David Sachs
Appearances
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Break up Google, Starbucks CEO out, Kamala’s price controls, Boeing disaster, Kursk offensive
There he goes. I don't want to be political. Let your winners ride. Rain Man, David Sasson.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Well, it might be if the press lets her get away with it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Well, look, I think what happened is that Biden dropped out of the race. He abdicated. Harris took over and it created a sense of euphoria on the part of the left because they thought they had a surefire loser with Biden and they were divided. And then once Harris replaced him, they thought, OK, now we got a shot and we can fully unify and get behind this this new candidate.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
No, I mean, look, what kind of president do you want? I mean, I want the president who is fearless and willing to walk into the lion's den over and over again and answer tough questions. What you saw in that soundbite here is that Rachel Scott, the interviewer, that whatever she was doing is not journalism. This is supposed to be a journalism association. She turned that interview into an ambush.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
It was it was hostile what she did and right out of the gate. I mean, the first question she's attacking him and he pushed back on it. I mean, I think you saw him push back on the media in a way that only Trump can do. Now, you also heard there, I think, a really key point that Harris basically passed on the opportunity to attend when she was originally supposed to.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
That would have been a softball interview for her, but she is not willing to do any kind of interview right now. No questions, no unscripted appearances. She just wants to read from a teleprompter. That rally she did in Atlanta that had Megan Thee Stallion perform, so it was a free concert. That... drew out a huge number of people.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Then Harris spoke for 17 minutes and people were leaving five minutes in because they're just there for the concert. I guess the question that people need to ask, I understand why this is strategic for her. I mean, obviously it's better for you if you don't have to take any
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
positions whatsoever, and you can just abandon all of your previous positions without any explanation whatsoever, and the media gives you a free pass on that. I can understand why that's strategic. But I think that voters need to ask the question, who do you want representing the United States right now in a world that's on fire? Who do you want to stand up to Putin or Xi or make peace with them?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Who do you want to stand up to or be allies with Netanyahu, for example? The United States right now is in a very difficult situation. We can't have a teleprompter president. We need a strong president. I appreciate the fact that Trump is willing to take on all challengers. I just think it's manifestly clear that these are the qualities and traits you want in a president of the United States.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
So what you've seen is over the past couple of weeks, the mainstream media has gone all out on behalf of Kamala Harris. And yes, this has led to a rise in the polls. But I think that the highs that Trump were at were always a little bit artificial in the sense that if the Democrats could field a candidate who could campaign, it was always going to be a close election. Biden was artificially...
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Yeah, look, I would say that in that clip and other clips from that event, I think you should pay a lot of attention to the audience's reaction, because what do they do in that moment when Trump was supposedly committing a faux pas or getting into dangerous territory? They laughed. You know, when Mitt Romney spoke to this group a number of years ago when he was running for president, he got booed.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Are you free-buttoning and free-balling it? Is it both happening or what?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Trump never got booed. He got a lot of laughter. There was a lot of appreciation. Why? Because Trump is always authentic. He's always who he is. Whereas Mitt Romney always appears to be scripted and frankly sort of patronizing. So I think the audience appreciated Trump for who he is. I think that when Trump goes into these areas, there's always a grain of truth to what he's saying.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I think that Harris has leaned into different parts of our heritage for different audiences. But I do think that this is ground he should get off of. And I think a much better... line of attack is to talk about the fact that she has dropped all of her left-wing policy positions and refuses to answer questions or do unscripted appearances without having a teleprompter in front of her.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I think that's a much better line of attack. And I think that's what the campaign will be about from here. I don't think we want this campaign to be about identity.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I mean, look, just think about what's going to happen over the next four years if Harris is elected. I mean, you're going to have a prompter president. I mean, she's just never going to be off prompter. It's going to be like Biden. Biden at least tried to go off prompter. Whenever he did, it was a disaster.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
depressed in the polling because he just couldn't campaign. He could barely read from a prompter. He couldn't do interviews. So I think you're seeing the race normalizing. This is going to be a close one. It's going to be a nail biter. But I think the question about this honeymoon period that Harris has right now is whether it's sustainable. I mean, she has not done any press interviews.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I agree with you that whether you're a CEO or you're a politician, authenticity counts. But I think this election is going to be a test of what people want in their president? I mean, do you think the president needs to be a chief executive who at some level is calling the shots?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Or do you think it's good enough for the presidency to essentially be a construct and to be a manifestation of the staff, right?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Yeah, the decisions that get made are the result of bureaucracy and political infighting and staffers. Exactly. You need someone to control that. And I think it's really interesting that when Biden was still the candidate, but everyone could tell that he was sort of impaired, that the arguments you started hearing from Democrat partisans and the media is that, well, you're voting for a team.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
You're not just voting for a president, right? You're voting for a shadow cabinet. Exactly the thing that we criticized on this pod for the last year. My point is that you're still voting for a shadow cabinet unless Harris is willing to get out there and answer questions and be unscripted. You're just voting for a staff. And I don't think that's good enough.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
When we're in a world where we're in a proxy war with Russia and we could be in a war with China and we have these problems in the Middle East, I want a decider. I want to know that the buck stops here, not the buck stops wherever. Let's shift topics.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
How many buttons down are you? Oh my God, I have three buttons. Look at this. Three buttons. No, look, look, look, look. Is there a button below that we can't see?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
She has not done any press conferences. She's not answered one question. She's not been asked one tough question by the media. She has only read... from a teleprompter. She's only done scripted appearances. And yet at the same time, she's basically been changing all of her policy positions and running from every position she ever stood for.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I guess what I would say about the economy is that in nominal terms, we're not in a recession according to the data that's come out. The Q2 GDP was roughly 2% GDP growth. However, I think there's a couple of problems. One is that what we've seen over the past year or so is that the economic data that comes out keeps getting reforecast down.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
So they put out a provisional number or an estimate, and then when they finalize the number three months or six months later, it always seems to go in one direction. We've seen this over and over again with new jobs being re-forecast down. And we saw this with the Q1 GDP, where initially they were reporting, I think it was like a 1.8% number, and then it got restated down to 1.3%.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
So the Q2 GDP number was around 2%. It was good, but again, It's a provisional number, and let's see where it actually ends up. The bigger problem is government spending. The deficit is running at 6% of GDP, whereas economic growth is at, let's call it charitably 2%. Well, government spending is included in GDP.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
So if you were to balance the budget, let's say that you were to make government live within its means and not have a deficit, we'd have negative 4%. GDP growth. So the only reason why we're in positive GDP growth territory is because of massive government spending that we know is not sustainable. And at some point, the bill is going to come due for that. So I have to say that
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
You ask me, is this a good economy? I mean, it's not the worst, but there's definitely unsustainable things propping it up. And I do think that the bill will come due at some point for this.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
So for example, she said that she was in favor of single payer. Now she's against it. She said she was in favor of court packing. Now she's against it. She said she was against fracking. Now she's in favor of it. On the border, she said that we should consider abolishing ICE. Now all of a sudden she's in favor of more funding for border patrol.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Yeah, no, I agree with that. I agree with all that. I've seen some reports that a crazy percentage of the job creation over the past year have been government jobs.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
on crime, she used to take kind of the BLM position that cops don't make us safer to now she's saying that she's a cop and prosecutor herself. She used to be in favor of federal gun buybacks. Now she's against them. It just goes on and on. I mean, in the 2020 riots, she raised money for the legal defense of rioters. Now she's distancing herself from those positions. My point is this, is that
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
After spending really her whole career staking out positions on the far left, she has now dropped all of these positions for political expediency. And the question is, what does she stand for at all? Does she just kind of blow with the wind and say whatever helps her win whatever the next election is? I mean, I think that's basically what's going on here.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Well, there's no question that the Mossad established or reestablished its reputation for extreme competence here. Being able to infiltrate Iran in order to assassinate the top political leader of Hamas while Haniyeh was a guest of Iran, I mean, that's deeply humiliating to Iran. I think he was there, Haniyeh was, for the swearing in of the new president. president of Iran.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
So for them to be able to target him while he was there and set up the bomb months in advance, I mean, that shows extraordinary planning and intelligence and a huge failure on the part of Iran.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I think in terms of the larger significance of this, you know, in the wake of October 7th on this pod, I said that I hope that Israel did not go off half-cocked responding the way that the United States did after 9-11. And when they started bombing Gaza, I said this is going to backfire. And, you know, boy, was that an understatement in terms of the reaction of world opinion.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I mean, Israel went into Gaza, basically leveled the place and has alienated practically the entire world. The only country that's solidly with Israel anymore is the United States. And even within the United States, roughly half the people are now against Israel.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
And I think what I said at the time was that Israel could pursue or should pursue a more targeted strategy the way that it did after the Munich Olympics. This assassination within Iran shows that the Munich Olympic strategy, they've basically shown that it's successful. They've been able to do it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I wish they had limited their response in this more targeted way because I think that the destruction of Gaza has created tremendous humanitarian suffering. And it's alienated just about the whole world. And what has it accomplished? I don't think they've gotten rid of Hamas.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
And normally what happens is the press would ask you that question, but she's been getting a free pass because the mainstream media has basically been operating as a division of the DNC and they're not holding her to account in any way. They're not requiring her to answer any questions. And as a result, yes, you're seeing this bounce in the polls, but
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
They have not been able to kill the military leader of Hamas, which is Senwar, who was the actual military planner of the October 7th attack. And they have radicalized, you know, whatever part of the Palestinian population was not radicalized has been radicalized. And they've turned so much of the Middle East and the world against them in such a strong way.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Again, I wish that they had pursued the more measured strategy. It's still a tough strategy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Well, first of all, I'm not, obviously, sitting in that seat. I don't live in Israel, and I don't have skin in the game that way. So I think the first thing that they would say is, you know, you're not us. You're not sitting here dealing with all of our enemies in the region. And they would have a point.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
But what I advocated, I think, months ago was to take a more targeted, measured strategy that I think the assassination of Haniyeh shows that they could have executed. And I understand why they went into Gaza and why they felt they needed to go into Gaza. But I just... This is not an anti-Israel statement. It's just a questioning of the strategy. I just don't see that as produced much good.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I don't think they've solved their Hamas problem. They have not gotten Sanwar, and they've lost a meaningful amount of global support.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I think the question is, can she sustain this for 100 days? Can she really get through the entire election without having gone through a primary, without ever having to explain her positions on issues? And she just does these short scripted appearances. I just think that at some point over the next 100 days, that approach is just going to fall apart. She's going to have to do a debate.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
She's going to have to answer questions. At that point, I think the bloom will come off the rose a little bit here, and you'll see the polls normalize.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
If Israel could actually destroy Hamas and achieve its military objective in Gaza, that'd be one thing. But I think we've seen that that's impossible. I mean, Hamas basically bleeds in with the population. It's indistinguishable. And the leadership is hidden deep underground. And the Israelis have not been able to root them out against the war, has not been found.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
And so you've destroyed Gaza, but you have not achieved your objective of eliminating Hamas. And in the process, you've deeply alienated
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Everything's just worse. I mean, you still have the same problem. In fact, now the entire Palestinian population is radicalized. In fact, the whole Arab and Muslim population in the Middle East is more radicalized against you than they were before. I mean, I know there was already a significant amount of hatred, but now it's worse. And you haven't fundamentally solved the underlying issue.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I think the 9-11 analogy is apt. I mean, we went off after 9-11, half-cocked into all these wars in the Middle East. I think that going into Afghanistan, I think that was justified because they were harboring al-Qaeda. But then we went into Iraq.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
because really members of the Bush administration had a pre-existing agenda and then they lied us into it saying that Saddam was connected somehow to 9-11 and we began a 20-year process of just plunging ourselves into all these wars. It only made everything worse. One of the reasons why Iran is in such a strong position today in the Middle East is because we took out Iraq.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
We basically created a power vacuum in the Middle East that they ended up filling.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
No, listen, anyone who Trump chose was going to be absolutely smeared by the other side and by the media. If it had been Doug Burgum, there would have been nonstop coverage of the six week abortion bill that he signed. Right. You could go down the list. I mean, look, what Democrats will say is we just want to see a moderate Republican. But when Mitt Romney ran, they were calling him a fascist.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Look, I think there's no question that we're on a path here where we could have a regional war in the Middle East. Remember that after Israel hit the Iranian general in Lebanon, the Iranians responded two weeks later with that massive attack. drone and missile attack. Most of the missiles were intercepted by Iron Dome, and I think America participated in that as well.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I think one or two of them got through. And then Israel launched kind of a weak missile attack on Iran, and that was kind of the final word on it. There were people in Netanyahu's cabinet, like Smotrich and Ben-Gavir, sort of the more hardline radical right-wingers, who I think publicly tweeted that they thought Israel's final word on it was weak, and they clearly wanted to do more.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
So I think the point is just that when we had this last exchange between Israel and Iran, it felt like it was on the verge of tipping over into a regional war, but I think partly due to the efforts of the United States, We were able to help tamp that down. I think now Iran's promising revenge for what just happened in Tehran, and this could set that escalatory spiral off again.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
If you were to place odds on this, I'd say it's at least 50-50 that things escalate into a regional war.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Yeah, it would require incredible forbearance on the part of a population that just been attacked and Attacked and attacked and attacked. With massive atrocities on civilians.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Look, when it happened to us on 9-11, we lashed out, you know? Yeah, exactly. But the results were not good.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
So the reality is that the mainstream media and the DNC, but I repeat myself, are going to smear anyone who's picked. At the end of the day, I don't think that it matters. What matters is the top of the ticket.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Well, let's wrap up with the Bill Ackman story. Sorry, before you do that. I hate to make this political, but I just have to observe. I mean, look at the situation in the world. I mean, the Middle East is on the verge of regional war. We could be in a war there. I should say there could be a regional war there by January 20th when the next president is sworn in.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
You've got the United States in a proxy war with Ukraine. You have major tensions. with China in East Asia. I mean, is this really the time where you want to put in place an inexperienced president whose policy positions are unclear, who's untested, was never even tested by a primary, who the media refuses to test now, who's basically a media construct? This seems to me like a really bad idea.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
I just don't know. I honestly haven't followed his IPO process at all. I would say that the market we have right now, it's not the best it's been, but it's also not the worst. So I'm always reluctant to blame macro conditions without having a more specific explanation.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Yeah, let me also just say, I think he's very thoughtful on Twitter. You know, I've gotten into some disagreements with him on Twitter, other things I've agreed with. But overall, I think he makes a strong case for himself. I haven't heard him say anything out of bounds on Twitter, whether you agree with it or not. So I can't imagine that's a problem.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
And I think the vast majority of the country agrees that woke has jumped the shark. Yeah, but I think some people highlight. If woke is so great, why is Kamala Harris trying to distance herself from every previous comment she's ever made about wokeism or DEI?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Yeah, and actually, can I go further? And I actually think that Ackman's presence on Twitter X is a huge positive for him. It's an asset because he has a gigantic followership and he's able to speak directly to his audience in the way that we do. And I think the reason why people say these things is because they don't have a direct strategy. And so they want to basically badmouth people who do.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
But again, if you don't go direct to your audience, then you have to go through the media and then they get to define you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
So I think the fact that he's got, what, like a million plus followers and, you know, everything he puts out gets tens of thousands of likes, it's a huge positive.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
That's an interesting point of view. And let me just respond to that for a second. So one of our critiques of Biden, not just in this election cycle, but probably going back a year, is that Biden had become basically a figurehead president, almost a construct. And he was fronting for a shadow cabinet or a group of powerful staffers who are really running the country.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
basically because of his cognitive decline. And we sort of joke that whoever the White House intern was who was running the social media accounts or the staffer who was running the teleprompter was basically the president because they could dictate what Biden said. Now, I think the question to ask is, has anything changed? Kamala Harris refuses to do any interviews.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
She doesn't want to do any unscripted appearances. She's abandoned all of her policy positions that have been longstanding and were the reason why she ran for president in the first place in 2020. So the question to ask is, do we still have a construct as the president? I mean, the Biden staffers who are running Biden are now just running Harris. We don't know what she stands for.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
We don't have her appearing in unscripted, natural ways. appearances. We don't have her being challenged by the press. She's not willing to do what Trump did. Trump just walked into the lion's den yet again at the NABJ.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Right, exactly. So Trump walks into a very hostile interview at NABJ. Harris was supposed to come and she didn't come. She would have gotten a very softball interview. She's not even willing to do that. I think that in substantive terms, I don't think that much has changed this election. The Biden staff is still running for president. I mean, that's what you're voting for.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
She snubbed Netanyahu, Freeberg. I don't know what you're talking about. She snubbed Netanyahu.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Hold on a second. I think on Israel... So first of all, she didn't write that statement. The staff did. Okay. Now, what is the staff trying to accomplish on Israel? They actually have a genuine dilemma on the whole Israel-Palestine issue because... The Democrat Party is very much split on this. The Democrat establishment is pro-Israel, but the progressive base is very pro-Palestine.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
And even polling among youth shows significant support for Hamas even. And a lot of these people are very much within the sort of hardcore left-wing base of the Democrat Party. So what the Biden administration has been doing and what I think Harris is continuing is a process of talking out of both sides of their mouth.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Biden went to Israel, bear hugged Bibi, basically supported his policy, but then gave some lip service to the idea that he would limit the weapons that Israel is able to use. Harris puts out this very pro-Israel statement, but then snubs Netanyahu at that speech he gave before Congress. So look, the Democrats are trying to have it both ways. They have a base that is fractured on this issue.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
And so they're trying to thread that needle. Now, you're right that this is up a level. Let's move off the Israel issue for a second. There's no question that Harris wants to run from her record as being Biden's vice president. There's a good reason for that. The Biden-Harris administration is historically unpopular. What you have to ask, though, is whether it's credible.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
Harris suddenly is in favor of more money for Border Patrol. Why didn't she advocate for that when she was president? Biden's border czar. The media is furiously scrubbing its websites to remove references. Hold on. They're removing historical references from during the Biden administration when she was openly called the border czar. They're trying to memory hole that.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Kamala surges, Trump at NABJ, recession fears, Middle East escalation, Ackman postpones IPO
So look, I have no doubt that the Harris campaign wants to drop every substantive policy position she's ever taken because they just want her to be a construct. They just want people to be excited because.