John Donvan
Hey, everybody. Welcome to Open to Debate. I’m John Donvan, and I am delighted in this episode to be taking a break and handing off the moderating duties to our wonderful guest moderator, Nayeema Raza. Now I wanna say this episode is part of our special election series, which Nayeema recorded in front of a live audience at the Comedy Cellar in New York City. This is a substantive policy debate, but it’s got a little bit of levity.

Two comedians, Pete Dominick and Jimmy Failla, bring humor and wit to three hot button issues, and they take a look at the contrasting policy choices of Vice-President Harris and Former President Donald Trump. And listen, no matter who you’re gonna vote for this year, do make sure to get out there and do that. Do vote. It matters. So let’s get started, as I hand off to Nayeema Raza.

Nayeema Raza
Thank you all for being here tonight, because you’re doing something that’s so dangerous and illicit in America that it can only be done underground in dark settings-

… and cavernous settings, and that is talking to people you disagree with, of course.

Um, I’m joking, (laughs) but, uh, we don’t do it nearly enough in America, and it is certainly rare to have a Fox News personality on stage with an alum of The Daily Show and Colbert S- Show and others, and that’s really what Open To Debate strives to do, to try to allow for kind of civilized debate, um, and civil discourse, at a time that it’s been hard. Uh, and it’s something that we’re gonna do tonight, in an evening of politics and punchlines, as we contemplate this question of who is better for America, Kamala Harris or Donald Trump?

Um, 2024 is a super tight race. The election is just weeks away. People are already early voting in Ohio and other places. And so I don’t wanna waste another second before I introduce our debaters tonight. Arguing that Kamala Harris is better for America, we have Pete Dominick.

We can clap for Pete Dominick. (laughs)

Pete Dominick
Hi, everybody! Hello! Hi! Thank you, thank you. Go ahead, talk about me.

Nayeema Raza
[inaudible

]. Yeah, slap me. You don’t blush too much, Pete. Uh, he is a standup comic behind the aptly titled podcast Stand Up! with Pete Dominick. Uh, he’s been a warmup comic for Colbert, for Last Week Tonight with, um, sorry-

Pete Dominick
John Oliver.

Nayeema Raza
Yes, with-

Pete Dominick
Yeah.

Nayeema Raza
… Last Week Tonight with John Oli-

Pete Dominick
Smartest, funniest show-

Nayeema Raza
Well, there you go.

Pete Dominick
… on TV. Watch it.

Nayeema Raza
Pete, welcome.

Pete Dominick
We- uh, thank you very much for having me, Nayeema. I’m very excited to be here with you and Jimmy and all these fine people who came out on a Tuesday for some reason.

Nayeema Raza
Yes. (laughing)

Pete Dominick
They care about America.

Nayeema Raza
They do. Uh, and here to argue that Donald Trump is better for America, we have Jimmy Failla. Jimmy, come up here. Whoo.

Jimmy Failla
Hi there.

Nayeema Raza
Hi there.

Audience
Go Jimmy.

Jimmy Failla
Not even, I’m not even wired in yet.

Nayeema Raza
Yes.

Jimmy Failla
Keep it going. And thank you for reminding them I’m from Fox News. I know it really wins over a crowd.

Nayeema Raza
(laughs) Jimmy-

Jimmy Failla
[inaudible].

Nayeema Raza
… let me remind them some more-

Jimmy Failla
Yeah, [inaudible].

Nayeema Raza
… Jimmy is the host of Fox News Saturday Night-

Audience
Great.

Nayeema Raza
… and the radio show Fox Across America. Jimmy welcome.

Jimmy Failla
Hi. Hello.

Audience
Yay.

Nayeema Raza
We’re gonna dive into the debate in a moment. Guys, we’re gonna be taking on three very important topics: first, the economy, second, immigration, and third, foreign policy. And boys, be nice, I don’t wanna have to cut off anyone’s microphone. I actually don’t think I have that power, but I-

… I could just stand up and grab it from you, it would look weird.

Jimmy Failla
Listen, I was a full-time taxi driver for 10 years in this town, I am so dead on the inside right now-

Nayeema Raza
Yes.

Jimmy Failla
… you could say whatever you want. (laughing) I’ve been cut off and shot at, it’s all good.

Pete Dominick
I just wanna say, I’d- I- this is a great pairing. Like, Jimmy and I have known each other for a very long time and have always been friends, and I really like Jimmy and always have, and I don’t think that it’ll get ugly at all. I- I- I couldn’t- I couldn’t do that. We’ll- we’ll take- we’ll take shots at each other-

Jimmy Failla
Yeah, fair. Yeah.

Pete Dominick
We’ll take shots at each other ’cause we’re comedians, but the- the bottom line with comedians is if it’s funny, it doesn’t matter. If he hurts me, but it’s funny, he wins.

Jimmy Failla
This is the truth.

Nayeema Raza
Okay, let’s dive into the debate. I wanna start with the number one issue for voters in this tight race, which is the economy. So Jimmy, I’m gonna ask you first. How will your candidate, Donald Trump, address inflation while managing federal debt? You have two minutes and 30 seconds.

Jimmy Failla
Well, if he’s smart, he’ll do what every party promises to do, but never delivers on, which is cut spending, because government spending is the root cause of inflation. We’re currently 35 trillion dollars in debt, okay? And to give you some perspective, the government is so reckless at spending money, they’re the only ones who weren’t shocked that Diddy bought 1,000 bottles of baby oil at a time.

So then they were like, “Yeah, makes perfect sense, we buy in bulk, right? It’s not a big deal.” So, you wanna cut spending at the federal level, okay, and you wanna lower fuel costs, because fuel costs are the second arm of this thing. If it costs more money to ship a product, it’s gonna cost you more money to buy a product. So what we have to do, in my opinion, is increase production: more drilling, more fracking, exchange the supply-and-demand ratio to our favor and hopefully lower the cost of gas along the way.

Lastly, I know we’ll get to this subject later, but I would close the border. And the reason you have to close the border is we’re spending, right now in New York City, we’ve spent five billion dollars, okay, on housing migrants in this city, a city where veterans are our number-one source of homelessness.

The last thing, and I’ll give it away, is stop giving away free [inaudible].

Excuse me. I’m sorry.
But when you hear, like here’s a free $25,000 to put down on a home, which is something Kamala is advocating for, I applaud the empathy of that, but it drives up the cost of housing in the process and we as a taxpayer have to pay for the 25,000.

Same goes with student loan forgiveness. I know you want your loan paid off, but at the same time, if I didn’t take it out, I shouldn’t have to pay for it. And people come at me as a conservative. And they’re like, “Dude, but you’re a parent. You have a 15-year-old son. Aren’t you worried about the soaring cost of tuition?” Folks, my son is six-foot-five, he’s getting a women’s basketball scholarship.

I’m good. I’m good. Looking out for you.

Nayeema Raza
All right. Thank you, Jimmy. Now Pete, I’m gonna ask you the same question: how will Kamala Harris address inflation while managing the balloon that is federal debt?

Pete Dominick
Well, first of all, let me- let me just acknowledge that though Jimmy and I are- are both, we have a lot in common. We’re- we’re mostly straight…

Jimmy Failla
Hey, the rent don’t pay itself, folks.

Pete Dominick
That’s right. How do you think we got here?
Uh, we’re both part-Italian dudes, we grew up… he grew up in Long Island, I grew up in, uh, Upstate New York, working-class families. We both chose careers as comedians and we both had a lot of success in broadcast media. We have a lot of respect for each other, but when it comes to politics and values and character, and sadly reality, we live on completely different planets.
And it’s not just Jimmy and I, it’s the entire country. I’m sure tonight, uh, sadly we’ll- we’ll illustrate that. On my planet, vaccines are a public health miracle, climate change is real, men walked on the moon, and, uh, I’ll call it- we’ll call my planet Planet Earth, and on the planet that Jimmy and MAGA Nation live on, we’ll refer to that as Planet Trump the rest of the night, you know by the way Trump would absolutely, like, put his name in the Grand Canyon if he could, just to ward off aliens. He’ll be like, “Let’s put it, I’m gonna put my entire name, Trump, right in the Grand Canyon.
“Aliens will not come.”

Jimmy Failla
But it- but if the aliens did come Biden would give them a stimulus check.

Pete Dominick
And then they would produce something amazing with us because they believe in working together.

Jimmy Failla
Mm-hmm.

Pete Dominick
And on- on- in MAGA World, in- in Trump World, uh, to the question, you said governments… like, Jimmy and I, by the way, you- we should not be trusted sources on any of these important issues.

Uh, we’re both comedians, but- but I- I look stuff up, and I interview people for a living who are experts and have for 15 years every day, and it is not true that inflation is caused by government spending. That’s what- that’s what you said.

Inflation is caused just when you don’t have the supply for the demand. So what caused the inflation in America and around the world is COVID and supply chain. America recovered faster than anybody on inflation. Certainly government spending contributes to a certain extent to it, but the last inflation, huge inflation this country had was about oil, uh, and we know the story.

And clearly Trump drove up the debt $8 trillion when he was President. He already had a chance. He drove up… He didn’t cut spending. He did I- and he, uh, did cut taxes, and only for the wealthiest people.

Jimmy Failla
That’s not true. I would cite the New York Times-

Pete Dominick
So-

Nayeema Raza
[inaudible] wait, wait, sorry.

Jimmy Failla
That’s not true. okay.

Nayeema Raza
Opening arguments.

Jimmy Failla
Mm-hmm.

Nayeema Raza
Keep going. You have 10 seconds left. Go ahead.
Pete.

Pete Dominick
Kamala Harris would absolutely create, uh, a- and, and the Biden-Harris record is to create 16 million jobs, and everything, every single economic indicator is better now than when Trump was President. Every one of them.

Nayeema Raza
Mm-hmm.

Jimmy Failla
Which ones? Well, well, if that’s the case-

Nayeema Raza
Okay, well, well-

Jimmy Failla
Yeah, if that’s the case, Harry Enton at CNN reported last night that 72% of Americans think we’re headed in the wrong direction. Picture this administration as an Uber driver. If 10 of us jump in an Uber XL and seven of us think he’s going the wrong way on the Long Island expressway-

… are you rehiring that dude? No. Just to clear up a few misconceptions. We are not anti-vax. Uh, I am vaccinated. I got the Johnson & Johnson. Uh, what they didn’t tell me is it was Magic Johnson and Keyshawn Johnson.

[inaudible]-

Pete Dominick
That is, ah, I don’t think that’s gonna help you.

Nayeema Raza
(laughing)

Jimmy Failla
I can’t catch COVID, but man, I can catch a pass.

So, back to his point about… You- you, at what- you started your point by saying federal spending doesn’t drive inflation and then halfway through you were like, “Yeah, and some of it was federal spending.” Inflation is defined as-

Pete Dominick
It’s not- it’s not the primary cause.

Jimmy Failla
Stick with me, okay? Inflation is described as too many dollars chasing too few goods. Okay? We should be able to agree that is the textbook definition of inflation. Too many dollars chasing too few goods. When the economy was poised to reopen and recover all the jobs Democrats tell you were created, those are not new jobs. Those are jobs that were shut down during COVID. If you worked in a cruise line-
Audience (10:03):
Yeah.

Jimmy Failla
… you lost your job.

When the cruise ship reopened and got it back, you didn’t get a new job, you got the old job. If I come home tonight covered in glitter and stripper perfume and my wife throws me out, when I move back in next Tuesday, I didn’t get a new house, I got the same house. You dig?

So that’s how they kinda scam you on job creation. They haven’t created jobs, they’ve recovered jobs.

Nayeema Raza
So here, let’s, uh, I wanna- I wanna get back to this idea. Jimmy, you were pointing out that-

Jimmy Failla
Mm-hmm.

Nayeema Raza
… a- a plan to cut entitlements, to cut, you know, to- to cut some of these things, Donald Trump was President for four years, didn’t cut spending, has said that he will not touch or he will continue to protect Medicare, social security-

Jimmy Failla
I hope he does.

Nayeema Raza
And so-

Jimmy Failla
There are certain things we need.

Nayeema Raza
… how will government spending go down? Is it just a function of the size of government in your argument?

Jimmy Failla
No, I… Ho- honestly, two things that I like about the Trump administration is they’re gonna try, assuming they do, take a private sector approach to the economy and to the government as a whole. He wants to bring on Elon Musk to prioritize-

Jimmy Failla
… efficiency, and of course tweet cat memes day and night, um-

… but Elon Musk, to look at the government like a spreadsheet and try to half out some of the inefficiencies because we spend a lot of money in this government on things we don’t particularly care about. It’s not that we don’t care, but it’s making a lot of Americans feel like second-hand citizens when we’re told FEMA might not have the hurricane money, but here’s $150 billion for Lebanon. You dig?

Pete Dominick
We did not give them 150 billion. We did not.

Jimmy Failla
Oh it was 149 billion was the announcement.

Pete Dominick
It was- it was- it was not billion. It was 100 million-

Jimmy Failla
So was it Chuck E. Cheese tickets? What was it?

Pete Dominick
It was- just- but that’s- that’s MAGA world-

Jimmy Failla
It’s not MAGA world.

Pete Dominick
Yes it is, you said 150 billion. It’s 100 million.

Jimmy Failla
Million. Million. Uh, my, [inaudible

].

Pete Dominick
Just- importance.

Jimmy Failla
That’s fine.

Pete Dominick
That’s a small error.

Jimmy Failla
I- I stand corrected. I stand corrected.

Pete Dominick
That’s-

Jimmy Failla
But if you lost your house in a hurricane, you get 750 bucks.

Pete Dominick
That’s not true either. If you lose your house-

Jimmy Failla
What a big gap.

Pete Dominick
… in a hurr- no, but the- you’re not- you’re not right.

Jimmy Failla
I’m not saying there won’t be more money.

Pete Dominick
But you’re not representing reality. That’s the problem. That’s the problem. Like you live in this world-

Jimmy Failla
I don’t.

Pete Dominick
… where there’s these talking points that are anecdotes. That’s like-

Jimmy Failla
No, no it’s not.

Pete Dominick
… yeah, you- you- you- you commented on, what is the name? Harry? What did you say his name was? Harry Enton?

Jimmy Failla
Harry Enton, CNN.

Pete Dominick
Yeah, he said, uh, 72% of people don’t think… there’s a measurement for that. It’s called consumer confidence. It’s way higher now.

Jimmy Failla
Whoa whoa whoa-

Pete Dominick
Everything- every economic indicator-

Jimmy Failla
Since Tuesday?

Pete Dominick
Every economic indicator is better under Biden and Harris than it was…

Nayeema Raza
Now we’ll take a quick break. We’re debating the question, would Kamala Harris or Donald Trump be better for America? When we return we will continue to answer that. I’m Nayeema Raza, this is Open To Debate and we’ll be right back.

Welcome back to Open To Debate. I’m Nayeema Raza. We’re debating the question would Kamala Harris or Donald Trump be better for America? We’ve heard from comedians Pete Dominick and Jimmy Failla on their candidates plans for the economy. Now we’re going to get right in to the rest of the debate.

So, I mean, make the argument. Jimmy’s laying out this idea of Elon Musk stepping in to help government and that’s going to cut government spending. I just want, Pete, you to respond to that specific argument.

Pete Dominick
I think that’s the most insane, like, I can’t believe we’re debating…

I can’t believe we’re in this world that- that in America right now we’re talking about Donald Trump for the third presidential election in a row and that somehow Elon Musk is in any way helpful.

Both of these men are horrible, hor- the worst two people you can think of. And by the way, the idea that any American would trust a billionaire with anything. I don’t know how we can’t come together against them.

Nayeema Raza
Uh, let’s talk about economy for a minute. Jimmy, you concede that now Biden is now, recently, bringing down the debt of this country. Donald Trump didn’t. You really believe-

Jimmy Failla
Here’s the reality-

Nayeema Raza
… that this is what’s going to happen. He’s going to cut spending.

Jimmy Failla
… if you walk into a grocery store right now.

Nayeema Raza
Yup.

Jimmy Failla
Your groceries are 30% higher.

Nayeema Raza
Mm-hmm.

Jimmy Failla
And if you-

Pete Dominick
Inflation’s way down.

Jimmy Failla
That’s great. But if you’re a single mom or a former New York City cab driver like I am, you can’t afford groceries right now.

Pete Dominick
No, but if you had that- if you have Kamala’s policies-

Jimmy Failla
What are Kamala’s policies?

Pete Dominick
… if you’re a single mom you’d be way better off.

Jimmy Failla
Yo, yo, Kamala was asked how she would lower grocery costs, she said she grew up in a middle class family with a nice lawn.

Okay? So- so is the plan just you eat your nice lawn? Is that the plan? She doesn’t have a plan. And you- [inaudible]

Nayeema Raza
And you want to-

Pete Dominick
That’s- [inaudible]

Nayeema Raza
Do you want to respond? This is the last- [inaudible

]

Jimmy Failla
No, no, listen to me.

Pete Dominick
She has an ex-

Jimmy Failla
Let- let me-

Pete Dominick
She has an extensive-

Jimmy Failla
Let me get this straight-

Pete Dominick
An extensive economic plan.

Jimmy Failla
What is the extensive plan?

Nayeema Raza
Okay, I’ll give you 30 seconds on the plan. They both have a-

Jimmy Failla
What did you print off from the website that she forgot to delete Biden’s name from?

Pete Dominick
I know.

Jimmy Failla
Because we’ve all seen it, it’s an embarrassment.
Did anyone watch 60 Minutes last night?

Audience
Yeah.

Jimmy Failla
She almost didn’t go on because she didn’t know how long the show was.

Nayeema Raza
They both- they both have-

Pete Dominick
She went on.

Nayeema Raza
She went on.

Pete Dominick
He’s terrified-

Jimmy Failla
She almost didn’t go on.

Pete Dominick
No. He’s terrified.

Nayeema Raza
All right.

Pete Dominick
No, he- he didn’t go on because they literally, Jimmy, you know this, they said, “We’re going to fact check you.”

Jimmy Failla
They incorrectly fact checked him.

Pete Dominick
He said, “I don’t do fact checking. I won’t do it.”

Jimmy Failla
Because he wanted an apology because last time he was on, they said, “No, you can’t mention Hunter Biden’s laptop, its fake.”

Pete Dominick
Because he’s [inaudible]-

Nayeema Raza
All right guys. Guys?

Jimmy Failla
It’s real.

Nayeema Raza
I’m cutting you off.

Pete Dominick
Well you said I could say- let me read some of the notes-

Nayeema Raza
Guys.

Pete Dominick
… that Jimmy’s upset that I promote- that I brought.

Nayeema Raza
Well, I just want to say, on the economy, I just want to jump in and say, both have proposed a 6k child tax credit, both don’t want to tax tips.

Jimmy Failla
Yup.

Nayeema Raza
But there’s some very similar economic policies so maybe Pete give us two things that you think are really going to get Kamala Harris ahead on the economy.

Pete Dominick
Well, the Biden and Harris-

Nayeema Raza
Two things.

Pete Dominick
… administration has made of-

Nayeema Raza
Just two things.

Pete Dominick
… the fastest recovery.

Jimmy Failla
Oh God.

Pete Dominick
A-

Jimmy Failla
You’re reading from their website, of course it is.

Pete Dominick
No.

Jimmy Failla
What are they going to say, it sucks?

Pete Dominick
Bro, here’s-

Jimmy Failla
What’re they going to write? Joe Biden’s selling feet pics to pay the rent? Of course they’re going to say it’s good. We can’t quote their websites.

Pete Dominick
[inaudible].

Jimmy Failla
If I quote Trump he shot an 18 in golf today.

Pete Dominick
That’s what I mean by Earth One and MAGA world.

Jimmy Failla
It’s not Earth One and Earth Two.

Pete Dominick
Yes it is, because I’m not reading-

Jimmy Failla
You’re going to their website.

Pete Dominick
Because I’m not- but you keep saying things-

Jimmy Failla
Listen to me.

Pete Dominick
No, don’t listen to him.
00;15:43
Nayeema Raza
Sorry g- all right guys.

Pete Dominick
I’m-

Jimmy Failla
Listen to me, not about you-

Pete Dominick
You told me-

Jimmy Failla
Not about you-

Pete Dominick
You told me that I could have-

Jimmy Failla
This is a philosophical difference.

Pete Dominick
… no [inaudible].

Nayeema Raza
All right.

Jimmy Failla
It’s a is a philosophical difference.

Nayeema Raza
Hey, hey, Jimmy, I’m going to let Pete have the answer to his question.

Pete Dominick
Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and Democrats have had so many policies to promote all kinds of things from home ownership to minimum wage to college debt re- uh, forgiveness, to affordability to buy a house. Uh, forever you could name the policies and most importantly, the most important thing we never talk about, for your- for your own household is healthcare. Donald Trump wants to take your healthcare.

Jimmy Failla
No he doesn’t.

Pete Dominick
Period. And he- by the way-

Jimmy Failla
No he doesn’t.

Pete Dominick
… just to be clear, I don’t look at Kamala Harris’ website. That’s what I mean.

Jimmy Failla
What do you look at?

Pete Dominick
In your world, you just say things like that. You just make them up. Every single piece of information I gathered for this debate and for my entire career is gathered from objective news sources because I would never caught buying into these biased bull- campaign, politician hacks. I would never do that.

And the headlines on Trump, ProPublica. Donald Trump-

Jimmy Failla
Oh.

Pete Dominick
… put the national debt so big that it’ll weigh down the economy for years.

Jimmy Failla
I would never cite a biased site, I’m just using ProPublica who said Trump was Hitler.

Nayeema Raza
All right.

Pete Dominick
You know who else said-

Jimmy Failla
Do you hear yourself?

Pete Dominick
Do you know who else said Trump was Hitler?

Jimmy Failla
They said that.

Pete Dominick
JD Vance said that Trump was Hitler.

Jimmy Failla
They said that- [inaudible]

Nayeema Raza
All right. I think we’re going to give JD Vance the- there you go-

Pete Dominick
His Vice Presidential [inaudible

] said he’s Hitler.

Nayeema Raza
All right guys.

Jimmy Failla
Lay off JD Vance he’s our first candidate who’s bi-sectional.

Nayeema Raza
All right. That concludes our discussion on the economy.

Pete Dominick
I like that.

Nayeema Raza
I think we should all just take a quick breath.

Jimmy Failla
Oh, we’re having fun.

Nayeema Raza
There you go.

Pete Dominick
What’s next?

Nayeema Raza
All right, we’re going to move to immigration. Such an easy topic to discuss.

Jimmy Failla
Oh this is- this should be fun.

Nayeema Raza
Ripe for discussion. Okay. So our next topic, immigration, this time Pete you’re up first.

Pete Dominick
All right, uh-

Nayeema Raza
All right. What needs to change at the border to create a better response to migration? You have 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Pete Dominick
Well, on- on immigration, uh, the main and most crucial difference is that Kamala Harris thinks that people, and most American’s I hope, a- a- and most God-fearing people, I would think, I’m not one of them, but think that the people who have come to America legally or illegally are actually people. She believes they’re humans how have lives and souls and love in their heart, who are ambitious and hardworking. In short, Kamala Harris sees their humanity.

Now the disgraced former President Donald Trump describes undocumented or illegal immigrants, calls them illegals, e- as well as folks who have come here completely legally, he calls them vermin. Last person who did that, Jimmy said it earlier, Hitler used that word. Garbage, rapist, criminals, murderers, spreaders of disease. Most recently, the Hitler trifecta. He said this yesterday, their genes. They have bad genes. He said this, yesterday, he said, “You know, these people coming in have bad genes.” Which means they’re inferior. Hitler said that.

The unbelievable irony, of course, is that Trump is actually an indited criminal who spread disease, COVID, uh, by denying it and saying it’ll just go away. He has raped and sexual assaulted dozens of women, and so he’s accusing all these undocumented people of being these criminals when he, himself, has committed all of those crimes.

So to start at- with what the candidate wants. Kamala Harris comes from the school of thought of traditional immigration law like every other country. The only thing that will fix our broken border is passing legislation. Republicans and Democrats have come together twice in the past decade to pass legislation but Republicans killed it both times because they don’t care about the border. They never care about the border. They only care about dividing us and winning votes.

Trump told them to kill a Republican bill that had billions in border security. He killed it because he doesn’t want a solution. He just wants to demonize these people and build a moat. He wants to build a moat and put alligators in it. That is his idea. He has no ideas, he has no policies, all he does is make up terrible, racist things about people like that they’re eating cats and dogs. The Haitian people are some of the hardest working people that have ever come to this country, and they make us look like absolutely lazy and weak and my neighbor is constantly posting about- on Facebook, about how terrible these people are while they’re actually mowing his lawn.

The hypocrisy is rank and of course you have to have Congress pass legislation so the president can sign it. Republican’s and Democrat’s want to do that. Trump refuses to do it. He’ll always just want it to be a problem.

Nayeema Raza
Okay. Jimmy- thank you Pete. Uh, I do want to clarify, uh, allegations of sexual assault from many women, and yes, liable-

Pete Dominick
22.

Nayeema Raza
… yes, from many women, allegations. And I want to now hand it over to you, Jimmy.

Jimmy Failla
Yeah.

Nayeema Raza
Same question to you. What needs to change at the border to create a better response to migration?

Jimmy Failla
Well there’s two things that really matter, okay? Uh, and this is one thing I need to clarify about the right. We’re not anti-immigrant on the right, we are anti-

Pete Dominick
You want to send them out-

Jimmy Failla
Whoa, whoa, whoa-

Pete Dominick
… the ones that are here.

Jimmy Failla
Whoa, whoa, whoa, I’ll get there. Okay? But we’re not anti-immigrant, we’re anti-illegal immigrant. We want them to come legally.

Jimmy Failla
That’s all we want. Okay? It is safer for them, it takes the teeth out of the drug cartels and the human traffickers, okay? And if we’re going to talk about the facts about border bills, this magical border bill the Democrats are telling us Trump shot down or they would have passed it, the Democrats controlled the presidency, the Senate and the House in 21 and 22 and guess what they didn’t do? Pass the same border bill he claims they want to pass now.

But let’s take it a step further. When Biden got into office they signed 94 executive orders undoing Trump’s border policy which, if you go look at the records, led to the lowest level of border, uh, crossings, okay, in the last 25 years. And if you want to talk about mass deportation, I don’t want Trump’s policies. I want Obama’s policies. Obama deported more people than Trump. 3 million to 2 million, he was known as the deporter and chief. He was the Pete Rose of Deportation.

But I do believe, I think he was betting on it too. He’s like, “I thought I can get another half a million out of Springfield.” Anyway.

Pete Dominick
Okay.

Jimmy Failla
The point is they undid several of Trump’s border policies that were significant. Remain in Mexico is a real policy, and what it means is if people coming to our country are applying for asylum, which is how they’re technically crossing the border legally. You- you- you apply for asylum. Remain in Mexico meant if you were apprehended at the border, you remained in Mexico until your asylum case was heard and you were granted citizenship.

That incentivized Mexico helping to limit our border crossings. That incentivized Mexico to limit the cartels influence on our border. This is real. And it’s not me trying to say they’re poisoning our genes or anything like that. I’m not here to co-sign Trump’s ideas, because my party isn’t Donald Trump, my partner is America, okay?

And in all honestly, like, you have to understand, it ain’t me getting raped or killed like Link and Riley. When Trump said, “This guy is vermin.” He didn’t say “Anyone who wants to migrate here is vermin.” He said, “This guy is vermin. He raped and murdered a jogger in Athens, Georgia.”

Nayeema Raza
So-

Pete Dominick
You’re try-

Nayeema Raza
All right.

Pete Dominick
Do you support Trump or not?

Nayeema Raza
I just want to like-

Jimmy Failla
I support the policies. I don’t-

Pete Dominick
If we’re being serious, Jimmy, like this is how it works-

Jimmy Failla
Of course-

Pete Dominick
… this is how it works. You made a point about why Democrats didn’t pass legis- the answer to the immigration issue, it’s huge. You want to water it down to ann-

Jimmy Failla
I’m not watering it down.

Pete Dominick
Yeah you do. To anecdotes of people murdering people. [inaudible

]

Jimmy Failla
It’s not an anecdote if you’re dead. You know?

Pete Dominick
No but if you want to do that, then we should talk about who commits the most murders. It’s people that look like you and me.

Jimmy Failla
That’s fine, but we’re here legally.

Pete Dominick
So, but to be clear-

Jimmy Failla
If you could prevent the murderers from coming in you should, that’s the point.

Pete Dominick
That’s not how the world work-

Jimmy Failla
I’m not talking about percentages.

Pete Dominick
That’s- but- this is a complicated issue and what you need is a complicated solution, and so we agree, I hope we agree, that you need a huge new piece of legislation that does all the things that you said.

Jimmy Failla
Mm-hmm.

Pete Dominick
And it was- you said Democrats said some- no. Republicans, in the Senate and the House were supporting this bill. They wanted to pass it. Same thing back in 2013 when Obama was… they wanted to pass it and they didn’t, why not?

Jimmy Failla
So in 21 and 22-

Pete Dominick
Because Trump killed it.

Nayeema Raza
Wait, wait, wait, why don’t you let him answer the question?

Jimmy Failla
Because Trump came in, started construction on a border wall, implemented-

Pete Dominick
No, no, just recently-

Nayeema Raza
No. Uh, sorry Jimmy-

Pete Dominick
… why did they kill the bill recently?

Jimmy Failla
Well, to be honest, like I interviewed Byron Donalds’ on my show last week, he said they were never going to put it to a floor vote because they just thought it was a -bill because it was going to-

Pete Dominick
It was an amazing bill.

Jimmy Failla
… to- in your eyes. Not in their eyes.

Pete Dominick
No, it’s Republican created. It was a huge-

Jimmy Failla
Start here.

Pete Dominick
… billions for border security.

Jimmy Failla
St- January, for Oklahoma-

Pete Dominick
To prevent murder-

Jimmy Failla
… I followed the story, 94 executive orders caused this problem. If anyone watched 60 Minutes last night with Bill Whitaker, he asked Kamala three times if the Democrats whe- regretted waiting three and a half years to do something about the border. They waited three and a half years to do something about the border.

Pete Dominick
They did not-

Jimmy Failla
Yes-

Pete Dominick
… in 2013 Democrats-

Jimmy Failla
In 21 and 22 they had the Senate and the House. If you didn’t pass a bill, that’s called waiting in my books.

Pete Dominick
No. Its not- its not-

Jimmy Failla
They could have done it.

Pete Dominick
… it’s not even-

Jimmy Failla
Can I tell you something? If Cindy Crawford calls me up for a booty call, I’m not waiting three years to get over there.

Nayeema Raza
Oh come on Jimmy, I think you would.

Jimmy Failla
If you want to do it, you do it.

Pete Dominick
You’re going to be-

Nayeema Raza
I’m going to-

Pete Dominick
You’re going to be waiting for a little while longer.

Nayeema Raza
Yeah, I’m going to fact check that.

Pete Dominick
It’s more likely that I text you after the show.

Nayeema Raza
(laughs)

Jimmy Failla
I’m into that.

Nayeema Raza
All right, so, but here, uh, here’s a question, you’re saying, so this is the 2024 border bill that we’re all talking about.

Jimmy Failla
Yeah.

Nayeema Raza
Trump spiked that. Was- was saying, you know, “Don’t vote for it.”

Jimmy Failla
Uh-huh.

Nayeema Raza
Encouraging people not to vote for it. Jimmy, it sounds like your argument is that he spiked it before it would have been- been spiked by House Republicans.

Jimmy Failla
That’s what they say.

Nayeema Raza
That’s what they say.

Jimmy Failla
I mean there are records saying it.

Nayeema Raza
We don’t know. It was- and- but the border bill has all the elements that you guys have agreed is good, close asylum loop holes, uh, give the president more power to close the border as required. Donald Trump did clo- shut that down.

Jimmy Failla
The president has all the power as well-

Pete Dominick
But I’ve- just to be clear, I’ve covered immigration for ten years. I’ve covered Congress for CNN and for Sirius XM. I interviewed the players back then, in 2013, Republicans in the Senate got together with Democrats in the Senate. They passed comprehensive immigration reform, way better than this bill for Republicans.

Mil- billions more on border security than this one, and they brought it to the House and John Boehner, then Speaker of the House, Republican, refused to bring it to the floor for a vote because it would have then passed and they wouldn’t have had it as an issue.

It’s very important that people understand the history of the issue on immigration.

Jimmy Failla
Hm.

Pete Dominick
Republicans do not want to fix this problem, and it’s fascinating to me because there’s no special-

Jimmy Failla
You just undid all the policy.

Pete Dominick
… there’s no lobbyist that are against this. A- Agriculture, Chamber of Commerce, e- e- every capitalist outfit and lobbyist wants immigrants. Right now, in China, they’re begging women to have babies and in America we have the people, we have the workforce, and you want to send the ones that are here out which would shut down this club and every other restaurant in New York-

Jimmy Failla
No, no, just the criminals.

Nayeema Raza
Wait, wait.

Pete Dominick
What?

Nayeema Raza
I- I-

Jimmy Failla
Just the criminals. We don’t want to send them out.

Nayeema Raza
I- I want to just come back to it-

Jimmy Failla
Yeah.

Nayeema Raza
… because Jimmy, uh, raised a question that I think is worth answering, Pete. Which is, okay, if you’re going to say Trump is a, you know, John Boehner of 2024 and shutting down this immigration bill-

Jimmy Failla
Mm-hmm.

Nayeema Raza
Uh, what say you to the idea that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have waited years and-

Pete Dominick
They did not wait three-

Jimmy Failla
[inaudible].

Nayeema Raza
… have- what- what- what- how do you- how do you respond- how do you respond to the situation where illegal immigration is up under President Biden?

Jimmy Failla
Quadrupled. Quadrupled.

Pete Dominick
It- it- it-

Jimmy Failla
No, no, they’re down in the last few months, they’ve quadrupled.

Pete Dominick
If you trust the police, border crossings are down.

Jimmy Failla
If you- if you trust the CBP data they’re not down.

Nayeema Raza
[inaudible]

Jimmy Failla
You’re lying.

Nayeema Raza
Guys-

Jimmy Failla
We’ve had two million people cross the border every year that they’ve been in office.

Nayeema Raza
I can-

Pete Dominick
Well I’m not lying, CDP is lying.

Nayeema Raza
I can actually jump in and say border crossings have been down in the summer of 2024-

Jimmy Failla
Yeah, in the summer of t-

Nayeema Raza
… but they have been up before then. So-

Jimmy Failla
Thank you.

Nayeema Raza
… I just want you to address that.

Pete Dominick
I will say, Jimmy, it’s not nice to say I’m lying. I would never say you’re lying.

Jimmy Failla
What? I don’t know.

Nayeema Raza
Do you think that Kamala Harris and- and Biden have been slow on this issue? And do you think that-

Pete Dominick
No they tried to pass it-

Nayeema Raza
… they’re going to change it?

Pete Dominick
They tried to pass it.

Jimmy Failla
In 2024?

Pete Dominick
They just did, what if… they just tried to pass it. It was just killed by Rep- by Donald Trump. During, while Biden was President and Kamala Harris was Vice President, Republicans, serious Republicans, and Democrats got together the way we want them to and tried to pass it while Biden was president. What are you talking about?

They just tried to pass it and Donald Trump-

Jimmy Failla
In an election year, because it was a liability.

Pete Dominick
Okay but, yes-

Jimmy Failla
Because it was a liability.

Pete Dominick
… did they try to or not? Which is true, Jimmy?

Jimmy Failla
Yeah, but they tried to now because it’s costing them politically.

Pete Dominick
Okay.

Jimmy Failla
Trusting Joe and Kamala to fix the border is like trusting OJ to find the real killer. Straight up.

Okay? I don’t want you to take my word for it, I want you to take Fox News’ word for it. Make a note for yourself. Go home and Google, ‘how many people have crossed the border under Biden and Kamala compared to Trump?’ And also, since we’re talking deportations, look at Obama’s deportation stats. They’re real. I’m not making it up.

I’m here in good faith to have an honest exchange of ideas with you. They screwed up the border. Now to be honest with you, a lot of people in Washington were fine with it. It brings in cheap labor which is good, and that competes against the American worker. If you look at the latest Bureau of Labor statistics in the past year-

Pete Dominick
In what jobs-

Nayeema Raza
But Jimmy, but- it- but here, I want you to respond to Pete’s point which is a lot of this economy runs on the back of immigrants who are working-

Jimmy Failla
And we want them here.

Nayeema Raza
So how-

Jimmy Failla
We want people migrating here legally. That’s what you want to do, so you want to expedite the process of legal migration. You don’t do that by letting in 10 million people because that bumps everybody else to the back of the line.

Nayeema Raza
And what about the people who are already here because Trump had said, for example, he might pursue the Dreamers-

Jimmy Failla
I would be in favor-

Nayeema Raza
… again after the Supreme Court-

Jimmy Failla
I would be in favor of deporting-

Nayeema Raza
… went out against them in 2020?

Jimmy Failla
I would be in favor of deporting every violent criminal. Okay? There’s- there’s mixed messaging because CDP put out data last week-

Nayeema Raza
But Donald Trump is talking about more than that. The potential to bring back migrant camps-

Pete Dominick
I wouldn’t deport violent criminals, they’ll just come back in. Put them in prison where they belong.

Jimmy Failla
Well if you could.

Pete Dominick
Here we do it all the time.

Nayeema Raza
Yeah.

Jimmy Failla
If you could, but we’re not jailing anybody in New York-

Nayeema Raza
But- but Jimmy-

Pete Dominick
Yes we are. We’re jailing all the time.

Nayeema Raza
Sorry, I just want Jimmy… Jimmy, you’re making a more narrow argument, but Donald Trump is talking about a broader migration policy that would, for example, reenact or ex- expand the Muslim ban, um, looking at, you know, uh-

Jimmy Failla
If anyone- yeah.

Nayeema Raza
… kind of creating detention camps. Migration so-

Jimmy Failla
Well ask yourself this question, okay? We recently just, sadly observed the anniversary of 9/11. If somebody would have told you on September 11th, 2001, maybe September 12th. Maybe September 13th-

Pete Dominick
That Donald Trump was going to be president? I would have- [inaudible

]

Jimmy Failla
I wouldn’t have believed it. I wouldn’t have believed it. I wouldn’t have believed it. If somebody would have told you September 12th, 2001 that we’d have a presidential administration that would let in 200 people that we know of on the terror watch list across our border and get lost in our country, we would have demanded they’re imprisonment.

I’m not trying to be funny, like, that’s real, okay? We’ve let in at least 200 known terrorists that we know of. According-

Pete Dominick
We haven’t let them in.

Jimmy Failla
All right, they snuck- the point is they’re in because the border’s open.

Pete Dominick
The point is if you pass- no, if you pass this- the… you have to pass legislation Jimmy. You can’t just, as Trump wants to, “It’ll go away, it’s just going to go away.” Trump will get-

Jimmy Failla
No selective [inaudible]-

Pete Dominick
… elected, by the way, when- if Trump were to get elected he would absolutely, you know he would get elected, if he got elected he would say, “Guess what? They all started leaving. They left. They’re gone. It’s no longer a problem.” He would just make it up.

You have to have laws-

Jimmy Failla
Look at the numbers.

Pete Dominick
… Jimmy, you have to have laws-

Jimmy Failla
When you go home, look at the numbers. Look up-

Pete Dominick
… to pass bord- billions in border security to prevent people from coming in. Nobody’s letting them in.

Jimmy Failla
You- you sign 94 executive orders repealing his border policies. You’ve got to own that babe.

Nayeema Raza
All right.

Jimmy Failla
Go home and look it up. 94 executive orders were signed-

Pete Dominick
Executive orders are-

Jimmy Failla
… undoing Trump’s border policy.

Pete Dominick
… executive orders cannot [inaudible

]-

Nayeema Raza
I- I actually- I’m just going to say, the 94 might not be accurate but we’re going to move on to the third question. Uh, off of immigration and now for foreign policy. I actually think this is the, uh-

Pete Dominick
Oh man.

Nayeema Raza
Is this the one, this is going to drive everyone off the stage? Okay. Let’s go.

Jimmy Failla
(laughs)

Pete Dominick
Do it.

Jimmy Failla
[inaudible].

Nayeema Raza
We’ll be here all night. All right. Um, our third question of the evening relates to foreign policy, specifically how should the US manage national security while balancing relations with China and Russia but avoiding the escalation of global conflicts including nuclear risks? Uh, it’s a long question. Jimmy, I’m going to go to you first.

Jimmy Failla
I mean, I think the obvious answer is to send in the Real Housewives of New Jersey.

Um, we don’t have to get our military involved. No I’m- I’m- obviously, my priority here would be non-military, and I think you’ve got to emphasize weakening the disrupters on the world stage economically.

So the first thing I would do is I would bring back sanctions on Iran. Okay? Because sanctions on Iran, okay, that were re instituted in the name of humanitarian aid, okay, allowed them to make that money fungible and spend it on other things. Iran is the biggest state-sponsor of terrorism in the world. When Trump left office they had $4 billion dollars in oil reserves, they now have about $100 billion in oil reserves and they use that to attack people.

Nayeema Raza
We’re going to take a quick break before we continue debating the question would Kamala Harris or Donald Trump be better for America? I’m Nayeema Raza, this is Open To Debate, and we’ll be back in a minute.

Welcome back to Open To Debate, I’m Nayeema Raza. We’re debating the question would Kamala Harris or Donald Trump be better for America? Now we’re going to get right in to the rest of the debate.

Jimmy Failla
What the Abraham courts did is Trump got six Arabic nations to normalize relationships with Israel which demonstrates some solidarity in the region, boxes out Iran that’s typically a disrupter. And honestly, energy policy is a national security issue because when we are pumping more oil, it brings down the value of bad guy oil, like Putin oil. So I honestly, energy. I would increase energy production, I would secure the border because it’s a national security issue. We have members of the terror watch list crossing the border. That’s reality. It sucks, but you have to secure the border.

So my three big things are economically weaken the disrupters, Iran and Russia certainly matter. I would of course secure the border along the way. And if you were to go from there, I mean, all you really want is peace through strength, and what I mean by that… um, and if you have an issue with anything I’m saying you can hit me up @PeteDominick. Just message me directly.

Message me right there, okay?

Pete Dominick
Should help me.

Jimmy Failla
Hey girl.

Nayeema Raza
(laughs)

Jimmy Failla
But understand, okay? We didn’t have any of this global chaos under Trump.

Pete Dominick
(laughs)

Jimmy Failla
Was the world in a state of unrest? Russia had not invaded Ukraine. They weren’t on the brink of World War Three in Israel right now. This wasn’t going on because we were standing firmly with our allies, and a lot of people didn’t like how Trump approached NATO, because he was like, “Ah, he’s pulling out NATO to pay their fair share.” But if we’d made a pledge that everybody’s got to p- you know, commit 5% of GDP to military spending, and they’re not doing it, they’re taking advantage of us-

Nayeema Raza
All right.

Jimmy Failla
So he’s not wrong to stand his ground.

Nayeema Raza
All right.

Pete Dominick
I mean…

Nayeema Raza
Thank you Jimmy. Pete, same question to you. I’m going to repeat it now, uh, uh, the question is, how should the US manage national security particularly vis a vie China, Russia, nuclear risks, and escalating of global conflicts?

Pete Dominick
Well ch- I mean, Donald Trump does not care about America, period. He definitely doesn’t care about our national security. Now here’s how you know because he is- loves our worst enemies. Loves them. He’s real- he admires them. He wants to be Vladimir Putin. He loves, uh, Xi Jinping.

Russia is our adversary. It’s leader is a war criminal. Russia threatens not only Ukraine, but all of our allies in Europe. The only response to Russia is to uphold international law and reject their aggression.

Jimmy, if you agree that Russia is our enemy, the very best thing we can do is to continue to support the Ukrainian to bleed them dry and destroy their military. It’s a tiny fraction of our defense budget. Or you can send American young men and women to fight-

Jimmy Failla
No, we don’t have to do either.

Pete Dominick
… their wars.

Jimmy Failla
We don’t have to do either. Let’s find an end to the war. That’s the bottom line. Russia-

Pete Dominick
There is the end- the end- right.

Jimmy Failla
I don’t know. They have nukes.

Pete Dominick
The end of the war is- [inaudible]

Jimmy Failla
Why are we prolonging a war with a military power? What constitutes victory for us? You say, “All right, we decimate Russia-”

Nayeema Raza
Sorry, I’m going to let Pete finish answering his question then we can jump in.

Pete Dominick
So let me- and- and Trump- Trumps record, you said Russia and China, I mean like, we know- we know Donald Trump… we just found out, Bob Woodword’s new book, Trump has talked to Putin apparently 7 times since he left office. Begrudgingly, he wouldn’t admit he lost because he’s the biggest liar in the world, and told the worst most damaging lie that anyone could ever imaginably tell in this country. Like, worse than any of our kids could do. He’s done it over and over.

And he’s talking to Putin while Biden is president. It’s against the law and it’s a terrible thing for America to do that.

Now, number two, Trump’s record on China is horrendous. Listen to all the things that he said he would do, failed on every one. End the outsourcing. He pledged to reclaim millions of American jobs and revive American factor- uh, manufacturing. Didn’t do it, didn’t even come close.

On the campaign trail he said about China, that we’ll adopt a zero t- uh, tolerance policy on intellectual property theft. Now, Trump has no idea what intellectual property is. He thinks it’s his name on the side of a building. But he didn’t do it after four years. Nothing changed.

Stopped subsidizing the anti-China program, forcing Beijing to abandon its system of what he termed was unh- unfair help for his companies. Nope. Failed on that one. Who’s this from? The Economist, that liberal bastion.

Shrink the deficit, the trade deficit. Nope. Trump did not do that. Currency manipulation? Got nothing done on that or the tech war. Trump was president for four years. He did nothing but make friends with China, uh, and make friends with its leader and its- he’s got the record and it’s a terrible one.

Nayeema Raza
All right.

Pete Dominick
Of course, uh, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have a much better record vis a vie China already on the trade deficit, on intellectual property and everything else I just mentioned.

Jimmy Failla
I don’t know what scares me more, that Trump might have talked to Putin 8 times or that Biden thinks he got a call from [inaudible

] today. I- listen-

Pete Dominick
It- luckily Kamala Harris is the candidate.

Jimmy Failla
I could, uh, read a lot from a website just the same and cite other people’s words. Uh, and I’m not saying those words are wrong. I’m not even challenging you on that fact, okay?

Pete Dominick
You can’t challenge any of these facts ’cause they’re objective.

Jimmy Failla
I’m sure I could if I listened to them but I fell asleep listening. It was a lot. You said a lot.

Pete Dominick
But that’s the problem.

Jimmy Failla
You said a lot.

Pete Dominick
That’s the problem.

Jimmy Failla
Dude, no, no. That’s not the problem.

Pete Dominick
It’s nuanced. These things are difficult Jimmy.

Jimmy Failla
Of course it’s nuanced.

Pete Dominick
I know they’re hard.

Jimmy Failla
It’s not a binary choice. It’s not hard.

Pete Dominick
You and I are both dummies.

Nayeema Raza
I wanted-

Jimmy Failla
Let me just give you this. Let me just give you this.

Pete Dominick
But you’ve got to be able to un- to pay attention for a few minutes on tough ideas.

Nayeema Raza
Can I-

Jimmy Failla
If you poll, if you go look at any poll, you don’t have to look at a Fox poll, go look at any poll, okay? Do Americans think they’re better off now than they were four years ago? And the answer is a resounding ‘no’.

Pete Dominick
Okay, but what about China?

Jimmy Failla
And well-

Pete Dominick
And Russia?

Jimmy Failla
You can talk to me about all those things but as a guy who was a cab driver, you understand, when I started in the city, people talk about not having money in the bank. I didn’t have a bank. I was banking in a Nike shoe box, hoping to get lucky enough to save up to the bank of Reebok. Do you understand?

Jimmy Failla
And when I hear 70% of American’s are living paycheck to paycheck, like, it breaks my heart. You understand? And that’s the end result of what’s happened.

Inflation? You could attribute some of it to COVID, you can tell me government spending, but people don’t think they’re better off under this administration. And when Kamala says, “We’re not going back” or “We’re going to turn the page.” She’s writing the book, what difference does it make? Democrats have controlled the presidency for 12 out of the last 16 years.

If you’re telling me hope is lost, check under your couch cushions man, because you lost it.

Pete Dominick
Jimmy, I know that- I know that you want to keep telling me about feelings and anecdotes-

Jimmy Failla
No-

Pete Dominick
… and what people told you in the back of a cab.

Jimmy Failla
But that’s real.

Pete Dominick
No, but that- what matters actually is-

Nayeema Raza
Guys, I want to actually… I want to get you back on track here.

Pete Dominick
I thought I had equal time here.

Nayeema Raza
Uh, you do. You- you do have equal time. You got equal time.

Pete Dominick
He just went for like, 19 minutes about people in a cab and how they felt.

Nayeema Raza
Yes, I know, I felt like Jimmy you’re running for office. You’re running for office now that you’ve got those- [inaudible

]

Jimmy Failla
I could never pass the background check. Ever, ever, ever.

Nayeema Raza
There’s- there was a lot of soapbox there, okay?

Jimmy Failla
Yeah.

Nayeema Raza
Okay, so here’s the question. Pete, you’re making the argument that Donald Trump is a destabilizing force, who- who has other interests in mind than the United-

Pete Dominick
I know it sounds shocking.

Nayeema Raza
… than the United States. And Jimmy, you’re making a different argument.

Jimmy Failla
Yup.

Nayeema Raza
You’re saying Donald Trump is actually a stabilizing force. He’s a baddy, a, uh, he’s Brat.

Jimmy Failla
[inaudible

] but he’s definitely not Brat.

Nayeema Raza
He’s- he’s like- he’s- he’s definitely by-

Jimmy Failla
He’s not bratty, he’s [inaudible

]. No I’m just kidding.

Nayeema Raza
No he’s- he’s-

Jimmy Failla
That’s why I like him.

Nayeema Raza
He’s holding off- but he’s- but he’s holding the worlds, you know, powers at bay.

Jimmy Failla
Yeah.

Nayeema Raza
So these are two competing visions of what’s happening right now in the world. I think Pete, could you respond to that? Try to make the case for why?

Pete Dominick
Well yeah, I- I don’t know if I agree with your characterization, uh, because it takes too seriously, I think, what we- what we think, even. And if the question is is he a stabilizer? One really important foreign policy is the Paris Climate Treaty. You t- you- your question was about Russia and China, and we- we talked about them but Jimmy and Donald Trump don’t, and MAGA nation, many of you here, don’t believe the scientific consensus that climate change is causing horrible storms. Man-made, from burning fossil fuels.
By the way, Jimmy, I won’t say you lie. I d- I- I think you’re misled but I won’t say that about you. When you said earlier, “We need to get back to-” and under, energy production, under Biden Harris, more energy is being produced than ever has been produced. It’s inarguable. You just say it, but it’s not true. No one thinks that. The oil companies definitely aren’t saying what you’re saying.

Jimmy Failla
No, on, they’re happy now.

Pete Dominick
They’re pumping more oil than they ever pump. Natural gas, more than ever-

Nayeema Raza
You’re happy now?

Jimmy Failla
But what I just-

Pete Dominick
… more than ever.

Jimmy Failla
What I just said… no, no. That was an answer-

Pete Dominick
So let me just finish my point.

Jimmy Failla
… to how we lower inflation, I said “Ramp up production even higher.”

Pete Dominick
The most- the most important threat to America’s national security is tomorrow. Florida’s getting hammered by hurricane, and before that. Climate change is an existential crisis. Jimmy and Donald Trump don’t believe it’s a thing. They think it’s a hoax created by the Chinese.

How many of you, by round of applause, think windmills cause cancer? None of you think that because you’re not… you- you try- I mean, the idea that people don’t trust-

Nayeema Raza
I- I want to-

Pete Dominick
… the scientific consensus on that or vaccine’s, that’s when we lose-

Jimmy Failla
Well the sci- listen.

Pete Dominick
That’s when we lose. America loses.

Nayeema Raza
Yes. I want to point out that Jimmy didn’t clap on that either.

Jimmy Failla
Yeah.

Nayeema Raza
Jimmy, make an argument for why is… Kamala Harris and Biden did ramp up energy production-

Jimmy Failla
Which is good.

Nayeema Raza
… they have actually taken forward many of Trump’s ideas on China to actually implement some policies, ships act, et cetera.

Jimmy Failla
After [inaudible

] on the campaign trail, yeah, of course.

Nayeema Raza
Yeah, so-

Jimmy Failla
Same with tariffs. They left his tariffs in place and they’re like true-

Nayeema Raza
But are the foreign policies that different? Do you really believe that Donald Trump… I mean, this is a guy that does have a relationship with Putin so maybe respond to that.

Jimmy Failla
I think his- I think, honestly, what he represents in the world stage is peace through strength. That’s what you want to get back to.

Pete Dominick
No they l- the world laughed at Donald Trump.

Jimmy Failla
Okay great.

Pete Dominick
He’s the weakest man you can ever imagine. He’s insane-

Jimmy Failla
But you know what they didn’t do? They didn’t invade each other.

Pete Dominick
Yes they did.

Jimmy Failla
They didn’t pull our troops out of Ukraine before our civilians.

Pete Dominick
Yes they did.

Jimmy Failla
And make us a laughing stock.

Nayeema Raza
All right guys. I see-

Jimmy Failla
You guys are bad on foreign pol- like, again, I don’t need you to-

Pete Dominick
We’re bad on foreign policy?

Jimmy Failla
I don’t need you to trust me or Pete-

Nayeema Raza
Wait, wait, wait.

Pete Dominick
No, no, no. I need Jimmy to answer what I said about climate change. I focused on climate change.

Nayeema Raza
Jimmy-

Pete Dominick
And- and-

Nayeema Raza
Jimmy should Donald Trump-

Pete Dominick
And Jim- and Jimmy doesn’t believe in it.

Jimmy Failla
Well I think the big issue with the Paris Climate Change agreement is that it was non-binding, which means China wasn’t obligated to cut omissions and China out-pollutes the rest of the industrialized nations combined, so it doesn’t matter. It’s symbolic. And do you understand if China out-pollutes the rest of the industrialized world and we all share a planet, all we’re doing down our end of the pool is creating a no-peeing section.

Pete Dominick
You can’t fix-

Nayeema Raza
All right guys.

Jimmy Failla
But here’s a newsflash-

Nayeema Raza
Hey guys.

Jimmy Failla
… the other end of the pool is eventually coming our way.

Pete Dominick
Still didn’t answer my question.

Nayeema Raza
Guys, uh, we’re going to take a break. We’re going to take questions from the audience. Here you go, first question.

Audience
Hey guys, uh, my name’s Matthew and I feel like I could speak for a few people in here when it feels like the tension can definitely be cut in this conversation.

Jimmy Failla
Uh-huh.

Audience
So, to make it maybe a little bit lighter, can you guys tell me about how your candidate would be able to be a president for all Americans? And also can you say one nice thing about each other.

Nayeema Raza
Oh. That’s nice. (laughs)

Pete Dominick
We- do you even remember w- what we said about each other at- what I said immediately about Jimmy? So, sorry if it’s gotten tense but we’re- we’re debating issues-

Jimmy Failla
No we’re homies. We don’t care. We absolutely don’t care. We’re comedians, we’re so much ruder in the green room.

Pete Dominick
Last night, I’ll say something nice about Jimmy from last night. Last night Jimmy posted that he was at the Yankee game with his son and then we- he and I talked about how special that is. I- I think he’s a great dad and I could say about ten other… this has nothing to do with Jimmy and I.

Jimmy Failla
No, no. Not at all. Not at all.

Nayeema Raza
All right, Jimmy.

Jimmy Failla
Yeah?

Nayeema Raza
Nice thing about Pete and then we’ll roll into the next one.

Jimmy Failla
Uh, I’ve loved Pete since I first met him at the Hah Comedy Club. I know nobody likes to showoff but we were performing at an opium den on Restaurant Row-

Where we were paid in chicken fingers that didn’t pass the board of health. Um-

Nayeema Raza
Pete, why is your candidate, Kamala Harris, a candidate for all Americans?

Pete Dominick
Uh, Kamala Harris is a candidate for all Americans ’cause Kamala Harris is a serious person who led a, quote, “normal and adverse life”. She grew up with a single mom, she overcame all kinds of adversity, I- I think that she went to great schools, she became the District Attorney of San Francisco, the Attorney General of California, a United States Senator and the Vice President of the United States and she would obviously would obviously be a- a president of all Americans.

Nayeema Raza
All right-

Pete Dominick
White or black, old or young.

Nayeema Raza
Jimmy.

Jimmy Failla
Bottom line, uh, Donald Trump being a president for all Americans by putting America first. Okay? That’s the Trump doctrine.

Pete Dominick
Doesn’t mean anything.

Jimmy Failla
It means a lot. You know what it means? It means when we engage in a foreign treaty we don’t get ripped off. NATO being a good example, every ally pays their fair share. It means you should close the southern border so American-born labor doesn’t lose a job to migrant labor. Not that we don’t want their labor, but we want legal labor.

Nayeema Raza
I have another person waiting to ask a question.

Audience
My question is not inclusive. It’s probably divisive.

Jimmy Failla
Oh let’s go.

Audience
Uh, Jimmy, you mentioned earlier that people aren’t as happy today and I know a huge group of people, we call them women-

Jimmy Failla
(laughs)

Audience
… uh, who are really not happy. And then the other people are like, the res- the reversal on cannabis policy. So like, those are two groups of which I’m part of both.

Jimmy Failla
Uh-huh.

Audience
So I really feel like it’s important for you to know that.

Jimmy Failla
You’re part of the cannabis thing?

Audience
And women.

Jimmy Failla
Well meet me after the show.

Audience
I- I gladly run a dispensary in New Jersey.

Jimmy Failla
Tune into Water’s World tonight, Jimmy’s going to be baked.

Audience
But [inaudible

]. But- but the point is, like, are we going to have lots more of this role reversal?

Nayeema Raza
I think the question you’re tying to get to is-

Jimmy Failla
Is it about abortion?

Nayeema Raza
… how can- how can Donald Trump- yes.

Jimmy Failla
And the- the abortion question and this is important that we address this. When they overturned the- when they, the Dobbs decision overturned Roe versus Wade, Trump is not telling the truth. To be clear, wen he goes, “Everybody wanted this, everybody-” of course they didn’t want it, which is why the red wave didn’t materialize in the midterms. Women mobilized and they voted Democrat. They cost the Trump, uh, Republican party in the midterms. It did.

But where you’re being misled is the overturning of Roe versus Wade didn’t ban abortion, it sent it back to the States.

Pete Dominick
In those States it’s banned.

Jimmy Failla
No, no. JD Vance openly admitted last week, okay, that his state of Ohio voted for a more-

Pete Dominick
Where women live.

Jimmy Failla
Okay, and they voted for a more liberal interpretation of abortion laws than he would have preferred. And he said, “I have to do a better job of persuading people” but the reality is the states now define how much abortion and what limits they would support, if any, on the issue. It is not a federal issue.

It didn’t mean your rights got taken away-

Pete Dominick
(laughs)

Jimmy Failla
… it had every state… if you live in a blue state, is New York going to vote to ban abortion? No.

Pete Dominick
How can- Jimmy, how can- how can you say that with a straight face to the women-

Jimmy Failla
How? Because it’s the truth, dude.

Pete Dominick
But it does- but it- hold on, it’s not the truth. The truth is-

Jimmy Failla
Uh-huh.

Pete Dominick
… in those states that you’re-

Jimmy Failla
Uh-huh.

Pete Dominick
… your argument and- and Trump’s argument is that, “Oh we didn’t take abor- he didn’t overturn abortion, just in those states.”

Jimmy Failla
No.

Pete Dominick
Right? So he did in those states-

Jimmy Failla
Each state has its own [inaudible

] right-

Pete Dominick
And- and in those states women have less rights now than they did before, yes or no?

Jimmy Failla
But understand-

Pete Dominick
No, no, no. Yes or no?

Jimmy Failla
… if they voted for that, that’s called democracy.

Pete Dominick
No they didn’t vote for that.

Jimmy Failla
You know, when you say “democracy’s on the ballet”?

Pete Dominick
But they didn’t vote for that. Those states didn’t vote for that.

Jimmy Failla
People vote for what they wanted, would be my stance on the issue. Okay? Women, just to be clear, and I’m a Conservative, and well aware that abortion’s not going away. Okay? It’s not a political winner for the Republicans, it’s not a political winner for women, and if anything, you might see 15 week limits like they have in Europe which I personally support, but it doesn’t mean you’re not my friend and we can’t live in the same country if we disagree. That’s all.

But I think the states are going to have a voice now, and obviously super liberal places are going to want more abortion. Conservative places are going to want less abortion.

Pete Dominick
It’s not- it’s not- it’s not liberal or conservative. It’s healthcare.

Nayeema Raza
Thank you.

Pete Dominick
Women’s healthcare. That’s what it is. It always has been. To say that it’s liberal or conservative… abortion- abortion is a religious issue. It’s a religious right-wing Christian issue. It’s not a Jewish or Muslim issue. It’s the right-way, Christian, Nationalist movement has taken women’s right-

Nayeema Raza
All right.

Pete Dominick
… way, way back. Don’t make it liberal or conservative. This is women’s healthcare. Let them make the decision between them and their doctors. Not the government.

Jimmy Failla
Dude, the only- the only-

Nayeema Raza
All right, guys?

Pete Dominick
And that [inaudible

] starts speaking for a baby. That’s all.

Nayeema Raza
I’m going to- I’m going to cut off that conversation.

Pete Dominick
[inaudible] speaking for women.

Nayeema Raza
Right here. And-

Jimmy Failla
We picked all the good comedy topics for this.

Nayeema Raza
Yes we did. We did. All right. Guys, we’re going to move to closing arguments. We’ve made it to the end of the debate with barely any mentions of cats or dogs-

Jimmy Failla
Aw hell.

Nayeema Raza
… and no mentions of McDonalds and thankfully nothing at the intersection of that venn diagram.

Nayeema Raza
Um, but it is now time to bring it home with some closing remarks. Uh, Pete, you’re up first. Why would Kamala Harris be better for America?

Pete Dominick
Donald Trump, it’s really important that our leaders care about the people that they are leading. Kamala Harris, on the other hand, was- was born into basically middle class and when she was 14 her best friend said, “I am, I’m being sexually abused at home.” And do you know what Kamala Harris did? She said, “Now you have to come live with us.” And she used that as an impetus to go and prosecute sexual criminals, which is how she got her start. She prosecuted the worst type of criminals in the world and ironically enough, now she’s up against one.

And it’s… there- there’s- I just can’t imagine how we’re still having this debate after the third time.

Nayeema Raza
All right, uh, Jimmy, maybe you can answer that question in your closing argument.

Jimmy Failla
I’m not sure if that was Kamala’s bio or he just read Spiderman’s origin story from Stan Lee?

Nayeema Raza
All right. Jimmy, you have the final word in this debate. You’re arguing that Donald Trump would be better for America.

Jimmy Failla
Oh yeah.

Nayeema Raza
Tell us why.

Jimmy Failla
I’ll make one really ser- like, semi-serious point. A lot of the people who support Trump don’t co-sign his behavior because we can’t. Okay? Obviously everything that comes out of his mouth is not something I would be okay with, but we’re not voting for the person. I’m telling you the reason people vote for him is they had more money in the bank when he was in office. They felt like the border was more secure when he was in office. They felt like we weren’t on the verge of World War Three and Russia and the Middle East when he was in office.

If you don’t like war, if you don’t like an open border and you like having money in the bank, you can get over the fact that he says people are eating cats, as long as you don’t have to end up eating them too. You know what I’m saying?

Nayeema Raza
And that concludes our debate. I’d like to thank our debaters, Pete Dominick and Jimmy Failla. Thank you Jimmy Failla. We so appreciate you showing up, approaching this debate with an open mind and bringing your thoughtful and comedic disagreement to the table.

In short, your being open to debate.

I’d like to thank the crowd here tonight at the Comedy Cellar. For your questions, for hearing out this debate, even as you may disagree with some or all of being said, and I’d like to thank our broader audience at Open To Debate. Thank you guys. Thank you.

And finally, a big thank you to you, the audience, for tuning in to this episode of Open To Debate. Thank you for listening to Open To Debate. As a non-profit working to combat extreme polarization through civil debate, our work is made possible by listeners like you, the Rosenkranz Foundation and supporters of Open To Debate.

Robert Rosenkranz is our Chairman. Our CEO is Clea Conner. Lia Matthow is our Chief Content Officer and Elizabeth Kitzenberg is our Chief Advancement Officer. This episode was produced by Alexis Pancrazi, Jessica Glazer, and Marlette Sandoval. Editorial and research by Gabriella Mayer, and Andrew Foote. Andrew Lipson and Max Fulton provided production support, and the Open To Debate team also includes Gabrielle Iannucelli, Rachel Kemp, Erik Gross, Anna Lisa Cochrane and Linda Lee. Damon Whitemore mixed this episode. Our theme music is by Alex Clement, and I’m your host Nayeema Raza.

We’ll see you next time on Open To Debate.