1:52

A

2:00

political strong man is an authoritarian

2:02

leader like Xi Jinping or Vladimir

2:04

Putin or historically Pol Pot.

2:07

But a political strong man is not the

2:09

same thing

2:10

as a strong man, a man

2:12

of wisdom, courage, capability. And

2:15

sadly here in the United States, we

2:17

do not have a strong man. Joe

2:20

Biden has hid from political confrontation.

2:23

He ran a campaign in a basement. He refuses

2:25

to take questions from reporters. And

2:28

then he incoherently babbles his way

2:30

through his presidency.

2:32

And he has set a standard for

2:34

our governance, that standard, frailty,

2:37

incompetence, weakness,

2:39

and it is spreading like a virus. Yesterday,

2:42

there was a sad moment at the United States Senate

2:44

involving Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman.

2:47

The Republicans want to give a work requirement

2:49

for SNAP. For a

2:53

hungry family has to have these

2:55

kind of penalties or some kinds of word

2:58

working requirements. Shouldn't

3:01

you have a working requirement after we sell your bank

3:03

with billions of your bank? Because

3:05

they seem to be more preoccupied than

3:08

SNAP requirements

3:11

for works for hungry people, but

3:13

not about protecting the tax papers

3:16

that will bail

3:18

no matter whatever

3:20

does about a bank to crash it.

3:22

That is so hard

3:25

to watch. He's incoherent.

3:27

And if we're being honest

3:29

and not worried about being kind,

3:31

that was one of his better moments from yesterday.

3:34

That man should not be allowed to operate a power tool

3:37

or drive a car, much

3:38

less govern this country. But

3:41

as sad as that is for Fetterman, it's more sad

3:43

for the people of Pennsylvania. How did 2.5

3:46

million people vote for Fetterman? I'm

3:49

going to show you at least in part how.

3:53

A Washington Post reporter named Jeff Stein

3:55

watched that same clip we just played and

3:58

he transcribed it

3:59

in a tweet.

4:00

It read like this. Senator John Federman

4:02

to SVP executive Greg Becker.

4:05

Shouldn't you have a working requirement after we bail

4:07

out your bank?

4:09

Jeff Stein laundered John

4:12

Federman to make him sound coherent, to

4:14

make him sound profound, to

4:16

make him sound strong.

4:19

That's modern journalism. In

4:21

another moment, another eye-opening moment

4:23

last week,

4:25

in another moment of perhaps incoherence

4:27

for this nation, 89-year-old Dianne

4:29

Feinstein came back to the Senate and cast

4:32

her first vote in three months. But

4:34

the California Democrat didn't seem to realize

4:36

that she had missed a beat,

4:38

or two, or missed a vote,

4:41

or two.

4:42

Despite at times being in the hospital for long

4:45

extended stays, and most certainly not

4:47

spending time in the United States Capitol, she said,

4:50

quote,

4:50

no, I haven't been gone. You

4:53

should, I haven't been gone. I've

4:55

been working. What

4:58

is going on here? Who is using

5:00

these people? They're useful idiots

5:03

for whom? For Jill Biden? For

5:05

Giselle Federman? For Chuck Schumer?

5:08

We here in the United States of America were once led by

5:10

strong men. In America, we were led

5:13

by visionaries who not only won a revolution

5:15

against an empire, but had the humility

5:18

to limit their own power through

5:20

eternal principles enshrined in a constitution.

5:24

Titans, historic titans.

5:27

And globally, we were led by men who,

5:29

between glasses of brandy and scotch, stared

5:32

down not only a tyranny, but also

5:34

weaklings on their own team in

5:37

order to win a world war.

5:39

If you look around you, you

5:42

must feel not

5:45

only the sense of duty done, but

5:48

also you must feel anxiety

5:52

lest you fall below the level

5:55

of achievement. Opportunity

5:57

is here now. Here.

6:00

and shining for both our country.

6:04

To reject it or ignore

6:06

it or fritter it away

6:09

will bring upon us all the

6:11

long reproachings of the after

6:14

time.

6:15

Once the world had Winston Churchill, now

6:18

we have Justin from Canada, who today

6:21

summoned all of his virtue signaling and just

6:23

firehosed cliches into a tweet.

6:26

He said,

6:27

today you should be able to be who

6:29

you are and love whom you love, free

6:32

from discrimination and hate. Full

6:34

stop, no ifs, ands or buts.

6:37

Full stop, oh, Justin,

6:39

the passion, the strength.

6:42

Does that mean, does that include, for

6:44

example, pedophilia, man-boy love? What about

6:46

cousins, incest? I mean,

6:48

love who you love, right? Full stop,

6:51

no ifs, ands or buts. At

6:53

least Justin from Canada got all the letters

6:55

in the ever expanding acronym right.

6:58

I think he did. Hell, I don't know. It's

7:00

hard to keep up. He probably copy and pasted

7:02

it because it is very hard. It changes

7:04

every week. And it has been hard in

7:06

particular for Justin.

7:09

I will never apologize for

7:11

standing up for a LGBT, LGBT,

7:15

LGBTQ plus kids' rights.

7:23

It's hard.

7:25

We once had Washington and Jefferson and Madison,

7:28

and now we have Florida legislatures

7:30

doing TikTok dances on the well of

7:32

their legislature body. Now we

7:35

have Biden, now we have Fetterman, now we have Feinstein.

7:38

And yes, for those individuals, they

7:40

are the victims of ambitious spouses. But

7:42

more importantly, they are the

7:45

front men. They are the Manchurian

7:47

candidates for permanent Washington. The

7:49

faces may change, and the more

7:51

indistinguishable they are, the better. But

7:54

the interests stay, the interests

7:56

remain. And that's a different kind

7:58

of malevolence. It's the kind of elitism

8:01

that was on display, for example,

8:03

in exchange yesterday at a hearing on Antifa

8:06

threats between New York Congressman

8:08

Dan Goldman

8:09

and journalist Julio Rosas. So

8:11

Rosas, apparently the expert

8:14

now in organized terrorist

8:17

activity has overruled

8:20

the FBI director who

8:23

says, there's a headline, says Antifa

8:25

is an ideology, not an organization. No, no, no, let's

8:27

not listen to the FBI director. Let's

8:30

listen to, sorry, what's your title?

8:33

Senior writer at Town Hall, who

8:35

is going to tell us that the FBI

8:37

director is wrong.

8:39

The contempt. Dan Goldman

8:41

believes Julio Rosas has no authority

8:43

to talk about Antifa, even though Julio has been

8:45

on the ground covering that violence for years.

8:48

In fact, here's what Julio Rosas

8:50

has seen firsthand.

9:20

So right now we're still here at Kenosha. Our

9:22

riots are still going on. Right

9:25

now the curfew is still technically in effect,

9:27

but as you can see, a lot of people are still out

9:29

about, obviously,

9:32

burning buildings behind me or as Alex Belsey would

9:34

say, not an unruly protest.

9:36

That's credibility. That's Julio Rosas. But

9:38

none of that coverage matters to Dan Goldman. He

9:40

says you need to believe him,

9:43

even though his only credential is the fact that

9:45

he's an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune

9:47

and that he spent $2 million of his own family's

9:50

fortune to get himself elected in

9:52

one of the wealthiest congressional districts in

9:54

the country. In other words, Dan

9:56

Goldman is rich

9:58

and in his version of America.

9:59

His opinion, because he

10:02

is rich, matters more than Julio Rosas.

10:05

Well, his opinion and of course the unimpeachable

10:07

opinion of the FBI. Thankfully,

10:10

Julio Rosas refused to be lectured

10:12

yesterday by Goldman.

10:14

I think it's funny to be to be lectured by

10:17

an heir to the Levi Strauss

10:19

corporation. And honestly, that's probably why he

10:22

doesn't consider property damage to be that big of a deal,

10:25

because not only does he have that, but he also has what

10:28

some would describe an impossibly good stock portfolio.

10:31

But what I can tell you is that in these riots that

10:33

happened three years ago, they, yes,

10:36

big corporations did suffer damage in

10:38

looting, such as Target, that would happen in Minneapolis.

10:41

But a lot of the businesses, they were small businesses.

10:44

They didn't come from multi-million dollar

10:47

families or corporations. Like

10:50

Levi Strauss.

10:51

So what's going on here? We most certainly

10:53

do not have strong men as our leaders.

10:55

But what it looks like we do have is

10:58

weak men used as meat puppets

11:00

for permanent Washington. In order to keep

11:02

that money printing press buzzing, keep

11:04

the bailouts coming, to keep

11:07

the cash cow of forever wars launching,

11:10

to keep that good gig safe, that amalgam,

11:13

that oligarchy, that's not

11:15

a strong man, but that's our would-be

11:17

authoritarian

11:19

strong man. We're going to step aside here

11:21

for a moment. Stay tuned. I

11:24

mean, it's pretty undeniable. American cities are

11:26

broken. Local politicians and left-wing

11:29

prosecutors have totally abdicated

11:31

their duty to keep citizens safe. And so every

11:34

day, millions of Americans face violent crime

11:36

and imminent danger, and they don't want to live

11:38

this way. But their leaders seem to care

11:41

more about protecting criminals than punishing

11:43

injustice. And that's the world

11:46

that Marine veteran Daniel Penney lives

11:48

in. And in that moment of anarchy,

11:50

that's the world Daniel Penney stepped up

11:53

and was forced to protect his fellow subway

11:55

riders. For that, now he's

11:57

facing serious jail time. Many

12:00

of his fellow New Yorkers wish someone like Penny

12:02

stepped up in their moment of need. One

12:04

recent victim of subway crime said as much

12:06

last night.

12:08

They come out there and they attack people

12:10

like me and other people who's going to work

12:12

innocently who know they can't really defend themselves,

12:15

because I'm pretty sure they know how the system work. They've

12:17

been in and out of it so much that they

12:19

know what they could do and what they can do. That's

12:21

why he didn't want to kill me. He knew he would end up there.

12:23

He just wanted to damage me, because

12:26

he damaged me. He damaged my life. I

12:28

would never be the same again. I'm not that person that I was

12:30

seven months ago. And if I had somebody like Penny

12:32

around, maybe things would have been different.

12:35

That poor lady lost her eye in

12:37

her tragedy on the subway. Stephen

12:39

A. Smith is the host of the No

12:41

Mercy podcast. He's my old friend. I

12:44

guess some would say my friend to me. And I'm so glad

12:46

to have him with me tonight on the program. What's up, man? Glad

12:49

to have you here. I see you. I see you

12:51

looking all polished, nice haircut and all of that stuff.

12:53

Oh, you a host now. You a host now. That's

12:55

why I had to come and join you. I'm a busy man. But

12:57

I said I got to make time for this one. This is a special

12:59

night. I know. I know you're

13:01

a busy man. And I know that because between

13:04

the NBA playoffs

13:05

and the No Mercy podcast, you're all over the place.

13:07

Let me ask you this, Stephen A. I think the world needs

13:10

more men like Daniel Penny to step

13:12

up. What do you think about this encounter between

13:14

Daniel Penny and Jordan Nealey on the subway? Well,

13:17

it's unfortunate and it's hard to come to a definitive

13:20

conclusion. You listen to Mayor Eric Adams. I applaud

13:22

the position that he took when he said, let's find

13:24

out, let the matter be investigated by the

13:26

district attorney's office. See

13:28

what that reveals. And then after that, a decision

13:31

needs to be made. Investigation

13:33

followed. And obviously Perry

13:35

is being charged with manslaughter charges.

13:37

My position was it was what this

13:40

is where it came down to. OK. If

13:42

you're skilled enough to know how to put

13:44

the choke hold on someone,

13:46

you should be knowledgeable enough to know

13:49

when enough is enough and to let

13:51

them go. Having said all of

13:53

that again, I don't know all the facts.

13:55

So I'm not ready to convict him like

13:58

a lot of people, politicians.

13:59

and citizens have been so quick

14:02

to convict this man of that. I think we

14:04

need to hear all the evidence. He

14:06

did have him in a chokehold for in excess

14:08

of three minutes that seemed a bit excessive,

14:11

particularly considering that he had two other people

14:13

helping him. But then again, we need

14:15

to be careful with Monday morning quarterbacking,

14:18

right? You've got to be careful in a situation like

14:20

this Monday morning quarterbacking. In my

14:22

estimation, while I appreciate you wanting to wait

14:24

for the facts, Stephen, I don't think

14:26

the man should have even been charged. And I'm going to give you

14:28

two reasons for that.

14:29

One, was it

14:32

reckless? To your point on how long

14:34

he held the chokehold, he apparently rolled over

14:36

Neely several times and gave him a relief position

14:39

to begin to breathe. I don't think what

14:41

we see here was reckless, and I certainly don't

14:43

think he intended to kill Neely. And then to

14:45

the larger point, by even charging

14:48

him, you create a disincentive for

14:50

strong men. Stephenette, you have sisters. You had

14:52

a beloved mother. You were raised right here in

14:54

New York City. You disincentivize

14:57

strong men stepping up to help

14:59

the vulnerable.

15:00

Of course. No doubt about

15:02

that. I don't disagree with you. I get where you're

15:04

coming from with that. Again, one of those details that

15:06

you just pointed out in terms of him leaning over so

15:08

he could breathe. I was not aware of that. So fairness

15:11

to you in regards to that. But what I would say to

15:13

you is this, as a person that's from Hollis, Queens, that

15:16

took the F train, the very train that

15:18

this happened on, I took the F train for

15:20

most of my young life on many, many

15:22

occasions. I can't tell you the amount of

15:24

times I saw an individual who

15:26

just seemed to have some mental issues shouting,

15:29

screaming. I didn't hear them talk about

15:31

how they wish they, you know, they're ready to die,

15:34

or they don't mind going to jail and what have you.

15:36

That can be a scary situation. So you

15:38

understand why it would raise a red flag

15:41

and put folks on high alert. Then again,

15:43

that's entirely different than actually putting

15:45

your hands on somebody or

15:47

doing harm to them. That's why we've got

15:49

to find out more. And that's why the investigation

15:52

was warranted because we don't know the intricate details.

15:55

But based on what you're talking about, I can understand

15:57

where you're coming from. And as a native New Yorker, that's.

16:00

crime ravaging through our streets or whatever.

16:02

I don't blame a lot of citizens for being scared as

16:05

hell right now for some of the stuff that's going

16:07

on because there's certainly not enough punishment, but

16:09

there's far too much crime.

16:10

Anyone that's lived in New York has known what you've

16:12

talked about here. Everyone has known that scary moment

16:15

on the train. And from what I understand,

16:17

Daniel Penny grew up in Long Island, lived

16:19

in Queens. So he was probably not unfamiliar

16:21

with these situations. And now I'm speculating, Stephen A.

16:24

My suspicion is he's felt somehow this time

16:26

was different. This was not just a crazy man yelling

16:28

and ranting and raving. This one had the potential

16:30

for violence. That's my speculation. But I want

16:32

to move to this, Stephen A. My old friend

16:34

texted me today, said I want to come at you about John Morant.

16:37

John Morant is the NBA superstar about

16:40

with the Memphis Grizzlies. He has been

16:43

suspended for now. You can see on the side of your

16:45

screen, he's flashing a gun in an Instagram

16:47

live video. I said earlier this week,

16:49

Stephen A, that I don't think he should be suspended

16:51

for what amounts to dumb but

16:54

legal behavior. Everyone,

16:56

Stephen A, everyone has disagreed with me on this

16:58

count. And I know you do as well.

17:01

Yeah, because you know, you're usually ill

17:03

informed when it comes to sports matters. That's not

17:05

your forte, even though you sound great talking

17:08

about it. But then when we get to the facts, you always

17:10

got some slippage there. Here's the reality of the situation.

17:13

He's been involved in several instances.

17:15

He was involved in an incident last summer where

17:17

he allegedly got into an issue where the high

17:19

school prospect came out of his house with

17:21

a gun. There was another issue involving a

17:24

friend in Indianapolis where after

17:26

a game, some kind of laser, red dot laser,

17:28

was being pointed in a direction of some

17:30

folks with the Indiana Pacers party. Then

17:33

it was the issue he got suspended over for eight

17:35

games that cost him over $600,000. Now

17:38

there's this. He had met with the commissioner,

17:40

Adam Silver, the National Basketball Association,

17:43

looked him dead in his face and essentially told

17:45

him, this is not me, this is not indicative

17:47

of my character and it won't happen again. And

17:49

yet turns around and this kind of thing happens. So

17:51

when you're looking at it in a vacuum and you're

17:53

thinking about the fact that no laws were broken,

17:56

no crime was committed. And obviously

17:58

he plays in the state. I don't know which car. where

18:00

he was in terms of when he was in the car for the latest

18:03

incident, but he plays for the Memphis Grizzlies.

18:05

That's in Tennessee and obviously in Tennessee

18:07

you don't even need a permit to carry. So he didn't

18:09

break any laws or anything like that. But the

18:12

NBA is a private industry and they don't want

18:14

to be associated with that because they remember what it was like

18:16

in the 80s when the league was on

18:18

tape delay and they weren't raking them billions

18:21

the way that they are now. They're going to protect the

18:23

brand and if you compromise the brand

18:25

in any way they're going to deal with you and clearly

18:27

when it comes to John Marrant they believe he's

18:29

compromised

18:29

the brand and that's why suspension is

18:32

the biggest thing. And Steve, now you and I have been on the same side of issues

18:34

about private enterprises being able to regulate

18:36

the behavior of employees. We were in some ways,

18:38

not entirely, in some ways on the same page

18:40

when it came to Kaepernick's protest. But

18:43

quickly I don't have a lot of time. I won't tell you why

18:45

I still remain on the side of John Marrant here and I know

18:47

it's unpopular. Okay it's a math equation for me.

18:50

Employers increasingly are controlling the

18:52

behavior of people outside of their work

18:54

environment. It's happening more and more. Number

18:56

two, private companies, big companies

18:59

now, are getting

18:59

increasingly political. They don't share my

19:02

value, Stephen A., and they certainly don't share my politics.

19:04

And when you add those two things together what I think

19:07

we're headed for is companies controlling

19:09

your behavior that have nothing to do with work

19:11

and remain legal and it's up to

19:13

them to decide what is dumb. I know

19:15

they have that right, Stephen A., but I don't think we

19:17

want to live in a world where your mid-level manager

19:20

in cubicle Q. is telling you what

19:22

you did your product device is going to get

19:24

you suspended. Hold on wait a minute, you're

19:26

absolutely right Wilkain. There's

19:28

no disagreement between you and I with that.

19:31

But understand something as much as we lament

19:33

it, we accept the reality that the

19:35

bottom line comes into play. And if

19:38

a company believes that

19:40

companies that they do business with

19:42

will feel compromised if this

19:45

individual is representing their brand

19:47

and it's going to compromise their bottom line and

19:50

cost the money, they're gonna make decisions.

19:52

I know that, I know that. We accept

19:54

it so other people have to as well. That's

19:57

the reality whether we like it

19:58

or not.

19:59

the grace of God go I and Stephen

20:02

A. Smith and everyone else. By

20:04

the way, it'll just be a matter of time, but I'll be back. I'll

20:06

be talking to you under the table on sports in no time

20:08

as well. You will.

20:11

I'll let you take a few shots here and there like

20:13

that. I'll kind of allow it. I'll kind of help

20:15

make it happen, especially since you've improved

20:17

your suit game. It desperately needed work

20:20

and you have stepped it up. I'm very proud of you.

20:22

You look good tonight. You look good. We've had a lot

20:24

of disagreements, but we've had more handshakes. I appreciate

20:26

it. Stephen. That's right. All right. Thank you.

20:29

There you go. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Will

20:31

Caine podcast. I will be back with

20:33

you in real time on Monday.

20:36

See you then.