Musk on US Politics Trump Harris Taylor Swift -THE MUCKRAKERS WITH ANDREW EBORN & ERROL MUSK

Octopus TV

Musk on US Politics Trump Harris Taylor Swift   Musk reveals to Andrew Eborn he would love Taylor Swift to give him  another grandchild   When Taylor Swift signed off her endorsement of Kamala Harris in the 2024 election by self-identifying as a “childless cat lady,” in a jab at Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, Elon Musk posted:   “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life,”   Errol Musk, the father of Elon Musk, exclusively reveals to Andrew Eborn that he would love Taylor Swift to give him  another grandchild   @tayorswift13 @errolmusk @AndrewEborn #Barrister #Broadcaster #Futurist #FakeorFact #TheMuckrakers #QuestionEverything @OctopusTV @tntradiolive @elonmusk Basil Valentine   Andrew Eborn Barrister Broadcaster Futurist & President of Octopus TV Ltd Host of The Muckrakers and Andrew Eborn’s Fake or Fact    CONTACT ANDREW EBORN OCTOPUS TV

Transcript

00:00From national security to global corruption, this is The Muckrakers on today's news talk, TNT.

00:10Well hello and a very warm welcome to The Muckrakers. Just gone 12 noon in London, 7am

00:15in Philadelphia and around the world. It's time for The Muckrakers and welcome again. Here on The

00:20Muckrakers we pledge to continue tackling the most pressing and controversial news issues of our time.

00:26Our mission is to provide more light and less heat in our unwavering quest to uncover the truth

00:31and to inform, educate and entertain all with dignity and respect. And I always point out it's

00:36vital we don't just ask the questions but question those answers. And speaking of which, today we're

00:42going to have a deep dive into the latest US presidential election news and the continued

00:47threat around the world to free speech. And who better to do that than the old mucker,

00:53the old muckraker himself. We've got wonderful Basil Valentine and also the regular on the show

00:59and it's a highlight of the week each time, Errol Musk. Welcome back Errol. Thank you, thank you.

01:06I have to ask because the exciting stuff at the moment, we've got this spacewalk underway. I've

01:10been following it here as well on the thing. They literally, basically as we speak, they've just

01:16gone out of the Dragon spacecraft and a spacewalk is taking place. Mr Isaacman can be seen as he

01:23begins carrying out the suit test against the spectacular backdrop of the earth. I don't know

01:28if you can see that but you can follow that as well. It is quite incredible. Were you ever tempted

01:32yourself, would you go and do it? Of course I'd go and do it. Of course. Yeah, of course. It does

01:40sound amazing. It sounds wonderful. For those of you who don't know, Errol is a retired South African

01:45engineer, politician and businessman and a lover of fine cars. We compare notes off air, don't we,

01:51which is all rather good. He's the father of somebody called Elon Musk, the entrepreneur

01:56and businessman who founded X.com in 1999, I think it was. That later became PayPal. He did SpaceX in

02:022002 and Tesla Motors in 2003. Elon Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold

02:09his startup company Zip2 to a division of Compact Computers. And he's got ownership stake in many

02:15different companies including X.core, The Boring Company, X.AI, Neuralink, OpenAI and Starlink.

02:22He's been described as the Edison of our time and the de facto US president. He's currently the

02:27richest person in the world with a net worth of 251 billion. And according to Bloomberg's

02:33Billionaires Index, a great thing to have, he's projected to become the first trillionaire by 2027.

02:39That's not bad, is it? It's got to be good.

02:44Help me out here, Errol, because I have people always around the world and all I

02:47do is write and say, what do you give to the man who's got everything?

02:51You must know, what was the last thing you gave to Elon?

02:56Oh, that's a difficult one. No, I guess you buy a book, the latest interesting book,

03:02usually a tech sort of book that comes to mind. We did do that, yes.

03:07A good history book, sometimes a good history book.

03:12We can help rewrite the good history books, can't we? I think that's always important as well.

03:18What was the last thing he gave you, Errol?

03:22I hope it wasn't the flu or something, Errol.

03:25Okay, I had the flu at the moment. No, but he gave me a Bentley last week.

03:30He gave you a Bentley last week? Oh, that's the picture that you sent me,

03:34glorious one, which drove down, I think, last time we spoke, which was interesting.

03:38Now, I wanted to focus today on US politics and the extraordinary scene that we had,

03:44the finally long debated discussion between Harris and Trump. Did you both have a chance

03:51to see some of it, if not all of it? Yes, yes, yes, yes, definitely.

03:56And I know, Basil, you managed to see some sort of highlights. I couldn't stand sitting

04:00through the whole thing, which is interesting. But what I loved about it was this is the first

04:04time. And Harris, I have to say, was a little bit better than we were expecting her to be.

04:10Let's first of all have a look then, because there was a long time coming, this debate.

04:14And basically, they engaged in their first presidential debate, focusing on topics such

04:17as the economy, trade policy and abortion rights. What was interesting were the debate rules.

04:23And I don't know if you know much about this, but there were basically discussions about muting the

04:27microphones, whether they should be muted when it's not a candidate's turn to speak.

04:31And both basically Harris's and Trump's campaign, they had different conflicts. And you'd be

04:36surprised about this, because basically Harris's team advocated for live mics during the exchange,

04:41while Trump's team pushed for muted mics. And Trump's normal debating tactic is to

04:45bam, that's the speaker, but he didn't in this particular one.

04:50The debate lasted 90 minutes with two commercial breaks, and they were anchored by two ABC anchors,

04:55David Muir and Lindsay Davis. There was no audience in the room. The other rules was there

05:00was going to be no opening statements, and there was a two-minute closing statement.

05:04There was a restriction on props, no props, no pre-written notes, and no candidate-to-candidate

05:09questioning. And it all took place in the National Constitutional Centre in Philadelphia,

05:14a critical swing state. What was your general reaction, let's start with you, Errol, to that

05:20debate? Well, it was obvious that I think Trump did a fine job, as fine as he could.

05:31It was clear that Kamala Harris had a lot of acting, or rather training, to make the

05:39replies that she did. They were very rehearsed, and I'm inclined to think she was even asked

05:46the questions by the same moderators beforehand. In other words, it wasn't the first time she saw

05:53those moderators, I'm pretty sure of that. It's very unfair, very crooked. The whole thing,

05:58very crooked. The other thing that I noticed is that she's wearing the new audio earrings,

06:04which you can buy. I saw that, I saw that on the internet, there was a little meme about

06:10it. I've seen them before. It's a hearing aid, they can talk to her. She was, how do you call

06:27it, helped through the whole thing with a bit of prompting, I imagine. On top of that, as a woman

06:37she spoke all right. But let me put it like this, there are volumes written about men having an

06:46argument with a woman, or trying to argue with a woman. The bottom line is this, men have an

06:52innate desire to make sense with their argument, whereas women have no such desire. That's the

07:01bottom line of all arguments between a man and a woman. It's simple. Men have a strong desire

07:10to make sense, women have no such desire. But at any rate, I thought it was all right. I think

07:16clearly, from my point of view as a businessman, and knowing the background of this woman and

07:23everything, and knowing that it was all rehearsed and so on, obviously it didn't do anything to

07:29move me in terms of who I would rather see in government. And that is, I'd like to see this

07:37New Republic Party in power there, for certain. I mean, to get rid of all the people that are

07:43homeless, and stop all this incredible mess that's going on all around the world,

07:49in America and all around the world. We follow the United States. And we also know here that

07:56if Donald Trump gets in, in South Africa, it will lift us as well. You see, we know that. We know

08:02that it will lift us out of, you could say, almost depression or recession, you know.

08:09Yeah, no, it is very interesting. I'm very keen to have a look at that sort of stuff. And you

08:12raise a very interesting point about the earrings. And I say, I've seen this reported online together

08:17with photos. There are pictures of, apparently you can receive little earrings, little antenna

08:22and things like that. You can receive messages. Definitely, there's no doubt about it. There's

08:26absolutely no doubt about it. They are the earrings that you use for that purpose. It's not maybe,

08:32it's definitely. No question about it. It's amazing to me that these earrings, people know

08:39about them. They blatantly didn't worry about it. They just didn't worry about it. It is extraordinary.

08:46Well, they should be looking into that. And I would, I always say, look here on the Muckbreakers,

08:49our only mission is to find the truth. And I put it out to ABC. If that were the case,

08:55do come on and let us know. Let us know if you check those earrings. And to anybody on Comilla,

08:59that's how I pronounce your name, Comilla Harris's party, come forward and confess if that's the

09:04truth or tell us all about it. Show us those earrings. We'll have a look. Basil, let me just

09:08fill you in on this as well. Trump basically, in order, part of the rules, you have a coin toss.

09:12And Trump won the coin toss, right, at least he won something, for podium placement in the order

09:17of the closing statements. He chose to make the final closing statement, which I think was a good

09:21move, actually. And Harris selected the right side podium. Interesting stuff. What was your general

09:27take, Basil? Well, people have been saying that Comilla was much better prepared than Donald

09:33Trump. Even, you know, C.A.N. diehards like Trey Gowdy saying that Trump needs to sack whoever he

09:41had on his team getting him ready because he allowed her to put him on the defensive to some

09:47extent. And he went off on tangents about people eating pets and things and should really have

09:53driven home the key messages on economy and immigration. And so generally, the take out is

10:00that, well, he didn't do as well as expected that Comilla won the debate. But then you've got,

10:07as Errol mentioned, the possibility that not only did Comilla know the questions in advance

10:13and very much have the moderators on her side, but she may have been taking some form of live

10:19coaching during the event from whoever was on the end of that earpiece saying, I mentioned this,

10:26mentioned that, don't mention that, you know, which obviously would be completely unfair. And

10:32one would assume it's against the rules. So personally, I'd like to see another one. I don't

10:38know if it's going to happen. I shouldn't think Comilla wants another one. Trump has said it's

10:43got to be on his terms if there is to be another one. I think the American people deserve another

10:49one. I mean, we are talking about, you know, the most powerful job in the world. So we're led to

10:54believe anyway. And one 90 minute debate between the two candidates ahead of such a momentous

11:01election definitely isn't enough. So for the sake of democracy, there has to be another one.

11:07And this time round, perhaps included in the rules would be checking whatever's in Comilla's ears,

11:14though I shouldn't think she'll agree to that. People say she got him on the defensive by

11:20going across and shaking his hand to start with. He wasn't expecting that. You know,

11:24the choreography is all important. It was the first handshake in a presidential debate since

11:292016, apparently. But I thought that was a welcome sign anyway. I mean, for goodness sake,

11:36people should be able to shake hands at the very least, shouldn't they?

11:40And it has been a presidential campaign all about ears from the appalling assassination

11:45attempt and that sort of stuff to Comilla. And that's how you pronounce her name with

11:49her earpiece. I think Donald should come on with it with little earrings as well next time. I think

11:53that would be good. So you can have these people. We're going to take a quick break.

12:02We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to do a deeper

12:05dive into what they actually discussed. Don't touch that dial.

12:11This is The Muckrakers on today's news talk, TNT.

12:17Well, a very warm welcome back to The Muckrakers with me, Andrew Yvonne,

12:20joined by Basil Valentine and my new best mate, Harold Musk over there,

12:25comparing all sorts of notes about cars and earrings and other things. Let me first of all

12:29just mention about one of the wonderful sites that you may be aware of, which I've been plugging

12:33relentlessly here on The Muckrakers. And if you're interested in news from the Middle East,

12:37check out Levantist.me, which breaks down all the main stories into plain English and presents you

12:43with just what you need to know each day. The editor there is my good friend Martin Jay,

12:49who's a regular here on The Muckrakers as well. And for news, comments and analysis and a really

12:54fresh nonpartisan take on news in the Middle East and, of course, what's really going on in Gaza,

12:58try Levantist.me, which you can find also on X, I've heard of that, as Levantist underscore M E.

13:06I was mentioning just before the break, or actually Errol brought it up about these earrings. There

13:09we go. Well, this is an ad for these. You can have a look at that. I think the gallery can pick

13:13them up. They're called, apparently, the Nova H1 Pearl Earphones. And somebody claims that

13:22Kamala cheated the debate with these. I do want to do a deep dive into that. If anybody who's

13:28watching at the moment has a pair of these Nova H1 Pearl Earphones, do let us know. I'll wear

13:34them in the next episode. We can get some of those. We'll try it out, which is good.

13:39And I want to do a deep dive into what was actually discussed. And let's, first of all,

13:44start off with the economy. And the things that Kamala was saying is that all these tariffs

13:49that Donald was doing is basically going to hit the people in their pocket. What's your take on

13:55that, Errol? Oh, I think it's absolute nonsense. Absolute nonsense. And these tariffs have been

14:02in operation now for seven years, or nearly eight years. So they certainly didn't hit anybody in

14:09their pockets in the first four years. So no, no, that's absolute nonsense. They actually

14:15go for anything they can. They make up these sort of claims. There's no basis for it. No one's

14:21thought it out. They just make it up and shoot it out. And then the poor man has to try and justify

14:28the whole thing, and he hasn't got the time, or try to refute the whole thing. And so no, no,

14:33it's just blab. It comes back to what I was saying just now, that men cannot argue with women,

14:41because a man has to make sense to himself. He wants to make sense. A woman doesn't worry about

14:46making sense. So a woman just shoots out. She's a woman. She shoots out this. I might sound

14:51terribly misogynistic, but it's the truth. It will shoot out this. It's going to make everything 20%

14:57more expensive. And without any basis, why didn't she say 30%? 40%? 50%? Why 20%? Why stick with 20%?

15:07And so no, something of interest, as I travel to the US quite a lot, and as regards what this

15:16particular debate might have on the voting public of America, people of America,

15:22if you are in America, and it's not quite as bad in England, I would say, but if you had to ask

15:29the average American, particularly someone who's, say, under 30, who the vice president of America

15:37is, the chances are they won't be able to tell you. It's rather like asking Dan Quayle to spell

15:46potato, isn't it? We on the outside, we on the outside here, we watch America. And the average

15:56bloke here in South Africa knows that Kamala Harris is the vice president. But in America,

16:03it's not like that. No, they don't. And if you ask them, who's your governor? What's the name

16:09of your governor of your state? Or, you know, they generally do know that the president is,

16:15but not always. But as far as anything beneath the president, like who's the vice president,

16:20or even if you ask people, do you know who Kamala Harris is? And they say, well, no,

16:27it's a hockey player or something, you know. But they don't know.

16:31Well, it's interesting. I think, yes, I was going to say, I think the current president

16:36doesn't know who he is either. So I don't think it'll work on that sort of basis.

16:40That's true. So, you know, as far as this debate having a deep effect on America,

16:49I doubt it. I don't think so. I think what will have an effect is the number of adverts that are

16:55being put out, because there are about 10,000 TV stations, and a single broadcast of a single ad

17:02costs $10 million. Right? I mean, it's just unbelievable. And each little station gets a

17:08couple of thousand dollars for that. And that's the only way to reach the people,

17:12because it's such a big country. And we've made this point before. It's a very fragmented

17:16audience now, isn't it? With so many different stations and so on and so forth. Basil, I wanted

17:21to pick up again on the economic issues. I mean, Harris criticised Trump's economic policies and

17:25tariffs, as you mentioned. He says they hurt the middle class. Well, Trump blamed Harris

17:30for inflation during the Biden administration. What's your take on it? Well, the Dow actually

17:37dropped because people felt that Harris had won the debate, and that that would be bad for the

17:44economy if she won the election. So Trump's widely regarded slightly disappointing performance. He

17:50thought he won, of course. A lot of people feel that he won. You know, I don't think many people

17:55will eventually change their position. But the general consensus is that he underperformed,

18:02you know, with respect to expectations, and that Harris overperformed against expectations,

18:08because, of course, she could easily have come across as being completely incoherent and

18:13talking in words, salads and all the rest of it. And I must admit, I have to agree with Errol,

18:18which wasn't necessarily always the most logical, but she didn't disintegrate in the way that a lot

18:24of people thought she would. So for one reason or another, because people felt that Harris

18:30you know, exceeded expectations, and that the likelihood of her becoming president was

18:35slightly raised after the debate. So the stocks fell and gold fell because people do think that

18:42Trump is better for the economy. In fact, Trump media shares fell by over 13% following his

18:50performance. But in spite of that, it's Donald who yesterday was saying, I don't know if we

18:54really want to do another debate or not, because I want it. I think he'd be advised to do another

19:01one. And he is actually stronger on the economy, he should just rehearse a solid five minutes,

19:08you could get lots of quotes, he's got actually, most of Wall Street behind him. And, you know,

19:14that kind of alliance that helps win elections. So he should build on that, really.

19:20No, well, what I'm going to do, as I say, in addition to getting those hearings,

19:23I'm going to send some to Donald's camp, so they can help him out on that sort of basis.

19:28What was interesting is Elon posted at 4.58 this morning saying, interest payments on just federal

19:35government debt now exceed the entire Defense Department budget. America is in the fast lane

19:40to bankruptcy. What's your take on that, Errol? Well, I mean, that's been like that for many years.

19:47And quite frankly, I've always wondered who all this money is owed to. I mean, who is it owed to?

19:54Who is the debtor? Who is the debtor? I don't know. Who actually owns this debt? That's a

20:04terribly interesting thought to me. It's all very strange, actually. It's all very, very strange.

20:10Yeah, I know. But coming back to the debate, I think, let's get real here. I agree to a certain

20:15extent with Basil, but Trump did it as best as possible to do in an argument against a woman.

20:21If he has another debate and he browbeats her, if he has another debate and he browbeats her

20:26either by a tempestuous way of speaking and does the same thing as she did and throws facts that

20:35can't be checked immediately and he has better moderators and all that sort of thing, he's going

20:40to come across as a giant bully. I mean, that would almost certainly win votes for her from

20:48sort of people who don't like that kind of thing. So, yeah, no, no, I don't see anything wrong with

20:53this debate. Donald Trump was completely coherent, completely made complete sense all the way

21:02through. He was tackled. He was given low tackles or high tackles, should I say, on a few things

21:10that he couldn't possibly even answer under the circumstances. And then whenever he did answer

21:16anything, these moderators chipped in and corrected him. And later on, it turned out

21:23that their corrections were wrong. So, you know, how do you? How do you? Yeah, he certainly had

21:29the worst of the fact-checking. He definitely had the worst of the fact-checking, there's no doubt

21:33about that. And he didn't fact-check Kamala at all. So, it was biased. He suggested Sean Hannity,

21:41Jesse Waters, people like that, as moderators in the next debate, Laura Ingraham at Fox News.

21:47So, I mean, if he managed to get Kamala to agree to a debate with them as moderators, then

21:52he should do so because they're very much on his side. But then again,

21:55obviously, we're on Harris's side. So, what if the moderators next time are on Trump's side?

22:02I would say they should be totally independent moderators.

22:05Yes, they should.

22:06Get people who want, like Andrew, get somebody totally independent.

22:10I'll be, I'll moderate it. We'll start that campaign.

22:12Andrew, you should volunteer. You and me, you and me, Andrew.

22:15Laura Ingraham or Sean Hannity, it's just going to cause the same argument from the other side.

22:20So, I would say, no, you don't, if I were Trump and I'm debating,

22:24I don't need people to be on my side. I know what my case is. I know what I'm about.

22:28I don't need special moderator help. Obviously, in this last debate,

22:32this woman needed much more than moderator help. She needed earphones. She needed

22:38to know the questions up front. She needed a week to rehearse the answers.

22:43You know, and on top of that, she's a woman and you can't really browbeat her. You can't

22:48talk nastily. You have to try and be polite. So, you know, I would say no, no, nobody is that

22:54stupid to be taken in by this debate. Nobody. And especially when you add this earring business and

23:01the way these moderators behave. No, no.

23:04It was extraordinary. And I wonder if Trump was sort of kicking himself that actually he

23:08allowed the Biden debate to happen so early, because that was the downfall, wasn't it, of Biden.

23:14And actually, if that debate had happened yesterday, this week, as opposed to the Harris

23:20debate, Trump would be in a much better position, wouldn't he, Basil?

23:24Well, yes, people say that they had the Biden debate in July, precisely so that bigwigs in

23:32the Democrat Party could see whether or not Biden was up to the job. And he clearly wasn't. So

23:37they still had time to get him out of the way and get somebody else in place. Only just.

23:42But yeah, I mean, would Biden still be the nominee if he hadn't done that debate or

23:49would his obvious senility have shone through as it were in various other circumstances?

23:56I mean, certainly while the drip drip was going on and he was slowly ebbing out of the picture,

24:02that was a great time for Trump. There's no doubt about it. It's much more difficult against Harris.

24:08But just back to the economy, it seemed neither of them wanted to tackle the fact that the US

24:14debt clock now stands at over 35 trillion dollars. That's 35 and 12 noughts after it,

24:21with a debt per taxpayer of approaching 270,000 dollars and over 100,000 dollars per citizen,

24:29every man, woman and child, that is. Now, I mean, that wasn't the case in the 1990s. But

24:35for some reason, particularly in the last five years or so under Biden, they just

24:39printed inordinate amounts of money to supposedly combat inflation. I mean,

24:46quite the opposite happens. The more money you print, the less each dollar is worth.

24:51And therefore that stokes inflation. Who is all this money owed to? Well,

24:56I've been fortunate enough to be educated by various guests on my program who've said that

25:02the Chinese buy American government bonds by the lorry load. So a lot of it's owed to them.

25:12And if they decide they don't want to buy any more American government bonds because

25:16America is bust, for example, there's the new BRICS currency coming along. They're planning

25:22on launching some kind of new international trading currency so that the BRICS and allied

25:29nations can trade in a currency that isn't the U.S. dollar, that's backed partly by gold,

25:36believe it or not, as well as by other sort of solid resources. Now, that could have disastrous

25:44effects for the U.S. economy. It would mean that this debt clock literally explodes.

25:50Yeah, no, you make some very good points. Yes, it is absolutely always a focus on China

25:55in these sort of issues. I wanted to cover some of the other areas that were looked at. Now,

26:00abortion was front and center. Harris basically blamed Trump for the overturning of Roe v. Wade,

26:07accusing him of enabling Trump abortion bans in over 20 states. Basically, abortion was made

26:12legal across the U.S. after that landmark legal ruling in 1973, often referred to as Roe v. Wade.

26:19Now, the U.S. Supreme Court, the nation's most senior legal body, has overturned that right.

26:24And 26 conservative states are either certain or considered likely to introduce new abortion

26:30restrictions or bans. What's your take on that, Errol? Well, you know, it's a very contentious

26:37subject. I have learned through the years myself. So when I was perhaps, say, in my youth, early,

26:48you know, in my 20s, let's say, or early 30s, I would have been a very great

26:55opposer of any sort of thing like abortion because it just seemed terribly bad to me.

26:59But as you get older and you get more experience and you see situations that come up and

27:06circumstances, you start to realize, no, there is a place for early abortion, at any rate,

27:13you know, for people's lives not to be ruined type of thing. But I don't think it should be

27:20something that you can, you know, order like a pizza or something like that. You know,

27:25I think it should be a serious thing. Now, in South Africa now, we have a situation since 1994

27:32where I think you can go to the local Maury Stokes Clinic and just get an abortion on demand. I mean,

27:41it's a five-minute performance. The only restriction they have here that I know of is that

27:48you must be under a certain period. You must be under five months of pregnancy. And I don't like

27:56it. The whole thing I don't like. But at the end of the day, as you gain experience of life and

28:01circumstances, you tend to be a little less, you know, bombastic about it and see that there is

28:09sometimes good reason for that. So I think Trump's attitude that the states should decide,

28:16in a way, it's a bit like, you know, sort of fobbing off the responsibility, if you know

28:21what I mean. Let the states decide is a way of not having to make the decision, you know.

28:27I agree with him. Yeah, I know. I think it is interesting, isn't it? Because it's a very clear

28:34woman's issue, saying it's my body, I should decide what to do with it. And one of the

28:38extraordinary claims that President Trump did make was about the right to kill a child after it's

28:44born. Exactly. No state has said that. That's what he said. It is absolutely mad.

28:57Let me get your take on that, Basil. Well, obviously, killing a child after he's born is

29:01infanticide. That should be a criminal offence and an extremely serious one. Just

29:04killing any human being is a criminal offence. But while Trump claimed that and Harris then

29:11denied it in the debate, when he went back to her and asked her if she would allow abortions in the

29:18eight or ninth month of pregnancy, she refused to answer that question. So that's some indication

29:25that she's very much more, well, I think liberal is the wrong word, but shall we say?

29:32Yeah, I mean, it's all about when the abortion takes place. I don't, you know,

29:39most people would have an objection to, but it used to be a bottle of gin, didn't it? Something

29:43like that. And, you know, after a couple of months or something, it was a mistake. Never mind.

29:50You know, once it starts to be a baby that would survive outside the womb, that then starts to

29:56become a different matter. And obviously, that's around the sort of five, six month mark. So,

30:02you know, I don't feel particularly qualified to pass judgment on it. It's not actually an issue

30:07I feel particularly strongly about. And of course, as an Englishman, we find it almost bizarre that

30:12it's an election issue, because it isn't one in the UK and is highly unlikely ever to become one.

30:18Well, big one there. Roe versus Wade, and that's what that's about. A huge issue around the world

30:23is the whole issue of immigration. And Trump focused on this as his pet subject, if you like.

30:29He made various claims about illegal immigrants, while Harris dismissed his rhetoric as

30:33fear-mongering. One of the ones was, they're eating your pets, is what he said. And she sort

30:39of gave that sort of sneering take on that. What's the solution to the whole immigration issue, Errol?

30:47Well, you know, I mean, I find it very strange that people are going into England on rubber boats

30:53and being put into, the last I read was 5,400 four-star hotel rooms or something like that,

31:00that the British government have got for them. I wanted to go to, I might have mentioned this

31:07before, to a commemoration service at Westminster Abbey on the 15th of July that just passed. And

31:15because I applied for the visa, I didn't go, in fact, because I had a medical issue to deal with.

31:20But because I applied for my visa, not in the required three months advance,

31:28in fact, only in the three weeks advance, I would have to get an expedited visa for 1,400 pounds.

31:34And so I'm eligible, and so is Elon, for that matter, eligible for a British passport.

31:40But it would cost me 1,400 pounds to go to Britain for a short month-long visa or something.

31:48So this immigration thing is not two-tiered. It's multi-tiered. It's multi-tiered. And I've

31:56actually said to people that ordinary people here in South Africa who are struggling, there's a lot

32:02of unemployment here. The actual unemployment in South Africa is more like 50 to 60 percent.

32:09And many people of all races are unemployed. And I knew a young man and his family, and I said,

32:15look, you've got no qualifications. You can't go to America. He was a very hardworking boy,

32:20very hardworking. But I said to him, go to Mexico, which you can do, which I've done,

32:25by the way. I did that during COVID, which is quite interesting. Cross the Rio Grande, which I

32:30did, on feet. And I did that to avoid the COVID restrictions and to be able to go and see the

32:38birth of my first granddaughter by my second daughter. And yeah, I did that. I actually

32:45crossed the Rio Grande with a bunch of refugees. And I thought it was rather nice, actually. I

32:51thought it was very – my family were kind of hilarious, you know. But anyway, yeah. So I said

32:57to him, go and just cross the Rio Grande. Don't speak English. Just speak South African Dutch.

33:02And they'll give you a home and a cell phone, and they'll look after you and everything, you know.

33:07So the whole thing is just absolutely upside down. Who ever thought that you could just walk

33:14into countries? I mean, in England, there's 1,100 a day or 900 a day or something like that.

33:20What the heck? No, no. You know, a boy didn't even have 500 people living in them.

33:29It is quite a big issue still around the world. And they did ask Trump about

33:33how he was going to get rid of the 11 million basically people he said he was going to get

33:37rid of. Interesting stuff. We're going to have a deeper dive into that. Yeah, we're going to have

33:41a deeper dive into that and the other issues that were discussed. I also want to talk about Australian

33:45government was introduced, the Communication Legislation Amendment combating misinformation,

33:49disinformation bill, a further erosion of freedom of speech. And we're also going to talk about

33:54Taylor Swift and how Errol might get a new grandchild. All of that's coming up straight

33:59after these messages. This is The Muckrakers on today's news talk, TNT.

34:07Well, a very warm welcome back to The Muckrakers with me, Andrew Yvonne, joined by TNT titan,

34:12Basil Valentine, and the new regular here on The Muckrakers with Andrew Yvonne show is Errol Musk,

34:17who is campaigning that I should host the next debate, which will be very interesting. So we

34:23look forward to that. Brown envelopes accepted at any time. It's always a thrill. I wanted to

34:29come back on immigration. We've been looking at the different policies. Basil,

34:32you wanted a quick couple of words on that. Well, Trump got into hot water for talking

34:37about people eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, although local residents have complained that

34:43that's what they feel has happened. You know, it's difficult to prove, but small animals and

34:49ducks have disappeared from streets and local parks. What is undeniable is that the city of

34:55Springfield, with a population of 60,000, has seen the arrival of between 15 and 20,000 Haitians in

35:02the last 18 months or so, which is an extraordinary number. I mean, that's adding a quarter or a third

35:08to the population. And an 11-year-old boy, Aidan Clark, was killed when he was hit by a minivan,

35:16hit by a Haitian immigrant. So now, on the other hand, of course, some people like the

35:23chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, Brian Heck, says that the growth in our workforce population

35:30has exported the expansion of local businesses, contributing to the stabilisation of our local

35:35economy. He's talking about Springfield, of course. Well, you know, by that token, you know,

35:42we can go on expanding populations and welcoming immigrants ad infinitum, because larger populations

35:51of course mean ultimately a bigger economy. But is that necessarily desirable? Is that

35:57the only metric that should be measured? I mean, the last Conservative government in England,

36:02even after Brexit, saw legal migration go through the roof, which is why the Reform Party did so

36:11well at the last general election, because people haven't voted for it, but governments like it,

36:16because it makes the economic numbers look better. So, I mean, in terms of the United States,

36:22they're dealing with huge numbers of people. And the thing to remember is that for all those in

36:28favour of open borders, there is no upper limit to the number of people that would like to settle in

36:36the United States or United Kingdom. It's not like, oh, if we let in 100,000 or a few million,

36:44then that'll be it. No, the more you let in, the more want to come. And it's, you know, it will never

36:50stop in our lifetimes unless governments decide that we do actually have a border and we're going

36:55to enforce that border. And you can only come to the country by legal means. But at the moment,

37:01both in the UK and the US, that isn't the case. It's come one, come all. Yeah, you make some very

37:07good points. And as you say, migration through the roof and any other means they can get into

37:11the country. Let me deal with some of the other points that they talked about. The Israel-Hamas

37:16war. Harris called for an immediate ceasefire, while Trump accused her of being anti-Israel,

37:22which Harris denied. Errol, what's your take on that? Well, you know, I mean, the war there is

37:29terrible. On the other hand, it's one of those almost impossible situations to resolve.

37:38It's an immovable object versus a unstoppable force. So what the answer to that is,

37:47it's not clear to me. I don't like either of the parties' behavior. I mean, Hamas, disgusting.

37:59Israel's retribution, somewhat disgusting. So I don't know what to say there.

38:05I simply don't have an answer to that. I think it would take a large group of the

38:12most intelligent people in the world to get together to solve that one. Yeah, I always make

38:18the point on this channel, we've had people on both sides, that we are pro-peace. And the thing

38:22I don't like is when people apply labels for you. You say, hang about, there's been casualties on

38:27both sides, not least. And I always say the first casualty in war is the truth. So we need to

38:33basically humanize it again, because we get dehumanized, desensitized, when you hear all

38:38these horrendous statistics, until you actually see some of the families and talk to some of the

38:43people who are directly affected. And that's how we put it into perspective. The other thing they

38:48talked about was the Ukraine-Russia war. And basically, Harris warned that Trump would give

38:54up Ukraine to Russia, while Trump avoided siding with either country, calling for an end to the

39:01war. So both of those are going to be key issues. This is one of the areas where I agree with

39:08Trump most. He said he would end the war in Ukraine immediately, and given the potential for

39:15absolutely disastrous escalation that we've seen with the visit yesterday by Lamy and Biden to

39:22Kiev, and Joe Biden apparently currently pondering a compromise whereby Ukraine will be able to use

39:32some of these storm shadow missiles to strike targets deep within Russia, missiles provided

39:38by the UK government. Well, that would be right to the very edge of World War Three. I mean, the

39:45Deputy Speaker of the Russian Parliament has said that they would regard the United States

39:50and United Kingdom as full participants in the war if Ukraine starts using long-range missiles

39:57to hit targets deep inside Russia. So Harris's nonsense about giving up Ukraine or something,

40:03this is irrelevant. This has got to be brought to an end immediately before we all go up in a

40:10nuclear holocaust. It's as simple as that. And Trump also sort of skated over the Middle East

40:16thing. I mean, his accusations of Harris hating Israel are ludicrous, but he sort of skated over

40:23it but said over there, I want to end that over there too. And his instinct, and there are various

40:31sort of liberal commentators like Jimmy Dore who pointed this out, Trump's instinct is to be a deal

40:38maker. And he ran last time on a platform of peace and prosperity. He would do well to emphasize

40:46those two things again, because all sane human beings want to live in peace and prosperity. But

40:54you know, if she's honest about it, Kamala Harris wants war in Ukraine, she's funded a war

41:00in the Middle East. And her equivalent over here in the UK, Keir Starmer wants austerity,

41:08which means poverty. So, you know, Trump needs to emphasize his strong points and peace is

41:14definitely one of them. That's what brought Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on board in his campaign.

41:19Likewise, Chelsea Gabbard. So he needs to bang that drum hard. I mean, it's ironic that the

41:24position is reversed, because traditionally, of course, Democrats were supposed to be pro-peace,

41:29but they're not anymore. They're completely owned by the military-industrial complex.

41:34Yeah, just before coming on to Taylor Swift, I wanted to talk about those fact-checking things,

41:38and get your comments very briefly on this. The claim basically about crime in the US,

41:44Trump basically claimed crime was rising. The FBI data shows that violent crime decreased actually

41:50by 6% in 2023, and 15% in the first quarter of 2024, trending downwards since its spike in 2020

41:57during the pandemic. As you know, I present this series called Andrew E. Borne's Fake or Fact,

42:02where we look at claims in the media around the world and basically shine a spotlight.

42:07More light, less heat. And as they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. So we try to look at

42:12these claims and get rid of those which are false. On abortion, we talked about abortions

42:17occurring in the ninth month or after birth. That's what Trump said. In reality, fewer than

42:211% of abortions are performed after 21 weeks of pregnancy, often due to medical emergencies or

42:27fetal anomalies. Infanticide is illegal in all 50 states, as we said. Reference was made to Project

42:352025, and Trump denied involvement in that. A 900-page right-wing overhaul plan for the federal

42:42government, despite distancing himself, his policies align with some of the project's goals.

42:47That's just as an aside. Immigration, they talk about violent acts like eating pets,

42:51where we've spoken about that. And talking of pets, I think this is the most wonderful segue

42:57to Taylor Swift, who came out, you might remember, about the reference to,

43:02see what I did there, about a pet that she wouldn't want eaten, about the single woman,

43:09single cat woman. And she posted about this coming out in support of Kamala Harris,

43:15to which the wonderful Elon said, well, look, I'll give you a child, and I'll look after your cat.

43:23Errol, do you fancy a new grandchild? Oh, yes. Well, you know, Taylor Swift is a very,

43:29very beautiful girl. I mean, let's be honest here. She's fair game, because of the simple

43:35fact that she's out there. She's a singer. She makes herself seen in beautiful costumes.

43:42She's not some prude that you have to be worried about in that respect. So she's fair game.

43:49And I agree with Elon. I think any man would love to have his child.

43:57And so, you know, she's gorgeous. So let's be honest, and she's brilliant.

44:03So you're looking forward to having her as a new daughter-in-law, or possibly the mother of your next grandchild?

44:09Yeah, I mean, you know, it's common sense, you know. It's hardly rocket science

44:14that she's an attractive girl. I mean, she's very attractive. And by making the comment,

44:19I'm childless, and I've only got a cat, and on top of who she really is,

44:26she's inviting comments to be made, you know. I mean, that's an invitation.

44:30When a person like her, I mean, she's right up there on the stage, you know,

44:35on the front, on the top of the stage, to be able to say that. She's inviting men to say,

44:40oh, I'll jump in there, you know, if you want, you know. I'll provide. I mean, I'll look after your cats,

44:47you know, for heaven's sakes. It's not complicated at all.

44:51It was interesting, Errol. It was basically a reference to J.D. Vance's comments about a single

44:58woman, a single cat woman, and there've been all sorts of videos and so on and so forth.

45:02Taylor's very famous. I mean, she previously expressed views in opposition to politics of

45:07former U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, you might remember,

45:11of Tennessee, who are both Republicans. I watched this documentary. I would recommend it to

45:15everybody. Do your research. 2020 documentary called Miss Americana. And on her Instagram

45:20account, basically, there was a lot of false information, fake news with her holding up a

45:26Trump poster, claiming support and so on and so forth. What happened is she said that she wouldn't

45:31support this particular Marsha, Marsha Blackburn. She called her Trump in a wig

45:36about her and disapproved of her policies on abortion and so on and so forth, which was

45:41interesting. Dixie Chicks, you might remember, they got into trouble when they got involved

45:47with politics and it divided their fan base. What's your take on this, Basil?

45:53Well, I think if Elon and Taylor got together, that really would be the ultimate celebrity

46:00power couple of the 21st century that make Megan and Harry or even William and Kate look like

46:05utterly irrelevant paupers. I don't think it's I don't think it's good. I don't think it's going

46:11to happen. I don't think it's any more likely than me getting together with Taylor, to be honest. But

46:20we all like to think we might stand a chance, don't we?

46:24Well, Basil, Basil, I can tell you.

46:29Perhaps she watches this program.

46:30She does. She's texting in, says, Basil, I'm free Thursday night. What are you up to?

46:35I'll tell you, you're washing your hair. It's got to be good. I do want to finish, gentlemen,

46:39on this rather shocking thing about the Australian government introduced the Communications

46:43Legislation Amendment combating misinformation, disinformation bill 2024. It's just coming

46:48through my feed as we speak. And basically the Australian Communication and Media Authority,

46:52ACMA, have new powers to combat seriously harmful misinformation and disinformation.

46:59We're living in an era where the CEO and founder of Telegram was arrested in France.

47:05We've had Elon being booted out of Brazil. Freedom of speech is in a critical condition.

47:12And now we've got this legislation. What's your take on that, Errol?

47:16Well, you know, they try to boot him out of Brazil. They try to do these things. That doesn't

47:23mean they've succeeded, simply because people like even Stormer have tried these things.

47:28There's a long way to go. There's a long way to go. This book isn't finished.

47:32You know, this is a lot of pages to turn. No, no, I think things happen for a reason.

47:39And sometimes these type of objections highlight the very fact of what is happening. In other words,

47:47you wouldn't even know what's happening if they didn't object to it. So there's a sort of

47:52advantage to it there. I speak to Australian people. They don't seem to have anything in

48:00connect. They don't seem to be in touch with their government at all. They seem to have a very

48:06Australian type of way of describing their government. And the lot of them, everyone I

48:11know, and I know quite a few of them. So it's a very strange sort of situation. The Australian

48:16government is trying to tie down the Australians and the Australians are simply not having it.

48:23That's the impression I get. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. And

48:26the worrying thing is the definition of harm. I'm looking at this hatred against the group

48:30in Australian society on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, race, gender,

48:34sexual orientation, age, religion or physical or mental disability. And we had this in Scotland

48:40very recently. And basically the police, when they first heard about it, said,

48:44we will investigate every single claim. And J.K. Rowling, who I'm looking forward to having as a

48:48guest on this show, maybe with you, Errol, we can get the two of you together. It'd be fantastic to

48:52debate. Basically, she came out and said, well, look, arrest me first. You need to work on this

48:58sort of basis. We need to be able to call people out. We need to hold people's feet to the fire.

49:02It's very worrying times. We continue to speak about it. It's been an absolute delight as always.

49:08Basil, thank you very much for joining me yet again. Errol, always a pleasure. We'll compare

49:13notes on cars continuously before we get you back on next time. The rest of you, I will be back

49:18again tomorrow. Same time, same place. Do whatever you can to support TNT and the wonderful mission.

49:24Our quest, our unwavering quest, is to keep and uncovering the truth. With your help, we can

49:29continue to do that. I've been Andrew Warne. You've been great. Thank you very much for joining us.

49:59If you missed this hour, simply go to episodes at tntradio.live.

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