← Real America’s Voice
Real America’s Voice
Just the News No Noise with John Solomon and Amanda Head, November 10th, 2025
00:50:00
Loading summary
Transcript89 lines
- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Good evening, America. Happy Monday and welcome to the latest edition of JUST the News. No noise. I'm your host, John Solomon reporting to you from the nation's capital where there is movement towards ending the 41 day government shutdown. We're going to get to that in a second. Yeah, we're inching crawling towards a solution, but we're not quite there yet. Now, quick programming note before I get to headlines. And our first guest, Amanda Head, she's over at the White House today as the pool reporter. So she's not going to be able to get here on time. So I'm going to try to take you solo for the next hour. You'll be in good hands. Hopefully. We get a lot of good guests coming up, including Congresswoman Marionette Miller Meeks, who we hope to get on here in a few seconds. She'll tell us the very latest of what's going on. Here's what happened over the weekend, President Trump kept enormous pressure on Democrats. That pressure began to work. Eight to 10 Democrats deciding last night they would bolt from their party in support an effort to reopen the government on the same terms that government was supposed to be opened up 41 days ago. And that is a clean CR. All the other stuff gets resolved outside of the shutdown. Eight Democrats voted in the test vote yesterday. We're waiting for a new vote today, but thus far that hasn't happened. We're waiting to see what Senator Rand Paul, who's blocking some of the activity today and what others are going to do. But there are signs that sometime in the next week or two, this shutdown will, will be ended. Now, meanwhile, the president is focusing on a key component of the shutdown. What is that? It is the fact that Democrats are holding out for a singular reason. That is they want to get tens of billions of dollars a year in more subsidies for America's health care insurance companies. That's right. Not the American people, the insurers. Why? Because Obamacare could never pay for itself. And as the premium rates rise, the Democrats began shoveling money directly to the insurance companies to artificially keep them down. And President Trump has gotten wise to this and he's been making some strong overtures to the American people. I can make this more affordable. How about we give that money not to the insurance companies, but to you and let you decide how you spend it on your health care? That's one idea he put on the table over the weekend. Also on the issue of affordability, he put on the table Another idea he understands Gen Z Americans, the newest generation of Americans, don't have an easy pathway to buying a home because affordability of homes is been going down, rates are going up, interest rates over the last decade, as have prices. And that's made that American dream out of reach for a lot of people. But President Trump had an idea this weekend. How about we stretch mortgages from 30 years to 50 years, stretch the payment out, and we'll have a little bit more time to maybe get that payments down, more time to pay back that. That's an important idea. Affordability. I think you'll hear the president, according to my reporting today and tomorrow, talk a lot more about waging a war on affordability. While he's made great strides getting the price of eggs and gas and prescription drugs down, among other things, he wants to make it clear that he's trying to take care of other things that particularly affect young people, like health insurance, market rates. So we'll keep a close eye on that. Meanwhile, the president today issued a new round of pardons. This aimed at a group of supporters who contested the 2020 election, raised election issues and in some cases agreed to serve as alternate electors in states like Wisconsin or Pennsylvania. Well, in past history, the action of becoming an alternate elector was never criminally prosecuted. But in the last couple of years, several states, not the federal government but states, have prosecuted folks like former Wisconsin Judge Jim Troupas, who we'll have on the show in a little bit. So why would the president issue a federal pardon power to people who are facing criminal charges in the state? The federal pardon doesn't go down to state charges. Here's the answer. The pardon signifies to the courts that this is a federal supremacy issue, meaning it isn't the states to decide whether it can be prosecuted. It is a federal election. The submission of federal electors is a federal act or an act to a federal body. And therefore, these pardons could open the door for lots of former Trump people facing prosecutions in Arizona or Wisconsin or Georgia and other places to argue that the state has no authority. So this is a strategic move, not specifically protecting people from prosecution, but making it more difficult for those state prosecutors to take on these Trump supporters for their action of redressing grievances to their government. All right, we've got a lot of other headlines going on today on the issue of health care. Just quickly, I want you to take a look at just the news in the morning. My extraordinary colleague Stephen Richards will tell you the whole story of how insurance companies have become so addicted to and reliant upon those Obamacare subsidies. Without them, they would not nearly have been as profitable last decade. You're going to see profits of insurance companies look like a plane taking out of an airport nose go straight up over the last decade as the subsidies came in. We're going to tell you how that happened, why Democrats are now fretting that those subsidies could end. And what did the executives of those companies do as they got richer and their earnings went up? Well, I'll give you a little secret. They were giving more and more to Democratic candidates. How about that? You scratch my back, I'll scratch your wallet. That's the story we'll have tomorrow morning, the dirty secret of Obamacare and this government shutdown. All right. With that, I want to turn to our first guest. She knows everything about this debate. Not only is she a doctor, she is on the front lines of the debate in Congress. Iowa Congresswoman Marinette Miller Meeks. Congresswoman, great to have you on the show.
- [06:11]
B
Well, thank you so much for having me, John. It's great to be with you, especially as an army veteran the day before Veterans Day. So happy Veterans Day to all of our veterans out there and thank them for their service and their sacrifice and.
- [06:23]
A
To you as well for having served our country so bravely and gratefully. We're really grateful as a country for everyone who has served in the uniform.
- [06:30]
B
Absolutely.
- [06:31]
A
Congressman, I want to ask you where we are in this shutdown. Are we going to move towards a resolution, you think, or is it going to get gummed up with more Washington gobbledygook?
- [06:41]
B
Well, as we know, nothing is as dysfunctional as Washington, D.C. and the swamp. But nonetheless, I think that what we've seen happen is people noticing how government is affecting them, whether it's flight delays with air traffic control. And I can tell you, the past two weeks flying, we flat out had pilots saying to us that we had ground stops in the other airports. So we just got here. We've been here all day. And it's air traffic control. And so when you have people working without pay, whether it's our military, air traffic control, customs and border protection, correctional officers in federal prisons, they're working tough jobs, stressful jobs, sometimes life threatening jobs, doing it without pay, not knowing if their families are going to be taken care of, these are real life consequences to individuals. And then with the SNAP benefits coming up to where they were not reauthorized because we have not funded fiscal year 2026, you know that we voted to fund the government on September 19, it went over to the Senate. You need 60 votes in the Senate. And the Democrats, with the exception of three of them, the Democrats refused. And why? Because, you know, Chuck Schumer is afraid of a bartender aoc and because they wanted leverage and they were using the American people as leverage. And because they wanted to energize their base, which they saw at their big rallies in October. And then, you know, like, they couldn't do anything to affect their brand. Well, as you know, despite disappointment among people in my district, especially in my party, I voted to fund the government and I voted for continuing resolutions, clean continuing resolutions, because it's our responsibility, it is our duty, and I'm going to support our military and I'm going to have their backs every day from Friday. And so I think what we've seen is that as things ratcheted up, as more people were suffering, we had eight very courageous Democrats tell Senator Schumer where to put it. And they crossed the aisle and voted to move a vote forward, to move yes on invoking cloture so that this could come up for a vote. And there was a compromise. But as you know, there was negotiations before the House put forward its clean continuing resolution.
- [09:12]
A
Yeah, there was just no interest in negotiation on the other side until just the last few days. It's really remarkable. I think this, of all the issues that I've covered, all the shutdowns I've covered in the 35 years I've been here, this is the closest to a single issue shutdown I've ever seen. It's really about these health care subsidies. And the more that we learn about them, the more that we learn that they go to the insurers, not to the American people. The insurers keep it even if the consumer doesn't use the policy plan. This looks like a form of corporate welfare. And the Democrats are simply just fighting for some large cash constituents which Democrat insurance company executives have become for them. Is this a form of corporate welfare ultimately the way the, the Obamacare subsidies are currently structured?
- [09:57]
B
100%. As you know, I've been on your show in October. I have said this repeatedly. I said this when we were in Washington, D.C. in September before the shutdown occurred. And that is that these enhanced premium tax credits were put in place in 2021 by President Biden to mask the fact that premiums were going up for individuals who weren't already on on the Unaffordable Care act or the UNACA premium tax credit. So that group was never affected by the continuing resolution. We made no cuts in the continuing resolution to any health insurance or any health care. They were not talking about this. I'm on the Energy and Commerce Committee. This was not a topic of conversation as you were doing the reconciliation bill. And all the talk was about Medicaid and the lies they spewed about Medicaid. And then it was about DOGE and it was about immigration. This never even came up until September where it was looking at these enhanced premium tax credits which remember the Democrats voted for them on top of the regular ACA tax credits they voted on in 2021. Then they stuck them in the IRA, the, you know, non inflation reducing act. And all of these votes were all Democrat votes. They never had any negotiation or consideration for Republicans at all. And they're the ones that had them expire. All to hide the fact that insurance rates could potentially go up or were going up. And all of us agree we want health care costs to come down. We are working to bring health care costs down. We put provisions in the working families tax cut to do so. But these subsidies don't go to the individual. So unlike Medicare Part D where the money went to the person to purchase their drug, then that led to $4 generic drugs. These subsidies go directly to the insurance company. And the same is true in Medicaid. Why that you know, states have to enforce eligibility. It's also why my Medicaid Improvement act, so we're not paying one or more states for fanfan people on their enrollments which those premiums payments go directly to the insurance company. So it is a form of corruption. It is a form of corporate welfare to very profitable insurance companies and it has to stop. More importantly, it doesn't bring health care costs down. It may make it more affordable for one person, but it doesn't have any incentive for the insurance companies to bring down health care costs. So all you're doing is a, you know, a dog chasing its own tail is that you're continuing ratcheting up premiums because the insurance companies are getting directly subsidized by the taxpayers so you can have one person working. So I pay my own health insurance. It's about a thousand dollars a month. They just sent me the notice that it's time to go back to the exchange and see what my rates are. And so, you know, individuals who are working who are paying their own insurance that aren't on the enhanced premium tax cuts, they're covering and paying for these people. And then furthermore, I think it's an interesting side that remember Kathleen Sebelius was in charge of the CMS when the Unaffordable Care act was implemented. She was the president of ahip, America's health Insurance Plans. So she was part of this getting money directly to, in my view, where the money went and how the money went out. And so it's a level of corruption. It is corporate welfare and most importantly, it is doing nothing to bring health care costs down, which we need them down for all of us, and especially for young people.
- [13:33]
A
Follow the money. You always find a revolving door in Washington. That Sebelius story is such an amazing anecdote about how the system works for where we are now. What is the pathway if the Senate gets a vote? What sort of things in the deal do Republicans have to deliver on? And is Obamacare reform, Republican style, likely to be taken up before the end of the year?
- [13:56]
B
So first and foremost, we had a conference call today and probably everybody knows that we're advised to come back to Washington D.C. the earliest possible vote depending upon what the Senate does will be Wednesday, late Wednesday. It may not be. It just depends on what happens in the Senate and when they vote for that. And so within that package, first and foremost, remember the original seven week continuing resolution was to expire on November 21st. So the continuing resolution is carried forward until January 30th of 2026. In that there are three appropriation bills that we actually had already had come through the House. So the Ag appropriation bill, which importantly has SNAP in it, the military construction VA bill and then the Legislative branch bill. So those three appropriation bills will go into a minibus. Remember, we have already gone through them, we have already voted on them. There have already been amendments on those. There'll be some changes because of amendments or agreement with the Senate. So we'll have a continuing resolution till January 30. We will have three appropriation bills. There will be a in the Senate guaranteed vote to talk about the enhanced premium tax credits. But importantly, there's no increase in spending in the bills that are going forward. And then we'll continue to work on our appropriation bills, hopefully getting the farm bill through. And then conversations about how do we lower health care costs and what's the best way to do that. And any conversation about tax credits, the enhanced premium tax credits, you and I have had that conversation. I've had that conversation with members. I think that's a very difficult pill to swallow to for that money to go directly to the insurance companies. But there needs to be reforms in the Affordable Care act in exchange for doing anything on the regular tax credits which are not expiring and which continue to be there. So whether that is people paying more or paying something when they're not paying anything, whether that's income limits, I think there's a variety of things that we can do. And as I said, we passed provisions in the working families tax cuts for direct primary care, for expanding HSAs. I mean, I think it's important that, number one, costs come down when people control their money. And number two, having more choice and more control over your health care, more incentives to adopt healthy lifestyles which can reduce chronic diseases. And I think those are things that absolutely. We want to have a conversation about.
- [16:33]
A
Yeah, very exciting times. Choice has worked in education. It's going to work in health if we can just get there with a little bit more of it. Congresswoman Marinette Miller makes always an honor to have you on Happy Veterans Day. Thank you for your service. Also thank you for all the straight talk you always bring when you come to the show. We really enjoy you.
- [16:49]
B
Thank you, John. And again, happy Veterans Day to all our veterans out there.
- [16:53]
A
Amen. Thank you to you as well. Thank you so much. All right, folks, quick commercial break. When we come back, President Trump stands by his allies issuing those pardons I told you about to Wisconsin Republicans targeted over the 2020 election fight. We're going to talk about what. So talk to one of them next right after these messages. Hey, folks, did you know high blood pressure is the number one risk factor for mortality? A stunning one in two adults have high blood pressure, meaning there's a 50, 50 chance you could be effective. Taking control of your blood pressure is crucial for your health and longevity. And there's a new way you can just do that by using 120Life. And 120Life is not just for high blood pressure. It's also beneficial for those with diabetes because managing high blood pressure can help with diabetes, making 120Life a valuable tool for overall health. Endorsed by over 1,000 doctors, 120Life is trusted by healthcare professionals with hundreds of doctors recommending it to help manage blood pressure naturally for a limited time. Try 120Life and get 20% off. Just use the promo code JTN at checkout at 1 20Life. That's 120Life because it offers a risk free trial with a full refund. If you don't see lower numbers in just two weeks, go to 120life.com and use that code jtn to save 20%. There's nothing to lose except your high blood pressure numbers.
- [18:17]
C
Since 2011, American giant has been making everyday clothing with extraordinary effort, not in far off factories, but right here in the usa. We obsess over fabrics, fit and details, because if you're going to wear it every day, it should feel great and last for years. From the cut of a hoodie to the finishing of a seam, nothing is overlooked. Our supply chain is tight knit and local, which means less crisscrossing the country and more care in every step. The result is durable clothing, T shirts, hoodies, sweatpants and denim that become part of your life season after season. This isn't fast fashion. It's clothing made with purpose by people who care as much about how it's made as how it fits. Get 20% off your first order with code STAPLE20@american-giant.com that's 20% off your first order at american-giant.com with code STAPLE20.
- [19:24]
D
Welcome back, everybody, to Just the News. No noise. Yes, I am back. And as John talked about earlier, President Trump is pardoning a whole swath of folks related to the 2020 election, one of them, of course, being Rudy Giuliani, a frequent guest on this program. And now one of the pardon recipients is joining us now. He is, like I said, one of the folks who received one of those pardons, former Wisconsin Judge Jim Troupas. Judge JIM how are you? Good to see you.
- [19:48]
E
Great, great. Good to see you as well.
- [19:51]
D
Sir. I imagine that this is an extra arrow for your quiver. A lot of people, as John and I discussed earlier today, might think, well, what does a federal pardon have to do with a state case? But if the federal government doesn't think that what you did was a crime, then why should the state?
- [20:07]
E
Well, I think there's a really, a fundamental issue here that this Justice Department is coming to grips with, which is federal preemption or supremacy. In 2020, what happened was we simply recommended that the president follow the rules that had been established for literally hundreds of years in the use of alternate delegates. It's a part of the statutory structure. It's part of the United States Constitution. Because of that recommendation, which was supported at the time by the Wisconsin attorney general, literally told us to use alternate electors. And if we did that, we had zero chance of sacrificing our appeal. We told the court we were relying upon that explicit suggestion by our attorney general. What happens later? He indicts us, even after he writes a letter of opinion following on that as well. It's hard to imagine such duplicity. This pardon Today draws attention to the lawfare that is ongoing against people like me. I certainly appreciate this pardon because it will focus you and all the others on the continuing destruction of lives. When I say that, look, I said at one point, we had 17 separate legal actions brought against me. We've had bar complaints. Literally, my son was taken aside, and they took his electronics on a Disney cruise. They grabbed his personal electronics in front of his children. That's the kind of abuse we've gone through. And then at the last possible moment, having already opined that there was no crime, but Biden called on Josh Call and said, you have got to file something in Wisconsin. And then he did in June of 2024. That kind of abuse of power, especially in these times, it's important for the Department of Justice to step forward. And today's pardon is a step in that direction.
- [22:23]
A
So you wore the black robe. You adjudicated cases, you served your country. Did you ever imagine you'd be inside a legal system where law gave deference to politics?
- [22:35]
E
No.
- [22:36]
B
No.
- [22:37]
E
At the conclusion of the 2020 case, I think, again, I have to give a little history here. I've represented every Republican presidential campaign until I was on the bench in 2016 in the state of Wisconsin. Going back to the 1980s, I had helped write the recount statute in Wisconsin. I was one of the authors of that. In a nonpartisan committee. I handled the only statewide recount that had ever been held contested for Mr. Justice Prosser in 2011. It was a surprise to absolutely no lawyer in Wisconsin when the president called on me to do this job to help in a recount. And I was honored to get that call. And I'm honored to think of the President as a friend and a mentor. He. He used to call me the. Whatever he calls. Oh, it's the Greek judge. It's a Wisconsin Greek judge. He's on the phone once. Got me. I always love this one. He would call in the morning and I'd have my grandchildren would be around, and he would. He would welcome them on the. On the phone call or. One time I took a call from the President in the back of a Wisconsin tavern. And I know John, you know Wisconsin. So, you know, it's a traditional Friday night fish fry that the President caught me one evening. So, you know, it was a really important moment in time, and I stepped forward. As I said, it's the United States Senate on December 16th of 2020, because all the other big law firms were cowards. They understood there was a real case in Wisconsin. We got three members of our state Supreme Court to agree with our case. The Democrat lawyers themselves thanked me at the conclusion of the case in Wisconsin to say, we really appreciate how, how you handled this in such difficult times. But none of that matters on a national scale. None of that matters when the left is involved.
- [24:37]
D
Judge, I want to ask you, you know, a year and what five days ago they called the election for President Trump. And I know that that obviously had a huge impact on you as far as what you could see as relief in the future when President Trump did agree to review these cases and possibly issue pardons. But I want to ask you about what could have been the fate of our judicial system, and not necessarily just judges and justices and a lot of these left wing activists that are a part of the judiciary, but private law firms, as you mentioned, folks who serve as clerks. Would there have ever been any repair for our judicial system if the election had gone a different way last year?
- [25:18]
E
I can't tell you how sad I am about that. I spent my entire life, I'm in my 70s, I was retired when the president called and asked me to handle the recount on his behalf. I never thought I'd live to see this day. I always say I tell this story when I've been asked about this, that on the day before November 4th of 2020, there wasn't a lawyer in the state of Wisconsin who wouldn't have been proud to have me sit next to them, and I would have been equally proud to sit next to them. And then it all changed. The left went to war with the help of the judiciary, and that has continued. It is unbelievably sad for people like me who practiced law for nearly 50 years, to have seen this truly unbelievable change. We are on the edge of an abyss. And thank goodness President Trump is there now and Ed Martin and Pam Bondi to now take the steps that have to be taken to clean this mess up.
- [26:24]
A
Judge, before we let you go, what is the reason why the federal government didn't bring these charges originally? And is there any evidence of collusion, meaning that the feds basically outsource this to the states so that they would have some activity going on during the 2024 election to Sully up Donald Trump and his supporters?
- [26:45]
E
Oh, you know, there is so much evidence of coordinated effort. It begins. Everybody in Washington knows it. I guess it surprised me. I'm not from Washington, but when I've been out there in the last two years, everyone knows Mary McCord at Georgetown directed all of this. Everyone knows that the January 6th committee was all a part of a national plan. Everyone knows that Joe Biden and his supporters pushed Josh Call to do this and they used NGOs and the like Law Forward in Wisconsin to do it. These are open secrets in Washington. It's time for the investigation to get truly serious and go after these people. It was a coordinated effort, as Ed Martin has said in his memo today, to deny the right of the citizens of this country to petition the government in a presidential election. They need to intervene in this case, make those arguments. I need to bring appropriate civil rights actions against these players. As I said, everyone knows who they are in Washington and that's a shock to me. But something's got to be done.
- [27:54]
A
We're going to make sure they know every fact. We're going to have a series of stories coming up later this week. Judge, we really appreciate all the, all you've been through. It really is amazing.
- [28:04]
D
Absolutely, Judge, thanks so much for being here. We'll have you back on again very soon. Staying on top of your.
- [28:07]
E
Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
- [28:09]
D
Absolutely. All right, everybody, we're going to take a very quick break, but on the other side, we're going to be talking about the climate with Mark Marano, one of the best people to talk about that in the biz. On the other side.
- [28:24]
B
You know that big bargain detergent jug is 80% water, right? It doesn't clean as well.
- [28:29]
D
80% water.
- [28:31]
B
I thought I was getting a better deal because it's so big. If you want a better clean, tide pods are only 12% water. The rest is pure, concentrated cleaning ingredients.
- [28:40]
C
Oh, let me make an announcement. Attention shoppers, if you want a real.
- [28:44]
A
Deal, try tide pods.
- [28:46]
B
Stop paying for watered down detergents. Pay for clean. If it's gotta be clean, it's gotta be tide pods. Water content based on the leading bargain liquid detergent.
- [29:01]
A
Welcome back, America. I mentioned the top of the show. Senate's begun debate. You heard Congressman Marianne Miller Meeks talk about it in the right hand corner. You can actually see that debate on the floor sometime tonight. It's possible the Senate will vote to advance this bill and send it back to the House and a shutdown will be one step closer to completion. We'll let you know if that happens and keep you up to speed throughout the next hour. Meanwhile, I want to bring in an amazing story that we learned about this week. And yeah, there's a climate conference going on in Latin America and to accommodate all the world leaders. I'm not making this up. The host had to cut down a lot of forest. Yeah, they deforested something that climate change advocates normally complain about, unless it's for their own gig. Joining us now to break this all down, live from the COP30 conference himself executive editor for Climate Depot, our good friend Mike Mark Morano. Mark, good to have you on.
- [29:49]
C
Thank you, John. Happy to be here.
- [29:52]
A
All right, this story is really true. They really did clear cut a forest just so they could have a climate conference.
- [29:58]
C
Yes, we're looking at 8 miles of virgin tropical Amazon rainforest where clear cut hair so that they could put in this highway to allow the private jets and to allow all the SUVs and limousines of all the world leaders and celebrities that are pumping in here the next two weeks. They could have a freer time getting around the city. After all, this is about them, right? And what's amazing is the Brazilian environmental minister actually told the BBC, which by the way, kudos to the BBC for breaking this story. They had the exclusive on this, how the highway was built, deforestation of tens of thousands of acres for this highway in Belem, Brazil, for this summit. But the environmental minister actually said we had to clear out the forest so we could bring in as many people as possible so we can showcase to the world how we're saving the rainforest. So they had to cut, in other words, they had to cut the forest down so they could bring more people to show it was, you can't make this, these kind of absurdities up. And for decades we were told you got to save the Amazon. Save the Amazon, Deforestation hurts climate. And here they had no problem whatsoever in clear and clear cutting this forest here. And we've now dubbed the whole conference not cop 30, but clear cut 30.
- [31:17]
D
I love it.
- [31:18]
A
That's a memorable one.
- [31:19]
B
Mark.
- [31:19]
D
What's amazing about this to me is that this is no different than all of these climate activists who take G7s and crisscross the globe. And their, and their justification is always, well, we have to do this, we have to take this on. And I'm paraphrasing here, but it's because we are the important ones and we're the ones who are going to save the world. Does anyone ever on that side of the movement ever see the hypocrisy in it?
- [31:44]
C
No, they don't. And I think the lead person there would be someone like Bill Gates who hasn't shown his face here yet. But he may, he's always said, you know, oh, of course I have a, I have to fly on private jets and I do this but, but I buy carbon offsets. So they really do take carbon offsets seriously here. It's usually just a punchline for the vast majority of humanity, but these few billionaires and climate activists, to them, that's sacred. Oh, I bought my carbon offsets. I'm perfectly fine. I could remember John Kerry, when he went to Iceland to pick up an environmental award in a private jet, basically told the Icelandic reporter, do you know who I am? I'm John Kerry. I'm saving the planet. Of course I need to get around on a private jet. And this. What's ironic is they pick this city of Belem. The statistics are staggering. 80% of the people in the city that they chose as the host city do not have access to sewage, to any kind of sewage. So this, you can go outside where I'm staying here, there's collapsed infrastructure, trash all over the streets, piles of trash, stray dogs, stray cats. This is a depressed city. And to think that somehow net zero is going to save the billion people who have energy poverty is just insane. But that's what this UN Summit is all about. Gavin Newsom participated today. I think he was actually in Sao Paulo at a side event, but basically declared himself the informed unofficial US climate ambassador because Donald Trump wouldn't send anyone, which bothered me because I had already declared myself the unofficial U.S. delegation representative. So I'm actually battling this out with, with, with Gavin Newsom over who's in charge. I'm like Al Haig, I'm in charge here. And Gavin Newsom's disputing that.
- [33:27]
A
An Al Haig moment in the climate movement. How about that, Mark? I want to turn to China. It burns more coal every day, every single day. It has some of the worst pollution standards in the world. And yet somehow it always feels like the darling at these conferences. Why does the Western climate people worship China when its record is contrary to its wishes?
- [33:51]
C
Great question. Here's what happened. Today was the first day of the conference. I literally walked through the main entrance, finally got my badge scanned. What is one of the very first things you see is a gigantic China. I guess they call them exhibits or you know, they have like giant big stages. China had two flags up, they had multiple books by Xi Jinping all over the table. They had the most well attended event you would see standing room only. You couldn't even get into the event. And China, a foreign ambassador actually said, we are pushing global climate governance here at COP30. Why wouldn't China be pushing global climate governance? It's for one simple reason. They literally are the single greatest beneficiaries of the entire United nations net zero climate agenda. Donald Trump's 202012 tweet exactly laid it out. Global warming was invented so that China could basically become the globally dominant single economic superpower. And that's exactly what we have. In fact, China is seen now by the delegates and the activists here, the climate activists, as the hero of the summit. Donald Trump is being trashed for not attending or sending a delegation and for pulling out of Paris. And hopefully he's going to pull us out of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit treaty. But China, in response to that, doubled down on future commitments. So they haven't done anything. Remember, they're building two coal plants a week on average, but they're pledging in the future to do more. And that's enough for the activists here who are giving them standing room only events. And, you know, who knows? I bet Xi Jinping books, its book is flying off the shelves here at the UN Climate summit.
- [35:32]
D
I feel like when China says that, it's like the checks in the mail. I'm sure, I'm sure they are going to clean up their act over there in China. Mark, before we let you go.
- [35:41]
C
Sure. When current reality fails to convince you, just make future promises. That's what they do here at the.
- [35:46]
D
U.N. of course, of course. Because it's much, much easier to keep future promises. I want to ask you, and this is something that I think we talked to you about during the Biden administration. We were constantly hearing about auto, the auto industry being in the red because of their EVs that they were producing and constantly needing subsidies to bail them out. And now they have gotten a break, not only from the Trump administration, but from the courts as well. Tell us about it.
- [36:12]
C
Yeah, yeah. Well, first of all, the EV sales, you have Ford, the F150. They're now, now going forward with the EV on this. They're giving up, essentially just halting. And that's actually hopefully going to save these automakers money. They invested all this money into this whole EV mandate, but they only got to 7% of sales. And now we have a situation where the EVs are going to tank. The Ford CEO is expecting half of the sales of EVs that just collapse with all of this. The pullback of the California mandate and the congressional review that Congress has done. So, you know, it's to be interesting to see what kind of aid they end up getting and how they recover from this. But at least the government is no longer in the United states ideologically pushing this. And by the way, just for reference, talking about China and EVs, it is literally takes half a million pounds of materials dug up from the earth cheaply from China to make one average sized EV battery of £1,000. So this is where we are. That's reality. And anyone who claims that EVs were saving the planet is delusional. They were basically giving China global dominance.
- [37:17]
A
Amazing. Mark, we're so grateful because you've always kept us ahead on this story. You do such great research. The hypocrisy is jaw dropping. But I guess at this point not that surprising anymore. Good to have you on the show, my friend.
- [37:31]
C
Thank you, John. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.
- [37:33]
A
About that they clear forests and cheer on polluting Chinese. That is the new climate movement. I wonder what will come next. All right. Well, we can give more subsidies to health care companies. That's what we can do. All right. All right. We're going to take a quick commercial break. When we come back, we'll talk about how to protect your home from Tidal plan next right after these messages. Welcome back, everybody. I promise every week this month we're going to do a look at just how pernicious home title fraud has become. Home title theft is stealing the equity that you worked years to put into your home. And it is becoming a really big deal nationwide, even globally. And these scammers can do it dozens and dozens of times. Now, for example, there's an ongoing case in Arizona where prosecutors allege just two people were able to scam hundreds, you heard me right, hundreds of homeowners. And they did it by pretending to be representatives of a company that helped rescue homeowners from foreclosure. But instead, the complaint by Arizona Attorney General Chris May said they stole the homes, right the to from out under the owner's own noses. Here's the attorney general herself talking about it.
- [38:45]
B
It's disgusting behavior and it is against the law. Every piece of property, every luxury vehicle and every bank account controlled by these defendants is now under court supervision.
- [39:04]
A
Don't find yourself in that circumstance. How scary is that? All right. Joining us now to discuss that alleged crime and more, an Emmy and multi award winning news anchor and investigative reporter has recently been spending his time researching this very crime, the home title theft scam that we're seeing today. His name is John Summer. He's a good friend. John, great to have you on the show.
- [39:23]
F
Great to be back, John. And boy, I tell you, you're doing stellar work lately. Kudos to you. But yeah, this particular crime is really starting to spread in so many different ways. And, John, you talk about this. This couple in Arizona that the attorney general, Chris Mays, is prosecuting. What they did was especially insidious because the homeowners, primarily elderly people and people that had financial problems, were looking for help from someone. And this couple posed as various charities, saying that they would be able to help them out financially only if they would transfer the deed to their property into what they called a trust. But it was actually not a trust. It was an LLC or a number of different companies that this couple controlled. And then once they did that, they had the deed to the property, and then they could extract the value of those homes for themselves. A particularly insidious crime, because they were actually working upon the trust of these homeowners. And again, most of them were elderly. Some of them were not in all their right mind, and they took advantage of that. And for most people, John, as we know, your home is the greatest value of your estate. And what I don't really understand is why in this particular case in Arizona, it was considered a civil crime. Because this is really something far more serious than stealing a watch, you know, or some jewelry or somebody's car or whatever. This is the. The. The entire value of your estate, and they can extract that, and then you're left with nothing. And it's taken a long time to be able to unwrap this particular group that was scamming these older people.
- [41:31]
A
Yeah. And we've seen two big cases in the last couple of months of large scale. 30 victims, I believe, in Detroit, hundreds in Arizona. Yeah, it's. It's becoming now more systemic, it seems. We've been talking about it for a few years, but it does seem like it's accelerating. This case had something that was really a red flag for me. Obviously, targeting the vulnerable is a big part of it, but another part of it is the homeowners were told, hey, this transfer of your deed is a temporary thing to help you out of your financial circumstances. That's one of the many tactics these scammers use, right, to pressure you to sign something.
- [42:06]
F
Yes, John, in most cases, with title theft or deed theft or what the FBI used to call it, house stealing, you don't know that you've been taken. In other words, somebody. The. The criminal will be able to transfer the paperwork into their name, and they'll extract the value by taking out loans or even sell the house, and the homeowner won't know it until 2, 3, 4 months down the road. When the loan company comes and says you haven't paid on your loan. In this case, the homeowners knew that they were turning over the deed to their property. They thought it was safe, that it was going to be held in trust, and they were just simply desperate and looking for help. So this is a different way of looking at this crime, but by the same token, it's the same thing. Somebody stole their home through a different means.
- [42:57]
A
Yeah, it is despicable, but it is something that's happening more and more. All right, so you're a journalist, you have this great way of looking at things. When you look back, you reconstruct this story. Were there some warning signs early on or some safeguards that maybe these victims should have paid closer attention to?
- [43:15]
F
Well, I mean, there are two ways of doing it, I guess. If you have an older parent, then maybe it's the responsibility of the children to kind of look out for their home. Because a lot of these people are not completely in their right minds. As you get older, you're just losing control of being able to care for yourself. In fact, there's a case down in Dallas where the son of the owner of the home, who had the same name by the way, actually pretended to be the father and sold the home.
- [43:51]
A
Oh my word.
- [43:52]
F
He was an air do. Well, and he ended up in prison a couple of times. And the loan company, actually the real estate company came and, and said, well, you sold your home and you haven't moved out and you have to be evicted. So there are different ways of managing this particular crime, but there are also ways of protecting yourself. And I would say if you have an elderly parent that needs help controlling their own life, then you need to find a monitoring service or some way of protecting the title to their home because they may not be able to do it themselves. And certainly you're not even going to be able to monitor your title full time. So there are companies out there, and there's one in particular, John, that I've researched. They're really, really the pioneers in this industry, right, called home title lock. And they have something called million dollar triple lock protection. And what they do, John, is they will monitor your title 24 7, which you can't possibly do. And then they will alert you if there's something fishy going on. And then if for some reason the title actually gets transferred into an Air Do Wells name, then they will work with you up to a million dollars to be able to restore that title. Otherwise, John, you have to hire an attorney. You have to go through the court system. It's just a terrible thing to have to handle, especially if you're an older person and really can't deal with this kind of a situation on their own.
- [45:25]
A
We've got a great partnership with Home Tedlock here at Just the Use and Real America's Voice. And it's a great gift to someone. If you love someone, they're going into the silver years of life. It is a great protection device because they work their whole life to get that equity in that house. It would be awful to have some fraudster go steal it. John, your stories are amazing. This one in Arizona really caught my attention. Great to have you on the show, my friend.
- [45:48]
F
Thank you so much, John. Appreciate it.
- [45:50]
A
I appreciate all the great work you do. Folks. We're going to take a quick commercial break, but before we do, I mentioned we've got this very special partnership with hometitle lock.com I don't want anyone to be victimized by this if they can avoid it. So here's what you do. You go to hometitlelock.com and use the special promo code jtn to get a free title history report and a free trial of their million dollar triple lock protection, just like John was talking about. That's hometownlock.com promo code jtn. We'll be right back.
- [46:21]
E
Foreign.
- [46:26]
D
Welcome back, everybody. So we are keeping an eye on that Senate vote. They've got to get to 60 for those enhanced ACA subsidies. So, John, I guess, well, they probably won't be done voting by the end of the show, but Grant Central can update you on that when it comes. John, a lot of Washington fans facing backlash after booing President Trump relentlessly last night. And what I thought was particularly distasteful was that they were booing him as he was swearing in a whole group of new service members. And it was really disheartening to see. But it's the dmv.
- [46:58]
A
Yeah, that's. What more do you need to say? It's Washington, D.C. the fans are the same people that work in the federal government and work at the Democratic National Committee that said they should have been booing their team on the field. Who got whooped. They got whooped last night. I know. My goodness.
- [47:14]
D
4000, 224 or something like that.
- [47:16]
A
Pretty bad inverted numbers. Yeah. Listen, Trump derangement syndrome is here to stay. But that doesn't take away from the incredible people who were sworn in on the eve of Veterans Day and tomorrow, our veterans, we don't boo when it comes to our incredible men and women in uniform. And those who do ought to maybe rethink their values a little bit.
- [47:38]
D
Yeah. And to that end, I'm wearing my poppy today. I went by the American Legion to grab a poppy because in Commonwealth countries, they wear poppies now until at some point in November. I know in the States, they wear them in May, but I always wear it for Veterans Day because I want to honor our veterans. And, John, I just hate it for the people last. Well, actually, I love it for the people last night at that game who aren't consumed with Trump derangement syndrome, who got to see that historically low flyover.
- [48:05]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [48:06]
D
Absolutely amazing.
- [48:07]
A
Air Force One. You get to literally read the. The United States of America on the side is pretty cold.
- [48:12]
D
All right, I want to get into what happened today in the Oval Office and historic meeting between a Syrian head of state and the president of the United States in the Oval Office. I know that a part of that conversation had to be because President Trump is someone who fights for religious liberty and the protection of faiths across the globe. So I know a part of that conversation had to be the persecution of Druze and Christians in southern Syria. But what?
- [48:41]
A
Faith leaders yesterday sent a letter to President Trump asking him to raise it.
- [48:44]
D
Yeah. And it's a really incredible letter. Everybody go check that out. But it is a, I hope a sign of good things to come.
- [48:53]
A
Yeah. Listen, the guy is a former terrorist. I take that into account.
- [48:56]
D
Checkered pass, as President Trump said.
- [48:58]
A
He does. But he seems to have stepped into the role of a more dignified leader that maybe has put that violence and hatred behind. We've got two humanitarian crises going on. One in Syria with the Druids and the other Christians being executed there. And then in Africa. What's going on in Nigeria is unforgivable as well. And this president is determined to end it. We'll see if he has the levers of power he can do to force these people. The Nigerians have basically went ho, ha. But I have a funny feeling when he starts pulling their aid, they'll have a different tune to sing.
- [49:33]
D
I think that's true. And, you know, from what we have seen from these nations that during President Trump's first term joined the Abraham Accords, you think of the prosperity and the economic opportunity that that brought for those nations, and that's another incentive as well.
- [49:46]
A
I agree. I agree. The carrot and the stick. And the carrot's pretty good. Getting truth to the American people. We love. We do that. So a couple things that come to mind. There was a whisper campaign, including in conservative media, that somehow Cash Patel was overusing the corporate jet. Turns out uses about. He actually uses it less than James Comey, about the same as Chris Wray. And he's found a way to make it a lot cheaper. The FBI director has to by law use it. But it wasn't what people had. But reporters reported the criticism without checking the facts. People like Mike Isakoff and lots of others. And I think it's important if you're going to raise a concern, to maybe check it out before you air it. And then tomorrow, I think I'm really looking forward to this story that Stephen Richards is going to do that takes a look at just how wealthy insurance companies get and what would have happened to the insurance industry if they didn't have these enhanced premiums. It's going to shock people. You know what it looks like? The earnings curve looks like a jet taking out of Reagan National Airport. It goes whoop. Straight up.
- [50:47]
D
All right, John, I have to give you a pat on the back. And for those who didn't see the press release this morning, Just the News is getting the opposite of Ozempic. It is expanding to include Post, Millennial and Human Events. Two very worthy organizations to be under the Just the News.
- [51:04]
A
Two great news organizations, lots of great talent, the great Jack Posobic and so many other good people. Really excited. We'll have more details come. But a bright future for all of us together in the foxhole.
- [51:13]
D
Absolutely. And I'm looking forward to having all those journalists folded into the Just the News banner because you have done something truly, truly wonderful here. And I know, I hear it all the time.
- [51:21]
A
Yeah, that's what makes it wonderful.
- [51:22]
D
But I hear it all the time from our audience, how much they value Just the News. And that is a credit to you and your. Your legendary status in journalism. All right, everybody, that's all we have for tonight. Grant Cinchfield is going to take you through the next hour. See you tomorrow.
- [51:34]
A
This is an iHeart podcast.