The Late DebateJustin Trudeau steps down as Canada's prime minister, Anthony Albanese calls for four-year fixed terms, and the government continues to fail the nation on solving the cost of living crisis.
Lately. Welcome to the Late Debates.
Good evening and welcome to the Late Debate. I'm Caroline Marcus, joined tonight by Sky News contributors Kel Richards and Louise Roberts. While we start tonight with major news out of Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced his resignation following a nine year reign.
This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election.
Mister Trudeau had faced enormous pressure from within his own party and criticisms of his handling of the economy and of Donald Trump's threats to impose tariffs on imports from its northern neighbor call. In one respect, this is a huge win for Trump and he has continued to troll a Trudeau over this.
There was a mean that was going around.
First of all, Trump had posted this AI image of himself looking over what appeared to be the Canadian Mountain Rages days after joking, well maybe it was half joking to Trudeau that Canada should become the fifty first US state.
Plus take a look at this.
Donald Trump has again trolled him on truth social today with this post reading the United States can no longer suffer the massive trade deficits and subsidies Canadades to stay upload justin Trudeau knew that he resigned, adding if Canada merged with the US, there would be no tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be totally secure from the threat of Russian and Chinese ships. Now, I don't think he's serious about this fifty first date business, but he must think that this is his scalp.
Course of course it is. It's his third scalp. His first was Joe Biden, his second was Carmala Harus. Now he's claimed the scalp of Trudeau and Trudeau didn't help.
I mean, Trudeau's been immensely.
Unpopular for a long time now, and for a long time the Poles have all been saying, look, the Conservatives are going to whip in. They've got to have an election by October. So next election, there's absolutely no way Trudeau's Liberal party can win. So he knew he was in trouble and he decided, as a judgment called, that he would rush down to marro Lago and cuddle up to Trump and see if he could get somewhere.
All that Trump did was make jokes. I mean Trump, Trump's got a sense of humor.
You've got to understand where he talks about buying Greenland and maybe taking in Canada. I mean, that is Trump. But Trudeau looked silly, he looked weak. There he was sitting in the lap of Donald Trump, just about and being as nice as he could and tugging the forelock that and his own deputy, his own treasurer, then decided she was really unhappy with the way he was dealing with Trump and Trump's threats of more and so on, so she quit.
So it just all fell apart.
So it was a very bad judgment called by Trudeau at a time when he was already unpopular.
And yes, Trump did it to him.
You know, Luise, he was the darling of the progressives for so long.
Where did it all go so wrong?
I mean, at one point he lost count of the number of times, for example, but he put on blackface.
Who else could survive that?
And do you remember this from twenty sixteen when the self proclaimed male feminist elbowed a female MP on the floor of the House of Commons and told her to get the f out of the way. Tell me what conservative politician would have got away with that.
None the police probab would have been called and he may he may have been charged with the soult. I mean, I think Justin Trudeau is a classy example of where idealism meets reality and the two don't really mix it all. And he alienated as Carl was saying, he alienated his call base very very quickly because he gave him this glorious, some field plan of climate action and social justice solutions.
None of which he delivered.
So once they were sort of off the bat and not supporting him, it was very easy for the opposition to move in and say, what about the budget. You're sixty eight billion dollars in debt. I can't even get my head around that figure. How he's managed to plunge Canada into so much debt. As we're saying that, his treasurer resigned. But he just had this sort of glorious sort of pattern of what he thought would work for Canada, but he didn't actually put Canada first. He was more interested in stomping around on the world stage and going to India destroying that relationship, making things difficult with China as well about tarifs.
And yet for the average.
Canadian home thinking I can't afford my groceries, I can't afford to buy a house. Does that sound familiar? So you know he had to go.
Look, ultimately call people aren't going to care about things like you are male, feminist and what you think about climate change, that they can't afford to put food on the table. And for me, that was his classic response to those incredible scenes that we saw of Canadian truckers, you know, during the pandemic. They were all meeting on the border. They're like in a huge convoy. And what was his response to that? He smeared many of them as insurrectionists, as racists. He even froze bank accounts of people who dared to question his policies and his politics.
Well, there was outrage around the world when he froze their bank accounts. I mean, these were people expressing their right. They were going to the capital Ottawa, they were demonstrating, they were what they were protesting is was vaccine mandates. And a lot of people are really big, a lot of people around the world, not just in Canada, I'm happy about vaccine mandates and the idea that what you do is you freeze people's bank accounts. That is I don't know, that's nineteen eighty four. That's George Orwell stuff. That is terrifying. That was when he stepped across the line.
Yeah, he really became more like a dictator, like a nice Canadian dictator, but a dictator.
Nonetheless.
Look, let's return closer to home now, where Anthony Albanizi has called for four year fixed terms amid mounting speculation he may already have an election date in mind.
You nod if I hit the right date?
April twelve, April twelve, good, try nineteen good twenty six?
Good heard?
May May seventeenth. Yeah, I think that hang on.
Good v May seventeen or before.
Right, that's mandated. We should have.
We should have four year fixed terms like they do in most states and territories.
Avoid well, I for one, don't think we'd benefit from having this hopeless government in power for a second longer.
Let alone an entire year.
But Louise, what's your prediction read the election? Do you think one has actually been set in in Olbow's mind, at least.
In Albow's mind. Probably yes, But my prediction would be May ten because it's the last week of before May seventeen when they have to go to election, allows them to get a federal budget through, which means they can pack it full of sweeteners to try and woo the electorate. I don't know how that's going to go to cost living measures, extra security, border security, all the things.
That one can they afford to do that, though I've seen speculation that they don't want to wait until the budget is handed down because it would be too ugly for voters.
Yes, well, possibly, but I still feel May ten maybe the date, but I think they'll string it out for the opposition to make them campaign really really hard with that before showing their hand as well.
But QUL, do you think that he could go earlier than.
That or if My guide on this is Peter Kreedlin, because I think Peter is really smart, and Peter has been saying for a long time now, in fact, he won't risk a budget a louise. That's what Peter's been suggesting, because whatever he does with the budget, no matter how sweet he tries to make it, it's going to just their economic mismanagement. And the enormous debt that Australia is falling into the budget papers will look so bad he can't afford the budget.
Now.
That means he really can't have the Parliament sitting in March. So he's got a call on election early enough so that the Parliament is not sitting in March. March eighth is the WA state election, so anytime he can call it. He can't run the election when the Wa election is on, but he could even have called the date while it's on because he's got to have thirty three days minimum from when he calls the date to when the election is held. But that's not a maximum. He could call it for a longer period of time just to make sure Parliament never sits and his budget.
So I don't agree law Is. I just don't think he can produce a budget sweet enough.
I think the April twelve date, and I saw Samantha Maiden report this yesterday. It seems to be firming up for some people as the most likely. But cal April is not a traditional date the government's go to elections.
It's Easter.
I know.
April twelve is also the Jewish Passover.
And the government is on the Jewish is getting close. People are on school holidays that are away from home.
Do you think April could be likely?
Look, the problem is this is a desperate prime minister. He is seeing private polling we're not seeing and his behavior in Queensland is making it really clear. This is a man who's seeing really bad numbers in those private polling. He is desperate. So whatever date he chooses, it's not going to be the ideal date. It's going to be the date.
He has to go. He doesn't really have a choice.
Well, he would like to leave it for another a year.
That much is clear now to an issue that will probably be the issue in the upcoming election for most Aussies, and that's the cost of living. The Australian newspaper has declared that the Great Summer Break is becoming unachievable for many of us as twelve point five percent surcharges send holiday prices Himalaya high, and that's for those of us not even leaving the country. Now, they've written that a toasty in a coastal town can now set you back as much as fifteen dollars and tomato is extra, while a belt that's bacon lettuce tomato sandwich that can cost twenty two bucks, and a serve of smashed vo on bread can now be as much as thirty dollars in the popular northern New Southwalds town of Byron Bay Luise. It's been six years since Bernard Salt, the demographer now famously said that millennials need to stop buying smashed arvo because it's smashed avo, because they won't be able to.
Afford a house. But thirty dollars, really, that's a bit much, I think is.
When Bernard made that comment it was only twenty two dollars, we thought that was exorbitant.
Which it is.
It looks like a bargain now compared to thirty dollars, But I don't know, I mean, is it really the whole smash davo thing. I find quite intriguing because it sort of dilutes the responsibility for the government and how they should be making it easier for young people to buy homes, rather than having to think, well if I have this toast, orf, I don't have this toast and I can afford to buy a home in five or ten years.
So yeah, and look, even holidaying within the country, which a lot.
Of Australians are quite feast.
They can't afford to do anything else, can't afford plane firs and accommodation overseas.
But that's becoming incredibly steep.
Every day is becoming incredibly seap. I haven't been on a summer holiday. I've been enjoying chatting with you and it's really nice. So I haven't been on holidays. But what my wife keeps pointing out to me is now at the supermarket, a bag of groceries is fifty dollars. So if there's just a couple of you, you're spending one hundred dollars every time you go. If there's a family, it's at least two hundred dollars. It's every single day you're reminded of this, and Australians are not eating it.
We're smart people, you're smart.
The result is we know when you push power prices up, everything goes up, not just our household bills, but what it costs the supermarket to turn on the lights, what it costs the people to deliver the goods, the warehouse, the factory, everything, So all of those prices go up and we see them now. It means we get more of those cheack knives and coals because we're getting so many points these days. But it's outrageously expensive to live. That's what's going to knock these people over. It's that old line and it's true. It's the economy stupid.
It is the economy stupid, and you cannot even escape it when you are on at Christmas holidays. Well, Attorney General Mark Drapers is preparing to travel himself, but overseas, to Israel within weeks to attempt to mend the fractured relationship between the Albanezi and Natanyahu governments. Fractured, I'd say it's decimated, but you know, semantics, shouldn't it You be you and Foreign minister going over there to mend relations with Israel.
The Foreign Minister has visited Israel already. The Attorney General is an appropriate person to be to Israel. A range of others have visited Israel in recent time.
Yes, sure, the Borough Minister Pennywong did visit Israel. She didn't tour any of the October seven attack sites though, Luise, and look at least someone is going and in fantas Mike Draper's was supposed to go on October seven, but didn't last year, but didn't yep, because of the Hesbela conflict.
That was the reason they gave. But it's I think it's far too little, too late.
The only person who should be going to Israel on behalf Australia is the Prime Minister of Australia. He should be going there to clean up his own mess in order to try and repair the relationship with the Australian Jewish community, which he's given very little credence to. As we know, we've talked about at length about this. So yes, there's an election coming up, but it really would do him so much good and would be such a supportive move for Australian Jewish people if he were to actually go to Israel. So I don't buy this argument from him that he's sending the right person. He's not sending the right person. He should be sending himself.
Cal I don't think the Prime Minister can go to Israel at the stage, even if he wanted to, which he clearly does not.
That is the last thing he would want to do.
But I don't think that Israel he wouldn't get a warm reception there.
I don't think.
Jewish Australians would bide at this point after the hostility that he's shown and his government has shown. But do you see this as a pre election stunt to how do you read this visit?
It can't be anything butter stunt if I'm reading the tea leaves properly, if Benjamin Netn Netta who came to Australia, he would be arrested. Penny Wong was asked about that. Now where even dear Old Joe Biden said, we're not going to want to this stupid warrant from the ICC, Penny Wong said, we have to respect international law and respect the ICC. That implies that if Benjamin Netna who came here.
He would be arrested. So what do you do?
You send your Attorney General who would have to authorize his arrest if he arrived in Australia. How can you build a friendly relationship with the nation on that basis? I think the whole idea that until the policy changes it's possible to have a friendly relationship is just ridiculous.
It can't happen, it's delusional.
Well, I think you're right because even with Mark Drapers, the most senior Jewish politician in Israel. How are they going to explain to the Israelis why they banned a former Israeli minister from coming to the country. Recently, they're increasingly hostile moves the United Nations, and the fact that meant it so difficult for Israelis to come here because they'd have to answer pages of paperwork about the National Service IS. I don't know how you can come back from any of that, but we'll see how it goes.
Look, let's move.
On to a story now about lime e bikes which they're being found dumped in largely Jewish suburbs and Eastern Sydney bearing swastikas and anti Israel slogans. Now, the Australian Jewish Association says that it has received hundreds of complaints from its members who've spotted the bikes with these slogans such as Israel is a terror state, Israel is hell, and stickers calling to boycott apartheid Israel. Louise, Look, I find these bikes enough of an I saw they get abandoned all over the place. I mean, it's supposed to be environmental.
But as far as I'm concerned, it's just like environmental exactly, it's cut.
But now they're anti Semitican, anti Israel as well.
Yeah, they've been weaponized as mobile racist billboard.
So get rid of them.
I mean, I've come back from the Gold Coast this morning and they were all over Queensland as well, So I can't imagine what the tips will be full of them soon. But they're being weaponized in this way, so just get rid of them, get them off the streets, take them away from these cowers who are using them to be hostile to our Jewish community.
Yeahl Louise is absolutely right for me.
This is the last raw because there's such an I saw as it is, and to top that off, they're being used now.
I want to know if rests are possible. Presumably the company that owns these things know who leases them, so there must be a record of who has rented these bikes. Therefore a record of who's dumped the bikes with those messages on them, and there should be some sort of charge possible, whether there it's an insightenment of violence or whatever it is.
I'm not a lawyer.
I don't know what the charge would be. And this is what's happening with anti Semitism. We're not seeing arrests, Wh're not seeing people charge. It's going to go on and get worse and worse. And still they start arresting people, start calling people, pulling people up before the courts.
Until that happens, this will go on.
Yeah, exactly.
There hasn't been enough of enforcement of the existing laws we have. And I mean even does a display of the swastika, display of a Nazi symbol that is a clear criminal offense. And you're right, Cal, I mean this stuff should be electronically stored and the bike companies the data of who borrows the bike.
So I'm not sure why it's so difficult to take action.
Well, if the government hoped it could leave the immigration Detaine debacle behind in twenty twenty four, it was wrong. In the latest blow to the government's detention regime, the federal government has ruled in favor of a Bhutan born man who attacked his wife with a meat cleaver, ruling against the dumped Minister Andrew Giles's order to strip him of his visa. Now, Louise, this issue continues.
To haunt Labor.
I feel like Tony Burke had at the last in the dying hours of twenty twenty four, given himself special powers to deal with these detainees, and yet here we see it pop up again.
It's right now. I've been to wonder what it's going to take for this current federal government to realize how important national security and border patrol is for us as Australians. We want our country to be safe. We don't feel it is safe. These dangerous foreign criminals are released into the community to be rehabilitated or similar into Australian society.
We don't want that.
We want them shipped back to their own countries. If they're going to be criminals here, they need to be criminals back home. I mean, for me, the border security is as important as cost of living as an election issue. We want to feel safe.
Well, the number one core job of a government kelshul is a safety of.
The people, of course it is.
And what I can't get over is how a federal government can be as legally incompetent as this government has. Go back to November twenty twenty three, there was the case the nz YQ I think was his codename case, and the High Court declared that he could not be held in detention indefinitely, I think was their ruling, because his home country wouldn't take him. Apparently, this federal government was caught by surprise. They'd been warned about it coming. They were caught by surprise. They had no legislation ready. They rushed legislation through. They got that wrong. We discovered that Andrew Giles had this famous direction ninety nine that meant that how long they've been in Australia, you know, robbing people and stealing things and beating people up, how long they've been here had.
To be taken into consideration. We couldn't deport them.
Every legal step they've got wrong and this is just another legal step. The day after that decision from the High Court, this federal government decided, well, we'll release another one hundred and fifty criminals into Australia. I mean, quite frankly at the time, I couldn't understand why they didn't say, well, let them all start cases and see if they win. Instead of that, they just let them all go on the base. Oh, we have to want to the High Court decision for a layman that was inexplicable, and I cannot understand a federal government scene being so legally incompetent that they get every step wrong like this.
Oh it boggles the mind, Louise.
I just feel that they were ill equipped to deal with it in the first place, as Kel said, and then to cover up they tried to give themselves extra powers and say that they're enforcing curfews and putting ankle bracelets, and then the court said again again no, you can't even do that. So we're stuck with these people in the community who are clearly dangerous violence.
Though where are they We don't know where they are.
I mean, do you know if there's one living near you in your street, they one in your neighborhood, to your child's school. It's got to carjack you when you leave work tonight. You just don't know because they have not provided any comfort fact around that for us as Australians as people, and they don't care. They're happy to be living in our lovely country and getting all the welfare and stuff in a nice home, but for us it's untenable.
Of course, they don't want to go back, and they're using the legal system in order to stay as long as they can, and it's working for them well. To the UK now where the front runner to lead an Islamic body, has said Muslim children should be taught to identify primarily as Muslim rather than as British, and also condemned New Year's celebrations as pagan. According to the right wing think tank Policy Exchange, doctor Mohammad Wadjid Akt said in twenty twenty two, most people teach their children to be their nationality or ethnicity first. But this gives such a limited and limited view of yourself and others that this can lead children to be shallow. It is literally how the evils of nationalism, racism and fascism are born.
And not only that.
The other front runner for the Muslim Council of Britain wrote a glowing report about the Iranian regime in twenty seventeen. Honestly, Kel, I'm not confident either of these candidates, these front runners will promote social cohesion or integration.
No.
Look, I'm going to say this, I need to say it very carefully. There is a sense in which Islam is not like other faiths. It does not closely resemble Buddhism or Hinduism, or Judaism or Christianity in the sense that it embodies a worldview, which is fundamentally.
A warrior worldview.
It's found that the prophet Muhammad was a warrior, and in classical traditional Islam there's a warrior view of the entire world. Now you've got to be really careful. I want to warn you don't make any assumptions when you meet a Muslim.
The world is full.
Of millions of wonderful Muslims, so don't make assumptions about them. But if you look at the ideology in the background, the worldview in the background, in classical traditional Islam, it's a warrior view of the world. That's not what Buddhism is like. That's not what Judaism, Christianity or Hinduism are like.
It's very different.
So I understand why people would look at this particular faith and have reservations. Not about individual people. There are wonderful Muslim friends we have. It's not about individual people. It's about that big worldview, and there are reasons for us to say we want to think carefully about this.
Well.
I think as well, Luise, that it's concerning to see any faith groups say that you should put your faith and a certain ideology religious ideology above being part of the country that you have adopted or that you live in, say even in Australia. I think we do see this to some extent, that people from certain groups from other parts of the world originally say associated relate more to that than the country that they are living in now. And I think that's dangerous for society.
It is dangerous.
And I was really alarmed to read this story today because I lived in the UK for seventeen years and there was a lot of work done then to keep all fates assimilated within British society. You were British first, rather than sort of saying you're Muslim or Catholic or anything like that in a way, so I find anything that sort of adds more fuel to the five trying to divide Britain will be catastrophic because at subsequent Prime ministers, even Boris Johnson couldn't fix it as an issue. And I remember I was living in the UK when nine to eleven happened, and there was a lot of work done around to keep everyone together as unified force, with al Qaeder and Muslim families being attacked and things like that. So yeah, I just hope that's not replicated here at some point.
And of course we saw the success of Muslim candidates at the recent elect Brendin's and the and here we're seeing the influence that Muslim groups and Muslim Voice for example, as having on domestic politics.
So I think it's something to keep an eye on.
Look, let's stay in the UK now, and Prince Andrew has been reported to police, accused of using a false name in company records. Anti monarchy group Republic filed a complaint to the Metropolitan Police over reports the Duke of York had used the name Andrew Inverness in official business fileings Now. It comes as Prince Andrew was thrust into the headlines over his connections to an alleged Chinese spy Kel. It's not a great start to the year for the royal family. I mean, how do you think they need to deal with this? What would you say to King Charles?
Well, h you know what I do. There's a wonderful quote from an English writer named Hugh Kingsmill. Kings Mill said friends are God's apology for relatives.
Yeah, so I'm.
Sorry, Charles, You're stuck with this blow. He's your brother and he's a halfwid He makes his judgments are so bad. He's in the same category as John Persudo. That's as bad as judgments can ever get. Quite frankly, he just makes appalling judgments. He hasn't made clever judgments, whether it's about Jeffrey Epstein, or about his business dealings, or about anything. So Charles has been trying to contain him, and he's taken him. He's got no HRH title and he'm always got no military roles anymore. He's taken it. He can't appear on the balcony Buckingham Palace. Charles has done everything he can, but Andrew goes on being an embarrassment.
I'm sorry, Charles.
If there was any way we could help your magency to cope with this.
Man, we'd tell you. But we've got no ideas.
Can't they just send him to America to live with the I.
I was going to suggest that Charles recently hired a new deputy secretary, THEO Ryecroft, who's very smart, used to work in Paris and in the diplomacy there. The Andrew problem has to be fixed this year, and I think Charles will get THEO to sort it, really, because I think the sort of person who'd be very strategic. It takes the family ties out of it. They're clearly not having Queen Elizabeth around means there's a lot of back channeling and massaging a family politics that has to happen, and Charles has no band with that. I mean, he's finding cancer for goodness sake.
Oh yes, and so is Catherine as well. This is the last thing that they need to deal with.
And yet time and time again he makes these poor judgment halls, as Kel put it, from Jeffrey Epstein to Chinese spies and now.
This Lonie shameless. He doesn't.
He has no sense of what the issues are and how they're causing grief to his family, none at all.
Okay, well, look, let's bring up since Kel brought him up, Persudo because closer to home now and Victorian Liberal leader Brad Baden has unveiled his new shadow cabinet and he's rewarded his biggest supporters with spots on the front bench now top of leader John Persudo didn't make the cut. He was demoted to the backbench, while mister Baden's deputy Sam Groth picked up the title of shadows Special Minister of State. But Mura deeming and she was readmitted at the same party room meeting that mister Baden sees the top job. She didn't score a promotion to a shadow ministry cal Look, it wouldn't be the first time that the leader hands the best jobs to his mates.
But what did he make of his picks?
Well, I was trying to read between the lines. He apparently did not offer a front bench position to Pursudo, but he said I had conversations with him, and he made it clear he had other priorities. So, in other words, the hint was, and this is reading between the line stuff, the hint was, I would have put him on the front bench if he.
Was happy to take it, but he didn't want it. And we know why he didn't want it.
His job at the moment, he's raising millions of dollars because he's got this huge legal bill that he's got to deal with in some way, something like three million dollars. So I would think he's looking for very generous donors and that is fully occupying John Purscudo's time. Otherwise, just from what Brad Baton said, he might be there.
Well, look, Luise, they say keep your friends close, but your enemy is closer.
But it hasn't.
Always worked for leaders when they do give front bench positions to their enemies, political enemies within their own parties.
Just look at Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull for.
Example, the amount of backstabbing that can happen.
So maybe that was for the best.
I don't think a mafia tactic in a movie you can actually always work in a political party sense. But I just want to mention more redeeming. I do think it's a shame she hasn't been given some kind of promotion, but I think she's shown herself to be an extremely strong and influential woman who a lot of the Electric Melbourne are quite fans of her as well. So I think he's mister trick there not finding a role for her.
Look, I agree with you.
I think she's really conducted herself with an enormous amount of dignity on a huge pressure, not just financial, but her name was dragged through the mutter, her family was dragged through the matter, accused of associating.
With Nazis, and then to put up with a.
Leader who refuses to readmit her after that and uses his casting vote to keep her out of the party.
At that point, absolutely appauling.
He doesn't deserve a seat at the table.
She does.
Yeah, well, on one thing, you're right, kel John Pisuto shows equally poor judgment as Prince Andrew I would say, and it's probably a good thing he's as far away from the shadow front prench as possible.
Looks still to come.
Kamala Harris subjected to the ultimate humiliation being forced to certify her own election loss.
Welcome back.
While US Vice President Kamala Harris has been forced to endure the ultimate humiliation having to certify her own election loss to Donald Trump. Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received three hundred and twelve votes.
Kamala B. Harris Kamla D.
Harris of the state of California has received two hundred and twenty six votes. Cal I love that she had to just stand there while Trump gets the standing ovation, and that her own side gives Harris standing ovation for losing.
There are two weird things about this. It's not unknown for the system in America is the vice president chairs the Senate, and it isn't in the Senate that the vice president has to chair the moment when the election result is certified. So that's what's happening, and that's not unusual. It's happened twice before. In two thousand, Al Gore had to certify that George W. Bush had beaten him only by hanging chads, if you'll remember in Florida, and earlier back in nineteen sixty, Richard Nixon had to certify that John Kennedy had defeated him.
So that had happened before.
The weird thing was all the cheering because there was a standing ovation from the Republican side of the House for Trump's win.
That makes sense.
Then there was a standing ovation for her loss from the Democrat side of the House, and you think, what are you cheering? Whyn't you listening to the numbers. The other weird moment was she walked out afterwards, and she actually did quite a good line to the platitude. But I'd been a nice enough line to the waiting media about you know, this is about the peaceful transfer of power, you know, and I'm part of the good guys because we don't do the January sixth stuff.
Now.
I always get this feeling she still thinks she's a possible candidate for twenty twenty eight.
If that is what's going through her head.
She is utterly delusional, utterly delusional, but I think it is.
And I looked at her today and I.
Thought, you still think, you poor thing, You still think you're in there in twenty twenty eight with the chance. There's absolutely she's offended the Democratic Party. She's offended a whole lot of the base. There's no way she's ever going to get another run at another senior political position.
And I don't think that Penny has dropped yet.
Oh look, a delusion seems to be a characteristic of the Democratic Party. Mean, Biden is still going on about how he could have beaten Trump if they just let him stay on there and his state of obvious cognitive decline.
What did he think of today's spectacle?
Well, I think Kamala talking about herself in the third person is very bizarre as well. The way she sort of confidently strode out there as well. But let's not forget the night of the election when she lost. She wouldn't even go and see the party faithful. These are people who'd stayed up till three am in the morning, and she was too cowardly to go and see them then and say thank you. For all your hard work, and yes we've lost, but I really appreciate what you've done for me. In the Democratic Party, there was none of that. So for her to turn amount today and accept.
Applause for losing, it's like a.
Primary school version of getting a participation prize. She's lost the race, which she has done, so remind losing.
In one of her videos that she put out on YouTube or Instagram wherever she put that, she actually said, we have not been defeated. You have not been defeated, She said to the viewers. They've been defeated.
That's what the numbers say.
You have literally been resoundingly. They cannot accept it.
They still cannot accept it while they're going to have to on January twenty, aren't they Look at least, what you can say about January six is that it was orderly this year, But that doesn't mean lefties can't continue to melt down over the last one. The view co host Sunny Houston even stooped to comparing the US Capitol riots in twenty twenty one to the Holocaust.
January sixth was an atrocity. It was one of the worst moments in American history. And when you think about the worst moments in American history, you know, like World War II, things that happened like the Holocaust, chattel slavery.
To compare the January six rights to the Holocaust, in which six million Jews died, not to mention millions of other people, is frankly deplorable. As another famous Democrat might have put it, It trivializes an actual genocide, Luise. I mean you lose an argument the moment that you invoke the Holocaust.
Either atuality the Holocaust or Hitler. If you're going to compare someone to Hitler or compare situation to the Holocaust. These are events which you can only talk about in the context of those events as well. And it's also you find it's a very ignorant person who uses that analogy to very lazy too, So she really hasn't obviously thought through the issues. Rather she's just sort of throw that out there to try and get a headline or to get a post on Facebook or Instagram or something like that. So appauling, yes, But also if there are Jewish people watching that show, I imagine they'll be turning off in drives as well.
Oh look, if there's any watching the show like the Viewer. I mean, it's just the endless amount of content that we get that program. But we didn't see that kind of hyperbole from View co hosts when they're talking about things like the Black Lives Matter.
Right now, the Black Lives Matter riots burnt Minneapolis. I mean, that's the kind of domestic rioting, which is what Actually, it wasn't an insurrection on the sixth of January four years ago. It was a bunch of mad people charging through the They couldn't do any problem and any real damage in the end in the Capitol, and they couldn't stop the certification of the election. So it was an absurd thing. And it really, if you analyze it was like any other mad mob that gets out of control, like the Black Lives Matter of people who burnt down Minneapolis, so the CBD in Minneapolis. So it was a stupid thing to do. Sunny hostin, I've got to say he's got a track record. She was the host on the View who asked Kamala Harris, when you look back over your years with Joe Biden, what would you have done differently? And she thought she was giving her a gift, and Krmala Harris being Kamala Harris that I can't think of a single thing, Oh goodness.
And he actually wanted people to believe that she would be a very different type of Tess. That's right.
So Sunny Hostin is obviously doing her best. And they spent the whole election campaign bagging Trump and trying to get Kamala Harris elected.
They've lost.
She's saying ridiculous things like this because they lost their candidate didn't get up.
They're bitter about it.
That's so bitter, Louise, And I mean, I'm curious to see how they respond when Trump does what he has been saying for some time now, and on day one of his presidency ends up pardoning if not all, then a lot of these writers.
Who are still in jail to this day.
That's right.
Yeah, I mean some of them have got twenty two year sentences ex.
Cents for that kind of event.
Surely extraordinary.
Well, I guess if you're committing a genocide and a holocaust, maybe it.
Isn't such a huge sentence.
Yes, But again, to conflict the two is obscene as well. But yeah, I think the senses are Disproportionate's the actual crime itself I'm not defending what happened on the Capitol of that day, but.
Sure it was ugly. He was ugly, and people to.
Die as well. But I think it's been blown out of context to an extent. But you know, it doesn't stop the left weaponizing it every occasion. January sixth next year, I'm sure they'll bring it up as well.
Yeah.
Well, the view co hosts were also saying that they think it should be commemorated every year, like September eleven. That was another sort of comparison they made, while also being quick to say, oh, but we're not saying it is like September eleven, but it should be commemorated every year like some kind of hallmark event in the US.
Bizarre anyway.
Still in the US, and Donald Trump has lost his bid to delay his sentencing in his New York hush money case. Now, the President elect was trying to get a stay.
On his frit Ay sentencing.
He was due to be sentenced over his conviction over money paid to pawn star Stormy Daniels, and he posted earlier to his platform Truth Social where he wrote, the judge fabricated the facts and the law no different than the other New York judicial and prosecutoratorial witch hunts. That's why businesses are fleeing New York, taking with them millions of jobs and billions of dollars in taxes. The legal system is broken and businesses can't take a chance in getting caught up in this quicksand it's all rigged in this case against a political opponent me Now, cal the judge has said he's not inclined to give the president elect an actual jail sentence.
In this, but it is the principle here.
It is.
Look, we have to remember the history, and it's very easy for this just to slip past us and forget the history. What he's actually committed here Trump has committed are accounting misdemeanors, and on those misdemeanor charges, because their misdemeanor charges, the statute of limitations had already expired, he couldn't be charged with them. So what they did was they increased their seriousness to a felony. And the way they did that was to say these misdemeanors were committed in the committing of another crime. They at any point in the trial specified what other crime it was. So this was a fabrication. What Trump is saying sounds a bit over the top to us Australians because we don't understand how political the American judicial system is.
But it's very political.
And so for that to happen, to take misdemeanors which had run out, which had expired under the Statute of limitations, pretend they are felonies because they're part of committing some other unspecified crime, and then convict him on that. That's an absurd process and it's clearly distorted. Now, this judge, Mishan is a Democrat. He's raised money for the Democrats. His daughter had worked for the state governor who's a Democrat. He and his family very heavily involved with the Democrats. It doesn't happen, doesn't seem to happen like that in Australia, although we know judges have got their own particular inclinations and that may somehow affect some of the judgments they make. Nevertheless, we don't have the sort of politicized judicial system that really he does exist in America.
Yeah, absolutely, Louise.
Like when Trump and others talk about law fair and how it's a political witch hunt, Kell's right, These are judges, who are often appointed by.
A president does a prematter the Democrat.
Or Republican, and they themselves identify with that party, and they're expected to make decisions that are in line with that party.
It's quite extraordinary.
But I don't think the appetite is there, certainly among voters. I mean, they still elected Donald Trump. They died all these attempts to solutly.
They want him to be president.
They want him in the White House, they want him making changes, they want him cleaning up the mess left behind by the Biden administration. They want a strong economy. He'll put America first. That's what they want. So, you know, Trump the felon, it's really a non secretary in a way.
And look, that works for Trump.
It worked for him. It worked for him.
Every time they brought in new charges, his popularity went up exactly. And for Mashan to be doing this, it's going to do the same thing. It's just going to Trump more popular. They don't understand. They are shooting themselves in both feet.
Yeah, they certainly don't get it at all. Look, speaking of Trump derangement derangement syndrome, Suffering from derangement syndrome at the moment, the Pope has selected an anti Trump cardinal to become the Archbishop of Washington, DC.
Now, the pontiff tapped one of the.
Most progressive allies, Cardinal Robert McElroy, to head the church in the US capital. Now. He was a bishop at the time who was an open critic of Trump during the first administration. Louise, this cardinal most notably said in a speech to California faith groups a month into Trump's first presidency that we.
All must become disruptors. I mean that's the job of a cardinal.
I mean, a stay a leader in the Catholic Church is meant to be a unifying force. But I was raised as a Catholic. So if you went to church and you bishops and he met the priest, and you had your sacraments, be there as a unifying family, unified family as it were. Look, I know, the Vatican's very political animal and has been for centuries. But to people going to church, they want their cardinals or their priests to be preaching the values of Christianity and live together in harmony, not singling out the next president of the United States as either being anti Christian or doing the wrong thing. I mean, I member, Pope Francis attacked Trump because of the wall he wanted to build with Mexico, saying it was Unchristian, and Trump quite rightly got very upset about that.
Well, it's not just that where they diverge. I mean recently, hell, the Pope has been attacking Israel over the war in Gaza. I think he and Trump would obviously feel very differently about that conflict and how Israel has conducted it himself.
Do you think itself?
Do you think that the Pope's alienating a lot of people with these decisions, A lot of Catholics.
I suspect her. I'm not Catholic.
We need Joe here because Joe, Joe has rediscovered his Catholic roots in these days, and he'll explain it to us at some point. But so this Pope does appear to be alienating a whole lot of Catholics whose view of life is simply conservative. There are in life are two ways to go. It can either be a progressive or you can be someone who preserves. You either progress or preserve. And the progressives want to change everything, and the preserve the people who want to preserve things. The conservatives want to hang on to what's worth hanging on to and progress slowly and cautiously. Now, we don't seem to have a pope like that. As an outsider looking in, it looks to me that this is not a man who wants to preserve what is worthwhile. And the result is they're going to keep putting their foot wrong. I think progressive just make a lot of mistakes along these lines. And I'm sorry, but it looks like he's another one.
And I would say progressive, not progressive a lot of the time. Lord, let's stay in the US quickly now, and Joe Biden has issued US sweeping back on offshore oil and gas drilling. In his final days and offers, the US President announced an eleventh hour executive action banning for the oil and natural gas development on more than six hundred and twenty five million acres of US coastal and offshore waters. Now. Louise Biden's call this a win for climate change, but Trump's team, I think rightly points out it could keep energy costs very high over there.
Of course it will, and he knows Trump's position on renewables and how he's a fan of gas drilling. I think he said, drill, baby, drill, didn't he So this is this is equivalent of someone larning mass and throwing it over their shoulder and burning the house down as they leave the premises. It's not something he had put up six months ago, twelve months ago, but he's doing it now just to cause issues for Trump and for the industry as well, which will have a major impact on the economy.
Kel you know, it's his legacy move. He says he wants to make give something to the climate change fanatics. But voters voted for didn't vote for this at the election exactly.
And I'm trying to work this out.
It looks to me, as far as I can work it out, like an empty gesture, because the next this is just an executive order. The next executive the next president, the next bloke to Slippy's shoes underneath the the resolute desk in the Oval Office just issues another executive order reversing it. So it's only going to be in place for less than two weeks. It won't have any impact. It is an empty gesture. But that's Joe Biden.
Well, let's hope it won't be around for long.
Look coming up after the break is it UnAustralian to reserve beach spots?
We will chat about that next Welcome back.
Well, there's a new trend among beachgoers who are using kabanas to reserve prime beach real estate on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, and it's been slanmed as entitled an UnAustralian The latest summer accessory. The cool cabana is being used to bags the best spot on the beach as early birds flock there to mark their territory before returning whenever it suits them. Louise, Honestly, I was in the South Coast last week for my one week summer break and these cabanas were everywhere.
I wasn't there early enough to see them empty.
But if I rocked up to the beach and I saw a bunch of empty tents or cabanas, I think I'd just move one if I wanted to get that spot.
I was very disappointed to see this story because to me, it's the full import of the terrible euro trend of putting out your tail and the sun lander at five thirty am, spending the entire day away from said sun lander, and then turning up at three pm expecting to be to lie there and have a good sunbathe So yes, I think if you do see an empty cabana, please move it. Plus they're big structures.
They're not so easy to move.
Now the size of them is the problem. Yea, I look it up.
They're an average for the beach of eighteen feet by sixteen feet, which means they have a capacity of two hundred and eighty eight square feet. Sorry, it's the old money, It's all I understand. But that's big. So they're taking up a lot of beach.
Yeah, they are, and they are everywhere. They've suddenly completely exploded. They don't look terrible, but I do think it is UnAustralian.
Interestingly, I almost agree with Albanezy on this because he said the beach is for everyone. That was his view that we should all have access to the beach. And if you've got people plotted these kabanas like taking over the real estate of Seaford Beach, all the Gold Coast or something like that, then how does the a new person who stumbles out abd at eleven o'clock in the morning get to line the sun and have a fun day with their family. It is on Australian to actually square off.
Yeah, Albot did speak about this today and who knew it would be on our twenty twenty five bingo card turgree with something he said this earlier in the year. Look, finally Joe Biden has put his foot in it again after in biding someone to come up a White House guest to sing Happy Birthday to him on stage, and then forgetting his name, Happy.
Birthday, Happy birth.
I love how he thought he could just mumble and no one would notice.
I do the same thing in my.
Car when allowing him in public these days his elder abuse.
It really is at this point. Look, thank you for your time tonight.
That is all the time we have for I'll be back tomorrow night with the Late Debate up next, Secrets of My Success
