Primary Topic
This episode delves into the conviction of Hunter Biden on three federal gun charges and explores its implications for the presidential race.
Episode Summary
Main Takeaways
- Hunter Biden was convicted on charges that are rarely prosecuted, raising questions about selective justice.
- The episode explored the legal specifics and the defense's challenge in disputing Hunter Biden's drug use during the firearm purchase.
- Political implications are significant, as the case might influence public perception and the upcoming presidential election.
- Juror comments revealed mixed feelings about the necessity and fairness of the prosecution.
- The episode touches on broader issues of justice and accountability in high-profile cases.
Episode Chapters
1: Introduction
Host Brad Milkey introduces the topic of Hunter Biden’s conviction and its implications. Brad Milkey: "It's Wednesday, June 12, and the president's son is a convicted felon."
2: Legal Analysis
Dan Abrams discusses the legal aspects of the case and the challenges faced by the defense. Dan Abrams: "The evidence seemed pretty overwhelming."
3: Juror Perspectives
Insights from jurors reveal their conflicted feelings about the case’s merit and their duty to adhere to the law. Unidentified Juror: "I feel bad for him. I don't think we should have wasted our time or money on this."
4: Political Impact
Analysis of how Hunter Biden’s conviction might affect the presidential race. G. Elliott Morris: "Joe Biden, incumbent president, has a slight advantage with a 553 in 100 chance."
Actionable Advice
- Stay informed about the legal system and its impact on politics.
- Understand the influence of media coverage on public perception.
- Recognize the role of juror responsibility and legal adherence in high-profile cases.
- Consider the broader implications of legal actions on political careers.
- Engage in discussions about justice and accountability to foster a more informed electorate.
About This Episode
President Biden’s son Hunter is found guilty on three felony counts. A new forecast from 538 shows a virtual dead heat, despite polling favorable to Donald Trump. And in an ABC News exclusive, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveils a rule that would take medical debt out of credit reports.
People
Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, Dan Abrams
Content Warnings:
None
Transcript
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Brad Milkey
It's Wednesday, June 12, and the president's son is a convicted felon. We start here, Hunter Biden is convicted on three federal gun charges.
Unidentified Speaker
It's unfortunate that he's convicted.
Brad Milkey
Some jurors decided to speak to us as they left the courthouse, and their answers were revealing. So how does this all affect the presidential race?
G. Elliott Morris
Joe Biden, incumbent president, has a slight advantage with a 553 in 100 chance.
Brad Milkey
Our team at 538 has come out with your anticipated forecast model. We'll crunch the numbers. And taking on too much debt can ruin your chances of getting a loan. But what if it's medical debt, that piece of debt?
Lexi Coburn
That isn't a choice? You're held accountable for that.
Brad Milkey
The new rule that could save some financial lives.
From ABC News, this is start here. I'm Brad Milkey.
When Donald Trump was charged with federal and state crimes, some of his most ardent supporters said Democrats, you better watch out now. Cause if our most prestigious figures are charged with crimes, yours can be too. To which some Democrats clapped back and said, good, like go for it. If someone actually broke the law, they should be held responsible. So if there are charges that twelve reasonable jurors agree on, like have at it. Even before that President Bidens son Hunter was under federal investigation, there were questions about his finances, his taxes, his business dealings in other countries. The Bidens dont sell a product or service or a set of skills.
The Bidens sell Joe Biden. Republicans actively tried to connect these cases to his father, though no evidence has ever really emerged that linked them. When prosecutors did eventually take Hunter Biden to trial, saying he lied on a form about drug abuse to buy a gun, there was no connection to the president himself. But to some Americans who had been told by Trump that the entire justice system is rigged, this felt kind of like a stand in case, right? A case that would test whether the american justice system would penalize the family of a democratic president. Well, federal prosecutors seem to have no problem throwing the book at Hunter Biden. And yesterday, jurors delivered a very straightforward guilty verdict. A lot to go over here, so let's bring in ABC's chief legal analyst, Dan Abrams. Dan, first off, what do you make of this case and of this verdict?
Dan Abrams
Well, look, the verdict's not surprising. I think once this case was charged, it was a tough defense.
On the technical question of did he lie on the form?
You know, the evidence seemed pretty overwhelming. The defense had an admirable effort. They made a, a good try at trying to create some doubt about exactly whether he was a drug addict taking drugs at the time. But once the judge's instructions came out, the defense had a real uphill battle. There's a separate question as to whether the case should have been charged at all.
And, you know, those are two very different questions because there has never been another case with this fact pattern, meaning where there was someone who lied on a form, where there was only one gun, the gun was not used in a crime, the person had no criminal record, and there were no other crimes charged in connection with it. I have not been able to find another single case ever where this particular charge or these charges were brought based on this set of facts. That's a different question from, okay, but now that you've brought the charge, is he technically guilty?
Brad Milkey
Well, that's interesting, because our team actually got the chance to speak to jurors as they left, and one of them was like, I feel bad for him. I don't think we should have wasted our time or money on this. And yet, sort of in credit to the jury, that doesn't mean they're incapable of rendering the guilty verdict. Like, there were no politics here, they said, right.
Dan Abrams
I mean, because that's not the jurors job to decide whether the case should have been brought. Right. The jurors are just given very specific instructions of the law to follow, and that does not include, do you think this case should have been brought?
Brad Milkey
It's unfortunate that he's convicted, but him being the son is not what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that he did a bad thing and actions have consequences.
Dan Abrams
I am certain that the defense was hoping that one or two jurors felt so strongly the case shouldn't have been brought that they might vote not guilty or say that, you know, they just simply couldn't convict, and that would be effectively what's called jury nullification. I was wondering whether that would happen in the Trump case. It didn't happen in either case.
Brad Milkey
Right. Kind of similar here, Dan, in that you wonder, like, yes, the juries find both these people guilty, but you wonder if their last names were different, would the charges have been brought in the first place?
Dan Abrams
I think it is fair to say that in my view, neither of these cases, neither the Manhattan hush money case against Donald Trump nor this federal gun case against Hunter Biden would have been brought if their names weren't Trump and Biden.
Brad Milkey
Well, and besides, just kind of the charges and the scope itself, I mean, was there evidence in particular that you thought probably put this over the top for the jury?
Dan Abrams
Well, look, I think that you had a lot of damning text messages from Hunter. You had Hunter's own words in his autobiography. By now, I possessed a new superpower, the ability to find crack in any town at any time, no matter how unfamiliar the terrain. It wasn't just written, either. People have to remember the jurors actually heard Hunter's voice on the audio recording, talking about him being a drug addict.
G. Elliott Morris
If he looked at the evidence and you saw the days leading up to the buy of the weighing of the gun, he was at 711 trying to score.
Dan Abrams
Which is why, as a technical legal matter, this was such a tricky defense.
Brad Milkey
Hey, what could happen to Hunter Biden now? Cause, like, these sentencing maximums are no joke. I think it's like ten years maximum for one count, ten years for another. You start looking at, like 25 years maximum. First of all, do you think he could go to prison?
Dan Abrams
He could. He could. I still think it's unlikely that he will. And, you know, if you read between the lines on what the special counsel was saying yesterday in the press conference after the verdict, no one in this country is above the law.
Everyone must be accountable for their actions, even this defendant. However, Hunter Biden should be no more accountable than any other citizen convicted of this same conduct. He was saying Hunter Biden shouldn't be treated differently. And he sort of added, and that shouldn't include any worse.
And that sort of, to me, was a hint at what's to come. Because remember, this is a case that this prosecutor had decided wasn't even going to get charged.
People forget, as part of this plea deal that fell apart, he was going to plead guilty to the tax charges, and there was going to be what's called a non prosecution agreement on this, meaning we're not even going to charge you. You aren't going to have to plead guilty to anything.
And that's why I think that the prosecutor and the judge both will have serious reservations about putting Hunter Biden behind bars, particularly considering the fact pattern that I laid out a moment ago about gun not used in a crime, single gun, et cetera.
Brad Milkey
And this isn't the end for Hunter Biden. Even right he's got another trial later this year.
Dan Abrams
And that's one that's more politically perilous. That's going to be, in theory, happening a couple months before the election.
And that's the one where you're talking about money, which is where did he get this money? Why didn't he pay the taxes on it, et cetera? And that's where some Republicans are going to try to bring in Joe Biden, unlike on this gun charge, where it's really impossible to loop Joe Biden in in any way, shape or form. So that case is going to be one. I think that more people in the political world in particular are going to be watching. And keep in mind that in that case, if he is convicted, let's assume in this case that he doesn't get prison time, but in that case, he's convicted. Now he's a convicted felon being sentenced in connection with the tax case. And as a result, that previous conviction would be used against him in sentencing.
Brad Milkey
Interesting that these can all sort of pile up on top of each other. All right, Dan Abrams, our chief legal analyst, thank you so much.
Dan Abrams
Sure thing. My pleasure.
Brad Milkey
Next up on start here. This is just one variable in the huge math problem that is the presidential campaign. Our team at 538 has just published their vaunted forecast. So let's get some answers after the break.
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Dan Abrams
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Brad Milkey
Now beyond potential prison time, the immediate question arising out of the hunter Biden decision is how could this affect the president presidential race? And have you ruled out a pardon for your son? Yes. I mean, this is not the same as a candidate himself being convicted of a crime. And Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies.
Dan Abrams
We're gonna be appealing this scam.
Brad Milkey
But in a race that is so, so tight, where Joe Biden is often greeted with an eye roll, even from Trump skeptics, you think even the slightest nudge could make a difference? Well, every four years, our partners at 538 put together a presidential election forecast. This is different from a poll. This is more like a weather forecast. With all these variables, including all the most recent polls, that will help us understand who is favored to win this race. For the first time this year, the renowned data journalist, our new editorial director of data analytics, G. Elliott Morris, was put in charge of developing this model, and he just released it yesterday. Elliot's with us now. Let's get straight to it, Elliott, who is winning this race at the moment?
G. Elliott Morris
Yeah, Brad. Well, according to our election forecast, as released yesterday, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are locked in essentially a dead heat. Our forecast says Joe Biden, incumbent president, has a slight advantage with a 53 in 100 chance of winning the election. But look, betting on a 53% probability is probably a losing game. We only do this once. I would. I would not recommend that it is, from 538 perspective, a tide toss up election at this point.
Brad Milkey
Well, and so whenever we talk about polls, pollsters are quick to say, like, these are not predictive of anything, right? Polls are a snapshot in time. This thing that you guys do is different. Right? Like, this is a forecast of what could or will happen. So, like, how do you guys come up with that number of 53%?
G. Elliott Morris
Yeah. Well, because we know people want polls to be predictive. And like you said, pollsters tell us, hey, these aren't. These aren't predictive. Don't use them that way. We think it's kind of our obligation as smart, politically savvy data journalists to turn those polls into something that can be interpreted as predictive. Not me telling you, hey, who's going to win, but really me telling you, hey, here's how much trust you can put in these polls at this point in the election. Here's how much stock to put into them. So what we do is we gather a bunch of historical data. We get every single election poll that we think exists going back to 1948, and in every election since then, we just look how predictive were polls at this point in the election cycle and how much movement should we expect? Should we expect them to be wrong? And we make those calculations, we add them up, and that's how you get that 53. And actually, if you were only using the polls to predict the election outcome today, just straight up the polling average, Donald Trump would have closer to a 57 or 58% chance to win rather than the 47% we give him today.
Brad Milkey
So he'd be the favorite if it was just up to the polls.
G. Elliott Morris
Yeah, he would be close to what we would consider a leaning favorite.
Getting out of the toss up range. Yeah.
Brad Milkey
What makes the difference for Biden, then?
G. Elliott Morris
So biden benefits from what we call the fundamentals. These are economic and political indicators that have other predictive value beyond the polls. So stuff like, is the economy growing? What's the president's approval rating?
Is there an incumbent president running? All of these things are historically predictive going back to 1948. That's how far back our model goes. And that can give us other information that we sort of hedge against when we're, when we're making our forecast on election day. Right. Because if I'm telling you, the polls could move. They might be biased on election day. And I have this other source of information, I'm going to lean on that other source of information more when there's more movement, when there's more bias, potential bias in the polls. And so they sort of get squashed together.
Brad Milkey
And when I look around, like, you guys even have, like, a map of, like, who might be the most able to win a given state. I mean, are there states that you think at this point look like they could make the difference? Are there issues that would make the difference? I mean, what could this race end up hinging on?
G. Elliott Morris
So one thing we calculate at 538 is something called the tipping point state. This is the most important state on the map. It is the state that gives the winning candidate their electoral vote over that crucial 270 mark. You know, you need 270 electoral votes to win. Right now, that state is Pennsylvania. But we have a lot of uncertainty about what that state could be because it's, again, it's really far before the election. And we don't know if states are going to get more or less democratic or republican as we get closer to November. So some of the other states that could matter, they might sound familiar, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona. But there are some surprises like North Carolina and Florida, which I think people have been treating as really republican states. Our model says, hey, it's early. Don't read too much into that. They could become important later on in the election cycle.
Brad Milkey
Hey, and when I think about, like, national poll, because we're seeing so many national polls and you're mentioning states right there, but most often we're seeing national polls. As a professional poll reader, like, how should I be looking at these polls as they start to come out, like, does Biden need to win the popular vote, even have a chance of winning the, if it's 50 50, is that actually advantage Donald Trump?
G. Elliott Morris
Yeah. Our model thinks that Joe Biden has about a one to two percentage .1 and a half to two percentage point disadvantage in the, in the electoral college. So that means he needs to win the popular vote by about one and a half to two percentage points. Now, again, hey, that's just a guess, and that could change and maybe he'll gain ground. As we get closer to the election, we've seen that the southern battleground, the Sun Belt states like Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, have drifted further. Right. And Biden has been holding ground in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, that are wider, more secular. The whites there are more secular.
There's more college educated voters there. So if he holds those margins with those groups, then he will continue to have a smaller disadvantage than in 2020. He had to win by more. But if he falls out, if the bottom sort of falls out with these key democratic groups that have been supporting Democrats for a half a century, black voters, latino voters more recently, then he could lose even more ground and have to win again by three and a half, four points in the national popular vote to win the election.
And the other factor to consider is third parties, right? We're not just in the Biden versus Trump election. There's major third party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy, junior running. And our model thinks there's a significant chance, a two in three chance, that these third parties could win more votes than the margin between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the key states. That means that those voters, if they had voted for a major party candidate, a Democrat or Republican, could have flipped the outcome of the election the other way, what we call a spoiler effect. So that's another thing to keep your eye out for.
Brad Milkey
Right? And this is a living, breathing forecast. So I should say this is gonna get updated at least once a day, every day up through the election in November. You can see it right now@fivethirtyeight.com. elliot Morris, thanks a lot.
G. Elliott Morris
Yeah, thanks.
Brad Milkey
If you've ever been lectured on your personal finances by your parents or your teacher or your nosy auntie, whatever, you've probably been told to keep your credit score high, right. Your credit report plays a huge part in how likely you are to get a loan. It kind of quantifies whether you're the type of person who will pay it all back. And for that reason, you don't want to get that bogged down. If you miss your credit card payments or if you take on a ton of debt, you can be judged for that later in life. But what if that debt is unavoidable? What if the debt you're taking on is medical debt? Well, yesterday, ABC's Elizabeth Scholsey got the scoop on a big story, a new rule from the Biden White House that would take medical debt out of that equation. She's here with us now. Elizabeth, this seems significant to a lot of people, right? What, what is happening here?
Elizabeth Scholsey
It is definitely significant, Brad. What we're talking about is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is the federal agency basically charged with safeguarding Americans finances. It's proposing a rule that would eliminate medical debt from Americans credit reports. So what this would do, and you point out so well, your credit score really can be impacted by unpaid medical bills. And those unpaid medical bills, they can quickly add up. If those bills are sitting on your credit report, that can have a big impact on how you are able to take out a loan. So what the CFPB tells us it's doing is proposing a regulation that would basically ban credit reporting companies and lenders from taking into account medical debt when they're looking at someone's credit score. And the director of the CFPB, Rojo Chopra, told us that this is going to have a big impact on a lot of Americans.
Unidentified Speaker
We need to make sure that getting sick doesn't ruin someone's financial life and that they can keep moving ahead even after they get better.
Elizabeth Scholsey
Now, importantly, this doesn't mean they're not collecting medical debt. Borrowers would still be on the hook for what they owe, but it wouldn't be something that's factored into that picture of their financial health. And what the CFPB says is that this would boost the average borrower's credit score by 20 points. That is a big difference when you're trying to get that number higher. They say. That, in turn could mean that 22,000 more Americans are eligible to qualify for mortgages.
Unidentified Speaker
Sometimes it can make the real difference between getting a competitive rate on your mortgage or auto loan. We want to make sure that the system is treating everyone fairly.
Elizabeth Scholsey
So just by removing medical debt from their credit reports, that makes people more likely to qualify for loans that they might have not been able to get otherwise.
Brad Milkey
Wait, I didn't understand how big of a issue this was. Like, I totally believe medical expenses take a huge toll on the average American's finances. But we're saying that there are lots of people out there who can't even get the loan, who can't even get the mortgage or the car loan that they will still have to pay back because they had surgery or something.
Elizabeth Scholsey
Exactly. And Brad, we've been talking to people who've had that exact problem. We had the chance to talk with Lexi Coburn. She's a 33 year old in North Carolina.
Lexi Coburn
In my mid twenties, I had to do a lot of retail work in which I was on my feet and it really deteriorated my arthritis.
Elizabeth Scholsey
She wasn't insured and she had a couple of emergency visits to the doctor. Turns out those visits billed a couple hundred dollars.
Lexi Coburn
It not only hampered my credit score, but it also hampered how I thought I was going to be able to get medical care.
Elizabeth Scholsey
That quickly added up. And what she learned, even when she did get insurance a couple of years later, that debt really stuck with her to the point where later in her twenties she was trying to buy a car, which she needed to get herself to work every day. And she said she was denied auto loans because that medical debt was a blemish on her credit reports.
Lexi Coburn
I don't think that medical debt and people trying to get medical care is a choice. And it feels particularly unfair to have that piece of debt that isn't a choice. You're held accountable for that.
Elizabeth Scholsey
Lexi told us it made it incredibly frustrating for her at a time in her life when she was, she says, more financially literate. And this is something that a lot of borrowers have dealt with, this reality of medical debt really being something that sticks around with for them for a long time. Now. Importantly, kind of at the urging of the government, Brad, the big three credit reporting companies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, have taken some steps to already kind of remove medical debt from credit reports. So this started two years ago. But the CFPB says that hasn't been enough. They say by their estimates, there are still 15 million borrowers with $49 billion in outstanding medical bills that are still appearing in the credit reporting system, and that that's making it hard for those individuals to get other loans to qualify for credit. So basically, this proposal would mean that all those people, those bills wouldn't be taken into account anymore. It would make a more uniform standard so that across the board credit reporting companies wouldn't be able to take that medical debt into account.
Brad Milkey
Yeah. And it's so ironic, like, like Lexi is describing of, like, I need to get a car to do the work, to pay back my bill, but now I can't get the car loan. So. But I guess the pushback to all this, Elizabeth, is like, isn't this now seen as one less incentive to pay your medical bills at all? Like, like a lot of people just are kind of like, that's too much. I'm not going to. And here there's one less consequence to it. So you can just keep acting like they don't exist.
Elizabeth Scholsey
Yeah, it's such a good question, Brad, and it's one that I think a lot of people would think of when you hear, okay, so your debt isn't going to be held against you. Why would you then ever need to pay off that debt? And we put this question directly to CFP Director Rohit Chopra.
Unidentified Speaker
In fact, we have found that one of the key issues when it comes to medical bills is that those bills are not accurate when they show up on people's credit reports.
Elizabeth Scholsey
And so what the CFPB is saying is that a lot of time, the billing is complex, people don't really know what they owe. And there is the underlying reality here, Brad, that when you're going to get medical care, you are often in an emergency, urgent situation. You are not maybe thinking about your finances in the same way that you might when you're taking out other kinds of debt, say a mortgage or credit card debt. And so the CFPB, you can't hold.
Brad Milkey
Someone responsible for that decision in the same way as like you're being wasteful with your Starbucks. Like, it's not that exactly.
Elizabeth Scholsey
The CFPB and actually the Biden administration more broadly, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who's kind of been spearheading a lot of the announcement here around medical debt. They're making the point that people shouldn't be disadvantaged because they had to go into debt for some of those emergency decisions. They shouldn't be unable to access other types of opportunity because of that.
Unidentified Speaker
You don't really know how much medical care is going to cost when you go through that hospital door. It's totally different than any other type of loan. And the credit report was never designed to be a place to park medical bills that may not even be owed.
Elizabeth Scholsey
They shouldn't be able to be held back in their economic opportunity because of those decisions, because of the reality that our healthcare system is incredibly expensive.
And yet, we have been talking to some healthcare experts who say that while this might be beneficial to patients in the short run, in the long run, it might actually make it more expensive for them because there's a risk that healthcare providers, companies might end up charging you more on the front end because they're worried if they're not collecting payments through billing, they might try to say, we have to charge you more from the onset, and that might make care more unaffordable for people who don't have the means to pay for that upfront. Industry groups are very quick to make that argument. They will say that this is the Biden administration playing politics with the health care system, that this will negatively impact patients, that a little bit will hint that there could be some legal challenges to this proposed rule. Brad, it is set to take effect early next year. That timeline possibly could be delayed if there is a new administration after November.
Brad Milkey
Yeah, I was going to say this all goes through the White House. There's not a congressional action. So it really depends on who is in the Oval Office to decide whether this, this goes through. All right. Elizabeth Scholze, really great exclusive here. Thank you so much.
Elizabeth Scholsey
Thank you so much, Brad.
Brad Milkey
Okay, one more quick break. When we come back, there might be a hot dog surplus this summer. If this guy can't eat them all, get ready to haul buns. One last thing is next.
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Brad Milkey
And one last thing. It's a rite of summer in New York City.
Fireworks, cookouts, and a 4 July hot dog eating contest on Coney island in front of the original Nathan's famous hot dog stand.
Richard Shea
This is one of the biggest crowds I've ever seen in the corner of Surf and Stilwell's.
Brad Milkey
Wait, so is that your voice then on the tv?
Richard Shea
I do the television play by play. So I do color, actually, on ESPN.
Brad Milkey
This is Richard Shea, who together with his brother, turned the Coney island contest into must see tv and went on to found a national circuit called major league eating. Three, two, one. Put down your hot dog.
Richard Shea
Oh, my. Glory.
Brad Milkey
For much of the last two decades, their main event has had a singular star.
I'm just happy it's 4 July and I got to eat some hot dogs and get a win.
Richard Shea
Our greatest champion and Nathan's greatest champion, major league eating's greatest champion ever, 16 wins is Joey Chestnut.
Brad Milkey
Joey Chestnut.
Well, yesterday, we learned that for the first time in years, Joey Jaws Chestnut will not be competing. It's not because of an upset stomach. It's because of a contract dispute.
Richard Shea
We learned that he had chosen to work with a rival hot dog brand.
Brad Milkey
That's right. Joey Chestnut, like any elite athlete, has slews of endorsement deals. And reportedly, he recently struck a new deal with impossible foods, the maker of a plant based hot dog.
Richard Shea
And that actually goes against, you know, the one sponsor stipulation competitors can't promote a rival hot dog. A hot dog that rivals Nathan's famous major league eating.
Brad Milkey
Says this provision's been on the books for years. Because Nathan's famous hot dogs is sponsoring the whole July 4 event, you're not allowed to be on the payroll of a competitor. No exceptions.
Richard Shea
Let's say this is a veggie base, a plant based meat, and they have a hamburger. He can promote that.
Brad Milkey
This event actually has a history of enforcing restrictive non compete clauses. Before Chestnut, the world's most prolific eater, Takeru Kobayashi, refused to compete because of contractual demands.
He tried to crash the stage as demonstrators chanted, let him eat.
Richard Shea says they just found out about Chestnut's new sponsorship deal a few days ago, and it looks like there's little that can be done about it now. Short of Chestnut tearing up his contract. That looks unlikely, which means the show would go on without him, which shay insists is not a problem.
Can you call this the world hot dog eating champion of Joey Chestnut's not there?
Richard Shea
Yes. This is the biggest day in competitive eating. This is the Masters. The mustard yellow belt is major league eating's green jacket. There is no competitive eating fan, or, I would argue, sports fan, that would refute that.
Brad Milkey
In the meantime, this is a golden opportunity for a generation of eaters that have been chewing in chestnut shadow. Jeffrey Esper from Massachusetts holds records for pizza slices and Hooters wings. Well, he's finished second in hot dogs the last three years in a row. James Webb from Australia is quickly rising up the ranks, and just last month set a record for eating 350 donut holes in eight minutes. Do you guys ever talk about doing plant based meats on the circuit?
Richard Shea
We've done kale competition. One of our eaters on July 4, great champion Gideon the truth. OG is a kale eating champ. He's eating twelve pounds of kale in competition.
Brad Milkey
Richard Shea says he believes the appetite for this event will remain, but you could tell talking to him that he's been taken aback by this news about his star athlete. All the same he says he will be up early on July 4 when he says he always has a hot dog for breakfast.
Richard Shea
I have a hot dog around 08:00 with mustard and Nathan's hot dog with mustard.
Brad Milkey
That's it. I was gonna say you're not dunking it in water the way they all do.
Richard Shea
I don't dunk. I'm a social leader.
Brad Milkey
By the way, Joey Chestnut actually came out with a statement last night on his social media pages saying he's being unfair, fairly banned from the competition. He says he's never had a contract with major league eating and that they're changing their rules from the past. Major league eating is specifically pushing back on that word ban. Since they say he's the one making himself ineligible, they're saying he's welcome to come back, just without a sponsor. We also reached out to impossible foods for details about this sponsorship. They gave my favorite quote of the day. They say, we love Joey and support him in any contest he chooses. It's okay to experiment with a new hot dog. Meat eaters shouldn't have to just be exclusive to just one wiener. Oh, a winning statement there. Ahead of a big month for competitive eating. I'm Brad Milke. I'll see you tomorrow.
Elizabeth Scholsey
In the 1980s, everyone wanted to be in the Brat pack except them. Now director Andrew McCarthy reunites with fellow brat demi moi. Why did we take it as an offense as opposed to, like, brat? Because we were young. We're afraid we wore brat. You know, Amelia Westevez, Ali Sheedy, Rob Lowe.
Brad Milkey
I'm not gonna say we were the Beatles or any of this.
G. Elliott Morris
Well, we didn't fill Shea Stadium 1985. I think we could have the original.
Elizabeth Scholsey
Documentary streaming June 13 only on Hulu.