← The Tony Kinnett Cast
The Tony Kinnett Cast
Ep. 571 - BREAKING: Judge Refuses to Block Trump's Mail-in Voting Overhaul, Missiles Fly in Strait of Hormuz
01:23:12
A federal judge refuses to block President Trump's 2026 executive order overhauling mail-in voting, USPS ballot rules, and citizenship lists for voter roles. Missiles fly to-and-from islands in the Strait of Hormuz as GPS jamming ramps up. Fighter jets are seen taking off from aircraft carriers and Persian Gulf states.
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Tony Kennett
The host of the award winning podcast Mother Country Radicals is back now with a new book that dives deeper into his childhood on the run and a half century of revolutionary struggle in America. Dangerous, Dirty, Violent and Young tells the story of Zaid Ayers Dorn's life as the son of Weather Underground radicals who were fugitives after a decade fighting the US government, his mother on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. Dangerous, Dirty, Violent and Young is available now wherever books are sold. Tony Kennett, Tony Kennett.
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Brooke Branchen
Tony Kennett.
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Tony Kennett
Tony Kennett, Tony Kennett, Tony Kennett. Tony Kennick, host of the Tony Kennett Cast. Let's have a show. You're listening to the Tony Kennett cast on 93WibcyTV 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. ADO. Let's get right into it. So right up front, there is a massive amount of outrage over a federal judge refusing to block a Trump executive order. That lists a whole host of things on, for example, the United States Postal Service having to standardize ballot tracking for mail in ballots, creating citizen and noncitizen roles so that states don't accidentally add individuals who shouldn't be eligible to vote to, you know, voting registration. The judge in question is federal Judge Carl Nichols. He was appointed six years ago almost to the day, actually six years ago this month to being a district court Judge in Washington, D.C. he was appointed by president or nominated by President Trump, and He was confirmed 55 to 43 in the Senate. Now, a little fun piece of trivia here for you that you didn't ask for. The three Democrats who voted to confirm this particular federal judge no longer serve in the Senate. So a contentious judge, to be sure. Is this decision contentious, though? I'm not even joking. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. So first and foremost, let's talk about what Trump's executive order is supposed to do. This big election overhaul, the biggest election overhaul we've ever executive ordered in the administration. Here's what it does. Number one, it creates and distributes state citizenship lists. So the Department of Homeland Security, along with the Social Security Administration, you know, that thing that you're paying into with every single paycheck that's supposed to take care of American senior citizens once they reach that age point, must compile and send every state a list of confirmed US citizens over the age of 18 who reside in the state using federal databases. What we just talked about. Lists are to be updated and then transmitted at least 60 days before federal elections. What does this mean? It means that you would have a list of individuals who are present here and alive and are paying the taxes, the FICA tax, for instance, along with the SAVE program citizenship and naturalization records, so that there aren't any individuals who are voting that shouldn't be. And also, by the way, so if there's someone who did become a citizen of the United States so that they are eligible to vote, there are many cases of an individual who was who struggled to vote in the last couple of years. Utah, Colorado, Maine, Indiana, Ohio come to mind because those immigrants to the United States attempted to gain citizenship, did so, went through the naturalization process and then struggled to gain voter registration documents because the state that they live in didn't have updated details just yet. Number two, it directs the United States Postal Service for to develop a series of rules that mail in ballots would require official election mail envelopes that you can't just get anywhere. Why is that important? Well, so that someone doesn't just whip out the old Epson printer and just start chucking out a bunch of mail in ballot forms that are mysteriously dropped off. You know how at two in the morning, you guys know what I'm talking about? Maricopa county, anybody? All right. That kind of thing. If the USPS has all of these barcoded official mail in ballot materials, that also gives individuals the ability to track their ballots. And that's concerning for a lot of individuals because people find on a state secretary of state voter information sites, sometimes they've been voted for. Shout out to Illinois and Governor J.B. pritzker's Wonderland. The executive order also prioritizes enforcement and prosecutions for voter fraud. Order states and localities to keep their records for five years. Our thoughts and prayers to Fulton county in Georgia and a couple of other coordination and enforcement things. So the executive order does not anywhere from top to bottom. We'll get to James Tallarico in a little bit from left to right. It does not ban mail in ballots at all, anywhere, even a little bit. And I know, I've gone through the executive order Supreme. I've looked through it. It's not in there. So why do we talk about this? Well, there was an order put forward, a preliminary injunction sought by Democrats, the Democrat National Committee, the dscc, voting rights groups to immediately block key parts of Trump's executive order that he signed on March 31 on citizenship verification and again, mail in ballots like tracking and official postal service envelopes. As a side note, I'm not sure what the pushback is for here, I mean, aren't the Democrat officials remember during the Biden administration, there was all of this complaint that the Postal Service wasn't being used as much anymore and it needed all these updates and upgrades. Wouldn't official Postal Service documentation and envelopes make things more secure and provide more business to the Postal Service along with funding as well? Sorry, just musing about common sense policy there. I shouldn't necessarily be getting into analysis and the commentary just yet there. Also, the injunction that was sought would essentially ban the federal government from asking the Postal Service to do anything at all regarding mail in ballots, which a federal judge doesn't necessarily have the ability to do. So this, this judge, Carl Nichols, all he did was block the preliminary injunction. Why? Because the Trump administration hasn't actually started since March 31st getting into all of this mail in ballot, executive order stuff. The Department of Homeland Security is still going through and working with some states that are cooperating to create an up to date list for the voter rolls and citizens here in the United States. So the judge said, first of all, no, you can't just magically block things because the challenge is, quote, premature. And then number two, it hasn't even been argued in court yet. This preliminary injunction wants to do all of these things that should be settled at the very end of the lawsuit. Now, again, this isn't a huge major blocking maneuver that is like a shatter point for the left. It's very procedural. The left is treating this as though it's Armageddon. And please do not under any circumstances take just my word for it when I say the left is treating this as though Armageddon has finally arrived. They are upfront and personally. So. Attorney General Jennifer Davenport from New Jersey has launched a brand new program. What's the program for today? She says it's to make sure the elections remain free, fair and secure. While in the video, and I'm not gonna play the whole thing, it's like three minutes long, says that they're implementing a voter protection super duper initiative on remedying any voting rights or civil rights violations that may arise during the election, up to and including a series of regulations that the Attorney General's Office of New Jersey might put on, you guessed it, the U.S. postal Service, which again, New Jersey doesn't have jurisdiction over. But that isn't stopping, you know, that isn't stopping. AG Jennifer Davenport moving on down the line here. Chuck Schumer's very upset. He says Trump is doing everything he can to rig the November elections in his favor. And now a MAGA judge is enabling him. I mean, not a MAGA judge. This is the guy who presided over the Steve Bannon contempt of Congress trial. This is the guy who blocked parts of the USAID workforce restructuring plan in 2025. This is the guy who extended protections for federal employees in a related USAID case in 2025. And he declined a series of obstruction charges in January 6th. Why am I pointing this out? The man's record is he just rules whichever way he chooses in various court cases. He's not wholly ruling on in Republican or right wing or conservative manners. And he's not ruling in kind of activist judge left wing territory all the time either. But either way, Chuck Schumer has branded him a MAGA accomplice. We're going to talk about why that's important here in a little bit. You know, Amy Coney Barrett getting threats, the usual. He says the Constitution is clear. Congress has the power to regulate elections, not the president. That's true. But Congress has abdicated certain parts of election regulation to federal agencies, including the United States Postal Service, the same United States Postal Service and the same Department of Homeland Security, which the president of the United States has jurisdiction over. And if the president of the United States and the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general of the United States believes, if they ascertain that the United States is facing a national security threat by non citizens voting in US Elections, guess what? Congress doesn't have any authority to intervene with the president keeping illegal immigrants from voting in U.S. elections at the federal level, Congress has no say. It is Congress's job to write the laws. It is the president and the executive branch's job to enforce the laws. So calling him, you know, super duper MAGA judge, man, it's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for him. It's a bold strategy indeed. They have a lot of other representatives and senators who are chiming in. We'll get to that. On the livestream side of things, Radio Crew, we have to send you to commercial land for FCC purposes. It's the Tony Kennett cast here on the Daily Signal. Now again, if you're tuning in live, And I mean 7, 16 and 24 seconds on Thursday, May 28, you're here with us right now. We don't have big commercial breaks and we don't have any extra ad spots and things either. We do it all live and fresh for you here. That's why you tune in at 7pm Eastern. So representative Brittany Peterson from Colorado. She thinks that this is some kind of super duper ultra attack on election systems. She said, that's why I'm supporting the Vote by Mail Protection act to defend Coloradans right to vote by mail. There's nothing in the executive order that prevents an individual's ability to, to vote by mail. Nothing. In fact, it makes it easier to vote by mail because you can then track your ballot. You can see when the post office picks it up. You can see when it arrives to the secretary of state's office, depending on your state or commonwealth, you can see when that is dropped off at a precinct. If you're a state that counts mail in ballots at the precinct as opposed to whether it's counted at a central state office, there's nothing that limits people from voting here at all. Moving on, Tina Kotek, the governor of Oregon, again, they're treating this as though this is all over. Trump doesn't get to control voting. Voting by mail is how we do elections in Oregon. Hmm, interesting. And then we get to, you know, Senator Alex Padilla, Jose Tortilla of Arizona. The tried to bum rush Christy Noem and got tackled and cried for six weeks. Kind of a guy. He said, Trump trusts mail voting for himself, just not for you, because making it harder to vote makes it harder to hold him accountable. Again, first of all, voting by absentee, because you are serving the United States either in a military capacity, in a diplomatic capacity, if you're working for the State Department, or in a civil capacity, if you are in Congress, for example, and you're not home in your home district, you're, you can send in a ballot by absentee, that's not a 60 day early mail in voting period. That's not the same. But even if it were, even if Trump voted for himself by mail, even if he got out the fancy envelope and he said, I'm voting for Ken Paxton if I was in Florida, but gonna vote for Republicans down in Florida. And then he took that and he threw that in the wonderful, fantastic mailbox. That still wouldn't change due to the executive order. They're kind of letting the cat out of the bag. This would make it much more difficult for illegal immigrants or those who aren't supposed to vote. It would make it much more difficult for those individuals to vote by mail. For example, if you're no longer living in a state. I still get asked directly by various states. For example, Wisconsin, where I used to live when I was in college, I still get asked if I'm ready to register to vote in Wisconsin, despite the fact that I've lived in the greatest place on planet Earth, the great state of Indiana, for over a decade. This would prevent that kind of stuff. But they're freaking out about it. They're very, very upset. Representative John Larson's upset. You have. Oh, well, we'll get to these ladies here in a second. There's a lot of complaining. It spills over into the video side. And I'll be upfront with you. It gives me the giggles. Adrian Fontes, from the Arizona secretary, well, he is the Arizona secretary of state, but from his office put out a clip where he's warning you of the coming ballot apocalypse and he promises he's going to fight for you. Three quick things very quickly, folks. This is still an effort by Donald Trump to pick his own voters. That's not, not at all picking his own voters at even a little. But okay, how we do things in the United States of America. Number two, the fight is not over yet. This is one ruling in a much, much, much bigger fight. Number it's not even a ruling in like a much bigger fight. There's nothing here that that's doing the, it's a procedural note. He's just refusing to drop in a very quick injunction because of a lawsuit that says that it's probably not a really good thing. That's it. That's all the judge did. Three, we are going to use every means in our toolbox, everything we can do to continue not just to protect your privacy, but to protect your vote. I'm Adrian Faultus, Arizona Secretary of State. We, we are still fighting and we protect your privacy. How? Protect your privacy how? From what? We got to bring the radio crew back from commercial. We have more to talk about in a second. Do not go anywhere. It's the Tony Kennett cast here on the Daily Signal. This is the Tony Kennett cat on 93 WIBC. It's been, it's been a little bit here since I've been able to just drop for you some a string of really great news. And you guys know how much the federal government disappoints me. I mean, that's a tale as old as time. But the first of all, the Department of Justice with a couple of additional arrests, the irs, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, targeting non governmental organizations, the NGOs who traffic individuals into the country who, you know, illegally take funds and distribute funds and file for a lot of grants that, you know, end up providing like transgender theater training down in Columbia, that kind of stuff. There's some pretty good news here. And then, Russ, vote from the Office of Management and budget carving $1 trillion of federal grants up into all of these requirements that mean illegal immigrants are not going to be able to participate in receiving a lot of that grant money. So let's dive right in here. So two individuals from Minnesota have now been arrested. Yet another Somali migrant fraud arrest situation in Minnesota. Shamso Ahmed Hassan, age 55, on the right here if you're watching the live stream. And Hanan mersal Yousef, age 25. Now to those who are listening on the podcast and those who are listening on the radio. You can't see the image of the two ladies, but I want you to close your eyes and imagine that. Just, just use all of your imaginative imagination and try to think if you can picture what these two ladies look like. That's it. That's it. What your imagination conjured is exactly what it is. So another a big surprise. I was told all of the Somali migrant fought wasn't a thing. Not at all. No. No concerns. Totally fine. Not an issue. According to acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Base over at the Department of Justice. We're going to dig into this here. The New York Post has an excellent article on this. The two Minnesota fraudsters allegedly swindled more than $21 million in funding earmarked for autism services. Remember that? The autism spending that was compounding. And no one, no red flags anyway, through two bogus companies, another Somali shell company situation, again, incredible. And then spent it lavishly on overseas property. So these two ladies whose mug shots were released on Wednesday, according to the Post, made off like bandits by submitting millions of dollars in fake claims to Minnesota's Early Intensive Development and Behavioral Intervention Program, or for short. So imagine Porky the Pig made up that acronym anyway, between May of 2020 and December of 2024. So when Ilhan Omar and Governor Tim Walls, in Tim's case, waddled out in front, but in Ilhan Omar skittered out in front of the country and said, oh, these were just opportunity crimes. They just very briefly saw a chance and they seized it very briefly. It was a moment of weakness. For four years, these trash bags, excuse me, these enterprising immigrant ladies from Somalia, neurosurgeons of the country, stole from autism programs, you know, for kids. So anyway, a statement from the, the assistant, the acting assistant secretary, they now face charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, eight counts of health care fraud and two counts of money laundering. Their Medicaid fraud scheme started during the COVID Pandemic Remember when you were told that there was no major fraud happening? When Biden was handed out loans in the health care program to everybody? You know, when Jill Biden said, oh, she was really terrified, Joe Biden was having a stroke on stage and then went to Waffle House. We'll get to that later. Yeah. All that stuff that you were told wasn't happening, it turns out it was happening the entire time. Oh, there's a big surprise. That's an incredible. I think I'm gonna have a heart attack and die from that surprise. Incredible. It gets worse. But we don't have time to dig into this. Secretary Mullen of Homeland Security has a couple of things on this matter. Going to spill my coffee on to some of the good news. Scott Besant, the Secretary of the treasury, has announced that the IRS is moving to make NGOs liable for any violent activity committed by their grant recipients. For example, like Antifa. So Reagan Reese, she's the White House correspondent for the Daily Caller, asked this of Scott Besant today who was doing the White House press briefing. Here you go. I want to ask you about Antifa.
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Brooke Branchen
In October, the Treasury Department started working with the FBI to investigate who's funding Antifa. Can you give us an update on that investigation? How close are you guys finding out who's funding Antifa?
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Jim Acosta
It is ongoing. We made substantial progress and I think in the weeks and months ahead, we are going to have a lot to report. One thing that did go under reported that I would point out to all of you is the IRS is now giving guidance on the Form 990, which nonprofits they have to file. And we are going to encourage or demand that nonprofits know their grant recipients. So if a grant recipient is violent, if they are suppressing people's rights.
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Tony Kennett
Oh, you mean like, you know, like Singham, you know, donating to CodePink here. I mean, he's a Chinese national anyway. But you know, you know, individuals donating to groups that just so happen, these Soros backed groups. You mean Soros could actually be liable for the actions that his various groups take? Wow, again, what a concept.
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Jim Acosta
Then you are responsible for that. And I think that's a very good first step.
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Tony Kennett
Now the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled similarly. We're going to get to some of the SCOTUS stuff here in a little bit. They ruled earlier this week that trucking companies, transport companies are responsible no matter where an accident takes takes place. They don't get to just say, well, we didn't know it was you didn't speak English and all of that. No, you're liable. If you hire illegals, you hire people that can't speak English, you hire those that commit crimes, you're liable. Here's Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessant making it clear. If you as a non governmental organization, an ngo, a nonprofit, you start slinging out money to groups that just so happen to find themselves holding bricks and cinder blocks and they start throwing them at ICE facilities and things like in New Jersey, for instance, you're going to be held liable. That is a very, very good thing. And using the IRS to do so. What a concept. Now, before we get to some of the reasons that it's probably pretty important that the IRS is going to be looking into a lot of these groups, a major move also from the White House, this report also comes from the New York Post. A lot of excellent kind of summaries over from the New York Post team. They're not paying us to say that, by the way. It's just, I don't know, you know, make fun of me with the John Mulaney sketch if you'd like. The New York Post has got some really stellar reporting on this. Russ vogt of Project 2025 fame. He in the Office of Management and Budget has now overhauled how up to $1 trillion in various federal grants are distributed, shifting more control to political appointees and tightening oversight of how taxpayer money is awarded. It introduces new requirements for grant recipients, including mandatory E VERIFY checks to confirm legal work eligibility and English language requirements for federal funding announcements. Here's what that means to give you the Too long didn't read here. So Russ, vote. Some of the work that he's managed here is to make political appointees. That means every time a new president steps into office, you appoint a bunch of people on your side of the aisle or who you think are qualified. In Trump's case, it was a very politically diverse group to work in various executive agencies. Now executive agencies, really, especially since the Lyndon B. Johnson era, have hired a bunch of permanent non political appointee people who just sit there and spend your money for decades and decades and decades and decades until they die and you don't have any control over what that money happens to that. And every time a new president comes in, like Donald Trump and he says you're not going to spend all of the American taxpayers money, then you get all these lawsuits, well, you can't tell this other person what to do. I've said this before. Howard Lutnick did an excellent job with the secrecy, the Commerce Department trying to clean out some of the non political appointees acting political Russ votes doing the same thing here. Excellent to see that. And also keeping a closer eye on how taxpayer money is awarded with open source records and logs. Again, all of these requirements. It's a good thing. It's the exact kind of regulation that has been necessary and is is not going to get any less necessary in the next couple of days. Radio crew, we're going to send you over to the commercial break. We have a couple of Supreme Court rulings to get to. In the meantime, on the live stream, it's the Tony Kinnit cast here on the Daily Signal. All right, boys, girls and squirrels, let's keep it moving. Let's talk about a couple of Supreme Court rulings because some of these things go hand in hand. So the Supreme Court of the United States issued four solid, heavy right over the hand opinions today. So let's dive right in. First and foremost, Fernandez versus The United States declined to expand compassionate release by evading habeas corpus. So in an 8 to 1 ruling, Justice Amy Coney Barrett and then of course, the dissent by, you guessed it, the crayon scribe herself, Ketanji Brown Jackson, essentially this ruling suggests that if you have an individual who has been convicted of a crime and they've been sentenced to a crime and then Congress passes some kind of a law that says, actually we've decided that this isn't as serious of a crime anymore, unless Congress makes sentencing in various court cases or makes certain aspects of the new law, the updated law, retroactive, then no, you don't just get to walk up and claim all the rules have changed. I was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Now let me out for good behavior and give me a lollipop. No, that's not a thing at all. You might be wondering why Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson even bothered writing her opinion. I am solely believing at this point it is so that the good Lord could provide us lots of entertainment. For example, Justice Amy Coney Barrett rebuts significant chunks of Justice Jackson's solo dissent, saying that she considers the dissent perplexing and at point acknowledging that it betrays the weakness of its criticism. Essentially, that means this Ketanji Brown Jackson said we should just stop having people be imprisoned for a long time. And Amy Coney Barrett said, what are you retarded? That was her response. So that's the first up on a magical spin of decisions from the Supreme Court. Six to three decision Rutherford versus The United States declined to expand compassionate release after a prospective change to sentencing, evading habeas corpus that also files along the same way. Then Pitchford vs. Cain overturning a death penalty murder conviction on a theory of impermissible consideration of race in jury selection. So this was five to four. And it's Justice Kavanaugh ruling alongside some of the liberals, with Justice Gorsuch dissenting. Essentially, there was a case in Mississippi in which the Supreme Court found that they didn't take into account the color of the jurors in a trial, meaning there was a black person that was put on trial. And the allegation was that the judge made sure there were no black people on the jury or the lawyers agreed to it. Something sketchy in that manner. This is a little bit more complex and I'm going to admit to you I don't know all of the details herein. So I'm going to let this one simmer and let like Margo Cleveland over from the Federalist crew, a couple of other legal scholars after they dig through the, you know, the, the affirmative and the dissent before I really dive in there. Last but not least, this one's the big one. This is the fun one. Flour Foods Incorporated vs Brock found that even intrastate workers can be workers in interstate commerce, depending on their job. It's a 9O ruling. It means this. Let's say you have two truckers. Let's say you have. We'll call them Smokey and the Bandit. And they're traffic and beer from Texarkana back to Atlanta. They may even be eastbound and down, one might say. And right before they get outside of Atlanta, they hand over the driving to this young lady we'll call fraud. And she drives the last of the way inside of the state of Georgia, the remainder of the leg to Atlanta. The Supreme Court ruled. Yeah, you're subject to all of the same interstate clauses and federal law, even if you are just operating for the company on an interstate, meaning if you're an Uber driver that takes the interstate, there's a pretty good amount of cause to suggest you can be charged with federal transportation laws. It's a very big deal. We'll get to some other details here in a minute, including a little bit on some threats as well. It's the Tony Kinnit cast. Don't go anywhere. It's the Tony Kenneth cast on 93 WYBC. Welcome back to the Tony Kenneth Cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated, first on 93 WIBC. Far more to discuss. And boy howdy are we going to get into each and every single bit of it. So I'm seeing the Chirons not quite fitting on the screen there. Let's fix that. All right. So in the matter of threats to the Supreme Court of the United States, my colleague Tyler o', Neill, senior editor over at the Daily Signal, reports on a series of probes into threats made against Supreme Court justice Amy Coney Barrett. A swatting incident, in fact. So Tyler o' Neill writes over at the Daily Signal, quote, the Fairfax County Police Department in Northern Virginia, or nova, is investigating a swatting call at the residence of SCOTUS justice Amy Coney Barrett. Wednesday night, quote, yesterday Evening at approximately 9:02pm Officers responded to a swatting call at the residence of Amy Coney Barrett. And the that's the department's public information officer telling Tyler that directly. The call was received through the department's non emergency line and officers immediately coordinated with SCOTUS police and personnel assigned to the residence and quickly determined that the report was fictitious. No additional police resources were utilized. Now, the police department did say later that they were investigating the matter. Swatting has become a serious incident. Here's how it works. And it's happened to us, including this year. Um, so anywho, for example, a young man by the name of Ryan up in Elkhart, Indiana, called the police department of the town in which we reside in Indiana and said, hey, Tony Kennett is drunk and I see him acting disorderly and crazy and I think he's going to hurt his family. You got to go over there and stop him. And then Ryan Holman hung up the phone. And then the cops, thank God we'd actually coordinated with them before. And so they didn't send over a swat team, which is why it's called swatting. And then they came over to investigate what's going on. On a lot of live streams, if someone calls in onto again a prominent public official and says they're being held hostage or they're holding people hostage, the hope is that the SWAT team will kick in the door and shoot those that are inside. And it has happened before. So that is an assassination attempt on Amy Coney Bear at the Supreme Court of the United States. That is a terror attempt that was thwarted. Swatting is absolutely a terror attempt and an act of political terrorism and and should be treated as such. Excellent reporting by my colleague Tyler o'. Neill. That brings us over to a couple of other big lawsuits and things. The Department of Justice is suing Washington, Maine, Oregon and Massachusetts. Quote, this comes after each state Refused to rescind their unconstitutional policies in response to a prompt letter from the department explaining the policies illegalities. What are these policies here? A lot of legal speak going on. Quote. By denying undercover license plates to Department of Homeland Security components, including ice, while issuing them to their own state agencies, these governors are pursuing discriminatory and obstructionist policies against federal law enforcement. These actions undermine federal immigration enforcement and allow dangerous criminals to escape justice and to terrorize American communities. Why does this matter? Because in a lot of these blue run states, you have governments that have either tried to pass laws that have tried to make it impossible for federal law enforcement to work in the state by trying to get them to remove masks, trying to get them doxxed. And when I make it clear the reason that federal law enforcement has to wear masks in this situation. This clip was sent over to us from independent journalist Nick Sordor. This is from New Jersey, either last night or Allison, I should say over on wibc, if you would keep your hand on the dump button. I do have to play this clip at full volume. There's a good chance that the, the saltier of the four letter words could be played here. So just a little warning there. Children, your wife, all dead. Touch it, my boy. I have your face. You're dead. Dead. Okay, so first of all, if you know this individual, by all means, please let us know. I would be more than happy to send that along to law enforcement. If you're watching from the New Jersey area and you know this very fine individual who openly threatened to murder both the man and the family of federal law enforcement. So again, if you weren't catching this on the air, and just to be clear, this writer said, quote, I have your face. Mother effer. Your whole effing family is dead. Your kids, your wife, all dead. Gee, I can't possibly fathom why Immigration Customs Enforcement agents. Well, again, they're carrying out removal orders from judges. They're carrying out those who have violated. Who have violated the law at the removal of those individuals from the area. I can't believe when. Why would they want to cover their faces? Why would they want the same undercover license plates that other officials are given in the state? Man. Man. And again, this kind of stuff will continue as long as that permission structure is created in the kind of language from every single press conference makes it clear that we're under some existential threat. We gotta, you know, kill everybody here, there and everywhere. Here's Gavin Newsom talking about the mail in ballot executive order. But listen to how he describes The President of the United States, as they
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Gavin Newsom
say about Trump all the time, he's an invasive species. We've never been, again, up against something like this.
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Tony Kennett
An invasive species. We've never been. We've never been up against something like this. That's a wild white, by the way. Isn't that dehumanizing? I was told. Oh, the dehumanizing. Oh, this is how it all starts. Oh, so terrible. Here he is doing that thing again. Oh, he's Hitler. He's an invasive species. He's gonna kill us all. We have to react. And if it just so happens that that's at the end of a gun barrel, whether that's via Tyler, allegedly in the assassination of Charlie Kirk, whether that's at the gun barrel of Luigi Mangione, allegedly in the killing of Brian Thompson, the United Healthcare CEO, or so many assassination attempts on the President of the United States now gunshots outside the White House, that at this point, you just have reporters outside the White House just turning around and looking stupidly on as there are active gunshots, because it just becomes so normal.
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Gavin Newsom
And he's just not. He's just winding up. I mean, he doesn't believe in fair and free elections. He believes in competitive authoritarianism. He wants an outcome along the lines of Putin, you know, 87.3% to 4.3%. It's a fair and free election from Trump's perspective. And he's become so delusional that I think he's almost starting to believe in his own BS about winning all these elections. And he won in California and he won, you know, in 2020. It's madness. It's madness. It's madness and everyone around him knows it. I think, you know, the question is, who's, you know, where the hell is his cabinet?
- [36:45]
Tony Kennett
Not mentally stable behavior from Gavin Newsom. But, of course, these are things that you knew. Radio crew, we're going to do something a little creative here, because the segment you guys are going to come back from, I really need all of you at that moment. So we're going to pivot over to some of the international news updates. There is some breaking news out of the Strait of Hormuz. That is. We're going to cover that live right here, right now over on YouTube.com daily signal, or of course, over with our TV syndication partners, TV producer side. I've already sent the notice to go ahead and cancel that TV commercial break for radio. I don't have that authority yet. So we're going to send you guys over to commercial Break on the radio side and continue. Again, excuse me, I apologize, but breaking news means we have to change things up a little bit. It's the Tony Knitcast here on the Daily Signal. Okay. With the radio crew away and I have to make sure I do this right. We have an update on a situation regarding the Strait of Hormuz. There are currently believed to be a number of missiles in the air as well as at least three jet sorties, those being fighter jet sorties, possible drone activity as well regarding the Strait of Hormuz. So beginning this afternoon, that being this afternoon Eastern time, there was a series of shots and missile fire which were reported and that the, that the Iranians had claimed through different state media outlets that the, there were several craft that were approaching the Strait of Hormuz and they fired warning shots. We now know that that is not remotely true. They were firing in retaliation. Based on several listening posts which pointed out because Iran's Internet outage is starting to come to a close, several of the islands along the Strait of Hormuz have reported anti air activity. So anti air activity here means the very last couple of sam, surface to air missile and quite honestly a few unguided rocket sites, they don't have a lot of guided missile material left. And regarding this exchange of fire in the Strait of Hormuz, there are a couple of actors that are suspected of being involved and then there is at least one actor that we know so far has definitely been involved. So the first actor comes into play about 24 hours ago. This would be Kuwait. So the Iranians through the irgc, and we're not sure at this point which of the two primary factions of the irgc, as the regime continues to have quite a couple of issues, fired a ballistic missile toward the United States forces towards a United States structure. Kuwaiti air defenses shot that down. Now a series of reports from inside the uae and I have to be very careful in how I say this and not out of fear, I just want to make sure that I get this very precise. The United Arab Emirates, there were two fighter jet takeoffs that were reported and sent through one through a diplomatic wire and then the other through an open source report that suggests that perhaps two Mirage jets have taken off from the United Arab Emirates and headed northeast over the Persian Gulf, possibly to strike some of the islands from the Iranian side in the Strait of Hormuz. So of these, these particular islands, and again I want to make sure that I, I'm doing my best here. There's Kesham island and then there's Hengham island. And I know my pronunciation is terrible, but that's just the way it is. So these two particular islands are the closest to the United Arab Emirates and a small piece of territory that is held by Oman. So Oman again, that UAE small peninsula there right next to the Strait of Hormuz, has been a place that the UAE has been fired on before by several rocket groups that were suspected of being IRGC plants. Now, at this point, it's not believed that the United States Navy has got involved, but the Kuwaitis and the Emirates are, at least from what we can tell so far, are exchanging fire with a couple of rocket and missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz. And this is ongoing. Additionally here, the United States Navy has fired a couple of rounds and perhaps a couple of drone strikes towards those particular things. I have to bring the radio crew back in from commercial. I apologize. It's the Tony Kennett cast here on the Daily Signal. This is the Tony Kennett Castle on 93 WIBC. Welcome back to the Tony Kinnit cast. Just one final update and kind of a fact check, kind of looking at some of the transponder data, looking at some of the reports, a fact check, as it were. Also from Central Command, the Iranians, through two different state media outlets had claimed that an American plane was downed near Iran. Now there are also reports of explosions heard east of Bandar Abbas, air defenses activated. That was around 1:30am local time or about 7:40 or about 7:10pm Eastern is when this was reported by the Al Jazeera side. They're also reporting the US Military as of yesterday carrying a couple of new strikes out on what were believed to be Iranian military outposts. Now, the Iranians have claimed they have downed a US Jet, but Central Command has put out a report suggesting that all planes are accounted for and that's not the case at the time. There's nothing also to suggest right here and right now that a US Fighter jet has been struck or a, you know, any kind of a craft on that. Oh, sorry. I didn't realize the election ticker from Tuesday was still on the screen. So we'll keep you updated if there's anything else on this particular matter. We're going to move a little bit forward here and cover some of the other news of the day. And there is plenty. But we will be monitoring this situation as closely as we can now on the Democrat side of the aisle, if they're not panicking over the by the United States, if they're not panicking over the elect the executive order from President Trump. They are in fact panicking instead over James Talarico or Graham Platner. So Graham Platner will hit first because it's a lot easier to just kind of get him out of the way. He. The more we hear about this guy's past, the worse it is. So a list of horrible things that he said, of course, the totem cough, you know, SS tattoo. Also, again, just a number of things that this filth has said over the years. Slamming and wishing for the death of Purple Heart veterans. All kinds of stuff. There are several Democrats in Maine that have been calling for him to step down from the race, which I'm not entirely sure as to how that would work at this point. There is now a source that I can confirm inside the dnc. Uh, so this is an individual who spoke to me off the record very specifically inside the national dnc. So not like a state Democrat Party who has confirmed that there are several individuals inside senior leadership for the dnc. And again, I'm trying to be very specific with my language there, suggesting from the DNC that Graham Platner is being asked to drop out of the race in Maine entirely because at this point, Susan Collins is again considered favored to win that particular seat. And it's not getting any better. I mean, Platner's PR strategy of just running away from anyone who comes up and asks him questions. And when he's not doing that, doing rallies with Buddy Sanders and the socialism. And we got to get out there. And I know he said he likes to play with himself and pull the parties, but please, we have to tax the rich forever. That kind of crap. It's not working. It's not working at all. So has the DNC officially called for Graham Platner to drop from the race? No, but there are individuals on the inside asking, asking that now, again, again, it should be. It should be said that it's not clear what would happen if Platner dropped out of the race. We don't know. I mean, I believe that Janet Mills has already dropped out of the race, but we've been under stranger more similar circumstances with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And we'll get to Kamala Harris here in a little bit. An update. We do. How we do now have a post from the US Central Command. As of 7:46pm Eastern, Iran's state TV has claimed that Iranian forces down to US aircraft near Bushehrer, and that is false. Currently, all US air assets are accounted for. There you go. That's the official US Central Command statement. Now that brings us over to James Talarico. James Talarico is having a rough time. And the reason he's having a rough time is because of his own stupid mouth and fingers, based on the tweets that he sent. And you can tell they're starting to get under his skin because he should really be jubilant and joyful over getting to face off against Ken Paxton. But people in Texas aren't really talking about Ken Paxton scandals. They're not. In fact, what they're saying is, yeah, you know what I don't like that Ken Paxton allegedly cheated on his wife. I guess that's one of the things that's being thrown up. What I also don't like a whole lot more is a guy who. His official positions are, jesus was trans, we need to stop eating meat for global warming sake. We need to tax everybody middle income and up really, really hard. We need to move towards green energy again in Texas. I wouldn't recommend it. And also, God's non binary, I call women neighbors with a uterus. All that stuff. Again, a flawed candidate is something Republicans are willing to accept if the policies they present are favorable. And I don't have to bring up President Donald J. Trump to drive that point home. So James Talarico is now on the defensive. Here he is on C Span making this case. It's bizarre. In just a couple of days, all of the Beta o' Rourke momentum is already starting to blow away like dust in the wind.
- [47:18]
James Talarico
They're going to throw everything they've got at us. They've already called me a radical leftist. They've already called me a fake Christian. They've even called me a vegan.
- [47:27]
Tony Kennett
And okay, so radical leftist. They've all fake Christian and vegan. Keep those in your head, take notes. There's going to be a pop quiz afterward.
- [47:35]
James Talarico
And those are. Those are fighting words in the state of Texas.
- [47:40]
Tony Kennett
Okay, so no one believes you when you say those are fighting words. First of all, the proper term is them's fighting words. That's. That's how that's supposed to be said. Them's fighting words. Um, not. Those are fighting words. I'm such a Texan, you know. No,
- [47:57]
James Talarico
you know, I'm an eighth generation Texan. I've been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment.
- [48:03]
Tony Kennett
Okay, now let's dig into some of this a little bit. Here's the issue with the Talarico campaign. He can't just get out there and say, I've never said that I'm not a vegan. Here, here's a picture of me not. Oh, not, not this one. Not that, ergo, of, of James Tallarico. See how I am. Am eating this, this turkey leg wrapped in bacon, holding it with a napkin, which no one does. See how I see the, the object next to my mouth? I am not a vegan. He says, here's the issue with the Talarigo campaign. This is a former little influencer boy who wanted everyone to know how socially and politically correct he was, especially through the COVID era. Here is James Talarico not only saying he's vegan, but that we all have a duty to be vegan. His campaign is not eating meat to save the environment.
- [48:55]
James Talarico
We have, I think, heard more and more issues of animal welfare. I think not just because it's the right thing to do and the moral thing to do.
- [49:03]
Tony Kennett
I do want to clarify because we don't actually have the transcript here and maybe this is deeply inappropriate and I, I am very sorry. He said animal welfare. Now, I know that it sounded like he said something else kind of, you know, kind of, you know, like, like booty welfare, but. No, no, no, he didn't say anything about being anal retentive and. No, no, no, no. Animal welfare was the term that he used. I know there's rumors, but let's get the transcript right. He said we care about animal welfare,
- [49:29]
James Talarico
but also it's, as all of you know, necessary to fight climate change. It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption and that we try to respect animals in all aspects of society. And so I, I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non meat campaign. So we have, we are, we are only buying.
- [49:52]
Tony Kennett
I'm good. I love it so much whenever, like there's an announcement like this and you hear like three people in the crowd cheer, just super duper excitedly. Just. It's like the crowd goes mild. Yeah, we're gonna be meatless vegan products
- [50:09]
James Talarico
from, from our local vegan businesses. Some of you may know, big nonas, they, they were little known as. And then they opened up brick and mortar, some other big nonnas.
- [50:17]
Tony Kennett
But that's an insult to nonas everywhere. To our Italian and Sicilian audience. Absolutely. The, the frick frac. Not number two. That's a big no, no. So there he is. So he's. Oh, I'm not a vegan. But he, he did the thing. He. And again, he didn't just say, I'm a vegan. Because, you know, maybe I have a protein allergy or something like that. No, he's like, oh, I'm vegan. Because we gotta do it for the climate. So is the climate issue just not a thing anymore? Not. Not happening, Cabnin. Ah, gee, how quickly that stuff falls apart. Now that brings us to kind of the radical leftist nonsense, which, again, not eating meat for the climate. Yeah, that's. That's. That. That would be the radical left stuff that people are referring to. Again, I know it's exciting. You saw him eating the. Well, putting his mouth up to the meat. That's exciting. But no, we're gonna get to the fake Christian stuff next. And there's a ton more tonight. Radio crew. We're going to see you guys, I should say, for the radio crew tomorrow, it's the Tony Kinnit cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated and first on 93 WIBC. Y' all take care. All right. Now the. The radio crew is sent off to their soft slumber, and we can continue. So the fake Christian side of things. Massive, large yikes from James Talarico on the Christian side for a couple of reasons. Now, we could point out more of the crazy radical stuff, like how that he refers to women as neighbors with uteruses.
- [51:44]
James Talarico
Every one of our neighbors with a uterus became the property of the state. One of our neighbors with the uterus to be able to control their own body. Our neighbors with a uterus.
- [51:54]
Tony Kennett
Yeah. Okay, super duper. Now let's get into the theology stuff. So now we get down to the, you know, where he's like, oh, I'm a big super duper Christian man. And we've already gone over here on the show how he believes, based on a verse that he is wildly misquoting about how salvation is open to everyone in the book of Galatians, that this is Paul saying God has no gender. We've already debunked that one up front. Back to side to side. It's not happening. However, that's not even the worst of it, Mr. Fake Christian. Ah, this. This one really hurts me. Here you go.
- [52:27]
James Talarico
But I say all this in terms of. In context of abortion, because before God comes over Mary and. And we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary's consent.
- [52:41]
Tony Kennett
He does not. That is not a thing. He's alleging that Mary had choice, like pro choice, because God came to Mary in the night and said, hey, do you want to be pregnant with the son of God? That's not a thing. I mean, this isn't even just bad Fan fiction. It is quite literally not what happens. Do you know how we know that is not what happened? Even if they're saying, well, I think that's something that God would do, because Mary is first visited by the angel who says, hey, you are right here, right now. You are carrying the son of God. You are carrying. And Mary goes, but I'm a virgin. How is this a thing? He says, this is what God has ordained. This is going to be the Messiah. And then. And then Joseph seeks to put her away quietly, seeks to get a divorce, like, quietly, so he doesn't dishonor her because he. He thinks that. That that's not his kid, that's somebody else's kid. If Mary would have been approached by God to be asked, oh, hey, do you want to carry Jesus in your womb? You think she might have had that conversation with Joseph first before the Immaculate Conception took place? This is basic, guys. This is like very simple Sunday school stuff. Very, very. And this is very low bar, which is remarkable.
- [54:05]
James Talarico
I mean, go back and read this in. In. In Luke. I mean, the angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do. And she says, if it is God's will, let it be done. Let it be. Let it happen. So to me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent. You cannot force someone to create. Creation is one of the most sacred acts that we engage in as human beings. But that has to be done with consent. It has to be done with freedom. And to me, that is absolutely consistent with the ministry and life and death of Jesus. And so that's how I come down on that side of the issue.
- [54:47]
Tony Kennett
Okay, so putting aside this retard for just a second here, Luke chapter one and verse 28. And the angel came in unto her and said, hail, thou that art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And then Protestants and Catholics fought over that for 2000 years. No, I'm just. I'm just joking. Verse 29. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and. And shalt call his name Jesus. And. And by the way, all the way through, he just said, this is what's going to happen to you. In verse 34, Mary said, well, how shall this be, seeing as Though I not, you know, I know not a man. That being the Virgin Mary. And then, you know, after the angel says quite clearly, hey, with God nothing is possible is what he's going to do. Then Mary says, behold the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. There is no. Hey, are you okay with it? No, that's not a thing. Not even remotely a thing at all in any way shape here or form. Just says, hey, this is happening. There you go. And then gone. So again, I'm just going to make this. I'm just going to make this, this, this clear. I'm now being told that there is someone in that Catholics believe the Immaculate Conception is something totally different. Well, I'm not Catholic. I'm a Baptist. So sorry for the old Immaculate Conception. That would be when Mary conceived Jesus Christ. If we're going to tussle over Catholic and Protestant stuff, that's a waste of time. So in the meantime, let's get over to what I've been dying to share with you. So it's worse. It's worse for Talarico than just that, because again, there's a couple of bad campaign decisions that have been made so far. Again, holding an object up to your mouth in the modern age of the Internet is not a good idea. You're going to get a lot of very phallic memory and a lot of gay jokes, and it's not really good for the campaign. So what you don't do is then turn around and send out this. This mailer. This was sent to me, and I have to say it is alleged as a mailer because I'm not in Texas. I haven't seen this envelope yet. However, I will explain why I'm showing it to you here in a second, even though I haven't verified that this has already gone out to people here. So, quote, the biggest divide in this country is not left versus right and then over James Talarico crossing his arms when a B boy stance. It's top versus bottom. Yeah. Oh, nope. I. You're not beating the gay allegations. If you get out there and say, I'm not just gay, I'm a bottom. Oh, no, no. Oh, no. Now, again, the reason I'm. I'm still showing this to you on the man's campaign website. He says the exact same thing. Computer enhance. Behold, right there. It's the. It's top versus bottom. Oh, gee whiz. Oh, yikes. How about. How about. No, I don't recommend It. This is not the way to do a campaign. I just. Please, absolutely do not. And I see the comments that, you know, his staff punked him on purpose. How did you know? How do they know? How did they not know this kind of thing? This is really weird. That dude looks screaming gay. Yeah, I don't know how they didn't see this. I've asked this for ages, though. Why don't you just have someone on staff whose job it is, who they're way too online to just kind of look over some things. And by the way, that's a great way of handling the political divide. Bradley Devlin, our political editor, he and I had a great discussion during the Daily Signal rebrand, like graphic design and update over some of the graphic things that were suggested. And we noticed one of the designs may have had some cultural connotations. We said, hey, look, let's not do this design right here. And we avoided it. Amazing. Just. You can just do that. So Talarico, big. Yikes. Now, our dear Rebecca Downs, our correspondent from Ohio, she said that she doesn't understand what this would mean in, like, even in a political context. I'm guessing this means like the. The top being the millionaires, the billionaires, and the big. The 1%. The 1% who are controlling everything. Not me, even though I owned the multiple mansions and all of the wealth, you know, but. And not Ilhano Ma with the husband and the winery and the $30 million, but the poor people, the ones who I don't talk to. That's. What's with the bottoms. James Tallarico is claiming to be the. The bottom, which means, I guess, the poors or the average money people. Nope, nope, nope. You don't have to do that. You just don't have. So this campaign,
- [59:44]
Brooke Branchen
he's already dead.
- [59:45]
Tony Kennett
This is not at all going in the way of James Talarico. Now, how do you actually run a campaign? What's the right way to do some things? Because believe me, there is a right way to do campaigning. So far, I think that Spencer Pratt has done one of the best jobs in Los Angeles, especially given who he is around in that very contested primary that I have ever seen. And a lot of this comes down to an excellent article over on the American Mind. It's a publication of the Claremont Institute called the Pratt approach. So LA's viral mayoral candidate, the author Brooke Branch explains, should be a model for conservative campaigns. And she's not wrong. Here's why, quote, since his initial campaign announcement in January of this year, Pratt has been gaining momentum and is now polling in second place behind LA Mayor Karen Bass. His campaign primarily focused on restoring the city to its former glory, particularly in the wake of the damage from the horrific Palisades fires of 2025. Two weeks ago, he uploaded his now viral campaign ad featuring the hit song Not Like Us as he showed off the untouched properties of Mayor Bass and City Council member Nitya Raman. That's the. The extra socialist gal who's also running, who now, Spencer Pratt has passed in the polls and is right behind Karen Bass. And she should be concerned because her numbers have gone from like 35, 40% down to 30% support in some polls and now down to like 26% in some polls with Spencer Pratt gaining. So in this particular election cycle, I do have to say, not exactly a bad call to start modeling certain cases after the Pratt approach in this American Mind article. To talk about this piece a little bit more, because this could be one of the most bizarre primary elections and then general mayoral elections, we go to the author of the piece, Brooke Brantgen, out from Wisconsin. Again, phenomenal writer. A lot of stuff that we could say, but we'll hop right to it. What gave you the inspiration? I mean, was it the AI video stuff? Is it. What's it. What is it about Platt's campaign that's just set you on writing a piece like this?
- [62:04]
Brooke Branchen
So Spencer Pratt has really taken hold of the Gen Z interest. What he has done with the AI ads has been widely criticized, which is really unfair considering the fact that sponsor Spencer Pratt is tapping into something that is very cheap and very effective. He's putting out messaging that really resonates with young people because it's allowed to be funny. And although some of it has been, you know, layered with some very controversial images or presented, you know, public figures in ways that are maybe a little bit atypical from what we expect from a standard campaign. What he's done is he's allowed people into a humorous space. And that's something that we really, especially young people, really appreciate. In the post Trump era. Donald Trump made politics funny, and that was something that really has reached out to young people. And especially in la, where being a good showman is really important. I think that the ability to create stories that are funny and compelling in that sense is really appealing to an entire generation and entire voter base that really wasn't accessible before.
- [63:17]
Tony Kennett
So I know that we saw in the 2022 kind of midterm cycle, there were a lot of people who ran Trump, like, campaigns who got out there and they were really in front of you and they said spicy things and there was a call to be more engaging, kind of as candidates go. And we didn't really see a lot of stellar success. But Spencer seems to be pulling something here for the Pratt campaign that is rather unique in that he seems to be garnering a lot of momentum and maybe a lot of the same barbs that the Trump team ran or found themselves receiving in 2016 during their run. What is it about Spencer that's separating him from, you know, the Kerry Lake campaign or the Herschel Walker campaign, or like a number of other campaigns who have tried to mimic the Donald Trump experience that are all of the sudden, he seems to be gaining his own kind of momentum here.
- [64:07]
Brooke Branchen
Absolutely. Well, there has been a big change in the way that campaigns are being run and the way that campaigns are being approached. I think that we saw that in Donald Trump driving the garbage truck and Donald Trump showing up to McDonald's and serving fries. What people liked about that was it felt really authentic. Those are things that Donald Trump physically went out and did a lot of the traditional political talking points and traditional campaign rallies where, you know, you see candidates show up in suits and they have really great vague plans. Those kinds of things are still wonderful and they're still really valuable. But especially as we enter this new, more social media based political climate, people are looking for candidates that are going to be a little bit more authentic. And part of that authenticity is showing up and doing things that are funny, that are off the cuff, that are unique and very creative. That's what's resonating with people. And I think that's why Spencer Pratt has been able to really gain so much of a following, especially online. People want to vote for him that don't live in the area because they feel so compelled by the way that he's presented himself online.
- [65:23]
Tony Kennett
Sure. And I think that when you look at the power washing campaign, for example, excellent stuff. Of course, it's really widely liked. The criticism for it that comes from the left is there are a lot of eyebrows going up at why you would criticize him for something like that. I guess my, my concern here, just kind of thinking this through, just kind of going after the online messaging crew. This is what the Obama coalition kind of tried to make happen. And then we're seeing this again. We had Beto o' Rourke do it, we had Colin Allred do it. Now we're seeing James Tallarico do the same thing. Over on the left, you mentioned that there are people who want to vote for Spencer Pratt who don't even live in Los Angeles? Well, people, although maybe they don't check ID to verify it. People who don't live in Los Angeles aren't going to be voting in this election. So I guess my question would be is Los Angeles getting maybe more of an outsized. Is Los Angeles generating more outsized momentum for Spencer Pratt or is this going to be kind of a national campaign that people really want to see him win in LA but may not overcome the Karen Bass political machine that goes to Ghana every couple of months?
- [66:30]
Brooke Branchen
Well, Spencer Pratt is going up against a very well established Democrat political machine in California. That is not going to be an easy task for any Republican. There's a reason why the state has been so deeply blue, especially in large municipal governments throughout California. But what he's doing is setting a blueprint. Even if Spencer Pratt doesn't win this election, what he's doing is he's showing other candidates how they can approach, approach really complicated elections themselves. He's showing them what can be done. He's showing them how far honesty and authenticity goes. You mentioned James Talarico. I think that's a great example of someone who is not authentic and who people are really pushing back against because he feels fake. All of the attempts to make him seem likable and normal, like the photograph of him eating a barbecue leg and he has the napkin holding it, that's just not something that people really do. And so it feels fake. What Spencer Pratt's doing is showing people that if you're honest with them, if you're funny, if you're engaging, and if you're open about the fact that you have been personally affected by policies that have led to your house being burned down, that have caused your family to have to relocate, that have made the streets unsafe for you and the people that you care about. And if you're honest and open about that, then you are actually going to make real impact and meet voters where they're at.
- [68:01]
Tony Kennett
Kind of like Spencer Pratt being the same guy that he was back when he was on the hills, back in the aughts. That kind of a vibe. I get what it is you're saying. Kind of a close, a closing thought, kind of a framing up the final argument here. Other candidates around the country who may want to take this and say, I want to take the best part from Spencer's campaign and work it in, but I don't just want to do like you said, the James Tall Rico, oh look, I am eating a Bacon wrapped turkey leg.
- [68:27]
James Talarico
Haha.
- [68:27]
Tony Kennett
I am so much like you because I criticize Republican candidates going to the state fair. And you know, we talked about both of us being Midwesterners. Everyone's got to take the picture. Look, an elephant ear. I am just like you insert constituents here. How do they take from the Pratt model without making it so pandery that it makes me want to stab my ears and eyes with scissors.
- [68:50]
Brooke Branchen
Well, here's the thing that is a little bit difficult. You have to know your state and your area's sense of humor.
- [68:58]
Tony Kennett
You actually have to run from where you're running for.
- [69:01]
Brooke Branchen
Yes. Whoa. You have to know the local dive bars. You have to know the weird billboard that's been up for decades and decades. You have to know what people are doing on Friday and Saturday nights. That's the thing that's really going to resonate and part of that is just showing up and being there and, and while going to parades and you know, being at the state fairs is really important. Being able to then communicate that online too is going to reach the young people that are looking for new great Republican conservative leaders or just people where
- [69:37]
Tony Kennett
they're at in general. You talk about like knowing where the dive bars are, knowing where people are hanging out online and I feel so old head coded to say that, you know, figuring out where it is that people are at and where they're communicating is a huge thing. And I think that that's a key takeaway here again, highly recommend from the American Mind. It's called the Pratt Approach. It's by of course, our guest, Brooke Branchen. Thank you so much for giving us a couple of minutes of your time. You're an excellent writer. We're thrilled to see what you come up with in the future.
- [70:06]
Brooke Branchen
Thank you so much. And thank you again to the American Mind and the Claremont Institute for really being one of the first organizations to, to hammer home this point and to approach the new and novel way that Spencer Pratt is changing politics.
- [70:21]
Tony Kennett
All right, so I do have to say just very quickly here because I don't know how much time we'll have for any into the mail time stuff tonight. So before we get to the last couple of things, CBS, the Trump $250bill. Before we get to all of that, I do wanna mention two things. First of all, as this show grows, I am astounded how one small comment for me can spark and a WWE throwdown over in kind of the. The live chat in the comments section. It's fascinating, fascinating stuff. Fascinating behavior. To quote Jane Goodall. But in, in this instance, there's one other thing I should mention. Tomorrow's show is going to be around noon. And you say, tony, why, why, why is tomorrow's show going to be around noon Eastern instead of tomorrow's show being at 7pm Eastern like normal? I'm playing piano for a wedding on Saturday and got the rehearsal dinner tomorrow. So I'm not I'm not going to skimp out on that. So tomorrow's show is going to be at high noon. So we've got a good a little bit tomorrow for y', all, a little something extra, some good stuff. So set your alarm, set your phasers, set your, I don't know, your 1998 Kia to noon Eastern. That's what we're going live tomorrow. So that's in case I forget later on in the show to mention that very briefly here to you. So on to the last little bit that I have been eager to share over with you. So 60 Minutes, that being a product of CBS, has now, according to Barry Weiss, who is, of course in charge of 60 minutes, has now fired the executive producer at CBS and is named Nick Bilton as the show's new leader, calling for a new approach. Now, there are a couple of reasons that this might, in fact, be a wise decision. Completely Aside from politics, 60 Minutes has had several lawsuits they've had to settle. They have made several grievous errors, errors, especially in election season. They have made a lot of mistakes, which with a show that has a long tradition in this country of being one of the hallmarks of early TV journalism. So like the early TV network spectrum broadcast air, 60 Minutes has a legacy in this country and it has been dragged through the mud trying to be ridiculously partisan. Now, again, there's nothing wrong with having partisan programming. I'm very partisan. I'm also very upfront with you about myself being partisan, so or my being partisan. So hopefully, what you see is we we give you the stories and then you hear my analysis, which comes from, again, shocker, a conservative angle. So when 60 Minutes does so and pretends to be nonpartisan and, you know, then lies to you because they're not nonpartisan at all, and then they make a lot of mistakes on top of that. Yeah, that's kind of skeezy. And the ratings of 60 Minutes have reflected as such over the years. So the absolute bleeding and crying and weeping and the gnashing of teeth has just flown forth. So Cecilia Vega, who was fired today from cbs, said, quote, I very much fear what comes next for and the future of 60 minutes? Oh, so stunning. So brave. Quote, I was fired. Where are my pearls? We gotta get. Polls are being clutched here. There we go. I was fired today. My contract as a correspondent for 60 Minutes was not set to expire until March 2027. I have the utmost respect and admiration for my colleagues at 60 Minutes and the stories that air every Sunday, but I very much fear what comes next for and the future of the legendary broadcast. This is the best part of the statement. This is why I'm reading this to you. In the recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories. Hey, hey, you can't park there. No. No way. Political bias in 60 minutes. No way. Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions. Let's call it what it is, censorship, both imposed and self driven. Guys, there are stories when I was doing investigative column work for the Daily Signal that our editor in chief, Kate Page, or our president, Rob Bluey, said, nope. And you know what? Sometimes they were right. Sometimes they were right. It's better sometimes to wait and not run the story because you don't know everything just yet. But anyway, the crying, the bleeding, the tears, the upsetness. Now Katie Couric and Jim Acosta immediately, and I mean, just presto, hesto, they got right up on camera and decided to not only try to drag CBS through the mud, but also suggested that CNN is going propaganda conservative, which that's a, that's a thing that you can utter. Here's Katie Garrick and Jim Acosta, and
- [75:37]
Jim Acosta
I'm very worried about what's taking place right now because now it looks like as a fait accompli, that Paramount is going to be able to gobble up Warner Brothers Discovery, the parent company of cnn, and that you're going to have what is essentially the makings of a propaganda giant in this country. And Katie, what concerns me so much about this is that you and I have been in this business long enough to know we haven't had that before in this country. And folks might say, oh, it's a bit hyperbolic to say, oh, it's going to be propaganda, and so on. You are taking news organizations, CBS and cnn, that had been basically operating as, you know, regular tried and true news divisions.
- [76:18]
Tony Kennett
Mm, yeah, Tried and true news division. Hey, hey, remember, you know, just during the presidential election when there was that whole dead president thing, you know, and then you had individuals saying, oh, no, Biden's fine. This is all cheap fakes and deep fakes and all that stuff. Tried. And true journalism. Or when 60 Minutes edited Kamala Harris interview so she didn't sound illiterate and brain dead. Or edited Trump's interview to make him sound stupid and Hitlerian or whatever. I tried. And true news division stuff. As someone who's never been required to issue a formal correction. Now, again, I make mistakes. I do. But when I make a mistake, usually in the very same episode, case in point, Tuesday night we, you know, I accidentally, because I knew nothing about the Texas Attorney General primary, referred to May. I referred to Mace Middleton as a lady. That was a mistake of mine because I knew nothing about Middleton at all. Still really don't. And I corrected myself immediately and apologized because that's not what I'm trying to do here for y'. All. But I've never had to come back to, at least so far, an issue like a days later. I'm so sorry we got the story wrong, actually. I just misspoke. 537 times. No.
- [77:37]
Jim Acosta
And in fact, trying to turn them into propaganda arms of the Trump administration.
- [77:44]
Tony Kennett
Exciting, exciting stuff. Okay, so beautiful. Not the worst. Crying, bleeding. It's just 60 minutes just getting a new producer and it's not even. I'm not even seeing the hyper Republicanism that I was promised. Not even a little. The last one, though, on this particular matter comes from none other than Jennifer Welch. Jen Welch is. Jen Welch is the left's new, like, brave lady podcaster. And I say new as in like, they keep trotting her out as though the. Wow, she's really got the voice of the people. She looks as though someone gave a naked mole rat botox. And she is one of the most vile creatures that has ever been on any kind of airwave whatsoever. And her go to anytime she's insulting someone is to criticize them sexually. So she wants to go after Erica Kirk. She suggests that she's whoring around with J.D. vance. She wants to go after J.D. vance. She's suggesting that he wants to ditch his wife and children and then go have sex with a bunch of people. If she's going after someone in the Trump administration, they're a prostitute. Here she is Bari Weiss. Just saying. Oh, clearly the issue is she's a prostitute. Just this is. This is your. Your Joe Rogan libs. Really? Jennifer Welch.
- [79:01]
Brooke Branchen
Bari Weiss's legacy will always be that of a prostitute. Barry Weiss is a prostitute.
- [79:08]
Tony Kennett
Again, this is the only argument that she ever makes. Now, look Could I, could I point out that my theory that people, ladies who are on the right, ladies who are independent, they age in a, in a very diverse set of fashions. They turn out to look all different kinds of ways. Ladies on the left, as they age, they turn into one of three things. They either turn into Michael Scott from the office with circular glasses, they turn into Pumbaa from the Lion King, or they turn into the Nicole Wallace lookalike. Context, overly botoxed and blonde. Angie Sullivan and Jennifer Welch look the exact same, except one of them got her glasses from Pixar's A Bug's Life. And then again, Jennifer Welch looks as though someone tried to do modern cosmetics on an Egyptian mummy. And the only argument she has is, I bet they're a prostitute. I've never seen someone so obsessed with the sex lives of anyone and everyone that she criticizes.
- [80:04]
Brooke Branchen
Larry and Ellison family purchased her and they said, we want you to propagandize all day, every day. We want you to do effusive stories on Donald Trump and her legacy. You know, the big interview she scored at the top of her career at CBS News was with Erica Kirk, who clearly needs to be in a mental institution.
- [80:28]
Tony Kennett
Can't go. See, it's the same stuff. It's the same stuff. She cannot go even a minute without like pulling her face into this twisted wicked witch of the least going. Erica Kirk, why isn't Barry yelling about Israel? I mean, this incredible best of again, best of luck to you, sweetie. Baby, honey, I am sure, I am more than sure that that is working out real well for you. So the last of the crying over weird nonsense is that the Treasury Department is designing a $250 bill for America's 250th that is featuring the President of the United States, Donald Trump. So here appears to be a mock up of the design. And you may have wondered. Come on, you weren't wondering. The William Shatner, Barack Obama love child, Hakeem Jeffries, where he was about all of the election stuff today? Well, he didn't focus on that. He was losing his ever loving mind and marbles over this $250bill. So he's upset to the nth degree that there is a special commemorative bill that flatters the President's ego. Again, Trump's got quite a large ego. He likes things being named Donald Trump. The Trump Riviera, the Trump big beautiful bill, the shave drama, all that stuff. That's the president. That's Trump. That's who he is. But if we're going to sit here and act like there haven't been a lot of commemorative bills that feature presidents faces over the years. And I think even for the centennial or the bicentennial back in the 70s. I don't know about that one, chief. Anyway, hard no on a Trump 2 to $150 bill from Hakeem. Get over yourself. The upcoming July 4th anniversary is not about a wannabe king. It's about celebrating the American journey. Great. It's, it's, it's just a, it's just a $250 bill. That's it. Why are you freaking out over this? There's nothing to lose your mind over this one at all. I mean, again, if you're gonna lose it, you're going to freak out. Okay, I guess. But best of luck to you on every little bit of it. Again tomorrow at noon, high noon Eastern time. We are going to dive into our show a little bit earlier in the day like and subscribe if you enjoyed the show. We really appreciate that quite a bit. We'll be back. We'll see you real soon tomorrow. On the side of things, it's the Tony Knittcast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated and first on 93 WIBC. Y' all take care.