Ep. 442 - Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson's Meltdown, Bernie Takes Over for Schumer, Democrat Sweep

Summary

The Tony Kinnett Cast – Episode 442 Summary

Episode Title: Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson's Meltdown, Bernie Takes Over for Schumer, Democrat Sweep
Date: November 6, 2025
Host: Tony Kinnett (with guest Rob Bluey, President of The Daily Signal)

---

Overview

This jam-packed episode of The Tony Kinnett Cast delivers a blunt, energetic postmortem on a disastrous election night for Republicans, the evolving composition and strategy of the Democratic Party, internal GOP messaging struggles, and a lively look at Supreme Court debates over tariffs and executive emergency powers. Tony and guest Rob Bluey react to a series of Democratic sweeps in major races, discuss the rise of new left-wing leaders, analyze the role of money and rhetoric in the 2025 political landscape, and offer sharp critiques of judicial proceedings and legislative gridlock in D.C.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Election Night 2025: The Republican Losses and Democratic Wins

• Tony opens the show with an unvarnished review of the GOP’s failures (“Republicans did, in fact get a firm spanking by reality last night in Virginia...” [00:07]).
• Major Democratic Victories Covered:
  • Virginia: Abigail Spanberger defeats Winsome Earl Sears for Governor; Jay Jones defeats Jason Miyares for Attorney General [00:07].
  • New Jersey: Mikie Sherrill defeats Republican Jack Ciattarelli [00:10].
  • New York City: Zoran Mamdani wins mayoral race by a large margin [00:10].
  • Pennsylvania & Georgia: Democrats sweep judicial and commissioner races [00:11].
  • Virginia House of Delegates: Democrats gain up to 10 seats [00:14].

Insight:

Republicans failed to articulate a positive vision, focusing instead on attacking opponents or simply running as “Not the Democrat”—a strategy Tony brands as ineffective in off-years when turnout is low [00:15].

---

2. Dissecting the Democratic Strategy: The New A-Team

• New Democratic Coalitions: Tony identifies two emergent wings:
  • “Young Zoran Mandani Communists” (progressive left)
  • “Liberal middle aged Karens” (moderate/establishment women) [00:23]
• Notable Quote:

  “The old guard...Joe Bidens...Chuck Schumer...Just the old dudes, they’re gone, they're done. And...the new A team...are the young Zoran Mandani Communists and...liberal middle aged Karens.”
  — Tony Kinnett [00:22]

Zoran Mamdani’s Victory Speech Critique

Tony mocks Mamdani’s diverse coalition shoutouts (“Yemeni bodega owners...Uzbek nurses...Trinidadian line cooks”), suggesting it’s crude identity politics and performative multiculturalism, not a real unifying vision [00:27].

• Tony points out the absence of reference to “Americans” or the “white working class,” calling it “a deep racial campaign” [00:33].
• Notable Quote:

  “What we heard last night was Zoran Mamdani proclaim the exact opposite to the people of New York City: ‘We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.’ There you go. Complete nationalization.”
  — Tony Kinnett [00:36]

Alex Soros’ Influence

• Tony notes Alex Soros (son of George Soros) was supporting Mamdani, signaling a generational funding and influence transfer on the left [31:36–32:17].

---

3. Republican Messaging Problems

• Failure to Motivate: Candidates like Winsome Earl Sears ran against their opponents, not for solutions. Tony stresses Republicans must focus on affordability, cost of living, and deliverable reforms—key issues missed in these elections [00:13].
• Vivek Ramaswamy clip:
  “We got our [butts] handed to us... Our side needs to focus on affordability... and cut out the identity politics. It doesn’t suit Republicans. It’s not for us...” — Ramaswamy [66:03]

---

4. Democrat Rhetoric & Radicalization

• Tony draws on soundbites from “The View” to portray what he sees as a party increasingly led by “angry, childless, bitter women” and open socialists [16:13].
• Jay Jones (VA Attorney General-elect): Despite past incendiary texts about political violence, Jones faces little voter backlash, which Tony finds shocking [17:45].

---

5. The End of Democrat Establishment? Bernie and the New Left

• Bernie Sanders’ Press Conference: In a surprise takeover of Chuck Schumer’s presser, Bernie declares the end of the Democrat “establishment” and rising power of left young guns like Mamdani [21:26].
• Notable Quote:

  “It is, you know, I think there is a growing understanding that leadership and defending the status quo and the inequalities that exist in America is not where the American people are...”
  — Bernie Sanders (via Tony) [21:26]

---

6. Rob Bluey Segment – Inside the Beltway Perspective

• Dems’ Motivation: Bluey sees Democratic turnout driven by “pent up frustration and anger...on display sadly, in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and those who were celebrating his death” [25:10].
• Campaign Spending: Democrats significantly outspent Republicans in major governor races (e.g., Spanberger’s $50M vs. Sears’s $25M) [25:20].
• Trump’s $2B War Chest: Potential GOP advantage for 2026 [26:14].
• Dem Strategy Split: Dems try to frame coastal (NYC) and non-coastal (VA, NJ) elections separately, but Tony points to a party struggling between moderates and radicals [27:34].

---

7. Congressional and Party Infighting

• Retirements Loom: Bluey predicts more Democrat retirements as leftists demand generational turnover, continuing a pattern seen with the Tea Party on the right but noting much less concern about big spending or personal responsibility [30:04].
• Key Quote:

  “I worry that these young Democrats want to take the country in a completely different direction. Mamdani is not hiding the fact that he is a Democrat, socialist, and maybe even communist on some of these policy issues. That to me is frightening.”
  — Rob Bluey [30:42]

---

8. Supreme Court Chaos: Tariffs and Presidential Power

• SCOTUS Hears Tariff Case: Major constitutional implications for executive power to declare “national emergencies” and impose tariffs unilaterally [51:00].
• Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson (“Meltdown”): Tony ridicules her confusion between Nixon and Lincoln during oral arguments (“She was out of crayons today, so give her some slack” [38:57]), spurring a barrage of mocking sound effects and riffs.
• Notable Exchange:

  Justice: “Can I back you up just a second? I'm sorry. You're talking...” Tony: “She says, ‘you're talking so fast. Can you back up a second? I'm the Supreme Court justice of the United States, and unless you have the bouncing ball on the screen that lets me sing along, I'm not really sure what to do here.’” [39:52]

Major Legal/Constitutional Debate:

• Should the President be able to declare almost any “emergency” to take powers from Congress (e.g., tariffs)?
• Tony warns that unchecked executive declarations are the mechanism by which all republics historically collapse [45:50].
• Amy Coney Barrett raises operational complexities of reversing tariffs, emphasizing the legal mess at stake [41:01].
• Justice Gorsuch presses what would prevent a president from labeling “climate change” an emergency to impose sweeping tariffs (“That’s the issue here...very likely that could be done” [43:10]).
• Tony: “Congress is constitutionally supposed to have the rule over tariffs...it is not the authority of the President...to just declare a national emergency to put those tariffs into place because maybe Congress wouldn’t pass those tariffs proposed by the President. That’s something else entirely.” [42:30]

---

9. Filibuster Showdown & The Road Ahead

• Trump’s Push to End Filibuster:

  “It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster. It’s the only way you can do it...”
  — Trump (clip) [52:35]

• Tony counters, warning that short-term gain will destroy long-term balance and could lead to unchecked majoritarianism (“mob rule”) [54:17–57:49].
• Josh Hawley’s Populism: Tony warns against right-wing populists using crises to justify procedural overhauls (“Be careful. Be careful about using the argument of popularity to tear down things in the room...” [61:07]).

---

10. Democrats: Moderates, Socialists, or Just Opportunists?

• Andy Beshear (D-KY) straddles the party line, refusing to name Zoran Mamdani as the direction for Democrats, though his answer is criticized as weak [63:19].

---

11. Call to Action: Republican Renewal

• Echoing Ramaswamy, Tony emphasizes the need for Republicans to develop an affirmative economic message and radically realign their outreach to address affordability, housing, energy, education, and crime [66:02].
• Tony highlights a Senate floor exchange between Bernie Moreno and Jackie Rosen as a model for the kind of relentless, principled fight he wants to see more of from Republicans [68:36].

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Election Analysis:

• “Republicans did, in fact get a firm spanking by reality last night in Virginia...” — Tony Kinnett [00:07]
• “This new A-Team... are the young Zoran Mandani Communists and...liberal middle aged Karens.” — Tony Kinnett [00:22]

On Zoran Mamdani’s Speech:

• “I mean, he's...just has big ideas and a big heart...he's the right shade of brown and he eats rice with his hands...” — Tony Kinnett [00:30]
• “What we heard last night was Zoran Mamdani proclaim the exact opposite to the people of New York City: ‘We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.’ There you go. Complete nationalization.” — Tony Kinnett [00:36]

On Democratic Radicalization:

• “Angry, childless, bitter women. Radicalized. Precisely.” — Tony Kinnett [16:13]

On Executive Overreach:

• “Every single republic in the history of the world that has collapsed...has collapsed by the executive gaining additional authority through national emergencies. Every single one. No exceptions.” — Tony Kinnett [45:50]

SCOTUS Mockery:

• “Katanji Brown Jackson is an illiterate fool. Um, she is so, so, so, so, so, so, so incoherent at the best of times.” — Tony Kinnett [38:31]
• “You ever walked into Home Depot...that guy that wants to sell you an air conditioner? That's ketangi on the Supreme Court, honey, we've got things to do.” — Tony Kinnett [38:57]

On the Filibuster:

• “If your argument is that we have to do all of this before the Democrats get back into power, that has never once worked in all of human history.” — Tony Kinnett [54:46]

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:07–00:14 – Election night rundown and critique of Republican campaign missteps
• 00:23–00:36 – The “new A-team” of the Democratic Party and Zoran Mamdani’s speech/rise
• 16:13 – The View clip and commentary on Democratic base rage
• 21:26–22:54 – Bernie Sanders “takes over” Schumer’s presser, signaling end of the old Dem establishment
• 23:21–32:33 – Rob Bluey segment: D.C.’s reaction, election spending, party splits, Soros influence
• 38:31–41:37 – Supreme Court debate: Jackson’s confusion, Barrett’s economic questions, constitutional stakes of tariffs
• 45:50–46:33 – Executive power and the great constitutional warning
• 52:35–57:49 – Debate on filibuster reform and naked majoritarianism
• 66:03 – Vivek Ramaswamy’s “lessons for Republicans” clip
• 68:36–69:25 – Bernie Moreno/Jackie Rosen Senate spat: Model of needed GOP confrontation

---

Tone & Style

Tony’s style throughout is acerbic, sarcastic, and unapologetic, favoring humor-laden attack lines, pop culture references, and intentionally provocative metaphors. He regularly jabs at progressive identity politics, mocks left-wing rhetoric, and alternates between detailed policy analysis and menacing warnings about the fate of the Republic.

---

Closing

Tony Kinnett sums up with a call for Republican renewal—focusing on real solutions, ditching tired culture war rhetoric, and rebuilding institutional responsibility in Congress and the Senate. He warns against easy fixes like scrapping the filibuster and expanding executive power, concluding:

“If you treat every situation as though it is the end of the country, we're all going to die, then it's not about the Republic anyway. The Republic is worth preserving. And there are in fact ways that right now we can restore the government. And it requires those whom you put into office to do their damned jobs.” [57:49]

---

Transcript

[Tony Kennett]

Kennett.

[Rob Bluey]

Tony Kennett.

[Supreme Court Justice (possibly Amy Coney Barrett or Ketanji Brown Jackson)]

Tony Kennett.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Tony Kennett.

[Tony Kennett]

Tony Kennett.

[Rob Bluey]

Tony Kennett.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Tony Kennett, host of the Tony Kennett cast.

[Tony Kennett]

Let's get down to business. You're listening to the Tony Kennett cast on 93 WIBC on CYTV here on the Daily Signal. Good evening and welcome to the Tony Kennett cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated first on 93 WIBC. We've got a lot to tackle this evening, including last night's election coverage. If you joined us, it was quite the slog. Republicans did, in fact get a firm spanking by reality last night in Virginia, Abigail Spanberger did in fact beat winsome Earl Sears in the gubernatorial election. Jay Jones, the Democrat, did beat out Jason Miares, the incumbent attorney general. Then up in New Jersey, you had Mickey Sherrill or Mikey Sherrill, excuse me, who ended up beating out the Republican, Jack Cittarelli. Over in New York City, Zoran Mamdani not only won the race, but he also won a greater plurality than Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa combined. Over in Pennsylvania, all three of the Democrat Supreme Court justices were retained as in kept in office. In Georgia, both of the special elect or both of the special commissioners in the state won their races. And in one case, these were both statewide races. Alicia Johnson, Democrat, beat Tim Echols, the Republican candidate for Commissioner, by almost 20 points. Back in the Virginia House of Delegates, not very delicate how badly the Republicans lost. In that case, I think the democrats took around 10 seats. And this leads us to a pretty important series of questions. Number one, last night, what went wrong for the Republicans? Number two, what went right for the Democrats? And number three, what does this mean for the future? Or as Jerry Seinfeld would put it, what is the deal? And let's dig into that. So what we see from the Republican side of the aisle last night is in a large series of blue states, you saw Republicans that ran candidates that essentially throughout the campaign stood there and pointed and said, I am not Abigail Spanberger. That was winsome Earl Sears entire pitch. She focused on culture issues, which Virginians had previously voted on. But instead of saying under the leadership of Governor Glenn Youngkin, where I'm serving as lieutenant governor, instead of saying under this leadership, we're going to go further, we're going to make Virginia more affordable, we're going to develop new land, we're going to increase energy so that the energy cost and the power bills are lower, we're going to make gas cheaper, we're going to make life more affordable, here's what we're going to do, we're going to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse where we can. Instead of going that route, Sears leaned into just pointing at Spanberger and saying, I am not the CIA weird pro LGBTQ lady. And it didn't work because in an off year election, it's getting people out to vote. Now again, that's a very Charles Barkley explanation. Whoever scores more points wins otherwise. Other than that, it's terrible. Uh, but in this case it really does matter. It the off year election is who actually is the get out to do something like who actually gets someone out. So Republicans failure to do that. Jack Cittarelli, by the way, did in fact start getting there too, a little too late. That kind of momentum and the where New Jersey could be, yeah, that was about eight months too late, at least from my perspective. Now that brings us over to what the Democrats got right yesterday. Well, I guess we could say what got people out to vote. On the Democrat side of things, there is now a new A team for the Democrat Party. The old guard, the old white guys, the, the old, the Joe Bidens, the Tim Waltz kind of a crew. The Ken Martins in charge of the DNC to a degree, kind of the Chuck Schumer sort of a way. Just the old dudes, they're gone, they're done. And in replace, the actual replacement, the new A team that's stepping forward are the young Zoran Mandani Communists, and then on the other side, the kind of liberal middle aged Karens. Those are the new two wings of the Democrat Party that they are going to run on in 2026, which is a terrible mistake because as we're going to talk about later on in the show, not every single election takes place in a blue district on the coast. Now let's dig into some of the things that they actually did get because it's very important right now. You were told through the entire election that Zoran Mandani, he's not a communist. You know, he's, he's really just a Democratic socialist. He said this himself. He just has big ideas and a big heart. And he's, he's. I mean, look, he's. I have this Sherwin Williams paint card here and he's the right shade of brown and he eats rice with his hands. And that one hot girl in my dorm said she's voting for him. And I haven't got laid for like, you know, four years and so I gotta vote for Zoran Mandani. That was kind of the energy around the campaign really weird. The former rapper dancing around shirtless with the apron on. Gross kind of stuff. But you know, I mean, lap of luxury situation. It does turn out, in fact, yeah, dude's a communist. And not just because he gets out there and says communist things like state, run this, government run that, nationalize this. But he also quotes overt communists like Eugene V. Debs. Now, I have a unique amount of authority to comment on Eugene V. Debs because he is in fact a stain on my great state's history. The state of Indiana, unfortunately is the home of Eugene Debs, our very own communist. Here's Eugene using the modern voice of Zoran Mandani in Mandani's victory speech last night. The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, you can do the wild cheering because, oh, it's Eugene Debs. Oh, it's wonderful, it's fantastic. It's amazing. I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity and then the wild cheering because again, to the communists, the idea is that if you just change the government a little bit, all of humanity is going to become this bright, warm, sunshineful place. Eugene Debs was a self described Bolshevik. This isn't a social man. Excuse me, a self described Bolshevik. Now, Mamdhari didn't stop there. He also talked quite extensively about the coalition he wanted to build who was now finally free of the shackles of the WAIPO or whatever here in New York City. Listen to all of the descriptions that Zoron brings forward that are the winners of the free, new, bright, beautiful future in New York City. It's a little, well, I mean, it's flamboyant, but also, you know, reading between the lines. Yeah, kinda kind of weird stuff here. Thank you. To those so often forgotten by the politics of our city, who made this movement their own. I speak of Yemeni bodega owners and Mexican abuelas. Ah, yes, and I'm sorry, if you're gonna, if you're gonna dive in and say Mexican abuelas, you're gonna lean in there. Why not, you know, tell us what the Yemeni word for bodega owners is. I'm. After all, you cut an ad in Arabic. What, you don't have something ready for here? The socialist academic class likes to really pretend they've got the accents out there to get all spy icy and cool and then it just ends up, you know, coming out as pandering, just with a more ethnic, exciting, youthful shade on it. Producer Nick I love how you can hear the Makeup of the crowd and every single description of demographic he's going to describe is not comprising it. As the crowd of young white college age women just scream in an octave so high that no man could be in that room. And in this episode, we will have young white women cheering for every color they could point to in their dentists. Highlights magazine. Senegalese taxi drivers and Uzbek nurses. Ah, yes. The. The greatest coalition of the voting bloc. Uzbek nurses. Uzbekistan, a country which does not ethnically exist. The Uzbekis. No, that's a combination of five regions that's been split up in a post Soviet fashion like Sykes Picoult carved up the Middle East. So he's not even being anti colonial here in the right way. Trinidadian line cooks and Ethiopian aunties. Trinidadian. Yes, yes. Right next to the Quattromamians. It's true. What about the Tobagians? I'm waiting for the Jamaican bobsled team to make an appearance at this point. I'm getting excited. Usually this is what comes right before someone announces a new Taco Bell menu option. I mean, he's gonna say, and Costa Rica enchiladas. And everyone's like, yeah. And then the Chihuahua gets up on Doritos Locos tacos Rancheros. That's the voting block that matters to Americans. Yes, aunties. Now, you'll notice he didn't say Americans. He didn't. You'll notice he actually doesn't go in on the various groups that might be considered white. He doesn't go in on actually any of the groups that are the majority of those who are considered the working class in New York. And the reason is that that is all a deep racial campaign for Zoran Mandani. But that's it. You add a little bit of racism, you add a little bit of LGBTQ +ISMS, and then you take the classic Americana model, which is that it is the people of this country that drive its character and its successes, not the government. To quote Ronald Reagan, the nine scariest words in the English language, I'm from the government and I'm here to help. What we heard last night was Zoran Mamdani proclaim the exact opposite to the people of New York City. We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about. There you go. Complete nationalization. There is nothing too big for the government to do for you, and there is nothing too small for the government to rule on and rule over you with. There you go. That's what you wanted. I mean, again, I'm very thankful for some of our friends in the political ecosphere who've pointed out quite clearly that there are a. There are reasons why New York's economy has become decentralized and that you're seeing a. An abandonment of Wall street, in a way, for the growing stock markets in Dallas as well as in Atlanta and then several of those in Florida. Now, I do want to. I do want to move on, because, of course, we could talk about some of the different policies that Mamdani is promising and whether or not he does or doesn't want to deliver them. Van Jones, who, up until the election, Van Jones over on cnn had been talking about how once Mandani got elected, once he got out there, once he just gave him a chance, he. He was gonna moderate because really, this is the Democrat argument for the. The older moderates make the old a team. These youths, sure, they're really excited. Sure, they get a little violent, sure, they are openly communist. But underneath that really poisonous, disgusting, emotional exterior on the inside is a soft, nuggety moderate just waiting to pass a gradual corporate tax rate. And when Mondani gets up there and says, you know, a middle finger to Cuomo, and also, we are taking this city away and we're gonna do whatever it is that we want with it and screw anyone that tries to get in the way. All of a sudden, Van Jones is like, oh, that's not what I was predicting. Here's Van Jones or rainy weathers finding out that the sun came out a day earlier than the forecast. But I think he missed an opportunity. I think the Mamdani that we saw in the campaign trail, who was a lot more calm, who was a lot warmer, who was a lot more embracing, was not present in that speech. And I think that Mamdani is the one you need to hear from tonight. Oh, oh, this guy that just won the race, totally different. Oh, there's a big surprise. That's an incredible. I think I'm gonna have a heart attack and die from that surprise. There are a lot of people trying to figure out, can I get on this train with him or not? Is he gonna include me? Is he going. Is he to be more of a class warrior even in office? I'm going to level with you guys. I'm going to just put aside the very base left and right ism of politics for a second. How someone campaigns is directly related to how they will attempt to govern. The idea that, like, you can paint you. You campaign one way and you get out there and you're all sunny and nice and shucksy doodles. And Mahlani promised violent radical philosophy, violent nationalization, hyper ethnicization in his campaign. And I was told, oh, you're just reading between the lines too much. Just, I mean, hey, you know, they had Elon Musk and his secret apartheid upbringing down to a T when he did a wave at the beginning of the Trump administration. Zoran Mandani at the end of the evening did the same wave. All of the sudden, I don't hear anyone actually pointing out that Zoran Mandani speech sounded a lot more in tune with the Nazis, Erica, than anything. Elon Musk got up in front of the country and said, but alas, billionaires for thee, or excuse me, billionaires for me, not for thee. Because Alex Soros got up in front of the country and took a picture. The son of George Soros, because now his preferred candidate has won. We're going to talk about that with Rob Bluey and in just a bit. I don't want to step on myself there. Let's talk a little bit about the other faction for the Democrats here. The other faction is the kind of the grown up base that is now the biggest demographic of voters for the left, white women. White women are now especially those with college degrees from 20 all the way to about 60. That is the Democrat voting base. And you know exactly what they look like, you know exactly what they talk like, how they act. We've seen this every single time. And they learned a couple of lessons here. A couple of lessons. First of all, this second wing of the party, this, this group of very angry older liberal women is just as violent and as angry as the young socialists who they are sharing the steering wheel with. You can see this from Sunny Hostin over on the View. But I think he missed an opportunity. We get this clip up. It's a pretty rough moment. I know I don't try to play a lot of the View clips for you. This one's worth it, though, trust me.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Take away from me that I don't think enough people are talking about is what happened in California with Prop 50.

[Rob Bluey]

Yeah, we come into that.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Yeah, that, that for me was a huge, huge takeaway because that is the roadmap for how Democrats become the opposition party. You meet energy with energy. When they go low, you go lower. I am sorry, but that is where we are now. We need that opposition and I think we saw that last night. But, you know.

[Tony Kennett]

That'S the. Again, the View, the reason that we play Clips from the View. That is the best representation of one half of the Democrat party right now. Angry, childless, bitter women. Radicalized. Precisely. And not just radicalized in perhaps getting on TV and yelling on social media. I will remind you that one of the flip possibilities in the election last night was supposed to be the incumbent Republican Jason Miares, Attorney General who was supposed to after the massive scandal of J. Jones and the text messages and wanting, you know, joking about killing his political opponent saying, you know, if Pol Pot and Hitler and then this Republican were in a room and I had two bills, I would shoot the Republican twice. And his wife and kids are a little fascist. They don't deserve to live. He bragged about a bunch of police officers needing to die during the BLM movement. That is Jay Jones, the Democrat who ran to be the most high on the chain law enforcement officer. The most. I'm actually looking for the word. I don't know why it's left my brain all of a sudden. The highest on the chain, whatever, you know what I'm trying to say. The most superior of law enforcement officers in the state, the chief law enforcement officer in the state, Jay Jones. And it turns out that Virginians didn't care about the open calls for murder and the wishing of the death of wife and children of his wife and children. Virginia didn't care at all.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Take away from me.

[Tony Kennett]

And it's shocking to me, it really, it is truly shocking that at the end of this entire electoral cycle that Virginians didn't actually go through, you know, deeply concerned, it turns out that they're totally fine as long as they're able to go lower.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

If you look at some of the, some of the questions over the J. Jones texts and that scandal from text back to 2022 and how this is affecting the Attorney General's race there possibility of a split ticket. We asked voters what best describes their opinion of those leaked texts. Almost half found them to be disqualifying. About one in four said they were concerning, but then another one in four said they weren't concerned or they hadn't heard enough about it. So we'll see how they cast their vote.

[Tony Kennett]

Yeah, survey says they did not in fact cast their vote correctly. Now of course we could talk about Jennifer Welch. She's back on the stage yelling she was last night. And the clip is terrible. To Mehdi Hassan at Zuron's victory party. Quote, americans have no culture except for multiculturalism. Crusty white people need to learn how to embrace it. End quote. So there is a term that is inappropriate, that is that we used to refer to these ladies in college who were heterosexual, yet they were strangely obsessed with gay people. There were these ladies that were really lonely and bitter and angry and they prided themselves in being allies of the LGBTQ community like they were pets. Seriously, they treated people in college that were gay as pets. And there was a term that we had for them that I'm not going to say here. Do you have some alternative terms? Yes, I do in fact have some alternatives. They've also been called. This is according to AI here, fruit flies. Yeah, a little clever there. In essence, though, there is a new kind of allyship that a lot of these bitter leftist women have taken upon themselves and now they consider themselves. They are these allies of those who are brown or black and they're their pets. They're their pets to parade around so that they try to preen and get the affirmation and say, well, I hate myself and I hate any kind of American culture or Western European culture or certain kinds of Middle Eastern or Asian culture. Get rid of that. What I really care about is for as far radical as the culture can be, that is what I appreciate so that you tell me how wonderful I am because that like the people in college, the ladies that were really obsessed with the gay guys, they wanted to be told how affirming and wonderful they were. That's what this party has created. And by the way, I want to make this clear when I say that the old kind of men of the. The kind of blue dog Democrats being replaced. Bernie Sanders, the Democrat socialist, actually usurped Chuck Schumer at a press conference today. At his press conference today, Chuck Schumer didn't show up. He was supposed to show up and kind of give some remarks on the shutdown because, you know, day 35, whatever the shutdown, day 36, whatever we are at this point and so awkward waiting around because Chuck Schumer's late. And then Bernie Sanders wanders in. You can see over on the right if you're watching live stream or on tv, I suppose. And then he ends up walking to the podium of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. That's a good sign. I agree with it.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

What are your takeaways from last year?

[Tony Kennett]

My takeaways is there are many reasons why people win an election in lose election. Bernie Sanders gets up and explains to the American people why the establishment of the Democrats are gone. They're done. Finite X outta here. Check it out. Well, the party leadership did not support Muhammadani in New York anyone party leadership is not supporting Platner in Maine. And I think he's going to win. So I think it is, you know, I think there is a growing understanding that leadership and defending the status quo and the inequalities that exist in America is not where the American people are. That is what they believe to be the A team. Now, is that actually going to be effective? There's a lot of evidence that suggests no. And we're going to talk about that later. Jared golden from Maine, the Democrat who often breaks with the Democrats to vote with Republicans, kind of the John Fetterman of the House. He's not running for reelection. But I don't want to get ahead of myself because we're going to head over to Rob Bluey and get a little bit of insight on where we're headed for the next couple of weeks. And also, of course, whether or not we're going to see just total doom and gloom in Washington. We've got more later, a lot more, especially on the faa, a little bit on the Supreme Court tariff. Nightmare of an argument fest. Don't go anywhere. It's the Tony Kennett cast here on the Daily Signal. Dad.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Bingo.

[Tony Kennett]

It's the Tony Kennett cast with special guest Rob Bluey. That's right. You've heard the Bluey music. It's time for our very own Rob Bluey, president of the Daily Signal and in our swampy nation capital on this interesting Wednesday. Tell me, Rob, is everyone just gloom and doom in D.C. on Capitol Hill? What's kind of the vibe you're getting?

[Rob Bluey]

Well, Tony, I will answer that question in just a moment, but I would be remiss if I didn't congratulate you on an outstanding election night show. We're so proud to work with you and your team. It was phenomenal. The best coverage you could find among any news organization. The guests that you had, including our own stars and talent here at the Daily Signals. So thank you for that. I wanted to make sure I got that out right up front. Second, doom and gloom. Yeah, there's a certain extent of that. I mean, President Trump hosted the Republican senators at the White House this morning. The president is, is clearly at the point where he is showing his annoyance with the government shutdown, blaming the government shutdown for the Republican losses in the states last night. I'm not sure that that's the entirety of what happened, but certainly I expect it was a factor in Virginia, maybe by the overwhelming margin that Abigail Spanberger was able to defeat winsome Earl Sears. But yeah, It's a wake up call for sure. Republicans make sure that they don't have a repeat of this in 2026 or otherwise. The President's final two years of his term are going to be not pleasant, let's just put it that way.

[Tony Kennett]

I've seen a lot of national focus on the New York City mayoral and we've covered that a little bit earlier in the show. So we're not going to get too much into it earlier on in the show. Though I did make a reference last night to Buffalo, New York, and the mayoral race over that way. There were a lot of smaller elections last night that didn't steal the show that have a lot of people maybe looking over their shoulders. Of course, we saw the Pennsylvania retention of their Supreme Court justices, all three Democrats, all three retained. Of course, we saw as well the Georgia special commissioner elections. And then of course, although maybe not a surprise, though, you're from western New York, Buffalo also going very heavily blue. Is there anything extra to make out of this just from again, you're inside the Beltway perspective?

[Rob Bluey]

Well, I'd say a couple of things. Number one, it's probably no surprise that there's a lot of pent up frustration and anger among Democrats right now. I mean, you see that not only in the elected representatives and some of the crude and profane comments that they've made. And you see that certainly among the grassroots. I mean, that was on display sadly, in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination and those who were celebrating his death. So am I surprised that they turned out in force to send a message? No, not necessarily. But we can't also forget that in the case of and I've only really studied the numbers in Virginia and New Jersey in this context, the Republicans were badly outspent. I believe Abigail Spanberger had something like a $50 million war chest compared to 25 million for winsome Earl Sears. So 2 to 1, she had the advantage there. And then Mikey Sherrill, she had I think 61 million compared to 41 million for Jack Cittarelli. It was even worse for the Virginia House of Delegates, which The Democrats won 10 to 12 seats. I think they were vastly outspent. And so when you have that situation where there's such a discrepancy, it's not going to end well. The good news is I did read this morning that President Trump has amassed a war chest of about $2 billion to spend over the course of the midterm elections to save Republican incumbents and maybe expand the majority in Congress. So maybe not all doom and gloom when it comes to this, but certainly not a pretty picture for those who are on ballot last night.

[Tony Kennett]

This is what I want to pivot to. And I'm really glad that you brought up the spending because after this, everyone wants to play coroner. Right? Everyone wants to play the doctor, you know, post op, you want to get in there and say, all right, here's what went wrong. Here's why this was a success. Here's why this was a failure. Do Democrats want, do the NGOs that are funding the Democrat Party want the American people to believe that Americans supported Mikey Sherrill, Abigail Spanberger because of the government shutdown? Or do the Democrats want Americans to believe that the new wave of the young, hyper, socialist, hyper, let's be real, J. Jones violent wing of the Democrat Party is the future? What do they want the voters to believe out of this?

[Rob Bluey]

That's, that's, that's a good one. It probably depends on the Democrat strategist or politician that you ask. I noticed there was a deliberate effort in the closing days, or at least over the last week, to frame what was happening in New Jersey and Virginia as different from New York. Now, I don't necessarily know that that is the case. I think it was, it was a clever PR ploy, maybe by some in the Democrat Party who want to soften or moderate some of the anger and the violent political rhetoric. You heard from people like Jay Jones and Tony. This is what they were saying. Oh, these Democrats, they're moderates. And by the way, we know that Abigail Spanberger is no moderate based on her congressional voting record, but she's been able to.

[Tony Kennett]

The spook who became a viol vile progressive advocate when it comes to boys in the girls locker rooms. Yeah, exactly.

[Rob Bluey]

And thank you for playing those clips last night. And so. But what the argument that these Democrat strategists were making is that they focused on cost of living issues and the cost of tariffs and all of these things that they pin the blame on President Trump. And so I do think that there are some in the party who would like to make a pivot toward those bread and butter issues. I don't necessarily know that that's going to fly with these young, angry Democrats who elevated people like Mamdani and are big fans of AOC and Bernie Sanders. They seem to be motivated more by the violent rhetoric and the anger that exists toward Donald Trump.

[Tony Kennett]

So this kind of split in the messaging right now, when you look at what's coming in 2026, it's not just the coasts that are on the line. This is a coastal election. I mean, I know that I've of course, had some very animated arguments this morning, not just with kind of to the more principled side of the conservative movement, but also the more kind of populous. Get in there and throw some punches. Let's say Boncie from Red State and Kurt Schlichter from Town Hall. All right. And about what the middle of the country stuff means, I think that when you see this split between the old guard of the Democrats, the old white guys, you know, your Joe Bidens, your Chuck Schumers, your Tim Waltz versus the young radicals, Fetterman's still in the race. John Ossoff is still in the race. You've got Peters from Michigan still in the race. What do you see in the 2026 cycle, regardless of whether those senators are up for election in the House, the Senate, throughout the middle of the country races, is this old guard versus new guard of the Democrat Party going to cause some major heartburn in maybe the primaries in a couple of months?

[Rob Bluey]

I think it is. Congress is already on pace to set a record for the most retirements of incumbents. And I think that if the Democrats are ser about challenging some of these older members in their own caucus, you're going to see that number go up. And I think that they will probably feel emboldened by the Mamdani victory in New York City to mount some of these primary challenges. Now, this is not, I mean, conservatives, let's face it, did the same thing during the Tea Party wave and other things.

[Tony Kennett]

I was getting, I was getting flashbacks through this. I was like, oh, the vision versus just status quoism, man, where have I seen this before?

[Rob Bluey]

But Tony, I will point out, and obviously I'm coming at this from a biased perspective as a conservative myself, but I do think the distinction and difference is that those Tea Party activists who propelled a young Mike Lee and our young Rand Paul and Ron Johnson and other people like that into office were doing so because they deeply cared and were troubled by the direction of our country, namely because of how much government spending there was and the encroachment on their personal lives and the lack of personal responsibility. I worry that these young Democrats want to take the country in a completely different direction. Mamdani is not hiding the fact that he is a Democrat, socialist, and maybe even communist on some of these policy issues. That to me is frightening, that if you see that and that poll just came out recently, within the last week, asking college students whether they preferred socialism or capitalism, and they prefer socialism. It's deeply troubling.

[Tony Kennett]

But here's, but here's the real kicker where George Soros was happy to fund the Tim Waltz, the Joe Bidens, Alex Soros. You saw the photo with Mamdani producer Nick, Go ahead and throw it on screen. Alex Soros, Mr. Big Old Billionaire right next to Zoran Mandani congratulating him on the election. Billionaires for me, not for thee. I mean, it really does appear that now they've got the funding base. Would you say that it's fair to say that we may have already reached the era where Alex Soros is calling the shots as opposed to his dad who was more focused on Prosecutors and AGs?

[Rob Bluey]

Oh, yeah. I do think Alex Soros is, is, is in that position, clearly from the influence he has within the Democrat Party. And when you have those big checks that you are able to write, you can obviously dictate who the candidates are and what policy positions they're going to take. It's frightening and probably deserves more scrutiny on at the Daily Signal and other conservative media outlets.

[Tony Kennett]

Well, you guys just hear me get my next assignment.

[Rob Bluey]

Yeah, that's right.

[Tony Kennett]

Rob, president of the Daily Signal, appreciate your taking a minute to shine a little bit of a, let's say more X ray style, kind of a light on what's going on behind the scenes, what we have to look out for.

[Rob Bluey]

Thanks, Tony. Great to be with you.

[Tony Kennett]

All right. Now we're going to pivot away from some of our incredibly stellar election coverage over to a bit of the quick news on the Supreme Court side of things, because right now, Supreme Court of the United States is hearing a couple of arguments, one of which is on the tariff situation in this country. So as you will know right now, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has set a number of tariffs in motion via executive order based on a series of declared national emergencies. Now, there are several kinds of tariffs in place and several kinds of national emergencies which have been set forward. So some of the national emergencies that the president of the United States has set in order to enact tariffs without the approval of the Senate and the House, which has to confirm those. Some of them are based on actual national security immediate issues like the ability to produce military equipment in wartime. These are things like semiconductors and steel. You can make a pretty decent argument for things like automotive manufacturing. Again, given the diversity of auto manufacturing in the United States and around the world right now, maybe a little bit less easy to make that particular case. But there are, you can Also talk about certain kinds of precursor chemicals that are necessary when you're talking about the building of certain kinds of munitions. Fun fact. This is why the Brits went all in on keeping the Welsh economy moving via tariffs. Because the Welsh raised lots of sheep and sheep fat and certain other kinds of materials are necessary for the production of certain kinds of munition. That's just a little fun. Former chemistry teaching fact. But I digress. There are also a couple of tariffs the President has set into motion because he considers it a national emergency that we are at a trade deficit with other countries. Whether or not it is unhelpful for the United States to be at a trade deficit with other countries, whether or not he feels that other countries may be taking advantage of us in trade is a bad thing, which it is, you know, taking advantage of the United States not playing by certain rules. Yeah, that's not a moral thing. That's not a good thing. Whether or not that gives the President to the authority as the executive in this constitutional republic to just declare a national emergency to put those tariffs into place because maybe Congress wouldn't pass those tariffs proposed by the President. That's something else entirely. And that's what's being discussed at the Supreme Court level right now. There's an argument right now that is brewing on the World Wide Web and really on the right in general over the President of the United States tariffs. And they're all being painted with a very broad brush. All of the tariffs are good, all of the tariffs are bad, all of them are constitutional, all of them are unconstitutional. It's a little bit more complicated than that. And it matters here because what's really being discussed by the Supreme Court right now is the authority of the head executive to declare national emergencies before we even get to this case. Producer Nick do you happen to remember last 96 hours of our broadcast time when we were talking about SNAP benefits getting ready to expire end of last week, and the Democrats suggested that what really needed to occur was this $6 to $8 billion contingency fund inside the Department of Agriculture must be used on food stamps immediately. Now, that only covers half of food stamp SNAP benefit expenses per payment. And sure, there's been 100 billion in fraud in like the last decade, according to reports that have come out. But what did the Democrats argue? Federal judges on behalf of the Democrats ended up making emergency orders that this unfunding, this not funding of SNAP benefits because Congress failed to pass a funding bill that that meant this was a national emergency. And therefore you had to put contingency funds into action. It's a major issue for this country because there's no definition to national emergency. Hurricane Katrina. That's a national emergency. Wildfire sweeping across parts of the country. Elements of national emergency. China sending precursor chemicals to our foreign adversaries to then create fentanyl that kills 25,000Americans with the drugs that can fit in one speedboat load. Maybe that's a national emergency. This was argued today on the Supreme Court. Now, I've told you some of the good reasons to argue a national emergency. There are a couple of bad ones. Before we get to any of that, though, we got to talk about how not to argue this. Katanji Brown Jackson is an illiterate fool. Um, she is so, so, so, so, so, so, so incoherent at the best of times. So she was out of crayons today, so give her some slack. Okay, I'm sorry. This is serious. This is a serious conversation that we're having. This is actually something that we need to discuss seriously. And Catanja Brown Jackson being a justice is. Is like trying to have a conversation. And then you ever walked into Home Depot and you're like, going to find something, and then Home Depot has that guy that wants to sell you an air conditioner. You're having a conversation and it's like, hi, guys. How you doing today? Would you like to buy an ac? That's ketangi on the Supreme Court, honey, we've got things to do. And instead she starts having a mental breakdown over whether or not tariffs were used in the Nixon administration. I think we have this particular clip ready to go. Yes, it's clip two exercise.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Did any president under twia. Did any president under TWIA use that language to impose tariffs?

[Supreme Court Justice (possibly Amy Coney Barrett or Ketanji Brown Jackson)]

Well, yes.

[Tony Kennett]

President Nixon's 1971.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Not a tariff, visibly. That wasn't a tariff. It was a licensing agreement during wartime. It was a specific thing. A tariff. I'm, I'm talking about.

[Tony Kennett]

I'm referring to President Nixon's 1971.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

I'm sorry, excuse me. Yes. I thought you. You meant Lincoln.

[Tony Kennett]

You know, the very famous twins, President Lincoln and Nixon. Ah, yes. Really? I. I'm just surprised after John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln that Nixon in full, like, because Nixon was kind of like, I'd say, I'm telling you what. The president that is closest to orangutan is clearly Nixon. He's always like, oh, oh. I mean, I'm surprised he didn't just chuck John Wilkes Booth out of Ford's Theater. Himself very Tim from Toy Story, Home Improvement, guttural. Did you know that if you rearrange the letters of Lincoln, you get. Which isn't Nixon, but it sounds kind of vaguely close, right? She said it in the same manner as if she confused the two Bushes. Oh, I'm in.

[Supreme Court Justice (possibly Amy Coney Barrett or Ketanji Brown Jackson)]

H.W.

[Rob Bluey]

Held by the Court of Appeals with exclusive jurisdiction under this very frame.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Can I back you up just a second? I'm sorry. You're talking.

[Tony Kennett]

So there it is. She says, you're talking so fast. Can you back up a second? I'm the Supreme Court justice of the United States, and unless you have the bouncing ball on the screen that lets me sing along, I'm not really sure what to do here. I'm surprised that Sawyer doesn't just bring, you know, a couple of mega blocks with him to the Supreme Court and says here, why don't you work on this, Castle? And we'll talk with the other justices, because, again, a very serious debate that needs to occur. And now let's actually, you know, get to some of the issues here. What the Supreme Court is deciding right now could cause a major, major change in the economy. A major change. First of all, you as Americans, as well as corporations in the United States and companies, have been footing some of the bill on these tariffs. And so you, as well as some port authorities, some other individuals in other countries, business executives, all the way down. If the tariffs are overruled and some of them are found to be unconstitutional, where does that money go? Who does that come from? Amy Coney Barrett, who I called would be one of the least friendly on this particular issue, made this point today in the oral arguments.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

And then if you win, tell me how the reimbursement process would work. Would it be a complete mess? I mean, you're saying before the government promised reimbursement, and now you're saying, well, that that's rich, but how would this work? It seems to me like it could be a mess.

[Rob Bluey]

So the first thing I'd say is that just underscores just how major a question this is. The very fact that you were dealing with this, with quotas, there's no refund process to the tunes of billions of dollars or embargoes. But there is here. But for our case, the way it would work is, in this case, the government stipulated for the five plaintiffs that they would get the refunds. So for us, that's how it would work.

[Tony Kennett]

Okay, so essentially, he has no idea. He has no idea how actually you would go about actually fully refunding the tariffs. But there is something here that's important. Someone in the comments pointed it out. Absolutely correct. In 2009, Barack Obama imposed a series of tariffs on communist China in order to renegotiate to reframe trade in the Pacific and China's growing encroachment on the world. George W. Bush messed around with a little bit of tariff action and threats on China. That is a genuine national security issue. And also, by the way, not what's being discussed here. What's being discussed here is when does the President get to declare a national emergency? When does the president. Because if something's acting in national security as Nixon acted in. Because remember, Nixon's the guy who helped open up Chinese trade. He cut off the Soviets by improving trade with Communist Beijing. Now historians are going to argue over whether that was the best idea for the next couple of centuries. You know, if they actually pay attention to it. Here's the real issue. Congress is constitutionally supposed to have the rule over tariffs. A lot of these tariffs right now, there's no real reason they should have a national emergency on them. China, yeah, there's a great argument for tariffs on China, giving the actions that China's taking in the Pacific, tariffs against Tanzania, tariffs against Vietnam, tariffs against Canada. In this instance. No, no, it's not a national emergency, by the way. That's not me saying whether I would or would not like Congress to pass those tariffs. But it is not the authority of the President of the United States to, whenever he isn't getting his way, simply go, national emergency. I declare a national emergency. Now I get to declare a tariff whenever I want. Case in point, if the Supreme Court fully upholds the President's ability to declare a national emergency whenever they see some kind of thing that could maybe theoretically be a threat and then impose tariffs, does this mean that President Alexandria Ocasio Cortez would be able to drop a 50% tariff because she declares a climate change emergency? Gorsuch made this case today. That's major question, though. Could the president impose a 50% tariff on gas powered cars and auto parts to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat from abroad of climate change? It's very likely that that could be done. Very likely. I think that has to be the logic of your view. Yeah, that's the issue here. It is the issue. Now, the, the counter argument that I've heard to this as well. But the Democrats are going to get in there and do that anyway. So why not just give Trump unlimited executive authority here in this, in this area and the answer is because every single republic in the history of the world that has collapsed in on itself, not that has been conquered, every single republic that has collapsed, has collapsed by the executive gaining additional authority through national emergencies. Every single one. No exceptions. No exceptions. And so right now, what you are looking at is the President, who, even if he wants to use the power correctly, the reason we have checks and balances in this country is so that God forbid, if another Democrat makes it to the White House, they don't get to be king or queen. They don't. Now, there is a question as to. Well, what happens if the Supreme Court makes a ruling and the President ignores it? Like Joe Biden and the Supreme Court stuff. Well, this is where. Or excuse me, Joe Biden in the student loan stuff. This is where the constitutional obligation to impeach and remove the President comes into play. Why do I bring this up? The issue, as always, is that Congress is bleeping lazy. They have been lazy for 50 years. They got really lazy after the Cold War. And we realized as a country, you know, I don't really need to write a bill on energy. I'll just send that over to the Department of Energy. They're gonna write a rule on it. I don't need to write a bill on education. I'll just send it over to the Department of Education. They're gonna write a rule on it. I don't need to write a particular bill on a tariff policy or negotiation on international trade deals. I'll just send it over to Howard Lutnick's office. I'll send it over to Peter Navarro. I'll send it over to Scott Besson to the Treasury. No, that is not whose job it is. It is Congress's job. Your representatives are the ones who are not doing their fundamental job. All of the props in the world to Representative Brandon Gill of Texas, who right now has filed articles of impeachment against Judge James Boasberg of the D.C. district Court. Good. That's the power. That's what it's used for. Until the actual branch, who is supposed to be in charge of certain issues starts acting like it was constitutionally set up to do, it's not going to be fixed. It's not. The checks and balances have to work. Otherwise the Republic is not functional. And by the way, this is a point that Gorsuch does in fact, make when arguing with Sawyer a little bit later. I think it's worth hearing.

[Rob Bluey]

In January 2023, Congress voted to terminate.

[Tony Kennett]

One of the biggest IEP emergencies ever.

[Rob Bluey]

The COVID Emerg and the president went along with that. So what the statute reflects is there's.

[Tony Kennett]

Going to be the ability for a.

[Rob Bluey]

Sort of political consensus against a declared emergency.

[Tony Kennett]

What happens when the President simply vetoes legislation to try to take these powers back?

[Rob Bluey]

Well, he has the authority to veto.

[Tony Kennett]

Legislation to terminate a national emergency, for example.

[Rob Bluey]

I mean, he retains the powers in the background because I still on the.

[Tony Kennett]

Books, the President retains the veto power to terminate legislation canceling or running a national emergency or enacting a national emergency. National emergencies are a problem for any government. There is no constitutional provision that I think mankind can write. This is one of those eternal points of tension. Because a national emergency, there are times when, God forbid, something terrible is happening and you don't need a committee. You don't lead in a crisis from committee. Well, then who determines when it's a crisis and who determines when it's not? How fast do those measures for a crisis kick in? How many need to die before you need the swift reaction of the President as the commander in chief to move directly in and declare martial law and unrest? The Insurrection Act. These are questions that it is necessary for people who know what the heck they're doing to invest themselves in. And right now, amid all of the things that the Trump administration is doing, it is not clear that the tariffs are creating the booming economy that was promised. Now, before you get your pitch, torque your pitchforks and your torches. Hang on. I'm not saying that all of the coverage of tariffs have been fair. Not saying that at all. I was told you were told that tariffs were going to skyrocket interest rates. You and I were told the tariffs were going to crash the economy. Neither of those things happened. But the rivers of gold flowing back into Lake Town that you and I were promised didn't happen. The President of the United States today tried to make the case grocery prices are way down. And then the White House said, well, there was this announcement from Walmart that Walmart's announcing that turkey dinners are lower in cost this year than they have been back in 2024. Okay, first of all, Walmart enacted brand new policy where they are taking some losses on the chin in order to retain grocery clientele. Would that be the word, clientele? It's a policy they enacted in June of this year. Shoppers. Shoppers, sure. Great, loyal shoppers. Right. The infinite, constant pressure that Walmart faces to stay atop amid the online shopping world, growing ever more present. So the argument that Trump is making here, the grocery prices are way down now it's just not true. It's whistling past the graveyard. It is according to exit polling yesterday. Voter side of the economy. Now, is the economy terrible right now? No. Is the economy what voters expect? No. Here's the prediction. You may not like it, you may not agree with me, and believe me, I will be more than happy to tell you, you were right. Based on my analysis, if the Supreme Court rules that these measures of a lot of these tariffs are unconstitutional, again, likely leaving in place some of the national security tariffs, like against China, like against Russia, the secondary tariffs in that way outside, basically, those who are buying oil from Russia, say against India, for example, those would be defended, but just run of the mill. We're gonna attack Switzerland on their chocolate and their swatches because they're overcharging me on chocolate. Yeah, I don't think that's gonna stay. What you will see out of that is an economic boom. You will. You'll see the economy supercharged forward because the American economy was not built to be wholly protectionist. It wasn't. It wasn't built to be that way. Now, am I talking about built in 1789? No. I'm talking about after 1956. The American economy, since that point, is meant to be the operator and protector of global trade recurrence. So those things aside, that's my prediction now. Could rule the other way, could move the other way. I think that it is rather unwise right now, amid the number of things that the Trump administration is doing that is excellent, to really double, triple down on telling you, like Joe Biden did, prices are actually down. They're not. They're just not. I went to the grocery, I saw the prices. They're not down. We can, we can sit here and do bend over backward metal gymnastics all the ding dong dang day. Just the truth. That said, Trump is still correct on a lot of things. One of these things that he's correct on is again, the decision of the federal government to withhold certain funds from New York City if they choose to go down the communist path. Here is the President of the United States talking about Zoran Mandani and, you know, making a pretty good joke while he's at it, because, you know, come on, that's Trump.

[Supreme Court Justice (possibly Amy Coney Barrett or Ketanji Brown Jackson)]

Remember, I've said, we will never have a socialist elected to any post in our country. I used to say that. And I was right. We skipped socialists and we put in a communist and said, that's not. That didn't work out too well. But as.

[Tony Kennett]

Yeah, correct. Very, very correct indeed. Now, from that point forward, I do want to point out a few things here that I really, again, I'm not sold on it. There's a really excellent column from David Marcus over at Fox News about the argument to end the filibuster right now, to reopen things and just to push ahead and do a lot of nuclear option stuff. There are also a lot of what I would argue are probably better arguments for keeping the filibuster right now. That said, here's the President of the United States arguing that the Senate needs to end the filibuster, go totally nuclear and just start doing things. 51 vote majority. A dangerous game heading up into midterms, especially when there's an opportunity to pick up 60 seats. But here's the president on this.

[Supreme Court Justice (possibly Amy Coney Barrett or Ketanji Brown Jackson)]

It's time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that's terminate the filibuster. It's the only way you can do it. And if you don't terminate the filibuster, you'll be in bad shape. We won't pass any legislation. There'll be no legislation passed for three and a quarter. We have three and a quarter years, so that's a long time. But when they can't do an extension, and John, I think they've done an extension every single time they've ever been asked, forever. This is the first time they haven't done an extension. Extensions are supposed to be easy, but if they won't do an extension, they won't do any bill, even a simple bill. And we should do our own bills. We should get out. We should do our own bills. We should open up. We should start tonight with the country is open. Congratulations. Then we should pass voter id. We should pass no mail in voting. We should pass all the things that we want to pass, make our election secure and safe. Because California is a disaster. Many of the states are disasters. But can you imagine when they vote almost unanimously against voter id? All we want is voter id. You go to a grocery store, you have to give id. You go to a gas station, you give id. But for voting, they want no voter id. It's only for one reason, because they cheat. We would pass that in 15 minutes. If you don't get it, you'll never pass that. You'll never talk about mail in ballots. Mail in ballots, make it automatically corrupt. If you have mail in ballots automatically it's correct. Even Jimmy Carter, they had the Carter Commission after he got out of office. And he had a group of very distinguished people, Democrats and Republicans and they passed, they recommended things take place. It was a long time ago. And they said about mail in ballots. If there is mail in ballots, there will definitely be corruption because you know, they pass through too many hands.

[Tony Kennett]

Now the President's making a couple of cases here. The need to pass legislation that not meeting the 60 vote threshold, if you eliminate that. First of all, the Senate was set up not to be a just passing whatever you want through the simple majority. The simple majority mindset was something the founding fathers warned against time and time again. It was reaffirmed throughout our nation's history. The congressional legislative branch of this government is not supposed to be simple mob rule. We already screwed that up with the 17th amendment by removing the state election of senators, by making senators essentially just bigger district representatives, you've now created a popularity contest and two classes of nobility where you send representatives to Congress in the House and then in the Senate yourself through your own direct vote. And you say, give me things, do things for me. And it creates a system in which you have guys like Mandani who say there was no problem too big for the government to solve and there was no problem too small the government won't address. That is exactly what ending the filibuster would do. And by the way, if your argument is that we have to do all of this before the Democrats get back into power, that has never once worked in all of human history. Never has that been a thing where fear of the other side getting into power. So you're going to allocate more power to yourself. The Republic will crumble. It will scoreboard. We've never seen a country go okay, things are getting out of hand. We're going to go ahead and take more power here before the crazies get involved. And also while we're at it, you know what? We're really going to stabilize this. We're going to ban political parties that are other than our own. That is in fact the next step. There's no slippery slope fallacy when you have a hundred years of modern democratic history to point to its failures. The founding fathers made it very clear. French revolutionary republics are bad. They are disgusting. They become inherently barbaric. They become mob filled disasters. And of course, most importantly, they tilt toward Marxism because they do. They become Animal Farm scenarios. And so right now it is very, very, very important that we consider carefully what it is that we're going to toss out because, oh, the shutdown's really bad right now. Quick, quick, everybody run quite fire. You know the game telephone when you know from One person to one person. And then by the time it gets back around to you, it's a completely different statement. Look at how media headlines progress on social media times this person said this becomes this person yelled this becomes this person. Attempted murder with this becomes. And by the time you actually get four or five news cycle reposts down, it is the worst thing to ever happen. The country's burning down. We're all going to die. We're never going to win another election. We're going to lose the house of the synagogue. Stop it. Take a deep breath. That doesn't mean there's no problems. But if you treat every situation as though it is the end of the country, we're all going to die, then it's not about the Republic anyway. The Republic is worth preserving. And there are in fact ways that right now we can restore the government. And it requires those whom you put into office to do their damned jobs. Which means the House of Representatives and the Senate acting correctly. You say, Tony, but the Senate, we don't have enough votes to do it. Won the Senate. Well then guess what? You should be hitting every day from now until November of next year the senators up for election that aren't doing it, you say, oh well, we don't, we don't think we can flip those seats. If there is an election for you that you really genuinely believe is unwinnable, if it is gone, if it is done, if it is cut off, then it's, it's, it's not a fight of actual governance. It's a fight of brutal naked force, one against the other. And that's mob rule. So moving on from that, I want to point out very quickly, the senator that is most in favor of overturning the filibuster is Josh Hawley. Josh Hawley, who believes subsidies when it benefits me, who believes certain legal protections when it benefits me. It's populism, pure and simple. Whatever's popular. Josh Hawley on the Republican side of the aisle is a huge fan of. Here's Hawley back in the dump, into the filibuster. I played a role in the election. Listen, I'm not a voter in those states, but here's what I do know is the shutdown needs to end. And in my state, I could just tell you it is really hurting real people. This is, by the way, that's true. The shutdown is hurting real people. People who do need to be getting the SNAP benefit assistance, those who are in tsa, those who are in fact doing the air traffic Control. There are people who are hurting because of the shutdown. Absolutely. Why I've offered a bill to pay those SNAP benefits because people need the assistance. 42 million people. I mean, this is becoming a humanitarian crisis. Stop. 42 million people being on SNAP does not mean 42 million people need to be on SNAP. You see the conflation pop. You can fall into this argument very, very easily. Are there people who need to be on SNAP? Yes. Does it need to be 42 million people on SNAP? No. Making the case that this is do or die. 40 million, 42 million people. There's going to be starvation, babies dying on the street, you know, heads mounted on pikes. Stop it. And I think we have got to end this asap.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

But sorry, I just want to get an understanding. It sounds like the president owns. Told you all privately that the shutdown, that the dynamics last night showed that the shutdown. You guys were getting killed is the phrase. Did he say that?

[Tony Kennett]

He didn't say anything privately that he didn't say publicly.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

So he didn't say that he thought that the results last night showed that your party was getting killed.

[Tony Kennett]

I think what he said is that the shutdown needs to end. He wants the shutdown to end and he urged us to get rid of the filibuster. And I will just say this to my Democrat colleagues. If you're going to put me personally to the choice between providing food assistance to 42 million needy Americans or defending some arcane rule of the Senate, I'm going to choose people. So I would just warn my Democrat colleagues, if they think they can do this, don't do that. Don't. Don't do that. Don't play that game. Don't play that game. Well, if I have to choose between this and people. Where have you heard that before? Seriously, where have you heard that before? Well, if I have to choose between you know, standing, you know, and actually upholding a system of capitalism or the people of New York, I'm going to choose people. Be careful. Be careful about using the argument of popularity to tear down things in the room. We have to get rid of these statues of the Founding fathers. Why? Because people feel offended by it. And you would choose people? Right. It's just property. What does it matter to you if they, you know, loot a little and, you know, knock a couple of bricks through window? Wouldn't you choose people over property? Be careful. Be careful. And by the way, none of what I'm saying has anything to do as a, an acknowledgement or, excuse me, and ignoring of the fact that, yes, there are those on the left that cheat. There are those on the left that are not playing fairly by the system. I am not saying that should be ignored. I'm not saying that we should play in a system and allow those to break rules. What I'm saying is that Congress has the authority. Congress has the power, and the executive branch, by the way, has the power to stop a lot of people from breaking those rules. But you do not need to break the entire system apart in order to arrest the malcontents who are violating the system. There are laws that are in place that isn't. That is in fact a truism. And by the way, Gorsuch alluded to that, as did Sawyer in the oral arguments today. It is important to understand there is a very specific difference between tearing things down because people are mad and going after those who are committing the infractions against society. And there are those even, believe it or not, on the Democrat side of the aisle who recognize that going down, the tearing things apart to Helen gone stage is not of value. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, as many gripes as I have with him, recognizes that.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Here he was and they are to their brand of Democrat, if you will, is they are moderate Democrats. I would not typically ask you about a mayor's race in New York, but given that, given how this, given what happened last night, I do want to ask you about it. I mean, because it has raised questions about the direction of the Democratic Party going forward for midterms and potentially for presidential candidates in 28. Zoram Hamdani is a Democratic socialist. That is not your brand of politics in the Democratic Party, but has people saying that he is or should be the direction that the party is going. Do you think, what do you think of his win and do you think that he is a leader in the Democratic Party?

[Tony Kennett]

I think what we're seeing is it's less of a. About what people call themselves and more about what they're focused on. The winner there in the New York mayor's race was unquestionably more focused on people's struggles, on the inability to afford housing, on the inability to pay the bills at the end of the week and at the end of the month. And I think people are less focused right now on even the policy proposals, but what they want is someone committed to trying to, to address it. And I think you here you see the weakness at play despite an answer that's not the worst it could be. Andy Beshear should have immediately said, no, he's not the future of the Democratic Party. Fetterman has no issue in Pennsylvania saying that Jared golden of Maine, representative in the House, who's kind of like the Fetterman of the House, has no issue saying that's not the future of the party. Andy Beshear, like Chuck Schumer, like Tim Walls, like Ken Martin, they want to try to ride this out as long as they can. Now be sure understands that there are issues that people want to solve and just getting out there and screaming about brown people, whatever that means. Again, not actually citing any culture, just saying brown lumping people together, that's not what actually gets things done. And he's correct about that. Now, Bashir also really sucks at passing policy that accomplishes those things. And so that particular time is wearing thin. But understanding that going all in on the tearing everything down not being great, I mean, I don't, I, I can't really toss up a bone. That's a very, that's a low bar to cross. Not wanting to burn everything down. What do you want a cookie for that? On, on a slightly sadder piece of news, though, Jared golden of the Democrat Party has cited political violence as the reason he's not seeking reelection in Maine's 2nd congressional district. By the way, we've talked about him on the show quite a bit. He's most often the Democrat in the House who flips and ends up voting alongside Republicans on a very close piece of legislation for the same reasons that Fetterman does. Keeping the government open. Now, I want to end with one final thing here because I've just told you that what we really need to actually move forward and paint a picture and win in 2026 and see Americans actually get problems they have solved, actual problems solved. There are two people that I want to point out. One of them I do not really care for, but he's hitting a lot of truisms here, and that would of course be Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor in Ohio. Roll that particular clip. We got our handed to us in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City. Democrats swept all three. There's two key lessons for Republicans.

[Rob Bluey]

Listen carefully.

[Tony Kennett]

Number one, our side needs to focus on affordability, make the American dream affordable, bring down costs, electric costs, grocery costs.

[Rob Bluey]

Health care costs and housing costs and lay out how we're going to do it.

[Tony Kennett]

And number two, cut out the identity politics. It doesn't suit Republicans. It's not for us. That's the woke left's game, not ours.

[Rob Bluey]

We don't care about the color of.

[Tony Kennett]

Your skin or your religion. We care about the content of your character. Character.

[Rob Bluey]

That's who we are.

[Tony Kennett]

He's correct on both. He is correct on both. It's true. Now we can talk about H1B visas. That program that does need to be ended. We can talk about the revision to the legal immigration system that he's not a fan of and he's wrong there. But in the, in the case of painting a picture and he followed this up, I did bookmark this tweet. I don't think I was able to screenshot it for the show. But I do want to share this with y' all from Vivek and I quote, more energy, more housing, more high quality education, less crime, less taxation, less identity politics. Starting in Ohio soon. There's the picture. More energy, lower power bills, more industry without having to chunk out all of this extra money on infrastructure, More housing, cheaper housing. Millennials cannot afford houses. And no, it's not because they're spending money on avocado toast. Gen Z sure can't afford housing. That's a major problem. Either the socialists are going to be the ones who win on it or the National Socialists are going to win on it. Unless the Republican Party actually provides a solution and addresses the corporations that are buying up houses and then selling them back on the renters market at ridiculously, insanely high prices. That's a problem. Higher quality education matters. The vex. Painting a picture. And the other thing I wanted to point out tonight before we, before we bid a nice fond farewell, I wanted to talk about what it actually looks like when congressmen fight Bernie Moreno. Bernie Moreno got into it with Jackie Rosen today in the Senate. It was stellar. Again, if you're going to be congressman, you need to get out and fight. You need to get into it. And this, this nice little buddy. Buddy. Soft handed. Oh, it's good to see you, Representative. It's good to see you, Senator. Oh, you're so nice. And then you get in the cameras and you fight. This needs to be a 247 thing. Stop campaigning two weeks before the election and start actually doing the fighting. Now, the day after the election here was Senator Moreno versus Senator Rosen.

[Rob Bluey]

Much like, for example, exposing democracy, that you get paid, you get, you get a paycheck, but you walk by you.

[Tony Kennett]

You get, you get.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

I'm donating my paycheck, sir. And I would happily.

[Rob Bluey]

What do you say to them to get, what do you say to the staff? What do you say to the TSA workers? What do you say to the air traffic controllers?

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

I am saying to you is a Republican shutdown, my friend. You are in control of the White House. You are in control of the House and you are in control of the Senate. And if you went home to a food bank instead of going to Mar a Lago, does it take 60 votes at a gold plated dinner while people are starving, you might see and hear your constituents. Sir, you are, you are blind to the suffering of your people.

[Rob Bluey]

Does it take 60 votes?

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

It takes you listening and coming to the table.

[Rob Bluey]

It does take 60 votes.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

You want to have this? Come talk to me in private.

[Tony Kennett]

Oh, there it is. Come talk to me. Quit embarrassing me. Quit embarrassing me in front of the American people. You're saying vote yes right now, you coward hiding behind. Oh, Donald Trump had a great Gatsby dinner. Yeah. The president does not have a vote in the Senate. You get in there and you fight. Now, if this does actually come to the filibuster again, David Marcus over at Fox, excellent column for why knocking out the filibuster in this case might be the idea. I'm still leaning towards no. But right now, the entirety, the entirety of the saving of the Republic. The entirety. The saving of the Republic comes down to your representatives and senators. Excuse me. Actually caring enough to do their jobs, to get off of. Of Twitter and Instagram and Tick Tock making really garbage videos like we saw. I know I said I was about to, but I can't help but share Amy Klobuchar outside of the Supreme Court today, Senator Amy Klobuchar saying literally recording a video. Hey, guys, I'm here watching the Supreme Court.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

I'm coming over from the Capitol to the Supreme Court. Today.

[Tony Kennett]

I was doing a voice. I wasn't even trying to make fun of her. That was pretty darn close. Thank you.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Where I actually have a seat in.

[Tony Kennett]

The courtroom to see the Supreme Court.

[Political Analyst/Commentator]

Hear this important case brought by small businesses across the nation about the tariffs the president has.

[Tony Kennett]

I love that so much. I got a seat to watch Motley Crue and I'm very, very excited. I hope they play Home Sweet Home and also smoking in the boys room. Thank you. Vote for me, a pack of Camels in every Camaro.

[Supreme Court Justice (possibly Amy Coney Barrett or Ketanji Brown Jackson)]

Go.

[Tony Kennett]

Stop it. Stop it. There you go. There's your choices. And on that lovely, beautiful, uplifting note, we'll be back tomorrow, 7pM Eastern. This is the Tony Kenneth cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated, first on 93 WIBC. Take care.