Diddy Pardon? Tapper’s Book BOMBS & Woke Culture BACKFIRES w/ Stephen A. Smith | PBD Podcast | Ep. 594

Patrick Bet-David, Tom Ellsworth, Vincent Oshana, and Adam Sosnick are joined by Stephen A. Smith as they cover Jake Tapper’s embarrassing book launch failure, whether Stephen A would run for President as a Republican, Trump’s escalating tariff war, and his potential pardon of Diddy. ----- 🏋️ VT ATHLEISURE COLLECTION: ⁠https://bit.ly/4mEY1jo⁠ https://bit.ly/4mEY1jo 🖥️ VT WEBINAR: HOW TO BE A KILLER IN BUSINESS WITHOUT KILLING YOUR MARRIAGE | JUNE 11TH | 12:30PM: ⁠https://bit.ly/4hVTkPK⁠ https://bit.ly/4hVTkPK 🎫 THE VAULT 2025 | SEPT 8TH - 11TH | THE GAYLORD PALMS | ORLANDO, FL: ⁠https://bit.ly/4dJlmfL⁠ https://bit.ly/4dJlmfL 🍋 ZEST IT FORWARD: ⁠https://bit.ly/4jYg3Lh⁠ https://bit.ly/4jYg3Lh 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": ⁠https://bit.ly/41rtEV4⁠ https://bit.ly/41rtEV4 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g57zR2⁠ https://bit.ly/4g57zR2 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ITUNES: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g1bXAh⁠ https://bit.ly/4g1bXAh 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ALL PLATFORMS: ⁠https://bit.ly/4eXQl6A⁠ https://bit.ly/4eXQl6A 📱 CONNECT ON MINNECT: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC⁠ https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC 👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3ZjWhB7⁠ https://bit.ly/3ZjWhB7 📰 VTNEWS. AI: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3OExClZ⁠ https://bit.ly/3OExClZ 🎓 VALUETAINMENT UNIVERSITY: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3BfA5Qw⁠ https://bit.ly/3BfA5Qw 📺 JOIN THE CHANNEL: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g5C6Or⁠ https://bit.ly/4g5C6Or 💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! SUBSCRIBE TO:‪@VALUETAINMENT‬ ‪@ValuetainmentComedy‬ ‪@theunusualsuspectspodcast‬ ‪@HerTakePod‬ ‪@bizdocpodcast‬ ABOUT US:Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

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• 1:14Speaker 02

  My handshake is better than anything I ever signed, right here.

• 1:18Patrick Bet-David?

  You are a one of one?

• 1:19Speaker 04

  My sundry.

• 1:20Speaker 02

  I don't think I've ever said this before.

• 1:27Patrick Bet-David?

  So about a week and a half ago, we're doing a podcast and we have a friend of ours that reacts to Vinnie and says certain things about Vinnie. Rob, if you can play this, we just got to open it up with, go for it, Rob. Here's what Stephen A. had to say about Vinnie. Go ahead, Rob.

• 1:42Speaker 05

  Vinnie, respectfully, specifically on this particular topic. Call my name wrong. I don't give a shit what you give a shit about.

• 1:52Speaker 05

  I'm gonna say it twice so we know that I wasn't stuttering. I don't give a shit what you give a shit about.

• 1:58Patrick Bet-David?

  You can pause it right there.

• 1:58Speaker 05

  As if.

• 1:59Patrick Bet-David?

  We have Stephen A. Smith in the house. How you doing?

• 2:01Speaker 05

  I'm in here.

• 2:04Speaker 05

  What's up Benny?

• 2:05Adam Sosnick?

  What's up baby chillin'?

• 2:06Speaker 05

  Alright chillin'. What's up y'all? How y'all doin'?

• 2:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Hello, hello. So, a lot's happened since the last time we had you on. Obviously, we've spoken many times. You got the contract, you got all this stuff going on.

• 2:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:16Patrick Bet-David?

  You know, you're on the list ahead of Kamala Harris on some polls about running for president 2028.

• 2:21Speaker 05

  Right.

• 2:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Uh, uh, and uh-

• 2:23Adam Sosnick?

  Thank God.

• 2:23Patrick Bet-David?

  And some big announcements being made today apparently, which is, which is big.

• 2:26Speaker 05

  Yeah, um, you know, there's, uh, I'm gonna be returning back to Sirius XM radio.

• 2:31Patrick Bet-David?

  That's sick. Congrats.

• 2:32Adam Sosnick?

  Congrats.

• 2:32Speaker 05

  You know, thank you, I appreciate it. And I'm gonna be returning back to Sirius XM, doing a sports show daily from 1 to 3 PM on Mad Dog Sports Radio. Uh, leading into Mad Dog and his 3 to 6 PM drive time show. And then after that, my show will re-air from 6 to 8 PM. And that's every weekday. And then at least once a week, um, in all likelihood on the POTUS channel, I'll have my own political show.

• 2:54Patrick Bet-David?

  POTUS channel?

• 2:55Speaker 05

  That's right.

• 2:56Patrick Bet-David?

  That's exciting.

• 2:57Speaker 05

  That'll be, I'll be doing my own political show on the, uh, POTUS channel. And that will, you know, from a video perspective, it'll be airing on my own YouTube channel, which will still live, which is on Stephen A. Smith's channel.

• 3:07Patrick Bet-David?

  And I like the fact that it's three years, because in three years, in case you decide to get, apply for another job-

• 3:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah. It's August of 2028, about two months before the election.

• 3:15Adam Sosnick?

  Great timing, baby, great timing.

• 3:17Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 3:17Patrick Bet-David?

  I like it, I love it. Listen, these are the, these are the stories we're gonna be going through. I got some questions for you, we'll cover that. Obviously, a lot going on with, uh, Ukraine, the bombing, 40 Russian bombers, uh, you know, yesterday.

• 3:30Speaker 05

  Right.

• 3:30Patrick Bet-David?

  And with all the stuff that's going on there, there's stories about Pompeo being in Ukraine. You got Lindsey Graham being in Ukraine, you got Blumenthal being in, you got a lot of weird things going on. And so people are speculating, Benny's got some thoughts on this. There's another story about LA City Council passes budget that firms police fire spending. And then you got this, uh, Chris Cuomo shrugs off illegal immigrants murdering Americans as an artificial issue. Completely made up, Benny's got some thoughts on it. But this is a friend of ours, maybe we'll react to that as well.

• 4:01Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 4:02Patrick Bet-David?

  And then Trump awards first ever medals of sacrifice to follow law enforcement officer. I don't know if he saw the reaction of the daughter of, whose father- Did you see this? He's recognizing the daughter whose father passed away in the line of fire. And you should see the way she reacts and what she says afterwards. You have to watch this.

• 4:22Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 4:23Patrick Bet-David?

  You've not seen this.

• 4:24Speaker 05

  I have not seen this.

• 4:25Patrick Bet-David?

  I am so glad you're gonna react to this. It's such an interesting take. Uh, you know, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer moves UK military into warfighting readiness. Why? No one knows. That's NATO. We'll talk about that. Lawsuit accuses Zion of rape, uh, years of abuse. Again, we'll see what you have to say about that. Uh, Paris erupts in celebration riots after PSG wins championship league. Stephen A. Smith says, uh, Deion Sanders was devastated by Shador's 2025 NFL Draft slide. I'm actually curious to know, you know, what you know about that and how it went about because everybody was following the story to see what was gonna happen. Everybody was surprised what happened there, but you know, if there is a family that's a mentally tough family, it's these guys. Uh, I'm curious to know what your thoughts are on this.

• 5:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Then World Boxing apologizes for naming Olympic champion Imran Khalif in sex test policy that just recently came out.

• 5:14Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 5:14Patrick Bet-David?

  And then you got, you said something about, uh, you don't like the idea of pardoning Diddy, Trump pardoning Diddy. And, uh, 50 Cent said some stuff on, on there, will, will address that issue. Kaitlyn Clark, I really wanna ask you about Kaitlyn Clark. Some numbers came out. I'm curious to know what you're gonna say. Then we got the Jake Tapper situation. This guy went out there, you know, revealing what he knew about Biden. And ever since he revealed that, not only did the book flop, but his show is flopped. It's almost like the audience is sitting there saying, I don't believe you. I don't trust what you have to say. We'll talk about that. Anthony Edwards, look, you know, he said something in the interview. I know some of you guys maybe not be following basketball, but, uh, in the interview after they lost, they're like, so how do you feel right now? I'm 23 years old. I got a lot of playing to do.

• 5:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Sitting next to Connolly, that's in his mid to late 30s, only got a couple of seasons left to play, hoping to get his first championship. I wonder what, if, if you have anything on how to market his view on Anthony? Is he gonna be the next face of the league? We'll talk about that. Inside the NBA with, uh, the whole being the ending of it, Barkley, all of that.

• 6:14Speaker 05

  I'm just happy I know most of this. You know what I'm saying? Because he ain't like you get, it's not like you prepped me for the subjects we was gonna be tackling. I got to be ready for this. You're a professional. You stay ready.

• 6:23Patrick Bet-David?

  So then I'll give you one that you know nothing about. Palantir, no, I'm not gonna.

• 6:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Anyways, but by the way, you know, before we get into it, did I saw you acting and I let me, Rob, let's do this. For those of you that believe the future looks bright and you go to the gym and you want to sport the gear and be part of the community that represents future looks bright. Here's a new gear that came out athletic wear of future looks bright with our models. And guess who's in it? Vinnie, Rob going to play the clip.

• 6:52Speaker 05

  I don't give a shit about what I'm doing.

• 6:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Those are 85 pound dumbbells.

• 6:57Adam Sosnick?

  Okay, Natty, a good camera work right there.

• 6:59Speaker 05

  The second one right there is what your kids should have kept the video.

• 7:02Adam Sosnick?

  It's Natalia. Great personality on that girl. There she goes.

• 7:13Speaker 05

  Sick.

• 7:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Looks good.

• 7:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, we remember her.

• 7:20Patrick Bet-David?

  All right, go to VTmerch.com, place the order, first 100, you're gonna get an I love VT.

• 7:25Speaker 05

  From Amnesia and remember that. That's the truth, that's just the truth.

• 7:30Patrick Bet-David?

  I'm just talking the truth. VTmerch.com. All right, let's get right into it. Couple of stories here, let's get right into it. Natalia got a big shout out to start off.

• 7:37Adam Sosnick?

  It's true.

• 7:37Speaker 05

  Love it.

• 7:37Patrick Bet-David?

  Let's get right into it. All right, first one I want to get into with you is Jake Tapper, all right? Yeah. CNN star Jake Tapper squirms when asked how much money he's making from Biden cover up. He took part in. So here's the interview, Rob, if you haven't played this clip. And then we're going to talk about some of the book sales, a bust, you know, what happened with it? And I'm curious to know what you have to say about this. Go ahead, Rob.

• 7:57Adam Sosnick?

  In terms of the left, it's a money grab. I mean, that's not the case. It's not, this is, I don't, I don't want to get into where my money comes from, but I, I'm, you know, CNN is my main job and that's where my main source of income by far. Very few people write books to make money. You write a book because you want to say something, you want to have a legacy. You want to uncover something, you have a message you want to get out there. I don't think people write books about Joe Biden to make money. We are, we are gratified that people are buying this book.

• 8:34Patrick Bet-David?

  That's a good point.

• 8:36Adam Sosnick?

  But, but I don't think, I mean, the idea that I would do this for money is, is, it's just, it's silly and not true.

• 8:43Patrick Bet-David?

  All right, so you can pause that. Who's his publisher, Pat? For a guy like that, you get a multi-seven-figure deal. Jake Tapper doesn't get a small advance, he gets a big advance. Now, here's the numbers, when you look at what's going on, and if, when he says, "I make most of my money from CNN," he does make a good amount of money from CNN, but the book, they did pay him very well. CNN pays him, I think, seven million a year, is his 2024 contract, he's making roughly seven million a year. So, let's go through this on his book, how it did. Rob, what page do we have that on? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. That is page 13. Okay, let me go to page 13 to see how his book did. Okay, so here's some data on how the book did. Jake Tapper's book, Sales: A Bust, rating dropped to decade-low.

• 9:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Book original, co-author with Axios reporter Alex Thompson, sold 57,000 units in its first week, despite heavy promotion. A figure dwarfed by Bob Woodward's fear, Trump and the White House, which sold 1.1 million copies in its first week, as reported by publisher Simon & Schuster. The article notes, "Tapper's attempt to exonerate the regime media and the Democratic Party for covering up former Biden's mental decline failed to resonate even with Democrats due to Tapper's lack of credibility. The lead with Jake Tapper on CNN saw a 25% viewership drop, averaging 525,000 total viewership from April 28th to May 25th, the lowest since 2015." That is 10 years ago.

• 10:06Patrick Bet-David?

  Capturing only 11% of cable news audience share compared to MSNBC's 21%, Fox's 68%. Stephen A., what do you think went wrong here?

• 10:15Speaker 05

  I think that when you see, first of all, it started with MSNBC. Let's call it what it is. Once Trump won the election, you should be pleased with what I'm about to say, Vinny. Once Trump won the election...

• 10:29Speaker 05

  A message was sent. We heard everything that y'all had to say. We weren't buying it. But when you saw the reversal, the mea culpa's, the Morning Joes going to Mar-a-Lago and others. We're like, see, we, we, nobody's hearing it. To feed into what you were saying about what we're not buying. And then, unlike the typical voter out there, you are the news networks. Folks were relying upon you to deliver the goods. And when you come out with a book in the aftermath of the election, saying that you interviewed nearly 200 people, almost all of them Democrats. And you talked about what you discovered.

• 11:13Speaker 05

  The reality is, is that the people that have turned against the network, the people that have turned against the news, the people that have turned against him, if that is indeed the case, it's easy to surmise that what they're saying is, there's no way in hell we believe that you just found that out after the election. We believe you knew it before the election, and you didn't tell us. Now, that's not me saying it. It's not you saying it. It's not, hell, it's not even Vinnie at this particular moment in time saying it. It's folks that were watching, the viewer, the viewers who were watching you. Because what other explanation can there possibly be if you're a leftist? And that's the kind of content that they were giving you on MSNBC or CNN.

• 11:59Speaker 05

  If you were watching this particular show or this particular host, why would you suddenly stop? You would stop because of the election. That's, that's plausible. But months after the election, all of a sudden you notice a precipitous drop-off? The drop-off would have been in the immediate aftermath of the election. Where, you know, it's November 5th, and now from that point forward, boom. But in this particular instance, according to the reports, the drop-off came when the book came. Even more so. And because that's the reality, there's no other, there's nothing else to deduce from that.

• 12:34Patrick Bet-David?

  So, okay, let me ask you this other question for you. So, let's, let's compare you to Jake real quick, okay? Uh, you, uh, you got Bill Maher, I'll give a couple of names. It's mainly you and Bill Maher. Let's put those two in the same category.

• 12:47Speaker 05

  Sure.

• 12:48Patrick Bet-David?

  And then let's put Jake and Acosta, who else you want to put? Put a couple of these guys in this other category. But all of you voted for the same person pretty much, okay?

• 12:56Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 12:56Patrick Bet-David?

  You didn't vote for Trump.

• 12:57Speaker 05

  I did not.

• 12:58Patrick Bet-David?

  You did not vote for Trump, okay? What, what happened to your market where four months, not four months, seven, six months? It's been seven months since election, November 5th, right? Let's say seven months.

• 13:08Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 13:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Let's say seven months. Seven months after the election, your viewership is skyrocketing. You just signed multimillion dollar deal with Disney ESPN. You're getting your show going on your YouTube, on your, you're all over the place. You're on the list now, Rob, you can pull it up on Democratic candidates for 2028. Stephen A. Smith put it on the list. And you see now, all of a sudden, being talked about in a top, top, uh, what is it? Top four. I've seen multiple lists where you're number two, number three, number four. Some are saying you're 7%, 18%, 12% all over the place. Why did you all of a sudden spike and start gaining that credibility? Even though you voted for Kamala, you didn't vote for Trump.

• 13:45Speaker 05

  Because of.

• 13:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Why, why, why are some of these guys getting hammered?

• 13:48Speaker 05

  Because I'm not perceived as being full of shit.

• 13:51Speaker 05

  That's why. See, I can argue with Vinnie. I can argue with you all day. I can, I can do that. But I'm telling you what I feel based on what I believe the issues are and what I believe we should be focused on. You know, Vinnie might be like, you talk about the borders. The borders matter to me. I was never for open borders. You understand? I'm about an economy. I'm about a strong national defense. I'm about those things. My issue against Trump. Was simply, I don't like the way that he acts and I don't trust that the polarizing figure that he is would ever be remotely interested in trying to bring us together. It was gonna be more division. Whereas I looked at a person like Kamala Harris and I said to myself, it's not really about her.

• 14:35Speaker 05

  I believe a strong house and a strong senate could compel her to operate across the aisle and get her to do some things. I might have been wrong in that thinking, but that's what I was thinking. You have others, if it's MSNBC, if it's CNN, I'm just giving out those names because it's clear what they were doing. They leaned and tilted strongly to the left and their objective clearly appeared to be to keep this man from regaining office. The difference between me and them is, I would have looked you in the camera and told you exactly how I felt about them. And then when I started doing my reporting and interviewing somebody, I would have been right down the middle. How I feel has nothing to do with doing my job.

• 15:19Speaker 05

  I could feel, yo, I don't like this dude. I'm not gonna vote for him. And I'm not, I didn't feel those things. You know, I know you said, I said some things about Trump that I actually did not say. I've known Trump for years. We were cool. Trump, we would go to his properties, watch boxing matches. We see him at the basketball games. You know, people, I said, I don't like how he's acting. If he does something that I thought was racially insensitive, I would call it out. Never called him racist. Never compared him to Hitler. Never called him a Nazi or anything like that. No, I knew this man. How the hell you gonna turn around and then talk about him like that? My whole point is, I always said, if I saw him in the face, I would look him in the face. Why are you doing this? Why are you acting this way? You know you're ruffling feathers, you're being polarizing. Is that really necessary? Damn it, get it together. I would have said that to him, to his face.

• 16:04Speaker 05

  So I'm on News Nation with Cole Ho and everybody starts laughing because it's my turn to talk to him. And he says, hey, Stephen, it's been a long time. And then all of a sudden, like, oh, they really do know each other. Yeah, because we used to talk all the time. So I've never talked about him like that, but my point is, even if I felt that way, I'm still gonna look in the camera and think about my obligation to my audience to be fair and as informed and as neutral as I possibly can in disseminating the information. You have too many people out there in our business that went away from the tenets of what our business is purportedly about and they engaged in partisanship. You had people on the air hosting shows.

• 16:50Speaker 05

  Literally trying to get him unelected or not reelected. You can't do that because once you've made that decision, I can't trust your reporting. And that is what I believe is happening. Fair or unfair to Jake Tap, I'll leave that for somebody else to judge. The Joy Rees of the world and others.

• 17:09Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me answer this question.

• 17:10Speaker 05

  In the end, when you do that, you compromise yourself.

• 17:12Patrick Bet-David?

  Is it 100% that in 2028, if you run, you will run as a Democrat?

• 17:18Speaker 05

  The only reason I say that is because I don't think that I'd have a snowball's chance in hell of running as a Republican. I think J.D. Vance, the Marco Rubio's of the world, even the Ron DeSantis's of the world have that on lock, number one. Number two, the party is not as in disarray as the Democratic Party. Number three, even though I'm a centrist and I'm a registered independent, who would not hesitate, by the way, to vote, I would have voted for Nikki Haley. I would have voted for Nikki Haley. If Ron DeSantis hadn't pissed me off with the whole slavery, there's good parts about slavery comment, I might, I might have voted for him. That was my issue with him. Trump, obviously, it's his behavior more so than anything else. But I had no problem with Nikki Haley.

• 18:01Speaker 05

  I'm friends with Governor Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey. He and I talk all the time. I've known him. So I look at that and their party is not as much in disarray. In my perfect world, to answer your question, if a third party had a chance of winning an election, that would be the way that I go because I don't like leaning far right or left, and I think both sides pull you dramatically in their direction.

• 18:25Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so there's a, there's a poll that came out that, can you pull up the, the Harry Enton, whatever the video was that we watched today, where he's showing, you know, what happened with the Democratic Party, how, you know, for, since 1989, Democrats were always seen as the one for middle America. Look what happened. I don't know if you saw this poll or not.

• 18:43Speaker 05

  Yes, I did.

• 18:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, go ahead and play this clip, Rod. Go for it.

• 18:46Adam Sosnick?

  After all of the waves, Kate Baldwin, after the last few months, the first five months of the Donald Trump presidency, right, the first four months of the Donald Trump presidency, that you expect that Democrats will have this massive lead on the economy? It ain't so. It ain't so. The party that is closest to your economic views, in November of 2023, it was the Republican by 11 points now it's still within that range still within that margin of error

• 19:07Patrick Bet-David?

  can you go to the chart that shows for middle America that's mainly what I want to keep going keep that's it go back a little bit go back a little bit go back a little bit go back okay let him go from here watch this go for it

• 19:18Adam Sosnick?

  key issue of the day which is the party of the middle class has been a huge advantage for democrats I have polling from NBC going all the way back since 1989 when democrats had a 23 point advantage 2016 17 but by this decade we already started seeing declines back in 2022 where you saw that democrats led but only by four points well within the margin of error and now in our latest CNN poll among registered voters which is the party of the middle class it is tied this I think speaks to democratic ideals more than anything else they have traditionally been the party of the middle class no more Donald Trump and the Republican Party have taken that mantle away and now a key advantage for democrats historically has gone adios amigos and now there is no party that is the party of the middle class republicans have completely

• 20:00Patrick Bet-David?

  Adam said it best a billionaire has more support from the middle class on the other side so here's my question for you Stephen A

• 20:06Speaker 05

  yes sir

• 20:06Patrick Bet-David?

  so 2028 say you run what what are your top five values that you're running for in specific order

• 20:16Speaker 05

  me personally the economy is always number one

• 20:19Patrick Bet-David?

  okay

• 20:20Speaker 05

  and if you don't mind let me tell you a really really quick story

• 20:23Patrick Bet-David?

  sure

• 20:24Speaker 05

  so I grew up poor in the streets of New York City fellas Queens New York and stuff like that and I've never been able to afford a home so in 2001 I bought my first home since South Jersey I'm not thinking about some of these issues you know I'm just happy to get you to make a little paper and you know I got a mortgage now and pay mortgage and I could write off I could I could write off my mortgage write off my property whatever right and this rap artist I'm not gonna say his name was living in the neighborhood he comes over to me oh damn Stephen A cause I'm right for the Philadelphia I read you all the time man I just saw you on Comcast I love you dog I love you man keep it up man keep it up and I looked at him and went like

• 21:09Speaker 05

  this yeah man I appreciate it but are you gonna mow your grass

• 21:18Speaker 05

  Because this grass was like, it was like a far, I mean, it was six feet high. You bring it down a neighborhood. I never once thought about somebody bringing down a neighborhood.

• 21:29Patrick Bet-David?

  You literally remember that till today.

• 21:31Speaker 05

  I'll never forget it because I was looking at it like, I've never thought about it until I purchased a home. Once I purchased a home and they start talking about the neighborhood and property value and property tax. I'm like this, that's not good for us. What are you doing? I'm saying to you is that the lesson that I peel from that is the more you have, the more you value. And the more you value, the more you pay attention to what value others place on things. And it provides a scope of how you should look at things. And as a result, that's right. So the ownership and all that stuff. And so as a result of that, the mentality is, think about the problems that we have throughout the streets of America and beyond.

• 22:14Speaker 05

  And if more had, more would be leery of messing it up. And as a result, folks would act better because they got something to lose. The real problem that we have in our society is they've got too many people with nothing to lose. And so that's how I view it. And that's why the economy would be number one. Okay, the economy would be number one. That puts the border at number two. Because the border, whether we want to admit it or not, could catastrophically affect an economy. When you think about California and their version of Medicaid, you understand? And how they've lost billions or they're billions in a hole because they spent so much money in that.

• 22:58Speaker 05

  They used Medicaid money to take care of illegal immigrants. Well, that's problematic because now you got problems in the state that you, you can't fix. Because you don't have the funds, because the funds that you did have, you utilized for people who weren't American citizens. So I'm like, wait a minute, that drastically affects the economy. Can't forget that. Of course, number three on my list is safety. Safety in the streets of America. Let me tell you something right now.

• 23:28Speaker 05

  I hate to say this, cuz as a black man, we, we, we, we, we don't want, we, the incarceration rate, the discrepancy that exists, we pay attention to that. We recognize issues like recidivism and stuff like that, we understand it all. But you think some of these GOP members, or even Trump himself is bad, you don't want me in office. Let me tell you something, you gonna throw your ass in jail. Oh, you, you gonna be in jail. You ain't gonna be committing crimes and getting out the same day. You, that, that's not gonna happen. I'm not telling you that there isn't police brutality, I don't pay attention to it, and I'm not saying that. So would be Stephen Abel Kelly.

• 24:07Speaker 05

  Don't get me wrong, you know, you're not gonna be shooting unarmed black folks, you're not gonna be shooting unarmed anybody, okay? You're not gonna be a rogue law enforcement official. But if you take a vow to protect, protect and serve, and you live by that as a law enforcement official, you will have my support. We gonna throw your ass in jail. And I don't want you killing anybody, but I don't mind you kicking a few people's ass. Because sometimes people do, like, when I saw the riots in the streets, one of my proudest moments was when I saw this kid, I think it was in Missouri, and he was out there protesting and throwing stuff at the police officers or whatever, and out of the crowd you saw this woman come and just hit him with haymakers, and it was his mama.

• 24:47Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah, I love that.

• 24:48Speaker 05

  It was his mama. Like, what the hell are you doing? I remember that. That's my mother. God rest her soul, that was my mother. Respect. You respect law enforcement, you obey law enforcement. You know, you get pulled over, there's been plenty times that I've been pulled over and I didn't think I deserved it, you understand? But I also know I speed a lot. So this particular time I wasn't speeding, hell, they got me, all the times I got away were not getting stopped for speeding, right? What's the first thing I do? I roll all four windows down.

• 25:17Adam Sosnick?

  Smart.

• 25:18Speaker 05

  I put my hands on the steering wheel. Yes, sir. You understand? Sir, you got your lights, whatever, it's in my wallet, you got, got your shoes, it's in my glove compartment, may I get it? Or I get it before they get there and make sure all four windows are, you're law enforcement. You can't be, like, like, you remember that Tyreek Hill got into trouble? Just gonna bring that up. And I'm, I'm on the air, I'm on the air, and I'm going like this. It was excessive what they did to him because of them noticing that he was no longer a threat. But I wanted to fast forward, or I rather wanted to rewind back to the initial process. The initial process was you rolled, the police officer rolled up on you, you had your windows up. He specifically said to you, roll those windows down.

• 26:03Speaker 05

  And you made him wait. Oh, hell no. Inexcusable. And I'm thinking this like this, kids out there, black, Hispanic, white, other way. Do not follow that advice. When you roll, when the police roll up on you. If they pulled you over, obviously they need you to roll down your windows. They shouldn't even have to ask for that. They should roll up to the window and your window should be down. Now, if it's pouring raining or something like that, then it lets you get under a bridge or something so you ain't soaking or whatever. But you don't do stuff like that. So, those are the kind of things. We got the economy, we got immigration, we got safety in the streets, okay? National security.

• 26:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 26:40Speaker 05

  You know what I'm saying? National security. I'm big on that. I like a strong military. I like, I like peace through strength. I believe in that, okay? And I would say, I don't want to miss anything, so if I'm wrong about this idea. But foreign affairs matters because I'm not, I'm not a nationalist. I'm more of a globalist. I'm a nationalist first. I don't mind America first. I don't like America only. I don't like us acting like we don't want to deal with anything from anywhere else. Like we're the only one with minerals, we're the only one with technology, we're the only one with anything. That's just not true. And so because of that, you know, be expansive, be as worldly as you possibly can be, have more allies than enemies.

• 27:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Just so you know, none of these policies are policies of the left.

• 27:25Speaker 05

  I'm aware.

• 27:26Patrick Bet-David?

  Four out of five.

• 27:27Speaker 05

  I'm aware, but here's what you're missing. Here's what you're missing about me and what I keep saying about the Democratic Party.

• 27:32Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 27:33Speaker 05

  The reason why I would never win is you would say, because you always tell me I'll never win.

• 27:37Patrick Bet-David?

  Not on the line.

• 27:38Speaker 05

  They won't let me.

• 27:39Patrick Bet-David?

  They will eat you up alive.

• 27:40Speaker 05

  They would eat me alive, right? What I'm saying to you is, they're getting eaten alive. They're rotting before our very eyes. And what I would do, I would be on a mission to change the party.

• 27:52Patrick Bet-David?

  They won't let you.

• 27:53Speaker 05

  Okay, that's fine.

• 27:53Patrick Bet-David?

  But you want to know why? Let me tell you why. And by the way, remember this.

• 27:57Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:57Patrick Bet-David?

  For us, you and I, we will have conversations all the time and it's, you know, it's a very open conversation where you can call out.

• 28:05Speaker 05

  All the time.

• 28:06Patrick Bet-David?

  Respect, pure respect.

• 28:07Adam Sosnick?

  The conversation is open borders.

• 28:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me explain to you why, though. Let me explain to you why, though. Here's why.

• 28:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 28:11Patrick Bet-David?

  My concern is, my concern is, the left, look what they did to Bernie.

• 28:17Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 28:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay? Look what they did to so many candidates that were about to beat them, and they come in and they say, no, it's not your turn, it's my turn. Right?

• 28:27Speaker 05

  Right.

• 28:27Patrick Bet-David?

  At least on the right, there is, if you come in and you compete, and you go, they'll allow you to compete and get your market share.

• 28:36Speaker 05

  That's totally true.

• 28:36Patrick Bet-David?

  The left will do whatever they can. Glenn Greenwald comes out and says something about, you know, he was on a podcast with Tucker Carlson. The next day they're dropping videos about, you know, stuff that he's doing. My only concern is that. But even forget about that, because there's a part of it, you know.

• 28:50Speaker 05

  I don't want to forget about that.

• 28:51Patrick Bet-David?

  No, I'm going to come back to that, but let me tell you what, even above that, you know, above that for me is,

• 29:02Patrick Bet-David?

  if you give this message,

• 29:06Patrick Bet-David?

  and only 30% of the Democratic Party resonates with this.

• 29:10Speaker 05

  Right.

• 29:12Patrick Bet-David?

  You're not even going to get past a lot of these other guys. Because even when you watch right now Jasmine Crockett, right? Even when you watch right now AOC's position, even when you watch some of their positions on what they're doing, right? Even when you watch what, uh...

• 29:25Adam Sosnick?

  Gavin Newsom.

• 29:26Patrick Bet-David?

  You can, well, I think Newsom is also, you're more reasonable, you're reasonable, you're not even more reasonable, you're reasonable. To me...

• 29:36Patrick Bet-David?

  A person like you, if it comes to the Republican side and you run as a center-right, not as a right, like imagine like a Tulsi or a position like that, right?

• 29:48Adam Sosnick?

  Kasich?

• 29:49Patrick Bet-David?

  Like Kasich, yeah. I think you would shine more than you could imagine. I think you would shine more than imagine, but also I think you would have a shot at being a, you know, it would be, it would be a different kind of a brand that we've not seen before. It's not gonna be something that we've seen before.

• 30:10Speaker 05

  Let me, let me confess to you that I was really, really hoping you didn't go there because I didn't want to answer this question because I know what I'm going to say, but I'm gonna say it because you're my man. Here's the deal. None of those candidates are me. Now, I have no desire, I just told you all I just signed with Sirius XM. I got ESPN, I make some good money, I'm living a good life.

• 30:38Patrick Bet-David?

  He's a rich man.

• 30:40Speaker 05

  The last time you were here, you didn't have that smile before. I'm living, I'm living, man, I've been negotiating for a year.

• 30:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Well deserved.

• 30:46Speaker 05

  You're living in the best city in the world, Miami. You're living in Miami now.

• 30:50Patrick Bet-David?

  The greatest ever in the game.

• 30:51Speaker 05

  Diverting away, I can't thank you enough. We talked about it, you know, he's one of the people that I confided in a lot during my negotiations, just, just in terms of his business acumen, his temperament, his mentality towards, you know, one step after another after another. There were very, very few people that I communicated with and Patrick Bedd David was one of them. I cannot thank you enough from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate it. I will tell you, the life that I'm living is good, but when you talk about those candidates, getting back to that discussion, none of them are me. Bernie Sanders, God bless him. I understand who he is, but he's also a socialist essentially. That'll never work in America, never. Number one. Number two, three and four.

• 31:36Speaker 05

  They can talk all they want to, they don't have my voice. What I mean by that is, I'm not talking about you being well-known. I'm not talking about you campaigning. I'm talking about what you do every day as a lift for a living. See, they gonna come to you when they campaigning. I'm around, period. This is what I do. So, when you talk about a radio, you want, you talk about a voice on radio, well, I have that. You talk about a voice on television, I have that. You talk about your own podcast, well, I have that. You're saying, where, where am I going? So anytime you try to attack, you have to think about the rebuttal I'm going to throw in your direction.

• 32:17Speaker 05

  And I think that I have proven throughout my career, I can resemble a tsunami raining down upon your ass anytime I want to. And that's for sports figures. That's for people in social commentary. These are politicians, what a racket to attack. We got a thirty-seven trillion dollar deficit in this country, okay? Y'all had nothing to do with that, I didn't. But you did. You talking about policies involving the border, you, I didn't have anything to do with that, you did. You talking about our economy and inflation ravaging us at that particular moment in time when Biden was in office, well, I didn't have anything to do with that, you did. The streets and crime going on in the streets and people getting off at times not, you know,

• 33:02Speaker 05

  law enforcement being compromised, where you got police officers retiring, I didn't do that, you did that. When you talk about tens of millions of people that are either off healthcare, off Medicaid, or Medicare, right? And you're talking about those things because, again, Obama, Obamacare was essentially a tax. We keep forgetting that the Supreme Court ruled on that, that was a tax, right? So you had that going on, and now that you're talking about veering away from that, which Trump obviously intends to do or whatever, when we look at the big, beautiful deal and all of this other stuff coming down, you're talking about tens of millions of people that are gonna end up off of healthcare. I didn't do that, y'all did that. So you have a racket to attack. I don't. So I look at them and I say, you really want some, come get some.

• 33:48Speaker 05

  I'm not trying to run for office or anything like that, but I'm very confident that if I were to elect to, I would be formidable enough where I could get on that debate stage. And once that happens, I can only say this to you. I can't imagine any moment in my life that I would be have or would have been more prepared for than I would for the debate stage for a presidential election. You might not see me for a couple of months. I would hunker down and I would master every issue imaginable and I would be more ready than I have ever been in my life just for that moment.

• 34:32Speaker 05

  That would be the Super Bowl for me. That would be a game seven of an NBA Finals or a World Series. That would be everything. And I believe that if the American people saw me and I was going up against those folks, what are you going to say to defend your actions? And as media members, you got to be careful how you come because if you're CNN or MSNBC and you have a preferred candidate, who would notice it quicker than me? If you're on the right, same principle, who would notice it? These are the kind of things, because I know the industry. I know the executives in the industry. I know what they're thinking and how they're thinking. I know what maneuvers they'll probably, I kind of know this.

• 35:17Speaker 05

  So I'm like, I'm not in, I'm not into it like that because I'm living a pretty good life, but they keep getting on my damn nerves, who knows what I might do?

• 35:26Speaker 00

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• 36:27Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, I mean, I understand what you're saying. And, you know, onstage, I think you'll shine on eyeballs and already a status of followership. You're ahead of everybody on that side. All of those things are fine. But there's an element of values and principles that right now, America is going more and more and more away from trusting the Democratic Party.

• 36:48Speaker 05

  Right.

• 36:48Patrick Bet-David?

  More and more away.

• 36:49Speaker 05

  That's right.

• 36:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Trusting anybody on the Democratic Party. I don't, you know, for example, think about it this way. You know, you're famous for saying what?

• 36:58Speaker 05

  Weed.

• 36:59Patrick Bet-David?

  You know, when you do that thing.

• 37:00Speaker 05

  Stay off the weed.

• 37:01Patrick Bet-David?

  You are not for players smoking weed. How long have you been saying that?

• 37:04Speaker 05

  I'm not for players losing their money smoking weed. One of my best friends is Snoop Dogg. Nobody smokes more weed than him. Nobody.

• 37:11Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 37:12Speaker 05

  Okay, I've never once asked him to stop smoking weed.

• 37:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Do you smoke weed?

• 37:14Speaker 05

  No.

• 37:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so if right now, we all start smoking weed right now, would you stay in this room? We all start smoking weed right now?

• 37:23Speaker 05

  That's a tough question, because, first of all...

• 37:25Patrick Bet-David?

  We'd be laughing a lot harder.

• 37:26Speaker 05

  I don't mind a contact high every now and then. It doesn't bother me. I would have joined you, but I wouldn't mind. And it, and listen, we got a show to do, I got an obligation, I'm gonna do it. Now, if it got too strong for me, I might step up and leave, but I might try to do it.

• 37:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me ask you a question.

• 37:39Speaker 05

  As long as I ain't doing it.

• 37:40Patrick Bet-David?

  How many days in a row could you do that? How many days in a row could you go with being around us with smoking weed? How many days? Let's just say your job every day.

• 37:47Speaker 05

  No, I wouldn't do that.

• 37:48Patrick Bet-David?

  How many days would you do it?

• 37:50Speaker 05

  Five?

• 37:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Five days.

• 37:51Speaker 05

  Maybe?

• 37:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Eventually, you're gonna be like, I don't know if I want this job. Okay.

• 37:54Speaker 05

  Right.

• 37:54Patrick Bet-David?

  So check this out, this is kind of where I'm going with this. You ever gone on vacation with a group of people? And say to them, you've gone on vacation before. The other two, you never have.

• 38:03Speaker 05

  Right.

• 38:04Patrick Bet-David?

  And the first day, like, hey, what's up, John? Hey, Mary, you know, hey, what's up, Jack? Hey, yo, what's up? You know, it's your buddy, and then the first day... It's kinda weird. Second day.

• 38:15Speaker 05

  I get, I get where you're going.

• 38:16Patrick Bet-David?

  But let me, let me tell you where I'm going with this. All of a sudden like, dude, I can't, I can't be around these guys for too long. We simply don't share common values. So, would you consider yourself a manipulator?

• 38:26Speaker 05

  No.

• 38:27Patrick Bet-David?

  Would you consider yourself a persuader?

• 38:29Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 38:29Patrick Bet-David?

  How long can you be around manipulators and realize, I am not willing to manipulate to get what I want and you guys are?

• 38:36Speaker 05

  That is a very fair question. Here's my answer. Not long. But my point is, I'd eviscerate them. I want you out. See, you can't say that that's impossible when we've seen Trump pull off what was once deemed impossible.

• 38:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Sure, yeah.

• 38:56Speaker 05

  We know his past, his proclivities and the kinda stuff that would normally not get somebody elected.

• 39:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Right.

• 39:02Speaker 05

  A Gary Hart, you know, didn't, didn't get elected. A John Edwards, for whatever reason, didn't get elected. Bill Clinton was in office but had to go through being impeached and all of this other stuff because of the blue dress and the stains and all of this. I mean, come on now. I mean, we, we've seen it and we never dreamed in our wildest dreams that somebody like Trump could ever get into the White House. That's why you have so many, there's, I think it was, is it Ana Navarro that, that worked for CNN? I, what I remember most about her was her breaking out in extreme laughter at the thought that Trump could be president. Like, to me, you will never get, that will never erase

• 39:47Speaker 05

  from the minds of somebody who saw that because you were a political pundit. So the mentality is, we may not know better, but you were supposed to. You were supposed to at least know enough to know that he could be a threat. And she missed that. That could happen to me, that could happen to anybody, but it did happen to her. And so I think that there are people that hold that against her. Not me, but I think there are people that hold it against her. I'm just simply saying, when you have a party that is acting the way that you say, that, that you've highlighted, that, that is the way that you've highlighted, it's not working for them.

• 40:21Patrick Bet-David?

  One big difference.

• 40:22Speaker 05

  You would be absolutely right if the polls gave an indication that it's something close. They're plummeting before our eyes. The nation is telling you that what we've seen, that they're siding with Vinnie. They're saying that, and so if, if that's the state of the Democratic Party, I think they're in a world of trouble, and who knows who can break through for them?

• 40:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so here's the only difference.

• 40:46Speaker 05

  Sure.

• 40:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Here's the only difference, and then we can skip to, to the next topic, uh, uh, to discuss other items. We've got a lot of things to cover here.

• 40:53Speaker 05

  Sure.

• 40:54Patrick Bet-David?

  The difference with Trump when he came out is, you know, Americans wanted closed borders.

• 41:02Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 41:03Patrick Bet-David?

  Americans wanted, you know, to make it safer. Americans wanted those strong values and principles to be taking place. Americans wanted that, right? And Republicans wanted that.

• 41:19Speaker 05

  Right.

• 41:19Patrick Bet-David?

  And the party's like, who is this guy? And they're like, holy shit, yeah, I'm with it. This makes sense. I want this guy, right? And then, hey, we're sending all the bad people, the rapists, and da-da-da-da-da-da. Okay, great. So then they're like, that's what we're looking for. Today, Sesame Street puts a tweet up for Pride Month, okay? I want to show you this. So this is Sesame Street. Their account has 1.8 million followers.

• 41:41Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 41:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay? "On our street, everyone is welcome. Together, let's build a world." But every person, da-da-da-da. Okay, great. This right here, this tweet, on an account with 1.8 million views, 1.8 million followers.

• 41:52Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 41:53Patrick Bet-David?

  How many likes do you think it got? You know, this is Twitter, this is X. How many retweets? Just take a wild guess. How many retweets and likes do you think this got?

• 42:01Speaker 05

  25,000?

• 42:02Patrick Bet-David?

  25,000 retweets?

• 42:03Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 42:03Patrick Bet-David?

  How many likes, you think?

• 42:05Speaker 05

  I was thinking likes.

• 42:06Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, say 25,000. Can you show how many likes it got? Zoom in a little bit.

• 42:09Speaker 05

  Oh, my lord.

• 42:10Patrick Bet-David?

  Exactly.

• 42:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, exactly.

• 42:12Patrick Bet-David?

  Stephen A., 24.4 million, 65 retweets, 440,000 likes, 19,000 comments. You don't stand for this.

• 42:23Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 42:23Patrick Bet-David?

  You don't, you don't stand for this. You're, you're a parent. You don't stand for this. I don't want to speak on your behalf. You can challenge me and say I don't. But I've heard you say, on the woke stuff, I'm not with it.

• 42:32Speaker 05

  I'm not with it.

• 42:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, great.

• 42:35Patrick Bet-David?

  So imagine you're on the pulpit, and you're saying, we have to put a stop to, you know, the woke, and da-da-da-da. They're gonna be like, no, we don't want to put a stop to it. No, we don't want to put a stop. That's the difference.

• 42:45Speaker 05

  But there are differences. Like, for example, I was just recently talking to Megyn Kelly about this. I was talking to her about this recently. I'll say it to y'all. So... You're a member of LGBTQ community, plus, plus community? I'm all for civil rights, civil liberties. I don't think you should be bothered. I don't think you should be a razz. Live and let live. I'm for that. But I'm a black man. And one of the things that people miss is that black folks in America. Yeah. We've had to accept coming out of the womb, whether it's right or not, this belief. You gotta do twice as good to get half as much. You're not gonna necessarily be liked by everybody, etc., etc.

• 43:28Speaker 05

  We were out for civil rights and civil liberties, not to be liked.

• 43:34Speaker 05

  The society that we live in today, where they went too far, was trying to enforce embracement. Not acceptance. Do you see the difference? It's like, wait a minute, it, it's not enough for you to say, "Look, man, why you holding them back? Live and let live. What you bothering them for?" It wasn't enough. It got to a point where if you didn't speak up and speak out and be full throttle in your support for them, and everything they wanted support for, you were anti. Nah, that's not true. But who said that message? Nobody on the left said it. Nobody on the right said it. You're not talking to people. Wait a minute.

• 44:15Speaker 05

  If you have a relationship with somebody, okay, it ain't for somebody else to approve or disapprove. Are they bothering you? Live and let live. Live your life. But when you come and you wanna compete, you wanna transition from a man to a woman, and you wanna compete in women's sports, wait a minute. It ain't about being anti-you. It's about how fair is that to that young lady who was born? A lady who was born a woman, a female. How fair is that to her? To get in a boxing ring with her, to be 300 or 400th in the world as a man, as a swimmer, and then you transition to a woman and you win a national championship? They don't agree with you. I'm just saying, they don't agree with me, but remember, but remember something. Everybody has their issue and that's true.

• 45:01Speaker 05

  But how many issues are there that you care about? It's not just one, and again, I'm not saying that, listen. Trump won the election. He got 49.8% of the votes. Over 70 million people voted against him.

• 45:17Speaker 05

  Of course I'm gonna have people that disapprove and play the numbers game. Can I say, can I say one thing?

• 45:22Patrick Bet-David?

  So, so for example, Rob, can you, can you go on chat GPT and type in the following thing? What are the top five most important issues for a democratic voter in 2025? What are the top five most important issues for a democratic voter in 2025?

• 45:36Speaker 05

  Okay, I already know the answer.

• 45:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Well, let me just zoom in for you. So this is, this is where I'm going with this. Yours doesn't match with them. Gun violence.

• 45:45Speaker 05

  Economic inequality and.

• 45:47Patrick Bet-David?

  Inequality. It's, it's different than economic where you're thinking about. Cause you're not thinking about economic equality like Bernie Sanders and AOC. That's not your, you're, you're trying to get people, hey, I'm Stephen, I came from nothing and I made it to the top, right? Healthcare access and affordability, reproductive rights, climate change. None of these are your five. And that's the voter of the democratic party. They don't relate to you and you don't relate to them.

• 46:11Speaker 05

  But centrists left, centrists left do relate to me. Independents do relate to me and I got news for you. Some folks on the right relate to me.

• 46:21Patrick Bet-David?

  And that's why R F King Malsi went to the right.

• 46:23Speaker 05

  It's the combination, it's the combination of what's going on, on the left compared to how strong your candidate is. You got Steve Bannon out there trying to get Trump a third term. Why? I looked at him, I said, I said, what's the affection and the affinity for Trump? What, what, what's, what's that about? I said, Marco Rubio, uh, J D Vance, along with a plethora of other candidates are more than qualified. And they would govern along the same line as Trump. What does he say? He's once in a generation. Well, guess what? If you get two terms, you don't get a third, somebody other than Trump is in there. And that once in a generation talent is now gone. Well, who's gonna replace him? It's not a one in a generation talent.

• 47:03Speaker 05

  So because of that, that's where somebody else comes in and they could steal votes from both sides of the aisle.

• 47:10Patrick Bet-David?

  I made my case, listen.

• 47:11Speaker 05

  I made mine.

• 47:12Patrick Bet-David?

  I made my case, dog.

• 47:13Speaker 05

  I made mine.

• 47:14Patrick Bet-David?

  What I'm gonna do for you, I'm gonna be in your ear, dog, for the next two years. That's all I'm gonna tell you.

• 47:19Speaker 05

  Can I say one thing?

• 47:20Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, go for it.

• 47:21Speaker 05

  Stephen A, I love you. I'm gonna come at you right now, okay? Cause you're me two years ago.

• 47:27Adam Sosnick?

  Where I've been a Democrat my whole life. My dad was a Clinton guy. He was a JFK Democrat. I was, I loved, you know, Obama was alright, but he was better than McCain. George W. Bush was a disaster.

• 47:38Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 47:39Adam Sosnick?

  And when Trump showed up, I was like, hell to the no, no, no. And 2020, I was, how much money did I make when I bet everybody that Trump was gonna lose?

• 47:48Speaker 05

  A few thousand.

• 47:49Adam Sosnick?

  On the podcast?

• 47:49Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 47:50Adam Sosnick?

  And now, how much do you joke about me being like the biggest MAGA guy now?

• 47:53Patrick Bet-David?

  It's out of control. Like, we can disagree with something on Trump each other. Nah, I think he's doing the right thing, you know?

• 48:00Speaker 05

  A lot of the time.

• 48:00Patrick Bet-David?

  He's, he's in a completely different state.

• 48:02Adam Sosnick?

  And it's, and, yeah. But I also criticize him when he, when he's doing wrong.

• 48:06Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 48:06Adam Sosnick?

  It's so liberating to vote for Trump and be like, alright, I, I, I agree with, with the positions. I agree with the policies. I don't like how he talks like that. I don't like this, but there's something different this time. Trump 2.0 versus Trump 1.0. Four years sitting in the wings, looking at what's going on here. Everything you said, brother, is my exact five. The economy, the borders, safety, security, national security, defense, you know, peace through strength, and foreign affairs, not basically being

• 48:33Speaker 05

  Right.

• 48:33Adam Sosnick?

  An ostrich's head in the sand. Bro, you're a Republican.

• 48:36Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 48:37Adam Sosnick?

  Straight up. I'm just telling you.

• 48:39Speaker 05

  I am.

• 48:40Adam Sosnick?

  This is my top five of the Democrats. Abortion, abortion, abortion, Medicare for All, abortion, LGBTQIA, mafia. You're not any of that, bro.

• 48:51Speaker 05

  I think you left abortion out.

• 48:52Adam Sosnick?

  You're not any of that. Yeah, I left abortion out, my bad.

• 48:54Speaker 05

  Let me say this.

• 48:55Adam Sosnick?

  You're a grown ass man. No men with like, a man who likes women, like I know you do, I know we do. You're not a Democrat no more.

• 49:02Speaker 05

  Okay, fair enough. What I'm saying to you is this. I am pro-life. I'm sorry, I'm pro-choice.

• 49:08Adam Sosnick?

  Okay.

• 49:08Speaker 05

  I am pro-choice.

• 49:09Adam Sosnick?

  But it's not your number one issue.

• 49:11Speaker 05

  It's not my number one issue, but I'm just saying.

• 49:12Adam Sosnick?

  Probably not even your top five.

• 49:13Speaker 05

  I'm just saying, it's not.

• 49:14Adam Sosnick?

  Okay.

• 49:15Speaker 05

  But, there's a bunch of women in my life.

• 49:18Adam Sosnick?

  True.

• 49:18Speaker 05

  And they don't like the fact that their individual choices in their eyes have been compromised. And so, again, I'm not for abortion, but I'm not for telling a woman what to do with her body. That's my belief. I'm not saying it's a top five priority, but that's just how I feel.

• 49:33Patrick Bet-David?

  I get that.

• 49:33Speaker 05

  That's just how I feel. So that's just an example, but my point to you is this.

• 49:37Patrick Bet-David?

  FYI, Planned Parenthood was built to minimize the amount of African Americans having

• 49:43Speaker 05

  That's totally true.

• 49:44Adam Sosnick?

  Millions of people.

• 49:44Speaker 05

  That is totally true. I do know that.

• 49:46Patrick Bet-David?

  That lady couldn't stand African Americans.

• 49:49Speaker 05

  Margaret Singer. I do know that. I do know that. That's number one. Number two. I used to argue with Democrats all the time. Because I thought they were swinging too far to the left. They're gone, they're so far left. I mean, exactly, and I don't know if I'll ever support them again. I think the party needs to be purged. I've said this. Now, I don't want to be disrespectful to any specific individual Democrats. I like Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania. I've interviewed him, I've spoken to him a few times, I like him. Wes Moore is my guy, the governor of Maryland, I really, really like that brother. He's somebody, if you haven't had him on here, you should get him on here. Oh, yeah, you need me, I'll make a call for you. I mean, that's somebody. I'd love to speak with him.

• 50:33Speaker 05

  That's somebody that you should talk to, and I'm gonna tell him he needs to talk to you. I love Wes Moore. These are guys that are more qualified than me, obviously, most of them are, but I'm saying they're governors, they're running a state, they know what they're doing. I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew Cuomo, I'm one of those dudes that I, it always rubbed me the wrong way when he was thrown, and I know that he messed up with the nursing homes stuff, but it always messed, it always messed with me that these cases were thrown against him. And the second he was out of office, you didn't hear nothing about it. That really, really bothered me, because I was like, so the objective was to get him out of office? It's the profile of the left. And like, you pointed out, and I'm saying to you, I'm a guy that believes those people, that infrastructure that needs, that needs to be burnt down.

• 51:19Speaker 05

  Because they're hurting our country. Because they're not letting and abiding by the wishes of the American people. They're telling you who they want. And compelling folks on their side to pick their candidate. I'm saying all of that needs to change. So if that is gonna lead me towards, okay, look, look at how you feel, you're leaning more right than left, I'm not gonna oppose that, because I'm not beyond voting for a Republican. I'm letting you know that. I'm not, I didn't say, I might have disagreed with you on that one point, you would make it about me, but let me be very, very clear. There's a lot of stuff you've said, Vinnie, I totally agree with. Totally agree with, I'm not gonna sit here and act, I'm talking to this man half the time. This guy's always, I'm like, yeah, you got a point, you got a point. I am friends with Sean Hannity. Sean Hannity and I have

• 52:04Speaker 05

  known each other for twenty-three years. We butt heads, we butt heads, we butt heads. But I'd be lying to you to say if I said I was more right than wrong. I mean, he's usually got the edge on me. This is what he does for a living. So I come with my emotions, I come with my feelings, and I come with my semblance of facts. And then I'm dealing with a dude that's just a veteran that's been on Fox News for twenty-five years. Who else do I have on Speed Dial? Mark Levin? You interviewed a great one one day. Mark Levin and I have known each other for twenty years. Now they know what my po- my politics are. They know that I'm a bit different than them. But my respect for their knowledge and their positions and why they have those positions are hard to dispute.

• 52:47Speaker 05

  So I'm not a- I'm not averse. I'm not- I don't- I don't get- I-

• 52:50Adam Sosnick?

  But let Sean Hannity try to show up on First Take. You're gonna run circles around that dude.

• 52:53Speaker 05

  Yes, because he doesn't know sports. He needs to stay the hell out of there.

• 52:56Adam Sosnick?

  He's shooting airballs out of his mouth.

• 52:58Speaker 05

  All he knows is Tebow.

• 52:59Adam Sosnick?

  Stay on the sidelines.

• 53:00Speaker 05

  All he knows is Tebow.

• 53:01Patrick Bet-David?

  And I know, so Stephen, I know, and I'm- and by the way, I know we said it, it was- it was one thing, and it wasn't about what I'm talking about. When you said, "I don't give a shit what you give a shit about." But you know what's crazy? I- I love it. I give a shit about you, and here- and here's where I'm going. Somebody like you that would run for a president, that's the type of person like- Because all this- all this stuff that you listed, that you were saying in the beginning, that's Trump circa two thousand sixteen. Come in, to hell with everybody, want to make changes, do everything. The only concern is that same infrastructure, those same people uh, that had- that had like a Trump that, to me, would be like what you would come in as. They would destroy you with what he's talking about. Because think about it, anybody that comes in that tries to change their status quo, Stephen, they try to destroy them. Look what they did with Trump.

• 53:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Lawfare, Russia collusion, all that shit. Somebody like you that's gonna try to come in with them, they're gonna look at you and be like, "Who the-" They will- they will find anything that they can and do everything. And then- and I'm gonna go there, look at all the ones that actually tried to make a change. JFK, Reagan, Trump, they don't like people like you. You go in there, and I know that you give a damn about this country. I know for a fact, Stephen A. Smith, you are an American, you're a pick, you love this place. I mean, we can go back and forth and argue, but I, I agree with you more than I disagree with you. But this system that just tried to destroy and kill Trump would go after you the same way that they went after especially that party.

• 54:26Adam Sosnick?

  Bernie Sanders was winning the primary. Bernie Sanders was gonna be the candidate.

• 54:32Speaker 05

  It wasn't his turn.

• 54:33Adam Sosnick?

  And it wasn't his turn and what they did in South Carolina, they changed the rules and pulled it out from under them.

• 54:38Speaker 05

  Yes, they did.

• 54:39Adam Sosnick?

  Even with your voice, even if all the place you can go and, and your wonderful Republican positions here, even where you, what do you do when they flip the switch?

• 54:48Speaker 05

  I don't understand your question.

• 54:50Adam Sosnick?

  Like what they did to Bernie in South Carolina?

• 54:51Speaker 05

  Well, listen.

• 54:52Adam Sosnick?

  If they decide, no, no, no, you're not, you're not, you're not our establishment.

• 54:56Speaker 05

  I don't know the answer to that question because I can't imagine that you just gonna switch, you gonna flip the switch, you gonna get away with that with me, with the army of individuals that I have bringing this. When I talk about bringing a tsunami, I'm not talking about me just myself. You know, you make a lot of connections and friends in this business. You know, the industry that I'm in, which is the fourth estate, which I've been a part of for 30 years. I'm talking about that kind of tsunami because you gotta remember it's all about public perception a lot of times. And you're gonna have to deal with that reality because you gonna have a voice, but I'm gonna have a lot of voice and I'm gonna come down upon you. To get to your point of what you were saying, you're absolutely right. I do love America and I think that we got a lot of problems in this country. And I blame most of it on the politicians because I think they make a concerted effort to divide us.

• 55:39Speaker 05

  And I think that the friction that we have in our communities throughout this country amongst people and all of that stuff. If we all got together, you'd find that we have a lot more in common than we don't. You'd find that we can get along a lot easier than people would, would want to believe. But because of policies that they put in place and how they go about the business of adroitly engaging in division to keep us all divided so they could have their clicks supporting them and, or somebody supporting the other side. It's really contributed to the deterioration of this country. And so when I look at it, I just say to myself, look.

• 56:16Speaker 05

  Politics or no politics, I'm the kind of person that like Sean Hannity holds me to this one. You you promised me every week. You running, you you ever got in office, you gonna come on every week. I said, every month. He said, you already being a politic now. I said, every week is too much, every month. I wouldn't run from anybody. What I mean by that, Vinny, is this. If somebody like PVD is my guy, think I'm not gonna talk to him? Think I'm not gonna ask him what he's thinking about something? You know, we gotta get away from thinking that once in this binary system that one side or the other has all the answers. Sometimes it's both. Sometimes it's a happy medium. Like I might, listen, if if if if we're sitting around and we're talking about policies that really affect us as a nation, right? And we're talking about keeping peace in the streets.

• 57:01Speaker 05

  No one can have it all. But we gonna lean far more on what the right is, what the right side is, whatever that is. Okay? And you might get your little something, but they gonna get their something too because their idea is better. And it's better for America. If we could pull that off, then we got a better country. You got this big, beautiful bill that everybody's talking about. Well, you talk about eight trillion. You know, what is it? What what eight trillion committed pledge from companies and stuff like that? You're talking about more folks having jobs. You're talking about more drilling in this country. You talk about a lot of different things that are gonna benefit us. But they're talking about it's gonna contribute about another five trillion dollars potentially to the deficit.

• 57:42Speaker 05

  Well, you can't find something that contributes less than five trillion dollars to the deficit. Because that's kind of defeating the purpose. You know what I'm saying? That's kind of defeat the purpose. Okay, you got millions of people that's gonna be without healthcare. You can't find a way to avoid there being millions of people without healthcare. When you start asking these questions and dealing with stuff on a real level like that, all of a sudden, it's not about party. It's about what's best. We don't have people that's thinking about what's best because they on Capitol Hill. And you got lobbyists in their face trying to get them to do their bidding. And people are capitulating to that because they've turned it into a career. If you already got one and you're making money and you surround yourself with people whose ideas are about doing what's in the best interest of America, you might have a chance.

• 58:27Patrick Bet-David?

  And and by the way, you know, the best ideas will win and it takes a couple of years to get exposed.

• 58:32Speaker 05

  True.

• 58:33Patrick Bet-David?

  During COVID, a lot of leftist ideas got exposed in a major, major way.

• 58:38Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 58:39Patrick Bet-David?

  They got exposed. Okay, so let's talk WNBA real quick. Because sports, Caitlin Clark.

• 58:44Patrick Bet-David?

  And Angel Reese, right, they're going back and forth. And Jamil Hill says by the time Angel Reese is done, she's gonna be the Michael Jordan of WNBA. She said about Angel Reese? She said Angel Reese, by the time she retires, can you pull up this quote? She said by the time she retires, she will be the MJ of, go to Jamil Hill, type in Jamil Hill, yeah. She says by the time she retires, Jamil Hill has made a bold prediction that Angel Reese will become the MJ of the WNBA by the time she retires. That's what she said, okay? Okay, let me continue. Okay, yeah, Jamil Hill, okay guy. While this is taking place, Brittany Griner comes out and says,

• 59:25Patrick Bet-David?

  "I am so sick and tired of the NBA, WNBA, it used to be a peaceful, small little thing. Now there's crowds screaming, hollering. This is disruptive, it's not allowing us to play the game." This is her quote, I don't know if you saw this or not when she gave that. Okay, can you pull up that quote? Because I gotta read to, uh, I'm gonna apply for a job at First Take. I'm telling you right now, part-time, I'm coming on board, helping the guys out. Can you type in Brittany Griner? I'd bring you on. I'd have fun with you. Brittany Griner, uh, where she says, yeah, she says, right there, watch this. "Every time we play her, there's this commotion, like this loud rumbling from the stands. Turns out it's people, thousands of them, just sitting there, watching on purpose. It's very disruptive." She says WNBA games used to be a chill, quiet place.

• 1:00:07Patrick Bet-David?

  You could bring your laptop and relax, maybe even get a little work done. But now, it's like there's large gatherings of people watching us from the stands. Some of them are yelling crazy shit about what they're seeing, putting unfair pressure on us to score like we're there for their entertainment. You are! The whole thing is toxic. I saw a guy with his daughter in the crowd, both of them yelling, couldn't hear what they were saying exactly, but it was either my performance or some light racism, light racism. But here's where I'm going with this. So the WNBA says they wanna get paid more. They're saying this year they're gonna make a billion dollars. That's what they're saying, okay? For the first time ever, now that Katelyn Clark is hurt for two weeks, did you see ticket prices? Insane. Let me read you this ticket prices.

• 1:00:50Patrick Bet-David?

  After Katelyn Clark's been hurt for two weeks. All right, so let's go through this. Katelyn Clark's absence is having an immediate impact beyond the court. According to data shared by Yahoo Sports via TickPick, prices for two specific Indiana Fever away games against the Chicago Sky and the Washington Mystics dropped sharply after Clark was sidelined. Before the injury, the lowest ticket available for Fever's matchup in Chicago was $86. For the game in Washington, fans needed at least $41 to get in. After the news of Clark's absence, those get in prices fell to $25 from $86

• 1:01:34Patrick Bet-David?

  and $14 from $41. What the hell is going on with WNBA that they cannot handle all this attention that they're getting? As well as the hate and anger towards Katelyn Clark?

• 1:01:47Speaker 00

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• 1:02:17Speaker 02

  Now, more than ever, we need someone on our side. But Rob Whitman? Whitman's votes drove up costs, cut Medicaid, and risked 350,000 Virginians' health care to pay for tax breaks for himself and his donors. He's not on our side. Shannon Taylor will fight corruption, cut taxes, and bring down costs. This November, vote for Shannon Taylor. She's for us. Paid for by HMP, the HouseMajorityPac.com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

• 1:02:47Speaker 05

  First things first.

• 1:02:51Speaker 05

  Respectfully.

• 1:02:56Speaker 05

  Brittany Griner was in a Russian prison.

• 1:03:03Speaker 05

  You would think that somebody who is now free,

• 1:03:09Speaker 05

  back in America, on a home soil,

• 1:03:15Speaker 05

  would not have too much to complain about.

• 1:03:20Speaker 05

  Especially something like this. Fans in every sport. She described the fans. Yeah. It doesn't matter what sport you are. It doesn't matter what sport you pick. That's how fans act. In every arena. In every arena. So, and then, when you, clearly she's not remembering who they let out

• 1:03:48Speaker 05

  to get her back. The merchant of death. The merchant of death. An arms dealer that wanted to kill American citizens, according to the reports. That's who they let out. For her. You would think that you would be smiling, you would be ecstatic, you would be happy, and something like this wouldn't faze you at all. The fact that it does is disturbing. I'll leave it at that. When it comes to Katelyn Clark, now I've taken hits. Because I was calling it from day one. You got people that are resentful towards her. But not, she, it's really not about her, guys. It's about what she represents.

• 1:04:33Speaker 05

  Before she ever came along, there were a lot of outstanding basketball players who happened to be black females that was doing their thing on the WNBA level. And they never got this kind of shine. This girl, the Golden Goose, comes along and she wreaks havoc. She's the Rookie of the Year. She's fourth in the league in MVP voting. Fourth in the league, her rookie year. Wow. Outstanding. She's like, she's like, she's like Steph Curry. She can pull up from anywhere. You understand? She has that con of capability. Didn't win a national championship, lost to LSU one year, well, lost to South Carolina another year.

• 1:05:18Speaker 05

  But she's out, she's outstanding and clearly worthy of being the number one overall pick. And what I was saying to everybody is ride the wave. Rising tide lifts all boats. The girl is spectacular. It's not like she's, she's not only, she's not a scrub. She's not only can play, she's a star caliber player who draws disattention. And maybe it's because that fan base that she has and her being a young white lady contributes to it. So what? Benefit from it. And then you have a lot of folks that have come to the defense of numerous WNBA players because they were pointing out like, this had been going on before long and people are not hating on her. It's not about hating on her. It's that you feel she is getting a level of attention

• 1:06:00Speaker 05

  that you deserved and you warranted long before she ever came along. It's understandable, but it happens. You think there weren't players that, that, that weren't jealous of Michael Jordan? That didn't resent Michael Jordan? Okay? Ask the Detroit Pistons how they felt about Michael Jordan and how much they enjoyed beating him up before he ultimately captured the championship. Eventually, he stopped, he got tired of getting his ass kicked. Like literally slamming him to the floor, you know, invoking Jordan rules. He got tired of all that, got himself bulkier, bigger, etc. And all of these things happened. The point is, Magic and Bird, Jordan, Kobe came along, there was resentment. I mean, it, it, the list goes on and on. It happens.

• 1:06:43Speaker 05

  So to me, there's nothing wrong with the resentment that you may feel towards what she represents. It's actually good because it provokes a level of hostility, which elevates the competitive fervor. And y'all go out there and compete and everybody gets paid. But unfortunately, you almost feel like you have some folks within the WNBA. That wishes, that would rather not be in a very fruitful position because of their resentment towards her, and they won't admit it, but I've been talking about it for months.

• 1:07:19Patrick Bet-David?

  I gotta reply to this. So, I'm not just gonna let you sit here and talk trash about my man, Brittany Griner.

• 1:07:26Speaker 05

  Don't do that.

• 1:07:27Patrick Bet-David?

  No, I'm just letting you know right now, because my dude Brittany.

• 1:07:32Speaker 05

  She's a young lady.

• 1:07:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me defend her for a second, please. There's people in there making noises, they're yelling, they're booing. In her defense, she's never seen fans before. Stephen A. Smith, they've never been at the games. They've never had fans. Now she has crowds, and she's wondering.

• 1:07:48Speaker 05

  She was at Baylor before she came to the WNBA. You trying to say there wasn't fans at Baylor?

• 1:07:52Patrick Bet-David?

  All those Baylor Bear basketball games.

• 1:07:54Speaker 05

  I'm just saying, no, no, no.

• 1:07:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Maybe, 15 years ago.

• 1:07:57Speaker 05

  Women's basketball? Oh, yeah.

• 1:07:59Patrick Bet-David?

  In college.

• 1:08:00Speaker 05

  College gets their love now. Come on now.

• 1:08:02Patrick Bet-David?

  But not the WNBA. Not the WNBA.

• 1:08:04Speaker 05

  Well, it's growing.

• 1:08:05Patrick Bet-David?

  And the best thing that they've ever had in the WNBA is Caitlin Clark.

• 1:08:09Speaker 05

  From a box office respect.

• 1:08:10Patrick Bet-David?

  And by the way, she ain't the first to do this. There's Diana Taurasi, there's Lisa Leslie, there's Cheryl Swoops.

• 1:08:15Speaker 05

  Diana Taurasi's phenomenal, all of them.

• 1:08:17Patrick Bet-David?

  Respect to them.

• 1:08:18Speaker 05

  Cheryl Swoops, all of them.

• 1:08:19Patrick Bet-David?

  All of them, but let's just call it a spade a spade here. Sure. WNBA's trash.

• 1:08:25Speaker 05

  No, I'm not gonna say that.

• 1:08:27Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, this is my opinion. This is my opinion. It's a zombie company, it loses money, nobody's going to the game. Thank God they get Caitlin Clark. She's injured for two weeks, all of a sudden attendance goes down. This is not gonna work long-term. You, trust me, you'll see this long-term, ain't nobody going to WNBA games. Vinny, who won the championship last year? You don't even know. Liberty. Who's the, you're a professional sports press, come on. Tom, who's the leading player in the league right now, WNBA? You don't know. Sarah. PBD, how many teams are there in the WNBA? 60. I don't know. The point is, nobody cares, and we're trying to make a story out of a story.

• 1:09:03Adam Sosnick?

  That don't exist and I'm here to play the game WNBA Caitlin Clark.

• 1:09:07Patrick Bet-David?

  If the WNBA makes a billion dollars this year, you lose the argument.

• 1:09:14Adam Sosnick?

  Okay.

• 1:09:15Patrick Bet-David?

  If the WNBA.

• 1:09:17Adam Sosnick?

  That's the biggest if ever.

• 1:09:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, what is WNBA?

• 1:09:20Adam Sosnick?

  If my grandma had a, she'd be my grandpa.

• 1:09:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Listen, guy, it's projecting that this year WNBA is gonna make a billion dollars.

• 1:09:28Adam Sosnick?

  That's is that profit or revenue?

• 1:09:30Patrick Bet-David?

  It doesn't matter. You'll find a way to increase EBITDA driven by surge in popularity, increased revenue from ticket sales, merchandise and television deals. Particularly due to the impact of the players like Caitlin Clark, the league's revenue is expected to grow significantly. With forecast suggesting a global market value exceeding a billion dollars.

• 1:09:45Adam Sosnick?

  Okay.

• 1:09:45Patrick Bet-David?

  This is going in that direction.

• 1:09:47Adam Sosnick?

  It's been 25 years where they haven't made a penny.

• 1:09:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, but so now all of a sudden you want to be like, maybe this year. It was growing before she arrived and then it elevated to another level once she's arrived. And she's not going anywhere anytime soon. And oh, by the way, remember this name.

• 1:10:01Adam Sosnick?

  Okay.

• 1:10:02Speaker 05

  Juju Watkins.

• 1:10:03Adam Sosnick?

  Okay.

• 1:10:04Speaker 05

  Out of USC.

• 1:10:05Adam Sosnick?

  I've seen her, freshman, great player.

• 1:10:07Speaker 05

  Spectacular, she tore ACL, tore ACL in NCAA tournament last year. Yeah, she's special and I'm just telling you, you're gonna see, you're going to see the league continue to grow.

• 1:10:17Adam Sosnick?

  Wins this game, ready? WNBA All-Star versus the best high school players, ABC Nike game, high school Ben versus WNBA player, best players.

• 1:10:28Speaker 05

  Here's my response, here's my response to that. I think it would be the high school, but I would say this to you.

• 1:10:32Adam Sosnick?

  Cause you're right.

• 1:10:33Speaker 05

  Don't underestimate women and the growing support they're providing to the WNBA. Remember, anything successful, you usually have the women behind it, supporting the product.

• 1:10:47Adam Sosnick?

  Don't underestimate, the NBA subsidizing.

• 1:10:49Speaker 05

  The NBA and the NFL.

• 1:10:51Adam Sosnick?

  Yes.

• 1:10:51Speaker 05

  Went to another level, once they had, once they appealed more to women. What if the women decide we gonna focus and lock in on the WNBA?

• 1:11:01Adam Sosnick?

  No, the NFL started growing once they implemented what's called cheerleaders. And people were like, oh, okay, we'll go to the game. Look at them Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.

• 1:11:10Patrick Bet-David?

  You lost credibility.

• 1:11:11Adam Sosnick?

  How did I lose credibility?

• 1:11:12Patrick Bet-David?

  At this point, like, stop the podcast, Brad. Rob, let's just finish it up.

• 1:11:15Adam Sosnick?

  I'm losing credibility. WNBA hasn't made one penny, but I'm losing credibility.

• 1:11:19Patrick Bet-David?

  I'll tell you one thing.

• 1:11:20Adam Sosnick?

  I'm using credibility because of a bizarre statement about the NFL.

• 1:11:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me tell you what I like. Let me tell you what I like. You know what I like? Here's what I like. I don't care what's going on. I want to see animosity in sports.

• 1:11:34Adam Sosnick?

  Yes.

• 1:11:35Patrick Bet-David?

  I don't care what's going on. I love the fact that right now, uh, who's the guy in the heavyweight UFC that's pushing the buttons of John Jones saying, I'm officially the

• 1:11:46Adam Sosnick?

  Oh, Tom Aspinall?

• 1:11:47Patrick Bet-David?

  Aspinall, he's saying, I'm officially, because John Jones has retired. John Jones has retired. John Jones has retired, right? I love animosity. The best fights were Cormier against John Jones. The best fights was Khabib against, uh, you know, Connor. You know, you, you want that, you know, Mayweather used to fight what weekend? Cinco de Mayo. That was his way. Like, I'm gonna take your ass out. So to me, I don't know. I just love the fact that there's animosity. You know what, you know what game I'm gonna see the stat line on? You know what game? The next time Fever plays, uh, whoever.

• 1:12:21Adam Sosnick?

  Whatever team she plays on?

• 1:12:22Patrick Bet-David?

  No, no, no, only Reese. Only Reese. Because animosity changes the game. My opinion, LeBron destroyed the game because animosity left the NBA. And by the way, look how interesting the NBA product is right now. Who the hell is in the finals?

• 1:12:38Adam Sosnick?

  Indiana versus OKC.

• 1:12:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Are you freaking kidding me? Like, there is no main names that we were, you know, the Lebrons or the Yanises or, you know, the, the, you know, all of these guys.

• 1:12:51Speaker 05

  For the short term, it may be, it may be problematic because both are in the small market. Um, even though Shay Gilgis Alexander is the league MVP and he is special. Um, and their defense, like a bunch of piranhas, they, I mean, they're special.

• 1:13:05Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me ask you a question.

• 1:13:07Speaker 05

  Indiana is better, but I will tell you, the league for the long term is not upset about this because remember, you're looking for new stars.

• 1:13:16Patrick Bet-David?

  For sure.

• 1:13:16Speaker 05

  And the Ant-Man, the Shay Gildes Alexander, you know, you're looking at a Tyrese Halliburton, you saw a Brunson, you're seeing some of these other guys on the come up, wondering what they're gonna bring to the table. You want some of that young blood infused.

• 1:13:28Patrick Bet-David?

  You might tell me what I like about Halliburton, he creates animosity.

• 1:13:31Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:13:31Patrick Bet-David?

  There's something about him, he's not an exciting player.

• 1:13:33Speaker 05

  We thought Trey Young was gonna do more of that, but he hasn't been in a position to do it.

• 1:13:37Patrick Bet-David?

  I bought seventy of his.

• 1:13:38Speaker 05

  Tyrese Halliburton is.

• 1:13:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, look, I mean, we'll see what's gonna happen.

• 1:13:42Speaker 05

  NBA.

• 1:13:43Patrick Bet-David?

  NBA, Thibodeau got fired today.

• 1:13:45Speaker 05

  Yes, he did.

• 1:13:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Brunson's getting interviewed and he says, so you think your coach is the right coach, excuse me, what question are you asking? Are you asking if that's our coach? Yes, of course that's our coach, what a dump, and then walks out, right? Next day, two days later, the guy gets fired. Good decision or bad decision by the Knicks?

• 1:13:59Speaker 05

  I don't like the decision. Um, I don't like the decision because I think it has scapegoat written all over it. Um, I've been critical of Tom Thibodeau in the past because I think Kenny Smith for TNT came up with the line of the playoffs when he said Tom Thibodeau wouldn't want to play nine dudes on a baseball field. Um, and that was a great line because it's the total truth. But the man has gotten them to the playoffs the last four years, they've advanced every single time, they got better than they were the year before, and they were within two games of a berth to the NBA Finals, and the reason why they didn't get there is because they just weren't good enough. I know they blew game one, which was a devastating loss.

• 1:14:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Devastating.

• 1:14:34Speaker 05

  You have seventeen with over six minutes left, fourteen with two minutes and fifty seconds left, nine minutes with just fifty-two seconds left, and you blew that damn game. That was horrible, no doubt about it. But the Indiana Pacers were a better team, they're better coached, Rick Carlisle's a better coach. They, he's gone, he's gone eleven deep throughout the year, he had eleven guys play fifteen minutes or more this regular season. Rick Carlisle, eleven guys played fifteen minutes or more this season during the regular season.

• 1:15:00Patrick Bet-David?

  How do you even do that?

• 1:15:01Speaker 05

  Because again, he was building the team for the postseason. And they've been a top one or two seed in the NBA since January first. So even though they had a lower seed, this is not a team that was really a lower seed, and so you look at Indiana and what they bring to the table. In terms of their offensive potency and the fact that you've got a playmaker in Halliburton, who gets off chirping and antagonizing the opposition and their crowd.

• 1:15:28Patrick Bet-David?

  Give me more.

• 1:15:29Speaker 05

  It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. He's got his work cut out for him with OKC though, I can tell you that. OKC, I haven't seen a defense like this in a long time.

• 1:15:37Patrick Bet-David?

  It looks scary.

• 1:15:38Speaker 05

  You know, and there's only two players. Everybody talk about Shay Gildes Alexander. He was the runner up for league MVP last year when he got my vote. He got my vote again this year. He won the league MVP. Did you know that his backcourt partner, Jalen Williams? Only him and Evan Mobley of the Cleveland Cavaliers are the only two players in the entire NBA who was voted on one of the All-NBA teams and one of the All-NBA defensive teams.

• 1:16:05Patrick Bet-David?

  Get out of here.

• 1:16:06Speaker 05

  Only those two.

• 1:16:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Good for those guys.

• 1:16:08Speaker 05

  Only those two players.

• 1:16:09Patrick Bet-David?

  Wow.

• 1:16:10Speaker 05

  Only, only two in the entire league. And that's a sidekick who by the way, was just in the conference finals against Ant-Man. Averaged 22.2 points, shot 49% from the field, shot 46% from three-point range. That's the sidekick. If that brother shows up and plays this way against Indiana.

• 1:16:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Two questions.

• 1:16:33Speaker 05

  This ain't gonna be much.

• 1:16:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Two questions for you. Two questions for you. If Shay Gildes Alexander brings a championship to OKC, which looks like 70% chance it's gonna happen, right?

• 1:16:43Speaker 05

  Yes. It's better than 70%.

• 1:16:45Patrick Bet-David?

  I'm with it, but I'm just saying that this is gonna happen, right? How does this hurt the legacy of Harden, Durant and Westbrook?

• 1:16:52Speaker 05

  It makes Shay Gildes Alexander clearly the greatest player in the history of the franchise. Clearly the greatest player in the history of the franchise.

• 1:16:59Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh my god.

• 1:17:01Speaker 05

  Listen, Harden, it doesn't affect at all because Harden was a reserve playing behind Russell Westbrook.

• 1:17:07Patrick Bet-David?

  That's right.

• 1:17:08Speaker 05

  And he was, well, he was young at the time and then they moved him to Houston and gave him, and gave him.

• 1:17:13Patrick Bet-David?

  And then he crushed it as a scorer.

• 1:17:14Speaker 05

  And then he crushed it as a scorer. Russell Westbrook.

• 1:17:19Speaker 05

  I don't want to say it hurts him, but it does because he was a star player. Mr. Triple double. Um, three years in a row, actually did his thing, but never delivered the championship. The one that really, really does hurt is KD. Because if KD stays, you likely win a championship. Remember.

• 1:17:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Four, three.

• 1:17:39Speaker 05

  Remember, they were down three, one. They let Golden, they were up three, one. They let Golden State come back. Golden State eclipses them, wins the series four, three.

• 1:17:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Yep.

• 1:17:51Speaker 05

  And then three weeks later, he goes and signs with Golden State. And won two back-to-back championships. He was clearly the best player on the team. He was better than Steph Curry. He was better than Klay Thompson. And he deserves his two NBA Finals MVPs, and he deserves his two championships. But you left OKC. And so because you left OKC, you didn't deliver the goods for them. You jumped on shit with the Splash Brothers to get your two chips. Shay Gilgeous got traded there. They built around him, and he wins a championship. He's clearly the greatest player in the history of the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise.

• 1:18:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Question with you on this. So, profile, when you look at this. KD, when they had the team, mid twenties. Westbrook, mid twenties.

• 1:18:34Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:18:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Maybe a little bit older, but twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven. How old is Shay right now? Twenty-four, twenty-five?

• 1:18:39Speaker 05

  Twenty-five, but twenty-six.

• 1:18:41Patrick Bet-David?

  Twenty-six years old.

• 1:18:41Speaker 05

  Twenty-six, twenty-seven.

• 1:18:42Patrick Bet-David?

  So, they were the same age while they're handling all this pressure. And the people he took out, it's not like he didn't take out anybody. They took out some teams, is what they took out. Shay. How much of the credit do you give to the fact that he is just cool? Temperament, poise. He's been interviewed. They asked him the question, how do you feel about the fact that people call you the free throw merchant? Doesn't bother me. I'm okay with that. Nothing gets to the guy. Do you give that? That's credit to him where he's got that ice cold in him?

• 1:19:13Speaker 05

  He deserves that credit because his calm demeanor, the cool, his ice demeanor, not phased by much.

• 1:19:22Speaker 05

  That's leadership, never too high, never too low. You can trust him, you can rely upon him. I got into a debate on First Take today with the great Candace Parker, who won three chips in the WNBA, and I was saying that she was like she loved that even keel at it. And I said, I understand that, but let's make sure the world knows sometimes elevation is called for. Sometimes moments require you to be a bit more than your normal self. And Shay plays like that, but his temperament, his mindset is not like that. He's always cool, and even when they've had, you know, they've been compromised. I remember when he lost in Denver, and I think it was either game four or six, and he walked off the court laughing because he was looking at the crowd and was like,

• 1:20:06Speaker 05

  it was like he was saying, y'all do know y'all gotta play us again, right? You know, and then they getting blown out in Minnesota. I had to cover the Western Conference Finals. So I'm there in person, and they, I mean, courts are a few feet away from them, and they're losing by 43. And he's just sitting there talking to his teammates, okay, here's what we did wrong. We ain't gonna do this again next game. It's gonna be all right. Just be cool. You know, and then he comes out there and he drops 40, you know, the very next game. He dropped 40. So 40, 10, and 9 to be exact. So you just look at him and you just say to yourself, the pieces that they have around him though helps. When I know that I'm working with an elite team that can shut you down at any moment,

• 1:20:50Speaker 05

  and we go 9, 10, 11 deep, I'm not worried about much. So even though his personality is his personality, it also helps that he can afford to be that way because they're all about stopping you. They wanna guard you from the moment they get off the team bus.

• 1:21:11Adam Sosnick?

  I think they're the best team in the league this year. I think they have the highest point differential of all time. Literally of all time. But I'll tell you this, 2012 OKC plays 2025 OKC. I'm taking 2012. KD, Russ, Harden, Serge Ibaka, that whole unit, I think they're running laps around this team. And I'll say one more thing.

• 1:21:31Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 1:21:32Adam Sosnick?

  The reason that we're not talking about OKC being one of the greatest teams of all time is they ran into a buzzsaw called the big three, the Heatles in 2012 with LeBron, D Wade and Bosch and Shane Battier and company and Mike Miller and all these guys.

• 1:21:43Speaker 05

  Okay, well.

• 1:21:44Adam Sosnick?

  Who wins that game? 2012 Miami Heat versus Indiana Panthers 2025. That's a 4-0 sweep, sweep, sweep.

• 1:21:51Speaker 05

  You're probably right, but here's what I would tell you. It's a couple of things to consider. Number one, KD's the difference because he's an offensive machine. And at six feet 11 with a J, a three-point shot and an ability to put it on the ball, that's unguardable. You understand? So Ant-Man 6'5", 6'6", you're Lou Dort, you're literally a linebacker playing basketball. You can't move him. He's that strong and he's physical, right? Well, that's not gonna really work against LeBron James.

• 1:22:28Adam Sosnick?

  No.

• 1:22:28Speaker 05

  That's not gonna work against KD because he's just too tall. And he can look right over you and he can shoot right over you. So it's problematic. So you might be right. The reason why I say might as opposed to speaking definitively is because as great as Russell Westbrook is, or was, he's also mercurial. He can be chaotic. He can turn the ball over, whatever. They live off of it. They're averaging 23 points off turnovers.

• 1:22:55Adam Sosnick?

  This OKC team.

• 1:22:56Speaker 05

  Yes. And it's a 20-point differential from anybody else in the postseason. So what I'm saying to you is if you got a guy that is not protecting the basketball, it can mess you up. How do we know this? Kevin Durant left.

• 1:23:11Adam Sosnick?

  That's true. Can I give one more piece of information?

• 1:23:13Patrick Bet-David?

  Last topic on this, and then I want to go back to some issues because I've got to ask about 50 and a couple of other things. Anthony Edwards.

• 1:23:19Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:20Patrick Bet-David?

  We're told is the Michael Jordan of the NBA.

• 1:23:22Speaker 05

  I changed my mind.

• 1:23:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Really?

• 1:23:24Speaker 05

  Talent-wise, he is. When I saw him.

• 1:23:31Speaker 05

  resigned himself to the circumstances in game six. Game five, I'm sorry. It changed my mind because it reminded me of Michael Jordan. I remember when Pat Riley with the Knicks would take a 250-pound forward named Anthony Mason and he put him on Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan knew that dribbling the ball out front, top of the key, that kind of area and stuff like that made it easier for him to be guarded. Because he ain't playing with his back to the basket out that far away from the basket. So you can guard him and you can anticipate what direction he's going in, etc., and it wasn't that much on you.

• 1:24:14Speaker 05

  So what he had to do was get stronger, play with his back to the basket, and kill you with his mid-range game. And that's what he did. How would I know this? Because he told me. He told me that years ago. And what he, when he was telling me that, he was marveling at the greatness of Kobe Bryant. Because he looked at Kobe and Kobe, he never had to tell Kobe that. Kobe watched his tapes and figured it out. That was the student that Kobe was. I see a phenomenal talent who has the potential to be the face of the league if he really, really wants it, an Ant-Man.

• 1:24:58Speaker 05

  What I didn't see was that. I didn't see a guy that said, "This is what they're doing to me. Let me figure this out. Let me come at it this way. Let me try it this way." I didn't see a coach in Finch who made the necessary adjustments. I didn't see guys surrounding him that could put the ball on the floor after getting chased off the three-point line and pulling up and scoring off the pull-ups. You know the Minnesota Timberwolves? Well, postseason low of anybody, 32% from the field and pull-ups. The minute you chased them off the three-point line and you forced them to pull up off the dribble, they don't make. Nas Reed, Jaden McDaniels, Mike Conley Jr., people like that, they're set shooters. They're not shooters off the dribble. Oklahoma City knew that. So Oklahoma City got up and Ant.

• 1:25:40Speaker 05

  Everywhere Ant went, it's like, Vinny sitting up there and Ant running on a court. He going to the room. You know what I'm saying? You're just touching him, just everywhere he go, just pushing him, making sure he was felt. And it demoralized him and I saw it. And that's why I say not yet.

• 1:26:01Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me tell you what's scary right now. This is what's scary right now. Story comes out that Michael Jordan wants to go be a commentator for the NBA.

• 1:26:09Speaker 05

  Yes, sir.

• 1:26:09Patrick Bet-David?

  NBC and reportedly it's gonna be around forty million dollar annual deal. Makes him the highest paid guy, you know, et cetera, et cetera. Tom Brady, thirty-seven and a half. A part of me as a fan sits here and says, dude, Michael?

• 1:26:25Patrick Bet-David?

  They must be doing this because the NBA desperately needs his help. Because it's lost viewership. Heck, people may watch the game to just hear his commentary and not even pay attention to the game, right? But if you would have told me ten years ago, five years ago, Michael's gonna come back and do commentating, I would say, Stephen A., I don't know if I can see that happening. Tell me your thoughts on this.

• 1:26:48Speaker 05

  Couple of things. Number one, don't believe everything you read.

• 1:26:53Speaker 05

  NBA Countdown, ESPN, our ratings are up. Not down. Our ratings are up, okay? From a year ago, from two years ago, that's number one. Number two, linear television is one component, more eyeballs are transitioning to digital. And what people don't realize is just like you're doing this, like, you're not on linear television. You guys have over six million followers. They're watching you. It's just not on linear. So when you see people, they're not watching, it's just like with me, when people, I guess I'm a rarity because, you know, First Take's ratings have, you know, been what it is and stuff like that. But I've got over a million subscribers on YouTube inside of two years.

• 1:27:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Stephen A., I watch more than I watch the game.

• 1:27:37Speaker 05

  Yeah, I appreciate it. But what I'm saying to you is that they're watching me on digital. They're watching First Take on digital. I personally register myself over two point three billion views annually. Between First Take, between my podcast, between NBA Countdown, stuff like, because it's not just linear. So just because they say that the numbers are down on linear television, there's a reason why Amazon has now replaced TNT.

• 1:28:08Speaker 05

  There's a reason for that. Now, when you think about Michael Jordan, that's NBC. That's the longstanding relationship. Ammar Rashad used to be over there. NBA, NBC had the contract. And you had this one, you had one executive that had a very close relationship with Michael Jordan that convinced him to do it. Because for network television, that's a drop in the bucket for them to get Michael Jordan. Nothing. Let me tell you something about Michael Jordan.

• 1:28:32Speaker 05

  He's gonna be brutally honest. Oh, I can show you that. He's not gonna be somebody that's gonna be passive about, not the Michael Jordan I know. The Michael Jordan I know, when talking basketball, he is as candid as it gets. He ain't trying to hurt nobody's feelings. He ain't trying to be insulting, but he's going to tell you what's going on. Just like I just described something with Ant-Man, that's something he'll tell you. He's talking about the game of basketball. I don't think he's going to be passive at all. I really, really don't. And I'm actually proud of him for doing it because, you know, with the Jordan brand and him being worth over $2 billion, so he don't need this, so his mentality, ah, please, I'm wasting my time with that.

• 1:29:16Speaker 05

  Because he never wants to be interviewed and all this other stuff. And I said, come on, man. Let me tell you something. Stop acting like you have nothing to say about basketball, not that you, now that you're retired. You talk about it all the damn time. I'm talking about, I'm, I'm literally talking about getting a call. What the hell did you, what the hell did I just hear you say? Call me. Call me now.

• 1:29:40Speaker 05

  What the hell you say that for? That don't make no damn sense. This is him, right? Now, he wasn't as, as, uh, uh, like Kobe, Kobe was a little bit different. Motherfucker, I know I didn't just hear you say that shit. Don't even think about getting the fuck off the air and thinking that you gonna go someplace else because you got another one of your damn 12 jobs. Pick up the goddamn phone and call me now. That's Kobe. That was Kobe. That was Kobe. Mike's not quite like that.

• 1:30:09Speaker 05

  But he's candid. And I don't think that he's going to be shy about saying what he sees at all. A matter of fact, if he is, he's gonna have to deal with me because I'm gonna be in his ear telling him, oh, we getting shy now. That's what we doing? That's what, that's what we doing? That ain't the one I named him MJ. I know. What you doing? Let's go. What are the chances he actually does this?

• 1:30:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Are you excited about this? Are you sincerely like, do you sit there and say, I'm excited for Michael coming back to him commentating?

• 1:30:36Adam Sosnick?

  Well, I, you have to remember where I, my fandom really grew up, right? I mean, I remember the national championship game between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, and I was looking forward to both of them come to the NBA. And

• 1:30:54Adam Sosnick?

  it turns out Magic went to my beloved Lakers and they suddenly took off, you know? And you have to remember what stopped us. The move. The highlight move in the finals that Michael dropped on my beloved Lakers that I looked at with respect, with my jaw hanging out.

• 1:31:13Speaker 05

  Game two.

• 1:31:14Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Spectacular.

• 1:31:16Adam Sosnick?

  And you know what? I remember, I remember my dad and my brother and I said, you know what? Next man up. There it is. You know, it's not Boston, it's not us. This guy. Here, here we go. I.

• 1:31:30Speaker 05

  And remember, that move came after they had lost game one.

• 1:31:36Adam Sosnick?

  When Sam Perkins hit the shot?

• 1:31:38Speaker 05

  Yeah, Sam Perkins hit the shot, Magic and Divac and those boys rolled into the United Center, won game one. So Chicago couldn't afford to fall down 0-2. That was the game he did that move. And then they won four straight. Do you actually see him actually commentating? Do you see him following through with this and actually getting on air doing this? Oh, he's committed to doing it. It's happening. It's happening. What season? It's happening. This, this, uh, next season. You're saying MJ? Is coming back to the NBA. In the fall. To NBC. I love the fall. I love the fall. The return of MJ.

• 1:32:08Patrick Bet-David?

  To save the NBA. Stephen.

• 1:32:10Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 1:32:11Patrick Bet-David?

  The viewership on TV, when you compare sport to sport to sport, TV, TV, TV, digital, digital, digital.

• 1:32:17Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 1:32:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Cause they all say the same argument. NBA comparing to NFL.

• 1:32:22Speaker 05

  No, it doesn't compare to NFL.

• 1:32:23Patrick Bet-David?

  NFL is up, NBA is down. LeBron hurt the league. My opinion, I'm gonna say my opinion. I watched Katelyn Clark get her ass handed to her, gets up within a second. If God forbid you whisper something to LeBron, 20 feet is sliding all the way to the other side. And we have to say, I would never, ever see Michael or Kobe ever do that. My opinion. I, I hope we see a level of toughness with the game coming back, and I hope he calls everybody up.

• 1:32:50Speaker 05

  Well.

• 1:32:50Patrick Bet-David?

  I hope he calls everybody up.

• 1:32:51Speaker 05

  You're saying LeBron may have hurt the league. Fine, I can side with that. Not for the reasons you're articulating. The reason why is when he joined Miami. You had everybody trying to join with one another instead of competing against one another. That's the real reason. You understand? CP3 went to Houston. Before that, he was trying to get to LA, remember that?

• 1:33:20Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, Paul George.

• 1:33:20Speaker 05

  And David Stern nixed that deal as the de facto owner for, for the Pelicans at the time, okay? Um, you know, you had, you know, you know, Hoop City, and you had Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan and, and CP3 with the Clippers. You had LeBron, you had KD, you know, one upping him by joining the Splash Brothers and going to Golden State. You had Kawhi Leonard blackmailing the Los Angeles Lakers, by, oh, the Clippers rather, by saying, go, you know, get Paul George or I'll go to the Lakers. You saw all of this. And so that's one of the other reasons why we should be excited about what we're seeing from Oklahoma City and Indiana. Because they're showing you don't have to, you know, have a, a collaboration of stars descending upon one locale

• 1:34:04Speaker 05

  in order to win championships. The fact that there's been an absence of success in that regard. Now you're looking at the new model where guess what? Get a couple of stars, build with them. Have supplementary parts around them that can ball and can bring stuff to the table. Have leadership that's about team. You see Shay Gildes Alexander doing an interview. You see his teammates surrounding him. You see Tyrese Halliburton, you know, doing an interview. You see teammates showering him with water or, you know, messing with him and stuff like that. You see camaraderie.

• 1:34:36Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:36Speaker 05

  You see team as opposed to a star standing head and shoulders and distant above everybody else. That's what you're seeing right now.

• 1:34:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, and I like it. I like seeing it.

• 1:34:46Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:34:46Patrick Bet-David?

  I don't mind seeing it. Okay, let's transition to some stories about Ukraine. So, story comes out that Ukraine bombs 40 or 41 bombers of Russia. The video has been all over the place. People have seen it. Absolute insanity.

• 1:35:02Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:35:03Patrick Bet-David?

  And more of a story comes out saying Ukraine has cards and they are long-term cards, says Senator after meeting with Zelensky. Now, Rob, if you got this clip here, I think this is Blumenthal, if I'm not mistaken. Everybody's wondering what happened. We thought there's gonna be a peace deal. We thought there's gonna be the mineral deal that just got done. What are we doing going back to attacking these guys? Here's Blumenthal, Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut. Go ahead, Rob.

• 1:35:28Adam Sosnick?

  Always uplifting and inspiring to spend time with Vladimir Zelensky. My seventh trip to Ukraine, most of them with Senator Graham. But I've met with him on numerous other occasions. And sadly, one of my main takeaways was that peace, even a ceasefire, are nowhere in sight. Obviously, Putin is launching, even as we speak, a major offensive, mobilizing forces in the east, Donetsk and Luhansk and other territories.

• 1:36:07Adam Sosnick?

  But the Istanbul proposal that he made yesterday shows how unserious he is about peace talks. He's mocking Trump, playing him. But the combination of the attacks in the east, the offensive there and the attacks.

• 1:36:25Patrick Bet-David?

  He's the cure for insomnia. Can you go to the other clip, Rob, if you could? From while this is going on, you got UK that comes out. Okay, UK British Prime Minister Keir Starmer moves UK military to warfighting readiness. Why are they doing this? What's causing them to do this? Go ahead, Rob.

• 1:36:43Speaker 04

  Moving to warfighting readiness when we are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces.

• 1:36:50Patrick Bet-David?

  The most effective way to deter them is to be ready. Okay, Vinny, what's going on here?

• 1:36:57Adam Sosnick?

  Well, remember when we were talking about the other day on everything about, so, okay, Trump came in 2016, what was the major thing that they tried to get him with? Russia, Russia. Russia collusion BS, okay? He goes to 2020, what happens all of a sudden? And he's kicking ass, the economy, we're doing great. All of a sudden, a virus comes out of a lab that we own, destroys the world, economy, everything, no president will ever survive a pandemic. Biden stays in the basement, they win. Now he does the biggest comeback in the history of anything, wins this election, and now what? There has to be something else that they have to try to ruin him.

• 1:37:39Adam Sosnick?

  And I think, my opinion, these war hawks like Richard Blumenthal, like Lindsey Graham, and Mike Pompeo, and let's, let's talk real quick, because we were wondering, who Brandon mentioned, Tom, about the CIA, or who could be there? What is Mike Pompeo, okay? Ex-CIA, Secretary of State, what business does he have? Stephen, please, because I know you're probably going to be on my side here. What is he doing there, rubbing, rubbing elbows, shaking hands with these people? He has no business there, okay? I, I looked up his, because I wanted to find out, he works for Kansas Strategic Solutions. It's basically, to me, it's a shell company. That's, that's basically what it is.

• 1:38:23Adam Sosnick?

  He's deep in their business scene, he's on the board of Kyistar, K-Y-I-V-S-T-A-R, Ukraine's biggest telecom company, did you know that, Pat? He's on the board, Mike Pompeo is on their board, and its parent company, VEON, VEON. That gig alone is pulling $600,000 a year, plus stock and bonus options, and lands him millions. On top of that, his first impact investment scored 16 million in stock warrants and 3 million bonuses tied to a merger deal. So they're over there, we're trying to figure out, because think about it, everything is going good, and then all of a sudden, Zelensky does one of- And we looked it up, the strongest and most major attack, Tom, if I'm not, Rob, if I'm not mistaken,

• 1:39:07Adam Sosnick?

  out of this entire war, this was the biggest thing, all the drones, taking out these, what, nuclear airplanes? And it just seems a little weird. Trump has been fighting for peace, and I think, Steve, behind closed doors, these guys are going over there, Lindsey Graham is a freaking warhawk, they want war. These guys work for companies that are either getting consulting with defense contractors, Tom, or they work for the actual companies themselves. And I don't see this getting good. Putin's been quiet as hell, and I'm telling you right now, he's not gonna stay quiet for long. And this is what they were talking about, about pushing into World War III.

• 1:39:47Adam Sosnick?

  And we're on the cusp. I think we're right, right there, because Putin, we know, he's a gangster, just like America's gangster with the government. He hasn't said anything. And I'm worried that something big is about to happen, and it could turn into something ugly. We won't talk about it, and it's Vietnam by proxy. Remember Vietnam? We will only send advisors in here because the French have failed, so we will send advisors, and then we'll supply limited arms. And then Biden said, well, we're not giving you big weapons because we don't want to have a proxy war going with Russia. Remember that? We're not gonna send you big things. And they're like, we need big things. We want the, and what's it, we want the other planes. Remember that? We don't want those planes, we want the other planes.

• 1:40:28Adam Sosnick?

  Hey, can we have the F-15Es, you know, the electronic countermeasures, just like the Israelis have? Can we have the nice stuff? No, no, no, no, no. Can we have the look-down, shut-down radar? No, no, no, we can give you the basic stuff. And we were all that, and then guess what? We went all in. We're all in. This is the military-industrial complex. I look at these things from deeper angles every now and then, I look at it. You know what they have right now? They have a test bed for all their new stuff in a war theater called Ukraine. And I believe that these folks are kind of leftovers from the post-Reagan era, because remember, Reagan was there not to stop a country,

• 1:41:12Adam Sosnick?

  he was there to stop an ideology when he went up against Gorbachev. And so he had an effective... You know, outcome against an ideology. And he breaks up the Soviet Union. Now, it's like we've got this old thing. Must kill Russia, must kill Russia, must kill Russia. And it's, it bothers him to me. And then you see these people that represent these areas. That's not Marco Rubio. If you go back just 20 years ago, it was rare that anybody usurped the position of the Secretary of State. That's a Secretary of State's trip. And then he would say, well, I'm taking a delegation. And he was like their, their tour guide.

• 1:41:52Adam Sosnick?

  And it just, it just disappoints me and bothers me because I, I believe that there are innocent people all in Ukraine. They're in the middle of this stuff.

• 1:42:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Stephen A, what do you think?

• 1:42:04Speaker 00

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• 1:42:33Speaker 01

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• 1:43:06Speaker 05

  It's tough because on one hand,

• 1:43:11Speaker 05

  I understand not having a nationalist perspective, having a globalist perspective and being concerned about the world as a whole in terms of our ability to do business with others and represent our own individual interests. But to me, nothing should come before country. And what I mean by that is Trump, whether you like it or not, is the President of the United States. And if we're going over there as elected officials, our job should be, if not to represent him, it's to convince him stateside.

• 1:43:51Speaker 05

  To see

• 1:43:53Speaker 05

  your way of thinking. You don't go over there against the interest of the President of the United States. And think that there's not gonna be football. I'm not saying that you don't agree with, you, you have to agree with him. I'm saying disagree with him here on these grounds. On this thing. You don't go over to another nation speaking against the interest of the person that you have in office. I don't like that. Because that's something that can be utilized to our detriment. More, more likely than not. Having said that,

• 1:44:34Speaker 05

  I think that Ukraine is in a world of trouble. I know they've given Russia the battle of their lives. I understand that. But we also got to understand what's going on with Russia. You know, Bill O'Reilly brought up the Yalta Convention to me and wanted me to look that up. And then I was reminded about Churchill, Winston Churchill and, you know, and, and, and, and obviously Stalin. At that particular time, what did Russia want? Russia wanted all of Europe. Putin reminds me of that because Stalin gave America the impression that we're willing to engage and have a democracy. You know, after World War Two, in the aftermath of all of that and Hitler and all of this stuff. What they said was this is what we're willing to do.

• 1:45:18Speaker 05

  And then they went against the interest of the United States and they broke promises per se. This is what they were told. If I'm, if I, if I've got my history wrong, please educate me. That's what I was told. Stalin did that. What has Putin's been, what has been his number one mission according to all the reports? Since he's gained power. He was appalled at what happened in 1994. He was appalled that Reagan was able to tell Gorbachev, turn that, tear down that wall. And ultimately in 1991, that it happened. And the dissolution of the Soviet Union as we once knew it occurred. What has he been on a mission to do? Since 2008 Crimea. 2013, 2014, same thing Obama was in office at that time. Did they address it with the level of urgency that it deserved?

• 1:46:02Speaker 05

  No, did Biden address it with the level of urgency that it deserved? No, even though he was willing to finance Ukraine in terms of weapons and money and stuff like that. There was stuff that could have been done years prior to that, that folks in both, on both sides of the aisle, didn't do. And now the American people finds itself in a situation where we're dependent on Trump, you understand, to resolve this issue. And Trump, bloviating the way that's because that's the way he's made this. I'm not talking about anything else, but bloviating, I can end this. I've got a relationship with you. Well, there are people that believe that. That believed you got this kind of relationship with Putin. You can help put a stop to this. No, you can't. Because Putin has come and his mission is far greater than friendships or anything, assuming he has any.

• 1:46:48Speaker 05

  This man, I'm not, you know, whatever they want to call him, KGB, former KGB murderer, all this other stuff they try to say about it, I don't know what it is. I do know this. This man is on a mission to reclaim Europe. He wants it all. He's not going to stop. All of Europe? Most of it. He's not going to stop at Ukraine. He's not going to stop. You believe that? I don't believe, I do believe that with all my heart. Poland, Finland, whatever it is, whatever's in that area. Okay, he's not going to stop. Russia at one time made up a sixth of the world's population. The dissolution has fragmented them. They're on a mission to restore things to its rightful order in their eyes.

• 1:47:31Speaker 05

  And for us to not pay attention to that, and the kind of impact it could have on our global affairs, in terms of how we want to do business, in terms of what has assisted greatly in making us prosperous, is something I think we need to pay attention to. Adam.

• 1:47:47Adam Sosnick?

  I mean, I think that's one thing's clear about Russia and it's they're not as big and strong and as tough as they thought they were because they thought that this was gonna be a David versus Goliath type thing, but it turns out it ain't some just little kid with a slingshot. It's some grown ass Zelensky looking dude with billions of dollars and weaponry and drones from all their big, rich homies from all around the world, namely the United States, Germany, the UK, France, and the EU and NATO. That's quite the, that's quite the allies there. Now, who are Russia's allies? They have Belarus, North Korea, and China, China. It's not like they're natural allies. They share a border and there's some

• 1:48:29Adam Sosnick?

  issues there. But Russia thought that they'd be done with this war in 30 days. It's been three years. And now they're apparently losing. So if I'm Putin, I'm looking at this as like, how is this little fruity two cakes out here, former actor, plant in Ukraine beating me? KGB dictator Putin. And my biggest fear is that he's gonna do something real stupid. Can I ask you a question? Because Pat brought this up and I generally want to know your thoughts on this. This, this was a major attack, okay, with, with probably a lot of

• 1:49:09Adam Sosnick?

  extensive, you know, planning and all that stuff. Two questions. Do you think Trump, who's trying to do peace, knew that this was gonna happen, or knew that was gonna go down? Okay, now they're approved or said no, or, or fall back. And number two, if not, if not, Stephen, who has the type of power to go behind Trump and make this type of thing go down, meaning proxy, Mike Pompeo, who has the power here to go and talk to this dude and be like, yo, dog, to Zelensky? This is what Pat talked about the other day. Go and do your thing. We got Trump. They're gonna be mad. Nobody's gonna be mad. Yo, go bomb the shit out of him.

• 1:49:46Speaker 05

  When you ask a first question is when you say, do I think Trump knew? Do I think Trump knew what?

• 1:49:51Adam Sosnick?

  That, that Zelensky was gonna go do this all bombing on, on Russia with all the airplanes and like that big ass thing that we just saw.

• 1:49:58Speaker 05

  I think that Trump knew because I think that if Zelensky did that. Uh, without him knowing, it'll make it that much more difficult to come back and ask for assistance from the United States of America. But, but in the same breath, it was a reaction to what Russia had done to them recently as well. So I think you have to pay attention to that. As it pertains to power, as it pertains to influencing Trump, I think the elected officials on Capitol Hill, the Mike Johnsons of the world and others who have the power to get in his way, I think they can have an effect on him. But I also think that, listen, we can underestimate this, but we just gotta be honest. He cares about perception. Trump cares about legacy. I think he cares about those things.

• 1:50:42Speaker 05

  So when I see a guy like a Sean Hannity, when I see a guy like a Bill O'Reilly and people like that, you know, when I did the town hall with, with Chris Cuomo, Trump's not calling in if Bill O'Reilly doesn't get him to call in.

• 1:50:55Speaker 05

  He called, he called in because Bill O'Reilly got him to call in. You understand? And you have people that, that are in office, that have connections to people who have a voice. If I, again, I'm not interested, but if I was a president, if I was the president of the United States,

• 1:51:17Speaker 05

  I'm a busy man and I'm not talking to everybody any damn way. But I'm answering Patrick Bet-David's call. He can call me. You understand? A, a, a Chris Cuomo can call me. A Sean Hannity can call me. You can call me, I know you. All of a sudden I get in the office and I don't know you? When you already have this prolific voice, reaching millions upon millions of people, to potentially persuade them to see my way of thinking? Why would I ignore, ignore that prowess? So again, it takes a combination, but to summarily dismiss that that is a possibility, I certainly wouldn't do it. I'm telling you, and I'm not gonna say any more than I'm about to say, but I'm telling you, those names that I mentioned, oh, they talked to, they talked to the president.

• 1:52:02Speaker 05

  They talked to him a lot. Okay? So they have an idea of what he's thinking, what he's feeling, and they certainly speak to him and let him know their thoughts. Now, he's gonna make his own decisions, but ultimately you listen to who you listen to and you're impacted by who you're impacted by.

• 1:52:20Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, I, I, I don't know. I'm gonna be curious to know how ugly this could get.

• 1:52:26Speaker 05

  I think it's gonna get ugly.

• 1:52:27Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, how nasty it could get, and now UK's getting up there. Pompeo, why is he out there? I don't know, but what are you doing out there? Like, they, yeah, a couple of things.

• 1:52:39Adam Sosnick?

  I don't understand.

• 1:52:39Speaker 05

  And nobody's asking him to be with the president, but you don't go to a foreign land to be against the president.

• 1:52:46Patrick Bet-David?

  You're undermining.

• 1:52:47Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah, Blumenthal is a Democrat. He's there with Lindsey Graham, who's a Republican, and they're, and you're, and, and you're trashing Trump in front of these people. Do we know they would, they would trash him though? Well, yeah, Blumenthal was, Blumenthal is anti, bro. Blumenthal is as anti-Trump as they get. And then you're there with Lindsey Graham, who's a Republican warhawk, who's wearing, mind you, who's wearing the American flag with the Ukrainian pin still. And then Mike Pompeo, who, oh, he, he, he had some, once he left Trump and left a secretary of state, he was bashing Trump. All right, and remember, he's the guy too that was on some, let's go assassinate Julian Assange. He's a, he's a.

• 1:53:28Speaker 05

  But what's the most important thing, guys? I'll ask y'all this, it's a genuine question. Is it making sure we don't have to give but so much more money to Ukraine? Or is it making sure that Russia doesn't expand and become significantly more expansive in its quest, that I believe is to recapture a lot, if not all, of what they lost with the dissolution of the Soviet Union?

• 1:53:59Adam Sosnick?

  Well, I don't know how they're gonna capture all of Europe, half of Europe, even two countries in Europe, because they can't even take one.

• 1:54:06Patrick Bet-David?

  I agree.

• 1:54:07Adam Sosnick?

  They can't take Ukraine. They can't even get to Kiev. And my biggest question here, maybe I'm naive, I don't understand, why are we criticizing a country that's at war with another country? Oh my God, why would they blow up all their planes? Oh, because they've been at war for three years. Maybe that's why. Why would they do this during stalled peace talks? Well, maybe because Putin just bombed the shit out of Kiev and they're teaching that guy a lesson. Right. I don't know, maybe when a bully punches you in the mouth, you punch him in the mouth 10 times harder. I don't know, where did I hear that from? Trump, a million times? So, I don't feel bad for Putin. And it's not like Ukraine invaded Russia.

• 1:54:41Speaker 05

  Let's also remember this too. Let's also remember this too.

• 1:54:43Adam Sosnick?

  I didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Stephen A.

• 1:54:45Speaker 05

  And, and, and to your point, Vinnie.

• 1:54:48Adam Sosnick?

  Get him a downer.

• 1:54:48Speaker 05

  If you think about how Trump, let's, let's, let's call it what it is. We can't like, listen, no matter how much you support Trump, you can't like every damn thing about him.

• 1:54:56Adam Sosnick?

  I don't.

• 1:54:57Speaker 05

  So, exactly. So, I didn't like what he did with Zelensky in the Oval Office. I thought that was a bad look for him.

• 1:55:03Adam Sosnick?

  Oh, I loved it.

• 1:55:03Speaker 05

  I, I hated it and I'm gonna tell you.

• 1:55:05Adam Sosnick?

  I loved it.

• 1:55:05Speaker 05

  Let me tell you why.

• 1:55:06Adam Sosnick?

  Okay.

• 1:55:06Speaker 05

  I hated it for a couple of reasons. Number one, who the hell are you, J.D. Vance? Who are you?

• 1:55:09Adam Sosnick?

  You're the Vice President of the United States, sir.

• 1:55:11Speaker 05

  You're the Vice President of the United States. Well, the President was right there, didn't need you to talk. But you were talking and what did you do? You diverted away from the issue, talk about, you should be grateful. You should be saying thank you.

• 1:55:22Adam Sosnick?

  You should be.

• 1:55:22Speaker 05

  Really? And then you had Republican officials, he didn't have a suit on. Really? Really, we talk about war.

• 1:55:27Adam Sosnick?

  That was a reporter.

• 1:55:28Speaker 05

  I'm just saying.

• 1:55:29Adam Sosnick?

  That was one of your people from the Fourth of State.

• 1:55:31Speaker 05

  Listen, it was one of them too, damn it. The point is, is that, oh, he didn't have on a suit. Really? That's what we doing? We're talking about a man whose country was getting bombed every damn month. And you're talking about him not wearing a suit.

• 1:55:42Adam Sosnick?

  Too shit.

• 1:55:43Speaker 05

  And not saying thank you enough, okay?

• 1:55:45Adam Sosnick?

  But he came here begging, as if, as if we owe it to him.

• 1:55:48Speaker 05

  Well, again.

• 1:55:49Adam Sosnick?

  Have a little gratitude, little dude.

• 1:55:50Speaker 05

  Well, he was saying that, again, if Russia, it may not be a problem for you now, but it might be a problem for you later if you let stuff like this slide. A lot of people felt that there was validity to that argument. I don't know whether that was true or not. But they're saying, potentially, yes, because of our interest.

• 1:56:08Adam Sosnick?

  Bigger problem for Europe, we got something called oceans.

• 1:56:10Speaker 05

  That's what, that's what he was saying. He said, you don't feel it now, but you will.

• 1:56:13Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah, I mean, look, we, we can, we can sit here and go through painting this guy as the bully in this picture. Okay, fine. Back in 2000, he asked Clinton, hey, I don't mind joining NATO. Oh, yeah, you would? Yeah. Five minutes of the calls back. Yeah, not right now, maybe later on. Why didn't you want him? Who said no?

• 1:56:30Patrick Bet-David?

  But who said no? You can, you can go back.

• 1:56:34Adam Sosnick?

  The premise of that doesn't make sense, though. The whole reason that NATO was created was so Russia wouldn't take over Europe again.

• 1:56:41Patrick Bet-David?

  Clinton told him Russia could join NATO before pulling back hours later. Why?

• 1:56:45Adam Sosnick?

  So then what would be the point of NATO?

• 1:56:47Patrick Bet-David?

  That's the point.

• 1:56:48Adam Sosnick?

  If Russia joins NATO, then NATO dissolved, doesn't it not?

• 1:56:51Patrick Bet-David?

  But guess.

• 1:56:51Adam Sosnick?

  The whole point of NATO was to counteract Russia?

• 1:56:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Adam, if, let's just say, we have a late security going on in our community, because there's a rapist in our community that is walking around and he's been spotted five times. And he's a known rapist. Every night, we choose two fathers to go walk around the community and make sure they're safe. Every night, we do this for 60 days. Forty-five days later, we find out the guy's dead. Are we still doing that? No! We stop. What's the point? NATO is not needed anymore if he's telling you, "I want to join you." So don't tell me, no, there's people that want this war to continue, because it's a big business model. So there's an element of this that we can sit here. Who knows what kind of money they're making on the back end? Have you seen what Dick Cheney did?

• 1:57:35Patrick Bet-David?

  Have you seen what these guys did with, where three trillion dollars of money has been missing? Where? Oh, it's just, it's just missing. I mean, look, I mean, we are, we're always missing money, right? You always got a hundred grand, a hundred grand is missing. A million dollars is missing. Ten thousand dollars is missing. No. This is so deep that my curious side just wants to know, someone behind closed doors is playing. Trump's got ratings like he's never had before. Egg prices are down. Tariff is bringing revenues like we've never seen before. Twenty-one point seven billion dollars, twenty-two billion dollars in a month. More than ever before. We've never seen tariff revenue like this.

• 1:58:13Speaker 05

  Is the deficit lowering?

• 1:58:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Deficit, deficit is not necessarily lowering yet, but tariff revenue. You need revenue coming in. Revenue's increasing from tariffs.

• 1:58:23Speaker 05

  So you support his tariff wars?

• 1:58:24Patrick Bet-David?

  I for sure support us getting more tariff revenue coming in.

• 1:58:27Speaker 05

  But I, no, no, that's not what I asked you. I'm asking you, did you support his tariff war? Meaning that his, his, his, his plan going after everybody instead of just China?

• 1:58:37Patrick Bet-David?

  Uh, I do. I, I do, I do like that he did that. And for me, it was a, and the reason for that is, is the following reason.

• 1:58:46Adam Sosnick?

  Trump is, is a guy that knows how to create peer pressure for people to take action. Trump's the type of guy that he'll sit in a room and he'll, he'll say something. It's like, so what's your show ranked? Oh, you know, he's beating you, right? So how do you feel about the fact that his show is beating you? I saw your viewership was down last week, Stephen. And what happened with you? By the way, who's this guy with the new podcaster that's beating you? Is he gonna take over? That's how he is. But if you're the only person in the room, he can't do that to you because you're China. So he needs all these other guys in there to go like this. That's his style. Doesn't mean it works with everybody.

• 1:59:21Speaker 05

  What about disruption of the market? What about the fact that you are coming across so haphazard that the market doesn't know what to do? And as a result, it gets people to be afraid to invest and fuel and stir the system.

• 1:59:32Adam Sosnick?

  Can you tell me why the market is doing good? Can you tell me why numbers are looking?

• 1:59:36Speaker 05

  I'm not challenging. I'm asking. I'm genuinely asking these questions because I don't know.

• 1:59:40Adam Sosnick?

  Yeah, but the question then becomes, for me, when I look at enemies around the world, who's the top three enemies for America?

• 1:59:49Speaker 05

  China.

• 1:59:50Adam Sosnick?

  China's number one.

• 1:59:50Speaker 05

  Iran.

• 1:59:51Adam Sosnick?

  Iran.

• 1:59:51Speaker 05

  Russia.

• 1:59:52Adam Sosnick?

  Who's your third? I don't even know if I put Russia number three. I think Russia's top five.

• 1:59:56Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 1:59:57Adam Sosnick?

  But I don't know if I put number three, but I know for a fact China and Iran are top two. I put Iran. Iran's first. China's a competitor, not a friend.

• 2:00:03Speaker 05

  I'm not saying, I'm not saying, I'm not saying Mexico, but some would because of the borders.

• 2:00:09Adam Sosnick?

  Sure.

• 2:00:10Speaker 05

  Some would.

• 2:00:11Adam Sosnick?

  But watch this. So when we say China and Iran, and I know I saw what you did last summer, you know, what's that movie? I know what you did last summer. I, I know what you did last, you know, election 2020 with COVID and all that stuff. I don't trust China. I'm gonna expose the hell out of them. Look, what happened? 60 million iPhones were being produced and manufactured in China. That moved to India. Now he's trying to bring that to US a little bit? You think China's not experiencing a little bit of a downfall right now? The challenges they're facing?

• 2:00:39Speaker 05

  We're one of the top two consumers.

• 2:00:41Adam Sosnick?

  I don't have any problem with what happened with tariff. I, and, and

• 2:00:46Speaker 05

  With China, I don't.

• 2:00:47Adam Sosnick?

  The concern I have now, the concern I have, look what he did with Canada. It's like, look, you guys don't spend a lot of money on military. I'm willing to give you a golden dome. You pay 68 billion. I'll take care of you as well, but you have to become the 51st state. I don't mind all these pushing and all these things that he's doing. He's a massive disruptor, but the data's showing he's making progress. You can say a lot of things you want to say. The average person goes to the market.

• 2:01:14Patrick Bet-David?

  To buy some eggs for their kids. Last year was 655. This year's 252. The average person, and that's bottom 80%. Bottom 80% is not sitting there asking about tariffs. Bottom 80% is saying, why is a dozen eggs now 255? Why are gas prices down? That's what the bottom 80% is saying.

• 2:01:33Speaker 05

  So, gas prices are down, prices of eggs are down, and the media has been ignoring it?

• 2:01:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Of course the media's been ignoring it. Why would they be celebrating these types of things? Media wouldn't be celebrating this kind of stuff. But it's so embarrassing now that even Harry Enton on CNN is saying this, and he says, I don't understand why his popularity is going higher.

• 2:01:51Adam Sosnick?

  He's shocked.

• 2:01:52Patrick Bet-David?

  They don't understand, why is his popularity going higher? They're confused.

• 2:01:57Speaker 05

  Are you guys concerned? Again, I'm asking questions, even though I know you guys are interviewing me, but I'm just curious because I want to learn. Are you guys concerned at all about the enemy being primarily within? Meaning the destructive tension, like for right now, we just saw in Boulder, Colorado. Somebody throw, I don't know if it was a Molotov cocktail or whatever at a club.

• 2:02:23Patrick Bet-David?

  13 people, 55 to 88 years old.

• 2:02:25Speaker 05

  Pro-Israel supporters. We see the Israeli, I don't call it even Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I call it Israeli-Hamas conflict because of what Hamas did in 2023 on October 7th. I see all of that stuff, but I also see a whole bunch of protesters in the streets of America. And we see the Jewish community highlighting, you know, highlighting the issue of antisemitism proliferation in this country. And it seems to be getting more and more chaotic by the week. Any concern about that at all when we're thinking about the kind of issues that we're discussing?

• 2:02:59Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me ask you this. Right now, with Trump having the victories that he's having, what are your deceptive ways to disrupt him with the momentum that he has? Because if you're part of the Democratic Party, you know what your record is right now?

• 2:03:15Speaker 05

  Old for something.

• 2:03:17Patrick Bet-David?

  What are the worst NBA records of all time? Was it the Pistons? Who was it? There's a couple of teams that had these terrible 13 and, you know,

• 2:03:26Adam Sosnick?

  Pistons two years ago.

• 2:03:27Patrick Bet-David?

  69 type of record, right?

• 2:03:28Adam Sosnick?

  Kate cutting ends.

• 2:03:29Speaker 05

  This is brutal. This is brutal. Twenty-eight straight games a couple of years ago.

• 2:03:32Patrick Bet-David?

  That's right, oh, there you go. Charlotte, holy shit. Okay, Phil, that's a 76er.

• 2:03:36Speaker 05

  Damn. That was 2012. Damn. Lockout, you know, not lockout, but, uh, yeah.

• 2:03:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Look at 16, 10 and 72 Philadelphia. Let's just say that's the one to go with, right? 10 and 72, holy shit. That's the Democratic Party right now. They're getting their asses handed to them. So guess what you need to do? I remember one time I walked in with one of the NBA owners. You know who he is? And, you know, and I said, so how are you guys gonna beat the Golden State Warriors? He winks. He says, "All we need is an ankle injury." And by the way, this is a pretty well-known owner. Like, what a dark motherfucking...

• 2:04:10Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:04:11Patrick Bet-David?

  That's all we need, man. This is how this works. I said, "You freaking kidding me?" He says, "All you need is an ankle injury."

• 2:04:16Speaker 05

  Any chance?

• 2:04:16Patrick Bet-David?

  And we'll get past them, okay? So guess what they need right now? They need an ankle injury. What's an ankle injury? If Russia, these guys go at it, shit hits the fan.

• 2:04:27Speaker 05

  He said he was gonna say... He said he's gonna stop the war and he hasn't.

• 2:04:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Exactly. Who looks bad?

• 2:04:32Speaker 05

  If the Israeli Hamas conflict continues to be ongoing. Who said that he was gonna fix it?

• 2:04:36Patrick Bet-David?

  Who looks bad? That's the point. So if I'm the Democratic Party and I can't win here with policies, I have to show that this guy has nothing under control. I can't go into 2016 model with, you know, the 2020, the protesting, Black Lives Matter, all this stuff. We've already played that card. That's not gonna work. I can't go through the insurrection. I can't do the COVID. Hey, man, let's start a war and talk about this is the president that said he was a president of peace.

• 2:05:02Speaker 05

  Bingo.

• 2:05:03Patrick Bet-David?

  He's the president of war.

• 2:05:04Speaker 05

  That's it.

• 2:05:04Patrick Bet-David?

  You know how Democrats would run with that like this? Game over.

• 2:05:08Speaker 05

  That's...

• 2:05:08Patrick Bet-David?

  How does he rebuttal that?

• 2:05:09Speaker 05

  That's not gonna affect him.

• 2:05:11Patrick Bet-David?

  You don't think it will?

• 2:05:12Adam Sosnick?

  For the midterms, leaning up?

• 2:05:13Speaker 05

  Let me explain why.

• 2:05:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:15Speaker 05

  Because ultimately, you have to deal with what you're doing in this country. If you're a Democrat. When you're making the argument against him, yes, we don't like what we're seeing going on with Israel and Hamas. No, we don't like what we see going on with Ukraine and Russia.

• 2:05:34Speaker 05

  What's going on here?

• 2:05:35Adam Sosnick?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:05:36Speaker 05

  And what role did you play in what's going on here? Because he's going to have a rebuttal to that argument. Now it gets a bit dicey. That's why the midterms are so pivotal. See, if the Democrats win seats in the House and the Senate in 2026, and they gain some power, now they have the power to disrupt and get in his way, as opposed to just whistling into the wind. And then all of a sudden, the AOCs, the Bernie Sanders, the Jasmine Crockett's and others, now it becomes a bit more formidable. Blumenthal as well and others, it gets a bit more formidable because he's going to need stuff passed in order to get things done. You can't rely on just executive orders. You actually have to govern, and you gotta go across the aisle. And that's gonna be a challenge.

• 2:06:21Speaker 05

  So, anything that he's doing right now, he has to make sure he's doing it to ensure that he's going to win, he's gonna help his party win the midterms. If he doesn't pull that off, then it's gonna get real interesting.

• 2:06:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Stephen A., if War Tate breaks out, they're gonna say it's all on him, and they'll play.

• 2:06:39Speaker 05

  I'm not saying they're not gonna say that. I'm asking you, is it gonna work?

• 2:06:41Adam Sosnick?

  Oh, yeah, 100%.

• 2:06:42Speaker 05

  Is it gonna work? Is it going to lose him votes?

• 2:06:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Did COVID work?

• 2:06:47Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 2:06:48Patrick Bet-David?

  Did COVID work?

• 2:06:49Speaker 05

  Of course it was different, because COVID directly impacted us.

• 2:06:52Patrick Bet-David?

  The protest.

• 2:06:52Speaker 05

  We were the ones that couldn't come outside. We were the ones that were stuck in the house, couldn't go to work.

• 2:06:55Patrick Bet-David?

  You know what I heard a lot of good Republican friends of mine that voted for him kept saying?

• 2:06:59Speaker 05

  What?

• 2:06:59Patrick Bet-David?

  With the protest thing happening? They kept saying this. Pat, I'm not gonna lie to you, bro. You know I voted for him. I like him. I'm just, I can't vote for him, because I can't have the protesting going on. It's not safe for me right now. It's coming into our city.

• 2:07:11Speaker 05

  But again, because it was coming into American cities.

• 2:07:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Sure, sure.

• 2:07:15Speaker 05

  So, when you talk about Israeli Hamas conflict, where you have pro-Palestinian protesters, not just on universities, but protesting throughout the streets of America, then it could be problematic. If that doesn't happen.

• 2:07:28Adam Sosnick?

  But there's a deeper reason for that. Do you notice that there's this weird, strange marriage between progressive, woke leftists and jihadists and Islamists? Isn't that weird? You never get weirded out by gays for Gaza? Or queers for Palestine?

• 2:07:43Speaker 05

  Confess, I didn't pay any attention to that.

• 2:07:45Adam Sosnick?

  Okay, that's a symptom of a much larger problem. Because good luck being gay in Gaza. It ain't gonna work out too well for you. I don't think you can actually legally be gay in most countries in the Middle East. So why is that? What is that strange marriage? Well, maybe it's not just haphazardly. Maybe there's a bigger, bigger reason behind the scenes. You talk about people pulling the strings, public's pulling the strings. There's a clear, clear plan to tear down the West. And who is the leader of the West? Who's the best from east to west? With the biggest thing on their chest? It's the USA, baby. So when the USSR dissolved, you think they just said, alright, we're gonna stop doing communism? Nope.

• 2:08:29Adam Sosnick?

  They align themselves with jihadists and Islamists. So there's this weird thing going on with Iran, Russia, and China. And they're all in a room, and they're sitting there like, "Yes, we're going to bring down the United States, bring down the West." And then the Chinese are like, "Oh yeah, we're gonna do it." And then we're like, "How are we gonna do it?" Well, let's globalize the Intifada. You ever heard this word before? What do you think that means? Let's bring chaos to the West. Look who is burning the American flag? That's the problem. Start there. Everyone wants to look, "Oh, this is what's going on." Look at what's burning the flag. Who's chanting "Death to America"? Who is bringing fentanyl to America? Who is literally chanting "Globalize the Intifada"?

• 2:09:14Adam Sosnick?

  That's what's bringing down the West.

• 2:09:15Speaker 05

  Here's my challenge.

• 2:09:16Adam Sosnick?

  Yes.

• 2:09:17Speaker 05

  And I'm only saying this because I'm open to being educated. I don't know. It's not an issue that I really talk about because I see how passionate folks are along religious grounds. You know, it's our land. We are, you know, the descendants of this place. We belong here, you know? 1967, 1948, you know, they throw out these years, what happens? The Gaza Strip, we get that. There's a lot of things that get talked about, and it's dangerous conversation. Because you can utter the wrong word, and everybody's ready to tear you down. Here's where people that I know come from, that don't study the issues the way you guys do. And the way I'm attempting to.

• 2:10:03Speaker 05

  They look at Israel and they say, "You're damn right there's antisemitism. It's not right. It shouldn't be happening. Um, you attacked their, their, their country on October 7th, 2023. You kidnapped over a thousand people. You kill folks, etc., etc. How dare you?" And you see folks complaining about antisemitism, justifiably so, in the eyes of a lot of people. Then you hear pro-Palestinian folks. They say, "You don't see that, Stephen A., you don't see this is genocide." Benjamin Netanyahu used to say he didn't want this all along, Stephen A. "What are you doing? When are you gonna talk about this?"

• 2:10:44Speaker 05

  I've had people approach me and ask me to talk about it and challenge me to talk about it. And I'm like, "I don't know enough and I'm not doing that." But the point is, they say stuff like this. "Look at what's happening in Gaza. Look at what's happening just the other day." Was it today, this morning, or whatever? Bombs were being dropped, or whatever. USAID was talking about lives were lost, etc. They're saying all of these things. You look at the rubble and you're saying, "That's unlivable." You go back to the press conference that Trump gave where he's talking about how, "Let's have a big, beautiful resort here. Let's be, it's not livable there." And, and why was I appalled by what he said? Issue's too sensitive to be bringing up a resort. Of course, a nice resort would be, it would be great.

• 2:11:27Speaker 05

  Of course, if it was prosperous, uh, uh, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of people that could benefit from that. But you have folks from both sides coming at you. One is saying, "We're the Jewish community and we're experiencing antisemitism. We didn't instigate this, etc., etc." And then the other side is saying, "Why are we starting at October 7th?" There were decades and decades of turmoil that exist where people were being displaced, where homes were being destroyed, where women and children were, were, were, were losing their lives, etc. What about all of that? I'm telling you, as somebody who's neither Jewish, clearly is not from Israel, nor Palestine, you know, nor a member of the Palestinian community,

• 2:12:09Speaker 05

  to listen to those things, you, you, you're desperate for some finite facts that no one can dispute and somebody educating the rest of the world. What is really the issue here? And who's really on the side of right or wrong? Because if we're being honest, there's a lot of people out there that just don't know.

• 2:12:30Patrick Bet-David?

  I think that's a good assessment on where, you know, people are and where people are not. But at the end of the day, what ends up happening with time is time reveals a lot of things to see who was right on what position. Let's go do a couple of the stories before we wrap up. Stephen A, this one story here is with Diddy. Video comes out where the president's being interviewed and he says, you know what, you know, Diddy said some good things about me back in the days, you know, I would definitely consider pardoning him. And Rob, I don't know if you have the clip or not, if you want to play the clip. There's a clip of him, uh, he's literally being Esteban, right there, if you can play this clip. Diddy was a good friend of yours back then. He has since found himself in some very serious legal trouble.

• 2:13:10Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's true. Would you ever consider pardoning him?

• 2:13:14Speaker 04

  I, well, nobody's asked, you had to be the one to ask, Peter, but nobody's asked. But I know people are thinking about it. I know they're thinking about it. I think some people have been very close to asking. First of all, I'd, I'd look at what's happening and I haven't been watching it too closely, although it's certainly getting a lot of coverage. I haven't seen him, I haven't spoken to him in years.

• 2:13:37Speaker 04

  He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics, he sort of that relationship busted up from what I read. I don't know, he didn't tell me that, but I'd read some little bit nasty statements in the paper all of a sudden, you know? It's different, you become a much different person when you run for politics and you do what's right. I could do other things and I'm sure he'd like me and I'm sure other people would like me, but it wouldn't be as good for our country. As we said, our country's doing really well.

• 2:14:04Patrick Bet-David?

  Pause right there, Rob. 50 Cent's response. And he says, vowed to dissuade President Trump from pardoning, uh, Diddy, if convicted in his federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial, stating on Instagram, I'm gonna reach out, so he knows how I feel about this guy. And said some real bad things about Trump and he would consider pardoning, uh, he would consider, he would consider pardoning anyone who was being mistreated, not Puff Daddy. And President Trump would ask you, obviously you'd give the answer. What are your thoughts with this? With Diddy case, you know, with pardoning, with all the stories that we hear about?

• 2:14:36Speaker 05

  I don't want to hear about pardons from Trump based on who he likes or who was complimentary to him. You're the commanding chief. If you believe there's a viable case to pardon somebody, make your call. If you believe there's not, make your call. But it shouldn't be predicated on, "He was very nice to me." He's always very good to me, and I mean, that... He said very nice things. He's very nice things. He said the greatest things about me. Just like, you know, I remember when he was at the NABJ National Association of Black Journalists Conference, and Rachel Scott, who's an outstanding young reporter for ABC, she was up there hosting the event, and she went right into it asking him a question.

• 2:15:17Speaker 05

  And his exact words were, "That might be one of the nastiest questions." You didn't even say, "Hello, how are you?" And I just cracked up laughing, you know what I'm saying? Because you didn't say hello. So, when he came on News Nation, I said, "Hello, Mr. President." Hello, Mr. President. Because you got respect. Well, not just that, but I'm just saying, I understand what he's saying. That's how you treat people. That's how you treat people, but I'm just like, damn. That's how you, that's what you focused on, was my point. I say all of that to say, so much about him. Elijah Cummings, God rest his soul, former representative out of Maryland, where he, Trump, you know, he passes away. You can't even say my condolences, he was never nice to me. What? You know, like, come on, man. I mean, that's the kind of stuff about him that drives me crazy. Because it's petty.

• 2:16:02Speaker 05

  And this ain't something to be petty about. I want to remind everyone, listen. If Diddy's innocent of sex trafficking and racketeering, those are federal charges, very, very serious, okay? If you found innocent, God bless you, live the rest of your life. We saw that video with you beating your girl. Mm-hmm. Ain't no coming back from that. Nope. We heard testimony that your own defense didn't deny, where not only were sexual acts taking place, were sex workers, as well as yourself...

• 2:16:39Speaker 05

  Urinating in her mouth? You're not coming back from that. You might have people that may be committed to convicting him just because they said, "I don't give a damn what the charges is, his ass gotta go to jail." It's possible with a jury. They can tell you, "Yeah, we think you proved your case." They might not think that. But because your behavior, your acts were so egregious, they said, "Hell with this." I remember years ago, guys,

• 2:17:11Speaker 05

  when I saw a video of R. Kelly. And R. Kelly was having sex with a clearly an underage girl.

• 2:17:22Speaker 05

  The first words out of my mouth is, "There's gonna be a prosecutor in his ass within the week."

• 2:17:31Speaker 05

  And I second, third words out of my mouth was, "I bet you it's a black one." Because that was a young black girl.

• 2:17:38Speaker 05

  And my third thing I said is, "Why?" Because that man probably got a daughter.

• 2:17:43Speaker 05

  You got a daughter and you see, just think about all of us, who we are as men. You know, you brought up my mother, my upbringing, all this, all of us as men. Just think for a second, black, white, it's men, don't matter. You have a daughter and you see somebody else's daughter in a video being treated like that. What you want to do? One of the things that I get upset about when the issue of domestic violence come on, I get really, really upset when people act like most men would turn a blind eye and a deaf end, okay that.

• 2:18:19Adam Sosnick?

  No.

• 2:18:20Speaker 05

  Most men would be ready to kick a dude's ass.

• 2:18:23Adam Sosnick?

  100%.

• 2:18:24Speaker 05

  If you saw a dude, you could be walking down the street and if you saw a dude beating a woman's behind. You probably put yourself in danger to stop him. Because you know there's certain things you just don't do. And what I'm saying is, if you're a juror on the Diddy case, and you've heard the testimony, and you've seen it, you gotta wait for the defense to make their case in fairness to him. And if he's innocent, he's innocent, you level. But the video that he has acknowledged he was in a very bad place, he was effed up and blah, blah, blah. And the testimony that piggybacked off that video from her on the stand, you ain't getting passed. And I think that in jail or not,

• 2:19:09Speaker 05

  he has, he's stained forever. And I personally have a hard time believing he's going to get off. Because I believe that the jury is going to look at him and say, we don't give a damn about the sex trafficking and racketeering, the specificity of the charge. What we've heard and what we've seen, you deserve to be in jail. Knowing all of those things, I'm just saying, if you're gonna make a decision to pardon him if you're Trump, it needs to be because you think that the case wasn't strong enough. It don't need to be, he was very nice to me. He was, he used to be very nice.

• 2:19:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Funny, these are two clips of Diddy and what he said about Trump. Here's what Diddy said about Trump.

• 2:19:50Speaker 04

  This man is elected.

• 2:19:54Speaker 04

  We're not standing by no more getting killed. We not scared of anybody standing up and standing by. We're on the verge of a race war.

• 2:20:06Speaker 00

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• 2:21:10Patrick Bet-David?

  This is when he endorsed Biden.

• 2:21:11Adam Sosnick?

  White men like Trump need to be banished.

• 2:21:14Patrick Bet-David?

  What year was this?

• 2:21:16Adam Sosnick?

  That way of thinking. It's real dangerous.

• 2:21:19Patrick Bet-David?

  White men like Trump need to be banished.

• 2:21:21Adam Sosnick?

  We don't have no choice. You know what I'm saying? You can say what you want about Biden. I can't say I love the pick either, but hey, we gotta get him in office and then we gotta hold him accountable.

• 2:21:33Patrick Bet-David?

  All right. And here's the other one. What's this?

• 2:21:35Adam Sosnick?

  We're in a war, number one. Trump gotta go. And then what? Anything that's, you know,

• 2:21:45Adam Sosnick?

  that is about oppressing us and keeping us down, nah, I wanna, I wanna break his, I wanna break his neck. I wanna run it out of town.

• 2:21:54Patrick Bet-David?

  Have you ever interacted with him?

• 2:21:56Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:21:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Did he?

• 2:21:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, I've seen him a couple of events.

• 2:21:59Patrick Bet-David?

  How was he with you?

• 2:22:00Speaker 05

  Oh, he was always cool with me because he wanted to be an owner, an NBA owner. He was trying to become an NBA owner for the Charlotte, uh,

• 2:22:06Patrick Bet-David?

  Bobcats?

• 2:22:07Speaker 05

  For the Charlotte Hornets.

• 2:22:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Hornets.

• 2:22:08Speaker 05

  You know, once Bob Johnson gave it up and then Michael Jordan was obviously talking about giving it up. I mean, he, he definitely wanted in.

• 2:22:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Interesting.

• 2:22:16Speaker 05

  On that, uh, the NBA had its reservations. Um, I don't know why, but obviously one would deduce maybe somebody knew something that we would ultimately end up finding out. And I don't know the answer to that question. What I would tell you is this, you know, listen. As a black man, I'mma tell you right now, and I don't know if anybody admits this, but let's talk about Trump for a second and what makes us uncomfortable. Policy-wise, we've complained about a multitude of folks in office. We complain about the Republicans, in fairness to y'all, and then a Democrat gets in the office, and then we find out we had a whole bunch of complaints. Except, we complained about the Republicans before they get to the office. We wait until the Democrats leave office to complain. You know what I'm saying?

• 2:22:59Speaker 05

  It's a double standard that needs to be fixed, no doubt about it. But what I've often tried to say to people, the Trump that I communicated with, I never viewed, never thought of as racist. What I think about him is opportunistic. He is the kind of individual that if you told him, "You can get everything you want if you appeal to these Democrats, but the Republicans will turn against you," he don't give a damn if the Democrats are what he needs to get what he wants. He's narcissistic like that. He's about getting what he wants, what he believes is in the best interest, whether it's of himself, his country, or anything like that. That's how we, who have experienced with him in the past, that's how we know him to be.

• 2:23:43Speaker 05

  The uncomfortable part about that is, you don't get to look at that and then bring up racism because you don't like what he's doing. When you know he's opportunistic, if you said, if Trump, let's just say for example, black folks was going to determine the outcome of the tariff war, and he had to lower in the piece to a bunch of black people and alienate Hispanics and Asians, or alienate the Jewish community or whatever, and that was gonna get him what he wants, that's what he would do. That's the Trump I knew. That's the Trump a lot of people knew. And so, we may not like it, there's a lot that I don't like about it, but I think it's real easy to just lean on that. And I think it's a mistake.

• 2:24:27Speaker 05

  Let me tell you something, I'm an ambassador for HBCU Week. I do everything that I can to contribute to historically black colleges and universities. There may be a point in time, I got to go and try to communicate with this man. How the hell am I gonna do that? "Oh, man, he's a racist bastard, he's a Nazi, he's this, he's that." But let me have my hand out for your help with the HBCUs. We gotta think. We gotta be smarter than that. And we gotta be bigger than that and understand in politics and in business and stuff like that. We're not gonna always hear whatever we wanna hear. We're not gonna always get everything that we want. But the prize, the objective, has to be bigger than us as individuals. We don't do a good enough job of understanding.

• 2:25:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Stephen A., do you fear, you know, when...

• 2:25:13Patrick Bet-David?

  I've watched you 20 years.

• 2:25:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:25:15Patrick Bet-David?

  And I've seen when the black community comes after you.

• 2:25:20Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:25:20Patrick Bet-David?

  And, and it gets uncomfortable for you. You're very comfortable in every single situation I've seen you in, except when the black community comes after you.

• 2:25:29Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:25:29Patrick Bet-David?

  And, you know, part of it is I'm Armenian, I'm a Syrian, so I understand heritage.

• 2:25:33Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 2:25:33Patrick Bet-David?

  And this is who I am, this is my identity, I totally get it.

• 2:25:35Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:25:36Patrick Bet-David?

  Is there, is there a level of responsibility or fear where you feel like, hey? And when it comes down to color and it comes down to this, it's color before America, it's color before good policies. Do you see it that way?

• 2:25:51Speaker 05

  No.

• 2:25:52Patrick Bet-David?

  Or no?

• 2:25:52Speaker 05

  No, I don't have... Fear is not the word. I'm not scared. What I would tell you is that when my own community has come after me in the past, it's hurt. There's genuine pain.

• 2:26:07Speaker 05

  Because I know how much I love my black people. I know what we've endured. I know what personal sacrifices I've made in my career just to help my community. And when that is ignored, when that is glossed over, when there's this pretension that it didn't happen, it hurts. Because it's like, wait a minute, I could've shut my mouth. Kept quiet, collected the dollars, and been on my damn way. But I put a lot on the line by willing to put myself front and center to fight for these issues because I know I never fight against my folks.

• 2:26:52Speaker 05

  When I'm sitting up there and I'm calling, I'm calling out folks within my community. I never call out because I don't speak for the whole community or whatever. But when I call out individuals with the mistakes that they make who emanate from my community, I'm not calling them out to condemn them. I'm calling them out to say, "Stop before you condemn yourself to a point that you can't return from." Because I want us to prosper. I want us to succeed. I don't want it to be at the expense of anybody else. I'm not anti-anybody. But am I pro-black? Yes, and proudly so. I root for us. I want us to succeed. I want us to prosper. I don't want white folks to go broke. I don't want Vinnie to do worse than me. I just don't want to do worse than him.

• 2:27:35Speaker 05

  I don't want to do worse than Adam. I don't want to do worse than Bro. I don't want to do worse than Tom. I want to live just as well as y'all. You sit up there in a private jet, damn it, I want to be in a private jet. You got a Lamborghini, damn it, I want one. I want to be able to get one. I might not want that specific ride, but I want, I want everything anybody else would want. And so, when I'm looking at us as a folk, as a people, I'm saying, "I'm giving you a heads up. I'm hip to the game." I've been in corporate America for 30 years. I got a clue. I got an idea of how things are done, why they're done, the thought process behind it. If I'm around Adam and Pat and Vinnie and Tom and there's an education that I'm receiving, I'm the type of guy that leaves from here and goes out into my community to say, "You see the game they tipped us to?"

• 2:28:19Speaker 05

  Now, you gonna pay attention or you gonna ignore it? Because guess what? Y'all ain't stupid. Y'all happen to have love for me, so you'll give, you'll make me hip to something I didn't know. You're educating and edifying me in hopes that I will go out there and spread the wealth so we got more people that are being like-minded, smart-minded, intellectual, thoughtful, calculating, in how they go about doing things. So, we can all benefit. But if I don't do that, and I'm all about me, like some of, like some people are, who will remain nameless in our industry to no good bastards that they are, okay, that's them. I'm not that guy. And so, when I'm about that, and I can point to what it has cost me in my career endorsement dollars.

• 2:29:03Speaker 05

  Contracts, all of this stuff, job opportunities, all because I was outspoken, I was in your face, I was defiant, I had courage, I wasn't scared because I was thinking about more than just myself. And then my own community turns against me and you associates me with names like sellout, Uncle Tom, hell yeah, that shit hurt. It hurt for a long time. It's just that I recognized along the way that nobody was saying this about me when I was failing. Nobody was saying this about me when I didn't have shit. They said it about me after I had ascended and while I was continuing to ascend.

• 2:29:46Speaker 05

  And sometimes that's the game, that's how it goes. And you gotta have the tough enough skin to take it, and I do.

• 2:29:51Patrick Bet-David?

  And, and look, I mean, I, you know, Terrell Owens, Max, that whole exchange, you know, I can't go back. Oh, one, you did 18 years ago, 17 years ago, like, hey, pull up your pants, do this, do that, you know, we got, maybe we gotta vote Republican, maybe we gotta, I don't know, I don't know what, it was a small group, seven, like 20 people sitting in front of you, and this other African American man was asking you.

• 2:30:10Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:30:11Patrick Bet-David?

  It's like, hey, sometimes you say stuff and, no, I've been watching it for, for minutes, and I think, I think the biggest part is sometimes, I'm Armenian and I'm Assyrian. There'll be comments that'll be made and say, oh, he doesn't support the Armenian thing. He doesn't support the Assyrian thing. I'm like, yeah, it no longer does anything to me. I don't feel I have to make the case to win you over every time.

• 2:30:36Speaker 05

  Right.

• 2:30:37Patrick Bet-David?

  Because then that's a form of ownership you have on me and I'm walking on eggshells. There's an Armenian, probably the most Armenian, not probably, he is the most Armenian successful man ever in business. He was the MGM guy. Who was the MGM guy? Kurgurian?

• 2:30:50Adam Sosnick?

  Kirk Kurgurian.

• 2:30:51Patrick Bet-David?

  At his peak, the guy was worth $10 billion. At 99 years old, he was still doing deals. This is who he was. What age did he die, Rob? Can you look up what age he died? 98. 98 years old he dies, right? This guy was doing deals to the very end. You know how much money he gave to Armenia? So much money. Eventually it's like, one thing I learned, no matter how much I give, you can never win them over. No matter how much I give, you can never win them over. I think that is a... Challenging thing to overcome, you do your best, you go about it. But if you constantly try to appease and conform.

• 2:31:25Speaker 05

  I'm not doing it.

• 2:31:26Patrick Bet-David?

  No, I know you're not, I know you're not. What I'm saying is if you do, and I'm talking if general, not you, if general to everybody.

• 2:31:31Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 2:31:32Patrick Bet-David?

  If you try to do that, you know, that guilt, that guilt, constant guilt, you know, guilt. Guilt is such a, can you pull a power versus force, Rob, uh, power versus for, you ever, you ever read this book?

• 2:31:44Speaker 05

  I have not.

• 2:31:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Power versus force chart, type in chart, look what level guilt is. It says that the, the level to go at. If you look at the third row, go right in the middle where it says yellow courage. That's the first row where when you get to courage, your level of consciousness increases. Below it's pride, I'm so important, anger, desire, fear, grief, apathy. Guilt is the second lowest. And sometimes certain communities, they try to use that. And it produces the worst feeling, blame, destruction, evil, vindictive.

• 2:32:24Speaker 05

  Look at what's in there at the top, enlightened.

• 2:32:26Patrick Bet-David?

  That's right.

• 2:32:26Speaker 05

  And why is that so important? Because let me tell you something. So we're sitting here today, right? And all of us come from different backgrounds. I cannot tell you how much better my world got. When I want away from this onus. I do feel this onus, not to agree with my community. But to make sure that my community's voice is heard in terms of whatever their collective perspective is. So people will know. But I feel no obligation to agree with it. If I don't agree with it, I don't agree with it. Why? Because I have the faith in myself that I'm around the right people. Who give me a potpourri of thoughts, Adam is nothing like you. You understand what I'm saying?

• 2:33:10Speaker 05

  Vinnie and Adam might not be alike, Tom and Vinnie might not be alike. All of y'all bring something. So me being around y'all. edifies me. I don't think like Sean Hannity. But hearing him think, I have a clue as to who people like him think and why they think the way that they think. Along with others, it could be a Cuomo, it could be a Bill O'Reilly, it could be a Mark Levin, it could be my boss Jimmy Pataro, or Dave Roberts, or anybody else. Learning from other people. I walk around edified because whatever decision I make, I know I was reasonable enough to listen and inhale and take all thoughts into consideration before I draw my conclusions. So even when you don't agree with me, you're not necessarily offended by it.

• 2:33:54Speaker 05

  And if you are offended, it's usually for a reason other than what it should be.

• 2:33:59Patrick Bet-David?

  It's you, not you.

• 2:34:00Speaker 05

  Which makes it your problem.

• 2:34:01Patrick Bet-David?

  That's right.

• 2:34:01Speaker 05

  Not mine.

• 2:34:02Patrick Bet-David?

  There you go.

• 2:34:02Speaker 05

  And that's how it goes.

• 2:34:03Patrick Bet-David?

  And I think that's where we're gonna finish it on. Gang, um, I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as we did. And, uh, today's what? Today's Wednesday.

• 2:34:12Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 2:34:12Patrick Bet-David?

  And they will get another episode tomorrow. Home Team will be doing it as well. But Stephen A., my man, much love, brother.

• 2:34:17Speaker 05

  Same to you, my man.

• 2:34:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Great having you on again.

• 2:34:19Speaker 05

  Take care, everybody.

• 2:34:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Ben A.

• 2:34:20Speaker 05

  I do give a shit about what you give a shit about sometimes. Talk to see, buddy.

• 2:34:29Speaker 01

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• 2:35:00Speaker 02

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