← The Kinzinger Report
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Foreign.
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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, so much. Well, hey, everybody. Welcome back. Thanks for being here with us today. We start by looking at your wallet. More specifically, how far you're having to stretch it these days. And breaking news this morning. The government reported that inflation has climbed to its highest point in three years. And the biggest reason, no surprise, the war with Iran. You are feeling it at the pump, you're feeling it at the grocery store. And at the same time, people who keep promising to bring your costs down are also eyeing the retirement checks that you've paid into your whole life. So that's nice. We'll also get into the US And Iran strikes overnight, there was an exchange. Republicans passing a $70 billion ICE bill in the same day that they we learned that agency is detaining babies. That's always nice. Epstein's assistant telling Congress that she sets up calls with Trump. She set up his calls with Trump and Nancy Mace losing big in South Carolina and blaming, of course, course, Epstein, if this helps you to cut through a heavy news day, do me a favor. Like it, share it, subscribe so that it reaches more people. Okay, let's get right to it. So first, the cost of living just hit a number that we have not seen in three years. The Labor Department reported that consumer prices in May were up 4.2% from a year ago. That's the steepest reading since early in 2023. Back in January, inflation was running at 2.4%. It's been climbing ever since. The driver is energy. So gas prices alone are up 40%. You all feel it over the past year. And economists put most of the last month's jump on the war with Iran and the oil that it's knocked offline. And this is not coming back soon, even if you reopen the straight. That's a big thing to remember. With everyday Americans hurting more each day and the midterms around the corner, you'd think that the people in charge would be racing to bring those prices down, if for no other reason than pure self interest, instead of they're eyeing what's left. Yesterday we talked about Speaker Mike Johnson saying that programs like Social Security and Medicare have to be adjusted and fixed. And that is, that's his party's plan. And they have, they want to do that next year. When a reporter tried to ask one House Republican what the plan actually is. Watch what happened. Congressman, what is Mike Johnson's secret plan to cut Social Security? Hey, how you doing?
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I'm good. I'm good with that.
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Yeah, I'll be there in just, just a few minutes. No responsor. I'm heading. Heading your way right now. Yeah, it's over 416 now. Look, I understand I've been tracked down by these people. That's Congressman Rob Whitman of Virginia is pretending to take a phone call instead of answering the question about cutting Social Security. He's got to do a better job of faking it, though. The screen on his phone stayed visible the whole time. And there was nobody on the line, I think very clearly. And the timing could not be sharper because this week the program's trustees released their annual report. It moved the date the Social Security's retirement fund runs dry closer by a full year to 2032. Without action from Congress, benefits would eventually be cut by 17%. Look, we've gotta deal with this stuff, but it's gotta be put in line with everything, including, like, taxes on the wealthy. The report also ties part of that whole benefit cut to the Republican tax law last year that sent most of its cash to the top and is now draining money out of the fund and the tariffs and the war. And the picture only gets worse. So we've got prices climbing in one end and the people who promise to make things more affordable going after your retirement on the other end now. Not the tax cuts, not the war, your benefits when the bill comes due. It never seems to land on the people who ran it up. And the war driving those prices took yet another sharp turn overnight. Early Wednesday, the United States launched airstrikes on Iran. This came after President Trump accused Iran of shooting down the Army Apache helicopter that we talked about yesterday. Central Command says American forces hit Iranian air defenses and radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran fired back, launching missiles and drones at US Bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. Most seem to have been intercepted. Jordan says it shot down five incoming missiles itself. The President then wrote on Truth Social that Iran had taken too long to make a deal and would now have to pay the full price. He. He didn't elaborate any further with the timeline on when he said that price would be paid. So a few days ago, this same president was telling reporters a peace deal was two or three days away. Now we're trading fire Again, across the region packed with American troops. And if you feel like you've heard a deal is almost done before, you have, actually, because CNN went back and counted. Since he announced a ceasefire, Trump's claim to deal was right around the corner at least 38 times. There was even a stretch where he set a hard deadline for Iran and then backed off it five times in a single month. Always nice. The back and forth pattern is repeating itself almost every week. Trump says a deal with Iran is just days away. The conflict picks back up days later. He says a deal's days away again, and we just keep repeating the cycle. And just as we were preparing this show, Trump announced more strikes for later today, while also saying a deal was closed. So we'll track what actually happens on the ground, because that's the only thing that's worth trusting right now, because who knows? While the war runs up the foreign policy tab overseas, the House just found $70 billion for Trump's immigration agenda here at home. On Tuesday, the House passed roughly $70 billion to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Trump's term. They call it the Secure America Act. The vote was 214 to 212. It's always just in the nick of time, just the bare amount you needed. It already cleared the Senate, and so it heads to the President's desk for a signature. Trump's border czar was clear about what that money buys.
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So when this reconciliation passes, that $70 billion will fund us to the end of the Trump administration. You're going to see targeting increase, you're going to see arrest increase. We're also going to be able to pay our vendors, our detention facilities, our medical contractors. So that means that we're going to do a lot more. We're already, you know, making historic arrests under President Trump, as he promised the American people. But with additional funding, we're going to keep our foot on the gas and keep moving forward.
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But let's not let this conversation stick to the big numbers that are easy to gloss over. A pretty controversial report has just landed alongside the bill passage. Using federal data, the Marshall Project and Ms. Now found that ISIS detained at least 500 babies and toddlers since Trump took office. Yeah, babies and toddlers. On an average day, about 25 children age 3 or younger are in custody. These are the kids that suffer consequences from their detention by ice. A two year old stopped eating for almost two weeks after he was taken from his father, for example. Let's be clear, the President's immigration czar made perfectly plain what these new funds are for, more targeting, more arrest. That's what this bill allows and what we should expect to see, even if it means more babies and toddlers ripped from their families. That's what they're about these days. Meanwhile, Trump's friendship with America's most notorious pedophile resurfaced in a committee room on Capitol Hill yesterday. The House Oversight Committee questioned Jeffrey Epstein's longtime assistant, Leslie Groff, behind closed doors, according to people in the room. Here's what she said.
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But Leslie does not have that same story. She says she was never abused or assaulted by Epstein, that there was nothing romantic or sexual in nature there at all. And yes, she, she scheduled all of his calls with important high profile people. She was just as I left the room, being asked about setting up calls with Donald Trump before their alleged fallout. And she said that she did that about once a quarter before that time period.
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Groff's testimony is the latest in a long line for the committee. One after another, the people who were closest to Epstein answer the same questions. And one after another, his friendship with Donald Trump gets clear. And remember how this fight started. For more than a year, Trump's Justice Department promised the Epstein files. Then he slow walked them, then held them back. And they went from one of the President's top campaign promises to the thing his administration is fighting the hardest to bury. The documents with allegations about Trump came only after a bipartisan subpoena and months of public pressure. His former attorney general, Pam Bondi, sat in front of the same committee and would not answer the committee's questions about the President's role. Millions of pages, by the way, are still being kept from the public. The President can keep telling us it was nothing, but the mounting evidence is really impossible to ignore. And finally, a bit of light hearted great news. In South Carolina, Nancy Mace finished fifth in her bizarre and concerning campaign for governor. Look, I knew Nancy Mace. I, yeah, this is, she's kooky. Last night, Congresswoman Nancy Mace finished dead last among the names that counted. Dead last. She lost her own home county, in her own district. To see how she got here, you have to rewind. So, as I mentioned, I knew Nancy. We overlapped in the House. She came in in 2021, and right after January 6, she put the blame for that day squarely on Donald Trump. She was like, on the right path back then. She was part of what you would call the normal wing of the conference. We actually had a kind of a text group we called Rational Normals. But then her tone shifted. She remade herself into a pro Trump culture warrior, asking the president for his endorsement again and again. The one place she broke with Trump, the place that cost her, was demanding the Epstein files come out. Mace is a survivor herself. She framed the fight that way, saying that as a survivor of a broken system, she would always go after justice. Because of this stand, Trump. Trump endorsed her opponent and praised her and praised her as one who, in his words, never wavered. And last night, the voters finished the job. You can give Donald Trump everything. You can campaign for him. You can abandon your principles to win his approval. But if you cross him one time, none of that counts. That's the Republican Party now. And everyone in it watching her tonight knows exactly what it means for them. There is no place for independence. It's a cult. And you either have to deal with it, or you may as well just become a Democrat, because there's no room for independent thinking. So that's the show for June 10th. I hope that this helped make sense today, and if you did, if it kind of helped with everything, help me to sift through it like it, send it to someone who needs it and subscribe so you don't miss what comes next. Otherwise, we will catch you right here tomorrow. Have a great evening. See ya.