0:00

Hello, this is Michael Moore

0:02

and this is my podcast.

0:05

Thanks everybody for joining me

0:07

today. It's

0:21

the 4th of July weekend and

0:24

it's been, geez, almost 10 days

0:26

now since the great debate. Trump

0:29

Biden debacle. And

0:34

I was really gobsmacked right

0:36

like in the first 10 seconds.

0:38

I could not believe what

0:41

I was witnessing. And then I stayed with it. If

0:43

you were like me and watched the

0:45

whole thing, it was pretty brutal. First

0:49

of all, it's just brutal because Trump is standing there.

0:51

He can't stand looking at him.

0:53

He can't stand listening to him. And

0:56

he's just a nonstop diarrhea of the

0:58

mouth when it comes

1:01

to just nonstop lying. And

1:03

then there was Biden, everyone's

1:05

favorite grandpa. And, oh, this

1:08

is going to be good. Two different people

1:11

on this stage. That's for sure. And then

1:13

it was just immediately right down into the

1:15

rabbit hole. So

1:18

I decided that night that I'm not

1:21

going to need your care. I'm not going to get

1:23

all twisted about what

1:26

I just saw or what I think should happen. And

1:29

I said to myself, you just need to take

1:31

a good long breath, step back from it, and

1:34

just see how you feel in the morning. And

1:36

I said that to myself for a number of

1:38

mornings, because I wasn't

1:40

ready to sort of figure out,

1:43

not just, I think I pretty much knew when I

1:45

felt about it, but it was how

1:47

do I communicate this now to you, to

1:49

others? And what do I do about it? Because

1:52

I think I share a goal

1:54

that all of you share, no

1:57

matter how we feel about a whole bunch of issues or things

1:59

that... That goal is

2:01

we must stop Donald Trump.

2:03

He will not reenter 1600

2:05

Pennsylvania Avenue He will

2:07

never step foot in the Oval Office

2:09

again never Period

2:12

and That's

2:16

an okay goal to have because we

2:18

know what the results of this are going to be if it

2:20

goes the other way so

2:22

that part I didn't need to spend any

2:25

time thinking about but You

2:27

know as I've told you over a number of months

2:29

since last October of My

2:32

utter disappointment seeing President

2:34

Biden embracing

2:36

Benjamin Netanyahu funding

2:39

him arming him and Not

2:42

ordering him to stop using

2:45

our weapons and our

2:47

bunny Stop

2:49

the slaughter stop the

2:51

ethnic cleansing all that stuff and And

2:54

he kept saying he was gonna get

2:56

a ceasefire and he never did Kept

2:59

saying he was gonna get humanitarian aid to

3:02

two million people that were suffering in Gaza never

3:05

did one

3:07

promise after another broken and it

3:10

was clear that he was the main enabler of

3:13

Netanyahu and his so-called war cabinet

3:15

and And Suddenly

3:18

there were 10,000 dead Palestinians and then 20,000

3:20

dead 30,000

3:23

dead 40,000 dead many of them

3:26

maybe the majority of them children

3:28

old people So

3:34

you know, I've just Had

3:38

my spirits deflated by

3:40

this person I voted for And

3:43

then the debate happened So

3:48

a couple days ago, I finally sat down

3:50

and Just to get

3:52

all my thoughts and feelings out

3:54

on the paper Wrote this

3:56

and I I wanted to I

3:58

want to read this to you already sent it

4:00

out as a written sub stack to

4:03

all of you who are subscribers. And

4:06

for those of you who are also subscribers,

4:08

but you like to listen

4:10

to my podcast, this is my

4:12

podcast for today. I'm recording this

4:14

actually right after the interview

4:17

that Biden gave George Stephanopoulos on

4:19

ABC News Friday night. And

4:23

from what I'm about to say, nothing has really changed.

4:26

And it was actually, I probably

4:28

got sadder because it just, I saw the

4:30

denial. And in

4:33

spite of my criticisms of Biden and everything,

4:35

I am very grateful

4:37

for so many of the things

4:39

that he's done in these

4:41

last three and a half years. And

4:44

yet tonight, it's like

4:46

he still didn't really have a clue as to

4:48

what was going on, what was happening and how

4:51

dire the situation is for

4:53

the country. And

4:55

the goal of stopping Trump may not be

4:57

achieved. I can't believe that's going to happen,

4:59

but it very well could now. So

5:02

I wanted to speak to you and

5:05

share these thoughts with you. Some

5:08

of you will feel similar, some of you

5:10

won't. Some of you

5:12

will maybe be disappointed, but

5:15

this isn't about who's our friend

5:17

or who we have to be loyal

5:19

to, or did such a great job.

5:22

And we don't owe him or anybody. We owe

5:24

this country, we owe this

5:26

country, us ourselves, our

5:28

eternal vigilance and

5:31

our actions as

5:33

citizens. Democracy,

5:36

as I've said for, she's

5:38

30 years now, is

5:41

not a spectator sport. It's

5:43

a participatory event. It

5:46

only exists when we participate. If

5:49

we check out, if

5:51

we don't express our thoughts and

5:53

feelings, what we stand for, that

5:56

ceases to be a democracy.

5:58

And we won't have to... and

10:00

physically incapacitated that he

10:02

cannot complete a sentence, that

10:04

he randomly flips between discussing

10:06

abortion, the three trimesters of

10:09

a pregnancy, and how great his

10:11

golf game is, then

10:13

looking around unable to find one of the four

10:15

cameras pointing at him, he suddenly turns his head

10:17

all the way to the left as

10:20

if he was looking for Rhode Island or something,

10:23

staring off into the distance, and then out

10:25

of nowhere, raises his voice

10:27

and shouts, we

10:29

finally beat Medicare! We

10:33

finally beat Medicare?

10:37

Not Ohio State, but

10:40

Medicare. We

10:44

saw and we heard all of that, and

10:47

no matter what the party hacks keep telling us, it

10:51

was heartbreaking. My

10:54

friends, it was

10:57

truly without equivocation unlike anything

10:59

any of us had ever

11:01

seen before. No

11:05

matter where you stood or stand on

11:07

the Joe Biden scale, from Joe

11:10

the working-class hero all the way

11:12

to Joe the banker of Palestinian

11:14

ethnic cleansing, one

11:16

thing was certain. This

11:21

was not a cold.

11:26

This was a human being in utter

11:28

collapse. Not

11:30

just political collapse or

11:32

performance collapse, but rather

11:34

a full frontal lobe

11:36

meltdown, where at any moment you

11:39

had to wonder, was

11:41

it possible that the sweet and

11:43

fragile existence we call life was

11:46

about to short circuit, or

11:48

worse, lose power

11:52

to Trump?

11:57

And that no amount of shouting,

11:59

STAT! or

12:01

cutting quickly to a commercial

12:03

break, was going to restore

12:06

the president compatiant to full

12:08

capacity in order to save

12:10

this even more fragile democracy.

12:14

Do not mistake my criticisms of Biden

12:17

spending nine months in the

12:19

loving embrace of Bibi Netanyahu as

12:21

meaning that I do not deeply

12:23

appreciate his three years of being

12:26

the most progressive president

12:29

of my lifetime. That's

12:32

right, my friends. There really has been no

12:34

other president and we've had

12:36

some good ones. But

12:39

with this president, with Biden, I

12:42

mean, if you just look at the record, there's

12:45

been more action taken through executive

12:47

orders and legislation to protect the

12:49

environment, more government officials that he's

12:52

appointed who are in their

12:54

heart of hearts. I'll say it. Democratic

12:57

socialists. That's right. Everything

13:01

he did with unions, all

13:03

the unions and all those union

13:05

members who were backed by

13:07

their president. Usually the president just kind

13:09

of stays out of it when it's

13:11

between the corporation and the unions, not

13:14

Biden. He went to Detroit and walked

13:16

the picket line with United Auto Workers.

13:19

No president had ever done that.

13:22

He's given more serious funding

13:24

to lift millions out of poverty,

13:27

more support for libraries, single mothers

13:29

and college students deep in debt.

13:33

And he has had this fervent,

13:36

almost religious zeal to fight

13:39

greed and obscene profits. And

13:45

that's because of the true

13:47

compassion he has for those

13:49

who have been dealt a bad hand in life.

13:52

And he has done more of all of that than

13:56

all the good presidents had, whether

13:58

it be Kennedy, Obama. Biden has

14:01

done. That's just the

14:03

truth. Then he got us through COVID,

14:06

the worst pandemic of the last century. Plus, what

14:08

was his main job that he had to do? One job in 2020.

14:11

Get rid

14:15

of Trump. And he did that.

14:18

And God gave us the right to do that. And he did that.

14:29

And gave Trump a humiliating defeat.

14:34

It doesn't mean that he hasn't had

14:36

his failures. And

14:42

yet on balance. And

14:44

I remember I worked for Bernie and

14:46

was a Bernie supporter. But

14:49

when Bernie wasn't the candidate, I

14:52

walked down on our main job, remove

14:56

Trump. None

15:01

of that is feeling right right

15:04

now, is it? Has

15:08

he had a stroke? Will

15:13

there be another one or a mini one or

15:15

maybe a micro stroke? You know,

15:17

I mean, as you get older, you have these

15:19

things while you're sleeping sometimes it doesn't doesn't

15:22

end your life. It rewires

15:24

a few things, maybe you're a little

15:26

slower, or something's drooping,

15:29

you know, but life goes on. But

15:34

sadly, the decline begins.

15:38

And it's hard to reverse that decline. One

15:43

thing about getting older, and I can now I

15:45

guess say this, it doesn't

15:47

get better. I mean,

15:49

you can deal with it just fine.

15:51

But you have to just sometimes accept that,

15:54

okay, well, I can't do now

15:56

at this age, what I did at 35. okay,

16:00

that's the way it's supposed to be actually, you'd

16:02

be a little weird if

16:05

it wasn't. But

16:10

I don't think we should be waiting until September,

16:12

October to deal with this. I think we have

16:14

to deal with this right now. And

16:17

this is not about whether he's

16:20

fit to serve another four years. After

16:23

what we saw on debate night, this

16:25

is about whether he should serve another four days

16:29

in the toughest job in the world. That's

16:32

the question we should be asking. Or

16:36

let me ask you this. If

16:39

Joe Biden offered to drive you from

16:41

Flint to Detroit tonight, would

16:44

you get in the car? I'm

16:48

not saying people in their 80s can't drive. A

16:50

lot of them drive. My dad drove

16:52

till he was 90. It's

16:54

not that. It's not really about the age.

16:57

It is about the

16:59

capacity to function at

17:02

a level that if you're the

17:04

leader of the world's only superpower,

17:07

how on it you have

17:09

to be. In

17:12

George Stephanopoulos' interview with him Friday

17:15

night, he asked

17:17

President Biden if

17:19

he would be willing to let a neurologist check

17:22

him out, to

17:24

take a cognitive test. And he

17:26

interrupted and he said, no, no, I don't need any of that. I

17:29

get a cognitive test every day, Biden says. He

17:32

didn't mean that he actually gets a cognitive test. He's

17:35

saying that when you're President of the United States,

17:38

that is a cognitive test. You're put through

17:40

it every day. But

17:42

that's not the question. The

17:45

question is, something is wrong.

17:49

We all saw it. And

17:52

would you please just be willing to have

17:54

an independent doctor, not one at

17:56

the Army Hospital in Washington. You're the

17:58

Commander in Chief. That means that doctor

18:00

works for you. You're the boss. Not

18:04

him, not her. This

18:07

has to be an independent neurologist

18:10

who's going to check you out. George asked

18:12

that question to Biden three, four,

18:15

maybe five times. And

18:18

Biden just avoided it, kept

18:21

laughing it off, wasn't necessary. You

18:24

know, the doctor that told him he

18:26

had a cold, you know, he thought

18:28

he was okay. Just needed some rest.

18:33

Well, listen, I'm not a doctor

18:36

and I could be, and hopefully

18:38

am wrong about all this. But

18:43

like you, I do have

18:45

eyes. They

18:48

don't lie. I,

18:51

like nearly every one of you had

18:55

or currently has four

18:57

grandparents and two parents, every

18:59

one of us. Four grandparents, two parents. Some

19:03

of you even have more with wonderful step

19:05

parents and step grandparents. And

19:09

if you yourself, just you yourself are

19:12

over the age of 40, your eyes have

19:14

seen all this too. The

19:17

slow decline of your elders, followed

19:21

by a sudden incident or event, and

19:24

then without warning, your loved one

19:27

is confused. Not sure

19:29

where he or she is at. Can't

19:31

find the keys. Can't find the

19:33

rest of the thought she just had in her head.

19:37

Or has the ability to even

19:39

end the sentence that he was in

19:41

the middle of. It's

19:44

all quite normal, actually, and it's to

19:46

be expected. It's called getting

19:48

older. And

19:50

it will visit all of us one day. It

19:54

won't feel good. It

19:57

won't look pretty. But

19:59

more than. unlikely. That feeble,

20:02

humbling moment we're all going to

20:04

experience will not be

20:06

televised live to an audience of

20:08

2 billion people around the world,

20:11

with Jake Tapper's hot breath breathing

20:13

down your neck and telling you,

20:15

ironically, that your time

20:17

is up. Who

20:21

exactly is Jake Tapper, you might ask

20:23

yourself at 81. It won't

20:26

matter, because at that

20:28

point, when you suddenly blurt

20:30

out that there are 1,000 trillionaires

20:33

in America, and

20:35

you've spent your presidency trying

20:39

to make those trillionaires, corrected

20:41

later to billionaires, what

20:44

have you been doing to them? You've been trying to

20:46

make them pay their friggin' taxes. They don't

20:48

like you. And

20:50

now you realize these rich-ass barbarians

20:52

are at your gate. And

20:55

at that point then, nothing

20:59

will really matter. I'm

21:03

sorry, my friends, but

21:06

if I have to be the only one to stand for

21:08

Joe Biden, that's right. That's me. You heard me

21:10

say that. If I have to be the only

21:13

one to stand up for Joe Biden here, to

21:15

protect him from the cruelest

21:17

form of elder abuse I've ever

21:19

been forced to watch, well, then

21:21

that's what I'll do. He

21:25

was in epic distress that Thursday night.

21:29

Every cognitive default in his mind seemed

21:31

to be shutting down. If

21:36

this had been somebody that you truly

21:38

cared about, loved,

21:42

embraced, what

21:45

would you have done? Would

21:48

you have seriously even

21:50

let him go out on that stage?

21:54

Who would send an

21:56

81-year-old out onto any

21:58

stage to debate? a living

22:00

monster at nine o'clock at night

22:03

for a brawl that would not end

22:05

until 10 42 p.m." Honestly,

22:13

have any one of you ever looked at the

22:16

clock, saw that it was getting near 11 p.m.

22:18

and said to yourself,

22:21

I think I'm gonna give grams and gramps

22:23

a call. You

22:26

never did that because it would be cruel.

22:28

They're not up. You're

22:31

not gonna wake them up. The

22:34

only people who would think of forcing

22:36

an elder to perform at

22:38

that hour of the night would

22:42

be the same people who would

22:44

insist on six straight days

22:46

of non-stop debate prep.

22:49

Hours and hours each

22:52

day of standing and talking until

22:54

you were hoarse and

22:56

exhausted. Trump

22:58

was right. I know there's

23:00

the words I've never spoken. Trump was right when

23:03

he turned to Biden to ask

23:05

him what his problem

23:07

was as to why he never fires

23:09

anybody. It's

23:12

amazing to me how a

23:14

week later now anyone

23:16

on this campaign staff still

23:20

has a job. How is that

23:22

possible after running this

23:24

tired and grieving father into

23:26

the ground? A

23:29

man who had just

23:31

recently watched his only remaining

23:34

son being

23:36

convicted as a felon for

23:39

the outrageous crime of

23:42

needing help, for

23:45

being an addict.

23:50

Who would put this old man through a

23:52

brutal boot camp, make

23:55

him memorize 200 facts and stats,

23:57

and then pick the wrong podium

24:00

without once going on the stage the day

24:02

before to check the lighting, the sight

24:05

lines, and where

24:07

the bully would be standing, lying

24:11

a smug TV

24:13

star who knew what the red

24:15

light on the camera meant, who

24:17

knew timing and how

24:19

to wait and when to pounce

24:22

and devour his prey. All

24:26

while speaking, this was Trump,

24:29

all while speaking, in his

24:31

softest, most

24:33

fake, empathetic voice, speaking

24:37

his most honest statement of the night.

24:41

This is what he said right after

24:43

Biden got lost, forgot

24:45

what he was gonna say, and then

24:47

mumbled something. Trump

24:51

quote, he says, to

24:53

the moderators, I

24:55

really don't know what he said at the

24:57

end of that sentence, and

25:00

I don't think he knows what

25:02

he said either. Biden

25:09

was not well. Biden

25:11

did not possess the faculties he needed.

25:15

Something was wrong. Did

25:18

nobody see this in the days leading

25:20

up to the collapse? Did

25:23

not a single person raise their voice to

25:25

ask, maybe we shouldn't do

25:27

this to him? But they

25:31

did do it to him. And

25:34

the repercussions that we, the world,

25:38

and the generations after us will

25:40

have to suffer through are not

25:43

even part of the current discussion

25:45

this week. It's

25:47

all about making sure he stays in

25:49

the race and

25:51

nothing about the risk to

25:53

his own life he is facing as

25:56

they push him, push him, push

25:59

him. to soldier onward.

26:04

So I will say this to

26:06

protect him from

26:08

an out-of-control party machine that

26:11

is in a panic over what to do. For

26:14

any of us to be silent now is exactly

26:17

what the term elder

26:19

abuse is meant to describe.

26:24

Leave Mr. Biden

26:26

alone. Let

26:29

him rest. Let

26:32

him go home.

26:37

He has done his job. Let

26:41

him have his dignity. Please

26:47

do him this favor. Tell

26:52

the press that President Biden has asked

26:54

to have an independent team

26:57

of doctors do a full

26:59

medical evaluation of his mental

27:01

and physical health. When

27:05

they are through, they

27:07

along with the president will

27:09

then announce the full results to

27:11

the public and give

27:13

their honest assessment. And

27:16

that assessment may be

27:18

this. For the

27:20

good of his well-being, he

27:24

must stop work. He

27:26

must step down. The

27:30

next day, President Biden

27:33

then will give his final remarks

27:36

in a short and beautiful statement on

27:38

the South Lawn of the White House. The

27:42

place will be packed with

27:44

thousands of grateful everyday Americans,

27:47

fry cooks and teachers, bricklayers

27:49

and nurses, gay teens

27:52

and the vets, the

27:54

homeless, the union members and

27:57

the elder care workers, all

27:59

of whom know what he is

28:01

doing is for the good of

28:03

the country that he loves so

28:07

dearly. He once

28:09

saved the world from a man

28:12

named Trump, and

28:14

now in one

28:16

last selfless act he

28:19

is stepping aside to ensure

28:21

this Trump will

28:23

be banished for good. Millions

28:29

upon hearing him speak while

28:32

he wipes the tears from his eyes

28:35

will weep too. Biden

28:41

will never be forgotten. A

28:44

profile in courage. The

28:49

founders of this country were smart in

28:51

many ways. They

28:53

knew there would be presidents who would

28:55

not make it through even a four-year

28:57

term. So they

28:59

set up a position called Vice President

29:02

just for that reason. It's

29:05

amazing actually to think that

29:07

we've only had 46 presidents

29:10

in the life of this country and

29:13

that nine of them, that's about 20%,

29:17

have never made it to the end of their

29:19

term. Four

29:21

were assassinated, one

29:23

resigned, four more

29:25

died of various illnesses. Each

29:29

time though there was a

29:31

smooth and peaceful transition with

29:34

the Vice President being sworn

29:36

in as the new

29:38

president. Contrary

29:41

to what it may feel like right

29:43

now, this is not an unusual moment

29:45

we are in this week. This

29:48

happens. There's precedent

29:52

and if President Biden is unable to perform

29:54

his duties there is a

29:56

tried-and-true solution. He

29:59

resigns. due to the obvious

30:01

medical issues that were on full display

30:03

the night of June 27. His

30:07

Vice President, Kamala Harris, is

30:09

sworn in as President. By

30:13

federal campaign rules, she and

30:15

only she inherits all the

30:17

campaign funds in the

30:20

Biden-Harris war chest. Biden

30:23

will urge all his Biden-Harris

30:25

convention delegates to support her.

30:29

She will now immediately

30:32

become the incumbent President,

30:35

who will run on the incredible

30:38

accomplishments of the Biden-Harris

30:40

administration. There

30:43

will be no real convention fight, and

30:45

nearly every American who had planned to vote

30:48

for Biden will vote for Harris, as

30:50

recent polling has actually shown us.

30:54

Many Biden voters have already stated that they vote

30:56

for a dead cat or a

30:58

ficus plant instead of Trump. They're

31:00

not switching to Trump. Some

31:04

have even said that they would go all out

31:06

weekend at Bernie's and vote for

31:08

a dead Biden, if that

31:10

meant keeping Trump out of the White

31:12

House. One

31:14

possible bonus in all this will be

31:16

that a record number of votes from

31:18

women for Harris will

31:21

make up for some of Biden's loss of

31:24

the youth vote and the

31:26

Arab American vote. And

31:28

there's this. For over

31:30

eight months, it has been reported

31:33

that Kamala Harris has

31:35

quietly pushed for an immediate

31:38

ceasefire in Gaza. It

31:42

seems to me that there's

31:44

one good thing that is

31:46

possible from this mess we're in. Less

31:50

Palestinians will die with

31:53

Kamala Harris in the Oval Office.

31:58

And this. One

32:00

day we will look back and see that we grew

32:02

and got better as a country and

32:04

finally finished the job of having

32:07

a full equal and complete democracy.

32:11

Our first female president,

32:14

it turned out, ended up

32:16

playing a big role in making that

32:18

happen. Another

32:20

gift from Joe Biden. Picking

32:23

her, knowing she was

32:25

the right one, when, during

32:27

their own debate on a stage

32:30

and back in 2020, she gently

32:32

but caustically reminded him that

32:34

as a senator many years

32:37

prior in Washington,

32:39

D.C., he once stood

32:42

in the way of she

32:44

and her sister going to

32:46

an integrated school in

32:48

Berkeley, California. That

32:52

was his position at the time. When

32:56

she confronted him with this, you could see in that

32:58

moment the sadness and shame

33:00

on Joe Biden's face.

33:05

He knew right from wrong. And

33:09

in 2020, he knew even if

33:11

most of his supporters weren't sure

33:13

about her as his

33:16

VP pick, and

33:18

even if her platform was

33:21

essentially Bernie's, he

33:24

knew she was the one and

33:27

the first of what would

33:29

turn out to be many women and

33:32

people of color who would lead

33:34

us to our better selves.

33:38

I'm okay with that, aren't

33:40

you? Let's

33:43

find the courage to fix this. After

33:47

all, this weekend, it's

33:49

our 248th birthday. Now

33:54

that's old. What

34:08

will happen? Either

34:15

way, we're

34:18

not going to let Trump back in the White House. We're

34:22

going to have to make a fairly quick decision. This

34:24

can't go on now for days or weeks. If

34:29

Harris is going to be the candidate, or

34:31

whoever the candidate is, including

34:33

if it's Joe Biden, the

34:36

election is, geez, it's

34:38

less than, a couple days less than

34:41

four months from right now today. Wow.

34:46

So you get it, right? You can't mess

34:49

around. The candidate has to

34:51

have four months, four

34:54

full months to

34:57

get out there, and all of us have to do

34:59

whatever we can do to

35:01

prevent the second term of

35:03

Donald J. Trump. So

35:07

stay tuned. We'll be on

35:09

top of this over the next few days

35:11

this week. Not

35:13

for long, though. We

35:15

need a decision. I'll

35:18

do my part. If you're listening

35:20

to this on Saturday, here

35:23

on Fourth of July weekend, I'm going to

35:25

be live tonight, Saturday night, at

35:27

7 p.m. Eastern on MSNBC,

35:30

on Ammon's show. I

35:32

invite you to tune in. I

35:34

think I'm going to be on near

35:37

the top of the hour there at 7 p.m. So

35:40

tune in. We'll talk about this and other

35:42

things. We'll talk about Gaza

35:44

and what needs to happen. I

35:48

feel bad that all this stuff,

35:50

all this mess that we're in here in the

35:52

U.S., at least here, has

35:54

taken a lot of attention away from

35:57

stopping the massacre of

35:59

all of these civilians. Thank

36:02

you for caring

36:05

and doing what you need to do, whatever that

36:08

is, to protect our democracy. My

36:12

thanks to all of you for tuning in.

36:16

This is Michael Moore. This

36:20

is it, folks. Here

36:22

we go. Thank

36:30

you.