← Hold These Truths with Dan Crenshaw
Hold These Truths with Dan Crenshaw
SITREP 25: The Government Is Open, the Epstein Files Will Be Released, and the Media's Lies About Me in Mexico.
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We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created. As a member of Congress, I get to have a lot of really interesting people in the office, experts on what they're talking about. This is the podcast for insights into the issues. China, bioterrorism, Medicare for all in depth discussions, breaking it down into simple terms. We hold. We hold. We hold these truths. We hold these truths. With Dan Crenshaw, the eagle has landed. Welcome back to the situation report. This is SITREP 25. Wow. Thanks for joining us as we cover the most interesting news from last week and army with the facts. So as you hopefully know by now, the government's back open, Congress is back in session and we're back to work after Thanksgiving. We've got our work cut out for us though because after 43 days of a Schumer led government shutdown, you know, that's the longest the country's ever seen. Well, it's worth clearing up what actually happened. First of all, we have a lot of work to get to because of that 43 days we lost. So I just want to recap. Democrats flat out lied to the American people about how the shutdown started, who prolonged it and why it dragged on for more than 40 days. So back in September, House Republicans with, without any Democrat votes, we passed a clean continuing resolution. That's a, that's a clean budget. That's it. That's just saying, look, we're going to continue the budget from last year. No, no changes to it. Okay. That keeps the government open while full year funding negotiations would continue. That's the idea. And we meant for negotiations to happen because it was only a seven week extension. The Democrats could argue that we had no intention of negotiating. If we had, if we had, you know, for instance, done like a year long extension, that's an indication you don't really care about negotiation. But seven weeks, that's an indication you want to negotiate during that seven weeks. So Senate Democrats rejected that clean bill and came back with a counter proposal that would have spent $1.5 trillion over just five weeks. Pretty different approach. And when no agreement was reached, the government shut down. And for 40 plus days, the Senate held more than a dozen votes to reopen the government all along party lines. Each time Senate Democrats voted against reopening our government. The part that gets spun falsely, most of all, it takes 60 votes to pass anything in the Senate, there's only 53 Republicans. That means Democrats had the deciding votes and therefore full control because we all knew which way the Republican senators would vote so to reopen the government at any time. They repeatedly chose not to. And in the end, after more than a month of furloughed workers and disrupted services, and that's not nothing, by the way. That's people who can't afford their mortgages. That's a big deal. They finally, Democrats finally accepted essentially the same framework that was on the table from the beginning. Bottom line, a month of economic damage and government disruption, all just to end up exactly where we started. All thanks to Chuck Schumer. Side note, Curious about why extending the Obamacare credits is a very bad policy choice, Check out my podcast with John Hopkins University Professor Dr. G. Bai. It's really good. It really dives into the details of that. And just so everyone knows, I mean, the healthcare debate's not over, you know, that we, we extended the funding till January 30th and we're still gonna have to negotiate something. And I, and I hope we do. In other news, the House votes to release the full Epstein files. And President Trump did, did sign that. So on November 18th, the House voted to release all Justice Department records related to Jeffrey Epstein. Obviously, the public has long wanted this. I was happy to vote for it. The Senate approved the measure the next day. President Trump signed it right away. Senator. So that means the DOJ must release the files by December 19, although it can still withhold information tied to active investigations or anything that could reveal victim identities or medical details that make sense. The vote was pretty unanimous. I think only Clay Higgins cast the only no vote in his defense. He had a very principled reason for it. You know, he comes from law enforcement and his defense is very simple. We have never, ever released the details of an investigation. It is not normal. The reason it was done in this case is because overwhelming public support for it. And as representatives, sometimes that's the decision we make. It's necessarily based on legal precedents. Look, the people want it, so we do.
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Is a representative democracy after all. So just to remind everyone who Jeffrey Epstein is, if you really need to be reminded, he's this wealthy finance, was a wealthy financier and convict, convicted sex offender. He had connections to many high profile people in politics, business and entertainment. I mean, the list goes on forever. He was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges and then died by suicide while in jail waiting for his trial. This led to a public demand for more transparency because, you know, really it's only. What's her name, Ms. Maxwell, who is in jail. That was his, his madam. And it leaves everyone wondering how Is it possible that there weren't more people involved here? In my personal opinion, I just don't know. I just don't know. So voting for transparency here, I think was the right thing to do. All right, so the new law requires DOJ to release interview transcripts, internal emails, flight logs, items taken from Epstein's properties, all by December 19th. Now, these documents are expected to provide the clearest picture yet of what Epstein did and who might be involved. Now, we've already seen fallout from early document releases. Representative Stacy Plaskett, who serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence with me, was named in the documents for texting Jeffrey Epstein during congressional hearings. Additionally, former Harvard professor Larry Summers announced that he is stepping back from teaching while the university investigates his email exchanges with Epstein. Fun fact. I took a class at Harvard where Larry Summers co taught it. The main teacher was actually this guy named Marty Feldstein, former chief economic advisor to Ronald Reagan. Fantastic man. And I'll never forget the day that Donald Trump won in 2016. And I was in. Larry Summers was teaching that day and he was going over all of these economic potential economic catastrophes related to Trump's election. And I just, you know, I never really challenged, you know, it's a huge class. I'm just trying to take notes and get by. But I raised my hand. I said, look, you know, I can read the 100 day plan put out by the Trump administration, and it says the exact opposite of everything you're saying he's going to do. So fun fact there. He didn't really have an answer for that. All right, in more depressing news, right here in D.C. we have one National Guard member who was fatally shot and another who's in critical condition. So authorities are investigating why a 29 year old Afghan national opened fire on two National Guard members outside a metro station just one block from the White House. Specialist Sarah Backstrom was killed. Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolf remains in critical, critical condition. The suspect was taken into custody immediately. His name is Ramanula Luckenwall. His father of five entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies. Guard members returned fire, wounding him. He now faces five violent crime charges. Specialist Sarah Backstrom from Webster County, West Virginia. She joined the guard at 18, deployed to D.C. to help reduce crime. And I mean, she's a hero, just like all these National Guardsmen here. I've seen it personally. Them patrolling the streets has made a huge difference in D.C. even the Liberal mayor admits it. And she died on Thanksgiving with her parents at her bedside. She was 20 years old. Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, also from West Virginia, remains hospitalized. Doctors report early signs of responsiveness as they evaluate his condition. In response, the president ordered 500 additional Guard members to reinforce the roughly 2,000 that are already deployed here. So let's all pray for Sarah's family.
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I can't imagine what they're going through. And let's pray for Andrew's full recovery and for every Guard member serving to keep our community here safe. Let's move back on to Minnesota. Remember, Tim Wallsey ran. He was a vice presidential candidate at some point. He's kind of unmemorable, but he's the governor, Governor of Minnesota. And boy, is he facing some problems. He's currently facing one of the largest fraud scandals in the country. Over $1 billion in pandemic related and social service have been stolen from various programs during his time in office. Federal prosecutors say 59 people have been convicted so far, mainly from parts of the state's Somali diaspora. This situation has led to political backlash and raised serious questions about how the state handles oversight, and rightly so. So under Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, over a billion was stolen. Okay, this is from Housing Stabilization Services, Feeding our Future Child Nutrition Program, Medicaid funded aut. You know, these schemes relied on fake nonprofits. Shell companies fabricated invoices to bill the state for services that were never provided. Reports allege that these fraud rings and sent large sums of stolen money overseas through remittances and hawala networks. Hawala network is.
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It, is. It goes back to like this Middle Eastern term where effectively there is no money transferred. It is a pure honor system, a hawala, what's called a hawala dar. And say one country gets a notice from another one in another country says, hey, this person has paid the money and then they get the money. So it's, it's, it's, it's like this. It's actually an ancient banking system, if you will. Also very hard to track, which is why they would use hawala networks. So there's concerns, of course, that some of these funds may have ended up supporting groups like Al Shabaab and Al Qaeda in Somalia. The Department of Treasury is investigating these claims and taking the matter seriously, but no confirmations have been made yet. The situation highlights a lack of oversight by Tim Walls, obviously, and his administration. Federal prosecutors have reported that 59 individuals been convicted already. And, you know, to put this into perspective, total amount stolen by these schemes exceeds the annual budget of Minnesota's Department of Corrections. That's pretty crazy. All right, let's Move down south of Venezuela. This has been in the news a lot, so top line here, guys. We've carried out at least 21 strikes on narco trafficking boats. And President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have built up military presence pressure off the coast of Venezuela. President Trump spoke directly with the dictator this weekend, told him leave now. And he announced that their airspace should be considered closed. So that's pretty clear. This message is pretty simple. If you run drugs, if you're moving product for a cartel and you're part of a terrorist organization, because we've effectively we have designated these cartels as terrorist organizations, you are now a target. This comes alongside something we haven't seen in years, which is real military leverage in the Caribbean. Carrier groups, submarines, reconnaissance aircraft. A posture designed to squeeze Maduro's criminal enterprise and cut off trafficking routes before they ever make it to our shores. Since early September, we have carried out airstrikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that belong to narco trafficking networks. On 29 November, Trump declared via social media that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered closed in its entirety, warning airlines, pilots, drug dealers and human traffickers to stay away. This announcement triggered a cascade of cancellations for flights to Caracas. So look, Venezuela is now the largest state sanctioned narco pipeline in the Western hemisphere and President Trump just isn't going to let that stand. Now, of course, Mexico, don't be wrong. Mexico, still the main hub of the problem for the cartels, but the Mexican government at least cooperates with us. A very key difference there. Moving on to Ukraine. There's been some news there. Over the weekend. Secretary Rubio, Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Witkoff hosted top Ukrainian negotiators in Florida. It's good to see Jared Kushner back in. I think it did a lot of good for the last Trump administration. Him and Ivanka had announced they're going to take a break from this, but I'm very happy to, you know, shout out to Jared and Ivanka, I think they're fantastic. Secretary Rubio reaffirmed the US position Ukraine must not only secure peace, but never face another invasion again and must emerge with a path to economic stability. US negotiators are now heading to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, while European government launching flurry of parallel diplomatic efforts to shape potential ceasefire terms. They're like, they're all over the place. I remember the Munich security conference. I was there back in February. And you know, they, they complain a lot about us taking the lead, but of course we're going to take the lead. Who else is? So here's the reality on how this is going to go. No matter how these talks unfold, there is no party, whether it's Kiev or Moscow, Washington or Europe, that's going to get everything they want. Russia still controls significant territory, suppressing the front with drone incursions. It's probing Ukrainian defenses and trying to grind down morale. Ukraine, meanwhile, is hitting back deep inside Russia energy facilities, fuel depots, power nodes using asymmetric strikes to force costs on Moscow and remind the Kremlin that distance is no longer guaranteeing safety. We should all be very impressed with how the Ukrainians have adapted to this war. And it's. I mean they are at the forefront of drone warfare, for instance. Now we're heading into the most consequential negotiation window of the war. Winter's approaching, energy grids are strained, ammunition reserves are tight, and public patience in both countries is diminishing. So that creates pressure and a rare alignment where diplomacy could have some leverage. If used decisively, there might be some opportunity here. The stakes are huge. Does this moment produce a roadmap for peace? Or does it just another, another frozen conflict, another trench line on the European continent that we revisit in five years when Russia is rearmed and emboldened? Hope not. Media bias. You know, how about we'll call out the ones the media bias about me personally. In the last couple weeks it was reported that I had a alcohol related incident in Mexico which resulted in a top ranking Republicans banning me from international travel. Unfortunately for our reporter in question, he got a lot of those facts wrong and I made sure on social media to correct them and with evidence, you know, turns out I was going on a international code aisle just a month ago. It only got canceled because of the shutdown. As far as the alcohol related incidents, you know when you actually read behind the paywall, and this is what's so disgusting about media, you know they put a clickbait headline out there because what I just said, does it make you think. It makes you think. Geez, Dan, you had quite the night in Mexico, didn't you? Yeah, not really. What Happened was a 3pm meeting with Secretary of Defense General Trevilla. We talked about military aid to Mexico and as usual in those meetings, I've done this many times, they like to bring out a shot of tequila and a toast. Okay, that did happen. Now is that an alcohol related incident? Yeah, pretty hard to say that a toast after an hour long meeting is an alcohol related incident. The only Reason there's any incident, so to speak, is because whatever toast we made offended, I think, a female staffer, American female staffer in the room. And she went and complained and created this entire story. Now, do I apologize for this? Not at all. Not at all. Because my job is to have a good relationship with the Mexican generals. Because my job is to destroy the cartels. And we can't do that without a good relationship with the Mexican generals. Look, I grew up in Latin America. I speak Spanish. The staffer in question making these complaints does not speak Spanish and doesn't understand the cultural guidelines or cultural norms of places like this. And then they came out because I kind of destroyed that first story. Who? Jake Sherman? Well, he had to come up with another story about how the CIA actually complained about my behavior. And the CIA does not do this. They write routine cables. Now, cables are just emails. We call them cables, going back to the old days when they were literally cables, and that's how communication happened. But it's literally just a report. And it's a routine report after any codel, and it's usually very bland. It's who, what, when, where, some basic reflections. And I have assurances, I've been told I have know.
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That this particular cable, because I know the people who wrote it. I know the people who received it to include the director of the CIA. None of what they reported in there about me is in there. None of it. So more to follow on that story, because I'm going to find out who created this narrative, who potentially, I don't know. Here's one theory. Who potentially may have given this reporter a fake cable.
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And he was so desperate to save his story that maybe he bought it. So pretty disgusting. I mean, even just the headline alone, you know, is exactly why you can't trust media. You have to read beyond the headline. If you look back at my social media, I compare that crazy headline with what the actual story, even written in their own story, is, you know, buried a few paragraphs down. And I think most people rightfully looked at that and said, you know, Dan, your real crime is not giving us a good story about Mexico. And that is my real crime. I owe you better than that. Okay, a few other quick.
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Headlines. This week, we announced a deal with Britain to secure zero tariffs on British pharmaceutical products. That's good news. They've committed to raise the overall price it pays for new U.S. medicines by 25%. That's also good. In return, the U.S. will exempt British manufactured medicines, medical technology, and drug ingredients from any tariffs in place. Also, starting in February, air travelers without a real ID will be required to pay a 45 fee. This new TSA policy states that travelers with order forms of identification must pay a fee before arriving at the airport. They will need to present a receipt at initial TSA checkpoint to verify their identities against passport data and other personal details. Okay, so just everyone should know that. Now, real id that could still be your driver's license and your regular government issued ids. That's what most people have. All right, that's all for our sit rep. Thanks for listening.