The Tony Kinnett Cast – Ep. 473

Date: January 1, 2026
Title: BREAKING: Jack Smith Transcript Drops, Tim Walz Called Before Congress, Project 2025 Kills Us All
Host: Tony Kinnett (The Daily Signal)

Overview

On this lively New Year’s Eve episode, Tony Kinnett delivers a rapid-fire, sardonic analysis of the week’s major political stories: the newly-released Jack Smith congressional testimony transcript, ongoing Somali migrant daycare fraud in Minnesota and the resulting media/legislative fallout, surging unrest in Iran, and a gleefully mocking review of Democratic warnings about "Project 2025." Throughout, Kinnett’s tone is mocking, irreverent, and loaded with cultural references.

Key Segments and Insights

1. Jack Smith Congressional Transcript Breakdown

Timestamps: 00:36 – 15:07

Main Points:

• Kinnett opens with satirical doom prophesies about Project 2025, segueing into analysis of Jack Smith’s congressional testimony transcript.
• Major claim: Jack Smith (special prosecutor in Trump cases) admitted to wiretapping U.S. Senators without full judicial disclosure—questioning legality and transparency.
  • Quote [03:49]:
    E: “When you sought these non, these, these non disclosure orders, the judge didn't know."
• Smith’s discussion of the First Amendment defense in the Trump case is dissected. Kinnett criticizes Smith’s view that Trump’s fraud claims were not protected speech.
  • Quote [04:54]:
    F (Jack Smith): “We want to make clear that this was not about trying to interfere with anyone's First Amendment rights, that this was a fraud. And as you know, under Supreme Court precedent, fraud is not protected by the First Amendment.”
  • Kinnett’s response [05:26]:
    B: "No, no, you can't do that one. You can't just say, well, I mean, fraud's not illegal... If you say, I don't think that contest was fair, that's not fraud."
• Discussion of Smith's central assertions: despite lacking concrete evidence that Trump “instructed” Jan. 6 rioters, Smith maintains Trump created “distrust” that led to violence.
  • Quote [08:41]:
    B: “He used this distrust, this mistrust he created to get people to believe fraud claims that weren't true. ... He made false statements to state legislators, to his supporters in all sorts of contexts, and was aware in the days leading up to January 6 there was anger.”
  • Kinnett mocks this "foresight" as legally meaningless: "Candace Owens school of it came to me in a dream..."
• Kinnett alleges Smith’s entire prosecution is built on hearsay and unreliable witnesses.
  • Cites Julie Kelly for fact-checking the narrative about classified documents at Mar-A-Lago and claims about FBI "raid" escalation.
• Smith is accused of knowingly pushing Supreme Court calendar manipulations to affect the 2024 election timeline.
• Kinnett’s summary:
  “The song 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus' has more evidence in its lyrics for the existence of Santa than anything Jack Smith used.”

2. Minnesota Somali Daycare Fraud and Cultural Clashes

Timestamps: 15:10 – 29:42

Main Points:

• Shifts focus to allegations of rampant daycare fraud within Minnesota’s Somali migrant community, connecting it to broader immigration/assimilation debates.
• Plays a viral clip of a Somali woman nervously reading, "Fraud is bad," and panicking, which Kinnett frames as evidence of failed integration and toxic community pressures.
  • Quote [18:58]:
    H: “I understand fraud is bad.”
    B: “She realizes she's made a blunderous error because ... she has just condemned the members of her community.”
• Ridicules recent vandalism/theft at a daycare caught up in the fraud scandal, calling it suspiciously timed (“the dog ate my homework”).
• Blasts mainstream/corporate media (CBS, CNN) for ignoring/euphemizing Somali fraud for years until grassroots investigators and conservative journalists forced the issue.
  • Quote [25:22]:
    B: “The media is a very special case in this particular story because they are very embarrassed.”
  • Quote [30:27]:
    B: “Where the bleep were you when this fraud was going on during COVID?... you were one of the reporters whining about January 6th and licking Jack Smith's knees and toes.”
• Compares the old-guard media’s performative investigations to “embarrassed” high school reunions and criticizes their lack of investigative rigor next to independent journalists like Nick Shirley and Cam Higby.

3. Iranian Unrest and Global Policy Commentary

Timestamps: 39:00 – 47:05

Main Points:

• Covers breaking news of large-scale unrest and rebellion against Iran’s mullah regime, attributing progress to U.S./Israeli/Sunni pressure and technologies supporting protestors.
  • Details on protesters taking over police HQs, burning government buildings.
  • Praises Trump-era foreign policy (“peace through strength”), especially Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, and Pete Hegseth as "Secretary of War."
  • Kinnett links this global chaos to failed leftist predictions that Trump would destabilize the world for women/girls—instead, he argues, things improved.
• Takes sardonic shots at both Iranian regime brutality (“Hang men who lay hands on women”) and at U.S. media cluelessness.

4. Tim Walz Called Before Congress

Timestamps: 47:10 – 49:31

Main Points:

• Highlights Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz being subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee (Chair: James Comer) to account for the daycare fraud scandal.
• Kinnett challenges Comer not to make empty threats, but to actually pursue contempt of Congress if Walz refuses to testify—offering to bring Indiana donuts in person should it happen.
  • Quote [48:46]:
    B: “If Tim Walz doesn't want to come testify, hold him in contempt... if you make this happen, please... I shall bring the Oversight Committee Jack's Donuts and the amazing Sunrise Bakery Amish donuts from Indiana...”

5. Project 2025—Satirical Fearmongering and Reality Check

Timestamps: 49:32 – 58:00

Main Points:

• Mocks the apocalyptic tone of Democratic/media warnings about "Project 2025," a Heritage Foundation-backed policy guide for a future conservative administration.
• Reviews (satirically) the litany of predicted horrors (end of abortion, bans on birth control, mass deportations, environmental apocalypse, anti-gay pogroms, Christian nationalism).
  • Quote [50:24]:
    B: “Project 2025, it was going to ban abortion nationwide. Didn't do it...Mass deportations. Dude, I freaking wish. I wish.”
  • Reveals he personally wrote the "eliminate the Department of Education" clause, but Congress didn’t act on it.
  • Ridicules the notion of "half-implemented" Project 2025 objectives—describes the document as a menu, not recipe.

6. The “Shadow Cabinet” and Democrat Spectacle

Timestamps: 58:00 – End

Main Points:

• Ends with a long lampoon of Democratic plans to respond to Trump’s win with a “shadow cabinet,” “shadow hearings,” and “shadow government.”
  • Quotes from various Democratic figures about their imaginary portfolios (e.g., Adam Schiff as Shadow Attorney General).
  • Demonstrates how these events were embarrassing failures, mostly ignored, with lower viewership than Kinnett’s own podcast.
    • Quote [65:44]:
      D: “Extraordinary step of convening this unprecedented hearing...”
    • Kinnett: “You mean like the one that happened a week before this one? After it's happened? It's kind of precedented, Bud.”
  • Skewers the “shadow hearing” production values (“looked like a screen-recorded Zoom call set up by a dyslexic octopus”) and Democratic melodrama.
  • Declares “Project 2026” will just be: “Deport people. That’s it. It’s just a one page...Hastily scrawled, ‘deport everyone.’”

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Mocking Media Celebrations (re: Jack Smith):
  B [00:36]: “The accounts over on the left side of the aisle were all claiming massive, incredible, super duper victory...I noticed there was a little something that was a bit off in their little victory celebrations.”
• On Project 2025 Outrage:
  B [49:32]: “A moment of silence, of course, for the millions and billions and trillions who were slaughtered by Project 2025.”
• On Somali Fraud Clip:
  B [18:58 / 19:58]: “She is terrified because she has admitted: ‘Fraud is bad!’”
• On Legacy Media:
  B [25:22]: “The media...they are very embarrassed. ...they slept on this story for a long time. Because while the Fox affiliate up in Minnesota was reporting on these particular fraud stories for over a decade, national news left it alone because...it’s one of those equity classes of people.”
• On the “Shadow Cabinet”:
  B [61:14]: “Why is the taxpayer paying for you to print out glossy posters of your campaign logo? Wiley Nickel. Wiley Nickel for North Carolina. That sounds like a cheap villain, like in Toy Story.”

Key Takeaways

• Jack Smith's testimony is painted by Kinnett as legally dubious, politically motivated, and lacking evidentiary basis—a narrative amplified by conservative commentators like Julie Kelly.
• Daycare fraud among Somali migrants in Minnesota is used as a lens to discuss assimilation, media malpractice, and legislative inaction, with major mainstream outlets called out for ignoring the story.
• Iranian unrest is spun as empirical validation of Trump-era foreign policy, in contrast to progressive warnings.
• Project 2025 is lampooned as a bugbear for the left, with predictions of catastrophic policy changes both exaggerated and unfulfilled.
• Democrats’ “shadow government” efforts are dismissed as cringe, ineffective, and narcissistic theater, symbolizing a party out of touch and desperate for relevance.
• Kinnett remains irreverent, mocking, and deeply skeptical of institutional narratives, especially the mainstream press and progressive establishment.

For listeners seeking critical, satirical dissection of current conservative news cycles—with a heavy dose of cultural commentary and skepticism toward legacy institutions—this episode is emblematic of the Tony Kinnett Cast’s tone and content.