the story about Joe Biden is one of those stories that I approach very tentatively I don't want to talk about it because I don't like what we discover when we do uh George Clooney is not a typical actor by that I mean he's not one of those actors whose opinions could do with a little bit more thought and hard work I'm a big fan of lovees I I think it's very important that they intervene into the public space I also think that given the contributions to public discourse by professional politicians over the last few years off the top of my head I think probably Nadine Doris and Jacob ree MOG would be the best examples the idea that actors are somehow less qualified uh or less informed than professional politicians is is palpably absurd uh same with Football commentators as it goes but when George Clooney intervenes it's a little bit different not least because he's raised tens of millions of dollars for the Democrats in general and for Joe Biden in particular his father I think it was Nick although I I don't know quite where I've plucked that number from that name from I think his dad was called Nick cloney was a very respected Anchor Man and and and TV journalist a brilliant broadcaster by all accounts and so Clooney grew up in a journalist's house and I'm not suggesting that gives him superpowers or anything like that but it means he will know exactly what he is doing when he writes an opinion article for the New York Times expressing his deep affection for the US president but drawing upon recent personal interaction when calling for Joe Biden to quit the race it's devastating to this is I think this is one of the best things I've read in the context of uh political commentary because it's exactly what I mean when I say I don't want to talk about it he writes it's devastating to say it but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe big effing deal by of 2010 he wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020 he was the same man we all witnessed at the debate was he tired yes a cold maybe but our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn't see what we just saw and then the absolute kicker we are not going to win with this President you've um completely overrun my inbo now with suggestions as to what the missing word might have been in that headline so much so that I'm not sure I can uh even begin to scratch the surface of it I I I'll try it wasn't brexiteers uh Stephen it wasn't life-sized models of rishy sunak Rich who's in Bristol I'm told Tony T Toby tarant has already covered this story on uh on on radio X but um but I'm I'm banking on the fact that most people won't have caught that cuz they would have been too busy listening to me so it is to Joe Biden that we turn our attention next and it is proof isn't it of the pudding we shared together last week I I asked you the question about whether or not knowing what you know about people of a certain maturity watching what could only be attributed to age related decline so specifically not dementia not a diagnosable condition even but because you've got someone in your life that you love and indeed I think we took a couple of calls from people who put themselves in this category you know that what you are seeing is not a temporary aberration you know that it is part of a escalating or accelerating pattern and although we derived a little bit of optimism at the end of the conversation by playing a clip from a rally that he attended the following day when he found sounded full of pep what George Clooney has done is essentially Zone in on the fact that that will not and cannot be the only time that Joe Biden's cognitive functioning will appear to be stuttering it's an unfortunate choice of words given that he actually has a stammer but you understand what I mean so what I don't get and what I want you to tell me is is how it even matters in the context of Donald Trump's depravity so you have a convicted felon an adjudicated rapist a a Vladimir Putin apologist you have somebody whose sins are so Legion that I mean I was thinking of him actually when when noga was talking about Benjamin Netanyahu a moment ago and I think she was as well when she referred to uh elected leaders uh subverting the very democracy that that had elected them so you can list Donald Trump's demeanors for want of a better word and you probably reach a hundred before you even get to the Abomination that was January the 6th and yet you still have the very real prospect that Joe Biden being doery could be the defining factor in an election that would deliver this Manchild Donald Trump back back to the White House and that's a bit I don't get and I wonder whether you might have a crack at explaining it to me so it makes sense and it doesn't make sense it makes sense and it doesn't make sense doesn't it CU you know I would rather have a tin of rice pudding as my prime minister than Donald Trump and and I almost mean that literally you know with a decent team around it and and a strong cabinet and some decent appointments a Tiner rice pudding would be a perfectly safe Pair of Hands in the context of how most liberal democracy's function I would rather have a tin of rice pudding anyone else just suddenly thought do you know what I haven't had any rice pudding for ages I like a rice do you ever make your own rice I love rice put oh when it make it yourself gets a skin on top and everything it's delicious delicious um I digress slightly I would rather have a tin of rice pudding as my prime minister than Donald Trump or Boris Johnson for that matter but that's a conversation for another day so what how can expl explain to me how Joe Biden's what's the best word to use here do doess is quite a good word it wasn't 104 tins of rice pudding in the man's trousers no good guess though because that might have been a bit of Auto suggestion going on there he wouldn't be able to walk with 104 no I mean what if they were stacked on top of each other he'd be 30 feet tall anyway why how can Joe Biden's doess be a defining factor in an American election when the opposition is a is a is a criminal sex offender 0345 6060 973 that that's what I want to know in a way it's the old question about how can anybody vote for Donald Trump when he's so obviously disgusting but we don't get to use the Atlantic as a as a safety blanket here because we've just put someone in the House of Commons who's essentially a cheerleader in Chief for Donald Trump both in this country and over there um so you know that Nigel Faris doesn't care about Donald Trump being a a convicted felon or a self-confessed sex offender or an adjudicated rapist or an enemy a proven enemy of American democracy up to and including inciting a mob to attack his own vice president the list is extraordinary it sustains only in a world where alternative facts have been offered up as a as a choice I never forget that moment when Kelly an Conway used the phrase alternative facts to describe lies understand that you understand much of what's happened on both sides at the Atlantic in well across um the stable West in recent years where Vladimir Putin and and useful idiots have managed to if you like conflate uh facts with falsehoods by claiming that they sort of balance each other out it's kind of what Elon Musk is doing to Twitter at the moment but I I keep digressing and I keep saying I digress what I should do is stop saying I digress because I'm no longer digressing you know more about American politics than I do quite possibly or or you know more about psychology or um electoral Shenanigans than I do so H how can why is Joe Biden's doess so definitive when his opponent is so disgusting 0345 6060 973 is the number that you need um that's the question why is Joe Biden's dodginess so significant when his opponent in the imminent presidential election is so objectively disgusting that's the bit I don't get I don't get how you could be wavering so here is a disgusting man and you're comfortable with him being disgusting okay in fact you like it you you you love it it's fantastic partly I think sometimes because some people wish they could behave like that but also partly because that's how fascism works you know that the the leader of uh fascist movements is Exempted from the laws that everybody else has to obey and even from the network of obligations that binds the rest of us together but I the bit I don't get is how anybody could be looking at the American presidential election and thinking to them it'd be like putting if someone had stood against Hitler with a with a decent chance of winning and there would have been a significant swaye of the German population going oh I'm definitely not voting for Hitler and then the other guy sort of Falls over or eats a bacon sandwich badly and you go oh no actually I am going to vote for Hitler so Trump is so objectively and so obviously awful how on Earth can the doess of Joe Biden be pushing undecideds into the arms of the self-confessed sex offender that's the question I want you to answer