May 20, 2025

Joe Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis, Trump’s Sudden Niceness, and the Pope Gets a Bears Jersey

Show Notes
Transcript

President Biden reveals a serious cancer diagnosis, Trump offers unexpected kindness, and Kamala calls him a fighter. But the awkward questions about Biden’s age, memory, and fitness aren’t going away—especially with new audio from his Hur interview. Meanwhile, Trump launches a bizarre crusade against Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, and Bono. Plus: Vice President JD Vance visits Pope Leo XIV and gifts him… a Chicago Bears jersey? Yeah, we go there.

WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark media from Washington, d C. Where even Trump

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is being nice to Joe Biden. This is ballot that's right.

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Maybe Hell did freeze over, even if just for one tweet.

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I'm Patrick Guttfield and former President Joe Biden has been

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diagnosed with prostate cancer that spread to his bones. His

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office announced it Sunday, saying they're reviewing treatment options for

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a condition that can be effectively managed. Now. I'm not

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going to make light of cancer. Cancer is serious business.

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My thoughts are with the Biden family, but I do

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have some thoughts about the timing. This news comes right

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as Democrats are in the middle of their what Went

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Wrong book club meeting. They're all sitting around wondering if maybe,

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just maybe running an octagenarian for the highest office in

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the land wasn't their best strategic move. By the time

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Biden stumbled through that debate with Donald Trump last June,

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it was too late for a plan. B all the

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other Democrats had already taken themselves out of contention faster

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than me trying to avoid eye contact with that neighbor

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who always wants to talk about his lawn care routine.

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Now everyone's releasing books second guessing the whole situation. It's

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like when you leave a party and immediately start texting

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everyone still there about what a terrible time you had.

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Did you see what happened? I told you we shouldn't

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have gone. Trump, who's seventy eight, posted a message wishing

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Biden well, and honestly, that's the right move. When your

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political opponent gets sick, you put politics aside. Kamala Harris

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also sent well wishes, calling Biden a fighter, and she's right.

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Joe Biden has faced more personal tragedy than most of

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us could handle in ten lifetimes. He lost his first

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wife and daughter in a car crash, his son bowed

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a brain cancer, and he's dealt with Hunter's very public struggles.

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The man has been through it. Biden actually spearheaded the

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cancer Moonshot initiative after losing bo. He worked with Republicans

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like a Mitch McConnell on cancer legislation. Remember bipartisanship. That's

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that thing from the history books where people who disagreed

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politically still accomplished things together. According to doctors, Biden's diagnosis

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is serious. His cancer scored a nine out of ten

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on the Gleason scale. The last time I scored that

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high on anything was when I convinced the barista I

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deserved a free coffee after punching my own loyalty card. Meanwhile,

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audio recordings of Joe Biden's five hour interview with special

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counsel Robert Hurr have finally been released by Axios. These

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are the interviews where her ultimately described Biden as a sympathetic,

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well meaning elderly man with a poor memory. Spoiler alert,

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The audio does nothing to dispel that characterization. In one

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nearly four and a half minute clip, Biden was asked

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where he kept papers after leaving office as Vice president

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in twenty seventeen. He took a long pause, said I

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don't know, and then rambled about completely unrelated topics like

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people encouraging him to run for president in twenty sixteen.

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It's the conversational equivalent of typing a question into Google

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and somehow ending up watching videos of cats writing rumbas.

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Even more jarring, Biden couldn't remember when his own son

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Bo died. He asked what month did Bo die, before

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pausing and saying, oh, God, May thirtieth. Then two people

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in the room had to finish his sentence with twenty fifteen.

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Biden actually questioned this, asking was it twenty fifteen he

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had died. That's the kind of moment that makes even

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the most loyal supporter cringe harder than watching someone use

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their teeth to open a ketchup packet. In another clip,

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Biden was asked if he knew he had kept a

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memo about Afghanistan, which is basically Schrodinger's memory. Then, when pressed,

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he admitted, I guess I wanted to hang on to

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it just for posterity's sake. At that point, someone from

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Biden's team jumped in faster than a parent and stopping

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a toddler from revealing family secrets to strangers. This age said,

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I just really would like to avoid, for the purpose

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of a clean record, getting into speculative areas, before clarifying

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that Biden does not recall specifically intending to keep this memo. Translation,

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please don't make him answer any more questions without me

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rephrasing them. First, President Trump never won to miss an opportunity,

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told reporters everybody understands the condition of him. I know

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people that are eighty nine, ninety ninety two, ninety three

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years old and are literally perfect but Joe was not

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one of them. Biden himself pushed back on claims of

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cognitive decline during an interview on the View last week,

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simply stating they are wrong. There is nothing to sustain

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that except, you know, these audio recordings and the collective

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memory of everyone who watched him debate Trump. Meanwhile, top Democrats,

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including potential twenty twenty eight contenders, are facing questions about

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whether they knew about Biden's decline. It's like they're all

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being asked, did you know Grandpa shouldn't have been driving?

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And if so, why did you let him have the

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keys to the nuclear codes? Meanwhile, President Trump is taking

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his beak with Bruce Springsteen to new levels. He's now

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demanding what he calls a major investigation into the Boss,

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Beyonce and Bono for supporting Kamala Harris during her presidential campaign.

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Because nothing screams stable leadership like declaring war on rock

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stars and pop divas. Trump jumped on truth Social early

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Monday morning with his caps lock firmly engaged. You know,

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the literary equivalent of a toddler screaming in a grocery store,

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asking how much did Kamala Harris pay Bruce Springsteen for

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his poor performance. The President seems convinced Harris paid these

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celebrities under the guise of paying for entertainment. I mean,

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who among us hasn't accidentally hired Beyonce to perform at

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our birthday party when we were really just trying to

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buy political influence? Happens all the time. Trump even claimed

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the Harris campaign paid Beyonce eleven million dollars to walk

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on to a stage, quickly endorse Kamala and walk off

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to loud booing, for never having performed not even one song.

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Beyonce's mother, Tina Knowles, completely denied similar claims back in November,

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saying her daughter did not receive a penny. But why

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let facts get in the way of a perfectly good

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conspiracy theory. This all comes after Springsteen called the Trump

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administration corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous during a concert in the

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UK last week. Trump responded by calling Springsteen and dried

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out prune of a rocker and suggested he keep his

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mouth shut until he gets back into the country, adding ominously,

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then we'll all see how it goes for him. Springsteen, meanwhile,

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double down at another UK show this weekend, saying in

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my home, they're persecuting people for their right to free

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speech and voicing their descent. So it seems the Boss

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isn't backing down, which means we can look forward to

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more all caps presidential tantrums about aging rock stars in

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the days ahead. Pope Leo the fourteenth met with Vice

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President JD. Vance at the Vatican on Monday. That's right,

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America's second in command had a closed door meeting with

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the new Pope talk about a Catholic power summit. I

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haven't seen two Catholics this excited to get together since

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my aunt Theresa discovered her neighbor also watches The Chosen.

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This meeting comes during what experts call a period of

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tension between the papacy and the White House, and by experts,

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I mean anyone who's been awake for the past eight years.

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The previous Pope Francis once said Trump's views were not Christian, which,

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as Vaticans speak for this guy definitely doesn't follow me

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on Instagram. After their meeting, Vance gave Pope Leo a

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Chicago Bears jersey because nothing says I respect your two

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thousand year old religious institution like merchandise from a team

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that hasn't won a championship in nearly four decades. The

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Bears are so bad their Hail Mary's gets sent straight

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to voicemail. Vance also gave the Pope a copy of

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Saint Augustine's City of God, which was apparently meaningful in

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Vance's conversion to Catholicism in twenty nineteen. You know a

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book is important when it takes fifteen hundred years to

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hit the bestseller list. The meeting has some conservatives hoping

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for a reset in relations with the Vatican. Pope Francis

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frequently clashed with Republican priorities, especially on immigration. He was

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basically the pope who launched a thousand angry in tweets

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from right wing commentators. Interestingly, Pope Leo previously seemed to

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criticize Vance on social media, but that account has since

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been deleted. Even popes have tweet regrets. Dear God, please

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forgive me for what I said about that politician. At

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three am, after four glasses of communion, Wine, the Pope's

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oldest brother, who describes himself as a Maga type, sat

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next to Second Lady Usha Vance at Leo's inaugural mass.

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Nothing brings family together like awkward political small talk while

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waiting for religious ceremonies to begin. Meanwhile, both Leo and

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Vance separately met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski. Zelenski's probably

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thinking great, now I have to explain the war to

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two more people who can't actually send me the weapons

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I need. As a diplomatic gesture, the Vatican announced the

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discussions were cordial, which is how the Church describes any

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meeting where nobody gets excommunicated. Portions of today's program were

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made with the help of JD Vance, saving what would

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have been a pretty serious show. Get Well Soon, Joe Biden,

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and Yeah, we used AI to help make this thing.

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To keep up on the Pope, check out our podcast

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White Smoke, and for the complete opposite of the Pope,

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check out our podcast Diddy Did He Do It, which

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is all about the Diddy trial.