The episode takes a sharp turn into the contentious grounds of conspiracy theories as we debate the existence of the supposed Epstein client list. Is it merely a speculative fantasy, or is there substance to the claims? Alongside this, we’ll explore the dynamics of trust and credibility in the political sphere, examining the figures we choose to place our faith in and why. Don’t miss this engaging discussion that touches on art, politics, and media skepticism.
00:00:00 Discussing Tom Fitton and Reactions to Artwork
Hey, what about Epstein? I got to play this for you. Guys, can you… Can we sit tight for two seconds? Sure, sure, because I know you don’t want to do it. Oh, I’m going to beat you to death with it, because I like Tom. I like me some Tom Fitton.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s kind of okay, and I do like Tom Fitton. Before we go crawling into that dork’s treehouse cave, on the notion of reaction to blood stuff, You and I went through something kind of interesting, but you did on your own show, and I did on Twitter back and forth, of people, I guess supposedly good-hearted, decent folks, who reacted to something in a very weird way. You gave me, and this was live radio reaction because I didn’t know it was coming, you characterized to me this beautiful painting of a loving Jesus welcoming me girls with hugs and their smiles it’s emblematic of the joy that awaits us all in heaven whether we arrive somebody captioned this is what I imagine heaven looked like absolutely the morning of September 5th or July 5th I’m about to take a call from not only somebody who doesn’t the painting’s not their favorite thing but help me out with this you took a call from somebody yesterday who said the painting was sinful graven images
SPEAKER 03 :
He said, it’s violating the commandment against worshiping graven images. I said, nobody’s worshiping the painting.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yep, the guy was very… So it’s not a cartoon contest where you get shot for drawing Muhammad. I mean, that’s not our thing.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is intriguing because the man did declare that he believes every painting, every depiction of Jesus is sinful.
SPEAKER 02 :
Because he believes… It’s all sinful.
SPEAKER 03 :
All of it is sinful, and that was his position. But now let’s go a little deeper. Let’s talk about your pal Uncle Barky. Uncle Barky, who’s a Texas fixture, Dallas-Fort Worth guy. TV literature. And Trump hating TDS sufferer. I mean, he’s foaming at the mouth, hates Donald Trump, and seems to hate conservatism. That’s fine. That’s up to him. A lot of people in the media and a lot of those TV folks, that’s how they are. Well, he posted yesterday, when you reposted that painting, he said, not my favorite thing either. And you said, excuse me? And what did he say? And what did he say the problem was?
SPEAKER 02 :
He said, first of all, I’m raised Catholic. I was an altar boy or whatever. He said that the painting seemed to deliver not a proper rationale for the tragedy that Jesus or God would snatch these kids and be happy about it. I said, dude, stop. Snatch these kids? What? No, there’s nothing in this painting that suggests that a gleeful Jesus said, time to go get the mystic girls. What? It was just very strange. Everybody comes at this in a wide variety of ways. And the painting didn’t have to be your favorite thing. But, wow, there certainly was nothing dark about it.
SPEAKER 03 :
The painting happens to be a joyful expression of Christianity and our faith and everything we believe. And for a guy who says he was raised a Catholic and an altar boy to not like the image of a beaming Jesus welcoming these children into his arms, that is beyond peculiar. But here’s the thing. I tell you, and Uncle Barky’s probably in this category, just complete, full-time contrarians. And we have it in our business every day, Mark, whether it’s a caller, whether it’s a texter, somebody that can take the most wholesome, wonderful thing and dump all over it. They’re just contrarians. They’re going to like, well, wait a minute, I’m going to take the opposite point of view here. And you’ve got to be aware of contrarians. the Epstein thing. I will. Mark, you can’t run from this. You can’t.
SPEAKER 02 :
What’s my favorite? There is wisdom in knowing whom to ignore. This is not a magic controversy. It is not a bedrock problem for Trump. It is not an uprising. It is not. These people are an annoyance. It’s not that they don’t have a point they can make. It’s fine. I get it. I get it. I get it. But doggone it, man. Let’s play Tom Fitton. You said yesterday, you declared…
SPEAKER 03 :
Literal length of the Tom Hinton cut. It’s short. You declared there’s no… Here’s what you said. The reason I want to play it is because you told me definitively there’s no Epstein list. Oh, really? There’s no Epstein list. Really, Mark? No, there’s no list. You don’t think there’s a list.
SPEAKER 02 :
sitting there of firm clients that we know about.
SPEAKER 03 :
For years they’ve been talking about the Epstein client list, including Dan Bongino, Dan Bongino, Dan Bongino, but Pam Bondi, people at the highest levels of government right now.
SPEAKER 02 :
Now, you’ve got to point about some people who used to be in the commentary world like Bon Jovi. And you know what they did? They got important jobs where they have access to this information and said, you know what? Maybe it wasn’t in the form of some actual tidy list. We can find old Bill Clinton, old Bill Gates. That could be. Ain’t no client list. It was always catnip for conspiracy dorks.
SPEAKER 03 :
You could be right, but you could be wrong. You could absolutely be wrong.
SPEAKER 02 :
The day the list comes out, I’ll admit to it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, there may never be a day the list comes out because it ain’t going to happen. Here’s Tom Fitton last night with Laura Ingraham.
SPEAKER 01 :
I think they decided for political purposes they didn’t want to include the individuals who are on these lists and put them in the public domain. And they were concerned that some of them may not have done something warranting the disclosure. I mean, that’s the most charitable interpretation.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s all I’ll say, but what I’m saying, Mark, is that Dan Bongino and Kash Patel are protecting people of power and privilege on some imaginary list. Do you believe that?
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know that I can rule it out. I don’t know. I can’t rule it out. I’m ruling it out. Really?
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m ruling it out. I do not believe. And again, my faith and trust, my bar is high. I mean, Trump, you and I have talked a lot about, we trust Trump. Terrorists might not be our favorite thing in a vacuum. Trump wants to do it. Let’s trust him. Dan Bongino, Kash Patel, these are people of rock-solid character. These are people whose service to this nation in many ways is beyond doubt, and I am going to choose to trust them and not for one solitary second believe that they are involved in some sinister protection rack of the rich and powerful on some imaginary Epstein-Claude.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I respect that, and I… And I respect that view. I just don’t want to run from our audience. And I get annoyed sometimes. You’re shutting down. Well, you’re talking to people and you’re talking down to people. You’re saying, there you go, a bunch of dorks, conspiracy dorks. Oh, all the conspiracy. You’re talking down to them, Mark. You’re patronizing them.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re patronizing your own audience. people who will not hear the other side there is there are there are principles and habits of conspiracy dorkery no matter what they hear it always brings me back no matter what i know and if somebody i know all things being equal i kind of do think there’s like that’s fine we’ll talk somebody like that yeah yeah yeah i got it i got it you’re getting somewhat by saying i’m not going to talk about it and then talking about it for two flipping hours you’re
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s catnip. It’s hard. It’s hard to ignore it. It’s hard to ignore it. But here’s the thing, and I learned this early on in the Trump era. There were certain hosts who said, I’m not going to entertain this Trump guy. I’m not going to talk to my audience. I don’t want to listen to them. And look, we got a bunch of people, Mark, who are talking about this. And for us to say, la, la, la, la, la, I’m not going to talk about it.
SPEAKER 02 :
They’re just dorks. I think it’s a trick. I think in entertaining, oh, please, everybody in conspiracy treehouse land, please fill my lines for three stinking hours. You are still serving the 90 plus percent. We want you to talk about the way we’re saving America and things that are real problems rather than is this Epstein garbage. So if you’re talking about serving the listeners, I’d say maybe I’m done with it. Serves them a lot better than indulging it for another day.
SPEAKER 03 :
Fair enough. That, ladies and gentlemen, is Mark Davis, D-A-V-I-S, at Mark Davis on X. Boom. I, on the other hand, am Mike Gallagher at Gallagher Show. I love all people. I love all people. I’m peace and love. Peace and love. I’m here for everybody. For full shows live and on demand, it’s the Salem News Channel.
