← The Kinzinger Report
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- [00:06]
A
I'm Adam Kinzinger, and you're listening to the Kinzinger Report, where I bring you top stories and analysis on current events and the growing threats to our democracy. After serving over a decade in Congress, I help you know what's true and what really matters so that we can all work to save this country that we love so much.
- [00:30]
B
Well, everybody, happy Thursday. Welcome back. The last one on the road here for a little bit. So we'll get, we'll get, we'll get this figured out. We're gonna make this work. So before we get into it, I just want to take a moment and just to let the people of Venezuela know that they're in our prayers. To anybody that has family there, we're thinking of you, and I'd encourage you to do the same. Obviously. Terrible earthquake. So. So our top story today, the President went up to Capitol Hill yesterday to meet with his own party. And the meeting boiled over into a sh.
- [00:59]
A
Match.
- [01:00]
B
At one point, the President of the United States told a sitting Republican senator to sit down. These are supposed to be people on his side. He treated them like the enemy. We're also going to get to two Republicans flipping their votes on the Iran war. This is related. The President admitting that he leaned on a prosecutor over election results. The post office threatening to hold back your mail ballot, and NATO's leader buttering up the President with some fancy gold charts. Do me a favor, hit like subscribe. Share this with someone who needs to see it. Let's get right to it. So we're going to start on Capitol Hill, where the President sat down with his own party and the meeting turned into a shouting match. Yesterday, Trump went to the Capitol for private lunch with Senate Republicans. On paper, it was supposed to be a show of unity, but what actually happened was a blow up. The fight was about Iran. A day earlier, four Senate Republicans had broken with the president to support a resolution reigning in his war powers. And he wanted to know why. According to senators in the room, he spent most of the lunch going after his own party. He always does this. Punchbowl News reported that he spent roughly 90% of the meeting railing against the Republicans he calls Rhinos. Among them, Lisa Murkowski, Bill Cassidy, and Mitch McConnell. Then it got personal. When Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy stood up to push back, Trump told him to sit down. Multiple outlets reported the president called Cassidy a lunatic to his face. Cassidy, who lost his primary this year after Trump endorsed his opponent, did not deny it. Take a look. We're told the president called you a lunatic. Can I imagine that the President called me things that, that would be said on a school, on a playground. Yeah, I can imagine. On his way out, the President told reporters it had been a great meeting. Then he said this.
- [02:44]
C
We like everybody really in the room. I don't like a few people, but that's okay. I think you know who they are. But we. I'll give, I'll give you that information someday.
- [02:53]
B
Lisa Murkowski walked in late, right as the President was airing his grievances about her. She was not impressed. And on the voting bill, Trump keeps demanding she had a message for him. If you don't have the votes, sir, you don't have the votes. Even his allies could not pretty it up. Senator John Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump backed challenger, said the President closed by preaching unity after spending the previous hour doing the exact opposite. You don't scream at the people who already agree with you unless the point was never agreement. The point was obedience. And he wanted everyone in that room to see what happens when you don't fall in line. And by the end of the night, the Senator who said he would not be bullied by Trump gave in and did exactly what the bully wanted. Walking through the Capitol complex after the GOP lunch with the President, Bill Cassidy sounded like a man who would not back down. But by midnight, it was a different story. After the blow up, Cassidy was invited to the White House for a private briefing on Iran from J.D. vance and Steve Witkoff. He came out saying it addressed many of his concerns. Then he went back to the Capitol to vote. Tuesday's resolution, the one that rebuked this war, was symbolic and it still stands. But a second resolution was moving through the Senate, a version that would actually carry the force of law and land on the President's desk. Last night, that one came up for a vote. This time, Cassidy voted no. Rand Paul, who's voted to rein in this war again and again, voted present, saying he wanted to give the President more space and leverage to negotiate a lasting peace. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski held their ground and voted to keep it alive. But the motion failed 47 to 50. The President was thrilled. He went to Truth Social, thank Cassidy and Paul by name, and wrote, this puts Iran on notice. Look, standing up to the President means nothing if you immediately back down. Cassidy has nothing to lose at this point. Obviously we don't know what was said to him during his war briefings, but this isn't the first time we've seen Cassidy take a stand and then back down the second he has the opportunity to actually make a difference. The president strong arming yesterday went beyond his own party because he also admitted on camera to pressuring a federal prosecutor over an election. Earlier this month, California held its primary for governor. Under the state system, the top two finishers advance regardless of party, and the count takes time because California processes a massive number of mail ballots. The president's endorsed candidates candidate, former Fox News host Steve Hilton advanced alongside Javier Becerra, Democrat. Now, of course, that should have been the end of it. Instead, the President offered his own account of how the candidate got there.
- [05:29]
C
I said they just rigged the election and they were going to do that with Steve Hilton. He's a good man. And I asked the U.S. attorney to go look at their votes. And as soon as I did that, they announced that Steve Hilton would be a finalist.
- [05:41]
B
Hold on. The president saying he called a federal prosecutor, told the prosecutor to go look at the votes in an election that was still being counted and is taking personal credit for the result and bragging while doing so. We've seen this before. In 2020, the president called Georgia's Secretary of State and asked him to find the votes to flip the state. He was criminally charged over that call. And we all know what happened a few months later on January 6. This, among other things, should be a wake up call for the midterms. He's telling you he's going to challenge your results. Call prosecutors, lean on whoever he can. So the job is simple. We don't win by a little. We have to win by so much, there's nothing left for him to contest. You don't give a guy like this a close one to play with. And Trump's campaign to bend elections runs deeper than one phone call because now his Postmaster General is threatening to hold back ballots. Yesterday, Postmaster General David Steiner testified in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and he confirmed something that should worry every voter in the country. Take a look.
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D
So yes or no? If a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list over to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposal rule?
- [06:54]
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Under our proposed regulation, no. We would tell the state that we need the manifest in order to, you
- [07:00]
D
know, look what we're asked that. That's, that's the answer. You tell no. So the proposed rule basically coerces states to conform to these new requirements and hand over their absentee voter rolls or face the consequences of not being able to vote by mail. Some states, that's all they do.
- [07:19]
B
The questioning came from an executive order the president signed in March when which would force states to hand the federal government a list of everyone who requested a mail in ballot. If a state refuses, the postal service would stop delivering that state's ballots. This is the same president holding a crucial bipartisan housing bill hostage until Congress adds new hurdles between voters in the ballot box. It's the same president who just bragged about pressuring officials over a vote in California. And it's the same president who gave the keys to our national intelligence to a loyalist so he could hunt for alleged election fraud that they have never been able to find. Every one of these moves points in the same direction toward an administration trying to pick its voters instead of the other way around. None of this should be possible in America in a healthy democracy, by the way, no one gets to stand between you and your ballot. And our legal system agrees. Just as we're preparing the show, a federal judge in Boston ruled that the president's order unconstitutional blocked the government from withholding ballots this November. In states that sued, this is a win for now, but the White House is expected to appeal. So it's far from settled and we just have to keep an eye on this one. And finally, the head of NATO came to Washington and put on a show to keep the President happy. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte sat down with the president in the Oval Office yesterday with just one job to do. Trump has been furious that our European allies set out as war with Iran, a war that he launched in February without consulting them, ahead of a key NATO summit in two weeks. Rutte had to keep him from turning his constant threats to leave the alliance into reality. So knowing Trump, Ruta came prepared with flattery.
- [09:04]
E
Now, I want to take you. If you stay here, I go over to these boards here because I want to show you what this president was able to achieve. And I start with this. This chart is about the Trump trillion. The Trump trillion shows you the increase Europeans and Canadians are paying into defense since you took office in 2017. Trump 45 plus Trump 47.
- [09:32]
B
Obviously, the president ate it up, calling Ruta a great guy, great leader, great Secretary General. Look, I want a strong NATO. I'm not going to knock Ruda for any of this. He's trying to hold an alliance together with a raging narcissist. And flattery's been the best strategy. And to his credit, he did push back on some of Trump's Iran claims, reminding him that thousands of American planes flew out of European bases during the war. The embarrassment here doesn't belong to RUTA or NATO. It belongs to us in America. For many years, we led the alliance proudly. We were the steady hand that the rest of our NATO allies counted on. But those days are gone. Now our president's ego has to be managed like a toddler just to keep us in the room. Okay, that's it for the show for the 25th. That's it for the road show, too. We'll be back in our normal trappings tomorrow. Do me a favor. Like this video. Share it with someone who needs to see it and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. We'll see you tomorrow. Take care.