Clock It with Symone & Eugene

As the U.S. tries to strike a deal in the Middle East, Symone and Eugene wonder why in the WORLD Jared Kushner and JD Vance are leading negotiations. Kushner’s private equity deals in the Middle East – and the chaos around Vance’s aborted trip to Islamabad this week – have Symone and Eugene asking who’s really running the White House. We know who’s running The Baltimore Sun, though: the chairman of right-wing media behemoth Sinclair Broadcast Group, currently “investigating” Maryland governor Wes Moore. But there are bright spots on the horizon. Eugene’s former boss, Politico co-founder Robert Allbritton, is now reviving the Washington Star and snatching up journalists and beats recently shed by the Washington Post. Then cultural and fashion icon Michaela angela Davis joins the chat to reminisce about the heyday of Black media when magazines like Vibe, Honey, and Essence felt like home base for Black journalists. “ We miss the place,” says Ms. Davis, “where everything is political, but also everything is stylish and funny.”

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Trump is a lot of things: the 45th and 47th President of the United States, the former host of “The Apprentice,” a man whose businesses have filed for bankruptcy six times, the owner of more than a dozen golf courses. But he is most definitely not Jesus. For one, while Trump may want to be known as a peacebringer, he keeps starting fights. This week the ceasefire in Iran is holding, but on Sunday Trump turned his gaze to the Vatican and started beefing with America's first pope. The leaders of Archdioceses in Newark, Washington D.C., and Chicago told “60 Minutes” the war in Iran is “not a just war,” and about 90 minutes later the President posted a giant paragraph on Truth Social labeling the Pope “weak on crime.” Pope Leo XIV has been calling for peace for months – which has put him at odds with Trump’s Cabinet. “Jesus,” said the Pope on Palm Sunday, “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’” Symone and Eugene unpack the conflict between the two leaders, the potential Democrats have to investigate the administration if they win the midterm elections, and this year’s edition of Coachella, or as Eugene likes to call it, “the Capitol in the Hunger Games.” And then Symone and Eugene are joined by New York Times bestselling author and poet Cleo Wade, who reminds them we are all worth hope, and we are all worth a better world.

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This week gas prices were dramatic, brand new Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin took to Fox News to walk back promises he made during his confirmation hearings just last month, and Trump (among other things) threatened journalists with jail time for protecting leakers. So Symone and Eugene ask Geoff Bennett, PBS anchor and author of “Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to '90s Sitcoms” to join the groupchat. Together they compile a list of ideas for distracting yourself – i.e. preserving your sanity – while the President of the United States is posting “a whole civilization will die tonight”: Victor Glover putting lotion on in space, Christina Koch fixing the space toilet, dinosaurs, rewatch “A Different World,” rewatch “Living Single,” dinosaurs again, make bracelets for your friends and family, make phone cases for your friends and family. “You gotta find some whimsy every day,” says Symone. “Cause the world is hard.”

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As the war in the Middle East continues and Americans take to the streets to protest, Symone and Eugene turn to a familiar figure to make sense of these strange times: "Auntie" Rachel Maddow. The trio ask if President Trump can distinguish reality from fantasy. Does he have a comprehension problem? Or is he emotionally lazy? But the thing is, Rachel Maddow doesn’t actually care what’s going on in his brain. “I am very disinterested in him as a person,” she says. “I know that Donald Trump wants to dismantle us as a constitutional republic. The most important thing is what the country is going to do in trying to stop him. What is everybody else going to do?” And Eugene tears up talking about how important it is for the American people to realize they have agency. "They don’t have to  accept the idea that their neighbors are gonna be snatched up and taken away. They don't have to accept the idea that, you know, gay marriage may go away. They don't have to accept that sh*t.” Plus Druski gets millions talking about Erika Kirk again, while Nick Cannon, Amber Rose, and TLC’s Chilli display their own comprehension problems.

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Trump says he was the first person to think ICE agents would help with the interminable lines around the country. “That was like the paperclip,” he said, standing on a tarmac in West Palm Beach on Monday. “You know the story of the paperclip? 182 years ago, a man discovered the paperclip. It was so simple and everybody that looked at it [would] say, why didn't I think of that?” And Eugene points out that no one else thought of it because it’s a terrible idea. He and Symone also call the war in Iran “a choice,” and look at the small percentage of Americans (it’s 1%) that stands to benefit from that choice. “This  is a wealth transfer that is hiding in a gas price,” says Symone, referring to a study of the 2022 oil shock  – caused by Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine – that showed the net income of publicly listed oil and gas companies tripled the last time oil cost as much as it does now. Then social media star Harry Sisson joins to talk the difference in standards between traditional media and creators, cynicism, and faith in the American people.

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