Lovett or Leave It - What a Weekday: Forget Paris

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

Lovett or Leave It sticks the landing with another What A Weekday! This week, Elon Musk and Donald Trump log onto X for a political fart-to-fart. JD Vance plays himself on Snatch Game, and still loses. Flavor Flav knows what time it is, and Tom Cruise helps us say au revoir to the Paris Games the only way he knows how.

Shout out to my friend Vicky, who is one of the muscle mommies on stage at during Chaparrone's Lollapalooza set. That phrase sits no better with me than it did when you introduced me to me a year ago. Well fortunately the concept continues at pace and shout out to all the muscle mommies on stage and off stage. So what is a muscle mommy? I think it's just a jacked woman. I think it's just an internet term. I didn't know if it was more compliment.

The concept is fine. I hate the phrase. Well, listen, and perhaps the door will open and you may have to pass through to become a muscle mommy. We don't know what life will bring. It's just something to think about. Well, I'm Jon Lovett. I'm here with my trusty morning zoo, Kendra, Lazarus, Hallie. Let's get into it. What a weekday.

On Monday evening, Elon Musk sat down to interview Donald Trump live on X. Sorry, I couldn't watch it. I was too busy chopping my own dick off instead. It was an innovative format no one's been brave enough to try before. What if Donald Trump were permitted to speak at length with absolutely no fact checking? Naturally, the X space for their interview kept crashing over and over again, just like it did when Ron DeSantis announced he was running earlier this year. Can't believe the checked out, demoralized engineers still working at this desiccated husk of a company

while desperately seeking job interviews elsewhere haven't crushed their punch list. Musk claimed it was a DDoS attack on the platform. Basically hundreds of gigabits of data were saturated. As this massive attack illustrates, there's a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say. Yes, and but for this kludgy, glitchy version of a conference call, there's simply no way

to hear from Donald Trump. The man is a mystery. And also, yeah, sure, I scream we're under attack when I've been exposed to being bad at my job. Why was I in L.A. to this meeting? Because our shadowy enemies don't want you to hear my thoughts on North Carolina tour venues. According to The Verge, several ex-employees denied there was a denial of service attack I relate to this meeting because our shadowy enemies don't want you to hear my thoughts on North Carolina tour venues According to the verge several ex-employees denied There was a denial of service attack with one staffer saying they were 99% sure must was lying and 1% in love with him

It's so important to leave open that 1% possibility that he isn't just lying but also unspeakably stupid Meanwhile according to the New York Times close Trump allies have described the three weeks since President Biden dropped out of the race as the rockiest stretch of Trump's campaign so far. Boy, you know your campaign is in trouble when an assassination attempt wasn't the low point. At a dinner with donors on August 2nd in Bridgehampton, one donor asked Trump how he planned to take control of the narrative and present a positive vision for America. Trump ranted about Harris for a while and then said, I am who I am. Okay, flop I. This dinner is a great micro-sauce of the way in which the kind of techie finance guys

who are politically confused or had their minds melted by social media have come face to face with their decision to get behind Trump at the peak and are now Recognizing that they may have made a terrible terrible mistake and I fucking love it. They got game. I loved it They did they got game stopped. Yeah, they got game stopped. They bought Trump at the peak at the peak and here we are And here we are When a donor asked Trump about the Democrats message that the GOP ticket is weird, Trump replied, not about me. They're saying it about JD. Fantastic. I love that Donald Trump has been consuming all of this Republicans are weird

commentary. And his main takeaway is that it's just simply not about him. It's impressive. Like I it's it's his mind is a fortress. It cannot not about him. It's impressive. Like, his mind is a fortress. It cannot be penetrated. Has not taken in new information since like 1990. It couldn't have been about him. We are not him. Never. Never in a million years could I be him.

He's too normal. He's too normal. There's such a, even the parts that aren't, you end up focusing on the silliest and most ridiculous parts of a moment in which Elon Musk has a conversation with Donald Trump and the fact that it didn't work and it was just rambling nonsense is what the headline is.

But even the premise as Elon Musk introduced it, I signed on actually at the very beginning of it, in part because it was crashing and I was just curious. And Elon says this, makes this point that I think he believes is insightful, that you can't understand somebody Elon says this, makes this point that I think he believes is insightful that, you know, you can't understand somebody in a true interview, that in a hostile interview, you never get to really know someone.

And so that's why I just want to have a conversation with Donald Trump so that we can just get to know the real Donald Trump, which like I think misunderstands the role of the press, what we're actually trying to understand about people. You believe that the goal of this is to get to know the real Donald Trump outside of politics, but the Donald Trump inside of politics is the only one we should ever care about. The reason the questions are hostile is because you're trying to get him to explain or reveal why he's taken unpopular or politically unpalatable positions or done terrible things. Of course, that's not what happens when you're just shooting the shit at a bar, but we're not just shooting

the shit at a bar. We're choosing the president. Yeah. I think Elon fundamentally reveals, I hope for the last time that we ever have a conversation, is like, just because you're smart in some way does not mean that you're not incredibly gullible and naive and stupid in another way. Like it wouldn't, he has a conviction about Donald Trump so that's his understanding of what interviewing must be.

Like, oh, the media doesn't understand you, I understand you, but really it's just a projection of himself. He has to project everything on to Donald Trump Even during this conversation like they're not really even talking to what it was But he Elon rambles on at length and then says some version of so, what do you think? Yeah, hostile interviews are some of our best work Like I think the most revealing interview that Tom Cruise ever gave was the Matt Lauer interview remember

lib in that WowR interview. Remember? Glib. Anti-depressants. Oh, vaguely, vaguely. That's like one of the most revealing moments that he's ever had in like the pop culture space. Yeah, like the idea that Donald Trump just needed to have a conversation will understand him. It ignores the fact that Donald Trump has been having that conversation with us the whole time.

Well, it's also just, it's the kind of thing a person in a position of power who has not given much thought to those dynamics and the fact that he has access to these people, is that fundraisers with these people can call these people up and that the interest of a voter is not to find out what it's like to shoot the shit with Donald Trump because you get to do that and you think it's so fascinating, it's to find out what they'd actually do with this power. Also the idea that Donald Trump in our last conversation isn't the exact same person using many more slurs, that's what he is behind the scenes.

Right, like there's no, yeah, in fairness to Donald Trump, he's actually quite authentically himself in the halls of his career. He's very high, 100%. And that I think is like, it's almost like we can't believe that. We can't, our side too, like we won't allow that to be true. We have to be like, no, there's something else going on. It's four dimensional chess.

It's like he has been nothing but honest with us about what a piece of shit he has been this entire time. And I think now it's like, let's just accept it. We can just do it. What a relief. According to the Times, Trump is... Speaking of which, according to The Times, Trump has called Kamala Harris a bitch repeatedly in private conversations. And not in the RuPaul Drag Race kind of way. Trump campaign communications director Stephen Chung denied the claim, telling Axios, this

is not language President Trump has used to describe Kamala, and it's not how the campaign would characterize her, although Kamala has previously called herself that. Yes, Kamala Harris said she was a bitch, a lover, a child, and a mother, a sinner, and a saint. It was 1997 and this was transgressive at the time. The idea that that a woman contained multitudes. Historically so. Actually, when asked for a citation, the Trump campaign sent this clip. And as a woman, there is a balance to be struck between being tough and being a bitch. Ha ha ha Second of all, if I was Trump's communication director, I wouldn't be sending out videos of Kamala Harris being funny and relatable while making a point

every woman in America can relate to. They have just completely lost the plot. They've also given like a really good pairing. Have you seen the clip that's going viral of her being asked what her favorite curse word is? Oh no. And she's like, I can't say it, but it starts with an M and ends with an uh.

Yeah. It's a perfect pairing. It's just like, she's so charming I can't say it, but it starts with an M and ends with an uh. Yeah. It's a perfect pairing. It's great. It's like, she's so charming. It's funny. Like, it's just like, you don't understand any, to send this out to the press is insane. I saw it like, I love her. She's great.

Yeah. There's something, we were right before, when we came in the studio, we were watching Chappellrone at Lollapalooza. And I was just thinking when I saw Chappell Rowan and the fact that we're going to be talking about Kamala Harris, that there is a similarity between the embrace of Chapel Rowan this summer and the embrace of Kamala Harris this summer. And it is the, there's a, a kind of like collective enjoyment of knowing that like this this energy and enthusiasm is coming from

it's not something that you've asked for it's something that's coming to you via our collective desire to celebrate what you represent to us i think there's like a little bit of like misogyny in it which is that like oh no no kamala didn campaign for this. She didn't show her ambition to get this But at the same time there's something like beautiful about the fact that both like Chappell-roan and Kamala Harris were fucking grinding it out forever To get to the point where they could be Collectively celebrated at a moment that almost seemed natural or organic Yeah, like there is a level of like,

forcedness to like every personal persona. Like it is, does tend towards a robotic sense. And then to have someone step up and be like, oh no, I have all this good stuff. I brought all this stuff with me. There's a relief to it as a viewer. You're like, oh, thank God it's good. Okay, good.

Phew, because we've been dealing with so much shit. And I say, both in politics and in pop music, we're just sort of like, you're trying to convince me this is good. And then to have someone be like, no, no, it's good. I, because we've been dealing with so much shit. And I think both in politics and in pop music, we're just sort of like, you're trying to convince me this is good. And then to have someone be like, no, no, it's good. I have all this good stuff. Let me tell you about it. It's like, OK, good.

We don't have to pretend in the way that we were having to maybe pretend before. It's the relief of, oh, she can actually sing. Yes. Oh, she can actually perform. Oh, actually, she can speak. And it's great. Yeah.

It's a beautiful thing. Yeah. And I love Joplin Ruhn. She's so good. And the looks.'s a beautiful thing. And I love Jopla Rahn. She's so good. And the looks. The looks are great. And the looks. So Trump has been knocked off balance by Harris dominating

in Armenia. But to be fair, it doesn't take much to knock him off balance. Trump's center of gravity is located outside of his body like a boomerang. You see, it's like you would have to, you can see it's off. You could see it's probably like somewhere Forward of his belt line like a few inches like his joints are like three inches off of everyone else's joints So he's constantly trying to hide it

I think part of it is the The lifts because I do think they pitch him forward a bit. I've never thought of him as a lift person Oh, yeah, really after the assassination type tip, he says, like, get my shoes, get my shoes. Oh, there were lifts. Some claim that when you see the shoe fly, there's the shoe flies, and you can see a lift falling out of it. Got it. I guess it's the same as, like, why he's always gonna have, like, the 80s-style shoulder pad.

Mm-hmm. Like, it's like, oh, that was when he was biggest, so he's gonna commit to whatever he was doing then. Yeah, his whole look now is just preservation of a time when he was a normal looking man, and sort of like the ideal of what a 1980s man should look like, I guess. Yeah. Tony Fabrizio, the Trump campaign's chief pollster and not a sculpture of an Italian chef profits outside a spaghetti restaurant. I don't know that we can keep making these jokes. We love Tony Fabrizio, though.

Yeah, sure. Anyway, he said that Harris has gotten the equivalent of the largest in-kind contribution of free media I think I've ever seen in all the years I've been doing presidential campaigns. But you can't stay home and golf instead of campaigning and then complain that the news isn't talking about you. You have to do the work. You have to get out there and tell a bunch of confused Wisconsin voters about how much you love Hannibal Lecter. You know, president stuff. Trump's advisors have urged him to steer away from personal attacks and focus on the economy,

immigration and crime, advice that Trump has ignored. Said Trump, thank you for the advice though, you fat ugly idiots. I have the idea of like, oh yeah, we're gonna finally be the people that convince Trump not to do personal attacks. Like trying to convince the coyote that the proper way to capture the roadrunner is by taking some time off

the field and learning sharpshooting for the better part of a year, or maybe kind of in a way that isn't showy, perhaps poisoning some food and then leaving and seeing if you come back a few days later to find a dead roadrunner. You know? A disciplined approach. A disciplined approach. I love imagining the person in 2024 who's like, I can fix him. Give me five minutes to room with this guy. I'm going to fix him. Meanwhile, new polls by the New York Times and Sienna College show Harris leading Trump by four points in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Does that feel good? That feeling? A hint of relief? Squash it. The polls may be wrong. As Harry Enton pointed out, the polling error from 2016 erases this lead. Also, even if the polls are right, a lot can change in 83 days. 83 days is a lot of time.

I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true.

I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure if that's true. The polls may be wrong. As Harry Enton pointed out, the polling error from 2016 erases this lead. Also, even if the polls are right, a lot can change in 83 days. 83 days of living like we're 0.5 behind in every swing state, maybe hell on the digestive system, but it's how we must live. Do dreams where Nate Silver and your rabbi explain how the model wasn't wrong right before crying? Simone Biles, who cannot hear you, pushes you out of a plane and you realize you don't have a parachute because you forgot to fill out all the down ballot races. Does that help us win?

No, but it means you're in the right headspace. That's not a dream I had. Simone Biles get here. Just in the consciousness. Yeah, she's in the ether. I guess they just check to see whether you're registered to vote. I think unfortunately there's just going to be, there's just all this news where it's like, oh yeah, it turns out my parents who have lived in the same house for 30 years

or just their registration isn't registration isn't in or whatever. We gotta run like we're a tiny bit behind, like we're 500 votes behind in every swing state. Cause we might be. Cause we might be, cause we might be. It's like we went through the doldrums, we experienced the doldrums, we can't be irrationally exuberant now, we just can't.

If you could make it to Lollapalooza, you could make it to the polls. Lollapaloo If you could make it to Lollapalooza, you could make it to the polls. Lollapaloo. We don't want a Lollapalooze, we want a Lollapawinna. We don't want a Lollapalooza, we want a Lollapawinna. The electiona. I'm gonna head out. No, you have to stay.

This is your job. Damn it. I just thought of somewhere I have to be. Is it Lollapawinna? Nope, Winza. Lollapawinza. Is that better? Oh, you think Is that better?

Oh, you think that's better? I'm saying it. It's the original. Trump has continued to obsess over crowd size at Harris' rallies and falsely claimed in a string of Sunday Truth social posts that she had used AI to fake those crowds. But go ahead and count the tits, Trump. I believe you'll find an even number. Trump himself held zero events in swing states last week, instead heading to Montana for

a rally in support of GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy. For sure, when you're losing in critical swing states, head to Montana, like when I feel a case of diarrhea coming on and make a beeline for the Ferris wheel. That's actually kind of a joke that describes a terrible situation, but also has some hope in it, which is you can feel diarrhea coming.

You know? Sometimes you can. Sometimes you can. Kendra, do you feel diarrhea coming? Oh my God. I know. I knew you'd hate that. Speaking of diarrhea, the dogs are crooked. We have to address that at some point. Yeah, really.

We've got to do something about this. They have to wear diapers or something. We found like three-day-old shit in the other conference room the other day. I think that there is a important conversation to be had about dogs taking shits in various rooms. But I do think it's important not to say it's all the dogs, not all dogs, hashtag not all dogs. Here's what I have learned from watching 15 years of Bravo.

The richer you are, the more likely your dog is to be shitting inside. Finally. And that's all I'm gonna say. Somebody said it. That's all I'm gonna say. It's not just your dog. We're not saying it's just Pundit.

It goes all the way to the top. I'm saying, I... Yeah. I... I... Pundit is reverse sneezing left and right. Listen, I take great care to make sure that Pundit poops before she sets foot in this office.

And this is a girl that you could set the watch to on the when those poops come. It is a giant poop in the morning, and then at best one other poop at the end of the day. Though as I say that, if she were secretly pooping in the office, I might not know. That's the problem., if she were secretly pooping in the office, I might not know. That's the problem.

Yeah, there's many damn dogs in this office. But we've, like having seen the poops that emerge in various conference spaces, they're just not our brand. They're just simply not our brand. And a dog owner knows their dog's brand of poop. The investigation continues. You know it.

He's never owned a dog. Well, honestly, let's set up some fucking cameras. Hey, I'm all for it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it.

He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it.

He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it. previously owned by none other than Jeffrey Epstein. What was he supposed to do? Find any other plane in the world? Look, I do agree that it is an unforced error to use Jeffrey Epstein's plane,

but it's not like it's haunted. Yeah, the plane didn't do anything wrong. It was what happened on and after the plane. Would you want to live in his house? Would you live on his island? Yeah, like, I don't want to be anywhere... It's a bad look, but the plane is ultimately just a plane. Yeah, the plane is innocent. The plane is simply a plane. The plane is a plane. I wouldn't want to be anywhere. It's a bad look, but the plane is ultimately just a plane Yeah, the plane is innocent. The plane is simply a plane the plane is playing. I wouldn't want to be in there

Well, I mean look if your your view is that the plane is haunted fine, and you don't want to ride on fine But did you know it's a strong term more like bad vibes? Yeah, the energy in there I'm sure listen and I want to be clear about something don't want to go on Jeffrey Epstein's plane right, I think we all are on the same page. Not interested in taking a flight on that plane. And uh- I'm a Delta Gale myself. Yeah.

Yeah. A nice commercial flight. Go to the Sky Lounge? Have a couple of, you know, little tacos, if they're available at the Sky Lounge. If not, I'll grab a cookie. The Sky Lounge. Hey not, I'll grab a cookie. The Sky Lounge. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

On Monday, Trump's lawyer threatened to sue the DOJ for $115 million for their investigation into classified government documents Trump took to Mar-a-Lago. Again, not what you do if you're trying to make the race about anything other than how much of a fucking mess you are. You look at what he's been doing, a Twitter space with Elon Musk going to Montana. And again, like that, that event was probably set before, right? They thought they were leading. They're going to go help this Senate candidate to beat John Tester because why not? It'll be better to win that seat and have a bigger majority and win the Senate

But You could stop if you're flying from fucking Mar-a-Lago to Montana You fly over several swing states to get there Then you also file a suit that brings to mind some of your worst behavior that the American people in by great majorities find terrible and a reason you shouldn't be present again a disqualifying event from your presidency like that it's none of it is about winning none of it's about winning I think fundamentally like we are running up against fact that like and this is true the first time but even

worse and now it's like he doesn't really actually want to be president like I don't think at the end of the day, when he's sitting on his bed and takes out his shoes, his little lifts fall out. I think he wants to just hang out. I think he wants to go golfing. But there's so many people propping up his wobbly table that he doesn't, he's like, well, there's no way out of this.

It wouldn't occur to him not to bail out. But there's nothing coming from him. He doesn't have it or any interest anymore. So it's sort of like, who's around him making these decisions? I think he doesn't want to, obviously he's never wanted or really done the job of president, but he also wants to win and doesn't want to lose

and wants to prove that he didn't lose. And so the only way to get the kind of ego solve that he needs is to run for president of the United States and to escape legal accountability. It might be giving him too much credit, but I do think that that is part of it. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, that's of course important too. But there was a period of time where I would have said, wow, Donald Trump is so afraid

of going to federal prison that it has concentrated his mind. He's put in place a better campaign team, he's showing more discipline. In the weeks after the debate, he showed incredible discipline. It's very much like, because he thought he was going to win, it got him to really behave more responsibly.

And now that he's in this cycle where he thinks it's unfair because he was supposed to be Biden, he could beat Biden, now Kamala's ahead, he can't have that same discipline when he feels like he's being in some way not being treated correctly by the system because the same threat is like what seemed to have concentrated his attention just a few weeks ago is now absent and that's hard to make sense of.

I also, I wonder if he regrets delaying all of his trials at this point because those new cycles, we enjoyed them obviously, but it was also he got nonstop attention. He got to play the martyr and the victim, which was a better look for him than whatever this is. I wonder if that was almost a misstep. Yeah, there were tons of news cycles about his malfeasance. There was tens of millions of dollars spent on ads and he was ahead. So, meanwhile, there is one candidate and campaign in this race focused exclusively

on winning at a campaign rally in Nevada on Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris came out in favor of eliminating taxes on tips. And it is my promise to everyone here when I am president, we will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers. This policy is better than the current one, which boils down to a shoebox full of cash and what the IRS doesn't know doesn't hurt them. Trump, who's also campaigned on not taxing tips since June, quickly accused Harris of stealing his idea.

Trump is like an open mic comedian who insists that SNL stole their idea and the idea was a guy at a party but he's acting silly. Harris' campaign official told reporters that Harris' proposal was indeed different from Trump's saying as president she would work with Congress to craft a proposal that comes with an income limit and with strict requirements to prevent hedge fund managers and lawyers from structuring their compensation in ways to try to take advantage of the policy. Hold on, are we not supposed to be tipping our lawyers?

Then why does Harold always stand by the door clearing his throat? Those screens get me every time. The iPad. Oh, the screens get us. Yeah, the screens get us every time. In other populist economics news. The Biden administration on Monday proposed a set of consumer protections to make it easier

to cancel subscriptions, get refunds and submit health care and insurance forms online. Plus Americans will be able to plug in USPs perfectly on the first guest. You'll be able to hit print and documents will just print from the nearest printer with no questions asked. And the hot bartender doesn't just want a tip. They're really into you. It's a new and glorious American future the it's so funny because Trump's like she stole my idea for for for for non-taxing tips

yeah yeah yeah she did good sorry buddy it's a policy it's not a it's not a work of art the whole point is to get people to adopt your policy views that's the nature of it and this one will be better because yours is fake. You're just a liar. You're just, well, sure, you were lying when you said it, but... And because when Republicans introduce a version of it, it ends up being something that mostly rewards the rich. So that's a fun part of it as well.

The idea of like, oh, we're not going to text tips, and all of a sudden hedge fund managers are suddenly figuring out ways to describe what they do as tips. Do you guys think Trump tips? Oh. I could see it either way. There have been, I've read some firsthand accounts from like doorman and stuff that claim that he does. I could see it as like a way to like just show off.

Yeah. I don't think it's out of concern for the service worker. Well, like this is I think why he likes this policy. Like he likes a tips based economy because it's one in which, first of all, it shifts tips, shifts the responsibility from employers onto customers, and it shifts the responsibility from the ungenerous to the generous, right?

What decides how much a person makes, it's the average of how generous a group of people are. And so over tip, people who tipped more go above 20%, whatever, they subsidize all these people, they come in and tip under. And like, what kind of fucking system is that? Why is that?

And like, why are these the jobs in which you like are rewarded interpersonally and also in ways that bring in being sexualized, being judged on how you looked, having to be obsequious. Why are these the traits we want? We don't expect people to need tips to do their jobs in virtually any other place other than hospitality. It's gross, it's gross. And yeah, we should not tax tips

if it gets more money to people. But then it's just a it's just a like, a bandaid on like a broken system. I guess that's okay. But and like half the problem now is or at least when I haven't been in service in like a minute, but at least when I was still breezing and waitressing, I preferred my tips, obviously in cash, because then you could hide it and you didn't have to report it. But as we increasingly go to a more cashless society, more tips are actually right now subject to tax, which sucks for the service worker who's making maybe $3 an hour in some states. Right. Well, that's part of it too, right? The sort of understanding that cash chips were under the table.

But we don't want to build an under the table economy. Also something that a bunch of economists told, I believe NPR, that there are states with higher minimum wage for service workers and states with lower minimum wage for service workers. So a state like South Carolina that has a much lower minimum wage for tipped staff and more of their salary comes from tips,

this benefits them more than somebody in California. So you're benefiting, it's a perverse incentive that rewards the places that have the fewest protections for people. But hey, I'm for it. If it helps us win, do it. That's where I'm at. I don't know the details.

Fuck the details. You gotta win. An alleged photo of JD Vance in drag hit the internet over the weekend, reportedly taken when Trump's VP pick was at Yale Law School in 2012. Here she is in all her glory. Hillbilly hella double D's. Little Miss Fappalachia. Hill Frilly Elegy. JD Prantz. Hillbusty Bella the Bology. Hell yeah. Great. I think that's our favorite.

Yeah. Hillbilly Bella the Bology. Works perfectly. Perfect. I knew this photo wasn't from Vance's time in the Marines because honey he's not serving. The photo started trending on Twitter with the hashtag SofaLorenne. Excellent, excellent work. SofaLorenne, a reference to the fictional rumor that Vance wrote about having sex with a sofa in his book Hillbilly Elegy. In reality, that Vance wrote about having sex with a sofa in his book, Hail Billie Elegy. In reality, JD Vance wrote about having sex with a sofa in his book, a couch fucking work of staggering genius. A second photo also of JD Vance in drag later serviced on Monday. So a lot of people are making jokes about this. I don't totally get what the joke is. Like, is it JD Vance wore drag at Yale Law School? Um, like, sure, I guess, but that was JD Vance, a highly ambitious person who worked incredibly

hard in pursuit of lead acceptance and success in cosmopolitan circles to which he aspired. So I'm not sure that these are the photos of JD Vance in drag. I'm pretty sure this is JD Vance in drag. Donald Trump doesn't know anything about and frankly doesn't care for. But yeah, look, my attitude to these people attacking my wife is she's beautiful, she's smart, what kind of man marries Usha, a very smart man and a very lucky man, importantly. And my view is, look, if these guys want to attack me or attack my views, my policy views, my personality, come after me, but don't attack my wife, she's out of your league. Now, first of all, that's a line from the American president.

You want a character to debate Bob you better stick with me because Sidney Ellen Wade is way out of your league. Nice. I just like JD Vance saying that Trump could be America's Hitler and then becoming a obsequient defender of him and won't actually denounce Trump for having dinner with white nationalists at Mar-a-Lago. Like, that's the performance. This is the performance. Like, JD Vance kind of at law school, going to a party. I don't know.

That doesn't seem like more of a costume to me than this does. I also think like, as, at least as queer people, it's like there is an honesty to like our acknowledgement that a lot of this is a performance. JD Vance has completely committed to the performance. Like it's obvious to see from like any video of him, his deep discomfort and robotic appearance of what he thinks he's supposed to be. So the idea of like seeing these photos of like someone having fun or playing with gender,

it's like, well, there's an honesty to that. That's real. What he's presenting is a fictional white man's idea of what a vice president would be. And it feels like that, at least to me, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. There's an inauthenticity to JD Vance, to this character that he's playing.

And when I saw the photos of him just being like a kid at law school, dressing up and having fun, it's like, wow, you had to subsume, you had to push down so much of yourself and like your normal reactions to fit like this sort of right-wing cultural masculinity that you're putting on display and it's not working. It's just not working. You're an elite cosmopolitan Yale lawyer.

Like you can take off the fucking tech vests but we can see it and people could see it. And it made me think too like this whole idea of JD Vans being weird and it being like like why did the couch joke work like what is it about JD Vans that makes the couch joke work I do think it is that like on some level like he is in the uncanny valley all the time when he's when he's in his good moments his best moments he had a lot of very good moments in these interviews that he did over the weekend that he was not the joke that he'd been in the first couple weeks. But even still, even at his best, you don't buy it.

You just don't buy it. Speaking of wearing costumes and judging people, the Paris Games has come to a close, but not before one last round of Olympic controversy. In case you haven't been following the drama, U.S. gymnast Jordan Childs was stripped of her bronze medal by Olympic officials who reallocated the bronze to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu. Barbosu initially came in third, only for Team USA to contest a deduction to Childs' difficulty score which judges agreed to bringing her up to third place. However,

the Romanian Gymnast Federation appealed the ruling who said the US coach who submitted the inquiry into Childs' score did so after the one-minute grace period following the official score had been posted elapsed. The IOC agreed with Romania's appeal and knocked Childs score back down, shocking TMUSA and awarding Barbosi the bronze. However, Child's and her team have since submitted video evidence which they say proves US coach Cecil Landy did submit the inquiry ahead of the deadline with seconds to spare. And yet, as of this recording, mere hours ago, an appeal has been denied

by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Did we know a week ago that there was a Court of Arbitration for Sport? No, we did not. But now we fucking hate it. And that's what the Olympics is all about. The Olympics is all about rediscovering, I knew Kendra when I wrote this into the document

that I'd have to talk quickly before you could interrupt to tell us that you in fact did know about the Court of Arbitration for Sport. I knew you knew. I knew you were gonna tell us that you in fact did know about the Court of Arbitration for sport. I knew you knew, I knew you were gonna tell us that. That's why I'm moving quickly. The Olympics are not about people who know what the arbitration of sport is.

It's for people who have no idea what any of this is and then become deeply enmeshed in the technical rules of sports we forget about for years at a time. I feel like if you gave sports a chance year round, you would get into it. I could see that. Yeah. You had to find the right sport. He clearly has.

Gymnastics happens not every four years. You could be on this all the time. I watched college championships. We have nationals. We've got worlds. We've got the Pan American game every year. So many so much gymnastics. I'm watching Wrexham, and it is like,

I keep thinking like, oh, is this gonna get me to be into soccer? And then there's an episode that has a good 10 or 15 minutes of a play-by-play of a game. And I think, no, probably not. Soccer's not for me, so I can't push you towards that one. I do like all the people in the town though. I'm rooting for them.

I'd like to watch them play a game. A hundred year old man. And now I'm on board with that. The elderly Olympics. I like that. The Golden Games? I have trouble watching any sporting event that isn't the highest possible stakes. The Olympics is fun because it is the pinnacle.

Anything that isn't sort of life or death in sports terms, I can't care. Then you need to get into the NFL. Absolutely not. Yeah, no, no. You want life or death. Yeah. Yeah, who is on the international, what is it? The Court of International Arbitration?

I mean, I can't tell you that much, but I know it exists because it's been brought into other. Sean, Jeremy. Yeah, right. The idea, yeah, like who is on this fucking court? Probably William. This is ridiculous ruling. Does Clarence, Who's on this fucking court? Probably. This is ridiculous ruling. Does Clarence, who's on this court? I'm trying to get to this joke and I can't make it.

Who the fuck is on this court? Ripped Clarence Thomas. If it's any consolation, and it is, Flavor Flav gifted Jordan a bronze clock on Tuesday. Who got her back? Flavor Flav. Flavor Flav game, yeah, the ladies they rocking. That is a beautiful bronze necklace clock. I also think like it's just nice that I hadn't thought of Flavor Flav since Flavor of Love

pretty much. And to have him back and be like a benevolent figure in the Olympics, I loved every second of it. I have only one problem with the bronze clock. It shouldn't, it is currently, the way that it is hung, it looks like it is for other people to use as a clock while you're wearing, as opposed for it to serve as a pocket watch type clock or when it's around your neck.

You think that she's just gonna wear it to Target? Are you not familiar with Flava Flav's work? Because that's kind of his whole thing. You think it's an upside down? No, I'm aware. But what I'm saying is just practically speaking, wouldn't you want the time to be the other way so that when you lift it up to look,

it's not- Again, no, that's not how it- The mind of a madman, how it works. Well, what's it meant to do? No, it's just a chain. I understand that it's just a chain, but if it's gonna have a working, I am, you get, yes, I am familiar with the wearing of the clock. I understand that it's just a chain, but if it's gonna have a working, I am, you can't, you're not, yes, I am familiar with the wearing of the clock. I understand that it's a piece of iconography.

I'm just saying, practically speaking, if I were wearing a clock around my neck, I would like it to be so that when I lift it up, I don't have to do this. It can be both beautiful and practical. She's like gonna wear it twice at her wedding and to be married in, like. My other question, obviously they should have given them

both bronze medals. Is it possible they ran out? How many extra medals do they make? What happens to the extras if they aren't all used? We're like Lucy's. They gotta have a couple Lucy's just in case something happens, you're right. Right, because there are ties and they do award multiple.

And then at the Olympics four years ago, I believe the summer Olympics, there was an agreed shared gold and they give them both the gold. They also said apparently that these Olympic medals were made using discarded pieces of the Eiffel Tower. That's what's at the middle of them. That metal in the middle, the kind of the iron in the middle

or steel in the middle is from a renovation of the Eiffel Tower, which I guess was probably limited. Maybe they ran out. Maybe they ran out. Yeah, it should also just be said to like wrap this up. It's like pretty unprecedented that this has even just happened because no one has been stripped of their metal except for in cases of doping or cheating.

Like this is like, this is pretty wild. Yeah. There's something I think that like the technical scoring and like precision and confusing way in which like they try to make a subjective sport objective in gymnastics stands in stark contrast to what we saw with breakdancing because there was obviously Reagan or Rachel Gunn the Australian break dancer who earned zero points in competition let's take a look

Wow she's doing the fish on the floor. She did it. She broke dancing. People are laughing. You're laughing, and this is how Australians have to dance to avoid all of their deadly spiders. The way they score breaking is they didn't do any kind of technical points system at all. It was just a bunch of judges.

There were multiple rounds. Judges would choose who they thought won each round. If they were closer, there would be judges would have to census. But obviously, Rae got lost every single round. She got zero points. She never, no judge said she won a single round in her, I think, three times in the competition. I do think there's something like between the, uh, we're just going to pick a winner version of scoring break dancing and the kind of like, we're just gonna pick a winner version of scoring break dancing and the kind of like, I don't know, like the idea that like when you watch

Olympic gymnastics, even the like the smartest, smartest commentators who are like experts are like, I don't know what the score is gonna be because I don't know how they're doing these micro deductions and deciding that like, they've tried to like layer on all these ways of making it precise as if it's not subjective. But I think that what's happening with Jordan Childs

is a reminder that you can try all you want. It is of course subjective. It's of course subjective. Well, allegedly they're not gonna have breaking at the LA Olympics. We chose not to have it. Why? First of all, it doesn't seem like a cumulative,

it should just be in forever now, cause then it's like, oh, next time we see this, it's like, oh, okay, now we're like learning collectively. But also it's just fun. I don't know. That's such a, here, especially, I feel like it would just be so like, I don't know. The world, I want to get, I think it is called like

the Federation of Dance, the World Federation of Dance Sport was the organization who got breaking into the Olympics. That Federation has been trying to get some form of dance into the Olympics for years. That's cool. It was, they originally, because they have jurisdiction over international ballroom competition.

That would be so cool. You have ever watched ballroom competition, ballroom actually kind of makes sense as an Olympic sport. It's still a very subjective judging, but you can kind of see that working, especially with all the different styles. But then basically what happened was they were having no, this is the TLDR version, they were having no luck with ballroom. So they pivoted to break dancing, which they have no involvement in any international competition for, which is how then when this finally happened,

the international breaking whatever, the community wasn't necessarily all ready for this. Well, I mean, that makes a lot of sense. And that's what you got to see. I want you to know something. You do not need to have all that information to be aware that what you watched was a sport that was not ready for the international Olympic stage.

Is there any chance we could get a ballroom in the LA Olympics or is it too late? LA has already been settled. Brisbane is next and Brisbane has the option to bring breaking back, which would be a hell of a redemption story for good old Reagan here. On Sunday, the Olympics closing ceremonies, what the world's whistled for the 2028 games and the best way they knew how. That's right. It's Tom Cruise doing a stunt. Tom Cruise dove into the closing ceremonies from the roof. He'll die for us.

Go! I also feel like I've never seen him in another outfit. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. Awesome. Who's gonna die for us, that guy?

To say only Tom Cruise is a little unfair, this is a stunt he could do in his sleep. Gaga did this at the Super Bowl. That's true, Tom, he did it after the game. The point is, he is going to do stunts until one of those stunts goes wrong. That's how he leaves this world, and I think it's beautiful.

Does Los Angeles have an Arc de Triomphe, an Eiffel Tower, a river that wasn't paved by the Army Corps of Engineers between 1938 and 1960? No, but we do have the world's most cherished and valuable resource, celebrities. Here's Tom Cruise taking the Olympic flag from Simone Biles and LA Mayor Karen Bass on behalf of our fair city.

Simone Biles and LA Mayor Karen Bass on behalf of our fair city. Simone Biles and Tom Cruise. Take it Tom. Take it Tom. Take it Tom. Take it Tom. Words I've only said in my dreams. Those two black women living my dream. Speaking of Karen Bass, for those of us trembling at the thought of driving in Olympics traffic in 2028, don't worry, Mayor Bass is here to reassure us. It is our goal in Los Angeles to have a car-free games. Yeah, and it's my goal to have a carb-free morning, but at least I can admit it's a pipe dream.

Just one more Tom Cruise moment. Here he is riding away with the Olympic flag on a motorcycle. And in Tom Cruise style? Ha ha ha! Yes! Ha ha ha! Yes!

He's driving maybe 10, 10 to 5 to 10 miles an hour. And finally, we bid the games adieu with some LA greats performing all the way in Long Beach. Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Billy Eilish, and of course the most LA musical act of all time, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Olympic Village is about to see untested levels of Californication.

USA! USA! Before we go, hot dogs, Lake Michigan, a rich history of corrupt politicians, Chicago has it all, and that's why Love It or Leave It is coming back to the Windy City on August 23rd at the Vic Theater. Join me as I welcome comedians Marcella Arguello, Liz Winstead, and our own Kamala Harris. Here, I'd love it or leave it.

Alison Reese. To debrief after the DNC and to talk about whatever new deranged thing we assume JD Vance will have said about women and or diet-bound do that day, get your tickets at crooked.com slash events. Oh, and one other note. This is our last Whatta Week Day until we come back after Labor Day because we're going to be at the DNC next week and then we're going to be off for two weeks.

We will have a feed drop for another show that you will hear. But this show will be back for the final push into the election. So with that, Sarah, Kendra, Hallie, what a dream. You have Olympic gold in my hearts, you know? Oh, thank you. Lollapooinsa. See you Slots Saturday. Straight Shooters Living or Living is Living or Living Straight Shooters

Living or Living is Living or Living Straight Shooters Living or Living is Living or Living Love it or leave it is a crooked media production. It is written and produced by me, John Love It and Lee Eisenberg. Kendra James is our Executive Producer, Chris Lord is our Producer, and Kennedy Hill is our Associate Producer. Halle Kiefer is our Head Writer, Sarah Lazarus and Jocelyn Kaufman, Peter Miller, Alan Pierre, Will Miles and Mahana Del Shiki are our Writers.

Evan Sutton is our Editor, Kyle Seglen and Charlotte Landis provide Audio Support, Stephen Colon is our Audio Engineer, and Milo Kim is our Videographer. Our Theme Song is written and performed by Sure Sure. Thanks to our designer, Bernardo Serna, for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast, and to our digital producers, David Tolles, Claudia Shang, Mia Kelman, and Matt DeGroote,

for filming and editing video each week so you can. ["Believe It or Not?" by The CW plays.] -♪ Just love it, believe it. There's a lot of dogs at this office. There's a lot of dogs at this office. I will say, I have one main culprit. I know we do. Oh yeah, I'm not going to say it. And it's not Pundit.

It's not Pundit. We know who the culprit is. We know who it is. So I just want people listening, that we're talking around it and we're joking about Pundit. It's nobody in this room. But I want to say two things. If Pundit poops or pisses, I want to clean it up. I want to clean out of every goddamn time.

Two, there's a dog that we're not referencing, that we believe may or may not be responsible.