37 Burst results for "Chris Christie"
The Financial Guys
A highlight from Growing Unease: Current Administrations Approach to Security and Travel with David Bellavia
"What do you think they're doing with cash, right? What deal do you make where someone says, I'll bring a box of money to you? Yeah. What do you, it's, this is a state sponsor of terrorism. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens. America's comeback now. starts right Welcome back Financial Guys podcast. Mike Speraza in studio live today with a guest in the studio. I haven't had this in a long time. Staff Sergeant medal of honor recipient David Bellavia joining me for about a half hour today. David, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Absolutely. So I'm going to stick based on your background. I'm going to stick with a lot of military stuff today and I want to start, we'll go all the way back to the beginning of the Joe Biden presidency. The Afghanistan withdrawal, in my opinion, did not go very smoothly. I'm sure many people listening agree. What were your overall thoughts of that withdrawal and how it actually ended up happening? I know we lost, you know, sadly lost 13 soldiers in that, in that withdrawal. People say we went off the wrong air base. People say that we shouldn't have gone out in the middle of the summer. There was a lot of different things there. What were your overall thoughts on that? I think it's like the worst day in American history since Market Garden. Just absolutely. And the reason why it was so difficult was it was totally unnecessary. So let's rewind to the Obama trade, Bull Bergdahl and the three first round draft picks. They get Marshall, they get MacArthur and they get Patton that end up the resurgence of the Taliban. These men not just go back to the enemy, they go back to the battlefield. They're in power when the government falls. You have misinformation coming from the White House that the president of Afghanistan is leaving with billions of dollars on his plane, which wasn't true. And then you leave the equipment, the cash. There's no recovery. We're getting reports of sales of American equipment left in Afghanistan in Southeast Asia. We're moving material across the globe. Our children will fight and pay and have to atone for these miscalculations. Let's talk about that. You being in the military and you knowing that area too, why did they just find it the easiest way out to just say, you know, just leave that billion dollar billions of dollars of equipment there and not think, again, if it was me and I'm speaking that someone that's never been in the military, but if it's me and I'm the president, I'm thinking, OK, I don't want to leave all our weaponry there. I don't want to lose any of my men. Number two. And number three, I want to make sure that everybody knows when and how we're getting out of there. And it just felt like poof. One day they said we're getting out of here. Well, it's because the military didn't make any of those decisions. I mean, look, Millie, it can criticize him. You can criticize Secretary of Defense worthy of criticism. However, none of these individuals are making decisions. This is about NGOs on the ground. This is about the State Department. So you've got Bagram Air Base, the equivalent of JFK. You've got Karzai International Airport, the equivalent of Teterboro. Right. Why would you ever do an exfil out of Karzai International Airport? It makes absolutely no sense. It's tactically unsound. But and then you've got all the ISIS -K. We retaliate from the murder of 13 of our bravest and we drop a bomb on a guy delivering water. He's on our payroll and we kill children on that. Then we take out Borat on a tuk tuk driving around like that wasn't even really what was happening. It's just a den of lies. And Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, all the heroes that brought us, you know, the Bergdahl deal, the Iran nuke deal. This is these. They the State Department is running all foreign policy, including what the DOD used to run. Well, that's I was going to say. I mean, I know Biden's the president, but do you blame him at all or is it everybody underneath him that, you know, maybe was giving him bad information? And again, some of these decisions, David, is Biden even involved in some of these decisions? Like, I don't even know anymore. Is he around? Is he paying attention to anything going on? Well, I mean, just from the press conferences, it was apparent he didn't know what was going on. And the great irony is that they actually were predicting that Ukraine was going to be invaded and, you know, no one believed them. So it's like you can't influence your friends. The allies don't trust you. The enemy doesn't respect you. You know, I mean, you've got Ben Rhodes is really proud of this State Department. Susan Rice loves what they're doing. But, you know, again, Americans died. And, you know, and what is the perfect culmination of the adventure in Afghanistan? Looking at your watch at Dover Air Base when bodies are coming home. I mean, nothing could you couldn't ask for a just it's it's a debacle. Yeah. And it's sad that that's that's the leader of our country there. Let's move in. You brought up the Ukraine there. So the Russia Ukraine conflict will get to Zelensky in a minute. He is as we speak in New York City right now. But so Trump's in office. We don't see many of these conflicts or any conflicts actually started under his watch. And then we have the Biden administration come in. And a year later, we have Russia invading Ukraine. Why did this happen and why? Why the timing of February of 2022? So let's go back to when we were fighting ISIS. Trump engaged and destroyed estimated some say 300 members of Wagner forces. But those were Russian nationals. We engaged. We destroyed them. What was the response from Putin? Nothing at all. So what do people in that section of the world, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, what do they respect? They respect power. They respect authority. You're not going to get any respect if you don't engage the enemy when they present themselves. I don't understand the calculus of again, I'm trying hard to figure it out. I don't get it. I don't. You know, Romania and Hungary and Poland, you're letting them unilaterally decide whether or not they want to send reinforcements into Ukraine. That's an act of war. If NATO members engage the enemy, all of NATO is engaged against the enemy. Poland doesn't unilaterally make that decision. Hungary and Romania don't unilaterally make that decision. We can't even articulate what the mission is. And if you look, go to the Institute for the Study of War, there's a plug for them. Check out their overlay from when the battle started, when the war started with Russia. And tell me what success this offensive in Ukraine has produced. I mean, let me ask this question, because I get confused. The answer is nothing. I asked this on Twitter, X, whatever it's called, all the time. What is the end game and how do we get there? Because all I see the answer is, hey, just blank checks. Hey, just write a check. Hey, here's a billion. Hey, here's 20 billion. Hey, here's another 10 billion. I don't actually see a look. I mean, like anything, right? If I write a business plan of what I want to do in 2024, my goal is X. I write down my steps to get X. I don't just write down X and say it's going to happen. I don't really know. And then the answer always is, well, we have to fight. We have to back Ukraine. Okay. But when does that end? Because the Afghanistan war and the war in Iraq lasted 20 years plus, right? And was there a real end to it? I don't know. That's where it gets frustrating for me, Dave, where I'm like, how do we know what the end game is? Do you win or lose? When does that happen? I don't know. I don't know. At least you're thinking about it. And I have fear that our leaders aren't, and that's the problem. So here's what this comes out. You're going to get a negotiated settlement out of Ukraine, right? But you talked about the billions of dollars that we're spending and giving to Ukraine as a blank check. First of all, Zelensky visited Ukrainian soldiers in the United States. Did you know that there were wounded Ukrainian soldiers in the United States? I did not know that. Well, today he visited them. So what's happening there? So that's a cost that no one is putting on the ledger. So now let's look at the blank check that Ukraine is getting. And by the way, I'm pro Ukraine. I want to fight communists all day and night. So let's punch Putin hard in the face. However, you're giving them a blank check and you're giving them munitions. Now here's the problem. We have to replace those munitions. Those munitions were purchased for 20 year global war and terror. And let's be honest, inflation is involved. So what you purchased for $10 is now $17. So you're not just giving them the money. You're giving them the equipment and the munitions that you have to replace yourself at the value of what is valued today. We haven't scratched the surface for the amount of money. CBO absent at the wheel. No one is tracking this. 2024 can't get here fast enough. How does this work, though, when you talk about some of these NATO nations coming together and making decisions, but us not just giving weaponry, giving everything money, whatever we're giving there? Is that not an act of war, too, though, David, at some point? We're continuing to fund Ukraine continuing the war in Ukraine. I mean, that to me seems like we're backing a war. Well, I mean, by the letter of the law and NATO charter, it's not. But here's the problem. It's schizophrenic because we were told that what was an offensive weapon was going to mitigate, you know, that wasn't going to help peace at all. So we went from, I don't know if they should get tracked vehicles to I'm not sure an artillery piece is what they need to high Mars rockets being launched. And let's be honest. I mean, the Ukrainians are I mean, the payload that they're going through, what you would have to have cataclysmic casualty numbers to be able to to the spandex that they're doing on the ground that they need to replace Patriot. If you're going through thirty five Patriot to, you know, missiles, I would expect to at least the C 20 makes that are shot down. They're using them for air artillery. They're using there for indirect fire. I don't know what they're doing, but this is going to end with Don Boss going to Russia. This is going to end with that land chain that Putin wanted through Crimea. And again, our friends in NATO, what are they even doing for Ukraine? What? Look, if you they said that Trump wanted to kill NATO, Biden did it. Right. Biden did it. And now Germany. And so Putin was selling oil at thirty dollars a barrel. What's it at ninety six? Yeah. He's making more money than he did before. And he's financing a war and killing innocent people. You mentioned before, too, and I think this is a good point. Everybody on the left and I'll say the media, the establishment, whoever you want to say, says that if you don't agree with the war in Ukraine, you're like pro Putin. Right. And that's just the most outrageous thing in the world, because I agree with you. I feel for the people of Ukraine. I don't want this for them. I don't want this for innocent people. However, at some point, the world's every every one of the world's problems can't be America's problem when we have a border crisis. And then I think they said yesterday ten thousand people came across. They got, I think, eight thousand of the ten thousand. But you see the numbers day over day. It's a problem. We have crime that's rampant. We have overdoses that are at record numbers. We have we have suicides at record numbers. At some point, we have to maybe just think about ourselves and not everybody else, because if we fall, sadly, I think the world falls at that point. Amen. The thing that I would add is I love the way the Ukraine refugee has been crowbarred into the migrant crisis in the United States. New York leaders from the city to all over Kathy Hochul, the governor of the state of New York, mentioning that, you know, like the Ukrainians in Poland, the the Polish have no intention to keep Ukrainians forever. That's a temporary you know, they're leaving a conflict to return to their country after the conflict is over. Again, this is just we're we're putting a round peg into a square hole and just hammering it away. But but there's no the media. There's you're our destroying military. I go to parents all the time around this country and ask them to give us their sons and daughters to join the military. And the one thing they bring up is Afghanistan. It's not about anything. It's Afghanistan. How are you going to assure us that you're going to maintain your commitment to our son and daughter when you betrayed us in Afghanistan that has lasting effects? And there's not a I'm trying to find a segment of our of our of our nation that's functioning. I don't know what it is. I saw in Chicago, they're going to have municipally owned grocery stores. Maybe that will figure it out there. Yeah, yeah, it's good. Real quick, do you think and we'll finish up on this topic, but do you think that they will we will ever have boots in the ground on Ukraine? I mean, I hope not, because I just don't know what the I mean, look at I'm I'm we're getting ready for China. We're trying to revolutionize everything. I don't know what the what the plan is. I mean, again, if you want to put a base in Ukraine, and you want to make that a sustainment operation going forward, that I here's the point. I don't understand what the inactive ready reserve call up was for. Why are you bringing those troops in the non combat support? Why are they going to Ukraine? What are you building infrastructure there? Here's what I do know. We're talking a minimum of $11 trillion to build Ukraine back. That is cataclysmic amounts of money. There isn't water, electricity, internet, you know, you want to help Ukraine. You're going to Russia is not paying for that if you negotiate a settlement. So I don't know what the plan is. But I hope we never see boots on the ground. I could guess what the plan is. I won't I won't say for sure. But I could guess that we'll be paying a chunk of that. And I do have one last one. So I did interview Colonel Douglas McGregor a few months back. And he talked about he's a real optimist. But he is really very, very bullish on Ukraine. Yes, very, very optimistic. I'm dropping some all over the place. But he brought up some staggering numbers, though. And even if they're half true, it's a problem. The amount of casualties and wounded soldiers on the Ukrainian side that we're not hearing about the media. I don't know if you agree with some of those numbers or not. But he's saying, I mean, it's people are acting as if this is an even war right now. And it's not even close. First of all, McGregor's a stud. I mean, he's an absolute, you know, that we're glad he's on our side. He's a military mind. I don't know if those numbers are accurate. I could tell you they're juxtaposed to almost everything we're hearing from every institution that we have, including a lot of our intel from Germany and England. But again, I don't know what to believe. So when you don't have when you don't have transparency, when you're not holding regular press conferences, when your Pentagon spokesman is now working in the White House and now you're getting a triple spin. I mean, the U .S. Open double backspin. You've gotten so many spins on the narrative. I don't know what to believe. But if he is even close to what is a segment of truth, you know, then look, Ukraine needs an investigation. There's a lot of investigations. We've got to start on Afghanistan. We were promised that by Speaker McCarthy. We need a hot wash on Afghanistan. And then we need to go to what who is oversighting the money that's going to Ukraine. And what have we got for our return on investment? Yeah, I'm not asking for much. Really, all I'm asking for in this conflict is can we just talk about what the end game is? And to your point, can we get an accounting of where the money's going and what's being spent in a real accounting of it? The Iran deal that just happened last week. First off, the fact that that was negotiated and completed on 11th September to me is just the ultimate slap in the face. But you again, you know more about this than I do. We do a five for five trade. OK, I'm going to use sports analogies. We trade five for five. And then we also approved of six billion dollars that apparently wasn't ours, but it was in a fund that now they can release to Iran. How are we winning on that one? Well, first of all, I was hoping that at least it was a digital transfer. The fact that it went as euros in cash through Qatar. And OK, so what happens the 24 hours after that deal is made? We're now getting issues in the West Bank. We're now hearing about issues in Yemen. We've now got Hezbollah that's reinforced. I mean, look, what do you think they're doing with cash? Right. What deal do you make where someone says, I'll bring a box of money to you? What do you it's this is a state sponsor of terrorism. They haven't changed. By the way, their president is now in New York City addressing the United Nations. This guy's killed 6500 of his own people. He admits to it. He killed the students that revolted and wanted democracy when we did nothing. He killed 5000 of his citizens in 1988. He's killed over 300 Americans. There's no accountability whatsoever. I don't understand what it is about Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken that believe that Iran is a partner. All you've done 10 years ago, they were refining 10 percent of their oil. And now they're a force. Now they're working with Maduro in Venezuela, and they're a huge part of their members of of the international community. They're in good standing there. I don't get it. Does anyone believe that the Iran nuke deal? Look, we got hit with cruise missiles under Trump in Iraq. How did they have those cruise missiles? Those cruise missiles were illegal under the Obama nuke deal. So how are you refurbishing missiles in two years? Do we believe that their centrifuges have stopped? That they won't have a program if they don't have one already? No, I mean, I guess my question, David, is how I mean, I know that you pay a lot of attention to this stuff, but how do people like in the media not ask these questions? Right. I mean, these are legitimate. I mean, we just traded to I put this on my notes here. This is on the heels of trading a WNBA basketball player for the Merchant of Death like six months ago. Right. I mean, and again, I'm glad Americans are coming back to America. I don't want to sound pessimistic on that. That's great news. But we also I mean, this this stuff just seems like I don't care what side of the aisle you're on. It warrants questions, but nobody seems to care. I'm in the world that if you take hostages, we take hostages. You want to exchange people? We'll exchange people. You know, we definitely have the partners in the area to do that. For whatever reason, this administration, they're they're they're contrarians. They're contrarians to you know, they claim Bush and Cheney are their best friends, yet they just go 180 degrees from that doctrine. I don't know what the Biden doctrine is. I don't know what Bidenonomics is either, but I could tell you that they believe that Iran is a partner. Now, here's another thing. Our envoy to Iran not only is no longer the envoy, he doesn't have a security clearance. Does anyone curious at The New York Times as to what happened to the lead negotiator in Iran that is escorted off a bus, taken into American custody, given a job at Yale or Princeton or wherever he's working now? I've never heard of a person going from top secret classified negotiations to no clearance whatsoever and in the custody of American intelligence community. No one cares. No one cares at all. It's fascinating. And again, for me, I mean, these are big decisions that we're making. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it used to be, you know, maybe we did a two for five deal and then we made the six billion. Now we're like, we're giving stuff away and we're on the losing end. Correct me if I'm wrong, but America was never, you know, America losing. It was always America winning, right? America getting the best of deals. At least McDonald's has a five for five. We didn't even get that. You know what this does though? Honest to God, if you're thinking about traveling overseas, things go sideways, cartel, South America, Mexico, wherever you're going, you have a price in your head now. No one in their right mind is going to bring you back whether it's Haiti or wherever you are, you're worth $1 .25 billion. And thugs and scumbags are going to take advantage of that. I mean, that's a great point too. Do you think about leaving the country? I don't know anymore. That's a little bit concerning. I don't care where you're going, right? That's concerning. This one I just had to bring up because it happened two days ago or yesterday. How do we lose a plane? And I heard that's like a third one in the last six weeks that something like this has happened. How are we losing $80 million planes? Well, they're not $80 million anymore because they've got a new engine and all this other stuff. Look, the F -35 program is a complete disaster. You want to talk about why our allies think we're crazy. We sold them a plane. This program has been around since the early 90s and we've got nothing on return for it. So basically two planes are flying in a buddy team. They're doing training and a guy punches out. We don't even know why he punched out, but that plane could have easily hit a building. It didn't, thank God. But the wingman didn't follow where his buddy went. So what is he doing? He just kind of went on and did his own thing. And now the Marine Corps put a Facebook post like a dog is missing. We're expecting the Ukrainian farmers to carry the F -35 out with their tractors. I don't know what the point of it's wild. Look, stop embarrassing us. Just stop humiliating us. That's all I'm asking. Just be the army and the Marine Corps that we know our men and women are capable of being. Get out of their way. This gender garbage, this social experiment nonsense, stop humiliating our military. That's all I ask. Why can we not get the... I mean, I know why we can't get the answer, but I'm asking this to you. But why can't we, at a press conference at the White House, why can't we say, I want to talk to the guy that was in the other plane, or you can tell us the transcript of what happened when that happened. Talk to the guy who jumped out of the plane. Why did you do that? And again, I'm not trying to put our military on the spot, but these are kind of big questions to ask, right? I mean, if I do something in my business, I have to go face the music on that. Why doesn't everybody have to face music for their decisions or why things are happening? I think it's kind of important. Well, you don't want to talk to generals because they're going to tell you the truth and they won't be generals anymore. True. And you don't want to talk to enlisted people. Because look, I mean, let's be honest. How many people are... Is this a merit -based military anymore? Do we have a meritocracy? Are we promoting people based on pronouns? Go figure. When we're putting politics above military strength, accidents happen. We don't know the facts, but the fact that nobody cares about getting to the bottom of it, the day of the Pentagon paper reporters are gone. Yep. Yep. Let's just talk about the 2024 race quick, and then we will wrap up for today. So your thoughts on the Republican primary so far, I'll stay away from the Democratic side till the very end, but your thoughts on, you know, there's obviously Trump who is now in a, has a huge lead. Ron DeSantis seems to be crumbling underneath himself. Vivek Ramaswamy has jumped up in the polls. Nikki Haley's there. Tim Scott's there. A few others that probably aren't going to get a lot of votes. Chris Christie's the anti -Trump candidate. Mike Pence is, I don't know what Mike Pence is. I'm not really sure. Your thoughts about the whole field so far? I mean, look, it's impressive. They've got a deep bench. There's a lot of diversity. I, you know, none of it matters. Trump is the guy. The more you indict him, the more you empower him. You know, I'd like him to work on his communications a little bit better. You know, but if Trump is Trump, Trump is a Frankenstein monster of Barack Obama. As long as you have that faction, you're going to get, you know, Trump is going to be empowered. I just don't want to see Governor Noem anywhere near the White House. And I, if he's going to pick a running mate, you know, it's hard to find an ally here, you know. But it would be nice to find a governor. I don't want to take anyone from the Senate. I don't want to take anyone from the House with the margins that tight. But I mean, the idea that Governor Noem is being floated right now. I mean, I'd rather take North Dakota. Yeah. A little sled there. You know, it's funny you mentioned that because I saw a lot of that this weekend. I mean, can we just, for lack of a better term, keep it in our pants for about a year and then do what you got to do? It really is. I mean, every time you turn, somebody's doing something idiotic, whether it's Boebert. And again, I say this, David, a lot of people know who you are. A lot more know who you are than they'll ever know who I am. But when you go out in public into a movie theater like that, and I'm going to Boebert, not Noem for a second, you're, you're extremely well known. I don't care if it's dark or if it's as light as it is in the studio right now. What are you thinking? I, you know, she's, she's, she's an embarrassment. She is. She's bad, too. Who would have thought that Marjorie Taylor Greene would have been the, the oasis of the Maryland? I mean, seriously, I, again, you're, you're in Congress every day. You're out in public, you're on the job. You know, at least she wasn't wearing a hoodie, you know, that's all in shorts. She was at least dressed for the occasion, but I, it was, it's wildly embarrassing. Vaping, singing, whatever you're doing. Getting groped. Yes. Who is your VP candidate then? Because I think, you know, you have names thrown around. There's, there's, the vague has been thrown around in there. You know, Byron Donald's has been thrown around in there. Carrie Lake has. I don't know. I love Carrie Lake. I just don't know that Trump needs to go with somebody so divisive there. I think he's got to go with somebody that's, that's firm in their beliefs, but also not maybe going to turn off half the country. Well, you know, it's, it's impossible. One of the, one of the problems with making Trump, you know, the, the enemy of the state that the left has done is that you've really made it difficult for him to even put a cabinet together. You know, I mean, what are you going to do with it? You've got a lot of loyalists out there. You know, the vague is, is I think maybe the most intelligent dynamic candidate we've ever seen run for president, but experience does matter. But you know, I love the way he thinks. I love the movement. I don't know if he would even take the job to be honest with it. I don't think he needs it. But you look at a Tim Scott, I think Tim Scott is, you know, there's a whole lot to his message and I think he's, he's got the experience in the Senate, but honestly, you could literally take the Clint Eastwood chair and, and throw it in there as vice president. I'm going with that because this, this from top to bottom, we have to have seismic change in 24. Do you think he would ever choose Kristi Noem at this point with all that now? Yeah, no one knew Mike Pence was a, was a 24 hour story and then he was the vice president candidate. So who knows? I mean, a lot can happen between now and then, but I just, I don't need, you know, let's just pick people on their merit. Let's pick people that are ready to be the president. Imagine this, imagine picking a vice president that can lead the country. If something happens to a 75 year old president, you know, like Kamala Harris. Yeah. Someone like that.
Bloomberg Daybreak
Fresh update on "chris christie" discussed on Bloomberg Daybreak
"The most to gain or lose at this point in the election cycle given what we're seeing in polling lately how polls have changed since the first debate who needs this to work out in round two? I mean this is a shot for Ron DeSantis to try to revitalize his campaign at this point he is polling about as far behind Donald Trump as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is polling behind Joe Biden in the Democratic primary so he needs any sort of thing he can get to juice that campaign I think it's probably more of an opportunity for Nikki Haley or Tim Scott some of the people are who running as kind of the backup plan in case DeSantis falters to try to assert themselves get some kind of moment that people will recall Haley I think had a brief moment at the last debate when she was talking about abortion but I don't know I don't know if if they'll it's still a crowded field I don't know if they'll have that chance Gregory what do you think about this well I think it's an important debate for everyone on that stage obviously but especially for the ones actually at the lower end of the polling range where the the Republican Party has designed this debate season to start to weed out some lower of these polling candidates and so the for the first debate you had to poll with just 1 % in three national polls to get on the stage now that threshold's moving up to 3 % we don't know what the threshold is going to be for the third debate but it's going to be even higher so for candidates like Tim Scott who we haven't mentioned yet or Chris Christie Doug certainly Burgum and Asa Hutchinson if they even make the second debate are going to be under a lot of pressure to really have a turnaround moment because as soon as they drop off the stage it's hard to to imagine them coming back and then of course Ron DeSantis of course he has been his polls have been moving in in the the wrong direction he needs to turn that around and so needs to have a breakout performance but look this is also a debate where we who knows what the the ratings are gonna be it's a little bit more of a niche audience it's going to be on Fox Business News as opposed to Fox News may have a smaller audience is a different time zone so it's really going to take a big moment for any one of these candidates to get the attention they need to be seen as a serious challenger to Donald Trump. Yeah Gregory I'm glad you brought up the candidates who are kind of at the lowest rung if you will of polling at the moment because we saw after the first debate shortly thereafter Francis Suarez the mayor of Miami who hadn't qualified dropped out of the race and I personally have asked Burgum and Putcheson if they would drop are up out if they didn't qualify for the second they didn't tell me yes but I guess we'll all kind of have to wait and see on that one but is is this the point are we now at the point of the race where we will start to see more of a thinning of a field perhaps like candidates dropping at once Gregory. Yeah I think the lesson that the Republican Party learned through is 2016 that having too many candidates in the field remember at this point we in 2015 had what 17 different candidates. Two different stages you were required. need to spread the debate over two different nights there was a so -called kids table debate and that was just It was untenable and the Republican Party decided we're not going to have that situation again because that's situation a that led to this really the Trump vote and then the anti -Trump vote being divided over two or three different candidates Trump was able to divide and conquer. Trump may still yet be able to divide conquer and but the idea is you need to present Republican voters with a smaller view of choices or else it really is going to be Trump by default. So he brings up Trump Ryan who was the elephant not in the room but very much in the room at the first debate and this is going to be the same thing. Right. He's not going to be there again. Once again he's counterprogramming this time by being in Detroit to talk to the United Auto Workers. Talk to us about the effect of that. Yeah I mean well obviously it robs the room of a lot of the electricity prackle and that you get from having a real live debate. You know I mean having a bunch of people sort of arguing intramurally. I think it hurt him a little bit in the last time because having all these people on stage talking amongst themselves, even though they were often talking about him, without him there I think kind of was the first glimpse you might have at a post -Trump Republican Party and what that might have. But it also means that the people who are tuning in to watch this are like really not normal. I include myself in that. You know I mean being to paid watch it. It's my job. But like you know who's going to turn in to watch a debate without the front runner in it? It's going to be like a really select audience of kind of people who are really into politics. So that's why I think probably the more important thing at the debate will be to score the kind of memorable moment that gets replayed on TV, that goes viral on social media so people who aren't tuning into this see that because that's a chance for some free publicity. And I think it's also a chance for you to create some content for your Super PAC to use. DeSantis The Super PAC has done an ad that just basically featured his response to a question about the border with Mexico. You know, they basically turned that into an ad. And that's a great way for him to not coordinate with them, which he's not legally allowed to do by putting this out in the public domain and them to borrow that. So I think it may be more important to have a moment than to actually do well over the entire debate. You have me, Ryan, thinking back to some of the moments of the first debate that at least stick out in my mind, one of them being former Governor Chris Christie telling Vivek Ramaswamy he sounded like chat GPT, another being former Governor Nikki Haley telling Vivek Ramaswamy that he has no foreign policy experience and it shows.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
A highlight from Former VP Pence and former Governor Christie respond to former President Trump
"Welcome back America, I'm Hugh Hewitt, former President Trump yesterday talking about my next guest, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Governor Christie ran you over with a car yesterday, backed it up, ran you over a couple more times. You're used to that. Any reactions to yesterday's interview? Look Hugh, if it wasn't so disturbing that someone like him is actually running for president, you know, I would just feel badly for him. I mean, you know, this is a guy who offered me Secretary of Homeland Security twice, who offered me Secretary of Labor, who offered me White House Chief of Staff in December of 2018. All four of those jobs I turned down. He made me chairman of his transition in 2016 and prepared the entire transition from May of 16 through the election. He made me chairman of his opioid and drug abuse commission, and then adopted every one of the recommendations of the commission that I chaired. He asked me to prepare for the debate against Hillary Clinton in 2016 and I did so. He asked me to prepare for the debates in 2020 against Joe Biden and I did so. I would assume you wouldn't ask someone to do all those things if you really thought they were not very smart and deeply disturbed. So, you know, this is a guy who makes things up as he goes I along and tell you is obviously under an extraordinary amount of pressure given what he's done, what his conduct has been, and the ramifications of that conduct. So, you know, I'm concerned for him because I think he must not be doing well to say the things he said yesterday, but I think anybody who looks at what his objective actions have been over the course of his relationship with me and what he said yesterday, they know what he was saying yesterday is just so odd and disturbing that it should make everybody question whether this guy really has the psychological capacity to be a candidate for president, let alone president again. All right, Governor, before we get to the specifics of the race, and I want to spend most of my time there. I'm in Switzerland, I'm just watching all the troops deploy, and I've seen this movie before and we'll talk about that in a second, but he said he would testify. He also said that most of the indictments against him will be dismissed. I have no opinions on this. I just ask the questions. A, will most of the indictments against him be dismissed? B, should he testify? And C, am I right that the obstruction of justice charges the submarine aim below water midships? On the first question, I do not believe that most of the indictments will be dismissed. In fact, I doubt that any of them would be dismissed. As I said before, Hugh, I think both the New York indictment and the Atlanta indictment were unnecessary, and I would not have authorized those if I was the person in charge of either of those offices, but I don't think that they're legally deficient.
Mike Gallagher Podcast
Fresh update on "chris christie" discussed on Mike Gallagher Podcast
"Coming up. Breaking now on The Mike Gallagher Show. Wow, this indictment against U.S. Senator Bob Menendez is sorted, sorted stuff. Here is the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Moments ago, Damian Williams announcing the indictment against Menendez and his wife and three businessmen. Today, I'm announcing that my office has obtained a three count indictment charging Senator Robert Menendez, his wife, Nadine Menendez and three New Jersey businessmen, while Hana Jose Uribe and Fred Davies for bribery offenses. The investigation that led to these charges has been run out of the Southern District of New York. The indictment alleges that between 2018 and 2022, Senator Menendez, the senior U.S. senator from New Jersey and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his wife, Nadine Menendez, engaged in a corrupt relationship with Hana Uribe and Davies. The indictment alleges that through that relationship, the senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes. In exchange for Senator Menendez using his power and influence to protect and to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt. The indictment alleges that Hana Uribe and Davies provided bribes in the form of cash, gold, home mortgage payments, a low show or no show job for Nadine Menendez, a Mercedes Benz and other things of value to the senator and his wife. A Mercedes Benz. Well, heck, Hunter got a Porsche. I mean, you know, I hate my cynicism. And here's my you know what my immediate reaction to this is? Bob Menendez has been rumored to be a crook forever. I mean, they got him in 2018 and there was a hung jury, I think, as I recall. And he barely escaped then by the skin of his teeth. And as I understand it, that was in January of 2018. So then, according to the allegations and the indictment, he proceeds to get involved in all this illegal activity with these Egyptian businessmen right after that. So it's like, oh, I dodged that bullet. So anyway, people have talked about Bob Menendez forever. He's low hanging fruit. But now the Democrats can say, see, look, we're not partisan. We haven't weaponized the Justice Department in any way, shape or form. Look, we've indicted Bob Menendez. Again, low hanging fruit. That's how cynical I am. I could be wrong. Maybe this is just justice being served. And maybe maybe the Department of Justice and the Southern District of New York is is just just equal and equitable and fair. I sort of doubt it. Sorry, but I'm not buying it. It seems to me that it's a perfect distraction at a perfect time for the flailing Biden administration, which is currently under siege. The media is turning on Biden. Merrick Garland this week, that disastrous performance he had. That crap show of him pretending he didn't know anything about any foreign federal assets on January 6th, No, no, no, no. The timing of this is highly suspect. Again, I can fully stipulate that I could be wrong. And maybe these are just honorable people who are pursuing justice. Again, I kind of doubt it. What about you? 800-655-MIKE. That's the Ph.D. weight loss and nutrition number. 800-655-6453. And according to the U.S. attorney, he went on to say they're just getting started. They're still investigating him. So I just hate how cynical all of this crap has made me. And I am. I'm just wary of it. I don't know that I buy it. It just seems a little too convenient. We're all of a sudden in the middle of the walls completely closing in on this current administration. The illegal immigration crisis and a guy, incidentally, who promises to fix it. Will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. President Trump said that in Iowa yesterday to the roar of the crowd. And many, many Americans believe there's one guy who can fix the mess that we are in. And believe me, if Trump gets back in, the man's going to be taking names. Doing more than taking names. He's going to be taking care of business. No question in my mind. Incidentally, lots of reaction to Chris Christie and his comments about Trump. South Carolina, I think this is the upstate, sent me a text with two pictures since you mentioned his name. One of the pictures includes Chris Christie arm in arm with Barack Obama. Remember that picture? The laughing and the giggling and Chris Christie arm in arm with Barack Obama. Connie in Florida remembers that picture. How you doing, Connie? I'm great, Mike, and I'm so glad I got a chance to talk with you. I can't believe everyone's forgotten how Christie rushed to hug Obama for going to New Jersey after Sandy. What a wuss. He couldn't handle the hurricane response and he wants to be President? What a laugh. It's a joke. He's a total joke. He's just a big bully. And, Connie, let me ask you this. I actually feel embarrassed for him, don't you, a little bit? Oh, no, I think he deserves it. I got it. All right, Connie, good for you. 800-655-MIKE. And what about my cynicism over the timing of this indictment announced where Menendez allegedly gave info to Egypt? Let's see, 2018? This is 2023. Hmm. Lisa in Texas. Hey, Lisa, am I goofy for being doubtful about the veracity of these charges against Bob Menendez and the timing of it all? Not at all, Mike. God bless you. And cynicism, it's not cynicism, but we have to have it. And eyes wide open. Look at, okay, this shiny object. Try to get our attention. Don't do it. They are being as bold as they can, yet again, subterfuge. They're on fast track, Mike, and we have got to be strong, and thank you. You're so right, Lisa. We have to have our eyes wide open. This is a potential of another distraction, and they do it. I mean, look at the little slap on the wrist that Hunter got. Look at Ray Epps. Ray Epps got a slap on the wrist, a misdemeanor? My gosh, grandmas are spending years in prison for being on the Capitol on January 6th, not Ray Epps. I think the cynicism that I have, even though I hate it, because I don't want to be a cynical guy.
Mark Levin
What Did Mike Pence Really Do As VP?
"That's one of them. Pence brought back him into back the old Executive Office building as his right hand man. And you can see why. The guy's on TV. That is Short. Any, I won't say that. So all these If you even think you have a shot at defeating Trump, you run as an anti Biden, not an anti Trump. Just stay in a lane where you can be strong, specific, have a powerful message. You don't even have to get involved in the other stuff. You And I think this is the mistake the guys at two, three, four, five, six percent are making right now. They're going to claw their way up on the back of Trump. No, they're not. None of them are. I don't know why the Vivek Ramaswami is running at all. I have no idea. If you really look at his background, it is troubling, very troubling to me. And I am not going to make excuses for it. Period. Nor going am I to make excuses for Nikki Haley's gubernatorial record because she won't run on it. Why? Chris Christie, he's got a new line down. He's the only one running for president in the Republican primaries who defeated a Democrat governor. What he fails to tell you is Corzine was corrupt up to his eyeballs, was unethical up to his eyeballs. Democrat party members were turning against him. The major media in New Jersey were turning against him. He ran like the conquering king, the US attorney. He doesn't have that anymore. And he's not running against Corzine.
Mike Gallagher Podcast
A highlight from Guest Host Kevin McCullough On Our Fight To Save America From Destruction
"Lots of channels. Nothing to watch. Especially if you're searching for the truth. It's time to interrupt your regularly scheduled programs with something actually worth watching. Salem News Channel. Straightforward, unfiltered, with in -depth insight and analysis from the greatest collection of conservative minds. Like Hugh Hewitt, Mike Gallagher, Sebastian Gorka, and more. Find truth. Watch 24 -7 on SNC .TV and on Local Now, Channel 525. This Music. is your source for breaking news. And what to make of it all. This is The Mike Gallagher Show. The thing about Karen Bass, just a couple of years ago, she was talking about how great it is that Los Angeles is a sanctuary city. So this continues to be the political own goal of the decade. Well, Biden said COVID shots are coming back, like it or not. People want someone they know can already do the job. President Trump has done the job. We have the best economy of my lifetime. Everyone was doing better. The border was secure. And now, in the ReliefFactor .com studios, sitting in for Mike today, here's Kevin McCulloch. It is an honor to be back for my good friend, Mike Gallagher, a colleague here at the Salem Radio Network, and also someone who cares very much about what is happening to our country. Kevin McCulloch is my name. You can find me on the Salem News Channel and many of the same radio stations on Saturday nights at 9 o 'clock Eastern with that Kevin show. If you're local in the New York area, you can listen to me on AM 570 each weekday afternoon at 3 o 'clock, AM 970 the answer each weeknight at 7. And we have a lot of fun. My handle across all social media at that Kevin show. Please be in touch with me. I love to interact on the top stories of the day. We've got a lot to get to this morning. Yesterday, one of the judges in the federal trials that is the former president is going to face in upcoming months set the trial date for March 4th. This is in the special case against President Trump that Jack Smith is bringing the U .S. District Judge for the District Tanya Chutkin. Remember that name? It will live in infamy. She's rejected a proposal by the Trump defense team that the trial began in April of twenty twenty six long after the election. She instead set the date far closer to the one proposed by Smith and the government who wanted it on January 2nd. And if you happen to be a criminal attorney, please dial me eight hundred six five five Mike eight hundred six five five six four five three. I'd love to have some validation on this, but one of the one of the broadcasts I do here in New York for AM 970 the answer focuses on litigative issues every Thursday night. And we just talk legal stuff. I'm not a lawyer. I'm fascinated by the law. I think that lawyers that that proves a faithful service to their clients and to the government are are valuable people in our society. But I think it's interesting to see this chess match being played to the public in a way as though lawyers wouldn't know what was really going on here. So let me kind of break it down for you. You had the indictment and the the perp walk and the cuffing and the fingerprinting and all the stuff that they wanted to do to try to embarrass forty five. They had their moment in the in the sun to do that. And then they come back and they say, oh, we're we're going to go to trial quickly. We're going to put you on trial on the second of January. And Jack Smith said, Judge, you've got to put them on trial on the second of January. And the Trump team said, no, we're going to ask for twenty twenty six. And the judge comes back and says, no, no, no, no, we can't give you that much time to prepare. We're going to make sure that you're ready for trial by March the fourth. Now, of all the dates and all the calendars in all the world, March 4th is the day that she just happened to land on. I'm just I'm just looking at this calendar and I'm just seeing of all the choices and options that I have here. And you know what? I'm going to go with March the fourth for no reason whatsoever. Except that March 5th happens to be Super Tuesday. And there's however many states, twelve, fifteen, sixteen states in it. I forget the number. It's one of the most important days of the election calendar. This judge, Tonya Chutkin and and the prosecutor in the in the in the Georgia case are both embarrassing themselves. Fannie Willis and Tonya Chutkin are both embarrassing themselves because their behavior begets kindergartners on day one of preschool. Like it's they're not even in the in the class yet. And they're already like goofing around. Here's what happens between now and March 4th of next year. The Trump team will do a number of things in all of these cases, but they're going to they're going to be filing mainly, especially in the in the state cases for a couple of things. They're going to want those cases moved out of the Georgia state realm and they're going to want to put them into the federal realm because the federal system will be one that's easier to to manage and to and to kind of go through. But beyond that, there are a boatload of motions that will be being entered into the record between now and then that they are going to do everything from filing a motion to dismiss to filing an extension for discovery. And let me just let me just tell you on this on this alleged interference in the 2020 federal case that Jack Smith is doing out of D .C. It's my understanding that there are more than 12 million documents. That will be entered into the evidence, and this Tonya Chutkin joke, this this judge, this this joke of a judge laughed yesterday when told by the Trump team that for proper discovery to be allowed, there's no human way that they could sit and read 12 million pages between now and March 4th. And she just kind of giggled like, ha ha ha. Well, you've already you already know a bunch of the stuff that's in there. Ha ha ha. Friends. We talked about this yesterday. The left is trying to systematically dismantle America and they're starting to let the evil be seen. Right. That was my theme yesterday on the show. We talked about it for three hours. This is another example of that. There's there's this kind of open knowledge that this judge is dismissing. The normal procedures that what would be accustomed to any other criminal defendant, they're not going to allow President Trump. Why aren't they going to give him the same rights and the same protections that they would give a serial killer or a gang banger or anyone else? They're going to have to. And if the judge continues this kind of embarrassing behavior, chuckling at the people that are involved, chuckling at the requests that are made. She's there's a there's a there's a circuit court that oversees this court. And those judges have authoritative roles that they play over the over the sitting judge. That's that's in the court. That is Tonya Chuck him. And if they don't want to be embarrassed, if they don't want to have their circuit embarrassed, they will advise their underling to comport herself differently. But I just find it amazing that we're supposed to buy all of this. This is this is the great lie. They sit here and they pull this stuff and they and they set these unrealistic dates. And by the way, I'm going on the record. They would not have made a January 2nd start date. They're not going to make a March 4th start date. You had it is law. His he has a right to an informed defense. He has he has a right to have his defense know every piece of evidence that's going to be introduced as it's introduced before it's introduced. If the if the prosecution has had twelve point eight million documents in their possession and the defense is just receiving and being made aware of what they're going to introduce. They have to have time legally to not only understand what every document says, but they have to process it and comprehend the implication of what that document has to do with within the case. And then they have to have the right to prepare proper defense of those facts. This isn't a kangaroo court. We're not in a kangaroo nation. There are still laws. And I know these Obama judicial appointees and the Biden administration and the Justice Department all think it's hilarious. What's going to be hilarious is when they get their teeth slapped back at them by their their their upper judges and maybe eventually the Supreme Court, because they're such lunatics with how they're proceeding at current pace. Eight hundred six, five, five, Mike, eight hundred six, five, five, six, four, five, three. Take your calls right now. Eight hundred six, five, five, Mike, eight hundred six, five, five, six, four, five, three. Do you think that Trump will be in court on March 4th, the day before Super Tuesday next year? By the way, some of his fellow Republicans think that he will be. Chris Christie, the shameful, shameful behavior of Chris Christie in recent days coming right back. It's the Mike Gallagher show. Don't go away. Left leaning activists are attacking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Read The People's Justice Clarence Thomas and the constitutional stories that define him on sale now from Regnery Publishing. You know. As central banks in countries like China, India and Australia begin transitioning to a digital currency, the Federal Reserve has been contemplating the same for the U .S. With the digital currency, the government could track every single purchase you make. Officials could even prohibit you from purchasing certain products or easily freeze or seize part or all of your money. These are some of the reasons concerned Americans reach out to Birch Gold Group. They want to have a physical asset that's independent from the U .S. dollar. Gold held tax sheltered in a retirement account. I buy my gold from Birch Gold to make sure I'm diversified. You should, too. Find out if gold is right for you as well. Text the keyword Mike to 98 -98 -98. We'll send you a free info kit on gold. With an A -plus rating with the Better Business Bureau, thousands of happy customers like me, countless five -star reviews, Birch Gold Group can help you diversify into gold. Text Mike to 98 -98 -98 or just go to MikeForGold .com. MikeForGold .com. Claim your free info kit on gold. Because if a central bank digital currency becomes reality, it'll be nice to have some gold to depend on.
The Eric Metaxas Show
A highlight from Kevin McCullough
"We're proud to announce our brand new ACLJ Life and Liberty Drive. Our legal teams will be focusing on the issues that you are. ACLJ members have told us matter the most to you, life and religious liberty. Join the ACLJ in the fight to keep America free. Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxas show sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit Legacy PM investments dot com. That's Legacy PM investments dot com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxas show. It's a nutritious smoothie of creamy, fresh yogurt, vanilla protein powder and a mushy banana for your mind. Drink it all down. It's nummy. I want vanilla. I want vanilla. Here comes Eric Mataxas. Hey there, folks, welcome to the program. By my calendar, it is Thursday, August 24th. I have as my guest, our friend Kevin McCullough. Some of you know him as vote Stradamus. Some of you know him as Kevin McCullough. And yet he's the same person. Kevin, welcome. Hey, Eric. Good to see you. This is a big day, a very, very big day, a day that should live in infamy because Donald Trump is having to report to a courthouse today. It's a staggering thing. Some of my friends had to have their mug shots taken yesterday. These American heroes who were really trying to make sure that we had a fair election last time. And by the way, we didn't. And of course, last night there was the Republican debate. I want to say that with air quotes. It's kind of like whatever that was last night on Fox News. And then Trump, brilliantly, as usual, because he is just a master at this, did had a conversation with Tucker Carlson at the same time as the debates starring Asa Hutchinson, who? That's correct. Asa Hutchinson. So so, Kevin, let's let's go to it. I didn't have the stomach. I did not have the stomach. I don't have the stomach to watch things like that debate last night. So I saw a bunch of clips. It was really, to my mind, pathetic, actually, to see people like Mike Pence and Nikki Haley and Chris Christie presenting a view of the world that died in 1986.
Mark Levin
Mike Pence Made Himself Look Like a Man Man
"Governments blown up in the course of a couple of weeks. Not even because of his testimony, but look at him. He almost looked like a madman. He looked like a... What? Look dainty. He made I've been very tough on Christine. He deserves it. Had for Actually him a decent night last night, but. Here's Chris Christie on CNN today. Chris Christie will go Anywhere. Much like his friend Vivek. They think they can get support going Airport radar. They'll be on airport radar. Sonograms. They'll be on sonograms. But you know what? I would tell Vivek this. You can't lead a revolution from the green room of all these studios you go into. Again, you talk about going to Kensington, Philadelphia. I know Kensington, Philadelphia. It's a terrible place right now. I'm from Philadelphia. You gotta reach out to Democrats and minorities and everything. That's all very important. But gonna you're not do that on TV. It would be nice if you did reach out to the conservative base every now and then. I don't see it. So, Chris Christie is on CNN today.
Mark Levin
Mark Levin: Chris Christie Has No Agenda for the Presidency
"Change. Chris Christie honestly did better than I thought he wasn't as bad as I thought and I'll get to Mike Pence in a minute because I think Mike Pence took the role of Chris Christie for the most part but I'll get to this Chris Christie really has no reason to either he doesn't have much of an agenda he hasn't thought about it very much I think he viewed it as perhaps sort of a student debating society I just I don't see any lane for him I don't see any reason for him the governor of Burgum from North Dakota seems like a perfectly fine man I think it'd be a great Secretary of Energy maybe Secretary of Commerce I do like his federalism approach for the but again I'm not sure why he's there that's three out of the eight out of the eight now let's get to the tough part start with Nikki Haley I think she presented herself very well but something huge was missing massively huge whether you like her or not or agree with her or not she almost didn't talk about her eight year record at all she mentioned school choice I think I didn't hear anything else she attacked the spending at the federal level what did she do with spending at the state level did taxes go up did spending go up I have no idea nor do I have the interest to even google it and look it up but she wasn't running on her eight year record at all which tells me it
Mike Gallagher Podcast
A highlight from Week in Review - Episode 20
"Welcome to The Mike Gallagher Show week in review podcast. I'm Eric Hanson. A lot of things happening this week, including the first GOP debate and the fourth arrest and indictment for Donald Trump. Let's begin with some post debate analysis. Mike thought that Ron DeSantis really needed to have a breakout night and didn't on the debate stage on Wednesday night. And without that, he may never catch Donald Trump. Nothing really came from the debate. Nobody reached out of the TV and grabbed you and said, I'm the person. There all annoyed with Vivek, which means Vivek probably had a great night. The two biggest establishment politicians on that stage, Mike Pence and Chris Christie, seemed to despise Vivek Ramaswamy, which was weird. I have to tell you, angry, petulant, aggressive Mike Pence is a weird look. I think of Mike Pence as this sort of avuncular, kind, gentlemanly, polite, God -fearing man. No, no, no. He kept talking over, going too long. Here's Brett Baer chastising him at one point. Please, please, Mr. Vice President, we got to follow the rules here. And Mike Pence, but he was rattled by Vivek Ramaswamy. They all seem to be. And isn't that interesting? Why? Why were they so rattled by Vivek? Well, let's look at him for a moment. He's not a politician. He's an outsider. He's a gazillionaire. Sounds like anybody you know. Here's Donald Trump's explanation about why he didn't go last night. And I got up today, I go through all of the early, early morning. I'm up at 5 36 in the morning. I go through all the news sites. One of the sites I always review is Axios. I like Mike Allen's work. I mean, their left of center, their mainstream headline at Axios, the big winner of the debate last night was Donald Trump. Trump wasn't even there. And according to Axios, Donald Trump won the debate last night by a landslide. Here he was last night explaining to Tucker on X why he didn't go to the debate. I'm leading by 50 and 60 points. And you know, some of them are at one and zero and two. And I'm saying, do I sit there for an hour or two hours, whatever it's going to be and get harassed by people that shouldn't even be running for president? Should I be doing that? But I just felt it would be more appropriate not to do the debate. I don't think it's right to do it. If you're leading by 50, 60, I have one problem leading by 70 points. And I'm saying, why am I doing it? And I'm going to have eight people, 10 people, whoever made the debate. I don't know how many it is, but I'm going to have all these people screaming at me, shouting questions at me, all of which I love answering. I love doing, but it doesn't make sense to do them. So I've taken a pass. I told you that Ron DeSantis had to have a huge night. He had to have an epic night. He had to have a game changing night. If he didn't, the campaign is over. Well, he didn't have a night that he needed to have if he wanted any chance at all of catching Donald Trump. I mean, he's down 30, 40, 50 points in the polls. And I wonder if you agree with Jason Miller on NBC, who opined that the DeSantis campaign is now pretty much over. And he held his own last night and he could tout a great record in Florida. He had to have that meteoric night. That's the only chance he had to begin catching up and making up all this lost ground. He didn't have it, but I want to play Jason Miller for you and what he said to Chuck Todd on NBC. And then I want to turn it over to you to see if you agree with this. Listen. President Trump looked like a genius by skipping the pig pile tonight and instead doing the interview with Tucker Carlson, which by the way, Chuck just hit 87 million views. So what, probably 10, a little more than tenfold than watch the rest of the folks have their cat fight tonight. But here's the other thing. I think it's a really important point. I heard someone earlier on the panel say they thought that sanctimonious did okay. That's not right. We saw the death of Ron DeSantis' campaign tonight as Vivek Ramaswamy leapfrog him into second place. DeSantis didn't do good enough for him to tread water. He had to have a breakout moment and Ramaswamy completely outshone him. I knew President Trump wasn't going to be there tonight. I didn't know Ron DeSantis was going to skip the debate as well. Now, Ron DeSantis didn't skip the debate at all, but let's be honest, Ron DeSantis with the awkward pauses and the frozen smile, he's not the warm, colorful personality and effective communicator that we've become used to.
Dennis Prager Podcasts
A highlight from Trump v. the Others
"We get it. You're busy. You don't have time to waste on the mainstream media. That's why Salem News Channel is here. We have hosts worth watching, actually discussing the topics that matter. Andrew Wilkow, the next D 'Souza, Brandon Tatum, and more. Open debate and free speech you won't find anywhere else. We're not like the other guys. We're Salem News Channel. Watch any time on any screen for free 24 -7 at snc .tv and on local now channel 525. at preggertopia .com I'm not going to say that George Strait automatically means that I'm here, but it's a good signal. Mark Davis in for Dennis. A certain Texas twang coming from George, if not from me, but a certain Texas flavor when I am here and it is always a joy to be here. Mark Davis from 660 AM, the answer where I am the happy morning host. And boy, was I happy to be here this morning. Happy being a relative term. It was demanding for everybody because I'm here in central time talking to the West Coast crew out there in Pragerland where everybody was working really late between radio and the Salem News Channel. Just fantastic coverage last night, post debate, all kinds of opinions flying thick and fast. So I'm just really enormously pleased to be here in one of my frequent fill -ins. It's always a joy to be here for Dennis. And you can follow me on Twitter or X or Guacamole or whatever they're calling that thing these days, at Mark Davis, M -A -R -K Davis. And the best way to get ahold of us, of course, is the phone lines that are used in the show every day. 1 -8 -Praeger -776, 1 -8 -Praeger -776. Again, I'm Mark Davis here in the big bustling DFW. And wherever you are, I have some things I need to know from you. You ready? And what I'm gonna do is put some of it in question form. Most of my obvious offering is to get your thoughts and ask the blanket question. What did you think of the two big things that you could see last night? One of them was the debate on a stage in Milwaukee. And the other one was seen by perhaps 10 times more people. I mean, are we at 200 million? At some point, everyone in America, if not around the world, will have seen Trump on Tucker. And we'll talk a little bit about whether it was smart for Trump to do Tucker instead of the debate. It certainly wasn't dumb, it certainly didn't hurt him. Because after all, as we've learned by now, nothing hurts him, at least not yet. And by the way, every candidate on the stage last night, every candidate on the stage last night, dreams of having a bump, having a boost like Trump will get today from another arraignment. This time under the aggressive thumb of Fannie Willis in Fulton County in Atlanta, Georgia. He will turn himself in at some point and you will then almost be able to palpably sense the fundraising boost, the poll boost. Here is the truth of the Trump poll numbers. There's something we know, but there's something numerical we don't know. Again, one eight Prager 776, one eight Prager 776. Talk about Trump's decision not to be on that debate stage. And then we'll talk about everybody that was on that debate stage. Cuz it was a fascinating night for Vivek, a so -so night for DeSantis. A really good night for Tim Scott, a surprisingly, momentarily at least interesting night for Mike Pence. Nikki Haley did great, but did she get enough Mike time? Chris Christie, that New Jersey bully boy thing, that just gets really old, really fast. And Doug Burgum and Asa Hutchinson were there as well, which is about the old, I got nothing bad to say about these guys. I've got nothing bad to say about these guys. Hutchinson was an okay governor of Arkansas, really needs to be awakened on some of the gender clarity necessities. Doug Burgum seems like a wonderful guy, and what a tough nut, keyword nut. Who plays basketball the night before a debate? Who does something that has even a remote injury risk? My colleague Mike Gallagher and I were talking, and he said, if I'm on the debate stage the following day, I'm putting myself in lockdown. I'm gonna be in bed, in some type of pneumatic bubble. Nothing will get to me, but so that I don't rip open my Achilles tendon. Which he did, so he had to crutch himself onto the stage. And I don't wanna be cynical enough to say that this strikes me as debate theater and that it was faked. I don't believe that, I don't wanna be that guy, I don't wanna be that cynical, but I will be this judgmental. How dumb is it to do something the night before a debate that can hurt you? So of course, I know driving on the highway can hurt you and da, da, da, da. So I have all kinds of hot takes on how I think everybody did. I'm gonna frame it in terms of what I expected versus how they did. And then we'll talk about what I expected from Trump on Tucker. I expected it to be stratospherically good, and it was. So we have specific Trump on Tucker observations, and we have specific debate participation observations. And it all takes place against this glorious, fascinating backdrop of late August, 2024. Here we are, we are still September, October, November. So we're still four and a half months before anybody votes for anything. Change is still possible, but how plausible is it? How many times have you heard people say, yeah, in this particular year, by this point, Newt Gingrich was in the lead? Yeah, in this particular year, Rudy Giuliani was in the lead. Well, guess what was not going on when Newt, obviously, neither gentleman ever became president or ever will, it seems, for multiple reasons. There was no Trump, nobody had a 50 point lead. It was just wide open, it was five or six or eight or 10 or 14 or 17 people all running now. Trump is the alpha dog, the king of the hill. There is nothing that has dented his support yet. I will tell you the one thing, I wouldn't even say might, I'd say the only thing that can, the only thing that can, and I'll do that here in a second. In fact, probably got to get to that first. 18 Prager 776, 18 Prager 776. And again, my name, Mark Davis, follow me on Twitter, X, whatever you want to call it. I can't say X, it's Twitter to me, I don't know, I'm an old fart, what can I say? At Mark Davis, and I'll take a look at those during the break. But the best way to get ahold of us, of course, with your thoughts, 776. 18 Prager Okay, I do have a fresh column in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, I'm proud to write for the Star Telegram and the McClatchy newspaper chain and Newsweek and Town Hall, but the thing I did an immediate, I pretty well do mean immediate, turnaround reaction column for was the Star Telegram. So if you go to star -telegram .com and look at opinions, find me, Mark Davis, there is my column that talks about how Vivek and Pence and Tim Scott helped themselves. I mean, the only people who did, but they did. But the enduring question, the enduring question is, can anybody catch Trump? Is that even possible? So if we start with the premise that they say anything is possible, not anything, okay? Asa Hutchinson, Doug Burgum, or Will Hurd winning the nomination is as close to not possible as the English language permits, okay? But let's just say that in these turbulent times, where almost everything seems volatile, it was volatility that kind of lofted Trump in 2016. There were a lot of frustrations, there he was, he seemed anti -establishment, he caught the wind of that in the sales of so many Americans. The timing was just, it was perfect for Trump. Now, eight years, next month, wow, he and Melania came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower. In a way, it seems like yesterday, in a way, it seems like 100 years ago. But anyway, everybody knows him now. And the love for him and hatred of him are both baked in so solid, so two things are true at the same time. With Trump as the nominee, you're going to get two things, guaranteed two things. The love for him and the devotion to him and the desire to flip a huge middle finger to the establishment that now pursues and persecutes him, that will be on fire with energy. The other thing that's gonna be on fire with energy, every Democrat, Biden could be actually dead and on the ticket, and Democrats will crawl on broken glass and walk through fire to deliver another loss to Trump. So that will be in furious force. So which of those forces, which of those phenomena is greater? I don't know, and neither do you. Are there risks to making Trump your nominee? There sure are. But are there risks that a whole lot of people seem totally willing to take? Yes, indeedy. So what is the one thing that might erode Trump support? And I'm not saying it will, but it's the only thing that can. I'll tell you next, and take your calls next, 1 -8 Prager 776. Mark Davison for Dennis. The Dennis Prager Show. Gold dealers are a dime a dozen. They're everywhere. What sets these companies apart, and whom can you really trust? This is Dennis Prager for AmFed Coin and Bullion, my choice for buying precious metals. When you buy precious metals, it's imperative that you buy from a trustworthy and transparent dealer that protects your best interests. So many companies use gimmicks to take advantage of inexperienced gold and silver buyers. Be cautious of brokers offering free gold and silver, or brokers that want to sell you overpriced collectible coins, claiming they appreciate more than gold and silver. What about hidden commissions and huge markups? Nick Grovitch and his team at AmFed always have your back. I trust this man, that's why I mentioned him by name. Nick's been in this industry over 42 years, and he's proud of providing transparency and fair pricing to build trusted relationships. If you're interested in buying or selling, call Nick Grovitch and his team at AmFed Coin and Bullion, 800 -221 -7694, americanfederal .com, americanfederal .com. So, whether you are watching, or listening, or both, we appreciate it. Mark Davison for Dennis here on Debate Night. I was gonna say morning after, depending on your time zone, the day after, what do we think? I'm gonna take some calls here and sort of intermingle my specific thoughts about how each candidate did. And of course, you know what the short part is, how Trump did with Tucker? Simply superb. It was just vintage Trump for 47 minutes and it was awesome. It was just a reminder of how great he is and why everybody wants him back, or nearly everybody wants him back. I will tell you, not to be a curmudgeon about this, but I still think he should have been on the debate stage. I totally understand his logic. Why should I? They're 50 points behind me. I don't need to show up for this. I totally get it. He's right about that. It did not hurt him to not be there, but it was a missed opportunity. There are millions of people for whom the last 10 times they heard Trump talk, it was all about Jack Smith, and Fannie Willis, and Alvin Bragg, and this persecution, and that lawsuit, and this vendetta, and that witch hunt, all of which is true. But it can be fatiguing to some folks who are not a junkie for this. And this would have been an opportunity for Trump with a bunch of rivals, and a bunch of pretenders to be sure, and a bunch of people at 0 .5%, and I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. But it would have been him talking about borders. It would have been him talking about crime. It would have been him talking about climate, which by the way, he did with Tucker, but he could have done that too. Not to get greedy, but why not do the debate and then sit down with Tucker tonight? Wouldn't that have worked? So yeah, but it was a statement. I understand it was a statement. It was a positioning statement that says, I don't even need to be on that stage as they all run for who's going to be the last person left when there are two candidates left standing. That is, by the way, what last night's debate was about. It's what the entire campaign is about for everybody not named Trump. At some point in the spring, there'll be two candidates left. One of them will be named Donald Trump, and the other one will not. And everybody wants to be that other person. And forever it looked obvious that it was going to be DeSantis. It doesn't look that way so much right now. Now it could really be the vague. Will that sustain? Is this kind of a flash in the summer pan? I don't know. Your thoughts are welcome. 18 Prager 776. As I get ready to go to the phones, here's the thing. Everybody, I get asked this all the time. Is there anything that could change the calculus? Anything where Trump just doesn't have that 50 point lead anymore? Because while we're talking math, here's what's undeniably true. Trump can win the nomination, can breeze to the nomination without poaching one single supporter from anybody on that stage last night. Obviously, he could do it tomorrow. DeSantis, just to pick somebody or the vague, let's go with DeSantis for the moment. He needs to poach half of the Trump poll numbers. He's got to go get half of those people. Half of the people saying we want Trump, half of the 50 some percent, if not more, who say we want Trump, who say that now in August, have to stop saying that by the time people are really voting in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and Nevada, etc, etc. So what is the one way that happens? And this is a half court shot, maybe a full court shot. And that is that some of the poll emotions right now, some of it, most of it is we want this guy to be president. We loved him then, we love him now, we want this guy to be president. You know, the usual earth logic that people use in expressing support for a candidate. But some of it, and it'll have to be a lot of it. And I don't know that it is. But certain x percentage of it has to be folks who may or may not require Trump to be their next president. But they are furious at what's being done to him. It is a show of support. I mean, why do you think the poll numbers will go up after he is arraigned today in Atlanta? Is it because a bunch of people will just look at issues around America and decide, oh, he is my guy? Some may, but most of the poll bursts and the fundraising bursts that happen after each continuing litany of indictments is people saying, oh, hell no. It's what I call the Jason Whitlock effect. Jason Whitlock is the wonderful broadcaster, blogger, who was on the Tucker one, I think might have been after the first indictment or the second one, I lose track. Jason Whitlock was on with Tucker when Tucker was on Fox and said, I don't even know what I think about Trump. I'm halfway with him, halfway not. I like some of what he does, some of it not. I don't know. But tonight I'm hardcore MAGA. Tucker, tonight I am hardcore MAGA, Jason Whitlock said. And it was as a statement of revulsion at what was being done to him. Now, if that's a bunch of Trump support, cuz here it is in one nutshell. By the time we get to, we go through Christmas, we go through the holidays, everybody digests their holiday meals. And then we all get rolling in January of 2024. And millions of Republicans go, whoa, okay, now it's what's always been serious. But now it's time, time with a capital T. It's not about whether we don't like Jack Smith or whether we think 2020 was rigged or whether we're just not about anything else. Other than it's about one thing, one thing, who beats Biden? Who gives us the best chance of beating Biden? And if the similar numbers of people who think so today think that that's Trump, and by the way, it may well be, then nothing will change. All these campaigns, all the DeSantis's, all the Viv Hanks, all the everybody's, I don't wanna say it'll be for naught, but it will not bear fruit. It will not bear fruit. If, however, and it's funny because right now we got the sort of the fresh angst, the renewed emotion and determination of what will happen after Trump is dragged before yet another tribunal for yet another non -crime. And we can talk about this some today if you want. There's really only one thing out of every single one of these stupid persecution prosecutions, all these indictments, all these things. Really, they only got him on one thing. There's one thing that he just really should have done differently. And that's the handling of those stupid documents. Give back the stupid documents. If you do that, then that's not even a problem. But all this election related stuff is insane. He thinks he got screwed. And guess what? So do I. Guess what? So do most of you. We don't get to believe that. And if we're him, we don't get to act on that and make phone calls and secure meeting space and tweet to somebody to watch a TV show, all of which has been criminalized by these lunatic prosecutors. But in January of 2024, it's not gonna be about that anymore. No matter how we feel about that. No matter how we feel and no matter how resentful we are of that and how much we wanna stick with him. And I mean, in that regard, if millions of people say, God bless you, sir, God bless you, we love your presidency. We want those policies back, but the damage seems to have been done.
The Dan Bongino Show
Chris Christie: Trump Disrespected the U.S. Constitution
"All right, let's get to some sound. Here was Christie, Chris who I just think looked buffoonish last night personally. I mean, he's trying to play this tough guy role while simultaneously refusing to go on any talk show where they don't his kiss ass. And there's a lot of service area there. I mean, you can't really miss. He won't go on any show. He won't go on Levin, he won't go on Tucker, he won't come on my show. Yet he's some big like Dalton -like tough guy from Woodhouse. Give me a break with this stupid act. This came off. I thought this came off terribly last night. Here's Chris a I know lot better than you two. You've never done it like you've never done anything to try to advance the interests of this government except to put yourself as forward a candidate tonight. And here's the thing. We stood up for law and order. I did it as US attorney. I did it as governor. And I am not going to bow to anyone when we have a president of the United States who disrespects the Constitution. He said He said Get your MSNBC He said disrespects the Constitution. Bro, are you serious? The 2020 election was a train wreck. You telling me we mass did mail -in balloting for the first time states that had no experience in it at all. And this thing was all on the up and up after they suppressed the Hunter Biden story. Pennsylvania illegally changed the rules at the last minute and he disrespected the Constitution. You mean the Constitution they're crapping on right now by violating his Fourth Amendment rights, his right to an attorney. I mean really Twinkies just wrap it up, bro. Would you seriously, man? Really, it's time to cut another notch in that belt and help yourself to the buffet.
Mark Levin
The Republican Establishment Is Mostly Flatfooted
"More over unlike the Democrat Party the Republican establishment would rather betray its own base conservatives and try marginalize to it than battle the Democrat Party preferring to make appeals to the Democrat Party media demonstrate their supposed bipartisan common sense in pursuit of temporary political power and positive media coverage Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and the likes of Mitt Romney Susan Collins Lisa Murkowski Chris Nunes Hutchison Asa and Chris Christie are but a few contemporary examples of this defeatist mindset it is also one reason why and they Republicans like them constantly target Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Cruz, Ted Mike Lee and others who understand the nature of the threat and are willing to confront it takes uncommon fortitude, principles and foresight to recognize and engage the Democrat Party its surrogates and the American Marxist movements in addition to literally putting your career and freedom on the line you must deal with a rear guard action from the Party Republican even with all this I don't believe it can be said that the the Republican Party as an institution hates America or exists to again fundamentally transform America . it's not the home of the various Marxist movements that plot daily and in a thousand The Democrat Party seeks to effectively sideline the Republican party with repeated efforts to
Mike Gallagher Podcast
A highlight from The Mike and Mark Davis Daily Chat - 08/22/23
"Back to the mid -80s. Everybody wants to rule the world, little tears for fears. Half of that outfit, Roland Orzeball, is 62 today. This is a theme from the Dennis Miller talk show, I believe, on HBO. Everybody wants to rule the world. I don't remember that. I don't remember the Dennis Miller show, really, on HBO. He had an HBO show. There was a Dennis Miller window there. I loved his stand -up. He was so self -aware about his crazy overuse of vocabulary. I think he had a book or a special called Citizen Arcane, with a reference to his over -the -top scholarly references that even if you only got 80 percent of them, you were still well -served. He had a radio show for a while, you remember the Dennis Miller show? Of course I do. With Westwood One. And then he was on, didn't he have a stint as an NFL announcer, of all things? That was a dumb idea. Quite the Renaissance man. Quite the Renaissance man. No, I love the guy. Love him. Hey, listen, first of all, who is on the debate stage tomorrow night, and who's not? I told you, Asa Hutchinson, except he's not going to be on the debate stage. I thought, well, yes, he is, and I don't want to argue with you. And then Larry was for 10 minutes, or he actually wasn't. Larry thought he was for 10 minutes, and then had to take that one back. That's a shame. So it looks like he's not there. He didn't make it, because Seb Gorka announced last night he's there. And then Carrie Lake, who I'm going to interview, I think, tomorrow as a preview of the debate. Carrie Lake said, I just talked to Larry Elder, and he said the RNC is refusing to allow Larry to be on the stage, even though he's met the donor threshold, he's in 1 percent in three polls, but the RNC, one of the polls is a Trump -affiliated poll, I guess. What does that mean? I think they need all of the polls to be like Gallup and Reuters and NBC, which may have their own biases, obviously. There may be no such thing as an objective poll, but there may be a bit of a blackout rule for any poll that is specifically tied to a candidate. The debate stage is better with Larry on it. It's a waste of time with Asa Hutchinson on it, but it looks like that's what you got. But Doug Burgum is there. So listen, we're all right there. At least he's there. I'm hanging on. I'm going to be hanging on to his every word. Every word from Doug. It's terrifying. Not that he gets Doug Burgum. He seems like a good dude, a good governor, but just why, why, why, why? Well, let me prepare everybody for tomorrow night. Let me warn you, because I just thought about this, and it's absolutely going to be true. You know why the debate is going to be so maddening for us? They're going to bag on Trump and there ain't nobody to defend him. There is no, there will not be any counter. They'll be able to lie about him. They'll say things, I guarantee you, and it's going to make us all crazy. They're going to say he incited the insurrection. They're going to say... Who will do that? Chris Christie, but anybody else? Well, but when Chris Christie says it, there won't be any counter to that. Nobody's going to refute the anti -Trump narrative at all.
Bloomberg Radio New York - Recording Feed
Monitor Show 15:00 08-17-2023 15:00
"Nominee or not. And we all know, as well as we know Donald Trump since 2015, there is no way he's going to support if he doesn't become the nominee. There's no way he's going to go out and campaign on behalf of Ron DeSantis or Tim Scott or Vivek Ramaswamy or whoever it might be. Certainly not Chris Christie. And what does the RNC do then? I guess we're all going to have to find out in that hypothetical scenario. Wendy Benjaminson and Kaylee Lyons for you here on sound on Bloomberg Business Week starts right now. Broadcasting 24 hours a day at Bloomberg .com and the Bloomberg Business Act. This is Bloomberg Radio. This is Bloomberg Business Week insight from the reporters and editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine plus global business finance and tech news as it happens. Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio. Good afternoon, everybody. It is Thursday, August 17th. Carol Masser along with Tim Stenebeck. What kind of day is it when the most read story on the Bloomberg is poor man's cocaine costing $3 a pill threatens to proliferate. That is our most read story. It's a wacky Thursday. Yeah. Okay. It's the most read story. We're going to give you more details on that in just a little bit. Yeah, we'll do it as a film. Yeah, we'll work it in. We are live from the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. We're streaming on YouTube and on Bloomberg Originals. Carol, it's Thursday, August 17th, 2023. I call it Friday's Eve. All right. Stocks and bonds are down again. Wait, what? Because I thought they are not supposed to trade in tandem. We do see that 10 year treasury the yield up about eight basis points as much as eight basis points to four point thirty three percent today approaching the highest level since 2007. Remember what Katie Kaminsky, chief research strategist over at Alpha Simplex Group told us earlier in the week? Liz Capo McCormick put a story out on it because she's talking about a 10 year that reaches.
The Charlie Kirk Show
A highlight from THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 9 Civil War Now? Prager on Porn? Sign the Pledge?
"The U .S. dollar has lost 85 % of its value since the 70s, when the dollar decoupled from gold, and the government seems bent on continuing the tradition. Charlie Kirk here. From now until after the elections, the government can print as much money as they want. The last time they did that, inflation went up 9%. Gold is the only asset that has proven to withstand inflation. Invest in gold with Noble Gold Investments. You will get a 24 -carat, one -fourth of an ounce gold standard coin for free. Just use promo code kirk. Go to noblegoldinvestments .com. That's noblegoldinvestments .com, the only gold company I trust. Hey, everybody. Happy Saturday. Thought Crimes. We talk about third rail topics, fringe topics that you will not hear everywhere else. Remember, these are usually rated R. So if you're a homeschool parent or kid, just know that you have been warned. We talk about the RNC debate. Prager's opinion on pornography takes up a big portion of this episode and more. Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk .com. Become a member. It's members .charlicirk .com to listen to all of our episodes, advertiser free, and get involved with Turning Point USA at tpusa .com. That is tpusa .com. Get engaged, get involved, tpusa .com. Buckle up, everybody. Here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks. I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. Brought to you by the loan experts I trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandtodd .com. Okay, everybody. Welcome. It is Thought Crime Thursday. That's the first time we said that. It kind of works. We have Blake Neff, who I think liberals and conservatives equally hate. Tyler Boyer. Hey, how you doing? We went from getting more popular every week to being hated by everyone now. Blake, your stock is going down like the Hindenburg and Jack Pysobik, still learning who he is. Jack will lead with you. How are things going? I love with Blake's long -term strategy is here. He wants each quadrant of the political compass to hate him equally and somewhere in the middle, he'll find a woman. It's like the Geraldo Rivera strategy. Exactly. It's the undertaker strategy loved by few. He's doing great, but it's very necessary. Okay. Let's start with our first story today on the lineup. I don't think we have much of a, Oh yeah. Okay. The RNC is once again, trying to get Trump to sign a pledge to support the party's eventual nominee. Even if it's not him, Trump doesn't seem interested. Is he making the right move? I I'll take my take first. And then Jack, you can, I'll hand off the baton. These pledges by the RNC are so irrelevant. They're non -binding they're so fake and Trump not wanting to sign it. I just think he reasserts control that it is his party and also shows that the RNC doesn't mean anything. Jack Pysobik your thoughts. So I, I think a lot of these pledges are kind of silly at this point because we all know the situation that we're in, in the party, you've got these two wings fighting it out. And in many ways, MAGA itself represents a real third party in America. It just happens to be within the Republican party, within the framework of the Republican party, fighting for dominance within that party. And so this idea that, Oh, we're all going to be kumbaya really? Does that mean that Mitt Romney is going to come out and support Trump when he wins the nomination? Does that mean that all the Republicans that are going to do, you know, run against him they're not going to undercut Trump, although it's ridiculous. They're already undercutting him. The New York Times has got the Federalist Society putting out articles today saying, Oh, Donald Trump, the conservative case for disqualifying Trump from the, from the ballot in November. And so I think it's ridiculous. I think the entire pledge is ridiculous. I don't think he should sign it. And the fact that Trump was the first person ever in Republican politics say, to and just raise his hand and say, I will not support the eventual nominee. That's the reason he won. Tyler, you are on the RNC. What's going on here? Yeah. I mean, look, so I, I agree with half of what Jack said and I disagree with the other half. And I'll tell you the other half that I disagree. So I agree with, I agree with the latter, which half next question. I agree with the latter half, which is that Donald Trump should not in no way, shape or form sign. I'm a member of the RNC. They're probably going to like, try to kick me off the RNC for saying this probably, but I don't think that Donald Trump should sign the pledge. I think the pledge is stupid. These things are idiotic. Exactly what Trump came out and said is exactly right. I wouldn't support half these people on the stage. Like who would support, you know, some of these guys like Chris Christie, I would not support Chris Christie. Personally, I would never support Mike Pence. I would never support a pledge to support Mike Pence. And so like, no, why would you sign that? That shouldn't be a qualifier to get on the stage. Now, the only part I'll disagree with, and it's just kind of a minor disagreement is that there, I actually don't think there are three parties in the country. There, there isn't a Uniparty third party. There isn't a MAGA third party. There are, there's us versus the left and the left is the Uniparty, you know, and I hate when people are like, Oh, the Uniparty is like this third party coming up the middle. Like everyone has to be moderate. This is what they want to do with choice voting is they're trying to produce this moderate middle that's non -existent. It's the left, the globalist left that hates you, hates America, hates everything that America stands for. And it's Americans. And there's a lot of Democrats that are figuring this out and they're switching over. And so the party has to become the party of freedom and, and not relent to what is the Uniparty, which is the left, which is what people say all the time. There's no difference between Republicans and Democrats when Uniparty is in control. The Uniparty is not in control right now. Well, I just, I, I love that you just brought up ranked choice, but real quick that you brought up ranked choice voting. Cause I just saw recently there's a legal filing cause they've considered ranked choice voting in DC and obviously they're trying to get ranked choice voting in every single red state, every Republican jurisdiction. And then it comes up in DC and there's a legal filing that's like, we can't have ranked choice voting guys because it's too confusing to Democratic voters. It will keep them from electing Democrats. No, it said, it said somewhere, this will confuse African American voters. It's like minority voters. minority voters. So literally they're admitting straight up in San Francisco, where it's not working in Vermont, where they kicked it out in DC, the most Democrat areas in America, they're admitting this is not good for minority voters because it limits people's access to the ballot. Then it's just, and they've done this before they did it. Eric Holder once sued a town in I think North Carolina that tried to do nonpartisan elections because they said like, this would keep, this will confuse black people. Cause then they won't know who the Democrat is. And it is the constitutional right of Democrat, of black people to vote for the black people party, which is the Democratic party. That was the argument from Holder. But, but, but bring this back in. So bring this back in with the ranked choice voting, the whole point of ranked choice voting. They want to create this third party, middle ground model. It's not a third party guys. It is us versus them. They want to create a controllable false set of synonyms. It's a radical left that still like dresses normally basically.
Mark Levin
Why Chris Christie Does Not Come Onto the Mark Levin Show
"I don't know who he is that's the only problem and I thought this was an opportunity to find out who he is we found a little more not a lot I don't have anything negative to say about the guy in other words he's not out there trying to destroy the leading candidate which is what which is what Christie's doing now I want to say something else as well I know President Trump disagrees with me on this clearly many of you will too I like Ron DeSantis a lot well there's a 20 % or 30 % or 17 % none of that stuff matters to me polls are polls I've known him a very long time I've actually known him longer than President Trump I knew him when he decided to run for house the I didn't know him at the time he was I was introduced to him as was Attorney General Mays by Adam Laxalt we like Adam Laxalt well he and Adam in the Navy or bunk paints or whatever they call and let's see here only 200
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"Unfortunately not. And one other thing I wanted to emphasize for your viewers, as far as disclosure is concerned, which is what did he have to put in his financial disclosure form? The standards that existed at the time, they were changed by the judicial conference of the United States. And by the way, the Supreme Court does not have to follow this regulations promulgated by judicial conference, but as a matter of comedy, they do. Several months ago in March, if I'm not mistaken, most standards got changed. So both disclosures by Justice Thomas and Justice Alito back with respect to the fishing trip and various things regarding Mr. Crow, who is a friend of Justice Thomas, were entirely consistent with the standards that existed at the time. I have not seen any mainstream newspaper make this point. In fact, they're all pushing the same line as ProPublica, but this is somehow was a violation as far as my disclosures concern. Now, I want to speak to Leonard Leo, because I think this this has a tinge of Army McCarthy hearings to it. And I think if Leonard gets up there because of a subpoena, he will take them apart shoulder and muscle. But I don't want it to happen because it chills speech. Would you explain the two constitutional provisions you believe their request or their demand of Leonard Leo to appear before the Judiciary Committee violate? Of course, first of all, signals him out for his speech. So it violates his First Amendment, both expressive and associational components thereof. And the fact that they're focusing on him and not focusing on other people have relationships, professional friendships with the justices is a classical First Amendment problem where he's being pursued for the content of his speech. It's also an equal protect problem, an equal protection component of a due process clause of a Fifth Amendment. And very importantly, it's lacking a valid legislative purpose, because remember, Congress's investigative power only exists because of its legislative power. Our view is that you cannot promulgate constitutionally. And we talked about it a few minutes ago, the kind of ethics code for the Supreme Court without impairment of independence, which is absolutely essential to our constitutional architecture. And that lack of legislative purpose renders the investigatory effort entirely illegitimate. So they're really free constitutional issues. First Amendment, equal protection clause and lack of value. And let's call it structural separation of powers. Now, it's an eight page letter, and I would encourage everyone to put it into their case books and to teach it in their con law classes. I will, because it does explore very fundamental issues. But I want to focus on chilling people's speech. If they can do this to Leonard Leo, they can do it to any reporter, to any public person, to any private citizen, drag them up there, make them incur the cost of having a representative like you advise them. And basically, it's a threat to conservatives to shut up and stay quiet. Is it a prelude to bringing an injunction against a subpoena of Mr. Leo should one issue? Well, let me say two things. It is not a subpoena right now. It is a request. They can convert it into a subpoena. And if they do that, obviously, it would help. You're right, it has a chilling impact. Watching it being done to Leonard is it chills not only his particular speech, but chills the speech of other people. My hope is that they would stop. They would not proceed with that. But right now, we have nothing to try to suppress. There's no but they can convert it into a committee subpoena, in which case we would fight. By that mean, you would file to attempt to enjoin it. That is correct. Well, Quash would be the. Quash is the technical term. I am curious about what you think the odds are in the District of Columbia. Is that where you would bring it, by the way, or wherever Leonard Leo is living? Well, I don't want to talk about venue. It's a little premature. But look, I don't agree that and this is not something for the jury's pure question of law. It's possible, not easy, but it's possible to draw a good judge on the district court bench. It's possible to draw a good panel in the D.C. Circuit. But ultimately, that would go to the Supreme Court. You know, it's interesting if we're litigating not just the First Amendment, end up litigating, which I hope it would not, the lack of legislative purpose. That actually is the best way of dramatizing. Why would Senate Democrats want us unconstitutional? And I'm sure that Senator Whitehouse and Senator Durbin understand that. So I kind of doubt they would escalate. But you know what? We live in crazy times. You never know. Well, I just think that it's possible you could draw a good judge and it's possible you could draw a good panel. It's possible the Browns win the Super Bowl this year, I'm hopeful. But it's also highly expensive. And no one reimburses Leonard Leo for this, correct? That is correct. So the chilling effects of this is immediate. And I know you want to hold off until after you have an actual you can't be tossed out for lack of ripeness. But it just I don't know that you've gotten much attention for this. But if they begin calling witnesses of public people, the rest of the country ought to be worried. I mean, they will not stop if they get Leonard. Is that your opinion or am I just shooting in the dark here? No, no, I agree with you. Look, one thing that depresses me, where is ACU? Where are what I call traditional liberal organizations that they defended the right of Nazis to march for Skokie? What happened to these people? It is it is utterly depressing how the progressives are suppressing constitutionally protected rights and reversing themselves after decades of at least being even handed in the space. And look at that. And at one point you made, but I think is excellent. That is also about reporters. There is a lot of people who think there is something sacred about being a reporter. I can assure you, as a matter of law, there is nothing more sacred about First Amendment rights of a reporter and First Amendment rights of an average American. First, that is absolutely correct. At the state level, there are some shield laws, but at the Senate level, there's nothing to stop them from subpoenaing any member of the United States that they don't like. And that's what the rule ought to be clear.David Rifkin, I want to thank you just to make sure that I don't get hit with this. I hired Baker and Hostetler as my co-counsel back when. Now Judge Leon and Richard Houser were partners there. So I've got a conflict if we're going to go back 20 years on the Desert Tortoise litigation. But that was one time only one time. David Rifkin, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate the letter. Keep up the good fight. Good to be with you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"Yes, as you put it, the kind of contacts that they are they claim are disabling for conservative justices or similar travel. I mean, look, justice as a human beings during the time the court is out of session. It's not unusual for them to be invited to a conference to speak about the law. It's not unusual for them to have friends. It's not unusual for them to go on a fishing trip. It's not something that should be singled out as a particularly unusual exercise. And it is intensely, intensely focused on both justices, Thomas and Justice Alito. None of the liberal justices, in my opinion, have done anything wrong. Justice Breyer, for example, has had hundreds of overseas trips. We traveled very well, but trips being paid by the people invited him to speak. I can also speak specifically to Justice Breyer, who was a guest on this program for two hours when he was selling his book on the Supreme Court. And I was glad to have him. It was a great interview and it made a lot of sense. He then went to the Nixon Library on which board member I am. We always guarantee we will buy 500 to 600 books and we will sell those books at a premium. They sell tickets and the justices come like Justice Gorsuch and Justice Breyer to the Nixon Library because it's a New York Times accredited bookstore and they want to be on the list because that sells more books. It's completely ethical. There's nothing ever been raised about it. Does anyone respond to that? And do you see that being covered anywhere in the media? That's all over Justice Alito for a decade and a half ago fishing trip.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"David Ripken is a heck of a lawyer. And his piece in the Wall Street Journal and his letter to the judiciary committee is something we're going to talk about at length when we return to the show. Portions of The Hugh Hewitt Show brought to you by Sierra Pacific Mortgage. For more info, call triple AAA, triple 8, 1172. I was thinking of food for the poor yesterday as they transited, because everyone had a nightmare yesterday, again, on the East Coast, as these storms came through from Georgia to Maine and travel disrupted. So they were delayed a couple hours in the in the USO station in I think they went through Charlotte yesterday en route to the West Coast, but they had food and water. That is not the case with food for the poor. In fact, John Hudson is one of the folks who have been down. He's from KITY, a Dallas broadcaster. He's been down to watch the food for the poor operations, which I'm asking you to give twenty five, a fifty, a hundred dollars to this summer. Here's what John had to say. It's not us over here and them over there, but it's all of us. Collectively, for a moment, we get to live life together. And the cool thing is I saw food for the poor and what they did, where our money goes. And it was a beautiful thing that impacted my life in such a great way that I can't wait to go back because I believe in what food for the poor does. I've seen it with my own eyes, and it really is a part of my heart and a part of my life now. Thank you, John. It will be yours, too. They're very good at communicating with you. So whether you give ten dollars or ten thousand dollars, do so at the top of Hugh Hewitt Dotcom, there's a banner that says emergency food supplies. Central America is ravaged by this weather that we are all thing. Well, you can text my name, Hugh, to ninety one nine nine nine ninety one nine nine nine ninety one nine nine nine. Or if you're old school, call eight five five three five seven forty six seventy three vast majority. When I grow up, I want to work for a woke company like super woke. When I grow up, when I grow up, I want to be hired based on what I look like rather than my skills. I want to be judged by my political beliefs. I want to get promoted based on my chromosomes. When I grow up, I want to be offended by my coworkers and walk around the office on eggshells and have my words policed by H.R. Words like grandfather, peanut gallery, long time no see, no can do. When I grow up, I want to be obsessed with emotional safety and do workplace sensitivity training all day long. When I grow up, I want to climb the corporate ladder just by following the crowd. I want to be a conformist. I want to weaponize my pronouns. What are pronouns? It's time to grow up and get back to work. Introducing the number one woke free job board in America. Red balloon dot work. Nations are made rapidly, securely online via that banner, though. I'm Hugh Hewitt live in studio North today. David Rivkin is with the law firm of Baker and Hostler and one of the country's most esteemed appellate litigators. Two things I wanted to talk to him about a letter he sent on July 25th to Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse, the Senate Judiciary Committee and an op ed. He co-authored this month with Lee Casey in The Wall Street Journal. Good morning, Mr. Rivkin. Welcome to The Hugh Hewitt Show. Good to be with you. Well, let's begin with the op ed in The Wall Street Journal. I just discussed this with Chris Christie and with Tom Cotton. They agree with me and with you that the attempt to regulate the conduct of Supreme Court justices is unconstitutional. Has anyone of any serious credential stepped up and said otherwise? Well, depends on your definition of serious credentials. It's clear that the Senate Democrats are driving for a much more prescriptive and prescriptive regulation of the Supreme Court. And what they particularly have in mind is the standards of recusal, which are now quite broad and consistent of common law, financial interests and advocate who's a member of the justices family to a situation where it would be easy to recuse Supreme Court justices and the recusal decision, instead of being self-enforced by the justices, would be done by somebody else. Suggestion in the bill that the Democrats, Senate Democrats put forward is to have five circuit court chief judges. And that's unconstitutional in a variety of ways. But what they're really trying to do is compare the ability of Supreme Court to function. Well, as Senator Cotton just pointed out, the Supreme Court is a constitutionally established court. The lower courts are not. And Chief Justice Roberts is the chief justice of the United States, not of the Supreme Court. It's simply textually without precedent. Justice Alito said so to The Wall Street Journal. He was criticized for that. But ought he to remain silent when people are slurring him every day? Of course not, especially since the organized bar that in different times would have come to the court's defense is not doing it. Look, it's intensely ideological. I mean, the Democrats are talking. They're clearly not happy with the court's jurisprudence. There's nothing to do with ethics. There's everything to do with trying to. I think we froze there a little bit. David Rivkin. So I'm going to try and reconnect there. Bandwidth is always an issue, even when you're dealing with Beltway folks. Folks, can we reconnect with Mr. Rivkin? Because, yeah, the July 25th letter is where we're going to go next. And the July 25th letter begins. We write on behalf of Leonard Leo in response to your letter of July 11th. This is the Sheldon White House and Dick Durbin, which requested information concerning Mr. Leo's interaction with Supreme Court justices. We understand this inquiry is part of an investigation of certain members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have undertaken regarding ethics standards in the Supreme Court. It makes the following charges. Your investigation of Mr. Leo infringes on two provisions of the Bill of Rights. Though our first of all, it appears to be retaliation for the exercise of First Amendment rights. And secondly, it cannot be reconciled with the equal protection clause of the due process. Mr. Rivkin, good to have you back. I just reading your letter. What is the reaction from the letter that you sent on July 25th? Is either Chairman Durbin or Senator Whitehouse responded? We have not responded. They have, however, send a letter to Chief Justice, in essence, doubling down on their views of when it was appropriate. I have to say it is stunning. The Supreme Court, by the way, who has addressed this issue in the past, there's an excellent opinion by the Chief Justice Rehnquist in a case called Led versus Tatum, where his recusal was sought because of his prior job at the Justice Department. He was the assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice, and it's a very robust discussion of the standard for recusal, looking at all the other instances where that has been done. I mean, one point to underscore for your listeners, we're really talking about the political interference with judging. The recusal decisions in each case are part of judging, because that's something you do in the front end, in the context of a particular case in controversy. And it's not often that opinions are written, but you have a couple of opinions written by the late Justice, by both Chief Justice Rehnquist and it's absolutely clear that their position is not consistent with historical practice in this area. And there are two opinions by late Justice Scalia. You may remember the famous case that involved the vice president, Vice President Cheney and the whole hunting accident. So there's what I would say a magistria right up by late Justice Scalia. A cheeky, a cheeky opinion. Stand by, Mr. Ifkin, I'm coming right back because I believe the attack on Leonard Leo ought to chill everyone who lives in the public space and advocates for anything that a majority in either house of the Congress does not like. We're going to come back and talk with Mr. Ifkin, play it tomorrow morning on what he is alleging in this letter and whether or not there is behind that the threat of a lawsuit down the road. I don't know that they can be sued for what they say about Leonard Leo in the Senate itself, but what they say outside of the Senate, they're getting awfully close to slander. David Rifkin returns. Don't go anywhere, America. Chris Christie's interview is being transcribed when we posted Ditto. Governor Reynolds interview and Tom Cotton's audio will be posted. It's all over at Hugh Hewitt dot com. Come back tomorrow for more of the next show.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"Senator Cotton, I want to move to the most serious issue. I think we're on the brink of a confrontation with China, which could get heated. Yeah. Last week, they ran 11 ships in tandem with Russia, total 11 in the flotilla past the Aleutians, not within our 12 mile boundary, not within our 24 mile contiguous boundary, but close enough. To me, that's an open invitation to run a strike group through the Taiwan Straits, which is also international waters. Instead, President Biden simply sent four destroyers up there. How weak is that? Well, it's very weak to you, but it's in keeping with Joe Biden, not just with China, but with Russia before the invasion of Ukraine, what's happening with Iran now. He doesn't want to acknowledge provocations because that would require a response. He's very similar to how Western leaders are handling and will have been Germany and then Germany between the wars, not not just Nazi Germany after 1933, but by more public as well. Every time Germany took some provocative action in the lead up to World War One or World War Two, Western leaders, especially in Great Britain, did not even want to acknowledge it because to acknowledge it would require a response. That's why President Biden barely even acknowledge it. Take the balloon over this year. If it hadn't been for a rancher and some amateur photographers in Montana, I bet we never would have even heard of it. But every time we allow China to get away with such provocation, all we do is to invite more provocation. And again, to go back to the analogy of the two world wars, the most fundamental thing that China watches is our defense budget and our military spending. And until we are spending what we need on the things we need to fight back against China, even if the president were willing to send strike groups through the Taiwan Strait, China would still be gaining a more favorable balance of power against us in a potential conflict in the Pacific. Last question, Senator. News stories this morning suggest another big property owner in China is going to go belly up like Evergrande, something called Country something or other. And that the deflationary cycle there has begun. They are very close to doing what we did in 2007, 2008, have a financial crisis. Do you think such a crisis would lead Xi Jinping to a confrontational stance with Taiwan or lead him away from it? Well, I think it's hard to predict, Hugh, but it could be dangerous. You know, it's the corner grass syndrome. If she thinks his economy is about to collapse and it could lead to significant internal discontent and instability. It's common throughout history for dictators to look outward to try to solve domestic problems. It's also simply case you that she probably sees that China is reaching the apex of its power relative to the United States. Given the way it's propped up its economy for decades and its horrific one child policy for decades, China is going to gradually start contracting both in terms of its population and ultimately their economy in the decades ahead of us. But you may recognize that and you may think that the time is coming when the window is going to be at its maximal opening point for him to go for the jugular in Taiwan. That's why it's so urgent that we begin a rapid campaign of rearmament and strength and resilience towards Chinese communists.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"Welcome back, America. Tom Cotton was in short pants when the band last played together. I'm not sure he ever listened to the band. Good morning, Senator Cotton. How are you? I'm doing well, Hugh. I probably was in short pants, but yeah, of course, I've listened to their great music over the years. Senator, I just had Chris Christie on. He thinks Donald Trump can get a fair trial in the District of Columbia. I do not. You are a Harvard Law grad. And I think they taught a few things about the rules of criminal procedure there. What do you think? Only a very few things, Hugh, and I was such an excellent lawyer. I had to quit the law and become an infantry officer, so no one should take legal advice from me. But if you just I think if you just look at the circumstances, it's hard to see how President Trump gets a fair trial in Washington, D.C. And that's one of the reasons why Jack Smith, who is a rabid zealot, brought this case there. First off, there's very little balance in some of the nominees to that court or to the D.C. Circuit, because there's no senator to check them. That's where Barack Obama and now Joe Biden have reserved their most ideological nominees for, because you don't have to worry about clearing them through even two Democratic senators who might be embarrassed by their behavior or their record or the prospects of their rulings. And I think this judge, if you see how she's ruled in many other January six related cases or some of the rhetoric she's used or just how she's handled some preliminary motions in this case, seems to think that this is the case of her lifetime and that she's been waiting for years to get a case like this, where she can be the center of attention and give the former president what he deserves. And then as a matter of the jury pool view, I mean, Washington, D.C. is obviously the most democratic jurisdiction in the country. I think they voted 92 or 93 percent for Donald Trump's opponents in the last two elections. And you see time and time again, Republicans getting convicted by juries in that jurisdiction on extremely flimsy charges and evidence. I mean, look at what happened at Mike Flynn, for instance. So I have serious reservations about whether the former president can get a reasonable trial in that jurisdiction. And that's to put aside to put aside the novel and untested, far fetched legal theories that Jack Smith is pursuing. I mean, he reminds me of Stalin's chief, the secret police said, show me the man and I'll show you the crime. I mean, he's basically saying if a politician you know, engages in what he thinks is misleading conduct and then acts on those misleading statements, you can charge him for a crime. Well, how about Joe Biden, who said he didn't have the authority to give away four hundred billion dollars of your money? The student loan relief. Excellent example. And then did so anyway and then was reversed by the Supreme Court. Or for that matter to you, how about Jack Smith? The last time we saw him as this rabid zealot pursuing far fetched criminal theories against the former Republican governor of Virginia, Bob McNottle, and he got a conviction and then it was reversed eight nothing by the Supreme Court. And do you know why it was reversed eight nothing, Hugh? Because they didn't have a nice justice to join the unanimous opinion against him. You know, Senator, one of the things that bothers me about Smith is that he misrepresents the law when he talks to the public. He tried to make it sound like the most recent indictment was about the January six riot. It's got nothing to do with the January six riot. It's got to do with the president's attempt to get a recount done. I don't think the president was right correctly. Former President Trump on the law, but I don't think it's criminal. Moreover, he says he's invoking the speedy trial. The speedy trial is for the benefit of the defendant, not the prosecution. Just like the transfer of trial. Rule 21 is for the benefit of the defendant, not the prosecution. So if you're willing to misrepresent things to the public, how much do you trust the guy? Well, I don't trust him at all, Hugh, given his record. Going back to the McDonald case. But as you say, when he goes out and holds press conferences, he sounds different than what he writes is an indictment because indictments have to stand up as a matter of law, not just in front of a left wing ideologue at the district court level, but the D.C. Circuit and then ultimately in the Supreme Court. The indictment does not charge Donald Trump with incitements or anything about the actual riot at the Capitol because he knew that he couldn't prove that out, given the First Amendment defenses. So it tries to make the president's statements or legal theories, whether you agree with them or disagree them with them into crimes. Again, by this logic, why wouldn't Al Gore or for that matter, George Bush, have been pursued in the 2000 election aftermath during the Florida recount or the fact that every time a Republican president has been elected this century, Hugh, Democrats in Congress have tried to block the certification of those electors. Should those Democrats in Congress have faced criminal charges as well? Again, none of this is to say that you have to agree with what Donald Trump or any of his lawyers who the indictments identifies as alleged co-conspirators were saying or arguing in various courts to say that it is a very dangerous, unprecedented step to criminalize what our political differences, especially at a time when the very same Department of Justice is handling the president's own son, who is as crooked as they get with such velvet kid gloves. Senator, I've got David Rivkin coming up, who recently wrote a letter on behalf of Leonard Leo to the United States Senate, to the Judiciary Committee, of which you are a member. Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin specifically objecting to their attempt to impose ethics codes on the Supreme Court and summoning Leonard Leo. I'll talk with Rivkin about that, but Governor Christie agrees with me. It is unconstitutional straight up for the United States Congress to attempt to regulate the conduct of Supreme Court justice. They can regulate the number of members on the court. They can regulate the appellate jurisdiction. They may not regulate the conduct of the Supreme Court, in my view. Do you agree with me and Governor Christie or with Durbin and White House? Well, just as a general matter, I don't agree with Durbin and Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse on much of anything on this question. I think Chris and you have a very solid argument. Obviously, it's an untested argument, but the Supreme Court is different. The Supreme Court is a creature of the Constitution. Correct. It was created by the Constitution. It is a co-equal branch. John Roberts title is not Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It's Chief Justice of the United States. Every other court at the circuit level and the district level, especially courts, are creatures of Congress. So different standards, therefore, presumably would apply. But as a prudential matter, simply because those constitutional questions are open, I think it is simply a waste of our time to be trying to regulate the code of ethics for the Supreme Court, which already has disclosure requirements that are very similar to what we face in Congress and that the executive branch faces. That suggests to me that what Dick Durbin is really doing is just one more effort by the Democrats to delegitimize the Supreme Court and the center right justices there, because it is no longer a creature of the left. For 50 or 60 years, they viewed the Supreme Court as their last resort when they couldn't win out of the ballot box and legislation. They tried to win through litigation. And now that they can no longer count on it to move the court or move the country leftward, they are trying to undermine its legitimacy. It is a shame. It is shameful thing that Dick Durbin and Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer are doing.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"Yeah, thank you. It really is. It's really the one way, you know, we passed a law to say no irreversible transgender surgeries. We said, parents, I mean, can you believe that we actually had to put into statute the fact that parents will be the primary decision maker for their children's education? We said no to critical race theory. You know, we did all of those, but ultimately it's school choice that is, will be the most impactful because parents now will have the choice and the funding will follow the per people funding. If they don't agree with what's being taught to their children in their schools, then they have the opportunity to go to a private school. Now, Governor, if I go back to abortion for a second, two days ago in Ohio, measure one failed. I was a big proponent of measure one, but it failed. It's being interpreted as a vote for abortion rights at least larger than those that would be allowed in Ohio if that referendum fails. What did you make of that? And is, in fact, abortion a losing issue for Republicans in twenty twenty four? No, it's not a losing issue, I don't believe that I was a pro-life governor, as I said, and I won in twenty eighteen, not very many Republicans with a bad year for Republicans. We lost the congressional seat. We lost seats in the House, but I was able to, you know, win and then won again in this last election cycle in twenty twenty two by nearly twenty point. So I won't know that I'm a pro-life governor. Governors can't. I mean, you can go, Governor DeSantis, any of the governors that won the election are pro-life. I think, you know, we never they always want to they never talk about what Democrats want to do. And all you have to do is look to Minnesota. You know, they are the extreme position. They are the ones that want abortion up until the moment of birth and sometimes after. And they just passed that law in Minnesota. So they like to not address the fact that when is it not OK? To take a baby's life. And I would say that they are they believe that there are no exceptions that right up until the moment of birth that you ought to be able to kill a baby. And I just believe that that's horrible, horrific, unconscionable. And that's where they want to go. That's where they are going. They try to act like it's not the fact of the matter is if they get a chance to vote to vote on it, that's where they go. I'm talking with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. Governor, former President Trump has been critical of you for not endorsing him. Will you appear with him at any debate or at any event that he does in the Hawkeye State? Oh, for heaven sakes, yes, I have. I have said to every single candidate, you know, let me know when you're on this date. Let me know when you're having an event. Now, I can't manage them. They have to let me know. I can't watch their schedule and try to show up. But if they let me know, I've appeared with I've appeared with President Trump early on, did an event in Davenport. It was a great event. It was packed out. I appeared with almost every one of the candidates. And if I haven't yet, we're working on a time to get together. But it's been a long standing tradition. I'm not going to say, you know, maybe down the road, I won't endorse. But listen, we have the we have the awesome responsibility of having a first in the nation caucus. And I want I want to hear from the candidates. So I want them to feel like they have a fair chance. I want to welcome them to Iowa. I want to tell them, you know, events that maybe they should be at. I'll try to join them when I can. But, you know, that's and that's been a tradition for years and years by governors of both parties and many of the elected officials. And so, you know, more than happy, invited them to the fair side chat and so would absolutely appear with. Governor, my new spidey sense just tingled. You said I'm not going to say I won't endorse before the caucus. So I guess that means you probably will endorse before the caucus, because that was unsolicited that you just put that in there as a marker. Will you endorse before the caucuses? Well, I don't know. I just like, you know, I'm going to I said, you know, I want to stay neutral. I want him to come. I'll be anxious to see what happens with the first debate. But, you know, I'm always wary of it. You know, they never say never. But, you know, right now, we're going to stay neutral. I've made that very clear. And so we're going to, like, keep welcoming them. Oh, I need another cup of coffee. Harder than I think. Well, Governor, last and important question. The Big Ten is now the Big Eighteen. Should we let Stanford in? Oh, come on. It's just getting crazy, isn't it? It's getting crazy. So here we go. I don't know. Are they going to score any touchdowns at Iowa this year? Because that's actually always an issue in Iowa. Yes, yes.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"Morning, Gloria America. Bonjour, hi Canada. I'm Hugh Hewitt talking with one of the three people I think are in the running to be our vice presidential nominee in the Republican Party, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. Good morning, Governor. I think this is the first time you've been on the Hugh Hewitt Show. Great to have you. It is. And thank you so much for giving me the opportunity. It's great to be with you this morning. Talk to us a little bit about how campaign 2024 is unfolding on the ground in the first state to caucus in 2024. Well, it's an exciting time to be in Iowa because we have all of the candidates crisscrossing the state, hosting events, talking to Iowans. And I think what really what excites me is the amount of engagement that I've seen from Iowans. All of the candidates in here a lot. And I attend a lot of the events. I said, you know, ask me to be there and I'll do everything I can to be there. And I say that to everyone when they're in the state that we're seeing record turnout at these events and people are engaged, they're staying to the end, they're asking questions and they're bouncing from candidate to candidate. So people really are kicking the tires, they're paying attention. And I think that's good for America. We want to put our best foot forward because ultimately we want to make sure that we have the candidate that can win in 2024 and get this country back on track. Governor Reynolds, how important is it to the Iowa electorate that the candidates address the issue of abortion directly and succinctly and without hemming and hawing? Well, you know, I passed the heartbeat bill twice, actually, and signed it into law. We did it in 2018. That was a tough year for Republicans. I signed that into law, went on to win that race. I did not by a lot, but about two percentage points. But I made it across the finish line. Then it was tied up in the courts for several years. We had a it was stayed basically because we had a tie at the Iowa Supreme Court. And so I called a special session. We came back into session. We passed it again by even a larger margin than we did in 2018. And we made it clear it wasn't a hypothetical law. Life is important to Iowans. And so they are, you know, they are that's the expectation from Iowans that we have a presidential candidate that's pro-life. Now, Senator, we have a I mean, Governor, we have a senator, Senator Tuberville of Alabama, who has placed a hold on more than 300 military promotions. Admiral Stavridis on this show said that affects tens of thousands of military people and their families because Joe Biden and Secretary Austin are violating the Hyde Amendment. And I don't dispute that they are by facilitating travel by uniformed service members to states where abortion is legal. Nevertheless, I greatly object to that policy. What do you think of Senator Tuberville holding American military career, military hostage? Well, first of all, we have an administration that doesn't abide by any of those laws or rules. And so I think, you know, that's just another example of why it's important that we pay attention to 2024. We make sure that we beat the Biden administration, get things back on track. So these kinds of things aren't happening. You know, so he's doing what he believes is the right thing to do to push back on the policy that they're disregarding and not paying any attention to. The new Yahoo story says more than half the voters in Alabama disagree with it. But I'm actually going to the tactic itself, Governor. I don't think it's pro-life to hold these families hostage. Do you? Yeah. Well, you know, I'm a governor of the state of Iowa and not a United States senator. I'm not weighing in on that. So I'm focused on the policies that are important to Iowans. And that's what I'm working on. So that's a decision for the senator to make. But right now, I'm focused on Iowa. We have presidential candidates coming through our state, and we're going to continue to make sure that we're asking them the questions that are important to Iowans, the economy. It's front and center, I'll tell you that. We want to talk about some of the other issues. But in addition to that, people are seeing their paychecks not go as far. They're seeing an open border. We're experiencing exponential increase in compensation of fentanyl and human trafficking. We're not, you know, we are seeing that in the state of Iowa. So, you know, those are some of the things that Iowans are interested in. Of course, life is front and center, but they also want to see this economy turned around. They want to see our border closed. They want to make sure that we have safe communities. And we've spent a lot of time in Iowa talking about parental choice. I'm proud to say that, you know, I the first bill I signed into law, this last, excuse me, this last legislative session was an opportunity to give parents the choice of where they would send their kids to school. An ESA, a savings account. And we actually have led a educational freedom revolution across the country. And so, you know, those are the things that we're dealing with in the state of Iowa. I do think school choice is a huge issue for Republicans in Iowa, Arizona, Ohio, Florida, West Virginia, Arkansas. I'm forgetting one of the seven have done great things and you did lead the way. So my compliments.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"OK, we're coming back from break. Don't go anywhere, Governor, and go back to Ron DeSantis after this. Stay tuned, America. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, back with Governor Chris Christie. I talked to him during the break. I'll play that next hour. Governor, Washington Post, Kate Selig story from August 8th. The future of East Coast wind power could ride on this Jersey beach town. Ocean City in Cape May County. This is the future of wind power. What do you think of those projects and what do you think of the idea that wind power is our answer for the future? You know, I think our answer for the future is all of the above. And I've said that from the time I became governor in New Jersey, we built gas pipelines when I was governor. We built, you know, enhanced our nuclear capability when I was governor and we increased solar when I was governor. We did not increase winds when I was governor, but we increased these other places. I don't have any objection to the idea of wind being part of an overall portfolio, Hugh, but you've got to take everything else into consideration. And right now, what I think we should be focused on in this country is what Brian Kemp just accomplished in Georgia, which was to build the first nuclear plant in decades in this country, in New Jersey, Hugh, I don't know if you know this, but in the most densely populated state in America, 53 percent of our electricity comes from nuclear. If you could do it safely in the most densely populated state in America, you could do it safely any place in America. And I would be focusing on making sure that we develop and enhance more nuclear power. Amen to that. But I also want to talk about New Jersey, because last time I texted with you, I was in Newark Airport overnight. What the heck is wrong with that airport, Governor? Two words, Pete Buttigieg. Look, the reason why things are not going well at Newark Airport or JFK or LaGuardia, the most crowded airspace in America, is because we don't have enough air traffic controllers. And that is a failure of the FAA under the supervision of Pete Buttigieg. This is what happens when you put a small time mayor in charge of transportation in the biggest, most traveling country in the world. He is a complete failure. He should be fired by Joe Biden. The air travel this summer alone. And there's more reasons to fire people to judge. But the failure of our air traffic system this summer, which you experienced personally at Newark, I've experienced it with enormous delays and cancellations at Newark and LaGuardia as well, is the failure of the FAA's management of and recruitment of air traffic controllers. Governor, you're telling me you don't take private planes because I think part of the problem is the one tenth of one percent in America that runs the country and are the wealthiest people don't fly commercial anymore. I do not take private planes. You in fact, I am sitting outside Logan Airport right now waiting and praying that I'll be on a United flight that will land in Newark today. Oh, you know what, Governor? Never fly United. Let me go back to Ron DeSantis. You brought him up with Bret Baier last night. He suspended an elected district attorney the second time he's done this for failure to prosecute, according to what he believes, the rule of law. Do you applaud that or do you criticize that? I don't know enough about it to either applaud or criticize because I don't know her record, but what I would say is that I think Governor DeSantis spends a great deal of time on things in this presidential campaign, which I don't think are the most important issues in America. And, you know, I think crime is a very important issue if he has a basis to be able to do what he did, in fact, in terms of the way she's prosecuting. And he has the authority to do that as governor. And I wouldn't question his judgment, but I'd have to see the facts on it to you. And I haven't yet about what's going on in, I guess, the ninth district in Florida down in Orlando. He certainly has the authority to do it. And I say this. I wish Kathy Hochul would do the same thing in Manhattan, spending as much time as I do in Manhattan. I know that Alvin Bragg is a failure and is not keeping the island of Manhattan safe. I wish Kathy Hochul would do the same thing in Manhattan that Ron DeSantis did in Florida. The mayor of New York City asked for 12 billion dollars for illegal immigrants because his homeless shelters are overridden. Put aside the irony. Should the money go to him? It's hard to put aside the irony, though, isn't it, Hugh? That's impossible, really. That Mayor Adams, you know, declared during his campaign that this would be a sanctuary city. I love all these mayors and governors, my own governor in New Jersey, the same declaring sanctuary cities or sanctuary states. And now when people actually show up, they complain about it. What do they think was going to happen? And they thought it was going to be an absolutely empty gesture that they could gain some political favor out of. Now, when the chickens are coming home to roost, they want everybody else to pay the price tag. I think that Mayor Adams made a big mistake in saying that he should he should be a sanctuary city and would maintain that after Mayor Tapasio, the worst mayor in my lifetime in New York, did it. So it's hard for me to put aside the irony of it when these folks have all asked for it. And now you don't want everybody else to pay for it. One more question, Governor. You know, you're not in a hurry if you're on United. It's going to be delayed if it goes at all. But if if if the debate comes off, Brett Barrett and Martha MacCollum are the equal of anyone in the United States when it comes to asking questions, they put out their rules. One minute answers, 30 minute responses. I don't think there's a right to reply. Do you like the rule set? I like it, especially given that we have, you know, probably no more than seven or eight people who will be on the stage. I would like the vote, all those things to be a little bit longer and to have the opportunity to reply. But you know me, I'll play whatever the other whatever rules they set and we'll do very well. I look forward to talking to you next week. If you make your flight again, Governor, don't fly United. Have a great trip. I'll talk to you soon. Thank you for joining me on today's Hugh Hewitt Show.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"I think he I think he will continue to imperil himself. But by the way, Hugh, he imperils himself every time he opens his mouth. I'm going to try and keep Governor Christie. He's going to Logan Airport, I think. So I don't know if I'm going to keep him or not, but we'll find out. Stay tuned, America. I'm back now with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who's rising in the polls. Governor, how often are you in New Hampshire? Well, I'm just finishing a two day trip here. The last time I was here was about two weeks ago. And I'll be back in New Hampshire the next time after the debate on August 23rd. Are you competing in Iowa or are you focusing everything on the Granite State? I'm competing in New Hampshire. I'm competing in South Carolina as well. And that's where I'm spending the bulk of my time is are in those two states. Now, Governor, you did POD save America and I got nothing against those guys. They're wrong about everything. And I get under their skin. But I don't mind you doing POD save America. Why did you do it, though? Because I want to show those folks our arguments. You know, the problem with America right now, in one respect to you, is that we all stay in our own silos. You know, liberals won't come on Hugh Hewitt or Guy Benson or other shows that I think would treat them very fairly. And it would allow conservatives to hear what the Republicans, the liberal arguments are. And on the other hand, with folks like POD save America and others, I want them to be exposed, those listeners, to what the arguments are by conservatives like myself. And that's why I go on those shows. I went on Kara Swisher as well. I go on those places because I want those folks to hear our arguments. I am not ready to give up on the fact that Americans can't listen to other Americans they disagree with. We need to stop having negotiable truth to you. Why then not go on Mark Levin's show or Tucker Carlson's show? Now, Mark has been calling me a rhino recently. He's been my friend since the Meese years at Justice. But I'm a rhino now because I like Mitch McConnell. That's OK. I still would welcome Mark. Why don't you do Mark and Tucker's show? Well, first of all, I don't even know what show Tucker has anymore on Twitter. Yeah, well, you know, Hugh, I'm not anxious to go and do a show that's platform is on Twitter. And so I go to places that have real ratings and real listeners like yours here. And, you know, I'm not saying that I'll never go on any of those places, but I'm prioritizing where I want to go. Now, Mark Levin may have the most. I've been working on Mark Levin's show in my entire career. I know that, but he's probably got the most influential show for conservatives on Fox on Sunday night. And he's he's got syndication across the United States and he's a smart lawyer. Is there something that holds you back? Would you? Are you now my booking agent, Hugh? I am. I'm trying to. I want you here weekly, by the way. No, look, I'm happy to come on here whenever you like me to come. If you're booking for Mark Levin now, I have a little less respect for you. Well, I just want to know what you can handle anything. I really think that. Why? Why not? Mark, it's not that I can't handle Mark. I don't choose to. I haven't chose to my entire campaign. Not only this time, but going all the way back to 2009 against John Forsythe, we all get to make choices. I've got almost everywhere and you're now emphasizing the one place I haven't done. I've been on everything from, you know, Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman to every every show on Fox News that you can think of to MSNBC and CNN and Pods Save America. Yet you and I are spending time this morning talking about the one place I haven't been. Because it's a it's a poker tell to some conservative voters that I think you need, Governor, to win if you're the nominee in the fall of 2020. Well, if you think it's a poker tell, then you're wrong, because I didn't do this in 2009. I didn't do it in 2013, in 2016 into or now during these years as well. And if that's a determining factor and who's the Republican nominee for president going to be, I don't agree with that evaluation. Well, I'll ask it one more time. Why? Not what? Not not that you did it. That's a fact. The question is, why not? I choose not to.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
Chris Christie on His 2024 Strategy and America's Political Silos
"I'm back now with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who's rising in the polls. Governor, how often are you in New Hampshire? Well, I'm just finishing a two day trip here. The last time I was here was about two weeks ago. And I'll be back in New Hampshire the next time after the debate on August 23rd. Are you competing in Iowa or are you focusing everything on the Granite State? I'm competing in New Hampshire. I'm competing in South Carolina as well. And that's where I'm spending the bulk of my time is are in those two states. Now, Governor, you did POD save America and I got nothing against those guys. They're wrong about everything. And I get under their skin. But I don't mind you doing POD save America. Why did you do it, though? Because I want to show those folks our arguments. You know, the problem with America right now, in one respect to you, is that we all stay in our own silos. You know, liberals won't come on Hugh Hewitt or Guy Benson or other shows that I think would treat them very fairly. And it would allow conservatives to hear what the Republicans, the liberal arguments are. And on the other hand, with folks like POD save America and others, I want them to be exposed, those listeners, to what the arguments are by conservatives like myself. And that's why I go on those shows. I went on Kara Swisher as well. I go on those places because I want those folks to hear our arguments. I am not ready to give up on the fact that Americans can't listen to other Americans they disagree with. We need to stop having negotiable truth to
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"His conduct is reprehensible on any number of levels, both, you know, while he's president and most particularly in the time after he's left the presidency. So I don't care what he thinks about the way I look, quite frankly. And what I suggest to him is that they install, although I know it's possible maybe they couldn't, a few more mirrors, but not the magic kind at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster so you can see what he looks like. Let me talk to you about the Trump indictment most recently brought by Jack Smith. David Rivkin and Lee Casey wrote in The Wall Street Journal, very similar to what I wrote in The Washington Post. I think this is much bigger than Donald Trump. I think this is a threat to the presidency. What do you make of the most recent federal indictment? I think it's aggressive, Hugh. I think it's an aggressive indictment. And I think it's one that you had to take a lot of time thinking about before you brought it. But I also believe that we're that candidly you're focusing on the wrong thing for the purposes of this race. The focus needs to be on Donald Trump's conduct. And Donald Trump's conduct is what's brought all of this on. All of this has been brought on by that. And we have legal analysts and certainly with my legal analysts out, I'd be happy to break down the indictment and where I think it's strong and where I think it's weak. But it's missing the point. And this is why Donald Trump wants you to be focusing on that. Because the more you focus on that, the less you focus on the fact that he called these folks to Washington and said that it was going to be wild. He's the one who stood up there and lied to them and told them the election was stolen. He's the one who stood up there and lied to them and told them Mike Pence could reverse the election result when we know that he could not. He's the one who told them to march to Capitol Hill and he would march with them. And you and I both know if Donald Trump is at risk for losing a fingernail, he wasn't going to go up there and he didn't. And then he sat in his dining room and watched them lay waste to parts of the United States Capitol and did absolutely nothing about it. That's what we should be focused on here. Now, Governor, I think I am in Switzerland, so I want to ask this on behalf of the audience. A lot of people who will not be voting for Trump are still appalled by Jack Smith and they are appalled by the idea of Donald Trump getting a fair trial in the District of Columbia, which I don't think is possible. You've been a United States attorney. Did you ever lose a Rule 21 motion to transfer a trial because of a prejudiced jury pool? I lost I lost the motion to change the venue of a trial was not based on prejudice jury. It was based upon convenience to the defendant. And I lost that that motion. I think it was more because the judge at the time saw a very complicated fraud case and wanted to dish it off to the District of Connecticut. But that's the only time in my time as U.S. attorney that I lost one of those one of those motions. And it was based upon convenience to the defendant. Now, the District of Columbia voted for Joe Biden, 92 percent plus to Donald Trump's five percent plus. The jury pool is small. They got other trials going on. And it's overwhelmingly the heart of Trump derangement syndrome. It beats there. Would you support a motion? Do you think a motion to move that trial is well brought? Not based on what you just talked about, Hugh. I don't. And look at Donald Trump won the state of Florida and won it pretty handily. And he has a trial now in the Southern District of Florida. And while the numbers are not as stark as the numbers that you just talked about, is that really the way we're going to start to determine venue in this country, Hugh? Well, Governor, you know, it's for the benefit of the defendant. The rules of criminal procedure are not the benefit prosecutors that are benefit defendants. And I don't think you can get a fair trial in D.C. Do you? Look, you know what, Hugh, I believe you can get a fair trial anywhere you anywhere you're venued in this country. I absolutely do. And the fact is that if we're going to start determining venue by where we think is the most advantageous place for the defendant, then we're going to have a whole bunch of different rules of criminal procedure that are going to be operating. The fact is that the conduct happened in the District of Columbia, and if he had brought it someplace else, the same people would be complaining that, you know, he should have brought it in the place where the where the conduct. We've never tried a former president, though, Governor, I just I just think it's an unusual situation if you want to persuade the country that he's getting a fair trial. And I think that that is what matters most is protecting the reputation of the justice system. You move the trial. But you think what you think. And I want to move on. I'm not arguing with you. Any chance that you're going to pull a Ronald Reagan in 1976 and name a vice presidential candidate before the convention, before everything is over? No. Are you going to name a list of Supreme Court nominees that you will consider, as the former president did in 2016? I don't think that I need to do something like that. Donald Trump needed to prove that he that he was a real conservative, given that he had contributed to Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer and a number of other Democrats. That's why he did it, because rightfully conservatives were suspicious of both his knowledge of our judicial system, given his demonstrated ignorance of it and his lack of credentials as conservative. I have neither, so I won't be naming folks beforehand. But what I would tell you is the kind of folks that I would be looking for to appoint the and Anthony Scalia. Did you approve of Justice Alito's op ed in the Wall Street Journal, the interview with The Wall Street Journal? Yes, I did. Justice Alito, this is what I love about Justice Alito. He's not going to sit there and be a heavy bag for biased media outlets like ProPublica and others to beat on him. And he's going to come back and defend himself. And I absolutely approved of what Justice Alito did and support the fact that he's going to stand up for his ethics and his integrity. I've known Sam Alito now for over 25 years, and we couldn't have a better justice on the Supreme Court from the perspective of objectivity and ethics than Sam Alito. I agree with his opinion that the United States Congress has no jurisdiction over the conduct of Supreme Court justices. They can regulate the number of justices. They can change the appeals that are eligible to go up, but they may not impose a code of ethics. Do you agree with me or do you agree with Sheldon Whitehouse? I agree with you. Do you think it's even close? I don't think it's even close, no. I'm glad to hear that. Let me go back to Donald Trump. You came up with the line that when the August 23rd debate occurs, he'll be out on bail from four jurisdictions. It's a pretty good line, but which is the charge that most threatens his freedom? Well, we haven't seen if there is a fourth one yet, so let's talk about the three that we have already. And the three that we have already, the one that most jeopardizes his freedom, I believe, is the classified documents obstruction of justice case. I agree with that. The obstruction of justice, not actually the documents. We haven't seen those, but the fact that a subpoena arrived and it appears at least they are alleging he did not honor a subpoena. Is that cut and dried in your view? Yes. If it occurred? Absolutely. If it is as alleged that it's going to be, it's going to be a very, very difficult case for him to get out of, because we also have apparently on a videotape of them moving these boxes and we have the notes of his own lawyer who has said that they kept certain documents from him when he was making a certification at Donald Trump's behest, that all of the documents have been dutifully searched and the ones who applied turned over. Did you bring obstruction charges to the U.S. attorney against anyone? Yes, absolutely. What do you get? What kind of sentence does that lead to? You know, it's a long time now for me to remember, but I believe it's somewhere in the 18 to 24 month range. And can he campaign for president without peril to his legal case? Given the way he operates, I don't think he can.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"So would you prefer hearing Springsteen sing this or the band? Always Springsteen. All right. Governor, welcome back. Good to have you. I have asked Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Doug Burgum this question. I'm going to ask all the candidates. Senator Tuberville is upset that the Pentagon and Joe Biden have violated the Hyde Amendment. And so Senator Tuberville has put a hold on 300 military promotions. Now that affects, according to Admiral Stavridis, more than 10,000 people in the entire ladder of promotions, their families, etc. What do you make of Senator Tuberville's tactic? I don't think it's the right one. I share his concern about the Biden administration's disregard of the Hyde Amendment, but I don't believe the best way to do it is to impact our military readiness. Some will say it's Joe Biden's fault, and he shares the fault for that. But quite frankly, Senator Tuberville is the guy who is making these calls and holding up these promotions, and I just don't believe it's the right tactic. Now that puts you in the cab with Nikki Haley, but Governor DeSantis and Governor Burgum both say yes, use any tactic you can. What would you tell to them? And what would you say to the senator if you called him up? Well, what I'd say to the senator is let's let's work together to try to change this policy. It's obvious that his current approach to it, which has been going on for weeks in any way at all. So let's look for a more effective way to do it. And what I would say to him is that I empathize with what he's trying to accomplish, and I support it, but I don't believe doing it by impacting our military at all is the right way to go about it. Now, Governor, last week, 11 Chinese and Russian ships sailed down past the Aleutians. If you were president, how would you respond to that? This partially goes to our readiness, right? You know, you and I have had this conversation before. We are not ready with the number of ships we need. We are not ready with the number of submarines we need. And I think a lot of this would not be going on if we had the readiness level that we should have and that I will push forward on president. But what we would do is to make sure that they understand we have a significant presence there and we're keeping an eye on them. And we will be ready during the first term of the Christie presidency to deter that type of conduct. Now, Governor, I saw you on Bret Baier last night, and you are now tied for second New Hampshire with Governor DeSantis. Obviously, President Trump has noted, because he took a hard shot at you, about your weight this weekend. How do you respond to that? He's a child, Hugh, a child. This is the kind of stuff that goes on in a schoolyard with fourth graders. But that's what we can come to expect from Donald Trump. And that's why I don't even know why real smart folks like you, you know, take him seriously.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"My guest, Governor Chris Christie, former Governor of New Jersey loves Bruce. I don't know if you're a fan of the band. Are you Governor? Absolutely. So would you prefer hearing Springsteen sing this or the band? Always Springsteen. All right. Governor, welcome back. Good to have you. I have asked Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Doug Burgum this question. I'm going to ask all the candidates. Senator Tuberville is upset that the Pentagon and Joe Biden have violated the Hyde Amendment. And so Senator Tuberville has put a hold on 300 military promotions. Now that affects, according to Admiral Stavridis, more than 10 ,000 people in the entire ladder of promotions, their families, etc. What do you make of Senator Tuberville's tactic? I don't think it's the right one. I share his concern about the Biden administration's disregard of the Hyde Amendment, but I don't believe the best way to do it is to impact our military readiness. Some will say it's Joe Biden's fault, and he shares the fault for that. But quite frankly, Senator Tuberville is the guy who is making these calls and holding up these promotions, and I just don't believe it's the right tactic. Now that puts you in the cab with Nikki Haley, but Governor DeSantis and Governor Burgum both say yes, use any tactic you can. What would you tell to them? And what would you say to the senator if you called him up? Well, what I'd say to the senator is let's let's work together to try to change this policy. It's obvious that his current approach to it, which has been going on for weeks in any way at all. So let's look for a more effective way to do it. And what I would say to him is that I empathize with what he's trying to accomplish, and I support it, but I don't believe doing it by impacting our military at all is the right way to go about
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
Chris Christie Weighs In on Tommy Tuberville's Military Blockade
"My guest, Governor Chris Christie, former Governor of New Jersey loves Bruce. I don't know if you're a fan of the band. Are you Governor? Absolutely. So would you prefer hearing Springsteen sing this or the band? Always Springsteen. All right. Governor, welcome back. Good to have you. I have asked Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Doug Burgum this question. I'm going to ask all the candidates. Senator Tuberville is upset that the Pentagon and Joe Biden have violated the Hyde Amendment. And so Senator Tuberville has put a hold on 300 military promotions. Now that affects, according to Admiral Stavridis, more than 10 ,000 people in the entire ladder of promotions, their families, etc. What do you make of Senator Tuberville's tactic? I don't think it's the right one. I share his concern about the Biden administration's disregard of the Hyde Amendment, but I don't believe the best way to do it is to impact our military readiness. Some will say it's Joe Biden's fault, and he shares the fault for that. But quite frankly, Senator Tuberville is the guy who is making these calls and holding up these promotions, and I just don't believe it's the right tactic. Now that puts you in the cab with Nikki Haley, but Governor DeSantis and Governor Burgum both say yes, use any tactic you can. What would you tell to them? And what would you say to the senator if you called him up? Well, what I'd say to the senator is let's let's work together to try to change this policy. It's obvious that his current approach to it, which has been going on for weeks in any way at all. So let's look for a more effective way to do it. And what I would say to him is that I empathize with what he's trying to accomplish, and I support it, but I don't believe doing it by impacting our military at all is the right way to go about
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
A highlight from Chris Christie on 2024, Gov. Kim Reynolds on her endorsement, and WSJ's David Rivkin
"The U .S. Border Patrol has exciting and rewarding career opportunities with the nation's largest law enforcement organization. Earn great pay with outstanding federal benefits and up to $20 ,000 in recruitment incentives. Learn more online at CBP .gov slash careers slash USBP. Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College. All things Hillsdale, Hillsdale dot edu. I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there and of course listen to the Hillsdale dialogues. All of them at Q for Hillsdale dot com or just Google Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale. Welcome back America. Robbie Robertson is dead at the age of 80. Of course this song covered by Bruce Springsteen, my guest, Governor Chris Christie, former Governor of New Jersey loves Bruce. I don't know if you're a fan of the band. Are you Governor? Absolutely.
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"The budget is a top line spending number. We're talking about protecting America from a default, but quite frankly, could be very devastating for so it was a frustrating meeting to clear the lead. But I think that tomorrow will be a better move. This does bother me representative amber, which is the president repeatedly conflates the debt. 31.4 trillion, and the deficit, which he has not brought down, there simply not washing the country down with money anymore and the chips act or the infrastructure out of the inflation reduction act of the Green New Deal. Does he actually understand? I mean, does he remember that they're different? Those are two different questions. Does he understand, does he remember? Yeah. First off, I don't think he ever understood. I just don't think our president was, you know, I think he came to Congress saying they told me there would be no mask. I don't think he lost him again. Dog on it. Oh, well, you know, when you're running around the hill at this time in the morning and at time Emma gets to work before anybody else does, and he leaves last. But then he always calls back to his back again. I just said you get to work before anybody else and you leave last. So I gather your cell phones not so good up on the hill. I don't understand it. I'm sitting on the street corner hue. It must be the Chinese and TikTok to keep dropping this call. But let's go back to the debt and the deficit. We just got to get people educated. It's not about the deficit. It's about the debt. And that is exactly right. Right now, we're trying to take care of the budget with the debt ceiling with the spending reforms. This government is spending a dollar 29 for every dollar we take in. First, you got to balance the budget. Once you do that, you then you got to move on to the debt. We got $32 trillion in debt and we're going to have to create an economy that will help us grow out of it. You control your spending and you pay off your debt and you preserve this country not only for this generation, but for generations of freedom loving Americans to come. Now, do you believe that the June 1 day is a real deadline Janet Yellen put it out there. I just don't believe her. I don't know how you can believe anything, Janet Yellen says, in fact, sadly, I just don't think I don't think she's up to the job. No, I don't know that you want is going to be the date? But Hugh, we might as well plan on it. Well, if that's the case, they better send neera tanden with a red marker and get to work. But I don't think people understand is that staff has to drill down on this stuff. And I know you guys have staff who are ready to do that and get to where the big two, the speaker and the president, can make some bottom line decisions, but I don't think the staff work has been done at The White House. I don't know if anyone's at home, Tom. No, that's accurate. I mean, let's be very clear to your listeners. There is only one group that has been working since the beginning of the year. And that's Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House, and the new House Republican majority. I mean, we have been working ever since that, what do we call it? The knockdown drag out speakers race. Right. Which actually was very healthy for this country and for our Republican group. But this is the only and Kevin McCarthy is ready to get the deal done. He has the research, his people have done the work, but I can't say much for the other side. And I'm going to talk to chairman mchenry a little bit later about banking. So I'm going to ask you about the coma committee yesterday. Representative comer laid out. Chris Christie agreed with me. This thanks to high heaven, what is in that banking records, any significant interest from legacy media, anything approaching the interest they had in the Steele dossier, which was made up, as opposed to these bank records, which are very, very real. Yes, they are. I mean, you're talking about public corruption at a level that we haven't seen in maybe ever. The Biden family, what Jamie comer from Kentucky has done is he's got four banks out of 12. You're talking about millions of dollars already. That he has shown the Biden family literally is selling influence there are shell companies, but they funnel all of this in. And Jamie was telling me yesterday, you realize two grandkids in the Biden family have benefited financially. You've got to ask one of these 21 year old grandkids. Why does somebody putting a $100,000 into your account? Yeah, with emmer. When I saw that and I talked about it with Christy because he prosecutor, every bill has an invoice, every deposit should have an is there a paper trail is the IRS on this thing because it's just too much money to slosh around an LLC. I mean, I've only had one LLC my entire life, and I've got an invoice for everything, right? This is not how people do business unless they're crooked one minute. No, it literally, the IRS, I don't think has been looking into it. But I don't think the Biden family and The White House expected Jamie comer to go to different people within this scheme who don't have the ability to afford high priced lawyers and hide behind this. And Jamie and his committee, Hugh, they got the receipts. So they have the accounts and the receipts and only four of 12 accounts so far. I am, I'm watching. I don't like it that they scheduled on the same day as the town hall. That's like comms one O one, but you can work with them on that. Do not step on your own story. Tom emery from Minnesota, thank you, Tom. Welcome back, America. My guests to wrap up today's show is chairman of the House financial services committee representative Patrick mchenry represented mchenry..
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"Governor Chris Christie, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you, keep coming back, and I appreciate your time this morning. Thank you, governor. Thanks for having me. Welcome back, America. I'm here here at live in studio west, joined by United States senator Steve daines from the great state of Montana. Good morning, senator. Welcome back. Well, thank you and by the way, Montana is a great state here. I know we agree on that. Yes, we do. I fished out the Madison once, but I think it's recovered. Steve daines, let me talk to you about you are the chairman of the national Republican senatorial committee. But before I go there, I want to know about the reaction in the Senate GOP caucus to demands for more gun control from the president of the United States. And Lindsey Graham came out and said, we need to find police at school. Is that the caucus general view? Yeah, look. First of all, that shooting in Nashville came pretty close to home for me. I have attended covenant Presbyterian in Nashville. I've spent time with our senior pasture Chad scruggs who love your daughter, Halle. I've been in the school with a shooting occurred. First of all, it's outrageous to me the way the president of the United States handled the situation. Where is the compassion and sympathy to these families who have been absolutely tragically affected for the rest of their lives. So it is hard to put into words what happened there in Nashville, how horrible how evil that was. And also at the same time with evil praising those Nashville law enforcement officers that body cam footers was chilling to see what they did. They acted decisively. They neutralized the threat. These guys are heroes and God bless them. But regarding what to be done, gun control and calls for that is not the answer, there's consensus amongst the Republican senators. It's about securing these soft targets, these schools. And whether that means more school resource officers, retired veterans who are trained that can protect these schools, they need to be hardened and they're also, of course, is a mental health crisis. This individual that shot up that Nashville school had had problems certainly in many ways in her life. And so, but the answer is not to impose more gun control. That is not going to solve this problem. I also think the answer, you folks in the United States Congress spent like $7 trillion in the last four years. And for good purposes and for bad, we've got to endow school districts in this country with enough to put two armed officers at every campus private in public. And that's not that much money in an endowment. One time and down, they only get to spend the interest is the way to go. Does anyone ever talk about that? Yeah, you know, there was legislation passed at several years ago. Well, it was orrin hatchman was in the Senate. I remember he was talking about it, that provided federal grants here to help schools harden the target. I agree with you Hugh. My daughter's a fourth grade teacher. I called her when this was unfolding. And as we were talking about basic security protocol, as a parent, when you drop off your child at your school, you want to make sure that you're going to pick them up that they're going to be safe. Look at what's going on, the U.S. capitol. We have armed security here that protects the capital..
The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"chris christie" Discussed on The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated
"Thanks to the Xfinity ten G network, my little brother's friends won't leave our house. When I was their age, Internet with basically no interruptions was a pipe dream. You still like my grandpa. Restrictions apply, not available in all areas. Welcome to today's podcast, sponsored by hillsdale college. All things hillsdale hill dot EDU. I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there. And of course, I'll listen to the hillsdale dialog, all of them at queue for hillsdale dot com or just Google Apple iTunes and hilldale. Welcome back America former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is always welcome on the Hugh Hewitt show. Good morning, governor. Welcome back. Great to be back shoe thanks for having me. I want to play for you a brief excerpt from interview former president Trump did with Sean Hannity two nights ago that did not get much attention, but I heard it and I want your reaction to it. Here it is. But ultimately, he's going to take over all of Ukraine. He was talking about Putin and let's play it again, so everyone understands the president was asked about Putin and Ukraine and he said this. But ultimately, he's going to take over all of Ukraine. What do you think of that, Chris Christie? I think it's awful, but I think it's exactly what you can expect from someone who has shown a liking for authoritarianism. From someone who has said before that he admires Putin and I just think it's also a defeatism that we should permit this type of aggression to occur in this world that it doesn't have other ramifications. The follow-up question should have been more if that's the case. Then what is president Xi going to think about American intentions to help Taiwan defend itself? What were the Iranians think about Americans intentions to help Israel protect itself? What will the North Koreans think about America's attention to help South Korea that says itself? That's the signal sending that's happening here. And it's got the recognition that this is also a proxy war by China. By supporting Russia, economically, and militarily in the aggression against Ukraine to try to show our allies around the world that we're not a reliable ally any longer. What is Chris Christie thinking about American policy in aiding Ukraine? Look, I think we should have gotten more earlier. We should have done more certainly during the Obama administration. That was an absolute disgrace that a Barack Obama would not send any lethal aid to the Ukrainians to try themselves all the way back then. And that the Trump administration was better on it, but still not as aggressive as they should have been and certainly the Biden administration not only didn't deter Putin, but they sent a signal to Putin early on that aggression would be okay when President Biden said, well, a small incursion probably wouldn't be a problem. You know, people listen to what the American president says and does and they act accordingly. And that's why we need a president who will be very deliberate and smart about what comes out of their mouth and the clip you just played from Donald Trump, which Sean Hannity doesn't fit either of those criteria. Do you think there is a split in the Republican Party over a to Ukraine? I think there is an argument in the party about it, absolutely. And I think you just need to listen to people like Donald Trump or like governor desantis. And, you know, I'm not sure exactly what side he's on at this point, but you're certainly mixed signals being sent. And with that happens, you empower authoritarian aggressors..
990 The Answer
"chris christie" Discussed on 990 The Answer
"That Chris Christie gives this interview on Friday. This is all I think it be a big waste of time. Impeachment, impeachment would be a big waste of time. When I thought he just said last week that he thought that the president engaged in impeachable offense. Didn't he? Yeah. So which is it? Oh, I mean, he's so so is his position. The president engaged in impeachable activity, but it's a waste of time to impeach him. Which is it? Can you hold the position that the president broke the law and needs to be impeached? But you think it's a waste of time to impeach him? You wanna talk about being too cute by half What a slimeball. You broke the law. You should be impeached, but it's a waste of time to impeach you. Are you like? Could you be worse? Could you be worse? Chris Christie. Your position is I want the bear. Yes, I think the president I was just in here. I was just in your residence off a couple of months ago, sucking up to you. Get Cove it And now I'm running around dumping all over you, you lose, and now I'm running around saying you should be impeached. And now I'm trying T win over some of your supporters by saying, I think it's a waste of time to actually go through with it. Back forth back forth. Of course he he's on with Stephanopoulos yesterday, too. In addition to Rand, Paul Making sure everybody knows all he doesn't think the election was the whole country needs to the focus on in terms of our elections, is making sure that we have some effective electoral reform. Nobody wants to wait a week or two weeks or three weeks, which happens some of the House races to get election results. We need to work on that make the system better for 2022, but This election was not stolen. All of the facts point in that direction on I'm a former prosecutor, George, I make decisions based upon evidence. Based upon feelings or partisanship or loyalty. You make those decisions based upon evidence, and the evidence here has shown right from the beginning that while every election has some irregularities, and I'm sure this one did, too. There were no type of irregularities that would have changed the result in any one state. You see the game that's being played. This is such a game. Listen carefully to the game there there, there could be more investigations. Investigations that have taken place have shown there is not enough fraud to change the results of this election that has been certified by every state. It was stated by the just department and the attorney general. And I accepted the state's certifications but doesn't mean that I think that there wasn't fraud and that there weren't problems that have to be investigated. And it doesn't mean that the law wasn't broken. I believe in Pennsylvania, they broke the law, and I believe that that ever would get a real hearing of the Supreme Court. It was denied for standing. It wasn't actually taken up. If it were taken up. I do believe that the Supreme Court would overrule and say that they did break the loyal legally. Do you hear the game? That's just so important, folks. I can't. I'm sorry for those of you that get it. My apologies. I just wanna make sure everybody in class understands it. Because it's critical to get this What they're trying to do is dismiss. The constitutional and legal Problem with this election by lumping it into There's no proof of fraud. You follow? And so when Chris Christie says, I'm a man of the law, and I'm a prosecutor, and I have to go with evidence, and there was no evidence, and even Bill Barr says there was no evidence and stepping off this couple out. There was no evidence and liberals love to say there was no evidence and everybody's no court of law has heard any evident. No judge has said there's any evidence Don't be suckered into that discussion. Don't listen to that. That's not what we're talking about. Was the law violated in states like Pennsylvania in the way we conducted. Listen to me, was the law violated in the way we conducted Our election answer. Yes. Did any court including the Supreme Court. Take up that issue. Answer. No. So do not let fat head Christie or George Stephanopolous or any leftist, try toe meld these two things together and talk about stolen and fraud versus the constitutional election system. And the way we run elections and who makes election law in Pennsylvania. They're trying to meld the two to shut you up and get you to stop questioning the way we count ballots and conduct elections. Those are different issues, and they're trying to make you think they're all the same. Do you think this election was stolen? Well, what are we talking about? Do I think there were suitcases full of ballots or pallets of balance? Can I prove that? Okay, You got me. Do. I think we legally counted a lot of ballots because we illegally changed the rules of how we conduct our election? Yes. Does that make it stolen? Well, now we're having a nuanced discussion, but I think we violated our constitution. So what are we talking about? You see? There's natural intellectual discussion to be made. It's not tinfoil hat. They want to make everybody sound like you know, Ham radio operating kook. Sorry. Do you him? Radio operators? I know you're not literally kooks. You know, I'm going to get e mails from him up pretty home. You know, I didn't mean to insult you. Hey, Leslie. Glad you called. Thanks a lot for hanging. Hi. Hi. How are you doing? Great. Thanks. What's on your mind? Good morning, and thank you for bringing up these vital issues. I do believe that I have Response to your question when you discuss why do we have a shift in the attitude towards those people who protect and preserve life and to put those people in one? Category is absolutely appropriate, and I agree 100% with what you said. You also explained it crystal clear. There is no other way to describe why this is happening in answer to your question. There is no other way except to say that it is a political agenda that is being pushed. If we learn our history, and most people do not, but it's there for all to see if they will. Get out. This is exactly what happened at the beginning of World War two. They called it a the time guerilla warfare and, uh, the the Marxist on and the fascists. Or very, very clear in using it and we can take a look at you know how they used it in the media, the political People of the day. Owned the media. They control the media. We are seeing it again, and we need to make it our business as Americans. To look for our own answers and not listen. As you keep saying, do not listen to what we are being fed. We have of God given brain that Should be utilized, especially at this time in our country. We should all be concerned. We should all be concerned about the fact that our media and our big tech companies Have too much power. And that they are even Taking away our First Amendment, right? It's not a matter of what they're doing to these two, the president. It's a matter of if they can do that to him. What can they do to us with this political propaganda and with their ability to shut the big guy up again? They can certainly shut us up. Everyone should be outraged. Thank you, Leslie. I appreciate it very much. Toms and Bucks County waiting patiently, Tom. Thanks a lot for calling. Hi. How you doing? Uh, good morning. And, uh, excuse me. If I sound nervous. I'm not used to talking on a radio show. Well, you don't sound nervous at all. Thanks for your call, but I think I'm calling about the hero thing. I think that the hero the word hero is used to liberally. Um, you know, everyone that gets paid to do a job. They know what they're getting involved in. Now, if a person is in a job, and they say that life outside of their job description, I think that's a hero now. I'm not saying that if the police thought you see a police officer or a fireman to thank him You know for what they're doing. I'm not saying that. And I'm not. I'm not downplaying the importance of their job at all. I'm just saying, like, for instance, they A store clerk sees a a Person in the store. Having a lot of fact, and he jumps or she jumps over the counter is gives CPR and saves that person's life. Now I consider that person a hero. Sure, absolutely. Yeah, no doubt preserving and protecting life. I e think, Definitional, Ian. He's anybody that's engaged in that. It is heroic for my money, Tom. Thank you. Great Point. Johnson. Westchester. Thanks for waiting. John. Hi. Chris on the South. Thank you. I think you mean about this the whole weekend. Why doesn't the Republicans file some sort of an injunction to stop? Biden's executive.
KOMO
"chris christie" Discussed on KOMO
"Seattle. Come on news time 11 35 from earlier today. Here's Rick Vance Ice. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will not be representing President Trump in the Senate impeachment trial, he says, because he was involved in the president's rally the morning of the attack on the Capitol and therefore is a witness. But Trump's advisers are unhappy with what role Giuliani might have played in both impeachments and recent comments he made on TV about the trial. Let's get it all sorted out. ABC News correspondent Andy Field in Washington D. C. Andy. It's kind of curious now, who would defend the president in this unusual post term impeachment? Should it happen? He seems to have run out of attorneys, at least of the White House of last time. The White House counsel and others presented a pretty spirited defense of him about a year ago. None of those folks serves signing on to do with this time. We thought Rudy Giuliani was going to be the lead attorney. He told our ABC is Jonathan Karl that yesterday morning. Saying that his defense was going to be that the president couldn't possibly have said anything to incite the violence because what he said was true that the election was stolen and he would prove it in a Senate trial, which led ABC consultant and former Trump outside adviser as well as former governor of north of New Jersey, Chris Christie to say If that is Rudy Giuliani's defense than Donald Trump is going to lose the case in the Senate, and he could very well lose them and be convicted. Then hours later, Rudy Giuliani came back and gave the exploration. You said that that he was a fact witness in the case he'd given a speech. The same something to the effect of trial by combat. Which would seem to be something that would be inciting. Violence, But you know, he may actually be called as a witness in the case so he couldn't actually defend the president. We don't know who is going to defend the president, and we're now two days away from what could be the start of this impeachment trial where those articles of impeachment or delivered, we were told that they could start as early as Joe Biden's first day on the job. There's still push back, obviously from the other side. In fact, Didn't we hear from Lindsey Graham, questioning whether this is even legal to have a trial? That's part of it. He also said that you know, we need to have healing in the nation on this won't be healing. It will just make matters worse if they hold the president to account for something that the majority of the House said was an impeachable act. And in fact may have led to this insurrection. So there are certainly two schools of thought on this here. I don't know if they're going to charge challenges in the Supreme Court, but we'll find out this week. Tell me more about security in your city, Andy or covering Washington D. C. We've got up to 25,000 National Guard troops there or going to be there. And it was interesting today where I heard that, actually their background checks on some of these guards members. Yes. Uh, what we're hearing now, And this is this is extraordinary. Uh, that members of the U. S military and of course, the National guard her our citizens soldiers. They don't work for part full time, but There are going to be upwards of 25,000 of them here in Washington, D C and we're told that the FBI is now double checking to make sure that none of their backgrounds and that's a lot of people to check. I have things on social media or any connections to some of these folks who raided and did this attack on the U. S Capitol because certainly that would be quite a security risk Having Someone with an M 16 very close to the president supposedly guarding him. But perhaps not too happy that he was being inaugurated. All right. We're coming up on a day and a half before the inauguration, you'll hear it all live here, Right on CO Moh news, beginning with our coverage First thing in the morning at eight o'clock here. Thank you, Andy. That's a B C's Andy Field hand. That's Como's Ric van Sites. Coma news time 11 40.