Ep. 540 - BREAKING: Swalwell & Gonzales Resign from Congress, China Fumes as Iran Oil Cut, Trump Fights Pope

Summary

The Tony Kinnett Cast – Ep. 540 Summary

Date: April 14, 2026
Main Theme:
A whirlwind night of breaking political news—including the resignations of Congressmen Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) amid misconduct allegations—as well as in-depth commentary on the implications for both parties, global reaction to a U.S. oil blockade on Iran impacting China, tense Trump-Iran-Pope relations, and a deep dive into the escalating “war on truckers” in America.

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Table of Contents

• 1. Congressional Shake-Ups & Scandal
• 2. Iran Talks Collapse & Oil Blockade: U.S., China, and Global Fallout
• 3. Trump, the Pope, and the Art of Public Outrage
• 4. The “War on Truckers”: Immigration, Regulation, and Road Safety
• 5. Interview: Gord McGill on End of the Road
• 6. Notable Quotes & Moments

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<a name="congressional-shakeups"></a>

1. Congressional Shake-Ups & Scandal

Key Segment: [00:32]-[12:30]

• Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Resigns:

  • Swalwell announces resignation over sexual assault allegations from a former staffer, after already suspending his CA gubernatorial campaign.
  • Reads from Swalwell’s statement and critiques its language ("mistakes in judgment," "taking responsibility," complaints about due process).
  • Tony’s commentary is sardonic:
    “This man was more obsessed with my boobs than a Got Milk? commercial, as one young lady said.”
    (Tony Kinnett, [03:11])
  • Dismisses Swalwell’s initial denials as evidence and videos surface.
  • Notes media spin and CNN “victory lap” for breaking the story—a move Kinnett mocks.

• Tony Gonzales (R-TX) Resigns:

  • Announces resignation, citing “a season for everything” and an ongoing House Ethics investigation after admitting to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
  • Trump had already pulled endorsement.
  • Kinnett notes, “He is a garbage individual who has done rather garbage things.” ([10:46])

• Wider Context:

  • Discusses the “two for two” deal in Congress—a reference to political maneuvering to force out particularly controversial members from both parties.
  • Mentions other embattled members: Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) for FEMA fraud, and Corey Mills (R-FL), with ethics issues and “questionable histories.”
  • Procedural note: Quick resignations mean governors will appoint temporary replacements before special elections.

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<a name="iran-blockade"></a>

2. Iran Talks Collapse & Oil Blockade: U.S., China, and Global Fallout

Key Segments: [16:40]-[29:00]

• Ceasefire Talks with Iran:

  • VP J.D. Vance and Jared Kushner unable to secure a deal in Islamabad; Trump gives updates, claiming Iran is desperate for a deal but offers nothing substantive.
  • U.S. refuses any plan that allows Iran to fund Hezbollah, build nukes, or threaten the Strait of Hormuz.
  • “These talks are going absolutely nowhere.” (Tony Kinnett, [18:40])

• U.S. Blockade and China’s Dilemma:

  • U.S. initiates a naval blockade at the Strait of Hormuz:
    “There has been a 15 ship movement towards a blockade…”
  • Iran tries to impose a toll on oil traffic, favoring China and France.
  • The U.S. responds with a full shutdown—hurting China, which gets about a third of its oil via this route.
    • “China now is rather, how you say, screwed.” (Tony Kinnett, [25:16])

• Domestic and Global Impact:

  • Gas prices, supply chain squeezes, and political ramifications noted.
  • Trump highlights U.S. energy independence:
    “We have our own oil and gas, much more than we need now…” ([27:18])
  • China’s strategic reserves are depleted, exacerbating their vulnerability.

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<a name="trump-pope"></a>

3. Trump, the Pope, and Public Outrage

Key Segments: [29:20]-[39:03]

• Trump vs. Pope Leo XIV:

  • Trump attacks Pope Leo on Truth Social, calling him “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy,” and accuses him of being soft on Iran and critical of the U.S. approach.
  • Posts an AI image of himself as Jesus—a widely condemned “blasphemous” move that he later deletes.
    • “That would have been a good response. Instead, he decided to say that he thought it was a doctor.” (Tony Kinnett, [39:03])
  • Tony, as a Baptist, expresses that neither the Pope’s critiques nor Trump’s attacks do much politically.

• Pope’s Response:

  • Pope Leo asserts, “I have no fear, neither with Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the gospel… We're not politicians.” ([34:07])

• Social Media Reaction:

  • Kinnett underlines that Trump’s late-night, “no-filter” posting continues to rile both allies and opponents.
  • Criticizes the cycle of outrage and “pearl-clutching” from both camps.

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<a name="war-on-truckers"></a>

4. The “War on Truckers”: Immigration, Regulation, and Road Safety

Key Segments: [42:00]-[52:00]

• Series of Fatal Crashes & Root Causes:

  • Worsening interstate highway safety—two more high-profile semi crashes involving immigrant/foreign truckers with little English proficiency or questionable licensure.
  • Tony lambasts state “shell companies,” weak regulations, and “deskilled” CDL exams.
  • “If you do not speak English, you should not be administered a commercial driver’s license, period.” ([45:19])

• Federal and State Loopholes:

  • Outlines how different states’ lenient licensing allows dangerous drivers onto U.S. roads; federal regulators outnumbered and outmaneuvered.
  • Interview snippets with FMCSA leadership:
    “The system we have currently is like 40 years old… They rack up tons of safety violations.” ([49:18])

• Public Concern:

  • Polls show major highway safety is now a top concern for younger Americans and registered voters alike.

• Personal Rant/Advice:

  • Tony laments “charlatanry” in religious publishing (referring to Russell Brand’s “How to Become a Christian in Seven Days”), advocating instead for straightforward gospel reading over packaged books.

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<a name="gord-mcgill"></a>

5. Interview: Gord McGill – "End of the Road: The War on Truckers"

Key Segment: [56:58]-[71:41]

• Background & Credibility:

  • Gord McGill: Third-generation trucker, published author.
  • Brings firsthand experience and historical context—grandfather drove across the first Trans-Canada highway.

• How Trucking Standards Were Undermined:

  • Deskilling of the industry: “They impose automatic transmissions, do all this stuff to deskill it… so anybody can just step on the accelerator.” ([64:21])
  • Mass issuance of non-domiciled CDLs to those with no experience or understanding of U.S. road culture.
  • Market flooded with underqualified drivers due to corporate lobbying and false “driver shortage” narratives.

• Fatal Consequences:

  • Examples from Indiana: fatal crashes caused by truckers with forged credentials or no licenses.
  • McGill: “The requirements to get a CDL were always too low. They tried to make them lower... and now there’s somewhere between 600-850,000 of these guys out on our road.” ([65:04])
  • Explains that regulatory collapse and corporate welfare have allowed this crisis.

• Automation Looms:

  • Skepticism on “driverless truck” tech: “If the industry is clamoring for automated trucks... why are we importing more and more unqualified people to do the work?” ([67:32])

• Call to Action:

  • Highways as the national commons; letting underqualified individuals into the system endangers everyone.
  • “The cost of that is being assessed in innocent lives. And it has to stop.” (Gord McGill, [70:59])

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<a name="quotes"></a>

6. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Swalwell Resignation

• “He was more obsessed with my boobs than a Got Milk? commercial.” – Tony Kinnett quoting a staffer about Eric Swalwell ([03:11])
• “Turns out that [fighting the allegations] wasn’t much.” – Tony Kinnett ([05:26])

On Political Deal-Making

• “So you get rid of Eric Swalwell, the lady toucher, and also Sheila Shifilas McCormick, the money toucher, and we’ll get rid of Tony Gonzalez, the lady toucher, and Corey Mills, the Islam and maybe fraud toucher.” – Tony Kinnett ([13:49])

On Iran/Global Oil

• “China now is rather, how you say, screwed.” – Tony Kinnett ([25:16])
• “We have our own oil and gas much more than we need now.” – Donald Trump, quoted ([27:18])

On Trucking Crisis

• “If you do not speak English, you should not be administered a commercial driver’s license, period.” – Tony Kinnett ([45:19])
• “[On the roads]...we are just letting all kinds of people onto them with 80,000 pound rigs that haven’t got a clue what they’re doing. And the cost of that is being assessed in innocent lives.” – Gord McGill ([70:59])

On Trump’s AI Jesus Meme

• “The depiction of Trump as Christ: not a good call. Put the phone down. Don’t do it. Yes, it’s blasphemous.” – Tony Kinnett ([38:30])
• “Instead, he decided to say that he thought it was a doctor.” – Tony Kinnett, on Trump’s defense ([39:14])

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Additional Details

• Discussion also touches on water purity, the limits of government regulation, and skepticism toward sensational religious publishing.
• The episode’s tone is brash, colloquial, and deeply skeptical of both political establishments and fashionable narratives, reflecting a “commonsense, Hoosier” perspective.

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Summary prepared for listeners who want a detailed, timestamped roadmap of the chaos, scandal, and behind-the-scenes implications on this major news night.

Transcript

[Tony Kennett]

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[Gord McGill]

Tony Kennett.

[Interviewer/Co-host]

Tony Kennett.

[Tony Kennett]

Tony Kennett. Tony Kennett.

[Interviewer/Co-host]

Tony Kennett.

[Tony Kennett]

Tony Kennett Host of the Tony Kennett Cast. 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. I hope you are ready for all of the news at once because that is exactly what we have for you. There are now two congressmen who have either announced they are about to resign or have resigned. And this is right before a 2 for 2 deal. No, no, no. Not for Wendy's Restaurant. For the House of Representatives, essentially, because Congress is so useless. The representatives in Congress just so happen to be equally useless. And a lot of them do rather bad things, make rather bad choices. First and foremost would be governor. Excuse me. No, no, no. Never to be governor of California. And now going to be former representative of California, Eric Swalwell. He has announced that he is resigning from Congress in the coming days from the 14th congressional in California. Statements over on the screen for the Livestream crew. He says, quote, I, I am deeply sorry to my family, staff and constituents for mistakes in judgment. Yes, mistakes in judgment. We're gonna talk about those I've made in my past. I will fight the serious false allegation singular made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes, plural I did make. Interesting. He says, I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion vote against me and other members. And then he says, expelling anyone in Congress without due process. Due process. As though like you get a special set of Miranda rights when you're a congressman within days of an allegation being made is wrong. But it's also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties. Now, I think that's hilarious. He says, it's wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties. You were running for governor. You were run. First of all, if you're in Congress, you should be focused on your job. Anyway, the endless campaigning is something that bothers Americans on the left, on the right, in the center, whatever. But to say that all of the sudden, now that you have former staffers coming out and saying, hey, this dude's hand was up my shirt all the time, all right? This man was more obsessed with my boobs than a Got Milk? Commercial. As one young lady said. I wish I could say that I was ready for that joke. No. And in this case, Eric Swalwell has had his hands on the ladies. Far younger. 17 years is younger for quite a while and after he was married. But alas, he doesn't like it's a distraction. See, that's the real reason he's leaving. He can't, you know, give all of the time to his constituents. The mortgage fraud allegations, you know, those. Those weren't a distraction. The gubernatorial campaign, that, of course, wasn't a distraction. No, no, no. This. This right here. I will work with my staff. There are far fewer of these staff, by the way, now days to ensure that they are able in my absence. Wow. So brave of you to serve the needs of the good people of the 14th congressional. Now, this comes right after he suspended his campaign for governor. That has a slightly different flavor to it, though. I'm suspending my campaign for governor. To my family, staff, friends, and supporters. I'm deeply sorry for the mistakes in judgment. Ah, now we're switching it up a little bit in the past. And then I will fight the serious false allegations, plural, that have been made. But that's my fight, not a campaigns. And you may say, Tony, what caused him to go from allegations plural to allegation? Well, you know, after originally coming out and claiming, oh, it's all very false. I'm very, very innocent here. Here's this sad video I'm filming of myself instead of, you know, just go ahead and come and clean. He tried to ride it out for a few days. Bad idea.

[Eric Swalwell]

A lot has been said about me today through anonymous allegations, and I thought it was important that you see and hear from me directly. These allegations of sexual assault are flat false. They are absolutely false. They did not happen. They have never happened.

[Tony Kennett]

Now, you know, the whole did not happen, never happened really doesn't work when people start posting footage like, you know, this, oh, look, his hand on and on the boobs and the. The. Oh, interesting. Anyway, this never happened. Never happened at all, ever. Remember Mr. Brett Kavanaugh's classmates said he drank beer in high school so he can't be anywhere near the Supreme Court. I believe Christine Blasey Ford kind of a guy. Never happened.

[Eric Swalwell]

He said, I will fight them with everything that I have.

[Tony Kennett]

Turns out that wasn't much.

[Eric Swalwell]

By the way, also come on the eve of an election where I have been the frontrunner candidate for governor in California.

[Tony Kennett]

By the way, he's been the frontrunner candidate for, for all of about three and a half minutes. We reported on this show the polls showing it was a three way tie for 10% between Tom Steyer, Katie Porter and Eric Swalwell. That was the tie. And in fact that dead tie was so close it was likely going to push the two Republican candidates, a sheriff and Steve Hilton to be, according to jungle primary rules, the only two candidates. So as for Mr. Campaign Leader here and you know, obviously a key vocal critic of the president and the Republican Party, interesting. Now what he's saying here, by the way, is true. And there are now allegations that Katie Porter is rather close to somebody who made the allegations. And you know, talk about glass houses and stones, that's not doing very well either because Katie Porter has more scandals than, well, Eric Swalwell. Not limited to, but including throwing boiling mashed potatoes at the bodies and heads of her staffers. But anyway, we'll let Eric Swalwell continue his non apology here at the beginning.

[Eric Swalwell]

I do not suggest to you in any way that I'm perfect or that I'm a saint. I have certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past, but those mistakes are between me and my wife. And to her I apologize deeply for putting her in this position.

[Tony Kennett]

Now, first of all, no, no, no, no, no, no, no and no, no. If you participate in the act of infidelity, it's not between you and your wife. See, that's, that's the interesting thing about the whole like oath of marriage. See, you are bound to your spouse and then if you bring someone else into that, that makes it public. And also if you are dumb enough to dip your pen into the company Inc. Anyway, as we found out it was with these sexual assault allegations, you really make it. Not even between you, your wife and normally and theoretically a mistress. In this case, the mistress is one of your staffers, you sick and disgusting man.

[Eric Swalwell]

I also apologize to you if in any way you have doubted your support for me. But I think you know who I am.

[Tony Kennett]

I do. In fact, we, we all know exactly who you are. Now, he does have a new, you know, kind of take on this. He's changed his tune. You may have heard because we have the videos of him with the young lady that's accusing him of sexual assault, blackout drunk. He's, you know, pulling her onto the bed and, you know, doing the whole four smooch, smoochie kisses thing. Just, you know. No, personally I don't recommend it. But you know, in, in this case now there's some interesting people kind of taking victory laps at this. Uh, first of all is Brian Selter of cnn. And don't get me wrong, we will get to Tony Gonzalez of Texas on the Republican side of the aisle, just announcing his resignation a few minutes ago. But first and foremost, Brian Stelter wants you to know that the news about Eric Swalwell and his affairs, that was a work of CNN investigatory journalism. Yes. Dramatic end of the weekend news in California and a real testament to the power of investigative reporting. Eric Swalwell ending his campaign for California Governor Just about 48 hours after CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle both reported on allegations of sexual misconduct in his past. Taken together, the story is portrayed an abuse of power by the California congressman. Now look, any outlet is going to come out and claim that they had a small part in getting out there and talking about Swalwell. I will point out that we actually had on air coverage regarding Swalwell and his rather lurid affair before CNN did on network. You don't hear us claiming any responsibility for whatever. You know, Brian Stelter wants to still feel like he's a part of the game and like he and the San Francisco Chronicle teamed up and success, you know, they got him out. No, now that, that it's been an open secret that Swalwell is a scummy dude for a long time. There are open secrets all over D.C. you might recall that I told you about Christine Ohm and Corey Lewandowski for months before that was brought out in front of the public. There are these kind of things that you understand that do happen quite consistently. It's why when we interviewed Tim Burchett, Tennessee, he made it clear that when he has to be in D.C. the dude sleeps in his office on the couch because he doesn't trust anybody in that crazy, garbage filled town. My man, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Kind of as a side note here, you might call this perhaps ironic. Eric Swalwell even thinks that he shouldn't have a driver's license, believe it or not. Here's a news clip from a couple of weeks ago where he was saying he's going to take driver's licenses away in California of ICE agents because they've terrorized women to me.

[Eric Swalwell]

If you're going to run around our state masked and not showing yourself, not showing ID and terrorize women, then you should not have a driver license. The governor has the power to grant driver's license in any state. And I call it reveal to wheel boy.

[Tony Kennett]

Some stuff was revealed. All right, now hand over your driver's license. Thank you, Eric. Radio crew, we're going to send you off to the commercial break because we gotta per FCC rules. In the meantime, we're going to talk a little bit about Tony Gonzalez, who's also resigning. Boy, what a day. It's the Tony Kinnit cast here on the Daily Signal. Now, my dear boys, girls, and squirrels of the online side of things, Representative Tony Gonzalez, who lost to the AK guy, a phenomenal content creator on firearms content, because he is a garbage individual who has done rather garbage things. This Representative Tony Gonzalez has announced he is also going to be resigning from Congress. And it turns out the reason he's resigning, not only did he get beaten in his primary because he's very, very scummy. And the allegations against him are numerous and many. We've covered them on this show before. But old Tony Gonzalez has announced he's resigning tomorrow. He says, quote, there is a season for everything. Okay. Anyway, sorry. There's a season for everything, and God has a plan for us all. Wow. Hold on. Ahem. When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office. It has been my privilege to serve the great people of Texas. Okay, so he's got a couple of issues. Now, we've talked about this on the show before. I won't, you know, go into this in fullness, but he had acknowledged he had an affair with a former staffer. That's a violation of the House rules. The former staffer then later died by suicide. Not a good look. And so the House Ethics Committee opened up an investigation. Not looking very good for the guy. And Trump, of course, pulled his endorsement from him. Again, not a good look. And so what we were looking at was kind of a two for two kind of a deal. And now two of the two for two, one on each side, have vacated themselves. Now, why is this two for two deal kind of important? Well, other than Representative Eric Swalwell on the Democrat side and Tony Gonzalez on the Republican side, there are several Democrats and one Republican whom the House of Representatives really, really, really wants to get rid of. So on the Democrat side of the aisle, first and foremost on this list would be Sheila Sherfilas McCormick. This would be the Young lady from Florida, Democrat, who defrauded fema because, you know, when you want to show how much you love the people, you go out and defraud the Federal Emergency Management Administration, you know, after you were told that wasn't happening, and it's really ugly and it's really bad. Now they also have the other representative, a non voting representative, albeit from outside the continental United States, who received texting orders from Jeffrey Epstein after he was, you know, already through all of the pedophilia allegations, et cetera, and was taking orders on questioning Trump officials in Congress. She's still hanging around on the Republican side of the aisle. And we've reported on him earlier. Even when I was. It was suggested across the broader side, maybe not to Corey Mills. Representative Corey Mills, you know, whose wife and he got married in the Al Qaeda mosque. Yes, that one who has a lot of questionable histories about him, as the Blaze has previously reported. So there were some deals cut, but Speaker Johnson kind of came forward and said, hey, we'll tell you what, tell you what, you have two really rough sore spots. We also still have Corey Mills. I don't like that he stuck around. I don't like how we kind of kept him until now. You get rid of Eric Swalwell, the lady toucher, and Also Sheila Shifilas McCormick, the money toucher, and we'll get rid of Tony Gonzalez, the lady toucher, and Corey Mills, the Islam and maybe fraud toucher. Again, the Blaze reports do far better explanation of this than I do. Peter Giedel over at the Blaze is kind of headed up, looking through that process. Excellent stuff. Highly recommend it. So that aside, what does this mean if everyone is resigning here, there and everywhere? Well, desantis is going to be busy making an appointment. The legislature probably getting some advice from leadership in Florida on who is to be appointed if you end up getting rid of either Corey Mills or Sheila Shepheris McCormick in California, obviously Gavin Newsom, they're going to be appointing a replacement for Swalwell. Uh, shocker. Not gonna be Republican. Um, and then in Texas, Abbott is going to be replacing Tony Gonzalez with literally anyone else. So interesting things we'll have to see if we do get a one for one order out of this in the California election. Now we get to Katie Porter, and Katie Porter also has a very, very deep, dark closet. But we have more news to cover tonight. We gotta bring the radio crew back from commercial and we gotta talk some Trump. It's the Tony Kinnid cast here on the Daily Signal. Don't Go anywhere. The Tony Kenneth cast on 93 WIBC. Welcome back. Tony Kenneth Cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated first on 93 WIBC. We have a ton more on the news side to cover tonight. Another horrible semi accident in the state of Indiana. An illegal immigrant most likely arrest in Ohio over a similar vehicular homicide incident. We'll get to those after we cover some of the latest on the international news. The ceasefire talks in Islamabad are going rather bad now. Vice President J.D. vance and Jared Kushner, they negotiated long into the night, long after midnight. And I suggested that they should show Napoleon Dynamite at around 2am when everyone's kind of slap happy, establish a little goodwill with the Iranian president and the speaker of the Parliament. That didn't take place. They argued for hours upon hours and no decision was reached. And so Trump came forward and gave a little bit of a description on how the talks were going. Here was the president earlier. Are another round of talks planned with Iran?

[Gord McGill]

And if so, will you send Vice

[Tony Kennett]

President Jamie Vance with him?

[Interviewer/Co-host]

Well, he's done a good job at Steve and Jared. They've all done a very good job. And I can tell you that we've been called by the other side. They'd like to make a deal very badly. Very badly.

[Tony Kennett]

Quick clarification on the the unfilled positions over in Congress. There will have to be an individual appointed if they resign immediately until a special election which the governor schedules. Sorry, I wanted to make that clear. Who's coming up right next. If Mills and Swalwell are resigning immediately or within the next couple of days, it's not going to be enough time to, you know, schedule a special election. So there will be a little bit there. Sorry. Well, thanks to Rebecca Downs, our Ohio correspondent, for reaching out for clarification there. Now, regarding the president here, there was no way that Iran was actually going to come forward and offer anything substantive. The United States wants no funding of Hezbollah, wants no nukes, wants no ballistic missiles, wants the Strait of Hormuz open and not under threat of closure any old time. And the Iranian parliament and the IRGC also want everything and they want all of the enrichment and they want the United States to pay for the boo boos. And they also want all of the money unfrozen, which by the way, I was told, and you were told going into the weekend by some of the crew who is consistently wrong, that Trump was unfreezing all of this money from South Korea to Kalamazoo and all of the money was gonna be given to the Iranians and that didn't happen at all. So again, scoreboard now regarding these talks, are they going anywhere? No. Just so that we're clear, these talks are going absolutely nowhere. And they will because not the President Pazakistan, President Pajian, President Pez dispenser, the President of Iran doesn't really want to continue on this forever. And he has now signaled again now that the United States is walking away from the talks and there has been a 15 ship movement towards a blockade of the Iranians. Blockade of the Strait of Horrors and we'll talk about that. Essentially the Iranians realizing now they're not gonna be able to truck in Chinese anti air systems by camel. Well, you're gonna have to get them somehow. And if you can't get them at the Strait of Hormuz and the United States is blockading everything, well, maybe you should come back to the table and talk. That's not what the IRGC wants to happen though. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, they really want the Iranian essentially table flipping to occur in front of the United States and to just keep on fighting valiantly. Which is why now on social media you have the deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament arguing openly with the irgc. Now again, there was somebody, a rather, a rather handsome bearded man on the airwaves telling you just last week that that split was going on. But unlike Brian Stelter, we actually report things before they're big, huge, you know, national news. So moving on to the rest of the Strait of Hormuz stuff, there's one other question that needs to be asked, which is what does JD Vance think about all this? Because as long as this continues to go on, Americans are not too pleased. As we've said before, Americans like results. And so if what we see are things not turning out in the results territory we really enjoy, then where are we going to go after this? Because Trump's not running for reelection. Now sure, we can talk midterms, but Vance is the assumptive lead of the party other than Maybe Rubio in 28.

[Interviewer/Co-host]

Now.

[Tony Kennett]

Yeah, Republicans have a far deeper bench than Democrats and we'll talk about Kamala Harris in a little bit. But what does Vance actually think here? What is he advising the President? Here was Vance with Bret Baier earlier today.

[Eric Swalwell]

As soon as it can.

[Tony Kennett]

It's being reported that you had real skepticism about this at the beginning and

[Eric Swalwell]

that you expressed that to the president.

[Tony Kennett]

Is that true? Well, Brett, you know, I give my advice to the President of the United States and we all do. And I expect that when I give advice to the President of the United States that it's going to be private because the president should rely on his senior advisors. Without them run then running to the media. Now, by the way, that is correct. I happen to know that Vance is a little more of an isolationist and is friendlier with more of the isolationist side of the aisle. Now, I'm, you know, going to level with you. I think that a lot of the attacks against a lot of Vance's staff are gross, considering that I've known some of them since back when they were on staff here in Indiana. But alas, to stick to topic here, the very first job of the vice president is to be the press secretary for the President of the United States. It is before even president of the Senate. The vice president, as the very first one of them, John Adams said, is to do nothing but cheerlead the president. That's all he is to do. Whether it was Mike Pence or whether it was any of the other various vice presidentials in history, they get up in front of the media, whether they be Vance or Pence or Cheney, and they get up and they say, well, this is what the president wants to do and that's what this administration will do. That's all you gotta do. That's the job. Now, Kamala Harris couldn't do this because she's illiterate. And Joe Biden, well, he kind of went from weird racist old uncle to befuddled old Alzheimer patient. So it's. This shouldn't surprise you that Vance is taking this approach here. The president wants me to give him advice. I'm going to give him that privately and then do what the president wants. That's the job, by the way. That is the job of every single member of the Cabinet, period, at any time. I never had an issue with Karine Jean Pierre covering for Biden. That's her job. But then when you get out there and, you know, you start making up stuff on your own, well, then you gotta be responsible for that and shout out to Kristi Noem or Pete Buttigieg or Lloyd Austin at the time in the Biden years. What I will say, Brett, is that I 100% agree with the President on the fact that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. I've seen that just in the negotiation that had over the last couple of days that these are tough negotiators, but they're fundamentally the kinds of people where them having a nuclear weapon would impose terrible costs on the entire world if they're willing to engage in economic terrorism on the entire world. What would it mean? What leverage would they have if they had a nuclear bomb in Tehran? Now, again, this is true. A lot of people don't appreciate that this is true, but he's not lying there. Again, no one accusing Vance of being a neocon, as other pundits said rather presciently today. Now over here in the United States, there's, you know, a good amount of rioting and protesting from a couple of crews, the progressives in New York City. And again, I've been asked before why I call them the Progressives. They're not very progressive. Well, that is the unifying banner to which they call themselves, the youths who believe that change should come for change's sake. The far left wing of the party held a rally and street blocking competition in New York City today right outside the office of Chuck Schumer because the Democrats have some significant issues over on the leadership site. You know, just as referenced here are some of those protesters getting carried out by the armpits today.

[Interviewer/Co-host]

Do not press the fight.

[Tony Kennett]

Stop the bomb and the killing.

[Gord McGill]

Fight like hell for the living.

[Tony Kennett]

Ah, yeah. Music to my ears. Excellent. So thrilling stuff over on that side. Now, the President of the United States came up with a plan.

[Interviewer/Co-host]

I see you've got a blockade of

[Tony Kennett]

the Strait of Hormuz. You got mines floating around, don't know what the heck they're doing. But I've got a plan too. See, I've got this game of Uno and you have laid down a red four. I don't like that red four. So I'm gonna hit you with a reverse card. Essentially the Iranians said we're going to let anyone through the Strait of Hormuz through a partial blockade. By which we mean if you give us a toll of $1 in cryptocurrency per barrel of oil on your ship will let you through. And if you then we'll give you the Panda express route right on through and you can drop off new anti air systems for us. And that was very, very happy for Winnie the Pooh. And the President didn't like that because unless you were the French or China, you weren't getting through the strait without possibly getting your ship blown sky high. Radio crew will send you guys over to the commercial. Try not to get a double or triple blockade while we're gone. It's the Tony Knittcast here on the Daily Signal. Now, my dear Livestream crew, because we continue without sending you over to such a commercial break, two things happened number One, the presidential administration said, fine, then if you are only going to allow China and whatever France screws over the UAE to do, you're only going to let those guys through the straight. Then we'll just set up a secondary roadblock and let nobody through. Because when we mean it's all or nothing, it's all or nothing emptier than Hillary Clinton's brain. And so China now is rather, how you say, screwed. Why? Because China gets about a third of the oil for the entire country from the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, and they get it at a remarkably reduced price because Iran doesn't really have a lot of neighbors and friends and pals to sell it to. Now, Japan also gets a lot of their oil from the Strait of Hormuz, but they should really be buying from the United States anyway. I mean, if we're going to be sacrificing our steel industry with Japan, I think they should be buying exclusively from the United States, essentially. I personally believe that if whatever deal the United States has with Israel should also be not only congressionally stamped and ratified and approved, not just at the whim of a State Department, but also Japan should be in the same place. We're going to do satellite states. We might as well treat them as such. So in that case, aside from Japan, China's having a rough time because China, while Europe imports a lot of their jet fuel out of the Strait of Hormuz, China imports most of their oil from the Strait of Hormuz. And you may remember they were bragging about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that was vast and full and is empty. So President Xi is essentially the key backer of the Pakistani government trying to bring the US And Iran together to organize some sort of a ceasefire. So when the President makes it clear that Iran isn't going to be the country blackmailing or extorting the world. Well, he's not really just talking about Iran. This would indeed be a Swaibat Xi Jinping. Mr. President, as far as the naval blockade is concerned, what's the endgame? Is it to force Iran back to the negotiating table? Is it to open up the straits

[Gord McGill]

so that gas prices ultimately come down?

[Interviewer/Co-host]

Maybe everything. I mean, both of those things, certainly, and more. We can't let a country blackmail or extort the world, because that's what they're doing. They're really blackmailing the world. We're not going to let that happen. And, you know, the amazing thing is we don't. Can you believe this? We don't use this trade. We don't need this strait. We have our own oil and gas much more than we need now by

[Tony Kennett]

the way, someone fact checked him saying well actually the US gets like 3 to 5% of our oil from the Strait of Hormuz. Yes indeed we do often subsidize a small portion of that traffic. We do. But we don't have to go there now. The rest of the world is sending their boats to the United States. The Gulf of America is going through a windfall at the moment. We'll get to that in a moment.

[Interviewer/Co-host]

We have more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia. Think of this. We produce more Saudi Arabia and add Russia to it substantially more and by next year we'll have double that amount.

[Tony Kennett]

So now the President making it clear that he'll just simply stop this up. This really worries the Iranians because if they can't get more stuff if Temu is cut off from Iran, well that's a problem because there are things flowing into Iran right now. Those are firearms and munitions and they are flowing into the hands of the civilians outside in the the regions and provinces outside of Tehran via the Kurds, via the United States and her allies. And so if Iran is not also getting things at the moment and Mukhtaba Khomeini, the gay one legged son again, it doesn't sound like that should be real of Al Khamenei can't do anything. And the IRGC is increasingly growing frustrated with the President's office and the parliament. Well you're going to have some issues now. We'll get back to the Cuban stuff later but we have to dig into some other news regarding the weekend on the Tony Kenned cast. We got to bring the Raider crew back from commercial. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Tony Kenneth cast on 93 WYBC. Welcome back to the Tony Knittcast here on the Daily Signal. Over the weekend we didn't just have these talks going on. The President also making some remarks about maybe Cuba's next maybe I'm hungry for a Cubano. The President also did something that is usually ill advised. This would be the evening hours rolled forward, the President probably keeping up as evening hours rolled forward with the updates on the negotiations over in Iran. And he picked up his phone and he headed to truth social.com and he decided it is time to post. And in a midterm year the President made the decision to kind of go after two different crews. First of all he criticized Pope Leo XIV of the Catholic Church and then he posted an AI picture of himself as Jesus Christ. Now, both of those things rather in advised. And again, I say this upfront as your neighborhood friendly independent Fundamental Baptist, I will go a little bit more than usual into some kind of Catholic stuff because I got to regarding the news here. And it matters because the Pope and some of the others around the country have decided this is the time to get out and make a bunch of news about this. So, first of all, Trump makes this huge, bigger than we've ever seen before, kind of a post on Truth Social. He says Pope Leo is weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy. So he talks about fear of the Trump administration, but he doesn't mention the fear that the Catholic Church and all other Christian organizations had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers and everyone else for holding church services, even when going outside and being 10 and even 20ft apart. Now, that is true. The allegation there. Again, remembering that the President of the United States was really not a fan of some of the state, like California and Minnesota's approaches towards targeting the Christian denominations. Again, additionally here want to make sure we're flowing through this smoothly. He says that he really likes the Pope's brother a lot more. Yeah, I mean, you know, not surprising. And then he criticized the Pope on foreign policy, says, I don't want a Pope who thinks it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. And then he lists a bunch of other things regarding crime and that, you know, he met with David Axelrod, the Obama sympathizer, a loser from the left, essentially. He said that he doesn't really like the Pope. That's kind of, that's kind of the whole point there. And I'm going to level with you two things. First and foremost, I really do not care what the Pope has to say. And that would be because I'm Baptist and I don't really believe in a lot of supreme authority from the Pope. Number two, I also recognize that from a political perspective, it is rather more useful. In fact, much, much more useful in a midterm year. Probably not to kind of like go after some Catholic stuff, although I hear them. Number three, yeah, the Catholic Church has a rather interesting history from Pope to pope. Now, I know that a lot of Catholics, I'm including a lot that are my friends and I very dearly respect them, will say, oh, the Pope's opinion never changes. It's all like established traditional church doctrines, doctrine. Okay? The church has had an interesting history regarding what wars it supports and it doesn't. And when things are just. And they're not. And then also suggesting that they're not for open borders, which Pope Leo has got on camera and said, yes, countries are allowed to have borders and control their own immigration. But again, there are also a lot of Catholic charities that facilitate mass migration, including of individuals that haven't been vetted. All of those things are true. Should the president have gone after the Pope here? I don't care. I don't care. Because every single American understands that the president has no filter and will go after anyone at all. There is no one in all of human history who Trump may not have criticized. That's just what he does. He if he doesn't like the thing that you say, and you also may not be super duper nice to him, he's going to criticize you for it. Now, is that an excuse? No. Did I think that was a good move? No, I don't think it's a good move. I don't think that's really the move. Again, if you're surprised by the way the Catholics are doing stuff at this stage in international politics, guys, the. I'm really gonna get in trouble for saying this. The Catholic majority of the Supreme Court's been disappointing me for years. Six out of nine Catholic members and just now getting rid of Roe v. Wade. Hmm. That theological stuff aside, he then did something that was rather not useful. I do want to give the pope's response, because they were immediately the media ran out to say, do you fear the president? Do you fear Donald Trump? Which is a gaslighting question and not fair to Pope Leo. Here was his response to that. I have no fear, neither with Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the gospel. And that's what I believe. I am called to know what the church is called to do. We're not politicians. We're not looking to make foreign policy,

[Interviewer/Co-host]

as he calls it, with the same

[Tony Kennett]

perspective that he might understand it. Now, that's a fair thing to say. That's a fair thing to say. It is the idea that you as a Christian, have a duty to love all people, and therefore you should try to reflect, to give all people love and understanding, no matter who it is, that they are absolutely and commendable fully. And the idea that foreign policy cannot be in kind of a stronger way to make amends for a situation created that has resulted in the loss of life of a lot of innocent people at the hands of it. I don't think those two things are in opposition to each other. And again, when he says look, don't look to me for big foreign policy advice.

[Gord McGill]

Cool.

[Tony Kennett]

Understood. Now, the President sort of responded to this kind of on the back end and kind of walked it back. Not unwise. Here was the President doing so, and

[Interviewer/Co-host]

they're going to go back filled up with oil.

[Gord McGill]

Why did you attack Pope Leo on Truth Social?

[Interviewer/Co-host]

I don't think he's doing a very good job. He likes crime. I guess he hit us. Think of it, he's worried about fear. What about the fear when the ministers and the priests and the. All of those great people that were arrested during COVID and in many cases they're outside, 10ft apart and they were arrested. So we don't like it. We don't like a Pope that's going to say that it's okay to have a nuclear weapon.

[Tony Kennett]

The Pope had previously kind of made a kind of a weird pseudo condemnation regarding the United States actions in Iran. This all boils down to both individuals saying, stay in your lane. That is nowhere near the first time this has happened in history. I would point you over to Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire, who is an actual Catholic and could probably give you, and has given you a far better discourse on the history of world leaders and popes criticizing each other. Again, not a Catholic, Baptist. Not really going to hurt for me. On the other side of things, though, the President did something that did get on my nerves. All right, one small parting shot for fun. The Pope did also get out there and say that, you know, communion between Christians and Muslims takes shape under the mantle of Our lady of Africa. Here in Algeria, the maternal love of a Latin term gathers everyone as children within our rich diversity, our shared aspiration for dignity, love, justice and peace in a world where division and wars so pain and death, living, excuse me, living in unity and peace is a compelling sign. So here would be an example of the Pope being wrong, because there is no communion between other faiths. That's not a thing. Communion is a holy and sacred thing. The Baptist lecturing the Pope. Yes, because, you know, when you believe that scripture is supreme, it happens to be more right than I am every once in a while. And also, it's illegal to be a Christian in Algeria, and Christians are constantly killed in many African countries quite consistently so. Anywho, aside from that, then the President made what I must say is probably the most unfortunate. Boo. Boo. So the President posted a an AI picture depicting himself wearing the red robes as Jesus Christ is often depicted in. Now, this is like a slightly AI adjusted version of an original photo posted back In February by some other dude. And he's got his hand on this dude's head and it's glowing. His other hand is glowing. And then there's a dude with a beard and then a troop of some sort, a soldier and then a nurse and then some other lady holding her hands in prayer. And it's Trump kind of depicting himself as Christ. And I say kind of as in, like, he's reposting this AI image, but it is imposting it. So there you go. This depiction of Trump as Christ, not a good move. Not a good call again when it gets late. Put the phone down. Put the phone down. Don't do it. Yes, it's blasphemous. Now, there were a lot of people that were just. I've seen a lot of pearl clutching on social media over this one today. And again, though, I immediately felt the need after seeing this. Although I don't smoke cigarettes, I immediately felt the need to take a drag of a Marlboro red and lean against a building dramatically, because these kind of posts are just unnecessary. He did delete it later, by noon, because, yeah, look, sorry, evangelicals. Yeah. Now, a lot of people, some found it funny. A lot didn't. A lot were just getting mad to get mad and show themselves as though they were really brave and amazing on social media. I just think it was dumb. Not necessary. Not something you have to do. Now, unfortunately. He could have just said, I just thought it was kind of a cool meme, you know, I. I try to. I try to be like Jesus Christ. And I don't always do it, but I'm trying. That would have been a good response. And then deleting and saying, you know, I'm sorry. That would have been fine. He didn't do that, though, and instead decided to say that it's. He was. He thought it was a doctor.

[Interviewer/Co-host]

It wasn't the picture, it was me. I. I did post it and I thought it was me as the doctor.

[Tony Kennett]

So he says, like, look, it's just, you know, I thought it was maybe kind of a Red Cross thing. I'm sorry, I'm not buying it. Again, I am. I. I think there are a lot of times when people make, you know, kind of much ado about nothing. And I don't think this is like a game ender. I think it was just dumb. But look, I'm sorry. I know, I see in the comments, oh, actually, it's a papal image. Everyone wearing red robes, you know, come on, come on. The golden light emanating from the hands, the white robe with, like, the red kind of like scarfy overhang thing. Come on, let's not do this. It was dumb. We don't have to make a bunch of excuses. Just it's not useful. Again, that's what happens when you stay up too late. That's that side of things. Radio crew will send you over to the commercial and get back to, you know, important news on the Tony Kennett cast. It's that lovely time again. See ya. Okay, again, the reason I have to point this out is because it irks me. It irks me a little bit. Now, there was one little last piece of this, I should say, one little last thing I wanted to point out. Russell Wilson and Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson launched a brand new book store. Whatever. Russell Wilson also got out there and he's launching a brand new book. This also really got on the nerves. I'll throw it for you. Anyway. Here you go. For decades, Russell Brand was one of the most famous actors. Russell Brand, not Russell Wilson, sorry, Seahawks and comedians and agnostics in the world today. He is one of the most sincere Christians we know. A follower of Christ. His personal transformation is remarkable. We saw it up close. He has now recounted it in an amazing book called how to Become a Christian in Seven Days. And it recounts what happened to him. And it makes the case to all of us for stepping away from our secular assumptions and returning to the only thing that matters, which is God. Okay, so just to be real clear here, right up front, I don't like this. And the reason I don't like this is not because I don't mind books about testimony. I hate the title. I hate it. I don't like Seven Days. How to Become a Christian in Seven Days. Absolutely not. Nope. You want to become a Christian? Read the Book of John. Go to the Book of John. Read the Book of John. There are also phenomenal verses in Romans. There's kind of a whole road of, like, verses that are very specific out of Romans or acts. It does not take you a certain amount of time or purchasing a special book to become a Christian. Nope. In fact, I'll make it very, very simple to become a Christian, admit that you are a sinner, that you have committed some kind of sin, you have done something wrong against a holy God, you've done something wrong, which means you deserve the punishment of hell and death. Because God's holy. You can't be next to holy and not corrupt it. But God, seeing that there was no way to simply ignore our sin, instead gave his only begotten Son who lived a sinless life on this earth because he was not born of Adam, but born of the Virgin Mary and was then crucified, taking your sin and mine upon him, and then after three days rose from the grave, conquering sin and death. That sacrifice is made for you, and to accept it, you must simply ask Christ to take your sin upon him, to thank him for that sacrifice and to ask him to come into your heart. And that's how you become a Christian. That's it. You don't need a book. You don't need Russell Brand, seven days here and there. Nope, that's it. That's it. That is, by the way, the point of John 3:16, as you've seen at stadiums and things. I just don't like that. I don't like that charlatanry ever. I don't like it for mega church pastors who want prosperity gospel stuff. I don't like that one chick who pretends to be a pastor, Paula White or whatever, who knows nothing about theology. I don't like it on the other side either. I don't. I don't care for this. Not shying away from the word of God in order to make a quick buck. No thanks. So that said, what we're going to pivot to is covering some more of the news, which doesn't have as good of an ending as the story of the gospel does. Two major semi accidents. The Department of Transportation appears to be pivoting as hard as they can towards dealing with some of these issues. So we're gonna, we're gonna talk about that here in, in just a minute. Really worthwhile. Again, thanks very much for everyone tuning in tonight. I really appreciate it. In the description, there's a link to the discord if you want to throw a question our way for mail time. Other than that, if you like the show, liking and subscribing, that helps us a ton. We're gonna bring the radio crew back one more time. So we're just gonna hop back out and back in and then cover some more of this news. It's the Tony Kennedcast here on the Daily Signal. You're listening to the Tony Kenneth cast on 93 WYPC. Welcome back to the Tony Kenneth cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated, first on 93 WIBC. We're glad that you are here because there is quite a lot of news to dive into this evening. Eric Swalwell has dropped out or is resigning from Congress. Tony Gonzalez is resigning from Congress. There are ETHIC committee investigations flying left and right. And still some of the major problems here at home remain unsolved. They do. And issues things that you are most likely to come in contact with remain for the large part unresolved because yes, Congressman, House of Representatives members, whether or not they're around or whether they have affairs, probably not going to affect you directly. Yeah, I mean it's gross. But when you are out on the roads, there is according to two new polls, both surveying kind of younger Americans and then also registered voters in which say that driving on major interstates and highways is now a major concern for them because of the increasing number of illegal immigrants or foreign workers. Those here with work permits on the roads who do not speak English and have no idea what they're doing, they don't know how to drive and they are causing accident upon accident upon accident. So yet another semi accident today in Bunker Hill, Indiana. This would be the third or the fourth in the last couple of months. This semi reportedly stopped and blocked multiple highway lanes which caused a red pickup to slam into its rear. The driver of this, according to Shaya Raisik who kind of looked over this video and we'll play this video here. The driver of this video as they pull up and look at the individual from the arrest is wearing a turban. Now a lot of people got immediately mad at this and said what is that? You know, what, what, what does them wearing a turban have to do with this? The pearls immediately went to the, to the wrist. Well, there is quite the advent of Indian and Pakistani and from that generalized region of the world, those immigrants coming over to the United States based on these shoddy work visa programs, who are then admitted as employees. As Indy Reporter points out over on X and also kind of looking through these investigations, there are a couple of clustered Indian or foreign related trucking shell companies that seem to change their names every five minutes and no one blinks an eye. They just fill up a lot of these corporate industrial parks from Greenwood, Indiana and then all the way over to states like California. And then, you know, it just so happens that a lot of these individuals that come in are Indian, Pakistani and they don't speak any English. It's not just those who come in and are Hispanic. There just seems to be one of about six cultures, whether they be from Uzbekistan and kind of the stan regions of the world, whether they be from India and kind of the generalized Southeast Asia or whether they be from Central and South America. If you do not speak English, you should not be administered A commercial driver's license period. And although there are additional steps being taken to take away individuals licenses who don't speak English, example here in the state of Indiana and in some other states, because of the free trade and interstate travel of this country, other states can simply slip or knowingly harbor a sanctuary for shell trucking companies like they do in California. And those truck drivers will still find their way through other major transportation arteries of the country. And if there are way stations that may be checking the citizenship status of certain individuals or checking to see if they speak English, they might take to the highways or the county roads and you absolutely could be next. I'm not saying that as a scare tactic. It is a truism. Again, according to the polling data, more and more Americans by the day are growing more concerned with this issue. Modu f Noam, a semi truck driver, has been charged with vehicular homicide in Columbus, Ohio after he reportedly caused a massive pile up of nine cars resulting in the deaths of three people, including a one year old baby. His current legal status is unknown. Now the U.S. department of Transportation is trying to address this as quickly as possible. FMCSA Administrator Derek Bars had a conversation regarding this. I believe it's airing soon here on, on 60 Minutes. Here's a little bit of a clip from that. This past year regulators cracked down on foreign commercial truck drivers and fraudulent commercial driving schools and have vowed to take on chameleon carriers. Now I, I'm already annoyed, I'm already annoyed with the coverage of this because it says crack down on foreign truck drivers. No, no, no, no. If you immigrated here or you're on a work visa here and you speak fluent English, there is no problem at all. As long as you are a decent truck driver. There shouldn't, there shouldn't be an issue because what would the officer have to pull you over for? Do you have the personnel and the resources you need?

[Gord McGill]

We have additional 40 investigators that we're trying to hire today. We have a new registration system that we will be rolling out this year.

[Tony Kennett]

The system we have currently is like 40 years old. I mean you've got these rogue companies, they rack up tons of safety violations. They're a federally regulated industry. Sort of, it's sort of a federally regulated industry because you have states like California that set their own laws in place and the feds can't really touch them. I, you know, you want to talk about some of the long lasting impact of federal and state fights over, over bootlegging in the Smokey and the Bandit area era no, I'm not joking. This is one of the things that came out of it. The federal government and this weird sort of relationship in federalism when it comes to interstate trucking. It's a very weird thing that's been fought for quite a long time in our country's history. How is that possible? We have a front door problem, meaning

[Eric Swalwell]

we need to stop this before they

[Tony Kennett]

actually get into the system. Are you familiar with the Chameleon carrier company Superego? Are they on your radar? They're a part of an ongoing investigation. We have prioritized companies who through our data gathering that are our top 10 companies that we need to be investigating. So the short answer is no, they don't have enough staff to do this. The other problem is it's not just a front door problem. It's not. It is equally a front door problem and also it is a state. It is a state legislative and administrative issue. As long as you have states that can simply ignore how the federal government is trying to address this safety issue and they'll claim it under human rights that you need to be put at risk on the road, then this will absolutely continue. It will absolutely continue without any kind of ceasing. Cessation would be the word I'm looking for there. And it's, it's not just unfortunate, it is dangerous and it is something that voters trusted this administration to deal with. Radio crew, we're gonna send you guys out to the end of broadcast time. We're gonna continue on the live stream here. It's the Tony Kennett cast here on the Daily Signal. Y' all take care. All right. Now that the radio crew and the FCC side of things is out, I did want to show you probably one of the best sit down conversations that we've ever had because you can listen to me, just some Hoosier broadcaster sit here and tell you about what I see from the outside of the issues with the trucking industry and the issues with the mass immigration problems that we have that aren't being resolved in the way that Americans, and don't even get me started on Canadians are seeing on the day to day. So here in a minute or so we're going to chat with a phenomenal truck driver and philosopher. I'd argue he's a third generation trucker who has a brand new book on end of the road inside the war on Truckers. Probably one of the better sit downs that we were able to have. And we're going to cut to that in just a second. But first and foremost, I've gotten enough comments this evening asking if I'm drinking moonshine because I have the mason jar out. No, my dear friends, this, this is just well water. Fresh and beautiful Indiana well water with, with one slight twist. So a couple of weeks ago I was reached out to by the crew over at Cove Pure. So they're the ones that have the, the water filters that are beating the living snot out of the Brita filters. We don't have water in the studio so I'm constantly hoofing it back and forth to the house. And you can't just keep stale regular water, especially from the well in, you know, for days and weeks on end. And they very kindly offered to send out one of their Cove Pure filters to test. And really, really nice got it out of the box. I didn't think there was anything that could make Indiana water, specifically Newcastle South Till Plains water table water taste any better. And I found it. And it takes something pretty darn delicious to actually get me to put down the Celsius and pick up regular water. So again, just leveling in case you needed kind of the argument on this side if Flint Michigan has taught this country anything at all, said the government's word on your water is worth exactly nothing. Nothing. Flint wasn't a one off. The problem is everywhere. One of the reasons why I honestly started using, using Cove Pure, not just for me here at the studio, but also in our house, I as expansion things continue, that's considerably an issue. Still millions of lead service lines actively carrying water to American homes could be yours. Many of these were installed before your parents were born. And that's what the government doesn't tell you. The testing method that utilities use to check lead levels, it's specifically designed to collect the least contaminated sample, not the worst. And of course that's not for me. That's from EPA scientists. The most recent federal data shows that water systems serving more than 250 million Americans detected lead from 21 to 24. And lead has no taste, no smell, doesn't change the color of your water. And here's the worst part. There's no safe level of lead exposure. None. Even low levels are directly linked to brain damage, learning disabilities and irreversible developmental harm in children. And Cove Pure removes it. It's certified to eliminate up to 99.9% of the contaminants. That includes lead, but also PFAS, fluoride and pharmaceuticals. Setup couldn't be simpler. Seriously, for me it was just putting the machine, the purifier on my counter. No plumbers drilling. You just put it on your counter, fill it up, plug it in and I love it. You can also get whatever temperature that you're looking for. That's nice. I haven't messed around with that a ton yet because I like it. Cuh hold. But you don't have to wait for the water to chill in the fridge. You don't have to wait for a kettle to boil. Probably going to be using that tonight to make some tea. Just to be real, one tap. It's ready instantly, just how you want it. And the water tastes pure. And look, your city tested the water, said it was fine. So did Flint's Cove. Pure. It's what you want to put between that track record and your family's water. So here's what they've done for us, for our audience. If you go to covpure.com Tony K T O N Y K today because you're a listener, your watcher of the show, you can get 250 bucks off for a limited time. This isn't going to be something they keep around forever. That's C O V E p u r e.com Tony K. So again it's good. It's going to be on my desk a lot more. Victor Davis Hansen's crew recommended it to me personally. They reached out. Really glad they did. Excellent stuff. We're going to swing out and bring over Gord McGill to talk a little bit more about the War on Truckers issue here in the United States. Don't go anywhere. Lots more to come. Big night of news. It's the Tony Kennett cast here on the Daily Signal. This is the Tony Kennett cast on 93 WIBC. Welcome back to the Tony Kennedcast here on the Daily Signal. Nationally syndicated, first on 93 WIBC. Everybody wants to bring in the big think tank, thick Coke bottle lens glasses, academic goobers when it comes to discussing the major issues in transportation and trucking and illegal immigration and all of the various disaster fires that have cropped up around our trucking industries here on the North American continent. So we're going to take this in a bit of a different direction. We're going to bring on an actual experienced third generation trucker to talk about some of these things because he cares about them enough to have taken a couple of minutes between truck stops and written an excellent new book. You guys really should check out End of the Road, the Inside War on Truckers. Gord, thank you very much for joining us, sir.

[Gord McGill]

Thank you for having me. Sir, I appreciate the intro. And it's funny you mentioned the Coke bottle glasses, academics. I cite the work of about four or five of those folks throughout my book to sort of make my case. But.

[Tony Kennett]

Well, it's not the academic stuff itself that's wrong with it, but there's this kind of dismissive arrogance after they get done putting out the data that sometimes breaks through. I. I can say this because I'm broadcasting from Indiana and not D.C. as much as I do love a lot of my friends, kind of on some of the coastal areas. I don't know, I grew up in a place where. Well, you know, it was. My accent was kind of beaten out of me, if you catch my drift.

[Gord McGill]

Yeah, I understand that. I remember my first iteration of Twitter. My handle was Token blue Collar friend. Because I just. I don't know, I would travel around and I would. I'm. I like ideas and stuff. Right. But I like to read. I consider myself an autodidact, and I always find myself in these mini worlds with people with degrees and credentials. And I was always the guy that barely finished high school and drove truck for a living. So here we are.

[Tony Kennett]

It was one of the things that I enjoyed. The. The kind of hunger for knowledge that came from wanting to know more, not the hunger for degrees that came from wanting kind of an easy path through things. Those are two very, very different people. Because when you think of kind of the American or the Canadian trucker, you don't usually in today's society think about the. The guys who are the. The hungry, pioneering spirit Americans. But those are the men with that exact spirit who built those industries and who connected, literally connected one end of the country to the other.

[Gord McGill]

Yeah. For real. My grandfather, Sergeant James Ewart McGill, who landed a Sherman at Normandy in a Canadian uniform, D Day plus three, fought real Nazis, not the imaginary ones that occupy the minds of so many leftists. When he came home, he drove truck in the late 50s, 60s, and into the 70s, and he was one of the first truckers to drive across the newly completed Trans Canada highway when they finished it on the north side of Lake Superior in 1960. So I know exactly what you're saying.

[Tony Kennett]

So tell us a little bit here, because you're the right guy for the job in this case. Tell us about this war on trucking. We do. We get a little bit more of the information on it and kind of the public airwaves here in the United States than you guys are allowed to hear up in Canada. But still, the war is. Is probably a Little bit closer to home given some of Canada's mass policies on this kind of stuff. Break it down for us.

[Gord McGill]

Right. So I picked, we chose that title for the book because, you know, I'm trying to show that there's numerous problems that have piled up in the industry over many decades and.

[Tony Kennett]

Right.

[Gord McGill]

You know, in the last year and a half it's become much more salient to the average person because everybody drives. Our highways are a common public space and they're turning into death traps. And what I try and say in the book is that, you know, we didn't just get here. It wasn't just Biden's immigration policies. It wasn't just certain states issuing non domiciled cdls. It wasn't just any one thing, but an accumulated number of problems, number of straws upon the 18 wheeled camel's back. And they've sort of reached. They've sort of reached this crescendo moment. And you mentioned you're in Indiana. I mean Indiana is at the center of all this, man. Like you guys had that terrible tragedy a few weeks ago. Those Amish guys got killed by a dude from Kirsten a couple of.

[Tony Kennett]

Just a couple of counties over from me. Yep.

[Gord McGill]

Yeah. And then, you know, to top it off, a week after that tragedy took place, we see the problem. Another truck blew through a stop sign on the same road in the same county that those men were killed on. The cops pulled the truck over after it nearly killed somebody else. The guy driving it was an illegal immigrant from India and he didn't even have a cdl.

[Tony Kennett]

I've, in a lot of these conversations, I'm frustrated by how quickly some of the same, some of the same class, I should say, not the same academics, but the same class of academics that we mentioned at the beginning will rush in to write these reports that say, well, actually, actually illegal immigrants are more likely to pay all of the taxes and shine your shoes and paint your house and really it's just wonderful. No one should be speaking English. The kind of Cato Institute studies that make me want to gnaw on broken concrete.

[Gord McGill]

Yeah, unfortunately that stuff doesn't work. Trucking is actually a skill and a competency. And one of the things I break down in the book is that many, many levels of government and many, and both political, major political parties in the United States have been actively trying to tear down the sort of barriers to entry in the business to save corporations money. And they've made it much easier to get a CDL than it was in the past. They've tried to, you know, they impose automatic transmissions, they do all this stuff to deskill it. And then that deskilling process meets millions of people who just showed up in America yesterday. And some entrepreneurial types thought to themselves, well, let's put these guys in trucks that often included taxpayer money funneled through NGOs and nonprofits who think they're helping the poor, refugees and asylum seekers, I mean economic migrants, to get jobs and contribute to society. I mean, take remittances from North America and send them to the third world.

[Tony Kennett]

Bingo. And obviously we could talk about those, those kinds of fraud and you know, we cover those quite frequently. As much as I'm sure you and I could sit around and enjoy bashing the incessant stupidity, which is also something that again, run of the mill Americans and Canadians do quite well, this is something that we keep in our short term and long term memory that on the coasts and kind of the elitist areas, those fade from memory as soon as the headline stops trending. But, but I wanted to catch your, a little bit more of your take here on this series of straws that broke the 18 wheeler camels back in this particular instance. Because the lowering of standards, because truckers used to have a, used to have a necessity to have a series of really, really key competencies from on, on demand mathematics and understanding tonnage and how load bearing is supposed to take place and how that's supposed to feel in different types of environments. And obviously the huge difference between driving in Nebraska and actually, you know, being up in the Rockies or up in the, you know, the Appalachian mountain ranges, things like that. Or of course talking about the understanding the importance of mapping some very key routes out that we do not see a lot of illegal immigrants in the trucking industry do today. What are some of the straws and some of the barriers that have been torn down you were just talking about here? You can phrase a little bit better than I can.

[Gord McGill]

Well, you know, I mentioned automatic transmissions. A competency that overlaps with others is sort of operating heavy equipment and understanding how that equipment reacts in different, you know, up and down hills, gravity, motion, you know, all of this, all of the things that are included in driving. Well, if you actually have to understand how your engine works, gearing works, ground speed and, and, and calculate all of that stuff that overlaps with other competencies that also apply to the job, when you remove the necessity for that one competency and make it so anybody can just step on the accelerator, you open up the business to a whole lot of people who don't have those other overlapping competencies and which are not accounted for taking a basic state level CDL exam like to put it, to put a fine point on it. The, the requirements to get a CDL were always too low. They tried to make them lower. And then we took a whole bunch of people who do not understand American driving culture and who never drove anything in their lives in other countries, cooked the books on their experience and handed them non domiciled CDLS. And now there's somewhere between 600, 850,000 of these guys out on our road. Still.

[Tony Kennett]

It's something that deeply worries so many people now that they are trying to avoid state highways, national highways and interstates altogether. Because you don't know if the individual next to you on the road is one of these that you just mentioned who were just granted all of this magical entry into a, a field that has been molly coddled into suggestion that it's a very easy trade, which it isn't. And the detriment is not going to be paid by them. It is going to be paid by those whom the large freight carrying transportation and as you put heavy equipment runs into or can't stop until it slams into the back of. And besides the fact that we already live in a time where there is far less courtesy on the roads than there was 25, 35, 45 years ago, I mean you're really in a key area for disaster that again will not just take down the great hallmark American and Canadian trucking legacies, but has the potential to bring to its knees the entire transportation system across North America.

[Gord McGill]

Yeah, well, people have to have faith in, in the supply chains working, you know, and a lot of the problems we're seeing are downstream of other ones. Again we had the deskilling, we've had this lie about a shortage of truck drivers that's never been true. That was used by again large motor carriers to get training monies from state fed and local governments to subsidize truck driving schools to keep filtering people through. Because actually paying somebody that's skilled and competent, proper wage and making the job not suck, that's, that's not on the table for some of these carriers. There's some really good operators out there in the specialty and niche markets and trucking, there's still some good legacy companies around, but certain large swaths of the market have been completely parasitized by this. And like, I mean they were already having a problem with like our own sort of lump and proletariat being thrown into truck driving schools, care of the taxpayer, and then add on top of this, we're looking into the future at the possibility of automated trucks. Now, that's. Trucking is not the only area where that's happening. Right. So if we want to, like, zoom out and ask ourselves, why is it that we're importing millions of people from all around the world, whether it's H1B visa holders to do coding or hot or, or tech work, or people from Serbia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, wherever, to drive trucks when the industry is clamoring for automated trucks that they don't have to pay a driver for and they say is safer, although they haven't proven that yet. Why are we importing these people then? Why not just let the American truck driver ride out into the sunset? We have safer highways and just, you know, you spent all this money on corporate welfare trying to debase his wages for decades. If we're going to have autonomous trucks imposed on us, why are we also bringing all these extra people here? None of this makes any sense.

[Tony Kennett]

Well, no, because necessity is the mother of invention. And if we don't, we're. We're Molly coddling again the standards for the industry like we did with the south before the Civil War, the idea that essentially instead of saying, look, there are some things that need to change, there are some things that need to get better, if the industry is supposed to make improvements, and instead of allowing those things and those improvements and those, Those difficulties to take place so that something better comes out of it, so that new invention, new innovation, new efficiency comes out of it. Instead we've said, what if we just mass import cheap labor, Just keep doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, you know, well, we just have, we just add more people picking in the fields and then that'll make it cheaper and then we can compete with the North. It's like, no, maybe what you need is innovation that we do see coming out of those, again, who are legacy members of the American and Canadian trucking industries. That's what drives invention. But we're, we're tossing that all away because again, like you put. Just throwing bodies at us is expected to solve it. The unfortunate thing on top of that is that it carries the risk of a violent death in a way that, that the, the slavery aspect, you know, if, if the, the individual who was picking cotton in the fields was, was did a poor job, it didn't involve a family getting bloodied on. I 70. Just making the case that we're, we're running towards a higher cliff point here. Of unintended consequences. Not, not making an equation where one isn't necessary.

[Gord McGill]

Well, this is it. The, the, the interstate highways, the state roads, all the local roads, the roads are a commons. Everybody operates on them. They're a necessity for everybody to travel. They're a necessity for, for our economy. And we all pay for it. Our grandfathers paid for the beginnings of the interstate highway system. They are ours. They are our collectively owned piece of infrastructure. And we are just letting all kinds of people onto them with 80,000 pound rigs that haven't got a clue what they're doing. And the cost of that is being assessed in innocent lives. And it has to stop.

[Tony Kennett]

Right? Absolutely. Absolutely correct. Look, I'm not going to spoil any more at this point, you know, just trying to make sure. But Gord McGill, really appreciate your giving us a couple of minutes here to talk about this end of the road inside the War on Truckers. Phenomenal book. We're going to link it down in the description. Thanks for talking with us.

[Gord McGill]

Yeah, thank you. And if you're an audiobook person, you can hear the dulcet and velvety tones of my voice even more because I read the book. You can get it on audible.

[Tony Kennett]

You know, one might say it makes the miles on the road go by.

[Gord McGill]

Mr. Kenneth, thank you very much for having me, sir. I really appreciate it.

[Tony Kennett]

We've got a link to that in the description, I think. So if you want to check out that book, I'd recommend it. Audio book or physical? We'll catch you guys on the side of the news tomorrow, 7pm Eastern. Same great time, same great place. YouTube.com Daily Signal for the live stream side. Live stream chat. Thank you guys very much for sticking by with us this evening. And of course we will catch you guys whether on podcast, radio, tv, syndication side. Tomorrow it's the Tony Kennett cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated and first on 93 WIBC. Y' all take care of.