← Real America’s Voice
Real America’s Voice
Just the News No Noise with John Solomon and Amanda Head, October 3rd, 2025
00:50:00
Loading summary
Transcript81 lines
- [00:00]
A
This is an I heart podcast.
- [00:04]
B
Greetings, Naturopathy. Dr. Dennis Black here, founder of Rough Greens. And if only dogs could talk, I think a lot of them would say, hey, thanks for the love, but this food, it's not working for me. The truth is they'd be right. Because most dog food, wet or dry, is cooked at such high temperatures that every live nutrient in it is destroyed. And what you're left with is is dead food bulked up with fillers and sprayed with artificial flavors. That's not what dogs need. But when you add back in the live vitamins, omega oils and antioxidants are in Rough Greens, your dog would say something different. Like they'd say, wow, this is delicious. Or sluggish. Dogs might say, hey, let's go for a walk. Older dogs might say, I feel like a puppy again. It's not magic, it's biology. Don't just imagine it. See it in your dog. I. I'll send you a free Jump Start trial bag for your dog. You just cover the shipping. Go to ruffgreens.com use discount code talk. That's Ruff Greens Discount code Talk. If your dog could only talk, they'd say, thank you.
- [01:32]
C
Good evening, America. Happy Friday. Welcome to the latest edition of Just the News. No noise. I'm your host John Solomon reporting to you as always from the nation's capital, which today it's mostly closed. Yep, Day three of the government shutdown, no end in sight. The the Senate tried again to pass a clean resolution, a continuing resolution, but the Democrats once blocked it. All right, now I'm going to be flying solo again tonight. My amazing co host, Amanda Head. She is the poll reporter at the White House. That's a prestigious job. But all day she must keep an eye on the president and report it to all the other reporters who don't get to cover the White House. So she'll be out of pocket for most of the day. Now, we've got a lot of reporting for you this evening on potential wrongdoing by the FBI involving former President Joe Biden. The latest incident has to do with the Biden family's alleged dealings in Ukraine. And it turns out there were far more than one whistleblower that appeared to know about what was going on between Ukrainian authorities and the Biden family, where millions of dollars changed hands. The FBI, for example, had three informants, three confidential human sources reporting to them on Biden corruption in Ukraine. But no record has been turned over by or found by current FBI Director Cash Patel of any real investigation into Those informants, claims, think about that. A sitting vice president, his son, there's an allegation that they might be on the take with a foreign power and nobody looks at it. They don't get a one allegation, they'll get two allegations, they get three. Now, these new revelations stem from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senator Ron Johnson's release of two new FBI FD 1023 forms. Those are basically records of the reports that these confidential human sources gave concerning their concerns that the Biden family was engaged in a corrupt scheme in Biden. These records match closely to a previous memo that Senator Grassley released in 2023 containing claims from the third of the human confidential human sources. And apparently in all three cases, the FBI didn't get fully to the bomb. And imagine that we've seen that time and again like we heard from the IRS whistleblowers on this show a couple of years ago. Now, turning to day three of the government shutdown. Not much progress is being made. But a lot of talk here in Washington has to do with government layoffs and not necessarily about when the government will reopen. White House press Secretary Caroline Levitt was asked about it again today. Here's what she said when one reporter questioned why layoffs were necessary. Have a listen. Why are layoffs now necessary in this shutdown? Because we have an administration and we have a president who are wholeheartedly focused on restoring fiscal sanity to our government and doing the right thing by the American taxpayer. We are $37 trillion in debt and.
- [04:02]
D
The federal government is currently shut down.
- [04:04]
C
There is no more money coming into.
- [04:06]
D
The federal government's coffers. And as you've also seen since the.
- [04:09]
C
Beginning in January, this administration is focusing.
- [04:12]
D
On waste, fraud and abuse.
- [04:13]
C
And so Democrats have given this administration.
- [04:18]
D
An unenviable choice to have to take.
- [04:21]
C
A look at the balance sheet and identify where these cuts and layoffs can be made. I'm not sure if it's unenviable or maybe enviable choice. I think White House seems to be really ready to take a look at that. All right. The Senate did try to get that stopgap funding bill passed. As I mentioned earlier, Senator, Majority Leader John Thune made his case for getting the government reopened on the Senate floor today before Democrats thumbed their nose. Listen to what Senator Thune had to say.
- [04:43]
A
Mr. President, it's been two weeks since our first vote on a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open. The shutdown could have been avoided well before it began.
- [04:53]
B
But because Democrats have not budged from their partisan demands.
- [04:56]
A
The shutdown is now entering its third day. Mr. President, there's a lot that we.
- [05:00]
C
Could be doing right now.
- [05:02]
A
We could be considering bipartisan appropriations bills.
- [05:05]
B
Through regular order, going to conference on.
- [05:09]
A
The three appropriations bills we passed in August, or passing the bipartisan annual defense bill. But instead, we're stuck in a shutdown mess of Democrats making.
- [05:25]
C
Well, it turns out though there was a lot of common sense in that speech, it didn't be. It wasn't very persuasive to Democrats. The vote again failed. 54, 44. With that, it's time now to bring in our first guest. And I want to mention this before we bring in Congressman Abe Hamade. We earlier this week wrote a story about the TSA being the latest agency caught weaponizing they were taking Americans and preventing them from flying and traveling in America based on political differences disputes. It actually extended to members of Congress. Congressman Abe Hamade from the great state of Arizona was one of them and we're very lucky to be joined by him right now. Congressman, great to have you on the show.
- [06:01]
D
Always good to be with you, John.
- [06:03]
C
All right, I want to make sure I understand this because you filed a lawsuit challenging some potential election procedures in Arizona. The government considered you a flight threat and was monitoring you and potentially even blocking you from flying. Is that how far the weaponization of the TSA went?
- [06:21]
D
Well, what we do know is that, you know, I got a call earlier this week from Senator Rand Paul's office who's been leading the charge over in the Senate on the Homeland Security Committee over there. And they discovered that three members of Congress, all three of them were Republican, were targeted by the Biden TSA at one point or another. And all of us were either there was one that was an elected member of Congress at the time and the other two were candidates running for office. So it just makes you wonder why the Biden department, Biden TSA, was going after and putting these people on a so called watch list, just like our director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. And this just extends, you know, this is just a pattern of behavior by the Joe Biden administration, what they were doing. I mean, John, there is so much corruption, there is so much weaponization at the time against conservatives. It's almost hard to remember all the instances. But I remember, you know, I know personally people who had their bank accounts canceled by their banks because of pressure by the Biden administration. We know that the FBI was targeting Catholics at churches or at pro life centers. They Were also going after school board people who attended school board parents who want to go there and have their concerns heard. So the weaponization was terrifying under Joe Biden. And thank God President Trump won his election because if he didn't, if we were under Kamala Harris, I believe it'd be marching towards European style type of tyranny. I mean, if you look at what's going on in the United Kingdom, I mean, they are literally arresting people for social media memes and posts. And it's not too far to think that that could easily happen. United States, when you have a federal government that is going after its own people. And that's exactly what's happening under Joe Biden. I'm glad to see Secretary Kristi Noem got rid of the Quiet Skies program. But yes, I think the timing was completely off that they flagged me in December of 2022. This was right after the November 2022 election when I was running for Attorney General and I was actively involved in election related lawsuits for that race. And the media and the Democrats were calling me a threat to democracy, one of the biggest threats of democracy. So it goes to show that the Joe Biden administration, the weaponization was unacceptable. Unacceptable. And I'm glad to see President Trump and Senator Rand Paul expose it.
- [08:35]
C
Yeah, it is stunning. I'm sure you've had some time to think about it. I know some of your other colleagues have to. What is a solution? Is there something Congress can do after we reopen the government to make sure that this sort of retaliation, this sort of political, political weapons and weaponization doesn't extend the basic things like our travel, our ability to not have our conversations listened to on a plane. Do you think there's some ideas out there that could outlaw this in a more clear way?
- [09:03]
D
Yeah, I believe Senator Rand Paul is going to be leading that effort. And you know, John, I want to make sure people understand it wasn't just. I mean, this program existed under Barack Obama. That's when it first started, was in 2013. So it just manifested itself over the years. And, you know, to uncover all of it took a while. I mean, this is now President Trump's second term. And if you look at how they targeted me, I mean, my God, I was an intelligence officer. I had a top secret clearance, John. And to see the government utilizing the tools of the bureaucracy to go after someone who is running for office, it is terrifying. So hopefully when we reopen up the government, now that there is this momentum and push here in Congress, I know that we're going to be making sure this never happens again. Because you're right. Although President Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem got rid of the program, we want to make sure it never happens again. So we got to make sure we pass legislation here in Congress.
- [09:53]
C
Yeah. It's just so stunning. You served your country. In fact, two of the people who are victims of this improper weaponization were members of Congress who previously served in the armed forces. You and Tulsi Gabbard. And your payback or your thank you for that is they're going to spy on you on the planes or even maybe stop you from traveling. It's just stunning. What mindset gets bureaucrats into this idea that this is a good idea? I mean, someone thought this was a good idea because it was pretty widespread.
- [10:22]
D
Yeah. And if you look at Tulsi Gabbard, I mean, yes, she was a former congresswoman, she was a decorated veteran in our armed forces. And what a country it is, though, to have her now become the Director of National Intelligence. Right. So that is what gives me a lot of happiness right now, just to see that in our country that we are able to defeat the forces of evil so aggressively. But if you look at the faceless, nameless bureaucrats, oftentimes, you know, they believe that they should hold the keys to power and that elected officials are, are temporary. So it is scary when they have that. And if you look at why were only Republicans targeted, you know, members of Congress, I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of members of Congress on the Democrat side who, who would be flagged for something based off of some of their statements. But it is shocking to see how they were targeting only us. And as you mentioned, we, you know, at the time I served my country and many others who are on the watch list did as well. But Rand Paul also exposed the fact that if you are an anti masker, you are potentially on this quiet skies list. Tsa. Can you imagine where, you know, at the time the federal government, Anthony Fauci. I mean, there is so much inconsistent messaging with the masks. At one point they said to wear a mask, not to wear a mask. And we all know now that masks are pretty much useless in trying to stop that type of virus. But it goes to show you the lengths of the stupidity of the federal government, but also how dangerous it could be. And that's why I'm glad to see Senator Rand Paul expose it.
- [11:49]
C
Yeah. So very important that we get the truth out and then make sure the truth sticks so it doesn't Happen again. I want to turn to the FBI. It's obviously a new leadership with Cash Patel, and we're getting to learn a lot of secrets. Earlier this week at a story that FBI agents by the scores, literally scores of FBI agents told the FBI in 21 they thought their agency had become biased in the aftermath of the January 6th investigation, that they saw J6 defendants treated differently than the BLM Summer 2020 rioters. They also believe there were other problems in the bureau. And then later on, we learned the FBI had three informants saying Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, might be up to something corrupt in Ukraine. It doesn't get looked at. The more we learn about the FBI, it seems like the Ray or the comey to Ray years we didn't have the FBI. Maybe we thought we had.
- [12:37]
D
No, it was a completely dark time. I mean, you know, they lost so much credibility once they said that Hunter Biden's laptop was a hoax. And it just continued since then. And I'm glad to see that you exposed, you know, how many of the agents were actually there on January 6th and who didn't want to be there. I mean, so many at the time. We've had so many congressional hearings before I even got elected to Congress, and Christopher Wray would never disclose so much of this information. So it was great journalism on your part, John. But, you know, I'm glad to see Cash Patel taking the helm. If you look at all the successes, I mean, the Charlie Kirk assassination, which is a terrible tragedy, but to see how Kash Patel was able to provide some sort of justice by capturing these suspects so quickly, I mean, that happened in less than 33 hours. I mean, that was faster than the Boston Marathon bombings, faster than the D.C. sniper shooting. So to see that the FBI is going back to its core mission and defending Americans and going after the bad guys, I mean, so much of what Director Patel has been doing is. Hasn't been making the news. But going after child sex traffickers, all of this is, you know, making sure that the folks, the FBI is back to its core mission. That's exactly what President Trump and what Cash Patel have been doing over the past few months.
- [13:48]
C
Yeah, just on the crime crackdown alone, 8,000 criminal kingpins rested up in the last couple of months. It's just remarkable, the numbers. I want to turn to the shutdown quickly. How do you think this ends? What do you expect the White House to do to shrink the size of government? And at what point do Democrats blink and say, oh, we made a mistake?
- [14:07]
D
Well, the Democrats are quickly learning they're dealing with one of the toughest negotiators with President Trump. And their negotiation power just keeps dwindling by the hour. So I know that the Senate, you know, I don't think that they have the votes today or maybe even Monday or Tuesday. But I expect by mid next week, some of the Democrats on the Senate side are going to eventually cave. Maybe Chuck Schumer won't because he seems to be beholden by the radical left base because he's scared of primary challenges or I don't know what he's scared of. But what's so shocking about this, John, is 13 times the Democrats have passed a clean CR and to see them being hypocrites right now, it's not just Republicans noticing, it's all Americans. So it's, we got to get back to business here in Washington. I think this is a temper tantrum that Democrats are doing because they lost last November and they don't understand why they lost. So I expect them to continue to lose, which is a good thing for Republicans. I mean, they keep going further and further to left. And this government shutdown, it's totally done by the Democrats, the Senate Democrats and here, the House Democrats, they're trying to egg them on also. But I don't believe the Republicans are going to budge. We have no reason to. You know, this is a clean cr. They're the ones shutting down the government because they want to give health care to illegal immigrants. That's not, that's a non starter. We already have a clean CR that funds the government for just six more weeks until November 21st. And if they don't realize that this is, that this is a bad mistake, that they're doing well, American, the American people are already turning on them.
- [15:38]
C
Yeah. I think the American people will eventually remind them, probably rather painfully. Congressman, what a great honor. I always love the work you're doing. We watch everything you do closely and thank you. And that story about you being targeted in the skies is just remarkable. Thanks for sharing it with us.
- [15:54]
D
Thanks, John.
- [15:55]
C
Yeah. What a great interview. All right, folks, after the break, we'll talk about more about the government shutdown. It's day three. Wisconsin Congressman Glenn Grothman will weigh in from the great battleground states of Wisconsin right after these messages. Hey, folks, let's be honest. Our body lets us know, right. We're not getting any younger. And if you want to look and feel your best, you need to check out our good friends at Pure Health research. They have 45 premium health supplements designed to help with every health goal, whether it's boosting your energy, trimming belly fat, supporting healthy blood sugar sugar, pumping your testosterone up, or even reducing swelling in your legs. Pure Health Research supplement store has you covered. Each formula is crafted with natural non GMO ingredients backed by clinical research and manufactured right here in the good old usa. And here's the best part. Pure Health Research is offering you an exclusive 35% discount. You heard me right, 35% off. Just go to PureHealthResearch.com and use a coupon code. Just news at checkout. With their 365 day money back guarantee, there's zero risk in trying something new. So why wait? Head over to PureHealthResearch.com right now, explore their 45amazing supplements and save 35% before this deal ends with the coupon code. JustNews. Don't miss this chance to feel your best. Welcome back, America. Yep, day three of the shutdown and it's amazing. I think we're starting to learn how many federal workers really aren't that essential. A lot of people not feeling a tremendous amount of pain. Day three, not a big outcry in polling or on the streets of America. Joining us now to tell us how this whole shutdown is playing and one of the most important battleground states of the country, Wisconsin, is Congressman Glenn Grossman. Sir, good to have you on.
- [17:54]
E
Glad to be on the show. And I'm glad you started by talking about unnecessary federal employees. This is an area where I think in the past the Republicans have dropped the ball. Right. I think they could have followed Doge's lead on the big beautiful bill. They could have had less federal employees. On our recently passed defense authorization bill, they could have had a lot less employees. Right now in the Department of Defense, they have over 700,000 non uniformed personnel. Right. I mean, you might think we have 700,000 people ready to fight. No, 700,000 sitting behind his computer screen. That's ridiculous. Republicans in Congress haven't failed the public. They're now reducing that number in the authorization bill. But now President Trump can look at it and I would guess anecdotal evidence here in town, people talking about people, their relatives who work for the government, people from their church, whatever. There are lots of federal employees making six figures, doing more. Now is the time for President Trump to look at these employees. Let's not forget during this whole ordeal, 26% of the federal budget is borrowed. Think about that. Every Social Security check, every Medicare reimbursement, 26% is borrowed. Now is the time for President Trump to look at these positions and say, do we need 700,000 non uniform personnel departments or can we lower that to 500,000 or 400,000? And if that goes on, quite frankly, the shutdown is worth it.
- [19:29]
C
Yeah, yeah. This may be one of the most consequential and reshaping shutdowns in American history. You mentioned the large civilization, billion personnel at the Pentagon. Where else do you think we saw some major green energy and green infrastructure things that were left over the Biden years cut real quickly. Do you have some other favorites that you'd like to see the Trump administration trim the fat from?
- [19:51]
E
Well, I think everybody knows the low income housing tax, but that's $12 billion a year for something that's just a giveaway to wealthy property developers. That's another thing where there's not a small savings. I would like to see President Trump go, go after them. They're very politically active, but that's still no reason to waste $12 million in Europe.
- [20:13]
C
Yeah, that's really smart. All right, I want to turn to the subject we were talking about with one of your new colleagues in Congress, Congressman Abe Amade. The idea that a member of Congress, a man who wore the uniform, fought for this country, was an intelligence professional, could be targeted on a plane just because he filed a challenge to an election roll in Arizona during the 2022 election. It's, I guess it's a reminder. Any agency with any Alphabet letter abbreviation might have been weaponized in the last few years.
- [20:43]
E
Well, this is the definition of totalitarianism. Right. The whole government is politicized. And if we ever get a different president, if four years from now we don't get Vice President Vance, say, they'll go right back to this. They will say every agency, the irs, the FBI or now the tsa. Here's a list of people who are a little bit too conservative, maybe they're a little too Christian, maybe a little too active in a Republican campaign. And we're going to subject you to special treatment because that's what happened under Biden. It's not going to get any better four years from now, folks. Entirely different kind of country. Like I said, this is the type of treatment you'd expect in North Korea, maybe the type of treatment you'd expect in Red China. I don't know whether they'd be this comprehensive. But this is what you're getting right now in this country. Very scary stuff. We're going to have the TSA pay special attention to you because you're a Republican. That's not the type of country we live in. That's not the type of country we've had for my whole lifetime. And I'm very disappointed that you don't see more Democrats out there being critical of the Biden administration and saying, no, that's not us. These are some rogue bureaucrats out there. The Democrats are silent, which to me means you can expect a politicized bureaucracy if the Republicans ever lose the presidency. Very scary stuff.
- [22:11]
C
Yeah, no, it really is. I want to turn to something that you tweeted about on X earlier this week and that was that there's some evidence uncovered by the House Education Committee that the teachers unions are routing some pensions into some high fee pension programs, meaning the teacher pays a large exorbitant fee so that some of the money can kick back to the unions. It seems like a terrible way to treat your union members concerning to you from what the committee found this week.
- [22:39]
E
Well, it is very concerning. And particularly because the teachers union is so radical, I don't think enough attention is being paid to where they stand on the issues and how politicized they are. People sometimes say, oh, do we really need school choice? I'll tell you, not every teacher votes for these teachers unions. Leadership in the teachers union got there somehow and they got there because a majority of teachers in this country agree with their radical positions on a wide variety of issues. You know, we don't need people taking an extreme view, say on transgenderism or an extreme view on the amount of racism in the country. But that's what we've got right now. And they are using the teachers, is using dudes extracted from them to promote those agendas. Just as scary as the teachers using it is that the members over a period of years have elected those type of people to lead them. Not every teacher, but clearly a majority of the teachers. Which is one of the reasons why you hear such scary things coming out of the mouths of the little kids nowadays.
- [23:52]
C
Yeah, no, it is. And then you see all these young people who seem to be disturbed and weaponized during their youth for way in ways we, I don't think we could have imagined the assassin of Charlie Kirk or any of these other shooters recently. There's clearly a weaponization going on in their lives. I'm sure some of that comes from education. I want to turn to some break news that just happened a few moments ago. Hamas just announced that it will release all Israeli hostages and agree two parts of President Trump's peace plan we'll have to see where that goes back and forth. But it does seem like President Trump's negotiating skill has moved Hamas and a big way. Your thought on with that deadline coming up this week and what the president is moving towards in the Middle east with Qatar and Saudi Arabia now, maybe.
- [24:33]
E
Hamas, I'll believe it when I see it. But it's great news, isn't it? And it shows what happens when we have a strong president who really cares about these people. And because he cares about these people, he's willing to go to the map to make sure any of the hostages still alive and let's hope majority of them are still alive, are going to be released because of President Trump's forceful negotiating technique and the fact that he was able to lean on other countries in the, in the world of Islam to weigh in. And I think if Hamas realizes they no longer have the friends in places like Qatar, what else are they going to do?
- [25:16]
C
Yeah, that's it. Qatar. I mean, Qatar's now made up a little bit with Israel. There was a good conversation between the prime ministers earlier this week. The US Is going to give a security guarantee of sorts to Qatar to make sure Israel doesn't ever attack it again. Is there an Abraham accord starting to 2.0? That's starting to shape up in front of our eyes, sir?
- [25:36]
E
Oh, I think unquestionably, you know, one of the downsides of President Trump not winning the election in 2020, a problem is I think they were on the verge of adding more countries to the Abrahamic courts. It's easy to forget we're not even one year into this Trump administration. I think one of his goals is to add more countries there. And I think that's what he's going to do. And I think this is the first step in that direction.
- [26:03]
C
Yeah, it could be historic. The Middle east could be fundamentally reshaped before he leaves office in three years. It's pretty remarkable. Real quickly before we go, a big announcement expected next week. You hail from one of the great farm basket states in our great nation, Wisconsin. Great farmers. I've gotten to know so many of them over the years. Treasury Secretary Bessant saying there will be an announcement for some relief, some economic assistance to farmers. How important could that be in Wisconsin?
- [26:31]
E
Well, it is because, you know, with the tariffs and most farmers, they're behind Trump all the way way. They know it's going to be short term paying for long term gain, but they have paid a price for the tariffs. And I'm glad that President Trump has not forgotten the price, say, the soybean farmers are paying for this trade war.
- [26:52]
C
Yeah. It's so important he hasn't forgotten. That's one of the things he remembers everybody that he made a promise to and everybody he promised to keep an eye on in this economy. And day in and day out, there's always these new announcements, but they seem to always remind us that the president hasn't forgotten the people who elected him and what he told those people he would try to do. It's pretty remarkable, just like what you've done for a long time as a member of Congress from the great state of Wisconsin. Congressman Grossman, great to have you on the show today.
- [27:19]
E
Thanks for having me on.
- [27:21]
C
Yeah. Great honor to have you on. Thank you so much. All right, folks, the government shutdown does not seem to be hurting the stock market. It's almost like cutting government, government spending is a good thing, right? We'll talk more about that with Unleashed Prosperity's Steve Moore. More into my favorites after the break. Hey, folks, as an investigative journalist, I've spent my career digging into the facts, cutting through noise, asking hard questions and getting to the truth. And when it comes to who I recommend to my audience, I hold everyone to the same standard. That's why I want to tell you I've done the homework in amac. The association of Mature American Citizens is the real deal. AMAC is a conservative alternative to aarp. They're focused on faith, family and freedom. And they offer real benefits to their members, myself included, including discounts on travel insurance in prescriptions. So much more exclusive resources and their excellent AMAC magazine. And right now, when you sign up for a five year membership, you'll save up to 33%. That's just over a dollar a month, a smart investment to stay informed, get real value and support a cause that matters. Visit amac US justnews today. I've done the vetting. Now you can take the next step. Welcome back, America. A funny thing happened this week. The government shut down. The stock market kept going up.
- [28:49]
F
Yep.
- [28:50]
C
Stocks performing very well, which means all of our retirements are doing a little bit better. Joining us now to explain why that might be the case is the author of the incredible book the Trump Economic Miracle and the co founder of Unleash Prosperity. He is one of my favorite economists in the world, Steve Moore. Steve, great to have you on the show, my friend. Thank you, John. All right, so I'd like to take three people and tell you who wins and loses. Americans, Chuck Schumer, Donald Trump who's going to win out of those and who's going to lose out of those three?
- [29:21]
A
Well, I don't think there's any question that. That the Chuck Schumer is the big loser here. You know, it's the old parable about the guy who digs a ditch for his enemy to fall into and he falls into the ditch himself. And that's exactly what's happened here with Chuck Schumer. They thought that they would win. And by the way, I understand why that Chuck Schumer might think that the Democrats would win here, because usually they do win. These lockdown, shutdown battles. I've been through. You and I probably been through about 15 of these in our lives. It's always the Republicans that get blamed, but in this case, Chuck Schumer just overplayed his hand. Everybody realized that it was Schumer who wanted to shut down the government to win political points against the Republicans. And it's failed. And as you know, some of the Democrats in the House and Senate are sliding off. And so I anticipate that by the middle of next week, this will be over. Because he's got a plan, a hand that is unsustainable, that he's playing.
- [30:20]
C
Yeah, I think that's right. I'm starting to talk to some moderate Democrats today, and I think some of those hearts and minds are changing quick in that rank of foul, and they kind of feel victimized by one thing.
- [30:31]
A
You know, that the other big loser here could be the American people. Now, the American people would lose the most if Republicans caved in. Because if the Republicans cave in to Chuck Schumer's demands, we're talking about another trillion to a trillion and a half dollars of debt. And, you know, as I look at the American economy, I'm with you. I think, you know, the stock markets at record highs, we're producing more energy than ever before. Inflation is pretty tame. I'd like you to see it a little bit lower. But it's come down. You know, if you look at these statistics on GDP, it's been growing at almost 4%. Those are good numbers. The one thing that scares me, and I think scares a lot of your viewers, is the massive amount of data overspending that's happening in Washington. And what really the basis for the Schumer shutdown is. He wants to add another trillion dollars of debt spending, and that's not something I think most Americans are in favor of.
- [31:23]
C
Yeah, that's the kerosene that burns the city down. It really is crazy. To think that they're trying to throw more on to an economy where it was just starting to cool down. All right, I want to ask a little bit first about the economy. Then I want to go back and say, how far did President Trump be able to go in shrinking? But let's start with the economy. That 3.8% GDP growth number was surprising to a lot of people, seem to put a contradiction to a lot of what Jerome Powell has been saying about the economy recently. What's up with that?
- [31:52]
A
Yeah, the numbers were. I was surprised by the numbers as well. Now they're a little deceptive because some of it was driven by consumer spending and. But a lot of it has been driven by business investment. And that's a good sign because business investment, obviously, is the best future predictor of growth. You can't have an economy that's growing if business start investing and plant and equipment and research and, and more workers. So I think that's a positive thing. And it's, you know, I'm pretty bullish on the US Economy. There are some problems out there, no question about it. I do believe the tariffs have slowed growth and they're causing some supply chain problems throughout the economy, and we have to work that out. And I think we're probably growing a 4 1/2% if it weren't for the tariffs. But other than that, you've got to say that this is a pro business president, pro jobs president, and it's an agenda that most Americans feel pretty good about.
- [32:46]
C
Yeah, yeah. There's no doubt about it. There's one part of the economy that I think is the most stubbornly difficult right now, and that is young people being unable to buy their first house like all the other generations before them. The American dream. President Trump is working, I know, on several housing initiatives. We've got some amazing new companies like Box and Affordable coming up, creating cheaper homes that can turn quicker. Do you expect sometime in the next few months that there are some dents into this problem and maybe a pathway to a more affordable home ownership of the future?
- [33:20]
A
Well, by the way, this narrative of affordability crisis, you know, that people just can't afford things now, I think is a little misleading. You know, we, we've looked at these. We have access to the data. We calculate this every month. And the first six months of the Trump presidency, median income above inflation is up by about eleven hundred dollars. So people are, yeah, you know, that slide that we saw under Biden has actually reversed course. So people have more purchasing power, not less than they did six months ago. But you're right, there's three areas where prices are really high right now. And one is, as you just mentioned, housing. A second one is, is health care. And health, you know, is up. Another, you know, 8 or 9% this year. And the other is education costs. Gee, I wonder why education and health care are rising so much. Maybe it's because the government runs those. And so that is an affordability crisis. But, you know, gas prices are lower now. I paid 289 the other day filling up my tank. So. Remember when they were $A gallon? So energy prices are down and other prices are pretty stable. Yeah, the, you know, look, this housing crisis in terms of affordability is a tough one. I think it's because there's a lot of zoning restrictions in a lot of cities to build multifamily homes. I think there is a problem where a lot of Americans who are in their 70s and 80s who've owned a house for, say, 30 years would like to sell it. But if they sell it, they're going to pay John a huge capital gains tax. One of the things that I proposed is let's have a, you know, let's lower the capital gains impacts to 15% and let people sell these properties. And that would free up a lot of property for younger people in their, you know, 20s and 30s and 40s who want to buy a house.
- [35:06]
C
That's a really good point. People don't talk about that, but that is. I know a lot of boomers, like, I would have sold, but I'm not paying that much taxes. I'm. So I'm just going to hold on to it.
- [35:13]
A
Exactly.
- [35:13]
C
That is a real dynamic, really real.
- [35:16]
A
Dynamic, because, like, I just turned 65 and, you know, I'm a boomer. I think you're probably a little younger than I am, but not much. The fact is that, you know, as you get older, you know, you would like to be able to sell it, maybe downsize a little bit. And that, I think, has caused a lot of friction in the, in the housing market. But we'll see. I mean, we need to build more housing. Incidentally, I'm on the board of a company, John, called Lightspeed, and we build houses with robots. So, you know, the cost of building houses is going to come down.
- [35:48]
C
That's going to be one of the great innovations. If we can get the regulatory system to catch up to and not be so difficult on zoning and other stuff, there could be a housing boom of epic proportions. Before I let you go, how far Could Donald Trump shrink the government in a 10 day, 12 day shutdown if it turns out to be that is he, you know, he likes to go big rather than go home. What do you think he achieves in this small window of time?
- [36:11]
A
Look, this is a real risky proposition for the Democrats because Ross Vaughan is asserting this power. By the way, I don't know if he's got the power or not. I hope he does because I'd love to see some of these agencies. But he's saying, look, if we are just temporarily going to lay off these non essential employees, let's, let's, you know, let's permanently lay them off. Let's drain the swamp here. We're running a $2 trillion deficit of a business was running losing $200 million a year. It would look for ways to cut costs. And so I think there's something here. I think the Ross bot would have the American people behind them. I mean, my God, if we've got hundreds and hundreds of thousands of non essential employees, why do we need them?
- [36:53]
C
Yeah, that's a great point. Why do we need them if we don't? If we could let him go this easily. It's a great point. Steve Moore, always a great conversation. Folks, I got a great idea for. This is one you'll be wiser for. Go get. His incredible book is remarkable. He's one of the great writers in economists and economic thinkers of our time. All right, we're going to take a quick commercial break. When we come back, we're going to talk about a health condition that affects the nearly half of all adults. High blood pressure. It's a big focus of the MAHA movement and we're going to introduce you to an incredible group of inventors. A product they've got to make a little bit better for you. We'll do that right after these messages. Welcome back, America. We've all been hearing a lot about making America healthy again. A lot of us are making ourselves healthy right in the midst of what RFK Jr. And President Trump have unleashed in the country. We all are trying to do a little bit more to make ourselves healthy. One of the places that can be effective of all of our good health, high blood pressure. I've got it. I gotta admit, I've had it for a long time. But I recently was introduced to an incredible product that has been game changing for me. It's a simple drink you take once a day and I am beginning to see my numbers climb down. I got a measurement tomorrow. I can't wait to see how far I've gone down. But that is just one of the many ways that people are doing things. I want to introduce you to the founder of this amazing product, 120 Life, Ira and Telles. Ira, great to have you on.
- [38:28]
G
It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
- [38:31]
C
All right, so this is the simplest thing you could do to make yourself healthy. It's a great tasting drink. You. You drink it once a day, and all of a sudden you start to see an improvement in your blood pressure beyond your pills. The other things that we all do. Not a substitute for exercise, but it does seem to have an impact. And it's so simple. What led you to do this?
- [38:50]
G
You know, I had a health issue, and I thought it was at bay, and I went to the eye doctor, and as you might know, you go to the eye doctor, you go to the dentist, and they said, hey, do you realize your blood pressure is high? And I thought, no way. So I just sort of forgot about it. A couple of weeks later, I'm in the pharmacy, I see a blood pressure monitor. I say, can I take my blood pressure? And it was high. And then I called my doctor who has been dealing with my other health issue, and he said, come in. And yes, it was really high. And he said, and I can quote, if you don't lower the blood pressure in three weeks, we're going to have to do open heart surgery. Just like that. And the doctor was a good friend, so I knew he wasn't kidding. And I said, he said, we're going to give you some medication. And I said, well, what do you do? I mean, I sort of knew what could happen with high blood pressure, but I didn't know what it was, what caused it. And they basically said, go figure it out. And me figuring it out led to me creating the first drink for people with high blood pressure.
- [39:55]
C
That is amazing. And how scary to think, you know, you're doing just fine. All of a sudden. You might be a few weeks from open heart surgery. That would scare me into anything. So tell us about how. I mean, I know how simple it's got. Been doing it now for a week. So tell me a little bit about the simplicity of what 120 life brings to the table. You got all the right things in it, but it's so easy to do.
- [40:15]
G
So basically, let me explain for one minute to your audience, think of. Because I always try to find an analogy. And I think everybody at some point or another in their life has watered the garden, and they know the hose so if you're watering the garden and the water's coming out fine and you put your hand on the hose, the water doesn't come out fine. That's like high blood pressure. Somebody is putting their hands on your blood vessels and it's getting backed up into your heart and your heart is working harder. And because of that, the odds of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, vision issues go up. 80% of people who have a heart attack, have a stroke, have high blood pressure. So we need to figure out how to get your hands off the hose and open up those blood vessels. And the things in our drink, some of them do that.
- [41:08]
C
Yeah. That's amazing. Just so simple. And ingredients that have been tested and known to be beneficial to lowering blood pressure. I think over a thousand doctors have endorsed the different ingredients that are in this drink. Right?
- [41:24]
G
Yeah. So what happened was I was. When I was diagnosed, I started to do what many people probably like you would do. I'm like, okay, what am I eating wrong? What am I drinking wrong? You know, cut your salt. So when I went to the drinks, I've been read over a period of months, I would read, and I didn't quite believe it at first. If you drink beet juice, it'll lower your blood pressure. But then I started to read the studies. If you drink pomegranate juice, it will lower your blood pressure. And I'm reading the studies, I'm like, this is like, I'm not making it up. This is for real. If you drink hibiscus tea, it will lower your blood pressure. And they're giving me the reason. So one day I was like, well, if they all lower your blood pressure a little, maybe I should put it together and see if it lowers it a lot. And it was literally that simple. Went to the store, everybody thought I lost my mind. Because as you might see, my life has really been in music. And I'm like, there's 120 million people that have this and there was nothing, there was not one thing on the market to lower your blood pressure naturally. And I'm like, I'm going to put this out.
- [42:34]
C
Wow, that is amazing. All right. You do something pretty fun and special. You offer people a two week trial, tell people how they can try this for the first time. It tastes great, but I love it. Tell people how they get a two week trial.
- [42:47]
G
So initially what we said is, look. And we have continued that. And I deal with all the phone calls and communications. Well, if you want to pay to try this and you're unhappy for Any reason? If you don't like the way the package looks, if you feel it doesn't help you, we will give you your money back, no questions asked. And I'm the one responding to you. So people like I can't, I can't believe you call me back and I'm like, I do that. That's my word and my bond. So you really, you have nothing to lose. You purchase it for two weeks. If you are unhappy, it doesn't help you just call me or email me and I refund your money. That's it.
- [43:28]
C
Pretty amazing. That's pretty simple. Well, you've done something pretty special for us. And by the way, I take it every night before bed. I seem like I sleep a little bit better. So I think you've got something special there. Ira, I'm so excited about this. I'm going to be telling everybody I know about it. Thanks for joining me to give us a great update. Thanks for turning your health crisis into something that benefits us all. It's really great. Good to have you on, my friend. All right, folks, we've got something special for a limited time. Try 120Life and save 20% off. Just use the promo code JTN at checkout at 120Life.com 120Life offers a risk free trial with a full refund. Like we just told you, you don't like it in two weeks and you'll see your numbers go down, you get your money back. Go to 120life.com and use the promo code jtn to save 20%. One more block to go. An amazing story about a human rights case in Armenia. We'll have that next. Welcome back, america. Today and most days we've talked about the weaponization of government injustice in America. But it's not just here that it's happening. It's happening all over the world. And we've been trying to chronicle some of those examples. For example, in Armenia, that country has arrested its richest man worth 4.4 billion over what his family says was criticism against the Armenian prime minister for attacking their Christian church. This is a faith dispute that's now become a justice matter. Joining us now to discuss what is going on is the nephew of Armenia's richest man, Narek Kara Petun. Narek, great to have you on the show.
- [45:08]
F
Thank you for half time for us. Mr. Solomon and I want to tell you a story about the situation in our country. I'm from Armenia. Armenia is in East Europe. It's in South Caucasus. It's one of most democratic countries in this region. So it's only country that has like, has a democratic tradition. But what we have today, our new prime minister started a big, big, big like social attacks and political attacks to Armenian church. And now our new prime minister wants to change our head of our church, Armenian Apostolic Church, which has a big reputation in Armenia and 98% of Armenian population are like followers of Armenian Apostolic Church. And our new prime minister Nicole Pashinya started attack of Armenian church and two archbishops of Armenian church were arrested. After that, my uncle Samuel Karapitian, who is the wealthiest Armenian in the world and who is the biggest investor in Armenia and biggest philanthropist of last 15 years started like when the journalist asked him what do you think about the situation? He said that what can I think about the situation? Small group of people like forgetting Armenian history, forgetting history of our church is attacking our church. And if politicians will not defend our church, we will do it by our way. Because Mr. Karapetyn is a social figure in Armenia and highly respected. After that, after 30 minutes like our prime minister and Facebook, he wrote that this philanthropist must shut their mouth. And he sent special forces to the house of sandwich to take him to jail. For such a country as Armenia with a democratic tradition, it was a shock for us, for our family. And now it's already hundred days that he's in jail. And very many people. There were protests In Armenia, like 20,000 people were out and were like defending Mr. Karapitian and Armenian church. And now it's a situation that church and the biggest philanthropist in our country is in jail. The jail name is. Yeah, yeah. The jail name is a KGB basement. It's like old communist jail named KGB Basement. So he's there in 40 square meters, 14 square meters, like 100 days. But he's like fighting for our rights and for our religious views and he doesn't want to like stop his way, his and lose his old views, you know, his political religious views. So such situation we have here and.
- [48:40]
C
It'S an amazing story. All right, we got about a minute left. I want to ask what can we do in America? What's been the American government's response, response and what can we do in America to write this? This is a gentleman that just spoke up in defense of his church in what's supposed to be a democratic country.
- [48:54]
F
Yeah, yeah, it was just 40 seconds interview so everyone can see it. It's in YouTube and what America can do. Armenia and Armenian prime minister shows our society that he is in a very good relationship with American administration and we don't feel any support now from our western colleagues and partners because of these attacks to our religious groups. And what we think, we think we need to have some support from our partners in USA and from our partners in west to make our government to come to more democratic way and for us to be like to find back religious freedom in our country. You know.
- [49:55]
C
Yeah. This is an issue. We talked about it with the head of the or the vice chair of the U.S. civil Rights Commission earlier this month. It's a very serious, very serious matter. Narakarpettin, thank you so much. We'll be watching closely your uncle's case. This matters to all you of of us no matter where we live in the world. Thank you for joining us.
- [50:13]
F
Thank you, Mr. Solomon. I want to add one more thing. Today was the day. Yeah. Today is the day that one of our archbishops. Michael. Archbishop Michael was it was a verdict that he will go to jail for two years because of criticizing prime minister and his shock focus. And we think that it it's, you know, it's not for our country like criticism of prime minister will not, mustn't give and mustn't have such a result.
- [50:50]
C
You know, such an amazing thing. We'll keep a coast on it. We got to wrap things up. I got to hand it off to my amazing colleague Grant Stitchfeld. I'll take you to the next hour, folks. We'll be back Monday. Amanda will be here. We'll be back in studios. Have a good night. This is an iHeart podcast.