Transcript
Grainger Narrator (0:01)
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Scott McFarlane (0:29)
One of the police officers who was injured said, five years ago, I thought there'd never be a day where somebody denied this happened because we all watched it happen on television. Yet here we are. So that January 6, which was immediately denounced far and wide, has become something no longer denounced far and wide. That's unexpected and maybe that's without precedent or without historical connection.
Paul Rykoff (0:58)
Foreign. Welcome to Independent Americans. Welcome to episode 405. I'm your host, Paul Rykoff. It is Tuesday, January 6th. January 6th. I used to love January 6th because it was my grandfather's birthday. My grandfather who immigrated here without being able to speak English and served for three years in the South Pacific and was my hero growing up. But Trump and his insurrection fucked all that up. And so now and forever, January 6th will be January 6th. And that's what today is. And I'm coming to you from New York City, usa, where the weather is dark and gloomy like it was on January 6th. We're gonna try to warm it up, we're gonna try to lighten it up with some critical independent information with the perfect guest coming up, Scott McFarlane. Scott McFarlane is back on the show. He's gonna come to us from Capitol Hill and he is the best reporter on January 6th there is. He's the justice correspondent for CBS. And if you listen to this show, you know how I feel about the recent changes at cbs. And he's so good that I'm having him on. Anyway, he's done 20 years of reporting in Washington. He's won 20 Emmys and Edward R. Murrow Awards. His reporting has led directly to the passage of five state laws in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. to protect kids in public schools. And he's secured the Anna Quindlen Award for excellence in journalism from the Child Welfare League of America. He's a guy who has America's back and, and he's coming up in just a second with a really great and quick conversation about what you need to know on this important day. But first, on this important day, on January 6, there is a ton happening. Trump, of course, is still trying to take over the Western Hemisphere. That is the lead story, and I think will be until further notice. I've been saying it for months, and now everybody finally understands that the most important story in the world is that Donald Trump can do anything he wants with the most powerful military the world has ever seen, and nothing is stopping him. But some folks are sort of trying. So there may be a War Powers act vote again in the Senate this week. Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat from Virginia, continues to push forward a war powers resolution that might get a vote on Thursday. Kaine is saying he won't stop with Venezuela, as lawmakers are now taking Trump's threats seriously. On other nations that we've talked about here, Cuba could be next. Colombia could be next. Greenland could be next. But I'm going to underscore, even if they pass a War Powers act, that might not stop Trump either, because he is all gas, no brakes, as I've continued to say on this show for months. And I want to underscore something else, because Trump is going so fast that people are forgotten what he hit most recently. He's like a runaway train, and they're trying to stop the train, and they can't even stop to clean up what the train is crushed. So whatever happened to the allegations of war crimes? A couple weeks ago, the world was awash in discussions about whether or not the American boat strikes were war crimes. Whatever happened to that? Can Congress not walk and chew gum at the same time? Have they all just completely abdicated their responsibility? And also to my friends in the media, whether it's conventional media or independent media, what about the fucking war crimes? We can't just blow past that because they're doing new crazy things. Did Trump and Hegseth just effectively run out the clock like they did on Signalgate? Because remember that we had a very comprehensive internal report from the Pentagon that chastised Pete Hegseth for using Signal to disclose confidential information. So the same guy who put out classified information on Signal Gate just organized a strike on Venezuela and might organize a strike on Cuba and Colombia. And can we really trust him not to be talking about it on Signal? I want to underscore an important point that I've talked about, I think for months. Going to war is not just about the countries we hit. It's about the American men and women we put in jeopardy. Even if you have an incredible operation like we saw in Caracas, American troops still could get killed and American troops do get hurt. We still have no information from the Pentagon about how many troops were wounded in that operation, how severely or. Or even who they are. So here's a question. How shitty is Congress that they keep just letting all this go? I'm going to stay on top of it. I'm going to continue to have folks on this show. I'm going to continue to ask hard questions, and so should you, not just on Venezuela, but all of it. Because it looks like maybe they've stopped hitting drug boats now. I don't know. Now they've moved on to seizing oil tankers. That might be what we have to track on. But there's still been, as of December 22nd or so, at least 100 people killed and almost 30 strikes. And don't forget, they have not released the September 2nd boat strike video or the videos on all the strikes. And Congress is still failing to keep up with this flood of information and attacks and a blizzard from Trump. So this is still not supported by the American people. This is still not authorized by Congress, and it is still happening. And I don't think it's easy to get distracted by everything else anymore. I think people have finally understood that this is the thing. And it was underscored yesterday by an interview with Stephen Miller, who was on with Jake Tapper. Stephen Miller is a top aide to Trump who said that basically Greenland belongs to the United States. That's what he said overtly. And the Trump administration could just take it from Denmark anytime they wanted. Chris, please play this infuriating clip.
