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One Year Without Charlie Kirk: How His Absence Changed the Right

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Join Jim and Greg for the Thursday 3 Martini Lunch as they reflect upon the one year anniversary of Charlie Kirk's assassination and what has happened since, AI whistleblowers warning that the technology could kill all of us within a decade, President Trump's promise of $5,000 checks if Republicans keep control of Congress, and Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman participating in the GOP midterm convention.

First, they mark one year since the horrific, public murder of TPUSA Founder Charlie Kirk in Utah. They discuss the huge hole Charlie leaves in the conservative movement, the disgusting conspiracy theories Erika Kirk and others have been forced to endure, and how the right is more fractured without Charlie here.

Next, they react to a former Anthropic employee saying Anthropic and OpenAI are not operating responsibly, that AI will soon be beyond their control, and that it will kill all of us within the next decade. Jim and Greg don't think humanity will be wiped out over the next 10 years but they are bothered by tech company leaders who don't seem to care if they lose control of this technology.

Then they wince as President Trump promises $5,000 checks to every adult citizen if Republicans maintain majorities in the House and Senate. Jim and Greg explain how cutting checks like this over the past several years has not been good for our economy.

Finally, they discuss Sen. Fetterman taking part in the GOP midterm convention. Jim points out that Fetterman is hated on the left and too liberal for the right. So will Fetterman run for re-election and what will that look like?

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One Year Without Charlie Kirk: How His Absence Changed the Right

3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

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3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & CommentaryOne Year Without Charlie Kirk: How His Absence Changed the Right. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

Welcome to the 3 Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America and Jim Garrity of National Review. 3 Martini's coming up. So glad you're with us for the Thursday edition of the 3 Martini Lunch so much to get to today. We should also let you know that tomorrow, of course, is the 25th anniversary of the horrific 9-11 attacks. Tomorrow's the 4 Martini Lunch. Tomorrow's the 4 Martini Lunch. Today's the 1 year anniversary of the brutal murder assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University last year in public. So many of us saw the images on social media and elsewhere that we wish were never in our minds, but they're impossible to scrub out. And so I think it's appropriate to think about the year that we've seen since then. I think in a couple different ways. It's been a really lousy year.

It's been a lousy year, obviously, for the Kirk family and for many of the folks at TPUSA, not only dealing with the devastating loss of Charlie Kirk, but also having to deal with the insanity, the evil insanity, the likes of Candace Owens, and others constantly projecting that it was Israel. It was Erica. It was TPUSA. It was an inside job on an onikos and just absolutely relentless and only she cares and all this garbage. I would also argue that the rights never been all under marching and locked step. That's probably a good thing. It's a bigger tenth than the Democrats, even though the Democrats don't like to think that way. But I feel like the party's more fractured without Charlie Kirk on scene to kind of try to hold it together. Tucker Carlson's gone much further off the rails in the last 12 months. So of other people. The impact of this is significant, the emotional impact that we had back then. Significant understanding his role within the movement, I think has become a bigger deal and not having him around to kind of put out a lot of the fires has been very noticeable.

You know, Greg, it is ironic and painful. We have two back-to-back painful anniversaries. The 9.11 attacks do not feel like they were 25 years ago, even though I have some young adults around in my life who weren't born then. But also this recognition that Charlie Kirk, that feels like it was more than a year ago. That feels like it's we've been living in the post-Charlie Kirk assassination world for a much longer time than that. And I concur with you. This has not been a good year. Not everyone in the country is responsible for this, but I do feel like our political culture has responded to that horrific, never justifiable event in two intertwined bad ways. One was obviously the reaction from the left. I thankfully was not many democratic officeholders or people in significant positions of responsibility, but one of the side effects of living in an era of social media is that anybody can jump online and instantly share their thoughts. And there was this question of, do you want your kid taught by a teacher who felt great

hearing that Charlie Kirk had been assassinated? Do you want your company? If you're, you know, should your employer fire you? Does your company worry about damage to its reputation if you went out there and metaphorically danced on someone's grave? And I think that that, you know, ideally this should trigger some soul searching. I think one of the things that's been really bothersome about this is that apparently none of these people have anyone in their lives who could say, what's wrong with you? What? No, like even if you hated the guy, even if you couldn't stand as politics, nobody deserves to die that way. Nobody deserves to be murdered and cold blood with, you know, all the people who were in that audience who were traumatized by the side of that. We have, so then we have that. And then on the intertwining side, the sheer number of folks on the right side of the aisle, most notably Candace Owens, but she's not completely alone, who have chosen to believe that this is the Rosetta Stone for all conspiracies and that there's always some other countries, some other faction, the Jews, Israelis, the French, Brigitte Macron, you name it, some point Candace Owens has claimed that she was involved in it.

And thankfully, there are only folks on the right who've said, this is ridiculous, this is aesonine, there's no evidence for this as a trial going on with the actual sassin. The investigation itself got wrapped up pretty quick. This is not the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination. This is all pretty straightforward. But they can bother some thing and look, it's a free country. Watch whatever you want to watch. I know people think my habits are weird. People like you voluntarily watch jet games. But if you're voluntarily listening to Candace Owens, and my friend, Mickey, did the back of the envelope calculations on how many people are watching and how much this has increased the payouts for Candace Owens, it is really considerable. And I don't get why you'd watch that. I don't see the appeal. I don't understand why you'd want to hear that Candace Owens basically throws a dart at a map and says that country was behind the assassination of Charlie Kirk. And it's just something very disturbing about that. And again, our audience is overlapped very much. But in the rare case, you are listening to Candace Owens and you find that entertaining.

Rethink your decisions in life. Rethink how you got to this point and reevaluate because there are, really honestly, even watching the jets isn't that painful. And I just don't think that there's any reason to add fuel to the fire of this. Are there folks in our political leadership who are not great? I didn't love it when... I thought it was an amazing moment when Erica Kirk said that she forgave the assassin. Maybe on some level, I related to Donald Trump saying, I don't forgive my enemies. I don't know if I'd have the strength to do that. I don't know if I have the Christian forgiveness within me to forgive someone who killed someone I love. But no, it's been a rough year. And his absence has felt in ways I don't think we ever would have foreseen. And I think that the fracturousness of the... It is one part that no one could have replaced Charlie Kirk, but I also get the feeling Greg, there are not that many figures in the conservative world who want to replace Charlie Kirk and be that sort of bridge builder. And certainly I think there's a lot of understandable cynicism on the right about what is the value of engaging with the left if Charlie Kirk tried that and he got murdered for it.

I think some people have tried to become the next Charlie Kirk. There's not going to be exactly another Charlie Kirk. And if it's... There's never another Rich Limbaugh. There was never another Newt Gingrich or Ronald Ritt. You can't be the next X. The only thing you can be is the first U. And hopefully that first U will be pretty good. And like you said, there were disgusting comments last year. There's disgusting comments this year. Hat tip to lips of TikTok finding and I think forwarded. Internal messages from California's Claremont College's chats with things like Happy Kirk Miss Eve, everyone, who wants to be my Kirk and Tyne on the 10th. I'm going on a Kirkiversary bender starting Thursday and even have people talking about getting hikis on their neck in the same spot where he was shot. Jim, there's a big chunk of this population that's not well. No. And like again, where are these people's families? Where are these people's friends? Is it, you know, like if you found out that any of your friends are family, we're talking about anyone. And I'm probably, you know, I won't even do my usual Adam Gace joke here.

I'm probably, you know, you and I really vehemently disagree with Bernie Sanders. I don't want to see Bernie Sanders assassinated. I hope he lives to be a hundred, not that far away. But nonetheless, I hope he, you know, lives a long and happy life with his three homes as a socialist. Like I'll make fun of him. And I, you know, don't, I prefer voters of Vermont did not return him and I don't want him to be this big, influential voice of the Democratic Party. But I don't want the person to suffer. What's the other? There's a, there's a, there's sadistic impulses in people that I think has, has, you know, been revealed by all this, which is deeply troubling. We should not walk through life hoping to see misfortune happen to other people. Again, thoughts, what certainly with Erica and the family and those who knew him well worked with them. It's got to be a very, very tough day. First anniversaries of losses, especially shocking losses, always are. And so, uh, print that heels slowly over time and that justice is done in that case. All right. Well, let's talk about making sure that you are okay. And that makes it necessary to go to the doctor once in a while.

That's the annual checkup. Maybe seeing that specialist that your primary recommended. Maybe it's fine. A new doctor that you like better for all that stuff. Go to ZockDock. ZockDock lets you search and compare local in network doctors. You can even find an appointment without having to call anyone. Jim and I have both of you. ZockDock, we've had great results. I was going to say if you're the kind of person who procrastinates and doesn't want to go to the doctor, ZockDock will make your procrastination much harder. You're going to not have nearly as many excuses because you get to see actual appointment openings and you can click to instantly book a visit. Appointments happen fast, usually within 24 to 72 hours and you can even score same-day appointments sometimes. Your health matters and taking care of yourself should not be complicated. Find and book the right doctor with ZockDock. Head to ZockDock.com slash 3ML to get started and check that appointment off your to-do list. That's zocdoc.com slash 3ML. All right, Jim, we're all going to die, which is true, but most people don't think we're

all going to die in the next decade. Unless you work in AI and that is certainly the situation right now. You write about it in the Jilt today, Axios is reported on Fox News and others have reported on it. Former anthropic AI, and that term still bugs me because anthropic is resorts to human. That's what the root of that word is is human. Anthropic AI research, Jacob Coxen, you write in the Jilt today, caused more than a little bit of a stir when he posted on X Tuesday evening. Quote, I resigned from anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pre-training research at both open AI and anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible, but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger.

Another guy who was anthropic named Evan Hubinger, that you quote in the Jilt today says, Jacob is correct. We really do believe AI could kill all humans. I personally think it is a greater than 10% chance within the next decade. I believe anthropic is trying its best, but we do not have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence that are not clearly on track too. Coxen was on Fox News Channel with Brett Barelastite saying, yes, it's a huge problem, but it's not unsolvable. He says, it's not like we think this is some impossible thing. It's just we're racing so fast we haven't got time to solve it correctly. We're not being careful and everyone wants to be careful. So he's sounding the alarm that we need to put some guardrails on this thing before it's too late and it sounds like it might already be too late. Jim, this seems like more concern than ending net neutrality is going to kill us all. Republican tax cuts are going to kill us all. This is probably overkill. But when the people who invent this stuff have no way to control it, it does become pretty alarming.

Greg, if someone who really understood how things work came to you and I and said, guys, I hate to tell you this, but if you continue doing the three martini lunch podcast, there's a 10% chance you could destroy human civilization and kill every human being on the planet. I think that's the end of the show. I think we just, I think it's not a great risk, but is it worth it to do the podcast if you know, it's going to kill that many people. Thankfully, no one has said that and so we are going to continue into perpetuity. So I try to walk through a lot in this, not try not to use one of my cliches, but there is a lot to unpack here. And I will begin the cox and I'm sure he's a bright guy. I don't know whether his message is considered more credible or less credible by the fact that he looks like he graduated from Hogwarts last week. A very bizarre Harry Potter resemblance there. Look, you know, anytime someone from the AI industry comes out and says, wow, I'm freaked out. I'm walking away from this and his co-workers say, yeah, but it's like 10%.

That still does not like most of us operate like the three martini lunch podcast. There's really a zero point zero chance we're going to destroy the universe just by doing this sort of thing. And I also would note when people say, you know, there's a 10% chance that our work might destroy all of humanity. I notice they never quite elaborate how they just kind of basically say at some point the AI will break out of containment and it'll become self-aware and everyone kind of reverts to James Cameron movies. And the whole thing out of this terminator thing was that, you know, and they explain this in the second one like the, you know, the SkyNet is this great program. The Defense Department loves it. Hooks it up to everything in the Defense Department, including the nuclear arsenal and effectively gives SkyNet the authority to launch nuclear weapons. And that's it launches them at Russia. I know it because it wants Russia to destroy the US government. And then before you know it, you've got giant metal skeletons walking across a devastated landscape. I think, as I've looked through, not just from the thriller research from other stuff,

like there's a lot of ways that if AI decided to mess with us, it could do so. One of the novels I wrote about quantum computing and like if somebody breaks through on this, you can make an argument that basically all firewalls and all computer systems are hackable. There's nothing safe anymore that basically these things that we think are utterly unbreakable, suddenly become breakable fairly easily. Now, that's really a bad Greg. I don't know if it ends with the Statue of Liberty in the beach and intelligence waves walking around like you go from like, oh, that would be really bad to that would be the end of human civilization. I don't know if necessarily get there. Now I also found article in the Wall Street Journal from early summer where basically people were using open AI and basically saying, how can I create a really devastating biological weapon? How can I create a strain of measles that we're resistant to the, that would infect those who already have vaccinations? AI doesn't have to become self-aware to become really destructive and the idea of enabling

people who are angry at the world or who have 11 intentions or something like and giving them ideas and giving them the knowledge that is necessary to do something that is really devastating. That would be really bad. That would be, honestly, we don't need the intelligent AI, self-aware AI. That by itself is really bad as is. And the other thing I kind of wonder about, and again, we could talk about this, you know, for hours and hours and we try not to make this podcast go too long. Greg, how many times in your life have you said except terms and conditions and it's like 40 pages of solid text in, you know, six point font. And they could have language in there. I have, you know, we reserve all rights to your firstborn and you just got to click, okay, because I want to use the app or something like that. You know, we live in an era with that in which God, we have no idea what we're agreeing to, you know, giving a company or an app access to our phone, to our computers, so that's to, we live in an era where our refrigerators are connected to the internet. We live in an era where our cars have computer systems. We live in an era where the idea of, oh, we've created this, this AI program that can alter

things and it might break out of its, you know, it may not operate by the rules we think it does. I found this fascinating article by the Washington Post tech columnist who says, I told the AI to find eggs that were cheap and it ordered a dozen eggs for $31 and they arrived at my house and I realized that when I gave it access to the supermarket app, I had forgotten it had access to my credit card and it just bought it by itself and it didn't bother me to check with me. So I could see a lot of problems coming out of that, the idea of, you know, we end up giving an AI access to that and this was not, you know, at no point was the AI ordering eggs must destroy humanity, you know, that sort of thing. It just was like, oh, I'm going to help you. I'm going to spend $31 and it doesn't eggs because you've not told me that is too much to pay. By the way, fairly generous tip from the AI. So I know when they say that AI is malevolent, I think it still takes care of workers, so good for that. But so like, there are real legitimate reasons to be concerned about AI and I would also

note that as someone who uses, you know, Microsoft Word to write the morning jolt and we use computers all the time, I don't love how AI is getting shoved in my face by every app, everything that I use Google, right? You know, oh, we're not going to give you links, we're just going to give you the AI explanation. Don't worry, you know, the inescapability of AI by the way, I think, but, you know, all of this, by the way, I think it's a driving factor in the panic over data centers. So look, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about. I've also heard people kind of not as convinced that this guy, Cox, knows as much as he seems to or as he's spent as much time there as he seems to. I again, you know, don't pay the other way. My closing note in the morning jolt was why 2K. You know, you and I are a certain age. We remember that was a very big deal and the US total spent like $100 billion updating the software for that stuff. So we've seen this sort of thing before where people are like, this is a really terrible deal. The world's going to end. I put up a link to this fascinating video of linear narrative by Leonard Nimoy, Spock. Talking about all the dangers of how the Y2K pug is going to destroy your society and

how you can help your family prepare. And of course, you know, January 1st, 2000, life went on. It was not a disaster the way the Doomsday predictions were. So you know, this is worth keeping an eye on. I would not go into a panic over it. I would not be, you know, digging a shelter in my backyard or moving out to the middle of nowhere. But nobody who gets involved in AI like joins, signs up to become a participant and to build it because they don't like it. Everybody gets into it because they like it and they see all the wonderful possibilities of it. I don't think there's a lot of pessimism in Silicon Valley. And as a Jets fan, who is very pessimistic. I think pessimism is always a good voice to have at the table. A couple of thoughts here. I'm sure at the time that Leonard Neymoy documentary was fascinating. As he always used to say, I spoke on Star Trek. Also, I've talked to some IT people and they differ on whether Y2K was a nothingburger or whether they had enough time to prepare for it. So it became a nothingburger. So I don't know if there's a parallel to AI there. Also Jim, prominent political figure.

I almost had the opportunity to interview who years ago wanted, I guess three years ago, wanted to put, bring the world together to put guardrails on AI kind of in a UN style. Michael Ducakis was trying to get everybody on board to put the guardrails on that. I ended up talking to his chief researcher who I couldn't understand to where he said because English was not his first language. So we didn't end up running the interview but Michael Ducakis was one of the first people concerned about this thing getting out of control. Well, you know, Greg, he's got the time to look into that sort of thing. Yes, yes, he's had lots of free time since, oh, 1990 when he stopped being governor in Massachusetts and not being in the White House. All right. Well, let's talk about your future. Let's hope you have one. I think you'll still have one. So it's still a good idea to prepare for retirement. I don't think AI is going to get you before then but you need to be ready for it either way. And you definitely need to make sure that your portfolio is diversified and that you have the most secure retirement possible. And that includes a chat with the good folks over at noble gold investments.

They'll explain the precious metals. Why that might be right for you. You make the decision. One thing that you want you to know though is that some of these emerging industries, whether it's AI, whether it's data centers on an onicus, silver is more and more critically important. You know, Greg, if and when we live in a terminator style apocalyptic landscape, is your 401k going to be accessible? Probably not. Is the green pieces of paper and your wallet going to be excess immorthewile? Well, gold would probably be worth it. But you know, if you don't take my word for it, you can always talk to the good people at noble gold investments. They're going to be able to explain it and probably give you a sense of like, look, even what if the world doesn't end is gold going to be valuable? Everything is transparent. They're not pushy. They're not high pressure. They see themselves as educators and they want to explain exactly what you're going to buy and why. Oh, in the middle of the future depends on visit noble gold investments dot com slash three ml. That's noble gold investments dot com slash three ml. Well, download the free investor kit, no pressure, just the information. And for a limited time when you open a new qualified account, noble gold will send you

a free 110,000 gold coin as a thank you gift available for qualified gold IRA accounts and cash purchases. That's noble gold investments dot com slash three ml. All right, Jim. We'll also get to the Republican midterm convention in our chaser. But it did kick off yesterday in Dallas. As we said on yesterday's three martini launch, there was some entertaining moments certainly along the way former jets kicker Jay Feeley, passionately talking about how we need to preserve our freedom. There was also Brandon Gill, one of our favorite congressional interrogators opening with a land acknowledgement that this is the greatest country on earth that has put forward some of the greatest people the planet has ever known as a also a way to mock up with the Democrats do is explain what Indian tribe used to hold the land but never gives it back. But anyway, President Trump speaking both days, he spoke last night. So one of the things he promises that if the Republicans keep the house and Senate, there

will be checks for all adult citizens. What we're doing is because we've done so well and because our country is making so much money that only I can make this promise to you. And here is my promise. If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, because of our economic tremendous economic success, like in history we've never had anything like what's happening. But because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000. So Brett Barra Fox News was among those saying last night, so you're basically telling people that they get $5,000 if they reelect Republicans, that's going to be seen potentially as a bribe.

Others of us are saying, look, we've done the checks. We've done the checks. We did it during COVID. Biden did it again. Biden then jacked up the spending by $1 trillion in the stimulus and then we ended up with massive, massive inflation. We don't need to go down the road again. We know exactly what happens. I was going to say Greg, when you give everyone in every adult in the country a $5,000 check, are you increasing the money supply or you decrease? You are increasing the money supply. Have you increased the supply of goods and services? No, you have not. What does that do? It makes the currency worth less. This is a formula for inflation. It's been been doubling this administration since it's inflation, cost of living. It is the equivalent of pouring gasoline onto a fire of the single biggest problem to most American voters. But note, by the way, Greg Trump said this right after he says we can't elect the Democrats because they'll enact socialism. Some of us see some irony there. The other thing is, first of all, everything he says from beginning to end is wrong.

The tariff revenue actually has not been off the charts. In fact, part of the reason is because we have to pay back the revenue after the Supreme Court ruled that some of the tariffs were not constitutional. By the way, if the tariff revenue is so terrific, could we get Congress to pass any of them? Well, we have done it. It's all been enacted by executive order and all stuff. Secondly, Trump said the Democrats can't do this. Traditionally, the Democratic Party was the more anti-free trade, more protectionist party. I notice when you listen to Democrats complaining about Trump and his tariffs now, they do not sound like Milton Friedman. They do not sound like they very much sound like, well, the Trump tariffs are bad because he's doing them wrong. The other one is the idea of, oh, this is only a Republicans could deliver something like this. But thirdly, so no, we don't have this much. We have a $40 trillion debt. That is what's driving up interest rates. That is what's driving more and more of our budget. The money that comes in has to be used to pay down that debt.

It's an astonishingly terrible idea. I'm just baffled by the notion that Republicans can beat the Democrats by sounding more like the Democrats. We're going to get into a bidding war and we're going to give the voter, we're going to give away more, we're going to become the free ice cream party, and then we're going to run to victory and all that stuff. Because one by the way, once you, let's assume this happens, well, then you've got to keep that promise and we're talking about trillions of dollars that we suddenly don't have. There is not coming in from tariffs. Oh, by the way, who pays the tariffs? US consumers ultimately, it makes everything more expensive. It's an important good. So kind of what we expected from the, like Greg, if this is September by October, I think Trump rallies are just going to look like the Joker at the end of the first Batman movie where he's at the parade. He's just throwing piles of cash around or something like that. That is where we're headed towards between now and the midterms at this rate. Yeah, we don't want that promise to be kept. We do want the Republicans to hold the House and send it. But if they conveniently forgot about that one, I think it would be good for all of

us. I'm certainly be good for the economy. I think somebody put the price tag on that of 1.3 trillion. That seems like, when we already got two trillion dollar deficits, that seems like a lot. Just give me my money back as much as you can in tax cuts and I'll decide what happens to it. I don't need it to wander it through the government. All right. In a moment, we are going to talk about another twist from the convention last night. But in the meantime, if you don't like the taste of what you're hearing from Libs on a variety of issues or even what you heard right there about $5,000 checks, Lorinco is the way to go. Lorinco is better for you chewing gum that uses the same mineral. Your teeth are made of to support daily enamel health. I love the toothpaste. I love the gum. My daughter loves the gum as well. And Jim, it all boils down to one amazing mineral. I was about to say, Greg, this probably ranks along our darkest, most depressing and gloomiest episodes. And so when you're in this state, what can you turn to? Nanohydroxyapetite. Nanohydroxyapetite is the mineral that your tooth enamel is actually made of.

And Lorinco can actually strengthen your enamel and repair the damage. Comes in tons of flavors, including mint, cinnamon, bubble gum, and berry. And let us not forget the great fluoride-free toothpaste they also offer. Right now, Lorinco is offering our listeners up to 50% off at buylorin.com slash 3ml. It's by Lorin. L-A-R-I-N-E.com slash 3ml for up to 50% off. All right, Jim, we're all quick here in our chaser. John Federman showed up sort of at the GOP midterm convention. He appeared by video to introduce his great friend and Pennsylvania Republican Senator, Dave McCormick, immediately issued a statement saying, this doesn't mean I'm not going to stay in the Democratic Party. I vote with you people 90% of the time. I think the number is slightly less than that, but it's still overwhelmingly most of the time, but you had folks on the CNN panel yesterday saying, he's a trainer to the Democratic Party. Other people saying, oh, he's certainly going to jump now. He insists he's not.

Other Democrats are telling some other Democrats to calm down because they think they need that vote in the next Congress and so forth. But it's a little bit further down the road when you start showing up at other people's conventions. I get the start of the week. I wrote it like this in my Washington Post column. I had been a skeptic of the notion that Federman was going to switch parties. The last number I'd seen was 78% of the time you votes with the Democratic Party. So if you're a Republican in Pennsylvania, why would you want a Senator who only votes your way roughly one out of every five times? Maybe you can get up to one out of four, but you figure you could find any replacement level Republican would do better. Now, if you're a Pennsylvania, I would say enjoy it while you have it, having one Republican Senator and one Democratic Senator who get along very well and work together on your state's priorities. That's really good, but that was used to be like fairly normal in the US Senate. It was not that rare to have states that had one Democrat and one Republican. And whatever else they thought of each other or other disagreements, they had to work together

to serve their constituents as best they can, and particularly to protect local industries and things like that. But I now look at something like this. Benjamin knows what he's doing. This is a highly symbolic gesture here. His odds of re-election, his approval rating amongst Republicans and Democrats has basically flipped over the last two years, which by the way demonstrates how little people pay attention to voting records. And I think if you're a Pennsylvania Republican, you can love the guy for his stance on Israel. You can vote. Love the guy for his stance on saying, you know, border security is not xenophobia. We love how he makes fun of Bob and Endez, who's now making license plates. He's a lot to like about the guy. And I'll see you be very glad that he recovered from the stroke as well as he has. But in the end, he's not really Republican. I do think he's very likely he's going to run for re-election, which is not a guarantee. He's going to run as an independent. I think his path, there's no way he wins a primary in that state. And again, I don't think it makes sense for him to switch to the Republicans because in the end, he is more left of center than he is right of center, even though he has some

very high profile exceptions to that. But something like this, look, is a nice thing to do for McCormick. Sure, does he kind of know that this is going to enhance his image as a guy reaches across the aisle, I'll sure. But also this is like if you, this is a Republican midterm convention. And a federalman shows up there. He's, you know, he is well along the road to Zell Millerdom. True, but Zell Miller never switched parties. He did give the keynote address of the 2004 Republican convention. So if John federalman shows up at the GOP convention in two years and says that the Democratic nominee is going to hollow out the military to the point where we're going to be left fighting with spitballs. Then you know he's gone full Zell Miller. Yeah, for a good point, but I think he's going on that road. That is the direction he's pointing in. Or Joe Lieberman, anistonus. That is the probably best parallel of a guy who lost his primary, ran as an independent and remained in the Senate for a believable, I said, Joe Lieberman, former 3-Martini lunch podcast guest, I should point out. Yeah, absolutely. Go back in the archives and listen to Joe. We talked to him just before the Russians invaded Ukraine. And we were talking about the biggest threats in the world at that point.

So early 2022. But anyway, as mentioned, Jim tomorrow will be talking all about 9-11, what we experienced that day, what has happened over the last 25 years. And where we go from here. I'll talk to you now. See you tomorrow, Greg. Jim Garrity, National Review. I'm Greg Carumpus of Radio America. Thanks so much for being with us today. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast if you don't already. Tell your friends about us as well. Thanks also for your five star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming. Get us on your home devices. All you have to say is play 3-Martini lunch podcast. Follow us both on X-Jim as at Jim Garrity. I'm at Greg Carumpus and follow 3-Martini lunch on Facebook and Instagram. Have a terrific Thursday. Join us again on Friday for the next 3-Martini lunch.

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