Sept. 5, 2025

RFK Jr. Faces the Senate, the Clippers Plant $28M Trees, and Epstein Files Heat Up

Show Notes
Transcript

Patrick Gutfield dives into the Senate Finance Committee showdown where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to defend firing the CDC director and gutting vaccine funding — and somehow ended up nominating Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile, the NBA is investigating the Clippers for allegedly funneling $28 million to Kawhi Leonard through a tree-planting company, and survivors of Jeffrey Epstein demand the Trump administration release the long-buried Epstein files. Chaos, contradictions, and conspiracies — all in one episode.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:09.919
Callaroga Shark media from Los Angeles, where we got ourselves

2
00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.880
a cushy landscaping gig. This is ballad. Meanwhile, I hope

3
00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:15.960
you don't get sick because the guy in charge of

4
00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:22.280
health doesn't know what he's doing. Let's hit this. I'm

5
00:00:22.359 --> 00:00:25.719
Patrick Gutfield and Robert F. Kennedy Junior went before the

6
00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:29.320
Senate Finance Committee yesterday, and let me tell you, it

7
00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:31.800
went about as well as you'd expect. When a vaccine

8
00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:35.119
skeptic has to explain why he's running the nation's health department.

9
00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:37.880
The man looked like he was trying to defend his

10
00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:42.479
doctoral thesis on why mercury and thermometers is actually mind control.

11
00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:46.960
Kennedy's been having quite the month. He fired the CDC director,

12
00:00:47.159 --> 00:00:50.159
Susan Monrez, which led to a mass exodus of top

13
00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:54.159
health officials faster than people leaving a timeshare presentation. When

14
00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:56.920
asked why he fired her, Kennedy said he'd be asked

15
00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:00.640
Monerez if she was trustworthy, and she said no. Now,

16
00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:03.399
I don't know about you, but if someone asks me

17
00:01:03.439 --> 00:01:06.280
if I'm trustworthy and I say no, that's not honesty.

18
00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:09.680
That's a cry for help. The whole thing started when

19
00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:13.760
Kennedy apparently asked Monerez to preapprove recommendations from his newly

20
00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:18.079
assembled vaccine advisory panel. This panel, by the way, is

21
00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:20.159
stacked with people who have about as much faith in

22
00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:23.799
vaccines as I have an airline food. When Senator Ron

23
00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:27.480
Wyden asked Kennedy if he really did what Monrez claimed

24
00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:30.280
in her Wall Street Journal op ed, Kennedy flat out

25
00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:34.519
said she was lying. So either the former CDC director

26
00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:38.200
is a liar or RFK Junior has a very creative

27
00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:42.840
relationship with the truth. Place your bets. Republican Senator Bill

28
00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:46.719
Cassidy from Louisiana really went after Kennedy, which was surprising

29
00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:50.840
since Cassidy had previously supported him. Cassidy pointed out the

30
00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:55.200
obvious contradiction, how can you praise Operation Warp Speed for

31
00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:58.760
saving millions of lives while simultaneously canceling five hundred million

32
00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:02.680
dollars in vaccine funding. That's like saying you love pizza

33
00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:07.040
but hate cheese, bread and sauce. Kennedy insisted that President

34
00:02:07.079 --> 00:02:10.039
Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for Operation Warp Speed,

35
00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:13.520
a Nobel Peace Prize for vaccines that Kennedy thinks killed

36
00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:17.319
more people than COVID. The cognitive dissonance is so strong,

37
00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:21.240
I'm worried it might be contagious. Meanwhile, over one thousand

38
00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:24.639
current and former Health and Human Services employees have asked

39
00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:29.560
Kennedy to resign, saying he's endangering American lives. That's not

40
00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:32.919
a vote of no confidence, that's a vote of please

41
00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:36.400
stop before someone gets hurt. And here's the cherry on

42
00:02:36.439 --> 00:02:40.840
top of this whole Sunday of chaos. The CDC shooting

43
00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:43.360
last month was allegedly carried out by someone who blamed

44
00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:47.280
his depression on COVID vaccines. Kennedy opened his testimony by

45
00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:49.960
offering condolences to the family of the police officer who

46
00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:53.319
was killed. The irony is so thick you could cut

47
00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:56.840
it with a scalpel, assuming Kennedy believes scalpels are safe

48
00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:00.599
and not part of big medical's conspiracy. The White House

49
00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:04.120
Press Secretary defended Kennedy by saying he's taking flak because

50
00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:07.639
he's over the target. Well, if the target is public

51
00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:11.159
health credibility, then yes, he's definitely over it, way way

52
00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:13.800
over it. He's in a different zip code from it.

53
00:03:14.439 --> 00:03:17.840
The NBA is investigating the Los Angeles Clippers for allegedly

54
00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:20.639
paying Kawhi Leonard twenty eight million dollars through a company

55
00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:25.000
that plants trees, and before you ask, no, Leonard was

56
00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:27.280
not out there with a shovel and a watering can.

57
00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:31.319
This was apparently the world's most expensive no show job

58
00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:34.080
since we elected someone president and all they do is

59
00:03:34.120 --> 00:03:38.840
play golf. Here's how this works. Clippers owner Steve Balmer

60
00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:43.520
funded a company called Aspiration, which does tree planting. Aspiration

61
00:03:43.639 --> 00:03:47.400
then paid Leonard's company KL two Aspire LLC twenty eight

62
00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:50.520
million dollars for what appears to be absolutely nothing. The

63
00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:53.800
contract literally included a clause saying Leonard could decline to

64
00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:57.520
proceed with any action desired by the company. Pablo Torre

65
00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:00.319
broke the story on his show Pablo Torre Finds Out,

66
00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:03.400
which sounds like the most dangerous program on television for

67
00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:08.240
professional sports. Torre couldn't find any evidence that Leonard ever

68
00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:13.879
marketed for or endorsed Aspiration. No commercials, no social media posts,

69
00:04:13.879 --> 00:04:16.839
not even a single tweet about the importance of photosynthesis.

70
00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:20.360
The man was paid twenty eight million dollars and apparently

71
00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:24.240
never mentioned trees. Once the Clippers released a statement calling

72
00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:28.199
the allegations absurd, and saying they welcomed the NBA's investigation.

73
00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:32.519
That's corporate speak for there's nothing in the Epstein files,

74
00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:39.000
so there's no reason to release them. Survivors of Jeffrey

75
00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:42.160
Epstein held a press conference demanding the Trump administration release

76
00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:46.279
all documents related to the late financier and convicted sex offender.

77
00:04:47.079 --> 00:04:49.600
The timing was about as comfortable for the White House

78
00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:53.279
as a root canal during an earthquake. Chaunty Davies, an

79
00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:57.079
Epstein survivor, shared details about the relationship between Epstein and

80
00:04:57.120 --> 00:04:59.720
Trump that paint a picture of two men who were

81
00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:04.879
con considerably closer than distant acquaintances. According to Davies, Epstein

82
00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:07.560
kept an eight x ten framed photograph of himself with

83
00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:10.800
Trump on his desk, which is either touching friendship memorabilia

84
00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:13.800
or the kind of evidence that makes lawyers very expensive.

85
00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:18.199
Davies said Epstein's biggest brag was being very good friends

86
00:05:18.199 --> 00:05:22.319
with Donald Trump. Now, when a convicted sex trafficker's biggest

87
00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:25.480
boast is your friendship, that's not exactly the kind of

88
00:05:25.560 --> 00:05:29.879
endorsement you want on your presidential campaign literature. Meanwhile, Trump

89
00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:33.399
has dismissed the entire matter as a Democrat hoax that

90
00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:37.199
never ends. This is becoming Trump's go to explanation for

91
00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:43.079
uncomfortable situations. Bad weather democrat hoax, traffic jams democrat hoax,

92
00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:46.639
the fact that his former closest friend was a convicted

93
00:05:46.680 --> 00:05:50.079
sex trafficker with a framed photo of them together, You

94
00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:53.680
guessed it, democrat hoax. The whole thing is such a

95
00:05:53.720 --> 00:05:56.000
hoax that Trump's scheduled a F thirty five flyover just

96
00:05:56.040 --> 00:05:59.879
as the victims were speaking. What a weird coincidence. The

97
00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.439
Epstein files could potentially be released with just two more

98
00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:04.920
Republican votes in Congress, which means there are currently enough

99
00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:08.160
GOP members willing to keep these documents sealed. Release the

100
00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:12.439
Epstein files, you cowards. This story isn't going away. Despite

101
00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:15.439
Trump's insistence that it's all a hoax, the survivors aren't

102
00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:18.920
giving up. The documents still exist, and that eight x

103
00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:22.439
ten framed photo is apparently still evidence of a friendship

104
00:06:22.439 --> 00:06:26.800
that Trump would probably prefer everyone forget about. Portions of

105
00:06:26.839 --> 00:06:29.040
today's show were made with the help of Ai