MM#350--It's Radical Amateur Hour In Chicago Tonite

0:07 Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser. Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. As is our custom, let's begin with our first pull quote. The place Washington DC. The time the near future Nearer than you think.

0:51 Chief of Staff Jeff Zents and Counselor Steve Reschetti, senior Advisor Mike Donilon and Senior Advisor Anita Dunn gather in the White House to discuss their options with First Lady Jill Biden. Age and infirmity have finally caught up with her husband. Despite every effort by family and staff to prop up the aging president, they can no longer hide the truth. President Joe Biden's time in office is over. As they wait for everyone to assemble, they start revisiting how they arrived at this moment. Why did they push for him to run for re-election? Did they really think he could make it another four years?

1:33 The signs of decline were already there. Staffers found him vacant and listless. While attempting to brief him ahead of public events, they created note cards. You take your seat, you give brief comments, you depart the instructions, read the teleprompter. Speeches grew shorter and simpler and interactions with the public and even supporters were dialed back. Long stretches of rest were carved out of his schedule. The press was shut out. To limit moments of embarrassment. There was only so much they could do. The frequent coughing could no longer be stifled with a few cough drops.

2:14 The stiffness grew more apparent as he walked to and from the podium. He lashed out angrily when questioned by the press and appeared lost and confused while aides directed him. The world was watching as the leader of the free world was repeatedly stumbling, falling on the stairs while boarding Air Force One, tipping over on his bicycle and tripping and falling on stage. Why did his trusted circle believe he could do it again? Because they wanted to. He was, after all, the only one who defeated former President Donald Trump. They thought, hoped he could pull it off once more. Biden was passionate about driving Trump and his entire political movement into the dustbin of history.

2:59 Defeat Trump, defend democracy and restore the soul of the nation. That was all part of why they pushed the president to keep going. But deep down they knew the real reason he had to run again. Vice President Kamala Harris was not up to the job. How captivating was that opening of a book. It was written and published in January of 2024. So the events just described could almost be spot on. Will we ever get the real scoop of what happened to Joe Biden and the silent coup from Nancy Pelosi and possibly Barack Obama.

3:44 News articles are coming out drip by drip by drip and we will have a real reporter and historian who will step up and write that tale of what has all the markings of a Greek strategy. Now this book started off so good and I'm not done with it, but I'm crushing it on Audible in the title because you'll love it. Amateur Hour by Charlie Spearing. Kamala Harris in the White House. Let's go back to the book. They should have known, realized that this was coming.

4:27 In modern history, many vice presidents have stepped in and taken power suddenly in cases of ill health or a national tragedy or near misses. William McKinley's assassination elevated Teddy Roosevelt. Woodrow Wilson had a stroke. Dwight Eisenhower had a heart attack. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president just hours after President John F Kennedy was murdered. Vice President Gerald Ford took office after President Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace. Ronald Reagan came within an inch of losing his life in 1981. Not since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died at the age of 63 had a president died in office after struggling with health problems, requiring, in FDR's case, vice President Harry S Truman to replace him.

5:18 Truman was ready and experienced, served as a senator for Missouri for 10 years before he was elected as vice president, heir apparent to the aging Roosevelt, as Democrats felt confident running him for his historic fourth term. And let's stop there. We now know that Harry Truman was in fact not ready and not experienced, contrary to what most liberal historians have taught us for the last 50 years. So it's a little surprise when Charlie wrote this in the book.

5:59 Certainly just be caught up with trying to read up on certain parts of history. And he picked up most of this repetitive history from liberal liberal historians. I just finished a very good book, accent to Power, that pretty much documents how unready and how unexperienced Truman was on the world stage. The reason he wasn't ready in anything dealing with FDR is because, frankly, he was a last-minute compromise to FDR, because the current vice president in the fall of 1944 was Henry Wallace, an almost certain communist, and the power brokers behind the Democratic Party at the time knew that FDR, if he ran, if FDR ran again with Wallace on the ticket, he would lose big time.

6:53 The country had known FDR had been becoming more and more and more ill each and every day throughout 1943 and most of 1944. And that the VP most eventually would have to step in. So those power brokers demoted Vice President Henry Wallace, of which FDR made him Secretary of Commerce in 1945. Now Wallace would later be dismissed by the Truman administration for too many disagreements with the cabinet, mainly over Truman's hardline stance towards the Soviets. And then, ultimately, wallace would run for president on the progressive ticket in 1948, in which he advocated closer cooperation with the Soviets.

7:43 Now he was beaten badly, so no one remembers his name. Now back to Truman. They elevated Harry Truman into the vice president position coming out of the convention in the summer of 1944. The problem was, when FDR died, truman was not briefed on anything. In fact he had very little interaction at all with the president. The book Accent to Power describes just how little the interaction was. A meager 82 days before FDR passed is what Harry Truman was on the job as vice president. Now, could Harry Truman have been preparing for that faithful day?

8:27 Yes, but the sheer hubris and FDR's dominating personality never allowed for that. I highly recommend this book for those who want to know more about this particular period in US history, because it's quite fascinating. Let's go back to the book about Kamala Harris. Vice President Kamala Harris's many struggles and mistakes during her first years in office were top of mind the thin-skinned outrage, perceived grievances around every corner, the staff bullying and endless turnover. The mockery, the refusal to be a team player, a brain stroke away from the presidency.

9:13 Harris appeared artificial on stage, never willing to engage or risk her brand, and constantly playing defense. Engage or risk her brand and constantly playing defense. Her speeches lacked conviction and spiraled into word salads. Tough questions were answered with laughter and dismissal. Harris barely suppressed her impatience and disdain for the president, despite reading platitudes from the teleprompter. After less than four years in the Senate, she was not a dealmaker, a consensus builder or even a conduit to the activist. Her presidential campaign, where she launched a bitter but ineffective attack on Biden during one of the debates, was a notorious flop.

9:56 Instead of playing dutiful backup to the president, harris was trying to write her own political narrative. Instead of playing dutiful backup to the president, harris was trying to write her own political narrative according to her roles. She was in no position to take over for Biden and lead the Democratic Party into the future, but there was no way the Biden team could replace her on the ticket in 2024. That would be omitting a huge mistake. It's a mistake that cannot be fixed. As Harris prepares to take the oath of office, biden's aides realize that their power to manipulate the future is gone. They will be forced out of the White House and President Kamala Harris will take control. So, as you can tell, this actually did not happen.

10:40 But boy oh boy, does Charlie Spearing almost nail it Exactly, very close to what could have been and perhaps very close to what actually did happen as we sit here in the middle of August 2024 during the DNC convention. Again, this book is Amateur Hourala harris in the white house by charlie spearing. It was published in january 2024 and, like I said, charlie almost nailed what actually happened. He could have almost perfectly predicted the future when this book was published, way back in January of 2024.

11:21 Nevertheless, for those that cannot fathom the word salads the utter navel gazing in the radical, radical nature of the Democrats presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who will speak tonight, as we are recording this for Thursday's upload. She will speak tonight in perfectly scripted teleprompter words, I almost guarantee it. And for all that, I offer you this book Amateur Hour because this will truly become amateur hour for the whole country. In fact, it will not only become amateur hour, but it will become radical amateur hour, because Kamala Harris is clueless on so many of the most important issues of the day.

12:08 This book offers a critical examination of VP Harris's political career and her time in the White House. Spearing is a former political reporter for the Washington Examiner and for Breitbart News, and he presents a detailed investigation into Harris's ascent to the vice presidency, describing her journey as marked by incompetence and controversy, From her tenure as California prosecutor to her role as a US senator. Well, charlie describes it as utterly horrific, and her presidential campaign Charlie describes as well.

12:54 One word, two words, actually frankly disastrous. The book also covers her initial years as vice president, portraying them as tumultuous and very ineffective. According to Spearing, harris's rise to the second highest office in the country was not based on merit, but rather on identity politics, suggesting that her selection was influenced by gender and race rather than her qualifications. In fact, let's go back to the book for another quote. Before we do that, I just want to highlight one quote from this whole book, and here it is. This book will explore what Harris believes and chronicle her willingness to say anything, to prove herself to the hard left by approving and adopting some of their most radical ideas, by approving and adopting some of their most radical ideas.

13:44 That quote alone should send chills and notions of nausea for every American, no matter their gender or political affiliation. Kamala Harris is truly a radical's radical. You can read the book for yourself about her rise from San Francisco radical to a DC radical. But to get specific on just one issue perhaps the most important issue outside of the economy in this election in 2024, is illegal immigration. Here our radical amateur takes center stage. Here our radical amateur takes center stage.

14:32 The single number one policy issue Vice President Harris has had charge over was illegal immigration and the crisis that was happening at our southern border. In fact, let's go to the book to hear about how it all went down. Just three months after taking office, the Biden administration had a full-scale migration crisis on their hands. Quote we are on a pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have had in the last 20 years. Senator of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said on March 16th. He was right. Thousands of unaccompanied minors, families and single adults continued pouring across the border as patrol agents took 172,331 migrants into custody in the month of March alone.

15:15 It was the highest number of detainments in the border since March 2001. Images of children in overstuffed detainment centers emerged and Republicans pointed directly at Biden's failed leadership. The crisis was the predictable result of Biden's campaign rhetoric promising open borders. On the campaign trail, biden rarely made a distinction between legal and legal immigrants, comparing them to his ancestral family from Ireland, who traveled aboard coffin ships and risked everything for a chance to build a better life. Biden also vowed during the presidential campaign to overturn President Donald Trump's effort to secure the border, and vowed there would not be another foot of wall constructed along the border with Mexico if he were elected president.

16:05 By inauguration day, biden made a public spectacle of signing five, five executive orders on immigration. He also ordered a 100-day moratorium on deportations by ICE and promoted his plan to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants. For all of Biden's rhetoric about humane immigration policy, he was only making conditions worse for migrants, and so that is the context, that's the backdrop, that's the backstory of how Kamala Harris comes onto the stage when the spotlight was the brightest on Kamala Harris, when the country needed her to step up and be a big girl for the good of the country.

16:52 This was the most important policy for the whole country and we needed her to rise, the occasion we needed her to do the hard work. How did she react? What steps did she take? What policies did she recommend? What advice did she give the president? Let's go back to the book. Harris had little experience as the leader of controlling immigration and border security, as San Francisco was one of the oldest and proudest sanctuary cities in the nation and the state of California continued making it easier for illegal immigrants to remain.

17:33 Biden mentioned the importance of Harris handling the quote root causes of the crisis, but felt comfortable shifting the entire narrative to her, putting her on a pedestal as a smart and capable leader. Quote. She's leading the effort because I think she's the best thing. I think the best thing to do is to put someone who, when he or she speaks, they don't have to wonder about. Is it where the president is when she speaks? She speaks for me, doesn't have to check with me, she knows what she's doing. I hope we can move this thing along, but so, madam Vice President, thank you. I've given you a tough job and you're smiling, but there's no one better capable of trying to organize this for us, end quote.

18:22 Now, on the surface, harris was smiling while her allies were furious. Was the West Wing trying to single-handedly sabotage her political future. Republicans could not believe it. Joe Biden had branded his rookie vice president as the border czar. Wasn't long before Republicans displayed at a press conference a picture of Kamala Harris on a milk carton reading Missing at the Border. Harris was quick to react, trying to wiggle out of the political millstone that had been tied around her neck. Aides tried to clarify her role. As Harris insisted, she was not a border czar and wasn't even supposed to focus on the US border itself, but instead on the causes of migration in the home countries of the Northern Triangle.

19:10 She wasn't going to let anyone tell her otherwise, not even President Biden. In April, biden and Harris met with a congressional black caucus behind closed doors. Biden praised the vice president and said she would do a hell of a job handling the migration crisis, but Harris corrected the president in front of everybody, according to reports, reminding him she was only handling the northern triangle portion of the immigration crisis. Harris began her new assignment cautiously as her staff assembled a round table of experts to talk about the migration crisis. On April 14th, harris tried to explain how she could help fix the migration crisis by promoting economic development in the migrants' home countries by invoking the theme song to the famous set in Boston Quote.

20:05 You know to use a phrase from an old television show Cheers. You know where everybody knows your name. She said in her opening remarks, reciting words from the show's theme song Most people don't want to leave their home, and you have heard that refrain. Harris did not want to be the border czar, but that's what the president of the United States said she was. He called her the border czar and that she would do a hell of a job. So what was the hell of a job she did? After Harris's failure on the border, biden and his team realized they would have to address the issue themselves.

20:51 The vice president did fewer public events on the border crisis as record numbers of migrants continued crossing the border. Biden was loathe to give in to Republican demands for him to visit the border, but the immigration narrative had to be reset by January 2023,. Biden personally visited the border and even spoke with border officials. He also appeared with Harris at the White House to deliver remarks on the crisis Quote. Today I'd like to the vice president and I would like to talk to you about how my administration is dealing with our situation in the southwest border. He said. Harris stood behind the president as he spoke, but she did not deliver any remarks.

21:38 In May of 2023, the administration braced for an influx of migrants into the United States. As Title 42, a Trump-era provision allowing migrants to be expelled at the border expired, kamala Harris was nowhere to be seen. Governor Abbott of Texas used the occasion to send more busloads of migrants to Harris' home in Washington DC, reminding everyone how she was failing on the issue of immigration. Rather than relying on Harris, the West Wing took the lead, deploying 1,500 troops to the border to handle the crisis. The vice president, however, was deployed to Atlanta for a fundraiser. On May 11, two more busloads of migrants from Texas arrived outside her home.

22:23 Two more busloads of migrants from Texas arrived outside her home. It did not stop Harris from ignoring the problem. When asked about the crisis in a local TV interview, harris dismissed the crisis and punted the question to Congress. You know, I hear that everything in the last couple of days is going rather smoothly, given what the concerns were, harris said. The bottom line, however, is that this issue of immigration falls squarely within the responsibility of the United States Congress. Unbelievable, what a joke. So she did nothing. She never reported to the American people what she did. She never reported what advice she gave the president.

23:04 We don't know. It was the biggest spotlight issue for the last three and a half years and Kamala Harris's report card is well incomplete. Or, as they say in golf, dnf did not finish. That's the only conclusion to make of all this. Kamala Harris is a radical and an amateur. She has more blunders and more missteps than Dan Quayle, who the Washington media used as a punching bag way back in the day for being the so-called weakest vice president in modern presidential history. At least Dan Quayle could talk. At least he could articulate a policy.

23:46 At least he knew what the hell was going on. Dan Quayle took ownership of policies. He could brief the press on what advice he'd given to the president. He could sit down and do an interview and not have word salad throw up all over himself. Kamala Harris is a radical's radical, and an amateur at that. In today's Mojo Minute, please pray for our country, because it is radical amateur hour in Chicago tonight. It will be on full display tonight and, as I said last time, god help our country and let's try, try to keep fighting the good fight.

24:36 Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacad academycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.