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Real America’s Voice
Just the News No Noise with John Solomon and Amanda Head, September 29th, 2025
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Natalia Merkavar
This is an iHeart podcast.
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John Solomon
Good evening, America. Welcome to the Monday edition, a very busy Monday edition of Just the News. No noise. I'm your host John Solomon reporting to you as always from the nation's capital where today peace was breaking out, or at least a plan to break out peace in the Middle East. Amanda is going to bring us up to speed on that. In addition, we got word today that the meeting between congressional leaders and President Trump went badly, which means tomorrow night the government will begin shutting down. Vice President J.D. vance confirming that while that shutdown occurs, keep an eye on the Trump White House. I think they're going to shrink the size of government in ways you never imagined. We're going to be chronicling that in the next couple days over@justinnews.com that's some of the big news. Amanda is going to bring you up to speed on the historic deal, but I want to turn to something that we broke in the last 72 hours. It began Thursday night with a story on the number of FBI agents who went to the Capitol on January 6, 274 of them, and then came out and said they witnessed a politically biased FBI that the J6 defendants were treated substantially different than those who committed crimes during the BLM riots of 2020. Today we were able to provide to the American public new FBI documents that Kash Patel has found. One of them is the lab report on the two J6 pipe bombs. Remember the pipe bombs found at the DNC and the RNC, the two major political party headquarters? There's a really interesting question that those reports raise, which is how do bombs that had a one hour timer sit for 16 hours without going off? The FBI lab report couldn't answer that, though it did confirm that there were one hour timers on 16. 16 hour old bombs. No one can explain what it is. But the mystery got even more severe when we got the main witness interview with the woman who the FBI interviewed who says she found the Republican National Committee bomb. And she says the story that the FBI is Telling that the bombs were there for 16 hours can't be true because she walked by the Republican National Committee bomb site an hour before she found the bomb and there was no bomb there. And then it suddenly showed up when she came back on her laundry room. She's adamant about it. And also she said at the time she saw the bomb, it still had 20 minutes on its timer, something that the FBI lab doesn't acknowledge. What does that mean? We got a lot more questions than we got answers. But at least now under Cash Patel, the FBI is providing Congress and the American public evidence long denied the American public. And with that, and in the second block of the show, the chairman of the newly formed House Judiciary J6 subcommittee, Barry Loudermukh, is going to be here. We're going to ask him a lot of questions about these documents. But first let me turn it over to my amazing co host, Amanda Head, who is there today as Benjamin Netanyahu, the president. A pretty dramatic day, Amanda, including apparently Netanyahu apologized to the Qataris personally about the attack on their soil. It sounds like the parties are coming together in the Middle East.
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Amanda Head
Yeah. And we have a great guest coming up later in the hour who I want to ask specifically about that phone call because obviously the deal was a huge, a huge deal. But you know, what happened before it in that phone call I think set the stage for it. But yes, I was at the White House while Israeli Prime Minister Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting with President Trump today. And obviously that big news came out of the meeting as the president is working on ending the conflict between Hamas and Israel and Gaza, something he talked about frequently on the campaign trail. First, the president outlined the plan that he has put forward to finally end that war, a plan that he announced Netanyahu agreed to and briefly discussed the history of how this whole situation has gotten to this point. Trigger warning. It's biblical. Watch this.
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President Donald Trump
Let us not forget how we got here. Hamas was elected by the Palestinian people. Israel withdrew from Gaza thinking they would live in peace. Remember that? A long time ago they withdrew. They said, you take it, this is our contribution to peace. But that didn't work out. That didn't work out. It was the opposite of peace. But the plan that we put forward today is focused on ending the war immediately, getting all of our hostages back, getting everything back.
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Amanda Head
There were 20 points in that deal, a lot of which President Trump, you know, did not even have time to discuss today because there were so many meaningful ideas in this plan. But he also announced that he had brokered a historic trilateral coordination plan with the United States, Israel and Qatar, as we referenced before. Check it out.
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President Donald Trump
A short time ago, we had a historic phone call in the Oval Office with Prime Minister Taney, who's really a great, great person. So we had a great talk. We agreed to launch a formal trilateral mechanism between Israel, Qatar and the United States to begin a dialogue to enhance mutual security, correct misperceptions and avoid future misgivings.
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Amanda Head
And John, one of the more lighthearted moments today came with President Trump reintroducing a pronunciat of the Abraham Accords. And he explained his reasoning behind it, that Netanyahu and a lot of other people, especially in their Hebrew dialect, that's what they call it. But I even caught a certain CNN commentator who hosts a nighttime show on cnn, Caleb Hollins, smiling a little when everyone was laughing at President Trump as he was making funny comments about it.
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John Solomon
It's a big day for the world if this carries out. And there's some developments tonight as we talk. First, getting Israel and Qatar, who have been at odds for a long time together. Qatar is the sort of country that can make things happen. They got one of our hostages back this weekend, but tonight the Palestinian government embraced this plan. Now, the government obviously reports to Hamas, which is a political arm, but the government or the bureaucracy, that is a really good sign that what's happening here may be a historic path towards peace. A lot of roadblocks ahead, but pretty historic day. I'm glad you were there.
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Amanda Head
Me too.
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John Solomon
You had paid cover to all day. It was fantastic. All right. Speaking of great, I love having this first guest on. I say he is a sage of sanity in a budget sea of insanity in Washington. He's a great congressman from the state of Wisconsin. And now he's thrown his hat in the ring for governor of Wisconsin. I think he's going to do very well. Congressman Tom, Tiffany, sir, good to have you on the show.
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Congressman Tom Tiffany
Good afternoon, Amanda and John. Good to join you.
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John Solomon
All right, I want to start with the impending sand clock, which is winding down tomorrow night at midnight. It sounds like, according to Vice President J.D. vance, the government will shut down. In years past, the Democrats have tried to make this a Republican shutdown, but this feels like a Schumer shutdown to me. Tell me what you think.
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Congressman Tom Tiffany
Yeah, we would really rather not see the government shut down. The House of Representatives did its work a couple weeks ago to pass the continuing resolution. Give us time to be able to get the appropriations process done over the next seven weeks. And Chuck Schumer said, no, I'm not going to go that route. And it's really unfortunate. And I am so glad that our leadership and the White House has said no to the extortionist demands that are being put out there. I mean, think about it. They want to give free health care to illegal aliens. That's part of the deal that they want. They want to get rid of the $50 billion we put in the working families bill for rural hospitals. That really affects districts like mine in rural America. So the Democrats are on the wrong side of this, and I really don't know what they're thinking. I actually think I'm more optimistic. I think there's going to be a deal by October 1st, because I think there's going to be some sane Democrats in the Senate that are going to say, hold it, we do not want to own this.
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Amanda Head
Right.
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John Solomon
Wow.
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Amanda Head
Well, and Congressman, I mean, Chuck Schumer is kind of stuck between Iraq and a hard place because if there is a shutdown, then President Trump has vowed to take that opportunity to trim down the federal government. So do you think that that is a good enough reason for him to accept this deal? And also, I mean, shutting down the government, look, we've all got a little bit of Dennis the Menace anarchy in us and we want to see what would happen if we shut down the government. But it costs the American people when it shuts down, doesn't it?
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Congressman Tom Tiffany
Yeah, there's no doubt about it. It does. And, you know, every, the back pay gets done and all the rest. And I mean, it just is expensive doing that. The thing that I'm heartened by is that what I'm hearing from the White House, and I don't know if you're hearing this, but for example, people's Social Security and Medicare checks, that is a priority. The White House and President Trump will make sure people get those. Our military, our troops, they're going to get paid because they can prioritize those things that are essential. This White House knows what is essential. And this brinksmanship by Senator Schumer, I just don't. Regardless of what he does, he is in a real box.
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John Solomon
Yeah, there's no doubt. And this is not one the Democrats are going to be able to call a Republican shutdown, not what. After all the work that the House, the White House and the Senate have done. So I want to turn to what also happened today. President Trump putting out a 20 point plan to achieve peace in the long war torn area of Gaza. It's been under war since Hamas, horrific atrocities on October 7, it seems like we may be on the cusp of a deal. And getting Qatar involved, getting large numbers of other Arab neighbors involved, seems like we're getting a whole regional investment in it. Tell us what you think about it.
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Congressman Tom Tiffany
So you guys go back a few administrations. Have we ever seen a president that has the respect of both the Arab people and the Jewish people, like President Trump? Think about when President Trump went to the Arabic countries very early on in his second term here, what, six, seven months ago, something like that. He was treated with great respect, and he treated them with great respect. It's the same with Israel and the Jewish people. It is just amazing that this man, President Trump, has the respect of both parties, but that's why it's getting done. And I think the big question now, if they're able to complete this is will Iran be a good actor? You know, they don't have a good history of being a good actor. They've been the chief destabilizing force in the Middle east over the last decade or so. So hopefully Iran can be kept to heel and maybe we can have peace break out in the Middle east and have those countries prosper because they have so much wealth over there that they could just make great countries that are just a beautiful place on this earth.
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Amanda Head
Yeah, no doubt, sir. I want to turn to midterms, obviously, 2024, Wisconsin was a swing state and it went for President Trump. With respect to your own race, and congratulations, by the way, on that announcement, how are you feeling? The tea leaves are looking in the state of Wisconsin.
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Congressman Tom Tiffany
So, you know, Wisconsin is a great state with wonderful people, but its state leadership is lacking at this point. I mean, the next governor is going to be left with a significant deficit. Our energy costs are among the highest in the Midwest. It used to not be that way. And by the way, this governor is converting thousands of acres of some of the most beautiful farmland in America into the eyesores of wind and solar facilities. And we are now in the bottom 10 states for creating jobs as well.
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Natalia Merkavar
As.
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Congressman Tom Tiffany
For entrepreneurs to be able to build new facilities to carry out their dreams in our state. And so all those things are headed in the wrong direct in Wisconsin. And we have the opportunity to change that in 2026. Good people of the state of Wisconsin, we're going to give them a clear choice here. Do you want prosperity like we're seeing with so many other states, or do you want to be amongst the woke and broke like our neighbors in Minnesota and Illinois?
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John Solomon
The woke and broken, broke yeah, they're rolling up a lot in those blue states, aren't they? I want to turn to the border because that was one of President Trump's big promises. It changed so rapidly, and now we're beginning to see a mass exodus. I think about 2 million illegal aliens already out of the country in the first eight months. How much does that play in Wisconsin? And do the good and wise residents of Wisconsin realize how much progress has been made in a short period of.
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Congressman Tom Tiffany
Time for a lot of people that do. For people that read the, you know, the liberal media, you know, they're not going to realize what success has been and that there are really still great concerns yet. I mean, Dane county continues to. Madison continues to be a sanctuary county. And we just had two young people a couple months ago that were killed by a second offense, illegal alien, drunk driver, that should have been referred by Dane County Sheriff's Department to ICE and had that person removed. Instead, we have two innocent people that are dead. Those things continue to happen here in the state of Wisconsin. And we're really trying to call attention to that, that we cannot have a sanctuary state in Wisconsin. Let's make sure those people that are coming into our country are coming in legally because we favor legal immigration. That's the way it should be done. But I think a lot of people in Wisconsin are understanding that it is better. And plus, the amount of fentanyl coming into our state has come down the number one killer of young people. And so there's progress being made. A lot of people in Wisconsin realize that's the case.
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Amanda Head
That's great, sir. There are other types of sanctuaries as well. Restrooms for women and girls, locker rooms for women and girls should be safe spaces for them. But I read an awful story about a young gal who's an athlete in Wisconsin, and she and her PE class is. Her female PE class were forced to stand there while a young male student just ogled them. I mean, this kid was definitely not any type of gender questioning or transitioning or anything like that. He was just a boy, a young boy. And I thought of you because I know you're a girl, dad. And I'm wondering if this is an issue in Wisconsin to the degree that it is, because I hear about it all around the Beltway. I hear about it in Virginia, obviously, that that horrific case in Loudoun county, is that an issue for midterms in Wisconsin?
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John Solomon
It is.
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Congressman Tom Tiffany
It was in the November election. And we have a governor that stands with boys being able to go in girls bathrooms and by the way, the Democrats are going to have a knockdown, drag out primary. It'll be really interesting to see where all them stand as they race to the left. But I can make just one thing clear. If I'm elected as the governor of the state of Wisconsin, girls will be going in girls bathrooms, not boys.
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John Solomon
That's pretty clear, pretty simple. Should be as it always is with you, sir. You always have such great principles and always stick to them. It's great to have you on today. Congressman, thanks for joining us.
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Congressman Tom Tiffany
Great to join you, John.
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John Solomon
Appreciate you always. Thank you so much. All right, folks, after the break, we're going to turn to that J6 series of stories. We had the pipe bombs, particularly Chairman Barry Louder mix up next. He's got some big things to share with us. We'll have that right after these messages.
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Amanda Head
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John Solomon
Welcome back America. Joining us now, I can say this honestly, one of the most consequential investigators in all of the United States House of Representatives. His work on The House Administration J6 subcommittee the last two years redefined what we learned about January 6th, what truths we were denied. And now he's the chairman of a new subcommittee in House Judiciary where we're beginning to dive into what the law enforcement did and didn't do on January 6th. Joining us right now from the great state of Georgia, Congressman Barry Loudama. Congressman, good to have you on the show.
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Congressman Barry Loudermilk
John, it's always good to be with you and Amanda. I mean, you guys are out there getting the truth to the American people.
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John Solomon
Well, we're grateful. We couldn't do it without you. And all the hard work you've done. You fought for this committee. We have this story this morning. Documents that you and Jim Jordan have been able to get from the new director, Cash Patel. And obviously they raised a lot more questions for me than they answered. You've got an FBI lab that can't explain how bombs are sitting for 16 hours but only had a one hour timer, didn't explode. And then you have a woman who says, wait a second, that 16 hour bomb thing doesn't work for me because I walked by the location, it wasn't there. I came back from laundry, it was, it was probably only there for an hour. Tell us what you make of this new evidence.
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Congressman Barry Loudermilk
Well, one thing John, is if we had an FBI that was actually helping us last Congress, we'd be a whole lot further down the road now. But I want to reemphasize, these are documents that we're getting from, from this FBI, not the previous FBI. They are being forthcoming because they want to get to the bottom of these things just as much as we do. And yeah, we were able to get a lab report of the pipe bombs, which is something that has been a mystery to all of us. Always trying to figure out all the different nuances that just did not make sense. I mean, there were so many factors of these bombs. How could a highly trained Secret service bomb, bomb sniffing canine walk by these devices without hitting on them? I mean law enforcement just letting people walk by. And so a lot of times we were just speculating what were these devices. And I remember another reporter asking me one time, he said, well, we understand there were egg timers on there. And how do you place an egg timer that only goes for an hour the night before without it exploding? And so I started talking to some former explosive ordnance disposal specialists that I know. And one of the things that's interesting as they said a lot of times an egg timer will not be used as a primary fuse, but a secondary. In other words, use an electronic timer with a particular, basically a digital clock that has a specific time for it to go off and use the egg timer as the override. In other words, you set the regular timer and then you connect the wires to the egg timer for 60 minutes. Gives you plenty of time to get out of the way. When I saw that made some sense to me, right? But when I saw the lab report, there was no electronic timer. It was only this 60 minute egg timer that was wired to cause these bombs to explode. So there is no way, if they were placed the night before on January 5, which is a story we've been told, they were not set. The timers weren't set till later the next day. So whoever placed them then had to come back. Okay, I'm not buying the story anymore that they were there on the 5th. I believe that they were put out on the 6th. At this point, this is the theory that we're going on, especially since the lady that found them said There were still 20 minutes left on the timer when they were placed there. That's one of the key things as you brought up. The other thing is were there enough, was there enough explosives in the devices to actually cause a massive explosion? That's one of the things we're looking at in these reports which kind of leads us to believe maybe there wasn't, but there definitely was explosives. Now follow me on this series of logic here. When would you build a bomb that's not designed to go off, but every element of it is to make you think it will or make a drug bomb sniffing dog think that it is a live bomb? That's a training exercise. So that also opens the door to that. Was this possibly part of a training exercise or were they put there just to be a diversion to draw resources away from the Capitol? So there's several scenarios that we're looking at with both of these devices. Some of it did. Were there people around who knew that these were inert, they were not active? There's nothing I've seen in the FBI report that says that they could have exploded. They just say that there were traces of explosives in there. So there's more questions. But that's a good thing that we actually have more evidence to have more questions to open the door to do more investigation to get to the truth.
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John Solomon
Yeah, definitely.
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Amanda Head
Mr. Chairman, as with any big city, but especially our nation's capital, there are very few square inches of the the city that are not covered with cameras. And I know that this has been a huge source of question and concern during this because the cameras, from what I remember, they tilt and pan. So there really should have been complete coverage of what happened. What's the status of that footage?
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Congressman Barry Loudermilk
Well, we do have the Capitol Police footage from the cameras around there. They really don't show the locations of where the bombs were placed as well as the cameras that were on the D triple. See in the Republican or the Republican club, that's that where the first bomb was placed. And so there's plenty of coverage around there. As we started in this committee, one of the first things I wanted to do is we got all access back to all the cameras. Again, we're going to scouring all the cameras like we did before, knowing that, you know, the Capitol Police cameras, the ones that were there, may not have been panned in the right place at the right time, but either way they weren't in the position to really get a good shot of where those bombs were placed. But the DCCC did and the Republican club did. So I now under this new idea, Everybody's focused on January 5th. I want to look at who maybe came by within the hour of when the bombs were discovered or anytime that morning on January 6th. The problem is no one has any video footage of January 6th. Now I can understand that the Republican club and the Democrat club, their security cameras overwrite, but would not the FBI or Metropolitan Police, Secret Service, Capitol Police have asked for the video footage of January 6th? And I'm finding out that the FBI never did ask for January 6th video footage. They only asked for January 5th because someone in a law enforcement agency told them, oh, we know what you need to look for. You need to look at January 5th because this person in the hoodie, that's who you're looking for. I think that's pretty bad. It's poor investigative duties. I would want to have all the footage before, during and after to see who was there. But apparently no one preserved any of the footage for January 6, which is another element for us to look into. Why not?
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John Solomon
Alright, I want to go to one other thing that's missing. The geospatial phone records for who was around the area of the bomb. So you, your team and you have dug up something really interesting. The woman that finds the RNC bomb and she seems very cooperative. She was on a laundry run, right. But she works for a company or she works for the program FirstNet, which is the first responders telephone network. She was at the Commerce Department at the time who handled the phone records requests that got corrupted and now we don't have any data left.
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Congressman Barry Loudermilk
Well, it was actually the company she worked for, which is an interesting coincidence there. All right, so we have a situation where the FBI is going out looking for geofence data. So they send out, I think it was on, it was within a few days of January 6th, they send out a preservation letter to all the major carriers, preserve all this data. Basically what a preservation letter does. It says we're investigating something. We know we got to get the lawyers to go through the law and provide you with the documents or subpoenas, whatever you need. In the meantime, while we're getting all the lawyers do their work, do not get rid of this data. That's what a preservation letter does. And it actually specified with latitude and longitude these areas that we're investigating. And so that letter was sent. And so we presume that the FBI got some generalized geofence data, but then they wanted more specific data near the pipe bomb area. So when they went to AT&T, they were sent for some reason to FirstNet, which is actually an organization that was set up via Congress after 911 that gives first responders priority cell phone service and data. So if there's something big going on, you and I may not be able to get a phone call through, but the first responders can because they preempt everyone else's phone calls. So First Day or FirstNet handles that first responder network their phones. For some reason, AT&T says FirstNet's who you need to go to to get this level of data. FirstNet goes in to download that data, claims that, and this is something else we're looking into. They get the. They start on January 11th claiming that data is going to be overwritten. Okay, they're claiming the data is going to be overwritten at midnight that night, even though they'd already received a preservation letter. So they have to hurry up and over. They end up overloading the server. And the server corrupted all that data. This is what I'm having several issues with that. Formerly working in information technology, also working with high sensitive data within the military. That stuff you generally hang on to. We talked to one carrier who said, look, we still have all the data from the Oklahoma City bombing. That's the kind of data we hang on to. Why after receiving a preservation letter and you know, why would that level of data be automatically deleted anyhow in that short a period of time? These are questions I have. I'm not pointing fingers, I'm just saying these are legitimate questions we need to be asking. What is the relationship here? Is, is the person who found the pipe bomb works for the company that corrupted the data, and then they tell the FBI the data wasn't corrupted, then they tell the FBI that the data was corrupted. So it's. This is a mess that we've got to unravel.
- [28:09]
John Solomon
Yeah, it really is. And the good thing we know is you're going to be asking the right question because you have for the last three years. That's how we got so much of the evidence we already now have. Mr. Chairman, a great honor to have you on the show. We're going to be watching this very closely. A lot more work ahead of us, but thank you for joining us tonight.
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Congressman Barry Loudermilk
Well, thank you, John. Let me just say with the Democrats on there, this is something everybody ought to want to get to the bottom of because Republican, Democrat lives, supposedly we're were at risk that day.
- [28:35]
John Solomon
That's right.
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Congressman Barry Loudermilk
And so we should be working together on this.
- [28:37]
John Solomon
Absolutely. Even the vice president elect. Yeah. Kamala Harris. Run by. By the bomb. Yeah. It's such an important thing. Mr. Chairman, thank you as always, Great honor. All right, folks, quick commercial break. When we come back, more on the looming government shutdown, if it's going to happen. We'll have that right after this quick break. All right, folks, all across this country, they're asking the big question tonight. Will we or won't we shut down the government? We'll know tomorrow night at midnight. It does look like we're headed that way. J.D. vance said so just a short while ago, you heard Tom Tiffany saying, well, maybe some Democrats will come out of the Senate and save it. We'll have to wait and see. But joining us now, someone who knows everything about the way the government spends the money. He's the director of government affairs at the National Taxpayers Union, Tommy Halo. Tommy, good to have you.
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Tommy Halo
Good evening. Thanks for having me.
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John Solomon
All right, give us your Vegas odds over under. We shut down tomorrow night.
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Tommy Halo
Oh, I think it's definitely a possibility that the government shuts down. And I think it's definitely going to happen. It's unfortunate. Shouldn't have to happen. But Chuck Schumer, he doesn't want to let his Democrats vote for a continuing resolution. It's really disappointing.
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John Solomon
Yeah, it is.
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Amanda Head
But Tommy, if it does, there are a lot of people out there who are salivating so much. I picture a cartoon hobo watching a pie cool on a windowsill. They are absolutely salivating over the notion of President Trump slashing the federal workforce. Is that the silver lining?
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Congressman Tom Tiffany
Yeah.
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Tommy Halo
I come at it from two ways. One, I don't think anybody wins in a government shutdown. We pay bureaucrats to stay home. It's really unfortunate. While our troops work and don't get paid. There's something really off about that. And I think it just adds to this dysfunction in Washington that we can't even do the most basic stuff. But you know, I will say there is this memo that Russ Lloyd put out a few days ago that said if the government shuts down, they're going to move forward with wide scale firings. I don't know if that is 100% legal. It'll have to work its way through the courts. But I think it just shows you that one, the Trump administration is serious about trimming the fat of the federal government. And I think it's a good conversation to have and we'll see if they move forward with it.
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John Solomon
Yeah, and Tommy, on that point, the Supreme Court has mostly sided with President Trump. Every time he's fired someone, including at independent agencies, it seems like he's on a roll there. Maybe they're banking on that. But in this case, they would argue that Congress gave them no choice. Right. We can't afford to have these people, so we're just going to fire them to save money. How do you think the courts might look at that?
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Tommy Halo
Yeah, to your point. Look, they've already ruled a few times that said what the President is doing is within his constitutional authority to do it. There was a report out today that potentially 100,000 federal workers could be putting in the resignation letter tomorrow because of all these federal buyouts in Doge. That's a very good thing. It's a lot of people, but ironically enough, it's only a small percentage of the federal workforce. We have about 10 million people that are employed by the federal government. So, yes, on its base, it's a large number of people, but it's just a small drop in the bucket. And I'll just say one other thing about the possibility of the government shutdown. Look, this is all on the Democrats. The House of Representatives, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, they did their job. They passed a clean continuing resolution to fund the government at current levels. And Chuck Schumer, he really has to show that he's fighting back against President Trump. He needs to show his base that he actually wants to be a fighter. And unfortunately, the American people are going to be caught in the crossfire as collateral damage.
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John Solomon
Terrible.
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Amanda Head
I also wonder if that collateral damage is Democrat votes come next November because you've got them holding out on absurdities like transgender care and, you know, health care for illegal aliens and things like that. I understand that Democrat minded voters are on very different sides of this than, than a lot of conservatives and even people down the center. But I gotta think that that's not. Those aren't the winning issues, are they?
- [32:33]
Tommy Halo
No, it's not. I mean, you just have to look at some of their ridiculous, unreasonable asks. They want the President to overturn the huge taxpayer savings from his one big beautiful bill. That just passed, what, three months ago? There's no way the president's going to overturn it. And then they also want to extend these Covid era Obamacare subsidies to plus up tax credits for wealthy people that receive health care. It really is ridiculous. And I think when you add everything up, it's about $1 trillion in new spending just to keep the government open for another seven weeks. It's absolutely ridiculous. And you know, I think the president was exactly right in his meeting today to have the meeting to talk through some of these issues. But he's not going to budge and he's not going to put long term deficits on the table in exchange for a short term continuing resolution. So we hope he continues to hold the line and I hope Republicans in Congress do the same.
- [33:27]
John Solomon
Yeah, this is a historic moment and a consequential one. If it's executed right, it could really set the Washington on a different arc. Before we let you go, we'd be remiss not to ask about this. We get closer. I've been here in this town 35 years and they were warning about Social Security and Medicare going bankrupt back then, but now we're within the decade of it actually beginning to happen. Give us some sense. Is there anyone moving in a direction that would create some solution there, or is this really another fiscal cliff coming up over the horizon?
- [33:56]
Tommy Halo
You know, it's certainly a fiscal cliff looming out there. I think there's another five or six years before the program goes insolvent. It's a real problem. Not enough people are talking about it. Senator Cassidy from Louisiana, he's really shown a light on this issue. He shows a lot of leadership and we hope he continues to do that. But again, Congress always waits to the last minute to do things, whether it's Social Security, fund the government, even the one big beautiful bill. I really think at some point there's going to have to be a critical mass and really identify the problem and fix the problem.
- [34:26]
John Solomon
Yeah, it's this generation's job to fix it. We can't let it go on beyond it. So real quickly, do you guys still keep the Golden Fleece Award? Don't you do a regular award for misspending in America?
- [34:37]
Tommy Halo
You know, we do an annual rating of every member of Congress to see how they voted as our taxpayers. And we're actually wrapping up last year's vote, so we should have a new scorecard coming out of the next several weeks, so we'll have to share that list with you. A lot of good members that Come on your program that receive A pluses.
- [34:52]
John Solomon
We would love to have that. That's important to us. We care.
- [34:55]
Amanda Head
Tell us the A pluses because we want to keep them coming back on our show.
- [34:59]
John Solomon
We might want to highlight those that have been misspented too. Yeah. Tom Mayello, you guys at Nashville Taxpayers Union for years, all the time I've been in Washington, you have done such extraordinary work protecting the American taxpayer. Great to have you on the show today. Thanks for joining us.
- [35:13]
Tommy Halo
Thank you so much. See you next time.
- [35:14]
John Solomon
You as well. Well, great, great, great conversation. All right, folks, after the break, we'll take a closer look at President Trump's meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu today. Is the war Gaza coming to end? A lot of people are thinking so tonight. We'll cover that next right after these messages. Hey, America. The FBI has been warning about a type of real estate fraud on the rise called home title theft. And your equity is the target. Here's how it works. Criminals. For your signature on a single document, use a fake notary stamp and file it with the county. And just like that, boom, they're on record as owning your home, using your ownership. They then take out loans against your equity or even sell your property. And you're not going to know about it until you get a foreclosure or collection notice in the mail. And that's not going to be a good moment. That's why I partnered with Home Title Lock so you can protect your equity. And find out today if you're already a victim, use my promo code, jtn@hometitlelock.com, you'll get a free title history report and a free child. They're million dollar triple lock protection. That's a great deal. A million bucks to protect your home. That's 247 monitoring of your title records, urgent alerts to any changes. And if fraud occurs, their US Based restoration team will spend up to a million bucks to fix it. Find out why I trust hometatalock. Protect yourself like I did. Don't be a victim. Protect your equity today. Go to homethetalock.com and use that promo code, jtn. That's homethetalock.com promo code jtn. Welcome back, everybody. Amanda told us about it at the beginning of the show. A 20 point pathway to peace potentially in Gaza getting great reviews tonight. Even the Palestinian government tonight saying they're very excited about what President Trump announced at the White House today. Joining us now, former congresswoman and the co founder of the Abraham Accords Caucus on Capitol Hill. She's now a U.S. israel Education association fellow. Former Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rogers. Congresswoman, great to have you on the show.
- [37:11]
Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers
Thank you very much. It's great to be with you.
- [37:14]
John Solomon
It's an honor to have you on. All right. We've had false starts in the past. I was here covering the handshake between Arafat and Clinton a long time ago. But how big a deal is this and does this feel like maybe one of the bigger movements towards peace in the region?
- [37:26]
Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers
Oh, I think this is definitely historic. So grateful for the leadership of President Trump. As you as everyone knows, we're coming up on two years since the terrible day on October 7th when Hamas attacked Israel horrifically. And we need a path forward. We need this to come to an end. And today, President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking on behalf of this 20 point plan that would ensure that this is de radicalized, a terror free zone, that, that Hamas and Gaza are not going to be a threat to the neighbors in this region. We definitely need to see more details on how hearts and minds are going to be changed in that region. But Trump has an economic development plan. He has a plan to move forward which is desperately needed.
- [38:15]
John Solomon
Yeah.
- [38:16]
Amanda Head
Congresswoman, I want to ask you about this perception that a lot of folks, a lot of folks who aren't big fans of Prime Minister Netanyahu and they say, well, he doesn't mean it. He's just saying this. You know, he, he loves keeping this conflict going. But I want to rewind to a few hours before this meeting took place where Bibi Netanyahu acknowledged a couple different strikes in Qatar, expressed regret for them. That seems to me like a major move and something that was probably a little personally humbling for him that would set the stage for maybe some, some to make this deal, I guess, a little bit more substantial. Did it come across you like that?
- [38:52]
Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers
Well, I certainly Prime Minister Netanyahu understands how desperate the situation is. He understands that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle east and that they are surrounded by those that are at times been, you know, controlled by terrorists. And so I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu understands that we must get it right, that we cannot have Hamas continuing to control Gaza and that he has been holding out to make sure that the deal is going to ultimately protect Israel from Hamas and other terrorists. What is most encouraging right now is that Arab nations and other Muslim nations around the world are looking, are speaking out favorably on this 20 point plan that is going to be very important as this moves forward. But we really need to, you know, everyone's going to be waiting to hear what Hamas has to say. Hamas has to agree to this. And this is the, this is their moment. This is a time when hopefully that not just Israel and the United States of America, but other Arab nations and Muslim countries around the world and others in Europe are saying that this is the path forward.
- [40:05]
John Solomon
Yeah. Pretty historic. I want to talk about two players in the Middle east. One who an ally mostly of the United States. One that's very much not an ally. Qatar and Iran. How important are they referee for us? The roles each could play in either shepherding or thwarting this.
- [40:22]
Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers
Well, they're both very important. President Trump in his first term instituted the Abraham Accords, those nations, and that agreement was historic. President Trump understands the dynamics in the Middle East. He understands what it's going to take to get Qatar, to get Iran. He was very aggressive with Iran earlier in, in this, in this year. And so he, he knows the leadership, he put pressure on them. They know that he is serious. And, and I'm hopeful that they will, they will see this as a historic agreement that it is, and come on board and say this is the path forward, while also recognizing that Israel needs to be. Israel's sovereignty needs to be recognized in that region.
- [41:10]
John Solomon
Yeah, very important.
- [41:11]
Amanda Head
I want to ask you about the important work that you did on the Abraham Accords caucus, because I would imagine whether you write it down or you have it in your head, you've got a list of nations that you want to see joining that as well. Who do you anticipate could be coming down the pike?
- [41:23]
Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers
Well, certainly there's been a lot of eyes on Saudi Arabia. That's been one of the focuses. But it's been so encouraging to not just see the Abraham Accords come into fruition, see the government to government to government relationship that was built, but to see more tourism, more economic activity. We want to keep building upon that foundation. I really believe that not just government to government, but getting the people to people, the economic relationship more solidified so that people's everyday people see the positive impact of having this relationship in the Middle east, that it ultimately is going to be the path that brings peace and security to all in that region.
- [42:10]
John Solomon
Yeah, I think President Trump said, say maybe even a little prosperity for some of those nations, which would be great. Before we let you go, Congresswoman, you talked about probably the greatest challenge in this plan, which is even if all the parties agree, changing hearts and minds from a long conflicted stand or stance in the Middle east is a tough one. How do we start that process?
- [42:32]
Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers
Well, one of the, one of the steps that needs to be taken is in education, in the curriculum. And I know that the Trump administration is already working with organizations to ensure that the kids are not being radicalized when they're still in school, that the curriculum is such that that the curriculum needs to be addressed as a part of changing hearts and minds.
- [42:53]
Amanda Head
Does education here in the United States play a role in that as well?
- [42:57]
Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers
Well, absolutely, in the United States. How, how the United States, what's going on on our college campuses as well as in our K12 system recognizing Israel as a democratic nation, as well as the importance of respecting people, basic respect for humankind.
- [43:22]
John Solomon
Yeah. What a good notion. We need to get that instilled again in our schools. Congresswoman, I know a lot of people who miss you on Capitol Hill. Your wake was large there, but it is sure great to have you on and I know you're working hard on this peace plan. Great to have you join us tonight.
- [43:36]
Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers
It's great to be with you. Thank you for having me.
- [43:38]
John Solomon
Thank you so much. All right, folks, we're going to take a quick commercial break. There's a new documentary out about the real story behind America's Covid school closures. Oh, I want to watch this one. We're going to get to that right after these messages.
- [43:59]
Natalia Merkavar
This is the story of the families who fought to uncover the truth.
- [44:06]
Congressman Tom Tiffany
California Teachers association, the teachers union was doing opposition research on parents.
- [44:11]
Amanda Head
Really high level of coordination.
- [44:13]
John Solomon
15 days.
- [44:13]
Congressman Tom Tiffany
I don't have a direct number to.
- [44:16]
John Solomon
Director Wolinski, do you?
- [44:17]
Amanda Head
Yes, I have Director Winski's director.
- [44:20]
John Solomon
What a great gift.
- [44:22]
Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers
We have to use it basically in.
- [44:23]
Amanda Head
The name of equity.
- [44:24]
John Solomon
Keep everything shut down, especially the schools.
- [44:27]
Natalia Merkavar
The virus keeping the schools closed, or were there special interests?
- [44:30]
Amanda Head
This was the biggest smash and grab.
- [44:32]
John Solomon
Stop the bleeding.
- [44:33]
Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers
More money we need. We need trillion dollars.
- [44:36]
John Solomon
That's a sick society. Well, folks, what you just saw is part of the trailer from the new documentary 15 Days A Real Story of America's Pandemic School Closures, which you can watch on X for free right now. Joining us is the director of that film, Natalia Merkavar. I said that right. Okay, Natalia, good to have you on the show.
- [44:54]
Natalia Merkavar
Thanks. It's nice to be here.
- [44:55]
John Solomon
It is great honor to have you on. This is a fantastic moment, I think, in history to air this where for a long time we weren't allowed to have this conversation. And when we were, we weren't given any of the facts. Now we're getting the facts and the freedom to debate it. Tell us, what gave you the inspiration to do this?
- [45:12]
Natalia Merkavar
I was an open schools parent. I saw the kids suffering when the schools closed. I thought they'd open, you know, next month, you know, in a month, in two months, in three months. But they really didn't open. And when they did reopen, they were terribly restrictive, even for the youngest kids, who had to mask and distance. My kids used to eat outside on the cold concrete in the middle of winter. And so I wanted to understand why, who did this. Because the kids were not being kept safe, and we certainly weren't putting them.
- [45:42]
Amanda Head
First, that's for sure. Natalia, I know John would agree that one of the best ways to pick apart a conspiracy as a journalist is to ask the question, who benefits and why? You know, why do they benefit? Who benefited from closing schools?
- [45:57]
Natalia Merkavar
Well, there are many organizations that benefited. I think President Trump is really kind of cleaning the house and all of the USAID defunding and the NGOs on the extreme left, I mean, I think indirectly many of them benefited, but directly, the teachers unions, we ended up as a federal government paying 189 billion to reopen the schools. This was money that Randy Weingarten, Becky Pringle, the heads of the two largest teachers unions in the country, were extorting from the federal government, first from President Trump in the first administration. And then afterwards, they, you know, they got a check from President Biden. What Randy Weingarten was originally asking for, and this is actually in our film, was they needed, she said they needed $1 trillion. And on top of that, another hundred billion because of the costs of reopening schools.
- [46:58]
John Solomon
Wow. Talk about taking advantage of a situation. I think somewhere in that trailer, I heard this word, and I've heard it said many times, that some on the left took Covid to be a gift, to really launch forward their sort of globalist, big government picture. Did you find some of that in your research that they viewed Covid, which we all viewed as a horror, as a gift for achieving maybe their political ends?
- [47:22]
Natalia Merkavar
Well, I mean, they really, they said it themselves. We just weren't listening. It was March 2020. We were sanitizing our groceries. I threatened my husband, who was just about to turn 50. You know, I said, do not go outside because you're going to die. You know, I was one of the first people who was wearing a mask. I was so cautious on the New York City streets. And in the meanwhile, while we weren't Looking. And while we were told to fear, be scared, the virus is dangerous to you. We had Jane Fonda as a ringleader with Randy Weingarten and the heads of all of these NGOs, the Greenpeace NGOs, all these environmental and social justice movements, saying, this is an incredible opportunity. We can't squander it. Jane Fonda said, we don't have the time or the resources to do these crises separately. We have to use them together. So, yeah, it was happening.
- [48:15]
John Solomon
Stunning.
- [48:16]
Amanda Head
I want to ask you about what age demographic suffered the most, because obviously, in your formative years and when you're in elementary school, you're trying to pick up on social cues. You're just trying to learn the basics of communication. In middle school, you're going through the trauma of being a teenager and social media. In high school, we had multiple classes of high school seniors and college seniors who never got to walk in their graduation. When it comes to breaking down these different groups of children, who do you think suffered the most?
- [48:43]
Natalia Merkavar
I honestly, I think everybody suffered, and that was the goal of creating this film. I think I show in the film that there is no demographic amongst children who didn't suffer, suffer. I interviewed children from a lower socioeconomic demographic, younger children, older children, and also very wealthy families who all said their children were suffering. The film is dedicated to Noah Sylvester, who was a Brooklyn Tech High school student here in New York City. His mother was a plaintiff on my open schools case against Mayor de Blasio in New York City. Unfortunately, despite everything she did and she had resources, she had education, she's a psychiatrist. Noah took his Life at age 21 this past May. So, I mean, that's the ultimate price.
- [49:36]
John Solomon
I think about 30 seconds left. I know we could use a lot more time to have this part, but this, you blend in your own family's immigration from the Soviet Union to here. Tell how that kind of influenced how you saw what went on.
- [49:48]
Natalia Merkavar
Well, I think my parents instilled in me, like, critical thinking and independence. And also I knew what a totalitarian regime was like. And when I could no longer freely speak or share news sources or really just discuss, you know, our kids, well, being even at the playground at school, I knew we were in trouble.
- [50:08]
John Solomon
Yeah, well, you've done a great job reminding us the trouble we got into. And now, again, getting ourselves out of Natalia. What a great honor. Everybody go check out this film on X. It's going to be a rock star. All right, folks, that's all we got for tonight. We'll be back tomorrow with more programming. Until then, you know what we're going to do? We're going to hand off the baton to my good friend Grant Stitchfeld. We'll take you through the next hour with all the big news. We'll be back tomorrow night.
- [50:35]
Natalia Merkavar
This is an iheart podcast.