Garrison Davis (2:17)

It's been too long. It's been too long.

James Stout (2:19)

It's been way too long.

Garrison Davis (2:20)

It's been too long. I'm excited for Lee Brice, obviously, as a. As the biggest Bryce head on the pod. Bryce is going to be huge. Gabby Barrett will be a nice, you know, a nice little spice on top.

Garrison Davis (2:33)

Yeah. And this guy's name is. It's not Bradley. It's fucking. It's Brantley.

Garrison Davis (2:36)

Brantley.

Garrison Davis (2:37)

Sorry.

Garrison Davis (2:37)

Brantley Gilbert. My apologies. My apologies to all the big Brantley fans out there. My bad.

Garrison Davis (2:44)

Hell of a name.

Garrison Davis (2:46)

Obviously the most. The most famous Noah Brantley.

James Stout (2:51)

That's not a real name. That's just not a real name.

Garrison Davis (2:54)

Yeah, it isn't spelled with the L, E, I, G, H. So we do have to give him that.

James Stout (2:59)

If it was Brant Lay, I would be doing some terrorism right now. I'd be right gun in my hand.

Garrison Davis (3:05)

Yeah. I would be unable to stop myself.

Mia (3:08)

You guys, I just googled Lee Bryce and the first picture that pops up is incredible. And I'm gonna put it in the chat.

Garrison Davis (3:14)

Please do. Is it in the work chat or the zoom?

Mia (3:16)

No, it's in the zoom chat. That's the first picture that pops up. It's incredible.

Garrison Davis (3:20)

Oh, he looks tough.

Garrison Davis (3:21)

Wow. Is he in Band of Brothers?

Garrison Davis (3:23)

His jaw is fantastic. Oh, my God.

Mia (3:26)

It's an incredible first photo.

James Stout (3:28)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (3:28)

His expression isn't though. He's really letting himself down with the face.

Mia (3:31)

Yeah. His face says I really am racist.

Garrison Davis (3:33)

It just doesn't look happy to be there.

Garrison Davis (3:36)

So obviously, after about six months of planning, Turning Point was able to put together just the finest. The finest acts in all of show business for their. For their all American big names. All the big names, really. When everyone's. Everyone's itching, itching to listen. They could not even get Nicki Minaj is like so humiliating. Like, come on, guys.

James Stout (3:55)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (3:55)

Didn't she do a dance with the treasury Secretary yesterday or something?

Garrison Davis (3:59)

Yes.

Mia (4:00)

Who was that guy? Or those two people that were at the RNC that they kept showing doing that rap video. I like kind of blocked it out.

Garrison Davis (4:09)

Yeah. There's those conservative rap guys. Yeah.

Garrison Davis (4:12)

For Gatio Blow is it.

James Stout (4:14)

Forget for Gacho Blow is one of the conservative rap guys.

Garrison Davis (4:17)

Yes. Yeah, I will admit I don't have a deep knowledge in this area.

James Stout (4:21)

I saw him at the rnc. I was walking behind him on my way to the beer store. He's incredible. He's an amazing looking man.

Garrison Davis (4:30)

Yeah, that's a unique dude. That's your risky Google of the day.

James Stout (4:35)

God really broke the mold with him.

Garrison Davis (4:41)

So we will report on how the Turning Point halftime show went next week for. For the next ed because you. You know that I'm going to be turned into Rumble to watch this.

James Stout (4:52)

Yeah, it's gonna be. We're gonna need a minute by minute breakdown of this bad boy.

Garrison Davis (4:57)

I'll be taking extensive notes.

Garrison Davis (4:59)

Yeah. Hopefully I'll Be able to record it and watch it again later for posterity. I feel like this is gonna go down like Live Aid. You know, it's the greatest moments in live music.

Garrison Davis (5:10)

It is interesting that they are showing it on national news desk. Fox News did not, did not decide to air. Air the All American halftime show. So instead you have to tune into tbn, whatever that is, and national news desk. So let's get to some actual news, though.

Garrison Davis (5:26)

Sure.

James Stout (5:27)

Real news. Okay, so Portland, Oregon has been the site of some recent noteworthy ICE protests. On Saturday, 31 January, there was a large union march on the ICE building on McAdam street in Portland, Oregon. This was like basically every union in Portland. It was the largest union march that we've had here in like 20 years. Somewhere along those lines, about 5 to 10,000 people showed up.

Garrison Davis (5:56)

Oh, wow.

James Stout (5:57)

When I heard it was 10k, because I wound up there. I hadn't even been planning to go, but I showed up with a friend. And as we were kind of watching the crowd pass, a buddy of ours came up who knows one of the people who organized the march and was like, yeah, they're expecting like 10,000 people. And I was like, there's no way they're going to get 10,000 fucking people out here. And then as the, the crowd went past me for like 20 straight minutes, and I was like, yeah, that might be 10,000 people. That's, that's, that really is quite a lot of motherfucking people. It was an extremely diverse crowd, which, I mean, in the age sense primarily, it's Portland, so not in the. Yeah. In any other sense of the word.

Mia (6:31)

Yeah, those, those protests tend to have, you know, older folks, teenagers, families, teachers.

James Stout (6:38)

A lot of older folks, lot of little kids. Kids who were like 8 to 12 years old. Because it was just supposed people were like. The basic route of march was doing a circle around the ICE facility and then there was like sound equipment and music set up on a nearby park. So I think. I don't believe the plan was an extended confrontation with ice, which is what made what came next so surprising, which is that we start walking towards where the route of march is heading. We're kind of in like the middle of the crowd probably, and we see a cloud and it's like 3:30 in the afternoon. So the people I'm with who have all been through their share of Portland protests are like, that can't be tear gas. It's not even 4pm and this is the liberal march. There's no way they've gassed it already. Like, I saw the front of the march. It was a bunch of people in their 50s. Like, they're not forcing the issue with ice, I don't think. But apparently, per the claims made by ice, when the crowd reached the ICE building, people began throwing water bottles. So obviously that's a situation that can't be allowed to continue. So they gassed the absolute fuck out of the. The march. And they gassed it so much that the cloud of gas spread to cover pretty much the entire march, including the people who were nowhere near the front of the bar yet. So as we're walking towards it, we become aware about halfway towards getting to it that, like, okay, that's not smoke. That is, in fact, gas. Some of us had masks. I did not. So I'm like, well, I'm going to have a bad time. This is straight up not going to be fun. And the problem with it was because of where they gassed us, there were kind of two streets of buildings on either side. So you basically got. You're in like a valley almost. You've got steep canyon walls kind of on either side of you. And there was no wind that day. So you've just got this thick cloud of gas smoke and 10,000 people crammed in between two pillars of buildings. So it was a very bad time. A lot of kids got gassed. I saw a number of children in significant distress. Like little kids, a lot of old people wound up in significant distress. It was straight up a bad time. And it continued for the next day. There was another march the next day that started at City Hall. This kind of galvanized people in Portland to specifically take up the charge of protesting for the city to basically not renew or cancel ICE's contract to use the building that they're based out of. So there was a large march on Sunday. I showed up as the march reached the ICE area because I didn't want to walk across town. And sure enough, we get there, and maybe an hour or so after the crowd arrives, there's like a thousand or so people, and it's still a very young crowd. This is not mostly people who have been doing the. The protest thing in Portland for a long time. Like, I saw a lot of. A lot of girls who couldn't have been older than 16 or 17 out on Sunday, and they gassed again. And I couldn't tell you, they were letting people, like, right up to the front of the ICE building, which they had gassed folks for throwing water bottles kind of near the day before. So there's never any consistency with these sort of things. And eventually they just decided to gas the shit out of everybody again to come and snatch people. And that's, that's kind of the story is people in Portland are really pissed again because they gassed the Big Lib March. All of the unions are really angry, all of the nurses are really angry. The city government's angry. The mayor of Portland, Keith Wilson, made a statement that all of the ICE agents should quit their jobs, should resign, should. I don't know that I think that they're actually going to kick ICE out of its building now, to be fair, I don't think that ICE is really getting much done in that building because it's locked down completely. They are using facilities up in Washington for the actual immigration stuff for the most part. So it's become. I think it's largely a symbol. Yeah. A symbolic kind of deal. So we'll see. I don't know what's gonna happen next, but. Yeah, that's the update from here.

Mia (10:41)

The tear gas air is spicy and bad for our health.

James Stout (10:46)

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it always bums me out to see really young people, like kids get tear gassed, especially like teenage girls, because yeah, there's data and it not nearly as much as there should be because the government really doesn't like studying this on how tear gas affects particularly like reproductive health. And it's bad. There's evidence from places like Gaza that it can cause miscarriages. There's documentation of miscarriages in at least three different countries as a result of tear gas use. Although again, it's not the kind of documentation you'd want for a medical thing because you can't really isolate out other factors that may have been happening at the same time because you're trying to figure out what this and other things are doing to people's bodies in a place like Gaza where you have no kind of like clinical control. But outside of that, there's evidence of missed periods that it can like delay or cause unusually painful periods.

Mia (11:37)

Send people into early menopause.

Garrison Davis (11:39)

Geez.

James Stout (11:39)

Yeah, there's some evidence for that. It's kind of a. When I brought this up online, someone got very angry at me because they're like, well, it's not proven. I think there's enough data to tell people, especially if you've got a uterus, wear a mask when you go protest.

Mia (11:53)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (11:53)

I think also like, how are we going to obtain proof in this scenario?

James Stout (11:57)

Right. What are they gonna do?

Garrison Davis (11:59)

Yeah, it's not very easy for us to do. We can't really do a sort of double blind trial. Right?

James Stout (12:03)

Yeah. Somebody brought up like if it was bad for reproductive health, then all of the women in the midd military because you get tear gassed as part of military training, then that would have shown up before and it hasn't. And I immediately found in about three seconds the largest study done so far on the effect of tear gas that specifically noted. Yeah, they did some studies on how tear gas affects people in the 60s. They didn't look at women, weren't interested, didn't care, not at all a priority. Yeah, completely ignored it.

Garrison Davis (12:33)

Shocked, shocked to hear this.

James Stout (12:35)

So anyway, just like wear a respirator. A half face respirator, you know, is cheaper. I would recommend a full face because tear gas sucks on your eyes. They're not crazy expensive. You don't have to get a nice gas mask, just get a respirator. It's better than nothing.

Garrison Davis (12:50)

Yeah, I like my respirator.

Mia (12:53)

Yep.

Garrison Davis (12:55)

So firstly, just a couple of small things that we wanted to note that we might come back to covering later. First, the US has now admitted that it has a small contingent of troops on the ground in Nigeria. I wrote on my newsletter about U.S. drone strikes in Nigeria, what they're doing there and who, who they're targeting with those drone strikes alongside the, the long running issues with civilian casualties with like airborne raids in Nigeria on my newsletter. So people want to read that they can. And secondly, I wanted to mention that Judge Anna Reyes has stayed Secretary Noem's decision that would have rendered 350,000 Haitians without legal status when she was going to let the temporary protected status expire. I have explained TPS several times on ED and in my first Darien series, so I'm not going to go into detail about it here, but if you'd like to listen to those, you can find out more about it.

Garrison Davis (13:48)

Last thing before our first ad break. Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before Congress as a part of the Epstein investigation. A vote to hold the Clintons in criminal contempt of Congress was scheduled for this week before they finally agreed to be deposed at two hearings in late February. And the Clintons have now called for these hearings to be public. This follows a slew of new Epstein documents that were released by the DOJ last week, which. Robert, you'll be, you'll be covering on behind the Bastards soon.

James Stout (14:21)

Yes, yes, we will be talking about the things revealed in the new Epstein file releases, the 3 million or so documents that just came out. Yes, we'll be Talking about that on.

Mia (14:30)

Behind the Bastards, not next week, but the week after.

James Stout (14:34)

Yeah, probably like the week after, something like that. There's a lot of good stuff in there. A lot of Brock Pierce in this set of releases. If you've been curious as to what the guy who invented Tether, the cryptocurrency tether, was up to with Jeffrey Epstein, as a spoiler, it was molesting people.

Mia (14:54)

Jesus Christ.

James Stout (14:55)

Oh yeah, well, allegedly. We don't know. We don't know that it was molesting. They were described as girls, repeatedly described as girls in the emails between Brock Pierce, the Mighty Ducks guy, and Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah, but that could mean anything, you know, that could mean anything.

Garrison Davis (15:11)

You're gonna be talking about the Elon Musk emails in there.

James Stout (15:15)

There's some Elon stuff in there. It's nothing definitive. The downside of it is Elon has a leg to stand on when he's like, I never went to the island. That said, you can interpret the emails one of two ways. Cuz I saw an Elon Musk fan site be like, see, he was clearly just trying to blow him off. That's not how I interpret Elon's emails to Epstein. I think he really wanted to go to that fuck island.

Garrison Davis (15:38)

What night will the wildest party be? Or something.

James Stout (15:40)

Yeah, he was like, I want to know where the. But he was also talking about like the. The whole island area. Right, like where the wildest parties are that he wanted. Okay, so he, he does have some plausible deniability, but he was lying about not being in touch with Epstein. And also J.K. rowling in touch with Epstein. Oh shit, I didn't know that. Saved him. Yes, saved him. Seats for the opening of her play of the Harry Potter play on Broadway. Got Jeffrey Epstein a seat.

Garrison Davis (16:11)

God, just when you thought she couldn't be a worse fucking person.

Mia (16:13)

Incredible.

Garrison Davis (16:14)

Yeah. What a turd. What a disgrace to our national. Yeah, I mean, we have lots of.

Garrison Davis (16:18)

Those, I guess, but yeah, I can't believe this. One person has ruined the reputation of.

Garrison Davis (16:24)

Britain, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, previously unblemished in centuries of history.

Mia (16:30)

Jesus Christ.

Garrison Davis (16:31)

Till the turf wizard lady came along.

James Stout (16:34)

Yeah, the first bad English person.

Garrison Davis (16:37)

Anyway, so, yeah, on February 26th, Hillary will be testifying and on the 27th bill will be testifying in hearings that should be televised live to the public.

Mia (16:49)

Interesting.

Garrison Davis (16:50)

Okay, let's go on break.

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Mia (17:35)

All right, we're back, and I have fantastic news. Look what. Look what I found. Look what I found, you guys, deep in my archives of misery.

Garrison Davis (17:42)

Luckily, podcasting is a visual medium.

Mia (17:46)

Oh, no, it's audio.

Garrison Davis (17:49)

Okay. What are we.

Garrison Davis (17:51)

Oh, God.

Garrison Davis (17:55)

We going crazy.

Garrison Davis (17:59)

All right, I think. I think we get.

James Stout (18:00)

I think that's enough for Gotcha.

Garrison Davis (18:03)

Wow.

James Stout (18:03)

Do we need any more?

Garrison Davis (18:05)

No, I know. Whatever.

Garrison Davis (18:06)

No, we don't.

Garrison Davis (18:07)

Okay. All right.

Mia (18:08)

Yeah, sorry.

Garrison Davis (18:10)

Oh, God.

Garrison Davis (18:11)

The fact that video is playing on the background of a large police badge. Really?

Mia (18:15)

We're voting Donald Trump, baby. So bad. So bad.

Garrison Davis (18:20)

I cannot tell you how disappointed I am that I will not be hearing them perform on Super Bowl Sunday. You can see just the disappointment in my face right now. This Wednesday morning, February 4th, Tom Homan announced that they're pulling 700 federal agents out of Minneapolis, though 2,000 will remain in this city.

Mia (18:44)

That's so many agents.

James Stout (18:47)

Yeah, that's so not much of a draw.

Mia (18:49)

Even 700 sounded like there's still a.

Garrison Davis (18:52)

Lot of ICE and Border Patrol on the ground.

James Stout (18:54)

Wow.

Garrison Davis (18:56)

2000 was a surge that they did earlier this year. That was when they really kind of flooded it with ICE agents. So in 2000 is still. In 2000 is still a massive amount of ICE's overall capacity. These aren't all ICE agents. Right. Like, they deputize ATF and Marshalls and.

Garrison Davis (19:13)

Other things, but a lot of Border Patrol guys here.

Garrison Davis (19:16)

Yeah. I don't know if that's who the 700 who they're withdrawing are.

Garrison Davis (19:20)

It's a mix. It's not. I don't think they're from just one agency.

Garrison Davis (19:24)

Okay. Yeah, there are a lot of Border Patrol. You see that a lot, right? Like, the Border Patrol agents clearly love this. Right. They're getting per diem. They're getting travel pay. They make more money than they do on the border, and they don't have to drive around in the middle of nowhere. They call it going on safari. Homan has cited an increase in cooperation by Minnesota authorities. He was talking about handing over detained people who would be deportable, I think. But I have not seen a similar statement from state authorities in Minnesota, at least at a time. So, like, take that with a pinch of salt. Right. A lot of what we see coming out of the Trump DHS just straight up isn't true.

Garrison Davis (20:05)

They have been talking about trying to like, increase the cooperation with ICE detainers in the local, like prisons and jails.

Garrison Davis (20:14)

Yeah. And I think that would be what this cooperation would be. It would be like either cooperating with ICE detainers or even alerting ICE if they thought someone was deportable.

Garrison Davis (20:24)

An interesting thing of note as well is earlier this week, the military troops that were placed on like, standby have been unplaced on standby. So not looking like those guys in Alaska or North Carolina will be deploying to Minneapolis. In some other Minneapolis related news, Don Lemon, friend of the pod, was arrested Thursday, January 29th. Don Lemon and now faces civil rights charges for allegedly violating the FACE act, which prohibits interfering with reproductive health services or people exercising religious freedom at a place of worship. On January 18, Lemon reported on a protest at City's Church in St. Paul where one of the pastors is also the head of the local ICE field office. The magistrate judge and an appeals court previously dismissed the charges against Lemon before the case was brought before a grand jury. In Minnesota, six activists and one other journalist are also facing charges. We reported on this protest after it happened and yeah, the DOJ has been trying to pin, pin Lemon on this for, for the past few weeks.

Garrison Davis (21:32)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (21:33)

Probably not a great sign just for, you know, general, general First Amendment activity.

Garrison Davis (21:37)

No, no, that's a pretty, pretty bleak side, actually.

Garrison Davis (21:40)

As frustrating as it is to start waving the Jimmy Kimmel Don Lemon flag, you know, that's, that's, that is the situation we're in.

Garrison Davis (21:48)

Yeah, it's not good. The journalist they arrested was the head of the national association of Black Journalists, wasn't she? Georgia Fort is her name.

Garrison Davis (21:56)

Yes.

Garrison Davis (21:56)

Yes. I do want to say actually that like when we talk about protections for journalists, like journalists. Yes. Can often be the people who are first targeted for like, things that violate freedom of speech. Right. Like when governments are going to violate freedom of speech, they can go after journalists first. But like when someone is recording ICE operations, they are doing citizen journalism. They are protected by exactly the same rights that we have as journalists who are doing this as our full time job. There isn't a special First Amendment for us. And so when the border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretty, they killed someone who is at that time engaged in journalism too. And I'm happy to see journalistic bodies standing up, not Just for people who are employed as full time journalists, but all of our rights to document and record.

Garrison Davis (22:44)

Yeah. All of the legal observers who are filming ICE as well that are being targeted with intimidation, being pulled over.

Garrison Davis (22:50)

Yeah. Having guns pointed at them, et cetera.

Garrison Davis (22:52)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (22:53)

Do you want to talk about the Senate funding for ice?

Garrison Davis (22:56)

Oh, do I. So the, the partial government shutdown which did start last week, was ended on Tuesday after the DHS bill was stripped out of the now $1.2 trillion annual funding package. DHS's funding will lapse on Friday the 13th and negotiations.

Garrison Davis (23:19)

Sure, why not?

Garrison Davis (23:22)

While negotiations continue on a DHS funding bill, Congressional Democrats are pushing for agency reforms like judicial warrants and no masked agents, while Republicans are signaling minor concessions like having border patrol and icewear body cameras.

Garrison Davis (23:38)

Yeah. Should we talk a little bit more about body cameras?

Garrison Davis (23:41)

You know what my favorite topic? Let's talk about body cameras again.

Garrison Davis (23:45)

I love to talk about a body worn camera.

Garrison Davis (23:48)

Time is a flat circle.

Garrison Davis (23:50)

Yep. Okay. So Kristi Noem this week announced that ICE agents in Minnesota were going to wear body worn cameras going forward. And I've been kind of disappointed in a lot of the reporting on this. What is I think missing is that like there was a 2022 executive order. Right. Signed by Biden that ordered federal law enforcement to use body worn cameras. Funding for them was included in the 2021 fiscal year appropriations bill. Gnome has said they will grow the program as funds become available. But those funds have been available for some time. Right. A 2024 document, ICE document that talked about their pilot program study. They said quote, full implementation is expected by September 30, 2025. Eagle Eared listeners will notice that it's in the past. However, in 2025, ICE began rolling this back. They issued a directive which continued only implementing the body worn camera program in the certain pilot program cities. The Trump administration its second term has called Congress to cut funding for body worn cameras by 75% and reduce the staffing of the body worn camera program from 22 people to just three. They have also cut oversight offices within DHS like OIDO. OIDO is like the niches level of DHS. Understand that when you know of OIDO, I think Biden created it. I've actually I've seen them once. It's the office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. They came to the outdoor detention sites in Hakumba, which seems to be something of a concession that the Biden administration at the time denied. People were detained in those sites. It had 100 plus employees at start of the Trump administration. It also has three now, according to Reuters, this most recent bill, as Garrison said, does include funding and a mandate for their use. A federal judge in Chicago had already ordered agents there to wear cameras in November of last year. I should note that I also looked up the ICE body worn camera policy and it theoretically now, insofar as any of these policies are being followed. Right. Prohibits them for using body worn cameras for the, quote, sole purpose of recording people engaged in First Amendment protected activities. So they can just use their phones for that. I guess that's. That's what they've been doing.

Garrison Davis (26:05)

I mean, yeah, this is like part of the frustration around this bill is you do have Schumer pushing for certain things like, like not wearing masks and not doing the roving raids, while also emphasizing, you know, we want the masks off and the cameras on, as if that's going to affect the behavior of agents on the ground. Meanwhile, during the killing of Renee Good, the officer that that shot and killed her was filming the whole thing on his phone. Like he was filming.

Garrison Davis (26:30)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (26:31)

On his own cell phone. So obvious. Obviously.

James Stout (26:33)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (26:34)

Having a camera on the agent is not going to prevent them from killing.

James Stout (26:39)

Someone because they think it's good what they're doing. They don't think it's bad. You have to understand that both the.

Garrison Davis (26:46)

Agents who shot Alex Pretty actually had body worn cameras. I don't know. They're actually CBP agents. So a CBP or bp, I should say. Right. Customs of Border Protection one.

Garrison Davis (26:57)

One of them is cpb. One of them is bp.

Garrison Davis (26:59)

That's correct. Yeah. That's. They're both CBP agents, but within CBP you have BP and ofo.

Garrison Davis (27:06)

Okay.

Garrison Davis (27:07)

They get really mad if you get this wrong. They will send me an email. Okay. Literally, I got an email once for the subject line. Come on, man. So they were both Customs and Border Protection agents. Generally Border Patrol. Border Patrol is part of Customs of Border Protection. Right. The other part of the Office of Field Operations. Border Patrol ceased using their cameras early in the Trump administration, citing an issue with the Bluetooth used by the cameras that could make them detectable. This is a thing that can happen. Like it is possible. There's a GitHub script for this. Whether that justifies stopping using them is an entirely different question. Both the agents in the Pretty shooting were wearing body cam, but we have not seen that footage. The two agents have been identified by ProPublica as Border Patrol Agent Jesus Jesse Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Field Operations Officer Raymundo Gutierrez Ochoa joined 2018. Gutierrez joined in 2014. Gutierrez is part of the Office of Field Operations Special Response Team. That is generally a team with training in weapons and tactics who would serve high risk warrants, do raids like a SWAT style. Yeah, it's another word for swat, I think because SWAT became somewhat, you know, they decided they wanted a different word for it.

Garrison Davis (28:25)

Sure.

Garrison Davis (28:25)

ProPublica got an interview with the choir's ex wife who said, quote, by the time the couple split in 2021, he had become a gun enthusiast with about 25 rifles, pistols and shotguns. In so much as that matters, I guess that was the only interview they could get about them. Both of the men are from South Texas.

Garrison Davis (28:44)

To circle back to the funding bill for DHS and these potential reforms being pushed for at, you know, multiple levels of the Democratic establishment. You know, with Schumer being a little bit lighter and obviously people like AOC and Talib pushing for more extreme measures like abolishing the agency of ice, which is unlikely to happen in this funding bill as the Republicans control Congress. But still there is a spectrum of beliefs among the party at the moment. And to get a look at what average regular registered Democrats believe, there's a new poll from YouGov that came out this week based on data from late January, early February that have 79% of Democrats saying they support abolishing ICE. Abolishing ICE is also up 8 points with independence and more people overall support abolishing ICE at 46% to 44% opposing.

Garrison Davis (29:43)

So just to finish up on our immigration coverage for the week, we also saw Judge COBB in the D.C. district Court grant a tentative restraining order that prevents DHS from denying Congress people the right to inspect immigration detention facilities without notice. Previously, DHS had been asserting that they had a seven day period of notice that they had to give before they could inspect detention facilities. The judge has found that like that's not justified. Another eight attorneys have left or announced intentions to leave the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota. They are now operating at less than half the capacity of Assistant USA attorneys that they had in the early Biden administration. They've also lost several non attorney staff and the Star Tribune reports that this is due to concerns about selective prosecution and the exclusion of state and local investigators from the good and pretty cases in court. Yesterday one federal prosecutor said, and I'm quoting from the transcript here, this system sucks. This job sucks. Another quotation. I'm here just trying to make sure that the agency understand how important it is to comply with all the court orders, which they have not done in the past or currently. I'm here as a bridge and a liaison between the one that in jail. Because if I walk out, sometimes I wish you would just hold me in contempt, your honor, so that I could have a full 24 hours of sleep.

Garrison Davis (31:00)

Yikes.

Garrison Davis (31:01)

This is a person on the ragged edge.

James Stout (31:03)

Yeah. That is someone who is breaking.

Garrison Davis (31:06)

Yeah. I mean, you can look up her caseload, and it is legitimately insane. Yeah. And has only got bigger since the start of the year. You can see why people are quitting this job, even if they, like, don't have a moral issue with it, because it's an inhumane amount of work.

James Stout (31:24)

Yeah. And again, like, I'm not. I'm not coming at this from a point of a lot of sympathy, but it's funny.

Garrison Davis (31:28)

Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. Like, it's just funny. It's funny to see them so obviously frustrated that their agencies are just not complying with what they ask them to. Actually, I was reading the transcript today. The judge in the case was like, look, you can tell me the agencies are not complying, but, like, if I have a problem in the restaurant, I don't walk in there and try and find the exact person who's baking the bread. I talk to the restaurant, and the restaurant sorted out, you are part of the executive branch. This is on you. Like, it was a good little. Little court exchange. And then finally, NBC has obtained a leaked email from Greg Bevino showing tensions between himself and Todd Lyons. Lyons is the acting director of immigration and customs Enforcement. Lyons attempted to prevent Bavino from engaging in widespread sweeps in which agents kind of roam around, check papers on anyone they think might not be a citizen, and encourage him to do targeted operations instead of. And then Mr. Bovino said in the email, quote, Mr. Lyon said he was in charge, and I corrected him, saying, I report to Corey Lewandowski. Garrison's just made a face for those.

Mia (32:29)

Yeah. And if you want to hear more about our dear buddy Greg, Robert and I recorded an episode with Jack o' Brien for Behind the bastards that's dropping next Thursday.

Garrison Davis (32:38)

Oh, sick.

Mia (32:38)

All about Greg Bevino.

Garrison Davis (32:41)

Yeah, Greg's been on a bit of a. A tour on his way back to California.

James Stout (32:45)

Yeah, he's.

Garrison Davis (32:49)

He went to Mount Rushmore to record, like, a moto video, and then he was spotted drinking a glass of red wine in Las Vegas. Yeah. It seems like they made him road.

James Stout (32:57)

Trip like a weirdo. Who's drinking. You're drinking the house wine at a casino in Vegas. Come the fuck on, Greg.

Mia (33:04)

Grow up, Greg.

James Stout (33:06)

Yeah, Have a fucking cocktail. Jesus Christ.

Garrison Davis (33:11)

I think he's back in Imperial now, but it seems that they made him take a road trip home. They didn't fly him back, wouldn't spring.

James Stout (33:18)

For the plane trip.

Garrison Davis (33:19)

Yeah, he's quite remarkable.

Mia (33:21)

Incredible.

Garrison Davis (33:22)

Gestapo. Unbelievable.

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Garrison Davis (34:02)

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Garrison Davis (34:07)

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Garrison Davis (34:10)

What I already know and what's happening in my world sets my pace. Let's do this. Get the W. Walden University. All right, we are back. Last Wednesday, January 28th, the FBI executed a raid on the Fulton county election office outside of Atlanta, Georgia, as a part of an investigation into Trump's claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him. The Special Agent in charge of the FBI Atlanta field office resigned a week before the warrant was served. This search warrant was signed by a United States Magistrate judge and it instructed investigators to seize, quote, all records relating to violations of Title 52, U.S. code 20701, and 20511, with these violations occurring, quote, after October 12, 2020, unquote. The former statute here, 20701, relates to retaining and preserving election records for 22 months after an election, and the latter, 20511, relates to voter fraud or threats, intimidation and coercion against voters. The records that were to be seized are listed on the warrant as, quote, all physical ballots from the 2020 general election in Fulton county on all tabulator tapes for every voting machine, all ballot images produced during the original ballot count, all voter rolls from the 2020 general election in Fulton county from absentee, early and in person voting, and any electronically stored information relevant to those items above. The Fulton County Commissioner, Mo Ivory, said that Federal officials took 700 boxes of ballots and curiously, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard appeared at the site of the search and had a phone call with Trump after the raid concluded. Gabbard sent a letter to Congress on Monday claiming, quote, my presence was requested by the president and executed under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate and analyze intelligence relating to election security, including counterintelligence, foreign and other malign influences and cybersecurity, unquote. She also wrote on X the Everything app, quote, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has and will continue to take action under my statutory authorities to secure our nation and ensure the integrity of our elections. I will include here that four days before January 6, 2021, Trump told Georgia's top election official to, quote, unquote, find enough votes to overturn the election. Here's a recording of that phone call.

Mike Johnson (37:00)

All I want to do is this. I just want to find.

James Stout (37:05)

11,780 votes.

Garrison Davis (37:11)

The Trump administration has made multiple unsuccessful attempts to gain access to the 2020 Georgia ballots through civil suits. Now they have just turned to executing a search Warrant through the FBI. On February 1st, Mike Johnson was asked about potential election meddling in Georgia. Here is this exchange from NBC News.

NBC News Reporter (37:32)

What do you say to that allegation that President Trump is going to meddle in the 2026 midterm elections? That that's what he's doing in Georgia?

Mike Johnson (37:40)

I find it comical that one of the senators from Georgia is talking about schemes in elections. Remember Georgia was example a of that in the 20.

NBC News Reporter (37:50)

Well, there were two statewide recounts in Georgia.

Mike Johnson (37:52)

In this they seem mail out ballots to everyone. Everyone knows all of the problems that occurred in Georgia. It was very controversial and remains so to this day because of all the things that happened there. Again, we're not going to relitigate that. But what we have to focus on is going forward to ensure that there are not questions about the elections. And that's why Republicans are working at the, at the federal and the state levels to clean those things up and clean up voter rolls to make sure illegals are not voting, for example. That's what the SAVE act is about and we have to continue that and the president is keeping a proper focus on it. This investigation is to ensure that all the questions about the elections in Fulton county are investigated properly so that people have confidence in the system.

Mike Johnson (38:32)

Again, that's very important.

NBC News Reporter (38:33)

But there are really no questions about election integrity from 2020 that have not been asked and answered. Even the Republicans.

James Stout (38:41)

Nope.

NBC News Reporter (38:41)

The Republican led governor has pointed out it's been years and no one has ever come forward under oath with evidence of fraud in Georgia.

Garrison Davis (38:49)

But let me ask you, pretty absurd stuff.

Garrison Davis (38:52)

Yeah, yeah.

Mia (38:53)

We're not going to relitigate it as we relitigate it.

James Stout (38:56)

Yeah, yeah.

Garrison Davis (38:57)

And just giving no evidence, just being like, oh, it's very Controversial. Everyone knows.

Mia (39:01)

Like, such a weasel answer.

Garrison Davis (39:04)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (39:05)

Republican Governor Brian Kemp has been very clear that there was absolutely no fraud happening in Georgia during 2020. And if there was any attempt to meddle with the election, it is this phone call that Trump made to the Georgia Secretary of State.

Garrison Davis (39:18)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (39:18)

Asking to find a certain number of votes that itself should have resulted in Trump going to prison. Like South Korea style. Like, you're done, you're finished. You can't. Can't do that.

Garrison Davis (39:29)

Yeah. That is like the most transparent election interference.

Garrison Davis (39:34)

The way that Trump's court case in Fulton county related to his attempts to. To meddle in the 2020 election is just a complete disaster due to corruption within the Fulton county court system itself. One of the worst things to happen during this, like, Biden era is the mishandling of the court cases around Trump's attempts to. To over overturn the election.

Garrison Davis (39:52)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (39:53)

And especially, like, looking at, at what, what South Korea did after their president tried to take over the country a year or two ago is like, oh, yeah, that's very clearly what we should have done with this guy.

Garrison Davis (40:03)

Yeah. People. People could have done better.

Garrison Davis (40:05)

And Mike Johnson just keeps making really concerning statements on the news about, about, quote, unquote, nationalizing elections.

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James Stout (40:18)

Do you agree with him and do.

Garrison Davis (40:19)

You have confidence in how elections are conducted right now, heading into the midterm?

Mike Johnson (40:24)

We have thoughtful debate about our election system every election cycle, and sometimes in between. We know it's in our system. The states have been in charge of administering their elections. What you're hearing from the president is his frustration about the lack of some of the blue states, frankly, of enforcing these things.

Garrison Davis (40:40)

Mike Johnson goes on to discuss possible fraud in California specifically, though admits that he has no evidence of said fraud. One more clip.

Mike Johnson (40:49)

In some of the states, like in California, for example, I mean, they hold the elections open for weeks after election Day. That's just one thing that bothers so many people. We had three House Republican candidates who were ahead on election Day in the last election cycle. And every time a new tranche of ballots came in, they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost. And no series of ballots that were counted after Election Day. Were our candidates ahead on any of those counts. It just, it looks on its face to be fraudulent. Can I prove that? No, because it happened so far upstream. But we need more confidence in the American people in the election system.

Garrison Davis (41:27)

Absurd.

Garrison Davis (41:28)

Yeah. Completely bonkers, sir.

Mia (41:30)

I fear that more ballots have been counted and results have changed.

James Stout (41:35)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (41:35)

That's what elections are.

Garrison Davis (41:37)

You cannot place a vote in California after election Day.

Mia (41:40)

No.

Garrison Davis (41:41)

But they do count mail in ballots that have been postmarked on or before election Day, which is what he's referencing. But he's, yeah. Ms. He's purposely misconstruing it to make it sound way more, way more nefarious than what it actually is. If you've placed a mail in vote on or before election Day in California, that vote will be counted.

James Stout (41:58)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (41:59)

That is, that is how the elections in California work. Not this magically keeping, keeping the election open for, for weeks afterwards. People can continue to vote. That's, that's not, that's not true.

Mia (42:10)

It's giving like a very specific sports reference where the announcer is like, and the team with the most points won the game. That's literally what he's doing. He's like, as, as the votes were.

Garrison Davis (42:23)

Counted, the results changed, they changed and someone won. Who is not what I wanted to happen.

Garrison Davis (42:31)

Yeah. Shock horror.

Garrison Davis (42:32)

Can I prove there's fraud?

James Stout (42:33)

No.

Garrison Davis (42:34)

But will I continue to say there's fraud?

Garrison Davis (42:35)

Yes.

Garrison Davis (42:36)

Mike Johnson.

Garrison Davis (42:38)

It had been reported that they were trying to leverage the ICE raids in Minnesota against getting electoral roll information from Minnesota as well.

Garrison Davis (42:47)

Yes.

Garrison Davis (42:48)

Like, this is, this is not just his fascination with, with Georgia. Like, this is all deeply concerning as we go into like midterm year, but we will find out soon.

Garrison Davis (42:59)

Oh, yeah. Especially as Congress is the entity that is, is supposed to be there to help to ensure that states run the elections fairly and that we do not have a nationalized voting system.

Garrison Davis (43:07)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (43:07)

And the fact that the speaker of the House seems to be unaware, siding, siding with the executive branch with this idea of it of nationalizing elections or at least trying to like, manufacture consent for Trump's. Trump's claim there, very, very worrying. I now want to update a story we talked about almost a year ago based on some new information that has come out in January. A judge has unsealed a State department memo from March 2025 that confirms that Ramesa Ozturk's visa was revoked and the government sought to deport her on the basis of Ozturk co authoring an op ed in the student newspaper at Tufts University. This memo admits that DHS could not provide any evidence that USTURK ever engaged in any anti Semitic activity or was involved in Students for Justice in Palestine or has ever expressed support for terrorism as claimed by government officials. Last year, Trisha McLaughlin told CNN at the time of Usturk's arrest that DHS and ICE investigations had found that USTURK had, quote, engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. Unquote. On the contrary, this newly unsealed memo from the State Department reads, quote, while US Turk has been involved with actions protesting Tufts relationship with Israel, dhs, ICE or Homeland Security Investigations has not, however, provided any evidence showing that Ozturk has engaged in any anti Semitic activity or made any public statements indicating support for a terrorist organization or anti Semitism generally. Unquote. The memo goes on to state that though a previous DHS report, quote, implies a connection between Austurk and the now banned Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine, the report presents no evidence other than Austerk's membership in Graduate Students for Palestine, which supported proposals to Tufts which were also supported by Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine. Nor has dhs, ICE or HSI shown any evidence that USTURK was involved in any of the activities which resulted in Students for Justice in Palestine being suspended from Tufts, Unquote. The Bureau of Consular Affairs Visa Office identified no reporting specific to AustURC on US government interagency databases, according to this memo, and Interagency Vetting Partners did not provide any response to Austerk's 2024 visa application, quote, indicating the existence of derogatory terrorism related information. I'll read the final quote here from this memo. Quote DHS did not identify any alternative grounds for removability that would be applicable to Ozturk, including the ground for removability for aliens who have provided material support to a foreign terrorist organization or terrorist activity, and has not indicated whether it plans to consider termination of USTURK's SIVIS registration. Although information provided by DHS, Homeland Security Investigations and ICE does not establish any potential ineligibility for us, Turk, you may, in your discretion and in accordance with department policy in 9 FAM 40311 5B, approve revocation of her F1 visa effective immediately based on the totality of the circumstances presented, indicating that revocation may be warranted. Unquote. The only evidence held against her in the memo is that she wrote an op ed. You still can revoke her visa if you want to.

Garrison Davis (46:51)

Yeah, yeah. And that is pretty much the the way student visas especially work, right? Like you're just here at the pleasure of US politics, essentially.

Garrison Davis (47:02)

The fact that this memo openly says they do not have evidence to support the claims that she's involved in anti Semitic activity on campus, supports Hamas in any way. The fact that we have. You have the government saying that in these internal documents, while externally, people like Church, McLaughlin and Rubio say otherwise is such a naked display of the sort of rhetoric that these people are using. Secretary Rubio claimed at a press conference on March 27, 2025, quote, we revoked her visa. It's an F1 visa. I believe we revoked it, and here's why. If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you're coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus. We're not going to give you a visa. If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States and with that visa, participate in that sort of activity, we're going to take away your visa, unquote.

Garrison Davis (48:02)

I mean, she didn't tell them that she was engaged in that kind of activity. She wasn't.

Garrison Davis (48:07)

That's just not what happened.

Garrison Davis (48:08)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (48:09)

And DHS admits itself that she was not involved in the activity, the protest activity that resulted in Students for Justice in Palestine being banned from campus, which included vandalism. But DHS says that they do not have evidence that she was involved in that in any way, nor had any direct association with that group. In December, a federal judge allowed USTURK to continue her research and teaching at Tufts University on the basis that she is likely to succeed on the claim that her visa termination was, quote, arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law and in violation of the First Amendment. The court case related to her removal proceedings will still continue.

James Stout (48:48)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (48:48)

Pretty bleak.

Mia (48:49)

That was. That was.

Garrison Davis (48:51)

Yeah.

Mia (48:52)

Wow.

Garrison Davis (48:52)

I guess. Talking of bleak, should I finish up with a summary of the situation in Syria? Yeah.

Mia (48:57)

Give us a Syria update.

James Stout (49:00)

Yeah.

Garrison Davis (49:00)

Okay. So the AANES has reached a settlement with the stg. The aanes, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, AKA Rojava, and the STG being the Syrian Transitional Government that will result in the withdrawal of troops from the points of Contact, as well as the withdrawal of SDF troops from Kamishlo and Hesaka and the entry of the Syrian Ministry of the Interior. There are about 90 Ministry of Interior people going into Kamishlo and 100 in Hezegas. These are essentially like Syrian feds, I guess. Right. Integration of the SDF will occur as brigades of the Syrian army deployed in. Derrick, if you're looking at a map, it's probably going to say Al Malacaya, Derrick being the Kurdish name. Kamishlo, Hesika and Kobani. These forces will be largely Kurdish, but they will also include Assyrian and Arab elements, as the SDF always has. I imagine there will probably be Armenians as well. There nearly always are, certainly in the sdf. Since the beginning there have been. The agreement also included the integration of the Ashaish into the Syrian Ministry of the Interior, the government takeover of oil fields and borders, and a recognition of Kurdish education credentials across the country. The AANES would appoint a governor in Hessika and the security chief will be appointed by Damascus. The SDF will also appoint a deputy defense minister in Damascus. The SDG appointed Marwan Al Ali to oversee security. He previously did this for HDS in Idlib. Hayat Turia al Sham. Right. That's the. The group that was formerly listed as a foreign terrorist organization in the US that has gone on to take over Syria and become the government in Damascus. And he sort of oversaw their purge of Huras Al Din, which is like an Al Qaeda associated group in Idlib. Shortly after the deal was signed, the Syrian traditional government began accusing journalists who entered via Samalka, as I have done and Robert has done, of having entered Syria illegally, which great. I guess Turkey has continued to prevent aid coming to Kobani where water and power remain cut off. Pretty bleak situation in Rojava. I'm glad that there is no more killing and no more dying, but also sad to see some of the things that so many people fought and died for being lost, especially this idea of brotherhood of peoples, which I think was integral to the Rojava revolution and the women's revolution, which, like it will be very hard to sustain in the context of a state led by hts. Pretty upsetting stuff. I know that they can still use your support, so I will put a fundraising link for Haversour at the bottom of this. Yeah, Good time to be alive.

James Stout (51:40)

Yeah. Great, great stuff happening in the world.

Garrison Davis (51:43)

Yeah. If you would like to email us, you can email us using a Proton mail address to email our Proton mail address which is coolzonetips. Proton me.

Mia (51:56)

Mia's not here but she would say put a trans girl on your couch. So I'll say it for put a trans girl on your couch.

Garrison Davis (52:04)

We reported the news.

James Stout (52:05)

We the news.

Garrison Davis (52:07)

We reported the news.

Mia (52:16)

It could happen. Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website coolzone media.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, you can now find sources for it could Happen here, listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.

Garrison Davis (52:42)

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.