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Planned Parenthood Advocate (Angela Yee)
Angela Yee's Lip Service. Every day Planned Parenthood health centers across the country open their doors and provide high quality expert healthcare. That's no simple task when lawmakers are trying to block access to life saving care like birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing, abortion and more. At Planned Parenthood, Care continues because they believe your body is your business and being able to control your own body. That's the most basic freedom there is. So Planned Parenthood won't back down. Visit I'm fourpp.org to learn more and get involved.
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Ana Navarro
Hey everyone. Welcome to bleep. I'm Ana Navarro and this is Chacha. There's a lot we've got to cover today and we got a great guest, so let's get started. So a few weeks ago, I did a segment called Secretaries Gone Wild, and it was about wild, stupid, incredible things that you just couldn't believe that the Trump cabinet was engaging in and doing. But there is so much crazy stuff happening this week that I think we need a sequel.
Electric Vehicle Advertiser (Angela Yee)
So.
Ana Navarro
So let's get started with the guy who takes the cake literally this week, and it is Pete Hegseth. He went on a wild spending spree in the end of the last fiscal year. So September 2025, he spent $50.1 billion in five days. Do you all remember that, that TV show, I can't remember what it was called, where people competed in the supermarket. They would get their cart given X amount of time, five minutes, and whomever had the most expensive cart won. Well, he would have done really well in that game because let me tell you some of the things that Pete Hegseth spent your taxpayer money on. Okay, take a Look at this. $225 million on furniture. $12,540 on furniture. Three tier fruit baskets. I don't think I've ever seen a three tier fruit basket. 1.8 million on musical instruments, including a $100,000 Steinway Sons Graham piano and a $21,750 Japanese flute. Oh, that must be so nice. $6.9 million for. For lobster. I guess they're not allergic to shellfish. 15.1 million on ribeye steaks. $2 million on Alaskan king crab legs. $124,000 on ice cream machines. So I just want you to think about that and remember all of that next time you go to the grocery store and can't afford the price of groceries. But he's not alone. Let us continue talking about the secretaries gone wild. So you remember Kristi Noem? I guess we can now refer to her as the former secretary gone wild. And you remember that she got fired by Donald Trump or moved to a different job after he found out and it came out in a congressional he hearing that she had spent $220 million on an ad campaign, on an ad about DHS where she was like on a horse in full cowboy Barbie get up in front of Mount Rushmore. $220 million on that ad. Let me tell you, since the Oscars just happened, let's talk about some of the Oscar nominated movies that cost less than Kristi Noem's ads. Okay, so the record breaking film Sinners. $90 million. One battle after another. That budget was $200 million. Marty supreme, that's Timothy Chalamet, guy who doesn't like opera or ballet, that had a budget of $70 million. Kristi Noemi spent $220 million. We're not done yet. There's more to talk about. This cabinet and the crazy things they're doing. So apparently I had to read this twice when I first read it because it seems so stupid and crazy and asinine. I almost couldn't believe what I was reading. But apparently Donald Trump is gifting his cabinet floor shimmer shoes like the ones he wears. You know the, if you've seen his swollen cankles and you've seen the tied up shoes around, well, those big cankles, he's giving them all these same Florsheim shoes. I must admit I have a soft spot in my heart for Florsheim shoes because it's what my father used to wear when I was growing up. But Donald Trump is going around and he is randomly asking his cabinet members what size shoe they are and gifting them the shoes. And so J.D. vance was just reported told this story where he said Donald Trump asked them their shoe size. So J.D. vance said he was a size 13. Marco Rubio said he was a size 11 and a half. Now I've known Marco Rubio my entire adult life. There is no way that man is an eleven and a half size shoe. Okay? That would almost mean that his foot is bigger than his body. And then there's like an unnamed man in this story that JD Vance told that said he was a size 7. I am sure I would bet money on this. That unnamed man is Lindsey Graham. I know this because, you see, I traveled a lot with Lindsey. We hung out A lot during the McCain campaign, back when he was kissing McCain's ass instead of kissing Trump's ass. And I was always struck by how little Lindsey's feet were. I mean, you almost wonder how anybody can stand up on these dainty, tiny little feet. And he would wear these very tight kind of like penny loafers. And I could never stop looking at his feet because, I mean, it's almost. It's unimaginable that somebody can go through life with such small feet. But you know what? I guess that explains his lack of principles because it is hard to stand up for anything when your feet are the size of a child's. And yeah, that's what our cabinet has been up to. By the way, if you haven't seen the picture, look it up of Marco Rubio and his big shoes. You know how they say big shoes to fill? This is actually happening with Marco because since apparently he lied to Donald Trump about being an 11 and a half size shoe, Donald Trump sent him 11 and a half size shoes. And now there's all these pictures where Marco is coming out of his shoes because the shoes are huge on him. It looks like when Caroline Kennedy or John. John Kennedy were trying to wear those big shoes in their parents White House. Just crazy. Now we're going to go to break because when we come back, instead of talking about crazy members of an administration, we're going to talk to one who knew what he was doing and was qualified for the job. The 78th Secretary of the Navy, Carlos Del Toro.
Electric Vehicle Advertiser (Angela Yee)
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Planned Parenthood Advocate (Angela Yee)
Planned Parenthood Health Centers Save Lives but the Trump administration and its backers in Congress are blocking patients from using Medicaid at Planned Parenthood health centers for one simple reason. They want to shut Planned Parenthood down. Yet across the country, Planned Parenthood health centers are still there, opening their doors to care for their communities. That's because Planned Parenthood believes controlling your own body is the most basic freedom and they'll never stop fighting for it. One in four people in the US have been to a Planned Parenthood health center for high quality health care like birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, abortion and more. Planned Parenthood is still the country's largest sex educator and a trusted source of unbiased sexual and reproductive health information for millions of people. Planned Parenthood will never stop working to get people the information they need, and they will never stop fighting so that every person is free to make their own decisions about their bodies and futures. At Planned Parenthood, Care continues to learn more, visit I'm fourpp.org no one knows
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Ana Navarro
As promised. I have with me today a man I call a friend I admire greatly, who has served our country for decades and decades, admirably and honorably. And I brought him in because I wanted to talk about everything that's going on with Iran, answer some questions that I have, and also what's going on with the Department of Defense, what's going on in general. So I want to introduce you to Carlos Del Toro, and I want to go through his educational background, because I want you all to hear what somebody who's qualified for the job actually sounds like. Okay, so Carlos got a B.S. in electrical engineering from the U.S. naval Academy. He then went to postgraduate school, Naval Postgraduate School, and got an Ms. In Space Systems. He went to the Naval War College, where he got an MA In National Security. And he went to George Washington University, where he got a master's in Legislative Affairs. We're not done yet. He served 22 years in the US Navy, retiring with the rank of Commander. He was the surface warfare officer who commanded the guided missile destroyer USS Bulkley. And he worked in senior Pentagon and budget roles and including at the Office of Management and Budget. And then Joe Biden appointed him the 78th US Navy Secretary. So bienvenido, Carlos Del Toro. Was I accurate about everything, or am I patting your resume very much?
Carlos Del Toro
No, very much so. Yeah.
Ana Navarro
Yeah, I'm sorry. I forgot. You actually work for a. For an administration where people don't pad their resumes. But, Carlos, before we get started, you have such an extraordinary personal story. You came to this country as a baby. You were, what, 1 years old in 1961. You were born in Havana, Cuba. So can you tell me. Can you tell us how a little Cuban boy, a little Cuban refugee living in Hell's Kitchen, goes from that to being Secretary of the Navy?
Carlos Del Toro
Well, first and foremost, Anna, thank you. And thank you to all of your listeners for having me on this really special show today. And I very much look forward to this conversation? No, as you say, look, I came to this country at the age of one and, you know, I grew up going to public schools. Both my parents worked two jobs. It's the typical immigrant story, whether it's a Cuban American refugee coming here to this country from Cuba or from so many other countries where people come here to America seeking the American dream. And like all of us, or most of us, we. We come here and we actually are afforded the American dream, the opportunity to work hard as that first generation of immigrants who come here. You know, send your children to public schools, send them to college. And then one day, in my case, I went off to Annapolis at the age of 17 and served four years in Annapolis, 22 year active duty in the Navy, and rose throughout the ranks, became the most senior Cuban American in the United States Navy and built this great warship named after John Duncan Boakley, who actually served in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as The commander from 63 to 65, sort of at the peak of the. Of the post revolutionary period. And actually he was hated by Fidel Castro. And so what an honor it was to have served as commanding officer in that capacity, served for 26 years in the Navy, have retired, start a private sector business, a small business that me and my wife Betty ran for 17 years, and then to have the honor of being chosen by President Biden to be the 78th Secretary of the Navy. And I thank all of the American people for the privilege of being able to serve as their Secretary of the Navy.
Ana Navarro
And you know, Carlos, I'm going to tell this story because I know you are too humble to say, but I remember one time we were having dinner during the 2024 campaign, and you expressed to me that if Kamala Harris won, you'd be interested in continuing to serve. And I said, oh, you would make a great Secretary of Defense. And you said to me, I don't know, I was thinking more of the number two or number three job because I don't know that I am qualified. And then a few months later, when, when Donald Trump made his appointments for Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy, we talked again. And I just remember sending you a text saying, and you thought you weren't qualified. Okay, I'll just leave it at that, my friend.
Carlos Del Toro
Well, I will say, you know, it'd be a privilege to serve in any capacity, Anna, but really, public servants should be qualified to do the jobs that they're expected to do on behalf of the American taxpayer. And I think it's quite demonstrable after the fact that experience matters in the Navy. I always say it takes 20 years to make a captain. It actually takes 30 years to make an admiral or a general in the Marine Corps. And our most senior civilians in government service should have the requisite experience and also the emotional and intellectual maturity to perform their duties in that capacity.
Ana Navarro
And the moral compass.
Carlos Del Toro
And the moral compass, more importantly than anything else.
Ana Navarro
Yeah, but, Carlos, let's get into Iran a minute because I have, like, a fundamental question, and I wonder how many other Americans have the same question I do. So I want to ask you. Let me preface this by saying I am at this point confused by what the definition of war is, because Donald Trump and his administration and Republicans in Congress have tried to call this operation, this war, everything but war. Donald Trump called it an excursion. I don't think he knows the difference between incursion and excursion, because for me, an excursion is like a field trip at school. Right. Or what I take when I get off the cruise ship in Greece. But okay, then there's this War Powers act that seems to me is fairly worthless because there's. Because practically every precedent since the War Powers act has been enacted have taken military action without going through, through Congress. So Congress is just so incredibly feckless in this entire situation. So I guess my question is, what, in your eyes constitutes a war? And are we at war right now with Iran? Has Donald Trump thrown us into war?
Carlos Del Toro
Well, I feel strongly we are at war with Iran. It's very unfortunate that there's so much political maneuvering on this topic. And it's obvious that it's being done by the administration and by members of certain members of Congress as well, too, to avoid having to vote on the War Powers Resolution Act. I mean, in our Constitution, it clearly states that it's Congress who has the authority to declare war on another nation. Now, presidents, of course, have our national security interests at mind and everything that they do. And it's in cases where there's eminent threat present, quite frankly, that sometimes short term military action is required to try to defend American citizens from being harmed abroad or in the United States. But it's clearly that an engagement of this nature is very much being at war with Iran, whether they admit it or don't admit it. Unfortunately, this has happened in previous administrations, both Democrat and Republican, such as even during Vietnam, where we really didn't have a declaration of war. It was a conflict that went on. And yet, you know, 55,000American soldiers lost their lives, men and women, in the war in Vietnam. So it is very much A war regardless of the political machinations that take place in the administration and the Congress.
Ana Navarro
And Carlos, something else I wanted to ask you about. I read this story about how, you know, how Iran was laying mines in the Strait of Horror Moves and how we had we, by we, I mean Pete Hagseth, I mean Donald Trump. His administration had decommissioned minesweeper ships that the US Navy had. What should we know about that?
Carlos Del Toro
Well, the minesweepers that are at question here basically were minesweepers that were due to be decommissioned. I think if I had been in place still, it was my intent to actually allow them to remain in commission for a longer period of time until the class of ships to replace them, which is called the LCS class, came into place and actually had more operational experience in theater before the other ones should have been decommissioned, which we've been operating for quite some time. And they were very effective in theater. We probably should have held onto those a little bit longer, especially given the fact that they knew that perhaps we would be deeply involved in military operations here just recently. So it's confusing to me why the Navy actually decommissioned those ships, recognizing, well, that we could be again finding ourselves having to deal with the mine threat in the Straits of Hormuth.
Ana Navarro
Carlos, I want to ask you about something that I think is terribly tragic and mistakes have been made in other military operations by other precedents, but this one is just heart wrenching. And I'm referring to the missile strike, the US Missile strike, which we now know was done by the U.S. according to investigations by independent agencies and news agencies and now by a military investigation. I'm talking about the strike on the girls school in Iran that killed reportedly 168 young girls between the ages of 7 and 14. And I have been so, I don't know, heartbroken, ashamed at the way that this administration, that this president has reacted. He's, you know, when they told him about the findings, he pretended he hadn't heard about it. The first thing he did was try to blame Iran, saying that Iran had bombed its own citizens. So I guess I want to ask you what your reaction is to this and what should a president do, what should a government do when something like this happens? Because I remember something, I remember when we struck civilians and killed civilians under Obama. And I remember the way he acted and reacted and it was starkly different to what Donald Trump is doing now. So how do you feel? So I few questions. How does something like this happen? How the hell do we hit a school using outdated information and then once it happened. How do we, you know, how does it take 12 days to confirm that it was us? And how should the President of the United States be reacting?
Carlos Del Toro
Absolutely. Well, first and foremost, you know, our sympathies go out. Anytime that there's loss of civilian life, it's extremely tragic, obviously. And during the Biden administration, President Biden and Secretary Austin made it clear that we as senior civilians in the military and our senior military leaders would try to do everything possible to avoid the loss of innocent civilian lives, especially children and women. And so we stood up these civilian committees actually to avoid this from potentially happening. And we would be very, very careful in the planning of our military operations to try to prevent the loss of innocent civilian lives. Those committees were actually disbanded by the Secretary of Defense here most recently. So the added attention that might have been given to a military planning exercise or strike that was being planned and the review that would have taken place by these committees simply did not take place in this case. Now, as far as the actual planning of the Tomahawk strikes themselves, it's a very complicated process. It involves many different organizations to determine what the correct targeting is. Then you have to actually upload the software into the missile, and eventually that software gets passed on to the ship and the launch takes place and the strike occurs. And there's several days actually, that that planning is in motion, apparently in this case. And I don't know for a fact, but simply. But what's been reported in the news is that the intelligence was not correct in terms of what was actually planned into the Tomahawk missile. I can't say for sure why there weren't more checks and balances to ensure that these targets had actually been updated currently, correctly. I suppose that the investigation will reveal that with regards to the response of the administration and specific individuals. You know, I think when it's apparent that a mistake, a horrific mistake like this has been made, it's important for senior leaders, true leaders, quite frankly, to accept responsibility or at least to recognize the tragedy of the moment and not just simply try to displace it or blame it on others when it seems to be quite clear that it may be during their watch that this actually occurred. That's what real leaders do. They step up to the plate and they accept responsibilities for the mistakes that have been made. And then they also try to ensure that these mistakes translate themselves into lessons learned so that in future operations, we don't repeat those same mistakes again in the future.
Ana Navarro
Carlos, before we leave Iran, what in your eyes would constitute a quote Unquote, victory there. Because Trump keeps saying, we're winning, we're winning. We were obliterating them. This was easy at first. He talked about regime change. Now he seems not to be talking about regime change. He's talking about access to nuclear weapons and nuclear material. I don't know. I mean, if you're an American, a regular American who doesn't have military service like me, and you're reading all of this, it's very confusing. So from your experience as Secretary of the Navy, as having served for decades, what would actually be a win in Iraq? Because my fear is that when this potato gets too hot politically and we get close to midterm elections, he's going to drop the hot potato, leave it as is, and declare a victory. So how should we interpret what's happening?
Carlos Del Toro
Well, first and foremost, especially for those of us who grew up in, well, were born in countries or grew up in countries ruled by autocrats and dictators, there's certainly no sympathy for the loss of Supreme Leader Khomeini in Iran. He was a horrific person who killed many innocent lives during his own tenure, and so no one's certainly mourning his death. Having said that, though, it's not completely clear to me that this war has actually made us truly safer in this country. I mean, just today, Ana, we've got two tragic incidents that are taking place. One was the bombing in Detroit against a synagogue, which is truly horrific and perhaps an indication of the terrorism that our country may continue to see in the future. And then the bombing at odu, which is still Old Dominion University near Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia, which is also still being investigated. So it's not clear to me, quite frankly, that the war is making Americans safer. Having said that, however, it's clear to me that, you know, the Navy and the Marine Corps that I trained during the Biden administration was trained properly to fulfill its military objectives that were at least first identified by this administration. What's unclear is our ability to achieve our political objectives, which is actually the most important thing, with a strategy that would be well planned out in order to achieve those political objectives. And, you know, there are very serious doubts about that. For one thing, regime change in Iran will be extremely difficult. We haven't seen regime change in Venezuela, have we? Pretty much the same administration that was there before in the Maduro is still there today, and the Venezuelan people are still suffering and without the freedoms that they so deserve. Right. I mean, all companies may be allowed now to do business with the United States, but I'm not sure that that truly meets the spirit of what we were trying to achieve with our political intent in Venezuela. The same thing applies here in Iran. And in many ways the removal of nuclear fission, for example, from Iran is also going to prove itself to be extremely difficult. This isn't something that you can just go in with a small SEAL team and accomplish the mission. You're going to have to go in with a battalion level size of special operators to be able to affect a mission like this. I'm not suggesting that it can't be done. But by no means is this something that's going to be extremely easy to do. And we have to take into account sometimes what appears to be easy today in the long run. The sites and the capabilities that we have bombed in Iran very effectively because those military objectives have been met very effectively by our service members. And a shout out to all our men and women who are serving courageously overseas right now in the Middle east and the Pacific and everywhere, performing their missions extremely well. We should, all of us as Americans should be very proud of them. But the fact is that at some point in time we are not going to have, we're not going to be able to maintain that same level of presence in the Persian Gulf. So what happens when eventually the Navy doesn't have one or two carrier fleets in place? They'll be able to rebuild some of those sites and rebuild some of those capabilities in the future with the monies that they have as an all rich nation, basically. So, you know, what they've lost today, they could easily rebuild in the future. And then lastly, you know, the Iranian people themselves, they don't have the ability to just revolt the way the President has asked them to do. We know that's true in Cuba where, you know, they have no arms in Cuba to revolt with and they're highly restricted and watched all the time. It's no different in Iran or in Venezuela for that matter. Right. So to simply say revolt against the government without any support is just completely unrealistic. So all of these things matter in terms of us being able to reach our political objectives. And to me it's not completely clear that we're going to get there.
Ana Navarro
Remember, the Iranians did take to the streets back in January. Donald Trump told them help is on the way. And, and in the meantime, tens of thousands, we don't even know the precise number because of the information blackout from Iran, but tens of thousands, reportedly up to 50,000 plus Iranians were slaughtered by the Ayatollah. And two months later, I guess help showed up. And when Trump says, get out on the streets, they're saying, nah, maybe not this time. You know, we've seen what can happen. But you alluded to autocratic governments. You alluded to, to Venezuela. So, you know, when Maduro was captured, I was in Spain, in Madrid, Spain, where there is a very big Venezuelan exile community. And I, you know, I woke up, I read the news, and I just felt this surge of emotion as somebody who has lived under dictatorship. So I'm wondering if you can tell us how you felt on January 3rd upon the reading about, you know, you obviously read it with different eyes. You also fled a dictatorship, but you are, you were commander of a ship and you were Secretary of the Navy. So what was your reaction to what happened in Venezuela and how was that different to what we are seeing in Iran? And I ask you that last question because I think Trump is drunk with power regarding Venezuela and thinks he can replicate that all over the world. So what was your reaction to the Capture of Maduro January 3rd, and how did you see it? How do you see that operation?
Carlos Del Toro
Sure. Well, let me first start by stating that it's important for our commander in chief, our senior most leaders in the military and State Department elsewhere to basically always recognize that military power alone rarely ever achieves our political interests and defends our national security interests. It's a combination of military power, diplomatic power first and foremost. Often when I would talk to individuals who work in the State Department, I'd make it clear that if the State Department had more resources, the Department of Defense wouldn't have to work so hard in defending our interest. Right. And economic power as well. So it's the combination of all three of those instruments of power that truly makes it effective in protecting Americans and protecting our national security interests when you just simply apply one repeatedly and perhaps become a little bit too enamored by it. And by the way, let us never forget that it's our young men and women, our sons and daughters, our granddaughters and our grandsons who actually call, respond to the call of service, who serve in our military, in the Navy and the Marine Corps, in the army and the Air Force and the Space Force, and they are the ones that are put in harm's way. So, you know, the single most responsibility of commander in chief is to protect the American people, but also to understand that they are putting their young men and women at risk. And those decisions should be thought out very, very carefully. Not just we typically understand what the primary consequences of military actions are, but we Often don't think about the secondary and the tertiary consequences. So back to your question about Venezuela again, obviously, you know, Maduro had done no, no good for the Venezuelan people or for democracy or anything else. Like most autocrats, he cares more about enriching his own personal interests. First and foremost, enriching the personal interests of his most immediate family and inner circle of cronies and also ensuring that their political power is never being threatened. Right. I mean, that's what autocrats do whether they're in Cuba, whether they're in Venezuela, whether they're in Iran, South Korea, China or elsewhere around the world. And so they always going to have the survival of the regime first and foremost, regardless of the impact on innocent lives on their own citizens, on the economic well being of their country for any period of time. All those things just don't matter as much as the survival of the regime itself. So obviously I was pleased to see that Maduro had been removed. However, it's the what comes after part that I was completely disappointed by. I would have expected that we would have worked with those that remain in Venezuela to try to affect freedom and democracy in Venezuela through free elections and other means. Right. Instead, it seems like we just negotiated a deal for the United States companies basically to do work in Venezuela with the oil companies and to enrich people here in the United States.
Ana Navarro
Are you afraid that that's also going to happen in Cuba or what do you think is going to happen in Cuba? I remember when you were Secretary of the Navy and you went to Guantanamo in that role for the first time and how emotional it was for you. I remember you brought us back some Cuban soil and just how hard that hit you, how much that affected you. So what do you think could possibly, as Trump talks about Cuba is next, Cuba is next. And I can tell you everybody in Miami thinks Cuba is next and you know, has got their, their Cuban flags and their cars ready to, to celebrate. But what, what, what do you think realistically that can mean and what can we expect?
Carlos Del Toro
Well, first let me say I'm quite confident that there's two days in Raul and Fidel Castro's life where they regret it. Letting this little kid get out of Cuba. That's the day I became commanding officer of the, our nation's newest destroyer and the day I became Secretary of the Navy. But having said that, and having obviously studied Cuba very carefully and have it lived it, you know, it's not going to be as easy as some people think it's going to be. For one thing, the Cuban regime again. And just like I said a few moments ago, what they care about most is their own survival. And so, as you know, for as long as they've been actually complaining about Helms Burton. Right. They've always wanted Helms Burton to remain in place so they could use that as their crutch to blame the United States for everything. Right. They're master politicians themselves. They've been very, very resilient. The Cuban people, of course, have suffered tremendously so over the last five decades. And it's their suffering that, you know, once thinks about the most. But to just simply think that Cuba is going to crumble, I think is a mistake. I think that they will try to do everything they can to hold on to power in every possible way. So short of an invasion itself, you know, I don't think things will change necessarily that much, regardless of how much pressure Donald Trump or the administration places on the Cuban government. Some people say, you know, well, they're suffering economically. And that's true. The economic situation in Cuba is about as bad as it can be. But it's also been that way for the past 50 years. They have learned to suffer horribly, so, which is the true injustice in Cuba. But they've also been resilient in sort of overcoming those challenges. So we'll have to wait to see what happens. But I think the expectations that things will just change dramatically overnight, I think that's very, very unrealistic. And I hope that whatever transition takes place is a peaceful transition and perhaps a negotiated agreement between the people, between the government of Cuba and the United States. But it's not going to be easy to achieve.
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Ana Navarro
Carlos, let me switch gears on you. Do you like ribeye?
Carlos Del Toro
Yeah, I love ribeye.
Ana Navarro
Do you like Alaskan king crab?
Carlos Del Toro
I do like Alaskan king crab.
Ana Navarro
How about lobster tails?
Carlos Del Toro
They're good too, but okay. And where you headed?
Ana Navarro
Yeah. Okay. So how do Americans, how should taxpayers look at this at this expense of, you know, Pete Hagseth, Department of defense, spent 50.1 billion in five days at the end of September last year, including millions and millions of dollars on ribeye and snow crab legs and lobster tails. So how do we feel about this? Or how should I feel about this?
Carlos Del Toro
Sure. Well, it's very, very unfortunate. And look, you know, I haven't seen the actual reports themselves, but there's no question that there are moments when you want to reward our service members with a good steak and lobster meal right before you expect them to actually go into combat or they're having. They're going through a really strenuous time. However, I think this is probably far more than just that. Probably expenditures that just aren't being monitored correctly and watched correctly. Correctly and overseen correctly. You know, when I was Secretary of the Navy, I always tried to live, you know, within the means of our own budget. We, when we traveled, we tried to stay within per diem rates at hotels that weren't fancy, that we expected our service members actually to stay within per diem rates established by the government. And those things are important. It's important to set the example. So if expenditures are being not paid attention to, if they're living high on the hog, then the administration should be held accountable for that and the American taxpayer should hold them accountable for that. You know, I was a small business person for 17 years. I ran a small business very effectively before I came became secretary. And I always argued that my 26 years of naval experience were extremely important for me to perform my responsibilities as Secretary. But equally important, important was what I learned in the private sector. And every dollar that I learned in the, that I earned in the private sector, I would think very carefully about how I would spend it, because I knew that one, it was difficult to come by, and I wanted to get the maximum return on investment on that dollar, right? Do I give my receptionist a raise? Do I give myself a raise? Do I put it into overhead? When I became Secretary of the Navy, it was no different. And I with one notable difference, it was the American taxpayer investing in our military services. And so I took it very seriously that every dollar that I spent, I thought carefully about how to try to get the best return on investment for the American taxpayer because it's important to invest in national security, and it's more important for our senior military leaders, especially our senior civilian leaders, to use that money wisely and not just waste it.
Electric Vehicle Advertiser (Angela Yee)
It's.
Carlos Del Toro
It's fraud if they're wasting it that way.
Ana Navarro
I want to end on a positive note because I know how much serving in the military, in the Navy, changed the course of your life. What would be your message to those who are serving now or young people who may be thinking of serving and their families?
Carlos Del Toro
I say to all young people, whether you serve a year or you serve 30 years like I do, it truly changes who you are, and it offers you opportunities in this country like no others. You know, the fact that you read off those four degrees that I received, all those were paid by the taxpayer, which I am deeply, deeply grateful and have been trying the rest of my life to be a good public servant in payment for that education. But as we know, just like I did, just like you did when you came to this country, you know, we were poor. We didn't come here with a lot of money. Our parents had to work and like both my parents, had to work two jobs just to simply make ends meet, you know, and so for me to be able to go in the military and to go to Annapolis, because I could not have afforded to go to any other college, probably. And so I thank God, I thank my parents, my grandmother, for having given me the right values and shown me the right way to be able to go to a place like Annapolis and then succeed and then really become a true professional, in this case in the Naval service. But for young people in this country, service in the military can transform who you are. It could offer you opportunities that you've never would have imagined in your lifetime that you might have or your parents have imagined that they might have had in their lifetime. And then you give back to this nation. You serve. You fulfill your professional desire to become an electrical engineer or a scientist or a mathematician or a historian or whatever you want to do in the military, but you're serving your country as well, too, which is incredibly important. And then one day you retire, and it offers you opportunities to go into other professions and do other things with the rest of your life as well, too, and continue to give back to the country and public service in many different ways outside of uniform service. So I can't encourage our young men and women across this country, you know, to really consider a life in military service. And I do also want to do a shout out to the women out there. You know, I often said when I was secretary of the Navy, you know, 51% of our population are female. Now, some may argue it's actually the smartest 51%, but nevertheless. And yet today in the military, we have 17% who are women. And perhaps those numbers are falling for reasons that probably are obvious here in the last year. But I encourage young women to actually serve in our nation's military as well, too, because there's tremendous opportunities for them, and they could rise to serve at the highest levels of government and truly serve their nation. Well, I had the good fortune of nominating to the President of the United States the first woman to be Chief of Naval Operations and the first woman to be superintendent of our Naval Academy. And not because they were women, because after 30 to 40 years of service, they finally had merited and had worked in the most difficult of positions that gave them the experience. Those 20 years to be a captain, those 30 years to be an admiral, to be able to compete equitably with other men. And those women just simply rose to the top often because they were the most inspirational in being able to perform their duties. Women have a right to serve in every position throughout the military. They have earned that right since the beginning of the Revolutionary War. They have served in every conflict and every war in this nation. They have served honorably. They have served courageously. And no one should ever tell women in our military services or in the United States that they can't do anything that they set their minds to do. That's the way it should be. And I big shout out to all the women that are serving in our military courageously today, overseas, as well as the men who also serve with them on those ships, submarines, aircraft, and aircraft carriers.
Ana Navarro
Thank you, thank you, thank you for those words. Very appropriately, during Women's History month and more than Anything. Thank you for your friendship and thank you for your years of service to this country. Te quiero, mi amigo.
Carlos Del Toro
Thank you, Anna. Farewell to all of you. Bye. Bye.
Ana Navarro
As you know, every week I like to highlight a courageous person of the week and a coward of the week. A coward of the week. This week, actually, the cowards and the heroes are both in the same story. And it's a story that I think we need to highlight. It is the detention of a South Texas family of asylum seekers after a routine check in. So they had a pending political asylum application. They had played by the rules. They had done everything as they were supposed to. They showed up at an immigration check in and they were all detained, the entire family, the children and the parents and the children. One is Antonio Gamez cuellar. He was 18 years old. He is 18 years old. And then he has two younger brothers, Caleb, who's 14, and Joshua, who is 12. But one of the reasons that this story caught our attention is because two of those siblings were members of the Mariachi de Oro in the Rio Grande Valley where they are from. Mariachi is everything. It is a varsity activity. There's actually a movie that I recommend you watch. It's called Going Varsity in Mariachi. It was produced by Luis Miranda Lin, Manuel Miranda's father. And it is terrific. And so two of these young men, members of this mariachi band, were detained unlawfully, unjustifiably, just in order to fill a quota. So the cowards are the people who put this family that was abiding by the regulations and checking in at immigration that detained them, separated them and did this to this family and this community. The heroes are Joaquin Castro, the congressman from the San Antonio area who showed up at Dilley Detention center, who highlighted this issue. Bobby Pulido, he is actually a Tejano singer who is running for office in this district where these mariachi boys were from. And both of them did yeoman's work in bringing attention to this story and working hard with their legal teams and putting pressure on this administration. They have since been released. But it is cases like this. You know, this administration now doesn't want us to talk about mass deportations. They're telling people running for Congress not to talk about mass deportations. Well, we're going to continue highlighting these cases and we're going to continue talking about the injustices and the cruelties. And we are not going to forget what they have done. That's it for this episode of bleep. Thank you again to Carlos Del Toro for stopping by and thank you all for listening. You don't know how much I appreciate your support and you giving us a chance. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave me a comment wherever you listen. I love hearing from you and I love reading your comments. Bleep with Anna Navarro is a Hyphenate Media Group production in partnership with iHeart's MTA podcast network. For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Carlos Del Toro
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Ana Navarro
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In this episode, Ana Navarro blends sharp political commentary and humor as she exposes scandals and extravagances in the Trump administration’s cabinet, revisiting her “Secretaries Gone Wild” segment. Then, in a thoughtful, in-depth interview, she welcomes Carlos Del Toro, former Secretary of the Navy, for an honest and sobering look at the ongoing crisis with Iran, the consequences of war, defense spending, and the intersection of personal experience with public service.
(03:19 – 10:38)
Background & Introduction
(14:53 – 17:01)
(20:06 – 22:50)
(22:50 – 24:13)
(24:13 – 28:48)
(28:48 – 34:09)
(34:09 – 42:11)
(46:26 – 49:29)
(49:31 – 53:50)
(54:10 – 57:38)
Ana Navarro blends acerbic wit, tough questions, and sharp humor with an undercurrent of empathy and seriousness, especially when pivoting from American political absurdity to issues of war and its very human costs. Carlos Del Toro is measured, earnest, and deeply informed, providing both technical clarity and a moral perspective.
This episode is a powerful meld of political satire, hard truths, and inspirational testimony on immigration, service, and leadership. It offers a bracing look at government excess, sobering perspective on war with Iran, and a reaffirmation of the importance of qualifications and moral responsibility in public office—with memorable, hopeful notes for those who serve.