What a Weekday: If You're In Line To Be President, Stay In Line

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Speaker 3 Oh, I do recommend seeing stuff at the WJA theater, though.

Speaker 4 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 It's so relaxing because everyone knows how to behave during a movie.

Speaker 6 That's great.

Speaker 7 They got big chairs. What have they got there?

Speaker 8 Regularly?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's like nice. It's

Speaker 9 plush.

Speaker 10 It's not like the reclining ones.

Speaker 3 They're just like nice velvet seats.

Speaker 11 I simply only, I'm like. You must recline? I must recline.
Like, if I'm going to the movies, I want to, I want to press.

Speaker 3 I kind of like to recline in public.

Speaker 2 I like recline.

Speaker 4 That's for home. They have heating.

Speaker 3 Reclining is for home.

Speaker 11 Reclining is for you. Not to be done in public.

Speaker 3 Unless you're at the dentist.

Speaker 4 What if you were

Speaker 12 at the dentist in public?

Speaker 3 Well, that's the only way to get the dentist.

Speaker 13 Do you leave your seat all the way up on the airplane?

Speaker 14 Yeah. I also don't rely on it.

Speaker 4 It's so rude. Does the person behind you?

Speaker 9 No, no, no, no. If you're in economy, how dare you?

Speaker 15 I'm afraid I would crush my computer.

Speaker 3 Every time I would lean back, my computer, how dare I?

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 10 I'll sit bolt upright.

Speaker 7 I'll sit on front right now in solidarity.

Speaker 11 I don't like thinking about all the people back there.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that tracks.

Speaker 16 Yeah, yeah, that'll add up.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 11 Welcome to What a Week Day. I'm John Lovitt, joined as always by Kendra James, Hallie Kiefer, and Sarah Lazarus.
However, this is the final episode of What a Week Day, at least for the time being.

Speaker 11 But not to worry, dear listeners, Crooked has already greenlit our prequel, Young What a Week Day.

Speaker 11 It's mostly about the family surrounding What a Weekday.

Speaker 3 It's just all of us as babies.

Speaker 11 It's all of us as babies.

Speaker 2 I'm Marsai Martin.

Speaker 11 Let's get into it.

Speaker 11 One last time in 2024. What a weekday.
weekday.

Speaker 11 As the saying goes, America only has one president, president at a time. And get this: that president is already Donald Trump.

Speaker 11 On Monday, Trump held his first post-election press conference, joined by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi-san to announce that SoftBank will invest $100 billion

Speaker 11 in the United States. This was a strange event for three reasons: A, Donald Trump is not currently the president.
B, SoftBank doesn't have $100 billion.

Speaker 11 And C, we had moments like this: $200.

Speaker 17 He'll make it.

Speaker 18 200 billion investment.

Speaker 18 He is a great negotiator.

Speaker 11 So

Speaker 11 basically, this guy gets up there and says, Donald Trump is great, and I'm doing this because of Donald Trump. And then Trump's like, make it 200 billion.

Speaker 11 And then kind of does his sort of alpha male arm grip thing where he demonstrates dominance over this guy whose height Trump definitely enjoys because the South Bank CEO is a short king, as it were.

Speaker 11 I will just point out so we don't forget what it was like to live in a nation of laws and not of men, that traditionally the private sector figures would praise the country

Speaker 11 and not the president, that no, a major company isn't being harangued into making an investment, but sees the value in betting on the country itself, which meant betting on the people.

Speaker 11 That traditionally, when you're even doing events like this, which are always a little bit uncomfortable, right? Because it's the private sector and the public sector,

Speaker 11 they would make make it about the American economy and the ingenuity and skill of the American people.

Speaker 11 But no, this is an event where Donald Trump is calling it so that this guy can go and praise Donald Trump, who basically, this guy explicitly says, because Trump won, America is going to do better.

Speaker 11 And I'm going to invest because of Donald Trump. And sure, that's a...
quaint and old-fashioned critique now, but there's an old saying by William F.

Speaker 11 Buckley, and it goes, a conservative is someone who stands athwart history yelling stop at a time when no one is inclined to do so or to have much patience with those who so urge it. And

Speaker 11 on stuff like this, I think that's just going to have to be us for a while. And it's not going to be good politics all the time.
And it may not be practical and it may not be what we run on.

Speaker 11 It may be tiresome.

Speaker 11 But on several fronts, there's just going to be us. Because this shit is terrible and embarrassing and un-American.
And it turns out not a lot of people care about that.

Speaker 11 And it's very dispiriting, but it doesn't make it less true. And uh

Speaker 9 that's it he just pulling that guy like a basketball like he just grabbed it like a baby i know i know it's gross also soft bank is a bad name for a bank

Speaker 11 yeah i want my i want my bank yeah i like my banks rock hard like i like my math tests and my dudes

Speaker 4 boo boo

Speaker 11 what a year it's been the president-elect told reporters that he would consider pardoning new york city mayor eric adams if he's convicted on federal corruption charges.

Speaker 18 Yeah, I would.

Speaker 18 I think that he was treated pretty unfairly. Now, I haven't seen the gravity of it all, but it seems, you know, like being upgraded in an airplane many years ago.

Speaker 18 I know probably everybody here has been upgraded. They see you're all stars.

Speaker 11 Yeah, yeah, but in my case, it was because I have a lot of delta miles, not because I've done favors for the Turkish government, but for a flight over six hours, I would do favors for the Turkish government.

Speaker 4 Talk about reclining, go all the way back.

Speaker 11 Go all the way back.

Speaker 5 360. Yeah.
I wonder what I could do for the Turkish government.

Speaker 3 What could I do that would be useful to them?

Speaker 10 Right some hilarious woodliners.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 11 It's all Greek to me.

Speaker 11 Not Constantinople.

Speaker 3 Hey, there's more where that came from, Turkey.

Speaker 6 Yeah. Let's get in touch.
Huh?

Speaker 11 I'll tell you,

Speaker 11 this Eurocentrism, it's for the birds.

Speaker 11 Turkey.

Speaker 2 What are we talking about?

Speaker 11 Trump said this about Tim Cook and other CEOs traveling to meet with him.

Speaker 18 The first term, everybody was fighting me. And this term, everybody wants to be my friend.
I don't know. My personality changed or something.

Speaker 11 People always say that when they know perfectly well, it's just because they got incredibly hot.

Speaker 12 He honestly looks okay.

Speaker 15 Like, I don't know what it's filler or whatever.

Speaker 7 I'm like, he did get something done.

Speaker 13 I feel like you, you often say this.

Speaker 16 Well, he just looks so different from week to week.

Speaker 7 It's, it's like almost like I see it. Like, I guess it's a good week on.

Speaker 3 I think lighting is a huge component.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think he's well lit.

Speaker 4 His hair is lucid, but his face looks okay.

Speaker 11 He also, he's not been traveling. Yeah, he's chilling out at Mar-a-Lago.
Also, like, a chip has fallen off his shoulder.

Speaker 24 Yeah, it just

Speaker 11 doesn't mean he's not going to be less of a menace, doesn't mean he's not going to be less extreme.

Speaker 11 Doesn't mean if there's any kind of crisis or protests, he's not going to do something evil and illegal. He's going to be a terrible president, but a chip has fallen.

Speaker 11 Like, the popular vote win, combined with the fact that the legal threat has basically come off of him, has like, Think about how tired you would look if you were facing dozens of felony indictments.

Speaker 11 And then think about how good you'd feel the next day when that all went away. Think about how good that would be for the skin.

Speaker 11 Talk about, talk about a vitamin, you know, here are the things that we know work on the skin. Vitamin C, retinol, sunscreen, moisturizer, and having 92 felony indictments dropped.

Speaker 22 That is great for the complexion.

Speaker 2 Got data behind it.

Speaker 11 Yeah, that, yeah, you could, you could take that to the bank. It's correlation, not causation.

Speaker 7 Take that to the soft bank.

Speaker 11 Hey, take that.

Speaker 11 In response to a question about the potential TikTok ban, Trump said this.

Speaker 18 We'll take a look at TikTok. You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points.

Speaker 18 And there are those that say that TikTok had something to do with that.

Speaker 11 First of all, no, Donald Trump didn't win youth by 34 points. He only won old people.
That's the group that he wins.

Speaker 11 And sure, you think you're just going to take a look at TikTok and then suddenly it's five hours later, you're smearing beef tallow on your face while wondering what's going to happen on Molly Rudder's next first date.

Speaker 13 Oh, I'm waiting for part six of Seattle a Felon right now. I'm really invested in a woman who got manipulated by

Speaker 13 one of her prisoners

Speaker 13 and is like now under indictment, but her fiancé doesn't know. It's very, it's, there's a lot going on.

Speaker 11 Well, then if it's, it's on TikTok, doesn't the fiancé find out?

Speaker 13 No, this is a, she's telling a story

Speaker 2 she's been to jail and out.

Speaker 11 Every once in a while, there'll be like one of those 30-part stories if you just dig in. You know, let's go.
Let's go on a journey. I'm in.
I'm in.

Speaker 11 Also, on Monday, Trump said of RFK Jr.

Speaker 11 that he'll be much less radical than people think and said, you're not going to lose the polio vaccine, but also cited a debunked connection between vaccines and autism, adding there's something wrong and we're going to find out about it.

Speaker 11 Trump keeps saying this about the polio vaccine as if it's reassuring, but it's not. Like, yeah, man, we didn't think that was on the table.
It's like you're about to go into knee surgery.

Speaker 11 And as the anesthesiologist brings the mask down, he says, don't worry, we won't touch your kidneys. Well, I wasn't, but what else is going on in here?

Speaker 17 Why is that reassuring?

Speaker 2 What else are you going to take?

Speaker 11 Don't worry, we won't touch the polio vaccine. Well, great, man.

Speaker 17 There's a bunch of other ones you shouldn't.

Speaker 11 No one was talking about that one. What about the other ones? Mitch McConnell had polio.

Speaker 11 Also, this weekend, Trump and J.D. Vance attended the Army-Navy game and invited recently acquitted Marine Corp vet Daniel Penny as their guest.

Speaker 11 Either you hate the male loneliness epidemic or you hate this, but you can't hate both.

Speaker 11 These are men finding community.

Speaker 11 Penny was found not guilty last week of criminally negligent homicide after he put homeless man Jordan Neely in a chokehold on the New York subway last year, explained a spokesperson for Trump and Vance.

Speaker 11 Inviting Penny to the game was just our way of saying thanks for putting a homeless man in a chokehold on the New York subway last year.

Speaker 11 The trio were also joined at the game by Trump picked to head up National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and his prospective Defense Secretary Pete Pete Hegseth and Ron DeSantis, who is allegedly in the running to replace Hegseth if Trump prescribes the nomination of the former Fox News anchor.

Speaker 11 The competition between Hegset and DeSantis to win Trump's favor has been dubbed the Smarmy Navy game.

Speaker 11 And as is our new custom, America's oligarchs are finding new ways to pay tribute to our leader.

Speaker 11 After Mark Zuckerberg's Meta donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund last week, other tech giants have rushed to do the same.

Speaker 11 Jeff Bezos's Amazon reportedly plans to donate $1 million to the fund and will stream Trump's inauguration on Prime Come Monday, January. What?

Speaker 11 January. Just leave it.

Speaker 2 Monday of the year.

Speaker 11 You got to be careful, though. All right.
Amazon also has a bunch of knockoff Trump embarguations and they will fall apart the first time you put them in a dryer. Too many vowels.

Speaker 11 All those fake brands on Amazon.

Speaker 16 It's not good.

Speaker 15 You just look up anything.

Speaker 10 It's like, well, this is just going to burst into flames when it gets here.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 11 OpenAI told NPR that CEO Sam Altman intends to make a personal $1 million donation to the fund.

Speaker 11 And not to be outdone, to settle a ridiculous lawsuit, ABC News capitulated to Trump's lawyers and will donate $15 million to Trump's presidential library and pay an additional $1 million for Trump's legal fees.

Speaker 11 The Trump Presidential Library, oops all gift shop.

Speaker 21 I like that joke.

Speaker 11 This was a lawsuit over an interview in which George Stephanopoulos asserted that Trump was found liable for rape when he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a case where the judge said that the term rate, as commonly understood, would apply, but not according to a narrow specific legal definition in New York state law.

Speaker 11 Disney, of course, has the resources to fight this kind of lawsuit, whereas many critics threatened with legal action by Trump to intimidate and silence them do not. It's a healthy reminder.

Speaker 11 Corporations will not save us from Trump. They will only make us happy.
That's what they do. They're just here to make us happy.
And boy, do they make us happy.

Speaker 19 We love them.

Speaker 21 Thank you, corporations.

Speaker 11 And Trump's duts are not idle. Disney's pathetic capitulation comes as Trump pursues costly legal fights against his various enemies.

Speaker 11 In October, Trump sued CBS News accusing 60 Minutes of editing a clip of Kamala Harris in such a way as to assist her candidacy. Meanwhile, I will be suing 60 Minutes for not doing that well enough.

Speaker 11 Said the suit to paper over Kamala's word-salad weakness.

Speaker 11 CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news.

Speaker 11 Yeah, because of 60 Minutes, nobody ever got the sense that Kamala responds to questions about politically fraught topics with a string of bromides said slowly and with great conviction.

Speaker 11 Just before the election, Trump sued the New York Times, alleging three stories on him were deceptive, malicious, intentional, defamatory, disparaging, distorted, fabricated, false, and misleading.

Speaker 11 The Times stood by its reporting. That's great writing.

Speaker 5 That sounds like a Tom Lehrer song.

Speaker 4 Yeah, beautiful.

Speaker 11 It's interesting. Yeah, it sounds like Gilbert and Sullivan.

Speaker 11 And on Monday, Trump sued the Des Moines Register for publishing that Anselzer poll that showed him down in Iowa.

Speaker 18 I'm going to be bringing one against

Speaker 18 the people in Iowa, their newspaper, which had a very, very good pollster who got me right all the time. And then just before the election, she said I was going to lose by three or four points.

Speaker 18 And it became the biggest story all over the world because I was going to win Iowa by 20 points. The farmers love me, and I love the farmers.

Speaker 11 As with the 16 Minutes lawsuit, Trump is attempting a novel legal argument, this time under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act, claiming the poll constituted consumer fraud.

Speaker 11 As a law professor told NBC News, the odds of success here are slim to none, but winning in court is not likely the real goal of the lawsuit.

Speaker 11 The true motivation is to intimidate the press and journalists. And that's disgusting.

Speaker 11 The only thing that should intimidate journalists are first dates, dancing, anything athletic, and social functions where it would be weird to bring a backpack.

Speaker 11 Fucking nerds.

Speaker 13 I just have to say, like, getting sued for getting some math wrong has unlocked a new high school fear for me.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 11 No, I think more kids should go to

Speaker 11 get sued for how bad they are at math. Maybe that would shake some sense of them.

Speaker 3 Good luck finding a new staff that isn't in jail.

Speaker 11 Trump riding high and threatening all these lawsuits, fine.

Speaker 11 It's the combination of these ridiculous, frivolous lawsuits against 60 Minutes, against Des Moines Register, combined with the fact that ABC News,

Speaker 11 one of the biggest and most like well-resourced legal departments, Disney, have capitulated to Donald Trump on this. Like, what is the Des Moines Register supposed to do?

Speaker 11 What's Olivia Troy supposed to do? These are just individuals or smaller organizations that are going to basically be

Speaker 11 potentially bankrupted by the cost of defending themselves against this. And like

Speaker 11 Disney has the, Disney, it's Disney. Famously has great lawyers, famously has a big legal department.
Remember when

Speaker 11 this was very sad, somebody died of an allergic reaction at a restaurant in Disney or Disneyland or Disney World, I don't remember. And as part of that lawsuit, they withdrew it after an outcry.

Speaker 11 But at first, they said that they had no right to sue because they had Disney Plus.

Speaker 11 Because inside of the Disney Plus trophy conditions, they had, I guess, indemnified or whatever the correct term is. They had indemnified Disney in some way.

Speaker 11 They withdrew that part of the complaint because there was such a public outcry over it. But like, these are lawyers that know how to fight.

Speaker 11 People in the world understand what's happened when you misuse Disney's copyright. They know how to defend their people.
And it used to be. And look, like,

Speaker 11 maybe there's some email somewhere where somebody told George Stephanopoulos, don't use the word rape.

Speaker 11 Maybe there's some like small beat of evidence that could kind of go to the argument Trump is making. But like

Speaker 11 every step of it, right?

Speaker 11 Did George Stephanopoulos do it maliciously? Of course not. Is what he said inaccurate? I don't actually think it is.

Speaker 11 Like, I mean, look, I think you could, there's an argument, right, that he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, not technically for rape.

Speaker 11 But the judge said that the public understanding of the term would apply. And he's not a judge.
He's describing something. He is free to describe it the way he sees it.

Speaker 11 And if he personally sees it as being found liable for rape, even though the technical New York state definition is different, that's completely defensible.

Speaker 11 And then you have to prove that it was malicious, which it wasn't. So it's maybe not even inaccurate, certainly not malicious.

Speaker 11 And then you have to prove that there was some kind of damage done to Donald Trump's reputation because of the difference between being

Speaker 11 the legal definition of rape in New York State State and the judge describing it as colloquially a sexual assault that rises to the definition of rape.

Speaker 11 None of that is something a normal newsroom wouldn't want to defend their people against.

Speaker 3 And he got elected, so where's the damage?

Speaker 22 Yeah, right.

Speaker 16 Yeah.

Speaker 13 So tell me the person who can make that separation and isn't just using the word rape.

Speaker 11 It's just, it's, and so like,

Speaker 11 it was so shocking to see that they had settled it, right? And then you think, well, why? Like, okay, maybe there's some bit of email or something somewhere, fine.

Speaker 11 or then you think well it's 15 million dollars it's a donation so they get to write a portion of that off there'd be a bunch of costs associated with fighting it publicly and so they just view it as something they can make go away but they're like

Speaker 11 they're also supposed to be defending their people they're also supposed to be having the backs of the journalists that work for them because by the way

Speaker 11 let's say it was inaccurate People are allowed to make mistakes without being destroyed by it.

Speaker 11 We want journalists to be able to do an interview without being terrified in the moment that if they make a mistake, they will be sued into oblivion and that their corporate parent will abandon them.

Speaker 11 You want, like, that's, that's why you have these lawyers. They're supposed to defend you.
And like, I remember when Ronin was working on the Weinstein stories at NBC,

Speaker 11 and

Speaker 11 there were all kinds of threats being bandied about. And I may get the details wrong because it's years ago now.
But I remember having this feeling while he was doing it that

Speaker 11 there was a missing voice at NBC to say,

Speaker 11 but that's why we're here.

Speaker 11 Yeah, no, there are threats. And yes, it's obviously deeply sensitive.
And yes, it's a big story. And yes, it will create controversy, but that's why we're here.
And it is like,

Speaker 11 there are so many places where there were

Speaker 11 that Donald Trump has exposed these weaknesses.

Speaker 11 And this is yet another example that because these important news institutions that developed their prestige and habits and standards and reputations before the modern conglomerate era, they continue to exist, but they've now been absorbed into these big companies, whether it's a Comcast or a Disney or a Viacom or whatever it may be.

Speaker 11 And

Speaker 11 it seems like there's no longer that figure in a place of power who's in it because they believe in the news who says, that's why we're here.

Speaker 11 So we're just going to keep fighting because that's, yeah, I understand that there's a business reason to settle it. Yeah, I understand it'd be better to make it go away, but that's why we're here.

Speaker 3 Parents were going to help us.

Speaker 13 I know, I was about to say, that's why he wrote on the newsroom.

Speaker 12 But also, like, this is the natural end game of capitalism.

Speaker 7 Like, it's like, yeah, these are, these are capitalists.

Speaker 12 Like, at the end of the day, Disney made a, someone made a spreadsheet of like,

Speaker 7 let's just give them $50 million because we don't want to deal with the cost. And that's just what it's going to be.

Speaker 7 Like, remember in the January 6th hearings, like, it was a bunch of individuals, Republicans, who are like, I don't think think we could do this.

Speaker 12 I can't allow this to happen.

Speaker 15 Those people are all gone, much like probably a lot of people who are in charge of these newspapers, those people are gone too.

Speaker 14 And whoever is making the decision are not the people who are like, this is a newspaper.

Speaker 15 We have to be defending these people.

Speaker 7 And unfortunately, he is the ultimate capitalist and he knows that. He knows that he could exhaust people because we're all exhausted already.

Speaker 7 So the next four years is going to be him and Cash Patel and all the rest of these guys just threatening everybody and assuming that we are all so exhausted that like even those people who still want to stand up are going to say, this one's not worth it.

Speaker 14 And we'll wait till the next one. And then the next one doesn't come because it's all not worth it, you know?

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 11 It's

Speaker 11 I like

Speaker 11 this moment of

Speaker 11 all these wealthy guys

Speaker 11 supplicating and genuflecting for Trump, disgusting, ABC News.

Speaker 11 capitulating this way, I'm sure inside of ABC people are furious. I'm sure there are great journalists there.
There is an ethic that's in the code, like the DNA of these places, and that continues.

Speaker 11 And like, I am sure people inside are absolutely furious that they have lost, that they have been allowed to be kind of

Speaker 11 maligned in this way.

Speaker 11 But I think, Hallie, you're right. It's just like,

Speaker 11 I want to think about, okay,

Speaker 11 like, how do we stop this?

Speaker 11 Like,

Speaker 11 how do we find that backbone and who's going to have it and who's going to show it? And it may not be these big corporations, but it has to come from somewhere else.

Speaker 13 Sorry. I was going to say it has to come from, with someone like the Des Moines Register, it kind of has to come from our capitalist.

Speaker 13 You have to hope that, unfortunately, that like a Mark Cuban, if a suit really shows up at their doorstep and they really need to defend themselves, you kind of have to hope that like a Mark Cuban steps up and says, here's your legal defense.

Speaker 11 Yeah, it's true. I think that's part of it.
We do need, you know, they like, I remember when it came out that it was Peter Thiel funding the lawsuit against Gawker. Yeah.

Speaker 11 And I like, at the time, I remember feeling like, wow, like it's amazing how many people are ready to dance on Gawker's grave.

Speaker 11 And Gawker was fucking terrible in a lot of ways, terrible in a lot of ways.

Speaker 11 But that was a harbinger of things to come. And they took the lesson there that they really can

Speaker 11 use the legal system to destroy outlets they don't like if they find the opening. And it's just, we have, I do think it's going to take

Speaker 11 big money to get behind protecting these institutions, investigating these institutions. And, and, but I don't think there's any way to avoid the fact that, like,

Speaker 11 already there are, I am sure right now, there are stories that journalists are saying it's not worth it. I'm not going to do it.
I'm just not, it's just not worth it.

Speaker 11 And it's December of the year before he's sworn in.

Speaker 2 Happy holidays. Happy holidays.

Speaker 25 Hey, don't go anywhere.

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Speaker 11 Of course, Donald Trump isn't the president right now. Technically, get this.
It's a man named Joe Biden. And fun fact about him, he was born on the the same day as Elvis Presley, which isn't true.

Speaker 4 I made that up, but that's how old Joe Biden seems to us.

Speaker 11 Biden's last household should have been the 1,500 people he pardoned or commuted in one day. However, people have started to comb through that list, and there are some unfortunate and strange pics.

Speaker 11 For example, Biden wrote down the lady from Anatomy of a Fall,

Speaker 11 even though she had been acquitted. Didn't even make it to the end of the movie.
He must have fallen asleep.

Speaker 11 The president commuted the sentence of former Pennsylvania judge Michael Conahan, who was convicted in 2011 of the kids for cash scheme, where he accepted kickbacks in exchange for wrongfully sentencing children to for-profit juvenile detention facilities.

Speaker 11 He took money to fill the jails with children. Some of those kids were so wrecked by the experience, they ultimately took their own lives.
It's a disgusting, cartoonishly evil scandal, like

Speaker 11 a 30 rock-style joke fucking scandal.

Speaker 11 And that sentence was commuted because President Biden commuted all the sentences of people that were released into home confinement during the pandemic at the request of certain outside groups, apparently not going through and checking them.

Speaker 11 So

Speaker 11 that's a bit of a botch, though I will say it's interesting to see people that advocate for

Speaker 11 abolition or just a general complete overhaul of the justice system, seeing a person like this judge who is an older person and is very unlikely to

Speaker 11 reoffend given that it's hard for him to become a corrupt judge again,

Speaker 11 being angry. And I feel like

Speaker 11 there's two pieces to it, one of which is, I think, is completely fair, which is like, this is somebody who exploited the very system we despise to destroy lives. That it is in stark relief

Speaker 11 a kind of cartoon, hyperbolic version of what the justice system does every day, which is destroys people and sends them to these for-profit institutions.

Speaker 11 And you're going to show this person mercy in a system in which so few people get mercy. And I totally respect that.

Speaker 11 There's another part of it, which is people being like, Yeah, I'm for prison abolition, but I want this guy to fucking pay.

Speaker 2 But these people were on home confinement, yes?

Speaker 11 This person was on home confinement, yes.

Speaker 13 Yeah, that's not like that part, I can like get behind home confinement.

Speaker 13 Yes, our parole and probation systems need to be fixed. Those two things are not the same thing.

Speaker 13 And there are definitely inequalities and injustices in those, but home confinement is a much, much better option than the for-profit and also frankly, like the federal jail and prison systems.

Speaker 11 Sure.

Speaker 17 Yeah,

Speaker 17 I wouldn't have mind this guy not in jail.

Speaker 7 He's already out of prison. Like it's like to commute a sentence of somebody who's already like at home.

Speaker 12 You know what I mean? Like, it's not even like.

Speaker 24 Yeah.

Speaker 11 And he was apparently going to be up in a couple of years anyway. And so they're like, they just sort of wiped everybody, including the people that would have been up in the next couple of years.

Speaker 20 Yeah.

Speaker 11 But I do think it was like, it's interesting just to see how negative the reaction has been because I felt the same thing. It's like, I remember that scandal.
It's what it's, it was

Speaker 11 outrageous. It was outrageous.
And

Speaker 11 I do think there's like a

Speaker 11 an understand, like a kind of,

Speaker 11 why, like,

Speaker 11 why does this guy get mercy?

Speaker 3 Can we make sure his home sucks a little bit?

Speaker 4 Can we look at his dishwasher?

Speaker 11 I mean, I like,

Speaker 11 it's also just like,

Speaker 11 will people shout at him at restaurants? I hope so. If you ever find yourself involved in any endeavor that could be potentially described as cash for kids, you shouldn't get the clemency treatment.

Speaker 11 You should get the final destination treatment.

Speaker 11 He also pardoned Rita Crundwell. Her name is Crundwell, a villain name, former Illinois controller who pleaded guilty to a $54 million embezzlement scheme.

Speaker 11 Crundwell is better known by her street alias Cornpop.

Speaker 11 Biden. Well, it does like this story too.
It had this sort of

Speaker 11 it fed in, it's feeding into the narrative of like

Speaker 11 Joe Biden is just quiet quitting because it's like, well, the group submitted all these names. Like, well, didn't anybody go through it? Did Joe Biden have any questions? Did anybody, we don't know.

Speaker 11 We're not getting insight. Like, maybe, but we're just not seeing it.
We're not getting any sense of it. You think somebody political would flag the cash for kids judge?

Speaker 11 Be like, hey, let's get that guy off the list.

Speaker 11 Why are we putting that guy? Why is that guy jumping to the front of the line?

Speaker 13 Is everyone seeing it as cash for kids 2Ks?

Speaker 11 Oh, like the commercial?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I am.

Speaker 9 Okay. For sure.

Speaker 22 For sure.

Speaker 11 In Sky News, the drone mania in New Jersey continues. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told this week.

Speaker 26 We have not seen any foreign, we know of no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the Northeast, and we are vigilant in investigating this matter, the Department of Homeland Security, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the lead.

Speaker 11 In other words, this is the work of some kind of local kingpin who's operating out of New Jersey, a drony soprano, if you will.

Speaker 11 As for why people are suddenly seeing so many drones at once in 2024, my orcas actually had an explanation.

Speaker 26 And in September of 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, changed the rules so that drones could fly at night.

Speaker 26 And that may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk.

Speaker 11 My theory is that these things are like the forest clowns people were seeing in 2016. And just as with the clowns, the sightings should die down once Trump takes office.
They're just omens.

Speaker 11 Nothing to worry about. Just terrifying omens.

Speaker 13 Forgot about the clowns.

Speaker 11 When asked about the mysterious drones flying over Jersey on Monday, Trump, of course, knew his job was to calm frayed nerves and avoid feeding into a frenzy of speculation and fear.

Speaker 18 The government knows what is happening. Our military knows, and our president knows.

Speaker 18 And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense. I can't imagine it's the enemy because if it was the enemy, they'd blast it out.
Even if they were late, they'd blast it.

Speaker 18 Something strange is going on. For some reason, they don't want to tell the people.

Speaker 11 That's right. The president sees a story like this and thinks, I bet I can make people even crazier.
That's his instinct. That is his instinct.
His instinct is like, I think I can really spin this up.

Speaker 11 He's basically Frank from Always Sunny.

Speaker 13 He's like my middle school principal who told us that the Sears Tower had been attacked on 9-11.

Speaker 20 Wow.

Speaker 10 My principal used to wear a belt and suspenders. That's the one thing I remember about him.

Speaker 5 What do you do?

Speaker 10 He'd wear a belt and suspenders.

Speaker 24 Like, you don't need both. No.

Speaker 11 The beauty of the suspenders is you get the loosey-goosey feeling of the belt.

Speaker 2 I want to bring suspenders back.

Speaker 24 I want a loosey-goosey waist.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 10 You have to wear like actual pants, though.

Speaker 9 Yeah, I will wear pants. Well, like a trouser.

Speaker 13 Yeah, with a zipper. With a jeans.

Speaker 11 Yeah, I'm not going to attach them to my sweatpants.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 16 I will see what next year brings.

Speaker 4 Who knows what mental state we'll all be in?

Speaker 11 And you know what that sound means?

Speaker 11 The jing that's been reinforced several times because of the hard out. I know we have Charlotte.
It's the end of the year, and it is for the time being the end of what a weekday.

Speaker 11 And an end to me having excuses why I can't go to my regularly scheduled therapy appointment that just happened to coincide with this recording. Maybe therapy is back in 2025.
I hope so. Woo!

Speaker 11 I hope so. So, we wanted to mark the biggest and best moments of the last 365 days.
We have several categories, and I will present you with the nominees and Sarah Halley Kendra.

Speaker 11 You will choose the winner. First off, we have 2024's biggest scam here: the nominees.
Australia sent breakdancer Ray Gunn to Paris' Olympics in August, despite the fact that she dances like this.

Speaker 11 This is fantastic.

Speaker 11 Next up, we have the Willy Wonka experience or Willie's chocolate experience offered through an unlicensed trip through Rolled Doll's World of Pure Imagination in a Glasgow warehouse this March.

Speaker 11 It was a total fucking dump.

Speaker 2 Remember that?

Speaker 11 Just a bunch of AI images and like there was a new character called the Shadow.

Speaker 9 The unknown. The unknown.

Speaker 17 The unknown.

Speaker 11 Yeah. To terrify the children.
Just an absolute scam. I think you got like one little chocolate if you were there early.

Speaker 2 And like a half a cup of sprite.

Speaker 3 Like two jelly beans.

Speaker 11 You got two jelly beans and a sprite.

Speaker 11 And finally, this year alone, Donald Trump released gold sneakers, guitars, branded Bibles, $100,000 watch, and a signature set named, what? Fight, fight, fight.

Speaker 11 What is the biggest scam? Was it Raygun? Was it Glasgow? Or was it the Trump financial operation?

Speaker 13 I mean, I assume the Trump products are going to show up at your house.

Speaker 13 They're going to show up.

Speaker 3 Something's going to show up.

Speaker 11 Yeah. Right.
That's a good point. So in that sense, it's really the price is a scam.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 11 You have a grift. It's a grift, not a scam.
Okay.

Speaker 22 So then, uh, do you think Ray Gun or Glasgow?

Speaker 2 I had to go Willy Wonka. I'm going Ray Gun.

Speaker 16 I go Ray Gun, I think, just because like they had the world stage, and for all of us to see it the exact moment, go, oh, this woman can't break dance.

Speaker 15 There was something about that.

Speaker 13 A collective realization.

Speaker 24 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Willy Wonka is very special to me because just writing that up for the show, every hour a new detail would come out.

Speaker 5 Yeah. It was the best day of my life.

Speaker 22 I think that

Speaker 11 Glasgow was like the biggest fire. Like, if you call it a a fire fest a specific kind of scam, which is a group of people, it's like it only tilts into scam because they fail so hard.

Speaker 11 Like they didn't intend to fail so spectacularly. They just, they both like kind of

Speaker 3 over their heads.

Speaker 11 Yes. It's a combination of arrogance and stupidity and a little bit of malice.
And then it all, like, it's, it's the incompetence leads to a kind of malice.

Speaker 3 That was also a scamming children, which is funny.

Speaker 11 Yes, there were a lot of sad kids. Raygun takes it.
Next up, oldest Joe Biden moment. Joe Biden bit several babies on Halloween at the White House.

Speaker 9 God, that's old.

Speaker 11 Commander Biden was off that day. Next up, in February, Biden paused mid-ice cream cone to say that he hopes Israel and Hamas will reach a ceasefire.

Speaker 27 Can you give us a sense of when you think that ceasefire will come, sir?

Speaker 6 I hope.

Speaker 25 By the beginning of the weekend.

Speaker 17 I mean, the end of the weekend.

Speaker 11 He hoped there'd be a ceasefire at the end of the weekend. That was in February of 2024.
Ice cream surely melted. Next up, during the presidential debate in June, Biden said this:

Speaker 25 We finally beat Medicare.

Speaker 11 Thank you,

Speaker 11 Biden, President Trump. And just last month, Biden appeared to wander off into the Amazon rainforest after finishing his speech.

Speaker 18 For the benefit of all humanity, thank you very, very much.

Speaker 2 All right, I'm going to say

Speaker 13 the sunglasses, the aviators, add a youth that otherwise wouldn't be there. I have to go with still with the debate.

Speaker 8 I think ice cream.

Speaker 11 I think ice cream cone.

Speaker 7 I think it's the baby, just because it was already after everything had happened. And it was like, everyone's like, all right, well, you know, we've switched out to Kabbalah.

Speaker 10 And it was like literally the next week, it was like, all right, he's out here biting babies.

Speaker 3 But he would bite that baby at any age.

Speaker 2 No, and I want to be clear.

Speaker 15 That's a fair point. I think it's just the baby's expression.

Speaker 7 It's just the passing on of the next generation.

Speaker 8 What do you think it is, Love?

Speaker 11 i'm gonna break the thomas to ice cream i agree with lazaros i think it just it is very old about it the pause terrifically old

Speaker 11 yeah

Speaker 11 looks good though next up we have the most unhinged promotional tour moment on june 18th justin timberlake was arrested and later pled guilty to driving while ability impaired according to page six the singer told the police officer his arrest was going to ruin the tour the officer asked what tour timberlake replied the world tour I was gonna say, also, that world tour started yesterday.

Speaker 10 Wow. It did eventually happen.

Speaker 14 So he is on tour now.

Speaker 11 In case you want to see justin tipper like i guess next up while promoting it ends with us blake lily revealed this to e

Speaker 27 the iconic rooftop scene in this movie my husband actually wrote it nobody knows that but you now

Speaker 11 this was a surprise considering ryan reynolds had no role in the making of the film whatsoever

Speaker 14 um and they apparently asked the screenwriter afterwards she's like i don't know anything about that But I guess they did do something.

Speaker 15 She's like, I thought they were improvising.

Speaker 7 So they may have improvised a scene that he wrote.

Speaker 2 No, he wrote it during the strike.

Speaker 22 I think something, look, I'm not saying, I don't know.

Speaker 11 I think there's something about

Speaker 11 there's a few moments where, so there's another point where she was in some interview and she said that

Speaker 11 she doesn't like writing from a blank page, but she loves writing off of something that's already written. And it's like, oh, you like editing?

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 11 there was a few moments where it's like, oh, man,

Speaker 11 gotta keep a few people around you that don't say yes to everything you say.

Speaker 17 Yeah.

Speaker 11 Gotta, gotta keep it, keep your feet on the ground, blink blindly.

Speaker 4 Both of them have kind of overplayed their hand recently, I think.

Speaker 7 So you gotta scale back and maybe disappear for a year and then come come back.

Speaker 11 Yeah. Rooting for you guys.

Speaker 8 I like some of your work, you know?

Speaker 11 In Rolling Stone interview in April ahead of the release of her album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, Billie Eilish said about masturbating, everybody should be jerking it, man.

Speaker 11 That's just true. And

Speaker 11 Dakota Johnson repeatedly went viral for her deadpan Madame Webb interviews, or Madame Webb, if you're nasty, like this one.

Speaker 6 Why did that go viral?

Speaker 28 I think it went viral because out of context, people were just like, what does this mean?

Speaker 28 Did you catch that at all?

Speaker 21 No.

Speaker 29 Somebody brought this up, and I have no idea what it's about.

Speaker 28 There were lots of means because I think people were like, What is just out of the context of it, it was just a very but isn't any sentence out of context out of context?

Speaker 3 Yeah,

Speaker 11 and this interview from Wicked in November, the one we've all been talking about, it deserves to be part of the conversation.

Speaker 30 I've seen

Speaker 30 this week people are taking the lyrics of defying gravity and really holding space with that. I can't hear it again.

Speaker 8 We gotta stop.

Speaker 2 I just can't hear it anymore.

Speaker 11 I love it, but I can't hear it anymore. All right, what do we think?

Speaker 3 I mean, it is recency bias, but I do think the wicked moment is unbeatable.

Speaker 13 Blake and Ryan went on for so long. And also, there was the Justin Baldoni of it all.
There was so much going on there.

Speaker 15 Also, that movie is about domestic violence, and they had cutouts you could take photos of

Speaker 7 the AMC as if it was wicked.

Speaker 16 It's like, why would you take a photo of this?

Speaker 3 I think they kept trying to sell her shampoo, too.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 15 I think what's funny about the Billie Eilish is like, that's where we're at.

Speaker 7 Like, I feel like society has become so prudish that, like,

Speaker 16 15 years ago, a rock star who's like 23 should be out, like, I'm out here fucking.

Speaker 7 And the fact that she's like, yeah, everyone should masturbate.

Speaker 16 It's like, yeah, girl, you got to get out of the house.

Speaker 24 You know?

Speaker 15 I don't know Wicked, though.

Speaker 14 It's iconic. This is the thing.
Let's give it to Wicked.

Speaker 11 I think that Dakota Johnson deserves a honorary mention because I think she was just out there figuring it out. And she did.

Speaker 2 Oh, they hung him out to dry.

Speaker 11 Well, I also did, like, she was in a godforsaken movie and she came away looking even better, which is an amazing achievement.

Speaker 11 She went on a press store, promoted the movie, never insulted the movie, and came out looking better, even though the movie was a big steam pile of shit. So good for her.

Speaker 11 And finally, best animal news, we got Mu Dang.

Speaker 11 Next up, we've got

Speaker 11 a leaky fire hydrant that birthed the bedstead fish pond.

Speaker 11 We've got 43 monkeys that got loose from the alpha genesis research facility in South Carolina. All but four monkeys have been recovered.
There are still monkeys on the loose.

Speaker 11 And finally,

Speaker 11 TikTok squirrel, Peanut.

Speaker 11 Who is dead?

Speaker 11 So what do you got? We got the loose monkeys. We got Moo Dang.
We got the pond. And we got Peanut.

Speaker 3 I didn't give it to Peanut posthumously for making it into the election discourse.

Speaker 11 Yeah. Yeah, that's true.
Peanut made a difference.

Speaker 7 But Peanut died, and I feel like, so it can't be the best animal news because it ended with their tragic execution by the state.

Speaker 13 But he did rise above his station.

Speaker 15 And isn't that the most American story?

Speaker 10 All right, let's give it to Peanut.

Speaker 22 Peanut, peanut, peanut.

Speaker 11 So those are our awards. Congrats to the winners.
Peanut, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Rebo,

Speaker 22 Joe Biden, and Reagan.

Speaker 4 You've done it.

Speaker 11 You've won our awards. Before we go, everybody, exciting news in 2025, Love It or Leave It is going to be back.
We have a bunch of live shows in Los Angeles come through.

Speaker 11 You can see what we cut from the unhinged material that doesn't make it into the video or the podcast.

Speaker 11 It's a new season of the show that Derek guests from Danny DeVito to Amy Klobuchar to ask, what is this?

Speaker 4 Where am I?

Speaker 11 Each week, we will break down the biggest and dumbest stories in politics to help you keep up with and laugh along with the news. And this season, stay tuned.

Speaker 11 We have some big guests and surprising conversations you won't find anywhere else. In our first episodes, I'll be joined by Rachel Bloom, followed by Joel McHale and some other big guests to come.

Speaker 11 Don't miss out on Love It or Leave It in real life. So head to crooked.com slash events.
You can get the show dates and grab those tickets.

Speaker 11 Also, we had a bunch of amazing limited series this year that you should check out. Go to crooked.com/slash limiteds.

Speaker 11 You can listen to our podcast called Empire City, which is the true story of the NYPD.

Speaker 11 You can listen to Dissonant at the Doorstep, which is an amazing true story about a Chinese dissident that came to the S and went MAGA, and a bunch of other amazing shows.

Speaker 11 Really proud of the Limiteds we've made, the Limited Series we've made, these amazing,

Speaker 11 incredibly

Speaker 11 engaging, like riveting documentaries,

Speaker 11 which we're really proud of. So, go to crooked.com/slash limiteds to check them out.
That's our show. Thank you to everybody that has listened to What a Week Day.

Speaker 11 Thank you to everybody who is mad at us for ending What a Week Day. We've loved doing that, but we've loved we've loved doing it.

Speaker 11 But certainly at the start of next year, we really want to focus and concentrate on the Saturday show and how we can make that show even better and how it can continue to change and adapt.

Speaker 11 Like I'm really proud of how this show has only gotten better over the years and how even though we've now we're heading into year nine,

Speaker 11 it never feels road. It always feels like we're trying to make something new and interesting every single week.
And I want to make sure we keep doing that.

Speaker 11 And as we head into another Trump era, I want to make sure you know that you can count on us to give you the best understanding of what happened that week in a way that keeps you engaged and interested and

Speaker 11 hopeful where at all possible.

Speaker 11 So we will see you all next year. Thank you so much for listening.
Have a great break. Thank you to Sarah.
Thank you to Hallie. Thank you to Kendra.

Speaker 11 Thank you to the whole team behind Love It or Leave It here in the studio. And we will see you, Sluts, in 2025.

Speaker 11 Strike me on my sacks.

Speaker 11 Love it, or leave it, it's living, or leaving.

Speaker 11 Straight shoot tie.

Speaker 11 Love it or leave it. It's love it or leave it.

Speaker 11 Straight up on size.

Speaker 11 Love it or leave it is a crooked media production. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett, and Lee Eisenberg.
Kendra James is our executive producer. Chris Lord is our producer.

Speaker 11 and Kennedy Hill is our associate producer. Hallie Kiefer is our head writer, Sarah Lazarus and Jocelyn Kaufman, Peter Miller, Alan Pierre, Will Miles, and Mohaned El Shiki are our writers.

Speaker 11 Evan Sutton is our editor, Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis provide audio support. Stephen Colon is our audio engineer, and Milo Kim is our videographer.

Speaker 11 Our theme song is written and performed by SureSure.

Speaker 11 Thanks to our designer Bernardo Cerna for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast, and to our digital producers, David Toles, Claudia Shang, Mia Kelman, and Matt DeGroote for filming and editing video each week so you can.

Speaker 11 It's love it. We'll leave it.

Speaker 11 We can't reignite the reclining seat debate, but all the seats are designed to recline. Everybody gets to recline.

Speaker 10 The issue is not my going away. The issue is

Speaker 3 for airplanes. Back on the airplane.

Speaker 15 I went on my computer, and when you recline, it like squishes that space, and I can't have my laptop.

Speaker 14 But the thing

Speaker 13 that's not, that is not my fault to fix or to not use. That is the airline's fault.

Speaker 15 Well, I think we have two people for two people against. And I feel fine about being on the against side.

Speaker 3 It's definitely the

Speaker 3 airplane maker's fault that the seats are so close together and bad, but I still have a responsibility as a person to make the best of it for everyone around me.

Speaker 11 No, but you all collectively, but we all, everybody wants to recline a little bit. And everybody on the plane recognizes there's this much space behind each seat that we share.

Speaker 11 I can recline into it, and you can recline into the space behind you. That's your space.
And now you don't have to use it if you don't want to, but

Speaker 11 you can donate it to the person behind you, but it's your space to use again moral or unethical about using it the issue is not the space behind the issue is the space is in front I feel very secure about this but you have no credit over what the person ahead of you does because that's not your space and I wish that we all collectively agreed that we were reclining because when someone in front of you reclines you lose this space yes the the actual

Speaker 13 even if I recline I don't get that back yeah no we you it's obviously that's not your what he's saying is that's not your space to begin with because the chair

Speaker 11 and that's where we disagree because I need that space yeah but but it's just the the My eyes are in the front of my head.

Speaker 14 I want what's in front of me.

Speaker 5 Right, but that's where I'm.

Speaker 15 We're a front-oriented species.

Speaker 11 But that's, and that's true on Spirit. And on Spirit Airline, you get to keep it.

Speaker 10 And I am flying Spirit to Columbus.

Speaker 2 And I am flying. Spirit dirty.

Speaker 5 Oh, no rules.

Speaker 3 On Spirit, I'd reclaim my seat and punch someone.

Speaker 2 Right. Right.

Speaker 4 Because you're allowed on Spirit.

Speaker 2 All right, yeah.

Speaker 2 Hello, hot people who vote.

Speaker 31 Looking for the perfect gift this holiday season for the people in your life who give a damn? Look no further than the Crooked Media Store.

Speaker 31 We've got merch from all their favorite shows like Pod Save America, Hysteria, and Love It or Leave It, plus holiday exclusives like our Santa is a Woman collection for everyone who knows she's making a list and checking it twice.

Speaker 31 There is also high quality sweatshirts, tees, and stocking stuffers for everyone on your list, even you. Head to crooked.com/slash store now to shop.