Join us to support the fight against Big Tech, mainstream media, and government censorship. Become a Hot Air VIP member today and use promo code SAVEAMERICA to receive a 40% discount on your membership.

Welcome to our VIP feature for Hot Air as well as a members-only show in the Hughniverse! Duane Patterson and I now are doing a Week in Review show for Friday evenings, exclusive to members in both platforms. Duane has been the Generalissimo behind the Hugh Hewitt Show for more than two decades, and we have partnered on weekly commentary since 2007.

Some highlights from today’s show:

• Duane scoffs at the Protection Racket Media’s coverage of the $20 million follow-the-money revelations by House Oversight. “It’s going to be the big story for the next few weeks, regardless of whether the mainstream media wants,” he says. Duane also mocks their avoidance narratives: “Well, we don’t have a direct payment. We don’t see an actual video of Joe Biden taking the check and walking it down, shuffling it down to the bank account, endorsing the back and sticking it in the ATM. Until we have that, there’s no evidence.”
• It’s actually worse than that, I point out. “My 1st day back,” I say, “NBC News has a report on this, which … is that Republicans are pouncing on Joe’s brand as a squeaky clean family man. You’ve got to be kidding me.”
• Is Fox attempting to pre-empt a Trump rally countering its debate? Duane fills us in on a notable warning from FNC. “If you’re not part of Fox, you are allowed 3 minutes, count them, 3 minutes sum-total of activity you can carry from the debate. Now that can be ten cuts that are 20 seconds long, or it can be one cut that’s 3 minutes long, but that’s it.” That will force people to watch live rather than get extensive recaps the next day, Duane argues, which will pull viewers away from any Trump rally.
• That may be the strategy, I respond, but it may not be necessary. “He’s thinking it’s 2015,” I say, “but he doesn’t get those kinds of ratings for his rallies any more.” The debate will almost certainly get most of the interest, because that will be “novel now,” while another Trump rally will be “really just the same old thing.”
• Is it too late to get Will Smith on the debate stage, I wonder?
• We have a lot of fun at California’s expense over the effort to use bidirectional tech to use EVs as a grid stabilizer. Duane quips, “If this thing goes through, [Gavin Newsom] will have a new nickname. He will be known as Count Voltura.”

There is plenty more in today’s episode, so be sure to watch it all and then join us in the comments!