Pat (Producer Pat), Unknown last name

Yeah, it's absolutely right.

And at this point, we're getting such a slow drip of information having to do with these Epstein files.

But it's important to not jump to conclusions just because we hear a name mentioned in the files.

That doesn't mean that they were guilty of anything.

There could have just been contact between Epstein and Musk and these other figures.

And it doesn't mean that they did anything wrong or illegal.

Also, I think it's worth mentioning that if part of Epstein's plan with how he ran the scheme was to first meet these wealthy and powerful individuals before slowly opening them up to blackmail and having them do these illicit things, well, then he has to make the initial steps, right, of getting to know them and maybe scheduling meetings and this sort of thing.

So just because there was something on the books, that doesn't mean that Elon or these other people names were implicated, but it would be nice to have the entirety of the files, right?

Because then I think we would know a lot more of this information for sure.

Yeah, I don't care if it's worse for Republicans, worse for Democrats.

The truth is what's most important here, especially with a story as serious as this.

I just get the sense, though, that ultimately it could be Republicans who are hurt more from this because they're the ones obstructing right now.

And also their party is a lot more dependent on just one political figure, which of course is Trump.

Everything in the Republican Party revolves around Trump.

Whereas if there was any number of Democratic figures, if any single name was implicated, I don't obviously want to give examples, but there would still be plenty of other people to lead the party.

We would still have plenty of options for 2028, for example.

So I don't think it would be this major disaster for us Democrats if a few names were listed.

Whereas if Trump was all over the files, and it seems like he is, that actually could be a disaster for Republicans.

Totally.

But do you think it makes sense that Trump is hiding the Epstein files not to save his own skin, but to save the people around him, to protect his friends?

Like, he doesn't seem like that loyal of a guy to me to want to do that.

Well, yeah, it becomes a political calculation, right?

Because he may want to protect those figures and he feels as though those figures are important to his movement.

But we know that his own base is turning on him over this very issue.

So it may get to a point where Trump figures, I'd rather have the base than those loyal people by my side.

And he goes along reluctantly with releasing the list or at the very least, he doesn't stop it from happening.

Yeah, I mean, I understand why companies would pay out the settlement, right?

Because they're making a mathematical calculation and they figure if we don't fight this, if we just give the president what he wants, then ultimately we'll make more money in the long term.

And these corporations are often amoral.

They're just figuring what's going to make them the most money.

And they're not concerned about these other things like protecting democracy or protecting free speech.

All that is not important to them.

What's important to them is making money.

So if anything, it should be incumbent on the government to not try to influence these companies, right, to stay out of what businesses are doing when it comes to this sort of thing and let them do what they want.

There should be more regulation when it comes to this.

We should have more protections of companies from political lawsuits and prosecutions and this sort of thing.

The fact that we don't have that means that we're in a situation now where Trump is free to do all this stuff and he's making a hell of a hell of a lot of money from it.

Yeah, so it's influence peddling when the companies decide to settle the lawsuits instead of fighting them.

And to me, this seems to undermine Trump's point about how he loses money when he's president.

He would be making so much more if he was running his own businesses.

He got this $25 million settlement from Meta slash Facebook.

He got this $10 million settlement from Twitter slash X. Now he has this amount from YouTube, $25 million.

And he also got, what was it?

15, 16 million from Paramount, I believe.

Yeah, and then ABC, did they give him a settlement as well?

They did over the George Stephanopoulos thing.

So he's just collecting money left and right, must be approaching $100 million, if not more from all of these settlements.

I know some of the money is going to go to the ballroom or to his future presidential library.

But to continue to make the argument that this hasn't been profitable for him being president, that's just absolutely laughable.

Yeah, the right is only satisfied when it's a rock and roll band or a country band that gets chosen for the Super Bowl halftime show.

But whenever it's a hip hop artist or in this case, a Latin music artist, they get really upset.

So this happened before last year, Kendrick Lamar.

performed at the Super Bowl.

Of course, he's a rapper, so the right wing didn't like him.

Before that, we had Beyonce, we had Shakira, we had JLo, and the right every single time says that it was a horrible performance.

They never should have chosen this person, even though it's these artists who consistently rank at the top of the charts.

You know, music has changed over the years.

Yes, we used to have a lot more of these rock and roll performers, but

At least as far as I'm aware, rock and roll isn't at the pinnacle like it once was.

It's these other types of music.

So it makes sense that the Super Bowl would reflect the culture in that way.

Music has evolved.

And so their halftime performances are going to reflect that.

They want to showcase the most successful artists of the day.

And so that's why they're going with Bad Bunny instead of whoever the hell else they want to perform.

Yeah, that's why I remember the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

There was discussion because like one of the bass guitars wasn't plugged in.

And so people figured, oh, well, they're clearly faking it.

But then the Peppers came out later and said, oh, yeah, well, everyone fakes the Super Bowl.

Like everything is prerecorded and it's just like the dancing and the choreography that's live for everyone.

We didn't want to pretend as though we were actually playing when we weren't.

Yeah, absolutely.

Because the right was okay with those other artists, or they at least didn't think that it was political.

Now, because we have more black and brown artists performing at the Super Bowl, all of a sudden it's a problem.

So they want to go back to the way things used to be.

And I guess they want Lee Greenwood or someone like him to be performing at the Super Bowl every single year.

Maybe Ted Nugent could come out and play stranglehold and then we could shoo him off as well.

No.

What better opportunity to hear them for the first time than at the Super Bowl halftime show?

We'll have to see that one day.

I'm in a routine of watching the Super Bowl every single year.

Sometimes it's the only football game that I watch for the whole year.

But I'm in it.

You know, I'm in for the game, the halftime show, the commercials.

Bring it on.

Yeah, there's a lot of people who just don't know that Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

And so to call him foreign or not American wouldn't make any sense.

All right.