We could keep going. Maybe Brazil down the line here in their big national election, which seems very competitive and very tight. What's your read on Latin American politics and a very clear right-word shift at least over the last couple of years? Well, I see that this is going to be a good thing for Latin America, and it's going to be a good thing for the United States, too, because the division between right and left in Latin America is not just about taxes and free enterprise. It's also about crime. And with crime, I don't mean the robbers in the street, that's part of it, but the narco-trafficking gangs that control the continent and that have been poisoning the United States. And these are governments that really want to stop that because this is a bad thing for Latin America and bad thing for the world.

I think they succeed stopping that. And I think they will because the Trump administration is partnering with them militarily to strike those groups in Venezuela, in Colombia, in Ecuador, in Peru, in Mexico, in El Salvador. That is going to be incredibly beneficial for the world. It's going to bring so much more prosperity to the continent. The big question that these governments are going to have is, how do they sustain an economic recovery such that voters don't go back? to the radical left that was governing those places, right? Because that's what they're trying to do, those leftist groups. They want to sabotage it all so that they go back to powers. What they're trying to do in Argentina, as you know well. And not all these, quote-unquote, conservative governments are doing the same good things, right? They're all different people. Millet is doing very radical reforms that are good, but those reforms don't seem to be happening, for example, so far in Chile. and people now have a lot of discontent in Chile. Surely they're not harming the country or anything, but they haven't passed a single law, despite having a majority in Congress. So these right-wing leaders are going to have to live up to the expectations they've created. Are they going to be bold like Millet, or are they just all talk, no action? Yeah, and on the Javier Milei point, just very quickly, and I mentioned this when I came back from Argentina just recently, but it was something that blew me away. When we were down there, When we went out to go shopping or to almost any store, there were no price tags on anything. There were QR codes because inflation was so bad the prices were changing daily. And they couldn't keep up with it, putting price tags on garments and that sort of thing. So they said, just scan the code and you can see what the price is. And finally, that has been slowing down dramatically. He has slash inflation in a big, big way. And one of our tour guides said, I can go into a grocery store now at the beginning of the week and buy my favorite beer, and it's going to cost the same in a few days. He's like, what a luxury? We haven't had that in a while. It's just an example of how insane the inflation was down there. You know, Daniel, before I let you go, just a few minutes left, you go all over the country, especially speaking to young people. I'm very glad that you do this on campuses, et cetera, to warn people about socialism. Your family, you lived under socialism. In Venezuela, you escaped it. And now you're seeing in your new country, your adopted country, the United States, rising socialism and excitement about this ideology among a lot of young people. And we're starting to see that now have impacts on elections, of course. What are your thoughts as you see the thing that you escaped that was so oppressive and destructive now getting more of a foothold here? That I am a little scared. And I don't think that they are going to get a majority of Americans to support them. Certainly not the people who have been winning office in, say, very blue areas like Darylisa, Avila Chevalier in Harlem, the Marxists who hates America, and all the other Zohran Mamdani and Dorsey's and such. But they're definitely going to have a hold that is significant in Congress. I suspect they're going to quit their own caucus, like the socialist caucus in Congress. And they're going to have power over the Democrat Party because they're probably going to need them to govern once they have a majority if they do, right? Because they're going to depend on them. It's going to become like the socialist version of the House Freedom Caucus.

And that is going to be very bad for America. And that's where the base is headed to, right? And the rising younger base of the party really wants this badly. And you're out there saying, hang on, guys, we know what this looks like. It's terrible for any country, especially this one. We want to have you back to actually walk through some of those arguments very soon because I think it is salient and important. Daniel DiMartino of the Manhattan Institute, a Venezuelan immigrant here on the show. Daniel, thank you so much. Thank you, guys. And we'll be right back. Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.com with code FNRadio 20. 20% discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31st, 2026. Must be 21 order to order. Please drink responsibly. Guy Benson, sponsored by Previgin. Previgin, made for your brain. Halfway through Guy Benson, Thursday edition. Thank you for tuning in. Always appreciate that. Thank you, Previgin, our sponsor, Guy Benson.com, our online home here, podcast free. That would be the entire show on demand, no charge every single day. That's at guybenson's show.com or foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, joining us now is Jessica Tarloff, Fox News contributor, co-host of the five. And Jessica, it's great to have you back here. Thank you. It's been a while. It has been. And there's a few things that I want to catch up on. Maybe we'll get to politics. Maybe we won't. But for a long time. On this program, one of your many titles that we actually put into your intro is that you were chief baby correspondent here at the show. And so I want to dust that off a little bit and pick your brain because you are a mother of two and I am, God willing, about to become the father of two. as we are expecting potentially any day now, the arrival of our daughter. And it's very exciting. It is also a bit nerve-wracking because it is a big, big change for the family and the whole dynamic and all of it. So I'm hoping you can give me some advice. Does that sound reasonable? It does seem reasonable. I'll start with a disclaimer that every child is different and like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But... I will say that it is the most happy madness you will ever engage in in your life, having two kids. And watching them interacting with each other is the most bliss out that I've ever been in my life. And you are in for such joy. I did, and it's probably not what you wanted to hear. I found one to two harder than zero to one. And it's a zone versus man-to-man problem because I'm also a chief basketball correspondent, maybe. Well, trust me, we're going to get to basketball, actually. It's next on the rundown. I'm not even kidding. But no, please go on because this was the question that I was going to get to. I have heard.

from people who've reached out to me, people who have emailed, people who follow me on Instagram at Guy Benson, they'll send me messages. And I've heard from parents, and I've heard both things. Some people saying zero to one was a jarring, huge sea change, and then one to two wasn't that difficult. I've heard other people saying one to two was a lot harder than zero to one. And then other people saying... Really, the most challenging stuff is when you get up into three or more, because two is handleable. I know that's not your realm. You're at two. I think you might be stopping it, too. I think that's our plan. But this is one of those big debates, is zero to one harder than one to two. And you're coming down in the latter camp, and you're right. That's not what I want to hear. Why? Give me your experience. There's just no, like, you do that, like, I'm going to take a nap. while you nap because the other one is awake, right? And there's like... energy to your first baby and you also do want to do things together and you're like this cute threesome right where you're just like I want to make sure I don't miss anything that Conrad's doing and now you're like older and more tired and you know neither of you are going to be the birthing person involved in this but like I had my second at 40 I was old you know and Life is, and it's a good thing, but think how much more successful you are than you were when you guys had Conrad, right? How many more asks there are for your time, right? How many more directions you're being pulled in? Like, it's just a different life. You know what I mean? It doesn't, it's not. it's not a bad thing because like it's the most joy that I've had and knowing that they're going to have each other when we're not here is so important to me. But I'm like an old tired lady with two very energetic little girl. So I want to come back to the age thing in a second about the kids. But number one, just for the record, I don't think birthing person is in Guy Benson style guide. You're welcome to use it. Secondly, stop. You were not an old lady. You are young and vibrant, but I know that when it comes to giving birth, yes, on the older side of things. Do they still call it geriatric pregnancy? I thought that was a bit much. Well, now, some people, if they're being generous, just say you're in advanced maternal age, which is after 35. But I asked my OB, you know, I live in Manhattan. My doctor is based in Union Square, so like in the middle of the city. I said, do you even have a patient who's pregnant right now who is not a geriatric pregnancy? And she said no.

Like, they don't exist. You're basically a child bride if you're having a kid in your early 30. Maybe in Manhattan, right? I think in most of the rest of the country, right? It's a little different. Oh, I know. But I'm saying, like, you're in D.C., right? It's not that different. I mean, Virginia might be different. But, like, the way that our lives work now and also with the careers that women have and that, you know, about half of us are breadwinners in our household, like that's... That takes time, right? And it takes time to find the right person. So I wouldn't change any of it. Oh, I wanted to add this as to why one to two was harder for me and then zero to one. And it's because Brian and I, my husband, we didn't really date. Like we didn't have a life before COVID together. So we didn't like travel the world together or have all of these memories or this feeling of anything that we're giving up. Like we got pregnant pretty quickly and got married and just started being a family. And so I don't think that I was mourning the loss. of a past life as much. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I do. Like, we're just a family. So I'm excited for what comes after for us. I feel like we're going to go on our first date in like 2040 or something like that. You can maybe get down on the calendar now because you're pretty busy. I am. That's also my point. Everyone wants my time. By the way, speaking of your busyness, I just, I realize I have not plugged your book, which is forthcoming. Is that right? Do you want to plug the book? Yeah, always. My book, it comes out September 15th. I disagree, winning arguments without losing friends. Here we are, a testament to the book. You would probably say I'm not winning arguments all that often. But I'm also not losing friends, and we could all do better at keeping. cross-political friendships and tax. Love it, love it. Pre-order it now. September 15th, we've got some time. In fact, I will be back, knock on wood, from parental leave by the time the book comes out, so we'll definitely have to have you here, and I'll have to read it and all of that. I hope you will be generous enough to send me an advanced copy so we can do it properly. Back to the kids, though. So what is your age gap? What are the girls' ages? Two years and four months. Okay. We have a bigger gap. It'll be a little over two and a half years, but fairly similar. It's the same, two grades. Yeah, exactly, two school grades. Which is what I wanted. Yeah. What is the, because one of the other big changes is we are planning for our son a little preschool action starting in September. So that is, you know, like another wrinkle in all this, but also. gives us some coverage multiple days a week for multiple hours and gets him socialized and going through an educational process. We're really excited about the school that we've chosen there. But it's like so much stuff is happening so quickly with the arrival of this baby girl at some point, God willing, next week.

We've been telling him. I feel like this snuck up on me that it's like next week. Oh, yeah, me too. You're telling me. I'm like, wait a second. But it's, God willing, going to be next week. And, you know, if not sooner, but we're rooting for next week. In the buildup to this, we have told him. about his baby sister and that she's coming and we've gotten sort of the nursery ready where we moved my home studio out of there and then we painted it and we've gotten the whole nursery ready to go and he's seen that process so he's he's a pretty smart kid and he gets that something big is happening he says the words back to us about baby sister he'll say things like we're going to be quiet for the baby we're going to be gentle with the baby he'll like he'll say shh and that sort of thing it's very very cute he knows her name he'll say that but he's also in that little toddler brain been like okay guys you've been telling me about this person i think forever and like where is she and that answer will arrive soon enough but like what was the reaction of your eldest when the sister came along and and how did you negotiate that because it can be it can be you know weird and jarring for a kid who was an only child and no longer So Cleo was all in and very happy and not jealous at all. Oh, nice. Yeah. That made a huge difference. There was no, like, loki, I'm going to try to drown this baby or something like that. But we also did, and I'm not sure how much help you guys are going to have in early days, but I had been told by friends with multiple kids to make sure that you're doing a lot of stuff alone with the older one. And that... really helped, I think. We did a bunch of special stuff. Like, you know, going to this play place, going to the park, you know, just us and not saying, oh, we'll bring the baby. It's like, let's go. You know. It's like you're still special. We still have these things that we do just us. Yes. Right. And our bedtimes, I would love for, I'd love to move Teddy, my younger one, into the same room for bedtime. We do separate bedtime ritual in the reading, the book reading, and that also helped a lot too. Because, like, Cleo has her system, right? Like, we have our, you know, we go through this routine. She gets two books. Like, I do the books with her. The Brian comes in for his good night, you know. And I think that she. It helps her to still feel like we are, to some degree, a threesome. And that certain things are still the same, right? Like when we put him down at night, if I'm here, which I often am, that's my job. And we do a thing, and this is his routine, right? You said there's a program, and that's a good way of putting it, I think. We get him out of his clothes. We get him into his night.

diaper and pajamas and all of that then we brush his teeth then we play a little game where i hide and he comes and finds me and i scare him even though he knows exactly where i am and he giggles and screams we do it twice then we read a book or two then we watch i'm not kidding a music video or a scene from the movie sister act that he's obsessed with and then we put him down we say a prayer and that's it And I think if we can keep that going as age appropriate, of course, for him, like I think maybe that that's a really good point, like an anchor of something very familiar that does not change. I do want to ask because you mentioned the question of help, and this is obviously sensitive and some people have no help. And I think just how blown away I am by single parents and how they're able to do it. It is just like superhero stuff, having now been a parent of one. I think that respect is going to go up even further. Then there's other people who have just enormous amounts of help and therefore often enormous amounts of money. And I'm somewhere in between there where we have definitely some help, but not like, you know, constant around the clock, hey, I'm inconvenienced, please do it. Like, how do you guys handle that? Yeah, so, I mean, I think the question of, like, our meta-help strategy and what the first couple of months look like are different. So, you know, like, well, you have a kid, you know, one kid in full-time school now and one who does a little preschool, you know, a little, it starts at 18 months. She goes three mornings a week to do that. So, but that's all very different than bringing baby home. investing in, and I think we have talked about this offline, that there is no better money than that we have spent in our lives than on a baby nurse for sleep training. Because I just, I'm sure I could have done it, but it feels as if I could not. And she turned both of our kids into machines. You know, like expert sleepers. And we have, we have that ace up our sleeves as well that was just a miracle worker with our first and we're planning. We've got her back for our second. And it's not every night by any stretch. She simply cannot afford it. But a couple nights a week just for our own sanity and sleep and all of that. And she's really, really good. So I think we were on the same page there. To go out yourselves or to take Conrad out and like go and do something because the baby. doesn't know who you are for a while. Right. Like there are kids that, you know, it's super sad, but, like, are in a NICU, right, for months. And they have no recollection of anything that happened there or, you know, people, kids get adopted. And they become fine and well-adjusted and all of that. Right. Like, they're not going to remember who sleep trained them or who, like, caught the belly button cord. I think that is very fair. Let me, because I don't want to miss this part of the conversation, and I did, in fact, tease that we were going to get there before we let you go, Jessica Tarloff, a subject that I know you want to talk about. That's next. Miss a minute. Miss a lot. Guy Benson.

We are back. It's Guy Benson. Jessica Tarloff, our friend and colleague, is with us. And I was teeing this up right before the break, Jessica. You talked about being potentially the basketball correspondent here at the show. You know I'm not a big NBA fan at all. I do follow college basketball. I'm much more of a hockey fan, which is a tease of things to come later in the show. But... Growing up as a Knicks fan, as a kid in the 90s during the golden age of NBA basketball, to see them do what they did this season was really exciting. I did a whole monologue about how I think Jalen Brunson is just this phenomenal human being, amazing leader, all the things I'm just, I'm very taken by him. You are a big, big Knicks fan. And there's been so much. just frustration and sadness in that franchise and within that fan base for so, so long, and for us to see them finally do it. And in the face of a lot of naysayers, and to do it in dominant fashion, the way that they did it and seeing the city come alive and all that, I just wonder, I was happy for them. I was rooting very kind of casually for them. You must have been like on top of the world, and we haven't spoken since they clinched the whole thing. So I just want to let you speak to that. I mean, it was, the whole city was electric. I'm not sure if you're a Pablo Torre fan. I am not in particular, but fair enough, go on. Pablo, I think, put it the best. He said this whole city is just horny right now. Oh, my. Like, everybody is walking around, like, feeling themselves, essentially. It was great. It was super unifying. This Knicks team is also full of such likable characters. Yes, yes, yes. Right, like Jalen Brunson, of course, but, like, Josh Hart. And Mitchell Robinson, I'm sad that he's gone to Boston, but got to get that bag. I totally get it. And Carl Anthony Towns, it's a really great redemption arc for him. You know, someone who has been derided as, you know, too soft, not clutch, et cetera. He not only overperformed, but I think if I want to get meta about this team, I felt like they were really modeling. a healthy masculinity. Like, there were such bros and family men and such supportive teammates. And you were just like, I want to be friends with these guys. Right? Like, they were going to... they're going to be there for me no matter what. And then they were, and they were for the whole city. And they won the whole thing. And by the way, I just have to note, especially during the finals, some of those ticket prices, it was like the difference between can you pay for child care for a year or?

buy one ticket to the game. It was crazy, but man, the garden seemed like it was going to, like the roof was going to blow off a few times. So congrats to you and all the Knicks fans into the Knicks. Just want to get that in there. Jessica Tarloff, no politics today. Enjoyed the chat, and we'll talk soon. Awesome. Thank you. Final hour of Guy Benson up next. Donna Rotuno joins us from Utah on the Charlie Kirk assassination trial. That's coming up. Raise your glass to Guy Benson Happy Hour. Brought to you by the Finnish Long Drink. Finland's most popular alcoholic beverage is taking America by storm. Visit thelongdrink.com. And now, here's Guy Benson. hour here on Guy Benson. It's our final hour of three on this Thursday. Thank you all very much for joining us. Guy Benson.com is our website. The podcast is free there every day on demand, lots of content and goodies at Guy Benson.com. And if you're looking for that podcast elsewhere, you can go to Fox Newspodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. This radio hour, sponsored by our good friends at the Finnish Long Drink, it is... Delicious. It is refreshing. I am a fan. Many of you have told us you are as well. We encourage you always, of course, to drink responsibly. 21 plus only, please, thelongdrink.com for more information. GBS at fox.com if you want to send us an email. That might come into play later on in the hour, by the way. You can also follow us on social media if you like at Guy Benson's show across multiple platforms. I'm Guy Benson, personally, many of those same places. And now let's turn to a topic that is important but decidedly unhappy. And joining us now from Utah is Donna Rotuno. She's a Fox News contributor. She's a criminal defense attorney. She is host of the Fox News True Crime Podcast called Crime and Justice. Donna, we really appreciate your time. Thank you for being here. Thank you. All right. Let's talk about the developments in this case. involving the accused killer of Charlie Kirk. We were talking earlier in the week with Matt Finn. We talked with a friend of Charlie's yesterday in Riley Gaines. You're a criminal defense attorney. You're a legal expert. Over these last couple days of these hearings, what stands out to you so far? Well, the level of frustration that we all feel really stands out, whether you're in the courtroom, whether you're a family member of Charlie Kirk, whether you're part of the media that's watching this or the public, frankly. This is something that has dragged on in a way I have never seen a court proceeding happen. Now, you know, getting to the point where we are today, Mr. Twiggs was just, you know, technically on the stand in quotes, giving his testimony via a video that he had answered.

prior to when he was talking to police. And so I think that's probably the lynchpin and the ending, I'm hoping, of the prosecutor's case. If I'm the prosecutor after this testimony that's happening right now with one of the detectives on the stand and the statement now being played, I would be resting my case. The defense has shown that all they want to do here is object and complain about every piece of evidence. You know, they have a job to do. And, of course, as you said, Guy, I am a defense attorney and in my job to make sure that we defend our clients and protect our clients' rights. But there's a difference between doing that and walking the line and being, you know, borderline obstructionist. And I think that's what's happening here. And so I'm hoping. So if you, just to jump in, if you were thrust into duty to defend this person, you would not. be doing what these lawyers are doing. This is what it sounds like. No, I wouldn't. I would be defending my client. I'd be making objections. And when the judge rules, I'd move on. I wouldn't continue. And if you think there's some issue to take to the higher court, then you do that. But beyond that, you know, these issues that were brought up yesterday, these are issues that were lifted two, three weeks ago in this court, try to go at this. And so if I was the judge yesterday, I would have said, I've heard your objections. We're moving on. Do you think the judge is being too accommodating, too lenient? Yeah, at some point, you have to say enough is enough. You have to set boundaries. You have to say, we had a schedule. You've had your opportunity to make objections prior to this hearing. I mean, just the notion alone that yesterday, they decide to raise more objections about evidence that's about to come in when they already started court later in the day. And if you were going to make these, why not make these the night before? So the judge has all morning. to deal with this, but it just felt like such a delay tactic yesterday and in a very unnecessary way. And what's the point of it? Because if the evidence is what it is, you can make this giant show and kick the can a little bit down the road and delay a little bit, but that's not exactly achieving, in my mind, much of anything, unless I'm missing something. No, I agree with you. I don't think the end goal achieves anything other than the fact that part of me starting to think that a lot of this has to do with, let's bury them in motion filing, let's make the state so crazy with all the work that we're going to pile on them, that maybe they come to us with the plea to take the death penalty off the table. Because frankly, I think as we're looking at all the evidence that has come out here, the last three days now, now four, we're looking at this and we're saying, okay, there's a mountain of evidence here. What could they possibly do to help defend him? And I think probably the only win would be the removal of capital punishment. And so that could be the tactic here. So you mentioned the evidence, and it's important to note here. This is not the actual trial. There's no jury. This is a preliminary series of hearings, but we're getting a very important preview of the evidence against the accused, who is this radical leftist, who was radicalized by politics and allegedly targeted Charlie for that reason. And it was tied into his lover and a few other things as well in terms of at least his ideology and his anger toward Charlie and what Charlie Kirk.

believed in what he espoused. Even as a defense attorney, you know, sometimes you can just say, gosh, this is a really brutal open and shut case in terms of the evidence they've got. As a layperson, it seems to me that this is about as damning as you can imagine in terms of what they have against the defendant run through it for us. I mean, is this in your mind pretty decisive or very decisive? I think it's extremely decisive. Let's think about what we have. video evidence, right? We have the surveillance videos from the campus. We have the text messages. So you have the digital evidence between Tyler Robinson, between other Discord people. You have the messages on Discord between Tyler and Lance Twigs. You have the text messages between Tyler and Lance Twigs. You have Lance Twigs testimony talking about the day this happened and the day after Charlie was brutally murdered. You have DNA. You have ballistics. You have video of the campus. You have him coming and going. I mean, there is, and then you have his own words to Mr. Twiggs when he says, I'm going to turn myself in with my parents. I did this. I wish I didn't do it. And then starts talking about some hate can't be negotiated. So the motive is there. The reason he did it is there. Right. Justifying. Yeah, exactly right. And remember. Tyler Robinson was not a student at Utah, Utah Valley University. He was just going there that day for this purpose and this purpose alone. So the fact that he's on that surveillance and he's on a couple of times, he changes his clothes. And Guy, they showed a video yesterday of him turning himself in to the sheriff's office and he's wearing the same set of clothes he had on in the first video that we saw from Utah Valley University on September 10th. Let's talk about this lover, the boyfriend, the trans individual, however they are referred to, and that testimony, or at least that interview. There was a big, I guess, hullabaloo in the courtroom around that interview, what would be shown, what would be made public? What was the prosecution saying? What was the defense saying? I mean, the prosecutors wanted the entire video played. They wanted every aspect of it played. The defense was saying, no, we don't want this played out to the public. It violates our clients due process. We were not going to be able to pick a fair jury. And mind you, if they were so worried about that, they could have waived this preliminary hearing. But part of me thinks they want some of this out there, too. And then we have the Erika Kirk's lawyer talking about how Erika Kirk and the Kirk family want transparency. They want all of the evidence shown. They want everything played. What the judge did was, yeah, and the judge decided to weigh that, and he made a decision that the statement was coming in. Some of it was video, some of it was audio. He cut about 20 minutes out of it, and he just deemed that that wasn't relevant for this hearing.

Let me read to you the statement from Erika Kirk and the Kirk family's attorney, quoting, the Kirk family believes strongly that if the evidence is being admitted in this preliminary hearing, it should be made public for the world to see. No redactions. This court has tools at its disposal to make sure the defendant receives a fair trial. You'll use them if you find that you need to. That's it, Your Honor. To not be transparent here, to not be open, to not let the world see what happened, will create doubt and distrust in the judicial system. And that's not what anybody wants. That's not what any of us believe should happen here. And we'd ask the court to consider the position of the family in making its ultimate decision. Thank you. So that was the statement from the lawyer in court. And it seems as though the judge took that to heart and agreed with the family based on what you just said. significant win for the prosecution. But again, all this just seems to be almost academic because at some point, this is all going to come out in front of jurors, right? Absolutely, Guy. And remember, there's no jury here. This is the judge deciding on all of this. So every piece of evidence that he's reviewing, he's seeing the whole portion of it, regardless of what the rest of us see. So, you know, they're making a big deal about what they don't want out in the media, but yet at times they're then playing to the media with a lot of these arguments. And so it's a very frustrating thing to watch, especially when most preliminary hearings last. you know, from anywhere from 20 minutes to maybe a day in very complex cases, maybe a couple of days, but it's very rare. I've been practicing law 26 years. I do several preliminary hearings a week. I've never seen anything like this. Which is really saying a lot, given the depth of your experience over those decades that you just mentioned. An extraordinary case, of course. Lots of interests in it, and we'll be following the twists and turns as best we can in the days and weeks ahead. This preliminary process already dragging on, as you pointed out, and then comes the trial itself, and of course all important jury selection, et cetera. And we will likely have you back, Donna, if you're able to do so in the future as we analyze what is happening out there in Utah. Donna Rotuno, Fox News contributor, criminal defense attorney, and host of the brand. new Fox True Crime Podcast, Crime and Justice with Donna Rotuno. Thank you so much. I know you're running to TV. Donna, I appreciate it very much. With that, we will step aside and come back with more on Guy Benson happy hour. Not the same talking points here, Guy Benson.

Guy Benson happy hour. Earlier in today's show in our first hour, we had a great conversation with Yemisei, Egg Bay Wallet. She is a Democratic strategist. She was a Biden White House official. She's been on fire recently on the grand platinum issue that has been roiling her political party. If you miss part of that conversation, I want you to hear some of it here, the entire show, of course, available at Guy Benson.com on the podcast. But in the first hour, here was part of my conversation with Yemise. Let me just first compliment you on your tweets recently. They're just golden. So good. Some of my friends are texting me like, whoa, she is en fuego. I'm like, I know. I'm just sitting back and watching it. And it's got to be on some level. alarming because you're seeing some of the things going on within your party that led to this moment. And obviously you're frustrated deeply by it, to put it mildly, but also vindicating because the things that were right in front of all of us that were so obvious that you were getting attacked for and other people were getting gaslit on, it all just sort of blew up here. So you're doing a pretty... dramatic round of told you so's kind of a a bit of a victory lap although it probably doesn't feel all that much like a victory just talk us through how you're feeling about this this platinum mess well i have been saying that this man is a problem since october when the reddit comments that were uh racially insensitive and the tattoo dropped basically within days of each other i said this guy was bad news and i was told that i don't understand working class voters that I don't understand white voters, that I don't understand Maine. And I was told that repeatedly every single time that I was asked on news, on podcasts about the race in Maine and what was happening with Graham Platner. You'll never be able to add me to a supercut of people complimenting that man. I thought that he was a moral husk of a human being. And as somebody raised by two working class immigrant parents, I knew that working class people actually have the strongest values because they have worked so hard to obtain things. and also maintain the level of comfort that they have and that they provide to their families. So I saw a red flag and a lot of us were waving it, but... What we were drowned out by is the noise that happens on the far left, who in Graham Platner, in this costume, saw a hero. And they saw something that they thought Democrats were not. And I think this whole entire simulation or experiment, I hope, has taught a lot of people that character actually does matter. And that, Graham Platner, who they thought had the objective of beating Susan Collins, really only had the objective of beating his own party within his own state. I think calling him working class is sort of a joke because it doesn't really seem like he's done much working and is a nepo baby, rich kid, and also a ward of the state getting a lot of government benefits. Like I think working class doesn't seem like a...

uh qualifier descriptor that actually fits the man but i guess it was sort of like a minstrel show a class minstrel show yeah and can i say i thought that when it was revealed that he wasn't working class when the hotchkiss and the two hundred thousand dollar loan and oyster business propped up by mommy all of that i actually thought was like okay fine you don't care about the nazi tattoos you don't care about how like black and jewish people feel that's fine Do you at least care that he lied about his narrative? And that wasn't even fully addressed. And the tipping point for me truly was when he did his cover interview with Chris Hayes on MS Now. And he was asked questions about the New York Times article, which I also thought was going to be the line. And a lot of people ran cover for this man. And I just will not allow them now that we are on the other side of this to say, well, I always had a feeling or I felt something was not right. No, you were willing to ride it out all the way to the end with this man. I've taken a few shots at the Obama Pod Bros. And they have a lot, I mean, between Hasan Piker and the Pod Bros, I mean, these are some of the most influential people, it seems, in left politics right now. And kind of their ringleader was talking about how. He knew that Graham Platner was a good and decent man and all this stuff wasn't fair. It's also wild to see Hasan Piker saying, oh, well, the Nazi tattoo was always a red flag for me. Was it? What evidence do we have that that was a red flag for him at all? And I'm also a little bit surprised that Hasan Piker walking away supposedly because of the alleged rape. I mean, Pikers on the record saying he does not care. that Jewish women were raped on October 7th by Hamas. So I don't understand where these lines are if they exist. It seems like the line is, can he win or not? And when they decide no, that's the line. It also is frustrating because they were so blinded, and to go back to Gaza, they made that an issue that Graham Platner ran on. When people ask me about his policies, I say this wasn't a man that ran on policies. He ran on aesthetics and vibes. And then he had a hodgepodge of buzzwords, billionaires, corporate elites, socialism, and also Israel and Gaza. Recent polling shows that 3% of Mainers. vote based on foreign policy. I do not know what someone in upstate Maine is thinking about Israel and Gaza when they're just trying to live their day-to-day life. He really ran on somebody else's ideology. And what those folks found out is that he's a con man. I want to play you a clip. I know that you have seen it because you commented on social media. This is... You can maybe tell us about this cast of characters, but again, this is part of like the pod universe on the left. Now there's been a lot of hand-wringing about the manosphere and right-wing podcast and right-wing meat and all that, but there's a whole wild world out there on the left, and there's a woman that you've tangled with on these issues. And here was part of her, I guess, confession, if you will, of how she views politics and character, to your point, in cut 21.

I don't really care if, say, like, Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez go home and they're a secret Nazi, but they go out and they vote for the right things. Like, we're talking about politicians as... I mean, for the... I think these are the lines that people are talking about. Some people care about that exact thing. That full interview available online at Guy Benson.com, as I mentioned, part of the free podcast every day on demand, no charge. When we come back, an extended home stretch on a topic that I'm very excited about. I hope you're going to agree with me. Well, it's coming up. it's time for your favorite segment of the day. Home stretch. It's basically the only segment I'm on, so I've declared it the audience's favorite segment. Guy Benson. Home stretch on Guy Benson on this Thursday. Thanks for being here. Tomorrow I'll be, God willing, in Southern California doing the program. Looking forward to that. Guy Benson.com, the website always, no matter where we are. Podcast free of charge on demand every day, plus bonus Guy Benson on the weekends. Those are consistent things. Now, just because the 4th of July was last weekend does not mean that we are now done with our patriotic celebration of America 250. No, no, my friends. It is still Independence Month. It is America 250 year. And if we have good excuses to do patriotic content, oh, we're going to do it. Including this one today, and it was sparked by a debate that I saw on social media. Several people were posting videos of what many consider, and I might agree, many consider to be the most iconic, epic rendition of the American National Anthem ever performed. And there were some people who were not in agreement and folks were fighting about it and going back and forth and disputing it. Fine, fair enough. So I decided that I would sort of go through and give a couple examples that come to my mind when it comes to excellent and not so excellent renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner. So let me just warn you now, buckle up. If you're not a fan of the anthem, I think most of you probably are. But if you're not prepared for lots of anthem, then this might not be the segment for you. But if you are ready, if you are star-spangled with me, let's dig in. So I will give a shout-out because we had done this at least a number of months ago. I just want to go back and give this tip of the cap, maybe an honorable mention, if you will. To Charlie Puth, who I think is super charming and talented and all these things, he gave the anthem performance at the Super Bowl, the most recent Super Bowl, and I thought it was just superb. Fairly simple, but...

Just showing off real talent. He was standing at the keyboard really, really well done. I will not play a snippet from Puth because we did so at the time. But I did not want to just let that one slide. It was a very high profile anthem very recently, and he was really good. Then, just before the USA game, the first one of the World Cup, it was, I believe, Paraguay, USA versus Paraguay. It was... The very opening sort of ceremony, if you will, of this World Cup, which is still going on. Of course, we're hosting it here. The country music duo, Dan and Shea, sang the anthem. And it was electric. It gave me goosebumps. If you missed it, here's the conclusion. Cut 39. So I'm a sucker for really good harmony, and that was perfect. Disciplined, executed flawlessly, and then just the voices you can hear in the stadium in the background, tens of thousands of people belting it out with them. It is a hard song to sing. My vocal range is not good. I could not do this well. But they nailed it. The crowd sang along. It was great. Now, here's another one that's a bit of a deep pull. Probably not something that is terribly familiar to many of you, but it is meaningful to me, and I think you will agree with my assessment of this. As a lot of you know, I'm a big fan of the New Jersey Devils. NHL hockey team. based in my home state. My family and I go to a lot of games. We follow them very, very closely. We love them. We get frustrated by them. Hoping to turn a new page coming into the next season with this offseason, the new GM, etc. I will not go down that path. But in New Jersey, at the Prudential Center, home of the devils, the anthem singer, it's not every game, but it is many, many, many games, maybe most games. For years, all the way back to the old arena, is a woman named Arlette. And Arlette does the anthem. It is consistent every time. It is really good every time. And she does it alongside the organist. And they've worked together for years as well. So he's up there playing the organ. She's down on the ice singing. And the cadence that they have together, I also love organ music. And the way that they do it with their tempo and their pacing and her voice. And the organ, it just does it for me. I love it. I've seen it many times in person. Here is just one example of it. This was, by the way, before game seven of a playoff series, Devils Rangers. I will let you know, just for the purposes of science, that the Devils won the game. But here is Arlette in a rocking environment, finishing the anthem, along with the organist. I love this anthem, cut 40.

huge roar and the rally towels are going and the place was amped up and the devil's won the game in the series and just the timing of those two together maybe it's just me maybe i'm just showing my bias because it's my team or whatever but come on you don't have to even like hockey that is fantastic for the anthem At least in my book, it's top tier, top echelon. It's why I brought Arlette into this conversation. Now, I'm going to detour to the unfortunate examples. I won't go through too many of them, but there are two that simply cannot be missed. And I say this with the humility. I'll say it again. I'll reiterate it. I can carry a tune generally within a limited range. It is a very hard song to sing, given the range. But if you're going to perform an anthem and agree to do that, you kind of have to be ready for it. Like when I was invited to throw out a first pitch at a major league game in Atlanta, Braves very kindly invited me because of the connection with their radio station and our great affiliate down in Atlanta extra, I practiced. I practiced like crazy to not bounce that pitch. A lot of you who have been listening for years remember that whole thing. The build up to it, the stress. then the triumph of the strike that was thrown. I'm just going to brag a little bit. But anyway, I digress. I practice. This is the point. I wonder if these people did. So let's go back and recall. You might have seen this before. This was the NBA All-Star Game, 2020. Fergie. the musical artist, tried some kind of a jazzy rend. I don't even know what to call it, but she tried the version of the anthem that you're about to hear, some of it. And, yeah, well, you be the judge. Cut 38. Black, what's still there.

Yeah. So, I mean, she practiced. That, I think, is how she wanted it to go. It's not my cup of tea. But you can hear the chop. She can sick. Right? She's got pipes. But whatever that was, yeah, oh, breathy. And it's very long. So you could hear the edits there, the cuts. I mean, we don't have all day here. So that was polarizing at the time. But nothing holds a candle to this meltdown. Happens to be another NBA game all the way back in 1993. It was the Bulls and the Nets. I think this was at the Meadowlands. in New Jersey. Carl Lewis was invited to sing the national anthem, and this is a compilation of the train wreck that ensued, including him just kind of almost bargaining with the crowd as they groaned over the microphone. Cut 36. Here we go.

Can you see? And the Rock is this way. Uh-oh. I'll make up for it now. Oh, the land of the free. There's concern in the crowd. There's a buzz. There's laughter. Oh, Carl. That was a moment. And at the time, Sports Center on ESPN covered it. They played. A little montage as well. The anchor of Sports Center that evening was Charlie Steiner who could not keep it together. He was laughing so hard and had such a good line in Cut 37. Written by Francis, got off key. Those were last night's low lights.

Francis Scott Offkey. That is brilliant. It might have been the next day of SportsCenter, by the way. But I rarely have lost it so hard on the air that I can't pull it back together. It's actually like sort of a bit of a nightmare, but you can't blame him for that one. I like when he can't hit the note, Carl Lewis, and he goes, uh-oh, I'll make up for it now. Narrator, he would not. But I want to return to the positive, to the solid, to the spectacular, and get to, what I was talking about earlier, is arguably the most famous best. I don't know, you can describe it with whatever superlative you want, performance of our national anthem ever. Let's do that reveal and listen back to it in its entirety together coming up. New talk for a new generation, Guy Benson. It is an extended home stretch here on Guy Benson. We're talking national anthem renditions, and we've run through a few highlights and low lights. Okay, all of which is the buildup. To the anthem in question that began the whole segment and that popped into my head to even do all of this because of the aforementioned online debate, some of you may have already guessed. Because when you think of the epic performance of our anthem, and by the way, I like a lot of simple renditions. I like... orchestral and band renditions with horns and all of that there are many different ways that i enjoy our national anthem but in terms of the whole spectacle i'm not sure there's anything better than what you're about to hear and another caveat another warning i hope you can strap it in for a full two minutes because this is not a short version of the anthem but no one is complaining about it The inimitable, the singular, the diva herself, Whitney Houston, at the 1991 Super Bowl, the first Gulf War had just broken out. There was a rally around the flag, sense of patriotism and national purpose at the time. She came out there in that outfit, with that smile and a voice like none other. And did this, cut 35.

right still the drums, the symbol crashes, two minutes, a thing of beauty. Now, if I've missed one, really good or really bad, there's a way that you can get in touch. GBS at Fox.com. You know that we do mailbag segments from time to time. In fact, we'll probably try to do one when Christine is back if she ever gets back from her Mexican vacation. She and I were texting last night, and she is indeed south of the border. She seemed to be enjoying herself. I'll put it that way. So, yeah, send us an email with a link or a file or whatever. GBS at Fox.com examples of our national anthem that you think merit some attention. Some love, maybe a laugh. But I enjoyed this. I actually had this planned for a while. Thank you for indulging me. Perhaps you thought it was a bit much, but I don't think so. Admit it, you got goosebumps at least once. I got them probably three times here over the course of these two segments. It's okay. It's okay to feel that way and have that excitement and that pride anytime, but especially. I mean, we just had our 250th anniversary. Like what better time than to go down this path. Have a little fun and honor the country. So I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. I really, really did. And with that, I'm off to the airport and the West Coast. Wish me luck, safe travels, all of that. And God willing, we will bring you the Friday edition of Guy Benson from the state of California tomorrow. We look forward to that. We will talk to you. Then have a great night. If you are star-spangled with me, let's dig you.

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