12-5-24 Afternoon Rush - Haliey Welch from Tawk Tuah Podcast UNDER FIRE After 'Meme Coin' Launch & Alex Cooper From Call Her Daddy Shares Decision To Interview Kamala Harris

Welcome to the rush hour, your daily dose of pop culture for your rush hour ride. Buckle up and enjoy the drive with your host, standup comedian, Dave Neal. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. It's thirsty Thursday for you. December 5th, 2024. I got all your news in one place. So get out your hot chocolates and peppermint schnapps.

And let's, uh, let's, let's discuss some crazy stories to end 2024. We have facial images, or at least partial of the healthcare CEO shooter plus possible motives and other assassination speculation. We'll dive into that story. That's really gripping the nation and Haley Welch, AKA Hawk. To a girl under massive fire, as she's been accused of insider trading and pumping and possibly dumping her new Hawk to a meme coin.

How's that for the ending of her 2024 story? Uh, some, some are saying it's career ending. We'll have to see, uh, what, what had to be said. She was exposed by coffee Zilla live on, uh, one of her, uh, I guess, uh, uh, online audio hangs. And she abruptly ended the, uh, the hang. So it could be pretty ugly out there for her.

Plus pro dancer, Sasha discusses working with his partner, Jen Tran and caller daddy's Alex Cooper discusses her success, uh, uh, during a Forbes 30 under 30 event and Taylor Swift. Prepares for a long break from touring as she finishes up her massive multi year tour schedule, all of those stories and more.

It's all coming up next on The Rush. Well, Taylor Swift dominated the streams this year for music. Here is her. I just wanted to say thank you so much for being one of my top listeners on Spotify. That's so nice of you. Um, I look back on this year and I think about how special you guys made it for us being on the Aeros tour.

Went all over the world. We went to Europe, Australia, Asia, back through America, then to Canada. And so, um, thank you if you came to see the show. Thank you for streaming the music. Um, it's just been such a wild ride and I really appreciate everything you guys have done, including Listening to my music so much.

All right. So there she is. So is she going to hang things up? Is this like her young retirement? What's happening? Well, Toronto sun. com reported end of an era, exhausted Taylor Swift plans to take a year off after record breaking errors tour ends. I mean, here's the truth. A lot of times this happens, right?

You, uh, spend a couple of years writing music. Then you tour that music. Then you write new music album, rinse and repeat. Well, her. Tour has been so successful that she keeps selling out stadiums. I mean, what is she supposed to do? They can't make venues big enough for her. She says she's excited for some relaxation and downtime.

Now, whether that actually happens is yet to be seen, but here is what Nikki Glazer, big time Taylor Swift, Swifty, and also standup comedian had to say about hoping that maybe this isn't the end. Who knows what's going to happen. I have, I just, I have a swifty suspicion there's going to be more something, but I am going to night three in Vancouver and I'm very, um, sad that it's ending because it's been such a huge part of my life.

I've gone to 22 shows. And so, um, but it's, um, I'm so excited. Like I, I haven't felt this kind of excitement since the first one, you know, like it's, it's, so who knows what's going to happen. I think it's going to be probably a six hour show with all the applauding and crying and like just Us wanting to thank her for all the work she's put in Wild the takeaway there was 22 shows and of course, we have Bachelorette Jen Tran trying to go to the finale show in Toronto I guess she's having her passport FedEx to her cause she can't get there without the passport.

Uh, but it's delayed. So we'll have updates on that whole story. Again, this is really all meaningless stuff, but isn't most, uh, you know, entertainment news meaningless. I'll tell you what though. We have got some of the biggest female artists out there from Taylor Swift to Nikki Glaser. She's an artist to Alex Cooper to podcasters count as artists.

She's an artist in the form of conversation, and here's what she had to say regarding both presidential candidates, because listen, this is how you know you're a big podcaster. When both presidential candidates are trying to get on your show, you would try to avoid politics. I did, or at least you said you were trying to avoid politics.

And then what happened? Did they reach out to you? Do you reach out to them? Yeah, they reached out. Both sides reached out and, um, you say both. So Trump reached out to, Oh yeah. We had a zoom call with Trump's team. Tell us about that. I wasn't on it. I was like, let me know how that goes. Um, I wasn't, I wasn't, I wasn't on it, but they reached out.

And I think the interesting thing. Thought for me was what I have built. I'm the very competitive person back to my athlete nature days. I'm like, how do we keep ramping this up? And although I didn't want to technically get into politics, I did recognize there was a larger conversation that was directly impacting my audience, right?

Joe Rogan has a conversation. He knows his audience. I know my audience. And it's a bunch of women looking for someone to advocate for them every single day. And I understand people are like, Oh God, like, you're going to focus the whole time on abortion? Yeah, I am. Because it's not about abortion. It's about women's right to their bodies.

So, I thought, Why not have on someone that could potentially have a huge impact? And so there it is. So I mean, look, just to, I always say this, you know, don't get mad at content creators for using their platform in the direction they think is the right direction. You should actually, you should actually give them like street cred for, for taking a stance on anything, right?

I hate this idea that people shame others. It's like, look, you're, you're. You can unsubscribe from me or from her or wherever you want, but at least give credit to those that are willing to put their name on the line for something that they believe in. Even if it might be different than something you or I believe in.

There was another question asked about comparing her to, uh, Howard Stern. Have a listen to that. Say, uh, that one Sirius XM wanted to get you is because that you could become the successor at some point to Howard Stern. What do you think of that? I just, I'm like. I, oh my god, I was going to say something saying like, I have a vagina, but that was going to be inappropriate, so pretend, let's rewind.

I am a woman, like, I don't need to keep being compared to these men, I'm like, I'm Alex Cooper, I'm going to be Alex Cooper all day, and if I happen to sit next to Joe Rogan or Howard Stern, put me in the middle, but I'm, I'm not trying to be the next Joe Rogan. Howard Stern. I think Howard Stern is so talented.

What he has built is incredible. And I think what I have built is also incredible. I think what I've built is a lifestyle and a community of people, right? Like at first it started as an IP that had a catalog and it was many episodes of me talking about my life. And then I started interviewing people and now I have a catalog that is obviously worth a lot of money.

But aside from a catalog of just content, what the content has built is a community. Of primarily women who show up every week and want to be seen and heard and wanna engage with the content. And I think it's great. I just, I can't believe she doesn't talk about Sophie Franklin, Sophia Franklin, her partner, who of course was cut outta the deal.

Um, but, but which by the way. It wasn't, uh, it wasn't Alex Cooper's fault. Her partner overshot her, her, uh, overshot what she thought she was worth and went out on her own. And now Alex Cooper is worth, I guess, hundreds of millions of dollars more than her wild stuff. Wild stuff indeed. But Hey, yeah, good on her for sharing her voice.

All right. Well, before we get to the heavy stuff, cause we will be covering the, uh, assassin on the loose. What a wild end to 2024. It didn't have that on my bingo card, but what did you have on? You know what I mean? It's just a wild world we live in, but here's a professional dancer, Sasha speaking, um, on a podcast called the Joe about, uh, his possible, uh, tango he's doing with Jen Tran.

She's still trying to learn dance moves now with you? Yes. She's still like, she's definitely trying to learn dance moves. And you know, I feel like with Jen, I've only known her for three months. Which is so crazy to think about. Crazy. Crazy. And that's her calling me. Let's have a look. Jen, you know? Pick it up.

Should I pick it up? Yeah.

Oh, she hung up. Um, she is just amazing. You know, I feel like I've known her for three months and, uh, and I've known her my whole life. And that's, and I've been like that with all my partners. Like, Alison, there is not a day that goes by that we don't talk for at least 30 minutes. You know, I would get texts from Mary Lou Redden, pictures of her daughter having babies, pictures of our other dancers, and how much she misses it.

Tonya Harding messages me and is like, I'm fit and ready to go, put me in coach. She's still trying to learn. That's just crazy. I mean, it's crazy. The experience that these dancers get to have by coaching celebrities, it really has become such a slice of Americana. And you know, what's so interesting about that show is it sounded so stupid when it first premiered dancing with the stars.

What is this? But you know, it really just, it shows, uh, how beautiful dance is and how we can all connect to it. All right. I got the Haley Welch hock to a crypto scam story coming up next. Okay. I actually feel bad for Haley Welch. And I know, I know what you're going to say, Dave, how could you feel bad for her?

She's probably made millions over the hawk to a viral fame, you know, but I feel like she might be being taken advantage of with maybe some shoddy business advice. Maybe not, you know, she's an adult. She's a, but some are saying she may go to jail over what's going on. Who knows what may come of this, but she created a meme coin and Uh, while it went up to a value of 500 million and then quickly within 20 minutes, crashed down to 60 million and lost a lot of people, a lot of money.

Um, I don't know of the legal aspects of this. And I know, uh, if you guys are like me, you have no idea about this, uh, Bitcoin eCoin meme coin world is absolutely ridiculous, but here's a couple summaries of what's actually going down. Kevin Clancy from Barstool KFC, uh, discussed it. Haley Hawk Tua Welch invented her own meme coin and stop me if you heard this one before, a bunch of people bought it and they're upset they're losing money.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, has capitalized on their 15 minutes of fame more than Hawk Tua. At first I loved it. It's like, this girl seems very sweet, she's very nice, and the people that she's working with are very smart. They rolled out a podcast, they rolled out the socials, they're linking up with the Mets, they're doing all sorts of viral stuff, they were seizing the moment.

And then, just like everybody else in the goddamn world who goes viral, they took it too far, and they got involved in the crypto world. And surprise, surprise, the people who own 97 percent of the Hoctua coins were the Hoctua team. And immediately started selling and made like 2 million dollars in 20 seconds and left the bag with all these fucking morons who purchased this.

So they call it a pump and dump scheme, and again, whether or not there's evidence that this took place is yet to be seen. But folks are on it, and when the internet is on things, they tend to find the truth. Now on the one hand, this is probably illegal. Crypto is still the wild west. But I'm pretty sure this is theft and you probably can get pinched for this.

On the other hand, if you put a dime of your money Into a hock to a meme coin and you're upset when it's gone. You are the dumbest motherfucker alive. Yeah Yeah, not today, but you're still a victim, but you're a dumb victim anyway So Haley Welch was on one of those, you know Town Hall audio only spaces and she got pressed very hard by investigator Coffeezilla for allegedly scamming millions of dollars through her newly released meme coin.

Now Coffeezilla Doesn't mess around. This guy's really smart. He's really good. You like, you do not want to be investigated by coffee Zilla. Here's what he had to say. And, uh, when, then I'm going to share for you how she abruptly ended the conversation. From the community. Happy to answer any questions. I have questions.

I, I have questions. I'm raising my hand. That's coffee. What? Coffee Zilla. Hey, this is one of the most miserable, horrible launches I've ever seen in my life. Okay, then why the fuck are you on? I've been tracing it on chain for a while. You guys generated. Over a million dollars in fees while y'all's fans got rug pulled.

There was snipers, but there was also insider trading directly linked to y'all's creator account. What are you guys doing? No, no, no. That's, that's not true. That's not true. That's a fact. It's not, it's a fact and you can see it on chain. So yeah, we, we know we, we trust me. We were there. Um, we can, we can answer that.

Uh, you know, about the insider trading. No, there's no insider trading. That's why we can answer it. Okay. So there's tokens going directly from the main account. Coffee Zilla. Just, just chill for a second. And then it's getting sold for 50 K. Who is that? So anyway, it goes back and forth for like five minutes and then eventually this happens.

Hey guys, I hate to interrupt you Nick, uh, hello there, but anywho, I'm gonna go to bed and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Now I feel ba I feel bad for her in the essence where she may be a part of something that's a little above her IQ level and not understanding that she is exploiting her audience. Again, maybe she's complicit.

Either way, you just, when someone goes viral like this and doesn't, uh, go through the chains of, uh, traditional success where you learn to trust people and learn about your brand, when you go this viral, this fast, people are going to be out there taking advantage of you. I don't know if that's the case here, uh, but whether or not, uh, I mean, whether or not anything comes of this legally speaking yet to be seen.

We will be covering it though. Okay. Let's go to a lighter story. I'm kidding. United healthcare CEO slaying a journalist posted a blue cross executives photo advocating for peaceful letter writing campaign. That journalist is Taylor Lorenz, who has been, you know, there's been a lot of, uh, you know, problematic issues with this journalist as she was formerly with Washington post.

And anyway, people are saying, what the hell is she doing? She shared a photo. Of the executive, the CEO, Kim Keck, uh, you know, in some, I guess some people are saying she's implying that that's who may be next in this, um, uh, sort of, uh, vigilante justice, which again, I say this, uh, right off the bat, I don't Condone any physical violence, but at the same time, I'm also not surprised by it.

When it came to the assassination of the CEO of United healthcare, I mean, people are just going out and showing how predatory this company is. You know, they have double the amount of rejections from people that are trying to get their health insurance. It's no wonder that someone would have a target on their back.

So, uh, Thompson was killed a couple of days ago in broad daylight. Oh, well, it was early in the morning, but still, um, there are, there are now, uh, I guess images coming out of the suspect. They have a image of his face, I think at a Starbucks and, um, they don't, they haven't identified him yet, but it's getting, it's getting pretty wild out there as most of the audience, uh, is not.

I'm not angry at this guy, they're saying, hey, F around and find out. Police are closing in on the identity of the suspect who gunned down United Healthcare CEO outside New York City Hotel. Investigators released new video of the suspect riding a bike out of Central Park moments after the shooting.

Police say Brian Thompson was in town for an investors conference when the gunman approached from behind and fired several rounds. Now authorities say the shooter left clues at the scene that suggest he may have been angry with the insurance industry. They did find a lot at the scene, including some wrappers and a water bottle.

They hope to extract some DNA. They also hope to find video of the suspect. Without his mask, but they are closing in. It seems having a good idea of who this guy is. And they're hoping that some of those clues will lead right to him. So there has been reporting that he was staying at a hostel. There's really a lot going on with what's being said.

And again, when we get all the facts, we can share them. Uh, but there were inscriptions on the, uh, bullet casings. You probably have heard about this by now, uh, saying like, Defend I'll, I'll share exactly what was said on the bullet casings, but here's another clip of a former FBI special agent analyzing the shooting on the today show this morning, different scenarios that can play out one.

It's a targeted killing, maybe sponsored, uh, by an entity versus a personal grievance and maybe this individual had against the, uh, the victim or the United health itself. Looking at the two, the reconnaissance obviously was done and was quite remarkable. The shooting, uh, the shooter is very good with clearing that jam with a weapon would show a weapon experience, the escape route and the pre planning all of that is in place, which would seem to suggest there's some professional, you know, sort of capability there at the same point, uh, the engravings, you know, that are being reported on the shell casing.

Using actual, uh, purchases at a Starbucks right across the street, those are things that you just wouldn't see from something that was a more professional sort of assassination attempt. Those shell casings that we were just talking about, it said defend, deny, and depose somehow inscribed on the bullet casings.

What does that tell you? Yeah, that would seem to suggest that there's some sort of a personal or ideological motive around this specific target. This is not a spree shooting that we might be talking about. This is somebody who was specifically targeted. You see those words there, it's probably attached to some sort of a motive, some sort of a grievance for going after that specific target.

So this is obviously wild, and I think they're going to find out who the guy is. Now what happens from there is yet to be seen. But this is another example of why Taylor Lorenz is under fire for sharing Kim Keck's photo. But it's like look, this is all public information. The reason she was sharing Kim Keck's photo, the CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield, is that it's being reported that Blue Cross Blue Shield will no longer cover anesthesia.

For the full length of certain surgeries in Connecticut, New York, and Missouri. If a surgery exceeds a specific duration, anesthesia costs for the additional time will not be covered. So again, just more examples being exposed in this world we live in of how predatory the insurance industry is. Will things change?

Will, I mean, look. No, I mean, even Elon Musk on Twitter is sharing the administrative costs that exist within our healthcare system. We've been saying this for years, that we pay more to receive less and enough is enough. The privatization of healthcare systems, it just needs to go away. I'm not saying it needs to happen violently.

But again, I'm also not surprised. Um, so anyway, when we get the identity of that man, we will share it with you. Uh, but yeah, there's, there's a lot of cameras in New York city. So you'd think that they would find that out. Okay. Let's take a quick break. We'll be back with today's, uh, single mom appreciation.

Well, uh, other news of screen of single moms, Amber Heard is having a baby expecting kid number two at 38 years old. Uh, so congratulations to her. I know no other comments from me. I don't know the father, uh, whether it's, um, I don't know, you know, I think the last father, it was speculated that it could have been Elon Musk, right?

I don't know if they ever announced who it was. Maybe it was. Yeah. Artificial insemination. Uh, who knows, but either way, I think she lives in Spain now. Right? So, uh, good luck. Uh, I don't know when it's due, but there's your update on your Amber Heard that nobody asked for. All right, well, let's go to our single mom appreciation Christmas wishlist.

Today's day four, and we are going to play the voicemail of Maria. Hey Dave, my name is Maria and I'm calling from the East coast. Um, I just first want to say thank you so much for every single year advocating for single moms. Um, You know, as a single mom that works and is trying to better herself in school and be everly present for my daughter and all of her wonderful activities, we rarely stop to think about, you know, this enormous task of doing it all.

And being the number one fan and provider for our Children. Um, so for you to take time during, especially during the holidays, it can be, you know, really struggling, challenging time, you know, to provide for presence and also kind of lonely if, you know, you don't have that family support or, um, the other parent support.

As is my case, um, so I just, I really feel seen and, um, understood when you speak up for, um, for us during this time. So I just, I want to thank you for that. Um, a little bit about my daughter. Her name's Essie and she's in middle school and just a wonderful, wonderful kid. She loves math. theater, uh, singing, and, you know, just being a happy go lucky kid.

So thank you very much. You know, even a present or two. It goes so far, um, to help me during this time. And, yeah, thank you so much, Dave, or as my daughter calls you, Mr. Neal. Have a great, um, Christmas with your family and Augie. Oh, how kind. Well, hello to you and your daughter. Mr. Neal here. Sounds so professional.

But I'll have a link to Maria's Instagram. Amazon wishlist in the description of this podcast. And you can donate to her wishlist. She's got a lot of great toys, some very affordable stuff. If you buy any of the presents, they will go directly to our mom of the day. So very, very, uh, you know, just very honored that people would trust us to share these stories.

We have a bizarre update on the missing woman from Hawaii, Hannah Kobayashi. Uh, it sounds like the family thinks there is. Uh, another layer to this very odd story. We're also getting new details on a potentially stunning twist on a woman from Maui who was reported missing here in Los Angeles, but is now believed to have willfully traveled to Mexico.

Tonight, her family is responding to reports that Hannah Kobayashi may have been involved in a secret marriage. In a lengthy statement, Kobayashi's family says, in part, the family has not publicly announced any information regarding an alleged marriage because we did not have the facts or the necessary documents to verify the legitimacy of this information.

All of this comes after the LAPD announced on Monday that Kobayashi was seen safely crossing the border into Mexico. Now we shared this, uh, that the sister was worried that there's something more nefarious to it. So just because she crossed alone and didn't look like there was any distress, you gotta think that there's some other aspect to this story.

So, very bizarre, but there's your update. Uh, again, if more information comes out, we will be here to share it. Here's a story that literally nobody asked for. Reveal the secret, the snack wrap will be back in 2025. So this is the McDonald's CEO saying McDonald's snap, a snack wrap will be back in 2025. Well, so will my diarrhea.

This is, it has a cult following. Uh, I get so many emails into my inbox about this product. It will be back in 2025 following for the snack wrap. It does. It really does. I don't believe it. I've never heard one person who says, I want a McDonald's snack wrap. That seems to be one of those things you get when there's nothing else on the menu and nowhere else to go.

Okay. And it's coming back when I'm not going to tell you exactly when in 2025 for competitive reasons. So he's looking jolly, but McDonald's really seems to be under fire. Their prices are high. No one's going to eat there anymore. And he's saying, we've got the solution. The snack wrap. No, bring back the McRib.

That's what people want. Okay. Well, that's going to do it for us. Uh, there's many stories we did not get to yet. So we will have to cover them first thing tomorrow morning. The beat goes on so much happening this week in the news and we'll be back to cover it Uh, then, so thanks so much for continuing to share all the love and positivity and sharing us with your friends, giving us five star reviews.

We appreciate it. We'll see in the morning. I'm Dave. This is, I am Mr. Neal, and this is the rush. The rush hour is a twice daily pop culture and entertainment news podcast hosted by stand up comedian Dave Neal lives too short for a boring ride. So join Dave as he covers the top news stories of the day.

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