I want to thank.
In particular, I want to thank my family. My wife Eve is here tonight.
This is my wife, Eve.
I want to thank. I.
- I want to thank you all. - Hmm'hmm last night.
Representative Adam Schiff finished first in the primary election
for Dianne Feinstein's vacant.
Well, it's not vacant at the moment, but Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has appointed someone
to fill the seat in the meantime.
But nonetheless, Schiff's moment of triumph, as you could see from that video,
was short lived because pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted
by demanding a ceasefire and chanting about how they want a cease fire now.
Now, it's also worth noting that Adam Schiff engaged in some political
maneuvering to essentially prop up the one Republican candidate
in order to, well, essentially make in his mind the general election, which will
happen in November a lot easier.
Now, others who are running against him included Democrat Katie Porter
and Democrat Barbara Lee.
And those are two individuals who might be a little more competitive
for Adam Schiff, which is why he focused on uplifting a Republican.
Now, that's actually not what this segment is about.
It's about how the crypto community got involved and also worked real hard to
crush Katie Porter, but not Adam Schiff.
And we'll get to why in just a moment. But, John, do you want to jump in?
- I just hate I hate so much of it. - The perfect commentary.
- That's exactly. - Right.
I hate so much I love, I love, you know, he's hearing the chanting and stuff.
He's trying to do his victory speech. He's hearing the chanting, obviously.
Look, that's inconvenient if you're trying to a speech.
And so he does the thing that you do where you just buy time by saying the
same thing over and over and over again.
But what he's saying is, I want to thank you all, but but what he means is I'd
really like to talk to a subset of you, and I really want the rest of you to shut
up, which is a weird way to communicate.
I want to thank you all.
And I was looking at him there and obviously he feels like, hey, I did it.
The strategy worked, the cynical, dirty strategy worked
where I screwed over other Democrats, good Democrats that are very popular.
And that's why I screwed them over, because they're popular.
And I know that his fans won't care.
But like, I just always imagine if you could take an individual and sit them down
and have an actual conversation with them.
I would want to take some of the people who are standing behind Adam Schiff
just be like, you know, that this is the strategy that he pursued.
You know who he's screwing over and who he's elevating, who he's
risking potentially taking the seat.
Is this the sort of person that you think should that best represents California,
one of the most lib states of the nation should have this guy,
you know, even crypto stuff aside, that sounds like it's going to make it worse.
And at what cost now?
Like, you know, it sucks for Barbara Lee, but also Katie Porter.
Now we're just not going to have Katie Porter for a couple of years.
So it's just the whole thing is so dirty.
It should be beneath, the Democrats, especially the Democrats,
that would be chosen by California.
And I just hate it.
We might have millions of people watching this show, but you can be
the difference maker, because we just need 1% of our audience to be paid members.
And then this show can be around forever. So you can make that difference.
Click join now.
Well, since there were pro-Palestinian protesters there chanting
for a ceasefire, I think it's appropriate to draw some parallels.
Okay.
Because remember, Adam Schiff propped up Steve Garvey, the Republican in this race,
so he can run against Garvey in the general and point to him and say,
oh, he voted for Trump.
Dangerous guy, fascist, fascist.
And it kind of reminds me of Netanyahu propping up Hamas funding Hamas.
Why did he do that?
He did that so he could then point to them as a terrorist organization
and justify the slaughter of Palestinians that's currently being carried out.
Now, I know it's a little bit of a tangent, but I do see some parallels.
- Well, and by the way, most people. - Nothing bad happened.
- So totally. - Yeah, nothing bad happened.
I love how all of the propagandists, on behalf of Israel, do all these press
interviews and talk about the threat of Hamas without mentioning that their prime
minister funded and propped up Hamas.
But let's move on to I think there's.
A lot of Israelis that are really angry about that.
I do think that that is the case.
Not angry enough, apparently, but let's move on.
So let's get back to Schiff and how much money he spent on propping up the
Republicans, Steve Garvey in this race.
Schiff's campaign spent more than $12 million on ads contrasting him
with Garvey, meaning you know how he's different from Garvey, which
increased awareness of the Republican and boosted his standing in polls.
- Congratulations. - Schiff $12 million.
He spent $12 million in donor money.
I don't know if the donors to Schiff were aware of how of how he was going to
utilize this money as part of his strategy to prop up the Republican candidate,
but that's what he did.
And the plan worked.
Admittedly, it's, I guess, a clever strategy in a deeply blue state
like California, where I wish voters were just a little more engaged and didn't
just vote based on, you know, the party that the candidates are associated with.
I think that would actually lead Democrats in being more competitive.
And maybe they would listen more to their constituents instead of just
riding the wave of Democratic voters who just vote along with their tribe.
But anyway, let's move on to what this means for the crypto community,
because they got involved as well.
I should note that Democrats have a 2 to 1 voter registration
advantage in California.
Speaking to the point that I made earlier of how deeply blue this state is,
and the state has not elected a Republican to statewide office
since Arnold Schwarzenegger was reelected as governor back in 2006.
Schiff also has the support of 80% of California's Democratic
congressional delegation.
And that includes Nancy Pelosi, Eric Swalwell, he's deeply, you know,
part of the Democratic machine and the Democratic establishment.
So none of that should be surprising.
And a Politico piece published last weekend argued that
Schiff's secret weapon was none other than former President Donald Trump.
And he knows that because he gets to fearmonger about Trump and garner support
by doing so with his dossier of Trump bestowed insults like Shifty watermelon
head, which I hadn't heard before.
But that's hilarious.
And little Pencilneck Schiff raised nearly $32 million for the Senate run,
a staggering sum that's nearly two times the number of any other Senate candidate
in the in the country this cycle.
While he incorporated messages about delivering for California, Schiff never
strayed too far from the Trump bashing.
Trump was central to his launch and first policy rollout, and the former president's
name was among the top three most mentioned categories in Schiff TV ads.
At the same time, Porter faced attacks from Silicon Valley,
billionaires, the tech industry and cryptocurrency investors.
And this is what I want to focus on, okay?
Because it wasn't just Schiff propping up the Republican so he could
run against him in the general.
It was also about cryptocurrency interests playing a role in crushing
the one candidate who's actually the most outspoken in regulating crypto,
and that's Katie Porter.
So the crypto industry super PAC Fair Shake spent more than $10 million opposing
Porter's campaign fair shakes top donors include the crypto exchange Coinbase,
crypto firm Ripple Labs, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz
and its founders and the Winklevoss twins.
Just a who's who of, crypto, I guess.
Now Fair shake has over $73 million on hand, and the advertisements that
began airing on social media platforms and on television in February
make no mention of crypto.
Instead, they paint Porter as a fake and an accomplished actor.
Right? Okay.
No. I mean.
Schiff was acting as if his main opposition was Steve Garvey
before he made that the case.
They're all actors.
Okay, like the notion that Adam Schiff is like this genuine, sincere politician.
Why Katie Porter in particular?
Because I'm not saying everything she's ever said is.
Was the biggest threat to Adam Schiff. Yeah, he knew it.
He knew it. Yeah.
Which is again, the reason why.
And by the way, Katie Porter was the biggest threat to crypto, which is why
crypto spent all this money to defeat her.
And then you have Adam Schiff, you know, propping up the Republicans
so he doesn't have to run against Katie Porter in the general.
Yeah, yeah. Dirty now, fair shake, attacks Porter.
California is on the forefront of new developments in technology,
says Adam Schiff.
Gee, I wonder why they wouldn't attack Adam Schiff from Web3
and quantum computing to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
He says we need to develop comprehensive regulatory frameworks to ensure that these
companies and jobs stay here and grow.
Here, I'm hearing tax cuts and that the United States remains the global leader
in these important new technologies.
That is from Adam Schiff's website.
There are important technologies, and he just he wants regulatory frameworks.
He's all about regulating them.
That's what he's going to do when he immediately transitions to saying,
we just want them to grow, you know, you know, maybe some more pump and dumps.
Maybe some of the people who contributed to my campaign will lose everything.
Oh, it's just again.
And look, you've covered the influence that crypto like, like super PACs
have had in a number of other races.
And they're they're really starting to throw their weight around.
They're flush with cash that they've stolen from a lot of people,
and they want to protect themselves from the regulations that people
like Schiff should be considering, but almost certainly won't after this.
No, he's thinking about tax cuts. He wants their support.
And, you know, to your point, crypto got involved in other races this cycle
as well, including spending more than $1.7 million backing Shomari Figurés A.
A House candidate in Alabama who finished on top in Texas State Representative Julie
Johnson, who benefited from just shy of $1 million in spending from the crypto PAC
and is leading the Democratic primary to replace Representative Colin Allred.
Though the race hasn't yet been called with 44% of votes in, and by now
the race has been called, Johnson won.
All right, so yay, money and polyesters.
Yeah, well, and they do get a nice return on that investment.
I'm sure they're looking forward to the lack of regulations
and those massive tax cuts or tax incentives to stay in California.
Real important for crypto to remain in California.