Fellas, how you doing?

How are you?

Was getting in okay or was there cavity searches?

There was a cavity search. Anyway, it was good.

Long enough, actually.

Sean's went back for seconds and they said we don't have anybody come back. It's not thanksgiving. You're clean.

Yeah.

He said, can I come back tomorrow to get cold leftovers?

Welcome to smart less.

Smart less smart less smart less. Guys, take a breath and think about what this is about to be. It's fucking insane, you guys.

Yeah.

Oh, we were all insane.

Do you guys have good questions?

Have a copper.

I have areas.

Wait, wait. Or not. Prep.

I did prep.

I did.

I thought I had a lot of conversations with people.

I've got. I've got 18 questions.

Oh, good.

I'll just. I'll just follow you.

I wanted. I was not joking. What I said, I think it's good that we have questions, but I also want to entertain conversation. And through conversation, questions will come out.

Is that right?

I think so.

Oh, boy.

So how are you guys feeling? Feeling when you woke up today knowing that this is gonna happen?

Are we really recording right now?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Are we really?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, this is a whole radio voice.

We can. We can say where we are cuz.

It'S after the fact. Yeah. Right.

So. So we're here.

No, I'm kidding.

Well, we're here on Central park south.

With a beautiful second story view of the park. If second story is beautiful views. But little rainy treetops is nice. Little rainy, yeah. And we very rarely have more than one guest. Sometimes we've done it.

When have we. When were the times we did it?

We had. When you have bands on a lot.

Of time we have like Billie Eilish and Finn.

Yeah. Radiohead.

Radiohead.

Yeah.

Duran Duran killers. Oh, no, that was just Simon G ran.

You ran the killer the killers mode.

Right. That was great.

And so today we're doing a first time. It's a bit little risky. There's three of them, but it's kind.

Of a band full of rock stars.

Bear with us. Yeah, yeah. They're like the police.

Yeah.

So you'll be familiar with one of them. The other two he wanted to bring along, I guess, his buddies. He gets a little nervous. We've had him on the show before. He wanted to do it again.

They're guys he worked with, I guess.

Yeah.

We don't really do repeat guests, but we made an exception here. And we certainly don't let people bring buddies. But he was insistent and.

Can I just say, I'm excited too. And can I just say, we're sitting here in this hotel room, as we've already said, it's 2024, four years ago, less than four years ago, we started doing this podcast. It was a COVID baby, as we call it.

Came out of the gate with Dax shepherd, came out of the gate with.

Dax Shepard, which was great. I set the bar high with Dax, and then now here we are in.

New York four years later, scraping the bottom of the barrel, and we're looking at. With a dude in a dude.

We got Rob Armyarv, and we got Bennett Barbaco, and we got Mgt, Michael the G, Terry.

Yeah.

And we're all here in New York, and it's fucking wild, guys.

Yeah. We're all.

And I want to say, this is cool.

Yeah.

You gotta stop moments.

You gotta stop and, like, recognize it.

Michael, I just want to say, Michael, how's it for you?

Delightful.

Delightful. That's it.

Delightful. And I'm proud of us. We haven't screwed it up yet.

Bennett, what do you think? It feels. It's amazing. It's weird, right?

Wow. These weird adjectives are incredible.

We've been saying to take a breath. Rob, yell something from over there. How are you feeling? Okay.

That's Rob.

Rob.

We did limit them each to one.

Word, and Rob doesn't even have a microphone, so it's. Thank you for your contributions.

We have been reminding ourselves to be. To be present, though, and take a breath and.

Yeah, pretty cool. Now, I will came up to get a ride with my guy that I sometimes hire for, like, when I do a Broadway.

Who drove when he was doing. You know, Sean did a play on Broadway last year.

No.

Yeah. And it was called go get me Oscar, I think.

Right, right. And it was. Wasn't at the top, wasn't it, with the Tupaco Theater?

Yeah. And so he came. So, will, I said, do you want to ride? Because I think Jason's close, really close to the hotel. So will came straight up. The first thing, I put my pants on, and I walked out to the living room with my shirt, my pants out. I reached in my pocket, and I found money. I found, like, $30.

Great story.

No, but here's the best part. Sean pulls out, he goes. He turns to scotty mean. He goes, look at this. And we go, what? He goes, he's got, like, $31. He goes, look at all this money. And we go, yeah. And I go, so the pants are clean. Obviously, today's a big event for you.

Yeah, exactly. So the dry cleaners just dry cleaners.

I haven't been here for six months, so I just put these pants on, and I was like, oh, I guess I wore them.

And there was just the one. Just the one pair of socks that you stole from a youngster you were babysitting or. I didn't.

I know. You don't know where the skin ends and the sock starts.

You know, it's a fairly high class guest today. You didn't think you'd go with a full length sock? Will doesn't have socks at all on.

I know, but that's the way to go. I know. I should have gone full length.

Shawnee, what do you decide? How do you decide what clothes stay here in your apartment in New York? Like, what's the math that you do on that?

I don't. I just, you know, there's, like, couple t shirts and clearly a couple pants. And, I mean, pants is a stretch.

They're jeans.

No, they're not. They're pants.

Sorry. They're stretch jeans. No, no, no. They're stretched.

They look like jeans. They're dress pants.

They're a brushed cotton jegging.

Yes. Thank you.

But they're in a five pant. But they're in a five pant cut.

Well, Jason's in corduroys and a. Yeah, but Jason.

I mean, Jason looks like he's doing a whole different.

But I'm also living here, and I don't have, you know, president of the United States clothes with me.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, you look good.

I said before, you look very rugged and sexy.

Thank you very much. I'm playing a guy that's made a lot of bad decisions.

You know what I like about your hair's long enough that when you're wearing the headphones right now, it's keeping the hair back. And you've got kind of like a soccer. Like a european soccer player vibe. Slow.

He's slowly winking.

Slow winks. We could do with it.

And they're half winks, too. They're more lid squeezes.

That's so gross.

So you guys have. Do you have important questions loaded? Do you have fun questions loaded?

A little bit of both.

A bit of both.

You've got some policy questions, perhaps?

Yeah. Mine obviously have more to do with relations with Canada. Right, sure.

Are we gonna.

Is that one of the borders we're closing? I hope not, you know, because how are we gonna get all our stuff across, eh?

I'm still moving cigarettes.

Fuck. I don't care. I'm muling some of that sticky BC bud through the interior. I'm coming down through Fernie, BC. Hey, my brother found a good path last year.

Let's see what they have to say about that.

Sure.

I want to hear what they're, don't want to get into the micro of policy and stuff like that. I'm sure they'd like us to find a middle ground between drive time radio and some hard hitting meet the press conversation.

Yeah, but I mean, I can't, I don't know how to formulate those questions.

Well, you know, what's interesting is that the three of them obviously are very connected and they're all sort of from the same sort of class of Democrats in that. Right. That they were around. Obama was a rising star. President Biden's been around since the seventies. He was senator, et cetera. Obama came up as this young star in the early two thousands. Nobody will forget his fiery speech of the democratic convention in 2004. How amazing that was. So they're all part of.

Clinton was a governor and.

Yeah, Clint was a governor and then he was a superstar back to back. Yes, Arkansas. Good, Sean. But back to back governor, president, United States. So they're all, they all, I think, have very, they're similar. My point is they're similarly minded when it comes to sort of policy.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Et cetera. And, well, it's cool that they all are, like, together.

I don't know that. I don't know if they've ever seen that or like, witnessed that.

I mean, I don't even see George W. And his dad together.

But didn't the three of them get together for the last election a bit? Didn't they sort of.

You're thinking of the three tenors, I.

Think these are not.

By the way, we have to do them. We don't do the three tenors right after this. We should quit.

We should just start. Let's start the interview. Mistaking them for the three tenors. So when do you guys, have you been in rehearsals? Because the radio City show tonight should be getting acoustic.

We're so excited for the second.

What's your warm up like?

Will there be solos or you guys just sing together?

Slimmer than I remember. Opera singers.

And your accents are fantastic.

Really tremendous. Exactly. Well, guys, I'm honored to be here, not just with them, I'm honored to be here with you guys this occasion, not just in the podcast, but in life.

Tell me your name.

And I'm saying it will.

It still will.

And I'm really psyched that I get to be here with you guys during this.

Likewise. It's not lost on me not to pat ourselves on the back, but just say briefly, very proud of us that we haven't screwed this up yet and that Mister Biden called us again and wanted to do this again, wanted to bring his friend like, just so, so flattered and humbled and. Yeah, that's, it's crazy.

Ditto to all of it. Here we go.

It's a, it's an all, it's an.

All new super presidential smart less.

All right, I'm over there, right?

We're just gonna come in. Yes, sir. The microphones too? Yeah. Thank you.

So headphones on? Yeah.

So, yeah, you can grab those headphones right there, please. Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Mister Clinton, have you, have you done any time, Mister Clinton, in Lake of the Ozarks?

Oh, yeah, right.

Because that was just, that's in your neck of the old woods there.

Yeah, I spent a lot of time. I've been to every number two, please. Voting precincts and the northern Arkansas Ozarks. And I have, I had one of the presidents of Walmart.

Sure.

Came from a little town in the Ozarks near the lake of the Ozarks. And I went up. They had a day for him. I don't want up there once I can hear fine.

Okay.

So I've moved around.

All good.

But was that. Whatever a vacation spot for you?

No, I didn't take any vacations up there. I was working up there.

But that's a big spot for folks in that part of the country.

Oh, yeah, it's really, it's breathtakingly beautiful.

Yeah. Yeah, that lake gets a lot of.

I mean, judging by your show, Jason seems like a pretty dangerous part of the world, too.

Well, we didn't, we didn't really spend.

A lot of time in there.

Yeah, we didn't spend a lot of time with it. With the nice part. Not much of a show in there.

My family vacationed there once when I was a kid and everybody got drunk.

What a surprise.

I still remember when it was all illegal. We had a sheriff from up there that had a jail where the cells were all below level.

Below the water level.

No, below ground level. So he was. They were all pot farms.

Uh huh.

When it was all still illegal, he made a hell of a lot of money doing it.

That's crazy.

Is it legal in Missouri and Arkansas yet?

Are you planning a trip?

Sort of, but when it.

But I basically scout out every state.

It's like we're looking for a.

Can I go here? Is this okay?

Well, it's a sequel.

You know, we've done the old we're going to Missouri.

More fun when it was illegal.

Uh huh. Yeah, exactly. Well, I love doing it.

Here we go.

You should have had me writing some of your scripts for you.

How could I help you?

I want to start by, you know, first of all, this is huge for us. And what a massive honor to be sitting with the three of you looking at us. It's so bizarre.

We're all wondering how we ended up.

We've got questions for your staff, and.

Your questions are only going to grow as to why you did it the further we get into it. We were saying earlier, four years ago, we started this podcast during COVID as a way to kind of connect with each other, and we ended up connecting with a lot of people out there. And for us, it's a real thrill to be here.

Did you ever get Trump?

We couldn't make his deal.

No. We're letting other people get him. Well done.

Well done.

Thank you very Bravo. Bravo.

But it is momentous for us, and especially during this time that we're in right now, to have your time. So we thank you for your time.

Yeah, yeah. This is huge. How do you all know each other? I'm kidding. That was my opening.

But it is.

I've worked for both of them a long time.

Yeah, I know. I know.

It's not the first time that you three have combined forces to really kind of do what we all need you guys to do, which is keep you in office. But does it strike you as, like, how is it even necessary to have half a president campaigning against the other guy? It is shocking to me that it takes the amount of effort to be competitive against someone who just, in my opinion, is just running for the wrong thing.

Well, lots changed. A lot has changed in how you communicate. Lots changed in information and so much disinformation out there. You know, it's really, and it's hard to communicate even today when you do accomplish some improbable things.

But he, well, and I'll say to mister president, not to cut you off, but you have accomplished a lot of incredible things, and all three of you did, in your presidencies, did amazing things. President Clinton, you left this country with a surplus, which was the first time it had been done in a number of years. President Obama, you passed the Affordable Care act, really started to tackle social issues. President Biden, you know, you look at the job, your jobs numbers, you look at the way you're battling inflation, which is not been easy. And you've done it with a lot of headwind, and you've had a lot of people, a lot of voices. And we live in a time where there are a lot of voices. And my question is, considering the amazing work that all three of you have done and especially what you're doing right now, President Biden, it's so difficult. The messaging is getting, is so tough to get the message out there because there is so much noise. What can we, what can you do?

Just keep talking about it. You have to connect with people as to how they're being affected, why it's happening. And, you know, one of the things that really startles me is I'm optimistic. I'm genuinely optimistic.

Oh, my.

And starting to break through. There's so much. We have opportunities to get done in ways that these guys set up and we're now going to be able to close down. For example, you know, when we got elected, we were told we couldn't get anything done. We couldn't get anything passed. Well, we got a, you know, a little thing called a billion, $300 million to, you know, rebuild our roads, highways, Internet. We got the chips. And I've traveled around the world and said, why don't you come and invest in the United States of America? We got $650 billion invested offline and on the Chips act. We got about 56, $70 billion. And they're employing people and it's just start, it takes a while for it to kick in, though.

But it seems like they're only watching certain things, reading certain things. Everybody's so siloed in the way in which they receive information. Could it be as simple as you, you've got very smart people to suggest what it is that you do. But, like, could it be as simple as, just like, granting an hour to Sean Hannity and sit down and go, you tell me why the people who follow you think I'm not a good president and just, just answer his questions, call his bluff. I mean, because the information, the facts are all there. It's particularly for that group of people, what you do is so much better suited than what the other agenda is talking about. So is it just a matter of just getting on that network? I don't get it.

First of all, you guys are exactly right. Joe's got an unbelievable record of accomplishment.

Stunning.

If you had told me that the unemployment rate after COVID was going to be back down to 4% or lower.

Yeah. Lowest in 50 years, isn't it?

Absolutely. And if you had told me that 15 million jobs would have been created, that wages are higher now than they were pre pandemic.

Yeah. And the most jobs created in history.

Correct?

Correct.

In this four year period.

Yes.

That's unbelievable.

In this four year period, you've got african american unemployment. Right. Which is always higher than the general population, the lowest it's been since record keeping on the issue was taken. So Joe's got a strong message to tell Jason, you're right, the media environment's changed. During Bill's presidency, during my presidency, you already had Fox and Rush Limbaugh and so forth, but it was still going through basic broadcast tv, and the average person was still kind of getting a mix, some dissenting views. Part of what happened is that whole ecosystem moved onto social media. And once it's on social media and it's on an algorithm, and everybody's just getting their news selected essentially to suit their biases, penetrating that is real tough. It is very hard.

What do you say to the people who say on the other side the same thing?

Well, you know, I would argue that actually they've got some legitimate points in the sense that there's a side that doesn't recognize conservative thought or isn't respectful to some traditional values that they care about and so forth. The difference, though, is, and Jason touched on it, there's a difference between facts and opinions. And the one thing that our side still pretty much sticks to is the facts. You may not agree with whatever's in the New York Times or whatever's on MSNBC, but generally they're not going to just make stuff up.

Correct.

And look, I was in office in 2016, and I would have loved to pretend that the election outcome wasn't what it was. That was painful. Right. But we said, well, here are the facts. And there's a system of government that transcends, that is more important than whoever wins this particular election. We're going to abide by those facts and stick with democracy.

Right, right, right.

And that is a shift that's, that's taking place now. Last point I'd make, though. Cause you asked, you know, Jason was asking, what do we do? I think Joe's point is right. And that is you just keep on showing up and delivering the message wherever you can, however you can. And if you talk to folks enough, all of us, Bill, Joe, myself, all have the experience of going to places where we may not be the most popular person. People may have some preconceived notions about Barack Hussein Obama. Right. You know, but if you show up and you make a human connection with people and you talk to them, right?

We'll be right back. This show is sponsored by better help. So I just got back from the east coast where I'm fortunate enough to have some very good friends that live there, but also good friends that live here on the west coast as well. So, you know, talk about social battery, right? Your social battery can get drained so easily because you want to see all the people that you love and all the people that are important to you. But you do have to kind of schedule time for yourself. So the balance of like the desire to see your friends and the guilt of not seeing them, but also needing your rest to reset yourself from the trip. Right? It can be so easy to ignore our social battery and spread ourselves thin, especially with social gatherings picking up after the winter. What's the right amount of socializing for you and how do you recharge? Maybe you thrive around people, or maybe you need some more alone time. Therapy can give you the self awareness to build a social life that doesn't drain your battery. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try.

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It makes your job harder, does it not? Or I'm asking you, when you wake up in the morning and you have people who say that they're opposed to what you do or what you believe or whatever, and yet you still have to govern and serve them no matter what, and it seems right, and the other guy, he has no problem throwing anybody who's not with him under the bus.

Look, when I got elected, when I got elected, I said, I can be president for everyone. We have put more money into red states than blue states.

Yes.

Not a joke across the board, across the board. There's more money total invested in the red states than the blue states because I'm going to be president for everyone.

Do they know that?

Well, I think it's beginning, but whether they did or not, I have an obligation, it seems to me, to take care of the country.

That's the job.

But it's beginning to sink in a little bit. And, you know, you have, like, for example, do you ever think you'd see, these guys are great speakers, they're great presidents. Did you ever think you'd see a state of the union like the two I've had?

No. No.

Yeah.

Frankly, a little. A little shameful. As a new America, as the newest american here.

Yeah.

Because I'm canadian rich.

Yeah, I remember that.

Yeah.

You know, canadian. Well, like, I got a canadian brother in law. Canadians are interesting. Cause they sneak up on you. You remember that movie invasion of the body Snatchers? Like, they look like us, but you don't really know.

Wait, I saw you at the Raptors game back in the.

Yeah, actually, I love me some canadian.

I'm always looking behind me when will and I are walking, just like certain other Canadians.

Is there? There is. And I don't mean to sound cynical with this, but there is a bit of a show element that the other guy seems to really relish in. He loves being and saying things that really attract some views, some clicks. Like, he's a fun show to watch.

I'm sure, with the nicknames.

Now, I know you three are uniquely qualified in keeping things classy and elevated and keeping respect around the office and the job, etcetera, but is there ever a thought of how one might be able to tack slightly towards the show to sort of combat that a little bit? And you're starting to do it just a little bit. President Biden. And I think it's really like people are loving. You're sort of giving it to him a little bit. Now, I know that's not, you know, some sort of contrived calculation you're making, but is there. Yeah, exactly. But is there any thought to, like, it's time to kind of pull the gloves off a little bit and if they want a show, we'll give it to them?

Well, I'm not so sure about the show, but I think if they want.

The truth, we'll give it to them. Yeah.

Amen.

And just go straight at them. Look, you know, like I said at the gridiron dinner, you know, this guy came up to me, asked me if he could borrow some money, and I, you know, I told him, donald, I can't help you, but all kidnapped. We can make jokes about it, but the end result is, look, we all know every major world leader, and I've, I think one of the reasons Barack asked me to be vice president, I had some foreign policy experience, and I've known these folks for a long time. I go to all these conferences that we all know, and Bill just came back from one on his own. A great help to us in the Caribbean. And, you know, almost every single time, not a joke, guys, whether it's the g seven, the g 20, all these heads of state, they'll wait till they can get me a loan and grab my arm and say, you've got to win because my democracy is at stake, their democracy.

Since I'm not directly involved, I'll give you an example that I just had. Not very long ago. I went to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to celebrate the anniversary of the decision to expand NATO and include the Czech Republic and Hungary and Poland. And they know what it's like to live without democracy. They know what it's like not to be free. They are adamantly in favor of President Biden's support for Ukraine. And they think we did the right thing to expand NATO. And they know it's Russia's fault, not ours, what's happened in Ukraine. So it was amazing. All of them came up to me and said, please tell me you're not going to put us through all this again.

Yeah.

Please tell me America is not going to run away from the world again. We need you. And in Poland, which is a very conservative country, culturally, religiously, they just voted overwhelmingly to throw out the old party because they thought they were too close to the Russians and put in the government that you dealt with when Hillary was secretary of state because they support a free Ukraine. And I just showed up, man. I didn't go there to do they like me because I was with them in the beginning. But they are worried about tomorrow.

I think Bill's points and Joe's point is important. You know, look, we all know America's not always lived up to its ideals. We got our warts, we got issues, but we do set the tone around the world. And part of what happened before Joe got elected, during that four year period, folks around the world started feeling as if the ideals of human rights, freedom, democracy, that nobody was looking after, that nobody was promoting, that nobody was minding it. And people like Putin became emboldened. And you saw the chinese and even countries that were democracies start backsliding. Because they do still look to America as an example of what they hope a multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious, big country can look like, that maybe people can still get along and act decently towards each other, even if they don't all look the same and don't all talk the same and all come from the same place. That's what makes America exceptional. And if you start getting into a situation in which we don't believe our own declaration independence, if we're not acting, you know, on behalf of the things that we say we stand for, that has ripple effects all around the globe.

And these guys are exactly right. I just came back from Europe and every meeting I had, the only thing people were concerned about was what's going to happen in this next election, because they understand what the stakes are.

I'm sorry. Just on that point, President Obama, were you surprised during those five years of the last administration, how quickly that protection and passion for democracy was diluted, how prime the country was to just sort of dissolve and get lazy with it and let it go?

You know, I will say, and Bill saw this begin to happen during his presidency. It then accelerated during my presidency. I have been surprised that there haven't been guardrails inside the Republican Party. Trump didn't surprise me. No, I meant to a conclusion. No, I mean, you watch Trump's campaign, you watch his career. If you know anybody who's a huck, I mean, he comes from New York. There's nobody in New York who does business with him or lend him money. He's not considered a serious guy here. But, so I was surprised he was elected, but I wasn't surprised in terms of his behavior. I did expect, and I suspect Bill and Joe, you'd agree with this, that there would be some folks in the Republican Party who would say, no, you can't go that far. You can't start praising Putin and saying that his intelligence is better than the US intelligence agencies.

Were you surprised that there were 60 some million people that bought it and voted for him and then did it again?

Well, you know, I think that we can't discount the fact that the world's changing quick. And when the world changes quick, people get scared and they get confused. And we had a historic recession in 2008, 2009 where the financial system almost collapses. We end up having, we'd obviously already gone through 911. You got globalization. You have suddenly people feeling as if they're losing manufacturing jobs. Some of the towns that, in Illinois where I was representing, Arkansas where Bill was working, you see people starting to feel like they're losing status. Suddenly you've got the Internet and social media and people are being flooded with all kinds of stuff and they don't know how to sort it all out. And when people get scared and concerned, then the appeal of somebody who says, I'm going to make it like it used to be, where you don't have to worry about it, you know, men are men and women know their place. And that message can sometimes have some appeal.

Look again. I love this country. I am. I am.

So you better.

It is the best country in the world.

You've only been to two countries. But, but it should.

He watches CNN International.

That's true, because you don't. I agree with that. And by the way, it's, it's a phenomenal country when it's at its best.

Look, the rest of the world looks to us not how you, no matter what you say, no matter how you characterize it.

Yes.

There's not a single country in the world that does not think we're the single most consequential country in the world. Not a single one.

Including our enemies.

Including our enemies. I mean, across the board, if there's.

A problem around the world, you know, if there's a natural disaster, if there is a crisis, nobody's calling Moscow or Beijing expecting them to help. Everybody's looking at Washington.

But beyond that, here's the deal. Look, if you think about it, when Trump got elected, he said he's going to go America first, to America alone. Look who he talks about his best friends being. Kim Jong un, North Korea. I'm serious.

Jack Nicklaus. Hey, listen, he won two golf championships last week, the regular championship.

I told him when he won, I told him. He came into the upstairs oval and we bumped into each other. He said something about playing golf. I said, look, I'll give you two strokes if you carry your own bag.

Hey, do you know President Biden? Did you know that Kim Jong un, he had 18 holes in one once? Yeah. So we're not far off that with this guy.

I'm looking forward to your guys merch coming out. Go ahead.

Do you guys have an apparatus, a mechanism whereby you can contact one another like this without anybody connecting?

Like a bat phone?

Well, do you guys call? Yeah, it's called a smartphone. Do you have one of these?

But can you, can you do that? Great. Okay.

You guys text each other?

Yeah. I mean, like emojis.

I don't text much, but we pick up the phone and talk to each other.

I love that with no one else listening and no one else connecting the call.

Well, we don't. We can't be sure of that.

We're not positive.

But does President Obama, like, he. Hang on. I'm gonna add President Clinton.

I'm gonna merge calls.

That's a little too advanced, right?

Okay.

You might need a 25 year old aide to help on the merger thing. I love somebody else.

I mean, one plus one plus one makes ten with you guys. So I just.

I wanna know, like, do you all miss something specific about the holding office? Obviously. Except for you. Cause you're in office. But do you guys miss something?

I miss not having office.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Go ahead.

Look, everybody talks about Air Force one.

Yeah, sure.

Marine one. It's pretty convenient, I won't lie. But I'll tell you the thing I miss the most is. You remember those music concerts? I used to do it. You can basically invite anybody, and you have this concert. And, I mean, we got, you know, Stevie Wonder.

Yeah, yeah.

Paul McCartney.

Everybody will show up.

They'll show up.

They'll still take.

And they've got. They do these rehearsals the night before a lot of times. And you can kind of sneak down and you could just sit there and watch Mick Jagger practicing with BB king or something on a blues night. I do miss that.

That's so good. I miss the fact they don't play a song when you walk in a room anymore.

Sure.

We've done that.

I was lost for three weeks after I left office. But let me tell you something serious. This is one reason that I so badly want President Biden to be reelected. What I really miss is the job not doing it. I'm glad. I believe in the two term limit strongly.

Yeah.

But what I learned was, on the worst day, when nothing was going right and problems are everywhere, there was still something you could do that would make somebody's life better.

I love that.

There is no job like that on earth.

I love that.

And I want somebody who appreciates that I trust to make the most of that every day. Because there'll be bad days no matter who gets elected. But he'll get up and he'll start thinking about that. And I think his opponent will be thinking about himself. Who I can get even with, you know, who I can send away, who I can manage his judgment. Joe Biden will make the best of the bad days.

And the team that you have assembled. And your comfort with deferment, I don't know. For me personally, I love leaders that have the confidence to hire those that they respect that might make them a little nervous.

And also not to think that you're the, that you're the smartest guy that you're going to have every, you know, we've had people like, we had leaders like that in the, in the middle part of the last century who were put into government by presidents of old. And they, and they made a lot of decisions that they thought that they were right about and they were, they were terrible people. And when you let somebody, when that happens, when you think that you've got all the answers, is the moment you don't.

Like Ron Klain, you know, bringing us out of COVID like, it's just and on and on and on the way in which that you surround yourself with the best this has to offer.

I made a commitment. I have an administration that looked like America. I have more women in my cabinet. I have more, I've appointed more black circuit court judges than every other president combined in american history. I've kept my commitment about putting a black woman on the Supreme Court. I've had an opportunity to go out and get the best people. And by the way, I sometimes pick the phone and ask these guys who they think are the best people. And I'm looking for people that, that most of all, though, not just are good, but care about what they're doing.

Whereas the other guy is only hiring people that won't talk back, you know, and that's like, mind talk back. Yeah. Love it.

What are those things that you look back on? Because the other guy is, as we know, no capacity for this. And President Obama, I'll start with you. What are the things that you think about that keep you there? Are there things that you look back and you go, geez, I wish. I wish that had worked out a little bit better. Not necessarily regrets, but things that you.

Would wish handing off the baton in 2016? Definitely. But I think Bill's point is the right one, which is when you're sitting in that office, you are essentially a relay runner. You've taken a bunch of problems from the previous president and you're working through them as best you can. You're running the best race you can, and then you hand it off during that time where you've got the baton in your hand and you're running. If you are focused on every day, can I make things a little bit better? Because you're not going to make them perfect. There are too many problems. They're too hard. If you make them a little better, then a lot of people are helped so the Affordable Care act wasn't perfect. We didn't get everybody health insurance, but.

We got a big deal.

Tens of millions of people.

Yeah, really big.

We got tens of millions of people.

You can say the real big fucking deal.

We got tens of millions people health insurance. And my successor tried to kill it. Didn't succeed because it was starting to actually work. You get it passed on to Joe, and what does he do? He then takes what's already in place and builds on it, you know, expands the subsidies so that more people can start getting on it, expands Medicaid so that more people can get on it. And so with all the changes he made, you know, healthcare in America is still not perfect. There's still folks who are, you know, having a tough time. But what has happened is that even more people have gotten coverage. And now Joe caps insulin at $35, which means it's people who've got diabetes and really desperately need help. They're not getting price gouged. And he's negotiating with big pharma to make sure that drug prices are affordable the way they are in Canada.

Thank you.

I'll take care of it for that. And so what you get are these incremental steps you're never sat. To answer your question, will, you're never satisfied when you leave because there's always going to be a bunch of stuff that's undone. I couldn't have done the Affordable Care act if Bill hadn't made the efforts he did around the children's health insurance program. And Joe then builds on us, and that's what you're hoping for each and every time. And let me say this, the last point I'll make. It's not always just democrats. George Bush and I had a huge number of differences, but he set up this program called PEPFAR that provided drugs and support and help for people in sub saharan Africa and around the world who had HIV during, in the midst of the HIV AIDS epidemic. And because of his program, millions of lives, tens of millions of lives were saved.

That's a fact.

And we then built on that program. So it doesn't just have to be a partisan thing. Part of what you want, though, is somebody with Joe's decency and basic focus on the american people and who have a sense of responsibility to say, all right, I've inherited some stuff. Some of it's good. Some of it are problems. What more can I do? And that's the attitude Joe has.

We'll be right back.

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And now back to the show.

So then, what are the issues coming up that people are focusing on that you believe are the wrong things or they may be the right things? And what should they be focusing on?

I think they should be focusing on a couple things. Number one, we're going to, in the second term, God willing, we're going to make sure that we do something about gun violence in this country.

Yes.

The idea that we allow assault weapons to be sold in magazines with 100 rounds is just bizarre.

Yeah.

Well, President Biden, I'm so glad to hear you say that, because that was going to be my other question, which is the Democrats never said, we want to take your guns away.

Absolutely not.

You never said that. No.

By the way, we got to be.

Smart about what's going on.

You just don't need to kill a deer with an ER 15.

The second amendment, which I, when I taught law school, the second Amendment was an absolute.

Ever.

You weren't able to have a cannon when you were, you know, decided the liberty is border with the blood of patriots. I mean, that's a bunch of crap.

Well, it kind of brings us back to president. We have a listener question that he already knows about, that if you want to read it to him, it's a listener calling question. Uh oh.

Okay.

This is unusual, but I think I.

Know who it's from caller here, Mister president. I'm assuming he's talking about Mister President Biden here. You have done so much for this country. In the past three short years. You've been the architect of an incredible bipartisan infrastructure deal. Under your leadership, America has been running a white hot economy. Inflation has been plummeting, and unemployment remains at an all time historic low. But like so many Americans, I dread the possibility of having to listen to the grating voice of a narcissist man child on our airwaves for God knows how many more years. He's a bully that can barely manage his own personal, his personal own life. I have a feeling this is about me. Has the strangest tan. No, that's will, and he takes golf way more seriously than any adult man should. So, Mister President, my question is, now that you're sitting directly across from Will Arnett, is there any, is there nothing you or Congress can do to get him to shut his big fat mouth? I'll take my question, my answer off the air. That's Justin T. From New York City.

Justin Theroux, Justin Thoreau, sleeveless.

We don't know if it's Thoreau.

There are certain powers that are beyond the presidency, and that's well beyond my presidential power.

I asked you, President Ben, last time if you'd make me golf czar, and you never answered me.

I had to call Trump. Well, he wasn't sure.

I want to know.

Like, I just wanted to say we're kind of back where we started, which was the whole idea of the messaging and what's good for people and we're all so hung up on. Are you Democrat? Are you blue or red?

Yeah, but that's what a campaigns are for.

Look. That's right.

The average voter wants to do the right thing. But how much bandwidth they have for politics? I mean, they got to pay the bills. They got to take care of the kids health care. They got to make sure your school business is all right. If you have children who are school age. I mean, there's just so many things they have to do. That's our job. That's partly why we're here. That's why you're doing a public service by asking us questions and letting that. That's what campaigns are for. It seems like what you have to use them for.

It seems like they're sort of making it sort of this binary choice between social issues or pocketbook issues. And if you're going to go for the social issues, then you're going to take a hit on the pocket. If you're going to vote for pocketbook issues, you're going to lose all the socialists like.

But that's not. But here's the truth. The truth is almost all the rational position on social issues and on those issues that are like unions, for example, they all, in fact grow the economy. If you do the right thing, they grow the economy.

The economy grew under bill, it grew under Joe, it grew under me. And the reason it grows is when everybody's got a stake, when everybody's making money, morale, when, when people are getting paid decent wages, they have decent benefits, they feel better, they go shopping. Yeah, they might even listen to this podcast and they gotta be pretty bored. But the point is that american economic history shows whenever prosperity is broadly based, and all of us ran campaigns with this basic premise that if you give everybody a fair shot, everybody does better.

So this whole idea that we gotta somehow make it great again is a fallacy. It's such a joke.

You gotta fill in.

Cause we've never been in better. And leaves me my next question. Die hard. Is it a Christmas movie? I'm kidding.

If there, President Biden, if you could resurrect one person from the past to come hang out in the Oval Office, you update them on the current state of things, what's their advice? Who would you bring in to give you some perspective on.

It'd be hard choice for me between Lincoln because we are such a divided nation and how he dealt with it, and possibly, possibly Roosevelt. But look, I think the country is in much better shape than we're talking about it. I don't mean financial. It is when we have the best economy in the world, the strongest one in the world, period. Everyone know all how China is going to eat our lunch. Notice who China is coming to talk to all the time now, right? They want the idea that Russia was going. I want to tell you a quote. I got a call from Doctor Kissinger before he died, about ten days before he died. And he asked me to give him a call. And I called and he said the following thing. He said, you know, he said, not since Napoleon has Europe not looked over and shouldered at Russia with dread. And then you guys came along, you strengthened NATO, you expanded it. And that's changed. You've changed it all. Well, this guy's changed it all. But he doesn't care. He doesn't care. And that's what the rest of the world looks at and says, do you have any interest in our concern?

And can you imagine us being able to avoid a european war. Can you imagine us? Why the hell we set up NATO in the first place? Can you imagine what we're. I mean, there's, it's just. He has no sense of anything.

He doesn't believe in anything. We know that. Right. There's no.

Well, he believes in one thing. He believes in selling what he going to benefit him personally.

Right.

Well, and selling by. I do think that there's one other thing you were talking about, Jason. Social issues versus economic issues. And why is it that sometimes things look good but people don't feel good all the time? Part of it is, as I said before, things are changing. Folks are nervous. But underneath all the polarization that people are getting through TikTok and social media and cable news, Bill's point about the average person just wanted to do the right thing. They actually don't want folks arguing all the time. They're really not looking for sort of a death match on every single issue. They'd like to see people treating each other decently, right.

They don't want to go to Walmart and argue with their neighbor about whether.

They'Re a terrorist or if you're in a little league, right, and you're sitting at your kid's soccer game and you got the parent next to you, you want to talk about kids and soccer. And I do think that underneath all this demonization and anger that people make money off of, and that gets a lot of clicks, people do want to see some decency and common sense. And I think Joe represents that and his administration represents that. And if we can break through, all of us doing the work of a campaign just to remind folks of what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature, then I think we're going to be okay. And, you know, but the challenge we've got is anger and resentment and calling people names gets more attention. And we do have to, one thing we do have to. I'm not sure, Jason, that in order to do the show, the performance you talked about, that it has to be pugilistic, that it has to be hitting the other guy in the nose. It does have to be entertaining. You know, I mean, you do have to be able to, you know, Bill, Joe, me, when I'm doing, it's about telling stories that people can relate to because people can't relate to facts and numbers and figures as much as they can relate to stories and personal experience.

And personal experience. That's what people relate to. And that performing by telling people stories, reminding them who they are, what family means to them, what it means to struggle and overcome. Joe what he had to overcome in terms of getting where he was. Bill, a master storyteller talking about what it was like growing up single mom, Arkansas, those are the things that really, I think, resonate with people. And if we can get more of that instead of the kind of name calling that we're seeing out here, I think we'll do okay.

That's why you let people know you understand what their concerns are. Look, I mean, think about it. Everybody's gone through some tough times, but one of the ones they want, my dad used to have an expression, swear to God, he said, joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity, it's about respect. It's being able to look your kid in the eye and say everything's going to be okay and there's a shot of it. That's what the three of us have tried to do. We've tried to. We're not. If you. Look, if you want to be, if you can earn a billion bucks and you do it legally, great, I'm a capitalist. Fine, just start paying your damn taxes. You know what a billionaires pay in tax by the way? We have just one example, the extreme. We have 1000 billionaires in America right now. If they paid at 25% instead of 8.2%, what they pay now, just 25%. Raise $400 million over the next billion dollars. Over the next ten years. We could take care of childcare which increases productivity. We could take care of elder care.

Screw 25, why don't they pay 40?

I mean, look, here's the deal.

When everyone else is paying, now who's canadian?

Yeah, no, no, but I'm just making the point that you don't have to be extreme in anything to get this done.

Don't forget that Trump's dad once said, get that family out of 14 g. Hey, listen, listen, if this comes out and it's helpful at all, is there a chance that the three of us could be on a bill of your designation, President Biden? Maybe a special dollar 250 bill or something? With our dumb faces, I think it should be. Think about it. Don't give us an answer. We'll see you at the inauguration.

$3 bill.

$3 bill.

Thank you.

Well, I've been called as queer as.

A $3 bill, but anyway, honestly, listen, we've taken up way too much of your time. You gentlemen are very, very busy. We thank you.

Really, really thank you.

Thanks guys.

Thanks for doing really important. Thank you guys. Had a great time.

Thank you.

Have fun tonight. All right, guys.

Wow.

Oh, boy.

That was cool.

That was.

That happened right there. I'm very proud of us for keeping. Keeping. Keeping it together. Keeping it. How are you feeling?

How are you guys feeling about. That's crazy, right?

Yeah, I feel very. I feel like I'm in good hands right when I'm around those guys.

Absolutely.

Boy.

Anyway, that was a real privilege for the three of us. I hope our listeners enjoyed that as much as we did. Irrespective of your political affiliation, being able, three knuckleheads like us sitting across from three leaders of the free world is nothing the three of us ever expected we'd be able to do. So thank you, guys. Listen, enabling that.

Yep.

How about the secret service people on the way in and on the way.

Sean was disappointed because he had heard. He was under the impression that we were going to have a visit to the secret circus, and he thought that that was the thing. He thought that there was a secret. Yeah.

And so he thought I bought peanuts. I got.

And he said he wanted to see bears riding bicycles.

I'm like, I could see that at home for free. Wait, so let me ask you guys. Were you. Were you nervous? Because at the beginning of it, I remember saying I thought I'd be more nervous, but because they're so relaxed and I feel like, you know, they just speak so freely. You feel like you connect. You connect with them that I. The nerves went away a little.

They're very good at disarming the folks that are sitting across from them.

They were very chillaxed. I found them to be very chillaxed, and that's how I would describe.

But then when I wasn't talking, I was nervous, and I was listening to you guys, I was like, I gotta.

Say, I felt pretty chillaxed. Like I. And I know. You know what I mean?

Say it one more time. I'm gonna hang up.

Okay.

I'm gonna shut this computer.

I want it back. I want it back in the.

By the way, I think it was you that explained to me what the Netflix and chill phrase is. I never knew what the hell that meant. It annoyed me quite a bit. But then, was it you that told me it's code for having sex? Is that right?

Well, I don't know if I want.

To get into more, like the fact that you're a dad or that we're back in 2017. I don't know which one I want to hit first.

By the way, have you guys heard this band, Public Enemy?

Fuck me, man. You're killing me. You're a group. You are killing me. I do want to say with the presidents, it was incredible. You know, and I mentioned this, too, which was that the one thing that you can't deny no matter where you are on the, on the sort of political spectrum, if you will, is that under President Biden, the jobs numbers have been incredible. And I think that he has earned the moniker.

Yeah.

Joe Jobs.

Joe Jobs.

He is Joe to me. He's Joe Jobs.

That is great.

That's great.

Joe Jobs. Yeah.

Joey Jobenstein.

Whatever you want.

Jobs is great. I love that, Joey.

Well, because what, unemployment is at a 50 year low, right? I think we covered the economy is.

At an all time high.

It really is.

Meaning inflation is going to work itself out. But that's not his fault at all. That was something that pre, the COVID and the whole all that's other stuff I'm not smart enough to describe.

But no, and we never went into that recession that they thought would happen and that a lot of that was due to, due to supply chain stuff, issues, et cetera, et cetera. So we're definitely back on. But the one thing that you can't argue with is the jobs like jobs, irrefutable. Right.

So again, I don't care where you fall.

I'm not saying he's better than your guy or your guy, whatever. I mean, he is. But what I'm saying is whether you're.

Republican or Democrat, you need a job. And he's, he's the guy that's bringing it.

Yeah, he's Joe jobs.

So you have, so you have Obama and Clinton. And then we used this one before.

But go ahead, Sean.

Bye.

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