"3 Presidents"

Speaker 1 Wondering how you can invest in yourself and work towards a goal that will last? Rosetta Stone makes it easy to turn a few minutes a day into real language progress.

Speaker 1 Scotty and I are here in England still, right in London. And before we leave, we're talking about going to Paris while we're over here because it's like, when are we going to be over here again?

Speaker 1 And so we might take a day just to go over to Paris. And we talked about how great it would be to use Rosetta Stone to learn just a little bit of French before we go.
It's French, right?

Speaker 1 And now Smartlist listeners can grab Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. Visit rosettastone.com slash Smartlist to get started and claim your 50% off today.

Speaker 1 Nobody wants to spend the holiday season clicking from one site to the next to get their hands on the best brands.

Speaker 1 But who knew Walmart has the the top brands we all love like the big names that your friends and family actually want and all in one place nespresso nintendo apple you name it get the brands everyone loves at prices you'll love at walmart who knew go to walmart.com or download the app to get all your gifts this season

Speaker 3 Bellas, how are you doing? Great, how are you? Was getting in in okay? Or was there cavity searches?

Speaker 2 There was a cavity search anyway. It was good long enough.
And Sean went back

Speaker 2 for seconds.

Speaker 2 And they said, we don't,

Speaker 2 everybody come back. You're good.

Speaker 2 It's not Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 You're clean.

Speaker 2 He said, can I come back tomorrow to get cold leftovers?

Speaker 2 Welcome to Smartless. Smart.

Speaker 2 Guys, take a breath and think about what this is about to be. It's fucking insane, you guys.
Yeah, we were insane.

Speaker 3 Do you guys have good questions?

Speaker 2 I have a copy. Sort of.

Speaker 2 I have areas.

Speaker 3 Wait, wait or not. Prep.

Speaker 2 I did prep. I did, I thought.
I had a lot of conversations with people.

Speaker 3 I've got 18 questions.

Speaker 2 Oh, good.

Speaker 2 I'll just follow you.

Speaker 2 I was not joking when I said. I think it's good that we have questions, but I also want to entertain conversations.

Speaker 2 Just make it a conversation. And through conversation, questions will come out.
Is that right? I think so. Oh, boy.

Speaker 1 So how are you guys feeling when you woke up today knowing that this is going to happen? Are we really?

Speaker 2 Are we recording right now? Yeah. Are we really? Yeah.
Yeah. Oh.

Speaker 2 We can say where we are because I got to put on my radio voice. We can say where we are because it's

Speaker 2 after the fact, yeah.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 we're here. No, don't say it.
No, I'm okay. Well, we're here on Twitter.

Speaker 3 So we're on Central Park South with a beautiful second-story view of the park.

Speaker 2 If

Speaker 3 second story is beautiful views, but

Speaker 3 treetops is nice. A little rainy.

Speaker 3 And we very rarely have more than one guest. Sometimes we've done it.

Speaker 2 We've done it too.

Speaker 2 When were the times we did it?

Speaker 2 We had.

Speaker 1 Well, when you have bands on, a lot of the time we have bands on the band.

Speaker 3 Like Billie Eilish and Finn. Yes,

Speaker 2 Radiohead. Radiohead

Speaker 2 Duran Duran Killers oh no that was just Simon Juran Guran the killers the killers the killers the passion ode right that was great

Speaker 3 and uh so today we're doing a first time it's a bit little risky there's three of them but it's kind of a band full of rock stars bear with us yeah yeah it's like the they're like the police yeah um

Speaker 3 so uh you'll be familiar with um

Speaker 3 one of them um

Speaker 3 the the other two uh he wanted to bring along i guess his buddies He gets a little nervous. We've had him on the show before.
He wanted to do it again. They're guys he worked with, I guess.

Speaker 3 Yeah, we don't really do repeat guests, but we made an exception here, and we certainly don't let people bring buddies, but he was insistent.

Speaker 2 Can I just say, I'm excited, too, and can I just say, we're sitting here in this hotel room, as we've already said. It's 2024.

Speaker 2 Four years ago, less than four years ago, we started doing this podcast.

Speaker 2 It was a COVID baby, as we call it.

Speaker 3 Came out of the gate with Dax Shepard.

Speaker 2 Came out of the gate with Dax Shepard. Ket and the best.
Which was great, but I set the bar high with Dax.

Speaker 3 And then now here we are in New York, four years later, scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Speaker 2 And we're looking at

Speaker 3 the barriers.

Speaker 2 We got Rob Armyarv. Armyarv.
And we got Bennett Barbacow.

Speaker 2 And we got MGT, Michael the G-Terry.

Speaker 2 And we're all here in New York, and it's fucking wild, guys. Yeah, we're all.
And I want to say to you guys,

Speaker 2 this is cool. Yeah, you got to stop.
This is life moments.

Speaker 1 We got to stop and recognize it.

Speaker 2 Michael, I just want to say, Michael, how's it for you? Delightful. Delightful.
That's it. It's delightful.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I'm proud of us. We haven't screwed it up yet.

Speaker 2 Bennett, what do you think? It feels amazing.

Speaker 1 It's weird, right? Wow, these weird adjectives are incredible.

Speaker 2 We've been saying to take a breath every day. Rob, yell something from over there.
How are you feeling? Fantastic.

Speaker 2 That's Rob. Rob, it got amazing.
We did limit them each to one word. Yes,

Speaker 3 and Rob doesn't even have a microphone. So it's thank you for your contributions.

Speaker 3 We have been reminding ourselves to be present, though, and take a breath and

Speaker 2 take it in.

Speaker 2 Now,

Speaker 1 Will came up to get a ride with my guy that I sometimes hire for like

Speaker 1 when I do a Broadway show.

Speaker 2 Who drove him when he was doing you know Sean did a play on Broadway last year?

Speaker 2 No,

Speaker 2 and it was called Go Get Me, Oscar, I think.

Speaker 2 Right. Right.

Speaker 3 And it was,

Speaker 3 wasn't it the

Speaker 3 Topaz? Wasn't it with the Topachico?

Speaker 2 The Topachico

Speaker 2 Theater.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And so he came.

Speaker 1 So Will, I said, do you want to ride? Because I think Jason's close, really close to the hotel. So Will came straight up.

Speaker 1 The first thing I put my pants on and I walked out to the living room with my shirt and my pants on. I reached in my pocket and I found money.
I found like 30 bucks. Sure.

Speaker 2 Great super. No, but here's the best part.
Sean pulls out. He goes, he turns to Scotty and me and he goes, look at this.
And we go, what? And he goes, he's got like $31.

Speaker 2 He goes, look at all this money. And we go, yeah.
And I go, so the pants are clean. Now, obviously, today's a big event for you.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 So the dry cleaners just dry cleaners. I haven't been here for six months.
So I just put these pants on. And I was like, oh, I guess I wore them.
And there was just

Speaker 3 the one pair of socks that you stole from a youngster you were babysitting?

Speaker 2 I know.

Speaker 1 You don't know where the skin ends and the sock starts.

Speaker 3 You know, it's fairly high-class guests today. You didn't think you'd go with a full-length sock.

Speaker 2 The girl doesn't have socks at all on.

Speaker 1 I know, but that's the way to go. I know I should have gone full-length.

Speaker 2 Johnny, what do you decide?

Speaker 2 how do you decide what clothes stay here in your apartment in new york like what's the math that you do on that um i don't i i just you know there's like a couple t-shirts and clearly a couple pants and uh i mean pants is a stretch they're jeans no they're not they're pants sorry they're stretched jeans no no no they're not stretched but they look like jeans they're dress pants they're brushed cotton jagging yes thank you but they're in a five pants but they're in a five pant cut i mean look at jason jason's in corduroy's and a and a yeah but jason i mean jason looks like he's doing a whole different but i'm also living here, and I don't have

Speaker 3 President of the United States clothes with me.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you know,

Speaker 2 you look good. I said before, you look very rugged and sexy.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 I'm playing a guy that's made a lot of bad decisions.

Speaker 2 You know what I like about your hair is long enough that when you're wearing the headphones right now, it's keeping the hair back, and you've got kind of like a soccer, like a European soccer player vibe.

Speaker 2 He's slowly winking it. Slow winks, we could do it.

Speaker 3 Then they're half winks, too.

Speaker 3 They're more lid squeezes.

Speaker 2 That's so gross.

Speaker 3 So you guys have,

Speaker 3 do you have important questions loaded? Do you have fun questions loaded?

Speaker 2 A little bit of both. A bit of both.

Speaker 3 You've got some policy questions, perhaps?

Speaker 2 Yeah, mine obviously have more to do with relations with Canada.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 2 Sure. Are we going to, is that one of the borders we're closing? I hope not.

Speaker 2 You know, because how are we going to get all our stuff across, hey?

Speaker 3 I'm still moving cigarettes.

Speaker 2 Fuck, I don't care. I'm muling some of that sticky BC bud through the interior.
I'm coming down through Fernie, BC, okay? My brother found a good path last year.

Speaker 2 Let's see what they have to say about that. Sure, I want to hear what.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I wonder. I'm sure they don't want to get into the micro of policy and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 I'm sure they'd like us to find a middle ground between drivetime radio and some hard-hitting meet the press conversation.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but I mean,

Speaker 1 I can't, I don't know how to formulate those questions. I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 Well, you know what's interesting is that the three of them obviously are very connected, and they're all sort of from the same sort of class

Speaker 2 of Democrats in that, right, that they were around. Obama was a rising star.
You know, President Biden's been around since the 70s. He was senator, et cetera.

Speaker 2 Obama came up as this young star in the early 2000s. Nobody will forget his fiery speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, how amazing that was.

Speaker 2 So they're all part of the state. Clinton was a governor, and Clint was a governor, and then he was a superstar back-to-back.

Speaker 2 Yes, Arkansas, good Sean.

Speaker 2 But back-to-back,

Speaker 2 President of the United States. So

Speaker 2 they all, I think, have very, they're similar. My point is that they're similarly minded when it comes to sort of policy.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Et cetera.

Speaker 2 Well, it's cool that they all are like together.

Speaker 1 I don't know that I don't know that I've ever seen that or like witnessed that.

Speaker 2 I mean, I don't even know if you've ever seen George W. and his dad together.

Speaker 3 Didn't the three of them get together for the last election a bit? Didn't they sort of.

Speaker 2 You're thinking of the three tenors, I think.

Speaker 3 These are not.

Speaker 2 By the way, we have to do them.

Speaker 2 We don't do the three tenors right after this.

Speaker 2 We should just start.

Speaker 3 Let's start the interview mistaking them for the three tenors.

Speaker 2 So, when do you guys,

Speaker 3 have you been in rehearsal?

Speaker 2 Like, well, because the Radio City show tonight should be getting the acoustic. We're so excited for the second.
What's your warm-up like?

Speaker 3 Will there be solos or you guys just sing all the songs together?

Speaker 2 Glimmer than I remember opportunities.

Speaker 2 And your accents are fantastic. Really command.
Exactly.

Speaker 2 Well, guys, I'm honored to be here, not just with them. I'm honored to be here with you guys.
This was this occasion, not just in the podcast, but in life. You just tell me your name.

Speaker 2 It still will.

Speaker 2 And I'm really psyched that I get to be here with you guys during this. Likewise.

Speaker 3 It's not lost on me.

Speaker 3 Not to pat ourselves on the back, but just say briefly, uh, very proud of us that we haven't screwed this up yet and that Mr. Biden called us again

Speaker 3 and wanted to do this again, wanted to bring his friends. Like, just so, so flattered and humbled.
And yeah, that's it's crazy.

Speaker 2 Ditto to all of it. Here we go.
It's a it's an all uh an all-new super presidential

Speaker 2 smartless.

Speaker 2 We're just going to come in and address the microphones, too.

Speaker 2 Yeah, thank you. So, headphones on, yeah.
So,

Speaker 4 you can grab those headphones right there, please.

Speaker 4 And I'm going to swing this in a little bit.

Speaker 2 Thank you, sir.

Speaker 2 Mr.

Speaker 3 Clinton, have you done any time, Mr. Clinton, in Lake of the Ozarks?

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 Right? Because that was just that's in your neck of the old woods there.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Do you want it up or down?

Speaker 2 I've spent a lot of time. I've been to every

Speaker 2 voting precincts

Speaker 2 and the northern Arkansas Ozarks. And I have

Speaker 2 one of the presidents of Walmart

Speaker 2 came from a little town

Speaker 2 in the Ozarks, near the Lake of the Ozarks, and I went up there, had a day for him, and I went up there once.

Speaker 4 I can hear fine.

Speaker 2 Okay, right. So I've motored around up there.

Speaker 4 All good.

Speaker 3 But was that ever a vacation spot for you?

Speaker 2 No, I didn't take any vacations up there. I was working up there.

Speaker 3 But that's a big spot for folks in that part of the country.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 It's breathtakingly beautiful. Yeah.
Yeah, that lake gets a lot of people. I mean, judging by your show, Jason, it seems like a pretty dangerous part of the world, too.

Speaker 3 Well, we didn't really spend a lot of time in there. Yeah, we didn't spend a lot of time with the nice part.

Speaker 2 Not much of a show.

Speaker 1 My family vacationed there once when I was a kid, and everybody got drunk. What a surprise.

Speaker 2 I still remember when it was all illegal. We had a sheriff from up there that

Speaker 2 had

Speaker 2 jail where the cells were all below level.

Speaker 4 Below the water level?

Speaker 2 No, below ground level. So he was, they were all pot farms.
Uh-huh. When it was all still illegal.
He made a hell of a lot of money doing it. That's crazy.

Speaker 3 Is it legal in Missouri and Arkansas yet?

Speaker 2 Are you planning a trip? Sort of.

Speaker 2 But when it's Arkansas, when he did it,

Speaker 2 I've tapped out the old.

Speaker 4 Do you basically scout out every state?

Speaker 2 It's like, we're looking for a statement.

Speaker 3 Can I go here?

Speaker 2 Is this okay? Well, it's a sequel. You know, we've done the old.
Money and we're going to Missouri.

Speaker 2 It was more fun when it was illegal. Uh-huh.
Yeah, exactly. Well,

Speaker 2 I love doing it.

Speaker 2 You should have had me writing some of your scripts for you.

Speaker 1 I want to start by, you know, first of all, this is huge for us.

Speaker 2 Massive.

Speaker 1 And what a massive honor it is to be sitting with the three of you looking at us. It's so bizarre.

Speaker 2 It's crazy.

Speaker 2 It's wild.

Speaker 4 We're all wondering how we ended up.

Speaker 2 I'm sure we're hard about it. We've got questions for your staff.
And your questions are only going to grow as to why you did it the further we get into it.

Speaker 2 And we were saying earlier, four years ago, we started this podcast during COVID as a way to kind of connect with each other. And we ended up connecting with a lot of people out there.

Speaker 2 And for us, it's a real thrill to be here. Did you ever get Trump?

Speaker 2 Couldn't make his deal. No, we're letting other people get him.

Speaker 2 Well done, well done. Thank you.
Very bravo, bravo.

Speaker 2 But it is momentous for us, and especially during this time that we're in right now, to to have your time So we thank you for your time. Yeah, yeah, this is huge

Speaker 2 How do you all know each other? I'm kidding

Speaker 2 But it is I've worked for both of them a long time

Speaker 3 It's not the first time that you three have combined forces to really kind of

Speaker 2 Do what we all need you guys to do, which is

Speaker 3 keep you in office.

Speaker 3 But does it does it strike you as like how is it even even necessary to have half a president campaigning against the other guy?

Speaker 3 It is shocking to me that it takes the amount of effort to to be competitive against someone who just

Speaker 3 in my opinion is just running for the wrong thing.

Speaker 2 Well, lots changed and a lot's changed in how you communicate. A lot's changed in information.
and so much disinformation out there. And

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 it's really

Speaker 2 and it's hard to communicate even today when you do accomplish some

Speaker 2 improbable things.

Speaker 2 But he.

Speaker 2 Well, and I'll say that, Mr. President, not to cut you off, but you have accomplished a lot of incredible things.
And all three of you did in your presidencies, did amazing things.

Speaker 2 President Clinton, you left this country with a surplus, which is the first time it had been done in a number of years.

Speaker 2 President Obama, you passed the Affordable Care Act, really started to tackle tackle social issues.

Speaker 2 President Biden, you know, you look at your jobs numbers, you look at the way you're battling inflation, which has not been easy, and you've done it with a lot of headwind, and you've had a lot of people, a lot of voices, and a lot.

Speaker 2 And we live in a time where there are a lot of voices.

Speaker 2 And my question is, considering the amazing work that all three of you have done, and especially what you're doing right now, President Biden, It's so difficult. The messaging

Speaker 2 is so tough to get the message out there because there is so much noise what can we what can you do just keep talking about it we just keep to connect with people as to how they're being affected why it's happening and you know one of the things that's really

Speaker 2 startles me is i'm optimistic i'm genuinely optimistic oh my gosh starting to break through there's so much we have an opportunity to get done in ways that these guys set up and we're now going to be able to close down.

Speaker 2 For example, you know, when we got elected, we were told we couldn't get anything done. We couldn't get anything passed.
Well, we got a

Speaker 2 little thing called a billion, $300 million to

Speaker 2 rebuild our roads, highways, internet. We got the chips.

Speaker 2 I've traveled around the world and said, why don't you come and invest in the United States of America? We got $650 billion invested offline. And on the CHIPS Act, we got about $56, $70 billion.

Speaker 2 And they're employing people.

Speaker 2 It takes a while to kick in, though.

Speaker 3 But are they, but are they, it seems like they're only watching certain things, reading certain things.

Speaker 3 Everybody's so siloed in the way in which they receive information.

Speaker 3 Could it be as simple as you, and I don't, you've got very smart people to suggest what it is that you do, but like, could it be as simple as just like granting an hour to Sean Hannity and sit down and go, you tell me

Speaker 3 why

Speaker 3 the people who follow you think I'm not a good president.

Speaker 3 And just answer his questions, call his bluff. I mean, because the information, the facts are all there.
It's particularly for

Speaker 4 that group of people.

Speaker 3 What you do is so much better suited than what the other agenda is talking about. So is it just a matter of just getting on that network?

Speaker 2 I don't get it.

Speaker 4 First of all, you guys are exactly right. Joe's got an unbelievable record of accomplishments.
Stunning. If you had told me that the unemployment rate after after COVID was going to be back down to

Speaker 4 4% or lower,

Speaker 3 lowest in 50 years, isn't it?

Speaker 4 Absolutely.

Speaker 4 And if you had told me that 15 million jobs would have been created, that wages are higher now than they were pre-pandemic. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And the most jobs created in history.

Speaker 2 Exactly. In this four-year period, yes.
It's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 In this four-year period.

Speaker 4 You've got African-American unemployment, right, which is always higher than the general population, the lowest it's been since record-keeping on the issue was taken.

Speaker 4 So Joe's got a strong message to tell. Jason, you're right.

Speaker 4 The media environment's changed.

Speaker 4 During Bill's presidency, during my presidency, you already had Fox and Rush Limbaugh and so forth, but it was still going through basic broadcast TV.

Speaker 4 And the average person was still kind of getting a mix,

Speaker 4 some dissenting views. Part of what happened is that whole ecosystem moved onto social media.

Speaker 4 And once it's on social media and it's on an algorithm, and everybody's just getting their news selected essentially to suit their biases,

Speaker 4 penetrating that is real tough.

Speaker 2 It is very hard.

Speaker 1 What do you say to the people who say on the other side the same thing?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 4 you know, I would argue that actually they've got some legitimate points in the sense that, you know, there's a side that doesn't recognize conservative thought or, you know, isn't respectful to,

Speaker 4 you know, some traditional values that they care about and so forth. The difference, though, is,

Speaker 4 and Jason touched on it, there's a difference between facts and opinions.

Speaker 4 And the one thing that

Speaker 4 our side

Speaker 4 still pretty much sticks to is the facts. You may not agree with whatever's in the New York Times or whatever's on MSNBC, but generally they're not going to just make stuff up.

Speaker 2 No. Correct.

Speaker 4 And, you know, look,

Speaker 4 I was in office

Speaker 4 in 2016, and I would have loved to pretend that the election outcome wasn't what it was. Right.
That was painful. Right.

Speaker 4 Right. But we said, well,

Speaker 4 here are the facts, and

Speaker 4 there's a system of government that transcends, that is more important than whoever wins this particular election. We're going to abide by those facts and stick with democracy.

Speaker 2 Right, right, right.

Speaker 4 And that is a shift

Speaker 4 that's taken place. Now, last point I'd make, though, because you asked, you know, Jason was asking, what do we do? I think Joe's point is right.

Speaker 4 And that is, you just keep on showing up and delivering the message wherever you can, however you can.

Speaker 4 And if you talk to folks enough, all of us, Bill, Joe, myself, all have the experience of going to places where we may not be the most popular person.

Speaker 4 People may have some preconceived notions about Barack Hussein Obama, right?

Speaker 2 Jesus.

Speaker 4 But if you show up and you make a human connection with people and you talk to them.

Speaker 2 We'll be right back.

Speaker 2 Today's episode is sponsored by Ashley. They don't just sell incredible furniture, they're also making an impact in vulnerable communities.
Here's a tough fact.

Speaker 2 Over 7 million kids are affected by the welfare system and over 368,000 are currently in foster care. So, together with Ashley and SiriusXM, we made a donation to four others.

Speaker 2 an organization working to end the child welfare crisis in America. You know, partnering with Ashley in our live show, first of all, they just made our set look really good.

Speaker 2 They made us really comfortable. And they kind of made us look legit because otherwise it would have been, you know, milk crates and,

Speaker 2 you know, cardboard boxes. And Ashley made it look like a real, kind of looked like a living room, made it really comfortable, made our guest, John Mayer, really comfortable.

Speaker 2 And then he thought that maybe we're professional. We're not just a bunch of clowns.
To be honest, there was a point where I got so comfortable, I forgot that I was in front of an audience.

Speaker 2 I was sitting back on that nice Ashley couch and I was just hanging out with my buds in my living room.

Speaker 2 Anyway, Ashley offers timeless, well-crafted furniture with white glove delivery right to your door. Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style.

Speaker 1 This is an ad by BetterHelp. Have you ever had someone that you haven't reached out to in a long time and you're just like, you know what, just do it.

Speaker 1 I just did that recently and it was such a wonderful experience. We had a great lunch, a lot of catching up, and I'm so glad we did it.
It was great.

Speaker 1 As the seasons change, shorter days don't have to weigh you down. This season, BetterHelp encourages you to reach out, check in on friends, reconnect with loved ones, and remind them you're there.

Speaker 1 Just like it takes a little courage to send that text or grab coffee with someone you haven't seen in a while, reaching out for therapy can feel difficult too, but it can be worth it.

Speaker 1 It can leave people wondering, why didn't I do this sooner? With over 30,000 therapists worldwide, BetterHelp is one of the leading online therapy platforms. BetterHelp therapists are fully qualified.

Speaker 1 BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. This month, don't wait to reach out.

Speaker 1 Whether you're checking in on a friend or reaching out to a therapist, BetterHelp makes it easier to take that first step.

Speaker 1 Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/slash smartless. That's betterhelp.com/slash smartless.

Speaker 1 Nothing goes with football like Sonic's new pretzel bacon sonic smasher.

Speaker 1 Two hand smashed Angus beef patties, crispy bacon and onions, plus pub sauce, all on a buttery soft pretzel bun.

Speaker 1 It's perfect for watching beefy linemen, crispy corners, saucy receivers, and buttery smooth quarterbacks. Geez, did they write this for me?

Speaker 1 And together with the original Sonic Smasher, they're forming a new dynasty of burgers. The Pretzel Bacon Sonic Smasher.
Try it for a limited time.

Speaker 1 Sonic!

Speaker 2 It makes your job harder, does it not?

Speaker 2 Or I'm asking you, when you wake up in the morning and you have people who say that they're opposed to what you do or what you believe or whatever, and yet you still have to govern and serve them.

Speaker 2 no matter what. And it seems like, right? And the other guy,

Speaker 2 he has no problem throwing anybody who's not with him under the bus. Look,

Speaker 2 sir. When I got elected, I said I'm going to be president for everyone.
We have put more money into red states than blue states.

Speaker 2 Not a joke.

Speaker 2 Across the board. Across the board, there's more money total invested in the red states and the blue states because I'm going to be president for everyone.

Speaker 3 Do they know that?

Speaker 2 Well, I think it's beginning, but whether they did or not, I have an obligation, it seems to me, to take care of the country. That's the job.
But it's beginning to sink in in a little bit.

Speaker 2 And you know, you have, like, for example, did you ever think you'd see, these guys are great speakers, they're great presidents.

Speaker 2 Did you ever think you'd see a state of the union like the two I've had? No. No, no.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Frankly, a little shameful.

Speaker 2 As a new American, as the newest American here, because I'm Canadian rich.

Speaker 4 I remember that.

Speaker 2 You know, Canadian.

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 4 look, I got a Canadian brother-in-law. Canadians are interesting because they sneak up on you.

Speaker 4 You remember that movie in Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Like, they look like us,

Speaker 4 but you don't really know.

Speaker 2 I mean, I saw you at the Raptors game back in the...

Speaker 4 Yeah, actually,

Speaker 4 I love me some Canadians.

Speaker 1 I'm always looking behind me when Will and I are walking, just like the certain Canadian.

Speaker 3 There is, and I don't mean to sound cynical with this, but there is a bit of a show element that the other guy seems to really relish in.

Speaker 3 He loves being and saying things that really attract, you know, some views, some clicks, like, you know, he's a fun show to watch, I'm sure.

Speaker 3 Now, I know

Speaker 3 you three are uniquely qualified in keeping things classy and elevated and

Speaker 3 keeping respect around the office and the job, et cetera. But is there

Speaker 3 ever a thought of how one might be able to tack slightly towards the show

Speaker 3 to sort of combat that a little bit. And you're starting to do it just a little bit, President Biden.
And I think it's really like people are loving that.

Speaker 3 You're sort of giving it to them a little bit. Now, I know that's not, you know, some sort of contrived calculation you're making, but is there any response?

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 But is there any thought to like, it's time to kind of pull the gloves off a little bit, and if they want a show, we'll give it to them.

Speaker 2 Well, I'm not so sure about the show, but I think if they want the truth, we'll give it to them. Yeah, amen.
And just go straight at them.

Speaker 2 Look, you know, like I said at the gridiron dinner, you know, this guy came up to me, asked me if we could borrow some money.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I told him, Donald, I can't help you.

Speaker 2 But all kids decide, we can make jokes about it, but the end result is, look,

Speaker 2 we've all know every major world leader. And

Speaker 2 I think one of the reasons Barack asked me to be vice president, I had some foreign policy experience. And I've known these folks for a long time.
I go to all these conferences that we all know.

Speaker 2 And Bill just came back from one on his own. Great help to us in the Caribbean.

Speaker 2 And, you know, almost every single time, not a joke, guys, whether it's the G7, the G20, all these heads of state, they'll wait till they can get me alone and grab them and say, you've got to win.

Speaker 2 Because, quote, my democracy is at stake.

Speaker 2 Their democracy.

Speaker 2 Let me, since I'm not directly involved, I'll give you an example that I just had.

Speaker 2 Not very long ago, I went to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to celebrate the anniversary

Speaker 2 of

Speaker 2 the decision to expand NATO and include the Czech Republic and Hungary and Poland.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 they know what it's like to live without democracy. They know what it's like not to be free.

Speaker 2 They are adamantly in favor of President Biden's support for Ukraine.

Speaker 2 And they think we did the right thing to expand NATO.

Speaker 2 And they know it's Russia's fault, not ours,

Speaker 2 what's happened in Ukraine. So it was amazing.
All of them came up to me and said, please tell me you're not going to put us through all this again.

Speaker 2 Please tell me America's not going to run away from the world again. We need you.

Speaker 2 And in Poland, which is a very conservative country, culturally, religiously, they just voted overwhelmingly to throw out the old party because they thought they were too close to the Russians and put in the government that you dealt with when Hillary was Secretary of State because they support a free Ukraine.

Speaker 2 And I just showed up, man. I didn't go there to do a, they like me because I was with them in the beginning, but

Speaker 2 they are worried about tomorrow.

Speaker 4 I think Bill's points and Joe's points are important. You know, look,

Speaker 4 we all know America's

Speaker 4 not always lived up to its ideals. We got our warts, you know, we got

Speaker 4 issues. But

Speaker 4 we do set the tone around the world.

Speaker 4 And part of what happened

Speaker 4 before Joe got elected, you know, during that four-year period,

Speaker 4 folks around the world started feeling as if

Speaker 4 the ideals of human rights, freedom,

Speaker 4 democracy, that

Speaker 4 nobody was looking after that. Nobody was promoting that.
Nobody was minding it.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 2 people like Putin became emboldened.

Speaker 4 And you saw the Chinese and even countries that were democracies start backsliding because

Speaker 4 they do still look to America as an example of what they hope a multiracial, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, big country can look like.

Speaker 4 That maybe people can still get along and act decently towards each other, even if they don't all look the same and don't all talk the same and all come from the same place.

Speaker 4 That's what makes America exceptional. And if you start getting into a situation in which

Speaker 4 we don't believe our own Declaration of Independence, If we're not acting

Speaker 4 on behalf of the things that we say we stand for, that has ripple effects all around the globe.

Speaker 4 And these guys are exactly right. I just came back from Europe, and every meeting I had,

Speaker 4 the only thing people were concerned about was

Speaker 4 what's going to happen in this next election because they understand what the stakes are.

Speaker 3 I'm sorry, just on that point, President Obama, were you surprised during those five years of the last administration

Speaker 4 how quickly

Speaker 3 that protection and passion for democracy was diluted? How primed the country was to just sort of dissolve and get lazy with it and let it go?

Speaker 4 You know,

Speaker 4 I will say, and Bill saw this begin to happen during his presidency.

Speaker 4 accelerated during my presidency.

Speaker 4 I have been surprised that there haven't been guardrails inside the Republican Party.

Speaker 4 Trump didn't surprise me. No.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 3 no, I mean,

Speaker 2 you watch Trump's campaign, you watch his career.

Speaker 4 If you know anybody who's,

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 4 he comes from New York. There's nobody in New York who does business with him or

Speaker 4 lend him money.

Speaker 4 He's not considered a serious guy here, but

Speaker 2 so

Speaker 4 I was surprised he was elected, but I wasn't surprised in terms of his behavior.

Speaker 4 I did expect, and I suspect Bill and Joe, you'd agree with this, that there would be some folks in the Republican Party who would say, no,

Speaker 4 you can't go that far. You can't start praising Putin and saying that his intelligence is better than

Speaker 2 the U.S.

Speaker 4 intelligence agencies.

Speaker 3 Were you surprised that there were 60-some million people that bought it and voted voted for them and then did it again?

Speaker 4 Well,

Speaker 4 you know, I think that

Speaker 4 we can't discount

Speaker 4 the fact that the world's changing quick.

Speaker 4 And when the world changes quick, people get scared and they get confused. And

Speaker 4 we had a historic recession in 2008, 2009 where the financial system almost collapses. We end up having, you know, we'd obviously already gone through 9-11.

Speaker 4 You got globalization. You have suddenly people feeling as if they're losing manufacturing jobs.
Some of the towns

Speaker 4 in Illinois, where I was representing Arkansas, where Bill was working, you see people starting to feel like they're losing status.

Speaker 4 Suddenly, you've got the internet and social media, and people are being flooded with all kinds of stuff, and they don't know how to sort it all out.

Speaker 4 And when people get scared and concerned, then the appeal of somebody who says, I'm going to make it like it used to be, where you don't have to worry about it. And, you know,

Speaker 4 men are men and women know their place. And that message can sometimes have some appeal.

Speaker 2 Look, again, I love this country.

Speaker 2 I am so

Speaker 1 it is the best country in the world.

Speaker 2 You've only been to two countries, but

Speaker 2 it should.

Speaker 3 He watches CNN International.

Speaker 2 That's true.

Speaker 2 Because

Speaker 2 I agree with that. And by the way, it's a phenomenal country.
When it's at its best,

Speaker 2 if the rest of the world looks to us,

Speaker 2 no matter what you say, no matter how you characterize it, there's not a single country in the world that does not think we're the single most consequential country in the world. Not a single one.

Speaker 2 Including our enemies. Including our enemies.
I mean, across the board. Especially.

Speaker 4 If there's a problem around the world, you know, if there's a natural disaster, if there is a crisis, nobody's calling Moscow or Beijing expecting them to help you. Right, no, right.

Speaker 4 Everybody's looking to Washington.

Speaker 2 But beyond that, here's the deal. Look, if you think about it, when Trump got elected, he said he's going to go America first, America alone.

Speaker 2 Look at who he talks about his best friends being, Kim Jong-un, North Korea. And I'm serious.
Jack Nicholas. Hey, listen, he won two golf championships last week.

Speaker 2 The regular championship

Speaker 2 when he won. I told him he came into the upstairs oval, and we bumped in each other.
He said something about playing golf. I said, said, look, I'll give you two strokes if you carry your own bag.

Speaker 2 Hey, do you know what I mean? Couldn't make it. President Biden, did you know that Kim Jong-un, he had 18 holes in one once? Yeah.
Absolutely. So we're not far off with this guy.

Speaker 1 I'm looking forward to your guys' merch coming out.

Speaker 3 Do you guys have an apparatus,

Speaker 3 a mechanism whereby you can contact one another like this without anybody connecting?

Speaker 2 Do you have a flat phone? Well, do you have any of that?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's called a smartphone.

Speaker 2 Do you have one of these what i mean

Speaker 3 but can you can you do that

Speaker 2 great okay i just text each other yeah i mean like emojis and stuff

Speaker 2 i don't text much but we uh pick up the phone and talk to each other i love that do you rethink with no one else listening and no one else connecting the call we don't we can't be sure though we're not positive of the cyber shop but does president like he picks up and he goes hang on i'm going to add president clinton yeah i'm going to merge calls that that's a little too advanced right okay you might need a 25 year old aide to help on the merger thing.

Speaker 3 I love

Speaker 3 just, I mean, one plus one plus one makes 10 with you guys.

Speaker 1 So I just want to know, like, do you all miss something specific about holding office? Obviously, except for you, because you're in office. But do you guys miss something?

Speaker 2 I miss not having an office. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Go ahead.

Speaker 4 Look, look, everybody talks about Air Force One.

Speaker 2 Yeah, sure. Marine One.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's pretty convenient, I won't lie.

Speaker 4 But I'll tell you the thing I miss the most is, you remember those music concerts I used to do at?

Speaker 4 You can basically invite anybody.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 you have this concert.

Speaker 4 And I mean, we got, you know, Stevie Wonder.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Paul McCartney. Everybody will show up.
They'll show up. I bet they'll still take it.

Speaker 4 And they've got,

Speaker 4 they do these rehearsals

Speaker 4 the night before a lot of times. And

Speaker 4 you could

Speaker 4 sit down and you could just sit there and watch

Speaker 4 Mick Jagger practicing with B.B. King or something on a blues night.
I do miss that. That's so good.

Speaker 2 I miss the fact they don't play a song when you walk in a room anymore. Sure.
Oh, we've done that today. I was lost for three weeks after I left office.
But let me tell you something serious.

Speaker 2 This is one reason

Speaker 2 that I so badly want

Speaker 2 President Biden to be reelected. What I really miss is the job.

Speaker 2 Not doing it. I'm glad I believe in the two-term limit strongly.

Speaker 2 But what I learned was on the worst day,

Speaker 2 when nothing was going right and problems were everywhere, there was still something you could do

Speaker 2 that would make somebody's life better. I love that.
There is no job like that on earth. I love that.
And I want somebody

Speaker 4 that I trust.

Speaker 2 to make the most of that every day. Thank you.
Because there'll be bad days no matter who gets elected. But he'll get up and he'll start thinking about that.

Speaker 2 And I think his opponent will be thinking about himself.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 who I can get even with, you know, who I can send away, who I can manage. His judgment.
Joe Biden will make the best of the bad days. And the team

Speaker 3 that you have assembled and your comfort with with deferment, you know,

Speaker 3 you're, I don't know, for me personally, I just, I love leaders that have the confidence confidence to hire those that they respect, that might make them a little nervous.

Speaker 2 And also not to think that you're the, that you're, that, that, that every idea is you're

Speaker 2 that you're going to have every, you know, we've had people like, we had leaders like that in the middle part of the last century who were put into government by uh presidents of uh old uh and they and they made a lot of decisions that they thought that they were right about and and they were they were terrible people and when you let somebody when that happens when you think that you've got all the answers is the moment you don't.

Speaker 3 Like Ron Klain, you know, bringing us out of COVID.

Speaker 3 And on and on and on, the way in which that you've surrounded yourself with the absolute best this country has to offer.

Speaker 2 I made a commitment. I have an administration that looked like America.

Speaker 2 I have more women in my cabinet. I have more.
I've appointed more black circuit court judges than every other president combined in American history.

Speaker 2 I've kept my commitment about putting a black woman on the Supreme Court. I've had an opportunity to go out and get the best people.

Speaker 2 And by the way, I sometimes pick the phone and ask these guys who they think are the best people.

Speaker 2 And I'm looking for people that

Speaker 2 most of all, though, not just are good, but care about what they're doing.

Speaker 3 Whereas the other guy is only hiring people that won't talk back. You know, and that's like...

Speaker 2 Well, mind talk back. Yeah.

Speaker 2 What are those things that you look back on? Because the other guy is,

Speaker 2 as we know, no capacity for this. And President Obama, I'll start with you.
What are the things that you think about that keep you?

Speaker 2 Are there things that you look back and you go, geez, I wish that had worked out a little bit better?

Speaker 2 Not necessarily regrets, but things that you would wish had.

Speaker 4 Handing off the baton

Speaker 4 in 2016,

Speaker 2 definitely.

Speaker 4 But

Speaker 4 I think Bill's point is the right one,

Speaker 4 which is

Speaker 4 when you're sitting in that office,

Speaker 4 you are essentially a relay runner. You've taken a bunch of problems from the previous president, and you're working through them as best you can.

Speaker 4 You're running the best race you can, and then you hand it off during that time where you've got the baton in your hand and you're running

Speaker 4 if you are focused on every day can i make things a little bit better because you're not going to make them perfect there are too many problems they're too hard if you can make them a little better

Speaker 4 then

Speaker 4 a lot of people are helped so the affordable care act wasn't perfect we didn't get everybody health insurance but we got

Speaker 4 tens of millions of people yeah really big

Speaker 4 We got tens of millions of people.

Speaker 2 You can say the real calm guy show you.

Speaker 1 That was a big fucking deal.

Speaker 4 We got tens of millions of people health insurance, and

Speaker 4 my successor tried to kill it, didn't succeed because it was starting to actually work. You get it passed on to Joe, and what does he do?

Speaker 4 He then takes what's already in place and builds on it. You know, expands the subsidies so that more people can start getting on it.
Expands Medicaid so that more people can get on it.

Speaker 4 And so,

Speaker 4 with all the changes he made, you know, healthcare in America is still not perfect. There's still folks who are

Speaker 4 having a tough time. But what has happened is that even more people have gotten coverage.

Speaker 4 And now Joe caps insulin at 35 bucks, which means that people who've got diabetes and really desperately need help, they're not getting price gouged.

Speaker 4 And he's negotiating with Big Pharma to make sure that drug prices are affordable the the way they are in Canada.

Speaker 2 Thank you, all together.

Speaker 4 And so

Speaker 4 what you get are

Speaker 4 these incremental steps.

Speaker 4 You're never satisfied, to answer your question, Will, you're never satisfied when you leave because there's always going to be a bunch of stuff that's undone.

Speaker 4 But I couldn't have done the Affordable Care Act if Bill hadn't made the efforts he did around the children's health insurance program.

Speaker 4 And Joe then builds on us. And that's what you're hoping for each and every time.
And let me say this: last point I'll make. It's not always just Democrats.

Speaker 4 George Bush and I had a huge number of differences,

Speaker 4 but he set up this program called PEPFAR

Speaker 2 that

Speaker 4 provided drugs and support and help for people in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world who had HIV during in the midst of the HIV AIDS epidemic.

Speaker 4 And because of his program, millions of lives, tens of millions of lives were saved.

Speaker 4 And we then built on that program. So

Speaker 4 it doesn't just have to be a partisan thing.

Speaker 4 Part of what you want, though, is somebody with Joe's decency and basic focus on the American people and who have a sense of responsibility to say, all right, I've inherited some stuff.

Speaker 4 Some of it's good. Some of it are problems.
What more can I do? And that's the attitude Joe has.

Speaker 2 We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 Some like it hot, but for most, a little spice goes a long way.

Speaker 1 Dorito's Golden Sriracha flavored tortilla chips are the perfectly balanced blend of yellow and green srirachas for a chip that's tangy and sweet with just the right amount of heat.

Speaker 1 Doritos Golden Sriracha are spicy, but not too spicy because Doritos knows bold flavor doesn't have to mean just heat. Try Dorito's Golden Sriracha for yourself.

Speaker 1 Look for them wherever Doritos are sold or find a store near you at Doritos.com.

Speaker 2 Doritos for the bold.

Speaker 1 Life is full of choices like deciding whether to try that new food trend, which celebrity story to believe, or if the latest show is worth a stream or a skip.

Speaker 1 At State Farm, their goal is to help you make decisions that you feel good about. And when it comes to choosing coverage, you can feel the same.

Speaker 1 The State Farm Personal Price Plan can help you create an affordable affordable price when you choose to bundle home and auto insurance. You have options to choose from to help best fit your needs.

Speaker 1 It's about giving flexibility, offering coverage that makes sense, and supporting smart decisions for both today and tomorrow. So planning ahead feels easier and empowering.

Speaker 1 Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the Personal Price Plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Speaker 1 Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer.
Availability, amount of discounts, and savings, and eligibility vary by state.

Speaker 5 The family that vacations together stays together. At least, that was the plan.
Except now, the dastardly desk clerk is saying he can't confirm your connecting rooms. Wait, what?

Speaker 6 That's right, ma'am. You have rooms 201 and 709.

Speaker 5 No, we cannot be five floors away from our kids.

Speaker 4 The doors have double locks, they'll be fine.

Speaker 5 When you want connecting rooms confirmed before you arrive, it matters where you stay.

Speaker 2 Welcome to Hilton.

Speaker 5 I see your connecting rooms are already confirmed. Hilton for this day.

Speaker 1 So then what are the issues coming up that people are focusing on that you believe are the wrong things or they may be the right things and what should they be focusing on?

Speaker 2 I think they should be focusing on a couple things. Number one, we're going to, in the second term, God willing, we're going to make sure that we do something about gun violence in this country.
Yes.

Speaker 2 The idea that we allow assault weapons to be sold in magazines with 100 rounds is just bizarre.

Speaker 2 Well, President Biden, I'm so glad to hear you say that because that was going to be my other question,

Speaker 2 which is,

Speaker 2 the Democrats never said we want to take your guns away.

Speaker 2 Absolutely not. You never said that.
No, by the way. We've got to be smart about what you said.
We just don't need to kill a deer with an XR-15. The Second Amendment,

Speaker 2 which I, when I taught law school, the Second Amendment wasn't absolute ever. You weren't able to have a cannon when you were, you know,

Speaker 2 decide

Speaker 2 the liberty is watered with the blood of patriots. I mean, it's a bunch of crap.
Well, it kind of brings us back to.

Speaker 2 President, we have a listener question that he already knows about, but if you want to read it to him, it's a listener call-in question. Uh-oh.
Okay. This is unusual, but I think I know who it's from.

Speaker 2 We have a caller here.

Speaker 3 Mr. President, I'm assuming he's talking about Mr.

Speaker 3 President Biden here. You have done so much for this country in the past three short years.
You've been the architect of an incredible bipartisan infrastructure deal.

Speaker 3 Under your leadership, America has been running a a white-hot economy, inflation has been plummeting, and unemployment remains at an all-time historic low.

Speaker 3 But like so many Americans, I dread the possibility of having to listen to the grating voice of a narcissist man-child on our airwaves for God knows how many more years.

Speaker 3 He's a bully that can barely manage his own personal, his personal own life. I have a feeling this is about me.
Has the strangest tan. No, that's Will.

Speaker 3 And he takes golf way more seriously than any adult man should. So, Mr.
President, my question is, now that you're sitting directly across from Will Arnett,

Speaker 3 is there nothing you or Congress can do to get him to shut his big fat mouth? I'll take my question, my answer off the air. That's Justin T.
from New York City.

Speaker 2 Justin Thoreau. Justin Thoreau sleepless.
We don't know if it's Thoreau. Justin,

Speaker 2 there are certain powers that are beyond the president.

Speaker 2 And that's well beyond my presidential power. I asked you, President Biden, last time, if you'd make me Gulf Czar, and you never answered me.

Speaker 2 I had to call Trump.

Speaker 2 He wasn't sure. I want to know, like,

Speaker 2 I just wanted to say we're kind of back at where we started, which was the whole idea of

Speaker 2 the messaging and what's good for people. And we're all so hung up on, are you Democrat, are you blue or red? Yeah, but that's what a campaigns are for.
Look,

Speaker 2 the average voter

Speaker 2 wants to do the right thing.

Speaker 2 But how much bandwidth do they have for politics? I mean, they got to pay the bills. They got to take care of the the kids' health care.

Speaker 4 They got to make sure

Speaker 2 the school business is all right if you have children who are school age. I mean there's just so many things they have to do.
That's our job. That's partly why we're here.

Speaker 2 That's why you're doing a public service by asking us questions.

Speaker 2 That's what campaigns are for. It seems like.
That's what you have to use them for.

Speaker 3 It seems like they're sort of making it sort of this binary choice between social issues or pocketbook issues.

Speaker 3 And if you're going to go for the social issues, then you're going to take a hit on the pocket. If you're going to vote for pocketbook issues, you're going to lose all the social issues.

Speaker 2 But here's the truth.

Speaker 2 The truth is, almost all the rational position on social issues and on those issues that are like unions, for example, they all, in fact, grow the economy if you do the right thing.

Speaker 2 They grow the economy.

Speaker 2 The economy grew under Bill, it grew under Joe, it grew under me.

Speaker 4 And the reason it grows is when everybody's got a stake, when everybody's making money, morale,

Speaker 4 when people are getting paid decent wages, they have decent benefits, they feel better, they go shopping.

Speaker 4 They might even listen to this podcast.

Speaker 2 They've got to be pretty bored.

Speaker 2 But the point is

Speaker 2 that

Speaker 4 American economic history shows whenever

Speaker 4 prosperity is broadly based,

Speaker 4 and all of us ran campaigns with this basic premise that if you give everybody a fair shot,

Speaker 4 everybody does better.

Speaker 2 So this whole idea that we got to somehow make it great again is a fallacy. It's such a joke.

Speaker 4 They got to fill in. We've never been in better air.

Speaker 2 And leads me to my next question. Die hard.
Is it a Christmas movie?

Speaker 2 I'm kidding.

Speaker 3 if President Biden if there was if you could if you could resurrect one person from the past to come hang out in the Oval Office you update them on on the current state of things what's their advice what who who would you who would you bring in to to give you some perspective on

Speaker 2 it would be a hard choice for me between

Speaker 2 Lincoln yeah because we are such a divided nation and how he dealt with it and

Speaker 2 and possibly

Speaker 2 possibly Roosevelt.

Speaker 2 But look, look,

Speaker 2 I think the country is in much better shape than we're talking about it.

Speaker 2 I don't mean financial. It is.
I mean, we have the best economy in the world, the strongest one in the world, period.

Speaker 2 Everyone, if you know all of how China's going to eat our lunch, notice who China's coming to talk to all the time now, right?

Speaker 2 The idea that Russia was going. I want to tell you a quote.
I got a call from Dr. Kissinger before he died, about 10 days before he died, and I asked me to give him a call.

Speaker 2 And I called, and he said the following thing. He said, you know, he said, not since Napoleon has Europe not looked over its shoulder at Russia with dread.

Speaker 2 And then you guys came along, you strengthened NATO, you expanded it, and that's changed. Wow.
You've changed it all. Well, this guy's changed it all, but he doesn't care.
He doesn't care.

Speaker 2 And that's what the rest of the world looks at and says, do you have any interest in

Speaker 2 our concern? And can you imagine us being able to avoid a European war? Can you imagine us why the hell we set up NATO in the first place?

Speaker 2 Can you imagine what we're, I mean, there's, it's just, he has no sense of anything.

Speaker 2 Well, he doesn't believe in anything. We know that, right? There's no.

Speaker 2 Well, he believes in one thing. He believes in selling what he's going to benefit him personally.
Right.

Speaker 2 Well, and

Speaker 4 I do think that there's one other thing.

Speaker 4 You were talking about, Jason, social issues versus economic issues. And

Speaker 4 why is it that sometimes things look good, but people don't feel good all the time. Part of it is, as I said before, things are changing.
Folks are nervous. But

Speaker 4 underneath all the polarization that people are getting through TikTok and

Speaker 4 social media and cable news.

Speaker 4 Bill's point about the average person just wanting to do the right thing. They actually don't want folks arguing all the time.
They're really not looking

Speaker 4 for sort of a

Speaker 4 death match

Speaker 4 on every single issue. They'd like to see people treating each other decently.

Speaker 2 Right. They don't want to go to Walmart and argue with their neighbor about whether they're aware of that.

Speaker 4 Or if you're at a little league

Speaker 4 and are you sitting at your kids' soccer game and you've got the parent next to you, you want to talk about kids and soccer.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 4 I do think that underneath all this

Speaker 4 demonization and anger

Speaker 4 that people make money off of

Speaker 4 and that gets a lot of clicks, people do want to see some decency and common sense. And I think Joe represents that, and his administration represents that.

Speaker 4 And if we can

Speaker 4 break through,

Speaker 4 all of us doing the work of a campaign, just to remind folks of what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature, then I think we're going to be okay.

Speaker 4 But the challenge we've got is anger and resentment and

Speaker 4 calling people names gets more attention.

Speaker 4 And we do have to, one thing we do have to, I'm not sure, Jason, that

Speaker 4 in order to do the show, the performance you talked about, that it has to be pugilistic, that it has to be hitting the other guy in the nose. It does have to be entertaining.

Speaker 4 I mean, you do have to be able to,

Speaker 2 Bill, Joe,

Speaker 4 me,

Speaker 4 when I'm doing okay,

Speaker 4 you know,

Speaker 4 it's about telling stories that people can relate to. Because people can't relate to facts and numbers and figures as much as they can relate to stories.

Speaker 2 And to personal experience. And personal experience.

Speaker 4 That's what people relate to.

Speaker 4 And that performing by telling people stories, reminding them who they are, what family means to them, what it means to struggle and overcome. Joe, you know,

Speaker 4 what he had to overcome in terms of getting where he was. Bill, a master storyteller, talking about what it was like growing up, single mom,

Speaker 4 Arkansas.

Speaker 4 Those are the things that really, I think, resonate with people. And if we can get more of that instead of the kind of name-calling that we're seeing out here, I think we'll do okay.

Speaker 2 That's why you let people know you understand what their concerns are.

Speaker 2 Look, I mean,

Speaker 2 think about it.

Speaker 2 Everybody's gone through some tough times. But one of the one they want to, my dad used to have an expression, swear to God.
He said, Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck.

Speaker 2 It's about your dignity. It's about respect.
It's being able to look your kid in the eye and say everything's going to be okay. And there's a shot of it.
That's what the three of us have tried to do.

Speaker 2 We've tried to, we're not, if you, look, if you want to be, if you can earn a billion bucks and you do it legally, great. I'm a capitalist, fine.
Just start paying your damn taxes.

Speaker 2 You know what a billionaires pay in taxes? By the way, we have just one example, the extreme. We have a thousand billionaires in America right now.

Speaker 2 If they pay to 25% instead of 8.2% what they pay now, just 25%, it'd raise $400 million over the next billion dollars over the next 10 years.

Speaker 2 We could take care of child care, which increases productivity.

Speaker 2 We could take care of elder care, which increases productivity.

Speaker 3 Pay 40?

Speaker 2 Look, here's the deal. That's what everyone else is paying.
Now who's Canadian? Yeah. That's what I was thinking.

Speaker 2 No, no, but I'm just making the point that you don't have to be extreme in anything to get this done.

Speaker 2 Don't forget that

Speaker 2 Trump's dad once said, get that family out of 14G.

Speaker 2 Hey,

Speaker 2 listen.

Speaker 2 Listen.

Speaker 2 If this comes out

Speaker 2 and it's helpful at all, is there a chance that the three of us could be on a bill of your designation, President Biden? Maybe a special $250 bill or something? Something

Speaker 2 with our dumb faces on it. Yeah, I think it should be.
Think about it. Don't give us an answer.
We'll see you at the inauguration. $3 bill.
$3 bill.

Speaker 2 Thank you. Well, I've been called as queer as a $3 bill.
But anyway. Honestly, listen, we've taken up way too much of your time.
You gentlemen are very, very busy.

Speaker 2 We thank you for being here. We really, really are doing this.
Thank you. It's just moving to be a good one.
Thanks, guys. Thanks for being here.
Thank you so, so much. Really important.

Speaker 2 Appreciate it. Thank you, guys.

Speaker 2 We've had a great time. Thank you.
Have fun tonight. Thanks.
All right, guys.

Speaker 2 Wow. Oh, boy.
That was cool. That was.

Speaker 2 That happened right there.

Speaker 3 I'm very proud of us for

Speaker 3 keeping it together, keeping it coming.

Speaker 2 How are you feeling? How are you guys feeling about it? That's crazy, right? Yeah.

Speaker 3 I just feel very, I feel like I'm in good hands right when i'm around those guys absolutely boy um anyway that was uh a real um uh privilege for the three of us i agree i hope our listeners enjoyed that as much as we did irrespective of your political affiliation um being able you know three knuckleheads like us sitting across from three um leaders of the free world is uh

Speaker 3 nothing the three of us ever expected we'd be able to do so absolutely thank you guys as listeners

Speaker 3 enabling that

Speaker 2 How about the secret service people on the way in and on the way out?

Speaker 2 Sean was disappointed because he had heard, he was under the impression that we were going to have a visit to the secret circus, and he thought that that was the thing.

Speaker 2 He thought that there was a secret. Yeah.
And so he thought,

Speaker 1 I bought peanuts.

Speaker 2 And he said he wanted to see bears riding bicycles.

Speaker 2 And I'm like, I could see that at home for free.

Speaker 1 Wait, so let me ask you guys,

Speaker 1 were you nervous? Because at the beginning of it, I remember saying,

Speaker 1 I thought I'd be more nervous, but because they're so relaxed and I feel like, you know, they just speak so freely. You feel like you connect with them that

Speaker 1 the nerves went away a little bit.

Speaker 3 They're very good at disarming

Speaker 3 the folks that are sitting across from them.

Speaker 2 They were very chillaxed. I found them to be very chillaxed, and that's how I would describe it.

Speaker 1 But then when I wasn't talking, I was nervous. And I was listening to you guys.

Speaker 2 I got to say, I felt pretty chillaxed. Like, I, and I know, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 I'm gonna say it one more time. I'm gonna hang up.

Speaker 2 Okay, I'm gonna

Speaker 2 shut this topic. I want it back.
I want it back.

Speaker 3 By the way, I think it was you that explained to me what the Netflix and chill phrase is. I never knew what the hell that meant.
It annoyed me quite a bit.

Speaker 3 But then, was it you that told me it's code for having sex?

Speaker 2 Is that right? Well, like, I don't know if I want to get into more like the fact that you're a dad or that we're back in 2017. I don't know which one I want to hit first.

Speaker 2 Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 By the way, have you guys heard this band, Public Enemy?

Speaker 2 Fuck me, man.

Speaker 2 You're killing me.

Speaker 2 This is a group. You're right.

Speaker 2 I do want to say with the presidents, it was incredible. You know,

Speaker 2 and I mentioned this too, which was that the one thing that you can't deny, no matter where you are on the sort of political spectrum, if you will, is that under President Biden, the jobs numbers have been incredible.

Speaker 2 And I think that he has earned the moniker. Yeah.
Joe Jobs.

Speaker 3 Joe Jobs. He is Joe Jobs.

Speaker 2 To me, he's Joe Jobs. That is great.
That's great.

Speaker 2 Joe Jobs.

Speaker 3 Joey Jobenstein.

Speaker 2 Sure, Joey Jobs.

Speaker 2 Whatever you want, Joey.

Speaker 2 Joey Jobs.

Speaker 1 Joe Jobs is great. I love that Joey.
Joe Jobs.

Speaker 2 Well, because what?

Speaker 3 Unemployment is at a 50-year

Speaker 2 low.

Speaker 2 Right. I think we covered.

Speaker 1 The economy is at an all-time high.

Speaker 2 It really is.

Speaker 3 Inflation is going to work itself out, but that's not his fault at all. That was something that pre the COVID and the whole, all that other stuff I'm not smart enough to describe.

Speaker 2 No, and we never went into that recession that they thought would happen and that a lot of that was due to

Speaker 2 supply chain stuff, issues, et cetera, et cetera. So we're definitely back on, but the one thing that you can't argue with is the jobs.
Like, it's just

Speaker 2 irrefutable, right? So again, I don't care where you fall. I'm not saying he's better than your guy or your guy, whatever.
I mean, he is. But what I'm saying is...

Speaker 3 Whether you're a Republican or Democrat, you need a a job, and he's he's the guy that's bringing it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because he's Joe Jobs.

Speaker 1 So, you have Joe Jobs, so you have Obama and Clinton, and then we used this one before, but it's pretty beautiful.

Speaker 2 Go ahead, Sean.

Speaker 2 And Bye, and

Speaker 2 Bayon and Bayonne

Speaker 2 Smart

Speaker 2 Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Rob Armjarv, Bennett Barbico, and Michael Grantary.

Speaker 2 Smart Less.

Speaker 6 Holiday burnout is real. From delayed flights to unexpected guests and all the cooking and wrapping in between.

Speaker 6 That's why Coop Sleep Goods curated a gift guide, and everything is 25% off for a limited time.

Speaker 7 The guide is packed with award-winning pillows, best-selling super soft sheets, and cooling pillows for the hot sleepers in your life.

Speaker 6 Shop effortlessly this year by skipping the guesswork and wrapping a thoughtful gift they'll actually use every night.

Speaker 6 And don't forget, you deserve better sleep too, so go ahead, add an extra pillow or a sheet set for yourself. Everyone needs a good night's rest, so you can't go wrong with a gift from Coop.

Speaker 6 Visit coopsleepgoods.com/slash comedy to get 25% off their gift guide picks. That's COOP sleepgoods.com/slash comedy.

Speaker 1 You know those moments when you're trying to work through a complex problem and you can't stop until you found the answer?

Speaker 1 That's where Claude comes in, the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough.

Speaker 1 Whether you're planning something big, researching a topic you're curious about, or just trying to work through a problem, Claude matches your level of curiosity.

Speaker 1 Try Claude for free at claude.ai/slash smartless and see why the world's best problem solvers choose Claude as their thinking partner.