* politics** What does this mean to you

I'm not sure if this was a good faith discussion or not. It sounds like you've already made up your mind and you clearly have an opinion about Harris supporters.

Here's a little information about Trump, Vance and their bro podcasters.


www.npr.org/2024/09/20/g-s1-23911/how-trump-and-vances-tour-of-dude-influencers-might-help-them-win

It was all part of Trump and JD Vance’s months-long tour of podcasters and influencers — almost all of them men, many of them young.

The conversations are often friendly and chatty. In multiple interviews, Trump has shot the breeze with hosts about the UFC and boxing.

In one memorable exchange, Paul asked Trump if he had ever been in a fistfight. Trump’s answer, after a long pause: “Probably not.”

According to the Trump campaign, the goal with this media strategy is simply to reach as many people as possible…not specifically men.

But…that IS who they’re getting, and it comes as young men have pulled hard toward Trump. That has opened up a gender gap among young voters – who just so happen to have low voting rates. So maybe, the thinking seems to go, a few conversations about UFC can give the young men specifically a kick out the door.

Expanding their reach...mostly to men
Trump and Vance have appeared on nine podcasts, according to the campaign. Of those, market research firm Edison Research had data on seven.

Six of those seven have majority-male listenership, and five of those have at least three-quarters male listenership, with audiences that also skew mostly young. Meanwhile, only one podcast — Phil in the Blanks, with Doctor Phil McGraw — has majority women listeners.

What it amounts to is potential new young men voters getting long, intimate, not-terribly-newsy introductions to Trump and Vance by trusted hosts-slash-friends, with whom these listeners have already spent countless hours.

That means the conversations can humanize Trump and Vance, rather than focusing on the news of the day. For example, podcaster Theo Von spoke at length with Trump about Trump’s late brother, Fred, and his struggles with alcoholism.

Von and many other of these influencers have shows that are roughly an hour long – sometimes more. And in those long interviews, many hosts aren’t fact-checking or pushing back all that much.

In some cases, the hosts are outright supporters.

If you're talking about the Lex Fridman interview, he claims to be neutral in terms of politics, but is clearly friendly towards Republicans and Trump, in particular. Just look at his instagram page - it's full of pictures of Trump, Elon Musk, Ivanka etc.


Your post sounds like a criticism of Harris for not accepting this podcast invitation. Wondering what you think of Trump rejecting Harris' invitation to another debate? Or the Trump campaign's strategy to circumvent mainstream media?

thehill.com/newsletters/evening-report/4860523-evening-report-trumps-alt-media-strategy/

Trump hunts for new voters with independent media blitz

Former President Trump is circumventing traditional media and instead conducting interviews with independent podcasters and internet personalities, as he seeks to reach young independent voters in a fast-changing media environment.

Podcaster Lex Fridman, a computer scientist whose YouTube page has more than 4 million followers, is the latest independent media personality to land an interview with Trump.

Trump and Fridman discussed Joe Rogan, medical marijuana, aliens and Jeffrey Epstein over the course of their hour-long talk released on Monday.

Many of the podcasters and influencers Trump has spoken with are popular with young men, who have swung to the right in recent elections.

Trump has credited his 18-year old son Barron Trump for introducing him to comedian Theo Von and streamer Adin Ross, both of whom interviewed Trump over the summer.


A rundown of some of the interviews and content Trump has filmed since June:
“This Past Weekend” with comedian Theo Von. Von explained to Trump what it’s like to take cocaine. The YouTube interview has more than 13 million views.

Golfer Bryson DeChambeau’s “Break 50,” in which they teamed up to play best ball from the red tees and shot 22 under par. The video has more than 12 million views on YouTube.

Logan Paul, a 29-year old influencer, interviewed Trump in an episode that has more than 6.5 million views. Trump said it’s “very possible” that aliens exist, and he gifted Paul a T-shirt with his mugshot on it.

“The All-In Podcast” with investors and entrepreneurs Jason Calacanis, David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya. Sacks and Palihapitiya have raised millions of dollars for Trump. The episode has more than 3.2 million views on YouTube.

Trump’s interview with 23-year old streamer Adin Ross has more than 2.5 million views on YouTube. Their picture in front of a Tesla Cybertruck emblazoned with Trump raising his fist in the air after being shot has nearly 1.3 million likes on Instagram. Ross tried to give Trump the Tesla and a Rolex, and the former president promised to keep TikTok alive.

X owner Elon Musk, who says their conversation last month was viewed more than 1 billion times. Trump discussed the assassination attempt against him in the interview, which lasted for more than two hours.

The interviews have not made much news on the policy front, but they’ve kept Trump on the front-lines of the culture, underscoring the fractured media environment that has been disruptive for traditional news outlets.

Traditional news outlets have also largely been shut out by Vice President Harris’s campaign. Harris has so far only sat for an interview with CNN since becoming the presumed nominee more than a month ago.

The way I hear it, just being a white dude is, generally, enough to be "special".

I know you don’t want to engage.  You post and run.  That’s your choice and that’s fine.

The one thing that caught my attention in your post was the part I bolded. To be blunt I find it hard to understand how any reasonable person has any respect for trump, especially since he absolutely has none for the American People.  I decided not to engage.  To keep my comments to myself.

Then this popped up.
  
“BREAKING: Donald Trump has PULLED OUT of his upcoming interview on the 60 Minutes election special, meaning VP Kamala Harris will now be the only candidate participating.”

In the link is a statement from 60 Minutes.  In the statement 60 Minutes says both Harris and trump agreed to do the interview.  Harris would be interviewed by a conservative and trump by a liberal.  The interviews would air as a special on CBS Monday night.

Now the trump campaigned has decided not to do the interview.  60 Minutes says the offer is still open.

You had more respect for trump because he did the podcast while Harris apparently still pondering if she will do it or not.

With the 60 Minutes interview trump agreed to do it then backed out.

While I don’t expect a response, I’m kind of curious where this puts him on your respect scale?

x.com/meidastouch/status/1841240342823047196?s=61&t=j45uMgNk1i8O0YllKF58nw


Here’s the full statement from 60 Minutes…

”A Programming Note: 60 Minutes is scheduled to air a primetime election special on a Monday edition of the broadcast on October 7 at 8 PM. For over half a century, 60 Minutes has invited the Democratic and Republican tickets to appear on our broadcast as Americans head to the polls.

This year, both the Harris and Trump campaigns agreed to sit down with 60 Minutes. Vice President Harris will speak with correspondent Bill Whitaker. After initially accepting 60 Minutes’ request for an interview with Scott Pelley, former President Trump’s campaign has decided not to participate. Pelley will address this Monday evening.

Our election special will broadcast the Harris interview on Monday as planned. Our original invitation to former President Donald Trump to be interviewed on 60 Minutes stands.”

From what I've seen of Trump in other interviews, he doesn't bother to answer many questions with answers that have anything to remotely do with the question he was asked. If that was how I handled interviews, then I wouldn't bother asking for a list of questions, either.

Now, even if one knows their own answers and plans to various talking points, and feels confident in discussing them, it doesn't mean they have every statistic and every rise or decline memorized. So if I wanted to be able to provide good, solid, fact-based answers, I'd want to be sure I had the correct info ahead of time.

This isn't a celebrity being interviewed about their family, their travels, and their upcoming movie or tour, where if they accidentally give a wrong bit of info, everyone laughs it off. This is someone hoping to run an entire country.

I'd like to think that someone giving an interview on something so tremendously important would do as much homework as possible to be sure that they had all the correct and relevant information at hand.

I am the family genealogist. I have been researching and collecting information for over 35 years on that one thing. But if someone in my family asks me to help them with our family information, I don't just show up empty handed and hope I remember the right answers. Because I know I will not. I press them for details about exactly what they want from me. Do they want a basic tree? Are they looking for documentation for legal purposes? Are they only interested in one branch, or only photographs. Are they planning genealogical travel?

I can help them best by knowing in advance what information they wish to know. And that is the case with anyone who is asked to give a speech, a lecture, teach a class, etc. People just don't turn up and spout off whatever they happen to think or recall at the moment. They prepare. The fact that Trump doesn't want to do any real preparation work for an interview just makes me wonder further how much work he's willing to put in for the really important tasks ahead.

Because he's waiting for CBS to apologize for reporting the news accurately, which he didn't like.

That is not a fair comparison.

Trump is currently a bored ‘paper’ billionaire without any responsibilities other than desperately trying to become president in order to pardon himself & be a dictator like his idol in Hungry. He begs to move court dates for rallies because he’s avoiding consequences.

Harris is a current VP in a world with multiple natural disasters currently playing out in our country and others in conjunction with ongoing foreign wars that she needs to stay on top of, in addition to campaigning, in addition to senate duties. If breaking a tie is needed she needs to be up to date on each bill being voted on to know what to do.

Her plate is vastly more full than his right now. So appearing on a random podcast just isn’t at the top of her list.

Oh, and Trump refuses to do the standard ‘60 minutes ‘ tv interview that nearly all candidates do. He is only going where he knows he will have a soft place to lie.

Right, but what are the chances Ramsey is going to stick to discussing that? I think we all know which candidates are in favor of making college more affordable and which ones think education is a waste of money.

This was what CBS aired regarding Trump's refusal to do the 60 minutes interview. Apologies for the profanities but this is an excellent point. Trumps team decided dropping out wad the best option. Imagine what an interview would have looked like.



60 minutes

Andrew—Author of America Rises On Substack. @amoneyresists
Holy shitttt imagine how bad Trump’s team calculated this would make him look if they concluded dropping out of it was their best shot.

I don't think Harris is going to be any more than adequate as a President, but she is a nicer person. Trump is a hater. Instade of talking about real issues he spreads stupid rumors and calls people names. I think he never got spanked enough.

I am not sure if you are serious about the spanking portion of your comment, but I wanted to say that not being spanked enough is not one of the recognized contributors to the development of psychopathy or personality disorders, but lack of a nurturing environment as a young child is (along with genetics, brain structure and exposure to trauma or violence as a young child). Mary Trump’s book gives some insight in the family dynamics that were at play.