ANTHONY WEINER | Scandal, 2016 Election, Hillary Clinton

The Adam Friedland Show - Season 2 Episode 1 | ANTHONY WEINER X: https://x.com/friedland_show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theadamfriedlandshow/?hl=en TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@adamfriedlandshowclips YouTube: Subscribe to @TheAdamFriedlandShow here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAdamFriedlandShow Subscribe to @TAFSClips here: https://www.youtube.com/@tafsclips -- Checkout BlueChew: https://bluechew.com Try your first month of BlueChew FREE when you use promo code TAFS -- just pay $5 shipping. That’s promo code TAFS. Checkout Cornbread Hemp: https://www.cornbreadhemp.com/pages/the-adam-friedland-show?discount=TAFS Use Code "TAFS" for 30% off your First Order CBD Products: Full Spectrum CBD Gummies (Watermelon, Berry, and Peach Checkout Lucy: http://lucy.co/tafs Let’s level up your nicotine routine with Lucy. Go to Lucy.co/TAFS and use promo code (TAFS) to get 20% off your first order. Lucy has a 30-day refund policy if you change your mind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  I'm pro football Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, and I lived for a long time with something I did not know the name of: major depressive disorder. I carried sadness and anger because I thought I could handle it alone, but I couldn't. Now I want to make sure others know that that support is out there. If you're experiencing similar symptoms, talk to a healthcare professional. Visit MDDAllies.com to watch my story.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  Paid partnership with Johnson & Johnson. Brian Dawkins has not prescribed Caplyta lumateperone.

• 0:37Speaker 02

  I needed more from my antidepressant, so my doctor added Caplyta lumateperone, proven to provide greater relief from depression symptoms than an antidepressant alone, building on my progress without starting over. Caplyta is for adults with major depressive disorder when used with an antidepressant and is available by prescription only. Individual results may vary. In clinical trials, weight gain was not common.

• 0:57Speaker 01

  Elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. Caplyta is not approved for dementia-related psychosis. Call your doctor about new or sudden mood changes, behaviors, or suicidal thoughts right away. Antidepressants may increase these risks. Report fever, confusion, stiff muscles, which may be life-threatening, or uncontrolled muscle movements, which may be permanent. High cholesterol and weight gain may occur, as can high blood sugar, which may be fatal. Monitoring is recommended. Common side effects are sleepiness, dizziness, nausea, dry mouth, feeling tired, and diarrhea. These aren't all the side effects.

• 1:24Speaker 02

  Ask your doctor about Caplyta. Learn more at Caplyta.com or call 888-252-4824.

• 1:30Speaker 00

  I'm pro football Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, and I lived for a long time with something I did not know the name of: major depressive disorder. I carried sadness and anger because I thought I could handle it alone, but I couldn't. Now I want to make sure others know that that support is out there. If you're experiencing similar symptoms, talk to a healthcare professional. Visit MDDAllies.com to watch my story.

• 1:55Speaker 01

  Paid partnership with Johnson & Johnson. Brian Dawkins has not prescribed Caplyta lumateperone.

• 2:07Speaker 02

  I needed more from my antidepressant. So my doctor added Caplyta, lumateperone, proven to provide greater relief from depression symptoms than an antidepressant alone, building on my progress without starting over. Caplyta is for adults with major depressive disorder when used with an antidepressant and is available by prescription only. Individual results may vary. In clinical trials, weight gain was not common.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  Elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. Caplyta is not approved for dementia-related psychosis. Call your doctor about new or sudden mood changes, behaviors, or suicidal thoughts right away. Antidepressants may increase these risks. Report fever, confusion, stiff muscles, which may be life-threatening, or uncontrolled muscle movements, which may be permanent. High cholesterol and weight gain may occur, as can high blood sugar, which may be fatal. Monitoring is recommended. Common side effects are sleepiness, dizziness, nausea, dry mouth, feeling tired, and diarrhea. These aren't all the side effects.

• 2:54Speaker 02

  Ask your doctor about Caplyta. Learn more at caplyta.com or call 888-252-4824.

• 3:01Adam Friedland?

  I get it. Sometimes I critique the question you're asking. And you do this thing of like, "This is not good for you. You'll make fun of your host on the show. It's not working." I'm like, "All right, I get it." I have not seen the documentary.

• 3:12Speaker 04

  But you leave the documentary, so I'm gonna ask you a question because I saw it.

• 3:15Adam Friedland?

  You don't need to set it up as the documentary when I haven't seen it. If I did it in real life, you can just say, "I understand you..."

• 3:20Speaker 04

  You're the one wasting time right now.

• 3:23Adam Friedland?

  Fair enough.

• 3:56Adam Friedland?

  Hello, America.

• 3:58Adam Friedland?

  My name is Adam Friedland. I'm extremely excited to welcome you to the premiere episode of the new season of The Adam Friedland Show. On a weekly basis, I will be releasing episodes where I sit down with some of the world's most important and interesting people. And for our first guest, I was joined by none other than current candidate for New York City Council and former Congressman Anthony Weiner. Now, it would be easy for me to prepare for my guest like a tabloid fixture, but let's not forget, Weiner is a seasoned and accomplished politician, and above all else, a human being. So in order to prepare, I decided it was necessary for me to sit down with an expert

• 4:41Adam Friedland?

  on human psychotherapy, and I may have even learned a little bit about myself in the process. So without further ado, this.

• 5:04Adam Friedland?

  A red rose and a romantic novel. That's how I told my guest to identify me today amongst the hustle and bustle of the High Line, one of New York City's many hidden gems. I was here to meet James Foley, a renowned psychotherapist to the rich and powerful. If anyone could help me get into the psychology behind Weiner, it was James. After a brief stroll through the neighborhood, we sat down in my Hudson Yards penthouse to discuss the psychological profiles of the men that have shaped our world.

• 5:34Speaker 04

  I'm James Foley. I'm a psychotherapist. I treat men for sexual misbehavior, such as affairs, hiring sugar babies, and things like that.

• 5:46Adam Friedland?

  Tell us where we can find you. Do you have an Instagram?

• 5:49Speaker 04

  www-sexuallycompulsive.com

• 5:52Adam Friedland?

  What's the general profile of your client base?

• 5:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, so my practice is composed of high functioning men, you know, like CEOs, guys who run banks,

• 6:02Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 6:02Speaker 04

  Film directors, even high-end artists, musicians. I've had elected officials.

• 6:11Adam Friedland?

  Let's say like a man sends just like a picture of his erection like under his underpants, but he's like, "I'm not showing full meat." Like, is that like in a psychological process is like, "Well, if I'm not showing full meat, then..." You know what I mean?

• 6:28Speaker 04

  Yes, so...

• 6:29Adam Friedland?

  And he's like, but then obviously his wife sees it, he's like, "Well, obviously it's legal if I'm just showing dick print, but no full meat," you know what I mean?

• 6:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, people who engage in these things will...

• 6:39Adam Friedland?

  Make deals with themselves?

• 6:41Speaker 04

  Yes, they'll make a bargain with themselves and obviously get themselves hurt with that bargain that doesn't...

• 6:46Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 6:47Speaker 04

  Really make sense.

• 6:48Adam Friedland?

  Okay, what is the difference between when a man cheats and a woman cheats? You kind of indicated something...

• 6:53Speaker 04

  But a lot of our programming as men and for women as women, like, it's different. And a lot of our programming is behind our irrational behavior. So, you and I are guys, we got different programming typically than a woman would get, and then...

• 7:12Adam Friedland?

  But they cheat.

• 7:13Speaker 04

  Oh, I'm not saying they don't cheat, but...

• 7:15Adam Friedland?

  A lot of them do cheat on guys.

• 7:16Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, nobody's immune from that, at least no gender. But the idea is what's powering it can be different.

• 7:24Adam Friedland?

  So, why would like, why would a girl cheat on her boyfriend? Like, especially if he's a great guy and stuff?

• 7:31Speaker 04

  I wouldn't know, you know, that's a broad brush kind of thing.

• 7:37Adam Friedland?

  It's just, but it's not, so it's...

• 7:47Adam Friedland?

  And there it was, straight from the horse's mouth, women cheat too. And with that in mind, I was finally ready to take on my biggest challenge to date, Anthony Weiner. Pause.

• 8:03Adam Friedland?

  Our next guest is a former congressman. He was the youngest ever elected member of the New York City Council. He's run for mayor twice and currently he is running in 2025 for city council. Please welcome Anthony Weiner, everyone. Let's get some energy in this room.

• 8:21Adam Friedland?

  Hi.

• 8:22Speaker 05

  Hello.

• 8:22Adam Friedland?

  Hello.

• 8:24Speaker 05

  It's my pleasure to be here.

• 8:25Adam Friedland?

  We talked on the phone for 10 minutes.

• 8:27Speaker 05

  We did. It was a good talk. You want this in your cup so we can... Oh, no, it's already got water in it.

• 8:31Adam Friedland?

  We have water in the cup and I would appreciate if you just featured the logo.

• 8:34Speaker 05

  No, that's what I thought.

• 8:35Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:36Speaker 05

  I thought. So this is like yours is white, mine is black, like spy versus spies style.

• 8:40Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, so you're a big fan of the show.

• 8:43Speaker 05

  This one?

• 8:43Adam Friedland?

  Yes.

• 8:44Speaker 05

  Maybe the biggest?

• 8:45Adam Friedland?

  I...

• 8:45Speaker 05

  Which tells you a little something about the show, but yeah.

• 8:47Adam Friedland?

  He sent dozens of emails. Actually, your email style is very funny because you just go last name, no like sincerely.

• 8:54Speaker 05

  Correct. Oh, yeah.

• 8:55Adam Friedland?

  You go last name.

• 8:55Speaker 05

  I think it's a lot of wasted words generally in the world.

• 8:58Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:59Speaker 05

  Like, that's why I like that your show's about eight minutes. It's quick in and out.

• 9:02Adam Friedland?

  Were you like a last name guy like with your friends? It's kind of a...

• 9:05Speaker 05

  Well, I mean Weiner kind of lends itself to that, right? You know, so, yeah, I mean, yeah.

• 9:09Adam Friedland?

  So growing up, you were Weiner to your boys?

• 9:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 9:12Adam Friedland?

  I saw your Patrick Bet David thing.

• 9:14Speaker 05

  Have you heard of that guy? See, this is what...

• 9:15Adam Friedland?

  That guy is amazing. I saw a video of him recently where he's like, four years ago, technology, three years, pandemic, two years ago, vaccine, this year, AI technology. He just says sentences like that and like guys are like,

• 9:30Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 9:31Adam Friedland?

  I'm gonna pay $10,000 to go to this seminar. Yeah, and he's a billionaire now.

• 9:35Speaker 05

  No, I ask these questions because I'm on terrestrial radio here.

• 9:37Adam Friedland?

  So you went there and you didn't know who the fuck that guy was?

• 9:39Speaker 05

  No, I mean, I'm not saying like I didn't do anything to get... I got on a plane and flew down there, but it's more kind of like the season of yes of saying yes to arguing with people. And so I didn't quite... And I had a certain... Once I looked it up a little bit and I saw that there was no... It was just a person who... I became kind of fascinated to understand what exactly was going on. Because I'm trying to understand this a little bit.

• 10:01Adam Friedland?

  This is okay.

• 10:03Speaker 05

  You don't think you're a kindred spirit with him in terms of what you're trying to do?

• 10:06Adam Friedland?

  Certainly not.

• 10:08Speaker 05

  Not on substance, but in general. People want to look at interesting shit nowadays, we don't really care what it is.

• 10:14Adam Friedland?

  The objective with our show is this, right? The internet makes-

• 10:18Speaker 05

  Someone should have told me this sentence before, but go ahead.

• 10:21Adam Friedland?

  I actually did, no, no, no. I'll tell you this right now. I talked to him on the phone, and he's like, "And you make money from this?" And I was like, "Well, you know, we were on a podcast for morons for six years." And then the fat one left to do crowd work. And so then we changed it, because I was kind of the schmuck, I was the nebbish. And we rebranded it to make me into an intellectual talk show host. And then, this was amazing what you did. You let like a little pregnant pause after my whole soliloquy, and you go,

• 10:51Adam Friedland?

  "Well, you took me on quite the journey there, but you did not in any way, shape, or form answer my question."

• 10:56Speaker 05

  No, I didn't do, I don't say "way, shape, or form." I don't think people talk like that. I just said I didn't get the answer.

• 11:02Adam Friedland?

  You were like, "Vis a vis, et cetera, et cetera, you did not, I'm but a southern lawyer."

• 11:08Speaker 05

  Who did the notes for you, who did the sample question? Like, did you do that on your own?

• 11:13Adam Friedland?

  No, I haven't, except I've-

• 11:15Speaker 05

  You got the manager?

• 11:16Adam Friedland?

  I have a room full of women of color who are my writers.

• 11:19Speaker 05

  I thought it might just be like-

• 11:20Adam Friedland?

  I don't have a single honky ass. That does not go in the episode. Okay, you're born 1964 in New York City?

• 11:26Speaker 05

  I was, yes.

• 11:27Adam Friedland?

  Okay, and you're a Brooklyn boy?

• 11:29Speaker 05

  I grew up in Brooklyn, right.

• 11:30Adam Friedland?

  Where, you're Park Slope?

• 11:31Speaker 05

  Park Slope, 6th between 8th and the park.

• 11:33Adam Friedland?

  Fabulous, fabulous.

• 11:34Speaker 05

  Yes, 39, United School, 51.

• 11:36Adam Friedland?

  How is the, was the food co-op there at the time?

• 11:39Speaker 05

  No, no, it was a very different kind of vibe then.

• 11:42Adam Friedland?

  Where are you now?

• 11:43Speaker 05

  Lower Manhattan.

• 11:44Adam Friedland?

  Lower East?

• 11:45Speaker 05

  Well, East Village, East Village. Alphabet City.

• 11:47Adam Friedland?

  It's too loud.

• 11:50Speaker 05

  Yes, too loud?

• 11:52Adam Friedland?

  It's too loud, isn't it?

• 11:53Speaker 05

  There's a lot going on, there's a lot going on there.

• 11:55Adam Friedland?

  You have like a NYU vomit when you walk outside?

• 11:58Speaker 05

  There's a lot, there's a lot going on there.

• 11:59Adam Friedland?

  And your mother, your mother was an educator?

• 12:02Speaker 05

  Or a math teacher.

• 12:03Adam Friedland?

  Or a math teacher.

• 12:04Speaker 05

  Well, educator, who are you trying to brush? She's a teacher, teacher?

• 12:07Adam Friedland?

  I was trying to compliment your mother.

• 12:10Speaker 05

  I'm not sure why.

• 12:10Adam Friedland?

  Why are you trying, why are you trying to shit on your?

• 12:12Speaker 05

  No, why are you, why are you down branding teacher?

• 12:15Adam Friedland?

  I think it's an umbrella term.

• 12:16Speaker 05

  Which one?

• 12:17Adam Friedland?

  Educator.

• 12:18Speaker 05

  Right, and a more precise one is teacher, she's a teacher.

• 12:20Adam Friedland?

  Okay, your dad? An attorney?

• 12:22Speaker 05

  He was like a little neighborhood attorney. He kind of hunted shingle outside our house, that kind of vibe.

• 12:26Adam Friedland?

  Just like a family law practice?

• 12:29Speaker 05

  Some real estate stuff, yeah. I don't know for sure, like some real estate closings, that kind of thing. Wasn't big enough, he's like for people who wouldn't have Jacobi Myers, but they wouldn't have a big firm, they'd have like Grau and Weiner.

• 12:39Adam Friedland?

  And did they split up when you were a kid?

• 12:41Speaker 05

  When I was in college.

• 12:42Adam Friedland?

  When you were in college?

• 12:43Speaker 05

  Were your parents together?

• 12:45Adam Friedland?

  Uh, my mother passed away.

• 12:46Speaker 05

  Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

• 12:47Adam Friedland?

  They were together for 40 years, yeah, yeah.

• 12:49Speaker 05

  Yeah, my, my thing was like, my dad passed away recently. My thing was when my parents, man, I can tell the story. The story's really not apropos of anything. Go ahead.

• 12:57Adam Friedland?

  Tell the story, what?

• 12:58Speaker 05

  No, just when they split up.

• 12:59Adam Friedland?

  Let me tell, okay, take a pause. You're, this is a political-

• 13:03Speaker 05

  Literal pause, or just, just a pause in the conversation?

• 13:06Adam Friedland?

  Shut the fuck up. Okay. You're, we, people want to know you as a human being.

• 13:12Speaker 05

  Okay, that's fair enough. All right, so let me continue. So, um, when they, they, they broke up when I was like in my twenties.

• 13:18Adam Friedland?

  Okay, hurry up.

• 13:19Speaker 05

  And I'm like, exactly. Exactly. That was like, so, that's-

• 13:22Adam Friedland?

  That was a, come on, I was a schmuck.

• 13:24Speaker 05

  Kind of weak.

• 13:24Adam Friedland?

  It got a pop.

• 13:25Speaker 05

  What is that?

• 13:26Adam Friedland?

  It got a pop, it got a pop.

• 13:27Speaker 05

  I understand what that tells you.

• 13:28Adam Friedland?

  It got a pop.

• 13:28Speaker 05

  No, no, I wasn't beefing about you, like you-

• 13:30Adam Friedland?

  Oh my god.

• 13:30Speaker 05

  You know, every, you know, they, there's the-

• 13:33Adam Friedland?

  Sorry, I'm not, I'm not trying-

• 13:34Speaker 05

  No, no, I'm not beefing about you, you never, you know, what is it? You never miss the chance you don't take.

• 13:37Adam Friedland?

  Okay, sorry, I gotta laugh. I'm not trying to do a whip of a, of a, a port barrel- backroom deal in the fucking halls of, or whatever.

• 13:47Speaker 05

  No, it takes a little while for me to figure out where the crowd is. This is not a very strong crowd, I mean, they're just laughing at like-

• 13:52Adam Friedland?

  It's four guys.

• 13:53Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:54Adam Friedland?

  What do you mean, not a strong crowd? They laughed at Weiner? Sorry, your last name is, your last name means bean. It's not a big deal.

• 14:00Speaker 05

  Fair enough.

• 14:01Adam Friedland?

  Okay, there was like, did you think, you were like, "I'm fine dude, there's another guy in Congress named Dick Armey."

• 14:06Speaker 05

  Here's the thing is, oh yeah, Dick Armey.

• 14:08Adam Friedland?

  You're like, what, compared to Dick Army, this is not that bad?

• 14:11Speaker 05

  There was Norm Dicks, too.

• 14:13Adam Friedland?

  Norm Dicks?

• 14:13Speaker 05

  Yeah, in Washington. You see, this is what I'm, this is what I don't take.

• 14:16Adam Friedland?

  It's funny, it's funny, okay? And you're not a coward like that goddamn Jon Stewart Leibowitz, trying to erase our culture. New York City kid, my girlfriend grew up in the Upper West Side, I didn't grow up here. And I feel like you guys grew up, grew up faster. Like, my friends that grew up in the city, they're like, "I had my coke phase at 13."

• 14:36Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 14:36Adam Friedland?

  They kind of become adults faster.

• 14:37Speaker 05

  I guess so. I mean, that's the kind of the argument in public schools, you bounce off a lot of different types of people, you know. Plus, growing up in the 70s, you mugged a lot, like, "Yeah, I guess so."

• 14:44Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. And you, you were going to Manhattan with your friends in, in, in high school?

• 14:49Speaker 05

  High school, yeah. Actually, the same neighborhood I live in now, we would kind of go and it would, just to see how edgy it was, that kind of stuff.

• 14:54Adam Friedland?

  Where were you going, Studio 54?

• 14:56Speaker 05

  No, no.

• 14:57Adam Friedland?

  Andy Warhol's factory?

• 14:58Speaker 05

  We'd go to like Rocky Horror, Walk on, Walk.

• 15:00Adam Friedland?

  Rocky Horror?

• 15:01Speaker 05

  Yeah, St. St. Mark's, that kind of style.

• 15:03Adam Friedland?

  But that's for like, that's fucking nerds.

• 15:06Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 15:07Adam Friedland?

  You're doing that thing where you throw things?

• 15:08Speaker 05

  Fair characterization of like where I was.

• 15:10Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I would have been at CBGB's if I was you.

• 15:12Speaker 05

  You?

• 15:13Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, if I was your age in New York City.

• 15:15Speaker 05

  So you're, you're, you're gonna, you were cool then, now what hap, what is this?

• 15:18Adam Friedland?

  I've always been one of the coolest guys. No, so I mean, I, I guess, New York in the 70s is characterized as like a completely different place.

• 15:27Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 15:28Adam Friedland?

  You've lived here for most of your life, like.

• 15:29Speaker 05

  My whole, except when I was in college, in prison, I was, I was here. And Washington, I would go back and forth.

• 15:35Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. It's a, I used to live in DC, I went to college there.

• 15:38Speaker 05

  What, where?

• 15:39Adam Friedland?

  Uh, GW.

• 15:40Speaker 05

  You're just like this, yeah, you're a Jew through and through, huh?

• 15:44Adam Friedland?

  No, they gave me the most money.

• 15:45Speaker 05

  Your girlfriend Jewish?

• 15:47Adam Friedland?

  Why you, what?

• 15:48Speaker 05

  I'm just curious.

• 15:49Adam Friedland?

  What are you, my fucking parents?

• 15:50Speaker 05

  Just curious, just curious.

• 15:51Adam Friedland?

  No, she's 20, she's, her mom's half Jewish. 25% is my max.

• 15:56Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 15:57Adam Friedland?

  Oh my god, they don't, I can't span it.

• 15:59Speaker 05

  Sorry, sorry.

• 16:00Adam Friedland?

  No, no, it's not.

• 16:01Speaker 05

  No, I'm trying to gauge the, the level of the back and forth. You, you do the questions, I'll, I'll do the answers.

• 16:05Adam Friedland?

  No, we're having fun, I'm just doing a shtick where I'm like, "Oh."

• 16:07Speaker 05

  And I'm doing.

• 16:08Adam Friedland?

  What are you, my mother?

• 16:08Speaker 05

  And I'm doing a shtick to be offended by like being apologetic. We're just all doing it.

• 16:12Adam Friedland?

  Listen, you could have been a nightclub comedian in another life, I could have been a member of the US House of Representatives.

• 16:18Speaker 05

  You probably could have been.

• 16:19Adam Friedland?

  We, in, in parallel universes.

• 16:20Speaker 05

  What, yeah, what, where did you grow up?

• 16:22Adam Friedland?

  I grew up in Vegas.

• 16:24Speaker 05

  Yeah, you could have. You could have been like Shelley Berkeley or something like that.

• 16:27Adam Friedland?

  I worked for Shelley Berkeley.

• 16:28Speaker 05

  Yeah, you could have been that. That could have been you.

• 16:29Adam Friedland?

  I was an intern when I was a junior in high school at the Congresswoman's field office.

• 16:35Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 16:36Adam Friedland?

  Me and my best friend Alex were interns there and we'd like wear like a shirt.

• 16:40Speaker 05

  Do you remember, what office were you in? Do you remember?

• 16:42Adam Friedland?

  Do you know the field offices of Shelley?

• 16:46Speaker 05

  Oh, you were in the district office.

• 16:48Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, she was my Congresswoman.

• 16:49Speaker 05

  Got it. So you weren't really committed. You were like just doing it.

• 16:52Adam Friedland?

  What do you mean committed? I was in high school. I had to go back home afterwards.

• 16:55Speaker 05

  There are people that do internships in Washington.

• 16:57Adam Friedland?

  Not in the middle of school. I just did it to get out of eighth period.

• 17:00Speaker 05

  There you go.

• 17:00Adam Friedland?

  Okay, so I'd go.

• 17:01Speaker 05

  I think that's the definition of not being committed is when you say, "I just want to get out of eighth period."

• 17:06Adam Friedland?

  Well, I got good. What was your GPA graduating?

• 17:09Speaker 05

  It's a little bit.

• 17:10Adam Friedland?

  What was your SAT?

• 17:11Speaker 05

  In high school?

• 17:11Adam Friedland?

  In high school.

• 17:12Speaker 05

  I don't think I had a three.

• 17:14Adam Friedland?

  You didn't have a three?

• 17:15Speaker 05

  I don't think so. I was not a great student.

• 17:18Adam Friedland?

  But listen, I still got, have you heard of Harvard?

• 17:21Speaker 05

  What? I mean, I'm just saying.

• 17:23Adam Friedland?

  Oh, Harvard University?

• 17:26Speaker 05

  Yeah, I didn't go there, but I just want to make sure you've heard of it. But I went to the state, you see now I know the room.

• 17:30Adam Friedland?

  You went to Plattsburgh?

• 17:31Speaker 05

  I went to Plattsburgh State.

• 17:32Adam Friedland?

  Me and my friend Alex, when we were working in our Congresswoman's office, we'd have to like wear a shirt, so we felt like we were businessmen. And we'd go afterwards to Hooters because we thought that we're like adult men.

• 17:45Speaker 05

  This is in Vegas?

• 17:46Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, when we were like seventeen, sixteen year old boys.

• 17:49Speaker 05

  Got it.

• 17:49Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. It's a great place. Have you been there?

• 17:51Speaker 05

  Las Vegas, Nevada?

• 17:52Adam Friedland?

  No, Hooters.

• 17:54Speaker 05

  I don't believe I have.

• 17:56Adam Friedland?

  It's demeaning.

• 17:57Speaker 05

  Which part?

• 17:59Adam Friedland?

  The fact that they don't let like more.

• 18:00Speaker 05

  I thought you meant just generally being here. And I was gonna.

• 18:06Adam Friedland?

  This is good for you. I'm telling you, this is good for you. So you're city kid, Mets Islanders?

• 18:13Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 18:14Adam Friedland?

  The Mets are the team of the Jews and the Redheads, right? The.

• 18:19Speaker 05

  Brooklyn.

• 18:20Adam Friedland?

  Your family were Dodger fans?

• 18:23Speaker 05

  No, but you would not if you grew up in Brooklyn.

• 18:27Adam Friedland?

  You kind of seem like a Yankee fan, though.

• 18:29Speaker 05

  No.

• 18:29Adam Friedland?

  You're a Met fan that acts like a Yankee fan.

• 18:33Speaker 05

  What?

• 18:34Adam Friedland?

  You were like-

• 18:35Speaker 05

  No, I'm a middle-class guy.

• 18:36Adam Friedland?

  Oh, you go toe-to-toe in Congress. Twenty-seven rings.

• 18:40Speaker 05

  The Mets are a blue-collar team. That's my team, yeah.

• 18:44Adam Friedland?

  No, the Mets are like, "I'm sorry."

• 18:46Speaker 05

  The Mets?

• 18:46Adam Friedland?

  I've been at Citi Field, sitting next to people, and they're like, "More of this? Again with this?" You're like an abused wife that keeps going back to him.

• 18:57Speaker 05

  Not anymore.

• 18:57Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, you keep going back to him, the Mets, and saying, "He's changed. He's not gonna hit me anymore."

• 19:02Speaker 05

  I don't wanna, I don't wanna. Who tunes into listening to Mets-Yankee banter on this show?

• 19:07Adam Friedland?

  I was on a good riff right now. You just killed it.

• 19:09Speaker 05

  I'm not so sure, because I'm not-

• 19:10Adam Friedland?

  You're a Met fan, but you act Yankees.

• 19:14Speaker 05

  I know, you did that line. It wasn't that great the first time. I'm saying, no, I am a Brooklyn guy. The Mets are a middle-class team. You guys buy your rings, we earn them.

• 19:23Adam Friedland?

  Guys that have two families that live three blocks away from each other are Yankee fans, right? Guys that are like, have chronic allergies and, you know, like, get sensitive like when they listen to Paul Simon are Met fans.

• 19:44Speaker 05

  The '86 Mets were like the iconic bad-boy team of-

• 19:47Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, but you were there. You were with Dykstra doing lines.

• 19:50Speaker 05

  First of all, no. Is that the measure of like what team you- I've lost the thread here.

• 19:54Adam Friedland?

  What do you mean?

• 19:55Speaker 05

  Can we edit out the sports parts of this show?

• 19:58Adam Friedland?

  Why is this the offensive part of the show?

• 20:00Speaker 05

  No, I'm just saying-

• 20:01Adam Friedland?

  See, this is the thing. He is a Met fan. He's acting like a Met fan right now.

• 20:05Speaker 05

  No real New Yorker is a Yankee. I mean, I'll give you the Bronx. You wanna do the geography thing, I'll give you the Bronx.

• 20:11Adam Friedland?

  I think a lot of Italian and Dominican guys would disagree with you.

• 20:14Speaker 05

  Into the Bronx.

• 20:15Adam Friedland?

  No, and Bensonhurst, they're Yankees. Yes, they are.

• 20:19Speaker 05

  Except that asshole Giuliani. That was it.

• 20:21Adam Friedland?

  You think Mayor Giuliani was an asshole?

• 20:23Speaker 05

  No, that wasn't the hard part. Yankee, the Yankee.

• 20:27Adam Friedland?

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• 21:01Adam Friedland?

  You don't have to double up anymore. It's in one. If you're trying to wash your w- Jesus Christ. How bad are your dicks, guys? If you have the worst one, if you really just can't do shit with it. This one has Viagra and Cialis in one. And it acts fast and it lasts. And guys, you can be ready whenever she needs it by trying your first month free with BlueChew. Guys, we've worked with BlueChew for years. You know the deal. It's a couple clicks away. You consult with one of their licensed medical providers. And once you're approved, you'll receive your prescription within days. That's no awkward visits to the doctor, no awkward conversations with the doctor, no awkward trips to the pharmacy.

• 21:45Adam Friedland?

  It comes in discreet packaging, like a frickin dossier or something. A dossier of BlueChew Max, which is a combination of Viagra and Cialis. Right? That's frickin, I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna do it. My next interview, I'm gonna be bricked up. And BlueChew will not stop until every man, yeah, they said it too. They will not stop until every man is bricked up like a brick house. That's their mission. Everyone could use an extra hand, and with BlueChew, you get an extra leg. It's pretty funny. And guys, make your life easier. Go to BlueChew.com. You know the frickin deal.

• 22:26Adam Friedland?

  You try your first month of BlueChew free by putting in our promo code TAFS. You only pay the $5 in shipping. That's promo code TAFS. All you do is pay the shipping. If you don't like it, screw it. I think you're gonna like it. Just frickin chew it and do it. Is that still their thing? Visit BlueChew.com for more details and important safety information. We thank BlueChew for sponsoring this podcast. Guys, BlueChew.com. You talk to the person on the computer. You do a Zoom about your erections. You pay $5 shipping. It's a fuck, it's a great deal and it's made in the USA.

• 23:07Adam Friedland?

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• 23:52Adam Friedland?

  And Cornbread Hemp CBD gummies are a huge piece of my wellness plan. And guys, they got amazing flavors. They got watermelon, they got berry, they got peach. These are grown-up flavors that grown-ups like. All the stuff that friggin' grown-ups like us like. So I've tried everything under the sun for a peace of mind, and it sounds like it's time for you to try Cornbread Hemp's CBD gummies. Formulated to relieve discomfort, stress, and sleeplessness, Cornbread uses only the best part of the hemp plant, the gift from Jah that we have been given. It's the flower. And it's the purest, most potent CBD that you guys will ever have.

• 24:36Adam Friedland?

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• 25:16Speaker 05

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• 25:57Adam Friedland?

  Good life. And now back to the show. Okay, let's get back to it. You went to Plattsburgh College.

• 26:03Speaker 05

  No, Plattsburgh State University College of Arts and Science.

• 26:06Adam Friedland?

  I know. Plattsburgh for college, I'm sorry.

• 26:08Speaker 05

  Peasuck.

• 26:08Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, okay, go ahead. Yeah, they call it the Yale of the Sunni system.

• 26:12Speaker 05

  They totally do.

• 26:13Adam Friedland?

  Okay, and when did you get involved or become interested in politics?

• 26:17Speaker 05

  Probably there.

• 26:18Adam Friedland?

  Probably there.

• 26:19Speaker 05

  I ran for student government there.

• 26:21Adam Friedland?

  What was your platform? What were you fighting?

• 26:22Speaker 05

  Vote for Weiner, he'll be frank.

• 26:24Adam Friedland?

  Okay, well, that's just a saying. Well, like, what did you want to do for the school?

• 26:26Speaker 05

  What do you think you need in college? It's really, you have no more fish sticks in the cafeteria?

• 26:30Adam Friedland?

  A pun about hot dogs.

• 26:32Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 26:34Adam Friedland?

  And they were like, that's good.

• 26:35Speaker 05

  Vote for Weiner, he's on a roll?

• 26:37Adam Friedland?

  But what, but that was your entire platform. You were like, I want a, I want a, I want an office of Palestinian investigations or something.

• 26:47Speaker 05

  The division in student government, at least at Plattsburgh, it's probably other places, is you have these guys, these resident assistants who basically they're the professional guys on campus who are hired by the colleges to be in the dorms. The RAs, we all know what they are.

• 27:00Adam Friedland?

  But they're students.

• 27:01Speaker 05

  So my whole thing, right, so my whole thing is those people should not be allowed to be on student government.

• 27:05Adam Friedland?

  Why?

• 27:06Speaker 05

  Well, because they effectively work for the administration. So there's like, you know, so I don't think they should be. But those are the ones, those are always the ones that are most ambitious to run. So I ran, it wasn't a platform, who gave a shit?

• 27:15Adam Friedland?

  I kind of like that spite, Ron.

• 27:17Speaker 05

  Yeah, so that's, that's, that's what I did. And I didn't win, I came in. Anyway, I came close. And then there was a, you want to keep hearing the rest of this?

• 27:23Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 27:24Speaker 05

  I haven't told, I don't think I've ever told on any podcast before.

• 27:26Adam Friedland?

  This is what people want.

• 27:28Speaker 05

  I'm dubious, but let's, I'll continue, we'll see, we'll see if this, if the dial groups like do well for this. We'll cut it if it's boring. So, there was a vacancy because some kid didn't come back for whatever, he ran and then he didn't come back for whatever reason. What was this guy's name, full name? I don't remember, I don't remember the guy's name. You definitely remember a full name. I remember names for the rest of the story. Okay. So, then, the, the Charter of the Student Association of Plattsburgh State says that the, the president who's elected gets to choose a vacancy and has to get ratified by the senate, right? So, the, the president was Christine Slobin, and she chose someone, not me.

• 28:08Speaker 05

  And I'm like, that's not fucking fair, I was the next person votes, so I lobbied all the members of the senate to reject her appointment. Oh my god. And they did. And she was your first enemy in politics. And she said, alright, fine, who the fuck wants this job, fine, you can have it. Uh huh. And then I made the rest of the senate miserable the rest of the time, because I was constantly complaining with. So you loved the game? I, I got a taste for it then in college, yes. Okay, and then, you worked for Chuck Schumer. I did. In DC right afterwards. Uh huh. And that was kind of your, was he your first like mentor in politics? Yeah, first and only, really. What, what did you learn about how politics actually works? I learned a couple of things, one, I learned the, I learned the combination of the inside, outside game.

• 28:53Speaker 05

  And I also learned that relatively few people run congress. That there are 435 of them, but there's really only a handful that actually do a lot of the work. So that you actually can really influence things a lot easier than people might think. Like, you run for congress, if you can figure out the 25 or 30 people that get shit done, you can really get a lot done. And who were those people? Sometimes their staff was to committee, sometimes their members, who were super insider kind of people. Like, you know, Nancy Pelosi, knowing Nancy Pelosi was going to be someone early on, like I supported Nancy for Whip and Majority Leader and whatever else. So like that kind of stuff. She's like a real wolf of Wall Street.

• 29:30Adam Friedland?

  She really knows how to pick them.

• 29:32Speaker 05

  She's a very good, she's very good.

• 29:34Adam Friedland?

  She's incredible at investing.

• 29:35Speaker 05

  She was very good at her job.

• 29:36Adam Friedland?

  No, no.

• 29:37Speaker 05

  Oh, that.

• 29:38Adam Friedland?

  She's unreal.

• 29:39Speaker 05

  Yeah, but people have money.

• 29:40Adam Friedland?

  How the hell does she know what stocks to get behind?

• 29:44Speaker 05

  A lot of people are rich. Yeah, are you not familiar with that?

• 29:47Adam Friedland?

  I'm making a joke about how like, uh...

• 29:49Speaker 05

  And I'm not, and I'm not playing along.

• 29:51Adam Friedland?

  Why, you think, you think that members of Congress should own, uh, sto- stocks?

• 29:56Speaker 05

  Why shouldn't members of Congress own stock? It's the most transparent fucking body on earth.

• 30:00Adam Friedland?

  I think that you can...

• 30:01Speaker 05

  Every fucking word is published somewhere. Every word that's said.

• 30:04Adam Friedland?

  Do you think that if you have, uh, an investment in something?

• 30:07Speaker 05

  Go ahead.

• 30:08Adam Friedland?

  And there's a piece of legislation that would threaten that investment? Do you think that that is a conflict of interest?

• 30:14Speaker 05

  No.

• 30:15Adam Friedland?

  What the fuck are you talking about?

• 30:17Speaker 05

  Because every fucking piece of legislation is incredibly public and anyone who's investing based on pieces of legislation is not gonna do very well.

• 30:25Adam Friedland?

  Let's say you already have an investment and this would threaten that investment. Is it morally correct?

• 30:31Speaker 05

  There are pieces of legislation that threaten and enhance every, uh, investment on earth. Go ahead, give me an investment, I'll tell you, there's legislation on both sides.

• 30:40Adam Friedland?

  I don't think for the, I don't think for the relaunch. I don't think this is a good one.

• 30:44Speaker 05

  Okay, here's, let me tell you this.

• 30:45Adam Friedland?

  I don't think this is a good one for you.

• 30:46Speaker 05

  And this kind of like superficial bumper sticker knowledge of politics.

• 30:50Adam Friedland?

  It's not bumper sticker.

• 30:51Speaker 05

  There are so many... This is like wafer thin, man. Oh my god, the conflict of interest.

• 30:56Adam Friedland?

  It doesn't matter being right. It doesn't matter being right, right? And it sounds bad to people that members of Congress come in with not a lot of money and leave incredibly wealthy, okay?

• 31:07Speaker 05

  Dude, my dude, listen, I understand.

• 31:09Adam Friedland?

  Yes, brother.

• 31:10Speaker 05

  People have a wafer thin, diversely translucent knowledge of politics that gets reinforced by assholes like you and I'm supposed to go, "Oh yeah, I talk too well."

• 31:20Adam Friedland?

  Why is that asshole?

• 31:21Speaker 05

  They're, they're, you're choosing the wrong correlative. The correlative is, is that these are people that are exposed to a lot of rich people. So the idea that investing on like inside information, every single thing that goes on in the economy, sometime or another, the United States Congress touches upon. So basically you're saying, "Well, you've got all this inside..." ...knowledge about everything on earth. Literally, as a member of Congress from Brooklyn, I was voting on agriculture policy. Didn't mean that I have inside information on soybean prices. It's a stupid premise. Now, if you want to say that rich people become members of Congress, bounce off other rich people, have information and investment opportunities that normal Mrs. Crappalucci doesn't have, 100% right. But it has nothing to do with the work of Congress, with being in a committee and saying,

• 32:06Speaker 05

  "Hm, this line 17 here, which no one can read, says that we're gonna start investing in AI. I'm gonna go invest in AI." That's bullshit.

• 32:14Adam Friedland?

  Okay. When someone becomes the president, there's a custom where they detach from their, like, private financial interests, right?

• 32:23Speaker 05

  Uh huh.

• 32:24Adam Friedland?

  President Trump, I don't believe has done that.

• 32:26Speaker 05

  He did not do it, right.

• 32:27Adam Friedland?

  Okay. When a member of the public sees that, we lose faith in that institution, right? Because the people that we elect to Congress shouldn't have any financial interests in what they are legislating, right? So even if you're saying I'm wrong, right? And then I'm undereducated, okay? In principle, we are in a time where people's faith in our institutions, especially in the fucking government, is at a low point. In my opinion, people just don't fuck, they think it's all bullshit now.

• 32:59Speaker 05

  Correct. Here's the problem, here's the problem. When I ran for mayor, I, you know, and I wanted to put pressure on Mike Bloomberg because I was gonna run against Mike Bloomberg. I said, "I don't have any money. You should put everything in a blind trust." And so I said to my staff, I said, "Let's figure out how I do this." They said, "Well, you can't, because you have to report every quarter what you're holding." So I said, "I can't, so it's blind? I just can't read my own filings?" "Well, no, you have to sign your files." It's a conflict. But I'm saying it's bullshit. You, not you particularly, but you people like you, wanna find an easy pat boogeyman for these things. Even if you're a middle-class guy like me, who am I calling up for money? A bunch of rich people, right? So it is, now, in the city, it's a little bit different. They incentivize you to call, you know, regular New Yorkers. Your guy Pete lives in my district. I'm gonna ask him for $10 on the way out of here.

• 33:44Speaker 05

  I mean, he, yeah, he lives in my district.

• 33:47Adam Friedland?

  Don't, don't give him $10.

• 33:49Speaker 05

  It's worth eight, it's eight to one.

• 33:50Adam Friedland?

  You know, that's kind of me giving you $10, just so you know.

• 33:52Speaker 05

  You've just pleaded guilty to a felony.

• 33:54Adam Friedland?

  Why? What's the felony? He's a straw donor. Be a good friend? He's a straw donor. Be a good friend? Okay, so Chuck was your mentor, right?

• 34:03Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 34:04Adam Friedland?

  And you took his seat in the House?

• 34:05Speaker 05

  I did.

• 34:06Adam Friedland?

  Okay.

• 34:06Speaker 05

  By force.

• 34:07Adam Friedland?

  After you were in D. Also, can I ask you another question?

• 34:10Speaker 05

  Sure.

• 34:11Adam Friedland?

  You were in, I used to live in DC.

• 34:13Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 34:14Adam Friedland?

  I mean, like, how ugly are these people?

• 34:16Speaker 05

  Physically?

• 34:17Adam Friedland?

  In the, in the government. I mean, the only two pieces of ass, I think, in Congress when you were there were you and probably Mitch McConnell.

• 34:32Adam Friedland?

  Let's move on.

• 34:34Adam Friedland?

  Okay, so what is your relationship with Senator Schumer now?

• 34:37Speaker 05

  Not great now.

• 34:38Adam Friedland?

  Not great.

• 34:38Speaker 05

  I've kind of given him a lot of space because I want him to be able to say, I don't know what that Weiner's up to nowadays, that kind of vibe.

• 34:46Adam Friedland?

  You feel like you're, you've become a pariah, like?

• 34:49Speaker 05

  I feel that I let him down, yeah. I mean, I, yeah, I do, I do.

• 34:53Adam Friedland?

  You, you let him down during your scandals and stuff?

• 34:56Speaker 05

  No, he was very kind, actually, during my scandals, et cetera, but I think that, obviously, you know, I caused him a lot of aggravation and he was, I was closely associated with him, so when my shit happened, I think a lot, you know, the blast radius for my stuff included him, so.

• 35:13Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. All right, I want to talk about being a Democrat during the Bush era, and I want to talk about your rise to prominence.

• 35:19Speaker 05

  Because your, your viewers are really into the Bush era right now, that's there.

• 35:23Adam Friedland?

  What do you mean, what? I am.

• 35:25Speaker 05

  The Bush era is largely forgotten. I did my, my A work then, and like, no one remembers it, but go ahead.

• 35:30Adam Friedland?

  I mean, we shouldn't forget it. I mean, you did vote for the Iraq War.

• 35:34Speaker 05

  I did, yeah.

• 35:36Adam Friedland?

  That was a crap war.

• 35:37Speaker 05

  That was a bad call by me.

• 35:38Adam Friedland?

  That was a bad call.

• 35:38Speaker 05

  Oof, bad call by me.

• 35:39Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I really, I thought that call.

• 35:43Speaker 05

  Did you know at the time it was a shitty call, or because you were such an hard and Zionist, you were like, yeah, get in there?

• 35:47Adam Friedland?

  I got a, I did a walkout. I did a walkout of my high school.

• 35:50Speaker 05

  That's good.

• 35:51Adam Friedland?

  And everyone was like, fag.

• 35:54Speaker 05

  That was, but that was just an excuse to say for you.

• 35:56Adam Friedland?

  It really upset me. It upset me. I hated, I fucking hated Bush. I hated him.

• 36:00Speaker 05

  No, Bush wasn't an.

• 36:02Adam Friedland?

  I hated Bush.

• 36:03Speaker 05

  Well, right, okay. But you were in a New Yorker on September 11th, were you?

• 36:07Adam Friedland?

  No. In spirit, I was. I was listening to Howard Stern on the radio, so I felt like I was there.

• 36:12Speaker 05

  Close enough.

• 36:13Adam Friedland?

  You know that someone called in from the tower to Howard from that day?

• 36:16Speaker 05

  Oh shit, I did not know that.

• 36:18Adam Friedland?

  And he was like, Howard Baba Booey, I'm in tower.

• 36:22Adam Friedland?

  Not funny.

• 36:23Speaker 05

  Too soon.

• 36:24Adam Friedland?

  Not funny. Because the rest of America, we thought it was pretty funny. Anyway, of course, you rose to prominence in national attention because you had that fiery speech about the 9/11 first responders.

• 36:35Speaker 05

  Right.

• 36:36Adam Friedland?

  Bill. And there used to be this notion of like, there were Democrats in the party that were also fucking killers. You were a Democrat who wasn't a pussy. You were a macho. You were known for going on Fox News and smacking them down. And that did something for a lot of people. Because that was during the rise of Fox News. That was during the Bush era. What do you make of the state of the modern day Democratic Party? Do you think there are people that have that fire?

• 37:02Speaker 05

  Well, I, it's, the comparison doesn't fit because I was kind of, I was a bigger fish in a smaller pond at the time. Like, there was this notion, you don't go on Fox News and fight with these guys because why do it? Like, what does it get? And I thought, one, it's the sport of it, and two, it's, one, two...

• 37:20Adam Friedland?

  They're idiots.

• 37:21Speaker 05

  Yeah. And, but now, you have, it's now the entire institution of politics has gotten to be performative of people who just say shit for the purpose of having it echo for no particular reason. So there are a lot of people that do that well.

• 37:36Adam Friedland?

  What does that mean?

• 37:37Speaker 05

  People that just want to be in it for the clicks and just want to say the outrageous things because they know it'll get picked up.

• 37:41Adam Friedland?

  But there, in the modern day Democratic Party...

• 37:45Speaker 05

  Or Republican Party. Why are you making a distinction?

• 37:47Adam Friedland?

  No, no, I'm talking about the, because you're a Democrat. The party is, is kind of, they don't have a defined message against Trump right now, or a unified message against Trump right now. They just lost an election to The Apprentice for a second time. You know, the party is kind of, in a bad way, right now. But they are perceived, I think, by the electorate as perhaps a feat, or lacking in passion, or kind of, kind of empty.

• 38:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, I don't know. I mean, one party won by 1.3% of the vote, and yes, you can make this narrative of, oh my god, we fucking suck. Or we were like a few hundred thousand votes away from being, oh my god, it's amazing how great the Democrats are doing. We've had three...

• 38:31Adam Friedland?

  elections in a row that are tied. You've got a lot of fucking people in the country who apparently don't take this stuff very seriously and just wanna like make visceral screams every four years. Alright, we know that. Now, how we as Democrats, we have more fidelity to- Do you think there's anyone in the party right now that possesses like kind of the skills that you presented in 2008? I know, but what I was doing, what I was- Just talk shit about some people right now. What I was doing was I was, I was expressing genuine, that moment in 2000, whatever it was, I was angry and tired and over, hadn't slept enough and I yelled and screamed a lot. And people are like, "Oh my god, that's amazing." Now everyone's fucking yelling and screaming, so- No, that's not true. Can you tell me one speech on the House or Senate floor that has garnered the attention that you got?

• 39:16Adam Friedland?

  I know, that's the point I'm making, is that everyone is doing the same shtick now- No, they're not. -of doing the performative outrage. No, they're not. They're all doing it. Congress is now, it's a little bit, it's, it's become somewhat of a legion of skanks, if you will. I mean, it's, it's become, what can I say? It's, it's trash. It's, no, no. What does Marjorie Taylor Greene do all day? When I saw that fight between AOC and the, the other congressman, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, and they were like, "With your butch body and your bad haircut." What is that all about? It's the government. It's, they're acting like fucking Jerry Springer right now. When I see that slob- Right, but you're asking me, is there anyone who does that like I used to do? That's not like what you used to do.

• 39:57Adam Friedland?

  What you were doing was like, was like, you were standing up for a piece of legislation, and you were standing up for people. You were talking shit about someone's haircut- Fair enough, fair enough. And your outfit looked bad. You know, seriously, it's, it's trash. When I see that, that slob, that lurch, Fetterman, I'm like, "Put on a fucking shirt, you're in the government." Have some fucking respect, it's the government. You know the only time he wore a suit? Was when Netanyahu came and spoke to the Congress, and he looked worse in the suit. I got you there. I got you there. What, with a, yeah, that's great. Do you have Fetterman's, Fetterman's clothing? I don't. I think you should put a shirt. Fair enough. It's Shabbos, put a shirt. By the way, am I underdressed for the show?

• 40:42Adam Friedland?

  No, you asked me before what you should wear. I did, because I didn't have enough experience with the show.

• 40:45Adam Friedland?

  No, there's a great outfit for you. Okay, thank you. How are you 60? Guys, I want to talk to you about Lucy. We're really excited to kick off our partnership with Lucy, a very exciting brand partner that we welcome into the Adam Friedland Show family of products. Lucy is 100% pure nicotine, and guess what, guys? As always, it's tobacco-free. Lucy Breakers are nicotine pouches that you put in your mouth, and they have an extra surprise. Each pouch holds a capsule that can be broken, open to, it is terrible the way I said it. I apologize to Lucy, that's good, I don't want people to be throwing up. Guys, Lucy Breakers are these pouches, you put them in your frickin' mouth, you pop

• 41:27Adam Friedland?

  them, and then you get a little extra surprise. Each pouch holds a capsule that can be broken to release extra flavor and hydration. Lord knows, lord knows you want that. So you set yourself up with a prescription, you have Lucy delivered straight to your door. What's my favorite flavor? I like the coffee one. I have it with my coffee. And don't even talk to me until I've had it. And what strength do I use? The strongest one, obviously. The one Arnold Schwarzenegger bodybuilders, strongest people. Anyway, I throw it in, in the morning, I throw it in when I want that little extra edge in my day. Let's level up your nicotine routine with Lucy.

• 42:08Adam Friedland?

  Go to lucy.co/tafs and use promo code TAFS to get 20% off your first order. Lucy has a 30-day refund policy if you change your mind. Again, that's lucy.co and use the code TAFS to get 20% off. And here comes the fine print. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age, and every order is age-verified. Warning: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Thank you, Lucy. Thank you.

• 42:38Speaker 02

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• 43:20Speaker 02

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• 44:01Speaker 02

  Call 1-800-545-5979, or visit zepbound.lily.com.

• 44:07Speaker 05

  And now, back to the show.

• 44:10Adam Friedland?

  Okay, so, I want to ask you about the ACA in 2008.

• 44:15Speaker 05

  Affordable Care Act. Who do you think the audience is for this show that want to ask you about the ACA?

• 44:24Adam Friedland?

  Don't talk to them.

• 44:26Speaker 05

  No, they know it is Obamacare. I coined Obamacare. Well, I didn't coin it, but I called it, when the Republicans are calling Obamacare to be derisive, I called Obamacare, and said, "Yeah, we should own this."

• 44:36Adam Friedland?

  They didn't own it. I mean, the Heritage Foundation owned it.

• 44:39Speaker 05

  No, that's the point. And I was saying, "Why are we running away from it? Either we're proud of this thing or not. You want to call it Obamacare, if you're proud of it, you should call it Obamacare too." And they called me up from the White House, and they're like, "You mocking the President's accomplishments." I'm like, "No, I'm just calling it what, if they want to call it this, we're proud of it too."

• 44:55Adam Friedland?

  It felt like Bush left office with an atrociously low approval rating.

• 45:00Speaker 05

  He did.

• 45:00Adam Friedland?

  It felt like there was this guy, I lived in DC at the time. And I remember the night Obama won. And I was with my friends, I was in college. We were like listening to Born in the USA. And we didn't realize it was a song about how America abandoned the veterans coming back from Vietnam. But we're like, it was the first time we felt like, yeah, we're fucking patriotic. A black guy became the president.

• 45:22Speaker 05

  Right.

• 45:23Adam Friedland?

  And he's incredible, he's an incredible speaker. I ran to the White House and I was shouting at the building and I was like, "Fuck you, Bush."

• 45:31Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 45:32Adam Friedland?

  And I was like, "A black guy's moving into your house, you fucking piece of shit." And girls were showing their tits. But going back to the ACA. So we had an opportunity to finally give people the ability to go to the hospital as a human right. And it, on a personal level, I became jaded probably for the rest of my life. Because they immediately gave up on it.

• 45:55Speaker 05

  Give up on?

• 45:57Adam Friedland?

  On a single payer.

• 45:58Speaker 05

  Oh, no, they never, and they made a decision early on. I mean, look, you've got to decide. A lot of our economy is a single payer system, and Medicare and Medicaid, the Indian Health Service. And then a lot of it is employer-based. And they had to make a decision early on what they were going to do. And they learned from the Clinton failures to double down on the insurance model and give insurance companies a bunch of money to subs- and give you money to give to insurance companies. It wasn't a transformative thing that maybe a young Adam Friedland.

• 46:29Adam Friedland?

  Oh, shut the fuck up, you're doing the Patrick Ben David thing to me again.

• 46:33Speaker 05

  Friedland. Shortened, Friedlander, was it? Was it shortened?

• 46:38Adam Friedland?

  Anthony Peanuts.

• 46:40Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 46:41Adam Friedland?

  No, okay, so, do you think that that is, that caused a problem with you and the White House?

• 46:49Speaker 05

  I had some conversations with the president himself and with his, about the, but I repaired-

• 46:56Adam Friedland?

  Let me be clear.

• 46:57Speaker 05

  I repaired them when I had an opportunity to bring a single payer system to the floor and I chose not to do it.

• 47:05Adam Friedland?

  After the passage of the ACA?

• 47:07Speaker 05

  After it passed out of committee, I had received a commitment to bring in a single payer system to the floor of the House. And it became clear that it would both go down and put a lot of my Republican colleagues in a situation they might not be able to vote for Obamacare that I decided not to offer it. And still to this day, I wonder if that was the right decision that I made. But I made that sacrifice and they appreciated it.

• 47:28Adam Friedland?

  You haven't seen the documentary, right? About your-

• 47:32Speaker 05

  No.

• 47:33Adam Friedland?

  ...run for, I mean, I imagine that would be like fucking stressful as fuck for you to watch it.

• 47:37Speaker 05

  The main reason I haven't seen it is that I don't have to talk about it.

• 47:41Adam Friedland?

  I'll say this, as a person that just watched it-

• 47:44Speaker 05

  Right, I haven't seen it, so-

• 47:45Adam Friedland?

  It's incredible. I mean, but like, it wouldn't be the way I'm watching it as like, this is incredible doc- like, film. You wouldn't feel the same way because obviously it's your life, right? And it's, and it's you in an incredibly stressful moment of your life.

• 48:00Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's probably right.

• 48:01Adam Friedland?

  Do you know about the sandwich?

• 48:04Speaker 05

  The sandwich?

• 48:05Adam Friedland?

  Oh, you don't even know.

• 48:06Speaker 05

  Well, you could say anything that's in the movie and I would not know. That's not really fair.

• 48:10Adam Friedland?

  There's a moment on Election Day, there's a moment on Election Day. It's like, the greatest actor in the world could go to Juilliard and they could study acting for 40 years and not eat a sandwich in a moment of stress like you ate that sandwich. You were, like, it was Election Day, you were like, everything's fucked, and you were eating this like Philly cheesesteak or something? It's like the way that Tony would go into the fridge and just like, eat deli's, right?

• 48:38Speaker 05

  Right, I was falling apart at that point.

• 48:42Adam Friedland?

  As a viewer-

• 48:43Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 48:44Adam Friedland?

  It's an incredible story because there's a turn in the middle of it, right?

• 48:48Speaker 05

  I haven't seen it, man.

• 48:49Adam Friedland?

  Don't, I'm not telling you to see it, I'm just telling you-

• 48:51Speaker 05

  Well, you're asking me to get into like, the experience of seeing it?

• 48:54Adam Friedland?

  No, no, it's not about, that's not what I'm asking about. I said, obviously, don't see it, please don't see it. That would suck. But, like, at the beginning of the documentary, they, they detail what the first scandal was, which was the accidental sweep.

• 49:09Speaker 05

  Right.

• 49:10Adam Friedland?

  And the first thing that came to mind to me-

• 49:12Speaker 05

  By the way, what, do you think your audience knows about- One of the great questions I had.

• 49:16Adam Friedland?

  Stop condescending the audience.

• 49:17Speaker 05

  No, I'm asking you. Because we're having this conversation as if the audience is completely tuned in on what my scandal was and was not. It happened a long ass time ago.

• 49:25Adam Friedland?

  Okay, then they should watch the documentary. I don't fucking know, dude. It doesn't matter what they know. It matters if we're having an interesting conversation.

• 49:33Speaker 05

  Fair enough.

• 49:33Adam Friedland?

  Okay. What do you think?

• 49:35Speaker 05

  No, it's just, because this is a little bit of a meta-question I'm experiencing in my life. Let me just finish my thought. Is that like I'm now in this process of returning to public life to some degree. And some people are really tuned into my scandal and are like, "How are you doing this with your scandal?" And some people are like, "What? What have you been talking about when you talk about your scandal?"

• 49:54Adam Friedland?

  What people are saying that?

• 49:56Speaker 05

  No, there are a lot of people who, 2000 is a long ass time ago.

• 49:59Adam Friedland?

  In New York City, I think that you, I think people know.

• 50:02Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's a Royce edge test. You to some degree are in that first camp. But there are a lot of people in the second camp that I experienced. That when I start to talk about it, they're like, "What was that? Tell me about the scandal again so I'm refreshed." Like the dude at Wingstop, I sent my son to pick up an order at Wingstop. And they're like, "Tell your dad he should run for governor again. That was ridiculous."

• 50:21Adam Friedland?

  How do you know his son? How do you know your son?

• 50:23Speaker 05

  Because it had my name, Anthony Weiner, on the thing. And they thought I was Elliot Spitzer. They conflated the two, confused or conflated? They confused the two stories.

• 50:31Adam Friedland?

  You guys should be on a ticket a little bit. Spit, Spit, Spitzer Wieners.

• 50:36Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 50:37Adam Friedland?

  Sorry, okay, that didn't work. Okay.

• 50:39Speaker 05

  Anyway, keep going.

• 50:40Adam Friedland?

  So, I go back to the, I'm going back to the White House thing with the ACA. There's a moment at the beginning of the documentary that details the first scandal. And there's, and then they play a clip of Obama saying, "If it were me, I would resign." Right?

• 50:53Speaker 05

  Got it.

• 50:53Adam Friedland?

  And it was kind of like, I like, the thing I picked up on was like, oh, the president kind of like, took the shot. Right? And I was wondering if that, if the origin of that was like through, from the ACA or from like something else that had happened, you know, in Washington DC that had nothing to do with this? Where it's like there was tension between you and the White House.

• 51:13Speaker 05

  I was not a particularly popular person in Washington.

• 51:16Adam Friedland?

  Why not?

• 51:18Speaker 05

  Because Washington doesn't, has a weird relationship with ambition. So like young, like-

• 51:23Adam Friedland?

  What are you talking about?

• 51:25Speaker 05

  I'm about to finish. Did that seem like the end of my-

• 51:26Adam Friedland?

  It's politics. What do you mean, a weird relationship?

• 51:28Speaker 05

  Did everyone's ambition-

• 51:29Adam Friedland?

  That seems like a bullshit sentence.

• 51:30Speaker 05

  Did it seem like the end of my thought, though?

• 51:32Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, but I'm telling you, it's a bullshit sentence.

• 51:34Speaker 05

  You let me know when I can continue my thought. And maybe you can draw a conclusion about the thought when I'm done with it.

• 51:39Adam Friedland?

  I'm helping you out here.

• 51:41Speaker 05

  You're not. You're like the Lee Harvey Oswald of stories. You're like just sniping at me while I'm talking. Can I continue? So, Washington has a weird relationship with ambition. In that, people get rewarded, obviously, for being ambitious. They run for senate. But if you're someone who thinks, "Well, this guy's not waiting in line. He's out there doing things on cable that we didn't think of doing. He's jumped over five members of congress to run for mayor, etc., etc." That's the... People don't like that. Institutional people in Washington don't like that. Now, maybe voters do, and maybe donors do, and maybe TV producers do, but other politicians don't. So, the fact that I was a relatively back-venturer, and I was someone who had become the spokesman for and against Obamacare,

• 52:26Speaker 05

  and for single payer and everything else, there was a little bit of like, "You're too big for your britches" kind of vibe.

• 52:31Adam Friedland?

  You were getting airtime, too, you know?

• 52:32Speaker 05

  And I was getting airtime, etc. And so, people would be... There were insiders who were like, "Who is this fucking guy?" That kind of vibe.

• 52:38Adam Friedland?

  Name names. Who was the guy? Who was doing it?

• 52:40Speaker 05

  I think that there were times my colleagues here in the New York delegation didn't like that I was running for mayor when I'd only been in office for a few years and was being successful at it. So, there is that tension as well. And then, the executive branch doesn't...

• 52:53Adam Friedland?

  Who's it? Gerald Nadler?

• 52:54Speaker 05

  Nadler was not a big fan of mine. He still isn't. Still grimaces at me when he sees me.

• 52:58Adam Friedland?

  Well, I think he just looks like he's grimacing always. You know, he pooped his pants.

• 53:05Speaker 05

  I thought it was you.

• 53:07Adam Friedland?

  Me, McConnell, and Nadler. We all pooped our pants.

• 53:10Speaker 05

  Okay, anyway, zooming out, right? The assumption is, for a long time, is that power and celebrity and powerful men is an aphrodisiac. That women are attracted to powerful men.

• 53:23Adam Friedland?

  Oh, for sure, for sure.

• 53:24Speaker 05

  And we celebrate...

• 53:24Adam Friedland?

  Crazy about me. The women are crazy about me.

• 53:26Speaker 05

  No, no, we celebrate our, like, JFK. I think it was a 2011... It was indicative of a shift in society. I think if a congressman's underpants with a little bit of a...

• 53:42Speaker 05

  Right.

• 53:42Adam Friedland?

  You know, okay, you know, print was tweeted out in 2025. What I would say is it wouldn't make the top 100 news stories of this year.

• 53:51Speaker 05

  That's probably right.

• 53:52Adam Friedland?

  Right? So it represents an intersection between of like an old kind of New York tabloid press, which is like that was kind of an old world thing.

• 54:03Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 54:03Adam Friedland?

  And then the new world introduction of technology into.

• 54:07Speaker 05

  That's one version. The other version is it was a relatively slow news period and I'm a guy named Weiner who tweeted out a picture of his dick.

• 54:13Adam Friedland?

  So you were the first guy too.

• 54:16Speaker 05

  No, I'm saying that there, I'm not dismissing that idea. I'm saying that there was an element of it.

• 54:21Adam Friedland?

  But Matt Yates fucked a kid.

• 54:24Speaker 05

  Right, and if his name was Matt Kidfucker.

• 54:26Adam Friedland?

  No.

• 54:28Adam Friedland?

  No, no, that's not true. Think about it this way. Think about it this way. Trump almost got shot on TV two days later we didn't even remember.

• 54:37Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'm not sure I see the transition in those.

• 54:39Adam Friedland?

  If it was today, it wouldn't like it would, it would be a 48 hour news cycle and it would be forgotten.

• 54:46Speaker 05

  Yes, but yes, the technology, if similar technological norms were around and Kennedy would have been the same, yes, but therefore what? Yes, yes.

• 54:54Adam Friedland?

  It's not therefore what? It's an interesting moment in like our culture, right? Because.

• 54:59Speaker 05

  Not a terribly original thought, but yes, it's, that's, yes. No, people have said that about my case, my God.

• 55:05Adam Friedland?

  I'm the Carlos Mencia of original thoughts. Sorry, I stole someone's bit. Who's the original thought was that?

• 55:12Speaker 05

  The movie was basically that premise.

• 55:14Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, what are you gonna do? Yell at me that congresspeople should have fucking stocks? I mean, like when this subject comes up, it's unpleasant for you to talk about, right?

• 55:23Speaker 05

  Look, we can do it. It's just we're gonna do, let's move off of this one not terribly novel idea that technology played a part in my.

• 55:30Adam Friedland?

  What I'm saying is this, you're running for office right now, right? It's, it's.

• 55:35Speaker 05

  This is the fourth time you've kind of given me advice on how to do something, how to do, I criticize.

• 55:41Adam Friedland?

  Because you're doing a bad job right now.

• 55:43Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 55:43Adam Friedland?

  I'm just telling you.

• 55:44Speaker 05

  It could be your defense to me.

• 55:47Adam Friedland?

  Yid to yid, yid to yid, you gotta be like a little bit, you gotta be smooth.

• 55:49Speaker 05

  You've also done this bit four times already. I get it. Sometimes I critique the question you're asking. And you do this thing of like, this is not good for you to make fun of your host on the show, it's not working. I'm like, all right, I get it. I get it.

• 56:04Speaker 05

  I get it. Alright, you turned the paper over. I thought that was a good sign. I thought we were gonna go to some new material. I'm ready, man. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Let's do some more of this. Yes, technology.

• 56:14Adam Friedland?

  It's not some more of this. Okay, listen.

• 56:15Speaker 05

  I came across it.

• 56:16Adam Friedland?

  Okay. No, no, I'm not doing the technology thing.

• 56:19Speaker 05

  We should, you know what we should have pivoted?

• 56:21Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 56:22Speaker 05

  Gates kid fucker was the chance to pivot.

• 56:25Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 56:25Speaker 05

  That was the, alright, now we move to the next thing. Got the big laugh, we move on.

• 56:29Adam Friedland?

  You're showing your hands a little bit right now.

• 56:31Speaker 05

  Which is what?

• 56:32Adam Friedland?

  That it's annoying that I'm asking any of these questions and you're sick of talking about it.

• 56:35Speaker 05

  Incorrect. I just think the movie as a jumping off point is not great. But go ahead.

• 56:38Adam Friedland?

  Why is that not great?

• 56:40Speaker 05

  Because there's interesting questions about the movie, maybe, but by what...

• 56:43Adam Friedland?

  I have more questions about the movie.

• 56:44Speaker 05

  By and large, people haven't seen the movie. I haven't seen the movie.

• 56:47Adam Friedland?

  I think a lot of people have seen the movie.

• 56:48Speaker 05

  I don't think a lot of people have seen this movie. Guys?

• 56:52Adam Friedland?

  I'm sorry, it's great. He said multiple times. Yeah, multiple times. Okay, there's another moment that's really sweet. And my mother passed away four years ago. When your mom, your mom, she looks so sweet, that lady.

• 57:04Speaker 05

  Yeah, she's the best.

• 57:04Adam Friedland?

  She goes back in the phone bank for you while everything's falling apart.

• 57:07Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 57:07Adam Friedland?

  And I started crying. Because I'm like, I miss her so much. Like, I was like, it's so nice.

• 57:12Speaker 05

  She's still around, she's around.

• 57:13Adam Friedland?

  No, no, not, I don't miss your mom.

• 57:17Adam Friedland?

  Your mom's an educator. In the documentary. Midway through.

• 57:24Adam Friedland?

  You know, you can't do it this way.

• 57:26Speaker 05

  I think I can. I have not seen the documentary.

• 57:28Adam Friedland?

  I'm, but you leave the documentary, so I'm gonna ask you a question because I saw it.

• 57:32Speaker 05

  You don't need to set it up as the documentary when I haven't seen it. If I did it in real life, you can just say, I understand you...

• 57:38Adam Friedland?

  You're the one wasting time right now.

• 57:39Speaker 05

  Fair enough. Go ahead.

• 57:40Adam Friedland?

  Obviously, it was something documenting your comeback. And then midway through, there's a shift. Was there ever a moment in your mind where you were like, just like, let's stop doing this?

• 57:51Speaker 05

  So, the documentary came to be...

• 57:54Adam Friedland?

  It was a staffer, right?

• 57:55Speaker 05

  This guy that used to work for me said, "Let me document this stuff." And I'm like, "Look, dude, here's what I do need. I need someone to videotape..." Everything that I do on the campaign for our own purposes, one, we might need for ads, but two, I was very concerned about people making accusations about something that happened on the campaign. I wanted to document it.

• 58:15Adam Friedland?

  Did you have it in the back of your mind that there was a possibility of something else derailing your chances of becoming mayor?

• 58:21Speaker 05

  Oh, constantly.

• 58:23Adam Friedland?

  So you were under constant stress even before this?

• 58:25Speaker 05

  I always knew I had this scandal in the background and it was going to be hard for me to get ahead of it because one way or another, I'd have to persuade 50% of the voters to vote for me either in a runoff or in the primaries. So I always knew it was going to be tough. So I don't know if I ever thought for sure, even when the polls were showing me ahead, I always knew it was going to be tough because I'm a smart political person. I knew that when you had these kind of negatives.

• 58:52Adam Friedland?

  Obviously, like, opening yourself up to another run right now.

• 58:55Speaker 05

  Presently, yes.

• 58:56Adam Friedland?

  Presently.

• 58:56Speaker 05

  Very different vibe.

• 58:58Adam Friedland?

  You think it's a different vibe?

• 58:59Speaker 05

  I don't think I would be running if I thought good people were running. I think that there's kind of, it's been 10 years since I've run, so it's not like I've been, and I've had other opportunities, and people say it to me all the time, "You should run, you should run." I just think that there's no good reason not to run, right? If I think I'd be doing a good job at the job and I have, if I'm better than the other people, why shouldn't I run?

• 59:23Adam Friedland?

  It happened for a third time, and many people have asked you this question. I'm going to ask it again.

• 59:29Speaker 05

  Go ahead.

• 59:30Adam Friedland?

  Because of the proximity of the Comey letter to the election in 2016.

• 59:34Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 59:35Adam Friedland?

  In some ways, you are considered kind of like a Archduke Ferdinand of...

• 59:42Speaker 05

  Do you have to set this part up at all, or you're kind of having it hard? Do you have to set this up?

• 59:45Adam Friedland?

  You're doing this thing again where it's an annoying question.

• 59:47Speaker 05

  Maybe you don't, maybe you don't, maybe you don't, maybe you don't. All right.

• 59:49Adam Friedland?

  A third accusation arose in 2016, and as a result of it, your laptop was seized, and there were emails from Hillary Clinton, and 10 days before the election, James Comey wrote a letter to Congress. And in a razor-thin election, many people perceive it to be...

• 1:00:07Speaker 05

  Right.

• 1:00:08Adam Friedland?

  The thing that pushed Trump over the line.

• 1:00:10Speaker 05

  Right. So Comey, they had my laptop, they had it for weeks and weeks and weeks. They knew that wasn't anything on it that was relevant to the campaign, that was relevant to the investigation. The prosecutors in New York said, "Why are you guys just sitting on this?" And it turned out, they were sitting on it because Comey did this 11th-hour thing that is against the law, where he announces... The announcement.

• 1:00:34Adam Friedland?

  I'm not saying it was your plan to do it, but like through a butterfly effect.

• 1:00:37Speaker 05

  Right, except it wasn't accidental. It was intentionally done that way. Giuliani leaked about it long before. We've got this. We're holding it until the very end.

• 1:00:45Adam Friedland?

  So James Comey was working in concert with the Trump campaign?

• 1:00:49Speaker 05

  Well, it's not really clear. I mean, he's never answered exactly why it was he held on to this so long until 10 days before the election. They had it weeks before. The inspector general that looked into this asked the same question. The people in the FBI, and the FBI was pulling against Hillary Clinton and Giuliani was getting leaked all this information. They had it for a long time. Why did Comey wait till 10 days before to talk about it? That's a question for Comey. Comey's, so if you have a, the butterfly effect is Comey holding on to stuff until 10 days before.

• 1:01:17Adam Friedland?

  Of course, of course. I mean, like, I'm not saying that it was your intention to get, for a third time, and then have Donald Trump accidentally become president.

• 1:01:25Speaker 05

  No, say that it was.

• 1:01:26Adam Friedland?

  I'm not saying that it was deliberate.

• 1:01:27Speaker 05

  No, saying the Anthony Weiner butterfly effect is like, it was held for weeks after.

• 1:01:31Adam Friedland?

  It was your laptop, though.

• 1:01:32Speaker 05

  I know, but it was held for weeks after that. The butterfly effect was not me. It was Comey, what Comey did with that information.

• 1:01:37Adam Friedland?

  He wouldn't have had the laptop, and that wouldn't have, you know.

• 1:01:40Speaker 05

  Right, but he could have had the laptop. My point is he could have had it for six months and held on to it. It was weeks. It was not that close to the election.

• 1:01:46Adam Friedland?

  You're still a part of the butterfly. You're still, you're still.

• 1:01:48Speaker 05

  Someone could make that argument.

• 1:01:49Adam Friedland?

  You're still a beautiful butterfly.

• 1:01:50Speaker 05

  Someone could make that argument, but they'd have to construct a fairly convoluted theory.

• 1:01:54Adam Friedland?

  But I'm saying like, you were tangentially related to a historical moment.

• 1:01:57Speaker 05

  There are also people that, if you believe the Anthony Weiner part about it, you have to ignore the James Comey piece and the Rudy Giuliani piece and the FBI piece.

• 1:02:04Adam Friedland?

  No, that's the butterfly effect. We'll say the human centipede effect. You have the Anthony Weiner, you have Giuliani, you have Comey, you have Trump.

• 1:02:13Speaker 05

  Right, but, but Adam.

• 1:02:14Adam Friedland?

  You have Stormy Daniels.

• 1:02:15Speaker 05

  But Adam, it could have been, if it's not Anthony Weiner, there could have been something else that was the butterfly.

• 1:02:20Adam Friedland?

  But in, in, in the material universe, what happened was that.

• 1:02:25Speaker 05

  I mean, you could also say.

• 1:02:26Adam Friedland?

  Why are we debating this? This is a ridiculous point for you to be taking. You know that.

• 1:02:30Speaker 05

  Again, the sixth time, you've taken an answer of mine and keep it in real time.

• 1:02:33Adam Friedland?

  Because you're taking some sort of abstract, like, issue with it, when it's a simple point.

• 1:02:38Speaker 05

  You asked me, what is, what do you think about the butterfly effect argument? I'm saying I'm dismissing it, and here's how I'm doing it.

• 1:02:43Adam Friedland?

  You're dismissing it because James Comey could have used anything, but I'm saying what happened was he used your thing.

• 1:02:48Speaker 05

  Right, or you could say.

• 1:02:49Adam Friedland?

  So it's still a butterfly effect.

• 1:02:50Speaker 05

  You can say that Hillary Clinton is the butterfly.

• 1:02:53Adam Friedland?

  I think she's gorgeous.

• 1:02:56Adam Friedland?

  When you look at your life as you were like now the, what is it? The minority leader of the senate was your first mentor.

• 1:03:03Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 1:03:04Adam Friedland?

  And then your, your wife was the assistant to the secretary of state.

• 1:03:08Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 1:03:09Adam Friedland?

  President Clinton officiated your wedding.

• 1:03:13Speaker 05

  All correct.

• 1:03:14Adam Friedland?

  You were around incredibly powerful.

• 1:03:16Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:03:16Adam Friedland?

  People and.

• 1:03:17Speaker 05

  And now?

• 1:03:18Adam Friedland?

  I mean, you're somewhat of a Forrest Gump.

• 1:03:22Speaker 05

  Yeah, like a Zelig?

• 1:03:23Adam Friedland?

  Well, Zelig isn't good too. You know Woody did blackface in that movie too.

• 1:03:26Speaker 05

  Yeah, I, I don't think also Zelig works with.

• 1:03:29Adam Friedland?

  You know, I've met him.

• 1:03:30Speaker 05

  Was it Zelig or Woody Allen?

• 1:03:32Adam Friedland?

  Zelig's not a real guy.

• 1:03:33Speaker 05

  I know, but I thought maybe.

• 1:03:34Adam Friedland?

  Who, I mean Shrek?

• 1:03:35Speaker 05

  I thought maybe you'd like, you would appear.

• 1:03:37Adam Friedland?

  I met him in a restaurant recently.

• 1:03:38Speaker 05

  Hey, that's Zelig and then that's also it's Friedlander over there. So look to him.

• 1:03:41Adam Friedland?

  No, that movie's incredible, actually. And it has become a cultural term of.

• 1:03:45Speaker 05

  I know, I've been, I don't know quite what I'm supposed to do about watching Woody Allen movies.

• 1:03:49Adam Friedland?

  Why?

• 1:03:50Speaker 05

  Are we allowed to do it? I don't know. I don't know.

• 1:03:52Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, we're allowed to do it.

• 1:03:53Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 1:03:54Adam Friedland?

  The joke obviously is to a comedian when we see this, right, is this.

• 1:03:58Speaker 05

  Oh, good. I love to see the comedian mind at work.

• 1:04:00Adam Friedland?

  When we see that news story, we see that all of us as men possess the capacity to, to ruin our own lives with our own penises. To trip over our own penises, but that western civilization perhaps tripped over your penis. It could have been the penis that changed history the most.

• 1:04:17Speaker 05

  Got it. Got it. Seen it, read it, done it. Yeah, go ahead. Keep going.

• 1:04:21Adam Friedland?

  Who read it? Who said it?

• 1:04:21Speaker 05

  I, people have written, said it, and done it, but yeah, we can do it again.

• 1:04:26Adam Friedland?

  I mean, I'm saying that to a comedian, that's kind of obviously how we're gonna view it.

• 1:04:30Speaker 05

  And you?

• 1:04:30Adam Friedland?

  But, but right now, the way I view it is that there's a human being that was in incredibly stressful situation.

• 1:04:37Speaker 05

  Thank you, pal.

• 1:04:38Adam Friedland?

  We have obviously an attitude towards addiction in society now. And that if, if, if we can accept that your behavior, and I know you're in recovery, if we can accept that your behavior was impulsive or compulsive.

• 1:04:51Speaker 05

  Right.

• 1:04:52Adam Friedland?

  That you were doing it after you resigned from congress, you were doing it after you ran for mayor, that, you know, that that was a product of a disease. You know, I think society, society has that view nowadays. But what I, I think probably complicates matters for you is the, is the jail sentence and.

• 1:05:12Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 1:05:12Adam Friedland?

  The final time that it included someone that was an underage individual.

• 1:05:16Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 1:05:20Adam Friedland?

  You now are on the registry, right?

• 1:05:24Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 1:05:25Adam Friedland?

  And I'm just wondering, you've been in the system now, right?

• 1:05:31Speaker 05

  I have.

• 1:05:32Adam Friedland?

  You know, and I read your 25 ideas for New York City. And I didn't really see much about criminal justice issues.

• 1:05:44Speaker 05

  That's fair.

• 1:05:45Adam Friedland?

  And I wonder what impact it had on you to be in the system? And what impact it has on you now to still be on this registry? And have somebody that follows you the rest of your life?

• 1:06:00Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, first of all, the registry part is something I had to agree to. The crime I committed, obscenity, was not included in that. But the prosecutor, look, it's informed me in the following ways. One, that prosecutors make decisions for political reasons. The higher the monkey climbs, the more you can see his ass. And that I accept. I was a famous person, so someone that might not get charged for a crime. It was ridiculous for me to get charged with a crime and to do prison sentence for the things that I did.

• 1:06:28Adam Friedland?

  You think that?

• 1:06:30Speaker 05

  Well, no one-

• 1:06:31Adam Friedland?

  Is that your claim?

• 1:06:32Speaker 05

  No one generally gets prosecuted. No one in the Southern District's ever been sentenced for obscenity, for transferring obscene material. So I did learn that there is an element of prosecutorial discretion that I think everyone should be concerned about, that people being made examples of, and the idea that people be over-incarcerated. I learned, I was a very privileged person to be in that system, but I experienced a lot of men in that system who were also charged with things they probably shouldn't have been for periods of time, that they shouldn't have, and their inability to get a trial, a fair trial, because of the trial penalty in the federal system. So I learned a lot about that stuff that informs how I talk about this stuff today.

• 1:07:12Adam Friedland?

  What was your experience being incarcerated like?

• 1:07:15Speaker 05

  It was hard. I wouldn't recommend it.

• 1:07:17Adam Friedland?

  How did you politic?

• 1:07:19Speaker 05

  I formed relationships with a lot of different elements inside.

• 1:07:23Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:23Speaker 05

  Like, there were guys at the prison library, these more senior black guys, and I would kibitz with them about what's going on in Washington. I worked in the rec yard, and so, you know, those guys I got a relationship with. I lived with the unit store man.

• 1:07:38Adam Friedland?

  What's a store man?

• 1:07:40Speaker 05

  The guy who has stuff that he sells. You can only go to the commissary every so often, but if someone wants to go watch a movie and they want to get a bag of chips, the store man will take care of you. And I lived with that guy, and no one really fucks with the store man, and so, there are ways that I stayed safe.

• 1:07:57Adam Friedland?

  Being on a registry, like, if you kill someone, right? If I murder someone, I get out of jail, I don't have to tell my neighbors that I'm a murderer.

• 1:08:07Speaker 05

  Correct, correct.

• 1:08:09Adam Friedland?

  Like, what is it about, like, this category of crime? Like, why is it treated differently?

• 1:08:15Speaker 05

  I don't know. It's the kind of the last, I mean, it's kind of weird. Obscenity is usually not considered one of these crimes, and so, it's kind of weird, but I guess, you know, sex crimes have their own special thing in people's imagination because they take in such a broad range of different things.

• 1:08:32Adam Friedland?

  Is it all sex crimes, or is it just involving minors?

• 1:08:36Speaker 05

  No, it's all sex crimes.

• 1:08:38Adam Friedland?

  It's all sex crimes.

• 1:08:38Speaker 05

  All sex crimes.

• 1:08:39Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Do you know that this individual was underage at the time?

• 1:08:42Speaker 05

  I don't want to, I didn't have a trial. I didn't have a trial, and I'm reluctant to do anything that sounds like I'm not accepting responsibility for what I did. However, there are elements of this case that made it winnable for me. Let's just put it that way.

• 1:08:56Adam Friedland?

  If it was winnable, why wouldn't you try to win?

• 1:08:58Speaker 05

  Because they said to you, you can either accept this charge, or we're going to charge you with something else that has a mandatory minimum. And so, the risk, it's called the trial penalty in the federal system. So, it's very risky, and that's why so few people go to trial, because you can plea bargain for 21 months and see your six-year-old again in a couple of years, or take your chance going to a trial with an A. Anthony Weiner and all that goes with that.

• 1:09:20Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:21Speaker 05

  And hope that you win the case and spend a lot of money, and then you could then get charged with, then you found guilty, you have a 10-year mandatory minimum because they charged you with something else. Not many people go to trial in the federal system, like one or two percent.

• 1:09:32Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:33Speaker 05

  Because they have the ability to really raise the cost for you if you decide to.

• 1:09:36Adam Friedland?

  How has it affected your life, though, being on a registry, since you've been out of jail?

• 1:09:41Speaker 05

  Well, it's very hard. It's a thing that people can say about you that taints you and it makes it seem like you're scary and that people can make up stories. My whole thing is I'll accept responsibility for the things I've done, not for things I have not done.

• 1:09:53Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:54Speaker 05

  The prosecutors said you have to accept this as part of the penalties, part of your plea bargain, so we said we would.

• 1:10:00Adam Friedland?

  I mean, obviously, you're running for office again.

• 1:10:02Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:10:03Adam Friedland?

  Like, it must make it like, you intend on winning, do you?

• 1:10:10Speaker 05

  I do intend on winning.

• 1:10:11Adam Friedland?

  Right. So how do you account for that, like, in the eyes of a voter?

• 1:10:16Speaker 05

  Well, it depends on where they enter the conversation. If they say, "You're on the sexual registry and I can explain it," if they say, some people, I say to them, "Look, I have done my time, done my probation, I have accepted responsibility, and why can't I go back and work for this community doing the job that I'm best at?" To me, people who talk about the idea of justice in the justice system,

• 1:10:38Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:39Speaker 05

  they're full of shit if they believe that I'm not entitled to run even though I have done my time and accepted responsibility. And my notion of criminal justice is, you pay your debt to society no more.

• 1:10:51Adam Friedland?

  To what extent do you want to expose yourself for a third time now to that?

• 1:10:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, I get versions of that question a lot, like, why are you putting yourself through it? And I guess the question, shouldn't the question be, well, what is, why shouldn't I? Like, what is the alternative? Is the idea, okay, this is whole body of things that you're good at doing, but you shouldn't do it because people are going to say mean things to you? Well, the alternative is what? I only go into job spaces where people won't say mean things to me. I'm also on the radio, on a conservative radio station, where people call up and yell at me about something. There's a lot of things that people don't like candidates for. Maybe they don't like me because of these things in my background. But I guess the question I would have is, like, well, what is the illogical extension of that? That I curl up under a table somewhere, or I just dis...

• 1:11:39Speaker 05

  If I would have been elected in 2013, we would have had a better city. I would have been a better mayor than de Blasio. So if someone wants to say, "I'm not gonna vote for that guy for city council. I'm gonna vote for someone less good, cuz I don't like what I know about me. This embarrassing thing I know about that guy." Alright, well fuck you. That's your decision. If you wanna vote for a less good city councilman because you know embarrassing things about me, then so be it. But as the person, what am I supposed to do? If I think I can be of service, if I think that I can add something, if I think I'm really good at this, and I'm better than the people running, what's the argument for me not running? Oh, people are gonna say mean things to me?

• 1:12:16Adam Friedland?

  Well, it feels shit to lose, right? If you lose.

• 1:12:18Speaker 05

  I suppose it does, but you're asking a different question. You're saying that you have to get... I could lose because I'm a Zionist in the district that's very lefty. I could lose because of any number of reasons. You can always lose if you're in an election. Is this a liability? Yes, but I also have assets. I mean, I'm the far better candidate than any of these people. I've got better ideas than them, etc. So if you're saying you only go into a race that you think that you're gonna win...

• 1:12:47Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. You know, in a lot of cities, like a dog gets elected mayor.

• 1:12:53Adam Friedland?

  Do you think New York will ever have a dog mayor?

• 1:12:56Speaker 05

  We just... I just saw a thing on Instagram. There's a dog mayor now of New York.

• 1:13:01Adam Friedland?

  Right now?

• 1:13:02Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:13:03Adam Friedland?

  Mayor Adams, you're calling him a dog?

• 1:13:04Speaker 05

  No, I think dog mayor is like a different thing.

• 1:13:07Adam Friedland?

  He's got that dog in him. You know what, you look kind of like a silent film star a little bit.

• 1:13:15Speaker 05

  Except the talking part.

• 1:13:18Adam Friedland?

  You don't need drugs?

• 1:13:20Speaker 05

  I don't.

• 1:13:21Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, you do. I know you do.

• 1:13:23Speaker 05

  No, you're the comedian. Do you headline your show? How do you... do we advertise on the show? I mean, how does it work?

• 1:13:30Adam Friedland?

  Don't worry about it.

• 1:13:31Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 1:13:34Speaker 05

  Do you wear this when you do your stand-up? Is this like the Nebbishy, like Jewish thing?

• 1:13:39Adam Friedland?

  Why would I say Nebbish?

• 1:13:40Speaker 05

  Forgive me. You're right. You're right. I apologize.

• 1:13:46Adam Friedland?

  You're a Rodney fan, right?

• 1:13:49Speaker 05

  Rodney Dangerfield, yes.

• 1:13:50Adam Friedland?

  Want to give us a couple of Rodneys?

• 1:13:52Speaker 05

  Oh, did you, where'd you read this? I used to do Rodneys when I was in college, but no, I'm not gonna do Rodneys.

• 1:13:56Adam Friedland?

  In the documentary, The Rodney.

• 1:13:58Speaker 05

  Did I really?

• 1:13:58Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, well, everything was turning to shit. You were in the car, it was a great moment. Sorry to bring up the documentary.

• 1:14:05Speaker 05

  No, it's, I didn't realize that.

• 1:14:07Adam Friedland?

  Do, do, do your favorite joke.

• 1:14:08Speaker 05

  I'd rather not.

• 1:14:09Adam Friedland?

  Why not?

• 1:14:10Speaker 05

  I'd rather not.

• 1:14:13Speaker 05

  Come on, do one joke. It was Rodney influencing you at all? Who is your guy? Who is your, like, guy that you're like, I want, that's the guy I want to emulate? Is it Stuart?

• 1:14:23Adam Friedland?

  No, okay, my guy, not Stuart, no, I'd say Woody, for sure.

• 1:14:27Speaker 05

  Oh, of course, yeah.

• 1:14:28Adam Friedland?

  Woody, I love Larry.

• 1:14:32Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:14:33Adam Friedland?

  You know, the fucking...

• 1:14:33Speaker 05

  I get it.

• 1:14:34Adam Friedland?

  What?

• 1:14:35Speaker 05

  I don't know.

• 1:14:37Adam Friedland?

  Give us one joke. Give us one Rodney. We just, on a light level, because it's got so heavy.

• 1:14:43Speaker 05

  But the way you structured this, you could've done the yucks at the end. Uh...

• 1:14:48Adam Friedland?

  Just give us one joke.

• 1:14:52Adam Friedland?

  I'll give you my dad's favorite joke.

• 1:14:53Speaker 05

  Go ahead.

• 1:14:54Adam Friedland?

  Okay.

• 1:14:55Speaker 05

  A Rodney joke?

• 1:14:56Adam Friedland?

  No. So there's a Jew gets shipwrecked.

• 1:15:00Speaker 05

  My neighborhood's dangerous, boy.

• 1:15:02Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 1:15:02Speaker 05

  A lot of crime in my neighborhood, boy.

• 1:15:04Adam Friedland?

  A Jew gets...

• 1:15:05Speaker 05

  The other day, I asked the police officer, "Where's the nearest subway station?" He's, "I don't know, no one's ever made it."

• 1:15:14Adam Friedland?

  Talk about your wife.

• 1:15:16Speaker 05

  I got no respect for my wife. The other day, I was at a bar. The bartender says, "What do you want?" I said, "I don't know, surprise me." He shows me a naked picture of my wife. Oh, I got no respect.

• 1:15:28Speaker 05

  I'm all done. I'm all done. Go ahead, go ahead. I interrupted your thing. Now you gotta compete with Rodney, but go ahead. Knock yourself out.

• 1:15:35Adam Friedland?

  My dad's favorite joke.

• 1:15:36Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:15:37Adam Friedland?

  So the Jew washes up on a desert island, right? 10 years later, they find him. He's been alone. He's built in the entire city. There's a town hall, there's a postal office.

• 1:15:46Speaker 05

  The synagogue, that's the one I was never going to.

• 1:15:48Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I'm sorry.

• 1:15:49Speaker 05

  All right. Thank you, pal. Two kids, really enjoyed it.

• 1:16:28Adam Friedland?

  All right, here's a scenario, right? It's your... It's the Super Bowl, right? The Birds just frickin' won, right? You're there with your best friend, right? Had a couple too many. Is it cheating if you, if you, one time, just...

• 1:16:47Adam Friedland?

  Get a blowjob from your male best friend one time?

• 1:16:51Speaker 04

  No, that's not cheating, as long as, you know...

• 1:16:53Adam Friedland?

  All right, thanks a lot.

• 1:16:53Speaker 04

  Oh, okay, cool. Okay. Okay, thanks, guys.

• 1:16:57Adam Friedland?

  You're amazing. Dad, I hope you had fun.

• 1:16:59Speaker 04

  I had a lot of fun.