So a lot of people might not know that your dad was actually in the news biz. Yeah. I mean, your mom was a nurse, but your dad was in the news business. And I’m wondering how much you think that might have had an effect on the fact that you do very news oriented content tremendously. I think it was a great advantage, first of all. He was also funny, and you’ll find this a lot with comedians. That comedy gene sort of just aged through a generation. I grew up in a house that was interested in the news. My parents talked about the news. I was aware of it went away. I don’t think most kids were. So those are my influences. Comedy and news. And then what did I do? I wound up doing a show that is a comedy show that uses the news as fodder and I wish my father would have lived to see it, but he passed away early. Nobody saw me like do Johnny Carson, but you didn’t see Politically Incorrect. What’s your response when people tell you that and you must hear this a lot, that they get that you’re one of their primary sources of information? Flattered and as it should be. My response? I feel like people are looking for something that is not slanted. I mean, I certainly have lost fans over the years because I don’t say the things that pleased people all the time. But that’s my ultimate bond with the audience. When I lose people, it’s like, okay, well, you were never meant to be with me in the first place. Yeah, we can’t have a relationship. There are a whole lot of people who are just conditioned to only hearing, only wanting to hear one side of the story. Correct. They do not want to hear the other side. I mean, that’s it’s so ironic. When I started on Politically Incorrect 30 years ago, 1993, everybody said, you know, you can’t really do a show like this because you’re giving your opinions. That’s not what talk show hosts do. They don’t and can’t give their opinions. You’ll alienate half the crowd. That’s not what Johnny Carson did. That’s not what David Letterman did. That’s not what Jay Leno did. And I said, Well, let’s give it a try. Maybe the people are a little more sophisticated than you’re giving them credit for, and they can actually take it that a guy who’s on TV, they don’t always agree with him, but they still like him. Just like in life, you don’t always agree with your friends on everything. So it did turn out that it was okay because here I have 30 years later still on. But I get every year when we are looking for maybe we want new writers on our show. I love the writers I have. But you know what? I’m running a business here, right? I’m sorry. It’s it’s brutal. But if I can find somebody better, that’s what I’m doing. I always serve the show first. So every year I read these packets of proposed writers, and I read them this year, as I do every year. And it’s just stunning how uniform their their point of view are. And then always it hasn’t always been that exact. I don’t remember, but I don’t think it was ever quite this bad. It’s the exact same point of view on every single issue, and it’s very predictable. I have a relationship with people who want to hear what I think is the truth, and I’m going to present both sides. And they may not be fair and balanced. They may not be equal weight put to each side because that’s not what the truth is. The truth isn’t always 5050. Right. So I live with that. But it’s, it’s it’s it gets more difficult because we’re so tribal now. So it’s interesting about this is because this comes after, you know, five, six years of Trump where it’s not like you pull punches against him at all. No, nobody was harder on that man, I don’t think. And honestly, nobody was more had their hair on fire about what was going to happen as far as him not believing in democracy and not wanting to leave. I don’t think he’s leaving if even if he loses the election in 2020, he could lose by a landslide in 2020. And I still think he would say it’s rigged. Fake News Deep State. If Trump loses the election in November, he’s not going to leave. You were predicting that in 2018? Oh, 16, 16 years before he was even president. He’s not going to leave. Never going to leave. Right. And what makes you think that he’s seen this man? He’s everything wrong with a human being stuffed into one man. I mean, how could he ever do anything different? He is incapable, I think, of ever conceding defeat. And I’ve never seen him do it. So why would I think he would be gracious ever in that situation or say he ever lost and he said it? I mean, even in 2016 when he was running, they would ask him point blank, would you? Well, it’s you know, he’s basically saying, if we win, yes, then it’s a fair election. If we don’t, it was rigged. He would never actually just come out and say, yes, of course, this is America. This is how we do it. This is the jewel in our crown in this country with the peaceful transfer of power. Nothing like that. You’ve been the great predictor of Donald Trump. You thought he could win. You thought he wasn’t going to leave peacefully. He’s running. Oh, yeah. Do you think he’s going to get the nomination? And do you think he can beat Joe Biden? Both. But both you think affirmatively are both. And you think they could happen? Well, first of all, it could it might not be Joe Biden. I think if it’s Biden against Trump, Biden will win. I do not guarantee, but I think that’s a really good bet. It was the first time and I think it would be the second time. Even more so even at age 82. Yes, absolutely. Well, first of all, I think that’s a big red herring that his age is such a factor. You don’t need to be young or spry to be president. Yes, it’s very helpful to run for president. You need to be energetic and look sharp at the debate. He could do the job of President perfectly fine. And I think he’s done the job perfectly fine. Do I love everything he has done? Absolutely not. But he’s president. That goes with the territory. But generally he’s restored normality. He’s got some things passed that nobody thought he could get through this divided Congress. I’ve got it. Got out of Afghanistan. Did he stick the landing on that one? No, but at least he did it. I mean, Ukraine, I think he’s done fine. And every other country in the world seems to have gotten this idea about the elderly, their wives. That’s what you need. I don’t mind at all that he’s 82 or 84. 86. Yes. If he loses his marbles. But there are plenty of 86 year old people who have not lost their marbles and people used to get that. We have an important decision to make. Go to the elders. They will tell you what the wise decision is and then you young people will go and carry it out. He doesn’t have to go and do every little thing. I mean, Reagan didn’t do anything. He went to bed at 430. So that does not bother me at all. No, it’s going to bother people in the country because when you run for president, you get exposed. Your flaws. And yes, when you’re in your eighties, he’s going to stumble. He was always a gaffe machine to begin with. Yeah. So it could look bad. But I think as if it’s Trump against Biden, I think Biden will win. But what if it’s not? What if it’s not Biden? I don’t know. So you talk about the Democrats being so hemmed in by identity politics. The counterargument would be it’s always been identity politics. It’s just always been white people. So people like you and me didn’t notice. And now it’s just an effort at inclusion, which I’m sure theoretically you support. Yeah, I support it, in fact. But I mean, the you know, the Democrats sometimes can take it too far or, you know, I would I would categorize liberal as different than woke. Woke, which started out as a good thing. Alert to injustice. Who could be against that? But it became sort of an eye roll because they love diversity, accept of ideas. And that’s not really where we should be. I mean, they have a trail of very bad ideas, I would think. And wokeness. Like, how do you define wokeness? Because I hear people use the term all the time and it means something different to everybody. Well, again, I think it’s this collection of ideas that are not building on liberalism, but very often undoing it. I mean, five years ago, Abraham Lincoln was not a controversial figure among liberals. We liked him. Now they take his name off schools and tear down his statues. Really? Lincoln isn’t good enough for you? Five, ten years ago, I bedrock liberalism was. We are striving to be a colorblind society where we don’t see race. Of course we see it, but it doesn’t matter. That’s not what woke is. Woke is something very different. It’s it’s identity politics. We see it all the time. It’s always the most important thing. I don’t think that’s liberalism. I mean, I could mention so many issues like that. I remember doing that show on HBO, Comic Relief for the Homeless. And the idea then again among liberals, I thought was, you know, for the sake of compassion, can we get these people off the street so they have a roof over their heads? And now it’s like, how dare you try to move the homeless? This is where they live. It’s like, again, you change the definitions and then you say, I’m more conservative. I believe what I’ve always believed. You change these things and then you yell at me for it.
